#do you guys remember that pokemon episode where ash misty brock and team rocket are on a cruise ship that sinks and the survivors hold a

[psi-groovin]

Super Mario 64 gave me a deep-seated fear of drowning and sunken ships (and, to a much lesser degree, eels).

Back when I was a child I had the motor skills of a plastic bag but would play Mario 64 anyways. I remember playing in the Jolly Roger Bay stage a lot and dying until I got a game over. Swimming in that game is difficult when you are a young child and I used to drown all the goddamn time which was SCARRING. I HATED watching Mario clutch his throat and kick his feet before going limp in the water and then Bowser fuckn LAUGHS at you and you get violently ejected from the painting (mama mia!).

Horrifying.

Seeing the sunken ship gave me a sort of pavlovian response. I’d see the ship (and the eel) and be like ‘oh this is where I die. this is where I drown.’ And I’d be struck with this paralyzing fear. My stomach would drop whenever I saw that ship!

And then there’s the Secret Aquarium stage..

No air at all. You had to collect coins to keep your life meter up. AND! Because I sucked at controlling Mario in the water, I’d always drown before I could collect all the red coins!! And I’d have to watch Mario drown over and over again! I would start to panic during that stage and STILL TO THIS DAY I get that uneasy feeling when I enter that stage (even though now I can beat that stage in under a minute because it’s easy and I’m an adult with good motor skills but when you’re a little kid its supremely difficult).

So, thanks Mario 64! Whenever I see a sunken ship in any media (even like Minecraft) I get a terrible gut reaction of fight or flight and an impending fear of drowning.

[i-hate-ash-ketchum-and-pikachu]

hey, i don't mean to intrude but why do you hate ash and the pokemons?

MY DAY HAS COME. FINALLY. Thank you for asking the question I've been waiting so long to be asked. I hope you are ready for the can of worms you have just opened because it's going to be a LONG ride. Let's start with Pikachu because his issues are more technical, where as Ash is just a dumbass.

Pikachu should be level like 60 at this point(Thank you Matt Patt for actually doing all the work to figure this out.) and he still can't fight his way out of a paper bag. But Joe, it's a Pokemon show, there are no levels. WRONG. Season 1 Episode 9 "The School of Hard Knocks" The whole episode is basically pokemon school, TLDR they mention levels, weaknesses, ect. So now we know that pikachu is MILES ahead of his competition, but gets bodied at least 40% of the time(Chart of win rates).

But it isn't just Pikachu being reset to the point where he's useless again that's frustrating, but he's also a little prick. There is a whole scene where Pikachu is talking MAD SHIT and Jessie and James are like "Oh he's so cute" and Meowth is curled up in a ball going like "I can't bring myself to tell them what Pikachu is saying"

Also can we talk about how Pikachu should have killed Ash by now? Dude would send 100,000 volts into Ash like every Tuesday.

OK AND NOW THE MAIN EVENT. ASH. GOD HE MAKES ME SO ANGRY. Boi want's to be a pokemon master. IT TOOK HIM 22 YEARS. But we need to back up because that's getting ahead of myself.

Let's start at the very beginning. This man got a Pikachu because he was late, dudebro lives in the pokemon world. Could have had a real starter, but no. He slept in. Get's a Pikachu. Best of luck with the first gym OH WAIT LET ME JUST CHEAT the first gym. Uses an Electric pokemon against a ground type. Yea man, sure. The sprinklers. Regardless of him straight up breaking the laws of pokemon, Brock is even like "Dude we gotta stop this battle. I don't want to hurt your pokemon" and ash IMMEDIATELY disregards this and puts him back into the battle. Ash has proven time and time again he really doesn't actually care about his pokemon(basically replacing his team every single time he goes to a new region and then never uses them ever again).

On the topic of learning nothing from previous events, He falls for Jessie and James costumes. Every. Time. Jessie and James are the Parry the platypus of this universe and it makes me so angry because not ONCE can he see the blue and red hair duo and think. Hmmm. Maybe is Jessie and James. NOT ONCE. Which btw Jessie and James are canonically the worst team rocket members. He removes them, but like a baby has no objects permanence and forgets they exist and the process repeats.

He has 42 pokemon after two decades. I have more pokemon in my copy of silver that I played for like 6 hours. Which then we can bring up the fact that he has 29 TAUROS because he has the awareness of a blind chimp(actually that's not fair, I bet if you gave me 10 minutes I could teach a Mankey to throw a pokeball without hitting a Tauros). To compound this the man doesn't evolve pokemon if they don't want to, which while is actually a really nice thing for him to do(Yay first positive thing he's done) it still makes him a weaker trainer in battles ultimately making his goal of becoming pokemon master SO much harder.

Hey you guys ever remember when Ash absolutely trashed Misty's bike and then never paid her back for it. That was cool.

Moving along we have the fact that not only is he dumb, but he's TURBO DUMB. First episode "Is all you can say is Pikachu?" AS IF HE HASN'T SEEN A POKEMON ONCE IN HIS LIVE. DUDE LIVES WITH A MR. MIME. Have a comp of just the first season of him being a fucking moron. And it's not just like general knowledge like that, he also struggles with typing match ups. WELL INTO future seasons. But even when he has the typing match up he still somehow loses. The only example I need to make is this one. Dudebro CHEATED and got a "Mega" evolution that doesn't even exist because of love(I GUESS?), like this is next level protaganist bullshit. AND HE STILL LOSES WHEN HE'S GOT THE TYPE ADVANTAGE. on a side note, while looking up more things he did wrong, Man apparently almost never uses Items or abilities. How he's made it to finally become a pokemon master is BEYOND me.

To wrap up, Ash is by far one of the worst protagonists. Annoying with his limitless ability to be stupid, not actually faithful with any of his pokemon except for Pikachu, Pikachu which is a jackass and basically toying with his opponents because in no world should he be losing anymore. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[medea10]

Medea Rambles - Parents in the Pokemon Anime

If you watched Pokemon the way I have for the last 20 years, you start to notice things along the way and start to get a little curious.

