#i really like the base version tho he looks like he is Up to Mischief

[teandragons]

pov: you are being sent to the shadow realm

Valightine's Illuminarti #2 - Alexander #21477916 for Dessy!

[yours-the-author]

...And by a day or two I mean like five.

Sorry for the delay, everyone! First I had work and assignments to do, then I had to spend a whole day drawing the base sketches for each picture, then I had to color them but my phone started dying so I had to do it in two days instead of one... I feel like I always overestimate or underestimate how long things like this will take; there is never an in-between.

Anyway, as you may or may not know, @lumyious-studios came up with a lovely little idea (original post here and post further exploring the concept here), and the moment I saw it, I knew I had to draw something. This isn't a full concept or anything (I don't have the brain energy to make a whole AU out of this), but I've got some fun little bits and bobs to show off, so enough waiting around! Let's set the scene!

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The shadow monsters appeared suddenly, quietly, as if they had always been there. A planet already struggling with violence and theft was at the mercy of a darkness that spread mischief and tragedy wherever love was felt. The world prayed for a savior, but nobody came. So the world kept turning, for what else was there to do?

Much time passed, and the world eventually found a new sense of normalcy. People's lives continued on around the dangerous shadows, including the lives of the Toppat Clan as they scoured the world for treasures and valuables to expand their power and influence.

Then, one fateful day, in an inconspicuous lot of dying grass that was rumored to hide a great treasure, the world changed forever...

Desperate to save his chief, the Right Hand Man of the Toppat Clan reached for what he hoped was an impromptu weapon to fight off the darkness.

And one

*MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE THAT LOOKED REALLY COOL AND EPIC TRUST ME YOU GUYS*

later...

RIGHT HAND MAGICAL GIRL was born!

As unexpected as this sudden transformation was, Right Hand Magical Girl quickly got to work.

And that's the first half of the episode!

The second half introduces the staple of every magical girl anime/manga ever: the adorable and definitely not dubious magical companion that leads the hero to the right path!

And just as quickly as it was introduced, the adorable and definitely not dubious magical companion was gone forever...

...Or was it?

As uncertain as the chief of the Toppat Clan was about his Right Hand Man's magical new side gig, he quickly came around to the misadventures that followed.

...Too quickly, actually...

Aaand, SCENE!

Obviously, a magical girl dress should be drawn in complete detail with all the frills and ribbons to match... unfortunately stick figures- despite the name- do not actually have good figures. So I ended up creating a slightly thinner version of Mayor Fredrickson as the base for the full image of Right Hand Magical Girl. It took a lot of time to get the body down just right (and don't even get me started on those hands), but I think it looks pretty okay!

You may be able to tell, but a big influence for this outfit was the Magical Dress from Animal Crossing: New Horizons (I tried to add a link to a picture but Tumblr Did Not Like That), but I also drew inspiration from Sailor Moon and whatever Google Images pulled up. The shoes were also fun; I decided to add some fun little ankle flaps that pop outwards and I like it a lot! I also settled on giving Right Hand Magical Girl silver slippers as a homage to the original version of The Wizard of Oz, which was switched to ruby slippers in the movie since color TV was new and silver wouldn't look as fun. Here though, silver is a better match for purple.

Speaking of purple, you might be asking: why he ourple tho? I thought about doing pink, or a variety of colors, or even mint green, but given that Right Hand Man's official Among Us color is purple, I figured it'd be good to stick with a classic look. And he works it, if I may toot my own horn for a bit.

The shadow monsters feed on love, so since Right Hand Man and Reginald are... you know... they get attacked pretty frequently. Right still has his hands full protecting his chief, there's just some magical stuff added on now.

Hmm, that adorably dubious magical creature we got rid of in the first episode looks all shadowy when it gets splatted... maybe it's actually the real leader of the shadows, a miniature god of chaos and hate that plays this game over and over again on every planet it finds, picking some random sap to be the "hero" that eventually gets defeated in the end? If it is, I can't imagine it's too happy that Right Hand Magical Girl isn't playing by the rules... Right had better watch his back (or the back of who he most desires...)

Okay, done, boom, happy birthday, peace and love in the world despite everything! I hope this little thing I made brought a smile to your face, or at least made you exhale sharply out of your nose in amusement.

