#i have a bunch of other pokemon to work on but i. hate stats <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[raiseupyourbat]

I miss pmd...

[pipermaycosplays]

*Disclaimer* I do not hate Pikachu if it sounds like I’m dissing Pikachu. Pikachu is one of my favorite Pokémon. Objective here is to give Pikachu’s older sibling some much needed love.

Several months ago, I came across an article by The Gamer, in my Facebook feed and the title was, “25 Awesome Things Fans Forgot About Pokemon*” (link will be at the end of this post, I have put it on Tumblr before but I don’t think the articles I post have been that popular). I thought to myself, “Well this looks interesting, I’m gonna read it.” When I got toward the end of it, I noticed a fact that just about reduced me to tears. The number one fact was simply this, Raichu Exists. Ouch. If any gen 1 Pokémon is underappreciated, its Raichu. Does the Pokémon company hate Raichu?

This instilled in me a new found love for Raichu. A few years back when XY BreakThrough came out, I bought the Burning Spark theme deck featuring Raichu because the box art was nice and I liked the artwork on the card. Now, I am trying to get two decks ready to go for Tekko that are built around Raichu. One for the standard format (Raichu GX) and one for expanded format (Raichu Break). Just trying to show Raichu some love here…anyway back to how Raichu is underappreciated and overshadowed.

Right from the get go, Raichu has been forgotten. Pikachu was made the adorable mascot of the Pokémon Franchise. The first impression you get of Raichu, is in the opening theme of the anime when Ash’s Pikachu faces off against Lt. Surge’s Raichu (which I believe has been characterized as a jerk Raichu…). So right off the bat, fans have a negative image of Raichu because he kicked Ash’s Pikachu’s butt in a fight. In the Pokémon video games (please anyone correct me if I am wrong, for I have never played the video games, I only know what I read about them), if Pikachu is your starter, it won’t evolve into it’s more powerful, older sibling Raichu. However, I have also read that if you happen to like Pikachu better than Raichu, it’s not recommended that you evolve your Pikachu until toward the end of the game for the sake of completing the dex. From an outsider who hasn’t had much experience with the games, to me that seems a little sad, because before the Light Ball, Raichu was the better pick for your team. However even if Pikachu had the **Light Ball, it does not get a speed boost, just an attack boost, so given that, Raichu is still faster. A little later, is a side-by-side comparison of their base statistics. When generation 6 dropped for Pokémon, a cool, new type of evolution was introduced to the gameplay….mega evolutions. Raichu got snubbed of a mega evolution and yet I’ve seen so many fakemon/fanart designs for a mega Raichu, that actually look pretty epic. And some of them actually look like what would have been Raichu’s older sibling, Gorochu.

That said, when generation 7 rolled around an interesting and new form for certain Pokémon (mostly gen 1 Pokémon), were Alola forms. Raichu finally gets some love? Perhaps. He did get blessed with an adorable Alolan form….with dual typing may add…electric and psychic typing. I still have yet to see an Alolan Raichu GX card and I still have yet to see Alolan Raichu printed as a psychic type. With gen 8 starters having been dropped recently, I think my wishes for that are slim to none.

This next one might be slightly out of place but let’s compare the base stats between Pikachu and Raichu. All stats directly taken from: https://veekun.com/dex/gadgets/compare_pokemon?pokemon=Pikachu&pokemon=Raichu

Raichu Base Stats:         Pikachu Base Stats:

Base EXP: 218 Base EXP: 112

Base Happiness: 70 Base Happiness: 70

Capture Rate: 75 Capture Rate: 190

HP: 60 HP: 35

Attack: 90 Attack: 55

Defense: 55 Defense: 40

Sp. Attack: 90 Sp. Attack: 50

Sp. Defense: 80 Sp. Defense: 50

Speed: 110 Speed: 90

Base Stat Total: 485 Base Stat Total: 320

Effort: 3 Speed Effort: 2 Speed

I recently read that the Pokémon company has made Pikachu more viable as an attacker via an item called, “Light Ball” which to my understanding is an item that only a  Pikachu can weild (to me that begs the question, why? Why can only a Pikachu wield the Light Ball?). It raises special attack and attack stats and therefore makes it slightly better than Raichu overall. At least that is my understanding of how the item works. I have also read that in Gen 3, I believe, that Pikachu beat a Raichu with Light Ball, however it doesn’t stand a chance now against Alolan Raichu. Here is the link to the WikiFandom page on the Light Ball; **  https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Light_Ball

In the Pokémon tcg, Raichu has gotten the short end of the stick. And while I don’t know much about how the tcg started back in Base Set, however from about DPP on, I can tell you a bit there because I follow a lovely blog called, @pokemon-card-of-the-day   and they have done a wonderful job of shedding light on how the tcg has evolved over time….Please check their blog out, its awesome! Anyway I digress..back to Raichu. To my knowledge and understanding, I don’t think that Raichu has been part of any top cut/competitive deck until now. And for various reasons I suppose. With all the electric support running around in the current format (pun intended), and the Shining Legends Raichu GX, somebody wants my boy to win. Of course, from experience, the most viable Raichu GX deck is the Snuggly Generator variant, not Raichu x Magnezone variant (too bulky). I hope Snuggly Generator Raichu GX somehow goes to World’s this year. I really do.

Raichu to my knowledge has been printed in half or less than half (Bulbagarden article said 43 different cards I think…) of the sets that Pikachu has been released in, and yet, Raichu has had some beautiful card artwork. Several examples come to mind when I think of all the lovely artwork featuring Raichu. Base Set Raichu comes to mind, he just looks so happy. Another example is Expedition Base Set Raichu, the holo with the stars and Raichu, again looks very happy. Or how about the artwork for Raichu in the Black and White Next Destinies set? He is walking down a street with balloons looking perfectly happy…or how about a throwback to some of the first EX cards released? Raichu was fortunate enough to get 2 different EX cards with beautiful artwork. For my last, and slightly more recent example, take the Radiant Collection Raichu from the XY Generations set, it’s just plain adorable….and yet he isn’t popular. That begs the question….why? Raichu has had some awesome artwork in the tcg…so many gorgeous cards Imo.

Raichu, you are a the goodest of boi’s and deserve a ton of love! Thank you for existing. You are absolutely adorable. Thank you to something wonderful I recently discovered on Tumblr; Pokéganda blogs…I discovered two for Raichu! Thank you @raichu-propaganda and @raichupropaganda for showing Raichu some love! :) 

Here is the link to Raichu’s Bulbagarden page for it’s appearances in the games, anime, manga and tcg, and just about anything else you want to know on the soft, squishy boi; https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Raichu_(Pokémon) Whoever did this Bulbagarden page, very nice job. I love the detail in it. Thank you.

Thank you to @dragonair–propaganda  for complimenting Raichu the other night, that really made my night. I absolutely adore the Pokéganda community, and follow a bunch of the blogs.

