#first of all it's the only pokémon out of the whole line to be fully bipedal. swampert still hunches down and walks on all fours

[front-facing-pokemon]

[gothamcitycentral]

Conrtoversial onion: object Pokemon are good and to point at them as proof that they "ran out of ideas" is ridiculous because 1. they make up a very small percentage of any dex, really and 2. it does take a lot of creativity to take something that isn't even alive and make it feel like it could be. Garbodor is my best friend

YES. Especially because object mon are so often judged completely at 1st glance instead of being examined for what they fully are. A Pokémon shouldn’t be given value based on “object or not” but rather how they use “object” in their design

The Garbordor line, Klefki, and the Chandelure line are pretty frequently harped on, but I think they all use the nature of “object” very well.

Trubbish and Gardordor aren’t plain old piles of trash. First, they use trash bags to give them dimension and proper shape. Then they use that shape to give cues to alley / trash cats (Trubbish being featured in official artwork with other cat mon) and literal dust bunnies. Furthermore, I hate the notion that they’re an example of “running out of ideas”, Unova is based on New York City, of course they’d take a jab at pollution, especially since they complete the trifecta of Muk and Weezing. Water pollution, air pollution, and now land pollution. Not to mention that to me, they just look like friends! They don’t even have a foul order if eating a proper diet.

Klefki is, well, easy to insult. It’s design on it’s own doesn’t move very fair beyond keychain, a personified, charming, and very cute keychain, but still a keychain. However, if you look at them as whole, it’s concept is crystal clear. It’s a Fairy type, after all. It’s a very common trope for fae creatures to take interest in human objects and such without quite understanding what they are. Klefki is fascinated by keys, so collect keys it will.

When it comes to the Litwick, Lampent, and Chandelure, the immediate thing to acknowledge is that they are, well, ghosts. The possession of objects is ghost trope 101. Even then, they’re not just possessed objects. Litwick’s nature as a melting candle is used to personify it, it has a little hair cut, a mischievous grin, and tiny little hands. It creates a simultaneous cute and sinister character very effectively. Design trends like these carry throughout the line. Lampent uses its fire to form a mouth and its handles to create surprisingly natural arms. The artwork of real life chandeliers is used give Chandelure very seamless eyes and mouth, along with its candle holding features becoming still expressive arms. Three stage lines run the risk of middle stage syndrome, where the middle stage is an awkward middle ground between the first and final stages. Lampent however, can function completely on its own. This line uses a very natural progression of different objects to advance through evolution that gives each stage its own identity. Furthermore candles, lanterns, and chandeliers are very ghostly I’d say. How common is it in ghost media would a character take a candle stick or lantern to guide them through the haunted house or forest? Making it so that the candle is what’s haunting you all along, is brilliant.

Even with Pokemon I don’t like all that much on a personal level, there’s still merit to their designs.

Voltorb and Electrode don’t seem like all that much on their own. They’re just living Pokeballs, how lazy! You have to realize that they’re Pokémon’s installment of the RPG trope of mimics. You’re supposed to go after them thinking “oh cool an item!” only to be met with either angry eyes or a smug grin that explodes in your face. It’s genuinely clever and charming when properly contextualized.

Vanillite, Vanillish, and Vanilluxe aren’t my favorite Pokémon, but I strongly disagree that they’re “just floating ice cream”. The line uses snow to decorate themselves to charm their way close to prey so they can freeze them to death. Those aren’t even their eyes, just apart of their charmingly innocent ruse. I particularly like their cones, using sharply defined icicles to be their base body is genuinely cool. I also like this small bit of world building with just their existence, there’s an implication that the Pokemon world invented ice cream from inspiration from these mons.

TLDR: Object mon are good, actually.

[regretful-kishin]

I said I'd write an essay about Silver if allowed, and I was left unsupervised (aka sleep schedule is ruined and 4am idea brainrot is an all day thing now). Anyway, this became more of a summarizing of both Silvers' stories with just a bit of how they finally start to heal at the ends. Oops?

Essay under readmore (warning! Goes over pretty much everything so manga AND game spoilers ahead. You've been warned)

In manga canon, he was taken away from his home at 2-3 via giant bird snatching him away and across to another region, had a mask made of ice sealed to his face, and forced to grow up as a child soldier without a childhood. The only silver (heh) lining was Blue, who was kidnapped not too long after and took up the mantle of older sister.

When they finally manage to escape, the hardships aren't exactly over either. Neither could remember home and when Blue eventually figured out she was from Pallet they choose to travel separately. Even if the choice was mutual and from their point of views logical (be in 2 places to gather more info about Masked Man while Blue also looks for home), Silver still ended up losing his one pillar of support for years until finding Lance post Yellow Chapter-Pre GSC. And SpeLance isn't exactly a great role model, considering the whole tried to wipe out humanity deal (it's also been debated he may have withheld some of what he'd seen from Sneasel either as a grudge against Gio or to keep Silver working under him longer)

Essentially, with the exception of any time he may have been allowed to be a kid around Blue after their escape, which was probably rare, Silver was forced to be a mini adult to survive. When we finally get introduced to him in the GSC chapter, it's easy to assume he's just the standoffish rival (we thought) we knew from the games. We don't get to see him let his guard down until he finally accepts Gold's challenge to a battle, where we finally see him really smiling and enjoying himself (until he gets a call from Lance and had to go back to serious again)

Throughout the rest of the chapter we get to see him quite literally fighting against his past trauma (the Masked Man), eventually accepting Gold's (and Crys') help when the other refuses to let him fight alone. When the battle is finally won at Celebi's Shrine, Silver is fully willing to let himself be taken to the authorities by Green because 1. His fight is over now that Mask is trapped in time and 2. He feels like he doesn't have any reason to keep fighting for himself because his first friend Gold was also trapped. Until he wasn't, appearing on the shrine roof and giving Silver an alibi using the wanted poster that he gave the wrong detail for.

We don't see our crew again until the FrLg chapter, when Silver mentions sending Blue a dress as a gift for when she finally gets to reunite with her parents (like the sweet little brother he is) before he sets off himself toward Kanto to resume his own search.

There he runs into Yellow who takes a look into Sneasel's memory to try helping her junior out. This is why people believe Lance held information from Silver, as she sees a glimpse of a familiar looking face that she'd seen on a statue in Green's gym (previously Giovanni's). It's on their way there that they run into Rocket Executives Sird and Orm, who are there to retrieve Silver, with Sird (pretty harshly) revealing that he is the son of their leader Giovanni, and heir to the Rocket throne, throwing Silver off enough for her to have her Pokémon knock him out and grab him.

When he wakes up again in the same room as an unconscious Gio (long story short, very very sick), when he sees the way Sneasel starts acting? We see him break. He wanted so much for his home to be some place warm and welcoming like Gold's, where he could finally be happy, only to find out his home is as cold and cruel as he grew up.

We end up learning that his home wasn't so cold, that Giovanni really was a loving dad who never gave up searching for his son even if he had to perform truly evil deeds to do so (every legendary hunt and note by Team Rocket can be tied to this in some way. Additional essay on subject pending), and we get to witness this love as he holds Silver (unconscious again) and Sneasel up out of reaching flames as he himself burns.

At the end of the arc, when Silver wakes up and Gio is unconscious again (they just can't seem to be awake at the same time), he starts to feel down again because his fate is with the heartless Team Rocket. It's not until Green points out that they were found in the fire, but Silver is unharmed while Gio is burned from holding him up that Silver truly breaks down for his father.

Of course, the arc ends on a heavy cliffhanger that doesn't resolve until the end of the next one.

In HgSs, we get not only the return of Team Rocket, but the return of Masked Man Pryce himself on top of Arceus rampaging.

Pretty much 24 hours of nonstop battling, getting injured (getting paralyzed by a Ghastly lick to the face had to have left some lasting effect, and I'd be surprised if none of Arbok's poison stings hit skin), almost losing his dad to sickness, then his dad walking away after being healed by Celebi to continue Team Rocket while telling Silver to train under his 2 mentors to come defeat him (one of those mentors being the guy who KIDNAPPED him and caused at least 70% of the problems by proxy (Gio told Silver Team Rocket wasn't the result of him being taken away but as I noted earlier, many of their endeavors can be tied to finding Silver)), said Kidnapper just. Being allowed to come back without facing the consequences of his actions. A lot is piling up on his shoulders until Gold quite literally throws a solution in his face: the script for Proteam Omega. Yes it's a goofy kids cartoon (most likely on par with real world Power Rangers), but it looks fun and interesting and yes he's going to camp out in front of his best buddy's TV to watch it.

After so many years, he finally has something to let him be a kid again, and he has best friends by his side supporting him!

----

On the game verse side of things, Silver's upbringing is a bit of a mystery. How he was raised could be anywhere from strict, harsh, loving, or rich. Our main clues are him being told that Giovanni was the greatest, and him believing that Pokémon are just tools.

The earliest fact we learn about him is Giovanni left him behind after his defeat at the hands of Red, saying that Team Rocket needed to become stronger. Silver yells back that he's a coward on his own, only standing strong behind his lackeys. When Gio says that Silver will understand one day, Silver yells at his retreating form that he doesn't want to understand. He'll get stronger on his own.

We won't see more of him until the start of the game 3 years later outside of Elm's lab. Talking with him gives us a taste of how rude he is as he tells us off and pushes us away. He ends up stealing one of the starters for himself, whichever one is stronger against ours likely after watching us pick first. (It's also his only Pokémon, meaning he's likely been all on his own these three years without a partner or friend to help him at all on the journey between Viridian and Newbark)

Most encounters with him during the game are on par with early gen rival encounters, with (harsher) banter and battle. However we run into him in Olivine, where he calls the gym leader weak for caring about a sick Pokémon in the lighthouse. Whether this is his continued views of Pokémon just being tools to cast aside when they become useless, or something deeper regarding becoming weak and useless in sickness, who knows. He chooses not to battle us here.

A trainer on route 43 mentions Silver making fun of his Pokémon. This wouldn't be too noteworthy considering Silver calls a lot of things weak, except that Pokémon is a Nidoking, a decently strong Pokémon in gen2 that also happens to be Giovanni's signature Pokémon next to Persian. This is likely the reason this trainer is the only one (outside a Rocket grunt and a trainer outside victory road) to mention Silver, our rival seeing a reminder of the father who left him behind and lashing out enough to be worth mentioning.

In the rocket hideout under Mahogany, Silver refuses to battle us again, instead asking about the guy with the Dragonite. He mentions losing against him, then complains about being told that he wasn't treating his Pokémon with enough love. Just the idea of love and trust makes him mad, and we can't help but wonder why.

He shoves us before stalking away, not being seen again until the Goldenrod tunnels (or in the case of the remakes, the radio tower first where he's furious at us for wearing the Rocket uniform, actually ripping the disguise away before realizing we were trying to sneak in to fight Rocket not join them.) After beating him again is when he finally starts to question what he's still missing, if love really matters so much. He just doesn't understand the idea of love, the pause giving us an idea just how much this is affecting him. If he doesn't understand the importance of showing love and trust. Does he even know how it feels to be loved?

He doesn't start to truly understand until we defeat him in victory road, seeing us still stronger than him. He's still aiming to be the strongest, but maybe he'll be less harsh about it. And we see some of his progress much later when we reach Mt Moon when he is genuinely excited to see us, challenging us even though he afmots that he's sure we'll just win again, but still wanting to battle to see more about what he still needs.

He mentions training in The Dragon's Den, and we can actually follow him to see him there training to be better.

And he does get better, because next time he rematches us at the Pokémon league his Golbat has evolved into a Crobat, meaning he's actually been treating his Pokémon with love! And going back to Elm's lab has one of the aides mention that he came to return the stolen starter, only to be told how much the Pokémon loved him and that he could keep it, how when he left he looked happy!

And while that ends up really being the last we see of Silver in the main game outside of rematches and just seeing him at the Den, Pokémon Masters has given us even more insight in his character, especially during the Ho-oh legendary event. He knows that the legendary will only present itself to a pure hearted trainer, so he doesn't want to bother going with us and Ethan to look, so sure that just him being there will mean that it won't show up. It's not until Lance talks to him, tells him how much his Pokémon cares about him (Sneasel, a Pokémon that many believe was the one stolen from Kirk in Cianwood) and how he's become a better trainer that he changes his mind to go with us and Ethan.

And even then he doesn't believe he's good enough, turning away when Ho-oh appears to the group only to be surprised when the legendary chooses him! Because he's letting himself be a better trainer and person!

The Johto Villain arc shows us that he still plans to become the strongest on his own, and he refuses any help from anyone ESPECIALLY against his father. He does eventually (and reluctantly) accept help from the Johtrio when it becomes obvious that he can't do everything alone, and that's ok. His one condition is that he alone fights Giovanni. But even then, in the end he accepts Ethan's help against Giovanni because this isn't just his battle against his father, this is everyone's battle against Team Rocket. He accepts that he'll have his chance to prove himself later, he can battle alongside his rival (still refusing to call anyone a friend at this point).

The addition of the trainer lodge gives us even more insight on how he feels about friendship with his hangout events, at first believing that to be friends he has to act all friendly and smiley and not like himself until we tell him that it's himself exactly that people wanna be friends with, that he doesn't have to do stuff that isn't him for people to like him.

Just the fact that he's in the lodge at all (especially for the opening wave of trainers!) proves that he's opening up, that he's willing to make friends and do stuff that isn't just training and battling and getting stronger. That he can just hang out and talk about places and Pokémon and ninjas and just have fun.

There's so many more events and scenes that gives so much more, but I think this is getting pretty long and also off track, and I'm losing steam so night all!

[alexanders-pokemon-adventure]

Lake Valor Shadow Storm

Sinnoh would need water ,clean water . Local and easily available. Importing from other regions would take time sinnoh didn’t have for restoration efforts after the coming storm . So Alexander planed . Lake Valer occupied a bedrock dish , solid rock from bottom to top . Any leaching of water from the local aquifer would be minimal. Almost completely self contained. All they would need was a sufficient roof to keep the poison precipitation of the Shadow Storm out of the water. No structure could be build that fast or sturdy enough to withstand the storm . So the four though “maybe ice !” Derek suggest pulling out his Capture styler” with any local pokemon that know ice beam”

“ it would melt “sera countered “ even if we could find some pokemon in the area with that move , they never be able to maintain it “ especially if it last all day like it did in hoenn” Alexandra said .

Alexander thought It was impossible for a human or pokemon to do this . But … what about those in between. The four here were human in a sense but … blurred the line so many drew between what is and is not . Derek is Spirit Harmonizing . Alexander had Seen first hand Derek and his Aegislash Cortana merge as one and call powers they didn’t fully understand things a Aegislash alone could never do. Alex knew Sera was psychic before she did , had whole conversation with her without speaking a word and watch object move at her command . Alexandra was … odd ,Alexander wasn’t sure what made or gave them their strange affinity for fire and darkness but knew it was real seen her summon flame and shadows . And then there was themself . Alexander was not powerless , they were a conductor able to take in raw energy generated by pokemon and refine it into something usable in their body . There were nuances to it, of course, different energies for different effects but but in the moment only one mattered. Helping hand at base gave them strength and the energy itself was Keen on being shared.

“ if …if I could give you the strength …the power to back it up could you three shield the lake ?” Alexander spoke

The three of them gave Alexander the stink eye. “ what do you mean ?“ Alexandria spoke .

Alexander explained that under the right circumstances they could empower The four of them .give them strength and stamina , not just for their body but for anything ,make them stronger . Derek and Sera already knew Alexander could you do this. Experienced it for themselves but both of them raise doubts on whether Alexander could do this for potentially hours. If they could even keep it up themselves, if Alex could for hours. Alexander brought up the equally reasonable point that they didn’t have any better ideas. If Alexander could power, Alexandria, Derek and Sara to raise a wall of force and heat and darkness then they wouldn’t have to worry about maintaining materials against the Shadow Storm all they would have to do is keep Themselves focused on holding the Barrier they would make.

“ we could use all our Pokémon in shifts , using helping hand on me” Alexander elaborated “with my Claydol’s telepathy we might even be able to get some of the wild Pokémon in the area to help and shield them too.”

They could see the storm in the distance, inky black, and violet swallowing the blue sky . “Sinnoh needs this lake “ Derek said solemnly

“So we’re doing this”Sera said that’s as a question and more as a statement

“ we have to, we have to at least try” Alexandria said

So The four got to work. Juguete Alexander’s claydol broadcasted their thought as far as they could to every mind willing to hear , translating Alexanders the best they could . Together they they did their best to explain their plan and the protection Alex’s team offered to those who cold come quick enough. They were Surprised by how many came . Not just for aid but to help . The team released their pokemon ,all of them and gave their instructions .

“ARE YOU READY ALEX “ Derek spoke almost yelling as the wind began to roar and shadows Drew closer.

“ILL HAVE TO BE “ Alex yelled “EVERYONE “ Alexander called to the assembled crowd of pokemon “HELPING HAND!!” .

They Irrupt it in light. All pointed directly at alexander . They have never been on the receiving end of of a force so large, They didn’t know if this much energy was Somethings a human body could survive, And maybe, in truth, they were afraid . But none of that Stopped How beautiful they thought the light was.

“Oh “ Alexander

Oh it was beautiful , and horrible it was more than they had experienced before. Alexander could feel them all in the raw power rushing in them . More than the unique sensations each Type brought forth but Their fears and panics and hope . Alexander was lost in it , for what felt like hours , but in truth had been moments .

“Bud ,BUB can you hear me? We need to start . The storm is almost here“ Derek Spoke with Urgency he had to shake alex to get their attention.

“Im here “ alex said in a distant voice “ are you ready ?”

Alex could Hear Alexandria and Sera’s exasperated chuckles 

“Of course we are ” Derek replied.

Alexander felt as though they plummeted into power as the energy kept coming , like a Balloon close to bursting . They needed to let it out . How convenient there was three receptacles, ready and waiting. So alex let their light free in a steady stream . If their body hadn’t felt so Foreign to them at the moment, Alexander would’ve smiled “ light it up”

The light was wonderful Alexandria , Derek and Sera thought feeling it’s suffuse their bodies . It was strength , pure strength that bypassed limits and barriers they didn’t even know we’re there. Sera’s mind reached and reached and reached up and up and around as far as she could stretch her thoughts and in a moments a Psychic scaffolding had appeared above them and Lake Valor . A skeleton for the others to Lace themselves around. Derek’s and Cortana’s Phantasmal power flowed over top the Scaffolding, near invisible Impermeable membrane ,highlighted only by the streams which ran along Sera’s scaffolding . As a final Barrier Alexandria throw up a wall heat and flame just beneath it all . A constant updraft formed to keep the worst of the rain and wind away.

