#If bulbapedia did not lie to me . that is

[the-toybox-general]

"Deeper, then deepest they alight. From the lake floor they rise. Bearing with them the power to make vast lands, they rise again."

My Lake Guardians won the poll !!! They're all siblings and help keep things in check whenever needed! The world has been so peaceful that most legendries nowadays don't have to do much, all thanks to a noble sacrifice from their father a long time ago. Not to say things haven't been stirring as of late, but whatever it is these three are sure to throw their hats into the ring to keep the peace-- even if that's just assisting the good guys!

[apotelesmaa]

My initial off the top of my head wxs Pokémon partners match up would be

Nene - primarina/rotom/hatterene. Primarina is self explanatory, the rotom was originally rui’s but it possesses robonene so it’s hers now, and hatterene…

Emu - bewear/mr. mime/togekiss. Bewear is funny (& similar to the mascot bodyguard), Mr. Mime is self explanatory, togekiss is self explanatory wrt Pokédex entries.

Rui - porygon z/mimikyu/silvaly. I feel like all of these are pretty self explanatory.

Tsukasa - dragonite/sylveon/rapidash. Dragonite is a wxs world link reference, sylveon just fits, rapidash because there is no Pegasus pokemon.

[writingrenna]

Clavell x GN!Reader (Sorta)

"May I Have A Word With You?"

A story where Clavell sees how well you are around the kids of the older academy goers.

You're like a cool older sibling/pibling (gender neutral for aunt or uncle) to them, and you're able to distract and calm them down when they come to the academy for special events/occasions. Some even remember you when they enroll later! Clavell admires someone who can make an impact like that.

Also why does this man not have any of his quotes on Bulbapedia that would've helped so much

Tone/Ending: Wholesome, Open-Ended

Warnings: The kids can be R O W D Y, and your expy almost swears once or twice, that is all

Continuity?: This story uses lore from/takes place at the same time as my previous full story ("Where The Heart Is"), but it doesn't need to be read as part of the same timeline to make sense

Word Count: A bit more than 4,000

-O-O-

"ALRIGHT, YOU RUG RAAAAATS!!"

Your voice could be heard from the gates of Mesagoza. The children in the courtyard abruptly stop their shenanigans. A young boy speaks up first, addressing you by name. They all seem to know you well enough to know your name and that you mean business, even if you are "the fun one" along with Dendra.

"Yes, Zale?"

"How much longer until the... the..."

A girl around his age speaks up.

"Treasures Within Fun Fair?"

He perks up.

"Yeah! That! How long until that starts again?"

You smile, although your eyes gave away the answer.

"Not for a while, I'm afraid. About 4 hours."

They all groan in unison. Another kid speaks up.

"Then why did Mama bring me so early?"

You answer.

"So you could be here on time?"

Another kid speaks up. If something crazy was happening, you could almost guarantee Geráneo was behind it. He crossed his arms.

"Yeah, but being on time like this is boooring! I'd rather run at super lightning speed to make it."

The other kids 'oooh'ed, although the girl from before, Auyama, looks positively confused.

"Super lightning speed?? How'd you get that fast?"

He was not at all perturbed by her question.

"My cousin caught a Zeraora back in Alola, I train with him whenever I visit."

The kids seemed impressed, clapping and 'oooh'ing again, even if one looked bewildered and said "Zera-who-a?" You... doubted his claim, although the speed with which he lied if he did lie... concerned you. You couldn't help but shake your head in amusement, however. You remember coming up with wild theories on how to find the mythical Mew roamimg around here in Paldea...

You decided to let them talk amongst themselves, all of them talking about weird Pokémon encounters they've had, including a Deerling that "turned to goo" near the Treasure Eatery, and a Slowpoke one of their brothers got really excited catching for some reason, even though it seemed to be a normal-old Slowpoke, just a little less pink. It amused you, both because of how much it sounded like yourself and because of how those truly special encounters weren't understood by them yet.

"Wild little goobers..." You say to yourself.

You idly imagined them going "WAIT A MINUTE" one day in a few years (probably after 3 seconds of Jacq's class) when you heard a familiar voice.

"Ah, yes, the imagination and curiosity of children knows no bounds!"

You turned to see him, the Director.

"Ah, Clavell!"

You smiled brightly at his sudden appearance.

He greeted you back.

You asked, "Oh, how's the fair comin' along?"

He hummed, looking up and to the side as if trying to remember what else needed to be done.

"Well, we still need to set up a bit more, especially things pertaining to our main events, but we are thankfully still on the right track. We should be done with time to spare."

He smiled, staring at you from the side with his arms behind his back. He really was proud of this academy. You couldn't help but grin as well.

"Aw F-"

Your eyes widen as you quickly realize what you were about to do, kids turning to look at you. Even Clavell seems shocked by your exclamation, turning to you, mouth slightly open.

"...ffffff... fuuuuuuueCOCO! Yeah! I remember seeing Nemona with hers. Has it evolved yet?"

Clavell, ever the gentleman, accepts your out.

"Why, yes, it did. It first evolved by the time she reached Levincia, I believe. It is now the strongest Skeledirge in Paldea."

You nodded. She really did have a Fuecoco at the start of her treasure hunt last time around. Only thing is, this was three years ago. You internally breathe a sigh of relief having remembered that, pretending you just didn't pay attention to her journey after she went at it again, even if the answer would be obvious even to the kids.

Clavell decides to corral the children while their attention is on you two.

"Alright, little ones. It is time we head back in for a while, we don't want you too tired to enjoy the festivities, do we?"

They all groan, not wanting the fun to end. He makes a compromise to soothe their boredom.

"When you go inside, you can help us decorate by making your own lanterns! I am certain all the teachers would love them. Besides, we could use some helping hands to finish setting up before the academy opens up to the rest of the town. You can be the first people to try our stalls."

This interested them greatly.

"Ooh, OOH! Mine's gonna shoot LIGHTNING!"

"Oh yeah, well mine's gonna be on FIRE, and it WON'T burn."

"Mine's gonna look ICY and FROSTY, it's gonna be so pretty!"

They all talked and ran into the entrance hall. You run up to Clavell to apologize for almost swearing in front of the kids, walking alongside him.

"Heyyy... uh... sorry for the, um, outburst."

He holds a hand up.

"Nonsense. You caught yourself before any damage was done. That alone is apology enough."

You thought on this. Maybe it really wasn't anything.

"But, do be more careful. You might not have another way to save yourself next time."

He looked at you out the corner of his eye, although you could tell he was smirking. He then hurried off to catch up with the children and get them settled, leaving you at the bottom of the steps before you could really process what the smirk meant.

-O-O-

Their parents and guardians all came by to have lunch with them. It had been an hour and a half of them making lanterns to hang up around each teacher's stands. The results so far were... interesting, to say the least, although it seemed like they changed their mind and instead went for a theme that requires working together somewhat.

One kid decided to dedicate theirs to Tyme, but they glued various flat and colorful rocks all over it, which would definitely weigh it down. Another dedicated theirs to Salvatore, writing "Hi!" in different languages, but they kept needing to scribble words out until they eventually started over and decided to look up the real spellings, so they were slightly behind the others.

One is trying to make Dendra's look like a punching glove, one added plastic sprinkles to theirs for Saguaro's cupcake lantern, one even drew themselves using the Pokédex app on Jacq's... all the teachers had a kid here that admired them the most, and that made you feel an overwhelming sense of pride.

You weren't a staff member, only coming by to help set up stuff like this by offering some extra hands, but you wondered if this place could use a daycare. It didn't seem necessary, seeing as though usually only students are here, but something along those lines, like a place for younger non-students to be all day during times like this, or even just a room to de-stress. Perhaps you can have a club started with games and social nights?

Your thoughts were interrupted by Clavell.

"Ah, there you are. I've been looking all over for you."

He comes in, looking around at the art supplies strewn about.

"Ah, I must make sure Mr. Hassel has help clearing this up later..." he said.

"I'm sure he will, Director."

You then remembered what he said when he came in.

"Oh! Is there a reason you were looking for me?"

"Ah, yes indeed! Follow me, we can talk on the way there."

'On the way there?' You thought.

-O-O-

He took you to a quiet, shaded area in Mesagoza. He had picked up a small bag in his office on the way, filled with who-knows-what. You sat on a bench nearby, patiently waiting for him to continue the conversation.

He had asked you a few questions, such as how you felt about the academy and if you'd ever consider working for it. You had said you loved the place, and you did wonder what it'd be like to help in a more official position than "lives nearby and is summoned to aid in official events". He seemed pleased with your answers.

As you sat, he brought out an academy branded thermos.

"Would you like some coffee? I know the little ones can be a handful at times..."

You nodded and accepted gratefully.

"I brought some sugar and creamer with me, use whatever you like, if you like of course..."

He handed you the bag before sitting back again.

"Er, speaking of the children..." He began. "How do you feel about them?

You paused. You hadn't really put much thought into it, sorta naturally ending up taking care of them instead of ever being assigned the role and, of course, wondering if you'd work well with them all day long. You guessed that was an answer, strangely enough.

"Oh, they're cool! I like watching over them, wild as they are. It's sorta nice seeing what the next generation does and talks about."

He smiled and nodded, adjusting the contents of his own thermos as he spoke.

"Ah, I had a feeling you'd say that. I can tell you have a knack for understanding and guiding them."

That... felt a little more sincere than you thought it'd be. Like, of course he wouldn't lie about that, but there seems to be an undercurrent of "this wasn't just small talk, I felt it in my heart" in the way he took your answer in.

He really does bare his heart and soul into this academy.

You idly wonder why he wasn't already the director when the brunt of the Team Star stuff was going on when he speaks up. He silently takes in your pondering expression, slightly tilting his head with a smile on his face.

"Ah, I see that question evoked some deeper thoughts than I anticipated."

You blink, suddenly aware of your surroundings again.

"Oh, yeah! It sorta did, hah."

The two of you idly chat for a while, conversation now skewing towards random goings-on, such as Paldea's youngest champion riding around on their 'Raidon', and the possibility of another school trip to a different region. You suddenly get a strange feeling in your gut.

"Wait, the event! Lunch will be over soon, won't it?"

He thinks, looking up at a park clock.

"Yes, it appears so."

He looks back at you, your alarmed expression still evident, although not nearly as strong as before.

"Are you worried about it? If so, do not worry, I have plenty of time to get back. The children's guardians will still be watching over them, so you have time as well."

These words helped a bit, but you felt the need to run back now. You didn't know why you suddenly feel the need to make it back to watch them. Call it a gut feeling. You just want to make sure they don't get into any mayhem while preparations are still ongoing, guardians there or not.

That felt weird to think about. Why wouldn't the parents watch them? You didn't need to worry, it's just that you aren't really used to not watching them before and during events at this point.

"Alright, Director. I'll be sure to not stress myself out too much."

He smiles and nods before standing up.

"Well, I must be on my way. Do take care, and no worries about that bag and thermos. Consider it a small gift for being such a good babysitter."

He flashed you a grin. You return it, although your mind wanders to something else as he makes his leave.

'Why did he already have this coffee made?'

You look up, but he had already sprinted off.

-O-O-

You were aimlessly wandering around Mesagoza.

