Pokémon Y Playthrough Pt. 8 - Further discussion of themes and Calem's conclusion

Some pretty serious themes are going to be discussed in this blog post. Do I tear things apart a little too much? Yes. Do I see depth where there probably isn’t any? Yes. But that’s just who I am and I have a lot of fun with these, so I’m not going to apologize for it and I’m not going to hold back. Let’s do this.

I can now safely say I have braved the tough terrain of Victory Road, and I have reached the Pokémon League. My Pokémon leveled up quite a bit. I ended up leaving the Experience Share on even though I flip-flopped on what I wanted to do with it in the previous entries. The truth is that I really want to move onto my next project (which I am excited about), and enabling the Experience Share will help me do that.

That’s not to say I’m no longer having fun with X and Y. I am still enjoying the game and the series, I’m just particularly excited to experience what’s next for this blog. I’ll be announcing what my next project is at the completion of this series. It’s not over until it’s over, after all.

Now, I’ve come to respect this game and what it’s trying to do a lot. I didn’t expect this to happen at all. I didn’t remember anything particularly special about X and Y when I first played it. Team Flare didn’t leave much of an impression on me, and neither did the story. Now, though? I understand what Team Flare is, what Lysandre is, and what the whole thing represents. Perhaps I just wasn’t ready when I first played the game. Perhaps most kids weren’t ready to grasp what was happening. Who knows?

However, the battle with Calem on Victory Road took some of that wind out of the game’s sails, in my opinion. The battle itself went fine. He wasn’t particularly difficult or easy. It was his dialogue that really chewed away at me. Let’s delve into his dialogue and see why that was, exactly.

While making your way through Victory Road, you eventually come upon Calem. You pass through the ruins of a stone building, and just as you’re about to exit it, Calem runs up from behind and begins to speak with you. Here is his dialogue:

“I’ve been thinking ever since that incident in Geosenge. Lysandre chose only Team Flare. You and I chose everyone but Team Flare. But since our positions forced our hands, you can’t really say any of us were right. So maybe... If both sides have something to say, it’s best to meet halfway... So I decided that from now on, I don’t want to battle just to win but to see how you and your Pokémon think and feel! And that’s the kind of Pokémon battle I’m challenging you to now!”

The battle then commences, but that’s not the important part. The important part here is the dialogue. In my opinion, this small conversation undercuts everything the game was representing throughout its entirety.

Calem’s view is one of centrism. It’s saying that no one is right or wrong, but instead, the valued result is to be found in the middle of two views. Now, this is a tolerant viewpoint that encourages cooperation, so I won’t argue against it. I agree that, in a lot of cases, two viewpoints can find harmony by shaking hands and deciding to agree to disagree. But this isn’t what happened with Team Flare. This isn’t what happened at Geosenge. This isn’t merely two opposing viewpoints, this is us trying to stop a fascist organization from killing everyone but themselves.

First off, OUR position was certainly forced. I’ll agree with that. Lysandre was attempting to harness a Pokémon to destroy the entire world. We had to stop him. However, here’s the problem. We CAN say who was right or wrong, and we can do so due to the fact Lysandre IS GOING TO DESTROY THE ENTIRE WORLD. I think most people can agree, relying on common morals established by humans, that destroying the entire world because one thinks they’re smarter than everyone else is a BAD THING.

Lysandre is the aggressor in this case. HIS position wasn’t forced. He wasn’t forced to take over the ultimate weapon to pursue his goals. He wasn’t forced to attempt to commit what was essentially genocide on all Pokémon. He wasn’t forced to cook up a scheme that made him thousands of Poké Yen because you had to literally buy into Team Flare to save your own life (which has implications based on class divide that will be discussed later, but not in this particular entry).  He wasn’t forced to attempt to take his team and a bunch of children with him when he committed suicide in Geosenge. We even gave him the opportunity to back out after he was defeated in a Pokémon battle. We didn’t force him to say no and start firing the ultimate weapon.

