quartings

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The Guardians take Quill to NYC.

Original by @ telebeast

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A little story about how I became me:

In the most supportive way I can say it, my thoughts on what people need to hear to become better, and why it's not always obvious.

Like pretty much everyone, I was a dumb teenager many years ago. I grew up in a very conservative environment, without many chances to really hang out with people who weren't also teenage guys either. I was surrounded by a lot of homophobia, sexism, and a lot of people telling jokes that weren't just horribly offensive, but even worse- they were honestly really generic and unfunny. And that's a small part of why I'm here to talk about.

For anyone who followed my blog in its earliest years, you might know I was a huge fan of the Yogscast YouTube group as a teenager. I loved Simon, and Lewis, and Duncan, and Kim, and so many of its members. But there was one member who was quite different from the others- a woman named Zoey.

Zoey Proasheck was one of the first big openly gay YouTubers I think ever. But what made me gravitate to her so much was that while she never downplayed that part of her identity, she promoted the positive stereotype-breaking parts of her personality even more. She's honestly not just one of the nicest content creators I've ever seen, but maybe even the nicest person I've ever seen. (And I know she doesn't like being put on a pedastal because celebrity worship is bad and all people have flaws, but I think her positive actions and impacts should at least speak for themselves) As a dumb teenage guy who at the time had never even met an LGBT person, it was eye-opening experience watching Zoey RP as characters who liked guys, and play kiddie games like Scribblenauts, Pokémon, and Puyo Puyo.

Dumb teenage me would have been under the impression that lesbian YouTubers would only promote queer content. Disclaimer that I'm not promoting the "model minority" argument, minorities are not obligated to act a certain way in order to earn respect or not be bullied. This is just a story about what it took to change me as an individual in a way that may not apply to everyone.

But yeah, just as her straight coworkers played games and expressed their interests that didn't telegraph their sexuality, most of Zoey's content wasn't either. It was nice seeing such an eternally kind, funny, and creative person just enjoy sharing her happiness and creativity with others, and her liking girls was just an added detail. Some highlights include her just joking about wanting to meet pretty girls in Scribblenauts, expressing her love of rainbows, and just saying 'boobs' because it's a funny-sounding word. And those bits while funny, were only a fraction of the overall funny and creative content she made that was for all audiences! Zoey was never a person who was there to lecture others on her identity, or to create content only for people like her. Just because she was queer, it didn't mean she marketed her content only or even mainly for queers- she made it for everyone- I'm happy so many LGBT youth found solace with her, too. But if she did try and make content solely or mainly for queer audiences, myself and others like me would probably have been dissuaded from watching her channel and having our worldview expanded.

But yeah, after watching Zoey for so long, slightly-jerky teenage me had a small space in his heart open up for accepting queer people. Because no matter what harmful stereotypes I saw on TV, no matter how many actual people fit those stereotypes in online spaces or irl, I would always know that if a real queer person as eternally kind and funny as Zoey could exist, being LGBT couldn't possibly be the factor that makes people "bad" as all the fearmongers say.

This next part will probably be tough to hear for a lot of people, but I don't think representation in media matters the way many people think it does- at least, not in the realm of animation and acting.

What I mean by that is, I was raised on well-written and amazing female protagonists as a kid- Kim Possible, Lilo and Stitch, My Life as a Teenage Robot, The Proud Family, Totally Spies, ATLA, and especially the girls of the Teen Titans. But because I was raised in an environment that was very oppressive towards girls and one that deliberately isolated guys from them, I had no good female presences in my day-to-day life. No amount of strong female characters in media could change the fact that my irl view of girls was shaped by the very conservative and honestly disappointing ideals of the girls around me. It took moving to a vastly different environment where I could interact with less conservative girls for me to start unlearning the misogyny instilled in me during my early teens.

And in the same vein, no amount of fictional LGBT characters would have undone any homophobic beliefs I used to have back then. Because I know such characters aren't real and don't reflect the values of real people around me. What actually contributed a lot to me becoming less homophobic was Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother. If I only grew up on gay actors being allowed to play gay characters, my mind would never have been allowed to separate them from the shallow stereotypes I was taught as a teen. Neil Patrick doing such a great job of playing a caricature of a hilariously cartoonish straight guy allowed me to see that gay people aren't bound to always acting "gay". Their sexuality doesn't control their day-to-day behaviour. While such things are obviously clear to people who are also LGBT, I think we easily forget how straight people with literally zero experience talking to LGBT folks don't know these things by heart. Barney Stinson being straight was better LGBT representation to me than all other queer characters thanks to Neil Patrick Harris.

