#and it's kinda disappointing that people read dex that way

[buckarubarnes]

I just saw a couple people call Dex “mini Trump” and Im???? so?? I don’t understand that. Like I completely understand saying that earlier in the comic timeline. I mean this is a White Boy™ who grew up in a conservative town, with a conservative family, etc. At one point in canon he said his brother would never let him live down baking (???) if that gives you any clue as to what attitudes he grew up with. So yeah, when he first got to Samwell a lot of the stuff he did/said was shitty. But that’s the point of character development??? If you look at him now (even in the short snippets we get) you see the efforts he puts in to growing as a person and being more open minded. Look @ the people he spends 80% of his time with and calls his best friends?? I think that’s why I like him as a character so much, because his development isn’t in your face but it’s definitely still there and it’s so drastic if you look at his first appearance to now.     

[crymeariveronceagain]

How do you think the main Kotlc kids would handle children? Not their children- I should clarify- I mean like if they were babysitting or something. Also I hope you’re doing well! College is hard, I hope you get some downtime soon if you can.

aaah okay :D

Sophie: Harried momma vibes. She will tuck a squirmy child under her arm and walk away. She would carry three children at once, with two under one arm. It's not even intentional she just is a no-nonsense, "do no harm take no crap" kinda pseudo parent. She treats kids like they're her equals, except she knows that she's in charge. The thing is, she's also super, super, super smart on her feet. She's not afraid to take control of a situation, as soon as little people are depending on her she's there. Like. Yeah. Mom vibes. Her chaos is tamed and she's actually responsible.

Keefe: They're. Just. So. Little. This boy has no control over the way his heart just melts around little people. He spends way too much time with the kid, and entertains way too many ideas. He's a complete pushover when he babysits, but he's also super fun. What's a bedtime? Keefe doesn't know. Neither do his charges. But they love him. He's smart, and funny, and he makes them laugh so much and his eyes just light up and their eyes light up back and he is so happy? Like, this kid is so rarely happy? But when he's around kids, there's just a joy that bubbles out of him. It's contagious.

Fitz: Stern dad. Will take absolutely no crap. Only dad jokes. Only groans. He knows exactly what a bedtime is, and he's going to make sure that everything is done exactly the way their parents wanted. Fitz doesn't like disappointing people. Like, really. He's really, really, really not up for that. On a personal vendetta-style level. So he does everything right, makes sure the kids brush their teeth and are read their stories, and then cleans up after the messes that didn't get put away by them. And then, he sits on a couch and reads his book. The kids like him, but he's not as cool as Keefe.

Biana: She is a horrible babysitter. Like. So awful. She's an aunt who either has too much time and money to spend on activities that don't turn out the way she'd hoped they would, or she's a flustered and scattered mother pulled apart too many ways by too many little voices. It's all very complicated and maybe it would be easier if she had more than one trick up her sleeve, but her best hope is to do their hair and hope it satisfies them. It does not. She will panic. One time she lit the dinner on fire. It was madness. She is complete and utter chaos as a babysitter. She's the one who gets asked to take care of children the least. She's not trusted around them.

Dex: Doesn't know how to children. He treats them like they're his equals to a fault. He'd have to be reminded that a five year old cannot in fact use a blowtorch. "I showed her how, Soph. It's fine." "It is NOT fine." He thinks that kids like learning about cool stuff, and all of them think everything he does is cool, so they spend time with him and he shows them how to make tiny explosive devices that they detonate in controlled environments, and construct mini computers that have access to videos. The parents are confused and concerned with this. Dex is just vibing.

Marella: Indifferent. Really does not care. Probably on her imparter, only half-watching the kiddos. she takes them to the park, and she sits on a bench. She rolls her eyes when they try to pick fights with her.

Linh: ULTIMATE MOTHER HEN. Super fluffy one. Super sweetheart. She listens to them and hears their opinions and smiles and ugh. This girl is a toothache of diabetes. And she's a push over. Like, she will spoil these children rotten and kiss their scratches and read them stories and help them with all their projects.

Tam: Tired dad vibes. Just. Exhausted dad. Deep sighs. Mild grumbles. Talking about how back in his day kids didn't blah blah blah. He tells kids who are throwing fits to take deep breaths with an uninterested steadiness that makes him sound like he's had five kids of his own go through college. He's an immovable object. And he's just. Steady presence of authority and calm that rains down on the kids he babysits.

[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: A fan-made Pokemon resembling an intricate rock formation. It consists of a tan stone in the center of a brown shell, sitting atop three grey stones. It is meant to look similar to chocolate-covered toffee sitting atop aluminum wrapping. On the tan center stone is a face consisting of pinkish-red eyes, brown eyebrows, and a mischievous grin. Pink text outlined in tan to the top-left of the image reads "Toffeenie". End ID.]

-----

Toffeenie - Mock Toffee Pokemon - fairy/rock It may resemble a large piece of chocolate-covered toffee, but don’t be fooled--its inner body is not caramelized sugar and molasses as one would believe, but instead solid tan-colored chert rock. While biting into it is obviously not a good idea, licking it is safe, if disappointing. / A bit of an overconfident prankster, Toffeenie does have a softer side toward weak Pokemon. It will often distract predators pursuing Pokemon it likes by trying to get them to bite its deceptively delicious-looking body instead, hoping its friend can run away in time while the predator is reeling from the pain of biting into solid chert.

Have a quick late-night Cantessy Fakemon and a tasty toffee snack--wait, no, that's just a naughty rock. XD Okay, so toffee isn't really iconic to the Appalachian areas I don't think, but it is a product offered by a Kentucky company that will serve as the basis for the next Gym Leader. I just wish I'd known about cream candy sooner so that maybe I could've made a Pokemon based on that...but eh, making a rock-type toffee impersonator gives that gym leader a bit more type coverage, and also I put Alcreamie in the Cantessy Dex because I love them so they can kinda cover the cream candy base in terms of the Pokemon themselves XD

Reminder that if anyone wants to suggest moves for any Cantessy Fakemon to learn and some physical stats where I haven’t yet figured them out, feel free to throw ‘em at me :3 Links to their info pages will be provided in the replies!

💖🐶 Check out my pinned post for ways to support my artwork, among other things! 🐶💖

~If you like, please reblog to show your friends! Likes are appreciated, but reblogs let more people see my content! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Pokemon and related concepts © Nintendo/GameFreak Toffeenie, the Cantessy Region, and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[booasaur]

Have you seen The Half of It? It’s on Netflix now :)

____

Not yet, no! Now that it’s finally here, I feel oddly reluctant to sit down and start. Sometimes hype makes me really want to watch something, sometimes I’m scared to start and be disappointed or worse, love it and have no more of it. Also, you know. It’s a movie. I still haven’t watched A Secret Love either. (Or The Favourite or Carol or The Handmaiden. :x) But I hope you enjoyed it!

And another two anons (one is mildly spoilery and negative):

<tried to insert a read more here, it wouldn’t do it...oh...it inserted the link in the ask itself, freaking geniuses>

I just watched the half of it and it wasn’t bad? I mean towards representation is not the best movie ever but it was nice and like the way it was shot was great?

The half of it vaguely spoilerish if you haven’t seen it yet... I am so glad I found out ahead of time that this wasn’t a lesbian rom com Bc whew I woulda been pissed watching it had I not known that. As it was, I was honestly kinda bored a lot of the movie. I love Alice Wu and she made very lovable characters in Ellie & Aster, but this movie had so much focus on Paul. I’m sick of white boys dominating narratives honestly. He wasn’t a fresh character at all but he was still so much the focus.

These two came in so close together this morning, they made me laugh. You’re like two sides of the same coin, all, yeah, I guess it was okay??

To the first anon, heh, you seem unsure? You can like it or even love it without any issue! It DOES hit a lot of rep points, unless it’s willfully apathetic or offensive, I feel like you’re free to enjoy what it is more than add disclaimers for what it isn’t. If you enjoyed it, that’s awesome.

