#cos for me it’s hgss and it’s not even close

[smanfa]

lorelei might be my gen1 fave

[mandl27]

OH BOY I GET TO RAMBLE ABOUT THIS AGAIN

Okay so. If you've been around Pokémon you've probably noticed some inconsistencies in colors. Bulbasaur line being blue vs green, XY washing out a bunch of colors, etc.

But here's the thing.

XY didn't start this.

It actually started with Ken Sugimori and co's key art in RS and later, which for a while used much more pastel colors than the artwork that came before (yes, even if you look at proper scans). XY was the first game to have major widespread adoption of these colors even under the color profile of a typical monitor, so it gets most of the flak.

Meanwhile, in gens 3~7, the anime and spinoffs were mostly off doing their own thing still, making up (more often than not) their own palettes, either derived from game sprites out of context (on a GBA, RS sprites are far closer to Ken's art) or just adding a bit more color semi-arbitrarily.

As an aside, for gen 1 and 2 mon, the colors seen in the anime and Stadium are largely based on the original artwork, which persisted into gen 3 via Colosseum and XD reusing Stadium assets, and PBR sometimes doing likewise.

Gens 4 and 5 are where things get wild.

Gen 4 was a pretty good time for Pokémon spinoffs. PBR, Rumble, and PokéPark all happened in gen 4, and they all mostly if not completely use what I call spinoff colors. (PBR recycled some models from Stadium, and Rumble grandfathered some of them palette-wise, but PokéPark was 100% spinoff palettes.)

And this built up to a brand new source of Pokémon artwork in gen 5: the Pokémon Global Link.

PGL art is in a sparsely shaded vector style, which already makes colors more easily eyedroppable, but what really made waves for me is that the colors it used were completely different and, often, much more saturated than Ken's artwork. And, wouldn't you know it, PGL art trends very close to the colors seen in gen 4 spinoffs.

Gen 5 saw more spinoffs adopt these colors, too. PokéPark got a sequel, PMD's jump to 3D with Gates to Infinity adopted these colors, and the glorified model viewer Pokédex 3D Pro used these colors too.

I don't have a timeline on this, but most merch I've seen also uses spinoff colors, though as OP notes that is starting to change. I bring this up because of what happens, or rather doesn't happen, one gen later.

(Personal bias disclaimer: P3D and PGL art were my first exposure to how most Pokémon look, so I'm more used to that. Sugi feels unnatural to me.)

Pokémon XY threw a wrench in what looked like a march toward spinoff colors becoming the new norm. Its models are near-universally eyedropped from RS-onward key art, causing gen 1 and 3 mon in particular to look overly washed out. And yet, the gen 6 edition of Pokémon Global Link uses spinoff-like palettes, gen 6 merch continues to use spinoff palettes, and Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon was another in-game usage of such.

So at this point, Pokémon mostly has two major sets of palettes: the palettes seen in key art and gen 6+ mainline, and the colors seen in spinoffs, anime, merch, and generally everything not mainline.

This duality of color remains mostly stable through gens 6 and 7, but gen 8 both helped and hurt this a lot. Good news: Pokémon Home, gen 8+'s cloud storage app, uses models retextured with spinoff palettes. Bad news: Home doesn't completely use that. At launch, only a small amount of gen 1 mon instead used their mainline colors, but in the 1.1 update this was expanded to affect many more mon across multiple gens (but still mostly gen 1).

To bring this full circle, one mon affected by the 1.1 update was Espeon. As far back as its GS art, it was drawn as purple with dark gray ears, but the HGSS key art changed this to pink with blue ears, which because of various factors about palette trends took several more gens to start majorly affecting merch and non-mainline appearances.

obsessed with how the pokemon company cannot decide if espeon is pink or purple

[flowercape]

Hi hi! I recently got into Xenoverse from a streamer i watch and i saw your art well scrolling through the Pokemon Xenoverse tag and the fact that you seem to like Silver a lot (admittedly i don't know much about the gen 2 games but Xenoverse has made me want to play them so i'm probably gonna play the remakes soon!)

But i had a thought since Xenoverse has direct connections to gen 1/2 and the fact that celebi is from gen 2 i raise you the idea of Xenoverse Protag getting yoinked into the past and meeting young Silver (perhaps during the storyline of GS/HGSS?)

You decide if Xenoverse Protag has had the reval of who Versil actually is because honestly it's an interesting idea both ways of having Xenoverse Protag know who Silver is or if Protag doesn't know who he is

But yeah this has been brain rot for a while for me and i wanted to share with someone but the Xenoverse community is small, the tragedy of fangames~Xenoverse Anon

Ahh hello!! So awesome to meet another Xenoverse fan!

Oh geez you're in for a TREAT if you play HGSS! Definitely some of the best Pokemon games out there in terms of the amount of endgame content and the "adventuring with your Pokemon" feeling. Unfortunately regarding Silver and his backstory, most of it is locked behind an event Celebi that's impossible to obtain without looking into how to connect to the old Nintendo Wi-Fi that's long been defunct and download old event legends online, but of course you can always watch the Celebi event online (not sure if you did already though considering you brought up Celebi!)

