#Being so close to dex completion after finishing the main story of the game is so exhilarating!!!

[emile-hides]

I want to sit on the ground and scream.

I finished Pokemon Scarlet

[scatter-the-stars]

Prompt: Aspen

prompter: @qyootip

warnings: age difference, adultery (Kurt cheating with Blaine)

note: while not the main focus of the story, I tried my hardest to fill this prompt the best I could

Part 1

The door to the hotel room closes with a soft click and for the first time that day Blaine lets out a deep exhale and relaxes. He loosens the tie around his neck before walking down the small foyer and into the living area of the hotel room. Surprise lifts his eyebrows when he finds Kurt curled up on one of the couches reading a book.

Of all of his son’s boyfriends, Kurt is the first guy he can recall actually liking. Where his son had a tendency to date wild, chaotic men, he was shocked when he first brought Kurt home a year ago. Kurt was nothing like the men Dex dated before. Kurt was calm and sweet and easy-going. And extremely easy to get along with. That’s why their friendship didn’t surprise him. Why he found it easy to have long, deep conversations about anything with Kurt.

All of that was probably a mistake since Blaine has found himself wanting his son’s boyfriend. Those deep conversations over the past year have lead to feelings and desires he shouldn’t feel for someone so fucking unattainable he’s practically the moon.

“Hey.” He walks over to the small kitchen area and grabs a bottle of water from the fridge. “I thought you and Dex were going out tonight?”

“That was the plan. Then he made friends with some guys he met on the slopes and decided to go drinking with them.”

“He ditched you again?”

Kurt closes the book he’s reading and stands. “It’s okay. He said he’ll make it up to me.”

Blaine wants to say something. To tell Kurt that his son has told him that numerous times and has rarely kept his promise. That Dex has a tendency to make promises he doesn’t keep. That he’s done this to him time and time again. But he keeps the words in. Doesn’t want to anger and upset Kurt any further than what he sees he is. Reminds himself that he has no reason to butt in on someone else’s relationship.

“I’m sorry about that.” He twists the cap off the bottle and takes a long drink. “Why didn’t you go with him?”

“I really wasn’t up for dealing with a bunch of drunk guys. So I stayed back and caught up on some reading.

Blaine further loosens his tie. “If you’re up for it, I have reservations at a restaurant. Want to join me?”

“I’d love to.”

“Great. I’ll get ready and meet you back here in forty minutes.”

Kurt is already waiting for him when he walks out of his room. His breath is stolen at the sight of him. At how stunningly gorgeous he is.

It’s not the first time he’s had such a thought about his son’s boyfriend. The very first time he saw Kurt, he thought he was beauty personified. Seriously contemplated for a moment that Kurt was unreal. Couldn’t believe someone so stunningly beautiful could be real.

He still has those thoughts every time he sees Kurt. Always feels a pang of jealousy toward Dex, then feels guilty for feeling that. Reminds himself to be happy for his son for finding someone so great. Even if his son is screwing up their relationship.

Blaine pulls on his coat to have something to do that isn’t creepily stare at Kurt. “Do you mind if we walk? The restaurant is only a few blocks away.”

“That’s fine. I love walking.”

“Alright. We can head out.”

Aspen is gorgeous as they walk to the restaurant. The sun has just finished setting and the night sky is coming alive with stars. White Christmas lights are wrapped around trees and lit up. A small layer of snow covers everything.

It never fails to put a smile on Blaine’s face. And he always appreciates the beauty around him. Never takes it for granted. Loves that he gets to experience Aspen this way every year.

They reach the restaurant and are immediately escorted to a table after their coats are taken. Blaine takes a seat as Kurt sits across from him.

“This place is nice,” Kurt states.

“It is. I try to come here every time I’m in Aspen.”

A sommelier comes and Blaine orders a bottle of wine.

“I can’t believe you get to come here every year,” Kurt says after the sommelier leaves. “I wanted to come so bad last year, but Dex made those plans and I couldn’t.”

Blaine remembers that. Remembers the disappointment he felt when he found out Kurt wouldn’t be able to come to Aspen with him. Then felt guilt streak through him at realizing he didn’t feel as upset when he realized Dex wouldn’t be there joining him like usual.

“I’m glad you could make it this year.”

“Me too.”

Their server arrives and Blaine’s cock twitches when Kurt orders his food and perfectly speaks French while doing so. He crosses one leg over the other and presses his thighs together for some relief.

“I always love hearing you speak French. I think I only know the bad words.”

Kurt laughs. “I learned because-“

“You want to go to Paris one day,” Blaine finishes.

“Yeah.” Kurt wears a look of surprise. “You remembered that?”

“Of course. You looked so hopeful and determined when you said it. I never forgot how you looked.”

A blush stains Kurt’s cheeks. Blaine wants to reach over and stroke thumb over his cheek. To feel that warmth under his touch.

“Dex doesn’t know I speak French,” Kurt says.

“He doesn’t?”

Kurt shakes his head. “He’s not big on learning much about me.”

“What is he big on, then?”

“Drinking, playing video games, and hanging out with his friends.”

Blaine exhales a heavy breath. He really hoped Dex had gotten past this phase of life he’s in. That he would finally grow up and learn to be a responsible adult. He thought he was headed that way when he started dating Kurt, who is everything he needs his son to be.

“Forgive me for being so forward with my next question, but why are you still with him? You could do so much better, Kurt.” Of course, Blaine wants to tell Kurt the better he’s talking about is himself. That he could treat him how he deserves to be treated.

“I, um… I have my reasons.”

“I hope they’re good ones.”

A grin teases at Kurt’s lips. “They are.”

Blaine really doesn’t want to find out said reasons. Not if they put that kind of look on Kurt’s face.

Their food arrives. They eat and carry an easy conversation throughout the meal. There are several times Blaine shifts in his seat when his cock gives an interested throb as he watches Kurt talk and eat. It’s almost erotic in a torturous way.

After they finish their meal, Blaine orders dessert, gives a friendly smile to the older gentleman who smiles at him from a few tables over.

“Who are you-“ Kurt looks back to see who he’s smiling at. “Oh.” He faces forward, a blank look on his face. “Are you going to talk to him?”

Blaine swears he hears a hint of jealousy in Kurt’s voice. But he doesn’t want to get his hopes up. Squashes that hope that started sprouting before it grows into something that will disappoint him.

“No,” he tells Kurt. “I’m just being friendly.”

“Don’t let me stop you, Blaine, if you want to go talk to him. I understand. You deserve to have some fun this trip.”

“I promise you, Kurt, I’m happy right here. I don’t want to go and talk to him.”

A sad smile spreads across Kurt’s face. “You should. At least then one of us would be having fun.”

Blaine cocks his head at that. “What does that mean?”

Kurt finishes the wine in his glass. He breathes and on the exhale he says, “It means that Dex hasn’t touched me in weeks.”

Blaine sees Kurt’s eyes go wide at his confession. Watches as his cheeks flush from embarrassment as he looks away.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” Kurt softly mumbles. “Can you forget I said that?”

“Of course.” The last thing he wants to do is further embarrass Kurt.

“Thanks.”

They finish their desserts.

Blaine pays and they leave. Start the walk back to their hotel. A light snow has started falling. He pulls his coat tighter around his body. Shoves his hands into the pockets.

“I love the snow.”

When he says that, Blaine looks at Kurt and nearly stumbles at the sight of him. At his face slightly tipped up to the night sky and lips pulled into a soft smile. At his eyes looking up and taking in the beauty of not just the snow but the wonder of the Earth.

“The sky is so beautiful here,” Kurt softly murmurs, more to himself than anything.

Blaine is positive nothing is as gorgeous as Kurt in that moment. He quickly looks away and mentally scolds himself for that thought; for all the thoughts he’s had of Kurt since they arrived in Aspen two days ago. It’s wrong for so many reasons. Not only is Kurt twenty-two years younger than him, but there is the huge deal of him being his son’s boyfriend. And he should not be having those kinds of thoughts about Dex’s boyfriend.

“Yeah, it is.” He figures he needs a drink and to get laid, like Kurt suggested.

“It’s crazy. You live in the city for so long and you forget that the sky can be so beautiful and amazing.” Kurt looks to Blaine. “You forget a lot of things after a while.”

Blaine sees the sadness pass over Kurt’s face after he says that. He wants to question Kurt and what he’s really talking about but stays quiet. Doesn’t want to push him about something that clearly upsets him.

They don’t talk much after that. In fact, except for a few words from him, Kurt is completely silent. Blaine can see he’s lost in thought. Contemplative about something. There are several times that he wants to pull him into his arms and hold him. To give him the comfort and attention that he so obviously craves but isn’t getting.

The room is quiet when they make their way inside a few minutes later. Kurt calls out for Dex but no reply comes.

“I guess he’s still with his new friends.” Kurt shrugs out of his coat and hangs it in the hallway closet.

Blaine pulls off his coat and hangs it. “I need a drink after walking through that. Do you want one?”

“Sure.”

At the small bar that’s set up in the space between the kitchen and living room area, Blaine pours two glasses of whiskey for Kurt and himself.

Kurt walks up next to him and takes the glass he offers. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Blaine watches Kurt lift the glass to his lips and easily knock back the two fingers of whiskey he poured in it. He bites a groan at the sight. Finds it extremely sexy and arousing. His cock gives a twitch. Heat pools in his belly as Kurt trains his eyes on him while running his tongue along his bottom lip.

He’s not sure what’s happening. But he can feel it. Can feel the tension and pulsing need building between them. It’s palpable. And he isn’t sure he wants to ignore either.

“Kurt-“ His next words die with a surprised Oomph when Kurt suddenly crashes their mouths together.

A beat of time passes between his brain registering what is happening and returning the kiss. The glass he still holds slips from his fingers and falls to the floor. It shatters and sends glass and whiskey scattering at their feet. But he ignores it in favor of pulling Kurt as close as he can. He grabs Kurt and lifts him in his arms; walks with him to the kitchen area and sets him on one of the stools at the breakfast bar.

The sound of another glass shattering against the floor rings in the air a few seconds later. It takes Blaine a second to realize it was the glass Kurt was holding.

Pressed close to Kurt, groaning at their bulges rubbing together, he holds the back of Kurt’s head and deepens the kiss. Pushes his tongue past Kurt’s lips and strokes their tongues together.

Kurt beautifully moans and arches into him. Plants his hands on his ass and squeezes while opening his legs wider and rocking harder into him.

Blaine groans. Ignores that voice in head telling him this is wrong. That reminds him this is Dex’s much younger boyfriend who is probably making decisions because he’s drunk.

That last thought has him pulling back. He breathes heavily. Cock throbbing at the sight of Kurt looking up at him with lust-darkened eyes and kiss-swollen lips.

“Why’d you stop?”

“We shouldn’t do this.” Blaine takes a few steps back to breathe and clear his head. “You’re drunk and not thinking straight.”

Kurt erases the space Blaine created. Presses close to him again. “I’m not drunk, Blaine.”

“Prove it.” It’s stupid of him to encourage Kurt. To encourage whatever this may be.

Kurt smirks. “Fine.”

Blaine lets out a short chuckle when Kurt recites the alphabet. Backwards.

“Told you: not drunk.” Kurt leans in and brushes their mouths together. “Can we continue now?”

Right as he moves to kiss Kurt again, the sound of the main door opening and closing has them jumping apart instantly. Blaine drags the back of his hand across his mouth as Kurt turns away to fix himself. He’s just getting his hard-on down when Dex stumbles into the room right before falling forward and face-planting on the floor.

“Ow,” Dex groans before breaking out into laughter.

“Dammit!” Kurt lets out a tired, annoyed huff of breath. As if this isn’t the first time he’s dealt with this. He makes his way over to his drunk boyfriend.

Blaine walks over and helps Kurt pick Dex up. “Let’s take him to his room.”

They struggle to transport Dex to the room since he tries every few minutes to turn to Kurt and kiss and grope him.

“Stop, Dex,” Kurt says the third time he does this. “Your dad is right there.”

Blaine hides his anger and jealousy when he sees what his son is doing. Grows angrier at the guilt and pleading look in Kurt’s eyes.

He isn’t one to ever truly get angry at his son. But in this moment, he wants to yell at him; to tell him how stupid he’s being.

He grabs Dex and yanks him away from Kurt when he laughs and says he doesn’t care. At least that’s what he thinks he said, the words are too slurred for him to discern much.

“I’m sorry,” Kurt says after he’s deposited Dex on the bed facedown.

“Don’t apologize for him,” he replies. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Help me undress him.”

After undressing Dex down to his underwear, they walk out of the room.

“Thanks for helping me,” Kurt says.

“Of course.”

They don’t say anything. Not about Dex. But especially not about what they were doing before he stumbled into the room.

While cleaning up the broken glass, Blaine momentarily contemplates asking Kurt what that was about. Wants to know how long he’s wanted to do that. But he says nothing. Doesn’t want to put Kurt under that kind of spotlight and pressure right now.

He tosses the last of the glass in the trash.

“Blaine?”

Kurt’s voice comes close by from behind him.

“What?”

“Please, look at me,” Kurt pleads in a small, soft voice.

