this weird essay on why I thought Whi-two was disappointing:
I’ve been thinking for a long time why Whi-two fell short for me. Of course, part of the reason why is her lack of battling (but that is purely subjective). But, what’s the real reason? Whi feels like a passive protagonist to me.
IMO, Whi-two simply isn’t shown her strongest character trait enough: her compassion towards Pokémon and against controlling them. When we are shown when she’s at the warehouse, she’s shown feeding the Pokémon, but we never get to see the positive impact she had on the Pokémon except for Foongi. When Whi tells Lack not to use his Genesect because it would discharge thus hurting it, it was something that was already said out loud. When she tells him not to use Keldeo, they were in the ruins where the Pokémon can communicate their thoughts, where Keldeo displayed discomfort. Neither of these moments show a deeper understanding of Pokémon compared to other dexholders. She just doesn’t like asking Pokémon to do things for her because she thinks it’s controlling. Her character feels bland because she isn’t shown doing all that much, but we’re just told that she does.
Whi also seems to be a shadow of N. N who goes through a similar arc of relearning what Team Plasma truly does, and she even idolizes him to a weird degree. But her going with N to free the Pokémon never felt earned to me. I think the issue with Whi is that she does a lot of thinking, but there’s not enough demonstration. She talks and talks and talks, but in a story where Pokémon battling or bonds play such a huge role, Whi falls flat because her character is written in a way she can’t do much.
I feel the solution to this is friendship evolutions. Imagine: Whi who could understand and connect with these Pokémon on such a deep level, that even if she is not their trainer, they still evolve through friendship. As opposed to Ghetsis who runs frustration on his hydreigon, someone who truly makes even his own Pokémon hate him. Something simple, like have more Pokémon follow her.
In her dream when White asked her, she said that she wanted a world where Pokémon can live as they please without getting hurt, and if they choose to, stay alongside humans. I feel like the main catalyst for her to reach this conclusion is her conversation with the sacred swords. But I wish there was more in the manga that showed her realizing the benefit of Pokémon living besides humans, instead of her just learning from and agreeing with the swords.
When I think of solutions to fix what I think is wrong with her character, all I can think of is an arc too similar to N’s. Because Whi is like a shadow to N, she held the same ideals, went through the same conflict of rethinking what Team Plasma truly did through liberation (and how that negatively affected people), and reached a similar conclusion to his. Whi’s arc is N’s arc with a different person and personality, but while N’s arc is fully realized, Whi’s is not.
Anyway that’s the take, character analysis/slander. Whatever you call it. Take it how you will, if you disagree, disagree the hell out of me. This is just how I contextualized why I didn’t think Whi was as good as other dexholders.
