#like how pokemas or the anime portrays him

[aestheticitii]

do you think the gym leaders+steven all text norman to let him know how his kid is doing

because norman is the only one with a kid among the gym leaders. wattson's got a niece but she lives outside of hoenn and drake from the elite four has grandkids but like he's not a gym leader

and it's just a way to bond with norman since he clearly loves his family and the only time he gets soft is thinking of them

like roxanne gets beaten by a lvl15 mudkip and nothing else, and when she asks why, the kid is like, "actually, i want to be a water type only trainer so that i can also be a gym leader"

she lets wallace know in the group chat that he has competition

steven casually drops the fact that his kid beat up a few team magma grunts and his dad is apparently very fond of norman's kid now to one of the others and it spreads like wildfire

brawly says that his kid's been camping out for like the past three days, trying to fish for a tentacool, and then they show up to battle with like 20 potions and their tentacool as their ace

wallace pipes in briefly to tell norman that he and his wife should turn on a specific channel and watch it together.

afterwards, norman jokes that his kid really is gunning for wallace's spot and thanks him for letting him see their kid branching out. wallace starts commenting more on them because lisia tells him a lot and he's kind of happy his niece has a good friend she can hang out with

wattson happily tells him about he caught them giving pointers to wally and how they gave their marshtomp bulldoze specifically for this match and won by the skin of their teeth

and also how they nearly got into a fight with the guy who gives advice because he was like "you can't fight with water types in an electric gym!"

flannery is oddly quiet when they come to town and that is because they end up befriending each other because they WANT to be a gym leader but they know they have to live up to their dad while flannery's already trying to live up to the sort of reputation one should have

all she says is "it's a secret"

norman shares a picture of him, his wife, and their kid at a restaurant he found specifically because they like that sort of food. in it, tentacool has evolved and they now corphish and surskit and a togepi

the togepi belongs to his wife now but he mentions that it makes for a great excuse for his kid to come home more often

steven says something about how they're very passionate and when prompted to speak more about the topic, he says they nearly fought with kecleon because it was preventing them from going into the gym

winona is grateful that they asked the kecleon to go away. she's the one who has the least amount of conversation with them but she does note them trying to convince gyarados to fly, then begrudgingly resigning themselves to being a land and water dweller

(steven has to laugh at that when wallace tells him.

he never says why but when he comes back from his travels, he has a swanna for them)

the twins hear about the kid being in town but the first time they meet is at the department store while they're arguing with a kid about the last slakoth plush. they pull the "my dad is a gym leader" card and when that fails, they end up resorting to a pokemon battle

everyone floods the chat with questions after the team magma/team aqua incident. norman shuts down the gym for a bit to be there for his kid and also do gym leader stuff and the only time the kid shows up on tv is a few days later when they're trying to get to the gym and a reporter stops them

they very confidently say they can be champion, but only if they can make it past through the reporter because they need their eighth badge

norman is SO proud

for wallace, he mentions how the first thing they say after beating him is asking him where he got his milotic from. they're actually extremely mad that they couldn't find any feebas and they didn't actually want to battle him without one but they also just want to head onto victory road

this actually jogs a memory of norman's, where he remembers that he took the family to petalburg before he moved to show them littleroot and just spend time with them while they're still in johto

and on one of the screens is wallace and milotic, and after that, the three of them decide to take some time to watch one of his contests on tv, which spurs a family tradition and the declaration that they will also have a milotic

he promised to get a feebas for them, but they turned him down so he kinda regrets not pushing it a bit more

so he like talks to his kid and they basically confirm his suspicions

milotic = happy memories so my own milotic = more happy memories and since i want to be a gym leader like my old man = water types only

it's all very wholesome

norman can't stay away from petalburg much longer and his kid doesn't want him to watch the matches because they're afraid of an ungraceful showing, but they do promise to send a photo with steven after the match and verbal confirmation from the latter that they won

also norman's kid just looks up to their dad so much, like the coolest person ever, and once they become champion, they go to him for advice on pokemon—it's a running joke in the family that it should be the other way around since they're the youngest champion in hoenn

as for the feebas, someone from the weather institute finds out that they want one so they call norman to tell his kid this secret for a guaranteed feebas

the next beauty master rank has people making the spiderman meme because wallace also enters with a milotic. he wins the battle, but they win the day because their parents come to watch them and they spend the entire day together

[leggerefiore]

Back in your inbox to discuss Cyrus bullshit again lmfao. I am normal. Totally normal.

So media literacy decline aside (no really, the reports are scary, less people can interpret nuance and hints), I blame 1) how young most of us were when we first played the games, 2) the OG Diamond and Pearl characterization (because it was a little different than Platinum's) and 3) the Pokemon Anime.

