#I also love the lore of this version of him not having Dragonite because he never met Lance

[great-tusk]

Oh I didn't realize your S/Is for Blue and Dawn where different!! Can you tell me about your Self ship with Dawn too please??

Yes!!! I love talking about these things.

Under the cut again, but this one’s a little shorter.

HE’S also Quentin! He has a pretty similar backstory except that he never went to Kanto, but he has the same family as my other s/i. He actually traveled to Hoenn after he became champion of Unova, planning to go meet Drake, and he fell in love with contests while he was there.

This is what his team looked like during his Unova journey. (He found Meloetta lost and injured, while they were horribly disoriented. He immediately picked them up, gave them some water, and ran for the nearest Pokémon Center. They were so grateful about it that they joined his team. Later, he brought them to a café that he frequents, and a man taught them Relic Song. He’s always super impressed by the transformation, and shows it off a bunch, especially in contests.) He also entered Haxorus into a bunch of Pokémon musicals, which they loved doing together.

While he was in Hoenn, Drake gifted him a Salamencite and a Key Stone.

Here are his main contest stars.

He has different costumes to match them, and eventually—once he was deep in the contest scene—he heard about contests in Sinnoh. Of course, he was immediately intrigued and had to visit to try them out. See the differences between them, the Hoenn ones, and musicals. There, he met Dawn, who he immediately thought was the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen. He eventually ended up talking to her after a contest, where he found out that she was funny and nice, too. He was like instantly smitten. Little did he know that she actually really liked him, too! They were actually pretty affectionate even before she confessed. She’d hold his hand in public so that they “wouldn’t get separated,” and other similar things.

She confessed her feelings after a contest that he won, and they’ve been a couple ever since. She’s pretty awed by the fact that he enters Pokémon like Haxorus and Mega Salamence, since they really go against like all of the stereotypes of contest Pokémon.

He’s definitely a ray of sunshine type of guy. Pretty cheerful and upbeat.

[harusha]

What are your top pokemon games??

Official or fangame? I’ll just list both. I will say Pokemon Reborn is my top-rated overall if we combine both lists (with HGSS and Collesseum/XD following as 2 and 3 respectively.)

On Official, it’s 

1. Heartgold/Soulsilver (My favorite region is Johto, and Ethan is my favorite Pokemon protagonist so…unsurprising. The games are still genuinely good though imo because of the massive amount of content and post-game and QoL stuff like following Pokemon, auto-run, etc.) I also love the nostalgic feeling of the region. Lance is also here, and I like him and his design a lot, not as much as Volkner though. Also Proton is here, and I love the dude so. Pedometer is included here.

2. Pokemon Colosseum/Pokemon XD; I include this together since they’re a duo set in terms of story. XD is the better one gameplay-wise because of the new additions of Shadow moves, more Pokemon choices, QoL changes like saving, etc. but Colosseum is the harder of the two games imo b/c of the sparsity of Pokemon–if you can play it on laptop, mod XD with Pokemon XG for massive QoL changes (Fairy Type, more shadow Pokemon, upped difficulty, etc.)

I like how this set tries new stuff and it honestly showcases how if you the Pokemon IP to a third-party, you end up with something that tries to be different and actually plays pretty well.

3. Pokemon BWBW2; included as a set because of joint story line. Honestly, I feel like BWBW2 are objectively the last great mainline series additions. Even if you didn’t care for the story, they at least tried with it and the rivals. You had the nice rival in Bianca and the “focused/ruder” rival in Cheren, and both encompassed the themes of the game (Truth with Bianca as she realizes her ineptness as a trainer and Ideals with Cheren who strives to overcome his boundaries and the player even if he never can). N is pretty awesome, and I think Ghetsis is a better Lusamine (sorry, idc for how Lusamine’s actions are brushed over and blamed on the space jellyfish). There’s a lot to enjoy in Unova imo.

Also massive post-game stuff like Join Avenue (which encourages one of the main tenets of Pokemon, interacting with others and trading; ex. “Magnemite Coil”), half the region opening up for Post-game (White Treehollow, Kyurem’s abode, etc.). The Legendaries also have home locations for the most part, and their items aren’t just given to you by random people. A lot of stuff to do that isn’t just breeding mindlessly for shinies (I mean I love doing that, but options ya know?) or online battle.

