#honestly fire type starters are my second go to

[i-never-forgot]

So…I know I said I would finish the comic page next, but hEAR ME OUT—

I finally bought Violet :) I’ve got Gatito the Sprigatito (original, I know), Fresa the Tarountula, and Gawain the Ralts so far as I explore the zone on the way to the academy!

[ebonystarfall]

Hey, I just saw your blog, and I'm so excited to see more of this fandom!! Could you write some Red Son x M!reader, where reader is a dragon? Maybe a familiar of Mei, who is very cold and introvert. Maybe an ice dragon??? Also, if you're not comfortable with male reader, can you make it gn? Thanks!!

Blazing Flames and Frigid Ice

Red Son x M!Dragon Reader

Created by: Starbeam (Owner 1)

Type of content: Headcanons

Pov: Second

Word count: 562

TW: N/A

A/N: I’ve played so many pjsk matches that I want to curl up and cry. However, I will write this to ignore everything on my CRK blog (I still love it, just a bit tired). Also decided to read Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol and loved it. Please read it. Oh, by the way I made the reader be Mei’s cousin.

REBLOGS ARE APPRECIATED

For starters, Mei introduced the two of you sometime after s3 and before s4, stating that of course she would want her favorite cousin to meet the hot-tempered (but overall heroic) mentor she had when she was training to control the Samadhi Fire. Of course, Red Son and you didn’t…well, let’s just say that the two of you didn’t get along. While you were much more cold and indifferent, he was much more vocal on the fact that he did NOT need to be meeting another arrogant dragon…

And both of you thought of the other as a pompous, ignorant snob, that was for sure. Not like you planned to voice your opinion.

Yet, it was Mei that brought the two of you for a day of fun and gaming. Since MK was busy with other things, this was a great opportunity to see how her favorite cousin and one of her best friends would interact!

…she basically decided to put you and Red Son in a gladiator match for gaming. (You both tied and were equally pissed at that fact)

—

For the next few days you were staying at Mei’s house, you unfortunately had to deal with seeing the Bull Prince more. Especially the times when she made you tag along with him. Honestly? You’d much rather stay in bed eating ice instead of going out in the sun and next to someone who literally controls fire. You can handle if Mei’s just there, but when two people with pyrokinesis are by you? Yeah, you felt like turning into a puddle for the most part.

Surprisingly, Red Son was the one who noticed this first, and he actually kept his distance from you for the most part. On a day that was particularly hot, he decided to begrudgingly buy you an ice cream. During this, your cousin was giving you ALL types of teasing looks, basically saying, “I think someone has a crushhhhh…” ;)

You decided to ignore them for the most part, because there was absolutely no way that either of you could ever have a crush on-

He let you lean on him when the three of you were watching a horror movie.

Most of the time, the two of you were just blaming the directors and actors for making everything look stupid instead of scary. Yet…in that moment, you guessed you could tolerate him for the time being. He didn’t seem so hot-tempered after all. Or was he only this way around you?

—

At the end of the sleepover, when Red Son was about to leave, you felt the urge to walk up to him. Of course, he was slightly annoyed and confused, but all that vanished as you pressed a hesitant little kiss against his cheek. He stared at you in complete shock, an immediate blush appearing on his face as he looked away.

You paused. Had you done something wrong? Was he mad? Oh, gods, you knew that it was a bad idea, what if he didn’t lik-

Now it was your turn to blush as he gave you a tiny kiss on the forehead, then he immediately started to walk away awkwardly, clearly flustered and embarrassed. You actually felt…warm, after that. No ice could compare to what the hell just happened here.

Well…guess you were definitely planning to stay at Mei’s place more, weren’t you?

[tigerwolfproductions]

You’re challenged by Bookworm Becky!

Superheroine Wordgirl wants to battle!

My “as close as I can get to Pokemon” style is back! ... and just as confused as before.

Ah, the official Pokemon style. It changes with every generation, has confusing shading techniques in some gens, and I just kinda had to go with “the best I could manage” again XP (pretty proud of Bob’s tail flame though! That was tricky to do).

Moving on from my artist woes, it’s Becky and Bob Botsford and their secret identities of Wordgirl and Captain Huggyface! Been on a Wordgirl kick recently and since it came directly after a Pokemon kick, well, my brain inevitably crossed the two over. My brain also decided that it was enough of a masochist to want to take another crack at Pokemon style(ish), so here we are! I think the lineart has improved for the most part for human characters; I definitely felt more confident making Becky/Wordgirl! I actually based her off Shauna from XY... Not sure what urged me to do so, but I guess it worked so I ain’t complaining, haha.

Posing was actually tricky. I was originally going to put Becky in a bit more of a cutesy pose, but actually decided against it. She’s Becky Botsford, mild mannered ten year old. I figured, why not make the contrast between her and the Wordgirl pose all the more apparent? Ya know, put all her energy into the bold super-identity! So that I did, though I will say hands pointing at the screen is not a fav of mine to do at the moment, lol

As for Bob, I honestly didn’t really think of many difference there’d be between him and a regular Monferno, but I did add a couple of extra hair tufts to the back of his head. They’re there to represent the front hair tufts he has in the show :3 And of course he’s gotta be eating something, so I looked around and found a berry that would work for him. Not that he’d discriminate against most other berries, but I wanted one that made sense in some way, so a Shuca berry it was! They halve the damage from a super-effective ground-type attack, and have a “spicy-sweet-smooth” flavor chart and with Monferno being a fire type, I figured that spicy part worked out.

Speaking of, it actually took a moment of my time to brainstorm through what Pokemon to make Bob. It had to be a monkey, but what kind? First, there was the point of what type to make him, so I watched a few Wordgirl episodes and happened across a fight between him and Leslie and basically slapped my forehead because a doi- Fighting type for his ability to do Karate! So with that narrowed down, I tried to go through my memories for what monkey Pokemon were fighting types. Passiman came first, but they’re a bit too big for Bob to be. The Mankey line doesn’t quite fit in with his body type or nature, so I had to forgo that too. Then I remembered the fire-fighting starter monkey that made an obvious fit: Monferno! Which also works out because of course a ten year old would have a starter Pokemon as a main partner, and Monferno also shares the blue and red that Captain Huggyface’s uniform has.

Becky/Wordgirl wasn’t too hard to redesign outside of doing it in (the as close as I can get to) Pokemon style. The hardest part of Becky was the skirt thanks to shading, but I think I managed something decent. Second place actually goes to her book bag though. That main button was harder to nail down than I thought it’d be... As for the charms, I thought they could be a cute nod to two main things about her- the secret identity and her love of unicorns, which I figured would translate into a love of Ponyta/Rapidash in the Pokemon universe. Especially the Galarian forms, haha.

On the Wordgirl side, there was a bit more I decided to add. Most of it was dedicated to making her uniform feel a little bit more Pokemon-y, so I added some extra details to the boots and gloves then added pouches to her belt. The goggles were technically a part of that too, but also just because I like the idea of her one day adding them to her uniform (maybe one too many times of getting random goop in her eyes would make her consider it lol). I definitely like the results- I think it makes her look a bit like she’s wearing some sort of space hero outfit :D

As for what exactly this AU would entail, I’d like to think it wouldn’t change much from the main show. Becky lives in a city somewhere in Unova, living her daily life as a regular trainer that goes to a quaint little school with her partner Pokemon, Bob the Monferno (that’s totally normal to have as a starter in Unova; please ignore the part where she should have a Unovian starter). But in her secret double life, she takes on the odd supervillains in her city as Wordgirl, alien superheroine with a perfect vocabulary! But I do imagine Captain Huggyface would get to do more with his moveset of Ember, Close Combat, Mach Punch, and Focus Energy, (Becky unfortunately slacks a little on Pokemon training) as well as an appetite that rivals a Snorlax.

... Wow I rambled about my process. Well, thanks to anyone who read through it all; y’all have a nice day/evening!

[nancywheelersgirlfriend]

could u write a fic where nancy fully finds out what happened to robin and steve under starcourt

here u go, beloved anon. thank u for waiting so long and so patiently <3

so much braver (than i credit u for) (2,029 words)

T.W. implications of sexual assault, canon violence

The wear and tear were hardly visible in the summer sunlight - that's where Steve thrived, with his tan skin and admittedly nice chest and excellent swimming skill - but now, sat in front of his parents’ campfire with his head against his fist, he looked decades older than he really was. Nancy held her roasting stick tentatively, the marshmallow threatening to collapse into the fiery pit below as she distracted herself in tracing the shadows that fell underneath his eyes. In the harsh light he looked almost in a constant state of grief, with heavy eye bags and lines along his forehead, lips pressed in a thin line and hair limp from the heat.

Robin sat beside Nancy, the two having commandeered the foldout loveseat upon arriving in his backyard. She was expertly placing two roasted marshmallows onto their respective graham crackers - one burnt to all hell and one barely cooked. She passed one to Steve, who had his hand open and waiting as if second nature to accept food from Robin. He liked his barely cooked, apparently.

Eddie was nearly passed out in the lawn chair across the fire from them, a few purposeful feet from Steve after a day spent trying and failing to get a summer job. Surprisingly, nobody wanted to hire the assumed leader of a deadly cult. Robin suggested using it as a resume builder. Nancy suggested changing his name and trying out the next town over. He had his arms folded across his chest, a bit of marshmallow stuck to a long curled strand that Nancy didn’t have the heart to bother him about picking off.