Stay safe, ya'll. I'll see you this Monday for the next update of Liminal Love!

[crabbycola]

Hi its me and im gonna talk about sergei being a pokemon

i wanna do this with all tekken characters as a little creativity exercise so no fighting type AT ALL unless is like a must or dont have any idea and all will be dual type because is funnier like that

оооооооо

So for this little exercise i will start with the one i thinked the most because favorite character alert, i will be drawing this ideas later maybe...maybe.

To start i wanna think first on who is Dragunov, a spetnaz that is cold, mysterious, silent and looks emotionless but have some slight mischief with those smirks or little taunts or even the talks he had with Raven on Tekken 6. So the best first type would be the Dark Type since it fits with the creepy silent attitude that other dark types like Umbreon or Absol could have and are like my base.

I know this will sound cliche and all that but i think is obligatory that he have to be a Ice Type. Not really because hes Russian as the nationality but more for the ambience. We alredy saw with regional versions how the habitat can change a pokemon type and appearance to survive so im going on with that mostly, plus, hes often described as cold and with icy eyes which i think is obvious to this point for appearance and personality.

What we have now is a Dark-Ice, kinda Sneazel and Weavile thing which we can work with. What we know is that Dragunov usually works alone but is not solitary and we can asume he works with other militars too. We could see hes also a good leader, leading the others to end the jobs.

I thinked for him is a mixed nature in social activities with others. Can work really good alone but better in "herd" and is natural leader among the herd. Interacting with others outside his circle is difficult since hes also not trustful and is hard for him to get used to stranger presences and always have the guard up, but if you gain his trust he will defend you certainly.

I wanna now think about like in-battle natures, like a dark type he usually attacks that would generate surprice but brutal to the other, usually using the opponent body to his advantage. Also attacking with grabs to then make a final devasting one with punches, bites and maybe a funny claw to scratch.

Inspired by his in-game moves "Feint & Catch" and "Chernobog Sweep" (maybe also "Spetnaz Assault"), traducing it to the move "Foul Play".

For punches he would use his ice abilities more, his knuckles and nails would get covered in solid ice that with make the attack so much heavy, inspired by his move "Sub-zero" traducing it to "Ice punch"

For the grabs like in general because theres a lot, searching i finded the move "Submission" a fighting type move that well, fits to well to not mention it and would work exactly as how it do in the games.

He have great teeth also, doesnt bite often since his hands are more effective but he knows "Crunch" if is necessary to use those great teeth, other option could also be "Ice Fang" since his teeths are made of the same material as his nails.

(Look i think it would be hilarious if he had "Sing" tho, like just saying)

For the ability he would have "Intimidate" or "Unnerve" his look, body and just overall attitude and personality would really just make the opponent nervous.

Mostly a physical attacker with decent defense but lack of special defence and a unusuable special attack but a really great speed and reflects, good for a silent killer.

Now is time for complicated parts, Biology, he isnt just gonna be him, all this characteristics arent gonna be just to a human looking person.

I thinked he would be inspired in a wolf, specially the siberian wolf using the term lone wolf and the fact that wolves also works in herds as a concept and that they live i cold places usually. maybe put these concept with a military trained dog.

Will be bipedal with great arms and thighs but thinner legs with a contracted torso. Also some thick fur on the neck and back that connect to the tail that will help to survive the cold. Tail is medium lenght with a puffy end but a slick start amd make a C shape usually that gets flowy and wavy when running. Nails are short since he doesnt use them as much but are made of thick ice that can scratch good. Have great teeths like the canine he is, made of thick ice material like his nails. Ears are pointy but fluffy, wolf like and shows his emotions a lot of the time.

The constant touch of his extremities with the snow made his hand and feet have other propperties such as being much harder, colder even in normal weather and the hair of those parts getting replaced with little ice shards.

My brain is fried thinking in all this lol.

[disasteromnia]

a hoe really out here doing this huh…anyway this is the short version of her profile and I’ll edit it once I complete everything….god I hope that happens soon

☃ 【Alesia’s Profile】 ☃

❄ Name Data  ❄ 

Name

Xxxx Xxxx Xxxxxxx

Alias

Alesia

Katakana

アリシア 

Nickname(s)

Ali

Chaos Trio Leader, Headache #1 (by Crowley)

Mom (by Ace & Kalim)

Tsundere (by close friends, usually just to make her more flustered)

イーラ (a hint to her real name!)