To the second anon, well, I get it. Maybe that’s why I’m not in a rush to watch. I’m not currently in the mood for a story that is basically, in Wu’s own words, an attempt to reach out to people who made Trump happen. And okay, that’s not fair, it’s so many more things, a coming of age story for an Asian American lesbian teen, the story of a second gen immigrant and her dad in a small American town, among other things, friendship between seemingly fundamentally different people, how to grow and learn past learned biases, even the effects of religion on Aster.  And heck, even if it were just the first thing, that’d be an admirable goal, let alone the many other things it manages to be to so many people. I’m not saying it has to be something different.

But if this movie has two main roles, to teach empathy to an external group and to be relatable to an inner group, it is...neither of those things to me. I’m a Southeast Asian American who grew up abroad, my experiences are very different from Ellie’s and while I have a bunch of guy friends, I don’t care about Paul. Which will probably change when I actually watch, the way I love Dutch and Johnny in Killjoys. Or currently, Isaac on Vagrant Queen. I end up liking a lot of male characters, tbh. I dunno. I guess it’s what the focus is Presented as. Ellie may be the lead of THOI, but a movie’s inherent lack of time forces Paul and their dynamic to be so central, and a part of me does resent that a bit. It’s sold as a different kind of love story, their dynamic itself is the main character.

It could be a combination of many things, a difference between what I want and what it is, the fact that it’s a movie and just didn’t have the time I like to develop. I really liked In My Skin, a TV show, and that wasn’t particularly relatable, I guess I’m more open to stories when the female lead is front and center in every way. The story is about her. It’s like in Stumptown, I FAR preferred the episodes that treated Dex as the main than those where Grey or Hoffman had some adventure and Dex was just, like, there. 

But annnyway. It’s fine, right, we don’t have to like everything. I get the FOMO, something like this is so big and the f/f community’s still so small, it’s hard to ignore it and everyone around us engaging with it in some way. But aren’t we reaching a point where we don’t have to like something because it’s f/f but can go on to something else? Well. I say that as someone who prefers TV to movies, because damn, pickings are slim if you want happy central f/f in movies. Honestly, that’s really what it comes down to, the issue isn’t this movie but that there aren’t enough f/f movies out there. Every one of these discussions boils down to that basic point, that this one movie shouldn’t be responsible for everything this industry’s failed to do. You don’t have to like this movie, but you should have the opportunity to watch more than one happy ending every few years.

[msbowser]

My Top Games of the Last Decade

The year 2020 is here, ushering in a new decade to live in. Instead of looking at the bad events that occurred over the years, I instead want to look at my favorite games over the last 10 years. It’s crazy that back in 2010, I was only in my second half of the fifth grade. Oh how young and naïve I was and an even worse gamer. Now in 2020, I am in the second semester of my second year of university, studying in the psychology field. I feel how I was raised over the last years shaped of how I am as a person and I am still learning, no one is perfect. Those developments shaped even the gamer I am now. Back when I was younger, I just liked games that were fun to play. But now I am a person who puts Character Development and Story before Gameplay. You will see this shift as the years go by.

Well let’s start with 2010. And I will try to limit how much I write each game to about a paragraph each. Don’t want to make this post too long. I can give a more detailed explanation at a future date if someone is interested. 

PS. All the games are Nintendo Games. I’m only a Nintendo gamer so sorry if you don’t see like Persona 5 or Last of Us.

2010: Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Gosh this game is too freaking cute for words. I remember the stories about how much I wanted this game when I was younger, even the embarrassing ones. While this game is easy even for Kirby standards, this game is so fun to play. The levels are enjoyable to play, you can get lost hours doing minigames and playing music (Frosty Wheel is still the best), and is just cute. This game is cute incarnate. And if you don't want to play the original version, you can play a port of it on the 3DS with even more goodies on it.

2011: Pokémon Black and White

My favorite Pokémon games and generation even if I started with Pearl. Gen 5 of Pokémon is super special to me as I know it is for many others, being the first game I bought the day of release. I was also pretty blind in my playthrough, finding new discoveries as they came along and finding new Pokémon that I might have not liked at first but became my favorites. Pokémon like the Krookodile line, Emolga, the Leavanny line and so much more. The game also first brought to my attention to how characters can be written well and still is my favorite story in a mainline Pokémon game. 

2012: Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure

So I’m kinda cheating with this one since I didn’t play it until 2013 but damn it, I don’t care! This game is awesome. I am super terrible with rhythm games but this game is one that is very enjoyable with an excellent story and characters. Phantom R is such a cool guy that you just want to hang out with and go dancing with and not the fact he’s a gentleman. The rhythm minigames are mostly enjoyable and have a wide variety to play so you can't bored very easily (the gyroscope one can go die in a fire though). All I want to know is where is the damn sequel already Sega?! It’s been 8 freaking years with that teaser you showed at the ending of the game and no I don't count that bad IOS game you made a year later. We fans need our fix and answers now. 

2013: Mario and Luigi Dream Team

Bowser’s Inside Story will always be my favorite Mario and Luigi game but this game comes to a close second. As part of Year of Luigi, this game did not disappoint. Luigi is front and center and he is the best of the part of game, with his dream abilities and overall character. The story is also very good with the adventures the bro’s have on Pi’illo Island and the soundtrack of the game is my video game soundtrack of all time. There is also the fact that giant battles return and if anyone knows me, knows I love me those giants <3

I also have two honorable mentions for 2013 that I will give a brief note while I like them

Fire Emblem Awakening 

First Fire Emblem game, got me in the series. Characters are great and story left me generally shocked at points. Make a yearly tradition to one playthrough each year

Super Mario 3D World

Favorite Mario platformer, Peach being playable and being a cat. Yes please

2014: Kirby Triple Deluxe 

I freaking love Kirby games :D Triple Deluxe was the first Kirby game on the 3DS, using an engine that looks beautiful on the 3DS that was used for the next game they did. The game is super colorful with its vibrate worlds and use of pastel colors. The new abilities is super fun to play with as well, Archer being my favorite. Supernova is also a neat gimmick for the game and glad it was present in many of the levels and used in new ways to solve puzzles. 

2015: Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle

Surprise! I said favorite games of the decade and mobile games count. This game means so much to me, being the one of the mobile games I keep track of everyday, even looking at what the JP version gets. I am proud of my account and how far it has come over these past years. Though I was not there right when it released, it has felt like that long as I have had my account for over 4 years now and don’t plan to quit now. One day I will have my full husband team, just you watch <3

2016: Dragon Ball Fusions

This game was my answer to a playable Dragon Ball RPG to play on Nintendo consoles (before Xenoverse 2 got ported over on the Switch). The chibi artstyle gave this game its own identify from other games like it. The gameplay was fun as you can make your own character and fly all across the world fighting characters from the Dragon Ball timeline. The game is all about the fusion mechanic, but with an expanded roster of characters to fuse and the ability to fuse your favorites is a blast. 

Brief Honorable Mention to Pokémon Sun and Moon for a fun region to explore, new pokemon to love and pretty good story.

(Lillie is so precious for this world I swear. And Snowy as well :D))

2017: Miitopia

A lot of people would write off this game as a simple Mii game, but it is so much more than that. This game has much more personality than one might think, with its class system, characters even when you chose who is what role and the story as well. The story and characters allows many possibilities of ideas for stories and art for creators to make and enjoy, as this game and Tomodachi Life was used as a template for a rp that me and my bf do. And this game can get hard, like wanting to rage quit hard, so be prepared for grinding. The OST is also a charm of the game, being one of my favorite OSTs ever. 

Like with 2013, I have two honorable mentions that I will give a short comment on.

