Part 73: Norman

Pokemon Adventures: Norman


Strap yourselves in folks, we're about to go on a trip.

Norman is, much like in the games, a new arrival from the region of Johto who is taking the position as the Petalburg Gymleader and is Ruby's father. Treating training and self-improvement as near Dogma, his brutal training, and personality are viewed through the scope of Ruby's abject terror towards his father. Completely unaccepting of his son's desire to keep away from battling and pursuing contests (At least, we're lead to believe this) Norman is an overarching shadow on Ruby's journey, something he is eventually going to have to face, the father who has vowed to hunt him down for running away from home.


Also, dude crushes phones with his bare hand. He's nothing to fuck with.

It's also worth noting how different he is to his game counterpart, he refuses to help Wally catch a pokemon due to his illness, he seems to look down upon those who are weak in stature and will and it's Ruby lending Wally his Ralts that gets the young boy started on his journey... Well that and Ruby falling off a cliff before being able to retrieve Ralts.

From there he hunts down his son like a terminator, leaping into the ocean to test water currents, pushing his way past reporters to look at camera feeds he doesn't have permission to view, the entire time he is a constant looming threat over Ruby's head, a pursuer that we've every reason to believe is the only one who can take him down.

And he does, at the weather institute. He uses pokeblocks to lure Ruby's pokemon in and... well...



Norman beats the everloving shit out of Ruby, he is as brutal to his son as he'd been built up to be, having no qualms physically beating him


Or have his slacking swing a staircase it ripped from the ground with him on it.


Ruby realizes he has to fight his father, but all of his team learned to battle from attacks that Norman taught Ruby how to use, the source of Ruby's intense battle skill is clearly Norman's teachings and this is a case where the student cannot beat the master with the masters own tools.


Ruby relies on his Marshstomp a pokemon that Norman has never seen him use in battle and who he himself initially wrote off (Due to not being beautiful)


Ruby notes that everything from the weather to the terrain is in his favor and he bloody well needs it because even with all this one false move spells his end.



So Norman has Slacking smack Ruby with a staircase again.



Their fight (Where Ruby tries to shoot his father with the mudshot pipe) is interrupted by Castform and then the weather institute collapsing beneath them... And then we get the kicker.


Ruby, who in his narcissistic arrogance assumed his father would never accept him and his desires has in fact been the cause of all this worry as he refused to contact anyone and refused to listen when his father had planned to use his birthday and the move as a chance to tell Ruby he accepted him an wanted him to pursue his own dreams. In the end, as strained and violent as their relationship is, Norman loves his son.


Norman tries desperately to save his son from a fall that will literally kill both of them if he doesn't let Ruby go, barely surviving due to Ruby's Running Shoes (That Norman gave him as a birthday gift, of course) Norman seems ready to continue the pursuit until Winona pops onto the scene and Norman tells Ruby what he intended to tell him all this time.


"Succeed, because a man always does what he sets out to do. Also, call your mother."

But why, why does Norman have such a rage towards his son? Why does Ruby hate him so much? What is it that drove them apart. It all started 5 years ago, 5 years ago Ruby defended himself when a Salamence attacked him, but since he didn't finish the Salamence off, it went rampaging and destroyed a facility, ruining years of research. Norman recognized the Salamence's damage as being caused by Ruby and wanting to spare his son any punishment, took the blame. It caused him to fail his gym leader exam, and he was punished to be forced to find Rayquaza. What's worse is that from that incident onwards, Ruby refused to train as a battler anymore, even as Norman basically crucified himself to protect his son, in turn, his son turned from him and acted as if he were a monster. Their relationship strained, as mentioned in the previous update, because Norman loved his son too much to see him suffer, and took actions to keep him safe, but in doing so, he was in turn hurt, and it backfired on him monumentally.

Eventually, he turns up with Wally, who has grown into a strong trainer, having raised a team of Green pokemon (And gotten Treeko) as Norman is glad he kept tabs on him. You see, they've come to the Sky Pillar and Norman's goal lies atop there. He trains Wally the entire time, leading him to the top, and using the thinner air to help train and develop the sick boy's lungs. In tandem, they opened the path to Rayquaza and Wally realizes that his participation in all of this was actually intended for Ruby. The battle between Groudon and Kyogre had pretty much totaled Hoenn at this point and Norman takes Rayquaza to put an end to it.

Arriving at Sootopolis, he and Ruby team up one last time to use the Red and Blue Orb, along with Rayquaza to silence the Titans and put the calamity to an end... and that's when Norman dies. Rayquaza didn't have an Orb to control it, and 5 years ago, the event that lead to the facilities destruction was an attempt to create a Green Orb. Without that, controlling Rayquaza through will and guts, the toll it exerted on Norman is too much and he dies in his son's arms. Ruby is left screaming, asking why his father took the blame for him, why he'd endured punishment and humiliation for his sake, why after everything he'd died for him. And the answer, as Courtney left for him, was the same reason he'd protected his loved ones. You do things for the ones you love, things that cause you great pain. He never told Ruby, so that Ruby could continue to grow and develop on his own, not burdened by the knowledge that his fathers suffering was his fault.

Norman would then have his body immolated by Maxie's houndoom to rub it in Ruby's face how much he'd suffered and lost by being pigheaded and stupid. Though in the end, his own actions at the end of the arc would reverse what had occurred.

That all said, in the ORAS storyline, Father and Son would actually team up to find Rayquaza, and actually have a pretty good relationship.

So, at the end of it all, from his highs to his lows, is Norman a good father? It's hard to say, clearly hitting his son and fighting him so violently isn't exactly earning him father of the year. But it's clear his use of force comes in response to Ruby's stubborn, vain, narcissistic attitude. As well as the feeling of being disrespected, which was entirely intentional. He clearly loves his son, and has suffered greatly for him, but that doesn't excuse him. In the end, he's flawed, and that's why he's so likable.

Next time, we're going to be talking about Wally, The third protagonist who never was because they decided to give us Emerald the Bastards.