#lets be real i would be a flying type gym leader

[lesbiten]

i want to make a gym leader sona

[kaguyass-houraisan]

(They didn't have the Paldea one 😭)

Part 3 in the DC Pokémon AU, please see previous posts for more lore and I'm still open to more help and suggestions

Check the #dc pokemon au for it

These are just things I shit out and maybe someday I'll properly render everything but my design process for these is make them have a color that their typing has as in pink for fairy and blue for water etc.

Very special thank you to @illusionsignmisdirection for the help with this au and all the wonderful suggestions and ideas

Alec:

Alec is the ice type gym leader, he is the 1st gym leader overall. His gym is a library and he is the main librarian. He's planned to be apart of the villain team (known as Team Idol) as their leader so under the gym is the secret base which has those annoying ass ice puzzles we all are too familiar with.. and the gym is on top of an ice mountain because your first task is going to be haul ass up that mountain #absolutely and yes he is divorced and his wife took their son as she should #yup He's the only one with a party decided with a Delibird and Snorunt and his later party as the final team boss is to be decided.

For his design I went with icy librarian man that's literally my thought process and a tattered coat to show age and tired energy

Gabby and Ellie:

Gabby and Ellie are the grass type gym leaders, the second gym leaders overall. It started off as Gabby, but I imagine she had Ellie join her seeing as Ellie is a good battler herself. I like to think they're married or at the very least promised to each other, as see by the matching rings I gave them. They are so in love really... and I like to think Ellie made their outfits for each other (I couldn't pick which Gabby design I liked better so I put both) because I still think she's a fashion designer and probably her job is working at an office or freelance design, as seen w the pencil skirt and flats I gave her. I wanted her to look cute and professional to show that looks can be deceiving because she's also apart of Team Idol and maybe Gabby might be too, depending on what happens in dcas w her and the villains alliance. Gabby is supposed to give whimsical yes, like the most whimsy grass girl ever who waters her flowers and would shoot you if you litter type of shit. I think sometimes Gabby is solo then Ellie takes over other hours or sometimes they both battle together. Gabbys job is probably the city/town gardener, probably sells herbs and healing items that aren't found in Pokémarts

Hunter:

Hunter is the ghost type gym leader, he is the 3rd gym leader overall. I like to think his gym is some kind of abandoned warehouse or some other abandoned place turned ghost rave ! Ally is the DJ and does all the electrical work while Hunter battles challengers and puts on performances with the fellow ghosts roaming around. I based his design on the fact that he should be allowed to wear whatever he wants and the neon glowsticks and bracelets are based on his team colors !! Also the pale face paint and make up bc he's a performer duh and a crinoline with tattered fabric bc he's fancy like that. Didn't wanna add too many skulls bc that's Jake's brand he was the first one move over Hunter and his job really just is performer like he performs all the time for cash and relies on Ally dj money too 😭

Riya:

Riya is the flying type gym leader, she is the fifth gym leader overall. Yes her flying type is because of her assassination attempt on Aiden no one can change me I'm a woman. And also because her with a Bombirdier fits and also an Altaria and Vespiquen, but it's still to be decided. Her design was inspired by sky trainer bodysuits and her shoes height are to reflect her incredible balance and how she's always above everyone else both physically and mentally. I liked adding armor that looks like she's a warrior because let's be real here she is here to WIN. Also gold. She's regal. Love her sm... I think she puts on air show performances and is a celebrity, movie star all over again... like she's so fabulous how can you look away ? Her gym in my head is probably a runway of sorts or movie studio, probably shoots her battling to add into her movies really and yes she's apart of the villain team, she's second in command because why wouldn't she be

Miriam:

(Queen) Miriam is a retired gym leader, she once was the fairy type gym leader, formerly the eighth and last gym leader. Jake now is in her spot and she sometimes visits the gym. She normally is at home baking and providing for the neighboring Pokémon. I like to think her ace is Alcremie cause of obvious reasons and that Jake gifted her a Fidough to keep her company when he's busy at his job and the gym. She has a more bright and "good" aesthetic than Jake, so her gym was more different than his currently is. I like to think she could be challenged later on if this was a game, like post game ! I like to think she also exposed Team Idol and either was kidnapped or just. Roams free who knows. But she's strong and a wise mentor to Jake who helped him calm down a bit so he doesn't destroy everything with his powers when losing.

Other tidbits:

- This is the Tipiskaw Region and it's like side game regions where no new Pokémon are introduced but old ones are available like from previous generations

- The order is:

1st gym: Alec (ice type)

2nd gym: Gabby and Ellie (grass type)

3rd gym: Hunter (ghost type)

4th gym: Connor (steel type)

5th gym: Riya (flying type)

6th gym: James (electric type)

7th gym: Grett (dragon type)

8th gym: Jake (fairy type)

Elite four: Oliver (normal type)

Elite four: Emily (psychic type)

Elite four: Derek (dark type)

Elite four: Trevor (ground type)

Champion: Kristal

- The name of the Villain team is Team Idol, consisting of Leader Alec, second in command Riya, Grett, Yul, Ellie (maybe Gabby) and Fiore and their goal is for complete domination

- Yul is the first fight due to being brash and a show off, many people believe he's the leader of the team because of this and he is a fire type speicalist (also Yul has big beef w James as they are rival idols and both have Oricorio aces)

- Fiore is a NFE specialist (not fully evolved) specialist with Pokémon that just aren't fully evolved yet, but she is still strong in her own right and she trashed Tom's cop car definitely

- Grett is the dragon type specialist and a gym leader herself who later decides to help you the player (Lake and Drew) to stop the team bc she realizes it's wrong and gives the key pass to the secret base she is STRONG

- Also yes Lake is the female MC and despite not being an all star, Drew is the male MC. Lake is the talkative protagonist Drew is the silent protagonist

- Aiden is the friendly rival with legit one Pokémon, that being Pidove and it eventually evolves into a Tranquill and just stops there. Ellie is the hating ass rival, maybe, I think so yeah

- Tom is a police officer and almost a Looker figure as he is constantly going around the region and yes him and Jake had a thing and it's going poorly like in all stars

- Tom will be kidnapped by Team Idol yes, and other shit occurs which the gym leaders (that aren't in on it) have to help save the day

I like to think this is Jake's reaction to the shit storm Ellie throws at him bc she kidnapped Tom:

I'll make another post later on with all the complete details of all the characters and their rolls, I'm primarily focusing on the dcas cast

[belades]

Okay so for a while now I've had an absolute Galaxy brained theory about Iono from Pokemon SV.

Namely, the theory is that she's straight up actually not human but is a Rotom.  As ridiculous as this theory is, I figured I may as well record all the reasons that led me to come to that conclusion, initially as a joke.  I don’t necessarily think it’s TRUE, but think all the details are worth compiling and sharing, so humor me.  If the pace of this seems weird, it’s cuz I’m adapting it from a twitter thread I just made.  Anyways, heads up, this post will contain spoilers for major game plot point.  I won’t spoil things directly but there’s allusions to really important stuff.  Anyways, as ridiculous as this sounds, I actually find it pretty interesting, so hear me out.

So for starters, first and foremost: her mouth.  She has the same mouth as Rotom, just like any mechanical object Rotom inhabits.  What she DOESN'T have is Rotom's eye color, but Rotom's eye color specifically changes based on what it's inhabiting, it is only blue in base form and the phones.  There's more to it though.   Second most obvious is her personality.  She's a mischievous little shit and it is frankly the best thing about her.  As simple as this is, it also completely describes how Rotom act.  Third simplest is that wild Rotom live nearby, even if they’re rare enough people are startled at the idea of seeing one outside a Rotomphone.  

Initially though, this just made me think it was EXTREMELY weird she didn't have a Rotom on her team.  This woman kind of looks like a rotom, notably has a personality like one, and lives near them, it feels like a glaring omission.  This caused me to jokingly hypothesize "Oh, she's a Rotom that is inhabiting an android body or an electronic doll, which is why she doesn't have a Rotom on her team".  Of course it was a joke, this is all pretty circumstantial evidence.  While it still is absolutely a goofy “what if” even now, it started to become a bit less of a joke as I thought about it.

The next bit's circumstantial but starts to add up with the other stuff.  Every gym leader in Paldea has an off type Pokemon that they Terastralize to be on type.  For all of them there's logic to it, even if strange.  Teddyursa like Honey -> bug (and it’s used by a pastry chef, thus would have honey).  Sushi chef sends out crab, sudowoodo goes from fake grass type to real grass type and the trainer considers it a form of performance art, Staraptor loses flying weaknesses, which goes into Larry’s side job, the musician has a guitarist, the cosmetic and perfume woman has a flowery fairy, the guy in the alps has a cloud bird who becomes protected from a 4x weakness.  All of them make sense and are on theme for the trainer’s brand, occupation, or the pokemon’s competitiveness.   Except for Iono's Mismagius.   So Iono for some reason has a ghost type that has nothing to do with electric type or her occupation.  Humorously enough, this makes Electricity Iono's primary type, and Ghost her secondary.  I can't think of any other reason for a mismagius other than perhaps, once again, “She’s a little shit” which is.... a lot more vague than all the rest.  

This is where things start to go from design and personality quirks to being actively strange.

If you talk to people around the city, some of them will comment on something weird they noticed about Iono when they think about it: she doesn't age.  They say she's been streaming for years (How many is unclear, but from the dialogue, presumably at least five to ten) and still looks the same, and they have no idea how old she is because of it.   Add to this the weird glitchy looking twitches she does both in and out of battle whenever she's startled (it is very much blink and you’ll miss it in battle), which I initially thought was simply a bad animation, and let’s be very real, it might be, this game was way overcrunched.

Anyways,  all this was stuff I noticed as I was playing through the main storyline and it felt increasingly weird and consistent, despite the implausibility of it all.  In fact, the implausibility of it all was the main thing bugging me and making me keep dismissing it as just a fun what-if.  Pokemon world technology is advanced, sure, but not advanced enough to make a totally visually convincing lifelike animatronic or android.

And then uhhhhh.... And then I beat the game.

As I said, I’m going to limit spoilers, but the whole "Technology isn’t advanced enough to make an android body humanlike enough to fool people into thinking it is one" is uhhh, no longer the case.  Albeit there are caveats to that.  Anyhow, what led me to decide to actually compile everything an actually post it was that a few minutes ago, I noticed something explicit enough that it ACTUALLY STARTLED ME, even though I've known about it this whole time but never put much thought into. 