'I DO deserve a break.' You thought to yourself.

You walked up to a vendor.

'I'm bored.' You immediately realized.

Walking up the stairs to get back to the academy, you noticed the kids surrounding a Skiddo.

"My mom said I need to learn to ride a Skiddo before I can get a Cyclizar."

Oh?

You get closer before realizing it's Geráneo.

"What she doesn't know is that I'm secretly a master Pokémon whisperer already."

A what?

The kid with him, Pimento, seemed equally confused.

"How do you know? What Pokémon do you know how to talk to?"

He huffed before responding.

"PSSH, like, all of 'em?? I have a natural talent. Watch this!"

He jumped on the back of Skiddo, who didn't do much other than make a small bleating noise and readjust itself afterwards.

"See?? He didn't even flinch!"

Pim seemed unsure.

"You sure? He flinched a little when you hopped on..."

Geráneo, seemingly offended by this, crossed his arms and glared menacingly at him.

"Um, of course he did?? I have too much muscle for him to handle."

Pim, still unconvinced, but wishing to just play with his friend, accepted this answer.

"Okay..."

You stood there, unsure if this was something you needed to intervene in or not. You looked around to see if anyone was already keeping an eye on the two when you heard a "c'mon!" followed by a Pokémon crying out. Turning back, Geráneo wasn't there anymore, and Auyama was screaming, pointing somewhere.

"GERÁNEO IS GOOOOOONE!!"

Oh Gods, this situation certainly needs an adult. You run over to Pim and Yama.

"WHAT HAPPENED??"

"Geráneo pulled Skiddo's horns too hard! He took off overrr... there!"

You turned, looking over to where they pointed. Skiddo was bucking around on the battle court with Geráneo hanging on for dear life.

All this in the .3 seconds you turned around??

"Ok, I'll get them!"

You ran down to calm the mon down, only for it to freak out and start running towards the outer walls of the city.

"Uh-Oh, that's no good..."

The Skiddo keeps running around the city.

"Does that Skiddo have an owner??"

Zale answers from above.

"Yeah! His aunt caught it for him! You want its Pokéball!?"

"Yes, please!"

You run over, positioning yourself so you can catch it when he tosses it over.

It lands in the flowerbed in front of you instead. Good enough.

"Thanks!"

You start to run after them when you realize... there's no way you'll catch up with a skittish Skiddo on foot.

The kids seemingly realize this as well.

Auyama offers something to make things easier for you.

"You wanna borrow my dad's Mudsdale?"

-O-O-

You're riding through the streets of Mesagoza. You'd have to ask why Mudsdale was in the possession of a 7-year-old later. For now, you were immensely grateful for any way to reach the troublemaker and his Skiddo.

"GERÁNEOOO?? GERÁNEO! IF YOU HEAR ME, SAY 'AYE'!"

It took a moment, but you heard an "Aaaaaaye!!" somewhere near Barato's.

'Goodness me...' You thought to yourself.

You felt awful for some reason, although you questioned why nobody was watching them before you came along. Shaking that thought off, you decided not to worry about the why and instead focus on the now. And right now, Skiddo was dangerously close to jumping over the wall and into even more danger.

"Don't worry! I'm here!"

You readied the Pokéball, aiming in their general direction. Skiddo seemed to not be close enough, as the light didn't return to the ball the way it would if something was caught in it.

'Darn'... you whisper before hearing him again.

"U-up here!"

You and Mudsdale look up, only to see the terrified duo... on top of a roof.

"WHAT IN THE-"

You looked over at a concerned guy nearby, who shrugged violently when he looked back down and noticed your bewildered expression.

'He must've climbed up on one of those ramps.' you thought to yourself. You had to act FAST, dismounting Mudsdale and giving her muzzle a few solid pats.

"Thank you."

The dire horse neighed gently, closing her eyes.

You ran over to the building they were on top of, surveying the situation. You had to think, would it be better to catch Skiddo now, or when you're up on the rooftop? If you get it now, Geráneo might fall. But if you get it on the rooftop, Skiddo might get spooked and go for the leap of fate instead.

You decide on the best course of action in your mind.

"Alright, Skiddo!"

They both turn towards you, faces full of fear.

"Skiddo, you don't wanna hurt him, do you?"

The poor thing was shaking, but it shook its head 'no'."

"Yeah, you just didn't like your horns being pulled, right?"

This time it nods.

You smile softly.

"Yeah, I know. I hate getting my bag caught on stuff all the time, I can't imagine getting a part of me pulled like that!"

The Skiddo's shaking, while still evident, calms slightly. Geráneo seems to feel bad.

"I know you just wanted the weird scary thing that pulled your horns off you. I promise he'll be gentle from now on, but I have to call you back into your Pokéball real quick, Ok?"

Skiddo nodded, gently lowering itself to the ground and allowing Gerá to get off it.

"Ok, here we go!"

You recall the creature, who seems content. Geráneo looks kind of shaken up still, now on his knees.

"Ok, n-n-now what?"

You give him a sympathetic smile.

Wait right there, I'll be up in a second!

You make your way up on the rooftop to meet him. You pause, taking in his fearful little shivers. You felt bad for the kid, all things considered. Maybe he just wanted to prove himself somehow? But he really shouldn't have pulled on Skiddo's horns like that. You'd have to have a gentle conversation with him later on, when tensions weren't so high.

"Geráneo! I'm here for you, bud."

He's shaking. You now notice the tears in his eyes.

"B-but I'm s-s-scared! I don't wanna be up so h-high!"

"I know, but..."

You step closer.

"I'm here. And no matter how wild things get, I'll be there with you. Cause life's kinda crazy sometimes. But you gotta be good, because you don't want things to be even crazier when they don't need to be, right?"

He takes this in before running over and hugging you, tears finally falling.

"I didn't mean to hurt Skiddo!" He trembles in your arms. "I-I just wanted to be cool and get a Cyclizar someday! I didn't know pulling his horns would scare and h-hurt him!"

You pat his head, letting him cry it out.

"Yeah, sometimes people forget other living things feel stuff just like you and me, even Pokémon! Tough as they are. But now that you know, you promise not to be so rough with him anymore?"

"Yeeeees!" He cries, looking up at you.

You smile.

"Good. At this rate, you'll have a Cyclizar in no time!"

He seems to pause at this before backing away a little, wiping his face.

"No, I... think I wanna stick with Skiddo. He'll be my partner 'till the end! He'll even be on my champion team one day!"

He raises his arms at this. He seems to feel better now, imagining a future with his beloved mount Pokémon.

You grin, not even realizing it with how happy you were at this unexpected development. Something about him realizing he didn't need what he saw as the 'cooler' Pokémon anymore and coming to appreciate Skiddo on its own made your heart feel warm.

"Well then, don't you wanna say sorry to your partner on solid ground?"

He looked confused for a second before remembering you two were on a rooftop, throwing himself at you in a tight embrace.

"OH CRUD, YEAH!"

You snicker before helping the kid down. You decide to tell nobody what he said. He can use bad language this one time.

-O-O-

"So, yeah. I... I'm sorry."

He had his head down, but his tone was sincere.

Skiddo happily jumped around at this, seemingly accepting his apology.

"Oh! Would you like to be my partner from now on? If you still wanna be friends with me, of course."

Skiddo stops his jumping before looking over at Gerá. At first, the boy wasn't sure what to expect until the mon happily rubbed its face on his arm, as if saying yes.

Gerá's eyes tear up.

"Thank you, Skiddo! I promise we'll be the best team Paldea's ever seen!"

He crouches and hugs his Pokémon. You watch the sweet moment play out with pride.

'I did that' you think to yourself, excited to watch Geráneo grow with his buddy now that he saw him for him.

The serenity of the moment is abruptly shattered upon hearing a man's voice shout your name.

"MOTHER FU-"

You look down at the kiddo and his Skiddo, both looking at you. You decide to try and save the moment again.

"Oh mother, far far away, is where I met my dear f-friend."

You grin, a pained expression on your face. The sentence didn't make the most sense, but they didn't question it (probably because the lack of provocation confused them more than the sentence itself.)

The man leans in, whispering with a wry smile on his face.

"Nice save."

His voice was laced with sarcasm, but you weren't going to tell him off for it.

"Ah, Director Clavell! I didn't notice you there!"

You really had to ask him how he got so fast. Nobody was around you a minute ago.

'Did he train with Zeraora?' You think to yourself, an amused smile on your face before he continues.

"Yes, I can tell. But that is besides the point. If you have the time, may I have a word with you? It's very important."

Your heart sunk.

Would he ban you from the school? You tried to remember the exact sequence of events so you could defend yourself, but in order to seem chill, you respond immediately.

"Yes, of course. I'm free right now."

Certainly more formal than you intended. Your face looked very serious, but more like a 'the principle came into the room while I'm teaching and I just got done reprimanding someone way-too harshly, I need to seem calm' sorta schooled expression. But that really wasn't the situation at all. You were worried regardless, however, even if he didn't seem to imply it was urgent, just important.

Either way, you followed the man up the stairs and into the academy.

-O-O-

"So, I heard from the other children that you had to find Geráneo after he took off on his Skiddo, correct?"

You nod, body tense, one leg over the other. He had pulled another chair out for you in his office. Hands in your lap and back straight as a board as you contained your fear, he replies.

"Ah, thank you for the confirmation."

You hesitantly nod.

"Well, I'd say you did a fantastic job of taking control of the situation."

You...

...what?

"Huh?" You say, genuinely confused (but relieved).

"Yes, you were caught off guard, yet you took off and saved the day regardless. That instinct to protect the children, coupled with the know-how to deescalate things so efficiently is an amazing trait to have."

You took his words in, but each individual word seemed to whizz by too fast to process correctly, especially as a whole. He continued, not noticing your befuddlement.

"Not to mention, Master Geráneo and his relationship with Skiddo seemed to exit the situation in a far better state than when he entered it. That ability to change the lives of those around you in such a profound way warms my heart."

He smiles, eyes full of admiration.

You look at him, taking in the situation with a gulp.

He had no reason to blame you, sure, but a part of you was afraid he'd let you take the fall in the parent's eyes, even if it made no sense both with context and in knowing him somewhat personally by now.

"Oh, s-so... we good?"

He blinked, sitting up straight.

"Ah, yes, we are certainly good. Better than ever, even. That leads me to a question I have, actually."

You sat, wondering what it'd be.

"Would you like to start a program here at the academy? One where you're here to spend personal time with our students and visitors specifically? Not quite a counselor, but someone who does fun stuff for them to look forward to whenever they need to unwind. It could be a group, perhaps? Maybe you can even act as an event planner, too?"

He waited for your response. This is exactly what you wanted, your mind already swimming with ideas on how you'd decorate your room, the types of activities you'd have for them whenever your club's held, the school tours hyping the academy up, the ability to talk to them personally or even let them vent in case they needed a listening ear--

"I am IN!"

That came out far more enthusiastic than you intended.

"Fantastic! Hopefully we can talk more later."

He gets up, face now serious in a somewhat disappointed fashion. He shakes his head.

"For now though, I must ask Geráneo's parents just what they were thinking, leaving him so excited with his Skiddo when no responsible party was around or made aware of the situation."

