since you said you planned on rewriting your response to my ask about how you imagined what norman and rubys relationship was like pre rs/in general that tumblr tragically deleted this is me sending another ask if youre still interested in answering the question. No pressure tho x3 Thanks!
Aaa yeah for sure!! Sorry for being so late on the rewrite 😭 thank you for the ask! Pre salamence ruby very much idolized norman and wanted to be like him and I think even post salamence this was true for a while! I think Ruby’s aversion to battling is something that was built up gradually through his guilt and he only began to attach that to his father because he sees norman as the primary social force to be the person he hates. He sees his dad as someone incredibly strong and intimidating and so the prospect of someone like that directly opposing him becomes an ironic obstacle similar to what he would represent in the gym challenge.
A lot of my previous post was about how similar ruby and norman are in their self destructive tendencies and ruby getting his blessing to do contests from his father is crucial to him also deconstructing his complex around battling, because the person that symbolises who hes scared to become has allowed him not to be. And from that he can access battling in a healthier way ^^
I also think that Norman’s absence allowed Ruby to make him more intimidating in his mind, and turning his image of a man he majorly knew when he was 5 into a manifestation of his fear who can also crush phones with his bare hands. Ruby clearly still idolizes him a lot though
He values his training and his super special dexholder skill comes from it! There’s just a lot of nuance that his trauma doesn’t allow him to explore.
Both of them also approach problems in a similar martyr-ish way where they take responsibility for others and do their work alone even if it’s not the most efficient option while pushing their loved ones to hate them so it hurts less if they die. I stand by the idea that the reason ruby is Like That in oras is because this line of thinking isn’t disproven!! He’s on the receiving side this time but he idolizes his father so much that he’s like “wow my father so selfless I can’t believe I was so terrible to think he didn’t know what he was doing” and then goes on to do the same thing with the same pokemon.
I think that’s everything I wanted to mention and that I did mention in the original post? But a lot more succinct and less rambly. And less yelling. Sorry for taking so long and thank you for the reminder!!! I love ruby family it makes me sick