#I really decided to just make a list of the starter evos I like didn’t I?

[fierykitten2]

I think I’ve made a connection between the popularity of the Neo Swords and the Fire/Fighting starters - Iron Leaves and Blaziken rarely if ever sweep polls (seriously make a poll between the Hoenn Starters and you’ll find Blaziken gets about 5% while the other two are super high) and Iron Crown and Infernape are basically considered the best thing to happen to the Future Paradox Pokémon/starters (I’ve seen posts calling Crown the best Future Paradox Pokémon, possibly forgetting Iron Valiant exists (I should make a poll about that, maybe throwing in Miraidon as well as Iron Moth just in case when the average Pokémon fan says that they exclude Miraidon and Iron Valiant - *laughs* the average Pokémon fan seems to see Iron Valiant as an honorary Past Paradox Pokémon in the same way I see Walking Wake as an honorary Future Paradox Pokémon. Personally I think a Walking Wake would be much more comfortable with the idea of “switching” Paradox sets) and as a Sinnoh Pokémon Infernape is always the winner of starter tournaments, even more than Torterra and Empoleon. I should feel sorry but I don’t like the Sinnoh trio so I feel sorry for Meganium, Typhlosion (mostly Hisuian), Sceptile, Blaziken, Swampert, Samurott (mostly Hisuian), Chesnaught, Delphox, Greninja, Decidueye, Incineroar, Primarina, Rillaboom, Cinderace, Inteleon, Meowscarada and Quaquaval (I should make a poll on overrated Sinnoh Pokémon that sweeps polls Infernape vs Bidoof (I think it sweeps polls), Staraptor and Arceus Darkrai Giratina). There’s a pattern in the way the Neo Swords are given armour that makes it seem like robo Terrakion will have the same armour added in the same places and knowing the average Pokémon fan, they’re not gonna be too cool with it happening again, just like how they act with Emboar

[ladala99]

Looking Back At Sun/Moon’s Hype Cycle

During the Sun/Moon hype cycle, I tried to stay spoiler-free. I’m going to do that again with Sword/Shield this year once the box legends are revealed or if they start revealing other stuff before that. Starter base forms, Box Legends, and the release date is all I want to know before getting the game.

Well, it’s not easy. Last time, in frustration, I made a list of everything I got spoiled on. So here’s a copy-paste and commentary of it for comedy’s sake, because while a lot of it’s right, some of it’s very wrong. Commentary written today will be in parenthesis and bold.

Not spoilers but relevant: Starters, their names, Legendaries, their names, Megearna

Now, for the spoilers and where I got spoiled:

The third Legendary’s name: r/pokemon before I left for real (Eh, nope. Marshadow was the name, and that’s not the third Legendary. It’s a Mythical.)

Dog looking thing: I went into r/pokemon unprotected since nothing after the starters had been officially revealed yet and I wanted to count starter posts to make a point.  Dog was there (I didn’t get a good enough view of Rockruff, though, and was surprised when I actually saw it in-game. I knew it was the same thing, though)

Mimikyuu’s and Bewear’s names: I browsed r/pokemon for longer than I should have.  I didn’t actually care at this point though, as I had images hidden.

Zygarde appears in Alola: Serebii, also YouTube comments for Pokemon Generations for the fact that you have to gather 100 cells to get 100% forme.

Koala and Dragalge looking things: Checked the pokemon.com newsletter since it had a code in it.  Looked away so I didn’t get a very good look at them (Komala and... Dhelmise I think? Really didn’t get a very good look.)

