#PS: i missed geeta saying nemona was never this happy/excited until she met you because of the way she phrased it but that line is huge

[hamofjustice]

The more people I see present it this way, it really does seem like the primary thing her character is about, and I think that's really cool.

And I also suspect there are some other things going on under the surface with Nemona as well, that I wonder if we'll ever get to see more of, mostly having to do with her upbringing. I'm not going to give quite as much of a non-player-friendly screenshot-filled presentation on it (I already feel a little rude piggybacking on a post about neurodivergence, but it's so important to her character that it seems like an ideal launching point):

It seems to me that Nemona's classmates that don't like her (or at least Arven, for a while) think of her as an out-of-touch nepo baby who gets whatever she wants and/or a gifted kid who never has to try at things they all struggle with. She seems to be the focus of people her age's jealousy. Her peers seem to be generally depressed and angry they can never be like her (something Pokemon Masters confirms and doubles down on), even though they totally can, and as Geeta says, a Champion's role is supposed to be inspiring others to greatness.

Nemona, meanwhile, insists that she hates all the credit for what she's achieved as a trainer (and presumably also in school, as we're told she's both a straight-A student and the student council president) being attributed to being a natural-born "whiz" or "raised differently" (it really feels like they wanted to say "gifted kid" and "privileged" here, and I read it as such) and that while she did become a Champion pretty easily because she was having fun / "dove in deep" (hyperfixated on it) (and was surprised to learn that wasn't normal, but is still pretty sure the player will be able to relate to how it feels. interesting.) most things in life are not easy for her, and no one seems to notice the hard work she puts in. Nemona states outright that she isn't sure if becoming a Champion for her previous Treasure Hunt actually made her happy. But her new friend becoming one too just for her sure did. I think they should've gotten to hug each other but I'll happily accept them holding hands in the TV ad. Aaanyway...

We see on several occasions at the start and end of the base game that Nemona has more problems with her stamina than even Penny, needing to take multiple breathers on the way to the Academy despite her athletic looks (and shrugs it off as being "full of surprises" when this is commented on), but Pokemon Masters revealed later that this is actually something she's very unhappy with herself about and that she thinks she's letting her Pokemon down by not being as fit as they are, which is quite unfair to herself if she actually has some chronic condition. Which is what they seem to be implying here. I don't know if you want to consider that game canon of course, but all of her writing in it seems well-thought out enough that i accept it as such. She still complains about Mesagoza's stairs in Masters just like she does in SV, too, and considers not being good at catching Pokemon an "uncool side of herself" she's glad she can keep hidden on an island with no wild Pokemon... but wants to practice and get better at it anyway.

To get to the point! With that bonus exposition, I suspect a few things are going on with Nemona, in the background, and I don't expect them all to be true at once necessarily, but:

I think... Nemona does not get much support from her family at all, and she perhaps was even in denial when she said she was fine with them being hands-off with her because her unnamed sister is the company heir. I don't think she would want to get much support from them either, given her attitude about working for everything she has. I don't think she's a privileged person trying to say she isn't when she says she works hard, given the way she's depicted otherwise. She never goes into her house, she refuses to have your sentimental first champion battle behind her house despite understanding it would be a callback to your first battle, and she never talks about her family at all unless someone else brings it up, despite them being famous. She seems to think the player and Penny's parents sound nice, though.

I also wondered if the writers were trying to establish a pattern with her saying they're "hands off in a good way" and not being able to tell the difference between a happy family reunion and your 'Raidon cowering in traumatized fear of impending violence. Yeah. Something else to think about.

Players may notice Nemona's dorm room, the Zona Nemona, her home away from home, is stated to be "very tidy" and... contains almost no decoration or personalization, even compared to the blank-slate player character, who does take the time to decorate their dorm and original bedroom. It even lacks basic things like a rug under the bed like the other three dorms have. Basically all Nemona has out in her room to set herself apart from the others is her choice of bedspread, some badges and plaques marking her achievements, a strict schedule, and her excess of Pokemon's food and Balls reflecting that she has multiple teams.

(Well, okay, and what appears to be a wall mounted flat screen TV, maybe she does get some family money, maybe she just saved up for that at the expense of everything else. Either way, I know the designers thought about it, and I love seeing that in a Pokemon game. I love seeing all of this stuff in a Pokemon game, even if the main world map is kinda a little bit of a big empty field sometimes.)