Steve seemed to be contemplating shoving the entire smore in his mouth in one go. 

“You alright?” Nancy asked, immediately wincing at both the lack of tact and impersonality of her question - they’d known each other long enough to forgo conversation starters like that. “You look, um.”

“You look like shit,” Robin helpfully interrupted, sucking off a bit of marshmallow from her finger and generally being the bane of Nancy’s existence. Steve looked up from the smore as if he’d forgotten they were there completely, a little look of shock on his face.

“I’m fine,” He said, but his tone of voice was anything besides reassuring. “I’m, uh, just not getting much sleep lately.” Nancy nodded, fully prepared to drop the whole awkward thing anyway. Clearly, Steve didn’t want to talk about himself or his well-being - he hardly ever did.

“Me neither,” Robin agreed. She took a bite of her burnt-as-hell smore, wordlessly taking Nancy’s stick from out of her loose grip and holding it patiently over the fire for her.

“Thank you,” Nancy whispered to her side. Robin knocked their feet together in acknowledgment.

“I haven’t slept since 1983, honestly,” Steve added, and while he was laughing as he said it Nancy didn’t take it as a joke.

“I have trouble sleeping too,” Nancy admitted to the both of them, hoping to coax them out into the open. Steve and Robin were a bit like frightened animals - make them talk about their feelings too much and they’d scurry away. Deer in headlights type. She had to be gentle. “I dream about - Barb. And Fred.” Just saying their names still made her choked up. Nancy ducked her head into her sweater, prepared to blame her watery eyes on the heavy smoke from the campfire. As she sniffled into the fabric, Steve hummed in neutral agreement.

“I dream about the mall,” Steve said. Beside her, Nancy felt Robin move her whole body to nod.

“You saved my life,” Nancy said, smiling wetly as she remembered both t-boning Billy’s precious sports car seconds before he flattened Nancy into the concrete. “With Toddfather.”

“That was, actually, a highlight of the night,” Steve said, laughing a little in reply as he bit into his smore. “Perfect, Rob.”

“Did you expect anything less?” She asked, pulling back Nancy’s stick just as it was beginning to catch fire. If smore-making could be a job, Robin would be making six figures, no doubt. It was little things like that that made Nancy love her so heartbreakingly. Even watching her do something as simple as making her a smore with the correct amount of chocolate and graham made her heart try to pull itself out of her chest. 

“In most of my dreams,” Steve said, face grounding itself as he tapped a careful thumb against the top of his smore. “I’m - um. I’m back in that room.” Nancy frowned in confusion, taking Robin’s offered smore robotically as she looked at him.

“That room?” She asked. “What room?”

“We never told you?” Robin replied, a little surprised and a little cautious - Nancy’s heart began a steady descent down to her sneakers. What the hell had they not told her? 

It was hard to check in on everybody, especially after that night. She and Jon had been so in the dark about everything else - and the hospital, god. She hadn’t allowed space in her brain for anything else, which she could admit now was a little selfish. Still, Nancy had never asked. And Robin had never said. Certainly, Steve hadn’t. She hardly knew a thing about his childhood, despite dating him for two years and being one of his closest friends for another.

“I know you guys got messed up by some Russians,” Nancy said quietly, surveying both Steve's and Robin’s faces. In the firelight, they looked eerily similar - almost haunted. “But I don’t know the details. I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Robin reassured her, hand coming to pull her waist in close and squeeze the outer pocket of her jacket. “We forgot to tell you. I guess it never came up.”

“Who wants to talk about it, anyway?” Steve said, mostly to himself. He took another bite of his smore as uneasy silence fell on the group. Nancy felt terrible to push, but her journalist curiosity got the better of her.

“So - what did happen?” She asked. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine,” Robin replied. Nancy watched her make eye contact with Steve, and they proceeded to have a conversation with only slight twitches on their faces. It was the innate ability that came with being best friends the way they were. “You know about the elevator, right?” Nancy racked her brain, then: yes, a hazy recollection of Erica explaining how they’d ended up in the underground base in the first place.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Well, after they set off the alarms and figured out we’d broken in, we all rushed into a backroom,” Robin began, eyes firmly set on the fire. As if she were embarrassed to tell Nancy - or nervous to see her reaction. “Dustin and Erica managed to get themselves into the vent system, to try to get out - but Steve and I had to hold the door to give them enough time. We were grabbed by a bunch of Russian guards and spilt up for interrogation. They kept us there for hours.”

“They beat me so bad I nearly died,” Steve cut in, teeth gritting against each other as if the words were forcing themselves out. Nancy noticed his empty hand, the one not holding his smore, was balling into a tight fist against his leg. “They didn’t believe me when I said I wasn’t working for anybody - they just kept hitting me over and over and over again. I couldn’t breathe, it hurt so bad.” That’s why his face was messed up so badly. Nancy couldn’t help her mouth from dropping open.

“When they brought us back together, I thought he-” Robin cut herself off, gasping as she suddenly realized she was crying. “Jesus, I. I’m sorry. I thought Steve was dead.” The last three words were mere whispers as if saying them to the air made it all more real. Nancy took her hand. Steve’s fist immediately unfurled to take her other, stretched beside the fire to grip with a fury she had never seen before. Robin continued to stare into the fire, unseeing.

“Did they beat you up, too?” Nancy asked. Robin let out a little breath through her nose in careful excess at the question.

“No,” She said quietly. “Well - they did. But not as bad as Steve. It was only in reaction to - when they dragged me in there, I was wearing my Scoops uniform. You know, it’s a pretty shitty outfit for espionage, yeah? And - my skirt - I thought they were going to - so kicked one of the guards in the face, and that’s when they beat me up. But they mostly left me alone.”

It was difficult to pin down exactly what Nancy felt at that exact moment. At first, it was cold horror at the steady, small implication of what Robin was saying; what those guards would’ve done to her, had she not been as ready to fight back or them not as lenient in letting her alone. But horror gave way quickly to a tidal wave of fierce, untamable anger. One that roared in Nancy’s chest and took over her whole being, face reddening with intensity and hand gripping Robin’s with white knuckles.

“Nance,” Robin chided. She looked away from the fire finally to make eye contact with Nancy. “It’s okay. I’m okay. You don’t need to break my hand.”

“Sorry,” Nancy choked out, releasing her grip only slightly. She was worried if she let go, Robin would float away - or worse, be dragged back down to the depths of the mall.

Steve’s face, in comparison, was a steady, heated anger - just as angry as Nancy, but none of the surprise. He’d known about this. Perhaps the entire time. Nancy desperately wished he’d said something, but on the same thought acknowledged it was all within Robin’s jurisdiction. At least she was telling her now.

“And then they drugged us,” Steve said. “And almost took off one of my fingers as a torture tactic.”

“Luckily Dustin and Erica came in then,” Robin finished, shaking her head and smiling despite the tears in her eyes. “The fucking idiots. I could’ve killed them if I had been able to stand up.”

“Horse tranquilizers,” Steve told Nancy, a similar smile on his face. The silence returned for a second or two before Steve was all but collapsing into Robin, pulling her into a tight hug that she returned whole cloth. Nancy stayed on the loveseat as the two best friends stood up for a better angle, gripping each other as if holding each other together. She rested a careful hand on Robin’s back and let her girlfriend fall against her shoulder, emotionally and physically exhausted, when the hug finally broke.

“I’m sorry,” Nancy said, because there was nothing else to say. Steve finished the rest of his smore and looked back into the fire. It seemed some of the shadows, while not entirely going away, had gotten a little lighter. As if the words they had spoken were floating off in the smoke. Robin looked about ready to fall asleep. “I wish I had been there.”

“I am so fucking glad you weren’t,” Robin said, voice muffled. She tucked her head against Nancy’s shoulder and shut her eyes. When Nancy managed to stop looking at the beauty that was her girlfriend in the firelight, she looked back at Steve.

“You can fall asleep, too,” Nancy offered. “I’ll keep watch.” Steve gave her a wiry grin and suddenly he was sixteen again, and the butterflies in her stomach awakened just enough for her to give him one in return.

“Thanks, Nance,” He finally decided, leaning back into his chair and tucking his hands into his jacket pockets. “It’s over, yeah? Like Rob said, it’s okay. We’re okay.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Nancy admitted, carding a careful hand through Robin’s choppy bangs. Steve’s smile grew as the fire winked. 

“You’re already doing something,” He said, gesturing to Robin and her prone position against Nancy’s shoulder. “You’re something, Nance. That’s enough. That’s more than enough.”

Nancy, once again, blamed her tears on the fire. Steve didn’t say a word about it.

[pokestudentjune]

Hellow!

I just saw you have a Typhlosion in your team! Can you tell me a bit about how a Typhlosion can act? My official starter's Nino, a Cyndaquil, and even if I love him a lot, my family pushed me into having a "real" starter even if I already have another partner before him!

@lud-and-griz

Hello there !! Omg my first ask..

First off, I think its quite interesting how your parents pushed you for a "real" starter.. I'm going to ramble a bit, but the starter pokemon of each region are a bit overhyped in my opinion. This can cause unethical breeding of them or mistreatment by non professionals for a quick buck. Plus, any starter can be "real!" Starters are honestly just a social construct and it puts weird standards on pokemon and trainers to go down their path a specific way...