Etymology

Alesia : “noble natured” ; a variant of the name Alice, which was derived from the Germanic name Adalheidis

❄ Personal Data  ❄ 

Gender

Female

Sexuality

Bi

Birthday

"January 18th"

Age

XX

Horoscope

Capricorn

Blood Type

AB (Rh-negative)

Hometown

According to Ali, it’s always snowing in her hometown

Race

“Human”

Song Themes

“It’s Not Like I Like You!!” (painfully obvious lol)

❄ Professional Data  ❄ 

Affiliation(s)

Night Raven College

Dorm

Diasomnia

Year

2nd Year

Best subject(s)

Sciences

Hobbies

Calligraphy, playing guitar, singing, stargazing

Under the cut : Personality, Background, Relationship, and Magic

❄ Personality ❄

Ali is a very gentle and friendly person, often befriending most people easily. She can also be quite reckless, always doing whatever she feels at the moment instead of thinking things through. She is often out causing chaos in Night Raven College with others (notably, Choco and Wende) much to the staff’s chagrin. She is also self aware of her annoyance and proudly claims herself as a 12 yr old, as if it were some sort of medal. 

Despite her usual childishness, Ali is very capable of stepping up to the responsibility when she feels like it. Usually, it’s when one of her friends is feeling down and needs someone to talk to. While she does allow others to come to her for comfort, she is very hesitant on relying on others for emotional support. She has a few people she openly cries to, but she never tells them why.

When she feels like the other party is comfortable enough with her, she will continue to talk to no end. Often, these conversations are without rhyme or reason as she just genuinely enjoys being able to be with friends. There is, however, a particular topic that she refuses to speak of. No matter how close someone may be to her, she will never talk about her time before Night Raven College. If anyone were to ask her why she refused to talk, she’d answer vaguely like how it was just a normal life before quickly changing topics. If someone were to try and pry the information out of her, she immediately acts cold and defensive, and the air around her starts becoming freezing. Depending on how hard they try to pry, she will not hesitate to cut off that person from her life right then and there.

As long as someone doesn’t try and dig into her past, she will remain fiercely loyal and caring for them, no matter if they were close friends or not. However, this blind loyalty is usually her downfall, especially when it comes to a certain contract-making dorm.

Ali isn’t quick to get mad, and is usually unaffected by whatever people say of her. Most times, she takes any insults as compliments. The only time she ever openly expresses anger, aside from someone trying to pry her past out of her, is when people point out her feelings for two certain individuals. She is very tsundere, openly expressing that she has no such feelings despite being beet red.

Alignment

Chaotic Neutral

Strengths: 

Loyal, caring, is usually up to no good so it won’t be a boring time, does anything just to have a good time, great friend to bring along to buffets, unaffected by most things, either helps you or lets you copy her homework, has enough confidence to do stupid things in public, great for hugs during a hot day because her body feels cold

Weaknesses

Is usually up to no good so expect to get in trouble, tsundere, blind loyalty usually leads to her in very unfavorable situations. childishness that makes her look apathetic at times, horrible sleeping schedule, very reckless

Skills

Quick to learn (but never studies), decent flexibility and has good lower body strength, natural air cooler, guitar serenading

❄ Appearance ❄

Hair

“Dark brown,” her hair reaches down to her shoulder area and usually has a a portion of it tied up with a green or black ribbon. 

Eyes

“Black eyes,” however when using magic there is a strange pale green tint.

Height

165 cm / 5 ft. 4 in.

Weight

120 lbs / 54 kg

B/W/H

35-27-36 in. / 88-68-91 cm

Chest

34C (US)

❄ Background ❄

Background story unlocks at Bond Level 10

❄ Magic ❄

Ice Magic 

Ali is very proficient in using ice magic, and often uses it to cause mischief. However, when she becomes too flustered her will accidentally freeze anything within a 3 meter radius of her.

Freezing Arrows : an offensive-type spell that can be very deadly ; a large oval-shaped ice block appears in front of her and continuously shoots arrows made of ice. It is able to not only freeze anything it touches, but impale her targets. The spell ends once the ice block has been fully used up or if destroyed.

