#also you know how in gen 5 when the gym leader is down to their last pokemon they pop in and say something

[prof-lemon]

❡ (@the-koiking-pond, with a twist! it's not Jainitar. it's NURBS.)

OOC: ohoho very interesting

Title: The Polygon Powerhouse

Type Focus: Water

Signature Pokemon: Magikarp

Signature Move: Hydro Pump (Magikarp can, in fact, learn Hydro Pump from a Gen 5 event.)

Gym Location: Lilycove City

Gym Puzzle: Its fishin' time! You'll be competing against the other gym trainers to fish up the strongest Pokemon. The mechanics are the same as the Bug Catching Contest (though its much easier to win). However, you fish instead. There are special Magikarp in the ponds too, with the patterns from Magikarp Jump. They put up a fight, though! They carry special moves like Bubble, Reversal, Bounce, and Dragon Rage!

Badge Design: The yahoo badge, MSPaint drawing of Nurbs.

Musical Theme: Floral Fury - Cuphead

Prize TM: Water Pulse

[nampeung]

U-KISS is back

I am obsessed with them and I feel like an island with the only Kiss Me left at times, but I will hype these men forever! If you don't know U-KISS yet, they're a 2nd gen K-Pop boygroup and If you want to stay around, I will tell you some stuff about them. If someone is genuinely interested in getting to know them, I can tell you pretty much ALL the tea, ups and downs and link you some of their stuff.

But let me get into this music video first! Their title track this time is called 'Stay with me'!

It's a slower track than I imagined, but I really love that we're going slower this time. The music video looks very simple, since it's only shot in one place, but I love every aspect of it! We have three different light settings, amazing costumes, a dance to die for and for most of the video I get to see and admire their beautiful faces and dance, without any shaky camera!! ALL THUMBS UP! WELL DONE!

I imagine that they saved a bit of money on the music video this time, since tango music is not exactly big and I'm not sure how well The Great Escape did last year. But they gave us TWO music videos this time and showed us that they're amazing idols who can keep us seated with just them and dancing. The amazing things can be better shown in gifs or by watching the actual video, so I recommend just paying attention to the dance. They put so much effort into the choreography, especially the part in the beginning, the timing is amazing. What I love most are the differen lights. We go from this:

To this:

It's such a ltitle change, but they show us their faces and at the same time have a bit of darker, cool, mysterious light. The next setting is when Kiseop goes from this:

To this blue setting of light:

And I love that they used Kiseop for this set of light first, because you can see them best with the contrast and light, but at the same time, you see how absolutely STUNNING Kiseop is.

I also love the costumes. I know they look simple and maybe a bit too loose, but I know that half of them like it that way. A word of appreciation: Hoon and Eli have enjoyed their private life a lot, but for this comeback they've been hitting the gym hardcore! Eli looks so good with the black hair and the outfit. I didn't like Hoon's hair at first, but styled like this and with his fierce singing I am thankful that the stylist knows better than me (I still miss his longer hair, though :') ) Xander is gorgeous as ALWAYS. I just love him, guys. I can't help it. Kiseop couldn't look bad if he tried to. And Soohyun... I love him. He has this princely look about him. I love his hair color and the cut, I love the outfit and how it fits. I love his thighs. To be honest, he lost a bit of weight? His thighs always were bigger and while we know he sometimes felt bad about it, I absolutely loved it. His pants jus sat best and he had an ass in any jeans. I loved (and still do love) that about him. Our handsome leader. <3

If you're knew to U-KISS: Hi! This is for you! In the pic above, from left to right we're seeing: Eli, Kiseop, Soohyun, Hoon and Alexander. Here I've listed the current members for you with some random information thrown in!

Soohyun (1989) - our beloved leader and main vocal Leader has always been there and sworn to always be there. His back has carried U-KISS to where it is now, all on his own. I won't go into too much detail, but this guy went and mended a broken group so that WE FANS would have a wonderful 15th anniversary. Now they're back to 5 members and I will forever adore, love and support Soohyun. His voice is perfection, no matter if live or on record, even when he's sick. During one of the concerts I attended, he kept disappearing from stage and soon later asked fans if it was okay if he sang sitting down because he didn't feel too well. I nearly dragged him of the stage myself, but he insisted on staying on stage and singnig for us. Because how can we have a concert without one of the main vocals ;_; He deserves all our love so much. Please love on him. <3 (I have TONS of other stories, write 1 in the comments to hear more XD)

Hoon (1991) - main vocalist Hoon was added later to the group (it was DRAMA back then, believe me) but I REGRET NOTHING BECAUSE I LOVE THIS MAN, OK? He has been my fave since then, he has the softest voice and it works so well with Soohyun. He works so hard and LOOK AT HIS LEGS. an always shows love to Kiss Me. I'm 100% sure Soohyun raised him to be like that because he talks like Soohyun, treasures us like Soohyun and is just in general kind of the "mom" of the group. When Soohyun went to the military, he was the substitute and kept the group together, I'm very sure. <3 He is married and just had his first baby, so I really appreciate that they are doing a comeback in this time!!

Kiseop (1991) - Ullzang, dancer and songwriter Our beauty of the group was added as just that: beauty of the group. But I remember he had this heartbreaking story where he just wanted to get a chance to be an idol because he wanted to be one, so they added a 7th member, after U-KISS had already debuted as a 6-member-group. ANYWAY... U-KISS is nothing without Kiseop. He wrote FLY, one of my all time favorite songs by U-KISS. He is my Kishibi and cutie. Hug him. (He is also married to a beautiful lady! <3)

Eli (1991) - rapper Once upon a time we called him pigeon, because he could do the impression of one. He is the funny guy, the rapper, he can speak English and Chinese and knows how to act. He was married and has a son! Our boy once left U-KISS and went back to America, but when Soohyun asked them to come back for the 15th anniversary, he showed up and I love that he stayed after that. I simply love him so much, he adds so much sound to the group. I missed him. I'm also so proud of everything he does.

Alexander (1988) - I don't even know, he's everything 🥺 Xander is MY MAN and he might say 100 times that he's too old for all of this, I think he's AMAZING and I NEED HIM in U-KISS! He was one of the main members who suddenly were kicked out of the group by the agency to be exchanged for 2 new members. (told you, there's a lot of tea in this group...) Well, Xander is a man of god and has the BIGGEST heart ever. He did some acting after that, had a solo song. He did many projects and he works a lot for arirang, since he is fluent in Korean and English. When I say he has the biggest heart, I mean it, because he showed up when Soohyun called and he is here now with us, blessing us with his existence. You have to imagine, he didn't do much idol work since 2011 (!!!) and he simply came back for us Kiss Me. When I tell you I cried happy tears when he was revealed for the 15th anniv comeback, I mean it literally. If I had a bit more budget, I would have flown over there for the anniversary concert. I still haven't seen him perform live T_T Anyways, he is amazing.

[chelseahotel2004]

hiii is the pokemon anime entertaining? are there multiple ones? i've never really played any of the games but i remember seeing a few episodes as a kid, thought it could be fun to watch some of it now as an adult :-)

this is a really good question! i love the pokemon anime, but i would be the first to say that it is not necessarily good. if you go into it expecting lots of crazy plot and character development, you are going to be pretty disappointed. but if you go into it understanding that it is a goofy show made for children, then you can have a lot of fun!! its a feel-good show to me with cute characters, fun plots, and (usually) exciting battles. i guess the best comparision i can make is that if you like old school magically girl animes like sailor moon or tokyo mew mew then you will probably like pokemon too? in the sense that they can both get a little repetitive at times, but for the most part they are just lots of fun :-D

as for whether there are multiple animes, the simple answer is yes. you can watch them all here (just make sure to use a good ad blocker). as for which series to watch, ive put some basic info about the main series below the cut

firstly, a basic synopsis: each series follows ash ketchum and his partner pikachu as they explore a new region in an attempt to become a pokemon master. along the way they meet new companions, catch new pokemon, develop new rivalries, fight team rocket, and challenge gym leaders to become the best of the best! each generation can stand alone, although there is continuity between them.

Original Series (seasons 1–5)

as the name implies, this is the original series and what most people think of when they hear 'pokemon anime'. here, ash travels with companions misty and brock through the kanto and johto region. if you are the kind of person who likes watching things in order, then this is the place to start. it introduces ash as a brand new trainer and explains how he and pikachu became partners. the animation and voice acting is definitely a product of its time, but is still charming in its own way. the main pitfalls of this generation for me are that the individual episodes can get a little bit boring at times (usually follows a repetitive formula). also, because they were still finding their footing, there is a lot of what i will lovingly call 'bullshit'. a lot of the battles dont make sense, and gym badges are given to ash for stupid reasons (like making a gym leader laugh instead of battling them). pokemon are released for no good reason and things just altogether get weird sometimes. ash is also just so dumb in this generation but i still love him. all in all though, this is the og, and it is rightfully iconic.

Advanced Generation (seasons 6–9)

this is the generation i grew up watching!! this gen introduces travelling companions may and max as ash journeys through the hoenn region. i think this is the most quintessential pokemon anime experience you can get. brock makes a return as a companion and in the later seasons they even return to kanto. the main focus is still ash's gym battles, but they also introduce pokemon contests in this generation with may which is a nice bit of variety. at times it can still get a little frustrating, but for the most part they cut down on all the bullshit. i feel obligated to let you know a lot of fans think that max is an annoying character. but personally i think they are wrong. anyways, this is just a classic pokemon adventure!

Diamond and Pearl (seasons 10–13)

diamond and pearl has ash travelling with dawn and brock once again as they explore the sinnoh region. this is basically advanced generation but with different characters and different locations. pokemon contests are a bigger deal in this generation, but the main focus is still gym battles. diamond and pearl is known for starting to bring in more nuanced character relationships and more interesting battling. most fans of this series like it because ash has an interesting dynamic with his main rival. ash is decently more competent in this generation. all in all, this is a solid series, although perhaps a bit of an awkward place to start considering its the last generation of the "classic" era.

Best Wishes! (seasons 14–16)

best wishes is a bit of an interesting series. it was intended as a soft-reset to the anime as a whole, so there are many changes from the previous generations. the tone of the main plot is much darker, with team rocket being a serious evil team rather than the goofy troublemakers that they used to be. in following with the reset, ash has completely new travelling companions with iris and cilan. if i am being honest, i find these companions to be more annoying than lovable, but that is just personal preference. this series also suffers from ash is also becoming less competent again, although not in the cute dumb way he was in the original series. i'm being harsh on this generation, but its really not all bad. if you want pokemon but a bit more mature, then this might be the series for you.

XY (seasons 17–19)

a brief disclaimer: i never finished this series. i had grown out of my pokemon phase when i started watching it, so most of what i am saying is based on what i know from other fans. that being said, XY takes place in the kalos region with new companions serena, bonnie, and clemont. most fans will point to this as being the best generation of the anime. the animation is much better, and there is more focus on developing plot. there are also some fan favourite pokemon that come out of this gen. ash is significantly more competent here, and on the whole is much more mature than previous series. to me, this generation is much more 'anime' than the others if that makes sense. if the reason you want to watch pokemon for the childhood whimsy, this is not the season for you. but if you want something with more plot that takes itself a bit more seriously, then i think you will enjoy XY.

Sun & Moon (seasons 20–22)

sun & moon is completely unlike any of the other generations that came before it. rather than journeying around a region to collect gym badges, ash instead lives in the alola region and attends school. as such, the supporting cast is not travelling companions, but rather his schoolmates. when this series came out, there was a huge outcry because people thought the cartoony animation style was ugly. these people are just haters. the animation in this generation is actually amazing. the tone of this series is also just way lighter. personally i find all the characters to be very lovable. this generation is also team rocket at their peak to me (still silly but not as annoyingly repetitive). i do wish this series had more battling though there is not nearly enough. sun & moon is definitely not a traditional pokemon experience, but its cute and fun so i love it. i'll put it this way - if you like my little pony, you will probably like sun & moon.

anyways! that was very long winded, but i hope it helped! i've left out some other series because i don't think they make for great starting point/i haven't watched them, but these are the main six. if you have any more questions please let me know because i could have easily written double the length and still had more to say.

[pokemonratingblog]

My experience (& review of) Pokemon Crystal

As part of the entire gimmick of this page, I am replaying and ranking the pokemon games in order.

Due to my experience with pokemon mystery dungeon and also adversity to the other 2 choices, I went for the only reasonable option of Totodile. The naming scheme is pizza ingredients this time, so I named it "Pepperoni". I then did the Mr. Pokemon stuff and immediately caught a zubat, naming it "Sausage".

After some grinding I ended up in Violet City. Because of this, I trespassed into Bellsprout Tower. Zubat in hand, I sucked off a whole lot of bellsprout. Alas, I didn't have a big enough PP to suck them all off, so I had to go back to the pokemon center numerous times.

After successfully sucking off all of the bellsprout in the building, I decided to grind my zubat to lvl 12 (when it learns a move that isnt leech life) and challenge Falkner's gym. In the process of getting my zubat to a reasonable level, I also got my totodile to lvl 13, when it learns water gun. And let's just say… I didn't realize his ace was lvl 9. I won't blame the game for this because it was entirely my fault for not looking at the gym leader's levels. It was an easy win.

After that, I did the ruins of alph puzzle, saw some cool unown, and ended up back in violet city. I went through the cave, caught a geodude (who i named cheese), did the team fodder slowpoke quest, and entered the gym. Bugsy is really no different from a fodder trainer so I swept him with my geodude. Silver used a mix of good flinch rng and an unusually tanky lvl 14 zubat to give me some trouble so I ended up losing, but I won on the 2nd try.

Afterwards, I ended up in the ibex forest. which has lvl 5 pokemon. I'm once again starting to see why I hate gen 2 so much. I found a level 5 oddish and I'm willing to bring back the time honored tradition of having an oddish that knows cut. This time I'll actually use it though because this game probably won't be as easy as red and blue. I named it pineapple.

I reached goldenrod city. the home of whitney's infamous miltank that really isnt even that difficult. I went to route 35 to grind up my team to lvl 19/20. It was here my totodile evolved into croconaw. As for the whitney fight? As I said earlier, She was pretty easy. It's questionable how she has a reputation for being so difficult when all you need is anything that resists rollout/stomp (eg. any rock type) to win. I spent quite a bit wandering around aimlessly all confused before I realized I needed to talk to her again to get the badge because she's too busy crying about it. Amazing.

After obtaining the squirt bottle, I headed to route 26 to beat the shit out of a tree. I wanted to catch it but the geodude I have is already a rock type and I don't need two rock types.

I ended up in ecruteak city, one gym leader until the game truly opens up into the worst nonlinear experience of all time. I beat all 5 kimono girls because geodude is comically overpowered and shouldnt get magnitude as early as she does. Before fighting Morty, I decided to grind my team to around lvl 22-23. Why? because zubat evolves into golbat at that level and my zubat has bite to deal super effective damage. Though Morty's team consists of exclusively poison types and gen 2 was before the era of levitate, so i could probably sweep with geodude, I want to have a bit of fun with this gym.

I enter the burnt down tower in ecruteak and face my rival, silver, who I've affectionately named "Fuckwit". It was about the furthest you could get from a difficult fight because I have a golbat and he has a team that's very weak to golbat. The magnemite isnt an issue so long as I remember that I have a ground type. I then proceeded to fall and break both of my legs on the way down. I also met some cool dogs.