BUT!! My pokemon ethics input isnt what you asked for!! Of course, every pokemon has their own personality and tendencies in respect to the individual, so I can't say for sure how your cyndaquil will be like when evolved– but luckily for you the cyndaquil line is one of my favorites! So i can give you a general rundown on what to expect. 

Cynaquil and Quilava are similar in the sense that both are generally pretty cautious pokemon in the wild, prefering to not pick fights unless necessary. They are lower on the food chain, and thus rely on their flame for defense usually, not offense. Typhlosion on the other hand however, burst with a hotter flame and become very territorial and independent in the wild. 

With that in mind, Typhlosion after evolving tend to be more confident and a bit more mature than they were as a quilava, adjusting to a bigger body with bigger flames through this process. Their personality will pretty much stay the same, but slightly different as well. Think of it as growing up from a teen into an adult! (Keep in mind though that evolution stage does NOT equal age!) Typhlosion tend to be extremely protective of their trainer upon evolution, as well as become a tad bit more stoic than before, probably stemming from their territorial tendencies in the wild. Its also been shown within a vast majority of domesticated Typhlosion that they tend to have a short temper when on the battlefield--regardless of their personality. This is probably a genetic feature that helps fuel a Typhlosions back flame during fights, which can be quite devastating if your pokemon does not know how to control it. In addition, typhlosion has a feature none of its pre-evolutions have. Not simply flame-retardant fur, but a second layer of fur with a chemical compound that is capable of combusting under extreme heat. Just a little heads up if you ever see your Typhlosions entire body burst into fire!

Having cyndaquil evolve into a typhlosion is no easy feat and a great achievement for these pokemon! it may take them some time to adjust to the new body though, as Typhlosion typically prefer to stand on their hind legs–whereas quilava usually stay quadrapedal unless searching for danger, so be prepared for lots of bumping heads on sheves or tables. It might have been a while since your partner was a cyndaquil! Your typhlosion may also have an increased interest in sweets, even if they never liked sweet stuff before. This is because with a stronger flame, your typhlosion will need more fuel. Sucrose is known for being extremely flammable, and is often desired amongst fire types. Consuming sugars will help the gas sacs along its neck produce a strong flame! Your typhlosion might be more interested in consuming meat over bugs like its pre-evolutions. Be prepared to either adjust their diet or expect a potential gift at your doorstep sometimes! Typhlosion might also develop a habit of burrowing upon evolution. This is a nesting behavior that the other two evolutions don’t usually exhibit to the extent of a Typhlosions. Your Typhlosion may enjoy creating a burrow a few feet deep into the ground to rest in at night, the bottom of it lined with ash and sticks to keep it warm– kind of like its own mini campfire!

Whew that was a lot. Sorry to ramble! I just love sharing information about pokemon I love <3 I would talk about Jasper, my own Typhlosion on here, but this post is already getting pretty long. I’ll be keeping an eye on your cyndaquil! If they want to evolve, then I’d love to see it!

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Pokemon Emerald: Ralts Only

The Wally challenge. AKA Why Would Anyone Do This, Please Love Yourself!

I've been watching frankly too much solo Pokemon content and decided to try my own run. But rather than anything remotely sensible I decided to start with Ralts. Oh. Ralts. We're going to get extremely acquainted with one another aren't we.

Ralts is quite bad and honestly a baffling choice for a solo only run.

It's base stats are really low, honestly lower than you would think they should be. It's BST is lower than every other Pokemon you can catch in the area, that's how little they want you to use this Pokemon. But even worse is...

the movepool. There's good moves on here and getting Psychic at the brisk level of 26 is really nice! But we are going to have to gatekeep gaslight girlboss our way past a lot of the early game Pokemon in Emerald. Every Poochyena is an Avengers-level threat.

Let's get started (and the last time I use an emulator's screenshot function again, holy shit).

You might be wondering if the run is even possible at all. After all, the very first thing you do in Pokemon Emerald is defeat a Level 2 Zigzagoon, and you might notice that we don't have any damage dealing moves. Only Growl. Surely the run is just dead?

Nope! It turns out that if the Zigzagoon would KO your Pokemon, it will actually run away instead! Which is both really funny, and depressing. There's no way out for us. We're Sisyphus, and we're assumed happy.

It is at this point that the realization dawns on myself. We cannot actually get to Route 102 without first defeating Brendan, and his Level 5 starter. Eagle eyed readers might notice we replaced Treecko, so Brendan is going to have Mudkip. (Edit from the future: what the fuck are you talking about how did you mess this up?) How, exactly, are we going to succeed in actually defeating him? Well, I have a plan.

It's not a good one, but it exists.

Now this isn't exactly a speedrun. I'm not exactly confident enough in my ability to play through these games quickly enough to make time feel like a relevant metric. I will eventually win, no matter how long it takes. ;w;

But for now, I do the most important part of the run. I save the game and open up PKHex. I'm using a Ralts, so I need as much help as I can get here, and besides, it wouldn't be fair if this Ralts wasn't as good as possible, right?

We actually got really lucky on the nature, as Naive nature is exactly what I was hoping for. 45 base Speed is going to need all the help it can get, so I'm happy for the 10% bonus. Sp.Def is probably our least important stat as well. Now you might wonder why I'm not going for Timid or Modest and...the answer is, unfortunately, we're going to need our Attack stat for a lot of early game fights and throughout the run.

The choice of ability for this run was Trace. Neither Trace or Synchronize are really that good in all honesty, but Trace gives us a bit of information and can potentially be good depending on the situation. Synchronize is neat as a status punisher, but it comes up too infrequently and isn't that good to boot.

Now it isn't immediately obvious, but this actually isn't a perfect Ralts. This Ralts is 31/30/31/30/31/30. This is because this run is going to be using Hidden Power. I'm personally going to be locking in Hidden Power Fire for this run for two reasons. The first is that I think the coverage on Steel-types is going to prove critical for one fight in particular, and the second is, I don't actually think Hidden Power Fighting is good. It sounds like a good answer for Steel and Dark-types, but in Generation III, Hidden Power Fighting is Physical and that means we can't boost it, and it's impacted by Intimidate, which is surely not remotely relevant.

Also for those who don't know, Caitlin is the name of one of my girlfriends, @juci-luci . It felt fitting to make her a Ralts. Love you <3

So let's talk about my plan for Rival 1. Brendan 1. The Mudkiperino. If we had access to Route 102, this would actually be nothing worth talking about. We would mull about in the grass until we got a Ralts or a Seedot encounter, and then use all of our Growl PP until we could use Struggle. But...

Like I said, we actually cannot go to Route 102 yet. So we have to find a way to deplete our Growl PP...and not go to the Pokecenter to heal our HP at all. Let's look at our options here.

Route 101 has three available encounters: Poochyena is definitely the worst, because it's only move at Levels 2-3 is Tackle, so it will constantly attack us. Zigzagoon is also pretty bad though since its a Normal-type, and will do a lot of damage to us as it rams into our face. Wurmple isn't a very strong Pokemon thankfully, so it could work as long as we keep trying for a Level 2 Wurmple.

If you're curious about Route 103, don't worry, it's even worse. Wingull doesn't even care about Growl and will blast us with its special STAB Water Gun. This ain't it.

We actually get pretty lucky and find a Level 2 Wurmple on our first attempt! Now begins...the pain. At -6, this Wurmple is only doing 2 damage to us but what's actually kind of weird here is that the Growls don't actually impact the damage. Wurmple's Attack stat and Level are already so low that the rounding evens out everything anyways. Just an incredibly weird quirk of how the damage formula works. But as an additional quirk, no matter what Wurmple's Attack stat can be, a critical hit will always deal 5 damage. This has a couple of interesting knock-on effects.

The first is we don't need to heal in battle. Once we get to a low enough HP total, we can just run away a use a Potion out of battle. This might seem odd, but it's actually beneficial to do so, since Wurmple's damage isn't affected by anything we do, but String Shot does meaningfully impact our Speed. Outspeeding the Wurmple will give us at least one additional guaranteed Growl, plus it means I can avoid using items in battle entirely. :D

The second is that, ignoring the possibility of crits, we always can waste a minimum of 9 Growls with each Wurmple we fight, and Wurmple has 50/50 odds of using Tackle or String Shot, so we'll likely waste even more. Despite my initial concerns about Potion rationing, we might be able to get away without having to use many Potions!

I'm not going to labor the point too much, but we do manage to waste a whopping 23 Growls during our first encounter. That's what I call progress!

A few short encounters later and we've finally used all 40 PP for Growl, and now have access to Struggle. Generation III is the last generation before Gamefreak decided to bust the kneecaps on this move to prevent shenanigans with infinitely long fights (see: why Wobbuffet was banned in competitive Pokemon for so long), so we won't be taking too much recoil.

It is precisely this moment where I realized I needed to replace Torchic and not Treecko in order to get my rival to pick Mudkip. Honestly I have no excuses for this, I started this at about 1 in the morning. We're just going to live with this embarrassment and move on.

I'm not really convinced this fight is doable at this level, but that is actually a fairly decent amount for Struggle to do. Ultimately it's very close but I needed Brendan to be slightly less aggressive with his attacks.

