#vex liveblogs

[nyaagolor]

Hi remember a while ago when I promised I would liveblog some more insane media? Well. it's time to block #vex liveblogs if you haven't already because my bitchass is heading to Himanizawa

[incorrect-pokespe-quotes]

Hey fellas is it gay to be the only one to call your best friend by a cute nickname? 

Is it gay to save your best friend from peril in a parallel to the only canon couple in the series? 

Is it gay to die in your best friend’s arms? 

Fellas??

[nyaagolor]

SWSH LIVEBLOG PART 2 GYMS 1-3

As I finished writing this and rereading it to check for spelling errors I realized that this is slightly less of a liveblog and a bit more of an unedited video essay script. Or just a weird longform essay. It would have made more sense to actually edit this into a coherent review, but that requires more effort than i’m willing to put into this. Anyway, enjoy! 

Something that kinda surprises me about SwSh is just how long you have to go before getting to the first gym. Most playthroughs I’ve seen have about 4-5 hours of playtime in before they set foot in the stadium, and even the route from Motostoke from Turffield encompasses three separate routes and three separate impromptu pokemon centers. While it does give the impression that Turffield is rural and that the gym challenge is going to require seeing All of Galar, it gets to feel a bit like a slog by the time you finally drag yourself to the stadium (which for some reason the NPCs actually point out? So it was intentional at least). 

Luckily, the actual routes are pretty colorful, with the mines and route 4 having some really nice textures and colors to keep things fresh. I admittedly don’t have too much to say about anything in this section, however: you fight team yell, catch, and train, all three of which don’t have anything interesting to talk about and almost zero plot relevance. As fun as the designs for Team Yell are, they might be the epitome of the character problem I have with this game: they have no personality, almost no purpose, and only really serve to fill up screentime which could be far better used to bolster other characters. These poor pink dudes feel exclusively like they’re here to check the “evil team” box and despite attempting to be both a threat and sympathetic, succeed in doing neither. This is the first and likely last time I’m even going to talk about them, because their presence in the story is to pad out some timing with battles and act as roadblocks, neither of which feel interesting enough to warrant further discussion. 

When you do get to Turffield though, things start to get a little more fun. This section of the game feels pretty streamlined, with a good introduction to your rivals and the gym challenge before the rest of the plot kicks in at Hammerlocke. It works pretty well, and does a great job at solidifying the gym challenge and introducing some interesting characters and themes! 

When we first get into Turffield we get a SwSh patented plot exposition dump from Sonia (the first of many) which is a particular element of this story I really don’t care for. The wolf plot, much like Team Yell, feels kinda phoned in for me, and I don’t think that the way the plot is presented does it any favors. The game never lets you find anything about the wolves, you’re just led to it, have it dumped on you by some character, and then left to stare at it. Not only that, but all this random information doesn’t connect with what you as the player are doing until the game is mostly over. I don’t have any particular ideas as to how the wolves story might be altered to better gel with the gym challenge, but I definitely think allowing the player to find and investigate the setpieces on their own would have been a vast improvement at least in presentation. 

But gripes aside, we finally get to tackle the actual gym and interact with Milo, which is where I think this game really starts to shine. Little bits of dialogue from NPCs (gym trainers and townsfolk) as well as from Milo himself really start to show exactly how the gym challenge affects both the leaders and the people who live in towns with stadiums, and that’s something I feel is especially unique to Galar. This game is the first one where I feel like the gym challenge actually has an effect on the landscape around it, and feels naturally integrated into the lives of people. Before, gyms were just there in existing towns, and now it feels like the towns revolve around the gyms and the challenge in a way that feels so fresh. In Turffield specifically, the houses and fields are quite literally in a ring around the stadium, positioning it as the most prominent landmark in the area (another example of really stellar landscape design. These towns look SO good). 

