TW: depression, mentions of suicide, mental health issues
Sooo here I am again; I just wanted to post the whole thing about Volo and my headcanons about him
About his past and background
Have you ever wondered about Volo’s past? On the games he tells us the world is an unfair place and seems very hurt by this idea, and this, together with his behavior, gives us a proof that his past was not easy or at least that he's gone through some traumatic experience; he doesn't act like, say, Ghetsis; he doesn't act like someone who's bad by nature. Honestly, to get to the point of decadence he shows us on the games I really think he was hardly abused, maybe by other guys from his generation, but more likely by his parents and/or close family; that would explain him developing some kind of personality disorder or mental illness that later caused his psychopathy. After all, this would have been the way his brain developed to protect him from his bullies. (I have to make clear, though, that even if I know about psychology I am not a psychologist so don’t ever take my interpretations as something totally accurate and don't get me wrong, I know most people who has a mental disorders or illnesses are not psychopaths, I, myself have ADHD and all my closest friends have some kind of neurodivergency).
Later he isolates himself, angry with the rest of the world, and discovers Pokemon myths, and the more he reads about them, the more interested he is; he starts believing in Arceus as it gives him hope and decides to dedicate his whole life to the creature, and that makes him isolate even more. He thinks the other people are trash and are bad because all he’s gone through, and that’s why he starts dreaming of a better world and slowly developing his god complex "I am the only good person in the world". He starts planning meeting Arceus, as he thinks the pokemon can provide him his perfect world and at the same time (and maybe even more impotantly) he hopes for "god's recognition" as that would make him a divine creature too (or so he thinks), and gets obsessed with this idea. Probably he just thought Arceus was his only hope for a better life for him; at this point he probably starts working as a Ginko Guild merchant because it’s an easy way to leave home and scape from his old life, starting a new one based on his Arceus’ search. His obsession is clearly reflected on his clothes during the last battle towards him; I mean, at this point, he has definitely lost his mind. I also want you to think about that time he says something like "you, at least, have your pokemon, I don't even have that" - meaning he feels really alone, and, eventhough I think he really loves his pokemon (I'll later develop this point), this would also prove that he doesn't have (human) close friends.
Why would he want to hurt Arceus if he is obsessed with it? I think what he doesn’t see but it’s quite obvious is that what he really desires is not Arceus per se, but his power. The fact he invokes Giratina to defy him totally proves this point. Volo doesn’t care about Arceus even if he thinks he does, as I said before, Volo has a God complex: through his last years he has really believed (or tried to convince himself that) he is better than the others, and that gives him the right to create a new world getting rid of the actual one, together with its people, pokemon and everything. And he doesn’t care hurting Arceus because of this reason. He looks for his perfect ally: Giratina, who also wants Arceus’ power, using it to defy Arceus and dominate it – I mean, some people say Volo wants to kill Arceus, but as long as I understand what he really wants is to dominate it – and use it for his dream.
But after all, his god-complex and slightly narcissistic personality is just a wall to hide behind his insecurity and loneliness; he hopes to find in the new world he wants to create all the love and comprehension he never had. Volo makes me feel kind of sad and I feel empathic towards him, but I am conscious that he, after all, is just nuts. Go to therapy, Volo, please: we want to love you
You know what? I head-cannoned his story in part because of his song.
Most of you have probably noticed how special this is; totally a master-piece from my point of view. Apart from the obvious reference to Cynthia, the song has a lot of different parts, and I linked them all to make a story; his story. Let’s analyze it step by step:
The Cynthia reference is played in a way it sounds more dramatic than Cynthia’s actual theme – I think it wants to represent his traumatic infancy; the first part, that is only played with piano, represents his loneliness and the second part, which sounds harder, represents the abuse towards him.
Then in the third part we can appreciate more instruments, I think this represents the moments he spent alone reading and learning about history and mythology
The fourth part sounds more epic; I think it is the moment he started reading about Arceus, and how it changed his life
We have a most cheerful moment as the fifth part, which I interpret as the happy days after discovering his God, and how he started having faith for a better life; this is probably the happiest era of his life.
Then later in the sixth part we have a more dangerous tone, which for me implies the moment he starts planning on defying Arceus to create a new better world; and how his good intentions and thirst for knowledge turn into something really evil.
From there on, I think it all represents Volo’s decadence and how he turns crazier every time consumed by his depression and emotions.
Finally when we beat him, we can appreciate a last piano intervention, which closes the combat. Even if we all know he shows us Giratina later, for me this part is predicting the moment the main character beats him and all his craziness gets to an end, which supposes a sharp blow for him, probably making him meditate about all that happened and disappearing.
What happened to him after that…? Cogita’s and Lavender’s comments, together with the contradictory speech he gives us after beating Giratina, make me think he really meditates of all that has happened, but who knows what he did after that… in the beginning I thought someone like him would commit suicide, but honestly… something tells me he didn’t; maybe because of his reaction after losing wasn’t as crazy as I expected. This makes me think maybe he wasn’t completely nuts and he still had something inside telling him he wasn’t acting for good. I am not really sure about this, as the character is full of contradictions, and I think this is genius because it makes him act in a very natural way according to his personality, so congrats game freak for this. My headcanon is he just took a break somewhere far away or in some hidden place, maybe Cogita’s house, and after it he went on working as a Ginko Guild merchant while telling people about Hisui’s myths and history - or maybe he even becomes a hisory teacher! Even if he says he would come back and blah blah blah I can’t imagine him committing any other stupidity; it looks to me as he only said he would come back because of his pride and the jealousy he was feeling at the moment; He acts as a very emotional person after all, so this makes a lot of sense to me
Maybe Game Freak just wanted an open end to make a sequel, that’s another possibility; in this case I would like to see what happens, but it seems like they already forget legends exists to anounce pokémon Españita Scarlet and Violet
About his relationship with his pokemon team and his true nature
But you know what? I don’t think he really is evil after all. Why I say that?
