#star arcana revelations

[star-arcana]

My Predictions in regards Pokémon Horizons season finale: The battle of Rakua!!!

Hello guys, Star-Arcana is my name and I am here to give my ten predictions as to how this arc is going to end and where to go from there, take it as prophecy when coming true, or ultimately, just as a guess, especially when not all of it will come true, so let's begin: 1.Friede is going to get retired The story implies heavily that something is going to happen to him, perhaps he will leave the Brave Asagi for good or will die, or be injured...whatever the case, I feel like as mentor he did his job well enough and it's good for the kids to ultimately go on their own. As for what this would mean for the RVT's, they can go all without him and perhaps he stays with them, and they might have adventures parallely and will perhaps have some fun. But I believe for the next arc, something to ease a bit of tension could work, and then they start with something new. So I feel like Friede might not be needed that much as mentor anymore. Cap and Charizard might need new trainers, or they just stay at the Brave Asagi and have some fun.

2. Amethio becomes the new leader of the Explorers (and a civil war arc might follow) Amethio is clearly going on his Zuko arc and will defect to the good guys, stop Gibeon and afterwards take over the Explorers as new leader and most of them are gonna accepting him, especially with the truth revealed and him even possibly getting Zygarde after he takes it from his grandfather. Spinel and Agathe might rebell against him, leading to a civil war, and perhaps a new threat could profit from this, starting for Amethio also an arc of overseeing a new threat at the same time.

3. Gibeon will die He won't make it out alive, it's clear that even with Mega-Zygarde, a Mega-Rayquaza and Pagogo when Terastalized will crush him, even with Rakurium's regenerating powers, as Terastal energy is a natural counter to it. Liko will probably unleash with Pagogo a devastating new attack that will nullify not only Rakurium, but also destroy Mega Zygarde, with Mega-Rayquaza's help. I say Mega-Rayquaza, since Legends Z-A brings that back and we can see from here more mega-evolutions. Gibeon will die, reflecting on how everything went wrong and leave parting words, perhaps even a warning of a new threat, which was another reason as to why he wanted Rakua, to gain the upper hand against them. His death might be presented as a tragedy as he was once a hero and friend of Lucius and I can imagine some tender moments between them. Anyway, he won't make it out alive, and that is the end, a villain like he won't make it out so easily alive, especially this type of avaricious.

4. Lucius will keep on living I don't see the point of killing him off, as most likely with the heroes, he will be able to save the day and ultimately decides to stay in Rakua, to guard it from future threats. His Six Heroes all stay with him, including perhaps Rayquaza, who is, as the strongest needed to defend that place. Lucius will then congratulate his successors and wish them much luck, hoping they get adventures of their own and one day, when they really want to, they could come here and meet him again, they now the way! This would also help his character, because we can in a post-rakua story develop him further as someone who really is legendary and mention many heroic feats such as ending a war between legendaries or having once beaten Volo and saved the world. Basically continuing sagas of his great exploits and even backstory, so that he, as well his friends, can be developed even further, making him stay relevant, even if his story is over. They don't have to do that all the time, but him having for instance spanked Volo would be one of my favourite moments. The same is true for Rystal and Gibeon, as there is a lot left to explore. But enough of the heroes from the past, now to the modern ones.

5.Roy will not get Black Rayquaza (and that is fine) Roy has recently caught Rayquaza and returned it to it's ball. However he didn't managed to make it accept it as new trainer, since it still belongs to Lucius, who might not give it to him, since it is his pal and probably needs it to guard Rakua. Roy will obviously bummed by this, but hopefully will not go full Kieran on everyone, since it's far more acceptable in this case. Lucius will cheer him up and say that the world of Pokémon is big enough for him to explore and find a legendary of his own. So Roy will go on a world travel by himself with Crocalor and Kilowattrel to find his legendary Pokémon. He also wants to live up to Lucius's example as hero and do a lot of good deeds, but his inability to find a Pokémon that excites him like Rayquaza did, still misses in his life. He will after this go through a bit of a depression arc, as he couldn't find it, until Koraidon appears and he befriends it. It is injured from a battle and needs someone like Roy to take care of it. Having read the Scarlet Book, he recognizes that Pokémon and befriends it. Koraidon accepts him and together they train and have heroics together and meet Arven, who is here to supervise that Pokémon since it's from Area Zero, and if he keeps knowledge of that Pokémon a secret, he can have it and they together train it, and bond, especially with their family stories. Ultimately, this arc is about Roy finding his own calling and instead of trying copy Lucius, he will be a hero in his own right, and ultimately have fun.

6. Dot might become an intern and learn under a professor. Dot wants to learn more about Pokémon and after having made a name for herself with her adventure, with Briar having even shown footage of her quick thinking and ability to figure out Paradox mon's typings. She gets then the attention of Professor Sada/Turo, who wants to study Area Zero and Paradox Pokémon with Dot. She agrees, having a lot of interest in researching them, and wants to learn all she an about them. During her internship, she learns a lot and feels really happy about this, but years to return a bit to her former life as content creator, and begins to think about quitting. However she sees a shady bunch of people trying to take a Pokémon from A0 and stops them! Turns out, it's a new evil organization and Dot with Quaxwell and Tinkatuff save the day! They free this Pokémon and find out it's Miraidon, a Pokémon from the future and Dot wants to protect and study it. Thus Dot becomes the trainer of Miraidon and wants to find out who these evil guys were...but her research is taken advantage off...by someone she trusted the most...either Penny, with the organization being Team Star itself or ultimately the Paradox Professors, who want to create a Paradox Paradise and hired people to capture that Pokémon. Anyway Dot will ultimately perhaps even get into contact with Amethio with this, perhaps even dealing with the same goons. Whatever the case, she is here for a ride, and it's fun!

7. Liko goes a bit of a training arc with the Paldean League Liko after having fulfilled Pagogo's promise might find herself happy and content, now returning home and telling about her adventures, she resumes Indigo Academy and has fun there. She takes Floragato, Hattrem and Pagogo with her to Indigo Academy and reunites with Ann there. She tells her friend of her adventures and fills her in on how much she learned. Ann also tells her about her own acomplishments, and also about her new goal: Go back to Paldea to participate in the League, since she loved her time there and wants to battle Liko in there. Liko is unsure, if she wants to participate, since she wants first a more quite enviroment after all what has happened. But Ann tells her that people like her will probably get into new mysteries and adventures eventually and perhaps this experience can steel her for the future, like some eventful encounter with another villain. Liko considers this possibility, but wants first to think about it. Some days later During a trip in Johto, Liko encounters a strange Celebi and gets transported to a diffrent time period, starting an new mystery for her to uncoveruntil she comes once more into contact with a new threat...this time from the future, rather from the past. Her last story was about uncovering amystery of the past, now she has to uncover a mystery of the future. Liko ends up in the future, seeing everything ruined and destroyed. She wonders what happens until some adventurer revealed to her that she is 100 years in the future. Liko learns that during her time a powerful trainer will unleash calamity and destroy the world, and perhaps her being send her means she can stop it. The records of that event are still in shambles, but it will happen very soon in Liko's time, shocking her and asking if there is a way to avert this. The historian tells her that there was someone with a Terapagos that could have stopped them, but was woefully prepared for the encounter as he concluded. It was stated that she was the only one able to match him in power, but didn't prepare herself enough for this. Liko asks him who this trainer is, but he has no idea, since that person erased most of the records of that time during their conquest and rules this world with an iron fist, with only a small resistance fighting. Liko then thinks about Ann's words and ultimately asked if she participated in the Paldean League, which surprisingly the adventurer confirms that she didn't, she was not in any leagues prior to fighting against that trainer. Liko then now decides to take the offer from Ann the previous day and will enter the Paldean League to get better at Pokémon battling. The Adventuer also tells her to look after clues for a trainer with another Terapagos, as it was said that some other trainer with it could help her agaist them, as the records sparsely mentioned. She gets send back in her timeline and goes to Ann, proposing to go with her to Paldea to start her training arc and prepares herself agains the coming threat and learning more about whom she has to fight in the future, and who could be the trainer with a Terapagos as well! So her mission is to become a champion level trainer to prepare for the future to face this mysterious trainer one day!

8. Legends Z-A content will mostly be Pokémon, rather than plotpoints We know very little about Z-A, but I think we get some Pokémon there, but not too much from the plot of that game, since Legends Arceus so far has also been ignored, as well as the Crown Tundra from SwSh. Yeah, I have little hopes of seeing everything from that game in HZ, but I do want to see Mega evolutions come back. I even have some ideas about it, like each of our heroes having at the very least one Mega-evolving Pokémon, but that is about it. So, not too much from that game, but still going to be somewhat implemented here.

9. Gen 10 Legendaries Many think they are going to use Legendaries from the next gen, but I do think they might use some Gen 5 mons with new forms for a potential remake there, as that would tie in with Blueberry Academy, which I think is going to be amongst the last arcs of Horizons, since that place was very important for the Terapagos line, so they may play a homage to it, similiarly how Liko's storyline in Kitakami was a good ending version of Teal Mask. As for Legendaries, they might be Boxart Legendaries or even a continuation of a group of gen 9 Pokémon, like the Treasures of Ruin, with a 5th treasure being the Regigigas of that group to better tie it with Gen 9.

Anyway those are my predictions, what do you think and tell me yours in the comments below! Bye!

[star-arcana]

In defense of Pokémon Horizons episode 79 "Over the Top" : Why Geeta isn't weak!

SPOILERS!!!

Ok, I already made a post on it on twitter, that site won't allow me to go into detail as much as I wanna. So I use THIS side to explain, as to why this episode is well made and why the ultimate outcome not only makes story wise sense, but was the best conclusion Horizons could take!

So I'm going to write a better version of my post, in defense of Geeta, La Primera,standing over the top, as well as for our Heroine Liko, and her friends, Roy and Dot! Llet's begin!

The Origin of Geeta's controversial role as Champion!

Geeta is considered to be one of the worst champions of all time, even as THE WORST champion by many. In Scarlet and Violet, she poses as the final challenge of the Paldean League and as champion battles us to see, if we can become champion too. Due to how poorly she perfomed however, people have a sour taste left in their mouth with her role as champion, despite having fulfilled her role rather masterfully, which I will get later on. Just know that before Horizons's most recent episode, Geeta had long before garnered a bad reputation as a poor champ, even if it's undeserved imo. So I will go in detail over that first to establish why that is bollocks and why she actually works well in the games, and how it influenced the anime's take of her. It was all made with the utmost care and sincere respect for Geeta as character that is even unmachted compared to her game counterpart.

She is in the anime even better than ever before and it will be soon not difficult to see why!

La Primera has a role to fulfil in Horizons, and it explains the outcome of this episode, as well as to why the controversy happened! So let's briefly go over her games's version first!

Geeta's role in the games!

You see, Horizons drew massive inspirations from Scarlet and Violet, not only with it's Pokémon, but setting as well! But Horizons is self-containted as storyline, and not established to be canon within the games. So therefore, it doesn't follow strickly or even remotely the same path of the game and has it's own story, making most of SV take a backseat for more interesting, compelling and well-written narratives!

