#(except Hilbert/Hilda in BW2)

[pokemon-npcs]

Hello :D I was wondering, do you know if there's any NPC quotes in LGPE that mentions the RGB trio going on their journey 4 years ago? I could've sworn an article online had a screenshot of it, but I can't find it anymore.

I can try to look it up! I don't know if anyone mentions them all at the same time, but I'm pretty sure that they are all mentioned. You can encounter all of them, after all. Not as sure that Green is ever referenced in a past tense, though.

....Y'know, this reminds me of the fact that we found out in XY that Blue went to Kalos to study. I love fun little stuff like that :)

[perenlop]

very brief thoughts on what i think the relations between the pkmn protags are

red and leaf are twins and blue is their childhood friend. leaf was a prodigy and went on her journey before the other 2, but mysteriously vanished. the trauma of losing her is what made red and blue have a falling out before they reconcile sometime after hgss. leaf has something to do w the mewtwo scandal and is actually the one to catch it.

ethan, lyra, and kris were all friends from childhood and remain decent friends but ultimately are on different paths. kris is a bit of a loner and spends all of her time camping and researching pokemon, she’ll be a researcher in the future. lyra wants to be a pokemon breeder like her grandparents and is on her own journey just to see the sights. ethan is the main protag and becomes champion and also he has a very weird friendship with silver by the end of the games (they get married eventually)

may (birch’s daughter) and brendan (norman’s son) met each other a few times when they were little but don’t really remember. properly befriend each other throughout the game, and do eventually date each other (brendan had the biggest crush on her). they kiiinda have their personalities from the manga but not quite? i did not finish it. but like brendan is into contests while may loves battling and that’s just how they’ve been since they were little.

dawn and barry are childhood friends and extremely close, literally autism/adhd vibing and ride or die. lucas is a newer friend of theirs (only met at the start of the game) and he feels a little out of place considering how long theyve known each other but he winds up fitting in fine. dawn does go missing when she’s sent to hisui however and it devastates both of the boys, especially barry (who had a massive crush on her). idk if dawn ever does return sadly

hilda and hilbert are twins, but mayyybe their parents did that movie trope where they divorced and took one baby each????? i dunno i want them to parallel the gen 1 situation but not exactly. regardless they’re not exactly besties and hilbert hangs out in the battle subway while hilda is the hero of truth and best friends with cheren and bianca. i’m also considering... polyam nuvema trio once they find hilda after bw2 :) also they adopt N into their friend group yay

rosa and nate are cousins, rosa is actually a little older than nate. nate is the protag and best friends with hugh. not many ideas for these three but theyre all close! 

serena is the protag and meets shauna and calem (known each other since childhood) at the start of the game, tbh no real ideas for their whole friend group i think they’re all just vibing happily.

moon is the protag and moves to alola after some sort of disaster in kanto. moon actually feels wary around pokemon (except for her pet meowth) and the move to alola helps her out with that, especially with hau’s encouragement. hau’s good at getting moon out of her shell, and then moon and lillie click really well because of what they have in common here (moon makes a lot of progress before lillie, i imagine she’s in alola for longer before she meets lillie and nebby at the bridge). moon and lillie eventually gay marry yayyyy and tbh i have no idea what sun is doing.

gloria is the protag and is childhood friends with hop like in the game. no real ideas here beyond that sadly, also don’t know what victor is doing here.

i do not know what the sv protags names are lol. but the girl is the protag and she’s somehow the closest with penny, to all of the rivals’ horror. they’re both weird girls. that being said, they’re all super close by the end of the game, they just like to argue over who the protag likes best. nemona and arven especially kinda see her as a little sister as they go through the game. the boy is also there but maybe he’s just doing a normal treasure hunt idk. also this is the violet timeline

[antihibikase-archive]

For my own reference because I forget <3 The ace Pokemon (plural) of the Blight / Blur guys (except all gym leaders minus Cheren since they have canon ones) in each arc;

Hilbert - Emboar (BW), Reshiram (BW2), Mega Absol (RC)

Cheren - Samurott (BW), Cinccino (BW2), Mega Lopunny (RC)

Bianca - Serperior (BW), Musharna (BW2), Mega Audino (RC)

