#Agatha (GSC)

[sinnohelitefourlore]

One-Shot: Rules That Members of the Indigo League Must Follow

Summary:

5) Do not boo and jeer during board meetings.

Furthermore, that does not mean you can "spice the meeting up" by levitating a politician/gym leader/elite in the air. No, it wasn't 'accidental telekinesis' Arceus, put Pryce down!

Or:

"A list of rules comprised for those that are members of the prestigious Elite Four of Indigo that must be followed, as created by the Champion: Lance."

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Link: Ao3

[axolotljester]

Sad lesbian angel mother of 3

[infizero]

OMG no way. the day care couple, elm, oak, and agatha were all friends when they were younger stawwpppp

[epicspheal]

A Strong and Upstanding Heart! A Lance Analysis

Imagine you're a kid in the 90s playing Pokemon Red and Blue…you’ve gotten all eight badges, made it through Victory Road and bested Lorelei, Bruno and Agatha. Now the only person that you think stands before you and the title of Indigo League Champion is a certain cape loving Dragon Master…

That’s right we’re talking about Lance! Lance is definitely one of those character who has very different interpretations depending on whether or not you’re looking at the anime, games or manga. For the sake of consistency with my other analyses…I’m only sticking to the gameverse and any media that corresponds to it (mainline games, Pokemon Masters EX and Generations). 

Let’s start with his name…in English it’s a weapon. Which is very befitting a dragon master as in many pieces of European Folklore knights wielded lances to slay dragons. But considering in Pokemon Lance doesn’t slay dragon-types but befriends them you could compare him to many of the heroes of dragon-rider fantasy who often had weapons they carried while on the back of their flying reptilians. Lance in the games is very knightly in demeanor and one could very easily imagine him riding on the back of his Dragonite wielding a lance. In French his name is Peter which is actually derived from petard which is another medieval weapon again reinforcing that knightly demeanor. His German name is Siegfried who is a legendary hero who bested the dragon Fafnir, further symbolizing Lance as a proud warrior. 

But then his Japanese is Wataru which has a couple of different meanings. First is “Watatsumi” who is a legendary kami and water deity in Japanese folklore that happened to be a dragon. But also it is derived from “wata” which means “cotton” which his Korean name also is derived from. When we think of the language of flowers we usually think of Roses and Forget-me-Nots. Yet cotton has a lot of symbolism. Cotton is known to mean “fortune, gratitude, cherish, well-being and receiving blessings”. When we think of Lance, he’s had a lot of blessings in his life. He was born into a prestigious dragon clan and was chosen as the heir of said clan before he went to the league. He became an Elite Four member which is an esteemed position many trainers could only dream to have. He even manages to become champion afterwards which as a title bestowed upon very few. So much of his life is very much blessed and Lance recognizes that blessing and cherishes it. 

Now let’s take a look at his team. His team varies throughout the series due to his changing roles from Elite Four to Champion so we’ll be covering both

Starting with his Elite Four team, the first thing that often stands out is that he lacks a lot of diversity on his team with him having 3 Pokemon from the same family and two of them being unevolved. While some people may consider it poor team building (at least from a more competitive mindset) it actually means a lot storywise. We have to remember that Pokemon was originally meant to end at GSC and we know by then Lance has ascended to the rank of champion. So him having two Dragonair actually makes sense in that context as it was foreshadowing his growth in his strength as a trainer. Now let’s take a look at his movesets. One thing that sticks out is that he really loves the move Hyper Beam, Outrage and SafeGuard. Hyper Beam is a very powerful move with the drawback of causing the Pokemon to not be able to move after for one turn after its use. It definitely establishes Lance as a power player with a hint of recklessness since the use of Hyper Beam does leave his Pokemon so vulnerable. However it also shows the trust he has in his Pokemon’s power to have that move consistently in the movesets. Outrage is another high-risk, high reward move that allows him to utilize STAB as it’s a dragon type. Again this further solidifies Lances hyper offensive strategy and his trust in his Pokemon. However this is where the move Safeguard comes into play as the move actually protects against the self-inflicted confusion status. This shows that Lance is strategic with his hyper-offensive strategy

Now let’s look at his team as champion! We can see he now has three full Dragonite which again shows that him having Dragonair in the Kanto games was an intentional choice to foreshadow his eventual ascent up the ranks. And now we also see that all of his Pokemon share the flying type which leads to the joke that Lance should be known as the “flying type champion”. His movesets for his Pokemon have also drastically changed. He has way more variety in types which helps to enable better coverage. He still relies on high-risk, high-reward moves but with more focus on moves that have lower accuracy (Thunder, Blizzard, Fire Blast, Dragon Rush). This change in strategy reflects his growth in the time between the original Kanto events and the Johto events. He’s had to step up to the role of Indigo League champion which warrants a change in tactics. That being said, he still definitely relies on his old faithfuls Outrage, Safeguard and Hyper Beam on his signature Dragon type.

His rematch team in HGSS shows more Dragon types and a shift in strategy to involve more set up (Dragon Dance, Swords Dance and Double Team) as well as some more evasive techniques (Roar to get rid of bad matchups)

I also wanted to bring up his team when pairs up with his cousin Clair. His signature Dragonite in these match-ups knows the move Dragon Meteor- a powerful move that can only be learned by Dragon types that have a high enough trust in their trainer. This shows that he has a strong bond with his dragon types which is something Clair at the time hasn’t quite yet gotten to.

"Ah! I've heard about you, <player>! I lead the Elite Four. You can call me Lance the dragon Trainer. You know that dragons are mythical Pokémon. They're hard to catch and raise, but their powers are superior. They're virtually indestructible. There's no being clever with them. Well, are you ready to lose? Your League challenge ends with me, <player>!"

I really like this introduction quote from Lance as he does a good job selling the power of Dragon type Pokemon to the player. Not only that you can see how much pride he has in being the leader of the Elite Four.

"I still can't believe my dragons lost to you, <player>. You are now the Pokémon League Champion! …Or, you would have been, but you have one more challenge left. There is one more Trainer to face! His name is… <rival>! He beat the Elite Four before you. He is the real Pokémon League Champion."This quote here gives us a look into the mindsight of Lance in Gen 1 where he’s a little overconfident in the powers of his team. Which makes sense because as we know up until Blue and Red no one had managed to make it to the league at all meaning that he’s held the title of the strongest for a long time. So him getting beat by not one, but two 11 year old kids in succession was definitely a shock to the system.

