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A comic that’s based more on what I expected HZ to be initially, a slightly more focused version of Journeys that tied more directly into SV related ideas where appropriate. This is based on early blurbs that described the show as the kids learning and discovering new secrets about Pokemon, something that never… actually happened. Granted it probably was referring to Terapagos, but it still proves my point.

The specific use of Dragon Tera Magikarp comes from an obscure event in Japan where some Magikarp were programmed with Dragon Rage during Kanto, but trading technology made it impossible to trade these specific Pokemon to newer games.

So it makes sense a similar idea in the anime would be more of an urban legend that (my version) of Friede would want to find out is true.

The villains Magikarp is attacking are OC Explorer grunts, as it’s strange to me Conia and Zirc are the only Grunts, while everyone else is an Administrator.

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A small Alfie centric comic where he and Don George take a make up exam with the Gym Teacher. I realized I hadn’t done too much with Alfie directly and wanted to improve his winning streak.

Iron Hands being one of Dendra’s Pokemon goes back to an idea I had about some Paradoxes finding where they belong amongst the town and characters, and Iron Hands’ place became gym teacher assistant alongside Hariyama.

Iron Bundle flip flops between Team Rocket and the school Pokemon Center/Mart.

Iron Treads and Flutter Mane are Zirc and Conia’s secondary Pokemon.

Scream Tail, largely the Jigglypuff stand in, slides in with Team Star as their mascot.

Slither Wing is associated with Alfie, and part of a colony of Larvesta and Volcorona alongside Iron Moth.

Sandy Shocks is one of Iono’s Pokemon, rescued from a Team Rocket scheme of the week.

Koraidon is Gary’s Ride Pokemon, while Miraidon is Ash’s Ride Pokemon.

Iron Valiants tend to be guardians of Rakuian ruins and temples, usually accompanied by a beefier Paradox to assist them. They recognize Ash and Liko as authorized to enter due to both wearing the Symbol of Indigo, a logo Lucius and Alisha wore before the logo became appropriated by the Pokemon League.

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A new leak about the development of the 10th Gen Anime surfaced. I’m not super sure where it originated I just saw a YouTuber covering it. So even if it’s not totally accurate, what we have is still fun to discuss.

As the Greek region it makes sense the show would be called Pokemon Odysseys, though now I wonder if the boy is named Homer.

Seems the plan indeed is to try again with a new character, and while I’m sad they didn’t cave and go back to Ash, starting over with a new 10 year old boy and going back to properly exploring the new region definitely implies they’re going back to the Ash formula.

So Ash Minus Ash. What I want to know is what new traveling companion has Pikachu, or is Pikachu just going to be ignored entirely this time after all the waffling with Friede’s now Roy’s? Obviously other characters could have the other Starters, unless this kid just has them all like Ash tends to do. I really do wonder if this kid will have any human companions, that could get boring real quickly with no one to bounce off of…

As the new Gen lands during a major anniversary year, I could see New Kid bump into Ash, Liko and Roy to help celebrate Pokemon as a whole later on in its run, but at this stage who knows. Despite leaks suggesting Iris and Brock may reappear in HZ, that’s not happening so far as of typing. It might be scrapped plans, as it really does feel like the anime is trying really hard to avoid going back to any of the old Ash centric stuff. The only exception so far is the Nurse Joy gag, with Mollie officially revealed to be a nonconformist Joy, with her mother being an elderly but still traditionally designed Joy.

The anime staff is digging in their heels by not going back completely to Ash despite merch and ancillary content still supporting him, but also learning the wrong lessons after HZ’s underperformance. A female character lead COULD have worked, but they just chose every wrong decision that made people dislike her AND Roy. HZ truly feels like a failed experiment so now they’re going back to the old formula but not using Ash. I still think that could spectacularly backfire, the same way Roy’s … everything has. It really will depend on how they play this. HZ’s flaw was trying to build itself as this sweeping epic, but not properly build any of that up, haphazardly going back to the Ash formula in spots, and editing itself too much internally.

I think going back to an Ash like format (akin to Digimon series being divided between Adventure Type show and Tamers Type show) is a much better idea, but again how they do it here we dunno. The vibe feels like Journeys, Delcora and Orange Islands smooshed together, but I still think that’s superior and far more sincere to the constant second guessing HZ suffered internally.

The continued problem remains Ash though. As the Liko era wraps up, the American branch has largely ignored Liko and Roy in favor of just hyper focusing on Ash in merch and ancillary media like Pokemon TV and the Pokemon Day live steams. Children’s books are still Ash centric, with the Pokemon Magazine still doing the bare minimum with HZ, so what does this mean for Odysseys?

It would definitely be a bad look to go all in on a new boy protagonist after ignoring the girl protagonist, but I also believe, like with EarthSpark, HZ had the additional misfortune of coming out during the tail end of modern “Culture War” nonsense. So with that going on, on top of bad writing once again, it’s no wonder most stuff and people ignored Liko and Roy, but now the question is if they’ll ignore New Kid also.

If they continue to hyper focus on Ash for kids books and the like during Odysseys, and ignore New Kid, then there’s a huge problem by not properly focusing on the new era. I’m still confused at the lack of HZ themed books, and committed reprinting of older Ash stuff and making new books for Ash here.

