Lady Kusei

He couldn’t help but sneer slightly at both the food and the being offering them. Who knows what were in those cookies and what quality the indigents were used.

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-People who still insist that Giovanni died in HGSS (they’re less since USUM but they still exist, and they claim him showing up in BW2 was “non canon” because it was post game)

-People who say that the previous team that Archie and Maxie were on was Team Rocket. Did nobody explore the sunken ship?!

-People who don’t think Molly Hale was a villain because she’s a child. I hope Cross being a villain helped with that! But come on, she saw that her actions were destroying the town and she laughed about it. Even if she didn’t fully understand the consequences (which I’m willing to accept), she still saw people in fear and thought it was funny, and at her age she should developmentally understand that other people have their own emotions.

-People who think X character is a sociopath when they don’t fit the diagnostic criteria. Seriously people, it isn’t some catch-all term for bad guy and it has actual qualifications.

-People who say that Cyrus has no emotions. Did his rant in the Distortion World mean nothing? The one where he screams at you in a rage and then admits that his own emotions are holding him back? Even in DP it was clear that he had them. Plus, you can’t get rid of your emotions by suppressing them. It isn’t possible. (though why he didn’t touch Mesprit and get rid of them when he had the chance is beyond me)

-“Oh, N was an orphan and Ghetsis found him in the forest and they’re not really related”. Masuda. Buddy. Pal. OK, I can buy “not father and son”. But you don’t sit down, look me in the eye, and tell me that Ghetsis went out and found a random forest kid who JUST HAPPENED to meet the qualities he needed for his plan AND who happens to look so very much like him and expect me to believe that these two aren’t related at all. Uncle and nephew maybe, very far age-removed brothers (hey it could happen, especially half brothers); I would even accept original and clone! But don’t insult my intelligence, Masuda.

-The Flare Admins not having names. At least give them another title.

-People who act like Meowth isn’t an equal part of the Rocket trio. He gets left out of far too much fanwork!

-People who call Cyrus and Lysandre fascists. Do people not realize what that means? Just about the only thing at all is Cyrus having those unfortunate red banners in the hall when he’s giving his speech, but his Japanese name includes “red” and his overall aim is a true theocracy where he values merit and even his enemies will exist there (more on that below). Lysandre is like a cross between Ra’s al-Ghul and the corrupt priests in the middle ages who offered people the chance to literally buy their way into heaven. He also seemed to run a meritocracy since he let in any scumbag who gave him the money no matter how they got it , which proved their self-sufficiency (and filled his team with the exact sort of people he hated thus making his plan doomed from the start).

-People who say that Cyrus’s world would have been just him. The show and Generations furthered this but he clearly states that others will be there, directly addressing Cynthia and the player character. He had said that his world wasn’t for his followers and that he was lying to them, but his speech had been about how they would all have power there. That was his lie, not that they wouldn’t exist at all. And even if they weren’t to be rebuilt, they’re just a small part of the overall world, and he mentions others in addition to the two of you. In USUM doesn’t he even say something about thinking that this was his world until he sensed spirit in those around him? That would mean that it would physically look little different from the present including with people. Damn anime episode. My hatred for you has never lessened.

-The belief that Maxie and Archie wanted to rid the world of the other team’s element. Sure it’s fine in parody and being silly but I feel like people believe it. It’s what would have happened if they couldn’t have fixed what they had unleashed, but they’re about expanding their own elements, not fighting the other. A world without oceans, for instance, would still need lakes and rivers, and a world of water would have islands and continental shelves.

This man breaks some pretty big ethical science rules here, kiddos.

-“Ghetsis cannot be redeemed simply because he refuses to redeem himself” Look, B2W2’s ending made it clear Ghetsis was mentally incapable (and most likely physically, as well) of running Team Plasma anymore. He’s gonna end up in a hospital, surrounded by people and Pokémon he tried to hurt. Hearing their stories as they patch him up, make him all better again. And in this case, he’ll be powerless. Humans can go off and be evil for a long time, possibly forever if they try hard enough, but a long time of self-reflection and powerlessness can change even hardened hearts.

-People who believe that Ghetsis is a raging asshole ticked off by every single sentence anyone but him says to him, especially in B2W2. Look, it works in parody and I won’t lie, “raging grandpa” is funny but while we get to see that Ghetsis clearly is mentally unstable in B2W2 (and only gets worse as the game progresses), he’s shown to still be capable of controlling his outbursts unless backed into a corner and forced to fight like a warthog. Please, don’t believe he’s a raging asshole that screams at everyone. He’s an asshole in a gentleman’s disguise.

-“Maxie and Archie are friends” This didn’t hit me until I walked about and thought about it but…Maxie and Archie hate each other in the main games of RSE and ORAS. At best, they should ‘not hate but not like’ each other postgame. They aren’t lovers, they reasonably can’t even be close to friends. Why would you befriend someone who’s clearly blocking your path to achieving what you want on a global scale, causes a fuckup that could possibly destroy the entire region and openly antagonizes you in front of a ten year old child and their axolotl/gecko/chicken.

