Mischaracterization and seeing the actual truth behind N

Learning about a character’s backstory can open your eyes to see how much the character actually means, and not just only seeing them as a ‘villain.’ You can come across a lot of posts or threads where people just talk about ‘villains’ as ‘just villains’ but most of them didn’t even bother to read the backstories behind them. The villain character I’ll be talking about is N.

N is a tall guy who has long green hair that’s tied into a fluffy ponytail. He wears a white mid-sleeved shirt with a black shirt under it, beige skinny fit pants, a cube that’s attached to his chain near his left hip, a black and white bracelet on his right wrist, a rectangular tri-color bracelet on his left wrist, and a blue and black pendant on a chain around his neck. N also wears a white hat with a sharp black peak, which is probably his most notable feature. He is a Pokemon Character that belongs to a game called Black and White One and Two, and an anime TV show that’s named the same thing. In the game N first appears with his adoptive father, Ghetsis, where he makes a speech about taking over the world and stealing everybody’s Pokemon. Then after the speech, he questions the player about their Pokemon’s happiness and soon challenges them with a battle. In the anime tv show, N makes his first appearance in Episode 109 “New Places… Familiar Faces!”

N has been talked about a lot, mostly for his looks, and how he is the best Pokemon character that was well-written and had great character development from being a villain to an innocent character who realized everything that happened to him. At the start of his backstory, we are shown that N is playing around his friends, all Pokemons, unsupervised, we only know that he is an orphan. He was found and adopted by Ghetsis.

Understanding behind N’s character

N sometimes gets misunderstood and people also mischaracterized his personality a lot. “Not only was he a failed ¨Daddy issues¨ boi, his personality was just, so basic. Ok, his entire personality is just ¨oOoOoOoOo, I cAn TaLk tO PoKeMoN…..Also, I’m the king of team plasma. That’s it. That’s literally it. No character development, no nothing.” Says a PokeFandom commentor. This shows how people mischaracterize N and don’t bother to look more into the character’s background. 

Many fans think N’s is eligible only to be a villain character, focusing on the bad actions he did and not looking at the other things that N went through, which creates comments like “N would be sooooooo much better if he was just like a supporter of Team Plasma, not Ghetsis’s son.” What people don’t realize is that N has been groomed and emotionally manipulated by Ghetsis, also being isolated from the outside world, only interacting with Pokemons that were abused by its previous owners, making him think that all humans with Pokemons are bad and that Pokemons deserve freedom. This is what makes N want to steal them away from their owners. How people mischaracterize his personality is by only viewing him as a character with daddy issues 

N being a well-written character

He’s a well-written character, with tragic parts to his backstory and to his character development. “As I have discussed before, anti-heroes are tough to pull off, but Pokémon is able to deliver a character with complex motivations in a game that has often kept motivations ultimately simple and in the background. N, for all intents and purposes, is the perfect foil to the protagonist and shines due to his positioning as your rival and his conflicting opinions on the status quo of the Pokémon world.” This article says a lot about N being the best out of all pokemon characters that was written in the franchise. This came from the people who have said he’s the best written character; “The best written character is actually N from Pokemon Black and white.” This explains how N is the best written character and that he can stand out to a lot of people with his story, what he went through, and how he developed throughout the anime.

N represents real stories

N represents abuse that happens in real-life to people, and what issues can result from abuse. It shows how N was being verbally harassed and getting his emotions manipulated as a child “N would grow up secluded from the world and only be exposed to abused Pokémon to make him believe humans and Pokémon should be separated. Once N was old enough, Ghetsis crowned N as the king of Team Plasma, an organization with the goal to liberate all Pokémon from their trainers. Ghetsis then assisted N in spreading the word about Team Plasma and their plans.” (Pokemon Evolutions EP4) This shows how easy it is for people to get swayed/ taken advantage of when they’re young, leading them to make some harmful and dangerous decisions later in life.