Blaine turns around. Hates the way his breath hitches and cock throbs at the wanton look he gives him. And he knows what Kurt is going to say when he opens his mouth. He stops him before he can speak by saying, “We shouldn’t, Kurt. It’s a mistake.” He can’t believe he’s actually trying to deny himself this. Is trying to be the good guy. But he knows it’s the right thing to do. And he fucking hates doing the right thing.

Kurt steps close to him. Gazes up at him with those blue eyes that easily draw anyone in. Blaine feels like a helpless fly in a spider’s web, and he doesn’t mind one bit at being captured.

“You’re right. It is a mistake.” Kurt draws his hands up Blaine’s stomach and chest. “But some mistakes are worth making.”

Blaine barely has time to respond before Kurt is kissing him.

He knows he should push Kurt away. Should be the big guy and do the right thing. But he can’t. Because he’s weak when it comes to Kurt. Because the right thing to do will never in a million years feel as fucking good as Kurt does.

A soft growl falls from his lips as he lifts Kurt up in his arms. “Fuck. I can’t tell you no.”

Kurt giggles. “Good. Because I really want you to fuck me.”

Blaine carries Kurt the few feet to the living room and sets him down. They both quickly undress and fall to the couch while making out. Kurt’s soft moans at their cocks rubbing together as he grinds down on him only add fuel to the fire he shouldn’t be stoking.

He pulls up for a deep breath after several minutes. Sits up and takes the opportunity to finally take in Kurt’s naked body. As he stares at Kurt’s gorgeous body, he finds it nearly impossible to believe that Dex has all this to play with and seemingly doesn’t want to any longer.

“Holy fuck!” He silently exclaims. Runs a hand over Kurt’s chest. Ghosts the pad of his thumb over a peaked nipple.

Kurt whines and pushes up into the touch. “Please…”

“What do you want?”

“Don’t care.”

Without thinking, Blaine dips his head down and sinks his mouth down around Kurt’s cock. Kurt loudly gasps and grasps at his hair.

“Fu-“

He sucks Kurt. Twirls his tongue around the swollen head. Teases the tip into the leaking slit. Moans at the taste of Kurt he gets.

It’s been years since he’s gone down on someone. Mainly because he prefers getting head rather than giving it. But for Kurt he would gladly suck his dick every day for the rest of his life without complaint.

Blaine stops long enough to lift one of Kurt’s legs over his shoulder and suck two fingers into his mouth before resuming what he was doing. While sucking and bobbing his head, he presses one of his wet fingers to Kurt’s hole. Kurt momentarily tenses before relaxing and taking the finger.

He works Kurt open with one then two fingers while still sucking his cock. Finally pulls off after some time and grabs for his pants and the wallet in the back pocket.

Kurt strokes his cock while he rips open the condom packet and rolls it on.

After slicking up his cock, and Kurt hooking his legs over his hips, he guides the head to press against Kurt’s hole. Slowly he presses in until the head is surrounded by Kurt’s wonderful tight heat.

A small voice in the back of his head tells him to stop. To consider the consequences if Dex ever found out. But Blaine slams the door shut in that voice. Blocks out anything it has to say.

Kurt flutters his eyes closed and draws his lower lip between his teeth as Blaine sinks inside him.

Blaine continues to gently rock in and out until he’s fully sheathed inside Kurt’s body. He stills inside him. Hips flush with the curve of his ass. He takes a few moments to calm down and soak up the feeling of Kurt gripping his cock. Now knows for sure that any fantasy he had extremely pales in comparison to the real thing.

Kurt is striking as he stares up at him. From his beautiful blue eyes, the blush staining his cheeks, to the smile that teases at his luscious lips.

“Feels so good.” Kurt clenches around him.

“So do you.” Blaine does a small, shallow thrust. Groans at the amazing sensation of his cock sliding in and out of Kurt.

Kurt crosses his ankles at Blaine’s lower back and pushes him down closer to him. “Please start moving.”

So Blaine does. And he doesn’t go easy on Kurt. He plants one forearm on the cushion by Kurt’s head as his other hand shoots up to grip the armrest and uses the leverage to fuck Kurt as deep and hard as he can. Repeatedly slams his hips forward. Does so hard enough to shove Kurt up the couch every time he thrusts.

“Wait,” Kurt says after several minutes.

Blaine immediately stops and sits up. Thinks Kurt has changed his mind about this whole thing. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Kurt shakes his head. “Just want to move.”

After pulling out of Kurt, he watches him turn over and go to his hands and knees. He groans at the sight of his ass. Wants to do so many dirty things to it. Instead, he settles with pushing back inside and continuing to fuck it.

Hands on Kurt’s hips, he watches his cock repeatedly sink inside Kurt as he fucks him. Can’t tear his eyes away from the sight of Kurt stretching open around his cock. Almost wants to pinch himself to make sure this is real. Because he’s had dreams this amazing and has woken up severally disappointed.

Kurt squeezing his dick and thrusting back on him while softly moaning his name, though, tells him that this is real. That he’s actually fucking his son’s boyfriend.

Talk about a dream come true.

Kurt drops his shoulders to the couch. He grips the edges of the cushions. “Fuck me harder.”

Blaine tightens his grip on Kurt’s hips and increases the force of his thrusts. Grunts and groans as he fucks Kurt like a madman. He doesn’t hold back. Fucks Kurt like he’s wanted to for the past year.

Kurt moans and whimpers beneath him. Takes the brutal movements he’s giving him with ease and without complaint.

When Kurt sits up on his knees, Blaine winds an arm around his chest. He takes his mouth in a rough kiss after he turns his head. Plunges his tongue into Kurt’s mouth. Swallows his deep moan. Stills inside him before completely pulling out seconds later.

“Wha-“

“Ride me,” Blaine says after he sits down.

Kurt grins and moves so he’s straddling Blaine’s waist. He grabs at Blaine’s shoulders and lowers his hips.

Blaine bites back a groan as Kurt sinks back down around his cock. “Fu-“ Nothing has ever felt as good as the heat of Kurt surrounding his dick.

“Am I a terrible person if I say I love how you feel inside me? That you feel better than…”

The unfinished thought hangs heavy in the air. Blaine can see the guilt on Kurt’s face.

“If that makes you a terrible person, then I’m a fucking horrible person for not stopping this,” he says to ease what Kurt is feeling.

Kurt leans in and kisses Blaine. “We’re terrible people,” he murmurs against his lips. Starts to gently roll his hips.

Blaine softly hums in agreement. Winds his arms around Kurt and grabs at his shoulders. Gently thrusts up into him.

When it comes to playing by the rules and being a good person, he’s happy to go against what he’s always done. Is more than glad to not do the right thing at this moment.

“Don’t let me go,” Kurt says after reaching back and grabbing Blaine’s knees before leaning back so he’s at an angle.

“I wouldn’t dare.”

Kurt drops his head back and begins to masterfully roll his hips. Moves with the finesse of a dancer. Blaine stares at the beauty of his body. Commits every line and ridge and muscle and scar to memory in case this is the only time this happens. Which he highly believes it will be. Because this can’t happen again. This is a one time time thing. This is them getting out the built-up sexual frustration and tension that’s been between them for the past year.

If this becomes a thing, there’s a better chance of Dex finding out. And that can’t happen. It would devastate Dex and ruin relationships.

So he continues to commit everything to memory.

“Fuck. You’re gorgeous.” There’s no other way to describe how Kurt looks straddling his waist with pleasure written all over his face as he rides his cock.

Kurt sits up and grabs Blaine’s shoulders. “Oh, yeah? You like how I look riding your cock?” He drops his hips and grinds them down.

Blaine groans and flexes his hips up. Grins when Kurt trembles and softly moans. “Love how you look riding my dick,” he growls. “Love watching you fuck yourself on my cock. You’re so fucking hungry for it. You’re so desperate for cock you’re letting your boyfriend’s dad fuck you, aren’t you?”

The words fall from his mouth without hesitation. Blaine knows it has to be the alcohol still coursing through his system that has loosened his tongue. Any other time and he wouldn’t be brave to say what he did. Of course, any other time and he wouldn’t be fucking his son’s boyfriend while said son sleeps only a few feet away.

Kurt softly mewls. “Yes. I needed this.”

That’s a truth Blaine can believe after what Kurt accidentally revealed earlier at dinner. And he’s more than happy to help remedy the situation.

If his son can’t satisfy Kurt, he’ll gladly do the job himself. It’s wrong and fucked-up. But he doesn’t care about that when Kurt feels so fucking amazing. When Kurt looks beyond pleased.

Grabbing Kurt and flipping him to his back on the couch, Blaine sits up on his knees. He grabs the back of Kurt’s knees and pushes them up to his chest. “Oh fuck,” he groans as he sinks deeper inside Kurt’s tight ass.

Kurt arches and lets out a quiet whine. “Fuck me,” he begs. “Fuck me. Make me come.”

Lips smashed together to be quiet, Blaine starts to fuck Kurt as hard as he was doing moments before. Kurt tips his head back and claws at his forearms as he roughly plunges his cock inside him over and over again. He sees him biting his own lower lip to be quiet.

For how hard they try not to make a sound, the noise of their skin slapping together is loud. If Drew wasn’t passed-out drunk, Blaine is positive he would hear that and discover them.

“Look at me, Kurt.” His voice comes out rough and gravelly. Kurt opens his eyes. Blaine sees the pleasure that has darkened his eyes. Sees the deep need he has trouble keeping off his face. “You want to come?”

Kurt nods his head.

Blaine roughly takes Kurt’s jaw in his hand. “Then come untouched.” He crushes their mouths together; shoves his tongue into Kurt’s mouth while continuing to fuck him.

Kurt moans and digs his fingers into Blaine’s back. Moves faster and harder with Blaine.

Several minutes pass before Kurt presses his face into the curve of his neck. Blaine groans when he suddenly sinks his teeth into his skin and comes. He feels the hot splashes of cum coat his stomach as Kurt clenches around his cock.

He thrusts a few more times and comes himself. His cock jerks inside Kurt. He thrust until his orgasm wanes. Collapses on top of Kurt after.

That was easily the best orgasm he’s had in years. And the fact that it happened because of his son’s boyfriend is not lost on him.

“Holy fuck!” Kurt softly exhales near his ear.

“I concur,” Blaine breathlessly replies.

They both lie there in a star of bliss and pleasure. Both of them breathe heavily and say nothing.

It takes a few minutes before Blaine can fully function. He sits up and pulls out of Kurt.

They still say nothing. Time passes and they just stare at each other. The full realization of what they just did slowly starts to dawn on them.

“I… I should go before Dex wakes up and wonders where I am.” Kurt sits up and gathers his clothes. “This was, um… I…” He stands; covers himself with his clothes. “Yeah. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Yeah.” Blaine stays seated for a long time after Kurt scurries away going over in his head what he did. He drops his head in his hands and groans as the reality of the situation fully slams into him.

What the fuck did he just do?

He just fucked his son’s boyfriend.

“Fuck!”

The next two weeks in Aspen are about to be real interesting.

[rafespeaks]

Pokémon Sword and Shield, From the Eyes of a Veteran (Critique)

I want to preface this by saying I have been playing Pokemon since before I can remember. It has been a staple of my childhood since day one and is an incredibly important franchise to me. I have nothing but love for it, and I wish the franchise success and a long life far into the future. That being said... I have some big issues with this latest generation. Big enough that I’m writing out my thoughts for everyone to see for the first time.

As a note, I am not a competitive player, nor do I think I ever will be. I don’t have the patience or technical mind to focus on all the finite mechanics and breed the statistical ‘very-best’ Pokemon out there. As such, I will not be focusing on those aspects (or at least not nearly as heavily as others might).

Now, let’s begin.

As a starting point, let’s start where Nintendo always does when introducing a new region and generation

The Pokémon

Every new generation of Pokemon comes with brand-new creatures for everyone to love. However, some generations just have... more than others. The original games had 151 Pokemon total to catch, collect, and love. And from there, more were added. Here’s the count:

Johto: 100 Hoenn: 135 Sinnoh: 107 Unova: 156 Kalos: 72 Alola: 88 Galar: 81

This is not accounting for the new Pokemon introduced in Galar’s DLC, as that has yet to come out, or old Pokemon that were given a Mega Evolution or regional variant. Kalos added 30 Mega Evolutions, plus an additional 20 from ORAS. Alola added 18 regional variants, and Galar added 13 of their own (not counting the DLC Slowpoke) plus 24 Gigantimax forms (25 if you count Flapple & Appletun as separate, and 26 with Melmetal).

Numbers-wise, Galar did... okay. Not great. But okay. It still passed up Kalos, at the very least, which was a huge point of contention among fans when gen 6 came out. However, if I had to sum up my feelings towards the new Pokemon I could do it easily with one phrase: they’re very ‘hit-or-miss’. And while new Pokemon that I don’t care for tend to grow on me over time, there’s just one problem with that. They can’t grow on me if I don’t ever see them.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with old Pokemon being in the new games. In fact that’s something I love! But when you want the players to connect with the new being introduced, you have to give them a chance to do so.

