#it was more popular when pokemon go was a thing

[bisnes-socks]

Terve! Would you consider doing a Mic Mac write up? I would be so interested to read it! When I first found Jere I listened to CCC and Party, and then I went to search things on him and the Mic Mac video was one of the first I listened to. I think I was in love after this. Kiitos!

Sure i can! Click right through ->

Mic Mac is early 2000's nostalgia to the max. I'm not sure how common knowledge it is with international fans, what Mic Mac actually is, so i'll go over it briefly.

Mic Mac, sometimes styled as MicMac, was a finnish clothing brand (not to be confused with a french luxury fashion brand of the same name). Mic Mac clothes were particularly popular with young people and teens. They became popular in the 70's and remained super popular with all young people until the 80's. In the 90's Mic Mac became more associated with hip hop inspired fashion, as they were the only local brand that managed to really score with their loose fit baggy jeans etc. They were still popular in the early 2000's especially with hip hop kids. Mic Mac closed down in the 2010's.

So the fact that he talks about Mic Mac loose fit clothes, and then all of the sound effects in the beginning of the song, like landline phones and dial-up internet, it all immediately takes us to like the turn of the century, maybe like 1999 or 2000 at the earliest, 2005 or 2006 at the very latest. So his childhood from maybe 6 or 7-ish to about 12 or 13-ish..? Immediate nostalgia!

He uses some clever language in this song. I want to give an example from the first verse: "olin merkillinen enkä esimerkillinen" meaning "i was weird, not exemplary". But as you can see, merkillinen (weird) and esimerkillinen (exemplary) are quite similar words in finnish. in fact they are built around the same root word: merkki. merkki means sign (a sign like a symbol or a sign like "give me a sign". not a street sign).

If you break down the word merkillinen, it actually means "with signs", but in practice means odd, weird or strange. Now, esimerkki has that same word in it, merkki, but it's a compound word: esi + merkki. Esi is a prefix that means pre or fore. so if you break down esimerkki, it means "fore sign" or "pre sign", but the meaning of the word in practice is example. And as i said, esimerkillinen, which would literally translate to "with fore signs", means exemplary.

So, he gets a very clever bar, being able to rhyme merkillinen with (esi)merkillinen, and getting a looot of information across like that.

In the first verse he also uses a word you might come across in his other work too: morkkis. His song Morgan means the same thing, morgan is a slang word for morkkis, which is short for moraalikrapula, meaning a moral hangover. Not sure if that term exists outside finland, but a moral hangover is feeling ashamed and not at all good about something stupid. Usually it's to do with drinking: you have both a physical hangover from drinking, and a moral hangover over the amount you drank and also doing dumb shit while drunk. But morkkis can be used quite flexibly to talk about other things you're ashamed of and recognise as being stupid things to do - as in this case, trying smoking as a kid. Again, a simple word but very informative, once you know what it means!

The chorus about the clothes and the whole second verse of him describing himself as someone intentionally annoying bigger boys, getting into fights and doing stupid shit like setting his friend on fire for a trick of some sort, stealing pokemon cards etc.- all of this is paving the way to understanding songs like Takavoltti. I so know this type too, i knew boys exactly like this when i was a kid lmao. But he's telling us he's always been mischievous, wild and a little bit crazy - and in this song he says the apple didn't fall far from the tree, saying his dad is like that too.

So i think Mic Mac is probably one of the more personal songs of his, those key songs to understanding the character. Mic Mac is all about him remembering the past, and i guess Takavoltti is like.. how did the crazy little boy from Mic Mac cope with everything that happened to him.

All in all, Mic Mac to me is a very sweet, very nostalgic song, that paints a lot of vivid pictures about Käärijä - or maybe Jere - as a person.

Let me know if there is anything specific in the song or any other song you'd like to know about, any questions or anything 💚

[teddybeartoji]

Can we kiss :(

We should kiss and watch playthroughs of all the Metal Gear Solid games :(

We should kiss and play Pokémon together.

Wait what's your favorite Pokémon?

Mines Mimikyu and Sylveon :3 THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!

HAIII BB HAIII!!!!!!!!!!!! OFC WE CAN KISSS HEHEHEEHE CMEREE AND PUCKER UPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omfgg waiit i do need to watch the metal gear solid games they seem really cool!!!!!!!!!!! i think i've only seen some clips of one of them but that was like a while back anyway....

mmmm pokemon... so abt that.................. 💀💀💀 i don't actually know anything about pokemon. like at all. it wasn't really a thing over here if i'm being honest.. it's not just that i don't know anything abt it, i also can't think of anybody who does lmao yes sure i know pikachu aand i've seen the other characters but if you were to ask me to name more than idk three of them i simply wouldn't be able to😭😭😭 so i think we should kiss and study pokemon together,, or well you should teach me about them lmao

[faglaios]

Since when was pokemon about unique NPCs or open world-ness or the new pokemon being lame is it not simply enough to have your little creatures battle and love you?

[bogleech]

Going to put all this in its own post too by popular request: here's how you make your own website with no understanding of HTML code at all, no software, no backend, absolutely nothing but a text file and image files! First get website server space of your own, like at NEOCITIES. The free version has enough room to host a whole fan page, your art, a simple comic series, whatever! The link I've provided goes to a silly comic that will tell you how to save the page as an html file and make it into a page for your own site. The bare minimum of all you need to do with it is JUST THIS:

Change the titles, text, and image url's to whatever you want them to be, upload your image files and the html file together to your free website (or the same subfolder in that website), and now you have a webpage with those pictures on it. That's it!!!!! .....But if you want to change some more super basic things about it, here's additional tips from the same terrible little guy:

That last code by itself is: <meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=001.html"> Change "001.html" to wherever you want that link to take people. THIS IS THE REASON WHY when you go to bogleech.com/pokemon/ you are taken instantly to the newest Pokemon review, because the /pokemon/ directory of my website has an "index.html" page with this single line of code. Every pokemon review has its own permanent link, but I change that single line in the index file so it points to the newest page whenever I need it to! While I catered these instructions to updating a webcomic, you can use the same template to make blog type posts, articles or just image galleries. Anything you want! You can delete the navigational links entirely, you can make your site's index.html into a simple list of text links OR fun little image links to your different content, whatever! Your website can be nothing but a big ugly deep fried JPEG of goku with a recipe for potato salad on it, no other content ever, who cares! We did that kind of nonsense all the time in the 1990's and thought it was the pinnacle of comedy!! Maybe it still can be?!?! Or maybe you just want a place to put some artwork and thoughts of yours that doesn't come with the same baggage as big social media? Make a webpage this way and it will look the same in any browser, any operating system for years and years to come, because it's the same kind of basic raw code most of the internet depends upon!

[an-apocalypse-of-magpies]

I genuinely think it is a rite of passage for a Pokemon fan to champion a Pokemon that is unpopular, uncool, or 'weak'.

For some, it comes quickly. A child sees Gulpin and thinks it's the funniest thing ever. For some, it's trying something new. The competitive battler who just starts messing around, picks up a Pachirisu, and leads it to victory against impossible stakes. For some, it's an accident. The Nuzlocker who got way too attached to an early game friend who refused to die, and grieved for their friend and comrade when their time came. For some, it's defiance. The person who kinda likes Raichu and will defend it from the slings and arrows of all others. For some, it's just comfortably growing up and realising you don't have to justify liking something, just that it makes you happy.

