#hero!friede

[krisnb485]

I just finished working on the Rising Volt Tacklers for the MHA AU and I wanted to share it with y'all.

Horizons X MHA AU:

The Rising Volt Tacklers

The Rising Volt Tacklers are a Hero Agency that travels around the world in a flying ship called the Brave Olivine. They specialize on incidents both in the air and in the sea and on taking down big shot villains and organizations. They decided to stay in Japan for a while after the USJ incident due to the League of Villains and the potential danger of a criminal organization that Was able to break into UA.

They were founded by recently graduated from UA Friede Iragashi after he found out he felt restricted by the frontiers of Japan, and with the help of ex-classmate Orla Kazama, they made the ship of their friend Ludlow, the Olivine, into the Brave Olivine, which reignited the old man's hero flame and made him reveal to the youngsters he was once a Hero named Mighty G, deciding to come back to Hero duty to join their group. Taking with him his two new teammates and his hamster named Cap, Friede created a new Hero Agency with the Brave Olivine as their base; the Rising Volt Tacklers.

Murdock and Mollie joined the crew during some of the team's missions in Japan, and that's how the Rising Volt Tacklers made themselves into the famous Hero Agency they are today.

The members of the crew are:

Bolting Hero: Captain Thunder

⁃ Real Name: Friede Igarashi

Quirk: Static Shock

Friede's body can store up electricity and generate it by absorbing static from his surroundings. He can conduct the energy throughout his body at will and discharge it on his entire body or certain parts to get a speed boost on whatever part of his body he uses it, as well as hit his opponents with that electricity and higher strength due to the boost in speed. Either storing up too much energy or discharging too much in one go can cause him to temporarily get paralyzed. The paralysis can go for up to 3 minutes.

Flying Hero: Turbulence

⁃ Real Name: Orla Kazama

Quirk: Jet Wings

Orla has extendable wings similar to a jet's on her back, which allow her to propulse herself in the air at high speeds. She can recharge her engines by drinking; drinks with caffeine are specially effective at this.

The Hero of the Seas: Mighty G

⁃ Real Name: Ludlow Furukawa

Quirk: Poseidon

Ludlow gains muscular mass for up to 5 minutes when he drinks water. He can become up to 10 times stronger by drinking two liters of water.

Howling Hero: Ragnarock

⁃ Real Name: Murdock Kurosawa

Quirk: Rocky Beast

A mutation quirk that makes Murdock into a wolf-like beast with rock-like skin and claws. He can grow sharp rocks from his skin and use either use them as armor or launch them as projectiles.

Herbal Hero: Olea

⁃ Real Name: Mollie Ito

Quirk: Healing Herb

Mollie has a plant-like body, being able to realize photosynthesis and thus needing much less food and water than a normal human to survive. She can use the energy from her photosynthesis to heal others, and her leaves can be used as medicinal herbs. Because of her quirk, Mollie's body is specially vulnerable to fire.

[munna-sato]

[ars-ceratinus]

6th sense

[jadeazora]

Genuinely, good luck to the crew when they come across the massive (going by Lucius's Pokemon being bigger than their species normally are), ticked off, aggressive mantis with battle axes for hands.

They'll need it 😂

[rainb0wfish]

mark my words he will get his redemption arc and join the family. he has to. there's no way he won't right

[red-rose-corner]

Also found here.

[amelikos]

We got some info about the new ending theme and comments from the VAs of Liko, Roy and Dot about the upcoming chapter, Rayquaza Rising (translation here).

Liko's VA comments on Liko's growth during the Terastal Debut chapter and looks forward to going on new adventures with the Rising Volt Tacklers.

Roy's VA mentions Roy's growth as well and hints that we will be getting a lot of answers in regards to Rakua, the Rakurium, Lucius and the Six Heroes in this chapter.

Dot's VA mentions that the characters will be faced with the truth behind the mysteries, and also hints at Kanuchan's upcoming evolution.

[dragongobrr]

i call this character archetype the flying bastard

[arjengelly]

I want Zeno to voice Friede too

I imagine him sounding more like Hawks

[hupla222]

I've been going over in my head so many times on how I think the last two of the Six Heroes could be encountered and I think I came up with a decent one for Entei, let me know what you think. I'm just spit balling here.

