#because this is how much he loves his pokemon

[sepublic]

Manny Noceda Haunting the Narrative

We all speak of Caleb haunting the narrative, but what of Manny? Perhaps haunting isn’t the exact right word here, for its foreboding connotations; But he’s ultimately an unseen, unheard ghost whose influence can be felt. Whose absence is there, more clearly than others to be honest because we know that Luz had to have a father, it’s not ambiguous for witches like it is for humans.

From the very first scene, we have to wonder where Manny is if he’s not present during Luz’s conference but Camila is; He’s not even present for Luz to be sent off. He’s not mentioned or acknowledged.

But we have the book he gave Luz, the one that Luz is drawn back towards, and it’s what leads her to the Boiling Isles, and motivates her to stay there for her own sake. It’s what motivates Luz to think of herself, when by the second half of the show she begins to refuse that option as inherently selfish.

If Homesick had aired during S1B, we’d have gotten a glimpse of Manny, but specifically, curiously faceless; Until then, Luz sees a parental figure deteriorating from an incurable illness and is obsessed with handling it, offering medical advice to Eda at one point.

And in Yesterday’s Lie, there’s still no Manny or mention of him, but we see glimpses of his body without the face. And then finally, finally we get Reaching Out and realize; He died. There was no divorce, it’s not that Manny is dead to mother and daughter, only literally. He’s still very much alive to them, Luz is worried about paying tribute to him in that episode.

Camila mourns the loss of Manny, someone who was always better at her about being a weirdo, and without him she feels lost, falls back into what society demands of her, and in doing so hurts their daughter. She mourns that she misses him, but Camila can’t depend on Manny to be what Luz needs her to be; She’ll be Manny, for Luz but also herself too. And Luz herself struggles to be the unapologetic Manny as well, and must do it for herself especially.

It’s the way Manny recontextualizes everything about the Nocedas. It’s the way he haunts the narrative himself, because we noticed, we had to, we had to ask where he was. Why is he not there for Luz or Camila, would he support her, is Camila also struggling from his absence? We don’t need his face or voice or an outright flashback to feel and appreciate Manny’s influence (Though I would’ve loved one).

And in a way, it’s like Dana Terrace’s own father is doing the same; With it being confirmed that Dana’s dad gave her a copy of Pokémon Red before he died, you understand perfectly that Luz is Dana, Manny is her father. Dana still likes Pokémon to this day, she’s done crossover art with Pokémon and her own show.

When it came out, Pokemon was targeted by Evangelicals as evil, it was absurd; And we see the Conformatorium perform similar absurdities in the same first episode where Luz is shown to hold onto her father’s last gift, and her fight with the Conformatorium is her fight with the system that made Luz feel ashamed of Manny’s gift and the profound impact it had on her.

The villain of the show manipulates Luz and makes her think she’s just like him, something Luz acknowledges means being a selfish, destructive force; Unsurprisingly, the villain is a Puritan, the ancestor of evangelicals, who agrees on the similarities but not on these things being evil.

And between Caleb and Manny, perhaps Caleb is defined incorrectly when it comes to how he influences things. Because Caleb does not really motivate Belos, Belos always wanted to be a witch hunter before he could claim to be betrayed by Caleb, he did it for himself. He made Grimwalkers but still continues the harm unto and through them that Caleb stood against. Caleb failed to do anything with Belos, tbh, and all that is passed on are empty genes that a racist would obsess over, but never the spirit as Luz did with Manny.

But what about Caleb’s child? Manny is defined as a father to Luz. What about someone Caleb was a father to as well? His unborn child, the ancestor of Eda. Caleb was a wood carver who loved Flapjack, and the Clawthornes had a tradition of carving Palismen. Could it not be implied that Evelyn carried on his unseen and unheard, yet felt love to their child, born after the death? And this love for the isles and magic and Palismen was passed all the way down to Dell, and then Eda.