I enter morty's gym. It seems that he was taking notes from gen 1's gym leaders because he was a disgustingly easy fight. Literal clean sweep with golbat. Horrible gym leader. And to think that this guy is the 4th gym leader? that this guy is the halfway point for the Johto region? shameful.

Before leaving ecruteak, I got my surf HM and taught it to my croconaw for a powerful stab move (and the ability to reach the 5th gym leader, RNG god Chuck. After reaching olivine, I healed my pokemon, checked out the sick pokemon lighthouse (where my oddish evolved into gloom and geodude into graveler), and then once again began a voyage, setting sail to Chuck's RNG island for medicine and also the privilege of fighting a guy who spams hypnosis. I then had to go back to olivine city because the HMs are hidden in random ass spots in Johto. After that, I cleanly swept Chuck with my golbat, not taking a single hit of damage. This is because he did not have good rng. This gym sucked.

After my beautiful encounter with the divine goddess of luck, I fed the sick ampharos an unknown concoction and fought jasmine. Her ace was actually hard to beat. Certainly a hard fight, which is a pleasant surprise for a game as easy as this. I ended up losing the first try after her ace oneshot the only pokemon I had that was capable of taking care of a magnemite. Some lucky crit RNG made the 2nd try a breeze though.

I then proceeded to enter Mt. Mortar, AKA random encounter hell. In random encounter hell, my Golbat finally evolved into a Crobat, marking the first time i've ever used crobat in a pokemon game.

Afterwards, I entered Mahogany Town, home of the worst gym leader in Johto. A gym leader who's highest level pokemon is 4 levels lower than the previous gym leader's highest level pokemon. On my way to the lake of rage, I encountered Entei, who broke out of my balls and fled. Unfortunate but I probably wouldn't have used it anyways.

I then proceeded to the lake of rage with one goal in mind: kill the red gyarados :3. In fulfilling this goal, I have killed the red gyarados. I already have croconaw I don't need another physical water type with good all around stats. After meeting with lance, I went to the team fodder emporium to dispose of more lvl 16 zubats and grimers 6 badges into the game. Truly wonderful game design. This is actually where I dropped HGSS at when I first played it. Every time you pass a statue you have to fight 2-3 rocket grunts, each of which having about half a team of pokemon who are way lower level than they should be. Had it not been for god's gift of emulator speedup this game would be completely fucking unplayable. As much as I love lance this is easily the worst section of the game so far.

After going through team fodder hell, I was finally able to challenge the easiest gym in the game. My team has a poor matchup to ice though, with 3/4ths of them being weak to ice. This gym was actually decently difficult for me because of my team's poor matchup, but it still only took me 1 try. After the gym, my croconaw evolved into a feraligatr.

After this, I went to the ice cave. My goal? to catch a jynx. I want an ice type and I want a psychic type and I haven't used jynx before. Alas, it was nighttime so I got a sneasel instead. I don't mind using a sneasel, but the issue is that ice and dark are both special types. and sneasel has pitiful special attack. so I had to pass on both the jynx and sneasel. I still wanted a 5th team member, But I wasnt sure what I wanted.

It was at this point I realized I do not have the HM for fly. So I had to backtrack all the way to cianwood for the HM so I could teach it to my crobat.

I flew back to blackthorne only to realize I still need to defeat team rocket. Which is confusing because I thought I had already did that. But I had managed to completely miss wherever it was said that team rocket would be in the goldenrod radio tower. It's not the game's fault but I felt like I had to mention it.

I notice this random rocket executive has 6 pokemon. This is notable because no other trainer has had 6 pokemon yet, not even the gym leaders. However, the pokemon are all koffings, which is a shame. I was hoping for at least a semi-interesting fight.

I made my way to the underground area. This silver fight has 5 pokemon but one of them is a lvl 28 magnemite and another one is a sneasel. Thus, this silver fight was a major pushover. I like silver's character arc but there's been no story apart from it and a bunch of team fodder fights. This switch puzzle is unnecessarily complicated and confusing, and It's making this area feel more like a puzzle game than a pokemon game. Especially considering all the trainers in this area are terrible jokes.

I made my way to floor 3f of the radio tower to hopefully cap off the single most mind numbingly boring part of this game. I got swept by the last trainer because I got really shitty paralyze RNG because my crobat was paralyzed earlier so I had to do the fight again. Because I did the fight again I oneshot all 3 of his pokemon with my feraligatr's surf. Moving on.

I headed to Blackthorn to fight 3 dragonair clair because they couldnt bother giving the last gym leader anything interesting. The gym puzzle was one of the cooler ones, i'll admit. However, I literally just led crobat and did nothing but spam fly and won. She's literally the 8th gym leader. Why. Why couldnt they give her more pokemon. This game is mind numbingly boring so I was actually kinda hyped for this fight but ig not.

I did the dragon cave stuff and got a Dratini. I named it Anchovy. I'm starting to regret getting it because I know I'll have to grind it up to a usable level. fun.

I struggle to even figure out how to reach Kanto in the first place. I had to google it.

I reached victory road. My morale here is at 0. I just want to get to the elite 4 and get it over with because this shit sucks. I'll cover the rest of kanto in a seperate review because I'm not sure I can handle this slog too much longer. Or I wont at all. Depends on if I'm willing to give this game a second shot. But this review isn't over until I beat Lance so I'm looking forward to that.

I ran into silver in victory road. Unfortunately, this was seconds after a random graveler self destructed on my feraligatr. So I was basically going 3 pokemon against 6 here. I still won though because his team fucking sucks AYOOOO. No but seriously his team still has a golbat on it.

After an incredibly painstaking victory road grind to get my 5 pokemon to lvl 42-44, I was finally ready to challenge the elite four and champ. Will's 2nd xatu and exeggutor gave me some trouble, but he was easy apart from that. Koga was an incredibly easy fight, with a horrible team, mediocre typing, and a bunch of evasion-reliant movesets. Bruno was also incredibly easy, all his fighting types were fodder for my crobat and his onix is a very questionable choice. Karen was a very hard fight and lord knows that vileplume was utter hell to face. Also her strong pokemon weak pokemon quote is corny as hell.

The lance fight. I really, REALLY regret not having a 6th party member. This is a genuinely fun and interesting fight but my brain can't enjoy it because i'm too tired because of literally every fight before this one just being time wasting slop. It's 1 am and i've lost to lance an uncountable number of times.

Finally beat lance. Genuinely super great champion fight, like a beautiful cherry atop a mound of shit.

Here was my team:

POKEMON CRYSTAL MAIN GAME (no kanto excluding victory road/e4 & champ)

RATING: 6/10

PROS:

Great champion fight against lance

Solid early game

Lots of content

CONS:

Horrible region design

Horrible level scaling

Has multiple of the most boring sections I've ever had to deal with in a pokemon game

Horrible pokemon diversity

Easy as shit

Tons of content locked behind kanto postgame (such as evolution stones, pokemon like houndour, etc)

Genuinely just really fucking boring holy shit. I cant stress this enough. The hardest battle in this game is fighting sleep. I'd have died without emulator speedup.

[sinisterlutist]

Hello it me Pokemon ask meme 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 21, 22, 65, 66, 74. 75, 76

YES YES YES I AM QUAKING WITH EXCITEMENT THESE ARE SO MANY :D!!!!!

For convenience’s sake I’m gonna use a readmore cause theres many lol

5. Favorite trainer

Well, well, well, if it isn’t the question you knew the answer to already.

My absolute favorite trainer is my good merchant buddy Volo.

He’s one of the most nuanced characters I’ve ever seen come out of pokemon games, especially in recent years. Yes, he made some dumb decisions, but he’s so completely human. He laments the way the world is, the terrible things that happen, and he acknowledges that that probably happens to everyone. He was so tired before Arceus rubbed his loss in his face. When he talks about how troubled he’s been, asks about our dreams.

But no matter what else he may or may not have done, he loves his Togekiss, and I will stand by that with my whole heart. There’s a photo of the two of them in Jubilife Village. That photo was there before we came, and it has stayed there long after Volo left. There’s a lot more I could get into here, but, well, that’s a post for another time. Volo’s my favorite. ♡

(Side note— you know, if I had a nickel for every time gamefreak made a pokemon game where I ended up liking the long-haired male rival who teams up with a legendary dragon-type, asks you a question about dreams and then disappears, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird because it happened twice.)

6. Least favorite trainer

I am going with people FROM THE GAMES for this question because Ash is easy prey and I don’t care for the show in general— outside of the ever wonderful Team Rocket.

Shauna, from XY. XY had a really cool concept for a little friend group, even allowing you to give yourself a nickname from them. The execution was… less than stellar. Shauna felt sort of forced onto the player, at least to me. She annoyed me and I already didn’t want anything to do with her by the time you got to Parfum Palace, where she only irritated me more. The other members of the group, including your rival-proper, were more enjoyable, and felt more like they were friends with each other.

7. Favorite gym leader

There’s a loooot of really good ones I could use for this question, particularly some of the cool Unovan ones. There’s also Valerie, the Actual Moth from XY. But no. I have to go with Opal, Galar’s Fairy leader.

There’s nothing better than a spunky old lady who WILL catch you off guard and can move faster than you if she needs to. She was one of 5 characters in SwSh that I truly liked. Her help for Bede’s character arc was great, and frankly I don’t see nearly enough appreciation for this wild old fairy grandma. Opal’s awesome.

8. Least favorite gym leader

*walks on stage, taps mic* Whitney. *walks off stage*

9. Favorite e4 member

Gotta go with my buddy Grimsley! There’s nothing quite like having a gambler in your e4 with The Cool Uncle vibes. He really does seem like a chill guy, and I liked that he showed up in Alola, too. Runner up is Shauntal, purely bc her e4 chamber has the Most Vibes I have ever seen.

13. Favorite antagonist team

Team Plasma, hands down. The way that gen V handled the nuances of individuals within Plasma— characters you fight ONCE and never see again— was phenomenal, shown even further in BW2, when some of them changed their ways, and devoted themselves to fixing wrongs in the world. Others doubled down and stayed with Plasma, even after the truth was revealed. It was fascinating to see so much character put into the people of Unova, antagonist team nobodies included.

Plus they have an absolute banger of a battle theme.

14. Least favorite antagonist team

Does. Is Team Yell even considered an antagonistic team? They didn’t DO anything, they’re just bunch of hyped up fanboys (and girls) for you to get xp off of. SwSh made a lot of lousy decisions, as far as I’m concerned, and Team Yell was a big one.

21. Favorite legendary/mythical

Favorite legendary… well, for a long time it was Rayquaza, because Emerald was the first one I played, and therefore, Rayquaza was the first legendary I caught. Now, more correctly, I name Dawn Wings Necrozma (& more specifically its shiny version) as my favorite legendary. The colors are beautiful and it has SUCH a cute face. I’m delighted by it. (Special mention to Wo-Chien, because even though I haven’t played SV yet I LOVE that spooky grass snail, it’s got a cryptid feel to it that pokemon’s been kinda lacking.)

Favorite mythical… hmm, well, Shaymin is one of my favorite older ones, love a good hedgehog, but really I think this title is shared between Marshadow and Zeraora. I got so attached to Zeraora when it was released, and Marshadow is just a little toasty guy. I wish they had some lore attached to them, though.

22. Least favorite legendary/mythical

Hmmm… probably a draw between Enamorus and Palkia (and particularly Origin Palkia) for legendary. They’re just kinda ugly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As for mythical… there’s been several that I’m just kinda “meh” on, but… nah, y’know what, I’m gonna be petty on this one. Arceus itself, for crimes against me, Volo, and possibly Ingo. I was indifferent to Arceus before, but y’know what? I don’t like that space horse. It’s rude, and the only time it calls is to ask me to fight its gauntlet in my sleep.

65. Favorite pokemon movie

Alright it’s time to come clean, I’ve watched exactly 2 pokemon movies, 1 & 2 (the MewTwo and Lugia ones). Of the two, seeing as it’s been a while since I’ve watched either, PROBABLY the Lugia one. The music was so pretty.

66. Least favorite pokemon movie

So you would think by merit of having only watched two movies, that my least favorite should be the one I didn’t use for the last question. It’s not. It’s the one where Pikachu speaks. Like in English. (I do NOT mean Detective Pikachu, I would like to see that one someday. I mean the one with Pikachu speaking to Ash.) I saw the clip of it speaking, and decided then and there I would not be watching it.

74. Favorite Alolan version of a first-gen pokemon

Ooh, there’s a couple of these I like, but ohhh overall goes to the Alolan Sandshrew/Sandslash line! I’ve had an affinity for that little dude since I first played Emerald :) The Alolan versions look really cool and smooth and that little igloo pangolin is going places!

75. A pokemon you think is overrated

The easy answer to this is Pikachu. I’m so tired of the yellow rat in the spotlight. I was utterly delighted when its cry was put back in PLA, where it was treated just like any other pokemon. It’s not even that I hate the thing, it’s the ridiculous oversaturation. Pokemon Center has released a lot of really cool things that would totally pique my interest— were they not slathered in Pikachu shapes.

Balloon Pikachu is pretty cute though.

76. A pokemon you think is underrated

Uhhh, well, I’m not entirely sure, but… I like Hoennian Linoone. I don’t see a lot about Linoone, but it’s a good little badger and you can teach it Surf, which gives me the WONDERFUL mental image of riding my little badger around in the water :). Also very memorable for me was fighting Norman’s Linoone in Emerald, cause that thing was a tank. Currently I have a couple of Hoennian Linoones, one from X named Azi, and a shiny one I found in the Max Lair in SwSh named Kabochai (Pumpkin Tea, for his lovely color)

…. I am so sorry this took so long to answer, hoogh, but it’s done, and I had a lot of fun with it!!

As always, feel free to send in more!

「x」

[crystalelemental]

As a massive Johto fan, I remember the remakes being a huge deal to me. I didn't even know about them at the time, and found them at GameStop literally the day before going back to college one year. It's one of the few Pokemon games I legitimately remember the event of acquiring. So I admit, HGSS has a lot of nostalgia in it as well.

I played SoulSilver. The team was Feraligatr (Quirky), Jumpluff (Impish), Miltank (Careful), Hitmonchan (Adamant), and Lugia (Modest). Our rotating sixth was Golduck (caught at level 13 in Ilex Forest, bless that 1%) or Farfetch'd (caught on the way to the Safari Zone).

In light of that team composition, I'd like to make that the topic of this game. Specifically, how older Pokemon games before the EXP All structured teambuilding and progression.

See, my wife is playing Sword right now, which...may or may not take the place of me playing Gen 8. But she's doing a run where she's not picking up any Pokemon except what she wants to run in her team, which is currently a team of 4 at Opal. She's not having any particular problems, for a combination of reasons, but the point is this structure is unusual for Gen 8. When talking about it, her thoughts were that she always picks up a full team of 6, and then can't switch them out because she's been with them the whole game. It gets to a point where she's using the same early-game stuff every time, but she wanted to try new options she's never touched before, which necessitates not picking up everything she sees. I'll have a ton more to say about this when I talk about XY, but what she's doing now is...how you were, at one point, meant to play.

Your starter often carries you through the first gym no problem. Very rarely is this something you can't do. Even with Chikorita, you can evolve to Bayleaf and just stomp Falkner on stats. By Gym 2/rival fight 2, you're going to want another partner, just to help handle something your starter can't. Eventually you'll build out a third, maybe around Gym 3, then a fourth by Gym 5 or 6, and by the time you're ready to face the League, you've built up a team of 5 or 6 Pokemon to use.

