Arven: the Academy cook who cannot battle

A travel companion who, for once, asks for help instead of giving it. Arven is a grade ahead of Paldea's protagonist, has the temperament of a grumpy old man, and has a talent as a Trainer that he's the first to call inadequate. His real specialty lies elsewhere: in the kitchen. And the hunt for rare herbs he entrusts to the player hides a family story far heavier than any recipe book.

Contents

• The Grumpy Upperclassman of Paldea's Oldest Academy
• His Specialty Isn't Battling, It's Cooking
• An Absent Family, and a Mabosstiff as His Only Anchor
• The Scarlet Book, the Violet Book and the Hunt for the Herba Mystica
• Zero Lab: The Truth He Never Saw Coming
• After the Crater: What Becomes of Him and Where You Meet Him Again
• Arven at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Grumpy Upperclassman of Paldea's Oldest Academy

Arven studies at the oldest school in the region, Naranja Academy in Scarlet and Uva Academy in Violet, located in Mesagoza. He's a few years older than, and a grade ahead of, the protagonist of Scarlet and Violet.

The welcome he gives the newcomer is anything but warm. His distrust is aimed less at the student than at the Koraidon or Miraidon traveling with them, a creature he clearly can't stand. His tone eventually softens, to the point where he becomes a friend and a valuable ally.

On the battlefield, however, he doesn't shine, and he doesn't hide it: he regularly asks his underclassman for help. Enrolled in the literature track, he's also the son of the region's Pokémon Professor, Sada in one version, Turo in the other.

His Specialty Isn't Battling, It's Cooking

Arven's real domain is cooking, where his talent is genuine. That's where the game roots his identity, far more surely than in any battle team.

His initial goal is precise, and a bit unexpected for a student Trainer: developing recipes that soothe Pokémon and improve their everyday well-being. For him, food is a way of caring for others before it's a pleasure.

His known team includes ten recorded species, with a clear emphasis on shellfish and bold flavors: Shellder and Cloyster, Skwovet and Greedent, Scovillain, Nacli, Garganacl, plus Toedscool, Toedscruel and his Mabosstiff.

The end of his story comes full circle to this calling. After his Mabosstiff's illness, he tells the protagonist that he surely wasn't the only one to go through such an ordeal, and decides to become a cook so he can make dishes that restore Pokémon to good health.

🐚 Travel companions have their own section: see the Pokémon plushies.

An Absent Family, and a Mabosstiff as His Only Anchor

The character is best understood through what he lacks. Both of his parents left him on the sidelines: one was entirely absorbed in research, the other had walked out on the family. Family relations remained very strained as a result.

It's a Mabosstiff that filled the void. Arven spends all his time with him, to the point that it has become the Pokémon everyone associates him with.

His grudge against the Legendary Pokémon comes from the same wound. His scientist parent devoted their days to Koraidon or Miraidon while the child waited: the creature inherited the blame meant for the adult.

One day, he ventures into the Great Crater of Paldea, where the family lab is located. There, a very aggressive Pokémon badly injures his Mabosstiff and Arven only narrowly escapes the same fate.

The Scarlet Book, the Violet Book and the Hunt for the Herba Mystica

Arven holds a key item in the story: the Scarlet Book or the Violet Book, depending on the version, a collection of reports from an expedition that crossed an unexplored area of Paldea.

This book gives rise to the hunt for the Herba Mystica, which single-handedly shapes the entire Path of Legends. Too weak in battle to see it through on his own, and impressed by his underclassman's results, he asks them to come along; his real intentions come to light as the harvest goes on.

The reward is twofold. Mabosstiff fully recovers from its injuries, while Koraidon or Miraidon gradually regains the power it had lost.

Zero Lab: The Truth He Never Saw Coming

His scientist parent finally gets back in touch and summons the two classmates to the Zero Lab. Reluctant after his accident, Arven gives in to the insistence of the protagonist and his Mabosstiff, now set on having it out; Nemona and Penny join the expedition.

Once there, the explanation comes: Paradox Pokémon come from the past or the future, brought here by a time machine meant to build a paradise where these species would live alongside those of the present. Violent and unpredictable, they attack every form of life. Arven, furious, grows more and more suspicious of the voice guiding them.

At the bottom of the crater, a second Koraidon or Miraidon and then a horde of Paradox Pokémon attack them. Nemona and Penny head back up to keep the creatures from getting out, and Arven, held back by the fighting, asks the player to go find his parent in his place.

The answer is the one he had dreaded without knowing it. The Professor had been dead for years, killed in an accident at the crater's observation station while protecting their Koraidon or Miraidon from a more aggressive member of its species: the voice heard from the start belongs to an artificial intelligence modeled on the Professor's knowledge.

Once the machine and the Paradise Protection Protocol have been defeated, the AI recovers the feelings of the person it was modeled on. It apologizes for neglecting Arven, tells him how proud it is of him, then leaves for the other world to shut down the time machine — as a devastated son looks on, having just recognized his parent's true feelings in those words.

After the Crater: What Becomes of Him and Where You Meet Him Again

The way back is hard. Nemona suggests a detour to grab a bite; reluctant at first, Arven follows the group, realizing he still has friends he can count on.

Back at the Academy, he decides to stop feeling sorry for himself and to make the most of both his life and his studies. He then starts gathering everything he can about his parent, convinced that you only come to know yourself by going back to your roots.

The DLC shows him in the League Club Room, where he admits to Nemona that he's also making the rounds of Paldea's Gyms, without spending much time on it and without believing he has what it takes to reach Champion Rank. In the Epilogue: Mochi Mayhem, he teams up with Penny against the player and Kieran.

The anime gives him a supporting role. He first appears during Pokémon Horizons: The Series, a classmate of Nemona and Penny at Naranja Academy who watches the Tera Training student tournament that Roy wins against Liko. The first episode of another animated series shows him reading on Glaseado Mountain, chased off by a Cetitan, then rescued by Ohara's flute and her Fuecoco.

As for spin-offs, he has appeared on cards since the Scarlet & Violet expansion, released March 31, 2023 in France, and the mobile game added him on August 10, 2024 with two different outfits.

Arven at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Arven in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?
  A student older than the protagonist, enrolled in the literature track at the Mesagoza academy and the son of Paldea's Pokémon Professor. Distrustful at first, he becomes a friend and then a valuable ally.
• Why is Arven looking for the Herba Mystica?
  To heal his Mabosstiff, badly injured by an aggressive Pokémon in the Great Crater of Paldea. Since he's not much of a battler, he asks the protagonist for help, and the harvest eventually heals the Pokémon.
• Who is Arven's parent?
  The region's Pokémon Professor: Sada in Scarlet and Turo in Violet. At the Zero Lab, you learn that the Professor died years ago in an accident in the crater, and that the voice you've been hearing is an artificial intelligence modeled on the Professor's knowledge.
• What does Arven want to do at the end of the game?
  Become a cook, making dishes that restore Pokémon to good health. The decision grows out of what he went through during his Mabosstiff's illness, and his realization that he wasn't the only one in that situation.
• Does Arven appear in the anime?
  Yes, starting with Pokémon Horizons: The Series, as a classmate of Nemona and Penny at Naranja Academy. Another appearance shows him on Glaseado Mountain, chased off by a Cetitan and then rescued by Ohara.

In short

Arven is that rare travel companion the game builds around an openly admitted weakness: he can't battle, and that's exactly why he comes looking for you. Behind the Herba Mystica hunt, Scarlet and Violet tell the story of a grief the child had never worked through, and the only ambition he ends up voicing is to feed sick Pokémon.