#bonus bede is here

[spookberry]

This is part of a lil series where I draw my oc Lore dressed in outfits based off her pokemon.

The first one was cyclizar!! :)

[wildflowercryptid]

florian's always struggled to make friends so he didn't really have any back in galar... uh, actually — it might be more accurate is that he USED to have one...

headcanon explanation + bonus under the cut!

like mentioned above, florian has always struggled a lot with making friends. while he's a kindhearted and friendly kid, he can come across as kinda intense to others, ( especially when discussing his interests, ) and that's led to him often being alienated amongst his peers. though he's grown used to being by himself and has learned to not care if others dislike him, he still hopes that he can find at least a few people to connect with outside of his family. it's a hope that's always been present, ever since he was growing up in wyndon.

of course, he wasn't the only loner amongst his childhood peers. around 7 years old, he found a friend in bede fee, who attended the same primary school as him. bede themself wasn't exactly the friendliest kid out there and often had spats with people who made fun of them for their family's low-income status, but florian managed to get them to warm up to him. the two got along pretty well and found comfort in having a friend that seemed to understand them, both being lonely kids who were often picked on by others. after a while, they became pretty much inseparable as they frequently played, read, and laughed together. to florian, it didn't matter that people picked on him just as long as he had bede there to be his friend. bede shared a similar sentiment... at least, at first he did.

admittedly, florian has a habit of resting on his laurels when it comes to things he doesn't have an interest in improving. ( it doesn't matter if he isn't as good of a battler as his sister, all he needs is to be strong enough to keep himself safe during field research. it doesn't matter if he's ostracized amongst his peers and looked down upon, he's alright as long as he has someone to call a friend. etc, etc. ) bede, however, couldn't keep themself from caring about their place in the pecking order. they were sick of others looking down on them, sick of others thinking they were better than them. they just couldn't understand how florian could stand people treating him poorly without getting angry. over time, frustration and resentment towards his attitude festered inside them. these feelings were only exacerbated by their struggles at home and being sent to the orphanage. while they would still call each other friends, their bond had definitely become strained.

everything came to a head when they were both 11 years old, when rose visited bede's orphanage and his acknowledgement caused a major shift in their personality. after all, someone that important seeing their potential surely meant that they better than their peers, right? they soon became much more pompous and rude in nature. florian still stayed close by despite bede's worsening attitude towards him, but it wasn't before long until all of their pent-up feelings came flooding out. their friendship ended with massive fight, with bede telling florian that they were sick of being weighed down by an " annoying pest " like him. while they expected for him to take their cruel remarks in stride like he always did with everyone else, bede couldn't help but feel a little guilty when florian ran off in tears. the two stopped talking after that fight and ever since then, there's always a worry in the back of florian's mind that his friends will eventually get sick of him like bede did. ( thankfully, the friends he's made since then have helped make him feel a lot more secure in their relationships. )

apologies for the long-winded explanation, here's the bonus i promised to make up for how sad this hc got :

the goofy ass side effect of coming up with this headcanon is realizing that they accidentally shaped each others' taste in guys rip

[ballonleastadiumofficial]

Good morning, dear Rotumblrists.

I was thinking today that I may as well use this platform to vent my favorite quiz questions. Shame for you all who hate them, I guess. But here, have a day in the life of young Bede! I might even have a prize for those of you who get it right, ho ho.

If a Gardevoir is battling an Appletun, would she deal more damage using Icy Wind or Dazzling Gleam?

Remember to factor in type advantages and same type attack bonus! Good luck!

[kaibutsushidousha]

Which Pokémon gym leaders do you like the most?

Gen 1 doesn't do much in terms of giving them roles and personalities but Sabrina has been a big favorite for as long as I can remember. Playing Yellow as an adult also let me appreciate the chuuni potential of Koga. He also has the second-best gym puzzle after Blaine.

Gen 2 makes them more distinctive but not exactly more likable. If I have to pick one, I'll go with Morty. His design and his gym puzzle are pretty cool and he's almost plot-relevant. Honorable mention to Janine, who is a poor replacement for Koga but gets huge bonus points for Ariados as a choice of ace.

Gen 3 has Winona and Wallace with great designs and excellent choices of aces in Altaria and Milotic. But the ORAS expansion also pushes Watson ahead of the competition.

Sinnoh also lacks any standout Gym Leaders. They saved all the good designs for the Elite Four, apparently. But I'd pick Fantina or Wake if I'm forced to pick one.

Black and White is where Gym Leaders finally start generally getting things to do outside their boss battles. Skyla is Unova's prettiest design but Elesa wins for the crucial part she plays in Bianca's arc (Still could have been 10 times better if she had Galvantula as her ace).

The Kalos games are a downgrade in terms of Gym Leader presence but it has Valerie, who is Pokémon's prettiest woman by a very wide margin.

The Trial Captains all have good designs, decent relevancy, and pretty original "gym puzzles", but if I have to pick one, Lana takes it for the choice of Araquanid as her ace.

Gen 8 is another one that puts so much care into its Gym Leaders in general, gym puzzles aside, but here the choice is much easier. Opal is straight-up the best character of her generation. I guess Bede also counts as a Gym Leader, so I should name him as a runner-up as well.

I still haven't seen most Gym Leaders for Gen 9 but one of them is FGO Sei Shounagon so I'm pretty confident Iono will remain my favorite to the end.

The proper rankings fluctuate a lot since for the most part the Gym Leaders aren't exactly characters with well-defined personalities and development, but Valerie and Opal are generally the top 2 in this order, for the third place today I'm feeling Koga.

[brainshock-alpha]

Words: 680 Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Beet | Bede/Masaru | Victor Characters: Beet | Bede, Masaru | Victor Additional Tags: Fluff, Crushes, Flirting, Pre-Relationship, Autistic Beet | Bede, Post-Canon, Ficlet, One Shot Summary: It's amazing how Victor can go along with every smug cheeky thing Bede says and still manage to leave him reeling. Notes: i've always thought the bede/victor tag on ao3 is just criminally underpopulated, so here's something short and sweet for it on the bonus day of ship week ^-^ (no prompt in particular for this fic!)

[crystalelemental]

Unit Viability Speculation - December 2023

Unova finally gets some attention, Viola finally gets a super nice outfit, and all I care about is Lodge Jasmine. Okay that's not entirely true, Meloetta's here, but like. Jasmine.

Neo Champion Nate Good news: the "Even Nate" jokes are over. Bad news: Nate having the shiny Haxorus from completing the dex will 100% be used to say he was secretly the true protagonist on Reddit, because girls can't be protagonists.

Nate is an insanely powerful Dragon Striker, who acts more as a support. To cut to the chase, his Buddy move is his only real damage aside from sync, and it's 1MP with AoE penalty. It's not exactly breaking barriers here, given its only effects are "can't miss" and "-1 cooldown." Those are common effects. Scale Shot is also not great, giving some minor speed increase at the cost of defense. While he stacks PMUN like crazy, none of it matters when Scale Shot is as weak as it is. Punishing Strike is tremendous, 30% boost under his circle is great, and Haymaker is free money alongside Speedster Sync 5, which is easy to set up because only +1 speed is sufficient. Oh and he gets another 90% bonus while his Circle is up. Sure Nate. 240% sync damage. Oh, and his role is Zone. In case you were worried he didn't do enough.

