[Teen] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Unequivocant | Page 10

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Unequivocant (Best Expansion)

Plot

Unequivocant is a story about a fantasy world of talking Pokémon nearing its Judgment Day. From the world of humans, a man named Lawrence Stephenson is sent to capture one of these Pokémon for research, but things go awry as communications are severed and the man finds himself turned into a Lucario. He ends up traveling the foreign world in the company of Cassia, a Gardevoir priestess of Arceus, and Grom, her Golurk guardian. Together, they must spread the word of Arceus to help and salvage the Pokémon in preparation for the upcoming end of days. This is no easy feat when the world is under the rule of a Guild turned evil in the hands of Arthus, a madmon Zoroark. That’s not the only problem, either - as Lawrence is no believer.

I haven’t read too many PMD fics (or fics in general), but I’m fairly certain that as far as PMD fics go, UE is among the more original. The human finds themselves in the world of Pokémon through technology rather than being summoned by a mysterious force, and it’s probably the closest tie to the PMD games’ stories outside the existence of a Guild.

UE plays out more like an original fantasy story rather than a PMD journey, and it’s one of the qualities I really like about it, having had Eddings books read to me as bedtime stories as a kid. Like said, I haven’t read that many stories, but I’d say travelling a pre-industrial magical world in the company of colorful characters is pretty standard for the genre. I would not call it cliché, partly since I just don’t have the authority to make that judgment with the little experience I have, but primarily as the story has a lot of twists and turns along the way and surprises up its sleeve. The kind of twists that you don’t see coming and then make perfect sense in hindsight, too.

What I also love about UE is the fact that it is clearly planned out. I never felt like I was reading filler - everything had a purpose, whether to further the plot, establish characters, worldbuild or foreshadow. This helps the story maintain mostly good pacing.

The biggest detriment to UE plot-wise is its ending. The story has an amazing, epic climax - but the problem is that the story still has a huge loose end to tie up, which results in a final small arc taking care of it. The previous climax being so bombastic and - I actually believe this is the best phrase to use here - of biblical proportions, the latter climax inevitably feels less impressive and more like just a necessary thing to get out of the way. The author has a plan to fix this later on, but judging is judging and potential unfortunately has to be left out of consideration.

Setting

The story takes place in a completely original world, Equivos, rather than any established locations from the PMD world. The author also has many more stories taking place in the same world, so the setting is very fleshed out. If I don’t remember wrong, there are three major continents: Serenita, Cretea and Deitae, the last of which only Legends are able to tread. The main characters travel around the two first continents, searching for towns to help and preach to, coming across many different kinds of biomes and climates. These environments and towns are very colorful, their wildlife and buildings usually described in a paragraph or two at the start of the scene and the main characters feeling the heat, cold, sand, sea air, shock of seeing a gigantic Trevenant move and talk, whatever it may be.

For an entire world, Equivos does seem somewhat small. The population of the whole place is only in quadruple digits, and while the main characters travel mainly on foot, their journey only takes about two months or so. Everybody appears to speak the same language and have a similar culture. It somewhat makes one wonder what makes this world so special to Arceus, the creator of many.

Writing Style & Technical

As mentioned before, UE is a fantasy story and reads a lot like you’d expect one to. There are a few select spots later on in the story where the prose’s style changes, but these are specifically in turning points and used to contrast each other, so it’s a spice rather than an unintended ingredient.

The story is told in third person and with a narrator I guess I should classify as limited. The narrator has access to all thoughts and actions, but doesn’t share absolutely everything - naturally, as that would spoil the twists pretty fast. In every scene, there tends to be a character (sometimes two) whose viewpoint is focused on, and most chapters have scenes focusing on both the protagonists and the antagonists. This keeps things refreshing and engaging and lets all of the major characters have their own turn.

As for grammar or spelling errors, there’s usually 1-7 in each chapter, but they’re all minor, so minor that the average reader probably won’t even notice half of them. There are no errors that would make the message unintelligible.