It's easy to be drawn to the crowd favourites. And why not? They can be powerful fighters, cute merch, fanart-bait, they have a je ne sais quoi that draws the eye. And that's still fine! I'm not going to tell anyone they're a bad person for liking Charizard, or Mewtwo, or Gengar, or Pikachu. They're popular for a reason. But there is a kind of zen, a state of enlightenment of sorts, in finding a funky little guy who isn't very good and isn't very popular but makes you smile, and you go out of your way to find them and raise them and maybe even never evolve them, despite them being a damp squib in actual battles.

One of my favourite Pokemon ever is Swinub. Swinub is not a strong Pokemon. In fact, statistically, it's one of the weakest. Swinub has 5 weaknesses, including all 3 starter types. It doesn't learn many coverage moves, and it's abilities are not very exciting either. But I love this little piglet. It's round and soft! It digs up hot springs with its nose! You never see its eyes! I just think it's neat.

It's an important thing, I think, to find a Pokemon you like just for you. Not because it makes you better than 'the normies', but because it makes you appreciate the Pokemon you do meet, not for their battling prowess, but for how much you just want to be around them. When I see @good-pokemon-center-reviews frankly doing the lord's work in sharing people who are just so happy to have their little guys, I see starry-eyed children relishing in the wonder the Pokemon world is meant to bring. Genuine, earnest joy at a plushy Croagunk will always be more real to me that any Smogon tier chart. That guy gets it. The guy being a dick on Pokemon showdown with a team of 5 Zacians and a Mega Rayquaza for spice does not.

[malereadermaniac]

Relationship headcanons ~ Raihan x Male Reader

Random relationship headcannons with Raihan word count: 830 m!reader (no genitalia mentioned) / FDNI

The media had a field day when some paparazzi photo got leaked of you two out on a date. Even though Raihan is extremely vain and social media-present - you're not, and your boyfriend does nothing but respect that. But once that picture was on on every gossip page on Instagram, you two decided to lean into it. If anything, it would boost Raihan's popularity more!

You now feature in videos from time to time and you even have a special segment in his match videos of you cheering him on. Raihan loves that he gets to show you off now, every single one of his instagram posts has you in it, he has about 3 highlights of just you - it's very sweet.

The region also loves you. They originally had a lot of questions (which Raihan answered in a Q&A, of course) but now everyone sees you and Raihan as THEE Galar couple - people wanna see you just as much as they do Raihan!

The muscular gym leader loves to treat you like a Prince, he figures that if he has all this money from being a gym leader and an influencer that he should put it to good use on you.

Dates almost every night, and if you two can't be bothered to go out, then you call it a movie night and cuddle until one of you falls asleep in the others' arms.

Dates with Raihan are also all inclusive - this man pays for everything! It started with your first couple of dates being treats on him, which you would protest and demand to split the bill. But later on, you slowly let Raihan pay for your dates more and more - the conversation usually going something like:

"Is today's treat on you?" Already expecting the answer to be a yes

Raihan just smugly nodding with a small smirk in the hottest way ever

"You're buying?" You ask again with a small smile forming on your face subconsciously

"Of course, love" Raihan says with his signature grin after he swallows the huge mouth of food he was munching on

You then treating him in your own way and kissing Raihan's cheek cutely, making the grown man blush.

Now that the two of you are so deep into your relationship (4 years to be exact), you don't even bother to bring a form of payment with you on dates. But you still make sure to ask Raihan if today's treat is on the house, knowing all you have in your bag is chapstick and lube.

It boosts Raihan's ego to tell you that he's paying for you, who are you to deny your boyfriend such childish pride?

The two of you pokemon battle to decide most things, or just whenever you feel like it really. And even though Raihan promises he doesn't hold back, it is strange that you beat the 8th gym leader of Galar every time the two of you scrap.

Raihan also gifted you an Eevee on your one year anniversary saying that "just like an eevee can turn into everything, you turned my life into everything" - you never expected the strong and popular Raihan to be such a sappy man! That eevee is still on your team, your ace and partner pokemon (eeveelution). And even though it's YOUR pokemon, Raihan loves it just as much.

On the topic of pokemon and battles, not only do you support your boyfriend at every single one of his matches, but you two are the Double Battle champions at the Wyndon Battle Tower - a title you two have held for a while now. You two have such great synergy during battles that you rarely have to talk to understand eachother, one of you just has to tell your pokemon to attack with a certain move and the other will know what to do next!

The biggest fan of your relationship is Leon by far! He acted as your bodyguard when the paparazzi photo leaked, keeping crazy fans and more media representatives away from you - sacrificing his time to answer their silly questions about his championship in order to give you a chance to slip away.

He's also the one who forced Raihan to actually ask you out, the charismatic man actually being a wet wipe when it came to communicating his feelings to you!

And to this day, Leon is willing to 3rd wheel you and your boyfriend - and it isn't even awkward. The two of you hang out like close friends do.

You couldn't be happier than you are with Raihan

He treats you like a God and respects you and your boundaries no matter what. And he isn't too hard on the eyes either!

You ground him when his adrenaline junkie personality gets the best of him (especially during battles) and bring up his mood if he's ever feeling down for whatever reason - you're both the light of each others lives.

[earthnashes]

Hello there! If I may ask about your oc Sakura, how did you go about conceptualizing her? Was there any characters or media that inspired her design? How did her character change to what it is now? Apologies for this many questions, feel free to choose just one when you have time; love your work!

Hello! You may indeed ask about my baby! 🥹

So for context, Feathers and Flowers' birthing concept was about a girl summoning a demon because she was lonely but too shy to make her own friends, so she concludes summoning a demon would somehow be easier. In that iteration of the story, Sakura was meant to be a side character; a friend to the main characters that acted as the ultimate foil to basically everyone around her. She combated Kaela's crippling anxiety by being confident and overwhelmingly outgoing, contrasted Evangeline's bossy, bitchy attitude with being kind and friendly, and be the opposite of Mal's stoic, silent character with being expressive and chatty. I also needed a character that could conveniently know enough about niche media to reasonably be able to help Kaela summon her demon in the first place, so I ended up making her a huge geek: she loved anime, video games, and had knowledge on obscure things... including occult summonings xD

So I worked off that idea to form her appearance. Again her core direction was to be a foil to all of the main cast: Kaela was short and soft. Evangeline was tall and thin. Mal was tal and hard. I wanted Sakura to be the biggest character, so she originally started started out compact and wide. Her face was what I started with: I wanted her to look somewhat like an anime character, and her inspiration was based off of the older episodes of Dragonball, Pokemon, Tenchi Muyo, Ranma, Inuyasha. I basically wanted her to have Goku vibes (his wide dark eyes, his big smile, his open and easy personality) but with Inuyasha's hairstyle (she originally had long hair).

But then the story changed; it wasn't about a demon being summoned in a silly slice-of-life story but a Spirit getting lost in a magical modern era, still very much slice of life.

