Carmine Deserved a Chance at Redemption in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Carmine is one of the many new characters introduced in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC and appears in both The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk. However, her role is often as a minor antagonist, and she might deserve something more.

Editor’s Note: There are spoilers ahead for the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC expansions and Carmine’s role in them.

Before we hop into whether or not Carmine needs a redemption arc, it is important to look at her role in the story. Carmine is the older sister of Kieran and a student at Blueberry Academy. She is from Mossui Town in Kitakami and we meet her at the beginning of The Teal Mask. She is the first trainer we battle with and initially appears to be an important character.

But over the course of The Teal Mask, she takes a step back to give her brother the spotlight. This happens again in The Indigo Disk, where she is relegated to a background character until the trip back to Area Zero. She plays an integral role here finally, but her moments are pretty brief due to the short nature of this trip.

I would say Carmine’s role is incredibly diminished compared to her brother, despite her strong start in the DLC’s campaign. The few battles we have with her are some of the easiest in the game as well. In addition, I feel like I don’t quite understand her as a character like I do with Kieran. After all, what are her motivations and goals in life? She deserved more of a chance to be fleshed out in these storylines, perhaps with extra lines of dialogue in the scenes we saw or additional moments in the expansions’ adventures.

She starts out almost as a bully-like character the player has to deal with at first, almost like a pseudo-rival. But then it doesn’t take long for her to take a backseat for Kieran. There is almost nothing menacing or imposing about her, despite her seemingly strong personality. The shallow characterization and writing for her would be fine if we still had more content to enjoy with Carmine. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. As such, it feels like there’s no character development for someone who seems like she’s also supposed to be important. If not because she’s an actually original character with notable parts to play, then because she does sometimes come across as a supporting antagonist to assist with Kieran’s development.

With the release of the Mochi Mayhem epilogue, these Gen 9 games seem all but done. As such, it feels unlikely that we will ever get a redemption arc for Carmine in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. There is a chance for possible Unova remakes at some point, but will she be in those games? It seems doubtful. However, her inclusion as an optional secret boss could give her the chance to shine, which she feels somewhat robbed of. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that will happen, but I’d love to see more of her in future Pokemon content.

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, plus The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk DLCs, are available exclusively on Nintendo Switch.