#{the tcg one is hard to see but you Can see the pink tip of the nail}

[iruludavare]

{Headcanon}

     From a young age, Serena has always taken pride in her nails, having always loved the way that the length can make her lines while dancing look far more refined; far more elegant. Before the age of sixteen, she would shape and paint her nails on her own or with a few friends from the academy after the final class of the day ended. From sixteen, however, this transitioned more into her and the same group of people heading down to a tucked away nail salon in Jubilife City, and instead getting acrylics. In accordance with the rules of the ballet academy-- which reflected professional standards--, they were restricted to but a few choices in design: white, matching their skin tone, Kaloisan manicure or a neutral, dusty pink. For Serena, she has long leaned towards the latter in an almond shape-- once again, due to how it makes the ends of her lines in ballet look more graceful without being distracting.

     Even after moving to Kalos, and after the ordeal with Team Flare, this is still a practice that Serena keeps up. Although it might be a refill or replacing the nails, occasionally she might go with a small group of her fans to all get theirs done, and it is something the heroine continues to find a relaxing and happy experience. And these nails are the ones seen in all of Serena’s official art, game models and tcg art.

[adobe-outdesign]

What are your thoughts on Mew and Mewtwo?

I always found Mew to be a lot more appealing than your average cute legendary, but I'm not sure why. Part of me says it's just familiarity, but I think part of it is also that it's cute, but not cutesy. It doesn't feel like it's trying too hard to appear adorable, and at the end of the day it's really just a weird hairless floating fetus cat. I mean, just look at the original Red sprite:

I think it also works because it does have kind of a cryptid vibe to it. The fact that it's constantly floating and can turn invisible makes it believable as a Pokemon that's very rarely, if ever, seen. I always liked this TCG art in particular for representing this:

And in terms of design, it's very simple. Long cat-ish thing with a long tail that's rounder at the end. It's so simplistic that it doesn't even need more than one color palette to function. Which, in turn, helps with how easy it is to remember.

While Mew is fine on its own, Mewtwo really adds something to the pair. I really like the contrast between the two; you can see tons of visual similarities (the ears, the tail, the muzzle, the legs, ect.), but it also very thoroughly looks like a corruption of the original, with a more muscular look, slightly more human-like anatomy, and even a second spine to help support the head.

And just as a design on its own, I really like the way the underbelly wraps around into the tail; it gives it some really nice flow and serves as the focal point of the design. This also helps it connect back to Mew's pink colors, in contrast to the rest of Mewtwo being more of a grey. The hands also have a cool, alien-like shape to them.

It feels weird to nitpick a classic design, especially one that I like, but I have to admit the pecs are the only thing I'm not huge on. It's mostly that they're very angular and hard-looking, while the rest of the body is soft and round. It's like there's more detail there than everywhere else. Also, I wouldn't mind some more purple--maybe on the finger tips, seeing as it uses its hands a lot in attacks.

And finally, while not relevant to the design or the games, I really like the way it's portrayed in the anime. it's one of the only legendaries that has a character arc, and a compelling one at that.

For the megas, first off, I hate that Mewtwo even has a mega, let alone two. The entire point should be to give Pokemon that need a boost more powerful, not make already strong Pokemon more powerful. Plus it's obvious they just did this because it's a fan-favorite.

But anyway, the X form is okay design-wise. The main problem with it is that it doesn't look that different from default Mewtwo, compared to the Y form which I'll get to in a minute.

In terms of things I don't like, it's a shame to loose the digitigrade legs, as these ones are pretty shapeless. I feel like the random lines and outcroppings on the body were just added because they didn't know what else to do with it. The more cat-like ears don't work as well (mostly because of the forehead lines), and the second neck isn't as visible.

However, it does fix the problem with the pecs that I had on default Mewtwo, and the extra purple "shoulder pads" look pretty decent. So it's not terrible, but for the most part it doesn't accomplish much over the original design.

I didn't care for the Y form at all at first, but it's really grown on me over time. It reminds me a lot of the original artwork for Mewtwo, which depicted it with a much larger head relative to its body proportions. While X gets too close the original, this feels like a new take on it, with many elements being altered or moved around in a way that's pretty refreshing. I also like that it looks more like Mew here; it only makes sense that a mega for a Pokemon that's a clone of Mew would become more Mew-like. I don't like it more than the default, but as an alternative it's not bad at all.

To get into specifics: The tail being moved on the head really gives the entire body some nice flow and some extra color. Likewise, this also does what I suggested above by making the fingers purple. While I miss the spine the forehead loop's not a bad re-imaging of it, and I love the almost alien-like look.

In terms of things I don't like, the weird part of the chest that juts out is random and not needed; just make it smooth. Speaking of things that aren't needed, the eggplant feet aren't doing anyone any favors, both due the shape and color. Just make them the same shape as the hands and leave them white. I would've liked to also see the legs gradually connect to the body (more like Mew's), as it's really awkward to have them stapled to the sides like they are. And finally: the eye looks a little off to me. I think it needed to be a similar shape to the original, as the eyes are what define a lot of a Pokemon's personality.

Overall, I feel like Mew and Mewtwo are classic Pokemon for a reason, with an easy-to-read concept and some simple designs. Mewtwo shouldn't have had megas, but out of the two the Y one is pretty decent design-wise and serves as a fun alternate version.