Characterization

The most important characters of UE are Lawrence (protagonist), Cassia (deuteragonist/supporting), Arthus (antagonist/villain). These are the ones that most frequently get picked as the viewpoint characters in scenes. Other important characters are Grom the Golurk (supporting), Matheus the Lucario (supporting) and Guildmaster Gardner the Dusknoir (antagonist/supporting). Aside from Gardner, they get little or no viewpoint spots, but this is justified due to Grom’s speech and likely thought being limited, and the fact that Matheus has secrets to hide (and is a major character in other stories already, iirc). In addition to the ones mentioned, there are a bunch of minor characters with varying roles and levels of importance, so many that I probably couldn’t list them all off the top of my head without forgetting a few. However, they’re still all distinct in the way that I can remember their contribution to the story and their general personality, so I’d call UE’s character distribution balanced.

With a cast so large, the characters obviously won’t be fully fleshed out 3-dimensional people described with the accuracy of a psychologist, and to me that’s fine. I don’t consider it a detriment to UE as a story, but I’ll likely get back to it in the character judging. I’ll have all the space in the world to talk about Lawrence, Cassia and Arthus there, too, so I’m skipping my thoughts on them here. As for the rest of the character cast, I can’t recall any major inconsistencies. If I had to pick the weakest character, it’d probably be Hanson, who feels somewhat hollow as an antagonist when compared to Arthus and Gardner. However, I can say that no character came off as needlessly unlikable or grating, so no issues on that front.

---

Lawrence Stephenson (Best Protagonist)

Lawrence Stephenson is the protagonist of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Unequivocant. He’s a Pokémon behavior specialist working for a huge company called Valence Tech. He is chosen by the president of the company to be sent to a world populated entirely by Pokémon and bring one back. But upon arriving, the connection is lost and Lawrence finds himself turned into a Lucario. He goes on to travel the region with an Arceist priestess named Cassia. This means conflict, as Lawrence doesn’t believe in Arceus. He dislikes the religion in general, too, as they treat Pokémon as people, when his own experiences say they’re only savage animals.

Originality & Depth

Personality-wise, Lawrence is basically an everyman. He looks ordinary and talks like any average person, if a bit introverted. He’s not really unique or memorable based on any quirks or characteristics, so I can’t say he leaves that much of an impression as a person or stands out. For the purpose of the story, this is fine and probably even for the best, as there are lots of events and other characters that require focus and get it. But judging the character alone, putting it under a microscope, I have to admit that Lawrence is somewhat bland.

I would not call Lawrence badly written, however. His actions and emotions make sense in the situations given. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he fails. He has good qualities and flaws. On the spectrum of Gary Stu-ness, he's in the Plain Jon half.

Lawrence's motives are introduced and explained mostly by his dialogue and internal monologue. Sometimes the questions and realizations he has are voiced by the narrator. His emotions are either shown through his dialogue and actions or told by the narrator. The latter, however, typically only happens for more abstract feelings or when the emotion has already been established through the more subtle first way.

Role & Development

The most important part of Lawrence is his attitude towards Arceists and views on Pokémon intelligence, which is what he has his arc (haha) with. As mentioned before, at the start of the story, he dislikes Arceism. Its philosophy seems to claim Pokémon are equal to humans, when Lawrence has worked with the Pokémon of his world and seen them to be basically animals. Later on it is revealed that Lawrence was an Arceist when younger, but he never seemed to receive any responses, answers or help from the god of legend, so he lost his faith and quit.

Lawrence has many an argument with Cassia and other believers about Arceus. His reasoning is logical from his standpoint: there’s no proof of Arceus existing that he’s seen, he thinks bad things would not happen with a benevolent, all-powerful god around - all familiar arguments atheists use. However, prophecies are told and their content matches the events happening. Matheus appears - a Lucario who says he has met Arceus himself, and received immortality from him. The Arceist Tome provides Pokémon with helpful advice and peace of mind.

Lawrence accepts that Arceism can bring much good - faith in the future, courage to stand up to the Guild and so on. Lawrence also grows much closer to Cassia, receiving and giving comfort when the other is upset. He realizes what the Arceist Tome says about Pokémon is meant for the sentient Pokémon of Equivos, not the wild ones in either world. With the contradiction to his own experiences out of the way and proof of Arceus’s existence piling up, Lawrence’s mind is opened and finally changed. He believes Arceus exists, and eventually learns to have trust in him, too.

However, it’s not all smooth sailing from there on. After a great tragedy befalls him, he has a crisis of faith. He rages at the heavens for a so-called benevolent god for allowing that pain to meet him. With grieving and deep pondering, though, he learns to focus on the good he’s been given and realizes his loss is only temporary, as all will be well in his afterlife. He turns out to be more right on the “temporary” part than he thought, which naturally strengthens his faith and trust in Arceus even more.