I've actually never whited out at this fight so I didn't even know respawning here was a thing that happened. It might also be because I didn't visit the Pokemon Center. The things you learn! Unfortunately this is going to be a reset, so let's just add this here...

Reset Counter: 1

There we go.

I want to make it clear how thin the margins are here. I think this is doable, but it is probably going to require some above average luck.

Growl is a blessing and a curse in this battle. On one hand, if Torchic uses Growl, it's a turn where it's not hitting you with Scratch, which deals 4-5 damage without a critical hit. But, Ralts is already doing 1 recoil damage to itself, so Growl reducing our damage output also, paradoxically, means we are going to deal more damage to ourselves with Struggle.

On the 4th attempt, Caitlin just decides she's had enough and scores a critical hit on her 3rd Struggle, not only knocking out the Torchic but doing it without taking a single hit. I knew she could do it. :3 We get a nice 69 EXP for our troubles and...oh. Well that's unfortunate.

Oh they REALLY did not want you using this Pokemon. Ralts being in either the worst or the second worst leveling group (depending on how you view Erratic honestly) is truly tragic. We didn't even come close to leveling up after the Torchic fight. Which means we're going to need EXP to help us out. Before I forget...

Reset Counter: 3

Oh boy do the hits just keep on coming. Emerald in particular REALLY hates Ralts with every fiber of its being. If this were Ruby or Sapphire, this Poochyena would actually be a Zigzagoon, and we could grind up to Level 6, learn Confusion, and push past it. But Poochyena is a Dark-type, meaning its immune to Confusion. So while we could get Confusion...there's no point. We might as well try and see if this fight is doable at this level.

Fortunately the answer is yes. We even got a little lucky with a Turn 3 Howl, but even if the Poochyena just used Tackle all three turns, it wouldn't have mattered. Keep in mind...for most of the early game, Every Single Poochyena has to be dealt with this way. The first available damage dealing move Ralts will have to deal with Dark-types is Thief. From the Slateport Museum. We're dealing with a special kind of bad here.

I'm gonna stop here because this post is already long as fuck, but the next one will include the first gym leader, and the Poochyena that will make us want to use literally any other Pokemon.

[fierykitten2]

Disclaimer: the images in this post are arranged in a way so that the Scarlet images are all on the left and the Violet images are all on the right. Obviously I only took on the Academy Ace Tournament in one version at a time

Took on the Academy Ace Tournament in both versions and here were my opponents in the order battled (apart from the fact the Scarlet images are all on the left and the Violet images are all on the right). I’ve learned two things from this - 1 is that Miriam can be the first opponent (like in Scarlet) or the 3rd opponent (like in Violet). She has the same lines in both positions. The second is that Nemona can actually be battled in this tournament (genuinely she’s never appeared to me in this in Violet and I haven’t had the chance for her to appear in this in Scarlet up until now). Also her Pokémon don’t have an order they’re sent out apart from her starter being her final Pokémon and probably her leading with Lycanroc (I remember Orthworm being her penultimate Pokémon in Scarlet because Luna was struggling and nearly cried so I swapped it out for Blueberry only to bring Luna back against her ugly croc (I had every wish to send out Quax or keep Blueberry out instead but I had plans involving Terastalising every single one of my aces and I’d already used Quax against Tyme and Blueberry against Penny. I also kinda wanted Clavell to be my last opponent in Violet so I could beat the shit out of that ugly croc twice in one day but I got Nemona with her fabulous gay duck instead) but she sent Orthworm out really early on against me in Violet. Also Dudunsparce I think was her 2nd Pokémon in Scarlet but her penultimate Pokémon in Violet). Oh yeah the third thing I learnt (or possibly fourth) is that Dark-types can cry. Both Luna and Spriggie nearly cried at some point (I returned Luna to its ball and took out Blueberry to deal with Orthworm and also use a full heal on Luna while Spriggie has a Shell Bell on him so he just gradually healed up as the battle continued and he kept taking out Raifort’s Pokémon)

My aces Terastalising for no reason other than it’s pretty. It’s hard to tell what’s going on in half these images so in order Fire Tera type Char (Armarouge), Fire Tera type Char (Ceruledge), Water Tera type Quax (Quaquaval), Grass Tera type Spriggie (Meowscarada), Water Tera type Blueberry (Walking Wake), Psychic Tera type Cherry (Iron Leaves), Dragon Tera type Luna (Roaring Moon) and Fighting Tera type Knight (Iron Valiant). Roaring Moon are honestly kinda ugly but somehow Luna got out-uglied by Nemona’s Skeledirge (okay that’s enough Skeledirge slander for one post)

Blueberry and Cherry making entrances in the third battles, the ones where they were the ones Terastalising

And of course my aces shouting after defeating their final opponents

As you can see, Liko’s Sprigatito and Dot’s Quaxly in both games have evolved into Liko’s Floragato and Dot’s Quaxwell. As much as I prefer their fully-evolved forms I want to wait a bit and use their middle stages so I haven’t allowed them to fully-evolve just yet

Still, because I chose Quax/Quaxly/Quaquaval in Scarlet and Spriggie/Sprigatito/Meowscarada in Violet I now have the Pokédex entries for Floragato in Scarlet and Quaxwell in Violet

[toothpastewolf]

Dream Pokémon team?

i’ve actually thought about this a lot but i was hesitant to post it 😭😭 thanks for giving me the opportunity to yap

i’m approaching this with the mindset that somehow pokémon become real and i want them as pets and companions mostly but i’ll also keep battling in mind a little bit

1 - oshawott: it’s a pretty solid water starter (imo) that would give me an advantage over fire types. also it’s an otter

2 - cubone: cubone is my ABSOLUTE favorite pokémon for ever and ever. i love this little guy so much so of course it’s going on my team

3 - mimikyu: it’s my second favorite pokémon and the ghost/fairy typing could come in handy. i looked it up and it said it’s pretty good competitively so that’s a w for me but also. little guy

4 - sylveon: the token eeveelution on the team. they’re also described as sweet and gentle pokémon and that they hold their trainer’s hands with their ribbons which is honestly adorable and can you blame me for wanting one

5 - (shiny) rockruff: blue doggy :) next question

6 - arcanine or mudsdale (either one works): pokémon is an ideal world for me and in that ideal world i wouldn’t have to drive because i lowkey hate driving, so i’d have a transport pokémon. arcanine would be really fun to ride on but mudsdale would be equally as fun, plus it’s a horse so it’s probably more easy to ride. i honestly can’t choose in between these two and i’d have both on my team if i could but alas. the 6 pokémon limit

[goldensunset]

heehee seeing your pokemon playing posts make me so happy, esp now that you're playing platinum :] one of my fav mainline games for sure

can we get a peek at your teams? 👀 and any favorites?

awaaawawaaaaaaaa i love knowing that a bunch of oldschool pokémon fans follow me and enjoy watching this rookie’s dive into insanity. like my joy is multiplied by y’all’s joy at my joy. it’s a virtuous circle. plus online forums have absolutely nothing on y’all as far as helpfulness

so as you’ve probably deduced i’m raising a male kirlia in the hopes of getting gallade bc i think the moment i got my first one in pla i immediately got attached. i love that guy’s design and his little chirpy cry and i love his moveset. the kirlia is almost at level 30 so i have to box him for now

you’ve also probably deduced i have an umbreon bc i won’t shut up about her. i’ve never really used eeveelutions before but i’ve always loved their designs esp umbreon. they were always like little collectible figurines to me. glad i have a good excuse to use one now

i have prinplup that used to be the classic overlevelled starter but then i kind of ran short of uses for a water type, surprisingly. so now it’s kind of lagging behind the rest of the team. but i’m very much a ‘taking your starter out of your party even for a second is a federal crime’ kind of person. as embarrassing as it is i have him on the exp share rn. don’t worry emile you’ll get your time to shine again

i have a staravia who’s also been super helpful. i’ve got secret power (hidden power? which one was it called) on it too for slightly better coverage. that thing has single-handedly swept 2 gyms for me now. yeah baby

i also am constantly making reference to ‘skibby’, the kitty i named as a shinx when i was sleep deprived. i adore skibby and now she’s my highest level mon and she’s been so helpful w her moveset. first fully-evolved three stage mon i’ve got in this game. luxray is so cool man. at this point i’m not even switching into mons with type advantages i’m relying on bite, leer, swagger, and spark from a mon w good stats to take care of everything for me

hmmm uhmmm so i haven’t really decided on my definitive six yet so i have a few more that i’m investing in but like. not too hardcore investing in. i have a machop that i kind of have to keep around as an hm slave and a fighting type rep until i get gallade, a crobat i’m really not sure what the plan is with yet, a bibarel i’ve pretty much stopped using, and… some other new mons caught at a high level. honestly i need to remind myself that i don’t need to hand-raise every single baby pokémon i caught on the first two routes bc catching strong wild pokémon later is a thing. but then i also feel most attached to the ones i’ve had a while. i don’t feel like investing in my ponyta tho i’m banking on catching a better fire rep later. for the time being i’m just going without fire. or grass. or.. well, a lot of types actually. i don’t have enough diversity in my team is the problem. but i like the mons i have…

tldr this pokémon strategizing thing is hard but i like that i’m being forced to do it. i really brute forced my way through both pla and violet bc leveling up mons and getting new good moves was easy then. now even from the very beginning of the game before the first gym i’ve had to make tactical decisions at every turn and i love it actually

[doubleddenden]

With what I assume is the last dlc for SV, I thought I'd make a post for me to come back to later compiling the teams I used and other significant pokemon I've caught or used to some capacity.

