#i fucking HATE COMPETITIVE POKEMON

[iwontusethis255]

this is mankinds self made hell.

our own hubris has caused us to worry the strength of fiction. without thinking about reality.

the manifestation of capitalism destroys our only guards.

corperate greed shall reassure that we are heroes of our own story, but will force us to break our bonds to rise above.

i fucking hate competitive pokemon.

[splendidbadger]

Tfa bulkhead 💜💚

Hes such a sweetie i love him i kiss him. I kiss him I kiss Prowl I kiss Ratchet I kiss Nanosec I kiss Masterson.

[death-rebirth-senshi]

Watching a "How good was [pokemon]" series talking about how pokemon did in competitive and it's always funny how positive this guy is when a terrible pokemon gets kicked to the lowest tier. "Once it went to the doodoo trash tier for shit pokemon, it absolutely kicked ass and destroyed everything in its wake. It was a force to be reckoned with and was a massive success in the tier" hell yeah

[stag-beetle-and-skeleton-bloom]

Reading resetera (or any general gaming forum) forums and arguments regarding legitimately anything remotely competitive is a great reminder that a lot of people have no idea about what they're talking about and should not even attempt to contribute to a conversation they have nothing productive to provide with

[caramel-mousse]

battled my first 5☆ tera raid today and fuck that shit actually. I didnt even beat it I just lost 3 times in a row and quit the game bc i got so pissed

[hinamie]

thank you for sharing your thoughts about the ending! after seeing most of jjk fandom throwing rocks at gege and hating on recent chapters it seems like nobody's enjoying jjk anymore and only see flaws in it and only say about things they don't like. I was for the dream ending for my own reasons, but I'm not disappointed at the real ending. I'm glad that yuji is smiling and three of them are alive and well :> I don't care if it's bad writing, I'm not a judge on the literature competition, I'm here to have fun. I'm glad that you, hina, also have fun now :>

shaking your hand i'm right there with u :'o i've always said that i'm not in a position to judge gege's writing, nor do i find it a productive use of my time to do so. flaws in a story don't automatically make it bad or unenjoyable in my eyes, i'm a pokemon fan for fuck's sake i know how to make my own fun despite what some might call a sub-par story. the first years are alive so as far as i'm concerned i've gotten most everything I wanted out of this manga and I can rest easy knowing I can turn to fanworks to fill in the gaps. god i just. im just so relieved :'>>>>>>>

it does feel bittersweet tho bc on top of the manga ending, it seems like everyone has been mostly pissed and i kind of wanted my favourite series to end with the fandom celebrating what they loved about it with me :( i do understand the reasons (most of them anyway) behind their disappointment and i try my best to filter out most of the negativity but god does it ever get exhausting seeing it what feels like 24/7

im trying not to let it bum me out too much bc at the end of the day i know that /I'm/ satisfied with what jjk has given me and how it's helped me grow creatively, it just sucks a bit 2 know tht im in what feels like the minority dghjfgdj

[not-your-bro]

Tell me rfn the kind of video games climbing class stays up until 3am grinding and getting way too invested in

OOH. this is an interesting question bc i think they have fairly different taste in video games.

chris is into games with deep mechanics, so he gravitates to rpgs, including turn-based. likes strategy games, too. as a example of his taste, chris loves pokemon, but he plays it in a way i do not personally understand, in that he's crafting the most optimal team and also not naming his pokemon. all that said, he isn't opposed to turning his brain off with fps games when he just wants to relax. in all games, he is a chronic cutscene skipper (a trait that makes josh grind his teeth). if he picks up an in-game document that he deems too long, he's like "i ain't reading all that. i'm happy for u tho. or sorry that happened."