This was the first region in what felt like ages where I went in without a plan of what I wanted on my team. Typically, I go with a simple, easy-to-follow formula. Grass, Fire, and Water take up three slots. Add in a Flying-type, as Water and Flying were highly important for transportation in earlier games. And for coverage, the last two spots go to Electric and Ground or Rock. Anything else, I try to cover for with getting as many dual-types as possible. Simple. Effective. Tried and true.

However, after choosing Scorbunny as my starter, I encountered a problem. There are only two Grass-types to choose from, and neither are particularly good for my strategy. Eldegoss, which I ended up going with, is a pure Grass-type and can ONLY learn Grass-type damaging attacks, unless you want to track down the single Bug-type TR it can learn, or use one of the few compatible Normal-type TMs/TRs.

The second Grass-type is Applin. And while both evolutions have better type coverage, there are still problems. One, Applin on its own is pretty bad. The only moves it knows when caught fresh from the wild are Withdraw and Astonish. While that isn’t too horrible in and of itself, the fact that its evolutionary item can only be obtained near the end of the game makes it a horrible choice. Since I was about to take on Nessa and had no access to this item, I was forced to either choose Eldegoss or something from a previous generation. And since I was trying to use all-new Pokemon, Eldegoss it was. (Though on the upside, I realized it had plenty of potential to be a competitive wall.) Now, if you are intent on getting a Flapple or Appletun, you can persevere and evolve one. Now you have your grass dragon! Great! Except... its level-up moveset is pretty bad to begin with... You will have to dedicate a lot of time to training or hunting down TMs and TRs to make up for this seemingly MASSIVE oversight.

This is just one example, of course. And while coverage isn’t particularly BAD considering all the old Pokemon included, it could be much better.

Continuing on from this topic is another that has had a lot of fans, including me, up in arms.

The Pokédex

Dexit.

Nearly 900 Pokemon, cut SEVERELY down to 400. It’s unprecedented. It’s unfair to the fans of cut Pokemon, completionists, and old players waiting on transferring all their partners from previous games. Frankly, it sucks. And I think every Pokemon fan can agree, no matter the reason.

While some similar things to this have happened before, it has never been this bad. Unova did it right - the only Pokemon available to the player through the main story of Black and White were the newly introduced ones. After defeating the Elite Four, finishing the game, and the credits are done rolling however, all previous Pokemon were welcome in the region once more. Alola didn’t exclude any older Pokemon, but for the first time in any Pokemon game, we did not get a National ‘Dex. Even so, the Pokemon unavailable natively in Alola were still transferable and usable in the new generation. And while it was a bit disappointing not to get any new entries for some old favorites, it was understandable. Coming up with new world lore is hard work!

Nintendo said that all these Pokemon were cut due to time constraints and limitations with the memory. Unfortunately, these are issues that could be fixed easily, which just... weren’t. Sword and Shield could have gone the same route that Zelda: Breath of the Wild did and simply extended production time. As Shigeru Miyamoto once said, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” And it shows in Sword and Shield in so many ways.

The memory limitations is, honestly, just a bad lie in my personal opinion. This opinion is only proven to me by the DLC reintroducing over 200 Pokemon from prior games. It’s not that Nintendo couldn’t - it’s that they didn’t give themselves the time. I had hoped for free updates in the future to remedy this, and that’s what’s happening. But not in a good way. (They also cut a plethora of Pokemon moves, which was also heavily disappointing, but the loss there couldn’t be felt nearly as much as over half of the total Pokemon being straight-up unavailable. Every one of those is someone’s favorite!)

Even if the memory WAS an issue, there are so many things that were, ultimately, unnecessary to me that they could have done without. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

Dexit aside, there’s another issue that needs to be addressed with the Pokedex that I’ve touched on already - distribution of Pokemon. There’s just... way too many, way too fast, and not enough of the new Galar Pokemon to go around. I am a Player who takes the famous tagline ‘gotta catch ‘em all’ fairly seriously. As I progress through the game, I am always compelled to search for every Pokemon on a route and catch, at the very least, the basic form of that Pokemon. While I haven’t managed to complete the Pokedex on my own or build a Living ‘Dex yet, those are both major goals I have.

However, shortly after first stepping into the Wild Area, I was overwhelmed. Too many Pokemon were coming my way, with too many variations in weather meaning it would take ages to catch all the Pokemon available to me in a route before moving forward in the story. While the Wild Area is a marvel, fun to explore, and an amazing way to experience Pokemon, it’s all just too much to throw at you in one huge chunk. Plus, there’s one very annoying, very artificial limitation that just feels completely out of place in a game that traditionally has had nothing quite like this. The Pokemon-catching level cap.

Now, level caps have been talked about among fans of the series, especially those that would like a sort of ‘hard mode’. This is not what they were talking about. Level caps have been used in previous games to prevent a player from transferring or trading overpowered Pokemon to the game and breezing through it as fast as possible. If you don’t have enough badges, the Pokemon will not listen to you, and you’ll be out of luck until you progress. Fans have suggested extending this level cap to all Pokemon, so that potentially even your starter will refuse to listen once it’s too strong. Personally, I wouldn’t enjoy such a change. But that’s why it’s only really suggested for a hard mode.

The way this level cap was implemented, however, was just... bad... I understand why it was done, but it can be put into practice SO much easier with one simple fix - utilizing Routes like previous generations did and closing off the higher-level areas to the player until they have progressed appropriately.

And that brings me to my next talking point.

Routes VS the Wild Area

Pokemon routes have always been included in every game, from the very beginning. They are the segue between towns, holding new Pokemon for you to battle and catch, the majority of free items to be found across the world, and a good few trainers to pit your team against once you’ve gotten past the first little chunk of story. To put it simply, routes are necessary. Without them, all the different towns would be one huge city, and specifically in Sword and Shield, there would be nowhere but the Wild Area to catch Pokemon.

That being said, the routes throughout Galar are... pretty tiny. I’d even say pitiful. What’s more, it seems that most of them have a short, straight path forward that discourages exploration and bettering yourself through battles with wild Pokemon and trainers. Sure, there’s the occasional arbitrary blockade that will force you to take the long way around, but once that’s done with, there’s nothing else to keep your interest. Glimwood Tangle in particular made me realize how far back they cut the routes. There was so much potential to make a sprawling forest out of it, and they just... didn’t. It was tiny. I wanted more, but they left it lacking in so much.

There’s an easy solution to this - making the Routes into mini Wild Areas. And, to accommodate all these huge routes, CUT BACK THE WILD AREA. Trust me - it needs to be smaller. This fixes the Pokemon distribution, the level cap issues, and the tiny routes all in one fell swoop. Instead of having one massive area with a bunch of sub-areas, have each route be bigger, with two to three sub-areas. The balance will make it much more impressive in the long run.

Speaking of balance, let’s talk about how this affected the pacing of the game. Even when I was taking my time, it felt like I was always rushing, rushing, rushing on to the next town.  Not to mention, there are far too many options in the story to let you skip over backtracking through a route you’ve already been through. I’ve just finished taking on Milo. I blink. I’m standing in the Pokemon center the next town over, prepping for Nessa’s gym. I just defeated Bea. I blink. Now I’m about to take on Opal. The only time I got a little time to breathe was when I had to travel through the Wild Area to get to the next town. And then it was all just so expansive that I... didn’t want to go back to the story. There were items everywhere. There were Pokemon to catch. I wasn’t done here - I had to explore. I had to find everything. Do all I could. Because that’s what you do in a route, right? You explore and find all the goodies to help you on your journey. So what comes after...?

The Towns

While the towns are gorgeous and each have their own charm, they all feel... almost empty.

Compare to previous games, and it’s obvious to see. Many buildings don’t allow you to go inside and explore. There is a distinct lack of NPCs. And the ‘big’ cities are decidedly small as a result.

Just take a look at Castelia City and Lumiose City. Both are huge, compared to the rest of the locations in the games. They have many buildings, many NPCs to fill them... People needed a map to avoid getting lost in Lumiose! Even in cities that are smaller scale-wise, such as in Alola, they never feel empty. There are plenty of places to go, people to talk to, and things to explore or interact with. You find new things all the time.

Meanwhile in Galar, the only things that seem to give the towns any purpose are the Pokemon gyms. And that is a massive shame. Especially when in prior games, there have been places I will make my way to, just to sit there and take in every little detail of the location, or where I’ll talk to every NPC and soak up all the lore. I go back to murals and statues and unique buildings. I go back to puzzles and the homes of legendary Pokemon. I go back to enjoy the things I’ve seen in a new light and reminisce about my journey. But in Galar... there seems to be very little to reminisce about.

The Story

This is the biggest disappointment for me. If all the rest of the game were awful, as long as the story is good, I can overlook it. As long as the story is good, I can enjoy any game. 

This story was not good.

As far as Pokemon stories go, they aren’t all complex, nuanced narratives. In the first games, you fight Team Rocket, who are just in it for the money. In Johto, it’s the same thing, with the addition of a rival that has a touching change of heart in the end. Things get a bit bigger in Hoenn, where the world-ending plots officially start in the form of weather crises caused by Team Aqua and Team Magma. In Sinnoh, the entire universe is threatened when Team Galactic aims to remake the world in their image. In Unova, the morals of you and the rest of the Pokemon world are called into question by PETA-- I mean Team Plasma. In Kalos... rich people want to kill the unworthy poor...? Yeah, I didn’t really get that story much either. And in Alola, you deal with alternate dimension aliens running amok. Safe to say things got quite a bit bigger as time went on.

Now we’re in Galar. Something’s going to happen. Something always happens. But when? How?

We get hints about the Darkest Day. Dynamaxing is still very new and not much is known about it. Sonia is looking into the legendary hero(s) that stopped the Darkest Day. But where’s the evil team? What’s their motivation? Where’s the action? The buildup?? Bede mentions he’s collecting Wishing Stars. Why??? We get to Hammerlocke and learn that the Wishing Stars are for the Chairman. But again, why? He mentions a problem has been bothering Rose concerning all Galar, but it’s such a brief moment that it’s easily dismissed. Where’s the action, or the stakes? Nothing has happened yet except we’re being pushed through the gym challenge as fast as possible.

Fourth gym. No sign of any real trouble yet. Except that jerk Bede just vandalized an ancient mural, just because... he wanted to? Yeah, he’s trying to find Wishing Stars, but literally NO ONE told him to make a spectacle of himself and ruin a piece of history in the process. We’re getting more hints about the past and Galar’s history, but nothing solid on what we’re supposed to be doing. Besides the gyms. EVERYTHING is about the gyms... Oh, and apparently Oleana is the one who asked Bede to collect Wishing Stars. Whatever. What does that have to do with anything?

Five gyms in now, and... Ka-BOOM!

FINALLY!!! Some ACTION!!! Something’s happening at the Power Plant, and Sonia’s detecting a Power Spot! Alright, let’s go! I’m finally going to be able to DO something! I’ll finally be able to see what’s going on and--

“You should leave the investigation on the quaking to the adults. Head to Circhester and get that Gym Badge!”

... What... No! No, I refuse! There must be something to see, even if it’s just Sonia, Leon, and the Chairman standing around after things have already been sorted out. I can talk to them and get a little dialogue on what’s going on! Except they aren’t anywhere to be found. No one around the gym, no one by the Power Plant door, nothing.

Sixth gym. More lore. Seventh gym. Heading out towards Raihan and BOOM! Trouble on Route 9! Leon’s here! NPC says I should go help! Heck yes, I will! It’s about time I got some action out here, it’s almost the end of the game!

Run outside, there’s Leon! And... he dismisses you. Again. Says ‘nope, I’ve got this, gym gym gym, see you!’

No way am I taking that laying down. I’m right on his heels - I should at least be able to see him battling or something, right? But no. In the seconds it takes to run after him, Leon has beaten the threat, he’s gone, and now Hop is waving a news article about the debacle in your face, complete with picture! How the hell did all that happen so fast?! It takes time to write something like that up, never mind the time it must have taken to battle the Dynamaxed Pokemon that Leon faced!

The game is almost over, and what little action you could have seen has been blocked from you because you are a child. And I understand, from a moral perspective, that this is what any sane adult would say to a child. But from a story perspective it is a horribly bad writing choice. It gives you a little taste of the story, a tiny hint at what’s going on, and yanks any real explanation away from you until the very end, where you’re floored by everything happening all at once. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Finally, Professor Magnolia mentions that the issue the Chairman is worried about is the future of Galar’s energy. But... why? We have seen no hints of a problem with that throughout the entire game. No mention of shortages. Nothing about global warming or sustainability. It seems there’s exactly zero reason for anyone to worry, much less turn this into a huge issue that needs to be addressed. It’s one thing if a crisis is there and people are ignoring it. It’s another matter entirely if there is no crisis whatsoever to be seen, even if you look for it. And even if there was any sort of issue, Leon once again tells you to do nothing. Nothing at all. 

Eighth gym. On to the Championships. Blah blah, tiny snow route, nothing even remotely close to a Victory Road... In Wyndon now. Still bubcus about an evil team or anything that you can actually DO something about. The Semifinals happen. Leon goes missing.

Suddenly, you’re thrown into a situation you know nothing about to save this miserable dope. And when you get to him... he doesn’t even need any saving! He’s just having a pleasant chat with this jerk! Drag his butt out of there, then the Finals happen. Now you’re gearing up to face Leon himself. Only to be stopped by Rose SUMMONING ARMAGEDDON TO SOLVE A NONEXISTENT ENERGY CRISIS HE SEEMINGLY MADE UP.........