Splatoon 2

Love it more than the original, Aerospray is still the master race and Off The Hook is better than Squid Sisters, don’ t @ me XD

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia 

Amazing story, characters and unique experience from other games I have played. Berkut x Rinea OTP

2018: Dragon Ball FighterZ

As much as I like the Super Smash Bros games, I was more excited for this game to come out. I was glad it did come to Switch so I can play it. FighterZ was my first proper fighting game with button inputs and it threw me for a loop, but eventually I got the hang of it and is still learning. The story is a fun experience if you don’t think too much about it, me loving Android 21. And of course I main my husband that is in the gif above <3

2019: Pokémon Sword/Shield and Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission (That’s right, a tie)

I was excited for SwSh since day 1 and was not disappointed even with the dex cuts. The Wild Area has been a blast exploring, finding all the new raid Pokémon to catch and train. The new Pokémon are super fun to use, some of my favorites being Ponyta, Scorebunny and Dreepy. My baby Eevee also got a GMax form and she is super freaking fluffy, big and I want to hug her <3 I’m excited for the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLC when they come out.

This game was huge to us USA fans of the series as this was the first time we ever got anything DB Heroes related here. The cards were fun to make teams with and make even custom cards. It was a full experience without to play the irl game, which would still be fun. Though the game is slow to add updates, I will be waiting for what will be coming. I am glad the game came out so we can finally enjoy all of what the game has to offer. (Though I played the previous game in the series being Ultimate Mission X through Citra, so I got a headstart XD)

This is it for this post. Even though I am late at posting it, better late than never. If anyone is interested, I’m glad to give more detailed descriptions. I realize I have to do better at explain my opinions in a more detailed matter.

Thank you so much for reading :D

[alocalband]

“He’s grumpy because he cares,” Chowder says solemnly.

Nursey abruptly stops staring at the wrinkle between Dex’s furrowed eyebrows—even halfway across a crowded room it’s still distracting--in order to turn and look at C instead. “He’s grumpy because he’s an asshole.”

“Well, that’s convenient. You know, since you’re kind of an asshole, too.”

Nursey sputters, and then clutches one hand in a desperate fist over his heart, playing it up. “Chow. Bro. You wound.”

Chowder rolls his eyes, and then starts not-so-subtly scouting the crowd for Cait so that he has an excuse to get out of Nursey Patrol. Not that Nursey needs the babysitting tonight. He’s only had one beer and doesn’t feel much like going for another.

“I love you both,” Chowder tells him, distracted, “but I will also murder you both if you guys don’t get your shit together already.”

“Hey, we haven’t fought in, like, weeks, alright? I have my shit perfectly together, thank you. I am now the resident SMH expert in dealing with all things Poindexter.”

“Are you also now the expert in pining? Because you know some of the guys have got a pool going.”

Nursey freezes. He, in fact, did not know that.

He tries not to go too visibly tense, but it’s a lost cause. Even if he were able to hide it completely, Chowder knows him too well not to read right through his pseudo-chill mask and see the silent freakout he’s suddenly having.

“Oh hey, sorry, fuck. I’ll tell them to stop, alright? I thought you knew.�� Chowder puts a comforting hand on Nursey’s shoulder.

Nursey shakes his head in an absent no, trying to readjust his worldview to something that includes his teammates knowing he’s secretly head over heels for his roommate and defense partner. He thought he’d been so careful... “Um. Everyone knows?”

Chowder looks so apologetic it borders on outright sadness. “I’m sorry, Nursey, I really thought you were in on the whole thing. They wouldn’t have started anything if they didn’t think you were cool with it.”

He clears his throat and breathes in deep through his nose, bracing himself. “Does Dex...”

“No! No way,” Chowder is quick to reassure. “He is completely oblivious, I swear.”

Nursey sighs a little, at least marginally relieved and nods, more to himself than to Chowder. “Okay. Okay, chill.”

“I mean, oblivious about your feelings, anyway. He knows about the bet.”

“What?”

“We thought you both did! We thought you thought it was funny! Dex just thinks it’s all a joke, Nursey, seriously. Like, ‘oh, ha ha, all me and Nursey do is fight, must be from all that sexual tension.’ He thinks it’s just the guys giving you two a hard time.”

And Nursey doesn’t think Chowder is lying to him, exactly, but Nursey is the current ‘resident SMH expert’ on all things Dex for a reason, and he knows Dex figures out puzzles faster than any ten people combined. There is a very good chance that Dex has figured this out as well. Figured out that it’s not really just the guys teasing them, and that Nursey has been reluctantly falling in love with the guy for over a year now.

Shit.

The not knowing is going to give him an ulcer quicker than the stress of just ripping off the band aid will. So Nursey steels himself and lets his gaze find Dex again.

“Listen, it’s-- It’s fine. Sort of. Go find Farmer already, I think she’s by the backyard keg.” Chowder doesn’t look convinced, but Nursey starts walking away before he can do anything. Walking with purpose through the throng of bodies, straight toward the only person at this party that he hasn’t been able to convince himself to lose sight of.

It’s not like Nursey wants to have a crush. And he especially doesn’t want to have one on his grumpy asshole roommate. Derek Nurse is not, in fact, that much of a masochist. But his heart has, for the last several months now, had other ideas, and it’s been a losing battle ever since they moved into the Haus together.

“Well you’re refreshingly sober,” Dex greets him, but the small smirk on his face is amused. Playful, even. It’s a little devastating.

Nursey valiantly swallows back all of the emotions that that smirk threatens to call up to the surface, just like he’s done all school year. “And you’re depressingly sober. Not feeling it tonight?”

Dex shrugs. “I don’t think I’ve ever really ‘felt it.’ Parties aren’t my thing.”

“Oh come on, you manage alright.”

Dex chokes on an abrupt laugh. “High praise from the guy that needs an assigned babysitter when at a kegster.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Poindexter, but it’s been awhile since I’ve actually needed that.”

The expression on Dex’s face softens minutely. It’s so subtle that Nursey isn’t quite sure if he’s imagined it or not, but he knows he’s not imagining the softness in Dex’s tone when he replies. “Yeah. I’ve noticed.”

Nursey clears his throat and shuffles his feet. He is the least chill he has ever been while at Samwell right now, and he can’t seem to make his body get back in line. “Hey, do you think we could...” he trails off awkwardly and motions towards the staircase with a raise of his chin.

Dex nods easily and follows him upstairs. And then, before Nursey knows it, they’re standing in the middle of their bedroom, facing each other, something charged between them that Nursey’s half convinced is all in his head and just the product of his own frayed nerves.

“So. Uh. You know,” he says, wanting to get this over with quickly. Maybe, if he’s lucky, he won’t have to move out of the Haus due to embarrassment. But if he does, he’d like to know now rather than when all his feelings blow up in his face.

“I know?”

“About...” Nursey gestures vaguely at himself, and then at Dex. “The pool.”

Dex flushes. “I don’t... not know about it.” Then he stops, blinks, and tilts his head like he’s figuring something out. “Wait. Did you not know?”

Nursey shakes his head and swallows.

“Oh.” Dex frowns. “Are you, like, pissed off about it? I don’t understand what your face is doing right now.”

“Why would I be mad?” Nursey tries for casual, and probably misses by a mile or three. “It’s just a joke, right?”

Dex grimaces a little. “Right.”

Oh fuck.

“So you know they’re serious,” Nursey says, monotone and numb. He feels hollowed out, empty, a self defense mechanism against the heartbreak he can see coming.

“They’re... half serious.” Dex shrugs. “They don’t mean any harm. They figure we both are just taking our time.”

“Taking our time.”

“Yeah. I really thought you knew.”

“I--” Nursey stops short, and narrows his eyes at the relaxed set of Dex’s shoulders, the genuinely calm and soft expression on his face, and he wonders if they might be having two very different conversations right now. “You’re a lot more easy going about all of this than I thought you’d be. What gives?”