Hilda - Mandibuzz (BW), Simisear (BW2), Mega Medicham (RC)

Nate - Jellicent (BW2), Zekrom (BW2)

Hugh - Flygon (BW2), Keldeo (BW2)

Rosa - Swanna (BW2), Landorus (BW2)

N - Zoroark (BW), Darmanitan (BW2), Sawsbuck (RC)

Colress - Beheeyem (BW/RC), Mega Metagross (BW2)

Ghetsis - Hydreigon (BW/RC), Kyurem (BW2)

Marshal - Gurdurr (BW), Machamp (BW2), Mega Blaziken (RC)

Shauntal - Chandelure (BW), Froslass (BW2), Mega Banette (RC)

Grimsley - Bisharp (BW), Honchrow (BW2), Mega Houndoom (RC)

Caitlin - Gothitelle (BW), Gallade (BW2), Mega Alakazam (RC)

Iris - Haxorus (BW/BW2), Mega Altaria (RC)

Benga - Volcarona (BW/BW2), Mega Garchomp (RC)

Calem - Aromatisse and Mega Absol (RC)

Serena - Slurpuff and Mega Lucario (RC)

Also for the past lives;

The Hero of Truth, Ludwig - Volcarona

The Hero of Ideals, Felix - Jellicent

The Warrior of Truth, Anita - Mandibuzz

The Warrior of Ideals, Grey - Unfezant

The Scholar of Truth, Babel - Swoobat

The Scholar of Ideals, Rosalita - Lilligant

The Heart, Gabriel - Golurk

The Priest, Harmonia - Sigilyph

The Doctor, Acro - Beheeyem

[franstastic-ideas]

Actually, you know what the funniest thing about shipping Leaf or any of the first four gen girls is? THEY'RE ALL WAY OLDER. You'd think the biggest complaint fandom would have is going nooOOO they're ELEVEN. Except for the part where Gen 1 and 3 happen at the same time. As do Gen 2 and 4. With a three year timeskip. And then a TWELVE year timeskip. Two more; BW2 and XY happen at the same time. Add another year for Alola. Red and Blue are stated to be like. I think it was 31 in the S/M/USUM games last I checked. Leaf would be almost 10 years older than Leon (his Charmander could've been a child of Red's Charizard for all we know! I actually like to write Kantrio visiting Galar and inspiring the next gen of trainers in game-verse.) Instead I'm mostly meddling around in the anime-verse which is mostly a found-family fic so all my ships are really just joked about. Doesn't mean I haven't recycled through a ship or two as I was playing around with the fic though lol, but alas the interest wore off and I need to stick with my themes. I'm curious though, is Leaf and Green endgame for you? Also LOVE whatever you're doing including Mizuki in your Au. With the aforementioned "Kanto kids are millennials" my Leaf (game-verse) has lowkey adopted the Alola kids (with them completely unknowing she was One of The Famous Kanto Trainers From The 1996(7?) Indigo League, until Red and Blue come to Alola and hugs! reunions! tfw your mom is super friendly with your idols and your world view is flipping upside down) what's your version :D also YES shaking your hand Red and Leaf siblings trueee. out of all the protags, they look the most like twins to me. Even Hilda and Hilbert have diff eye colors, May and Brendan literally have diff parents and skin tones. Probs the only character other than Kris and Gen 2 Gold who doesn't appear as an NPC. Also, I like Thundra as a name for a Raichu! I think it fits :) laughing at you going with Kaminari as a name tho, bc I legit did the same thing with the Jolteon I give her in pre-anime fic AU (its a whole mess) or Denki (yes bnha lmao) until I saw someone spell it was "Denshi" as a nickname and thought that was cute and made it less like an obvious reference. Also considered Raijuu.

I think the funniest thing about the core series timeline topic is the fact that technically, according to several developers, there actually IS no true canon timeline.

Masuda: It starts to get a little complicated if you pay too much attention to timelines. Like, there might be a professor that appears, and it wouldn’t make sense at all if we applied that kind of timeline logic. So we try not to apply it too rigorously.

Matsumiya: Elapsed time is secret. Imagine freely!

I certainly will imagine freely, Mr. Matsumiya.