Below is the link I referenced at the beginning of this post, if anyone was interested in reading it. Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this long winded post, it has been brewing for several months, and I have put a little over a month worth of time into this.

*https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-awesome-things-fans-forget-trivia/

~MistyMay

[musubiki]

Musubiki! Do you have any headcanons about Leaf's pokemon, their personality, history, it relationship with Leaf? Oh, dis she catch Mew and/or Mewtwo?

HOOOO ANON YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I THINK ABT THIS!!!!!!!! ill put it under the cut jus bc its gonna be long lol,.

➞

SO!!!!!! THERES: (in the order she caught/received them)

Pom (Pikachu) ♀ 

shes feisty but sweet like leaf, usually the voice of reason/encouragement to leaf and the team!! she wears two pink pom-poms on her left ear!!!! tots cute

her starter!!! so shes been with leaf the longest and understands her the most!!!! is always out of her pokeball and on leafs shoulder or somewhere close!

at first they didnt get along, but over a bunch of battles and traveling (esp the fight against brock - that was a big turning point for them) they became best buds and leaf wouldnt trade her for the world!! shes surprisingly strong even though she has bad stats lol. 

Violet (Venusaur) ♀ 

shes also very sweet!!! usually the big ass kicker,.,. shes super hard to take down just bc shes like the torture chamber of all of leafs pokemon…shes poison/paralyze/evade the opponent like crazy and slow-kill them with leech seed..,.,. but still nice!!!!!! pretty quiet usually but can be snarky to the other team members, espc alex and leo but theyre all family they love each other

leaf got her as a gift in cerulean!!! as per the storyline, a girl nursed her back to health and then gave her to leaf to take with her on her adventures!! green is still shocked as to how she got all 3 starters

Vi loved her from the start!! she was super happy to even be included in a great adventure™, and pom was really welcoming to her!! shes usually the one who helps leaf the most in everyday life

her solar beam+sunny day slays fools

Alexander (Charizard) ♂

MY BOY!!!!!! MY SON!!!!! hes the most serious out of the group, very hasty and irritable 24/7. the hardest hitter on the team and actually sometimes the dumbest LMAO. sometimes he deliberately disobeys leafs when hes pissed and trying to take down an opponent. it usually works but it worries leaf to death. sleeps a lot but he loves leaf the most probably, hes like her #2 and her protective friend. i love him.

also a gift!!! on the route right outside cerulean. his original owner thought he deserved a better trainer, so he was given to leaf as a charmander. 

leaf LOVES this boy so much and has so much faith in him. the best battles are the ones that he fights in and he usually makes a mess but hes great company for her!! sometimes they just sit around and take naps under a tree or by a river and overall. 10/10

Leonardo (Blastoise) ♂

the cool guy ™. yes he had the shades when she first got him im doing that. the cocky one whos always trying to impress everyone for no reason. actually has a lot of sense for someone who does dumb shit. gets knocked out in battle trying to be awesome. is actually awesome when he grows into a bastoise. near unstoppable. has a playful rivalry with alex and they get into mock fights that violet usually has to break up. actually leo sees it as mock fights but alex is legit tryna hurt him LOL

a gift from police officer jenny in vermillion!!!!! he was caught causing trouble. the lil shit

he was kind of like alex when he was younger (esp as a wartortle) where he would disobey leaf trying to be a hero. when he becomes a blastoise leaf sits on his back and goes fishing on hot days. hes pretty chill when hes not in battle. him alex and violet are the killer trio and cannot be seperated from one another. 

Kiki (Persian) ♀

bouncy and happy!!! shes the (2nd) cutest on the team and a very excited girl!!!! shes always purring and snuggling up to leaf and/or green, likes to lay on/over peoples laps. doesnt take battle as seriously as she should but still manages to win. the second worst pokemon of leafs surprisingly, because she spams pay day and holds the amulet coin,.,. so when you lose you end up paying like fuckingjnffd 76000 dollars to leaf. most people just forfeit after a while because theyre broke. 

kiki is the reason leaf is financially stable

she caught her outside of lavender town around the same time green caught his growlithe so those two end up being surprisingly good friends!!! she was used in a lot of battles in the rocket game corner and so every rocket that was there hates leaf for taking all their (not so ) hard earned money. 

Calcifer (Gengar) ♂

 cal is the one whos always concerned if leaf is okay, doing the right thing, or making a bad decision. god forbid someone out of this team carries an appropriate level of caution LOL. can be a little shit to other people and is a fan of pranks when the subject isnt leaf. hes more toward the serious side and is usually eating somehting. no one knows where he gets the snacks from

caught in the pokemon tower when leaf was exploring it with green.(lol) he scared the shit out of both of them but then helped to defeat rocket

cal was always the most independant of the group and was never reall like….pets and cuddles…hes the most mature and tries to give leaf his opinion on when something is a bad idea but she never listens because shes leaf 

AND AS FOR MEW/2:

she never caught mew, but mew helps her a lot during her journey, espc in dealing with rocket. no one else has really seen/met mew and no one knows why it only shows up to leaf specifically. prof oak is always pissed that she doesnt catch it

(IM STILL ON THE FENCE ABT MEWTWO) but most likely, she traveled into that one cave to find mewtwo and when she does they dont…even battle… they actually have a conversation. like theres this quiet moment of doubt and understanding and SHE HAS THE MASTERBALL but she doesnt use it and just. decides to let him be free. 

he and mew come in and end up helping her when shes in serious trouble, whenever that may be (i hc that every protag has like a legendary friend/pokemon that comes to their aid in serious situations, leafs is mewtwo)

[radramblog]

Pokemon Singles Meme Draft

Among certain parts of my friend group, plans get made and end up falling through more often than you’d expect. I’m sure it happens to a lot of people, but it always kinda sucks when it does, and you come up with all these ideas and they just don’t get to come to fruition. Especially when people are getting hammered with university and work and the grim reality of living in 2021.

An example of this is a friendly Pokemon Draft League conducted by myself and some friends, with the express purpose of memes and dreams only. What that meant was only using the bottom few tiers of mons, and encouraging extremely silly sets with them all the time.

We got through the actual draft, and I built some sets, so that’s what I’m going to discuss today. I have no fear of my secrets being spilled, because at this point I don’t really think it matters.

While I could probably go back and get all the pick orders from several months ago, I frankly cannot be arsed whatsoever. Instead I’m going to go by tiers, where we got 3 tier 3s, 4 tier 4s, and 4 tier 5s. Tiers 1 and 2 were banned entirely, to make sure we weren’t going to see any actually good Pokemon. Memes only, after all.

Tier 3:

Lapras: I’m 90% certain this was my first pick anyway, as Lapras being available at all felt like a steal- it’s Gigantamax form wasn’t banned because we aren’t cowards, and Lapras can take absurd advantage of such. It’s got a great typing and dummy thick defenses, along with solid enough offenses, not to mention the nonsense movepool it has access to.