This structure is felt perfectly in Johto, and it's the reason for so many criticisms regarding "bad level curve." Trying to catch too much too early does stymie your progress, as your levels fall off. In my case, I had three Pokemon all the way through Clair. I caught Lugia, and got my Tyrogue, only after clearing all of Johto. As a result, my main team was perfectly on level with Lugia at 45, and we walked into the League ready to throw down. A team with more Pokemon early on likely does not keep up with that curve, and the level difference can be intimidating. In GSC, badge boosting helps alleviate that. HGSS has no such fallback, so...what are you meant to do?

Johto thrives off its Legendary Pokemon. Lugia and Ho-oh arrive at 45, which is likely well above what your team has reached by this point, and is perfectly equipped to take on the League. By the time you go into League rematch and Red, you have access to the other at level 70. HGSS elevates this further, with options to get the Hoenn trio, the Kanto birds, and even Mewtwo, who is also level 70. Decked out with Legends, you can easily stomp what remains of the game. But, just like GSC's discussion, the question is how bad things are if you don't do that.

This is where the remakes seem to solve for the problem, but falter really painfully. On the one hand HGSS introduces gym rematches and a second round of the League, all with a gradual curve up in levels. However, the gym leaders are stupid. You have to get their phone numbers, with each leader having a different time of day and specific day of the week they're available for that, and then call them at a different (this time specified) time of day on a specific day of the week to schedule the match, meet them in Saffron's Dojo for the rematch, then wait to do it again. I have not done these rematches in years. I cannot be asked. Which means the League is a big jump now. But even if you shitstomp the League like I did, Red is still wildly above you. Lugia handled most of the League at level 63. The rest of my team hovered around 61. We are in no position at all to deal with Red on even terms, and my solutions presented are "Go catch Legends and bench the team you ran all game" or "Make a ton of runs of the League to slowly level up your party." Lugia walked in at 60 and left at 63, despite doing all the hard work. I hope that solidifies how long the grind is.

Red just remains so frustrating. The rest of the game has a beautiful level curve that is perfectly managed, but then Red just ruins it completely. And his team has like no actual technique to it, so if you meet the raw stat requirement he's really not hard to beat, he's just a time waster to catch up to. And they added permanent Hail so his three Blizzard Spam Pokemon can guaranteed hit you, because I guess they wanted to make him cool like Cynthia and able to beat the box legends you got? He didn't. Lugia can tank them just fine. I'm getting away from my point.

You may also notice I said "5 or 6," and used a team of only five. This harkens back to the days of the HM Mule, a Pokemon who lives completely to use a bunch of HMs so your main party doesn't have to waste moveslots on shitty moves like Rock Smash. Gen 4 in particular is obsessed with HMs. I kinda resent it, because HGSS in particular suffers due to the inclusion of Rock Climb, which is extremely demanding on what Pokemon can learn it, and is functionally garbage. Compared to GSC, which only "needed" Flash, this is a major adjustment that tends to strain teambuilding compositions, typically at the expense of your starter, who is...let's be honest, already having a bad time. The HM mule solves this by taking such burdens onto themselves.

It's a sort of utility Pokemon, similar in style to my Platinum Pachirisu, who offered nothing in combat against the League, but whose Pickup got us like 8+ extra Rare Candy. These kinds of odds and ends utilities could be really valuable, but often came at the cost of a direct frontline fighter, so there was some give and take on that front. HM Mules are at least a bit less demanding because their level is completely irrelevant, but you get my point.

I'm not going to mince words: having played both in succession within the last month, I prefer Crystal to HGSS. I don't dislike HGSS, but I do think that the changes it offers are largely to its detriment. Sometimes that's the frustration of like...Silver showing up to do the dumb "dress like Team Rocket" segment and having to force his dialogue into "I was lying earlier to try and track you thinking maybe Lance would come back." It doesn't work. But It's...mostly in the Red fight again.

Red's HGSS rematch has all the burden of shifting meta. By Gen 4, movepools are expansive, and his Pokemon have a ton of options to work with that they didn't before. Charizard has a Dragon-type move that's hard to resist, and its Air Slash is both stronger than Wing Attack, and scales off its higher Sp Atk. Venusaur has Sludge Bomb. Blastoise has Focus Blast and Flash Cannon. Most egregious of all, Snorlax has Crunch, in addition to Blizzard and Shadow Ball. This makes his fight much harder, in that you can't counterpick as easily as Gen 2's rendition, but consider what is lost:

In GSC, you go through the game with your team in a pretty normal level curve, only to encounter a dude with 30 levels on your main source of grinding. If your team can't hack it, most of his Pokemon have clear answers that will 100% counter them. Misdreavus, at base level, completely counters Snorlax. Any Rock-type you have is going to do really well against Charizard and Pikachu. Any Dark type hard walls Espeon, whose other moves hit like wet noodles. A bit of team adjustment, and you can pick up something that gets to completely trounce him. Did you know Larvitar at the Game Corner comes at level 40? Don't evolve until Crunch and Earthquake, and have fun beating half his team no sweat.

In HGSS...that's gone. Bringing Golem doesn't solve Charizard anymore, because Dragon Pulse will slam your bad Sp Def. Bringing Mismagius against Snorlax just gets you one-shot by Crunch, especially if you try something like Curse. Pikachu...okay, Pikachu probably still gets bopped by a Rhydon, but Iron Tail chunks you now. The change from Espeon to Lapras removes the Dark-type cheese, and that overlap with Blastoise can hurt. Both can be answered well enough with Starmie, Slowbro or Slowking (Tentacruel also resists all of Blastoise's stuff), but you see what I mean? GSC, you counterpick in broad strokes. Get a Rock type, any, and Charizard is handled. Now the key to countering Charizard is basically Tyranitar or bust. You used to be able to take any Dark type against Espeon, but now the only counter to Lapras is two evolutionary lines, one with a trade, and one with the hard to get Water Stone. It makes it harder to just counter with specific swaps, and as a result, you have to face the level check directly. Sure there's better grinding options, but it's still so much more work than it's worth if you don't have a team that's automatically good for his fight specifically. And it is so much harder to be good against him specifically.

This does, however, come down to my gamer sins of Completionism and Rushing the Ending. I do not want to get stuck on things right at the end. Especially not when it's been otherwise smooth. Having to spend some time battling the League a couple more times is not the outright worst thing, but I argue it does seriously break flow of an otherwise decently paced game.

In every other regard, HGSS is fine. Great, even. It's just that one fight that is endlessly frustrating, and at this point I should probably just make a point of beating everything except Red and save myself the headache.

[doubleddenden]

I do complain a lot about the many, MANY flaws Pokémon as a franchise has, especially given how they've treated fans these last few years in the name of Mach speed capitalism.

But despite all of that, I do still enjoy Pokémon. It's hard to let go of all the fun times I've had, and it's equally as hard to forgive the state of the games in terms of quality.

Still, below is more of a positive retrospective of my time with the series. I'd like to think that despite it all, and despite a soulless corporation running things now, I do have mostly positive memories here, even if it's hard to tell sometimes.

My first game was Snap on the n64 with my family, and I remember being the first among my older sister, mom, and dad (who to be fair struggles to comprehend a remote control these days) to actually beat it when I was... 5? I think.

My first main game was Silver on a blue Gameboy Color, and my first Pokémon was a Cyndaquil... that I released after a prank from my friends- but then my first REAL Pokémon was a Cyndaquil in Crystal that would carry me all the way to Red, level 90 something- and funnily enough, I'd just realize my best friend I'm the world at the age of 6 or 7 was... a girl, during the height of my Cooties Scare phase. Still, I miss that Typhlosion now. It's gone now due to the battery in the cartridge dying and the actual cartridge itself becoming damaged and eventually lost in a move. I wouldn't truly defeat that same gen 2 Red until the 3ds Era, in my college years on virtual console Silver, and I feel like the female Typhlosion I have from that is the same as I lost way back when.

My favorite Pokémon main game of all time, though, is Black and White 2. Gen 5 was an underdog gen, and I guess I strongly attached to it during my teens because I had a bit of an underdog complex- everyone hated it at the time for daring to not have gen 1 in the game at the time, and everyone hated me for- well, existing and being born "different" (read: neurodivergent, overweight, ugly, poor compared to my classmates, etc), so I guess I identified with it to some degree. It was the first gen I truly took an interest in for leak seasons, and to this day still has some of the best stories, characters, cities, and Pokémon designs. BW2 being my absolute favorite in terms of Pokémon variety and availability, team composition variety, difficulty, balance, and just the sheer amount of stuff to do- including the POKÉMON WORLD TOURNAMENT! Where you could battle all the past gym leaders and champions! It was also the gen I started to have fun and be open with classmates and multi-player, and I appreciate the friendships I forged from that.

Of course if BW2 is my favorite game, then it should be obvious Unova is my favorite region. Unova was the first non Japanese region in a main game, and for some reason- I guess Murica familiarity- I really saw it as home. BW2 especially with Aspertia City, Floccesy Town, and Floccesy Ranch really resembling where I was born and raised down south. Anvil Town too- despite being mostly empty- served as a wonderful setting to first ever completed fan fic I ever wrote. Humilau and Undella Bay are probably still my favorite towns sheerly for the colors, music, vibes, and events that happen there.

My favorite starters are- wouldn't you know it- the starter Trio from Legends Arceus, another favorite- albeit unpolished, but very fun game. I still think I prefer base Decidueye and Typhlosion, but Hisuian Samurott is my all time favorite starter in terms of design and inspiration. In fact, it was the first pokemon I actively set out to shiny breed for. I even let it learn Sacred Sword, because both normal and shiny forms look so badass with their swords and armor. Muramasa, my original from Legends Arceus, quickly evolved and came in clutch against MANY alpha Pokémon and delivered the final blows to Volo's team, Giratina, and Giratina's Alt form. Dojikiri, my shiny, had a bit of a rough start leading my Blueberry Academy team, but it became one of my go tos for beating the BBE4 and Champion Kieran.

Speaking of Shinies, my first ever shiny Pokémon outside of Red Gyarados was actually a shiny Loudred in Runy when I was 8 I think. It was pink and holding... I think a Pecha berry- I think at the time I thought it was a Pinkan Pokémon like from the Orange Islands, and I had caught it. Unfortunately, I didn't know just how rare this was and got tricked by a kid I thought was my friend into trading it to him, thinking it was bad. I never got it back.

But, I think fate made it up to me- my next shiny would be an Eevee I hatched from an egg in... I think Diamond or Platinum. That Eevee eventually became an Umbreon, and I still have it at level 100 all these years later. It's a subtle design change, but I sincerely think it's probably one of the best shinies ever.

And of course one of my absolute favorite Pokémon- despite coming from a base game I DESPISE for annoying characters and railroading- is Corviknight. Corviknight feels like an absolute love letter directed to me- sue me, I love edgy Pokémon, and I've been tired of pretending they're not cool as shit. I love that it's a gigantic raven you can fly on- ravens are my favorite birds, and one actually play a huge part in one of my original stories. My Corviknight in particular was probably my favorite to use in a champion fight, because despite hating Leon as a character, I loved the final fight between my Corviknight and his Charizard, giving me similar goose bumps I'd feel when pitting my weaker starter against my past rivals' stronger ones.

The best battle gimmick- even though I feel like we really don't need anymore- was far and away Mega Evolutions. The designs were amazing and gave a lot of old and forgotten Pokémon MUCH, MUCH needed refreshing coats of paint, with my absolute favorites being Mega Lucario, Mega Gengar, and Mega Charizard X. I know it's devisive among fans, but really my favorite thing about Pokémon is evolving and changing my Pokémon to become even stronger than before, and although XY was piss your pants easy, I still adore the concept of the power of friendship allowing your Pokémon to EXCEED their limits. It's a shame GF hates it while even the anime and other Spinoff games STILL use it, because there was a ton of potential there and a ton of really great designs lost for... no real good reason, tbh.

My favorite spinoff I think is Colosseum- hence why I keep begging for Colo3. I had the game as a kid, but I never truly beat it until AFTER SwSh really made me question if I was still a fan- spoilers, I was and am, SwSh, GF, and TPC just severely burned me and I needed something refreshing to light my fire again. My favorite thing about Colosseum is that it just takes the already existing battle mechanics and cranks it up by turning every battle into doubles that forces you to think strategically- also, I just really admire it for not treating the player like a kid. The premise is awesome- you're a rebellious anti hero that just defected from an evil team and stole a device to let you steal pokemon, so you use that as a force of good to take back and heal the poor, abused Shadow Pokémon and teach them to love again. Plus, I love having Umbreon and Espeon as starters and how Orre allowed Johto pokemon to actually shine and exist outside of Kanto's shadow. Fun, unique, challenging- I would KILL for another side game as daring as this to exist again.

I have a bit of a bias towards the battling games- I did enjoy PMD Explorers, Ranger, Pinball, etc, but I think I've just always loved how custom each playthrough of a standard pokemon game felt. No matter how many times I replay, I can usually come up with a team of Pokémon I've never used before- I still keep almost all the Pokémon and teams I've had since... I'd say, I was 10, since Ruby or so. I try to keep them grouped, too, so I can go back and see my team I used in Leaf Green, Black 2 run 1, run 1 of Ultra Sun, etc, and lately I even have space reserved for teams used in DLC. Sort of my own "Oak's Lab" situation, except there's a lot of Samurott swimming around.

I like the gameplay so much that it even got me into fan games like Uranium, Xenoverse, Opalo, Realidea System, Bushido, and I'm keeping track of a bunch more on the horizon. My love for it even brought me to really fun clones like Nexomon Extinction and Coromon- I just love catching and raising monsters, man, and I love turn based games.

I think if I would have an IRL team based on where I grew up and loosely using the games as a basis, I'd have Johtonian Typhlosion as my starter, Corviknight for the crows and other corvids, Tauros for the cows, Mudsdale for the horses, probably a Poliwrath for a water type cuz frogs are everywhere or possibly a Blastoise a family member would hand down, and of course a shiny Umbreon- I have it in the games, and I've always had dogs in my life, so its close enough.

If I had a team solely for battling currently, probably my Shiny Hisuian Samurott, my tera Stellar Ceruledge, Electivire, Dusk Lycanroc, mega Scizor, and Hydreigon.

Anyway, this was just a neat retrospective. Like I said, I do still have a deep love for Pokémon, as much as I wish I could cut ties with it sometimes (and I'm sure as much as my friends wish I'd shut up about it, I'm sure). When I express negativity toward it, it's not from the same place as those guys that think Pokémon should have stopped after gen 1- definitely not, fuck Kanto at this point. No, it's from a place that knows it can do AND HAS done so much better. I'm definitely not afraid of it ending, they're too rich and make too much for that- no, I'm afraid of them never putting in quality care that the franchise DESPERATELY needs ever again simply because they know they could literally sell incomplete builds and people will buy them, and simply because twitter hive minds will jump anyone that take any slight criticism of the World's Richest Franchise (for close to a decade) as a personal affliction upon their honor and religion.

But like I said, I still enjoy it. Happy 28th Pokémon. Please be kinder to us fans. I have so many wonderful memories that I hate have become tainted by bugs and awful business practices, and I want to feel happy to be a fan again.