Largely skipping over the age thing because it speaks for itself. A good number of players were probably too young to catch all of the hints or grasp how irrational and emotionally driven Cyrus really was. Like, a legit Trauma Meter for our age group (20s) would be to ask if Cyrus freaked them out, or if they thought he had a point. Whatever the collective's first impression was would've colored YEARS of discussion and content. And I'm pretty sure I remember his reception being negative. Of course, the theory that he wrote the old notebook and that the old man was his Grandpa (meaning Cyrus was an abuse/neglect survivor) always existed. But before USUM and PokeMas added more implications, they were treated as "Just Theories" or after Platinum, retcons. Likewise, I think a good number of the older players WANTED Cyrus to be evil, so they kinda ignored it. Though there was an equal faction WISHING for a well written Sympathetic Villian. They missed Giovanni and had little hope GameFreak could write a worthwhile sympathetic villian because while Maxie and Archie weren't evil, their plan was just so stupid? Maybe it's because I grew up in a rural area at the start of the Going Green era, but I can remember being taught basic ecosystems in like 3rd or 4th Grade Science and learning that major changes to the environment were bad? And they were supposed to be super smart scientists?

On to game characterization, D/P Cyrus and Platinum Cyrus were portrayed slightly differently and I don't know if it was intentional or not, given how subtle the changes in the overall story were. But it boils down to a matter of A Means to an End, where D/P Cyrus seemed like he was changing the world to become a God, while Platinum Cyrus wanted to change the world and has to become a God to do so. Likewise, I don't think the implications that Cyrus was the abused/neglected grandson of that Old Man and the author of the old notebook were as strong. Also every scene with Cyrus in the Distortion World didn't exist in D/P so you didn't witness his breakdown or him admitting to his own faults. Charon/Pluto also wasn't in D/P, nor was the Rotom Room which was the first thing to give the "Cyrus wrote the Old Notebook Theory" any credibility.

My last reason was the Poke Anime and I talked a bit about it in a comment the other day. I have since looked it up and the D/P Anime aired the same day as the D/P Game Release, in Japan at least. So the 2nd most prevalent and remembered version of Cyrus is an ASS. The Anime did a great job of showing us the double life he was living, smiling and dressing/acting normal, albiet hammy, in front of Cynthia and that one old lady. But for a cold, stoic villian, he was super agressive, loud, short-tempered and dismissive in the anime. In that clip you shared, he wasn't calmly explaining why fighting was useless, he was about to snap on his admins. He yelled at someone else to (Ash I think). So it didn't even do a good job of portraying him as the kind of villian he was supposed to be, though this may have been because the series ended in 2011, so it may have been affected by the Platinum retcons.

But yeah, I'm also kinda sad about how people see Cyrus, but it isn't surprising. For everyone who "grew out of" pokemon or just never played Platinum, USUM, PokeMas or BDSP, they have to go back and relearn everything and not everyone does that. Nor will everyone want to because again, some people wanted Cyrus to be genuinely evil. And even if they do want to learn what changed and are open to it, they have to sift through years of content saying he was actually that bad.

It was a nightmare explaining to two of my homies why I was suddenly trying to write fanfic and draw fanart of him because they didn't get the memo.

Quick correction - It is not a theory that the old man is Cyrus's grandpa. It's confirmed from my understanding. Which it means Cyrus is likely an abuse victim (though, what Cyrus was going through was never entirely specified. Just that it was bad enough to concern his grandfather.)

I will note that his characterisation did change between Diamond-Pearl and Platinum (and now BDSP has introduced younger people to the pre-Platinum story), so I will give them that. But specifically, I was on the USUM battle theme still seeing it. (Interestingly, not at all on the BDSP rendition, though. Maybe because it's just Sinnoh fans who already know everything.) One of the top comments was ironically a joke about him seeing the Rotom Dex and wanting to kill everyone.

I think his character is really just generally misunderstood because of how subtle everything was is what I was originally trying to say. Like you said, some of it is general literacy issues. It just makes me sad to see him so misunderstood... I think Game Freak did a really good job writing him. Though, he does clearly read as emotional in both Diamond-Pearl and Platinum. At least, seeing his little chibi march up to you in BDSP after you ruin his plans really shows how emotional he truly is. While the Rotom Room journal is clearly only a theory, I do truly think he is the only logical character who fills that role so well. (Charon 100% would use Cyrus's childhood trauma journal for its precious Rotom research without a doubt seeing how quick he was to try to take over Team Galactic.)

I am glad that they gave him depth rather than just making him a generic bad guy... Actually, considering that Platinum was just before BW (well, a few years but development wise, I mean), I think it might have been their first steps into more character driven plots. I do hope people end up looking more into Cyrus, but I know he isn't the most popular villain at all. (I believe that crown goes to either Archie or Guzma. Or. Well. Lusamine, actually, probably.)