So I was thinking of something like a homage to the third movie where Entei kidnapped Ash's mom but having this Entei kidnap Liko's dad, because the man was nice enough to share his food with the beast and his kindness reminded Entei of its lost companion. And just how lonely it is now. Then the kids would have to do some Snackworth like summoning of the beast to lure it out and talk it down, convincing it that they are its friends and it won't be alone anymore. Or something like that. Seem plausible?

[minnlahzz]

friede with an introverted s/o.

requested.

this guy is really interesting. i hope they stretch out his character more, because all he's known for is just being the hero when liko and roy are getting cooked. it's not enjoyable anymore the 1st time, but im glad we got to know more about his backstory and pikachu, i think that episode was more enjoyable than the recent ones, because it actually felt like i was watching pokemon the anime. anyway sorry for the yap, this was fun to do.

— NOTE : LOWERCASE INTENDED

since friede is definitely a social house, people wonder how you guys met. it's like opposites attract, or sun and moon.

he's dedicated into making sure you're comfortable around the environment of the ship. friede asks you to go but never forces you out during their bonding moments, (picnics)

and he'd talk for you when there's way too much people, or tell this people to go away for you. he's straight forward anyway.

you're introverted (of course,) so you've never really talked to the kids, but they've always wanted to talk to you, just too shy to do so. liko and roy would ask friede, and he'd all go all golden retriever (or pikachu) mode. he rambles about you, in the most inlove way possible

captain pikachu always had a liking to you, this electric rats love for you probably competes friede's love for you! like pokemon like trainer, what can i say? friede's also not bothered with it, he thinks of it as his two favorite people bonding.

speaking of bonding, when everyone else in the rising volt tacklers are asleep–he'd take you out to ride charizard, not anywhere special preferably just a stroll around places or star gazing if you're a fan of that.

he'll do anything you'd want when he has free time, journaling? he'll journal and make crappy stickers to design it with! reading? friede has alot of books from his time as a passionate professor (not that he's not passionate anymore.)

he encourages you to socialize with others, but remember that it's alright to take things slowly.

when you do socialize with others, friede is watching far away proud. he knows you have a social battery though, and can take you out of the conversation when you feel discomfort.

and he's pretty supportive in whatever you do! he'll support your boundaries and make sure other people support and respect them. friede isn't always there, but captain surely is, when you're missing friede there's always this gremlin rat as a replacement.

[thewisecheerio]

Subversive Design in Soulsborne Games

There are a lot of mechanisms to induce fear in horror games. Lighting (or lack thereof), soundtrack, jump scares, and a myriad of other things all work well to make you feel unsettled.

But my favorite strategy is to establish a pattern for the player and then break it.

Soulsborne games are infamous for this subversive game design, which is part of why they have a reputation for being "unfair". But it's important to remember that the pattern was formed from your assumptions about what the rules of the world are; no accord was ever actually made nor broken. The devs are simply anticipating the pattern you are likely to pick up on, and then breaking it to induce fear. These are horror games, after all.

I tend to find this subversiveness hilarious, so here are some of my favorites:

Boss Phases

Soulsborne games use 2-phase bosses so often that you begin to expect that the most phases a boss will ever have is 2. Thus, the second that you vanquish a foe's second phase, you breathe a sigh of relief. However, there are at least two times that Soulsborne games have broken this promise: Sister Friede of DS3 and the Scadutree Avatar of Elden Ring.

Both came equipped with 3 phases, which catches people out the first time that they encounter it. You may have exhausted resources during Phase 2, not realizing you had miles more to go. As such, it's great at inducing an immediate sense of panic due to feeling underprepared.

Guiding with Diegetic Lighting

Soulsborne games love to use diegetic lighting to guide players where to go next or what to notice. This often takes the form of a carefully placed item that glows to draw your eyes, forcing you to notice something you might have otherwise overlooked. Below is Auriza Hero's Grave with an item-bearing body (already looted in this screenshot, but circled in red) hinting at a drop off point to a floor below:

However, sometimes the game abuses your trust in the diegetic lighting. As you walk toward it to investigate and see what it might be signaling (if anything), an enemy might pop out and attack, or throw a molotov cocktail at your head. It's a trap!

Possibly the funniest incarnation of this is Patches. Patches will leave glowing markers to draw you toward an edge. There might even be devnotes suggesting "Something amazing this way!" to tempt you even more. But the second you get close, off the cliff you go!

