#and then he could've wound up in Unova at some point and that's when we see him again

[boilingrain]

If we ever get a Pokémon Legends game set in Unova, I hope that it takes place at some point after the events of Legends Arceus

Mostly because I want the player to be able to walk into a house in Undella Town/what will later become Undella Town and see Volo again and have to battle him

You think you're safe from Cynthia because you're in the past but then you walk into the wrong house and now you have to fight her ancestor

[crystalelemental]

I never actually did this. Ranking the villain arcs.

#8: Alola The only VA that I'm willing to say what entirely bad on every front. Just an absolute garbage event. Literally no stakes, no significance, not even a real conflict. Instead of just whipping Lusamine around to being good, now we also have to drag Faba into this kicking and screaming. The worst part is the alts weren't even that good. Sure, SS Acerola wound up being fantastic, but the other three are fairly unimpressive, with Mina being borderline bad. Also I'm just saying, it's not my favorite on aesthetics either. And to think we got all of this...instead of a good Lusamine alt. Or hell, somehow without a Lillie alt. Or Gladion. Or anyone I think people were clamoring for. I'm usually in favor of lesser favorites getting alts but this one stings a bit.

#7: Kalos Kalos felt similarly nothing, because the main event was Giovanni stealing some data from Team Flare, by...having some Rocket grunts pose as their grunts? And threaten to fire a big weapon they had? Lysandre is toothless at this point, mostly just grousing about his ideals or whatever while refusing to act for vague reasons. At least he gets to kill people. Also the alt game was strong. SS Diantha was a great Rock Zone option, Emma and Anabel finally got in, and I do like SS Lysandre even if I'm not a fan of Volcanion.

#6: Hoenn Hoenn feels like it's just treading old ground with little in the way of innovation. It tells a story where things happen, so it's better than the last two, but that story is mostly Maxie and Archie continuing to wax philosophical while Giovanni riles up their beasts as distraction to steal a bunch of Pokemon. Which on its own is okay. But then it shifts kinda out of nowhere into the same old "there is a meteor" thing. Also Deoxys just shows up with no significance or fanfare, the protagonists don't really accomplish shit, and more emphasis is placed on Zinnia getting her mega evolution than anything. The alts for the event were fun, but nothing in this event felt important. You could've just not done this one and not a single thing would've changed for any future story.

#5: Unova Comparable to Hoenn. Ghetsis tries to do stuff, and at the very least this isn't a Giovanni plot in disguise, but it amounts to nothing. Ghetsis is completely useless when he's not able to scheme, and events just don't carry much weight. Hilda just shows up with Victini, while Hilbert getting Genesect is...fairly mundane. Even N's Kyurem is wildly out of nowhere. The alts were good, don't get me wrong. But Hilda's just damage, and N's fairly awkward, so it's a little messy.

#4: Galar Galar...went well, actually. I think it's actually a good story. The alts were reasonable though I hate the Gloria alt on Cinderace-themed principle. I like how the story actually incorporates Giovanni without making him the center of attention. I like that it ends in failure for him like all of these actually did even if we never acknowledge it. There's just one teeny tiny thing that makes this hard to accept. Rose is an alternate reality Rose. And so is Oleana. For...no reason. Sincerely, why? Because you couldn't come up with a way for him to bounce back from the Darkest Day? Lysandre fired the ultimate weapon and nearly killed everyone, and we just kinda treat him as some surly guy that lives in the woods, this is absolute cowardice. If it weren't for this, Galar would be #3, but as it stands...

#3: Sinnoh SOMEHOW, Sinnoh gets to be #3. Look, I won't pretend like Sinnoh's events were important in the grand scheme. It's very much a side story to Giovanni's stuff. Which is why it's good. It is the only one completely removed from Giovanni. Instead, we focus on Cyrus, whose perfect world was found in Darkrai. The instant he got the opportunity, he just retreated into his own dark world and refused to come out until people made him. Which is funnier than it is serious. More to the point, though, this story had consequences. Team Galactic still operates, but his grunts openly acknowledge they're on a different track and focused on scientific development more than destruction of spirit. And I'm willing to bet Renegade Cynthia will have some significance when Volo shows up. Events from this VA endure, and had more of an impact.

