#Looking at you the Cleffa episode

[jtl-fics]

Getting the email reminder that part 3 of Pokemon Ultimate Journeys is now on Netflix means that I will now become a VERY different person.

[otnesse]

Alright, I'm a bit annoyed with some statements indicating Misty's MPM gig was only temporary, or more accurately, she's back to being a Gym Leader after MPM, both on Bulbapedia and on Twitter. So I'm posting some things making clear Misty was if anything resuming her journey, not resuming Gym duties.

These screencaps were from her appearance in Alola, Alola when she first appeared and explained her presence:

Note the last screencaps, or two even. She specifically mentioned the reason she was at Alola, or rather, away from the gym, is because they have had so many Gym Challengers since meeting Ash for a field trip, and needed a break. On a similar note, a rather unappreciated bit about that scene is that it also implies Misty's sisters by that point had cleaned up their act and actually ARE serious battlers this time, which they weren't as late as the prior cameo she had based on this scene from the Japanese version of Alola, Kanto:

Not to mention Misty made it VERY clear in Date with Delcatty as well as both her appearances in AG that the reason she temporarily had long-term Gym Leader status was because her sisters were unreliable and prone to handing out badges, so the fact that she even entrusts them to watch the gym even temporarily, much less for any long-term/permanent basis would definitely imply Misty's sisters definitely are taking their battling abilities seriously this time.

But anyways, to get back to the overall point. This is what she says when reuniting with Ash in MPM:

Note just how different her terminology was. She makes absolutely no mention of a break, vacation, or anything that suggests it was purely a short-term departure from the gym. Far from it, she specifically indicated she set off on a journey, which suggests a far longer-term departure from the gym than her prior appearances since GCYL. That definitely doesn't point to Misty merely being on temporary leave at all, and I would have said this even if I DID prefer Misty being on the gym (I don't, BTW, not after the messup AG did with the Gym Leaders, and besides, being a Gym Leader won't get her very far into her Water Pokemon Master goal. Blaine, Flint, Candice, and various others made that very clear).

And when we get to the final episode of Ash's run, and by extension Misty and Brock's, this is the transcript for what Misty's saying (note, since this is based on the Japanese version, I'm putting the English names in brackets).

Misty: Well, [Cerulean] City is this way. (Psyduck pops out of Pokeball, then hugs Pikachu goodbye) Misty: I had a lot of fun traveling with you again. Ash & Brock: Yeah. Brock: Please tell the Sisters of [Cerulean] Gym that [Brock] sends them his kindest regards! [Misty presumably says too close] Precisely! I want to get closer to the-- (Croagunk pops out and Poison Jabs him) Brock: I'm going numb... Misty: (waving goodbye) [Ash]! [Brock]! Bye! Ash & Brock: See ya! Take care!

The only time Cerulean Gym was even brought up was when Brock eagerly tells Misty to say hi to her sisters for him. Nothing even REMOTELY suggesting she's going back to the gym to resume duties, which is ESPECIALLY unusual since the prior times she departed (not counting Alola, Kanto since that was different from the norm in that if anything, Ash visited her rather than the other way around) she usually makes it explicit that she has to return to the gym, or otherwise circumstances pop up that make it very clear she has to leave for the gym (ie, A Real Cleffa Tale had Daisy calling Misty basically threatening to hand out badges again). Might as well add Brock's transcript since this also implies some details as well:

Brock: All right, then... It's this way to [Pewter] City. I'll be off, too. Ash: Okay. Look after yourself. Brock: Let's go, [Croagunk]. (Turns to wave goodbye) See you, [Ash]! Ash: Yeah! Let's travel together again!

This last bit is particularly interesting, since it implies that at the very least Brock, if not Misty as well, were merely going back for layovers (and we definitely know Brock isn't resuming Gym Duties, either. He's been retired since Pewter City Showdown). Sure, I'd prefer Misty resumed her goal with Ash, but as far as I'm concerned, her even journeying at ALL rather than being stuck in a gym is still a huge success ultimately. Oh, and here's the video the above transcripts came from:

Quite frankly, saying Misty's resuming gym duties and even implying she's a Water Pokemon Master from that is an insult to her character that I won't abide by, especially when it's made clear from evidence in the show that it's nowhere CLOSE to that goal.

[doodledex-project]

Doodledex - #173 Cleffa

...I never really thought about it until I had to draw it, but Cleffa’s face kind of looks like Kirby’s. This is probably just coincidence, but you have to admit, the resemblance is uncanny...

A lot of the dex entries for Cleffa mention that it spends a lot of time looking up at the stars at night, looking almost like it’s thinking about home. In fact, the first ones (G/S/C) mention that because of its shape and the fact that it’s commonly found around meteor crash sites, it’s thought to come from those meteors. This is kinda funny, because this was before those anime episodes with the group of Clefairy who actually were from outer space aired! Maybe it inspired them...

[eternalstargazer]

Blame @ashgoucanon for this (you and your soulmates comments...). 😛 Kidding aside thanks for giving me the idea for this! 😄

A shooting star can symbolize many things.

In episode 46, only Ash and his pokémon are shown to be watching the shooting star, but it's not a stretch to believe Goh, who is just off to Ash's right, sees it too as the following scene has him pushing his back up against Ash's (and he was clearly listening to what Ash was saying):

... No, that wasn't me looking for an excuse to post this screenshot again despite me finding it both hilarious and adorable. It's very clearly relevant to the point I'm making.

Shush.

Anyway, both boys (and very likely their pokémon as well) hope to meet Mewtwo again one day. Shooting stars are said to have the magical ability to grant the wishes of those that see them in the sky, and Ash is essentially wishing upon it for another opportunity to see Mewtwo. Pretty clear cut, right?

In both the Japanese sub and English dub, Goh is confident that they will cross paths with Mewtwo again... which means Goh expects Ash and him to still be together when that happens; whenever that happens. Goh then talks of the future being in the palm of his hand, and Ash corrects him by saying "our hands". Ash seems to agree with Goh that they will see and share a future together; a future where they will meet Mewtwo again, among other things.

This all happens mere seconds after spotting a shooting star in the sky, so could there be more than one wish being made here? A wish to still be standing side by side when the day comes that Mewtwo is again in their sights?

Shooting stars are also said to represent new beginnings and this was the first time Ash essentially "corrected" Goh about the future being in the palm of his hand... the future is in their hands and Goh smiles, rather than question it. A new beginning for them, based on a new understanding for what they want out of the future?

Episode 83 is the second instance the boys witness a shooting star and here the significance is a little less clear, at least in my opinion. The episode doesn't come right out and say what happened to Kirara's Cleffa - at least not in the subbed version that I watched - but the impression I got was that something happened to the pokémon and that it passed away.

In Japanese culture, shooting stars have multiple meanings too. One (perhaps less common) interpretation of a shooting star is that it's the soul of a person that has died and is watching over loved ones, wishing to see them continue to live happy lives rather than be sad over their passing. I don't know if that's what this episode was going for with this scene (it would fit in with the context of the story), but I would think it's more likely than not that there's some significance to including it in the episode.

Just as with episode 46, I think this shooting star scene might have some importance beyond the main plot of the episode. While episode 46 doesn't show both Ash and Goh looking up at the shooting star, this episode clearly does.

When two people look up at the same shooting star together, it's said the person standing beside you is your soulmate; your destiny.

Even after the shooting star fades from view, the episode doesn't immediately move on; we see Ash and Goh gazing up at the stars... and while the dialogue is centered on how pretty the stars are and how many stars decorate the sky, there's something inherently intimate looking up at the night sky with someone. Stargazing is, of course, something that can be done alone or with friends, but it can also very much have romantic undertones.

So yeah, that's just one of the many interpretations of what a shooting star represents and obviously not everyone is going to see it that way or view Ash and Goh as soulmates. That doesn't mean it's any less valid than how someone else may see this scene; it's just another perspective... and if so much emphasis wasn't being placed on Ash and Goh's relationship in Journeys, I might not think of these shooting star scenes to be as significant, but... the way these two share the same interests, the amount of time they spend together (even when not on assignment), the blushing and the touching, the emotional support... yeah, in my opinion, they are absolutely soulmates in every sense of the word.

So thanks once more to @ashgoucanon for inspiring me to look for ways the anime could be subtly implying just how deep Ash and Goh's bond might be through the use of symbolism. Let that be a lesson to anyone that comments on something I post - I may just take a one or two sentence comment and turn it into something that goes on for far too long. 🤣

Ah well... I haven't posted any image edits lately so I'll just tack these on here. Just did some color tweaking, applied some filters, edited in a shooting star from a different angle, etc...

[torchickentacos]

Battle Frontier Arc Episode 3: A Real Cleffa-Hanger!

So, we have our first filler it seems. We're headed to the battle factory, and Misty is along this time! I somehow missed this episode as a kid.