Hailstorm : an offensive-type spell similar to Freezing Arrows, but is not as deadly. Instead of shooting arrows, the ice block shoots chunks of ice, and at most it can give a concussion and some cuts and bruises.

Frost Flower Shield : a defensive-type spell ; she creates a large shield resembling a flower. Penetrating through the thick ice is very difficult, even if it is up against fire magic.

Ice Wall : a defensive-type spell ; often used to create an obstacle for whoever is trying to catch her. (i.e. Crowley)

Ice Floor : Ali freezes the floor underneath her, making it very hard for anyone to stand on it.

Snow Maiden’s Dance : A fighting style she created by herself, she creates ice sword projectiles imbued with other elements. It was based off the exotic traditional dances she saw as a child. She currently has 5 dances. She often uses these for show, but makes sure not to put too much power into it. (to be expanded with what 5 elements she can use it with)

Water Magic

She uses water magic as an extension to her Ice Magic. She doesn’t use it as much, and often uses water for healing.

❄ Relationships ❄

Canon Characters ; from Ali’s perspective

Diasomnia

Malleus Draconia : Ah Mr. Dorm Leader! Mhmm mhmm, I’m not all too close to him, but he makes it easy to tease Sebek.

Lilia Vanrouge : Ah, the grandpa! He’s much easier to talk to, we actually get along fairly well. I just wished he’d stop teasing me.

Silver : Has a VERY punchable face. I would kick him in the gut…What?! No, I don’t like that moron! DEFINITELY DO NOT!

Sebek Zigvolt : Ah, that brat. He’s fun to mess with. Any time I join them for tea time and Malleus isn’t there, I make sure to give him a heart attack. Heh.

Heartslabyul

Riddle Rosehearts : Listen, if you’re gonna threaten to cut my head off make sure to actually do it, coward!

Ace Trappola : MY SON! I love you so much you are my precious child I-

Deuce Spade: Also has a very punchable face. Of course I mean what I say- I DO NOT LIKE HIM EITHER

Trey Clover : Broccoli? I don’t talk to him much, but he looks really cool with his bike. I think his hair looks stupid tho.

Cater Diamond : HEEEEEEEEY BROOOOOOOOOO! We make lots of inappropriate jokes together and it usually ends in both of us choking on a drink or food (laugh)

Octavinelle

All three of them are the end of me. That is all.

Scarabia

Kalim Al-Asim : MY OTHER SON I LOVE YOU SO MUCH BOTH OF YOU ARE SO PRECIOUS TO ME (ugly mother tears)

Jamil Viper : Jamil I swear to god if you do anything to Kalim you better be ready to catch these frozen hands-

Pomefiore

Vil Schoenheit : I know he can be…a bit over bearing, but thanks to him my skin is clear even though I sleep horribly. His fashion tips tho…they’re 50/50 for me.

Epel Felmier : YOU ARE MY SON. DON’T ASK, NOW LET ME LOVE YOU MY CHILD-

Rook Hunt : The one time we talked he asked me to put an apple on my head while he blindfolds himself and try to shoot it. Thankfully, it really did hit the apple. Though truth be told, I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

Ignihyde

Idia Shroud : Honestly, sometimes I forget what actually looks like. Whenever I think of him I just think of his mains in our game. Ah- yeah, I play with him from time to time. You would not like to see him in competitive play.

Ortho Shroud : He’s such a good kid, but what’s with his feet-

Savanaclaw

Leona Kingscholar : HOW IS HE SO LAZY AND HAVE A GOOD BODY!? BOY SHOW ME YOUR TIPS-

Jack Howl : One time I punched him and he said I hit like a grandma. He was not wrong. Oh, and don’t tell him this, but I have his number saved as “Extra Virgin Olive Oil.”

Ruggie Bucchi : He’s basically…my spirit animal. Hah. 

[studiedtheblade]

In episode 3, Sylvie says: "The universe wants to break free, so it manifests chaos. Like me being born the Goddess of Mischief. And as soon as that created a big enough detour from the Sacred Timeline, the TVA showed up.” And then in episode 5, Loki is speaking to the other Variants: “Have any of you met a woman Variant of us?” / “Sounds terrifying.”