#2: Kanto But of course, Pokemon is just Kanto. Literally just Kanto, if it's not about Kanto stuff we don't care and won't try for you. The quality between Kanto/Johto and literally everything else is so stark that I legitimately think this entire VA thing was a fucking waste of time. Which is sad because it started so fucking well. Giovanni steals some data that lets him unlock the power of mega evolution in his Mewtwo, and becomes strong enough to fight off Red and Blue, then escapes to become a massive threat hiding in the shadows. All of this around a great little narrative about how Mewtwo enjoys causing problems on purpose, and they do have a true bond in that desire. And on the heroes' side, we get Paulo starting to act up, Blue being a leader and champion, and I admit even Red gets to be a bit of a chaos gremlin about things with the whole Dynamaxing in a contained space and nearly crushing everyone. There's great stuff! But of course, just like actual Kanto, we can do better.

#1: Johto There's always the sequel. Johto is easily the best VA. Not only do we have more of an emotional hook with Silver's connection to Giovanni and attempt to put a stop to all this, we also have everyone in Johto working in tandem to fight back as Team Rocket temporarily assumes control of Pasio. We get direct continuity from the last event as Giovanni learns about Dynamax/Gigantamax, and learns to apply that to his Nidoking. And unlike Kanto's fairly limited sync pair choices, Johto rules. A bunch of first time alts (and Lyra), all of which are fantastic, including what remains one of the best supports, and the strongest disruptive effect in the game even now. Sure, SS Giovanni wound up being a dud in the grand scheme, but he's Kantonian, failure comes naturally to him. It was the only other time that they legitimately tried to make something interesting.

I think the big problem here is DeNA's refusal to actually engage with its villains. That's probably because some villains are too good to really do much with, but like...if you can do it with Cyrus, the guy trying to unmake reality, you can do it with the others. Lysandre, Lusamine, even Rose are all just ignored as threats. Maxie and Archie are sidelined so hard they effectively don't do anything at all. Ghetsis tries but is completely ineffectual without scheming in his corner. All of them could have had more to do. Lysandre's willing to kill, but let his clash with Team Rocket mean something rather than just be petty nonsense. Lusamine still cares for her children but never confronted what her flaw actually way; let her go villain mode on Giovanni for threatening her kids. Actually engage with the fact Rose is an extremist and that maybe he could be talked down or brought to other solutions, without just hand-waving events. It's just such a mess, seeing how many of these antagonists went to complete waste. Whatever the next story arc is, I hope it's lower stakes. DeNA does better when they go with just heartfelt or lighthearted. I don't think they're legally allowed to get serious.

[coldslaws-gear-station]

Since you wanted to wake up to a ridiculously long ask about smth, you get a ridiculously long ask about the ocs that interact with your blog that may or may not be important! Who knows, not me!

Eurynome

Since Eurynome is Kantonian she goes by her last name; Koizumi. It's really rare for her to regard herself with her first name unless she sees you on equal or higher standing

Eurynome has a warrant out for her arrest in Kalos because she broke into the original palace as she didn't want to pay the 1,000 dollar entry fee

Eurynome's first ever Pokemon wasn't actually her Gothitelle, but a Pokemon she found in Vermilion hiding under a truck scared when she was around 14, they've been bonded ever since

Eurynome is actually orphaned, found in the Viridian Forest at around 12 she was put into foster care but it never really worked out. She developed her liking for sewing by making plush toys for the other children so they wouldn't be scared at night. At the time of RH she's 37

The reason why she's so well educated despite having grown up isolated for a bit was because even as a kid she had an insatiable desire for learning and understanding. She was at the top of her classes within the orphanage for that reason

She knows where the light stone is. It was an accident and she didn't mean to find it, but she left it alone and will take the knowledge of it's location to the grave. She knows better than to give out that kind of information or to play around with things that are foreign to her nor belong to her

