#it's just that i ended up really loving arven's character arc the most

[megatraven]

I went into the new Pokémon games thinking nemona would be my favorite ‘rival’ but it turned out to be Arven and I’m. Hbngnhhhhh

[noonblight]

Arven, And The Habits Built By Parental Neglect

So I was going to make this big song and dance post about Arven’s entire arc and character psychology but I think other people have picked that one apart better than me. However I DO still want to talk about something I haven’t seen addressed too much.

As much as I think the phrase ‘love language’ is a gross over-simplification of psychology (and also not real, go look it up, the guy who made it was awful) it’s actually a really fitting term for the thing I want to talk about, which is how Arven has built up a habit of caring for others despite the neglect his parents showed him, and made it a core part of his personality. In essence, he’s deemed himself the ‘mom friend’ because he never had that kind of support growing up.

You can see this throughout multiple parts of the game, but here’s my list of favourites:

• If you pick the dialog option and say that you’ll go along with Arven’s quest-line before he explains what you’ll be doing, he exclaims that you have no sense of caution for your own safety. That you shouldn’t just go brazenly dashing into agreements like that.

• He is always looking after Mabosstiff so tenderly, and while a lot of this is due to them growing up together, I think it’s the way he shows his care for Mabosstiff that communicates my point.

• After noticing Miraidon eat your sandwich, he begins to make extra ones so that you don’t go without one. He even splits his own sandwich with you after Miraidon steals the first one you ever make together.

• He mentions that he cleans his dorm every day he’s there because Maboschiff sheds fur a lot.

• Post-Game, he admits that he would like to be a chef who can make good food for others.

Basically, I adore the tiny writing detail that even Arven’s positive traits are still shaped by the parental neglect that he went through, because it’s surprisingly realistic for the writing of a kid’s game.

He’s messy, he’s allowed to grieve and be confused about his feelings openly, he’s allowed to be irritable and strange in the eyes of others. But the game also never lets you forget how much he truely cares for others, even those he doesn’t know very well.

This can also be subtly inferred from just how amazingly fast Arven manages to raise a team that is arguably the only bordering-on-difficult fight in the game. Arven claims to not be a good trainer and claims Mabosstiff was his only pokémon before the events of the game (we can infer this from how he mentions after your first battle with him that he only just caught that Skwovet)

But just look at how fast he manages to make a team! Your trainer is always complimented for their rapid success, but man, they should look at Arven who doesn’t even have that much skill at the start of the game. I like to think this improvement is a direct result of his care for his Pokémon, and his desire to help and protect others. It’s no wonder why he claims in the post-game tournament that he’s been working super hard to build a team that can protect his loved ones, he really means it.

Arven also has a terrible habit of attempting to do most things by himself until the absolute last minute. He refuses to ask Nemona for help with the titans despite knowing she has the skills for it. He only asks you when he’s at his wit’s end starting to lose hope in Mabosstiff, and notices that you had the skill to work with Miraidon.

Even more than all that stuff I mentioned before however, I adore the end cutscene of the game for taking Arven, this character who displays all these little quirks, and then turns around and says ‘it’s your turn to be cared for by people who care about you, you don’t need to do this alone’

Nemona tells the group to take the scenic route home.

Penny suggests snacks.

Miraidon gently pushes Arven toward the group.

And the last scene in the game is so important for that reason, Arven is finally having others care for him. After everything that has happened, he has at least a few people who will support him and show him that care his parents lacked.

So anyway happy holidays, have that shoddy analysis <3

[hamofjustice]

I don't want to just painstakingly copypaste my triple-layered self-QRT thread about it on Twitter and any other ones floating around but

I am very emotionally invested in seeing Penny, Arven, and (personally) especially Nemona again in the Scarlet/Violet DLC, after GF followed up the best 3 hours of Pokemon game story ever by having to abruptly cut it off the second these lonely kids finish opening up to you and say you can hang out with them anytime. Which you never do. It was some pretty painful whiplash, and I was sure the main point of the DLC was to relieve that, especially when their arcs don't seem quite complete yet. Very clever, evil marketing! But uh... well... about that...

