Max's psychology

This refers to a review posted on Fanfiction.net by user ZtheH in Chapter 74 of *The Crimson Gardevoir*. In this single commentary, the reviewer tries to piece together Max's mental state during all major events of the story until that point.

## History

User ZtheH posted this review on June 6th, 2021, on Fanfiction.net. The reviewer tries to analyze the mentality and actions of the character Max in relation to his Pokémon during the entire story up until his violent attack on May's original trainer.

## The original review

This chapter came at the same time as *Pop Culture Detective's* (a youtuber who analyze the influence of western media in society behavior) "Boys Don't Cry (Except When They Do)" where he quoted Michael Kaufman's book *Cracking the Armor* (1993): "When emotions and avenues of emotional release are blocked, the results can be very destructive for a man and for those around him. For though we may not feel them... those emotions do not go away; they get bottled up inside and are eventually transformed in one of two ways: they turn into anger and aggression... or they are turned against ourselves [men] to become self-hate, self-deprecation, physical illness, insecurity or addictions." This video essay helped me understand better what is going on with Max, I had to read Ch 72 two times. Max finally had his big explosion; it was bound to happen at some point.

I went back and re-read some early chapters and noticed Max's anger issues have been there since Chapter 1, when he got angry at Scarlet for refusing his help in their second encounter. Then later he got angry at May for defending her abusing trainer in the hospital scene, to the point Scarlet had to move him out of the room to not scare the Mawile further. And if I recall correctly, there was a scene with Max being annoyed with Aurora in the Togetherheart arc (I think it was before she went to train with Fushiu). Although he mean's well, he is somewhat controlling - in a sense he wants everything to be "perfect". He wants him and the girls to be at peace, to be happy, win every fight. No complains, no one trying to harm them. His reasoning is "We already suffered enough; we deserve to be happy now."

That was not a healthy way to deal with trauma, especially when himself was suicidal before meeting Scarlet and being pushed into this journey. Perhaps he was playing a character the whole time, sort of an ideal version of himself or what a Trainer/Partner should be (in his mind) - which might explain why he often says some shonan-esque motivational speech to his Pokémon when things are dire - maybe he started believing he was said character, but Jade's death brought him back to the cruel reality.

Also, sometimes I think Max may have a distaste for Scarlet, at least very deep down. I wouldn't blame him. Scarlet (specially before the first Qsalyla incident) can be very annoying sometimes with her overprotectiveness, jealously, hatred for human life (good or bad, doesn't matter), their bond means she can always peek into his mind, with him not being able to see into hers. After meeting other Pokémon that also had rough in life but aren't like Scarlet, it is hard to not think Max feels suffocated by Scarlet 24/7. The introduction of Jade and Luna to the team might have amplified this, as Scarlet seemed to be more irritated after these two joined. Yes, Scarlet is a very complex character, she's not evil, but what happened to her doesn't excuse some of her attitudes in the story. Now that she feels differently about humans, i would be interesting to explore this in the way her actions in the past affected other people and families - she did kill that human boy and his Charmander, the dead girl in the TV show Max was watching was Stephanie, the girl Scarlet provoked and killed in Ch.12. If Luna also did the same as a way to avenge her son, also would be cool to explore in the story.

Another thing I've been wanting to talk about is Pokémon behavior in this universe. Pokémon are as smart and capable as humans, that's the case with all Max's Pokémon. But often the group met Pokémon that acted more like normal wild animals - some very territorial, some forcing mating - on top of my head I can remember that Tyranitar that attacked Bonnie when she was a Buneary; the angry Steelix; the Metagross that broke Bonnie's back; the Pokémon that wanted to mate with Max (the Vaporeon, the Galvantula, the Lilligant); that Hatterene that went berserk; that angry Pangoro that challenged the master of the Setsui Dojo; the Mankey herd that attacked Dimitri; and even Qsalyla. Her behavior doesn't seem to match other Gardevoirs, she easily gets followers and bosses everyone around despite her leading often resulting in heavy losses. Why would anyone follow her leadership? She doesn't seem capable of doing everything by herself, she needs an army, the other Gardevoirs and Gallade can overpower her. TV shows and News talk about banning Pokémon Training because even Tamed Pokémon are going feral. Is this all hinting at something for the future? Are these Pokémon being controlled or something? The scientists that experimented on Scarlet wanted a weapon for the military, are they still out there and Qsalyla is possibly genetically altered and trained to be a killing machine? Would be a cool twist if Qsalyla is what Scarlet was supposed to become at the end of the experiments.

Ok, there's more. I figured Dimitri's family would make an appearance and become support characters. But if you're going to bring them back if Max decides to stay with them, in my opinion would be more interesting to develop the relationship between Dimitri and Vicky. It gets repetitive how Max finds these broken girls, fix them, they have sex, and she joins the team. Now that Max is at the rock bottom, inspiring Dimitri to care and understand his Pokémon would be a nice change of pace and way to him to heal from his own wounds. Dimitri is just a kid; he is under the impression Pokémon are just tools for him to leave his house and do anything else. But if he couldn't even muster the courage to speak with his brother's Sneasel, how can he become the best? Dimitri should be the one to help Vicky.

Anyway, I think that's it. This chapter was a rollercoaster of emotions, my eyes are sore for just staring at the screen while I write this review. Let's hope Scarlet and the others can help Max deal with his trauma, I think there's more of his past to uncover. [...]"