I'll make a small blurb for each, including more teams under the cut

Base Violet Team:

Nyastolfo the Meowscarada, the starter. Admittedly he's not my favorite of the paldean starters, that actually goes to Skeledirge. But I wanted Ceruledge, and I wanted a colorfully diverse looking team, so I went with the weed cat. He's probably a little silly but the most dedicated pokemon.

Benji the Pawmott, who despite his size is a little powerhouse and one of my favorite pikaclones.

MickDonnaGoof (shorthand for Mickey, Donald, and Goofy) the Wugtrio, who may not really be a legitimate separate pokemon in my eyes and is more of a glorified dugtrio regional variant. But I still like her.

Caliburn the Ceruledge, the sole reason I chose Violet to begin with and has consistently been one of my favorites. She's potentially one of my strongest pokemon ever and the first I ever had change Tera Types, and the only one to do so TWICE. Fire to Ghost to take on Iron Leaves on our own, and then from Ghost to Stellar to completely ascend her.

Clodina the Clodsire, who is probably the most universally loved gen 9 pokemon for good reason. So friend shaped. Also the clean up when she was on my team.

Ceterry the Cetitan, who has the cutest encounter story. I was going to use Baxcalibur, but while in Glaseado Mountain I saw a little Cetoddle come walking up to me by itself. Didn't attack me, just smiled and danced. I didn't need to fight it at all and just tossed a ball at it, and it joined me. Probably my fondest memory of a Pokémon willingly joining my team without a battle.

Teal Mask Team

Shogun the Hisuian Typhlosion, who was caught after I finished Legends Arceus and finally got a chance to shine in Kitakami. Originally I wanted to use my Silver Typhlosion or my Hisuian Samurott from LA, but both were too high a level, so I compromised on Shogun, who was just right.

Racer the Yanmega, my first Kitakami capture within moments of arriving. A real glass cannon but a fun one, and honestly I've always wanted a reason to use one.

Fesh Pince the Poliwrath. Technically my third Poliwrath, but my first one from Fire Red is long gone and my second one is from a fan game- that's who Fesh Pince is named for, also the YouTube poop series lol. He's reliable enough

MorMarnie the Morpeko, who is probably the weakest but cutest of the teams I've put together in SV. In fact I've noticed each team has at least 1 designated cutie, so I'm okay with that.

Hollabax the Baxcalibur- admittedly I caught him in Paldea, but never got around to using him until Kitakami, where I brought him in to fix up the aesthetics of my team. If Racer is a glass cannon, Hollabax is a glass hammer, who dishes out some decent damage but goes down very quickly. Still enjoy what he adds to the team.

Yoginator the Blood Moon Ursaluna- funnily enough, Scout the Furret was in his slot before he came along. This guy's quest was really fun and amazing, and he about wiped my team before Scout saved the day. I got a funny pic of him absolutely loathing being on my team that's somewhere on my blog and it sends me every time. He kinda sucked in kitakami but got better.

Indigo Disk Team

Dojikiri the Shiny Hisuian Samurott, who was the first pokemon I successfully bred specifically to be shiny that wasn't by accident. When I found out Blueberry Academy was in Unova, I wanted to use a Unovan starter- but the problem is that I've used EVERY starter, even ones I dislike, and at the time I thought it was going to be an early pick and really didn't want to re use any of them. So with the criteria met, I bred for my favorite starter, Hisuian Samurott, the best of all worlds tbh. In battle he kinda sucked at first, which is hilarious considering how powerful his dad is (Muramasa) and his namesake being the PERFECT Japanese sword that killed Shuten Douji- but eventually he came into his own as a master of sword moves and became super reliable.

Texas PRIME the Paldean Fire Tauros. Paldea got good fire types, I've always wanted to use a Tauros, so I transferred this from Scarlet. He's reliable enough and pulled through when I needed him, but he's kind of got a Worf effect going on.

Iron Giant the Golurk. Originally I had planned to use a Rhyperior, but they fucked up Home so it would not work until the day after Indigo Disk officially dropped, and I did not want to trade, so I made use of Iron Giant and got attached. Yes he knows Fly but it's not as cool as I had hoped.

Arches the Archaludon, probably the most powerful on the team and definitely the one I relied on most. Once I got him set up with Electro Shot, he was one shotting pretty much everything. He's a bit slow but tanky.

Gelo the Reuniclus- designated cutie of the team and I'll hear no arguments. Gelo was basically Arches and Dojikiri's Rain Dancer partner for the most part, but he got a few good wins along the way. I imagine hugging it is kinda sticky.

Beakers the Toucannon- admittedly I originally thought about it only to make the aesthetics come together for the team, but I am really surprised at how good it was. Beakers is no Corviknight or Talonflame, but his Skill Link basically made him invaluable with Bullet Seed and Rock Blast. Genuinely and pleasantly surprised with him, and I imagine we use him like a Tommy gun.

Honorable mentions

Scarlet "Ash" playthrough team, no nicknames, in which I went through as if I were writing another Season with Ash as the protagonist

Violet reserves:

GarganaclBOI the shiny Garganacl

Gaga the Espathra

Tyranitron the Shiny Iron Thorns (not pictured: a non shiny Iron Thorns I also used)

Iron Jugulis (no nickname)

Emi the Tinkaton (if you're reading this, yes I did name it after you because it's so you coded)

Miraidon, no nickname but he is the best doggo

Scout the Furret (Silver 3ds transfer)

Iceslash Alolan Sandslash (used for Drayton's trial)

Dipper the Hydrapple (formerly the Dipplin I used briefly in Kitakami)

Muramasa the Hisuian Samurott (my Legends Arceus starter and brief Kitakami body gaurd, father to Dojikiri)

Ogerpon, who isn't nicknamed but we love our adoptive daughter

Tyson the Annihilape (formerly a Primeape from Leaf Green from over 15 years ago)

And of course

the Egg Hatching Team

Ditto the Japanese babymommadaddy slut

Blaze the Talonflame (original XY transfer)

And Pyro the Magmortar (original black 2 transfer)

Trying to decide my favorite of the teams I've made. It might be a tie between Kitakami and Blueberry, but I still do love Ceruledge, Clodsire, and Pawmott a bunch.

Although I bitch a lot about performance and story choices I personally disagree with or wish they would have expanded upon, one thing I love is making teams and immortalizing them for me to look back on fondly. This was probably the largest cast I've assembled in any pokemon game with fresh teams for each playthrough and dlc, backup mons, and transfers for fun.

The decision to make a new team for the dlcs was definitely a great decision, as it allowed me the opportunity to use Pokémon I never thought I'd ever really use in official capacity, such as Yanmega or Toucannon.

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-pokemon-fan]

Oops, forgot to post my early review of Violet

I found this just chilling in the drafts of my main blog, so I'm gonna post my initial review of Pokémon Violet here, then follow up on it with thoughts now that I'm on my seventh playthrough (sixth Nuzlocke, third Hardcore Nuzlocke).

When I was in the midst of catching Pokémon and progressing the story of Violet, it hit me that I was having some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing Pokémon. The fact that the game runs so abysmally is all the more tragic because other than that, I’m tempted to say this is one of the best games in the franchise. I grew up on Platinum, and White/White 2 are my overall favorites, but Violet is creeping real close. Performance aside, I think the biggest weakness is one that most open world games suffer from—a fragmented story. It’s eerily similar to Breath of the Wild in that sense. The story that’s there is really good, but the world design leads to a loose execution. Compared to Skyward Sword and Pokémon Gen 5, which are suffocatingly linear but deliver a tightly executed story that hits all the right beats at all the right points.

That’s the crazy thing about Violet, too. The story isn’t just good because of the characterizations and themes. The dialogue is just straight up good. It feels like you’re talking to real people and not video game npcs, or at least the most like it we’ve gotten in Pokémon. The localization was clearly done by people who are young and/or in touch. There are so many little gems. A gym leader who is a streamer and tells her audience to smash the subscribe button? The earnest but out of touch school headmaster asking you what “cheugy” means? It’s so good.

I’m surprised with how well the three-prong story fits and comes all together in the end. The gym challenge in your standard Pokémon romp and is fun but honestly the least interesting of the three. Arven and Team Star’s stories are genuinely well-written and touching. They both start kind of weird and forced, but they grew on me really fast.

Alright, and the music is fucking fantastic. Pokémon has always had great music. That’s probably the coldest take in this post. But there are some serious hits in this score. The East Province themes, Team Star themes, and very spoiler-heavy, late-game songs are so, so good. They made a great choice bringing Toby Fox in for more tracks.

In terms of the game design though, I’m a huge fan. Terastylizing is probably the most interesting battle gimmick since double battles introduced in Gen 3. The regional Pokédex is a nice balance of mons from every generation and sits at a very respectable number of 400 Pokémon. I just caught myself a whole living dex up thru Gen 6, so for this playthrough I chose to only use new (Gen 8 and 9) Pokémon. Still, I came into it knowing I wanted to catch every mon I can. I was struck by just how much encounter variety there is. On a second playthrough where I allow mons from Gen 7 and earlier, I can see myself using a completely different team.