It is very worrying that aside from a little "the story so far" montage, they have not been seen or mentioned in promotional material/footage whatsoever. Y'know, DLC for the game that's about how the real treasure was the friends you found along the way (literally, in Nemona's case), and even if your family and support systems fail you, you still have each other? Written from the heart by someone who said Arven's story is inspired by their own life? With the sappy Ed Sheeran song about reaching out for connection with others, that also seems to be named after Team Star? The game where one of the features the devs seemed most proud of was going on adventures and into boss fights with 3 of your friends? The game that ended with a fully functional and quite immersive bonding adventure with these characters you'd gotten to know and care about, that basically everyone thought was the best part of the game by a mile, and were left wishing the whole game was like that?

Yeah, I (and everyone else) have been driving around alone in that game for 8 months ever since finishing that story. 8 months of minor updates with a ton of the beloved characters functionally or literally gone, while we go around doing online stuff with nothing else to do in the world, with a single player postgame more barren than we had on Game Boy Color (thank god for mints and bottle caps though). I'm left just... wanting to go back to the way things were before I beat the game. Not to be overly dramatic, but this world I supposedly saved feels like one I failed to save. And I'm getting really frustrated. (The framerate hasn't gotten any better, either, but this isn't about that.)

It's like Game Freak (or whoever forced this thing out a year early, or both) never expected you to boot the game up again once you got bored of the Ace Academy Tournament, which the game acts like is the entire total of what you could want from being friends and "rivals for life" with your squad (I mean I'm the sicko that loves Tera Raids, so I'm not that bored, but still). It makes a bunch of implications that your adventure is just beginning, and then it totally just... isn't. Why is the E4 building closed? Why do you only rematch the gyms once? And most of all, for me personally: Why did we get access to our friends' rooms if there's nothing to do or talk about there? (Besides look for character study clues, which they have lots of)

All they could come up with when asked to write a newsletter email about what you can still do in S/V and why you should still be playing it was Raids. That was it. Remember when you had an endless challenge in the Tower/Maison that you could optionally take on with a bunch of story characters as your partners instead of alone, that motivated you to keep getting stronger bit by bit? Remember rematching gym leaders multiple times and watching their teams grow and evolve each time? Yeah, there's none of that here, because that would take more than a week to implement. If you want friends and you want battles, you'll have to do it yourself online now. They're not allocating any budget for that.

Your rival for life, who's so excited you're on her level now, who seems to have the passion and skill to be the your Battle Tower gameplay loop by herself if she wanted to, who battles you for hours offscreen with multiple teams, whose whole character arc is that she finally has someone she can do this with... is fully static, with one kinda mediocre team that never grows or changes. She can't keep up with you and doesn't know what items or EVs are. You have to get lucky to even see her at all. She is no more your rival than your Home Ec teacher is (no offense Saguaro, you're cool too). I think it's really, really sad.

I'm left nostalgic and pining to go back, having to cope through fanfic because my character can't spend the day with - or even so much as take a new trainer card photo with - the girl who said they might be her greatest treasure, without resetting my save, because she and the others are standing somewhere that the camera and internet features are both disabled.

Like, legitimately, I want to keep being friends with these kids the way we were before, and have the ability to do post-game stuff with them, like being able to go out and adventure together whenever in some basic, non-story capacity, or just, I don't know, maybe give them more than one line of dialogue in their rooms? I don't want a new region or new characters. Not yet, anyway.

I thought I was preordering the continuation of their story and rewarding the company for making me care about Pokemon so much again.

But, uh... I'm really worried that the people who own these characters do not care. And as I said on the trailer's comments before they turned them off (lol), I'll be pissed enough to not buy any more games if I'm right, and we're forced to abandon these poor kids. At the very least, it's some pretty garbage marketing to leave the possibility of that up in the air. If nothing else, that is a frustration that I'm going to keep talking about for a while, even if it ends up being fine.

I thought it was impossible, and I was being silly. Why not have our friends in cute new outfits as promo art when the DLC was first announced, and all they had was promo art? Seems like an easy slam dunk. Oh, they didn't yet? Well, I'm sure it'll happen eventually.

And then they weren't in the trailer either, months later. Are they trying to sell us on it or not?

The whole reason I want the DLCs. Still not a single word acknowledging them, just that little opening montage. Still no hints of how the DLCs have anything to do with Area Zero's ongoing story, either. How is a sea turtle linked with a landlocked crater?