Her current place of residence in Unova at this time is actually the Village Bridge. She likes the musically rich culture and the quietness of the town, sometimes she leaves her window open so the village can hear her playing either her piano or harp

Azrael

Azrael's name isn't actually Azrael, it's Equilibrium

Azrael possesses the ability of being a telepath, why he has this ability is lore related so you're gonna have to trust me on this one

In regards to some of these ocs, there are Pokecanon and Storycanon. Pokecanon is the ocs made to fit into the story of the games and manga while Storycanon is basically their original story and AU. In Storycanon Audino lady and Azrael are siblings, Audino lady being his older sister, they do not get along

Audino Lady who's name I have yet to completely reveal

She lives deep within the woods, they say to find her is to follow where the Audino roam

The crystal embedded into Iolanthe's bow was actually a mega stone, she could've 100% clocked Drayden's Haxorus but she's more of the peaceful type

Audino Lady stands at almost 7 feet tall, which is why she's so good at sewing clothing, she has to sew her own because nothing else will ever fit her

Iolanthe didn't walk to Alder's house on foot as it's way too far away, so she had her caretaker's Gardevoir teleport her there. Chances are Drayden's Haxorus wasn't growling at Iolanthe but at the Gardevoir giving it a cold death stare from the bushes and treeline

She likes fairy types, she only uses fairy types with normal types being a common exception. She does not like dragon types in the slightest, reason why is lore related

She has psychic abilities, reason why is heavily lore related but she refused to use them unless absolutely necessary, she wishes to be "normal" and nothing else

At this current point in time within NHP she's 25 years old

She runs a organisation within the woods where she picks up wounded Pokemon and people and brings them so her oddly huge mansion, where they get treatment from the insane amount of Audinos living there. Why does she have so many? Who knows! But this helps feed her saviour complex

- 💌

yesssss this is exactly what i needed thank you. also hey stealing my "who knows. i sure dont" catchphrase are we

immediately coming out swinging with the "she broke into the palace" LMAO and ik you probably meant human dollars but if it was pokedollars the idea of being a wanted fugitive over 10 dollars is hilarious

hmmm. wonder what pokemon is known for hiding under a truck

also her and ghetsis kinda have that in common. not the orphan part but obvi like ive said before ghetsis's parents weren't around all that much to really take care of him but still he ended up incredibly smart because he never wanted to stop learning, even without much parental guidance

whoops! accidentally found the light stone! yeah don't tell ghetsis we really don't need bw to happen like 12 years before it's supposed to /lh. though honestly ive been thinking about what bw time will even look like with rh's trajectory. i kinda lean towards the concept of "not even gonna happen". n's got a loving family, ghetsis already feels conflicted about his evils, there's a steadily growing community aware and accepting of the harmonia family (thanks a lot alder), so trying to propose the "humans are an absolute bane to pokmeon" whatever is probably gonna be a tough sell for n. especially when ghetsis is pretty tepid on the idea of subjecting n to more grief, aka showing him hurt pokemon. so who knows

ok azrael is definitely a ghetsis baby. him being named equilibrium basically confirms that in my mind LMAO . natural, pendulum, equilibrium.. at least anthea and concordia are goddess names. the other 3 are just kinda concepts. or he's somehow related to kyurem idk im going game theory mode on him. also :o siblings

she definitely could've smeared haxorus in that case 💀 but in drayden's defense if you did decide to attack you'd get the rest of his team, and alders team, and ns team, and whoever else is in the house currently- instantly on your ass because none of them are playing around when it comes to the triad atm

7 FEET TALL

also hiiii gardevoir that's not terrifying AT ALL. glad haxorus was able to discern that audino and co were just delivery pokemon because it would've been such a trainwreck if a battle broke out (n would've felt SO bad)

oohhh woodland mansion hello 👀. also her being the audino lady makes the fact that i gave the glass vase ask an audino balloon a little funny. i only did it cuz get well soon balloon + healing pokemon but still it was literally my first time drawing audino. it's not a pokemon i think about very often (though it is super cute)