#im working on getting cards for all the pokemon lines of pokemon ive had in different games

[cuz-reasons]

I've started collecting pokemon cards due to who I am as a person and I need you all to see this probopass one I got today

[temporalbystander]

So. I have, once again, come to the conclusion that the reason why we can't have the best in life is because people have copyrighted the good and refuse to let anyone make it better... This is gonna be a gaming ramble btw. A long one.

Anyway let's begin with what started the realisation this time. A few days back, probably prompted by my rebinge of TGSAnime's Yu-Gi-Oh videos, I was suggested to watch a couple videos of someone playing tag force. It was okay, not the greatest, but I liked how the character models of the duelists had an animation for everything from drawing, setting a card and activating a spell. It was cute.

Well about an hour ago I stumbled across a video title that REALLY caught my attention. One that was talking about the Tag Force series, which holy shit there's more than one game, while also calling them dating Sims. As a romantic (read, guy who really crushed on Alexis Rhodes when GX first came out) I decided this video needed a watch through and.... Well damn if it wasn't the most amazing game I've ever heard of. Not only do you get to go through Duel Academy, and all the events of the show, as your own original character. But you get to interact with the characters and bond with them! Then, in the sequel, you get your own little unique story lines with them after the show plot is over! And in the third and final one (final GX one I mean)? All that growth from the first two games carries over into the final season 4 plot along with you, feeling like your own complete character, graduating duel academy.

Obviously this sounded like the most amazing thing I had ever heard of in my life so, of course, I immediately started googling to see if anyone had taken this idea and pushed a little further with it. Made it into more of a fleshed out dating sim with unique interactions. The results? Not only do Yu-Gi-Oh and dating sim only bring you right back to Tag Force. But Yu-Gi-Oh and rpg seems to be just as barren a search. I'm sorry but I find it incredibly hard to believe that Im the only one who's interested in hearing about the characters of an anime interacting with you as you join them on their journeys. If Konami made a series out of it then clearly there's a target audience.

But nope. All I got were card game simulations. As if people no longer care about the characters and the stories. Bull. The card game sucks, it's beyond broken and the obsession with meta is garbage. It's the same thing that ruined competitive Pokemon for me, the top ten in every tournament using almost the exact same team of six (some of whom have even admitted to using hacked perfect IV and evs because they don't give a damn about the game and see if as an easy way to make money. I don't know if that's still the case but the fact a competitive scene could ever let it get to that point? Is disgusting.)

Anyway, my hatred of competition meta ruining fun games not withstanding, let's talk about this realisation. Konami clearly owns the rights to developing bonds as you interact and play alongside your favourite duelists. (I know that's not how copyright works but I swear it makes sense eventually.) Because of this? There is no chance of finding any other fanwork using this same premise but pushing it a bit further. Giving you minigames or other events you can spend with your partner beyond simple dueling or talking... Or giving them eggwhiches (my brain practically overloaded when I heard that was a feature.) Anything to develop the relationship further. Nope. The best we will ever get is Tag Force. Which, I mean, is still amazing and raises the possibility of Konami doing a remaster some day which I am all for. I just heard this existed and it's the best thing ever. I would die for a remaster.

But, as pointed out in my first paragraph, this isn't the first time I've come to the realisation that a system, which would be beyond amazing if manipulated a bit, will forever remain stuck with the original creators who don't care to improve on it. The other examples? Fire Emblem and Persona. Both of these series are God-tier. The social links and affinity systems are amazing! So, of course, you can imagine my severe disappointment when, after my first encounter with both these series, I saw nobody else had done anything like it. No social links that affect the story beyond a few optional scenes (though P5 using all the confidants to boost gameplay mechanics? *Chefs kiss* brilliance.) And no games where affinity rank ups are more than a few lines of dialogue that are almost exactly the same in spite of who the characters interacting are (most noticeable when dealing with the scenes between parents and children. The parent with the same class would get an incredibly detailed scene while the other parent just got the generic other parent scenes with maybe a line or two different. I don't even think there's anything special about siblings.)

Seriously. That is three separate series, with three separate mechanics that have so much potential. And nobody else is doing anything with them. How can we possibly still be getting inspired fangames based on the Gameboy Pokemon era graphics and yet nobody has touched these ideas? It could be so good. But it won't. Because the copyright holders don't care about improving it.

