#so needless to say this is me as a pokemon trainer

[blujayonthewing]

throwback to the two best selfies I've ever taken

[mokeonn]

Okay I also just realized that since Pearl and Soul Silver can trade with each other, and in my Soul Silver game there is CLEARLY Pokémon traded over from my past Pearl and Platinum (I checked out a copy of Platinum from my library years ago to get cool legendaries and more starters) games, so once I finish my Pearl Bug run, I'm gonna absolutely do a Soul Silver solo type run. Probably normal type, but I will admit I am VERY tempted to do a different kind of challenge run because of the Dratini you can get from the Game House pretty early on in Goldenrod City and it wouldn't be too hard to get because I'm actually pretty decent at the Voltorb Flip Game.

Anyways get ready to probably get fun art about how my Bug Type run of Pokemon Pearl is going with humanizations and a cute lil trainer design over the next while and once that's done I will be finally free of the really fucking dumb Soul Silver shackles because I picked a dumb name for my character and I am haunted by it

[winsdayink]

Let me preface this by saying I believe in the "Volo is a faller" theory and the "he's immortal cause he fucked around n found out w Giratina" theory to the point if I'm proven wrong no I'm not*shot*

With that said, meet Eichi Karashina, a 17yo boy from Hearthome City, Sinnoh. He was named after Lake Acuity; his younger sister Shinji (14) being named after Lake Verity. The two fully expected a third sibling at any minute to get the name of the remaining lake.

He's Shirona's (Cynthia) older cousin by 11 years and taught her a few things like playin the piano. He lived a normal comfortable life with its usual hardships like any other person until one day he disappeared.

His sister searched endlessly for him, traveling the world and becoming a feared trainer, strong unlike any other. She had no ambitions when it came to battling however, the strength she and her pokemon had was simply in service of getting obstacles out of the way during her search.

25 years later, in the middle of her search she just happened to look up at the screen televising Unova's PWT-

There he was. Hardly any older than the last time she saw him before he left the house. She quickly calls out her pkmn to fly to Unova but, well aware that it would still take her hours to arrive, she calls her cousin to go see for herself.

Cynthia quickly arrives to the dome from Undella Town, but rumor had spread that the contestant WAS Cynthia herself, and so she's hounded by reporters for explanations on the situation.

Hours pass and Volo quickly advances up the ranks of the PWT, but is bored by the apparent lack of skill of the trainers in the event.

Cynthia eventually caught up. Needless to say Volo drops out of the competition, finally giving other trainers a chance.

[ranger-rai]

Hi Rai i’ve got a question for you and it might seem a little morbid, but as a former ranger, I found the every day dealings of Pokémon were actually the easiest aspect of the job especially as I became more familiar with the ecology of my region. Personally, I found the occasions where I had to deal with other human beings, the most dangerous and the least reliably predictable. So I asked what was the worst human altercation you had as a ranger. Whether actively dangerous or a nuisance Karen, I want to hear it. 

Hey Alex, it's always great to hear from you!

Oh boy, let me just say I 100% agree with you, pokemon are much more pleasant and simple to manage compared to people.

While I do enjoy educating and interacting with people, especially eager children and adults who want to learn more about the ecology and biodiversity of our region.

It is very unfortunate that for each awesome encounter, there's going to be a few less than desirable ones.

We get the usual ones like Karens who just want to complain about how "dirty" outdoors are, like sorry? There's dirt everywhere.

Of course, we get trainers and families who leave camping sights a complete mess, sometimes we get to confront them, and sometimes they slip past us.

And while these guys annoy me to no end, the worst are always the people who do not respect the pokemon and their homes out here.

If you know me, then you'll know my history behind the huge scar on my face and the injury to my Beedrill, Bliss.

While I'd say that was one of the worst experiences I've had on this job, it's not the worst interaction I have had with a person exclusively.

I'd haft to say one of the worst experiences I've had was with this family who was clearly visiting from another region, Hoenn, I think, based on his accent.

I had been a ranger for nearly 3 years at this point, and I knew most of the areas where trainers shouldn't travel, with the especially bad ones we put up numerous signs.

Well, this GROWN ADULT had decided to take his family camping, like himself, his wife, and three kids.

We had guided them to the campgrounds, showed them the paths, and let them know not to venture into a very specific path due to a newly formed nest of Drapion and they can be pretty aggressive at this time.

Well later that evening we had found the campgrounds an absolute mess, several wild pokemon were rummaging through their trash (I had to take in a Starly who had gotten covered in some sticky stuff and get it cleaned up).

We had to threaten the family with a fine if they didn't properly clean the area.

We checked on them the next day, and while mess wasn't as much of an issue, their kids had taken down some signs to play or draw on, and when we tried to get them back, the parents were completely outraged.

We tried to vacate them, and the police almost had to get involved, but once we made the call, they turned over the stuff and apologized.

We really should have kicked them out right then and there, but we decided to give them another chance.

That was a terrible idea because our Boss, Jo, had a feeling in her gut and ordered me, Eddie, and Minnie to get back to them ASAP.

None of the family was at their mess of a camp, signs were destroyed, and the roped off areas leading to the Drapion nests were cut.

We had to rush in and be prepared for the worst.

The family was cornered by an angry Drapion and her babies, the dad was poisoned, kids wouldn't stop crying, and the wife had passed out.

When I say I learned to ride a Drapion, I mean I got really lucky when I hopped on its back to distract it.

Needless to say, we got the family out, no serious injuries, fines were issued, and that family is now banned from our parks and is on a list for all other Ranger Operated areas.

I have some other stories, but that one stuck out the most.

[dipplinduo]

Me, about to go to bed: I should check Tumblr fir-

Dipplinduo: ahaha wanna know what would be crazy? *posts 2 chapters*

Me:…

Needless to say, I’m a little tired right now lol. I was VERY excited when I saw that you decided to ignore everyone and make a mess. I love angst, you should make more <3.

