#ofc victor has way way WAY more pokemon than this but like

[scorchamp]

this is victor’s OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM, the six pokemon out of all that he’d caught up until then that he brought with him to fight for the title.  not pictured are  MINCINNO ♀ ( LVL 65 ), ROCKRUFF ♂ ( LVL 47 ), ZACIAN ( LVL 73 ), and ETERNATUS ( LVL 79 ). 

CINDERACE ♂ ( LVL 71 ) - victor’s starter.  they met in postwick when victor was given the choice between SCORBUNNY, SOBBLE, and GROOKEY.  SCORBUNNY’S  endearing rambunctiousness caught his attention and captured his heart, and  SCORBUNNY became his very first pokemon.  victor often affectionately refers to CINDERACE as his “partner”, as they’ve been together so long, it would feel strange to be in any battle without him.  since the early days, CINDERACE  has very rarely been seen in his pokeball, even when camping, and still proudly stands at victor’s side no matter what, so it was only natural that victor bring him to his last battle.

GALLADE ♂ ( LVL 69 ) - met as a  RALTS  in the wild area, victor and  GALLADE  have had a somewhat tumultuous relationship up until the events of  THE DARKEST DAY  .  stubborn and hardheaded,  GALLADE  had a hard time actually  OBEYING  victor’s commands during battles, opting to do whatever he thought was best.  he still won, of course, but they didn’t always get along, up until the fight against  ETERNATUS  .  after witnessing the strength of victor’s conviction, as well as the compassion for his team,  GALLADE  evolved and became only slightly less rebellious.  now willing to listen to victor’s commands in battle,  GALLADE  was added to victor’s championship team for his strength and quickness.

BOLTUND ♂ ( LVL 73 ) - though they met as a  YAMPER  ,  BOLTUND  was victor’s second-caught pokemon on  ROUTE 2  .  BOLTUND  may be one of the few pokemon of victor’s that he caught rather untraditionally.  while setting up camp one day, victor found that a wild  YAMPER  had wandered over and made himself right at home, sitting perfectly by the pot of curry he’d been making.  of course, victor fed the poor thing, assuming it was quite hungry, and unknowingly had himself a new pokemon companion.  YAMPER  followed him all the way to motostoke despite victor’s efforts to make him leave, but by that point there was nothing he could do.  ever the loyal and faithful companion, there was no question in bringing  BOLTUND  to the championship.

NINETALES ♀ ( LVL 75 ) - victor met  VULPIX  through a trade with a stranger, who’d been looking for a regular  VULPIX  instead of the  ALOLAN VULPIX  she had.  after they’d swapped pokemon and parted ways, victor wanted to get to know his new team member, but  VULPIX  nearly refused to come out of her pokeball.  she was a diva in every sense of the word, refusing to eat if the curry victor made wasn’t up to her tastes.  however, she eventually softened up when victor took care of her when she overheated in the wild area, and she began to trust him more.  even as  NINETALES, she remains a diva, but she’s loyal and strong, and victor couldn’t imagine a better companion to join his team.

GYARADOS ♂ ( LVL 74 ) - truthfully, victor felt a little sorry for the  MAGIKARP  , and took pity on him by bringing him along, at least at first.  but the little fish had taken a  liking  to him  ,  going so far as to evolve when an enraged  BEWEAR  chased victor through the wild area after he had unknowingly trampled on its paw.  his  GYARADOS  grew strong  ,  following him from gym to gym  ,  winning battle after battle and badge after badge.  anyone who had followed his journey wasn’t surprised to see  GYARADOS  on victor’s final team.

CORVIKNIGHT ♀ ( LVL 73 ) - originally a rather shy  ROOKIDEE  ,  victor was surprised to see her get flustered during pokemon battles.  she was easy to train and friendly towards the rest of his team, plus victor himself had plenty of faith in her.  it took him until she became a  CORVISQUIRE  to realize she was just like him, terrified of the spotlight, and a bit of a crybaby, though he’d never say it out loud.  CORVIKNIGHT  became essential in victor overcoming some of his own fears about being in the public eye, and it’d be a shame for him to leave his beloved  CORVIKNIGHT  out of it as she grew into herself as well.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: 

MINCINNO ♀ ( LVL 65 )  was not brought to the championship not because victor has no faith in her, but rather because  MINCINNO  hates battling.  she’s fought for him in the past, of course, because she loves victor, but he’s always known her heart isn’t in it.  if she didn’t want to battle, victor wouldn’t force her, and instead,  MINCINNO  is a very loyal, loving companion pokemon, one he brings with him for public appearances due to her adorable appearance and natural charm, and her close bond with  CINDERACE  .