I stated this in the last ask I answered, but Sisterhood operates under a different timeline than the "canon" one. For example, the events of SwSh take place after HGSS/DPP and before SM/USUM, which takes place before B2W2/SV. BW also takes place at the same time as XY, and between FRLG/ORAS and HGSS/DPP.

I do have a visual guide, for reference.

As for Leaf and Green being endgame, I've considered Sisterhood being somewhat similar to an otome game, in the sense that the protagonists have a selection of boys they could date in a series of alternate story paths. However, for most of them there is someone who I consider their "true" love interest in Sisterhood.

For Leaf, this is Green. For Touko, this is N. For Haruka, this is Steven. For Hikari/Akari, this is Volo. And so on.

Some of the male protagonists are the sibling of the female protagonists in Sisterhood: Leaf is Red's younger twin sister, Touko is Touya's older twin sister, Gloria is Victor's younger sister by two years, and Juliana is the older twin sister of Florian. As a sidenote, Gloria and Juliana are first cousins.

Even when they normally wouldn't appear in canon if not chosen as the protagonist, every character has a role in Sisterhood somewhere. Kris is Kotone's friendly (but still tough) rival!

And speaking of Leaf's Raichu, 'Kaminari' was sort of a beta name until I found something else I liked better.

This ended up being 'Lumine'.

[quixot1sm]

this'll hopefully be my last and most conclusive post on the matter re:isshu(/ferriswheel)shipping discourse. please read this before sending me anything regarding the matter:

what masuda said in 2012 is not absolute word of god, or an unchallengeable truth- at least one person involved with bw's story writing has stated that the protagonists were intended to be 16. hilda and hilbert were advertised as being older than any previous protagonists, and n is, according to pash! magazine, 20 in the anime- during the same arc where cherens bw2 role + design is used.

also, pokemon itself isn't afraid to change around characters' ages to better fit their circumstances. anipoke serena, for example, is 10, while her game counterpart appears to be in her late teens. this is to say that while there is a definite, set range for a character's age to be within, ultimately no singular number is going to be universal.

the reason why i personally use 16 over 14 for the bw protag ages has to do with the contents of the actual game first and foremost. all things considered- unova taking inspiration from america where 16 is typically when coming of age occurs, cheren and bianca having adult designs and careers only two years later, and ns role as a narrative foil to the protagonist, 16 is the age that makes the most sense. to add to that, the protagonist and their friends are remarked to be on the cusp of adulthood at least twice in game:

there's also the matter of the protagonist and n's relationship itself. the two are, by all means, meant to both contradict and compliment each other, to act as inverted mirrors. n checks all the boxes for what would usually be considered a protagonist (his design, his narrative as a hero, obtainment of a box legendary- pretty much everything except being playable), and he has physical traits that mirror both hilbert and hilda. most importantly, he is canonically obsessed with the protagonist. he thinks that they are meant to be his counterpart, so much so that he wholly believes that they will be able to awaken the opposite dragon without issue. in bw2, he misses them deeply enough to linger in the place they last saw each other, and comment on how he wonders if they'll meet again, and that he wants to tell them how he feels.

then, on the protagonist's end, they literally drop EVERYTHING, leave behind all their friends and family, to search for n when he leaves. that's the only thing they do that we, the player, have no control over.

finally, although pokemon masters is noncanon material, there is just. so much. alluding to their dynamic leaning towards romantic. the best badge you can earn from their reunion event is "N-describable Love". n has dialogue where he indirectly states that he loves hilbert-

and hilberts well. hilbert

all these things would be INCREDIBLY uncomfortable and inappropriate if the audience was meant to see the two of them as definitively an adult and a minor. a two year max age difference just works the best in this context, and the ages of 16 and 18 have evidence to back them. i understand any apprehension and/or discomfort anyone may have with shipping them, and i'm also not going to tell you that you can't headcanon them with a different dynamic (because thatd defeat the whole purpose of pokemon and its encouragement of creative liberty) but this topic has much, much more to it than a glance at the first google result.