Quick Daisy cameo, love her. She's so fun-especially in Chronicles, which I recently watched an episode of with friends!

So, we're at the base of Mt. Moon. Max makes sone snide remark to his sister about how EvErYbOdY knows cleffa never reveal themselves to humans. So a cleffa, fueled by spite if I were to assume, reveals itself .5 seconds later. This looks like a classic 'help lost pokemon get home' episode so far. Not bad, but we've seen it many times over. Cleffa comes over and immediately starts playing with the other pokemon (bless corphish, he looks so concerned lmao).

Turns out, Cleffa loves the pokemon but is scared of humans, or at least May who immediately approaches the wild animal. But this is pokemon, where that's a normal and usually safe thing to do, so I'll let it slide. Max makes yet another snide remark about how Cleffa is running from May's scary face and then 'hides' behind Misty. I LOVE THE MISTY AND MAX FRIENDSHIP. SO MUCH. I assume it's youngest sibling solidarity, but I'm the oldest so I wouldn't know. Either way, SUPER fun dynamic I wish we saw more of. Also, cleffa's voice is very noticeably just Misty but whatever.

Team rocket shows up with one of their sucky machines (which. by the way. What's the power of those? Because in this episode it only gets Azurill and Cleffa. but in Who What When Where Wynaut, which yes, I do have entirely memorized thank you for asking, it manages to get all pokemon, all party members plus drew who did not ask to be included in any of this, and it's magikarp shaped, as if that makes it LESS conspicuous. Do they not standardize the sucking power of their machines??? Is it just random every time???? What do you even call units of suckage??? Moving on from this before I make an inevitable suck/blow power joke here.) ANYWAYS. Swellow gets them back, and oh-nevermind, THERE'S the powerful sucking that picks up all of them but not the humans this time. Again, no standardization. Moving on. A single poison tail from Seviper does a lot of damage to pikachu, nonexistent power scaling, hello my old friend, you guys know how this goes. Also, this.

All pokemon get blown out when Jessie accidentally puts it in reverse, this seems to be an incredible waste of time honestly, but we have 20 minutes to fill. AG is so funny with this because some episodes, it's just FULL of crazy/entertaining shit happening (not a moment of spontaneous combusken is dull, for better or worse) and other times they have to call in team rocket to waste time.

TR explodes their own machine, which somehow only blows Max and Misty away???, and there's our plot, I guess. Similar to Who What When Where Wynaut, I assume this episode is going to be 'team members get split up, let's find them'. Except in this case, the split-up team members are actually both somewhat functional human beings who I imagine will NOT fall off of a cliff into a river with an oncoming waterfall, but we'll see.

Oh. nevermind. No waterfall this time, though. Not joking, I pause and write these as I watch the episodes, and I had no idea this would be the very next frame after I unpaused.

Shoutout to Misty's bag, which I would pay a lot of money for to own irl.

We see a clefairy and clefable looking for Cleffa. These two run into Ash, May, and Brock.

Max is such a little shit tbh. He rags on May and Ash for not being the best like no one ever was. I KNOWWWWW he's the annoying little brother but it feels needlessly rude in this episode, honestly. Though, I think it could be that with Misty, he has a place to actually get it all out? Idk, maybe this is just venting but in an eight year old asshole kinda way.

Oh. here we are again. May and Drew have been beat in the 'falling off of a cliff' category, 2 to 1.

We get a sweet little sibling moment with Misty and Max. (Though. Max says may is practically helpless without him, which...whatever helps him sleep at night).

Everybody runs into eachother again, cleffa family included, team rocket shwos up, does their thing, Misty uses bubble and it looks like the cgi from the celebi movie, TR goes away, end of episode. Cleffa and friends use emtronome and somehow all get the same move instead of a tail whip, tackle, draco meteor, stun spore, et cetera. Munchlax also joins, which is fun. I do like that they remembered Munchlax here. Cute, better filler than we get other times but we've also had filler better than this. MIsty and Max are the main draw here, though Max could have been written better.

Pros: Misty and max bonding, and the clefairy guy from gen 1 didn't show up. This guy. Glad to not see him tbh, he irks me.

Cons: ag filler, could have had fun moon stone for skitty????

[theerurishipper]

This is the first time I've ever been prompted to actually post something, but what was that battle.

I looked forward to this for a while, and it fell short of my standards by a long shot. It wasn't bad, I enjoyed it well enough, but these are supposed to be the strongest trainers in the world. Why are they getting one shotted, or two shotted? Steven was built up as this awesome trainer who was kicking Alain's ass in TSME and this is how easily he goes out? I know that Ash is strong enough to beat him but it wasn't shown well, at all. The Masters Tournament and JN in general has a huge problem with the battles being stiff and lacking in creativity. Every now and then we have some gems, but other than that? The same formula of Ash being cornered and overcoming it, with one shots galore. This is no different. Lance vs Diantha and Iris vs Cynthia were so much better. And the battles were good in the beginning of the series too, but as it went on it became so formulaic and uninspired. And what happened to the animation? It's so stiff sometimes. I'm not impressed.

(Are the battles so bad because they're trying to be like the games? Because Goh is Pokemon Go, and so... is Ash gonna emulate game style battling now? I don't know).

More on JN in general under the cut because I'm a coward.

I won't say that JN is a bad series. But it has a lot of issues with its pacing. Why are we getting two Chloe episodes in the middle of the M8? Why didn't Chloe get any focus before this other than a few, admittedly well written, episodes? Why didn't we see Ash's rise through the other classes? There are only 3 characters to focus on ffs, it shouldn't be that hard to divide episodes between them. Sun and Moon had so many and yet even characters like Mallow who were a bit neglected had a strong character and focus. At least she appeared as a main character. Chloe doesn't appear in half the episodes though, so...what? And dont get me started on Project Mew. Good concept, bad execution. How many episodes did we even get on that? We spent no valuable time on it, and the episodes were so boring. Horace and Gary as rivals is a good concept but the episodes feel so far apart that I forgot what it was. It's good development for Goh, I guess, but is it? My feelings on Project Mew are conflicted and my most positive response is that it just bores me. And Team Rocket are a shadow of their former selves. They don't catch pokemon, instead they use that stupid machine. The one redeeming quality of Team Rocket is that they really love each other and that they really love their pokemon. And it's been taken away from them, so why are they here? It's nice to see them supporting Ash, but they've lost their essence.

Not to say that JN is bad as a whole. Every series has its strengths and weaknesses. XY had a Gary-stu Ash and he was boring, Serena didn't have much going for her either. It lacked great characterisation. Sun and Moon didn't know how to handle so many characters and its comedic timing needed work (this issue was resolved though, I can't criticize Sun and Moon too much, I'm sorry). And JN, to its credit, has very strong character writing when the character is given a chance to be written. As a whole, Chloe's arc sucks but the individual episodes are very good. Goh is honestly a well written character and has many good episodes that help him develop in a natural way. Admittedly his development is rushed but it is still solid. You can see how much he's grown and learned from Ash. But I'm not a fan of sidelining Cinderace and Inteleon after their evolution.

If you took any one episode of JN without context and watched it, you'd probably like it, other than a select few. The episode with the girl and her Cleffa was on par with Sun and Moon's episodes tackling the same subject. The episode with Goh and Drizzle was really good. The Alola episodes were amazing, as expected. JN does well with the worldbuilding and this is the first series that made me feel like there was a whole world of pokemon. The world feels alive and the characters feel real, and they have certain moments that actually made me think, that is, I feel like they actually have some complex thought processes which I didnt really get from other series (except of course Sun and Moon). The companion returns feel natural and their character and dynamics with the new cast feel natural too. Where they are now shows their growth and the way they are used as mentors for the new cast shows how far they've come. I think JN has a lot of good and natural interactions between characters too. I'm not a huge fan of how Gary has been doing in the series, but that conversation with Goh in 113 about why he's in Project Mew if taken by itself is pretty good.

But we shouldn't have to take it alone. And I can't say that all the returns got good treatment either. Iris got outstanding treatment. Her character was handled well, she mellowed out more which showed her growth, she was allowed to be part of the M8 as Unova Champion and go toe to toe with her idol Cynthia. Dawn too got a good return with her appearing in many episodes and being able to show off how far she's come with her dynamic with Chloe and being like a mentor to her. Lillie and Gladion got a beautiful end to their journey that began in Sun and Moon, and Sophocles got a good episode too. Gary is fine too, his character is well incorporated. I wish he interacted with Ash though. Paul was done well, with him clearly having changed a lot and grown. Greninja as a mentor to Lucario was well done and they nailed his character and his power. The cameos are great, I love the distinct battle styles they gave each Champion, but... Alain.