He walked around his desk, but not before stopping and putting a hand on your shoulder.

"Oh, and uh... I do hope you don't mind, but I would very much like it if we could chat... outside of preparations for your new position sometime."

Your stomach did a flip. His eyes looked fearful, a clear departure from his usual confidence, at least around you. You heard stories of his usual sweet yet dorky nature. Heck, you even saw it yourself before you got to know each other better.

"Anyway, I shall take my leave. Goodbye."

And with that, he took off.

Strange... he usually addresses you when leaving.

"That coffee thing makes so much sense now." You say to yourself, realizing he put a bit more thought into your impromptu chat than you thought he did.

-O-O-

A/N

This one was hard to write! I sometimes use Bulbapedia quotes to see what they talk like (such as the way they address people or to remind myself of their quirks while speaking), but THIS MAN HAS NONE??? I remember he was sort of formal, but also very kind and always meant well even if he seemed sorta suspicious in the trailers. Not to mention, he's a MASSIVE DORK??? I also like the idea of him being a bit awkward in general, but sorta flirty/teasing with people he fancies when first getting to know them, so yeah! He'll be his usually goofy self later when he gets to know this expy more. Call this Headcanon Clav if you like!

This accidentally came out SUPER open-ended, BUT, the focus was on how good you are with these kids, plus Clavell was sporadically busy anyway so yeah, worked out. Consider this the start of something more. Also the references (including the plant/plant-inspired names I gave all the named kids) were absolutely intentional

Accidentally grew fond of these goobers HELP, might draw them and Geráneo with his Skiddo someday

Purposefully didn't mention Hassel or Miriam in the little lantern scene so it'd be natural to leave if Raifort's still here or not vague cause 🤨

Expy needs to watch their profanity frfr, lmao

[who-the-fuck-is-sennalye]

My Shiny Pokemon

So I've been thinking about this series of images I used to make and I thought well since I'm thinking about it I might as well make a write up for it. Overview it, go over some of the blunders I made while making it, and maybe at the end I'll show you some of the good ones.

My Shiny Pokemon was a series I started in 2014 of recoloured Pokemon sprites, created with the purpose of "improving" their shiny forms. Or maybe just making them different? The problem comes in when you realise I was 9 in 2014, and had no idea what I was doing. From failing colour theory to creating the sprites in the most inefficient way possible. I would recreate the sprite from scratch (often using a cross stitch pattern as my guide), then upscale it by screen shotting the sprite zoomed in to the size of my monitor. I know that's inefficient. You know that's inefficient. 9-12 year old me did not.

Of course as I grew older I got better at creating sprites. I had a better eye for colour, raised my standards for reference sprites (basically just the BW sprite from Bulbapedia), and learned how to change the interpolation method from "linear" to "none" when scaling. What always stayed the same, even when I knew better, was I'd create the sprite from scratch.

Sometimes I think about redoing/finishing the series, but then I get a few in and decide this is not how I want to waste my time. As it stands I've finished generation 1 and 2, around half of gen 3, with a few old ones scattered in 4 and 5.

With all that being said, let's go over some of the many (visual) blunders I made while creating this series (especially in the early days).

1. Neon is Cool, Right?

It's probably not surprising that a ten year old doesn't have much of a grasp of colour theory. This is very obvious with some of my first, where the base colours lie in the very top right corner of the HVS square, and the shades stuck strictly to the edges. For a prime example, look at my first.

It could be cool, an interesting choice even, to have a neon blue Snivy. If only it was a deliberate choice. And the mixture of neon blue with seafoam green is a very odd one. The hue and saturation of the colours are far too similar to put next to each other like that. The outline colour isn't nearly dark enough, so the black outline looks completely out of place. And that white gap where it's meant to be transparent? A result of not using layers, and forgetting about it when I was exporting these without backgrounds.

I. Was not expecting to critique this one Snivy to that degree.

But we're no where near done!

2. Colourations that just Do Not Make Sense

Why is his mouth green.

Okay yes I know it's because I changed its eye colour to green and the eye colour is the same as the mouth but why would I change it to green?

Also this image isn't fully transparent. You know why? Because I used a blue-screen approach to making these scaled-up-by-screenshotting images transparent. Actually, even then, it shouldn't have resulted in this. Part of me wants to think I cut it out from a background using a lasso tool, but kept anti-aliasing on, and did it really badly. But why on earth would I do that? Actually, no. I remember what I did. I used the "colour to alpha" tool and clearly didn't have the threshold high enough. Honestly I'm not even talking about colour choices anymore I'm just criticizing my methods. Which, don't get me wrong, are worthy of criticism, but not what I'm meant to be focusing on.

What is this Squirtle? Why is it so, so, green? Clearly I had learned how to pick colours, the blue is proof of that, but why is he green? What made me choose that colouration for a Squirtle? Why would I choose those colours, in that order, in that saturation? Am I meant to be making these shinies better, or worse? So many unanswered questions, so little time.

3. Changing the Sprite Beyond Colouration

Shinies, by definition, only change the colour palette of a Pokemon. They do not change the shape of the sprite, or where colours are used. There are some sprites which I think look quite cool, and have some cool ideas, but which go beyond the limitations of a shiny.

A Venusaur with a decaying flower. A cool concept, if you ask me, and apart from maybe the outlines, I quite like the execution. But it adds transparent holes in the petals, which aren't allowed.

These two have the same problem. They look cool, but they change colours where they can't be changed. All the feathers on Ho-Oh are the same colour, same with Chandelure's flames. With a palette swap they'd have to stay the same colour. (Also they both suffer the same problem of bad upscaling and transparency, but I promise I won't mention it again).

4. Using Low Quality Sprites

"[X] pixel art grid" "[X] sprite grid" This is what I'd search on Google Images to get my reference sprites. A lot of them would return a result of a decent quality cross stitch pattern, usually based on its DPP or BWB2W2 sprite. Sometimes they'd return a very low resolution version of that pattern. Sometimes they'd return low quality patterns, which changed all the outlines to black (which doesn't sound that bad but was very noticeable). And sometimes I'd do shit like this:

Cop out.

But also the main problem here is that I'm using the menu sprite.

Hopefully here you can see the difference between a low quality and high quality reference sprite. I've deliberately chosen one where I didn't change much when I remade it.

Why did I do this?

I chose to use the GS sprite for this one. This was a deliberate choice. (Irrelevant but also why did I make it green? It's not as objectionable as Squirtle because the shades are chosen competently just, why this colour for Fearow?)

This one's subtle. I used the RSE sprite for some reason. Perhaps I used an out of date pattern. Also I had this tendency to make a lot of grass Pokemon Autumn or decay theme. Yes it's cool but did I have to do it to all of them?

5. Playing Pokemon Art Academy

A 2DS touch screen is 3" big. That's 6" smaller than my Intuos's working area, which is still small by drawing tablet standards. My point is it's not great for drawing with.

That did not stop me from trying.

One good thing about this is that it did allow me to experiment with Gen 6 Pokemon, which don't have 2D sprites (unless you count Smogon's sprite art project, which for the sake of this I do, but didn't then). I also got more creative with colourations here. Like this rainbow Ditto.

When I later made Ditto's sprite I just made it a bluer purple.

Also you know this guy?

Yeah fuck that guy.

6. Not Playing Pokemon Art Academy

"Huh? What's this 'digital art' thing?" "That, that's kinda cool, I wanna do that!" "How- how do I do that?" "A mouse I guess."

Buying an Intuos on clearance was the best $50 I ever spent. I don't have a direct comparison for this...

...but I think you can tell the difference without one.

Any these last couple haven't had anything to do with the sprites, I just wanted to show my non-sprite shinies for a bit. But last, and certainly not least, I present the final blunder.

7. Emboar.

I don't think I could wrong Emboar more if I evolved my shiny Pignite, released it, deleted the save file and destroyed the cartridge.

...actually that's inaccurate, I'd die before I let anything happen to that Pignite.

What. What was I doing. It's represents everything I did wrong with this series. This is rock bottom. No matter what, it all went up from here.

Now, let's look at my favourites.

You've suffered through a lot of bad sprites. Let's celebrate with some of my favourite sprites, randomly picked by me scrolling through my shiny pokemon folder.

She's majestic. She's a god. She's even a black shiny.

The jewels are blood red, and if you ask I'm sure he'll tell you how he made them that way.

You know why this happened. You know. You can probably guess what Butterfree looks like too.

He's a diamond in the rough. The very rough.

Autumn and decay. It's overused for a reason.

I don't know what makes it so cute, it just is.

Midway through Gen 2 I realised the original sprites changed the hue when they changed the shades. I started doing it too and I think it shows.

I've never been able to replicate this beautiful orange.

Kelpdra.

My redemption arc. Yes the rainbow Ho-Oh looks cool, but purple Ho-Oh... is also cool but I won't say cooler.

Honestly I forgot this wasn't Ralts's shiny for a while. Which is embarrassing because I have one.

Anyway I've hit the 30 picture limit, so I'll leave it at that, and perhaps if this gains traction I'll show off more. Because there are definitely more I want to show off.

[mountmortar]

Would you be willing to talk more about how silver feels different between the original and the remake for you? Out of curiosity, I read through his dialogue page on bulbapedia, and there were some interesting differences, but overall, I didn't personally prefer one more than the other.

absolutely! so MY main issue with hgss is that it completely stripped him of a real redemption arc concerning him and his pokémon, and here's what i mean by that: an arc for a character is supposed to have a starting point (where the character exhibits one behavior) and an end point (where the character exhibits a different behavior, signifying The Change. this is a rough way of saying it but you know what i mean). while gsc and hgss had the same beginning for silver, and similar lines when it came to his initial views of pokémon, gsc provided a definite conclusion of his arc in a way that hgss ABSOLUTELY did not. and i'm talking, of course, about the mt. moon scene:

GSC:

"…… …… …… It's been a while, <player>. …Since I lost to you, I thought about what I was lacking with my Pokémon… And we came up with an answer. <player>, now we'll show you!"

"…… …… …… …You won, fair and square. I admit it. But this isn't the end. I'm going to be the greatest Pokémon Trainer ever. Because these guys are behind me. …Listen, <player>. One of these days I'm going to prove how good I am by beating you."

HGSS:

"Hey, <player>! You're here in Kanto, too? Some of the Trainers here are tough, which makes it easy to train my Pokémon! <player>! I know you are strong… But… I can't help but challenge you!"

"My training's still not good enough…? My Pokémon are so weak, it makes me frustrated… But I can feel that they are getting better after each battle… ……………… Tch! They're still too weak! I need to give them more training… I know! I should take them to Dragon's Den! See ya, <player>!"

you see the difference? in gsc, he admits that he a) thought about what he was doing wrong with his pokémon, b) talked things through WITH his pokémon, and c) believes in them completely and wholeheartedly. this is a clear and definitive completion of his character arc—he goes from despising his pokémon for being weak to believing in them with all of his conviction despite losing time and time again. but in hgss? there IS no end to his character arc because he just circles BACK to believing his pokémon are still weak and that that's something that can ONLY be fixed with more training instead of actually communicating with his pokémon. silver in hgss has no redemption arc because the arc WAS NEVER COMPLETED! because they altered his dialogue in such a way that it never finished it!

there are a few other minute differences in his dialogue between gsc and hgss that i find strange (his obsession with defeating lance in hgss one of them—he goes from not really caring about the guy at all in gsc to trying to? lie? to tail the player to try and find lance? in hgss? and i just. don't really get it) but overall this is my MAIN problem with how he was handled in hgss. there's just!!! no character arc!!!! nothing to signify change!!! just an Edgy Emo Kid spouting the same lines about pokémon over and over!!! there's nothing that makes his character His Character!!!! does this make sense.