I ended up building 3 different Lapras sets as tests.

The first was the Perish-Trap set, taking advantage of all those juicy support moves along with Perish Song to actually secure the KO. I…don’t know what I was thinking not putting Leftovers on this set, especially since I already had Protect and didn’t have access to a good recovery move (Rest or Life Dew aren’t going to cut it). But this set would likely just be incredibly rude. It has also just occurred to me that this is a Lapras-Gmax that can’t actually use G-Max Resonance, and that’s a bit of an oopsie.

Set 2 was a pretty vanilla Dragon Dance set, because people apparently forget two things- Lapras gets Dragon Dance, and Lapras’s Physical and Special Attack are the same, at 85 base apiece. As beefy as Lapras is, 85 often not enough to secure KOs, so DDance is a good way to mitigate this. The coverage it gets is also surprisingly decent, and I could adapt this depending on what my opponent’s options are looking like.

The final Lapras set I made is what I called “Blindpras”, or, the Lapras with a bunch of very inaccurate moves. I’ll get into it later, but I did have the ability to use Baton Pass to give some Accuracy boosts to it, but unsupported, this set would be a meme at best. Hella status though, between Sing and Zap Cannon. If it hit them. Frustratingly, Wide Lens is a 1.1x accuracy boost rather than the flat 10% I thought it was, so it’s actually only adding 5% to, say, Zap Cannon.

 Mienshao: I don’t know that much about Singles, but I do know two things are good: Regnerator and U-Turn effects. And this bad boy gets both, so I took it. It also added a Fighting type to my list, which I felt was needed.

I only made two Mienshao sets, but one of them was just Life Orb, so who cares.

This one is the real sauce. It’s not clear there, but this Mienshao has 0IVs in HP, Defense, and Special Defense- the intent being to get near-OHKO’d to pop the sash, and then shred things with Acrobatics. Alternatively, it can Baton Pass off a 2x Attack or 2x Speed, or both if they assume it’s an offensive threat and switch out. This is probably one of the sillier sets, but I would have loved to see it go off- Acrobatics hasn’t been as good ever since Flying Gem went away.

Guzzlord: I wish I had a copy of the rant I went off on for the Guzzlord pick, because it is truly the edgiest, vilest shit I’ve ever written. I was thinking about it at work, so. Guzzlord was the Dragon for the Dragon/Steel/Fairy core I was working on, and it’s also a giant idiot who I really like, so.

Much like Mienshao, I made two sets, but one’s just boring Assault Vest, so.

Spice only. The thing with Guzzlord is that it’s HP is huge, but it’s actual defenses are a meagre 53, so if you want to do builk you put them all in those stats. But it’s still an Attack boosting nature, because that still gives the most raw stats. This set is basically here to take a hit and crack back, with a monstrous Gyro Ball due to the rather sad Speed on this thing, a disruptive Knock Off or Dragon Tail, or just a 130 base power Fling. It could also Dynamax for even more bulk off of Max Steelspike. It’s just a beefy boi.

Tier 4:

Unfezant: After enjoying it in a Nuzlocke, the Love Dove was back in action. It has access to Super Luck, which is probably all it needs, right? Well, not quite, because it doesn’t get any STAB high crit rate moves save the mediocre Air Cutter and Razor Wind, and those both also come off it’s rather shite Special Attack. But we make do around here.

Crit Bird still gets Night Slash as useful coverage, and Dual Wingbeat doesn’t have a high crit ratio, but it does hit twice, and that’s still twice the chance to crit. Feather Dance is also here because everyone underrates it, and U-Turn is just nutty as always. Velocity is good, and that’s what the Love Dove has in spades. At least in this mediocre environment.

 Magneton: A former powerhouse, Magneton was the Steel in the Steel/Dragon/Fairy core and either a tank with Eviolite or a hard-hitter with something else

Or both, as it happens, because Analytic is a cool and good ability. This was definitely an unfinished set, I think, because it feels kind of confused. Like, why Rain Dance? I’m not really abusing that anywhere? Very confused. Anyway.

 Shiinotic: One of the fairies for that core, and the Grass for the Fire/Water/Grass core. Shiinotic was the only thing in Gen VIII that got Spore until the DLCs came out, but that didn’t necessarily make it great. It’s still slow as fuck and not super bulky. And it doesn’t hit super hard.

But, it can be the ULTRASUCC. Big Root works for Shiinotic either on an offensive set via Giga Drain and Draining Kiss, or defensively via Leech Seed or Strength Sap. And Spore is still here because, you know, it’s bonkers nutso if you can take a hit to set it up. And then Big Root helps you get that HP back afterwards. It’s decent enough, I think. If you don’t invest in HP, you can can get relatively more back!

 Mr. Mime: Here as an alternate Fairy and also because I wanted a Psychic type. I didn’t realise how awkward this creepy fuck was until after I actually drafted it. It gets Technician but barely anything to use it with, it gets much less useful support options than I had assumed, and it’s best defensive ability, Soundproof, makes it also immune to my own Lapras’s Heal Bell.

This was some of the best I could come up with. Trick in case Mime needs to neuter a support thing, otherwise just spam Psychic or Charge Beam. Or Magical Leaf, I guess. If you’re into that. I dunno, we were kind of getting to the dregs at this point. Shoulda taken Claydol.

 Tier 5:

Oricorio: I have a penchant for Versatility in my drafts, and since I couldn’t get Silvally, Oricorio had to do. Except…it kind of sucks ass, as it turns out. This was a National Dex league, meaning that we could use Pokemon that didn’t make the Dexit cut into Galar, which unfortunately means they don’t get the expanded movesets that came with the addition of TRs and the Isle of Armor tutor moves. And Oricorio is no exception, having been mercilessly slashed, leaving it very lacking for moves. At least it can be 4 types…?

I actually came up with 4 sets for Oricorio, because it has 4 types, and it is once again a thing that gets Baton Pass, so it has some decent enough options. This one is the Hateful set- the type basically doesn’t matter, but I put it as Pa’u and it would probably actually be best as Sensu for the immunities. Either way, this one is the troll fucker that passes Double Teams, in case I want someone to dislike me. Or it’ll just die, like this things stats are Not Good.

Aerodactyl: On the other hand, my 3rd flying type has actually very fucking good stats. Aerodactyl was OU for a few generations, and I don’t actually know why it wasn’t a higher tier. No complaints, though!

This set is literally one I lifted from Gen 4 Overused, updated with Unnerve because it’s less useless than Pressure here. Apparently OU back then was fucking wild, like, Power Herb Sky Attack on a support lead? I guess it’s fast enough that Sash isn’t something you really need, and if they pick wrong you do just nuke something. It’s a dedicated lead, from an era when that was still a relevant concept.