Iono’s outfit.

(wait I just noticed putting this together that she also has Rotom’s horizontally split pupils, shit).  Anyways, back to her outfit.  Without straying TOO far into spoiler territory, her outfit is interesting because of her inner outfit.  It is very specifically a lattice of iridescent Hexagons.  And now I’m starting to think again about how her outfit appears to be a modified straightjacket, complete with belts to restrain someone. 

I don't expect us to ever get official confirmation on this, but wanted to share it.  

Also, because I sure as heck didn’t consider why it might be significant for a while, if you need a clue as to why her outfit being comprised of a lattice of iridescent hexagons is important, then without getting too much into endgame plot details, I’ll leave you with “what are they that would make this important” as opposed to the “Why is this important”

[kyoroju]

Hashiras as Pokémon Gym Leaders!

what better first post than combining two of my greatest loves together? i felt that giving the hashiras 1 type to work with would be too cliché, so i gave them a second one that would work with them as well! maybe i spent too much time putting together their parties...but ultimately it was worth it. i really enjoyed writing for them, and i want to hear how you feel about them being gym leaders in a pokémon game! (i'd never stop replaying that version if it were real...)

Kyojuro Rengoku - fire, obviously; steel, less obviously ❥ so obviously, he would be a fire gym leader, right? probably chose a Charmander as his starter years ago and never strayed from the cute fire-breathing baby since they were the same. the rengoku's probably raise all the fire starters as a family tradition anyways ❥ he's got a lot of other pokémon that he adores, but he always gravitates towards the ones that can benefit from his training and vice versa ❥ his full party: Litleo, Fletchinder, Magmortar, Arcanine, Chandelure, Charizard ❥ kyojuro is 100% a steel type gym in disguise. his personality says it all. his determination, his drive, everything he stands for is as unbendable and unwavering as steel. (let's not get started about his body...) ❥ yeah, yeah, steel is super weak to fire, but in kyojuro's case? they make each other stronger in any other way that they can. they solidify wishes and goals and go for it ❥ his full party: Mawile, Klefki, Metagross, Corviknight, Steelix, Aegislash

Giyu Tomioka - water, obviously; ghost, less obviously ❥ as a water hashira, he'd be a water type gym leader. he chose little Oshawott as his starter and loves him greatly, they're quite literally inseparable. ❥ giyu doesn't pay much attention to his pokémon nor does he go out with the intention of training and capturing more, but this one bidoof has been by his side...even after it evolved into a bibarel... ❥ his full party: Shellder, Seadra, Sharpedo, Wailord, Walrein, Samurott ❥ he's distant and cold sometimes, but he ultimately means well, or at least he tries to convey that. people like him, right? shinobu is just teasing him any chance she gets, right? ❥ did i say sometimes? his ghost pokémon rat his real emotions out to people if he isn't watching, they just want the best for him! ❥ his full party: Corsola, Mimikyu, Gengar, Dragapult, Mismagius, Froslass

Obanai Iguro - poison, obviously; ground, less obviously ❥ kaburamaru picked his starter when he was younger, sobble. though throughout obanai's teen years, he trained closely with a bulbasaur instead. ❥ obanai likes to pretend that he doesn't care what happens to his companions, but the second the battle is over, he's hovering over each pokémon, ensuring that each feels cared for. ❥ his full party: Skrelp, Croagunk, Arbok, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Venusaur ❥ obanai is a hardened soul but is still a softy after you get past kaburamaru and his own tough, rough skin. hold him gently and he'll melt without realising, like eroding ground. ❥ he gets mad when he does find out that his pokemon have been meddling in his life, though, so be careful! he's not easy to win back at alI. ❥ his full party: Drilbur, Krokorok, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Sandaconda, Garchomp

Sanemi Shinazugawa - flying, obviously; fighting, less obviously ❥ sanemi is pretty reserved when it comes to his pokémon, but there's no denying that he has a soft spot for the bird species. he trained with a grass/flying type starter but later realised it was no longer flying. ❥ his pokémon may be free-spirited from time to time, but whenever he calls for them, they're by his side within seconds. his pokémon automatically give him tailwind whether he needs it or not. ❥ his full party: Rookidee, Drifloon, Gliscor, Archeops, Toucannon, Decidueye ❥ he isn't so much as a "go with the flow" guy as much as he just appreciates the ebb and flow of the air currents and he expects the same of his winged companions. ❥ he enjoys the rush of the wind, whether it's on the back of his pokémon or he's running right alongside them, though he loves the confrontation on the ground and will never pass a one-on-one fight ❥ his full party: Hawlucha, Kommo-o, Bewear, Scrafty, Machamp, Decidueye

Tengen Uzui - psychic, obviously; dark, less obviously ❥ his exceptional hearing doesn't discriminate when it comes to pokemon that he's raising. the louder, the better, he says...to everyone, though his wives would disagree... ❥ in another life he could've been a conductor but he wouldn't trade his life for another anyways. between him and his wives, he's got enough to deal with ❥ his full party: Bruxish, Gothita, Malamar, Rapidash, Alakazam, Delphox ❥ alongside his wives and him was a lone froakie, which later became his own cherished pokémon, as well as his wives' ❥ tengen may be very good at distinguishing sounds, but he lets his pokémon make as much white noise as want, even if he needs to concentrate on a mission ❥ his full party: Absol, Deino, Grimmsnarl, Honchkrow, Malamar, Greninja

Mitsuri Kanroji - fairy, obviously; dragon, less obviously ❥ she starts every battle by sending out her pokémon with a kiss. it's fitting that every pokemon she has is in a love ball since she's the love hashira. ❥ her pokemon are as graceful and tough as she is, both in appearance and battle. she's always making treats for every one of them, and especially herself! ❥ her full party: Togetic, Kirlia, Hatterene, Grimmsnarl, Alcremie, Altaria ❥ she’s one of two women who’ve become hashira, so she must be strong, right? in another life she could’ve been a ballerina of sorts, or any other profession that let her express her strength equally to her beauty. in this one, it means she harbors dragon types under her wing. ❥ don’t underestimate mitsuri and her cute stature or you’ll be sorry. she may be looking to marry, but you’ve got to show you love her dragons as much as she does… ❥ her full party: Dreepy, Dragonair, Goodra, Salamence, Garchomp, Altaria

Shinobu Kocho - bug, obviously; ice, less obviously ❥ her butterfly attire gives her typing away just like the original gym leaders. it’s only fitting that the butterfly mansion is home to bug types as well as the injured. ❥ she’d never admit that her favorite is her butterfree, but there’s a reason her haori matches the wing patterns near perfectly. confront her about it and you’ll likely be poisoned one way or another ❥ her full party: Skorupi, Whirlipede, Accelgor, Butterfree, Yanmega, Frosmoth ❥ have you seen the look in her eyes? or heard the way she talks to Giyu? she can be cold when she needs to (or wants to) so it only makes sense that the chilly Pokémon have flocked around her ❥ if you let her warm up to you she might show you some tricks her ice types have picked up, like how to beat rengoku’s fire types or how to make nifty potions for battle ❥ her full party: Sneasel, Lapras, Ninetales, Dewgong, Avalugg, Frosmoth

Gyomei Himejima - rock, obviously; grass, less obviously ❥ as the stone hashira, he has strong connection with rock types that are resilient as he is. they love joining him during training sessions and will often practice when he is ❥ his party's defense is so high, you'll likely have to whittle them down little by little. you'll be lucky to take a chip out of them before they trap you in a tomb ❥ his full party: Rockruff, Lairon, Bastiodon, Tyrantrum, Omastar, Cradily ❥ the rock types he works with are tough and hardened, but the grass types he works with a flowy and flexible. they may look super tough on the outside, but they're soft on the inside ❥ his grass types love practicing with him, especially when he's water training. show up with a water type of any kind and they'll show you who's boss ❥ his full party: Gossifleur, Skiddo, Ferrothorn, Shiftry, Torterra, Cradily

Muichiro Tokito - normal, obviously; electric, less obviously ❥ his aloofness definitely takes a part in what Pokémon stay by him throughout his journey. normal types are unaffected by his amnesiac tendencies and care for him all the same. ❥ he might forget who is in his lineup, but he’ll always put on a worthy battle even if it takes him until halfway through to realize he might lose. don’t let him remember there’s a badge on the line and he might spare your party of Pokémon… ❥ his full party: Spinda, Minccino, Wigglytuff, Snorlax, Slaking, Heliolisk ❥ the blankness in his eyes can be fierce like a storm. if you get on his nerves, he might just lash out with everything he's got. you won't want to get caught in the spark. ❥ while his party is sparky and electrifying, he can still be pretty absent-minded and forget to pay attention to them. they remind him with a little spark and sometimes you'll even see him play with them. ❥ his full party: Pincurchin, Magnemite, Toxtricity, Ampharos, Electrode, Heliolisk

[mha-quotes-and-such]

If you were to make some characters of your choice pokemon gym leaders what would their teams be like?

Ok I always Love Pokemon themed asks so I got a Little carried away on this one. I decided to make pro-heroes, 1A, and villains each their own league of eight gyms! Each one has their position (first gym you encounter, second gym you encounter, etc), their type, and team!

