character discussion: Fern

[Gentleman Jaggi]

After a discussion about this guy broke out over in Team Showcase I figured there would be merit to a thread like this.

 

We all know Fern. Our Rival #3, a Grass Type specialist that later branches out into other Types.

From what we see in the game he is cocky, full of himself, uncaring about the personal situation of those around him and just generally an unpleasant person to everyone around him.

But what about the facest of his personality we don't get to see, or at least not as plainly?

 

Much like probably most people I thought that the above description was all there was to him, but over time my opinion of him shifted. Don't take me wrong, he remains a thoroughly unlikable individual, but I've found that at the root of that sits a pitiable fool, who went off the deep end trying to prove himself to others.

 

Often in media a character like Fern - who constantly belittles others despite his own obvious failures, who pretents that his defeats do not exist - acts this way due to a lack of self confidence and a resulting need to prove themselves.

Fern is the same and his way to prove himself to others is via his aptitude in Pokémon Training. He is a talented Trainer no doubt, a back up Gym Leader, which likely places him in the top few percent of trainers in the Region. That's a fact he takes much pride in, and it's what allowed him to become Onyx School's "top dog" - by herding the students there under his leadership, using Pokémon Battles to cement his status.

 

That's where the protagonist comes in. They are a rooky trainer, just showed up in the region and already starting to make a name for themselves. To Fern, the protagonist is, at first, just an annoyance. They're there during the factory raid, taking attention away from him. Instead of Fern beating Team Meteor, the situation turned into him having to share the spotlight with someone else. That someone than proceeds to drive Team Meteor out of Obsidia Ward, saving two Gym Leaders in the process. Fern eventually starts to perceive the protagonist as a threat, because not only are they challenging the Reborn League, proving themselves to be of an even higher level than the Gym Leader-position Fern prides himself in, they're also out there making that fact known.

And then they basically show up on his doorstep.

 

Fern's attempt to lock the protagonist out of Florinia's Gym is supposed to take them down a peg. To stop them in their tracks before they can get even bigger. Unfortunately for Fern it backfires - spectacularly. The protagonist proceeds to battle their way through the school, battling all of Fern's goons along the way and eventually beating Fern himself. At that point he sees his position as the top dog of Onyx Trainer's School in shambles. The students have just personally experienced that there even better trainers out there than Fern. Subsequently they are no longer willing to put up with him.

Fern's next step is to abandon his position both as the school's top dog, as well as a backup Gym Leader. The protagonist has just shown that neither of those mean anything to them, so Fern decides to hit them with something they do care about. Beating them at the Reborn League. Over his following appearances Fern's attempts to prove himself to everyone else increasingly turn into attempts to prove himself to the protagonist. He constantly challenges them to remind them that he's there, doing the same thing they're doing. At least that's what he thinks.

 

The protagonist quickly ends up more and more entangled in Team Meteor's plans. They go from coincidentially being there for their League Challenge when Team Meteor shows up to actively pursuing and fighting Team Meteor, with the various Gyms only happening to be on the way. Fern knows nothing of that at first, but eventually news of the protagonist working alongside several Gym Leaders in fighting Team Meteor reach him as well.

Fern has constantly been trying to get the attention of those around him, but the only ones who have ever recognized him are trainers of lower skill levels. He doesn't realize that his attitude is the reason none of his fellow Gym Leaders ever respected him. But now he knows a surefire way to get their attention; their's and the protagonist's. What better way to force them to take him seriously than to join the organization they've been fighting tooth and nail - Team Meteor?

Fern wants those around him to pay him attention, to be aware of his presence, more than anything. In Team Meteor his skill instantly propels him to an executive-level position, while their enemies are forced to take him serious as a threat. They can no longer brush him off as just some jerk they should ignore, because now he's an enemy.

 

Team Meteor's raid on Fiore Mansion is his first assignment. It ends up failing in a way that most likely could not be worse for him. He is defeated by the two people whose attention he wanted more than anyone else's - the protagonist and his own sister. Even worse: Blake, his partner during the Double Battle, proves himself a bigger threat than Fern.

In the end the protagonist remains unmoved, as they always are, while his sister shows no signs of emotions about his actions either. At that point he's close to a breakdown. None of his actions achieved anything. He tried to make himself out as the top dog, but was brushed aside. He tried to be a Rival, but failed to outdo his opponent, or even get a rise out of them. Finally he tried to be a threat, a traitor, but nobody showed any signs to care about that either.

 

Fern tried to get the attention of those around him, but the only way he knew was to be obnoxious.

He tried to be respected as a skilled trainer, but only knew how to push around those that couldn't stand up to him.