But Geeta's anime counterpart and many of the elements of Horizons are based on the story of Scarlet and Violet, and they gave a template for how that character works, even if not fully used (since you cannpot blindly copy the games).

Now I come REALLY to her game's role:

Golden Owl, a youtuber who studied game design and lives in Singapore, outlined many of the reasons as to why Geeta isn't bad as champion. I will use many of his points here, as well as using some of his phrases, because they are funny! This video from Golden Owl influenced me, as well as my own reasoning regarding my views on Geeta in both media. So check his video out if you want to know his takes yourself.

He is really knowledgeable and trustworthy, check him out please and subscribe to his channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EghD8e3ziMM&pp=ygUdZ2VldGEgaXMgdGhlIHdlYWtlc3QgY2hhbXBpb24%3D

So as underlined in his video, Geeta was despite her role as champion never the final boss of this game. The Paradox Professors were, and Geeta is not even the final boss of the very storyline where you face her: That is Nemona!!! Da Da Daaa!!!

Scarlet and Violet is seperated into three storyline in total, not counting the DLC's as they aren't relevant here, and the final one happening after you finished all of the main three.

Arven's story, "Path of Legends", is about facing Titan Pokémon to help him heal his Mabosstiff's illness and meanwhile strenghtening your Koraidon/Miraidon (depending on which version you play as).

Penny's story "Starfall Street" is about with fighting against Team Star to stop them from bullying other students, and learning about their motives and why they are that way!

And finally, Nemona's story "Victory Road", which is the one where you face Geeta, so we go with this one here:

Nemona at the start of this storyline wants to make you, the player, a rival worthy of facing her in battle, as no one was able to truly make her go all-out on anyone. She convinces you to partake in the Paldean League to become a champion level trainer yoruself and face Nemona afterwards! So, you face the 8 Gym Leaders and occasionally battle with Nemona herself. Then you face the Elite 4, and finally the top champion Geeta , whom you have to beat to become Nemona's most worthy rival and opponent... ... ... ...and let's be honest here, Geeta's battle performance was...not so good...I won't go into very big detail here, since that had been discussed endlessly to death regarding Geeta, so I get this most basic info out straight:

1. Geeta's ace, Glimmora, should have been send out first to make most use of it's Toxic Debris ability to lay toxic spikes on the enemies's field to poison and weaken the enemy, if hit by a physical attack. Instead, it comes out last and Glimmora also has no defensive attack to stall the enemy. Thus the Spikes are, in addition to poor placement, are rendered almost useless, espcially when that ability can be ignored by using special attacks, which aren't hard to optain, especially super effective ones.

2. Gogoat, Avaluug and Veluza aren't particularly challenging and lack the defensive utility to help with Glimmora's spikes,especially with how late that mon comes out. They cannot help this team and can be easily taken out. Avalugg's ginormous defensive bulk is also marred by it's SUPER LOW special defense and therefore is REALLY vulnerable to special attackers.

3. Kingambit's most memable and powerful ability, Supreme Overlord, that buff it's attack stage by 10% for each fallen team member is never send out last (in fact it often is send out second) and therefore never fully maximized it's ability.

Thus the only Pokémon used competently here is Espathra with it's Opportunist ability and coverage taking advantage of your stat boost, by buffing itself with the same boost.

So...yeah...this team wasn't designed to be hard, it was built around rather the many biomes you encountered on your journey across the Paldean Region:

Gogoat representing the grassy highlands! Veluza the lakes northwest! Avalugg the top of Paldea's icy and cold mountains! Espathra the hot, burning deserts west! Kingambit the forests northeast! and Glimmora representing A0, the final destination awaiting you next.

You are in fact level wise meant to beat Geeta alongside the final bosses of the two other storylines, with Penny and Arven bein around Geeta's level. Meanwhile Neomona is slightly higher than them all, meaning Victory Road was concieved as the storyline to be finished last.

Thus Geeta wasn't gameplay wise meant to be hard, and she didn't needed to be hard, because Nemona is the true driving force and the final boss of that storyline, just like Blue in Gen 1. Blue was to the player in the first Pokémon games, as the most personal foe, who became champ first by beating the Elite 4 before you and losing shortly after the title to you! How exciting!

Geeta doesn't fulfil the same role as champ, Nemona does, and, in fact, neither she or Nemona are even the true final bosses of SV! That would be the Paradox Professors in the last storyline you unlock after you finish all the three others storylines.

You unlock the last challenge in the base game facing either Sada (Scarlet) or Turo (Violet) depending on each version in the final storyline called "The Way Home", where you enter Area Zero and face the truth of Paradox Pokémon and what happened to Koraidon/Miraidon, as well as the original Professors, basically a horror story with a good ending afterwards!

Therefore Geeta had to be held back, as to not outperorm the final bosses of that game. So yeah, for someone who says that they never held back, there was a lot of holding back done here, not by her, but by the narrative. This makes sense, as Nemona by Geeta's own words held even against her held back, because Nemona felt no true satisfaction in this battle. But now that even Geeta, the Champion of Paldea is defeated, Nemona is faced last, and she is actually much stronger, with a more competent team, but mostly gameplay wise, as Geeta herself is still considered by Nemona really strong.

So in the end, the issue of Geeta's bad impression on fans was with the role given to her, as another boss before facing the actual final boss. That is unlike many of the other champions in the whole series that peopled wanted her to be like, and a lot of fans were then dissapointed in Geeta!

Unlike Geeta, the other champions are the final bosses and/or super bosses of their respective games, like Cynthia, Lance, Blue e.t.c. They were powerhouses always meant to be fought last, as they are the ultimate challenge for the player to overcome and beating them therefore is the ultimate end goal of these games.

The only other game aside from SV in the series so far that had the actual champion be second fiddle to more powerful trainers, was Alder from Black and White 1. He is there the Champion of the Unova League and meant to be seen as powerful mentor with the twist of him losing his title to N, who defeated him and in turn became the new champion. Withonly the player, that is you, remaining as last hope to stop him. After you do this, Ghetsis then reveals himself as the true villain and final boss and gets taken out, too. Alder is then fought in the post-game, as an actually challenging boss. But aside from these two exceptions, champions are always seen as the strongest trainers and even the greatest rivals to overcome, with everyone else being a stepping stone between them and you!

This is unusual in the case of Geeta here, as she never recieved the role as final boss and ultimate foe. So, she had to be made weak compared to Nemona, as not to upset the flow of the story and game, since the strongest bosses are always meant to fight last. This is how and why Geeta is considered the worst champion of all time, because she was not the final boss many hoped she would be and instead is just another challenge.

One could argue they overdid this with lowering her potential in the base game, but I feel like this isn't so bad, after all, the finale of a game is what should be most challenging, not the stepping stones and she is good enough for this to work and delivered even more in the DLC!

How the DLC fixed this!

Geeta got in the Indigo Disk a massive buff with her rematch team in the League Club room. She has a more competent team and placement that actually benefits her Pokémon more:

She still has Glimmora, Espathra, Avalugg and Kingambit, but Glimmora is placed first and Kingambit last to maximize and optimize their abilities. Avalugg is the only weak link, but has somewhat good defenses to justify it's placement as bulky Ice type. She also has now a Chesnaught and Dragapult, the former being a defense mon and the latter a powerful Pseudo-Legendary with great coverage and attacks. This team boasts now a great defensive style with Espathra and Chesnaught to stall with defensive moves such as protect and Spiky Shield to stall enough the enemy for the spikes to work. And finally, once the heavy hitters are taken out afterwards , a Tera-Flying Kingambit with max Supreme Overlord to remove all of it's previous weaknesses can sweep through the enemy's team. Yeah, she really is utterly incapable of holding back!

Thus Geeta is now with this team considered really strong, with many saying that this team is amongst the best in the whole series when compared to that of other champions. Better than Leon's and even around Cynthia's level, maybe even better than hers! Overall Geeta impressed here many who tought of her as weak...but this wasn't enough.

Despite this, the original impression remains and was not possible to shackle, especially with her being hyped up as top battler that never holds back. She was made utterly incapable of delivering this gameplay wise, cuz the game clearly held her back...Even with this second chance that Geeta got, this impression never changed, which lead to a rather unfortunately place in the fandom that Geeta never deserves...

In conclusion...La Primera was not final boss material by design...which led to many dissapointed fans of the games and Geeta getting slandered into obliviion by many...but this isn't the end of all of this, since she would appear in a new storyline, that also led a lot of the same reactions, so let's finally go over there!

Geeta's role in the anime!

How well recieved the Horizons is by the fandom is a diffrent discussion for another time, but many have hoped that Geeta would have been given her just due in the anime, to making up for the "poor" performance in the games...many were happy, others not so much, which made me do this post to begin with!

I will go to her overall role later in detail, but first I wanna go to the episode first!

So lets's get that out of the way:

This episode's outcome was predictable all things considered!

Unless you ignored the implication of Floragato surviving the Tera Blast in the promo, as well as ultimately ignoring Geeta's conditions for the trio entering A0, namely defeating her or no entrance, there is no reason to assume that this battle shouldn't ever have ended in a victory for the RVT. Even considering the earlier losses of them against other foes before, many of which were trials to test their skills. But they were not challenges to overcome via winning, as victory was not the condition set out by their challengers, like Kleavor in Kitakami for instance.

So Geeta had to be defeated and lose, regardless of how powerful the title of champion is, and she did this with grace and excellency too. It took the trio much effort in terms of intellect, power, resilliance and strenght in spirit to overcome Geeta and it is not difficult to see why this is plausable! I will first go and briefly summarize the events of that battle and then explain Geeta's role in the anime, starting with the batle:

Liko with Floragato worked together with Roy and Dot, who brought with them Crocalor and Quaxwell respectely into battle to face Geeta as team. Geeta uses Glimmora as her Ace again, and is aided by two Glimmets, pre-evolutions of Glimmora. So Geeta uses a team of three, all of them very same evolutionary line. And as a small tangent, this correlates with the journey of our heroes and the usage of Glimmora in the games: Just like in the games, Glimmora is represented as a warning of what awaits the trio in Area Zero. The same role is fulfilled by the two Glimmets helping it to make this theme of Geeta's challenge team clear:

This is truly a test to see, if they can enter and even survive A0, hence why Geeta doesn't use her other mons, as they aren't from that Area, and would have thematically no relevance to either this fight or the episode. They are irrelevant to the RVT's current goals and wishes, they aren't right now exploring all of Paldea, and therefore Geeta built her team accordingly to their desires of the RVT. hus Liko, Roy and Dot face a team built around testing them for Area Zero, and if they win, they may enter, but if they lose, they can't, per La Primera's own words. Before the battle starts, Geeta warns them that she is unable to hold back during battles, so she will fight them with full force, setting an omnimous tone for the fight!