Camerupt: Another dex-cut species, which is a shame, because I love this idiot. It also lost its Mega, and as a result, is just kind of mediocre. But it was what I thought was the best option left for a Fire type, so.

An alternative lead for Stealth Rock, or just to Burn’n’Boom, Camerupt is here and ready to party. The camel that burns twice as bright burns half as long, except we don’t have a damaging Fire move, so………

Huntail: I considered this one kind of my masterstroke. I was so chuffed when I realised what this fucker could do, and that no-one could stop me- if they picked Huntail, I could just take Gorebyss! Easy money baby!

Huntail’s main purpose was as an opener for Baton Pass. Even though it didn’t make Gen VIII, it’s moveset was just good enough to make this work, with the ability to pass Shell Smash, Coil, or just Iron Defense and Double Team. And with Sucker Punch, it can surprise things or just sweep instead off Shell Smash. No one was going to look at this mans, nobody was going to see it coming.

Which is what set 2 was for. After I’d played my slippery, snakelike hand, I needed an alternative to catch people expecting the pass off-guard. Thus, the rudest set I could think of. Bulky, Toxic in more ways than one, Sticky and impolite.

 At the end of the day, I think I came up with more troll sets than I did actual meme sets. But that’s how it be sometimes, baby, can’t help what I’m made of.

I don’t know how to make actually good sets anyway.

[turkborne]

Fanfic Questions!: 6, 8, 9, 14, 18, 23, 27, 31, 32, 46, annnddd 51!

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

Oh god....I REFUSE. Too many I’ll handpick a few though?

Yu Yu Hakusho: Kurama/Hiei, Raizen/Yuusuke, Kurama/Kuronue, Karasu/Kurama....

Inuyasha: Sesshoumaru/Kagome [futurefic only aka kags no longer able to go through the well and sess is the only one left alive or some shit. Bonding happens.]

Sesshoumaru/Inuyasha

Hunter x Hunter: Think problematic and it’s probably my OTP....

Final Fantasy VII: Tseng/Rufus, Veld/Rufus, Reno/Rufus, Seph/Cloud, Reno/Cloud, Vince/Tseng

Free! aka Swimming Gays: Rin/Nagisa [I had a biker au rp that sold me on this], Rin/Haru

Voltron: ...Thulaz. Thace/Ulaz? My feels in this series haven’t settled. Kuro/Shiro. Sendak/Shiro. Thace/Ulaz/Shiro

Pokego: Fuck me sideways I am not picking an OTP.

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

Well, Voltron I saw pretty art on my Tumblr, asked a friend if it was worth watching and got the green light. No regrets.

PokeGo I stumbled into Surfi’s comics, stuck around. Then I picked up on some D/s undertones and stalked Surfi enough to know writing my fic would be well received. I haven’t left. I don’t think anyone minds that though.

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

Voltron: It’s popular, so there’s a ton of shit going on? (This fandom is a shitshow. Antis everywhere. Tread lightly.)

Pokemon Go: Chill peeps. I love all of you. Never leave me.

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

...BroTP implies that I think they couldn’t fuck. CHIBI DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU’RE TALKING TO?

18. What ship have you written the most about?

Current fandom, probably Spark/Blanche? I do try to spread the love but this dynamic is easy.

All time? Probably Tseng/Rufus. 

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

For pokego, probably Injured Heart which surprisingly isn’t smut? I just really am fond of angst and It really was nice to write this plot bunny.

For Voltron, Sating the Galra was fun. A good smutty time.

27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

I feel like my summaries are worse than my titles. They lack the ability to grab attention the way I’d like.

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

Most people compliment my style. I know my writing needs work to get it where I want it to be. 

Just I have an old memory to share I suppose. One of having my regents essay opening read allowed in front of my class because I decided to fuck around with the test in a good way and make my teachers laugh. I was never the funny kid, but that moment, no matter how embarrassed I was, I knew I had written something good and done something nice for someone else with my writing and that feeling stuck with me. I was in high school, it was a long time ago, but events like that shape people.

32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

Music rarely influences my writing. I prefer having netflix marathoning something I’ve already seen in the background.

46. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

Depends on if they’re an innocent bean or not. What are their kinks? I prefer to recommend fics based on what they’d most enjoy. 

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

Rant:

The lack of feedback is killer. I understand I write smut, but let’s look at some stats here. This is for the Voltron fandom here:

Hits: 1291 Kudos: 63 Comment Threads: 1 Bookmarks: 7

Recent Pokego fic:

Hits: 99 Kudos: 14 Comment Threads: 1 [The comment is Chibi’s fyi, who comments on all of my pokego stuff p much.]

My most popular pokego fic:

Hits: 874 Kudos: 16 Comment Threads: 1 Bookmarks: 4

Even if half of those hits are rereads, why are there so few Kudos? You don’t have to be signed in. Hitting that one little button when you’ve finished a fic might not seem like much but it really makes a difference. You can sort fics by Kudos count on ao3. I’m not going to ask for a ton here. I know most of you here do leave kudos and a bunch of you personally tell me things. Here’s the thing: ao3 does have the option to sort fics by comments and kudos.

Now, for as small of a fandom pokego is, it doesn’t matter much on ao3 for me. By sheer smut volume I outproduce anyone else. It is relevant with my other fic though.

Gush:

The support of fellow writers! Chibi is a blessing. Waifu keeps me afloat. <3 Without writer buddies it would be a quiet land without feedback. I’m immensely grateful for her specifically and all of those who have helped me. 

[the-mayor-of-space]

Do all thirty of those identity things have fun

do you have a creed?you bet your ass i’ll have fun

if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to? - uhhhhh fuckiinnnnn.... off the top of my head, im sure im missing a lot of important stuff here: listen to hawaii part 2, dinosaurchestra through to spirit phone of the lemon demon discography, and a bunch of miscellanious game music / siIvagunner. and just like have a base understanding of what vaporwave is about. probably you could get a pretty good sense for what im like by going through several hundred pages of this blog honestly. also if youve ever [media appropriate verb]ed anything where theres a theme of alternate timelines and resets and all that. lots of stuff has that kind of stuff going on recently. rick and morty, pokemon, hs, ut, you name it. also also, the story of the hollows from dark souls and the themes it brings up speaks to me on some level, so theres that.

have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who? - no i dont think so. i dont really do a lot of reading anymore, even though i used to be captain books when i was younger. 

list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with. - god this is a good question but the way its worded just doesnt jive with me. its so 2013 tumblr you know? that being said the more i think about this the less of an answer i have. sorry thats boring and not giving an answer defeats the whole point of the ask.

do you like your name?  is there another name you think would fit you better? - i guess. i mean its alright, im not really sure what i would rename myself to if it was up to me to choose. i like that you guys all call me “mayor” here though. obviously that doesnt work outside of the internet but like you know. 