"That red Gyarados wasn't acting right. As I feared, somebody must have forced it to evolve… Did you come here because of the wild tales? You're <player>? I'm Lance, a Trainer like you. I heard some rumblings, so I came to investigate… I saw the way you battled earlier, <player>. I can tell that you're a Trainer with considerable skill. If you don't mind, could you help me investigate?" This is our first conversation with Lance in the Johto and you can actually see a change in his demeanor. He’s not boasting about the superior powers of dragon types or his own skill as a trainer. He’s actually more humble with his approach saying he is a trainer “like you”. Also right now he’s focused on trying to solve the mystery of the Red Gyarados, showing that he is taking the mantle of being the champion of the Indigo League very seriously

"Dragonite, Hyper Beam."I just had to put in his iconic phrase in this analysis. We know what’s coming here- he’s about to blast a poor Team Rocket grunt to kingdom come and give him PTSD (as we know from Pokemon Masters as the grunt he hyper beamed is currently on Pasio). We see here how he has no tolerance for evil-doers

"Sorry, <player>. I saw how well you were doing, so I just hung back. Now all there is left to do is to turn off that odd radio signal."A lot of complaints about champions prior to gen 8 were that they let the protagonist take down the bad guys with little to no assistance. But here we get some reasoning from Lance as to why he took a backseat. He noticed that the player could handle the grunts by themself so there was no need for him to step in. 

"It's this machine that's causing all the problems. I don't see a switch on it… We have no choice. We have to make all the Electrode faint. That should stop this machine from transmitting that strange signal. It's no fault of the Electrode, so it makes me feel sad. <Player>, let's split the job.I really like this quote because it complements the “Dragonite, Hyper Beam” quote. Even though he is no-holds barred when it comes to evil, he recognizes that the Electrode are innocent and don’t deserve to suffer even though they have to be fainted in order to help save the Pokemon affected by Radio transmission.

"I've been waiting for you. <Player>! I knew that you, with your skills, would eventually reach me here. There's no need for words now. We will battle to determine who is the stronger of the two of us. As the most powerful Trainer and as the Pokémon League Champion… I, Lance the dragon master, accept your challenge!"Lance’s pre-battle quote before the champion battle is a nice progression from his pre-battle quote when he was an Elite four member. Again he comes to this battle with a more measured, less haughty response than three years prior (although he does kind of borrow Blue’s “I’m the most Powerful Trainer” bit). You can tell how much he’s grown not just in strength, but in attitude.

"…It's over. But it's an odd feeling. I'm not angry that I lost. In fact, I feel happy. Happy that I witnessed the rise of a great new Champion!"

Again we can see more of this growth from the defeat quote as champion versus when he was the leader of the Elite Four. Here we see he’s not in disbelief, nor is he upset that yet another kid bested him. In fact he’s happy to have seen the growth of another champion. 

"I'm glad to be on your team, Silver!"Alright now onto some Pokemon Masters EX quotes. I chose this one of the team ups because I like how we see throughout the game, we see how much Lance looks out for Silver and is proud of him. A far cry from when they first interacted in the Johto games where Lance had to give him some tough love by completely annihilating his team. It all comes full circle for Silver during the Johto Neo Champion arc where he’s finally able to win against Lance, and Lance couldn’t be prouder of him. 

"You all haven't changed one bit, I see! I must admit, I'm looking forward to these battles myself!"I really like this line from the Normal Champion Stadium where the original Indigo Elite Four and Blue team up. It’s nice to see how he interacts with some of his former colleagues 

"(I guess he's right. I was very happy to witness my challengers surpass me.) But maybe that means I'm starting to forget what it feels like to WANT to win.) [...] I still remember how frustrating it was to lose to Red and Blue back in Kanto. Both Dragonite and I need to approach this like challengers, not Champions..."I really like this quote from the Arc-Suit chapter as we see Lance coming towards an important realization. He’s been so focused on being an ideal champion, a trainer who can be a role model to others and mentor as well, that he’s forgotten what made him want to aim for the title of champion in the first place. His drive to win. His joy for the taste of victory. He thinks about his losses to Red and Blue and how he was frustrated he was bested by kids. And now he’s realizing that if he wants to continue to grow stronger, he has to approach battles like he’s not at the pinnacle of what it means to be a trainer.

"It's true that you're strong, Clair. And it's good to have confidence in your own abilities...but there's a limit to what's good and what's not. Too much pride can make you overconfident, and overconfidence can make you vulnerable." 

"You can be a little impulsive sometimes, Clair...but that earnest, straightforward attitude of yours is one of your greatest strengths as well. If you can learn to hone that, the sky is the limit!"I really like the relationship Lance has with his cousin Clair. Even though their personalities clash a bit, we see how much he does care for her even when he is chastising her. He wants her to be the best version of herself that she can

"A long time ago, when I was a member of the Elite Four but not Champion, I was defeated by a Trainer.He claimed to be the greatest of all, and he had the strength and skill to back it up. But eventually, a stronger Trainer came along, and even he was defeated... It was then that I realized something. That title—"the greatest"—can inflate your ego, but it doesn't really mean anything. It's an illusion, there one minute and gone the next...The way I see it, seeking to grow and improve yourself is far more worthwhile than chasing a fleeting illusion of greatness."

This quote here shows the moment where we can see the shift between his Gen 1 and Gen 2 personalities. It was the quick succession between Blue and Red as champion that allowed him to temper himself when it comes to chasing success. Sure he still values the title of champion, but he realizes that just because he obtained it that he can’t rest on his laurels, lest someone else come by and snatch the title away from him

"Leon, I think that capes should be more simple! When you're the Champion and greet new challengers with a swoosh of your cape...I understand that the details of your cape speak volumes about who you are. But for me, the simplicity of my cape helps me stand out more!" The dialogue about capes between Lance, Steven and Leon was a cute little interaction between the three champions regarding capes. We see Lance prefers simple capes compared to Leon’s whose cape is filled with advertisements. We know Lance has a huge fondness for capes even back from the Fame Checker where a woman from the Celadon Department Store mentions he comes by to purchase capes frequently. Even though he disagrees about designs for capes with Leon, we know from further into the conversation that he still greatly respects the symbolism Leon’s cape has showing him to be an open-minded and respectful individual

"I noticed you weren't your usual self right before our match.It was almost as if you were so worked up, you couldn't tell what was happening with your partner. Iris, you must remember that you're no ordinary Pokémon Trainer. You are a role model to others, and you represent Unova as Champion. I hope you can understand that and conduct yourself accordingly."