BUT, I was VERY happy when 11 started with a battle! As someone who spends her free time EV and IV training her Pokemon, the battling aspect of the games ALWAYS gets me excited. Will say though, Crispin was my least favorite battle lol. Nothing against the guy, but my Ceruledge has flash fire, and the boost it gets from fire moves plus sunny day wiped his team, even with the type null.

The fact that Juli gets so into battles she didn’t even notice the people around them was a nice little add too! Nice little characterization that adds to her I think.

But Kiki’s DREAM. He’s CONNECTED TO PECHARUNT. Maybe he has been for years now! And Pecharunt is the reason his moms gone!? OH MY GOSH. This peach is RUINING this family. (Also, is Kiki’s mom a Bug trainer? So cool. One of my fav pokemon is Vivillion so it’s nice to see bug representation)

But, not much else to say beyond that. The fluff from 12 was pretty cute. We finally got a Julibee, my heart is melting lol!

And poor sour apple, my boy is fighting for his LIFE to get sweet to like him lol. What did he DO to make her HATE HIM (ToT)

Overall. 10/10 once again. I had fun ignoring my sleep schedule for this one lol

The beginning of your ask was so goddamn funny that I had to read it out loud to my lil scheming group who schemes and memes with me LOL

"I love angst, you should make more <3."

...:)

I'm glad you liked the battle scene, I for one dislike them (whether reading or writing) but wanted to try to make it interesting-ish regardless. And WOW what a massive L moment for Crispin against that mon of yours, that's a decided match right there lol

And yess! I love that it was conveyed well. I'm mostly playing off of Drayton's commentary on how the player seems to have a really serious look in their eye when battling.

Peach is indeed breaking the family, and the world may never know because she is now long gone :') APPLIN LOOREEEEE I hope you've gotten some rest, thank you for the fun review lol <3

[ya-bug-boy]

I just noticed, we've been giving size differences a lot of love with the twins, but reader tends to be the bigger one in these asks, so how about the opposite? how about the twins receiving some love from a smaller reader

I'm getting brain worms about a small but buff reader being able to just carry around the twins, the mental image of the twins, all tall and lanky being carried around by a smaller reader is just very cute to me lol

Submas Twins x Small and Buff Reader!

The twins are tall enough on their own but you happen to be shorter than average. On top of that you've got more muscle than them. They found out after you got into a scuffle, facing some harassment by some punk who thought you were easy prey.

Needless to say, Ingo and Emmet were both surprised to see both him and his Pokemon, bruised and beaten up. Because it was a violent skirmish that happened to the trainer as well, they needed to question you and report the incident to the police. Because of how badly beaten the guy was, they at first thought you used your pokemon against him. And your eyes widen in shock, you frown, shake your head before removing your vinyl jacket to showcase the big guns.

"That asshole isn't telling you the whole story," you scoff as Ingo is writing down your statement. "Yeah, me and my pokemon fought is but then he straight up tried to deck me. So I taught him a lesson. There a problem with that?" Despite your punk demeanor in your words, Emmet tries very hard not to laugh because well, you were dressed so cutely!!

You were wearing a vinyl letterman jacket sure, but the rest of your outfit was a pastel pink skirt with blue thigh high socks, accented with white shoes. But your voice and demeanor polarizing compared to your outfit. The way you present yourself is fun but not meant to be taken lightly. Then they read the writing on the back of your jacket: "Stay back or get attacked!!" It reads with an embroidered set of fangs on the top and bottom of the words. Then they realize who you are.

Unbeknown to you, Ingo and Emmet know about you because you're very well regarded amongst the young girls who ride the subway. Time and time again, you've shown up to protect young school girls from facing harassment from predators and assailants. You always seem to leave the moment right before any depot agent shows up. Ingo and Emmet take the safety of their passengers very seriously, but there are some cases where something terrible happens. They're actually really grateful that you've been looking out for these girls this whole time!

You three start to talk some more after that, sharing a glance and exchanges before doing a greeting. Eventually that transitions into conversations.

Eventually Emmet challenges you to an arm wrestle. Naturally. You win. But being the competitive guy he is, he decides to go to the gym so he can try to beat you. Ingo naturally tags along because he's always with him but that's when they see you. Turns out you're a fitness trainer, which explains your buff physique.

Emmet tries to playfully ask you for a discount but you tell him losers have to pay full price. He playfully whines when you tell him you'll charge him even more.

You begin training the twins on how to get stronger, thus you began to see them more often. Though they had a long way to go when compared to you, considering how you can easily lift them with ease, you still enjoyed their company.

Emmet loves taking advantage of your height difference whereas Ingo tries to be more helpful. (not that he doesn't love the height difference but he won't use you as an arm rest like how Emmet does.)

The twins dote on you a lot and you of course do the same. The three of you are a force to be reckoned with, with your strength and strong pokemon.

[huntunderironskies]

Still thinking about how high level competitive play (as inspired by VGC stuff) would transfer over to actual real-life Pokemon. I think the biggest nuance is that you'd have to make sure that the Pokemon in double battles like...actually get along and work well together. The overwhelming majority of Pokemon at least seem to generally be social creatures so presumably they could pack bond with each other, but I would imagine swapping out teammates is something you would have to do very sparingly, especially since training Pokemon is probably a matter of months to years. Them suddenly having to adjust to a new teammate isn't something you'd do within a competitive season since it'd throw off your game.

...Man, this just makes me want to dedicate some daydreaming time to how breeding and trading would work in a high-pressure environment. I would imagine that selling Pokemon is considered to be pretty awful, but I'm not sure if that'd stop groups from forming who'd exchange eggs amongst each other.