Take the second episode of the original series for example. A simple line that might have come and gone. When Ash reaches Viridian City and his mother mentions that it took Ash’s father four days to reach that town. You probably won’t give it a second thought especially if you just started the series.

Fast-forward another year or so and you start to question about Ash’s father a little more. You only see Delia. And at times you’ll see Delia being accompanied by Professor Oak. Go a little further and you watch the third Pokemon movie. Sure this guy Professor Hale has a wife and child, but what kind of past does he share with Delia? More years pass by and you start keeping this question in the back of your mind. Who is Ash’s father? And along the way, you’ve compiled several theories on that question. And for added drama, you might have added Giovanni from Team Rocket to this paternity suit. And then you meet some of Ash’s other companions and notice that some of them are also without another parent...or just flat out DON’T have any parents (to our knowledge).

Don’t get me wrong, I love how Pokemon has given us different families to look at throughout the years. From Ash’s small family with Delia, to May’s family, to Clemont and Bonnie’s father, and despite it being dysfunctional as fuck, Brock’s family, we see different things.

But when I see single parents like Delia, Johanna, Grace, Meyer, and Abe (and if you’re not keeping up that’s Ash, Dawn, Serena, Clemont, and Mallow’s parents), I often wonder what happened to their partner. I don’t find anything wrong with this. Single parents rule! I was raised by a single parent and have the highest respect for them. I just get curious is all. I’m sure everyone else does too. I know I spent just about 20 years speculating who was behind Ash’s creation. And I know we will never know Ash’s father’s true identity. Though thanks to a certain light novel, we can officially squash any chances of it being Professor Oak, Professor Hale, or Giovanni. I know it seems wasteful to bring up the parents of this show. I mean, they send their child out at the ripe-old age of 10 to catch wild monsters in a ball and get caught up in butt-loads of trouble. Meanwhile, they stay at home or do their routine day-to-day jobs like proper adults. But we have to remember this one thing.

THEY BROUGHT THESE CHARACTERS INTO THIS WORLD! Delia didn’t spend God-knows-how-long to squeeze Ash out of her lady clown-car to not get a mention or appearance every now and then. So yes, mention these parents! In most cases, they’re great, offer great comedic relief, a home-cooked meal every now and then, and there to wipe away the tears. Well...those are the good ones. Brock and James had some interesting families. And I use the term ‘interesting’ loosely. I will mention Jessie’s train-wreck of a life later. And then there are those characters whose parents are never mentioned. While Misty has three older sisters, her parents are never mentioned or seen. Iris’s parents are never mentioned and all we know about her is that she was probably taken care of by the village elder (not even a grandparent). Cilan has his brothers Cress and Chili, and once again, no mention of parents. And then there’s Tracey...Okay, here she goes again!

*sighs dreamily* TRACEY! No mention of parents. Not a damn thing. We’re not even sure if Tangelo Island (the island where Ash and Misty first met him on) is where he’s originally from. Yes, I’m guilty of writing fanfics of Pokemon and decided to add backstories to characters like Tracey, yes especially Tracey because he’s worth it and deserves it. I’ve written fics where his mother dies when he was younger, fics where she’s just sickly, and other ones where she’s perfectly fine and she’s actually there. And while I was at it, I had Misty’s parents be on constant business trips, Ash’s real father died in a car accident, and Dawn’s father did bad things (that’s the cleaned-up spoiler-free version of it) That’s the fun of writing fanfics. It’s fun to imagine your favorite characters with things the show would never think of doing or bother throwing a bone to. It’s been 13 years Pokemon. Are you gonna show my anime husbando or not? Tick-tock. Needless to say, the Pokemon anime has been rather lax about the identity of these missing parents. And people without a trusty search engine or are not fluent in Japanese are shit-outta-luck. Because some of these characters have some interesting, sad, and down-right fucked up family back-stories.

On the anime’s surface, there are only a few standard families shown. May and Max have their parents Norman and Caroline. And despite having one almost fall-out episode in mid-AG season, they’re quite the happy family. Sophocles’s parents are quite the cute-lovey type and because they look too much like each other, I’m starting to have other theories. Like are Sophocles’s parents brother and sister...like Milhouse’s parents? (don’t be silly Medea, they’re not). And the same happiness can be said about Kiawe and Lana’s families.

And then you have the single-parent household as seen with Dawn, Serena, Clemont, Bonnie, and Mallow. I’ll get to Mallow later.

Brock... *sighs* Yeah, fun times with this one. As we all remember from episode 5 (and in the dub), his mother died and his father ran off, leaving Brock alone to take care of the 10 brothers and sisters. In actuality, Lola left the kids in Brock’s care, she didn’t die. Imagine my shock in 2004 when I learned that Pokemon Chronicles was a thing and that the bitch was alive and well this entire time. Thanks a lot 4Kids. Even when Lola and Flint are around, they often leave and do erratic actions. And usually it’s up to the eldest siblings (Brock and Forrest) to take charge. Trust me, their doofy behaviors have lead to the Pewter Gym to almost be shutdown several times. So, they’re not the best of parents.

Lillie and Gladion gets a little complicated. In the games, we all saw that Lusamine wasn’t a very caring mother and would put her work ahead of her children. She even downright verbally disowned them at one point. Harsh. The anime decided to be nicer to Lusamine. Yes, she’s dedicated to her work, but also cares for her children Lillie and Gladion (though Lillie had her own reservations about her mother early on). Lusamine even sacrificed herself to the Ultra Beast in order to save Lillie. That’s a mother for you! Where does it get complicated? The father, Mohn. In the games he disappeared while researching the Ultra Beasts. And in the anime, Gladion and Lillie have assumed that he has passed away. But thanks to revelations in SM108, there’s hope for both as Mohn could still be alive. I just fear that his memories will be gone like in the games.

