Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Comments
Well, actually, yeah. It's called a 'necessary evil'.
If you check pretty carefully, every time you face him, his Pokemon are Pokemon that can be found in the surrounding areas. It's implied that he releases them after the job is done, but there are few Pokemon, I imagine, that would volunteer to work with a Trainer and get the crap regularly beaten out of them.
Wasn't a good part of B/W about N having this mentality and rethinking it in the end? Just pointing it out.
And it's rather inconsistent, considering that N is portrayed as hating Pokeballs utterly. I assumed that it was too much work for GF to retain the HGSS "sending Pokemon from the side" thingy just for N, but the vs. sprite is a different matter.
Ah, whatever. We've previously established that B/W's setting and characters are very poorly thought-out anyways.
I'm pretty sure it's not Pokeballs in and of themselves that he hates, but rather the master-slave dynamic that they create, and how that gives far too much power to the trainer and allows them to abuse Pokemon.
It is a bit of a double standard, but I imagine N simply caught Pokemon when he needed them, then released them afterwards, and tried not to hurt them in the meantime.
You know, this could've actually added some more depth to his character.
He can talk to Pokemon. I can definitely picture him going "hey, um, if you're tagging along with me, do you mind if I carry you in this thing?"
I actually think it would have cheapened him a bit, to make him obviously hypocritical. It would have painted all his actions in a different light and make it obvious that he was wrong. As it is, he does have some good points.
Incidentally:
Characters, sure, but what's wrong with the setting? I feel like they actually made the world feel a bit more real this time around in some ways (little touches like Durant and Heatmor).
I didn't think N himself was poorly thought out at all. He makes it clear that he doesn't enjoy having his Pokemon battle, but he explicitly says that it's what he needs to do in order to befriend Reshiram/Zekrom and ultimately see to it that every Pokemon is finally freed.
It's the rest of Team Plasma that are written poorly. This game was the perfect opportunity to introduce some moral ambiguity in the series, and yet 99% of the people in Team Plasma are very open about their hypocrisy and their willingness to abuse Pokemon. I know story isn't important in this series, but that seemed like a really big missed opportunity for some good writing.
This is why I've occasionally wondered if they're not supposed to be morally ambiguous so much as a PETA metaphor.
It's funny, because it's made pretty clear that Team Plasma is pretty much Team Rocket with a great PR campaign.
Hey guys, are you familiar with the term "doublethink"?
'cos I think that term is applicable in this case.
I believe the term is "Accepting that the writing is bad and just running with it", myself. And "Believing that N has double standards that aren't pointed out because the game's writing is bad."
Or, as it's commonly known, "overanalysis".
This was my first assumption, actually.
Come to think of it, it is also the most immediately obvious one.
It applies to N, I mean.
I thought this was obvious. I didn't exactly expect Pokemon to try for moral ambiguity.
...you mean like what they did with the rest of Team Plasma?
I think it is pretty obvious that Team Plasma is very different to N.
Actually, I think we can blame this on his upbringing.
I mean, Ghetsis probably knew that N wasn't going to go far without some Pokemon of his own. So he taught N "hey son it's bad when people use Pokeballs but it's OK when you use them". Of course, it isn't very logical, but N is a very deluded character.
Of course, the more likely answer is that it was an oversight, but still.
I should point out that even using the HG system, if you switch in and out with Pokemon, you're still using Pokeballs.
I don't believe anyone in the games can actually fight without Pokeballs to control the Pokemon.
Well, he can talk to Pokemon. It's not much of a stretch to assume that he can get them to work with him.
There is absolutely no precedent for it within the games, so...
There are a lot of reasons he could be using them, really.
Once again, it was probably an oversight.
Yeah, but that's no fun.
C'monnn, let's speculate on possible reasons.
Yeah, you're right.
Uh...N believes he is the messiah, and thinks he is exempt from his "Pokeballs are bad" rule as a result? He releases them anyways, just to be on the safe side.
Perhaps he is the messiah. The Pokemon don't mind jumping in Pokeballs for him, even though he hates it, because they want to be part of it.
And he only keeps them until he leaves their home areas for the most part, so that's nice of him too.
It shocked me that PETA was actually RATIONAL about something