#and this is coming from someone who loved diamond and crystal and Unova

[wp100]

finally picked up pokemon shield after months of not playing it and i really enjoy it this time

think i was just not into pokemon at the time, when i was first playing it and trying to get into it. it's not that bad, really. not the BEST pokemon game, but it's alright for what it is

[terrific-togekiss]

Pokémon Champions and overall Journey Themes

Pokémon. A franchise met with much praise and adoration for many years.

Catching your favorite pocket monsters, while capturing the hearts of many.

Today we're going to look and analyze at an aspect of the main games that many is familiar with: Champions.

The last victory before the main journey is over. A culmination of everything the player has been through over the entire main game. And here we're talking about what the Pokémon Champions really symbolize in the games and how they hold up the overall themes of the game.

Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow

Starting with Blue in Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow.

As the first games of the franchise, it's only natural that the champion is someone the player knows.

With Blue, Gen 1 is the first Pokémon games. So, of course since Pokémon is a personal journey it ends with you the player facing someone of a personal relationship.

You went on this journey. You saved Kanto from Team Rocket. You caught many Pokémon of various shapes, sizes, colors and personalities. You filled up the Pokédex. You traveled across the lands.

Now it's time for one final challenge before your journey is over.

And there's the man who reminds of where you began. Your own best friend as the champion. If both journeys are coming to end, so is this friendly rivalry the two of you have had since the start.

The main theme of Gen 1 is to remind fans how Pokémon is ultimately a journey you set off on yourself.

Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal

Now let's move on to the Johto region in Gen 2. Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal share close connections to the Gen 1 games, being seen as a bit of an add on.

Lance is a Dragon master, Gen 2 was about respecting old legends and learning from those before you, so of course the champion has a team of dragons and ancient Pokémon.

Team Rocket returns and does not respect any of the old legends, as seen with messing with the natural habitat, angering a shiny Gyrados and caring more about themselves.

Silver, the son of Giovanni is also reflective of this as he tries to take on his dad's old crime group before forging his own path.

Lance embodies none of these characteristics and teaches the player to respect all before you, but never lose sight of what awaits you.

We ultimately forge our own paths.

Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald

In the Gen 3 games Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, Team Magma and Team Aqua both have plans for changing the overall environment of the entire Hoenn region.

Both Steven Stone and Wallace have Pokémon closer to the the natural world, showing the player to never forget Pokémon origins, and not grow obsessed with how phenomenal the world as a whole is.

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum

With Cynthia in the Gen 4 games of Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, she's the first champion to have a team not regulated by one type. You, the player, are a literal small town Pokémon trainer that goes on to do great things in contrast yet likeness.

Cynthia is humble in who she is and was most likely in the same position as the Player. Showing how anyone can do great things and go on to do great things. No matter where they came from.

Pokémon Black and White

With the Gen 5 game Pokémon Black and White: Alder is very old and N, someone much younger, beating him is meant to reflect Team Plasma's goals and ushering in a new age. Alder being beat is meant to show the old ways are done. N winning is the Truth, his future of no more Pokémon battling is what he deems ideal. As the overall theme of Black and White is Truth and Ideals.

The player beating him and Team Plasma, is meant to show how hollow Truth and Ideals are, when on a journey of power than self discovery.

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2

This carries over to Pokémon Black 2 and White 2: Team Plasma has split into two groups. One believes in the old goal of people and Pokémon coexisting peacefully, while the other wants to take over Unova. The latter, Neo Team Plasma is trying to hold onto N's ideals, while the former is the truth behind what Team Plasma always planned on.

Iris going from a Gym Leader in one version of the previous games to champion holds onto this theme, while rejecting it; this is the last 2D Pokémon game, so what is being carried over?

Fun. No matter what paths we take, what roads we travel, what struggles we face, Pokémon is all about having fun.

N lost sight of why Pokémon would want to stay with their masters, but realized in the end, through the protagonist that maybe humans and Pokémon may live in harmony one day.

Fun adds meaning to life and helps take our minds off of what we face in our day to day lives. It's the Truth of why so many love Pokémon, creating an ideal world building enrichment in our lives.

Pokémon X and Y

Moving on, in the Gen 6 games X and Y, Diantha is a fashion model and embodies beauty in yourself and finding it in others. Team Flare wants beauty to be immortalized. Diantha disagrees with Lysandre and rejects his offer early in the game, understanding nothing lasts forever and beauty becomes hollow if it does.