James of Team Rocket had one of the best backstories in the entire anime with the one episode Holy Matrimony back in season one. I’m actually surprised they kept a lot of things in tact in the English dub. Yes, both of his parents are alive and they are horrible people. Faking their deaths to try and drag James back home and force him to marry a dominatrix. Yeah, Pokemon has some fucked-up backstories. Time for it to get more fuckier! Again, if you’re not fluent in Japanese or haven’t lived in Japan during the height of the Pokemon fandom, you probably didn’t know these existed. RADIO DRAMAS! Yes, Pokemon had them! And with that, Jessie’s backstory time!

In the dub, we were pretty sure that Jessie was either very poor or in an orphanage and very poor. In actuality, Jessie’s mother was a high-ranking member of Team Rocket and left her daughter at a young age in order to search for Mew. And because Miyamoto was never heard from again, Jessie was sent into foster care. Wonder why the anime never wanted to cover that little detail about Jessie! Kinda shines a light on how sad it was that she used to eat snow for dinner.

And then between 1997-1999, Takeshi Shudo (creator of the Pokemon anime) came out with the light novel, Pocket Monsters The Animation. And that’s where we learn a little more about several original characters. Ash’s mother Delia was indeed a young mother. She met a man, got married, and had Ash when she was around 18-19 years. And in a flash, Ash’s father left on a journey and hasn’t been back since.

Brock’s mother Lola married and divorced SEVERAL men after Flint left the family. Most of Brock’s siblings are just half-siblings, if not all of them. Do you know why Brock keeps hitting on older women? He wants to bring one home to be a mother to the young siblings. DAMN. And as for Misty, her parents left Misty and her sisters. Yeah, you’re gym leaders now. Laters! Okay, I can see why the Pokemon anime decided to be a little laxer when it comes to some of these stories. Abandonment is not a happy story to write for an age-appropriate anime like Pokemon. And maybe because of the rate of women having babies at younger ages, they probably didn’t want to show that Delia was one of them. And then Brock’s story...Yikes, man! Yeah, stories like Delia, Lola, Misty’s parents, and even Jessie’s mother might be a little much for little children to absorb. Or so people thought in the 90s when Pokemon first debuted. Nowadays, there’s so much in western media and even anime that has advanced from just 20 years ago. Look at how parents are portrayed in western animation like The Loud House and Steven Universe. Who knows, Gen8 of Pokemon could possibly give us a same-sex family (one can only hope).

In the latest episode of Pokemon (Sun & Moon episode 108), we get an unanswered question of a character’s parent. All we knew about Mallow was that she has a father and a brother. This being the 20th year watching Pokemon and have gotten so used to seeing characters in single family homes, I decided not to give it a second thought and write fics later down the line. That was until a couple of weeks ago when we learn about an upcoming episode involving a pokemon and communicating with the dead. And we get a screenshot of Mallow crying. Holy shit. Is Pokemon really going to do this? Or is this going to be a bait and switch?

Guess what, they gave us a story about Mallow’s mother. They even went the extra mile to show us that she was actually sick in the hospital and mention how Mallow’s anger-induced words were her final words to her mother. In this episode, we see Mallow reunited with her deceased mother even for just a moment. I’m glad we got an episode like this. There are children who have lost a parent at a young age and sometimes don’t know how to deal with the feelings that come up pre, during, or post-death. And many of us wish we could say one last unresolved feeling to that loved one again. Mallow definitely wanted to see her mother again and she got to say what she wanted to and even hug her before she disappeared.

DAMN POKEMON. Mother/daughter moments are like my absolute weakness. And while I didn’t cry, I still felt the feels deep in my soul. That also means Misty and Togetic’s goodbye is still my #1 for saddest Pokemon moments. However THIS is now #2.

I honestly think Pokemon is evolving when it comes to stories about the character’s parents. And other heavy subjects including death. Writers are seeing that children are more mature than they originally thought. In the last two years, Pokemon has talked about death 4 times (three of those were pokemon deaths). God only knows what the English dub will do to this episode. We’re getting more heart-wrenching stories from this series. I’m glad I kept with watching Pokemon well into my adult years. Cut through a lot of the crap and sometimes, you get little gems like this. I can’t wait to see if Pokemon has it in them to continue giving us stories like Sun & Moon episode 108 (and others) or even on the same level as the radio dramas and Pocket Monsters light novel. Maybe not the Brock story. Okay, I think that’s all I wanted to talk about here.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Team Rocket

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

“Prepare for trouble! And make it double!”

I feel like there are few anime villains who are quite as iconic and memorable to the current generation than the bumbling trio of Team Rocket: Jessie, James, and Meowth (that’s right!). These three have appeared in nearly every single episode of the anime, indisputably being main characters on the level of Ash and his pals. Hell, they actually have more of a right to being main characters than franchise staples like Brock, Misty, or whatever girl of the season Ash has tagging along. Team Rocket are pretty omnipresent.

Of course, they’ve had many ups and downs over the years. From some poor showings to voice actor changes to being so overexposed it’s hard not to get tired of them to some absolutely awful decisions the characters make, Team Rocket are just as imperfect creations as most of the other characters in the show. Still, I find Team Rocket to be more consistently enjoyable and even for the most part more compelling than Ash Ketchum. It helps that, unlike him, they have rather interesting backstories and characterization.

Actor: Originally, the trio were voiced by Rachel Lillis (Jessie), Eric Stuart (James), and Maddie Blaustein (Meowth), though in the case of Blaustein and Stuart they actually weren’t the first in their respective roles; Nathan Price and Ted Lewis were the first to voice their characters. Blaustein and Stuart are easily the more iconic voices, however, so I’m going to focus on them.

