Tristen Analysis [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD]

[Lucifer Morningstar]

"Search for the cracks"

This is something we are told to do multiple times as the major theme of the plot. 

I've completed episode 5 and thus far, Tristen has come across as one of the most prominent cracks in the game.

 

He introduces himself as the Normal-type gym leader and presents as a compassionate and helpful person but for a gym leader his existence in Ayrith is nothing more than an abandoned house and a couple of diaries whose author hasn't had an actual presence thus far. 

Shiv appears to you as you leave that house after triggering the gym battle with Tristen and says: "Something is wrong around you" and "something is amiss". He also mentions a dark aura.
Shiv isn't the most trustworthy but there still had to be something to that. That "something amiss" had to be Tristen and that house. 

Tristen has no relationship with the other Ayrith gym leaders. Ava and Connor who are among them establish never having heard of him and can't see the badge he awards us. 
When Ava tells us that he died I expect she was just putting together the information from the diaries (a boy named Tristen lived there who became the Normal-type gym leader) with common knowledge. 

 

He himself admits that no one remembers him but how can a gym leader just be forgotten even if he was a loner who didn't build personal relationships. 

 

This is a minor detail but it also occurred to me that his pyroar's nickname, Simba seems like a 4th wall breech. I don't expect that The Lion King exists in the Pokemon universe. 

 

I'm 98% convinced that Tristen is not a real person but an artificial conduit of Odis, perhaps even Darkari itself in a human shape. 
Darkari might be unable to use Transform but perhaps it can use dream projection to alter our perception of it. A glamor of sorts. It's established that this Darkari is an anomaly because it's malicious in nature therefore perhaps it has unheard of capabilities such as how deeply it has deceived the twins. 

 

Consider the following: 
- We are the only person in Ayrith Tristen appears to and shows interest in, we who Darkrai is targeting with its influence. 

 

- One of our most major blackouts which was presumably a semi-transcendence into Odis occurred after the visit to his supposed grandfather's abandoned house where that major crack was revealed.

 

- Tristen declares that he is devoted to Odis and If you tell him about the visions of the twins as villains which is some of the insight we need to be able to resist Darkari, he deems Booker a threat.
 

At the conclusion of episode 5, it appears Booker might have known what he was doing with that quest. I'm interested in learning more about him. 

The whole loner persona is quite convenient for Darkari to plant itself and other small details around Ayrith that appear to be cracks in it's existence.
Other details being:
- Tristen's abandoned house and the dairies. 
- The tombstones baring Ava's and Emily's names in Weeping Hills.
- The biographies of Ava and Connor in the archives with the contents removed. 
- Possibly, somehow, the kidnapping of Garret's sister. "You should be honored" (because his family is taking part in Darkari's lure of us and therefore its ultimate plot?).

The shadow of her that appears in the archives made me wonder if she's a prisoner in Odis though we didn't seem to have met her. 

Both the Archives and Weeping Hills seem to parallel the cave in Odis, the apparent anomaly of the Dreamscape that the prisoners are conditioned to avoid. 
As we were able to see shadows in that cave of people we know in Ayrith (ie: Emily and Hardy), I believe that cave is a hole in the Dreamscape causing it to bleed together with Ayrith.
I'm wondering if Weeping Hills and the Archives are similar, weak spots in Odis that Ayrith can see into as both locations also contain shadows. 
  

Sure there are still holes that I can't fill in such as how Ayrith has gone 5-years thus far without a Normal-type gym leader and the nature of the Ordinary Badge we might or might not posses.
However, ultimately, Tristen is the most out of place element in the entire game which makes those details rather trivial. 

He's one of the major red flags that made me suspicious of Odis (the others were that cave and it being a world in which the twins are borderline saints). 
I always believed in Ayrith. 

 

This game has been so dope and I am looking forward to the next update!  

 

[Progfan_r]

Good theory and analysis. Definitely possible. It would explain why Tristan seems young, even though the Tristan of Ayrith is supposed to be much older when he died/disappeared. It also explains why the PC is the only person in Ayrith who can see him.

 

Another clue I can think of is that Tristan only appears in Ayrith when Nova takes the Onyx stone to the Dream world. He also disappears from Ayrith when Shiv takes back the stone from Nova and returns to Ayrith.

