#its wild. evolution is so so so cool. i love it so much. which is y im so excited abt starting my phd

[opens-up-4-nobody]

What is your favorite algea? Mine is shotgun kelp, Agarum clathratum. It just rolls off the tongue, ya know?

I'm biased toward cyanobacteria (which under the botanical definition is still considered algae despite being bacteria)

Based purely on aesthics, aphanocapsa liIacia (if im remembering the name right). It's always my favorite when I do transfers bc its purple :-]

But hopefully starting in the fall I'll be working fischerella species. So hopefully they become my favorites (again, aesthetically Fischerella is gorgeous)

[thydungeongal]

It is known that your favorite edition of D&D is B/X, but setting that one and its Basic ilk aside, what is something in each "mainline" edition that you think makes that one shine bright, something it does great like none of the others? Mainline here meaning the original, both AD&Ds, and the three WotC editions (counting 3rd as one edition).

There's a lot to love about each edition of D&D, yeah!

The original game, or 0D&D as a lot of people call it, is truly a weird little mess of rules that regardless laid the groundwork for a lot of things to come, but I think it should be seen as more than just a weird prototype of better things to come. It is ultimately the predecessor to both Basic and Advanced and while those games are very different in terms of play, looking at 0D&D it's easy to see where both games got their ideas and how they decided to iterate on them. But at the end of the day 0D&D still stands apart from the others in the sense that it was an exciting new frontier of play and as such the game's text is also very open to wild adventures. The game openly promotes the idea of adding robots and aliens into the list of monsters, because why not, there's no clear shape of what D&D as a game and genre even looks like yet, so why not let it be whatever you want? It also has lots of procedures in place for creating extremely cool emergent interactions which no other edition since has done! Like, orcs can be encountered with huge caravans of gold! Sometimes orcs are lead by a dragon or a Balrog or an ogre! It's weird and fun!

AD&D 1e is ultimately an evolution of 0D&D, and in many ways it's like 0D&D + its supplements + a bunch of neat tricks learned on the way. Ultimately what sets AD&D 1e apart from the other editions for me is the absolute wealth of procedures in the DMG for helping the DM create and run a world that feels like a living, breathing place! And there's so much guidance for how to start a campaign with small beginnings and then let it expand in scope!

AD&D 2e is actually my second favorite TSR edition in terms of rules text. There's a lot to be said about AD&D 2e being a clear step away from the original playstyle of the Dungeon Game, and it's most apparent in the way the game got rid of procedures for creating your own dungeons and stocking them with treasures, but the actual rules for playing and running the game are probably the clearest AD&D has ever been. I also feel 2e was the era when the greater shape of D&D as the game we know it as today started to form: while a lot of the stuff that we associate D&D with has been there since the beginning, I feel AD&D 2e is when things finally start to take on their ultimate D&Dness, if that makes sense?

D&D 3e I'm extremely fond of because it was actually my first edition of D&D, but beyond that, taken on its own terms, D&D 3e is unparalleled among the D&Ds in terms of how systemic its rules are. D&D 3e was kind of a mess when it came to the quality of its rules and what sorts of outcomes they produced, but I still love the dang thing because the underlying philosophy is extremely ambitious and cool! AD&D 1e is the edition with procedures to help the DM generate the world; AD&D 2e has lots of really cool rules and procedures that almost make the game run itself; D&D 3e has a physics engine that could make the act of play almost feel like an immersive sim! I understand why very few games have attempted to replicate that systemic design of D&D 3e, but I think there's a lot of cool stuff there.

D&D 4e is the most fun the combat minigame of D&D has ever been and it has unironically the coolest worldbuilding of all editions of D&D. I feel we've talked enough about how D&D 4e is actually extremely cool and for attractive people who like tactical combat, so let's focus on the worldbuilding: D&D 4e mixed up the cosmology of D&D in a way that made it feel like something from mythology instead of a neatly laid out world model. Being a B/X fan I of course love it when the implicit cosmic struggle is one of order versus chaos, and D&D 4e pretty much brought that back! All the major conflicts of D&D 4e's cosmology hinge on the conflict between order and chaos, and it actually adds nuance to what could otherwise be an extremely black and white cosmic struggle. The D&D 4e cosmology is messy and mythic and feels like it works on fantasy logic instead of the weird mystic science that ultimately powers the D&D cosmology of other editions.

And finally, D&D 5e. While I am a vocal 5e hater it has less to do with the game itself and more to do with its suffocating effect on the hobby, because as a game it's got a lot of cool design in places. Concentration is a really elegant fix to the game plan of just stacking all your buffs before combat and then wading in. Advantage/Disadvantage does away with the minutiae of adding together a bunch of different bonuses from various sources and does it in a way that is both mathematically satisfying but also really fun in play! Rolling more dice is fun!!! The way critical hits are handled, via just doubling the number of dice rolled and keeping the modifier the same, is great, because you get the "rolling more dice is fun" factor without the doubling of modifiers that had the potential to cause slowdown in D&D 3e. I like the addition of background as a character creation axis alongside class and species!

[cellarspider]

13/30 Science interlude!

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We return to Prometheus, where I am taking a break to ramble about my job. A thing that I love. It will be a nice change. Also: weird blood!

I have been informed that some methods of accessing tumblr do not play well with long alt text rambles. To keep the flow between the main text and alt text separate, I’ll be copying the longest ones below the main text and citations. Captions that I think are going to be long enough to need this treatment will be marked with “Overflow Ramble [number]”, so they’ll be slightly easier to find. It’s not a perfect system, but Tumblr is not a perfect website.

And I am going to need the overflow space this time, because we’re getting into genetics!

After electrocuting a decapitated alien head until it exploded into a shower of green gore, the creatures that claim to be scientists stuck a bit of the goop in some sort of very science-y DNA machine, leading to this:

“Let's have a look at its DNA. Isolate the strand. Okay. Compare it to the gene sample?”

“[Overlay… Processing… Processing… DNA MATCH.]”

“Oh, my God. It's us.”

I want this preserved for posterity, because this made me absolutely hoot. They avoided fake science technobabble by going so far in the other direction that it becomes equally meaningless.

What the scene is trying to say is “this alien shares the vast majority of its genetic material with humans, indicating that they are in fact related.” 

I will get to how one would actually determine that, but first: The head turned into green goop. Green goop. Humans are notably not prone to turning into green goop. Otherwise Nickelodeon would’ve probably been shut down within a week.

(Image credit: Rich Fury/KCA2021/Getty Images for Nickelodeon)

This annoyed me so much that years later, I dug up a possible explanation that backfills this with cool biology.

Humans, and almost all vertebrates have hemoglobin-filled blood. And on a tangent that I must follow: The only vertebrate that doesn’t is the icefish Channichthyidae family, commonly known as the white-blooded fish. 

You’ll never guess what’s special about them. 

Yes, somehow these fish manage to live without hemoglobin, their blood only having 10% of the oxygen carrying capacity of their red-blooded cousins. Hell, most of them also lack myoglobin, which stores oxygen in muscle. The loss of myoglobin isn’t just a one-off event either, genetic studies have shown that these icefish have seen four distinct branches of their family tree lose myoglobin independently of each other. They have a wild series of adaptations to permit this, but basically they were already in such cold oxygen-rich water and moving so slow that they didn’t need all that extra oxygen-having stuff. They lost it, kept going, got bigger hearts, weirder muscles, and just. Kept. Going. They’ve actually expanded their range in the past 30 million years or so!

I love them! Evolution is wild. You know what’s also wild? There’s green-blooded vertebrates. Yes. You read that right. Yes, they still have hemoglobin. What they also have are staggering levels of biliverdin, which human bodies only produce when breaking down hemoglobin–when a bruise takes on a greenish hue, it’s because the dismantling of the blood under your skin has created biliverdin. While it’s generally been thought of as just a breakdown product, some research suggests that it also has protective effects against a number of diseases. In moderation, though. If you have enough of it to actually turn a bit green, you’ve got jaundice, which is not a thing you want to have. 

But for a number of fish species, bush frogs, and skinks, they have way more biliverdin. 

(Austin, C. C., & Jessing, K. W. (1994). Green-blood pigmentation in lizards. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology, 109(3), 619-626.)

Humans usually don’t have much circulating biliverdin at all, so the table above compares someone with untreated jaundice to a number of other species–fish with two to fourteen times that amount, and the green-blooded skinks have twenty-two times as much! These creatures have green blood and turquoise-colored bones, and we still don’t know why. Maybe it’s protection against diseases, maybe it’s protection against parasites like malaria, maybe it’s to make them really blend in with foliage. Could be all of those at once, could be none of them, we don’t know! What we do know is that, as with the icefish, the green-blooded skinks in particular have independently evolved this feature four different times. (Rodriguez, Z. B., Perkins, S. L., & Austin, C. C. (2018). Multiple origins of green blood in New Guinea lizards. Science Advances, 4(5), eaao5017.)

(https://australian.museum/blog-archive/amri-news/amri-three-tiny-green-blooded-frogs-sing-like-birds/) 

(https://web.archive.org/web/20180619143048/https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/09/30/why-do-mysterious-lizards-have-green-blood/) 

We have no mammals identified with biliverdin-filled green blood, you would need a lot of tweaks to how our bodies function to make this work. But it’s not literally impossible, like I thought in the theater! I’m quite sure the prop department didn’t do this level of research on the subject, but think about it! 

I love biology! It’s! So! Weird!

And because I love biology, you’re not getting rid of me yet. My chosen field is genetics. This movie has presented me with a laughable sci-fi depiction of what we do. 

So! What do we actually do, when we want to find out how related we are to another species?

I’m going to get into excruciating detail, so here’s the top-line summary: We extract the DNA, mash it up into readable little chunks, use some wicked cool machines to do the actual reading, and then we compare the target DNA with our DNA, and do some cooler stuff the movie isn’t aware of. A competent analysis would not only be able to tell you how much overlap two genomes have, but also be able to estimate how long the two species have been genetically distinct. 

Is this way more than the movie needed for this plot point? Yes. But they didn’t actually have to do this at all, they could’ve just said the truth that science fiction usually ignores for budgetary reasons: “there’s no way these beings independently evolved to look so much like us, we have to be related.” 

(Although even Star Trek, despite being the classic example of “putting a rubber thing on an actor’s forehead to make them an alien”, actually does acknowledge this. Precisely once. TNG s6e20, “The Chase”. It has never been mentioned again in the main line series, possibly because Rick Berman didn’t like it.)

Now. Time for me to take you all on a grand tour of DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. You are all getting into the Willy Wonka boat with me. You have no choice.

So! You have a sample you’ve taken from a non-human mammal, one that’s never been genetically analyzed before. You are very lucky. You get to do fun stuff.

But before you get to sequencing, you have to purify any DNA in the sample. Your sample is full of all sorts of other biochemical gunk, and when cells are happy, DNA is packed away in the nucleus–you need to crack those open to get at the DNA. 

