#HOORAY its done. now its officially yellow time BABEYYYYY

[infizero]

pokespe reread: red, green & blue chapter - closing thoughts! 🔴🟢🔵

im gonna do these for each chapter before i move onto the next one :D which means its time for RGB closing thoughts before i head onto yellow! i dont have as much to say as i did about ruby & sapphire, but that's just cuz there isn't any poorly handled parental abuse or gender nonconformity i feel the need to ramble about for 5 billion years LOL

anyways, thoughts under the cut!

(before i say anything, reminder that i call the boy green and the girl blue 👍)

ok first off, i wanna talk about just how cool the way team rocket is portrayed here. like i sort of take it for granted since ive been into pokespe for so long, but the thing of a lot of the gym leaders being a part of team rocket is SOOOOO cool.

not only does that by itself raise the stakes a lot compared to other depictions, but also these guys are RUTHLESS. like they have no qualms about straight up killing these kids and that makes every scene they're involved in so much more intense. like the scene where red and green are fighting against koga and he keeps forcing them to back down by threatening to literally DECAPITATE the other? that shit was genuinely so tense, it was really well done.

outside of the involvement of the gym leaders, they also do a really good job at making everything feel interconnected. like almost every conflict that isnt interpersonal can be traced back to team rocket, and even stuff that seems trivial at first, like collecting the gym badges, ends up having a greater significance. i did not remember that giovanni left red and green alone so they could collect the gym badges for them, that actually shocked me. really well done

moving onto specific characters, i just wanna talk about how much i love red rq bcuz i have an even deeper appreciation for him after this reread 😭 like he's just so pure hearted and cares about pokemon so much, and i really love how THAT'S what makes him strong.

like obviously that's a classic pokemon narrative at this point, but this was back in the days of the first game! yknow the one where trainers had whips and the bonds with your pokemon WASNT heavily emphasized? i just think it's cool that alongside his skills as a trainer, red's main heroic trait is his EMPATHY above all else. not trying to give too much credit here but i do think that's really cool, having the main male protagonist's strength come from his empathy and love.

and the way that that influences OTHERS to become better is something that i really love too. blaine talking about how seeing red's love for pokemon is what made him leave team rocket actually almost made me tear up :') and of course green also learns to treat his pokemon better because of red, which is something that i really really love (more on that in a second)

i also just wanna note how much i love red and poli :D the reoccurring thing with red being saved from drowning by it was really really sweet

moving onto green, i was surprised at how much... less of an asshole he was than i remembered? like dont get me wrong, he's definitely got a few moments where he's nasty to red for no reason in the beginning. but overall he's really moreso just Prickly, rather than being outwardly antagonistic. most of the time he's just brushing red off and underestimating him, rather than straight-up insulting him

this also plays into the fact that i realized upon this reread green very much reads as autistic to me. he's silent a lot of the time, focused on stats over feelings, and doesnt even attempt to mask when he doesnt like someone or something. he's very upfront with how he feels which comes across as cold/mean (and im not saying that's NOT what it is, but a lot of the time i think he's just reacting honestly without necessarily meaning to be rude. tho since he doesnt rlly like red and thats who he's usually interacting with, most of the time it IS probably meant to be rude lol)

also there's instances of him not rlly getting social cues/sarcasm. like literally this moment i put above, red goes "back to your old obnoxious self i see!" but green doesnt seem to even register that as a jab and just goes "that's right" like bro hes making fun of you 😭

but anyways yes, green was not as actively mean as i remembered him being, and him and red actually start to get along far quicker than i recalled as well! i thought that their enemies/rivals to friends dynamic was very well done, and i think this is best shown in the championship match, which was for sure one of my favorite moments of the whole arc

^ LIKE. OH MY GOD. the way that red and green have both learned from each other and grown bcuz of it by the end of the story. the way they've grown to respect each other and know each other so well. "they've incorporated the best traits of the other into themselves... and they know each other like the back of their own hands!" simon infizero found dead on the floor

i also liked how much the two smiled during the match :) they're having fun! they enjoy battling against each other!! i already talked about this in a separate post but this is a VERY different championship match than the one that occurs between these two in gameverse. and that's ok! even if i find gameverse's version more compelling, both are good and serve different purposes.

gameverse green's character development is jumpstarted BY losing the championship, while here pokespe green has ALREADY undergone character development and this match is used as a vessel for showing that development off. and i really really like it :D

now uh. for something about this climax that i DIDNT like

bro what the fuck was this 😭 professor oak intentionally triggering blue and airing out her trauma in front of thousands in order to "get back" at her for stealing squirtle was really fucking weird and strangely cruel. like listen man ive experienced many different interpretations of oak over the years some good, some very bad, most of them complicated, but even at his worst he would not fucking do this 😭 at least not in my opinion

i really wish that him confronting blue for stealing her starter and giving her the pokedex was under better circumstances..... like imo if they wanted to do this scene with all that and blue talking about her past, they could've easily just. had oak directly confront her about it. if we need to get blue broken down enough to talk about it, then have him start beating her in the battle really badly until she gets mad about it!

or hell, if that wouldnt be enough, have him confront her, she wont open up, so THEN he pulls out the spearow as sort of a last resort. she gets scared and rather than being all weirdly smug like "haha stupid traumatized girl i knew it was you" (ew) have him be GENTLE. have him be like "i know what you've been through blue. i was part of the team that tried to search for you etc etc. all i want is to know why you stole my squirtle" and then she breaks down and goes on her whole spiel.

that would be sooooo much better than what actually happened, and it would make the scene where he finally gives her her own pokedex and she breaks down into tears thanking him feel SO much more earned and actually impactful, rather than just feeling weird. this moment just felt so weirdly cruel and out of character for oak for no reason. and it sucks bcuz i DO like blue's breakdown about how she's from pallet too and wanted to go on her own journey, but the way we get there is just so weird that i cant fully appreciate it.

ok lastly just quick thing, i love how mewtwo is portrayed here :') it's how it should be portrayed!! it's not evil, it's just been through a lot and has a very understandable hatred for humans due to that. i love how red didnt even hesitate in immediately being empathetic to mewtwo and encouraging blaine to show mewtwo kindness and help it have a better life. made me very happy I LOVE YOU MEWTWO

and that's about it!! overall, i really love this first arc. it's definitely a little wacky when it comes to certain worldbuilding stuff, but that's to be expected from something made in the franchise's infancy. u could just do whatever u wanted back then man. and it doesnt even bother me cuz i mean. stuff like the legendary birds fusing into one pokemon is objectively cool as fuck

this arc is really well written when it comes to the overarching threat of team rocket, the characters and their development, everything! truly a delightful read :]

now, it's time for the kantet to finally be completed as i move onto the yellow chapter!!!! ^_^