The Battle starts with Crocalor attacking the two Glimmets with Stomping Tantrum, but they use Rock Polish to evade the attack with enhanced speed. Roy and Dot ponder on attacking the Glimmets, but Liko knows better and realizes it is easier to attack focusing on one point first, that being, Glimmora itself. And all of them unleash their combined attack on Glimmora: Floragato using Magical Leaf, Crocalor Flamethrower, and Quaxwell using Water Gun, but that gets countered easily by Dazzling Gleam, which blinds the starters and the two Glimmets rain upon them from above with Power Gem. This shows how cunning and powerful Geeta is for cooking up this strategy, proving that she is no weakling. Immiediately afterwards, Dazzling gleam is fired up again to prepare for another double power Gem salve, but Roy counters it by telling Crocalor to use Disarming Voice to prevent them from attacking, as that move always hits, as well as bypassing accuracy checks like Dazzling Gleam. Meanwhile Liko and Dot tell Floragato and Quaxwell to attack Glimmora. Dot tells Qauxwell to use Liquidatio, but gets countered easily by Grassy spike. Geeta wants then Glimmora to use Power Gem on the approaching Floragato, but Liko tells her partner to use a good old sucker punch to delibetate Geeta's Ace, as that attack in response to offensive moves prevents the foe from attacking. But this attack activates the ability of Glimmora; Toxic Debris. Now the trio has their starters being poisoned by Toxic Spikes and the two Glimmets attack with venoshock, a poison type move that doubles the damage if the target has a status condition, like being poisoned, using thus the Toxic Debris effect to it's greatest potential. The team is concerned, as Geeta is fighting like no one else they meet before, but Roy gets an idea! He remembers Kleavor's strategy on using the sound of incoming attacks to avoid them, as that mon fought within a Bamboo forest using hearing to make up with poor eyesight. They use this strat learned from Kleavor to counter Geeta's Dazzling Gleam + double attack from above strat!

Thus the trio alongside their starters plan on goading Geeta to use use Dazzling Gleam again with Dot telling Quaxwell to use Water gun on Glimmora, who, as predicted, counters with Dazzzling Gleam. Once more the light blinds their Pokémon, but they are prepared and close their eyes, alongside their trainers and listen to the sound of the next attack. Geeta tells her Glimmets to attack Liko's Floragato with Power Gem, but Liko then counters it with telling Floragato to go left to evade the attack and then the Grass Starter uses her Yo-Yo buds to hold the two Glimmets. Roy then tells Crocalor to use Stomping Tantrum on them. Since Glimmets are 4 x weak to ground type moves, they are now on the verge of defeat, but Geeta uses this to her advantage! She orders the weakened Glimmets to use Memento on Crocalor and Quaxwell, thus hitting them with an attack that faints the two, but harshly lowers their targets Attack and Special Attacks, greatly reducing the two's capabilities in battle. This puts the trio at a massive disadvantage, and Glimmora has now to worry less about it's enemies's attack.

Dot begins to hope for luck to help against Geeta, but Liko realizes that Geeta puts too much effort in wnning for luck to work, as she would sacrefice everything needed for her for win. So Liko has to come up with a strategy that can fool everyone, and fooling everyone she did, because when the three charge at Glimmora, Liko tells Floragato to use Sucker Punch on Crocalor to prevent him from using Stompin Tantrum, while Quaxwell makes Glimmora use up Grassy shield with Liquidation.

Liko shocked everyone, especially Geeta, who is surprised by this turn of events. But this is not all, as Liko reminds Roy that Stomping Tantrum increases in power, if the previous attempt failed. Given that Crocalor was weakened by Memento, he needed a power boost to compensate for his weaknened state, and with Liko and Floragato's help, he got it. So now Roy's Crocalor can hit with enhanced power a 4 x super effective Stompin Tantrum on Glimmora, surprising Geeta massively. However as the battle continues, the poison does catch up with the starters, and Geeta, not able to hold back has no intention to stall them anymore. Liko also realized, that she cannot pull off that same strat again on her cunning foe! Geeta then resorts to use Terastallization to go all-out on them, having no intention to stall them and defeat them with her raw might!

In response, the trio then terastalize their Pokemon! Glimmora with Tera-Rock and the starters with their actual types! Liko tells Floragato to use Magical Leaf, but the poisoning weakened that Pokémon too much to use an attack, and Geeta sees an opening to attack with Glimmora's Rock-Tera blast, Liko's Pokémon. But Roy and Dot tell their Pokémon to shield Floragato and counter Tera Blast with Flamethrower and Water Gun respectively, but to avail, as not only do they get knocked out, but Floragato got hit too, facing the full brunt of that force!

But this isn't over, as Floragato toughed out the attack, so that Liko won't feel sad! Aww, so adorable and badass! This however is not all! On top of all of this, Floragato's ability Overgrowth activates, an ability exclusive to Grass Starters that powers up the Pokémon's attack and special attack by 50%, when they are at critical health. With Terastalization, the next attack is going to hit hard and super effectively. Sensing that this is her last chance to victory,Liko tells Floragato to use a great big Magical Leaf, clashing against Geeta's Glimmora, who uses Tera Blast to counter it, only to fail, as Floragato's Magical Leaf was stronger! And thus Glimmora was hit with a super effective attack and faints, winning the trio the match!

Liko, Roy and Dot win over Geeta, thus they all passed. Having defeated La Primera and earned their victory and thus permission to enter alongside Friede A0. Geeta has gratulated on them all for their performance and Liko has finally with her team won over a Champion, now ready to enter one of the most dangerous zones in all of Pokémon...but as the Rising Voltacklers arrived at Area Zero, Coral and Sidian follow them, to monitor their progress. But I leave that for next time, let's focus on the reaction to all of this!

Geeta is once again under cross fire + Liko bested a champion!MEGA FUEL FOR CONTROVERSY!!

This loss at the hands at relatively inexperienced trainer, coupled with an already poor reputation as champion, revived the hatred and dissapointment in Geeta. It also brought new ire towards Liko for winning, despite her supposive "lack of talents", as well as having now dared to be anywhere near able to beat Ash within such a short time!

"How dare she, Ash is the best, and I need him back"!

Ugh...this fandom...really!

Basically the outrage means nothing!

Geeta fought with a team even better at utilizing Glimmora's full defensive potential and ability, with two Glimmets being great damage dealers and capable of buffing themselves and debuffing their opponents. In additon to all of this, Geeta has Glimmora equiped with a powerful Rock-Tera blast able to take down two middle-evoled starters with ease, with the only one barely able to be left standing. Heck, she has two mons using Venoshock...to take advantage of toxic spikes...how cool is that?

And yes, this still wasn't enough and Floragato won against Glimmora. Liko ultimately won, not just because of her skills in battle and her unvawering heart, but because she also had the help of awesome friends in Roy and Dot, with their mons, Crocalor and Qauxwell being excellent as well. This was a team effort, with Liko taking this win as a group win, they worked together and while Liko performed the best, she is not arrogant to sorely attribute it to her own skills, instead she is way more humble, and praises her friends as well! Liko, Roy and Dot won together, as one, not alone, but as an unified trio!

Still, the people who hated Horizons and Geeta are not able to handle that well, and needed to invent reason as to why they have to downplay it by saying how weak Geeta is, how the trio are too inexperienced, and that Geeta held back, despite having not held back in the slightest.

And to make it quite clear, I have to explain now Geeta's overall role in the anime!

Geeta's role is very much the same as in the games, actually!

Remember of what I said about Geeta not being the final boss of SV? The same applies to Horizons! You see, The purpose of Horizons is telling a tale of self-discovery, as well as following in the footsteps of the Ancient Adventurer Lucius, who wanted to find a Pokémon Paradise known as Laqua (which I also have theories about what kind of place that it). To reach Laqua, they need to gather Lucius's team, the Six Heroes, who are all tera raid levels of powerful and beyond the level of any Pokémon team in the entire franchise. They helped once Lucius to enter Laqua with his friends in the past, and the RVT need them too, to reach the very same land he did with Rystal and Gibeon. Liko, Roy and Dot earned from 4 of them their blessing, with only Paradox Entei and Black Rayquaza remaining, and as Entei's paradox form is however found in Area Zero, and even reportedly sighed there quite recently, the heroes have to enter this most dangerous part of Paldea. Geeta therefore tests the trio, to see if they have what it takes to survive this hostile enviroment, and they have to win, or else, no entry! And she didn't use her more powerful mons in this fight as partners for Glimmora, yes, but not for the reasons many people think! It's not because she wanted to hold back. This wasn't done to go easy on them, this was done by Geeta because it was the most appropriate choice for the trial, since the other mons aren't encountered in that area really, and therefore teach them nothing about Area Zero. Now that they won, they proved that Area Zero is within their skill level to reach, and therefore, their next destination is all free for them to explore!

However this didn't diminish Geeta's power in the slightest. Instead she is shown as a powerful obstacle for the heroes to overcome, as the victory was a close call and took all of the heroes might to even defeat, and all of their bright minds to even challenge. And if they would have lost and still were allowed entrance, this would have not made sense with Geeta's role as character, and would be a repeat of the previous battles that served as trials with the condition of victory not being needed to met. In the Terastal Course for instance, victory was not necessary, just showing how able they are at using Terastalization, hence Dot, Roy and Liko passed without needing to win every battle, yet they grew stronger. So with all they had gathered in terms of experience and their battle spirit fueled by Liko's wish to fulfil Pagogo's promise to Lucius alongside the rest of the Six Heroes, this battle had to be won by them!

Hence, Geeta HAD to lose to the trio, predictably so, this was the only path. The only way to end this fight! And the Trio isn't as green as one might think, they already have experience dealing with powerful Pokémon, like the recent recruit Kleavor, a Pokémon that went full Ogerpon on them in the Kitakami arc prior to the search for Entei, after they cornered it. Johto's Entei even was impressed with them.

Ultimately, the heroes aren't real weaklings, all of them won against some of the most dangerous and vile opponents and grown much more than ever before.

Thus Geeta is like in the games fulfills the role of a powerful and wise opponent to overcome; to prepare them for the final bosses of Horizons, which would most likely by Gibeon, or maybe someone else we have not seen before.

Anway, Geeta's role was obvious with how Horizons didn't focus on the Paldean League and why Liko and the others don't hunt for Gym Badges, this story isn't about that. There is no Nemona creating her perfect rival here, hence even she had her role reduced to being a happy-go-lucky girl, and gave some advices to Roy, not to raise him as her great rival, but because she wanted to help him to unlock his true potential. Horizons is more complex that the previous anime with it's storytelling by not simply adapting the game's storyline into it's own, but crafting a one-of-a-kind story for Liko. That is why the outcome ended in a victory for them, Geeta was never designed to be unstoppable.

So if this is all clear, why the controversy? For the same reason as to why Geeta's game counterpart suffers so much hate:

She isn't like the older Champions! And that is the Ash Era's anime's fault! (not completely so, but they played an important part in this)!!!

The Ash era champions created an unrealistic pedestal to stand on!

Alongside the games, the Ash-era created this idea that champions are unbeatable and unreachable for almost anyone, because they were, to Ash Ketchum. As Ash was created to be the self-insert for the young trainers going on adventures to challenge the league and beat the champions, he won badges and took on the leagues to eventually challenge a champion. Hence all the ones he encountered were portrayed as unstoppable and powerful forces that no one, aside from Legendaries, could realistically defeat. This is why Ash and many others always lost to them, like Lance beating Team Rocket, Cynthia stomping everyone left to right, Kukui winning with his Incineroar over Ash's Litten and then Torracat at the start, and Leon being this unstoppable world champion until he lost to Ash in the world championship. They were designed to be like in the games, to be the final bosses of Ash's journey, hence they were the final opponents of Ash Ketchum in his last big arc! The Master's Eight!