And it’s Eda who helps Luz, another human, embrace her love for the isles and magic and Palismen. Evelyn’s descendant helps another human. Luz sees Eda in Manny, she’s his successor as someone who’s present for Luz when Camila can’t always be. Eda loves wild magic and her Palisman, gives Owlbert more autonomy than other witches, and helps the Bat Queen arrange Palismen to find new partners. And what goes around comes around when Caleb’s contribution to Palismen, started by Flapjack, helps Flapjack find a new friend and set in motion events that would lead to the Clawthornes’ injustice being rectified.

I’ve seen people argue that Hunter being with Willow makes him a copy of Caleb, but in addition to Hunter’s arc being him not caring what he does or doesn’t resemble… I think maybe the true parallel to Caleb and Evelyn is Manny and Camila; Both came to Gravesfield, the father was a weirdo with an open mind. He died, the mother mourned, but he passed on something to a child, who would eventually pass it on to Luz herself as both stories and families converge.

So Evelyn and Caleb’s child haunts the narrative; They’re Luz in a sense. Manny haunts the narrative too, since the start. He is Caleb, and so he is Eda who carries that spirit. And he is Eda because she carries the spirit for Luz. Manny is Dana Terrace’s own father, who inspired her to keep being a weirdo, which led to this show. So not only is Manny more important to the narrative’s framing and focus as the main character’s father, whose absence motivates both a disconnect between mother and daughter that leads Luz to the isles, but also motivates Luz to stay?

In a way, Manny represents the father of the series, the father of the show that reflects Dana’s own experiences and beliefs. One could say he haunts Dana’s own life, except… Perhaps the word ‘haunt’ is incorrect. Because it has a negative connotation. Perhaps the word is Inspire; Manny may be dead, we may know little of Mr. Terrace or Manny himself. But we can say that Manny lived, because of his impact, his life had meaning and it always will. Something is in motion, so we all know and understand ask what, or who set it that way.

[jumpingjoltiks]

Would you consider writing some enemies to lovers with Emmet or Ingo? 🥲

YES!! I WOULD LOVE TO.

Dearly Detested

Pairings: Emmet x gn!Reader

Warnings: None :)

You and Emmet have known each other since you were both in school - Rival Classmates

While you're both equally intelligent and passionate about battling, you have better social skills then he does. and it pisses him off.

No matter whether he beats you in a battle or not, your classmates still side with you. It isn't fair!

In your mind, this uppety jerk has been far too blunt with you. He's insulted your battle strategies, insisted that bug types (ugh, ew!) are the best, and has generally been a pest demanding battles from you.

Thankfully, once you're old enough, you're able to part ways and go on your separate journeys. You both breathe a sigh of relief at never having to see the other again.

Cut to many years later, you've just started work in Nimbasa, and who do you happen to see on a local billboard - surely it couldn't be that smug bastard and his shithead twin?! No way they're so successful!

Oh you have to beat him in battle.

You pick out the strongest members of your team and start to challenge the double lines.

It's... much harder than you expected. You're not used to double battles, but you're determined to knock that stupid grin off his face.

Emmet, meanwhile, is very satisfied watching his old rival get their team knocked out again and again.

When you finally reach him, he's almost impressed. Almost. But he can't help rubbing it in your face a little.

"I am Emmet. You have spent a long time getting to my car. Do not worry. This will be your final stop."

You're so angry that you let it get to your head, and you lose. Badly. All of your hard work and here you stand, humiliated.

"What a shame. I expected better from you. But you know, in a Double Battle, if you misread one thing, the rest will be totally different. Please win 20 battles in a row, and fight with me again."

You're going to kill him. You're actually going to kill him.

The next time you come through, you have a new strategy. It works well for you. You work through his team methodically - this time you won't let your emotions get the better of you - and you come out victorious.

"Not bad! That was a verrry exciting battle. It was fun! The next time you challenge me, I won't lose."

Your ire has been cooled by your victory. Despite yourself, you find that challenging the subway has been the most fun you and your team have had in a while. So you go again. And again.

Your battles with Emmet are always new and exciting. You try to come up with as many interesting strategies as you can, and you can tell he's doing the same. You challenge each other. It's fun to have someone who can keep up with you.

