AchillesmonochromeI Really Love This Idea But, What Bugs Me Is...why She Became The Champion If She Didn't

achillesmonochrome I really love this idea but, what bugs me is...why she became the champion if she didn't want it? I mean, you go to the league, and then the champion has been defeated by N, you eventually win, and then you have the post-game. You don't become the champion unless you go again to the elite 4

I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED.

Okay so you bring up an excellent point and typically, yes, I would agree this is a plot hole! However I have incurable brain disease that makes me think about world building and the implications of children's media 24/7, so I accept no responsibility for the unhinged garbage that's about to come out of my hands and directly into your eyes Pokemon BW is a story whose major themes for the MC are consent, agency, and societal pressure. (As an aside, this is why I prefer Hilda - these themes particularly resonate with me as a lady.) Anyway. Stay with me here.

When Hilda, Cheren, and Bianca start their journey, it's so innocent, man. Bianca wants to find herself, Cheren explicitly wants to become champion, and Hilda is intended to be a blank slate to project onto. Except she's not, not entirely - we can infer a lot just from her character design and how the characters in the game react to her. She's tomboyish, probably rough around the edges. There's a good chance that she's not looking to do pokemon battling professionally but is still very good at it (many rivals are upset when they lose, but Cheren is consistently baffled by why Hilda always wins. It isn't like Silver who is learning how to love or something, Cheren is clearly intended to be a competent and skilled trainer in-canon, yet he just Can't Win,) she's most likely empathetic (see also: good at pokemon, these critters react to trust and love,) she's got a heroic nature (the average person is not willing to stick their neck out to throw down with a cult) and she's got a lot of hesitancy in literally every step of the plot. The last point might not be true for a lot of players, especially if you tend to say Yes to prompts, but the experience is a lot different if you let Hilda say No. Because, obviously, it's a game. But Thou Must. The show must go on. The script has been written and the prophecy has been foretold.

Hilda's life changed when she stepped out of her home town and met N, because in giving him the spark of doubt that would allow him to regain faith in humanity's ideal, she got an obsessive stalker. N decides, completely on his own, that if he is to be one half of the heroes of legend, then Hilda has to be the other half. What was supposed to be a fun journey adventure for Hilda and her friends soon becomes about fulfilling a prophecy, which N is constantly trying to goad Hilda into. He's pleased when she answers yes/agrees with him but any no answer is met with sneering, condescending nastiness. He wants Hilda to fulfill the prophecy because that's how he achieves his dream and proves that his way of thinking is Correct, giving him the leverage to change how Unova is structured. And like. The adults around Hilda just Do Not have her back like they should? Alder gives her Zekrom's rock prison and just tells her hey, good luck kid. If I lose it's all on you. And she can say no here!! She can refuse! And if she does, all Alder does is continue to push the Dark Stone into Hilda's hands, telling her that he's sorry, it has to be this way, it's not fair to her but she has to step up to do this if he fails. The whole of Unova is resting on her young shoulders.

And it ends up being true. Zekrom responds to her, at the final moment - because even if she said no every chance she got, when the cards are down, she still helps. Uncertain and unsure, dragged into this whirlwind of legends and fate, she counters the factually true statement that humanity is capable of unending cruelty with the ideal that humanity is also capable of incredible kindness and good. (As an aside, Zekrom and Reshiram represent yin and yang. Yin, the dark, the feminine, that which is acted upon. Yang, the light, the masculine, that which has its will acted out. It's interesting how it lines up.) The reluctant hero is victorious, and she certainly did choose to follow through with the plan, but how much of that agency can be attributed to the constant pressure held to the back of her neck? So there Hilda is. She's sixteen, she's the hero that saved Unova, and she's got every single eye on her. Of course she's going to be Champion. The Champion is the region's strongest trainer, the face of the region, the one who travels and solves problems. Who better but the one who is already a legendary hero? It doesn't matter if Hilda says no.