Ah so this is dialogue from the Iris event that definitely rubbed some people the wrong way. We know from earlier in the event that Iris was struggling with knowing that people seemed to find her an embarrassment as the champion from Unova. And then her Hydreigon goes out of control. We see here Lance actually could tell that something was up, but didn’t know the full context. His words do come off a bit harsh here to someone who knows everything going on with Iris, but you can see that he was trying to help her out. He understands the weight that comes with being champion, and also the weight of being a dragon tamer. 

"It's never too late. You can start with whoever needs you most."I really liked this line from Lance to Diantha once Iris is able to regain confidence in herself. Diantha was lamenting the fact that she didn’t think about mentorship as a champion (as she was kind of removed from the Team Flare plot in the gameverse canon). And we have Lance who's not admonishing her for that but showing there’s room to grow.

"Someday, stories about me will be passed down to future generations of our clan as well. If I think about it that way, it reminds me that I have to be on my best behavior.I'd like to be a good role model for all future dragon masters."This quote from Lance really helps to shine light on why he is so passionate about being a good role model and having a strong and upstanding nature. He realizes that he will forever be immortalized in his clan’s history and in the Hall of Fame. He wants to make sure the legacy he leaves behind is one that makes people feel energized and not ashamed

"This outfit shows off Gyarados's power as a dragon! What's that, you say? Gyarados isn't a Dragon-type Pokémon? Haha, not all dragons are Dragon-type Pokémon!" I remember this quote making rounds on social media as we get to have some in-universe acknowledgement that dragons =/= dragon types! It’s a distinction that you would expect a dragon master like Lance to know!

Lance is an iconic character and he’s a really good case study on how Gamefreak has always cared about their characters even as far back as gen 1. A lot of people deride the first region as being barebones but he’s one of the many characters regions that has had layers woven into him from the beginning as we can see his growth between the events of Kanto and Johto. He grows from the proud (and just a tad cocky) leader of the Elite four to a wise noble Champion and Dragon Master

[crystalelemental]

Crystal Reads PokeSpe - RBY Arc

I have now spent money on this, even if it was for my wife's sake, so it was inevitable that I'd pick this up. I am starting to read the Pokemon manga. As of today, I have finished the RBY arc. This is the only arc I know I read once before, via fan translation, ages ago. I did not care for it at the time. But, it's a different time, and maybe I'll be more into it now. Who knows.

The Red and Blue segment (ie, the first three books), are kinda...whatever. I admit, I still don't like Red, even after he starts talking. This iteration of Red is more clear, but I also feel like he's less interesting. He's as standard shonen protagonist as you can get. Blue doesn't get a whole lot either, given that he's barely around as the rival figure. Green is more fun, because I vibe with her general personality type, but that's about as much as I can say. She doesn't get that much going for her, in truth.

I think the biggest aspect that throws off the first three manga is the general pacing. They absolutely blitz through the locations in the game, taking very little time to actually do much of anything. There are a few chapters that are just showing off a Pokemon, similar in style to the filler episodes of the anime. But more than that, things go so quickly it feels hard to keep up with sometimes. I couldn't remember who had what Pokemon most of the time. I still don't think I could tell you Red's actual team. It's not until the champion match between Red and Blue that things start to slow down a bit and you can more easily follow the action.

Fortunately, by the time the Yellow arc begins, they've realized this. The rest of the fights are actually pretty well paced, and I found the Elite Four a much more salient threat than anything Team Rocket does. Especially because it...well, it's novel. Team Rocket in the manga, despite being a bit more brutal and having Gym Leaders under their command, are kinda the same as they've ever been. Giovanni gets to be a little interesting as someone who's more directly interacted with Red, and their experiments are more complex, but their motivations and actions aren't really that different. The Elite Four's actions are significantly more interesting, mostly because it's such a new approach compared to other media formats.

I also wound up liking Yellow a lot more than the others? Like okay, Green is still the favorite because personality type vibes more, but Yellow's really interesting as someone who's pure pacifism and aims to win without hurting her opponent. They don't play with it quite as much as I wish they did, but it's an interesting approach and I like her a lot.

By other characters, I really like what they did with Erika and Blaine. They're definitely the most interesting Gym Leaders. Erika being a sort of leader figure for the justice side, while Blaine's connection to Mewtwo is really neat. I kinda love that Agatha is just kinda Like That about how Oak left under what should have been otherwise amicable circumstances, she's just that bitter. And I like that Lorelei's like this because of her literally watching her Seel friends die due to human pollution. It's got a lot of impact.

The rest of the gym leaders are kinda whatever. They don't really exude much to me. Same with Bruno and Lance, I don't really think they're all that interesting. If anything, I'm a little salty about Lance being from Viridian Forest apparently, but that's likely due to the manga setting that up before GSC released to establish Blackthorn.

As for general stuff...okay, I'm trying to calm down about "Everything should operate on the game logic," and let myself be taken by creativity in the anime and now manga when they operate on physics rather than strict move definition and numbers. Like, it's actually kinda cool for Giovanni to show off his threat level as the top Gym Leader by trying to throw Red into a pit he made in the ground, and breaking the release mechanisms on his Pokeballs to prevent switching them in. The idea of breaking the ball or incapacitating the trainer makes it more dynamic, and kinda gives more reason to the usual "I must train myself as well as my Pokemon" approach so common in Fighting specialists.

Now, this has all been relatively comparative. How it appears in contrast to the games, and I guess the anime a little bit. But on its own merits...how is it?

Again, I think the first three volumes are a bit too chaotic and hard to follow. They offer a bit of a story arc, but it doesn't have that much going on, so I don't respect it. The Yellow arc is...hmm.

I assume this is very much "product of its time," but the pollution angle for the Elite Four's motivation of eliminating humans feels kinda stock-standard. It's relatively harmless, but it feels like a background note that has very little impact on anything? We get a couple very brief glimpses at "Oh, these Mankey are rampaging because there's little food," and Lorelei's backstory involving a dying Seel population, but it all feels very distant. There's nothing that actually connects to our heroes, because as Blue expresses, Pallet Town is the only "pure" place left. None of them really feel the effects on the larger world.