4. Pokemon Conquest; Fire Emblem (or more accurately, Nobunaga’s ambition) meets Pokemon. I like turn-based grid tactic games, and this one��s actually pretty fun. You’re encouraged to roam around and give people different Pokemon to see which ones they’re compatible with. Also another example of what can be done if Pokemon is given to a another developer.

5. Pokemon Explores of Sky (and to a lesser extent since it’s the base, Time/Darkness); you can swap this with Colloseum/XD, BWBW2 or Pokemon Conquest depending on if you prefer Pokemon’s style of play, tactics games, or dungeon crawlers. I like this one since the story’s actually pretty good, the difficulty’s nice, and especially the post-game dungeons and content.

6. Pokemon Platinum and Diamond+Pearl to a lesser extent– the region that actually has a reasonably difficult Elite Four and champion. I love the additions they have like distortion world, the melancholic feel you get at times in the Chateau area and snowfields, and the post-game Battle Frontier. However, the games run so slow without Drayano’s mods. In terms of husbandos, Volkner’s pretty nice as well, and he’s pretty high-tier for me. Cynthia’s here as well, so I guess she counts since she’s a feature every time she shows up.

7. Pokemon FRLG-The definite version of Kanto for me. Sevii Islands, callbacks (callforwards?) to the Johto games with the Rocket Admins, decent difficulty and ability to sequence break somewhat, etc. It gives new experiences for those who’ve played the OG versions, but doesn’t change them drastically. The “you can’t evolve anything outside of the OG 151 before post-game” is stupid though. Lance is here as well, but his half Dragonite/Dragonair team annoys me b/c of how repetitive it is, but product of the time as well and the HGSS first battle had that as well but at least they’re all evolved.

8. Pokemon Red/Blue Rescue Team-I like this one since the story’s still good and incorporates the idea of a human being transported to a Pokemon world, but I just feel like Sky’s gameplay improvements and portraits for everyone trumps this one. I like Gengar a lot and his team. I also think the difficulty on this one (depending on starter and partner) is fairly good at times (The Moltres fight is actually pretty difficult if you don’t have Pikachu or a water type partner).

9. Pokemon Emerald and to a lesser extent Ruby/Sapphire–Battle Frontier, Scott and Smeargle cave (ie. post-game content), beautiful promotional artwork (including ORAS’s), fairly difficult battles at time if you aren’t prepared/going in blind with no excessive grinding (2nd May battle, Flannery, etc.), hidden secrets like Regis and Secret Bases. However, the latter half is so boring with the excessive surfing and lackluster variety. Steven’s here, and he’s a dreamboat even with the sprite graphics.

10. Pokemon Channel and Hey you, Pikachu!-Weird I know. This would be higher if I didn’t think this was a niche pick. It’s just really relaxing, and I want another one, especially if you can get more Pokemon to raise. It’s a lot more fun once you play it. I like exploring with Pikachu and it offers a look into the world of Pokemon as a non-trainer. I really want another one tbh.

11. Pokemon Rangers series (Ranked from favorite to lowest; Shadows of Almia–>OG–>Guardian Signs; all are good but that’s my preference) The gameplay is actually pretty fun, and I wish we got another one. They could use Joycons as a styler. Spencer, Sven, and Lunick are also pretty cute

12. Pokken Tournament- What battles should feel like in mainline if they injected millions of dollars into the mainline, so unrealistic expectation. I think Pokken is a decent fighting game. The moves are nice, and the music is good. This can go lower if you don’t care for fighting games.

13. Pokemon Battle Revolution and Stadium games-They’re mostly battle simulators with some mini-games. The animations are actually pretty lively and fun compared to SWSH’s. I would like to rank this higher, but there is no story mode sadly. It’s great if you want to see what Pokemon would look like in-scale.

14. Pokemon X/Y-I think these are actually pretty nice if only for the fact there isn’t excessive handholding; it’s there but it doesn’t force me to put down the game out of boredom. The outfits are genuinely pretty cute. However, the rivals are ridiculously terrible, difficulty is either too low or unbalanced if you use/turn off exp. share. Let’s put ORAS here as well b/c I think the lack of Battle Frontier and mediocre post-game, getting Lati@s early, etc. drops it down from Emerald. The PSS system is amazing though.

15. Pokemon Trozei and Pokemon Pinball series-Yeah, I’ve played these. Trozei’s actually pretty cool as a match-3 game, and pinball is pinball. You also get slightly more lore into the Pokemon world with Lucy Fleetfoot. I like match-3 and pinball so very much a YMMV. Pop Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon here as well. Idk, they just lack the magic of the first two entries.

16. Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Dash, all the other spin-offs I didn’t talk about-they all offer something fun, but I just wish it was either updated for modern times and not released again (like with Snap) or a bit more (in the case of Detective Pikachu and Pokepark series). Pop Puzzle League games here as well. I like them, but they aren’t much besides Tetris games. Same goes for the Pokemon Trading Card games; they’re nice, but not super great imo.

???. Pokemon Box/Ranch/all the other storage games and stuff like Dream Radar-Idk what you’d want me to say since they’re storage space or gimmick games to catch HA Pokemon. You do get Extremespeed Zigzagoon which I love since the little buggers are very adorable.

Bottom Tier. Pokemon SM and USUM. I hate these games. They’re cash grabs (more so than usual) with being $40 a piece and the updated versions being barely changed (and actually feeling like what should have been released first). Incredibly handholding, areas feel half-baked, lacks areas to explore for the most part, Lillie is kinda annoying for me tbh (which hurts because you’re supposed to feel for her and the game’s story hinges on that), and the player is an actual detriment to what they’re trying to achieve story-wise. A big shame b/c Alola is a pretty region and Team Skull is great in concept, but execution is awful. Stated as someone who has bought all 4 versions to keep, and 2 extras for gifting.

Absolute Bottom Tier- Pokemon Masters, incredibly terrible mobage game coming from someone who plays FGO, FEH, etc. lack of meaningful content, grinding but meaningless b/c of said lack of content (ex. FGO gates you with mats but it makes you feel like you’re growing with your servants and offers a story and events to compensate; basically, a sense of achievement). CO-OP is pretty bad when you can just hop over to GBF or something if you want guilds and group content. I’m still gonna wait for Ethan and Volkner to appear though.

Unrated-OG RBGY and OG GSC (the remakes are superior outside of nostalgia factor imo so I think it’d be unfair for them to take a spot), LGPE (didn’t buy them b/c pricing but the colors are vibrant and I love that), SWSH (didn’t buy them because I have opinions on the cuts and stuff and price point doesn’t look appealing for what’s offered), Pokemon Mini (these were included with Pokemon Channel), Magikarp Jump+Duel (Duel was a cash grab and Magikarp Jump is cute but no real opinion on it), Pokemon Go (weird spot where I like it, but I don’t live in an area with safe walking areas so very much area-dependent), Arcade games (I don’t live in Japan for that), Perdue Farm games (they’re flash games made to promote so…), Pokemon Rumble (enjoyable but not memorable for me imo) etc.

Fangames-

1. Pokemon Reborn-150+ hours of content, visible themes that permeate the story and characters, beautiful spritework for some of the areas, intuitive usage of TMs/HMs and some logic (ex. Field Effects that emulate anime battling in turn-based rpg such as Corrosive Field; using Rock Smash to break the glass in some areas to solve puzzles, etc.), actual difficulty that hinges on how much you understand Pokemon (ex. IVs, stats, EVs, etc.) that’s fair but still difficult, puzzles and rewards for exploring and coming back to areas, etc. Fantastic game that I wish Gamefreak had attempted to emulate (perhaps not the darker themes but the ambition basically). Has some kinks with the revolving door of characters and such but still fantastic. Also offers custom shiny sprites, custom egg sprites, and online play like Wonder Trade and battling.

2. Pokemon Rocket Edition-Not done but I think this is a fantastic hack so far story-wise and how it implements its mechanics. You’re a Rocket Grunt, but you aren’t OP. It deals with the politics behind Kanto and Team Rocket. Still being worked on.

3. Pokemon Viridian Version-Another “play as a Rocket” game. Funny yet still can be serious; it takes the tone of the anime and understands when to be serious and when to not be. It feels like it would fit into the canon tone-wise, and deconstructs the “it’s cool to be a Rocket!” thing.

4. Pokemon Gaia-Excellent and a huge callback to classic Pokemon in story. It’s an OG region and offers a lot to do.

5. Drayano hacks- QoL updates but his work actually adds a lot to the games+new events.

Anyways, that’s my list. There’s a lot of Pokemon content, but this is how I feel for the most part.