It makes no sense whatsoever. And unlike in Unova, where the interruption to your Elite Four challenge made sense, these TWO interruptions did not. Leon even promised to help Rose after he finished his Championship match against you! Why couldn’t Rose wait a single day? Or even a few hours? ... I digress.

Anyway, Rose awakens Eternatus, who is the source of Dynamax energy. (Necrozma & Totem Pokemon vibes much?) Leon goes up to capture it, just as Rose planned, and gets his butt kicked, not as planned. Meanwhile, the player and Hop made themselves useful for once, went to find the Sword and Shield from legend, and used them to call Zacian and Zamazenta. Together, all four of you defeat Eternatus! Yaaay for yooouuu!!!

...

Oh. And you finally have that Championship battle. Get that win squared away. Finally, but also way too soon, the credits role.

Perhaps I may have been a bit harsh about the story. But with very little to make up for it, I feel justified in everything I’ve said here. But I’m still not done. After all, a story can’t have no one helping the protagonist along. Or hindering them. Severely.

The Characters

Unfortunately, many of the characters were just as bad as the story. However, for the most part, it doesn’t entirely seem like their fault. There just wasn’t enough time spent on them, or the writers handled them poorly.

Let’s start from the beginning.

Hop

He’s a friendly rival. Okay, I can get behind that. But he’s also very self-absorbed throughout the entire story. Why are you even friends with him? He doesn’t once talk to you about anything other than how he’s going to be the next Champion. He cheers you on occasionally, but it’s always overshadowed by him harping on the same things over and over again - his brother is The Best and he will defeat him to become The New Best.

Many people say Hop is very much like Hau. I say that’s an insult to Hau. Hau is a laid-back free spirit who’s only goal starting out is to have fun with his Pokemon. He supports you and gives you items along the way because that’s just his nature. He’s a true friend. And when things get a bit tougher, he realizes he needs to step up and take things seriously if he wants to protect the ones he cares about. So he does.

In my opinion, Hop is more like Green in his approach to you, except a bit more friendly. In fact... I’d say he’s MOST like the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum rival, Barry. They’re both braggarts, self-absorbed, and constantly, casually putting you down even though you’re clearly better than them. Long story short, Hop is infinitely annoying like Barry is annoying. I was shocked at myself for how eager I was to beat Hop evey time, and how uncaring I was when Bede crushed his spirit. Hop’s mopiness and woe-is-me attitude felt very forced, especially since he was always smiling and still constantly talked about how he was going to beat you and Leon both.

Not to mention how his story ultimately ended... But I’ll get to that a little later.

Leon

For as annoying as Hop is, Leon is ten times worse. I can see where Hop got all those self-absorbed tendencies. He strikes a dumb pose every five seconds, goes on about how great and undefeated he is, constantly basks in the attention of his fans... Not an ounce of humility or humbleness in this man. Not to mention, he pretty much abandoned Sonia during their journey together. I couldn’t wait to ruin his whole career. But if there’s one positive thing I can say about him, it’s that his team is legitimately tough. Mostly that demon Charizard.

Sonia

She’s nice enough, and it’s pretty neat to see her on her journey to becoming a full-fledged Professor. But her progression to that ultimate payoff seems pretty rushed, probably because the rest of the story is rushed. Also, she consults with you about many of the legends she digs up, and the dialogue choices ultimately mean YOU are drawing the conclusions while SHE just agrees with them. By all rights, I should be the Professor in this game! 

Marnie

Honestly, I don’t have a strong reaction about Marnie either way. She just seems a bit subdued, we don’t see her very much, and there’s no real character arc that we get to see her go through. She’s the same as when we first saw her, only now she knows she’s not going to be the Champion, because you are. 

Bede

He’s a little jerk. And honestly? I love little jerks. But only if they’re done right.

Green was a jerk rival that was done right. He didn’t see the error of his ways throughout the entire game. However, come the Johto arc, he is now a gym leader, realizes he was treating his Pokemon poorly, and it’s implied he regrets his harshness towards Red.

Silver was another done right. He was a jerk from the very start, and a thief to boot. He hated you, and Team Rocket, and... all the world really. But as the game progressed, he came to realize that he needed to be kind. And by the end of the game, he has a Crobat. While his abrasive personality is still there, he respects you, and realizes you were right.

Bede, on the other hand, was pushed through the plot. First, he was working his hardest for the sake of the Chairman. Then when he was forsaken, hurt, and lost for a purpose... he wasn’t allowed to find his way himself. Instead, Opal snatched him away and demanded that he become the next Fairy-type gym leader. She even went so far as to force him to change his type preference! What happened to Gothorita and Duosion?! (Don’t get me wrong, I love Opal as a character. She’s probably my favorite out of everyone. But still...)

Bede should have come into his own by his own choice. And since he didn’t, the change seems like it... wasn’t a change at all. He’s still harsh towards you and others, and the respect he says he has for you seems insincere.

Piers

Unlike the rest of the gym leaders, Piers takes a slightly more active role in the plot once the ball FINALLY gets rolling. So I figured I’d talk about him, too. Piers seems... a lot like Nanu. Like A LOT. And that doesn’t really seem to fit with his rocker look or job. He just seems depressed and like he doesn’t want to be here. At least he’s a fairly responsible brother, always making sure Marnie is safe. I never did get past that hair though... Never liked it. But I seem to be in the minority there.

Oleana

She’s just... She seems like a Rose-obsessed Lusamine, instead of Ultra Beast-obsessed. Except her manipulation of children is more subtle. Honestly, I can see her being a formidable villain, and actually a much bigger threat than Rose. If only she was given the opportunity to actually DO more things through the game.

Chairman Rose

Rose is... Well, he doesn’t feel like a villain, if that makes any sense? He’s too placid. Mild. Calm. There’s no anger or any kind of intense emotion. Even when he’s disappointed in Bede, I don’t really... believe it. It’s like he ordered an ice cream and realized it doesn’t come with sprinkles. “Oh. That’s very slightly disappointing. But it’s still ice cream so it doesn’t really matter. It’s fine.” Even if you want to do a villain without strong emotions, there are other ways to do it.

Cyrus, jokingly referred to as having depression by the Pokemon fanbase, is a big example of this. He is very non-expressive, with a flat, almost scary look. He always talks analytically, and philosophically. He even openly scorns emotions. But when he does finally get a bit more heated and unhinged towards the end of the game, it’s a serious business. He feels dangerous.

Rose, on the other hand... doesn’t. He has all this supposed passion for Galar and its future. So much so that he’s willing to risk putting people and Pokemon in imminent danger to fix this energy crisis he seems to have made up... So then where is that passion? Where is his anger and frustration towards Leon? Where is his desperation?

It seems to me that the only energy deficit in Galar is in Rose’s behavior.

We’ve covered a lot now, but still not everything. My main gripes are over, but like every Pokemon game, there’s just a bit more.

The Post-Game

Now the main plot is over, and you’re free to do as you please all across the region. Train up your Pokemon and catch newly available ones, explore places you didn’t go deeper in during the story, get a little extra tidbit of story sometimes... And to its credit, this game did deliver a decent post-game story to follow.

You saved the region. You met the legendary Pokemon. Now you have the Master Ball and it’s implied you can go off and get your featured legendary doggo. Fantastic! But once you make your way into the Slumbering Weald... these guys show up. Oh, and Hop is there moping. And Sonia shows up too, for some reason.

But these guys... These guys were arrogant little jerks from the beginning. And it makes sense once you learn they’re a part of Galar’s royal family - the descendants of the people who supposedly stopped the Darkest Day from happening and saved the region. Of course, now everyone knows that’s not true, and they’re pissed about what this means for them. Their family isn’t anything special. They aren’t anything special. Their status and positions have been taken away and given to Pokemon! It’s insulting to them! (Though they still have a loyal following.)

So what do they do? Pumping Zacian & Zamazenta full of Dynamax energy and causing them to wreak havoc will absolutely turn the people of Galar against them! And the cost? Eh, they don’t much care. As long as the legendary Pokemon look bad and they’re able to retain their status.

Of course, their plan backfires, and in true benevolent legendary fashion, the one legendary they do manage to overload with power does its absolute best to avoid hurting anyone. It’s a touching little story to go on. And what’s more? It actually makes sense! In fact, I would have greatly preferred this story as the main one focused on, rather than the hot garbage we got with Chairman Rose! My only gripe regarding the new story is how ridiculous these two princes are... Really Gamefreak? Swordward and Shieldbert? And that hair?? Do you have no subtlety anymore?

But as for wrapping up the old story... things still fall a bit flat. After the legendaries are calm again and you have your version’s pup, you go after Hop. And he is accepted by the other legendary in the duo. Considering everything he went through to try and get the sword/shield back just now, as well as his concern for and efforts to calm down the legendary, it’s understandable. He’s proven himself in their eyes. But then... he goes and decides to become Sonia’s assistant and work towards being a professor.

How did that happen? Why did it happen? There was no buildup in the slightest before this decision, and it seems very out of character for someone like Hop. He’s not technically minded. While he takes a mild interest in the legends of his home region (who wouldn’t when they’re that fun?), he doesn’t seem interested in doing any actual research. And now that he actually owns a legendary Pokemon, you would expect him to double down on his rivalry with you or at least aspire to do something more... heroic? Exciting? Why would a legendary Pokemon want to hang around when you’re not going to be utilizing them at all?

This extra little story is over very fast. Not only that, but everything you do pertaining to the story is done without having to struggle through a route or many other additional challenges. (Hey, a lot like the main story. Lack of travel/drawn-out struggle leads to pacing issues.)

Additionally, there are no new places to explore after the main story. Which really, REALLY sucks. Every Pokemon game has had more to see afterwards. Kanto had Cerulean Cave. Johto had an entire additional region, plus Mt Silver. Hoenn had lots of legendary Pokemon homes open up to you, plus the Battle Frontier in Emerald. Sinnoh had the entire Battle Zone. Unova had several towns and routes blocked off. Kalos had it’s own last town as well as a couple places you could go for legendaries, like Mewtwo. And Alola had an entire half of Poni Island. Galar has... nothing... Everywhere you can go in Galar, you will have access to before the Championship battle with Leon is over. And that’s a crying shame. They seem to be trying to remedy this with the DLC coming out, but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms. I’ll get into that later. First, there still something else I want to talk about...

Dynamaxing and Gigantimaxing

I get why this exists. I really do. Every single region has something that shakes up the way battles are done. Whether it’s more technical, statistic-based changes or something much more obvious. Hold items, double battles, tag battles, triple and rotation battles, Mega Evolving, Z moves, blah blah blah. We all know about that stuff, right? Each of the newer regions has some gimmick to go along with it. This is the Galar version. But unfortunately... when they implemented this change, they decided to get rid of the much-beloved Mega Evolutions entirely.

Now I could understand why they would do this with Z-moves. Dynamaxing is essentially the same thing, with the addition of more HP and the flashy, massive size of Pokemon to go along with it. Though it is disappointing, it’s not really a net loss.

But Mega Evolutions on the other hand... Those were something special.

Mega Evolution could have, potentially, coexisted with Dynamaxing. All it is is making the Pokemon bigger after all, right? A bigger Mega Evolution is doable.

But then the Gigantimax Pokemon come in... and thing start to make less sense. Basically, they made more Mega Evolutions, but named them something different. Why couldn’t they simply be more Megas? People LOVE Mega Evolution Pokemon! No one would have been mad at this! Except the people who, rightfully, say Charizard gets far too much attention. Three Mega Evolutions is a bit much.

But even then, if you’re so insistent on Gigantimax Pokemon being a separate beast entirely, then there’s STILL a way you can make Mega Evolution work in tandem with the new system.

Simply make Gigantimaxed Pokemon a Dynamaxed form of a Mega Evolution.

Okay, I know that was a mouthful and possible hard to wrap your head around, but imagine with me: You’re in a battle. You Mega Evolve your Pokemon. It’s stronger now. But you’re also in the position where you can Dynamax. You do so, and... instead of getting a bigger Mega, your Pokemon changes form a second time. So for example, let’s say you have a Charizard. Mega Evolve it. It is now a Charizard X/Y. Now Dynamax it. It is now the unholy lava abomination you see when you battle Leon. If you had not Mega Evolved beforehand, then it would have grown into a normal, everyday Charizard, But Bigger. 

This also takes away a completely arbitrary restriction - that not every Pokemon of a species can Gigantimax. I’m sure everyone knows by now, but let’s go over it again.

You have an Alcremie. You raised it from a Milcery, evolved it with your favorite Sweet, into your favorite flavor, whatever. Maybe it’s one of the strongest contributors to your team. But when you Dynamax it, it does nothing but get bigger. Then you see Opal’s Alcremie and wonder - how can I get my baby to do that? Is there a special item it needs to hold, or some other requirement?

Nope. Your Alcremie just isn’t good enough. It will never Gigantimax, because it was never capable of doing so in the first place.