So like... At this point I have to assume both DLCs start with you making your friends cry as they're left alone again, arbitrarily excluded from events they're more than qualified to be invited to, to make room for some new dweebs we don't need, who won't be given nearly enough time to be as compelling as Nemona, Arven, and Penny were, because that makes the trailer look more like a new game, and that's the only way they know how to advertise. More. New. Buy. Consume. Throw away. Buy. Consume. Throw away. I should assume this so that whatever we get can't be worse.

But they're probably not (self-aware enough / allowed / both) to write that. Your lonely / orphaned / anime-binging friends might just cheer you on for getting to go do something cool like being forced to train a new legendary because the story said so, then go back to being statues with as much relevance to your life as an NPC in a third story apartment that tells you what a hold item is.

Can't I just live in Paldea with my friends, in the version of the game we would have gotten if it was finished, instead of being pulled into these adventures for the sake of looking good in a trailer? (which it doesn't btw lol) It's not an unrealistic thing to want when that's what it briefly was, and I was so excited that it would keep being that I've been thinking about it this entire time.

...

I hope I'm wrong about all this, and next year I can look back on this post, happy that the DLC did actually allow us to continue to take care of these characters, conclude Area Zero's mysteries in a satisfying way, fix up some technical issues, let us relive some things that are currently once-only (including letting us see that photo album our character made but we had to screenshot ourselves), and make it fun to keep playing for years afterward, and let that be the model for games going forward, but uh...

They really are not showing me anything I care about in the game I desperately want to care about, that I saw - and wanted to defend - the heart in, despite the circumstances it was produced under, and that really worries and frustrates me. The surprisingly many great things about this game got my hopes up for an awesome postgame full of warm fuzzy feelings and cool things to do 8 months ago that just didn't deliver, and now, I'm not sure if they'll even let me pay for one, at this rate, because they're not advertising one.

Just throw us a scrap. If whoever's in charge here stops caring about this story, I won't care about the next one.

Anyone else feeling this?

[giantchasm]

top 10 pokemon characters/story arcs?

Hi! Sorry this response is coming a little late. I can take a bit to answer asks, but I swear in general I will get around to them. Life's just been hectic.

To answer your question, though (And assuming this only applies to mainline Pokemon— I'll do everyone a favor and spare you from hearing me talk about my feelings on PMD characters... unless people WANT to hear about those too?)

As a note, this is within the context of how well developed I think their characters/story were, so it's not in the order of my favorites in general. That would vary slightly. For example: I love Raifort, but her ass does NOT have that much going on. I'd also put Volo much higher up than I did on this list.

1 - N - Honestly, I had a lot of trouble deciding whether he or Lillie deserved first place. They're more or less a tie in my book. I think they both had character arcs handled extremely well in different ways. I ultimately opted for giving N this slot because I think BW is just the more thematically rich game as a whole, but I do love Lillie. N is just so fantastic, though. I love his arc as well as the different facets of his personality. He was the first character that was ever truly a "blorbo" in a fandom sense to me and with good reason. I would take Ibuprofen with him any day.

2 - Lillie - Like I said, Lillie almost made first place. I really do love her. I think her arc about learning to stand up for herself and generally carve out her identity as an abused child is extremely well done. She is my FRIEND and it made me VERY SAD when she left at the end of the game. I hope everyone who complains about Sun & Moon's story without ever having actually bothered to engage with it blows up forever.

3 - Arven - Say what you will about Scarlet and Violet- they're buggy, rushed games, but their story slaps. I think Arven's arc and the general way he's characterized is super well done. Although that goes for all of the ScarVi cast! I think they're just sincerely good characters. Blowing up everyone who didn't pay attention to the story then had the audacity to complain about it being bad with my mind here as well. [This is malice directed specifically towards Alpharad for his read on Penny, but don't tell anyone that]

4 - Silver - Silver's interesting in that he comes from a time when Pokemon character arcs weren't super defined but he has such a solid one, so he really stands out! I love him learning to open up, trust, and love his Pokemon and think the way that story is told organically through elements such as his Golbat finally evolving is wonderful. His Pokemas event with Ho-Oh made me cry.