To me, this feels like Disney wants us to see the characters as cis- and since Sylvie first says this moments before Loki falls in love with her, creating that timeline branch that allows the TVA to find them, it just put a bad taste in my mouth for the ship right off the bat.

There are other issues I have with the show, but that's the only one related to shipping.

I do agree that making our complaints and dissatisfaction known to the writers and showrunners is the only way to get change, but harassment is different. Like, I heard a rumour of people talking about going to an actor's house and harassing him there. This is just talk, but that kind of mindset is how a large number of fans seem to feel, and that gets us nowhere

That main characters have to be a little bland is a good point. They do want Loki to appeal to a wider audience... Unfortunately, it's at the expense of the audience he already had who were attached to his character from past movies. It makes it feel like the writers didn't pay attention to the other movies he was in, which is understandably disappointing. But yeah, protagonists are often bland so the audience can project the traits we want to see most onto them...

Although, we are all seeing a different version of the character already, based on the traits about him we like best, lol

Like, my interpretation is that he was already a realist who was trying to do what needed to be done? Like, in Thor 1, Loki was the antagonist at first because he wanted to stop a brash and ruthless warrior from becoming king, sure that Thor would run into battle at the drop of a hat and be a terrible ruler for Asgard. So, he did what he thought needed to be done, and delayed the coronation and made Odin unable to ignore Thor's behavior by goading him into almost starting a war.

It was reckless, there were too many parts of his plan that could and did go wrong and get people injured and killed, but he thought it needed to be done for the good of everyone. So, he's already a realist... But he takes reckless risks and doesn't have a backup plan in case things go wrong. And he's reckless like that in the show too! I would like to see him mature past that.

I get being excited over the show and seeing more Loki because of it though! Tho, I'm mostly excited for the fanworks that will come from it, lol

Okay, so for the Multiverse, I can't see a way that opening it would be a bad thing. Like, yes, we're told the consequences of a multiversal war, but if the alternative is killing an infinite number of people and controlling everyone's lives... Well, that was HYDRA's plan in CA:TWS: keep everyone under control by killing the people they couldn't control! Obviously that's a villainous move!

Since the new TVA we see has a statue of Kang himself there, showing that he's directly leading them, I wonder if a TVA prototype started as warriors in the multiverse wars? So, like, in different timelines they're used as that, subjugating other universes. Though, really, I don't have many theories because I'm not sure at all where they'll be taking the Multiverse thing. I do look forward to the next season to see that!

I’m confused.

Loki just became a major heroic player in the mcu.

If we have another avengers, he could possibly be a central figure!

But the fandom is mad that he isn’t the same tortured villain that he’s been playing for however many movies these last 10 years?

And they are being aggressive with the production team that has been so open and friendly with fans on social media?

Because of a ship?

I thought we all knew that most ships don’t go cannon?

That’s why we latch on to every look and touch and convo and create and share amazing fanart and Fics.

Only I’m not seeing that as much as I’m seeing complaining?

So, I’m very confused.

Most of my ships aren’t cannon.

Which means that instead of a corporation being in control of my favs, the fandom gets to write their story for me.

What’s so hard about this?

We can have whatever we want through fandom creativity.

But everyone isn’t being their most creative selves, just harassing people who were on a payroll?

Anyway if anyone wants to talk about the actually plot, my blog is free of Loki series negativity.

I want to talk about free will! And my controversial take that Sylvie was right to give us back the multiverse. It’s the harder choice but other universes deserve to exist! He Who Remains was committing genocide every time he gave a direction to prune a timeline. That was trillions and trillions of people!

Someone come tell me I’m wrong or something cause there are much more interesting things to discuss with this show!