(Vaguely adjacent to the point: one of my favorite headcanons I ever saw in a fanfic was that Pokemon are uniquely good at learning languages, even moreso than humans, though on a species-by-species basis they might be deficient in other areas. This was supposed to account for how quickly wild Pokemon pick up on human speech and how Pokemon seem to functionally speak each others' languages. It was one of those fics that was trying to be realistic, which in Pokemon fanfic can often translate into needless over-the-top grimdarkness, but it ended up not going wholly that route. Which is good, because while I like detail-oriented realism, the super edgy "POKEMON TRAINING IS SLAVERY" or focusing super hard on violence or warfare gets dull. I'm here for befriending the magical animals/possessed machinery/trashbags and defeating bad guys or friendly rivals with the power of friendship.)

That could go a long way towards creating dark horse picks, especially since if you can't travel regularly to other regions. Free public transit...seems to be a thing, unless you're in Lumiose City in which case the cabbies will charge you, but there'd still be logistics involved and it's hard to say if cross-regional transit from areas further than Kanto and Johto (since the Goldenrod train doesn't charge) would be expensive. And, well, everything seems to indicate that the overwhelming majority of trainers don't make much money.

All that's to say that creating the same sort of perfect team comps you see in VGC wouldn't realistically be common...at all. I'm really glad we've apparently gotten past the old mentality of legendaries being literally one-of-a-kind gods, Arceus possibly notwithstanding since they seem to be capable of creating avatars of themself which gets into some rough philosophy-of-self territory, but I'd still imagine legendaries are one of those things you'd see once in a blue moon. They probably don't breed in captivity as indicated by the fact...they don't breed, which might imply that most of them are more akin to endangered species who are mostly outcompeted by Pokemon who are less specialized and capable of breeding quickly but hanging on due to just sheer power. If they are solitary that's probably not doing them any favors either.

(I also have THOUGHTS about the whole Pokemon-as-gods things and how people without a religious studies background can read it wrong since at least in Hisui and, probably, Alola they're more akin to kami and kami-as-gods-in-the-Abrahamic-sense is a vastly oversimplified view of Shinto spirituality, but that's getting into religious studies nerdery and honestly my focus area is not that so I'm not even sure if I can do the whole discussion justice.)

Point is, while it's probably super showy to pull up with a Heatran or whatever it's still another Pokemon and can lose. And they might be harder to work with training-wise. A lot of legendaries are just objectively not that good in a competitive environment strictly in the games while some "common" Pokemon are actually really good. Though, a lot of them are also really good but you'd have to find something else that can fill their niche. Someone having to work around what they'd have to get access to and both get along with themself and what would vibe with the rest of their team personality-wise is fun to think about.

I think my one difficulty is boardstate manipulation (e.g. terrain, weather, Tailwind, Trick Room, etc.) is a huge deal in competitive play and especially doubles. A lot of those show up pretty rarely in the anime and manga. Weather stuff is more common but I believe Trick Room only showed up once in the manga so that makes things a little difficult to visualize in terms of how it'd work. Unfortunately that sort of tactical manipulation of the battlefield is what I'm also the most interested in and would like to preserve in my little mental world so I'll have to keep speculating on that.

[sonicasura]

Trainer: I hope Kafka and Reno got here soon, they'll miss the egg hatching!

Yes it was finally time, after about a month in this world one of the pokemon eggs Trainer had on them was about to hatch. Trainer couldn't have been more excited for the new pokemon about to enter the world, though they didn't know what to expect from the egg as when it was given too them, they weren't told what pokemon it was. Well it didn't matter now, as they were about to find out in a bit, and all there other pokemon have gathered for the egg hatching. Trainer also made a call to Kafka and Reno about the egg getting ready to hatch. They both had been interested in the Pokemon eggs Trainer had on them and were constantly asking if any of the eggs were close to hatching. Of course when both were gone that's when one of the eggs decided to start hatching.

Trainer: Their super close to hatching, I hope those two don't miss-

* BLAMMM*

Kafka: WE MADE IT, THE EGG HASN'T HATCHED YET RIGHT!?!?!

Reno: SIR, MY DOOR!!! I KNOW YOU'RE EXCITED BUT PLEASE I NEED THAT!!!

Trainer: Just in the nick of time guys, now come on the egg is just about to hatch.

Kafka, who was excited to see a pokemon hatch went right over, and Reno, had stopped worrying about his door went over to see the egg hatch.

* CLICKKK, CRAAACK, CRACKKKK*

With a large shattering sound, followed by a bright light, the newest pokemon to Trainer's team had emerged.

" GIBLE"

Came the cry of the new pokemon. The sight of the newest pokemon quickly made everyone excited as they looked over the little Land Shark, who looked like a ball with a gaping maw and stubby legs and arms.

The two aspiring Defense Force Troopers asked about what kind of pokemon it was, and before Trainer could answer, there Rotom dex decided to do it for them.

Rotomdex: I hot you covered, Bzzzt, getting data now. Gible, The Land Shark Pokemon and a Dragon and Ground Type, Gible like to live in hot ecosystems and are found most of the time in deserts and caves. They usually like to bite first and ask questions later, they do this forrrrr no reason as they just like to bite.

Reno: Great so we now have a tiny Land Shark that just likes to bite things running around now.

Kafka: Ahh come on Reno, don't look at it like that, I'm sure it's not as bad as it's making it out to be.

Trainer: Ya don't worry Reno, everything will be just fine.

Meanwhile in Gible's head

Gible: Target Aquired

* NOOOMMM*

Gible wasting no time immediately bite down on Trainer's head.

Needless to say there was a lot of screaming for the next hour.

First egg hatched in the Kaijuverse, Yayyyy!!!!