It’s why I’m wondering if this is meeting half way, not wanting to return to Ash despite the overwhelming demand and preference, but recognizing the Ash formula is still what sells. Considering how poorly the Explorers were received and how beloved Team Rocket remains, I wonder if the show’s new evil gang, if one exists, will evoke Jessie and James more directly, with a Circe and Scylla duo or something. At the very least, having a new group that’s more solid vs just having Coral shoulder it all, would be preferable.

Still my concern about ancillary media remains. As of typing, the American branch has effectively skipped an entire anime generation, with zero kids books and toys of Liko. If they repeat that with New Kid, and still cling to Ash, I have no idea what to think anymore. All it tells me is they want Ash back, but the anime staff refuses to comply. The only thing I could see happen later on in development is a reverse HZ situation where they planned for Ash to be in it, but ultimately replaced him with Dot. Ergo, New Kid is the new protagonist early on, but internal pressures force Ash to replace New Kid and give him the horse Starter.

That probably won’t happen but it’d be funny if it did. We still have time for these plans to change, but I think, if this leak is true, Liko is out and New Kid and water horse are in.

…Assuming it’s a horse, I’ve heard several different takes on what the new starters are supposed to be, so I’m inclined to just wait and see what winds up being officially revealed there. Still a water horse that evolves into a water Pegasus thing could be a fun way to go in on the Greek theme.

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I’m not sure I get this one because most super robot anime borrow from each other pretty heavily.

Machine Robo predates Transformers and it and its Go-Bots counterpart use the idea of robotic lifeforms on another planet pretty extensively. Not helped is Go-Bots being absorbed into Hasbro, with them treating Go-Botron as its own colony world of Transformers, the Guardians and Renegades being Autobots and Decepticons on Cybertron, and in one instance, the Go-Bots being the Earth born ancestors of the modern Transformers, with Go-Botron having evolved into Cybertron after releasing Earth from its bowels.

The concept of a Transforming robot goes back to Chouja Raideen and Diaclone. Combiners have origins in Getter Robo and early Super Sentai, with many modern robot shows borrowing pretty heavily from Transformers.

The Brave series is a direct counterpart to Transformers, recycling designs and using the idea that several Braves are sentient robotic lifeforms native to another planet: ExKaiser, FighBird, Goldran, and some cast members of Dagwon. Some Braves technically have Sparks, originating as energy beings that inhabit machines.

Daigunder, Medabots, Screechers, and Mecard is basically what if the Autobots and Decepticons competed in Pokemon style battles alongside humans. Several Medabots can Transform, with the anime revealing the Medabots are the artificial descendants of a separate race of ancient robotic beings that inhabited Earth, with these robots splitting into tribal factions and igniting a Great War that decimated their civilization into extinction.

Even Bakugan has had several Transformers and Super Robot style inspirations from the Mechanical Bakugan, Mechtogan, and battle armor that replicates Super Robot combining. G2 Bakugan had a design philosophy that evokes Bayformers, with G2 and G3 having the Bakugan native to another planet with G3 seeing a war break out between factions with Drago as the Optimus type and Nillious as the Starscream type.

So I can understand the frustration, but I also don’t entirely mind the mindset of just making similar stuff be part of Transformers in fanon. It’s not entirely a stretch to head canon that the Medabots descended from Mini-Cons and the Braves are evolved Autobots from other colonies.

It ultimately depends on the fanon continuity since I’m not sure what the original post is reacting to specifically, but a little crossover isn’t terrible. All in moderation.

While I don’t like a lot of Transformers fanon, I can handle it, plus the fandom’s large enough that I don’t mind blocking the occasional person if they’re obnoxious about it. But it drives me up the wall when Transformers fanon gets copy-pasted onto fan content for other transforming robot media wherever possible, and honestly sometimes just crammed in there irregardless to how well it fits. Come on.

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I can see it.

Too bad Energon didn’t have Red Alert as a combinable partner for Jetfire, there’s some material to mine from that also.

(I know they meant G1, but I’m just being cute.)

Red alert x jetfire is a chronically underrated rarepair

Spread the propaganda yall it’s such a fun ship

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I wouldn’t put the blame purely on Skybound, no matter who would’ve picked up the license it would’ve been some regurgitation of G1 since that’s what Hasbro wants to parade around.

Takara is guilty of this also, but it at least cribs more from other eras like Beast Wars, Armada and now Wild King where applicable.

Plus like it or not, G1 of anything sells the best. It’s why Pokemon still largely clings to Ash and Kanto in most ancillary products and advertisements in the states like toys and children’s clothing over the latest generation, and why Digimon still has its claws firmly grasped on Adventure in most ancillary media also.

I kinda resent Skybound comic simply because Hasbros will definitely learn the wrong lesson that making future TF content just G1-related or G1-aesthetic would guarantee success...

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[blueikeproductions]

I think it mostly boils down to wanting more female rep and not particularly caring how it happens. I don’t know if fans genuinely like this, as I tend to see more people angry at the gender swaps than those happy with it.

Genderbends aren’t entirely new either.

Airrazor in Beast Wars was supposed to be male, but changed to female in the cartoon, but the Japanese dub changed her back to male, inadvertently creating the first (obvious) gay relationship in Transformers.