do you think of yourself as a human being or a human doing? do you identify yourself by the things you do? - instead of adressing the stupid jumble of words masquerading as a deep question, im gonna take this opportunity to express my worry that my answers to these asks might just be a bunch of inane, barely legible rambling. if nothing else im sorry that my formatting is shit. in response to that second question though, yeah sure i guess. dont we all?

are you religious/spiritual? - pffffft no no no.

do you care about your ethnicity? - not particularly, although i realize that the fact that that’s my answer is a luxury in and of itself 

what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime? - like i get that technically its not a wrong usage, but “lifetime” feels like its implying that im way older than i am and also that im dying. anyways. neil cicierega, recently at least. although im well aware that connecting to someones music is different than knowing them as a person, its a lot more interpretive than just actually getting to know someone.

are you an artist? - debatably.

do you have a creed? - nope.

describe your ideal day. - its foggy and raining outside, me and my lover are curled up in bed with food and computers. maybe we go out and take a walk, mostly we just spend the whole day together. mayb we’re having conversations that arent as deep as we think they are. maybe we’re playing games. doesnt really matter. we’re together.

dog person or cat person? - cats. arent you guys happy when my answer to something isnt three run-on sentences worth of esoteric thought?

inside or outdoors? - indoors. i just realized that you can say “side” or “doors” for both of those words and it means the same thing either way. thats kind of interesting isnt it?

are you a musician? - nope. i like the idea of being one, but i dont think i have whatever it is it takes to be one. a bunch of my coworkers assumed i was though, so thats something. must have been my hair.

five most influential books over your lifetime. - uhhhhh

if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same? - theres probably a preppier version of me out there in an alt timeline? idk. i wish someone got me to learn how to code earlier, thats relevant to my interests and actually useful going into the 21st century. as it stands im just starting out now, shit at it, and beating myself up over the fact that im not that good at it despite the fact that sitting on my computer all day is just what i do. its a small event if i bother going anywhere.

would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”? - ehh? idk. nobody is exactly the same in all contexts, the situation you’re in influences how you’ll act, that doesnt mean one of them is more of the “real you” than any of the others, theyre all facets of one person. god that was pretentious and psuedo-intellectual. the point im getting at is “yeah sure.”

what’s your patronus? - i took a test online and it gave me a hare. so there you go. i wouldve assumed some kind of bird but w/e.

which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle? - i took a test for this too and it said slytherin. now im having a small crisis over whether or not im an edgy boy.

would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else? - the pokemon world is pretty idyllic all things considered, lets go with that. 

do you love easily? - nope. i crush easily though. though for what its worth, i can always tell its not real love, so i never wind up acting on it. mostly im just constantly lowkey sad that i cant find anyone to have a long term relationship with. how the fuck do you become close to someone.

list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order. - christ dude idk i dont have stats for this shit

how often would you want to see your family every year? - .3 times a year sounds good to me. i’d settle for .5

have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone? - no. what does that even mean. 

could you live as a hermit? - “could” i? i think you mean “do”. and yes.

how would you describe your gender/sexuality? - captain privellege. the downside though is i dont know even one straight woman, so ive got nobody to fall in love with. real inconvinience this is. not much anybody could do about it.

do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”? - i’ll spare you guys another ramble a la question 17. my point would be “yeah sure i guess”

on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin? - depends on the person, if im not already predisposed to liking you its probably like a 4. none of you people reading this will probably have to worry about it though, id assume if youre the kind of person who would send an ask or message me youre also probably the kind of person i like, so dont feel scared of bothering me. i’ll be pretty clear if you are. [which you won’t be]

three songs that you connect with right now. - i alays have so much less to say about music than i think i will. borns - electric love, mystery skulls - get it together, hotline miami ost - daisuke

pick one of your favorite quotes.- guys i want you all to know how much i hate that quotes are one of those things that immediately drain out of your mind as soon as youre asked to recall one. theyre like jokes. im gonna default to my usual boring answer of morty’s “nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody’s gonna die” speech to summer. i wish i could come up with something better for that though, im not feeling that nihilistic right now.

lemme use a couple more fuckin commas here, just sprinkle some in there,

,,,,, ,, ,,, ,,,,, , , , , , , ,,,,  ,, , , , , , , ,, , ,,,,,,, ,, ,,, ,,,,,,, ,,, , , ,, ,

[anjoholegacy]

Since we still have no details on Fire Emblem switch, I figured I would make a list of hopes I have for the next entry in the series.

Since Fire Emblem is an ever evolving series, adding more elements as they go, I figured I would split the list into two sections: a "Keep/Add" section, and a "Remove/don't add section"

Keep/Add

Keep My Units, I am 100% for custimizable units in jrpg's and keeping that feature from the last 3 games would be great.

Add more customization for male MU's. This is something I notice with Jrpg's in general, there is a pretty big lack in good customization options. In most games, I just opt to play a female character because they not only have more options than guys, but better options. I can have multiple different, good looking, styles to pick from as a girl, but really only 1 or 2 styles that look passable as a guy. Let guys be pretty damn it.

keep the branching paths of other FE games and enhance them, make the choices actually matter. And furthermore, add far more choices. The choices in Sacred Stones and Fates were just simple choices of what static path you wanted to take, adding very minimal replay value in total.

Add more manaketes. This isn't some deep game design aspect, I just like my dragons.

Keep the dungeon and rpg elements of Gaiden/Echoes. Those aspects were incredibly unique and were the best things to come from those games, it would be a shame to never use them again especially since they were refined in Echoes.

Keep weapon skills from Echoes. These added some much more depth to the normal combat formula and provided an incentive for diversifying the weapons you used and not just giving everyone a generic weapon.

Bring back old style forging. I hated the forging in Fates. The weapons were already horrible in that game and forging them honestly offered no benefit, especially since you had to not only have multiple copies of one weapon type, but also had to have a specific resource type. Not to mention you had to keep upping the amount for higher level forging. So I think a return to either Awakening style or Radiant style Forging would be better. Personally, I am partial to Radiant style as it makes a weapon from the ground up and allows you to change it cosmetically. Speaking of....

Add more cosmetic options in forging. In the Radiant games, we were given the option of choosing what color we wanted our newly forged weapon to be. This could be anything from a spear handle to the blade of a sword. While it’s simple, I thought it was pretty neat. In lieu of that, what is we could add more? What if we could add things such as particle affects, changes in design, different blade types, guard types or what not? What if we could could change the way magic attacks looked? I know that this is, again, nothing mechanical or too important, but I just think it would be a neat thing to toy around with.

Add more difficulty, and not in the way Conquest did. Conquest was supposed to be an answer to fans of the game who said that the games were getting to easy. But instead of using fair difficulty like smarter and more aggressive AI or better map design, Conquest went for gimmicks. Take the wind tribe level for instance, it was a horrible mess of relying on one gimmick that the player had only a fraction of control over by using a limited number of non-respawning dragon veins to prematurely activate a wind effect that would move enemies. But, it would still also move YOUR units making using them almost pointless. On top of that, if you didn’t activate the vein, the wind would go off anyway, providing no difference other than the fact that ENEMIES wouldn’t be moved. So even if you didn’t use the veins, the affect would mostly be the same regardless.