Lawrence’s emotions are human. Sometimes he’s irrational and hypocritical, realizing this afterwards and regretting it. He misses his parents and his homeworld, fearing he’ll never see them again. His feelings on being an outsider based on spending a long time as a non-believer in a mostly Arceist region help him bond with Cassia, who also feels cast out (more on that in Cassia’s own character post). He wants to help people and do the right thing. Lawrence is a good person.

Entertainment Value & Summary

Lawrence is not a hilarious jokester or a vile hateable jerk, but he is relatable, making the reader root for him. I wouldn’t say I was at the edge of my seat, cursing the author for putting him through physical and emotional pain, but if I only considered characters like those good ones, my standards would be impossibly high. For Lawrence’s internal conflicts about Arceism, I was interested in seeing his reasoning for keeping or changing his views, but I’d say that was more about curiosity on how the subject would be handled than feeling a deep connection with the character. Then again, I can be a pretty big cynic at times and unable to connect to characters I read about.

Whether Lawrence deserves the title of Best Protagonist… well, it’s hard to say without comparing him to other nominations, and that’s not supposed to be done until the discussion. Is Lawrence a bad protagonist? Not at all, far from it. Could he be better? Yes. Is he the best character within Unequivocant itself? To me, no, I’d pick Cassia for that.

The most objective statement for judging I can give is probably the fact that UE is not primarily character-driven as a story. This means that there are likely characters nominated that have more depth due to their story’s type allowing for more development. From another angle: when I think “Best Protagonist”, I don’t think Lawrence Stephenson. While I don’t really find anything wrong with him, he hasn’t made that strong an impression on me.

---

Cassia (Best Deuteragonist)

Cassia is first introduced as a Gardevoir priestess of Arceus, discovering the protagonist, Lawrence, who’d just arrived in her world. She looks like an ordinary Gardevoir, save for her bright blue eyes. Cassia’s duty and calling is to spread the word of Arceus to any town that has lost touch with the god. By her side is her guardian Golurk, Grom, who can only speak variations of his own name, but Cassia understands him, having travelled with him for so long.

At about one third into the story, it’s revealed that Cassia’s not actually a Gardevoir, but a Zoroark in illusionary disguise - the same species as the tyrant Arthus, the villain of the story. This is no coincidence, as it turns out Cassia’s actually Arthus’s daughter (adopted, but still a descendant of his lineage). She shares Arthus’s ability to control Life, the energy of living beings. However, in personality, she’s his opposite - kind, altruistic and a little shy, though always wanting to speak up if someone’s being mistreated.

Development & Depth

Right after the chapter where Cassia’s true identity is revealed, her backstory is told in three chapters taking place in the past. It starts off with her as only a Zorua, growing up under the loving care of Arthus. For years and years, Cassia only sees good in him, but eventually she has contact to the outside and learns what kind of person Arthus really is - a mad tyrant full of murderous rage planning to overthrow Arceus himself. Distraught, she ends up running away with the help and company of her reprogrammed (read: strongly bashed in the head) guardian Grom.

In the outside world, she’s taught to survive in the wild by an immortal Lucario Matheus, and to teach and study Arceus by Arianne, an elderly Gardevoir. She receives a mask with which she can hide her blue eyes and therefore identity, allowing her to occasionally assume a hidden alter ego and fight off the oppressive Guild in towns with Pokémon in need.

Her development isn’t solely in her backstory, however. Being related to a person as vile as Arthus took its toll on her, making her ashamed of her true identity and her power over Life. She has to disguise herself as a Gardevoir as Pokémon immediately grow fearful and distrustful of her in her real form. However, as she grows closer to Lawrence who accepts her as she is, she finally finds the courage to be her real self to the public.

Cassia’s motivations and actions are consistent and logical within the story. I can’t remember any really out-of-character moments. She can lose sight of the situation due to worry or anger as people do, but she’s worked on the latter part as it only makes her more like Arthus. Her emotions are shown through dialogue, monologue, body language and actions, as it should be for a good character.

With Arceism as a central art of her life, she’s quite passionate about the religion. She feels insulted by Lawrence being dismissive of Arceus, saying he doesn’t exist and disliking his followers. She still keeps trying to change his mind or at least to understand him, and in the end her efforts pay off.