 

4 hours ago, Lucifer Morningstar said:

... and the nature of the Ordinary Badge we might or might not posses.

 

This is somewhat answered in the story. Tristan does award the PC the Ordinary badge. But it is a glamour or something of that sort like you said, and the PC does not actually possess it. The PC gets the real Ordinary badge when they visit Tristan's abandoned home with Ava and Connor.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

3 hours ago, Progfan_r said:

It would explain why Tristan seems young, even though the Tristan of Ayrith is supposed to be much older when he died/disappeared. It also explains why the PC is the only person in Ayrith who can see him.

 

I wasn't aware of this detail but it would make sense for this Tristen to be a replica of a real person. 

 

4 hours ago, Progfan_r said:

Another clue I can think of is that Tristan only appears in Ayrith when Nova takes the Onyx stone to the Dream world. He also disappears from Ayrith when Shiv takes back the stone from Nova and returns to Ayrith.

 

Excellent observation. I hadn't noticed that Tristen's appearances and disappearances lined up with which world the Onix Stone was in. 

 

4 hours ago, Progfan_r said:

This is somewhat answered in the story. Tristan does award the PC the Ordinary badge. But it is a glamour or something of that sort like you said, and the PC does not actually possess it. The PC gets the real Ordinary badge when they visit Tristan's abandoned home with Ava and Connor.

 

That's what I'd thought, that when we re-visit Tristen's abandoned house with Connor and Ava they must have grabbed the badge for us since we pass out. 

[Yumil]

Quote

- Our most major blackout which was presumably a semi-transcendence into Odis occurred after the visit to his supposed grandfather's abandoned house where that major crack was revealed.

That's hardly true, a similar blackout happens after the blackview battle, which has no direct connection to the dreamscape either.

 

-Also, I don't buy the idea that Tristan is an artificial person, because the diaries, the house, and even ava's account, does speak of a Tristan that WAS alive about fifty years ago.

 

And yeah, the timeline doesn't hold up, but consider the following : time doesn't flow the same way in the dreamscape than it does in reality.

 

Exhibit A: after the events of bountilia island, we're sent to the dreamscape. We know we left no unconscious body behind, because Garett and Rosetta tells us we went missing. We are also told we disapperead for "several days", which is a weird thing to mention considering this segment is much, much shorter than our first trip to the dreamscape, where we were simply "out cold" in our bed. 

 

So it seems there two different ways to enter the dreamscape, differentiated by whether your leave your body behind in the real world, or not. If you don't, time flows much faster for you and what appears to be a few hours in the dreamscape becomes several days.

 

-So in light of those facts, I'd argue that everything weird about tristan can be simply explained by the fact he entered the dreamscape with his body 50 years ago, for a trip that felt maybe like a couple months to him, and then came back to reality in this day and age. I'd even throw in a bonus that he's not entirely conscious of how long time has passed, considering his comment at the state of the house.

 

-Him liking Odis as a place can be a simple result of the fact he had a sad childhood of a lonely boy and for him, the dreamscape discovery wasn't a soul-crushing discovery that nothing in your life mattered, but an escape route from "that boy no one notices" to "just a regular guy people like".

 

-Tristan as an avatar of Darkrai doesn't make much sense to me. Let's say you're Darkrai. You're trying to fool the player into thinking the dreamscape is the real deal. You're told to find three books by Booker, which, if you're Darkrai, know is a complete liability who may cause the player to catch on to the trap. Do you :

 

A) Follow the player around in their quest under the pretense of "the more the merrier" and then grab the books yourself when you find them and prevent the player from touching them and accessing the knowledge they contain, and maybe railroad them into avoiding the stranger aspects of the dreamscape while you're at it ?

or 

B) Decide to split up and let the player go completely unsupervised, free to discover everything wrong about the dreamscape and also pick up the books with even more evidence in it ?

 

Like, I know Darkrai isn't THAT smart if you decide to take a very cynical approach to everything that happens in the game, but if Tristan is like the one person he has geniune complete control over, rather than nova/shiv/aurora being manipulated but not directly controlled, then he's deadass stupid for letting that happen.