Next, you need to break the DNA into chunks, that’s #1 on the diagram above. For most of the past twenty years, this has meant chunking DNA down into pieces 25-50 letters long–just enough to probably get something unique over most of the genome, though you will have some areas that look identical at that tiny scale. In recent times, we’ve been getting better and better at what’s called “long read sequencing”, which at this point means fragments of several thousand DNA letters in length–though that’s still pretty short, compared to human chromosomes though: the average length of a human chromosome is 134 million letters long.

Depending on the sequencing technology and its needs, the sample may also need “amplification”: getting copied over and over using a protein originally harvested from hotspring-loving bacteria (#2). I always love that bit just as a concept: it’s one of many places where the modern study of genetics uses the microscopic, biological machinery of proteins for our own use! 

After everything’s prepared, Then the sequencing itself can occur. That too is wild–the most common versions these days use tiny little fluorescent proteins to tag each letter of the DNA and read the sequence of lights (#3!). Some use infinitesimally tiny electrical modulations as DNA passes by a microscopic reader. There’s loads of different ways, anything works, so long as it can be read by a computer.

All this takes place in machines that are either small enough to fit on a countertop, or big enough to look like a fridge, and come in Apple White or Cheap Plastic Appliance.

Because you have a new species, you’re building what we call a reference genome. This tries to capture as much of the entire genome sequence as possible. Here’s an interesting wrinkle, though–A lot of samples won’t be just DNA from your target species! You might be picking up microbial DNA along the way as well. That can be really interesting and worth knowing about, though! Some people spend their whole careers studying the genomes of microbes found on people’s skin, or in their bodies. You’ll be computationally sorting out which sequences are in contiguous, mammalian chromosomes, which are from mitochondrial DNA (those cute little powerhouses have their own genomes!), and which come from microbes.

At the end of it, you have sequenced an entire genome. Because you want to find out how related it is to humans, you compare it to our reference genome–The human reference genomes we use is an assembly made from multiple individuals.* We use the reference genome as a common point of comparison that we refer to when studying genetic variation.

*Though if you’re working with data form the Genome Reference Consortium as is usually standard, one anonymous African-European donor, RP11, is still the backbone of the reference, accounting for 70% of the latest assembly.

(https://mk.bcgsc.ca/telomere-to-telomere-human-genome-assembly/posters.mhtml)

So, we’d compare this new mammalian genome to our own–how much overlap would we find? A lot. How you define our similarities and differences from other species can change the answer, but you’ll expect a lot of overlap. Some areas of the genome diverge faster than others, others are highly conserved–generally the more stable it is, the more important it is for our function. 

Through many, many, many studies and corroboration with the archaeological record, we’ve worked out how to estimate how long ago two species diverged from each other. Actually, you’d rarely be comparing between just two species at this stage–get out all the other relevant reference genomes you’ve got! Compare them all! Build a phylogenetic tree–the modern version of that “tree of life” idea that Darwin popularized. Then you’ll have a more accurate sense of how your mystery species relates to everything.

(https://www.embl.org/news/science/a-new-tree-of-life-allows-a-closer-look-at-the-origin-of-species/) 

I’m going to go off on a tangent to end this post, because that’s just the start, taking the entire genome of a single individual. This is what most people think is what we always do. But no! That’s expensive overkill for most experiments. Once you’re familiar with a species, and you’ve sequenced DNA from many individuals, you can identify areas where lots of them have sequence variants. These can be completely benign, differences that make us all unique, or make an individual more susceptible to disease. This allows us to target what we want out of DNA sequencing: Are we trying to diagnose an illness? Identify a person from a tissue sample? Or are we doing something more exploratory?

Depending on what you want, you select anywhere from a handful of locations, up to tens of thousands. The closest many people have gotten to this stuff is through ancestry services like 23andMe, which uses this kind of sequencing.

But that’s not all! There’s so many different targets to choose from, depending on what you want to do! So many techniques to get DNA in different ways! And we still haven’t gotten to the part that I actually work on.

I’m a computational geneticist. I get all the gigabytes of data that comes out of these experiments and I get to dig into the details, the patterns that emerge between genetic code and the details of the organisms we study, the connections between genome sequence and other, wilder things we can collect data on, the dizzying complexities of what goes on every microsecond of every day in every cell in your body.

I love my job. 

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Citations for alt-text rambles:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_YuTMDkWfI 2. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.116129 note: this source lists the image as credit to “J.M.B.”, which is not how I’m used to seeing images credited. Those are the initials of one of the authors, but I thought it meant “Journal of Molecular Biology”, so I went on a half hour wander around the internet trying to find where the hell this fish blood came from. 3. https://www.thebhs.org/publications/the-herpetological-journal/volume-13-number-4-october-2003/1729-01-hyperbiliverdinemia-in-the-shingleback-lizard-tiliqua-rugosa 4. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0264.2009.00952.x 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrill#Characteristics 6. https://www.vogue.com/article/dune-part-two-costumes-jacqueline-west-interview 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.29564.08327 8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357946568_New_approaches_and_concepts_to_study_complex_microbial_communities 9. https://karobben.github.io/2023/10/30/Bioinfor/PacBio/ 

Overflow Ramble 1

 the fuckin “DNA MATCH” machine. I already wrote a 380-word alt-text about this thing last time. I’m not doing it again. I’m going to talk about things I like instead. Such as Dune: Part Two! Yes! I mentioned it last week and then didn’t ramble about it after seeing it. Well, NOW I WILL. tl;dr it’s good, go see it. I only vaguely remember the book, but I liked the changes they made to center the fact that no, Paul becoming Lisan al-Gaib is not actually a good thing.

Man, it’s nice to see a movie where the costumers and set designers got good time to work on their craft. (cite 6) Even the generic Harkonnen soldiers looked great–reminded me a lot of my beloved Warframe, probably because the costume designer was using H.R. Giger for inspiration there. Everything felt real. Even the stuff that definitely wasn’t–the gigantic spice harvesters and ships felt like living, physically present beings. The sand worms looked great. The movie did a fantastic job visually communicating the massive size of so many things. Especially because the camera remains restrained: no weightless zipping around, the camera itself follows paths and finds locations that make sense. 

Chakobsa continues to be a fantastic conlang, now the work of both David and Jesse Peterson. It’s heard a lot more in this movie, and there are some great flourishes with it. While there isn’t as much Arabic vocabulary in it as in the original books, I remember from DJP’s work streams that he definitely was using the grammar of Arabic as one of his touchstones. Most key words remain Arabic though–jihad was removed, but it made me double-take in the theater when Stilgar referred to Paul as the Mahdi.

I’m of two minds about lowering the Arab influences on the Fremen–on the one hand, missing representation, which included some explicit ties to real world anti-imperial struggles in North Africa and the Middle East. On the other, these first two movies are about how the Fremen are manipulated by a colonial power, using their adherence to a faith that was manipulated by a different colonial power. They become both hapless victims and also perpetrators of colonial violence, with only Chani seeing through it.

I think the general decisionmaking process on cultural changes was motivated by a desire to remove some of Frank Herbert’s bad ideas–particularly around the Harkonnens, thank fuck. That seems to have been the thinking around altering the Fremen a bit as well. Did it succeed? Not my place to say. On all other notes, I have no reservations recommending the movie. It’s a very earnest attempt to bring that world to life, and I think it succeeds.

Overflow Ramble 2

A figure showing the basic steps of the standard Illumina sequencing method (cite 7). It is broken into four sub-figures:

Library Preparation. The genome is snipped into small fragments, then adapters are attached (“ligated”) to stabilize the molecule and make it behave. This creates a “library” of DNA that will be read from.

DNA library bridge amplification. The adapters on DNA fragments stick to a prepared plate, which is covered in little clusters of molecules that specially attach to those adapters. Biochemical processes are then carried out in repeated cycles to duplicate (or “amplify”) those fragments in such a way that the clusters on the plate are all filled with copies of just one DNA fragment.

DNA library sequencing. The DNA is modified so that the four letters it’s made out of all glow a specific color, with each DNA letter shining in sequence. This is pure awesome and I love it.

Alignment and data analysis. Because of some details on how step 1 is done, you have lots of fragments that create an overlapping patchwork of sequences. This allows (most of) the genome to be pasted back together by looking for overlaps (“contiguous sequences”, or “contigs” for short).

Congratulations! You have just attended an abridged graduate-level introductory lecture on Illumina sequencing.

Overflow Ramble 3

A diagram of PacBio Systems’ sequencing technology, Single Molecule, Real-Time Sequencing, or SMRT Sequencing, because scientists love acronyms. Pretty much every step is different from how Illumina does it. I cannot find a diagram that’s both brief and also good at explaining what it’s showing, so this is the best I could find. It’s split into four parts with attendant text, which I’ll try and explain as well.

“SMRTbell template. Two hairpin adapters allow continuous circular sequencing.”

Library preparation basically involves taking a longer chunk of DNA and splitting it in half lengthwise, in such a way that the two strands of DNA will form a single-stranded loop. This is called a SMRTbell library. Why? I have no idea! 

“ZMW wells. Sites where sequencing takes place.”

Then, these are fed into SMRT Cells, which contain zero-mode waveguides (ZMWs). I was once told what this means, and I have completely forgotten, but it sounds like something from Gundam.

“Modified polymerase. As a nucleotide is incorporated by the polymerase, a camera records the emitted light.”

What I do understand is that at the bottom of each of these little holes, they stick a molecule which the DNA sticks to. This molecule, a polymerase, has precisely one job: make more DNA, an exact copy of what it’s latched onto. So you give it this loop of DNA, feed it a soup of free DNA letters, and it starts cranking out a new strand. 

“PacBio output. A camera records the changing colours from all ZMWs; each colour change corresponds to one base.”

Each one of the DNA letters given to the polymerase has a special modifier, on it which flashes a color when the polymerase slots it into the new strand it’s making. A camera picks up this flash. And, because the DNA is a circle, the polymerase doesn’t know where to stop–it just keeps going and going until something breaks or it runs out of letters to work with. This means that even if the camera misses a flash the first time, it will have more chances to see it, and confirm what it already saw.

Wait what in the fuck this figure was from somebody’s thesis (cite 8), but that wasn’t what actually got this into search results. What got it there was a github page with a vtuber avatar sitting in the corner?? What??? (cite 9)

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[inventors-fair]

Hybrid Legend Commentary: From Across the Multiverse

I'm glad to see that a lot of people were excited for this contest, and I think that swinging for the fences in terms of what we know people will like pays off. There's no specific balance that needs to be struck, no lessons to be learned as if we're taking a test. Knowing what's fun is its own test, really, when you compare it against base desires. Is this getting a little too philosophical? Fine, let's get personal.

Sometimes I have contest ideas that are cerebral and weird and make sense only to me. Frankly, I have a lot of those, and those ideas are also based off of the notion that I know more about MTG than I actually do. Shocker: I'm just a dude playing cards. And I'm also someone who sees cool things happen and forms emotional attachments to them. Wort really was just a card that I fell in love with when I was looking at ways to make my very first precon deck happen back in the day. I played random Spirit cards, random creatures—and it worked, and it was fun. Now that we're in the present and I can think critically about card design, I still love those memories. Applying them here and watching everyone else apply them is what makes this all worthwhile.