I think a lot of today's dumb teenagers are immediately put off listening to minority voices because they oftentimes come across as a "lecturer" or an "enemy". Someone who isn't necessarily evil, but still a person who views them as a "thing to change" or "person to yell at". And it's hard to give a mean person yelling at you the satisfaction of being right, even if they are right. If someone came up to teen me and started exasperatedly telling me how being homophobic made me a bad person (even though that's obviously true), not even yelling at me, teen me would have been off-put by being antagonised and would probably not listen to them. Heck, teen me may have even become more homophobic since this hypothetical irl LGBT supporter was so antagonistic to me, and the idea of being like them would seem off-putting.

EDIT: And I know certain celebrities have recently come under fire for not openly stating their political leanings. And sure, it's probably because they don't wanna get cancelled, or because they have the privilege to be impartial in situations that impact a lot of innocent people, but there's another detail I want to note. At this stage in the game, I wonder if a celebrity coming out as liberal would instantly turn their entire conservative fanbase against them before listening to what they had to say. Sure, it's probably just the celeb covering their ass, but I can't help but think about the silver lining of a conservative viewer hearing their favourite celebrity saying "hey, most people on the other side are chill to talk to, don't be mean to them even if you think they're really annoying" maybe being more impactful if the celeb claimed to be apolitical rather than openly liberal. You can absolutely chew me out for being wrong on this one if you think I am, I'm just speculating.

I don't at all mean to victim-blame anyone here for not being nice enough to bigoted people. Sometimes people are so hateful that no amount of kindness can change them, and you are well within your right to distance yourself from them or fact check them when they spread hate. What I am saying is that nobody likes being lectured. Not on big things like human rights, not on medium things like airplane safety instructions, not even on small things like promotional giveaways sometimes. I think a majority of people who don't support minorities aren't hateful bigots who constantly rant and rave about getting rid of other people. Maybe 10% of them are like that. But the rest of them are just poor isolated folks like teen me was, who just need that one cool person to show, not tell them that kinds of people they've never met can be cool too.

So what does that mean for me? Well, despite the massive amount of rambling I just went on here, I also don't want to be a "lecturer" in the content I make and how I conduct myself in daily life. I know it's difficult, and I've faltered before, and maybe will in the future. But if by some miracle you're a person who dislikes "wokeness" or "things being shoehorned into media" and you've read this far, thanks! I'm not here to tell you you're a bad person, I'm not here to tell you to change, and I'm not going to say any of my content is "not for you". I'm here to make art and comics and animation for everyone to enjoy. If you're feeling down or even just bored, I hope the things I make can make your day even a little better. I'm not a lecturer, and I hope I'm not an enemy - I'm just here to be a friend. I also have some of my biggest animation and comic projects EVER coming soon, and I really hope you like them!

And to people of all demographics, I want to add that if someone ever makes an offensive joke, there's no point yelling at them that it's "offensive" or "bigoted" or "whatever-ist". What's more important is letting that person know that, honestly? That joke ain't it, chief. It's worse than being offensive- it's honestly kind of boring and predictable, dude. Teenage me probably made that joke 10 times over a decade ago, and my classmates probably made that same joke 1000 times. Don't worry though - I've told lame jokes before too, but thankfully I took the L and my jokes now are honestly getting way better!

Stay safe out there, okay? I hope your tomorrow is happier than your today!

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I can't believe I haven't drawn this yet.

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It's been a while since I've drawn Azalea, so here you go!

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So happy my animated short got into another film festival! I'm also excited to take my first solo weekend trip ever to go and see it in person!

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We've heard rumours of Mega Jynx being cut from ORAS for over a decade, and the recent Gamefreak Teraleak revealed that it actually existed!

The leak only confirmed its typing, stats, and ability though, so I decided to draw my own take on what I would have wanted it to look like! Heavily based on a Valkyrie (not really sure why, I just felt like it fit) with lighter skin to further distance itself from the original Jynx controversy, of course.