Lillis is also the original voice of Misty, as well as Jigglypuff, though she has a pretty prolific career in anime voice acting outside of Pokemon; her performance of Jessie really cements her as an abrasive, stuck-up witch who constantly sounds like she’s talking down to everyone; you can practically hear the sneer in her voice, it really is something.

Eric Stuart you may know as Brock or perhaps Seto Kaiba, or perhaps as Meta Knight from Kirby: Right Back at Ya! Or maybe you know him from his music career. Either way, you know that he gave James that sissy, foppish charm that we all know and love.

Maddie Blaustein… She was easily the most talented of the bunch here, and that’s really saying something. She was a woman of a thousand voices, to the e point where you’d never know she was voicing someone unless you saw her name in the credits. Like, can you believe she was Solomon Moto and Sartorious in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise? Or Omega in Sonic 06? She was one of the greats, and as such is it any shock she delivered the best performance possible to the sneaky little wise guy mascot of the bumbling trio? Her presence is definitely sorely missed even today.

Of course, these three really made the characters who they were, but they did eventually get replaced, and while I don’t think Michele Knotz as Jessie, Jimmy Zoppi as James, or Carter Cathcart as Mewoth are bad by any means – they still manage to give great performances and keep the characters lovable  as ever – I do think that it really is hard to live up to the iconic originals, especially in Blaustein’s case.

Motivation/Goals: Team Rocket are introduced as menacing, competent criminals very early on in the anime, with the same goal as any Team Rocket member would have: stealing Pokemon. Of course, after their fated encounter with Ash and the witnessing of his Pikachu’s incredible power, they become single-mindedly obsessed with nabbing Ash’s Pokemon pal and using him for their own nefarious purposes, and the rest is history. Of course, Team Rocket occasionally finds time to look for other goals, such as getting food or money, but most of the time they just try and find new ways to steal Pikachu and fail at doing it.

Personality: Their personalities are really what sets them apart and makes them so interesting. Jessie, for instance, is definitely the more evil of the three; she’s willing to keep going at Team Rocket goals even when there’s no need, while her teammates are far more willing to just abandon stealing Pokemon if better opportunities arrive. Jessie can be callous and cruel, she has an extremely short temper, she’s loud and brash, but even with all that she truly does love her teammates. Even Wobbuffett. Jessie really epitomizes “jerk with a heart of gold.”

James is flamboyant and just as willing to take part in evil schemes to steal Pokemon, but out of everyone in Team Rocket James is easily the nicest guy. He’s sweet and doting to his Pokemon, he has quite a few morals, and he has a lot of the more genuinely compelling emotional moments. All of this also leads into him being probably the smartest and most level-headed of the group, for what that’s worth anyway.

Meowth is snarky and loud, but he has a lot of depths, much like his colleagues. I mean, this guy taught himself how to talk (at the cost of being able to learn moves like Pay Day), so he’s gotta be at least a little smart, right? WELL… while Meowth does have some smarts, especially street smarts since he grew up on the mean streets of Hollywood, Meowth is also the looniest of the three if you can believe that. Have you perhaps seen the numerous fantasies of Giovanni doing something ludicrous with some random Pokemon? Guess who is the person responsible for thinking most of those up. Go on, guess.

There are things all three members of the group share: all three are incredibly friendly to the point where they’re only villains because of their loyalty to Giovanni; they’re as likely to be friendly with Ash and the gang as to be trying to steal his Pokemon, o the point where they’ve not only helped him, but have directly had a hand in saving the world on quite a few occasions. All three are pretty hilarious in their ineptitude as well, and all three are actually very competent at disguising themselves. They all tend to be pretty hammy as well. All in all, the three are really enjoyable and fun for what they are.

Final Fate: Whenever these three do evil, there is only one fate in store for them: blasting off. Still, they always end up somehow coming back in the next episode to cause a ruckus.

Best Scene: In a series as long as this, it’s hard to single out one scene among the hundreds of thousands of scenes they’ve had. Still, the entirety of “Go West, Young Meowth” counts as one for Meowth, culminating with him taking out a Persian by himself, as well as Jessie and James coming to Meowth’s aid before said duel.

Best Quote: I hardly think it is possible to overstate how good their original motto is:

Jessie: Prepare for trouble!

James: And make it double!

Jessie: To protect the world from devastation.

James: To unite all people within our nation.

Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love!

James: To extend our reach to the stars above!

Jessie: Jessie!

James: James!

Jessie: Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!

James: Surrender now, or prepare to fight. note

Meowth: Meowth, that's right!

From 1998 to 2006, this was how they announced their arrival on the scene, and while they’d go through other mottos and songs and whatnot over the years, nothing can top the original.

Final Thoughts & Score: Team Rocket are some of the most memorable antagonists in all of anime, despite amounting to what would just be nameless, faceless mooks in the game series the anime is based on. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine the anime without them involved, and even when they introduce more serious villains they rarely ever match up to Team Rocket. Hell, even other members of Team Rocket fail to live up to their entertaining standard; does anyone remember Atilla and Hun, does anyone actually care about Butch and Cassidy?

In fact, it’s pretty easy to say that in many ways these three are even more interesting than Ash. You see, we know from the start Team Rocket is going to fail in whatever evil schemes they have going on in any given episode, so unlike when Ash inevitably loses the championship, Team Rocket losing is expected, making their victories sweeter as opposed to Ash’s victories feeling like inevitable buildup to failure. It also helps that unlike Ash, all three have pretty interesting, compelling, and even tragic backstories, with Jessie following in her mother’s footsteps as a Rocket grunt, James fleeing from an abusive arranged marriage and tossing aside a life of riches for crime, and Meowth learning how to talk by itself and growing up on the streets. Team Rocket just ends up feeling so much more interesting and fleshed out than the main character of the show, though considering the amount of screentime they get they easily could be considered main characters.