josh plays fewer games and has narrower taste. obviously, he's into horror in all forms, from AAA down to the smallest of indie titles (tho he prefers indie). i think he wouldn't have pegged himself as a fighting game guy, but he checked out mortal kombat bc of the fatalities and got really into it. he'd be into hideo kojima games. if i can include post-2014 games bc we're just having fun here, this would include death stranding (which chris would not understand the appeal of). josh would also love the weird, wide world of elden ring, in particular how it's stripped of things like quest logs. he would really enjoy making his own physical notes (which, again, would feel like homework to chris).

now, here's what they learned they can't play together.

moody, atmospheric horror that relies more on suspense or dread than fear. josh would love silent hill games (the good ones lmao), but chris would find them unenjoyable to play and narratively confusing & boring. warning for silent hill 2 spoilers here, but i made a joke in a fic about chris getting, like, too deep into sh2 before going, "oh. did this guy do something to his wife?" and i stand by that. i think he's just like whatttt is going on and when will this be over.

competitive games that rely too heavily on luck. obvious examples are mario party & mario kart games. josh gets too fucking moody when he feels he loses unfairly, and it brings the (mario) party down. and every time he suggests them, he's like "i seriously won't care, like it's not a big deal." but it is a big deal. in his heart. if he loses fair and square, he's fine, but he hates feeling robbed by bad luck.

...and here's what they do play together.

freaky asf horror games. like, the kinds of games with moments that are gonna have "streamers react to..." compilations on youtube. ideally, chris is playing and josh is watching, bc josh loves to watch chris react to games like this, especially if he himself has played them before. nothing more enjoyable than sitting next to chris, knowing what horrors await him but not saying anything. josh has a ps4 with p.t. (which he will never, ever delete) and he delighted in making chris play that. he also made chris play doki doki literature club, under the guise of "giving him a well-deserved break from horror." good one, josh.

chris's rpgs are long as hell and he gets very into them, so when he's particularly sucked in but josh still wants to hang, josh is like ok just bring your console over and play here, idc. now, josh knows chris is a cutscene skipper, so josh spends the entire time peppering chris with questions. what's happened so far? what's going on right now? who's this guy - what's his deal? at some point, they start making shit up, spitballing what they think is going on based on context clues, but also throwing in their own wild ideas just to make each other laugh. (after chris finishes the game, they read a plot summary to see how close they were.)

i think chris is a kingdom hearts fan, but again, not the way i'm a kingdom hearts fan. he thinks they're fun as fuck to play, but he has NO clue what's going on. in fact, playing kingdom hearts as a kid is probably what triggered his aversion to cutscenes. he was like that shit goes on FOREVER, and for WHAT? i'm enamored with the idea of chris foisting kingdom hearts on josh - like, "try it, bro, it's really fun. but just skip the cutscenes they're super long and confusing." and josh is like "now, now, christopher. a lot of work went into these cutscenes. we can't just skip them. that would be disrespectful." so josh lets them roll - initially as a bit, but then they both get invested, and next thing you know they're barreling through all 983094 games together.

resident evil 4. periodt. it has stuff that appeals to them both: horror/gore for josh, more action-oriented gameplay for chris, plus short cutscenes they can both find enjoyment in, because they're either freaky or funny or both. they would lament (as did i) that re5 and re6 have co-op but are so much worse, but they'd still play them once. and they'd both love the modern remakes + new re games. josh's favorite of those would be re7, and chris's would be re2 remake.

[starabsol]

okay so this is like a rant and questions and shit i have on my mind about pokemon advanced/contestshipping because i can

something that has always confused me is— where the HELL did solidad come from? during the entirety of the hoenn contest circuit we never saw her, neither in the entirety of the kanto circuit UNTIL the grand festival. and you can go and counter this with a “she only started participating in contests during the kanto circuit” which like, yes, is reasonable. there’s one thing that very much bothers me though. in the spontaneous combusken episode brianna (who looked up to drew) literally STATED may was the only female coordinator he had respect for. and she is OBSESSED with him, and watched all of his contests, by the way. and then, SOLIDAD COMES IN??? HUH??? atp i’m convinced solidad was like a last minute decision to say some shit about drew because obviously he ain’t the character so do so himself, and that feels so wrong to me. like her only reason of existence in the anime is just to spill stuff from drew’s past or whatever.. you could’ve introduced her sooner, and then later it could’ve been like “woah! she knows DREW?” but no she just came out of nowhere and that was it. ok so that’s point one