But here's where we get to the argument that Nate is actually support. Unova Pride as a Master Passive is already fantastic, right? Okay. This Circle business? It's a field effect Master Passive, where the region requirement counts himself. 10% damage boost at base with +10% more for each Unova, and 5% damage reduction with 3% more for each Unova. Nate's default is 20% and 8%. Oh but wait. This one counts sync. So on a full Unova team, Nate has 280% sync damage, with Field effect benefits. Sure bro. Very normal. But the Circle applies to all allies. The field powers up all Dragons. His Circle move also gives the whole team PMUN. Nate does a surprising amount for physical Unova pairs just by existing.

Which means the detriment should be obvious. Like so, so many Techs in eras past, the downside of being the strongest thing your supportive tools can benefit is that no one else really gets to shine. Yes, this is a godsend for base Iris' damage. Show me a scenario where base Iris contributes while Nate's throwing around this much power. I'll wait. There's also the ongoing issue of off-type, which Nate can very much do, but how relevant is that for other physical pairs when Nate's doing all the heavy lifting? The Circle benefit is 40% sync damage to any physical ally, but no one comes close to Nate's level of sync damage. There's also the issue of Dragon Zone potentially overwriting other effects you wanted. I don't think this Nate is bad at all, but I think in my heart I wanted him and Iris to work together, rather than Iris being superficially attached to him.

Neo Champion Rosa Who is, apparently, not coming out until Christmas. Go figure. Ugh. Anyway. Meloetta's finally here. It tanked Lisia/Meloetta, but I can't complain too much. I will, however, complain about Psychic Support. Shoulda been Normal.

Rosa is...a choice. Imagine Winter Rosa but good. On the surface, her Buddy move seems reminiscent of Winter Rosa's trainer move. A random +2 to any of the seven stats, with +1 crit baked in. But, NC Rosa transforms, and through a passive, grants +1 PMUN/SMUN to all allies. Now we're on that NC Bede shit. Rosa also applies a Psychic and/or Fighting Rebuff to all opponents, given her Buddy move is AoE, and has a TM that gives +2 PMUN or SMUN to all allies, with 2MP. Rosa stacks, and stacks quickly. Zinfogel is gonna love this. Rosa also boosts her own Sp Def or Def by 1 every attack in either form, so steadily building up defenses. Potion with double MPR on grid is a nice defensive backbone. Sing in Aria is Gauntlet cheese, Teeter Dance with Stop Hitting Yourself 5 on grid from Pirouette is great. Team Sharp Entry feels alright. Team Stoic and Force Field are nice for boosting both defenses, allowing Rosa to consistently boost something for the team. Easy Pickings is really funny if you want to lean into Confusion, but is very slow acting. And most important of all? Support/Sprint role is real. Bless.

Now for the bad. Sing is borderline useless, as she does not receive tools to max its accuracy, and has no built-in Vigilance like Melony. Her specific buffing profile is fairly slow, so while the moves up next stacking is legendary, she relies on allies who are self-sufficient and does far less for the low tier strike pairs. But most of all? Her Buddy Move conditional is a god-forsaken nightmare. Don't get me wrong, the abilities it possesses are extremely good. But the tradeoff is, if she drops to "pinch" range, it turns off. Rosa is the support. She's taking all the damage. And her defensive profile is...okay but not great. The numbers are there, but she's not exactly maxing out bulk with ease, as boosting both defenses is a high investment that takes from other tools. Gauntlet will have no problem with this, but CS runs the risk of knocking her out of range in one shot, ruining her potential to so much as cap crit, much less anything else. And that makes her profile much worse off as a support, taking away any serious buffing potential, and her main source of value with moves up next each attack. Obviously Rosa is still fantastic, but my general point is, Rosa thrives off of not having to take significant hits, and CS gets stronger and stronger as points go up. Off-typing in particular may be hard for her as more is put into offensive pressure from the opponent.

Winter Viola OH MY GOD I LOVE HER OUTFIT, THIS IS SO CUTE

Okay, Viola is a Bug Field with Tech Role. Odd choice, but listen. We can move on from Ingo. OR SO YOU'D THINK. Viola's got some problems. Struggle Bug is fine but feels specifically aligned to Alder Strats. Her Buddy move being 1MP really hurts, as a -1 to all seven stats would be amazing if you could do it more than just the one time. Paralysis and Confusion are good, but Confusion wears off, and unfortunately, tends to wear off fast. TM is nice, giving +2 Sp Atk/crit to any ally, and Bug Zone as a callable effect is nice, because you need that Zone to use Buddy Move in the first place. The real fun is that her passives really mess with paralysis. A random -2 to any of the seven stats per attack, and a rank-5 boosted disruption to opponent action when paralyzed. That's pretty good. Grid boosts team damage against paralyzed opponents 20%, she gets Shocking Slowdown for speed debuffs which is a decent combo with Struggle Bug, Power Play and Static Shock 5 are free money, and Grand Entry 2 can complete her own setup by turn 2. All in all, pretty decent!

Unfortunately, Ingo. While I do think Viola is superior given her tremendous coverage and utilities and better Zone pressure, the problem is she came second. Ingo's been around, and does an okay job. What does Viola provide for you that makes her worth pulling as a Zone pair over Ingo? The shorthand is, she supports Alder better. And that's kinda it. High DPS Bug pairs are her best friends, and the Sp Atk drops fit Alder perfectly. There's an argument for her being the special focus to Ingo's physical, but she lacks Sp Def drops with any consistency so I'd hesitate to say that. If anything, she lacks much consistency at all, barring Sp Atk which is rarely need, and Spd which is often needed but seldom good. She feels more like a generalist who happens to have good Bug options available, if only for herself. I like her a lot, but if you've been making do with Ingo, I wouldn't consider this a necessary upgrade.

Winter Sycamore Oh wow, they actually did a Sycamore alt. And with Gogoat of all things. Gotta get us primed for the Grass High Score event, I suppose.

Support/Strike. Sure dude. Razor Leaf, Potion, Dire Hit All+, TM boosts both defenses +4 and Speed +2. Can...can we please just let Evelyn get an EX? My god. His passive is fascinating. Lowers the foe's Grass rebuff, but raises your team's. This is so, so specifically about Grass High Score it's kinda hilarious. It felt so unnecessary to constantly tease that next was Grass, but it was so we all looked at Sycamore shaking his ass at us and thought Lysandre thoughts about it. Unfortunately, they over-kit him for it. Group Grass Guard is definitely something, but I want you to ask yourself: how often is Grass damage relevant? Outside of Tapu Bulu, how many Grass-type stages are there in CS? You can count them on one hand. Because Grass is terrible in the main series so no Elite Four member relies on it. You have Blue's Exeggutor, Hau's Decidueye...and honest to god that might be it. When you make yourself this specific, you run the risk of locking yourself into a small niche. And that's kinda what happens. His grid isn't bad. Flabbergast 5 for a 60% confuse rate, Triage Tank (not the team kind), Revenge Boost and Dashing Team 4 for decent gauge management, Endurance, and Team Sync Regen are all nice, and it does promote Sycamore as a defensive support whose focus is on gauge management. A good overall call. But I can't help but feel his kit is fairly...standard? Barring the speed, nothing about this entices me. It's too heavy on "BUY ME FOR HIGH SCORE" and not enough on what could have been more dynamic traits. He's just "Better Evelyn." Which. God, that's still depressing.