As we get into commentary, don't forget that JUDGE PICKS are cards that either had an awesome idea I wanted to point out, challenged me in a cool way, or were just plain good and limited by the fact that we can only have so many slots in the top six. Carrying on:

@corporalotherbear — Glissa, Flame of Evolution (JUDGE PICK)

Giving haste in mono-green is super aggressive, but not entirely unheard of; without looking it up, green is either secondary or tertiary in it, right? On a legend, it's a bit of a push but WAR Samut did it, right? I think with the combat trigger, expanding the combat damage trigger from Glissa herself to other creatures is a nice twist on tradition. A curious thing to contend with is the integration of red... Who is the tyrant to which she is referring? Elesh Norn, Vorinclex? The red feels like it's coming from a non-Phyrexian philosophy, ish. Urabrask is a complicated character. Still, her role in the Hunter Maze feels fairly freeing to me. 

For the record, the abilities here are pretty great as it stands. Green and red could both use the growth ability, and it makes T5 plays (and small creatures, too) into Sliths, which is really damn neat. There's a chance that this could be a 5-drop just because of the benefit it brings to your board presence, but that's also assuming they can connect, so who knows? As an aggressive legend, she's pretty hard to deal with, and even if she attacks and dies the turn she comes down, it'll beef up your board and make for a wild time. I think GU would be the wildest combination, honestly—hasty blue creatures in the shell are nasty if they have the right evasion.

Unrelated to the card, back to the color philosophy questions: evolution is a strange beast when it comes to red philosophy. Is there inherent self-drive with how individuals are affected by their environments, or would a red-aligned character resist evolution and its involuntary chain of relationships? There's a wild conflict there that's really cool to think about.

~

@cthulhusaurusrex — Teysa, Envoy of Law

As far as non-interactive cards go, this one is certainly one that fits the bill. I think that first strike is one I'd have to hear an argument for in terms of blue's slice, but if there's enough relevance with the return, well... I get what the argument might be, but I don't think I'm swayed, especially since this card isn't the most fun for a board state. Only having one is probably best since it muddies up the board and is essentially a good taxing defender. Without the ability to utilize the stall on this particular card, I've got the current impression that this card wouldn't do much beyond being a big brick in the middle of combat. Nobody gets in, nobody gets out. Can't say that it's a fun incentive.

But the flavor is something I suppose I can roll with. Once more, we have a maze runner running with a different crew, and I'll admit that the Dragon's Maze version of Teysa was pretty great and had some power going for it. I can imagine that that's where you got your inspiration, since this card doesn't seem to have anything to do with either of Teysa's other cards. Fine by me! I just wish there was something more that she did besides gum the battlefield here. Still, the combat orientation is a nice touch.

~

@curiooftheheart — Gaddock Teeg, Paranoid Cenn

I want to defend this card because it feels remarkably fun and hateful; I used to play hardcore Azorius control back in the day, and having something like this on the battlefield is sometimes even better than Grand Abolisher. I mean, Grand Abolisher is incredible, but this also stops triggered abilities from triggering, it looks at abilities of lands... Oh, wait, it looks at the abilities of lands. Might want to clarify that your opponents can do mana abilities, because otherwise things will get real litigious. IIRC mana abilities can't be countered, right? I'll need to read up on that a bit more.

All the same, I think you were the only person who shifted a Lorwyn character, which makes sense because there actually weren't too many. Brion, Nath, and Wydwen were the only others, right? Maybe so. No matter! In another world, on a shadowy moor, the paranoia increases. Honestly even though it's already established as something that's been tried and true I like the approach you took to this prompt in a way that's actually canon-adjacent. Unless Gaddock died. In which case, shame on you. But yeah, I'm personally a fan of hatebears. I am also of the mindset that cards like this might be too complex for some players. They can just keep a Gaddock count or something, though. Not my problem.

~

@damndroid — Adrix, Unparalleled Genius

Ambitious, granular, and weird! Let's talk about it and start with the flavor. This is a dark turn for sure, and I have the feeling that we'd have to really dig deep to find what happened in the past. Nothing wrong with that, though! From childhood friends to adulthood fiends, you've got an evil genius who uses their friend's body for unethical experimentation. Or something. See, I get the gist, but I'm a little muddled in how the mechanics are supposed to convey the flavor.

Speaking of mechanics, your wording is all over the place, captain. Let's break it down. To the best of my ability, this card should say: "Whenever a non-Merfolk token you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, create a copy of that token, except its name is Nex, Research Assistant, it's 0/1, and it's a legendary Merfolk Zombie in addition to its other types. It gains haste. This ability triggers only once each turn." I'm a little stumped on the flavor of copying things like Treasure and Blood, or how the haste in blue is okay here. I think that aspects of this card would be okay, but perhaps a little more flavor explanation and mechanical directness could serve you well. Right now I'm not as on-board as I'd like to be.

~

@edenzom — Liesa, Vengeful Valkrie

Something tells me that this one wasn't supposed to be common, but the rarity didn't get added in? Don't worry about it too much. I'll assume rare or mythic, probably rare. With that, I do like the triggered ability, and I like the concept of the unearthing. Unless unearth is a big mechanic, I think you could've spelled it out as just an activated ability of this Liesa, but that's your call. I feel that there are a few too many restrictions on the cost of the unearthing, though. Sacrificing humans may be enough. You're also in a trap, though, where you want to run high numbers of humans, but you also probably want the relevant demons, devils and vampires to make this card work the way that it wants to. Is that going too wide? I have the feeling that we're playing with too much flavor and not enough archetyping here.

Still, I'm definitely okay with Liesa going a little bloodthirsty here. She's tapping into the red of the plane and coming back with the power of the demons with which she once forged allyships with. There are costs to everything, but one would be forgiven for assuming that she was a demon herself were it not for the typeline there. With all the avenues that people went for this week, I think this one is really cool conceptually and aligned with the real possibilities that Innistrad's past could have gone down. What if the demons come back, y'know? I think a little mechanical smoothing could've made it go down quiet well.

~

@feyd-rautha-apologist — Reyhan, the Dragonslayer

The flavor of this card from an Abzan standpoint, as well as a warrior standpoint, is pretty on-point for me. I'm curious what you were envisioning for the remainder of the timeline—did Reyhan succeed in defending her clan? If I'm interpreting right, then I can see a world where she becomes an outcast of sorts, a vigilante among the dragon-tribes. It's certainly an interesting angle, focusing more on the individual character rather than their role as a stalwart leader. White's heroic focus isn't often touched upon, at least when compared to the sometimes solitary nature of green and/or white's focus on the group and community.

The mechanics are a little iffy for me, specifically because of the keywords. The eternal hybrid problem is finding a way that both colors can have the overlap, and I feel that some flavor got in the way of in-pie reasoning. Reach is tertiary in white at best, and practically never appears in black (unless it's on a spider-themed card from what I can see). Deathtouch is out of white's pie. First strike is where there would be the most overlap, and that one's fine; it's still overshadowed by the other two. Regarding the wording choices, it's hard to find proper templating but I believe this card could read as: "Reyhan has X as long as it has at least one +1/+1 counter on it, Y as long as it has at least two +1/+1 counters on it, and Z as long as it has at least three +1/+1 counters on it." What would be the best XYZ abilities, I wonder? First strike could be a good aggressive baseline to start, but black and white together have flying, lifelink, double strike and in corner cases indestructible... It's up to you how these things stack and maybe keywords aren't the best place to go, honestly.

~

@helloijustreadyourpost — Zegana, Conclave Visionary (JUDGE PICK)

Oh my goodness, it's supposed to be HAND, that's why the flavor didn't make any sense to me on the first readthrough. Anyway, let's ignore the ribbing that I had planned and point out instead that yes indeed, we have another maze-runner-turned-strange here on stage, and I'm living for it just like I was then. Now, people who are deep into the Ravnican lore might give me crap for this but I like the idea of there being inter-Selesnyan conflict, a little bit. Kkkkinda. Conflict isn't the right concept, but like, different points of view I suppose? Green and white merfolk are bizarre but everyone's accepted, so there's that. Zegana's a cool character from what I remember, so this would be a cool break indeed.

And there's one thing that Zegana's known for, and you've brought that to life here for sure. I wanted to commend this card as a judge pick because of how much of a pain it would be in limited and how the Selesnyans really needed a card like this to go hog wild. It's a card that probably would entice commander players with its swinginess and it fits perfectly into the shells that already want the +1/+1 counters. Board buffs make the world go round and she's no exception. It's also super interesting that everyone BUT her gets the counters. That benevolence is a good touch to show the differences between both card and character.

~

@hypexion — Feather, the Fallen (JUDGE PICK)

Angels without flying definitely get my attention. Looking up Feather's past (again, I'm not super deep into Ravnica), the fact that she had her wings bound makes this card agonizing to see. An angel that has to walk among the blood-soaked streets and make her mark known, disgraced in her power, sword in hand... What's really cool to me is how not-Rakdos she is here. There's no sense of joy or revelry, no art in what she does. There's business to attend to, refracted through the blood covering her eyes... I'm reading too much into this but the POINT is: it's cool.

The mechanical thoughtfulness is also a good touch. While it's a little close to home, the fact that it has to target Feather herself is a good step. Removal begets removal, and buffs mean more removal. I do think that she should be rare and not mythic, but only because opening her would mean a hyper-narrow combat deck if you're gonna build around her aggression. I don't think there's that much real estate to be had. Now, cantrips in the right shell might make her far stronger than I'm initially thinking. Right now, though, I'm landing in the camp of decreased rarity, one line of flavor, and you're golden. Unlike Feather. Poor angel.

~

@kalinary — Etrata, the Consumption

I always thought that oozes were more of a Simic thing, but I'm willing to buy that the murky and stinky under-sewers would be home to a nasty character like this. As for the how and the why... Well, I think that we're missing a couple things on this card. I'd like to have known more about what this card really represented, what she does here, what part of her is still vampyric and the like. "The Consumption" is a pretty big title. I'm not currently getting a sense of story scale.

Mechanically, I'm also underwhelmed. Having to pay a cost that's also contingent on combat damage, AND the fact that it has to eat a creature, AND the fact that it has no evasion and the body is really underwhelming for a mythic... There's a lot left to be desired with this card. When making these big mythics, the things to consider aren't just how the character on them is depicted, but also: if this card is filling in a powerful slot in a set, what can you do to make it theoretically stand out above the theoretical rares? What's the floor/ceiling for that balance? It's a fine card conceptually and I don't dislike the ability. It just feels like a bulk uncommon that's missing flavor text more than a big Golgari legend.

~

@maypletreeway — Gor Muldrak, Trailblazer

I think that I'd've wanted to be told more about Gor's journeys through an attached blurb rather than the flavor text we have here. In that limited space, what I would have wanted to see was how Gor changed completely. What about the red separates him from the blue of his research? From the beginning, I mean—because here and now, I can definitely sense the gist: crazy research guy cuts down the land, makes the paths, discovers the salamanders. That I'm on board with. With how the flavor text is written, I feel like this is more on the continuation of a timeline rather than the alternate/twisted universe.