A particular line that stood out to me in the Turffield gym was “Milo practically raised everyone here”, which is actually repeated by multiple NPCs and a gym trainer. Coupled with the overall young ages of all the gym trainers, feels like it’s hinting at some super interesting dynamics. This is just me speculating, but it feels to me like Milo is very strategically involving himself in the League for the purpose of tourism dollars and bolstering the town’s economy. We know Turffield is a farming town and likely has a relatively seasonal economy, that Milo always loses to Nessa possibly on purpose during gym investigations, and that the first gym always has the most challengers. All this combined with the feel of the town itself leads me to believe that Milo intentionally makes himself the first gym leader in order to get as many challengers into Turffield as possible, which opens up job opportunities for townsfolk during the off-season (assuming that the harvest season and gym challenge don’t overlap, which is impossible to know because no one talks about it), and brings more people (and thus League money) into the town. It also gives the impression that running the gym is a herculean effort that involves and likely requires a good portion of the town to meet the overwhelming demand of so many trainers. Having the first gym be in a small town whose entire identity is integrated with and even eclipsed by the giant stadium in the middle serves as environmental storytelling and shows us from the get-go exactly how vital the gym challenge is to this region. 

Having Nessa and Hulbery be the next gym you challenge also feels like a great choice. Having immediately contrasting towns, leaders, and approaches to the challenge gives the player a pretty good grasp of the spectrum of identities, approaches, and attitudes that make up the gym challenge, and I think that kind of environmental storytelling is what makes the gym challenge so good. Most of the dialogue by NPCs around Hulbery has to do with the market, the seafood, and what the town itself is known for outside of the gym challenge. Even visually, the gym is placed in the back of the town, while the major walkways encircle the docks. Thus, the gym stadium is both always visible and always in the background, visually representing how in contrast to Turffield’s solidification of its identity around the gym challenge, Hulbery simply integrated the gym challenge into an already successful town economy. 

We even see this with Nessa herself– she is iirc the only gym leader in the League who has another job, which is implied to even be her primary job. She represents the other side of the spectrum of leaders, someone who has structured the gym challenge around herself rather than the other way around, and that introduces us to some unique conflict between her and Rose, which also gives us an early example of the flaws of the gym challenge as a system. The gym challenge is hyped up from the very start, and having Milo (who seems to be thriving within its constraints) only bolsters that opinion, so then following him with another character and town with a contrasting approach introduces our first thread of conflict within the system and also shows the range of people and personalities that the gym challenge encompasses. While covered more in the side material than the game itself, Nessa’s tension with Rose as he encourages her to focus more on the gym challenge or quit starts to show a glimpse of how the gym system fails particular types or groups of people. It’s here we see our first taste of how the gym challenge’s grand scale leads to a level of inflexibility that actually puts a decent amount of stress on both its challengers and the people who work within it, and I think that’s neat! It’s a very small way to show conflict within the system that’s juxtaposed by the strengths shown before, and I think that’s a great thematic way to introduce the gyms :) 

Also, the character animations throughout the gyms are great. I love Nessa’s little sneer; she’s ultimately quite kind but can look so judgmental and I love that for her. 

After these two thematically opposed gyms, we have a little interlude in the form of Bede, who we see talking with Rose in Hulbury and later standing around in the mine looking for a fight. Bede is a character I like and whose story I want to think is well-written, but gamefreak decided it should not be. And for me, the issue isn’t necessarily with Bede himself– he’s a pretty stock Mean Dude With Tragic Story and highlights a lot of the issues with the gym challenge (which I’ll expand on in the gyms 4-6 post) but the actual way his story is delivered is so. Yikes. The biggest issue I have with it is that the protagonist is a complete nonentity. His entire plot is told through cutscenes that don’t involve the protagonist and a few battles, none of which have any tangible effect on his character or the action of others towards him. You can remove the protagonist completely from his story and literally nothing changes, which is a shame because you’re supposed to be his rival. While Bede already has an interesting enough premise and a fun enough backstory, design, and personality to make him work, altering his story to be influenced in any capacity by the player would help him feel more connected to the actual game and work as a proper “rival”. As it stands he’s just an asshole. Personally i just wish a little more thought had been put into how to integrate the main beats of his story into the overarching plot to connect him to the other rivals and/or gym challenge and/or the protagonist. Just. Something. His theme is a banger tho!

At the end of the mine, we run into Team Yell as an excuse to talk to Kabu. While I think just having him around training would have worked just as well, I do appreciate that they tried to introduce you to all the leaders before you actually challenge them in the gym. It happened with Milo and Nessa, and happens again with Kabu to give you a sense of the personality behind the figurehead that is ultimately running the gym. The slight contrasts between these off-work and on-stage personalities of the gym leaders also serves to highlight the performative role that the gym leaders play, which imo is a great way to show, not tell, a bit more about the culture of the gyms in a relatively natural way. Nice! 

