#images are from bulbapedia

[mimikinyuu]

Bugs

bugs

[pastoria-marsh-official]

Today, you can look out for...

Carnivine!

Photographer

Carnivine is one of the many Pokemon that cannot be found in Sinnoh anywhere other than the Great Marsh. Their high temper mixed with their pollen being spread by primarily its prey means that breeding seasons tend to be in colder months, when the Pokemon digest slower and feed less frequently, letting more Pokemon go with its pollen. Recently, we have had a boom of Carnivine sprouts!

Found in woodlands and marshlands across the Japanese regions, Unova, and Kalos, Carnivine are a carnivorous "waiting plant" much like the Utsubot line found in Kanto. They bind themselves to trees and secrete sweet nectar to attract prey, which in Sinnoh is primarily small Bug Pokemon but includes anything that will fit in its mouth.

If you're a Trainer looking to capture a Carnivine, you will have to spend time training it out of its violent habits and getting it accustomed to a feeding schedule, unless you choose to let it hunt- in which case you will have to do so at least once daily in the summer months. Unless they are an active battler, you will only need to feed them once every three or so says in winter.

And remember to do your research. Or I will know. And I will find you. And I will confiscate your Carnivine. And kick you out of my park.

[gamesbyalbie]

Made a poster with Eevee's evolutions for a library program, just wanted to share cause I had a lot of fun with it :)

[pigeon-wizard]

personal favourite kind of official Raihan art is when he has bit of a :3 mouth.

he's so silly <3

[toiletshit]

so uhhh... I was having trouble positioning them all on one (preview) image like how do you arrange them in a nice grid with some space left for a 'logo' so I did the very logical thing of. making more.

[n-solarizers]

Fall in the Ultra Beasts campaign art from 2018, images sourced from Bulbapedia.

Fun fact: Bulbapedia states these images are "Sourced from the official Pokemon Center Online website circa 2016." This cannot be the case given the inclusion of the Ultra Recon Squad, Stakataka, and Blacephalon, all of whom did not debut until 2017. The earliest post I can find showcasing this artwork is this reddit post from January 19th, 2018.

[crispinsphonebook]

Some Florian and Kieran for an AU I have!

The red writing on the maps and notebooks is Florian’s and the blue writing is Kieran’s.

I was coming up with AUs the other day and I thought: what if Florian didn’t lie to Kieran? The two of them never had a fallout in this AU and end up being BBA besties who’re trying to help Ms. Briar figure out who Terapagos is for her research — and also advert an alternate timeline initiation that Juliana foresaw in the reflections on the walls of Area Zero while simultaneously powering through assignments and tests and living the full BBA experience. More to come on that later though…!

Image part credits: collage pieces from Unsplash, Ogerpon and Terapagos crystal from Bulbapedia.

[front-facing-pokemon]

ARE YOU EXCITED FOR THE DIRECT TOMORROW :D

oh! i forgot this was happening. i suppose so! i imagine it's just going to be, as they say, Somewhat Nothingburger Bullshit and then maybe a trailer for plza or some such. maybe i could do a restream of it with some commentary. would anyone be interested in that? what time even is it. lemme check. ok 6 AM pacific which. i'm eastern. pretty sure that means i'm three hours ahead… soooo… 9 AM? eastern time? i can do that. that's right around when i wake up. i'd prolly start it at 8:30 so we can warm up and such before the direct actually starts so i can get any technical difficulties worked out. maybe! if enough folks are interested i might do it. sound off if you're interested

edit: perhaps also a watch party in the discord, if more folks over there are interested than here!

i've heard this one many a time! especially back during the first round of the dex. which, yes! i've leaned into that a bit as time has gone on, showcasing pokémon from angles you wouldn't typically see in official art or in-game

thiiiis makes sense! the pokémon company is indeed a japanese company. well actually i just checked bulbapedia which says this:

which also makes sense. unfortunately i am not vladimir pokémondesigner but anyone who is maybe we can ask them

this is. so ominous. i wish i could say this is on purpose because it's kindof awesome?? new furret fakemon evo just dropped??