[actualbird]

tot plot rambles: so i replayed the beginning of main story 5.1 (needed screencaps for a meme, HAHA) and came across vyn’s line 

and ive suddenly got a few thoughts about this omfg

1) vyn, how exactly r u monitoring The Psychological Conditions Of The Team? given the current tense dynamic of the team towards vyn from non-mc characters, i can only frigging imagine how AWKWARD a guidance counseling session basically would be.

vyn: how are you coping with your PTSD from the kendricks case?

artem: im not. are we done yet? i hate this.

vyn: we are not done yet

artem: i hate this

either that or vyn monitors in a hands-off way, without confrontation. most probably this route is more possible, since it wouldnt skew the behavior of the one hes keeping tabs on

2) speaking of the kendricks case, as of main story 6.2, it’s canon the the Original NXX Investigation was giann, neil, and vyn. that really is making my brain light up with fireworks but im not smart enough to make theories, it just strikes me as Sublimely Interesting. hes the only original member left. what does that mean?

3) even in the OG NXX team, vyn’s say irt the team’s psychological state had a Lot Of Sway. so much to the point that neil couldnt go on that undercover thing because vyn deemed neil not fit for the job, mentally. which THEN makes me go, HEY, NICE, cuz heres one probable reason now why vyn and artem have beef with each other (aside from their personalities). artem thinks the absolute World of neil, but vyn’s assessment deemed neil lacking of Something. artem is a logical person, of course, but it’s still possible to have some resentment from that

4) if vyn was in the OG NXX and vyn has been assessing all potential new candidates, hoyoverse, im gonna need to see what card game vyn played with marius and artem to assess them. if not, i can only speculate. cuz if it was the same card tower thing, itd be super interesting to explore marius and artem’s choices and rationale. but if it were a different card thing for everybody, that would be cool too. 

and also vaguely hilarious for the team to make fun of further down the line

marius, pulling out a pokemon trading card, mimicking vyn’s voice badly: My Lady, what are your psychological thoughts on this

mc, pulling out a reverse uno card: no You

vyn: that is not how this works. that is not how Any of this works

5) still on the topic of vyn and new candidates: the only person vyn wouldnt have been able to assess, solely because his say would be negligible, is luke

because luke was ordered to join the team on NSB orders

thats also interesting to me. because taken further, luke basically has a govt sanctioned get out of jail free card, irt psychological state. vyn can monitor, vyn can give his thoughts, 

but if the NSB wants luke to do something in the nxx,  vyn---on the grounds of regular nxx operations procedures---cant stop him

[fishoutofcamelot]

📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂 (or as many as you want to answer)

I count 32 folder emojis so you get 32 headcanons. A moment of silence for everyones dashboards, bc im too lazy to add a read-more line.

When Gwen became queen, she decided that they could get a different servant to wake them up so as to let merlin sleep in. George is an early bird, so he is happy to wake them up most mornings (except in special circumstances like birthdays or whatever, then merlin will surprise them with breakfast in bed)

Lancelot was young when bandits killed his family/village, and spent most of childhood and formative years on the streets as an orphan

Gwaine is pan

Sometimes, merlin will use his animation magic to bring balinors dragon statue to life. He'll sit there in his room, watching it eagerly fly in circles overhead. He named it Flappy

As an extension of the previous point, Merlin is really bad at naming things. The name "aithusa" only came to him bc of dragonlord magic. For example, upon catching/killing a rat in arthurs chambers, he named it "Ratravaine"

Gwen, on the other hand, spends a whole day nervously agonizing over what to name something. Elyan caught a caterpillar and asked Gwen what it should be called, but this only drew her into a week-long crisis. By the time she decided on the name "Wilbur", Elyan had already released it back into the wild

Ygraine and Nimueh definitely had a gay thing back in their teenage years, and ygraine was definitely bi, and nimueh definitely used to tease uther about how she hecked his wife before he did

Arthur is a dog person

Percival is afraid of deep water and also doesnt know how to swim. But after elyans lake funeral, percival became determined to learn - perhaps it was merely a coincidence, or perhaps out of some morbid desire to one day wade out into the lake and feel closer to his fallen friend

Arthurs love language is gift giving. Gwaine, leon, and lancelot are acts of service. Merlin and Gwen are words of affirmation. Percival is quality time. Elyan is physical touch

Post season 3, Morgana grew to hate flowers because they reminded her too much or Gwen, but could never bring herself to crush/destroy them

Arthur has a lactose intolerance, but since no one knew what that was back then, no one thought to tell him to stop eating dairy