[tumblunni]

....Man, I think Haunter is my favourite pokemon again. I usually have a brief period of each generation’s best new ghostie temporarily stealing the number one spot, but i usually tend to lose the hype for them around a year later and they join my just Gigantic Pile Of Second Favourites I Cannot Choose Between And then I used to dislike Sableye, Banette and Rotom but they all took the top fave spot as soon as I was like ‘hey if i actually use on on my team maybe I’ll like it- I REALLY LIKE IT’. but I mean, when i love them more because of my personal one i had on my team, or my headcanons or fanfics or etc, I think maybe that’s a dishonest fave cos they’re not my fave on their own benefits? And Rotom stayed in the top fave spot for a really long time cos it not only had a lot of love as my main heavy hitter in platinum but also has a big role as the main mon of one of my fave characters. And like five other fave characters in random anime one off episodes! And then it was a pokedex! EVERYTHING ROTOM TOUCHES TURNS TO GOLD

Buuuuuuuuut.... Haunter was like.. My Original Favourite My first favourite pokemon was pikachu, and then chansey, but Haunter was my first favourite ghost and it says a lot that it still holds up even all these generations later when the type finally got fleshed out with as many members as other types. Man its so funny in retrospect that I’m pretty defined as The Super Ghost Fan nowadays but I wasn’t really into them for the first three generations of pokemon. There just wasnt ANYONE except the haunter line in gen 1, and only misdreavus got added, and then in gen 3 I didnt initially like banette’s design in its first pretty awful sprite so i felt like duskull was the only good one and i didnt like its evolutions. Another reason to love sinnoh: it added great ghosties, evolutions for past ones, and made a lot of past ones available at the same time, and i mean we got our first ghost legendary too! The generation of spoop hype! (until kalos was even more of that, but it was less of a big deal cos ghosts werent so rare now)

ANYWAY Haunter is REALLY GOOD AND GREAT Its design is so simple yet perfect?? Like I know it was designed to be one of the most literal middle evolutions ever, its just meant to be basically.. half of gengar. With its oldest pokedex entries that was back before they really decided what they wanted to do with the ghost type, it was all ‘its a mysterious creature from an unknown dimension and nobody is sure if its a real ghost’. So its unclear whether its design is really meant to be the head pokemon gastly growing its first baby arms, or like.. all three stages are the same pokemon slowly emerging into our dimension, with Gengar being the true form? In any case, I never really felt Gengar was very special, aside from the fan theory it’s a doppelganger of clefable. (I mean its name is literally a mispelling of doppelganger!) like.. it always felt like a letdown of a final form? it would be so great on its own, its just a nice solid silly ‘monster under the bed’ type of ghost, a fluffy bugbear with a lot of sass and the minor original trait of its face being super big and kinda in the wrong place compared to clefable. Makes you imagine it scares people by going full cleff mimic and then just turning around in an alleyway XD I actually had a fan pokemon as a kid called Gambal which was literally just a chansey equivelant of gengar, and had powers of bad luck and stuff. But then the name ended up going to an entirely different fakemon instead who was a rabbit thing that was a game corner prize. Oh and I also had a geng of celebi! Called Tanka just cos that was my name for all my ocs at the time. Its just a type of poetry that i thought sounded Hella Cool for no logical reason. But yeah, I drew like a million pics of every pokemon as a ghost version and its just funny how subconciously i was a ghost fan even before there were more than four ghosts in existance XD

BUT WHERE WAS I Oh yeah, gengar is dissappointing! And its unfair cos if it was an unrelated pokemon on its own, I would like it! It just doesn’t hold up favourably to how awesome haunter and gastly’s concepts are. i mean, look here we have two different quality takes on the ‘floating head’ concept and then its final form isn’t a floating head. HOW DARE YOU. I guess gengar kinda still keeps the aesthetic with its oversized face, kinda? Like its a giant head just mimicing being a regular pokemon? But I mean i think a giant head with arms and legs stops being a giant head. Its why Nanimon and Mamemon aren’t as cute as regular sperical types. I think the only exception is when its a giant head with ONLY legs, and they’re small rabbit legs specifically- like Lotad or Tokomon!