Lodge Jasmine Alright, everyone shut up! It's Jasmine time! She even got Magnemite, which is the exactly thing I wanted! Support though, little bummed it wasn't an F2P Special Steel striker. Perrserker was limited availability, we need anti-Glacia tech, man.

Thundershock, Gyro Ball, fucking Screech on a support, and TM boosts Def/Sp Def/Acc +1. Oh no. Gladion strats. Endurance, Lithe, and Recuperation 1 are cute, at least. Endurance in particular being a nice saving grace. It's not the worst kit I've seen? But also, only +1 on defenses, and no crit rate. Uh oh, girl.

Grid provides HE4 (couldn't make the para 100%, huh?), Natural Remedy, Shocking Slowdown (too inconsistent given para rate), Team Sharp Entry (!), Interference Immunity (!!), Team Full Bracing Infliction if you're into that, Gyro Ball: Fleet Feet for gauge, First Aid 2 (ANGERY), and the coveted All Ramped Up. That last one saves it. Both defenses and Sp Atk with some accuracy is very nice. That's a mild gamechanger. With Team Sharp Entry in the mix, that's also saving a turn of setup for any Dire Hit+ options. I won't say Jasmine is anything exceptional. There are very clear faults here. Lacks crit rate for F2P pairs, lacks serious buffing in any category and instead spreading out, inconsistent secondary effects like paralysis limit her utilities. Screech is nice though. Like Screech. It's just. All Ramped Up. That's the opposite of Screech, girl.

Jasmine's kinda messy, but this is my second favorite character. All in.

Kukui Oh good, Dingus McBingus gets a grid expansion. Unless it's Leer utility, get out. Trip Up only on Rock Tomb is ass, Trip Wire 2 is something for his Cakewalk set, Berserker 2 is good for self-setup I suppose, Critical Infliction is nice. Basically, three uses of Leer caps his offensive needs now, and he gets a free -2 Spd to all foes on entry. ...you know what, yeah. I'll say that's actually pretty good, man. You kinda nailed this one, color me impressed.

Lorelei *deepest sigh* Okay, look. I'll probably do it because Lorelei is very pretty and I like those colors. But like. Remember when Shauntal got her EX, and I was kinda harsh about "this is hilariously not worth your time?" Because Shauntal has a pretty bad sync? Okay, that was obviously a little harsh, right? I've used Shauntal EX and even without investment, it helps her with F2P clears. There was something for her. But Lorelei? There is nothing for Lorelei. God cannot save her, much less an EX. Her Tech conditional is "foe is frozen." This is impossible to achieve with any kind of consistency, barring Dickshit McFuckhead who we're not going to bother talking about, because fuck dude if you have him what the hell are you doing using Lorelei? As a result, Lorelei has...well, nothing. There is nothing Lorelei does well as far as sync goes. Her course in life was supposed to be Blizzard DPS and they fucked that up. So instead, take this character whose sync nuke is perpetually gimped to high hell because you can't get the most meaningful increase to damage at anything better than a 30% rate. And that's before factoring in how fast people thaw out. Which is hella fast. Lorelei cannot be relied on for nuking. This is a bad decision. Do not waste your resources in this manner. Do better.

[ledenews]