Lysandre wasn’t trying to pose an argument. An argument insinuates that a decision is being formed and that there is progress to be made in the conversation. It’s an exchange between multiple parties in an effort to find a resolution. Sometimes this doesn’t work, sometimes it does, but it means both parties view each other in a way that’s equal enough to consider that what the other person has to say is important enough to be engaged with. This isn’t what Lysandre was doing. He’d already made up his mind, he’d already decided what he was going to do, and he was in the process of doing it. He’d been in the process of doing it for a very long time, too. This was premeditated. His side had nothing to say, and he wasn’t going to listen to us no matter how much we wanted him to. We already tried to converse with him, and the conversation failed.

Calem’s view applies to someone who was willing to listen. Lysandre was not one of those people.

Humanity has learnt what happens when you try and meet in the middle with these sorts of people. In fact, the very country Kalos was inspired from learnt this lesson back in the 1940s. When you give someone with ideas and beliefs like Lysandre a middle ground, they don’t stop at that. They keep advancing and they keep taking. They don’t stop, and they won’t stop until their dreams are realized. This is because, at heart, these people believe that they’re better than you, they’re smarter than you, and they can decide what’s good for you and what’s good for the entire world. When you’ve reached that level as a person, you no longer hold anyone else’s opinion to a value high enough to affect your plans or your own beliefs. Lysandre had reached that point.

It’s particularly egregious because the region Kalos was based on suffered very terribly from the war that taught them the lesson that appeasing fascists gets you nowhere. We know, at first, with the Nazi movement in World War II, many countries tried to appease them by letting them take over, letting them win some, and trying to cooperate with the movement. Some countries straight up rolled over because they had certain ulterior motives (many of them wanted to get rid of their Jewish population, and I’m sure they viewed this as a great opportunity to do so). But this didn’t make the Nazis stopped. They were never going to stop. Eventually, they attacked their allies. They attacked Russia because they viewed them as inferior people. They kept taking and taking and taking because they thought their way of life was better and that they were smarter than everyone else.

Team Flare is a fascist organization, and fascism always ends the same way. Look back to the many wars humanity has engaged with, and you’ll see the pattern. Hell, take a look at people you’ve met in the past. Weren’t there those that just pushed you no matter how many times you told them no? Weren’t there those that just want to take from you, and no matter how much you gave them, they just wanted to take everything you were? I know I’ve been put through the wringer by such people. Whether it’s one individual or an entire movement, these people cannot be stopped by appeasement.

Of course, one could make the argument that Calem is criticizing both sides, and I will agree that he is. However, that doesn’t excuse the rest of the argument. Also, he pointedly says that neither side was right, which simply isn’t true. That belief too gives people like Lysandre a free pass to keep pushing the envelope while other parties keep taking steps back to try and get him to reach a middle ground that, logically, he will never reach. You can’t reach a middle ground with someone that doesn’t give a damn about it.

I’m not accusing Calem of being some sort of sympathizer, because that’s ridiculous. From the ending bit of his dialogue, you can see that the lesson he HAS taken away from the situation is that he shouldn’t try to dominate others around him, he should try and care about how his opponents feel. He does have strong beliefs and he is a good person. I’m glad the lesson he has taken from the situation is a good one. However, I think the reasoning he has before he reaches this conclusion is very flawed and communicates a very flawed idea.

I think some people might take this too far though and say it’s some sort of bad influence as a game, pushing “bad” beliefs, but I’m not going to go that far. Previously in my life, I might’ve come to this severe conclusion, but I’m not that sort of person anymore. Flaws in a work are important. It gives us the opportunity to discuss the artwork and what it’s trying to represent. It encourages conversation, and that’s what we desperately need as humanity. We need people who want to talk, who want to argue, who want to debate. I believe that’s what artwork is meant to generate. This is the opposite of what people like Lysandre want, interestingly. After all, complete beauty, complete perfection, means there is no more improvement, conversation, or change to be had. That’s not what I want out of life.

Calem has further dialogue immediately after you defeat him in battle. He says, “I’m still no match for you... You know, it’s because I met you that I was able to get this far... But our journey’s just getting started. Who knows what heights we’ll reach!”

This is honestly a wonderful conclusion to his character, though. The entire game, he views himself to be in our shadow. It seems his only goal is to surpass us, to be better than us. It’s sad, at first, because there a few times in game when we work together and we get a lot done. Not everything is about just being better than someone else, and it seems like he hasn’t learnt that at the beginning of the game. Here, though, he realizes that battling and improving is just one aspect of the journey. We’re here together on Victory Road due to a form of teamwork. We made each other stronger; we drove one another to reach these great heights. How many trainers really make it to Victory Road? You fight people much older than you are on the road. Yet, it was through teamwork that me and Calem reached the end of the road. He’s optimistic for the future too, which means he’s looking at the world from a wider viewpoint then just surpassing us.