secondly, why did they only reveal the reason harley dislikes may so much is at the END of the kanto circuit? a whole ass season after they even met? like we get convinced in the beginning he just hates this girl because he called his pokemon scary and didn’t go all crazy over his cookies, and then like bam this girl that looked like her stole his cookies and that’s why he’s so angry. so what was the point of the first reason he hated her so much..??? and with this you could counter “well he didn’t recognize her yet” would be fair except they look exactly the fuckinf same, OR “he just kept it to himself” which i find not so fitting as harley, each time we get a shot of him just doing his own thing, he talks to himself and is just constantly rambling about. so if he DID recognize her, i feel like he would’ve said at least SOMETHING about that.

thirdly, why the hell was drew in only 2 contests along with may? ONLY FUCKING TWO leading up to both of the grand festivals. which like, all right, i do understand, they want their battles to be long awaited and heated, totally fair. but it feels so wrong to call him a main rival, if, out of quite a few contests she participated in, she only battled him face to face once, in her first contest. the rest of the things he really only did is just keep an eye on may and make a haughty comment here and there to piss her off, and stopping harley, a few times. it’s exciting, sure, but it would’ve been so much more rewarding if may won from him after more than just two losses (in actual competitions) but, again, that’s the way i look at it.

fourth, this is much rather more rambling than a straight up question i ask myself every so often, but… i’ve read a shit ton of contestshipping fics. and thing i noticed very frequently is that in the stories that are written drew always has a burning hatred against harley, which feels odd. because, during the entirety of the series, the only moment he really got mad was after the whole assist commotion. the rest of the times? he laughed him off, for instance after harley lost to may in the hoenn grand festival, and in mays last contest before the kanto grand festival. "arent you smart!” and the “you better not make me any angrier drew” “back at ya” like bro this mf does not feel threatened by him AT ALL. he even complimented that he raised his pokemon very well, which, i am sure he wouldn’t have said if he hated him as much as people make out as he does. and the brianna being really fuckinf bratty and evil thing… if anything she’d seem somewhat of a sensitive and shy girl, in worst case scenario she’d call into a depression if they got together or something.

fifth, and my last question, how the hell are there enough contests to give out ribbons? aren’t there like, more than 200 participants in one grand festival? and every coordinator needs at least 5 ribbons? that means 1000 ribbons to be given out, in one year, in one region. and you have like the wallace cup thing, but it’s held every year, and the ribbon from the wallace cup can be used in any region, so that’s barely filling anything in. so where the HELL do the 999 ribbons come from? wouldn’t they have to hold like a dozen of contests? because, obviously, there’s coordinators who have less than 5 ribbons, unable to enter in the grand festival, which means there’s only more ribbons to add up to the 1000 total. and yeah, more ribbons could be given out in smaller contests in smaller towns, but there was never much mention of that. it’s just really fucking vague

that was my rant. please tell me what you think………please

[sol-lar-bink]

Wish i heard about the Pokemon TCG art contest earlier.... that would have been fun to be a part of. And Feraligatr was one of the mons you could draw!!! My first starter!!!!

Shame to hear about the A i crap going on in it tho. That fucking sucks. Even competitions are being ruined. You spent hours and hours putting your heart and soul onto a piece only for the loser who typed a few words to win? Hate this world.

[coldslaws-gear-station]

In the spirit of my latest Eradication brain rot and me being bored out of my fucking mind, here's a whole list of Lady fun facts!

