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TartaChocholate Imaginym TartaChocholate wrote on Imaginym's profile.
Heyo, weird to post it here, but I couldn't find your original comment. I recall you mentioned in the Pokemon thread that you were somewhat confused as to why Kieran in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet turned out to be the kind of guy he was. At the moment I didn't have the DLC so I didn't even know who Kieran was, but recently I went through the two DLC episodes and saw it for myself. Honestly, yeah, he's kind of a self-centered ass, but... huh... I liked that? How to put it?
I guess what I liked is that, they never played the sobstory card, they could have easily brought up some exposition that Kieran was bullied in school, that his parents are dead or somethig like that for quick sympathy, but they didn't, they just let the events talk for themselves and show a screw up of a kid. Helps that the story shows you what led to his change, but doesn't excuse it or try to hard to make it sympathetic or tragic (the usual is to just ramp up the tragedy or show a despicable villain was behind everything, nothing of that here, Kieran had to own up to his mistakes), it's shown that while the events affected Kieran, his own issues also contributed a lot. My only gripe is that the issue was solved in your typical "epiphany" fashion: character gets a realization and the problem is over, when it would have been interesting to at least have a talk regarding his issues.
And to be honest, Kieran's frustration with the Player Character does hold some water, as Pokémon games have kept going the pandering to the player from the game is more and more blatant and the game goes out of its way to make you the most special cookie in the universe, every success falls on your lap and everyone will go out of their way to tell you how much better than everything you are. I know that being able to do everything is part of the gameplay experience and choices, but the game can be a bit patronizing regarding it. Honestly, Kieran's drama almost comes as self-awareness from the game itself.
At the risk of of being repetitive, I can get why Kieran comes as unlikeable, but I think it's because we are too used at characters having nominal or romanticized flaws instead of genuine unlikeable traits and for the story to give us excuses that justifies their actions, be it tragedy, well meaning but misaimed actions, a true hidden villiain or if a character is a genuine screw up it's because they went through a outrageous amount of trauma that would send to a madhouse a person in real life. The game itself introduced Arven as a jerk, but shortly after gave us that he was taking care of a sick puppy, Team Star is shown as a bunch of delinquents, but then it goes out of their way to emphazise how everything was the fault of their bullies and they were just victims. So Kieran, having legitimate unlikable traits, not having a tragic and sympathetic backstory, not going through a conga of suffering and simply having more grounded issues came as... odd.
I guess what I liked is that, they never played the sobstory card, they could have easily brought up some exposition that Kieran was bullied in school, that his parents are dead or somethig like that for quick sympathy, but they didn't, they just let the events talk for themselves and show a screw up of a kid. Helps that the story shows you what led to his change, but doesn't excuse it or try to hard to make it sympathetic or tragic (the usual is to just ramp up the tragedy or show a despicable villain was behind everything, nothing of that here, Kieran had to own up to his mistakes), it's shown that while the events affected Kieran, his own issues also contributed a lot. My only gripe is that the issue was solved in your typical "epiphany" fashion: character gets a realization and the problem is over, when it would have been interesting to at least have a talk regarding his issues.
And to be honest, Kieran's frustration with the Player Character does hold some water, as Pokémon games have kept going the pandering to the player from the game is more and more blatant and the game goes out of its way to make you the most special cookie in the universe, every success falls on your lap and everyone will go out of their way to tell you how much better than everything you are. I know that being able to do everything is part of the gameplay experience and choices, but the game can be a bit patronizing regarding it. Honestly, Kieran's drama almost comes as self-awareness from the game itself.
At the risk of of being repetitive, I can get why Kieran comes as unlikeable, but I think it's because we are too used at characters having nominal or romanticized flaws instead of genuine unlikeable traits and for the story to give us excuses that justifies their actions, be it tragedy, well meaning but misaimed actions, a true hidden villiain or if a character is a genuine screw up it's because they went through a outrageous amount of trauma that would send to a madhouse a person in real life. The game itself introduced Arven as a jerk, but shortly after gave us that he was taking care of a sick puppy, Team Star is shown as a bunch of delinquents, but then it goes out of their way to emphazise how everything was the fault of their bullies and they were just victims. So Kieran, having legitimate unlikable traits, not having a tragic and sympathetic backstory, not going through a conga of suffering and simply having more grounded issues came as... odd.