Boys OVAC Tourney Picture Coming Into Focus

Bellaire started this week in a far better position than it did last. Last week, the Big Reds were in the midst of a six-game losing streak, a streak that at one point had head coach J.R. Battista’s club on the outside looking in at the OVAC Class 3A playoff picture. Today, the boys from the All-American town are fourth in the 3A rankings with a game left to play—Tuesday night’s road meeting with Beaver Local. The Beavers are 8-9 and are coming off a 59-37 loss to Union Local. The Jets effectively swapped places with Bellaire in the 3A standings after BHS grounded the Jets 74-69 in OT on Thursday to snap that losing streak. A win against Creek Saturday followed and Bellaire finds itself back in play for the OVAC tourney. “We’re kind of in a dogfight right now,” Battista said prior to Thursday’s game against UL. “The most important thing is to win a few games. “Basketball is a funny game. Sometimes, the little round ball goes in and you're a genius. Sometimes, it rims out and you're not that smart.” “But their effort has been good the whole time. They've just been worn down.” Bellaire’s playing at a torrid pace, running three games per week since the calendar kicked over to January. Given the team’s consistent rotation is all of six players deep, the Reds’ regulars are running a little ragged. But those two wins vs. UL and Creek, coupled with another against Beaver on Tuesday, and Bellaire is in the OVAC tourney at 13-8. Depending on how things play out elsewhere, they could climb as high as third. But, if they lose, Bellaire likely will find itself back in fifth. It’s just one of many interesting races leading up to Tuesday night’s cutoff for OVAC tournament qualifying. Some spots are secure, others will be hotly contested right up until late Tuesday. As LedeNews did last week with the girls’ OVAC tourney lead-up, we’ll take a look at all the scenarios to see who gets in, and who doesn’t. Class 3A The top two seeds in Class 3A are secure and aren’t moving. Martins Ferry saw its 14-game win streak to open the season snapped Saturday in an 89-79 loss to Harrison Central in the Buckeye 8 championship game. The Riders return to action Tuesday at Shadyside (10-7), a team they previously beat 90-66. Win or lose, head coach Derek Edwards’ club has the top seed secured. “Tournament time is a whole different season,” Edwards said. “Every game is challenging in its own way. You don’t look at records, you look at personnel. How do we match up? “We have to give ourselves the best chance to win.” Caldwell and all-Ohio performer Bede Lori are the No. 2 seed and will also remain as such, regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s return bout against rival Shenandoah. The Redskins won the earlier meeting, 72-65. Here’s where things get interesting. Linsly, the defending Class 3A champs, is currently third and hosts Big Red on Monday. A win and the Cadets are assured third. A loss, coupled with a Bellaire win, and the Big Reds will jump the Cadets for third. The present top three are in regardless. If UL hopes to make it, the Jets must defeat a three-win Barnesville team AND hope that Beaver can knock off Bellaire. Buckeye Trail is currently sixth at 10-6, but much like its girls' team, the Warriors aren’t garnering as many bonus points given the number of IVC games they must play as members of that conference. Some members of the Morgantown boys' team pose in the locker room after a big win against Park earlier this season. Photo provided Class 5A The “big school” class is the only one where the participants, and their respective seeds, are already decided. Morgantown, Dover, Parkersburg South, and Wheeling Park are currently ranked first through fourth, respectively. Only Wheeling Park has a game prior to the cutoff, a meeting with the Brooke Bruins. Even with a win, Park’s average won’t be enough to overtake South for the third spot. The matchups could provide a rematch of the 2022 OVAC 5A finale, where Dover dispatched Morgantown, 70-54. The No. 1 Mohigans already own wins against South (71-59) and Park (79-43), while the Crimson Tornadoes beat both sets of Patriots, 59-50 vs. South, and 61-38 vs. WP. Dover’s only loss is to New Philadelphia, 45-30. Class 4A The 4A class is also already decided, at least in terms of participants. Positioning, however, is still up for grabs. The top spot isn’t. East Liverpool, even with a loss to current No. 3 seed Harrison Central, will still retain enough of a lead in points average to keep the No. 1 seed. The Huskies, however, could vault past No. 2 Weir by beating the Potters, coupled with a Red Riders loss to No. 4 seed Indian Creek. Yes, it’s a bit of a tourney preview, before the tourney. Here’s where things get jumbled. If Weir beats Creek, then it doesn’t matter what Harrison does and the seeding remains the same. However, if Weir falls, then Creek will jump to third if Weir wins, and second if Weir loses. St. Clairsville, which faces John Marshall on Tuesday, will still come up short, even with a win against the Monarchs. Caldwell's all-Ohio senior Bede Lori celebrates with his teammates after Lori scored his 2,000th point earlier this season. Class 2A Much like the girls’ tournament, the River Pilots have secured the top seed, no matter the outcome of a potential 2A finale preview when they play host to Monroe Central. The Seminoles are currently the No. 2 seed and, even with a win against River, can’t overtake the Pilots. They can, however, fall from second with a loss, depending on what happens with the log jam that is the third through fifth spots in the standings. Southern Local is third at 10-5 and faces a 12-4 Lisbon team on Tuesday. A win and Southern will have a 35.5 average. A loss and the Indians' total drops to 33. What that means is if Southern wins and Monroe does not, the Indians jump the ’Noles for second. That is UNLESS No. 4 seed Shadyside can upset Martins Ferry on Tuesday. Should the Tigers pull off that victory at home, then Shadyside’s average bumps to 36.33 and the Tigers take the No. 2 spot, leaving Southern at three and Monroe at four. Further muddying the waters is No. 5 Toronto. The Red Knights (10-7) travel to one-win Oak Glen on Tuesday. A Red Knights win gives them a 33.11 average. A loss for either Southern or Shadyside will give Toronto a spot in the final four. A loss by both and Toronto moves into third position, Southern falls to fourth and Shadyside is on the outside looking in. No. 6 Wellsville, even with a win against East Palestine, will just miss the cut, as will defending champion Wheeling Central, who has compiled a record of 8-7 against a difficult schedule. Class A Defending champion Cameron is currently the No. 1 seed and will remain as such regardless of the outcome of the Dragons' road date with Madonna on Tuesday. The Blue Dons are presently the No. 2 seed and previously beat Cameron 68-32 in Weirton on January 2. Win, and the Dons are second. Lose, and Madonna could actually fall all the way to No. 5. That’s because the averages are tight between Madonna (24.38) and No. 5 Trinity (22). Conotton Valley is No. 3 and plays Tuscarawas Catholic Central. A win gives the Rockets an average of 23.53; a loss 21.76. Valley is No. 4 and hosts Hundred, a team it beat already 77-50. If the Lumberjacks win, their total is 23.75. A loss is 21.38. Going back to Madonna, beating the Dragons again boosts its average to 25.75. But, a loss however, brings that down to 22.94, allowing both Conotton and Valley to leapfrog past the Blue Dons, if they win their respective games. Read the full article

[crawlingtowardchrist]

A non-religious friend of mine told me recently that Christmas and Santa Claus were originally pagan (Yule and the Norse god Odin) and that Yule was just Christianized into Christmas and Santa Claus was originally Odin and Christianized into Santa Claus. I tried to tell him that Santa Claus was based on Saint Nicholas, but he said that I was incorrect. Is my non-religious friend right? If this subject is brought up again with him, what resources can I use to strengthen my argument regarding Saint Nicholas’ connection to Christmas & Santa Claus?

First regarding Christmas, the first available record of Christ's birth being on December 25th was made by St Hippolytus of Rome, in 204 ad, well before Christianity had evangelized the norse countries. This important to remember, that Christianity had already established the Feast of Christmas and it was already being celebrated in Rome as early as 336 ad. So when greater efforts to evangelize Germany and other Norse pagans began, Christmas was a holiday already being celebrated on December 25th, although I think in the East they celebrated it on January 6th.

The first recorded mention of Yule is in a calendar of saints dated back to the 500s, and it was marking the start of some season in November or December. Remember this is in a saints calendar, and it's hardly regular practice for Catholics to include pagan holidays in their calendars. There's another mention of the Yule season in the 700s, by St Bede, who mentioned Yule as a New Year celebration, and did not mention it as a pagan holiday.

So I am of the opinion that Yule was either non religious or Christian in origin, the opposite of what people usually say.

Regarding Santa Claus, he indeed has his origins in Saint Nicholaus. Saint Nicholaus was well known as someone who gave gifts to children while he was here on Earth, he was canonized in the 800s and was the patron of children. In the 1200s we start to see people in France celebrating his feast day on December 6th. This of course spread throughout Europe. He was known as Sinterklaas in Dutch. According to traditions, Sinterklaas would ride on rooftops with his white horse, listening through chimneys for good children, and leave them goodies in their shoes. The original day in which presents were exchanged in December was this holiday, and Christmas was simply a mass celebrated in the honor of Christ's birth.

When Martin Luther began his protestant revolution he suppressed the celebration of saints and people started to exchange presents on Christmas instead. What happened to Sinterklaas? Those who remained Catholic still celebrated his holiday and this saint of course, but for those who were protestant and didn't want to give up this tradition he began to look very different. He no longer had his bishops robes and instead had green robes found in dutch culture, and his color was later changed to red. He was also renamed by Dutch settlers in America to Santa Claus. So Santa Claus is basically a protestant version of St Nicholas.

The earliest mention of Odin giving gifts to children that I could find was is in 1994, hardly historical evidence for this claim that Odin was also someone who gave gifts, and this claim was from a journalist not a historian. There really isn't any reason to believe that Santa Claus is based on Odin, really the only similarity was that they were depicted as old men.

Also, it's kinda ridiculous to assert that Santa Claus is not based on Saint Nicholaus, when "Santa" literally means saint and "Claus" clearly comes from Nicholas, which can also be spelled Nicholaus.

And as a bonus, the Christmas tree is also not a pagan tradition, it comes from St Boniface, who told the pagans to use the fir tree to celebrate Christ's birthday, shortly after he had just cut down a huge oak tree the pagans had regarded as sacred. That's the legend anyway, whether that's true or not it seems to be tied to St Boniface. This took place in the 700s. The other source I saw said Christmas trees came much later, in the 1500s, long after these Norse regions were no longer pagan. So even if the second source is more correct, it still kinda proves Christmas trees are not pagan.

