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pokemongoloresociety · 1 year

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This Reeks Of...

I read the Hoenn quest leaks, and had some thoughts! Feel free to share you own with me by tagging this tumblr or quoting. Spoilers ahead!

I'm going to try my best to keep my perspectives and speculations surface-level. Yes, there is a lot here; but having a year between story updates gives you too much time to think.

GO Rocket Leaders In General:

I genuinely feel sorry for them. I've always felt sorry for them, and I've always thought the three of them were in a boiling frog situation given the brand of Giovanni they're working under. These lines cement those feelings. If anything, they're worse off than I thought and are extremely vulnerable but talented people brimming with potential under the right form of guidance.

All of them are riding on a facade of confidence in various flavors. It's an interesting take on its own. They're acting like how they think they should act while how they genuinely feel still comes through. This might be one of those 'fake it til you make it' tales, which would be cool, if not a little meta.

The theme of the three of them running away from themselves becomes more obvious. We saw the GO Leaders overcome their weaknesses; we're witnessing little fragments of the GO Rocket leaders being consumed by them.

Cliff cites Arlo and gives him proper credit for where his knowledge comes from. Sierra doesn't care much, but she does take credit for telling you the info. Arlo uses it as a moment to dunk on Candela AND Willow. (I might have to make an entire post just unpacking Arlo's details alone.)

Arlo and Cliff start out aggressive, with Cliff becoming more personable and Arlo going a bit more resistant. Not entirely tsundere, as he's still very resistant and insistent on keeping a status quo. Despite being appointed leaders (or at least execs/admins), you see parts that would turn potential followers away.

I'm appreciating the level of psychology and nuance they're introducing in such a simple format, and exploring the aspects of what being a leader can take. Self-care, self-forgiveness, and facing your shortcomings are pillars. If I had to say: Cliff lacks self-care (all his care is on Giovanni); Sierra lacks self-forgiveness, and Arlo lacks the courage to face his fears.

I'm also appreciating the fact that all six of them are embodiments of certain core traits, mirroring the positive and negative sides of them. The GO Rocket leaders show a new potential: that their negative sides aren't something they need to overcome, but to utilize in a better light. Pokemon has always shown us that the world is more complicated than good vs bad; that "good" fairy types can be some of the most dangerous; and that scarier types like dark (called "evil" in Japan) and ghost can be misunderstood saviors.

Based on these details, I will write another post later on exploring how each Rocket Leader could potentially contribute to the GO Leaders, and vice-versa.

Cliff:

Cliff's backstory as a rancher fills my prior suspicions about him relying on calculation. Running farms and ranches takes a lot of work and cannot be done alone; not only do you have books to balance and resources to juggle, but you have to develop extra senses for your animals (or, in this case, Pokemon) and the seasons. I wonder what made him lose it?

Combined with the prior themes of abandonment, I'd suspect that some parts of Cliff's demeanor is what pushed people away. You can't run a ranch by yourself, and we see it decaying in his intro video. You can see how he'd be a great and encouraging leader, and he presents his wisdom in a way that's easy to follow. But, there are cracks in his line of thought and personality.

What stood out to me was how he thought Willow was your leader, and was surprised to hear otherwise. Even with all the time that's passed, Cliff has holed himself into a line of thought. Even Arlo presents himself as being observant enough to refer to Willow properly.

I'm now under the impression that Cliff may not be as well-liked as I thought in GOR. I've known people like Cliff. Very loyal, but this loyalty is steeped in sadness, fear, and insecurity. He's happy to be around the grunts and play with them, like when they invaded the 2020 festival and he was eager to get back to hanging out with them after beating you up. But, you also see in his intro where he's losing his absolute shit at the grunts sitting around; presumably without even asking what they were doing (for all we know, they could have been on a break or avoiding overexerting themselves). While most of the grunts love Giovanni, Cliff has made Giovanni into his religion.

Sierra:

Sierra gave me whiplash. When you beat her normally, she assures you that it's not going to happen again. In this text, she's more obviously self-deprecating. I would not be surprised if she blamed herself for all of her loss and situations; like her own Absol (And misappropriated to misery, just like an Absol).

For context to #1, I'm still not sure if she was just an orphan; or if she was an orphan who ALSO lost her own husband and child when she got the chance to start her own family, which would add another layer to her reclusive nature and lone lioness motif. The intro shows two sets of images and it's easy to interpret it as two different bad outcomes. Her being in charge of the Rocket eggs says a lot about her hidden nature as it is. She definitely wants a family or a place to belong to, but she keeps telling herself otherwise.

She acknowledges loss as a lesson, but she also still treats it like something that could warrant punishment. I get the impression that her fear of failure isn't an ego thing, but acknowledging the price of her security. If she fucks up too much, she may lose the last sanctuary that she's known under Giovanni. It needed to be noted that this Giovanni comes off as less forgiving and on par with the Rainbow Rocket version than the one defeated by Red.

This brings me back to her same-differences with Spark. Both are willing to take their chances, but Spark is ready to gamble. His lapel pins are a pair of die that, together, make "88", a good luck symbol. If one could assume that both she and Spark had the exact same experiences up to a point, Spark took his losses as lessons, and learned to trust his instincts in order to take those gambles. It's as if he says: "I've been through worse, I can take it because the prize at the end might be worth it!" Sierra took them as punishments, and she's afraid of losing her safety net.

I think it hits me harder because she's witty. It's rare you see a female character who's both hot AND funny, and is clearly in on the joke if she isn't the one who's leading it. It makes me want to see her have a happy ending. Definitely Bayonetta and Fujiko Mine energy.