And there's the second wheeze from me because of an ask. LMFAO

I bet Ai adored Gible plus doesn't really mind when the Pokemon chomps on him. Kafka is about ready to bandage Trainer's head only to notice no injuries. Also I can see them employing the stick method like with Ash's Turtwig in the anime for Gible.

Slightly off topic but I see Fidough or Greavard hatching after Kikoru learns about Trainer. Gotta save a dog for post joining the Defense Force.

[dootplusone]

McSpirk's Pokemon Teams

I decided to try and put together some pokemon teams for McSpirk just for fun. These teams are mostly comprised from vibes.

All under the cut because this is a looooooong long post

Bones

Meganium

Chikorita is cute

Its pokedex says it can calm aggressive feelings.

Overall, I just think it'd be a cute pokemon for him to raise? Maybe one he's even has since childhood.

Blissey A classic pokemon for Doctors and Nurses. They heal other pokemon in the wild. Just very caring and fitting for Bones, honestly. A must-have.

Togekiss Imagine him raising a Togepi. IMAGINE IT. Evolving Togepi to Togetic through friendship. And then to Togekiss Also "It shares many blessings with people who respect one another’s rights and avoid needless strife." Is it fitting or funny, who knows.

Umbreon A contrast to Spock, which you'll see later! I like to think this pokemon was a gift from Spock and/or Kirk, given to him so that he has a "battling pokemon" for protection - the catch being that Umbreon is mostly a defense pokemon, rather than an attack-focused pokemon. Plus, it can glow in the dark for him. One of the three eeveelutions that evolves through friendship.

Miltank Look this was mostly just a funny addition. But also Miltank makes Moomoo Milk, which is a healing item in-game.

"Its milk is packed with nutrition, making it the ultimate beverage for the sick or weary."

Drakloak Okay I was originally just going to have Umbreon be his only pokemon capable of fighting. However, after going through pokedex entries, I thought this pokemon would also work as a great part of his team. Drakloak dotes on Dreepy until they evolve. It gets restless if it does not have a dreepy to care for, and will care for literally anything as a substitute. Also its evolution is super cunty, I almost gave it to Spock. Maybe this, too, was gifted to him, and he's just in the middle of raising it into a Dragapult.

EXTRA: Either has raised or will raise a Cubone at some point. Like are you kididng me. I was gonna put a mudsdale in the team, but decided that maybe he left his Mudsdale that he grew up with to Joanna, so that they can take care of each other

I think his "main" pokemon would be Meganium or Blissey.

Spock

Espeon Contrasts with Bones. A pokemon that evolves with high friendship. A psychic type. Plus I think he'd love its big ears. Overall, just a very fitting pokemon for him.

Lucario "A well-trained one can sense auras to identify and take in the feelings of creatures over half a mile away." "It can tell what people are thinking. Only Trainers who have justice in their hearts can earn this Pokémon’s trust." Another pokemon that evolves through high friendship. I just think it's a good fit.

Gardevoir Will create black holes to protect its trainer. Make of that what you will. An extremely loyal psychic and fairy pokemon. Has a general air of grace and nobility that I think suits Spock.

Intelleon Look. I know what you're thinking. Why the fuck would I choose Intelleon over all starters. Honestly, I was tempted to give him Sceptile or Meowscarada. However, wanted to give McSpirk different types of starters. And out of the water starters, it was between Intelleon and Samurott. So why Intelleon? I think him raising a very tearful little lizard into a lanky, cunty spy lizard is fucking hilarious. So yes, this is a bit of a meme option.

Haxorus "While usually kindhearted, it can be terrifying if angered. Tusks that can slice through steel beams are how Haxorus deals with its adversaries."

While Spock does have some strong pokemon, I think this one is a good one to sort of underly that somewhat Secret Vulcan Strength.

Ursaluna I disregarded any qualms of time-related forms, so paradox pokemon and Hisuian pokemon were considered! This one was decided on with help from the lovelies of the McSpirk discord server! Spock has this pokemon as a reference to the sehlat of Vulcan. This is a pokemon he's had since he was a child, and it's shiny to boot. A unique pokemon to match a unique guy like him.

EXTRA: I think he'd raise an Abra at some point. I was torn between a Goodra and a Haxorus for him, I do think that they all have more than six pokemon, and that these are just the ones most commonly in their rotation. So maybe he does have a Goodra that stays on Vulcan or smth!

I also considered some Poison types for him, namely Roserade or Crobat!

I did consider giving him a Mewtwo. Genuinely.

I think his main pokemon would be Espeon or Ursaluna.

Kirk

Okay, Kirk was an interesting one. So far, I was able to pretty much make teams that I think could fit both AOS and TOS. However, Kirk gave me the most trouble with this. So of the three teams, I think this one is probably the one I'm not as certain on.

Charizard A classic pokemon, one that searches for challenges, and never attacks those weaker than itself. Its pre-evolution Charmeleon purposefully gets into fights, which I think fits AOS Jim pre-academy lol.

Sylveon The third eeveelution to evolve by friendship. Its pokedex entries talk of its ability to soothe conflicts with its calming aura. A very affectionaste pokemon, I see it being close with Bones and Spock's eeveelutions, and perhaps being the most outgoing of the three.

Scrafty "While mostly known for having the temperament of an aggressive ruffian, this Pokémon takes very good care of its family, friends, and territory." Suits the outer perspective of him, and I also think AOS Jim in particular would vibe with a Scrafty.

Dragonite LOOK AT IT. It's a kindhearted pokemon that always feels the need to help others, and frequently rescues others from drowning. Just a very Jim feeling pokemon to me, honestly. Also a classic.

Ampharos

Smth smth... Guiding light? Ampharos is known for the way it shines in darkness, and is known to be a beacon for the lost. Juat has the vibes of a Jim pokemon to me

Clodsire

"When attacked, this Pokémon will retaliate by sticking thick spines out from its body. It’s a risky move that puts everything on the line." Risky moves, you say? Well that definitely sounds like Kirk.