5 & 6 - Cheren and Bianca - I feel weird separating these two because of the way their arcs parallel each other, so they're going together. They really do exemplify the way that Black and White were sincerely well-written games and I love their individual stories as well as the way they play into the themes of the overarching story as a whole.

7 - Cyrus - What a character. Cyrus is well and truly one of the most offputting yet interesting characters in the entire series. His nihilistic outlook burying what little he does seem to sincerely care about is so fascinating, and his backstory easily gives him even more depth. He's just this guy who's like... sincerely mentally unwell, and not in a cartoon villain way. He has legit psychological issues. I would love to study him under a microscope.

8 - Volo - This guy's one of my favorite Pokemon characters, but even I've gotta admit he doesn't actually have that much going on. I feel like so much of what I like about him just came from my head. That said, he has a fun charisma about him, even in canon, and I loved getting stabbed in the back. Please stab me in the back more, GameFreak. ([A flying ice-cream truck appears over my head, a la SpongeBob] IN THE STORY! PLEASE DON'T STAB ME IN THE BACK BY MAKING DISAPPOINTING GAMES...)

9 - Barry - Yet another fantastic character from gen 4. I love him realizing he needs to actually take some things seriously and the way he grapples with his failure to protect the Pokemon of the lake. For the third time in this post I'm blowing people up with my mind, specifically the people who just see him as annoying and loud and don't pay attention to the way he changes over the course of the game. ADHD king.

10 - Bede - Tbh... I don't know if Bede actually deserves to be on this list. I think it's probably a little offensive to put any SWSH character on this list. But truth is... I just like him! Even if it was ostensibly poorly executed, I'm a complete sucker for the "spoiled brat gets smacked in the face by reality and has to learn some goddamn humility" trope, and he embodies it well. I also like how ultimately he finds himself and his place in the world through embracing things stereotypically associated with femininity :) I simply think it's nice.

[i-write-boop-spoops]

Boopy's dumb thoughts on Pokemon Violet

It’s MY blog – and MY birthday – and I get to talk about the latest Pokemon release over a month after it came out because I want to!!!

Feel free to ignore, agree, disagree, leave your own thoughts, tell your friends you love them, eat a nice meal, etc, etc.

Spoilers for the game! Also not bothered to proofread lol

Ok so I’m gonna start off with the stuff I didn’t like very much. Gonna try keep it brief because I otherwise really enjoy the game and a lot of my takes are common in the fandom

I have seen CGI from 2002 power rangers specials that look better than this game

Frame rate is crunchier than gravel sometimes

Honestly,it’s embarrassing that a game from 2022 looks and runs this badly

Especially since PLA released earlier that year, and while not perfect, it ran much better

SV definitely needed an extra year or two in the oven

I hate how most houses can’t be entered and that most shops are menus

Wish you could pet your mons again, not just wash them

WHY IS PUTTING BREAD ON A SANDWICH SO DIFFICULT

In the options at the start of the game where you’re asked by someone (might be Nemona, can’t remember) what dream you have, why can’t you answer with ‘be a trophy spouse for a hot champion’?!

Steven should cameo in this game (I will NOT debate this)

Really miss the catching mechanic from PLA, woulda worked amazing here

I love that Pokemon is going in a more genderfluid direction when it comes to character customization (and NPCs too)

But I wish there was a skirt option for the unifotms (and not just for the f! mc, for everyone!)

Also the uniforms are so ugly… please let us change out of em soon gamegreak!

I actually… don’t like Penny that much

Out of the trio, she’s the least like a friend

She’s also the least interesting member of Team Star

And she’s kinda mean :/

AI Turo (AI Sada in Scarlet) saying the real one actually loved Arven in the end felt like a complete lie to me – I couldn’t believe it not one bit – ruined the story a bit honestly

Ok, now it’s on to the positive stuff

Wish Miraidon would make a funny honk noise like a clown car

also i have mad beef with ed sheeran so his somg being included was NOT appreciated

ARVEN

Man I just love this guy

Hence why you can now request him!

The enemies-to-best-friends arc is amazing!

He’s fun and passionate and caring and a bit of a tsundere and I love him!

And his Mabostiff? Precious boi!

That whole story with him and his doggy had me tearing up by the end

And the stuff with his dad was heartbreaking

I love Nemona too!