Jessie, James, and Meowth across the board get 8/10. I’d definitely say it’s the high end of 8, but they are held back a bit by some truly dumb decisions they’ve made over the years, dumb decisions to rival Ash’s, such as the frequent letting go of Pokemon the audience has likely grown to know and love, with Arbok and Weezing being the most offensively egregious example. Still, this gang has stuck around for over 20 years, and the show and series at large just wouldn’t feel the same without their continued presence. Good, bad, it doesn’t matter; Team Rocket’s iconic trio is a core part of the franchise, and their impact can’t be ignored.

“Meowth, that’s right!”

[theantisocialcritic]

Archive Project - August 10, 2014 - Pokemon Sucks

Cabin fever with a broken leg really sucks It also sucks that I haven't been able to keep up with reviews for new releases, granted the universal opinion on TMNT seems to be negative and either of my readers probably could have figured that out. This time though has given me the chance to think on subjects and one of the ones I thought of yesterday as I watched Adventure Time and Toonami on Cartoon Network was of the modern failings of the Pokemon Anime. The Pokemon franchise is something I have a long history with. Back in Junior High school I played through most of the games, collected cards and watched the anime. Alongside Avatar and DragonBall Z Abridged it was one of the first bits of Anime I ever got to watch and helped me get into the genre. I burnt out pretty hard on Pokemon though after Pokemon Diamond/Pearl and never truly got back into the series. Recently in my bed rest i've been seeing glimpses at the current run of the series Pokemon X/Y.. and I came to a conclusion at the time that Pokemon is the world's worst anime. I've changed my mind since than, I no longer think Pokemon is a totally horrible anime. Now I believe that Pokemon is an anime that is pointless for me to watch. You can chop it unto the main character's lack of depth or character growth, the repetitive and predictable storytelling, the inconclusiveness of the series as a whole, or its nature as the advertising branch of the Pokemon multimedia franchise, but i've come to realize a lot about Pokemon and where it stands to make it such a popular series.   I recently came to an interesting conclusion about the nature of tension in movies and how they can be made to be compelling. When I think of movies like The Raid or television shows like DragonBall Z, the first things I do not associate them with is quality storytelling. For a long time I considered this to be a detriment to them but thanks in part to an article by FilmCritHulk himself, I came to understand what makes these things work and why they are so beloved. It all comes down to clarity, the source of drama. The audience has to understand the characters, their motivations and the stakes of the fight in order for them to want to root against their adversity. This creates tension for the audience. In DragonBall Z for instance you understand who your main character is (Goku), his motivation (to protect people) and the stakes if he is unsuccessful in whatever fight he is battling (destruction of Earth). A simple dynamic that functions to communicate to the audience why we should care for what he is doing. Looking back on the Pokemon franchise as a whole, clarity is something the series has always held very well. Each character's personalities, despite their unchanging, unevolving nature are well shown. Heck I still remember the names and basic character traits of almost all the main cast members of the series up through Sinnoh: Ash, Brock, Misty, May, Dawn, Pikachu, etc. The drama of the week to week episodes was almost always the main gang of heroes fighting Team Rocket to keep them from stealing Pokemon and using them for evil purposes. That was juxtaposed against the main characters who use Pokemon for friendly competition. We understood who was good and who was bad and what the stakes of the good guys loosing would be. That basic trick of storytelling aside, there are a lot of elements of Pokemon I do think work really well. The animation is some of the most beautiful, colorful and emboldened i've seen in recent anime. Its not award winning but it looks really good for a weekly series! More than anything though, I still give Pokemon it's "Most Pointless Anime" title for one reason above all other, the series is aimed entirely at kids. The tone, writing and visual style is meant entirely to be fun and entertaining to kids younger than myself. Thats not at all a bad thing, it just makes the sensibilities less relevant to people my age. So Pokemon! You are no longer horrible in my eyes! Just really really lacking relevancy! Enjoy another 30 years of relevancy before in which Ash Ketchem continues to avoid aging! Thank you for reading! Live long and prosper!

[cupkayke]

For the fanfiction questions thing: 1, 3, 6, 11, 17, 21, 25, 27, 36, 40, 41, 46, 50 and 51 (I hope these aren't too many)

 Not too many at all! I like talking about myself lol.

Under a cut because longggggg.

1) What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Oh gosh, definitely Tokyo Mew Mew. I never wrote fanfics for it but I co-owned and then owned an Avidgamers RP site for TMM called MewUSA back in like 2004-2006. Avidgamers was a forum site engine that was pretty damn nice for its time (also FREE, that was a plus) and I spent HOURS creating characters, storylines, and layouts for it. There were TONS of individual in-character boards and I think we may have had up to 100 unique users at one point. The detailed characters/plotlines were BASICALLY fanfiction- I think I did an entire rp with myself between a few of my characters once- and it was a whole lot of fun. Some of the OCs from that site were repurposed into a longrunning rp I have with @liarino on AIM and I am FOREVER grateful that I met them through that site

Fanfic-wise, it was Full Metal Alchemist. I had a horrendous LITERAL self-insert OC fic called ‘Nice of Me to Drop In’ that was based on an RP I did with a different friend. Plot? ‘Fangirl of FMA LITERALLY FALLS INTO HER TELEVISION AND WAKES UP IN THE UNIVERSE AND FALLS IN LOVE WITH ALPHONSE’. The end. I never finished it but holy shitballs it got SO MANY REVIEWS. I’m surprised how many people actually enjoyed it- I did get some criticisms but despite the fact that it was so cringe-worthy that I took it down it still got sooooo much positive feedback. I sometimes wonder if people would still be reading it on ff.net if I hadn’t taken it down the last time I overhauled that account. I still have some Ouran oneshots on there that I wrote TEN FUCKING YEARS AGO that still get reviews. Dayum. 