 

-I think Tristan works much better as a character as the one person who actually finds the dreamscape a more pleasant life than real life and as such is going to fight to defend what's dear to him, than as a puppet of darkrai making such a huge blunder.

 

-Finally, I disagree with the idea that the player is the only person who can see tristan. Ava and Connor never happened to be around when he was, which might just be a coincidence, or a "coincidence", rather than an incapacity to actually see him. Also, I'm pretty sure the trainers in silver rise who double teamed us didn't got taken down by thin air, but it's always hard to know how  much you should factor in the gameplay of the game into the plot.

 

-It's also worth remembering that so far, the ordinary badge thing is just a headcanon. Far all we know, we still don't have a real ordinary badge on us. And, quite frankly, why would Ava/Connor do so ? Your friend who's insisting they've been fighting a gym leader that's been dead for 50 years shows you their trainer card, pointedly doesn't have the badge on it, collpase as a result of learning the facts, and your first reaction would be to actually hand them the badge ?  Like, I know they're you're friend, but those things are supposed to be earned in matches regardless.

 

Until the text actually does say this did happen, the ordinary badge thing is a plot thread for the plot to resolve later.

 

-While this theory doesn't explain the ordinary badge thing, nor that one time you spot Tristan in Cellia Central, go talk to him, and he immediately disappears, I think it makes more sense of the plot elements that have been introduced, such as the insistence on the fact tristan lived 50 years ago AND the fact the dreamscape has those weird characteristics such as the time flowing differently. I fully expect the former to be explained later down the road, and the latter to have something to do with the entering the dreamscape with your body that'll be elaborated on when the plot drops the reveal.

[Progfan_r]

@ Yumil, You make a lot of valid points, but I have to disagree on a few counts.

 

3 hours ago, Yumil said:

-Also, I don't buy the idea that Tristan is an artificial person, because the diaries, the house, and even ava's account, does speak of a Tristan that WAS alive about fifty years ago.

 

And yeah, the timeline doesn't hold up, but consider the following : time doesn't flow the same way in the dreamscape than it does in reality.

 

Yes, time doesn't flow the same way in the Dreamscape like you mentioned. Tristan also explains this to the PC in the Dreamscape; even a few hours in the Dreamscape can be years or decades in Ayrith.

 

But, if we're to trust Ava's words (and I see no reason not to), Addenfall has been around for ~ 50 years, and the diaries talk about the Tristan and his grandfather before the town was even formed. Furthermore, Ava clearly states that Tristan was the last Normal type gym leader until he died 5 years ago. So if we do the maths for the different possibilities, the timelines still don't add up.

 

Possibility 1: Tristan only went to the Dreamscape once before, i.e. 5 years ago when he 'died'. But then he should be old, both in Ayrith as well as the Dreamscape.

Possibility 2: Tristan has repeatedly switched between Ayrith and the Dreamscape multiple times, and this is why he is young. But this would mean he should be like Shiv & Aurora, people who have (or at least, had) the power to easily return to the Dreamscape from Ayrith. But Tristan himself states that a) he does not have twins' powers, b) prefers the Dreamscape and c) only returned to Ayrith to 'save' the other citizens of Ayrith and bring them to the Dreamscape. Furthermore, nobody knows or remembers him, even in Addenfall.

 

Either way you look at it, it doesn't add up, even with the different time behaviour in the Dreamscape. Perhaps, there's more to be revealed about him or the Dreamscape, but until we learn more, his story has to be treated with some degree of scepticism.

 

4 hours ago, Yumil said:

-So in light of those facts, I'd argue that everything weird about tristan can be simply explained by the fact he entered the dreamscape with his body 50 years ago, for a trip that felt maybe like a couple months to him, and then came back to reality in this day and age.

 

Like I explained above, the timeline is off.

 

4 hours ago, Yumil said:

-Him liking Odis as a place can be a simple result of the fact he had a sad childhood of a lonely boy and for him, the dreamscape discovery wasn't a soul-crushing discovery that nothing in your life mattered

 

The diaries in his house clearly indicate that he was perfectly fine with solitude. It's actually the grandfather that complains about the loneliness.