The player beating her and than beating AZ is meant to show how something is beautiful not because it lasts: how we feel towards it does. As seen with with AZ and Floette. Even decades later, they still hold the same love they hold for each other.

Team Flare is shown throughout the game to be a group of flamboyant criminals, that while emphasizing immortal beauty: all look the same.

As everything must fade away at some point and nothing truly lasts forever. But that's not exactly bad thing. It's a reminder of appreciating things in the here and now.

Pokémon (Ultra) Sun and (Ultra) Moon

With Gen 7, since something is done differently here, but the player still beats the Elite Four and shows how anyone can stand tall, but true knowledge never ends. As seen with being able to defend your position as champion.

When one reaches the top, what's left when you've learned all there is to learn and being number one?

Start all over again. The other side of the mountain is the beginning and every journey starts all over again.

This idea is also instilled in the challengers, as for the first time the player can defend their title as champion and teach the same lesson to them.

Pokémon Sword and Shield

In the Gen 8 games, Leon basically embodies the pressure society puts on you when you become famous and needing to live up the expectations of your family (or otherwise supporting them). He's one of the first who makes an explicit effort to keep "you kids" out of danger until it becomes impossible. He even takes an entire HIT for the player during the Eternatus incident. He breaks the trope of ten year olds being expected to handle everything, while adults help in smaller ways.

And why does he care so much? Pressure.

How fitting and ironic since this is the first console Pokémon games, with Gen 7 being the last handheld ones.

Moving on, Leon understands the pressures of the player going on a journey, as he was in the very same position himself.

Societal pressures are ultimately pointless: you decide what defines greatness and how others can follow your example. As seen with Leon looking out for the player. Not to be blinded by the light, but to follow it.

Thanks for reading everyone! I look forward to what Gen 9 may do this.

[alizardjae]

Dexholders scored by their willingness to kill

0/5= Would rather die than kill someone * 1/5= Would kill to protect themselves or loved ones from death * 2/5= Would kill to protect themselves or loved ones from harm * 3/5= Would kill in the heat of the moment * 4/5= Would kill out of hatred towards the target * 5/5= Would kill if they could justify it to themselves

No dexholder scores above that, so I’m just gonna cap it there

Red: 2.5/5- He could get close to going over the edge, but would inevitably stop himself and feel horrified that he even thought of killing someone outside of an absolutely desperate situation. Even in one, he’d feel guilty, even if he knew he didn’t have another choice.

Green: 1/5- Had a higher killing intent as a kid, but has since calmed down and would now more likely sacrifice himself to save someone than kill to do so

Blue: 2/5- Even if she’s thought of killing, she couldn’t make herself actually do it, and she feels guilty for wishing for someone’s death once she’s calmer. While she could kill to protect someone, it would probably trigger another trauma response from her.

Yellow: 5/5- She’s already tried it. Twice. And threatened to kill another three guys. Sird is lucky she got distracted by Red’s battle before she could come for her. It’s not that she wants to kill, per se, or that it’s her first solution, but she certainly won’t hesitate if provoked and won’t feel bad after.

Gold: 2/5- I mean, he did drop Pryce in the time vortex for what, for all he knew, could be eternity. But in general, he’d rather knock some sense into an enemy and then forgive them.

Silver: 0.5/5- Acts tough, but he could hardly kill someone to save himself. He holds out hope for even the worst people. The worst he can get is angrily wishing someone would die in an accident, which he then feels bad about.

Crystal: 2.5/5- Only reason this isn’t a 2/5 is because she’d probably kill to protect a stranger from harm rather than just her loved ones, especially if the stranger was a child.

Ruby: 4.5/5- Full on 5/5 during RS but has since calmed down... slightly. He’d feel guilty after the fact, though.

Sapphire: 0.5/5- Way too empathetic to kill except accidentally, and even that would traumatize her for a good while.

Emerald: 1/5- In his first arc he pretends to be a 3/5, but he’s actually way too soft for that, plus his role model is Crys, who wouldn’t want him to kill.

Diamond: 0/5- He’d much rather sacrifice himself before ever trying to kill someone (nevermind that you probably can’t actually kill him,) no matter how vile they are.

Pearl: 3/5- Split chance on whether he’d sacrifice himself or attack under duress, but if he did attack, he’d probably go all out. Definitely feels guilty after.

Platinum: 1/5- It’d probably be an accident, but she could still do it. She’d rather injure than kill.

Black: 2/5- Generally believes in people too much, but could potentially be provoked. All of Unova gets bumped up because most sensible people would murder Ghestis given the chance.