I'm sure it would be difficult to convince this person however. Honestly the best approach would be to ask them to present their evidence. There really isn't any historical documents to support their assertion, and they would probably only present a blog that just says it's true, without any sources listed. Either that or they'll just say they heard it from somewhere. But as the accusers, they have the responsibility pf presenting evidence for their accusations, and if they can't hopefully that would help them understand that they're wrong. If they do provide something trace it to it's source to expose it.

I found a source that seems to present the evidence pretty well

Other than this, I would also suggest Catholic Answers, I'm sure they have more on this subject.

[the-comfort-den]

Master list

Pokemon:

Pokemon headcanon 1

Sexuality and pronoun headcanons for Submas(Ingo and Emmet)

Love language headcanons for Leon, Bede, Ingo, and Emmet

Fav headcanons for Ingo and Emmet

Pokemon headcanon 2

Pokemon headcanon 3

Letters V, J, and N with Ingo, Emmet, and Adaman

Pokemon headcanon 4

Pokemon headcanon 5

Pokemon headcanon 6

Letters A and B with  Ingo, Emmet, Leon, Adaman, Piers and Raihan

Pronoun and sexuality headcanons for Adaman

Letters Y, V, and U with Ingo, Adaman, Leon, Piers, and Emmet

L and N for the fluff alphabet with Ingo, Emmet, Leon, and Piers

Pokemon headcanon 7

Piers love languages 

Polyamory with Ingo and Emmet 

letters K and M with PLA Ingo, Adaman,Ingo,Emmet and Leon

D, J, R fluff alphabet with gen 5 ingo, leon, raihan and piers

Ingo and Emmet with an s/o who deals with headaches/migraines

S and O Ingo, Emmet, PLA!Ingo, Adaman, Guzma, and Piers,

Shared headcanon from anon about dating and pokemon teams

Something Guzma likes to do but doesn’t to admit

Adaman and PLA Ingo with an S/O that sleeps during the day and goes out at night

Guezma’s childhood dream

If Milo had a sustenance garden

Volo’s secret softness

Guzma’s grunts(and Plumeria) wishing him a happy birthday

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Fnaf:

Letter V fluff alphabet with Lolbit

Pronoun, sexuality, and bonus headcanon for Lolbit

Fnaf headcanon 1

P, Q and S with Sun and Moon

(fixed)Mangle’s favorite thing to do

Monty’s deepest secret

All Foxy’s Skyrim classes

What are their fav candle scents with Monty, Roxy, Sun, and Moon

N!Bonnie being approached and being called cute and cuddly and that they want to cuddle/snuggle them

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Twisted Wonderland:

U, V and Z for Ruggie

N, P, and S with the Octavinelle and Savanaclaw dorms

Fav headcanons on all available Twist characters 

Savanaclaw W, X, Y, and Z and Iida with  W, X, Y, Z, N and S

J, k, b, and v with Savanaclaw

Octo-trip x koi!mer!reader - more here!!

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Creepypasta(Soft au only):

3 random hc for LJ

Ben Drowned’s favorite food

Z, X and R with Eyeless Jack

Dark Link’s deepest desire

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Inner World(my ocs)

A and D with Myth!AU(Demon) Insanity

B, C, and M with Myth!Au(Demon) Insanity

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CountryHumans

A, D, J, and N with Egypt If Milo had like, a sustainance garden

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Undertale

D, N, O, and P with Oak, Willow, Spruce, Redwood, Birch, Acacia, Bristlecone, Ginkgo, Cinnamon, Maple,

Citrine, Beryl, Charoite, Malachite, Topaz, Chrys, Moonstone:, and Sunstone and how they react to a box bed

Full SFW Alphabet with Citrine

Citrine romantic headcanons!

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Bittybones

Dino bitties

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Sans, Papyrus, and Gaster bitty cards

Pheonix bitty card

Grillby, Potassium, Carmine, Lithium, Strontium, Nebula, Constellation, Solar, Jupiter, Space, Salsa, Twirl, Spin, Sulfer, bitty cards and Pheonix bitty card addon

Ingo, Emmet, PLA!Ingo(and two extra) bitty cards

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Spooky month

Kevin teaching (gn) reader how to skate

Kevin x (gn) reader x Streber (Poly)headcanons

Full fluff alphabet with Kevin!

Fluffy alphabet L, R, K, and F with Radford and Atticus

Full fluff alphabet with Rick

[day-dream-clouds]

Heyo! I'm new to the community and I noticed you selfship with an aged up version of Ash from Pokemon!

I happen to selfship with somePokemon characters myself

(Idk if you played any of the games so you may not recognize some of these if you only watch the anime)

N Harmonia

Goh

Gladion

Hugh

Hop

Bede

Clemont

Gary Oak

Adaman

Volo

Alain

There may be more idk. But you and Ash are super cute (You and Honey and Tamaki are also cute!!!)

Oh yeah I was gonna ask, do you have any advice on making friends in the community???

I am currently friendless and am self-loathing very much because my brother found out I had a crush on some characters who were younger than me and called me a p3d0....

Anywho that was it! Have a nice day/afternoon/night!

(He/Him pronouns for me btw)

Hello and welcome to the community! Great to meet another Pokemon selfshipper! They all love you very much! *also goh and clemont are my platonic fos so bonus :3!*

*also thx for saying me and ash/honey/tamaki are cute together lol :3*

As for advice on how to make friends here, I don't have much 😅 the only one I was able to think of is to use the #proselfship and #selfproship tags to find other proship selfshippers as that's pretty much a main tag for us *I mean I use it on every selfship post lol*

Anyways thanks for stopping by, your fos love you! ~Cloudy☁️

[vulnonapix1234]

The easiest way for Hop to make Bede happy, is to wear pinkish clothes (bonus if they are out of lace).

His half Fae brain just stops and goes: hey, that is my pretty Boyfriend!

Here is it without the text:

Also, I have no idea how one should draw bede. I was able to successfully draw him once, but now?

[comic-the-adventurer]

Thanks! Would you& please be able to share some of your& Hop headcannons?

Sure thing :D! Some of these are more part of my& AU than really a headcanon but I& hope you'll like them anyway aha :D

(Sidenote: These all assume the SwSh protagonist doesn't exist and Leon is still champion eheh :>)

Hop's a demiboy/genderfaun and uses they/them pronouns

Hop's green bag was originally owned by Leon but it was one of the few things their brother left behind (intentionally or not) when he moved to Wyndon so, naturally, Hop stole it

That said green bag was also not in the best condition but Hop fixed it up. They also removed their brother's pride pins and clipped on their own.

Bede and Hop are total besties.

Leon gifted Hop a shiny Charmander for their birthday

Hop is the only one who calls Leon "Lee." Even people like Raihan or Sonia call Leon "Leo."

Hop hates it when people call them things like "the champion's brother;" it makes them feel like they're living in their brother's shadow. And Raihan uses that to mess with them.

