As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked.
Fridge Brilliance
- You might be tempted to wonder why Kurune simply asks the Cerises and Delia to leave when Tomie just barely manages to stop the Blame Game from happening again. But think about it like this: while some are better than others, the Cerise family have a bad habit of never admitting their faults while playing the Blame Game with everybody else, and that if you take a certainly loud tone of voice, they'll be tempted to fight back. Therefore, the Cerises + plus someone yelling at them to leave = confrontation. Her asking them to leave is an attempt at avoiding as much damage as possible.
- When Chloe opens Goh's phone to try to contact Amelia, it opens on the very last message she sent him, where she broke off their friendship. While this might seem like a Kick the Dog moment, there's a deeper meaning behind it: It shows just how little Chloe tried to reconnect with him, whilst trying to reconnect with everybody else: Ash, her parents, and so on. But Goh? While everybody else got to reconnect with Chloe or at least got on better terms, Goh was left to rot, with the last message he ever received from her doing nothing to help his diminishing sanity. By showing Chloe this message, Goh's parents emphasize how she hurt their son, all while acting like she was the victim.
- Chloe failing to connect with Goh's Pokémon could be because she looks so different from her original self, but it might run deeper than that. Even if Chloe remained physically the same, she'd still be the girl that essentially sent their Trainer off to the Train. They don't connect with her because they hold her responsible for what happened with Goh.
- Why is Ash the one around whom the Ponyta are more relaxed than in canon? There are a few theories, including that the Ponyta and Rapidash from canon were not scared of Ash as much as done with their task of returning Chloe to her friends; they were more scared of Goh than Ash; they just don't like loud noise, or any number of reasons. Canon!Ash has had enough interactions with Pokemon who lean towards 'the pure of heart' that on a neutral field he'd surely be able to befriend one easily.
- With The Reveal of what Goh truly intended at the start of Blossoming Trial and seeing his true feelings, EVERYTHING Chloe did to him becomes a mixture of Fridge Brilliance, Fridge Horror and Fridge Tear Jerker. All those things she did to him, such as not giving a damn about him, sending him nasty messages, turning people against him and generally treating him like he was the bad guy? THEY'RE ALL THE EXACT SAME THINGS SARA DID TO HER. In her need to feel sorry for herself and become the victim of her sob story, Chloe ended up choosing Goh to be the villain that was responsible for her misery out of envy towards him for being able to connect with people and to freely pursue his interests, managing to completely ruin his self-worth, just like what Sara did to her. And just like with what happened to Sara, her reputation is completely tarnished due to an incident connected to the victim, causing people to realize just how petty and spoiled Chloe really was. It's a VERY harsh reminder how easy it is to fall into the cycle of abuse simply to feel better after being abused and how all it ultimately does in the end is ruin peoples' lives.
- Even worse, Chloe was just Sara's classmate, while Goh was supposed to be Chloe's friend. In a way, Chloe was even worse than Sara, as she had effectively betrayed and destroyed someone that truly was her friend, while she was never Sara's friend to begin with.
- Thankfully, Goh was able to learn just how pointless it is to lash out at/use people through his time on the train (such as learning that Amelia was using the Apex to make herself look like a better person). Thanks to this, along with spilling out his feelings to Chloe and saying he forgives her, he’s taken the first steps to stopping the cycle for good.
- Despite having all of her faults and mistakes thrown back at her face, Chloe remains relatively strait-laced during the "interview" with Dahlia and Vox. This isn't just because of her Character Development or because she knows that it's a distraction: one of the many things the duo call her out on is on her incessant need to make a big deal out of everything and how the entire world is mean to her, and acting as if her pain is greater than everyone else's. If Chloe even thought of using her old tricks or attempted to justify herself with the wrong words, she'd be proving their point.
- After the interview, it becomes more clear why Dahlia said Goh would like to tear Chloe down: between Playing the Victim Card, never assuming responsibility and blaming everybody else for their problems, Dahlia and Chloe are disturbingly alike. So, she probably projected Goh's hatred of her onto Chloe in order to convince herself that the interview would be a success.
- Goh seems shockingly quick to forgive Chloe and change the subject after the interview with Vox and Dahlia, but it makes sense when you consider what he's been through: in the last story, he was smacked right in the middle of a really toxic Blame Game that eventually devolved into people using him as The Scapegoat for everything, and earlier in this story Lexi treated him horribly because he was convinced he didn't deserve a better treatment after how he acted with Chloe. With these moments in mind, Goh's probably deliberately doing what he did to steer away from another potential Blame Game.
- Chloe has a semblance of denial over being a victimizer, and it takes until the interview for her to wise up. But why's this? Well, both in the last story and in this one, Chloe has many reasons to believe she's not completely at fault, with people either apologizing or having their share of the blame, and that's when something isn't happening to keep her mind occupied. The interview is the first moment where she not only has to see every malicious action she did out of her own volition, but also no way of distracting herself from the reveal, nor has someone take some of the blame away from her.