3) What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

I have to say it’s a tie between the Tokyo Mew Mew fandom circa 2003-2006 and the Ouran fandom from about 2006-2008. My experience with them was limited to RP boards but I had the MOST FUN running MewUSA and a long-running Gaia RP ‘Hosting the Hosts’ because of the warm response to the concepts. The TMM fandom especially was super creative even back in the day- there were so many fan mew mews because the formula was so easy and that was one series that I didn’t mind OCs because the concept was easily applied. In-universe, the creator could have easily made more Mew Mews. So the possibilities were endless. That’s also the fandom I learned the majority of my writing skills from, even if I did get called out a couple times for shitty RPing. I got better and I was so sad when the engine finally kicked the bucket. Aside from the RP sites the TMM fandom had sooooo many fansites dedicated to the show- my other favorite being Neko Tokyo. I think that site might still be up… 

Ouran was limited to that RP I ran but damn I never had one so fun. That group of writers was hysterical and I actually met one of them in person because by sheer coincidence she lived near me. She moved soon after we figured it out but she came back for a convention and we hung out all weekend. Unfortunately I don’t remember her name and I lost her phone number T_T I wonder where she is sometimes. I wonder where a lot of my fan friends from back then are. The problem with early 2000s internet.

Tho I think Boueibu will be my new modern fave fandom.

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

 Ohhhh dear. I’ll keep it to ones that I actually ship characters in because a lot of my early fandoms were MYSELF AS AN OC X HOT MALE CHARACTER. OTL. I was a weeb. Most of these are fandoms I’ve rped in rather than written fanfiction for, however.

Tokyo Mew Mew- PuddingxTart. I like to read IchigoxKisshu fanfics sometimes but that ship is highly problematic looking back on it lol

Code Lyoko - THROWBACK. JeremiexAelita. Adorable.

Ouran HSHC - I’m fond of HunnyxHaruhi (as evidenced by my mostly abandoned ff.net account) but basically AnyonexHaruhi is super cute. I think I read a fic once where Haruhi was in a relationship with ALL of the guys and it was actually super interesting. I don’t think I can find it again, tho.

Harry Potter - Drarry.

Walking Dead - CarolxDaryl FTW. and Richonne. I’ve toyed with the idea of writing fanfics for WD but never quite get up to it.

Mass Effect - Shakarian. Fuck yes. Fun fact I have an unfinished smutfic on the mass effect kinkmeme livejournal that I will EVENTUALLY FINISH ONE DAY AND PUBLISH UNDER MY NAME buuuut for now it will remain an anonymous abandoned fic.

Boueibu - …All of them? OTL I can’t pick one ship… tho if you force me… IoRyuu and BeppuMoto OT3.

YOI - I think everyone’s OTP is Victuuri.

11) Who is your current OTP?

Victuuri.

17)  Who was your first OTP and are they still your favourite?

Since Boueibu is my current fandom- I immediately was drawn to Enatsu since s1 had a relatively large focus on them but I’ve kind of fallen out of actively shipping them. I like them as a couple and I think they’re def boyfriends material but they’re definitely a comfortable ship. Their personalities are just… drama-free, so their relationship to me just seems like a quiet background relationship. IoRyuu is a little more volatile and I really like ships where there is a lot of between-the-lines interpretation and potential for conflict. Also I just really like the Beppus

21) What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. The aformentioned ‘Nice of Me to Drop In’ FMA OC Mary Sue Self insert fic. Definitely the first one I ever published on the interwebs. Although I think TECHNICALLY my very first one was a Pokemon story that I was writing for a little kid neighbor of mine back when I was like… 11. I think I had just gotten a computer in my room and I remember typing it up and drawing some cover art for it… it was basically an expanded version of the episode where Meowth and Pikachu were handcuffed together or something… except there were more Pokemon involved and ALL of the characters were friends. Like Brock and Tracey were both with Ash and Misty and all of the Team Rocket people were friends for some reason. Idk I was a weird child.

Ohhh maybe a tie for the FMA fic was a Code Lyoko one I wrote around the same time called ‘Desert Rose’. I can’t remember now which was published first because I deleted them all. Another Mary Sue OC fic but I actually am still kind of proud of how I expanded the Lyoko universe in my head. I came up with new areas to Lyoko and like a central region and how they all connected. Nevermind the fact that the girl with a CAT THAT COULD OPERATE THE COMPUTER was the main character and obviously I shipped her with Odd because YumiUlrich and JeremieAeilita were OTPs. It was weird.

25) What’s your most popular fanfic?

If the story was still up it might have been ‘Nice of Me to Drop In’ because that fic still haunts me. Buuut it’s either ‘Naptime’ or ‘Desire’, one of my two Hunny x Haruhi fics from my Ouran days that I left up on ff.net for posterity. I have no desire to go read the cringe and find out which one has more hits but I bet it’s the G-rated ‘Naptime’ cuz ‘Desire’ is a) the first M rated Hunny x Haruhi fic on ff.net EVER and b) really really bad porn written by like, 16-year-old me. Oops. It’s a smidgen OOC on the part of Haruhi if I remember right buuut I actually still stand by the idea that Hunny is not as childlike as he seems.

Oh dear maybe that’s why I like Yumoto so much. Similar character type. OTL

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

I feel like I’m horrendous at both but lately it’s titles that are giving me trouble. 2 of the 3 Boueibu fics I’ve written had different working titles that got changed the second the story went up to be published. I’m having a brain fart and can’t remember them but both ‘All the Pretty Little Horses’ and ‘Completely’ were titled something really stupid. And your giftfic was ‘?’ until I decided on the central theme lol.

36) What’s your favourite genre to write?

I don’t like reading romance novels but I love writing shippy stuff. Tension, build….smut

40)  What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Pacing in longer works, definitely. Also just… keeping up with it. I am a horrible procrastinator and if I don’t actually have a deadline with external consequences then I never get anything done. I can’t set my own deadlines because I can always move them. I can’t get my family or friends to set them for me because I know they’ll forgive me if I fail (how horrible lol). I have tons upon tons of unfinished fics from fandoms past sitting somewhere in the depths of my word documents folder and about as many original short stories. I have so many ideas but because I get easily distracted and also because I am now working full time and suffer from typical adult exhaustion I can only put a fraction of them on paper. 