All they had to do was keep this up,and they did it. The barrier had kept The shadow storm at bay . Keeping lake valor, free of contamination from the storm . There has definitely been moments of tension during the hours that storm went on . The barrier had acted as a beacon for the Emerging shadow, Pokémon. Wailing Castform and shadow Budew beated on the outside of the barrier, trying to get in, but in time they lost interest. Alexandria Derek and Sera had held unflinchingly all day , the light that alexander infused them with throughout the day kept Exhaustion and strain away. Fatigue Had not been an issue for them. The light even helps focus their thoughts . Alexander had not been as lucky . It had taken everything in them to not faint within the first hour. They have never experienced exhaustion like this before .it ravage through them as the day drew on . When the rain finally stopped, The barrier fell. And Alexander could not have been more glad .the others celebrated their success. Alex did not have the strength to tell them how unwell they felt . They had sweated through most of their clothes, Their limbs have become jelly, and Alexanders mind struggled to form thoughts. Juguete had notice their Exhaustion first , Tried unsuccessfully to give them one more burst of helping hand to keep them going. If Alex that had the strength, they would’ve told them not to. The energy of psychic types gave them strange dreams. With that final unsuccessful burst of power Alexander fell unconscious.

Alexander dreamed. Time walker , ancient and new , unfocused ,wronged , made wrong and so so bitter . A small green form danced and raged in Alexander’s vision. It was sure it had won , it was sure it had brought the ruin it felt to everyone . Changed everything . It’s Machinations sprawling , It’s manipulations acute and plan Unwavering … but NOOOOOOOO. How could it loss how could it fail . It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair. Its Champion lost. How It raged across eternity.

Alexander awoke to the knowledge that they had been asleep for several days and the crisis was over. After they had lost consciousness Derek, Alexandria, and Sera Immediately brought them to the safest place they knew of Foster Island. We’re Alex’s friend Ellisa Had a room already made up for them to Rest in . She had even gone out of her way to make accommodations for the others. Part of Alexander had wailed on the inside that they had not been able to help in the final battle, That, perhaps if they have been there, some who had been lost might’ve lived, but there was nothing that could be done about it now. Like with most tragedies, life continues on afterwards.

—end

@alex-ishvan @adventures-on-foster-island @ariadosanon

[otakween]

Digimon World 2 - First Impressions

And so it begins...another long ass Digimon PSX game playthrough. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about this one. On the one hand, the gameplay seems more straightforward than the other one and the dialogue actually makes sense. On the other, they still aren't fully explaining things to me and the controls kinda suck. We'll see where this goes...I'm about an hour in with 1 mission under my belt (not counting the tutorial mission).

Notes:

-I had a lot of fun watching the early 2000s CGI intro, especially the beginning where Veemon bangs on my TV screen. Gotta love those fourth wall breaks!

Honestly, the CGI holds up very well in my opinion. I feel like I've seen crappier stuff come out more recently. It helps that these are digital, make believe creatures so there's no need for realistic textures.

-Right off the bat we get hit with the name "Zudokorn"...Okaaaay. That's a choice. I left the MC's name as "Akira" because why not? I like knowing the canon names for things.

-This game is pretty anti-exploration just like the first game was in the beginning. You can only move a limited amount of spaces in the dungeon before you run out of "EP" (engine power?) and the overworld is a boring map. When games switch from letting you walk from place to place to just clicking boxes on a map, they cut out a lot of important ambience/character that makes games memorable!

-I really like the little anime portraits you get when talking to characters. We only really saw that in the first game with Analogman. 2D art was a way better call in this era for this kinda thing

-Excited to have a turn-based, RPG style fighting system. The fact that we can see all of the digimon's moves 3D animated gives me Pokémon Colosseum vibes. I just hope sitting through those (kinda slow) animations doesn't become tedious.

-So this is a whole new, unfamiliar territory for Digimon. Instead of there being a select few chosen children, the world is populated by a bunch of "tamers," children and adults. I'm not sure if they permanently live in the digital world or just visit sometimes. They seemingly have jobs within the digital world, so it's like a whole functioning society. Not sure if these boss battles are like everyday nuisances or what. I'm assuming the main conflict hasn't been introduced yet.

-It's weird to me how Patamon is the data mascot and Agumon is the vaccine mascot. I would think Patamon would make a better vaccine mascot since he evolves into Angemon, but whatever.

-I debated a lot between joining the Gold Hawks or the Black Swords, but eventually decided the Black Swords seemed best. I think Sheena's really cute and I didn't like how the other groups seemed to look down on virus digimon. Goth route it is! (Named my DemiDevimon Loki hehe)

-Very curious to see how digivolving will work in this game. Will the evolution lines be more straightfoward than the first game? Will the digimon de-evolve? I just hope they don't waste away like they did in the previous entry because that was a huge bummer.

-Not a huge fan of the dungeon crawler genre because I find it kinda repetitive and bland from a design/experience perspective. That being said, I also haven't played very many dungeon crawler games so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about lol.

[frankhightower]

Thoughts on the 150 pokémon

I recently drew the 150 pokémon in commemoration for reaching 150 followers on twitter… after 11 years. I want to share some of the thoughts I had during the process, some of which I shared on twitter as I was doing it, others which didn’t fit in the character limit. Thought this might be a fun read for some of you. 003: The Bulbasaur line is a lot more turtle-like than I’d previously thought. 004: I hadn’t realized the Charmander line doesn’t have any ears, it has horns. 006: Do you remember that in Gen I, Charizard can’t use fly? So many jokes were lost when they “fixed” that… 007: Although I’m trying to not draw the Pokémon from the Anime, it’s hard to give a Squirtle glasses and not make him look like one of the Squirtle squad, but I figured out a way. 008: I can fully see the argument on Wartortle being based on an axolotl now. 009: Blastoise was the first Pokémon that was hard to draw: it just has so many elements: the shell, the ears, the cannons… I have a lot more respect for Mr. Sugimori now. 012: Remember the fan theory that Butterfree was supposed to be Venomoth and vice-versa? It’s actually a good mnemonic for how to draw them! 016: Pidgey gave me a hard time with, unexpectedly, the dark spots behind its eyes, but it just wouldn’t be Pidgey without them 017: Made the hard decision of making Pidgeotto’s crest be a crown of several feathers rather than just a handful of very long feathers, mostly because I just wasn’t good at drawing feathers. 025: I hadn’t really noticed before that the Pokémon are numbered in groups approximating the areas they appear in the game 028: Any doubt I had Sandslash was based on a hedgehog has been dispelled with this drawing 029: How is Nidoran, literally one of the most generic pokémon, one of the hardest to draw?! 031: Nidoqueen always looks so imposing in the anime, but that's because all the characters are children. Canonically, she's only 4 ft tall! 032: I hadn’t noticed Nidorino’s spots until I had to add more indications that this was a Nidorino 035: I'm glad Detective Pikachu came out, because now it's cannon that Clefairy’s swirl is just fluff. 036: as it turns out, Clefable has REALLY short arms! 039: Jigglypuff’s huge eyes have an incredible potential for exaggerating its expressions. You’d think there was no way you could draw them “too big”, yet I somehow managed. I also discovered how imperfect scaling in Gimp is this way when I tried to use it to fix it. Luckily my expression is “excited” so blurred eyes don’t look wrong. 041: Question: are those two things sticking out the bottom supposed to be Zubat's feet or a forked tail? I never could figure it out! I originally wanted to do another "carrying it away in his talons" drawing but this question made me rethink the whole thing! 042: Golbat is the stuff of nightmares. We know it is able to close its mouth but looks horrible doing it! And how many toes is it supposed to have? Why do its ears shrink when it evolves? 043: Wait a minute, Oddish has no arms! And are those shoes on his feet? 046: one, two three… wait, Paras only has six appendages? If it looks like an arachnid, crawls like an arachnid and has fangs like an arachnid… it’s an insect!? 047: Parasect has a pattern on its mushroom? It’s not just random dots? 048: Venonat’s arms are ridiculously short! Surely it still has elbows and knees, they’re just hidden under its fur… right? It’s always bothered me that Venonat is #048 when Oddish is #043! You exit Mt. Moon having caught Venonat and you think you missed something, so you go back and… there’s nothing there! 049: ah yes the old “what’s under Diglett” joke, which was canonized in the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. 050: I have no idea what those noses would translate to in real life 051: I realize now how intentionally ridiculous Meowth's design is: no shoulders, no nose, skinny little legs, semibipedal…no wonder any costume he wears looks silly! (and yes, he was semibipedal even before the anime, I checked) 054: Spent way too long thinking about how feather fingers work on this one 055: What's the deal with Golduck anyway? weird beak, head spikes…toes?! 056: despite desperately not wanting to draw the Pokémon from the anime, it’s hard to think of Mankey behaving as anything other than the iconic one from the anime 059: There was an old rumor that Arcanine was meant to be the legendary fire dog (which eventually became Entei). I can totally see the parallels between Arcanine and Entei now. People often say arcanine is too floofy. I don't have a problem with that, but you know what did affect me? Too stripey! Oh well, at least it's not leopard spots again 060: Polwag is freaking huge, have you noticed? Not tadpole size! 062: I realize now Poliwrath’s "gloves" are webbing 063: Interestingly, I've always thought of Abra as an insectoid pokémon, but the more I read about it as I searched for a good reference picture, the more it became clear it's just a cat! But cats don't have those weird shoulder plates. You know what animal does? Rhinos. That's right: Abra is part rhinoceros! 066: What animal is Machop supposed to be? Bulbapedia implies it’s some sort of frog, but I've come to a stunning conclusion: it's a hippo. Think about it! No toes, smooth skin, big snout... 068: Sometimes when drawing characters, I wish they had two sets of arms so they could properly express the emotion I’m trying to convey, but always when I end up getting one that actually does, I have a hard time deciding what the second set of arms is supposed to do. I don’t think the anime ever had that problem / took advantage of that. 069: I always seem to misremember Bellsprout as more detailed 070: Weepingbell is another pokémon that freaks me out, like, is that a tongue or just the inside of its "cheek"? And what's with the little stalk tail? And the name! 071: Also let me add that the whole Bellsprout line is another one that's friggin' huge. We're used to their sizes because they appear so often in the anime but, come on, a flower shouldn't be bigger than a bouquet! 072: Tentacool’s head is scarily human-like in a Megamind-sort of way. I mean, why does it need a nose? Or those gem-like things? Why can’t it just be a jellyfish-octopus? 073: Tentacruel’s canon height is 5 ft (1.6 m) but that scene with the kaiju from the anime is the one that always come to mind when thinking about Tentacruel’s size, which is interesting because Tentacruel is a pretty common Pokémon that has been in a lot more episodes than that. The Episode, I feel, did not deliver on the hype created by showing it in the intro: the amount of kaiju-ing was remarkably unsatisfactory. (Yes, I watched it... that one time it aired on public TV... Turns out it’s supposed to be an environmental message) 074: Geodude is indelibly associated in my mind with his “coming out of the pokéball” animation from Pokémon Stadium 2, which attempts to explain his pokédex pose as flexing his muscles, but to me it always looked like he was saying "you called me out... for this?!" 076: While the anime will show us even the most ferocious Pokémon happy, they rarely show them just being kind 077: I have no idea how Ponyta's fire works. I get that it’s supposed to replace its mane, but then again, I have no idea how horse manes work either. Ponyta's pokédex size is friggin tiny, only 3 ft tall! We see kids riding them in the anime but that doesn't check out at all! 080: Slowbro is another freakishly huge Pokémon (5 – 6 ft / 1.5 – 2 m), especially considering it’s supposed to be “just” a slowpoke (3 ft / 1 m) that got its tail stuck in a Shellder’s mouth 081: Can steel type Pokémon sweat? Anime physics let them get “anxiety” sweat drops, but would they be physically able to produce them? 082: Magneton has to be the pokémon I most severely underestimated the difficulty of. I mean, who cares if each individual magnet is not in perspective? Me! And it's still not right! 083: I usually don't think of Farfetch'd, the wild duck Pokémon, as a duck, isn't that funny? 085: Dodrio's design always bothered me: It's all about the rule of three: 3 heads, 3 tail feathers, 3 front-facing toes (which is weird because Doduo has 4) ...Then why are there only TWO big plume feathers atop each head?! 086: Real seals always have a slight glowyness on their back from having fur so short and oily be so wet. It’s interesting that the anime has never tried to portray that with Seel 088: I’d never thought about it before, but Grimer has no actual feet! If it stands on a grate (or indeed, a tightrope) it would pass right through! 089: I had to pass by Alolan Muk when looking for references and oh my god it's horrifying! WHY do you people want more regional forms?! 090: TV tropes says when you don’t know how an animal would behave, make them behave like a dog or a cat. Is that what the anime does? Is that how Pokémon are supposed to behave? Is that what makes them so endearingly pet-like? 091: Why does Shellder’s face move to its pearl when it evolves into Cloyster? What happens if someone tries to pluck its pearl? Why is its pearl black!? Why are we doing water route Pokémon when we’re still not done with the Safari Zone??? 092: I couldn't figure out what cursed lavalamp-fire-smoke Ghastly is supposed to be giving off, but I’m more than a little disturbed by the realization that … it has wrinkles! … I can’t spell Gastly 095: Onix's rocks have a very specific order, did you know? I always thought they were a string of identical rocks, so identical it didn’t matter if you took one out, but no: specifically 15 rocks, specifically (starting after the head) oval, circle, flat, octagon, hexagon, square, 3 big, 6 small 096: Drawing Pokémon for so long is making me ask stupid questions like “how many toes does a cat have?” 097: People always make fun of Hypno for its nose, but it’s the evolution of a tapir! How can it not have a big nose? It’s the feet that bother me! 098: I figured out what's so hard about bug pokémon: on any other, lines just... end. With anthropods, it's like drawing bones! They curve, they bend back, there's nothing to cover them! 099: I honestly thought the "running" part was going to be the hardest thing to portray here. But no, you know what was? The butt! Kingler’s butt Is not shell-like, it’s roach-like! 100: Voltorb is interesting because it basically exists to be the pokémon world's mimic chest, yet still packs a personality. The anime turned this into the best running gag ever with Team Rocket constantly picking up sleeping Voltorbs from piles of pokéballs all through the Celadon City arc. And it's #100! How cool is that? 103: I previously joked Goldbat is the stuff of nightmares but that pales in comparison to Exeggutor's pokédex: The heads fall off as Exeggutor ages and become Exeggcute?! And they don't grow back?! So each head is potentially hundreds of years old?! 104: The hardest question here was how many fingers does Cubone have? It seems no one knows! 105: Marowak is never shown in a calm pose …but what are those lines on its stomach? Bulbapedia says they're reptilian… would that make the Kangaskhan theory wrong? I won't believe it! 106: Can we talk about how ridiculous Hitmonlee's design is? He has no mouth to roar with …and what's with those Big Bird legs?? 107: I hadn't realized how bony Hitmochan is until now. He's practically a skeleton with clothes! Also, I spent the whole time here thinking how pokémon clothes work. Does Tyrogue just tug on its trainer one day and say "Master, I'm about to evolve, so I need you to buy me a skirt and shoes" "You don't need boxing gloves?" "What gloves? Those are my hands!" I know Tyrogue is Gen 2 but still! 108: I had a lot of trouble drawing Lickitung’s head because I’m not sur what Lickitung is supposed to be! An otter? A bear? A frog? Some kind of dinosaur? 111: Several things tripped me up about Rhyhorn: The fact that its ears are basically built into its horns, that each plate has spikes, that you can’t see its shoulders, that it looks steel-like… 112: It was fun drawing Rhydon happy, but hard to make him not look like Nidoking. 113: I have unilaterally decided Chansey is an axolotl. Chansey is another pokémon with ridiculously short arms which seem to bend somewhere under its body fat. 114: Tangela is supposed to be a ball of yarn of sorts made up of vines, but in my mind, I’ve always conceived them as tentacles. I don’t know why. Also how is there only one trainer in the entire game that has Tangela? It's a picnicker East of Fuchsia city which I remember vividly because I had to battle her six frigging times! How did we not get “don’t mess with shuckle, er, tangela” jokes in Gen 1? 115: My apologies to Mr. Sugimori, but he really can't draw Kangaroos. Kanghaskhan really looks more like a Rhydon with a pouch 117: Why is Seadra’s mouth triangular? Horsea’s is nice and round! 120: Staryu always freaked me out. As a starfish, Staryu's mouth should be where the gem is, but then watergun comes out of its "arm"? 122: Few people realize Mr. Mime's whole point is "have you noticed how human frog hands look?" 123: Scyther is, for me, the emblematic bug-type Pokémon. 124: Much has been said of Jynx's face, but I want to ask: what's the deal with her ARMS? 127: …what do you mean Pinsir doesn’t have a neck?! 128: Tauros is a weird pokémon, seemingly representing the entire bovine family. It’s a bison but also a buffalo but also a bull but also… 129: There is an episode in the anime where we actually see how to use a Magikarp that only knows Splash in battle: you throw it at your opponent! 131: Lapras is often described as the water transport pokémon. Yet when the anime tried to actually use one for this, we see how hard it is to fit everyone on its shell, what with its spikes and the fact that Lapras just aren’t that big! Misty constantly rides on its tail! 132: It was once widely accepted as Fanon that every Ditto start out unable to Transform their face, like the one in Ditto's Mysterious Mansion. When Duplica (its trainer) showed up in Goldenrod City (Johto) with another Ditto that couldn’t change its size, fans quickly amended this to “every Ditto has some aspect of transforming that it have trouble mastering”. It turns out picking aspects is remarkably hard (Ditto OCs disappeared within a matter of weeks), so Ditto instead became the butt of all the breeding jokes. 135: Electric-type Pokémon that seem to have quills instead of regular fur have always bothered me. Yes, I’m talking about Jolteon. 137: Sugimori also obviously knew nothing about 3D modeling when he designed Porygon: the top half of the side of its face has a notch for the eye! That’s a big no-no, all polygons must be convex and preferably have no more than 4 sides or the renderer will get confused! Porygon’s eye must constantly be clipping through it! Plus, if Porygon was made with 1995 technology, its eyesight must suck since computer vision was horrible at the time! 138: Omanyte has 10 tentacles. Ten! No wonder it almost never gets animated! 139: Why is Omastar the only Pokémon that gets a proper octopus beak? 140: There is actually two designs for Kabuto’s back: one that is beetle-like and the other that has a false face at the top, both trying to interpret the dome fossil. I tried combining them and I’m not sure if the effect works. 142: Aerodactyl has actual fingers! They’re not bat-like! I’d never noticed that! 143: People sometimes forget that Snorlax is quite a capable fighter, quite capable of standing up 146: As a kid, I always thought Motres was supposed to be a heat mirage, but successive generations have revealed that it's just the shape of its feathers! People's favorite piece of useless trivia here is "the legendary birds are name uno dos tres!" but I have a more useful one: Moltres is so-named because it's MOLTING! 147: I couldn't decide if Dratini is supposed to have scales or fur 149: Dragonite is the only Pokémon that is always portrayed smiling or waving. Look Game Freak, we already like Dragonite! You don’t need to make it more likable! 150: Canonically, there is only one Mewtwo, and we got a whole movie dedicated to his personality. I’m not sure, then, if it would react how I’ve shown him. 151: Mew is so distractable, but then again, it literally knows nothing of social norms. I do love how Mew’s design gives you a sense of closure, of peace, just by looking at it.

