Ah, the Emok scenes. They're wonderful for us Colosseumshippers, aren't they? *Is replaying Colosseum and will write down the lines in there and post them here*
When did you first realize this was a shipping you were going to like?
Probably before the game was even out, or at the scene where she forgives him for being a Snagem member... But that was five years ago. I can't remember anymore. It didn't take long, though. It's the kind of shipping I always like.
If you had to guess, what do you think Wes' past could be?
Ooh, I like the topic. I have a couple theories, that all blend together in different ideas...
My first theory is that he's actually the son of high-level executives (or even the owners) of the mining company we know must have been in Pyrite. In my head, there's lots of other small mining towns in that general area, some of which continue to produce gold. (Considering the fact that ores are generally distributed over an area, that makes sense.) That's why he had two Eevees, which all signs point to being a relatively rare Pokémon - I'm certain they would be expensive to obtain. He ran away somewhere between 8 and 12 because they were going to send him away to Kanto to a prestigious boarding school, and he didn't want to go. Of course, as soon as they realized he was gone, they sent out searchers and put up posters. This is when he attracted the attention of Team Snagem, at the time a small band of thieving trainers trying to get enough to eat. They were going to turn him in for the reward, but when they saw him and how much he didn't want to go, they let him join the team instead. He accepted the offer because he didn't want to be caught, knew that as a group of thieves they knew how to hide, and because he knew that inexperienced trainers with no one to turn to couldn't survive in Orre. The team remained a small, generally nice group, just doing what they needed to survive, for a long time... Until Cipher came. When Cipher gave them the Snag Machine (didn't it say somewhere that Snagem got the Snag Machines from Cipher...?), the team culture changed. They became greedy and competitive, not having the same camaraderie they had before. Wes, not liking either the new culture or the Pokémon Cipher gave to some members of the team, left, taking the Snag Machine with him in an attempt to shake the team back into its senses...
In some versions of the above idea, another reason he leaves is because they're trying to take Espeon and Umbreon to turn into Shadows - this is a pretty common idea.
The other theory is that he's almost a street kid, with an unknown father and a disreputable mother. He joined Snagem because he had few other options if he wanted to survive. From there, I give him more or less the same backstory. I like making his father actually be Kyogre in this particular version, though that's solely in my head. (I like human x legendary!) This makes more sense on the whole, but doesn't explain how he got two Eevees. (Maybe he stole them.)
Sometimes I throw in a theory that he worked for a little bit in the mines, and got in an accident one day, injuring him pretty badly. He recovered, but was left with scars over most of his body, and decided never to do that again. This is the source of the weird white stripe and why he wears all-covering dark blue and black in the middle of a desert.
So I actually think Snagem was once a pretty decent group, but got warped from money. (...What? Yes, I like moralizing about absolute power corrupting absolutely.) Admittedly, I haven't really looked at the lines of Snagem people recently, so I'll have to double-check how much that really makes sense, but I think it could work. They're pretty angry about Wes leaving, and that, I think, could be as much from the loss of that bond and feeling of betrayal as it could be the anger at destroying the base. (Not that it was in good shape anyway.)
To steer it into more Colosseumshipping territory... I have a half-idea of Rui getting captured before Wes leaves Snagem, and him convincing the rest of the team to help him save her. *Needs to write more Colosseumshipping and less cross-canon shipping*
*Looks up* Wow, I wrote a lot. Hopefully it isn't too boring!