This created another problem for Ash and why he declined as character: He couldn't be allowed to win, or else, his goal of becoming the greatest is achieved, and they had to retire him, perhapas forever! Thus Ash was made to lose every single league, and always resetted, as to make him mirror the next generation of new player's journey for 8 generations straight. Fighting with reset strenght against new Gym Leaders and partaking in another tournaments. This meant he had to continuesly lose, UNTIL the writers and the viewers had finally enough of resetting his power level, as his story got massively repetivie. They allowed thus Ash to win against Kukui, who was playing the archetype of a traditional champion in the SM games as well. He was no real champion, in fact he had this role only because he created Alola's first League with the player becoming the very first Champ of Alola after beating him, since he is this game's final boss.

Thus Ash as the stand-in for SM's protagonist, had to win because the game did that too, and on top of this, fans were starting to get fed up with Ash, as his constant loses in the leagues prior created a sour taste in the fanbase, with the results of the Kalos, Unova, Sinnoh and Indigo league being seen as the biggest dissapointments in the whole series, due to Ash being defeated in the most embarrassing ways. The worst of which happened in the OG Anime's 79th episode, where Ash lost in the fith round of the Indigo League against Richtie. Ash lost there, because most of his team was poorly trained with only Charizard being the only powerful mon he had, and when facing Ritchie's Pikachu, Charizard just stopped fighting. Viewing Ricthie's mon beneath it, it forfeited the match, despite Ash's pleading, rather embarrassingly, to fight. But to avail, giving Ash the most horrible defeat in his whole career to date, even worse than with Cameron, because while this guy was an idiot, at the end of the day, he was a powerful trainer with a mighty Hydreigon against most of Ash's rather weak Unova team.

This is the opposite of Liko's battle against La Primera, where she with her friends defeated Geeta. Floragato, refusing to give up and even toughening out the attack for Liko, as taken from the friendship mechanics of the games, as well as gaining a buff from Overgrowth and Terastalization, wins against Glimmora's ace, a champion level trainer's stongest mon. The whole trio grew faster than Ash did in this amount of time as trainers. Ash, who was arrogant, lost due to this and had to work on himself to get batter at battling. By comparison, Liko, who attributed her win due to her team's work, showed humility, grew as well, but more healthily. Yeah...Liko garnered with this a lot of ire from Ash's fans, for being now seen as someone outperforming him here as a trainer, and in the future, could rise above him, even at his strongest.

The fact that Ash's episode in the OG show where he had his hardest loss was the 79th one, with Horizons, featuring it's 79th epidoe with a defeat of a champ at the hands of our fledging heroine, just shows the contrast between the two protags: Ash winning would mean the end of his story, while for Liko, it would continue her story. And I have proof of this:

The writers of Ash's journey, like the fanbase, had enough of Ash, with his constant loses, and broke that trend with his victory in the Alola league, becoming this region's first ever champ. They however opened up pandora's box for the world champion league! It was hinted by Paul after he lost to Ash in the DP series during the Sinnoh League!, namely the world champion league where he wanted to participate to, until he decided to be instead a Gym Leader. This has always stuck in my mind, since I heard that, and I reveal to you a childhood secret:

I guessed that when Ash wins just one big league, he will become a candidate for the World Champion League, and win it, ending his series. I did that as teenager and I always suspected that he will focus more on preparing for this league rather than on focusing on the current gen's content and BOOM, after I grew into an adult, ALL OF THIS MOSTLY HAPPENED! This ending was predictable for Ash, and after around 25 years, the ending he should have gotten, since Johto or even Unova, where in latter's case, an actual world championship in the games was held in BW2.

That is the crux of all of this, Champions had been given for so long this pedestal by every media, until gen 9 broke that with Geeta, and made her comparatively weak to the true end bosses of the game and the ones we are going to see in Horizons.

So not only did the previous games, as well as the Ash-anime, set a big example of what a champion is supposed to be like, but created an easily to fail one as seen with Geeta. She was in neither media meant to be like Cynthia or Leon. She was meant to be the Chairwoman, helping the kids getting into the Terastal Course, help them with their search of Laqua and after the most recent battle, where she lost, gave them the permission to enter A0. Without Geeta's help, none of them could get this far, and I like her more here in Horizons, because she does far more for the heroes than for the player in game, where Nemona had mostly that role. But here, Geeta is a true champ with ginormous amount of skills and power, as well as a wise and cool personality!

Thus Geeta stands to me here tall, as Top champ and the greatest trainer the RVT ever faced so far. With only Lucius, Rystal and Gibeon being greater, and perhaps even Nemon and Kieran being also greater than if the last two will be allowed to be given bigger roles in the anime.

So yeah, that is why we are here, because of impossibly high expectations that weren't supposed to be met by Geeta, or even needed to met. Geeta proves that just because you are the region's strongest, you can still lose to a Heroine and her friends! Titles mean not everything!

Conclusion-When and when not to hold back!

Geeta imo shows in this battle her greatest strenght and betrays her greatest weakness!

Geeta's inability to held back makes her powerful and reckless, able to hit hard in battle but also leaves her wide open for any harmful attacks, skills and tricks...ironically had she not done this, and stalled their attacks, with poisoning withering the trio, Geeta could have won. But Geeza chose to go all out and made the coolest descision she could have done here! Giving us the best fight possible for this year's start and allowing us to have this discussion.

Because you see, even with all the negativety, this made Horizons relevant in the eyes of fans, and causes it to sparkle talks about what a champ has to be like, and how cool Liko, Roy and Dot were, making us question if champions should really be this invincible or not? Did Ash really had to lose all the time, and was it even a good idea to keep making him unable to face champs for this long? the answer is yes, btw! A more interesting disccussion is on how people simply underestimated Liko and her friends, and just didn't really saw how powerful they truly are. I make no secret that I enjoy somewhat the negativity here. I am like aGrimmsnarl and all of this alt feeds me!!! I love such heated discussions (to a degree) and actually enjoyed that Horizons doesn't hold back with it's story!

Everything they did so far broke in a few years more convensions, rules, tropes, cliches and ideas people have for Pokémon anime, and beyond, even the series itself:

From not following the route of going to the league (not just yet), to having an ancient adventurer having a team of 6 mega large Pokémon, 3 of the being legendaries, and the strongest being a Shiny. To the villain having a Shiny Legendary as well.

With a story uncovering the secrets of said adventurer and a new Legendary that the heroine catches, a female main protagonist, who is rather feminine, but not traditionally so, and shows characters traits both genders can relate to. That journey also being about exploring the world with a theme of self-discovery here and many more stuff. Now Horizons has cemented itself as the most unique Pokémon experience ever and will grow into something bigger, now a trio of relatively inexperienced trainers beat a Champion level trainer...how cool is that!

I could go into detail, but one thing is clear: Horizons pushes the boundaries of what Pokémon can be and is very novel, with unique concepts for a Pokémon anime, and even beyond, is really a good show!

Horizons even helped me pushed my very own boundaries of what I can be, because more than ever...I am interested in what my life is, if I keep taking more steps when stuck. I can, thanks to Liko and her story see how I can achieve happiness: By trying to continue and listen to myself!

Thus Liko showed me with great work, some loses, some wins, and being true to yourself and believing in your self and your own future, will help you make feel better about yourself. So Horizons has shown with this episod how to be truly over the top: Being willingly to sacrefice everything needed to win, without being truly evil that is, as Geeta and Liko are universally good people despite their dark tactics. Don't rely always on luck, use your head and try to find ways to be happy! Be more like Liko, listen to your true hearts desires and find like her, the will and courage to win even against Champions, with friends like Dot and Roy by your side, who will cheer you up, and whom you can protect!

In conclusion being a champion, even if that title carries weight, garantees no victory. Geeta lost, because despite her powers, she is ultimately not invincible and can be taken out by relatively inexperienced trainers, if they work together well. Still, Geeta is shown to be strong, having clever tactics and being brutal, while also being reckless. The Trio is not the most experienced, but they are able to handle themselves well and even impressed Legendary Pokémon and their equally impressive allies in the form of the Six Heroes and before facing Geeta, Johto's Entei, one of the 3 legendary beasts.

So don't underestimate the Rising Voltacklers: These three, Liko, Dot and Roy are champion level trainers in the making, and perhaps Geeta will return as a battler in the future, with a new team far stronger than before, given thus, like in the games via DLC, a second chance to prove herself, maybe in Paldea League arc...but that is a story for another time! Now, Liko and the others enter Area Zero, to find Entei, Black Rayquaza, Laqua and save the world!

Goodbye and see ya next time!

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Most predictable interaction between Liko and Kieran in Horizons!!!

Kieran: Is she the heroine of some story!?

Liko: Wait! He knows!!!

Keiran: Wait! She knowns that I know-

Liko: -that he knows that I know-

Kieran:.-that-

Liko: .-that-

Kieran: ..she is...

Liko: ..I am...

Liko and Kieran:...THE HEROINE OF THIS STORY!!!

THUNDERBOLT CROSSES BETWEEN THEM

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Pokémon Horizons x Sonic 3 Crossover + Kieran!!!

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A match made in heaven!

They are soo adorable!!!

They seriously need to meet, their interactions alone would be soo fun!

Happy Indigo Disk week, as present I tease my upcoming analysis, as the script is also nearing full completion, but once I get the right pictures, I have it then finished and then some!

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My next analysis, preview!

Finished episode 75...will watch it again with a fresher mind...I will also have an analysis, called:

Pokémon Horizons: Liko & Kieran, White and Black!

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In defense of Kieran from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The battle for Ogerpon!

Hello guys, and I am back to write a response to people who think that Kieran was nothing more but a whiny brat over the final parts of Teal Mask and that his overall character is unsympathetic! Here I am here to explain Kieran's mindset and why ultimately much of the criticisms are unfair, and why the final battle in Teal Mask(the first Story DLC of Scarlet and Violet) needs to be seen with more nuance, but first some history:

Why was Kieran so obsessed with Ogerpon

Ogerpon was a Pokémon he always admired; It was a strong, independent Pokémon able to defeat 3 other mons at once ( Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti) despite being outnumbered. He admired it for it's strenght and ability to stand on it's own feet, something he felt never was able to do in his life, as his older sister, Carmine, constantly smothers and protects him, much to his dismay. Ogerpon because of this is an idol and something he wants to be like, by his own admission; "I...wanna try to get stronger. So I can do things for myself, you know? I'm gonna become someone people can rely on. Then, just maybe...I could be that ogre's friend." From this we can see that his main goal is to become someone who can protect and help people, someone who can fight on his own and doesn't need to rely on anyone, and if he is ever to become a capable and strong person that people want to rely upon, Ogerpon would be his friend. Another facette is that he doesn't fear Ogerpon like the people of his town, as they think, per legend, that this monster killed the protectors of their town in a blind and sudden rage, weakening it by sapping it of it's 3 other mask and thus making the Ogre relent. Kieran however doesn't hold that view and even admits to have ventured to it's layer, only to have it not found Ogerpon and the only thing that scared him were the adults admonishing him for this. Because of what I mentioned, Kieran has a massive love for Ogerpon, it's a symbol of strenght to him and a friend he wants to make friends with. His love by this alone for Ogerpon is genuine and no one denies this fact about him that Ogerpon is a Pokémon he truly admired and loved; It was the mon that represented what he wanted to be like, and not the weakling he was, it was someone cool and badass, someone he wants to be friends with. This is why he was unwillingly to accept that Ogerpon favored the player over him, because he wanted to be the like the player, someone strong and capable enough to have people rely upon and thus was more worthy of Ogerpon than he is. The player is what Kieran wanted to be like and got what he wanted, which made him feel like a loser and someone who couldn't be strong and independent, something he wanted to be like.