I think, consciously or subconsciously, Nemona is trying to impress her family and get them to take her seriously, which takes on a darker tone if she really does have all these genetic issues. Or she wants to impress the adults in her life that I think function as her surrogate family, like Geeta and Clavell. (I also like to think Rika inspired her to dye the tips of her hair.) I also wonder if comments from Geeta about what a Champion should be like have been getting under Nemona's skin unintentionally. I wonder how much insecurity she's hiding behind a facade if she can shrug off being mocked about things she's legitimately bothered by. I wonder what she's normally like if Geeta says she's only this excited around us. I wonder if "needing a battle to clear her head" like she does when that one kid won't battle her is something she does a lot. Seems like it would cause a nasty feedback loop.

Anyway, the emptiness of her room when the other kids' rooms say so much about their owners feels itself like it's trying to say something. Like, while there is evidence that she only battles because she thinks it's fun and no other reason, I could also see Nemona being so busy overachieving and trying to appear like the perfect student and perfect champion (honestly two very intertwined things in this region) that she does not express herself in any other way where the people she's trying to impress can see it, and is afraid to leave her mess out, figuratively or literally. It could just be a lack of aesthetic interest, but... even her phone case is just plain black compared to Arven's Floette case and Penny's Eevee case despite being the daughter of the Rotom Phone company CEO. I just have to go "what did they mean by this" at stuff like that. Or at the "Sibling Love" painting in Nemona's house.

I think we could unearth some wild drama and a lot more of Nemona's story potential if we meet her family in the DLC or spinoffs.

But she's already a really detailed, developed, and apparently respectfully written character if you're paying attention and reading her behavior and the game's text in general in good faith, and not regurgitating memes.

And there's STILL so much more stuff about her we could talk about that other people have been talking about, even with this incomplete story. We've come a long way from Pokemon characters having five lines of dialogue. Please take the time to read it, everyone.

Nemona, Female Neurodivergence, and Good Representation

Spoilers for the plot of ScarVi ahead, but here’s my full analysis and breakdown of Nemona!

So, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Game Freak making an autistic female main character? You must be out of your mind. This is clearly projecting!’

I’d like to preface this gently by saying that this is obviously just my personal conclusion based on subtextual analysis, but also, I’d like to call attention to the fact that Japan isn’t like the west when it comes to neurodiverse representation, and there isn’t a lot of Japanese media that explicitly uses the word autism. It’s a little unrealistic to expect Game Freak to call it by name, especially considering they make games for children and topics such as neurodiversity are often viewed as a more ‘adult’ thing to discuss. You are free to disagree with me, but please be polite in the replies of this post, as I only wish to have a constructive conversation about a writing decision that has been made.

Anyway, on to the good stuff and I must apologise in advance for this post being long, but I wanted to be thorough!

I played through all of ScarVi and I’m actually very pleased with Nemona as a character. I feel like despite the game’s technical quality, there was a real effort made this time around to flesh out the named characters. Nemona is one of my favourite examples of this, because her arc isn’t solely about being autistic, but it’s clearly a large part of her character and affects her life in a lot of ways.

Nemona is a battle fanatic, and it’s very likely one of her special interests. It’s how she connects with other people such as the main character, and it’s something she devotes her entire being and effort to. She never says she does so in order to impress others, but rather because it’s something she heavily enjoys.

Right from the start, Nemona is a successful champion rank trainer and wants you to become a trainer who can rival her in skill, and feels like it would lead to a better friendship if you could do that. Nemona’s priorities always centre around battling, and doing as much of it as possible. She’s the one who asks Geeta for permission to bestow a Tera orb upon your player. She gives you tips about the battle courts at different gyms. She even raises a new team of Pokémon throughout the game just to have an excuse to battle you at your level and watch you improve.

Nemona even loves battling so much that she finds it a little strange when others aren’t as enthusiastic about battling as she is, below is a quote I found particularly interesting because it really does show that she can be socially oblivious at times when it comes to societal expectations about what is an appropriate place or time to have a Pokémon battle.

Accompanying this, multiple times throughout the game she exhibits impulsive or oblivious behaviour and asks you to have another battle with her straight after another battle you’ve just had, usually due to being excited. Sometimes other characters will need to remind her that your Pokémon require healing first, or that there are other things that need doing. She doesn’t always understand how things should be handled in a conventional manner, despite being an expert on the topic of battling! (Or, she gets too excited and can’t help herself.)