I don’t think that Motostoke has the same thematic visuals as Turffield and Hulbury, but as the resident Big City of the game, I think it fills its role quite well. The city itself is impressive looking and has a great visual style with the red rust, connections to steam and coal that foreshadow the energy crisis, and uh. That’s. It. ironically though, this whole “broad but sweeping connections” thing actually makes Kabu a great gym leader to represent the city because he, like the town, doesn’t have much going on. Unlike the other two gym leaders, no one in Motostoke really talks about him, which gels quite nicely with his status as a native Hoennian. He doesn’t really have a connection to galar itself or its people beyond the gym, and likewise, his personality doesn’t really extend much past training and cheesy dialogue. His detachment from the city thematically kind of works in this case. Also makes me wonder if Hoenn wasn’t enough of a challenge for him, so he came to Galar to focus solely on battling. 

In terms of his actual personality, I don’t really have anything to say about Kabu. he’s a silly old man and he has a really cool bug and the first instance of gigantamax and. That’s it, really. You defeat him, he talks about training and true strength and all the rest of the cheesy dialogue you come to expect from a pokemon game, you get a shiny badge, and you leave. Pretty open and shut, and something that doesn’t really give me a ton to talk about. His relationship with the gym challenge itself doesn’t really interest me as much as the two before him, since he seems to enjoy it and do well in it for purely individualistic reasons, but in terms of headcanons I do like to imagine that he serves as a kind of mentor to the other two leaders in their trio. He seems like a dude who would listen to their problems. All around good chap and uh, kind of a dilf. Probably. 

The last scene in this chunk of story is the first three leaders giving a little cheer to send off Hop and the protagonist, which by their own admission is something they do for every challenger who makes it that far. I find this scene especially interesting because it’s pretty heavily implied it’s outside of their typical job description: this is something they’re choosing to do despite being a pretty respectable commitment. These little moments are something that I think brings the world to life a bit more, showing not only that these characters know each other and have relationships we don’t get to see on screen, but also gives some juicy info about the league.

Due to how many people mention it, it seems relatively common knowledge that many people don’t make it past the third gym. But despite this, the only reward officially given by the gym challenge itself for making it that far is the satisfaction of moving forward. It’s the gym leaders themselves who congratulate you, showing again how the relatively blase gym system is supported by the kindness of individual adults. This is headcanon-territory, but I do feel like these three feel the most connected to the challengers themselves: they see far more than any of the others, and are likely more intimately familiar with the struggles and triumphs the individual challengers go through. It’s this unique perspective that I think the first three bring to the league, and really colors their interactions with both the challengers and league staff. I think these three make it a point to connect personally with the challengers and give them a send-off because they understand to a greater degree than their colleagues the emotional toll the gym challenge actually has. And imo that works as a pretty good way to break up the story, acting as a little signifier that things are getting a bit more serious now. 

Part of the reason I decided to have this chunk of the liveblog be gyms 1-3 specifically is because of how the entire thing feels like a tiny story arc. The gym leaders all know each other and seemingly have at least a bit of a relation to each other’s gyms and towns, so the first three gyms have a level of seamlessness in the story that I think is honestly quite nice. Makes the world feel lived in and all. Also? It’s cute, and breaks up the pacing in a way I really like. Midstory checkpoint kinda vibe. 

Other Notes: 

I don’t think SwSh looks bad, and I think 90% of the visual design complaints are fucking dumb, but man the weird void you fight in for indoor battles is wack as hell. It genuinely feels like a spiced up version of a testing space for alpha builds. Shit looks atrocious and

That being said the outdoor battle BGs? With the town or major landmarks in the background? That shit was sexy as hell Paldea absolutely took the L on that one. When you do actually get a battle arena in this game it’s absolutely fire, and I think really takes advantage of the stellar town design. These buildings??? Mwah. 

The gym challenges are very funny and done in a way that feels very tied to the personality of the gym leader or the identity of the town. They’re cute! They’re fun!!

Kabu and other NPCs around Motostoke mention how almost all trainers don’t make it past the third gym, which is the first major hurdle in the gym challenge. The chant and conversations make it abundantly clear that by defeating Kabu, you have done something most trainers never do. Ironically, a similar piece of dialogue shows up in SV, where Nemona talks about where trainers start really thinning out: it’s gym 6. Even though it’s a cross generational piece of dialogue, it goes to show how intense the galar gym challenge is. And that’s pretty cool!!

