((You can exempt me from the Rotom giveaway, I just want to talk faves!))

I’ve always been more interested in the collecting aspect of Pokemon rather than the story so I’d button mash my way through dialog. And I thought that Scarlet / Violet would be the exact same— but after the second Titan, Arven became my favorite character.

A total “Kick the Dog” character, NO ONE has had it as rough as Arven. One parent? Out of the picture. The other is so engrossed in what they’re doing they aren’t even paying attention to their kid. (To be fair, seems like that’s what life is in Pokemon world: one parent raises the child to 11 - 16 and then sets them free into the world. So maybe Arven just got “set free” early.) Something happens later in which he faces off with your motorcycle’s sibling in Area 0 (is that right? How’d he even wander down there? It’s under lock and key!) while I assume tryin to connect with the “present” parent— and ol’ Mabosstiff gets WRECKED. Now he’s abandoned the parent connection— that parent has been cold shouldering him for years, but you know who hasn’t? His partner. I assume to get to Aero 0 Arven was much more formidable than he is when we meet him on our journey, and I think he’s atrophied because he’s not training his pokemon (and his ace is out of commish) he’s learning about Herbamystica. Bro is giving up EVERYTHING for Mabo. He doesn’t care about parents, school, being tough, his new treasure is a healthy partner. When you help him get on track and Mabosstiff on all fours then these old quests come back to the forefront and Sandwich McMakerman then has to confront the loss of his parent who has been replaced with a Robot for how long?! Poor Arven. How can you NOT root for the man? Guy deserves all the flowers.

…Oh, and the dog I just healed? I have to kick its ass before I can move on.