When she first escaped her situation, the Pokemon in the area were reasonably terrified of her. When she came across the woodland mansion she met Iolanthe, who was the only one to actually approach her with little to no fear. The only interactions she's had with Pokemon were in battles which got awfully violent, so Iolanthe was her first ever friend, hense why she had such an affinity for Audinos

Lady tries to keep herself continuously moving or doing something, as staying still for too long can cause her abilities to build up and become dangerous

She does quite literally whatever she can to avoid battles, as she finds she becomes awfully violent and competitive during them. Becoming completely streamlined on winning and nothing else, it frightens her. Along side this, she's an incredible battler and has yet to lose a single battle

Whenever a human is finished being healed and cared for by her friends, she proceeds to wipe their memory of the mansion and have her Gardevoirs drop them off at a safe location close to other humans. The disappearance of people within forests only to appear ages away completely unscathed with amnesia are completely her doing, it never get any easier

If she relaxes enough, she can float off the ground. There was an embarrassing number of times she's woken up floating when she first escaped

She has the ability "unnerve" though it was expected she'd get Pressure instead

Her eyes glow in the dark, she's terrible at hide and seek...

Her team consists of; Sylveon, Gardevoir, Clefable, Primarina, Audino (obviously), and her star Pokemon and her most commonly mega evolved Pokemon; Mawile

She is, infact, claustrophobic, being trapped in a small room gives her bad memories

Equilibrium hates her because he knows she could've done something, she could've saved him, but she chose to run away and hide instead. Lady thinks Azrael needs to move on and embrace freedom, that he's too stuck in the past and exploring the world could help release the darkness in his heart

Despite the fact Equilibrium talks a lot of smack, in the event of him and Lady having a battle, she would absolutely dog walk him

Occasionally she'll make a trip out to Driftveil (in disguise obviously) to sell all of the leftover berries from her garden to the berry seller in the market

- 💌

she's so scary and i love her. thank you

iolanthe 🥺

the fact that she has a pokemon ability? hello? im so curious. but also how do all her audino eat berries around her /j

AND shoutout primarina. prob one of my top 10 or 5 pokemon i literally love them so much. popplio got dunked on so hard around release and for what purpose :(

also ok tbf if i was a teenager and my sister could've saved me from [nondescript torment] but ran off to be silly in the woods i would also be pressed about it. like im sure there's more context to fully justify her take but also i get it azrael

[sarahdogoc80]

Lily is totally left guys.

Lily Orchard: I'm totally against capitalism it's evil.

Also Lorch: These drugs have a bad reputation unless I'm the one who decides to take them. Also addicts just spawned in addicts it's their fault.* Completely ignores the two huge pill tragedies that spawned both drug out breaks. Ignores that the pharmacusal industry is a billion dollar industry funded by the government. Ignores that doctors were paided to push oxycodine during an economic Reccestion and a rocky time due to it being Bush's administration. Ignores the women forced on amphetamine because they had to conform to unrealistic beauty standard so their husband can have a perfect LOOKING wife. And when she couldn't handle the amphetamine just give them Valium. Then they got hit with the hell that was 70's America and caused the cocaine/ crack epidemic that targeted black people. And has caused untold damage to their communities and culture. Ignores how mental health and tragedy and PTSD play into addiction. Spreads old propaganda made up by the LUMBER and OIL industries to get rid of hemp so their capitalistic empires would have no competition as the part you don't smoke can be used to make paints, toilet paper, paper, etc. Spreads old American propaganda about weed that has very strong roots in the anti Mexican racism of the late 1800's- early 1900's. Used a family member's death as a shield when she gets criticism and is proven wrong. Dehumanizes addicts the same way people like Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon did.