If we take a look, most his team is formed by pokemon who evolve with friendship- to me it only can mean two things; the first one is that he manipulated pokemon to use them as he pleases, and the second one is he really loves his pokemon. And what makes me think the second one is the correct version? Two small details: the first one is his Lucario; if we read his entry on the pokedex it says Lucario can see people’s aura, that means he knows if someone is manipulating him or not and who is trust worthy. Also if he has him since he was a Riolu, the pokedex entry literally says Riolu can read people’s emotions and also he loves good people but hates bad people, so he would have never accepted Volo, making it impossible for him to evolve. The other small detail is a photography hanging on the front of Dagero’s photo studio; if we take a look, there’s Volo and his Togepi happily posing on there; why would Volo take a photo with his pokemon if he didn’t love it?
I have read people saying it was just made to emulate Cynthia’s team, but I don’t think it’s the only reason. Why? Because Game Freak never does something randomly; not in pokemon. We see similar things happening with other villains appart from what I am saying: Cyrus has a crobat; I think the pokemon team tried to tell us: hey, this guy is not evil, he loves his pokemon! He just has a huge depression that makes him want to erase his feelings. And now look at Ghetsis; now he is really evil, he is probably the baddest character in all pokemon games… he has a Hydreigon who uses the move “frustration” (for those who don’t remember, frustration is a move which gets stronger the more the pokemon hates it's trainer). So it just makes no sense it wasn’t intentional with Volo. Some people also says the last team is not the same as the one he has during all the videogame, meaning the Togekiss he has is not the Togepi he’s always had and same with Garchomp and Gabite; for the same reason of game freak always doing things on purpose I also think this theory makes no sense. I mean, if they wanted us to think he uses another pokemon team, they wouldn’t have used the pre-evolutions of two pokemon Volo has on his final team. What would be the point of doing this after all?
He also tells us he wants to create a new world, but we don’t know how he imagines this new world. From the things he says I can imagine he just looked for a more fair and lovely world. What do you think?
Other details that make the character just excellent
There are some details I really appreciate of Volo as a character. For example, as I have been saying, his small contradictions on the things he says and does. It can be clearly seen at the end of the game: First he tells us his story ends when he loses to us in battle, giving us the spooky plate and looking kind of reasonable, but then when he sees our Celestical Flute turns into the Azure Flute, he acts with jealousy and says to us he totally refuses giving up. Then later professor Lavender tells us Volo encouraged him to finish his work with the pokedex though also telling him this would probably be the last time they ever met.
I think this is all excellently made and thought and shows clearly the kind of contradictions I was talking about. His behavior doesn’t follow a logic; instead, he is highly emotional. He can’t accept losing at first, that’s why he yells at giratina how pathetic he thinks they is. Then later he turns to us and acts in a more responsible way when he gives us the spooky plate, like admitting that, if he lost, it may be for some reason; he accepts it is just his destiny. Then he feels really hurt when he sees the Azure flute meaning we were chosen by Arceus, and that’s when he gets mad at us yelling what I said before. How he is feeling when he meets professor Lavender again can be discussed, but I think he was feeling very sad and depressed; we can see his good face telling the professor he makes a good work - and being interested as he always is with everything related to knowledge – and on the other hand we have what he said about “the last time we meet”; I think he really was contemplating suicide at the moment (that’s why I said before I had the head canon of him killing himself), I don’t know what to think about the reason, though: if he was lost because life lost sense to him, if he reconsidered all that happened and was deeply regretful for being about to destroy the world, maybe both? It can also be he just wanted to mean he was thinking about travelling to another region, but it makes no sense because Cynthia was born in Sinnoh and she is clearly his descendent. Maybe he wanted to travel through the space-time rift? It makes even less sense because without the spooky plate and Giratina, how does he open it again? And yet we still have the same problem: Cynthia was born somehow. But well, don’t forget she can also be descendent of some Volo’s sibling or cousin, or maybe Volo had sex with someone leaving them pregnant before leaving, we don’t know.
Another detail I love is how he gets crazier and more evident as the game advances, cause it also shows his highly emotional behavior. I think I am not the only one who remembers how he gets impatient while talking to Cogita about the plates or how he crazily laughs when he tells us about Giratina, right? Or how, the nearest we are to battle him, the more he appears everywhere. Some may not notice he is the bad guy, but anyways he is every-time more evident, caring every-time less about his ways, which could have made us highly suspect him and leave the plates mission (at least, if we were able to do it!)
So yeah that's all. Thanks if you read all of this looooooong text of mine. To be honest I wrote it some months ago and now that I am reading it again it is kinda interesting, I guess... Anyways I don't know how you have had the patience to get to the end of the post, my ADHD ass wouldn't let me even start.
Thanks again and see you in the next poooost!!! if you have any suggestion about characters or stories you want me to headcanon about send me a PM and I maybe write about it if I have the time and motivation
Love,
Sami Luu
