#moonvale aesthetic

[hacked-by-jake]

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again...

[hacked-by-nymos]

MOONVALE x DUSKWOOD

[crowleyco]

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐚 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐯𝐞, 𝐢'𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮...

𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐮𝐧, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐝 𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐰.

↷ᴊᴀᴋᴇ ᴍᴏᴏᴅʙᴏᴀʀᴅ.

[moonvalecrossing]

Moonvale's Pokemon Commentary: #676 Furfrou

Go, gimmick-pokemon! Make me have to make a big thing of all your forms!

Just for Looks:

Before I begin, see the white on all those guys up there? For the shiny, paint the white black. And the black white. Still looks pretty cool though. In fact the shiny version helps the colors of the more meh trims look a lot better to me.

Furfrou is our expected French Poodle Pokemon that was introduced in Kalos, the Pokemon world's version of France. Though I wouldn't call Furfrou a poodle. Its natural form's fur is far too shaggy and wild to be the same as the curly fur of a French Poodle. That said, I find the natural form to be a very nice design. Now, as you saw above we have multiple versions of Furfrou. That is because it's gimmick is that you can style its fur into various trims by taking it to the right NPC. They do absolutely nothing but look nice. Also they are not permanent and it will return to its natural form in five days. Or if they're put into (Gen VI) or removed from (Gen VII) the PC. Make sure you got plenty of money laying around if you wanna keep that look. It'll cost ya $500 poke-bucks every time. Now then, onto the styles!

Heart Trim- The pink one with the heart shaped tail obviously. This is the most poodle-looking of all the forms to me. It's really cute for the most part but I find the two white butt-poofs weird.

Diamond Trim- Orange with Diamond tail. I like its pants.

Star Trim- The pale blue one with a stair shaped tail. I like its head fluff. And that it doesn't have butt-poofs.

Pharaoh Trim- The one who kinda looks like it's wearing a fancy Egyptian headdress. The fact this one is not a golden yellow is a crime. I know the decorative stripes on this sort of artifact is usually a dark blue, but the majority of what is usually depicted is gold, darn it! Also, the black stripes on its ears are what I assume to be the fluff cut down to the base coat... and I can't imagine that looking anything but weird with a more realistically depicted fur. However it seems that these stripes are just the fluff colored the exact same as the base coat... for some reason. It's okay.

Kabuki Trim- The red one. So like... Kabuki. It's Japanese dance-theatre pretty much. But with usually exaggerated face painting and costumes. Look up Kabuki in an image search and you'll probably at some point see a dude with white face paint with red markings and wild red hair. That's what this trim style is based on I guess. There's also a Kabuki pikachu plush on the pokemon center website... which is just pikachu with a kimono, headband, and wearing a little eye makeup and a small upper lip paint. At least put on a wig, Pikachu. Sheesh. This trim is interesting. I love the tail.

La Reine Trim- The other light blue one that isn't the star trim. I have no idea what this is. Looking up La Reine doesn't really help either. I guess it's some kind of fashion type for rich women? I guess its head and ears are supposed to look like some fancy up-do? It's bland.

Matron Trim- The purple one. The older motherly woman figure design I guess. I guess it's meant to be a bonnet on its head. I'm grumpy this doesn't have at fur style that looks like one of them big-butted round dresses though. Maybe that's more a rich young-woman only thing? But even the young woman style we'll go over in a bit doesn't really seem much different.

Dandy Trim- The green one that looks like he's got a suit and top-hat on. My favorite. A dandy is a dude who cared a lot about his appearance and looking and acting as if he belongs in high society. If y'all got some sort of slur you wanna use here for this sort of character you can turn your fancy ass back around and walk out the door you came through. Moonvale aint puttin up with that shit here. This style is adorable! I love this particular cut. I would choose this one over all the others if I used Furfrou in my party. My fancy boy. Bonus points for being a lovely shade of green.

Debutant Trim- The yellow one. Now a debutant, if you don't know the actual meaning, is a young rich woman who has just entered into fashionable society. Originally meant to show off women to the men who'd be wanting to marry em. About the design though... I like its hat. It is a nice fur-hat. Though, I don't see anything that screams young-woman to make this one different from the Matron Trim. Could have given it a nice shorter dress-like style on the back end of the fur design.

What's in the Name:

 Fur + 'Frou-Frou'. If kids don't know that term nowadays that's basically calling something fancy and over-elaborate. Fancy pants? ...I’m like a decade out of the loop on slang. I just learned yeet.

The Japanese name, Trimmien, seems to be Trim + Chien, which is dog in French. Can confirm. I took enough French in high school to say this is accurate. Bulbapedia says it could also be a play on très bien (basically very good/excellent). But I think its a tad bit of a stretch as the first explanation fits perfectly as is.

The 'Dex Says:

Some dex entries claim trimming the fur makes it swifter which has absolutely no standing in the actual game since the trims seem to be completely aesthetic in every way. Trimming only changes the pokemon's appearance. There was a time where these pokemon were guardians of the Kalosian King, and in a certain era aristocrats would compete on who could style their Furfrou’s fur to be the most exquisite.

I'd call these people stuffy and arrogant only using their pokemon for status, but apparently only someone a Furfrou highly trusts is allowed to trim its fur. Though, that fur grows and grows when not trimmed so I'd assume they have a limit to where they have to find SOMEONE to trim their fur before they end up like that one sheep that managed to hide away and hadn't been sheared in six years. What do they even do with all that trimmed hair... Maybe they use it to stuff fancy pillows.

It's Rating Time!

