PMD-E In-Depth Bio: Darren the Golurk

Name: Darren
Species: Golurk



Other Names: Grovyle (by Amy and Chikorita when no one else is around), Unit 301 (the original name of his Golurk body), Giant Flying Robot Golem Slave Guy (by PK the Kecleon)
Relatives: Currently none living.

Moveset as Grovyle:
Absorb
Dig
Quick Attack
Leaf Blade

Current Moveset:
Bulldoze
Fly
Earthquake
Shadow Punch

Past Life as Grovyle:

He was originally born as a Treecko 500 years in the future to Sceptile, his mom, and Garchomp, his dad, from whom he inherited his interesting moveset. He met Amy very early on, and though his parents discouraged it since the humans seemed to be doing something that Primal Dialga wouldn't approve of, he insisted on playing with her every day. Because of this, unlike many, many Pokémon of the dark future, he was able to keep the bright and innocent personality that he was born with.

As soon as Dusknoir and his Sableye lackeys came to take the humans to the stockade, Sceptile and Garchomp fled and tried bringing Treecko along, but he ran away, wanting to save Amy instead. There, he evolved into Grovyle and rescued her just in time, but he was far too late to save her parents or anyone else, and he felt guilty over its obvious effects on her.

But when he discovered that Amy had the ability to see where Time Gears were in the past, he was filled with hope for the first time. And when the Planetary Investigation Team recruited them and tasked them with the mission to change history, he promised he would do whatever it took to do so. It is believed that this was the event that started his serious and hasty personality, and his unwavering belief to not give up no matter what happened.

This belief served him well. As obviously the stronger of the two, he was able to defend Amy from the myriad of threats that sought to stop their progress. Though they were captured a lot, he developed quick-thinking skills and a variety of plans to get them out of every scrape. It was during this time that they decided that if he were to ever have a human name, it would be Darren. Finally, the time came when they found out where all the Time Gears were, and they went to the Gate of Time to go to the past and change history.

Unfortunately, while going to the past, Darkrai attacked them, and though the attack was meant for Grovyle, it hit Amy instead. Grovyle did his absolute best to hold onto her, but in the end, they were separated, and he was the only one who was sent to the Eastern Forest, which they were aiming for all along.

He felt down in the dumps until he saw the sunrise for the very first time. The majestic beauty of it all became engrained in his memories forever, and he became more determined to save the future. With or without Amy.

His plans to gather all the Time Gears were going smoothly until he ran into a certain young Jigglypuff and Chikorita who kept trying to stop him, and worse yet, Dusknoir from the future was with them. When trying to obtain the last Time Gear, Dusknoir lured him into a trap, captured him, and took him back to the future, much to his frustration and despair. He began thinking of ways to escape and start over, though, and though he was surprised to see the Jigglypuff and Chikorita at the stockade with him, he was able to (barely) convince them to help.

They were about to use the Gate of Time's remaining power to return to the past when Dusknoir cornered them and revealed to them that the Jigglypuff was actually Amy who had lost her memories. After barely escaping, getting through the Gate of Time, and returning to Treasure Town, Grovyle explained everything to Amy and Chikorita, and they agreed to help complete his mission. They became very good friends at this point—especially Amy. Grovyle also observed how happy Amy was, and how much better of a friend Chikorita was to her than he could ever be.

Unfortunately, this was not to last, as when Dusknoir came from the future to stop them, Grovyle decided to leave the mission in Amy and Chikorita's hands. His goal was to drag Dusknoir to the future, and this time, make sure he stays there so that no one could ever interfere with Amy and Chikorita at the last second.

Grovyle wondered why the future was still dark, and Dusknoir explained that it's probably because of a time-delay effect. Along the way to Primal Dialga, Grovyle manages to convince Dusknoir about what's really important, and in the end, they and Celebi stop Primal Dialga long enough for the future to change. But when it does change…they don't disappear. As it turns out, the great Arceus had used his power to save them all.

They spent a great many years exploring the bright new land of the future, learning all about what has advanced since the last 500 years. But then Grovyle realized that he was forgetting about one thing: What happened to Amy and Chikorita?

Upon finding that, oddly enough, they disappeared to a place called Tao World, he goes there, and finds out that after living in Tao Village for several missions, they ran away and were never heard from again. At the same time, Kyurem from 500 years before was finally waking up, and because Amy and Chikorita knew him very well, Grovyle braved the cold and long lines of Pokémon in order to speak with Kyurem.

