A Rant About Storylines

I'm not going to kiss Game Freak's ass and pretend there's absolutely nothing wrong with Pokemon X/Y, but...good god, people, lighten up! This game gets WAY more hate than it deserves, and most of the main criticisms are attacking the wrong elements. I can't look up ONE song from the game on YouTube without being bombarded with: "Team Flare is the worst villainous team to date!" "The gym leaders were the most unmemorable in all of Pokemon!" "This is the worst track in the game, and one of the worst in Pokemon history!" "The story was horrible after what they gave us in Black and White!" "The gyms are a disappointment!" "The rivals are a disappointment!" "The champion was a disappointment!" "It was all such a disappointment!"

Guys, quit vomiting fire for two seconds and let's talk through this.

I saw a masterpiece. I saw concepts that are seldom touched upon in kid's games. I heard them speak about immortality as a form of torture rather than a blessing like it's usually portrayed. I heard mentalities and paranoia about overpopulation, how there will be too many lives and not enough resources, and the drastic decisions that might have to be made to save humanity.

But most of all, I saw a villain that was both brutal and tragic at the same time. Honestly, I wasn't expecting that much before the games came out; all we heard was that Team Flare wanted to create "a more beautiful world." What the heck does that even mean? They're evil because they want to...beautify everyone to death? How do you take a setup like that and create something intimidating around it?

Well, they did. And not only did they take the stupidest of premises and make it a legitimate threat, but they showed it in an adult manner in two different ways. On the one hand, Lysandre's plan is incredibly morbid--leading many to joke about him being the Pokemon version of Hitler--as he seeks to commit mass genocide and wipe out anyone who doesn't fit his image (plus his invention of the Holo Ca(u)ster; haha, not funny). On the other hand, he does it for reasons that we haven't seen yet in the Pokemon games:

Good intentions.

That's right; I'd assume more people would pick up on this seeing as it was spelled out fairly well, so why do so many people equate him to the childish, money-grubbing, take-over-the-world mob boss the first games gave us? Why does everyone say Team Flare is too simple? Why does everyone see Flare as a watered down version of Galactic? Why is this viewed as a huge step down from B/W? Heck, even Ghetsis fell just short of perfection when an amazing story and serious questioning of ethics was built up to: "I was lying all along so I can have ALL the Pokeymans!" To me, Lysandre had what Ghetsis lacked. He wasn't trying to trick anyone, and he wasn't trying to enslave all of humanity, or...Pokemonity. He was doing it because he felt like it would truly be best for a world under the threat of being so overrun that there's way less supply than demand for basic life resources. He planned on ending lives because he wanted to save lives, and he was even aware of the consequences of his actions. Anyone else remember when he got teary-eyed at the idea of killing all of the Pokemon so none of them would be abused? This guy probably has his heart in the right place, and the only thing that makes him villainous is the fact that he's a flippin' psychopath.

Actually to me, Lysandre is less of a villain and more of an antivillain. The closest we've gotten to an antivillain in the past was N, and even then he wasn't the main villain and more simply an attractive, angsty version of Silver (father is the leader of an evil team, stalks the main character and tells them they're in the wrong and tries to prove it by battling them, slowly learns to open up and betters himself throughout the story, etc. Think about it). Plus, N's decisions don't really have much of an impact on the story until the very end, while Lysandre's are the main focus. In the end, I really kinda feel sorry for Lysandre, which is something I can't say about any other villain. He wants to make the world a better place, not knowing that he's going about it entirely the wrong way.

So, if the story of X/Y is really that spectacular, why does no one remember it? Why do people pass Team Flare off as Rocket grunts dyed red rather than a gripping story with intense societal commentary? Why does everyone see the story as too back-to-basics and a huge step backward from where we were in the last generation? Well, I do think there is a serious problem that gets in the way, but it has nothing to do with the story itself. Contrary to what people say, I don't think it's the story that's the problem, but rather the storytelling. What I've noticed is that while the story is just as good if not better than that of B/W, it's only explored occasionally, and because of that it's kind of thrown at you in large, rushed chunks. Back in B/W, Ghetsis was seen preaching to crowds about Pokemon liberation all over the place, topped with the occasional fight with N, and it was paced out well enough to let what was being said sink in so that the player could articulate, question, and come to conclusions on his motives before the final battle. In X/Y, the true nature of Lysandre's motives I explored for the past twenty minutes weren't portrayed in-game until you fought Xerneas/Yveltal, and it was all just squished into that one scene. I guess you could argue that B/W were guilty of this to a degree, as Ghetsis's true intentions were revealed last-minute, but that plot point was supposed to be a twist ending (albeit a silly one). Lysandre wanting to commit genocide to save humanity wasn't some surprising twist, it was the friggin' EXPLANATION! Where was this earlier when I was trying to figure out why we're supposed to be afraid of Team Flare? Not only that, but how much more emotionally gripping would AZ's story or the backstory of the war have been if they portrayed it in a more natural way?

Not to mention this flaw plagues other aspects of the game, too. I'm actually a lot more forgiving toward this game's rivals than most people, and my only issue was that their personalities weren't fleshed out enough--again, because the execution of the plot was too sloppy. But I really started to notice this as I was playing and thinking back to the earlier CoroCoro scans. I remember when Diantha was revealed and it said that she would play a prominent role with my character, but she only appeared maybe two or three times briefly before I battled her at the very end. I also remember seeing a picture of Xerosic and thinking he had to play a prominent role, simply because he has such an interesting design. But he was onscreen even less than Diantha, only appearing once (yes, just ONCE) so he could say: "Push the button to release Xerneas/Yveltal...JUST KIDDING!"

So all in all, I get it. I get why people weren't as passionate about this story as they were with B/W. All I ask is that you question if it really is the story that's flawed or just the way it's played. I ask you to question if there's more to what you're seeing rather than declare it a letdown on the spot. As for myself, I will continue to adore X/Y's story for what I eventually saw in it and not get caught up in the clumsy way I had to absorb it. I will continue to feel sorry for Lysandre, even to the point of developing a crush on him, God help my soul and I look forward to knowing if he'll ever be brought back for future games.

And now that I'm done exploiting my opinion that few care about, I bid everyone happy gaming!