2. How and why did he fail then?

His failure can be squarely blamed on the fact that he was just not as capable as the player when it comes to battling. He indeed wasn't better than them. Ogerpon's first sight of the player and Kieran was battling them, which did garner her attention, but ultimately the player peeked her interest the most. Another reason was that Carmine really did a numbers on Kieran's self esteem with her controlling and mean attitude towards others and especially towards Kieran, leaving him to feel weak and unreliable. Her constant attempts to keep him from harm led to her do with the player perhaps the most irrational and senselessly stupid thing in the entire story; Lie about the fact that she and the player met Ogerpon at the festival. Carmine's reason is at surface understandable; She doesn't want to make Kieran feel bad for missing out on Ogerpon, thus feeling left out, and doesn't want him to run after it...but this reasoning is bollocks, wanna know why? With Ogerpon being confirmed real, it will be a matter of time to find her, regardless of how much Carmine would attempt to keep the truth from him. The More she and the player tried to keep this away from him, the worse his reactions is going to be like, because despite Carmine's insistance on this being for the best, this ironically left him out on Ogerpon and made him feel like an outcast who was denied the one thing he wanted the most; Meet and be friends with Ogerpon. The second reason on not wanting to get hurt, as many theorize, is also really dumb,because Ogerpon showed no signs of aggressiveness and can be dealt with by the player, and Carmine and Kieran, if things to south, so it was not like as if there was anything to fear. This reasoning got then even worse as justification as time went one when it was revealed by Yukito, her and Kieran's grandfather, who knows more about Ogerpon than anyone, that it was the good guy in the story and that the Loyal 3 murdered it's partner and took away the masks from her. Despite him not wanting to tell him the truth, even he admitted that Kieran got the closest at finding the truth, due to being a highly sensitive boy who clearly can empathize and understand Pokémon well...but all of this would be of no use, because Kieran, who had listened to the whole conversation and was still after it being lied to by everyone, stole the mask and expressed his anger, only for Carmine to give the most insinsere and inauthentic apology of all time leading with "Sorry... I didn't mean to-". Anyone who makes such a apology isn't worth to be listened to, since that places blame on the hurt party for feeling betrayed and dismissing how they feel, especially when you just broke their trust with such a stupid lie. Kieran had every right to dismiss her and while the theft was wrong, he was still justified in his anger, hence the player later apologized, with Kieran apologizing for the theft too. Afterwards, Kieran and the others meet Ogerpon and he wanted to give it the mask, but Ogerpon didn't grew accustumed to him, and because of this, Kieran gave the mask to the player, who handed it over to Ogerpon...which ruined a perfect chance to bond with Ogerpon, as this allowed the player to earn Ogerpon's affection more, and had Kieran tried to reach out to her, and not felt he wasn't as capable as the player, he could have gotten closer to it. Then, instead of going after the Loyal 3, who once more took the masks, he went to the village and convince them that the whole story about the Ogre and the Loyal 3 was wrong, and Ogerpon was the innocent part here. This ultimately prevented him from impressing Ogerpon directly with his abilities in battle against the kidnappers, and thus the player is put under it's radar. Still, Ogerpon was thankful for Kieran for clearing it's name, and ultimately warmed up to him...but the player was the one Ogerpon liked better and we would be the one to capture it. Kieran, who wanted to show that he can be someone worthy of Ogerpon, has had it enough, and takes his final shot and challenges the player to battle for Ogerpon!

3. The battle for Ogerpon at Oni Mountain!!!

Kieran loved Ogerpon since forever and it was his dream to meet and befriend it, but do you remember what I said earlier what Kieran wanted to be like? Basically someone people could rely upon, being someone who is strong, and capable, and doesn't need to be pampered like how Carmine does it for him, someone who can be the hero of the story...and eventually befriend Ogerpon. That person is the player character however, not Kieran, and that eats his soul alive. He wanted to be like that, only for the player to come in, swooping through all battles with ease, and winning over Ogerpon with the very strenght he always sought. This made Kieran envious and jealous, and not without any reason; Nobody believes in him. Carmine and Yukito trusetd the truth about Ogerpon to the player over him, despite having it already intuited out. Ogerpon trusted the player more than Kieran, and ultimately even Kieran trusted the player over himself, because the player always bested him without helping Kieran to get up stronger than before, and instead pursue like him Ogerpon, and win, as the heroes of that story. Kieran, knowing fully well that this would be selfish of him, and understanding that this is against Ogerpon's wishes, insisted to battle the player anyway, despite having no faith in them winning this, only the faint hope that he would win and prove that he is the better trainer for Ogerpon, even if he knows it to be untrue, his own words:

"I know I'm bein' real selfish... But, <player>! Please! Let me battle you! I want to see which one of us should get to keep Ogerpon with them!""...I want to battle anyway." I know you're probably a better Trainer for Ogerpon, but I...I..." "I knew I couldn't win. But I just couldn't give up...""I'm sorry..."

This shows less of a person who doesn't get it, but more of a person who wants one final shot to prove himself and others wrong that he is not worthless, and indeed a trainer worthy of Ogerpon...but he isn't, and the trainer is just better than he is as a battler. The request to battle, while selfish, was Kieran's right as a trainer to show Ogerpon and us, who is the better trainer for this Pokémon, and we and Ogerpon accept it, as we like him as a friend, and want to give him a chance to show us what he got. In the end what this is all about is no diffrent than what any trainer wants, to capture Pokémon, no matter how bad the odds are, so in the end, I can't be too hard on him for this request, as he deserves this chance. Ultimately, had the writers wanted us to think that this was completely innacceptable, then Kieran would have been denied by us and Ogerpon and not given this match, but since we respect him and his abilities, we allow this challenge and maybe he could have proven us all wrong, and gotten Ogerpon, who grew to like him, and would have changed her stance on him. So in the end, his lack of skill and confidence doomed any chance to get Ogerpon, not simply his selfishness, because Ogerpon values a strong partner and that is not sorely tied to moral purity, hence Ogerpon wanted a fight afterwards with us to see, if we can be her partner. This whole battle with Kieran was a battle between trainers wanting to see who can capture a legendary, and while he lost, this should be respected as a match no diffrent from any other competition for Pokémon, thus I respect Kieran as battler and person, and say, he earned the right to challenge us. However the battle did have negative consequences, like Kieran becoming battle-hungry and obsessed with victory, and this will only be fixed, when something else happens!

4. Addendum, the solution to all of this! Afterwards, in the Indigo Disk 1, we meet Kieran as an hyperaggressive and joyless battler that wants to crush us after we destroyed his dreams and hopes, and wants to destroy us (metaphorically). We defeat him, but he doesn't snap out of this until we meet together Terapagos and captures it forcefully with his masterball and after terastalizing it, it went rogue, attacked and nearly unalived Kieran, if not for our Koraidon/Miraidon saving him. This made him feel now completely uselsss, and is now convinced that he cannot do anything for anyone, like he did in the Teal mask storyline, but we need his help, we rely on his, because he is the only strong enough to help us contain Terapagos, and he does, because now he realizes that he is strong enough to be this person he wanted to be; Someone people could depend upon...but he is still not THE MAIN HERO, but A HERO, and that is enough for him to work through his issues and move on in life. He then becomes our sole companion in the epilogue and helps us defeat Pechurant and afterwards remains our friend until, probably, the end of time. This goes to show that ultimately if you help to built up people, they will help you, if you don't do this, they seek to destroy you.

That is it, how did you find, tell me in the comments below!

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Pokemon Horizons and SV dlc's parallels! SPOILERS FOR HORIZONS AND POKEMON SV DLC'S

Hello everyone, now that Horizons is on the verge of discovering the truth behind Lucius, behind the Woman who seems to Own Terapagos and Gibeon, I have a bit of a theory here, some parallels even to a story from Gen 9, that could really well be compared to the one Horizons might try to tell us:

The Woman that holds Terapagos, if she is truly it's former trainer and died due to a dispute between Gibeon and her friends, would thus be like Ogerpon's former trainer and Terapagos would be like Ogerpon!

Lucius, who is implied to be Liko's ancestor due to looking like him, as well as her grandmother having had a pendant containing Terapagos, he would be the Mask Maker in this story who kept the truth and thus seemingly passed down something very important to his descendants...he is a friend to that woman and Terapagos, just like how the Mask Maker was one to Ogerpon and it's deceased trainer and friend!

Gibeon, who is assumed to be the killer of that woman and being leader of an organization that used to be friends to a hero would be Pechurant here, not only have they the same derpy face, they also use a substance to gain power and lust after objects with gemstones(Laqurium and the Masks respectively). Also Pechurant was the leader of the Loyal three, it's henchmen, which fits with Gibeon being a leader as well to the Explorers, his own version of the Loyal 3, but in greater numbers than the trio. Yeah the weakest comparison, since Lucius and his friends other than the explorers are remembered as heroes, Ogerpon was remembered as monster and the mask maker nearly as a heretic for telling the truth!

So that means:

Diana = Yukito, Grandparents with knowledge of the story of their ancestor (even if Diana probably doesn't know) and of a legendary Pokémon tied to them. Also their first Pokémon are Arcanine and Arbok respectively, one is red/scarlet and the other purple/violet, mirroring the games and each other as counterparts. Yukito's Wheezing also exists, but it is not based on any animal and airborne, and thus can be easier compared to with Squawkabilly, a normal/flying type. So I go with Arcanine and Arbok here respectively for now.

Liko = Kieran: Descendant of a hero and want to bond with the legendary Pokémon in question (does that mean that Kieran is not in Horizons, because Liko is his counterpart?). Also they have a Cat Starter (Floragato/Incineroar), two Galar mon that are direct counterparts to one another and fight defensively to mitigate damage (Hattrem/Grimmsnarl), their hair has colored underlines (Blue and Purple, when combined, it is Indigo), and finally want to get closer to a Legendary Pokemon(Terapagos/Ogerpon) important to their family's history, and are highly sensitive and empathic with Pokémon (yes Kieran had a dark phase, but he is usually a sensible boy, even by his Grandpa's admission, hence why Kieran knew deep down the truth of Ogerpon).