Akira in Zone is also a peculiar case as the character’s earliest design is pretty clearly female, implying he was supposed to be a girl initially but then got changed into a more androgynous boy. Some Zone material implies he and Cane, another humanoid ally to the Autobots, are gay, but nothing concrete ever clarified this that I’m aware.

Nitro Convoy was famously made into the female Override in the Cybertron dub to boost female presence like Airrazor beforehand. Nobody was too fussed about this change that I recall, most preferring the idea of a female racer leader among the Convoys. A couple of ancillary generics were also made female funny enough.

The more egregious gender bending happened in Cyberverse and EarthSpark, with pry the most famous case is Acid Storm becoming gender fluid due to conflicting ideas with the staff and Hasbro over their gender and a reoccurring animation error that saw Acid in male and female Jet body types.

Acid Storm is also a background character and dies horribly due to Starscream, so kill your gays still in play here, terrific… -rubs temples- I know Acid wasn’t gay specifically but you know what I mean.

Ironically Slipstream is used as the leader of her own unit of Jets, which also includes a gender bent Nova Storm, with the story going Nova was supposed to be Skywarp, and Thundercracker was also supposed to be a girl, but Hasbro put their foot down on this for CV and EarthSpark. Skywarp would become female, but remain a background character until ES brought her into prominence alongside Nova. For what ever reason they didn’t bring back Slipstream in ES, which is strange because that could’ve worked there better. Same with Windblade, who would fit the newbie to the Great War vibe the Terrans have.

A lot of Cyberverse’s gender bending was due to some of the staff not being super familiar with Transformers and wanting to insert modern identity politics into it, initially wanting to make the entire species gender fluid (I mean it makes sense), but Hasbro said no. Clobber is another example, where the showrunner didn’t really know who Lugnut WAS, but liked his design and insisted it be turned female. Hasbro wasn’t pleased with this because they completely rewrote Lugnut’s personality and requested it be changed to a different character, resulting in Clobber. Why Hasbro was upset with Lugnutte and not Lockdown, who was also drastically different, I have no idea.

Cosmos is another oddity where he’s skinny and female in Cyberverse, but back to being a big CHONKY boy in EarthSpark, voiced by Weird Al of all people. Why he wasn’t kept female again, after Skywarp and Nova were I dunno, maybe Hasbro said no again or the staff really wanted Weird Al to be Cosmos.

This goes into separate conversation of big girl but it seems hypocritical to make Cosmo skinny as a girl rather then keep her plus sized. Especially after some fans were perfectly fine with chunkier lady bots via Strika, ES Elita and RiD15 Strongarm.

Unless CyberWorld introduces a gender bend we weren’t expecting, like Mirage being more of a Della Duck type, I think that phase is over for the moment. Fan backlash coupled with just not having memorable versions of these usually male characters didn’t help things.

And that’s not to say you can’t have female versions of, say, Brawn, Gears, Powerglide, Rhinox or Rattrap, you just need to put in the effort and make them cool characters that happen to be female. ES and CV just refused to do that and coasted on generic “GOILS” unfortunately.

I have an extreme distaste for genderbends of the well known characters, like Skywarp. It just feels so lazy when there are dozens upon dozens of underused femmebots just sitting there gathering dust. Femmebot Skywarp is boring and changes nothing about the character outside of slapping lipstick on him and calling jt day. I literally do not understand why this fandom loves this so much.

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Still covering my bases depending on what the anime does. A recent leak states they’re going back to a boy character, but it’s not stated to either be Ash or a new character yet as of typing. As it’s the 30th anniversary next year, it would be grossly inappropriate to not include Ash AND Liko in the festivities, but with Liko not returning (according to leaks) and it up in the air with Ash going by TPC’s constantly fluctuating stance, we can’t say right now. Surely at some point, both kids appear alongside a new protagonist for anniversary stuff if that’s the direction they take though.

For now, I’m fleshing out my Gen 10 concept based on leaks. The fanon stuff collectively is called “Type Wild”, which also includes the SV stuff I’ve been doing. The big change is including OC Pokemon, to fill niches I was wanting to complement whatever G10 does.

Main rules: Fakemon are only regional/divergent species, with any “new” Pokemon being evolutions of the subspecies, like Zigagoon getting Obstagoon.

Ash is joined by Percy, a boy descended from the mysterious “Majin”, who is coming back to his home region after trying to avoid his family problems. The main story sees Ash, Percy and a third companion travel the new archipelago which contain “canon” and “OC” islands to play with the official G10 Pokemon and new variants for the scenario like Eiscue.

Stabby and Stingler are Divergent species similar to Krabby and Kingler. These crabs evolved stronger iron defense and sword and shield like claws to defend themselves against predators and other Pokemon battles.

The fire Pikachu is based on a scrapped regional variant that was considered. It probably goes to Percy or the third companion.

The Sunflora regional is a species that evolved on a grassy plain island. It’s a Fire/Grass type, and seems to be a rival with Alolan Exeggutor, competing over who is tallest.

The Cubone line are also regionals that instead of using bones, they use masks and clubs built from scrap metal. They’ve become Steel and Steel/Poison types, and work with mechanics on a few islands.

Nidoran on these islands have evolved to fly and roost in trees and cliffs. The females are more adapt at flying, and mate by swooping down and capturing males of interest. Upon evolution into Nidowing, the males become better fliers and hunters, while the females become cantankerous homebodies, protecting their young. These species become Flying and Flying/Dragon, with a separate Nidoran species discovered in flatlands and more arid regions having become Ground/Normal, evolving into Nidoraptor, a high speed dinosaur like creature that’s Ground/Dragon.