Anyway, nowadays I’ve grown more appreciation for Gengar (again) because I had one in my team and I love him so I can’t not love my best friend. He has an interesting story cos he’s actually That One Haunter, lol! That memorable npc in DPPt who trades you a haunter but its holding an everstone so it doesn’t evolve. I was still equally annoyed at her even though I’d planned to press B and keep it as a haunter anyway! XD But then the cute default name Gaspar made me get really attatched to him, and man i have so many super detailed story and personality headcanons for this little goofball. Eventually he did actually evolve into Gengar, cos I traded him temporarily to a friend in order to transfer him between generations, and i forgot gengar was a trade evo so i didnt tell her to not do it. I still feel really bad that i overreacted about it, i worry that maybe I made her feel guilty! Ultimately, it was probably a good thing, because I kept my other bestie Reaper the Sneasel unevolved forever cos i dislike Weavile, and like.. obviously he kinda sucks in battle because of this. I still love all my pokemon regardless of whether they’re useful in competitive, tho! Oh and mega gengar is pretty sweet, too! It brings back a lot of haunter’s appeal! I just wish that i never saw its feet, seriously. I thought that it was just a head and arms again, but apparantly it just spends 99% of the time phased into objects and its legs just look really awful and unfitting when you see them. It makes it like a top heavy buff design and that really doesn’t work?? It sucks cos i LOVE the other ‘skipped leg day’ pokemon Mega Swampert, so i dunno why I don’t like the same thing on ghosts! Dusknoir and Jellicent are my least favourite ghosts ever. So yeah my opinion on gengar now is like... mixed? i don’t dislike it like I used to, but I don’t really love it on its own benefits or anything, i just don’t dislike it cos i associate it with a sweet and cute bestie who saved me a lot in sinnoh due to his hypnosis attack. But I still think it’s a worse design than haunter, which is The Best Design In All Of Pokemon. Even when I flip flop on what my favourite POKEMON is, I still think it’s my favourite design! Rotom is maybe the most creative design CONCEPT amoung the ghosts, but Haunter is just... so good at what it set out to do.

LETS TALK AGAIN ABOUT HOW GREAT HAUNTER IS I mean just LOOK AT IT, its just SO GOOD Floating heads are great, and gastly was a great way to take that concept and make it ghostly! And its so cool that its basically a hitodama/will of the wisp/generic spooky flame face from every jrpg ever, except made more original because its made of like.. pure darkness smog mist instead. The colour choices for it are really good too, i always really loved the dithering effect they used to make it in the sprite-based games! Its one of the few pokemon where i love the regualr better than the shiny, even though the shiny isn’t one of those terrible neon green ones. It has one of the best shinies and that shade of smoky purple still captures my heart more! i think i would prefer the shiny if regular gengar was bedsheet white though, not blue and only turning white when it mega evolves. That’s weird. AND THEN HAUNTER IS JUST AN EVEN BETTER FLOATING HEAD It loses the cool smoke but it gains these pointy ears/cliche vampire hair shaped head protrusions that just work SO WELL. Like its a floating head that isn’t just a plain sphere! That’s the one part of floating head monsters that generally sucks, a lot of them outside of the creativity of pokemon tend to be super samey generic bald spherical angry man heads. A floating head of a guy with a cliche horror B-movie hairstyle is great! And especially when its a really unhumanoid jack-o-lantern face that’s just like.. replicating that hairstyle without actually being a hairstyle. thats my fave kind of humanoid type pokemon, I love when they’re still animals or monsters or even inanimate objects that are MIMICKING humans, not just a lazy thing that looks like an actual human wearing a costume. I’m probably in the minority but this is why I prefer Mr Mime to stuff like Machamp or Delfox or Incineroar. And then also I love how it takes Gastly’s grumpy eyes and softens them a bit to look more mischeivious instead of angry. Looking always in a bad mood is probably the biggest reason i don’t like Gastly the most, i just feel sad for it. Another reason why I love sinnoh lol, it had a big happy mischief face on its sprite! (shame platinum ruined it a bit, but HGSS was even cuter) And then its just such a creative way of giving a floating head some limbs while not ruining its floating head aesthetic. Floaty rayman arms is such a ghostly thing even though there arent many ghosts that use that design aesthetic!

Honestly thats the biggest reason haunter is so great, really. it just.. encapsulates ghost, even though it doesnt have like ANY cliche ghost design elements! its such a good original concept for like the simplest and most basic pure image of ghostliness in this world. It somehow feels like its exactly what ghosts are, without taking any shortcuts from other popular ghost characters. its so simple and iconic! Its a new thing that could fit in perfectly with all those ancient B-movie creatures and I’d never question it! Gastly is at least slightly based on a will o wisp, and gengar is a bugbear/monster under the bed/shadow creature/doppelganger super combination creature. But in the aim of making something in-between the two, they accidentally made something that doesn’t look very much like ANY of them and stands out miles above them! I think this entire evolution line has had such great staying power because every member of it looks really distinct from the others, while also vaguely fitting together with theme and colourscheme so they don’t seem distinct in a BAD way. Any of these would be equally beloved as entirely separate mons, but linking them together makes them oddly endearing as a weird ragtag bunch of buddies! Its like the addams family!