Such a fun rival!

She’s a quirky tomboy with a great design

Lowkey love that she’s from a rich family

I love how she’s basically obsessed with you

The animation of her ponytail is so pleasing

Her and Arven debating who was the better friend was lowkey hilarious

Any game with a cooking mechanic is automatically top-tier

I have made some RANK sandwichs and it’s so funny every time

The absurdity of the Clive/Clavelle thing had me dying istg

IRON VALIANT

I R O N  B U N D L E

Paradox Pokemon in general honestly, brilliant idea all around

Loved Area Zero, especially the deeper you got

It was so sparkly!

I loved the designs of most of the towns

I loved Artazon, Porto Marinada and Cascarafa the most

Your home is so cute!

Terastalization is fun and dumb and I love the goofy, sparkly hats

The ghost tera-hat being the gen 1 ghost sprite is great!

Tera-raids are great craic!

Loved playing online with friends

It was so fun to travel together!

Love the face/hair customizations

Especially since you can customize right away and don’t have to wait until you reach the first salon like two hours in!

I don’t think there was a bad mon this gen

Here’s some Pokemon I really liked

Clodsire

Fuecoco (the whole line actually)

Fidough & Dachsbun! (probs my faves)

Greavard!

Goldango (silly lil cheesestring man)

Miraidon

Lechonk

Smoliv

Toadscool

Klawf

Tatsugiri

Tandemaus and maushold

Bellibolt

Brute Bonnet

Cetoddle (baby!)

The dogs in this game are peak, gonna do a dog-only playthrough someday

The Academy is amazing!

I enjoyed the lessons and the teachers!

The fact that the Home Ec teacher is an extremely buff guy is amazing

Love the Psyduck librarian

And the Gengar who did the night duty!

Loved the gym leaders so much too!

Larry, Grusha and Ryme are probably my favourites

Iono’s gym test was so funny I loved it

The designs of the human characters this gen were PEAK

I want Dendra’s outfit, Eri’s outfit, Grusha’s outfit, Katy’s outfit, Miriam's outfit, Sada’s AND Turo’s outfits

I am a big baby, so I loved skipping basically all the battles with random trainers lol

Man that ending with the AI Turo reveal and fight was so fucking sick omg

I enjoyed every single path in this game

Great music

The final cutscene of The Way Home was… so good

Riding on Miraidon was so fun!

Clavelle asking what Cheugey meant was unreal

I like the idea of champion being an official rank, and multiple champs existing

Yeah, the graphics aren’t great, but damn some of the areas in the game are still so beautiful

I loved how the sky looked and changed too

In case you forgot

I R O N  B U N D L E

Ok so in summary, this game has serious issues that really should not be present in such a recent game HOWEVER the characters and story were amazing, there were some awesome Pokemon, and it was super fun and enjoyable to play.

[mimikiplovesgaming]

Pokemon ⚡Violet⏳ Synopsis

Okay so I beat the main stories and after story of Pokemon Violet! Here are my personal thoughts on the game:

*Warning for spoilers*

From the start, the graphics were okay. When the npcs are in the further background, it looks like something out of the N64 days- and Kirby 64 looked better on the console itself

Controls were pretty good, felt pretty smooth for the most part. Riding Miraidon felt nice, there wasn't too much trouble. The only thing that bugs me is the glide. You glide at a nice sloping descent before falling down at a steeper angle and you pretty much fall straight down with no chance to slow yourself. I wish it was more like PLA, where you could dash and control how you glided through the sky

Arven and Penny were my favorite NPCs and storylines. Penny reminded me of my old middle school friends and there was a sense of wanting to care for and protect her. Arven, while having parental issues, was also dealing with trying to save his doggo partner Mabosstiff who he has had since he was a child. That need of wanting to help the only real family he had spoke so deeply to me. Because that proves that family doesn't have to be biological. Family can be your best friend or the pet you have, whoever you have close bonds with. And as an animal lover, I teared up when that part happened.

Okay- let's talk Nemona. I personally did not like her all that much. Her character trait is that she likes battling- and that's it. That's all she likes. Just combat. There's no real personality to her. She was more annoying to me than anything else. She didn't have any character growth or arc like the others did. Again, this is just my own view of things.