What I don't fully understand is why, mechanically, Gor has protection from salamanders here. It made sense on the Commander card, but not as much when you're looking at a table where you're the only person making them. Flavor as justification only goes so far. Frankly I think that a solid protection from blue would've been fine. IMO the only reason his first card has any kind of protection is because it was intended for folks to turn salamanders against one another. What I really like about this card is the aggression that you're putting on display. Sacrificing a land to get a 4/3 is pretty bonkers even if it's not as fast as Titania + Safekeeper or something. I'd run a version of this in Gruul aggro.

~

@misterstingyjack — Vargus, Wrathful Raider

Vargus is one of the hottest pirates to sail the multiverse seas, so you've got a lot to make up for in that department. What's happening here, I think, is that you've made a strange Commander-y card that's an odd duck in limited. The thing about goading is that you've got this scenario where you're encouraging folks to attack in a multiplayer manner—goad's specific wording implies it. With a standard set, is that the most grokable? I don't think so, not to the extent that it should be one's first choice for mechanics here.

Still, the vibe of the card is significantly different. Cutting the blue takes the seafaring nature out of the pirate and replaces it with the brutality of plundering. Brutal indeed—a strong way to spread the love. If we're just looking at this from a multiplayer perspective, this card does everything it needs to do well, and the small pirates get to swing in and create trouble for an already troubled opponent. Giving them creatures that deal damage is pretty nuts even if they might not stick around, y'know? In 1-v-1 limited, you're going to get your hits in and I think that this card can hold its own. I'll contend that this design is better in a Commander set than a standard set. I'll also contend that it's pretty slick regardless.

~

@nine-effing-hells — Kruphix, God of Whispers

You're gonna have to make a pretty strong argument for having a mechanical shift from devotion being less than five to less than seven, and why you changed the wording when Phenax is available for a template. As for scrying and surveiling, I think that highlights a personal pseudo-frustration that we live in a world where both of those things are viable in a standard environment. As far as the gods go, I have to say that this card itself feels weak comparatively. There's Eligeth who does it without the life loss, and the build-around is asking for more than I feel is reasonable.

A lot's not changed between this and the original Kruphix with same mana value, same stats. With the manifestation, though, I'll admit that you've made a super cool connection between Kruphix as a prophetic god of knowing re:possibility and as a god of knowing re:accruing that knowledge. Greatness at any cost and whatever, right? The people demanded knowledge and there came a god that rewarded both cunning and ambition. That much I'll absolutely give to you. The rest of the card isn't making me super enthused.

~

@spooneater457 — Tolsimir, Bane of the Conclave

The alternative history you've presented here is concise and pretty well-done. What's up with everyone bringing up Ravnican legends in cool ways this contest? Anyway, not knowing much about Tolsimir beyond the wiki, I think the sense of story you've made is quite interesting. Tolsimir lives, and the dryad is punished, and there's a lot of shakeup in the guild. If nothing else, you can take the joy in knowing that your card made me actually look up the Karlov Manor story to fully understand what was happening.

I do know my mechanics, though, and I know that you've given lifelink to a creature that's red and green, and neither one of those colors have access to lifelink even on their own. Riot's another story, and I appreciate that, although it could've used some reminder text. The damage trigger is, AFAIK and unfortunately, out of red's pie. Green can get some contingent damage, but this is pretty widespread. I think that this card's the sum of its parts and some of its parts are really messed up to the point of being way out of line. As much as I think your story path is one of the coolest divergent splits, I would go back and check the hybrid relationship.

~

@stareyedesper — Dack, Enduring Scoundrel

As you might've seen by now, this was a hybrid contest, not just a multicolor one, where you had to change (e.g. replace) one of the character's colors. Additionally, this was supposed to be based on legendary creatures and not planeswalkers. I'll make some quick judgements, but do keep in mind the contest requirements for next time.

Mechanically, I think it was ambitious to have the specific haunt clause on there. For ease of access, I feel that it could've been easier to just have a death trigger that was contingent upon Dack remaining in exile.

Flavorfully: this is where I'm also a little bit lost. Where is the alterternate aspect happening here? As far as I can tell this takes place right after War of the Spark when Dack dies, and thus becomes a ghost, but that's just one possibility and not a full change of timeline. 

~

@tanknspank — Kaseto, Orochi Maverick (JUDGE PICK)

The orochi are a weird bunch, aren't they? I think you're really pushing the limits of green recursion here, but hey, green gets cards back, red gets the temporary reanimation—there's nothing technically being broken here. It's a great modification staple, and I feel that seeing the orochi reclaim their wild side is an interesting move. Reading up on Kaseto, I can see where you've gone for the change of timeline pretty exactly: he rejects his ancestors and fights against the encroaching world centuries later.

And as far as limited goes, this one feels like a beater, and there's not much more to say about it. I can see the late game having some awesome auras coming down from the creature that had died before with the auras on them, and equipment in the form of reconfigured creatures makes the aggro deck that much more aggressive. Zero complaints here. I think he's a fun casual commander, a fun limited card, and you can use a lot of natural development and sacrifice to make him worthwhile. Maybe I'm not having my heartstrings tugged at with this change of life experience, but that hardly matters when the snake kicks butt—hence a well-earned JP.

~

@wildcardgamez — Killian, Memory Mage (JUDGE PICK)

Young Killian embracing his light side and kindling it with the fires of independence? Yes please! That's a nice change, and as much as the Strixhaven story was...something I didn't really follow, reading up on it makes this card far more unusual. The question the becomes whether or not the Lu family was now all Lorehold in their history (complete alternate universe) or whether this is the path where Killian has broken completely free of his father's shadow. I dunno about the rest of the Lorehold folks, but Killian here certainly feels more education-oriented and down-to-earth. Mechanics are pretty rad for heroic nonsense as well. The timing window restricts this card, but you've got to learn when to play it so that you can maximize the value. Additionally, there's no reason you can't run it out for exile-from-graveyard synergy, but what happens afterwards? Well, maybe it was a mistake to do that, or maybe not, and you learn as you play the cards more. I think the benefit of an school-themed set is that it's fun to have meta moments in that vein. It feels meta to me, anyway. One note is that it should be "exile an instant card" and not just "an instant," because of the way that objects in zones are referred to. I like how it's utilized both for removal and for combat benefits. Neat all around!

Tune in tomorrow for the heat death of the universe. Love yall! @abelzumi

[imthepunchlord]

Kalos needed a win more than the other gens, let's be real.

It did!

Like, XY over all were fun, but you could feel they were incomplete. This is the Gen where the enhanced version (or sequels) felt incredibly absent and Kalos needed more umph. For the game that led us into the 3D, it got the short end of the stick. So it really does need this.

And I think this works out overall. We were ALL dreading the "faithful" BW remakes. And I wasn't that all excited for Let's Go Jhoto, though I found this was the least likely option. So Legends Z-A was a very pleasant surprise. And it's coming out next year at an unknown time! It's got time to cook! Well, assuming they didn't start development recently. Hopefully it's further along than recently started. Either way, it's really good they took a break this year, I got plenty of Pokemon games to replay, and some fan games to play, and I'm just going to curiously keep an eye out for news. And hope the earliest release will be November as then it'll be kinda close to getting a 2 year development, cause the more time to cook the better. I am good waiting for games, I'd rather a finished product than a rushed one.

And by the teaser, there's so much curiosity over it.

Is it really going to be set in the past and a prequel? Or is it going to be more modern-future and a sequel? Helping with the construction of Lumoise City to me leans more past but we'll see. I also wonder if we'll see a Pokemon version of Napoleon as he was the one who wanted Paris reconstructed.

And learning that, apparently, it's entirely set in Lumiose City is going to be interesting to see how that works. Will there be biomes? Or will the Lumiose Catacombs (that it should have) be used as places to catch wild pokemon? And how are we going to play a role in the city reconstruction? It's a different theme and set up to be sure, one I am curious about.

Also, with Mega Evolution coming back (which was my favorite of the gimmicks), I do wonder if this means we'll get more Megas over regional and convergent forms, which I would be a little bummed about, but its cool to get more Megas.

And we'll finally see the Mega Kalos Starters! And maybe Flygon will get a Mega finally! And I know some wanted to Mega Dragonite and we did see Dragonair in the trailer so that's a possibility.

And then there's the fun of the starter speculation, assuming we'll still get a shuffled up trio. Which so far this is the most popular theory I think:

Which does have some merit, as two are based on French royalty/leaders, and Torchic can be tied to the Gallic Rooster.

The only thing to clash is chances are good we'll get Megas for them over regional evolution, and we already got Mega Blaziken. They may prefer to do a whole new trio. Torchic is also a bit of an odd one out as there are 2 specifically based on French royalty and Torchic isn't, unless there is a French royal it could be tied to. Charlemagne is the only other iconic French royal I can think of, but I don't know enough specific details about him outside he unified the Franks and was the first King of France, but maybe Blaziken could work off him?

Either way, I am very curious, a little excited and hopeful, though more cautious optimistic. I am hoping this game will have enough time to cook. I do love Pokemon and I want to see this franchise thrive and be the best it can be. So I am curiously excited for us to revisit Kalos soon and see how it's going to go.

[aurheatum]

toa anniversary mun day

under cut

Name: 

Nel, i mean it’s Sarah technically, but once you start getting multiple notes in the mail with Nel on them I think it counts. Nelfes works too. I respond to most anything tbh

Pronouns:

she/her or they/them

Birthday (no year):

Dec 6th Saint Nicholas Day : )

Where are you from? What is your time zone?

Chicago. CST [GMT-5].

Roleplay experience:

Over ten years, started on Neopets and other forums. Moved to Gaia Online and then Tumblr indie space some time in 2011.

Got any pets?

Baby boy

Favorite time of year:

Springtime or Autumn

Some interests and things you like:

I’ve always been super into mythology, all of them. I used to think that Carl Jung was onto something with the collective unconscious but then Anthropology and the reality of multilineal evolution ruined that for me (college will teach you things); but that’s alright because humans their ability to create and interpret their surroundings with equal parts love and fear is still pretty cool.

Some funfacts & trivia about you:

-Agnostic but i work in an occult library (it’s pretty quiet; the new age bookshop across the street has all the events)

-One time on Gaia Online I was kicked out of an Okami RP bc I didn’t make my posts aesthetic enough, and I thought it was just the most heart wrenching thing -I’m not sure what people stand to gain back in Ye Old Runescape luring new players out into the wild and PKing them but I was gullible enough to follow some other players at like 7 yrs old and this would have happened to me if i wasnt SUPER good at clicking my mouse and running out of there. Surviving such a harrowing experience made me think i was truly invincible.

-I was supposed to write my final paper for my Japanese Buddhism class on… surprise, Japanese Buddhism but I really wanted to talk about Kenji Miyazawa’s writings instead so I spun it through a lens of his Nichiren conversion and its impact on his poetry. My prof saw right through me but I still got an A.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play?