Ah, my team. My companions for this adventures were as follows: Zaza the Meowscarada, Li’l Buddy the Pawmot, Blaze the Ceruledge, False Knees the Corviknight, Honey Bun the Dachsbun, Connie the Frosmoth, and the late substitution for False Knees to cover my crippling weakness to fire-types: Norm the Veluza. I can and will go in depth into this team and what I love about it, but suffice it to say that Weed Cat was a great starter.

I do think I’ll need a second playthrough a while down the road before I can say if I love this game, but it’s easily one of my favorites in the series. Again, that’s why it’s poor performance sucks so much. I really, really like Violet, but it can be miserable to play sometimes. I know it can be so much better then it is. So let’s get to the elephant in the room.

Gamefreak needs to slow down. From what I saw of Sword and Shield (I skipped these ones), there are points where you can tell corners had to be cut. The problem became obvious with Legends Arceus. I love the gameplay, music, art direction, and all the little experiments the designers took, but holy Arceus above, the game looks like ass. If the devs were given more time, it could have looked so much better. And now we’re here with Scarlet and Violet. The art direction is strong but it’s obvious in one look that the devs were rushed. The only parts of the game that don’t consistently drop frames are the Tera raid battles. I’m sure there are countless people listing every performance issue, so I’ll stop there.

The devs need more time to put out their best work, and the Gamefreak and Pokémon Company execs know that. But. Their main audience is children. As a former child myself, I know that children have no taste or sense of quality. Unless the game is literally unplayable and crashes every other minute, kids will not notice the myriad performance issues. So they will continue to ask their parents to buy them the games, and the games will continue being purchased. The share of Pokémon fans who are A) adults, and B) concerned with the state of the games and franchise, is tiny compared to the primary audience. So unless the next game is so rushed that it actually sells as terribly as it runs, things will never change.

