Characterization

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to put this, but I noticed some really interesting stuff coming up in the Voice Acting area where people have different opinions about how the different characters are motivated, what makes them tick, and their general "goodness/evilness". I thought this was interesting, mostly because I'm new to the manga, so the exposure I have to the different character interpretations is limited, but also because I'm pretty much a literature nerd and I think this stuff is cool. *nerdgiggle*

So, I thought this could be a place we could talk about the characters, whether they be dexholders or someone that only appears once. I'll start the ball off...

Yellow= I see Yellow as a somewhat naive character, she lives in the moment and doesn't have much forethought, but she doesn't let this bother her. When Blue has Yellow hide identity, she doesn't really notice, perhaps just taking it for granted that she is undercover for the mission. Yellow might be somewhat uncomfortable with her sex, at least when Red is around; much more comfortable acting as a boy until about frlg arc. She is super-passionate about pretty much whatever she sets her heart to, and, or course, her certain unrequited love interest....

Plantia= I see her as being somewhat introverted and that's why she seems aloof when she's around Dia and Pearl. She has a vivid imagination and a stubborness about a mile wide. I get the feeling she was also isolated, with no one her age as friends for much of her life, so she doesn't no how to act with people her own age very well.

Ruby= This kid is really hard for me to figure out, at face value, he's a pansy who gets distracted by shiny things, but when exaimed deeper, he is extremely self-sacrificing, to the point of self-destruction. I have trouble reconciling those two very different parts of him- the vain, somewhat shallow, appearance driven one vs. the reckless, headstrong one that emerges later in the arc.

So that's my two cents. Feel free to discuss these guys or other characters. Chances are I'll probably be back here, delving into other characters later...

dirksies wrote: but also because I'm pretty much a literature nerd and I think this stuff is cool. *nerdgiggle*

Marry me.
Ahem!

It has been a while since I read the Yellow arc, but I don't remember her being very "in the moment" (although my schema for that sort of character may have something to do with that). I actually remember her being a worry-wart of sorts, kind and passionate but also determined, even if it wasn't backed by being naturally headstrong. Definitely naive though.
I'm not entirely sure why you included "uncomfortable with her sex" as she's about 8 years old at the beginning. I think she just got attached to dressing and being that way. We don't actually see much of Yellow in the GSC arc (iirc) and she comes out and starts to develop (brilliant choice of words Shen) in the FRLG, probably where she begins to develop something akin to real feelings for Red. Of course, by then it becomes very difficult to hide the fact that she's a girl.

Platina - I agree with what you're saying and would like to add that she can probably be a bit obnoxious at times. Also, very prideful. The two often overlap.

Ruby isn't a hugely complex character to understand. He's two-faced, hiding a side of himself he has come to dislike in favour of another. His daddy issues are largely to blame for this in my opinion. He's "self-sacrificing" only when the chips are down, which sets him apart from other Heroes. I should also mention that depsite being two-faced, he doesn't "switch" between the two and both sides of him are always present. He simply gives one legs and uses it to kick away the other one's crutches.

Thank you, I was beginning to think I was the only lit. nerd on here.

Hmm, now that I think of it, I don't quite know where I was going with Yellow. I think maybe I was seeing her being slightly more tomboyish when she was younger, that's what I meant by "uncomfortable with her sex" >.< (stupid translating of thoughts to words..grr) I kind of saw her having a crush on Red for awhile, a mild case of puppy love at least from the end of y if not from when she first meets him back in rgb. Yeah, Yellow's not so much in the moment as....erm, adaptable(word choice?), she is able to adjust quickly to situations and doesn't let surprises mess with her, aka not a control freak.

plantia- indeed, yes.

Ruby. Yeah, two faced people confuse me, but i think that's more to do with myself than ruby's personality. I don't understand two-faced people as a whole, so yeah...Excellent description by the way.

Anyone else? C'mon lit nerds, don't be shy. There're many more characters to discuss...

I'm not a literature nerd (art/computer nerd instead), but I do love my manga and anime characters to DEATH. <3

To me, I think Platina's a goofy lil' princess, you know? She's grown up all refined, but since she's been pretty much cooped up most of her life reading books about the world but never really seeing it, she's got this huge curiosity and enthusiasm now that she's actually out there. But she also has no real idea what she's doing...>.>; and thus the reason she gets herself in trouble all of the time. XD Most of her character development is probably going from naive and pampered princess to a much more responsible, careful, and caring person.