What's kind of a bother is that neither do their Pokemon. Not one seems to be impacted by this alleged super-serious pollution issue across the region. The only one with an emotional connection to the evil of the world is Red's Eevee, who can shift between its evolutions almost at will due to Team Rocket's experiments, but nothing that connects to this deeper aspect. So when Lance and Co start going on about all humans being a problem, and all humanity being a problem, and everywhere being so corrupted...well, it falls a little flat.

I can't even use the "kid's media" excuse here, because again, part of the "more serious" tone is stuff like Arbok getting cut in half, and people kinda dying. Which...was missing here. I mentioned reading this before? Some scenes I remember aren't in the official translation. I assume it's the old 90's style American Censorship stuff, removing Lance blowing up a boat and actually killing people, and Green getting attacked across the chest to reveal she was hiding Pokeballs there, so like. I guess they were trying to align this more to kids, expecting them to pick this up after the games.

On the whole, I think the manga turned out alright. I will say I had a decent time. I am looking forward to where it goes from here, because my wife absolutely gushes about the Hoenn books. But up next is my beloved Johto, where I'm expecting to have a great time.

[1358456]

Game Schedules

Well, since I returned to this Tumblr, I might as well continue with the game posts as well, like those Yellow version runs, Lonk games, etc. So, here's another loose schedule for gameplays I plan on posting for the foreseeable future.

1) Pokemon Yellow "Free to Play" run I did this before I went away last time so I figured, why not give it another go? Beat Pokemon Yellow using only gift Pokemon! And this time, with added objectives. Last time, I only beat the Pokemon League. This time, I need to beat Oak and the level 205 Agatha. ... If I can. If I recall, the available options were: Pikachu, Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Eevee, Lapras, Aerodactyl, Kabuto/Omanyte, Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan. I can already tell right off the bat that the moment I get an Eevee, I'll turn that into Jolteon and then sack the Pikachu. And I'll probably do this run before Yakuza 8 comes out next week.

2) Lonk: LAD I'll continue with it. I don't remember where I left off so... that'd be interesting. Lonk: Like a Dragon coming... probably in February, as I'd imagine all my free time next week would be devoted to Yakuza 8, and then I'd probably be reeling for a while, and I'll definitely need something to cheer me up. Would Lonk be up for that task?

3) Pokemon Crystal "Free to Play" run Why not give that a go too? I don't know how many gift Pokemon there are in GSC though. Starter, Togepi, Eevee, Tyrogue (WAY later into the game), and... um... Shuckle. ... Uh oh. ... Oh, a Spearow too because that'll make a difference. ... Hmm... There's a chance I wouldn't be able to go through Whitney with this. Hehe.

For now I'll just start with those three. Then I might move on Emerald version which I don't remember all that much, and maybe even BW and BW2. I barely remember anything about Generation V games since those I haven't restarted almost ever. I've gone through Emerald version twice for RNG abuse on Latias and Latios, both with Mimic for Mimic-Rage glitch abuse in Generation IV, and those require separate runs. That was years ago. I've gone through White version also twice, and that was... when BW just came out. White2 I've gone through a few times for RNG and Dream World RNG abuse, but again, years ago. I don't remember much of anything in those games. So that'd be interesting.

And since this Tumblr is making me go down old Pokemon memory lane, I guess I'll take a look at my Ultra Moon to see what Pokemon I had there. I remember leaving a whole ton of redundant/unnecessary Pokemon in the Pokemon Bank which probably disappeared many years ago, so those are lost to the ages. But it would be fun to see what Pokemon I had and what nicknames I gave them for what reason. I expect there would be a crapton of Starcraft related nicknames because of course there would be. Like I said. Those references are everywhere. ... I know I have an Sp. Atk focused Salamence named Tempest because Mega Salamence looks like a Protoss Tempest. I remember that one.

[roodle-things]

Ghost Type Gym Leaders/E4 for @psylii I hope you like it!!

[italkinreblogtags]

I think it’s great that so much of the pokespe fandom collectively agrees on Green as a mentor, but I want to examine his mentoring style, since I feel like this is overlooked. (And also because I have nothing better to do with my limited free time than post about my blorbo)

I’ll start with Green’s own mentors since it can say a lot about his teaching later on. First off, it’s kind of clear that his two “mentors” growing up aren’t… great? Sure I have to speculate how Oak raised his grandson but given how Green acts at 7 and what he says in FRLG, it’s difficult to believe Oak was a good example of a role model. And then there’s Chuck. Despite how Green feels toward Chuck in GSC, the guy still dunked Green’s head in water within ten seconds of meeting him and probably scared the living daylights out of him lol. Regardless, I don’t think it’s a reach to think Green might emulate the style of Oak and Chuck’s teaching, especially since he respects them.

To get into canon, I’ll go over each of Green’s “students”: the camper (I think his name is Evan), Yellow, and Silver. With Evan, one of the first things Green tells him is exactly what he learned from Chuck: that a trainer has to train themselves first and foremost. In addition, Green doesn’t hesitate to make this clearly pokemonless and young child go into the power plant to get his pokemon back. However, I find it interesting that Green doesn’t yell at the kid, and keeps his cool even when the kid puts him in mortal danger by announcing his relations to Agatha. I guess Green yells through the pokedex but I wouldn’t call it the same as Chuck yelling at kid Green in the GSC flashback. I don’t think Green is a bad mentor here, not at all, but his style was reminiscent of the tough love he was trained with.

I don’t have much to say with Yellow as his other student. Green obviously had different expectations for Yellow than Evan given Yellow was tasked with finding Red, so he doesn’t even try teaching her much at first. What little teaching is shown after still feels on the harsh side. I do like how he doesn’t force her to evolve her pokemon for strength, even if he disagrees with the choice, and trains her to make the most of her decision.