this is cool. i don't know about futurama at all besides the gif of fry with the money and the tumblr post about shampoo but a wooden metagross would be a really cool regional evolution. maybe it could be grass/psychic or grass/ground or something. or for some reason i have this image in my head of a wooden metagross that's like. on fire. because it's from a very arid and hot region. and it could be grass/fire and have scary glowing eyes and a glowing mouth like a jack-o-lantern

YEEEAAAH LET'S HEAR THAT ENTHUSIASM!!! WOOOOO

i was about to make a gif of torterra as well but then i realized i already made one on the original round of the 'dex! so there you go

credit is appreciated, but not necessary! go on ahead

ok that's all. have one of my favorite gifs i've made:

[parasolladyansy]

Hello o/

Would first like to say that I love your comic, and it really gives me something to look forward to every week ^-^ you've inspired me to start writing about *my* PKMN gaming experiences!!

Second: how did you find/decide your trainer class? And if nothing had felt right, would you have come up with a new one? Thanks <3

Cool beans! I hope you have as much fun as I do, although DxP REWRITE is definitely more than just drawing our experiences (& some headcanons) with the games, unlike Sword x Shield or Scarlet x Violet ouo).

—

Hmmmm. So, I chose to identify with the Parasol Lady class YEARS ago - I remember researching Trainer Classes on Bulbapedia & watching all 3 episodes of “What Kind of Pokémon Trainer are You?” on YouTube. I also remember having the option to pick your class in Black / White for your Trainer ID Card (yet another thing they need to bring back!), & the image of the Parasol Lady, surrounded by puddles in her rain gear, just felt right. ☔️

Back then, it was mostly aesthetics - I didn’t really use rain as a strategy, mostly just using the Types they prefer (Water, Flying, &/or Electric). It was only recently (ie. since Ikrit got me to actually use strategy lol) that I started to really teach myself to use it. 🌧️

There are so many classes out there, I’m pretty sure I would’ve found something that stuck - probably one of the many Water type trainers. As it is, Ansy was actually a Nurse at one time, along with trying the Gardener class in Galar after being very inspired by Ramos when she went to Kalos (though she just couldn’t let go of her precious Water types lol - they just helped water the plants XD).

—

As for invented Classes, I actually did invent a couple! One of Ansy’s jobs was a Lifeguard (combining Swimmer with Nurse), & Ikrit’s class, “PKMN Researcher” is kind of a combination of Professor’s Assistant / Aide & Veteran (though he was Dr. Cozmo’s Assistant when he was younger).

I also was working on inventing more Weather classes, though I got sidetracked. 😅

I feel like a Trainer Class can be just about anything you could imagine it to be. It could be about your job, your age, your hobbies / interests, or really anything! Just so long as your Pokémon &/or battling style can reflect it in some way.

Musicians tend to use Pokémon with voice moves (Hyper Voice, Sing, etc.) or Aroma Ladies use floral Grass Pokémon with moves like Aromatherapy or Sweet Scent (though one could also see them using certain Fairy Pokémon like Florges or Aromatisse as well). Parasol Ladies use weather (rain) teams, which could just be types that benefit from rain, &/or include ones with Abilities that benefit from rain (Rain Dish, Hydration, Swift Swim, Dry Skin).

Let’s not forget the Double Battle classes! There’s Twins of course, but also more clever ones like the “Brains & Brawn” duo (Black Belt & Psychic, who showed up that one time in DxP REWRITE, hehe)

I personally love Trainer Classes because it adds another layer of role playing, like classic RPG classes. But if nothing else, you can just as happily have the default “Pokémon Trainer” class, which is literally whatever you like! ^_^

[potatosoupwithcornandstuff]

Terada Tera drew a Pokémon card with Iono in it WE WINNNN it looks so cool

Iono is the perfect pokemon character for their style too ESPECIALLY THE EYESSS (image taken from bulbapedia)

[mimikinyuu]

So we know Grimer is Slutch, but is Grimer also Bugs?