With Mega Evolution, there is no limitation. You simply need to give your Pokemon the matching Mega Stone for its species and it can Mega Evolve, simple as that. you don’t need to find that certain special creature, when you already have a perfectly good teammate you’re attached to.

What’s more, Mega Evolution could be performed any time, anywhere, in any battle. Dynamaxing and Gigantimaxing is extremely limited to the Power Spots. Keeping Mega Evolution in would have lessened the disappointment of not being able to use the new mechanic casually. This was something that was heavily advertised when the game was first released, and to find out it’s so limited... I think it left a bad taste in a lot of fans’ mouths.

The DLC

Now... on to this... I’ve touched on this before, and I’m sure everyone can tell.

I am not happy.

First, the financial aspect. If you are going to charge $30 for a two-part expansion, make it apply to both game versions. This may not mean much to casual players, since they likely bought only one copy of the game. But to people who bought both, or share the two copies with family, this is a massive slap in the face. You would have to pay double, for the same content, so both versions are updated. That is a low, low blow.

Now, the Pokemon. I’m glad they are introducing new Pokemon (most of which seem to be Galarian forms or new Gigantimax forms), but there seems to be little reason why they held off releasing them in the first place. Legendaries, I understand. Others, not so much. And the over-two-hundred Pokemon that are being reintroduced isn’t something that should get a pat on the back. They’re fixing their own mistake. They shot themselves in the foot and now they’re trying to say “Oh look! We’re improving things! This bloody hole is going to be healed now! How great are we?” The only saving grace to this for me is that the Pokemon being reintroduced will be available to everyone (to transfer or trade over) via the free update mentioned before. And even then, there are still Pokemon missing!

The new areas now. While we have seen snippets by now, there has been nothing really definitive to go on. These new areas will be in the style of the Wild Area - that much has been made clear. But that makes me exceedingly nervous. Will they be empty, devoid of NPCs? What will there be to do? Just how big are these areas? If they are, in fact, exactly like the Wild Area... I am going to be deeply disappointed. Aside from battling/catching wild Pokemon and gathering items, there is very, very little to do in the existing Wild Area. But at the same time, if the area the DLC gives us is too small, everything will feel sparse and rushed, just like the story of the game.

Speaking of story, we aren’t really given anything meaningful about the DLC’s story, either. We were vaguely told that the two separate locations will be focused on the themes of ‘Growth’ and ‘Exploration’, and we were introduced to a small handful of characters that will be central to the story, but that’s about it. You’re training in the Isle of Armor, and you’ve been enlisted to explore the Crown Tundra. That’s all we know. Literally anything could happen. And that, again, makes me very nervous.

Gamefreak have said these DLC are supposed to take the place of the story changes a third game would make. But in this instance, I seriously believe Sword and Shield would have benefited from a second pass. Much like Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon had the “Good Ending” over Sun and Moon, I think a follow-up game could have amended a lot of the issues I’ve laid out. Though I couldn’t say if Gamefreak would have actually committed...

The biggest thing to me here is that... this is not necessary. At all. I feel as though these new locations, as well as the new stories, should have been included from the get-go in the base game. For free. Of course, if the scope of these stories is on par with the main storylines of Pokemon games, I can understand. But if it’s much smaller... I just can’t condone this.

It is a blatant cash grab. One that I can find no excuse for whatsoever. This game, and most everything that has come of it, has been such a dumpster fire that it has drained my love of Pokemon and left me with nothing but anger and a deep, dark disappointment. Gamefreak can do better. Nintendo can do better. I know they can. And I am willing to wait for good content.

They’re just not willing to give their fanbase the time to make that happen.

And speaking of blatant cash grabs...

Pokemon Home 

Pokemon fans have been wanting a cloud-based Pokemon storage system for years. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. But compared to Pokemon Bank’s YEARLY fee of $4.99, Pokemon Home’s premium fee for the same amount of time is quite shocking at $15.99 a pop. 

So what in the world went wrong here? Why is that price justified? While others have tried to explain it away by listing off all the different features, I say it’s not justified at all. And I’ll detail why below.

You see these graphs? Both of these contain all the points I need to make. And I’ll explain exactly why.

I’ll start from the top of the list and move down.

Transferring Pokemon is only available if you pay money for it. That means that if you want to get the additional Pokemon returning with the DLC releases, you either have to pay for the DLC or you have to pay for Pokemon Home. While transfer between games used to be free, that changed when Pokemon Bank was released. And while many people were understandably upset, the low price and additional storage space that Bank provided was enough for me to accept the change. Pokemon Home, on the other hand, doesn’t deliver enough for its price. It doubles the storage capacity Pokemon Bank had, and it introduces Room Trades. Which, honestly... don’t sound very appealing.

The number of Pokemon that can be deposited for free is... thirty. A single measly box worth. This may be enough for some people, but this, plus the box space in a copy of Sword/Shield, is not even enough to make a Living ‘Dex (if you want to include every different form of Pokemon. Otherwise it’s just barely enough). Not that you could make a Living ‘Dex anyway, with so many Pokemon still cut out. But back to the box capacity. For transferring only, this number might have been okay. But for storage purposes, this is only half a percent of the 6,000 potential Pokemon you could store if you paid up. Not even 1%. It’s 0.5%. It’s outrageous.

Wonder Trades, GTS trades, and Room Trades I’ll do together. For these features, I have little problem with the way they’re set up. The additional slots for trading are actually useful, and it makes sense to put them behind a paywall. This, I would be willing to pay for. Just not pay so much. Especially when this feature was taken out of the base game in the first place. Since the GTS was first introduced in Gen 4 (Sinnoh), it has been a staple of the game and a vital tool for completing the Pokedex, especially if you have no one to trade with in person. Many people were surprised and upset to find that the only trading function left in the base Sword & Shield games was the Surprise Trade, which is essentially Wonder Trade with a new name. However, while it is a little reassuring to have these features free to use, there is still a major limitation. It can only be done on the mobile phone version of Home.

This is something that has never existed before. You have never needed any device other than your gaming console. And to not have trades available in the Switch version as well is completely absurd. How do they expect children to use this? While tablets and smartphones have become more and more common, I doubt the vast majority of children have a device that is purely their own. They will have to nag their parents to download the app, and then further pester them each time they want to trade. Why not have that a part of the Switch version in the first place? It would be much more streamlined. I understand the practicality of having a Home app - I really do. It makes moving from Go to Home easier, I’m sure, and you now have added mobile usage when your Switch is out of range of an internet connection. But blocking features from the Switch makes no sense whatsoever.

Continuing on to the Judge function. Again, this was a feature that was removed from the main game. Not only that, but this time it is locked completely behind the paywall. When this feature came out just last generation, many competitive breeders were ecstatic. They no longer had to jump through hoops to determine that there was a Perfect IV baby in the hundreds, sometimes thousands of eggs they just hatched - they could see it right on the screen. And as a casual player, it was cool to see how many breedjects I ended up with. But it seems Gamefreak gave us a taste of a very good thing, then yanked it away, like candy from a baby.

On to the second chart. I already talked about the trading limitations, so I’ll skip over that. And it makes sense that moving Pokemon from the Switch games would be Switch Home exclusive, in addition to receiving Battle Points. There is nothing on your phone that can make use of BP. However, there are more phone restrictions that make no sense. Why can’t you receive Mystery Gifts or check Battle Data/News on the Switch? It’s certainly capable of it. Mystery Gifts in particular are another frustrating problem on par with the trading issue. The other two features I wouldn’t mind being mobile exclusive.

All in all, Pokemon Home is another hot mess for Gamefreak and Nintendo.

Conclusion

I know I’ve been rough on this new generation. Arceus knows I was pretty brutal, especially where the story was concerned. But that’s only because I know they can do better. Up until this point, we’ve been given some games that were downright masterpieces. I am highly disappointed in the creators, and I hope with all my heart they listen to their fans and do better going forward. Even if that means we have to wait a little longer.

What’s more, I seriously hope they don’t continue to financially extort their market. Charging this much for something so rushed and poorly executed is an insult. And if it continues... I’m afraid of where the Pokemon franchise may be headed.

That’s all. I’m sorry if I stepped on some toes here, but these are all my honest opinions. I hope that some of these things have validated others’ feelings, too, and perhaps that people look at some of these issues in a new light.

PS, I’m sorry for any abrupt tonal shift that might be seen between the “Characters” and “Post-Game” sections. I had to stop writing to go to bed, but then I didn’t get around to finishing until nearly a month later.

[justformyself2]

San Francisco (Part Three)

Hello guys, it’s been a while because i was having some trouble to find a time to just relax and write a little. I hope you and your loved ones are okay, and i hope you like the last part of the series “San Francisco.” Thank you so much for keeping me company till the end ♥

BEFORE YOU JUMP IN:

. This story contains strong language.

. Pairing John Krasinski x Reader.

. If you want to read from the beginning CLICK FOR THE MASTERLIST

"And this is Ethan's girlfriend, (Y/N). (Y/N) this is my mother and father in law, Bridget Thaler and Monrey Thaler."

Rachel takes care of the introductions while you hold a smile in place, focusing on your posture instead of on Ethan's hand on your lower back.

Dex's mother approaches amicably towards you, while Dex's father shook Ethan's hand a little too aggressively.

"Oh, so you two are a couple? What a wonderful surprise. Dex told me you were-."  Mr. Thaler stops himself, letting go of Ethan's hand, subsiding to silence as the rest of us watched the scene.

You look to the side, and spot Rachel smiling devilishly at Ethan.

"Gay?" Ethan completes with a comedic tone. Dex's father is lost for a second or two, but accompanied him before saying.

“I was going to say that he told me you were both writers.”

You immediatly look down to hide your necessity to laugh, while Ethan, nervously, breaths in. 

“Yes, yes...I’m, and i got this beautiful company by my side.” He responds, almost whispering.

"That you do."  Mr. Thaler agrees, leaving a doubtful stare at you.

He embraces Mrs. Thaler, who was rearranging the blond locks of her Chanel hairstyle behind her ears, adorned with big white pearls. 

"Well, it was marvelous meeting both of you, now if you two don't mind I have to steal these two. There is some great people who came all the way from France, and are excited to meet Dex and my future daughter in law."

Mr. Thaler smiles politely as his wife looks down for a second before smiling towards her son, a smile that doesn't reach her eyes.

You never thought Dex could be even quieter than usual, as he nods, and Rachel reaches his hand with the same unlived expression. 

It gave you a bad feeling, as this was supposed to be a special dinner in honor of their wedding tomorrow evening, and something switched quickly since Dex's parents walked through the door.

You wanted to ask Ethan, but that would make him think you were apen to being normal with him.

"It was our pleasure, Mr. Thaler." You decide to speak, clearing your throat towards Ethan, caught up in the vibration of the room, who quickly catches the hint and smiles.

"We'll see you guys around." 

You roll your eyes as they were all turning away to exit the patio and enter the main restaurant salon with their condescending smiles.

When sure they all left, you get rid of Ethan's embrace immediately, but he grabs your arm again, obliging you to stay at his side.

"(Y/N) Don't do it like that, we have to talk."

When turned around, you make sure to exchange looks between his grip on your arm and his focused eyes.

"Sorry." He understands and retrieves the gesture.

"Oh, you want to talk?" You mock bitterly.  "I don't even know why I haven't made my bags yet after you left me talking by myself at that beach."

"I know, I've been a fucking asshole, but I had to take time to myself and think. I want to make things right-."

"Wooooow, Ethaaaaan." A third, unrelated individual, appears behind Ethan. A tanned brunette comes closer, holding a glass of the pink drink Rachel offered you earlier, Rosé, maybe the reason why she is smiling too much, and her eyes were enlarged.

"Oh, Hey, Claire." Ethan almost whispers and then bites his lips nervously.

Claire. Your brain starts to rewind all the tangled web of hot mess information that is Ethan's life as the girl keeps coming closer, now laughing in a very Jack Nicholson way, at the end of 'The Shining.'  

"Who is this?"

The "this" is you, who she points at, using the drink and almost spilling it, unbothered because it looked like she already had plenty before this one.

Claire does an eye search, from your heels towards your face while Ethan is lost of words.

"I'm his girlfriend. (Y/N)." You take the lead, and her mouth curves, like her body, exaggerating a surprised expression. "You must be Claire."

She blinks at you more than a couple of times at just one second.

"Yeah, I must be Claire." With her free hand, she patted her short hair behind the ear, then turns to Ethan. You don't know either to be scared or grateful.

Laughing, she points at his chest, taking an unbalanced step further.

 "And you... You MUST BE GAY!"

"Oh, God." You let it slip as heads start to turn.

You were sure her eyes were about to pop out of their orbits, or she was about to pop Ethan's.

"Claire, calm down."

His try is weak, and Claire is fast. She spills the drink on his face and throws the empty glass on the ground, winning gasps and laughs among the observing crowd before leaving the patio. 

"I deserved it." He says, wiping the wine out of his face, some of the drops landed onto your cheek and hair, but it was nothing compared to Ethan's stained white shirt along with the gray blazer.

"You were saying you wanted to make things right?"

You play him, who just nods along without much to say.

"We have to go back and change, let's go, there is already a bunch of people staring and laughing."

"Oh, really? I haven't noticed."

