Somebody else pointed this out but N wears one of Anthea and Concordia’s bracelets on each wrist. @N_h0lic on Twitter posted this which brought my attention to it (with an adorable doodle too omg 😭😭 they are my children)
This is a really interesting detail that I think reveals a lot about N’s personality and the ways in which he gives and receives love.
N isn’t a very expressive person, at least not in the ways of talking about himself personally. In the very first meeting with the player, he states his mission and battles you instantly. Even just focusing on the games (because I feel like I could write pages about masters and the animes separately, I just haven’t seen them), he criticises the player, states very bluntly his intent and then leaves. He leaves no room to get to know him, only for very brief inferences to be made on things like the speed he talks which Cheren mentions.
Every conversation with him, N solidifies his beliefs by battles and noble speeches. I think the only time he reveals something about himself is when he talks about ferris wheels and how they’re “like collections of elegant formulas.” Which I think is sweet, getting a little carried away. Maths whiz 😋
In any case, he doesn’t even refer to his family (“family”) as such. He refers to Ghetsis, his foster father, by his name, saying how “Ghetsis asked me to work with him to save Pokémon.” He seems detatched, because what he’s part of is not a family. It’s a team, Team Plasma.
With Anthea and Concordia though, it’s different.
I don’t think he ever directly refers to them in the games but he might in the anime. In either case though, he still wears both bracelets, presumably given to him by them. If he truly didn’t feel that what they’re all a part of is a family, if all he cares about is saving Pokémon, why would he do that?
Why make the effort to keep both sisters close to him throughout his journey? Why accept that if they’re not a true family? The answer is plain; N believes they are a family. At least he believes he and Anthea and Concordia are.
In the anime, he states to Ghetsis, “it’s hard to call you this, father…” and then goes on. I think based on this it would be easy to assume he doesn’t call A&C his sisters either. It could be uncomfortable, unnatural (haha) to do so. Growing up in neglect can do that to you.
N is very clearly a neglected child, shown from the mountains of toys and games Ghetsis gave to him in place of the affection that a young child needs. It isn’t a stretch to assume Anthea and Concordia shared the same fate.
Neglect, specifically affluent neglect/emotional neglect, can (and will) make you very stunted emotionally. N would have trouble expressing love and affection since he isn’t used to doing it with people. With Pokémon he’s fine, he’s been loving them since he could think, but with people it’s different. Despite being one of them he doesn’t feel like it. They’re foreign, alien, he doesn’t like most people, harbouring some serious misanthropy. He doesn’t feel connected to anybody, because almost everybody he was exposed to growing up did not show him connection.
Although… the bracelets do point towards a different angle.
Perhaps somebody did show him the love he craved when he was young. Anthea and Concordia? They seem to love their brother for more than just being a king, seem to act as nurturing and caring figures in his life. They might not have always been around but they were always there.
N’s qualms with affection might get in the way of this. He might feel jaded or afraid or suspicious being that he’s been severely emotionally neglected. Trusting affection may not be the issue, but simply receiving it is foreign, so he could have turned it away out of fear. But that doesn’t mean he can’t love back.
He might take to showing love towards people a different way. So might Anthea and Concordia. Perhaps through small gestures, tokens, gifts. One last goodbye?
I don’t know! Maybe he just thought the bracelets were fashionable ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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