He tried to be recognized for something, but failed to achieve anything.

Fern's story is that of a guy who's so bad at trying to be popular that he eventually spirals out of control and loses track of what he was trying to be.

 

 

Anyhow, that's my thoughts on Fern so far. Hopefully I managed to bring up some points that don't come up that often.

Admittedly a lot of it is speculation that all started running from a certain thought and then build itself up to what you can read up there. Tell me what you think and, more importantly, what kind of person Fern really is in your eyes.

[Cataline]

Yea that's pretty much how I envisioned, regardless of how on track I was.I don't know how much I have to add since I haven't made close Fern observations, but I would like to bring up the whole Fiore Mansion scenario. I don't know how different the convo between the whole split w Solaris' garchomp, but he did get actually rise, a big one. 
To deflect his loss to the protagonist and his sister he decides to dig hard at Florinia's own trauma. He talks about him feeling betrayed and claims that she never cared about him, before switching to the topic of her emotionless (words like weak, selfish, afraid) nature which nearly makes her facade crack, because half those things are actually true!. And right as she turns away, he, knowing he got a reaction promptly leaves the scene before anything else is said.

 

Fern could have brought up that any time in the past, but it seems like he chose then of all times to use that knowledge. I feel like he does care about Florinia to some extent, and she cares for him, though they're both distant. He did know enough of what happened to her,, But well, he was pushed to the point of breaking whatever bond they had. Classic Fern. I wonder where he'll be next time.

[RedAlert]

Well, this was very aptly put that I can't think of anything else to say. You've pictured him exactly the way he's meant to be picture, in my opinion. He is so overly obstinate and proud that he feels that he can do no wrong - in anything he does. He blames any mistake he makes on others, calls them cheap and lame in an effort to place himself above them. It's almost gotten to the point where I feel sorry for the guy, because weakly berating us is the only thing he has. I'm also astounded by the way they've made him to such a detestable character - hated with such a passion that it merits the creation of a thread. We don't even see a thread for even the most liked characters, do we?

 

Btw, please realize that I'm not pointing fingers at anyone here, I am the same in this matter and am always super triggered by his appearances and am always interested in any new information or character analysis about Fern.

 

Finally, I'm just going to quote myself here (from another thread): 

On 6/16/2017 at 11:02 PM, RedAlert said:

 

That's what sets her apart from Fern, who seems like such a casual douche. It's not that I hate him, it's impossible to hate him when I know the creator is fixed on getting me to hate him, but it seems so purposeless and stupid that I feel sorry for him. I guess he's the embodiment of the general bully at school but I can't help but feel that there's such a lack of motivation that drives him. Everytime it's the same story, he wants to prove himself to us, but not being able to defeat us, he resorts to the same old tactic since he lacks the courage and musculature to beat us up physically: insults. It's a very easy to pull off character, and possibly one of the few negative aspects of the game.

 

I actually have a theory about him being like a secret agent or something which'd be pretty awesome if it happened since we have Gym leaders as spies for Team Meteor so why not the other way around

 

[Gentleman Jaggi]

@Cataline  It's been some time since I had that scenario happen in my game, but the impression I took away at that time was that Florinia might just be the only person Fern really cares about. The protagonist is a rival to him, somebody he wants to surpass, but Florinia is family. Possibly even the only one he has, although with the Pokémon games generally just ignoring the topic of "Where are your parents?" it's somewhat ambigious. (The fact that afaik the only other parents that get mentioned are Heather's, Cain's and Luna's doesn't really help here.)

The reason for his outburst at Fiore Mansion rather clearly wasn't that he lost again, but rather how Florinia barely even reacted both to the Fern-as-hostage act and the revelation that he's in Team Meteor.

 

@RedAlert: (forum refuses to properly @ you, no idea why)
I actually don't even hate the guy anymore; to me he's become that sort of pitiful existence who's not worth hating, but also too much of an ass to want to help him.
That's why I wanted to put my opinion somewhere since the previous discussion was pretty much divided between "he's an asshole" and "he's unfairly screwed over by the writers".
 

54 minutes ago, RedAlert said:

weakly berating us is the only thing he has.

I think that's a pretty apt way to put. He prides himself in his skill as a trainer and then we show up and constantly undermine his efforts. It's even somewhat apparent in his battles: He's considerably tougher in the early battles than later on. His Roserade during the battle inside the Grand Hall can be downright frighteningly powerful if you don't have anything to counter it. Starting with the battle in Aya's Gym he becomes considerably easier, culminating in him basically playing second fiddle to Blake at Fiore Mansion.
It would be an interesting twist if he really ended up being just a mole in Team Meteor. Him being Fern he'd still need to ruin the moment somehow, but it'd be enough to at least get some grudging respect out of whichever NPCs are present.

