#ether-gearhead

I'm not doing screenshots for this one. Urbain's team is astoundingly constant. In contrast to a rival like Hop, or even Nemona who will change her moveset over time, Urbain is astoundingly constant. His team from before the tower, to battling with Mega Floette, to his rematch in the Infinite ZA Royale, changes basically nothing, while the DLC team has only five moves change, and they're not all better. Changing out Crunch as coverage on Avalugg for Icicle Spear is a decision.

The Lead (Meowstic) I've been speaking as Urbain because that's the rival I had, but I decided to check on this and yes, the rivals use their aligned gender for Meowstic. This means very little to me; it's pretty common for trainers to use Pokemon that are the matching gender to their own, as indeed their entire team does. What is useful for Meowstic is the emphasis on Dual Screens. The immediate focus is on defensive play, with its initial moveset holding Psychic and Thunderbolt for coverage. Typically, this combination is, as far as I understand it, considered a strong neutral base, that is completely blocked by Krookodile line. What I'm saying is, this feels pretty indicative of this idiot right off the bat: high focus on being The Protector, very little foresight in how you're going to handle your contingency plans. Even in the DLC, he swaps the Electric coverage for...Wish. Unless the AI is programmed to switch, this changes his inability to get past Krookodile specifically into an inability to get past literally any Dark type, in favor of defense. Urbain is not a thinker.

Shooting Star (Goodra) Urbain's Goodra is. Very silly. Goodra has a rounded stat spread that allows it to pick between physical or special offense. Urbain chooses special. What's odd is that he chooses Draco Meteor, with Water and Ice coverage. So he goes in hard right away, immediately fizzles, then has awkward coverage that does nothing to address his weakness to Fairy, or the hard resists in Steel. His initial iteration also packs Toxic, to try running out a timer, something that always goes well in this game. This changes in the DLC to focus Acid Spray, a means of offsetting Draco Meteor's drop by debuffing the target, and packing at least something to hurt Fairies. So he can learn.

The Abandoned (Avalugg) When Urbain acquires Mega Floette, it is Avalugg that gets the boot. This would not typically be worth mentioning, were it not for the fact that, on balance, this is his most defensive Pokemon. Avalugg's physical defense is sky high, and despite being focused on defense, he drops it for Floette, who is offensive. I read this as a sort of reveal. Urbain is nominally about protecting. His focus is stated to be "I am a defender of Lumiose." And I think he tries to do that? In his own way? But his actions, his choices, are not all that protective. You ditched the defensive option as soon as you had the big mega evolution in Floette, my dude. The Pokemon whose signature move is "cast gun." That is not the action of one who is dedicated to peace.

The Gun (Mega Floette) While only around temporarily, Mega Floette is appropriate as his Pokemon. Consider: Mega Floette is a reanimated corpse, whose signature move is an extremely high-power move that deals sharp recoil damage. Despite the origins of the machine being to revive, to protect life in a sense, it ultimately twists into a weapon at its maker's convenience. Even the second weapon, which I still can't believe AZ made, turns into a weapon. Everything about this guy and his Floette is gun coded. With Urbain, Light of Ruin is its only Fairy move. For some reason, he otherwise has Energy Ball for some reason, then packs Giga Drain and Synthesis to offset the recoil. The focus is very mirrored to AZ. You can do the big destructive thing, and then try to make it better. Power will entice you to enact what you truly believe, but it's fine because you can just change later. You know. The entire thematic heart of this game. Intent matters more than impact, you can just make it better later, it's fiiiiiine.

Personal Ace (Manectric) Manectric is the first Pokemon that is truly Urbain's. What I mean is, the starters he uses are predicated on which one you choose; Manectric is always there regardless of your choice. It's an interesting pick, too. It evolves early, and its focus is on gathering and storing electricity which it uses to stimulate itself into moving fast and soothing aches and pains. Essentially, it is always in Go Mode so it doesn't have to think. And upon mega evolution, its dex entry states that it "cannot control its electricity" anymore. The thing that kept it going, allowed it to over-exert and then comfort itself, is now out of its control. Which I think is really appropriate to Urbain, given his whole focus on going it alone despite having a team to work with. Urbain is, let us not mince words, an absolutely terrible leader. He offers no insights to the team, lets Lida handle all the strategizing, and ultimately contributes less than anyone else, being a net negative through the Rust Syndicate. And these habits, these things that he does to fulfill himself, are not wildly out of his control as he takes over Quasartico. Maybe he'll do a good job. I'm sure the "constantly summons stormclouds" thing is just literal.