Cassia also has a hobby of drawing. She was taught to do so by Arthus, who also enjoyed it. This made her want to quit, but she was snapped out of it by Arianne Gardevoir. During her journey, she always has her drawing supplies. She’s gotten quite good at it, though humble as she is, doesn’t think much of it.

Role

Cassia provides guidance and moral support to Lawrence, helps him grow as a person and ultimately believe and trust in Arceus. She’s the one Lawrence first meets and who explains him many things about Equivos, her world. Cassia is also a capable fighter in combat, taking part in any fights the heroes find themselves in. In summary, she definitely fits the role of deuteragonist.

Originality & Entertainment Value

Cassia is not the sole one of her kind as a character, but at no point did she seem clichéd or like I’d seen her too many times before. She’s got too much depth to just describe with one trope.

Cassia is my favorite character in UE due to her likability and relatability. She wants to do what’s right and help people, but still has her insecurities. Her presence makes a scene more engaging to me and has me rooting for her.

---

Arthus Zoroark (Best Antagonist)

Arthus Zoroark is a tyrant in charge of the Guild turned evil in Unequivocant. In the story’s beginning, he breaks out of the cocoon he’d been sealed in for the past 2000 years and singlehandedly taking control of the Guild.

Arthus’s goal is to usurp Arceus as a god and create a world where people can do no wrong, taking away choice. He was the adoptive father of Cassia, another main character, but Cassia ran away from him after discovering his cruelty and his plans.

Arthus has an ability only few have: control over the force called Life. This makes him able to drain his opponents’ life force or travel through the veiny Life deposits that run underground across the world he dwells in, Equivos.

Depth

Like all good villains (well, some exceptions exist), Arthus has an actually reasonable motive. Having suffered in the hands of evil Pokémon himself and caring very much for his family, he wants to eradicate evil from the face of the earth. However, being convinced that you're on the right path and that anyone you kill can be brought back later is a recipe for quite a nasty person. Arthus, while claiming all the death and suffering is a necessary evil, clearly does get amusement from bossing around his subordinates, even murdering them to gain some spare Life.

Separate from his anger and sadism, though, Arthus can be very sweet and caring. Upon murdering his adult descendants right after breaking out of his cocoon, Arthus finds their baby Zorua, apologizes and takes her in. This Zorua would grow up to be Cassia. For the maturing Cassia, Arthus is the most loving of fathers, even if out of her sight he still remains the madman Equivos sees. When Cassia finally discovers the side hidden from her, she runs away, causing Arthus great rage, rage at Arceus, but deep down, maybe also at himself…?

Arthus’s feelings and motivations aren’t revealed in the narration as much as the other characters’ - well, partly because he likes monologuing a lot anyway, but it does leave a bit of room for speculation. Is Arthus really doing all of this for his family? Does he only say that to try to excuse himself? Does he consider all of his acts actually necessary, or does he do some just, as TVTropes would put it, for the evulz? This ambiguity can be considered either a good or a bad thing, in the end it’s really up to the reader.

Development

Arthus is a villain specifically because he does not change and refuses to. At the start of his life, he was a hero as well, but after seeing and feeling enough pain, he turns to a path of darkness. His backstory is mostly given via exposition in UE, though, as it’s not his story but more of the other characters’. (He is getting his own in the future, but I’m here to evaluate Arthus only based on UE, so that’s what I’ll do.) Shortly put, he sacrifices his relationships to his close ones (and sometimes the close ones themselves) in order to get closer to achieving his goal. He blames these losses on others, but the others naturally don’t agree. They only see a hypocrite in Arthus: a Pokémon against those who murder and destroy, only to continue to be one himself.

Role

Arthus directly or indirectly causes the majority of the problems our heroes encounter. He’s the reason so Guild is what it is right now and why Arceism has almost entirely been wiped out. There's no question about his position of antagonist.

Originality & Entertainment Value

Arthus is a pretty standard cartoon villain when putting aside his softer side: cunning, proud, bossy, snarky. However, this is what makes him entertaining to read. If the archetype didn't work at all, it wouldn't be one. It runs the risk of wearing out its charm, sure, but that's where Arthus’s caring side comes in to bring variety to his actions and emotions.