Silver is a different story. I really love the moments Green has with Silver in FRLG, but if you read closely what he says to Silver during the Giovanni scene, it’s… not really what Silver needs to hear. I can’t reread that scene and think Green would be a great mentor for Silver at that very moment, but the important part is that he tries. He tries to be there for Silver and tries to include him in the group. Green is 16, he’s not going to get everything right. I headcanon him as a mentor a lot, but he’s by no means perfect and beloved by his mentees 100% of the time. I think he’d offer Silver his place to crash at, but he’s not going to be on call to make sure Silver is fed and comfortable and not having mental breakdowns. He’s always been more of the person who expects Silver or any of his mentees to take care of themselves, whether or not they can. And looking at the FRLG conversation again, Green is more likely to say “get over it and do what you need to do” than “let it out and move on” in most contexts. He’s obviously changed a bit by HGSS and even more by XY, but that doesn’t have anything to do with my point of his mentoring before he’s an adult.

Basically, I am not saying he’s a bad mentor, but that he’s a particular type of mentor, influenced by the way he was taught and raised. I’m probably yelling into the void and reading too much into it, and I highly doubt Kusaka thought about this when writing Green, but oh well I can’t help the brain worms. 

[hollowsart]

ALSO IN RELATION TO THAT LAST POST: I’m watching a video about scrapped things from GSC and it’s touching heavily on that beta demo and apparently Giovanni was supposed to make an appearance in the radio tower?

If travel between timelines/realities is EVER possible within my lifespan I would love nothing more than to go and play the GSC that was planned in the demo.

Because just from that information alone... why would Giovanni be in the radio tower with Team Rocket grunts and also be a part of the league??

My guess is that perhaps.. he did answer the call, or he was the one who was the true head of the whole radio takeover? And he ran off, disbanding the team for the 2nd time, and through your remaining journey he is off getting stronger.

You, having assumed he ran off like he did in the first games, go about your journey as you normally would. Having defeated Team Rocket once again and collecting your final badges, etc. You head to the League.

There, you see Giovanni and he has something to say, probably about his skills having gotten better since the last time you fought, and that he has gotten so good that he has now become a member of the Elite. Taking over the placement of one Lorelei/Agatha. He probably boasts a bit before giving out his favored line “World Of Pain“ and thus a very difficult battle ensues!

Then again... something else could have been planned for him entirely!

I can only imagine, though.

[poisonouskunoichi-blog]

Timeline Changes

So it came to my attention that it’s been 9-10 years since the events of RBY/GSC/Remakes, which definitely changes up some things about Janine including her age, her timeline, and her story, so I thought I’d outline it here before rewriting her bio.

Birth:

Born to Koga and [UNKNOWN] as [REDACTED] in Fuchsia City. She is named heiress to the Hayashi clan. Her Aunt Aya steps in as a surrogate guardian figure after the disappearance of the mother

Age 6

Her shinobi training is in full swing. She is given her first Pokemon egg to hatch. Taken on her first mission outside of the city to catch what would become a large part of the rest of her team

As they travel more, she gets to visit the other members of the KanJoh circuit, who become second family to her (though that’s her entire childhood really)

Age 9

The previous Champion is killed--the official story is it was done by Rocket. Her absolute hatred of Team Rocket is born. She mourns their loss 

Age 10

Events of RBY. Giovanni betrays the Kanto gym circuit and is revealed to be the head of Team Rocket

Chaos. A couple kids disrupt the entirety of the Champion system but Lance remains still in place. Agatha and Lorelei leave the League, which mean new Elites are needed. Koga is considered but he postpones the position--he has to prepare his child

Age 11

Cue intensive training to take on the mantle of Gym Leader--both on the trainer and shinobi end

Janine comes out as transgender to her family and expresses a desire to transition. Her father agrees and accepts her immediately, while her aunt, not so much. This is not the defining straw that breaks their relationship, but the microaggressions are constant. She plays along, however, to stay on Koga’s good side.

[REDACTED] is officially reborn as Janine. She and Koga act like this has always been the way things were 

Age 12

On her 12th birthday, Koga officially appoints Janine as Fuchsia City Gym Leader and leaves to become an Elite. Aunt Aya is PISSED but continues to perform her duties as guardian. She performs a lot of the gym maintenance and administrative side of things, while Janine does the actual battling

She begins training other kids in the art of shinobi, so that they transform into her at the gym--pisses off her Aunt even more

Events of GSC. She’s defeated by a couple of kids, though she loses most of her battles in these early years

Age 14

Over the years, she starts to become better but she’s only known as “Koga’s daughter”. Visits him constantly at the Indigo Plateau and becomes very close with the other Elites/Champion

Aya and her relationship has strained. She is always trying to undermine her, misgendering her (among other transphobic acts), and trying to do more for the gym than are her assignments

Final straw comes when Janine realizes that whenever her aunt sends her out--missions to other regions, various errands, etc--she poses as Janine and fights as Gym Leader behind her back

Explosive arguments ensue and Aya declares the death of the clan before leaving. Janine is left entirely on her own

Age 15-20

Adjustment period. She has to grow up pretty fast, learning how to run a gym entirely by herself, though she does get some help from other leaders

Expands her training of outsiders--starts regularly holding classes at her gym to teach anyone who wants to learn shinobi techniques

Goes out of her way to fight any Rockets that are left. She’s pretty hardcore anti-Rocket

Starts to travel more to other regions. Sometimes its gym leader conferences, other times its trips to study poison/poison Pokemon from other regions, sometimes its just to hang out with friends. Ends up expanding her circle and worldview a lot during this time

Age 20 - Present Day

Has a system now--a pretty rigid schedule of when she’s in the gym, when she’s holding her classes, when she goes to Indigo Plateau, time set aside for friends, etc. While she takes her job very seriously, she’s less likely to spend ALL her time in the gym as she was in her younger years

Is only now just finding out about the corruption in the KanJoh league. It’s been pretty upsetting for her and she feels like she has to do something to help change the system for the better--though right now she doesn’t know what

[artpharos]

PokeSpe for the meme!

So because I’m more familiar with the eng translation I’ll just go with that for the Blue/Green dilemma 

also i haven’t read the bw/xy arcs so 

yeah

My favorite parent-child relationship: ... Do people in PokeSpe even have parents...I guess Steven Stone and his dad???? But that’s because I’ve read the ORAS arc... 

My favorite sibling relationship: Silver and Green. She practically raised the poor guy after they escaped from a demented kidnapper. They aren’t related by blood, but they’re very protective over one another since the other is pretty much their only friend/family in the entire world. And even after they find their families/have friends, they still have that bond built through trauma and and companionship andSilver buys new clothes for her that’s how familiar they are with one another. 

