The sting of defeat, and the desire for power.
He rose to the top, determined to not cower. 
With obsession and betrayal, he stood above them all.
Now, up to you to get through to him in one final brawl.

Continuing from our last blog, hopefully you’re now familiar with the games Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, one of the more recent pairs of creature capturing games that have been released for the Pokémon franchise. With its rich story and interesting characters, there’s a lot of room to look at some of them and analyze them as you progress through the games. Today, I want to keep looking at one in particular. Since last time we talked about the games’ September 2023 DLC, the Teal Mask, today I want to continue that analysis with the December DLC released the same year, the Indigo Disk. In contrast to the Teal Mask, the Indigo Disk does actually have some requirements in order to fully explore it.

The first one is that you do actually need to complete the Teal Mask, since it’s essentially a continuation of its story, and reintroduces some familiar faces. The second one is that you do actually need to complete the main story of Scarlet and Violet, since the Indigo Disk and its epilogue do actually take elements and other things established in the games’ ending. Not only does it introduce Area Zero, a giant crater in the middle of Paldea (the region the base games take place in) filled with either savage Pokémon from the past, or cybernetic ones from the future, depending on the game version. It’s also suspiciously related to the Terastal phenomenon (the type changing gimmick of the region), with its environment being cluttered with massive crystals, which overtake the crater as you head deeper down. One of the key plot points in the crater concerns the player and their ride Pokémon, the box art legendaries, either Koraidon for Scarlet or Miraidon for Violet. I briefly mentioned them last time, but they serve a slightly bigger role in the Indigo Disk. The important part to remember for later is that while in the crater, the player is able to help them recover their full strength at the lab at the bottom, allowing them to freely switch between their ride forms and battle forms.

Now that I’ve been able to explain the important things to know before going into the Indigo Disk, I want to explain what I hope to do in this blog. While there is a lot of lore and details I could focus on, seeing the direction from my last post, you should probably assume I’ll be continuing my analysis on Kieran’s story. Last time, we were able to look at his character during the events of the Teal Mask, what caused some of his actions, and as well as some of my interpretations on neat little details that helped convey elements of the story. Seeing as you’re back here for the next part, I hope you enjoyed the last one. This time, though, it’ll be a little bit different. Since the Indigo Disk takes place after what happened in the Teal Mask, we won’t be looking at any of the things that built up to Kieran’s drastic character change. Instead, I’d like to see what consequences his search for strength has had on him, as well as how that in turn affects everyone around him. I’ll once again be using concepts found in psychology to help explain some of his behavior, as well as using it to analyze the conflicts we find while looking through the Indigo Disk. I hope to humanize him a bit more, not to excuse, but to explain. To help understand his characterization, to help people to not see him as a villain. We’ll see how things go down, and how they’ll affect his character development, for better or for worse.

You might’ve noticed that the way I split up which parts of the story I cover in my blogs are by the character arc, and how we see Kieran’s character develop. Due to this sectioning off strategy I’m doing, this blog is only gonna follow most of the Indigo Disk plot, not all of it. I’ll stop during the descent into the Zero Underdepths, a location I’ll explain later. I feel like there’s a big enough shift in tone as well as progress in Kieran’s mental state during the whole Underdepths sequence that it’s fitting to save that part for later.

Some concepts will be returning, such as self-concept, ideal self, and self-esteem. In relation to those three, I’ll be using the term incongruence a bit in this blog. Incongruence is essentially when a person’s view of themself doesn’t line up with their experiences, and can sometimes result in a sort of distorted self image. Congruence is similar, just that your view of self and your experiences do line up, so you usually feel better about yourself. Maslow’s Hierarchy will come back, but I should also note something I didn’t specify when I last touched on it. Something you’ll see later on is going through the hierarchy out of order. While this isn’t inherently bad, the way it’s done isn’t the healthiest way to do it. The hierarchy is just a sort of guide to help, you can stray from it, but only if you do it in a healthy manner, as we’ll soon find out. There will be other terms I’ll introduce as we go on, but since they’ll primarily refer to the later half of my analysis, they’ll be introduced as the pop up. With those terms established, we can now fully jump into Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero – The Indigo Disk.

A School Floating Above the Sea

Since Kieran doesn’t have as much screen time in comparison to the Teal Mask, especially in the beginning, I will try my best to not fill up this post with unnecessary descriptions of scenes if they don’t particularly matter for my analysis. I will still explain the progression for the sake of understanding the story, but it won’t be something like an in depth summary of the whole story, just the parts that matter for my focus. Now, let’s begin.

