Hugh's Motivations

[Philip619]

Hugh's motivations to follow Team Plasma up and down Unova seem downright paltry. I mean, it must upsetting to have your little sister's Pokemon stolen, nevertheless this happened 5 years ago (why bother now,) thus obviously it's allegiance would have had changed or it would have evolved (which happened,) and said Pokemon is nothing less than a flimsy, feeble Purrloin level 2! (indeed there is nothing less.) probably caught out of Aspertia.

Why, oh why he does not caught another one for her sister. Even the shadow Triad gave the Liepard back knowingly how bad it was. I understand it was a gift from his deceased grandfather, yet if no one in his family tried to recover it on the moment or at least 2 years before, when original Team Plasma disbanded, it would be precise to conclude it was of no real interest to them.
Instead, Hugh is a liability for me when we team up. In addition, I despise his character when he says he will unleash his rage and I end up doing all the work. Anyway to the point...

In the end, Hugh's motivations to follow current Team Plasma, after a tremendous time gap and for such awful pokemon is IMHO moronic.



If you are a fan of Hugh, or otherwise believe his conviction are adequate, please feel free to discuss with me in a rationally manner.

Regards,
Phil

[Matezoide]

Hugh is ''bothering'' now because he is old enough to have pokemon and actually fight for it. Regarding Team Plasma's disbanding two years ago, theres no proof they didnt try to recover the Purrloin, it is perfectly possible (If not likely) that they just failled to find it, adults are useless several times, as far as fiction goes.

As far Hugh being weak in the team ups, blame the gameplay, it doesnt means he is a weak trainer (Canon-Wise), it means Gamefreak was lazy with the AI.....again.

The Purrloin was a gift from his grandfather, who cares if it is common or crap? It is something important for Hugh, it holds a lot of emotional value to him and his sister. If someone stole your dog (A common breed, i mean), would you just shrug it off and say ''Meh, i can just get an identical one''?

His motivation was to recover a pokemon that holds severe sentimental value to him and his sister, and as soon as he got a pokemon, he did everything in his power to take down Team Plasma and recover it.

I see very little trouble with his motivations, the reason they arent better explained in the game is because.....well, it is Pokemon lol

[Philip619]

His motivations are not bad per se, still the miles he has to go to fulfill them is what has an odd texture. He strives too much for what is rationally a lost case. Would you go abroad to look for an stolen dog your father gift your sister 5 years ago? This is unrealistic and makes his deeds big for such a context. If it is plot based that his parents did not went or succeeded in recovering Purrloin - the story never explains it which makes the time gap a period of neglect by part of his parents and (even if he did not had Pokemon) of him.

Even in the beginning of the story, he already had a Pokemon. Furthermore, Hugh explains ¨There's something I have to do! And to do that, I need someone I can trust besides my partner Pokémon,¨ hence he was waiting on the Main character to receive a Pokemon. Yes, he was seeking to absorb us into his lost case. Otherwise he would have embarked on his cause before. This just make his motivation more plot based and egoistic.

Ultimately, the lengths and breadths he travels are encouraged for a simplistic Purrloin, which even if her sister cared or not for it, is a 100% lost cause, the reason being that it is already owned by someone else. In addition, the Purrloin evolving into a Liepard was a total blow to his purpose, that it immediately made all his effort futile.

[Antihaxxer]

It's one of the rason I like BW1 Plot more than BW2 plot. (And 2 rivals > 1 rival)

[TM13IceBeam]

It's not exactly a lost cause. Hugh is still a child when the Purrloin was forcefully grabbed and stolen from him by Team Plasma. He'd have been emotionally scarred by such an event, and the only way for him to overcome such an emotional barrier would be to reclaim the Purrloin back from Team Plasma. The thing is that Hugh, despite so, is a rational person: he knows that he can't just waltz into Team Plasma's hideout with absolutely no Pokemon to back him up: that's akin to suicide.

Think of it. His sister lives in the same household as him. Every day, he is essentially being tortured by the guilt of not being able to protect his sister. The living sight of his sister is enough to remind him of his weakness and his inability to stand up for everyone.

Yes, it is cliche, no doubt about it, but think not in terms of real world perspective, but through that of the game character itself. To others, it could simply be a mere Purrloin and the area outside of Aspertia is fucking overrun by them, but to Hugh, it is more than that: it signifies the bond between him and his sister.

Also, in-game performance generally has little bearing on plot, and vice versa. Takaya of Strega in Persona 3 was a complete badass in cutscenes, was shown fatally wounding at least 3 people in plot sequences, yet he completely sucks when you get to the inevitable boss battle against him. In the context of Pokemon, I can also say that every single Gym Leader/E4 member are complete shit in battling because they only specialise in 1 type which is easily exploited through type matchups. Doesn't change that they're still the fucking Gym Leaders/Elite 4 members.

tl;dr: your mileage may vary, but honestly Hugh's actions are perfectly reasonable in-game imo. The reason why its not exactly explained... well, why would the game designers bother to put in 1 entire speech on Hugh's intentions? All they needed was to make the point clear that he's attacking Plasma for Purrloin. Do they need to make any more mention of whatever crap Hugh or any other NPC in the game is thinking? I don't think so.