Xenoverse actually seems to be based on the manga more than anything-- Silver and Green being together is based on their close relationship in the manga, and Clover's Pokemon are even nicknamed the same as her team in the manga, not to mention Lieutenant Surge being in Team Rocket is also from that-- and HGSS's storyline and character backstories for Silver and co are very different from what happened in the manga. Game Silver is my favorite tbh and it would be good to play before reading the manga to get a feel for what's being adapted, but manga Silver has an EXTREMELY dark backstory, so the idea of the protag being yoinked into the past to see it breaks my heart, I love that idea so much!

I actually played Xenoverse in the first place because I saw a man that looked suspiciously like he had Silver's hairstyle on the promotional art on the game's website; Silver has been my favorite character for over twenty years now and I was on a fangame kick so I jumped right on it. Xenoverse is like the ultimate Silver fan's dream fangame, with the parallels like with Trey and the way Versil's plan repeats history yet still has good intentions is all just (chef's kiss)

Thank you for the message! I didn't think I'd ever get to talk about Xenoverse with another fan of it!

[banished-away]

favourite character tag !

tagged by @vault-emblem​!

Rules: List ten of your favourite characters in ten different fandoms and then tag ten other victims to do the same!

(i dont even know if i have 10 fandoms rn)

1- stefan (fire emblem 9/10)

this one was kinda obvious. i dont know how to explain my love for him, but he ties a lot into the lore, fits the ‘strange friendly hermit’ type and the cool teacher kind, plus being a very good unit and also mysterious. hes not the kind of character you find often!

2- silver (pokemon gsc/hgss)

i just love him. he was one of my first videogame crushes, his character arc has yet to be topped in any pokemon game (or game in general), hes a jerk rival done right, and frlg and hgss added so much more dept to him, and acts as a bridge between the johto and kanto games. his arc shows that, no matter how low yoiuve fallen, how evil you are, you can change for the better.

3- zuko (atla)

again, hello childhood crush. hes very similar to silver. his arc made me cry as a child and still makes me emotional now. his character growth should be used as a model for all redeemed villain characters

(also still salty he didnt end up with katara)

4- princess leia organa (star wars)

i got into star wars very late, just before tfa came out. from what everyone told me, leia was just the princess type, so i didnt have high hopes for her.

i was never happier to be proven wrong.

leia is who every girl should strive to be. shes strong, charismatic, and yet kind, with her snarky personality spicing everything up. she is a great role model, character and icon. i cant exactly put into words my love for her, but its a lot.

5- tonbokiri (touken ranbu)

this might be inaccurate bc i only watched katsugeki sorry im a fake im just a sucker for gentle giants types. hes easily the strongest of the second unit and yet is the quietest, gentlest one. his fight with the ootachi made me emotional, and seeing him overcome it in the last episode almost made me cry. i love how he acts as kind of a mediator in the group. i cant wait to see more of him as i get deeper into tkrb hell!

6- geralt of rivia ( the witcher books)

there is another archetype of character arc i love, and its “lone wolf suddenly grows to care for a small child”. and geralt is the best example of it. his particular view of the world, the contrast between how he acts and appears versus his nice personality, and how he grows to care for ciri and acts as her father figure makes him a very multi-faceted, interesting protagonist and character.

7- heartstone (magnus chase and the gods of asgard)

i just care for him so much. his character arc about accepting himself is lovely, hes an endearing character and you can see he cares deeply for magnus and co. in a book full of great characters, hes easily my fav

(help im running out of people ill just do more fe games)

8- azel (fire emblem 4)

i can relate to azel a lot. we are both always overshadowed by people we care for, are weak mentally and phisically, and didnt grow up in the best of enviroments. yet his resolve to go on is inspiring, and his soft and gentle personality is very close to mine. despite everything he remained strong, and according to kaga’s notes, despite all that happened between him and arvis he still loved his brother so much, and still believed in him being good.

9- mareeta (fire emblem 5)

talking about characters who go through a lot! mareeta is one of my favorite characters ever. the premise of her character is a pretty epic one: the daughter of a fallen prince with special blood which gives them mastery of teh sword, who was abducted bt slave traders and then saved by a mysterious amnesiac woman (herself a fallen princess), raised in a small village with the protagonist (ANOTHER fallen prince), then taken away again and forced to fight her mother, saved in secret by her father, and now out to save her mom. and yet she is just a normal girl, who just wants to be with the woman who took care of her for so many years. even her desire to get stronger is born out of guilt over having eyvel captured. shes just a normal teen girl: she fails, cries, gets angry, suffers a lot (this is jugdral after all), and yet she never gives up. she keeps going and going, despite all she goes through. and in the end she has her happy ending: she returns to fiana with her mother, reunites with her father, becomes a famous swordmaster. her story is one of the most interesting in jugdral, its hard to not get attached to her.