[magical-awesome-kid]

Oh my gods so I have been DEEP in the Arceus fandom theories on how Ingo ended up in Hisui and I just had an idea to explain it.

Now, one of the ideas proposed by fandom is Ultra Wormholes. Unlike the time-space distortions, these guys have demonstrated that a person who has fallen through these things can end up having their memories (aside from their names) wiped. The Wormholes also have the ability to branch across time and space.

But that still leaves the question - how could Emmet and Ingo (because you know that the two would be together) end up in Alola where the wormholes were?

But then someone mentioned that GALAR has them as well as demonstrated in the DLC, and THAT made me think of one thing:

Trains.

Galar has a vast track of train systems, and our boys LOVE trains. It's their whole jobs. So what if there was talk in Galar of introducing battle cars - something to help train up trainers what with the longer rides across the region - and the Subway Masters were invited to give some ideas and be general sources of information. Of course, Ingo and Emmet would go.

This would open up the possibilities on how Ingo would fall into a portal. Maybe they went to check out the Dynamax Dens, what with Emmet's love of battles, and, after coming across an Ultra Beast, Ingo fell through the portal with the escaping beast. Maybe they were touring the region before one opened and swallowed Ingo, but Emmet, who was skipping ahead, didn't get caught in the blast. Maybe Ingo saw Emmet's double on the other side and, worrying about his brother, leapt through, only for Emmet to be BEHIND Ingo and seeing his brother leap at a doubleganger. The possibilities are endless.

When trying to get back, the wires got crossed, and Ingo wound up in Hisui with none of his pokemon. If it was Dynamax adventures, this makes the most sense - the adventures require you use borrowed pokemon, so he would have left his pokemon at the front, and the Machop line, which is his first Pokémon on his Hisui team, is available in Galar. Even if the Machop/Machoke remembered the future, he wouldn't know who Ingo was beyond a Dynamax Adventure Traveler.

Where does that leave Emmet? He'd be fully aware that his brother went through some wormhole and is now in the future looking for a way to get to his brother. He'd probably be working with Lillie to find information on wormholes. He'd put word out amongst all the researchers that his brother fell through time and space. He'd eventually make his way to Sinnoh, given their own history with portals, and meet up with Cynthia, the historian of the region and Champion.

It would be her who hands him a book on the earliest records of time-space distortion, and point out an old photo of a Warden who fell through the portal...

(Emmet cries because he found his brother, and he's gotten this far - he's going to bring him back. The book does say that he disappeared like he appeared one day...)

[alolanrain]

hi! can we know a little more about blueberry? i miss them hahaha

My boy!!! I haven’t talked about him in months.

- he’s obviously a boy compared to the other Mew’s we’ve seen that are “female coded” in my mind at least. And Blueberry is a shiny as well. That’s where his name came from.

- Blueberry is incredibly small and will stay small. Almost… I would say half the size of Pikachu when full grown. A HC trait that i have for shiny’s is that their either really large for their species or really little.

- a very quite boi. Like Ash will literally forget he’s there unless BB makes some kind of noise or is physically tucked against him.

- Ash gets the egg, see the first post of BB’s existence, around the tike between Sinnoh and Unova. Leaving Blueberry in either another legendary’s or mythical care in hopes BB would get to know what being a “God” is like.

- this ends up with Ash finally meeting the Mew that resides in Pallet Town, Pippin what I dubbed her so far, she comes in once she finds out that Blueberry exists. Offering her services in teaching the young Mew while keeping him at the ranch where all of Ash’s Pokemon live since they couldn’t keep living at Professor Oaks Lab. That amount of Pokemon from one trainer takes up way to much space and ash refuses to but them in the internet box thingies.

- more on the other mews, I’ve made another post about this, but excluding BB there’s about four more Mews in the world. There’s the original Mew who runs interference between Arceus, Pokémon, and Humans. Keeping little things balanced in the world so it all doesn’t pile up and cause even more mess. Her name is Mama or Ma’am! She also stops Arceus from dropping a whole new line of Pokémon in a randomly picked region just because he wants to. That’s like… really 87% of her job.

- Nana is next. She’s the Mew that takes care of the Tree of Life in Hoenn. It’s a very demanding job and thats why Mama made another Mew to help. On top of keeping the tree healthy and safe from poachers and other harmful things, Mama takes care of the Pokemon inside and around the tree perimeter along with the castle and village nearby. She only recently started taking more care in the village after Sir Aaron’s lucario asked her before being absorbed by the tree.

- Pippin is obviously next. Her home is Pallet town but her job is really close to Mama’s. She travels the world as more of a watcher. Reporting to Mama when she spots something off. She’s actually the Mew Mewtwo fought off in the first movie. Unable to contact Mama who was off planet and where ever the fuck Arceus was, she took the job. Happy to at least get everyone out alive despite accidentally helping Ash get turned into stone. This guilt a,so fed her to offer her service as a mentor towards Blueberry down the path.

-Blueberry’s main job, and why he was brought into existence, is that hes the last link Ash needs to fully be the Chosen one “full time” in a way. Ash is what Arceus and Mama refer to as a Human Legendary. Pikachu had grown into being the helping link between Ash and other Pokémon given how well he and Ash are connected. Filling the gap that Ash can’t. Blueberry’s job is exactly that but for more mythical based Pokémon and Legendary’s. Giving Ash the rounded experience he needs to really get his fated job done.

[smallersocksx]

My Problems with the Pokémon Journeys Anime

Pokémon Journeys as an anime has divided the Pokémon community in so many ways but in particular last week’s episode has sparked a lot of debate and personally, I had mixed feelings about the end result. So, I thought I would write down my opinions on the Pokémon anime in its current state and comparing it to some of the previous anime.

I feel the need to say this: these are my opinions I am just as entitled to my opinions as you are to yours, so you don’t have to read this if you don’t want to. Secondly, this will probably be a long post but I’m going to split it into sections so it’s hopefully not too overwhelming.

But these feelings have been building up and up and I think I’ll feel better writing them all down and getting them off my chest to some extent.

Introduction:

So, I’ve essentially been a fan of Pokémon for as long as I can remember particularly watching the anime when I was very young. The anime didn’t really begin to stick with me though until around AG and DP in particular. The first Pokémon game, I played was DP which is why I have a particular fondness for that series and that cast of characters and Pokémon.

I didn’t watch the series as intently around the time of BW because I found Iris’ character rather annoying and I understand she developed and grew as the series went on but that initial characterization of her kind of ruined the series for me. But I did dip in and out of the series mostly for Ash’s Snivy.

My friend recommended that I watch the XY series and I fell in love with the cast and the storytelling that the series provided as it reminded me of DP. Sun and Moon was a good series as well providing fans with some of the most heart-breaking and tear-jerking episodes to date. (And Rowlet).

When they announced that Journeys was Ash travelling around the world instead of staying and travelling in a specific region, I’ll admit I was sceptical. To be honest, I kind of preferred the old formula particularly as I’m a creature of habit myself but I decided to give this new series a chance as the premise did sound interesting and there was the potential for Ash to reunite with some of his old travelling companions.

With the benefit of hindsight, I realise this was one of the problems: the series kind of relies heavily on the nostalgia provided by older fans.

The Premise:

The whole premise of Journeys was Ash and his new friend, Goh travelling the world and there lies one of the series biggest problems. For a series that is meant to be about travelling around the world, a bulk of the series has been set in Kanto in particular Vermillion City where Sakuragi/Cerise Lab is situated. Now that shouldn’t be a problem as Ash and Go need a place to stay and go home to. The problem is we are nearly 60 episodes into the series, they hardly seem to leave Vermillion City or Kanto for that matter.

I went through all the episode synopses released so far to see how many episodes Ash and Go travelled to an alternative region. In this case a visit to a different region only counts if Ash and Goh (and Chloe) visit the region therefore episode 32 wouldn’t count:

Johto – 2 episodes

Hoenn – 4 episodes

Sinnoh – 2 episodes

Unova – 2 episodes

Kalos – 2 episodes

Alola – 1 episode

Galar – 11 episodes

Arguably, as this is meant to a Gen 8 anime, its not particularly shocking that they have visited Galar the most especially as Ash hopes to battle Leon someday. Nevertheless, the initial premise and selling point of the Journeys series is travelling the world and yet only 2/5 of the series so far has been set outside of Vermillion City. They promised the world (no pun intended) and are kind of falling flat…

 Goh and his goal:

Now Goh is certainly a character that has divided the community some love him and some definitely hate him. Personally, I’m in the middle, I like Goh’s personality I thought his rational and logical personality made him a great counterbalance for Ash. The problem I have with him is: his goal, his rapid character development, and his status as a protagonist.

1)   His Goal:

Goh’s goal is to catch every Pokémon in existence and considering there over 800 Pokémon that is a lofty goal to begin with. Initially, I thought it was an interesting goal as we never had a character wanting to catch every Pokémon as there are some trainers in the anime universe who only specialise in a specific type, some who catch only cute Pokémon, some who only catch evolutionary lines etc. Therefore, I thought this was an interesting goal and wondered how they would execute its portrayal and there lies the problem…

Goh was named after the game Pokémon Go and is essentially being used as a walking advertisement for Pokémon Go and the Let’s Go series as his gimmick is throwing a Poke Ball at a random Pokémon which can get pretty old very fast. I honestly didn’t understand the need to create a character to promote these games as it has been 4 years since the release of Pokémon Go. Arguably, they could be trying to re-ignite the hype around Pokémon Go as after the initial excitement a lot of people stopped playing or uninstalled it as it was taking up a lot of space on their phone.

One of the things, I particularly love about the anime series is not only the human cast gaining character development but their Pokémon as well. Around the AG series, the writers really begun improving on giving each Pokémon their own unique personality traits as well as traits of their species. It gave the Pokémon more depth and made them memorable for example there’s Dawn’s prideful Piplup, Brock’s weird and wonderful Sudowoodoo who would salute every time he came out of his Poke Ball, Clemont’s gluttonous Chespin and Serena’s shy Eevee to later a confident Sylveon. The list could go on and on but I think you get the point. Therefore, this gives me my second issue with Goh’s goal.

Goh’s goal is to catch every single Pokémon currently in existence, with so many Pokémon, there is difficulty feeling any attachment to them. Cinderace and Sobble (and now Grookey) are the Pokémon Goh is most seen with, needless to say, Cinderace underwent a lot of development and was interested in battling which to be honest I found a little strange as Goh’s goal doesn’t particularly align with Cinderace’s interests. Nevertheless, it is clear that Cinderace is Goh’s ace and utilises him when he does need to battle. Sobble didn’t receive any development until 26 episodes after his capture. However, aside from Cinderace and Sobble we don’t feel any particular attachment to his other Pokémon, one strength is that anime does give each of his Pokémon some spotlight like Goh using his Goldeen to teach Jinny’s Feebas how to swim elegantly but aside from that.

My final issue with Goh’s goal is development, from a story-telling point of view his goal isn’t that engaging like with some of the other goals we’ve had in the series. Take Dawn for example her goal is to be Top Coordinator in order to do that she needs to win 5 Ribbons, participate in the Grand Festival and win the Ribbon Cup. On paper it sound simple but it’s not, we have Dawn’s arc where she lost twice in the Performance Stage fell into depression, lost confidence in her abilities and was uncertain as to whether or not she was a good coordinator. It wasn’t until she befriended May and competed against her that Dawn found a renewed sense of confidence in her abilities, even after that Dawn still lost a few contests before being able to compete in the Grand Festival where even then there were a few rough moments like her battle with Ursula.

My point is even though Dawn (and May’s) goal looks simple on paper they had a lot of struggle to get there. Whereas, with Goh’s goal and the current execution of it, I don’t get that same sense of story-telling especially when he’s already caught a Legendary Pokémon, there just isn’t that same level of struggle. The most I could see Goh struggling at this moment is not catching a Pokémon the first time round.

2) His rapid development

One of the biggest issues I have with Journeys is pacing and development, and this issue isn’t just exclusive to Goh. In the beginning, Goh is a rookie trainer after catching Scorbunny and as we saw in the Flute Cup his lack of battling experience caused him to be eliminated very quickly and yet 29 episodes later, he’s defeating a Flygon with a Fire-type and using a technique Ash had once used himself in his battle against Grant. I understand Ash and Goh are close friends and understandably their traits are going to rub off on one another for example Goh’s logic and caution has rubbed off on Ash to the extent Ash had his Dragonite use Dragon Dance in his battle with Korrina. Before this, we’d never seen Ash use these types of moves in his Pokémon battles. I have no issues with Goh developing as a character, everyone loves good character development, my issue is with how rapid it is.

I’ll use Dawn’s arc as an example again, I loved it because it was well-paced, in the first season of DP Dawn was overconfident in her abilities which led to some losses particularly towards the end of the first series and Dawn didn’t fully recover from this until nearly midway through the second series of DP. Arguably, Ash’s influence has caused Goh to develop an interest in battles but I feel like we haven’t seen him go through enough battles to justify the level he is at.

3) His status as a Protagonist

To be honest, I didn’t realise Goh has a protagonist status until someone pointed it out to me, I just saw him as another one of Ash’s travelling companions. This is one of the biggest issues Goh haters have with him and that’s feeling as though Goh is taking the spotlight away from Ash and there are a lot of episodes focusing on Goh. Arguably, Ash has taken on the role of mentor like Brock had done once for him. However, my issue with Goh’s protagonist status is that I don't feel like Goh's goal justifies him having it, even in episodes focusing on Ash and his participation in the World Coronation Series, Goh still manages to catch a Pokémon which as I mentioned before it got old pretty fast. I can understand some people would see this as a good thing they are both closer towards their goals but if an episode advertises its going to focus on one character, I want it to focus on that character.

In some of the previous series when May, Dawn and Serena were participating in Contests or Showcases, Ash would generally put his training the back burner and support his friends. Likewise, his travelling companions would support him during his gym battles. In some cases, Ash would even get ideas for his own battles from watching them compete like the Counter Shield from Ash watching Dawn and Ambipom.

Sometimes, I feel like Goh is there for the sake of being there like in Episode 56, I honestly felt like him and Scyther/Scizor didn’t need to be there. The episode did focus on Ash and Farfetch’d relationship improving but I felt like the only reason Goh was there was to have his Scyther evolve their presence at the training camp didn’t really contribute anything to the story.

Ash and his Pokémon:

Whenever Ash starts a new journey, he always starts with a clean slate leaving his most recent Pokemon with Professor Oak or Kukui. One of the things that excites fans the most is guessing which new Pokemon from the new generation Ash would catch. Arguably, since Sun and Moon, certain traditions have been turned on their head. Some of these traditions included:

Ash catching the regional bird e.g., Starly, Pidove, Fletchling etc.

Catching at least one of the region’s starters

Although, in Sun and Moon, Ash never caught the regional bird and it was one of the first series with Ash not having a water-type either. However, in this current series, Ash only has 2 Generation 8 Pokémon being Farfetch’d (which will evolve into Sirfetch’d) and Dracovish. This is kind of understandable as Ash isn’t based or travelling around Galar but to be honest it’s still disappointing.

As many of you know, in the most recent episode Goh caught Grookey completing the Galar starter trio (which I’ll cover later), however, a majority of the fandom wanted Ash to have Grookey as they felt personality-wise Ash would be compatible with the Chimp Pokémon and it would continue the long-held tradition of Ash catching one of the new region’s starter Pokémon which is why this latest capture has sparked a lot of controversy with some people calling Goh a thief.

Personally, I would have liked Ash to catch Grookey but in one of the earlier episodes like when they first visited Galar. The reason for this being the storyline development and I know many will argue Ash is a Champion he doesn’t need a starter at this point but Leon in the Sword and Shield games took on and trained the starter that was left over after the Protagonist and Hop had chosen theirs. However, as I mentioned earlier one of the things, I love about the anime is each Pokémon having their own personality and character but also their own traumas and trials to overcome alongside their trainer this can be particularly reflected in the case of Ash and Infernape.

I am not trying to suggest they re-create the Ash and Infernape storyline with Ash and a Grookey but one of the ways a Pokémon develops as a character is through evolution or in some cases like Pikachu and Bulbasaur choosing not to evolve and finding strength in staying the way that they are. Pokémon when they evolve can go through personality-changes whether that be good or bad but having a Pokemon at its first evolutionary stage allows us to go through that development and journey with them.

Which is one of the issues, I have with the series, Ash caught two fully evolved Pokémon being Dragonite and Gengar. Before anyone gives me any grief, I love Dragonite and Gengar’s personalities but as they are fully evolved, we don’t get that same sense of development as we’ve had with some of Ash’s other Pokémon. The only development I could see for these two is potentially learning a new move or overcoming a stronger Pokémon alongside Ash. But having two fully evolved Pokémon makes it difficult to go on a journey of development alongside them. There is also the fact, Dragonite and Gengar are meant to be incredibly strong Pokémon and yet Ash hardly uses them.