My favorite family relationship (other): I have no idea whether the Fisherman Uncle is really related to Yellow or not but considering how he taught her how to use a rod and how she seems extremely happy to see him and trusts him deeply I guess that counts as family right? 

My favorite friendship between two people: Blue and Red. Like they started out as pretty antagonistic towards one another but they’ve grown to become best friends so much so that they can pretty much guess what the other one’s thinking/doing before they do it. They’re opposites, but they’ve learned from one another and become better trainers and people for it.

My favorite friendship between a group: GSC. I like how the three of them become from three individuals to a coordinated group that have absolute trust in each other and just gel together very well. 

My favorite mentorship: Blue and Yellow. He trained her when he was in his emo phase but he’s become very proud of her and her abilities and I love it when people tell him: ‘you sound like you know a lot about her abilities’ he goes, “of course, I trained her!” And on Yellow’s end I love that she looks up to Blue a lot and probably regards him as an older brother. 

My favorite rivalry: It was a hard one deciding between Gold/Silver and Red/Blue but I think I like Gold and Silver’s rivalry more. Like they really really hated each other at first but after everything they’ve been through they kinda had some respect/understanding for one another and it took them even longer to develop into true friends but even so. Gold has everything Silver would have wanted, while Silver is so much stronger (at first) than Gold and they both act as really good foils for one another (better than Blue and Red, imo). But lbr if Silver’s crashing in Gold’s house to watch sentai shows they’re probably friends now. 

My favorite hatred/antipathy: Red and Giovanni????? Red really hates what Team Rocket does and I don’t think he’ll ever be able to trust Giovanni and he tries so hard to foil all of Giovanni’s plans over and over again.

My favorite potential relationship between characters who never talk in canon: ... Uhhhh.... Agatha and Oak??? Do they ever talk to one another in canon??? apart from the flashbacks???? 

[cunninglydisguisedkeybearer]

Notes:

This tree was put together by Pulsar in the mid-eighties a few months before her family packed up for Alola. Not all information on this is accurate. There’s no proof that Agatha was the mother of Delia and Darina, but there are certainly some… suggestive three-hundred-year-old letters. Yellow never told anyone who Iridium’s father was, and no one found out until Memory was digging through some very old notebooks long after Iridium’s death. actually this kind of explains Agate’s line’s megalomaniacal streak

Additionally, there are a lot of siblings and exes left off the tree to minimise the names I had to think of. Agate, for instance, had three more children, and is probably going to be the ancestor of Hoenn’s entire upper class in a few generations. Pulsar’s siblings are an exception because it’s from Pulsar’s point of view also they’re less dead than she thinks they are. The inevitable DPPlat remake girl is gonna have to come from somewhere, after all…

Scout, Reflect and Sigil aren’t on the tree, but you could argue that they should be. The Dawn Islands and many other island chains in the Pokécific have this system of apprenticeship that almost works like adoption. So Green mentored Scout in the last days of her life, Scout taught Reflect how to use a styler, Reflect took Sigil under her wing, and Sigil tried to help Hauyu find a place of her own. Then Hauyu met a guy in the Seafolk Village and ended up settling in Alola, Miké happened, and then he went to Kanto and met a Sinon refugee in the Pallet Labs, and then they got married, and Green is simultaneously Burst’s great-great-great-grandmother and great-great-great-great-grandmother (kind of), both times by adoption!

Storm, Dusk, and Ampithe are roughly contemporary with the Kalos remakes (if they ever end up happening, of course.) They’re not likely to show up until Generation 9 at the absolute least.

So, a rough and unfinalised timeline -

1790s - RGBY (Green)

1820s - GSC (Iridium)

1850s - RSE (Agate), FRLG (Spark)

~1870 - Ranger (Scout)

1880s - DPPl (Graphite), Shadows of Almia (Reflect) HGSS (Memory)

1900s - Guardian Signs (Sigil)

1910s - BW (Asteri), B2W2 (Volt)

1950s - XY (Integral), ORAS (Tau)

1990s - SM (Burst)

>2050 - Colosseum (Storm, Dusk), XD (Ampithe)

[rocketbcssarchive]

So reasons why I have that headcanon and why I get so salty about people metagaming and miraculously knowing who Giovanni really is?

In the anime, no one knows who Giovanni really is, hell people outside of Kanto don’t even seem to know about Team Rocket, which actually makes me giddy considering how big the organisation is but I digress. Ash never makes a point of correcting Agatha in that episode in the Hoenn arc - presumably since he hasn’t even made the connection that Giovanni the Gym Leader = Giovanni the Leader of Team Rocket.

In the games, Giovanni being the gym leader of the Viridian Gym is THE plot twist of RBY/FRLG. Literally no one knew. People in Viridian City were actually happy to have their missing gym leader back. 

And if the Indigo League really knew about that connection they might have done something to shut down the gym since they seem to have at least that much power when they assigned Green as the next gym leader in GSC/HGSS. Also no one really seemed to give any fucks when Giovanni showed up again in the Pokemon World Tournament in BW2 (but it’s debatable how canon that really is, pfft). 

In pokespe, Giovanni goes out of his way to assume another identity in order to get Red to trust him. And he does a pretty friggin good job of it since Red trusts Giovanni and doesn’t suspect a thing right up until Giovanni finally tells him during their big confrontation. Every time Giovanni meets someone new, no one recognises him – Yellow certainly didn’t, Blaise certainly didn’t. 

Admittedly, the manga kinda plays fast and loose with Giovanni’s identity, but with Yellow it kinda shows how the average trainer doesn’t seem to know a lot about Team Rocket and with Blaise that members of other rival organisations don’t seem to be privy to that sort of information either.

In pokemon generations, I leave you with this scene: even friggin interpol didn’t know. 

And finally, just… trying to inject a bit of real world basics into this. I’m fairly certain you and I don’t know who happens to be the current leader of whatever big mafia organisation that’s out there, especially with ones that’s happening outside our respective countries. If I were walking down a street and I bumped into some mafia don I definitely wouldn’t know. Even if his face happened to be plastered all over the news like five years ago, that’s not the kind of thing that stays in a person’s memory unless they have some sort of special interest in the criminal underworld.