tl;dr : while masuda is a respectable source to draw from, his claim doesn't align with pash!, toshinobu matsumiya, or the marketing surrounding hilbert and hilda during bw's release, neither does it fit the story of bw without causing some very uncomfortable dynamics and scenarios. overall isshushipping/ferriswheelshipping is fine. who cares

[felidaeng]

hey !!! i found you on twitter and i really really love your ideas and characterisations alot but do you ship n and hilbert together? cause iirc hilberts 14-16 and n is 18-20 :[ apologies if this isnt actually the case, thanks if you read and have a nice day kody felidaeng !

this is something i’ve gone over multiple times before, but to summarize, hilbert is 16 and n is 18. this is based on interviews that place n as 20 during bw2 and the anime (which uses many elements of bw2 in regards to team plasma specifically), story writer toshinbu matsuyima stating that hilbert and hilda were designed to be 16, several other sources claiming that hilbert and hilda were supposed to be the oldest pokemon protagonists at the time, and these ages fitting into the story of the game much better than the alternatives (n’s coronation ceremony that seems to take place just before the game begins would be a fitting coming of age ceremony for an 18 year old, 16 being the age that in america [unovas inspiration] is seen as young peoples first steps into being an adult on their own hence becoming a pokemon trainer, bianca and cheren having adult designs and legitimate careers only 2 years later, n being referred to as terms like boy/brat, etc.). n and hilbert (and by extension hilda, but canon leans much more towards hilbert) have an almost comical amount of subtext that begins with n being an inverted mirror of the player character through the story- being team plasmas protagonist, with his own box legendary and design that mimics what you’d expect of a pokemon protagonists. he’s also a deliberate parallel to rival blue, even going as far as to paraphrase a line of dialogue blue says to the johto protagonist, and saying it to the bw2 protagonist, while hilbert is a direct parallel to red. for them to have a significant age gap would be out of place, and does nothing for the story except make several instances in the game itself bizarre and off putting.

additionally, even though it’s possible that in-game canon hilbert MIGHT be 14, the protagonists do not exist as realized characters in the main series, instead being placeholders that the player can make into whatever they want them to be. even pokemon itself does this- serena, who appears to be in her late teens at earliest in her xy design, is 10 in the anime, and has romantic subtext with ash. going off of that information, you’d think that there’d be more upset about it being done…. but there’s not. you are supposed to project whatever ideas you’d would like onto the player character, which is how i’ve been able to build a whole original canon from the basics that the game gave me. this is also why i’m fine with people headcanoning the characters differently, and it’s more than okay to not want to engage with my artwork based on that, just as i personally don’t want to interact with content that portrays n and hilbert with a significant age gap and/or if it’s interpreted as a familial relationship, considering how i view the characters.

tldr; hilbert and n are only 2 years apart in age

[harusha]

by last 2 gens, I meant SUMO and SWSH. I loved XY, but liked SUMO characters better. USUMO could have made great sequels. Lillie as prof. Gladion as champ, Hau as a kahuna. Etc. Would also make the transition to wormhole traveling more realistic if they were set in a universe where the events took place. I loved Gen 2 for letting us see Kanto 3 years later, and BW2 for letting us see what's changed in Unova. Just frustrating with the direction of things

Whoops, sorry anon. I never got the notification for this, so this is probably a week old or so. Tbh, I feel you though. I don’t want to be a spoilsport, but it feels like the mainline games are riding somewhat on name brand at this point. Making games is hard don’t get me wrong, but there’s a lot going on w/ SWSH rn on release.

I love the whole sequel stuff, but my only concern is “canonzing a protag.�� Like…look at Alexio/Cassandra from AC:O. Sheer madness in how those arguments go on “canon. Like, I like ambiguity because I can avoid that.

Tbh alongside the sequel idea and the coherency it would bring, I would love it if wormholes let you go to the OG timelines (RBY–>GSC, FRLG/RSE–>PDPT/HGSS->BW->BW2), and that’s why you get hidden abilities, rare Pokemon, and increased shiny chance. They could just explain it as the wormhole changing the Pokemon’s characteristics. RBY timeline is basically “no one had abilities,” hence the drastic changes, FRLG timeline could be “they decided to go with you, and now they changed to fit your timeline.”