For Carmine, we have either Lucca as female family figure that takes care of the hero, or we have Amethio, an older teenager that serves as obstacle to the heroes's goals of being friends with the Legendary Pokémon. The comparison with Lucca is right now not interesting enough to mention here, so I go here with a comparison between Amethio and Carmine.

Amethio Carmine, who like her, has an ace that has a secondary Ghost type (Ceruledge/Poltchageist-Sinistcha), who were born from the regrets of a person who failed in their mission. Similiarly to Liko's and Kieran's Cat Starters as well, Amethio's and Carmine's aces have primary Fire type and Grass type respectively, so that checks it out. Also they each have a Galar mon that also look rather dark (Corviknight/Morpeko, especially it's hungry form).

I think I cracked a code, or this is the best coincidence ever, tell me what everyone thinks about it?

[star-arcana]

Pokemon Horizons + Scarlet and Violet DLC's theory(and headcanons) and small analysis on 4 major characters with their Pokemon and their archetypes. Btw Spoilers for Horizons and SV DLC's; Teal Mask and both parts of Indigo Disk

Hello, everyone, here is Star-Arcana again and here is an addition to @sxmmyspam's post (link is https://www.tumblr.com/sxmmyspam/765188173627375616/i-tell-you-its-totally-done-on-purpose-by?source=share) regarding how Nintendo might have intentionally built these Pokémon for those 4 to create meaninful interactions between them, though I had before their post some of these themes and similarities noticed, so I am not plagarizing here. However for the sake of keeping things brief, I assume most of my audience already knows what Pokemon Horizons as well as Pokemon Scarlet/Violet with it's 3 DLC storyline are, so I ask you better to watch the show and play the DLC, if you are not spoiled already. So without any further do, my small anaylsis:

With the 9th generation, we got for the SV 3 DLC storylines that featured most prominently one of the newest rising stars in the hall of fame for the greatest Pokemon characters ever, that character is Keiran at the top, literally, and he has a sister, Carmine, to the right. However with the 9th generation, the anime side of Pokemon also got after Ash's retirement a new storyline called Horizons, in which a new protagonist carries now the torch and is already massively popular, and becoming one of the newest rising stars in the hall of fame for the greatest Pokemon anime character ever, that character is Liko to the left, and she has a rival that is also an enemy of hers, Amethio, at the bottom.

These characters have diffrent storylines, but some similarities, especially with many of their Pokemon and I also think they can function as representations of classes and archetypes in role-playing and storytelling, primary the classes of warriors and mages:

Liko being the main hero of Horizons has two Pokemon based on mages: Floragato and Hattrem that could evolve into Meowscarada and Hatterene respectivey, with Meowscarada being a magician and Hatterene being a Witch. So Liko fits into the mage archetype, a hero that is magical and fights with her spells to repell evil. Kieran being a character from the Teal Mask and Indigo Disk DLC's shifts from ally to enemy and then back to ally and has two Pokémon that have a lot in common with Liko's, but are based on warriors: Incineroar and Grimmsnarl, with Incineroar being like Meowscarada a cat starter Pokémon and Grimmsnarl being a male counterpart to Hatterene, similiarly how Latios is a male counterpart to Latias. So Kieran fits into the warrior archetype, a friend who is strong and fights with his muscles against evil! These two have with these Pokémon (and without, which I will get in the future to in much greater detail) thematically a lot in common as trainers, since both Cat starters(with a secondary dark typing btw) are also cunning and crafty Pokémon, since both are said to use tricks and underhand tactics to win, as Meowscarada is a magician using illusions and Incineroar is a heel using unruly moves to win. This also works with the two direct Galar counterparts being magical beings based on folklore and fairy tales, hence both have as secondary type, the, well, fairy type. If these two ever meet, then I hope they would interact with each other a lot and their Pokémon as well, given their established similarities, while also being really diffrent in their themeing with their mons; Liko is a Witch, Kieran is a Brawler, which are highly compatible archetypes and balance each other out, like their Pokémon.

Amethio is a major antagonist and opponent of Liko in Horizons, and his two Pokemon are based on knights: Ceruledge and Corviknight, which fits with Amethio's honorable nature as someone who shows mercy towards those in need and is not nearly as brutal as the other explorers are, which is why he is portrayed as more sympathetic as antagonist, than say Spinel, who erased the memories of Liko once and set Amethio up for failure by making it look like he betrayed the explorers, which worked. So with all of this, he is like Kieran of a Warrior archetype, but unlike our ruthless and brutal warrior, Amethio is a chilvarous and honorable warrior, who may fight for the wrong side, but shows mercy when needed. Carmine is a supporting ally in SV's DLC's, but started out as nasty rival with her ace Poltergeist, that evolved into a Sinistcha. Sinistcha is a Pokémon that was used for Tea ceremonies, which were common in Japan and often done by monks, so I give this archetype to Carmine, as she uses a mon based on a ritual for healing and hospitality(an ability that heals the ally when Sinistcha enters the battle). Morpeko is the weakest link, but like all support mon, it is from Galar and has to fit here. It could be seen as a Pokémon using the power of the heavens when fed well, but falling to the dark side when hungry and represents the struggle of a monk dealing with earthly urges. Even so, Carmine fits the archetype of a mage like Liko and is also profficient in healing, but Liko is a kind-hearted and gentle as mage, whereas Carmine is mean-spirited and strident as a mage. With that said, her closest match here is Amethio, since their aces share not just a Ghost type, but similiar origin stories. Ceruledge and Sinistcha (or rather it's previous evolution Poltchageist) are Pokémon that were once simple objects that had the regrets of a human within them, and thus came to existence as will of a deceased person that failed at their task, Ceruledge with probably a heroic quest, Poltchageist/Sinistcha with making the perfect tea. this also reflects their characters as people who often failed in their task, and feuded with Friede, who just defeated them constantly. So maybe they can bond due to their failures and over hating Friede...And since Kights and monks are part of religious and spiritual orders, they fit as the motiv of roleplay classes that serve an honorable, but misguided goals; Amethio wanting to make his grandfather pround, who however cares little about him, while Carmine wants to protect her brother Kieran, only for her to break his trust and furtherly damage his mind. Maybe the two will team up to beat Friede, and since Carmine can be petty and highly prejudice, she would have not much to object against it, she really can go too far.

Also, yes, my fellow Horizons fans, I do ship Liko with Kieran. Sorry Likoroy or Likodot fans, but my true Pokémon ship is LikoKieran or as I call it, Indigo Shipping, since when you mix Blue with Purple, you can get Indigo, and guess what is Indigo? Terapagos and both had interacted with one. They are my true OTP and I will die on that hill!

Tell me your thoughts? Does it hold up, or does it not? repost, write me a response or simply like it, anything is apprieciated.

[star-arcana]

"Master" Gibeon's team for Pokemon Horizons!!! (Spoilers)

Hello, here again with a new team speculation for Horizons, this time Gibeon, the evil master of the Explorers, the perhaps darkest organization in the anime.

From this post and knowledge about all of Lucius's Six Heroes, you might seem to get where I am coming from this, but since I am sick, here is the short order, and no, I love Kieran and Liko, so they get more spotlight.

Shiny Zygarde is a white dragon with the power over the earth, as opposed to Shiny Rayquaza being a black dragon with the power over the sky, 'tis is a no brainer.

Hisuan Zoroak was chosen as counterpart of Arbolivia, as Arbolivia is known to heal wounds and nurture life, but Hisuian Zoroak is a creature of death and brings only decay to all of it's foes.

Galarian Zapdos was chosen, because it represents the belligerent lighting to counter the Dark flames of Galarian Zapdos. Plus Galarian Articuno is weak to Moltress, making Gibeon unthreatening with such a type disadvantage.

Tortonator is a turtle-like creature like Lapras, but it is associated with Fire and volcanos. It also has a secoundary Dragon type, with Lapras being a Water and Ice Pokémonn, the type match-up is evenly balanced!

Conkeldurr is said to have given humans the knowledge to use concrete and concrete can be used for Walls, something that Kleavor is known to do. So the erector of walls vs the breaker of walls.

If Lucius has a G-Moltress and an Entei, it would be fitting to have a Raikou, as it crosses the skies, while Entei is said to cross the land.

Fitting isn't it. Tell me your throught below and please reshare this, bye!

[star-arcana]

Pokemon Horizons Theory: Kieran's current team (Spoilers for Horizons and the DLC's to Scarlet and Violet!)

Hello everyone, here is Star-Arcana and I am here with a bit of a small theory and some quasi predictions on Kieran's team!

Since Horizons is going to show us his sister Carmine, who is probably going to get her ass handed by the RVT!

With Kieran I had a lot of thoughts and a lot of speculation before it, my most notable one is that he is going to be a dark-counterpart to her in the far future, since we know how his final team looks like in the Indigo Disk. Here is a small team that he owns in my own theory/headcanon for Horizons:

As I mentioned above, I think the writers will set him up as the Anti-Liko due to their similarities as characters: Shy, introverted, have a fierce battle side, are highly sensitive and compassionate, as well as having been rather lonely for much of their lives . So to make someone a dark shadow of what they could have become,had they allowed their darkness to corrupt them, Kieran would be perfect for Liko as her most dangerous rival ever. In the future I will expand on this idea, but as of now, I am sick, so I keep it brief, witty and simple!

The idea of them being counterparts is also based on the fact that they share something in common with 3 of their Pokémon:

Incineroar is of the Litten evolutionary line, which is a Fire/Dark Type Starter Cat, kinda like with the Sprigatito line being Grass Types, with the final evolution Meowscarada being Grass/Dark Type. And since currently Floragato (Grass Type middle evolution of Sprigatito) is Liko's ace, we make here his Torracat as his ace, and that Pokémon is good. To diffrenciate it from Roy's Crocalor, it's ability is Intiminate. These cat Pokémon are a popular pairing and the Incineroar line being Kieran's ace makes sense with his heel-turn and then again his big heel turn once a certian experience with a legendary Pokémon shapes him into becoming good again! So a turn-heel warrior that changes from good, to bad and then true good again, is perfect for him and contrasts with the witchy vibes of Floragato and Meowscarada to his brawler vibes with, in this case, Torracat and Morgrem.

Speaking of whiches, Liko has currently a Hattrem (Psychic Type), which could evolve into Hatterene (Psychic/Fairy Type) in the future . This Pokémon is a female counterpart to the demonic Grimmsnarl(Dark/Fairy Type) line, with Morgrem(Dark/Fiary Type) being the middle evolution of said demonic Pokémon. They are both native to the Galar Region, their dex entries are next to each other and both have as secondary type, fairy, since they are based on fairy tale figures such as forest witches and ogres respectively. They also respond to emotions, but whereas the Hattrem line is irritated by emotions, even happy ones, the Morgrem lines feeds on negative ones as without it, it will bore itself. Because of this, the Hattrem line is for those who are empathic and have a calm personality like Liko, while the Morgrem line is for those who are thinking about gloomy things and have a lot of negative emotions, like Kieran. So a theme of light and darkness is seen with the two, Liko represents light, while Kieran respresents darkness.

Finally there is one Pokémon that is important to the two of them, and has shaped both lives tremendously:

Terapagos!!!