[pokemonruby]

rank the regions from favorite to least favorite, and tell us a little abt why if u want!! :D also the name+theme of the region u made!!! (i mightve missed it earlier hehe)

CRACKS KNUCKLES

hoenn, of course! it’s the generation that truly got me involved with pokemon as a whole - the games, at least. honestly i could write a full-length essay on why hoenn is my favorite region and how precious it is to me but i don’t want to put anyone through that kind of torture so. long story short? motherfucking Trumpets  (also i already elaborated on why hoenn is my favorite region in the past and it was INCREDIBLY lengthy) 

unova! not only is it home to my favorite games in the series, but the region itself is just... incredibly well-made? i honestly believe they put more effort into making every location memorable into this region more than any other in the series. i think unova embodies the truest sense of “adventure” featured so far - which is saying something since pokemon itself is based around the concept of, well, going on your own adventure! not to mention it has the best variety of pokemon to select from in my personal opinion, especially the bug-types. i was discussing this with my boyfriend last night but unova made me, someone who normally detests bug-types, absolutely love each and every one it had to offer. leavanny is my fucking BABY. also the vanillite and trubbish lines are valid anyone who thinks otherwise is probably a genwunner. 

sinnoh! definitely one of the fan-favorites from what i’ve noticed.... like... y’all really want those remakes, don’t you. then again i was in the same position prior to oras was announced so, yeah, i totally get it. but sinnoh itself is an incredible region jam-packed with fascinating lore and i just love how... mellow it is? the snowy aesthetic is definitely one i can get behind and i am literally on my KNEES begging we’ll see another cold region here soon, because i am downright tried of tropical locations. honestly platinum is the game i pick up whenever i want to feel relaxed since... that’s the whole vibe sinnoh just gives off, i suppose? aside from its outrageous difficulty like what the fuck is that pokemon league 

now here’s an unpopular one: kalos! i love the overall aesthetic of the kalos region and while x/y definitely suffered in many departments, i think it made up for them with its amazing landscape and the wide selection of pokemon you’re able to obtain. not to mention it introduced fairy-type pokemon which i absolutely adore so, i think all this kalos hate should stop to be honest. yes it lacked in some areas but the games were overall good in my opinion. but that’s an entirely different topic i can tackle on a later date fkgflgskdfj

johto! though it’s tied with kalos if i’m being honest, i love the johto reigon! it’s simplistic but not to the extent it’s unbearably boring like kanto is - really, it’s just an improved version of it. also i have more nostalgia for johto than i do its predecessor so most of my adoration for the region stems from that fact. i don’t have much else to say other than the fact i love hgss but why is red’s team in the 80s when you’re barely level 50 after defeating every single gym in the game. Why. 

with alola, i do think it’s a feel-good region in general but i don’t possess the same fondness for it as i do the others i’ve mentioned so far. it’s not necessarily forgettable but sumo just aren’t games that i replay often so... i don’t think much about alola, i guess? but i do like the positive vibe it gives off as a whole! also why did only gen 1 pokemon get alola forms - oh wait, because nintendo is constantly baiting people’s nostalgia :/ 

and lastly, kanto... i don’t think i need to go into too much detail on why i personally dislike this region but, to put it simply: it’s boring. like, unbearably boring to the point i can’t bring myself to touch any of the kanto games because it fails to keep my attention. understandably they’re the first games in the franchise but nintendo has failed to make improvements with the remakes - though lgpe is more blameworthy of this than frlg, which i actually don’t mind that much. still, it’s this excessive kanto pandering that’s driven me further and further away from the region as a whole... like, yes... there’s definitely nostalgia but it isn’t enough to cure this region of how utterly monotone it is. at least the pokemon are good, with raichu being my favorite of all-time and pikachu a close, CLOSE second, but i don’t really count the pokemon because they’re a different circumstance altogether. 

WEW! that got lengthy, i apologize. in regards to my fan-made region, it’s called “fairel” and it’s primarly based off fairytales/myths instead of a real-life country like the usual trope is. though i have taken slight inspiration from greece because it’s pretty much the paragon of mythologies and all. the best way i’d describe this region is like studio ghibli aesthetic - a sense of endless adventure and mystery waiting to be unraveled. there’s a reason the champion is an archaeologist, after all! 

.... that being my sweet little angel, victor. he’s my main pokemon oc and i would die a thousand deaths for him. also, with my story taking place several years into the future - his boyfriend is the son of lance. who’s also a dragon master but unlike his father his team has actual variety & doesn’t own three illegal dragonites. 

the main plot summed up is that the multiverse is real and you should trust no one, not even your true self.