[despazito]

Complete list of all problems known so far in Pokemon Sword and Shield with data and/or proof for each problem

[I am copying this post from the pokemon subreddit from u/Terotu]

Seeing as there's a lot of people that don't quite know the extent of the issues and that there's no real compilation of the problems, I feel like everyone needs a list with info and sources of each and every current problem with the games, it's a long list but I've tried to put it all together, it's not just dexit people. I will post everything that is 100% confirmed and known so far, there's potentially other problems, but this is made as a somewhat "quick" digest with info that has been 100% proven, for anyone out of the loop that wants to know exactly what's happening with these games.

1. The number of usable Pokemon has been cut, only less than half are now usable, known as Dexit, it means that you won't be able to use these pokemon in the new games, you won't be able to transfer them in, and you won't be able to do anything with them sans sticking them in home for the foreseeable future (Home will probably be a paid only subscription based service just like its predecessor), for all intents and purposes, these Pokemon are basically removed from the main games franchise and they will take probably years to come back, if ever. An image with the cut/not cut pokemon can be found here, pokemon in green are confirmed to be in, pokemon in purple have galar forms, pokemon in yellow are in the data, but there's nothing for them, they could be leftover data like the items and other things, could be giveaway/event only, could only come from other games, etc, there's no way to know what's the plans for them at the moment, if any, pokemon in red are cut. The excuse GF used for this culling was that it let's them work on delivering better animations and a more carefully crafted game, since they don't have to put more time and effort into redoing the models. This is complete BS as the game polish is worse than ever, and the models seem to just be somewhat edited XY models.

2. Just like the Pokemon cut, about 144 moves were removed, 99 moves excluding the let's go and other outlier moves, this includes extremely important and used mainstay moves like Hidden Power, return/frustration and Pursuit, on top of extremely old moves that have been there since gen 1, some of these moves were important for the viability of several Pokemon, which may cause them to be way less effective if not way worse when it comes to battles, on top of this, it also removed some SIGNATURE MOVES of certain Pokemon. The full list for deleted mainstay pokemon moves can be found here Attempts at transferring Pokemon with these moves will apparently get this message: "This move can’t be used. It’s recommended that this move is forgotten. Once forgotten, this move can’t be remembered."

3. Short game, the first streamer beat the champion at around the 14 hour mark, while he did this by skipping a fair amount of trainer battles, other streamers are clocking in about 16-20 hours, seems like the average will be about 18 hours to beat the game. Here's one of the many streamers, he's right before champion and clocking in at 14:34.

4. The graphics are extremely mediocre, it constantly looks worse and less polished than LGPE, the textures are often inexcusable. Examples of the bad graphics seen here 1 2 3 4 5 6 A comparison with LGPE can be seen here and here Here's a game recently released for switch, another picture found here, the difference is unreal.

5. There's constant graphical issues, not just low quality graphics, pop in is present at all points of the game due to bad coding, trainer models will also disappear mid battle when an attack with a high number of particles is used, this also happened in SM, however, SM moved the camera away to avoid people seeing it, they didn't even try this time. This means it's either a carry over from SM and they just copy pasted most of the code, or they somehow have to remove the trainers to avoid a switch from somehow getting fps drops. The pop-ins can be evidenced here and here. Trainers dissapearing mid battle can be evidenced here

6. Animations, one of the main reasons why GF cut pokemon, at least in the interviews, are as shoddy as ever. There's extremely lazy animation all over the game, from normal attacks to key moments in the game, such as the encounter with the box legendaries. Most of the animations are also completely copy pasted from older games, one example seen here with Hau(the entire character of hop is basically a copy paste of hau.) Most of the animations for the camp are also copy pasted from xy amie, evidenced here. Pokemon battle animations are just as bad as before, if not worse, pictured here is a pokemon headbutting with its feet. Another example found here, THE MAIN BOX ART POKEMON CINEMATIC, THIS IS THE GAME CLIMAX, another example on the other version found here In fact, it could be considered way worse if compared to the last gen, example of upscaled USUM cutscenes. (Notice the graphical change isn't that big, the only difference here is increasing the resolution)

7. Cutscenes and restrictions, like previous Pokemon games the cutscene and story forcing and restrictions are insane this time around, seems to be even more intrusive and in your face than before at times, while keeping the same level of cutscene intrusion than past gen. The video for this point was taken down, but if you wish to see this you should be able to find it by searching the gameplay clips/streams online

8. The difficulty, just like the cut scene problem, this carries over from earlier games and it's even worse.There were constant heals, to the point where in the first routes you're not able to go beyond 3 trainer fights without getting a full heal. The first streamer avoided fights and didn't train at all, it still was one shotting gym leader dynamaxed ace pokemon.This can be seen here.

9. Post-Game is almost non-existant, as usual since masuda-Ohmori started directing, there's no frontier, there's also no frontier like facility. The post game consists of battle tower and a very short sequence of missions where you beat some dynamax pokemon for your rival to catch the other legendary. Not only this, but the battle tower is also an inferior version of past towers, it doesn't have super single nor super double battles, it has no triple battles and there's no "tower bosses", it's just random trainer npcs after another.

10. Problems with game design and behavior, beyond difficulty and progression, there's other problems in the overall game design. Examples of this is not being able to catch Pokemon in the wild areas until you got a badge allowing you to do so, which usually covers your current level. Meaning if you find a level 31 shiny or a level 31 pokemon you really want, you won't be able to catch it until you go and beat the next gym. For shiny hunters, this one is gonna be really important, you cannot see if your Pokemon is gonna be shiny or not in the overworld, this means that on top of the badge limit, you also got this potential problem. Evidenced here.

11. Removed past features with virtually no new additions, seems like this is a mainstay in Pokemon, removing older features so they become one of a time gimmicks, but unlike earlier titles this new game doesn't adds anything new except dynamaxing, which is limited to gyms only. This particular gen removes Mega Evolutions and Z moves, mega evolutions in particular were a huge deal and seeing them suddenly removed means that there's little reason to get involved with any new addition, no matter how mainstay or how much GF forces it when it will very soon be gone. A list of these removed features can be found here.

12. No scaling whatsoever, models are the same sizes of XY (giving more plausibility to them not really redoing the models).Any argument against this is thrown out of the window when dynamaxing exists, since the models seem to be edited XY models then the problem remains. Here's the non scaled model in sword and shield. Here's an scaled model, released in a game that came out 15 years ago for a the Nintendo Gamecube, something way less powerful than the switch.

13. No GTS, retera thread on the discovery found here, the only strings that refer to the GTS are leftovers from Let's Go code, as seen here and here. This is most likely due to Home(this means that you will have to pay for switch online+home for services older games already included) Thanks to /u/c_will for pointing this one out and gathering the info.

14. A 20 dollar price increase for less content than earlier 3DS games, with subpar graphics and removal of features, an overall shoddy release for a higher price point.

15. Performance, game is locked to 30 fps, and while that's not a big issue by itself, this is coupled with slowdown at certain moments such as dynamaxing, it can drop fps to the floor and turn the game into a slideshow for a while. Evidenced here. Still gathering more info on this one, as it's a relatively new occurrence that hasn't happened to all users, take this one with a grain of salt

16. The overall lack of quality, polish and effort put into the game, this is all the minor/somewhat minor but still very telling problems with the game. This is apparent in many ways all throughout the game, things like the wrong backgrounds or just voids for pokemon battles. Two example of the wrong backgrounds seen here and [here] (https://clips.twitch.tv/FriendlyCleanOstrichArsonNoSexy) One example of the void background seen here (these happen on indoor fights and some non indoor but scripted battles)Examples of backgrounds on indoor and everywhere else in both LGPE and colosseum, seen here and here. Then there's complete lack of music in the game story most important moments, seen here. Starters are also shiny locked. The entire world freezes when using certain objects, as seen here. To this, you add up the emptiness of the wild area and the badly implemented weather changes that don't make much sense, both seen here No animation for flying, no elite 4, no victory road, etc, this is added to all the other problems that show the lack of effort put into them.

This franchise deserves better.

You deserve better.

These games are not only a huge step down from earlier titles, but it goes beyond what used to be already barely  tolerable standards to way below standards, keep in mind this is the biggest, most profitable franchise on earth.

This is the first time a pokemon main game is released on console, people were excited for game freak to finally do whatever they wanted and it's been done with the most minimal of  efforts, all the money you've spent on Pokemon didn't went on making this a better game, it went straight into the pockets of the people in charge, those that made sure this was made with the most minimum effort and those that cut  corners.

Companies that made games decades ago on hardware less powerful than the switch shouldn't be doing a better job than game freak, and companies doing work in the switch have completely obliterated game freak when it comes to developing a video game.

Keep in mind that your purchase of these games causes this:

Continue the yearly release cycle that makes the games rushed and forces the devs to insane crunch time, creating the low morale problem

Tells them that you're ok with these problems, and they will keep lowering the bar and cutting corners on development

Your money will continue going into the pockets of those responsible for these problems

I implore you to be a smart consumer, I've played Pokemon since I red, ever since I was a child, I can no longer support this franchise, I probably won't buy a Pokemon product ever again if this is gonna be how they're gonna treat the games and its fans.

[terrific-togekiss]

What if Pokémon Legends went on to other Regions?

This has been a topic of the Pokémon fandom for awhile. With the announcement of Pokémon Legends: Arceus not too long ago, many fans are anticipating and speculating the future of this ambitious side series.

Being able to not only witness, learn and partake in the legends that shape both the regions and Legendary Pokémon, leaves much room for creativity.

This is all merely speculation.

Here's my take for how any future Pokémon Legends games could play out.

Pokémon Legends: Mew

Set about roughly 20 years before the events of Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, the elusive Mew makes an appearance in the Kanto Region.

This prompts many scientists to want to study and catch the original Pokémon, foreshadowing the creation of Mewtwo and the Ditto.

You, the player, are taken under the wing of a much younger Professor Oak, with the Gen 1 Gym Leaders also showing up to lend a hand.

As the plot focuses on you tracking down Mew before various criminals and an older Team Rocket, try to for their own nefarious purposes. Helping Professor Oak invent the Pokédex and with his research.

Gene splicing and gene testing on Pokémon grew after the War LT. Surge fought in, with an older Team Rocket using it to their advantage.

This Team Rocket being a much bigger criminal organization, before the player took them down and a smaller one appeared in Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow.

A younger Giovanni is also present, as the player gets to know the man that would go on to lead present day Team Rocket. He's a friend to the player... for now, giving some insight on who he was beforehand and show how he took over the criminal organization, setting up the events Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow.

Mew's appearance in the Kanto region, inspires him to the point of illegal gene testing on Pokémon.

As a nod to Pokémon first debuting in 1996, the game takes on a more of a late 60s to mid 70s aesthetic, so it feels like the player is shaping the legends that set up Gen 1 of Pokémon.

Plus Kanto in the Legends artstyle would be mindblowing. And take inspiration from 60s to 70s Japan.

In addition, to avoid looking too similar to Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Being more of a modern era Japan region, than a Meiji period Japan inspired region. While following in said game's footsteps, by focusing on the secondary legendary than the main one (Mewtwo).

The starters would be Chikorita (Gen 1 is about Nature vs Technology), Torchic (Peace and War aesthetic) and Popplio (60s to 70s definitely saw a rise in many famous and popular musicians).

Pokémon Legends: Celebi

Ever wonder the origins of the Legendary Beasts: Raikou, Suicine and Entei?

What they were before they were killed in Brass Tower revived by Ho-Oh? How Ho-Oh came down and choose them, saving their lives? The sea Lugia stays in the deep for? The early days of Johto? The ruins of Alpha in the past? The early days of the Kimino Girls?

Well now you, the player, do now! ...sort of. As the title of the game implies, the player meets and befriends Celebi and gets to see many of these events via time travel.

Not only would this include a huge mechanic separate from other Legends games, but it would be the most unique in how it could be approached. As Nintendo is no stranger to time travel games (e.g. Majora's Mask) that impact both the plot and gameplay.

Time travel tends to create stories that are very confusing or very heartwrenching. Or both. But I have no doubt it would be the latter.

It also leaves room for many side quests.

Starters would be Bulbasaur (Time is all about growth), Scorbunny (Bunny Rabbits are not only a common symbol in the older days of Japan, but of Spring much like Ho-Oh) and Froakie (ninjas were more prevalent during this time period, as they slowly faded out).

Pokémon Legends: Jirachi

1000 years before the events of Pokémon Emerald, (Omega) Ruby and (Alpha) Sapphire, chaos raged across the ancient Hoenn Region, between two legendary Pokémon: Groudon and Kyogre. The Draconid people hope and pray for the arrival of Rayquaza to save the Hoenn Region itself.

This is where the player steps in: in order for all this chaos to end, the wishes of the people must be heard. And the only Pokémon capable of that is Jirachi.

The player would go around helping wishes be granted, traveling and training Pokémon along the way.

An ancestor of Zinnia also makes an appearance as a friend and rival of the player.

To maintain the wishes and stars aesthetic, Deoxys also makes an appearance with its origin being explored. Being able to explore space itself, meeting Pokémon said to have an "alien" origin, like Elgyem and Beheeyem.

Latios and Latias can also be caught, flying on them just like in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

The meteor that would hit the future Sootopolis is what awakened Groudon and Kyogre, said Meteor containing Deoxys. Setting up the game's plot.

Since it's roughly 1000 years before the Gen 3 Pokémon games, Hoenn resembles and takes inspiration from Japan during the Heian period.

The starters would be Turtwig (Theme of continents being at stake), Chimchar (Japanese and Chinese relations) and Totodile (sea monster symbolism, which is often associated with crocodiles and related animals).

Pokémon Legends: The Dragon

Two Princes, of Galar origin, known as the "Twin Heroes" share the power of an unimaginable Legendary Dragon. Bringing Truth and Ideals to the people of Unova. They live and lead from Relic Castle.

You, the player, are a friend of the princes and over the course of the game, your alliance with them changes. Struggling to choose between Truth or Ideals. Serving as a major story mechanic.

A feud and disagreement between the Princes happen, with the player being caught in the middle and to try to quell the anger of the Dragon.

In addition to finally seeing Reshiram and Zekrom before they split, Victini is also present with the Swords of Justice Pokémon (Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion), the Forces of Nature (Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus) and even Meloetta tries to raise people's spirits.

Team Plasma's origins are alluded to, with the army of the Princes baring an odd resemblance to the future evil team.

The game has more of a wild western aesthetic since Unova is based on New York. Think late 18th century America. With horseback riding on Pokémon like Zebstrika and Rapidash, bandits and criminals that try to steal your Pokémon and being able to explore Unova in its entirety.

Or perhaps roaring 20s to 30s America. If that setting sounds more vibrant and close to the Unova of Gen 5. This is all still speculation.

You even get to ride Keldeo in a later part of the game.

The starters would be Chespin (Chesnaught is based on a Glyptodon; fossils were found in South America), Litten (Wrestling is popular in New York) and Mudkip (mudpuppies are found in Lake Michigan).

Pokémon Legends: Diancie

Set after the Kalos War, you the player are caught in the middle of it going off to fight with your Pokémon. Hoping to make a difference as the Professor (ancestor of Professor Sycamore) takes you under his wing. And hoping to help the war turned world that is Kalos.

Yveltal and Xernas have both gone into slumber, with Zygarde needing to be restored to at least 50% (player can go to 100%), so the world of Kalos can be healed from this war.