Then, we get the final dialogue between us and Calem:

“It’s hard to put a finger on where, but I think you and I are alike. And that’s why I didn’t want to lose to you. But I think we’re alike is because we have so much in common. I’m really happy that we’re friends. I’m renewing my rivalry with you! Since you’re my rival, I hope you get stronger and stronger as a Pokémon Trainer. But we’ll keep getting stronger and stronger, too! I can master the power that comes from the bond between me and my Pokémon, just like you did! Power right on through the Pokémon League. I know you can do it!”

He then runs off whence he came.

Here’s the interesting thing, though. I’ve related a lot to Calem over the course of the game. I was a lot like him as a child. I was always very serious and pointed in what I wanted to do. I didn’t quite understand that life is a teamwork effort. Most kids my age didn’t have the serious, severe, pointed nature I did, and that made it hard to relate to them. Calem, I think, is a lot like that. He passes up opportunities to spend time with his friends to train. You can see that he’s much more of a loner too. I was also very much of a loner, engaging with my own pursuits instead of in the pursuits of others my age. I’ve come to appreciate Calem a lot, even if I disagree with the conclusion he reached towards Team Flare specifically. It makes me really happy to see him connect with others around him in this final part of the game, instead of planning to work against everyone around him.

Now, as for another interesting observation I made: is it possible that Victory Road winds through the ruins of the original war that wracked Kalos all those thousands of years ago? You walk in the ruins of stone buildings that almost look like they could’ve been part castles or fortresses. Are we walking amongst the rubble caused by a horrible battle that killed thousands of people and Pokémon?

If so, how wonderful that it’s now a place where people fight with their Pokémon to form bonds with other people, and their own team, instead of a battleground where war kills, and one party tries to shove their ideology onto another in an effort to proclaim a winner. Now it’s a place to work together, not a place where others decide they’re smarter or better than someone else. I think I’ll establish this as my personal headcanon.

And that’s all I have for now! Thank you for reading through this long analysis of this leg of the game. Do I think the conversation with Calem completely ruins the game? No, but I will say it hurts it a significant amount. Sure, the final message of not being completely intolerant and meeting halfway with people is a very good message, but it refuses to acknowledge that there are some instances where doing that is a death sentence. Still, though, I’m delighted to see the character development Calem went through, and I think the themes overall are very interesting to examine and pick apart. I wonder what we’ll see in the future.

Amount of in-game time: 41 hours 52 minutes

Gym Badges: 8

Pokémon:

• Montu - Simisear - Level 63 - Hardy Nature - Gluttony Ability - Met in Santalune Forest on November 13th, 2022 - Moveset: Yawn, Bite, Flamethrower, Return - Somewhat of a clown.
  
• Frogger - Greninja - Level 63 - Modest Nature - Torrent Ability - Met in Aquacorde Town on November 13th, 2022 - Moveset: Water Pledge, Strength, Hydro Cannon, Surf - Hates to lose.
  
• Poppy - Florges - Level 63 - Calm Nature - Flower Veil Ability - Met on Route 4 on November 15th, 2022 - Moveset: Wish, Magical Leaf, Dazzling Gleam, Petal Blizzard - Likes to thrash about.
  
• Bulbapedia - Venusaur - Level 63 - Modest Nature - Overgrow Ability - Met in Lumiose City on November 15th, 2022 - Moveset: Petal Dance, Toxic, Leech Seed, Venoshock - Likes to relax.
  
• Slushie - Aurorus - Level 62 - Adamant Nature - Refrigerate Ability - Met in Ambrette Town on November 16th, 2022 - Moveset: Ice Beam, Nature Power, Ancient Power, Aurora Beam - Good endurance.
  
• Lucha - Hawlucha - Level 62 - Careful Nature - Unburden Ability - Met on Route 10 on November 17th, 2022 - Moveset: High Jump Kick, Flying Press, Fly, Swords Dance - Takes plenty of siestas.

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