So,,, yeah. I give it a 6/10. Fix the performance and I’d give it a 9.5/10. Good game. They gave me a weed cat.

~~~~~~

Alright, that was the review I wrote on December 31st, six days after I got the game. I had just finished my vanilla playthrough of the game. I'm even more conflicted on the score now than I was before. I think I'll itemize it then revisit the overall score.

Music: Easy 10/10. Banger after banger here. Battle themes, boss themes, town themes, area themes, oh man. Almost everything is great. There are some tracks I aren't the biggest fan of, namely the West Province theme and variants. But the sheer quantity of songs I like, and the phenomenal use of adaptive music makes up for it.

Story: 8/10. Easily the strongest story of the series in terms of writing quality and dialogue. I don't have much more to say than what I wrote in December. It loses points on having that weaker execution than Black and White, and if I'm being honest, it still doesn't compare to the better-written non-Pokémon games I've played. Halo 4 or Undertale, anyone?

Trainer/Boss Battles: 7/10. Where are the healing items? Where are the switch-ins? Random trainer battles aren't always easy, granted. The trainers with black dialogue boxes (the strongest trainer of each area) are no joke, especially in Nuzlockes. Boss battles though. Thematically, always reserving their ace for last then Terastallizing works very well. It makes the battles much more predictable. I can definitely feel the lack of healing items, which reduces the amount of strategizing needed. I also dock points for removing set mode. That was legitimately the only form of a difficulty option in this game and they turned it into another input and a time loss every time you KO an opponent's Pokémon. It's especially frustrating when I return to Violet after playing earlier games that have the option. Overall enjoyable though.

Wild Pokémon Battles: 10/10. Phenomenal. Perfect, even. Continuing the mapping of Pokéballs to the X button instead of needing to go into the bag is perfect. Makes catching smoother. Pokéball animations are much faster. Roaming encounters are such a welcome change from random encounters. The only problem with them is that they complicate Nuzlockes, but that's really not the designers' fault.

Accessibility: 1/10. Abysmal. Disclaimer that I almost never use any accessibility options in games because I don't need them. But there's no options for disabling or toning down animations. No button remapping. No color blindness options. No text options beside changing the speed. Forgive me if I forgot some. Again, I don't use them so I don't usually think consciously about it. Besides, GameFreak forgot all of them. I give one point because falling of cliffs is made harder by a buffer, and you can warp back up if you do fall. Nintendo-published games need to have more accessibility options and I can't believe they keep getting away with their absence of options.

Presentation: 4/10. Oh, this is rough. Character and Pokémon models are fantastic, manmade structures are great, but almost everything natural looks terrible. I don't see any anti-aliasing. It's terribly optimized. Performance issues abound. And what's with the pace of battles? The higher ups needed to let the devs and QA teams cook. Damn.

Overall: ... 8/10. In some ways, ScarVio knocks it out of the park. In others, it falls flat on its face. But the most important part to me personally is whether the game is fun. And I stand by my previous take. It's some of the most fun I've had in Pokémon game. If my seven playthroughs (four complete, two Nuzlocke wipes, one in progress) are any indication, I like this game quite a lot.

[blkwag]

there is never a dull day in the usmnt community, and december 11th of 2022 proved that to a T

(very long post; updated info will be added if necessary)

honestly in my opinion, this situation was messier than the weston situation and that is saying A LOT

SO it was just a regular degular sunday until this tweet by the men in blazers came out and started this entire fire. there is an article under it and it was basically about greggory (gregg berhalter) and the statements he made at the HOW Institute for Society's Summit on Moral Leadership. below is what he said

if you don't (or can't) want to read that it's basically greggory saying that there was an issue with ONE of the 26 players at this world cup within the team. and obviously because usmnt twitter is messy everyone started to say that gio reyna was the player he was talking about because of the drama during the world cup (background info coming soon)

also there's this from berhalter regarding those ^ statements

but anyways

background: during this world cup, gio played very little which many did not expect considering he is quote unquote one of the better players on the team. so there was a little bit of drama where it was kind of like a "he said, he said" thing but the he's are saying completely different things

so after the usa vs wales game, gio was an unused sub. out of the subs used jordan morris was one of them which raised A LOT of eyebrows and questions. gregg's reasoning:

"In the phase of the game we were at, we went with Jordan who we felt could give us speed and power".

again, raised eyebrows because gio can give the u.s that as well. but we move.

matters only got worse ^ when gregg had said to the press that gio was dealing with some issues injury wise (probably muscle tightness or something like that) and then gio was like... i'm good fam. and said that he was 100% fit and was good to play. which caused EVEN MORE confusion during that time. and it didn't help that eric wynalda (former us player) hopped on a twitter spaces saying that gregg told gio to lie about his fitness and was comforting his dad (claudio) on the phone..

but anyways NOW BACK TO THE MESS

so in the midst of that men in blazers tweet, a "big" usmnt fan account tweeted about how gio and tyler had to be separated during training. we have no clue if this is 100% true or not, but at this point it sounded very believable

so now at this point people are all over the place. people are calling gio an entitled brat, there's a group of people who are 100% on gio's side and a group is 100% for gregg. and then were reasonable people (like me) who saw the two truths in this:

yes, gio should've been held accountable for his actions and his behavior during the camp

no, gregg should not have brought any of this information to the public (even if he didn't specifically say which player it was)

then to add more fuel to this blazing fire, the athletic comes out with an article regarding the situation

which kinda makes me 🤔 because the fact that they had this typed up and ready to go and dropped it in the fire...

but anyways. the article had to be updated with certain information because news kept coming out after it was published but i'll get into that in a bit

so the main takeaways in the article

gio's lack of involvement at the world cup was due to him showing a lack of effort in training (prior the wales game) and even before that, in the scrimmage game against al gharafa sc

it wasn't clear whether his lack of effort was because he was trying to look out for himself (because he is very injury prone, second to pulisic methinks) or if he was just being a fussy baby because he wasn't going to be a starter in their opening game vs wales

gio threw his shinguards after not being a sub during the wales game, his lack of effort in training continued after that (which resulted in teammates deandre yedlin and aaron long telling him to you know.. chill out a bit and to show more effort)

the issue had to be brought up multiple times, gio stood up and apologized to the group for his lack on effort (before a video session)

after he apologized, some of the players on the team spoke up and i guess let gio know about himself (held him accountable, probably telling him what he already knew)

updated information i mentioned before. gio's agent, dan segal, provided a statement to the athletic:

"Gio obviously did not have the experience anyone hoped for at the World Cup. The situation, relationships and interactions among parties are far more complicated than what has been reported. It is disappointing and disrespectful for certain parties to be commenting on private team matters publicly, especially when some do so without full knowledge of the facts and others do so in a self-serving manner."

"At this point, our view is that nothing more is gained by those associated with the national team turning on each other, and we plan no further comment on this matter."

so the issue was supposed to end there right??

❌WRONG❌

because THE INFORMATION FROM THE SUMMIT GREGG ATTENDED WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OFF THE RECORD

(also those who gave the info to the athletic were anonymous)

so now EVERYONE is getting in on the drama and tea, espn wrote an article on it which led to this tweet by some man named jason where he stated that there was a vote on whether to let gio stay at the camp or go home.

13 voted for him to stay, 12 voted for him to leave 🌚 crazy right?

well apparently that was FALSE AND UNTRUE, according to ex usmnt player and slightly annoying pundit taylor twellman. he came out and said that the vote by the players was not true and did not happen (these were tweeted early this morning)

(ppl thought he was paid by ussoccer to say it wasn't true)

so at this point there has been tweet after tweet, twitter spaces that was the equivalent to a real housewives confessional (which some guy who weston follows was dropping some tea, some of it seemed fishy so idk but some of the stuff he said were believable), people calling for gregg's head, people still calling gio a brat and bringing up previous issues (like he apparently broke curfew during the u17 world cup), just pure hot garbage

until like..... two hours ago gio makes a statement!

so now that we have come to the end of this (hopefully, probs not) im going to give my opinion on his statement and this mess overall

i agree with gio that this should have remained private because look at all the mess it caused

the fact that berhalter told him that his role was going to be very limited is VERY disappointing especially considering a lot of people were hoping for him to play a lot more than he did. especially since we were all on our knees praying to god that he wouldn't get injured prior to the world cup. so it is expected for gio to be upset about that and he has every right to be upset about that because he had that reoccurring injury and worked hard to stay fit for this big moment.

i appreciate gio acknowledging that he is an emotional person and saying that he let his emotions get the best of him because his attitude and emotions were a major point in this whole situation. so of course it would affect his training and overall behavior at the camp.

he apologized to the team and said that he was forgiven and that should've been the end of that but unfortunately it wasn't. hence the situation and this statement which is honestly not that bad for a 20 year old. yeah he misspelled devastated but i will ignore that.

the last sentence in his statement kind of hits though

"I hope that going forward each person involved in U.S. Soccer focuses only on what is in the best interest of the men's national team so we can enjoy great success at the World Cup in 2026."

to me this is a BIG slap to the face to everyone at ussoccer as a whole (coaches, higher ups, etc.)

and yeah. that's really it

it sucks that all of this garbage came out and honestly i wouldn't be surprised if gregg's contract doesn't get extended because of this. not like i wanted him to extend it anyways because berhalter ball can only get this team so far

but all of this could've been avoided. would it have gotten out eventually? for sure. but not even a week after the usmnt got knocked out? bro. the wound was "this close" to healing.

there is though some sort of closure regarding gio and his lack of minutes, i just wish it we didn't find out this way.

at some point it felt like all the fingers were being pointed at gio and all the blame and shame were pointed towards him, which for 20 year old is.. not. like i'm sure it doesn't feel good to be thrown under the bus like that especially by your manager.

at the end of the day. gio is a great player. he is a talented player, and he knows it. which sure can lead to an ego and whatever but he's also 20. like freshly 20 i still thought he was 19. his freaking parents are like ussoccer royalty, so of course he's gonna have a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

he just needs to mature in certain areas and gain professionalism in certain areas. which tbh, it's more of the maturity side and not letting his emotions get the best of him. because we have all seen him get frustrated and fiesty on the pitch.

i just hope that he can put this behind him and continue bettering himself and working on himself, both with his skills in the sport and off the pitch.

he still has a lot of fans who love and support him, i don't think anyone really is going to hate gio because of this unless they already didn't like him.

but yeah. again, that's it.

thanks for reading

[sansloii]

Which starter Pokémon is your muse picking from the five generations of the Pokémon games? You can only pick 1 per gen!

I have 8 muses so I think I will answer for all 8. And I'll assume you meant the first five generations but i'm a weak individual so i will be doing all nine

Mikah: Spiritgatito 'cause cat. and Meowscarda was made for Mikah specifically. They would pick this all on their own and would not look back. Scorbunny was a close second, though!

Penny: Torchic 'cause that little chicken nugget is my absolute favorite and I really like the idea of Penny just holding one in her lap. or it burping flames at Mikah and Evan when they annoy her. Cyndaquil was a close second for her.

Wynn: Turtwig!!! I really meant it when I was like "Man loves his plants" and i had a difficult time choosing between the grass starters for him. Ultimately, though, i went with this little guy for him despite the fact that he would realistically have all of them. Or at least know people that have the ones he can't.

Evan: Totodile 'cause Evan is a goblin and so is Totodile. I also think that having one would really suit him at all stages of its evolution and like… bro, it's a crocodile. Evan's in love already. The other ones he was eyeing was Litten aaaand Skeledirge.

Dakota: Fennekin and no one can tell me any different. You cannot tell me that the Fennekin-Braixen-Delphox line is not specifically Dakota-coded. It is so cute and Koko would be on that little guy in a heartbeat. Also, it has a type advantage over Mikah's pick at least in the Grass-Fire aspect so. If she didn't go with Fennekin, she'd scoop Chimchar or Tepig in a heartbeat.

Joseph: I had to change Joey's because initially, he would pick Froakie explicitly because of Greninja if he's thinking outside the realm of fucking people over 'cause honestly, their temperaments would mesh so well. I then remembered that Generation I exists and realized Joseph would be that one bastard with a Charizard so he can have a double type advantage over Mikah's pick. 4x damage baybee.