The main game focuses on Diancie: since Diancie is the Pokémon of diamonds, the war has forced soldiers and leaders to exhaust the many resources of the Kalos region. Particularly precious stones and diamonds.

The player befriends Diancie later in the game as the two work together to bring an end the greedy hearts of those involved.

The game resembles France during the 100 Years War, with the player character even having armor as part of their attire. Due to Kalos being based off of France, roughly Middle Ages or Medieval France in this game's case.

AZ also makes a few appearances in the game, racked with grief over firing the Ultimate Weapon, mostly keeping to himself over the game's plot.

As a new gameplay mechanic, the player can befriend other trainers to amass armies to overcome many challenges, like beating other armies and crossing obstacles.

Volcanion and Hoopa are also present in the game and can be caught.

The origins of Mega Evolutions are expanded on, with the player getting their hands on some Mega Stones. Due to the energy of the Ultimate Weapon.

The starters would be Snivy (said Pokémon is based on French nobility), Piplup (Empoleon is based off of Emperors and can be a nod to Napoleon) and Charmander (Charizard is based off of European Dragons).

Pokémon Legends: Marshadow

Set in the ancient Aloha region, when Tribes followed the Tapu Pokémon, you the player find yourself stranded in this intriguing region.

Ultra space wormholes begin opening across the region and its up to the player to figure out why and how to stop them. Even being able to traverse the Ultra Megalopolis in its entirety.

Necrozma is up to it and the player must learn why. With Marshadow playing a bigger role, since most of its origin is shrouded in mystery, so this would be a great opportunity to explore those origins.

Along with the origins of the Z-Crystals.

The game has more of an ancient Polynesian world, seeing as how Aloha is based of Hawaii. Being able to sail to smaller islands and even catch Pokémon while doing so.

The starters would be Grookey (drums are a popular musical instrument in the tropics), Sobble (chameleons are native to Hawaii) and Tepig (pigs have been brought to Polynesian Islands in the past).

Pokémon Legends: Zarude

3000 years, before the events of Pokémon Sword and Shield, a black storm covers the very region itself. This black storm causes Pokémon to randomly Dynamax and Gigantamax. Many live in fear of what the next day brings, as hope of a better day seems like only a naive dream.

The player joins with many Pokémon researchers (some being ancestors of familiar faces in Pokémon Sword and Shield), in order to track down the source of this chaos.

Zarude comes in as he helps providing with resources from various forests, so less Pokémon and people are harmed. Or worse.

The player believes tracking down Zarude, will lead them to stopping this madness (Eternatus).

The game looks much like 13th to 14th century Britain, in much of the fashion of characters and even dealing with the equivalent of a plague. Ironically enough.

The starters are Treecko (Forest theme and light in the dark theme in contrast to the Darkest Days), Fenniken (Magicians are a common Middle Ages motif) and Squirtle (Cannons were first invented in Europe, around this time period).

[krokonoko]

*rolls up sleeves* Alright anon, let me tell you a story about my absolute favorite Pokemon type, the Grass type, how it’s disadvantaged, especially compared to the other two starter types, and how that handicap is rooted in sexism!

But first off I need to clarify what I’m talking about when I say the Grass type is the most disadvantaged of all starter types. It’s well known in the competitive scene that Grass is pretty trash tier when it comes to usefulness, so I don’t think I need to prove my thesis statement. But I will do it nonetheless, if only because it frustrates me endlessly and I need you to understand. 

So first off, the obvious.

Type efficiencies.

(ranting and images await thee beyond the cut)

If these graphs are too hard to parse for you, let me break it down:

Grass is offensively strong against: 3 types.

Fire is offensively strong against: 4 types.

Water is offensively strong against: 3 types.

-

Grass is offensively weak against: 7 types.

Fire is offensively weak against: 4 types.

Water is offensively weak against: 3 types.

-

Grass is resists: 4 types.

Fire resists: 6 types.

Water resists: 4 types.

-

Grass is weak to: 5 types.

Fire is weak to: 3 types.

Water is weak to: 2 types.

-

There is not a single category where Grass gets to shine here. It scores the lowest in every single category. What’s worse, when it comes to weaknesses, offensively or defensively, it’s way outclassed by it’s competitor types. When the Steel type was added in gen 2, guess which one was the only type that was negatively affected by that.

But hey, at least all the three starter types are in balance! Water is strong against Fire, Fire is strong against Grass, and Grass is strong against Water, right? Think again.

If you’re Squirtle squad, you probably already know this, because you giggled at your dumbass rival or friends every time they got out their Venusaur against your Blastoise: Water Starters are capable of learning strong Ice type moves like Ice Beam or Ice Punch, which gives them a unique edge against the type that should be strong against them...!

Alright, so type advantages are already very much not in the Grass type’s favor. But unfortunately, the Grass starters are also handicapped when it comes to stats.

Here are the six starters with the highest base stats:

4 Fire and 2 Water types, no Grass types.

Here are the six starters with the lowest base stats:

4 Grass types. Funny that.

As if all of that isn’t enough, the Grass type also gets the short end of the stick when it comes to the strongest attacks the starters can learn in RBY: Hydro Pump, Fire Blast and Solar Beam. Solar Beam is the only one out of these three attacks that has to charge one round before it can be used. Sure, it gets 100% accuracy for that, but lbr you don’t really need more than 85%.

There is exactly one advantage the Grass type has over its competitors, and that’s its access to Powder Attacks as well as immunity to them, but that hardly justifies this kind of neglect in every other area.

Grass is the only starter type that doesn’t have a single Elite 4 member representing it AND the only starter type that hasn’t been represented by a gym leader further up in the ranking than Number 4. While both Water and especially Fire type starters continuously get lots of extra love and attention from GF (Charizard getting an extra mega, Blaziken being the first to receive a mega, Charizard being the first to receive a Gigandynamax and getting lots of extra spotlight through being Leon’s signature mon, Ash-Greninja, the list goes on), the Grass type never receives this kind of special treatment.

Not even in additional material, such as the Smash Bros. games, Pokken Tournament or Pokemon Unite does the Grass type get to shine. For example, in the newly released Pokemon Unite, the roster containts the original three Pokemon starters as well as two other starters: Greninja and Cinderace. In Smash Bros, things look similar: Additonally to Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard, the other two playable Pokemon starters are Greninja and Incineroar. I don’t think any further examples are necessary.

So what is going on here, because clearly some higher power seems to have it out for the Grass type. Well, this takes us to Pokemon and its weird gender thing.

-

Pokemon and its weird gender thing.

Pokemon has always had a bit of a weird gender angle to its little monsters, and I’m not talking about clearly biased sexual dimorphisms or weird gender ratioes (I already ranted at length about these two subjects). No, this time I’m talking more in a general sense. Like, some Pokemon were designed to be cool (for the boys) and some were designed to be cute (for the girls). And especially in earlier generations it was relatively easy to tell which one was trying to appeal to which crowd. 

The game was also not very shy about making clear which of these were supposed to be used by girls. Pokemon like Clefairy, Jigglypuff and Meowth were predominantly used by the trainer classes Lass and Beauty, two out of the four female trainer classes in RBY. Out of 40 trainer classes total. Just saying. As if they didn’t already stand out like sore thumbs against the 37 male trainer classes, very many of the Lasses and Beauties had dialogue that strongly alluded to their status as “””GIRLS”””. They were constantly flirting with you, making allusions to you, the presumedly male player, hitting on them, or gushing about how adorable their Pokemon are. What I’m saying is their shit was gendered as fuck.

Now a lot of trainer classes were meant to introduce you to different Pokemon types. The Bug Catchers mostly use Bug type Pokemon (shocking, I know), the Engineer and Rocker use almost exclusively Electric type Pokemon, Black Belts use Fighting types, Swimmers use Water types, and there’re no medals for guessing which kinda Pokemon the Psycho uses. As you can see, there’s always a certain theme going on, making us associate Cue Balls with Fighting and Poison type Pokemon etc.

And here’s the kicker: Grass types were used almost exclusively by Lasses and Beauties. Considering they were the only female trainers, who also wouldn’t shut up about how omg girly they are, this automatically made you associate the Grass type with girls. Maybe even girliness.

And if that’s not enough for you, there is only one gym in Kanto that is not only lead by a female gym leader, but that’s also exclusively for girls, filled with only girls, omg so many girls, and of course it’s the Grass type gym. They even placed a perverted old man in front of the building peeking in through the window as if fully dressed women are anything to gawk at, just in case you didn’t realize those are WOMZ...! Training Pokemon!! Unheard of!!!

So they strongly enforced that association of Grass types and female trainers.

Now you could raise the point that RBY has been released 25 years ago, and you would be correct! If the Pokemon Company didn’t re-release Kanto every five years that is. 

And even in later generations, when we got more female trainer classes, a lot of them were using Grass types that their male counterparts wouldn’t, like in the case of the Picnicker. Classes specializing in Grass types were always female, such as the Aroma Lady.

Also like almost all of those Pokemon that look like women in dresses are grass types.

Disrespect any of these Queens (and Kings) and I’ll kick ur ass.

-

But, like. Why, dude?

I assume it’s because a lot of Grass types resemble flowers, and I guess flowers are girly? Just have a look at any Pokemon forum and watch people make fun of Meganium just cuz it’s got a huge adorable flower around its neck. Go to any forum and watch people discuss the question why Grass is so unpopular. The answer very often boils down to “Grass is weak af, but the designs alone are enough to put ppl off. After all, would you rather have a huge winged dragon, a tortoise with two fuckoff canons on its back, or a dumb flower toad?”

My brother used to nickname his Chikorita the German equivalent of the f-slur. And I’m gonna tell you a secret: The Grass type wasn’t always my favorite. Far from it. When I was a 10yo, I used to hate and make fun of the it, cuz it was a “stupid weak girly type.” Cuz yeah. That’s just how kids are sometimes 🙄 And also that’s basically what the game communicated to us on every corner. Girls are ditzy, all these ditzy girls use Bellsprout and Oddish, ergo Grass Pokemon are for ditzy and girly trainers.

There’s also the idea which NPCs persistently try to sell you that “Grass types are easy to raise”, especially compared to the other two starter types:

(I’m not even gonna get into what a lie that is and how ridiculously hard it is to train Oddish, one of the most common Grass types, because all it knew was Absorb. There is also the problem that the Grass type is weak against Bug and Flying types, which consistently litter the start of every single game, making it harder to raise Bulbasaur than Charmander or Squirtle.)

A bad faith interpretation of all the facts we have on hand would be to assume that Grass Pokemon are supposed to be the “easy” choice out of the three starter types, and thus should be the one most closely associated with and almost exclusively used by girls...

Which is especially hilarious considering all the ways in which the Grass type is hugely disadvantaged. Telling girls to take the grass starter, cuz that one won’t be too hard for them to raise, but then outclass it in every manner possible by its opponents. Good job, Pokemon.

-

Completely unrelated interlude

Some say your starter choice is a way of choosing the game’s difficulty setting. Which is a very odd way of spelling “Grass starters suck more than the other two.” Others say that the Grass type is meant to fulfill a supportive roll.

There’s like, this common thread running through Pokemon design up until very recently: Masculine/male Pokemon = active and offensive, feminine/female Pokemon = passive and supportive.

(fun fact: Did you know that Gardevoir is 50% male? Most Pokefans don’t and so Gardevoir and Gallade get treated like the female/male evolutions of Kirlia.)

And that’s not to say that female Pokemon are worse than their male counterparts. But when I was a kid, the boys from my grade, my cousin, every boy I knew used to mock me for using female Pokemon. Because they were absolutely convinced the stats of female Pokemon were worse than those of their male counterparts.

There’s a reason every Pokemon you can only get once in the game only has a little more than 10% chance of being female, and it’s not to make breeding harder.

The thought here is (or used to be) that boys don’t like female Pokemon, boys don’t like feminine Pokemon, and boys think feminine/female Pokemon are weak. Unfortunately, preteens aren’t exactly known for their nuanced way of thinking, so these kinda patterns are often self-fulfilling prophecies. You assume boys won’t like Meganium, so you make it the weakest out of the bunch. Then boys don’t like it. They tell the girls to use it, cuz it’s a girl Pokemon with a big dumb flower and girls like that, and it’s weak, just like all girl Pokemon. Boys like strong Pokemon. Girls like cute Pokemon. Why is the Grass type the weakest type? No connection here, no siree.

End interlude.

-

So what is the takeaway.

A lot has changed since the 90s. Feminine looking starters don’t get the worst stats anymore. Super feminine looking Pokemon can kick your butt by now. There’s been an effort from the Pokemon company to divorce Grass from its status as “the girl type”. Grass starters aren’t decked out in flowers anymore. Some are brawly, and some have even been accepted as sleek and cool by the dudebro corner of the fandom!

But somehow the Grass starters of almost every single generation persistently manage to rank lowest on polls. It doesn’t really help that the Grass type has p much only gotten worse since its inception, that it’s almost useless in competitive gaming, despite there being no good reason for it to be this far behind its counterparts. No reason except one that is.

I guess you can only do so much to try and backpedal on an association that you hardwired into every Pokemon fan for decades.

Poison types: devious.

Dragon types: formidable.

Fire types: wild.

Water types: chill.

Grass types: girly (derogatory).

[husbandomail-archive]

(1/3) May I have a Pokémon matchup more specifically Gen 3 please? I’m a female INFP Taurus, heteromantic asexual (I want a male romantic partner please). I am 5”3”, baby faced with brown eyes and dark curly, brown hair and biracial (half White and half Black). I am quiet, shy, reserved. I am also passionate, empathetic, childlike, sensitive, curious, studious, creative, imaginative, sassy, bold, affectionate, loyal, smart, religious/spiritual, optimistic and idealistic.

(2/3) I am a dreamer and I try and do see the good of others. I have anxiety, depression, OCD, and Asperger’s. I have the tendency to bottle up my emotions and problems. I am perfectionistic, self critical, stubborn (a double edged sword for me) and I tend to withdraw if I am hurt. I love reading, Mythology, cooking, baking, drawing, and studying and researching about history especially the Classical Civilizations, and various sciences such as Astronomy Biology, and Meteorology.

(3/3) I love to research about psychology, having philosophical discussions, the Paranormal, and the Occult. I love Nature and animals especially cats. I am a witch and I practice Witchcraft and have an interest in magick and alchemy. I love playing video games, superheroes especially Marvel, watching cartoons, anime, and Disney. I love to collect books, crystals, gemstones, jewelry, stuffed animals, manga, and fandom merch. Please and thank you for considering my request.

I would pair you with Wallace!

He’s a very calm and attentive man, so I think he’d be good for you; while you’re getting to know each other, he’s careful not to push interactions and stress you out while you’re still getting comfortable with him. Wallace is detail-oriented, so it doesn’t take him long to learn to read you— you might think you’re hiding your troubles well, but he can see them written all over your face, and he doesn’t want you to keep bottling everything up. He’s here for a reason, after all. It’s a bit surprising; looking at him, you wouldn’t expect Wallace to be so gentle, but he really is. He can tell when you really do need time alone, and he’ll never push you past your limits. Whenever you’re feeling particularly bad about yourself, he’s there to combat all of your negative thoughts with gentle logic and plenty of kisses.