Pro-Heroes

The first gym is Edgeshot, who uses steel types due to ninjas using swords, and his ability to become extremely sharp. He uses a single Honedge as steel is a more powerful type, so I figured giving him 1+ Pokemon would be unfair

For the second gym we have Snipe, who uses ground types due to him being a cowboy, which are generally associated with the American mid/south west and Mexico, which are mostly desert or farmlands. He uses Mudbray, as it evolves into a horse, and Silicobra, as its evolution is based in part on sidewinders (a snake from Mexico and the American Southwest) and double-barreled guns

The third gym would be Present Mic, who uses normal types as it is used as a catchall for sound based Pokemon. He uses Chatot, Loudred, and Jigglypuff all for their relation to sound/singing

The fourth gym is Aizawa, who uses dark types. I'm gonna be honest this was purely a choice of vibes. He uses an Alolan Persian and Purrloin because I couldn't not give him cats, and Morgrem due to it and Grimmsnarl using their hair similar to how Aizawa uses his scarf

Midnight is the fifth gym, and she uses poison types. I was between fairy and poison for her, but went with poison as her quirk kind of acts like an air-borne toxin, and I wanted to give her Salazzle. That being said, she uses Salazzle because Look At It, and Roselia and Glimmora for their pretty, floral looks as her quirk reminds me a lot of the move sweet scent, which is learned by a lot of grass types/flower-based Pokemon

Hawks is up next as the sixth gym, with flying types. Honestly I was pretty uninspired when it came to him, so he has Pidgeot, Swellow, and Talonflame as they're all powerful and/or fast birds that share one or all of their colors with him

Next up is All Might as the seventh gym leader with fighting types, due to his physical strength and fighting style, as well as the fighting type being known for having a lot of "just" Pokemon. He uses Machoke for its appearance, Falinks for their skilled and organized fighting style, and Lucario and Gallade for their just and knightly attributes

Finally Endeavor is the eighth gym leader, and of course uses fire types. His team is exclusively based on physically large and powerful Pokemon, because lets be real thats all he gives a shit about. He uses Magmortar, Emboar, Incineroar, and Camerupt

Class 1A

The first gym is Kirishima, who uses Rock types. He uses Geodude and Rockruff for reasons of them being neat little guys who I think he'd like

The second gym is Iida, who uses Steel types. His only Pokemon is Skarmory, due to it being on the faster end of steel types and sharing a similar color scheme to Iida. Like Edgeshot, he only uses one Pokemon since its so powerful so early on

For the third gym we have Uraraka who uses fairy types as many have magic that can make things float, and they overall match her vibe. She uses Togetic, as I wanted to give her a dual flying type, and Clefable

Kaminari is the fourth gym with electric types. He uses Pikachu (who hasn't seen him called Pikachu before?), as well as Blitzle and Electabuzz as I feel they fit his style and color scheme

The fifth gym is Mina, who uses poison types. Her Pokemon were honestly picked entirely on vibes; she uses Sliggoo, Galarian Slowbro, and Toxapex

Tokoyami is the sixth gym leader with dark types. He uses Honchkrow and Mandibuzz for the bird theme. He also uses a Lokix due to its showdown form. It reminds me a lot of dark shadow as it becomes much stronger but takes a toll on its body, similar to how dark shadow can really strain Tokoyami

The seventh gym, is Midoriya, who uses normal types. I know people usually associate him with fighting types, but I thought it would be cool to give him normal types - he'd be the type to give a chance to one of the weaker types. His team mostly revolves around the Pokemons' personalities. He uses Kangaskhan, as its willing to injure itself to defend its family, Blissey as it attempts to help any person or Pokemon it can, and Lopunny as it looks cute but is a powerful fighter

Finally Todoroki is the eighth gym, and uses ice types. I went with ice since he originally used exclusively ice, but all of his Pokemon have a connection to fire types. He uses Alolan Ninetales, whose regular form is a fire type, Galarian Darmanitan, which is ice/fire type, Glaceon, who is related to the fire type Flareon, and Snowy Form Castform, who can turn into the fire type sunny form

Villains

The first gym is Toga, who uses fairy types simply because she thinks theyre cute. She uses Impidimp for its mischievous personality and Spritzee as she finds it cute (also that whole thing with the bird when she was a kid)

The second gym is Muscular with fighting types. He uses a Mankey due to its extremely aggressive temperament, and Machop since Machoke and Machamp sort of look like him

Mr Compress is the third gym leader with psychic types. He uses Kadabra since its based on common real life magicians/magic acts, and Spoink since its pearl is the source of its power similar to how Compress's power is his marbles

Kurogiri is the fourth gym leader and he uses ghost types. He uses Spiritomb due to its resemblance to him, and Yamask as it was formerly a human, the same way he was

The fifth gym leader is Geten with ice type Pokemon. He uses Glalie (I think Snorunt looks like him), as well as Sneasel and Cloyster since theyre powerful and darker/aggressive than a lot of other ice types

Magne is the sixth gym leader and she uses steel types. Her Pokemon are Magneton for its relation to magnets, Tinkatuff for using its hammer how she uses her magnetic pillar, and Metang

The seventh gym is Shigaraki, who uses dark types. He has a Zweilous, as its evolution is known for acting out aggressively due to being disliked/outcast. He also uses Bomberdier for its very childish behavior, and Malamar as it controls others and influences historic events

Finally is Dabi who uses fire types. I wanted him to almost be a dual fire/ghost type user, as a lot of ghost types fit his darker theme, or feelings of abandonment. He uses Alolan Marowak, Chandelure, Houndoom and Ceruledge

[pliskin]

Ok the. Geeta meta so I can get it off my chest bc some posts on here are deeply troubling in the way they will vilify her for having character flaws. Not going to talk about sweatlord team composition/battle mechanics just purely her writing and the story

Let me preface by saying this, you need to stop applying real world class and workplace dynamics in a series that is literally based on a utopia. There is no reason for you at all to extrapolate someone like larry working three jobs to mean he is living paycheck-to-paycheck and is being exploited financially; he lives comfortably from the simple fact he goes out to eat regularly. That’s not someone living in poverty.

To talk about larry more because this is where geeta catches the most ire, let’s talk about geeta’s insistence that larry use flying-types in the e4, to larry’s dismay. This is where geeta starts to meddle, and comes across as thinking she knows what’s best for larry (and other members of the league). I do think it’s completely fine to think she’s controlling in this aspect, and it is a character flaw of hers. She’s the boss, she’s bossy, she wants change where she wants improvement, she exerts that hierarchal power.

So she tells larry to use flying-types, and he’ll lead you to believe he’s not happy about that. But is that true? His design reflects both his flying and normal affinities. When you speak to larry again for your rematch, he starts telling you:

He’s admitting that his viewpoint, that resigning himself to normalcy, means he’ll never get to see everything there is in life. That is character progression! Or it could’ve been something he knew all along. It’s hard to tell with larry, when he seems to suggest he’s not always telling the truth during your first gym battle with him.

Not only that, but he also tells you that geeta tells him to stop working overtime. That is not indicative of an exploitive boss. Geeta from these lines carries so much compassion it honestly hurts that a lot of people will choose to misconstrue that, or not notice. It was an order to choose flying-types, but it made larry reconsider sticking to only what he knows. It’s nurturing for him, it’s wanting to see him at his full potential. It’s coming from a place of kindness. It’s telling him to work less. LARRY chooses to overwork.

Every other gym leader that has some trouble with her, it is in my opinion chalked up to their own insecurity and anxiety over being assessed. Lots of gym leaders are apathetic over their gym leader status and would rather pursue their other careers. Tulip’s dislike stems literally from jealousy over Geeta’s beauty:

I just want to say. A lot of characters being uneasy with her is NOT THAT DEEP. Tulip is jealous of her bc she is a big ass lesbian and thinks geeta is beautiful. And that is one of geeta’s more egregious relationships, along with larry, who has already been spoken for. It is not indicative of anything even nearly sinister of what the fandom has cooked up in their heads.

She meddles, and she’s underdeveloped and under-utilized, and that’s it. She’s not your real-life boss. She has flaws indicative of her role as the big boss in the region. It’s not a pass, but you’d hope to think people would extend some sympathy to that, and not interpret literally everything she does as bad faith as one possibly can. I don’t understand it. Her design being based on a glimmora makes one wonder her relationship to area zero, and I think it’s completely fine to theorize, but the insistence to demonize her through extremely inauthentic critiques makes me think you don’t hate her, just what she represents as a “boss”.

[cheemken]

Have some more Unova kids hcs bc why not the brainrot is real

•okay but fr tho "*didn't ask for pickles but is too shy to tell the server*" w Hilbert, Bianca, and N, and "excuse me, but they asked for no pickles" w Hilda, Iris, and Cheren

•they would play every co op game under the sun, I just know it, that's how Iris got her love of fps games cause she gets to play it w her friends

•they def play pkmn unite tho

-tho when they do play unite, the others always separate Iris and Hilbert as the two are like pros, so it's always three on one side and three on the other when they do a pvp tournament w each other

-usual teams are Hilda, Cheren, and Iris, and then N, Hilbert, and Bianca

-surprisingly enough, N is good at that game, and got every pkmn at least the green ribbon bc he wanted every one of his friends to have one

-Zoroark got a gold ribbon tho let's be real, he only ever uses Zoroark in that game it's insane

•as much as the others tease Cheren that he's like a teacher now, they do actually listen to his lectures, and would oftentimes hang out in his gym whenever they're free

-whenever he's not around, the others would always tell his students how cool and strong he is, and the kids would be so amazed bc ofc, the two Heroes and the Champion looking up to their teacher? Their Gym Leader? Ofc they'd eat that up, and they'd listen more to Cheren cause they wanna be strong like him now too

•Iris and N having that solidarity that they never had much friends, or rather didn't really have friends, when they were younger and the Nuvema kids mean so much to them bc it's the first ever friend group they had

-and really the first friend group that doesn't make fun of anything abt them and how odd they are

•Iris is that rich friend let's be real, she's Champion and her grandpa is the mayor of a city, ofc she'd have that money, and she'd just spend most of it buying lil gifts for her friends, usually Dragon themed stuff, or things that she thinks they'll like

-shes the one that goes all out during their birthdays and Christmas, saying how she's only getting the best for her friends

•N is staying w Alder now, as the others didn't just want him to fly around Unova or stay inside Plasma's old castle, and hey they all wanted to let N stay w em, but N decided to just stay w Alder instead and Alder was more than happy

-he also helps Alder in teaching the kids more abt Pokémon, it makes him happy how patient the children are and how understanding they are when it comes to their partner pkmn

-it makes him miss his own Pokémon sometimes, but he knows they're happy wherever they are

•altho Bianca would often say she's the weakest of the bunch, she's actually a really capable trainer that she got to the semi finals in the PWT

-the others did help her train, as they didn't want her getting hurt while running errands or doing research stuff

-yknow what, Bianca's Serperior deserves to have Contrary, so hey her Serperior's ability is now Contrary, as a treat

-bonus tho, Hilbert's Emboar has Reckless as an ability

•Zekrom, Reshiram, and even Kyurem would listen to Cheren, Bianca, and N's commands

-pls ur honour they trust each other so much that even their legendary pkmn would listen to the ones that aren't even their actual trainers

•Hilda and Hilbert could impersonate each other really well when they were younger, ofc now they have different body types they couldn't anymore, but they could still somewhat mimic each others voices that it honest to god still scares Cheren

-Cheren had told N and Iris that the twins always did that back then to mess w them, and "it seems you two didn't grow out of it."

