>>37083413With ORAS Ruby I’d chalk it up to him and Sapphire rounding each other out. He’s way more willing to get into the mud and get gritty and she actually enjoys entering contests with him. You still see elements of his old goofy personality show up every once in a while, and to me at least he still feels pretty distinct from the others. I found him insufferable at the start of RS but by the end he’s one of my favorite protags. Sure at the end you get the “tragic backstory” but while it shows some of his initial motivations it definitely isn’t his whole character.
I think a bigger problem with the ORAS arc is that with how rushed it gets not many get a chance to shine personality-wise. Red and Green are basically just there, and the Pokemon don’t get the breathing room to show any character and just get used for their functions. The arc relies 100% on the reader having read RSE and already knowing these characters.
I’m the guy who said he really liked it but I can definitely acknowledge it felt kinda rushed. But it gave it kind of an action flick vibe which was fun, and once Groudin Kyogre showed up things just kept getting more and more hectic til the very end. Taking it as just an epilogue and already knowing the characters I think it works well.
As for the rest of the male protags, like I said I dropped off after DPP so I can’t comment. Red is actually kinda bland but people seem to give him a pass since he’s the default manga protagonist guy. Which is actually pretty fair I guess.