That ultimately shifted Sakura's design into something more athletic; football specifically. I wanted her to keep her dorky traits but pair it with the popular star athlete trope, so she became leaner, taller, and more "top heavy". She also became more oblivious; she remained sweet and friendly and outgoing, but in turn she didn't understand when someone liked her. In fact she was later canonized to be asexual originally didn't have romance planned for her character.

Fastforward to now: the story of F&F has changed again. While the core remains mostly the same (found family), it ironically shifted into something much closer to one of the earlier concepts of the story; something more serious and not slice of life, something that focuses more on the good and bad of a world instead of being predominantly lighthearted. So with that change the characters had to get a tune-up to their characterizations. Sakura received the biggest change, I think.

Her core remains true: she's relentlessly kind, expressive, a dork. But I decided to make that her biggest strength and her biggest flaw, as well as making her loving personality be conflicted by how the world views her by changing her appearance. That's how we get current Sakura: she's kind, she's loving, she wants to help others. But people think she's a threat, a ticking timebomb, because of what she is. So her once open smile is now more manufactured, a wall to protect herself, a farce to try and make herself look less like a threat. She's now a pushover; she can't establish her boundaries without it being misinterpreted as being aggressive, so her coping mechanism is to grin and bear it. She can't get visiblt upset or angry, so she has to fight for calm to have even the smallest chance of being listened to. She's "nice" because it's all she's allowed to be.

Hence her appearance change! She is now the largest character in the main roster, the physically strongest. Her smile is now "tainted" by sabre teeth she can't hide, her size contradicts her gentle nature.

It's late for me so I'm sure I forgot a few things but that's what I got for now! If you're interested I could show older concept work of Sakura to illustrate how she looked then vs how she looks now too. But ye! Thank you so much for asking about my character! 🥹🙏

[antimony-medusa]

Writing Stronger Female Characters

Whenever you start diverging from canon, you have to make some decisions about how to characterize people. You can no longer pull directly from canon, you have to fill in the gaps yourself in whatever way supports the characters and relationships you want to highlight. And the further you get out into AU territory, the more you have to fill in the scaffolding for the story yourself, from creating interactions between characters who haven't interacted very much, to placing characters within a pantheon, to creating new dialogue or interactions to support the new beats for the story you're telling.

And a thing I see fairly often when people are writing female characters is that people want these characters to be celebrated, right? They don't want to throw their female characters under the bus, they don't want them to be forgotten— and especially here when we're drawing from canons where so often there are few female characters, so they want them to stand out. So as part of this au-construction, these writers give their female characters all the positive attributes. They're super strong, or super beloved, or super badass— but that's kind of all they are.

And while as with all writing things there is a way to do this successfully— there isn't a writing rule that can't be broken if you come at it in the right angle— this can unfortunately backfire and end up making shallow or unsatisfying female characters in a way I think people aren't intending— so I thought I'd point it out!

To use an example I see fairly often, people will be writing Kristin with SBI, and they'll go "oh and all the kids love kristin way more than phil, they think he sucks but they just love her!" or they'll be writing phistin and they go "and kristin is just so powerful and awesome and phil is just her lame husband, haha, don't know why she likes him" and then, importantly, that's as far as the characterization goes. They make Kristin awesome and or beloved, but that's where they stop, and so they never get any characterization beyond "popular and powerful".

Writing a woman as a beloved mother or a powerful force/badass wife is not inherently a bad characterization, but if you just leave it there, that's just basically all that sitcom characterization does, and I'd like to think we can do better than a tv show with a laugh track. If you think about real people in your life, even if you go "oh man everyone loves [name]", you wouldn't describe them in just that way. You'd go on and talk about their sense of humour, or they're really into pokemon, or they also have two cats that are badly behaved, or they work in an office and can do a really scary customer service voice— you'd have other things to say about them! Or if you think about how someone is a badass in your real life, you'd say about how they're a black belt in two martial arts and a scary lawyer, but you'd also talk about how they bake really well, and they do tutoring for kids, and they can drink like a fish if you get them out to the bar, and they have no spice tolerance, and just more aspects of their life, you wouldn't stop there. Putting a character on a pedestal as better than the other characters actually cuts them off from the characters you're letting have flaws and woes and enemies. It makes them less vivid and less real as characters. If we were talking about real people that we were treating like that we'd say it was dehumanizing— you're not seeing them as a real person— but when you're talking about characters, it's just shallow characterization, and it plays into some tropes that we've probably seen too often from weak writing like sitcoms or comedy that doesn't really care about its side characters. So it's a pitfall to avoid that I think that some people aren't aware they're falling into. This doesn't mean that you have to make everybody dislike your female character, or you can't make them awesome, but beloved or powerful is where you start characterization, not where you stop. You also need to throw in an ability to let them say their piece, or quirks or flaws, or someone who *doesn't* like them, or something more that lets them come alive more. You gotta take them off the pedestal and consider them as a real character, you gotta rotate the blorbo just a little bit more— flip the scene a bit in your brain and think about the scene from their POV, consider it a bit longer.

Or to take another example, I read a bunch of Syndicate fic, and I read one the other day where Niki was the Blood God (awesome) and specifically was written as better at fighting than Techno, he normally couldn't beat her in a fight. Now while in isolation that's awesome, because your reader is probably also familiar with canon, they start to compare this characterization to canon. In canon Niki was not better at PVP than Techno, so this change stands out. And the reader starts to go "wait, what victory condition is being messaged here", and the message that is being sent is that being good at PVP is good, that's the victory condition, that's what makes you awesome, and the canon characterization was kind of weak, you had to fix it.

Now if you meant to message that, that's one thing, but the impression I get from these fics is that they want to celebrate the character that they like from canon, they don't want to tear the character down. But by trying to pile awesome things on this character, they ended up undermining the character accidentally, and you run into the same issue as what was happening with Kristin, where the characterization is "badass", putting the character on a pedestal, and nothing else. I'm sure we've all seen action movies where there's a whole bunch of guys and one girl and they make the girl really awesome (cause you don't want to be sexist) and her characterization is "badass girl", full stop. And well, that's awesome, I love a badass girl, but if that's all you've got, you didn't write a very well rounded character, you wrote exactly the same character as five hundred Hollywood writers who went "oh shit I forgot to add any women" and threw someone in at the last minute.

So what, does that mean that you have to write niki as bad at PVP, or being beaten in PVP, to respect character? Not at all! The trick here is to focus on other things, spend more time with the character. Okay, so PVP wasn't one of the canon character's strengths— what were her other strengths? Cause there are *always* other strengths— with c!niki maybe you go to her force of conviction despite opposition, or her survival stubbornness when she was abandoned in a hostile world, or her desire to build and create, or her will not take nonsense attitude— even doing PVP despite not being strong in it, getting up and trying again. There's lots of things, I'm not gonna call myself a c!niki expert, but you can do it if you spend a little more time with the character. AND that doesn't mean that you can't write badass women— Hannahxxrose absolutely should give any guy on the server a run for their money when it comes to PVP, on any server she's on. That's just fucking canon. Just also you need to take it a little bit further, beyond being a badass— what makes them tick? What are their struggles? What are their quirks? What do they worry about, or laugh about, or do for fun? Maybe you just have a scene to characterize them, maybe it's a short fic— how do you make them have a life outside of this scene, how do you make them come alive? If you were writing this scene from their POV, if they had a life beyond this scene or this story, what would they say, and can you include that even when someone else is the POV character? Or heck, flip it and DO a scene from their POV, let them have the spotlight in a story and see how the character acquires depth and quirks.