Pre-canon, Gwaine and Tristan/Isolde worked together on some smuggling gigs

Gwen, Merlin, and Arthur meet up with Tristan to visit Isolde's grave and pay their respects once a year

Tristan turned down Arthurs offer of knighthood, but does come to help out whenever they need it. He makes no secret that merlin is his favorite

Post-canon, Merlin is THE pokemon card collector. Like. He keeps binders full of them. Doesnt trade or compete in card games/tournaments, though. He just likes to look at them

Percival is an artist. As a kid he didnt have any art supplies, but he used to carve amazing sketches into the dirt using sticks. Knowing this, Lancelot bought him a box of paints using his first Knight WageTM

On his deathbed, Percival asked Merlin to fetch his paint box. The paints had long since run out, but he kept the box as a comfort, and as a reminder of all the friends he had lost. He holds it to his chest as he lets out his final breath. Merlin buries him with the box in hand

George is left-handed

During council meetings, Gwen and Merlin will make faces at each other when no one is looking

Merlin actually hates the color gold, for reasons you can probably imagine

Merlin starts season 1 at the age of 17, is 27 by season 5, and 1500+ by the end of the series

Post-canon, Merlin has begun studying robotics in the hopes of one day creating an ai sophisticated enough to be his companion. After all, a well-maintained machine wont die as quickly or easily as a human would

Gwen's favorite color is purple/lilac

Leon suffers from insomnia and also has major PTSD

You know the "Siblings Song" by Brian David Gilbert? That but with Leon, Elyan, and Gwen (leon being the oldest brother, obviously)

Merlin will pack-bond with anything. He once painted a face onto Arthurs chair, named it Mr. Seat, and forbade arthur from sitting on it. Gwen played along, and under her orders Mr. Seat was placed in the vaults

Gwen is poly, but knows that arthur isnt as comfortable with open relationships so she doesnt pursue anything polyamorous out of a respect for his boundaries

Everyone thinks mordred is innocent bc he's the Baby Of The Family, but he actually curses worse than a sailor. And his curses are creative too. He did spend some time working with slavers, after all

Theres this one noble who used to bully servants, even bullied gwen and Merlin. So when gwen became queen, thereby outranking the noble, she was all "ooooh ive been waiting a long time for this" and gave up half of the noble's land to the nearby villages. Merlin wouldve preferred she punch that bastard in the nose, but she insists this way is much more effective (it is)

Between the stone dog, the dragon in the flames spell, and the horse in the smoke spell, Merlins favorite type of magic is animation magic. He likes bringing things to life, bc for just a moment those magical constructs make him feel the tiniest bit less alone

Merlin has very faint freckles that only pop out when he spends long periods of time in the sun. Incidentally, these freckles also glow gold when he uses magic

Thanks for the ask! <3

[dirt-grub]

Dan and or chris for the headcannon thingy?

OKAY ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP CAUSE TUMBLR ATE THE LAST ONE

ahem.

Headcanon A: what I think realistically

Dan had a shit childhood and shit parents, and isn’t dealing with any of the issues spawned by that, hence why his life is kind of a disaster and his functionality as an independent adult is uh. subpar. 

Having grown up together and witnessed some of it secondhand, Chris knows not to bring it up too much with Dan. They both have an unspoken agreement and understanding not to approach certain topics with each other. They’re very good at reading each other, so Chris knows exactly how much he can actually get away with prodding Dan to act like a people for once, and vice versa Dan knows when to actually drop an argument when it gets into a serious place. Its incredibly weird for Elise to watch, and as incredibly close she is with Chris they have a very close bond that’s difficult for her to understand with how far back it goes. Also, in the beginning of Chris and Elise’s relationship, despite very vocally objecting to the entire thing when Chris was around, Dan begrudgingly gave Elise advice on how to speak Chris essentially, telling her what to avoid and what to talk about with him. He phrased it in a condescending way but we all know he was being a softie because he knows Elise makes Chris happy :,)

(also bonus every single roadtrip with all three of them ends up like this)

Headcanon B: what I think is fucking hilarious 

Dan is always visibly covered in cat hair. Trust me I’ve had a black and white cat before and you just can’t win. Whatever color you wear SOME of the fur will ALWAYS show up on it. You can always tell where Dan has been you just follow the trail