Fuck that, they massacred him. I'm not even Alain's biggest fan. I like him, and I was looking forward to seeing him, but not a huge fan. And even I think they ruined him. I don't mind that he didn't battle Ash. But I wanted him to be shown the respect he deserves, and he was given a mere half episode to shine and then demolished to show off Leon. I get why, but they could have treated him better. Alain is no pushover either. But this highlights the main problem with JN, great ideas, poor execution. JN has ambition but falls woefully short most of the time. I respect the writers for being bold enough to try this new formula but they didn't pull it off. JN is really not a bad series and it keeps me excited but not for the quality of the episodes. In no way are they bad but I'm more excited for the spectacle of nostalgia than for anything the series itself has done. I'm fond of this season because it gave me fanservice. I got companion returns which were done reasonably well, some nice episodes, the game champions duking it out in a tournament, Alola rights, and basically everything I love about JN is because of other seasons.

Again I will say that JN isn't bad. But it's not good either, and watching it after something like Sun and Moon feels like a downgrade. Sun and Moon had its own flaws as did every season, but JN has some that even I can't really overlook anymore. It's no Black and White, but it's no Sun and Moon or XY either. It's... there, it's reasonably enjoyable, it had some great ideas that excited Twitter, but it fell short of its own hype.

I really want to love JN. And for a while in the beginning, I did. I still like it, but it's not the same. Maybe after a while I can look back at the good and enjoy it for what it is. I've done it before with other series once I've accepted whatever happens. But the fact that I have to is sad. I'm not mad, just... disappointed, I guess.

[spikemuthtoothfairy]

Coswellian Cleffa/Clefairy/Clefable

Arguably Coswellia’s most famous regional variant, the Clef line have adapted to the harsh and quite literally ‘alien’ enviroment of Groom Mountain (and several other locations throughout Coswellia) by becoming part Steel type. The metal that covers their hands, ears and forms the ‘skirt’ on the latter two of the line is incredibly tough (so tough in fact that there is no known way to scratch it) and is instrumental in regards to their culture and general place in the region.

General notes

The coloured gems that form from the fingers (and decorate the skirts) are not predetermined and genetics play no part in dictating what the offspring will have. It is entirely possible to see one of the line with a set of identical coloured fingers or (admittedly far more rarely) a full skirt of one colour, but both at once has only ever been rumoured at. Aficionados continue to search.

The gems serve as both a means for the line to channel their attacks as well as communication over vast distances via pulsing them with moonlight, both between individuals of colonies and entire colonies themselves. 

It is not uncommon on clear nights to see Groom Mountain - and the sky itself from Clefable - lit up by various coloured lights from all around the region as colonies and individuals communicate. 

So far this language has yet to be decoded but the similarity of this to the Beeheyem line has been noted. The two species even be able to communicate like this to a degree, when they meet on good terms. 

These gems, much like the metal itself, is impossible to damage or remove normally. They are anchored into place heavily, even on the skirts of Clefairy where they seem as if they could be torn free.

They are, as a subspecies, incredibly industrious. It is believed they have the capacity to shape the ore found in Groom Mountain (and wherever else they dwell) into the same metal as coats them, which they use to form their dwellings and line their burrows. There are entire ‘villages’ to be found in Groom Mountain, if one knows where to look.

As with all members of the line, they worship the moon - and the displays from the various colonies on the full moon can be absolutely breathtaking; it is almost impossible to miss them and they make a wonderful tourist attraction (from a distance!).

As noted, the line is incredibly popular and forms the basis for many tourist-related attractions in the region, though there are strict limits on tourists interacting with colonies under normal circumstances so as not to cause too much disturbance.

They are primarily nocturnal, though it is not impossible to spot them out during the daytime.

Cleffa

Cleffa are the most difficult of the line to find naturally in the wild in Coswellia, as they will typically stay incredibly close to the nests. The most curious will wander away and can be found, however.

They do not gain the Steel typing until they evolve, remaining pure Fairy.

They have limited control over the intensity of their gems; while they have an instinctive knowledge of general communication the majority of their own inter-colony language will be taught by their evolution (or more experienced Cleffa!). 

In practice this means that their most common defensive technique against a threat is to temporarily blind them - they can learn Flash naturally!

Clefairy

Clefairy are, as expected, the most commonly found of the line (though Clefable are actually not far behind compared to most regions). They form the bulk of the colonies in Coswellia.

They gain the Steel typing at this point, naturally.

Their skirts grow in upon evolution and, as stated above, the pattern of gems that forms the hem is random. This is also true for their new fingers!

Clefairy cannot truly fly as their evolution can, but they are also capable of walking on the ground. Their skirt is flexible enough - and short enough - at this stage to where it is an option.

Clefairy will instead ‘bounce’ by storing moonlight in their wings and projecting it in bursts through their skirt, allowing them to clear gaps and climb throughout their homes. This is also how they cross long distances; they will propel themselves off of high enough ledges and harden their skirt while projecting stored moonlight through it - allowing them to float incredibly long distances. Alongside their evolution (who are far more culpable) this is the main cause for ‘UFO’ calls from tourists and unaware natives who glance a Clefairy gliding through the night sky.

Their wings act as rudders and propulsion both, as with the main Kantonian species!

This also plays a big part of how Clefairy will fight off threats if possible - floating above attackers and hammering them with fairy and steel attacks from their gems.

Most Clefairy will not evolve into Clefable - they will live their entire lives in this stage.

Clefable

Coswellian Clefable are surprisingly the most seen of all of the line in stark contrast to most regions and they make up a larger percentage of the total population than most too. This is thought to be down to the higher concentration of Moon Stones in the region as much as it is the role Clefable play in colonies.

Though smaller colonies may only have a single Clefable, they often take up leadership roles as well as forming both the primary means of defence for the colony.

At this point their skirt elongates and hardens into complete rigidity. The length of the skirt surpasses the length of the Clefable’s body and thus they become incapable of touching the ground with their feet. To compensate for this, Clefable utilise stored moonlight as a means of constant propulsion - they hover several feet off the ground at all times (thus gaining Levitate).

Being caught under this beam of moonlight does nothing, though people have reported they feel ‘floaty’.

They are also capable of complete and total flight, unlike Clefairy - they can ascend, descend and move in any direction at will and at considerable speed. It is because of this that they are the most often seen in the night sky as they go about their business. They are also the primary source for UFO scares in the region!

The gems that formed the hem of their skirt as a Clefairy solidify into clusters around the ‘tors’, allowing Clefable to channel much more powerful attacks through them and giving them far greater offence than their pre-evolutions. The sheer level of firepower they can dish out is terrifying in battle. They are also incredibly good defensively, both given their types, aerial mobility and access to various barriers. 

These gems are also the brightest and Clefable are responsible for the most complex communication between colonies.

OOC notes:

So these are the first in a line of hopefully many more posts about my region, Coswellia! As one can imagine these regional variants were inspired by UFO’s, the fact the line is likely from space and their episodes in the anime! As well as movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind!

A massive thanks to @invictarre​ for the artwork (love you!) and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

[punz4lyfe]

Random topic, but do you think you could rate/review all of Ash's egg-hatched mons (not including Greninja cause he didn't hatch in Ash's care)?

Sure, why not?

Ash’s Donphan

- He was okay. When he started out as a Phanpy in Johto, he didn’t really stick that much to be honest. In fact, he kinda jobbed until the very end, but there were some instances where his effort was kind of crucial for his teammates, like during Ash’s league match against Macy. Other then that, there was one episode with the alien Clefairy where he forged a cute little friendship with a Cleffa that left him crying when they had to part ways, but honestly looking back, they could’ve done a little more with him, like when Larvitar hatched, he could’ve stepped in as an older sibling just as Pikachu did for him. He got a little better as Donphan, scoring a few more victories, albeit, not as much as his teammates in the Battle Frontier. I am happy however he still kept his fun-loving personality after evolving, something many of Ash’s Pokemon fail to do. Overall, just an okay Pokemon.

Ash’s Larvitar

- Technically never a part of Ash’s roster, but I’m gonna include him anyway. Good story, good development, do I wish it joined Ash’s team? Mmmmmaaaaaybe, but where it’s arc ended is honestly perfect to me. Overall, while not a main addition, still had a great story and character arc to it.

Ash’s Scraggy

- Pretty great in my eyes. Not only was his moveset and track record above decent, but it had a charming scrappy personality and its bond with Axew was quite adorable. Honestly, my ONLY gripe was that it would’ve been the perfect mon to evolve in the Best Wishes series. Not only was its evolution form BARELY seen in the entire Best Wishes series (in fact, I can only recall one appearance on the top of my head), but it could’ve been good motivation for Axew to try to evolve as well. It’s his goal to evolve, plus, think of how interesting it would be for the older sibling to see their younger sibling evolve first before them! Good character arc kickstarter right there! Overall, really great character with tons of power and personality to boot.

