#I’m reminded of the time I sent an anonymous ask to amethyst (the creator of reborn) to clarify the timelines

[tiny-cloud-of-flowers]

hii ari !! abt the second timeline where adriana was the protagonist .. i remember ur carrd saying that she was in a relationship w luna in that timeline too — would u imagine it being different in any way , compared to the third timeline ? would there be a case where one of them may remember parts of their relationship from the second, or have a 'gut feeling' / 'intuition' that was rly memories from the timeline before ? i hope this all makes sense LOL

Oh!!! This absolutely does make sense; thank you so much for such an intriguing question!

Hmm.. I think that it would be at least a little bit different, by virtue of the fact that in the second timeline, Adriana fully took the role of the player as seen in-game, with no-one else surviving Grandview Station. So, as a result, while I do think that she and Luna would fall in love in the same way - Luna’s feelings appearing quite suddenly after Adri saves Gardevoir and later herself from the sanctum, which was midway through Adri’s own attraction rising slowly over time since meeting her - I also think that Adriana wouldn’t have been able to spend quite as much time with Luna as she had wanted, because she had more responsibilities as the spearhead of the movement to take down Team Meteor. As a result, it’s plausible to say that while we were definitely still close, it was not to as much of an extent (or at least had not developed to that extent yet).

Conversely, in the third/current timeline, Adri doesn’t have to be there for every single event, because there is now someone else travelling the region (in the form of the player), whom she is now mirroring by continuing to collect badges but doesn’t have to constantly be glued to. So, for example, she can spend more time with Luna after returning to Reborn City by not having to go through the Devon Corp raid. By the time the player has done that + defeated Adrienn + explored potentially the entirety of Tourmaline Desert (which is massive) + gone all the way through Titania’s gym, all that Adriana has to do in the same timeframe is just defeat Adrienn, fly from Beryl Ward to the top of Mirage Tower (to pick up Corybantia), then continue north to Never After - because she catches up with the player right before they battle Titania, at least if they’re on Reshiram Route. This (and other examples throughout the story, which I’ll admit I haven’t fully come up with yet) gives her much more downtime compared to the player.

What I haven’t considered as much as I could have is the last part of what you were saying, about feelings and memories of the previous timeline poking through. And I think that is a VERY fun concept to play with - the game sort of touches on it right at the end, but not really to much of an extent. In fact, something that I was considering was saying that Adriana’s experience - so, the second timeline - was closer to Episode 18 than it was to Episode 19, because the game itself was still only on Episode 18 when I myself first played it. This allows for some fun moments in terms of things like Adriana being surprised to hear the name Borealis so early, or being apprehensive to enter Agate until Cain and the player arrive, or suddenly feeling a lot less sure of things after defeating Hardy (because E18 only went up to his Gym battle even though Adri herself did actually get all the way to the end of maingame), or - to bring it back to an F/O-focused perspective - being even more shocked than everyone else that Elias tries to shave off Luna’s hair.

I think that Adriana would be the only one to really have these moments of.. I suppose you could call them anamnesis, but she isn’t necessarily remembering the previous timeline, just getting vague intuitions of things. This is because she’s the only one to have more explicitly been brought back in from the previous timeline - and brought back from her fate in that timeline - because of Anna’s feelings of guilt causing her to intervene more. If she hadn’t intervened beyond the point of a simple reset, it wouldn’t have been guaranteed that Adri still travelled out to Reborn (because she wasn’t the chosen hero for this timeline), defeating the main point of bringing her back - which was to make sure enough people would be present to power Anna’s wish if the new chosen hero, the player, had to be saved like that as she was. I do think there is potential for her to eventually become more anamnestic, certainly moreso than Fern, but that may not actually occur until.. maybe the Giratina quest. Which is late into postgame.

..I think it’s safe to say that I could ramble on about this for ages considering how much I’ve already written here in one go. So, thank you very much for such a question, friend - I am very grateful to have been asked it and it’s given me a LOT to think about!!

#heart of the void #selfshipping #self‑insert: soul‑touched (adriana) #and I did also mention #love: dark dreamer (luna) #selfship: void‑kissed (luna/adriana) #of a city reborn (pokémon reborn) #out of the inbox #selfship asks #clara tag! #something to keep track of #I’m reminded of the time I sent an anonymous ask to amethyst (the creator of reborn) to clarify the timelines #since you hear so many people saying it was just two. but no! it’s three! I was right! she confirmed it! #the only sliiiight discrepancy was about when and how each one got reset which may be something I have to reconcile back with #but that’s probably something I need to talk through with you or anyone else who knows the game #the only other thing that making adri’s experience E18 does is introduce some interesting dynamics when it comes to ace #since they did not exist in episode 18. but unlike rejuvenation’s eizen I don’t think reborn really dwells on that too much #but again this is definitely something I want to explore more now so. thank you so much for this ask you have genuinely inspired me