I convinced my friend by telling her about the Rotom Room stuff, actually. She already liked Cyrus since she is super into Sinnoh, but apparently, learning that he was besties with Rotom when he was a child sold her. Now she bravely helps me write for him sometimes lmao. My other friend, however... She still doesn't believe that he's actually 27.

Granted. Youtube comment section opinions should probably always be discarded.

Except maybe... This one. This is the only good and acceptable one lmao

[epicspheal]

I find it interesting that characters, who through their roles, you can be certain of are the same person, ex: Misty and Morty, despite the huge differences between their Classic and Remake designs. Is Misty's hair orange or brown? Short and square or poofy curled? Who even is GSC Morty? Dude looks unrecognizable in HGSS. But people argue if Ethan and Gold, and Beta!Blue and Leaf are the same person, and Classic Red and Fire!Red, well yes, but slightly to the left. Canons seems to follow the remakes as the most "updated/recent" versions of the characters which makes it really interesting that the assumed Fire!Red personality from Origins, and general fan impression since he looked less broody/more colorful, that seperated him from Classic Red isn't his "official canon" instead, he has Classic Red's silent protag personality. I can't help but wonder what that means for the other characs. Guess their personalities don't change with reboots? So we can assume that Gold might have Ethan's personality? Even though people wrote him off as being a bit of a jerk with Ethan being more puppy-like who cries easily. Curious curious 🤔 But his situation is unique because he can be your neighbor or the protag. Do circumstances affect your personality? It might have with Let's Go Green being Like That because she doesn't have the burden of being the protagonist. But we can only make guesses there. Canon is but a mere construct XD

Anonymous Ask

Hi, there anon! First off sorry for the late reply. I finally got a chance to breathe for a bit in the onboarding process to medical school. I think in the end when discussing the differences in characters across various entries we all have to remember that the Pokemon multiverse is kind of a hot mess, LOL. We have various mainline games with both originals and remakes often giving us slightly different stories (and often timelines when you consider the mega/non-mega split) and appearances of characters. Then we have the various manga and animated adaptations with big ones being Pokespe and Anipoke. But then you have the smaller animated adaptations like the Generations, Evolutions, and Origins, as well as smaller manga adaptations such as Zensho, Golden Boys, Electric Tale of Pikachu, etc. And each canon does what it wants to do with the characters be it how they look, how they act, what Pokemon they have and in the case of the player characters, which one is actually the protagonist. Take Red for example. You have gameverse/masters Red (I'm including masters Red because as mentioned before trainer details in Pokemas are actual game canon), Pokespe!Red, Origins!Red, and Ash. They're all derivatives of the Kanto Male Protagonist. But they all have different personalities, different story arcs, different teams, and different looks. They're not the same person fundamentally. Origins!Red is an interesting case because he's meant to be a more faithful adaptation of game!Red compared to Pokespe!Red and Ash but he's very much different. Personally, I see it as that perhaps the writing staff wasn't necessarily comfortable trying to portray a silent protagonist and given the personality shift wanted to throw nods to both Ash and Pokespe by making him voiced. And speaking of Gold and Ethan your mention of the jerkish personality that's very specific to Pokespe. Gold as a dexholder has a remarkably unique storyline compared to what happens to GSC!Gold or HGSS!Ethan (whether he's the protagonist or the rival). His personality was designed by Kusaka to fit specific things that he wanted for his narrative and the mangaverse is vastly different from the gameverse. GSC! Gold was created at a time when they thought gen 2 would be the last generation of Pokemon (and during those early days the player characters were most definitely intended to be blank slates and have no personality). HGSS!Ethan's personality varies slightly depending on whether or not he's the protagonist or the NPC as you alluded to. Experiences are big influencers on personality and having the burden to save a region (or the world) on you will change you in many ways. I think once again this tweet from Dr. Lava's tweet is really useful for the fandom to remember (in regards to you mentioning people arguing about aspects of characters). Everything thing is its own parallel universe and instead of trying to make everything fit into one cohesive narrative, we should canon, and its takes on the Pokemon world exists on its own accord.

[cure-icy-writes]

Character opinion bingo: Nezuko and/or Alder!

I'm gonna do both honestly because blorbos go brrrrrrr

So first: nezuko!

Honestly I think that Nezuko's character is a really interesting study in consent and autonomy, and the morality thereof. Because let's face it: her baser demon instincts are telling her to eat people. But the person she was before that would never eat people. And so she's conflicted with the desire to kill versus protect, and Tanjirou is also conflicted as he has to come face to face with the fact that a demon who's tasted human flesh is beyond salvation.

Before getting turned into a demon, Nezuko was just a kind big sister who took care of her family, who was content with that simple lifestyle. And we didn't see much of her, but now she's this unhinged, bloodthirsty creature who has in many ways reverted back to the mind of a child.