He loves how enthusiastic you get about your interests, even if a few are not ones he shares. The way your eyes light up, and the way your grin breaks across your face like a wave, and all your little gestures and rambles about this or that. Wallace is also the type to try pretty much anything once, so he’s more than willing to get involved if you’d like him to join you. Amusingly, he’s not very good at video games, but it makes you laugh, so he’ll play with you whenever you’d like. He’s also very much the type to spoil you— he notices how you slow down in front of certain stores but never ask to go in, so he’ll steer you that way, and then begin buying practically everything you pick up. He knows it flusters you, but he just thinks that’s cute, and wants to keep you happy.

There is a lot of overlap in your interests— as the Sootopolis Gym Leader, he’s deeply involved with the mythology of the Hoenn region, and in the process of his studies he’s learned a lot about other regions as well. Philosophical topics are also some of his favorites, and he’s very interested in your perspectives on everything; he’s interested in how two people living in the same world can reach so many different conclusions about life.

[frontier-brain-ashley]

Well hello everyone welcome to my shiny new blog! I have never done anything like this before so I hope it comes across well. I want to share with you guys the Pokemon challenges I complete, usually for my own entertainment. I run Nuzlocke’s and challenge runs all the time and really wanted to start posting my adventures, hopefully to meet like minded people and get some feedback on how I can improve.

For my first run, I thought I would get into the spirit of the season and as its Halloween this month, I want to find out: Can I beat Pokemon Emerald using only one Murkrow? I’ll post updates of the key battles like the rival and gym leader fights as well as some story bits to pad it out. I hope you enjoy it!

So what’s so good about Murkrow. Well apart from its super cool design, not much! This is gen 3 so there’s no evolution yet, meaning I’m stuck using a tiny bird with a base stat total of 405, which... isn’t the absolute worst but it’s not going to be great, especially end game.

So our speed stat is awesome, and attack and special attack are also not TOO bad. That defence is awful though so I expect to be running a frail glass cannon that as long as we hit first, we will survive. We’re weak to rock and electric though so the first and third gyms are going to be fun. 

Next up is our move set. And... well see for yourself:

Not great is it? Only peck STAB flying though I guess night shade will be useful early on and feint attack is STAB too. Other than that I have access to both aerial ace and shadow ball via TM so whilst we don’t have that much coverage, the moves we have will be pretty solid. 

Before we begin, the rules! 

1. I may only use one Murkrow in battle. I will need to use others for HMs but they may not enter battle. 

2. No items in battle. Held items are allowed as are items out of battle.

Let’s get into it!

We boot up the game, and I call myself Ashley. Because that is my name. Hi! 

I use the universal Pokemon randomiser to change Treecko to Murkrow so we can use him right from the start. I bump into our rival whilst I was checking out her bedroom, and head out to meet our starter. 

I absolutely love this sprite by the way. I love all the gen 3 sprites to be fair but just look how happy our little guy is! 

Here is our starter. Adamant nature is pretty nice (attack up, special attack down) especially as flying and ghost are all physical in gen 3. It will mean our dark moves don’t hit quite as hard though. Stats at level 5 are okay to be fair, I think the start of this game is going to be fairly easy. Until the first gym anyway. 

First rival fight goes as well as you would expect. We only know peck but it smashes May’s Torchic in two hits. 

We head to the gym and meet our dad who makes us go and catch a wild Pokemon for Wally, who is IMO the cutest little guy in Pokemon ever! 

After that we peck our way through Petalburg Woods and learn astonish and pursuit along the way. Well that’s all my coverage moves! 

Next we arrive at Roxanne’s rock gym and I head straight to the leader. The trainers inside are fairly easy and go down in just two pursuits. I want to see how much grinding I need to be able to beat her before I do anything else. 

First up is Geodude and we hit it first for 3 quarters damage with pursuit. She hit us with a rock tomb, for 17 damage and gets the speed drop. I start to panic but she heals next turn and we finish it off with two more pursuits. Second is another Geodude and literally the same thing happens. Now we are at -2 speed and only 8 HP when Nosepass comes out. We hit first with astonish, hoping for the flinch but it doesn’t happen and we wipe! 

So I need to grind which sucks, but I can grind in the local cave and gain attack EVs from Whismur. I’ll try again every two levels so that we win at the lowest level possible. Argh, this is going to be a hard one (pun intended!)

[wtwo-archive]

i'm about to ramble about some dumb bullshit nobody cares about but truly... hilbert/hilda and nate/rosa play the same role in gen 5 that red and ethan/kris/lyra did in their games respectively.

in other words, pokemon black and white are the red and blue of gen 5, and pokemon black 2 and white 2 are the gold, silver and crystal.

the gsc/hgss protagonists basically do almost the same things as red and experience almost the same things he did. they receive pokedexes from professor oak, they have a rival that's an asshole, they encounter team rocket along the way. they collect all 8 gym badges for their region. they take team rocket down. they become the new champion. and then they travel to another region (something red didn't do in his games) and collect those gym badges as well.

and then after the player ends up at the top of mt silver, face to face with red. the former champion. the kid who took down team rocket. the ultimate trainer. and with only the exchange of two eyes meeting, they fight.

the biggest difference here is that you never see the bw hero in black and white 2. you hear mentions of them, of course, from people like bianca, cheren, n, team plasma members and their mom, but you never get to see them for themself. their story is plain and simple—they were the hero that saved unova two years before plasma decided to strike again. they might have been champion, too, at some point, but that's more ambiguous. nate/rosa follow almost exactly the same path hilbert/hilda did on their journey, they just start in a different place and go through different obstacles. they both get a pokédex from juniper (technically bianca for the bw2 heroes), collect 8 gym badges, run into team plasma and n, and then they confront ghetsis at the climax of the main story and take team plasma down.

the parallels you can draw from these two different yet similar storylines don't just limit themselves to the player's journey. in hgss, blue says this to the player:

and, honestly? looking at ethan and lyra's designs, i can see it!

in bw2, a lot of people compare nate/rosa to the bw protag. most of them don't mean it like, physically, and more in how strong and determined they are, but how can you look at these designs and not think that someone could mistake them for older versions of hilbert and hilda?

one big difference between the bw and the bw2 protags is that the dragon they get is different. depending on the version, hilbert/hilda will get reshiram (black) or zekrom (white), while nate/rosa will get the dragon that n had in the postgame (zekrom for black 2, reshiram for white 2). this doesn't really add to the parallels, but i think it's fun how they can be seen as foils in that regard.

the rivals for red and the johto protagonists are very similar. as in they're both assholes who at first only want to get stronger, but then after getting beat repeatedly by the player they realize that they can't just rely on being strong. blue's change is evident from the three-year time gap between kanto's events and johto's events, while silver's spans from the main game to the postgame and some of pokemon masters (which is in a weird limbo of canon but I Think It Counts Because It's Important To Me). cheren is the blue to the bw protag's red, while hugh can be seen as the silver to the bw2 protag's ethan/kris/lyra. cheren and blue both have a huge final goal of becoming stronger and being the champion, while silver and hugh are extremely fixated on becoming stronger to crush their regions respective evil teams.

blue and cheren both become gym leaders in the next games they appear in and reference their journey/red or the bw protag a lot. blue talks about red beating him with a bitter fondness like they've known each other their entire lives, while cheren talks about his journey with hilbert/hilda and bianca on occasion and says that it changed him a lot and he's grateful for it and how it made him grow.

silver and hugh both want to take down the evil teams in their games for personal reasons. silver sees them as weak and bitterly resents them because his father, giovanni, was the leader of team rocket before abandoning his son after blue and red beat him, with red also taking down team rocket himself. team plasma stole the purrloin hugh's sister was gifted by their grandfather five years before bw2's events, and is desperate to try and take them down and save it. both of these goals cause them to get really bad tunnel vision, where silver loses it after lance defeats him and berates silver for not caring about his pokemon beyond their strength, and hugh doesn't know what to do with the stolen purrloin, now a liepard, glowering at him with hatred and no memory of who he is. the main differences between them are that hugh isn't as mean as silver can be and doesn't get physical with the player, as he and the player are childhood friends. he can still be harsh to some people though, mainly the ex members of team plasma.

the last parallel i'll draw between these games is the one between red's mother in gsc/hgss and hilbert/hilda's mom in bw2.

in the johto games, when the player visits her, red's mom says this:

"Hi! Red's been away. He hasn't called either, so I have no idea where he is or what he's been doing. They say no news is good news, but I do worry about him."

and in bw2, hilbert/hilda's mom says this:

"No news is good news they say. Being happy about something like that is a little difficult though. Being a parent is tough."

there are a lot of different ways you can compare these games, but these are by far the most important details that i felt had to be shared. if you got this far, thank you for reading this post!

[newstfionline]

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Most expensive cities (CNBC) Zurich and Paris have displaced Singapore and Osaka in a recent report on the world’s most expensive cities. The two Asian cities previously joined Hong Kong at the top of the rankings. That’s based on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Worldwide Cost of Living index which shows how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the prices of goods and services in more than 130 cities as of September 2020. According to the report, Zurich and Paris’ jump to first place was due to the strengthening of the Swiss franc and the euro. “The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the weakening of the U.S. dollar while western European and north Asian currencies have strengthened against it, which in turn has shifted prices for goods and services,” said Upasana Dutt, head of Worldwide Cost of Living at The EIU. New York City is used as the base city in the index. The top ten: Zurich, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Osaka, Geneva, New York, Copenhagen, Los Angeles.

U.S., Canada, Mexico to extend border restrictions until late December (AP) U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico are expected to remain closed to non-essential travel until Dec. 21 at the earliest amid a rising number of U.S. coronavirus cases, officials in Washington and Ottawa told Reuters on Wednesday. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the decision later on Wednesday in a post on Twitter. The restrictions were first put in place in March to control the spread of the virus and have been extended on a monthly basis ever since. In Ottawa, a Canadian government source said the travel restrictions in place at the Canada-U.S. land border would remain in effect for at least another month.

Recession With a Difference: Women Face Special Burden (NYT) For millions of working women, the coronavirus pandemic has delivered a rare and ruinous one-two-three punch. First, the parts of the economy that were smacked hardest and earliest by job losses were ones where women dominate—restaurants, retail businesses and health care. Then a second wave began taking out local and state government jobs, another area where women outnumber men. The third blow has, for many, been the knockout: the closing of child care centers and the shift to remote schooling. That has saddled working mothers, much more than fathers, with overwhelming household responsibilities. “We’ve never seen this before,” said Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan and the mother of a second grader and a sixth grader. Recessions usually start by gutting the manufacturing and construction industries, where men hold most of the jobs, she said. The triple punch is not just pushing women out of jobs they held, but also preventing many from seeking new ones.

U.S. to Drop Case Against Mexican Ex-Official to Allow Inquiry in Mexico (NYT) The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to drop drug trafficking and corruption charges against a former Mexican defense minister to allow Mexican officials to investigate him, Attorney General William P. Barr announced Tuesday in an abrupt reversal a month after the official was arrested in Los Angeles. The official, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, had been Mexico’s defense minister from 2012 to 2018 and was accused of taking bribes in exchange for protecting cartel leaders. But Mr. Barr and Mexico’s attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, stopped short in a statement of promising any charges in Mexico. In a court filing, prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration had determined that preserving its relationship with Mexico prevailed over pursuing the case. “The United States has determined that sensitive and important foreign policy considerations outweigh the government’s interest in pursuing the prosecution of the defendant, under the totality of the circumstances, and therefore require dismissal of the case,” they wrote in asking a judge to dismiss the charges.

Biden’s DIY transition proceeds without Trump assistance (AP) President Donald Trump’s refusal to cooperate with his successor is forcing President-elect Joe Biden to seek unusual workarounds to prepare for the exploding public health threat and evolving national security challenges he will inherit in just nine weeks. Blocked from the official intelligence briefing traditionally afforded to incoming presidents, Biden gathered virtually on Tuesday with a collection of intelligence, defense and diplomatic experts. And as the worst pandemic in a century bears down on the U.S. with renewed ferocity, the current administration is blocking Biden from collaborating with its response team. Biden’s representatives instead plan to meet directly with pharmaceutical companies this week to determine how best to distribute at least two promising vaccines to hundreds of millions of Americans, the biggest logistical challenge to face a new president in generations. The moves reflect how Biden is adjusting to a historically tense transition. With no sign that Trump is prepared to facilitate soon a peaceful transfer of power, Biden and his team are instead working through a series of backup options to do the best they can to prepare for the challenges he will face as soon as he takes office in January.

When Trump Goes, Can the Democrats Hold It Together? (NYT) The Democratic Party is struggling with internal contradictions, as its mixed performance on Election Day makes clear. Analysts and insiders are already talking—sometimes in apocalyptic terms—about how hard it will be for Joe Biden to hold together the coalition that elected him as the 46th president. The intraparty dispute burst out full force on Nov. 5 during a three-hour House Democratic Caucus telephone meeting. Moderates angrily lashed out at liberals, accusing them of allowing divisive rhetoric such as “defund the police” and calls for socialism to go largely unchallenged. Those on the left pushed right back, accusing centrists of seeking to downgrade the demands of minorities, including those voiced at Black Lives Matter protests. Abigail Spanberger, who represents the 7th Congressional District in Virginia—which runs from the suburbs of Richmond through the exurban and rural counties in the center of the state—voiced her instantly famous critique of the liberal wing of her party during the phone call: “We have to be pretty clear about the fact that Tuesday—Nov. 3—from a congressional standpoint, was a failure,” she told her Democratic colleagues. “The number one concern that people brought to me” during the campaign “was defunding the police.” And “We need to not ever use the words ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again because while people think it doesn’t matter, it does matter. And we lost good members because of that.” Representative Rashida Tlaib, whose Michigan district is among the poorest in the country, and who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America—directly countered Spanberger and other moderates: “To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want.” Other Democrats who describe themselves as democratic socialists, including the former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, have become a substantial Democratic constituency.

Pandemic media syndrome? (Scientific American) According to Claudia Wallis, of Scientific American, recent studies have shown that the pandemic’s toll on mental health has been even worse than experts expected, especially among young adults. Roxane Cohen Silver, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, found that “increased engagement with media coverage of the outbreak” is a major driver of anxiety among people of all ages. “If people are engaged with a great deal of media, they are more likely to exhibit and report distress, but that distress seems to draw them further into the media,” Silver says. “It’s a cyclical pattern from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.”

Sweden’s coronavirus strategy (Washington Post) Even Sweden appears to be abandoning the Swedish model. On Monday, the country’s authorities banned gatherings of more than eight people as they grappled with the second coronavirus wave surging through much of Europe. The new restrictions followed other protocols coming into effect this week, including protective measures around nursing homes and bans on alcohol sales at restaurants and bars after 10 p.m. The shift in tone is noteworthy given Sweden’s notorious light-touch approach to the pandemic. “It is a clear and sharp signal to every person in our country as to what applies in the future,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said during a news conference Monday. “Don’t go to the gym, don’t go the library, don’t have dinner out, don’t have parties—cancel!” Hospitalizations are rising faster in Sweden than any other European country, and Sweden’s per capita death rate is several times higher than those of its Nordic neighbors Finland, Denmark and Norway.