"oh cmon, Cheren, it's fun!"

"you say it's fun because you two can mess with people online with it."

"yeah no shit—"

[prince-kallisto]

Larry’s Facade, Bravado, and Karagenki

Larry’s Facade comment has really fascinated me, and after thinking it over, I realized how it doesn’t make sense at all. I will be comparing the English and Japanese lines for this analysis, but please let me know what I missed/mistaken in the Japanese translations, I am not an expert in any means!

Thank you @hcrogasm for the inspiration!

His iconic line in English is “I think it’s time to show you that real life isn’t all just being true to yourself,” before using Facade. A Facade is the concept of an (usually happy or kind) outward appearance made specifically to conceal true feelings. It can conceal any type of emotion, but the dictionary definitions of this word tend to be more negative, seeing facades as deceptive masks that hide hostility and despair.

In Japanese, he says something along the lines of “Let me show you the special move of us working adults” before using からげんき, the romanji being Karagenki. The kanji for Kara (空) means empty, and the kanji for Genki (元気) means energy. So the literal translation of Karagenki (空元気) is ‘empty energy.’

From my understanding, Genki is a very abstract term. To break it down further, 元 means origin or source. 気 means air, spirit, mind, or life energy. So the direct translation for Genki is “source of life energy.” Since Kanji is based on Chinese characters, 気 is also Qi, the life energy that flows in every living being or even the universe. Genki can refer to this vital energy! But it is commonly used as a way to express your health, energy, and mood.

It’s interesting to me that 気 literally translates to air. Was this another sneaky foreshadowing Larry being a Flying Type Elite Four member? Maybe not, it’s just kanji haha. But there’s the possibility!

The actual definition of Karagenki is akin to ‘false cheeriness, health, or energy.’ It’s pretending that you’re fine and happy when you’re not, which is very important skill to have for work. It is often translated as Bravado, but accuracy of this word depends heavily on the context. Bravado is the concept of putting on a brave or confident face to impress or intimidate others. Karagenki can also be translated as “Dutch Courage,” the courage you get when you are intoxicated…but this is a game targeted toward children haha

The Pokémon move Facade/Karagenki makes a lot of sense because it deals double the base power when the Pokémon is paralyzed, poisoned, or burned. The Pokémon is putting in more effort despite suffering from status ailments. Larry states he does his best work when it’s crunch time. The connection between the Pokémon move and his worklife is so brilliant for his characterization!Additionally, Larry’s Staraptor has the ability Intimidate (Ties in with Bravado). I would say case solved, but there’s this slight dissonance between his dialogue and these definitions. Karagenki is his special move- but does he use truly use it?

Larry is extremely upfront at how he doesn’t like his boss, that he’ll get a pay cut, that he just wants to get the battles over with, etc. Larry just dumps all of this to a 10 year old without much regard for appearances, he doesn’t pretend to be happy or motivated at all. He even says that Geeta, his boss, won’t catch him doing his work for fun! He doesn’t shield his personality and true feelings behind a Facade- he’s very forward about his own values. The only moment he looks somewhat happy is when he’s eating onigiri in our gym badge photo.

It’s also implied that he wouldn’t have Terastillazed in the gym battle if it weren’t for the encouragement from the restaurant crowd. Additionally, his gym leader blurb states “he helps run the Pokémon League,” but “is not the best rated worker.” He puts in the bare minimum in his work and has no pride in it (valid).

Some people say that everything Larry was before the Elite Four reveal was his facade. That being a gym leader and an office worker was his “disguise.” But I don’t think is the case. After examining the dialogue, I believe that Larry was a Gym Leader first, then became an Elite Four member. He was told to use a different type other than his Normal Gym type after all. Plus, Larry has no personality change or satisfaction with the E4 reveal. To the players, we are shocked because we never would’ve expected to see him. But to him, despite the extremely impressive accomplishment of being an E4 member, it’s just another job and routine.

So looking this over, what in the world is Larry’s Facade? As usual, I’m not sure. I think the closest answer is that he’s forcing himself to work despite his lack of energy (Karagenki). But this doesn’t entirely line up either. His English line is interesting because it implies that he isn’t being “true to himself” in some way, just like what a Facade is. He’s faking something, lying to himself and others. Perhaps referring to his usage of Flying Types later on? Or is it something else more mysterious?

I also understand it from the point of view that he just wants to eat good food and relax without having to work. He is based off the stereotype of the overworked Japanese salaryman after all. But I’m still conflicted, because his lines give the impression that he’s a workaholic. He was strictly told by someone to cut down on his overtime hours, likely by Geeta because it sounds like it wasn’t his decision to make. He overworks himself despite already having three jobs.

Edit: there’s a really good comment regarding workaholism in the notes! Sometimes a person’s/character’s actions aren’t as logical as we’d like them to be, and come from unhealthy habits and cycles of guilt. It’s entirely possible that Larry also just developed this habit of overworking to the point he can’t really stop himself.

The game is keeping its secrets for now, but this is very cool for any personal theories/headcanons you have for Larry. Autistic Larry is real haha. Jokes aside, I think the complexity of dialogue and behavior is really fascinating. So much can be revealed about a character in well-crafted subtleties. But what do y’all think about this analysis? I love hearing everyone’s thoughts, advice, and headcanons!

(Many thanks to Jshay Translations on YouTube for translating Larry’s line. Please let me know if there are other translations/interpretations!)

[harufallinwonderland]

THE BRAINROT IS REAL!

CURETIEL TIME (how many fanfics have it been now 3?) @shinysparklesapphires

Here the ocs but this time PLOT TWIST

Curetiel IN POKEMON engough said.

Not much to say besides LETS GET THIS STARTED

——————————————————————————

Title: WAKE UP

The sun rises on the wonderland region with all the corviknights and pidgeys chirping and flying around and the kricketots playing there music waking up the people of the Sage town which has become A routine for the town’s morning well besides one person.

The young man Ink lays on his bed his Persian at the foot of his bed resting both completely ignorant to all the noise of the morning outside well untill Persian opens one of its eyes seeing A familiar white hair man walk into the room with his chandelure floating infront of him which leaves the Persian yawning before getting out of bed wanting to avoid being caught in the way of Ink’s daily wake up freak out.

The chandelure floats above Ink and making its flame grow brighter lighting up the room which in return Ink slightly opens his eyes looking at the chandelure like A grumpy night owl would to the sun and then to his “best friend” sitting on the corner of his bed fully dressed “hey Ink time to wake up” Marble says lightly uncovering Ink from his blanket before he could cover his head in protest.

Ink looks to the digital clock right besides him and tries to stop himself from having A heart attack “CRAP I’M GONNA BE LATE FOR WORK” he quickly got up nearly kicking Marble off the bed as A side thing as he ran to the bathroom to get ready and Marble just sighing heading back to there living room

A little while later Ink was in the living room in his gym leader clothes as Marble was brushing Ink’s Persian’s fur A big plate of eggs and bacon on the table and chandelure “BEFORE THAT I GOT T-“

“I already have all your Pokémon fed and all your gym trainers are at the gym ready for when you arrive also there a lot of trainers in town today so I made you A bigger breakfast than normal just in case you have lunch late”

“OH THANK YOU SO MUCH MARBLE” Ink says chomping through his breakfast and Marble finishing brushing Persian as thanks Persians rubs up on Marble’s hand with he responds with pets.

Ink finishes his breakfast getting up grabbing his poke balls running outside returning all of his Pokémon that hang outside in there poke balls besides Persian who was running with him making A b line straight to his gym with Marble with him as well and his chandelure floating right with them.

“Any idea how many challengers they are today!?”

“About 7 I have already scheduled each match for today with engough time for A short rest and some time at the end of the day for any last second challengers”

“Have I ever told you how screwed I would be without you and how much you mean to me Marble?” Ink says to Marble with A big grin on his face as they run.

“Yes everyday Ink although I am not saying I have A problem with it” Marble smiles back with A flight blush on his face.

—————————————————————————-

“Wild cat chase”

“Congrats kid you have beaten me amazing effort I can tell your on your way to great things here is your first gym badge the Sage town gym bag” Ink kneels down to A girl with brown hair handing her A small charm with wings at the side betraying the gym’s dark type theme.

The girl smiles taking the gym badge smiling as her growlithe tackles her “yes yes you did wonderful Komugi” the girl picks up her dog and bows to Ink as she walks out the gym and Marble walking up to Ink “seemed like A strong girl huh?”

“Yeah her and that growlithe were super strong out of those two pure will power and bond could probably could beat my 2nd badge team” Ink says waving the girl goodbye and then stretching returning the two Pokémon he used for the battle back to there poke balls while doing so.

“Anyway despite lunch being A hour late it’s still impressive you got through all the planned trainers today” Marble pats Ink on the back as they walk to the front of the gym telling all the gym trainers it’s break time.

“Yeah well there was A surpriseing amout of less experienced trainers today nobody above 4 gym badges although they wore out my teams for sure” Ink says sitting on A nice table that was in front of the gym as Marble puts some plates on the table then going to Ink’s pokemon to give them there food.

It was silent for A while Ink eating peacefully and Marble soon joining watching the town they live in go about there daily lives from there gym which were at the outskirts of town untill they saw familar faces “Oh Vivienne,Yuuki hiya!” Which catches the two girl’s attention.

They both approach the green hair girl Vivienne in some gothic lite clothes that seem impractical for A journey but she seems fine with her espeon next to her which has A dark bow on its ear and A blue hair girl with fake ears from A cat like Pokémon Ink can’t pinpoint right now and her meowstic next to them nibbling on A treat “Oh hiya Nya” the blue hair girl Yuuki greeted them with.

“So what brings you two into town?” marble asks taking A bite of his food after finishing.

“Out to challenge me for my gym badge?” Ink says seeming to be ready for the challenge already but Vivienne just nodding no “no not yet my pride would not survive if I didn’t challenge you when you can go full power at your 8th badge team” she says with A slight glare to Ink.

“We heard they were kanto meowths around the area and I wanna catch one nya” Yuuki interrupted before things can get tense which Marble silently thanks her for “yeah we were going for my next gym badge but Sage town was just A quick detour away so we are stopping by to feed Yuuji’s addiction to cat pokemon” Viv says which caught Marble’s ear not used to her groaning every sentence.