There's a joke in writing where a worried male writer goes to an experienced writer who's known for writing women and goes "but how do I write women" and the experienced writer goes "pretend they're people" and goes back to writing. And that is kind of a bitter joke about how society is bad for treating women (or any other group— disabled people, autistic people, people of colour, disabled people, non-christian people— the list goes on) like they're incomprehensible and alien. But it is also just that simple, when you are writing someone who isn't from the dominant paradigm. You do your research, if it's someone from an experience you don't share, but mostly the important thing is to remember that you're writing people. They have just as many hopes and dreams and quirks and flaws as you do, and any time you boil them down to only one attribute— even if it's a positive attribute— you end up with a weaker character and writing than you might mean to.

So that's how, obliquely, to get a stronger character, you need to make sure that your character is more than just strong (or beloved, or powerful, etc), they also need to have more character traits— they actually need weaknesses and quirks— and that's gonna take you one step closer to your female characters feeling like real (awesome) people.

[masterhallmark]

Credit for discovery: @misscloudiedays

So a lot of people are confused as to how Epic Mickey Rebrushed meaning Disney probably isn't getting profits works, so let me explain real quick:

What's the Sitch?

If you go to the Steam Page, Disney is not publishing EM Rebrushed themselves like they did with the original EM games, another company ,THQ Nordic, whom Disney does not own is.

This likely means they sold the licensing rights to that company rather than accepting profit cuts.

How this works

Copyright holders often do this if they think the product would make less profits than what they sold the licensing rights for. For example, this happened with the author of the Witcher books, who thought the games would flop and sold the licensing rights instead of accepting a percentage of the profits. He later acted like the victim when the games actually ended up being wildly successful. This also happened to the writer of the American Pokemon Theme Song, who didn't know the Pokemon franchise was going to go on for decades and remain popular, though he was more chill about it and worked something out.

Basically, Disney likely had so little faith in the game, they chose to sell instead of accept profits, which would mean whether you buy or pirate the game wouldn't affect them, since they would have already gotten the agreed upon amount, and they'd probably piss themselves if the profits Purple Lamp gets is more than what they sold it for.

Would they actually do that?

For anyone who questions if Disney would really be dumb enough to do this, REMEMBER THIS IS THE COMPANY WHO:

SHUT DOWN AND ENTIRE VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT COMPANY JUST BECAUSE EPIC MICKEY 2 DIDN'T MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS EPIC MICKEY 1

THOUGHT PEOPLE WOULD ABANDON CONSOLE GAMING IN FAVOR OF MOBILE GAMING

THOUGHT KINGDOM HEARTS COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE SEQUELS

HAD A CEO WHO THOUGHT ADULTS DON'T ENJOY CARTOONS

AND THE MOST RECENT BLUNDER OF ALL, THOUGHT DISNEY FANS WOULD PREFER A LUMA KNOCKOFF OVER STARBOY IN WISH, BECAUSE THEY WANTED A MARKETABLE PLUSHIE

Yeah, I think they're that dumb.

Bottom Line

For those participating in the Disney boycott, it is probably safe to get the game, and will not be a breach of your boycott. Buying the game would instead show support to those who actually care about the game while not benefitting the company that abandoned it.

That being said, this is not guaranteed to be completely correct. Keep an eye on things as it develops, and make your own decisions on the matter.

[licensed2faint]

I said like forever ago that I would make tier list for dragon types, and I've finally gone and done it. Big thanks to @veterantrainerray for suggesting I do this like a month ago.

These lists are directed at newbie trainers, specifically younger trainers. If you're thirty-two and have a twenty acre property and all the time in the world to read up on the care and training of a Salamence, go for it. I'm not your dad.

I've ONLY added Pokemon I have personally trained, so I can try to explain each list. I made two lists, one for captive-bred 'mon and one for wild-caught. Captive-bred pokemon tend to be hardier and less temperamental, so the list is a bit different. ALSO, while I used the final forms, this list is assuming you got them in their first form. I do not recommend trying to train a fully-grown wild Salamence. For any reason. That's a catch-and-release beastie.

honourable mention: Gyarados. Not a dragon-type, but temperamental as one. My recommendation is that this is a very strong guy who (probably) loves you very much for taking care of him when he was weak, and also he hates everyone else. Train him to wait for your command, and also socialize him while he's still a Magikarp to avoid the 'us vs. them' mindset as much as you can.

~~~

First up, the 'domestic-bred dragon list!'

Explanation:

Acceptable Starter: Swablu and Dratini are not very aggressive pokemon, and domestic-bred ones are usually much hardier than their wild counterparts. Dratini are a little more intelligent, and thus easier to train, but a domestic Swablu is pretty intelligent itself. Neither of them evolves into a pokemon known for aggression, so I think overall they're pretty well-suited travelling companions.

Fine with experience: Horsea is Horsea. You know him, you love him. Domestic ones, are, again, hardier than than their wild counterparts.. Honestly, the reason I have them here rather than 'acceptable starter' is because of Seadra. All the good breeding in the world can't guarantee a calm Seadra. You have to make sure your Horsea is well-trained BEFORE it evolves. But if it is? Your Kingdra is gonna be a breeze. Way more chill than Seadra, if not a bit snooty.

Druddigon get a bad rap, which is unfortunate. I love them. Might be my favourite dragon type. Domestic breeds are hard to come by, since they're not very popular, but the ones I've met are wonderful. They enjoy sunbathing a lot. The reason I put them here is actually because they tend to be stubborn. And while it takes a lot (compared to other dragon types, NOT most pokemon) to get them irritated, they CAN AND WILL use their strength to solve a problem. So the difficulty lies in getting them motivated enough to train them well. But if you're just looking for a guy who sits out in your yard sunbathing and looking scary, maybe give a breeder a call...? (you should still train them not to attack without a command, though!)

Flygon is actually usually really sweet-tempered. The reason he's so low is actually because of Trapinch and Vibrava! Trapinch, even domestically bred ones, are not all that intelligent, and thus hard to train for people who don't know what they're doing. The digging instinct can be very, very difficult to train out. They're hard-wired for it, it's how they survive in the wild! Vibrava are much more intelligent, but when they first evolve, there WILL be accidents with the wings. They're still figuring things out. Give 'em time, teach them to only do that stuff outdoors, etc etc. But if you can get through that, Flygon are wonderful companions! Every now and again in Hoenn you'd find a family with a pet Flygon instead of the typical Skitty or Poochyena. Love em.

Might need outside help: Domestic Gibble tend to be much less wantonly destructive than wild-caught, since having that bred out of them was a big goal of the original breeding programs in the first place. That said, instinct is instinct. If you aren't giving them their proper exercise every day and making sure to train them, they are going to wreak havoc. You need to be paying attention to it at all times. They're also pretty curious lil' guys! This means they will see something neat, like a fire hydrant, go 'hey, what's that?' and then answer that question by destroying it. They tend to get labeled 'aggressive' which is. Well it's not really true, but the difference between 'playtime' and 'this little guy hates you' doesn't matter so much when you're human and a Gibble is chasing you, open-mouthed. Domestic Gabite are much more calm on that front, and fully-trained, domestic Garchomp tend to be remarkable bastions of self-control. Again, it's all about surviving and training that first stage.

Pros Only: Both of these guys are here for similar reasons: Their instinct in their final evolutions has a tendency to override their training, so you're gonna have to not only have a firmer hand then a lot of trainers are comfortable with, but train them pretty continuously throughout their lives. They're fiercely independent, so forming a bond based on respect very early on in their lives is direly important. Otherwise you ain't getting them to do anything for you. Thankfully, at the very least the domestic breeds tend to not be too violent/destructive.

Salamence has an added difficulty: most people don't train their Bagon or Shelgon correctly. Bagon is one of the most easygoing dragon types out there, and Shelgon have a tendency to be pretty placid. This leads to trainers not taking their training too seriously early on, which leads to disastrous consequences once they're fully evolved. Just because your Bagon listens to you doesn't mean your Salamence will. Practice your recall training. Or Else.

You put that thing back where it came from or so help me: Hydregion is smarter than you. You may be able to train a Deino. I don't know you. They're bitey, but not the worst out there. But you do NOT have the resources or the know-how to handle a Zweilous. Straight-up. They have high energy levels, need a LOT of food, and can and WILL injure themselves via infighting. There's a reason Hydregion is rare as hell, and it's because a lot of them don't make it to adulthood due to injuries. It's a survival of the fittest tactic. I love Hydregion. I have one. If you don't have a damn mountain range in your backyard, don't get one. They NEED a place to go off and be destructive, and they're territorial as all hell. Just don't. Please.