Pincer Attacks

Another way Fromsoftware abuses diegetic lighting and your own paranoia is pincer attacks. Because so many enemies like to hide behind corners and jump scare you, players get used to checking corners before entering a new room to grab a clearly visible item. However, sometimes you check those corners dutifully, think you're in the clear after having vanquished the corner foes, and still get attacked on your way to the item.

This is because the trap was never about the enemies hiding behind the corners. They are a distraction, there to make you feel that you have been sufficiently paranoid when you have not actually been paranoid enough.

Rather the problem was never the corner enemies, but the two new enemies that drop off walls in front of you (before you get to them) and behind you (only once you've passed them), forming a pincer that is much harder to escape. Elden Ring's Fanged Imps often do this in catacombs, and the Giant Ants sometimes pull this off in Ainsel and Siofra.

Boss Doors

Sometimes a "rule" Soulsborne games break actually has nothing to do with in-game rules, but rather expectations devs know you have from other games. For example, boss arenas are often very well-signaled so that you can prepare. Either there is Grand ArchitectureTM to tell you something big is about to happen, or you have to explicitly interact with an item to enter the boss arena.

And then there is Bloodborne, who will happily let you get frightfully lost in the Forbidden Woods only to stumble into the boss arena by accident:

(It's me, I stumbled in.)

Sure, there are some big stones there. But by nature of being a multi-tiered level, the Forbidden Woods is FULL of underpasses that go below broken logs or fallen graves. This one doesn't look much different at a glance. You have little reason to believe that this underpass is different from the one you saw earlier that goes underneath a gigantic fallen tree. Consequently, you might walk right in only to be surprised with a boss bar popping up on your screen.

Closing Comments

What every single one of these tactics has in common is that it's playing on your expectations of how the game universe should work, and then subverting it. And when you fall for their antics, it can be hilarious.

It's a very clever design strategy to keep players constantly on their toes. It can get you to learn a new skill or break out of a routine. Overall, it's there to maintain player interest in the game and keep things from feeling stale. And I'd say the Soulsborne games are exceptional at using it to keep you interested.

[sage-nebula]

"Friede's using himself as a decoy to keep us safe."

I rambled about this in the tags of a reblog, but hell, I'm going to go ahead and make a separate meta post about it as well, because it's something that I think could have a delicious narrative impact on a future Horizons arc if the writers choose to utilize it. (And even if they don't, it could make for some delicious fic.)

So, one thing I noticed on my catch up binge of Horizons is that Liko and Roy (and to a lesser extent Dot) see Friede not only as the leader of the Rising Volt Tacklers, but also as a hero -- as their hero. This especially jumped out at me in episode 25, when Friede had them take shelter in the tower of the ancient castle while he battled Amethio. Not only did they readily listen to him when he told them to stay put inside the tower while he alone went to the exposed top, but then we were treated to this:

This whole sequence is notable for several reasons:

Friede jumps off the tower to draw Amethio away from the higher floor of the tower where Liko and Roy are sheltering, so that Amethio has a lower chance of going after them.

As he passes by their window, Friede gives them a wink and a smile, to comfort and encourage them.

The animators made sure to show us not only how Friede looked from Liko and Roy's perspective (heroic), but also how awed they were by giving us a full shot of their own facial expressions.

Just in case it wasn't obvious enough, Roy and Liko spell it out themselves that Friede is using himself as bait for Amethio in order to protect them, not only telling the audience what he's doing in case the audience didn't pick up on it (which, young children do watch this show), but also showing how this knowledge affects them, because Roy's voice is shaking a little when he says his line, and Liko's is hushed.

This was a very scary night for these two kids. They were outnumbered, their enemies were much stronger than they were, they were being pursued and in hiding. But Friede put himself between them and the greatest, nearest threat, and did his best to comfort them as he did so. To give them a wink and a smile as if to say, "Don't worry, it'll be okay."

And this isn't the only time.

We would be here all day if I grabbed screenshots of every time Friede rushed in to either save the kids from danger (either directly himself or by sending Cap in his place), or check on their well being after the fact to make sure that they were unharmed. Often, he does both in the course of the same episode, sometimes multiple times. Hell, his establishing character moment in the very beginning of the series is a heroic rescue whereupon he enters the scene to protect Liko from Amethio on the rooftop of her school. Friede makes it a point to prioritize the kids' safety and well-being, and as a result, they've reached the natural conclusion: they view him as a hero. As their hero.