“Oh, well, uh. Yeah.” Dex offers a wry smile. “The thing is that if you kiss me before the end of the school year, I win a couple hundred bucks. So.”

Nursey blinks owlishly. Dex’s cheeks are bright red, as are his ears, but he continues to hold Nursey’s gaze with steady conviction.

“You were that certain that I would?” Nursey asks, his voice turned into a rough whisper without his permission.

“I was hoping, anyway.”

“You were?”

“Well, I kinda thought we were on the same page about it all. But I guess not.”

“You thought I knew about the bet. You thought I knew...”

“That we were taking our time. Yeah.”

“Oh.” Nursey swallows thickly. “Wow.”

“So now that we’re actually on the same page...” Dex trails off uncertainly, his eyes wide and just a touch too nervous now to really be called hopeful. And, well, screw that. It may have taken Nursey a stupidly long time to catch up to where apparently everyone else already was, but he didn’t get here just to screw it up now.

Nursey takes a step forward and reaches a hand out to Dex’s flushed hot cheek. “Hey.”

Dex smiles, and it’s blinding. “Hey.” His voice is soft and earnest and not at all like he’s ever directed at Nursey before. “Does this mean we’re done taking our time now?”

“Well, Chowder does think we’re both assholes who deserve each other, and I wouldn’t wanna disappoint him.” Nursey grins, leaning forward. “Plus, I hear you’ve got a couple hundred bucks coming to you if I kiss you right now. Can’t have you losing that bet now, can we?”

“No, definitely can’t have that,” Dex murmurs, and then they’re kissing. And somehow, miraculously, Nursey has finally got his grumpy asshole roommate in his arms, the both of them now on exactly same page.

[1358456]

Review Response, Destiny #043

The count reached past 10, so here it is. Even with one review being for a chapter that does not exist (???), the count is still past 10. So... yeah!

1) You really made a bitch cry during this chapter, like damn I already guessed it but all my Hoenn favs lost in the waves. Just thinking about what happened to Tate and Liza who are even younger than emerald just haunted me. I had said in a previous review that emerald was gonna lose all his loved ones(by that I mean the ones closest to him) and that’s what happened. One can only pray that there’s even a hint of an ethnically Hoenn population left after this entire ordeal As for everyone else Red and Blue lost their bestie’s and brother but have each other, the Johto kids gained nothing and lost everything, Sinnoh kids are traumatized but otherwise fine, Black and White have each other, and X is probably a level of depressed incomprehensible for the human mind. This story was a fun emotional roller coaster and I’m happy I could be apart of the ride.

Ah, the review for a chapter that does not exist. Given the buggy nature of this, I will consider this review to be for chapter 43.

Emerald has indeed, lost everyone. In fact, if the epilogue scene played out like a video game and you could explore around, on the skeleton around “Emerald Gate”, you’d find a secret chamber containing a lot of worn out journals and two Soul Dew. ... Ouch, huh? And yes, there would be Hoenn population left, having evacuated to the other regions. While most of Hoenn cities have catastrophic casualties, the towns and cities near the fringes but away from the calamity (such as Fallarbor and Rustboro) would have most of their dwellers alive, just evacuated.

Red and Blue are happy (in fact, the popular “rivals” for that pairing are all dead) and will have their own happy ending sooner or later, the Johto folks got a doom ending, the Hoenn folks got a doom ending, Sinnoh got a happy ending, Unova got a happy ending, and Kalos got a doom ending. 3:3. BALANCE!

2) The chapter title honestly reminded me of Avengers: Endgame XD

And thank you as well! It's fun writing Ruby and Sapphire so I don't wanna miss the opportunity. Thank you again! TwT

(Still don’t know anything about the Avengers or whatever)

Thanks so much, Cap! I really love what you did for that segment, and I really appreciate it. I hope we can do something similar once again!

3) That was a great way to end,can’t wait for the other stories to unfold!

Thank you very much. Legacy will certainly get interesting later on!

4) Damn, pretty much all of Hoenn is gone. That's death on a far grander scale than anything I was expecting. Still, the ending is oddly satisfying. Hmm, not sure how else to word that.

Anyway, this entire story is awesome! Kinda wish there was a bit in the epilogue as to what happened with the surviving dex holders, but oh well. Amazing writing as always~

Destiny has the highest death count of all the stories I’ve ever written. Even in terms of named character deaths, SA has the most, since everyone notable in Hoenn are gone. ... It’s a good thing Emerald never got confirmation... “... Even the Shoe Store Guy...”

I was originally going to put in some stuff for the survivors, but they were kind of out of place and incorrect in terms of timeline, as Emerald would seal his two friends and a few days later, the survivors would’ve returned home for their happy endings or whatnot. And thank you!

5) Jeez, what an incredible story. I've been following this since 2014 & all I can really say is damn. Looking forward to keep reading your other stories.

Thank you very much!

6) Why have a cliffhanger ending without a sequel? It's not a horror movie.

Because it’s FUN! Hehe. In truth, I always liked the concept of a teaser ending, especially a teaser ending that shows a new threat/event that it not going to be elaborated on. At least not by the original creators, anyways. Besides, I did this once before back in SA. Never created SA2, you know. Same deal here. Hehehe...

7) Wow...

That was...

Let's just say, I was NOT expecting that.

At all.

Hehe... then it was as intended. Huhuhu...

8) Both of the Unova casts survived?! What is this blasphemy! Hooray for finishing Destiny, really good work. Cya at your other stories.

What a shocker! Black and White lived!!

Ahem. Okay, to be REALLY fair, I did intend to kill White in Destiny. In fact, the “fake Destiny” short story I made years ago (Short Story - Mercy) was supposed to happen exactly in the actual story. White gets mind controlled and convinces Black to kill her to spare her from the torture and to stop her from bringing Unova into ruin by pissing off Kyurem. I just decided to not go with it at the last moment to show some mercy, and because the Kyurem issue will be brought up in another story later on and I didn’t want a repeat. So... now you know! Hehehe...

9) As Ethan Kironus said, "Why have a cliffhanger ending without a sequel? It's not a horror movie." I freakin' hate when someone do that. I'm disappointed and will not read this story, and I regret I ever followed it.

I’m so glad you decided to not read the story after you followed and read it all the way to the very last chapter. Well done.

10) Heheh. You and your cliffhanger endings. They almost always end like that which perfectly sets up for a sequel. Then you never make it to leave us in suspense forever.

Okay. I feel really bad for emerald. Everybody he loves is gone. Like Ruby and Sapphire, he has nothing left. He chose the hard thing to do, however, and spend the rest of his life guarding the orbs. It’s pretty noble, and pretty depressing. At least the others got a somewhat of a happy ending...except for X.

Whats this? Black and White actually lived through a full story?! I didnt think it was possible!

I think this is the most people you killed in a story since everyone in an entire region died.

Anyway, great job with this fic! Its been a very enjoyable one, and I’m glad I got to read it! There truly aren’t enough good stories that involve the dex holders!

Hehehe... them teaser endings!! Though to be fair... I only did it once before with SA. But in terms of “plot based, long story”, there are... 3. SA, Destiny, Legacy. So... with 2 of those stories finished, and 2 teaser endings... 100% rate thus far. Ha!

Poor Emerald indeed. Lost Crystal. Lost Gold. Lost Ruby and Sapphire. Lost even the Trick Master. And later on, loses Latias and Latios. Poor boy. Curious that no one thus far had said “poor Sapphire”. And yes, X had a horribly sad ending too. Because he gets to go home and “bury” Y in Vaniville Town, which means he also has to talk with Y’s mother and tell her of Y’s death. Ohh...