Emmet has been keeping an eye on you during your battles. There's a lot you can tell about someone from the way they fight with pokemon. You're different then how you used to be - smarter. Nicer too. You treat your team so well, even when you lose you're never upset with them.

Over time, bitter banter makes way for a certain playfulness between you. You've been fighting for so long that most of the bad blood between you has been washed away with the flow of time.

One autumn afternoon, you're buying popcorn for a flick at the local movie theater, and who should happen to saddle up beside you but the subway boss.

"Look what the purrloin dragged out! Didn't realize you ever left the tunnels."

By wild chance, he's here to see the same movie that you are. You sit together because you know each other and it's convenient. Definitely not for any other reason, you tell yourself. Certainly not because you're friends.

When it's over, you still have much of the afternoon left. You could go home, or...

Neither you nor Emmet want to part ways quite yet. What a difference from how you used to be, when you couldn't wait to get away from him. You spend most of the afternoon together, walking through one of the local parks and just talking. It's nice. You have more in common then you thought you would.

Perhaps this could be the beginning of something wonderful.

Thanks for reading 💕

Emmet happy that he won and reciting his script vs Reader wanting to gut him

[gluevah]

New arrivals! I'm sure it has been mentioned before, but I absolutely adore the Comfy Friends/Fuwa Fuwa Daki Pokemon plush line. Like, I fully think they're the best plush line Pokemon has done. They are all so soft and perfect for hugging! Recently a new wave came out: Komala, Mimikyu, Hisuian Zorua, and Venonat!

I originally planned to get only venonat and zorua, but I ended up accidentally ordering mimikyu too. And I can't just send her back, look at her 😭 she's adorable!

Hisuian zorua is so pretty, her colors are amazing! I love how they translated the gradient to bands of color that get darker. For printed, short pile fabric, a gradient is easy; not so much with longer fur. I hope we get snow this winter, I want to take photos of her in the snow!

Naturally the one I was most excited for is venonat, because it's a bug. A cute bug! He's so perfect, his little hands 😭

The new arrivals are right at home on my comfy friends shelf!

[pinecone-jam]

I’ve gathered another pile of sketches way faster than I expected

[souenkun]

I need the pokemas anniversary to come soon so we can hopefully see volo go batshit crazy again for the second time!!!

[sincerely-sofie]

*Skitters up to you on all fours and drops this in your lap, then scrambles up the walls and onto the ceiling and immediately falls asleep*

Comic time! Lucky wakes up in the middle of the night and has a chat with Sen in this one.

[sysig]

Challenge level: Impossible (Patreon)

[chocokano]

ep 64 spoilers below!!

rambling below my bad but i have many thoughts!

so! the whole umbreon rakurium or hwv you spell it scene. it was clearly Not Good and i am not trying to argue against it being a terrible thing to do and all BUT (and this is NOT me trying to woobify spinel or whatever he is terrible i'm aware of that)

i REALLYYYY hope there's more to this whole thing than just "oh yeah spinel is just evil and doesn't care about anything including his dog"

i've always seen his bond with umbreon as really interesting and thought it brought nuance to his character; like yeah he's absolutely awful but there's this ONE THING that he genuinely cares about. i think it's cool i think it's neat

SO I REALLYYYY HOPE the scene isn't just throwing that all away. i hope there's more to this or that spinel DOES care but is still willing to be terrible yada yada. i just really hope this isn't a classic pokemon "this character is a terrible person but with like 1 decent quality- jk they're just crazy and evil"

idk if any of this makes sense but! yeah

AND AGAIN I AM NOTTTT TRYING TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE I THINK SPINEL IS A GOOD GUY. he is TERRIBLE and that's part of what makes him so interesting to me!! i just think (or thought apparently) that he's a lot MORE interesting when there's a little contrast in his character

never posted anything like this before please dont eat me alive 🙏 having opinions online is scary

[peachy-doodles]

PLEASE REST YOUR ARM DONT PUSH YOURSELF TOO HARD PLEASE

If you insist on drawing I will give a suggestion. I love ozone and kinda curious what ingo's reaction to their existence would be dksnsk