White: 2/5- She knows what she stands for and who she’s loyal to.

Blake: 5/5- ...But with a big footnote that in his case it’s more a lack of being against killing than any desire to kill. He wouldn’t kill out of anger, but rather because he thought it was the expedient choice. Might find himself questioning his decision later and trying to convince himself that he was right, though.

Whitley: 2/5- I can see it. She thinks she’s a 0/5 but she’d probably kill if desperate and panic for a week after.

X: 5/5- Already threatened to kill Emma. He’s got a lot of hatred and anger pointed at himself that could easily be released onto someone else if provoked. Might calm down some in the near future, now that he’s not constantly dwelling on his negative emotions.

Y: 4/5- Has way too much built up anger that she’s used to venting and is easily provoked. This would start a cycle of self-hatred that she’d end up venting on others and then hate herself more. Might calm down some in the future now that some of her relationships with those around her are repairing themselves.

Sun: 0/5- Hasn’t even thought about it. He’s just too... mild to try it. He’d try to escape or stall an enemy rather than kill it, even in dire straits.

Moon: 0/5- She’s a doctor at heart. The closest she could do is euthanasia, and it’d still break her heart.

Sou: 5/5- No hesitation Kidding, we haven’t seen enough of him for me to score him.

Schilly: She wouldn’t necessarily try to kill someone, but she might not feel more than a sense of “oops” if something she did happened to lead to a death. Haven’t seen enough of her to judge any more than that.

[solitaire-dreams]

What’s Your Type? : Pokespe Fire/Water/Grass Dexholder Analysis

DISCLAIMER: Honestly, I've only read RGB, RS, DP, BW, and SM arcs in full; and parts of the Yellow and B2W2 arc. So, any information outside of these arcs is coming from Bulbapedia and is liable to be incorrect.

When it comes to the world of Pokespe, rather than the anime where we follow the never aging Ash Ketchum, we now total about 21 dexholders (our protagonists).  Each dexholder is fairly unique from one another, yet one thing always tends to be in common between them. The same thing that's always common when we pick up our consoles to start a new Pokemon journey. Picking our starters.

In the world of Pokespe, the standard starters aren't guaranteed to be the first Pokemon they will receive—quite the opposite actually—yet they will always gain one of the traditional starters at some point of their evolutionary line on their journey. (The only two exceptions are Yellow who was created for the Yellow games where Pikachu was the starter, and Whi-two or Whitley because they ran out of Unovan starters). This often has us classify the dexholders into grass, fire, and water varieties. Though this categorization goes deeper than a Pokemon in their party, but plays a large role in their characterization.

Each of the dexholders in each category share a trait that connects all of them, and will provide useful for other predictions (skip to the end if you just want to know what the other prediction is). This post is focused on breaking them down one by one.

Note: Since I was tempted enough to reblog an incorrect pokespe quote where green was the name given to the male character, for the rest of this blog, Green is the male character and Blue is the female. Got it? Good.

First off, we'll start off with the fire type dexholders. Most of you might notice some obvious similarities:

Yet, there is also one very obvious exception:

Green here doesn't tend to shout, especially as much as the other fire type dexholders. So, then what is the factor connecting them? All of them still have a very fiery spirit, and more accurately, is their strong determination towards achieving whatever goal they have. They will pursue it no matter whatever or whoever lies in their way; often leading to causing chaos or bad relationships with other people in their wake.

Green is extremely focused on becoming a strong trainer. Upon his first appearance, he is battling Mew with Charmander to train it and shows no remorse when Red tries to battle it and his Pokemon faints; rather looking down on him for not “noticing anything” during the fight. This determination continues throughout the first arc, as further demonstrated when he tries to force his way into Saffron City after Team Rocket attacks Pallet Town and takes his grandfather.

Gold has the notable trait of having a one-track mind, where he focuses on something so much he will pursue that relentlessly, and ignoring anything else that doesn't pertain to that. Though, this trait manifests itself most when Gold pursues “pretty girls” such as the Kimono Girls, gym leader Jasmine, or even Crystal upon first discovering her.

Though it still can translate in the pursuit of Gold's goals, where he initially receives a Pokedex because he wanted to use it in battle, and urgently attempts to gain a unique specialty during the GSC arc.