I see Yellow as a determined and friendly girl. She hates fighting and violence, and will do whatever it takes to stop it. She makes very strong bonds with others, creating deep friendships and also making her even more determined to protect them. Part of her character development is that she gets over her controversy with battling, and decides to become strong in order to protect others from needless violence and harm. Since she's pretty conflicted a lot of the time in the Y arc, she stumbles a lot and rushes some things, too, which might make it seem like she was headstrong to a small degree. (Though in reality I don't think she is at all.)

God, I love Ruby so much. He's so awesome. X3 He IS very self-sacrificing, but in that way he's really stupid. He nearly never shows his real feelings, in order to 'protect the people he cares about'. He probably had it in his head for the longest time that he was the cause of his loved one's pain and he punished himself for it. But he genuinely does love contests and beauty, but he likes battling at the same time, though he tries to deny it. Probably, most of his character development was realizing how stupid he was, trying to constantly deny his own feelings. >.>;

I am completely useless at analysing literature. I do, however, have a natural understanding for characters, and hope I won't be off by too much.

Emerald.
Emerald is a walking minority complex and a stubborn boy. He wasn't born that way, but became obsessed with proving himself to his surroundings after being ridiculed as young. A clear example of this is his constant impulse to always be independent, and hiding the actual size of his body. An example of stubbornness, is that he insists on defeating all the frontier brains by his deadline (even after he loses to Tucker).

The immediate downside to his his obsession with proving himself, is that he is rather set in his own way. This is evident by how he refuses to follow any advice from his follow dexholders (until later in the arc).

Emerald is also very smart, and sometimes over analyses stuff. For example, he puts too much faith in the numbers (stats, natures, etc.) and you occasionally read him muttering that he doesn't want to be a bother for the pokemon. Another example of his intelligence (as well as skill) is his "dirt-gun", that calms pokemon down.

Most of his negative quirks are dealt with once Guile reveals himself, since the following situation gives him quite the trial of character.

Essentially by far most of his character is built up around that one flashback, and how he dealt with the situation.



Or did I completely misunderstand his character? I'm not too fond of him, so it is possible.

@ joy// yeah, i can definately see Plantia's goofy side, in a way that makes here almost naive too. The image that keeps popping into my mind when I think of her is before she goes on the mine tour, she starts miming how someone would dig with a shovel, completely trapped in her own little world. XD I do think she has a knowledgable side to her, she just likes to know things, but she hasn't yet learned how to apply that knowledge or even had the chance to see a physical represenation of that that knowledge applied, ie; the mine tour, her first Pokemon battle/contest, traveling by herself/at all.

I think you've pretty much hit yellow's character on the head; however i do see her as being headstrong to a certain degree, not necessarily in the reckless sense, but once an idea is put into her mind, she will follow it through; such as finding Red or probing Deoxys' mind. Hmm, I guess both of those could just stem from her ignorance or simple naivety about her powers, or just not thinking things through...

Hrmm...Ruby. For the longest time I guess I didn't see Ruby's self-sacrificing nature, so I really struggled with finding something in him i liked. I think Ruby still has a way to go though, especially if he still claims he doesn't "remember" Sapphire's confession.

@mylo// yeah, i think you've got Emeralg mostly down. I see him as being somewhat introverted and i wouldn't be surprised if he was a little bit autistic, but i might be reading too much into that. The way he lets nobody else close, Pokemon or people, is a sign of autism as is his genius at the theory of Pokemon battles. he also acts a little awkward, i think, in social circumstances, or when meeting new people; again i sign of autism or just introversion in general.

But, anyway, I see him as being introverted, whether that just be his nature or how he became after being teased, and this could result in the over need to prove himself. Because he's introverted, it also makes it harder to get to know his true personality, besides the one he created for himself, and that makes it harder to like him as a character. I struggled with liking him too, at first

Btw, i think you meant inferiority complex, not minority complex. O.o I'm not entirely sure what a minority complex would be...