Lily would make Reagan proud. I get that not everyone has the time to look into the huge problem that capitalism has done to the medical system. But if you don't understand then shut the fuck up. Because by talking out your ass your hurting the victims and helping shield the companies who did this and are already trying it again with Adderall and Xanax. Lily you are literally spewing right wing talking points. You claim you hate capitalism but no you don't. You hate the systems that don't benefit you. But you happily spread their propaganda like the good little puppet you are. Stuff like marijuana has it problems but talk about it's actually problems not the shit made up to go after Mexicans or the propaganda made up by lumber and oil industries so they could build their capitalistic empires. Banning weed has only benefited the systems you hate so much. And hurt the people you claim to care about/ be a part of. Idk a lot on the subject but in America, Native communities have huge drug problems because of government systems. The very people you dress up as are being hurt by you spreading this garbage. But hey you are immun to propaganda and are the smartest person in the room aren't you. Who cares about the victims you are helping burry. Who cares about the families of all races destroyed by capitalistic greed of the billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. You got your pain pills.

"So let's all do drugs and waste away and die. That's what they want. So what ever you want they will precipice it. No matter how high you get.... They put it in your brain that it is the solution. For depression, weight loss, spinal contusion. So take this better yet take two ."

Edit. I am Mexican American Lily. So judging by how you hold people with darker skin's voices as word of God or something (as seen in your SU videos). You by your own morals can't argue with me on this. As my community was hit the hardest by anti weed bullshit. But because I don't agree with you and you can't fetishize me you will probably go full trump supporter and start calling me a border jumper, or a half breed, or other non slur, racist remarks. Just like you did with that Bisexual guy who made a video on why your pokemon takes are ass.

[poryqons]

"you just hate palworld because you cant stand pokemon having competition and wanna defend the million dollar company"

I HATE IT BECAUSE THEY'RE FUCKING RIPPING OFF MY HYPERFIXATION WITH UGLY DESIGNS AND GETTING MONEY FROM OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!! (KILLS YOU LIKE THIS)

[nukenai]

I don't have a problem with competitive Pokemon as a concept, at all. No, my problems with the meta are way, way more annoying.

I hate Pokemon Showdown. I hate that everyone plays a fake simulator game where you can just click to create a Pokemon and then battle with them. I hate that it takes the work out of catching and breeding your own Pokemon, working with them, REALLY HAVING THEM in a REAL GAME and having them be your battle partner you've really battled and learned with.

I liked watching the VGC finals at Worlds. But the forfeiting drove me nuts. Like, I get it. They know they've lost and they don't want to waste time. But I've never thrown a match in my life. I play Pokemon Go PVP occasionally and even when I'm being steamrolled I've never quit. I always fight to the end. I've had plenty of people rage quit on me and I think it's funny, but also pathetic.

I know it shouldn't be that serious. But I do think less of people who forfeit. I think less of people who have hacked Pokemon in this day and age solely for the sake of being too lazy to get one themselves. It doesn't take that long. It really doesn't. If I can manage to breed competitive Pokemon, it's not that big a deal.

"But Nuke, not everyone has that kind of time!"

Well, if you're doing this for the purpose of potentially participating in real tournaments, that really mean something, I think you SHOULD have to put in the time. I don't think you should get to click a couple dropdowns and get your perfect Pokemon instantly. I think that makes you a fucking loser who doesn't deserve to actually compete in a tournament. You skipped half of the work and want all the rewards.

Disagree with me if you want. I'm not cut out for VGC because I don't like an environment where the same 3 Pokemon need to be on everyone's team because they steamroll everything, and can only be countered with very specific things. To me the point of Pokemon is that there's a billion of them. Everyone has ones they love. Everyone's team is completely different. I think having a meta that winds up with the same Pokemon used over and over defeats the purpose. Yes, I know that's built into the game. I think it's a huge flaw.

Again, I don't think competitive Pokemon is inherently bad. I have many competitive Pokemon and have entered tournaments. Not really official ones, but ones where I was up against people who knew way more than I did. And sometimes I even beat them. I absolutely love the thrill of taking a Pokemon I love, and going okay, how can this one work competitively? How can I take advantage of this Pokemon's uniqueness?