“Oh I can help you with that plus I wanted to catch one myself could be A nice bud for Persian” Ink says pointing at his Persian that was currently taking A nap on A cat bed near the table “well why don’t you join us for lunch I have left overs from making lunch you two can have” Marble offers before catching Yuuki’s gaze looking to his right in which he sees A kanto meowth in the forest near by stalking them before retreating back in with Yuuki and her Meowstic chasing it.

“Or maybe not” Marble mumbled “HEY WAIT FOR ME” Ink yells stuffing his face full of food before grabbing some poke balls running after them his Persian quickly waking up running with him.

“Idoits both of them” Vivienne mumbles out and Marble nods “but they’re our idoits”

In the forest Ink had trouble keeping up with Yuuki who moved so much like A cat despite being human and her meowstic that used its physic powers to either float through or blow away obstacles which in turn helped Ink clearly room for him and his Persians to run.

It was A constant chase untill Yuuki tripped on A branch from A tree she was planning to jump the meowth from leaving Ink running to catch her along with her meowstic and his Persian still chasing the meowth.

“Are you ok Yuuki?” Ink asks with Yuuki in his arms which she quickly jumps out from “yeah nya is fine but how do we find the meowth now nya?” She says sad that she didn’t catch the beige feline but Ink pats her on the back “hey my Persian was chasing it I’m sure if we walk engough we can find them” Ink says trying to cheer Yuuki up as said girl just nods proceeding to walk the same direction ink and Meowstic following.

They walked in silence for A bit before Yuuki spoke “so how been things with you and Marble nya?” She asks not making direct eye contact looking around.

“Well we have been fine last week he ha-”

“No I mean anything changed with your…relationship nya”

“Uh no why would you think that Marble is my best friend” after those words Yuuki just felt glad Marble wasn’t there to hear those words or else that would have probably been A clear stab to the heart for him.

“Yeah A friend you have been living with since you two turned 18 3 years ago yeah the bestest of friends” Yuuki rolls her eyes at Inks words as Ink gives A genuine nod making Yuuki regret mentioning this at all.

“He is my everything after all” and just like that Yuuki wanted to scream for Marble who probably hear this stuff everyday

—————————————————————————

Marble pours some tea into A fancy black cup for Vivienne who was sitting in Ink’s seat “well thanks marble” Vivienne says taking A sip after munching on her cupcake A bit and Marble just smiling sitting in his seat.

“I swear what is taking those two so long it doesn’t take that long to catch such A weak Pokémon” Vivienne complains through drinking her tea and Marble just chuckles agreeing with her but more out of concern rather than annoyance “well maybe the meowth tricked them” Marble chuckles out while Vivi just nods in A way that just drips of sarcasm despite not uttering A word.

“Well anyway I have A question for you Marble?” She placed her elbow on the table leaning her head on her hand and Marble raises A eye brow “yeah what’s wrong?” He asked but the smirk that grows on Vivienne’s face made him instantly regret it.

“So how been you and Ink been going?” She asked snickering which gets A glare from Marble “mind clarifying What you mean by that?” Marble asks in A stern tone to get her to back off but all she does is smirk more “on don’t play dumb how are you and Ink doing you two slow dancing in the moonlight yet, one room one bed situation come on”

“That’s engough out of you…there is nothing going on” Marble says taking A bite out of his sandwich which made his words come out more as A grumble then his normal polite tone “well why not come on just confess already your bassicly his spouse at this point he would be FUCKED without you and you know that”

“Yes I know but….i just don’t want to ruin everything….i mean he is my everything” Marble says looking away not wanting to confront Vivienne’s smirk but instead of that she had A sympathetic smile before she noticed what she was doing then going back to her smirk “weird that seems like something A certain someone else says a lot huh?”

Marble couldn’t bring out A physical response like he knew he had no out of this conversation that he could lose like he knows she is right “listen I get it Ink is super openly affectionate with his words but…he is like that with everyone you know that despite all your threats and such he still is A sweetheart to you excuse me for assuming he is just being close to his best friend” Marble blurted out breaking his normal serious and calm voice into something slightly more emotional and confrontational.

Vivienne just sighs “well are you ok with being just his best friend?” She asks him Marbles goes silent for seconds then minutes collecting his thoughts before speaking again gaining back some of his composure but not all “of course I don’t fully like it I want to be able to be more intimate with him but…I’m still happy just being with him makes me so happy being able to talk with him, live with him, take care of him and his pokemon, help him everyday despite everything if things ended like this it wouldn’t be perfect but it would be A nice happily ever after…”

“Am I even talking to Marble?” Viv asked leaving Marble confused “what happened to the guy that faced admins of dotsuku when they started invaded wonderland and fought them off,what happened to the guy who had no problems telling people to suck it up and talk out there problems huh?�� Vivienne asked sounding somewhat gentle for once while A bit straight to the point making her words clear.

Marble stayed silent unable to deny anything she said then she sighs “sorry but listen I get that sometimes things like this could get you to be…not normal and I won’t force you too confess but just know there is going to be A day where everything boils over and you blurt out all you feel at A bad time and I’d say it’s better to confess before then and…you two mean everything to each other I doubt much bad will happen if he doesn’t feel the same” Marble sat there shocked that Vivienne could actually give out advice like this no insults just getting straight to the point leaving him to just nod.

“Heh wouldn’t it be useful to be able to follow your own advice?” Marble says but Vivienne just smirked at him “oh I did already”…… “HUH!?” He yelled in surprise but before they could continue Yuuki and Ink came out of the forest injured but not to much to be concerned about it.

“Got what you wanted?” Vivienne asks in which Yuuki nods holding out A ultra ball with A M she put on top in marker “GOT IT NYA” Vivienne nods “anyway we should get going we have hotel reservations in the town close to here and Marble consider my advice…or don’t” they quickly walked off like there trying to give them room to talk …..wait A second THOSE GIRLS!

Before Marble could compose himself fully he sees A bleeding cut on Ink’s head “holy crap ink are you ok!?” Before Ink can utter A word Marble sits him down and goes to grab A med kit in the gym and patches him up.

…it was silent for A bit just the two enjoying each other company but then Marble spoke “Hey Ink I lo…I mean I have A question” he interrupted himself before he could finish the fourth word and went to change subject proving Vivienne right even more then he would like to admit.

“Yeah Marble?” Ink answers tilting his head in questioning.

“Do you think…we are each other’s everything…in every life?” Marble wanted to face palm himself to the distortion world after saying that WHY DID HE SAY THAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER TO CONFESS AHHH.

Ink was silent just stareing Marble in the eyes making Marble internally scream before his eyes light up and A big smile appear on his face him shining brighter than even the sun to Marble “OF COURSE I mean I would love it if that was true but….” He grew red even he seems to have A limit to his friendliness before he get embarrassed but at least he wasn’t alone with Marble silent because of embarrassment as well.

But Marble just smiles going back to treating the cut “thanks if we both can agree on it must be true and if not… we can just make it true Nagisa Ink” Marble says the biggest Grin ink has seen on him for A while appearing.

“Of course Honoka Marble” Ink grins back them being lost in there own world before being bought back to it by Kira running up to the two A smile on his face t oo

.

.

.

.

“I really did have A weird dream Honoka”

“Oh I did too maybe we can tell each other it after school?”

“Sure….oh it’s Hikari we should hurry and catch up with her”

“Yeah let’s go”

[implausiblyjosh]

Snack Pack Adventures #1: A Crystal Clear Nuzlocke

I’ve been in a Crystal Clear mood, so let’s play a Nuzlocke.

To pick my starter, I had a random number generate a number 1-6 then picked any of the 6 Gen 1 & 2 starters based on that number. Crystal Clear has options for like 10 or so starters, including both sets of actual starter Pokemon, and they’re listed in National Dex order for the starters, so it’s an easy thing to roll for. I rolled a 1, so I got a Bulbasaur.

After naming our Bulbasaur Celery, the real fun can begin! Before we start on our journey properly, let’s outline the rules.

1. Any Pokemon that faints cannot be used anymore. Release them ASAP. 2a. Catch only the first Pokemon encountered in a route/area/town/whatever. Static, Gift, & Duplicate Pokemon do not count toward this rule and can be caught/received. 2b. A Duplicate Pokemon is any Pokemon in the evolutionary line that has already been caught. Ex. A caught Caterpie would mean a Caterpie, Metapod, or Butterfree would be considered a Duplicate. 3. No items during battle, only Pokeballs and Held Items. 4. I win if I defeat every Gym Leader & the Elite Four, I lose if I white out.

I think that’s it. We don’t have wondertrade or any other fun stuff to worry about, so we can just use these rules and carry on. And so, we head out towards Cherrygrove and then Violet City.

Our first encounter is a Hoothoot, which is an easy catch. They are now named Pringle. The Snack Pack is growing. We should head north, towards Route 46, because we’ll need some more pals before Falkner. Hopefully a Geodude, but I’m not sure they’ll actually spawn at night and I’m not going to look it up.

That is not a Geodude. But, we cannot be picky this early on, so we’re just going to have to make due. I have named our new friend Sandwich. We grow stronger. At Cherrygrove we heal up and pick up some potions. Even though we won’t be using them in battle, we don’t want to have to run back to PokeCenters at the slightest hint of trouble, so they’re good to have. I’ll also pick up a couple extra Pokeballs as well. Oh, and some Antidotes. Anything to keep my Pokemon not-fainted for longer.

After emptying my wallet, it’s time to go on Route 30. Let’s see our first encounter!

Oh damn, a Poliwag! It’s an easy battle, Poliwag’s Bubble only does 1 damage to Celery even on a critical, and Celery’s Tackle does little enough damage to not faint. After eating one Pokeball, Poliwag is captured and we have a new friend on the team. They are now named MTN DEW.

Route 30 seems like a pretty solid place to switch train for right now. Celery takes 1-2 damage per Poliwag encountered, and we can easily wipe them out with one Petal Dance, and they each give a whopping 42 EXP. Let’s get everyone to, say, 7 or 8?

I got bored of grinding after about 10 mins. Let’s just keep moving.

Our first Trainer battles are up ahead. Sandwich will take the lead for switch training, and Celery is level 6 and will be level 7 by the end of the next fight, so I think we’re in a good place. Let’s do this.