Gonna add this into the previous post too, but these game screenshots aren't mine! I don't have a capture card, so I'm using BeardBear's full walkthrough on youtube for screenshots. No commentary walkthroughs are the backbone of society and I appreciate your efforts immensely

EDIT: Apparently you fight Marnie in the Inn before your battle with Kabu. It left so little of an impression on me that I literally forgot it happened and only noticed when going back through a video playthrough to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I think this says more about my thoughts on Marnie’s plot than anything else I can type out

[nyaagolor]

SWSH LIVEBLOG PART 1: INTRO

When most people play through every game in a series, they start with the first entry and play in order all the way up until the most recent. For this particular project, however, I’m choosing to work backwards, both because SV was the unofficial and accidental start of this project, but also because actually getting a physical copy of the game and trading is going to be exponentially more difficult the farther back I go. While I do plan on using a few hacks to make version exclusives catchable and trade-evos have an alternate pathway when necessary, I figured starting with a game that already has pretty robust online support would be a good idea. Also, SwSh has been so embroiled in web discourse and discussion that tackling it after people have moved onto SV felt like the blank slate I wanted to tackle this game with, especially since this is the game that convinced me to get a Switch in the first place! And with all that intro out of the way– liveblog starts under the cut :D 

Something I have always given SwSh a lot of credit for is the immediate and tight explanation of its themes and world, which I think the opening cutscene captures incredibly well. The world of Galar feels corporate, and starting SwSh with the equivalent of a sporting match commercial is some genuinely great exposition. From the first 30 seconds of gameplay, I have a clear understanding of the culture and attitude of the region entirely from visuals, both in what they show and how they show it. The very first shot is of a logo, then the crowd, and then finally Rose, shot from far away and above to show the sheer scale of the battle court. The entire cutscene, while using similar dialogue to other intros, has a drastically different feel because of the spectacle and cinematography. Not only that, but this is the first game I remember in which the opening cutscene isn’t referring to the player directly. From the onset, you’re shown what battling is, how important it is to the region, and immediately get a sense that this gym challenge is far bigger than the protagonist or player. Personally, I think this decision to take the expository spiel of the professors and lean into its corny and commercial sounding dialogue to turn it into an in-universe commercial is a great way to introduce newcomers to the idea of the pokemon world while also delivering a lot of regional worldbuilding at the same time. This is a concept I’ll harp on over and over, but SwSh really shines in its presentation, showing via little pieces of dialogue and framing exactly what’s going on behind the scenes of this massive gym economy and making Galar feel far bigger than the scope of the protagonist’s journey. 

Side note: Coming to this game after SV made me realize how glossy it is. Everything has this very smoothed out and shiny feel to it, almost like it’s made of plastic. I kinda get the feel of like. Action figures? Which ironically fits in with the overall sports / commercialism feel of the region. Neat!

Shoutout to the art direction of James Turner for making this game feel so unique. Something I noticed about Turner’s style is his focus on the pop culture elements of different regions, and I think choosing to make him art director for this particular game is an especially good choice by the company, because he really does a fantastic job at coalescing the themes of the world and the designs into a unified whole. It feels incredibly fresh and incredibly distinct within the universe of pokemon, and has a clear and recognizable identity. Also he’s British so that counts for something.

Something I noticed about the more recent games, especially the Switch titles, is that they seem dedicated to making the game introductions longer and longer. While this isn’t terrible, as it feels more naturalist, they do tend to drag a bit. As such I don’t really have anything to say about this section of the game as a whole except for a few myriad points: 

The whole Slumbering Weald scene was kinda. Strange. I can understand why they shied away from having you enter before you got your first pokemon, as it would feel a bit like a DPPt rehash, but I still think the decision to make you go to Wedgehurst and back like three times before the story even starts was a bit odd. Not only that, but the introduction of the wolves felt like a poorly executed way to keep the legendaries from being end-of-game prizes. We do see them towards the beginning of the game, but then we put a pin in that convo and don’t talk about them until 45 gameplay hours later. While not too egregious, the awkward integration into the story is a pretty consistent gripe I have with quite a few story beats (which we will get to later)