But I fell out of competitive 2 gens ago.

Scarlet and Violet don't allow the transfer of four out of six of the Pokemon on my main team, that I've taken everywhere with me since Pokemon Platinum.

So maybe I'm just a little bitter. I don't know. I had a lot of fun with competitive Pokemon. It's sad it's steered so sharply away from anything I used to enjoy.

[marshmallowprotection]

I think the twins birthday cgs are super pretty but there are a few parts that are throwing me off and I can't stop looking at it. Why is Saeyoung's hand so jacked up (the layering of the fingers look off), what is up with the perspective of the cake box and also why is the envelope being pushed into the cake. That whole section of the image is weird. I'm only mildly concerned it's AI but I don't really want to doubt the artist since all the images thus far have been fine and Saeran's looks fine aside from the cake board being below the water. It might just be a fluke but it kinda bothers me. I'm just gonna hope the artist chose rule of cool over realism while drawing this piece. On a more fun note, I appreciate how extra Saeran's celebration is compared to his brothers. Guy knows how to go all out lmao 😂 👏

As it stands right now, I don't know for sure if AI was used or not for these images. I can't say one way or the other, but I can say that I've seen some speculation about Saeyoung's artwork specifically due to the cake and the way the hands look. It looked strange to me as well the longer I stared at it, but that's the only part of Saeyoung's image that threw me off.

My working theory at the moment is that the artist was put on a major time crunch to complete five illustrations for June as there have been five images done this month. They didn't have enough time to finish Saeyoung's illustration, and thusly, Cheritz told them that they needed to do anything to get it done, meaning they used fucking AI to finish the cake area? I mean, I don't know why anyone would generate AI for one section of an image, but it's one possible answer here.

The art itself looks like the art we've had so far, and nothing seemed off about the rest of the image to me, either. It's just the cake area in question. So, I have to wonder if they cheated on the cake itself but not the rest of the image?

If the artist really was rushed and there was no AI used, that's just as bad, too. Because, why are you pushing someone to meet a deadline like that? Just say, "We're sorry, the art needs another week, please be patient with us and become excited for it!" We're okay to wait one more week, Cheritz. If you used AI for artwork AGAIN after everyone admonished you for it, that's disgusting.

Hands are notoriously known to be a tell for AI, but hands are also difficult for artists to draw. I cry over hands all the time, but that's also no excuse for using AI just because you couldn't draw the damn hands. Just stare at more hand references and draw until you think it looks like a hand. That's what I do. I stare and stare and then I cry my eyes out. I hate hands.

AI is unethical. Pay artists for their time and money instead of using a soulless art theft machine.

I don't want to believe that Cheritz would use AI again after they were publicly lashed for it, but we just can't always have good things in this world and assume the best of everyone.

So, I would advise folks to be emailing Cheritz for transparency on the matter. I know some people have already emailed them about it, so we'll have to wait and see. I'll pray they're transparent and honest about the image making process.

The only thing that threw me off about Saeran's image is something that could easily be an artist mistake. There's one water ripple that's overlapping the cake. I've done stuff like that before. Forget to delete an area of the image or left the wrong layer on. His cake isn't in water, it's on a cake board, it just kinda blends in because it seems to be the lightest brown. But, hey, even the cake board looks like its a little bit wet.

At the end of the day, I don't know whether or not AI was used. I think it's important to have these conversations because we can't let folks get away with lying about the authenticity of their artwork. But, in the same vein, I hate that AI has even created an environment where art has to be speculated about.

The Pokemon TCG just had a competition where people who used AI and got through to the finals, but even though they have been caught and removed AS THEY RIGHTFULLY SHOULD BE FOR THAT, before the company made that statement and promised to remove the AI art and pushed forward real artists, a legitimate artist was harassed by a lot of people and had to prove their art was theirs to begin with. It's disgusting.