Ash’s Noivern

- Sorry fellow XYZ fans, but Noivern was wasted potential. He jobbed a little as a Noibat, which was understandable cause he was a baby, and when he evolved.... he just continued to job with absolute ZERO wins on his belt. And even outside of battles he barely stood out. His personality was a lot more charming as Noibat with his whole admiration towards Hawlucha, but after evolving, he was mostly just there, like a more silent version of Alexa’s Noivern. It would’ve been cool and funny to see him still act baby-like considering how quick he evolved, but we only got a small sample of that in the very last episode. He never even partook in a single gym battle, though to be fair, a large majority of the gyms he COULD’VE participate in would’ve completely bodied him. (recall the Fairy and Ice types, y’all?) Overall, a mon that could’ve had so much going for him, but at the end of the day, just became a load of wasted material.

Ash’s Lucario

- Gonna zigzag a lot on this one. As of now, my biggest problem with Lucario is that the writers have no idea on how to depict him. To put it in perspective, when he first hatched as a Riolu, he was scrappy, prideful, HATED to be coddled, and he seemed to only respect Ash as a trainer and so much as a caregiver as he wanted to do his own thing.... but in literally his very next appearance, he was now suddenly very dependent of Ash to the point of clinging onto him whenever he gets scared, even though he was perfectly fine with one-v-one-ing a wild Onix? Ummm, what? Did we miss something? After that, he kept trying to basically be a second Pikachu, which was fine I guess. Maybe it was his way of trying to connect to the world. When he evolved into Lucario, he seemingly kept his 2nd Pikachu traits, happily fist-bumping his trainer after defeating Rose, doing the same with Pikachu and Cinderace when they reunite with Goh, and then cheering with all his friends after catching Eternatus. BUT then in episode 48, he’s suddenly back to his cold and edgy personality previously shown in its debut appearance. Seriously, what direction do the writers want to take this character? Not only that, but he can be quite the screen hog sometimes. He’s literally been in more battles than Dragonite, Gengar, and Farfetch’d, heck, he’s been out of his Pokeball than all three of them combined! I mean, I was one of the many fans who wanted Ash to get a Riolu/Lucario since Sinnoh, but this is just too much. I WANT to like his character more, he’s got a cool moveset after all and his bond with Ash is pretty cute, but I just want him to be more consistent. Overall, he’s still got a lot of good potential within him, but depending on where the writers take him, he’ll either end up as a really cool ace or a glorified screen hog.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Jigglypuff Playthrough (Fire Red)

Fighter: Jigglypuff

Game: Pokémon Fire Red, Game Boy Advance. First Released on January 29th 2004.

Fighter Bio.

Jigglypuff is known as the balloon Pokémon, being the evolution of Igglybuff and evolving into Wigglytuff with the use of a Moon Stone. With its nature as a balloon Pokémon it can increase its size by inhaling air and in some cases deflate itself becoming almost flat. It can use its large eyes to mesmerize opponents and when it has their attention then inflates its lungs before singing a melody. The melody varies from place to place with it even in some cases simply sounding like it’s shouting, however it is very skilled at putting opponents to sleep with its voice. It is often found in lush green plains and grassy meadows. There have not particularly been many notable specific Jigglypuff in the game series with the only one that really sticks out being one which sits in the Pokémon Centre in Pewter City. If talked to it will sing its song, which matches the theme from the anime. An NPC nearby will say how when it sings he feels sleepy and in Pokémon Yellow, if Pikachu is following and Jigglypuff sings it will fall asleep.

Enemies/Rivals: Honestly, this barely counts as a rivalry, but in the anime, which aspects of Super Smash Bros have been inspired by when it comes to Pokémon, there is an episode where Jigglypuff seems to have a rivalry with Clefairy. The two species tend to live in the vicinity of each other when it comes to Kanto with Jigglypuff living on the route leading to Mount Moon and Clefairy living within Mount Moon, however nothing beyond an episode of the anime has been specifically stated, still I wanted to mention it at least.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Similar to Pikachu and most other Pokémon, Jigglypuff hasn’t really had any crossovers with other Smash characters outside of its series. There was a cameo of the game Mario & Wario in the Kanto games, appearing on the tv in the character Copycat’s house, but that is the closest there has been to an actual crossover. With Jigglypuff being far less prominent than Pikachu it has also not had as many appearances overall.

Why this game?

I was going to say this was a fairly simple choice before, however very recently I have considered instead doing a separate game for Jigglypuff, specifically due to a new release, but because this release was so recent I decided instead to stick with my original game for Jigglypuff being Fire Red. I will get to the other game down the line, but I feel as it’s still so new I’d rather give it some time before talking about it. I will mention an aspect why I considered that game later on in this post, and if you look at my list of games I’ve completed you’ll probably be able to work out what game it was I considered. As for why Fire Red, well as with Pikachu, it’s simply that I consider Fire Red and Leaf Green as the definitive Kanto experiences when it comes down to it, and when I can, I like to play either the game generation where a Pokémon debuted or in some cases where they gained a significant feature, such as a Mega Evolution.

My past with this Pokémon.

So, unlike with Pikachu, I don’t feel there’s an awful lot I can say about Jigglypuff, despite me having been with the series since Gen 1. When it comes to the games, Jigglypuff is somewhat interesting to me, it’s a fairly unique Pokémon that only shows up uncommonly in one location in Kanto. As such, compared to a lot of the other Pokémon you find on that Route Jigglypuff stands out a fair bit being sort of a similar novelty in my mind to Pikachu in Viridian Forest. Of course, the bigger role for Jigglypuff and most likely why it was chosen for Super Smash Bros was its appearance in the anime, with a specific Jigglypuff being a recurring extra who would sing to people putting everyone there asleep. Jigglypuff then would get angry that everyone slept through its song and draw on their faces. This role seemed to make Jigglypuff somewhat popular back in the early days of the series, however over time Jigglypuff stopped appearing in the anime (which is understandable as it would outlast its welcome, like some other running jokes could in the anime) and overall faded somewhat in prominence, with other Pokémon from the first Generation overtaking it’s popularity in recent years such as Charizard and Eevee.

It’s due to this people for some time, myself admittedly included tended to think if any character would likely get cut from the Super Smash Bros roster it would be Jigglypuff, but I’m glad they’ve not. Jigglypuff is an unconventional character, being just simply a regular Pokémon and not one who’s been promoted really heavily like Lucario for example, so I appreciate its presence all these years. As for past Gen 1, Jigglypuff has only really had two notable changes. The first was it gained a pre-evolution or ‘baby form’ in Igglybuff, which is one of those Pokémon I tend to forget exist sometimes. (This isn’t to say I dislike it, just that it, Cleffa and Happiny are Pokémon I’ve not really had on one of my teams before, and I’ve only in recent years started really using the breeding mechanics in the games.) The second big development for Jigglypuff is one which happened for a few older Pokémon in Gen 6, that being the introduction of a new Pokémon type, Fairy. With this new type introduced, some older Pokémon gained this as a secondary type, with Jigglypuff in this case becoming a Normal Fairy type. As a Pokémon, Jigglypuff’s evolutionary line tend to have fairly high HP. I’m not an expert really on how good certain Pokémon are comparatively to others etc, so all I can really say is in my experience I remember Wigglytuff being able to take a few blows similar to Chansey and Clefable. With that said however, I believe out of the three it’s the one which can take the least hits as its defence isn’t particularly good, it just has a lot of HP. With it gaining a fairy typing it got a few more advantages with access to better moves, its main strength being special rather than physical attacks overall.

My Smash Playthrough.

At the end of my playthrough of Fire Red my Jigglypuff was at level 57 with the ability cute charm and a calm nature, having been caught on Route 3 at level 5. The moves Jigglypuff has are Sing, Double-Edge, Pound and Rest. In order for Jigglypuff to use rollout in this game it has to be bred and inherit the move as an egg move, however breeding in Fire Red is only available in the post-game, therefore I decided for this playthrough to go for a move at least close to it. I decided on Double-Edge due to the risk rollout holds in Super Smash Bros since you can easily go off the stage with it if you’re not careful. I felt this matched Double Edge damaging the user. Honestly, when it came down to it, Jigglypuff was the weakest member of my team alongside Squirtle. I feel like Wigglytuff would likely have stood more of a chance, although only perhaps in the sense it could have survived maybe an attack and respond, but Jigglypuff, other than with regular Pokémon Trainers and wild Pokémon, would only really be useful taking a hit so I could heal up other team members. I believe earlier in the game it managed to pull off one or two victories, mostly only being able to get the final blow on an opponent my other Pokémon had weakened already, however Jigglypuff’s low speed meant this was still risky. There was one occasion where Jigglypuff stood out in my run, with a lot of luck against Agatha. Jigglypuff was able somehow to avoid hypnosis 4 times and put Gengar to sleep with sing, allowing me to recover my team and take them down. That run of the Elite 4 was unsuccessful, but it was probably Jigglypuff’s shining moment. Overall however there weren’t many memories I really had with Jigglypuff specifically in my playthrough and they ended up being one of the team members I had to spend the most time trying to keep up with the rest of the team in levels. I do have to give Jigglypuff credit on one front however, its sing move was very useful in catching Pokemon without having to switch to a weaker team, it could take the hits of weaker wild Pokemon and just keep going until they were put to sleep, not to mention its low attack stat often meaning it could use pound without knocking them down in one blow.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Jigglypuff in Smash.

