The Quest for the Legends

Chapter 35: Suicune (commentary)
Chapter 36: The Crater (commentary)

In this duo of chapters, our heroes fight Suicune, Mark stands up to Chaletwo, I reminisce about that one time I inexplicably ruined a major twist for my readers, I fail to find answers about just how unrealistic my fictional volcano town is, and I get giddy about how much I still love this bit I thought up in 2003 where Mark bursts into a town meeting, everyone learns he's supposed to be dead thanks to a hilarious coincidence, and he improvises a story about how Chaletwo is trying to take over the world.

So now after reading the commentary I'm left with some questions on Suicune and Gyarados' interaction at the lake. Suicune obviously created the soul gem there, but Spirit in the next chapter says it can't be right because the soul gem has to be a mark of approval. If that's not the case, then, what is it? Did Suicune just create the soul gem as Gyarados was attacking him because he had no other choice? Was Gyarados always going to be his choice for that or did he not plan for that to happen? I'm not sure what his intentions were.

Spirit's basically talking out of her ass; she's decided her necklace is a mark of Entei's ultimate approval because she likes to think she's special and approved of.

Gyarados was one of several potential Pokémon that Suicune had given a portion of his power to and tested for suitability. Actually making the soul gem and properly choosing him was an ad-hoc decision as he was being attacked; he knew this attack would probably knock him out and that whatever these kids and Chaletwo were up to exactly, he'd rather get in the soul gem now than risk it. So ultimately Suicune ended up with Gyarados by necessity: he was simply the only potential present at the time Suicune made the gem. Given he's not exactly predisposed to trying very hard to get Suicune resurrected, it's probably safe to say he wouldn't have been Suicune's first choice otherwise.

(That does mean yeah, Gyarados's Dragon Beam probably wouldn't have actually killed Suicune on its own. Pokémon are very resilient, and legendaries especially so. Nobody was quite sure what was going on with Suicune's power going into Gyarados and powering up the beam and all that, so it wasn't obvious that this shouldn't have been able to kill him, but yeah. Gyarados was pretty much as surprised as everyone else when Suicune was actually dead.)

Makes sense. What I meant about Spirit and saying she was special and approved of is - isn't the reason a legendary would choose their final soul-gem bearer basically because the legendary has decided they can handle it, therefore signifying they are "special and approved of?" I guess my question is, so if Spirit has decided she is special and approved of but that's not correct, then what does Entei's choosing her actually represent as far as her worthiness compared to other candidates is concerned?

Entei did pick Spirit out because she was the most promising candidate who'd made the best use of her power - but the higher meaning that she imagines that has isn't there. Entei doesn't care about or approve of her as person, and that's not what it means. She's confused that Gyarados could have ended up with the 'mark of approval' while killing Suicune, because in her mind that must mean Suicune was giving his blessing to Gyarados and his actions, but actually it's just literally picking them out for a practical purpose and Suicune simply went with Gyarados here because he was closest at hand at the time.

Gotcha! Thanks.