The way I see character introvert/extrovert broken down is:
-Red= Extrovert
-Green=Introvert, more middle of the road
-Blue=Extrovert
-Yellow=Introvert, more middle of the road
-Gold=Extrovert
-Silver=Introvert
-Crystal=Extrovert
-Ruby=Extrovert
-Sapphire=Extrovert
-Emerald= Introvert
-Dia=middle of the road
-Pearl=Extrovert
-Plantia=Introvert

Introversion and Extroversion aren't set in stone, a character might shift from one side or the other, or become more moderated as a result of character development. As a writer/reader, extroverted characters are easier to work with because they'll just tell you how the feel, their emotions are very apparent, and they get passionate about things easily, which, as a whole, is more exciting. Introverts are more on the quiet side, keeping thoughts and emotions to themselves most of the time. I see introverts as more fun to work with, but more difficult to explain ^.^

Depends on the PoV of the story. If you're telling it from the pov of the introvert (3rd or 1st), I personally find it easier to explain them. Extroverts require explanation of the displays of emotion which are generally unnecessary.
If the pov is from someone observing the introvert, then it can be slightly harder to pull off if they are a major character.

i meant extroverts are easier to write in third person, because you don't have to figure out clever ways of showing the character's feelings (lazy...), which an introvert wouldn't show really anyway. An introvert is easier to write in first person because a lot of stuff is normally going on in their head, so their actions are more easily explained and coherent.

This is a generalization, I suppose, but i don't think extroverts need that much explanation of their reactions, it's kind of a knee-jerk thing for them, but i guess you could get into the psychology or it with the subconscious or what-have-you. If you think that way

dirksies wrote:Btw, i think you meant inferiority complex, not minority complex. O.o I'm not entirely sure what a minority complex would be...

Yeah, sorry. I have a nasty habit of mixing English and Danish, since I grew up speaking both.

inferiority is minority in danish?! that might just be an in-language mix-up, but i wouldn't know, i don't speak danish.

"Minoritet" in Danish means both inferiority and minority.

There are tons of mix-ups, but this is a characterization thread, so lets keep it on topic.

wow, cool. You learn something new every day.

Right, right. Hmmm, who to discuss now?

Giovanni- once everything is explained about him, i think he is pretty straight forward. I think he does have a strange desire to take over the world, use it to his own devices, but he also is looking for his soon whom is loves very much. (the son and the father pretty much share no physical resemblance, maybe silver looks more like his mom?) Anyway, he's a genius a Pokemon battles, and, it's hinted at in y that he can talk to and heal Pokemon which makes it a little weird that he would do all those experiments on them.

Silver- he's a really intense guy. I feel like him and green have more in common that either would like to admit. silver is very driven, pretty much going to any extent to succeed at his mission what ever that might be. I can't really tell if he has any feelings for Blue...he might but it might just be in a puppy-love kind of way, and I doubt Blue sees it in any other way than a big sister kind of way. He pretty much idolizes blue, in that respect.

Are you KIDDING? It is so NAUSEATINGLY obvious that Silver is completely in love with Blue. It's hinted at by lots of other people, he acts like it, he LOOKS like it, it's just...UGH. AND SO ADORABLE! X3 *love chosenshipping* And Blue obviously loves him back, though whether it's as more than a brother is hard to tell. I don't really care either way, Chosenshipping is still adorable. <3

No, Silver and Giovanni have some similarities! They have the same eyes! =3 And similar personalities, if you ask me. XDD They both have that 'silent and deadly' thing about them.

Joyfulldreams wrote:
They both have that 'silent and deadly' thing about them.

so....like a fart? Anyway, they do? *looks* Hmmm, sort of Giovanni almost doesn't have an irises whereas silver has, well, silver eyes. Also I'm trying to figure out how silver's a ginger. They do have similar personalties, though, except i think silver has more of a moral compass and giovanni is just out for what he wants.

About the shipping, it might just be my personal preference, but i like having the characters being around the same age or from the same arc. I guess an exception is yellow and red for me, i definately see them as a couple... *shrug* I don't know. For some reason, I can't see blue being tied down the anyone, but i'm willing to be persuaded...

Oh no, I love chosenshipping (one of my OTP's X3), but I think Oldrivalshipping is cute when done right (I was converted by one particularly amazingly written fanfic.), but not in Canon, and Soulsilvershipping has the most ADORABLE fanart and they look SO adorable together. X333 God, I'm going to get soulsilver when it comes out JUST so I can have the name of the ship on my game. XDDDDD

:/


I feel, or at least I need, a guide to what all the different the different shipping things mean. I know there's a guide on Bulbapedia, but....(/lazy). Some of them just confuse me. Augh, sometimes i feel like such a noob.