Another one of the biggest issues in Journeys as previously mentioned is Ash not fully utilising his team. Whenever, a battle occurs Ash either uses Pikachu or Lucario, the others are kind of pushed to the side and that annoys me so much particularly with Farfetch’d and Gengar. I’ll start with Gengar, Gengar was abandoned by its previous trainer and told to wait in an abandoned building that would later become Cerise Laboratory and in the earlier half of the series (before Riolu) Ash utilised Gengar a lot like in his battle with Visquez and Team Rocket but after Riolu came along Ash used Gengar less and less. In Episode 57, Gengar was taking its anger out on Renji, Chloe and Chrysa and Chloe pointed out that it may have been angry Ash left it behind. This is what I found frustrating; Ash is kind of repeating the behaviour of Gengar’s previous trainer.

Next is Farfetch’d, personality-wise Farfetch’d reminds me of Ash’s Buizel and Hawlucha, with how prideful and aloof it is. I feel like the writers thought they couldn’t flesh out Lucario any further so they decided to focus on Farfetch’d and after two Farfetch’d-focused episodes I can’t help but feel that Farfetch’d is going to evolve in the next episode and that’s what annoys me, that is lazy writing, they haven’t given time to develop Ash and Farfetch’d relationship although it has definitely improved since Episode 56, I feel like it’s too soon. Farfetch’d has so much potential to grow as a character before evolving as I previously mentioned evolution in the Pokémon universe can contribute towards development and I feel like for Farfetch’d they’ll use it in a positive light as Sirfetch’d are noted for their fighting spirit and noble personality. But, as I mentioned before, I would have liked to have seen more development before an evolution.

Then there is Dracovish, this was a completely unexpected capture, however, many fans were surprised by how strong Dracovish was in the games. However, Dracovish was captured in Episode 50 and nearly 10 episodes later, we haven’t seen it… On the other hand, many of Dracovish’s Pokédex entries state that it can’t breathe unless its underwater, therefore, applying that logic to the anime world, may make battling with it difficult...

Team Rocket:

One of the biggest complaints’ viewers have is the series use of Team Rocket. Particularly, using their use of the Gacha machine and using them to create easy conflict. I love Team Rocket; they are basically lovable idiots to me. They’re meant to be “bad guys” but we’ve seen on many occasions they’re kindness and compassion such as rescuing a bunch of wild Ekans and Koffing from a Pokémon hunter and releasing their Arbok and Weezing to protect them whilst they distract the hunter, Meowth sympathising and trying to cheer up Litten following Stoutland’s death are just two examples of their kindness.

Nevertheless, the Journeys series has been utilising them poorly using them as convenient plot device and in my opinion Team Rocket deserve so much better than this. Initially, a lot of viewers may have found the Gacha device interesting but much like Goh throwing a Poké ball at a random Pokémon it got old fast. Similar to one of my issues with Goh, we don’t feel any attachment to the Gacha Pokémon they use unlike other series where they had their own Pokémon which I’ll get on to in a minute.

I feel like the writers missed a huge opportunity, as one of the initial selling points of the series, particularly to the older fans was nostalgia. Team Rocket keep some of their old Pokémon in Team Rocket Headquarters and as the series seems to like staying in Vermillion City, Team Rocket could have collected their old Pokémon and use them similar to when they brought some of their Hoennian Pokémon to Sinnoh. I loved some of Team Rocket’s Pokémon like James’ Mime Jr. and Inkay and Jessie’s Gourgeist and her Yanmega was noted to be strong.

Moreover, in series such as AG, DP and XY they expanded on Team Rocket’s role outside of trying to steal. Jessie showed a promising career in Pokémon Coordinating (particularly in DP) and Pokémon Performing, I loved how she became a rival for Dawn and Serena and particularly in XY, Jessie showed maturity in her loss in the Semi-Finals much to Meowth and Gourgeist’s surprise compared to when she begrudgingly congratulated Dawn on her victory. I just loved the fact in these series they expanded on Team Rocket, showed their friendship and support for one another whether it was cheering each other on from the side-lines or willingly helping Jessie in her pursuits of fame and glory. I realize in Journeys, it’s a bit difficult to expand on Team Rocket’s role in this way but they way they are currently using Team Rocket is to be honest kind of insulting to them as characters who we’ve watched grow over the years.

Chloe, Yamper and Eevee

I’ll get this out the way, I honestly love Chloe, and I’ve loved her development so far, I think they’ve gotten the pacing right for her when they’ve given her focus. I think many people like Chloe because she is similar to Serena, in the sense, she doesn’t have a goal and is discovering what she wants to do in life which is something a lot of people find relatable. I think what would be interesting for Chloe’s character if she does decide to be a Pokémon Professor after initially feeling as though the idea was being forced on her by her peers. Anyways, one of the biggest issues with Journeys is pacing, it takes ages before they actually decide to give a character development and ever since Chloe got Eevee, I feel as though Yamper has been pushed to the side (which is kind of ironic as Chloe calls Ash out on this) and I know Yamper is Professor Cerise’s Pokémon but Yamper acknowledges Chloe more than his own trainer. I feel like a great way to use Yamper was for Professor Cerise to actually give Yamper to Chloe when she was old enough to have a Pokémon, as a lot of Chloe’s earlier development was a result of her bond with Yamper.

Next is Eevee, I love Eevee it is one of my favourite Pokemon, but I also feel similar to Goh, she’s a walking advertisement for the Let’s Go Eevee game as she is unable to evolve. However, the fact that Eevee is unable to evolve makes her a good match for Chloe who is uncertain of her own dreams. Nevertheless, what I don’t understand is why they are trying to promote one of their older games in a new generation (especially when Lana’s Eevee (which don’t get me started) should have filled that role). Also, with Chloe catching Eevee, arguably, she should be joining Ash and Goh frequently, this could allow for Chloe and Eevee to develop and find their own path but aside from joining them twice in Galar, they’ve hardly left Kanto. Which is frustrating because I love Chloe and Eevee and I don’t want it to be another 20 episodes before we get any development from either of them.

Structure

I’ve realized that above I’ve kind of been focusing on the characters and some of the issues surrounding them. Arguably, one of Journeys biggest issues is structure or lack of it for that matter and pacing. Everything is all over the place but I’ll cover each section.

Pacing:

One of my biggest gripes with the series is pacing, lately we have been having back-to-back filler episodes and I don’t mind having filler every now and then to give us a break as you don’t want a show to be too content-heavy. And I don’t mind when the filler is at least entertaining but that Gulpin episode from two weeks ago was absolutely pointless, I’m sorry. So much stuff has taken place off-screen and Ash went up by 500 ranks to Rank 415 they could have taken out some of the filler episodes and used it to show Ash training at least or put it towards actual development for characters like Chloe and Eevee or Farfetch’d.

Another issue, I have with the pacing and I think a lot of you will hopefully agree is the pace of Goh catching a legendary Pokemon (which I’m in the middle about). Normally, around the end of the series, all of the respective characters have found or are closer to their goal like Dawn and Serena coming Runner-Up in their respective competitions or having confidence to keep pursuing their goal. This is normally, in the last series of that generation’s anime adaptation but Goh’s already achieved such a huge milestone towards his goal in the second series. I can’t help but feel as though this has been completely rushed.

Continuity:

Continuity in Journeys is strange, I can see it as a strength and a weakness. I’ll start off with the positives, continuity-wise I like the fact that Journeys at least references to past episodes and characters for example episode 57 Chloe’s younger brother says he’s going to a sleepover at his friend, Jinny’s house, the girl with the Feebas from episode 31. Or episode 47, Goh uses his prize from winning the Pokémon Eating Contest to have a dessert tour around Unova’s Castelia City. These small examples of continuity are something I can appreciate. But I can’t help but feel some of the past characters returning are merely fan-service for the older fans, so far, some of the character returns haven’t really contributed to the series’ narrative aside from the Alola episode contributing to Goh’s development.

A good example of utilising a past character is the Wallace Cup arc, with May and Dawn helping each other out of a losing streak and allowing Dawn to renew her confidence. I think no matter the outcome, both Coordinators gained something from the tournament even if Dawn lost to May, I think she would have had a regained her confidence but winning the Aqua Ribbon allowed her to re-affirm her self-belief and skills.

Episodic vs Linear:

Now I’ve watched a few videos on this to have a better understanding, the reason why Journeys feels so unstructured is that for some reason the writers chose to go down an episodic route instead of linear. The best example I know of episodic storytelling is Phineas and Ferb where characters and elements are introduced and can come back. But utilising episodic storytelling in a series like Pokémon feels like an unnatural choice we’re meant to be following these characters and their journeys towards achieving their goals whereas in a linear narrative this would be a lot clearer.

The Setting:

A lot of people have an issue with the fact that a series, that promises travelling the world, it really fell flat. As I have previously mentioned, so far only 2/5 of the episodes have taken place in other regions, most of the time Ash and Goh end up staying in Vermillion City. With the way things are currently being executed, I honestly would have preferred a Sword and Shield anime, with Ash at least travelling around Galar, it would allow for the Galar story to be more fleshed out instead of shoe-horned into a four-episode arc and with the announcement of the Sinnoh re-makes, I feel as though they are going to promote that in some way in the anime later on. (Perhaps with a Dawn cameo).

As I’ve been writing this, I’ve kind of realised one gripe I have with the anime that has become rather blatant as of late. That is the commercialism in the anime, I understand the anime is utilised to promote the game and re-makes of games but with this latest series the commercialism is blatant and honestly annoying. An early example of using the anime to promote a game was the Johto arc in DP to promote HeartGold and SoulSilver. Whereas, currently we have Goh, the human advertisement for Pokémon Go and Chloe’s Eevee promoting Let’s Go Eevee (which I honestly don’t see the need to advertise older games).

The controversary with Grookey…

Needless to say, the latest episode of Pokemon Journeys has sparked a lot of debate and anger particularly from Goh haters who have declared him a thief and are dropping the anime. There are some people who don’t mind Goh catching Grookey, they may have disliked the storyline they used for Goh to catch Grookey. I’ve made my feelings clear, that I would have preferred for Grookey to have been introduced much earlier and for Ash to have caught it.

However, I do have an issue with the way Goh caught Grookey as I can kind of understand why people are calling Goh a thief, I wouldn’t go that far maybe immoral at the most. The initial concept of Grookey belonging to Team Rocket was interesting but the whole story falls flat when they don’t give us any backstory like how did Team Rocket catch Grookey? why was Grookey so desparate to stay with Goh? was Grookey being mistreated by Team Rocket?

Honestly, if Grookey was being mistreated by Team Rocket, I’d understand why it’d want to leave them but this is Jessie, James and Meowth, the trio that released Mimikyu and Mareanie since they didn’t want them to be left in Team Rock Headquarters because they’d thought Mimikyu and Mareanie would be unhappy. So, I honestly can’t see the mistreatment storyline.

Also, the fact that Grookey smashed its own Poké Ball to gain its freedom kind of undermines other storylines that have seen Pokémon being abused by their trainers as they could have arguably smashed their Poké Balls to gain their freedom. Although, you could argue there is an element of fear in these cases.

I feel like if they built up the story more, I may have been more accepting but I kind of find it hypocritical in the sense Goh wants this Pokémon that belongs to someone else and it smashes its own Poké Ball to be with him. Whereas, its bad when Team Rocket try to steal someone else’s Pokémon but its okay for Goh because he’s the protagonist. Considering this is a kids anime that kind of sends the wrong message. I honestly would have found it more interesting if Grookey decided to stay with Team Rocket that would have been an interesting twist with Team Rocket having a starter Pokémon on their side. Plus, we know, James loves his Grass-types.

Conclusion:

Basically, I needed to get this off my chest and honestly, I feel much better for it. No Pokémon anime series is perfect by any means but lately I feel as though the writing has taken a huge dip and it has taken the enjoyment out of the series. I’m still trying to give the series a chance and hopefully I can warm to Grookey under Goh’s ownership, I think if the episodic formula has taken away the storytelling element that I love about the Pokémon series.

I have honestly never seen a Pokémon anime divide the community so much but I’m hoping that things begin to improve particularly if Ash’s Farfetch’d evolves in the next episode.

[tack-tick]

Dream SMP Pokemon AU Part One

Aka I’m bored and started thinking too hard about this. Hit the image limit so I’ll post part two later when I get the motivation.

General Lore

Humans and Pokemon share lives because of a curse from the gods

Humans used to abuse Pokémon’s power and did the old “get cursed for their arrogance thing” that always happens to humans in myths

Now when humans catch Pokemon, it’s understood by both parties that their sharing lives in exchange for getting to bond and battle together

If a human runs out of their three lives, the Pokemon they are bonded with dies

It’s considered a major dick move to forcibly separate a pokemon and trainer

Humans can only share lives with pokemon when they are at least 10 years old

Like getting a pokemon in the anime basically

This is basically just an excuse for why everyone has one Pokemon and I didn’t want to just say I was lazy

Dream

Him and Ditto have the same freaking face

Nicknamed Spirit

Disguises itself as a Gyarados, Rapidash, or Dragonite depending on what’s needed

Nobody knows it’s a Ditto

People just assume Dream is confident enough in his abilities that he’s willing to give only one life to each of his pokemon

Nope, he just has a Ditto that’s really good at transforming and battling

Wears a mask that looks like Dreams when it transforms so it can hide the Ditto face

Dream does his spiel about not caring about anything on the server and the poor thing gets sulky

Dream has to apologize to it and gives it a lot of hugs

George

Slaking

Nicknamed Beckerson

Also has a tendency to take naps during important events

Could be one of the strongest pokemon there if the two bothered to train

Was a huge asset in the Dream Team vs L’Manberg War

Seriously this things attack stat is freaking insane

Already fully evolved when the war started

Sapnap

Pyroar

Nicknamed Mars

I just looked at fire types and Mars fit the best

Plus Lions automatically equal awesome

Sapnap threatens to have Mars eat the smaller pokemon all the time

Will intimidate others by just gulping down magicarp in front of them

In like one bite each

Loves getting to set things on fire

Already fully evolved when the war started

Sapnap uses the “talking to a cat” voice with it

Still tries to sit in Sapnap’s lap after evolving and crushes him everytime

Tommy

A primeape nicknamed Henry

To quotes it’s sun pokedex entry “It has been known to become so angry it dies as a result”

That’s about all I needed to pair him up with Tommy

Shares Tommy’s temper and loyalty

Considered more loyal to his trainer than the average pokemon

Him and Tommy met in the woods when Tommy was about nine and Henry was a mankey

They just both looked at each other and got in a fistfight

Then Tommy took him home after he accidentally got hurt

Evolved when Tommy was exiled from New L’manberg

Dream was keeping him captive in a pokeball and only let him out when they visited Tommy

When it was let out it always tried to beat the crap out of Dream

Was told to stop doing that by Tommy because Dreams a friend

Which Henry thought was bullcrap but anything for Tommy

He’s doing better at Techno’s now

Trains with Carl a lot

But he misses Spins :(

Tubbo

A Vesiqueen nicknamed Spins

Picked because bees

Best friend to Henry

Evolved at the festival in a last ditch effort to try and protect Tubbo because combee have really bad stats

Didn’t work because fire beats bug but she tried very hard

It didn’t work but the thought counts

Worried about her trainer due to all the previous leaders becoming corrupted by the power

Has vowed to stick by his side no matter what

Loves to make honey and brings it to Niki for her bakery

Currently sad because she thinks Henry is dead :(

Honestly wishes literally anyone else would be president for her trainers mental health

Wilbur/Ghostbur

Toxitricity that was not nicknamed

Picked because it’s the only pokemon with an association with music that actually looks like it can fight

I tried to find something with the colors but nope

There are probably better options out there but idk what they are

Met Wilbur as a Toxel when it’s parents abandoned it

Heard Wilbur playing his guitar and listened from the bushes

The it just followed him home and they got along

It evolved when Wilbur was exiled

Was one of the first to realize that something was wrong with him

Was one of the few who could snap Wilbur out of his delusions

Eventually even that didn’t work

It probably knew in the end that Wilbur was doomed

But It couldn’t just abandon its trainer

Not Wilbur no way

It was glad it got to see Gramps one last time

Now it exsists like those ghost pokemon in Lavender Town

Not a ghost type pokemon but literally a ghost

Called Ghostricity

Remembers about as much as Ghostbur

Techno

An Emboar nicknamed Carl

Picked because it is, and I am quoting Bulbapedia, the “Mega Fire Pig Pokemon”

In other words, it’s a big boy!

How it met Techno will be explained in Philza’s entry so we’re gonna skip that

Was already fully evolved by the time Techno came to the Dream SMP

Just as bloodthirsty as his trainer and extremely good at battling

Loves to go to the Nether and soak in lava pools like a hot tub

Finds it very relaxing

Had an extra cost in bonding with Techno in that he also hears the voices

Finds them very annoying

Got jumped and taken hostage by the Butger Gang due to having water dumped on it

It was a lot of water

Which has managed to mega piss off Techno

Is very embarrassed at having to be rescued by Dream and Spirit

The closest to knowing what Spirit actually is

So looking forward to toppling the government

Currently training by sneaking out to waterfalls and standing under them

Very protective of Gramps

If you wanna do a speed run of getting fireblasted hurt Gramps in front of Carl

Philza

A Drampa nicknamed Gramps

Literally all of its pokedex entries are about how it takes care of kids and is extremely threatening when pissed off

Gramps met Philza when It was raising a Tepig in the woods

Techno was little and had gotten lost in the woods and ran into Tepig

They got along and Tepig took him to see his “dad”

Drampa helped Techno get home and Philza let them stay at his house out of gratitude

Philza and Drampa got along and the rest is history

Considered a dad by Carl, Ghostricity, and Henry

A very nice dragon who has accidentally adopted like half the servers pokemon

Extremely long lived

Feels extreme guilt about Ghostricity’s whole situation

Hard to make mad but when it is mad

LOOK OUT

Totally doesn’t have a favorite pokemon in Carl

Who would dare spread such obviously and totally false slander

Currently under house arrest along with Phil

Wants to see his kids

Fundy

A Delphox nicknamed Sally after his mom

Was gifted to Fundy when he was little by his mom

Evolved from Fennekin to Braxien after the Final Control Room incident

Evolved from Braixen to Delphox during the final fight in the Manberg Vs Pogtopia War

Uses her magic to help Fundy build things

Has mixed feelings about Ghostbur and Ghostricity

Just wants to Fundy to be happy and appreciated

Currently sticking with her trainer and making sure he doesn’t get himself killed in trying to fight some of the most powerful people on the server

Is slightly freaked out by The Buther Gang thing

Quackity

An Empolean named Party

Picked because Club Penguin raid lol

Also blue and couldn’t find any cool duck pokemon

Quackity crashed on an island filled with the Piplup line

Had to stay for a couple of days to fix his boat

He left and found a piplup had snuck into his boat and decided to keep it

Has already evolved to Prinplup by the time Quackity was whitelisted

Evolved to Empolean during the duel with Technoblade in the control room

Loves screwing with people by freezing their stuff

Still has a surprisingly strong moral compass

Extremely loyal to its trainer and hated Schlatt with every bone in its body

Totally froze Schlatt’s gravestone at the funer

Hates going to the nether

[sqgworld]

See, my big Rivalshipping “problem” right now is just how many AUs I have swirling around my head that I just feel like I will not have the time to do anything with (thanks dissertation, though I chose you myself, so I’m the only one to blame here).