 

4 hours ago, Yumil said:

-Finally, I disagree with the idea that the player is the only person who can see tristan. Ava and Connor never happened to be around when he was, which might just be a coincidence, or a "coincidence", rather than an incapacity to actually see him. Also, I'm pretty sure the trainers in silver rise who double teamed us didn't got taken down by thin air, but it's always hard to know how  much you should factor in the gameplay of the game into the plot.

 

This is where I strongly disagree with you. Setting the Silver Rise battles aside, there is no evidence of anybody seeing Tristan or even mentioning him (apart from the PC of course). Not even in Addenfall, where he was the gym leader 5 years ago! If he supposedly did not age, he should have been instantly recognisable and his reappearance should have been the talk of the town. Look at how all the other gym leaders are treated in their respective territories.

 

Furthermore, Tristan himself clearly states something along the lines of 'people pretend I am not there'. In the timeline with his grandfather (more than 50 years ago), he lived alone and did not make friends. So it was more about him not being able to meet other people or him actively shunning other people, rather than being ignored by other people. In the timeline of 5 years ago, he was clearly known as the Normal gym leader of Addenfall, as Ava remembers his name even now. So the whole thing about 'people pretending he is not there' is only true in the current timeline. And the only way this makes sense is if nobody else can see him or talk to him. In fact, he literally disappears from sight in Cellia and the PC is the only person who seems to observe that.

 

So IMO, whether Tristan was actually observed by other people or not is very much up for debate. The Silver Rise battles can be explained either way. Either he really battled alongside the PC, or there was some psychological/supernatural element involved and only the PC battled the trainers there.

 

4 hours ago, Yumil said:

-It's also worth remembering that so far, the ordinary badge thing is just a headcanon. Far all we know, we still don't have a real ordinary badge on us. And, quite frankly, why would Ava/Connor do so ? Your friend who's insisting they've been fighting a gym leader that's been dead for 50 years shows you their trainer card, pointedly doesn't have the badge on it, collpase as a result of learning the facts, and your first reaction would be to actually hand them the badge ?  Like, I know they're you're friend, but those things are supposed to be earned in matches regardless.

 

Until the text actually does say this did happen, the ordinary badge thing is a plot thread for the plot to resolve later.

 

That's not what happens. Ava looks at the PC's trainer card in the Addenfall house and says that there are only 3 badges (with the Normal badge missing). Immediately after that, Connor points out that there are a bunch of Normal badges on the table in the main hall (next to the empty poke ball), and hands one to you. Hardy tells the same thing earlier when we meet him on route 3, that there's no Normal leader, and you simply get a badge without any effort.

 

So all-in-all, there's nothing too abnormal about the Ordinary badge. The only thing that's yet to be explained is why there has been no Normal leader in 5 years. I suppose this may get explained once we get to know about the manager/champion of the Ayrith league.

 

[Yumil]

Quote

But, if we're to trust Ava's words (and I see no reason not to), Addenfall has been around for ~ 50 years, and the diaries talk about the Tristan and his grandfather before the town was even formed. Furthermore, Ava clearly states that Tristan was the last Normal type gym leader until he died 5 years ago. So if we do the maths for the different possibilities, the timelines still don't add up.

 

oh right, Tristan SHOULD have been around for the better part of the 45 years between the grandpa's diary and the time he disappeared. Didn't take that into account. Yeah, there's gotta be more to it, never realized that. Yeah, nevermind me, that does shoot this idea down.

 

Although:

 

Quote

The diaries in his house clearly indicate that he was perfectly fine with solitude. It's actually the grandfather that complains about the loneliness.

I wouldn't say the diary is that categorical about it. The diary's written from the perspective of the grandfather, who by this point is old and bitter. Tristan may seem happy to him but it might just be Tristan doing his usual shtickof looking fine yet being actually depressed, and the old man being too bitter to realize. 

 

Tristan's story definitely does warrant being skeptical but the old man isn't an exact narrator either.

 

Quote

Furthermore, Tristan himself clearly states something along the lines of 'people pretend I am not there'. In the timeline with his grandfather (more than 50 years ago), he lived alone and did not make friends. So it was more about him not being able to meet other people or him actively shunning other people, rather than being ignored by other people. In the timeline of 5 years ago, he was clearly known as the Normal gym leader of Addenfall, as Ava remembers his name even now. So the whole thing about 'people pretending he is not there' is only true in the current timeline. And the only way this makes sense is if nobody else can see him or talk to him. In fact, he literally disappears from sight in Cellia and the PC is the only person who seems to observe that.

