Hi there everyone, it has been several months since my last proposal, so as of now I have a new one and for the first time, it's a double proposal and it is for Calem and Serena from the Pokemon X and Y series and for a good reason, since much like Brendan and May from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes, it depends on the player's choice of gender they can play as a male or female Trainer while the unchosen character plays as their rival. I am not familiar with the X and Y anime, but what I do know is that Calem is not in the anime; Serena is. And they are both involved in the manga. On that note, as I have done with Lillie last year, I will instead focus on the game's story and their involvement in the plot. If you guys want to add some of their heroics from the anime or manga, you are more than welcome to do that. Let’s get started.
What is the Works?[]
Pokemon X and Pokemon Y are paired games of Generation VI along with Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (the latter two are not the focus here, but that's beside the point). It takes place in the region of Kalos, and it centers on the main protagonist Calem or Serena, depending on whom the gender the player chooses to be, who embarks on a Pokémon Journey with their rival Serena or Calem (again, depending on the chosen gender). Their goal is just like that of every Trainer from previous generations and after VI, battle eight Gym Leaders and collect Gym Badges for beating them in Pokémon Battles and become the Kalos Champion, while taking on villainous organizations which in their case, Team Flare, but I will talk about them in a moment due to spoilers. They are also accompanied by other friends, Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno who have goals of their own. This game introduces many new aspects including Mega Evolution, Trainer Customization, the ability to move diagonally, etc.
Who are they? What have They Done[]
Calem and Serena are clearly the stars of these paired games and they are Trainers who head out on their Pokémon Journey and they meet Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno at Aquacorde Town where they choose their Starter Pokémon consisting of Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie and when the player chooses their Pokémon, their rival chooses a Pokémon who has a type advantage over them. They later meet with Professor Sycamore, who offers the player, Kanto Starters, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. They also meet Lysandre and Dexio there and the former expresses his desire for a beautiful world. Over the course of the game, the player must battle the Gym Leaders, as well as gaining a Key Stone and searching for Mega Stones for certain Pokémon to Mega Evolve into more powerful versions of themselves. During their journey to gain Gym Badges, they have several run-ins with the villainous Team Flare, who are all dressed in red, and battles them at Glittering Cave when they were trying to steal fossils from the scientists who study there. They also investigate the Kalos Power Plant which the team was responsible for shutting down most of the power source in Lumiose City (more on this motivation later). The player also meets a mysterious tall elderly man named AZ, who seems to utter something about a "flower Pokémon" before leaving, and the five friends later take part in liberating the Poke Ball Factory from Team Flare, but despite their best efforts, they had already stolen most of the Poke Balls, except the legendary Master Ball and Big Nugget, which is given to the player by its president. They also contributed to putting an end to their terrifying plot to eradicate all life (namely anyone who doesn't agree with Flare's ideals) except for Team Flare in order to create a beautiful world. Sound familiar? That's right, the mastermind behind all of this is none other than Lysandre; while he had been friendly for the first half of the game, but after the Calem/Serena defeat the Gym Leader, Olympia at Anistar City, the rival is about to have a rematch, when Lysandre shows his true colors through a Holo Caster. This resulted in the rival putting their battle on hold and waste no time heading to Lumiose City and finding a secret hideout at Lysandre's cafe. They meet with AZ again, who tells them Kalos' dark history of a war that happened 3000 years ago and involving his beloved Pokémon, Floette. Lysandre planned to use the ultimate weapon to his ends and has already taken its key from AZ to gain access to it. Remember the Power Plant's shutdown that resulted in a power outage for most of Lumiose City? Team Flare didn't just cause it, but it redirected its power to the ultimate weapon to get it working again. The player battles Xerosic and after defeating him, he shows them two buttons; which one of them activates the weapon and the other shuts it down. Regardless of the player's choice, Xerosic activates it remotely. The player and his/her four friends hurry to Geosenge Town in the final showdown against Lysandre and Team Flare. Trevor and Tierno head south of Geosenge Town to free the Pokemon, whom are losing their life force due to the ultimate weapon's active state, while Calem, Serena, and Shauna enter the hidden Team Flare HQ. They battle many Grunts and the scientists that work for them. Depending on the