Let’s give some examples of ones I’ve done a little bit of work on:

1. They’re just dragons

Look, how was I supposed to not do that. Here I’m thinking very sort of stereotypical European dragons, and I’ve even got a juvenile little Mokuba running around with fluff all the way along his spine, as well as some bumbling scientists trying to figure out what the hell is going on with these two adult dragons just living together, that’s not how that works. This one has some pretty heavily implied... I guess animal(?) abuse – they all used to be in captivity – so that’s less fun, but not really a big focus of anything.

2. Demon!Kaiba & Vampire!Yugi

So, I saw art on pixiv and felt inspired and wrote two “chapters” and it’s a whole thing. Except there’s not enough to connect the two points in time and some details missing that I want to add before the... spicier part that I already have. Featuring real angry Vampire!Atem that just wants his fledgeling, his li’l babey – Yugi – back safe and sound and absolutely threatens Kaiba with murder in the process (those two already had beef, it’s kinda how Yugi ends up in Kaiba’s “care” in the first place).

3. Oh good grief, I made everyone Pokémon

Excuse me while I combine two of my brainrots. What I have at the moment basically centres around Yugi evolving into his final stage – Togekiss – thanks to the Stone that Seto – Hydreigon – just sort of accidentally finds one day while out and about and then the really fluffy ensues right at the end. Just Pokémon, no humans and they all just sorta live out in the wild. I will also reveal that I definitely have shorthands for these Pokémon (because I sometimes think I’m clever): Yugikiss and Blue-Eyes Hydreigon. don’t look at me like that

And now

Things that take up far too much space in my brain but I haven’t written anything for:

1. They’re just big cats

Seto’s one of those white tigers and Yugi’s a not-fully-black panther, which means you can still kinda see his leopard spots. Probably something about a rescue centre, idk.

2. Cetacean merpeople

Meaning in this case dolphin/orca types because fish just do not line up with mammals anatomically, their spines bend in completely different directions. Seto and Mokuba are both orcafolk, while everyone else are bottlenose dolphins. I actually tried writing this but scrapped it because I was dissatisfied with what I came up with, so we’re back to square one.

3. Oh look, more Pokémon: Soul Partners edition

I’m sticking with my guns on Hydreigon and Togekiss for Kaiba and Yugi here, although, fun fact, Atem has always had his own separate one: Luxray. I just have this image in my head of the Yugi-Kaiba DSOD Duel and just as Kaiba’s standing there, doing his whole thing, feeling pretty unintimidated with his fully evolved, three-headed, pseudo-legendary Dark/Dragon-type against Yugi and his Togetic, the little bugger finally evolves into Togekiss before the Duel even starts and Kaiba just gets to have a moment of ‘oh shit, that’s a Fairy-type’. Just... realising the genuine threat that Yugi has always had the potential to pose, if he so wished.

4. Aaaand even more Pokémon: this time we’re going to Sinnoh

because, yes, I am excited for the remakes, DPPt are my childhood games I know them like the back of my hand The basics are: Atem just is the Luxray this time around and the ace of Yugi’s team; he also happens to be a bit of a cockblocker; Kaiba’s starter – Piplup – is a babby girl; Yugi’s grandpa is the professor here; the two boys face off for the champion title Gen 1 style and you’ll never guess who wins; don’t worry, happy endings all around. I have so many things already planned out for this one, but nothing written, I’ve even planned the final battle uuuuuggggghhhhh

and don’t you even dare get me started on this giant pirate AU that I just keep adding more shit to, it will be the longest thing I have ever written if I ever manage to finish the darn thing I have put way too many things on my own plate

[kbmercer]

Chapter 2: A New Beginning

[Life’s A Journey]

Summary:

A lot had happened after they parted ways. Nevertheless, the threads that tie them together remained. From children to adults, a reunion that’s long overdue leads the trio to embark on another journey.

Just like old times.

Word Count: 3.8k+

The first thing (Y/n) does when they enter Sonia’s room is divebomb onto her bed. The plush mattress effectively absorbs the weight of their descent and the trainer curls in on themselves like a Litten.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” the redhead giggles as she swiftly usurps her pillow from the resting spot.

“We have a lot to catch up on,” she says as she shoots a glance at Leon. He had relegated himself to sitting in her vanity chair.

“Yeah. Let’s not let this time go to waste!”

“Ugh. Don’t we talk to each other over the phone already?” Leon laughs as Sonia beats (Y/n) with the pillow.

“I’m kidding!” They laugh as they feebly block her attacks.

“There’s no doubt that we have a lot to catch up on, even though we do talk on the phone—especially with you.” They playfully point an accusatory finger at the violet-haired man.

Leon scratches the back of his head abashedly. “Yeah…It’s been a while…”

“I swear, both of you are so limited on time. Sometimes I feel like I’m the one keeping you two in check.” With a hand on her hip, Sonia’s lip juts out in a mild pout and (Y/n) hums.

“Not just you. Hop is mighty loquacious. I’d even go as far to say that I talk to him more than the both of you.”

While Sonia let’s out a noise of surprise, Leon chuckles.

“I suspected as much. If it’s not Gloria or me, then it’s you.”

“Ah, the new champ? I can’t believe it’s been over a year already. How’s she holding up?” (Y/n) moves from their lying position to prop their head onto their hand. Leon shifts in his seat.

“She reminds me a lot of myself. I love the battles and putting a smile on the people of Galar’s face but outside of that—paperwork, meetings with businessmen, sponsorships—it’s not the best. I see the same happening with her.”

“Oof. That’s a bummer. Though, I’m sure she’s a smart kid and will push past that.” Leon agrees with a nod. As he looks back, his business relations weren’t all too terrible. As he grew into the Champion role he had the likes of Rose and Oleana to assist. He will be forever grateful for that help and has been using that knowledge to do the same for Gloria.

“The Galar League is very different from all other regions. While the League is a big deal everywhere else to some extent, Galar is on a different level entirely. It’s like battling here is integral to life, even if you don’t progress very far…”

“That may be true, but I still think that in terms of overall prowess, Galar has a lot to work on.” Leon’s expressive contemplativeness elicits quiet laughs from them and Sonia.

“Stop it. Give Galar a lil’ more credit!” They sit up and cross their legs.

“You’ve still held on to that dream, huh.” Sonia says admirably. Her phrasing was more-so a statement than a question.

It was as if the temperature grew a bit warmer as both (Y/n) and their red-headed friend watched the fire in Leon’s bright eyes glow.

“The dream to make the people of Galar the strongest in the world. A noble endeavor,” (Y/n) teases though Leon pays no mind.

“I meant it then and I mean it now. If I can contribute to making that goal a reality I’ll do what I can.”

“You’ve already done more than enough…” Sonia smiles and (Y/n) intercedes.

“You’re such an over-achiever!”

“You’re ones to talk,” the ex-Champion counters. He swiftly moves from the chair and scoops (Y/n) off Sonia’s bed. They sputter a protest as they’re lifted. The strength that both of their friends possessed was astounding.

“Speaking of champs—congrats on becoming the Unova Champ, mate!”

(E/c) eyes stare into the man’s amber before they begin laughing once more.

“You’re a little too late. Have been Champion for a few years now.”

“Yes, and in those few years we’ve yet to see you. I think it’s high-time to give a proper celebration don’t you think?” They huff before landing a light punch to his chest.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“No no. I want to.”

“Don’t let this opportunity slip, (Y/n)! We need to make the most of this while we can!” Sonia presses. (Y/n) was never one for parties but seeing both her friends adamantly agree to the idea is something that they couldn’t bring themselves to reject.

“Fine,” they concede with a sigh. “But don’t get ahead of yourselves. We’re keeping it small.”

Both nod happily. Even though Leon and Sonia are relatively private people, they weren’t above going wild at grand parties.

             “I also think it’s high-time that we have a battle for old times sake!” (Y/n) huffs at his enthusiasm.

             “Always the one to jump right into it, yeah?” Ah, well, it’s not like I didn’t see it coming.” They shrug as a smug smile grows on their face.

“I’m sure Hop gave you the Mega Stones?” Leon’s eyes grow as he is reminded of this. In his excitement for meeting (Y/n), he had forgotten about the items in his possession. Fishing them out of his pocket he showcases them to the two in the room. Sonia gasps, the academic in her rears its head.

“A Charizardite X?! These stones are so rare to find! How’d you get your hands on them?! Her verdant irises analyze the items. The ex-champion hands them to the professor to further examine to which she does with vigor.

“During my time in Kalos, I came across a hiker that was selling ore. It happened to be within the bunch.” Crossing their arms,  (Y/n) lulls their head to the side. “It’s been sitting in my bag for a while and that’s just a waste.” They jut a thumb toward the violet-haired man. “There’s only one person I know that has a Charizard.”

“It’s nice to know that you think of me whenever Charizard is a topic.”

“Hmm. My colleagues like to drag me on escapades after the League challenges end. So, I’ve been dragged into helping study Mega Evolution.”

“You said that you didn’t find out anything new?” Sonia asks. She was fully aware of the work her childhood friend had been doing but had never gotten close to an artifact closely linked to the profound Evolution.

“We haven’t. The stones are a thing we’ve known about for a while, there just isn’t a whole lot of information about Mega Evolution’s history. As much as I’d like to explain further, we’d be here all day. Plus, it’d be better to learn first-hand right?”

“Go on then,” she agrees giving the item back to Leon and they head out the room and down the stairs.

             As the trio make their way out the house, they join with Hop and Magnolia. The younger brother was busy tossing a ball out to the slew of pokémon that occupied the field. (Y/n) and Leon both had released their teams for some exercise, and it looked like they were having a blast. Most of them were passing the play-thing around before returning it to the teen while Magnolia stood elsewhere leisurely waving a feather toy at Babe and Yamper.

Noticing the pokémon’s attention being shifted away from the ball causes the boy to follow their line of sight.

“Done having your convo already?”

“Not quite,” Leon says as he rolls his shoulders. “We’re gonna take the pitch and have us a good battle.”

“This will be a one-on-one for now. We’re testing things out.” While the explanation was pretty vague on it’s own, Hop understands what the Unova Champion means. He was about to see what Mega Evolution was all about.

With a small cheer in anticipation, he is quick to help corral the pokémon away from the violet-clad battlefield. Sonia and Magnolia meet together on the sidelines and the former professor hums.

“I will take the position of referee if that is alright with you all.”

(Y/n) smiles, “Not at all.”

“That’s more than alright, Gran. Besides, I want to document as much as I possibly can.” She pulls a memo pad from her coat pocket and calls her Rotom Phone forward to record.

“Alright, Charizard. You’re up.” The fire-flying type gives out a sprightly roar and takes a battle stance on his trainer’s end of the pitch.

Lulu, (Y/n)’s Lopunny is called forward. With a prompt explanation, the rabbit pokémon shares a determined look with her trainer and confidently enters the field. Leon takes note of the pink bow that (Y/n) wrapped around the pokémon’s left ear, a stone similar to Charizard’s was in the center but in shades of yellow and brown.

             The tension in the air is palpable. Both pokémon keep their eyes on each other as they stand off. Seconds feel like minutes, then Professor Magnolia commences the battle with the stamp of a cane. In a split-second, Charizard and Lulu are already at each other. Padded paws grip sharp claws as both pokémon dig their heels into the sturdy ground, their strength being pushed against one another prevent any sort of pushback before the two ultimately separate. Jumping back to their ends of the field, both pokémon lunge at each other once more to meet in the center.

“Charizard, use Dragon Claw!”

“Counter with Mega Punch!”

The physical attacks make impact, the force of both coming together leaving a blast of air in their wake as it billows throughout the area. (Y/n) feels it flow through their clothing and Leon felt it weave through his hair. The greenery that surrounds them rustle loudly as the fight continues.

             “Fire Fang!”

             “Dodge and use Shadow Ball!”

Taking a leap over Charizard, Lulu creates a sphere of ominous energy in between her paws and brings it down on her adversary, though Charizard is quick on his feet and redirects. The Shadow Ball is destroyed as he brings his heated fangs down on the attack. The spectral power is enough to nullify his Fire Fang however, and the flames in his maw dissipate. Lulu gives a teasing snicker and Charizard releases a low growl blowing the aftermath of smoke from his nose.

“Brutal Swing!”

“Breaking Swipe!”

Both trainers had shouted their commands in unison. The two pokémon go for a sweep but are caught at an impasse once more. (Y/n) hums amusedly. If their attacks were going to constantly be nulled, this match was going to be a lengthy one. Leon appears to share the same sentiment.

             “I guess some things never change! Even now we still manage to hold each other off!” The glint in the former champ’s warm amber eyes showed a sense of renewed spirit and anticipation. (Y/n) responds in kind.

             “You and I have only gotten stronger since times past. It’s only natural we’d be neck and neck with each other again.” Their smile was prideful, (e/c) eyes harboring mischief. “But we also understand that one of us will slip-up eventually. Regardless of who that may be, Lulu and I will give our 110 percent!” Leon lets out a joyful laugh.

“Well said! We won’t lose, so prepare yourself!”

As they stand by, Sonia and Hop can feel their hearts race. Spectating Leon and (Y/n) as both stand assertively and give quick-witted directions to their pokémon was a sight to behold. Swift and graceful movements between Charizard and Lopunny almost look like a dance. Neither of them let up and devote all their focus on both the opponent and the commands of their respective trainers. Directions continued to be shouted and every time both pokémon went to deal damage it would only end in a stalemate. The clock ticks and Sonia soon begins to notice that the two creatures are starting to grow tired. Movement starts to slow down little by little. Room for exploiting weak points were gradually opening for them both. Meanwhile, Hop and Professor Magnolia gauge the Mega Stones that Charizard and Lulu wear. Both had gradually begun to glow the longer the two butt heads. It was only a matter of time before their power took effect.  Though, the call to transformation was a two-way street.

(Y/n) is quick to make the call.

“Alright! I think it’s time we speed up the process. As much as I love a good battle, I don’t have all day,” (Y/n)’s words are teasing as they move their hand to wrap around their Key Stone. The Key Stone activates, and Lulu’s Mega Stone reacts. The symbol that lie in the center of Lulu’s Lopunnite glows radiantly and the warm mix of yellow and brown is overtaken by an ethereal rainbow. The multicolored aura expands, encasing the pokémon in a prominent crystal before it breaks open to reveal the Lopunny’s transformation. Her appearance is more dynamic with the fur on her ears being shaved down—the tuft being more prominent at the top of the head in the reminiscent form of a butterfly. Voices of wonder flow through the audience. With a flourish, Lulu takes an arm and sweeps a long ear away from her face before taking a boxing stance.

Leon had watched their actions intently and the activation to Mega Evolution seemed simple enough. He is quick to follow suit.

“I’m game for a quick-fire round. Let’s make things more interesting!” He takes his hand and places it over the brooch he’d pinned to his outfit and the glow of the Charizardite X does the same. Charizard is encased in a similar crystal before it falls away. There was no longer a trace of warmth in the skin with orange being replaced with black. His wings have become more pointed and perhaps the most notable feature resulting from the transformation was the bright blue flames that kindle at the jaw and tail. The new power elicits a booming cry from Leon’s companion as he regards his opponent once more. Then the two fighters continue to exchange blows.

“Iron Tail,” Charizard’s tail moves hit Lopunny and she braces for the impact. The damage taken was minimal as the rabbit pokémon listens for her trainer’s orders.

“Ice Punch.” In one swift movement, Lulu utilizes their close distance to hit Charizard on the chest, giving an effective blow. With a grunt, the fire-dragon type jumps back to make space.

“Dragon Pulse.” He opens his mouth as the fire between his jaws grows larger before blowing the flames.

“Use Agility and dodge it,” Lulu just barely bypasses the heat and increases her speed.

“Go for another Ice Punch!” Frigid crystals enclose around Lulu’s fist once more as she goes in for another strike.

“Not a chance!” Leon interjects before giving another command. “Let’s take this up high!” He points skyward with vigor and Charizard follows the order, spreading his wings and lifting off the ground.

(Y/n)’s lips press into a thin line, though it’s gone as soon as it appears. It’s clear that Charizard was now at an advantage, but surely Lulu is more than capable of taking that away.

“Alrighty, Lulu. Let’s meet ‘em there with a Bounce.” In one swift motion, the normal-fighting type gauges Charizard’s location in the air before reaching him in the sky with little to no effort.

“Chip-away with Acrobatics!” With whatever momentum she had in the forever space, Lulu flips and kicks at Charizard utilizing every part of her body—arms, legs, and ears to hit at him rapidly. She manages land a few but is quickly met with retaliation.

“Take her down with an Air Slash!” Leon’s command is instantly met with the action as if they were in synch.

Charizard flaps his wings rapidly to create a razor sharp current of air to which Lopunny takes the blunt force of, being sent back to solid-ground. (Y/n)’s jaw clenches for a moment but they think fast on a method to break their partner’s fall.

“Use Acrobatics once more and land on your feet!” Having heard loud and clear, Lulu tucks in on herself as she speedily descends. Doing a few flips mid-air, Lulu lands on the battlefield safely albeit the velocity. Charizard remains in the air as it seems that Leon is banking on this tactic. It was time to change that.

“Use Bounce! One more time!”

Lulu meets with Charizard in the air once more and the fire-dragon rears for another Air Slash—a mistake that could very well hand them the match.

“Perfect. Go for the wing!” Before Lulu can suffer another super-effective blow, she intercepts by using another bout of Acrobatics to nullify both of their flying-type attacks. Lulu takes the split-second after the nullification to latch on to Charizard’s wing. This action served as a surprise to everyone watching as the rabbit pokémon utilizes Charizard’s weight to swing, using his appendage like a trapeze. Releasing the wing from her grasp, Lulu moves into a 180 back-flip effectively landing on Charizard’s back.