I know some people will complain and argue that some of the Pokemon designs are lackluster and "going downhill". Need I remind you that Gen 1 had very not so great designs too- Geodude and Voltorb are examples. I actually didn't mind the designs of the newer Pokemon! Meowscarada was a decent bipedal evolution for Sprigatito, but it could use a bit more detail. Miraidon was adorable, I loved Fuecoco, the Tinkaton line was simple and effective, and I enjoyed the Paradox Pokemon! My favorite is Iron Valiant, the way they combined Gallade and Gardevoir was so well done with just the right amount of detail from both evolutions.

Speaking of the Paradox Pokemon, let's talk the afterstory. Holy crap. The fact that the real professor died in an accident and was succeeded by an android they created to assist them was crazy. I don't think we've had a game where you fight the professor as a final boss- usually it's the champion or your rival or something. The turn this game took with the ending was shocking and I am here for it. I really wish there was a moment between the AI Professor and Arven where they hugged each other goodbye. That would've ripped my heart out even more and provided some form of comfort to Arven knowing that despite everything, that one moment of tenderness was what he needed to know his parent loved him. (Side note- the Professor's spouse walked out on them after Arven was born, which was even crazier when you realize that it's what started his abandonment issues

Then we come to the final thing on the list: the Ruinous Quartet Pokemon. Four cursed artifacts that became Pokemon and were sealed away for fear of their strength and the destruction they caused. It makes me wonder why they're a thing in the game. Will we eventually get more story on them? Will they become more prominent as time goes on? As for their oppositions, I strongly believe they were designed to oppose the Swords of Justice. Think about it- the Quartet are Dark Types and the Swords are Fighting. Then add the elemental types and they match the weaknesses of the Swords perfectly. It's just a theory, but there's some ideas behind it

Overall, I think the game wasn't too bad. It wasn't that glitchy for me and I had an enjoyable time playing. People were diverse, story was good, and gameplay wasn't half bad. I'll give this game a 7/10- good, but could be better. At least with the graphics issues and Pokemon going through walls XD

Give me your thoughts as well! Do you agree or disagree with anything I mentioned? Add your thoughts in the comments or reblogs, I'd love to hear what you think!

[pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer]

Doesn’t seem right to do a proper “Games in 2024” post about the Pokémon Violet DLC Epilogue since it’s not something that can be bought by itself.  Still, spoiler-free tl;dr: they went full Silly Mode on this and I love that for them, hoping this becomes the blueprint for future Mythical events.

First of all, it took me too damn long to figure out how to start the epilogue so I want to explain it for your benefit.  After getting the Mythical Pecha Berry through Mystery Gift (via Internet), you need to go to Peachy’s in Kitakami and specifically examine the portion of counter where something that looks like a big purplish fruit is sitting.  The trailer for the epilogue did linger on this object at the very end, but that’s literally the only thing telling you where to go.  Even if they had just made it so approaching Peachy’s activated the event, that’d be a lot better IMO; cryptic shit can be fun but I don’t think it’s the right choice for debuting a brand-new event-exclusive.  Oh, I should also mention the list of pre-requisites to complete before the epilogue can start: you need to beat The Way Home, The Teal Mask, The Indigo Disk, and at least 1 Academy Ace Tournament.  It’s an “epilogue” for a reason.

The quick summary is that you meet up with the gang back in Paldea, Kieran invites you all to Kitakami, and then a Mythical Pokémon decides to cause some chaos.  The sequence of events takes…maybe an hour or two?  I didn’t keep track.  But it was nice to see the old gang again!  Arven becomes a tsundere, Penny says more Penny Things (she points out your Switch when they visit your house), and Nemona continues to be a lovable battle maniac.  It’s our first real chance to see where the former two settled after the resolution of their character arcs, and to see them all interacting as friends under normal circumstances rather than a team on a mission, and I like that!  Similarly, we get to see Kieran really pick up the pieces after what happened in Indigo Disk, and this was my favorite stretch of time spent with him by far.  He and his relationship with the protagonist felt a lot more believable this time, and I really appreciate that.  Early on we see the aftermath of Nemona defeating him, and he starts to get depressed over losing, only for Nemona to counter with her upbeat “battling is fun even if you lose!” mentality, and I kinda love that being brought into your wider circle of friends is what helps cement Kieran’s new, healthier mindset.  Anyway, it’s at about that point where things get silly.