So then, the question must be asked: what happens if their hero is taken out of the picture?

The question needs to be asked for a few reasons, and not just because I have a love for angst. The first reason is because we've already been given a teaser of what would happen at the end of the Terapagos Shine arc. In episode 44, Friede was trapped in a tower of Spinel's design. Though neither Liko nor Roy knew that the tower was a trap by Spinel, they did know that Friede was trapped inside -- and both immediately panicked upon seeing that Friede was trapped in a tower beyond their reach in enemy territory.

Roy immediately tried opening the door and, when repeated attempts to yank it open wouldn't work, banged it on it with his fists while yelling Friede's name. Liko, meanwhile, stared in abject terror. And even after Friede reassures them, Roy still frantically demands more answers while Liko just as frantically wants to know if Friede is okay, and a little bit after that has to take a deep breath to try to get herself to calm down. Keep in mind that just an episode prior to this, when faced with a sudden attack by the Explorers, Liko's first instinct was to call Friede for help, while Roy said that he would battle because there was no time to call Friede (not because calling for backup wasn't necessary). Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the kids aren't brave. Of course they are! They both insisted on going on this mission in the first place! And they're there because, as concerned as Friede is for their safety, he is also Professor Pushover when it comes to them and caved immediately to their puppy eyes. But they also feel much safer on that mission because Friede is there with him. Feeling that he is in danger, cut off from them like that -- the stakes suddenly became that much more real.

And on the other side of the door, Friede knew it as well. And how did he react?

He's not happy. He knows this is a bad situation. But --

He does what he always does: he doesn't let on at all that this is a bad situation, so as not to worry and scare the kids. He also tells them to leave the area, because Spinel is there and Spinel is dangerous, and he wants to get them away from that danger. To date, Spinel is the most dangerous Explorer that they've encountered. Remember, Spinel is the one who successfully stole Terapagos' pendant, and the one who wiped Liko's memory and had her missing in Levincia for awhile. It's understandable why Friede would prioritize getting the kids as far away from him as possible.

So, to recap:

In a situation where, as far as the kids knew, Friede was just temporarily locked in a room away from them (in enemy territory but not with an enemy) and could still talk to them, it freaked them out enough to make them panic, and it took Landau telling them that they had to believe Friede could get himself out of the room and that they had to move forward for Liko to deep breath her way out of her mounting panic attack so she and Roy could move on. In a situation where Friede was actually captured, then, we could probably expect their reactions -- at least, their initial reactions -- to be much worse.

And I consider this possibility for two specific reasons: one genre, and one narrative.

First, genre. Pokémon has always been a coming-of-age story of sorts, but I feel that the Horizons anime feels especially so, focusing very strongly on Liko, Roy, and Dot as they grow up and discover both who they are, and who they want to be when they're older. (This has been especially emphasized with Liko and Dot, I feel; with Roy, he hasn't really thought about the future beyond battling Rayquaza.) The thing about coming-of-age stories set in fantasy settings, though -- rather, the thing about coming-of-age stories set in fantasy settings wherein the young protagonist has a stronger mentor that they can lean on to bail them out of jams is that, if they can consistently rely on the mentor to bail them out of jams and danger, then it doesn't give them the opportunity to overcome that danger themselves. Therefore, very often those stories will kill off the mentor character to force the younger protagonist character to go off on their own to face the primary villains in the end. Hence the deaths of characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, and so on.

Now, given that this is a Pokémon anime, obviously they're not going to have Spinel murder Friede. I mean, true, they let Zygarde kill Lysandre on Bonnie's order at the end of the XYZ anime, but Lysandre was the big bad and we didn't see his corpse, it was just heavily implied that he didn't survive what Zygarde did to him. Same with Hunter J and her crew in the DP anime. Did she live? Probably not, but we never saw the bodies, so hey, plausible deniability, and they were villains anyway, so. But Friede is a main character, and a hero, so we can be 99.9% sure that they're not going to have Spinel or anyone else murder him in order to force the kids to get by without him for awhile.

