#willice rambles

Dar served as a grunt since he was a preteen and it did long-lasting damages to his psyche (Mainly him having a tendency to consider himself worthless and undeserving of attention or care, a constant need to atone for his sins (whatever they may be), an overwhelming guilt about having accidentally hurt his pokémon, many many trust issues, big difficulties to open up to people, etc)

It took Dardanne being unwillingly separated from N at the end of BW to even consider changing his ways, and the journey was very, very difficult. For a time he stays in a somewhat dissociated state where he goes through his days without being connected to reality because it's so painful for him to have lost Plasma as a whole (the people he loved and cared about, the routine it created, the false sense of safety it had given him).

He touches rock bottom after the passing of Old Politoed. He snaps at Alder when he attempts to comfort him. The overwhelming grief makes Dardanne mean and aggressive. He isolates himself and withers away in his home, only moving around to ensure cares for his remaining pokémon. Dar isn't a perfect victim and at this point he snaps at people a lot, unconsciously self-sabotaging.

Dardanne only starts climbing the slope back up with his mienfoo Aster hatching. Aster is extremely energetic, and him and Dar's other pokémon basically drag Dar out of his room. It starts with small steps, like cooking a proper meal, waking up a bit earlier, drawing again.

With Alder and Rood's encouragements, Dardanne starts training his pokémon. The activity forces him to go outside, and it also makes him bond with his newly hatched mienfoo. Dardanne finds new interests in things he hadn't considered previously, such as gardening and tinkering.

With his mental health stabilizing, Dardanne takes up a part-time job at the Pokémon Day Care. He enjoys it a lot, and it turns out that he does really good at reading pokémon body language. In his free time, Dardanne starts drawing more and makes his own garden. He also takes in hurt pokémon and helps them trust humans again until they can be either released or given to a new trainer.

By BW2, Dar has established a rather healthy life for himself, and despite not having fully healed (because some of his issues will take decades to properly be treated honestly), he enjoys life again. He loves his pokémon, he finds things that make him happy, life is worth living again. He is his own being, worthy of love, no longer depending of someone else's validation.