Hehe. About Black and White... To be fair (again), the... er... misconception that I tend to kill Black and White a lot started with how I kind of... tossed them away in SA. And I only had them die in SA because they were post-plot-plan additions. Generation V as a whole debuted after SA started and its plans fully set. So the two did not have a place in the finale thus were thrown away. While it’s true that I bullied the crap out of them in DE, I didn’t really kill them much. ... I think. Ahem. Now, similarly, Sun and Moon both debuted after Destiny began. Which means if I decided to include Sun and Moon in Destiny, they both would’ve died in the final battle to increase the death count. And the misconception that I bully and kill the Alola cast will begin. Maybe. So... yeah. ... That said, I do find a bit of amusement in torturing Black & White, but... hehehe...

Not everyone in Hoenn died, but pretty much everyone. I think the population focused cities are Lilycove (doomed), Slateport (doomed), and Mauville (doomed), so... yeah. A LOT of deaths of faceless nameless people.

Thank you so much! I’ll see you at the other stories!

11) Sorry to give another review, but...

Yeah...

Like I said, wasn't expecting the ending.

The destruction of Hoenn was pretty much the death-wish I asked for. Thanks.

Can't be a 135 story without a cliffhanger ending, can it?

Anyways, as many others have said, the Unovan cast surviving was very surprising.

To end this off (for now), all I can say is that I'm glad I read this. Thanks for giving us a story that can make us feel so many different emotions. There aren't as many out there as there used to be, but you pulled through and that's what mattered.

And to the people who say that the cliffhanger ending was unnecessary... What did you honestly expect? It's a 135 story. Whenever you read one of those, you're always going to be left with one of them. And people actually can LIKE cliffhangers. I'm one of them. No hate to those who disagree with me. I'm just stating my opinion.

(To 135): I'll be back eventually.

You aren't getting rid of me just yet.

Thanks for the story.

You made the “death wish” years after I decided to obliterate Hoenn and its population. So... hehehe. Nice. Works out, eh?

Can’t be a 135 story without one? ... Ehh... maybe. I mean, I guess all the post-endings in SE/DE kind of do that too. Hehehe...

Yeah, yeah. Unova cast... the “usual” targets, apparently.

Thanks for the compliments!

And looking at it strictly, the loose ending is technically unnecessary. And do not cause disputes, s’il vous plait.

“I’ll be back”. ... Do not drive a vehicle through a building? (REFERENCE!)

Well then. I will wait. Thank you!

[cryptostache-blog]

The 'Stache Invades Crypto Invest Summit; What I Saw & What You Missed!

All good conventions in LA begin about the same way, with sitting in traffic on the 110, 101, or the 405 at some point! This was, of course the case as I headed downtown Los Angeles to Crypto Invest Summit at the LA Convention Center. If you follow my journey here you know that I have been writing about all the things I was excited to see and do at this falls event and I was not disappointed. Check out all the trouble I got into at CIS and day-by-day review of the event and keynote speakers! Crypto Invest Summit Double Top Pattern Emerges As I wrote in previous articles, I was super excited about hearing both Steve Wozniak as well as Tim Draper speak at the event and I found both of them inspirational & motivating in very different ways. Each day of the summit kicked off with one of these major keynotes and it really set the pace. I JUST about missed the start of the Woz speaking, but managed to get my badge and get in there quicker than I anticipated. Here is how Day 1 at CIS went. CIS Day 1

I got my media pass quickly thanks to the amazing staff at CIS and headed into the expanded main hall (it was much bigger this year than last year). I got there just in time to see Adam Draper finish his opening remarks with event co-founder Alon Goren. Adam has a style all his own compared his father Tim and I enjoyed hear the tail end of what he had to say about the future of crypto and predicting that in the next few years you will have 3 apps on your phone that use blockchain and you won't even know it. 

Steve Wozniak came out next and was being interviewed by my buddy David Bleznak of Totle who always kills it on stage. When you talk about tech legends they don't get much bigger than Steve and hearing him recant the beginnings of his career and correlating them to current conditions with crypto as an emerging market was fun. Steve tends to go off on a few tangents from time to time which I actually enjoyed even if it didn't really answer the question presented. The spark that you see in other "crypto people" you can hear in Steve's voice as he talks broadly about the subject, claiming he sold all his Bitcoin and only retains 1 for testing purposes.

Network Hokey Pokey At CIS After Steve speaking I headed over to the booth floor and started mingling with people and projects. I first ran into my friends over at Blockchain Beach who had a media booth and were on fire with the number of interviews they were pushing through. They even roped me into doing an interview for them with a project that was overbooked and I had a lot of fun helping out!

Shortly after that I finally got to meet CryptoBeadles of my youtube buddies who also produces great crypto content as well as co-founding the Monarch wallet (which I will be reviewing very soon). He had the whole crew out there with him doing interviews on site as well and I had a blast hanging with them at the booth throughout the day. I headed inside to check out the booths, but I could hardly make it a few feet without running into someone I knew! One of the things I love about going to these cons is talking with everyone. I got to do an interview with my buddy Gaston for Blockchain Beach as well with a quick appearance by Ernesto from Crypto Space San Pedro.

I ran into the infamous Kenn Bosak and of course we had to get a pic of the epic meeting! This guy is a crypto warrior, spreading adoption everywhere he goes. Talking with him, he said he is on pace to hit 50 conferences this year! wow!

When you go to these things a few times you do start to see a lot of the same people which makes it fun and what conference would be complete with out a little Brekkie Von Bitcoin? We had multiple Satoshi Droppers in the house including Andy & Daniel from the Coinboys, BitcoinBella and CryptoWendyO on Day 2. I certainly made a lot of new friends on the day and saw a ton of other people like Crypto Rick here below. 

Favorite Booths I make a point to talk to just about every booth at the conference since there are 2 days and you can easily do so with the amount of booths there depending on how many speakers you catch. 

My overall favorite has to go to the Abra booth as they had a great looking setup, but they best thing? They were giving you $25 in Bitcoin for downloading their mobile crypto wallet right there on the spot! Epic! They had this screen counting down to how much of the free Bitcoin was left. I would have loved to see it counting down in Satoshis, but still really cool. 

I had fun at the Sense chat booth too as well as got to do a quick interview for them (Brekkie did one too!). Sense is a decentralized messaging app. They had one of those fun wheels and my first spin landed on a CryptoKitty, but they were out, so I ended up getting an invite to Taco Tuesday at their office sometime soon along with a sweet hat. I talked to Matthew at Kingsland School of Blockchain and I really liked what they are trying to do with training blockchain engineers and helping make the end connection. Since this is right up my alley I wanted to let them know I supported their cause and would love to help out if I could in any way.  The IDEX / Aurora crew was also at the summit and I got to talk to them a bit about the recent decision to stop allowing New York customers use their platform. They have a solid team and I think with a hybrid solution this makes a lot of sense legal wise to be cautious of where you operate.  Of course Totle is always on the top of my list and the Title sponsor of the event did not disappoint with David, Jordan, and the rest of the team help many learn how to improve their DEX experience by using the Totle software. 

Rounding out the list is the Autonomy chain project that had a cool autonomous car prototype there showing you how the scanner works. The folks over at Crypto Poker Exchange have a very clean and fun looking blockchain poker, and I HAD to include ODB coin (named after the late, great Old Dirty Bastard of Wu Tang) who are making coins for individual music artist.  Day 2 At CIS

As I walked into day two at Crypto Invest Summit bright and early, there was CryptoWendyO already doing interviews at the Blockchain Beach booth, so I said hi real quick and headed over to the main hall to hear legendary investor Tim Draper speak.  When it comes to crypto Tim knows his stuff a little better than The Woz does and I really love how excited he gets over how it can change our future. This is a guy who lost his BTC in the Mt. Gox crash and then doubled down and went in again because he believes in it that much. We kicked the morning off with some jumping jacks at Tim's request and then Alon settled in and they dove in. I think when we see well known and respected men like Tim & Steve giving crypto their seal of approval it really means we are headed in the right direction of mass adoption in my opinion. 