Tales of RPG series raised me as a person so u know. I like Persona 1-2 era SMT though I’ve played Nocturne and IV as well. What else? Okami, LOZ: Twilight Princess, farm sims and visual novels. Genshin, on and off.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon:

Psychic; wooper family (clogsire im so glad u joined us)

How did you get into Fire Emblem?

My neighbor would bring over Path of Radiance so I could play it on my gamecube with my own save back in the day

What Fire Emblem games have you played?

Tellius duology. Sacred Stones, FE 13-16; currently doing Blazing Blade. Archanea one day.

First Fire Emblem game:

POR

Favorite Fire Emblem game:

Tie between 3 Houses and Radiant Dawn

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 

It’s rhea okay. I wont lie and i wont pretend it isnt evidence of my spectacular taste either

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Tiki (first S support was olivia bc i wanted a pink haired kid)  - Fates: honestly i’d have to revisit, i know i first married niles as m!corrin - Three Houses: I married each lord on their route tho it’s much funnier if you dont i think (First route was Crimson Flower but I saved at the split so I could marry Rhea first lmao) - Engage: Saphir 🥰

Favorite Fire Emblem class:

War Cleric or Qi Adept

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class?

I’d be the mage you have to drag around and treat with baby gloves only to learn like a single good spell I think

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation?

Leicester Alliance tbh

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with?

Based purely on mechanics bc i love them all prob Soren dlc, Sigurd, Celica, and Lyn.

How did you find TOA?

End of 2020/beginning of 2021 I was really trying to get back into rp but couldn’t get into the various systems on discord. One community that I was trying was affiliates with The Officer’s Academy and an active tumblr community rly caught my interest. The rest is history!

Current TOA muses:

Rhea 3H, Micaiah Radiant Dawn, and miss Hortensia engage

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again?

This blog right here! I put her down for a bit and probably will again but. It’s not like she ever leaves, instead of brain there is Rhea u see (i bear this burden so u do not have to)

Have you had any other TOA muses?

I played Sephiran for a hot sec and Ingrid for around a yearish iirc. Both very fun

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards?

Not really? I need to be able to connect with them on some level obviously, and I tend to prefer characters who have like a clear childhood or background for why they are That Way. Micaiah was actually p difficult for this reason but being able to really shape her based on what little we know also made me ever more fond. ♥️ I love to stare at pegasusknight and serenesforest supports pages late at night tehe

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most?

I don’t particularly plan ahead but I really love when threads reflect past character development whether in a thread with the same muse or different. TOA extended universe… I’d like to do that more I think but first I have to actually make a support page huh? Since Rhea’s back she’s made more bonds though and that makes me happy.

Favorite TOA-related memory: Definitely Unlocked 2021! It was my first event after really starting to warm to the TOA community and i was an awe of the scope of the events. The mods thought this far ahead?! We can do this?! Every event since has just been even more fun but the surprise and intrigue i felt then really stayed with him

*How do you pronounce TOA?

Toe-uh. Like Dee-En-Dee. you know.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day that you’d like to share? 😉 

I think I mentioned I muse Hubert before, and also that I can't really seeing myself maintaining a blog for him? So other than that, no. I do think Nimh could be quite a bit of fun though *laughs*

[trainer-sean]

Pokemon IRL Au: starters, theories, and Domestication.

So I was watching one of those, 'What If (-this state-) had starter pokemon' videos and i just kinda went off with my imagination, this prompt starts with my initial comment on the video, so sorry that it just flow as well as it does when seen as a comment on a video.

The mental image of the version of our world where pokemon exist, and each State apparently selectively breeding their own unique set of starters and probably have a f**k ton of 'regional variants' that are basically just a paldea Tauros situation all over the country just scrambles my brain a bit to much.

Like one states starter has a evolutionary ancestor thats treated like a infestation in some of the other states! A raccoon pokemon starter that now has three stages, when in some of the other states a raccoon pokemon that the starter descended from is a two stage, but its evolved form is strong as f**k, like pseudo legendary status strong!

imagine all the regular pokemon we know that had populations caught and domesticated into starter pokemon, that'd be so freaking cool! like, they'd have to breed with other pokemon of the same egg group to be made a certain type and desired move set. imagine the type of breeding methods it takes to develope the Torrent, Overgrow, and Blaze abilitys, we all know there's a bug type version called Swarm, but how do they develope in the breeding of starter pokemon. if you think about it from the stand point of, gain more power when your backs against the wall, it becomes a little morbid in a sense. Do you actively have them fight in a way that forces them to give it beyond their all when they are in trouble?

imagine if the Elemental monkeys were an attempt to breed some starter pokemon from the same evolutionary(darwinian) ancestor, but the original breeders(who were probably spread across the world in different isolated places, and swapped around certain members to other breeders to prevent incest breeding) stopped part way through, and just released the monkeys, and because they all lived together in labs the trio of species naturally are drawn too and live along side each other! makes me curious about the original, maybe it was a triple branch evo, that leads to a dual type in each one, which is why it was chosen, and where the stone evolution was from. Maybe it wasn't even the same types as the elemental monkeys, but were secondary typings, like a normal type that evolves into three dual types of Dark/fire, Psychic/water, or Ghost/Grass using the Dusk, Dawn, and shiny stones? I wonder what the final results would have been like, maybe they would have a hidden ability that allowed them apply Stab to moves based on the type of evo stone they were holding! The theme these three had was Chefs if I remember correctly.

I'm sure some species had the triple stage evos naturally, but I'm certain not all of them had them.

I'd love to see domesticated descendants of known pokemon that were breed into starter pokemon, like a Fire starter that descended from Lucario, of course none of the stages could be called Lucario after its domestication and breeding.

Maybe I should do something with this? Like I come up with a large group of wild fakemon based on animals found in my state and those around it, and choose three to be made into starters, I'll probably use that Raccoon example, I've been seeing alot of Raccoon recently, but only as roadkill, which is pretty morbid, but also a somewhat good inspiration, ghost typing, but for the wild ancestor thats still running around.

-maybe in this Au, someone has actually bred The Shinx line to be Dark type? Though I never understood everyone's obsession with being mad about that, Incineroar is literally a wrestler, I dont see people being mad its not a fire/fighting type, and I don't care about if its because of the drama of Fire/Fighting type starters. Same thing with Absol, it has Psychic powers to perceive incoming disasters, and its a pure dark type, I dont see people getting mad about that! Its dark type literally only aligns with its emo obsession of needing to be mysterious and socially awkward!

-also, this breeding thing could contribute to more powerful versions of pokemon. Mega evolutions literally just stacks the biological potential of the pokemon into what it'll naturally develope into in the future, and unlocks some dormant genes. I'm sure you could literally breed that kind of result into a species. Maybe its how 'mega evolution' could exist in this universe, just, literal battle bred breeds of pokemon. I'm sure the tributes of the Primal Paradox pokemons designs could work for 'Mega Bred' breeds. Maybe the idea developed from some old action show, and the show used the fictional 'mega evolution' as the gimmick in it, and people just, liked it and applied natural logic and science to it and bred these Uber strong pokemon.

-the gender ratio of starter pokemon was also likely bred on purpose, and likely most females are held so its harder for others to bred their own for a profit.

[withoutatrace-pkmn]

did some more research into the Bloodmoon Beast btw and holy shit you guys. first of all it’s from Sinnoh which like, isn’t that far from kitakami but it is still very much an overseas travel?? like the stamina and the swimming capabilities of this massive ground type Pokémon is phenomenal.

BUT the even more exciting part is that this Bloodmoon Beast came over from Sinnoh hundreds of years ago. And it’s still here today.

Do you know the lifespan of an Ursaring? It’s 20 - 30 years. Up to 50 if captured. This Ursaluna has survived for upwards of two hundred years in the wild.

Literally the only reasons we don’t have Ursaluna today is because they rarely evolve in the wild, the evolution method was lost to us, and wild Ursaluna were hunted to extinction due to human fear of their prodigious strength. Reading that fact in the history books always made me so sad for what we’d lost, so knowing an Ursaluna is still alive and kicking ass here in Kitakami?? makes me happy beyond belief.

Obviously not much is known about this beautiful beast due to the danger inherent in closely studying it, but research does suggest it’s taken on a protector-role in the Timeless Woods (similar to the Grimmsnarl in Tagtree), which is a very interesting role for a technically invasive species. I say technically, because at this point the Bloodmoon Beast is clearly an integral member of the ecosystem in the woods. Honestly, it doesn’t surprise me that it’s become a protector. Ground types are generally territorial. Though that does lead me to wonder why it left it’s home in the first place … maybe to escape the persecution that got the rest of its kind killed? (ack, now I’m sad again…)

Most photos of the Beast are of poor quality, but a few of note show it interacting with Trevenant (another species of Pokemon to be protectors of their home environment), suggestive a collaborative relationship which I think is just sweet tbh.

Anyway. Sorry to ramble, but man that’s a cool beast. I love ground types so much guys.

[ferahntics]

Your charcadet headcanons are so adorable!! What about their evolutions? Do you think their personalities change depending on what they evolve into? Also, if you had to choose one, which one is your favorite? Ceruledge has my heart, personally.

Late but I'm so glad you like them!!! I've been thinking about these for a while, so don't worry, this ask has been in the back of my mind for a while, I just wanted to actually come up with interesting ideas c:

Charcadet headcanons here!

Short answer: yes there are some slight differences! Like with age as you grow and mature, same with Pokemon as they evolve, some changes more noticeable than others. Although they retain most traits from their Charcadet days, there are some distinguishable things~

Long answer under the cut!

For both, its true that they are fiercely protective. Armarouge tend to be much more obvious in wanting to protect their trainers, often times leading to reckless charging into danger and will put themselves between their trainer and whatever threat looms. However if they seem to be losing, or they know they can't take it, they can just throw their trainer over shoulder and bolt for it. They have reached that much maturity and are able to tell when they can take something and when it's best to back off.

Ceruledge are more... passive, shall we say. They tend to stick back and have just a smidge more control, usually thinking before acting. Instead, they tend to sit back and just seethe, glaring daggers and making sure they are being watched on by one violent hawk. The slightest movement from whatever they're suspicious of is enough to get a hiss from their flames heating up, ready to strike at a heartbeat. It's. Quite concerning, admittedly.

Armarouge are more emotionally oriented, sometimes a little too much, and can lead to very not-good decisions. Although most mature after evolving, some of them let their emotions go wild even afterwards. They want the best for their trainers and will go the distance for it - and much like Charcadet, they sometimes overestimate their limits and can burn themselves out, flames dulling and betraying their health.

Ceruledge tend to have much better control over their emotions, and usually make the more level-headed decisions. They're equally ready to do anything for those they care about, but are much more careful about where their limits actually lie. They may be more on the reserved side, too. After evolving, they may distance themselves from affection a tad bit - not because they don't want it, but because they fear of letting their guards down and risking some form of ambush.

For Armarouge: after using Armor Cannon, they might struggle with a little bit of arm pain, shoulder and elbow joints, from the recoil of the blast. It’s best they take it easy the next few fights as to not risk any major injuries. Also, using it in a close proximity can be dangerous and unless they have the Flash Fire ability, will damage themselves!