The story kicks off with the player (I’ll start calling them the MC from here on out, just like my last blog) receiving a phone call from Director Clavell, the head of the academy that they attend. He reveals that they’ve actually been nominated for an exchange program to Blueberry Academy, the school both Carmine and Kieran mentioned they went to previously. At the MC’s school, they meet Director Cyrano, who runs Blueberry, and then both directors come to an agreement to allow them to attend as an exchange student.

After a “short” plane and then boat across the sea, both the MC and Cyrano touch ground at Blueberry, which floats in the middle of the ocean, with a majority of it is underwater. Cyrano asks if there’s anything interesting the MC would want to know as they walk down the long bridge leading from the boat, and after being asked about something, he takes a second to try his best to come up with an answer, to no avail. Suddenly, though, a pink-haired girl answers the question for him, walking up to the two. Cyrano thanks her, and she says it was nothing, before turning her attention to MC, not having met them before. Cyrano then reveals that they’re the new exchange student, to her surprise, before introducing herself as Lacey, a second-year student at Blueberry.

After that, Cyrano comes up with an idea, proposing that Lacey could show them around and act as a tour guide. She protests at first, before agreeing, wanting to show them around and know more about the exchange student everyone’s talking about. Once that’s agreed on, the three head towards the entrance, where there’s actually a battle court. Lacey then talks about how Blueberry is a very competitive school, being very focused on Pokémon battles, something we learned in the Teal Mask from Kieran. Both Cyrano and Lacey mention the fact of Terastallization being possible here, despite the lack of the crystals that cause it, but they save the explanation for later. Then, Cyrano suggests a battle between the two, wanting to see how the MC stacks up against Lacey, who he reveals to be an Elite Four member of the League Club present at the school. Before the battle starts, she informs them that the school usually practices the use of Double Battles, with two Pokémon on the field at once.

Once the battle is over, there’s a bit of conversation, before the MC is instructed to go ahead and visit the school’s most famous feature: the Terarium, a large dome under the ocean containing and simulating a total of four huge biomes within, the warm Savannah Biome, the sandy Coastal Biome, the rigid Canyon Biome, and the frigid Polar Biome. There are also some structures around for things such as healing, and holding classes. Above hangs a huge orb in the middle of the Terarium, filled with materials from Paldea, allowing for natural Terastallization. After that explanation, there’s an announcement that a class is being held in the Coastal Biome, and Lacey decides the two of them should go, since this’ll be the MC’s first experience with a class in Blueberry. Cyrano wishes them luck, then leaves them to it.

Seeing as the class acts as more of a tutorial than anything really important to the story, I’ll go ahead and skip past it for simplicity sake. Once class is dismissed, Lacey realizes she has something else to attend to. She apologizes for having to leave so soon, but encourages them to continue exploring without her, before walking off. Once she’s gone, they actually get a surprise call from Carmine! She tells them that they learned they arrived thanks to one of her teachers, and wants to meet up, since it’s been a while. She thinks of a place for them to join up, and decides on Central Plaza in the middle of the Terarium. Once they arrive, they walk up to Carmine, who’s talking to another student. She gives them a warm welcome, a nice sort of mirror to how she greeted them in the Teal Mask. The other student checks the time, and says they gotta go, saying goodbye. Afterwards, Carmine tells them that she’s been helping Briar (the teacher that was researching the Terastal phenomenon at Kitakami’s Crystal Pool) with her research, and got stronger on the way. She decides to challenge them to a Double Battle just to see how much they’ve both grown. While the battle itself is pretty standard, she does actually have a fun interaction if you send out Ogerpon during the battle, clearly happy to see it again. You’ll see why I call this out, since it’s a nice juxtaposition of something that happens later on.

Once the battle ends, she laments a bit on her loss, but ultimately doesn’t mind it for too long, a nice bit of character growth since the beginning of the Teal Mask. Though, she then switches the subject, asking if they’ve seen Kieran around yet. They obviously haven’t yet, and she tells them not to worry about it, before shouting is heard from a lower level of the Plaza. The two of them then decide to eavesdrop, peeking from over a ledge. They see two students seemingly in a sort of argument, with one scolding the other. Carmine then reveals that the one yelling at the other student turns out to be Kieran, but as the MC tries to say something, she tells them to hush so they don’t get spotted, and so they both listen in.