NOW THIS IS A QUESTION!! since theres two regional variants im gonna cover them both in case one is bugs and the other isnt

because i live in alola were starting with the alolan grimer so here is a standard alolan grimer. already getting SIZEABLE vibes from this guy. sizeable enough to say BIG VIBES!

and the appeal? i mean the slutch appeals to us all right. UNDENIABLE APPEAL

now to judge its heart. i know many (local and online) grimer trainers that have good stories to share about their little slutch friends, so i will say its heart is GIANT

and lastly we judge its shape. i mean cmon this is SUCH a shaped pokemon!

CONCLUSION: ALOLAN GRIMER IS BUGS

and now onto kantonian grimer! once again this guy is giving me giant vibes like literally look at that face. BIG VIBES!!!!

onto its appeal. once again the slutch appeals to us all so UNDENIABLE APPEAL

once again we come to the difficult task of judging a pokemons heart. luckily i am going off of other trainers with their grimers again so GIANT HEART

this guys shape is slutchh. SHAPED!

CONCLUSION: KANTONIAN GRIMER IS BUGS

[pastoria-marsh-official]

The Great Marsh is much, much larger than most people think. In fact, the Areas themselves are only about 15% of the Marsh in total! The rest of our expansive park is set aside from trainer use for conservation purposes.

These purposes range from keeping eyes on rare populations of Pokemon to allowing traditional groups (like us members of the Diamond Clan) to hunt and harvest in-season. However, typical Trainers and people not trained to go out here are barred- the wilderness is much harsher than most people expect it to be, and the wild Pokemon are much less friendly than the ones found on Trainer routes. When you're not expecting loud people to stop through and try to fight you, you're going to be fucking pissed when it happens.

This does mean that there are more wild Pokemon out in the further depths of the Marsh than you see in the trainer-safe Areas! Some of these Pokemon include:

Hippopotas and Hippodown; Burmy, Wormadam, and Mothim; Cherubi and Cherrim; Stunky and Skuntank; Petilil; and Teddiursa and Ursaring.

... And there are rumors of the Gastly line in the middle of the night, but somehow I can't bring myself to believe them.

If you have any questions about any of these specific Pokemon, feel free to ask, but I don't want to encourage anybody to sneak off and try to find them. Some of them will kill you and it will not be our fault.

[mahouowo]

Trading Card Game Divination

One of my main ways of divination, next to the Clow cards, is Magic the Gathering. After years of trying methods like tarot, lenormand & other cartomancies I saw someone on twitch giving readings with pokemon cards. I was interested and I've been doing it ever since!

Building your deck

First you have to decide what system you will be using. Magic the Gathering? Pokémon? Lorcana? Altered? (etc) When just starting out I suggest using cards you already have. It may not be the best of the best, but you can get an idea of what you want and if you like it. My own decks have between 50 and 75 cards.

What's also a neat thing is that you can tailor TCG divination decks to your liking! You could make a theme or have 'em be nicer or meaner (I like a blunt deck, personally). You can also keep upgrading them as new sets come out. For example, my Magic the Gathering deck is a mix of Theros, Strixhaven & Wilds of Eldraine.

The Basis

Regardless of what route you take, your deck should have a base of one card of each mana type, if your tcg of choice has those. It will be the element in it's purest form like the aces in tarot. You can always take type meanings with you as cards will have one or more anyways.