Liko and Kieran had this Pokémon in both of their lives involved heavily, as with Liko it saved it from a missfired Psycho Cut and is rather comportable with her partner, not just because she resembles his friend Lucius from ages past in terms of looks (strongly implied to him being Liko's ancestor), but is also because Liko is really kind-hearted and empathic. Kieran had by the time it forcibly made Terapagos his Pokémon due to his urge to become the hero of his own story and wanting to defeat the main character, who not only bested him many times, but caught the Pokémon he always wanted: Ogerpon!

In Liko's case, it started her adventure with the Rising Volt Tacklers, who are rivals and enemies to the explorers , an evil organisation that sought to hunt Liko down for the pendant containing Terapagos! Kieran sought Terapagos, Area Zero's Hidden Treasure, for himself. Liko due to this event made many irreplacable friends and became a happier person as a result, while Kieran became more lonely with him pushing away everyone after he was left out of something he cared about and wanted to get revenge on the player for taking away "his treasure" away. However Kieran lost Terapagos, as he terastalized it and made it agrressive, but that isn't the end of him. A fight with the Stellarform Terapagos ensues and when everything was nearly hopeless, Kieran got the encouragement needed to fight and help the player to pacify this Pokémon. Afterwards he became nicer and the only one able to help us against Pechurant after it turned his entire village into zombies...again.

In conclusion, they share 2 counterparts to the other's Pokémon evolutionary line, and had the same species of Pokémon.

What do you think? Could this team hint to a bigger connection between Horizons Kieran and Liko? tell me below by sharing and commenting, bye!

[star-arcana]

Day 2 has passed since I quit my old job, now I have to rest and plan my days accordingly...small progress with my fanfic, I sense an improvement of my writing technqiue coming into fruition! I feel better. though next week might be where I truly shine, since my recovery has just begun, much luck do I wish those who call themselves friends here!

[star-arcana]

Artaban boss fight

He is soo powerful and badass, he can kill you in 4-5 strikes even at max health +.

Also his fighting style is soo unique, unlike most badass Swordsman, he uses a Water-enhanced sword, while most would opt for Fire, Light or wind(Artaban also uses wind as well).

Also his fighting style is how I imagine Edge's from Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope to be like, with a huge swords and fast movement...the special attack he performs would be in her case a kick, rather than spank...

Play PoP TLC, and fight one of Persia's most intellectually powerful swordmasters and one of her best warriors...

PLAY PoP TLC NOW!!!

[star-arcana]

My Prototype of a Sargon cosplay from Prince of Persia The Lost Crown!!!

This is just a warm up, next time, I will get a better one!!!

Enjoy the prototype Sargon Cosplay!!!

[star-arcana]

My commentary on this, dear friend!

Hello Fearlessdevil17, I wanna write this on Tumblr, because Twitter is too small for my thoughts, so here the uncut full commentary. Here it goes:

Well as a younger brother, I do agree with you somewhat on siblings from the other side and your points on Carmine, but I do it with caveats:

Carmine really does love her little brother Kieran more than perhaps anyone (excluding the player), and wants what is best for him. She doesn't really hit him and I saw her comment being more like a weak defense of her treatment towards Kieran, which is extreme and really bossy.

She has the issue many older siblings have unfortunately, in that they can be really controlling and often make descisions for their younger siblings behind their back, even if well-intentioned. Kieran was not given any choice in the matter with Ogerpon and has been excluded all because no one trusted him or really thought about his needs. He clearly lives in his sister's shadow and begins to lose respect towards her and even the player for having kept this from him, and it is especially bad, because he actually wants to be respected by Carmine, who had not been the best of showing it.

This is what he stated in the Indigo Disk DLC, where he felt that his sister now foans over the player with him being the inferior person, who really isn't good enough for anything, largely because of what we did with Carmine.

This isn't to say that Carmine is the worst sister of all time, nor does she want to harm him, she clearly wants what she thinks is the best for him, but made stupid descisions.

In the end, she is responsible for this conflict, but she clearly is sorry for all of this, amd even if abrasive, aggressive and even extreme, she loves Kieran and would never view him as a useless sod, she at the epilogue even got a more confident brother, who shows a lot of affection and love for, and didn't use the Mochi dance to taunt her to death.

Even in my idea for a Horizons story arc involving her and Kieran, I have her as a rather extreme, but caring sister that wants the best for her brother, even if her methods are bad and excessive. I hope I got that across with my post.

So I kinda agree, but with caveats.

With Love,

Star-Arcana, your dear friend!

[star-arcana]

How Kieran and Carmine from Pokémon SV's DLC storylines can be adapted to the Pokémon Horizons Anime part 1!!! SPOILERS AND LONG READ

Hello, here, Star-Arcana again with another follow up theory on Pokémon Horizons Viole(n)t future, with part one being linked here, if you wanna read this:https://www.tumblr.com/star-arcana/760633493950758912/my-view-on-how-pok%C3%A9mon-horizons-could-end-a?source=share

Anyway I wanna come to a rather personally interesting to me, how the anime is going to use Kieran and Carmine, as well as their storylines in Horizons.

For now, Horizons is all about Liko learning to understand Pokémon and together with her friends, Roy, Dot and the other Rising Volt Tacklers, find out the mystery of Lucius and Laqua before the explorers will do it. Once they are defeated, I doubt this will be the end of Liko and her friends, they will go on other adventures, and might end up meeting Kieran and Carmine, starting a new story arc for the heroes.

I don't wanna summarize the events of Teal Mask and the two Indigo Disk storylines, so I will give you two links to these stories for those who wanna know:

Teal Mask: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyaTKHz3I2I

Indigo Disk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ksJyVD0fSs&pp=ygUxUG9rZW1vbiBTY2FybGV0IGFuZCBWaW9sZXQgSW5kaWdvIERpc2sgZnVsbCBzdG9yeQ%3D%3D

Epilogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7lxS3yXsR4&pp=ygU6UG9rZW1vbiBTY2FybGV0IGFuZCBWaW9sZXQgSW5kaWdvIERpc2sgZXBpbG9ndWUgZnVsbCBzdG9yeQ%3D%3D

With that out of the way, to the potential adaptation of the SV DLC storylines. It is a rough idea, not a fully thoughtout story, mind you, so with that outta way, let's a go:

Most likely the arc with Laqua will be concluded and a new story begins for the heroes. Liko and her friends will go with the Rising Volt Tacklers either to Kitakami or the Blue Berry Academy. I forgo Kitakami, because that would just be a repeat of the DLC and that would be mega boring, so I wanna do something cooler:

Our Heroes go to the Blueberry Academy first and there meet Indigo Disk Kieran and Carmine, the former in his heel-turn phase and Carmine being, well, Carmine.

So after the events in Laqua, Liko and her friends go to the Blueberry Academy and will have to meet up with this school's champion to guide them through the academy, as discussed with the headmaster Cyrano and Friede, who is here to study something and meet old friends from his younger days, probably Briar as well, who wants to study Terapagos. Also here, in this story, it follows Liko still, and became her 7th Pokémon, like with Volo's Girathina. The other Volt Tacklers will here offer courses and also bond with the BBA students like Crispin and Lacey, oh and Captian Pikachu is getting a lot of attention, sometimes unwarranted.

Anyway Liko, Dot and Roy were supposed to meet up with the Champion of the BBA for their welcome ceremony, but he has been delayed, due to him having issues with one of the kids here, as that trainer failed to bring for an assigment 6 Pokémon, because he is having a difficult home life, only bringing a florette with him. The Champion takes no excuses and order his ace, Incineroar to get that loser out of the his sight and attacks the Florette when it wants to resist, despite being intiminated by Incineroar. Liko and her friends hear the commotion and intervenes with her now fully evolved Meowscarada,and ordered her to use Flower Trick to stop Incineroar and saved the boy, who ran shortly away and thanked her. Incineroar wonders what happens and then sees Meowscarada, and fells in love. However his trainer did not fell in love, and was angered by Liko, and ask her why she interrupted him, with her countering that he cannot treat People as servants. He then gloats that he is the League's Champion, and that he can do whatever he wants, he is the strongest. Then Dot and Roy point out that, wait, wasn't he supposed to greet them? Kieran is now shocked that these 3 were those should have greeted? Dot calls him out of his poor leadership and that he should take more notice on his peers, with Roy saying that he is late, and they waited for a long time here. Kieran gets annoyed and ask them to just shut up about it, but Liko won't let Kieran go for having bullied his classmates and that he should be ashamed of what he did, with Roy joining in, as well as Dot, even threatening to tell the staff about it! Kieran, now having his honor attacked, challenges the 3 for their "insolence".

Starting with Dot, who sends her now fully evolved Quaquaval and Tinkaton to battle, but loses to Kieran's Incineroar and his Grimmsnarl, who have far better team work than the two. Roy is next with his fully evolved Skeledirge and Kilowattrel, but also loses, albeit somewhat more closely, due to having type disadvantages and Kieran being better at dual battles. Then Finally Liko is up with her Meowscarada and fully evolved Hatterene taking up arms against Incineroar and Grimmsnarl. However Incineroar is infatuated with Meowscarada and immobilized by love whereas Grimmsnarl can't deal with Hatterene's fairy type magic and defensive skills, in addition to her and Meowscarada working far better with healing pulse ensuring the Grass Cat's survival against Grimmsnarl, as Kieran tried to take it down, so that Incineroar will come back to his senses. This fails and Grimmsnarl is taking out by Hatterene having just in time sense it's aggressive intent, beating the ogre. Meiwscarada and Hatterene have an easy time with an infatuated Incineroar and he loses. Kieran unsurprisingly is defeated by Liko, and is now under the shock that he is not the main character of this story. He gets really mad at this, but is given once chance by Liko to change; If he stops bullying others, they won't tell what he did, and keep it secret, as well as his loss here, to which he relunctantly agrees. Carmine, who had been watching the whole scene from the distance, smiles, now seeing something within Liko that will fulfill whatever goals she has. Thus their story starts!!!

Afterwards the crew will be guided by Kieran, still embarrassed by his defeat at the hand of the MC, and is also rattled by Incineroar's considerate behavior to Meowscarada, who actually begins to like the Wrester Cat, and might be into him too, all the while Liko notices this. They meet the Elite 4, and Carmine, who are interested in them, but Drayton and Carmine notice that Kieran looks rather insecure with the 3 new students, with Roy almost slipping that Kieran had been defeated, but only Carmine understood it, as she saw it all. Dot came to befriend Lacey, due to the latter finding her Quaquaval adorable and learning that she is Nidothing (something Liko is oblivious too, as she talks with Crispin and Amarys) and Lacey finds it lovely! Roy talks with Drayton and he seems interested in the young guy who boast to have fought Rayquaza, peeking his interest. Liko all the while notices that the elite 4 kind of do look cautious around Kieran, except with Drayton, who is more or less annoyed by Kieran being a bit more strict with battleling and nearly gave away his loss when he said to Drayton, that defeat will come when you are this overconfident, making her think that maybe this will not the end of her rivalry with Kieran.