game, the Legendary Pokémon Xerneas in a tree state in Pokémon X, or Yveltal in a cocoon in Pokémon Y awaited them and the player manages to free and capture it, resulting in the weapon losing much of its power source. Lysandre confronts them for the last time, only to once again get defeated. The player, rival, and Shauna try to help him understand what he was doing is wrong and he still has a chance at turning his life around, but Lysandre, being the madman he is, does not comply. So he activates the weapon with only a little energy left, to force immortality on the player and his/her friends in X or destroy everyone in the lab in Y, but the player, rival, and Shauna were forced to flee the HQ when they hear this. Due to the weapon's lack of sufficient energy required to achieve this, the blast returns back on the dangerous device, which destroys it along with the HQ and Lysandre is buried in the rubble, saving Kalos from its horrific doom. The player further progress and earns the last badge from Wulfric, battle the Elite Four, and Champion Diantha. Sycamore arranges a parade for the player and his/her friends in honor of the player's ascent to the Hall of Fame and their efforts to save the world and are given the Honor of Kalos ribbon to commemorate it. AZ reappears, and sees the opportunity to rise above his dark tragic past and offers to challenge the player to a Pokémon Battle. Regardless of the outcome, AZ is able to achieve inner peace for the first time in 3,000 years and his Floette subsequently reunites with him after sensing that he understands now what it means to be a Trainer.
Mitigating Factors[]
Well, not what I can think of since those two have sufficient screen time, and the fact that you can play as one of the two. When Calem or Serena are the rival, they actually play an active role in stopping Team Flare whenever they are present, and even when they exhibit mild frustration when losing to the player in their rival battles, it's never down to the level of "sore loser" and they remain considerate to the player, and their desire to become stronger increases and they intended to use their strength to fight Team Flare and protect the Kalos citizens.
Admirable Standards[]
Yup. Calem and Serena have done so much for Kalos and the people that live there. Many Pokémon games tend to be light-hearted and has its own standards, but Pokemon X and Y is notably darker since it brings up very emotional scenes with AZ's history involving the war and his Floette's death, resurrection, and departure from him since AZ actually used the life force of Pokémon to power the machine to bring it back to life and converting it to a weapon to end the war that claimed its life earlier, and Lysandre's intentions of actually using the ultimate weapon to kill everyone except Team Flare and they used the stolen Poke Balls to capture Pokemon, for the purpose of using their life energy to power the weapon; and that's something you wouldn't hear of in a Pokémon main series game. As dark, edgy, and serious as the tone is, it also allows room for a pure hearted hero/heroine to take a stand against this level of evil and brings out the best in them. Bravely taking on a group with an extremely nefarious plot to eradicate all life, including Lysandre, which; restoring power to Lumiose City, ousting Team Flare from places where they are threatening an innocent person or Pokémon, and freeing the Legendary Pokémon to deprive the ultimate weapon of much of its power source and save several innocent lives; for the sake of protecting humanity and Pokémon when their lives were at stake. When Calem and Serena learn what Lysandre intends to do; instead of going along with their rematch, they willingly put it aside, so they can stop his plans from coming to fruition upon realizing how urgent and serious the situation is, heck the rival literally says that he/she wants to stop them to protect his/her friends, and that is because he care about them and values them as human beings. I will bring up the fact that the Calem, Serena, and Shauna did make a fair effort to redeem Lysandre after their final battle and provided some wisdom about Trainers bonding with Pokémon, even though it doesn't bear any fruit and they had to run for their lives when he fires the weapon, since he made that clear that he couldn't be reasoned with at this point. As far as Calem and Serena are concerned, while Lysandre originally had good intentions on bettering the world, his impatience with humanity’s flaws reduced him into a genocidal nihilist over time and he went to extremes in an attempt to reach his goals and while he shows true remorse over the fact that all Pokémon would have to be killed off as well, he does these things since he felt there was no other way to handle these problems; his actions can’t be excused, as it would have resulted in heavy casualties. They had to get in his way to prevent this catastrophe from happening. Bonus points for the player character who accepted AZ's challenge to a battle, which helped him find peace for the first time, which allowed Floette to return to AZ and forgive the horrendous deeds he had done, after being out of his life for 3,000 years straight.
Final Verdict[]
I believe they have a good chance to achieve the PG status, but in due respect, I will let you guys decide on that.