I absolutely do not believe that Giovanni has those healing powers. It wouldn't make sense at all.

I think that Silver has a crush on Blue. I do not feel that Blue sees him as more than a "little brother".

Giovanni does claim that he is a trainer of the Viridian forest in the yellow arc, which i took to mean he had the same powers. Of course he didn't defeat lance, like he claimed he could and he also doesn't show any type of conection towards pokemon in any way shape, or form, so maybe i was just mis-interpretting that :/

when I first read the yellow arc, and Giovanni said he was a Viridian trainer, I thought too he had Yellow's powers, by the way it was said. But I DO believe, he has some special ability, (or else, what would make him so special to lead Team Rocket?) Perhaps that would be expanded upon in HGSS.

And what happened to GIovanni after FRLG? That still hasnt been explained yet.

As for the Silver/Blue shipping, though I believe that it is well within the realm of possibility, I think Blue just sees Silver as a sibling-like situation.
(shot by Chosenshippers)

I don't care, even if Blue only likes silver as a little brother, it's almost more adorable unrequitted. <3 It makes for a much more interesting relationship, does it not??

Joyfulldreams wrote:I don't care, even if Blue only likes silver as a little brother, it's almost more adorable unrequitted. <3 It makes for a much more interesting relationship, does it not??

it is a cute relationship, and it brings out a different side of Blue.

but my favorite shipping in pokespe, (though im a guy) is franticshipping. even i can see they really care for each other, and they make quite a cute couple.

XD As you can see, I love franticshipping too! *points to icon* I really should draw a new frantichsipping pic...I'm getting tired of this one. ^.^; I drew it a while ago...it looks bad. >.>;

Oh yes, I definately like Ruby and Sapphire as a couple ^.^ They act like such an "old married couple" always bickering and irritating each other, but then enjoying it too. It's kind of cute X3

I sort of like the unrequited version of the Blue/Silver relationship. *head tilt* I don't think Silver quite knows how to deal with his feelings for Blue/ maybe he just likes the relationship has with Blue now, and Blue just doesn't notce, which is a little uncharacteristic of her ...hrm, i need to think more about this

When did this topic get onto shipping? For its sake though, I've never been much of a Silver/Blue...or Silver anything. Those kind of guys along with Green should really just remain bachelors. Ruby/Sapphire I'm good with though, since it's pretty much set in stone already.

Anyways back to characterisation...(I spell it with an 's' cause I'm British )

I think that Green is a usually calm, controlled guy who thinks before he speaks unless he's ticked off, usually by Red. However, he's not an emo and doesn't mind adding his opinion to conversations from a neutral standpoint if he thinks it's going to be helpful (at least after the R/G/B arc), and as a practitioner he's very efficient, concise and strict, not wasting anything. (How else would he manage to train all those Pokemon so quickly?)

Red himself, especially in the R/G/B arc is more act first, think later sort of guy but he isn't an idiot and generally remains serious when he has to be and learns on the go, being very innovative and creative with his battle style. Sometimes he's a tad reckless in his actions when he acts like the hero and going out of his way to stop Team Rocket, like when he sneaks aboard the SS Anne to find out about the Pokemon kidnappings. Generally however, he thinks optimistically and maintains a fairly carefree persona.

Blue is the tricky girl, who confident in her looks and uses them is a generally manupulative way to get what she wants. Her whole battle style relies on tricking opponents anyway so it stands to say she's rather strategic and a quick thinker who's not above playing dirty. As a girl though, she can be quite childish sometimes in her thinking when she's shaken or riled psychologically. In these situations she can be emotional but even then she can use it as a facade, so it's hard to know what to expect her to do occasionally. Also, she seems to like cute things based on her choice of Pokemon.

There, my view on Red/Green/Blue's character. I hope I kept them canon and sometimes I wonder whether Red's is correct...it sounds a little like Gold. But I did my best.

Huzzah, you revived my thread! *pets*

Anyway, I think you were spot on with all your characterizations, and I think you nailed Red. The difference between Red and Gold is that Gold hasn't matured yet. Definitely after the RGB arc, you said Red acting very selfless and strategically in a lot of his choices, whereas as Gold can be those things, but he normally does things off the seat of his pants, working McGyver-esquely to get out of situations.