One subtle thing about Nemona that stood out to me: thereās this moment, around the 4th gym or so, where she runs up to you and apologizes profusely that she canāt battle you yet because her team isnāt balanced right yet or something
Itās a Funny Moment because
1) Iām not the one itching to battle; she is. She doesnāt need to apologize this much, itās fine lol.
2) Iām not picky with opponents. Iāll happily fight her team in whatever wack-ass state itās in. Sheās fretting over an imaginary problem.
At the time, I wondered if it was like an honor student thing. Maybe Nemona's the kind of person who, inspired by the genuine skill, kindness, & dedication of those around her, grinds herself into a pulp trying to live up to that imagined standard.
That pressure is ENTIRELY self-imposed. If any of the adults she looks up to noticed this anxiety spiral, theyād tell her to relax, itās fine, youāre doing too much as is and weāre proud of you no matter what, we promise. And theyād mean it, sincerely. Which of course would just make it worse, because āoh no, theyāre even kinder than I thought they were, much kinder than I am, I need to work even harder to become as kind as themā.
Anyway, having completed the game, I think all of that is still *an element*. Nemona is a rich kid, student council president, honor student, and particularly close with the kindest & most influential adults in the country. The writers didnāt make her those thing on accident.
What I hadnāt picked up on was, the thing that was eating at Nemona the most was probably that she was worried she was fumbling her chance to make you her friend
Nemona, explicitly, has a weird autistic hyperfixation on Pkmn battling. Nobody else her age does. So her only real friends are adults, who, with the wisdom of age, are able to appreciate her idiosyncrasies, and know how to direct them toward something positive.
But they don't share them, as far as Nemona can tell. Itās hard to tell if someone Gets It or is just navigating around It, especially when they keep treating it as a means rather than an end.
Then you come along, showing a hint of sharing her Niche Special Interest, and she thinks āat last, this is my chance, I can make someone else Get Itā.
So she tries to give you a guided tour, basically.
Nemona is already champion-rank; she is deliberately holding back & using a weak team so she can do the gym challenge alongside you. She isnāt worried her team is too weak. Sheās worried her team isnāt properly tuned to give you the experience she wants you to have.
She's trying to streamline the process of you falling in love with this thing she likes. Which is of course a self-defeating effort.
The adults in Paldea are all hilariously hands-off. I think itās fair to say that Nemona lacking a Nemona of her own is part of what helped her develop her weird special interest. The adventure of crawling thru a thorn bush is part of the fun. (I'd wager this is the ethos behind the school's mostly-unsupervised treasure hunt.)
And to her credit, I think Nemona knows this. Sheās trying not to weird you out; she doesnāt want you to know sheās following you around. She *certainly* doesnāt want you to know how much sheās tying herself in knots over this, trying to determine how much contact is appropriate. She's attempting the impossible task of trying to suss out how someone is feeling without interacting or being fully honest with them, because doing either might make you think she's weird.
The arc ends appropriately anticlimactically. Of course you like the game; thatās why you started playing it. Nemona was fretting over nothing. All she had to do was consistently be there for you while you grew into what you were going to be. Which she did.
