Pokémon Legends: Z-A is out and I'm seeing people misunderstanding just what's going on with L/Lysandre and it's irritating me. This will contain spoilers.
Okay, so for those who were morbidly curious and didn't know and didn't mind spoilers. There's a "myth" (we find out during the course of Pokemon X/Y that it really did happen) about a king from 3000 year ago. We don't know what his name actually is just initials he's known by now (yes, now, don't worry about it I'm getting there) so I'm just gonna call him Adam Zabroni for my own amusement.
Adam Zabroni, king of the Kalos region 3000 years ago, had a beloved Floette. Floette is a small fairy Pokémon who holds a flower it's very cute and soft. Floette was sent to the front lines to battle in a war and Adam Zabroni couldn't get her out of it.
Floette died in the war, much to Adam Zabroni's despair.
He then, in his rage and guilt and despair, constructed an Ultimate Weapon kinda device. As you do in this situation, of course. But here's the thing. This was designed to take in life energy of Pokémon and use that life energy to bring his beloved Floette back to life. And it works, and doesn't at the same time. It brought her back to life (and granted both her and Adam Zabroni an extremely extended lifespan, Floette is presumably immortal given she now has the title Eternal Flower) but it caused so much devastation and pain that when Floette realized what Adam Zabroni did, she left. It's also worthy of note that in some circles of fanon the crater of the impact from the Ultimate Weapon hitting its target is in the Paldea region, the mysterious Great Crater of Paldea and even more enigmatic Area Zero beneath it.
So PokéFrance and PokéSpain were at war apparently, but I'm off track so anyways...
After Floette left, Adam Zabroni began a journey. First it was to find Floette, eventually he became the enigmatic AZ who was on a journey of redemption. We are not witness to his character development, but with the importance that Life and Death have in X/Y we can presume that over the course of the 3000 years he was roaming he went through the stages of grief. It's important to note that people don't always go through the stages of grief in the same order and some people get stuck in specific stages for extended periods of time, but that's not entirely the point I want to make here. So this is how I headcanon Adam Zabroni's journey through grief into becoming AZ.
Denial: I feel he had this stage while Floette was still alive, but drafted into the military. Denial that he'd lose her and likely a dash of Bargaining by trying to use his power as a king to get her out of service.
Anger: This is the immediate aftermath of Floette's passing. Blaming the war and not taking into consideration the fact that as king he could've tried more diplomatic ways of ending the war, but y'know 3000 years ago the other side may have been complete douchebags when it comes to diplomacy so I'm willing to give him a little grace here.
Bargaining: This was him constructing the Ultimate Weapon and resurrecting Floette at the cost of the lives of a bunch of other Pokémon. It's also part of why he journeyed after Floette left, at first seeking her but over the years realizing why she left and "if I atone, she may return to me".
Depression: This likely came in the aftermath of Floette realizing what Adam Zabroni did and left him. This likely sent him through a re-run of the other stages as well cause remember grief is not always linear.
Acceptance: This is the stage we meet him at in X/Y, he's accepted his faults, that he is why Floette left him after he'd resurrected her. That he's done so much harm and he has to atone, whether (at this point) he thinks Floette will come back to him or now I don't remember, I'd have to replay X to be sure and I don't wanna do that right now. But he knows he's done wrong to the world and has to do what he can to make it right, and when he encounters the player character he sees a way do to that since he's not got the stamina to actually do what needs to be done anymore. Adam Zabroni is no more, there is simply AZ.
Now, how does Lysandre play into this?
Lysandre was the leader of a group called Team Flare, they're the bad-guys of X/Y. Their goal is a beautiful world, which sounds nice and all but somewhere along the line Lysandre decided the only way to achieve this was to basically destroy the world and rebuild it into this "beautiful" world he imagines.
And it just so happens that 3000 years ago, a man made a weapon capable of doing just that.
This gets the attention of a Pokémon called Zygarde, Zygarde is basically a land-deity in the Pokémon world. The X Pokédex entry for Zygarde reads: When the Kalos region's ecosystem falls into disarray, it appears and reveals its secret power. The Y Pokédex reads: It's hypothesized that it's monitoring those who destroy the ecosystem from deep in the cave where it lives.
And Lysandre, with his plan of "destroy the world and remake it the way I want it" definitely fits into Zygarde's concerns.
During the climax of X/Y, Lysandre tries to use the Ultimate Weapon without having enough power for it and the weapon destroys itself seemingly killing Lysandre in the process.
Fast forward five years to the plot of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the mysterious L appears serving as the herald of Zygarde. Through changes in appearance between X/Y and Legends: Z-A we can infer that he has now started the same character journey that AZ had with the same extended lifespan.
L and Zygarde are involved because of changes in the world that were caused by AZ, at some point in his journey of self-atonement had agreed to make a device to help protect Kalos. A device (Ange) within the Prism Tower that was meant to share the eternal life he'd given to Floette, but when reunited it was a time of peace so he never activated or talked about Ange so it remained a secret. This kicking off the plot of Legends: Z-A is very much a the road to hell is paved with good intentions moment.
Throughout the game, L acts as if AZ is to blame for literally everything (and to an extent he's right) but he's not really taking accountability for his part in this yet. To compare his character development to the stages of grief he's still in Anger, blaming AZ for making the weapon and not taking accountability for using the weapon himself.
I'm seeing people calling him a hypocrite and yes he is, and yes he's horribly lacking self-awareness, but we are seeing him at the beginning of his character's journey and thus we are seeing a peek at both what AZ was like at the beginning of his journey of atonement and what L can become by having AZ be an integral character. The only real difference is the Pokémon that's holding them accountable.
For AZ, it was Floette, a Pokémon who left and likely watched him from a distance for millennia. For L it's Zygarde, who feels that he needs to be watched much more closely and has made L its herald.
L's development is going to be super interesting considering he'll likely live for another couple millennia (or at least centuries considering the weapon wasn't at full power when he fired it). The reason I say can become when comparing L's journey to AZ's is we don't know what'll happen. We're likely never going to get that game set at the end of L's journey and for all we know he'll never learn and never atone.
But I like to think he will.
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