~~~

Next up, the Wild-Caught List!

As you can see, there's nothing on the acceptable starter list. I'll get into why in the next categories.

Fine with experience: You're looking at basically the same thing with the wild Kingdra line as you would be with a domestic breed, with one notable difference: Wild Horsea tend to be a lot less hardy and a lot more timid. It'll take it longer to start trusting you, but honestly just doing the upkeep to keep it happy and healthy should start winning it over. They're more intelligent than most people give 'em credit for. Your eventual Kingdra is probably also gonna be more headstrong, but honestly for some trainers, that's a good thing.

Dratini suffers from the same problem. They have pretty specific habitat needs- but if you're at the point in your journey where you get your hands on a wild Dratini, honestly I'd trust that you're able to provide what it needs. Bonus, though, is that while wild Dratini can be cautious, they're very curious, too! And if your vibes are good (lookin at you, Ray!) they're usually more than happy to come along with you. And as our dear friend Ray is learning, one that is eager to battle is a ready and willing student! There's a reason they have such a great reputation.

Might need outside help: Wild Druddigon tend to be pretty territorial, on top of all the stubbornness. They're usually also a bit more proactive in expressing the classic dragon type temperament. You're looking at more intensive training to get recalling down and increase their tolerance for being bothered. No shame in asking a dragon-type expert. That said, I still love these guys. If you can read their body language, you could probably get through a cave of them no problem.

Oh, Swablu. Swablu, what will we do with you? Wild Swablu are flighty little critters, and kind of frail, to boot. And wild Alteria are stubborn. They will not get dirty. They think they are better than you. This isn't to say they're awful! An Alteria is usually pretty affectionate with its trainer, wild or domestic. A properly-trained one isn't going to be raging any more than a Dragonite or a Kingdra. But trying to train a Swablu is harder than it seems, just because they're not great listeners. If You've got patience and a guide, you're fine, but really I'd suggest asking an expert.

I don't know how to say this without sounding mean. Please understand I've raised five Trapinch. They are. Difficult. and a little stupid. Wild ones especially don't really have any sort of grasp on the world of training. You are looking at one hell of an uphill battle. But they're kind of a rite of passage for Hoennian trainers, and if they can do it, you can too! Really, you're going to be doing most of the 'basic training' for these guys in the Vibrava stage. You should still be taking the time to get your Trapinch used to being balled and the sound of your voice, obviously, but the traditional way to train a Trapinch is to do double battles until it evolves. Then do a lot of the indoor-outdoor distinction, once it can understand what a building is. And if you can deal with a Trapinch, you can deal with a Flygon. They're pretty relaxed, especially for a dragon type.

Pros Only: You don't have the patience for a wild Gibble, and you almost certainly aren't capable of tying down The King of the Caves when he wants to rampage. That said, if you do manage to train one right, and you've got a firm hand an a certain kind of attitude, you've got a partner for life. A wild Garchomp's respect is a tough thing to earn, but it's worth it. I was debating putting him on the final tier, but honestly... if you're really, really dedicated it's certainly possible. But you NEED to get in contact with somebody who knows what they're doing. Trying to freehand training is going to get your arm torn off.

Honestly, with Salamence, you're looking at about the same issues as you would be with a domestic, with two exceptions: your Bagon's gonna be a bit more of a wild child (but still nothing crazy) and your Salamence is gonna be aggressive. No way around it. Keeping it trained is a full-time job. If you're not looking to make a trained team of six and would rather just focus on a few, then you might have the time to dedicate to making sure the training sticks. Otherwise, leave it.

You put that thing back where it came from or so help me: Look at me. Look at me. Do not go near a wild Hydregion. Do not attempt to steal a Hydregion's baby. You will die, and it will hurt the whole time you are dying. And then that beast is going to start rampaging, and if there's a human settlement on or even near its territory, they are going to pay the price for your stupidity. Then they'll call the rangers in, and IF they can subdue the Hydregion, they're not going to be able to release it, because Hydregion can always find their way back home. They'll have to put it down. Don't fucking do it.