[pangolin-404]

Endeavors in trying to play pokemon rejuvenated:

spoilers: it’s hard

(long post + spoilers up to just after the 1st gym. it took me 8 hours to get to the first gym. the website does not lie about 70+ hours of gameplay.)

OH GOD SOMEONE’S ALREADY DEAD?? the startup warned viewer discretion but I did not anticipate blood

what just happened was that a dream or a prophecy

So someone just bombed this cruise ship, MC was teleported off, and MC just wanders off to start their Pokemon journey?? We don’t know if our mom is even alive?? Um???

if you keep agreeing to this scammer you can get a free trip to hoenn and ditch the game. you get a game over if you go through with it, and once you say no you can’t get the offer again

I lost like my first 5 trainer battles (you get battled before you even step foot in tall grass) and let me tell you. get used to losing in this game bc it’s so much harder than any official pokemon game ever

And I’m playing on normal mode

While completing a side quest I had to rescue this Pidove and this strange lady swooped in and earthbended(???), impaling their getaway ship and telekinesis-ing the thieves away. she was like “oh the pilot of the ship? who I just impaled with rocks? probably had friends and family :) what’s with that look? Don’t be scared I’d never hurt a child. Unless they were a brat. :)” and then she f’s off and i haven’t seen her since and I’m very scared of her

I got a nidoran by chasing her around the city and then cornering her. mine now >:)

there’s a dashcon reference in the mission building and it gave me whiplash

pokemon rejuvenation says gay rights. i had to deliver a love letter AND buy the recipient a gift. and they say romance is dead

there’s a level cap (20 if you haven’t beaten any gyms, 25 after the first) so my strat of overleveling at the slightest challenge is thrown out the window. I am turned into paste every other trainer battle

There’s a lot of stuff before Route 1 even appears, the pokemon there are around level 10.

The first trip to Route 1 is free. then you have to pay a hundred pokedollaroonies to take the train each time you want to go

there are shadow pokemon and MC is given this thing to steal them back from grunts. it’s optional. I was too busy trying to stay alive to catch some, and after beating some higher up he was like “wow you didn’t even try catching my corrupted grimer >:)” and I’m just “*dr phil voice*: shut the hell up bitch”

then I got turned into paste by a boss shadow gyarados and had to be rescued

I somehow completely missed both Gearen City Garden and a whole hotel and almost beat the first gym without finding them. but I did so >:). My current objective as of this point is to step foot on route 2 so I can run back to the hotel and get a Shinx that someone from the hotel is giving away

People will straight up give you pokemon they’re unable to care for. mostly they’re sad depressed office workers

My team at this point is a quilava, fletchinder, rockruff, nidorina, bellsprout, and noibat. I think the rockruff’s gonna go once I get my shinx. surprisingly bellsprout’s been a savior and very useful addition and probably gonna stick around until I find a cooler grass-type. having two fire types on my team has been hard but they’re both cool pokemon sooooo i’ll take that challenge thank you very much

I got a secret seviper egg but sadly I’m more of a zangoose fan

Ok so the rejuvenation fandom wiki is like half-done and all of the pokemon articles are pulled from bulbapedia with some extra stuff thrown in like locations and effectiveness against shadow pokemon etc etc. But i SWEAR the type matchups are different. either than or mareanie’s just a powerhouse and I’m bad at battling without the little words telling me what’s effective and what’s not

So get this. all of the first gym’s pokemon are around level 15. I’ve got a team of nearly level 17-20s at this point. I beat the gym on roughly the 3rd try, barely. I’m awarded the badge and am eager to get moving to route to. if the wiki’s correct (and I think it is) all I have to do is walk onto Route 2, which until now has been locked, and then I’ll get a Shinx. But the person supposed to give my the Rock Smash I need is like “no youre helping me with a job before I do this” and I’m like ok I don’t have a choice

So I follow this stranger to the bridge near Route 2 and we head into a lab. the scientist is rumored to be experimenting on pokemon. the door’s unlocked. two people are speaking to each other. as we near, the illusion of one person fades out. the other person’s name is Dr. Jenkal.

We have (supposedly) two doctors: One fades out of view. One is more eccentric than the other. One is named Dr. Jenkal. place your bets folks: is it a Jeckal and Hyde situation? Well, I don’t know because,

I (that’s right, me alone in a double battle, having not at all trained since winning the gym, the person who dragged me out here is Not Helping) am immediately thrust into battle with this guy. Just a couple Munna. Definitely going to ignore the Musharna he was experimenting on. huh okay this battle’s tough but I think I’ll- oh he sent out the Musharna? hm it’s high leveled but I might just be able to-

ah there are custom mega evolutions in this game that’s cool

[i am turned to paste yet again]

and that’s as far as i’ve gotten so far

[punz4lyfe]

Pokemon Journeys Episode 51 Review

Pokemon Journeys Episode 51. Let’s review:

1. In the beginning, we learn that Ash has apparently battled a bunch of randoe trainers off-screen to the point of reaching 415 in his rank. And already I have a few problems with this.

Problem #1 - So apparently the anime’s gonna place a lot of emphasis and focus of Goh catching a bunch of random mons without much issue while leaving Ash’s own goal development off-screen? Normally, I don’t 100% agree with the argument where people claim Goh receives too much screen time compared to Ash and Chloe, but it’s honestly stuff like this that kinda make me see their point.

Problem #2 - It seems reaching that high of a rank doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. Yeah, I know that it’s Ash, but that doesn’t really seem to add much stakes to his current goal, especially since this is the second time he has risen his rank off-screen, without any trouble.

Problem #3 - Apparently, Ash’s Dragonite, Gengar, and Farfetch’d helped Ash in many of those off-screen battles. Boy, that would’ve been such a cool thing to see, considering Dragonite and Gengar haven’t participated in an official battle since Korrina. I love Ash’s inconsistent aura doggo as much as the next person, but it would just be nice to see his teammates receive some screen time.

The little recap of Ash’s World Coronation goal was pretty cool, though. And it was especially fitting since we’ve reached over the 50th milestone of this series.

2. Seeing Ash’s Pokemon training together was pretty dope. While I do wish they had more interactions together, other then training, this is still super cool. But I do have to wonder: Where is Dracovish?

3. How in the heckles is Gengar feeling the vibrations of Farfetch’d’s mini-earthquake when it is floating in the air?

4. Overall point for the episode, but I adore Farfetch’d character throughout the entire episode. After months of practically being non-existent to the writers, they are finally able to give it some limelight and make him interesting. For one, it’s still a wild Pokemon deep down. It usually tries to avoid interacting with its teammates and even its trainer. In fact, whenever someone tries to touch it, it just attacks, only allowing to be touched when it can’t help itself, like when it loses a battle later on. Since this leaves a lot of room for development, I absolutely love this take. It’s honestly something I wish was done for many past mons, like Ash’s Muk and Palpitoad. We even see Farfetch’d act on its own accord plenty of times throughout the episode, implying that it only sees Ash as an asset to get strong opponents and not as a friend. Wow, if only the anime would establish THIS mon as Lucario’s rival and not shoehorned Cinderace, but whatever. Also, if by chance someone from Bulbapedia is reading this, I’ll have to tell you this: Take off the stupid part in both Ash and Goh’s Farfetch’d pages that say they see each other as rivals. They hardly interact and this episode pretty much establishes that Ash’s duck is too much for Goh’s duck.

5. So Goh wants to catch a Geodude to evolve it into a Golem later on? Since Gravelers evolve through trade, I think we know what this means: OMG ASH GETS GOLEM CONFIRMED or OMG BROCK RETURNS CONFIRMED.

6. Let’s be honest, we all wanna cuddle up a Galarian Farfetch’d as much as the character of the day, Genda, did. ...What? Ducks are cute.

7. Throughout the battle, we learn that Farfetch’d has learned Fury Cutter and Focus Energy, making its current moveset these two moves with Night Slash and Brutal Swing. ExcuseMeWhatInTheDuckingDistortionWorldIsThisTaurosPoop? I know Focus Energy could help speed up its evolution process in a battle, but wouldn’t Night Slash’s high critical hit ratio already do that? And Brutal Swing is pretty fitting for its fighting style, but why Fury Cutter of all moves? It could help Farfetch’d’s evolution process in the games, but anime mons have been established since the beginning to be 100 times more resilient than the ones we have in the games. Why not have it learn a weak move that actually pertains to its typing, like Rock Smash? While I’m 100% certain this moveset will change overset in favor of better attacks like Meteor Assault or Iron Defense (just like with Ash’s Gligar/Gliscor in the past learning better moves), it doesn’t change the fact that this moveset is honestly pretty laughable.

8. Going into the actual battle, it was dope and amazing. It really complicated both Farfetch’d and Gurdurr’s fighting style with its moderate pace and Farfetch’d pulled off some pretty dope scenes, like splitting Gurdurr’s Focus Blast, blowing up debris, and even creating its own makeshift shockwave attack. Also, it’s about time we got Farfetch’d big victory battle of awesomeness, just as Dragonite, Gengar, and Lucario had. Now we just gotta wait for Dracovish’s. Also, HEY look it’s Chad Wally.

9. Genda, you apathetic monster. Giving Gurdurr your pickax to replace its steel beam will be your greatest mistake in your life. I hope you have a lawyer on call, because every battle your Gurdurr will participate from here on out until it gets a new beam will only lead to you getting sued.

10. Goh, honey. For the Gallade you assumed was wild, don’t you think it would’ve been a good idea to weaken it first before capturing it? Wait, who am I kidding? The whole thing of weakening a mon before using a Pokeball has honestly been retconned away at this point.

11. The battle between Farfetch’d and Chad Wally, uh, I mean, Rinto, while short, was very well done. It completely showcased the fatal flaw in Farfetch’d’s fighting style in how it heavily relies on its leak, making foes who get in close a dangerous threat. While this was kinda already established in its debut appearance, seeing it be made more clear to our protagonists was nice. I also like how the battle doesn’t end in a technical lose that would lower Ash’s rank, because that would’ve just made the major events in this episode become pointless, and no one likes that. So with that, good creative use of False Swipe, writers! And I hope Rinto makes more appearances, cause he seems like an interesting and cool character. Plus, I’m not gonna lie, but he’s kinda hot, and him having a flippin’ Gallade makes him even more hot.

12. I honestly find it pretty funny that Cinderace and Sobble are more accustomed to Ash’s unorthodox strategies of training than Goh. Oh, and the little leaks were cute.