My inner critic is also a fucking bitch. I can’t get her to shut her face long enough to write a sentence sometimes. Again, I have to have a deadline looming before I can put her on mute most times. If I have infinite time, she doesn’t shut up and makes me rewrite a sentence 100 times because it sounds stupid.

41) List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

Ahahahaha… I don’t have 5 simultaneously because I can’t just… not finish reading something before moving onto the next one. I don’t also read things that are unfinished unless they sound REALLY interesting because I’m stupid impatient. But I guess for my current fandom (Boueibu) I’ll link 5 fics I read recently that I liked! 

1) Pink Blood - @magiccatprincess (okay actually this is one I’m going to read soon because it looked interesting… so it fits the question lol)

2) tuesdays - @vagarius (because how can I not love something written for me?

3) Liar - BlackJoker77 (A whoooole lot accomplished here in not a lot of words. Also, Yumoto character study/reading between the lines? Yush.)

4) ….. ok I ran out of ideas. I don’t bookmark anything OTL. I’ll come back to this question at another time with an ACTUAL answer.

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

I’m most proud of ‘Completely’ at the moment- I really like how I pulled off Ryuu’s voice and it’s most definitely a scene I wanted to see written… so I’m happy that I was able to provide that scene

50) How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

It was basically an extention of RPing for the writing portion of it- ‘Nice of Me to Drop In’ was basically a cleaned up RP and when it wasn’t rping it was fan gratification for the other early fics I did. As a kid I used to (and still sometimes do) make up stories in my head when I was about to go to sleep, and a lot of them were episodes of my favorite shows that I wanted to see. So I’d put some of them on paper. And then it moved into the ~romance~ category; I was a hopeless romantic as a teenager and like a lot of teenage girls I was kind of horny so fanfiction was a way to explore my sexuality in the comfort of my own head, basically. I still like me a good smutfic and bonus points if it’s romantic AND smutty. My bf can definitely tell when I’ve been reading something naughty….

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

Okay, Imma do both! And I have 2 things to rant about because I can’t shut up.

Rant: This is more of a thing that I hate about MYSELF reading fanfics, but I hate that I get turned off of fics so quickly because of writing style. When I can push past beginners writing mistakes or mediocre quality writing I can sometimes find gem fics with plots/characterizations I find adorable, but more often than not I click out of fics after just a few sentences because I can’t stand poor writing. And I feel so elitist about it! Fanfics are free, fan-generated content. A lot of fanfics are written by kids or beginner writers. I have to keep reminding myself that not every fanfic author has gone to school for writing. They may not know the conventions of literature. They may not realize that they’re head-hopping in the middle of paragraphs. They may not know the proper way to punctuate dialogue (and I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW until grad school!!!!). If I let mistakes get in the way of content I may miss out on an up and coming writer. And lord knows I was horrendous when I first started. Everyone starts somewhere. I hate that it takes me so long to get out of teacher/writing student mode and truck through some writing that may not technically be the best but their heart is in the right place. 

Rant2: I don’t like how isolated fanfiction can feel sometimes. It seems like people don’t comment on fics as much as they used to, and I see these posts going around on tumblr about how authors LOOOOOVE comments and want more of them but then comments just… don’t appear. It’s not so hard to post one thing you really liked about the story, and even one thing you didn’t like. Comments help authors grow.I also don’t like how it’s so hard to find a beta reader or three to bounce ideas off of and proofread your work.

Gush: I love communities. I love the events fanfic authors put together. I love how when communities get tight-knit how everyone builds each other up and gives one another ideas. I just love fanfiction in general, really

aaaaaand SHEW. That was a lot. BUT DEF NOT TOO MUCH

[drewxmay]

Contestshipping MasterPost - Part 9 - Hi Ho Silver Wind

Hi Ho Silver Wind (let be guess it has somthing to do with battles? Beautifly and Masqurain specificly?)

link http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x17gs82_ab8-398-hi-ho-silver-wind-pikaprod_fun

00:00 Episode starts off with May's feet. Wonderful.

00:05 Yes it is, but it's the corner of the building.

:Narrator and theme song take up 2 mins of the episode again:

01:30 Finally! The episode!

01:40 Shouldn't her win's have been saved onto her rocerds, or am I just stupid?

01:43 So why don't they put them on her records nce she gets the ribbon??? All they need to do is scan it! Then if somebody lot there ribbon case (that almost happened to May once) it wouldn't matter as much?

01:48 Does she really need one?

01:58 That's a resaruant??? Okay I wanna be a coordinator now.

01:58 Oh that's the dorm rooms? I still wanna be a coordinator!

02:02 Heyyyyyy it's May's mom! I havn't watched theme episodes sense early 2016 but I still remember all of may's family and the greenhouse and the beautifly and and-

02:23 Dad's not here, but he has enough time to watch TV and Misty had enough time to go on a 5 year long journy with ash.

02:44 letters, or cards?

02:59 and a boyfriend!

03:09 You mean the girls who are married and have kids and were flirting with Drew? Not a fan.

My shoudler hurts so I'm not going to talk about as much stuff

3:58 oh look an Espeon! (the Espeon will be important, it is actually seen again in the next grand festival!!!)

While I have nothing to talk about here is some food for thought. If you didn't understand me explaining as I was watchjing the episodes then here:

  Everybody seems to misunderstand Drew’s character, thinking that he is trying to make may upset, but he really isn’t. Let me explain.

  Drew tries to make May want to learn more, For example, let’s take the episode where Drew was introduced.

  In that episode he was definitely watching her before they noticed him, so he had seen May training on the beach and decided to follow her, seeing that she could improve, and he knew how to improve.