Sapphire's dexholder title is specifically “The Conquer” in reference to her earning 8 gym badges in 80 days. She unrelentingly goes around the region to defeat the gym leaders—causing her to start off on the wrong foot with Ruby. And she turns it into a bet to reach their respective goals in 80 days all because it stemmed from a promise she made with her childhood friend to beat the record of Red when it came to the Pokemon League.

Pearl's title is the Determiner, one he received after bonding with Azelf—the lake guardian of Willpower. He managed to bond with Azelf because he completes whatever he starts; as clarified by Diamond in the arc. Determiner, willpower, completes whatever started...yeah, this screams dedication to a goal. Especially when you consider the focus Pearl gives to Dia's and his comedy routine.

For Black though, no matter how well I could paraphrase it, I will just quote this article (bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Black_(Adventures)): “Black is a young man who aspires to be the Champion of the Unova Pokémon League. He has been dreaming of this since childhood, nine years to be exact. However, these dreams fill his head to the point where he cannot think about anything else and any attempts to cause him to pass out from mental exhaustion...Due to his dreams causing him to forget about other things, Black has the tendency to do things without considering the consequences of his actions and their effects on other people.”

I think the above proves the point well enough.

Also, I would like to briefly mention Y. While Y isn't a fire type dexholder (she's a water type), since there is no fire type dexholder in Kalos (Malva doesn't really count), she is a kind of water/fire dual type with her personality. Y shouts more than most of the other water dexholders and exhibits a more solid determination to pursue her goal of becoming a Sky Trainer, even when this runs into direct opposition with her mother's ideas for her.

Lastly, we wrap up the fire dexholder with our latest protagonist, Sun. Sun has the goal of collecting 100 million yen. Acheiving this goal has been Sun's whole time in Alola in the making. He relentlessly pursues money, even prioritizing reaching his personal goal than helping the Alola region against the Ultra Beast invasion, leading him to get sucked into Ultra Space with Solgaleo.

Next up is the water type dexholders, which personally I found the revelation most interesting. It would be difficult to derive a personality solely from the type this time. Unlike fire which is associated with offensive battling, or grass which tends to be connected to defensive, water is viewed as the balance between the two. But, this doesn't really provide any clues into what is the common thread between all these dexholders. My findings, however, were that they all tend to be secretive.

Miss Con Artist (Blue), our first water type dexholder, is literally a con artist. Her whole livelihood is based of lying and keeping the truth about her real intentions to trick people into doing whatever she wants. Plus, she has her own secrets that only come to light much later into her appearance in the first arc and beyond. Her pathological fear of birds is only hinted at during the Team Rocket battle and confirmed during the Pokemon League when battle “Professor O”. Even more shocking was her childhood under the Masked Man, who trained her because of the promise she showed as a trainer.

This transitions nicely to our other dexholder who was raised under the Masked Man, Silver. And he so happens to be a water type dexholder as well. While Silver does not purposely keeping his life before the Masked Man close to his chest, it is revealed that Silver was the son of Giovanni, an insanely big secret that heavily impacted his character.

Ruby, in order to pursue his love of contests and oppose the beliefs of his father, refuses to battle at the beginning of the RS arc. This in turn hides his amazing battling skills (plus the fact he has a FREAKING CELEBI). Additionally, when it comes to the climax of the arc, he hides from Sapphire the plan he had to team up with Courtney to control Groudon and Kyogre. While still intended for her safety, it is still another massive lie and withholding of the truth on his part.

Platinum may not be thought of as being secretive, but the speech she makes after learning Dia and Pearl weren't her bodyguards begs to differ. Most of the lies she reveals in that speech were white lights told to make her not seem inferior and were obvious to the reader, but it still goes to show that she lied a fair amount. Her wealth and connection to the Berlitz family were also discovered rather than told by Platinum. And most obviously, she hid her real name of Platinum until this time! This whole journey, her companions didn't know what her true first name was!

Lack-two or Blake is another dexholder who has lying built into his occupation. Blake is with the International Police and working undercover during the B2W2 arc (Please give us some form of closure! #freeblack2k19). He literally has to keep his true intentions of hunting down the remnants of Team Plasma from his fellow classmates. Additionally, his true personality isn't shown to others either; he puts on a womanizing and flirtatious front when he truly an emotionless officer.