EXTRA

I think his main pokemon would be Charizard.

Was tempted to give AOS Jim a Cyclizar. Maybe he has one, and it's just not in his regular rotation?

I think at some point he'd at least befriend a Latios. "Latios will only open its heart to a Trainer with a compassionate spirit." - If it wasn't for Dragonite, Latios would be his dragon-type pokemon. And that goes for either version of him.

I was tempted to give him a whole Mew. Just for the fun of it.

Maaaybe maybe, Bones gifts him the Cubone-now-Marowak that he raised. And Spock gifts him the Abra-now-Kadabra he raisedm which evolves into Alakazam. Just maybe.

Bonuses

While I think all their Pokemon are more than happy to hang out, I think the eeveelutions in particular love being together. Find them in cuddle piles if they're not with their trainers.

In AOS I can see Bones and Spock raising a Cubone together.

While I was making these teams, I thought about how the Lake Trio from Diamond and Pearl suited them. Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf: Bringers and also erasers of Knowledge, Emotion and Willpower

[am-i-the-asshole-rotomblr]

Am I The Asshole For Throwing My Cleffa Like a Baseball?

I (17nb) recently got my first pokemon, a Cleffa named Baseball. I did lots of research before choosing her as my first pokemon, but I was surprised to find that she really likes to be thrown, just like a baseball. I don't throw her hard or far, usually just standing distance from my bed into the pillows, but she always wants more.

So last week, I took her to the local park, where there is a large field meant for soccer and other sports and started tossing her around. However, I didn't account for a) the wind, or b) about how Cleffa is about as dense as a Pikachu's fart. Needless to say, I chucked her, the wind picked her up like an errant balloon, and she landed in the woods.

I immediately panicked, climbed the fence separating the park from the woods, and went to retrieve her. Some other trainers saw me scrambling to get her and scolded me for treating her so poorly, despite my explanations that she really likes being thrown.

We left the park after that, and went home where she got plenty of poke puffs and rest, and she's doing just fine after the adventure.

So, AITA?

[avionvadion]

Playing Pokémon White because my bestie is the sweetest and spoils me, and N is so passive aggressively evil and delulu, alsjsksklsks. Like, I know he’s been groomed by Ghetsis to believe all pokemon are being abused and that they’re trying to “free” them, but for someone who believes he’s doing good he is saying some of the meanest things, like holy frick.

“Poor Bianca… she’s finally realized that not every trainer can become stronger.” Sir??? What did baby girl ever do to you??? She’s trying her best! 😭 That was so unnecessary of him to say. Man just likes to throw shade.

Anyways.

All I can imagine is Ienzo in a flustered panic as N takes him on the Ferris Wheel ride wondering if this technically counts as a date and getting kind of excited because quite frankly N is very pretty and he may or may not have been crushing on him since they first met, but then N just looks at him, completely serious, and goes, “I must tell you something…”

Ienzo: “Y-Yeah!?”

N:

Ienzo: *oh sweet Arceus this is it we’re on a Ferris Wheel and everything okay stay calm don’t panic remember what Amelia said-*

N: “I’m the king of Team Plasma.”

Ienzo: “…Huh?”

Meanwhile Amelia is just freaking power housing her way through the battle trains like an absolute girl boss because her Ferrothorn is a beast and the only people who’ve beaten her in battle is her mother and father, who are literally known for defeating Champions, being Champion, defeating and disbanding Team Rocket twice, defeating Team Aqua and Magma, saving the world multiple times, and even putting an end to Team Galatic on their honeymoon. She is a force to be feared.

And quite frankly neither Ingo nor Emmet are expecting her team- which has a lot of type weaknesses- to work so well, nonetheless win, against theirs.

They especially aren’t expecting her to ask if they know anything about the Team Plasma group that’s been hanging around and causing trouble lately, as she and her brother are working to put an end to them- just as their parents did to the criminal organizations before them.

Needless to say they meet up later (after their shift ends) and exchange all the information they’ve gathered over time about Team Plasma. And… Xtranceiver numbers. For reasons.

And then Ienzo runs up screeching that the pretty boy they’ve kept encountering is claiming to be the KING of Team Plasma and Amelia is just staring at her older brother like, “Oh, honey, no…”

Ienzo, “WHY CAN’T I HAVE MOM’S TASTE IN MEN!?”

Amelia: “Because you’re our dad’s spitting image?”

Ienzo, on the verge of tears: “I didn’t know he’d be evil!”

Amelia: “…Why don’t we sit down and you tell me exactly what happened, okay??? Also, Ienzo- this is Ingo and Emmet. Ingo, Emmet, this precious bean that must be protected is my brother.”

Emmet, waving: “Hello! I am Emmet.”

Ingo: “My name is Ingo! It is a pleasure to meet you! Miss Amelia has just finished telling us about you and your noble goal to pull the breaks on Team Plasma’s schemes!”

Ienzo: “…Hi. Uh, ‘Lia? You said you were gathering intel. Did you STORM the battle trains for these two???”

Amelia, shrugging: “Elesa said they could help. Plus, she was really pretty and I wasn’t about to not listen to her, so…”

Ienzo: “Fair. Also. Why didn’t you invite me!?”

Amelia: “You were busy getting ready to battle Elesa! Besides, you told me I could go ahead!”

Ienzo: “I didn’t realize you’d be going to the battle subway!”

Meanwhile-

Arceus, watching this all take place: “Hmm, yes. After doth brother of thou’s defeateth his misguidedeth evil new boyfriend and saveth the pokemon, I shall yeeteth you and the frowney train man to the ancient past and send both him and the smiley train man into panic as they searcheth for you. Verily. T’is a good plan. All is well.”

