>>46707637But Silver spends a good deal of time in Johto being confused about his scolding from Lance and beginning to begrudgingly respect the player. In Mahogany Town his worldview gets turned upside down and he's trying to come to terms with that when you encounter him in Goldenrod Underground, in Victory Road, and between the two when an NPC trainer tells you about her encounter with him. When he leaves the Kimono Girl theater in HGSS he also says that he doesn't want to see you win, showing the aforementioned begrudging respect. Not until Kanto has he truly started to change his ways and not until the final battle with him does his change of heart truly show by the facts that his Golbat evolved, that he has his starter out walking with him in Dragon's Den, and that he tried to return the stolen starter Pokémon to Professor Elm, who decided to let Silver keep it because it looked happy to be with him. It is really reductive to pretend that all he does is a quick 180 from raw edgelord to nice person, and likewise to pretend that being Giovanni's son doesn't insinuate plenty of things that justify his initial disposition as a selfish, cruel and insecure person.
Also since people are talking about Blue, it's worth nothing that he has no character development whatsoever until a single line by Oak at the very end of the game, when Oak says Blue had forgotten to treat his Pokémon with love and respect. He did let the power trip of championship get to his head for a bit, but that's all. He has personality, being a cocky guy who loves to take jabs at people, but he has no development besides what I just explained.