A few examples:

Magic the Gathering

Plains (Positive, beginnings, good luck, life, etc)

Swamp (Negative, endings, rebirth, death, etc)

Mountain (Fire, passion, struggles, aggressive, speed, etc)

Island (Water, emotions, isolation, magic, etc)

Forest (Earth, roots, strength, growth, etc)

Pokémon

Normal (Basic, nothing, potential, mundane, etc)

Water (Emotions, fluidity, adaptable, etc)

Fire (Passion, drive, aggression, excitable, assertive, etc)

Grass (Earth, roots, growth, slow, passive, etc)

Electric (Energy, sudden, fast, shocking, irritable, etc)

Fighting (Endurance, fighting, tradition, studying, etc)

Psychic (Intuition, magic, manifestation, etc)

Dark (Unknown, unseen, struggles, shadow, negativity, etc)

Steel (Perseverance, support, willpower, etc)

Fairy (Wishes, hope, positivity, etc)

Dragon (Strength, magnanimous, divine, magnificence, etc)

Lorcana

Amber (Resilience, persistence, patience, dedication, etc)

Amethyst (Sorcery, mysticism, power, limited options, etc)

Emerald (Flexibility, adaptability, change, analytic, witty, etc)

Ruby (Courage, challenges, speed, confrontations, etc)

Sapphire (Knowledge, creativity, inventive, strategy, etc)

Steel (Strength, imposition, perseverance, mundane, etc)

There is a lot from the card itself you can take with you in your reading. Let's look at Spectacle Mage to see what.

You can use:

The cost, their attack & defense or all together (numerology)

The name of the card

The subtext of the card

The abilities of the card

The (creature)type of the card

The element(s)

The image

The setting

Pokémon cards will have attacks and stages you can take with you in your readings, next to how they act (try sites like bulbapedia). With Lorcana you can look at the stories of the disney characters, as well as the lyrics of their songs and whether they can turn into ink or not.

Now to add other cards! You want a mix & match of different themes. If you build a deck of around 50 cards I advice you have little theme overlap between the cards unless you like the nuance. My Pokémon deck has Deino & Diglett which both can mean overwhelm with the versions I have. But whereas Deino is pure overwhelm because it can't find its way nor its family, Diglett's overwhelm is because it dug out next to the sea. You dug too deep, poked your nose where you shouldn't have, said yes one too many times, etc.

Once you have a good amount of cards you can give 'em cute sleeves, practice with your deck and build up from there!

[blushingunderwar]

Because I'd rather do this than my day job atm - characters from Hannibal as Pokemon trainers.

Part 2

(Thanks Bulbapedia for all the references/pokemon images!)

(I went crazy all week picking pokemon for them, would love to do another version with Margot and a Remoraid *cough cough* eel *cough cough* screw Mason. Freddie as the reporter is killing me. Oh and matching suits for Mewtwo and Hannibal jfc. Ok bye!)

[jupiterswasphouse]

WASP REVIEW - VESPIQUEN LINE (POKÉMON)

[Image ID: An official render of Vespiquen from Pokémon /End IDs.]

Buzz buzz buzz, hey howdy everyone and a very merry Wasp Wednesday to those who celebrate! This time around, we return to the old Pokémon well with one from back in Generation 4. A fascinating design, truly, with multiple possible origins, but how does it compare to the real thing?

Starting out, as usual, with its appearance; We can see that Vespiquen has the correct number of wings, keeping up the wing count streak from Beedrill! Unfortunately it only has one pair of legs, and I don't see any of the requisite 3 ocelli on its head. Interestingly, in place of these ocelli is what appears to be a jewel? This is a part of a structure on its head that either is or heavily resembles a piece of old high-class headwear (with Bulbapedia specifically comparing it to an escoffion). Whether or not they are wearing this or if it is part of their body is unclear, as tends to be the case in the Pokémon franchise given their wishiwashi- err- Excuse me. Their wishy-washy history, or lack-thereof, of explaining Pokémon pseudo-clothing.

The eyes that are there are way too small if we assume a Vespid or Apid inspiration, and they honestly appear more vertebrate-like in structure, although I can't honestly tell whether the white part is supposed to be a reflection or a pupil. Furthermore, we can see that Vespiquen has no antennae, which is quite strange for an insect; Perhaps it has another, similar adaptation? The antennae could've even morphed into the horn-like shape of the "crown" during the evolutionary process. The mouthparts, meanwhile, equally appear to fall into this particular trap, as it seems to have no mouth at all, but its headgear has a structure that sort of resembles the missing mandibles.