You see, while this is very much an epilogue to all of the events thus far, it’s ALSO the distribution event of a brand-new Mythical Pokémon!  We haven’t had a Pokémon officially designated as such since Zarude; I’d begun to think that the Pokémon introduced in DLC were essentially the replacement for this model, and while I think there’s still a conversation to have there (this one IS still locked behind the DLC after all), this new Pokémon is explicitly stated to be a new Mythical.  And folks, if you were one of the fans wishing for the return of full events for Mythicals rather than just having them dropped into your PC, do I have good news for you!  Not only is this little fucker given a proper in-game event, I’m willing to declare it the BEST in-game Mythical event we have EVER had!  It’s similar to Victini’s event in that there’s an actual mini-plot containing a string of battles, but again: this event is also the epilogue to everything that’s happened in the game up to this point.  It’s a mini-story focused on a Mythical that is directly tied into the main story!  And, as SV has taken to doing, it ends with a proper boss battle against the Mythical with a massively inflated health bar!  Not to mention that these battles aren’t just fodder: most of them are Double Battles with Kieran as your partner, and start with Pokémon in the high 70s before ramping up to a final one-on-one with Pokémon in the mid-to-high 80s!  I’m being 100% serious when I say I want this to be the way Mythicals are handled going forward.  It has far more personality than a simple distribution, and I’d argue it’s even more satisfying than most of the movies made to promote new Mythicals (RIP).

Not to say that it’s perfect, of course.  Our new Mythical friend, Pecharunt, really does just sort of show up and cause chaos for no discernible reason, and ideally I’d like a bit more.  This is mainly because it’s easy to conclude that there IS more to show: it’s made super obvious that Pecharunt is connected to the Loyal Three, and Ogerpon recognizes them if you bring her to the fight, but nothing is ever directly said about any of this.  It’s possible that this was done to keep focus on the main characters, which would be worthwhile if that was the case.  Still, I would’ve at least liked there to be an NPC you can speak with who explicitly relates Pecharunt’s backstory to you.

But you may be asking, what makes this so silly?  Well, Pecharunt is able to take control of people by feeding them poison mochi, and the affected do the chicken dance and constantly say “mochi mochi!”  The one full-on cutscene in the epilogue is Pecharunt shooting mochi into Penny and Arven’s mouths in dramatic slow motion, while the protag casually sidesteps one, and another bounces off of Kieran’s forehead.  It’s mad.  The second-hand embarrassment is potentially lethal.  10/10 would recommend.

Also I do want to say, I can’t help but find Pecharunt to be incredibly clever on the part of the designers.  I already appreciated the reversal of the Momotaro legend we got in Teal Mask, it’s funny to continue that with an actual peach, I adore the consistency of incorporating the name of the pre-existing berry based on the peach into its name, AND, since that berry normally cures poison, this evil peach is a Poison type!  Well fucking done!

Completing the epilogue also adds Kieran, Carmine, Nemona, Penny, and Arven to the League Club Room; the Kitakami siblings haven’t showed up for me yet since they’re random chances, which is a little annoying.  I’m glad they were added—it would have been a huge missed opportunity to never let Nemona visit Blueberry Academy, and we get to see them all interact with a wider cast of characters.  Also, after thinking carefully about which Pokémon to trade each of the coaches, I can confirm it does not matter what you give them, because I gave Penny a Glaceon and she didn’t comment on it.

[noonblight]

Why Nurse Miriam Means So Much To Me [As A Disabled Person]

(This post contains SPOILERS for Nurse Miriam’s Friendship Route!)

So I’ve really, REALLY, been wanting to talk about Miriam for a while, and how despite her route being an incredibly tiny and obscure part of the overall plot, she’s one of the most heartfelt inclusions in the game.

As a brief recap, Miriam:

• Is the academy’s nurse who can be found in the Nurse’s Office, selected via the electronic console menu in the Academy Building.

• Can be befriended. After introducing yourself to Miriam for the first time, she will ask that you return once in a while on your journey so that you can tell her how things are going, because she finds herself growing quite bored being in the nurse’s office all day.