Overall, solid episode. Other then Ash’s off-screen victories and Farfetch’d’s lame moveset, I honestly have no complaints because we’ve got good character moments, some nice battles, and some promising development for our little duck boi. Personally, if I directed this series, I would have Lucario accompany the gang so it can see Farfetch’d battle style and attitude for itself and have it become more consistent sparring buddies with it. Y’know, like how the last intro kinda showed, but that’s just me.

For the reasons given, I’ll give this episode a 9/10. Also, if you couldn’t tell, I’m trying to condense down my reviews a little more to make them easier to go through. Please feel free to tell me any changes you would like to improved!

And looking at the preview for the next episode, seems like another filler, but seeing Chloe join Ash and Goh’s goofy antics will honestly be super awesome. Thanks for reading my review and don’t forget to follow for more anipoke content!

[vulpiximisa]

Whyyyy would you mention the power plant as an electric field but it doesn’t evolve my charjabug????? Am I doing something wrong or did bulbapedia lie to me

Do I really have to wait for the fourth island

[winryofresembool]

EdWin ficlet: I Choose You?

A/N: @protectjackaboy​ requested I write something inspired by the modern day AU fic It’s Not a Big Deal. So, here’s a silly INaBD verse ficlet with lots of Pokémon talk. Bewear, if you are not ready for Pokémon puns, this fic is not for you. @11random-person11 helped me with some of them, thanks ♥

Sorry for the possible inaccuracies! Ed and Winry of course belong to Hiromu Arakawa, and INaBD belongs to the awesome @hangonsilvergirl. I’m just playing with their creations.

Genre: fluffy silliness

Words: 800+

Ed’s normal text, Winry’s bolded

Morning Win

Good morning! What are you up to?

Not much, just sitting on the couch trying to watch children’s TV shows AS LOUDLY as I can because some asshole who’s living with me talked on the phone ‘till 2 am last night. With Mei.

Karma is a bitch, huh? I remember you doing that very same thing last week. With me.

HEY, WE HAD A VERY IMPORTANT STAR WARS CONVERSATION. /YOU/ wanted to hear my opinion on Leia’s character, and you got one!

Well, I didn’t mean you needed to speak a whole hour about her hair buns. When you grow your hair out, I’m gonna make /you/ wear them.

I’ll have you know they look very badass and I’d proudly wear them even now if my hair was longer.

Sometimes I really wonder why I find you attractive…

Please. You just can’t resist my charm ;P

In your dreams.

Pffft. ANYWAY guess which show just started?

Umm, My Little Pony? That sounds like your kind of thing.

I COULD watch my little pony!! But no, it’s pokemon!!

Awww, I used to love that show! And Pan has a 3ds, I sometimes borrow it to train my own team.

So she’s a future olympic athlete AND a pokemon champion? That must look good on her CV.

… OK what the hell is this animation? It looked so much cooler back when I was a Pokemon fan. I swear, these shows just keep getting worse and worse…

Let me open my TV as well! Brb.

OK I’m watching it now and aww I think this style is cute! The colors are beautiful and their expressions are so lively. And oh, Ash is still there… Good memories!

I guess that poor bastard still hasn’t become a Pokemon master. He’s been trying for… what, probably something like 20 years? I think he’s started before I was even born. And that Pikachu definitely should be level 100 now…

Hey, don’t mock him! He’s trying. Wait, did they just meet with Misty and Brock? I can’t believe they are back too!

Tbh I always liked Gary the best, he’s the coolest…

Of course you did.

I’m pretending I don’t understand what you mean. Hey, who’s that kid with those black clothes in the opening? And do you think I could rock his style (what am I asking of course I could)

?

I think he’s Gladion (Pan has let me play Pokemon Sun) and I don’t think Mr. Mustang would stop making fun of you if you cut your hair like that.

I don’t give a shit about that bastard’s opinion!!!

OOOOKKK then.

Hey! Don’t even…

Ooor what? Please tell me Ed.

I… ugh… nothing.

That’s more like it.

Wait a minute… Is that pokemon’s name actually bewear? That’s the most ridiculous and/or awesome thing I’ve heard.

Pretty much all the Pokemon names are puns of some kind.

I think I’ve found my new dream job: naming new pokemon. Is there a list all the existing pokemon anywhere btw?

I’ve heard of bulbapedia but you can just google it.

K K.

Oh.

There are over 800 of them???? Holy shit I’ve missed a lot.

Listen everyone. The edgy, badass Edward Elric is becoming a pokemon fan.

Excuse me there’s nothing wrong with pokemon! Remember, I even did the pokerap once!!

I’m not gonna lie, that was pretty epic. Maybe do it again when we meet the next time? I’d love to witness it live.

I think I have more important things to do then 

Like what? 

Kissing with my girlfriend whom I get to see only at the weekends?

Fine, you won.

Don’t I know it

Know when to shut up, m’dear. 

Har de har.

Look at this thing. Incineroar. Does that belt shoot fire? Dark type? Red and black? I think I’ve found my favorite!!!

What’s your favorite type, btw?

Steel, for sure. I mean, how adorable is Klink? Look:

I think you must be literally the only person in this world who would say that. Gearhead.

Chemistry freak.

Unown I’ve always wanted to say this one thing…

Did you just… google pokemon puns? That is so… onix-pected of you.

Oh my God.

OK here’s a good one…

Never mind I Deino if I'll be able to think of any

Pffft that’s just Trubbish.

Now I got one. What do I call Al after I win him in a running match?

Well, I must Axew what.

Slowbro!!

That was Absol-utely awful.

Bewear, there’s a small Chansey I have more of them in my pockets.

Oh Arceus maybe it’s better if we stop now.

Arceus? Is that like the god pokemon?

Yup.

I like that. I’m gonna use that one from now on.

Hey, Winry?

Yeah?

I’m so Happiny we accidentally started talking.

You know what? Mewtwo.

<3

Also, have I told your smile is very beautifly?

Aww, thanks Ed. Where’s this sudden sappiness coming from?

I dunno, I guess you just have the Klefki to my heart. 

You are blushing there right now, I just know it. But I guess I could say the thing back to you :3

Here’s one more: If you were a Pokémon, I’d choose you

I have no words. You are having too much fun with those puns, aren’t you?

I feel this is like a gold mine that just keeps giving and giving…

I probably can’t get you quiet anymore. Anyway, as much as I’d Luvdisc to continue to talk to you, Granny’s waiting. See you later, Feraligatr?

In a while, Krookodile

😉

[jaybug-jabbers]

Bug Run 6(66): Very Vivacious Vivillons

Originally, I had planned on skipping gen 6 for my bug runs. After all, my runs involved using only the new bug pokemon of that generation, and there’s only a single evolution family in gen 6: the Vivillon line. I mean, it’s not like I could beat the game with a team of 6 Vivillon or something, haha.

Right?

Rules of a Bug Run

If we were going to do this, it had to be legit. Same rules as always:

1.) The team must be bug types only.

-HM slaves required for progression are the exception but will never be used in battle (even just to switch in to faint).

-All the bug pokemon on the team must come from this generation.

2.) No healing items used during battle (unless the foe uses them first, and then you may only match the items one-for-one).

-Held items are allowed.

3.) No over-levelling. Pokemon should be at roughly normal levels for a given area and not be at a higher level than the maximum-levelled pokemon in a gym leader’s team.

Was this possible with a team of only Vivillon, though? Let’s take a close look at this species before we dive in. After all, why try something if it’s doomed from the start? Quickly, to Bulbapedia!

A Close Look at Pokemon #666

Vivillon is a special attacker with modestly decent speed. While a base stat total of 411 is not the highest in the world, compared to its other fellow bug types, it’s not bottom-teir, either. Well … not rock-bottom, at least. I won’t lie, it’s among the lowest of the fully-evolved bugs, but it DOES outclass the other butterflies: Butterfree, Dustox, and Beautifly, and almost matches Masquerain. So that’s something, at least.

Being Bug/Flying, Vivillon sports a glaring 4x weakness to Rock type, as well as collecting other Flying weaknesses to Electric and Ice, adding to Bug’s Fire and Flying weaknesss. Five weaknesses and one 4x is quite a heavy burden for a whole team to carry, especially when you consider the low defense stats in general. With Rock and Flying moves being especially common coverage moves in-game, it would definitely make for quite the challenge.

What about that movepool, though? As far as I was concerned, that was what would really make or break this kind of run. If I had access to certain key moves I could possibly scrape by despite the odds.

Fortunately, Vivillon does have some solid options. In terms of moves for level-up, Bug Buzz is its best Bug STAB, which it picks up nice and early at level 35. It also gets the amazing Hurricane and Quiver Dance, letting it buff up, make up for its lackluster stats, and truly weild some power. While Hurricane does have pretty terrible accuracy, one of Vivillon’s Abilities is Compound Eyes, quite the boon for this situation.

Egg moves also offer some crucial Status moves: Poison Powder, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, and Light Screen. This is incredibly good news.

TM/HM compatibility doesn’t offer an incredibly wide range of coverage moves, but it does offer a couple powerful options: Psychic, Energy Ball/Solar Beam and Hyper Beam. While this is a disappointingly short list, there’s one more important TM to point out: Hidden Power. With the right IVs, that could be an enormous help, filling in the huge coverage gaps. Provided we got lucky with IVs.

So, was this run possible? The answer seemed to be a resounding “maybe.” It would depend on a lot of factors. A major one was when I had access to certain key TMs or HMs during gameplay. Another major factor was the kinds of gyms I’d face.

In the end, I wouldn’t know for sure unless I gave it a try.

Meet the Team

The big gimmick about Vivillon is its huge range of pattern variations, of course, so I wanted to use some of the many different patterns on my team. As such, I can’t actually name most of them myself in the game, but I named them in my head, at least!

(This run also meant starting out the game with a team of six right off the bat, but with their EXP bonus from being trades, it wasn’t too taxing to keep all six levelled.)

My Ocean pattern was Sunrise, my Icy Snow pattern was Snowflake, my Elegant pattern was Violet, my Savanna pattern was Sky, my Garden pattern was Clover, and my native High Plains pattern was Confetti.

Originally, I had planned a pretty even split on the two Abilities, but as it ended up, almost everyone had Shield Dust, with only Snowflake carrying Compound Eyes. That didn’t seem to be so bad, though. I’d just lean on Snowflake when I really needed to land my Hurricanes. Honestly, Shield Dust is pretty amazing, and I think in the end, it benefitted me a lot to have so much of it around.

The First Hurdles - Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies

The game was pretty easy cruising until the second gym, the Rock gym. There were some upsides to the Rock gym coming so early in the game: at such an early point, the gyms were still comparatively easy, so it was best to get the biggest weakness out of the way so early on. However, it also meant I didn’t have too many moves to work with.

Ultimately, what ended up being the crucial factor was breeding Poison Powder onto Confetti as an egg move. Confetti could poison the Amaura. Lucky for me, every Vivillon picks up the move Protect when they evolve into Spewpa. So after poison, a Vivillon could Protect and get one move off before falling to Rock Tomb. After cleaning away Amaura, little Tyrunt’s low special defense made it fall to my bugs quickly enough. The first hurdle was cleared.