Discussions about individual characters have so far mostly come up in other threads where some character was relevant to the topic the thread was about. Only reason I started this thread was because I wanted to add my opinion on him without further derailing the thread this started in. I thought about making a thread like this about Cain as well, but right now I don't really have enough insightful thoughts about him to start it. I'd probably post in it if somebody else were to create such a thread however. *hinthint*

[Cataline]

21 hours ago, Gentleman Jaggi said:

The reason for his outburst at Fiore Mansion rather clearly wasn't that he lost again, but rather how Florinia barely even reacted both to the Fern-as-hostage act and the revelation that he's in Team Meteor.

Ah I suppose that's true. No Fern expert anyways. But I just thought I'd bump it up as important info. 

[Tacuara]

Fern will have a change off heart, save the good guys, and before making peace with his sister either he or Flobot will be murdered by Lin. 

[Lillietea]

Don't someone ever sought that Fern is just like Blue? As for me, they are very similiar. Blue always wanted to be one step further than protagonist, he always wanted to be at the top, and never blamed himself, he blamed others (" No way! I have picked wrong pokemon!" For example) 

And Fern is just like him. He want to be "top dog", he want to impress his sister, Florinia, he want to prove to everyone that he is strong and he never blames himself. Thats my opinion.

[seki108]

12 minutes ago, alisekoroleva said:

Don't someone ever sought that Fern is just like Blue? As for me, they are very similiar. Blue always wanted to be one step further than protagonist, he always wanted to be at the top, and never blamed himself, he blamed others (" No way! I have picked wrong pokemon!" For example) 

And Fern is just like him. He want to be "top dog", he want to impress his sister, Florinia, he want to prove to everyone that he is strong and he never blames himself. Thats my opinion.

IMO, Fern "was" Reborn's successful attempt to recreate a Blue-style rival, until your second encounter with him (at the trainer school).  While Blue ignored the plights of those around him (Silph C.O.), he never outright halted your progress just because he felt a little threatened by you.  Because of Fern's mile-long inferiority complex, he abuses his position to intentionally stifle you.  In his second meeting, he surpasses any amount of dickishness Blue displayed and goes on to continually surpass Blue in the "Asshole" department in almost every subsequent appearance.   

 

I see him as a super-charged Blue, with deeper inferiority complex and lacking a firm moral center (though not to a Meteor member's level, yet) .

[Alistair]

25 minutes ago, alisekoroleva said:

Don't someone ever sought that Fern is just like Blue? As for me, they are very similiar. Blue always wanted to be one step further than protagonist, he always wanted to be at the top, and never blamed himself, he blamed others (" No way! I have picked wrong pokemon!" For example) 

And Fern is just like him. He want to be "top dog", he want to impress his sister, Florinia, he want to prove to everyone that he is strong and he never blames himself. Thats my opinion.

Yeah. It's pretty obvious that Fern is an attempt at recreating a "Blue" type of rival. It was necessary to have this kind of character in the game since the other 2 rivals, Victoria and Cain, are actually the PC's friends and kinda stop being true rivals rather quickly (Cain even acknowledged the PC as better than him barely halfway through the game, and hasn't battled them ever since).

Reborn needed a "Blue", and real life Fern's douchy behavior happened to be the ideal template for that.

It's funny because most of the things I've said about Blue, as a reply to Wolfox's status update on rivals, can apply to Fern as well (inferiority complex, fear of being abandoned/not recognized, hatred for another young trainer stealing the spotlight). These 2 characters really are extremely similar.

[Azeria]

Stealing the spotlight would be putting it lightly, in the original timeline, all of the player's accomplishments were Fern's. One could say you've stolen his life. It's sad.

[Pozyher]

@Azeria (quote button doesnt work)

What do you mean with "original timeline" and that the player's achievements were his?

[Ainz Ooal Gown]

@Pozyher, that's if ( maybe ) Fern can be a hero and stop being a jerk for once.

[Pozyher]

@Ainz Ooal Gown , oh, i thought it was something about the fortune teller in jasper and the counterpart of fern in real life.

Thanks for letting me know.

[Egzample]

@Azeria that's taken from forum's theory, nothing confirmed so far. I sense a slight chance of unexpected Celebi popping out somewhere from the backstage, too.

 

(Still, We may craft the theory further, what if each Reborn's reborn provides us with just another iteration of protagonist? Fern was the previous one, Shade or Savage was before him, etc. - the prophecy tells us the previous group of protagonists failed, so Anna made a wish and here were are - what if we are the ultimate, successful hero? Or better, what, if not?)