You can probably keep and train a wild Axew. Just make sure it has an everstone, because you are in no way, shape, or form prepared for a wild Haxorous. See the above, minus the rampaging parts. They're usually content with just you and anybody in a direct line-of-sight. If you train it well, it'll probably just run off into the hills instead of attacking you, at least. They've got really powerful instincts, and need things most people can't provide. 'Oh but Laser, don't you have a wild-caught Haxorous?' I do and I also have an entire nature preserve, complete with mountain range. He loves me, in his own way. I know this because he is willing to wait for food and not attack everything in his territory. I can go into his territory without being instantly vaporized, and he's willing to come out of his territory and interact with me. This does not mean he is safe to be around. It only means that I have twenty years of experience. If you want one, get a domestic breed. There's plenty of Axew breeders all over Unova.

~~~

I hope this was informative! Please remember that pokemon are individuals, and not all of them will conform to what I've laid out here. Please also remember that your life is not worth the possibility that you could get that one in a billion, super nice Hydregion. Dragon types have their reputation for good reason, and I simply can't stress enough that you need to do a lot of research before owning any of them.

Good luck!

[leggerefiore]

Your choice of the characters, but how would different Pokeguys act while taking their SOs to a haunted house? Which guys would play the protective roles, and which ones would hide behind their partner?

cw: fluff, being scared

characters: Ingo, Emmet, Grimsley, Cyrus, Lear

▲Ingo▼

● He is not one to necessarily visit many of these. While autumn is his favourite season, and he adores his beloved ghost-type, thrill seeking was not exactly his most pursued hobby. Yet, he did still often visit them with either his brother or Elesa or both. You wanting to go to one would make no big impact, and he was more than happy to indulge your whims. He was a loving boyfriend, after all. That is why he went to some popular haunted attraction that set itself up in the Nimbasa amusement park this time of year. He was not the type to be easily startled. Certainly, there could be nothing more frightening than some of the things that he had witnessed on his trains. It had mostly been proven to be true, too. Darkness was not something he was unused to, and he was more so focused on guiding you than the small sights around him.

● This was all until, suddenly, an actor jumped out in front of you both. You were startled by the unexpected action, but Ingo was even more so. A loud, deep scream reverberated off the walls of the attraction. The poor actor jumped back in surprise himself, blinking a few times and breaking character to mumble under his breath a, “what the hell.” You found yourself laughing as Ingo attempted to regain himself and “protect” you. The actor simply moved out of the way while shaking his head. Ingo continued to walk you both through the halls. A hint of pink dusted across his cheeks at his strong reaction. Afterwards, you had to reassure him that it was okay. He felt completely embarrassed that he had acted in such a way. Emmet least also got a good laugh at the story. Ingo's full volume scream was truly the scariest part of the night.

▽Emmet△

○ He absolutely loved haunted houses. There was something simply so fun about the adrenaline rush one got from visiting such attractions. Something about managing to get through them mostly unfazed was a sense of pride for him. Elesa often also joined him, mostly because she loved checking out whatever trendy events would pop up in Nimbasa during the season. When you said that you had wanted to go to one, he already had one in mind and eagerly brought you out to it. There was something adorable to him at the thought of you getting startled and clinging to him. He was extremely difficult to startle, having had his senses hardened by the trains. Especially late night ones. So, he expected little would get to him during this one, too. He happily observed your reactions to everything, letting you cling to him as needed.

○ Of course, when an actor suddenly jumped out to startle you both, he barely reacted. A quiet “ah” left him as he felt you hide behind him. The poor actor seemed to jump back after getting a look at Emmet. His ever-present grin was still on his face while his brows scrunched together. They took a step back. The younger twin only tilted his head. Shrugging it off, he just grasped your hand and walked with you through the rest of the attraction. A few other actors seemed more startled by the presence of Emmet. It made the event turn less scary and more into something comedic. One train man proved more terrifying than anything else presented. Commenting on this afterwards made him tilt his head and wonder. He felt mostly proud that he had “protected” you, though. He was a verrrry good boyfriend.

♠️Grimsley❤️

♤ Usually, he would pop into a few when the season came up. Mostly popular, trendy ones that he had heard about through the grapevine of his contacts. If there was one thing that Grimsley simply always found himself able to enjoy, it was any kind of thrill. While he much preferred the ones presented by a high-risk poker game or pokemon battle, he would sometimes make due with whatever he could get. So, when you asked to go to one, he simply shrugged and relented. Actually, a certain friend of a friend had pointed him to a popular one in Nimbasa, which he had been meaning to visit. What better time than with you? You both ended up at a late night tour together, walking side by side.

♡ The haunt was pretty good by all standards, playing with a certain theme of a haunted castle. It was a fascinating take on the aesthetic, at least. Grimsley admittedly was not at all startled by anything. Until, well, a certain bug themed actor popped out. The scream that left him as he rushed behind you was utterly a sight to behold. It was far too rare that the gambler's trained reaction was broken, yet here it was entirely shattered by the sight of a Beedrill person with bloody stingers. You burst into laughter while Grimsley looked completely offended. He proceeded to walk off from you, leaving you behind. When you finally found him again, another person had mistaken him for part of the attraction and asked if he was supposed to be Dracula. You had to walk him out before he started playing along.

🌌Cyrus🛰

☄️ Absolutely not a fan. He views them solely as a time-wasting activity for literal children. He is an adult. An adult who does not like to spend money on things he views as unneeded. Granted, he often heard his underlings chatting about their visits to some popular one. Even Mars was chatting about how it was totally scary. He had mostly tuned it out until you suggested wanting to visit it. He blinked. Why? But at the same time, he struggled to tell you no. It seemed that he would be visiting this supposed terrifying attraction, even if he viewed it as openly uninteresting. It was situated in a certain forest near Eterna. A certain old, abandoned manor had been redone for the event.

☄️ You both walked together, observing the state of the mansion. Cyrus found the amount of dust more unsettling than the costumed actors and a few ghost types. Every attempt to startle him led to a deadpan expression from him. The actors, in fact, seemed more terrified of him than anything else. It was not until you both ended up in a certain room with an old analogue television that you had felt started. It suddenly switched on, illuminating the darkness of the room. Then, a loud sound rang out. You clung to Cyrus and hid behind him as he stood in front of you with an arm blocking anything from getting to you. His gaze was trained on the television. Before anything else happened, he called out a “Rotom.” A familiar pokemon cry echoed out as a mischievous plasma ghost flew out from it. You later had many questions about how he immediately knew it was a Rotom rather than anything else.

👑Lear💎

🪙 For Pasio's growth and prosperity, he would host many things on it. A few of those things happened to be horror attractions. He, himself, had not really been to any, as he rarely had the time to waste on such placid things. Yet, he did find himself intrigued about what he heard. It brought in good revenue and attention… Though, he managed to fight off any interest until you mentioned wanting to visit it. Apparently, many of the other trainers on the island had spoken to you about their time at it. Lear would only then finally admit his interest, too, having missed this supposed event in his childhood. So, the two of you entered it together.

🪙 It was quite unsettling, admittedly. The stories of how scary it was being proven true quite quickly. Yet, Lear managed to keep his cool, desperate to prove himself as a worthy king in any situation. Though, you did notice how tightly he grasped your hand and how you were unable to stroll too far from his side. His brave front was desperate to be upheld as he felt grateful his shades were still on. This, however, only lasted until an actor jumped out in front of you, making a loud grunting noise in their costume of a ghost woman. Lear screamed and pulled you away from the actor, quickly dragging you through the rest of the attraction at top speeds. In the end, he sat trying to regain his breath while you tried not to laugh at his strong reaction. You were ordered to speak of this to no one. (You told a few people.)

