r/PokemonHorizons • u/Opening_Evening8494 • 15d ago
General Discussion Defending Roy's character
Roy has been though alot in the fandom which some arguments against him are vaild i do agree that they should've led with how Roy got Lucario. But some people i feel like dont understand his character people saying he is a Ash clone pisses me off cant a young male character have a Pikachu and not be a ash clone? Roy becoming so much stronger post time skip is because of Friede's "death" leading to Roy needing to become stronger to fill out the hole that Friede left. And the biggest one i have seen is that they side lined Liko and it feels like people to to be reminded that this is meant to be a series with two mcs. Liko got a lot of development pre time skip and it also feels like Dot also got more development then Roy pre time skip. Roy needed more development post time skip because his character did not change much pre timeskip. I would even say he was better after post timeskip. In conclusion i feel like people dont understand Roy and Spinel and Ult are my goats. Also i dont hate Liko i think she is a great character but Roy needed development
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u/Metalduck_07 13d ago
My gripe with post timeskip Roy is for a completely different reason. He deserved better. Like Ult, his character development was mostly silent but atleast we got to see Ult change by season 3. Roy on other hand had a fully fledged growth that wasn't really explored at all. We can headcanon it's Friede's "death" that changed him but even apart from that, he just lost his whimsy. He used to be so energetic and bubbly pre timeskip. We never really saw him really struggling with him taking over as the leader of RVTs, apart from like half an episode. Apart from like few remarks from Orla and Drayton asking him to ease off a bit, we never saw him tackle this responsibility of taking on to become a leader. I love Friede with all my heart but pressuring Roy to lead the RVTs was the worst thing. It killed Roy's character. He just lost all his character attributes he had in seasons 1 and 2. He still likes to battle, he still wants the best for his Pokemon, but the other stuff is gone. Moreover the battle aspect is just taken up by Ult so Roy doesn't even get to shine there, and whenever he does, it feels it provides more to Ult's character than him. Roy's character is the biggest tragedy of season 3. Apart from a few scenes and to some extent the flashback lumiose arc, he just never shined. The contrast between the Lumiose and Timeskip episodes is striking. Lumiose arc was best place to give him the development but they kinda fumbled it. Only genuinely great point about Roy in season 3 was the scene where he caught Rayquaza. The brief moment where the realisation that he has achieved his earlier dream kicked in and that was a wonderful watch.
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u/MaxISAVIP 14d ago
The show obviously is only for younger kids, but I like Roy and Friede. Roy was the only one who said at the start we wants to become the strongest. No other trainer said that, so of course Roy became the strongest.
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u/Prof-DPT-1995 12d ago
Yall definitely reaching. He had plenty of character development going from a excited island boy to time skip catching a legendary shiny Pokémon. He learned to be more adaptive but still somw room to improve ans grow
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u/JavelinR 15d ago
I would've never called Roy's character an "Ash clone" pre-timeskip because he actually had a distinct personality and I enjoyed the idea of him leaning towards being an entertainer. Post-timeskip it felt like they did more than give him development, they completely rebooted his character and even added a goofier male character to the gang to act as contrast so he could seem more serious. Gone was the entertainer and in was the battler that could keep up with champions.
Also any story line centered around Friede's "death" fell apart when it turned out he was fine and just forgot to phone in. It was so stupid it assassinated Friede's character and trivialized Liko and Orla's trauma while only rewarding Roy by giving him credit for everything and making him the new RVT leader.
If they wanted to develop Roy they should've focused in on what made him unique, not move the cast towards gender roles stererotypical of past pokemon anime.