Add more classes. You can never have too many classes.

Bring back weapon durability. The unlimited use weapons in Echoes weren't that bad, but that’s because they were all optional and units didn’t even have to wield them to fight. Not to mention they actively benefited the units by providing weapon skills to use. This is not the case for Fates. The weapons in Fates were horrible, being both weaker than the limited use weapons and also giving the units that use them negative affects like silver weapons decreasing attack and skill with each use and steel weapons dropping your speed by a whole 5 points. I don’t care if I have to continually buy new weapons or watch weapon uses, I would prefer that over having to watch my unit’s stats drop each time they enter a fight.

Add way more non-romantic supports. This always bothered me in Awakening and Fates, most supports were always geared toward unit marriage. While I still like these supports, I would also just like to see two units hang out as friends with no focus on romance. Not to mention, it just seems unrealistic that two guys in the same army would have nothing to say to each other, but they would chat up every girl they see.

Add more LGBT units/ marriage options. I know Fire Emblem hasn’t always had very deep supports for a long time, or even ones geared toward romance for even less. But I feel like it would simply benefit the experience to allow there to be more than just straight couples.

If weapon durability does come back, make legendary weapons unbreakable. It makes no sense that they would be breakable in the first place.

If you don’t make them unbreakable, bring back weapon repair. This was something only used in Genealogy of the Holy War, but I have no idea why it was scrapped. The ability to allow you to add more uses to weapons, especially special or forged weapons, should be a no-brainer. It just feels stupid to spend so much gold on making a weapon powerful, only to have it permanently break eventually.

Add more cosmetic items. Fates added the costume shop, and with it, the ability to buy cosmetic items to have units wear. I want that expanded to more than just masks and pauldrons, but also to wearable costumes, hairstyles, etc.

Keep the full voice acting like from Echoes. Dear god, the voice work in Echoes was a masterpiece worthy of being the first fully voiced FE game. Every character sounded how they should and every delivery was spot on. I want this to be a regular feature in fire emblem from now on.

Please make multiplayer better. Awakening’s multiplayer was kind of sub-par and unengaging and Fates’ was an easily hacked, unbalanced, mess that favored using the same 5 units over and over and over again, especially with the advent of skill castles being formed from just how easy it was to crack the game.

Add cooler critical animations. Listen, I’m a fan of all the one-liners characters have in the recent games, but the sprite criticals from the GBA games were better by far. I know it’s harder to bring back in 3D, especially with the camera buttons having multiple angles, but I feel like it’s entirely possible to spice up the rather dull critical animations 

Add an explanation to what a fire emblem actually is. At this point, there have been 7 fire emblems and they don’t have any shared commonalities other than being an all-powerful macguffin that may or may not being related to dragons. 

Bring back double roll rng. Hybrid roll didn’t work, might as well bring back double roll and throw the player a bone.

Remove/ Don’t add

For the love of god, don’t add child units. Holy War did it right, having the story broken into two sections, one where the parents were the focus and the other where the children were, thus giving the children their own identity away from their parents by virtue of having accomplished things on their own. It also made sense for the story. Awakening did it worse but still passable, having the children be woven into the story in a time travel subplot and establishing them as being their own person without their parents around. It wasn’t great, but the kids were so I let it slide. The children in Fates were both horribly written and horribly implemented. They had no story nor logical reason to exist and the pocket dimension bullshit was absolutely a garbage explanation. These children also very rarely had any real redeeming character traits or well written personalities. All in all, unless you actually have a story reason for them, and a story reason that works well, just don’t do it. Let it go.

Don’t reuse My Castle. This feature was honestly more annoying than anything, adding a bunch more annoying or outright pointless functions such as materials, crafting, or having to spend points to upgrade a weapon or rod shop just to actually get sub-par equipment. I know I talked a lot about aesthetic additions and how much I liked customization, but when customization gets in the way of proper game-play, scrap it.

Don’t tie this game to any other previous entry. I get it, Awakening and Fates made big money, but it’s high time to move on. Intelligent systems has been favoring these two games too heavily in Heroes and Warriors, and it would only stand to hurt the new game if you tied it into the plot of Awakening or Fates. Just let it have it’s own identity.

DON’T PULL THAT POKEMON SHIT YOU DID WITH FATES. Fates being cut into 3 games did nothing but harm the development of the game, player reception of the game, and force players to waste money on 3 different games all to understand the full plot and it was NOT worth it. Keep the game to one copy.

Stop adding beginner’s trap characters. I know this has been a staple in FE since the beginning, but can you just cut it out already? If you seem so keen on teaching players not to rely too heavily on one super-unit, then why put it in at all? Just focus on making the earlier levels about having different units be used for different tasks and not try to screw with unit leveling early on.

Tone down the fan service. I get that the latest entries have been centered on it and it brought more people into the series, but no one in Fates wore pants. It’s getting out of control.

Get rid of Heart and Friendship seals. I honestly see no good reason why these were added in the first place. Second seals did their job just fine and didn’t require you to grind support levels just to get more classes to switch to. These were just a waste of development resources honestly.

Remove the second seal de-level loop. Allowing your units to infinitely level up to their max stats broke the game outright, don’t allow units to reset their levels with second seals any longer.

Please, PLEASE, do no add motion controls. This is something people have hated since the wii, forcing gimmicky control schemes or innovation focused controls where they don’t belong. The game has no need for them, just don’t do it.

Don’t pull the “it was an evil dragon all along” cliche. It wasn’t clever the first time, it’s not clever now, and its continued use has done nothing but make the story predictable and actually damage how good some villains are as their whole motivation can be summed up as “I must serve my evil master who is very evil, because I am also evil.”

Don’t add the skinship feature back in. People were more upset about its removal as a meme, no one actually wants this awkward and kind of creepy feature back. If I want something like that, I would just play my copy of Senran Kagura.

Remove phoenix mode. Casual mode was already a great introduction to newer players, and provided a minor punishment for mistakes so that new players could learn tactics more comfortably with no real risk. From there, players would go on to play normal mode or harder difficulties with more confidence. Phoenix mode doesn’t do any of that. Phoenix mode teaches you nothing, does not benefit new players in the long run, and does not incentive higher levels or difficulties of play. Fire emblem requires the challenge to be engaging. Otherwise it’s just a boring slog with a pretty uninspired and not entirely well-written story. Focus on improving the game play, not harming it by adding a “press X to skip combat” button.

[moonvalecrossing]

Favorite and least favorite Pokémon playable characters (Main series only), rivals, professors (Again, main series only), and I guess the Stat Trainers Sinnoh (Cheryl, Mira, Riley, Marley, and Buck)?

