Lysandre Labs

On Sycamore's character flaw

I feel like people have a tendency to think of Sycamore as "naive" (this is the gentlest way possible to put this, obviously) because of the whole Lysandre thing, which I think is a bad read of his character that’s rooted in multiple things.

First of all, the idea that being optimistic/believing in people is bad and stupid, which is. I guess I understand it as someone who is also kind of jaded and has had to deal with shitty people, but it’s also kind of... sad? And contrary to the game’s overarching message, in my opinion.

But also, something I harp on about a lot because it just annoys me, which is the idea that Lysandre was poorly hiding his intentions which. I have no idea why people say this except as a joke, it’s literally just not what happens in the games? We are talking about a guy who waltz in on Diantha and is immediately like "hahaha if I could blow up the world I would jsyk," my man was not hiding shit. He talks about it in front of Sycamore in his café, and Sycamore doesn’t seem surprised by it! He’s literally like "yes I think we could indeed find extenuating circumstances for what the king did 3000 years ago aka mass murder" and Sycamore just doesn’t bat an eye at that, like Lysandre just lets everybody who will listen know about this stuff, apparently. Happily.

For me, Sycamore’s main character flaw is passivity. He’s aware of how Lysandre feels, and even tells the protagonists that, while Lysandre is a smooth talker, they don’t have to believe in what he says. But he obviously doesn’t try to challenge Lysandre as much as he should. In contrast, Diantha immediately snaps back at him like "what the fuck are you saying this is nuts." Sycamore just seems to mostly redirect; he talks about it post-team flare defeat, about how he tried to encourage Lysandre’s positive traits in hope of inspiring him to be better.

I think Sycamore really admired Lysandre’s steadfast belief in his convictions, his confidence, everything of that sort... He comes off as not very self-assured, apologizing for being bad at pokémon battles, giving up on mastering mega-evolution at the Tower of Mastery... It’s just a shame that Lysandre’s convictions were Like That.

Anyway, I think people are very weird about optimism in general, seeing it as a "weakness," but, personally, I think Sycamore is stronger than Lysandre especially because he was willing to see other people’s perspectives, and I think he’s a very flawed character, and very self-aware of that fact, but I don’t think he’s naive or stupid or whatever, just misguided.

(Also, I think it’s fun that in Pokémon Masters, he actively stops his plans... He does it behind his back, obviously, but he does try to talk to him about it... Perhaps, this is character growth...)

(And, yes, he does send his assistants after Team Flare in the games, but it feels different, in my opinion.)

Originally posted on Twitter,
February 19th 2022.