Chris’ gap/chip/whatever in his front teeth were the result of some dare. Based on a story from my childhood where we all dared a kid on my bus to lick the frozen bus window, and the bus jerked and he smashed his face on it and lost a tooth. Luckily irl it was a baby tooth but like that seems like a very Chris thing to happen even tho im sure its actually just genetic (also Brian if youre out there im sorry i laughed at you when you lost your tooth and im also sorry i stole your holographic staraptor pokemon card. id still have it if it wasnt for that miserable little troll bastard down the street who then stole it from ME a few years later. poetic justice i guess)

C: what is heart-crushing and awful but fun to inflict on friends

*cracks knuckles* i was born for this

Dan’s never slept a full night in his entire adult life, and has terrible nightmares constantly. His hypervigilance directly comes from his awful childhood, and Chris is his one single source of stability where most well adjusted people would have an entire complex system of friends and family to rely on. Chris is his ‘safe’ person -which I think is primarily an anxiety term but oh boy trust me is it a post traumatic thing also- The two have fundamentally different outlooks on the world and relationships, so theirs is pretty complicated, with Chris not actually realizing that despite the poor treatment, Dan has him on a pedestal in his mind that no one else has ever been privy to before. He has a damn shitty way of showing affection, but its revealed through his constant dependency on Chris and Chris alone that he holds him in incredibly high regards and would likely be devastated into complete nonfunctionality without him around. 

Chris has some self esteem issues with this and how it relates to his perceived importance in the lives of his loved ones. With Elise as well, he feels overshadowed by her talent and dependability, not realizing he’s the rock keeping both her and Dan grounded and relatively happy. Elise however is way better at communicating how much she loves Chris and genuinely both needs and wants him around. Also, I believe that Dan’s insane plots are some sort of an appeal to Chris in an outdated way- when they were younger they used to make those crazy plans together, as evidenced by the camp episode and mentioned a few times in passing (there was some line that stuck out to me in the gym ep along the lines of lets do it like old times, come up with a plan together) in Dan’s disconnected mind, he’s still in the past where Elise was never a participant in their lives and Chris and him were still immature and carefree, just the two of them against the world. In a misguided way, he thinks he’s inviting Chris to something fun and nostalgic every time he drags him along for something insane, not realizing in cases like the camp episode they were in the right and forced to fight back against something, and that stretching small grievances into huge meltdowns is an issue, the opposite of what would appeal to Chris now in his adulthood. Part of him is worried about him and that old bond being left behind if he doesn’t keep that very specific set of circumstances going. 

that got too long and psychoanalyzey lets move on HKDAUSL

D: would never work with canon but the canon is shit so I believe it anyway

TRANS TRANS TRANS T

this isnt as much a headcanon as an observation but dan has powerful new yorker energy (to me, the new yorker who never shuts up about new yorking). he just checks off a lot of the stereotypes and i wouldnt be surprised if the two of them had grown up around here instead of always living in cali like is canon. he checks all the boxes, rude, loud, opinionated, impatient, cant drive but complains about every other driver on the road, snobby in a weird despite living in a shithole apartment in a cesspool neighborhood, confrontational with complete strangers, colorful aggressive language, the whole thing. ive found personally that whenever im far enough out of state it is PAINFULLY obvious im from new york, given how im just naturally more aggressive in my speaking and mannerism completely unintentionally. Like, ive got a sailors mouth, i complain REAL hyperbolically, and until i noticed it it genuinley put people off who werent used to it HDUSALAS its just. the norm here. im not as angry as i sound lmfao i just talk real aggressive which is v dan

[oswednesday]

redoing rose’s team before the last of the gym leaders is def a dessert before dinner sort of thing

(ability: heavy metal, moves: heavy slam, flying drop, gravity, fissure)

(so there’s only one battle for him, as far as i want to do rn? ill come up with some kind of Post Game plot but idk yet, i reaaaally loved the setting and the music of this battle what if i spent this whole post just gushing about it?)

(this pkmn design Hard Core reminds me of the game i cant remember, i almost want to use the shiny form cause it fits a pkmn setting better? imo, ill end up tweaking it a bit, i Know turner has played that game whose name i cant recall)

(but big GOD when rose is like ill show you a move thatll (something gloating but not too over top) i cant remember the exact line, it was like, the same way youd show someone a cool pic of your dog only you have a god complex it obliterated my brain cells to make way for horny cells and then hits you with that gmax like ughhhhhhh wish tht was me,)

(they didnt really do anything interesting with this pkmn outside  of the gmax and the heavy slam heavy metal, a lot of the attack dexs feel the samey in this gen cause they axed sooo many moves???)