I hope your arm stops hurting soon ����

i know i told you in the discord ill be okay but KHGKGS ILL BE OKAY !!! ty again tho for the request mwah am sending you platonic kisses because i love drawing my silley guy <3

he would be sooo confused skghgkhs like... this guy is familiar but also not? why does he feel a familial bond with a total stranger who hes never met before but also feels like hes spent his entire life with? why does their existence feel incredibly interesting but also incredibly heartbreaking at the same time? like... what is going on here mane....

they'd work it out tho. ozone is like a weird half brother/cousin/uncle who you only see at christmas or something. sometimes super friendly but also sometimes super distant because even tho his twin is part of the fusion larry just. does not know him or how to act around him so its a very touch and go situation sgkhgkhs :]

[sage-nebula]

I'm about to start episode 15 of the Horizons anime (I was really behind), and I'd just like to say once again that the PokéAni fans that refused to watch it just because it didn't have Ash and/or the TRio in it are really, really missing out.

Aside from having gorgeous animation, music, and a fresh premise, the cast of characters in Horizons is really solid. The adults of the Rising Volt Tacklers crew (Friede, Orla, Mollie, Murdock, and Landau) are all interesting and are around just enough so that the kids are safe, but that the stakes are still raised high enough so that it's believable when the kids are in danger. Because the stakes in Horizons are genuine stakes; we are shown from the get-go that the primary antagonists, the Explorers, are not just goofy guys that can be trifled with, and they haven't come up with something they want to steal on the spot after a chance encounter, either. They are genuine threats that, at least at the point I'm watching, really are too strong for Liko and Roy to handle on their own, and so they need Friede and the rest of the RVT to help them train and become stronger. This doesn't mean that Liko and Roy are helpless and can't do anything -- they do quite a lot on their own! -- but there are stakes in the ongoing plot in this anime (and there is an ongoing, narrative plot!), and the adult crew are around just enough to help out when things get dicey for the kids, who are newbie trainers.

Liko is a really refreshing protagonist; she has a lot to learn about the world still and so is curious and ready to see and experience new things, but she's also cautious and unsure of herself and her place at first, which leads to her getting lost in her own thoughts and tripped up by her own anxiety at times. But we get to see her grow; she comes out of her shell a little more episode by episode, and seeing that marked character growth is wonderful to watch. Plus, as the primary protagonist, she's central to the ongoing narrative plot; the pendant that she inherited from her grandmother is what the Explorers are after, and she takes an active role in wanting to solve its mystery, taking the step herself to not be just a damsel needing to be protected by the RVT, but instead being the heroine of her own story (something she lampshades in an early episode lmao). She has a concrete motivation for being on this journey and stake in the plot. Liko is great!

And for everyone I've seen who says, "I miss Ash," well . . . Roy's your boy! Don't get me wrong, Roy is very much his own character and person; but Roy has a lot of the same personality beats that Ash did in the later sagas (you know, when they'd truly decided to throw out all semblance of who Ash was when he was originally conceived as a character to instead be who they wanted him to be vis-a-vis what type of shounen protagonist is popular nowadays). He's extremely energetic, loves pokémon and gets along with them readily, and is enthusiastic about seeing new places. Except this wasn't just an Ash copy-paste, because we're given concrete reasons for this, too; Roy grew up on a remote island near-ish Kanto, and never left that island for his entire life. He was always told fantastical stories about faraway adventures, but never got to experience them for himself, instead attending remote schools and spending his days otherwise playing with wild pokémon in the forests on his island. In fact, Roy grew up on one story in particular: the story of an ancient adventure who journeyed with six pokémon known as the Six Heroes, including a shiny Rayquaza, to the ends of the world. And then Roy finds an ancient pokéball containing that very Rayquaza, releases it on accident, and that gives him the motivation to join the RVT so that he can chase the Rayquaza and finally set off on a journey of his own, to solve the mystery of the ancient pokéballs and shiny Rayquaza. So again, it's a unique motivation and stake in the plot! While still, also, being a character type you're likely to enjoy, if you enjoyed the Ash who acted like a rockruff in order to train his rockruff. (Because Roy? Jumped off a rock over and over to try to teach a wattrel how to fly.)