There's also the fact that Arthus does have some really cool moments at times. The most obvious example being the very opening scene, but there are also the different ways he utilizes Life and the tricks he pulls.

Arthus ticks a lot of boxes for what we think when we say “villain", and he's definitely the antagonist in UE. He may not be the most surprising or outlandish character for the position, but he's a joy to read, at least to me.

---

Arthus and Cassia (Best Character Interaction)

Arthus Zoroark, the tyrant in charge of the evil Guild, is the adoptive father of Cassia Zoroark, a priestess of Arceus. Arthus adopted Cassia when she was only a baby Zorua after breaking out of his two-thousand-year-prison and killing her parents, which were descendants of his. Arthus sees that Cassia is too young to have yet been defiled by friendship with the Lucario, the species Arthus holds disdain for after their betrayal, and takes her under his care.

Arthus raises Cassia with lots of love - reading her bedtime stories, drawing with her, training her to create illusions and to defend herself in combat. Cassia looks up to him as her father and essentially her only contact. However, when she’s eighteen years of age, she finds out what her father really does when he goes away: oppressing and killing anyone who opposes him or even mere innocents. Her world view shattered, she confronts Arthus about it. Arthus justifies his actions the same way he justifies them to himself - all the murdering he does is fine, as it brings him closer to his goal of usurping Arceus and recreating the world to allow no choice of evil, bringing peace and happiness to all. Cassia, like most others, is not convinced, leading Arthus to lock her in her room. She manages to run away, however, and ends up becoming a priestess of Arceus, the very god Arthus loathes.

For three years, the two don’t meet each other, but the events of the story eventually allows them to meet each other again. Naturally Cassia still hates her father, especially so having seen the work of his Guild at grassroots level. Arthus still wants Cassia back, however, as he still loves her as his daughter, demanding her to be kept alive and safe by his subordinates. He has too long a history of losing family.

Depth & Development

Relative to the story’s length, Arthus and Cassia don’t get that much screentime together. Three chapters are dedicated to Cassia’s backstory, one of them focusing on her childhood and eventually her escape from under Arthus’s care. Later on, they meet briefly during a fight, and for longer after they’ve survived a temple collapse with heavy wounds, separated from the protagonist. Arthus returns to his Guild headquarters, where Cassia later regains consciousness. As she’s weak and in no condition to fight, he can talk to her and try to convince her of his cause once more. Again, though, she only hears hypocrisy, and Arthus is forced to have her imprisoned. She escapes with the help of another antagonist turned good, and if I don’t remember wrong, she doesn’t meet Arthus again. She can’t, either - not before her own death, anyway, since Arthus dies before the end of the story.

Basically almost all of their interaction is on the page, but there’s one detail that implies more depth on Cassia’s part of the relationship. When the protagonist, Lawrence, is searching through Cassia’s bag after her supposed death, he finds a mirror. From the inscription on it, it seems to have been a gift from Arthus to Cassia. Her taking it and keeping it with her for all those years suggests that she still treasures the good memories they had together and wants to see some kind of good in her old man.

Originality & Entertainment Value

A villain having a child on the side of good is no new concept, but I can't say I felt like I’d seen this interaction a million times before at any point. Both sides must adapt to being put against the other. Ultimately, the two want the best for everyone, so it's interesting to see how one will try to convince the other and how the other will respond. In the end, they remained separate still, but will that stand for eternity once death allows them to see each other again? Will Arthus learn to regret his choices? Will Cassia forgive him? We can only speculate.

Role

I think the only effect the relationship has on the story is that Arthus doesn’t kill Cassia whenever he’d have the opportunity, something he’d certainly do if she wasn’t important to her. The two sharing species is a source of conflict for Cassia, both internal as external, and Arthus is the most widely known (and possibly the only one besides Cassia) Zoroark and widely despised and feared, forcing Cassia to hide her true from with illusions. Illusions and her ability to use Life are also helpful during the story. However, these are more about hereditary physical attributes, so they don’t really count as roles in terms of interaction.

ncG1vNJzZmiapaGvorPAq5uepl6jsrV706GpnpmUqHy1scSnZKmnm5q6sLqMprCsrJWnxm6w1KeenqeeYsKvsdCuoK%2Bnk5a7tXqRbW1ub2NkvaKzxGZoaQ%3D%3D