The next gym to give a bit of trouble was– hilariously– the Grass gym. I know, that sounds a bit sad for a team of Bug/Flying, but the issue was that the gym leader opens with Jumpluff. It easily outsped my whole team, and slowing it down with Stun Spore was obviously not an option. It was packing Acrobatics. I soon learned which of my team could survive one hit (Confetti, Sky and Sunrise), but our Struggle Bugs just weren’t doing enough. While I didn’t have a ton of options, I DID have the TM for Aerial Ace– and a Sky Plate. Sure, Aerial Ace was physical, but it was worth a try?

Fortunately, that choice (and Rocky Helmet on another poke) was enough damage to punch through, and then we could take care of the rest of the team easy.

It seemed our team had made it past the early challenges and had some hope of sticking around for the long game. But the difficulty was far from over. Looming on the horizon was something far more intimidating then rock-throwing baby dinosaurs or annoyingly quick dandelions.

The Electric Bugaloo

We previously mentioned that Vivillon has a rather large number of weaknesses, and that’s an undeniable fact. If you were to guess at which weakness would act as the largest challenge for Vivillon to overcome, you might easily guess Rock. After all, Vivillon is four times weak and has awful physical defense. But the thing is, Rock just wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle. The Rock and Ground types that tend to use rock moves are usually dirt-slow and weak on their special side, so Vivillon actually matches up quite well against them, able to knock them out before they have a chance to do serious damage. I actually spent a lot of time grinding in Glittering Cave at one point, and it was not a painful experience at all. Every once in a while you get pokemon with rock coverage moves, which is harder to cope with– Fighting types tend to carry Rock Throw, or the random poke will have Power Gem– but overall, rock was not the biggest bane of my run.

The biggest bane was, by far, electric.

Electric pokemon are incredibly dangerous because they are incredibly fast, cannot be slowed down with my usual tactic of Stun Spore, and they hit hard. One of the reasons Vivillon can best rock-type pokemon in the early game is because Vivillon gains high-basepower special attacks early on. However, Electric pokemon also gain their high-basepower moves relatively quickly. That unstoppable speed plus those (perfect-accuracy!) Thunderbolts made for a devastating combination. To add to my woes, one of the pokemon in the gym was a Magneton, and its part Steel typing made it impossible to use tox stall on or to hit with any move other then resisted hits. I was understandably terrified of the Electric gym.

I took some time to consider my options. The bulk of the TMs my team could use were still only accessible late game. Whatever strategy we came up with, it would have to make due with our limited resources. I had a number of cheap tricks I could use– I had Flash and Supersonic, for instance– but I really didn’t want to resort to those. Relying on hax alone just is never a satisfying way to win a fight.

After some research, I learned I could, with a little work, locate some Wacan berries. This is what I pinned all my hopes on. It takes a while to grind for the right berry (you need to use Air Slash on background trees that appear at random during battles on certain routes) and then plant and grow some more. It took patience, but we were investing in a sound strat! I hoped.

I’ll give a detailed description of the fight, because it was a pretty exciting one. It took a number of attempts to learn the right moves to make and combination of hold items.

The gym leader opens with Emolga and I found it consistently used Volt Switch as the opening move … unless my opening pokemon held a Wacan Berry. If so, it would Aerial Ace instead. I’m pretty sure that’s cheating, AI, as a real opponent wouldn’t know my hold item, but whatever. I put Violet up front and had her hold a Metronome. She could survive one Volt Switch. I had her use Bug Buzz, which hit the incoming Magneton. Then, fortunately, Violet could outspeed Magneton– the poke’s crappy speed stat was really the only advantage we had over it– and get a second, powered-up Bug Buzz off on it. She also got lucky and got special defense drops with her buzzes. This manages to get Magneton into red health as Violet goes down.

I know a Hyper Potion is imminent, and I send in Sky, my best special attacker at the time. A stock Bug Buzz gets Magneton back into the red. The gym leader potions again, I buzz once again, then twice, and Magneton is out without a scratch on Sky.

Keep in mind: letting Clemont burn his two Hyper Potions was absolutely essential.

Next out is the ace, Heliolisk. I Poison Powder with Confetti. I’m only able to get the powder off because Confetti is carrying that Wacan berry and can survive a Thunderbolt. We then get into our stalling shenanigans. Half of my team is armed with Wacan berries and Protect specifically for this task. We stall and do chip damage and just barely take down Heliolisk. But Clemont has one left. He sends out the Emolga from the start of the match, still in perfect health.

I first get a Bug Buzz off with Sky (who’s holding Silver Powder), which roughly halves Emolga’s health. I next send out Snowflake, but to my horror, he dies to a crit before he can even think about getting a move off. I’m down to two left, but it’s really only down to one, as Clover was at far too low health to survive anything Emolga could throw at it. It was all up to Sunrise.

Sunrise has a berry, Emolga thankfully decides to Volt Switch instead of Aerial Ace, and I Psybeam– which pushes Emolga into the red but doesn’t QUITE finish the job. This was going to shit entirely too fast. I try again, and Emolga’s next move is Aerial Ace– which is terrifying, because that move is so FAST and always depletes the HP in a heartbeat.

But Sunrise lived on 7 HP. And Emolga went down.

Our team had prevailed.

More Moves & More Flare

This far, we had been playing the game with some pretty darn restricted access to Vivillon’s best TM moves. Around the time we reached Anistar City, we finally could change that. We picked up Toxic, Energy Ball, Psychic, U-Turn, Roost, Hyper Beam, and maybe most exciting of all, Hidden Power. I checked in with the Hidden Power NPC and learned I had some darn lucky rolls for my Hidden Power elements: Ice, Dragon, Water, Fighting, and Electric. (The sixth was Bug, which … well. Obviously I wasn’t going to bother with that one.) I was thrilled. At this point I had been faithfully collecting elemental plates, so I had most of the ones to match with these elements, too. We also had access to moves via the Move Relearner, including the absolutely fantastic Light Screen. This also was the point in the game that my team had reached level 45, when everyone picked up the powerful Quiver Dance.

At long last, it felt like the world was our oyster! We didn’t have to be held back anymore from reaching our full potential! Which was good, because we were going to need it for the upcoming Lysandre fights.

The first battle wasn’t too terrible. Getting a Light Screen up on Meinfoo and equipping some of my pokes with Occa berries, we could use the ol’ tox stall on the Pyroar without losing too many of the team. Murkrow also wasn’t too hard to take out, but I forgot about the Gyarados. That was potentially pretty scary, but it missed its Aqua Tail and one of my remaining pokemon had HP Electric, so it was all good.

The second Lysandre fight ups the ante a little, with fully evolved pokemon and a Pyroar with the Unnerve ability. This ruined my Occa berry strategy. Pyroar had Fire Blast, so it’s more then a tad dicey to deal with. I had to make due with Protecting and dying (lol) to wear out the 5 PP of Fire Blast, and then used a combination of toxic and HP Fighting. The rest was fairly straightforward.

The third and final Lysandre fight throws Mega Gyarados into the mix. While the stats buff is scary, it adds Dark typing to Gyarados, making it weak to Bug. It went down surprisingly easily.

After Team Fashionwhatever’s rude intteruption, we returned to defeat the final gym– an Ice gym, which we were weak to, but at this point, we could take on anything. We had conqoured Xerneas, scary Fire Blasting lions and even Mega evolution. We had walked through rock, snow, thunderbolts and flame. The team had performed far better then I had expected and had persisted, even against overwhelming odds.

It was time to take the final trail through Victory Road and see if we could pass the ultimate test.

The Elites

Victory Road was a bit of a struggle, I’m not going to lie. The Ace Trainers had powerful, well-rounded teams composed of many pokes I had yet to even encounter before now. The Ace gaurding the very front of the Victory Road was especially irksome for me, with a Carbink that tended to always put down Stealth Rock and then a Raichu also on the team, perhaps our worst mortal enemy. Fun fact– my team is very, very, very weak to stealth rock. Still, we got by him eventually, and everyone else too, though there was a lot of fainting and healing along the way.

After clawing our way to the top, we reached the summit and home of the Elites. We’d made it by all the Gym leaders, but these were the Elite Four. Was this really going to work? I figured I should start with the Elite that was the biggest threat for the team: Malva and her Fire types.

Malva

The strategy I developed for this team had to be very carefully calibrated, so it took a number of attempts. Her opening act is a female Pyroar. Fortunately, this one didn’t have Unnerve. My tactic here was a long and painful tox-stall, using Occa berries and Clover & Confetti’s Protect and Roost. I did this because I wanted to burn both of Malva’s Full Restores during this phase. It was utterly crucial she had none for her ace pokemon. During my winning run, something went wrong and I killed the Pyroar early, but fortunately she used her second Full Restore on her Torkoal. This normally would not have happened– I usually used Hurricane on Torkoal, getting in in medium-yellow health which wasn’t enough to trigger a potion, but it got confused, hit itself, and pushed its health into red, triggering the potion use.

After Pyroar and Torkoal went down, Talonflame came out. The strategy here was to die lots. I’m not kidding– I kind of had no choice here. The bird was far too fast and far too powerful. I had figured out it took exactly three Vivillon at full health for Talonflame to die of Brave Bird recoil.

After Talonflame went down, Chandelure came out, and I was left with two pokemon: Clover in very low health (weak from toxic-stalling the Pyroar) and Sunrise in full health. I sent out Clover first. A quick word about Clover– she has pretty low stats when compared to the rest of the team. She was built to help with stall, with Toxic/Light Screen/Protect/Bug Buzz. I had to decide– Light Screen or Toxic? I decided to go with Toxic. After Clover went down, Sunrise was the only one left. I’d been in this situation before and lost at this point, simply because Chandelure used Confuse Ray and I died to confuse hax. So this was darned unnerving. However, I realized I had stuck Light Screen and Protect on Sunrise this time. Awesome! I Protected and then Light Screened, happy to let the thing die to stall.

Except, uhh, I forgot I didn’t have an Occa berry on this poke. I had a Mind Plate, because she had Psychic on her. Pooooop. I got hit with Flamethrower, bringing me into the low yellow. Protected again. And hoped it was enough, using Psychic. Thankfully, it was.

So that was Malva down. It had been messy, but it had worked.

Wikstrom

Next up, I went to the Steel Elite. I expected this fight to be pretty dang difficult. As such, I worked hard to try and think of a way to take out Klefki as cleanly as possible. I had nothing to hit it hard with. What I eventually tried out should not have really worked, but somehow it did. Of course, as a Steel type, it could not be tox-stalled. So I tried the next best thing. I taught Clover Infestation. I then proceeded to infect Klefki with Infestation and swap between Light Screen, Bug Buzz and Roost. Klefki resisted Bug x4, but Infestation’s residual damage was fixed, like a regular Poisoned status, and slowly drained its health. Klefki couldn’t do too much against me: he used Torment so I couldn’t Roost twice in a row, but otherwise, his hits under Light Screen could be roosted off easily enough. My goal was to burn the Elite’s Full Restores. After he potioned up, I would use the same number of potions as he did.

It worked well– until the very, very end, when Klefki scored two critical hits in a row, so I couldn’t Roost enough to save Clover. Clover went down, but she fought hard until the bitter end, and had done enough damage that the next Vivillon coming in could revenge kill. Somehow I had gotten a clean kill, only losing one Vivillon on Klefki.