Some species living underwater can only be seen by Percy, due to his fatherly connection to the Poseidon themed Majin, because he can reach the depths to see them o without needing a submarine like Team Rocket. A family of sponge like Pokemon resembling the Oddish family are a common sight, being Water/Fairy. A convergent Diglett species, Water/Fairy, also exists, though if they’re related to Diglett or Wiglett isn’t clear yet.

When the Eiscue Island is discovered, the kids see more variants that have evolved to fill niches on the island’s different ecosystems. The Steel and Poison types evolved from a human presence that used to be on the island, as Ash and Percy find abandoned factories these Eiscue use as nests.

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This is around the start of the “second phase” of the anime, where the Four Treasures become reoccurring antagonists.

The Four Treasures are such a bizarre inclusion in Pokemon, where the HZ has utterly ignored them, as of typing, while the games never really… do anything with them. They’re just kinda… there, with some implications the story wanted to use them but just wasn’t able to as intended. The games have Raifort connected to them, though she also feels like a victim of scrapped plans, and while she guest starred in HZ, she didn’t get to do much there either.

In this version of events, Raifort is one of the reoccurring teachers that works with Ash, albeit with secret ulterior motives in connection to Explorers/Exceed. She does like Ash and his students, and wants nothing bad to happen to them, but her goals usually get in the way. She has an interest in the Treasures but isn’t as invested in that version of the story due to my focus on the Treasures’ rivalry with the Loyal Three, and also because I didn’t plan for it originally, I’ve been backtracking and re-examining SV’s story for some comic ideas during free time.

While she’s not here, although she was supposed to, Raifort is the one sending Ash and the others to investigate ruins related to Rakua and ancient Paldea. She usually accompanies the kids, though here she’s probably talking to Agate, who is still loyal to Master Gibeon at this point in the storyline.

Wo-Chein isn’t connected to knowledge specifically in the games, but I felt it would be fitting due to its tablets. All the Treasures can speak human language, continuing the trend of most legendary Pokemon being able to do so.

While I was working on the ideas for the Treasures, I realized a bit belatedly the Paradox Musketeers fit pretty well as counterparts to three of the Treasures. Iron Leaves is Wo-Chein’s counterpart, and besides helping Ash, has encountered Liko Blue’s group during this time also. Because of the need to keep the Loyal Three as their true rivals, the Treasures don’t think very highly of the tinker toys, and after individual encounters, are able to “permanently” deactivate them. (Though by series end, the light of Terapagos and Mega Evolution reactivated them, now on their Shiny colors.)

The Musketeers were developed by the ancient Rakuians as protectors of their empire, and fought against Master Gibeon’s future partner Zygarde. They also met Lucius (Liko’s ancestor) and Alisha (Ash’s ancestor) centuries afterwards, helping seal away the Treasures and Pecharunt with the Loyal Three.

Oh, the comment about the stench of Rakua and the focus on those characters is meant to infer Conia, Jessie, Alfie and Iono are also descendants of Rakua.

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Excerpt from Agate’s research:

The Strong Sphere, or Stronk Ball as Iono refers to it, is a power up developed by Master Amethio’s family company, Exceed, using Rakuium research to strengthen Pokemon.

While originally meant beneficially under Master Gibeon, under that unsettling troglodyte Spinel, it’s mostly become an intoxicating drug that increases a Pokemon’s power but destabilizes their bodies. These Mareeple conveniently ignore the side effects and readily buy the Spheres to get an edge in Pokemon battling, but the Pokemon Centers are starting to get overtaxed with Rakuium striken Pokemon, with no idea how to treat its effects.

Because the Spheres are so new, the International Pokemon League is struggling to keep them banned, not helped are some respected Trainers and Champions actually promoting the orbs, disgusting. I think Raihan’s goal of beating Leon and now Ash has truly gone to his head if he’s promoting the Spheres now.

Perhaps worst of all, is videos of Professor Oak also speaking for the Spheres, which puzzles me. He’s busy trying to get his Rakuium entombed lab recovered, and it’s not Porygon or Rotom DigiManipulation….

Edit: It’s come to my attention this is the fake Professor Oak that had dealings in Johto some time ago. Gary Oak, and his cousins Liko, Cobalt and Indigo all confirm it, as does Tracey Sketchit, Oak’s loyal lab assistant. Professor Oak’s eccentric Alolan cousin couldn’t be reached for comment.

It seems Spinel hired the Phoney as his spokesman while the real Oak was incapacitated, and the Mareeple are eating it up. Even other companies such as Silph Co have gotten into the trend, something Liko Blue is distraught by, as they make her favorite products. She nevertheless purchased a Silph Co brand Sphere, perhaps out of a sense or loyalty, but also so that I may study it, see how it differs from Exceed brand ones. Liko was ultimately forced to use it in a battle she was loosing against the counterfeit Oak, which she did win, but at the expense of her Gastrodon being severely injured from its effects. Thankfully, due to our cooperation with New Rakua, Gastrodon will be fine, but Liko is still shaken she had to resort to it.