I'm giving this guy a 3/5. It's a cool concept. However the designs are mostly meh to me, and the fact that you have to re-do the cut every 5 days is pretty annoying. I can't say this guy's among my favorites. I wish the cut style had some kind of effect, even if it were only to boost certain stats in a contest-like environment. How does a straight haired shaggy dog get curly poodle puffs anyway? My mom has never been able to keep her non-permed hair in any sort of curl for more than 5 hours, what the heck do they put on these dogs to keep them curled for FIVE DAYS?

Want to read more of my reviews? Click here!

[moonvalecrossing]

Moonvale's Pokemon Commentary: #52 Meowth

Meowth, that’s right!

Just for Looks:

First off let me explain the elements of original Meowth's design. The coin. It always being drawn with at least one paw like ":3c". It's because Meowth's based off the legend of the lucky or beckoning cat Maneki Neko. One legend I've read of this cat symbol is that a Lord was out in a rainstorm and saw a cat beckoning him to come closer. The man approached the cat and lightning struck right where the Lord had previously been standing. The cat saved his life.

I've read another where a starving, homeless cat was taken in by the impoverished owner of a small business. Because of his generosity despite his own situation, the cat would sit in front of his shop and beckon customers and saved the man's business. That's why statues of Maneki Neko are seen outside businesses. They're said to bring good luck for these reasons!

Now then, onto the pokemon commentary. Original Meowth is a very cute cartoon cat. They've got a very nice yellow-cream colored coat, and black fur on the front side of their ears. The tips of their back paws and curled tail are a warm light brown. These colors are nice, but I like the shiny version's lovely more brownish cream body fur. Though I prefer the dark brown tips of regular Meowth as shiny Meowth's tip colors are like an odd red brown that doesn't really look great to me. But that's the sprites. Once again, the 3D models do a great job of screwing up the colors. Regular Meowth is now super white-cream and its tail is a dull washed out brown. The shiny basically looks the same as the 3D normal form but you're looking at it through those slightly brown tinted sunglasses... though they would be very poorly tinted sunglasses since the change isn't that drastic.

Pokemon Sun and Moon introduced Regional Variants and Meowth's line was one of the lucky few to get one! Alolan Meowth were bred by royalty for specific looks and features and that pampering turned our little scratch cat into a smug little dark type. While its coin stays the same shade of gold, its fur is now a cool, ashy grey. The tips of its tail and back paws are now white. It's just as inoffensive aesthetically as its more common variant. I just love that little baby's smug face. And it's shiny. Oh my goodness its shiny is BEAUTIFUL. It's main coat is a dark blue grey that almost takes the grey out completely. Instead of being a darker blue white, it's back paws and tail tip are an ever so slightly darker reddish shade of the body color. So it looks almost purple and I really like that.

What's in the Name:

Meowth's name is basically Meow + th. Bulbapedia says it could be from wealth, but I say it's just because the Japanese name is Nya (the Japanese version of 'meow') + th. Though Bulbapedia says it also comes from mixing that nya with the Japanese pronunciation of Siam (a leader of Thailand) creating the sound Myasu. Plus there's the fact Siamese is a cat breed. Like Persian. I guess that works?

The 'Dex Says:

The Standard Meowth are described as nocturnal, being most active at night. It retracts its claws to move without making as much noise as it walks. It likes round things. Y'know. Cat stuff. They love shiny things, especially coins. They'll hunt for lost change in cities at night, and are known to fight with Murkrow over the shiny spoils of their treasure hunts. In Alola this is apparently a common sight at Junkyards during the night. Though the fact that standard Meowth are the opposite of standard in Alola I have to wonder about that entry. The Ultra Moon entry also says you can easily befriend them by giving them coins, but since they're fickle you can't really count on that friendship lasting. Hey, I got a bird for you dude. Right here on my hand. Cats are loving creatures and I bet cat pokemon are no different.

Even Alolan Meowth were not native to the island originally. A Royal house in the past brought their ancestors to the islands. Over time and after being pampered and spoiled, "human actions" (probably breeding) caused their population to boom to the point a lot of them went feral and this is probably around when the dark typing came about. They are very prideful and crafty creatures, and they will fly into a hysterical rage if that pride is wounded (or if its coin is dirtied). It's described as impulsive, selfish, and fickle. Man some kid in Alola really hates cats don't they? The breed is apparently known to be hard to handle, and for some reason that makes them popular apparently. I'd argue that both of these things have to do with the fact their were spoiled rotten by nobility and royalty and the fact they were once royal pokemon probably makes them seem like a status symbol.

It's Rating Time!

5/5. I shamelessly love cats you guys. I have like 50+ toy cats I've had over my entire life. Meowth is no exception to my cat love. I have a cute Meowth plush I got as a kid, and it now has an Alolan Meowth plush friend.

But Wait, There's More:

Did you know Meowth was planned to have a Baby Stage, like many gen 1 pokemon?

Look at this cute little baby. Look at it and weep for what was lost. Its name was Konya. Baby Meow. Weep for Baby Meow. I need 200 of them right now.

It was gonna have a Japanese coin with the hole in it on its head! Those floating ones are likely not floating over its head and were likely just testing various sprite shapes for the coin since they're not present in the back sprite for this or in the original alphas for Red/Green. You heard me right. Its back sprite was found in early prototype data (search for "Konya" to see it on that page). Though its design was different from its Gold/Silver iteration later on. It’s only from the back, but the ears are tipped with black, instead of a curly nub the tail is simply a straightened version of meowth’s, and it’s standing instead of laying on its belly. It’s too bad we never saw its face!

I also want to make you all look at this image of Nanu's house in the anime.

My favorite is the one with her back to us. Meowth are cutest when they sit like normal cats and not stand like Team Rocket’s Meowth has made standard.

Nanu is a beautiful human being and I would be his crazy cat lady wife and help him take care of all his Meowth children.

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