10- giratina (pokemon dppt)

hey, did you know that the-banished-one is a subtle reference to them? no? good bc if you did then it would be embarassing

but now ive embarassed myself on here enough to revela it

i just. fcking love giratina. they have great lore, a great role, great stats, great type combination, great design, great E V E R Y T H I N G. plus the concept of a god of balance and antimatter is??? just fucking cool????? plus i love them not being good or evil. theyre just there, doing their antimatter balance thing. not doing anuthing bad? good, giratina is happy. youre fucking up with the space-time continuum? too bad, youre gonna get sucked into a black hole into a world where gravity isnt a thing and everything is different from our reality

(also just how cool is the distortion world??? a lot, thats how much)

also i loved the giratina movie. i loved taht trilogy in general, but the giratina movie is extra good. smol shaymin becoming friends with a giant eldritch abomination??? sign me tf up!!!!

i tag @this-is-the-light-of-zwei, @jugdraldefender, @sanguine-daydreams, @02nz, @spooky-soleil and just anyone who wants to do this

[tumblunni]

does anyone else miss pokemon battle revolution i miss pokemon battle revolution

it was the first stepping stone towards full character customization! we had to wait so many years for it to come back! it was the “pokemon following behind you” before hgss!! nintendo why do you do this thing of introducing cool concepts and then making us wait 5-10 years for it to return ever

And i mean it was just basically stadium 3 yet nobody seems to talk about it in the same sort of reverence as the original stadiums. i can understand it kinda, since it was JUST stadium without all the extra features? like i feel people remember stadium more for the stuff like the minigames and the sticker machines and the early pre shiny pokemon shiny pokemon thing. but underneath that it was just “see everyone in 3d and do some boring AI tournements”, same as the “reason” everyone seems to hate battle revolution. i mean people loved stadium for that same reason!! its just that that kind of appeal doenst age well once technology progresses and now the regular games are in 3D already and have way better multiplayer features. So peoplemore fondly remember the goofy parts and judge battle revolution harder cos it didnt have any, despite being the best at the whole.. yknow.. premise of the stadium games.

Speaking of which!! Multiplayer!! Battle revolution fucking STARTED THE ONLINE COMPETITIVE SCENE! Well gold and silver started stuff like iv breeding and ruby and sapphire refined the multiplayer combat system with abilities and bugfixes. But sinnoh did the MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE with the physical/special split and introduced many pokemon and moves that are still competitive staples nowadays! and battle revolution was initially the necessary add-on that you had to use to play online for THE FIRST TIME EVER! before the wifi and gts were fully operational and honestly not many people were really able to use those in diamond and pearl anyway because this was back before wifi was super common and back when nintendo really badly handled the whole thing. Like remember those one month only wifi events that could only be downloaded in certain stores? in the UK it was even worse cos straight up they only supported it in england. ONLY ENGLAND. WHY. England is physically speaking not very far away but the borders and taxes mean that trips between britain’s individual countries are still really fucking long, tedious and expensive. When youre a kid its not very likely your parents are gonna support you dragging the family on a trip like that just to visit The One Store In Bristol That Does Pokemon Events. And man, i remember everybody just had a landline internet and broadband was considered fancy, lol. So the wii was the only console we could get to go online and it was kinda “wow technology” to use the bluetooth thing on the ds to connect to it, but it always glitched out if you werent standing super close. And besides even when wifi became easier to use and platinum and HGSS had more advanced online features it was still more fun to play The Same Thing But Big And 3D. I think it was only around BW era that battle revolution really died? And it played a pivotal role in shaping what the competitive scene would become in the future!

also the music was REAL FUCKIN RAD and even though they didnt have any real story to them i still loved the designs for the original characters modelled in full 3d with their own themed gyms, rather than just canned stock art of kanto gym leaders again. They had such a nice sinnoh aesthetic that i kept forgetting they werent in dppt before i replayed platinum a few years ago and started my whole charon obsession, lol! just let it be known that i cherish Mysterial too and if he had any sort of plot whatsoever then he’d probably be my second fave pokegramp. ALSO HIS SONG KICKS ASS

also also also im still sad that a lot of BR’s customization features were more advanced than what we have nowadays?? like it was SO limited in a lot of stuff, if i recall correctly you could only select entire outfits not mix and match pieces? and the amount of outfits and colour options was really low. and no different hairstyles. BUT i really miss the fact you could actually pick different base models! a younger or older kid, and even a buff teen! (tho it annoyed me that there was no equivelant to that one for the girl) I kinda feel like if we kept that it would make multiplayer more exciting nowadays. when you actually get to see everyone’s character models walking around festival plaza it becomes so much more noticeable that everyone is the same dude recoloured. even just having different facial expression options would help!

anyway in summary YES i agree that the stadium minigames were the best thing ever and i wish they kept them in the sequels and also YES collosseum was the best of all the stadiums because it had that robust singleplayer campaign with actual story BUT that doesnt mean battle revolution is bad :(

also also i have an additional soft spot for it cos i thought it was just very nice of the dub team to go out of their way to reprogram in new options for the international audience. BR was the first time we had dark skinned characters and the option for them to be playable! that straight up wasnt an option in the original version and the dubbers requested the change for the west. i wonder if this conversation between the different nintendo divisions might have led to influencing america as the setting for the next generation?

anyway mysterial stans forever and that is why i am trying to download a wii emulator at midnight