 Like they wouldn’t have to put every single region in; they could even just make it to where you visited parts of each region, perhaps the most iconic locations and/or moments, as a post-game/high difficulty thing (everyone is set to lv. 100 and have ideal spreads+sets). Like dropping in on Mt. Silver at the foot of the mountain, and have the area name pop up as “???” and have the player traverse the dungeon (w/ the HGSS encounters but inflated to 80s-90s so the observant veteran player can go “hmm this is familiar”) and have it accumulate in walking in on EthanVSRed on Mt. Silver, and it ending up in a double battle with them. Like that would blow people’s minds and make them realize what the post-game is, a love letter to every single generation so far, and set the stage for the rest of the post-game.

They don’t even have to confirm the canon protagonist for Johto if they just cover them up in snow gear (ie. put a cloak on them and have the hood up), and give them Meganium, Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Tyranitar, Raichu, and Espeon/Azumarill. The three starters, the Pseudo-Legendary of the generation, Raichu to parallel Red (also small callback to how Ethan was supposed to be Red’s younger brother in the old GBC pamphlet), and Espeon if they want to showcase the OG day/night cycle gen+it being the gift Pokemon and a Easter egg part of Red’s original team. Azumarill is if they prefer to reference the childhood friend.

They could even make this a chance to up the difficulty through the excuse of “alternate universe/wormholes caused their Pokemon to change abilities.” Make Red’s and Ethan’s teams complement each other and have them carry optimized spreads and sets for doubles. Ex. Blastoise or Pikachu with Fake Out and Focus Sash sets up rain and Ethan’s Raichu w/ Air Balloon/Choice Specs and carrying Thunder+Surf and has Lightningrod (wormhole shenanigans gave it a Hidden Ability) and so forth. Give them things such as Magic Bounce Espeon, Dual Screens Meganium, Mega Charizard X (wormholes made it happen), etc. Just showcase them as a bonus challenge and their status as legendary trainers akin to Mameo from Digimon. Perhaps give a reward of something like “Red gave you that extra Master Ball he never used” or a music player from Ethan so you can listen to curated songs from the older games. Or even simply clothes modeled after their original designs (Leaf and Kris outfits for girls and Red+Ethan for boys; or make it all available as unisex outfits where the inspiration is obvious but it’s not exactly the same).

And if they want to make it even more of a nostalgia bomb, have Ethan’s Raichu have a spiky/notched ear to imply that it’s a timeline where the special Pichu evolves and had Surf instead of Pain Split as the special move.

Other iconic moments could be dropping in at Turnback Cave and traversing Distortion World again and saving on Lucas, Dawn, and Cynthia and rescuing them from Giratina. Reward is catching Giratina and a battle against Cynthia, Lucas, Dawn, and perhaps Cyrus. Avoids picking a canon protagonist and arguments over who should have showed up. Focus is single battle gauntlet with each trainer giving a choice on whether you want to heal after each victory (exception is Cyrus).

Have Lucas/Dawn mention how they like trading and that’s why one of them has two starters (or multiple gift Pokemon) to help avoid narrowing down the canon protagonist. Lucas could work in Trick Room (Torterra, Cresselia/Dusknoir, Vaporeon, Magnezone, Heatran, Machamp). Showcases the notorious number of roamers/legendaries in Sinnoh, Mt. Coronet evolution, trade evolutions (GTS), a new gimmick of the gen in Trick Room, and incorporates a gift Pokemon). Dawn could work with Iron Fist Infernape, lead Empoleon w/ Stealth Rock (showcase that infamous entry hazard), Paraflinch Togekiss, Porygon-Z, Lucario, and Glaceon. Gift Pokemon+showcases the (then) new evolutions of that gen.

Have Giratina be like lv. 80-100 with Totem Pokemon stat to explain how in the darn, everyone lost with those sorts of levels.