Amid pandemic, Belgrade street kids find comfort at refuge (AP) In a small, brightly-colored backstreet house in Belgrade a teenage girl is drying her hair, while two others eat lunch in the kitchen. A group of boys are having their temperatures checked at the entrance as a precaution against coronavirus. It’s another busy day for Svratiste, or Roadhouse, Belgrade’s first daily drop-in center for street kids that for years has been a rare oasis of warmth and comfort for the Serbian capital’s most vulnerable inhabitants. Since opening in 2007, Svratiste has welcomed hundreds of children—some as young as five—who have come here to warm up, wash or eat. With social isolation growing and the economic situation worsening in the pandemic, the center’s role has become even more significant. Apart from providing food and clothes, the Svratiste team has also sought to help the children socialize and get to know their town by visiting playgrounds, cinemas and theaters. A key effort has been to include them in the education system and make sure they stay. During the pandemic, the center helped with online classes that most children have no means of following. One of their success stories has been Bosko Markovic, now 18, who first came to Svratiste five years ago. With the center’s help, Markovic has finished high school and now has his eyes set on becoming a policeman, he told the Associated Press. “They (Svratiste) have made me a better person,” he said proudly.

Pompeo To Visit Israeli West Bank Settlements During Farewell Tour (Foreign Policy) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Israel today as he continues his whistle-stop tour of U.S. allies. Before he heads to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, he is planning on making history. Pompeo will visit two Israeli settlements both considered in violation of international law, one in the Golan Heights and one in the West Bank. By doing so, he becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit either site. His de facto endorsement of the Israeli occupation stands in contrast to the outgoing Obama administration’s moves in 2016, allowing passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory illegal by abstaining from (rather than vetoing) the vote. His visit also comes as Israel plans to expand a settlement in East Jerusalem, despite outcry from the United Nations and European Union.

Reassured by Biden Win, Palestinians Will Resume Cooperation With Israel (NYT) The Palestinian Authority said Tuesday that it was resuming its cooperation with Israel, ending six months of financial hardship for tens of thousands of West Bank residents and signaling relief over the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr. It was one of the first clear signs that anticipation of a new administration in Washington is having an effect on international relations. The Palestinian announcement undid a set of stringent measures imposed by Mahmoud Abbas, the authority’s president, in May in a desperate protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to unilaterally annex large portions of the occupied West Bank. The Trump administration had indicated it would support some form of annexation, which would have imposed Israeli sovereignty over land that the Palestinians have counted on for a future state. Mr. Abbas cut off security coordination with Israel, raising fears that attacks might go unprevented. He also severed civilian ties, including those that help Palestinians travel into Israel for work or medical treatment. Most painful of all to his own people, Mr. Abbas stopped accepting routine transfers of more than $100 million a month in taxes that Israel collects on the Palestinians’ behalf, funds that account for more than 60 percent of the authority’s budget. The lack of funds forced salary cuts for tens of thousands of public-sector employees, compounding what was already a devastating economic crisis because of the pandemic. “Praise God, I feel so relieved,” Rami Kitaneh, 35, a nurse at the Hugo Chavez Ophthalmic Hospital in the central West Bank, said Tuesday night. “I gave up so much since the start of the crisis, but now I can breathe.”

Security officials worry Israel and Saudi Arabia may see the end of Trump as their last chance to go to war with Iran (Business Insider) European intelligence officials are alarmed about the possibility of military action towards Iran in the waning days of the Trump administration. Concern that Trump—who has pushed for maximum pressure on Iran—or a combination of Israel or Saudi Arabia creating a military confrontation in the waning days of the administration has been a concern for over a week, according to three European intelligence officials who spoke with Insider. The news that last week the president requested a list of military options from his military and diplomatic advisors has sent these concerns into overdrive. One fear is of unilateral action by the US to force a military clash that might make it impossible for the incoming Biden administration to return to the 2015 joint nuclear agreement that traded sanctions relief on Iran for an end to its nuclear weapon programs, all three officials said. They declined to speak on the record in exchange for their candid views on the situation.

People go hungry in Ethiopia’s Tigray as conflict marches on (AP) People are going hungry in Ethiopia’s rebellious northern Tigray region as roads are blocked, airports are closed and the federal government marches on its capital in a final push to win a two-week war. “At this stage there is simply very little left, even if you have money,” according to an internal assessment by one humanitarian group, seen by The Associated Press. The assessment, based on a colleague who managed to get out, said people “will stay where they are, there is no place in Tigray where the situation is any different and they cannot cross over into the other regions of Ethiopia because of fear of what would be done to them.” For more than a week, the United Nations and other aid organizations have been warning of disaster. Long lines formed outside shops within days of the Nov. 4 announcement by Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that a military offensive had begun in response to an attack by Tigray regional forces on a military base. Trucks laden with food, fuel and medical supplies have been stuck outside the region’s borders. Banks in Tigray were closed for days, cutting off humanitarian cash transfers to some 1 million people. And even before the fighting, a locust outbreak had been destroying crops. Over 27,000 Ethiopians have fled into neighboring Sudan, burdening villages that have been praised for their generosity, though they have little to give.

[artgurusauce]

So, how was Pokemon Shield?

Before I start, this is going to cover the main game, not post-game. Sorry, no talk about Dickhead Swordward and Shieldbert. Also, if it wasn’t obvious already, massive spoilers ahead. 

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, DO NOT READ THIS POST

I’m not going to ramble for hours about this, because to be honest, my thoughts about this are much briefer than they are for gen 7/Alola. Not to say there’s not much going on in this game, just that if you were expecting a super professional and profound review of the game from me, you may or may not be disappointed.

I will do my best to be articulate, though.

I’ll start with the rivals, the most obvious choice the begin with being: Hop.

Hop is definitely not like Hau like so many people were desperate to make me believe pre-release. In fact, while their arcs are similar, there’s a biiig difference. That difference, to me, is their changes in character. Hau had a big ass crash, yes, but his character change was pretty damn gradual. With Hop, after Bede puts him down, well, you can pretty much tell he’s not the same guy right off the bat the next time you talk to him. I absolutely adore Hope and I’m glad he got as much screen time and focus as he did. His arc was fantastically written and beautifully handled all the way to the end. All I can say is, another cinnamon roll for the collection.

Then there’s...Marnie.

Now, I don’t hate her, far from it. I adore her very much as well. The problem is that it seems she doesn’t get much time to flesh out like Hop did. A problem that goes both ways between her and Bede. Of course when I got to the seventh gym and met big brother Piers I actually did like the dynamic they were going for. Buuut I really wish they had given Marnie just a little more time to herself before that. I just didn’t feel like they did enough with her and...that’s a damn shame considering how popular she was upon her first reveal. Of course, again, this isn’t to say I don’t think she’s still just the cutest little punk goth button ever.

Sigh...and now it’s time for me to talk about Bede.

Look, from what I could tell, half the fandom was nuts for him, the other half was sick to death of a generic douchebag rival that adds no flavor to the table. But I’m a little torn on this one. Like I said, him and Marnie share an awful side effect of Hop’s arc being the most prominent...they don’t get enough time or everything that happens in their arcs feels...rushed, by comparison, at least in my opinion. So the thing is, when Bede gets disowned by Chairman Rose, of course my first reaction is “You had it coming, you were being a shit.” But then Opal...takes him in? And...acts as though Oleana manipulated him? I guess I could perhaps see what they were going for here, and, I’ll admit it, I kind of adored their dynamic, albeit a short interaction between them. And I did find it rather cute at the League when he was all flustered about being trained by Opal, having to continue training because everyone was cheering for him. But the thing is...his arc is kind of...broken? Like, I want to feel bad for him, and I want to feel invested in Opal taking him in and showing him the ropes of the Fairy Gym but...it just doesn’t work like it should. Which is odd considering Bede gets considerably more time to flesh his arc than Marnie, at least, that’s how it seemed to me. I do think the general story and Hop’s own arc really just forced the writing’s hand in sweeping Bede’s arc by as fast as possible. He could’ve been an interesting diversion of expectation, but...oh well.

Speaking of gyms, how do I feel about the gym leaders?

Well, Milo is a fucking cinnamon roll, and I do think I’ve settled on shipping him with Nessa because...I mean...c’mon now. Short bean boy, toll ocean gal? Perfect for each other ♥

I don’t really...feel anything towards Kabu. His design is bland, his personality didn’t stick out to me at all, but I guess they can’t all be iconic gems when you think about it.

Then...there’s my baby boy Allister. And lawd, my dudes, if Hop ain’t my new son well then Allister sure as fuck is. I did HC that he was mute like Red before the game came out and, well, his personality and dialogue are pretty good despite not being what I was hoping. I mean, c’mon, how can you not love that adorable little face? Or that he’s so socially introverted he keeps a collection of masks to make absolute sure his face is hidden? I am going to be quoting “Crumbs, that’s aces” forever now.

Opal was an interesting woman, I definitely think there could’ve been more to her relationship with Bede but I already discussed that. My dad thought she was kinda scary and creepy but she reminds me of that old lady from Spirited Away so I ain’t bothered all that much lol. She was nice enough, I do like her humbleness and that she’s willing to admit it’s definitely time for her to call it quits. And yes, I have seen that official art of her when she was younger. She is a fucking QUEEN  ♥ ♥ ♥

Then comes Melony...hoooo boy my lesbian ass is fallin’ so hard it physically hurts me in ways you will never imagine in your life. Wicke wishes she was this thicc. In all seriousness though, I am pretty curious about that son of hers. I heard you can meet him in Sword but I’ll have to wait and see that for myself. Aside from being the newest love of my life, she’s absolutely adorable and wholesome. I know her card reveres her as strict, but, she just looks like a cinnamon roll.

Piers...oh Piers, where do I even begin? His design is fucking on point, for one thing. And his relationship with his sister Marnie is just so cute and so much fun to watch. As unfortunately left field as it was for me, I did like his arc about not being a good Gym Leader and wanting his sister to take over for him. It was sweet and kinda sad but I just love him so much. For the first Dark Type Gym Leader, not bad guys, not bad at all. Also omg Piers slay me with your metal, king plsssss

Finally, there’s Raihan and...omg he’s so great. This mother fucker not only takes selfies in the middle of a match, not only bombards you with weather effects therefore making him a fun and challenging opponent, but this dude is also beefin’ with our head champ? SIGN ME UP, FAM. For real though, like, I loved battling with Raihan the most out of anybody that I fought. I definitely haven’t felt this much fun battling a Gym Leader in years. And I will forever be torn as to whether or not I want to ship him with Leon >3>

Speaking of the chadster, I ain’t talked about ‘im yet. Or Sonia, for that matter. Honestly, they’re both pretty great. 

But Leon is the fuckin’ MVP this gen, I’ll tell you what. He’s such a bro he tells Rose his “Day of Destiny” bullshit can fuck off til our match is over. Of course, I do like his ditzy and dorky sides too. Like his snapback collection or how easily he gets lost seriously Leon it’s just a straight fucking line to your house how do you fuck that up. But he ain’t just a bro to the main character, naw, he a bro to his actual bro, Hop. And I fuckin’ love it. Their interactions are so investing and entertaining and wonderful to watch. It’s almost kind of magical, in a way. I think he is without a doubt my number one favorite Champion of all time now. 

But as for Sonia, well, I dunno...maybe I’m nitpicky or remembering things wrong but she seemed to drop her disdain for researching the legend of the “Darkest Day” like a hat at some point. Granted, I still think her character arc while it wasn’t even needed was very well done. I loved listening to her dork out about the legends, her research, all of it. It was spectacular. And ever since I first found out she was childhood friends with Leon before the game even came out, ladies and gents, these two have dun been my OTP. The only one still challenging that notion is Raihan at this point, lol.

And now...we get to Oleana and Chairman Rose.

Oleana is just...kind of a nothing character for me, personally. Even after knowing about her Garbardor and all that, sorry fam, she ain’t doin’ it for me. She was a red herring so overblown and obvious it has since been laughable that anybody thought she was gonna be this gen’s Lusamine. She is just...some really crazy lady who happens to be passionate about her job. Ok.

Rose, however, is an absolute bastard. And I love it. However, I do have a problem with this, as it sort of connects to my earlier point with Bede. His relationship with Bede is...I don’t even know if I could call it a father-son relationship. I mean, yeah, he basically adopted him, but he disowns him at the drop of a hat. Granted, what Bede did was wrong, but...really? I guess that’s just how much of a dick he is, but, there’s no closure to that. Even after finding out what a horrible, deplorable man Rose is, Bede never talks to him after he’s disowned. Maybe this was meant to be a “Well it’s better he moves on to the next chapter of his life as soon as possible” sort of thing. But his sudden taking under Opal’s wing did not accomplish that feeling with me. So it feels sort of...hollow, to me. There’s no conclusion, follow-up, it’s almost as if Bede didn’t even know who Rose was anymore after Opal scooped him up. And yeah, Bede says “Everything has gone wrong since I met you” but...here’s the problem; That’s as much as he goes into being affected by Rose. It’s not too important, I guess, but it’s something that bothered me, personally. Rose’s motivations seem...ok, I guess. It’s about what I was expecting. Seriously though, his battle theme has no business being that good.

Those are all my thoughts on the characters, at least any that were all that worth talking about. Without further ado: Allow me to introduce y’all to my babies...

As I mentioned on Monday, my team consists of an Appletun, Centiskorch, Greedent, Hatterene, Inteleon, and an Eiscue. And I only just now realize like 5 out of 6 of them have names that start with a “C” lmao.

First up, we have my very first darling: Chastity

There’s a few things one should know about this slick little bitch:

Big shock, she was a huuuge cry baby as a Sobble. Like, mortified of pretty much everybody. Total mama’s girl. But as a Drizzile she was just a total grump goth binch. The only one of my Pokemon in my camp she would give the time of day is her dear friend Chariot, who at the time was a Hattrem. They pretty much grew up together and they’re besties now.

But now that Chastity is fully grown, well...she’s a little...flirtatious. Oh, no, not with the boys on her team. No no no. Every camp we step onto she’s just flirtin’ like a mad woman. She even managed to seduce my dad’s Cinderace who was already a huge playboy

Still, I can’t stay mad at this cute little brat. She’s still a total mama’s girl at heart and I love her to death. Btw, her Snipe Shot is ridiculously strong, though that’s probably because she’s still holding a Mystic Water haha

Up next is our resident lady in waiting: Chariot

I found Chariot in the Motostoke Outskirts and she has always been a picky snob even as a Hattena. She only ate small portions unless it was Whipped Cream Curry. Though nowadays I’m sure she only eats in such small portions to maintain her figure...

As I said before, she and Chastity have pretty much always been best friends. I definitely love to imagine her always hassling Chastity for her less than lady-like behavior though, haha. Chariot was weirdly sleepy as a Hattrem, though. Like...she dozed off a lot. She must’ve been getting plenty of beauty sleep for her evolution lol. 

I used to have a Toxtricity on my team named Ripper before I found an Eiscue for the League, and she seemed quite enamored with him. At least for the long period he was with us, she talked to him 50% of the time when I stopped for a little break. It was incredibly adorable, though I fear what might happen if I leave them alone at a daycare for too long...  <(⚆_⚆;)>

As a grown Hatterene, she’s rather dainty and conversative. I’m actually surprised, lately she’s starting to talk to some of her other fellow team mates lately. I suppose she’s not as stuck-up as she pretends to be, haha.