I am currently in discussion with New Rakua’s government to see if we can share their medicinal resources to counterbalance the Strong Spheres’ influence to the “real world” populace. The Rakuian Joys are all for it, naturally, but the process is slow…

The Spheres seem to replicate the power of Tera Type, but have no such elemental typing, instead the crown is replaced with rather blatant corporate labeling… Silph and Exceed are the only major companies using them, but I’ve heard rumors Devon were in talks about their own Strong Spheres, something Steven and his father put their foot down on. Good, common sense wins, how rare it’s becoming aside.

Dr. Zager of Team Rocket was working on his own Spheres, using samples acquired by a clueless Jessica and Jim early on, and research “acquired” from Lorenzo. They had hoped the kinks had been worked out after witnessing Master Amethio use an Exceed prototype on his Pokemon, with the moronic Rocket grunts testing the Spheres in a battle against Ash Ketchum and the volatile Four Treasures; they won against the Treasures that day, but their Pokémon became insane. Ash, Iono, and Alfred had to use the power of true Tera to subdue them.

In addition to stray accounts of Rakuium Capsules and Raw Rakuium affecting Pokemon post New Rakua, several Trainers have been using Strong Spheres in the ZA Royale to combat Mega Evolution, the fools…

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When your love language is acts of service but the only service you know how to provide is killing people

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Yeah this tends to be a trend I see a lot in general.

The only Drift I personally like is the RiD version, and that’s because he visually looks kinda cool, actually has a character arc, and his stoicism plays well against the more excitable others.

Contrast that to his other selves who are bad fan fic insert who might be gay for Rodimus but not really (?), but married Ratchet (the age gap twenty year old kisses grandpa/ma thing I hate), mostly background dressing until he’s suddenly still evil and dies in a stupid way, and violent sidekick whose defining characteristic is stabbing an alien for a gag, hating Bumblebee, and being a Triple Changer.

As for “blorbos”, it’s no secret I like Scrounge, a generic from the Marvel G1 comics. I liked his story and tragic death.

The discount Bumblebee that proved his worth is something I kinda dig, so it’s fun to see Scrounge pop up else where.

Too bad his role in IDW usually wound up being “Well fuck you too” like so many others.

If someone says their favorite tfa character is someone who only exists in the almanacs and/or is specifically the tfa version of an idw character who only barely appeared on the show if at all, I assume they don't actually like tfa as a show and only care about it as a potential vehicle for their ships and blorbos from other continuities. "My favorite tfa character is drift" no the fuck he isn't

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I think the problem with Bumblebee is how most fans only point out the opening battle on Cybertron as the only good thing, as the point of reference for another movie set on Cybertron. Go figure the set on Cybertron movie didn’t go this direction or use Cullen and Welker in a send off to them (Cullen as Alpha Trion, Welker as The Fallen as an example).

Bumblebee at its core is about two sad kids in Bee and Charlie coming together to push back a greater problem in the Decepticons, and work through their issues. Too bad that flies over the radar of the factions of fans who only want the Cybertron scene, technically got it in One and still hate it.

Bumblebee largely gets the relationship with Bee and Charlie right, it’s a very cute and fun dynamic a more kid friendly version of how Bay characterized Bumblebee already. I can’t speak for the mutism, that’s not in my wheelhouse, but Bee and Charlie work well all the same. This energy is recaptured well with Noah and Mirage, but the second human companion, like Memo, feels tacked on. (I like Memo but still).

Primus being the focal point of the lore is going to cause such a problem of God needing to like the Autobots to solve a problem, but also needs to be useless enough so the Autobots can solve the problem: See Marvel G1, Aligned,Galaxy Force, Superlink (to a degree).

It’s kind of guaranteed Primus prefers the Optimus led Autobots, though Marvel G1 did at least try to show Primus is a little shady and Optimus wasn’t putting up with his bull schtick.

TFONE, to me, is a film made purely for Transformers fans who constantly kvetched about the movies and love the IDW style ideas, so it’s no wonder the movie flopped because normies wanted nothing to do with it. A combination anti-animation stance, slight burn out of the movies in general, and general confusion on what the movie is supposed to be. The movie is advertised as the untold origin story of Prime and Megs, but it’s clearly its own continuity, and not tethered to any specific era. As such it doesn’t fit whatsoever in G1 related material or the Bay canon (as much as Lorenzo says it does/wants it too). TFONE’s entire premise is basically held together by ‘member berries, fandom in jokes, references and toxic ship fan fic mentality that would only appeal to certain TF fans, mostly the stereotypical Twitter and Tumblr ones, and that’s it.

As the same factions of fans keep pondering why the film failed so miserably, TFONE has otherwise become largely forgotten, overridden by an increased nostalgic influx of the original Bay trilogy by fans who grew up with them as children. Don’t be surprised if the next movie, if such a film comes out at all, winds up being a return to the shredded metal Bionicle character designs for maximum nostalgia but also because they’re just more visually interesting.

Like it or not, those designs are still relatively cool and iconic in the same way Beast Wars, RiD01, and Armada remain iconic: new spins on old favorites, vs the glut of “G1 but either too cartoony or too realistic” we’ve been stuck with. It’s why Wild King and CyberWorld have cautiously optimistic positive reactions because it’s returning to something different outside the late stage IDW fan pleasing creative slog we’ve been stuck in that I hope has largely died with EarthSpark and TFONE.