For Ceruledge: using Bitter Blade increases the heat of their body to a pretty dangerous amount and will need a while to cool off. And as the ability states, it does force it to channel some nasty memories - so they can be more touchy afterwards after reliving those, so its best to either leave them alone for a bit, or if you’re more familiar with them, try to keep them grounded. This hugely depends on what kind of relationship the trainer and Ceruledge have.

In terms of affection, they both still very much crave it. Armarouge are more open and love to receive it as much as they love to give it - they can afford to do so. Ceruledge may start off as not wanting it, mostly because it takes them a while to learn they can actually control the flame blades and tune them out (like Chimchar with its fire) - once they figure that out, they allow simple headpats and quick hugs. Not quite as clingy as Armarouge, but they certainly enjoy it more than they show it.

Both still very much crave that sense of protection and safety their trainer can provide them as well. Like before evolution, it's an act of kindness that will never be forgotten by either of the two species.

TLDR: Armarouge is extrovert, Ceruledge is introvert. (I'm joking, but I mean xD)

EDIT: OUGH I didnt answer the question - I love and adore both, honestly, they’re on a very dangerously close tie x-x I love Ceruledge but Armarouge is also hnnnng I cant pick, so I use both on my team JKSDHG

Also added a few more ideas!!

[rhinco]

TOP 5 SHARKS (❍ᴥ❍ʋ)

🌼 plus a little flower because you're lovely!

WHEEEE

flower for you too :D 🌷

(in no particular order)

whaleshark!! classic, my old fave :)) the first one of these discovered was actually off the coast of south africa which is pretty rad!! these big guys are filter feeders, and the largest fish ^-^

2. thresher sharks! these guys are so cool.. their tails grow as long as their bodies and they use them as a whip to stun prey and catch them easier

3. chain catsharks aka glow in the dark sharks !! these little dudes are bioluminescent and so pretty :))

4. okay prehistoric shark moment. helicoprion. bc i love these motherfuckers. look at this shit. there's several different theories as to exactly where and how this spiral tooth functioned but either way i just think it's metal as fuck that evolution decided to give a species a fucking SPIRAL JAW.

5. hmgmfk okay you know what gonna go with great whites. they get a bad rep but they're actually so cool and they deserve so much better. they also actually have never successfully been kept in captivity, with all attempts dying after i think less than a year. while it is true that great whites are one of the few species known to attack humans, its very exaggerated and hollywood has sensationalised great white sharks in particular to be much worse than they are. they're wild animals, and should be treated as such! they can be dangerous and we need to be wary of that but ultimately they are just creachers

[droshawoluv]

For a while I've been thinking of putting words why Digimon Adventure 2020 doesn't make me want to be super invested into it (but still entertained) and it all boils down to: it doesn't make me cry lmao.

I love that, I love being invested in that and characters having emotional rollercoaster everywhere and traumatic backstories or memories and then I am crying along Taichi feeling a deep rooted guilt because how almost killed his own sister, or how they see Digimon get brutally killed and instead of being scarred for life they are like "oh no...anyway off to victory!"

But I have to admit it's nonsensical fun and just a good time at points, which is what I want for every time the destined children are together (which is another issue, when they join they split, when they reunite they are drifted away, when they make it back they are drifted away again). But when it happens, there are fun moments just like every Mimi and Joe episode 🤣 (is the potatomon a reference to Joe singing "Kaze no fraido potato"? Because that's make it a 10/10)

It's frustrating maybe if the OTT plot in the real world appears and gets solved in between the main journey, are we fighting Devimon or are we helping the NASA, or both? Why is Omegamon appearing so much? When did their Crest meaning have to do with something? + the timing or moments or reason behind every new evolution may give that "eh that wasn't as satisfying". But if I look it just as the silly fun and COOL AS FUCK animations and moves, then I have fun myself! Accepting that I won't be crying just of imagining what a character may feel, and see them do stuff made it to me to enjoy it more, I like the wild digimon leveling up because survivor of the fittest type of thing, and they do show nice relationship between each other (in fact, one of the best moments are when there is no ISS crisis AND they are still together as group):

Taichi being a source of support and encouragement to Koushiro, the siblings relationship, Taichi and Sora being that 1-2 leading combo and being the reliable parents. Yamato being that cool tsun tsun but not annoying dude. Mimi is always queen in every universe. Joe using Zudomon hammer what the fuck go off king. Cute things to catch up from that.

And also, the fact that I don't have to watch the same attacking animation 17890 times through the show is so important. Imagine Digimon Adventure or Tamers with these animations, is insane. I thought the warpevolution was already cool, seeing Wargreymon appearance not the first, but the second time show an animation that was the coolest evolution animation ever in that technical stuff.

In summary, a lot of things to not care about the whole of it (so far, chapter 40 already), but taking bits individually (that you may completely forget because it's irrelevant to the big scene) is actually cool! Some I can remember off the top of my head are

Mimi chan kingdom; Joe and Gomamon speaking before Ikkakumon evolution; Yamato having a small "wow these bozos are caring about me and supporting me? Is this...FRIENDSHIP?" bc you know, his crest and all; the way MetalGreymon evolved, like, is not better than the OG of course, but I mean how he was fighting a bigger dude and for MANY times they were trying but not giving up, as in, showing their courage, made sense; Lillymon and the whole nature defeating the machinery of Andromon; Holy Digimon being special and focusing on that; Tailmon fears and struggles up to its Angewomon evolution (MarineDevimon was a good idea to put there); the one solving the ISS crisis being Koshiro not just in knowledge but in action trusted by his friends and leader Taichi; Taichi and Sora playing football together heck yeah cuties show how well you both combine for everything and be cute in front of my salad (they are making it on purpose, Taichi gets trapped and immediately the Love emblem shines to evolve to Garudamon).

Is there a Team Light and Team Hope coming apparently? That's cute. Looking forward to it.

Anyway, just wanted to write about it for so long since I have that "ok I get where this is heading and it's to not make me cry" feeling but I have different thoughts, not mostly bad or anything.

Should start making Gifs of these moments I loved.

[the-grove]

Powders PokeGang

Okay so I actually am having a really hard time to bringing my team down to 6. Part of the issue is that Gen 9 brought a lot of designs that I like. But there are a lot of older mon I also really really like. So I'm gonna have to make some choices. That being said the first mon on this list is an evolution of my favorite pokemon that made me love it even more so to start off the list

Anhilape (Fighting/ghost)

From an early age our system wan enamored with Mankey, especially Ash's Mankey from the anime. Primeape was a pretty cool evolution of the concept. It was mostly a bigger mankey with bigger muscles but it worked. Monkey's are a favorite animal of mine. In part due to the fact Monkey was a nickname for us growing up. It was associated with our deadname but despite our dislike for that name, Monkey is still a name that bring us joy. Anhilape is a fantastic evolution of primeape, keeping the basic core concepts while also going through a larger transformation then its previous chain. The wild flowing hair, the angry grumpy look(That also kind of looks tired and adorable) the way the fur looks like shaggy wisps. And one of the best details, it lost one of the bands on it's wrist and the other one broke, it's just overflowing with power. Not to mention it's signature move, Rage Fist, is such a fun and powerful concept.

2) Sharpedo (Water/Dark)

I think sharks are cool, I think explosions are cool, it's a shark torpedo. Whats not to love. I love it's aggressive yet adorable face, it's pointy teeth. Sharks are an animal that multiple members of the system love, Princess and I especially. Plus it has such smooth skin. 3) Mimikyu (Ghost Fairy)

Mimikyu is scary and adorable, it's powerful, it's lonely, and misunderstoodd. I love the child like doodle on it's disguise. Mimikyu reminds me a lot of my memories from my source. I would love a plush one that I could hold on days when I feel especially bad. Maybe one day.

4) Grafaiai (Poison/Normal)

Another monkey like pokemon. While called the Toxic Monkey pokemon it's actually has visual inspiration from Lemur(especially the Aye aye) and the Slow Loris. It is also inspired by graffiti artist, hence the wicked cool eyes, and the bright colors on its fingers. It is such an adorable mischievous little creature. Strong Contender for favorite mon. 5) Farigiraf (Normal/Psychic)

Girafarig was a pokemon I hadn't thought too much about. It was cute but never my favorite. It's evolution however is super cool looking while also adorable. The way the heads have combined give it two super cute/cool looks. When the second head is open, you can see the adorable face of the first and it looks Cozy in a Hoodie. When the second head closes its mouth, it looks a bit alien, mysterious and cool. It's a bit spooky but not too spooky. Alright before we get to number 6 I just want to say this last pick was the hardest choice. I had 5 Pokemon I was considering. I could easily see myself switching them out depending on the challenge or what. But I have to have 6 so here we go 6) Infernape (Fire/fighting)

HAD TO DO IT TO EM TRIPLE MONKEY. Okay so Infernape is another one of my favorite pokemon. I am a big fan of Sun Wukong and characters and concepts inspired by him. I also find it interesting how Infernape I feels sort of out of place on the rest of my team which as a darker feel to it. Infernape brings some much needed warmth. So while I do have some favorite types(Ghost, Fire, Fighting, Dark, electric you know spooky types and types that *POP*) my team was picked with not really thinking of typings in mind but rather the individual pokemon without much else in mind. So I want to talk about the 4 honorable mentions that could Have taken Infernapes place. 1) Tinkaton- This new mom is an adorable little menace and I would love to come up with schemes with it. 2) Mr.Mime- I have a love of mimes and clowns so Mr.Mime just seemed fitting, Mr.Mime is actually probably the least likely one to have made it on the final team. That doesn't mean I don't like him, but yeah. 3) Vikavolt- Vikavolt would have been my electric representation on the team and it actually shared a quality with sharpedo. They are both animals that have modern weaponry as a design influence.

4) Gengar- Gengar is the OG Ghost pokemon. I's design is simple yet perfect, chubby little ghost. Would also be on the Menace squad with Tinkaton , Grafaifai and Mimikyu. Probably had the highest chance alongside Tinkaton to make it

-Powder Signing off

[athetos]

What are some bits of Pokémon lore that some may not know about?

Oh man, where to begin… there’s so much to choose from. This isn’t so much lore as it is random facts but:

- the reason that the gen 7 starter evolutions leaked early was due to their concept art being created for smash ultimate. They knew they wanted to put one of them in the game, so they did extra art and shared it, where it got leaked. We will probably never see leaked concept art like that again.

- if you haven’t seen the space world leaks, check them out! They’re a bunch of leaked Pokémon from an early beta of Pokémon gold/silver. Lots of Pokémon were scrapped! You can see a baby meowth, a baby vulpix, and everyone LOVES beta wooper.

- junichi masuda, a prominent director for Pokémon games today, was originally the games composer.

- pikachu was designed by a woman! She said one of her favorite things was making Pikachu very cute but also rare.

- Pokémon designers get no say in the shiny colors of their Pokémon, or their moveset or lore. That’s sad…

- flygon was supposed to get a mega evolution, but Ken sugimori, the lead designer, couldn’t come up with a cool enough design. Poor flygon.