“Drain Punch, let’s go!” A hefty strike to the back destabilizes Charizard’s flight and in the shock brought on by the sapping of his energy, he starts to rapidly fall. Leon’s brows furrow bringing wrinkles to his forehead as he feels the pressure of the fight get heavier. While he’s had plenty of experience in battles, (Y/n)’s unconventional strategies always found a way to turn the tables. It’s something he had noticed back when they’d battled in the Gym Challenge as children. Now as adults battling once again, he’s noticed that their skill in unconventional thinking hadn’t gone away. If anything, it’s gotten stronger alongside their team. Lulu had not missed a beat despite the large risk and managed to pull through. Her partner trusted them completely—relying on them to make the correct calls and obeying without hesitation. Unfortunately for (Y/n), he could say the same for he and Charizard.

“Use this descent to your advantage! Take her down with you and use Heat Crash!” (Y/n)’s eyes widen at this command watching on in growing disdain.

Charizard moves to shake from Lulu from his back avoiding her attempts to take hold and remain on his back. The strong blue flames that flowed from his mouth along with the flame at the end of his tail grew larger and crept along Charizard’s body until he was wholly engulfed in the flame. He feels no pain, but Lulu does and continues to feel the searing heat as they torpedo into the field. Obviously, Charizard uses his opponent to break the fall and (Y/n)’s heart races—faster than it had in a long time. A crater was made in the ground kicking up chunks of dirt and leaving a larger dust cloud.

             (Y/n)’s teeth grind together before they call out to their partner. Both trainers wait a bit as the cloud in front of them disperses. Taking a breath, they grin. Both partners remained conscious on the field thought they both look petered out, though Lopunny looked too worse for wear. She had endured and the Unova champ felt nothing but pride.

This conflict was reaching its end and if they wanted to win, they’d have to do it quickly. Both pokémon remained in close proximity to each other, creating distance wasn’t an option anymore.

             “Dragon Claw,” Leon shouts.

             “Swift,” (Y/n) commands in tandem. The star-like projectiles that come of the attack are easily destroyed by the Charizard’s heavy swipes, but they only served as a distraction.

Gotcha.

“Low Kick,” without a second to spare. Lulu kicks out their legs using his weight against him. The disorientation that follows is exactly what they need to bring this to a close.

“Alright! Finish the job with Play Rough!” Lulu holds Charizard down and uses the remainder of her energy to thrash with the fire-flying type. The dirt and debris that accumulated throughout the fight created yet another opaque cloud within the battlefield though (Y/n) didn’t need to see pass to know that the brawl was over.

Sure enough, as the dust settles, Charizard is down for the count. He had reverted back to his normal self—no black seen in his skin, just the warmth of orange. Lulu managed to stay standing but just barely. The rabbit stood in a fighting stance despite the outcome and only falters at the words spoken by Magnolia.

“Charizard is unable to battle. Lulu is the victor.”

The pokémon’s Mega transformation dissipates as the pokémon falls forward and into a kneel. The jovial cheers of their spectators mixes with (Y/n)’s own as they’re quick to assist Lulu in regaining her health.

             “You did wonderfully, Lulu! I’m so proud of you!” They bring their companion in for a hug and she reciprocates in kind before separating. Turning to see Leon tending to Charizard, the Unova champion praises the winged creature.

             “I’m honestly very surprised. For a first timer, he did a top-notch job.” Leon smiles as he looks up at (Y/n) from his squatting position.

             “That’s good to hear,” his gaze shifts to look back at Charizard. Despite the loss, his partner was in high-spirits— more enthusiastic than he was before the fight, in fact.

             “It’s one thing to see the photos and read about it. Obviously, utilizing the change in battle is a completely different experience.”

             “So what’d ya think?”

             “I think it’s great. Maybe the reason Charizard could get the hang of it so quickly was because the transformation is sort of like Gigantamax in a way. They change form and unlock strengths and abilities that they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

             “That’s why I’m so interested in it. Dynamax and Gigantamax seem to be a capability that is exclusive to Galar with the use of hotspots and wishing stars, but Mega Evolution is something that can be utilized anytime and anywhere, no matter the region. All you need are the proper stones and a close bond with your partner.” They take their hand to make a fanning gesture.

             “I’ve kinda already spieled about this, so I’ll cut to the chase. Keep the stones and add them to your arsenal. It won’t hurt to shake things up a little bit.” Leon had since moved from his squat to stand.

             “Sounds like a plan. We’d never reject this opportunity to get stronger, isn’t that right?” Charizard grunts in affirmation. (Y/n) laughs.

             “And we’ll look forward to it.”

After the post-battle the exchange Magnolia, Sonia, and Hop meet them on the field.

             “That battle was so awesome!” The teen enthused with a twinkle settled in his already bright eyes.

             “I’ve only ever seen a few Mega Evolution battles in my lifetime, and they never cease to amaze me.” Magnolia agrees.

             “I’m so glad Rotom was recording. My heart was beating out of my chest that I failed to take notes,” Sonia whines. “At least I can re-watch it…”

             “You’d best make use of this great power and hone your skill of it, ya hear?” The elder presses to which Leon nods his head with no hesitation.

“Definitely.”

****************************

 I started shiny hatching and just never made it back…I managed to obtain 8 new shinies in the span of a month. Hyper-fixation at its finest.

Relegating Pokémon move sets to only four at a time is boring, so I removes that aspect. I understand why this is a thing in-game, but this is a story. I feel like pokémon should have access to their entire move pool—both learned and through TM/TR.

[liya4kar]

Liyada’s Fics Masterpost

It was time I wrote a Fic Masterpost.

So for everyone who is interested by my fics, firstly I invit you on my AO3 where you can litteraly find everythng, especially since I don’t post the fics directly on Tumblr. 

And if you want the details, here we go!

Also here the plan, because the post is really long lmao-

I/ Pokespe

1. Multi-chap fics

a) Three Years

b) The Magical Dexholders

2. AUs

a) Yorozuya no Lack-chan

b) Legendary Dexholders

c) Blonde Family

d) Yokai AU

3. Stand-alone OS and Drabbles

a) OS

b) Drabbles

II/ Other fandoms

a) Champion (Marvel)

I/ Pokespe

1. Multi-Chap Fics

a) Three Years

This one is my baby, the one I had been working on for 2 years and a half, the one I progressed the more in, and also the one I haven’t updated in a year even if I have 6 chapters ready to post, cause I’m lazy af. Also the ones where you can very easily see how much my writing progressed since I started writing for Pokéspe.

Warning: Graphic Description of Violence, Major Character Death (though this one is complicate and don’t fully apply)

Genre: Angst, Adventure.

Words Count: 69,567

Statut: In Progress

Characters: The whole Spe cast up to SM.

Relationship: Background Frantic, Entourage, Agency and Laverree, a lot of other friendships.

Summary: Some secrets should never be revealed. Or should they?

After a strange explosion, X and Y fear the apparition if a new threat for Kalos, and decide to get themselves implicate. But things are not as simple as they look, and nothing will go the way they want. And as those attacks take bigger scales and start to involve a large number of people, they would have no choice but to find the motive behind them to stop them; even if it means getting back on some bitter memories from three years ago they all would have preferred to forget...

List of chapters: Part I: Kalos

1. The Explosion

2. The Lumiose Badlands

3. Shalour City

4. The Attack

5. Next Action

6. Lumiose City

7. Blackout

8. Chase in Lumiose City

9. The Next Day

10. Couriway Town

11. Sunrise

12. Tic Tac

13. Terminus

Part II: Unova

14. A Day in Driftveil City I

14.5. A Day in Driftveil City II

15. Welcome to Unova I

15.5. Welcome to Unova II

16. The Twist Mountain I

16.5. The Twist Mountain II

b) The Magical Dexholders

This one is purely self-indulgent fic, where I basically write the dumbest thing that get in my mind. Aka some Dexholders become Magical Girls or Boys, but they’re dumb, but it’s okay because the bad guys, their friends and their world in general is dumb.

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: Parody, Humor, Friendship

Words Count; 27,944

Statut: In progress

Characters: The whole Spe cast up to SM, and some OCs

Relationship: Diamond & Silver, Blue & Yellow & Gold & Platinum, Green & Crystal & Pearl

Summary:

It’s an emergency! The Darkness Power Of The Terrible Evil has invading the Pokespe world and take over the region of Kanto! Some magical fluffy creatures needs help in order to stop the Darkness Power Of The Terrible Evil!

The day Dia met a strange professor fan of Magical Boy and a strange pink creature, he knew his life would never be the same...

In the meantime, Blue and Yellow have to face a terrible threat to get back their home, but get new abilities in exchange.

List of chapters:

1.  A story is not interesting if nothing go wrong in it

2.  If you are a Magical Boy, don't forget to take an insurance for building destruction!

3.  If the authorities say that a radioactive cloud did magically stop at the border, you can totally trust them!

4.  You can’t be a protagonist if you don’t have an ultimate move, a dark past or a secret identity!

5.  No matter how good it looks on TV, sh*t stay sh*t!

6.  An homage to a work becomes a fanfiction when it becomes an important part of the plot, you moron!

7. If you update on the 1st April everyone's gonna believe it's a joke, even if it isn't, so update on the 31st March!

2. AUs

Those fics are not multi-chap fics, but more like OS and drabbles that are related between each others.

a) Yorozuya no Lack-chan

Heavily inspired by Gintama, AU where Lack did not get back in Interpol and started doing odd jobs instead. Serie of Drabbles.

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: Parody, Humor, Friendship

Characters: Lack-Two, Whi-Two, X, Sun

Relationship: Lack-Two & Whi-Two, Lack-Two & X, Lack-Two & Sun

Summary:

When Whi-Two bumped into Lack-Two after months, she was not expecting him to went from Interpol officer to dog walker. And neither that he’d get her, and this guy from Kalos, to join he’s odd jobs agency.

List of chapters:

Dogwalker Lack-Two in action!

The Blazing Begining of Odd Jobs Yorozuya no Lack-Chan! 

b) Legendary Dexholders

In a world where being a legendary Pokémons can be boring, the legendary Pokémons decides to have a little bit of funs. Shenanigans ensue.

Aka the legendary Pokémons decides to become humans, and of course they happen to be our favorite DHs.

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: Friendship, Family, Supposed to be comic at first but also goes on the character study sometimes

Characters: Silver, Giratina, others for next OS.

Relationship: Implied Preciousmetal, Blue & Silver

Summary:

When Whi-Two bumped into Lack-Two after months, she was not expecting him to went from Interpol officer to dog walker. And neither that he’d get her, and this guy from Kalos, to join he’s odd jobs agency.

List of chapters: Giratina

c) Blonde Family

In which Yellow, Pearl, Bianca and Y are all cousins. Shenanigans enssue.

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: Family, Comedy, Crime

Characters: Yellow, Pearl, Bianca, Y

Relationship: Yellow & Pearl & Bianca & Y

Summary:

Family reunions are rarely all peace and calm. But when, out of four cousins, you have three Dexholders and a clumsy professor assistant, things are bond to be messy.

List of chapters: To be a cousin, Don't listen others confessions or you'll end as responsible as them

d) Yokai AU

What if yokai existed in the Spe universe? 

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: Supernatural, Friendship, Adventures

Characters: Pearl, Schilly

Relationship: Pearl & Schilly

Summary:

Pearl had first seen them when he was four years old. And he had learned to live with this world only he could see, to maintain his balance of a normal life.

He had just not expected one of his junior to also see them.

List of chapters: Chilling Party

3. Stand alone OS and drabbles

a) OS

Here you can find the 1K+ words stand-alone OS. Links are in the tittles!

A Good Christmas Movie is Made of Hot Chocolate and a Fire-Breathing Cat

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: Horror, Parody, Christmas, Hallmark Movie, Specord Winter Writing Event 2020

Words count: 4093

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Y, Sun

Relationship: Implied Laverree and Delivery shipping, Y & Sun

Summary:

Everything is perfect in Y's life. Too perfect, like in a Christmas Hallmark movie. Now, with a fire-breathing cat name Sun, it's up to her to find a way out of this Christmas hell.

One-shot wrote for the Winter Writing Event on the Specord, with the prompt X & Sun, Horror and Parody, My Life is a Hallmark Movie and PMD, and Chuck E Cheese's Ball Pit.

Celebi-rities in Distress

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: Parody, Friendship, TV Show

Words Count: 5017

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Sapphire, Lisia, Ruby, Emerald.

Relation Ship: Background Franticshipping, Sapphire & Lisia, Ruby & Emerald

Summary:

Sometimes, it only takes a silly TV show, weird games and arrogant prissy boys to make a new friends.

Or how Sapphire became friend with Lisia to teach Ruby and Emerald a good lesson.

Bonding on the Grand Line

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: One Piece AU, Pirate

Words Count: 2948

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Pearl, Cheren, Sinnoh and Unova Gym Leaders

Relation Ship: Pearl & Cheren, Mentionned Commoner Shipping, Past Pearl & Diamond & Platinum, Mentionned Cheren & Black

Summary:

In a world where Gold Roger is still an unknow name, Pearl and his crew left North Blue for the Grand Line. But are they ready for everything waiting them?

Of Swords & Of a Gun

Warning: No Warning applies

Genre: AU, Angst, 

Words count: 4209

Statut: Two-Shot, in progress

Characters: Pearl, Cheren, Sinnoh and Unova Gym Leaders

Relation Ship: Soudo & Bede, Bede & Rose, Soudo & Schilly, Schilly/Hop, Bede & Schilly & Hop

Summary:

In a world where everyone has a Sword, Bede is an abnormality who has a Gun.

In a world where the Tsurugi family is the best blacksmith clan of Galar, Soudo fails to meet people's expectations.

In a world where they have to fight and find their places, will the two of them discover why they exist? Maybe the answer had been in front of their eyes since the beginning.

Pallet Association

Warning: Graphic Description of Violence, Major Character Death <3

Genre: Cyberpunk AU, Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Kanto Week, Angst, Dystopia, May be a bit OOC for certain characters

Words count: 3637

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Green, Blue, Red, Yellow, Prof. Chen

Relation Ship: Green & Blue, Green & Blue & Red & Yellow, Green & Prof. Chen

Summary:

In Pallet City, one of the biggest megalopolis in the world, the Pallet Association controls everything. Blue, Red, Yellow, and Green decide that it needs to change.

But Green may have forgotten to mention a few details to them.

(This OS have two alternative endings because I couldn’t picke one)

Storytelling

Warning: No Warning Applies 

Genre: Fluff, Domestic, Comedy,  Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Johto Week

Words count: 2843

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Silver, Gold, Crystal

Relation Ship: Silver & Crstal & Gold

Summary:

Silver has apparently never heard a fairytale of his whole life, so Gold and Crystal decide to give him an express fairytale class. Turned out that it was a really bad idea.

Festival War

Warning: No Warning Applies

Genre: Comedy, Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Hoenn Week

Words count: 2843

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Emerald, Latias, Ruby, Sapphire

Relation Ship: Franticshipping, Emerald & Latias, Emerald & Ruby & Sapphire

Summary:

It's the summer, it's time for festivals, but with the Hoenntrio and their love for bets and contests, it could only go wrong.

Family Business

Warning: Craphic Description of Violence, Minor Character Deaths <3

Genre: Angst, Villain AU, tw: Drugs, Weapons, Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Sinnoh Week

Words count: 3596

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Platinum, Diamond, Pearl

Relation Ship: Implied Entourage

Summary:

Because she was the heir of the Berlitz family, she will continue to develop their wealth and their power, no matter what it takes. No matter if the path she’ll take was full of blood and corpses and crimes.

Parent-Teacher Reunion

Warning: No Warning Applies

Genre: Comedy, School life (but it’s still in the canon universe), Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Unova Week 1

Words count: 2638

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Cheren, Black, White, Bianca, Iris

Relation Ship: Agency Shipping, Cheren & Black & White & Bianca & Iris

Summary:

Did you ever wonder how was Black's school life? Well, welcome in this parent-teacher reunion where Cheren have some things to say about his childhood friend... 

Crimes Movies are Sad Except When Everyone is Dumb

Warning: No Warning Applies

Genre: Crime, Comedy, Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Unova Week 2

Words count: 5565

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Whi-Two, Lack-Two, Hugh

Relation Ship: Whi-Two & Lack-Two & Whi-Two

Summary:

It was a normal day for Whi-Two. A casting, a murder, two former classmates coming from nowhere... ... Wait, what?

Strength

Warning: No Warning Applies

Genre: Character Study, Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Kalos Week

Words count: 2198

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: (Malva’s) Delphox, Trevor, Furfrou, Floette

Relation Ship: Delphox & Trevor, Delphox & Furfrou & Floette

Summary:

Delphox was strong. Malva was strong, too, but Malva's had lost, so Malva was weak.

Delphox had lost too, but she could not admit she was weak too.

No, she was strong.

It was the boy who was weak.

Treasure

Warning: No Warning Applies

Genre: Negative Spe AU, Adventure, Friendship, Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Alola Week

Words count: 1649

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Sun, Moon

Relation Ship: Sun & Moon

Summary:

Sun always liked helping at the soup kitchen, seeing the smile and laughs of everybody around him, but the lunch breaks were always the best moment.

Too bad that this girl decided to ruin this one.

The Child of the Outdoor

Warning: No Warning Applies

Genre: Character study, pre-canon, Pokespe Amino Festival 2020: Galar Week

Words count: 1317

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Schilly, her Pokémons

Relation Ship: Schilly & her Pokémons

Summary:

Schilly always loved outdoors. It was joy, fun and great memories. It was her Pokémons, too.

Professor Santa

Collab with @coppertrapinch for the Specord Secret Santa Event! (Check her work she’s amazing!)

Warning: No Warning Applies

Genre: Comedy, Christmas, Specord Secret Santa Event 2021

Words count: 3623

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Prof. Oak, Prof. Birch, Prof. Samson Oak, Prof. Rowan, Prof. Juniper, Crystal, Gold, Sapphire, Trevor, Soudo, Schilly, Prof. Magnolia

Relation Ship: Prof. Oak & his need for a break

Summary:

Something was bound to go wrong with Gold organizing a party... but a Secret Santa on top of that? Poor Crystal was just too stressed at work... it was time for Professor Oak to step up to the plate. Can the renowned Professor save Christmas in time without gaining another wrinkle?

...No. No he cannot.

