Part 76: Dumb Ruby and Sapphire

Pokemon Adventures: Fighting Boy meets Girl



A fair warning, I'm going to basically be posting a gigantic chunk of chapter in this one. Remember as always to support the official Viz Media release.

So I've left out quite a few things in regards to events as they related to 3 years before RS starts, I've talked about the themes of love, the dumb things you do for love and how it all ties together in a nice pink bow. You may also remember that the first update I wrote for this stuff, was "Fighting Girl meets Boy" That was a bit of a misnomer, it really should have been "Fighting Girl meets Boy Again."




5 years ago, in Johto, a young boy met a young girl. The boy was a brat, always ready for a scrap, he wanted nothing more than to be just like his father and become the best battler in the world. The girl was delicate, like a princess, she adored cute and beautiful things. The girls father had come to Johto to wish his friend, the boys father, luck, as he took his exam to become a Gym Leader.





Unfortunately, the boy and girl were attacked while they were out playing by a Salamence, the boy rose to protect the girl, he used everything his father taught him, and successfully beat it back. However, the wounds he sustained in the battle caused the girl to cry, shattering his heart.




For the young boy, he blamed himself for causing her to cry, for failing to consider her feelings, for acting so brutally. For the young girl however? She hated herself for being unable to do anything but cry, for being a burden. The children's father's engrossed themselves in self-training and in research respectively, as the boy's father had failed his exam. It was then they decided to completely change themselves, the boy decided to become beautiful and to hide his talent as a battler, to never let anyone see how he fought. The girl decided to devote herself to battling, to become stronger than ever.

That was when Ruby and Sapphire first met, and it was what pushed them towards the characters we see of them in the RS chapter. The reason Norman took the blame for the Salamence attack was because he knew Ruby had fought it, I mean his son's bleeding forehead from the claw gashes across his head would likely have been the dead giveaway. The 'Training Trip' he took, was actually a quest to locate Rayquaza which the Pokemon Association had been trying to control with the 'Jade Orb' that they were creating. If you're wonder what it was the Salamence let out when it attacked, it was in fact, Rayquaza. Now perhaps it's coming closer together as to why Ruby's actions set so much into motion, just a facility? That's nothing. But freeing a legendary pokemon, destroying the prototype-Jade Orb, setting them back years of effort... there's repercussions for actions like that.

When Ruby and Sapphire met again, they despised each other, and why not, here was this prancing pretty boy that reminded Sapphire of nothing more than the person she used to be. And this wild, jungle like girl was nothing more than a stark contrast to the way Ruby'd decided to live his life.

But in the end the two always came together, teaming up with Plusle and Minun in the Abandoned ship, Fighting Team Aqua and Magma, stopping Groudon and Kyogre in Sootopolis, fighitng in the undersea's cavern, and training together on Mirage Island with Juan, Tate and Liza. And it was pretty inevitable that new feelings would develop.





This is the first time Ruby realises that she is the girl who he met 5 years ago, and we also see a far reaching effect of Red's victory all the way back in RGB, before Red, Champions were all older, late-age teenagers, adults... Red completely shattered expectations by being the youngest champion in history, he redefined what young kids thought they could do.




And of course, in continuing with the trend of the series, doing things to protect those you love, ultimately hurting them with good intentions...



Ruby seals Sapphire in the Air Car after taking the Blue Orb from her, so that he can go and fight Groudon and Kyogre alone. Why?




Because he loves her, and love is a stupid, moronic thing that makes you do stupider, moronicer things. It makes you act crazy, to the point where even if you want to see someone be happy and safe, you'll do things directly to hurt them.


It's what made Courtney use her last breath to pass information on to Ruby, to help him.












It's why Norman took the blame for his son, damning himself for 5 years, and essentially accepting a suicide mission.




It's why Wallace, who could have beaten Archie and Maxie, gives up, lets himself be defeated, to save Winona's life.




It's why Ruby's Feebas came back to him, even though he'd called it ugly, throwing it away, telling it to never return.




And why she evolved when he finally opened up his own heart to her.



Love makes the world go round.

Upon defeating Archie and Maxie, Ruby doesn't want them to die, not after so many others have died, but he needs to retrieve the orbs from them, and, ultimately, he needs to stop them from being able to do such harm again.




Since the first chapter, Ruby has had Celebi with him, he didn't use it unless he had to. This I feel is sort of a weakness of the arc, but I also sort of accept it. Time begins to unravel, and as Ruby and Sapphire float hazily in the void, Ruby himself thinks to those who've died, believing he's lost them forever...





The interesting part about it though, is that it's not clear if the world has been rewritten, or if Celebi simply took Ruby and Sapphire to an alternate timeline in which they succeeded with no deaths. His description of a "Time slip" indicates it's the latter, but Courtney's comments indicate that it's the former. As for Archie and Maxie? As I described in previous posts, they've been cast out of reality.



And hey, Celebi even gave them one more day to finish their contest, Sapphire simply has to beat Norman and Ruby has to win the Master Rank contests.

In the end, both managed to complete their trials, though it seems Ruby has no memory of their love confession (He does, he's just pretending he doesn't, because all the other times I've brought up characters in this series being dumb for reasons of love)



We're given one last look through every character from the chapter, as Ruby and Sapphire rush back to Littleroot town to celebrate her birthday, and his, since they didn't celebrate his at the start of the series. And so we end with our two young lovers running off into the sunset, Good En-



Aw son of a bitch.