Kyurem revealed to Grovyle that Amy and Chikorita had become Frillishes who were stuck in stasis in the Icy Cavern all this time, and as the two Frillishes regain their memories, they lead Grovyle to the place where their bones were discarded. They remember that some townspeople pursued them, angry at the fact that they helped awaken Kyurem and destroyed the village in the first place, and they were ambushed and killed. Chikorita was driven insane by the injustice of it all, evolved into Jellicent, and underwent a complete reversal in personality as she swore to destroy everyone who was cruel to her. Amy and Grovyle tried to get her to snap out of it, but all of their efforts were in vain. In the end, Kyurem was the one who had to put her out of her misery and save the world from being destroyed by her wrath.

Grovyle thought he'd be happy to be reunited with Amy again, but not like that. Not without Chikorita. He wondered if this was the future he was fighting for, and wanted to see if he could do something, anything at all, for Amy before she, too, underwent the same fate that Chikorita did. To his surprise, Kyurem not only approved of this desire, but made a request for Grovyle to do so. He revealed to Grovyle the location of Jirachi, the one who grants wishes, and Grovyle and Amy made their way back to their old home.

Only Grovyle was allowed into Wish Cave, and Amy had to stay behind. He fought through the dungeon and with much effort, convinced Jirachi that he had the strength of will for his wish. But according to the Law of Equivalent Exchange, he had to pay a price: He could go to the past to be with Amy and prevent her and Chikorita from dying that early, and at the same time, eliminate the time-delay effect that would result from changing history again, but if and only if he sacrificed his body as payment.

He agreed, and as a result, his soul was sent to the past to be inserted into a Golurk with the designation of Unit 301. Though his memories were temporarily erased, the directive he received from Kyurem—to join Amy's team and protect her no matter what—allowed him to last until he saw another sunrise. That sunrise, so much like the one that was burned in his memories forever, was the trigger that made him remember everything and able to tell Amy and Chikorita the whole story. They then decided to rename him with the human name he had decided upon so long ago, Darren, since he was no longer a Grovyle.

As a Golurk, he is still with them today, helping them with their work, first as Merchants, and now on Planet Paion.

Personality as Grovyle:

In his past life, he was even more serious than Amy, and barely had time to fool around at all, though that didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy playing around and having fun. It was what allowed him to retain his positive attitude in the dark future, after all. He was also very impatient, often yelling at people for being too slow, not cautious enough, etc., and wouldn't hesitate to say whatever rude things that were necessary to get them irritated/angry enough to do what he wanted.

This also exemplifies his extremely polarized way of treating people. To Amy, he was extraordinarily gentle and kind, but to everyone else, he was cold and openly hostile. The only ones he had some sort of respect for was everyone on the Planetary Investigation Team, and Celebi.

He was also notable for his extremely strong will. He was never wishy-washy, nor did he ever do anything half-heartedly. Once he set his mind to something, he would never, ever stop until he got it done. It is said that seeing this dedication inspired Amy so much that she too wanted to be just like him, and thus, it was from him that her serious personality and impatience for lazy people comes from.

In terms of fashion, he could really care less. He'd wear about anything as long as it was useful, it didn't make him look bad, and didn't get in his way in battle.

He often claimed that being interested in hobbies and stuff was a waste of time, but it is said that when no one's looking, he'd swing through jungles for the fun of it and create beautifully-carved bonsai sculptures. He also had a tendency to obsessively sharpen his leaf blades and make sure they were in as tip-top shape as possible. Of course, he would never admit to any of these.

Current Personality:

Now, as Darren, he still keeps much of his old personality, but because he's now a Golurk, it's also changed somewhat. He's not nearly as coldhearted or sarcastic to other people as he used to be, and instead of being rude, he treats them with a reasonable amount of politeness. That said, there's nothing to stop him from indirectly being rude to them by using lots of big words.

He still cares for Amy very deeply, but has also learned to care for Chikorita too, and is also developing a respect for Rigley, Ralts, Lipless, and basically anyone who's gotten on Amy and Chikorita's good side. Though he seems to have taken a liking to looking at the world in an analytical way, he still knows the value of a single life. He has also been known to be rather pushy, and tends to drag Amy and Chikorita into doing things that they might not necessarily want to do but he knows will be good for them, but he would never, ever, purposefully hurt them. He takes pride in being a good older brother/father figure to them in this way.

He always calls Amy "Master Amy" and PK "Overlord PK", since she's "Master Amy's" boss. He also uses big words almost all the time, talks in an analytical way, and often refers to things in terms of percentages. On the plus side, he can scan people's DNA and calculate the percent chance of them being related to someone else.

Sometimes, he'll enter a mode called "Grovyle Mode" in which his eyes turn green and his speech pattern and personality reverts back to the one he had as Grovyle. It usually only lasts for a short time, but he can tell that doing so is comforting to Amy, so he tries to do so whenever she's feeling down.

In terms of fashion…he's the biggest dunce you'll ever find. He's even worse than his Grovyle self and Rigley combined; it's that bad. If you were to request that he were to wear like ten maid dresses all stacked on top of each other, with 20 pairs of clashing bangle bracelets, 30 pairs of high heels stacked on each other like stilts, AND lipstick in all shades of the rainbow smeared over every fiber of his being, he'd gladly do so and wouldn't notice a thing. He wouldn't even suspect anything was weird even if Amy was rolling on the ground and laughing at him uncontrollably. In fact, he'd think he'd be doing a good thing, since laughing is good for her health. The only thing he'd notice would be if said laughing spasm was putting her in danger of rolling into a nearby, say, spike pit, and the only action he'd take would be to gently move her away from it.

Basically, if anyone requests him to do anything, he'd gladly do it. The only exception would be if it affected Amy negatively. In fact, this directive is so strong that it is rumored that if Amy were to ever die, Darren's Golurk body would automatically shut down for good at the same time, and so would his soul.

Hobbies and Skills:

Helping with Blune the Beheeyem's research. When not following Amy around wherever she goes, Darren has been known to assist with High Commander Blune's research on the Pokémon and places of Tao World with his scan visor, acquiring necessary information. The one time when Blune asked to study Amy, though, Darren became rather resistant, and had to be reassured that Blune wasn't going to use her information for anything evil. Darren insists on being nearby to watch whenever Blune does study Amy, though.

Performing aerial maneuvers and stunts. In order to protect Amy properly (and also as a side effect of his battle instincts from his past life), Darren sometimes requests Amy and Chikorita to join him on his aerial practice sessions. There, they can figure out combo moves to use, techniques to stay on him as his performs barrel rolls, and more. This is very useful, as it allows him to use Earthquake without worrying about hurting them.

Just helping people out. Regardless of whether it's something minor, like calculating the rate of inflation for someone, or something major, like punching an incoming meteor out of orbit, Darren will gladly help people out. Just don't ask something against his directive, like punching Amy, or you will be the one who's punched. (Not like Shadow Punches can even hurt her anyway, given that she's a Normal-type.)

Original hobbies as Grovyle. He'll sometimes try to swing through jungles, or even relax in hot springs, before realizing that, as a Golurk, both activities are now dangerous for him and others involved. He's too big to swing through jungles safely, and water eats away at his body now that he's part Ground-type. He's currently searching for safer alternatives.

Being a Klutz. While this technically might not count as a hobby or a skill, it's still worth mentioning. Darren's Klutz ability takes the form of his center of gravity calculations occasionally spazzing out and causing him to fall on the ground, even when it's flat. Because of the obvious danger involved, he prefers flying to walking, unless there's absolutely no choice or if there's no one around to accidentally be crushed.

Life goals:

To basically make sure Amy has a bright future ahead of her, and for her to be happy. It doesn't even matter to him if this means she ends up marrying someone like Rigley.

Trivia:

Darren (Grovyle) is the only PMD-E character of mine who was adapted from a character canon to the PMD: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky games.

In the short story His Last Wish, as Grovyle, I gave him a brown ratty cloak very reminiscent to the one Rokusho wore in Medabots because I felt that their personalities were quite identical. Okay, so maybe Rokusho's personality is closer to Darren the Golurk than Grovyle, but he shares similarities to both of them. At the very least, all three are expert battlers, have someone they care about more than anyone else, and use their powers for the greater good.

His Golurk personality and speech patterns were inspired by many sources, but most notably Fi from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Technically, Golurks are based off of golems, not robots, due to their Ground/Ghost typing. But considering how they can fly, I feel like their design also took inspiration from giant flying robots, and as such, gave Darren a more robotic personality and abilities. I feel like they add to the depth of his character, too.