Professor’s assistant is the public head of Team Plasma… I mean, is mysterious: I read the words on updates on Serebii for a while. (Lillie. Corocoro called her mysterious, the same as N and Colress. Kinda spoiled that she was involved with the evil team I suppose, but the intro of the game also established that)

Z Powers or something like that: reading Serebii again

Grublin (or whatever it’s called): Serebii naming files inconsistently (Interestingly, it was Yungoos I saw. The file was named Grubbin, though)

Alola Formes existing, Ice Ninetales, Dragon Diglett and Exeggutor, Ice Sandslash exist: the turning point!  I decided not to read the words on Serebii updates at this point (okay I actually read it for a while afterwards, but this is when I decided I shouldn��t).  Serebii obviously. (Dragon Diglett was actually from a YouTube thumbnail that I thought was legit. I must have misremembered reading it, because Alola Diglett wasn’t revealed until much later)

Alola Exeggutor, Sandshrew/Sandslash, Diglett appearences: Youtube thumbnails (Can I say how much I hate clickbait thumbnails? Especially ones where they show fanart passing it off as legit? The only thing that’s worse than a spoiler is a false spoiler, because then I’m waiting for something to happen that never happens.)

Hyper Training exists + Megearna event with a bottlecap, which is needed to Hyper Train: Serebii (On one hand I want to complain about GameFreak showing off postgame stuff, but on the other hand I would have not found the Hyper Training area on my own. It was pretty hidden.)

Evil Team shares name with those jerks in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers: Serebii and r/mysterydungeon. (Team Skull lol. Never found out what they looked like until the demo.)

Pedobear looking thing (possibly bewear?): venturing into r/pokemon for some reason and looking at memes.  Was just labeled as a Diglett meme. (Indeed it was Bewear)

Z Move Clarification - can only be used once a battle: YouTube comments for equivalent mechanic in the Pokemon TCG ad.

Event Munchlax with Snorlax Z move item: reading serebii again

Alola Ratatta existence and appearance: Serebii naming files inconsistently. (But I really didn’t get a good look - I was surprised to see it standing up when I first encountered one in Sun.)

Ugly Raichu photoshop… I mean Alola Raichu: some post on FR forums.  Later confirmed as not a photoshop when someone mentioned Alola Raichu. (Probably the only thing I got a really clear look at, since I thought it was 100% fanart. It wasn’t.)

Mimikyuu appearance: asking a question on r/pokemon and seeing the Snoo + my mom showed me some Pokemon GO memes and Mimikyuu was on one of them. (Despite learning way too much about Mimikyu, and knowing its ability, I still used a Z-Move too early against the Totem. Sometimes I’m dumb.)

Lots of the new Pokemon, including Solgaleo and Lunalaa, have formes: Was looking up Vivillon information on Bulbapedia (they didn’t have the information I wanted - what exactly to change my 3DS location to for Elegant Forme on a reset) and I scrolled down too far, then for some reason looked at the Table of Contents. (This actually ended up confusing me in-game because they don’t have formes. Bulbapedia (who probably got it from Corocoro) was referring to the temporary change when they use their signature moves. I also saw something about chibi Solgaleo/Lunala that I had to ask about later because I had no idea what it was referring to. Cosmog and Cosmoem it turned out.)

Pretty fox thing and dog thing(possibly same dog thing as beginning?): Serebii inconsistently naming files.  I’m really considering emailing him about that at some point.  Maybe next game. (Uh... Maybe Lycanroc’s formes? Maybe just Rockruff and Midday Forme Lycanroc? And no, I’m not emailing Serebii. I can browse his site without images at all. It’s ugly, but it works.)

Various Pokemon appearances (only glance): browsing /tagged/flightrising and someone had that as their commission example.  Come on! (Actually, most of those weren’t Pokemon. Sad because there was a really cute robot dragon and I’m not sure what it’s from.)

I stopped updating this list but a week before the games came out I glanced the final forms of the starters and it annoyed me to no end that Litten’s final evo wouldn’t take me by surprise. Really only saw that it was bipedal, but that was all that mattered.

So honestly a lot of that wasn’t as big a deal as I thought. Despite the huge list, almost every Pokemon I saw in-game was new to me and I had a blast playing and finding out all the gimmicks on the new Pokemon. 

Still hoping this year’s list will be shorter!