If I had to personally choose, I’d gladly go back to the Bay trilogy, Bee and Beasts, because they’re just far more fun, warts and all, vs TFONE which meant well but reads like bad yaoi fan fiction.

Tbh dont like how tfone is being treated as the second coming of christ. Same thing happened with bumblebee 2018 when it came out. Both are deeply mediocre movies.

Tfo has weak character writing and ends with gods chosen kicking out the nonbelievers decepticons. Way to go movie, just make God like him enough to save his life, that'll show them a believable leader. who needs tangible character growth when you can gasp out a "motivational speech" to a group of characters designed for movie easter egg channels. Oh yeah the elita liking him bit, lost her job and now she thinks hes a dreamy optimist all the sudden. Pisses me off a little, but she doesn't exist to be her own character so who cares.

Bb18 struggles to make a film about its titicular character, since the writers are incapable of writing mutism in any other way than big dog or big baby. "But he fights brutally" look at big dog descriptor again. Love it when amnesia and being mute makes me three years old again

maybe tf fans are so used to bad films that if anything hits par it's a masterpiece

Sorry for being a hater I think I'm just in a bad mood. Better to take it out on movies than on other people

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Frankly that’s giving the writers too much credit, I doubt they thought that hard about it. They basically wanted a Digivice/MedaWatch kinda thing for the Terrans’ Digimon/Medabots schtick to tie them to the kids, and that’s as far as it went.

The emotional bond created from them was likely rule of cool and meant more for comedy, but the logistics of being psychically connected that way asks all sorts of questions, especially as Robbie and Mo eventually become adults and have sexual relationships with boyfriends/girlfriends. Robbie pouting about a bad girlfriend will fade eventually, and Twitch and Hashtag will have very vivid and messed up emotions coming from a college aged Robbie having casual sex, mark my words.

Still the idea that Quintus wanting the sleeves as a control collar is very interesting, it’s too bad the show couldn’t decide if Quintus was a good lad or not. There was clearly some internal pushback on what he was supposed to be.

hey are the cybersleeves a mind control prototype? quintus went around spawning sentient life to serve Cybertronians then the Quintessons rebelled. so maybe quintus tried developing some way to control new creations - to give a few chosen ones the power to control the new species. no evidence robby and mo can control the actions of the terrans (though they did certainly influence their creation and personalities) but the cybersleeves do allow insight in terran emotions and can be used to locate them. absolutely sinister implications that the cybersleeves could be used to locate any patented Quintus Specie and "read minds" for rebellious thoughts

[blueikeproductions]

I think a lot of it is just mileage may very and perhaps Tomioka is better suited to the more lackadaisical nature of Pokémon, vs Digimon being more story and character driven.

Still I don’t fully blame Tomioka for the most part (I don’t admittedly follow who does what much on the Japanese end of Digimon or Pokémon), on top of an oil and water mix (the Japanese fanbase also frequently compared the reboot to Pokémon as it was at the time), the Adventure reboot had the luck of coming out during Covid, with it being believed a lot orbits shortcomings were more due to a pandemic than sloppy writing entirely.

I feel like some of it also is also on what I think the staff felt like prioritizing: flashy battles, shoving as many Digimon as possible into it, and above all else making Tai: look good over everyone else. Even Matt: is largely relegated to surplus status, only really mattering when they need to form Voltron.

The show could just be Tai:, TK:, & Kari: with their Digimon and hardly anything would change. Add Lopmon as a companion and finagle a reason you don’t need Gabumon to make Omnimon and you’re set.

Something was just pointed out to me in a Reddit topic about the Digimon Adventure reboot.

It's generally no secret by now that the reboot isn't very well liked among the Digimon fandom. With often cited reasons being the bad pacing, the lack of notable characterization on each of the reboot's versions of the original 8 DigiDestined/Chosen Children to the point where they could be seen as "sanitized" versions, too edgy, no character development, the old voice actors both English and Japanese didn't reprise their roles nor did any of the voice actors actually hired tried to sound like the originals, and just overall stale, without creativity, and just exists to be a commercial.

I went onto a Reddit topic expressing dislike towards the Digimon Adventure reboot, finding some of the same sentiment there.

And in that topic, I had made a comment where I had pretty much noted that I remembered hearing that someone from the AniPoké XY staff had worked on it. I was responded to that comment by someone who said that the someone in question is the lead writer for AniPoké XY. In other words, Atsuhiro Tomioka. Looked it up to confirm just minutes ago as of writing this.

And yes. It's THAT Atsuhiro Tomioka.

The guy who was on the writing team for AniPoké ever since the Indigo League days, and had managed to become the lead writer from Diamond and Pearl to XY.

My thoughts in regards to hearing this pretty much amounted to "no wonder why the Digimon Adventure reboot sucked! Toei brought that hack into their showrunning staff!" However, none of the people I interacted with on that topic so far seem to be aware of how much of a hack he is.