The Starters The starters are the oddest part of all of this. To my knowledge, nothing tells us where Urbain was before coming to Lumiose. We know his mother worked for Team Flare, and his grandmother runs Quasartico, but relatively little outside of this. Given his possession of two Pokemon from Johto's starter collection and one from Unova's, this...really does very little for us. I could guess he's from Johto, or at least spent a great deal of time there, given the two-to-one ratio. But the disconnect between Johto and Unova is fairly severe, and all three of these Pokemon do eventually settle in around the tower in postgame. But since there's no clear rationale for where Pokemon are found, because we're all stuck in Lumiose for the rest of eternity, I can't really interpret anything from their existence. What I can point out is oddities.

Specifically, Emboar doesn't get a Fighting move until DLC. Feraligatr's Dragon move is Breaking Swipe until the DLC. Meganium drops Leech Seed, its defensive backbone, for Frenzy Plant, as the only one of the starters to choose to learn an ultimate move. Among these changes, Feraligatr and Meganium showcase that he's moving away from that protective approach, substituting low-BP or non-damaging moves designed to cut offense or heal for high damage moves. Emboar loses its electric coverage for Fighting, and specifically for Close Combat, which actively worsens his defenses. And Feraligatr's Outrage causes confusion, a status I still think has no actual effect in this game. All of his changes by DLC involve removing the protective elements, aiming for big damage and detrimental effects.

Final Thoughts I'm hoping this wasn't hard to pick up on: I don't care for Urbain. I don't like him. I think he's ultimately really self-serving, a terrible leader, and given way too much significance given his inheritance of the only major company in Lumiose despite lacking any skills for success. So it is almost assuredly bias that I read into his final team, and the minor changes between the Mega Floette fight and the DLC, the division between pre- and post-CEO ascendance, as foretelling disaster.

Wartortle: the head wings and bushy tail really appeal to me, I like it a lot better than Blastoise

Clefairy: more star-shaped than its evolution, which feels a bit too elongated

Kadabra: it's the big tail, I legitimately think Alakazam is the least interesting part of the design because it loses it

Magneton: I feel like Magnezone is kinda lumpy, this is purely my own taste but I think Magneton has more of an uncanny creature feel

Haunter: Gengar is really uninteresting to me, but Haunter rules; it's the disconnected hands

Magmar: Unlike Electivire, who does get cooler as a big tough monster on evolution, I think Magmortar looks dumber and don't love the arm cannon thing

Togetic: I think it's incredibly cute, and I think Togekiss is just kinda lumpy

Piloswine: it's so fluffy and great, but Mamoswine loses a lot of that to be cool, and I prefer cute

Grovyle: I mean. Come on.

Kirlia: Yeah, I'll say it, I like Kirlia's little ballerina gimmick over Gardevoir, I think it adds a ton of personality

Roselia: While Roserade is extremely cool, I kinda just like the simple vibe of Roselia; it has a cute look

Sealeo: While I like this entire line, something about Sealeo's mustache just draws me in, it looks so silly and I adore it

Dewott: Just a cool looking thing; I think cuter than Oshawott, while Samurott just tanks in my estimation

Swadloon: Love the entire line, but come on. Come on, that's so cute, it's so grumpy and it evolves from here via friendship, come on.

I'm interjecting here to say, while I adore Braixen, I've come to prefer Fennekin by a slim margin of late, so it's not the favorite in the set, but it's a really close call. Basically, at any point, Delphox is my least favorite part of the line despite still being S-tier.

Frogadier: Frogadier actually is kinda cool without the gross tongue scarf thing Greninja has, and Froakie was never cute so it is easily discarded. I'd say "Sceptile-esque" in how easily the mid-stage in the favorite, but that implies I hold any animus toward Sceptile or Treecko, and I do not.

Fletchinder: Actually pretty cool looking bird; Talonflame just looks kinda weird to me. It's like Rapidash, something about it is too uncanny for me.

Floette: The literal only thing AZ and I would ever agree on

Sliggoo: It's actually got the snail shell effect going on with its goo, and is just a precious little baby

Trumbeak: I really like woodpeckers, Trumbeak is a great continuation off Pikipek, shame about Toucannon being the final stage

Steenee: Kirlia effect. To be clear, I do really like Tsareena, but Steenee is just really cute and it's unfortunately one of those three-stages where the second stage has low, flat stats all around and no access to the final stage's signature move, so there is just no saving the poor thing. Which is endearing to me.

Morgrem: It's the passable design in an evolutionary line I hold a deep disrespect for.

Dolliv: It's a cute little doll with olive hair bunches. Yes I know Arboliva is majestic but it is a doll with olive hair, what are we doing?