[ecruteakghostmother]

//What is your inspiration for Itsuke? She is a very interesting OC, and I enjoy learning about her background and history. It's good to discuss ghosts and supernatural topics with you as well~

(Honestly, Itsuke started with a Pokémon Blue play through. I borrowed the cartridge from a friend who already had a save, but it was still at the start of the game, in the middle of Route 1 with a level 7 Charmander. I sort of decided off the cuff that I wanted my character to be a girl disguised as a boy, which eventually became part of Itsuke’s early storyline. It was also during this play through that I discovered, and fell in love with, the Lavender Tower theme. And of course, I thought that Agatha was the coolest character in the game- she was spooky, snarky, and a strong female character.)

(Due to lack of access, I skipped Gen II. I didn't become with Itsuke’s eventual hometown until years after GSC came out. Instead, a friend gave me a used GBA and a copy of Ruby for my birthday, which I was ecstatic about. I played through it quickly, during which time I caught a Shuppet. I eventually decided to train him when I realized that his evolved form looked a little bit like a Dark Chao from Sonc Adventure- I never got too into the Sonic games, but I found the Chaos adorable, especially the Dark ones. Then I got into Naruto, and changed the Banette’s name to Sasori.)

(DP came out shortly after, and I got a copy of it, along with my DS, for Christmas that year. I was absolutely smitten with the character of Cynthia. I loved the whole concept behind her- the idea of being a specialist in history and legends, while being a phenomenal trainer at the same time... Oh, and I should probably note that I hoarded several PC boxes full of Drifloon. I didn't know about competitive breeding at that point; I just wanted a zillion Drifloon. This would eventually be the basis for Itsuke’s flock of Drifloon. Oddly, I decided that one of the Drifloon had the personality of Sai from Naruto. It was weird.)

(It was also during that playthrough that I became incredibly fond of Mesprit. Its curse was a topic of fascination for me, which soon led to me developing the story about how Itsuke got cursed as a child but then gained a Red Gem to restore her emotions. This resulted in Itsuke’s powerset and morality developing around trust, souls, spiritual connections, and emotions, which as you know are still prevalent themes for her today.)

(Some time after my main playthrough, I transferred Sasori into my game. I'd been growing more attached to him ever since he kicked my friend’s Gengar’s butt. I finally decided to make him Itsuke’s partner retroactively, and while I couldn't change his name after the transfer, I changed his official name to Sori, as I wanted him to have his own identity.)

(I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Crystal- which I still need to give back to the actual owner, once I've replaced the internal battery- and of course, I fell in love with the Johor region. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something I found comforting about it. Of course, I realize now that I really like the softer tones in the music compared to RBY, and the aesthetics, low-res as they were, appealed to me. But nothing called to me more than Ecruteak City. Once I met Morty, I started shipping him with Itsuke. He was just so cool. While this ship isn't really a thing anymore due to timeline restrictions, my friends still ship Itsuke with Morty by ignoring the timeline.)

(Then Platinum came out, and my love of the Ghost-type only got worse. At that point, I really started refining my concept of an adult Itsuke. I wanted her to be like Cynthia, Agatha, and Morty wrapped up in one. Of course, at this point she was also a shapeshifter and the champion of several regions, since I was going through my Sue phase. That quickly subsided, though, and instead I decided to focus on writing her late life- at which point I decided that she would be a witch living in the Old Chateau.)

(I had her mostly figured out before Gen V, I just kept making minor adjustments. I determined a solid timeline for her, I settled on a semi-permanent design, and I finalized her personality. So when BW came out, she was solid enough as a muse to have her own wants and desires- leading to her developing an incredibly unhealthy crush on Ghetsis.)

(Oh, and so far as her modern design goes, she’s sort of a mix of Banette, Cynthia, and Morticia Addams.)

[crystalelemental]

"books-are-my-life-stuff: Well, Switch Lite doesn't have a detachable controller, so I have to angle and adjust how I hold my Switch and positions the throwing motion while holding the Switch in a particular way to throw the ball and capture the Pokemon. It's bad. I don't like it."

Oh. Oh wow, that's actually really bad. There's not another option to dock the console, then. You'd have to play it handheld mode. How miserable.

"I do heard that Green in Let's Go has the playful personality much like her Pokespe counterpart. So, definitely not Leaf. From the pictures I've seen she seems interesting, but I don't wanna spend hours trying to catch Legendaries anymore, it's so tiring. I did battle Blue before stopped playing but that's it."

*doesn't know the manga* I suppose she does, but none of this strikes me as "decisively not Leaf." Leaf doesn't have much personality to begin with, and nothing Green really does strikes me as super distinct. As far as my games-centric ass is concerned, they're both just "the girl from Kanto."

"The fact that I can barely remember about the game's lore changes and I don't screenshot it that much means it's just that forgettable to me. I probably will try that Butterfree sweep sometime in Galar, better than having to deal with Let's Go."

It's just not particularly interesting. Like...let me see if I can pick up the adjustments Let's Go actually made:

Pewter Crunchies are a thing. No significance otherwise.

Gyms now have conditions to meet before entering, and all but Koga are stupid easy.

Anime Team Rocket is here, guys! Meowth doesn't talk or battle! What is the point of these three?

Archer's here, guys! Remember him? No you don't, put your hand down.

Basically every single instance of "explore around to find the item needed to progress" is turned into a really long story bit that just hands you the item so don't worry you can't miss it there's no reason to talk to anyone in the region now.

Lorelei shows up that one time.

Cubone does like...a thing, I guess? It is neat that Chase adds the orphaned Cubone to his team, but the rest of the segment feels wildly hand-holdy for little actual benefit.

*gasp* Giovanni was the one who specifically made the custom order for the Master Ball, you guys! What a shocking revelation that changes exactly nothing because the head of the company didn't know and refuses to cooperate once he does! Almost like all this did was add extraneous dialogue for no reason!

Blaine does a TV quiz show because scientists are bored living on the island, and TV is definitely the best way to bring engagement rather than any kind of actual activities in the community.

Oak does poetry now! You know, like in the anime!

There's mega evolution now. Don't worry about it.

Champion was just a general rank for anyone who beat the E4, but now it's a specific position for some reason, and Oak specifically has to help officiate it despite his known disconnection from battling and the League per Agatha. Why is he here?

Look guys, it's Green! Isn't she so completely different from this featureless slate of a protagonist from Gen 3? (No)

Look guys, Blue took over Viridian, just like the GSC! Isn't that fun? (Sure, but GSC did it first, you're copying their homework)

It basically adds nothing but extra dialogue. Nothing of significance changes, and most of its prominent additions are just lore nodes to Johto, the superior generation. Completely vacuous game.