Now, I will admit. This doesn't necessarily prove anything about some personal thoughts I've had regarding the portrayals of certain characters, particularly the portrayals of certain characters in AniPoké (an example being a certain French girl, also Ash during the DP and XY eras), and how any other character given similar if not identical portrayals would be pretty much hated in fandoms outside of the AniPoké fandom. But it does help substantiate those same thoughts. At any rate, I kinda find the sheer dissonance between the fandoms of the properties Tomioka had a hand in interesting and at the same time concerning. Especially since the AniPoké fandom, particularly the periphery audience, loves Tomioka's work, while the Digimon fandom, also that franchise's periphery audience in particular, hates it. If only there was a cut and dry reason for that dissonance. Maybe I'll never know that reason. Who can tell at this point?

[blueikeproductions]

The real world reason is Steeljaw and co are a throwback to older G1 toys that Transformed into Earth animals.

There is a catch, as some G1 material like the cartoon implies through Laserbeak that some of the beast bots looked more alien back on Cybertron and then were reformatted into something that resembled an Earth animal.

The RiD15 Decepticon Mini-Cons tend to be nonsense animals, suggesting a similar idea at play. So if one wants more alien looking beast bots, these goobers are the closest thing right now.

Other G1 stuff like the Marvel and Dreamwave comics all suggest most Transformers by default are humanoids that convert into space vehicles, and that some became animals only after coming to Earth as a battlefield advantage (or by some sudden quirk like the Dinobots in the comics being created because they activated during prehistory, or the cartoon where on a whim, the Autobots built the Dinobots from scratch to boost their ranks after they found fossils with Spike). The Insecticons are specifically described as a trio that adapted to life on Earth, by scanning (presumably) giant insects on prehistoric Earth, and survived by being able to consume organic matter, something G1 era Bots can’t do.

Stuff like Masterforce and Galaxy Force, on the other hand, imply the beastial forms of the Decepticon Pretenders inspired Earth’s myths and legends, suggesting Blood and company used other aliens as a basis for their organic modes.

The in universe explanation in RiD15 (and Aligned in general) suggests all animal Transformers are descended from Onyx Prime, whose relics allowed him to see different planets at different times, with different species, so technically all animal Transformers are based on other aliens, not specifically Earth’s. The Predacons in Prime, to go back to an earlier point, all are Dragonoid aliens, the Cybertron equivalent of dinosaurs while Dinobots are a modern day common species. (It’s never clarified how the later works because earlier Aligned stuff described the main Dinobots as genetically modified creations of Shockwave’s after he studied Earth’s still existing at that point dinosaurs, while RiD Grimlock, Scowl, Tricerashot, a proposed female stegosaurus Dinobot, and others all just suddenly exist now on post war Cybertron.) The Predacons that came to Earth during an earlier campaign on Earth also inspired Earth’s myths on dragons and related species.

TFA BlackArachnia’s Beast Mode for example, is not an Earth spider, but a techno-organic version of Giant Spiders from a far off planet.

It’s a common sci fi troupe that most aliens are convergent species that independently evolved into something that resembles an Earth animal. So a planet of dinosaur people (stuff like Dinosaucers), a planet of frog people (Amphibia), a planet of cat people (stuff like SWAT Kats), a planet of duck people from another dimension (bizarrely both Howard the Duck and Mighty Ducks), you get the idea.

Even Sonic has poked fun at this at various points in its history.

Still most Transformers stuff tends to make a big point how Earth and Cybertron are heavily connected, with more often than not, most animal robots being based on Earth animals for that reason. Plus, kids tend to enjoy robot dinosaurs and other beasties so it’s a fun toy gimmick, even if the concept isn’t always properly explained.

Wild King does this too where the Elementros Transformers are all mechanical Earth animals, though Optimus never really draws attention to this (it’s not even really clear if this Optimus was ever on Earth).

So if nothing else, it’s largely purely defined by rule of cool.

I'm having very mixed feelings about the animal based Decepticons in RiD

On one hand, i fucking love a good animal inspired guy. I fuck so heavy with that. Hell yeah robot furries.

On the other hand, why and how is it all earth animals? And they're all named after them too (eg sharkticon, pumaticon, etc). I get that earth and cybertron are deeply intertwined in this continuity, but still, you're not supposed to know what those are?

It's great that they're not all "humanoid"! That makes just as little sense honestly. Let the aliens be weird! But also they should look like aliens and not earth creatures? I think? Maybe at least some of them?

Or, alternatively – let's talk about the implication that Unicron and Primus seemingly used the same blueprints for their planet's species. That does go kind of hard. But then you gotta acknowledge it.

[blueikeproductions]

Pokémon Gen 10 Ash Adaption

Current write up is based on provided leaks and will be revised as more official information becomes available.

General premise: Ash ultimately declines returning to the Paldea academy next semester after participating in the ZA Royale. He wants to build up fresh adventures to tell his students and promises to return to the school to discuss his time in the new region.

The ZA Royale’s final battle saw Ash subconsciously get a wish fulfilled: travel to an exciting new region with new challenges for the fresh Champion to explore after taking a “break” during Paldea. The final boss of the Royale was a legendary “Majin” whispered about in Rakuian folklore, but awakened by the power of the run amok Rakuium energy. The power of the chosen Trainers’ Mega Evolution and the new Mega Zygarde was able to reseal the creature.

A mysterious totem is left behind that Ash was compelled to pick up, feeling it was related to his subconscious wish. After a long good bye to Alfie, Iono and Lydia, sending his Paldea Pokémon to Professor Oak (last seen trying to repair his lab after the Rakuium engulfed it) and seeing Ho-Oh, curiously in its Shiny colors now, Ash and Pikachu follows the bird to the docks, where they meet Percy.