Seeing as this is our first time seeing Kieran in the Indigo Disk, this seems like a good time to explain some of the physical changes we see in his newer design. Some of them are just reworked design details, such as his jacket being worn differently and his change in hairstyle. But I want to pay attention to some of the differences with his actual body. If you can remember the levels of the Hierarchy of Needs, you’ll know that the first level, and thus should probably be one of your higher priorities in order to feel fulfilled, would be physiological needs. Stuff that keeps your body healthy, like food, water, sleep, and other things you need just to function properly. The reason I bring this up is because there’s some subtle design choices that they decided to make to how Kieran looks.

The first thing I’d like to talk about are his eyes. One thing that’s not technically a physical change, but more so an artistic choice is the highlights missing in his eyes. This isn’t something new, since we’ve seen his eyes do that before in the Teal Mask, but those moments were usually when he was lashing out at people, or other times when there was some sort of conflict and negative emotions, so the lack of them again should help you get a feel of how different his personality will be for the Indigo Disk. Moving on from that, there is one other thing I’d like to point out about his eyes. Or, at least what’s under them.

If you look closely, you can see that he has bags under his eyes, which are probably from a lack of sleep. Two other things you can see, if you compare his Indigo Disk model with his Teal Mask model, is that he is paler, and actually skinnier in comparison. Through a bit of optional dialogue, the MC does get the chance to know what his dorm looks like. There’s candy wrapper and ramen cups littered about the floor, and notes on battle strategies are scattered about too. All these imply that he’s been prioritizing getting stronger above anything else, isolating himself in his room and not bothering to take proper care of himself because of it. It really emphasizes how much the events of the Teal Mask affected him, and his perception of himself and of power. He changed everything about himself to get the strength he had desired since the last DLC. We’ll see more of what’s changed, and how that affects himself and everyone around him, the more we see of him.

Back to the cutscene, we see him judging a student’s skills in battle, questioning if they’re even taking it seriously. After they try to explain themself, he cuts them off, assuming that just means they’re ok with staying weak forever. Before giving them a chance to respond, he tells them not to worry about it, telling them he’ll just write their resignation from the club for them, and walks off as they try to tell him to wait. During this cutscene, there’s a new theme for Kieran in the background. The actual name of the theme is “Unsettling Atmosphere”, which I feel like paints us a pretty good picture of the sort of vibe he gives the other students when he’s around. They always seem on edge when he’s nearby.

Once he’s gone, Carmine relaxes, before saying that that probably isn’t what the MC expected. She explains that he’s been like that ever since they got back from the trip in Kitakami, before promptly being interrupted as someone else approaches them. Much to her annoyance, she tries to get him to leave, but he insists, and she begrudgingly introduces him as Drayton, previously the strongest trainer at the school.

As Carmine tries to introduce the MC to him, he cuts her off, asking them if they’re friends with Kieran. After nodding (keep in mind, their last interaction was Kieran letting them catch Ogerpon at the Dreaded Den, they don’t know what he’s been thinking and doing, or why), he invites them to their clubroom, since it’d be a good idea to join a club during their visit, and he walks off. Carmine decides to come with, too, so the pair follow his lead.

The Blueberry Elite Four

Once arriving in the clubroom, he introduces what the club actually is: the League Club. It’s a battle-focused club, with a ranking system called the BB League. The four strongest trainers are called the BB League Elite Four, and it’s revealed that both Drayton and the student Carmine was talking with before are two of them. He informally invites them to the club, gifting them the uniform and everything, but if they’re serious about it, he tells them to meet him in the cafeteria. Once he’s gone again, she suggests they go over to the MC’s dorm to have a better place to talk.

In the dorm she talks about her suspicions about Drayton, since he seemed oddly interested in the MC all of a sudden. She then talks about her worry about Kieran. He totally changed after Kitakami, training and battling nonstop. He’s definitely gotten stronger, but he’s been cutting back on things like sleep. He got so strong that he beat Drayton, becoming president of the League Club and the league’s champion. He barely even talks to her anymore, seemingly isolating himself, a sort of 360 from wanting to talk to people more in the Teal Mask. She asks them to keep an eye out for him, seeing as he’s pushed everyone else away. Afterwards, she suggests they go meet up with Drayton to see what he wants in the cafeteria, since she has to hang back because of schoolwork.

In the cafeteria, Drayton makes some small talk, before asking about the MC’s battling skills. He suspects that with their prowess, they’d have a shot of becoming the BB Champion. He says he wants them to try and compete in the league. At this point, it’s obvious where this is leading. Though, before the conversation continues, four people, who turn out to be the remaining Elite Four and the Champion, walk into the cafeteria; Kieran, Lacey, the student Carmine was talking to earlier, and a red and yellow haired student.