I don't think Tristan's words are meant to be taken that litterally. like yeah, there's a couple of instances where he goes for "it's like they pretend I'm not here", but he does mention that in the past, getting his title of gym leader caused him to be further looked down upon, not just ignored, so it's unclear how litteral "acting like i'm not here" is, and how much he's just desperate for attention.

 

Quote

Immediately after that, Connor points out that there are a bunch of Normal badges on the table in the main hall (next to the empty poke ball), and hands one to you.

No, he doesn't. Connor does point out that there's bunch of gym badges on the table, but he immediately does move to examining the poke ball, and there is nothing in the dialogue whatsoever that points to Connor handing you the badge at any point during the cutscene, as he doesn't even comes close to you.

 

Them giving you the badge off screen while you're unconscious isn't impossible, but there's nothing in the text that says so. Although Hardy mentionning he does just got the badge handed to him does lend credence to this idea Connor/Ava might have given you one off-screen. I had forgotten about that detail. 

 

That being said, speaking of that conversation, the fact the pokeball on the desk is supposed to be the pokeball that contained Tristan's Lopunny despite the fact he still has the lopunny on his team does lend credence to the idea the Tristan we know isn't the tristan that lived in Addenfall.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

@Yumil Your arguments while quite astute but seem to look at some of the facts with a bit too much face value. 
@Progfan_r covered my rebuttals, quite thoroughly, however, so there is little for me to add. 

 

15 hours ago, Yumil said:

-Him liking Odis as a place can be a simple result of the fact he had a sad childhood of a lonely boy and for him, the dreamscape discovery wasn't a soul-crushing discovery that nothing in your life mattered, but an escape route from "that boy no one notices" to "just a regular guy people like".

This is debatable.

All insight into Tristen's solitude was provided by his grandfather according to whose observation Tristen appeared to be happy alone but depression is often a silent suffrage.  
Therefor you could be right here, but it was only the grandfather who was established to have found solitude "soul-crushing" and maddening. 

 

I also wouldn't call Tristen "a regular guy people like" in Odis as once again he feels out of place. 
For someone who is helping "wake people up", the twins don't acknowledge him as an ally nor does anyone else acknowledge him (or the twins actually).

His appearance in the Dreamscape is much as abrupt as his disappearance in Blackview. There are only two people he interacts with other than the PC and both are seemingly unusually lucid of Odis; Booker and that Crescent member Ruby (that was her name right?) who we battle in the East area.

Did he talk to Anna in the Town Hall with us? I'd have to go back through HeroVoltsy's playthrough to double check that. 

 

15 hours ago, Yumil said:

Let's say you're Darkrai. You're trying to fool the player into thinking the dreamscape is the real deal. You're told to find three books by Booker, which, if you're Darkrai, know is a complete liability who may cause the player to catch on to the trap.

This, I'll grant has some validity. 
It's possible Darkari wouldn't have known about the liability, it's equally as possible that it could have.

Alright, it's not too likely that he's Darkari or an avatar of Darkari but I still don't think he's a normal person who just fell into the Odis trap. 

 

9 hours ago, Progfan_r said:

Ava remembers his name even now.

I disagree here. 
When we first meet up with her outside Addenfall and we mention Tristen her response verbatim is: "Tristen? Can't say that I've heard of him."

(Connor says something similar when we mention Tristen in Blackview). 

 

8 hours ago, Yumil said:

Them giving you the badge off screen while you're unconscious isn't impossible, but there's nothing in the text that says so.

This is correct.

 

All the text tells us is that Connor observes Ordinary Badges littering the tables and floors of the house but while this does reveal how Hardy obtained up a free badge, it doesn't establish whether or not ours was 'replaced'. 

All that is established is that whatever Tristen gave us, despite unlocking a cap, wasn't an actual Ordinary Badge. 

 

It's plausible that Connor and Ava grabbed us a badge after we pass out but without text confirmation it's unlikely.