#Pokemon fans don't really have reading comprehension tbh

[livegastrodonreaction]

In honor of Nemona's "birthday" (her reveal day was June 1st last year), I want to remind everyone of a part of her characterization that people seem to miss again.

The thing about her story is that so much of it is in the details. Things like how she's worried about "coming off too strong", how other students like Arven and the Team Star grunts from the tutorial treat her, how Geeta and Clavell seem to worry about her, how she intentionally avoids talking about her parents and specifically points out how "nice" your mother is, the way she completely curls up and visibly worries when you say no to her questions about becoming Champion.

The main thing about these details is that they reveal that Nemona's interest in battling isn't the *whole* reason why people are turned away by her and she is so lonely. For others to accept her, she has to not just hold back in battle, she has to hold *herself* back, to hide her "true self" and her energy and to be somebody she is definitely not just to get people to not immediately leave. This is a painful thing for her to do, and it results in her having nobody she can truly confide in, nobody she can share her interests with or just open up to without being rejected. She's stuck in a vicious cycle where when she inevitably slips up by opening up a little or putting her social difficulties on display she's alone again, and her only choice is to put the mask back on again until she slips up and is left alone again, and she couldn't do much to change that until the player came around. It's also why she seems to have such intense abandonment issues and kind of latches onto the player, you are pretty much her only shot at finally being able to connect with somebody.

And, because battling is such a big part of Nemona's life, talking about battling is how she expresses those feelings. So for her, battling in an "all-out" way is how she communicates this to you, how she tells you that she can trust that you won't leave her when she puts her fears and flaws and odd little quirks on display, an expression of her true, authentic self that she doesn't have to hide anymore because for once, someone didn't leave.

I think this has already been said already, but I've seen too many people claim battling was her only motivation and personality trait, and it's just...blegh. Pokémon players shouldn't be so afraid of reading into stories of the games.

#pokemon sv #nemona #rival nemona #pokemon #characterization #character explainer #victory road #this also relates a lot to the concept of autistic masking #which is a huge part of why I relate to her so much and hc her as autistic #She cant read a room to save her life and that's the charm #Pokemon fans don't really have reading comprehension tbh