The Tragedy of Kieran: Pokémon’s Rival Turned Villain

Bro's in his Villain Arc
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[phoenixshadow]

Wally: I've become a competitive battler to try to beat my rival.
Hop: I've become a professor and deny I'm on copium.
Kieran: DEATH! DEATH! DEATH! DEATH! DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!

[makeeeveeacupcake]

kieran is my favorite dlc character. i love him, and its a shame that he lost all mental stability and is going to murder us

[Taijirai]

Honestly, I really like Kieran's negative character arc. In a time where Pokemon characters are all too happy to lose to you, its refreshing for someone to just get invested in. It's hard to feel invested in the journey when you have no one to struggle against but yourself. I hope Kieran becomes a truly great rival in Part 2

[Accidental.Creation]

First we get a rival who is already a champion, and now a new rival might turn into a full-blown villain. Love how GameFreak shakes things up lately.

[brianh]

I’ve been wanting a rival like this for a long time - someone who gets pissed off when they lose to you instead of being happy to constantly get beat

[endergeo]

I never thought i could hate myself ingame so much, seeing me take victory right out of his jaw was one of the most "i won...but at what cost"

[afmf]

I thought Kieran was going to go the Wally route and channel his feelings and use the MC to become stronger by positive means, so I was pretty shocked with all that unfolded later on. I really like how he's portrayed, he feels very much human with human emotions that I can actually see in real people (I don't like that he's suffering tho). He reminds me of Paulo from Pokemas, he also wanted to get strong and had all these conflicts going on that actual people have/feel at some point (and felt too close to home, personally speaking). I'm really looking forward to the next DLC, I want to know what's going to happen with Kieran in the end.

[adrianleonce]

For years, fans kept begging GF for a mean rival to return. GF seems to have finally delivered that at a cost.
If all of you want a mean rival to appear, then you have to make a shy, kind child descend into madness. You get what you always guilt and worry attached to it🙃.

[GrandCorsair]

I was like "oh crap, he went full yandere on us". I wasn't expecting that.

[crazyeeveelady]

By the end of Teal mask my heart kind of broke for Kieran. It was genuinely kinda sweet seeing how close he got to the pc in the first half and then the dude went on a whole downward spiral right before our eyes. Can't wait to see how it resolves in the Indigo Disk!!

[KosmoZer]

I felt extremely bad for Kieran especially when it was me who took away his lifelong dream of befriending the one Pokémon he idolised for most of his life. Even when he didn't know the true story of the "Loyal" Three and Ogerpon, he felt a connection to Ogerpon and for us as the player character to just take away this opportunity from him even made me feel lousy. If I actually had the option to do so, I would have preferred Kieran to become Ogerpon's trainer but as you astutely pointed out, it's because we are supposed to be the hero of the story and the one that leads everything, everyone else is just living in our world as the main protagonist. To me I felt like scum after the story, I actually started becoming attached to both Carmine and Kieran especially and for Kieran now to hate me as the player character is kind of saddening because I know how he feels on an emotional level, I've experienced those feelings of hate and envy. This was a great video Gator, I'm happy you talked about this.

[unofficialmeme]

When I played through the DLC, Kieran's story of growth reminded me of Wally's story. Huge lack of confidence in themselves and issues they're dealing with, until meeting you, and becoming inspired to improve upon themselves more and more, until they've overcome all their personal obstacles. But unlike Wally, Kieran doesn't overcome such problems. He not only becomes obsessed with trying to defeat you, but he also becomes increasingly more frustrated with each battle he has with you that he tries to learn from, on top of being angry at himself for not being strong. It's scary difficult trying to predict what's next for his story especially with the mood swings he gets now and then as well as whatever else may be going on for him. Regardless, I became very invested in the story with the DLC, and I'm excited to see how Kieran's story will conclude.

[bluekirby_]

As much as I hate what we, Carmine and Grandpa did to Kieran and hope he gets better, part of his angst is his own fault. Dude built a whole parasocial relationship with Ogerpon and thought she should've stayed with him because of that, when she didn't even know who he was or what he was feeling towards her.