In post-game, there’s even a scene where she doesn’t seem to understand that another student is reluctant to battle her and makes an excuse to leave early because she’s so far from being a casual trainer that it intimidates him. This is, in my opinion, actually quite a sad scene. She genuinely continues to think that he will challenge her to a battle at a different time, not realising that her ‘unusual’ enthusiasm and skill has scared him away, and that he has no intention of returning. A situation I’m sure a lot of neurodiverse children would connect with because it so accurately depicts what it’s like when others don’t share your interests to the degree that you hoped they would. This scene also hints at Nemona’s trouble with reading the emotions and intentions of others.

Nemona’s final post-game scene (which please, I BEG of you to go watch, it’s so good) confirms this outright, and also gives one of the most relatable lines in media about what it’s like to be neurodivergent in any way, especially as somebody who is younger:

Something I like about Nemona is that despite being socially oblivious and pushy with her interests, she is still a very sympathetic and friendly character. Not only does she cheer you on throughout the game, but she doesn’t only do it for the sake of serving only her own interests! She’s genuinely caring about others around her too.

(Nemona, congratulating the player when they beat her at the end of her storyline after she goes full-out. She is thrilled that you beat her! I love this moment.)

Throughout the last chapter in the game, there’s a lot of great moments with Nemona that show how caring she is. I think the best moments however, are where she tries to understand and support a scared Miraidon, and where she tries to help Arven.

Initially, she is misunderstanding and expects that the second Miraidon will be friendly and that it will be a family reunion, but once she realises this is not the case, she immediately switches to trying to support your Miraidon in any way she can. Despite not understanding why Miraidon is so afraid of returning to the Crater and facing the other Miraidon, she can be observed multiple times attempting to encourage it during the final battle, and can be seen in the final cutscene of the game with her arm around it as the group walks back to the academy.

(Nemona, displaying an implied struggle with visually judging the emotions of others.)

Nemona is also the one who suggests after a very heavy story ending that everyone goes home, and that they take the scenic route back to town. She clearly doesn’t know what to say to Arven about what he’s just been through, but she attempts to make him feel a bit better regardless.

I think this makes for particularly good representation, because not only is she less feminine than previous female rivals with her more sporty style and interests (something very common with autistic women) it also shows depth. I’ve seen autistic characters before that fall into the stereotype of coming across as emotionally detached or cold, or far too over-reactive. But I think Nemona strikes a lovely balance of caring, emotional, and socially lacking.

Now, on to a smaller detail that I want to point out that I really like the inclusion of is that glove. I could talk about how Nemona displays memory issues at times or other smaller symptoms of autism, but I really want to talk about the glove. I made a post on this subject the moment Nemona’s design was revealed on the official website, but I like that the game content openly confirmed that Nemona has motor issues with her dominant hand.

(Nemona, needing to support her arm when about to throw a Pokéball, or when she is about to terastalise her Pokémon. The burst of energy from the tera orb must make things a bit more difficult for her. A lovely small detail in her battles.)

(Nemona, confirming that she has trouble with Pokéballs. Something her website entry also stated.)

Now I’ve saved this until last because this is, in my opinion, a smaller detail that they didn’t need to include to make Nemona read as neurodiverse, but I’m thrilled they did. Nemona is the only character who wears an arm brace, something I picked up on immediately in the trailers before the games released. No other trainers wear one for the terastalisation mechanic, unlike the Z-bands from Alola. And even though Pokémon battling is her bread and butter, she still struggles with certain aspects of it! Not only is this trouble with motor skills realistic, but it’s also a very accurate portrayal of motor dysfunction that a lot of neurodiverse people experience in their day to day lives.

To bring this all to a close, I think that even though it isn’t stated outright, I believe Nemona isn’t just representation of neurodiversity in women, but I think that she is also GREAT representation. She knows that she has problems, and tries her best regardless! She is kind, and caring, even though she has difficulties with reading the emotions of others and understanding social expectations. Her entire story may be about making friends with you through the medium of battling, but it’s also a story about how she’s struggled in the past to connect with others because of her love of that medium.

I truely do feel like she’s a lovely depiction to be in a children’s game, because she is a very positive depiction of something that a lot of kids go through, and in the end, she gets to be herself and she gets to be happy by being true to that self. She is never forced to change to make friends, and instead befriends you and the other characters simply by remaining as she is.