Magnolia is a complete nonentity of a character and I really think her and Sonia needed some serious rehashing. You get the pokedex, find out that Magnola has some history with Dynamax and therefore Rose, and then she fucks off for the rest of the game. One of this game’s other major story problems imo is the sheer amount of characters, since due to time constraints a solid half of them do absolutely nothing. I’ll talk about this more when the story kicks off but this cast is really bloated and needed a bit of reshaping to be coherent

As much as I think the intro drags, I will concede that it sets up the gym plot quite nicely. The actual background details and in-universe justification for why things happen the way they do is quite solid, and the ceremony, endorsements, registration and uniform switching paints a really fun picture of the gym economy within Galar. To me, it’s these details in combination with the visual spectacle that really sell the gyms as a sporting event, and really nail the systems by which the gym circuit operates. Much like Alola and Paldea, I think Galar has a really clear direction with its gyms and culture that just Works and serves to bolster its story

If it wasn’t obvious already, I think the gym circuit is the highlight of this game– it makes the world feel lived in, it provides an interesting framework in which the characters operate, it drives the plot, it gives clear direction and motivation to many characters including the player, yadda yadda. I’ll talk about the wolves later when they get more relevant (bc I sure as hell have a lot to say) but I think the intro doing so much to set up the gym challenge really gives a taste for the feel (and focus) of what’s to come. 

(This was going to be the point where I talked about Leon and Hop, and then I realized I would literally go over the tumblr character limit if I tried to include it in this post, so I’m just gonna let them have their own lil analysis post. Anyway.) 

The intro to this game highlights what I feel is a pretty consistent theme throughout the game: the gym challenge is the foundation of the plot, and everything else feels laid directly on top of it. Your goal is to be champion, your journey is the gym challenge, and everything else feels somewhat secondary, like it developed separately and then added at the end in ways that would supplement but not distract from the Main Thing You’re Doing. It’s for this reason I feel like the plots of the wolves, Marnie, and Bede don’t stick their landings– they’re not particularly well integrated into the gym challenge in the way that Hop’s story is, and as such feel kind of awkward and weirdly timed. Even their introductions into the story feel somewhat lackluster: Bede is a jerk for no reason, and Marnie is. There. You get a few lines to establish their personality, maybe a battle to ensure the first few hours of this game aren’t purely cutscenes, and then they leave. Especially in this intro, these two rivals feel more like they’re having their own adventure you’re awkwardly walking into rather than a plot that directly involves you. To each their own– I personally find stories that exist outside the player to be insanely interesting, but these two fail to deliver on that front for reasons that become more obvious later in the game. 

Other Notes: 

When Leon teaches you to catch a pokemon, he doesn’t weaken it first, nor does he mention you should. The juxtaposition between his reputation as league champion in contrast to his lack of knowledge about seemingly basic subjects is kinda fascinating to me? They really hammer in how strange he is and bring up some super interesting complications to his character due to his status as a grown-up child celebrity. This is never expanded on but it’s fun either way

Leon’s cape being covered in sponsor logos and him overall having the driest fit imaginable is one of my favorite pieces of visual storytelling this game has. I’ll talk about it more in my Leon and Hop post, but Leon’s status as a gym challenge figurehead is absolutely fucking fascinating

The Galar pokemon have some of the cutest battle animations I’ve ever seen. Nickit wipes the ground with its tail, Yamper’s fur spikes when it’s angry and it hops back to you after an attack, Wooloo has a stumbling bounce backwards to right itself after a rolling tackle. People were so distracted by the tree that they ignored how much character got put into the designs based on how they move and I’m forever gonna be mad about it

The Wild Area sure does exist. 

Overall, I think the intro serves as a microcosm to the entire game: The gym challenge setup and worldbuilding is great, the visual design is great, Hop is great, and everything else sure does exist. See yall next time! Next post will cover gyms 1-3 (with a side post about Leon and Hop) :)

[incorrect-pokespe-quotes]

Let’s Talk About Norman

I’m going to start off by telling you all something you probably already know: Norman is abusive. I try not to use super strong language on this blog because calling someone abusive / toxic is a pretty big deal, but Norman is an abuser, full stop. Aside from the obvious physical violence though, there’s a lot of emotional trauma he causes Ruby through his actions— this post is mostly going to be talking about Norman’s emotional abuse and how it affects Ruby’s psyche and actions throughout the arc instead of just “oh he punched his son down some stairs” because I think it goes way deeper than that. With that out of the way, the rest of the post is below the cut!

PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

I can’t talk about Ruby and Norman without mentioning this— it’s the most clear cut evidence of his abuse on-panel. He punches his son down the stairs, engages in a high stakes fight with him, and puts him in mortal danger (which Ruby has to save himself from). What I’m concerned with isn’t the actual incidence of violence itself, but rather the emotional baggage that comes with it.

The interesting thing about the Big Fight scene to me is that Norman instigates the conflict. Norman lures Ruby into a “dark and scary building” in the rain and away from others, appears behind him, threatens him, and throws him against a wall. The only thing Ruby had done in that moment is ask his dad how / why he had found him— Norman was the instigator of violence. It is Ruby’s reaction to this immediately violent start that segues into the next Big Thing about their relationship.

ENVIRONMENT OF FEAR

It is obvious from the minute Norman appears on panel that he is intimidating. Multiple characters throughout the arc mention that they are scared of / intimidated by him, but none are more obvious than Ruby. In fact until we reach the scene at the Weather Institute, Norman hasn’t been shown in a positive light at all from Ruby’s perspective. Ruby continuously mentions fear about his father: he imagines his father grabbing him, looking angrily at him, and generally seems to be afraid of him. Ruby expresses worry and concern about the consequences of his father’s anger— and that’s ALL he thinks about. Ruby mentions explicitly that he has seen “Norman’s Dark Side” and tries to hide as soon as he appears. He even shivers at the mere mention of Norman. Ruby’s entire motivation is his fear of his dad, which is bad, obviously. 

Every thought about Norman that Ruby has up until the Weather Institute about Norman express fear and stress Norman’s emotional distance. Whether or not Ruby and Norman love each other is not of importance here, what is important is that Ruby has constant worry and anxiety about how Norman will react. His entire motivation at the beginning of the arc is centered around doing things behind Norman’s back and giving him definitive proof of Ruby’s accomplishments— Ruby is so nervous around Norman that he considers communicating to be a risk. This is typical abuse victim behavior and it continues through the arcs. Living under the constant threat of (often violent) punishment has taught Ruby that disagreements and communication in general are dangerous and can spiral into violence very, very quickly— he displays this same fear time and time again.

Quick Aside: As everyone here probably knows, the main conflict in the oras arc is centered around Ruby’s unwillingness to tell Sapphire what is going on for fear of how she will react. Ruby’s hiding of his memory of their confession in the Emerald arc is the same— Ruby refuses to communicate because he is afraid of how Sapphire will react. His main emotional flaw is the fact that he is driven by fear; Norman has shown him there are consequences to communication and Ruby carries this lesson throughout his entire life. He is a victim of abuse and this hampers his ability to communicate and be emotionally vulnerable. He is so caught up in the idea of consequences that he is more than willing to lie or omit the truth to avoid the consequences of talking to people about stressful topics. This is not to say that Ruby’s actions are excusable— he’s still a dick with communication issues, but whether or not Kusaka intended it, Norman’s abuse and its consequences define Ruby’s emotional arc.

ANGER ISSUES

I can’t really talk about the environment of fear that Norman created without talking about his anger issues. He crushes a phone, shoves people out of the way, knocks multiple Pokemon out at once, and otherwise acts aggressively in various situations throughout the arc without any real Reason. As if these hints weren’t enough, we actually get confirmation through Ruby’s mother that Norman “does this often”— and judging by Birch’s reaction, these displays of destructive anger aren’t normal in in-universe. Whether or not there is a violent / strict parenting style within the universe doesn’t matter, because Norman is shown to be uncharacteristically aggressive in comparison to other adults in the series. Judging by Ruby’s reaction at the Weather Institute, he implies that his type of violence towards him isn’t uncommon; he seems almost resigned to it.

To wrap up this section: Norman’s aggressiveness is atypical even in-universe, he is shown to be unable and unwilling to curb his violent anger, and this creates an environment of fear among his family that permanently impacts Ruby’s ability to communicate effectively with others.

PART 2

DISCLAIMER: This is where things get… dicey. Everything I’ve mentioned previously is rooted in the actual drawings and actions of the characters or overarching themes / problems. This next part however focuses on dialogue. It is almost impossible to truly understand the tone of each line without being a fluent Japanese speaker (which I am not) so instead I’m going to use Viz and CY to the best of my ability for this section. I’m not going to extrapolate this to Kusaka’s intentions, since without the original work that’s nearly impossible, but I can at least talk about the way these come off in English.

