>>57243084It's the kind of plot where I'm more interested in how the characters feel about their situation instead of just what's going on. Circe knows how to prune a garden, but how does Grym feel about the idea of life being cut short when she's just starting to adjust to living again? What insight does she have? Can she recall anything about being dead, or does the hole in her memory terrify her? Would Cain entertain the idea of Gray sentencing him if it means he can let go of the guilt? There's a driving question of life that's supposed to be steering these characters, but the actual series of events (THAT'S PRESENTED TO US) doesn't actually give any meaningful answers beyond "hey, maybe we shouldn't let sociopaths kill people on a whim," which y'know, whatever, agree to disagree.
The funny thing is, Midori and Polara are the only ones who actually have a satisfying non-arc. Midori doesn't care about the grand quest because she's just here to play a role, which is based. Polara freaks out because she's just playing a character and her role in the story is over.
I keep trying to gently nudge you in this direction, but you'd probably have a better idea of what you want to actually accomplish with these characters if you treated their Pokemon as characters too and not just accessories. Polara kills herself because her relationship with Gray was fake, discounting her relationship with Blacephalon and the rest of her team. Those memories were also fake, but that's a two-way street, right? Wouldn't making real memories with them be something worth living for? How does Hali feel about being confronted by someone whose life has just been a performance act? Sympathetic? Self-conscious? Does Gray's use of Polara reflect the way Trainers use and discard Pokemon?
It's the kind of plot driven by philosophy, not action. Now if you had a cast of characters at the end of their lives going off to fight one last fight with nothing to lose, that might be more your style.