Unsettling Atmosphere starts to play again, as Kieran asks Drayton why he called them all here, seemingly not noticing the MC. Drayton replies, saying nothing much, just to grab a bite. Kieran calls it a waste of time, criticizing him, claiming that if he used his time to train instead of goofing off, he wouldn’t always lose to Kieran. Hopefully you can see this a recurring sentiment where he sees any time not used to get better as time wasted. It sort of seems like he’s mimicking how he felt during Kitakami, and projecting it onto other people. The way he acts is, like I mentioned in the last blog, an opposite of person-centered therapy. He lacks any empathy for people who can’t keep up, with no sorts of positive regard for them, and he pushes everyone around him away, refusing to be genuine.

Drayton then shifts the focus of the conversation, bringing their attention to the MC, who Kieran is shocked to see there, not knowing they were studying abroad. Drayton then suggests letting them join the club, though two of them are a bit hesitant, seeing as they’re technically not a full-time student. Drayton suggests a vote, with him voting in favor of it. Lacey votes against it, Crispin (the red and yellow haired one) votes for it, and Amarys (the student that Carmine was talking to) disagrees with it, too. Seeing that the Elite Four is split right down the middle on the choice, Drayton asks Kieran for his opinion. He thinks for a second, before answering, saying it doesn’t matter, because no matter who challenges him, he won’t lose, and then walks off. Basically, it’s a yes.

Here, being the first time Kieran actually directly interacts with the MC ever since running off at the Dreaded Den, we get to have a better sense of just how much he’s changed. From all the dialogue and cutscenes, we get the implications that ever since he returned from the trip and started nonstop training, he hasn’t lost a battle. This helps explain his confidence and the air of arrogance that he has around him at times. He’s become what he wanted to be after the Teal Mask, his ideal self, and he’s reaching his new expectations and goals. How he views himself fits with what he experiences after his training, or to put it simply, he expects to win, and every time, he does. It makes him confident in his new skills. Keep this in mind for later, since it’s why I brought up congruence (as seen here), and incongruence.

At the academy entrance, the MC and Drayton try to get them signed up for the league, but the receptionist is hesitant, seeing that they’re just an exchange student. Drayton tries to explain that there was a vote, but she’s not sure if she could take his word for it, before Kieran and Carmine show up. Kieran gives her the go ahead to let them join the league, and she does so quickly. Kieran tells Drayton he has a feeling he’s plotting something, but then shrugs it off, not caring as long as he gets a chance to battle the MC. He then addresses the MC, telling them that they better not lose to anybody before the championship match, and when they agree, he just smiles and says good. He tells them that he’ll prove that he’s not a little kid anymore when he wins. I feel like this just makes it more obvious that he projected his insecurities onto them during the Teal Mask, since they really didn’t see him that way, he just thought that they did.

We see a moment that shows a sort of flip of Kieran’s and Carmine’s characters, where Carmine tries to tell him to tone it down, but he tells her to be quiet, a mirror to their dynamic in the Teal Mask. He starts to walk off, admitting he’s looking forward to seeing them climb through the rankings before he’s gone. There’s a bit more dialogue, with Carmine being suspicious of what Drayton’s planning, but says she’ll cheer on the MC either way. She also asks them to keep an eye on Kieran for her, before leaving too.

After that, the sign up process is finished up, and we get an explanation of how the Elite Four will work. Due to the recommendations from higher ups (Cyrano, half of the Elite Four, and the champion), they’ll be allowed to skip straight to challenging the Elite Four, rather than climbing up from the bottom. In order to face the Elite Four, they must complete one trial made by the Elite Four member, before being able to battle against them in one of the biomes of the Terarium. After doing this four times and beating all four, the MC is allowed the opportunity to challenge the champion. With that short explanation, Drayton wishes them luck, then heads into the Terarium. From there, they’re able to choose the order that they’ll face the four in.

It doesn’t matter which order you go through with them, so you can challenge them at random. After a while of just messing around and finishing the trials, the MC eventually beats them all. Once all of them are defeated, Drayton tells the MC it’s time, and they go to set up the championship battle against Kieran.