- the first Pokémon coded into the first game was Rhydon!

- mew was apparently designed AFTER mewtwo. This also sort of proves the ditto = failed mew clone theory isn’t true? As ditto was designed beforehand. Mew was added last minute as well! They had some space on the cartridge left over and decided why not.

- lugia was created by the anime director, who had… well. There’s a didyouknowgaming video about it. It’s a wild story. He really wanted lugia to be anime-exclusive and threw a fit when it wasn’t allowed, for starters.

- magmar’s Japanese name is “boober”.

Okay some competitive stuff now, that is fascinating to me:

- the most used Pokémon in ubers (the tier that allows most legendaries and Overpowered Pokémon) is Zacian. The most used Pokémon in OU (the next highest tier; the one most tournaments are in) is Landorus-T. And the most used Pokémon in little cup (level 5 first stage Pokémon only) is mienshao. Seriously, mienshao is everywhere. If you don’t have mienshao on your team you’re almost always going to lose.

- there is a way to get an Arcanine that can’t be damaged in a double battle. It’s very difficult to pull off. But essentially, it works by passing Shedinja’s WonderGuard to Arcanine, and then using burn up, which makes Arcanine lose its fire typing. It becomes ??? Type which has no weaknesses.

- most people know this even if you’re not a competitive player, but there’s a strategy called FEAR. It means Focus Sash Endeavor quick Attack Rattata. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Most people recognize the strategy but it’s so funny to catch people off guard with it.

- exeggutor used to be OU for red and blue and is now worst tier. Poor guy. He’s just horribly outclassed.

- porygon 2 sees more usage than Porygon Z, because when it holds a evolite, it’s stronger.

- it tools YEARS for people to realize body slam won’t paralyze normal types in red and blue. See, gen 1 was coded so that electric types can’t be paralyzed, fire types can’t be burned, ice types can’t be frozen, and poison types can’t be poisoned. But the code actually works by saying a Pokémon of that same type attack can’t get its status effect. Which, usually isn’t a problem, because most moves that cause paralysis ARE electric type. Except body slam, which is normal. And this normal types can’t be paralyzed.

- normal type was actually a really good type in gen 1 because fighting types sucked. They were weak to psychic (which dominated the scene) and didn’t have the best attacks. But normal is only weak to fighting, and since it rarely ran into fighting types, it was a good choice since nothing was super effective. Dark type was made to weaken psychic types and balance the game. Nowadays, I would say fairy and steel are the dominate types, steel is very good defensively and fairy overwhelms dragon types (which also used to be OP). The worst type… probably ice. It really doesn’t have many great options. Lot of weaknesses. Alolan ninetales is good because it’s also fairy and has Aurora veil, but most other ice types don’t really stack up.

[undercityrezident]

I posted 1,262 times in 2022

That's 562 more posts than 2021!

87 posts created (7%)

1,175 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@pkmncoordinators

@rat2rrj

@ranger-kellyn

@mousewich

@cascadena

I tagged 1,261 of my posts in 2022

#pokemon - 696 posts

#fanart - 642 posts

#pokeani - 246 posts

#the legend of zelda - 222 posts

#princess zelda - 130 posts

#link - 123 posts

#swsh - 107 posts

#legends - 104 posts

#breath of the wild - 96 posts

#zelink - 88 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i'm loving this new appreciation on the writers' end for his previous journeys after years and years and years of them kind of shunning it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I might’ve made Hisuian Clemont... Oops...

12 notes - Posted January 28, 2022

#4

Alright... that’s a lot to unpack... good grief... what an episode.

Ok, where are we? I guess the start is as good a place as any to begin.

So, here we are in part four of Leon vs. Ash. At least one of my predictions came true: Eternatus helped solve the problem that Ash and Leon’s Gigantamax and Z-move created. I’m glad that, in that sense, Eternatus didn’t interfere in the match so much as to have them call it off. I could’ve very easily seen the writers doing that as a cop-out not wanting to break Leon’s winning streak while not giving Ash another finals loss.

I do wonder what exactly changed such that Eternatus is now trying to actively keep away another occurrence of the Darkest Day, aside from just being a captured pokemon. Maybe that’s all it really takes. I might’ve appreciated more hints and scenes on this change in behaviour aside from the one we got the episode before the battle, but I can’t ask for too much more for such a one-off thing, I suppose.

Anyway, the lesson here we learn here is don’t mix your battle enhancements. Z-Moves and Gigantamax moves apparently have violent, explosive, world-altering chemistry.

I think the best thing we got out of that encounter was Team Rocket narrating the events to the same rhythm and rhyme as their motto. Considering I don’t really care for TR always butting into the match and eating up valuable screen time, that’s saying something.

That all aside, we can’t say that Eternatus didn’t do anything to influence the match. They apparently gave Leon and Ash another use of Gigantamax, which Leon elected to use on Cinderace this time while Ash could only use it with his lone contender, Pikachu. In retrospect, I should’ve expected something like this because we’d also been exposed to Gigantamax Pikachu far earlier in the series. I’m surprised I didn’t think of it, but I guess it’d been long enough that I forgot about the big round Pika-friend and his extra-long lightning-tail.

Strangely, we only got one move out of each of those Gigantamaxes with a cool pairing of move impacts that each tried to hold at bay. The announcer said the impacts forced them back to normal size, which seemed like a really conveniently mundane answer. I would’ve gone with something along the lines of the fact that Enternatus only provided so much power for their second Gigantamax, but that’s just me.

That said, the visuals in this face-off were pretty cool, and I love Cinderace trying to repeatedly kick the damn lightning bolt back up into the sky. That said, Cinderace must be quite frail since I’m reasonably certain it took little to no damage in its other appearances in the match. Meanwhile, Pikachu took that giant fire-soccer-ball like a champ and went on to stand up against Charizard.

I do appreciate that, in the end, after all those battle enhancements through the match we do come down to a classic pokemon battle. No Mega Evolution. No Z-moves, no Gigantamax or Dynamax. Just  Pikachu vs. Charizard.

And after all that, after we finally... finally... got some screens of Ash’s past travelling companions that we’ve been missing! Another shot of the ranch crowd; Misty; Brock, Cilan, and Alexa all in the same room, May and Serena in contest garb with Max and bonus Lisia! I’m not sure why we haven’t been able to get them until now, but thank god we finally got them in before it was all over.

Now, I’d be here all night if I were to narrate every move exchange between the pair of battlers because damn, there are a lot, and damn, some of them work great on screen. Pikachu using an electroweb to delay a fire blast long enough to dart away. Charizard taking an iron tail in the chest to be able to use a dragon pulse at point-blank range. Pikachu jumping from ancient power boulder to ancient power boulder like in his gym battle with Grant back in XY to get to the fucking ceiling of the arena. Dueling moves as the pair fall back to the ground. The raw displays of power between the two pokemon as they try and intimidate each other and show off their strength.

I won’t lie, I was captivated. This is the kind of battling I love to see. This is why I come back to this anime time and time again. For these moments. For these battles. I swear, for a few minutes there, I forgot about all the critiques I had for the rest of the battle in the previous three episodes leading up to this. I might’ve even forgotten my all-to-often-displayed annoyance for Leon’s character too.

This was just raw, high-octane, amazing battle and animation fueled by rad music and peak emotional investment from the trainers, the pokemon, and even me.

Then Pikachu took a nasty fire blast hit, beginning, for me, the most poignant and powerful part of the episode. All to the tune of Pikachu’s heaving breaths, we got to see the looks on everyone’s faces as we waited to see if the little yellow mouse would continue to stand:

Dawn and Chloe; Team Rocket; our favourite badass ladies, Cynthia and Diantha; Misty; May and Serena holding hands, and Max is there too; the two mentors in Cilan and Brock; Iris on her iPad; my precious lemon siblings, Clemont and Bonnie; the whole fucking Alola gang, and then the Alola adults too; the Oak Ranch crowd; and finally, Goh.

Then, from behind Pikachu’s own eyes, we saw the moment he fell over. This next part of the episode that made me actually choke up a bit.

For Pikachu, all in its own mind within presumably fractions of a second--though stretched out for us and him--a reunion with all his friends: Ash’s pokemon. All of them. From every region. Kanto. The Orange Islands. Johto. Hoenn. Sinnoh. Unova. Kalos. Alola. And the latest team too. And even pokemon Ash released, traded, or otherwise left with others: Butterfree, Pidgeot, Primeape, Ambipom, Goodra, and Nagandel.

I’m a sucker for nostalgia, I won’t even try to hide that. I love when the anime acknowledges the past sagas. And this was wonderful for me. The feelings that welled up for me had me clutching my chest.

And then finally, Ash comes up and tells him, “That’s right Pikachu! Everyone’s at our side!”

That’s when Pikachu gets up and lets out a frighteningly powerful thunderbolt that even has Charizard and Leon recoiling.

That’s when Ash turns his cap back when we know things are really hitting their peak.

That’s when Leon throws his cap off and does his goofy, though I suppose now quite appropriately timed, pose as the two contenders finally meet in their final clash of the match.

Pikachu meeting Charziard in the middle, shrouded in pure electric power contrasted against red-hot flame, was a powerful feat of animation...

...and made me wonder why we ever gave up Volt Tackle.

Cut to Pikachu on a bed in the local Pokemon Center, us as audience members supposedly clueless as to who won. It was a strange way to delay telling us who won, since they really didn’t make us wait long to show it anyway. But all said, the finale of Charizard getting domed on the head by Pikachu, letting out one last frustrated gout of flame before keeling over, was pretty neat.

Then, to my surprise, an actual moment of character development for Leon! We’d been teased, very lightly, with flashbacks to Leon as a kid. This culminates here in the completion of those scenes with us seeing none other than a young (and hella adorable) Sonia beating the young new trainer, Leon.

I actually really love the idea of the unbeatable champion having actually lost to someone before, and that someone being Sonia. Sorry Ash, you weren’t the first!

But that’s ok! Because you beat him when it counted, Ash! You got there, to that champion podium, with that damn trophy that’s almost as big as you (you really gotta grow up soon already Ash... you’re not going to be able to carry these home if they keep growing at the rate they are and you’re growing at the rate you are...).

We got another moment with the gang back at Oak Ranch, our phaesporia crumbs with Diantha and Cynthia pining for another match (so why not each other... heheh), cuts to Ash’s supporters in the crowd (aww why no cuts to our lovely companions watching from afar again? Aw... oh well...) and then, finally, to the next morning for the segue into Goh’s own finale to come next week.

See the full post

12 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

#3

Odd thought:

So it’s quite heavily implied that Clemont was the one to come up with the idea of integrating Rotoms into the Rotomdex, thus kickstarting the idea of having Rotoms become a common sight in frequently used electronic devices that benefit from having autonomous and mobile behaviour, such as phones and cameras in battle arenas.

Considering that the Rotomphone is a continued fixture of the upcoming Scarlet/Violet games, on top of having been popularized in Galar and with the Rotomdex getting a start in Alola, it seems like the idea of using Rotoms in convenient electrical devices has really taken off on a multi-regional, perhaps even international, scale.