However, Friede doesn't have to die for him to be taken out of the action. He just needs to be put into a position where it is physically impossible for him to get to them to save them when they're in danger (and for them to know that he can't get to them when they're in danger). But I'm getting ahead of myself. The point I'm making here is that, for genre reasons, the writers have a reason to want to remove Friede from the field of play in order to force Liko, Roy, and Dot to stand on their own against the Explorers. Because while they would still have the rest of the adult crew of the Rising Volt Tacklers, the rest of the adult crew aren't really battlers. The only one among them who has a fully evolved pokémon is Orio with Metagross, and we've only seen her attempt to battle once. It doesn't mean she can't, of course, but it does imply that perhaps she's not an active battler. Certainly, she's not the one rushing in to save the kids all the time like Friede is. The rest of the RVT crew is important as well, but Friede is the one who would cause the real narrative impact here, as well as the psychological impact on the kids.

(And to briefly address Dot, since I've barely talked about her: Dot hasn't received as much focus in this discussion since she rarely leaves the ship, and thus hasn't been in as much danger as Liko and Roy. However, Friede has had as much of an impact on her life and I believe she sees him as a personal hero just as much. He is, after all, the one who gave her the new life that has impacted her so greatly. He's the one whose thesis first caught her attention. He showed an interest in her interests. He called her abilities special. He invited her to join the Brave Asagi. He brought her aboard no questions asked, made her feel welcomed, has never shamed her for being a shut-in, so on and so forth. Friede treats Dot with as much respect as he does the rest of the crew and his offer to let her become a crew member changed her life for the better. So while he hasn't had to rescue her as much as the other two, I think she does see him as a hero just as Liko and Roy do, and would be just as affected if something happened to him as they would be.)

The other reason why I think the question needs to be asked is a narrative one. I think, from a narrative perspective, it would simply make sense for the Explorers to want to do something about Friede at some point, particularly if they wish to take Terapagos from Liko (or get the kids out of the way of their plans for Rayquaza / Terapagos / Rakua). Again, whenever the kids are in danger, Friede swoops in and saves them. This is something that Spinel, at least, has noticed; he built the trap on the island specifically to imprison Friede. Why would he do that, if Friede was not at the very least a nuisance, at the very most a threat? And at the end of it all, we got this:

Which then brings me back to what I mentioned earlier: since the anime clearly can't (and won't) murder Friede, because that would be going way too far for a Pokémon anime, if the writers do choose to temporarily remove him from the field of play in order to give the kids room to stand on their own two feet without Professor Safety Net, then I could see this playing out one of two ways.

The first (and most delicious) way is obvious: have him be captured by the Explorers. I feel that this is already set up by Spinel's little smirk and comment above. Spinel has already designed one trap meant to imprison Friede; there is nothing stopping him from designing more. Of course, it would require nerfing Friede (and Cap) a bit, in order to leave them captured for a good while; but it would also give the kids a mission, that mission being rescuing Friede and Cap in a reversal of all the rescues Friede and Cap have provided for them thus far, while simultaneously taking the fight to the Explorers, versus the Explorers always coming after them. Of course, this does carry the risk of still seeming too dark for the writers to want to consider, since Friede would be a prisoner during all this, but if nothing else, I can always write fic.

The second possibility that is less obvious and more bonkers, but less dark and so somehow more plausible in my mind, is that Friede could somehow end up trapped in Rakua with Lucius. And before you're like "what," consider this:

Friede has a plan that involves the three Heroes they've obtained so far. If I had to guess, Friede is going to continue pursuing the remaining Six Heroes while the kids are on their Terastal course. And that's fine / good; he's continuing the mission so they don't lose time, although how he's going to do that without Terapagos is a mystery. (Although I'm sure Liko would let him borrow Terry if he just asked.) But the point is, he's got this mysterious plan involving the three Heroes they currently have. Rakua is some mysterious place that isn't on any maps and so could very well be another dimension or something similar, because those are 100% canonically real in the Pokémon world (e.g. the Distortion World). It would behoove the writers to have Friede off the field of play for awhile, to the extent that it is physically impossible for him to help the kids. And the kids also intend to reach Rakua because that's what Terapagos wants. So if Friede somehow got trapped in Rakua, then they would be killing two birds with one stone: Friede can no longer help the kids when they're in danger from the Explorers, and the kids can rescue Friede when they take Terapagos to Rakua to see Lucius' spirit (or just Lucius himself if Lucius has been alive in Rakua all this time because it's like a fountain of youth or limbo or something). Bonus points if the kids don't even know that's where Friede is, if they just know that something happened to him but don't know what, but they keep working toward Rakua anyway because the other adults on the crew convince them that Friede would want them to. (But Friede can maybe still somehow get messages to them through Terapagos visions or something, I don't know.)