[Mekkah**]

Hugh is a simple character. His motivations are somewhat lazily designed, but at least he's not contradictory. It would have been nice if the things we kind of have to assume here (previous attempts at getting Purrloin back, etc) were explained in the games (this is why we have NPCs...we even have access to Hugh's house!) but other than that I don't have a huge problem with him.

N is still the worst BW character and one of the worst Pokemon series characters of all time.

[Antihaxxer]

What ? I don't understant that statement on N

[TM13IceBeam]

N is stupidly cliche, naive and has extremely low EQ.

[Antihaxxer]

Like all characters in Pokemon games ?

[inanimate blob]

God, I love N though.

Hugh was the first rival I felt bad for calling "A sshat", like I have all the rivals. He didn't have the motivation simply to be better than you, rather a just cause that he actually wants to defend.

And as we've seen in the past (Ash's Charmander and Tepig, for example), Pokémon are able to change to new alliances. They're smart enough. Surely Liepard would remember it's original owners, and want to go back to them.

I especially like the part about Hugh being the first Trainer in the handheld games to actually have their Pokémon stolen (besides that guy's Clefairy and Buneary in D/P/Pl.

[Rayquaza_]

I never thought I'd ever see someone stating that N is a bad character with a straight face.
He's widely considered the best written character in the entire series, so you're going to need far better arguments to demonstrate that he's worse than any other Pokemon character.
Good luck.

[Jimera0]

Originally Posted by Fat inanimate blob

God, I love N though.

Hugh was the first rival I felt bad for calling "A sshat", like I have all the rivals. He didn't have the motivation simply to be better than you, rather a just cause that he actually wants to defend.

And as we've seen in the past (Ash's Charmander and Tepig, for example), Pokémon are able to change to new alliances. They're smart enough. Surely Liepard would remember it's original owners, and want to go back to them.

I especially like the part about Hugh being the first Trainer in the handheld games to actually have their Pokémon stolen (besides that guy's Clefairy and Buneary in D/P/Pl.

Actually there were those Pokemon stolen by team plasma from a kid at the start of B/W (where you need to go in Wellspring cave and battle them with Cheren), and Bianca's Munna gets stolen for a while in Castelia city. Though both those Pokemon are returned in short order so not sure if you're counting that.

[Mekkah**]

Originally Posted by Fat Rayquaza_

I never thought I'd ever see someone stating that N is a bad character with a straight face.
He's widely considered the best written character in the entire series, so you're going to need far better arguments to demonstrate that he's worse than any other Pokemon character.
Good luck.

I may have exaggerated a little: obviously N is more interesting and deep than Youngster Joey, and probably empty characters like May/Brendan (your RSE Rivals). However, as you say, everyone seems to think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that annoys me.

Remember what I said about Hugh being rather simple, but at least not contradictory? N is. N is completely sucked into the silly Plasma mentality of wanting to liberate every single Pokemon, even though he can communicate directly with Pokemon. I think this trait of his has been called unique by one or more fellow in BW2 at least, but at the very least this is apparently very unusual. He is supposedly pretty much the only guy in the world that knows exactly how everyone's Pokemon feel.

When he talks to your Pokemon (I believe in front of Skyla's gym?), he finds that they're happy the way they are. They like being with the player's character. And yet, he continues to help Ghetsis.

Also, I love Ghetsis and all his evilness, but he is pretty stupid for letting N roam around freely. He basically imprisoned him for the first I believe seven years of his life, only letting him near Pokemon that had been harmed by their Trainers or something, making him believe Pokemon should not be with humans. And then he gets to travel around freely, meet a bunch of wild Pokemon that have not been traumatized and even catch them (if temporarily), and meet a bunch of Trainers that have happy Pokemon.

But he'll still help Ghetsis.

So basically, either we have to assume that Ghetsis (a man capable of manipulating entire crowds of randoms, his own organisation, and N himself) and N are completely retarded and/or incompetent, or that they are written poorly.

I especially like the part about Hugh being the first Trainer in the handheld games to actually have their Pokémon stolen (besides that guy's Clefairy and Buneary in D/P/Pl.

Pretty sure Team Rocket stole Pokemon, just off screen. Or if you don't count that, we know Silver steals at least two Pokemon (his starter and the Cianwood dude's Sneasel, also known as the guy who gives you a Shuckle). Come on man, know your classics!

[Satisfaction]

N was conflicted after seeing that your pokemon were happy, but he was so trained in his belief that pokemon shouldnt be with humans that he suppressed the thought welcoming you to fight his truth with your ideals, he was imo the only real rival in pokemon black not Cheren or Bianca, they both knew I was better than they were. N didnt really go against his character until b2 which is justified as he had been pondering his new truth the entire time of the break and has decided to openly oppose his father. From what we have seen of Ns childhood he was a rather spoiled boy being able to frolic freely with his friends live in a huge castle etc, Ghetsis his father was probably the only human he ever knew and the only one that held the best interest of pokemon. Its only natural for him to be conflicted when all of a sudden the sayings of this man are put into question with the words of a peculiar girls pokemon.

About Hugh, his motivation for saving purrloin has to do with him being strong enough to do it now as well as finally having a companion that could keep him on edge.

[coxodoina]

it doesnt means he is a weak trainer