So...

I hope Clemont is seeing some sort of royalty benefits of this if these products are being monetized. Given the very commercialized nature of the Galar League (or at least implied commercialization, given that it mimics soccer leagues in theming in that region, on top of the fact we see adverts on the boards of the stadium as well as even on Leon’s cape), I can’t imagine that the Galar league gets to make use of the Rotom drone cameras for free. Therefore, someone likely makes and sells them to the league or the individual stadiums, which are likely financed by the league in some manner. If the pokemon world parallels our world, aside from Rotomphones given to young trainers to ensure they can communicate for safety and convenience on the road, I imagine that Rotomphones are something one has to buy as well.

Now, I’ve always headcanoned Clemont and his family lived in rather modest conditions (perhaps not below the poverty line, but not too far above it either, perhaps in the lower end of middle class). I hoped that the young man’s brilliance and drive, even if it doesn’t always pan out, would eventually lead him to a life of means by which he could eventually help support his family, helping to give Bonnie a happy childhood leading up to her eventual pokemon journey (given that he often appears as one of her primary caretakers, perhaps even more so than her father). A success on the scale of the establishment of the Rotom-integration trend would definitely be the windfall Clemont needed after years of using his own funds (after numerous deductions for essentials) from his position as gym leader to fund his passion of invention to mixed results. Perhaps many of his invention failures were due to the use of sub-par materials and parts that came with a lower income and meagre financial assets.

In addition to being able to continue with new, bolstered confidence and motivation on the winds of his new success, I’m sure Clemont will dedicate a great deal of these potential royalties to further iteration and invention with resources that could lead to greater and more frequent successes and greater benefits to “help people and pokemon” as he has claimed and endeavoured to do since he first fell in love with the concepts of science and engineering at large. As well, considering the fact he’s a person who cares deeply for his family’s welfare, and Bonnie’s especially, I’m certain he’ll use his a good part of his newfound wealth to ensure Bonnie has the best chance she has of pursuing her dreams too.

13 notes - Posted August 18, 2022

#2

My Commentary on Legends Arceus

So, after some 86 hours of my life being consumed, I finally managed to complete Pokemon’s newest entry into the franchise. I know I kind of alluded to this being some sort of review in previous posts I’ve made, but the fact of the matter is, I’m neither a qualified or professional reviewer, nor am I someone expecting to convince others to play this game or assign it a score.

I’m writing this more as a way to purge my thoughts and feelings on this game in a way that makes me feel like the experience is complete. And, hot damn, I really want to talk about this game!

It goes without saying that there are massive spoilers for Pokemon Legends: Arceus beneath the cut.

Now, for full disclosure, for anyone that cares about where my opinion comes from on this game with references to my praises and critiques: I have completed the game in so far as that I have completed the main story, the post-game story, collected all the wisps, collected all the poetry, and gotten a research score of 10 to classify every pokedex entry as finished.

That said, I cannot bring myself to complete every single research entry for each pokemon’s shiny bonus, nor grind that last 2.5k points to get myself to a 10 star rank with Galaxy Team. As someone who doesn’t hunt shinies, and having looked up the 10 star reward, neither feels worth it to me.

That all said, I do think that I have a pretty broad scope with which to comment on this game. So here we go!

To start, let’s get around two big elephants in the room:

Firstly, let’s address game’s continuous comparisons to Breath of the Wild. Yes, in the very broadest and simplest sense, you could compare it to The Legend of Zelda’s open-world marvel. I had to actually dissuade myself from making this comparison in order to avoid the disappointment with the very first thing that I found annoying about this game: your base character cannot climb or mantle over small ledges.

See the full post

14 notes - Posted February 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Weird odd Volo theory with Legends: Arceus spoilers beneath the cut...

"Someday, I'll solve every riddle in the legends of Hisui's Pokémon. And on that day, I'll stand before Arceus at last—No, I will CONQUER it! No matter how many years, how many decades, how many centuries it takes me!" 

This is something Volo says after we defeat him and Giratina.

This just makes me wonder though:

Is it odd to anyone else that he says “centuries” there specifically?

I suppose this could be him being overly dramatic, but is the pursuit of a physical god not something that someone could fall into pursuing over a long-lived life?

Take another Volo quote: "I've devoted myself to Arceus beyond any other! I worshiped it as the creator of our entire world! I bent all of my passion and interest to its study! All the time I've spent poring over the legends... Everything that I've done—!" 

This sounds like an obsession that could be forged over a lifetime, though Volo does not appear all that old.

So I have to ask, in light of these quotes and Volo’s utterly fervent need to reach Arceus and his dedication to that goal: is Volo immortal?

Or at the very least, is he incredibly long-lived.

And that itself brings upon us another important question.

We’ve seen numerous ancestor characters to various Sinnoh characters (as well as ones from other regions). Naturally, we’d lend that assumption to Volo being an ancestor of Cynthia as well, right?

What if we were just meant to assume that?

What if Volo is long-lived, or even immortal, and the champion we all know and love in the modern Sinnoh era, is in fact the same person?

Appearance-wise, Volo could pass for Cynthia (given a new hairdo), and perhaps through clever feats of disguise; or if they’re, in fact, agender or genderfluid and able to pass as either of the two traditional binary genders; or if she’s transgender entirely, the chances are of Volo actually being Cynthia are not entirely remote. (I should make a disclaimer here, I’m not trans or non-binary, so if this seems like a misappropriation of these gender identities for this theory, I do apologize. I mean no offence or misuse.)

This doesn’t necessarily account for the changes in personality though. But you know what does change a person’s personality and perspective?

Time.

Legends: Arceus takes place at least 200 years before the Diamond and Pearl games, I believe. I know people whose entire personality and perspective have changed over just a decade. I know I’m a vastly different person than I was ten or even five years ago.

Assuming Legends is set in the same universe and timeline as the Sinnoh we all know, could the protagonist in this newest pokemon game set Volo on a new path by defeating him? Maybe Volo discovered a better path for himself all on his own during those centuries. Or maybe Cynthia is just very good at burying her Volo-esque impulses behind that champion facade in the Diamond and Pearl games...

We should also consider that Volo uses the same exact team as Cynthia, barring Milotic (which isn’t in Legends, so maybe that’s more technical reason than a lore one). Sure, we know that many ancestor characters use the same pokemon as their descendants. But most seem to use only one. Volo uses five of the same pokemon as Cynthia. As the old saying goes, once is chance, twice is coincidence, thrice is a pattern... and so on.

Wrong or right, the idea intrigues me, because I can’t just believe they’d throw in the word “centuries” for no good reason in that one line of dialogue.

33 notes - Posted February 10, 2022

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[benkipo]

#36 Scizor

Scizor is one of the few Pokémon I remember obsessing over when I was a kid. He's just oozes cool. His design draws from so many things while being so uniquely Scizor. Even standing out among Pokémon designs themselves. Resembling cars, mechs, insects, power rangers, and everything in between. He really just seems to have it all. Top it off with amazing typing and an awesome shiny! Scyther was already a very cool Pokémon and liked by many from my understanding. So it can be hard to improve on an existing mon. But Scizor did not disappoint. It's so different than Scyther but you can definitely see the family resemblances. Tbh they feel more like cousins than evolutions of one another but so does Onix and Steelix (since they're both metal coat evolutions). But I like the idea of that. Scyther putting on a metal coat and now he's all decked out in this suit of armor and is ready bullet punch his way through. Scyther is a really fun design. Looks kind of dragon like while also having mantis qualities. It really expands on the bug Pokémon. Especially in generation 1. His mega I think is kind of meh... Not bad but definitely not good. Idk maybe it is airing on the worse side of okay then it is good. I honestly think he's cooler as is, so yeah unneeded in my opinion. My biggest problem with Scizor though is that he is a trade evolution. I think he's actually the first so far so I should explain a bit. As a kid with little to no friends to trade with, it was pretty much impossible for me to evolve Pokémon through trading. So most Pokémon that evolve via trade, I never got to really experience or enjoy. For the longest time I didn't even know some of them had an evolution like Kadabra and Machoke. Even beyond that, I just don't like it for the Pokémon world either. It feels weird that these wild creatures would have an evolution method that results from being traded... So without humans, Pokémon like Gengar wouldn't exist. I just don't like the idea of that even if there is a way to explain it. I will say that trade evolution while holding an item are definitely a lot better but honestly I would prefer just using the item and that would be enough. But yeah that's my rant on trade evos. Small things but I like that Scizor seems somewhat competitively viable which is always nice. Its nice to use strong Pokémon. One thing that bothered me when I used mine in Pokémon Violet, her walking animation in the overworld was so awkward. It actually turned me off quite a bit from her. But its a small thing. Only a couple months ago Scizor was riding high in the top 5 spot but he's been struggling through lately. Still there is so much to love about this Pokémon that I can't help but think about him often. Easy top 50.

[stellar-alchemist]

My partner and I are playing the new Pokémon games together (they got Violet and I got Scarlet so that we can trade and all that), my partner grew up playing Pokémon but this will be my first Pokémon game ever, so I thought I might document the experience

Background:

While I’ve never played a Pokémon game before I have played other Nintendo games, notably Animal Crossing (WW and NH), Mario Kart (many versions), and recently Breath of the Wild, so I do have some sense of how video games work

I’m not going into this totally blind as my partner has been educating me on Pokémon gradually over the years, I know what the types of Pokémon are and I know enough Pokémon to have favourites (Mantine and Spheal), that said I know very little about type match-ups or battle strategy

Initial thoughts:

Coming into this having just played a Lot of botw was maybe a mistake, botw is a near perfect open world game (imo) and this feels very clunky and awkward in comparison. With the glitchy-ness too it almost feels unfinished

I don’t know what I’m doing! I hear that a lot of Pokémon fans think the new games are too easy but I found being dropped into this game with so much information to learn about each Pokémon and so many choices to make about their actions quite daunting

Not knowing what I’m doing paired with getting given all the main quests at the same time was rather overwhelming

Once I figured out how to get around the Pokédex, I quite like it! I like them being like files on a shelf and having little information cards, it’s cute. I fully intend to complete the Pokédex (I’m a big fan of collecting in games) and I’m happy with this way of looking at it

The legendary Pokémon is so cool and so silly at the same time, he’s my dragon friend, he loves sandwiches, he has wheels but doesn’t use them, what a design XD

My team:

Long before these games came out I decided I was going to make a team made up of exclusively round Pokémon, because I love them

I chose Fuecoco as my starter for its roundness, cuteness, and because fire seems like a good type

[Image ID: A screenshot from Pokemon Scarlet showing a Pokemon trainer holding their Fuecoco, a small round red crocodile, lovingly. End ID]

Fuecoco’s evolutions are less round, which I think might be a recurring problem with my round team, I havent decided yet whether to kick previously round members of the team off when they are no longer round, it is a round team but also I do want to actually progress in the game

My current team is Crocalor, Hoppip, Azurill, Igglybuff, Wooper, and Lechonk. All pretty round, very beautiful, very powerful

We'll see how this adventure continues!