[Image Source: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Salvador Vitanza | Image ID: A photo of the head of a yellowjacket species, Vespula pensylvanica, a social Vespid /End IDs.]

Moving onto the body, and the whole deal of pseudo-clothing comes back again, although, this time its connection to the body is more clear. Vespiquen is seen with an umbrella-shaped nest, looking like a dress or gown, wrapped around a more standard Hymenopteran body shape, with the Pokédex entry in Pokémon Diamond stating: "Its abdomen is a honeycomb for grubs". Now, the connection to honey bees is clear, however, I would much sooner compare her main body shape to that of Polybia paper wasps or Sphex thread-waisted wasps, and the shape of her built in nest to that of Polistes paper wasps.

[Image Sources: iNaturalist, limarrudandre; iNaturalist, Larry Clarfeld; Wikimedia Commons, Bob Peterson | Image IDs: Three photos, one of an individual of the species Polybia sericea visiting a green plant, another of a Great Black Digger Wasp, Sphex pensylvanicus, visiting some yellow flowers, and another of the nest of a colony of Horse Paper Wasps, Polistes major major, showing its umbrella-like shape /End IDs.]

Thankfully, this design has a clearly three-segmented body, with its head, mesosoma (functional thorax; thorax and propodeum), and metasoma (functional abdomen; petiole and gaster) all seeming fairly distinct from each other. Proportionally, the head is a bit small in comparison to the body, and the same, in my opinion, is true for the wings. The legs, as few as they are, are an alright size, but aren't properly segmented.

[Image Source: bugguide.net | Image ID: An illustrated diagram showing the legs of three Hymenopterans, the first two being of other wasps, while the last one is of a bee, with each segment labeled. Coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, and tarsus, with metatarsus on the bee. /End IDs.]

Back to its "dress" before I move on; I'm very curious as to what sort of texture it has and what material structure it's made out of. In the Pokémon universe, the answer could really be anything, but the real world equivalents of Vespiquen would either have nests made of wax (honey bees) or nests made of paper (the aforementioned paper wasps, as well as members of Vespinae, such as yellowjackets and hornets). Perhaps it could be one of these materials, or maybe it's a thin layer of chitin, as a more direct part of its exoskeleton?

But if Vespiquen is both the queen and the nest itself, then what about the colony? Well, this Pokémon evolves directly from Combee, specifically a female Combee exclusively!

[Image ID: An official render of a female Combee /End IDs.]

I won't spend too much time on this particular design, but, from what I've already said, you can likely tell this is much less accurate. In exchange, the design is that much more fantastical in nature. Here we see three individuals connected to each other by combs made of either wax or, again, chitin; Each of the upper two bees has a singular antenna and wing, though they don't seem to have a full body. The one on the bottom, however, has a body, but the segmentation is unclear and it still does not have any legs. If it's female, this one also has a red patch on its forehead, while the males do not have this at all. Finally, all of them have two, far too small eyes, and strangely mammalian mouths.

Well? What of the behavior of this colony then? Well, as we already know, Vespiquen is the queen of the hive, as well as being the hive itself. However, the system of their sociality is quite unique from that of honey bees or even of Vespid wasps. Each colony might contain hundreds of Combee, however, these Combee aren't necessarily the offspring of the Vespiquen, as its Pokédex entry from Pokémon Shield states: "Vespiquen that give off more pheromones have larger swarms of Combee attendants". This implies that some Combee might be summoned into the colony, rather than being born into it.

