however, my interpretation of N in the games is different from how he is portrayed as I'd rather view him as is without input from the internet, as they were the ones that made him a joke character to begin with (though with a a degree of understanding why). The guy is socially awkward with little interaction with human contact outside of Team Plasma and even then, I get the feeling he spends more time with pokemon over humans anyway. Especially from what he says in the games like "Pokemon never lie".

N here, as I said he has become sympathetic and serious character over time from the first interpretation you had of him. But there are still flaws to him that prevent him from being likable. But as I said before, between him and Nina in their argument segments, its not hard to side with him over Nina due to her attitude towards something she doesn't agree with; but provides no counterpoint, if at all. Much like seeing a USA political debate between presidential candidates. Where Nina is that person who opens their mouth to say something negative without even addressing the issue itself in a dignified manner and stay on that negative point of theirs with no success other than wasting time to try and get the other person to have nothing else to say in return.