So, as stated earlier, I mostly kept the same moves for Jigglypuff as in Super Smash Bros, with Pound, Rest and Sing, however Rollout was unavailable until the post-game for Fire Red. With this said, in later games I have put together teams of the Pokémon from Smash with all the moves they need, so I have a Jigglypuff with Pound, Rest, Sing and Rollout. I did have this Pokémon in Pokémon Ultra Moon which was originally where I was going to leave this, however, with the Isle of Armour update in Sword and Shield, I was able to get Jigglypuff in that game. The reason this is something I was particularly pleased for relates to the final aspect of Jigglypuff in Smash, that being its Final Smash. In Super Smash Bros, Jigglypuff will use Puff Up, a move where it inflates to a giant size, pushing all others off the stage before reverting back to its regular size. This move wasn’t based on anything specifically from the games, beyond Jigglypuff being described as the balloon Pokémon and having a great lung capacity. What’s funny is that in Sword and Shield, Dynamaxing was introduced, where Pokémon will grow to a giant size. Jigglypuff wasn’t available in the base game, but with the update adding it to the game however, it gained access to Dynamaxing, being very close to it’s Puff Up Final Smash. It was for this reason I considered playing Sword and Shield as the game for this Pokémon, however in the end I figured I will cover that game later (and there’s a lot to say on it) and for now I would stick with Fire Red for Jigglypuff. Finally, I caught Jigglypuff in a regular Pokeball, matching the regular Pokeball thrown onto the stage in its entrance animation in Smash.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Bulbapedia.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Pokemon Ultra Moon’s Photo Club feature and the screenshot feature on the Nintendo Switch.

[idonthaveacleverquip]

Summary of Cave Troll!

I was going to put this in the notes of the latest chapter but it ended up being the length of my average one-shot so OOPS!

Anyway! Summary of Cave Troll for those who were readers and don't have the time or energy to go back and re-read all 71 chapters after a year of Hiatus! 2020 has been HELLacious!

Read Adventures of Guzma & the 'Cave Troll'

Summary under the cut, will be updated as the story progresses~!

Day 1

Guzma arrives in Sinnoh; Guzma wears a lot of coats and forgets his backpack; Everyone Man appears, Everywhere; Ponyta are Jerks; Golispod loves ribbons; Guzma finds Turnback Cave and wishes he turned back; 36 hours are spent wandering and bonding with Local Cave Troll; Cyrus puts Guzma to sleep with his bedtime star story; Giratina claims it’s a Bug Dragon; Selfie with Giratina; Giratina orders Cyrus to stay with Guzma and shoots them with a mystery attack when Cyrus tries to go back into the Distortion World; Only 10 minutes passed outside the cave; Guzma sends the selfie to Plumeria and bulldozes all the trainers on Route 214; Guzma and Cyrus have dinner at the Seven Stars Restaurant; Cyrus takes them back to Galactic headquarters; Saturn finds them; Golisopod eats a sock (Cyrus’ sock); Guzma and Golisopod destroy the bathroom; Guzma flashes them all (woops); Cyrus sleeps in a chair and Saturn stays up all night researching who tf Guzma could possibly be, discovering all Guzma’s information has been expunged.

Chapters 001 – 017

Day 2

Guzma tries to leave Sinnoh and discovers he has a one-way ticket; There are no new flights out for a month; Cyrus realizes his life was BORING and Saturn is too overbearing; Cyrus gave Guzma the undershirt and pants for a Galactic Grunt uniform so he can ditch the coats; Cyrus sneaks himself and Guzma out of Headquarters and heads for Celestic Town; Guzma battles every trainer despite the rain; Guzma battles an Everywhere Man and his legion of Ponyta; Everywhere Man texts Guzma’s location; Saturn Discovers Cyrus is missing; Break time at the Milk Cafe; Guzma tells about Team Skull and working with Lusamine to open a dimensional hole (Dude, she was Hot) trying to make Cyrus think he’s cool; Cyrus most definitely doesn’t think Guzma is cool; Cyrus ditches Guzma in Celestic town and returns to Turnback Cave; Guzma goes bug hunting; Cyrus and Guzma body swap! Nobody sleeps.

Chapters 018 – 023

Day 3

Cyrus experiences EMOTIONS and a panic attack in Guzma’s body; Guzma manages to escape the cave, confuse Cyrus’ Pokémon, and face plant a few times before finding Golispod and Cyrus who got sick; Guzma uses Cyrus’ map to lead them to Solaceon; Nanu is given the OK to get Guzma back to Alola by any means; Flint and Aaron investigate Galactic Headquarters and stress out Saturn (It’s Cronus!).

Chapters 024 – 027

Day 4

Golisopod remains by Cyrus’ side, thinking he’s Guzma; Guzma explores Solaceon in Cyrus’ body, alone; Cyrus’ Pokémon are left at the daycare; Cleffa is older than first thought.

Chapters 028

Day 5

The body swap ends; Cyrus has minor panic without his Pokémon; Guzma is very quiet, still recovering from the cold and stunned by how much excess emotion he has and never realized; Cyrus is stunned at his Pokémon’s positive behavior when he gets them from the daycare; Guzma receives the Seal Case after helping a lady with her groceries; Golispod hears of Contest ribbons and is determined to get some; Guzma has a reputation after all his battling and gets many challenges on the way to Hearthome; Guzma has depression episode at bedtime realizing he’s been in Sinnoh a week and feels he hasn’t really done anything.

Chapters 029 – 032

Day 6

Saturn finally contacts Mars and Jupiter and convinces them Cyrus is back; Guzma knows nothing about Contests but Cyris is strangely well informed; Cyrus tries to teach Guzma to makes Poffins, it does not end well; They go to see a contest and Guzma gets dragged into the lineup; Fantina rescues him and asks him to cheer for her; Cyrus is caught after the performance, apparently he and Fantina have much history together; Fantina gets Guzma to do the thing (DeleleleleWOOOOP!); Fantina reveals how she and Cyrus met from her point of view; Cyrus is upset and fidgeting; Fantina tells Guzma to give Cyrus a chance (He’s a GOOD boi!); Guzma tries to deescalate the situation so Cyrus will calm down; Cyrus gets more berries and Guzma finds honey; Guzma proceeds to WEAR the honey; Looker brings Guzma’s parents in to custody for multiple counts of child abuse and anything else Nanu managed to dig up; Guzma and Cyrus sleep in yet another cave.

Chapters 033 – 040

Day 7

The boys wake past noon; Nanu calls and Guzma hangs up; Guzma discovers the International Police are looking for him, but he doesn’t know why; Everyone Man arrives; His name is long so everyone calls him NPC, it’s a family nickname; Guzma gets his bag back!!; Arrive in Oreburg; Plumeria packed the bag for him and included a gift from nanu he received before Lusamine went off the deep end (Open it when you figure out what you really want); Guzma still refuses to open it; Guzma leaves Cyrus in the Pokémon Center to go bug hunting; Cyrus can only doze without the now familiar sound of the noises Guzma; Guzma dozes off while bug hunting.

Chapters 041 – 042

Day 8

Guzma catches a Kricketot; Cyrus was really worried and went to look for Guzma; Guzma gives Cyrus a one-armed hug; Cyrus is paranoid of Kricketot; Kricketot has to be balled for cuddling Cyrus, leaving the man a nervous wreck; School Expo at Jubilife, Cyrus is caught on camera; Guzma gets poketch for helping out; Cyrus thinks he’s being clever but actually dragged them into another side quest; Clown Quest, lots of electrocutions, three new apps are obtained; Guzma and Cyrus take the kids into Route 203 to evolve Kricketot; Joltic are found, Guzma is mean, food is shared, Cyrus can’t resist zapping Guzma again; Kriketot evolves, everyone does the thing (DELELELELEWOOOOOP!); Kids are returned and the boys head back into the wilds; Golispod steals a TM and teaches itself a new move; Guzma wanders off after Cyrus falls asleep; Guzma doesn’t sleep again.