You take him by the arm and lead an alternative way to avoid the main salon. He doesn't refuse, gratefully accepts your hand in his while you chased the white garden lights that carved the path along with the most beautiful white arrangement of plants, white and blue, looking familiar for a second and left behind in the other when you saw the exit.

"Carpet-of-snow, right?"

Ethan pointed at the plants when you were close to the red brick walls and a neglected open gate you saw people from the restaurant staff using it earlier when you came with Rachel to offer a helping hand. That was why you felt safe in coming in tonight, knowing there was an alternative exit you could silently use at any point and leave the excuses to Ethan. Still, now you were leaving with him, and he just remembered the name of your favorite flower for some reason you didn't want to examine microscopically at the moment but left you unsettled.

"How do you know that?"

Your undecisive look switched over between him and the flower, trying to find a clue somewhere like it was hidden in the plants before shaking the old noisy gate and making an opening for both of you. He was smirking, and you didn't know whether or not to start worrying.

"You told me about it."

Your brain burns, trying to heat the engines to remember, but there was only the sound of your high heels clicking on the pavement and the loud gate being closed when you both made out of the place. 

"When?"

You give in, hearing a low giggle in response, but before he could respond, a random group of loud teens infested the sidewalk like a cloud of starling birds you saw once on youtube. You can't recall how you ended up watching that video or explain how your brain just applied that to teenagers.

They were coming out of another fancy restaurant just a few steps ahead from the one you left, and now you thought there was nothing else to see in Hamptons, or that you wanted to see.

Ethan guided the way past the teens, keeping you close and crossing the street quickly on the red lights.

"Hey, don't make me run in those high heels." You slap his arm.

"Oh, sorry."

"Now, finish what you were saying."

"About what?"

You get slightly annoyed at him for the fifth time on the same day and realize the pattern or karma that surrounded both of you.

A cold breeze blowing your hair away lets you know the bridge was close, and he pulls you closer, arm to arm, hand to hand, they were still there all the way.

"Remember when Kevin and Rosa got married?"

"Oh yes, Valentine's day, on a church, I'm not sure it was really a church, but a cover for something else, that neighborhood was skeptical as fuck."

"And we all went through town to find a dozen of red roses." He completes.

"On the flower market." You laugh.

"Last minute."

He continues.

"That day you saw the flowers of the carpet of snow, and you told that if by complete madness one day you think of getting married you would choose them, but you couldn't even hold someone's hand for more than a minute to get to the point of holding a bouquet to get married."

He squeezes your hand in his and raises his eyebrows, like saying "see?".

"Oh, okay. So you think that me, holding your hand right now is supposed to mean something." 

You laugh, but now out of being nervous.

"It could mean something.

You let go of his hand brutally, not moving an inch further on the last cross to the bridge. He sighs, and people from the other side are coming towards you because it is time to cross.

"Is this a game to you, Ethan? Hun? Your ping pong between Rachel and me, go to her, bring me here, which I have to give it to you, is in fact, my fault because I wanted to make sure you would be okay when she dumped your ass again, then you sleep with me, leave me alone to go to Rachel once again, and now this? What is wrong with you?"

There is heat forming everywhere in your body, heat from anger, resentment, and confusion. You went back into the house intending to pack your bags when Ethan left you talking by yourself on that beach. Still, you are here, angry, resented, and confused, waiting for him to answer back, anything, because you weren't patient with the feeling of your chest tightening around your heart like a fist. You try to find Ethan somewhere in the man you see now, you try to find yourself through his eyes, because you always told him what you wanted and how, but this time was different. You knew it was, and it made you scared, while he looked reluctant with himself.

Two steps front and back, and a deep breath after he said:

"Okay, okay...I never told Rachel anything. There was no love confession, or second love confession, nothing."

"What?

"That night, we chatted, drank, and then she went back home, that was it."

You look away, and everything got out of place quickly, you blink twice, feeling your body lighter, floating in front of Ethan.

"I'm not in love with Rachel (Y/N). " 

"Then, why?" You gestured when the words wouldn't form on your tongue.

Another cold breeze blows your hair away into your face, but you didn't possess the strength to get annoyed or less numb.

"The answer is simple, I'm a coward. I didn't have the guts to tell Claire that I'm not interested; I rather lie about my sexual preference. I pretended to not have feelings for Rachel, practically my whole life, till it was too late, and instead of learning from my mistakes, I even convinced myself and then pretended to still have feelings for her so I could hide my feelings for you."

He unbuttons the stained blazer, looking down as he did.

The words catapulted themselves immediately, impulsively, an impulsive miracle: 

"Ethan, look at me."

His eyes shone brightly as he took off the blazer and came closer to you. Not an interruption when he placed the blazer over your shoulders, irradiating the warmth that mixed with the cold, made you even more inebriated, unaware of yourself. Similar to when you held his hand all the way through here, similar to when you two made love the night you searched for him, similar to now.

 "I'm sorry, I truly am, I know you are not interested in this type of relationship or feelings, and I should have respected that, and trust me I tried, I really did. I even brought you here in a stupid and vain attempt to prove myself I still have that armory that would protect me from being rejected again. I-." He shrugs, his voice cracks  "I just can't stop thinking about you, you are everywhere I go, because I bring you with me, on purpose, even with Rachel, and I didn't want to take it far, but sharing the same room with you again was a little too much."

"Oh, God." 

Holding yourself under the blazer, you laughed, arid. "I never took you for the type for monologues, which is stupid; you are a writer, also so reserved." Your mouth gets sour, and your jaw hurts, "You are right, you are a coward, Ethan." 

You felt the metaphoric knife on your back, getting twisted. You felt the flesh and nerves connected to your heart, starting to create the agonizing silence you knew since last summer. 

"I know."

He nods, still close enough to be looking upon you, but ready to drift away and still somewhat expecting, and you had seconds to forget about the knife, reach his back with your hand, completing the space between both of you.

There are still some remains of Rosé mixed with the taste of Ethan, warm, wet, hard to compare, like the taste of water.

He breaks the bond, grabbing both of your cheeks, obliging you to look at his darker eyes, pupils dilated from desire and, still, doubtful.

"Sorry, I'm really confused here, are we... doing this? Because you sound still very upset."

"I know you want them, but I don't have all the answers, Ethan. There is no instant miracle like in novels. I can only say that I'm willing to see why that night when you came back from the bar, and I thought you were just trying to get over Rachel, why that night was-."

"Different."

His answers caught you off guard.

"Yeah. It made me furious when you left me alone the next morning. I want to stop wondering why. I want to know why I can't forget about San Francisco, and why I don't want to."

"I think I know why." His fingers intertwine with your hair. "And I promise I didn't leave because I wanted to, we had a deal and didn't know how you would react the next morning."

"Well, I have to give you that one."

"And I have to give you this one."

He covers your lips with his, letting wandering hands dislocate from the back of your head towards your waist, bringing your body impossible closer to his, chest to chest. The wine had already dried on his shirt, you knew because your hands also wandered through there, tracing the way towards his strong shoulders while your mouth devoured his in a more needy way.

There is a honk, a whistle, and you want to laugh, don't want to stop, don't want to let him go, and this time you actually knew he wouldn't let you go either because you wouldn't ask him to, you wouldn't want him to. You knew.

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

My thoughts/guesses on the near future of pokemon

- I’m not at all surprised those rumours about the starters ended up being fake. In my honest opinion, the fire fakemon didn’t feel right for a pokemon game and yet in some ways felt like a Keldeo ripoff (I know that doesn’t really make sense, but yeah, main point is it felt off) and the water one was a little too close to Marshadow in the face but could have potentially fooled me for a non starter pokemon. The typings of them also just didn’t feel right. I will, however, say that had it been just the grass fakemon released, I probably would have fallen for it because personally I think that hits the mark as a starter.

- As much as no one probably wants to hear it, I’m still thinking that generation eight is still a few years away (if the first “main” switch game comes this year, I’m thinking late 2020). The first “main” pokemon game on the switch is probably going to be generation one remade. It’s the best chance they have to bring in new players (either ones that were too young to play the original games and leaf green/fire red or pulling on nostalgic strings). On the flip side, it’s also a good way to see just how much they can do on the switch coding and technology wise and fix up any bugs before releasing a new new game as lets face it, less people will probably all up will probably buy the generation one remakes. As for whether I think it’s just going to be the original 151 pokemon + megas that will be accessible without trade; no I don’t think it will, but I also don’t think it’s going to be all 800+. It will be like generation seven where they’ll put a few hundred but that’s it. My hope is that they will at least have a national dex and allow an option to skip tutorials.

- Following this will be the generation four remakes in my opinion. The fans have been advocating for them basically since ORAS and like I said, while I get what they’re doing if I’m right and they do remakes of generation one, I doubt those generation one remakes will sell that well, especially coming off US/UM at a point where the fandom is bored of what we have and itching for a new generation and/or these remakes. Generation four remakes would show the fans that they are still listening to them while still having time to perfect the new generation.

- Generation eight will follow and will be massive. I’m thinking it’ll be an Australian based region and the starters will be a grass/flying emu, a fire/fighting kangaroo and a water/ground platypus.

- As for an all regions encompassing game which people want; I doubt they will ever do it but especially not right now when it’s still possible and relatively easy to access and play generation 3 (through ORAS) up to generation seven, hence they are still being brought for now so it’s not business savvy to make a game like that now. The only way I see it happening is 1. As the final ever pokemon game or 2. making the generation one remake I speak of and adding the other generations as dlc over many years, kinda like WoW, which I don’t see them doing because I don’t see the switch being around for that type of time frame. I also just don’t see how it would work with the levelling unless they forced some kind of “Ash spell” on you where after each region, you have to box your pokemon until you finish that league or something.

- So keep in mind that I’m only part way through generation four in the anime (just about to start season 11) when I say this next part, but as for the anime, my HOPE (Read: completely delusional wish that they will never do) is that they reboot the whole series. Age Ash up and have his story contrast Gary's in the way of while Gary realised that being a professor was his dream so went to do that, Ash is stuck being like a pokemart sales person which he hates, still having never won a league. One day, Max comes to Kanto to battle him only for Ash to turn him down, saying that he's grown up. Have Max refuse to take no for an answer, leading Ash to talk to Gary, Brock or Misty (preferably Gary with the whole contrast thing I'm going with tbh) who make him realise that following dreams is the most important thing. End the episode with him having that battle with Max and realising he wants to travel the world again so join Max on his adventure like Brock did him.

- In terms of what I think they'll actually do should I be right about the generation one and four remakes; probably just add another battle frontier type thing in Kanto and have him travel for that again.

- Honest opinion? I’d be happy enough if Z crystals never came back and we only got megas for the starters and like one or two other pokemon per generation from here on out. Really what I want to return is the Alola forms. Like I know they pushed it as only Alola having different forms, especially by not adding any new ones in US/UM, but that was by far the best thing they did in generation seven in my opinion.

Anyway I think that’s it for now. I’ve been wanting to say most of this for a while now and am glad I finally got the chance to. As with anything to do with the future of pokemon though, I must remind people that this is my opinion and guesses. None of this should be taken as factual unless those in charge confirm it.

[ruzhansky]

i pray this will never end, i have my heart open wide

This report is not going to cover my teams, spreads and so on, as it was in 2015. I even don’t know if I should call it a ‘report’, I just want to slop down some thoughts about 2017. Have a nice read.

Why did I return to vgc? I DONT KNOW. As you might remember, I was a tryharder in 2015, but Nats loss and Autumn Series event loss completely broke me. 2016 season wasn’t a thing I’d like to try out (especially with the 2015 wounds) and I got some serious mental health problems in 2016. New pokemon game was a thing that could possibly make my days a bit brighter, and yea, I liked the game, the tapus, the ultra beasts and I became curious about the new format. The first russian tournament was announced to be held in late December, but I was busy with exams prep and haven’t even completed the main story. Though the tournament was tempting. I tested my first ideas on PS which included Instruct spam xd, but Nihilego with proper support showed a real potential at our early days of metagame. I could make it to the tournament (MSS Q1, wow Russia got midseasons...) and somehow won it. It’s like WHATTT how could i... but still. This thing lit something inside me and I decided to give that season a chance.

this is a very bad and old drawing of my mss q1 team xd sorry

January brought the first meta shift, and I started struggling with the team I had. I accidentally joined a random coversation on twitter and then I texted PephanVGC something like hey, did you remember we wanted to talk about teams. And he was very nice to me right from the start, he helped me out with the team and then we started to chat about everything. About friends, life, our past, loneliness and other troubles, and I thought I’ve found a real soulmate. We started to chat every day, but some days ago we were complete strangers to each other. This is so great.

Pephan shared a team with me I instantly fell in love with. It was Winter, so yeah Hail was cool to use, and that was the warmest winter I have :3 though Arcanines already were everywhere, and I removed Life Orb from his Koko to make it Electrium Z Koko AND IT BECAME MY MASCOT FOR THE WHOLE SEASON (i thought so before specs has come to mind...)  Also I played the same team with Pephan at Melbourne Challenge, and I got paired with him on r2... I lost in a close set and got broken so much, but he still helped me a lot with that and taught me how to treat losses less painfully. I love Pephan.