[1358456]

Pokemon Crystal "Free to Play" Run Part 3

Well, I got distracted for a while thanks to Scarlet and the Generation VIII and IX Pokemon nicknaming, but it's about time I finish this run and try something I didn't fully explore last time.

Now where was I... oh yeah. Kanto.

Sabrina's level 50 Alakazam... in Yellow only... was nerfed to level 48.

Oh yeah. Remember the days when Dark type was a Special type? I have no idea why. Every single Dark type move that existed back in GSC is currently a physical attack. If I recall, when the physical/special split happened in Generation IV, the only Sp. Atk Dark type move was Dark Pulse, which was a Generation IV move. So... yeah. The physical contact and yet Sp. Atk move. Which tremendously buffs Espeon!

Okay. I can get Snorlax now, but... that's not a gift. Hmm... I do want its Leftovers though. Hmm...

Good thing that I picked up TM 46: Thief. Yoink!

So this is my pre-Red team. ... Uh oh. A level 52 Mew could solo Red except for Snorlax, but... with this team? ... Well, time to find out if I need to grind some more.

This cave in Mt. Silver requires Waterfall and... this is all that's in it. ... Why. Well, at least this cave HAS something, unlike in GS...

And the second Waterfall-hidden cave in Mt. Silver that has one healing item inside. Again, why. I don't think the encounter tables are different in these rooms than the outside. It's not like in Platinum version where that one room in the Eterna Forest mansion that has wild Gengars (1% chance?).

Well then. Time to ram into Red and see what happens.

This little Espeon carried the win. Everyone else is down. Holy crap. ... So that Dragonite that I got... did nothing helpful. So that was a total waste of Exp Share time.

Whew. Now that I barely got through Red... I want to tackle that GS Ball glitch again. ... If I remember how. The GSC Joy Runs I posted have details in them so the future me can use them as reference!

I do need to catch things though, but the Free to Play run ended after beating Red. So I need a male and female Exeggcute, since that thing gets Reflect very early and also as an Egg move. So if I breed two identical Exeggcutes with this exact moveset, the offspring will also have this exact set in this order. Thus Reflect is in the 4th slot.

Now I need a bad clone. A level 0 female with no name.

... Er... I... That IS a bad clone, but not... rightly bad?

It has Pokerus though. ... And a 4x weakness to Fighting...

... Now those are some stats. Level 255, so... understandable. So that means when I took on Agatha and her level 205 stuff... this is the kind of stats I had to overcome with free sh*t.

This is the wrong bad clone, so I have to try again and again... and... there we go. Now to follow my own instructions and...

So Flash in the third slot gives Dragonair. And this run's ID's Hex value corresponds to Synthesis and Meditate. ... The last run gave me Earthquake and Vital Throw. Anyways. Hey, GS Ball!

And time to withdraw my stuff and...

The... game crashed. Huh. Never saw this screen before. Okay. So I need to withdraw the Pokemon I want BEFORE hatching the glitched egg.

Okay. So what I wanted to try this time that I didn't last time is... I wanted to use Kurt's Apricorn Ball services at least once before the GS Ball event. Because I think that's a requirement? I have no idea. There's an Apricorn tree right next to his house, so give one to him, leave, save, and...

Select + Down + B at the main menu, let go of Down + B, hold Up + Left, let go of Select, and there we go.

Mess with the game because I have the power.

Now just let that minute pass and I can get the Fast Ball from Kurt, and then if I talk to him with the GS Ball...

... Damn. That was not it. So there really is an in-game trigger that the event actually trips. So let's see what it actually looks like. ... Need a cheat code though...

So this nurse's existence is the result of force-tripping the in-game trigger.

... Now I have two of them. Great. I wonder if that means the event GS Ball has a different code than... the cheap knockoff that I spawned. Either that, or the key items don't have an item check upon receiving, since no key item is meant to be obtained twice.

Now the event triggers. ... And I have to do that time bullsh*t again. Who needs Celebi for time manipulation, when I have to do time manipulation to get Celebi?!

1 minute later that feels like 1 day... Get the GS Ball back, put it right next to its buddy...

Oh no. That forest with the treehouse that I tried to set on fire for many years... I mean...

... Which one? Can I shove both in it?

And out pops an onion fairy. At long last!

Well, I mean... it's not a gift, so... Also, because I had to f*ck up the Pokedex with the egg glitch, the game thinks I already caught one.

In fact, if I look at the Pokedex BEFORE the Celebi event...

This is as far as it goes because I did NOT see Celebi. Note, Seen 196, Owned 39. And now AFTER the Celebi event...

Seen 197, Owned 39. So I apparently owned Celebi without having seen it before the event.

Hmm. And the event does NOT trigger a second time with the second GS Ball. So that one stays in my inventory for the rest of time with no purpose.

Okay. So what if I used the code, but instead of picking up the event GS Ball, I go to Kurt with only the glitch-spawned GS Ball?

Nope. That doesn't work.

So... damn. In order to trigger the Celebi event, I actually need to use the cheat code and receive a GS Ball. Glitch-spawned GS Ball does nothing on its own. However, interestingly, if I keep the glitch-spawned GS Ball at the top of my Key Items listing, while the event GS Ball is on the bottom for distinction purposes, when I trigger the Celebi event, the first GS Ball is used. So the glitch-spawned one is used on the shrine, and the event one is left behind for eternity. Fascinating. So the two GS Balls are the same item, but the event triggers only once. Aww.

I wonder if it is possible to use a glitch to trigger the event. I don't know what glitch would do that though. ... Then again, I know how to hatch Celebi from a glitch, so... I don't need to trigger the event. In fact, the event Celebi doesn't have Recover since a level 30 one would've erased it. A glitched egg that gives me a level 0 Celebi with two glitched moves is infinitely better. Since with one Rare Candy, I can give Celebi Recover... and evolve 5 glitch Pokemon off screen...

Well then. That's everything. I think I explored all I wanted to explore in GSC. I guess next up is Emerald. I wanted to try the Pomeg Egg glitch. If I recall, with that, I can evolve an Egg Pokemon before hatching it. So I could hatch a Gyarados. Supposedly. Well, one day.