  At the beginning Drew seems to be poking fun of how little ability she has, but this was actually so that she wanted to become better, and it works!

  For example: Who What When Where Wynuat.

  During the episode, they find Leechy berries, and because May didn’t know what they were, Drew tried mocking her of not knowing what they were so that she wanted to learn, and by the end of the episode… it worked!

 Many of the things that May knows is because Drew taught her.

  May would be too stubborn to really just take advice, and here is another reason why he does it.

  In “Three Sides to Every Story” (an episode that I believe to be referencing Contestshipping) an Electikid is making fun of (a Pokemon I don’t know how to spell’s name but it is something like Merrow) Merrow and Piplup thinks that he is just being mean, but during the episode we find out that Electikid is attacking her because he has a crush on her. Brock says, “Sometimes when a boy likes a girl, they will go out of their way to make fun of them” This is why Drew makes fun of May. He likes her, and it seems to be a great way to teach her to be a better coordinator. Please stop saying Drew is mean he really isn’t. k sorry

04:23 WOW JAMES IS GREAT AT MAKING A DISCISE!

05:21 How we are supposed to imterprite it : She's not THAT old! How I interprite it: No it's James' Crackship girlfriend

05:39 o wait I just figured out. The boy is voiced by the guy who boices Ash!

05:47 Meowth stop explaining the plot if I just looked to a random thing and started talking about what I was thinking I would think I was weird.

06:08 (Fun fact, all of Drew's pokemon can breed with May (but May has more pokemon so it doesn't go the other way around) Masqurain with beautifly, a flygon that drew doesn't have with beautifly, Rosellia with Bulbasuar, a glacion may doesn't have yet with an Absol that drew doesn't have yet, and uhhh I know there is another)

06:27 And thus my headcanon about beautifly actually just being the crazy one of the bunch begins…

It all started when she was a wormpole, and saw Jessie’s wormpole and thought they were the same thing, making her question life and everything in it.

OH YA THERE IS THE RANDOM GUY THAT GIVES ME ROSES I DUNNO IF THEY ARE FOR ME THOUGH BUT HE GIVES ME TO THEM AND HIS ROSE THING MAKES THEM SO DOES ROSETHING LIKE MEWHERE ARE YOU ALL GOING OH LOOK A CARROT ... WHATS A CARROT NVM OH LOOK ITS AN ORGANENJFIEOI (May)

06:31 this is so funny with my headcanon in place.

07:18 That's Munchlax for ya!

07:42 Oh hi Drew!

07:53 Wonderful. She sounds so happy, go rewatch teh first episode CHARACTER DEVELPMENT

07:56 You heard about himbecuase May talks about him I assume?

08:04 Remember that Drew personality thing I put in there? REMEMBER THAT Thank you :D

Bulbapedia? Got somthin' to say? No? oh well then.

08:14 not yet... Remember he was the one who tuaght you almost everything you know about contests.

08:22 flirting

08:36

NO MAY DON'T KILL I-

oh you didn't some of the petals are still there.

08:39 funfact: I didn't know Harley was a boy until almost the second grad festivle. ALSO HI HARLEY!!! 09:02 WHAT THE ABSALUTE F***ING H***

no screenshots!

09:05 THANK GOD YOU STOPPED

09:09 Does May still fall for that? It's been soo long I barley even remember harley used to play tricks on May.

09:36 Drew is keeping an eye out for May... just to make sure she is okay

09:45 FINALLY WE HAVE HARLEY THE CONTESTSHIPPER! FINALLY!

09:57 So based off of this scene either Harley s acting or (this is more likley) he didn't meet Solidad yet, and doesn't know Drew yet.

10:12 how did May NOT cuach the fact that he was flir- :hit's self on face: oh ya! How could I forget! May is still really ignorant! 10:18 Harley the conteshipper. Bulbapedia?

Amidst May and Drew's conversation, Harley interrupts and notices that May has received her fourth rose from Drew. He immediately suspects that May and Drew are in love which causes May to blush and protest at Harley's remark. She quickly responds that she and Drew aren't friends, just rivals, and that Drew just makes fun of her most of the time.

10:36 Either Drew is mad at Harley or mad that May didn't catch the flirting. Bulbapedia????

After Harley leaves, Drew walks away in a huff, suspecting that he was upset by May's description of him. This visibly disappoints May, who wanted to spend more time talking to Drew. However, knowing that Harley's feelings towards May are less than friendly, Harley may simply have been trying to fluster and embarrass May during the entire exchange.

Wow.

11:12 Hey it's the same Espeon I mention earlier!

:skips the team rocket thing:

12:12 beautifly, flys in the air and expects to touch ground

12:54 Drew is looking out for May again! wtf do you want now bulbapedia?

While Harley is talking to May in the background, Drew is seen in the foreground sulking, indicating that he's jealous of Harley and paying close attention to the conversation. However, his behavior may be passed off as suspicion rather than envy.

12:05 May wtf how do you beleive this guy

13:50 THANK YOU DREW

13:59 Uh, I'm pretty sure he does Harley (ya dingus)

14:13 Harley messed up

:skips the Team rocket part:

16:40 RUN AWAY IS THAT HARLEY FROM HEEEELLLL

16:52 See what happens when Drew DOESN'T poke fun of her? She doesn't listen. THAT IS WHY HE DOES IT. 17:21 Y'know if he has a Milotic okay know he is gonna win. Also where's Solidad? another region or somthing?

17:42 you say 64 but the screen says 98...

17:54 Rosellia the first time we see it: stands in petals and bows Roselia now: flies in petals and becomes a top.

18:33 Stay away from May Harley! Unless you are being a contestshipping you are not allowed right now!

19:00 you know it's going to go bad when Harley has influence on this

19:37 Drew please kill harley

19:53 I thought May's hair was more like arms but I guess they are ears now :T

and then the rest of the episode. Drew is watching Harley and May is taking Harley's advise.