I hate what AI is doing to people beyond fucking theft, it's out here making environments where artists have to record everything they do to prove they're not a soulless machine. This isn't fair to anyone. Stop using AI. Don't even get me started on the ChatGPT fanfiction or the Character AI phone calls using STOLEN VOICES FROM VOICE ACTORS.

You wanna hear a character say something, you pay someone who is good at impressions to do it, you look that voice actor in the face and ask them to say your silly line when you visit a con or maybe if they have those pay-for-video things, or you mash the words together like those YouTube Poops used to do ages ago.

[lockandkeyhyena]

Pokémon is a very large and popular game I think we can all agree, but just the things surrounding it as a long time fan sort of. exhaust me? Pokémon designs have hits and misses, generally nothing new— back in the day they made literally just a crocodile and literally just a sparrow. These days I can sort of appreciate that even if a design is just a worm they try to make it visually interesting. Not everything can be a Lucario or a Garchomp. Some Pokémon fill their niches respectfully, and sometimes those niches just aren’t appealing to some people. That’s the overall appeal of Pokemon. There’s Pokémon for everyone.

Where I am annoyed as a long time fan is when, since we have decades upon decades of these games, there is a game similar to it. Now, generally they’re called ‘copycats’. I do not think this is the case.

Monster Catching is a GENRE. It’s in the same manner people make soulslike games. Pokémon gamers are just really gatekeepy to the formula for generally no reason, Nintendo doesn’t have a copyright license on Anubis or the concept of an electric fucking fish. Or a dolphin. I see games I have fallen in love with and have stellar story (EX: Monster Hunter Stories 2) be called and wittled down to nothing but a Pokémon knockoff. Which it isn’t!!!! The only thing it really has in common are “types” and the fact it’s a creature collector. It has a unique rock-paper-scissors battle formula and all monsters you have in your party have unique ride abilities and specialize in element and one of the three battle types (Technical, Speed, and Strength.) you don’t even catch them. You take the eggs and raise them alongside you. It gets on my nerves every time.

I am especially heated about this because it’s my favorite kind of game, and generally I admit I have a skill issue where I can’t play many “harder” games and if a game makes me too stressed I put it down for an indefinite period of time. Even if it is a Pokémon parody, I don’t care. I think the genre of Pokémon should be expanded so Nintendo has actual competition and everyone can have multiple games they can enjoy. I don’t think catching and loving critters should be kept behind one company with like a 60$ paywall.

Now, I think it must be stated I think Palworld is generally just like, OKAY. I don’t hate it or love it. Digimon was the original Pokémon with guns (or more accurately, Pokémon just took the digimon and removed the guns.) and I will not rest until digimon makes a creature collector similar to that of its business rival who won the metaphorical space race. Back to the topic at hand.

I find certain designs far too alike to Pokémon, sure. But ultimately I don’t think a humanoid Anubis dog is kept to gamefreak alone. I recognize the owners are sketchy but this isn’t new to the game industry. Poppy Playtime devs got into NFTS, Friday Night Funkin developer allegedly spent kickstarter money on drugs. nothing new. it can be glitchy as hell, sure. but honestly I think it has enough unique features to get a green light to me as a game. They work with you, they have unique abilities and for every “copycat” there’s an honestly pretty solid creature design. They have an eevee knockoff but some of their mythical designs are pretty. Again, not a fan. not generally my cup of tea. but I recognize an okay game. I know it’s also in a non finished state but considering the amount of content in it already, despite its game history, I have a little hope for it.

Just, sort of, generally as a Pokémon fan other Pokémon fans can be insufferable. I think we as a community need to start recognizing Pokémon shouldn’t have a monopoly on this sort of thing, and just because they make up 90% of the genre that doesn’t mean every game is a knockoff. Ooblets is a creature collector, does that make it one? Obviously not. It’s more akin to stardew valley than an actual Pokémon game. even if a game is more alike to Pokémon, we have plenty of games that have been made similar to another before and seen as a good thing. Hence my “soulslike” mention here. I have never seen such behavior from any other game community. Yeah guys let’s let the multimillion dollar company completely have ahold of this beloved type of game and let them charge any price they want because no one else is gonna make games like that.