– Re: Ghetsis and N not being related.

There is another option, you know. I can never remember if it was said in-game or just on Pokemon’s social media, but it is still canonically rumored (either in direct canon or Word of God canon) that N “may not be human”. N is the only character in the game universe to understand Pokemon to the level of clarity he can.  Ghetsis repeatedly calls him inhuman, to a point that in Pokemon Generations the snippet N got to appear in was Ghetsis saying like 5 times in 3 minutes that N was a freak, a monster, didn’t have a human heart, didn’t belong to either world, etc.

Zoroark was the first Gen 5 Pokemon revealed, making it seem like it would be super important to the generation, and then it was event only for the first games, but never really given a reason for that. In BW2, you follow a Zoroark up a mountain and through caves down into the ruins of N’s castle, where you find N, but the Zoroark that led you is now nowhere to be seen. And then, of course, BW2′s Memory Link feature gives you a memory from the point of view of the person you’re talking to, “with only one exception”: a memory of N’s given to you by a Zoroark.

There’s a lot of smaller stuff that on its own would be pathetically weak but added all together with the stronger points builds up a pretty impressive pile, too. The hairstyles are similar. In the anime, at least for the first six gens, EVERY human character I can find has highlights in their eyes (excluding closed-eyed chars like Brock, who still has them during rare openings), except N. It’s very common for Pokemon to lack highlights. One of the Pokemon that raised him before Ghetsis found him was a Zorua, which could have been blood family or pack. “N” and “Z” are the same symbol turned 90 degrees. His bedroom is filled with Pokemon claw marks, and sure it’d make sense for his room to be covered in signs of Pokemon being there but it’s still interesting there’s not a myriad of things like scorch marks and feathers and the ground torn up and such, it’s only damage a bored Zoroark could have caused.

It’s certainly not provable by any means, but “N is actually a Zoroark, and potentially the most skilled/practiced human illusionist there’s ever been, who took on a form to resemble the human that took him in and lived as a human in order to use that platform to fight for his Pokemon brethren’s rights and freedom” is at least as valid a theory as any other.

– Re “Archie and Maxie are not friends”

Well, no of course they’re not now. They don’t secretly go out bowling in between missions or meet for candlelit dinners and secret trysts, nah. The other’s very existence infuriates them now, a living representation of everything they’re fighting against. They get on each other’s nerves both in causes and as people.

… but to say they’ve never been friends, that there couldn’t be any part of them that still wants to be, might be pushing it. As AllhailPokemonvillains noted, they were most likely a part of Sea Mauville together before it was shut down. They worked together once. For them to have been friends or even lovers in the past is not entirely implausible, and to have some sense of “I care about you as a person, and wish things could go back to how they were, if you’d just realize that everything you’re doing is asinine and stop trying to prevent my own goals and be a reasonable person for once” is a valid enough interpretation with little particular evidence for or against it. It can even add to the tragedy of everything, and be played as enhancing their anger toward each other. Someone who’s just always been a dick is easy to dismiss, but when fighting someone you used to care about, who used to care about you, there’s a sense of betrayal and a special extra brand of anger in the form of “I know you’re capable of being better than this so what the actual hell”. And that can be very fun to write about. :3c

Some of my own:

– “Mew was the first Pokemon.” Oh my God people, pun intended, Arceus since its introduction has been touted to have been the first Pokemon that spawned the creation of this universe, while Mew only started being speculated – “some scientists believe” – to be an ancestral Pokemon in Gen 2. It was an afterthought never even followed up on and later proven false and there are still people who’d argue it. Mew is an ancient version of Ditto with some very impressive powers but that’s it. (I know this one’s not villain-related but it’s my oldest Pokemon pet peeve. Before Arceus was even invented this interpretation of Mew still bugged me. xD;)

– “James is gay lol.” James has shown interest in women, albeit rarely. Being flamboyant does not automatically make someone gay. He doesn’t have to be straight either; he can be bi, pan, aspec, abro, any number of things. Just, don’t ignore canon or base an interpretation solely on stereotypes.

– “Lusamine is irredeemable.” Lusamine was mentally unstable and acting out based on traumatic loss. She became obsessed with preservation so she’d never have to deal with change or loss again. She froze her Pokemon so she wouldn’t have to lose them like she lost Mohn. She “disowned” her children (while still clearly angry, hurt, and guilt tripping them for leaving her) with basically the same logic as “you can’t fire me, I quit”. Lusamine acted HORRIBLY and NOTHING SHE DID WAS OKAY but she was also a victim and deserves help to get better and try to fix things, not damnation.

– “Poor Guzma was a victim of abuse so everything he did is justified.” 8″) Please don’t, especially for people who also hate on Lusamine. Guzma is super sympathetic but it doesn’t change that he was a violent criminal who bragged about physically assaulting people and who absolutely would have thrashed a bunch of 11-year-olds if their Pokemon hadn’t been in his way. He deserves help and redemption but that doesn’t mean his past is totally excusable.