I could honestly see this being the way they go with it, simply because it's less dramatic than "the enemy has taken your mentor hostage and taunt you about how powerless you are to do anything about it and also they're going to hunt you down to steal your little turtle, too." Plus they're setting Friede up to do something with the three Heroes, and it can't be for nothing. But then again, neither can Spinel's interest . . .

Either way, the fact that the kids so clearly see Friede as their hero, and the way it would impact them to have something happen to him as a result, has lived in my head ever since episode 25. Particularly since it would have a narrative impact as well, given how often he is their safety net, and what it would mean if he couldn't be any longer. Not because he chose not to, because he would never choose that; but because he couldn't, because external forces took that choice away.

Well. Even if the anime itself doesn't deliver, that won't stop me. :)

[ecargmura]

Pokemon Horizons Episode 65 Review - Heart To Heart With The Enemy

*Gasp* Liko and Amethio actually escaped the cave on-screen. The writers are actually not shoving everything into off-screen land this time around! Other than that, this episode was filled with surprise twists and intriguing lore that you can’t help but to wonder what’s going to happen next! 

The Liko and Amethio portions are nice because, like Liko, we finally get to know more about Amethio. It’s crazy how he appeared since the beginning and we only learn of his motives and goals 65 episodes in. He wants to get Rayquaza and Terapagos because he wants to be helpful to his grandfather Gibeon and wants him to be proud of him. It feels like an honor thing. Amethio, despite being a villain, does have kindness dwelling within him. If he wasn’t a kind person, Ceruledge wouldn’t have tried to warm its trainer with one of its blade after seeing Floragato try to get some grass for Liko. If Amethio wasn’t kind, he wouldn’t have cooperated with Liko in order to escape the cave, but he did. It’s nice that Liko knows that Amethio isn’t as bad as he appears to be. I really liked their heart-to-heart conversation. The fact that Amethio motivated Liko to not be so down over her failing her Implementation test is something; Liko didn’t even ask Grusha for a possible rematch as she knew there could be other ways she can master Terastal. Sometimes, the most unexpected person and words can be your biggest motivation.

Poor Amethio, the moment he becomes nice to Liko is when Spinel frames him for cooperation against the enemy and that’s when he gets kicked out of the Explorers. I’m assuming a simple act of kindness or cooperation with the enemy is something Gibeon despises? I wonder if something happened to him in the past for him to abandon his own grandson over something miniscule. I’m assuming that’s what happened to Amethio’s father too? Gibeon seems like a cruel person for believing in a fabricated video and not asking Amethio for a concrete answer. People are speculating that Amethio might be going through an anti-hero route akin to Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airibender. While I can see an anti-hero route, I don’t think it’s fair to compare it to Zuko as the circumstances of their turn is different. Zuko is a blueprint for antihero stories, but he doesn’t need to be the pathway.

For the Roy and Dot portions, I’m glad that the kids are sharp enough to realize that Sidian and Coral are deliberately stalling them because they’re targeting Liko. However, what they didn’t expect was that they’re super good at stalling that whatever plan they come up with, the Explorers counter it. People might get angry over the battle, but it’s because the kids aren’t battling seriously. They’re being hasty because Liko is their priority and not the battle. Fortunately, the battle gets called off once Grusha enters the scene as he got a call from Friede about the situation; Friede called him because he knew he wouldn’t get there in time and would need some extra help. I wonder why Grusha mellowed out in this episode compared to how stern he was two episodes ago. Also, I wonder what his Altaria’s beak is made of because it pecked the heck out of that boulder and Flying moves aren’t effective against Rocks.

I do like that Amethio’s words about not giving up has impacted her in a way that she even asked Roy and Dot to go to the Highest Peak with her. Usually, Liko is so passive and the other two seemed okay with not going now that they found Liko and she’s safe, but she still wanted to go. It’s nice that Liko is being a bit more assertive now. I hope to see this more in future episodes.