Chapters 043 – 054

Day 9

Cyrus wakes up alone at dark AM; Cyrus finds Guzma before sunrise and they watch a romantic wild Kricketot concert together; They get knocked into the mud; Guzma does laundry and uses Cyrus’ detergent; Ends up it’s like Pokenip to Bug-types; Golisopod’s new move is Confide; Guzma agrees to stay in the pokémon center, but the school expo aires on TV, so Cyrus ushers them out; Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Aaron and Flint all see the broadcast; Aaron doesn’t notice Cyrus, only sees Golisopod and Guzma; Guzmas gets a fanclub on route 204, Samantha and 4 brothers named Brandon; Cyrus slips another TM to Golispod; The gang trek to Floaroma town and get honey; The honey man may be traumatized; Guzma attracts a lot of Combee and catches a female; Cyrus is out of Max Repel; Burmy invade the campsite, but so does a Munchlax; Munchlax tears his bag and steals his honey; Guzma has a rage fit in front of the kids and Cyrus calms him down; Cyrus sews his bag back together; Cyrus pretends to sleep, Guzma is super soft with him; Everyone gets a much needed rest.

Chapters 054 – 060

Day 10

Guzma apologizes to kids; Guzma shares his food with Cyrus; Cyrus agrees to go to Eterna Forest; The kids pretend to make a documentary on “the Bugman” as he stalks his “prey”; Phillip, Jack and Donald join the bug fanclub, and alert to the Old Chateau; Cyrus plays Guzma into going inside; Guzma eats the Old Gateau, not by choice; Cyrus is ghost-napped; Guzma has many ghostly scares; Guzma is paralyzed and wakes to see distorted Cyrus in a TV; Guzma screams loud enough for the kids to hear them outside; Rotom was in the TV; Cyrus and Rotom were friends and, after running away from home, Cyrus used to live in the old Chateau with Cleffa, Rotom, Ghastly, Haunter, and a Sneasel which would later be his own Weavile; Rotom and Golisopod interact and Rotom begs to join the team; Rotom possesses Guzma’s cellphone; The group heads for Eterna City.

Chapters 061 – 066

Day 11

The bug fanclub multiplies; Offscreen bonding between Guzma and Cyrus occurs; the Explorer Kit is obtained; Guzma’s parents flee Alola; Nanu can’t get a hold of Guzma; Rotophone texts emotes then sends a picture of Guzma, Cyrus and the kids; Looker sees Cyrus in the picture and freaks out; Looker contacts Cynthia and blackmails her into helping to track down Guzma.

Chapters 067

Day 12

Guzma is no good at The Underground; Cyrus gives Guzma a Claw Fossil; Guzma gives major big hug and Cyrus clips out of existence; Cyrus dissociates and leaves the Pokémon Center; Guzma is worried he doesn’t see Cyrus, but since Cyrus left all his things Guzma convinces himself nothing is wrong; Guzma doesn’t sleep well.

Chapters 068 – 069

Day 13

Cyrus is definitely Missing; Guzma collects Cyrus’ things and his Pokémon and tries to find him; Guzma gets sad/mad when he can’t and storms to Eterna Forest; Cyrus flashes back to a previous time he dissociated with Fantina, and registers his body enough to know he’s climbing the wall to Sendoff Spring; Guzma gets lost and meets Aaron in the forest; Guzma tries to battle with Honchkrow; Aaron has to call the battle off to go meet Flint at Floaroma, Guzma tags along; Body Swap 2; Giratina threatens to swap them permanently; Cyrus gets a new understanding for the title Destruction in Human Form; Guzma swims across Send Off Spring and passes out in a bush; Cyrus catches a Burmy!; Cyrus tells himself the star story to sleep.

Chapters 069 – 075

Day 14 

Guzma hangs with NPC and gets a Soothe Bell; NPC takes Guzma to Eterna City; Saturn tries to follow Guzma on a bike; The Bug Fanclub learns about the bodyswap and help Guzma avoid the woods; Guzma learns about Team Galactic; Mars and Jupiter find Cyrus in Guzma's body; Cyrus tries to lead them astray; Cyrus battles a Youngster named Tristan (as Guzma) and looses; The Sinnoh League has a meeting about Guzma; Jupiter and Mars find Guzma in Cyrus’s body; Saturn contacts Jupiter and Mars about seeing ‘Cyrus’ head towards Eterna City; Saturn enters Galactic to find Bertha and Lucian waiting for him; Jupiter and Mars encounter Guzma in Cyrus’s body; Jupiter nopes away; Mesprit Teleports Guzma to Lake Verity; Bug Club are split between Eterna and Jublife; Guzma and Cyrus Reunited at Last; Cyrus tells an uncut version of the Star Story; they’re up late.

Chapters 076 – 083

[cynthiaandsamus]

Game Blondes Crystal Clear Nuzlocke Part 2: A Shining Chance!

“Hey I’m blonde!”

“…I’m also blonde.”

“AND WE’RE THE GAME BLONDES!!”

(Game Blondes Logo by @game-overture)

“Welcome back! So last time on Game Blondes we started our freeroam Crystal Clear Nuzlocke, our rat died in our first battle but we got a lot of other pokemon to replace it, fought a dude with a Shiny Ponyta and made our way halfway across Johto to fuck around. Now we’re gonna go check out Goldenrod since the dude with the Ponyta mentioned it and see if we can start nailing down some badges.”

“Okay so just a note about this game, seems like the trainer battles scale to your badges but the wild pokemon stay around the level they would be�� considering the Hoothoot and Psyduck you caught last episode were in the early teens and you still have zero badges.” Cynthia pondered.

“So technically I could just run into a field way down the line and catch something super powerful and ram through the whole game?”

“Well theoretically, as long as you could manage to catch it and manage to live with yourself for cheesing the game that represents my life’s work and career.”

“…fine, fine. Spoilsport…” Samus huffed. “Anyway, I’m making my way down from Ecruteak to Goldenrod, getting a few levels on Danny that Gastly from this guy with four Voltorbs that can’t even touch him. Gonna see if we can find that restaurant the DOOM guy mentioned and if not I’ll see if I can get a gym badge or something. Got a few levels on everyone from all the trainers on this route and got the TM for Rollout, that’s a fun move.”

“You won’t think so later…” Cynthia snickered.

“Well we’re in Goldenrod… shit this is Whitney’s town!?”

“Yup, welcome to Rolloutville, population you.”

“Should we save this gym for last for the memes? I mean that’d be an epic final battle.”

“I’m game, anything to put off going against that crazy cow lady…” Samus grumbled as she searched the town. “Well the train’s here so I can get to Saffron and Kanto, it’d be funny if I got Sabrina for my first badge, bet it’d piss her off to get beaten by a level 10 Gastly.” She chuckled.

“I wouldn’t tease Sabrina too much, she can beat you up without touching you…”

“I’ll hold off on it for now if only because I already have a lot to explore that I’m skipping over and Saffron is ridiculously big. At least I got a bike to travel it a bit faster. Oh and an Eevee sitting on a table, lemme take that…”

“Hang on, lemme see that Eevee real quick…” Cynthia took the controls with a grin.

-10 Minutes Later-

“HOLY SHIT IT’S SHINY! How’d you do that!?” Samus gasped.

“Weren’t you paying attention to the tutorial? Shockslayer said Gift pokemon have a higher shiny rate and the game saves before you pick them up for soft resetting, so if you get a good rhymn down you can reset a lot real quick and get a shiny.”

“That is so cool! I love you Cynthia! I got a White Eevee!”

“This counts as part of your birthday present, I’m not helping you any further.”

“Fine fine.” Samus grinned, absolutely giddy with the white fluffball. “I’m gonna name you… Norman. Cause you’re Normal-type and a smart little white fluffball and we’ve been watching The Promised Neverland lately.”

“Hopefully that’s not an omen for this Nuzlocke…”

“Ah shit is this accidentally in bad taste?” Samus winced. “Well time to go Underground and explore some more of the shops and punch some of these trainers in the throat.”

“…no wonder the Pokemon League denied your application to become a trainer.”

“Well I got a coin case and it looks like this guy is blocking the path to the other hallway so I’ll leave him alone for now, I’ve been warned that some of these guys have huge teams that can wipe me out…”

“Yeah, I read there’s a level 100 Magikarp somewhere in Kanto’s early game, so be on the lookout for steamrollers…”

“Well since I got the Coin Case might as well check out the game corner…”

“Holy crap you can just buy a Master Ball if you have enough coins! And a Lucky Egg too! I definitely don’t have enough time for that but that’s really cool!”

“And you can get some pretty cool pokemon too… too bad you already have Eevee so you can’t get any more pokemon for this town…”

“That’s fine, I’m very content with my Shiny Eevee, lemme get some coins though…”

(Mun Note: Due to Standards and Practices we are not allowed to show Samus gambling in case you’re in a country that hates it)

-One Gambling Montage Later-

 “Well I doubled my coins and officially hate gambling, so  let’s go check out the Department store, I’m sure there’s some cool stuff there, only got that, the Radio Tower and the gym left so almost time to be on our way.”

“Yay! Shopping spree!”

“Oh sweet, here’s the Tradeback NPC, he can evolve my guys, I’ll have to keep that in mind when I get an Upgrade for Porygon.”