Youngster Joey is up first, with a level 3 Rattata. Not even worth mentioning, Celery takes him out with a Petal Dance. Youngster Mikey is afterwards, with a level 3 Pidgey up top. I don’t think it has a flying type move, so I switch into Celery. Two Petal Dances and it’s gone, with a level 5 Rattata taking it’s place. We have our battle mode set to Switch, so we switch back to Sandwich then back to Celery. Celery is at 15/24 HP, so I throw a Leech Seed out. One more Tackle, and now we’re down to 10/24 HP. This is not good. We Petal Dance then we get hit again, down to 5/24 HP. Leech Seed only gets us up to 7/24 HP. We can take one more non-critical hit, and we’re locked into Petal Dance for our next move. The Rattata uses Tail Whip, our Petal Dance hits. Victory!

We definitely need to heal up before the next couple of trainers. I use a Potion on Celery and we move on, avoiding Spinarak as they pop up. Next up is Bug Catcher Don and they send out a level 3 Caterpie. I don’t think this will kill Sandwich, so I try one Tackle. It lands, does about 1/3 of their health. Their Tackle lands, and it takes off 2 HP. Oh, we got this. Two more Tackles and Sandwich gets his first taste of solo victory. Well, over one Pokemon. Don still has another level 3 Caterpie, which Sandwich destroys in 3 hits. Actually, this worked out really for Sandwich because a held Berry gets eaten during battle, so now we’re up to full health and we’re level 5!

We hit Route 31 next and get our first instance of our Duplicate rule, a Poliwag. Then another Poliwag. Then finally!

This isn’t great. Our next gym is Falkner, who has flying Pokemon. Having one type disadvantaged Pokemon is bad, but two? Ugh. But, we also need more bodies, so I get Celery to chip away health and get a catch on the first ball. Carrot has joined the team.

Now, one of the gimmicks of Crystal Clear is that while the whole game is opened up and can be approached from all different angles, with trainers scaling based on your badge number, some places are static. Take Sprout Tower, usually a great place for early-game EXP. In Crystal Clear, the Pokemon are at level 30-ish, so my team of levels 8-4 will not work there. Because of this knowledge, I am scared that an encounter in Dark Cave could go very badly, but I also want to try my luck at getting a Geodude or some other not-grass Pokemon.

I’m going to put MTN DEW in the front and they will be my sacrifice. I switch the party, I walk into Dark Cave…

Oh. We’re fine! Switch into Celery, Tackle a few times, and now we have Salt. We are about to get to Violet City when we get into a battle with Bug Catcher Wade. A level 3 Caterpie opens the fight and I think about who to switch Salt out for. I decide on Pringle and it’s a 2-turn Tackle victory. Another level 3 Caterpie comes out as I switch back to Salt. I think Salt can take this, so I leave him in to Tackle. It takes way too long and is barely worth the 33 EXP, but it is one more level. I almost let Salt stay in until I notice the new Caterpie is level 7. I switch to Celery, who defeats Caterpie and stays at full health thanks to Leech Seed. Switch back to Salt and a level 5 Weedle comes out. Unfortunately, rocks can be poisoned, so I switch back to Celery for safety reasons and destroy the Weedle.

Now it’s time to grind, for real this time. Salt needs to be up in levels and fast, because I believe he’s our only hope with Falkner. Luckily, outside of Poliwag & Bellsprout, Salt can take on just about any wild Pokemon in this area, and we need to get to level 11 for Rock Throw, so this shouldn’t take too long.

After 20-ish minutes of grinding (I watched a Yakuza Kiwami speedrun) here’s the party.

Salt, Lv. 11

Celery, Lv. 9

Pringle, Lv. 5

Sandwich, Lv. 5

Carrot, Lv. 5

MTN DEW, Lv. 4

It’s gym time.

Bird Keeper Abe is first with a Lv. 9 Spearow, and one Rock Throw takes them out. Bird Keeper Rod is next with two Lv. 7 Pidgeys. Two Rock Throws take them out. We use a Potion on Salt before Falkner. This is it.

Falkner sends out a Lv. 7 Pidgey first, which hits us with Mud-Slap, lowering our accuracy. Rock Throw misses, so we’re moving to Tackle. The Mud-Slaps are getting ridiculous, so I switch into Celery. I pop a Leech Seed then bait the Tackle and switch back to Salt. I’m getting hit hard by these Mud-Slaps, but Leech Seed keeps me healing. Pidgey eventually goes down and Pidgeotto comes out, so I switch to Celery to remove the accuracy issues and also setup another Leech Seed. I don’t know if Pidgeotto has a Flying-type move, but I hope not! Gust does 20 points of damage, but Celery gets off the Leech Seed. I swap back to Salt, hoping that Pidgeotto uses Gust and that it doesn’t do much damage. The Gust does 2 damage, and I recover 5! Salt connects with a Rock Throw, and we win!

And with that, our first badge is done. I’ve been writing this as I’ve been playing, and it’s about 11:57pm right now, so I have gotta go to bed. Next time: Azalea Gym!

[juukeboxx]

TMNT Pokemon AU - pt.1

Hello everyone!

So I'm a huge Pokemon fan, I've spent a lot of time playing the games and watching the shows. It's become one of my favorite franchises ever. And I had the amazing idea to combine two things that I love: Pokemon and TMNT. This is just a fun idea that I've had in my head for a while now and I wanted to share it. Keep in mind that this is for no particular version of the turtles.

Enjoy!

Word count: 1,146

So to start this off, this is specifically looking at each turtle and the type they would specialize them if they were a gym leader. Other characters will come later.

The number of pokemon a gym leader has on their team depends on when the player faces them. So for example, the first gym leader will only have a maximum of two pokemon while the seventh gym leader would have a maximum of four. However, I'm going to give them a full team of 6 pokemon of the same type excluding mythicals, Ultra Beasts and legendary pokemon.

Each gym leader as one ace that they put into battle when they only have one pokemon left. I'll elaborate on why I think they would choose that specific pokemon as their ace.

First off...

Leonardo

Leo is unwavering and not the most flexible individual (let's be real, he's pretty stubborn). He is strong, focused and will do anything to protect his family. This is why I think he would be a steel type specialist.

Steel types have a few weaknesses: Ground, fire, and fighting. But many of the secondary typings that some steel types have turns super effective damage into not very effective damage. Many of the other typings can't do much damage to steel types as well.

Some notable steel types include: Lucario, Bisharp, and Dialga.

Here is what I think Leo's team would look like:

Lucario (fighting/steel)

Aegislash (steel/ghost)

Mawile (steel/fairy)

Corviknight (flying/steel)

Excadrill (ground/steel)

Kingambit (dark/steel) - Ace

I chose Kingambit as Leo's ace, first and foremost, because of the aesthetic. It also helps that Kingambit's shiny is blue. But I also chose Kingambit as his ace because of it's Pokedex entry in Pokemon Scarlet. It says, "Only a Bisharp that stands above all others in its vast army can evolve into Kingambit." To me this just really screamed Leo, because as we all know, he was the one chosen out of the four brothers to become the leader. Kingambit's Pokemon Violet pokedex entry states that it isn't good at stratgizing and will use it's brute strength to keep pushing which is something that Leo has done on multiple occasions.

Next we have...

Raphael

Now with Raph I didn't want to automatically resort to saying that he specializes in fire types. As we all know his hot temper is one of his most defining character traits. This may seem out of left field, but I think Raph would make a really good ground type specialist. Ground types, like steel types, are tanky and can hit hard (kinda like Raph).

Another reason I didn't go with fire types is although they have access to pretty powerful moves, they 're a lot more frail than ground types are. They lack that natural bulk.

It's important to note that ground types have an advantage against steel types and can hit them for supereffetive damage. I like to think that this could be representative of how Raph is always questioning Leo's authority and his decisions as leader.

Some notable ground types include: Geodude, Quagsire, Groudon

Here is what I think Raph's team would look like:

Torterra (grass/ground)

Krookodile (ground/dark)

Camerupt (fire/ground)

Mudsdale (ground)

Gliscor (ground/flying)

Garchomp (dragon/ground) - Ace

If you've played Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum or it's remakes you know that Garchomp is an absolute powerhouse. It's honestly one of the most well-rounded Pokemon out there. Garchomp is big, intimidating, and hits like a truck. You definitely don't want to get on the bad side of Raph or Garchomp, because if you do, it's over.

Thirdly there's...

Donatello

Like Raph, I was in a bit of a pickle when I was thinking about what type I think Donnie would specialize in. Obviously psychic types are a no-brainer because he is the smartest of all his brothers. But then I realized that Donnie is known for tinkering and inventing all sorts of things. So I finally came to the conclusion that Donnie would specialize in electric types.

Electric types only have one weakness in ground types, and can hot water and flying types for super effective damage. Electric types can be tricky to deal with because some will have an ability like Static that can cause paralysis, or have access to moves like Thunderwave that also inflict paralysis. They can be super annoying if used strategically.

Some noteable electric types include: Pikachu, Rotom, Zapdos

Here is what I think Donnie's team would look like:

Heliolisk (electric/normal)

Magnezone (electric/steel)

Rotom wash form (electric/water)

Luxray (electric)

Jolteon (electric)

Dracozolt (electric/dragon) - Ace

It was really tricky for me to figure out what Donnie's ace would be. Looking through the electric types I looked at any of them that had a design based around some aspect of science (Like how Magnezone looks like a UFO, but is also based around magnets and magnetism). I decided to go with Dracozolt, which is one of the two electric type fossil Pokemon introduced in generation 8. I think that if he were placed in the Pokemon universe Donnie would absolutely be fascinated with the fossil Pokemon and the science of the world as a whole.

Last but not least we have...

Michelangelo

Mikey was actually the easiest for me to figure out. Considering the fact that he's claimed to be the best at combat (not to mention he was the Battle Nexus champion in the 2003 series, and Rise!Mikey's insane strength which was enough to throw a building), it makes the most sense that Mikey is a fighting type specialist.

Fighting types are able to hit a lot of powerful types like steel and dark for supereffective damage. However, ghost types are completely immune and types like psychic, flying, and fairy are able to hit fighting types hard.