The Christmasly Idiotic Adventures of Pearl and Lack-Two, or the time when two idiots stopped an evil organization while being on a gift hunt

Warning: No Warning Applies

Genre: Comedy, Christmas, Specord Secret Santa Event 2021, Crime (??), Adventure

Words count: 5326

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Pearl, Lack-Two

Relation Ship: Pearl & Lack-Two

Summary:

Pearl liked Christmas. Really. Well, except when some (false) "Gift Fashion Specialist Journalist" disturbs all his plans and ruins his gift hunt. Why do he has to get a present for such a brat anyway? 

Screw up Secret Santa! This year, we're gonna kick some ass for Christmas!

b) Drabbles

Ok no big presentation here cause it’s only very short drabbles (>1K words)

Valentine Day 2020: Laveree Shipping

Valentine Day 2020: Entourage Shipping

X teachs incorrect French words to Gold

Crystal is scary and very powerful

Soudo and Chilly don’t like they English localized name, and Marvin is too young for this

II/ Other fandoms

a) Champions (comics)

Heat-Haze Days

Warning: Graphic Description of Violence, Major Character Death <3

Genre: Angst, inspired by the Kagepro song “Kagerou Days”, Time loop

Words count: 4213

Statut: OS, Complete

Characters: Miles Morales/Spiderman, Kamala Khan/Miss Marvel, Sam Alexander/Nova

Summary:

It was a normal summer day, everything was fine... But the heat of haze had decided otherwise, and it was up to Miles to try to find a way out. 

[blouisparadise]

Another incredible year of fics is complete!

This list is always nearly impossible to make, so keep in mind that this is just a small selection out of hundreds of incredible bottom Louis fics that were posted this year. We hope every fic writer feels appreciated because your works mean so much to this fandom. And we hope there will be even more amazing BL fics coming out in 2020!

The fics are listed by length and we included AO3 usernames and links to the writers’ Tumblr accounts if we could find them - so please go give these people love! And give love to every other writer who wrote a bottom Louis fic that you read and enjoyed this year.

All Bottom Louis Fic Fest fics - click this link to the December BLFF masterpost!

This list would be twice as long if we included all the fics for the Bottom Louis Fic Fest, so we’ve decided to instead simply link to the December masterpost of BLFF fics. These fics are ALL favorites of ours this year, so check them all out and give them love!

That Summer Feeling by laurelhips / @laurelhips | Explicit | 2093 words

"It was still a lazy summer evening, the sun was still floating in the sky and the balcony window was letting in a warm breeze. Harry thumbed at Louis’ hipbone, easing his lips off Louis’ skin just to mumble “Turn over, darling.” Louis cracked a small smile, turning over slowly and revealing the back half of his naked body. Harry’s tongue felt too big for his mouth. He swallowed as he took in the sight. He’d never get tired of this."

How Easy You Are To Need by sweetums / @darlou | Explicit | 2356 words

Note: This fic is a sequel to this fic.

A day in the life type of drabble where Harry returns home after a business trip to his boy and a surprise visit from his niece.

Fine Line by Speechless | Explicit | 3281 words

This is just a tiny fanfiction that in my head was really just a Survival Instinct spin off, but then became a thing of its own.

No One But You Got Me Feeling This Way by runaway_train / @runaway-train-works | Explicit | 3787 words

Harry is well aware he should be studying or watching T.V or cleaning the kitchen or doing literally anything from a list as long as his arm instead of this, but he is. The list of reasons why he shouldn’t be doing this is probably at least double that, but here he most definitely is. He’s sitting on his bed, legs straight out in front of him, back propped up against the headboard and some fluffed-up pillows and his MacBook is resting on his thighs. His jittery fingers drum lightly on the edge of the keyboard as he stares at the tiny digital clock in the top right hand corner of the screen, willing the seconds to tick by faster. He wants to get into this and get it over with in equal measures.

Like Sangria by Harryskiwiposes / @hadtobelou | Explicit | 4152 words

As he looked up to the ceiling he imagined what it would feel like to have this man all to himself, all night long. He wanted the man in his bed, spread out underneath him, his skin begging to be kissed by a little more than just the sun.

Harry let out a small chuckle at the thought because he hadn’t even wanted to come on this beach vacation in the first place - he had wanted to go sightseeing in New York City. However, Niall and Liam had outnumbered him and so two days ago they had all boarded a plane to Jamaica for a lads holiday celebrating Liam’s thirtieth birthday.

Digging his fingers into the man’s hips, Harry sent a silent prayer up to the heavens that he was currently not sightseeing in New York and was instead on his way to hooking up with the sexiest man he had ever encountered.

Bad Idea! by rina_a / @lougendarey | Explicit | 4247 words

“I’m gonna ruin you.” And words had never felt so real in his life. Harry was going to ruin him in every way and Louis knew it. He had memories scattered all throughout his brain of the pain and pleasure of being destroyed by Harry. The feeling of ecstasy he was currently experiencing outweighed how much it was going to hurt in the next morning when Harry vanished. He was melting under Harry’s touch and that was the only thing that mattered. He could feel Harry’s smooth and strong biceps under his hands as he arched his back against the car door, unsure if he was leaning into Harry’s lips or moving away from them.

Can You Feel The Fever by delsicle / @emperorstyles | Explicit | 5113 words

Note: This fic is a sequel to this fic.

Tour has Harry exhausted. Luckily exactly what he needs is waiting for him in his Sacramento dressing room.

Gotta Catch 'Em All by larryent / @larryent | Explicit | 5186 words

Louis loves Pokémon GO, he gets a little crazy and ends up ramming into a guy. Harry gets mad, calls him a brat and treats him like one. Oh, and they're in central park.

I'm Slipping Under by purpledandelion / @purpledandelion | Explicit | 5351 words

Note: This fic is a sequel to this fic.

What better way would there actually exist than starting it filthily with Louis falling apart on his tongue? Nothing else could have surpassed that.

Nothing.

That's what Harry had thought at first, at least.

Just Fuck by rbbsbb / @rbbsbb | Explicit | 5565 words

Louis’ so drunk off Harry, though—even more than all of the drinks that he’s had—that he doesn’t even want to look anywhere else. He’s dying for it, for Harry to hold him down and fill him up, mark him inside.

Burnt & Tied Up by tilthesundies / @tllthesundies | Explicit | 6327 words

Come to the show tonight, Harry told him. Begged him. Pleaded with him.

Louis isn’t doing this for him.

Act Out | by feermartsant / @boldbabe | Explicit | 6721 words

Harry leans forward so he's closer to Louis's ear, and murmurs, "If I was your husband, I'd never let you out of my sight."

It’s ridiculous. He is his husband. There’s hundreds of photos, and official papers, and rings, and two babies with the last name Tomlinson Styles that prove it. But it’s also possessive, and hot and Louis doesn’t know what he was expecting when Harry told him he wanted to try roleplaying a little, but so far he’s not complaining.

Kisses and Coffee Breaks by youreyesonlarry / @youreyesonlarry | Explicit | 9350 words

Midterm season was finally here and all Harry wanted to do was study, however his boyfriend, Louis, seems to have a better idea.

Tattooed Heart by KrisStylinson / @zourry-a | Explicit | 10035 words

Note: This is a sequel to this fic.

“Is that fucking real?”

Harry grins. “Feel for yourself.”

A curious hand comes to trace over Harry’s chest, sighing in awe. “Harry.”

He watches him as he does it and wishes he had a camera on him, because the sight of Louis’ dainty hand caressing the beautiful L written in intricate cursive right over Harry’s heart has to be the single greatest thing he’s ever seen.

“Like it?” he asks.

“Harry,” Louis repeats, suddenly digging his thumb into the skin as if it was going to disappear at any second—it wasn’t, something Harry’s tattoo artist made sure of. “That’s—that’s permanent.”

“You’re permanent,” Harry replies, simple as can be.

Little White Lies by wickedarcher_08 / @wicked-archer | Explicit | 10450 words

Louis makes an off hand comment in an interview then comes home to find Harry has laid his old braces out on their bed.

All The Strings Attached by floweredhalo / @floweredhalo | Not Rated | 10517 words

“He wasn’t good enough for you anyway, H,” Louis says and continues eating. Harry’s still reeling from the fact that Louis is jealous. Part of him wants to prove that Louis has nothing to be jealous about, that Harry is fully Louis’ and no one else’s. The other part wants to punish Louis for acting spoiled. But Harry can’t act on either urge, he tightens his hand into a fist in his lap instead.

“No, he wasn’t. He didn’t quite fit the job.”

“Harry, it wouldn’t be a job to date you. It would be lovely,” Louis says, almost in a whisper. They’re sitting closer, Harry just now notices. Louis’ body is completely angled towards Harry and Harry’s body is not far behind.

Your Sins, My Vices by Jennifer_Kaid | Explicit | 12582 words

Louis hates soulmates. Harry has waited his whole life for one.

This Glorious Mess by theweightofmywords / @sunflowerrlouis | Mature | 14260 words

His head lolls to the side, and his eyes float open to focus on what used to be his bedside table.

It’s empty now, devoid of the framed photo of the two of them. And Louis knows that he has no right to feel hurt, but somehow, this only confirms what this really is.

“This is the last time,” he cries, his voice breaking both from pleasure and pain.

“I know, baby,” Harry breathes, burying his face in Louis neck.

Pleasure Over Matter by summerwine / @smrwine | Explicit | 15204 words

Harry is a bit out of his element, and an unsuspecting stranger provides him temporary relief.

Everywhere And Nowhere by 2tiedships2 / @2tiedships2 | Mature | 16547 words

Niall took a seat and said, “Apparently Louis’ downstairs neighbor is a fan of giving Louis creepy gifts. Maybe I should go introduce myself and tell him that Louis actually prefers food.”

“What has he given you?” Liam asked.

Louis shrugged as it were no big deal. “There was a rabbit’s foot keychain on the door a little after he left from introducing himself and there was a small teddy bear sitting by my door tonight. Obviously I can’t prove it’s from him, but they seem to have his scent. I could be wrong though.”

“Wow,” Liam said, looking deep in thought. “That’s old school.”

“What’s old school?” Niall asked. “Giving creepy gifts?”

“I’ve never known an alpha to do it, to be honest, but he’s courting you.”

Louis couldn’t contain his look of disbelief directed at Liam. “He’s courting me. Like some sort of romantic shit they’d do in the 1800s or something?”

Tonight's Not Over (Come Over And Stay) by louistomlinsons / @microlouis | Explicit | 16690 words

Zayn doesn’t say anything for a moment, pausing and worrying at his bottom lip. Finally, he asks, “Have you heard that Cox guy is coming out with a new song?” Louis freezes, fingers hovering over his keyboard where they had been typing his password. “No, I hadn’t,” Louis says truthfully. “Where did you hear that?” “Tell anyone this and I’ll kill you, but I’d consider myself a big fan,” Zayn says. His face doesn’t change in expression, completely serious as he admits this to Louis. “Big fan? Like run a blog and everything?”

I Been Feeling High When I Touch Your Body by notasawrap / @notasawrap | Not Rated | 16946 words

Harry is a boxer, Louis is an architect and Liam is the worst cupid that could ever exist.

The Post-War BP by jaerie / @jaerie | Explicit | 17732 words

The eight year war has left the country’s birthrate severely stunted with a lack of virile alphas left to bring it back up. To ensure the survival of the country, the government opens The Breeding Program where young omegas can apply to carry an alpha’s child in exchange for benefits. Louis’ family is struggling and the BP is one of the only ways to secure a roof over their heads. Harry was drafted at the age of eighteen and spent six years of his life defending a country he doesn’t recognize when he returns home. The government made the bed but it’s Harry that has to lie in it.

Be Mine, Dear by louisgrindsonharry | Not Rated | 20104 words

It really wasn’t fair. He was the oldest of all of them. He’s the one who dreamed about being bonded his whole life, while Liam laughed at the idea, until he met Sophia. Niall had always been indifferent, but when he met Heather six months ago, everything changed for him. He quickly went from being the only omega around two alpha’s, to the odd omega out. And it really wasn’t fair, because Liam and Niall both still protected him just as much as the did before, just as much they do their new mates now, but he was still bitter about it, so he’d pity himself as much as he wanted.

Deflower Me by thelesserneptune / @quelquesetoiles | Explicit | 20154 words

Everyone is 19 and horny, and Louis just really wants to get fucked by Harry.

Going My Way by jacaranda_bloom / @jacaranda-bloom | Explicit | 20261 words

"Hey Harry. Really sorry to do this to you but an emergency has come up with Vera’s mum and we’ve had to jump a flight home. My mate Louis is going to take over my LYFT clients while I’m away. He’s got my car and my phone and everything else. Hope that’s okay. He’s a good guy and I think you two are going to get along brilliantly. Catch you soon, Benny."

Drunk in Love (Last Thing I Remember) by MrsStylinson / @lovehoperomance | Mature | 22102 words

The one where Louis wakes up, naked, in a stranger’s bed and has no idea how he got there. Maybe it’s foul play. Maybe it’s just the kindness of a handsome stranger amused by his drunken antics.

Etched in Salt (Is a Cathedral of the World) by HelloAmHere / @helloamhere | Explicit | 24416 words

Note: This fic has mentions of BH. This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

Louis asks for very few things in life, and they are: to solve cases, to keep bad people from doing their bad things, to get good coffee, to go home to a spacious apartment with nobody else in it, and to manage his stupid telempathy powers with minimal interference. And now he’s stuck in a tiny cabin in a snowstorm in the middle of god-awful-nowhere with Harry Styles. Because of course he is.

Welcome Back From The Friend Zone by 2tiedships2 / @2tiedships2 | Mature | 32354 words

The one where an idea to create a fake wedding with the sole intent to receive gifts from billionaires took a turn no one, but also everyone, saw coming.

Close to Nowhere by angelichl / @angelichl | Explicit | 34589 words

Louis and Harry are psychics who kind of hate each other. They go to Tennessee to investigate a haunting.

Let Me Feel Your Heartbeat by angelichl / @angelichl | Explicit | 34572 words

Harry is 98% sure Louis hates him. So he feels like his bewilderment is justified when the omega offers to help him through his rut.

If I Stay by Rearviewdreamer / @all-these-larrythings | Mature | 37226 words

Harry and Louis agree to a temporary arrangement that Harry can't seem to walk away from no matter how many times he tries.

The Only North Star by Skyebyrd / @skyebyrd | Explicit | 39299 words

A story told in two parts.

Part one: Harry meets Louis at NYU and falls immediately and deeply in love, despite Louis’ overbearing boyfriend. Harry interns at the local Daily Bugle as part of the Superhero/Crime Liaison Unit and learns how to study and track superheroes and villains and the damage they inflict on the citizens of NYC. Harry does what he believes to be the right thing. Come the end of the school year, he uncovers more than what he cares to know.

Part two: Louis gets bitten, gets sick, and gets strange powers (which come with…strange responsibilities). He has to learn to control them while also helping NYC’s most famous superheroes to fight off NYC’s newest, baddest supervillain. He also has to figure out his slowly detangling relationship with Harry. He only has the summer to save the city, and Harry.

Latibule by thelesserneptune / @quelquesetoiles | Mature | 49946 words

A Spirited Away AU of sorts where Louis just wants to heal and be left alone, only for all his plans to be destroyed by the hands of an infuriating British God.

Dog Got Your Tongue? by seducedbycurls / @seduced-by-curls | Not Rated | 50914 words

Louis is a dog walker.

Waiting for the Tides to Meet by nauticalleeds / @nauticalleeds | Explicit | 59637 words

Soulmate AU. Everyone is born with heterochromia — one eye is their own eye colour, while the other is the colour of their soulmate’s. It’s only when they meet their soulmate for the first time that their own eyes match properly. After a hazy night at a frat party, Louis wakes up to blue eyes and the shocking realization that he had met his soulmate, without any sober recollection. Seven years pass where Louis comes to terms with the fact that he’ll never know who his soulmate is. Then one fated summer, a beautiful green-eyed photographer arrives at Louis’ workplace, with promises of endless laughter and a familiar feeling in Louis’ heart.

I Just Wanna Get Back to Us by louiesunshine / @louiesunshine | Mature | 62131 words

Where Harry and Louis are divorced soulmates who are seeing each other for the first time in two years.

Swallow The Knife by whoknows / @crazyupsetter | Explicit | 76168 words

“You came,” Louis says, still breathless, clinging to Harry, uncaring that his sweat is getting all over Harry’s presumably clean dad shirt, or that he’s making Harry hold up all of his weight.

“Of course I came,” Harry says. He shifts, one arm curled underneath Louis’ arse, the other spreading wide in the middle of Louis’ back. “If I ignored you every time you pissed me off we would have stopped being friends a long time ago.”

Louis already knows that, of course. It doesn’t do anything to stop the pleased squirm in his belly every time Harry proves it, though. They fight like nobody’s business, both of them too stubborn to pull their punches when they’re arguing, and it used to get them in trouble, but they always make up.

Adrenaline makes Louis loose-lipped, and they both know it. He tightens his arms around Harry’s neck, buries his face in his hair. “I missed you,” he confesses, quiet. “Doesn’t feel the same up there by myself.”

Consequences by allwaswell16 / @allwaswell16 | Explicit | 78566 words

Two years ago Harry let his powerful family come between him and the love of his life, something he deeply regrets. Louis has tried to move on from their devastating break up. Sometimes, he even thinks he has. It only takes one moment to freeze them back in time.

An amnesia AU.

Like Water Over Fire (Like Water On Fire) by MCSSymon / @mcssymon | Mature | 119264 words

Prince Harry has 46 men and 13 weeks to find the husband of his dreams, Louis has a limited amount to time to live out a royal fantasy. They might just be exactly what the other needs.

Tainted Saints And Velvet Vices by Toomanytears / @toomanydreamers | Mature | 126057 words

A self-fulfilling Hogwarts AU in which Louis is new to seventh year and Harry is the resident devil-may-care Slytherin set to make his entire experience a living misery. Due to less than favourable circumstances they’re forced to forge an unwilling, tentative relationship for their own survival. Repressed emotions, decidedly unromantic ballroom dancing, Triwizard Tournament tasks, creative jinxes and twilight flying above the Forbidden Forest ensue.