[pierswife]

Slides in here Hi I hope you don't me popping into ur asks, but might I ask you to tell me a bit abt ur s/i for piers? :00

Hi hi!!! I saw this last night but was super wiped bvhdvbsdghv but!!! I don't mind at all and would love to talk about them a little bit! I've also got S/I lore asks that I need to do so those should give some info about them too!!

And here she is, the funky little genderqueer! Her name is Amanda and beat for beat is definitely the closest thing to an actual self insert that I have (like, still a little idealized and OC-ish but that is just me). She doesn't have a particular type specialization, but they heavily prefer Water-type and Steel-type Pokemon, their ace being an Empoleon that their older sister gifted them when she came back from traveling in Sinnoh. Her main team is Empoleon, Swampert, Bisharp, Lycanroc (midnight), Boltund, and Arcanine. Rest is under a cut cause it got a little long whoops fhbjsdvb

Amanda is non-binary (femme presenting) and primarily uses she/they pronouns (doesn't mind he at all and honestly doesn't give a shit). She's a trainer from Unova and a former Coordinator who has become fairly well-liked by younger trainers in the region since she'll often help them learn new ways to bond with and raise their Pokemon. I wanted to expand on Unova's lore a bit when I was making them, so their family actually owns and runs the Floccesy Ranch, taking the role of the NPCs the own the Ranch in BW2. Whenever Amanda is staying home for a while, she helps any kids that pass through, giving them all sorts of tips and tricks! She has all of Unova's gym badges, but did not complete the Elite 4, always losing to Grimsley any time she tries so she just kinda gave up lmao. She also has all of Sinnoh's badges and lived there for a few years with family while she competed in Pokemon Contests. She eventually retires from being Coordinator for her mental health and moves back home. She has family in Galar that she visited often as a kid, but less frequently as an adult. They eventually go back to Galar during the events of Sword and Shield to help some friends/researchers at home (which turned into the Unova League going "wait omg we can turn this into a bond opportunity for our regions) and like... Best way I can describe it is a boss rush cause they go and fight every fucking gym leader (with special permission from the Galar League) to gather combat data and to learn more about Galarian Pokemon not seen in Unova. Needless to say, definitely scared the shit out of more than a few people when she shows up with a fucking Empoleon.

tldr; Ace trainer who has traveled multiple regions, participated in 2 gym challenges, retired coordinator, basically an older sibling figure to younger trainers in Unova, literally went to Galar to say "fight me" @ every gym leader.

[robinplayspokemon]

pokemon yellow, day 1: pallet town-pewter city

oh yeah, it's that time again!

what up gay nerds!!

so, yeah, we're on to pokemon yellow! despite fully admitting that the little guy is cute as heck, i've really never been the biggest pikachu fan? i think that's probably inevitable when something becomes the mascot for a franchise whose strength is having literally hundreds of different little dudes that everyone's obviously gonna have different levels of attachment to, but yeah. i really think eevee woulda been a better mascot for the franchise & i will die mad about it! (not really. i'm joking. this is a baby franchise for babies. i'm not allowed to actually be mad about it.)

so, yeah! needless to say being locked into having pikachu as your starter & constant companion and not even being able to evolve him into the objectively superior raichu (i'm kidding, i just love me some raichu) made this not really super my favorite pokemon game! but it does have enhanced graphics including new sprites for the pokemon and some of the characters, plus a few minor additions in dialogue & gameplay to make it resemble the (at the time) wildly-popular anime, including my beloved jessie & james!!!

so, yeah! you're locked into pikachu as your starter. i named mine "chu chu" to be cute. and then, like in red & blue, you can catch your usual rattatas & pidgeys of the world once you have pokeballs. i named rattata "kug" (after a character in dimension 20: the unsleeping city) and pidgey "bird" (because i thought it was funny, yeah, i'm dumb.).

also, you can totally call me a cheater if you want to for this if you want, but since the legit mew i caught in red & traded over to blue for my dex was at a low level (level 7 is always the level you encounter using the glitch i linked to in my last pokemon blue post), i went ahead and traded that mew (nicknamed omega) over to be one of my starting pokemon too. when i played blue back in the day i always used gameshark to get mew and always had one on my elite four team, so i figured i might as well continue that tradition in at least one of my gen 1 playthroughs. shrugs!

i caught everything i could in the vicinity of viridian city

(nicknamed punchy)

(nicknamed tomboy)

(nicknamed boywife)

(nicknamed angy bird)

and made short work of all the bug catchers in viridian forest, and caught the one new pokemon i could there

(nicknamed flick, after the animal crossing character. no weedle in yellow for some reason, idk why! i'll have to send one over from blue.)

and finally, i finished off this first stretch of game by beating brock for my first gym badge! he gets a fancy new sprite that matches his anime model a bit better, plus some dialogue that references his characterization in the anime, as well as alluding to the many possible, varied ways to be a pokemon trainer.

and that's all for now! i know my pokemon yellow updates are gonna be way more dex-heavy, so it's a good thing they wrote new dex entries for yellow! i hope y'all aren't gonna get bored since there'll be a lot of retreading here, but yeah, thanks for sticking around! catch ya next time, gay nerds!