And there’s also how some people act with Pokémon designs. Now, I can fully recognize some just don’t work (Skeledirge being supposedly drawn from a different culture although somewhat similar, but still very different) but you can still just sort of enjoy them as a Pokémon existing. Totadile is my favorite starter but I can recognize thematically it doesn’t work well and it’s overall strange what they do to it in the final stage. But I still love it. I fully understand wanting more grown Pokémon on four legs, don’t get me wrong. However starters have a bad habit of this because they’re supposed to grow like you and be similar to you somewhat with the bipedal stance along other things to solidify that sort of connection and friendship.

I just sort of get tired of the “oh god put that thing on four legs, imagine what the FURRIES will do!!!!” argument. I don’t care much for it. I don’t know why we’re giving people strays. What people want to kiss is none of my business and frankly I have no room to speak (the alien from alien isolation is hot) and even then it’s like, I don’t think we should let that dictate a design. Just say you think the two legged market is over saturated and it’s time for a change.

And I do have skin in the game!!! I remember being like 5 and playing Pokémon Pearl on my DS. I’ve been a long time fan. And I truly believe there’s no hell deeper than dedication to a company. Because they no know matter what, you’re going to buy that game. They shut down emulators so you have to buy games they don’t even make anymore. I truly recognize this is a skill issue, but this is why I think we need to expand the genre as a whole. So this sort of thing becomes less insufferable and make people less demanding overall about a Pokémon game yearly and Gamefreak would have a reason to lock in and try to make their games the best they can be.

I don’t care that cow has udders, I care about the multimillion cooperation making its fans think no other game should be like it ever and dismiss it if it links to catching or having monsters as a core part of gameplay and then buying the next 70$ yearly slop. (said as a person who enjoyed the violet story and enjoyed the POTENTIAL of it more.)

damn u needed that off your chest anon, glad to be a place u can put ur emotions haha

[goldngazes]

some zoey and mike headcanons because i don’t see a lot of people talking about them and they’re definitely my guilty pleasure ship

- i always saw them doing a long distance relationship after tdas. they make it work though!! they get really good at communicating because they kind of need to with an LDR. and of course they visit eachother often and travel when they can!!

- they play lots of video games together!! zoey loves pokemon and so does mike :) he’s more into the competitive side of things while zoey just wants to complete game. i could see them playing scarlet and violet and making the little sandwiches together 😭 it would be so cute. and also they have a very expansive minecraft world together and a server with their other friends :3

- they would have a really entertaining podcast with gwen where they just talk about behind the scenes stuff in total drama and also they spill some tea. zoey doesn’t like to badmouth anyone but she lets it slip sometimes and it’s very entertaining (it’s mostly about scott i can’t lie like nobody likes him that much)

- idgaf zoey is the big spoon i don’t care how short she is and how tall mike is i need to see her wrap her arms around his back and cuddle him rn

- when they sleep together it never ends well because mike moves so much in his sleep and zoey ends up 1. getting elbowed 2. getting kicked 3. falling off the bed or 4. getting no sleep at all. it’s not like she cares though she loves him so much 😭

- oh yeah they’re very touchy. couples in amusement park lines be like

- i think zoey has struggled a lot with her own mental health which helps her understand mike a lot better. not that she’ll ever understand what having DID is like, but she’s just understanding and patient in general. i hate the whole “mike got rid of his alters” shit because like wow 😭 wtf. so that never happened!! zoey is so kind and treats all of his alters with the same respect that she would mike. she gets really close with them all and makes a conscious effort to know them as people, not just extensions of mike. and i think that’s just so fucking sweet

i have more of these if anyone wants them idk if there’s a zoke fandom out there but i’m here to deliver 🫡