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Thoughts on fan backlash: The Good and the Evil.

With the recent massive Pokemon leak bringing a lot of internal Gamefreak correspondance to light, I wanted to just give a stream of consciousness on my thoughts about people's reaction to fan backlash, and how it can have both really good and completely evil impacts.

I think the Pokemon fanbase has speculated for a long time that low Gen 5 sales caused Gamefreak to begin their excessive Kanto pandering in Gen 6, 7, and early Gen 8 in an attempt to increase profit.

And while I understand the apprehension about fans being unhappy with the Unova dex restriction, I think a sales dip was only inevitable as Pokemon's initial overseas fanbase entered their cringy teen years. Blaming it on foreigners and the entire Unova dex was a gross overreaction. And as someone who was in their early teens when BW launched and only had good things to say about it, it baffles me that the controversy even existed in the first place.

But later controversies had even kid me upset with Gamefreak- the low difficulty of the games (which comes and goes nowadays), games coming out with missing/underdeveloped features, severe performance errors, and of course, Dexit (when I was an adult). BW only having Unova Pokemon in their regional dex was fine, since all the older Pokemon were still in the postgame and game data ready for transfer. So when is fan outrage justified, and when isn't it?

I guess the main problem here is making a series for children, wanting to keep it for children (nothing wrong with that), but trying to get all your feedback from teenagers and adults online, since most kids (at least back in the 2010s) can't access social media as easily to enunciate their thoughts. Because meaningful feedback (Make the stories better paced, make the games at least as tough as they were in Gens 3-5, improve competitive custom games, improve continuity between games, bring back the Battle Frontier, etc) conflict with Gamefreak's backwards mindset of "kids are stupid and want easy games, boring characters, and flashy features we'll scrap next gen". Which leaves the only criticism they can respond to being "Let's appeal to the shallow Genwunners by focusing way too much on Kanto Pokemon."

A part of me worries for the dark potential future where Gamefreak listens to fan backlash about Gen 8's Dexit, and makes a game with all 1100+ Pokemon available. But due to internal pressures and overworking their employees on a poorly planned schedule, the game runs awfully and has next to no postgame. As a result, reception to this game is naturally negative, but both dimwitted Gamefreak executives and a small handful of especially stupid fans think "Oh, this happened because we had all the Pokemon in the game- we should never do this again, and blame fans who want basic features in the games from now on!" instead of the obvious lesson "We shouldn't overwork our employees and instead take our time to make a functioning and fun game."

And for anyone who has followed my blog since its early days, you'd know I am (was?) a huge amourshipping fan, partly because I love the XY anime, partly because I really enjoy Serena as a character, and partly because I had a foolish hope that the anime would try to properly progress Ash as a character instead of what they wound up doing in Gens 7-8. And apparently The Pokemon Company limited Serena's screentime in Journeys because they were too scared of fan backlash at the risk of handling her wrong, with the former XY director getting threats over such issues (I won't comment on what kind of fans were making the threats as they weren't specified in the leak) in her only return episode. And I know this may come across as naiive or insensitve, but... who cares? There's always going to be a handful of crazy fans trying to stan or hate a certain character- what do YOU as a creator think is best for YOUR character and YOUR story? And as long as the overall public is fine with your story, who cares what the few psycho fans think one way or the other? Why sabotage your own story not to appease the majority, not even to please a minority, but to silence a minority? I think more fans both casual and hardcore would be happy to see Ash and Serena get together than the amount who would be upset by it. It just feels like cowardice.

But when it comes for stories made for older audiences, listening to feedback becomes a more complex story. On the opposite end, a lot of fanbases like to bootlick for big companies when they make blatantly discriminatory decisions. For a non-Pokemon example, I'll cite The Mandarin in Iron Man 3. Marvel changed the character from an offensive Chinese sterotype to a self-aware vague Middle Eastern stereotype played by a goofy British man in-universe in order to avoid hate from Chinese audiences.

And there was a lot of fandom drama from this choice naturally, between fans who wanted a real villainous and Chinese Mandarin, and fans who enjoyed the twist and appreciated Marvel's choice to not risk an offensive Chinese stereotype. I was a bit too young to participate in any of this drama at the time, but I generally enjoyed the twist Marvel did, while also sympathising with fans who liked the comic storylines.