• When visiting her a few times along your Path Of Champions storyline, new cutscenes will unlock (if you have the correct number of badges.) During these cutscenes, you learn that Miriam wanted to become a Health Ed Teacher but due to circumstances outside her control, she could never pass with the grades required regardless of how many times she took the certification test. She instead ended up working as a first-aid nurse for the academy.

• Though Miriam likes the students at the academy and enjoys her job, it is clear throughout your interactions with her that she longs for something more, and that she has grown disheartened as of late. She does not take this failure out on others, nor does she push students to study until they drop so they end up better than her, which is a small detail I really like. It’s not often you see a failed adult in media who doesn’t choose to then push the children in their life to ‘do better’ than them.

• For this, Miriam is beloved by students, who all like her cheery personality and her kind words. They often go to her office even when they’re feeling fine, just to take a break once in a while (we’ve all been there). Miriam lets them stay as long as they like, and even allows them to take out their Pokémon while doing so, something which Jacq says is technically against the school rules (though to be real with you nobody seems to listen to this anyway).

The reason why I want to talk about her so bad is because, surprise surprise, she’s an extremely good example of a relatable character for a lot of folk, not just disabled people. And not only is she relatable, her arc actually has quite a sweet and hopeful ending to it that further enhances the ‘learn to recover from and acknowledge the past, look toward building a better future’ themes of the game itself.

As somebody who has had to restart and then stop university studies frequently due to a chronic health condition, Miriam means a lot to me as a character. She’s an older woman who has failed previously many times in her academic attempts, had accepted for a while that it just couldn’t be done under the circumstances, and then settled for less for a fairly long period of time.

In this day and age, it tends to feel a lot like students are shoved from high-school into university the day after their graduation and told ‘this is your only chance to succeed, and if you do not, then you are Less Than’ and I imagine that for younger folk in Japan, this is even more of an issue considering their very heavy crunch/work culture.

On that same note, I’m actually a little surprised and quite pleasantly so about the steps forward that Game Freak have made recently with the more emotional arcs of their games by promoting messages such as the ones we see in Arven, Penny, and Nurse Miriam. I feel that considering these are games mostly intended for children, it’s lovely to see some representation for the struggles that people can go through when they’re younger, and rather than sidestepping the issues they go out of their way to say that ‘things like this happen, and that’s alright. You won’t feel this bad forever, things are eventually going to be alright again.’ It’s a very positive mindset to be promoting, and I hope that little things like this go on to comfort kids who play these games and can relate to these situations.

Though university and other forms of further education aren’t for everyone, especially those of us who struggle with the structure of it due to health reasons, I do think it’s still a very nice end to her arc that she gets to achieve her goal of becoming a Health Ed teacher. I do wish for a character in media sometime to go through Miriam’s situation and never achieve their goal for further studies, without it being treated as a tragedy or that the character is less than others because of it, though I can see why they went this route instead. Even if it would be nice to someday have a character who is told “you can’t do this no matter how hard you try, and that’s alright too, we can find something else that you can do”, maybe we can have that in a different game or on a different day.

The point is that despite its many faults, I do see a lot of small details in ScarVi that show a level of care on the part for the development team, as much as I also see a shift in a more general sense to do with promoting diversity and healthier, more positive, mindsets. I want to appreciate the small steps forward that large video games like this make, because it’s a clear sign of something positive that will reach a lot of people.

In the end, I also think I like Miriam as a character because she’s somebody who has been through a rather normal struggle that a lot of people go through, and not only does she not become an entirely jaded person who gives up and unhealthily pushes those around her to be better than her so she can live vicariously through them, but when she does finally succeed, the game also goes out of its way to tell you that even though you were the inspiration for Miriam to return to her studies, it was HER that put the effort in once more to succeed.

There is never a line that says ‘whew, I got lucky this time!’ and I’m so thankful for that, and that Miriam instead tells you that she succeeded because she put the work in and tried her hardest.

Whether or not you study in university, whether or not you are able to finish those studies, I think Nurse Miriam’s route tells us that it’s alright to struggle with academics and that it’s alright to fail. Eventually, you will find something that works for you, even if it doesn’t feel like it for the longest time.

(Sorry this came out a day late, but Happy New Year! I hope anyone who is studying this year tries their hardest and finds what works for them!)