I'm back, someone on discord asked a really good question (hi Jessica!) and I felt into a rabbit hole
Why do Augustine Sycamore have two names?
Which I would like to add: Why is his name Augustine and not Augustin? (Yes it's important)
By the way, I'm not as much as a fan of XY that I am of ORAS for example, it's just a silly theory that I wanted to share, I'm just a guy with too much time and a weird obsession with pokemon
So let's get started
My first theory was that Augustine Sycamore had two names because he has two jobs as a character : his job as a professor: Sycamore , to follow all the professors that have trees as names, and Augustine: for whatever reasons
Which is true, but that's where the other question comes in, WHY Augustine? Why just him?! Pokemon usually don't do that THAT much (the only other example I have is N harmonia, to show he is the son of Ghetsis because it's important to the story and the same for Green oak) names are tools, but sycamore isn't related to anyone, dosent he?
Augustine of Hippo (Saint Augustus) and his relationship with Pokémon X Y
From here, I will refer Sycamore as Augustine, and Augustine of Hippo as Augustus, because the Augustine part of Augustine is way more important than the Sycamore part, and Augustus is his original name
Augustus is one of the biggest pillar in Christian theology, especially in Antiquity, he is still considered a "Doctor of the church" and still NOW his work are studied and influence Christian theology and philosophy, the guy is born in 354 btw
So? Why him and not, I don't know, Augustine Albert? Or Augustine Baie? I can't explain it now (I KNOW the answer but it's easier for the chronology that I will do it later, now just imagine Augustine IS a parallèle of Augustus)
So let's play a little game
Let's play "looking at XY's history through a Augustinian philosophy" would it make it sense?
(every reference to Augustus's philosophy will be in italic so it's easier)
1.AZ
We will start a long, long time ago, pokemon and humains worked together, a leader was named, AZ, this leader brought goods and with a technology no one really understands to unite Kalos, he have a brother that was greedy and wanted Kalos from him, yadi yadi yada, big war, flowette die, AZ use his knowledge to make a machine and make her revive, but still pissed they killed his flowette, he think exterminating both teams will make the war end, do it, and flowette don't want to have any of it and fly away
The pre-war can be a clear allegory of the city of god and Augustinian Unity, even the first words we have about it is a reference "the mountains will never know one another, but people can encounter other people, and people and Pokémon mix together" in "The City of God" by Augustus, he evoke a profound spiritual unity where righteous souls transcend physical barriers to unite to god, that's the Augustin Unity, the montain do not touch, but pokemon and humain mix together like Augustus said "two souls become one in the eyes of god" the harmony that pokemon and human shared is beyoun physical, it's spiritual, and with this harmony, they created many things
This is a perfect exemple of a city of god, there is two type of city, the city of god and the city of man, the city of god is a concept where harmony and the love for "god" prone, the city of man is a concept where love of self prone, even to the contempt of "god", and a desire for domination and earthly peace
After that, AZ came, "a leader came along the humans", and he brought a new kind of technology, which seem good, but "created a gap between have and have nots" which can be seen as an illusory peace, and the start of falling into the city of man, here the love of "god" (which we can speculate to be harmony and peace, since pokemon aren't Christian) is broken, and here I will bring another of Augustus's concept: the frui and uti
The uti is the use of something for an objective, and the frui is that said objective, like the ultimate objective
For example : I run every day to keep my body healthy, here, running everyday is the uti, and keeping my body healthy is the frui
For Augustus, the frui of everything MUST be god, always, for example, you sleep early so you can study early so you can have a good job so you'll have time for god, whatever you will do, and the END it must be to get closer to god, that's how you access eternal peace
When you get something else as god to be your frui, it become a "fake god", and it cause a deep moral disorder and chaos? But what chaos exactly?
In this situation is war, because they pushed AZ as a new king which slowly made the "goods" the new frui and not "god" (peace and harmony) and his younger brother, jealous, who is a perfect representation of the city of man, greedy, wanted Kalos and the goods for himself
And that's how the war started, and we are going to introduce another concept: the bellum iustum, it's the idea of a "good" war, a war that is acceptable in the eyes of god, it have 3 criteria : it has to be done by a legitimate authority, to right and injustice and for right reasons, meaning that creating the ultimate weapon to revive floette is a bellum iustum, AZ is a king, authority, they forced Floette to go to war, and he did this to revive her, but then, still spiteful, he destroyed everyone in the war
That also mean one other thing: the ultimate weapon was always, well, a weapon, maybe it's stupid, but something that should had gave life would not be able to mass kill only if it was designed to kill in the first place, by "he turned the machine into the ultimate weapon" I don't see it as reconstruct a weapon that give life to a death machine, I see a man full of rage just blasting it all
Deep down, he knew it will end like that, since the begining of the creation of that damn machine
Anyway, he destroy everything and floette, mad and in pain that his friend did all of that, run away
We have a lot to discuss, floette can be a lot of things, she is a fake god, AZ revived her (a sin in multiple religion and the power only god must have, here Xerneas) and commit Superbia
Superbia is a super important concept, it's the désire to rise above one's condition, by taking oneself for god or by defying the devine order
It's the biggest sin in Augustus's eyes, the original and core of every other sin
There is a ton of type and nuances of Superbia, but let's stay at that for now
AZ commited the sin of Superbia, by putting Floette above harmony and order, even if it's an injustice, he shouldn't have perturbate the order, and in the process lost his frui,