February IC poster with @Elveman yeah we had fun once

Then I built an AFK team too but with fucked item choices (firium arcanine just why), but I also had Scarf Porygon-Z and it was amazing to use. 

I brought Hail team to St Peter (yeah I travelled to St Petersburg) and Moscow PCs, got 1st and 2nd, AFK PZ team - to MSS Q2 AND I WON AGAIN. I was wondering why my enemies rivals didn’t visit our events, but ok, it was not my problem. Especially when our 2016 nats champion became my main enemy.

This was my season flow. I traveled, I played, I was studying at university and it was my graduation year, I had a job and tried to combine it with studying and pokemon, sometimes it affected my results. I was invited to represent Pokemon at Hinode 2017, the huge annual Japanese event in Moscow, with my main rival, famous russian pokemon community moderator and some TCG guys. It was definitely a nice experience. I got money from that just because I told people how amazing pokemon is, I teached them how to battle and showed that there’s much more than Pokemon Go. Yes, I don’t like Go. All pokemon players don’t like Go here.

b-but they’re so young!!! pic from Hinode.

Well, I thought season should have something else besides MSS and PCs, and hell yes, 8 Russian Special Events at 8 different cities were announced in May. Moar travelling! We(my rival, me and our tcg frens) decided to go to St Peter (again), Perm, Astrakhan and Ufa. Someone decided to go to all 8 SE because he wanted to.

The big-big drama started at our community but I don’t wanna share it here.

I graduated, traveled and played, and since my rival missed 2 Specials due to his own graduation and some other issues, my invite made a bit more real. Wait. THE DREAM OF MAKING WORLDS BECAME REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I still needed to put a lot ot work into it. Top 1 vgc gets paid invite, I was 1st, but tcg guy with a good amount of vgc points was second (because he always played vgc after tcg at special events). I thought he will play TCG after all and he won’t interfere with my road to worlds, but I found out that he is going to the city we’re all decided not to go, to grind some tcg AND vgc points. I got angry as a rival and made an impulsive decision to go to Irkutsk Special before Moscow Special. And I went. And got some important points. And pretty locked up my invite. But I said to myself that I shouldn’t sсream it out loud and dance in the shower before the official ceremony in the end of the season. I still had Moscow event.

Huh. Our system this year allowed travelling, and 8 Special Events were held in June and July. Because I had the will and money to travel, because I got a job and combined it with studying at university and somehow haven’t lost it, I visited 6 Special Events. People started to shittalk me. I am wallet warrior, I am noob, I am not worlds caliber, I bought an invite and so on. I even partly agree. At that point winning russian events isn’t close to winning or doing well at EU/US events. Not every SE at regions gave us a strong competition. I am deadly far from WolfeyNails/Markus/etc level. But even with that, should I leave my spot and act like a fucking noble idiot? ‘Oh I am bad and not worlds caliber, guess I should give up now’. Yes. Definitely. Absolutely. It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? I have a game I love, a desire to travel, a job and money for that, so why not. If you don’t play and try, you can never ‘get good’. Sitting on a sofa and thinking ‘oh I will never be good enough so I better don’t play’ is a shitty mindset as well. And then twitter drama about ‘free worlds not being elitist’ happened, I’ve become so sick of that.  

Moscow Special. The long-awaited end of the season. Really long-awaited because I felt like every day had 48 hours. I didn’t have special plans for Moscow. I didn’t want win it out as hell, I just wanted everything to end. And it ended. 

the event

party after d1

i remember how to draw

the main scene

turn your main enemies to judges lol

#lifegoals

<3

Despite tons of personal shit happened to me this season, apparently I found myself a better person. i don’t know if this is growing up, I am already 21 and difference between 19 and 21 doesn’t seem too big, though my mind and attitude to some things have noticeably changed.

Got rid of fake elitism, as it was in my early days of competitive and my -most famous year- (2015). I can’t even imagine now but then I thought that competitive is the BEST part we can have about pokemon, and everyone else who likes casual playing or anime are absolute losers and can never be as cool as us. Your dream is completing dex? Breeding a shiny? You love some anime characters and wanna watch fuckin dummies’ anime forever? Uh, dream of becoming a xXxWORLDCHAMPIONxXx just disparages your shitty life goals. I laughed at people i don’t know in person and who didn’t do anything bad to me.

I don’t know what changed my mind in particular. It’s like I just woke up with thoughts “why should I do this”. I saw that people who are not only about competitive can have and reach their own pokemon dreams, they’re valuable too. They can travel not only for competitive. For love to the franchise all of us are fond of. I am sorry for being an asshole :)

Got some skills of loving myself. Yup, y’all might know it was a big problem. Tl,dr: I haven’t a reason to. My only ray of light was being successful enough in vgc and when I wasn’t it became a catastrophe. Bad runs at IC, losses at regionals stages, bad BS sessions? Oh god, i am so shitty, i hate myself - and it was the softest thing I said. It was a mix of hatred and sadness and absolutely wasn’t a great thing to feel.  It cost me a real depression in 2016 - though I didn’t even play that season, it hit me hard. I let it happen, I let myself think and treat the game that way. Now it is slightly better, and it also feels so new. It’s like WOAH you actually may not hate yourself for a loss? In 2015 I had my Nats spot already reserved, but every mediocre regionals stage run made me feel terrible. This season I was fighting for the Worlds (Worlds > Rus Nats) right from the start with no ‘safe options’, I was losing too, but I could cope with that. Though losing is always sad. The difference is in being frustrated and hating yourself for days or week and being frustrated and hating yourself for an evening, and then you’re saying something like enough, it won’t make me better, learning and practice will make me better, so let’s play tomorrow. Pephan helped me out a lot with this. Tons of love to Pephan.

Well, also I reached a dream. When I was 17, I watched 2013 Worlds with excitement, though I understood nothing because I was an OU child. New format? Big event? That was very unfamiliar but holy crap so breathtaking! Two guys were fighting for the honourable title with some beautiful teams and strategies, I felt their drive even when I was so far away. That blew my mind. I told myself that I want to visit Pokemon World Championships too. The long way of getting better started in 2013 and will never end. I won Russian VGC 2014 big event and got closer to my dream. I qualified to Russian National Championships in 2015 and almost made my dream real, finishing 2nd. I got broken and gave up because sometimes it was too hard to keep up. I remembered how I sang lyrics from “Wavin Flag”: ‘when I get older, I will be stronger’. The dream wasn’t dead.  And I tried again. And I did it. The most trivial thing I can say now is do not give up and fight for your dreams, but this is really true!

Every Trainer has a choice To listen to that voice inside. I know the battle may be long, Winners may have come and gone I will carry on! Yeah, this dream will last forever, And this dream will never die, We will rise to meet the challenge every time. (Advanced Challenge) Yeah, this dream keeps us together, This shows that you and I Will be the best that the world's ever seen, Cause we always will follow this dream!

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Nothing can be perfect in one second. I still have issues with rivalry and with the community, though I wonder how we will do in 2018.

Thanks for reading and, finally I can say it, see you at Worlds!

Shout-outs to: PurpurVGC, Loui, PephanVGC, Elveman, Sergey, Annet Ilvers, unhealthy rivalry and Havkai for making this season amazing.

[characteraddict]

Character 1: Dragonborn Barbarian

High Concept

I wanted to start this blog off with the character I’ve most wanted to play but haven’t had the chance to yet. He’s a Dragonborn Barbarian with a bit of a different approach to the Rage ability. Rather than be fueled by anger, I wanted this character’s combat prowess to be based on something else, his ancestry and it’s chaotic nature. I chose a Red Dragonborn because Red Dragons in Fifth Edition are Chaotic Evil, so the Rage ability and its bonuses aren’t based on anger or fury, just his giving in to his chaotic heritage. 

In terms of backstory, my initial idea was that this character was the son of a powerful red dragon. I later learned that children of dragons in the DnD ecosystem are Half-Dragons, not Dragonborn, which have different origins. However, the idea was in my head already and my infatuation was cemented. If you’re playing with a Dungeon Master who cares a lot about lore in his world, this might be an issue, but I don’t foresee that being a problem at many tables. Because of his very close proximity to his draconic heritage, the pull of chaos is strong and he’s constantly at war between his desire to do good and his father’s propensity for evil. I have a mental image of this character trying to do his best to keep a low profile and go about his business (or at least as much of a low profile as a 6+ foot tall red dragon man can keep) but completely changing once he gives in to his ancestral desires. Out of combat, he is a quiet and kind soul trying to go gently go about his day, but in combat he is a crazed, maniacal, and maybe even egotistical. Red Dragons are proud creatures who think all others are beneath them, after all.

How his draconic parentage came to be is ultimately up to you, and I encourage you to try and leave it a mystery in case your DM wants to explore that part of your story in the game later. Regardless of the logistics of his birth, the end result is a Red Dragonborn in a rural community who isn’t exactly well liked by the more superstitious neighbors. I’d like to imagine he grew up on the fringes of the local community working as a woodcutter or farmer, something that would develop his already natural brawn into his heroic levels when we start the game. His journey began when some not-so-nice soldiers from the local lord or baron came by and tried to abuse their power as lawmen before our Dragonborn character intervened on behalf of the people. After a brief physical conflict, he was able to drive the soldiers out of town, but knew they’d return and he’d be arrested and imprisoned so he left. How he stumbled into the adventuring party is up to you, maybe just using his size and strength to find work as a caravan guard or some other mercenary work. So without further ado, let’s start filling in this character sheet.

Class Features

This section isn’t going to go over any choices that need to be made but if you’re unfamiliar with what the Barbarian class offers, this might be useful to go over.

The core ability of this class is, of course, the Rage ability. While we’re in Rage we gain resistance to, or take half damage from, bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage. These are the the most common forms of damage, especially from conventional weapons. Combined with our d12 hit die and a high Constitution score, this will give us some of the highest durability on offer at level 1 as well as throughout the rest of the game.

Also on the defensive side is the Unarmored Defense feature, letting us add our DEX and CON modifier to our Armor Class as long as we’re not wearing any armor. It is also important to note, we can still use a shield if you’re looking for some additional defenses.

In addition to Rage increasing our defensive abilities it also boots our damage output as well. We get advantage on Strength checks and saving throws, continuing to add to our physical abilities. Our damage output also increases when we are raging, starting at +2 at level 1 and increasing as we level up. We get 2 rages per long rest and they last for 1 minute as long as we either attack or take damage every turn. For this reason, we can’t be afraid of getting into the thick of combat, which can be freeing if you’re used to playing more support or defensive based classes. 

Racial Features

Like the previous section, this won’t go over many choices that need to be made. However, Dragonborn are an uncommon race in most settings so it might be useful to discuss what they offer to newer players.

Dragonborn are taller and of a stronger build than humans and this is reflected in having a +2 bonus to your Strength. Reflecting their draconian heritage as well is their presence and force of personality, giving them a +1 to Charisma. 

The most distinguished feature of the Dragonborn race is, of course, their heritage. We have many options for the color of our scales that determine many things, most notably our type of breath weapon and our damage resistance to our respective element. As mentioned in the High Concept section, I really like our character’s Rage ability coming from something other than anger, instead coming from the chaotic tug from his ancestry. For this reason, I think its important for the character concept to pick from one of the Chaotic Evil dragons. I chose red but you could easily also go with black or white as well. 

Choosing a red ancestry gives us resistance to our element, fire, as well as giving us our signature breath weapon of a 15 ft. cone of flames. If fire seems a bit too cliche or you’d like to experiment further, black dragons are acid themed and white dragons are ice and cold based. If these still aren’t to your taste, feel free to check out the table on Draconic Ancestry on page 34 of the Player’s Handbook to learn more and decide for yourself.

Assigning Ability Scores

Because this is a Barbarian, Strength and Constitution are going to be our main focus. Since Dragonborn have a +2 to STR as a racial bonus, I decided to put my 15 in CON and my 14 in STR, resulting in 16 after applying the bonus. This means we’ll still be able to dish out some damage, but still have the Hit Points and Armor Class to stay in the fight as well. Don’t forget, Barbarians have the Unarmored Defense class feature, meaning our CON boosts our AC as well. Our CON modifier also increases the DC of our Dragonborn Breath Weapon feature making it harder for enemies to avoid it.

Keeping with the idea of being a physical powerhouse, I decided to put my 13 into Dexterity. This has the benefit of further raising our AC as well as making sure any Dexterity Saving throws are taken care of, especially after getting the Danger Sense class feature at 2nd level.

Next, I like the idea of this character being street-smart, observant, and a little more experienced in the world than most. Pencil in our 12 for Wisdom. This means he’s a bit more naturally perceptive and fits a more rural upbringing.

While Dragonborn get a +1 to Charisma due to their racial bonus, I don’t see this character getting much use out of his people skills. Intimidation might not be a bad thing to make use of, especially if you’re the party’s resident beefcake, but Deception and Persuasion probably aren’t going to get much use. I’m marking down my 10 in CHA (11 after racial bonus).

Lastly, Intelligence is going to be my low stat on this one. As much as I dislike the dumb barbarian stereotype, I feel it makes sense for this character given his background. In This character was raised in a rural area and didn’t have access to many books or tutors, so it makes sense that his INT would be a little lacking. Finish off our Ability scores with our 8 in INT.