Considering Hop doesn't go actively seeking out battles anymore, they visit other regions often to study different pokemon. Anyway, do you think Barry would get along with them–-

Hop didn't officially "catch" their Partner Pokémon Wooloo until years after they met it. There were tons of Wooloo around but this certain one took a liking to Hop; it followed them around and was very friendly to everyone, including Leon. This was fine until, one day, when Hop was like eight, Wooloo ran into the Slumbering Weald and Hop chased after it. Hop, naturally, encountered Zamazenta/Zacian in their search. It spared their life though and Leon had come to Hop's recuse soon enough. Leon decided, to prevent this from happening again, he would let Hop catch their precious partner Wooloo (which was fine btw; basically what happens at the start of SwSh happens to Hop... except Hop got a pokémon out of it, xD)

Bonus dialogue:

"Although it was dangerous to run in here, especially without telling anyone, you had a good enough reason. I would've done the same thing. Tell you what, Hop... Since you're so attached to it... Clearly... Why don't I catch it for you?"

"🤩 For me?! To keep?!"

"Isn't that what 'catch for you' means? Actually...I'll do you one better. Why don't you catch it yourself?"

"😟 But... Wooloo is my friend. I don't want to hurt it. I don't even have Pokémon to weaken it."

"Who says you have to weaken it? If it wants to be your Pokemon, you can catch it without hurting it."

"But... I don't even know how to throw a Pokeball."

"🤨 Just do it like I do."

"But... The way you do it is weaken it first 😞"

" "

Leon gave Hop his mantle/cape because, when Lee and Hop were on their way to Spikemuth through Circhester, Hop was freezing cold. And since Leon is used to cold temperatures, he, of course, gave his warm mantle to his little brother. Hop was planning to give it back but Leon insisted Hop keep it because, "To me, you'll always be the champion."

Bonus dialogue:

"You're shaking. Are you cold, Hop?"

"😑 Yeah, of course not. In thin clothes and wet hair but not cold at all, Lee. What do you think?"

"Then... Here."

"?"

"Thought I wear my mantle just to boast, little brother? It's very warm, you know. Made from pure Wooloo fur."

"But... What about you?"

"Ever heard of jet lag? Wyndon is freezing this time of year."

"So it'll just get colder?!"

"Not as cold as Circhester, at that."

Hope you like them :D I& have some more but my& Tumblr is actually lagging so I& think I& have to stop now haha. But feel free to ask for more anytime :D About Hop or anyone else! This was a lot of fun to do :>

[wildflowercryptid]

i saw a tiktok giving the gen 9 gym badges cool & fun names like the old games did so here's my headcanons names for the galarian gym badges + explaining the thought process behind them under the cut!

MILO — the herd badge

NESSA — the dew badge

KABU — the ember badge

BEA — the bout badge

ALLISTER — the fright badge

OPAL — the mab badge ⤵︎

BEDE — the puck badge

GORDIE — the monolith badge

MELONY — the frostbite badge

PIERS — the rebel badge ⤵︎

MARNIE — the rally badge

RAIHAN — the wyvern badge

《 BONUS 》 PEONY — the rivet badge

here's some in-depth explanation on each badge's name!

THE HERD BADGE : comes from turffield's gym challenge.

THE DEW BADGE : from nessa's water type specialization & how some makeup looks are called "dewy", connecting to her modeling work.

THE EMBER BADGE : from kabu's fire type specialization & his journey as a gym leader. embers may be a sign of a dying fire, but they still can burn you & rekindle into a blazing fire, (much like how kabu fell into the minor league before rekindling his passion & strength to regain his place in the major league.)

THE BOUT BADGE — pulled from bea's in-game dialogue, connects to her fighting type specialization. also, alliteration is always fun.

THE FRIGHT BADGE — from allister's ghost type specialization & how he's shown to enjoy spooking people (giving them a fright) he's friendly with in masters.

THE MAB BADGE — pulled from william shakespeare's romeo & juliet, mab is described as a fairy queen. meant to connect opal's fairy type specialization & her history in theater.

THE PUCK BADGE — pulled from william shakespeare's a midsummer night's dream, puck is a fairy much like mab. meant to signify bede's fairy type specialization & his connection to opal as her student + successor as gym leader.

THE MONOLITH BADGE — pulled from gordie's in-game dialogue, connects to his specialization in rock types.

THE FROSTBITE BADGE — from melony's ice type specialization & severe training style.

THE REBEL BADGE — from piers' dark type specialization & his "odd one out" nature as a gym leader

THE RALLY BADGE — from marnie's ability to rally people's support around her & stir up a crowd. also starts with an r, showing her connection her to piers.

THE WYVERN BADGE — from raihan's dragon type specialization, wyverns are often used as emblems in english coats of arms. we'll just ignore that wyverns aren't considered dragons in english folklore, though.

THE RIVET BADGE — from peony's steel type specialization, this was the name of his badge before he left the league.

[my-fankid-daycare]

ALL OF MY KIDS BY REGION (UPDATE 2)

This didn’t stay consistent T-T  Here is another update for some kids whose like names and parents I updated. Not as many ships changes this time I promise!

I put a + in front of the fankids that have one or both parents that are game only characters. My fankid universe is more anime centric but mingled with gameverse stuff. I left the + next to Hop and Victor even tho they were just in evolutions and are the whole reason I made most of these Galar ship changes, but it’s not the main anime so that doesn’t count.

I put a * next to kids whose names I recently changed, there is a ** next to kids that are new to this particular version of the list. The kids who changed ships but not names have ^ in front of them. ? aspect of the characters up in the air.

Kanto (13) :

AmourShipping: Lyn and Taylor Ketchum

CavalierShipping: Azure and Ryder Oak

RocketShipping: Jamie and Josie Morgan ?(reworking the twins)

HandymanShipping: Samantha Sketchit

Jessebelle and Pierce: **Leo and *Octavia Hyde

NeoShipping: Eliza, Clay and Doe Parker (Doe is adopted)

VermillionShipping: Paige Cerise (last name might change)

Johto (6):

Violet Waterflower (Single Mother): Rio Waterflower

QuestShipping: Una Kim

JohtoFestaShipping (divorced): Sterling Swivet

+SoulSilverShipping: Vega Castillo

FastFoodShipping: Dominic Blakely

MusculatureShipping: **Dionne Sutton

Hoenn (3):

ContestShipping: Fiore Rosales

KantoContestShipping: Marisol Meadows

OriginShipping: *Niobe Rivera-Stone

Sinnoh (4) :

SnowPointShipping: Baron Donohue (Zoey’s biological nephew)

ColdCoffeeShipping: Hazel and Dulce Fyne

CurtainShipping: Orion Wayland

Unova (11):

SnarkyShipping: Cordelia Shutter

WishfulShipping: Ione and Chloe Primarie

SpokeShipping: Barrett Dunstan

SourGrapeShipping: Rosemary, Lavender and *Poppy Bordeaux (triplets born from Burgundy with Chili when they had a fling)

AirplaneShipping: **Sophia Avion

+ElectricBlackShipping: Nike Blackwood

+FerrisWheelShipping: Talulla Harmonia

+ RoyalLectureShipping: Chesil Brook

Kalos (7):