[luckyinky]

I wonder if Kieran received some kind of bullying in Blueberry Academy.
I think I remember that the trailers told that the school works with a ranking system, maybe Kieran was in one of the lower ranks and was either bullied by his classmates or ignored because the stronger trainers were more interesting. Kieran also mentions that Carmine does everything for him, he probably meant that for example in duo battles, Carmine is the one that gets the job done because she's more experienced while Kieran usually gets his team KO'd first, leaving Carmine making the whole fight by herself. If you had his social anxiety in the mix which prevents him from talking to other people including people of his own village of birth, it's no wonder Kieran keeps calling himself weak and feels like an outcast.

Putting Kieran a little aside, I theorize that the Lousy Three were also bullied before they got the loyal chains. It's mentioned (either by an NPC or in the pokedex I don't remember) that Okidogi lacked physical force, Munkidori was clumsy and dumb and Fezandipidi had dull feathers for a male pheasant. Maybe they were a different pokemon before turning into what they are right now and started feeling extreme jealousy towards those who had the characteristics that they don't have.
And then here comes the leader of the group, Dokutaro, who might be using his prey's envy and jealousy to manipulate them easily, along with feeding himself with it. By giving them what they wanted by giving them the Toxic Chains, they gain the sympathy of his hosts and forces them to do crimes as a form of revenge taking on life itself.
It's probably Kieran's envy and jealousy that made them all 4 revive after punching the grave. Chances are that Dokutaro could also communicate with him by telepathy and tries to make him believe that the blame comes from the MC since he envies our battle skills and turn him against us.

If the game end up turning this way then that would mean that the whole game + the DLC would be focused on bullying :
-Team Star leaders getting bullied by their classmates due to their personality or talents
-Penny getting ignored and trying to turn against her and Team Star's bullies which backfired a bit
-Some Team Star grunts who are kinda bullies joins the team for being cool
-Our Koraidon/Miraidon that gets bullied by the other territorial one
-The Lousy Three getting bullied by the other Pokemon of their previous species
-The Lousy Three bullying Ogerpon after their resurrection
-Kieran getting bullied by his classmates because of his weakness and that ended up waking up some darkness in him.

In conclusion : bullying sucks

[BobbleCube]

I almost wanted to give him ogerpon, his arc was genuinely so good- that scene where he punched the wall was actually really cool- really happy to see Pokémon try different things

[TheJayeagle]

I just hate that I got railroaded into lying to him.

[mauroperez]

I saw a lot of people talk about Kieran and how he changed from the start to the end of the Teal Mask. I do agree that he has a lot of issues that came from his family. I also feel like I'm one of the few people that actually enjoyed Carmine. Yes, her attitude and her telling us to keep the truth about Ogerpon from Kieran wasn't smart, but I do understand why she did it. Think about it: you wouldn't want your younger brother to chase after a "monster" in the middle of the night and disappear without a trace or end up dead. Carmine does care about her younger brother, she just needs a better way of expressing it. Kieran also seems to have some lack of emotional maturity from said issues hence his not taking the losses well. I do hope that Indigo Disk helps to flesh the two out more and become better people. I am somewhat excited to see just how strong Kieran will become during the inevitable rematch but also concerned knowing that he intends to put me into the dirt with extreme prejudice.
There is also the whole Dokutaro influencing his actions leading to him doing something crazy in part 2.

[tysondennis]

Kieran: “Unfortunate” doesn’t begin to describe my series, this game rewards blind luck and nothing else, I am beyond convinced at this point.

[demi-femme]

Kieran has begun his Vergil arc. Soon we will get the game about Kieran hiring Kieran's sister and Kieran's son to defeat Kieran so that Kieran can become Kieran featuring Kieran.

[a.s.raiyan-]

This DLC honestly has a well made story with characters getting significant character development. Can't wait to see more of what happens between the siblings.