Some noteable fighting types include: Primeape, Machamp, Zamazenta

Here is what I think Mikey's team would look like:

Hitmontop (fighting)

Pawmot (electric/fighting)

Scrafty (dark/fighting)

Grapploct (fighting)

Gallade (psychic/fighting)

Quaquaval (water/fighting) - Ace

First off, I chose Quaquaval as Mikey's ace because it is (as far as my knowledge goes) based on Brazilian samba dancers like you woul dsee in a Carnival parade. Mikey has a lot of energy and I feel like dancing is just one of those activities he just likes to do. It was a little hard to choose a fighting type that really fit Mikey's vibe, and I landed on Quaquaval because it incorporates dancing into it's fighting style and Mikey is seen to sometimes have a unique fighting style himself (2012!Mikey for example).

Thank you for reading to the end. This AU is just a fun idea that I want to develop more, so I'll be posting things every now and then. You'll be able to find everything related to this under the pokemon au tag on this blog.

[treehuggeranonymous]

Pokeshipping Week 2022 Day 6: Mirror-verse

Having stopped watching the anime, my first thought on reading Mirror Ash x Mirror Misty was like dark versions (I had this image of Ash being groomed to take over TR). After reading Bulbapedia, here’s a bit of a redux of a pivotal pokeshipping moment with Mirror Ash and Mirror Misty.

Mirror Mirror

The day before her sixteenth birthday, Misty made a list of all the things she had never done and probably never would do at this point.

She’d never left Kanto. 

She’d never visited the Orange Islands.

She’d never visited a gym that wasn’t her own.

She’d never entered the Princess Festival Pageant.

She’d never raised a Pokemon from an egg.

She’d never been in a Pokemon battle that wasn’t for the cascade badge or training with her sisters.

She’d never met a gym leader from outside of the League.

She’d never owned a Pokemon that wasn’t a water Pokemon.

She’d never even learnt to ride a bike.

There was a time when she was eleven when she’d almost run away. She’d gotten so mad at her sisters she couldn’t even think straight. She’d packed a bag and her fishing rod and her bright red bike and left, pushing the bike beside her down the road. 

But she’d only gone about a mile before she was pushing it back towards the gym. She had nowhere to go and no one to go to. And as bad as things were at home, it was better than being lost and alone with a dumb bike she couldn’t even ride.

So she pushed the bike home and Daisy apologised and that was that. Things went back to how they’d always been and she dedicated her life to becoming the Cerulean Gym leader.

It was the closest she’d ever come to some kind of adventure.

Sixteen meant she would officially be handed the reigns of the Cerulean Gym and Daisy would go off to start her real life and her own dreams. 

And Misty would be here, in Cerulean. Never leaving Kanto. Never visiting another region. Never getting to battle just for fun. She would have the thing she’d been working towards her whole life, and nothing would change ever again.

“Well, screw that,” she muttered, ripping off the piece of paper and scrunching it up into a ball.

She had twenty-one hours before they signed the paperwork and hand it over the League for certification, and she was going cram as much life into the next twenty-one hours as possible. Starting with learning to ride a bike. 

---

“When you said you had an emergency, I though you meant an actual emergency,” Brock complained, looking especially grim as he glowered down at her.  

Misty had never met anyone who had mastered the dark, brooding thing as well as Brock Slate. All the girls - including her sisters and every Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny they’d ever met - ate. that. shit. up. His usual dark countenance was enhanced by the grime he’d accumulated in a hasty underground trip from Pewter to Cerulean on the back of an Onix.

“It is an emergency,” she insisted, not letting his harsh expression defeat her. “I will not turn sixteen without learning how to ride a bike.” She smiled at him sweetly, knowing if she held up her end for long enough Brock would relent. He’d always had a secret soft spot for her and rest of ‘the kids’ as he called the younger crop of gym leaders. 

“Fine,” he said, annoyance still colouring his words. “Get on the bike.”

So she did and twenty-five minutes later she had mastered riding a bike.

“Can I hitch a ride with you to the Pewter Gym?” she asked when they were done.

He eyed her suspiciously, the innocent tone she put on not fooling him in the slightest. “What for?”

She shrugged, maintaining her false innocence. “I’ve never been before. And the Viridian forrest isn’t that far. I could catch some Pokemon there.”

“It’s mostly bug and flying types,” Brock pointed out. “Hardly any water Pokemon.”

“That’s fine,” she told him. “That’s exactly what I’m after.”

---

The Pewter Gym was … well it was a gym wasn’t it. They all basically looked the same except for maybe a few design elements here and there that referenced the main Pokemon type. A gym was a gym, but at least now she’d seen one that wasn’t the Cerulean Gym so she could check that off her list. Now she was on her way to the Viridian Forest to attack the next item on her list.

Capturing a non-water Pokemon. 

It seemed pretty straight forward. The Viridian Forrest was basically teeming with caterpie and weedle so weak and defenceless even the most bumbling trainer could catch them.

She’d only been wandering through the Viridian Forrest for ten or so minutes when she found exactly what she was looking for - a weedle just wandered out of the bushes and stopped dead in the middle of her path on seeing her. She called out Psyduck, who could do with the experience, and called for the least damaging attack in Psyduck’s repertoire - confusion. She didn’t even wait for a volley from the weedle and threw a Pokeball.

And just like that she had captured a non-water Pokemon. 

“Why would you do that?” called a panicked voice from behind. She turned to see a dark-haired boy around her age on the path behind her with a pikachu on his shoulder and panic in his eyes.

She snorted in derision. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those Team Rocket wanna-be’s crusading for the rights of Pokemon and calling training a blood sport.”

“Of course not,” he said, matching her tone. “I’m someone who knows that if you see a weedle it means there are a bunch bedrill nearby that are going to be fucking pissed that you captured their baby.”

She glared back at him. “Do you know who you’re talking to?” she asked him in an uppity tone. “I’m not some -“ 

She cut herself off as a low buzzing noise caught her attention. A noise that could only mean one thing.

“What do we do?” she asked, lowering her voice as though that might somehow help them avoid detection.

“There’s only one thing we can do,” the boy replied. The words themselves were declarative and bold, but the way he said them did not inspire confidence. Like her, he whispered and there was something almost grim and desolate about his tone. “We have to battle.”

His words left no room for argument so she recalled Psyduck and brought out the strongest Pokemon she had on her: Starmie. The pikachu jumped from the boy’s shoulder and readied itself for battle.

“Does your starmie know any electric attacks?” the boy asked, looking straight ahead as the buzzing noise became louder. 

“Of course,” she replied, almost offended by the suggestion that she might have left her pokemon so vulnerable to a possible type advantage. 

“Okay,” he said with a small nod. “Start with a water attack and then we can combine electric attacks for maximum effect,” he said, his voice sounding confident and commanding now, like a switch had turned and he’d become a whole other person. “Ready, Pikachu?”

“Pika,” the pokemon replied. 

And then they were surrounded by bedrill on all sides. Misty called for hydropump, which did little to deter the pokemon. But then it wasn’t supposed to. The boy gave her a nod and they called the next attack simultaneously.

“Starmie, thunderbolt”

“Pikachu, thunder”

The space around them filled with light and noise, and then it was complete silent.

The ground was strewn with bedrill and debris and …

“My bike!” she exclaimed in horror, as she took in the mangled remains. “Look what you did to my bike!”

Gone was the vibrant red paint, the shiny silver rims, and black handles. All that remained was the charred skeleton of a bike she’d only just learned to ride.

Gone too, was the confident boy who’d co-ordinated their earlier onslaught. Cowering behind his raised hands, he rushed to defend himself. “It was an accident, I swear,” he all but begged. “I never meant to …”

“You’re paying me back for that,” she told him, getting right up in his face and pointing an accusing finger at him. “It was practically brand new.”

“But -“

“Don’t think you’re getting away from me,” she added, voice rising with every phrase. 

“I wasn’t - “

“I’ll follow you all over Kanto if I have to!” she all but hollered at him.

“Okay.”

“I’ll - what did you just say?” she asked, deflating a little at the lack of resistance. 

He shrugged, looking a weaselly and nervous as he said, “I mean, it’d be nice to have the company if you’re just going to follow me anyway.”

Well that took the wind right out of her sales. “I wasn’t actually going to follow you,” she said with a frown, the righteous anger fading as quickly as it had come over her and rational thought returning. “It was an empty threat so you’d pay me to go away.”

“I don’t have any money and I don’t mind if you hang around,” he admitted. “In fact, it’d be kinda cool. You’re Misty Waterflower, right? From the Cerulean Gym?”

She nodded, confusion growing by the minute.

“My names Ash - Ash Ketchum from Pallet,” he said offering a hand which she just stared at in wonder. He paused for a second and then rambled on. “I’m a trainer - I mean obviously a trainer. And I’m on my journey and I just competed in the league and me and Pikachu were going to head back to Pallet before our next step.”

“So, yeah,” he concluded lamely, his arm coming up to scratch the back of his head. “If you wanted to come along …”

It was a ridiculous offer and one she had no intention of accepting. Still, she found herself asking, “where are you going?”

“Orange Islands, then maybe Sinnoh or Johto.”

Misty found herself thinking of the crumpled up list back in her bedroom.

“I’ve never been to the Orange Islands.”

[zephyr-flight]

I'm Falkner, the Violet Pokémon Gym leader. People say you can clip flying-type Pokémon's wings with a jolt of electricity... I won't allow such insults to bird Pokémon! I'll show you the real power of the magnificent bird Pokémon.

Gold told me that this would be a good place to talk about my birds and I, so I've joined. You can ask me questions if you'd like, or just read whatever I find interesting enough to post.

An image of me, in case you weren't aware of what I look like for some reason.

Hihi, it's good ole Oh from @cyclizarkid (And, more relevantly, @johto-golden-boy ) here! I made another. Cause Falkner is honestly one of my favorite characters.

(The sprite is one I pulled from Bulba and resized. Everything is the same except for the colors of his eye and haori :D )

Eventually, I'll make him an About where I can keep the "Canon" of this blog updated. For now, I will simply put it here. Falkner is the gym leader of the Violet City gym, and has been since he was (at least) 14. He is 18 during the blog's timeline.

He's friends with Gold, and close with Morty. I may or may not hint at Honorshipping but unless you directly ask him (And he still may not answer. He's a silly little guy) I'll probably never have anything stated directly. Regardless, he spends a lot of time in Ecruteak, and Morty a lot of time in Violet.

Falkner's father is dead, and this may be a topic that is discussed on this blog. Any posts discussing this will be tagged with "Parental Death". Exactly like that. If I forget to tag something, please let me know. You can DM me or send an ask, just let me know.