RoyalStalkerShipping: Araminta Regan

LaserBladeShipping: Camille and Lisette Ferrand

MarissonShipping: André Tremblay

BunnyPuffShipping: Cella Doux

FleurDeGrenadeShipping: Cybele Harlow

PhaesporiaShipping: Chrysanta Gardner

Alola (5):

JellowShipping: Felix Kapua-Himmel

MonolithShipping: Lucious and Kekoa Harrison

SteamShipping (separated): Leilani “Lani” Mahi’ai (Gladion is Lani’s stepdad w/Kiawe, Misty is Lani’s stepmom w/Lana)

SkullFlowerShipping: Keomi Maltby

Galar (7):

+Trainshipping: Skipper “Skip” Viorel

+PastelGothShipping: Sini Brine

+SuperSedeShipping: Peter Tate (Adopted by Gloria/Marnie/Bede)

+CuteDarknessShipping: Eirwen “Eira” and *Rhosyn “Ro” Magnolia

DeadlyRoseShipping: Gilbert Fang (estranged from parents and adopted by Raihan/Leon)

Bonus!Hisui:

Rei (aka Lucas) x Wanda (yes the NPC you have to keep hunting down in those side quests) their descendant eventually lead to Joanna and her daughter Dawn.

Irida x Adaman descendants eventually lead to Palmer, then Barry.

Calaba’s descendants stay in Sinnoh, and lead to Paul and Reggie. I am kinda subscribed to Brandon being their dad tho but he only goes to Hoenn for work. She is also an old holy woman with no kids to speak of in the games so maybe her line continues with a sibling or something.

Melli somehow leads to Harley. I know this man would never marry a woman but Harley comes from his loins somehow they are too fucking similar-

Akari is the ancestor to Lucas who eventually get’s thrown back in time. Thankfully they immediately pick up on the family vibes and just treat each other like brother and sister. Maybe she get’s with Wanda’s brother, Zeke, so that’s why Dawn and Lucas end up having similar appearances.

Cyllene x Prof. Laventon. Okay so this would make Cyrus, Leon and Hop related somehow but to add some degree to separation to that let’s just say Cyrus’s part of the family comes from a sibling of Cyllene. Also since Cyllene is someone who seems to care for others unlike Cyrus I want her to have the fun descendants. But Cyrus got the no eyebrows and bad at feelings part of that bloodline.

Iscan x Palina’s descendants lead to Marlon. It still works weather you acknowledge the weird tan or just pretend he’s that shade all the time. 

Tuli is the ancestor of Bianca, this was something I thought the moment I saw her in game but I am going to take something else from this video on ancestor speculation and say that she is also Ginter’s wife which would make Bianca and Volkner like cousins or something. (that video I linked is very good and it’s also where I got the Marlon idea from so go watch it 😊)

Total number of fankids: 55

[xgoldenlatiasx]

hope y’all don’t mind me dumping trainersona thoughts here cause pokemon hyperfixation go brrr and I didn’t get any sleep bc of it

LOREDUMP AHEAD PREPARE FOR MY BRAINROT

so. here’s some ramblings on what arcs they go through in each of their journeys:

swsh- realizing their own strength. at the beginning, before they got their pkmn Blake is VERY much stuck with the idea that they’ll never really amount to much. bullying from other kids most of their life and trauma involving some of their family is kinda what ingrained that idea into their head, and even after they get their pokemon AND an endorsement from the champion they still feel this way. this line of thinking causes a lot of struggles in the first part of their journey, heavily affecting their relationship with their pokemon, especially their Sobble because Kappa also has pretty low self esteem too and Blake’s self hatred ends up putting him in a similar state and causes him to feel like he’s not strong enough to help his trainer. When Blake realizes this, they put a lot more effort into being a better trainer for their pokemon, so both them and Kappa have a similar arc as they realize they can become stronger as they start losing battles less and less. encouragement from the gym leaders, Chairman Rose and Leon encouraging them to build a better future for the next generations also helps a LOT but it’s kind of intimidating at first bc wait these adults?? ACTUALLY believe in me and think I’m capable????? I didn’t think adults could do that DJCNFJF. of course it’s not just a total uphill climb, there’s bumps in the road but having their pokemon and friends helps Blake from falling all the way back to where they were, and by the end they’re at a state where they have more confidence in their skills as a trainer and overall a better relationship with their pokemon (especially during the Eternatus/Darkest Day thing; a situation that originally might’ve frozen in fear at but is able to stand up and take action against despite being scared out of their mind). extra little bonus thing- they are very hurt by chairman rose’s betrayal because they looked up to him a lot, since his encouragement and belief in them played a part in helping them overcome their insecurities. during their battle they kinda scream a lot of their frustrations at him, because they realize he was likely planning to use their strength and potential to help him revive and contain Eternatus like he did with Bede and Leon. but afterwards they share a kind of heartwarming moment(?) where Rose says he’s very impressed and proud of them, since he saw Blake go from this poor kid who was so anxious they might faint on the spot to having enough courage to face a regional threat head on, jumping over every hurdle to do so and even ignoring everyone who tells them they can’t possibly stand a chance. Blake pretends to ignore his words but now they silently hope they can make amends with Rose in the future.

isle of armor- takes place a few months after becoming champion. though they had gained more confidence and learned a lot during their original journey, they’re still struggling a bit as a champion at first, facing judgement and doubts from the media while they sorta clumsily stumble around with this new role of theirs. this does cause some of their self doubt to resurface, but Leon recommends they take some of the pressure off their shoulders for a minute and suggests they go train at the dojo he went to back when he first became champion. going to train with Mustard does teach them a lot and helps them grow more into their role as champ, as well as letting them just relax and have a fun summer vacation since they didn’t get to rest much after the Eternatus battle and winning the champion cup. they return to the league with a lot more knowledge and preparation to uphold their title, however this is sort of the start of them slowly realizing that maybe this isn’t what they want to do for the rest of their life, though at that point those feelings are small so they don’t really acknowledge them.

crown tundra- takes place about a year after the champion cup and it’s basically them coming to the slow realization that they’re beginning to crack under the pressure of being champion, though it starts with them realizing they still long for adventure and traveling, just like they did back during their gym challenge. originally they’re just there for training and preparing for the next gym challenge, but after getting wrapped up in Peony’s “adventours” and helping Calyrex find his steed, they start to wish they had more time for simple relaxation and fun like this again. this time, they’re much more heavily affected by this, and while it was already starting to get like this before they start to actually see the decline in motivation to keep constantly winning battles, doing interviews, and other repetitive league and champion business. they grow more and more frustrated with the fact that they’re constantly stuck in Wyndon most of the time, hardly getting a chance to visit home or have time to themself. Leon does try to use his position as chairman to lift some of the weight off Blake’s shoulders, but pressure from the media and different factions of the league is still pushing them to their limit. finally, they lose in the champion cup, losing the will to keep fighting halfway through the battle and just pushing on while trying to convince themself to fight to the end. afterwards they’re slightly upset but relieved at the same time, and this is when they decide maybe it’s time for a vacation, which is what prompts them to start traveling.