Directly after the great keynote by Tim, Ran Neu-Ner the host of CNBC's "Crypto Trader" show did a live taping and had Tim on as the first guest along with a few other great guests. It was cool to see them hustle to pull this off completely unscripted! I will say one of the highlights was this really funny eToro commercial featuring a Game of Thrones kinda theme! https://youtu.be/Ihd0moB0ehM I cut out a bit early before the taping ended to get in the VERY long time to get a free copy of Tim Draper's new book "How To Be The Startup Hero" signed by the man himself.

They had a huge pile of books to give away to everyone at the summit, but damn was that line long! I waited about an hour and thirty minutes but it was worth it to get a personalized copy of the book and this great selfie with Tim!

I hung out for a little while longer at the convention talking with people and projects and I was even surprised by my buddy Arnold with these amazing mustache shaped cuff links that he gave me! How amazing are the people I continue to meet in this crazy crypto world?!?

After such a great conference I am really looking forward to the next one, but until then... 'Stache That Crypto Friends!

Read the full article

[twistedsinews]

I had a dream where...

It's kinda hard to describe how it worked, but you know how you know because it was a dream type thing?  There was enough 3rd person going on that I presume it to have been Faith, or thereabout, except she had Alexis' Vas Mani skills.  (Literally, Vas Mani - a healing spell from a more fantasy game, for those of you not familiar).  It definitely handled like playing a video game, so I'm using the video game "we" in describing how things went down.

So!  SR plot.  The protagonist of the dream woke up in a house set up in the woods.  It was sparse, when they left the house there were some people who dropped in who fondly welcomed them back to the world of the living with hugs.

We got a bit lost where we were supposed to go when we left the house - at one point, we wandered around and the house seemed to move.  Like, the protagonist asked someone "where's the house," and they pointed it out in front of us when we thought it was behind us.  The word coma first showed up, which did not explain the house moving but somehow explained (??) what we were doing there and the warm welcome.

Further on, once the forest thinned out, there was a big open field with a large fortified castle.

This is where it gets a bit muddled, because pretty much the rest of the dream took place in the castle.

About the Castle: Kind of steampunk looking in some places, but very high technology in practice, geothermal energy, off the grid, very self-sufficient.  Very fortified.

The Saints lived there.

Now, despite the recently coma part, we knew right where the junk food was kept, and were hellbent intent on sharing a chocolate bar with the couple in the humvee like truck parked outside.  Apparently we knew them and it was nice to see them, even though I have no recollection of them being from anywhere.  They were going out on a date to the movies or something and it was important to the protagonist of the dream that they take chocolate with them.

So anyway, Oleg was keeping the door, for whatever reason, and it was his job to lift the portcullis whenever anyone wanted in or out.  (The door was small enough it was difficult to get by him, and we wound up deciding to keep the chain latched so the door stayed open anyway.)

I don't remember if it was upon getting the chocolate bar to the couple, or after they got back and we'd spent some cursory time inside (I'm inclined to think it was the latter, because everyone was calm, but that's applying logic to dreamland), but: at one point there was another humvee like truck with a rock band or something parked next to them.

At which point we were attacked, and both cars were blown up.  Which is where Vas Mani comes in: things were pretty gruesome on the field, a complete firefight had broken out, and we were in the middle of it throwing out healing magic like there was no tomorrow before we were able to retreat back into the castle.

Life in the castle was pretty chill.

But, again, being welcomed back to the land of the living with open arms.  I'm pretty sure the timeline of 15 years was bandied about at one point, which confused the hell out of me because that's a long fucking coma.

If I grok the overarching plot of this dream, it was almost something like if the Boss's coma ran through SR3 and SR4, and Gat was in charge the entire time.  Somehow things did not explode to the extent you would believe from that fact, or that Gat hadn't been thrown in prison and given a death sentence he needed to be rescued from.  The alternate reading would be that they mistook Alexis for the Boss, who was MiA, but there was recognition from the protagonist so I'm guessing that's not it, despite the inexplicable Vas Mani.  Also, the it seemed it was the Saints who were keeping the protagonist hidden away in the house in the woods, so ???

Anyway, who the fuck pays attention to the SR timelines anyway.

There was a large chunk of re-aclimatizing to the crew.  Oleg was around, but he mostly held the door.  Gat was front and center at first, then he wandered off to do Leader Things and came back from time to time.  Pierce and Shaundi were in the background a lot, particularly whenever going through the big open gathering hall that led to the door outside.

Asha was around, I remember something about her trying to get something out of a snack or meal vending machine.  I THINK Matt was there, too, although I didn't recognize him because he was dressed... a little more business casual.  Either that, or completely other new guy helping Asha out with the vending machine.

Aisha was inexplicably still alive and living in a heavily fortified dungeon.  Got to see her at a distance, but didn't get to talk to her - she was busy.  The explanation was that she could leave if she wanted to, but she'd made it all comfortable to her tastes and Gat was on overdrive in trying to keep her safe.

Lin was also still alive, and there was an implication of romance cut short between her and the protagonist that they were kind of dancing around each other with.

Asked about Dex, don't remember the answer.  Something like he was wherever, but not there.

I think King was around, don’t remember what he was doing.  Don't remember anyone else.

There was a strange side-track into the basement at one point, where a hospital was set up.  We ended up being herded down there talking to a doctor, I think over not getting a scratch in the attack where two cars were blown up and people were very much hurt.  Wound up trying to Vas Mani and potentially an In Mani Corp or two over the wounded.

On the way out, got waylaid by a guy who was angrily blaming us for some kind of energy eating monster that... killed his family in Chicago?  He may have been delusional, or maybe he was just angry because some kind of energy eating monster came at us in Chicago and it was our job to keep our people safe or something.  He seemed to imply it was our fault for attracting it with magic even though we didn’t know it existed.

Anyhow, wound up hanging out and reconnecting a lot.  It was a long dream, I am forgetting details.  I also remember becoming aware it was a dream halfway through a lot of the latter stuff, and kind of feeling like I could wake up at any time, but wanting to finish the dream.

So yeah, after a lot of meandering around, the final detail that was particularly clear was going up to spent time with Gat in his office, where he basically said how great it was for us to be back.  The joking implication may have been: because he was sick of being in charge for so damn long, but he was v. genuine about it and it came with hugs, so.

I figured that would be a high note to wake up on, so I did.

Then I rolled over, immediately fell back asleep, and had a dream I'm not sure was even related where Volition was all, "So anyway that's the new Saints Row." and finished by unveiling some kind of... part demo, part tool kit, where you get to run around in a small city block (which was definitely city and not a castle) and try out the game, but that you could also use to build new things, like they had "released for every other Saints Row."

I woke up disappointed that we did not have these toolkit demo things.

...idek man...

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Ralts Family

280: Ralts

Perhaps after my reviews of Charizard and Pikachu complaining about the overexposure dropping them down for a bit for me, you might be expecting me to drag this line to hell and back. Well, yes, but mostly no, actually.

But that's for later. Ralts here is an innocent enough Psychic type, being a cute, child-like critter with a big bowl cut hiding the thing's eyes. It certainly gets the point across that this a shy Pokemon that doesn't like confrontation, and it certainly just “looks” like something that would be able to sense emotions of people doesn't it? An overall gentle design that certainly looks the part of something that’s sensitive to what other people feel. Same here, Ralts. Same.

Personal Score: 7/10

Plenty cute.

281: Kirlia

Kirlia turns the line into more of a dancing, dressy theme. And with it standing on its tip-toes, it's most obviously meant to resemble a ballerina, at least by stance. The Kirlia itself is quite a nice middle-stage, while it does leave off the really “lonely” aspect of Ralts, it turns Kirlia into something more social looking. And I do like the little “skirt” and hair. Is that hair? I've always seen it as hair. ...Not that that’s anything new. Most people have seen it as hair. But what if it’s chitin or something? What then... It does keep the emotion-reading aspect to it, which will stay a thing for the final stage too.