But Tanjirou is kind, and he has already lost so much. And he doesn't want to lose her too. And she doesn't want to lose him! And so they make sacrifices. Nezuko chooses to trust him, trust that her brother will take care of her, and sleeps unless she's fighting alongside him. Her mind is hibernating to keep the hunger for blood at bay. And Tanjirou swears to find a solution, to find a cure for her.

I just really like, overall, that Nezuko is portrayed as damaged by the incident but her life has value nonetheless. All lives have value, and Tanjirou doesn't enjoy killing! There's no glory in it. Just...tragedy. But Nezuko's not gonna end up like that.

On a metaphorical level, I think you could read Nezuko's behavior in her demon form as similar to trauma or brain damage-- she lashes out sometimes and needs a high level of support, but she's still a person and she loves and she deserves a choice.

Next: Alder

I just think this man is a weird dad/grandpa who ends up adopting every kid he runs into. I'm ignoring the anime and looking directly at the manga and pokemas content, particularly the conversations he had with N.

He just reads like a very soft older dude who honestly isn't sure how he got this position. And he cares deeply about pokemon-- so deeply that he's still torn up over the loss of one from a while back. I also think that he's of Hisuian descent, and has heard adventure stories about those days-- he's got a couple heirloom pictures of his ancestors, scarred and worn down from fighting a hostile world.

He doesn't ever want to go back to those days. He wants to wake up late in the morning, get a frankly absurd quantity of breakfast burritos, and drape himself over the couch with his pokemon. He wants to have battles with hopeful and eager kids for a living, giving them advice, hoping that one day he can see them rise to the top. This man has been places. He's known loss and grief, but he's also known joy, and he wants to share that. His ideal day starts with sleeping in and lazing about the house, and includes several picnics in the grass, and at least one play-wrestling session with his pokemon. Sometimes he jokes that he was born in the wrong era, and he'd love to be a hunter-gatherer telling stories around a fire and cuddling the homies. he has an oil painting kit lying around his closet that he never managed to open up despite wanting to learn for a while, but he'd enjoy bob ross.

I also think he kissed one of his friends on a dare when he was a teenager and hasn't thought about it in decades, but one of these days he's gonna get vibe checked with the memory and have a bisexual crisis.

[sexysilverstrider]

👀 Lyra for the character ask?

ohohohoho :3c

How I feel about this character: tbh i was neutral about her at first. even though i wrote about her A LOT, if wasnt until pokemon masters that i started to love her and her canon characteristics. i especially love that how shes portrayed in the mobile game as its almost very similar to how i portray mine so she became special in my heart hehehe

All the people I ship romantically with this character: silver. of course. i didnt write her with the hotheaded redhead for 9 years for nothing <3 tho way back i do ship her with red too! there were lots of cute fanarts of them n its fun seeing the pokemon master warming up to this sweet girl who kicked his ass. kotone was basically VERY famous in the hgss time because of kanto and johto access in game so shes shipped with. a lot of people hahah

My non-romantic OTP for this character: HIBIKI! like kotone in pokemas, i warmed up to hibiki when i started using him in pokemas AND i write him in my fics. theyre really sweet childhood friends imo and while they dont interact much in canon, id like to think hibiki is super helpful and sweet every time they bump to each other and have camping times together! i also LOVE kotones junior-senior dynamic with green and red. the two men basically adopt her. their daughter now.

My unpopular opinion about this character: hmmmmmm.....hat too big and hair needs to be thicker i cant think of anything fkjsbfjkd

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: she goes on a date with silver in postgame hmmm as much as i like her dynamic with meganium i really do wish sometimes that her ‘canon’ pokemon is typhlosion instead. itll be an interesting dynamic to have this cheerful sweet helpful girl have a dangerous fire demon badger instead

my OTP: oh this is a diff question than question 2 fljbdsjfdsk like before. soulsilvershipping baby <33333 in all honesty besides the sunshine/gloomy trope the reason i love them is because theyre the very reason i started writing in the first place. my first fic of them was an embarrassment (and its smut of all things lndsjkfd) but looking back it gives me great joy because without them, i wouldnt be inspired at all to write anything. i dont even know if im still inspired/motivated to write fics at all if i didnt stumble upon the soulsilver game in a tech stop 9 years ago ;w;

my cross over ship: OH NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT HMMMM silver. but like in animal crossing form. cranky wolf silver and peppy squirrel kotone <3

a headcanon fact: despite being such a bubbly person, kotone takes her champion role very seriously as shes tasked with both johto AND kanto political situations (the latter later being silvers role as the two became famous as The Duo Champion) shes also sort of an open book which is why hibiki and silver and her mother are able to guess what she thinks since shes expressive. she also has a mewtwo which plays a huge HUGE role in both her and sillvers lives :3c

feel free to throw me an ask!