xy- this part is mostly them dealing with the loss (at least at the beginning), and also sort of working towards dealing with past trauma, self-doubt that’s still lingering to this day, as well as regrets and guilts from both their gym challenge and losing their title (though they do get traumatized again just in kinda a different way OOF). this is for the most part their arc in Kalos, as the story focus kind of shifts over to their rival Auberi for a while. by the end though they get a lot of closure and resolve for the problems they were dealing with, though it’s definitely not perfect their in a slightly better mental state (as much as they can be after all the fucked up shit they just went through in Kalos- trust me the XY story is a LOT more intense and dark in this version but I won’t go into detail yet)

bw- villain arc /j JHJFJFHDBS jk jk by the time they’re in Unova, they are very much done and tired. they just almost died saving the world a SECOND time back in Kalos, as well as still trying to mentally process a lot of the other fucked up shit they had to go through. after returning to Galar post-Kalos, they’re at a loss for what to do. They don’t have the energy to begin traveling again just yet, and their mom is freaking out because they just had to stop the end of the world AGAIN. (Going back to their SWSH arc again here,) I didn’t explain this before, but she was never totally on board with them being a trainer. during their first gym challenge, she was relatively fine, almost every kid wants to be a trainer and go on a journey at some point! But to her it still just seemed like childish silliness so she thought this would be a good learning experience for them to see how the world actually is like, she never expected them to get past Kabu honestly (another factor that went into Blake’s low self esteem back then). But then they went and saved the world, became champion and pkmn training became their main career. Which she was not happy about, but she couldn’t do much as Blake had grown pretty independent at this point and no longer needed to do everything she said. (Back to BW now) In the beginning of their arc in Unova, this aspect of their relationship with their mother is slightly revisited. she used Blake’s current feelings as an excuse to send them off to her old college in Nuvema Town, to try and encourage them to try and find a “real job” (🙄). Blake was NOT happy about this, but went along with it because they felt like there wasn’t many other options for them. however, things kind of take an unexpected turn as they accidentally ended up in Professor Juniper’s class and whoops! suddenly they’re on another journey for a class project with Cheren and Bianca to fill out pages of the Unova Pokedex. they have mixed feeling about the trip overall, going around collecting badges, catching Pokémon, and building a new team wasn’t something they thought they’d be quite ready to do yet. it also doesn’t fuckin help that Team Plasma is running around causing bullshit. they’re frankly very uninterested in team plasma’s affairs and tries to avoid them as much as possible, this doesn’t work ofc because they’re EVERYWHERE and Blake’s too nice to just sit around and do nothing about it. N going on about how he’s “chosen” them certainly doesn’t help, they’re attitude towards him once they find out he’s team plasma’s king is very “I swear if you make me have to save the world a third time I Will Literally Sic Zacian On You Don’t Test Me.” spoiler warning: he does test them and they go on a huge rant to him about how people like him, Chairman Rose and Lysandre say they’re saints for wanting to make the world better but they’re not if they’re willing to hurt countless lives in order to achieve that goal. that goes down during the battle with N and Zekrom but after the whole Ghetsis thing N considers their words a lot plus realizing pokemon and trainers DO want to be together. Both N and Blake sorta just awkwardly chat afterwards about how neither of them rlly know where to go from here. Blake doesn’t just want to go back to college like their mom wanted, but also isn’t sure about just going home or traveling somewhere else right away. But N tells them that whatever they decide to do, surely they can achieve anything with their pkmn by their side (awww). this inspires Blake a lot, I haven’t decided what they do afterwards yet, I was thinking they possibly go with N on his journey which sounds cute n fun but idk yet

[epicspheal]

How many times do you think Hop was compared to Leon and expected to be "as good as his brother" I mean he has to right? Said everyone. How many people either in Wedgehest and other places tried to befriend Hop because of he is Leon's brother? Cause you know that would happen. Maybe the reason he is such friends with the SWSH PC because they barely cared about that and saw Hop as his own person to be friends with? Bonus question would Leon have been aware of this? And how would he feel about it?

Great Question! 

I mentioned this in a previous post but Hop was definitely the favorite to win, even with him losing at the Circhester gym. Between that and his normal league card stating that he was seen as potential force to be reckoned with, people were definitely expecting Hop to have similar abilities to Leon. So to answer your first question he definitely had expectations of him. 

The key here is no one (except for Bede in that one moment) ever really made the comparison out in a negative manner. And honestly even Bede’s comment is less “why aren’t you as good as your brother” and more “you’re going to give your brother a bad reputation for endorsing you”. Even with his loss at Circhester and then in the Challenger’s cup, none of the NPCs besides Bede ever say anything derogatory about Hop not being exactly like Leon. Even Opal states no one expects that given how talented and skilled Leon is.

Compare that to say Peony (who is a very interesting foil to Hop) who we know based on his rare league card was explicitly compared to Rose relentlessly as a child. To the point that he ran off and became delinquent before becoming the steel type gym leader then champion. Even throughout the Crown Tundra we see multiple blatant comparisons between Peony and Rose through other NPCs often in a negative manner. This isn’t what we see with Hop.

The issue for Hop is being overshadowed. Everyone is so enamored by Leon’s success that Hop at times can be forgotten. This is especially true in Postwick and Wedgehurst where all of the NPCs talk about Leon but not about Hop. In fact the only time Hop gets get brought up is in Postwicke but that’s only to talk about how much of a hero he sees Leon as. So for Hop his problem is that until he gets out of the bubble that is Wedgehurst/Postwick he’s just kind of invisible unless Leon is around. This is explains his behavior at the beginning of the game and why he can come off as annoying to many players. He’s trying to make a name for himself in that bubble. 

To answer your question about whether or not some NPCs may have tried to befriend Hop because of Leon. That I can absolutely see. In fact that’s the basis of my SwSh Retelling, where Hop doesn’t have any friends outside of my protag because no one cared about him, only his brother. They’d try to be sweet and friendly to him whenever he talked about his brother coming back to visit, but ignore him any other time.

And this leads into your thought about the PC and their relationship to Hop. Something my good friend @bettabythesea pointed out, when you look at the Town Map in Wedgehurst, you noticed the player refers to the other house in Postwick as Hop’s house. Now that might not seem so significant as in previous games the rival’s house is always named for the rival. But in the context of everyone only seeing Leon and not Hop, this becomes far more significant. We know the PC is a fan of Leon, but they still are able to see Hop. So this explains the friendship between PC and Hop

Now onto your last question about whether or not Leon saw this. I think he did. In another post I did, I mentioned that Leon probably wanted to give the protagonist a starter too because he wanted to thank them for being a genuine friend to Hop, rather than someone who was just using Hop for an autograph. I feel like Leon would be upset at how Hop was treated and was grateful for the existence of the protagonist being there for Hop. But also I think this is why during the gym challenge Leon isn’t constantly hovering over Hop. He knows how much attention he gets and he wanted Hop to shine without him. And for the most part that wouldn’t be possible if Leon was constantly around him.