Roderick: Grookey! I had chosen Chimchar initally for him but, given that another already has a starter from the Sinnoh region, I had to change Roderick's pick. I was already contemplating whether or not he would have Chimchar or Grookey anyway, though, so it worked out. I feel like he'd love both of them equally.

Andris: Rowlet because Andris thinks owls are cute. That's the entire reason. He loves Rowlet, Dartix, and Decidueye a lot. The fact that Decidueye is a Grass-Ghost type is conincidental because not only does Andris think it's adorable, you will never see it coming, just like Andris' many red flags! And that's a fact. Andy... also didn't really have a second choice. it was always Rowlet.

Unprompted

[lannisterdaddyissues]

top 5 starter pokemon from any game?

hi anon thanks so much for sending an ask!!! i love you <3<3<3<3<3

anyway im just gonna go ham with this list

cyndaquil — heartgold is my favorite gen, and the second game i ever played after platinum! i fell in love with cyndaquil at first sight (and quilava is my favorite second-stage starter too) so he holds a special place in my heart for being my first favorite starter <3

litten — he’s a FIRE CAT do i need to say more. when i found out they were making the fire starter a cat mon i went feral. fire is often my default starter type so i was really happy when sun & moon came out, especially bc litten and torracat are so cute 🥺🥺🥺 incineroar took me a while longer to get used to but he grew on me LOL

mudkip — i really love the mudkip line, mudkip and marshtomp are so cute and their water/ground typing makes them really strong <3 i’ve only played the hoenn remakes so far but i hope to one day give mudkip the journey it deserves in a ruby playthrough!

oshawott — my first water starter 🥹💧 like i said above, i normally choose fire types by default but oshawott was so cute i couldn’t refuse! i really love oshawott a ton, and dewott is my favorite of the second-stage starters after quilava as well <3 i also think the oshawott line has a great moveset and overall they just have good designs!

fennekin — i’ve heard a lot of talk that people don’t like the fennekin line, but i really love their designs, and the psychic dual typing was a pleasant surprise! delphox has really good moves too, so i always enjoy picking her over chespin or froakie in x and y <3

honorable mentions:

scorbunny — oughgogghhgohug,,, ok i’ll be honest i really didn’t care about scorbunny until i watched pokemon journeys and now i would legit kill myself for him he’s so FUCKING cute 🥺🥺🥺 i also really love the scorbunny and cinderace designs tbh, raboot not so much but it’s ok because i’ll still love him even if he’s emo. cinderace is also way op honestly, i love pyro kick’s animation, it’s really smooth! and libero is such a broken ability too i want a libero scorbunny 😭

sprigatito — the littlest pet shop -> puss in boots -> furry clown pipeline is absolutely hilarious, i hated meowscarada at first but unironically love him now, his design is kinda trash but he’s my trash <3

thanks for sending this in anon! here, have a scorbunny <3

[lovelydolls]

ive never played any of the switch Pokemon games so for the ones you've played or you know stuff of what are your favourite parts from them!! (sorry if that's complicated! you can just say your favourite Pokemon or stuff like that from violet or shield or whatever you like!)

!!!! There are so many good parts about both games and just!!!! This is going to be long-

Pokémon Shield was the first ever game I played and!!! All of it means so much to me!

I loved the starters, the characters, all of the Pokémon! The DLC was super cool!!!:))! And playing it was, an amazing experience. I wish I could go back, forget everything about it and just. Replay it.

I obviously had. Favorites. My favorite starter was Sobble! I obviously, picked him first! He was just. A little guy,,, I know a lot of people make fun of him but I think he is super neat! And then there was the gym leaders and other characters!! All of them had very cool designs to me!! And just, they all looked so pretty? My favorites were Allister and Kabu! Allister is a ghost type gym leader and just! I thought he was the coolest ever when I first stared playing the game. His gym was difficult for me to be tbh!!! But, it did not matter I thought he was cool <33!! Kabu is a fire type gym leader and!! He made me love Centiskorch,, I got one at his gym and. He became a part of my team forever! And honestly, Centiskorch is my favorite Pokémon now lol! Other than him, Hatterene was my other favorite! I remember spending so long trying to catch her lol! But yeah, Pokemon Shield is honestly, an amazing starting game and. It means way too much to me.

In Pokémon Violet, I just recently finished the “main” story, before I get to like. The extra end stuff! And honestly? People are way too harsh on this game. The designs are very cool for all the Pokémon and characters! Sure, some are a little silly but it’s Pokémon!!! I’m not even done yet and just. I’m already happy with the game. All of the quests were amazing, the characters are my everything and just?? It makes me internally cry.

I do. Have favorites of course :))! Character wise I really liked Penny, Nemona, Nurse Miriam, Tulip, and Iono!!! They are all so pretty and!!! Nemona is our main rival in the game! You see her mostly in the taking in the gyms path!!! She’s all about Pokémon battles and just! She is my best friend,,, Penny is a student at the academy you go to! She is a hacker girl and she wears an adorable cute backpack! Penny’s character means a lot to me. I don’t want to spoil stuff because, idk finding stuff out for yourself is fun :)! Even if you don’t end up playing the games-! But her character, means so much to me. Eri, is hard to explain without giving spoilers either. Just know, she’s amazingly sweet and just. I love her! Nurse Miriam is a nurse at the Pokémon school you attend and I just. Love her design and just. Her?! Tulip is the psychic gym leader! She is the moment, she is everything???!! Iono is the electric gym leader! Everyone basically already knows about her because, all the streamer stuff but! She is just very neat and her design is super cute!!

But none of those characters are my favorite!!! My favorite is Arven! His character, I honestly hated as soon as I saw him but the second time I saw him, it was all gone-! His quests and story also are just. Amazing and he is so special and he is!!! My favorite ever,,,<33

Pokémon wise for the game, I loved them all so much? My starter I picked was Sprigatito!! And just, I love them,,, I know all the jokes with them but they are a genuinely cool starter and!!! I love them- minus the starters though, I really liked Tinkaton, Miraidon, and the stupid Orthworm Pokémon- mostly because all are super cool, but Orthworm just looks. So happy and I am his #1 fan-

I don’t know what else to bring up honestly? All of the games are amazing! And I couldn’t find one thing I genuinely disliked about either?? All parts are my favorites <333

[kariachi]

Okay, Scavio pokemon opinions, from 1-9

Sprigatito

What more is there to say about Sprigatito at this point? Pure grass type, little cat pokemon, we all know it. It’s cute, I like the contrast between the two primary shades of green, and the red-pink eyes pop thanks to being a complimentary color, ensuring they draw your attention. Though I didn’t expect it’s hidden ability to be Protean of all things, and now I’m curious as to whether this relates more to the evolutions I haven’t actually seen yet. It’s got plantlike fur that has to stay moisturized so... Moss Cat apparently. Don’t care what canon says, from now on Sprigatitio has moss for fur which will improve it’s score. Also it’s scent apparently ‘mesmerizes’ the people who smell it so, hah, I am stronger than moss cat? Also it smells more in the sun which, for all I know is standard for plants so...

7.2/10, nothing impressive, but it’s mossy and I am greater then it so

Floragato

I don’t have a proper picture to go off for most of these, just one of the in-game sprites, but that should be enough. The cat’s gone up on two legs, which I didn’t want to happen but I suppose such is life. It’s clearly looking more towards cool than cute, which now has me curious which if any of the other starters will lean towards cuteness. Also now has a bandanna with pink flower accents too, which I’m quite fond of. Between that and the leaf pattern on the face calling to mind a sort’ve mask, I’m really getting bandit vibes. Sort’ve a Puss In Boots pokemon. Ooo, apparently it has a vine and a hard flower bud at the end somewhere in all that fur that it wields as a flail, wouldn’t have expected that! And it’s fur gets hard and sharp when it’s in a bad mood or getting ready to battle. It looks like a bandit but this is a full on little warrior!

8/10, I didn’t want it to stand up, but I’m quite happy with what we got otherwise

Meowscarada

I am sure that name is a reference to something but I don’t know what (leave me be I’m studying German not Spanish)... Bulbapedia says it might be tied to the Spanish for masquarade, and I guess I can see that. Gained the dark typing, still on two legs, it’s marking is not just a full on mask over most of the head, the flowers have become a collar around it’s throat in a way reminiscent of Meganium, and it’s got, I don’t know if it��s supposed to be parts of a cape flaring out behind it’s arms or something attached to said arms... Ah! Just noticed, the Magician Pokemon. Honestly if anything a bit of a letdown on that front Floragato was doing a very hidden warrior thing, but let’s see what we’ve got in the pokedex. First entry makes note of a flower that I think may be in the main art and 3d model but not the sprite, so I can’t really judge there, but it does clarify that that is a cape it’s got. Second entry explains that it sneaks floral bombs onto it’s opponents, which is hardcore and much closer to what we were getting with Floragato.

7/10, don’t mind the look of it, but it doesn’t get Sprigatito’s extra points and I’m sad they don’t seem to the playing up quite the warrior status I was expecting from Floragato

~~

Fuecoco

I have loved this little crocodile since the moment I knew what love was. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but from it’s dopey expression to it’s apple-like face and Quaxly being Quaxly it was my favorite of the starters upon reveal and I still have a soft spot for it. I like reptiles and reptile pokemon so, I’ve had high hopes for this follower in Feraligatr’s footsteps. The hidden ability for this line is Unaware which, great for lore and also just great in general. Love it. According to the pokedex the little ‘hairs’ on it’s head are pure energy leaking out of it because it’s fire sack is so small, and also it suns itself so much. It’s just a precious little crocogator baby.

7.5, much as I love it, it’s still not the most inspired on interesting starter to have every walked the Earth now is it?

Crocalor

This, is certainly a creature, I think? It’s definitely an awkward middle stage. The snout if longer, it’s hunched over, it’s wearing some sort’ve fire sombrero? Markings make it look like it’s in a little outfit? I think this is probably a cultural reference I’m not getting, which is totally valid, but it’s certainly a thing... Apparently the thing on it’s head is an egg-shaped mass of energy and I assume a nest around it? It’s flame sac is also close to it’s vocal cords, so it makes guttural calls when it spews flame, presumably similar to gator bellows.

4/10, I don’t like what I’m seeing of the design on this one, it just feels off, but the lore is interesting

Skeledirge

Hah! It did come down on all fours, now all we need is a croc pokemon that starts and ends that way to have the full set! It gained the ghost typing like people were suspecting and also is now the Singer Pokemon! It’s long and red and, I’m getting Leviamon vibes honestly but that’s inevitable, with white and purple markings and flames spewing from it’s mouth and nose. People are definitely going to say it looks like it’s got skull markings, and I see it, but also I am getting a bit of musical instrument and possibly uniform out of all this? Maybe? I could just be blind. Okay, I’m going to copy the first pokedex entry here, because it looks like bits that aren’t in the sprites are going to be a common theme here... “The fiery bird changes shape when Skeledirge sings. Rumor has it that the bird was born when the fireball on Skeledirge’s head gained a soul.” So, it sounds like Crocalor’s egg hatches into a bird that 1) might have a soul, and 2) is attuned to Skeledirge’s singing. Which makes sense because the second pokedex entry says it’s gentle singing soothes all souls that hear it. Also that it burns it’s enemies with 5400 degree flames, but that’s beside the point.

10/10, they gave me a four-legged crocodile pokemon inspired by croc vocalizations which nobody fucking bothers touching on, then gave it a fucking bird friend, pure perfection

~~

Quaxly

I’ll be honest I have never given two shits about Quaxly? Not that I don’t like it, it’s a fine enough design, but it’s just... It’s a duck with a hairdo. And not even a particularly good one. It just sort’ve exists to me. It’s hidden ability is Moxie though, so that’s certainly piquing my interest. Apparently it’s a migrant from another region, whose feathers secrete a gel that repels dirt and things. Must be handy to have around, especially since the pokedex says they’re very tidy, if overthinkers. Also very strong swimmers apparently.

5/10, not bad, but not interesting to me

Quaxwell

Y’all I- I want to be able to describe this pokemon to you, I really do. What I am seeing, looks like it you stretched Quaxly out, tried and failed to give it a beehive hairdo, and then gave it a part in some sort’ve figure-diving competition. It looks like a minor side villain in the Darkwing Duck universe, like it would get all haughty and then Bushroot would kick it’s ass. It’s the Practicing Pokemon now, I’m not sure what it’s practicing yet, but I don’t like it already. Dancing, it practices dancing. It trains it’s legs by running in water and then competes with it’s fellows over who kicks most gracefully. It’s hardworking and studies a wide variety of people and pokemon so it can incorporate their moves into it’s dances.

2/10, it’s trying, I only wish it wasn’t trying my patience

Quaquaval

The Dancer Pokemon. Water/Fighting. It looks better than Quaxwell. Not a high bar but we’re taking what we can get. I’m sure this is some Carnival or Eurovision shit but, I’m just seeing the 70s. That’s it. I don’t know, maybe this one is better in the 3d model, but just- It looks like it’s got a headdress on and if it does then I like that, and the tail has potential even if they really didn’t go far enough from what I’m seeing here. Otherwise... One kick can send a truck rolling, okay, dances are mesmerizing so it doesn’t get the ‘achi is stronger’ point, slices into it’s foes with water feathers... It’s a pokemon

3.8/10, Meowscarada I’m sorry I doubted you

~~~

I think, I can safely say that if I had gotten this game, I would’ve gone with Fuecoco, and had no regrets...