Next in was Probopass. This thing had Power Gem and Discharge, so it was pretty worrying. Sunrise put a Light Screen up and got a little chip damage off before going down. Then Confetti came in with his Hidden Power Fighting. Thankfully that did great damage and was a 2HKO. Scizor was also pretty spooky, but ended up easier then I thought. Snowflake used Hurricane, scored a crit and got it into the red, and confused it to boot. It hit itself in confusion and fainted, making my life easier. Finally was the ace, Aegislash. Again, I thought this thing would really be tough, but I forgot how dang easy it’s to take out in Sword Forme. In the end, all my careful work to take Klefki out with only one poke may not have even been needed, but oh well!

Drasna & Siebold

The Dragon Elite had two pokemon that were potentially a handful for the team: Noivern and Altaria. However, recall one of my pokemon had Hidden Power Ice. With Icicle Plate and a Light Screen up, Sunrise could live an Air Slash and wipe Noivern out. Alteria turned out to just be a stalling set, rather than super offensive, so it was easy enough to handle.

Finally, the Water gym was the easiest to handle. I whipped a Power-Herb Solar Beam out for Barbaracle so I could crush it before a painful Stone Edge, and while the Gyarados had Dragon Dance, it only used Ice Fang on me and I could finish it off with HP Electric.

The Elites vanquished, we stepped up to the last door.

The Championship

In some ways, the last team was not so scary. Hawlucha had no Flying moves and I could take it out with one Hurricane. Gourgeist was also easy to handle, weak to flying and neutral to bug. The other four team members were a fair bit trickier. Goodra had Fire Blast. Gardevoir had Thunderbolt, dual STAB, and was a mega. And the rock dinosaurs that had given me grief at the start of the game were both back with some upgrades.

That said, I won on my second attempt. (The first one failed because I reached Gardevoir and forgot it had Thunderbolt.) Hawlucha went down to Hurricane, Tyrantrum took a heavy hit due to its low special defens and then died to Head Smash recoil. Aurorus came in and annoyingly put a Light Screen up while I tried to hit it with HP Fighting. It took some futzing about, but Aurorus eventually went down. I Protect and Light Screen-stalled out Goodra’s Fire Blasts and then decided to bring Violet in. While Diantha played around with Full Restores I got Quiver Dances off and finished off the Goodra.

Finally, Gardevoir came in.

I had a choice– try to get just some solid damage off with Violet, die, and bring Clover in for Toxic, or try to Stun Spore with Violet? I knew Mega Gardevoir outsped my whole team, but I also knew its special defense stat looked pretty scary.

I eventually decided to Stun Spore. It thankfully landed, and I even got a lucky paralysis. On the following turn, Violet took a Thunderbolt thanks to a Wacan berry and Bug Buzzed. One more Bug Buzz and Gardevoir was gone.

So if anyone ever asks you if it’s possible to beat Pokemon with just six Vivillon, you can tell them yes. Yes, it is.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Mar 24, 2019.

[drewxmay]

Contestshipping Masterpost - Part 10 - Deceit and Assist

Deceit and Assist (eh... not as bad as the other episode names)

00:07 I'm okay with Brock flirting, but I don't want the episode starting out with it.

00:13 just LISTEN nd LOOK at Halrey. can you seriereuosly blame me for thinking he is a girl??? I'm willing to beleive that Halrey's voice acter is a girl becuase I can't really imagine a boy having THAT HIGH PICHED of a voice.

00:30 No. He's not mysterios. He is a jerk.

:video spends a full minute of my time with the theme song:

Also what soes Deceit even mean??? :looks up: de·ceit dəˈsēt/ noun noun: deceit; plural noun: deceits

   the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth.

So the title is litterally telling us that Harley is lieing?

01:49 BWA HA HA AHA HAHAHAHAHHHA WHY ARE YOU PUTTING THAT IN IT'S FACE U DUMB HA HA HA HA HA HA

01:51 Drew hears one of May's friends talking to sombody about contests and immediatly looks over becuase he assumes that May is there.

02:11 You know what that girl's Espeon is my favorite.

02:26 Snowrunt has a nose? Also what pokemon is giving off that hair. There was a Mankey there but there is now way that the hair only made it to snowrunt, and the wind is going a different direction than where Mankey was so wtf is going on here?

02:33 No.

02:40  No.

02:42 No.

I'm all for fat people but this guy is protraid as stupid and based off of the little we've seen of him I'm not liking him very much...

03:19 I disscused this in the last episode, shouldn't the ribbons also be on the records? then if somthing like that happened it wouldn't matter as much!

03:26 the show teaches us that whenever somebody says "three strange people" or "this group of bad guys" they are talking about Jessie James and Meowth, but I know for a fact that Jessie is the only one who wants to enter the fand festivle but doesn't have all of the ribbons.

03:40 FUCK NO. (no screenshot becuase I hate it Anthony is as far as I am going)

03:56 James that is my face right now. y. I don't even care what he just said is bullcrap. It's not all of the sudden right?

4:26 and James now has a compter out of nowhere even though there was no desk to be seen and he has no bag to carry it in, meaning that he got it from somwhere in this room, but what even is this room and why is that a team rocket computer!

04:48 tell me that Harley is not mistakeable for a girl.

4:58 c'mon we all knew she was going to pick Skitty from the title. What do you think that cumbuskin was going to learn Assist?

05:00 OH WAIT DREW IS THERE HI

05:25 Drew :looks out for May: 05:37 :takes screenshot of Drew looking out for May:

5:39 yes. yes they would Harley.

05:49 nope. Harley if you knew that Drew was watching you. Also imma take a screenshot.

5:58 and then Drew finally says somthing! It made me happy to see him mad at Harley in his own Drew way. Wait you wanna say somthing Bulbapedia?

While May is following Harley's false advice, Drew constantly watches Harley, and catches him talking to himself about teaching May a lesson. Hm. 06:05 do you think I care about this plot? The person is stupid. I get it. Also WHY are they still on the beach? The people who stole it are definatly far away by now, meaning NOT at the beach!

06:10 So if this is serios enough to get the cop then why don't they just scan your ribbon each time you get one???

06:13 Jenny :Tells Anthony that he can compete: Anthony: I can't compete Oh look you still not the ribbons. well Imma skip this.

6:52 You mean the main STORY not the main compatition

7:00 and one of those 64 was the person with an Espeon

7:30 You know... I've never liked Joy being a judge. Doesn't she have to take care of pokemon, or do all of the pokemon wait and die?

8:22 like you care

8:26 For this moment I love you Harley

8:30 YOU WEREN'T THERE DURING ANY OF THAT. YOU SHOULDN'T KNOW ABOUT ANTHONY.

8:34 I've seen that ninetails in the background... so they DO care about the backgroound characters!

9:38 and you sound so happy about it

9:49 This is a doll that is litterally possased by only hatered, and it isn't a dark (evil) type, but a skunk pokemon is.

9:57 and it's not a dark type!

10:27 geez judges! stop changing the score so frigin much!

10:55 well it should be flygon  but it's a dragon type (the only dragon pokemon that isn't in a dragon egg group, instead flygon is in the flying egg group meaning that once Drew get's one it can breed with beautifly) so that means that Tropius who doesn't even seem to have that effective of wings is. you know what cumbusken is flying. and then the Anthony thing continues. LETS GET TO THE ACTUAL PLOT.

12:55 FINALY.

13:11 and somehow this plan works!

13:36 See even Halrey knows that it should'nt have worked.

14:23 and we all know where skitty learnt that from! Though, seeing that the betals that Roserade makes are heart shaped and Skitty's aren't means (i know that it itsn't true) that Drew is making them hearts on purpose. BECUASE HE LOVES MAY.

14:32 MAX WHY DID YOU HAVE T- T.T I can see why everybody hates you Max.

15:09 May is finally realizing everything that Halrey said is bullcrap

15:14 Harley wtf

15:21 GOD JOB! DREW PROOVES THAT HE WAS LOOKING OUT FOR MY BY SPYING ON HARLEY. ALSO REMEMBER WHAT I SAID EALYER "what if you knew Drew was watching" WELL THERE YA GO. DREW CARES FOR MAY SO MUCH!

15:45 drew must make Harley maaaad

16:07 I THOUGHT THAT WAS 19 FOR A MOMENT THERE

16:14 Don't be sorry

16:27 I love Drew so much

16:27 Harley calling Drew May's boyfriend. not lyin' but he's right! Bulbapedia?

Drew confronts Harley and is obviously extremely angry about his taking advantage of May. He also smiles with satisfaction when May pulls her appeal together despite Harley's deceit. Later on, when May apologizes for not going through with Skitty's Assist the whole way, Drew tells her about Harley's plan. Unbelieving, May goes face to face with a foiled Harley, who remarks, albeit rather angrily, in turn that, "It almost worked too, and you never would have known if your annoying boyfriend over here had kept his trap shut." Neither May nor Drew bothers to correct his statement, although Drew glares at Harley at the words "annoying boyfriend." After Harley leaves the scene wow that was long.

16:39 Todays episode bruaght to you by: Halrey trying to make May cry.

17:16 Drew you're plan to be nice to May while telling her to be nice didn't work. The only way to teach her is the hard way, and if that's what you gotta do then... ya. Bulbapedia anything to say on Drew? Drew yells at May for listening to other people's advice and tells her to trust in her Pokémon instead. May looks hurt and during Drew's second round appeal, May is seen thinking deeply about what Drew had said. I wouldn't call it "yelling" but May was already hurt your entree on this make it feel like you're saying it's Drew's fualt!

17:47 thaaaaat's a target! Imma change Masqurain's pokedex entree to "Masqurain, the taget pokemon".

17:57 Vivian I don't think those are antini

19:16 May's gonna be there. I know it.

19:25 yup.

19:47 that person look's like ashes mom but with orange hair.

also o fuk May vs Halrey. May will win.

20:36 and the rest of the episode. Also is Cacturn and Benett the only pokemon Harley has?