Well apparently, the fan backlash to Iron Man 3 was enough to compel Marvel to make a short film called "All Hail the King" in the same year, where they confirmed there was indeed a real East Asian villainous Mandarin somewhere in the MCU. And eventually in Shang Chi (8 years later), the real Mandarin did appear as Xu WenWu, an incredibly cool and compelling villain who wasn't harmfully stereotypical at all! I know the extremely racist Marvel executive Ike Perlmutter getting fired after Iron Man 3 and before Shang Chi probably contributed, but I can't help but wonder if fan backlash was the main cause for us getting WenWu eventually? In the alternate universe where everyone agreed to shut up and happily accept the Iron Man 3 version of the Mandarin, would there be no WenWu? Would that universe be all the worse as a result?

And then, there's the difference between "fans" and "fandoms". Sometimes I think both creators and fans forget that the main audience for a show does indeed love it, but rarely do they "obsess" over it. I've always said that children love good stories, while adults find excuses to love bad stories. Take my brother for example- he loves many cartoons, and has a lot of valid points to say about their storytelling, but I would never at all say he's a "fandom" kind of guy. Meanwhile, myself and all my animation colleagues are very much in fandoms, or at least aware of them. So one of my fellow animator friends was very surprised when they found out my brother and his friends had no idea what a "tumblr sexyman" even was, but still enjoyed cartoons and their stories nonetheless. You mean you can enjoy a cartoon for the actual content it has, without obsessively thirsting over characters or getting attached to completely fictitious ships and headcanons? No way!!

It's important to remember that when making stories for kids, the shipping/thirst/drama opinions of fandoms never really matter as long as you've put genuine thought and care into your characters and story. You don't have to deliberately insult, offend, or repel fandoms (though with enough skill and tact it could be funny I guess), just pay them no mind as you try and make the best show you can. Which is a lesson I'd like to take in making my own stories. As I make content on Youtube and beyond, I keep reminding myself that the most important viewers I have are the ones I'll hear from the least- kids with very little social media presence. And if I barely hear from that audience, the best I can do isn't to pander to my adult fans (though I still hope they like what I do if it suits them), but to keep having faith in my own content, and to be open to constructive criticism when it arrives (obviously different from insults and threats, which I've thankfully never gotten anyways)

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I translated and analyzed the leaked Pokemon Theogony diagram!

Here's the non-spoiler version from the Sinjoh ruins Arceus event! The leaked spoiler version with specific and leaked names is below the cut!

Things to note:

1) Tex is Regigigas maybe because it sounds like "Tectonic" + "Rex"? Since it moves the continents? (Dumb joke about how the Regi family can be found below Clay's Driftveil City in B2W2)

2) Despite appearences, the notes say the pink circle is for the god of time, and the blue one is for the god of space- could be cool to see Dialga and Palkia with swapped colors! Also note that Giratina isn't in the original version, but has a circle for it awkwardly added in the final version.

3) Pseudos have their own section- weird that Latias, Latios, and Gyarados are Pseudos but Salamence isn't. They're all bunched up in a section called "Supporting Legendaries". The three gen 4 placeholders for "Dahabu", "Saan", and "Gordon" could be for Garchomp and two other lesser legendaries like Cresselia and Darkrai or something. Or since they omitted Salamence, they could also not include Garchomp and the circle could be for something like Heatran instead.

4) Note that "Supporting Legendaries" are different from the birds, beasts, and regis, which are called "Servant Legendaries".

5) Also "Smilay" (Smile>Gratitude>Shaymin) and "Birthly" (Egg/Phione>Manaphy) are my speculations on the mythicals, but no confirmation, obviously.

6) Also there's a decent chance most of this is now moot since this diagram is from 2005 and we've had over 5 generations since then.

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Working in the arts usually best suits introverts who can spend lots of time alone working on their craft. Succeeding in the arts industry best suits extroverts who can casually chat up random strangers for jobs like nothing. What a dilemma, eh.

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Comic dub version on Youtube here!

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I finally dubbed my most popular comic of all time! Complete with an all-new extended ending!

