d_s_t_e's Wattpad Reviews

PC Zero Continued: Crystal

* Again, spoilers everywhere. If you haven't read the book, seriously stop or this will ruin the entire thing for you.

I'm going to start off by talking about our point of view character. Crystal is a young Piplup who was raised by her adoptive mother, Suzie the Kangaskhan, along with her 29 adopted siblings. She wears a special striped scarf given to her by Suzie, which is also the home of Angel the Togekiss and a sheath for the Wind Wolf. In case any of you forgot, that's the name of her special sword, constructed from an array of blunt arrows, a single sharp arrow, and some fabric that ties it all together. It's a very special sword, how could you forget what it's called? Oh, wait, Crystal only mentions it by name once in the entire book? Hm...

Anyway, Crystal is also a natural with a bow and arrow, actually so much of a natural that it scares her. She has an array of mysterious combat abilities, along with a penchant for blacking out and losing control over her body. She also tends to doubt herself and her abilities and spends significant amounts of time questioning their entire journey and suspecting herself of crimes  that everyone else says are impossible for her to have committed.

She's friends with Megan, quickly becomes friends with Shelly, and eventually gets along with the entire group of shining warriors plus entourage. She has no interest in romance and makes a point of saying so. She has no real enemies except for those who threaten the shining warriors as a whole... unless you count Panzer, who has secretly been her enemy since birth (creation?) and only reveals this at the most opportune time.

Her Motivation

In order to determine how Crystal's character arc unfolds, we first need to determine what her plotline centers on. What is it that Crystal wants? What is it that really drives her? What is her ultimate goal?

Well, um... She wants to travel around and see the world? We established that in the previous chapter. She wants to leave home and has both normal reasons and mysterious reasons.

Mysterious reasons catch my attention, and you would think that they point to Crystal somehow sensing that she's destined to be a part of the shining warrior's grand journey to restore bestia to the world. She travels to the site of the first bestia fountain, learns of the quest, and is immediately filled with a sense of purpose. She realizes that she has always felt strangely unfulfilled until this very moment, that she has always longed to do something bigger with her life and use what small abilities she has to leave a lasting impact and make the world a better place. The idea that she could put her efforts into saving the entire world is more than she ever could have dreamed, and she feels both honored and intimidated by the weight of responsibility that is suddenly thrust upon her shoulders.

Oh, wait... That's not what happens at all. She goes to the academy, stumbles onto Fossil Hill with the other soon-to-be-shining-warriors (minus Brine), learns of the legend... and says that she doesn't want to go on the journey at all. First she says it's because she wanted to stay at the academy. Odd for a Pokémon who previously stated that she wanted to travel the world, but ok. Later, she says that her real reason is knowing that she's not strong enough to keep up with the rest of the group. Even after they start the journey, she states that she still doesn't know if she wants to be a shining warrior, and this is never resolved in a satisfactory way, at least not that I picked up on.

So she's on a journey that she never really wanted to be a part of, doesn't have any particularly strong motivation for being there, and... seemingly forgot her desires for travel? She doesn't seem to take much joy in it that I can see, and I probably should be able to since we can see inside her thoughts and everything.

So there has to be something else she wants, right? 

"...the one item I was sentimental about: a scarf... If the scarf had anything to do with my real parents, then I wanted to find out about them" - Prologue: Let's Begin!