Cheren Used Helping Hand

So, what I have repeatedly experienced since arriving in the Unova region, is that a lot of people want to keep holding my hand, through everything. My life is full of stop starts, it's not enough to get my first Pokemon, I have to learn that fire beats grass, I have to learn how to throw a pokeball, I have to learn how to equip the running shoes, I even have to bloody find out that...get this...WILD POKEMON LIVE IN LONG GRASS.

After asking me my name and, more puzzlingly, my gender, if Professor Juniper had then asked me "By the way, do you have any previous experience as a Pokemon trainer?", to which I'd have answered yes and we could have skipped all the prep work I had to go through. Instead, the Professor went on to introduce me to my two best friends of the last ten years - nice to meet you.

The best, or rather worst, example of the constant hand holding in Pokemon Black & White comes in the shape of Cheren:



Not only does Cheren keep asking all the right questions about battling, correct use of potions and so on, but he also acts as this infuriating plot device. It's always "Hey Chaz, let's go help this girl recover her stolen Pokemon" or "Hey Chaz, help me battle Team Plasma" - no Cheren, no, this is your mess and I'll be damned if I'm getting you out of it this time. I set off to be a Pokemon Master, not a...stupid...master.

Throw in Cheren's constant philosophical musings over what it means to be a Pokemon trainer, I think my first move as a trainer in the Unova region would be to duck out quickly and take the next S.S.Anne out of here back over to the Hoenn region where it's safe. No one wrestles with their own thoughts over there, back East - back there, they've all been playing Pokemon for much, much longer than the people here and they don't need to been pushed along one square at a time.