Oh, but my one and only complaint is that Haunter’s gameboy era design looks better than how it got changed once the graphics got better.

To be entirely honest, I think that the changed version was their intent right from the beginning, and the cooler aesthetic one was just an accident of the limited graphics. Cos I mean the anime had that design from the beginning, after all! BUT STILL, I love it so much more and I wish it could have been proper canon. or at least remained as its shiny form or something! (A mild blue hint instead of a mild purple hint is really boring, this shiny only looks good on gastly...) The glowy outline is probably the best part, though i do also like how the colours stay more matched with gastly instead of the smog colour becoming the body colour. Actually its not even that, its just a random less appealing deep purple, it might have been cooler if it remained that lighter shade of lilac? Also it sucks that haunter retained the glow around its hands at least in the gameverse until we got 3D models. It never had that in the anime so i guess they removed it to remain consistant but like.. WHY! It doesn’t look as cool with red glow on purple as opposed to purple glow on black, but I still really liked it. Like you could have at least kept the glow when it uses attacks or something?

Oh, and isn’t it so weird that so many ghosts have had all black removed from their design as the generations go on? Like.. I mean I don’t think they did this to haunter cos they feared it was similar to Jynx, it isn’t remotely humanoid and it doesn’t have a stereotypical face or anything. And it wouldnt make sense cos they kept it on gastly. But then also banette has gone from black to an increasingly lighter grey, and its EEEEEEEVEN lighter on merchandising! I waited ages for an official banette plush, and it is a really sweet little thing thats so perfect... but then its light grey? I don’t mind cos it makes my plushie feel like more of an individual at least. Also its annoying that mega banette started off as the same dark grey/black that banette originally was, but then its one of the few pokemon that got a big change between XY and SuMo, aside from new animations and stuff. now its light grey too! Booooooo! Other ghosts that’ve experienced The Greying: Duskull, Dusknoir already started off lighter than its pre-evo and then still got more so as time went on, and Misdreavus turned green and then blue instead of grey but its still the same sort of thing. Now the only real black/dark grey ghosts we have left are Yamask and Phantump, and its just.. so weird?? Cos like none of the black dark-types have had big colour changes except Sneasel. I dunno, maybe they’re doing this to make the ghost and dark types more distinct, making it more like purple is the signature colour of ghosts? But I mean its the type icon colour for poison and psychic too so this just makes the colourschemes LESS distinct... Also I just think that the dark grey banette and the black haunter looked so much better, so it sucks that out of all the ghosts it had to be the ones I love! And out of all dark types it had to be my favourite too! (And sneasel is my fave ice type too!)

...anyway GHOSTS and HAUNTER I LOVE THEM and I’m sorry i rambled for like an hour writing all this THEYRE JUST SO FUCKING CUTE AND SWEET

oh and one last thing!! I love how haunter established the trend of ghost types being more mischievious and misunderstood than actually evil Well, i mean all three of its evo line starred in that episode of the anime, but Haunter was the one that went with ash at the end and got one more episode of cuteness afterward. That whole mini arc was the MOST MEMORABLE PART OF THE SHOW for me, I couldnt believe it was so short when i rewatched it! I totally misremembered haunter sticking around for half a season or something, cos it was so endearing to me. And its still so endearing to me every time the games decide to make a new ghost be harmless or sad, or harmless and sad. or even harmful and sad! i mean i cried the most at banette even though its past of being an abandoned toy is supposed to just be a justification why its the most angry and dangerous ghost. I’M SURE I COULD HEAL IT WITH HUGS, yells bunni, as they essentially glomp the pokemon equivelant of a shark...

god i just love ghosts so much and specifically haunter the most much hug your haunter today also your banette also your rotom also pumpkaboo and litwick and phantump and duskull...