That's his punishment, an Augustinian Earthly Purgatory, his memory as judgment and the grace (here represented as Floette) abandoning him
He wanted eternity for Floette, now he have the eternity without him
I think AZ and his brother are an allegory of Caine and Abel,
AZ is Caine, and his brother abel
Yes, his younger brother was a greedy man,but he repented himself by burying the ultimate weapon, from the city of man to the city of god
AZ is the opposite, he got soiled, his attention where pure at first, but with hatred he commited Superbia, and when he gave his present to god (here the life for Floette) they abandoned him, and punished him to wander on earth for eternity, and the memory of Thier sin as a punishment (exactly like AZ)
Earth is his purgatory, just like his hanted memory, his eternity is a divine curse
2.Lysandre
let me introduce y'all to another one of Augustus's idea: beauty
There is two type of beauty : the sensible and spiritual beauty
The sensible beauty is the beauty you can touch, you can hear, see, taste and smell
Flowers, music, everything that your senses can see
The spiritual beauty is the beauty of the soul, the beauty that get you closer to god
The sensible beauty change, it's one of its core characteristics, Augustus say that the changing characteristic of sensible beauty make us get closer to the true beauty: the spiritual one, and we shouldn't get attached
Lysandre don't know the difference between spiritual and sensible beauty, for him what is important is sensible beauty, an eternal sensible beauty, that's why he worship Floette, Floette is the embodiment of the unnatural, eternal beauty
Floette is a pristine white colour, just like grec gods, or pagan statues
She had a black flower, unnatural colour, for us and for other floettes
Flowers are also a perfect exemple of sensible beauty, Augustus take them as an exemple of sensible beauty himself
Floettes are also known for dancing, which is also a pagan symbol
Floette is a symbol of an ungodly, unatual sensible beauty, and exactly what Lysandre seek for
If I had to chose, I would say that AZ's Floette is a reference of the aphrodite of Milo, but that is just speculation, what I am sure is that pagan cultures is heavily despited by Augustus, for him, creating his own god and worshiping only the sensible beauty of the fake gods is a pure exemple of Superbia
But Lysandre dosent have an eternal Floette, so he try to recreate one ....
2-5 Dianthéa
"you've may be the most beautiful, but it's not all there is to life, everything always change, I wanna live in the change too"
"isn't your duty to be ever beautiful? Everything beautiful should stay that way forever"
Dianthéa(Dianthus) is the flower of god, literally, it's the mix of Dio (god) and anthos (Flower)
Dianthus, in Christian religion, is a symbol of eternal beauty, the spiritual beauty, the Dianthus is the beauty of god that is shown through it, it also symbolise the flesh of the christ and gob becoming man
Dianthéa is, in a way, Jesus christ, specifically the godly part of jesus Christ
Dianthéa represent both beauty, the sensible and spiritual one, she is a beautiful woman, an actrice, but she accept change, she love the other, she respect and appreciate life, she is the divine beauty, she represents grace too, she is wearing an all white costume, she represents, by her clothes, the light of god shining through us (Confession of Augustus)
Dianthéa is Lysandre's Floette, his fake god, but Lysandre only see her for her sensible beauty, as AZ saw Floette for his spiritual one, Lysandre don't give attention to the spiritual beauty, he just want to capture an unatural eternal beauty, even if he have to make one, AZ's frui is Floette, Lysandre's frui is Dianthéa's sensible beauty
That's why he "like" pokemon so much, they evolve, not age, we never saw an old floette, he like them because they do not show sign of aging sensible beauty, Lysandre never liked Pokémon for Thier soul, he never talk about them without talking about Thier beauty, he never truly loved them, that's why he was willing to let them die
Lysandre is the perfect representation of Pagan Atheism and the Amor Sui Elitism
He put the sensible beauty as a fake god, a fruit, and love himself more than god
That's why he is the exact definition of the ultimate Superbia, that's why he is inspired by Louis XIV, both of them are the réflexion of the ultimate Superbia by Augustus, the luciferina, Regia, the intellectual Superbia and a HIPOCRITE
we are talking about the man who hated humains for Thier proud nature and called them ugly for it! This man is the embodiment of SUPERBIA!
spiritual hypocrite...
At this point it's obvious, Lysandre is a representation of Pagan culture, "Roman pagan love the beauty of Thier status more than loving the god creator of all beauty" as Augustus said, he love it so much he started hating on "God", harmony and peace, that's why it's Zygarde that kicked his ass, it's because only the divine natural order that can resolve his Pagan ideology, just like christianisme that eraced Pagan religions on the 4th century
That's why a lot of people didn't understood Lysandre's motives, he is a mix of Pagan ideology an Royal Superbia, two ideas that have one thing in common "I am god"
He got his ass kicked by Christianity
3- The end
I like to think that the scene when AZ and floette Reunite is a metaphor, AZ didn't accept fully the concept of death, but he accepted his flaws, the city of man change to the city of god, Floette come back, her grace back, she forgive him, like god always do
I like to think the petals that are falling from the sky are sensible beauty, and represent divine tears of joy, since the order is restaured, since AZ get rid of his Superbia and we stopped the city of man in Kalos, he can have grace
But, spoiler AZ: since Floette forget him, his earthly purgatory is over...he, an all all of us had to accept the natural order of things
Thats why Augustine has two names, all of this would not had been possible if Game freak would not had hint at us with his name, Augustus was a former sinner, like Augustine that helped Lysandre before stoping when he knew what Lysandre was all about, the meta reading was important enough for them to literally add the name of the guy in a character
Thank you all for reading this, it's just a silly theory about a subject I found, I'm sorry if there is some grammar errors, English isnt my first language
Bye!