Personal Score: 7.5/10

A pretty nice 'mon.

But buckle down, friends. For coming up is one of the longest reviews I’ve done yet. If not the longest.

282: Gardevoir

Oh boy, there IT is. The Pokemon most notorious for making Google searches for a Pokemon's name actually among one of the most unsafe things to do. We might as well get that point out of the way right? It’s hard to talk about Gardevoir without bringing up its fandom. There's folks that don't even like Pokemon, they just want have certain fantasies with paper ghoul because it kinda looks like a woman. Or, you know, waifuization. (Which side note, it becomes irritating when said waifuization is such a majority that it actually intrudes on the Pokemon’s canon design quite a bit.)

Yes indeed, if somehow you didn’t know, Gardevoir’s become an unfortunate victim of the internet collectively going gaga over something all because Gardevoir is a super feminine design. To a point where referring to Gardevoir is just “she” now for some people. A number of things Gardevoir’s been subjected to as a Pokemon is kind of insane. Between the fantasies, the fetishization, and people talking about how much they wish they could marry their Gardevoir.

Which, whatever. If that's your thing, I won't judge (too much). I’ve definitely witnessed fandoms do worse things. What I will judge people for is that apathy for keeping this Pokemon safe for kids. Which it certainly has not been. Seriously, please keep your Sexy Times and Monkey Fun in a place where kids will be hard-pressed to see it. This is still a kids franchise. Gosh knows I probably lucked out as someone that liked Gardevoir a lot as a kid. Either that or I was so sheltered about that kind of thing I saw it but it went right over my head. I can’t be sure and that’s what worries me about any child that likes Gardevoir for completely innocent reasons.  It’s just an unfortunate fandom phenomenon where the adults will greedily take over something and be absolutely careless to how the things they engage in affects other people. Let alone kids. The intended demographic.

PSA aside, none of this is really Gardevoir's fault. Really, people will take anything that's even slightly feminine-looking and try to normalize that sort of thing.

But we really should talk about Gardevoir itself shouldn't we? I actually do like Gardevoir quite a lot. It's a pleasantly elegant design, without too many extraneous details to break it up. Nice color scheme all around. I'd be nitpicking to find much wrong with Gardevoir. Like, maybe I would've moved the red thing in its chest to be a couple horns on its head like on Kirlia. Would've made a cute bow out of it, or something.

Also, I've got mixed feelings about it having legs. It does tie in with Kirlia. Which, very obviously had legs, but I kinda liked the imagery I had of it as a kid where it was legless, and just floated just off the ground enough for its flesh “dress” to flow. The legs are by no means a deal breaker, I just remember my reaction to it having legs being a very mild disappointment. At least they’re very simplified legs, so it doesn’t break the design any. Just a nitpick.

And, I'll admit it. I'm jealous of Gardevoir's hair. That is a very cute 'do. And Gardevoir as a whole is quite cute, especially when drawn by the right hand.

And to go off the emotion thing, Gardevoir's whole thing is that it has an undying emotional devotion to its trainer, and would be willing to sacrifice itself for their trainer's safety. Never have I been so heart warmed while also thinking “isn't that a bit much” at a Pokedex entry at the same time. That ‘dex entry is the Pokemon equivalent of that “Kids, could you lighten up a little?” quote from the Simpsons that goes around a lot.

It's mildly surprising this is a Pokemon that got away with a 50/50 gender ratio, too. But of course, Gardevoir having the subfandom it does, it’s almost unanimously treated as female. Even some people not within the confines of that subfandom say “why isn’t it just 100% female?” To which I’d just reply, why does a Pokemon have to conform to gender norms? Heck, there’s plenty of Pokemon that do conform to gender norms by having an unnecessarily weighted Gender ratio, or that they only come in one gender. They’re frickin fictional animals. Who needs them to abide by that stuff? I’ve seen it get to such levels of petty that I’ve had friends be harassed because they referred to “feminine” Pokemon as “he” or male in any other way.

But that’s getting back into that debate. Fandom’s just a difficult subject to avoid with Gardevoir, I’m sorry. In any case, I think Gardevoir’s easily a highlight of Gen 3 Pokemon with or without its fans. And I think it says a lot that I can put all this aside and still like Gardevoir quite a lot. It’s a humanoid Pokemon that’s just the right levels of weird and alien looking to not be all uncanny valley. And it is really pretty looking. I’m sure as hell not gonna deny that.

Personal Score: 10/10

It's just a shame Gardevoir has the fandom it wound up getting. I'd love to draw, or even just actively appreciate Gardevoir more, but at least from personal experience doing so just attracts... an unfavorable crowd.

Mega Gardevoir:

Jeez, I just wrote an essay on Gardevoir and we've not even covered its Mega form yet. Okay, I'll keep this short and simple.

When Gamefreak came out and said Mega Evolutions were partly decided by which Pokemon are fan-favorites, it's no wonder Gardevoir wound up getting one of them. It goes from the slimmer, “evening gown” sort of look to a full-white ballroom dress. I've got no real complaints with this one either, it's just about as solid as regular Gardevoir is. I do like the “gloves” it has. That's a neat touch.

My one complaint would be that it's notably slimmer. Maybe it's to give more emphasis to the poofiness of the dress. At least, I hope that's why it's thinner. It’s a bit much, because it does kind of look like its waist would snap right in half haha.

Personal Score: 9.5/10

Not that much worse than normal Gardevoir, they're pretty much on par with each other.

Overall:

That was a mouthful and a half. Yeah, it's unfortunate a lot of Gardevoir's appreciation is in the form of Rule 34. But just taking in Gardevoir solely as Gardevoir, it's a very nice Pokemon.

[Archive]

[estrelatzia]

Ok, so as I said before, I wanted to post my thoughts about the SWSH games.

These are mostly thoughts I had on a whim during my first experience, and they might change with time or by playing the games a second time. So please don’t @ me, I am not here to argue, these thoughts are just for fun and somehow a way for me to go back and see if my thoughts on the games changed since they were released.

I categorized them as “things I liked”, “things I thought were meh” and “others” (Others are just interesting points I wanted to talk about, that I might have gave me mixed feelings about, but are not necessary bad).

Before the games were released, they gave me a lot of mixed feels that I never really experienced before with Pokemon games. From the start, I always get excited about new Pokemon games, it’s one of my favourite things since I was a kid. And even when games were not my cup of tea or I was going through a “I don’t like Pokemon anymore” phase, I would still get the game and play along with my sibling and cousins, It’s almost like a tradition.

But this time, during the period before the games got released, I felt nothing...like I was not really interested??? Like I was excited for new Pokemon, the games looked pretty and I loved the thought of exploring a new region in the pokeworld, but besides that, there was nothing more to it. And I got exhausted after all the conflicts and the bad news I saw in the last months, that I barely followed up on the SWSH news.

So I kinda started the news games kinda blind? I knew about the officially released Pokemon, but didn’t check the leaks, so many new gen8 pokemon were new to me as I played. I didn’t read much on the gym leaders, except for knowing what the ones officially revealed looked like, or other little features of the games (Like the wild zone, dynamax, raids etc). And it was an interesting experience to me.

Things that I really loved:

The scenery is gorgeous!! It really had amazing views and it give a beautiful atmosphere. I know many will laugh, but to me exploring the pokeworld is always one of the things I am the most looking forward too. It’s something I did since I was a kid. So all this to say that exploring the regions was really important to me, and I adored exploring Galar. My facourite towns were Wedgehurst, Ballonlea and Circhester.