Youtube Version:

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Another big announcement (man what a week it's been)! I'll be at LA Comic-con 2024 this weekend if anyone wants to meet me!

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I voiced the lead role in an award-winning animated short film!!

So happy to announce that I star as Zenzou in "Stray", a short film made by my insanely talented college friend Keyl Sparks! Absolutely check it out here and be sure to thank the many other amazing people who helped make it!!

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I'm getting some big announcements ready, so I figured now's a good time to post a proper bio for you to get to know me better!

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Imagine if Black meets Nemona lol

Haha they'd be instant besties- though I think the context would be important, too- I think both of them would be extra hype and competitive if Black was gunning for the Paldea League. If not, then I think they'd still have fun but Black wouldn't go all out, seeing as he gets motivated specifically by league stuff, and he hasn't gotten a new 6th team member yet.

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The Mystery of Munchlax: A Diamond and Pearl theory

By now, it's pretty common knowledge that Munchlax in Sinnoh is one of the most infamously rare Pokemon to find in history- having just a 1% chance to spawn from 3-4 honey trees in all of Sinnoh every 6 hours after honey usage. With the specific trees differing per save file.

But WHY is Munchlax so rare to the point where it's practicaly impossible to find in your average playthrough? I may have a theory.

The main point of evidence is that Diamond and Pearl are the first games with the GTS, allowing players to finally trade Pokemon with people across the world, and not just in their small hypothetical local groups. And making Munchlax so rare was a way to motivate more people to try out the GTS, this fancy new feature that Gamefreak worked so hard on.

Data shows that Diamond and Pearl sold over 17 million copies. so out of the 17 million people or so playing through the game, maybe a few hundred of them are lucky enough to get a Munchlax in their playthrough. Out of these several hundred, maybe a few dozen take the time to evolve their Munchlax into Snorlax and give it a Full Incense to breed more Munchlax. Since unlike other rare Pokemon like Legendaries or shinies, Munchlax is still a normal Pokemon who can be bred (essentially "duplicated"). Of these few dozen, maybe 9 or 10 have the intuition and wifi access to put their Munchlax on the GTS for a hefty price (like Dialga or Palkia or whatever).

And hopefully, as more and more Munchlax spread throughout the GTS, more and more players can get them for "cheaper" prices, as they become more common and people are just asking for normal Pokemon in exchange for them, like First Partner Pokemon Starters and regular version exclusives. That way, the "main" method of getting Munchlax during a normal playthrough would be to try and get one off the GTS.

And let's not forget the mass-marketing campaign Pokemon did to make Munchlax more appealing- an extended cameo in Destiny Deoxys, giving May one of her own in the anime, having appearances in Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Dash, and XD Gale of Darkness, and LOTS of merch, as well as Barry having one on his team to remind you that it's in the game. All on top of being a pre-evo of Snorlax, one of the most beloved and strong Gen 1 Pokemon around. If Munchlax's rarity was given to a weak standalone new Gen 4 Pokemon (like say, Carnivine), way less people would even try hunting for it.

But why is this not common knowledge to all of us? Why didn't this strategy work how Gamefreak intended? Well, there's a few reasons for that, too.

First of all, why even attempt the grind for Munchlax via honey trees when the Pal Park exists? Back in the good old days where transferring Pokemon between gens was free and humane, the amount of people able to transfer their Snorlax from FireRed/LeafGreen to Diamond/Pearl was likely MUCH higher than the aforementioned tiny amount of people who found a Munchlax via honey tree and were willing to breed more for the GTS.

And the amount of age 6-12 kids who were able to understand a new global wifi trading feature in their Pokemon games and ask their parents for wifi connection help in 2006/2007?? I don't think that number is very high, either.

Plus, let's not even get into how much of a mess the GTS was in the first few gens of its lifespan- kids (or just Pokemon fans in general) are nowhere near restrained enough to make reasonable trade offers even if they do happen to have a Munchlax.

Lastly, the final nail in the coffin came when HeartGold/SoulSilver released in 2009 with a static catchable Snorlax in its postgame. If there wasn't a reason to hunt Munchlax via honey tree before, there definitely wasn't one anymore.

And so, that's the story of Munchlax's debut! A fun little experiment by Gamefreak, but thankfully not one they ever really tried since.

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