“Well there it is, you just need more money…”

“Well I’ll save up and come back, I’ll let Polly stay as she is for now, can’t have my baby growing up too fast. We don’t even have a single badge yet.”

“Damn that’s right, we’ve just been derping around for an episode and a half…”

“Well we found a bunch of TMs at the shop here, keep those in mind, damn I really am broke…  Just gonna stock up on balls, check the radio tower and get out of here before Whitney crushes me for dawdling in her town…”

“Oh wow, an Event Move Tutor, you can learn all those weird moves they give out at events, give it a try and get your pokemon some broken moves~” Cynthia giggled.

“Well Polly learned Barrier, Norman learned Growth and Hooters learned Night Shade, so that’s all cool.” Samus grinned. “Got me some custom pokemon~ Making my way up the tower got a point for the Password radio game thing,  got a Sunny Day TM and a Pink Bow, that’s perfect for Polly, now she can feel even more like a girl and power up her Normal-type moves.”

“Your Trans Porygon is really cute.”

“Give the Amulet Coin Polly was holding to Norman now and at the top of the tower is this CHAOS guy who says he’s the new director of the station and wants to battle… here goes nothing I guess.”

“He… just has a level four Delibird… that’s not very intimidating for a custom trainer for this mod.”

“You have literally no badges and have been picking up pokemon left and right, feel like you’re a bit OP for this early in the game…” Cynthia sighed.

“Well he has a Cleffa too and I got some good money from it, guess that was worth it.  And I got a Nugget, so guess that was just a money pitstop. Well that’s it for Goldenrod, couldn’t find the restaurant but time to go to the next route and catch a new pokemon…”

-A bunch of pokemon Samus has already caught later-

“Oh wow a Ditto! And right next to the Daycare too! Guess I know what this guy was there for…” Cynthia chuckled.

“FUCK it took like all my balls but I got it… why did I want this thing again?”

“Breeding?”

“Breeding!? This is a children’s game I’m not gonna make my monsters have sex, what kind of sick fucks are you trainers?”

“Well you have it now so that’s good.”

“I’ll name it “Brothel” …for obvious reasons. I really need to get some badges so these trainers stop having level like six pokemon.”

“Then pick a gym already.”

“Fine, next town we go to I’ll fight the gym there. Just getting through this forest and catching this Oddish (nicknamed Oddball).  Got the Headbutt TM so I can punch trees like this is Minecraft.”

“Ahhh a Dark Souls reference last time and Minecraft now, soon we’ll be a regular mainstream Let’s Play streamer.”

“Awww man, Bulbasaur pops up here! We could’ve caught the mun if they showed up first!”

(Sad Bulbamun noises)

“This girl says Kurt knows about the Forest Guardian, so better head into town to see what that’s about… oh neat, I don’t have to wait to get Apricorn balls, this guy in Kurt’s house sells them for money.”

“And Kurt passed you off onto Professor Oak about the Forest Guardian thing… sounds like a fetch quest to me…” Cynthia sighed.

“Might as well squash some bugs for my first gym, I mean Bugs seem like a fitting start to me.”

“I mean Bug-types aren’t the most powerful but Bugsy does the best with what he can…”

“Alright Hooters, you’re a bird, you’re in charge of the bug squishing duty.”

“Well he’s got a Scyther at least, that’s cool, but he’s still no match for Hooters!”

“Wow that was quick, you and your boob-themed owl are unstoppable.”

“Well he did poison Hooters and get her down a bit, so if I’m not careful she could faint on the way back to the gym, but I did get my first badge so hopefully stuff gets more challenging from here~ One badge down, seven to go.”

“Fifteen.”

“…what?”

“Crystal Clear has both Kanto and Johto gyms in it, there are sixteen badges, you have fifteen left.”

“…well shit, I better get cracking…”

“Looks like you got a call from the Pokemon League too, they say if you’re in Johto to visit Sprout Tower to get something cool, a “FLASHy” reward… subtle and to go pay your respects in Ilex Forest, that’s probably to do with the sidequest we stumbled on earlier.”

“Well I’m starting to move up in the world, they gotta start recognizing me! Well might as well go down to this Slowpoke Well and catch something. Ooooh there’s breakable rocks here, I’ll teach Dudette Rock Smash and break one to see if I find something cool~

“OH FUCKLE, A SHUCKLE!”

“CRAP! I killed it, it gave me an Encore so I couldn’t get out of the loop… ugh, oh well, guess there’s no use crying over spilled Shuckle. Guess that’s all I can do in the Well without Strength for now… Might as well work my way back up to Violet Town and go to Sprout Tower like the League said, even if I don’t want to go in order, getting that reward would probably be good and get me some more pokemon along the way.”

“Well you killed that Zubat too, so no new pokemon on this route either.”

“WHY DOES EVERYTHING I TOUCH DIE!?”

“At least you caught that Whooper (named Whoop) in Union Cave.”

“Well Whoop de doo. A few battles later and I’m back in Violet City. I didn’t wanna do these gyms in order but I guess doing Flying-types second would be fine since I’m here anyway and have the pokemon for it…I need to get more badges to increase trainer levels so I’m not too OP right away.”

“Dudette, you’re in charge, kill these birds with one stone.”

“Well you’re the same level so I guess you’re not too overleveled, you just have a serious type advantage.” Cynthia sighed.

“Well took down his Pidgey but damn, wasn’t expecting Pidgeotto to have Mud Slap, Dudette’s in the red and her accuracy has gone to shit, better switch out. Do your best Poly! Alright! Two Psybeams and Pidgeotto is down~”

“Another badge and another call from the Pokemon League.”

“This time a warning about not watering wiggling trees, so you can probably get the watering can from that girl we saw in Goldenrod, plus a message about getting Cut from the Charcoal guy in Azalea Town and a note that Professor Elm is very generous so we should probably go back to him too.”

“Okay so we’re doing pretty good for this little neck of Johto, lemme make a list real quick of our goals.

1.       Go up Sprout Tower and get the reward

2.       Go back to Professor Elm and get a reward

3.       Get Cut from the Charcoal dude

4.       Squirt Trees

5.       Talk to Professor Oak about Ilex Forest shit

6.       ???

7.       Profit

“Sounds about right to me, looks like we have a lot to do… NEXT TIME ON GAME BLONDES!”

Samus’s Journey So Far:

(Color-coding the path by episode for now, may or may not continue to do this depending on if it’s a pain in the ass when it starts getting bigger)

Samus’s Current Team:

[pikamonart]

So!

There are three things that could have happened with this birth.

a) The Pokedex lied to all of us about the amount of tails Vulpix are born with. (Unlikely considering it repeats itself across multiple generations.)

b) Someone didn't do enough research on what baby Vulpixs look like. (Understandable because I don't think? any other Pokemon has such a physical difference from their baby species to adult species unless they're actually classified as a different Pokemon altogether ((e.g. Pichu-Pikachu, Cleffa-Clefairy, Azurill - Marill, etc)))

c) The anime staff just didn't care / they thought it would confuse the younger watchers? (Maybe? I thought it would have been a nice touch)

I wonder which reason it ended up being...

---

Pocket Monsters - Pokemon

Episode #957 (sm14) - "Getting to Know you!!" / The Fruit of Courage! Lillie and Vulpix!

Creator: 田尻 智 Satoshi Tajiri

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Pokemon franchise. That honor belongs to 田尻 智 Satoshi Tajiri.

Please do not repost, redistribute, steal, or take this artwork and claim it as your own! You do NOT have permission!!

Deviantart Version

[rhnuzlocke]

Episode 23

Scene 11:

[It is early the next evening and the sky is streaked with pink and orange as Kai and Wally walk into the Mossdeep Space Center. Wally is wearing minicord jeans and one of his nicest cardigans while Kai is in one of his more relaxed normal outfits, complete with signature white beanie. They hand in their tickets and are directed into the planetarium. The dome is open and all of the seats are still upright. Kai and wally sit down and look around. There is no one else in the planetarium and Wally starts to look nervous.]

Wally: Oh geez, I’m sorry for bringing us so early. I didn’t even notice there were assigned seats on the tickets.

Kai: That’s okay, neither did I. This way we get to watch it get dark.

Wally: [smiling and blushing] Yeah.

Kai: Do you know if Ren’s coming?

Wally: She said she is, but she probably won’t be here till later, haha.

Kai: [looking up at the sky] I’m actually really pumped. I was watching Cleffa and Elgyem earlier and they said it’s going to be even more spectacular because of all the debris from that big meteor. And the weather is perfect! They don’t even need the castforms! Wait, did I tell you they called me last week and offered me a free ticket because of Paki?

[Kai looks over and Wally is leaning on the armrest between them, watching him and smiling.]

Wally: [absently] No, I don’t think so.