I love you anon that randomly asks my favorite and least favorite pokemon things. I love you lots. <3

Favorite Playable Characters

Male: Lucas rocks that scarf and beret.

Female: Hilda. She looks the oldest of the girls and her outfit just feels the most non-girly out of the bunch. If she had pants instead of booty shorts I could see myself dressing like that.

Least Favorite Playable Characters

Male: Nate. I hate his hair. I hate his pants. I hate his hat. This boy needs gently placed in a locker somewhere.

Female: Rosa. Her hat looks like a sanitary pad tied on with a pink ribbon. Her hair looks like someone super glued two brown pillows to the side of her head with matching tassels hanging off em. And whatever she’s wearing that tries to come across as shorts are hideous.

Shout out to both BW2 protags for also wearing a body swimsuit under their clothes 24/7. Using the bathroom must be a nightmare, having to completely undress wherever you are. And they must be sweaty as all hell because I can’t imagine wet suits to be very breathable garments.

Favorite Rivals

Silver and Gladion. I will hug you both and you will let me love you. MY PRECIOUS EDGY CHILDREN.

Least Favorite Rivals

Pest BARRY. Haha why do I keep getting his name wrong... I want to throw this child off the ss anne. Always literally running into me and has the attention span of an overstimulated box of baby marmosets.

Shauna. Just stamp “I AM THE GIRL LOL” on her face. That’s what she was. The token girl in the group of friends. Because the default PC is always expected to be male. she even has crush undertones on the PC! He hair also looks about as dumb as Rosa’s.

Favorite Professors

Sycamore and Kukui. Because I am shameless and think they’re both attractive. Elm because he’s an adorable dork.

Least Favorite Professor

Oak. Just because he was the first one doesn’t make him the best one. Why on earth does near every professor seem to work so closely with this man? He forgot to pick his own package up from the mart like 10 minutes from home, he lets his grandson be a total tool (and forgets his name) and he couldn’t even be arsed to put on shoes to meet you at the intro of the game until the remakes. Bitch met the new trainers in slippers. Or what looks like socks and sandals in g/s art. FOR SHAME.

Now the stat trainers... lets see

Favorite: Cheryl and Riley. They have great designs. I love em!

Least Favorite: Mira and Marley.

Mira- WHAT IS YOUR HAIR CHILD. WHAT IS YOUR CLOTHES, CHILD? How old are you? 6? Who in their right mind let this child wander unattended? I found her in an out of the way CAVE FOR GODS SAKE.

Marley- Oh joy. Our goth lolita character. I hate these characters on principle. I hate characters that wear clothes that match their hair color. I hate goth lolita styles so much. And... she... is one of those characters... who has trouble... connecting and talking... with others so she... tends to overuse... ... ...ellipses when she talks...

These characters are almost always carrying a dull expression or are just plain emotionless and its supposed to be amazing/cute when they smile or laugh because OH MAH GOD THEY IS LEARNING HOW TO EMOTION. That’s not cute. It’s creepy as all fuck. If someone in real life were around me and acted like this I would go out of my way to avoid interaction with them. And they’re almost always having “deep/artistic” thoughts. They come across less like human beings to me and more AI put in a humanoid body. The same AI shared between sooooo many different characters. Because they’re everywhere. They’re like a plague.

[twopitcheshigher]

August 1st, 2017

Sorry for not really updating in half a decade lmao. Summer is about half over now, but I guess I can do a very late junior year reflection. 

School was, well a lot less busy then I thought it would be. After hearing all the stories about how junior year was going to be this terrible year of all-nighters and stress, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of free time I had. 

Classes

AP Bio- probably one of my favorite classes since I love bio and Becky was quite interesting. Overall class was pretty easy. 

AP Chem- Okay this class was kind of hard. Probably caused the most stress since I didn’t do much until the day before tests and quizzes lol. Ap test was a joke though so yay.

AP CSP - Wtf even was this class. I didn’t even know it existed until the counselor put me in it. Mostly a waste of time but somehow I got a 4 on the Ap test T_T. I don’t think they appreciated the pokemon game I coded. At least mario kart was fun.

AP psych - Aka sleep hour. 

AP English - Val was  a great teacher. Probably the area I grew the most in. I thought Ap test was going to be piece of cake, but uh I got a 4. Kind of sad about that.

AP Stats - Lol i hate this class. menial work, bad teacher, but easy af.

Yeah so, for most of the year, everday I would spend an hour doing homework and then end up having the rest of the day doing other stuff. And then some days, cram for Chem. 

Standardized testing has been fine SAT 1580 and ACT 35

Summer so far has been spent learning guitar, oasis leadership, and summer school. 

Oasis has been getting a lot better. I got my own small group now of a bunch of freshman boys lol. They’re quite the interesting group and reminds me of my freshman year here. 

My circadian rhythm is completely messed up lol. I’ve been tryinng to seleep at 10ish everday and wake up early, but then two day a lil turd named annie and i video called for like 3 hours starting from 2. and now imtired. 

Gym has been really fun too with Sahil and michael. sahil is the nicest dude ive ever met. 

Michael yan is in RSI and I feel like I should be doing more stuff since he’s working his butt off. 

My cousinn David might be coming over to UMICH for grad school. 

I have no idea wtf i just wrote.

.________.

[narellenuzlockes-blog]

Black 2 Nuzlocke - Update 1

BW2 is my least favorite set of games in the entire pokemon franchise. I really hate Unova in general, but the sequels are SO much worse than the originals.

But I have this game, since I collect all of the games, and should really try to get through it at least once. Maybe I’ll like it more than I expected if I get past the dumb parts. Or maybe the whole thing is dumb. We’ll see. This is my second go at nuzlocking it.

RULES:

1. Only catch the first encounter per route/area.    1A. Cheatiest dupes clause in the world. If I encounter a pokemon from an evolutionary line I’ve caught before, I can ignore it every time I encounter it. The first pokemon I’ve never caught before becomes the first encounter. If a route only has pokemon I’ve encountered before, I can catch the first dupe I encounter.    1B. Shiny clause. If a shiny is encountered I MUST try to catch it, regardless of dupes or if I’ve caught anyone else. If I want to use it and I’ve already got a pokemon from that route/area, I have to move that mon to the DEAD box. And nobody leaves the DEAD box. 2. If a pokemon faints, it’s DEAD and must be forever stored in the PC’s DEAD box.    2A. If a shiny dies, its dead for this run, but can be traded to regular games because who would ever get rid of a shiny for real? 3. All pokemon must be nicknamed with Highly Suspect song names (or shortened versions that fit in the allotted space). If I run out of songs, I can use the band members’ names or reuse names from dead pokemon. Or some alternative naming convention I’ll have to figure out later. 4. Learn to use stat moves and stuff! All pokemon must have their moveset used to the best of my ability, not just overleveling and spamming attacks. No cop out movesets. 5??? Pokemon can only be leveled up to the gym leader’s highest level pokemon (unless they get an accidental extra level or so). They can be as overleveled as I want for every other battle ever. (This might mean overleveling is allowed for E4 etc.) If this is too hard for me while learning to better use stat moves and such, I might give up on it.