Also, Terapagos’s anger towards Amethios seems to be more that he reminded him of Gibeon and possibly mistook him for his grandfather, before realizing that they’re different. The way Amethio mentioned his grandfather Gibeon is when Terapagos got another upset reaction. The turtle definitely has beef with Gibeon and it could be a factor to why Gibeon was unusually cruel to Amethio in this episode.

With the announcement of the fourth arc starting in October 11, this means that this arc has three more episodes until then. I honestly can’t wait to see what this new arc has in store as the DLC characters are shown in the key visual. Though, I am a little upset that Arven didn’t show up at all in this arc and it seems that Kieran is going to get that same treatment seeing how he’s not in the poster while his sister Carmine is. What are you thoughts on this episode? By the way, I support Spinel’s rights, wrongs and future beatings.

[jadeazora]

It's been said pretty much for years now that they planned a series for Netflix, and the leaks confirmed it. Eight episodes were planned for a release this year. It's live-action. This isn't Concierge.

Misc. HZ leaks. (Info potentially subject to change)

Liko and Roy are 13 and 12 respectively. Still canon to me.

Dot initially wasn't planned. Quaxly would have gone to Liko or Roy.

Friede is 20s-ish while Orla is 18. (Finalized versions seem to be older, just given the previous flashback in Ep18 has a 4-6yr old Liko, and Orla already appeared to be an adult there)

Friede betrays the RVT and joins the Explorers, something about a missing brother? (Which has never been alluded to, so doubt.)

Original six Heroes were supposed to be Blastoise, Pachirisu, Rayquaza, Entei, Moltres, and Zeraora.

2yr timeskip after acquiring all 6 Heroes

Two Terapagos, the one from Laqua and the Area Zero one (The latter is deceased.)

Three year storyline intended, so perhaps ending in 2025? That said, Terastal Training arc wasn't originally intended so might go on for longer. According to the leaks, ZA was intended for this year, so they might have pushed back the anime a bit too.

Was originally intended to be a movie, with Ash returning for an SV series (with recurring characters like Leon and Goh), but that was scrapped and HZ became the full series instead.

Ash was intended to have a Capsakid, Klawf, and Fuecoco.

Still set in Ashime verse.

A new movie was planned too. Codename Bauer. Was set to be released in 2023, but might either be in development hell or be cancelled. New Pokemon named Aperon, with the main protagonist being a new character named Akari. It's set in modern-day Kanto and the featured Mythical Pokémon of the plot is Mew. The idea was that the film will touch modern society problems, like cyber bullying.

There was also sequel to Detective Pikachu called "The Great Detective Pikachu" set to be released this year. We don't know if the project is still ongoing or cancelled. I also don't know if this is like a proper image leak, or just something a fan threw together in response to the new information.

Another new anime, code name RELOAD.

This is an all-ages anime series co-produced with Twin Engine (TE), a planning and production company affiliated with Studio Colorido.

12 episodes over the course of a year, 21min each.

The 12 episodes will be split into 4 groups of 3 episodes each, with event screenings in Japanese theaters, and have a wide distribution across online streaming platforms.

Originally planned for release in 2023, current status unknown.

[amelikos]

Rayquaza really seemed to start acting differently after seeing Amethio.. at first, while its presence was imposing, it didn't seem to wish to fight according to Landau. It probably showed up because it felt the presence of the other heroes. But as soon as it saw Amethio (and there was a closeup on both their eyes, drawing attention to that), it started attacking him. While Amethio would have attacked anyway since he wanted to battle Rayquaza, it stands out to me that Rayquaza, who previously didn't wish to fight, immediately launched an attack against Amethio.

Rayquaza seemed really angry too?

There was a focus on this expression (one of contempt? dislike?) that makes me feel like something deeper is going on. And the way Rayquaza finished off Soulblades with multiple attacks in a row when he was already down, it really felt personal.

With Terapagos, Diana and Friede speculated that Rayquaza was probably trying to test Terapagos's powers and it lost interest when Terapagos turned back to its normal form and didn't attack again.

Either way, Rayquaza probably knows something about what happened to Lucius (and maybe who's responsible for it?). Diana described it as Lucius's greatest partner so it was probably the closest to him. It makes me wonder what kind of person Lucius really was, given how Rayquaza is. I wonder how he managed to gain its trust.