[flowergirlmiwa]

my personal relationship with the pokemon stadium series and the leadup to my pokemon stadium japan blogging

my personal relationship with the pokemon stadium series

Pokemon Stadium was the first game i remember owning for Nintendo 64, the first home console i properly owned as the Sega Genesis was my dad's. i played it aaallll the time back then, but i didn't make that much progress into the cups, just one or two of the easier ones and maybe up to lt surge but that was all i could muster. my dad still jokes about it to this day. "what's the matter, trainer?" i literally left the game on for days at his house

like i alluded to in my previous post, while i did have a transfer pak and pokemon games, the transfer pak was prone to failing when the controller it's inserted into is moved and i move all the time so i was fucked as i only owned one controller. i actually only owned the one n64 controller (blue) until around 2012 when i bought a shitty third party one just to make multiplayer even POSSIBLE. before then i reached multiple moments where i regretted the lack of additional n64 controllers. with my modern wisdom, a transfer pak controller is simply left to the side to sit and look pretty after getting it set up so the game will recognize it.

as i also alluded to, in late 2002 i forgot a game case including my game boy color and almost all of my games (sparing solely Pokemon Trading Card Game, which, based, but,) on a bus during my first weeks living in Mexico. needless to say this blew as i had only recently managed to procure pokemon silver and thus complete my collection of all pokemon games on the game boy color (even the spinoffs). losing my collection also included such games as super mario bros deluxe and game and watch gallery 2 so yeah it fucking sucked it was a huge shame.

after this i didn't get another pokemon gen 1 or 2 cartridge until around 2009. adding to this, despite renting it multiple times and always very much desiring it, i never actually got a copy of Pokemon Stadium 2 until around 2019. this left pokemon stadium in sort of a weird position for me. rentals only.

truth be told it wasn't the entire reason but pokemon stadium was a pretty big motivator in me collecting those pokemon cartridges back and taking me on the journey i went on where i can say i 100% completed both and now knock on the door of the japanese entries. but it was a long dark lonely road until then. basically a decade where every now and then id pick it up again. same old menus. same old pokemon stadium. like this game was baked into my dna at this point. there was one change, however, an inciting incident. 2017. when i discovered that speedrunner werster had basically compiled optimal rental teams during his runs and watched the points where he struggled, it gave me the motivation to pick the game back up again.

basically the rest went like this -i eventually finished R1 of stadium using werster's teams -i bought a cartridge of Pokemon Yellow to help me through the rest -with the power of using my own team through Yellow, complete R2 of Stadium -bought Stadium 2 -complete most of R1 and maybe a little R2 in Stadium 2 using Yellow -acquire Pokemon Gold cartridge -complete a bunch of R2 using Yellow & Gold's combined efforts (i think i also got Blue before Gold but honestly i don't really remember lol) -only Challenge Cup is left in R2 and i put off doing it -learn how to solder and ensure all my game boy cartridges will have good batteries, encouraging me to buy more cartridges, like for Silver and Crystal -i get 151 in Yellow partly thanks to abusing Trainer-Fly glitch -i buy an N64 Everdrive -with the power of this everdrive i can play the japanese stadium games without shelling out for the real game and doing cartridge magic on them to region-break them -i buy a cartridge for pocket monsters red version and begin formulating ideas for how to play pokemon stadium japan -i build the team and the moves that were used many months later when i got around to actually implementing it, only really changed since i somehow didn't have the TM for explosion or ice beam -eventually i decide to also get a cartridge for pocket monsters silver after realizing i would need some method to trade in order to use an alakazam like i had planned -in the meantime i finally get around to finishing R2 of Pokemon Stadium 2 by getting some good runs on Challenge Cup -after several months of getting around to progressing my japanese!silver cartridge to the point where it can trade with japanese!red, i start assembling the puzzle pieces of capturing team members -reliving the teambuilding from the yellow days, i abuse the missingno glitch in red to get 99 of every good item to streamline the process -i completed up to ultra ball on the LV1-30 on pokemon stadium japan -i begin blogging….!

NEXT: THE REAL TEAM INTRODUCTIONS FOR REAL THIS TIME!!!! tauros exeggutor lapras starmie alakazam pikachu

[askmerriauthor]

Pokemon S/V and the Fourth Wall

For those of you who may not know the term, the Fourth Wall is a narrative/theater concept that refers to the unseen barrier between the Audience and the Fictional World being portrayed. When a character in a given work looks directly at the camera/audience, speaks to the viewer, or otherwise interacts with the medium their story is being presented in outside of the way a being in that setting could normally do, that's called "Breaking the Fourth Wall".

Pokemon games have always played pretty fast and loose when it comes to the Fourth Wall. In the early days this could be attributed to simply not having better ways to familiarize Players with the games' systems, functions, and command prompts. The games were heavily limited by their medium and file sizes, so it's not like the devs could spare the extra space to give a more sensibly in-universe explanation to a lot of things. Sometimes a dev has little recourse but to have a character say "Press the B Button", speaking directly to the Player and breaking the Fourth Wall by acknowledging the game/console mechanics. Since Pokemon itself, as a setting and story, has taken lengths to establish a living, breathing world full of lore and history and characters with their own lives, such fissures between Player and Game are generally ignored as a necessity, or cheekily winked at as an Easter Egg, such as when the Player can find Game Freak studio in many of the games and talk to the dev team. Suspension of disbelief maintains.

That said, I have a MAJOR problem with recent developments as of Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet/Violet.

PLA takes place in the far-flung past of the setting and covers a lot of mankind's first real efforts at domesticating Pokemon, which leads up to the modern era the other games take place in. That's a fantastic concept and one I love to see explored. But it also introduced an extremely unnecessary concept into the lore:

All Pokemon have the ability to shrink themselves down small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. All of them. All Pokemon. At-will. It's just an innate thing shared by all Pokemon in existence, even ones from other planets and dimensions or artificially made by man or spontaneously manifested from the grudge of a dying soul, regardless of their differences in biology.

To which I say... no, they fucking don't.

Far be it from me to tell the writers at Game Freak how to do their jobs, but y'know what? I'm a writer in the game development industry myself, so I will since I at least qualify as a professional peer. This doesn't make any sense whatsoever, directly flies in the face of the established lore, and doesn't add anything useful to the lore either. It's not used to expand or fiddle with our understanding of the setting. It's just an excuse to justify why Pokemon shrink away and disappear when they're defeated (a common video game practice of de-rezzing an unneeded character model) or why they can fit inside Pokeballs (we don't need to know that, we've gone the entire series without knowing for certain, it's better not being explained). That said, as the other Fourth Wall breaks prior, this can be massaged away and gently ignored. The story takes place at the very beginning of mankind's scientific exploration of Pokemon, so we can easily wave this statement aside as "they were operating on flawed logic and assumptions that seemed accurate at the time, but didn't hold up to scrutiny as scientific understanding progressed". Suspension of disbelief may be bruised, but it maintains.