Arlo (Holy shit, this guy is baggage incarnate despite having the least revealed backstory how is that even possib):

Starts out aggressive like Cliff. He does become more tsundere, but it needs to be noted that his level of resistance towards receiving any affability is beyond the moe trope. I found it unsettling and well-written.

He's more focused on resisting his feelings, unless they involve his play for power.

He has absolutely no love for Giovanni. I can't recall a Pokemon character like this who's worked for Rocket. I've seen admins show greed and cynicism to some things, but they've largely been respectful to Giovanni (or at least pretended to be). Arlo does nothing of the such, and even corrects himself to imply that the glory will be his, and not Team Rocket's.

I'll admit; it is interesting to see Rocket being used as a tool from within. If Arlo had his shit together, he could be one of the few named Poke G-Men (Could he still be?) Candela said Arlo didn't even like Team Rocket, and he still doesn't, even after all of this. I had a headcanon that Arlo is a double agent. And he's... still kind of is. At least for himself.

He's reminding me more and more of Lear from Pokemon Masters before his character evolution. I'm pretty sure Lear was inspired by Arlo, likely a mashup of both Candela and Arlo. Lear and Arlo are both nobles, and it's safe to assume, considering the things Arlo has said, that they were expected to play into a harsh game of life, and that any kind of softness/sweetness was seen as weakness. Both of them go pants-on-head crazy when they get a blow to their ego and do something big. Though, I'd say Pasio is a somewhat more positive thing (the ethics of making an artificial island aside) than, uh, what's involved in making Shadow Pokemon and being a dimensional/space terrorist.

Arlo cannot proverbially get off of Candela. The fact that he's actually an engaging orator and capable of having some clarity on a situation makes his obsession with her more jarring. Even though it's just some quest text, I could tell he could be a good teacher. He has the underpinnings of some of the most well-loved rivals in the franchise. He's also very much a mad scientist.

Even with Arlo's insanity, it's hard NOT to feel bad for him. His shit goes way deeper than just BAWW CANDELA MEEN uWu; We need to remember that he's still an adult carrying on like this with a lot of power, battle skill, and authority (rather the facade of it) in his hands. There's a lot to unpack here. I'll dig more into that in the future.

Because of this, Candela is Arlo's strawman. Flowing with the theme of the GOR leaders running away from themselves, it's easier for him to blame her than it is for him to look deeper within and fix himself or question his presumed upbringing or personal beliefs. If I had to guess, this is likely a factor as to why Candela was crying when she gave Willow her part of the Mysterious Scraps to Willow one week later. There is no sane reason to go as far as Arlo did to get revenge against one person for merely 'beating' him. It's bad enough that he was, presumably, gunning to become Valor leader. But I think it goes beyond that. People who act like Arlo have a hard-set narrative in their heads, and lose it when people don't play to their fantasy. This actually reminds me of some of Giovanni and how he seems to surround himself with the competent, but insecure, so that he can control his little world. He's just blunt about it.

With the new dialogue, the fact that his uniform resembles a fireman's outfit and his intro quote: "Remember, fire is a fickle thing. When controlled, it provides warmth, but in the wrong hands, it burns." enforces that Arlo is afraid of enduring pain in order to become stronger, as well as unable to comprehend that some elements must be embraced as they are, and not tamed. It also (and likely mostly) shows that Arlo goes into unknown situations with the expectation that trust won't be granted, so he has to shield himself. This makes more sense when we understand that many Pokemon, especially fire types, will work hard to avoid hurting the humans they come to love in trust. He's trying to compete against someone who's been shown to hug the soul-eating Litwick. I'm beginning to assume Arlo didn't become a leader because he wasn't ready to endure and only wanted to aggressively dominate. The catch is that Candela's or (presumably) Moltres' fires weren't his fear, but his own inner flame that's dying to thrive.

Pretty crazy for Giovanni to run an entire campaign presumably spearheaded by the grudge of your newest member and admin who is only loyal to his own reflection and his personal vendetta; isn't it? Gio really is a devil-figure. He knows what he's doing and he doesn't care. I am under the impression that Gio's plan is to take everything once Arlo has failed.

So, what DOES this reek of?

A redemption plot! No idea if I'm right. I guess we'll see! But, I've heard this story too many times from too many different angles not to see the potential makings of one. I expect at least one of them to pull a 180, if not all three.

What would it take for these three to leave Rocket?

Cliff and Sierra would have to get the boot from Giovanni to leave Team GO Rocket. This would be a devastating blow to both of them, as they've found refuge within Team Rocket.

I imagine Cliff would be the only one who really begs to come back, while Sierra would blame herself, try to move on, and likely become more isolated.

Of the three, Arlo might be the one in the most danger and may not simply be sacked; he may even use the chance to usurp Giovanni. He's sly and manipulative; so is Giovanni. I came to suspect that the target of Arlo's manipulations might be Giovanni, and it looks as if that's the possibility. I do think Giovanni may be one step ahead of Arlo; well-aware that they're both using one another, and milking Arlo of his knowledge and insight until it becomes too inconvenient to play into his shenanigans.

I'll add that it seems as if I may have bias towards Arlo and Candela, but they've had the most loaded story in GO that shows a lot and still has its own mysteries behind it. Arlo also feels more like the game's antagonist than Giovanni does, at times.

I'll follow up in the future with my thoughts regarding how each pair of foils balance off of one another.

#pokemon go #spoilers #giovanni pokemon #leader arlo #leader cliff #leader sierra #team go rocket #hoenn tour

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