The Horizons anime has an ongoing narrative plot that the main characters are actively engaged in and have a reason to pursue. (Because I forgot to mention, but Liko's pendant responds to Roy's ancient pokéball.) They're brand new, unique characters whose personalities are informed by their background and who grow as the episodes progress, because even the episodes that are a bit more slice of life are still informing them as characters and are progressing their characters forward. The ongoing plot is never forgotten, nor is the threat; in an episode where the crew is shopping, a merchant off-handedly mentions Amethio and his sidekicks (they're the main three Explorers that the RVT have faced so far), and Friede picked up the reference and pounced on the potential lead on what their enemies are up to, and so on. You fully believe that the adult crew of the RVT has known each other forever, and they're so warm and kind to Liko and Roy when they join the crew. Not to mention Dot, Murdock's niece, who is also absolutely delightful and I can't wait to see more of her.

All in all, I cannot stress this enough, if there are any fans of the Ash anime that still haven't checked out Horizons because they feel it won't be the same . . . well, it's not the same. But it's really, really, REALLY good. And you're really missing out on something great if you continue to pass it up.

[angermango]

Emmet finally ranked higher than Ingo somewhere after years of being IRL Luigi’d ashdfjkl

(explanation: this phenomenon some people noticed where Emmet always ends up scoring lower than Ingo in any popularity/attraction polls)

[avalonships]

Do they match eachothers freak

[mushroom-for-art]

@distortionmewtwo Lucifer@Vector:

The big horned mew hovered in the air, gazing down at Vector with undisguised judgement. "Just what are you supposed ta be? Mew? Mewtwo? Some Meowth's hairball? You look like what you'd get if someone threw an algae-choked fishtank and moldy bread into a blender! Hah!" He did a lazy little roll in the air, sneering down at Vector. An eager, evil dare in his eyes for them to retaliate.

The strange creature hunched over watching the horned other with expression and body language that clearly read as pure terror and uncertainty her eyes glued to the floating individual as he loomed over her sneering and mocking.

However when he didn't strike nor more too quickly her ear like horns straightened slowly no longer back in fright turning if anything to inquisitiveness as she shifted her body slowly though still watching him to crouch using one hand to stabilise herself as her head slowly tilted to one side.

She blinked slowly in a manner that indicated she may not have even understood what he had been saying, or was choosing to not acknowledge it her tail moving and swaying lifting to rest on the top of her head two of the spikes sticking up while the third morphed back into the jelly like substance of her tail as she curiously mimicked his horns, at least the best she could.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery or so they say, though it could've been read otherwise. Foolishly perhaps, she seemed a bit fascinated by him now as her tail fell back down to resting on the floor, she lifted her body just enough from her crouch to curiously tap at one of his hooves as though seeing if it was real and not just a unique shaped paw, idly grabbing one of the points between her digits making little curious chirps and cooes in her throat.

[sunbedo]

Hey guys. gay rights

[souenkun]

Pokémon Masters EX spoilers ahead!

Kabu likes to play TAG with his pokemon... and he's shown to have a much softer side beneath his strictness in pokemas too... he's so grandpa-shaped to me 😭💖

[sincerely-sofie]

A silly thought I had while doing wordle earlier: Does scrabble or some alternative word game exist in the pokemon world?? If so I’d imagine Twig would always be accused by her friends of “making up” words whenever she tries to use words from English that don’t exist in pokespeak.

There’s 100% word games like Scrabble in the pokemon world! One in particular that’s especially popular is called Shoreline, which is a reference to modernized footprint runes being the script used for pokespeak and trails of footprints being made in the sand on beaches. Kip is an exceptionally skilled player of this game. Twig will always sits rounds out though, because she has horrible spelling know-how and always loses as a result.

At times she’s accidentally tried to use English words that she spelled out in footprint runes during games, and everyone was super confused except for Grovyle, who added an “S” onto her “SOUP” without batting an eye.