EMOTIONAL ABUSE

Admittedly, Viz is the worst about this. They constantly hype Norman up and excuse his behavior, outright censoring some of the physical and emotional abuse. Viz absolutely mangling the tone of RS, however, is a post for another time.

Because Norman actually speaks to Ruby at length a grand total of twice times in the RS arc, we can break down his actions into these two instances: the first is at the weather institute and the second is as he’s dying.

Rather than go based on overall theme, this scene is best done line by line (this is using the CY version due to limited censorship compared to Viz). 

Scene 1: Volume 17, Chapters 208-210

(Norman is dangling Ruby off the roof of a building by his collar. There are sharp rocks at the bottom)

Ruby: Re… release me…! Norman: Insolent brat!! Is that how you talk to your father?!

To start, Norman uses tone policing and deflection. He focuses on the fact that Ruby is “talking back” to him and making demands of his father, which doesn’t acknowledge Ruby’s request or the fact that Ruby is being dangling over the roof of a building. Also note that this is the first time the words are bolded and that they stay this way throughout the fight— Norman verbally escalates the fight. Norman is abusing his position of power over Ruby in order to excuse his actions and pass the blame back to his son.

Ruby: I don’t care how furious you are with me… I’m ready for it!

(Norman decks Ruby down a flight of stairs)

Norman: Why did you run away from home?!

Note once again that Norman is implied to start raising his voice first even when Ruby isn’t. There’s another deflection here: Norman changes the subject rather than actively respond to anything Ruby says.

Norman: Well? Say something! You’d better voice your complaints right now!!

(Ruby has a conversation with the Swimmer, who advises him to apologize to avoid his father’s rage and “just go home” which… fuck you Swimmer Jack. I’m skipping that part of the dialogue bc it isn’t that important).

(While Ruby is debating what to do, Norman’s Slaking lifts the stairs that Ruby is on and tries to fling him into next Tuesday).

Ruby is physically prevented from escaping by being dangled above Norman. I shouldn’t have to tell why physically preventing someone from leaving an argument is a bad thing.

(Ruby decides to fight Norman)

Note that Norman is physically and emotionally forcing Ruby into two possible options: Fight or be obedient. He is preventing Ruby from running and deflecting Ruby’s attempts to explain himself. He then shifts the blame to Ruby *again*, attacking Ruby and his pokemon with full force and implying it was Ruby who instigated the conflict in the first place.

Norman: … so you wish to fight me? … Iron Tail and Hyper Beam… I was the one who taught you those attacks. There’s nothing about your attacks and strategies I don’t know about. You’re just wasting your time! Give up!

Here, Norman does two things: he stresses Ruby’s dependence on him and his power over Ruby. It’s a typical “your success is dependent on me” and a “there is no option except obedience” rhetoric, and is likewise typical of abusers. Norman is stressing the things Norman has gifted to Ruby (battling knowledge) and using whatever he can to force Ruby to do what he wants— he’s exerting his control.

(Ruby turns the tide of the battle, so Norman likewise switches tactics by attacking Ruby himself and attempting to hit him with a staircase. Ruby falls down the stairs and is dangling over a pit of spikes when Norman stands on the edge, blocking Ruby’s only escape route).

Norman: Now will you come quietly? Stop being so stubborn

Not only is Norman forcing his son to choose between obedience and Literal Death, he also shifts the blame again. He excuses his own actions by claiming it is Ruby’s stubbornness that forced him into this position. He deflects the whole “putting my 11 year old in harm’s way” by claiming Ruby’s own resistance to Norman’s violence is the trigger for the violence itself. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s victim-blaming nonetheless and sadly, it works

(Flashback time: Norman admits he was going to give Ruby permission to participate in contests and gets emo about it. They fall, but Norman catches Ruby. This doesn’t matter though, because they both end up falling and Ruby uses his running shoes to save them both).

Ruby: (thinking) Ru- running shoes… my birthday present from dad… saved both… our lives

Ruby displays pretty typical abuse victim behavior here, focusing not on Norman’s 3 threats to literally kill him but instead on the One Good Thing Norman did. He doesn’t mention that it was Ruby himself who saved them both or that Norman was the one who put them in danger in the first place— he’s in total denial about the severity of everything that happened.

