mistymay9520

[mistymay9520]

Talking Point: How Were You Introduced To Metroid?

I was introduced to Metroid via the Metroid Prime games on the GameCube when my dad played through them when I was a kid (I have yet to beat them myself). He and I are currently working through Metroid Dread. Happy 35th anniversary Metroid!

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Watch "HIPPI 「Love Letter」LIVE MUSIC VIDEO" on YouTube

This is really freaking good. I was a bit skeptical when I saw that 1st Place was introducing a new member but she is great!!!

[mistymay9520]

I love this

ATLA CHARACTERS + NAME ETYMOLOGY (insp.)

[mistymay9520]

*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

[mistymay9520]

Watch "【初音ミク】39みゅーじっく！【オリジナルMV】" on YouTube

Happy Hatsune Miku day!

[mistymay9520]

As if I didn't have enough on my reading list xD....no really I'm super happy @kpopeverythingg012 let me borrow this and read it. Cannot wait for her to get volume 2 so we can continue!! The artwork is phenomenal.

[mistymay9520]

Finally got this about a week ago. IA I love you so much 💕 congrats on your 10th anniversary. It would b a dream to see you live one day 💖

[mistymay9520]

Here are some more Disney manga I picked up. I think I'll stockpile more Disney manga before I read these but so happy to have them in my collection 🤩 especially the Stitch manga.

[mistymay9520]

This broke my heart

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

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Leo is beautiful

Leo @ Frankenstein Character Poster Shooting | © Naver

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A post shared by [LY] nime (@lynime.my)

This is incredible 💙 💜 ♥️ 🧡 💖 💚 I love all these bands.

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Picked these up last weekend. Missing volumes 14 and 16. According to the owners of the store Viz Media is way behind on their reprints. Actually didn't totally realize that volumes 17 and 18 are both 4 in 1 since they were rarely both in stock when I started buying this series.

[mistymay9520]

Not entirely sure that I posted these when I got them but I am so close to having all of InuYasha! Kinda makes me wish I finished the anime 10 years ago 😔

[mistymay9520]

We finished this book the other day. The dragons enjoyed it quite a bit. Stella Evenstar and Pepita Lumos say they can't wait for me to reread The Lord of The Rings trilogy.

[mistymay9520]

The conclusion of the Legend of Zelda series ish. I think lol. The Minish Cap both reads I thought were really interesting and Phantom Hourglass brings back memories of playing it on the DS Lite 😊 🎮

[mistymay9520]

This was a super surprising find at my local Walmart of all places. Actually really excited I found it. 😁 Might be the closest I get to seeing a vocaloid concert for a while.

[mistymay9520]

This was my first time reading Four Swords, tbh not entirely sure if this comes before or after Phantom Hourglass/Minish Cap. Nonetheless I enjoyed it a lot.