Now, the Elite Four trials and battles are pretty straightforward to understand, but actually take quite a while to progress through. A lot of the DLC’s playtime is focused on you completing them, which makes sense. So there’s a lot of content, both optional and plot related, that I would want to look at, since while they technically aren’t “important” for the overall plot, they do help us understand how Kieran’s been acting at the academy in the aftermath of the Teal Mask.

Through a lot of NPC dialogue, we can see that a lot of people are cautious of the league club, since they seem to notice something is off, not wanting anything to do with it. Even some of the teachers say they worry for the members of the club. This all makes it very obvious how badly Kieran’s obsessive chase for power is affecting not only the people he directly interacts with, but even people who are just near enough to the situation. And we also get to see the Elite Four’s views on the situation they’ve caught themselves in with their dialogue during the trials. They all talk about how they don’t like the way the club is now, all dramatic and toxic. They just wish it’d go back to the way it used to be. It’s even why Drayton had the MC join in the first place; he reasoned they were strong enough to beat Kieran, and snap him out of whatever he’s doing to the club and the school. We get to see the type of environment Kieran’s creating with his focus on power and power alone, and the way he acts, like I mentioned earlier. He doesn’t pay attention to the people themselves, instead he looks at how capable they are in battle. I feel like this is how he interpreted Carmine and the MC’s views on him. He felt like they didn’t care about him, since they hid stuff from him. And seeing how successful, how strong they were with the mindset he saw in them, he wanted to do the same. So he started to focus on strength just for the sake of being strong, not enjoying the process with his Pokémon.

Drayton even calls this out, commenting how the MC seems to enjoy battling just for the fun of it instead of doing it for some sort of gain, something he criticizes Kieran on. This becomes more apparent as the plot goes on. The idea that doing something just to do it and gain from it isn’t a healthy way to go through with things, such as Kieran battling just for the sake of winning and power rather than enjoyment for the craft. This is a key part for Kieran’s story, and it turns out it fits with the ideas of self-actualization, too. A healthy way to go about your talents and interests is to do it for the joy of just doing it, and doing it because you want to. To do something for a goal that is meaningful to you. But with how Kieran sees it, it’s bound to cause problems, as you’ll see later. He puts all he has into his strength, neglecting everything else for it. He sees it as a way to get what he’s wanted, since he views that as the reason why the MC is so successful and well liked, not their genuine care and empathy.

We really see how much he prides himself purely on his new found strength. After beating the second and last Elite Four member (Who it is doesn’t matter, it just needs to be your 2nd and 4th Elite Four battle), Kieran shows up after the battle to observe their progress. When they beat the second Elite Four member left, he comes up to them after the battle, noting that they’re as strong as ever. He admits he would’ve been disappointed if they had gotten weaker, before telling them to keep going. After all, he explains, he can’t show them how much stronger he’s gotten if they can’t even make it to him. He approaches them again once they’ve finally beaten the last member, questioning their skills a bit. He mocks them for a second, telling them that they really kept him waiting, and that their progression in the Elite Four felt a bit slow to him. After that, he declares that whatever Drayton was planning by getting them in the league is about to come to an end, since both of them were about to settle who’s the strongest, and walks away. These two moments give us, in my opinion, more insight on how Kieran sees the MC. From the way he talks about them, I feel like he sees them as a sort of goal to surpass, or a checkpoint he has to beat. He’s determined to beat them to prove a point. But that point isn’t something that needs to be proven. He wants to prove that he isn’t a weak little kid that people can walk on, that he’s stronger and different now. But that’s the issue. He’s worrying about how other people see him because he feels inadequate compared to them, when he should be focusing on doing things for himself.

The problem is it’s worked. By running himself into the ground, and gaining strength for the sake of power instead of anything else, it’s given him a sense of confidence (remember; congruence), and it supports how he’s acting. That’s why Drayton plans to get the MC to beat Kieran: they’ve beaten him before, and maybe it would get him to snap out of his attitude. To see that maybe his course of action isn’t the best decision, and maybe then they’d be able to get through to him and talk to him. And speaking of Kieran’s and the MC’s battle, now that they’ve beaten the Elite Four, that’s the next step of the story.

A Battle Against a Broken Champion

The MC starts signing up to get the championship match all set up at the academy’s entrance (Where they first fought Lacey), and so while the secretary’s handling that, Drayton starts to talk more about why he’s wanted the MC to take on the league. Most of it is similar to what I said before, like Kieran relentlessly pushing himself and others, but he also mentions how his motive for battle has changed. Before, he used to have joy just because he was battling. Once he finishes some last explanations, he wishes the MC luck as the secretary asks if they’re ready.

