this might be very out of order and rambly and stuff and for that i am sorry. but this is straight from my brain. also this is a very heavy wip. for this i might ACTUALLY try coding my own website instead of using free layouts. this boy is just so so special to me it feels right to actually do the things myself rather than take a random layout. for the time being i will rant in the lower paragraphs
good question! due to the nature of the time that i picked up the game (pokemon legends: arceus) which was around... hm. let me check
i got the game for christmas last year! so christmas 2022. i think. the game came out,, on january 28th 2022? huh? how did i massively miss the hype train for this game? was it really that unpopular? ive genuinely seen so little fan content of it. not counting fics but fanfic is a whole different bag of worms.. every fanfic writer is deranged (positive) (with recognition) (i stand in solidarity with fanfic writers even tho i am not one) ok but aactually this is kinda weird lol ive had to fight for scraps of new content from people who are still fans and even so it tends to be selfship/oc ship stuff which i totally fuck with that but i find myself missing the type of character analysis that you would get out of a thriving fandom. ANYWAY my og sentence was due to the nature of the time i picked up the game i have not seen much talk of it which makes me believe that... not many people actually.. KNOW this guy? which yeah yeah its a pokemon game from the current era its not obscure or anything but. YOU GET THE POINT WHATEVER!!
anyway. to the actual question. Volo is my little babygirl. he is me, he is my boyfriend. he is my husband, my inner demon (joke). he is my silly lil guy. but seriously, he is a character from said game, who starts out as an endearingly annoying merchant and ends up being a final villain of sorts. notice i say villain, not boss, because well. arceus is the final boss.
the bulbapedia describes him as "one of the Ginkgo Guild merchants and a worshipper of Arceus.", "(bearing) a striking resemblance to Cynthia and Cogita, but the relationship between them, if any, is unknown." A summary of the character profile would be that he is excited and curious, takes an interest in the player character, yet also having this be a facade since he reveals himself later to be malicious and clever, having almost a grudge and even a hatred for the player character. he wants to meet arceus and overthrow it, for what reason?: to create a universe anew. this. this is what makes him so incredibly interesting to me. and what leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth towards whoever designed these characters.
this is where i think they truly fucked up. you create a silly character. one that follows you around, almost menacingly, a sort of foreshadowing if you see it that way. his role as a villain is often seen as really obvious from the start. this is sort of a problem because, well, you want it to very much be a surprise. you want the betrayal to sting. they made it too obvious. however this isnt my major problem. ok. he follows you around a lot, provides tips, has playful battles with you. god i really need to replay this game. im going to stick a pin in this but please take notice of the fact he uses multiple pokemon that have friendship based evolutions. i'll come back to this later.
so you make it to the endgame. you do whatever it is you do in the end game. i kind of forgot im gonna search it up sorry. ok i found it. you fight either dialga or palkia. eventually both i think. you win, theres a festival. nice. throughout the game, volo has been very helpful to you to be honest. once you get kicked out of the settlement, he takes you to a safe place to stay. this legitametely warmed my heart. regardless of whether it was just him trying to keep you alive so you could help him get to arceus, or if you believe he does genuinely care for the player character, this really makes me like him.
you meet a woman here, who looks like volo but an old woman. she has playful banter with him iirc. shes clearly suspicious of him though, and one must wonder if her words were just jokes or whether they were laced with true distaste.
once you get to the endgame, volo sends you to find the plates scattered throughout hisui. once you get 17 of the 18, he tells you about giratina. foul being, banished for its hatred and cruelty. theres some sort of symbolism here for sure but im too tired to think of it right now.
he takes you to the ruins of the temple of sinnoh. and this is where he reveals himself. he goes sicko mode, as an image's file name once described him. (i was just trying to send a photo of his 'evil' outfit to myself from a wiki once.. it was literally titled "VoloSickoMode.png" or something along those lines.) his outfit here is really nice i'll analyze it later.
he tells you the truth. HE brought the space time rift here, the very thing that made you get cast out. iirc, many had blamed you for bringing the rift and all it's consequences upon hisui. also the very thing that brought you to these lands in the first place. you were here, because of HIM.