RSE could be dropping in on Brendan and May going up Sky Pillar and setting Rayquaza off to stop Groudon and Kyogre, and it starts a side quest of following them to experience the climax of the Hoenn Saga. Climax is them itching for a fight from seeing your skills. Have Brendan (Sceptile, Mega Blaziken, Celebi , Salamence, Starmie, and Latias) and team up with Steven and May (Mega Swampert, Gardevoir/Gengar, Latios, Metagross, Jirachi, and Ninetales) with Wallace in a doubles. Both teams have callbacks to stuff like the manga (Brendan with Celebi and Salamence), references the two Pseudos of the generation, the roamers, trading with Orre for the promotions (Celebi and Jirachi for US and JP respectively) and Red/Leaf in Brendan’s case, Wally’s OG signature, or even the OG Mystery Dungeon. Have Brendan wear his Emerald outfit while May wears the Ruby/Sapphire outfit to blur who the canon protagonist is. Bonus fight could be seeking out Archie and Maxie in their atonement/voluntary isolation for a fight.

BW is dropping in on Hilbert and Hilda encountering Kyurem (since it feels wrong to interrupt N’s goodbye tbh). Teams would be [Contrary Serperior, Samurott, Victini, Archeops, Zoroark, and Mandibuzz] for Hilbert and [Emboar, Keldeo, Genesect, Volcarona, Braviary, and Carracosta] for Hilda. Their teams aren’t amazing, but it’s meant to showcase the generation’s fossils, gift/event Pokemon, and version exclusives. Have it be you saving them from the snow and from Kyurem. Have them talk about how they’re thinking of setting off together to find their friend N, and how much they want to see him again. Make it emotional and have them talk about what they’ve learned about Pokemon from him and their interactions on their journey.

BW2 is saving Rosa and Nate from Ghetsis’s murder attack and fight Ghetsis. After you all return to a Pokecenter, have the two of them challenge you to a Rotation and Triple Battle respectively. Rosa runs a rain team with Drizzle Politoed, Octillery, Smeargle, Kabutops, Kingdra, and Ludicolo while Nate runs a Sand Team with Hippowdon, Sand Rush Excadrill, Rhyperior, Garchomp, Scizor, and Gliscor. Have it be a gimmick to where weather is infinite again in this wormhole location since their teams are meant to be a callback to the weather wars of gen v and the stars of those teams.

And have N show up to thank you for saving Rosa and Nate since he was almost too late right as you are leaving through a wormhole. Have the player tell him about what Hilbert and Hilda said and how they want to meet him again+urge him to meet his friends again and have it end with N saying something to the effect of “…I’ll think about it.” and leave it on an ambiguous note to whether he will meet them.

And finally, have it end with Red encountering Mewtwo in Cerulean Cave and have it diverge by you saving him from Giovanni (he lied about quitting and it’s only after you defeat him that he leaves for isolation until Ethan/Lyra/Kris beat him up again). Ends on a note of “this is where it all began.” Reward is catching Mewtwo and battling Red in a single. Here, they can make his team diverge from canon because it’s pre-Mt. Silver Red/alternate universe. Alakazam, Dragonite, Zapdos, Persian, Eviolite Chansey, and Mew. Showcases popular threats of that gen+trade evolution, irony in Red having Meowth’s evolution (Giovanni is associated with Persian b/c anime), the mythical #151 and source of playground rumors, the pseudo, one of the “your reward for exploring” stationary legendaries, etc.

Could even do a bonus of letting you travel to Kalos (but just the port) and meeting Serena and Calem who are both arguing about fashion while waiting for Sina and Dexio. Make their reason for battling you something lighthearted like you interrupting their argument to say “both of your fashion senses suck.”

Have them carry [Delphox, Chesnaught, Tyrantrum, Furfrou, Mega Gyarados, and Goodra] and [Greninja, Talonflame, Aegislash, Mega Kangaskhan, Meowstic-M, and Aurorus]. Showcases starters, Megas, radical gender differences, fossils, popular threats of Gen VI meta, Furfrou cuts, etc.

And if that’s too much, just recreate parts of the legendaries OG encounter dungeons, Cerulean Cave for Mewtwo, Bell Tower for Johto, etc.

Like…Gen VII was the “this is the 20th anniversary of Pokemon” gen and that would have been a great time to pack everything into one gen. Like…they had space for multiple walking Pokemon animations on the cart that they could have taken out or even tweaked these ideas so the dungeons would be slightly smaller (ie. fit to cart) or reduce the weirdly high number of Lillie models in the game. This isn’t an entire region (or regions) either, but snapshots and small locales to revisit. It also incorporates more fights with the Team Leaders at higher levels and difficulty.