So this leaves us with our Ability Scores at 16 STR, 15 CON, 13 DEX, 12 WIS, 11 CHA, and 8 INT and our respective modifiers at +3, +2, +1, +1, +0, and -1.

Background

Next, I like to pick a Background first as it gives us some Skill Proficiencies that aren’t up for us to choose, making our selection of skills from our Class a little easier. For this character, I think Folk Hero fits the backstory best with the Defining Event being option #1: “I stood up to a tyrant’s agents”. This gives us proficiency in Animal Handling and Survival in addition to Land Vehicles and one type of Artisan’s Tools. The choice of tools is up to you and what fits your backstory, but I like the idea of him being a wood cutter or carpenter so I’ll pick Carpenter’s Tools. I like the idea of his profession contributing to his strength, so a trade that involves physical activity works great.

We also gain the Feature “Rustic Hospitality” which enables us to more easily fit in with the ranks of the common folk thanks to our humble upbringing. It also means we can receive favors like a place to stay or shelter from the law or other enemies so long as we prove ourselves friendly. I really like the idea of an otherwise not-very charismatic character being able to talk to peasants if the need arises so this is a solid fit overall. Make use of your proficiency with Woodcutter’s Tools and mend a door or wagon and earn some favors from the locals to add some character depth in a pinch.

As for our Characteristics, I want to lean in to the idea that this character doesn’t like people abusing their power. This fits his defining event and provides a nice juxtaposition with his personality in his rage-state. Keeping with this idea, I’ll select “I just people by their actions, not their words” for a Personality Trait. Likewise, “Tyrants must not be allowed to oppress the people” is an easy choice for his Ideal. His Bond is a little harder to pick, but I prefer “I have a family but I have no idea where they are. One day, I hope to see them again.” as it leaves the nature of his parentage a mystery to be potentially explored later. Lastly, his Flaw is a toss up between option 1 and 3 as both reference his defining event. For no particular reason, I’ll pick option 1: “The tyrant who rules my land will stop at nothing to see me killed.” as I think it sets up a good conflict later as well as present an obstacle in adventuring if the party makes their way back to his homeland in their travels.

Class Options

Now that we’ve got our Background figured out, let’s jump back to our class options. Starting off at level 1 we have our maximized Hit Die at a d12 plus our CON modifier giving us 14 HP which is great for level 1. We also get proficiency with Light and Medium armor as well as shields, however Barbarians function just fine without armor thanks to Unarmored Defense. We also get proficiency with both Simple and Martial weapons allowing us any weapon we choose which allows plenty of options for whatever weapon we stumble across in our adventures. Our two Saving Throws our class gives us are Strength and Constitution which is right on point with our physicality and powerhouse type character. We also get advantage on our Dexterity saving throws at level 2 meaning all our physical saves are taken care of. 

As for our skill proficiencies our class provides, we have our choice of 2 from Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, and Survival. We already have Animal Handling and Survival taken care of, meaning our choices are down to just four. For my own picks I’m going to choose Athletics to double down on the brawn our character already possesses. If your DM allows it, consider using the Variant Rule described on page 175 of the Player’s Handbook and use your Strength modifier instead of your Charisma modifier for the Intimidation skill. This would add some social abilities to our otherwise combat and physical based character, which I like the idea of. If your DM doesn’t allow this but you still like trying to intimidate people on a regular basis, try to gain advantage on the roll as much as possible by doing things like brandishing your weapon or using your large size. If you don’t think Intimidation suits your version of this character, Perception is always a nice skill to have as. I don’t see Nature being tremendously important for this character, but if you want to lean into the carpenter and woodworking aspect of this characters backstory it fits just fine.

Equipment

Our equipment and gear comes from both our Class and our Background, or you can choose to roll for gold and buy your own equipment if you’d like to start from scratch. Depending on your Dungeon Master, you might be allowed to substitute some items for others if you’d like, but be sure to check with your DM first.

Let’s start with the Class gear. We have the choice of a greataxe or a Martial melee weapon. I encourage the use of a heavy two-handed weapon like the greataxe, greatsword, or a maul to really round out the physical power of this character. People who are more into optimization and min-maxing will tell you that the greataxe is mechanically the best choice, but that shouldn’t influence your decision too much. I do like the use of an axe to go with our background as a woodsman. More historically or warfare minded players might realize that a wood axe and an axe meant for combat are very different, but don’t be afraid to run with the idea that the tool he used for work was the same one he used to fight the soldiers during his defining event. Don’t forget that Barbarians can still use shields as well, so opting for a one-handed or versatile weapon might also be useful for that reason. 

Our other equipment is less important, but I think its important to have a good a backup weapon. The choice presented is between two handaxes or a simple weapon. Picking two handaxes gives us the option of dual wielding, but I’m hesitant to have that many axes on our person. If it were me, I’d go with a dagger as a secondary weapon but a light hammer or mace or even a quarterstaff would be a solid choice. If you’d like to keep with the idea of this character re-purposing his carpenter tools as weapons, a hammer fits this very well. We also get four javelins from our class to serve as our ranged weapon and while it might seem a little off-brand, having an enemy who can either outrun you or take to the air and completely avoid any of your offense is definitely a big disadvantage that’s best avoided.

Finishing our class gear is an Explorer’s Pack which is described on page 151 of the Player’s Handbook. I won’t go through all of what’s included, but the Explorer’s Pack is a great general adventuring kit that can easily be customized with just a few additions from the Adventuring Gear in the same chapter.

Next up is the gear we get from our Folk Hero background. Less important is the shovel, iron pot, and common clothes. Even though its just a small thing, I’d lean into the cooking potential provided by the pot. The open road can get dangerous and stressful and I really love the idea of a huge dragon-man making a nice stew or other meal in a traditional rural, home-cooked style in between adventures. 

What is important is our choice of Artisan Tools. The full list can be found on page 154 of the PHB as well as a deeper dive on said tools on page 78 of the Xanathar’s Guide to Everything supplement. Keeping with our idea of this character being an ex-lumberjack and carpenter type, the Carpenter’s Tools is a perfect fit. For the curious, according to XGtE, a set of Carpenter’s Tools includes a saw, hammer, nails, hatchet, square, ruler, adze (this thing), plane, and chisel. If you have access to a copy of Xanathar’s Guide, I really do recommend reading through the things you’re able to do with these tools like fortify walls and doors for defensive purposes or even be more stealthy on wood floors thanks to your familiarity with the construction of them to better avoid creaky spots. It even gives DCs for some basic carpentry skills that you might make use of. 

I’m leaning into the carpenter aspect fairly heavily, but don’t be afraid to pick something different if it works better for you. Again, I like the idea of your previous profession informing your physicality, so something like a Blacksmith or Mason’s tools work just as well. I encourage you to flesh out this aspect of your character to be more than just a meathead or dumb jock type that’s very common with Barbarians and Fighters. 

Advancement Options and Recommendations

Now that we have most everything done for Level 1, it might be useful for some to go over the future of the class if you’re needing some direction. I encourage you to not plan too much of your class ahead of time because of how your campaign turns out and any changes in tastes you might have. For those looking for some direction, let’s examine our options going forward.

Level 3 is where we get to make our important decision: our choice of Primal Path. The Player’s Handbook gives us two options but I’ll go over some of the options elsewhere as well in case you have access to any of those supplements. 

Path of the Berserker is my personal pick for this character as it doubles down on the reckless and chaotic nature of our character in his rage-state. It allows us to go into a Frenzy when raging letting us get a second attack as well as later being immune to fear and charming effects. The addition of Intimidating Presence and Retaliation at levels 10 and 14 respectively. This is an extremely tempting subclass if you want to be purely offensively focused and is fairly simple to play if you’re a beginner.

Path of the Totem Warrior is tempting, however. Bear Totem’s shadow is long and the ability to have resistance to all damage types except psychic is a very attractive option. I think if you’re wanting to go Totem Barbarian, it’s important to consider the lore and RP reasons behind the choice. If this character is getting his abilities because of his ancestry, his choice of Primal Path should reflect that. Maybe your Bear Totem is reflected by having thicker and more durable scales or an Eagle Totem lets you grow small wings as you become more Draconic.  The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide offers the additional totems of Elk and Tiger. While neither of these Totems are obvious choices for this character, I do recommend giving them a look if you can just in case something strikes your fancy.

If you have a Dungeon Master that’s okay with some homebrew options, consider working with them to create a Dragon Totem. Without spending too much thought on it, getting more uses out of your breath weapon or maybe growing wings and gaining a fly speed at higher levels. Look at what sort of things the other totems offer and see if you can’t change just a few things to make them your own.

We also gained some additional Primal Paths from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and some could work for this character so I encourage looking through this supplement if you can. 

Path of the Ancestral Guardian might initially seem a bit off thematically, but with some alterations to the flavor of the abilities it could work quite well. While this Path is designed to emphasize the bond between fallen ancestors, many of the abilities could work well if you change it slightly to be consulting his father or another powerful red dragon. This might put your DM in an awkward spot as he might decide your father is still alive or otherwise unable or unwilling to aid you from afar, but I think the story and roleplay potential might make it worth it.

Perhaps the best choice of the Xanathar’s Paths is the Storm Herald. If you’re sticking with a red dragon heritage, the Desert Storm Aura is an easy choice as its all fire themed. Imagine being so in touch with your elemental attunement to fire that you radiate heat and can set things on fire with just a touch. More optimization focused players will note that you gain fire resistance at level 6 but you already have it because of your racial bonus. Consider bribing your DM with cookies or buying pizza for the first session in exchange for getting full immunity to fire damage or maybe just taking 1/4 damage instead. If you chose to go with a different color of dragon during character creation, some of the other Storm Auras might fit better for you. Tundra is an easy choice for a white-scaled dragonborn, but black might require some tweaking to fit with an acidic theme.

I won’t spend much time on the Path of the Zealot as it isn’t a very good fit without some serious modifications. If you can think of a solid way to explain your Warrior of the Gods ability, you could ask about changing your bonus radiant damage to fire instead to be more thematic, but that’s up to you and your DM.

Roleplaying Ideas

What drew me most to this character concept is the narrative and roleplay potential. I’ve put a lot of thought into how I would play this character at the table and I’d like to share my ideas. That said, this is the easiest thing to change from my recommendations at your own table. If you see something else in this character, I encourage you to run with it. If RP isn’t your thing but you’d like to try a more narrative focused character, I hope this section helps.

The main theme I want to focus on is the difference between the way this character acts in combat and out. While he’s on the road and in-town, I imagine this character being quiet and reserved. He keeps to himself and tries not to turn heads, especially due to his wanted status near his hometown and any potential fear of being discovered by his father. 

But when initiative gets rolled and the rage gets triggered, I want this character to throw off his cloak and heft his axe and become a savage and besital force of violence. Because his martial prowess comes from his draconian blood, he’s proud and arrogant in combat and considers himself to be superior to these pathetic bandits or puny goblins. If it were me, I’d rehearse or otherwise prepare some maniacal insults and taunts to yell during combat. 

“PATHETIC WORMS WRITHING IN THE MUD. LOOK UPON YOUR FIERY DOOM WHOSE NAME IS CINDERWING.”

I mean, c’mon, that just sounds like so much fun.

Fitting with the idea of the heavy transition between your rage and non-rage states, I really like the idea of delineating this transition by always beginning your rage with the use of your breath weapon. I might even take it a step further and outright refuse to use the breath weapon when he isn’t raging in an attempt to distance himself from his father. This could be indicative of a more general fear or even shame of himself and how he gets when he gives in to his chaotic desires. If you’re making characters separate from your other players or if they’re good about staying in character, I’d suggest not even using your rage ability until a few rounds in combat. This serves really only to make the reveal and subsequent contrast that much more jarring. 

Other aspects you can choose to play up are your dislike for tyranny and the powerful exploiting their position, your rural and simple upbringing, and going out of your way to do small acts of kindness to “rebel” against your father’s nature. I’d also like to consciously move away from the sort of dumb-jock stereotype that’s common amongst Barbarians. This can be done by offering ideas when you think of them and trying to be observant when you can be. Remember, a low Intelligence does not mean you’re an idiot, just that you’re not a learned person in terms of book-smarts, facts, and information. 

Of course, these are all suggestions and you’re free to take them or leave them. I encourage you to think of a song or three that exemplifies your take on this character. You could also try and find an existing fictional character to draw inspiration from. I think the relationship between Bruce Banner and The Hulk is a good reference point, but I could also see the version of Wolverine given to us in the movie Logan being another source of inspiration.

Closing Thoughts 

My main goal with this character is to play against type. It’s very easy to play a dumb meathead of a barbarian who just hulk’s out and gets his strength from bestial anger. If you take only one thing away from this build, I hope its that you can play a supposedly “simple” class and add some real depth to it. 

Of course, feel free to take this character to your own table and let me know how it goes! I’ll see about posting a link to a printable character sheet to make it as easy as possible. If you’d like to see more builds from this blog, give it a follow orr check back soon. Since this is my first post, I don’t want to commit to a set schedule just yet, but I’d like to get to that point.

Thanks so much!

-Character Addict