The antagonist group of Pokémon X, Team Flare – by baruch97
Up to six gym badges now; Bug, Cliff, Rumble, Plant, Voltage and Fairy badges. The Plant gym was quite straight forward with my main Pokémon being a fire type (Delphox). The Voltage and Fairy type gyms were also quite simple as my Pokémon were 12+ levels higher than the Pokémon I faced at the gym – ah the rewards of fighting 95% of the battles I come across =P. Beyond the Pokémon gym battles, the other main story element being driven currently is Team Flare and their unrevealed goal.
None of the new gym leaders so far have been as interesting as Korrina, though I suppose with my trainer having met Korrina towns before I faced her in the gym there was an already established connection and excitement for the inevitable meeting we would have. Progressing the story in that way made Korrina’s character feel relevant and an important part to your journey as a Pokémon trainer. The gym leaders you do meet right before you battle them don’t have the same connection; you meet them, battle them and then say goodbye. It is quite the tranquilized encounter with nothing much to tie in with your overall Pokémon adventure. They could end up like Viola on the other hand who continues to be a relevant character by becoming the goal of the Battle Chateau on Route 7, and just like her, the other gym leaders could reveal themselves after their defeats at some point and establish a situation in which they will continue to be relevant to your adventure across the region of Kalos. The Fairy gym leader, Valerie, does have an amazing character design, so it would be nice if her character could become further relevant to the story.
Gym leaders (left to right) – Clemont (Voltage), Korrina (Rumble), Grant (Cliff), Viola (Bug)
Turning to Team Flare now, their activities at certain facilities across the Kalos region have been quite distressing. First they hijack a power station and siphon off a large portion of electricity and then later in your trainer’s adventure you find them hijacking a Pokéball production factory in order to steal Pokéballs. If not for your fortunate presence in those regions, their dubious activities would most likely have continued operating for a while longer. The question to ask now is what do Pokéballs and electricity have in common, how exactly does Team Flare intend to use those two parts alongside their Pokémon? They need a lot of power and Pokéballs for something =/. Well as I try to figure that out, I am overwhelmed by suspicion towards a heroically painted character – Lysandre, I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but something about him just makes me not want to trust him (maybe this feeling is what the developers intended?). Plus his character design makes him looks like the guy who is the head of Team Flare (red colours and that hair). Lysandre being so outspoken about Team Flare’s activities may just be a rouse to distract people from his actual involvement =/. His extremes views can align with Team Flare’s existence if looked at from a certain perspective.
Also just was a weird moment which happened to me as I was half-awake exploring Lumiose City. I entered one of those business buildings and as I entered the 2nd floor from the elevator, the game entered a cut-scene with a Hex Maniac purple haired girl exiting the elevator behind my trainer and evaluating him. After a few seconds, she noted ‘I wasn’t the one’ and ran off inside the room. The strange thing was when I went exploring that room it was empty. I was pretty much fully awake that point, I went to the third floor, back down to the first floor and then the second floor again, but I wasn’t able to encounter that ‘person’ again. The fact that I was half-awake makes me doubt what I saw, but I’m pretty sure it was a scripted event. It’s nothing really substantial to the story of Pokémon but it was a scene which shocked me =P.
Looking forward to facing my last two gym leaders and finding out what Team Flare is up to.
12Dimension 