That's about everything for right now, I hope you enjoy my silly bird guy!!!

[asocialmoth]

Oh look, it's the Fakemon I've finally gotten around to posting!

Sampanggal (Ghost/Flying) and Bridanggal (Ghost/Flying) is already familiar to this blog. They are the signature Pokemon of my gym leader OC, Frills. This line is also among my oldest Fakemon I've designed and still care about. They are based on the Manananggal, a creature from Filipino mythology that I for some reason got attached to when I first heard of them. During the night, Manananggal detach their upper torsos from the bottom and grow wings. They prey on newlyweds, newborns, and fetuses, and that's why I themed them around weddings. If Bridanggal is a bride, then my thought process was its pre-evolution would be a flower girl. The flower Sampanggal is based around is the Sampaguita which is the national flower of the Philippines, and I think that reason alone is why I chose it cause I decided to recheck what flowers are used for Filipino weddings and the Sampaguita barely comes up in the webpages I found.

In the night, this line preys primarily on Pokemon eggs, although it does eat already hatched Pokemon and berries as well (Sampanggal particularly prefers berries as they're easier to eat). During the day, they hide within caves or other dark places. The Bridanggal's veil is different depending on the ability it has. Uh honestly I haven't nailed down which abilities yet though.

Catersquint (Bug) and Chitopti (Bug/Psychic) were inspired by how butterflies/moths have eyespots on their wings, basically fake eyes that scare or confuse predators. Masquerain is also based around this concept and that's why it has Intimidate but I wondered what it would be like if the eyes on these types of wings were real.

All eyes on Chitopti work independently and uses Psychic abilities to fall slower needing less flaps or do more elegant maneuvers to take advantage of its eyes. Despite them being eyes, they are covered with hard material to keep them from being easily damaged or hurt. Also Catersquint is actually blind except on its front eye which is short-sighted.

Myelanket (Poison), Scarnvier (Poison/Electric), and Saltarings (Poison/Electric) are based on neurons, myelin sheaths, and saltatory conduction. They were originally Psychic instead of Poison since I was thinking about them the same way as the Solosis line plus the fact that they're neurons, but realized that since they interact and battle with neurotransmitters which are chemicals, Poison seemed a better fit.

Anyways, myelin sheaths basically insulate neurons and lets electricty move faster by "jumping" through them to the spaces in between them (known as Nodes of Ranvier). I thought making them into scarves and blankets were a good idea because of that, though I'm not super sure about if rings were the next logical evoulution. Regardless, even if they are I feel like the execution of Saltaring's design isn't the best and subject to future redesign.

Germibuoy (Grass/Water), Aydrofyte (Grass/Water), Bulaquatic, and Lumilypad (Grass/Flying) honestly exists just because I was amused by how flying in Filipino, "lumilipad", sounds like lily pad, and I like puns. No proper digital illustration for them, I felt like I really should be saving my art time for Art Fight and drawing another full line would take some time, plus the extra sketches were cute I think. Honestly I think the line is self-explanatory, however I will note that despite being the reason the line exists in the first place, I'm not super satisfied with Lumilypad's design, particularly the wings. If I had time to digitalize this I would've probably improved it, but for now I wouldn't say its too bad.

[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: Falkner, the Gym Leader of Violet City in the Johto games, with his Pidgeotto. Falkner is a man with light skin, short blue hair with bangs covering one eye, and blue eyes. He is wearing a turquoise hakama jacket with white accents, a blue hakama shirt and pants, a white belt, black wrist guards with red trim, white socks with black cuffs, and black shoes held up by a black strap with a red bead. He holds a red and white Pokeball in one hand, and his other arm is held up as a perch for his Pidgeotto. The Pidgeotto is a tan and cream raptor-like bird with a red feather crest on its head, black eyes lined with black markings, a lilac beak and legs, and red and gold tail feathers. It is extending one wing outward, the other folded by its side. The background is the interior of Violet City Gym. Falkner is standing on a green and teal floor mat, in front of a pale short wall with red trim on top and a grey symbol resembling the Zephyr Badge in a circle. Beyond this wall is an open blue sky. End ID.]

-----

“I'm Falkner, the Violet City Pokémon Gym Leader! People say you can clip Flying-type Pokémon's wings with a jolt of electricity... I won't allow such insults to bird Pokémon! I'll show you the real power of the magnificent bird Pokémon!”

More Johto pics with Falkner, the Gym Leader of Violet City! I would have a rough time with this guy back in the gen 2 days because I would either choose Chikorita or Cyndaquil as my starter, and considering grass-types are weak to flying and his signature move of the original Johto games was Mud Slap of all things, both starter options had a glaring disadvantage...and I didn't want to use Totodile for some reason XD Still, a good first challenge all around, even if the tightening of his flying-types' moves in HGSS made him a bit more manageable hehe.

Fun fact, I prolly woulda gotten this out either yesterday or earlier today, but there were Circumstances. As you may guess, one of those was playing more of Violet, but the other is very serendipitously fitting to talk about on this piece: we had a hawk in the house Sunday afternoon, specifically a cooper's hawk if you're curious. Poor thing was injured so the 'rents brought 'em home to take to a raptor rehab yesterday. Thankfully it seems fairly likely they'll recover, but I did receive a little bit of info from the rehab that got me more than a little pissed. I won't say why for the sake of other animal lovers' emotional well-being, let's just say Some People Are Assholes and move on with the reassurance that Coopy's in good hands now.

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

~Likes are appreciated, but reblogs are greatly preferred as they let more people see my content! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Falkner, Pidgeotto, and other Pokemon concepts © Nintendo/GameFreak Artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[taurusborus]

I really adore Hoenn as a region. It’s one of the first things I think of when I think of summer. The lush greens; the sunny beaches and rolling sea; the heavy, stormy rain; the sunlight breaching through the leaves. All the trees surrounding the land and just the color pallet used are very similar to my area during summer so I can’t help but love this region. Every spring, when I get too excited for summer, I get the itch to start a new Emerald run & I’m giddy every time I do.

Anyway, while playing I’ve been imagining a pokesona for myself. I’ve always loved the Ranger Trainer class & while mine would have a more recent iteration (varied types like an Ace Trainer), I love that the Hoenn Rangers all have grass types. You can find many of them on Routes 119 & 120, where it rains often amongst the tall grass, looking for Trainers and lost citizens to help. Rangers having grass teams make a lot of sense there, it’s fun environmental storytelling in a game where the environment is a key factor in the story!

Anyway, I made a Trainer Card & explanations and a lot of rambling thoughts under the read more. 👇

So. Ranger as my Trainer class as stated above. In a world as beautiful as Hoenn, I’d definitely want a job working outside. Plus this allows me to be both decent at battling and helping others.

She has up to the 6th badge, as you can see. I imagine that wanting to be a Ranger requires you to also be a decent Trainer, so taking the “Trainer’s Journey” would be common. Plus this allows you to be able to use HMs. An argument could be made against HMs existing/just having your pokemon do the move without needing an HM (which I support). I really like this comment from shoogles’ An Exhaustive Look at Pokemon Brilliant Diamond that can be a good replacement for HMs as a physical object and it feels more realistic for those actually living in the Pokemon world. Either way, you’d want the gym badges.

Ignoring the meta comments, instructing your Pokemon to “perform” what the HM does in game sounds pretty good. Either way, I would think that getting Norman’s badge would be… well, normal for those aiming to become Rangers. This gets most of the exploration up to and including Surf. Fly would also be nice, but if you’re assigning to one area for a long time you won’t really need it. Plus I imagine Fly to be necessary for long flying trips, not just a quick break to the Mart. Waterfall is rarely used and Dive would be much more important for those specializing in marine life.

Then there’d be schooling to get a Ranger’s certification/license. 2 years? Maybe 4 years? Rangers, while found mostly in mid-late game, would realistically (probably) be all over the region. At least in my head, they could get assigned anywhere but also be able to have preferences (like the marine lovers!). I’m not sure who they would report to… probably an equivalent to the National Park/Wildlife Service. I do like how people image the Gym Leaders having the responsibility of helping to run the towns they’re in. Maybe they’d also have some Rangers they would be in contact with, with the Gym Leader being backup should a dangerous situation arise near their town? I would need to do research in our real-life equivalent to say.

Anyway, team explanation time! These moves are based on Emerald... but let's just image some of these moves are much easier to get than in game and breeding isn't necessary LOL.

Female Quilava because I love the Cyndaquil line & it’s my fantasy & I get to pick my starter!!!! She would be an egg given to my Pokesona while my she's figuring out what to do with her fucking life LOL.

Quick Attack

Flamethrower

Smokescreen

Aerial Ace? Sunny Day?

A female Lombre named Kapptain (Kappa + Captain… get it!) with Rain Dish as her ability as my Water/Grass Surf user. While it sucks in-game, I love this little freak. It’s typing is so Hoenn and it fits well in most of the Hoenn environment. If Surf isn't an HM I'd still like it to be a TM or something since it is a really nice Water move.

Mega Drain

Rain Dance

Surf

Mist or later maybe Ice Punch?

A female Linoone named Arrow with the Pickup ability (to help clean any littering) who would be our Secret Base user, because obviously a Ranger would want that for easy access. She would hold a Chesto berry when expecting battles.

Slash

Belly Drum

Secret Power

Rest

A female Sandslash named Explora since she's the Cut/Rock Smash/Strength user. In my current Emerald game she has these 3 moves + Slash, but let's pretend we don't need them as moves like stated above.

Sandstorm

Metal Claw

Rock Slide

Dig

And finally a female Vibrava named Pilot who would carry my Ranger around in emergencies; similar to how Flygon carries this VOLTAGExMiku Hatsune collab Miku by kannnu (sorry for stealing this idea - it's just really good).

Crunch

Dragon Breath

Dig

Fly

When it would eventually evolve into a Flygon, she'd have Crunch/Dragon Claw/Flamethrower/Earthquake. She'd become my Ranger's Ace.

While they would have a main focus on Ranger duties (helping people who are lost or injured, protecting the environment and wild pokemon, etc.), they would have an interest in battling as well since it's so fun. Anyway, there's a secret base on route 120 that I LOVE and choose almost every game (shown below), so that's the route I am assigning her. Since 119 and 120 are long stretches and stormy, I imagine there'd be a number of Rangers assigned those routes.