Y is honestly the least secretive out of the water dexholders, but that can also be attributed to her odd Volcanion (a fire-and-water type) fusion. It may not be obvious, or not in a way you expect, but Y does hide something—her feelings. Dealing with the human depression that is X and three of her other friends while trying to all live on their own and dealing with fallout from her mother on top of one of the most cruel evil teams yet? You think she would break down, or someone would help her; but none of the characters we follow demonstrate this concern! theviolenttomboy made a short post that summarizes all the sh*t Y goes through (theviolenttomboy.tumblr.com/post/146359425406/figured-out-why-i-cant-ship-y-with-absolutely), and how she has to deal with it all on her own. In order to keep the group alive, she has to hide her emotional distress. A problem not even resolved by the end of the arc.

Finally, we arrive at the grass type dexholders. Honestly this was the most tricky for me to pin down. Mostly because we have dexholders like Dia and X who have personalities that couldn't seem more different. So, I had to take a look back, and that's when I realized something. Both of the previous characterizations centred around how they achieve their goals. Fire type dexholders barrel through whatever obstacles are in their way and water type dexholders hide information as they pursue their goals. This gave me the clue of what to analyze for the grass type dexholders and this is my conclusion:

The way grass dexholders approach their goals is the most “healthy”. They are able to self-intrinsically motivate themselves when life discourages their goals and try to achieve them in a way that doesn't tend to hurt others as much as the other two dexholder categories (most of the time).

Honestly, this probably reminds you of a generic shonen protagonist, so it is fitting that the dexholder who started this characterization was the most shonen like character of all: Red. Red is able to convince himself to keep working towards his goal of becoming the strongest trainer, despite the obstacles he faces in the form of Team Rocket or people like his rival discouraging him from developing into a stronger trainer. The way he aims to be the strongest also doesn't harm many people, if people are affected, it tends to be accidental.

Crystal manages to stay firm in her goal of catching all the Pokemon even if the other Johto dexholders just see her as a girl at first. She can motivate herself to keep working towards it, and with the caring and give-back nature of Crystal, she is certainly not harming anyone on her path to reaching her goal. Minus a few face kicks to Gold.

Emerald certainly faced a lot of adversity that pushed him down. Becoming an orphan at a young age and made fun of for his small height, initially actually causing him to go against the foundation of grass dexholders being able to motivates themselves by resulting in a dislike of Pokemon and his stature. However, he develops this grass mindset as the Emerald arc progresses, finding what he enjoys, what makes him unique, and cultivating the confidence needed to be himself—even if life is still against him. Plus, while I can't speak for much of his actions in the Emerald arc (because I haven't red FRLG yet, and I know the events are directly connected), his title of the Calmer which stems from his ability to help Pokemon feel relaxed means he is at least not harming Pokemon much during his adventure.

One of the biggest character moments for Diamond is him managing to self-intrinsically motivate himself to pursue a goal despite opposition. In this case, the goal being to stop Team Galactic and his opposition being his best friend Pearl. Regardless, he succeeds in standing up to him and working towards thwarting Team Galactic, with the worst harm caused probably being Pearl's shock at Dia standing up for himself.

White seems to exhibit a peaceful way of pursuing her goal surrounding her talent agency for Pokemon. When her goal switches after Gigi leaves her for a bit, White's new focus on getting stronger at battling is still approached in much the same way. One where she convinces herself to keep working towards improvement and does not negatively affect people along the way.

Then we have the enigma of X. X doesn't seem to follow things of “motivation” or not inadvertently bringing down others with him, but that's only when his goal isn't clear. When we start with X in the XY arc, his goal is to stay in his room; locked away from the outside world. In this context, he meets all the criteria: he ends up convincing himself to work towards his goal of staying a shut-in, despite all the pleas to change this from his friends; and most of his protest to stay inside is silent and doesn't directly or physically harm his friends.

Lastly, our final dexholder is Moon, who also conforms to this characterization fairly well. Moon is able to pursue whatever she considers a priority, unaffected by outside influences. Whether it be praise from her work early on in the SM arc, or not listening to reason before chasing after Sun in the wormholes when he is taken away; leaving Alola to face the Ultra Beasts alone.

tl; dr : Each dexholder approaches their goals differently based on the type of their starter. Fire dexholders have strong enough determination to barrel through all the obstacles to their goal, knocking down everything and everyone in their way. Water dexholders are secretive and hide important information as they work towards their goal. Grass dexholders have the “healthiest” way of reaching their goals, managing to motivate themselves to keep working towards it when life tells them otherwise.

This information may be touched on again in other posts I'm planning: a follow-up talking about the “Bronze-age” progression of dexholder characterization, one about predicting what the Gen 8 protagonists of Pokespe will be like, and another discussing trio characterization.

~Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon!