#hydrappleshipping

[chaoticreivingu]

Tl;dr Drayton is rigid and dishonest about himself and it fucks up his relationships with people

With how accusatory and intrusive the way Drayton talks with the player is I always felt like he harbored a little resentment towards us for changing Kieran. Not even by turning him into an edgelord but changing him in general.

He definitively has a problem with stagnation, so whenever change occurs he wants whatever change happened to be gone at all costs.

And it's probably because he was lowkey infatuated by a person that he'll never see again.

This is so sentimental, he's seriously pining for the old Kieran here.

In the japanese version he even tries to recompose himself only to fawn over Old Kieran again.

So ever since the start of the DLC he's been using us for his goals since we kinda "caused" this change to happen and also because we're literally the only ones who can fix this issue. But the way Drayton goes about it is frankly pretty naive?

Like he's so sure of his plan that he thought the "Ex-Champion" line would bring Kieran "back to his senses again". That he genuinely would respond to that burn with "You're right Duwurayton I'm not a champion let's be bfs besties again".

It's only when Kieran starts crying that he sees that not only did it not work but this whole scheme might've worsened their relationship in the long run.

No wonder he feels a bit bummed out at the end, in his mind all of this(using the player, getting the others to mistrust him, mocking Kieran) was for nothing. Kieran is no longer an edgelord but he still changed. No matter how hard he tries the exact version of the person that he so desperately wanted won't come back and he has to accept that.

And yet he still has to maintain the status quo aka his pretend "idgaf" attitude.

It's probably why in between the Ex-Champions he genuinely asks Kieran if he's been eating or if anything's wrong. Even if he's changed Drayton can't bring himself to hate him no matter how he's like.

So when Kieran asks why he keeps doing this he can't bring himself to talk about his true thoughts. So he masks with a cool one liner to maintain the Drayton Image.

Credit to Calem MrNazreenni for the playthrough screencaps.

[no-reference-georg]

Mans got more salt then the ocean

[rhythe]

Was reading flower symbolism for the gen 9 characters.

So Drayton is associated with unrequited love.

Kakitsubata means “noble”, “yearning”, and “happiness surely awaits”. The third meaning seems positive until you see the explanation behind it. A bouquet of Kakitsubata flowers is more of a consolation to one waiting on unreturned feelings than a promise of happiness.

“Noble” alludes to his family background. But the other two thirds are about one-sided feelings, as Tales of Ise references.

(I’m not writing a whole literature analysis though, please spare me. Opelucid gym has a zigzag bridge and that’s all I can say.)

I just think Drayton is down pretty bad for a specific someone.

Or maybe it’s a metaphor for his life in general, if you’d rather see it that way.

[sunshowerposts]

Okay, so since Kieran & Drayton don't seem to have a ship name yet and are somewhat of a rare pair, I am officially suggesting HydrappleShipping until further notice. The romantic connotations behind trading Applins aside, Kieran has one and Drayton gives you its evolution move, it makes sense.

[chaoticreivingu]

There's no way to sugarcoat this, Drayton and Kieran act like bitter exes that went through a really bad breakup and use the player to get back at each other, with Kieran wanting to move on and Drayton wanting to get back together with him(he really sucks at communication though).

Seriously though, Drayton and Kieran have a lot of paralells in canon that imply they at least are supposed to be complementary to each other. Examples of this include:

Their designs(Drayton has golden eyes, white on purple hair and a black jacket, Kieran has yellow eyes, black on purple hair and a white jacket)

Not having highlights on their eyes(temporarily in the case of Kieran)

Similar tastes in food

Wearing the same kind of tank top

Their hometowns either being similar or direct opposites to one another

Their ace Pokemon being next to each other in the Pokedex and allegedly meant to resemble Black City and White Forest respectively

Not only that, but they seem to have similar pasts as well, being part of a famous lineage in their hometown, then getting rejected by the one they admire most in favor of an extremely talented foreign prodigy who understands Pokemon's hearts better than they ever did.

This imo really seemed like Drayton was speaking from personal experience, to drive home the emotional understanding they could have. Maybe that's why he's been held back for 3 years? A mix of being burnt out, running away from his family and giving up on himself, submitting to being a slacker since he's already the black sheep anyway.

Bonus sketch of the epilogue Drayton/Kieran dynamic in a nutshell:

Credit to Calem MrNazreenni for the playthrough screencaps.

[hydrappleshipping]

Juliana

AKA what living in poverty most of her life makes her prioritize above all else.

[hydrappleshipping]

Juliana "Introvert trying to pass as an extrovert" Greer- Santos

Juliana is 14 2/3s when the story starts, and 15 when she begins her treasure hunt (born in February, Aquarius). Her hair and eye colors are based on the concept art, and her accent is Scottish.

Juliana FOUGHT to be able to wear skirts at Naranja/Uva and Clavell agreed only if she wore shorts and/or leggings underneath. She loves wearing dresses and skirts.

Juliana loves cooking, but sandwiches are unusually hard for her to make. She prefers making curry and stew, and Arven is in despair over her sheer lack of sandwich-making skills.

Juliana is trans, and her birthname was Florian. She went to Blueberry Academy but eventually dropped out and transferred to Naranja/Uva. When she meets Carmine and Kieran, it takes a while for them to realize they're the same person, especially since Juliana tried to tone down her accent in Blueberry before embracing it in Naranja/Uva

Juliana grew up in the Crown Tundra during the time where it's citizens were protesting Galar wanting it to join the region. It got so bad, her parents split up due to differing opinions (dad wanted Crown Tundra to join Galar, mom didn't).

Juliana's mom, Ailis Greer, eventually met a Paldean businesswoman named Calle Santos and the two hit it off, eventually marrying and moving to the Paldea region.

Juliana desperately wants to break out of her shell and get her groove back (so to speak) after the events in her home and Blueberry. She tries to emulate Nemona and be more out-going, even when it goes against her nature. However, in more serious situations, she tends to freeze up due to over-thinking and goes with the flow more often than not.

Juliana is very frugal, due to the divorce and her skill not being enough to get BP at Blueberry. So even when she gets more money, Juliana will most likely hoard it and will often spend hours searching for things to sell. (This is how she comes to get Gholdengo on her team XD)

Juliana's starter is Sprigatitto mainly due to her believing a cat Pokemon would be low maintenance to take care of.

[miki-13]

I've created a sideblog!

Specifically for my new faovirte Pokemon Pairing:

Hydrappleshipping

AKA

Arven x Juliana/MC x Kieran!

Check it out here- (97) Hydrappleshipping on Tumblr