This next part has a LOT to unpack. seeing as it’s the longest interaction the MC has with Kieran so far in the Indigo Disk. Once everything is set up, and the match is announced on the speakers, students file into the stands to watch. It gets so full, some students even stand right outside of the battle court in order to watch. Kieran struts up to one side, turning to face the MC as they get into their position, his eyes boring holes into them. As they step up to the court, Kieran goes on in a monologue before the battle starts. Usually, I’d summarize what he says, but I feel like this might be a bit too important to just gloss over. So, instead, I’ll just quote it word for word. As they face him, he glances down at the Poké Ball in his hand, and the crowd gathers in anticipation, with even the Elite Four and Carmine spectating, before he opens his mouth, “Kept me waiting. I worked so hard for a chance to show you what I can really do. I put everything into studying and making my Pokémon stronger… I crushed the Elite Four and became Champion… All that hard work… All of it… All of it was just so that I could beat you—right here, right now!” This one moment before the battle really emphasizes his toxic mental state after losing to the MC back at the Dreaded Den, back when he wanted to catch Ogerpon. Everything he did, all the unhealthy training, all the aggressive and judgmental remarks and actions, all of the pushing everyone and everything away for the sake of strength, he did it all to sorta get back at the MC. It was to prove to everyone, including himself, that he wasn’t weak and useless. The problem with that thought process, though, is the why.

A common theme in Pokémon games, especially with these newer ones, is that being the best isn’t what matters in the end. It’s about having fun, forming bonds, and just the experience of the journey overall. A similar thing is happening here, except the moral is that when you lose sight of that, things don’t always pan out in the best way. At first, Kieran had the right idea and good intentions. He wanted to be stronger to prove to people he can be independent, reliable. To become friends with Ogerpon, and be successful in battles. Even when he lost, he still just enjoyed the chance to battle. But once he started to seek that validation of others, and let his insecurities take hold, that’s when it started to go downhill. By changing his goal to proving himself to everyone that he’s stronger, he inadvertently started to work against the type of person he wanted to be. But enough of that analysis of just a couple lines of dialogue. Once he’s done talking, the screen fades to black. Let’s move on to the actual battle now.

The first immediately noticeable thing as the battle fades into scene is the change in Kieran’s theme again. While during the last battle at the Dreaded Den it was pretty different, this new rendition blows that one out of the water. His first theme gives a more overall cheerful and curious mood, using instruments like the marimba. However, after the conflicts in the Teal Mask that climax with the final battle at the Den, the marimba is replaced with the much harsher and faster paced electric guitar. This time, his champion theme takes it up to a whole new level, as it takes on an aggressive and dramatic tone, fitting for the situation and his character change. The guitar fully takes over a majority of his theme, as well as other changes. One of the most prominent ones being the major part the violin now plays in this theme. A violin being used in a villain’s theme is a common trope in most media, and while, like I’ve said, Kieran isn’t necessarily the villain, similar ties can be drawn, especially with his antagonistic and harsh personality he’s now adopted. It really is a great track, and I really do advise you give it a listen in your free time if you can.

The next thing you’ll see once the battle begins is how drastically different Kieran’s team is. In the Teal Mask, he doesn’t start off with many Pokémon. While the story goes on, he catches more, implying these are some of the first ones he’s caught on his own, and it’s pretty apparent that they mean a lot to him. They aren’t technically the strongest or anything, but back then, he didn’t care much about it

Now, though, there’s a clear shift. He replaces nearly all of his former Pokémon, his team now calculated and sophisticated. His new Pokémon are genuinely competitive, running sets and using strategies from real life PvP tournaments of the game. The only one of his team members that remains is his Dipplin, which has now evolved into a Hydrapple. He has quite literally changed almost everything about himself, even his team composition, just to beat the MC. It really shows how much the Teal Mask shook him, and how badly insecurities can change people if it gets too bad. The MC’s and Carmine’s actions, while having good intentions, led to those insecurities and his obsession for strength consuming him.

Finally, we can look at the actual dialogue during the battle. We can see him start off confident, and defiant against the MC as the battle starts, ready to try to beat them with all the new skills and strength he’s developed since they last battled. The first thing he says as the battle starts is “I know I’m making the right choice… You’ll understand that soon enough!” It took me a while to notice, but this line is a total mirror of his lines at the Dreaded Den. Back then, he said he understood he was being selfish, but still wanted to try. But here, he shows none of that doubt, determined to prove that he’s doing the right thing.