(oh he gigbigs this bad boy up and uses that move, you know whats up)

(ability: stance change, moves: king’s shield, scared sword, aerial ace, shadow sneak)

(i know ive said this A Bunch but out of any battle this was the one that felt the most like, pain from being stuck in a 20 year old battle simulator, the moves, the banter, the setting, the so so excellent villain song uuugh)

(i like the idea of like even if you missed every clue and were just she/him/thembo on main about the plot youd be like OH THE FINAL FORM OF THOSE SWORD DUDE) 

(i wonder why they never give plot characters shinies even when it makes like, sense? this is literally rose’s sexy sexy palette)

(type: grass/fighting)

(ability: queenly majesty, moves: trop kick, high jump kick, mega kick, endeavor)

(they gave him like random uggos that were just steel like you think a man that Fine is using a ferrothorn??????????????????????? give him shiny ferrothorn at least, its also his palette a bit)

(also sorta wild this thing didnt get turned into grass/fighting? i might turn it into one in the emulator)

(ability: huge power, moves: iron head, vise grip, crunch, poison fang)

(i wasnt sure about this one? but its like elegant, plant looking The Deceiver and steel type so at the same time it seems really obvious? so idk why im like hmm about it)

(ability: light weight, moves: steel beam, flash canon, breaking swipe, metal burst)

(i CANNOT BELIEVE!! they gave one of the gym leaders this and not had this be rose’s like big signature hitter like kidoking or sm shit lik!!!!e!!!!!! man of steel! literal tower! rose tower! sky scrappers!! the FUTURE ughhhhh!!!)

(looking at its g max move it feels like it really was designed for rose, omg what happened?)

(anyway he Also dyamax’s this thing, cause every, like miss o, this blows the remainder of the power so the power plant is on back up generators for the rest of the time? or something? probably something dangerous like a core reactor thing? ill have to look up power plant stuff, wow,,,doing this for you,,,rose)

(type: grass/steel)

(ability: technician, moves: bullet seed, bullet punch, seed bomb, magnet bomb)

(another i cant believe he didnt have it, also,,,,a  type update, like his extra fancy hotel has roselia in designs all over the place! budew sitting on counters! and he wouldnt be rocking one? shame shame SHAME on whoever picked his team out!!)

(ill probs keep the purple rose red tho)

(this team is so flammable but i think cause rose isnt a competitive battler par say that its less like, immersion breaking,  also people probs just lose to him like on purpose all the time, i think he can tell but he never points it out, making battle where you go all out on him something that really moves him)

(making the air be like high altitude so fire attacks do 30% less damage and might just not work, treated more like a miss than say attract so stuff that never misses will land)

-----

battle 2

(dragon/????)

(ability: darkest night: as long as eternatus remains in eteramax form, no pokemon on the field can alter their form through dymax, mega stones or abilities, as long as eternatus enteramax is on the field sunny day and moves that induce harsh sunlight will not take effect; the air becomes noxious air and increases poison damage every turn eternatus remains on the field)

(WILD that they didnt gameifiy how this pkmn behaves and just threw pressure on it sdfgh???)

(also sorry for writing that like a yugioh card, idk how any emulator will deal with that and i might have to rpg the results go with whatever is most narratively interesting, or just set stuff manually and increase as i go? idk!)

(it major feels that somewhere Way early on in the development they stopped designing it as a game and started to do like, a pkmn movie you can slightly interact with, like because nothing is recreateable unlike say darkrai who does have bad dreams ability, this was majorly thinking about how it look in a 3d setting and less how it would function as a monster in a game settin which!!!!

its bonkers cause we LITERALLY just had ultra beasts!!!!!)

(like this is such a step back in game design But i totally get and love what they were trying to do, so going with that, lets give this thot some moves)

(moves: acid rain-??? effect: causes multiple weather effects at once [ link ]

super glitch-???  Defying natural law, this attack increases the users hp beyond all limitations, as punishment this user is frozen, burn and poisoned [ link ]

symbiosis eject button-??? forces the target’s held item to take effect twice, if no item is held the first or second time or if the effect cannot take effect, the target faints if hit [ link ]

zzazz-??? the user explodes damaging everything around it including themselves, if the user faints while using this move, its hp is replenished [ link ] )