Percy is Ash’s primary traveling companion for Gen 10, a 14 year old human descendant of the Majin race connected to the new region. He is a loose reference to Percy Jackson and Percius of Clash of the Titans, with his father being the leaked Poseidon Majin. His Starter Pokemon will likely be the Water one to drive the point home. Percy is a strong willed boy, and tends to chafe when forced into something he doesn’t want to do. He doesn’t like talking about his past, but early on it is heavily implied Percy left the archipelago to escape his family drama, but meeting Eiscue and other things going on compelling him so, he decided to go home. Noticing Ash holding a relic from his region, he found the two of them had a similar reason for traveling and decided to join forces. Ash and Percy get along pretty swimmingly, and indulge in each other’s competitive sides. A running gag is if they come to a stalemate on a decision they have a one on one Pokemon Battle, winner makes the choice.

Percy’s primary Pokemon is a new regional tropical Eiscue that wears a coconut instead of ice on its head. Most people don’t view it as a truly new Pokemon and consider it a nonconformist Eiscue, despite a vine growing out of its head and ability to use Grass moves… Its personality is similar to Disney’s The Cold Blooded Penguin, where it wants to go to Percy’s home archipelago, with the boy determined to help it. This Eiscue is unique to the scenario, similar to the Crystal Onix, and could be modified if Game Freak makes a similar variant.

Other Eiscue with different helmets might be possible when Ash and Percy travel to its native island much later on, such as a Ground Type in a mud mask, a Rock Type wearing a carved boulder, a Bug Type wearing a yarn ball of webbing, etc.

Ash’s Starter Pokemon will likely be the Grass Type. His team might be somewhat nonconformist similar to Journeys and the previous Pokemon SV Ash/Liko scenario. Similar to SV, his personality remains a hybrid of his 90’s self, SuMo, and XYZ selves, with the 90’s personality being more dominant.

Pikachu might be the primary user of the new gimmick, as a nod to Pikachu’s reoccurring connection to past Legendaries and its natural toughness.

Rumors and leaks state there are no Gyms, similar to SuMo, so if accurate, Ash competes in the local equivalent offered by the games. A lot of the general story is episodic with Ash, Percy and a Gym Leader equivalent from the games traveling around the islands (some canon, some made up for a scenario like the Eiscue Island) for misadventures similar to the Orange League, Delcora Islands and SuMo. A larger plot does start to build, similar to the conflict between the Four Treasures of Ruin and Loyal Three based on game events if possible.

Team Rocket is back to their usual tricks, with Lorenzo and Dr. Zager remaining as their primary connections back to HQ on missions. Like SV, they’re a bit more successful in capturing Pokemon of interest, usually only doing so when they’re not confronting Ash directly for his Pikachu. Conia remains good friends with James, and has become a Team Rocket member that occasionally reappears to help. Her team still has Golduck and Flutter Mane, but gets a new local Pokemon to stay relevant.

Team Rocket will get the Fire Starter, as one of the Starters being “bad” is a fun idea. If it’s a snake, as some rumors suggest, it’ll go to Jessie, if it’s something else and its concept/personality is incompatible with Jessie, it’ll go to James instead.

Both will have two Pokemon each, not counting Wobbuffet.

Wobbuffet, following a mishap of Team Rocket trying to summon a Majin to power up their Pokemon later on, is possessed by one. It’s either the Hades or Diabolos based ones because the “evil, scary” sounding ones stuck in Wobbuffet’s body is hilarious. It speaks via the blue body while the real Wobbuffet is the black tail, and is unhappy with its predicament but gradually becomes “native”, joining in on the Team Rocket moto during a character moment for it. Its voice is JK Simmons doing Omni-Man for maximum hilarity. A running gag is the two personalities fighting for dominance, with the tail knocking out the Majin’s blue body so Wobbuffet can take back control. This personality take over is a more comical version of the Gammamon and GulusGammamon dynamic from Digimon Ghost Game.

Meowth has a character arc carried over from SV, where he starts to work out to toughen himself up, picking back up trying to learn Night Slash and other moves. He succeeded getting Night Slash and X-Scissor, but it starts messing with his ability to speak, where he becomes more mush mouthed like cat Internet videos like Oh Long Johnson. Horrified at “devolving”, he seeks the help of the Majin to fix this, or else he runs the risk of becoming a normal Meowth again. Meowth’s rivalry with Persian is reignited when Ash, Percy and the TRio run afowl of a Trainer working for the true antagonists using an “Apostle” Persian.

The Majin and related concepts might be loosely related to Rakua, perhaps being additional deities the Rakuians worshipped, believing them to be from the stars. The original Rakuium element may have been sent by the Majin in prehistoric times from their world to Pokemon World, just to see what would happen.

Liko is said to not return for the next anime, but she may remain here, still part of the research team alongside her cousins Indigo and Cobalt. They, along with Gary and Goh, continue to discuss the new Pokemon in a new Professor Oak/NidoThing like segment.

Later on, the research team is shown to be in the archipelago as well, but the running gag Ash and Liko never actually meet in person in this scenario persists. This might be the same for the potential new boy protagonist for Gen 10, all three official main kids never truly meet, just missing each other or one being occupied with something else.