rpanons | Yer wonderful

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OKAY SO N is a very complex character and a lot of people tend to really get heavy into making him a woobie or a moe character (like Lulubel just, just don't do this I know it's obvious but don't do it, don't buy the phd in n)

The primary thing you need to remember about N is that he grew up with animals. Whether Ghetsis threw him into the wild intentionally or genuinely found him orphaned, N spent his early years developing with Pokémon instead of with humans. As such, a lot of his behaviors are going to be more animal-like. He speaks incredibly quickly, and he's extremely emotional. He's naive, painfully so. And so it follows that he probably has a lot of animal-like body language. What human expression he does pick up, he's picked up from Ghetsis; likely from his speeches as a lot of N's movement is extremely dramatic (the arms held up, the long and not at all subtle shake of the head). He's picked up what he does know of human behavior from the front that Ghetsis uses to entrance the grunts, and the rest is likely very strong body language in his "energy"; whether he stands tall and confidently or slouches and "shrinks" in size, all of which blatantly shows his mood.

He is not good at socializing, not really. He is gentle and friendly, but also very wary; much like you would write a newly caught wild Pokémon. He wants to trust, but he can't, so gaining CR is ideally going to be a slow and tedious thing. He is quite bad at social norms in general (he doesn't even seem to fathom why someone would be upset to have been spied on by the Shadow Triad, for example) and he doesn't really apologize for it, going about things in the most reasonable way he can think of.

N is a character of extremes. He takes things at face value and simplifies things far too much, yet he loves puzzles and pondering the meaning and morality of the relationship between humans and Pokémon. He is loves mathematics and the simplicity of empirical sciences, but he is extremely emotional and acts almost entirely on beliefs (which he treats like a hypothesis, forcing the protagonist to "test" him in battle to validate his ideas). He is highly opinionated and forces his beliefs in the beginning, but he still wants so badly to be friends. He is mistrustful of humans, but he wants to trust them. And it's by the end of the battle and his appearance in BW2 that these things start to slowly meld into a middle ground, a grey area, like the protagonist from the first games.

The difference between BW and BW2 is that in his story, he wanted to simplify things. He had no tolerance for the "but I don't intend to hurt them" response, he scorned Professor Juniper for even categorizing and simplifying them (amusingly hypocritical) because he sees them in the same complexity that you or I see people in. In a way, N was somewhat of a SJW for Pokémon, and his development is realizing that he is being a hypocrite and that his high ambitions are going to do more harm than good because while empirically, he may have had a point... he didn't want to account for any of the gray area. By BW2, he's shown that he's come to understand that. Even if he can't trust every human to do the right thing, he knows that humanity is ultimately good, and he risks himself and his friend to help Rosa/Nate fight the resurgent Team Plasma.

Again, N isn't one to close his ears to answers. He's rather like Colress in this way; when someone presents an alternative or something he hasn't heard, he does intently listen. He's always been a listener, after all. He's never had something said to him that he can reasonably ignore or tune out - it's the pleading cries of abused Pokémon and the deep and meaningful words of Team Plasma that raised him, after all. So even if he disagrees, he will listen to someone else's argument, even if he scrambles a swift response and wanders off before someone can reply. I get the impression that he does it from a restlessness rather than not wanting to hear an opposing viewpoint. But, it is important to note that words are never what change N's mind. It's actions. He refuses to hear anything further from Alder because Alder couldn't back up his claims, and he takes Hilda/Hilbert's words only when they have the other dragon as proof of the validity of their stance.

Okay wow I wrote you a damn essay IF THERE'S MINOR STUFF YOU'RE WONDERING I can ponder such things as well with you.

AND THEN I HAD ANOTHER THOUGHT

As a general rule I don't think it's quite fair to write N as being extraordinarily guilt-ridden or depressed. He is very wistful and reminisces quite a bit about Hilda/Hilbert, especially to Rosa/Nate, but he doesn't strike me as holding actual regret over what transpired. I think it was all a very important learning experience, and though it was painful, he got the chance to see the world for what it really was and meet someone who believed that he would be able to see it that way. Obviously Hilda/Hilbert is a super important figure in his life, and it's a very strong bond. Excellent for a deep friendship or a romantic one (though the latter will have plenty of problems to explore, given N's childlike nature and social impotence). But Rosa/Nate is also a friendship that can be grown upon as well, since they are witness to N after he begins to grow as an individual and the journey for him into being a happy, normal person is one they can be there for.

tl;dr N probably shouldn't be moping since his story conclusion was highly hopeful and promised a decent future for him (difficult, but decent).

thanks a lot anon for writing all that out! that really helped out a lot. I hope I can do him justice, since he's a more complicated character than I usually play. I'm gonna give the canon another go to refresh myself just in case.

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