Kai: Must have forgot. Anyway, they wanted to have some castforms on hand in case we got rain or something. Did you know they’re turning out every light in Mossdeep so we can have a better view? [looking up again] Like Mossdeep is already has hardly any light pollution because it’s so far from any of the major cities, but with all of the lamps off and the clear weather conditions, we should be able to see the milky way and even the nebula in Swablu’s wings really clearly!

[Kai’s nerdy gushing fades into the background as we focus in on Wally, whose attention is still trained on Kai instead of the lovely evening sky above them. He worries his lip as he watches Kai talk, hand gripping the armrest tighter. After a moment of internal writhing, he grabs Kai by the face, leans over and kisses him full on the mouth. Kai’s eyes blow wide in shock as Wally’s squeeze closed. Kai’s eyes flit shut just as Wally pulls back. Kai blinks owlishly at him, mouth hanging open a little. They stare at each other for a moment, both of their faces tinged with a blush.]

Kai: Uh, um…

Wally: [blush deepening] I’m sorry! I should have asked first. Shit! I just—I really really like you. I have since we met basically and I’ve been meaning to ask you out for a while but I couldn’t get up the nerve. This was supposed to be a date—that’s why I was so nervous I made us come early—but then I never even said anything and—[He has to stop and take a breath from his inhaler because he’s been talking too fast and he catches the look of profound surprise on Kai’s face.] Oh gods, I’m so sorry if I made this weird. It’s okay if—we can still be friends if—[burying his face in his hands] Arceus, I messed this up.

[Kai swallows heavily as Wally balls himself up in his chair, completely mortified. Kai stares at Wally for several seconds, wracking his brains for what to say. He reaches out to touch Wally’s back but changes his mind and grabs the armrest instead.]

Kai: Um, Wally, could I kiss you?

Wally: [peeking out of his ball] We can just forget it happened—that is if you still want to… Wait, what?

Kai: [flushing deeper] Could I, uh, kiss you?

Wally: You… like me?

Kai: [rubbing the back of his head and looking away nervously] I hadn’t thought about it much, but yeah, I think so.

Wally: [folding his legs under him] And you want to—?

Kai: [whipping back to Wally] Yes! [quieter] I—I want to figure this out, if that’s alright with you.

Wally: Yeah, okay. Um, just stop me if I make you uncomfortable.

[Kai nods and Wally slides a little closer to him, putting his hand next to Kai’s on the armrest. Kai looks down for a moment and slowly knits their fingers together. They can’t meet each other’s eyes and both look about ready to chicken out before Kai’s resolve hardens and he leans in. They meet halfway this time, eyes closing and lips bumping softly. This kiss is longer and more exploratory than the first and when they separate, they do not pull back as far. Wally’s eyes look questioningly into Kai’s.]

Kai: Okay, yes, yeah, definitely. I am one hundred percent into you. [pulling at the hair sticking out from under his beanie] How did I not notice?? Like you are so brave and funny and cute I just… Great gods, I’m an idiot.

[Wally laughs a little in relief, eyes welling, and Kai moves their hands to push back the armrest between them so that it is no longer in the way. He squeezes Wally’s hand and kisses him on the nose and the cheek and finally the lips again. Wally pushes back harder this time, grabbing Kai’s shirt with his free hand and pulling him in closer. Kai fumblingly stokes Wally’s arm and they both giggle as they separate. They look at each other and laugh again.]

Wally: I’ve been daydreaming about kissing you for months and somehow this is still so much better than I imagined.

Kai: [tugging gently on Wally’s arm] You could do it more.

[Wally giggles again and so does Kai. Wally lets go of Kai’s hand to climb into his lap and kiss him again. Kai grabs Wally’s cardigan and pulls him flush while Wally pulls the beanie off Kai’s head and wraps his arms around Kai’s neck. The planetarium is growing steadily darker and the lights on the floor come on to guide people to their seats. Steven, Wallace, Tate, Lisa, Cosmo and Keanu all arrive in one big group. There is a lull in conversation as they enter which is drawn out as they all spot Kai and Wally. They stop, smile, look at each other and walk right back out again without Kai and Wally noticing.]

[dezbee2008]

My Pokemon Moon Adventures Part 16: A Wild Aloak Appears (January 4, 2017)

Even the professors have regional variants

There wasn’t much battling to do today, (instead it’s like a filler episode) so we (Hau and I) went to Malie Garden to look for Kukui. While on our way, one girl with her Cleffa proclaimed today is Pokemon Day (everyday is Pokemon Day, Ailey, if you believe hard enough). When we did find Kukui, we told him about the Ultra Wormhole and all that goodness, and we told him to tell his wife about it.

After I left the garden, Lillie was waiting for me. She wanted to go to the Library to read a very old book, but before we got there, we meet Samson Oak (aka Aloak), Samuel Oak’s cousin (aka Kantoak). $20 says Aloak tells you through the pager not to ride Tauros inside the Pokemon Center the same way Kantoak tells you not to ride your bicycle inside the PMC.

But it’s no surprise Rotomdex knows him

Anyway, Aloak tells us to follow the black brick road (the Alola variant of the Wizard of Oz’s yellow brick road) and the pattern of circle, triangle, square (all black) to get to the library (while you’re at it, tell me how you get to Sesame Street).

Before we can do that, I and my team (sans Jason) had malasada (Jason opted for the takeout instead. Also, I say I because Sabrina wasn’t able to finish hers). We meet up with Lillie, who got lost again (but at least found her way on her own), and Hapu and her Mudsdale. Hapu apparently seems to be taking a liking into Lillie for some reason. I instead went to the community center next door where this kid was supposed to play Sun and Moon but this one kid keeps beating him (hint: is it theelectriwin27) and took part in the weather quiz (it’s pretty easy if you find the hints in the questions) and the flea market.

At the library, we meet a life-long reader (he would be revered in the real world, or at schools) and got TM76 Fly from a tourist who had questions about why we don’t believe in HMs (which is the best thing that has happened). Lillie and I meet Acerola. She gave Lillie a very old book from her dad’s collection about Lunala and also revealed that she is royalty in the region.

Finally, we went to the overlooked part of Ula’Ula aka the Outer Cape. We actually learned about the battle styles and Gester gave us one to start out with. We also had to settle a dispute between Shawn (aka the Baby Boomer) and Chase (aka the Millenial), which is exactly how them boomers and us millenials are locked in a generational battle (sorry gen X). After battling them, Shawn made Chase the new president (actually, Chase felt like he wasn’t ready for the task, but Shawn, who’s actually his dad, pushed him to follow his dream).

Next time, we could take on the next trial over in Mount Houlani or whatever it’s called.

POKE PELAGO VISITORS:

2 wild Spearow (male and female)

wild male Shellder

Hanson (male Alola Diglett)

Whitney (female Miltank)

Picasso (male Smeargle)

Andrea (female Dewpider)

Misty (female Psyduck)

Jordan (male Poliwag)

Eugene Krabs (male Crabrawler)

Richard (male Cutiefly)

Star (Staryu)

Ledyba (male)

Adam (male Eevee)

Aquaman (male Wishiwashi)

Matthew (male Machop)

Tiana (female Tenatcool)

Houdini (male Drowzee)

Maggie (female Makuhita)

Ruth (female Trubbish)

Margaret (female Misdreavus)

Mineral (Carbink)

Brody (male Pyukumuku)

Edwin (male Sylveon)

Jonathan (male Delibird)

Pipsqueak (female Alola Grimer)

Serena (female Bounsweet)

Maurice (male Magby)

Paris (female Paras)

Deirdre (female Drifloon)

David (male Slowpoke)

Gretchen (female Fletchling)

King Nappy (male Gastly)

Precious (female Lillipup)

Frank (male Abra)

Lillian (female Petilil)

Michael (female Mankey)

Finn (female Finneon)

Ivan (male Rockruff)

Rachel (female Alola Rattata)

Brock (male Bonsly)

Mariah (female Igglybuff)

Gary (male Magikarp)

Byamba (male Munchlax)

Wilhelm (male Wingull)

Samantha (female Trumbeak)

POTUS (male Yungoos)

Seth (male Goldeen)

Xmas Tree (female Phantump)

ZYGARDE CELL COUNT: 15/100

NEW CAPTURES: Trubbish (female, Ruth)

TEAM UPDATE:

Sabrina, female Salazzle, level 36, Flame Burst, Leech Life, Toxic, Venoshock

Victoria, female Charjabug, level 37, Spark, X-Scissor, Charge Beam, Crunch

Krystal, female Mudsdale, level 37, High Horsepower, Double Kick, Heavy Slam, Rock Tomb

Poli, female Oricorio (Pa’u), level 37, Aerial Ace, Air Slash, HP Grass, Air Cutter

Jason, male Primarina, level 37, HP Grass, Sparkling Aria, Psychic, Disarming Voice

Free Hugs, male Bewear, level 34, Brick Break, Payback, Brutal Swing, Aerial Ace