Up next we have our looonnnggg boy: Mushu

I picked up Mushu at Kabu’s gym. He was pretty shy as a tiny Sizzlipede and often avoided talking to most of his team mates. He was pretty spooked by a lot of them, actually, particularly Ripper for reasons I never quite understood. I guess when Ripper was still a baby, Mushu didn’t understand why he cried so much and was terrified of the loud noises he made lol.

However, he grew into a long boi rather quickly and he’s pulled us through some pretty tough spots in the gym challenges so I like to spoil him with lots of play time. He’s got a Jolly nature and honestly, it shows a lot more now that he’s all grown up. He loves to play and races with his team mates pretty much all the time. Rip Caramel, your utter annihilation will not be forgotten. He’s a very sweet and almost gentle boy and I honestly feel bad for all the battering he’s had to take before because I was a little too eager to take on opponents way out of my league.

A couple of fun facts about him before we move on:

His favorite curry in the curry dex is Smoked Tail Curry, which he always eats in gigantic portions. He freaking loves camping on Route 6 or in Stow-On-Side, I guess he really loves the heat.

Up next is my precious dumpling baby: Caramel

I first caught Caramel on Route 5, and I love love looove my baby apple pie. He’s such a chill and adorkable little dragon and I’m not one to pick favorites but...oh, who am I kidding? He’s totally my favorite.

As an Applin he was just too cute. He was a little slow and none of his team mates seemed to understand him so they tended to leave him by himself. So I ended up having to give him lots of attention so he wasn’t too lonely. And gosh was he just the cutest little baby apple. Of course, he wasn’t an Applin for very long, so there’s not much to speak of regarding his early stages.

However, once he evolved, he became a fucking tank. Caramel can take hits like a freaking champ and since I gave him Draco Meteor he’s practically an unstoppable beast. Of course, by heart, he’s a Lax boyo and enjoys the littlest things in life: Like the nice breezes in the Wild Area, or his Apple Curry, even if it’s snowing something fierce outside he’s all about it. And I just- argh he’s so fuckin’ cute!  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Up next we’ve got the chunky cheeked baby: Peter Griffin Conker

Conker is a Gentle boy who’s been with me since the very beginning at Route 1, and it fits since objectively he’s probably the weakest Pokemon I’ve got on my team. But that’s ok, because he’s definitely scored us a couple of hard gym challenges just like Mushu has. He was definitely useful for buying some time when I needed it, that’s for sure.

He was pretty chattery as a Skwovet, even if some of his team mates weren’t all that talkative looking at you, Chastity. This probably comes as no surprise, but he’s always had a bottomless stomach. Seriously, he’s eaten large portions even as a baby Skwovet and it baffles me. Guess he’s just a really hungy boy, lol.

As a fully grown, chunky Greedent, he’s pretty slow. Like, really slow. Even when he runs it’s like a snail tracking through peanut butter and molasses. And it’s too cute to watch. I really wish I could give him belly rubs tbh, he looks like the type that’d enjoy those, haha. These days he’s best friends with my Eiscue, Cubert. They usually race each other after they have lunch.

And finally, one of my greatest MVP’s: Cubert

Cubert joined us very late in the game on Route 10. And while unfortunately he ended up taking Ripper’s place, I knew he’d be a good addition to the team. I’ve given him Hail and Aurora Veil, which is super useful for battle prep. It’s pretty lucky I was able to find this little guy waddlin’ around up there on my way to Wyndon.

As I said before, he was pretty anti-social with everybody at first. Though I’m sure that’s because he was so new by the time we got to the League. Thankfully, Conker got him out of his shell and they’re best friends. He still seems a little shy around the others, and even myself, but I’m just glad he’s got somebody to talk to. Not much to say about him unfortunately, since he’s so reserved and tends to keep to himself, but I’m sure that’ll change eventually with time.

Now that’s everyone that’s on my current team, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my boy Ripper at all, so, allow me to introduce an old friend who’s been livin’ in retirement for the past few days:

I first picked up Ripper at a Nursery while I was omw over to Hulburry, I believe. So Ripper was with us for a damn long time until I picked up Cubert. Initially I had hoped he’d be a High Key Toxtricity, but I’ll take what I get. Besides, he was more than helpful with quite a lot of battles, especially Opal’s gym.

He was pretty loud as a Toxel, which should come as no surprise. Always throwing tantrums and never really seemed to eat anything bigger than a small portion of whatever curry I cooked, so he was picky just like Chariot was. All around a bastard baby, really. He didn’t really start getting onto the battle field until he evolved, in all honesty.

But once he did, hoo boy, he was killin’ the competition like a pro. I feel pretty bad I didn’t take him into the League with me, but I felt like Cubert would’ve been more useful so I swapped ‘im out. I’ve been pulling him back out of the PC box for some more training lately to help him catch up to make up for it, though. And he seems pretty happy about it, so bygones are bygones I suppose.

And it seems he’s still very much taken with Chariot. Sigh, young love, so adorable. Anyways, respects to the OG madhouse that got me through some toughies, you did good out there buddy. ;w;

Alright, well, that’s just about all I have to discuss, for now. I hope this wasn’t too droning of a post or anything. But before you head out, I’ve got a little surprise. Since this was such an interesting experience, I’m opening a new Tumblr based on my journey that will follow my Trainer OC Luna and her adventures through Galar. If you’re curious to check it out, click here. I don’t really have an upload schedule, so just keep your eye out for any posts in the future. Hope you guys enjoy it!

[crystalelemental]

Since @patchun brought up Hugh as a rival, here’s my personal take on each rival character in Pokemon, because I’m bored.

Blue - I actually do like the guy, and I think that overall he’s a solid rival.  Story-wise, he’s one of the few that is always one step ahead of you, and clears the entire league before you.  His team is solid, and he makes adjustments based on the starter Pokemon he picks.  I also think he’s just kinda fun.  He’ll make excuses about why he lost (”I picked the wrong Pokemon!”) and gives you shit as someone he considered less than him, but there’s still some level at which he’s like “Oh hey, you’re improving!”  He’s a solid rival character.

Silver - I kinda feel like Silver isn’t really your rival, he’s just someone that shows up a lot that you have to deal with.  Like it’s never entirely established that the two of you are competing, he just wants to kick your ass for funsies in all his earlier encounters, and only comes to respect you at all at the end of his entire quest.  Which is cool!  I actually like Silver a lot, I think he’s got a ton going on and is a pretty unique change from Blue.  Blue was super invested in the League and being the best, while Silver’s also about being the best, but seems to have little interest in the League itself.  His motives are outside of the League, and frankly outside of your own.  He grows into the role of rival to the player more as a result of Lance’s comments to him and his own soul-searching.  I think that’s great.

Brendan/May - And then there’s these two.  I’m not entirely sure what the plan was behind these two.  I’ve heard they shifted off of the antagonistic rivals because bullying was a problem, and that’s why every rival since has been your friend rather than an opponent, but these two aren’t even that really.  They barely exist.  As characters, they rarely show up and don’t really do a whole lot at any point, and as a rival trainer, they’re so bad they never fully evolve their starter.  Brendan and May are, to me at least, the worst rivals in the series.  If it was because they thought early rivals were too mean and toned it down, they did so without accounting for any alternative traits to make them interesting, but at least they started getting it right soon after.

Barry - I actually really like Barry.  Initially, he was a bit annoying with the whole “I’m fining you!” gimmick, and being supremely absent-minded half the time, but he grows on you a lot.  Kinda like Blue, Barry spends most of the game ahead of you, and is a pretty competent trainer.  But instead of being aggressive in his rivalry, he is your friend and acknowledges how good you are.  He never seems to even acknowledge his defeat to any extreme degree, he’s just having fun and doing his own journey while using you as a point of comparison, while still taking this really seriously, in part because his father is a renowned trainer that he wants to live up to.  Which is solid.  Also I gotta admit, the situation with the lake guardians was really cute, how Rowan recognizes him and gives him the tougher mission, how into it he gets, and then how hurt he is that he wasn’t able to protect Uxie.  Barry just a sweet kid and a solid rival.

Cheren - Cheren is much like Barry, in that his focus is on battling at its core.  Contrary to Barry though, Cheren is actively irritated that he can’t seem to beat you.  He keeps pace with you, but I don’t think actually gets ahead of you at any point in the story.  If anything, he’s interesting because he’s someone driven by the same journey to be a great trainer that you are, but is coming face to face with the realization that he’s not making the same gains, and may not be able to achieve that initial dream.  He has to adapt, and ultimately settles into the Gym Leader role, and is a bit of a mentor in BW2, which is really cool.  That’s really what makes the BW rivals so good, is that instead of just being another super good trainer who’s ahead of you all the time, they explore the idea of someone who wants to be the best but isn’t, and how he handles that.  I like it a lot.

Bianca - Best rival, fight me.  What makes Bianca interesting is that she’s kinda like Brendan and May, in that she’s not...really here to be a spectacular trainer.  She is but she isn’t.  She starts out on her journey to become a trainer, but isn’t super motivated by competition like Cheren.  In fact, Bianca doesn’t really know what she wants to do at all.  What makes her interesting is that change from being just another trainer to battle, to finding her own path in life that doesn’t involve the competition.  It’s not what she wants to do, and I always really liked that.  She eventually settles on being a professor’s assistant, and I think it’s great seeing her settle into a role that makes her happy.  The series has always posited this idea that people exist with Pokemon in different ways, but this is honestly the first time we really get a rival who comes to engage with Pokemon and battling in a different way from the usual.

Hugh - I don’t like Hugh.  I get the attempt with him, and appreciate it.  A lot of Gen 5 centers around Team Plasma, and in this case, Hugh is a character who was directly impacted by their actions when they stole his sister’s Purrloin.  He was a child and couldn’t do anything, so he’s grown up resentful of Team Plasma and determined to become strong enough to protect his sister and those he cares about.  He’s along on your journey to improve, but never once does he seem all that invested in the League itself.  He’s more invested in taking down Team Plasma and getting his sister’s Purrloin back, and all of that should come together into a really cool rival for this generation’s thematic narrative.  His problem is really just that he talks.  “You’re about to feel my rage!”  Hugh, please.  You’re embarrassing me in front of Zinzolin.  I can’t say I hate Hugh, but I feel like he’s a character who just missed the mark they were aiming for, largely by being more of an edgy nuisance than an interesting character study.

Serena/Calem - I am only talking about these two because fuck the XY friend group.  Honestly, they’re...pretty forgettable.  Like I honestly can’t remember any significant personality traits from them at all.  They’re like Brendan and May, only slightly better because they keep at it even if they’re constantly behind you.  I think by biggest problem is how they never feel like they amount to much thematically.  A big focus in XY is meant to be on scarcity.  Mega Bracelts are rare, and not everyone can own one or utilize mega evolution.  You battle them to get one, which by default means they don’t.  And that sets up some interesting ideas, right?  Like, how does that impact things?  When there’s legitimate scarcity and not everyone can make use of this, are you willing to crush the dream of your childhood friend to make your own come true?  Well actually it doesn’t matter because it’s never really brought up.  The great tragedy of XY was lost potential, and the rival’s a big source of that.

Hau - Hau is...a mixed bag for me.  On the one hand, SuMo.  On the other, USUM.  In SuMo, I like Hau a lot.  He feels a lot like Barry, if Barry didn’t give a shit about competition.  Hau is very laid back as a rival, and challenges you while attempting to keep pace, but ultimately exists to have fun and enjoy his journey.  This is the trait that makes him and Gladion such fun counterparts.  But then USUM rolls around, and makes up this whole subplot about how he’s not actually trying and that this is a betrayal of his Pokemon?  And then it leads to this whole crisis where suddenly he’s super invested in competition and being the best, and ends up as your Champion battle?  And it just doesn’t feel as interesting.  If anything it feels like USUM’s eternal Gen 1 dick sucking coming back to reference your rival as the champion, rather than actually focusing on the character’s development.

Gladion - Okay, I really like Gladion.  He’s a bit more like Silver than anything else, in that I don’t think he ever like...expresses wanting to be your rival?  He just shows up and challenges you because fuck you in particular.  But through interactions, and your eventual assistance with stopping his mother and breaking down those emotional walls, Gladion grows into someone who still wants to be a great trainer, but is no longer driven by the need to be the best to protect his sister and stop his mother.  Rather, he just learns to enjoy competition for its own sake.  And I really like that!  I feel like he’s Silver, but refined to be a more interesting character.

Hop - Okay stop me if you’ve heard this one.  Hop’s a rival who’s invested in the competition, and is largely driven by living up to a family member’s legacy.  He’s generally friendly, but expresses intense dissatisfaction with his performance because he can’t beat you or Bede.  He’s been competitive, but ultimately very laid back until a sudden realization that he needs to try harder and is suddenly super driven to become the best.  His post-game arc is entirely about finding out that maybe he doesn’t want to be a trainer all that much, and finding his own calling, which is a professor’s assistant.  That’s Barry, Cheren, Hau, and Bianca, in that order.  I do not love Hop.  I don’t hate him.  There are definitely worse rivals with less going on.  But Hop feels like an amalgamation of previous rivals rather than his own being.  He goes from laid-back but invested in your rivalry, to super serious and determined to be the best, and ending on maybe not even wanting to be a trainer that much.  It’s a weird shift in his journey that I don’t think meshes as well.  He takes the parts of these previous rivals that made them interesting, but it turns out slapping them all together makes a character that’s less than the sum of its parts.  However, I will give points for one thing I actually love about Hop: when he keeps losing, he completely changes up his team.  That’s something no rival has done.  Minor adjustments, like Blue dropping Raticate, have happened, but we’ve never seen a complete shuffle in who they lead with or what the team composition is.  So I do think there’s merit to Hop, even if he’s not my favorite.  It could be worse.  It could be...

Marnie - A literal nothing.  She does announce that you are her rival, so I guess I have to talk about her.  She’s nothing.  Like, I kinda have to give more points to her than Brandan/May solely because she does at least try, but she never really has anything going for her.  Her brother is more compelling than she is, being a gym leader in charge of an area that is really struggling, and trying to showcase that Dynamaxing isn’t required to be a good trainer.  Marnie...has none of that.  At all.  She just has the freedom to be a challenger for the Champion title, and the town is insistent on her winning to prove...something.  I honestly do not understand the plan.  It wouldn’t change that their territory has no ability to Dynamax, and unlike Piers, Marnie has no qualms about using Dynamax to win.  She has no real convictions, and if memory serves only battles you twice.  And she’s not exactly that good either time.  I never once felt like Marnie mattered.  People just liked her design and decided she was great, but she...she doesn’t do anything.

Bede - I’m hesitant to count Bede, but you battle him more often than you battle Marnie, and he does eventually consider you an obstacle to overcome so I’ll count him.  Honestly, don’t like him that much, but he’s better than nothing.  Bede’s interesting in that he’s kind of a rival that’s ahead of you?  At least implicitly.  I don’t think we get hard confirmation that he’s beaten any of the challenges before you, but a lot of his battles involve him being in a location before you got there.  I do kinda like his arc, in that he’s a bit of an inverted Cheren?  In the sense that his ultimate endpoint is as a Gym Leader, but not because he’s looking at things in terms of adjusting his goal due to always losing, but adjusting his goal because it turns out that’s just really what he wants to do.  At first he hates it, and his final challenge to you is a means of saying he’ll quit forever if he can’t win, but ultimately he settles into an appreciation for being a Gym Leader, and I really like that.  While I dislike him more on a personal level, I will say I think he’s a better rival than Hop.  Has more going on for himself, anyway.