The new Gen 8 Pokemon were great! They were cute and while some of them were “meh” to me I admit, in general I love the direction they were going with most of them. My faves of this region are Scorbunny, Raboot, Hattena, Galar Ponyta, Galar Meowth and the evolution family of Corviknight (My champ ;u;).

I was surprised to find many Galarian versions as well, and it was so nice to see their new takes on pokemon (bonus points, they were from other gens than gen1! yay!)

The clothing option was great! I love the options they gave to us early on, and even tho I have some comments about it, I really adored the customization options!

I like camping and the curry option, not gonna lie. At first I was joking about completing the Curry dex, but really I want to complete it! It was so fun to me! I always took my time to play in the camp and try different types of curry lol

The Gym Challenges were super fun for the most part. My fave was the first one lol I was disappointed by some, but in general they were interesting concepts and I hope they can keep challenges similar to these in future games.

Also really I loved all the Gym leaders in Galar. I thought the game really made them all memorable by giving them personalities and details. I only played Sword, so I cannot 100% say since I didn’t interact with them, but I love the design of Allister and Melony. Piers was kinda relatable to me lol and Opal was a fun concept for a Gym leader. All around, It was a really strong gang and they were fun to interact with. I loved the cards we get knowing more about them and their backgrounds.  

The “rivals” are interesting. I feel like they gave us a little of every type of rival people like. Like you have your friendly neighbour/rival Hop, a friend you learn more about during the game Marnie, and the old fashion arrogant type of rival we all missed, Bede. My fave was Marnie! But I appreciate the arc Hop got and Bede as well.

Things that were meh to me:

First of all, when they introduce the Pokemon, the usual theme that would appear (Welcome to the world of pokemon segment), Is not there???? Blasphemy!! (This one is a joke, please don’t take this seriously. But it was weird not hearing the theme I was used to at the beginning lol)

The thing about GF being forced to release the game before the end of the year, and the fact that they were in a rush, kinda made me wonder when there were things in the game that didn’t settle with me. Like I was always wondering “Was it cut because of the lack of time?” or if it was just things they wanted to go with it, or if it was me being paranoid?” Because, not gonna lie, I kinda compared to the last games to try to figure out what was the reason being the things that made it meh for me.  

I love the scenery and towns in Galar, and once again, idk if it was because of the lack of time, but sometimes the places in Galar feels empty...? Idk how to explain, because there is a lot to explore and I love what they did with like the routes (for the example, the two mines look so different and are so pretty! it’s not annoying to explore). But I kinda compare/think to USUM (or even SUMO), some places feel like something is missing?

For example the Budew Inn in Motostoke town. If you have the chance to go to the second floor and explore, you will find most of the rooms look empty? Like there is a lot of space, but nothing much to decorate or make the room feel less empty, compare to the hotels in Alola. I know it’s a weird nitpick, but like I said I love exploring, and remembered that this was something cool to me when I saw the details in Sun and Moon, so I felt a little like things were missing.  

Another example are some towns have no homes to explore? Like the town of the first gym, it had no houses to explore and it was so strange? Our hometown had only two houses as well (Ours and Hop’s)...or the fact that Galar’s towns we get to explore are most of the time ones with Gym leaders in it (except for our hometown, the one where the professor is and the one with the champion battle), and it was strange to me not having just a town that is there to explore without having a major plot related thing? Idk if it was just me, but as someone who likes to explore the pokeworld, that’s my thougths.

About the clothing, I really super feel like they should have cabins to change your outfit in like every Pokemon center or something. Because you can only change in cabins at boutiques. But these are like available in about 5 towns. Sometimes you just want to change clothing or accessories after one town and have to wait until arriving to a town with a boutique to change (or go back to the last one). Idk why they removed this from SUMO honestly.

Also...as someone who choose a girl character, I was disappointed that I didn’t get option to wear many pants like the boy, since the girl’s option was mostly skirts :(  Like I like the skirts, don’t get me wrong, but idk why it’s such a downgrade compared to SUMO in term of pants.  Honestly, I just wish that all the clothing would be accessible to everyone regardless of the characters’ gender.

The rivals were great imo. But sometimes I wanted Hop to leave me for a few seconds ngl. Especially at the start, like he talks in a scene in every new town you arrive. I actually don’t have a problem with Hop, I enjoy these types of friendly rivals actually and his feelings during his arc were really relatable, but sometimes I just wish we could get a break from his scenes for a while lol But at the same time, I understand that maybe his arc would have seen less good if we would see less of it? On the other hand, I kinda wish we could have seen MORE of Bede’s arc honestly. He is the arrogant rival, then something happen that is a change in his life, and the next time we see him, he takes on this new challenge and has quite changed. We see what starts all the change, but it’s a shame we don’t see the change more.  

I am not big on online stuff in general, but the way to interact online in the game is such a big meh to me! So I was trying to find my sibling in the online feature to participate in a raid battle. So I filtered by raids, don’t find them. Filtered by friends, still don’t find them. So I try to find them on the map to see if I can interact that way, fly to the other side of the map, and even if I am still connected to internet, the stamps are gone???? So I have to un-connect and reconnect to the internet again and STILL don’t find them! It’s just weird and annoying to me honestly. The fact they don’t have the GTS anymore is disappointing as well :(  I know the GTS had issues, but they could easily fix the issues imo.

I could talk forever about the dex cut, but I won’t because we all heard about it. Instead, I will just mention, that I wish there was a way somehow to get alolan versions.

Other:

The music is so good and interesting but, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like I got more like Final Fantasy vibes more than Pokemon sometimes. Like when we are exploring the Forest early game and our hometown really gave me adventure RPG vibes lol.

The Ex share all. *Inhales* SO I always somehow disliked the ex share all since XY. I just have some weird thing that I want all my pokes to be at the same lvl, but in prior games it was hard to do with ex share all, because my starter would always be more lvl, and when I capture a new poke at lower lvl it would be difficult for me to lvl it up to the same lvl as the others. It was such a turn off for me. But this game, I feel like they did a good job! The pokemon who battles gain more exp than the others and the poke you capture in the wild are definitely at a lvl that is closer to your team. I didn’t get really overleved like I did in prior gens as well and I am thankful for that. I feel like they balanced it very well and I hope they keep this type of thing in the future.

No night/day cycle: During the main game, the night/day cycle is scripted lol Like you arrive in a town and it is sunset and it’s supposed to give us an atmosphere and a feeling of time passing and I think it’s interesting. It took me a while to realise that the time in the Wild area actually corresponds to your time zone in the Switch tho lol

The curry and camp are neat, but a part of me is sad that I can’t give my pokemon pats like in Pokemon refresh/amie or feed them food directly especially when there are scripts ingame before battling where the pokemon says they want to be petted. ;;

The story is almost non-existent. The villain is kinda predictable (Lysandre you have competition!) and it seems all to happen in the very last part of the main game. The pacing was kinda weird, and honestly, I am not sure I got all of the point the villain was going for, so I will digress on talking more about it. I know some people wanted a briefer from the last games (SUMO was super plot-heavy). And it gives us the chance to enjoy the games for only the Pokemon journey, it’s just felt kinda like something was missing for me because I am so used to the plots in the games tbh. I am not sure where they were going with it.

There is a story post-game...but well...idk what to say. These recent gens seems like there are no much post-game content, so idk what to say here. It’s not super fun, but it adds to the story and is enjoyable? It’s interesting I suppose, but just like the main plot, I am not sure where they were going with this as well lol It was nice seeing Hop getting involved into it though!

In brief, It was a good experience. Not the best, but definitely not the worst. To me the worst game was Pokemon Let’s go, and I am so glad SWSH didn’t beat it as the worst lol I honestly feel like I would have missed a fun experience if I had skipped SWSH.

 I just wish GF would have spent more time on it not gonna lie. Some parts really need to be more polished. And I hope in the future they will stop trying to produce a game a year and take more time to fully and comfortably polish their games, but maybe I am hoping for too much here.