ROCKRUFF ♂ ( LVL 47 )  was not brought because while victor has no issues training him,  ROCKRUFF  simply didn’t want to evolve for some reason.  victor won’t force him to evolve, nor will he force him to keep battling if he refuses to, and  ROCKRUFF  keeps his mother company back in postwick alongside  MUNCHLAX  ,  a faithful companion and guarddog.

ZACIAN ( LVL 73 )  was not brought because although they’ve bonded and  ZACIAN  could be called one of victor’s pokemon, it wouldn’t have felt right going into the championship with what felt like such a massive advantage.  ZACIAN  waits for victor in the slumbering weald should he ever have need to call on him.

ETERNATUS ( LVL 79 )  was not brought for a similar reason as above, but victor couldn’t stomach the thought of bringing him into battle just yet.  he carries a great deal of trauma from  THE DARKEST DAY  and  ETERNATUS  ,  and has placed  ETERNATUS  in a box in for the moment, but does so with no true ill will in his heart.  one day, perhaps years down the line, victor will decide what to do with  ETERNATUS  ,  and he hopes the creature understands.  he likes to think  ETERNATUS  understands he holds no ill will, as there hasn’t been another attempted attack on galar for the moment, nor has he broken out of his pokeball and box yet.

[wanderingmoonflower]

a while back i made a post talking about how bede and marnie are perfect examples of foil characters (and also apparently that they were intrinsic??? i dunno where past me was going with that) but i think it's time i finally got around to actually talking about my ideas

tbh, i have no idea where to start, but initially i first came across this train of thought because i was poking fun at how they wore their gym uniforms completely opposite to each other, with bede being completely covered and wearing layers, while marnie shows a bit of skin and also isn't layered. while the layers thing doesn't apply to their regular outfits, bede is still completely covered, and marnie shows more skin than him

i think the best way to understand what i'm trying to say is to also consider their backgrounds too. despite the lack of parents (which is a common thing in pokemon anyway), bede didn't actually have anyone to support him until opal came along, whereas marnie had her brother, and then team yell later on. bede didn't have that. his league card even says that his parents ran into trouble and he didn't get along with the others. he essentially felt like rose changed his life. there's also the fact that bede most likely lived somewhere nicer than spikemuth if he stayed with rose, and ofc, spikemuth is dilapidated, has a shutter to close people out, and doesn't have a power spot

i think another thing might be because bede doesn't understand unconditional love. marnie understands that, as she's had people around her who love and care for her, but bede only knew that he had to work to get rose's affection, and that's when he ended up going to far. opal, despite her harsh training, would be able to teach him about unconditional love

i've also mentioned this to some friends, but marnie, hop, and the protagonist (whether it's victor or gloria) would be able to teach him about unconditional love too. i like drawing comparison to marnie in particular because they have that similarity of being the successor to another gym leader, so it's easy to make the association in your head, although you could probably make most of these points for hop as well

speaking of them being gym leaders, they (essentially) use opposite types to each other, and even their gmax pokemon are considered counterparts. it also their reasoning for joining the gym challenge is similar intially, but ends up differing when you look a little closer. they both joined for recognition but bede' wanted recognition from rose, and marnie rwanted recognition for spikemuth

i also like how marnie, despite her blank expression, is still a little playful, and very in touch with how she feels. bede on the other hand puts up all these theatrics and overall seems just kinda,,, bitter?

and also, slightly unrelated, but bede is pink/white and marnie is pink/black. i also am obsessed with the fact that the BUMP OF CHICKEN music video shows Bede all alone and then IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS UP WITH MARNIE SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE. cruel. i'm obsessed with it

i'm sorry the post is so long. it got away from me a little bit. i still feel like i had a lot more to say, but take this image to end it out <3 i love bede and marnie a whole lot and i hope you understand where i'm coming from

[hollypastl]