(At this point, Norman looms above Ruby with an angry expression and a raised pokeball. Bystanders panic because it appears that Norman is going to attack Ruby who, by the way, is unconscious on the ground, but Norman gets a surprise call from Winona and turns away after realizing that Winona can see him).

“I only stopped attacking my son when I realized people were watching”… alright fuck off then Norman

Norman: HEY!! Idiot son! You disobeyed your parents, then you ran away from home. I’ve had enough! Just do what you want! In return, you’d better accomplish your goals!! A man should complete what he has set out to do… … before he can return home!!

Hoo boy. Norman never apologizes, deflects all the blame onto Ruby, insults him twice, and then tries to save face with Winona and the people around him by giving Ruby permission to do contests— which he was apparently planning to do all along. He emphasizes the things Ruby did in response to Norman’s actions (Ruby ran away from home because he knew his dad would be unsupportive and gets violent during disagreements, so in essence Norman is to blame for backing him into a corner). Norman twists the narrative in order to make Ruby the instigator in every case, justifying Norman’s responses as reactions to Ruby’s problematic behavior

Swimmer Jack: Isn’t that a wonderful father? Ruby: Thank you… father.

Ok first of all Jack is a dumbass, so jot that down. Second of all, while it’s unintentional, Ruby is being gaslit to hell and back. It is only after Norman’s omission of all the abusive behavior and bystanders’ affirmation of Norman’s love that Ruby starts to think positively towards his father. The threat Ruby used to think was so large has been downplayed and outright denied by the people around him, so Ruby’s prior fear of Norman diminishes. Ruby’s fear of Norman and the violence Norman took against him is denied, downplayed, and ignored, so Ruby begins to doubt his own animosity towards his father. Thanks Swimmer Jack you unintentionally gaslit an 11 year old.

SCENE 2: (this one is much shorter, thank god)

(Norman, while he is dying, explains the whole deal with how he was ordered to search for Rayquaza yada yada. Throughout the exchange, Ruby gets increasingly upset).

Ruby: (thinking) barred from the test and forced to search for Rayquaza… It must be some kind of punishment! What could Dad have done to warrant such… why was he made responsible… ?!

Ruby: … … but… come to think of it, dad is not someone who makes mistakes easily… something’s not right!

Slight aside, Ruby has been so convinced of his father’s power by others that he is unwilling to even CONSIDER that his dad fucked up, which… wow!

Ruby: That day… Dad must have taken the rap for someone else… and… (flashbacks to Salamence Incident) that person… was….

Ruby: (out loud) … me?! That person who set Rayquaza free… was it me…?!

Norman: Yes.

And then he dies!

(Technically he says “oh I did all that out of love” (paraphrased) and then dies but it’s just a continuation of the previous thing).

Norman, before dying, does not say “I’m proud of you” or “I’m sorry for everything” or anything remotely comforting, instead he says “hey Ruby, you’re responsible for my death and all your childhood trauma alongside your friend’s. Peace.” (this is paraphrased).

Even on his actual deathbed, Norman places the blame on Ruby for Norman’s own actions. He makes Ruby feel guilty for Norman leaving, Norman hiding information from him, and Ruby’s tumultuous childhood.

CONCLUSION

None of this is to say that Norman doesn’t love Ruby or that Ruby doesn’t love him back— I’m fairly positive the two of them love each other dearly and want the best for each other. However, Norman is a child abuser who reacts violently, instigates violence, and then turns around and denies said violence. He creates a culture of fear among his family, gives Ruby some serious communication issues, and the narrative takes his side. Norman is a child abuser in canon and has a very VERY profound effect on Ruby which has emotional ramifications throughout Ruby’s entire character arc all the way until oras.

TLDR: Normans sucks man

[incorrect-pokespe-quotes]

The way this is worded it sounds like Ruby himself is ready to throw down against the Salamence, which I think is absolutely goddamn hysterical

In other news please imagine Ruby trying to suplex a dragon

[incorrect-pokespe-quotes]

This is like 50% romantic and 50% “my password is password”, which I think perfectly encapsulates Ruby’s decisions when it comes to Sapphire: really romantic but also very, very stupid. 

[incorrect-pokespe-quotes]

I know this is supposed to be an emotional moment because Wallace is leading bleeding out on the ground but this is literally so funny to me because Ruby has the most bewildered expression in this panel

“Really fam? We’re doing this NOW?”