[burgerrat]

" All it takes is two bad races, and you're out. " - NASCAR: Full Speed

I think it's time we talk about IRL racing a little bit. Because if you know how real racers are like on tracks, Turbo's behaviour is nothing short of common. And another thing that makes me believe that Felix misread the situation since he and Turbo were neighbours and there's a chance he knew what Turbo's ego was like.

In Wreck-It Ralph, when we get a timeskip of the 30 years in the beginning, you don't really see any other racing games. TurboTime was the only racing game in the Arcade.

Do you know what any racecar driver is like? Competitive, EXTREMELY so, and they are extremely pressured- because they have fans, they have watchers, they have their team who believe that they are going to win this race. There's racecar drivers who are so competitive they don't even try to make friends with their competitors, they attack them. They're not there to make friends, they're there to win. And that is what Turbo was made for, to be controlled by a player and to win.

It's not unheard of racecars crashing into eachother because a driver purposefully bumped hard into them. Or getting into fist fights and needing to be separated by their team after a race. And if you're a BIG name in the game and you lose? That pressure I mentioned earlier grows tenfold for the next race, if the racecar driver stays in line and manages to get more wins than losses, otherwise, you're out of the picture in racing.

The Twins being Turbo's competitors in game was alright: they're what challenges the main character, Turbo, in the race, making his game all the more intriguing for players and keeping them interested. Turbo loses because of a bad player? Well that's no issue, it could make the player become more competitive since they will want to practice again, and again.

That competition was fine for Turbo because it never truly affected him. He still had everything, fans, attention, and at the end of the day he'd still win even if he crossed the finish line in 2nd place because he had many players.

But...

What happens when there's another racing game? Another competitor, this one an actual threat, outside of your control? Outside your game?

If Roadblasters remained, the new racing game out of two in the whole arcade, it would've absolutely become the next popular racing game because it's just as competitive, with better graphics, and what of the old school, 8-bit racer in white and red? How many in the arcade would've joked about him being in second place? How many in the Arcade would try to ridicule him, do you think? And what of the competitors themselves? They were racers, same as him. Of course they wouldn't be friends.

The image of a racecar driver is everything to them. The expectation of that person their fans, their watchers, their team, see them as.

If players used Roadblasters, who looked better, than TurboTime, soon they wouldn't see that game in the same light they did before. You can't look at Pokemon Red and tell me it's the same as Pokemon Legends Arceus. New things that look better and have different mechanics can be more appealing to people. And Turbo knew that.

Might I mention again both of these games are about racecar drivers? They would have never become friends. They would've become enemies. A lot of racers that have won on multiple tracks don't go there to make friends.

They race to win. And a lot of them will stop at nothing, even if it costs their life.

[weirdunclegamer]

Was laying in bed and starting having Thoughts™️ about something in AC6 and while I don't normally do this, I figure I should try just... rando talking about stuff on my blog.

I found it very amusing and interesting (strongbad voice; amteresting), how AC6 decided to use the term Raven in its new AC timeline. Its explained to us (eventually) to not just be one pilot's name, but a title that many pilots of a somewhat bygone time had used, a title that supposedly stood for their sense of freedom.

It's pretty obvious what the metatext is there, its using the Raven title from earlier AC games... and giving it a sort of mythologizing that the term likely sounds like it has irl to new players who, coming to the series new, and seeing all the old fans reawakening to the bell of a new game, heard the wistful, nostalgic tales of playing the games back in the day, of being Ravens for the first time on the old consoles.

And even irl that title faded from its original use, obviously because the game series slowed down then went on a full decade hiatus. But it actually faded in the games as well. In AC4 the pilots are no longer called Ravens, but Lynx. A change I remember personally feeling a bit bummed by at the time even. In AC5 (a good game and I will not tolerate the meatheaded hate it gets), you are uniquely "the mercenary" instead of holding a shared title, further diluting the very idea of the titles.

It was one of those sorts of things I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about. On one hand I feel like they should've just gone back to calling the pilots (or maybe just certain affiliations) Ravens in AC6, a way of going back to the roots, since AC6 is a proper reboot. But on the other hand I can appreciate the metatext, which def feels very FromSoft to do, weaving a sense of the real world history of the franchise into the lore of the new era. Either way, it is especially amusing, because it all stems from a funny quirk of the progress of video game technology; the problem game writers came into when voice acting was added to games, wherein it was impossible to account for the names a player would name themself, so they had to find ways to write around characters saying the players' name, in games where the player names themself.

Its a thing I feel people mostly associate with the more "modern" era, with epic adventure create-a-character games like the Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, or, of course, the Souls family. But its been a thing since as early as the PS1. Before voice acting was whole-game prevelant, when all the dialogue was text, you could just insert that bit of code to put in the players' chosen name into the npc dialogue (for true immersion, or to name you're pokemon stuff like "I" or "You" or "Farts"... also for true immersion), but now... well I already said the thing about the voice work. Coming up with a title to call the player (Dragonborn, Courier, Commander Shepard, etc etc) has been a popular way to handle the problem... which seems to be almost satirized in AC6.

Despite everything I just said about the use of Raven in AC6, the player character has like two scoops of nicknames the other characters call you; 621, hound, raven, buddy, tourist, G13, freelancer, wallclimber, wormkiller, liberator of rubicon... pretty sure there's others I can't remember. That might've just been a side effect of how the characters are written vis-a-vi the players' in universe muteness, but knowing From, its very likely to have been a sort of good natured ribbing about the fad both in their games and others.

The use and challenge of use of players' getting to name the protagonist in games is one of those fantastic things that mostly only exists in video games.

[erabu-san]

tighnari saying cyno and sethos are like brothers at the end of this quest... cyno really is collecting siblings like pokemon. good for him!!

Yeeeessss!!

In my HC, Cyno put a lot of attention in family.

Firstly because Cyrus was his only one family when he was a kid with amnesia, but also he grown up with Lisa as colleague under the same professor, but both of them consider Cyrus as a parental figure : without saying anything, a link it made of brother/sister. Cyno never knows his family by blood, and I think he was curious once. But he is satisfy with his current family ! And for him, family doesn't need to blood related. And if I remember well, Cyno said (during Windblum event, EVENT EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR ME 😭🫶) something like it is pretty current people in Akademiya becomes a family for study. It was his case ! Cyrus becomes his dad figure, Lisa, her senior, is like a big sister (I wouldn't never forget when she calls him little brother/baby brother) (AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA !!! <3). And when in windblum Cyno came visited Lisa, during their conversation, Cyno is the one mentionning the family bond she has with Cyrus "you are also part of the family, Lisa. It is normal for a daughter to talk like his father" (*CRYING*)! It sounds a tiny detail but I feel like this is so important for him.