We see more remnants about how he still holds a grudge on how he was treated by the MC before. Whenever he lands a super effective hit, he shouts “How do you like that? See how hard I’ve trained? Not like the kid you battled in Kitakami, huh?!” He’s still reminiscing about how he felt before his relentless training, and still possibly projecting his own self doubt onto the MC, who never really doubted or cared about his strength in that way. It pushes the idea that he’s sort of relapsed from making amends with the MC after losing the battle for Ogerpon.

Speaking of Ogepron, remember when I mentioned Carmine’s reaction if you sent it out during the battle against her? Kieran even has a reaction if you send it out during the champion battle too, albeit a bit more vengeful. “You’ve got some nerve… Bringing out the ogre NOW of all times?!” While this isn’t an unexpected reaction, the thing that caught my eye was the fact he didn’t call it by its name, Ogerpon. He knows its true name, yet here, he decides to call it “the ogre”, like how he used to. Back when he looked up to it, and hadn’t felt betrayed, only a feeling of solace when talking about it. When he talked about how much he related to it. If you remember Carmine’s reaction to Ogerpon earlier, they both are sort of opposites, similar to how their characters have also kind of swapped. It’s an interesting yet fleeting, and even optional moment in the battle.

As the battle draws on though, we start seeing Kieran get more desperate. If the MC gets a critical hit off, he shouts “Even luck’s chosen you over me… It’s not fair! It’s JUST NOT FAIR!!!” He feels like no matter what he does, it feels like everything is against him. It reminds me of him calling the MC the hero of the story in the Teal Mask. As he sends out his final Pokémon, Hydrapple, he vents his frustration “Just go down already! How are you still standing after I’ve thrown everything I have at you?!” I feel like he feels a moment of weakness and vulnerability here. He wore himself down for so long, and for what? Just to be on the ropes again?? No, he refused.

As he terastallizes his Hydrapple, he shouts in defiance “I don’t need the old me anymore! I’ve changed… and I’ll show you I can change again!” Then, as he commands it to attack, he declares one last thing; “I’m capable of winning too, you know… Victory will be mine and mine alone!!!” These two final bits of dialogue really illustrate his desperation and, in his eyes, his need to win. He’s willing to change himself all over again, just for the prospect of being able to best the MC. But, despite his efforts, eventually, he fell. And he falls hard.

As the dust settles, he backs up. All his work, all his efforts, gone in an instant. He struggles to grasp the reality, and looks around in disbelief, as the audience starts to disperse. Now, more than ever, he’s alone. He pushed everyone away to focus on strength, and now that the thing he worked so hard to attain was gone, he had nothing, and no one left. He was really, truly alone. We start to see him break down, hands on his head, knees to the ground. If you remember Maslow’s hierarchy again, we can see just how much he’s lost because of that battle. He ran his body into the ground to train (physiological), ignored his health for his goal (safety), pushed everyone around him away (belonging), still lost to the MC after everything (self-esteem), and lost his love of battles for the fun of it that he used to have (self-actualization).

From his point of view, he has lost everything to the MC. First, it was Ogerpon in Kitakami, and now, after devoting himself solely to training, he still lost the last thing he has left; his champion title, and with it, his reputation and his view of how strong he thought he was. It reminds me of those causes of angst I talked about in my last blog. He’s isolated himself for one purpose: to beat the MC. And now, he’s failed at that, and he’s lost that feeling of meaning. He doesn’t have a goal to commit to now. All of it, gone. I would like to get into it more here, but it fits better later in the story, near the end of the Indigo Disk.

This loss just shatters his view of himself. His feeling of congruence that I mentioned earlier now is probably similar to incongruence. He viewed himself as strong, finally capable of winning any battle that came his way. But that view of himself doesn’t line up with the reality that just hit him: he had lost to the MC again.

Drayton walks up to the MC, congratulating them. Then, he turns around, looking down at Kieran. He wishes Kieran went back to just having fun. He acknowledges his desire to win, because who doesn’t want to win? But you shouldn’t let that desire consume you.

Unfortunately, Kieran gets up to his feet, his stance unsteady. He starts to incoherently ramble, seemingly to himself, promising that next time, next time he’ll win for sure. As he rambles on, the MC is given a chance to comfort him, and say something. If you take that option, while the result doesn’t change, the context does. He stops talking, just staring down at his feet. At this point, even if his focus hasn’t fully shifted, there does seem to be some sort of slack in his cold demeanor. The Elite Four start to talk about the aftermath of the battle, and start to try to figure out what to do next. But, before we can interact with him and the other members further, everyone’s interrupted by the intercom, Carmine, Drayton, Kieran, and the MC are called to a classroom, per Briar’s (hopefully you remember her) request.