his plan was, albeit quite.. weird. and intense. he wanted to cause enough chaos to get arceus to take notice of him, so that he could take over, take over the world, take over the world to create a new one.
a better one.
he fights you. he loses. but it's ok, it has to be. it has to work. he calls upon giratina.
giratina fights you. it loses. but it's ok. it has to be. it has to work. giratina changes forms.
origin forme giratina fights you. it loses. that's it. it's all failed. everything he had done. it was for nothing. it was pointless. he had ultimately done nothing. his one goal.
he begrudgingly gives you the plate. he's shocked. why you? why would arceus choose YOU? why not him? it was never him. nothing good ever happened to him. nobody ever cared for him. of course even god itself despised him. he was truly alone. he leaves, never to be seen again. he vows he WILL conquer arceus. no matter how long it takes.
this is, essentially the storyline. i added a bit of characterization to him. a bit of propaganda if you will. time to get into why i am a volo apologist
let me tell you, why im so upset. im upset because, they dont give him ANY BACKSTORY! NOTHING! THE MAJORITY OF WHAT WE GET IS SMALL HINTS TO HIS ANCESTRY AND MAYBE A HINT AS TO HIS MOTIVATIONS BUT ITS ALL SO SO VAGUE THAT IT ULTIMATELY MEANS NOTHING! so basically, he has this whole ass villain arc, where he is shown to want to make a better world, and they dont explain why he wants this, they dont explain if he has had any hardships throughout his life. and you know what? this can be good in moderation because it allows for me and my fellow deranged volo stans (is that even the right word to apply to a fictional character?) also unrelated but yeooowch my foot is painfully cramping. anyway it allows for us to do some heavy uhh whats the word. PROJECTING. it allows us to do heavy projecting which is nice but you know what would be nicer. AN ACTUAL BACKSTORY. this genuinely pisses me off because now theres people going around calling him delusional, a psychopath, a maniac, like do you guys even. do you guys even TRY to understand the character or do you just want to throw around words that you're probably not even using correctly. but this is honestly the dev's fault because if you aren't someone who actually cares about the character you might miss the things that make me love him and wish we had more content of him. anyway i know that they have to make more pokemon legends games not only because legends arceus was a rlly cool game, because the name implies there could be more ("pokemon legends:"implies that there is more than one.), but also because this character is too interesting to leave alone forever. please give my babygirl more canon content. at this point it feels like theyve sort of forgotten him. i have hope though cuz the scarlet and violet dlc trailer has a character who kinda looks like adaman, from the same game as volo, so maybe they havent forgotten legends arceus.
also i will die defending him because:
i'll add to this later (animal jam smiley face)
dont mind me im in a rambling mood again. BUT dude. ive been thinking a lot about him lately and ohh,,,,, my sweet sweet boy,,,,, im so sorry. im so so so sorry. first of all he most definitely has some form of depression. second of all ohhh my arceus. my poor traumatized boy. listen to this:
"You see, ever since I was young, whenever I met with something painful or heartbreaking... I couldn't help but wonder why life was so unfair. Why I was cursed to live through such things. Of course, I imagine we all go through something like that. Eventually, I chose to direct all my energy into my own natural curiosity and ambition. And what tickled my curiosity more strongly than anything were the mysteries to be found in legends, in history, in ruins... You see, I fancied that by unraveling these mysteries, I could find out how the world itself came to be–and with that knowledge, maybe even forge a new, better world!"
dude. dudeee. DUDE. WHAT DID YOU GO THROUGH. TELL ME. TELL ME
and then after you defeat him??:
"My journey is over. My story ended when I lost to you."
it gets worse.:
"So Arceus wishes to meet you... Of all people, you had to be the one... Is that why you were brought to this world?"
"Gah! I've no desire to watch from the sidelines as Arceus comes to you! And I absolutely cannot accept a world in which you would ever manage to defeat Arceus..."
"Someday, I'll solve every riddle in the legends of Hisui's Pokémon. And on that day, I'll stand before Arceus at last—No, I will CONQUER it! No matter how many years, how many decades, how many centuries it takes me!"
on the verge of tears right now oh my cod