Pokemon S/V takes this needless invocation of the game mechanics even further and far more to the detriment of the setting. The Academy is a place that was criminally misused by the game: the Player has the option to explore biology, language, history, math, and other topics outside of the normal Trainer framework we usually play in. It's the perfect opportunity to examine the lore of the setting, really dig into how Pokemon society functions when you're not a combat-focused Trainer, and really flesh out the whole story in interesting ways. S/V did exactly none of that. Instead, all of the classes just discuss combat mechanics or S/V-specific Paldea backstory. That's bad enough on its own because it's such a massive waste of potential, but S/V goes into territory that doesn't just break the Fourth Wall, but grinds it into dust and throws it in our eyes.

Classes in the Academy make statements that blatantly defy the setting we actively interact with at the very moment we're doing it, purely for the sake of justifying a game mechanic. The "Let's Go" function, where you can call out your Pokemon to walk along with you in the overworld, doesn't work indoors because of sizing/pathing constraints. That's fine, it doesn't need to be explained at all. But S/V goes out of its way to state that Pokemon in Paldea, regardless of their species, AREN'T ALLOWED INDOORS, even as virtually every room - including the very class that statement is being made in - features Pokemon in them. Just like the "all Pokemon can shrink" line, this exists only to explain a game mechanic and plainly breaks the setting for no reason.

Further, all these lessons directly reference concepts that don't exist in the setting itself but do exist as part of the game mechanics. They discuss the specific mathematical odds of Shiny probability, the exact damage equations of Super-Effective moves and STAB mechanics, the numerical likelihood and effects of a Critical Hit, and even refer to system statements made in the USER INTERFACE ITSELF THAT EXIST SOLELY FOR THE SAKE OF PLAYER.

What this sort of thing does is directly tie the game's mechanics to the nature of the setting itself; these mechanics are no longer a medium by which to interpret abstract concepts that can't easily be addressed in the game, but are now a fundamental part of how this setting operates. It's absolutely ridiculous and outright damaging to the integrity of the game setting, especially when it comes to the implications it brings up.

For example, there's an invisible stat called "Friendship" in Pokemon that measures how friendly a Pokemon is to you, which raises and lowers based on how you treat them. Some Pokemon will only evolve if they have high Friendship values, or some moves will change their effectiveness based on if a Pokemon likes or dislikes you. As a shorthand mechanic, there are items in the game that alter a Pokemon's stats, including making it more friendly to you. Previously, Players could just use this as an abstraction - "Oh, Pokemon enjoy these items, so using it is the game's way of representing me caring for the Pokemon and giving it things it enjoys". But now? Because of how S/V explicitly ties the game mechanics into the setting, it means these items basically mind-control a Pokemon. "Oh, this Pokemon doesn't like me at all? Let me shove a handful of Grepa Berries down its throat - now it instantly loves me". See how that completely defies the entire concept of Pokemon being independent creatures, Humans befriending Pokemon, establishing a bond with them, and being partners in adventure that even S/V itself tries to present?

This is made so much worse by the fact that it's completely unnecessary. One might argue "But Merri, this is some Players' first Pokemon game! They need to have the mechanics explained to them or else it won't make sense!". I understand that, dear Convenient Strawman, but that's ignoring a very important facet of S/V: the Adventure Guide. That is to say, an in-game key item the Player has from the very start of the game that explains all of the game's various functions, mechanics, and concepts in a non-lore manner. It's a tutorial guidebook specifically for this purpose; its presence in the game explains these ideas better and more thoroughly, making the integration of mechanics into the lore itself redundant and pointless.

For the love of lore, Game Freak, please stop trying to over-explain and integrate game mechanics into the story. Go home. You're drunk.

[official-raihan]

What happened when you first met Dura and what pokemon are they?

Dura is my Duraludon. I'm only clever with names about half the time.

This might be a bit of a long story

When I was young, I wasn't a rich kid or anything like that, like how a lot of people assume I was. In fact, it was practically the opposite. My mum and I were the only people in the house, and her Applin was the only Pokémon, but even with just that there were times where we were scraping by.

I was a dumb teenager, so when I was about.. 13? 14? I thought that if I went and caught a strong Pokémon I could A) Battle for money, and/or B) Join the Gym Challenge and make money that way, as well as take some financial stress off of Mum.

Needless to say there's more steps to it than that, but I hadn't thought that far ahead.

So, I snuck out one day and ran up to route 10 to try and find a strong Pokémon. While having none of my own.

Understandably it didn't go according to plan.

A bit after I arrived, I found an egg, and grabbed it. I'm not really sure why, but it felt wrong to just leave it there alone, so I did. I understand now that plenty of Pokémon leave their offspring alone unsupervised and it's a normal thing, but I reiterate, I was a dumb teenager.

Eventually, though, Mama found me.

I should've just dropped the egg when I saw a large angry Duraludon running at me full speed, but I panicked.

By the time I realized I HADN'T dropped it I was almost home. Mum was not particularly happy with me, but she said that if I could take care of whatever hatched from it and feed it myself I could keep it.

Once Dura was old enough to battle, that's what we did.

You all can see where it went from there.

A Duraludon is definitely not the best starter for ANYONE, and I do not recommend doing what I did, but it luckily worked out for me. I joined the Gym Challenge, and afterwards they asked me to be one of the gym trainers, and then gym leader.