In the classroom, she welcomes the four students, and after a small distraction she explains why they’re here. She wants to invite them to an expedition to Paldea’s Area Zero, to research the Terastal Phenomenon further and the crystals in the crater. But she also does have one other motive. To find the Legendary Pokémon, Terapagos. Kieran perks up at the mention of a Legendary. Two members of the Pokémon League in Paldea (essentially a form of government there) do also explain a bit more, though I’ve mentioned most of it in the beginning.

Once the explanations are over, the students are asked if they would want to come with on the expedition, or would rather stay. Drayton says he’d want to stay, but the MC, Carmine, and Kieran all accept. Kieran talks about how he wants to capture Terapagos, if they find it, claiming that he won’t let this chance go. They all leave to the entrance of the school to set off, as the MC is given the Indigo Disk by the league members, a literal CD disk that they’ll need later in the crater.

They meet the others at the entrance, where Briar asks if they’re ready to set off. Both the MC and Carmine are ready, and Kieran says he is too. He says he’s fine now that he’s had time to calm down, before continuing from what he said earlier and says he knows what he has to do: catch the legendary Pokémon in Area Zero, no matter the cost. It’s clear he hasn’t let go of the loss. For me, I interpret it as a sort of desperation. He’s trying to hold onto the last thing he felt like he had over the MC, and like he’s been saying over and over, prove himself to them and everyone else. Even if he doesn’t need to.

The group then ventures all the way back to Paldea, arriving in Area Zero. Their main course of action is to head down to the Zero Lab at the bottom, so they do just that. When there, the MC inserts the Indigo Disk into the terminal at the front, opening the lab doors and giving them access to an elevator inside that’ll lead them deeper down, to the Zero Underdepths.

As they head down, we do get to see cracks in Kieran’s facade at times. He starts to act more genuinely and a lot calmer. It’s clear that while he didn’t take losing to the MC that well, it did help loosen him up a bit. It may be that he’s around the two people who know him the best (Carmine and the MC), or it could be that losing has helped him loosen up and relax, possibly snapping out of his obsession a bit. Either way, he’s slowly coming out of his defensive and spiteful demeanor. But it also doesn’t mean that everything is cleared up, either. Whenever someone (mainly Carmine) notices him coming out of his funk and acting a bit more softly, he snaps back, quickly trying to cover up that he’s letting his guard down. He’s almost back to being more genuine, but he’s still holding onto his confident personality.

After looking around in the lab for a bit, eventually the group finds the elevator that was mentioned earlier. Since their plan was to explore deeper into the crater, they all go down. The elevator ride stretches on for quite a while, as they keep going down, down, down.

Descending Deeper into the Depths

Now, although I would want to continue to the next part of the Indigo Disk and the following epilogue, I feel like those two are distinct enough to warrant a separation from the first portion of the DLC that I talked about here. Despite being a smaller section, the last part of the Indigo Disk is actually really important for the development of Kieran’s story, so I think it’s a good idea to cut off my summary here.

Though, before I finish the blog, I do want to do a sort of recap to wrap it up.

Since the ending of the Teal Mask, we’ve seen Kieran change mostly every aspect of himself, neglecting everything except his desire to get stronger to prove something that he doesn’t need. It gave him a boost in his self-confidence. He finally felt powerful, because no matter what, he was determined to not lose, and he didn’t. But he had also neglected his needs, putting him in a worse place than in the previous DLC. His pride is in his strength alone. And when he loses that in the battle with the MC, he essentially has lost everything. He chased all of it away to get stronger, just to lose it too. We see the isolation and the feeling of meaningless get to him in the aftermath of the battle. In a final gambit to finally succeed in that meaning, that goal of winning against the MC, he accepts the opportunity to catch Terapagos, one last desperate attempt to put, in his eyes, this rivalry to an end.

In my opinion, so far, this story’s done a really good job to explain and possibly warn about some of the factors in Kieran’s development. How insecurities, obsession, and views of self can affect people. It’s a really complex story, and I really do enjoy looking into his character more. I’m excited to see where he grows from here, as the story continues in the Underdepths. Hopefully, you’re interested to see how his character arc will end. Until then, thank you for reading, and I look forward to seeing how his story draws to a close.