So I started out the game with a female Oshawott. I named her Lydia, after the Highly Suspect song. I’m going to name everyone in this locke after their songs, until I run out of songs. (They are a somewhat newer band, there are only so many to choose from.)

Lydia, female Oshawott. Ability Torrent. Met at Lv. 5 in Aspertia City. Rash Nature. Alert to Sounds.

I restarted the intro a few times trying to get through the rival battle, because I was having terrible luck with it, but Lydia was the one to make it through.

On Route 19, the only possible encounters were Patrat and Purrloin. Purrloin is pretty terrible, so I was really hoping for a Patrat. I got:

Claudeland, male Purrloin. Ability Unburden. Met at Lv. 2 on Route 19. Hardy Nature. Sturdy body.

I wasn’t super excited about Claude, but I need teammates, so I’ll make the most of it. I gave him a good name, hopefully it will be lucky for him. Ground him up to Lv. 5, Lydia up to 7.

Cut through Floccesy to Route 20. Didn’t look ahead at who I could meet here. I caught:

Vanity, male Sunkern. Ability Solarpower. Met at Lv. 2 on Route 20. Quirky Nature. Thoroughly cunning.

Not the strongest pokemon in the world, but nice to have a type that helps add some balance to the team. I like knocking out the main 3 as early as possible. I was pretty upset with all the Sewaddle encounters afterwards though - I love the Sewaddle line, its an overall better pokemon, and it would have given me that grass type coverage as well. Oh well.

Got Vanity and Claude up to Lv. 7, Lydia to Lv. 10 (switch training keeps her way ahead). Moved on to Floccesy Ranch, where I met:

Chicago, female Lillipup. Ability Pickup. Met at Lv. 6 at Floccesy Ranch. Brave Nature. Good perserverance.

I wasn’t excited about this catch. Can’t stand Stoutland, and I know there’s plenty more interesting pokemon available to catch here. But at least I got something a little more sturdy on this team full of softies. I can’t expect Lydia to carry them all.

I knew I was supposed to be looking for the rival character, which would probably mean a battle, but didn’t expect anything difficult so I didn’t bother to look ahead. I went into it leading with Chicago, still at Lv. 6, and also had Claude at Lv.7, Vanity at Lv.7, and Lydia at Lv.10.

The rival still only had a Snivy, but it was up to level 8. I knew based on Lydia’s level ups that it should have a grass type move by that point, and that Claude and Vanity were too weak to take it on underleveled, so I stuck with Chicago. She got in a tackle or two? I don’t remember, I’m going from memory here. But pretty sure she got OHKOed. My only hope was to switch in Lydia and cross my fingers that she’d make it out alive. I lucked out in that the rival spammed tackles the rest of the fight till Lydia finished off his Snivy.

There went my only decent catch.

Chicago, Lillipup. Lv. 6 - 6. Death Count: 1

After that, I trained everyone up a ton and went through all the silly Floccesy Ranch plot stuff. While training, I practiced some strategies for the upcoming gym battle (that I DID look ahead at). I have always just overleveled and went in blazing with my strongest type advantage moves. In this run, I’m trying to teach myself to make use of the moves I’ve always dismissed and learn to use real strategies in pokemon games. Which means I decided to only level up to Cheren’s highest level pokemon. (Not sure if this will be a real rule?)

I was actually pretty impressed with Vanity? He still can’t take a hit, but his movepool does a good job of compensating for that. By the time I got him to Lv. 13 (and had finished beating up those small children for Alder and the gym trainers keeping me from my Cheren battle), he had Grasswhistle, Growth, Leech Seed, and Mega Drain. I usually finished my training battles with him at full health. I was feeling pretty good about him.

Claude...not so much. He lagged behind everyone else, and took a bunch of extra (super tedious) grinding to get him up to Lv. 13 with the other kids. But I did figure out a decent strategy for him. He ended up with Sand Attack, Growl, Assist, and Fury Swipes. So I sand attacked my opponents like crazy so that they would rarely even get the chance to hit me, then growled at them a ton so any hits that got through barely did a thing, then I could assist (because the rest of my team had better moves) or fury swipe them to death without worrying about him dying in the time it took him to finish them off. Takes forever, but it works.

Lydia is just a tank and doesn’t really need the help. She has Tackle, Tail Whip, Water Gun, and Focus Energy.

VS. Aspertia City Gym Leader Cheren

So my plan for the gym was to lead with Vanity against Cheren’s Lv. 11 Patrat, and use my sweet bullet-proof sleep-heal-fight strategy, then have Claudeland lead against the Lv. 13 Lillipup to set up as many sand attacks and growls as I could get in until he got hit, at which point I would switch to Lydia. I figured if Vanity struggled, Lydia could be his backup too, but I wasn’t too worried about him.

The Patrat fight started out great. It outsped my slow little Sunkern and got in a Work Up, but then my Grasswhistle put it right to sleep. I threw out a Leech Seed and then a Growth, then hit it with Mega Drain. It woke up after that, which I wasn’t too worried about. It only had a couple HP left, but my plan was to immediately put it back to sleep to be safe and then finish up with another Mega Drain.

Except it OHKO’d Vanity with a single Tackle.

Vanity, Sunkern. Lv. 2 - 13. Death Count: 2

I was pretty stunned, but had a plan for this so I threw in Lydia who finished off the last couple HP with an overkill Water Gun.

Cheren switched to Lillipup, so I switched to Claude. I was 100% convinced I was sending him to his death, but I wanted to stick to the plan and keep trying this whole ~strategy~ thing.

Claude was faster, so I got a sand attack in off the bat. Cheren used work up, though, and I knew better than to let that fly, so I responded with growl. Which turned into something like nearly 10 turns back and forth of workup and growl? Finally he hit me with a tackle instead. That was supposed to be the point that I switch in Lydia, but I knew Claude could take one more hit as long as it wasn’t a crit. So I left him in and tried to fit in one more Sand Attack.

He got tackled again right after, but no crit, so he survived and I switched to Lydia. Her watergun did surprisingly little damage, but the sand attacks worked and Cheren’s Lillipup missed a ton, so I was able to use a tail whip and a couple more tackles to finish it off.

I won, so I got the Basic Badge. I expected that to go much smoother, but I guess that’s how it goes when you use weak pokemon that aren’t overleveled. Impressed with Claude, though - maybe if he sticks it out I’ll try to drag him all the way to the E4. We’ll see.

I think that’s enough of an update for now, though I’ll probably keep playing. I’ll likely doodle up my team and maybe add in some doodles to this post, or reblog with some, at some point. Assuming I keep up with this blog. ^^;;