Like idk, I made myself sad because I realize this would never happen unless some mad lad decided to create a massive rom hack/expansion, Masuda gets a larger team (and Pokemon stops with the yearly releases so the team isn’t pressured as much), etc.

Idk, I feel like the games for the 20th ani weren’t as good in hindsight for what they made out to be a year of Pokemon. But that’s just me griping again about Alola.

Also perhaps solviing all this gives you a final wormhole where you’re taken to fight Leaf. Give her Clefable (Clefairy’s original yet scrapped mascot thing), Golem, Flareon, Jolteon, Aerodactyl, and Omastar. Showcases fossils, gift Pokemon, other Eeveelutions, etc.

[verycharismaticdragon]

Hilbert for the character thing

favorite thing about them

(obviously this is fully headcanon but) He is genuinely considerate of others and he always does his best to put himself into the other person’s shoes, but not at the cost of his own morals/beliefs. He will not reject an idea just because it’s new or doesn’t align with his current worldview, but at the same time he will not accept an idea just because someone else strongly believes it. Basically he is a strong-willed person who is also just… kind, which is something I strive for.

least favorite thing about them

(again, this is a flaw I gave him myself, but) His patience and consideration have a limit and that limit is when someone consciously hurts other people or pokemon. After that all bets are off and there’s no such thing as “going too far” for him to bring that person down. Ultimately he is willing to sink down to the villain’s level to deal with that villain. Like, I joked once that the reason BW protag isn’t in BW2 is because he would straight up try to kill Ghetsis and they couldn’t let pokemon protag murder anyone, but then i realized he… actually would not be above that? 

However I should also say that he is aware of that being a flaw, and like… one of the big character beats for him is that he sees Ghetsis as a sort of “dark mirror” of himself, and does his absolute damnedest to Not become that.

favorite line

I’ve been thinking about it just yesterday but the fact that all of his lines in unused BW2 data boil down to “words are meaningless except when N is saying them” makes me dumb soft in the heart. (before battle: “Words are the source of all misunderstanding! Everything can be understood through Pokemon battles!” after battle: “Make your dreams come true! Someone once encouraged me to do that. Even now, I’m continuing my journey to realize those dreams”)

But also… since he doesn’t have actual canon lines… I can give you uh, this, from a thing I’ll never finish writing:

“So, N, my goal… my dream… is to be the person who holds out his hand and tells someone who needs to hear it that everything’s gonna be okay. That it’s fine to be different. That everyone is free to choose their own truth and follow it. And that as long as they aren’t hurting anyone, I will stand up for them when they need it. And I’m here to do just that.”

brOTP

Nuvema trio, but especially him and Bianca. I hc that he is basically her biggest fan and supporter during their BW journey, always believing in her 100%.

I also am rather attached to the idea of him seeing Elesa as his mentor! Her “But it’s important to keep trying, to learn about the differences between yourself and others… To learn that being different is OK” line really struck a chord with me and it fits really well into the character arc I have in mind for him so!

OTP

isshu but we all already knew that

nOTP

mm… i dont have anything straight up blocked, but i have to say i don’t really get Hilbert/Hilda, like specifically gameverse. no hate but just… i sleep

random headcanon

This is absolutely not random but i hc him as a trans dude. don’t ask me why, it just made sense to me right there and then on a character selection screen.

Another headcanon is that he never really wanted to be a Champion and stepped down from that position as soon as he got it. He enjoys participating in Pokemon Musicals much more and even considered making it his career at one point.

unpopular opinion

Does ignoring popular fanons for the character count as unpopular opinion?

song i associate with them

some (most) of these are ship aligned but i can’t do anything about that can I

Night Light and Never Quite Free by The Mountain Goats

The Promise by When In Rome

mentioned Staing At The Sun by MIKA before, also by the same artist: Heroes and Talk About You

A Place For Us by Fitz and The Tantrums

Shine Your Way by Owl City & Yuna

favorite picture of them

I really love this sprite! Also this from the Battle Subway illustration:

Basically my fav illustrations of him are the ones that play up the shadow-over-eyes serious/intimidating look!