Then came Tighnari, aka the first friend he had ever ! (I am a bit lost in chronology tho. In Tighnari's backsto, we learn they met when Cyno was already the general mahamatra while Tighnari was a student new-ly popular. But in Cyno's quest, we learn that they were student when they met ?? So Cyno was student and General ? 🤔 welp, I am still unsure but now I include it in my HC/brainrot kskdkd). And also Collei ! Collei is a bit more complicated, in term that she wasn't comfortable around him for a long time being. But even when she wasn't comfortable around him at first, she still gave him a bookmark handmade during windblum and saying he is like a family for him (I AM ON THE FLOOR). Tighnari and Cyno both consider Collei like a little sister, and bahaha when they "fight" about "who is the older one" and tighnari don't want to admit this loser being the older oh gosh i love theeeeeeem (I will never recover from "oh yeah but you're younger in your head, Collei could be your big sis !" "I wouldn't never say I am the youngest !!! Except if it is for an opportunity for winning TCG by shocking my opponent.." cyno you are so real). But during this windblum event again, Cyno said something like "you know Collei, tighnari said we are not an akademiya family, and he doesn't want to work on a post together" and this is SUPER IMPORTANT because for Cyno, as you can see earlier, only had family by study (Cyrus, Lisa). He worked, studied and published with his father and Lisa. And also, he did homework with Tighnari that he considers like a brother in soul. But the fact he was "refused" to do work with Collei and him, kind of make him feel to tell Collei "yeah we r family but, tighnari... ):"

As Tighnari answered "You know, we can consider ourself as a normal family" AND THAT'S SOSO IMPORTANT. In my HC, Tighnari is the one in group having a "good family" (not in sumeru cast, I believe it is Nilou who has the healthiest family). He knows what a family is supposed to, he grew up with parents who teach him a lot of thing and he explored with them. Anyway Tighnari is a healthy kid, he knows that they don't need to work on a project together to be a family. Oh and that's also why I HC him Aromantic, AroAce persons value platonic and familyship a lot more than romantic, so he doesn't know mind that Collei and Cyno who are not blood related to him are like a true family for him !

(Before continue, I want to talk his bond with Collei ; I believe he can relates on how Collei suffered from the seal, because Cyno who might forget his past, he remembers the pain. That's how in Tighnari's voiceline, Cyno often check how Collei is going w/o her noticing. Even when Collei was aware of Cyno and under Tighnari care, he was ready to help her. And in the first story quest, Tighnari said that she still awares of him. I wonder how often they talk abt Collei !! I am sure Cyno shares to Tighnari how much he woud like to get along with her, and that's how Tighnari gives him opportunity like this one official art when in description Tighnari said "I asked Collei to bring Cyno")

And so, that's how in Cyno's quest we were able to see all his closest friends. Tighnari Collei Kaveh Alhaitham Candace Dehya Faruzan (and Traveler). Everyone was worried for him, was wishing to help him, and was here for him. And Cyno also noticed he is less alone (GOOD FOR HIM). And now, there is Sethos, a man coming from nowhere in this life, but an important man ; they didn't spend life together but they can feel a deep connection bcuz of both of their backstory. Sethos might be the closest to understand all his doubt a long time ago (and Cyno IS the closest person for Sethos to relate). And IN CYNO'S VOICELINE ABOUT SETHOS "Aren't we his best friends of whole Sumeru city ?! 😐" Cyno pulled the power of friendship and adopt him in his big family circle.

ANYWAY WOW IT IS ONLY 8AM AND I AM HERE ALREADY YAPPING ABOUT CYNO BAHAHAHA

But genshin impact is for me more family impact that anything 😭 🫶 (and that's also why I am stuck with sumeru while FONTAINE AND THE HOUSE OF HEARTH ARE JUST RIGHT HERE ?!?!) after all, we are playing a traveler who is searching their twin !

Thank you for reading my talk, anon

[bogleech]

Also going to finally make a pinned post for all my stuff:

BOGLEECH - my tumblr blog is named after this website I created around 2002 and still update. Thousands of pages worth of content focusing on creature design as well as real biology. My review of the original Legend of Zelda monsters might be the most straightforward example of my articles. Links to some of the most popular content:

POKEMON REVIEW ARCHIVE: - I rate and review each and every single Pokemon, in Pokedex order, on its merits as a creature design. I also do so as someone whose favorite animals are all parasites.

DIGIMON REVIEW ARCHIVE - same, but more chaotic.

CREEPYPASTA COOKOFF ARCHIVE - for several years I hosted a yearly writing contest before it grew too big for me to keep up with. There are over a thousand user submitted horror, fantasy, sci fi and surrealist stories here emphasizing unconventional, original ideas you seldom see from the "creepypasta" community!

The original "MORTASHEEN" Monster Archive - since the early 2000's I've created and illustrated more than 800 creatures and counting for my own monster-catching world, now set for release as a tabletop RPG setting.

AWFUL HOSPITAL: SERIOUSLY THE WORST EVER (page one): an interactive comedy-horror-sci-fi webcomic I started in 2014 about a medical facility that could maybe be better.

Some of my other internet stuff:

PATREON - constant work makes my patreon updates inconsistent, but the content backlog goes back years with a huge amount of exclusive art and writing. I try to put up new exclusive stuff whenever I can.

ETSY - I design all sorts of original enamel pins like these, plus I sell zero-maintenance terrarium plants (just leave them in a jar!), original books and other things!

COLOR THE ABYSS (available on the above etsy!) - a 30 page educational deep sea coloring book! Includes a few famous favorites like giant isopods and hagfish, but mostly focuses on less popular, often much weirder animals.

UNBELIEVABLE BUGS - also regularly restocked in the etsy store, 30 of the strangest and most surprising arthropods most people have likely never heard of, illustrated by myself and @revretch, written for even the youngest kids to understand (but will likely teach you something new at any age)

My Itch.io and Ko-fi - both sell digital versions of my books, including some creepypasta collections and my first novel, "Return of the Living," about a world of entirely ghosts suddenly dealing with the appearance of ghost-hunting monsters.

TWITCH CHANNEL - I now try to stream something at least monthly, sometimes weekly when possible, from horror games to books and art.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL - archives my twitch streams and other little things.

INSTAGRAM - look at pictures of my huge weird collection of toys and Halloween collectibles

BLUESKY - I'm going to put mainly just updates to my stuff on here. SEE ALSO:

HUMANS-B-GONE - a science fiction animated series by my partner @revretch, about a world of kaiju-size, technologically advanced insects and arachnids to whom vertebrates like us are just pesky little "gubs." Also has a tumblr account @humansbgone FINALLY, HERE'S MY GUIDE AND RESOURCE TO MAKING YOUR OWN INTERNET WEBSITE IN A FEW MINUTES WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF CODING

[quillpokebiology]

Riolu/Lucario are vulpines??? This is news to me, do you have any fun facts about them?

I had facts about both of them a while ago, but I deleted those. But here's some Riolu Facts!

Riolu Facts

-The scientific name for Riolu is "Caniculis Aurus" which roughly translates to "Little aura dog"

-Riolu have the same Aura sensing abilities as Lucario, but it can be overwhelming for them as they're not used to all of these emotions. In the wild, Riolu can hide when they feel overwhelmed but it can be difficult to do that when with humans. To make your Riolu feel comfortable, you should try finding a quiet place where they can relax or use grounding techniques

-Riolu are both highly diverged canines and vulpines, and are most closely related to Houndour

-Riolu are very clingy pokemon and will follow their trainer everywhere

-In wild Lucario packs, Lucario will put the ones with positive auras around the eggs to guard them, as they think it can make the egg hatch healthier

-Riolu are very popular anime protags because of the way they vigorously train their aura abilities and battle abilities

-Because Riolu mostly live in mountains, their paw pads are very tough to protect from any jagged stones. It's very yard to break the skin

-Since they are able to sense other people's aura and emotions, they're very popular pokemon to have as therapy mon

-Aura travels in waves, and Riolu will communicate with other Riolu and Lucario by sending out Auras and tracking them back. It works similar to echo location

-Riolu will also use their aura sensing abilities to sense how strong an opponent is, determining whether the fight is worth it or not

-Wild Riolu are very quiet as they can communicate through auras. They're a lot more talkative in captivity

-The things on Riolu's head are flaps of thick skin. They are used to help Riolu sense and travel their aura sensing abilities

-Riolu are able to sense emotions and aura, even before they hatch. Many Lucario parents will show affection to the eggs, send their auras, or speak to the eggs so their Riolu will recognize them once they hatch

-While Lucario don't often like being petted due to respect for their trainers, Riolu love being petted and love affection from their trainers

-Riolu's mask are used to protect them from the glare of the sun

-Riolu are excellent pacers, and they can chase their prey for hours. They're entire hunting strategy is waring out their prey until they collapse, which is when they go for the kill

If you're curious, here are Lucario Facts!