Inevitable by Etoilenoire | Mature | 185917 words

AU where Louis and Harry used to be more than friends, but everything had to change the day Harry introduces Louis to his new girlfriend.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[wendell-or-something]

I wanna talk about themes in the early parts of the pokémon anime.

because like... for a really simple kids show that was clearly meant to familiarize us with a bunch of collectible characters, the early show has a surprising amount of poignant through lines in its narratives. like, yeah, they're mostly bite sized little one-off stories, but they're all cohesively linked in terms of their ideas.

the way I see it, early pokémon has a lot of themes of deviance, rehabilitation/reconciliation, and environmentalism... and they're all kind of tied to each other. and it all starts with Ash. a lot of people will observe, in retrospect, that Ash was never technically a very adept trainer. his team was often weak, not well balanced, didn't get a lot of practice battling, etc... but that's because Ash is a bit of an oddball himself, and while winning whatever tournament features in that season is Ash's stated goal, that's more about giving the show some semblance of plot structure... it's not actually what's most important to him.

Ash's first appearance in the show compares him to Gary, who is kind of the archetypal successful trainer in the making. where Ash arrives late to professor Oak's lab, Gary is on time. Gary's grandpa is a pokémon professor, which gives him a potential edge in terms of basic knowledge. Gary gets charmander, the "cool" choice... Ash gets literally not even a recommended starter. a leftover pokémon. it's either that or nothing, and it hates him and is hard to work with. but like... the reason Ash was late was because he was so genuinely excited to do this that he couldn't sleep the night before, and that genuine emotion never lets up.

at the start of his journey, Ash initially befriends pikachu by saving it. Ash saving a pokémon and gaining its trust as a result is a repeated element in a lot of episodes, and this is used to drive home the point that one of Ash's core qualities is a willingness to make sacrifices for the good of others. he can be selfish in small mundane ways, as many children are, but when the chips are down, this is always what he chooses to do.

this actually makes some pretty clear sense of the fact that Ash isn't a very good pokémon trainer in terms of battling ability. Ash's ability to battle well is secondary to his care for the pokémon he takes in. and if one of those goals is ever antithetical to the other, he always goes personal over strategic. its one of the things he sacrifices. and this is part of why Ash lets so many of his pokémon go eventually. in a meta sense, it's because the show needs a reason to keep rotating out Ash's team and letting the viewer get personally attached to new and different pokémon, but in the show, Ash often acts as a bridge between one era of a pokémon's life and another. he takes them in, sometimes when no one else would, helps them grow, and then sends them on their way when it's best for them... when he has nothing more to give them, or they'd be happier somewhere else. when its a choice between their well being and his own, Ash chooses them.

and of course, this idea extends, in some ways, to Misty and Brock as well... they each have a particular pokémon type that they're sentimentally attached to, and they stand by their choice of pokémon, regardless of type effectiveness, simply because they like them. in a meta sense, this mirrors how young children probably interacted with their pokémon games... before kids know enough to pick a favorite based on strategy, they usually choose a favorite based on which one makes them happiest to see on screen the most often. Misty's starry-eyed love of water pokémon because they're cute feels really true to the spirit of pokémon.

and themes of deviation and reconciliation all feed into the idea of environmentalism that the show promotes. because when nature and humanity clash, they each consider each other deviant by their own standards, and have to learn to harmonize somehow. whenever episodes aren't focused on battling (and they often aren't) the plot of the episode usually revolves around how humans interact with the pokémon they live with day to day. mostly it's either Ash and his friends learning about how a town successfully lives alongside their local pokémon population, or Ash and his friends resolving a conflict by finding a way for a town to coexist peacefully with their local pokémon population. in most cases, the show comes down heavily on the side of nature being right to exist the way that it does, and humans needing to learn to adapt their lifestyle to nature's needs. the more peaceful episodes simply showcase the kinds of successful adaptations that people have made to accommodate nature... and in spite of this, or in many cases because of it, the technology in pokémon is actually portrayed as really advanced. the fact that wildlife is so hugely important to the culture of the pokémon world, and nature is thriving everywhere you look, points to the idea that technology's advancement simply can't or shouldn't be done if it harms the natural world. because of the way that the study of pokémon is prioritized (you are welcomed to each new journey by a pokémon professor) a lot of technology advances due to the results of studying pokémon, or in order to facilitate the study of pokémon. at the very least, the show posits that it is possible for technological growth to occur while the natural world remains unharmed.

pokémon actually does something really special here, by making the pokémon themselves totally flexible in how human or animalistic they act. sometimes they're a force of nature, like the episode where the presence of a bunch of diglett prevents a tunnel from being dug through their habitat, or sometimes they're domesticated, like the episode where Ash and his friends meet a girl who herds mareep. and sometimes their stories would work just as well as an arc for a human character. as Ash goes along on his journey, he collects a bulbasaur, a squirtle, and a charmander, which each have stories of their own, and all of them are pretty universally relatable.

these stories even get so detailed that you can get an implied sense of each pokémon's age from what they're going through. when Ash meets his bulbasaur, it seems like its basically an adult. its already been a leader of its community for a while, and Ash gains its loyalty by displaying that he has similar values when it comes to caring for others. you can kind of assume that bulbasaur is older because of its position of responsibility, and the way others treat it with deference. seeing bulbasaur as older is actually really interesting, because it went through a whole episode where its instincts were telling it to evolve, but it didn't want to, and actively chose not to. I'd take this to be indicative of the importance of personal choice when it comes to identity, and as an added bonus, it communicates that being sure of who you are is a better indicator of maturity than physical appearance alone.

contrast this with Ash's charmander, who Ash obtained after its trainer abandoned it, and it nearly died. to me, charmander always came off as very young, no matter what stage of evolution it was in. and while the love Ash gave it was always valuable, it was never more needed than when charizard was going through that really petulant phase. honestly, charizard's story is really where the themes of deviance and rehabilitation come out stronger than ever, because this arc is sustained the longest and requires the most patience of Ash. charizard reads as someone who went through trauma at a young age, and hasn't felt truly secure since. the need to come off as powerful and intimidating as fast as possible comes from that insecurity, and a lot of its fickle behavior feels like its proving that it can always choose to do whatever it wants, no matter the circumstances. it really is a pride thing, and I think that comes from the fact that its pride was damaged by its initial abandonment and need for aid. Ash has a rehabilitative effect on charizard because he continuously validates the idea that charizard is powerful and capable. even if charizard chooses to squander opportunities to be helpful, Ash doesn't stop giving it those opportunities... even if it is out of necessity. and Ash never abandons charizard. charizard only leaves Ash when it is actually beneficial to charizard for it to go, and charizard makes this decision on its own.

in this way, pokémon creates a wide range of plausible behavior for its non-human characters, and leaves the creatures in its world in a weird area of ambiguity when it comes to their interactions with people. some pokémon are totally wild, and act like wild animals, while others are fully integrated into human society... you never question that the wild ones could be a danger to random travelers, and you never question that the ones that live in society can understand you on a level equivalent to human understanding. the real genius of this is that it displays, in no uncertain terms, that human beings are not that far off from nature. we are animals, we came from the natural world, and the dichotomy between humanity and nature is a false one. pokémon, as creatures that the human characters live with and care about, bridge the gap between humans and nature... not just in terms of narrative placement, but in terms of their environmental niche. they can slot into human society or the wild outdoor scenery, and feel at home in either place. it actually reminds me a little of shinto beliefs about our surroundings... how plants, animals, and objects all have a significant presence, and humanity is not at the top of a hierarchy in terms of this. all things are owed equal consideration, and humans are needy creatures... we ask a lot of our environment, and should give our respect to the things that facilitate our lives.

and now I want to talk about team rocket, and specifically Meowth. he's probably the most human aligned pokémon in the whole show... not only does he actually have the ability to talk, but he interacts very strangely with other pokémon because of it. Meowth's origin episode shows how he becomes ostracized from both human and pokémon society. he is originally living in poverty in a big city, which means that human society is already failing him... but beyond that, he seeks love and acceptance from another meowth that is aligned so heavily with human society that it inspires him to mimic it in order to become palatable to her. but instead of gaining greater acceptance for his efforts, Meowth becomes more of an oddity, and faces further rejection. and after obtaining human qualities to this extent, most other pokémon don't see him as acceptable by their standards either. he is cast out on all sides, and only finds a place for himself by turning to a criminal organization that is explicitly geared towards the exploitation of pokémon... which would be a lot darker if he weren't with Jessie and James.

Meowth's background explains his behavior, but all things considered, he comes off as incredibly self serving. his biggest recurring fantasy is the idea of belonging to Giovanni, which is purely a status thing, given that Jessie, James, and Meowth all find it intimidating to actually talk to the guy. and while Meowth goes along with every plan to try and steal pokémon, and is actually kind of the brains of their operation, its not as though Meowth doesn't have sympathy for individual pokémon during specific points in the show. he often has to be convinced first though, and the fact that he is a pokémon doesn't really change his loyalties. his species doesn't affect him anymore... he's only loyal to people who treat him as a peer.

the mission statement of team rocket as an organization, is to profit from the exploitation of pokémon... but it has also collected people like Jessie and James, who felt like rejects from society, and ended up in the only place they thought they could go. James couldn't be happy living the way his rich oppressive family wanted him to be, and Jessie tried a bunch of different ways to escape her own childhood poverty and failed at many of those endeavors. Jessie is particularly interesting because you get a lot of little details here and there about how hard her life was, how much her family struggled, how many times she failed in the pursuit of normal career options that she was genuinely interested in... and it manifests in her personality as an interest in material finery, pretty things, good food, and luxury, as well as an abundance of seemingly vapid self affirmations. in spite of everything, she's the ambition of the group, sometimes dramatically more than the other two, like, repeated failure somehow can't touch that.

really though, she and Meowth have a lot in common... and weirdly, this never seems to result in them ganging up on James too harshly. the fact of the matter is, James did have every material thing that Jessie and Meowth probably picture wanting for themselves... but James walked away from it anyway. for Jessie and Meowth that'd be unthinkable, but since he left home, James has been living in relative poverty, same as them. the fact that he doesn't treat his old life as a viable safety net to fall back on in case things don't work out, really legitimizes the idea that he felt pushed out of that environment, same as the other two. the version of him that would've stayed and put up with that life doesn't exist, which is why he's here. and he actually appreciates some of the elements of living the way he does that the others don't. the first thing that comes to mind is that he collects bottle caps... a seemingly worthless item, which is kind of a "one person's trash is another's treasure" sort of thing. and this idea is sort of repeated in the way that he always ends up with pokémon that love him in ways that are difficult or painful to bear, while Jessie reverses that motif by being harsh towards her pokémon, while they love her anyway. and while James is not above his fair share of whining and commiserating, he's often the optimist out of the three of them. he clearly doesn't feel like he's lost anything that was truly valuable to him since leaving home.

each of these three have kind of a disdain for the society that they rejected/the society that rejected them, but they aren't opposed to exploiting the natural world to meet their needs either, and they aren't good at being part of the team rocket organization... this is always made especially clear whenever Butch and Cassidy show up. they're really on their own side. they're the show's ultimate deviants, and this is why it's kind of a comedy of errors that they keep ending up opposing Ash and his friends, because they should get along really well (and they sometimes do whenever they have an episode that puts them on the same side or forces them to work together). though you could say that Jessie, James, and Meowth are rehabilitating by ineffectually chasing these kids around all the time. it gives them a basic sense of purpose that never ends up resulting in anything too terribly destructive.

and within all of this, I keep thinking back to the original pokémon theme song. all the lyrics kind of point back to these themes, though I'm not sure it's really that intentional.

"I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was."

aka being the best by a non traditional standard. one of compassion, regardless of fighting proficiency.

"I will travel across the land, searching far and wide. for these pokémon, to understand, the power that's inside."

putting value in being in nature and seeking to understand it, while also emphasizing the idea of inner strength.

"you're my best friend, in a world we must defend."

our bonds are what make us strong, and our strength is used in service of our world.

"you teach me and I'll teach you."

this relationship isn't one-sided... we should both be humble enough to learn, and considered capable enough to teach.

basic messages for a kids show, I know, but the show does use all of these ideas to support each other throughout.

[defeatedbyamerechild]

Here is my evil team organization. Remember the droog  and child evil team, I asked that. So here is my grunts for Team Myriad. These children are obsessed with fighting trainers and never talk at all. Speak in rhynmes or numbers. Well sometimes but not often. Are they friend or foe?

“These child like grunts have mysteriously appeared in the Galar region. Their motivations and faces are unknown. The thing they love the most is pokemon battling.” Utilize in  normal, fairy, psychic, and steel. But will use other types if they have to. 

So do you like this concept? Also any criticisms for my drawing or improvements. Like their appearance, looks, or design? Would this be an interesting team?

PS I wonder how the pokevillains  would react to this team. Intrigued or confused? Love your blog.

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I forgot about this sorry!!! I saw it the other day and forgot to reply.

Anyways, I really like the designs you have there and I can definitely see the inspiration from the Clockwork Orange aesthetics there. I like that they don’t talk and use rhymes, this is cool dialogue. It is, to me, relatively hard to picture it in an official Pokémon game because I don’t think Nintendo would want it to look too creepy and I can definitely picture this content in a creepy pasta aesthetic that I... don’t think Nintendo would wanna approach. It would be doable, though. And of course, as fan-content, even the creepy pasta style or other horror-related styles are valid. Anyway, it’s a versatile concept that could be used in many ways from just mysterious to actually scary.

I really like the masks, at first I was a bit confused because I thought these were their faces, before reading what you wrote there, but as masks these are neat. Also they are something I can see Nintendo going for, I mean, they literally gave Allister a creepy mask so why not?

Overall, yes, I like it! The concept is neat! As a basic premise for a team that works well for me, even if their goals are unclear. You are basically making the “unclearness” part of the concept. Also really like how you wrote their description in a Pokédex-style, like... the text really reminds me of Pokémon stuff. :3

The only thing I’m still kinda curious about is how this could be developped in order to remain interesting throughout the whole game/story (if a game/story were to be made with it of course), because in terms of narrative, just “it’s a mystery” with no further development can become rather boring or repetitive, or seem kinda disconnected from the rest of the narrated events (depending on how it’s done). Also it could be a problem if the mysterious events are not explained *at all* in the end (half-explained and up to interpretation endinds are good alternatives in my view, but, at least for me, “we’ll never know who they were after all” tends to be a disappointing ending).

Basically, I like the overall idea you gave me, there’s nothing here that I think is a bad idea, but I would find it hard to use if I were to make my own story with them because of the problems above. Maybe you have all that in mind and you already have a superb story with them that works perfectly well, in that case, great, I just wanted to mention what I thought of the concept in practical terms as a (bad) fanfiction writter. XD

BUUUUUUT of course I’m not the executive producer of Game Freak receiving the concept for the next game that I should review or anything, so all this is irrelevant. Even if you didn’t develop their story any further, that’s totally fine. You don’t even have the obligation of thinking this through and answering these questions, you can definitely just make your concept and visuals and not actually use it in a game/fanfiction/comic etc, that is perfectly ok. I’m just a boring person graduated in Language Arts that will go and make boring analysis of stuff. XD

About the art... I think it looks really cute! I don’t wanna go and criticize stuff based on style, like “the heads are too big, limbs are too thin” or something like this, because this is just your style. It’s an aesthetic choice. I could say that the heads are larger than what they usually are in Pokémon games, but honestly, so what? You don’t have to emulate the Pokémon style in order to create Pokémon content. So yeah, you can play with proportions as much as you want and since the drawings seem consistent in terms of symetry and style, that’s just ok.

That said, my only criticism might be...

1. The female grunt’s legs seem a bit too long (even considering the stylistic choices, I’m comparing her body proportions to that of the male grunt). Basically, if you put that same lenght of skirt on the male grunt’s body, it would go down to his socks, but on her she still has the same amount of skin + socks + boots under all that, you see? So maybe make her skirt shorter or make her boots and socks shorter... Or give up on showing parts of skin. It’s easy to lose the sense of proportions under loose clothes like skirts, but if you trace the body silhouette under her skirt, that will probably become clearer. It’s always nice to try and make a full silhouette or skeleton before drawing clothes, in my opinion. (Also this could have resulted from the angle you took the picture! could be just a distortion on the photo that made it look different, so if that’s the case, ignore this XD)

2. This could be a stylistic choice too, but I’m gonna mention it just in case, the limbs look kinda “noodle-ish”. This can also influence your measurement of body proportions like “where exactly does the arm bend”, “where exactly is the knee”, this sort of thing... Of course, as I said, it could just be style, like Adventure Time, for example. They just have those noodle arms. But since I don’t know if that was a conscious choice or not, I decided to mention. Lots of people (including younger me) start by drawing arms (and hands!) as a “continuum”, so if the arms are streched, they are just one straight line from shoulder to hand (some people will even make it shoulder to fingers and put the hand in the noodle pack). And if the limbs are bent, the elbows and knees, fingers and wrists, fold in not very precise places. However, I found it easier to draw arms, legs and hands by subdivinding these limbs into smaller sections. It’s easier to keep them proportional and understand how they bend. You made their arms fully stretched in a way where elbows are not visible and, in the girl specifically, seem a little bit short? Again that can defintely be used as stylistic resource, so only consider this tip if you’re aiming for a more realistically-proportional style.

3. You may wanna make the male grunt’s feet a bit larger? Also they are inclined and I don’t know if that was done intentionally or not. (or if it was just the paper bending a bit when you took the pic).

I’m like... not a professional artist or a teacher or anything. I’ve literally never studied art, so when I give out these feedbacks, they are usually based on my own life-experience and what I’ve learned drawing. But it’s always hard to set the line between style and mistakes. I was once told that you must first learn the basics of actually proportional anatomy before you can start playing with it, so when people ask me for tips, I try to stick to the things I’ve learned myself while developing my knowledge in anatomy and proportions. Not that I am like.. an expert, of course. So yeah, basically, don’t take my criticism as the ultimate truth, I’m still just learning just like you. ^^

About suggestions and improvements: Maybe add something to their canes, on the handle part? And maybe adding detail to their boots... But only if you want to of course. Also, have you thought of eyelashes for the masks, like... eyelashes on only one eye or something? This wouldn’t be for the grunts because I think they look great just like that and are already complex enough, but you might wanna use that for admins or something? Specially if it’s eyelashes on the lower half of the eye.

I also would like to say that I couldn’t read everything you wrote, sorry.... I’m bad with handwriting! So forgive me if I said anything redundant that you had already put in the info. ^^

And finally... I don’t usually make reaction things in submissions, only during ask events, so forgive me for not giving you the villains reactions here. I hope you understand. ^^

SORRY FOR THE SUPER LONG REPLY AND FOR THE DELAY, I HOPE YOU FIND WHAT I SAID INTERESTING AND USEFUL MAYBE?