- Why do the Alolan teens have a problem with Chloe not contacting Goh while she's in Alola? Remember that in the last two stories of the trilogy, they didn't know anything about what happened to Gladion nor contact, and Mallow tore them a new one when they did find out. Unlike them, Chloe has no excuse since she knows about the Train, knows that Goh's there, and she has the means to contact him: they're probably worried she's gonna get an even worse tearing apart if she doesn't do something.
Fridge Horror
- How did Mallow's friends react to Mallow screaming Tuba's name in agony?
- When Kurune and Amelia discuss whether Goh could've avoided the Train, the latter argues it was completely his decision. The more you think about it, however, you can see why: not only was Goh broken in every way, shape, and form, but the Train can appear anywhere, and look enticing to the specific Passenger. Coupled with the fact he was stuck in his room, Goh had no choice but to enter the Train.
- Lexi is becoming more like Parker in this story: not only is he letting his anger get the better of him, while using Goh as a primary scapegoat, but he's also putting Chloe on a pedestal and using said idealized version to justify what he's doing when really, he just wants personal catharsis. And like Parker, he refuses to completely move on: while he moves on from Simon, he keeps a grudge on Grace.
- On that note, Arceus knows how much worse his grudge might get when he learns that Warbler is a reincarnated Grace.
- Thankfully, Lexi is able to realize how crummy he was becoming, and makes peace with his anger, giving out some kind words at the small funeral the kids throw for Grace.
- Lexi is becoming more like Parker in this story: not only is he letting his anger get the better of him, while using Goh as a primary scapegoat, but he's also putting Chloe on a pedestal and using said idealized version to justify what he's doing when really, he just wants personal catharsis. And like Parker, he refuses to completely move on: while he moves on from Simon, he keeps a grudge on Grace.
- Goh and Tokio's friendship might not last longer; Tokio already stated Grace deserved to die. But how is he going to react to Goh's denizen partner is the cult leader that made his life hell?
- Sara was so far gone in her conquest to ruin Chloe's life that she forgot that one of her classmates (Franklin) is also considered "different" due to his Asperger's. Who's to say she wouldn't have started going after him next had she not been stopped? She at least now has support from a pair of foster parents who want what's truly the best for her. Though, given the track record of adults in these stories, there's no telling whether they won't make things worse with their Tough Love approach.
- Carl Foster is very much what Chloe could've become had she continued to hold onto her biases and hatred of Ash. Now imagine if she had met Carl while still her bitter spoiled self...
- Back in Blossoming Trail, Atticus, Lexi, Zack and Ray had encouraged Chloe to cut ties with Goh, and praised her when she did it, even after reading through her messages. Now that Goh has revealed his true reasons for what he did back at the start through Vox's broadcast and how much he really did value his friendship with Chloe, they now have to realize they had essentially encouraged Chloe’s toxic behaviour towards Goh, and they had indirectly and accidentally hurt the REAL person putting in the effort in maintaining his and Chloe’s friendship by telling Chloe to simply break things off with him.
- Special mention goes to Lexi: He had treated Goh terribly during his time on the Train out of a misguided belief that it was on Chloe's behalf for Goh being a bad friend towards her. No doubt he’s going to be realizing just how wrong he was about Goh and about his behaviour towards the boy very soon..
- And what will be the RLQ's reactions when they do find out? Will they blame themselves for needlessly exacerbating Goh's misery and enabling Chloe's abusive behavior? Will they still want to be friends with Chloe and support her? Or will they lose their respect for her and come to the belief that she lied about her "miserable home life" just to garner their sympathy?
- There's a worse possibility to consider: like one of the review guesses, it's possible the group didn't listen to the message because they were busy with their own stuff (Atticus leading the charge, Lexi fighting Mad Ben and so on). Assuming this is the case, how bad are they gonna take it when either Goh or Chloe catches them up to speed?
- Or worse yet, one of the denizens that have seen the recording and turned against Chloe could be the one informing them, and they are probably going to have SERIOUS questions regarding how they handled Chloe’s behaviour. And everyone except Hazel are all guilty of worsening Chloe's behaviour towards Goh. So while Amelia may only end up with a slightly worse reputation (since she has the least amount of involvement), Atticus and Lexi will have to deal with denizens who formerly looked up to them for helping Chloe due to them actively encouraging her toxicity. Which again, Lexi should be a special mention since he has been demonizing Goh ever since he boarded the Train 'on Chloe's behalf'.
- Gard and Julie were horrified to learn that their idea of making Chloe fight Ash nearly ended up killing her. What would happen if the rest of her class learned of this?
- Through the beginnings of the story, Lexi acts like a massive Jerkass to Goh, and gets incensed when people get things wrong about Chloe, nearly mauling a Denizen just for getting a detail about her wrong... All while claiming it he's doing it on Chloe's behalf. Here comes the horror: Lexi's just one Denizen, and Chloe has hundreds if not thousands of fans across the Train. Who's to say there aren't more extremists like Lexi doing horrible things to other Denizens or even Passengers while justifying themselves by saying they're doing it in the name of the great "Chloe of the Vermillion"?
- Though, with Chloe’s unsavoury past coming into light thanks to Vox and Dahlia, that sort of behaviour is probably going to stop if it is happening, either by other passengers/denizens/One-One, or because of those people losing respect for Chloe. Hopefully they hadn’t done anything too bad beforehand..