Furthermore, the Pokédex entries from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum read as follows: "Its abdomen is a honeycomb for grubs. It raises its grubs on honey collected by Combee"; "When endangered, grubs from its six-cell honeycomb strike back. There is only one in a colony"; "It releases various pheromones to make the grubs in its body do its bidding while fighting foes". These entries confirm that, for one, the Combee will collect/produce honey, thus also providing the ecosystem service of pollinating, while also confirming Vespiquen also produces at least some of the offspring of the colony. However, the fact that they specifically state that the grubs "strike back" or "do its bidding" is highly confusing. In the real world, larvae of social wasps such as paper wasps, yellowjackets, hornets, and honey bees (among multiple other examples) are wingless, stingless, and barely move.

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, Waugsberg | Image ID: A photo showing eight bee larvae arranged in order of age as they mature and harden into their pupae /End IDs.]

It implies that their young have some form of defensive abilities. But not only that, it implies that these Pokémon should have an additional life stage, possibly even two additional life stages, as the larvae reasonably should hatch from eggs (as Pokémon are known to do), live as larvae for a while, and then form pupae, before developing into adults. This part is made even more strange by the fact that fully formed, adult Combee can be hatched from an egg—Which brings me to my next point of discussion, that being, both male and female Combee are fertile, and do not need a Vespiquen, nor even another Combee for that matter, to produce offspring. This is strange, seeing as drone bees (as in; Male bees), as is true for male wasps in general, are fertile, while worker caste female bees are not fertile, with the males requiring a queen in order to mate.

Interestingly, regardless of level or sex, Combee cannot learn Poison Sting, which implies that even female Combee do not have a stinger until they evolve into Vespiquen. It makes sense for male Combee to be incapable of learning the move, as drones do not possess the ovipositor necessary to deliver a sting; However, if a Combee is a fully formed adult, as it appears to be, a female should be perfectly capable of performing this move. This could help explain why they join together with Vespiquen, it provides extra protection, as it can learn Poison Sting, and would be able to sting repeatedly in the real world even if it were a honey bee, as a queen is capable of delivering multiple stings due to having a stinger that is far less prone to getting caught on skin.

Well, at least that's all of the confusion somewhat settled when it comes to the social structure of these colonies, right? Right? WRONG. Because if we have Vespiquen, male and female Combee, and the as of yet unseen "grubs", then what, might I ask, are these?

[Image ID: A screenshot of a Pokémon battle, in which a swarm of non-Combee bees has surrounded the opponent due to Vespiquen using the move Attack Order /End IDs.]

"Oh, but Miss Jupiter, this is just the visual effect associated with some random Pokémon move, surely it doesn't mean anything about Vespiquen specifically!" is something you might say, and normally I would be inclined to agree with you, if not for the fact that this is one of Vespiquen's signature moves. Literally no other Pokémon in the games, barring maybe another Pokémon using something like Mirror Move or Mimic, can actually learn Attack Order—Only Vespiquen can ever learn this move naturally. The implications of this are fascinating, given that these bees CANNOT be fully formed Combee, as there's only one of them, but they also can't be the aforementioned "grubs" given the fact that said larvae shouldn't have wings or that distinctly adult body. So then, this species has four or even five distinct castes (depending on the possible sexes of these bees)? Why are these not their own Pokémon as well? Are these all Vespiquen's offspring, as they should be, or are they also attracted to its nest via pheromones? Are these just separated Combee?

This strikes me with another question too; What happens to the other two bees when a Combee evolves into a Vespiquen? Perhaps they separate and the other two become dedicated workers, part of this swarm, or maybe they outright fuse together into one, singularly thinking organism. Regardless, I'm... Confused.

In the end, I suppose that things could be worse, but it's just not very good, to be honest. It's as fascinating as it is confusing, which is to say, very. Of course, this is honestly fine, given that it's Pokémon and it's really not meant to be accurate, but it's a bit disappointing even compared to Beedrill. So, my rating would have to be...

-

Overall: 3/10

-

Leave your wasp review suggestion in the replies, tags, or askbox!

[daily-pokemon-polls]

favorite of the gen 1 pokemon menu sprites?

The poll uses the names given to them by Bulbapedia in the image file names. This poll also excludes glitch menu sprites. Below are the sprites in order of how they show up in the poll, from left to right.