yuri on ice x pokemon au because it trash for them both victor is champion (ofc) of hoenn and he's also the top coordinator. everyone can tell through victors actions that he loves his pokemon very much, even though he often tires them out (and himself tbh) with how often they train yuuri has been traveling around for a while. he's originally from sinnoh, where he won a bunch of contests, but eventually lost at the grand festival. he was sad but eventually his friend phichit convinced him to come visit him in Hoenn. victor and yuuri meet at a contest that phichit brought him to. Phichit is in the middle of a battle, but this guy has just sat down next to him and it's making him a little uncomfortable. why couldn't he just leave an empty seat in between them like a normal person? he sneaks a glance at the guy and has to do a double take because Holy Shit Is That Victor Nikiforov he realizes he's gaping and victors trying to think of what to say to the cute boy (who humped him at the sinnoh grand festival after party) but he doesn't have to bc yuuri is already like 'holy shit you're victor nikiforov' and yuuri stops himself from fanboying for a second to realize that this guy is a human being and probably just wants to be treated like a normal person. so instead he asks him what he feeds his alolan ninetales and tips on how to raise an alolan vulpix bc his is so beautiful and yuuri needs to know. victors so happy bc if there's one thing he loves, it's talking about pokemon. they part ways for the time being but they meet again in the woods on the path to slateport city. yuuri is on his way to a competition, but victors just there chillin because it's the only place he can get some peace and quiet. ALSO: pokemon teams! i spent 2 hours looking into this so y'all better respect. Victor: he picks his pokemon a little bit on looks, but their personality is what rly hooks him. and although some of the pokemon he has are traditionally strong, he focuses a lot more on training them well and optimizing their strength as a team. he doesn't bank on just the fact that a pokemon has high base stats - Squirtle->Wartortle! this little guy was victors very first pokemon. i mean they even have the same smile how can they not be meant for each other? -Alolan vulpix->Ninetales! tbh i'm p sure ninetales was given an ice type specifically for the purpose of this au. it's literally beauty beyond beauty and is so graceful, elegant, and really enraptures what the world sees victor as. (also victor and yurio totally took a trip to alola for the sole purpose of catching an alolan vulpix and meowth respectively, like how extra are they?) - eevee->glaceon! victor loves ice types and he thinks glaceon is the cutest thing next to makkachin. he found it when it was still a little eevee and befriended it. it's one of his strongest team members and best competition buddies -Dragonair! continuing on with the blue theme he's got going on in his team, what would a champion be without a pseudo legendary? albeit not fully evolved :// there's a good reason tho! along with ninetales and glaceon, dragonair is victors main competitor in competitions and it doesn't want to evolve! it knows it's really beautiful right now and wants to stay that way. maybe it'll ask him to evolve if he ever loses his champion title to someone, but that'll never happen - Minun! this minun is so weird. although victor is not aware, this minun saw victor on TV, battling for his 8th badge and hightailed it straight to whatever city he was at and challenged him to a battle. minun is the physical embodiment of 'fight me'. Although minun didn't expect victor to go and fucking catch him, he did and minun really evens out the team with its strong electric attacks. - last but not least is furfrou! aka makkachin. makkachin doesn't fight or do contests. he just lies around and cuddles with victor. he doesn't look like your run of the day furfrou either bc of his super curly fur. he also plays in the mud a lot so he ends up looking for brown than white most of the time. Yuuri: his team is almost all baby pokemon. he doesn't battle enough to evolve them, but it works for him because he usually gets extra points in contests simply because he and his pokemon are so darn cute. they're about spoiled since he's such a dad, but they love him so much - swinub! yuuri's first pokemon was the pig pokemon! how fitting for the pork cutlet bowl fatale. swinubs are good at finding hotsprings in the cold mountains so i figure his family would have a bunch of them crawling around. he takes his favorite one with him when he leaves home to start competing. - azurill! yuuri befriends all of his pokemon, he doesn't like the idea of having to weaken them and then forcefully capture them. he'd rather they agree to come with him. azurill was the first pokemon yuuri ever caught. it's very sweet and is the most outgoing of all his pokemon. it often sneaks out of his sight to explore or go interact with people, even if it might be dangerous. it knows that yuuri will always be there though to have its back, so it doesn't have a problem heading striaghtfirst into danger. - snowrunt! snowrunt tried to attack yuuri when it first saw him bc he looked like his old trainer. yuuri took it the the pokemon center to find out what was up with it and nurse joy explained that it's old trainer used to hurt it. then yuuri let snowrunt take all its anger out on him and after it got tired yuuri held it as it cried. - eevee->sylveon! yuuri actually was planning on evolving his eevee into something else, but he taught it baby doll eyes and it loves yuuri so much that it evolved into a sylveon. he didn't find out until a couple weeks later from a gym leader (it's celestino lol) he happened across that sylveons only come from love between a trainer and it's pokemon. he cried that night when he thought about how he almost used that water stone - Alolan vulpix! this pokemon took some finangling for yuuri to get. once he saw victors alolan ninetales on TV, he had to get one. he didn't have the time or money go all the way to alola, so he was stumped for a while until phichit mentioned he was taking a vacation to alola and he'd be happy to get one for him. phichit did make yuuri catch him a pachirisu in return, but it was worth it in the end - swablu! the newest edition to his team, swablu sleeps a lot and often perches right on yuuri's head. he doesn't mind though because it's wings are very soft and warm and he appreciates the love and trust