[pochapal]

Who is that "1 individual blastoise" you said you had a grudge against when you got asked about water type pokemon? Lmao spill the tea binch pls

ok so this is like wild and petty and actually about one of my childhood friends who probably didn’t take this as seriously as i did?? to quote those shitty tumblr storytime posts of 2012 - buckle in it gets crazy.

basically like when i was 10 i was in my messiest hardcore pokemon fan phase like to the point where i’d do wild shit like always ask for extra work in class just to use the paper to draw pokemon on, use this emotional evaluation book we were all given just to chronicle whatever the fuck i did on one of my pokemon games the previous evening (these were a thing because it was back in 2008 and there was this push to identify hidden signs that kids were troubled/being abused etc and getting kids to write/draw their feelings on a regular basis was the best way to make those affected kids more likely to open up and i just spent an entire fucking year doodling pokemon and pretty much making a shitshow of the entire exercise. my favourite part of this was the time i put “i am feeling despair because i couldn’t catch a jigglypuff” in one entry and i had to clarify to a concerned adult that yes, this was literally just me being melodramatic over being unable to obtain a fictional pink creature in the video game pokemon emerald and lacked any deeper meaning that i was unable to directly communicate, but i digress.), and refuse to do homework on thursday nights just to catch illegal livestream broadcasts of the pokemon anime as it aired in japan. like, i was in full-on hyperfixation obsession mode and was literally incapable of talking about anything else for the longest time.

anyway, despite my fervent worship of pokemon, literally nobody cared about it/me since i was pretty much ostracised by my class as a kid and also nobody gave a fuck about pokemon (this is a lie there was One Other Individual but that leads into shit too messy to spill to the general public mainly because i can’t think about anything involving said person without burning with first and second hand embarrassment all at once) ever since the token pokemon fan moved away the previous summer (also fuck him he took his copy of pokemon ruby with him which i’d traded a growlithe to from his firered to put on my leafgreen [where it was unavailable] once i got to the point where you could trade but then he left forever and took growlithe with him. i’ll never forgive and i’ll never forget).

so, cue the main character of this story, an unsuspecting ten-year-old who moved to my school right at the moment i was reaching peak unhealthy pokemon obsession. so like, i was there, spending a computer session browsing the bulbapedia pokedex instead of doing whatever work we were supposed to be doing (or i’d already done it i don’t even remember and it doesn’t really matter) and they saw and were like “hey, do you like pokemon??” and like of course i was literally unable to say anything other than “i love it so much” and like we became best friends over the course of an afternoon just browsing images of pokemon. it all went well until later that day when they asked the most crucial war-starting question out there:

“what’s your fave pokemon?”

instinctively, on reflex, i replied, “piplup is the best pokemon ever. not a single pokemon is better than it.”

except, poor me, fool that i was, did not realise i was dealing with a master veteran blastoise stan. like literally without missing a beat they replied, “that’s a funny way of saying blastoise.”

so i said “but piplup’s cute and awesome”, spilling nothing but gospel truth from my lips.

but they weren’t having it, and replied just as smoothly, “then why not have squirtle as your fave? it’s cute and evolves into the epic blastoise.” (this was 2008 and we were 10 and it was still socially acceptable to say epic)

and like, i was so fucking offended?? how dare someone even think of tarnishing piplup’s good name?? so, with steadily rising fury i said, point blank, drawing the line in the sand in the process, “sorry but blastoise is ugly” (a horrible lie but a necessary one to defend my beloved piplup) and then, because apparently i didn’t know when to stop beating the dead horse, “and so are squirtle and wartortle” (innocents who did nothing to deserve being dragged into this blood feud)

so they said, “yeah but piplup’s weak and hideous” and the declaration of war was complete.

this escalated as only a petty conflict between nerdy pokemon-obsessed ten-year-olds can, until i finally had the bright idea of “let’s pokemon battle my piplup against your blastoise. piplup will win and you’ll have to accept blastoise isn’t the best”. and they agreed.

cue some weekend in early spring 2009. we’re both sitting across from each other with out pastel-coloured nintendo ds lites, our copies of pokemon diamond primed and ready. vicious glances were exchanged as a lot of data was saved and we positioned our characters in the wireless connection union room.

the battle began. they sent out blastoise. level 75.

i scoffed. my piplup was sent into battle. level 100. i had this in the bag.

quick claw allowed piplup to get the first hit, a hydro pump that didnt do jack shit. i knew in that moment i had lost but i could not give up on piplup and my pride like this.

blastoise used skull bash. in desperation i launched an ice beam, praying for the nigh-impossible chance of freezing it in its tracks.

it was unsuccessful. piplup was downed within seconds. 

bitter and ashamed, i could do nothing as they gloated about blastoise’s innate superiority. i had lost, seemingly staring into the face of loss.

but because i didn’t know when to stop, i suggested proving it once and for all in a pokemon contest (not telling them that i was and still am about 100 times better at contests than battles) just to prove that piplup is truly inferior in all regards.

i won the contest by a landslide. we were at a stalemate.

rematches were demanded. undisputed, i was the master of contests, and they the battles. so there was no way to settle our petty piplup vs blastoise fight in-game so instead it continued through petty childish faux-arguments where i pulled up the craziest shit to prove that piplup was better (such as showing that  one piplup had a fuckton more screentime in the pokemon anime than every blastoise combined). shit like this carried on even as we left primary school and moved up to secondary and got even wilder with shit like me writing a fucking fanfiction about my piplup fucking decimating blastoise (i still have it on my hard drive and no, i am not posting it) and having our “design a religion/society” projects revolving around outlawing each other’s respective favourites in our domains.

eventually, this all came to a climax with pokemon heartgold and soulsilver where, after being able to legally snag kanto starters since frlg, we had our final rematch after i’d bluffed about deliberately not picking squirtle when given the choice (i said i picked charmander but that was a filthy lie. there was a beautiful squirtle safely nestled away in my pokewalker).

the rematch consisted of my piplup and pikachu against both their old and new blastoises. pikachu took down new blastoise through a lucky critical volt tackle and for one brief moment i could imagine the sweet, wholesome taste of victory.

but old blastoise was a gen 3 original and armed with earthquake.

nearly eighteen months on, history repeated itself, and finally i was forced to concede defeat (i tried to gain leverage with the pokethlons but blastoise was unstoppable) and before i could ever attempt to rectify this, they moved away, forever confident in their victory and knowledge that my piplup was the inferior and their blastoise the true supreme pokemon.

and me, being the bitter and petty messy binch that i am i never forgave and never forgot, and manifested a grudge that still holds strong nearly eight years on. like back with pokemon x and y where you get the free kanto starter to mega evolve all i could think of was that somewhere, the fucking blastoise that ruined my life was going to get a mega evolution upgrade and be unstoppable, and couldn’t stop thinking about it as i picked squirtle as i always pick squirtle. because at least i know that any blastoise i raise will never become such a horrible and vile creature and will never be responsible for crushing a child’s hopes and dreams.

anyway that’s how at eighteen, i still hold a grudge against a blastoise that beat my piplup in a pokemon battle when i was ten years old in what is probably the messiest act of pettiness i have ever committed in my life.

[puclpodcast]

Pokemon of the Week #47 – Delcatty

Welcome to the PUCL Pokemon Contest where we have a very special guest. The reigning Champion Delcatty! Over here Delcatty, come say hi to your fans. No don’t lie over there we need you center stage…I’m sorry audience but it looks like Delcatty doesn’t feel like it today, maybe next year. However to make up for it, if you look in your brochures you will see an exclusive interview with the Delcatty by SumtimesIFly!

National Dex #301 – Delcatty

Description: The Prim Pokemon Type: Normal Abilities: Cute Charm/Normalize Hidden Ability: Wonder Skin Competitive: [Smogon PU] Evolution: Skitty -> Moonstone -> Delcatty

Origin: Delcatty is a preppy, well groomed, house cat. Its name is a combination of “delicate” and “catty”. Not much to add on to what Bulbapedia had this week. Original Appearance: Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire Dex Entry [Day: Sapphire]: Delcatty sleeps anywhere it wants without keeping a permanent nest. If other Pokémon approach it as it sleeps, this Pokémon will never fight – it will just move away somewhere else. TCG: There are no Standard Delcatty cards so I picked a random one that looks nice.

Platinum

Shiny:

  Analysis:

Delcatty is widely known as a contest Pokemon and is very popular among trendy trainers. As far as battling goes it is not interested and the Pokedex mentions several times that it does not like fighting (or Fighting types for that matter). Honestly, it is the new low standard for our PotW competitive analysis but that makes the challenge more exciting…right? Its abilities are all average but play out differently. Cute Charm is not really worthwhile because Delcatty can’t typically take hits. Normalize is a unique ability to Delcatty and provides some interesting mechanics. Wonder Skin is the best all around ability if you don’t intend on using synergy with Normalize.

Delcatty has the standard Return and Double Edge STAB moves. Also like most Normal types it for some reason has Electric and Ice coverage. Throw in Iron Tail, Zen Headbutt, and Play Rough for more attacking types. Its utility is limited to some debuff moves, Sucker Punch, Fake Out, and Calm Mind. This movepool does not leave much room for experimentation which is why Smogon has so few sets available. That and the fact that its stats are so poor with a slight affinity to Physical attacking.

There is a Smogon set for Wonder Guard that involves Substitute and Calm Mind but that was in a world with Baton Pass. We are no longer in that world and in my opinion its too ambitious to believe Delcatty could actually set up more than once without being knocked out. The only set I think is interesting is the Normalize one. It runs Return for STAB even though every move is STAB with Normalize. Return does not get the +20% buff from Normalize so I did some research and the only move that out damages Return (102BP) thanks to that buff is Play Rough (108BP). I don’t know if the +6BP and the chance to lower the opponents attack is worth the 10% chance to miss but I would at least try it out. STAB Fake Out is always a solid move to run especially if you have a pivot into Delcatty since it will continuously get off chip damage. Normalize boosted Sucker Punch is your priority move. Since you can only use Normal attacks the fourth move can be utility, commonly Thunder Wave which is really cool in that it can Paralyze even Ground types. For an item I suggest Silk Scarf as a pseudo Life Orb on all your attacks.

I tried coming up with an interesting set despite Delcatty’s personal distaste for battling. I had already fleshed out the Physical side in the analysis so I tried a Special set. The strongest move it has access to is Blizzard (technically Solar Beam but we’ll say Blizzard). With Silk Scarf, Normalize, and STAB it is boosted to a 237.5BP move. For anything with decent Special Attack this would be amazing. Unfortunately, Delcatty has 55 SpAtt so it hardly does any damage and can never be Super Effective. None the less I took on the challenge. By pairing it in PU with Abomasnow to get Hail, definitely my favourite weather setter, you are able to use a Normal type Blizzard that never misses and has a 10% chance to freeze the target. This strategy had some nice unique properties that made me wish it was more viable than it ended up being. I tried to team Delcatty up with things that covered its weaknesses, Granbull for Fighting types, Camerupt for Steel types, Hitmonchan for Rock types etc but this was my first effort in PU so it ended up only going 10-6 at the bottom of the ladder. I had one battle where Delcatty swept the last three Pokemon and it was glorious but I closed the battle before saving it. Heartbreaking. After another hour of playing I got a second game where it did some damage (see replay below). Go Delcatty, you did something. I initially ran Blizzard, Hyper Voice Calm Mind, Substitute/Thunder Wave but I frequently found Delcatty was too slow to sweep. To compensate I replaced Silk Scarf with a Choice Scarf, still fashionable but even less powerful than before. I’m sure Delcatty only cares about that first part though. During my battles I actually encountered another interesting set, that’s right I found another Delcatty. It was using Fake Out and Last Resort with Silk Scarf and it did much better than mine so maybe try that instead!

http://bit.ly/2wIVJZv

While researching this article R.Sigma showed me a video of Wolfe Glick using an amazing Normalize strategy in doubles. He uses Gengar and Shadow Tag to essentially render his opponents completely useless while he chips them down. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyRLBrB8Jrc

Delcatty emerges from its Luxury Ball with a purr. Upon seeing the chalk outline of a battle field it saunters to the sidelines where it proceeds to groom its already immaculate fur, much to the bewilderment of the two competitors. Until next time, SumtimesIFly

from Pokemon of the Week #47 – Delcatty