Anyway after this day, when Kieran is alone with Carmine, he vents at his Life-sized, self-made Nidothing plushie from his Grandma that he lost to Liko, and that she will rat him out, if he bullies another child, which Carmine finds amusing that he still talks to his toys like this, about his failures as a battler, to which Kieran retorted what would she know about me. He then blames his Incineroar for being incompetent, and it almost looked as if his Pokémon deliberately lost. Carmine laughts, revealing to having observed Incineroar's interaction with Meowscarada; that he is in love with Liko's Pokémon and because of this didn't wanted to go all out on her, which terrifies and disgusts Kieran, because his Pokémon lost because of love. He drills his Pokémon and said that Meowscarada doesn't love him and that he will never have a chance with her, she uses him and only Kieran knows him best, saddening and hardening the Fire Starter. Carmine tries to tell him that this is too far, and can't let others suffer because Ogerpon rejected him, which makes Kieran angry and tells her to shutup, Carmine leaves frustrated at her brother's deterioating mindset, saying he will hurt everyone with his obsession of power and victory and that she misses her younger brother.

Having overheard some of this, Liko bumps into Carmine, who remembers how she bested her brother, and gratulates her on beating Kieran, who had been unstoppable lately, with even the former Champion Drayton having lost his title to him. Liko also noticed this decides to tell her a rather biased story of how he failed to capture a powerful Pokèmon in their homeland Kitakami, and since then has grown obsessed with Power in order to make up for his failure. He had not taking much sleep, has hardly talked with her, and at best it comes to fights between them, he pushes his friends, his family and his Pokémon away, and is worried for him, begging Liko to just stop him. Liko due to this story views Kieran now as a sore loser and a meanie, who only bullies Pokémon around because one Pokémon didn't wanted him, and needs to learn a lesson. Then Carmine gave Liko a "good luck charm" that could help her. Liko thanks her for this and hopes it will help her beat Kieran and put him in his place. She leaves, with Carmine makes a sinister smile. Then upon seeing Kieran attacking a student for having made fun of his Incineroar obviously being into the new Girl's Pokémon and that he might have a crush on her. Incineroar looks a bit afriad, and tries to stop Kieran, with him yelling at his Pokémon to let him be. Seeing this without context, Liko is furtherly enraged and tells him that he is being a horrible trainer to his Pokémon, that Incineroar only wants to make him happy and protect him, and that it is no wonder Ogerpon rejected him, he is just being mean. Meowscarada also stands up for Incineroar, and he begins to blush, with Meowscarada at this sight, also starts to miraculously blushing, but looking away. This angers Kieran, and asks her if she got that from his sister, to which she said yes. He tells her that she doesn't know the full story and has no right to judge him. Liko then challenges him to a battle, to teach him a lesson to which he agrees and make it official. If he loses, he stops bullying other trainers and will apologize to everyone he hurt, and especially his Pokémon for using them like this, and if she loses, she leaves this Academy. They agreed and declare it an offical battle

Roy and Dot wonder why Liko has become so agressive and she reveals that he does it all because one Pokémon rejected him, with Dot thinking that maybe his sister didn't tell you the whole truth. Roy on the other hand is more supportive of the battle, but tells her that this is a Pokémon battle, and should be fun. Liko tells them that we will all see the truth once the battle ends and there will be a lot of fun, no worries. Meowscarada looks nervous, because she never had seen Liko this way before, and she actually looks worried for her. They begin training and her Pokémon notice how determined she is, and agree to help her, with Meowscarada and Hatterene showing some doubts. They train until evening.

Meanwhile at the same time, Kieran has since the start of this challenge trained his Pokémon harshly and endlessly, and teaches them to not let their emotions control them, especially Incineroar. Drayton with Carmine appears and he find it ironic that he would lecture, as the most rage-filled trainer his Pokemon self-restraint. Kieran tells him to buzz of, if he has nothing else to say, which he does after saying that maybe he should consider to visit him, if he wants to know how being ex-champions is like. Carmine urges her brother to rethink this, maybe he is overreacting and that he just needs to take a break from battleing, but all this achieves is making him angry at her, for she ratted out that he kept training this hard to make up for his failure to capture Ogerpon and that she didn't tell the whole story!!! Carmine says that this is unnessesary, because his story is like his persona fake, he should return to the guy before he went obssessed with training. Kieran having enough tells her to get out, and that he will defeat Liko, and that he is finished with his sister. Carmine, dissapointed, leaves. Kieran continues training with them until midnight.

The battle starts in the arena, where everyone, including the faculty watches. After few exchanges between Liko and Kieran, if they really wants this battle, with both saying yes, and after Kieran starts screaming, he sends his Pokémon, but they end up losing to Liko's Pokémon, one by one, while she also begins to lose some of her Pokémon, leaving each with only 2 Pokémon each on both sides. While all of this is happening, Kieran gets a flashback of his defeat at the hands of Ogerpon, whom he admired, with the back then Torracat and Morgrem, panting heavily. He sends out Incineroar and Grimmsnarl against Liko's Meowscarada and Hatterene, who aren't intiminated by the Fire Cat, due to being resillient, as well as knowing deep down, he is not this monster that Kieran wants him to be. This infuriates Kieran and he orders his Pokémon to viscously attack Liko's Pokémon, but she evades that and counters it, leaving his Pokémon wounded. He begins to use more support moves and thus begins to get the upperhand with Hatterene being nearly knocked down and Meowscarada having to deal with a Spirit Break rushing Grimmsnarl. Liko orders her to use Play Rough to get the fairy type and thus sends the Dark/Fairy type flying and nearly K.O. Incineroar, who is still having affections for her, with Meowscarada's look making it harder for him to hold back, but Kieran snaps him out and tells him to use flareblitz, which he does and nearly beats her. But Meowscarada barely survives that attack, and with Hatterene using Healing Pulse, restores her friend's energy, but faints. Kieran now overjoys that Liko has one Pokémon left, with his two still standing. He asks her if she ever regrets having fought him, but Liko says that she wont succumb to a bully and someone, who doesn't fight with the heart of a Trainer. Kieran dismisses this and order Grimmsnarl to use sucker Punch, while Incineroar uses Flareblity, but Meowscarda plays a flower trick to cover the battlefield in smoke. Them she uses acrobatics to attack Inicneroar and gives a massive Meow-sound which makes Kieran order Inicneroar to use Flare blitz at her. But this was a trick, as the Pokémon that was hit was Grimmsnarl, and it knocked it down, all the while weakening Incineroar. At the apex of this battle, Kieran grows desperate, declaring that Incineroar better not let hm once again rattled by this, and terastalizs it, but Liko does the same with Meowscarada, and with a final clash between Flower Trick and Darkest Lariat. The clash was too fast for the eyes, but it was clear that Meowscarada avoided it, while Incineroar was surrounded by flower bombs and with a little wink, they explode, fainting it. Kieran lost the battle.

Liko is the winner and Kieran is heartbroken about this defeat, with him not understanding why she has defeated him once more. Liko tells him that his Pokémon fought under high pressure and because of this couldn't fight at full potential, especially when training too much. Especially his Incineroar had it the worst, fighting between Meowscarada and him. He needs to understand that his Pokémon only want to make him happy, and has not to push them, himself and anyone around like this. She knows how it is, when you fail, and offers her help. Kieran defeated was considering it, until Carmine gave a signal, by which the Good Luck Charm appeared out of the Pocket. It turns out that this was a Rotom Phone containing recorded videos of her brother playing with his Nidothing plushie and revealing embarrasing secrets like him dreaming of eating with Nidothing on a zeppelin, and belittling his Incineroar as love struck and that Meowscarada doesn't love him and uses him, which angers the Grass Cat. The stadium is in shock and some of them began to laugh, whereas our heroes are in total shock, with Dot being red about the Nidothing parts. Liko also sees a recorded speech of her where she said that he has to be taught a lesson, and a fake voice of thanking Carmine for this "gift", namely the Good Luck Charm and that it will help her beat Kieran. Kieran stands up and is infuriated with Liko, asking if this was all a plan of her to make him give up on Pokémon and the academy, to have him now lose twice and embarras him in front with these recordings in the academy. Liko denies this, and said she didn't knew it was a Rotom Phone. But he doesn't believe her, and tells her that she is nothing more than a bully sent by his horrible sister to break him, terrifiying Liko with this. Kieran then confesses that he actually was considering her offer of making amends, and that maybe she was the one he could trust the most, but now he sees her as a mean bully, who like everyone, took advantage of him, and that appearently, being kind was too much asked of her. He runs away Crying, declaring he will never ever hold a Pokéball, with Liko in vain calling him to wait. Liko now feels embarrased and guilt-ridden for having played a role in his humiliation, with Incineroar also running away in grief, with Meowscarada following him.

Carmine congratulates her and tells her how proud she made her, now her brother will never waste his life at battles anymore. Liko is disgusted with her, why would she do this to her own brother. Carmine tells her that Kieran had been cruel for a long time and Pokemon battles have nearly wrecked his health, he needed to leave that life and quit for his own good, he, in her eyes, needed a real humiliation. Liko understands wanting to get back at someone who hurts others, but this was too far, and not what he needed, he already saw his lesson. Carmine retorts he will get over it and return to Kitakami with her, this school was stinking anyway and will return to her as the brother he was before. Liko now seeing what she really was, no longer wonders why he became this way, his sister had no faith in him, and should be ashamed of hurting her brother like that. Liko immidieately ran off to find Kieran.

Kieran is still angry and sad at her, for having ruined his life as trainer, and that all what he wanted was to not be weak, after Ogerpon rejected him. Liko tries to calm him down by saying that Ogerpon is just one Pokémon and no reason to get worked up over this. Angered, Kieran says that hse knows nothing of Ogerpon, absolutely nothing about his struggles or even why he wanted that Pokémon. He tells her that in Kitakami, a sect known as the Loyalists (the main antagonist in this story), control all aspects of life and want everyone to venerate the 3 loyal Pokémon of Pechurant, their cultural hero. They are really brutal and corrupt, always asking for tribute and enforcing harsh laws of not allowing any foreigners in, and look down on anyone who isn't like how they want them to be, like himself for instance. He was shy and not really socialble, which is why he was hated by the others, with only my sister standing up to me, but then retorts that Liko has seen how much of a help Carmine was with her stunt. Kieran then tells her that Incineroar, when it was a Litten, was found by him on a lost cage traveling near the road. He took it in and raised it, with much of the village looking down on him for this, as this Pokémon was neither native to this region nor approved by the spiritual leaders, sensing "evil" within that Cat. He still kept it, but everyone, including his family asked him to drop it, which he refused. Eventually he also found a Impidimp, being chased by my neightborhood until it found me, and upon listening to his venting, became his secound Pokémon, forming thus a trio with the three. One day,they meet Ogerpon, a Pókemon that was seen as an evil Pokémon for having killed the 3 Loyal Pokémon of Pechurant, and that because of this, is an outcast, like he was. He sympathized with her,never believing his village's tale, and one fateful day, found her. He befriended her and wanted her to be his Pokémon to beat the Loyalists with, but he always failed. His Pokemon evolved at one fateful day, believing to have grown strong enough to beat Ogerpon, but it was enough. Still Ogerpon was impressed and seemingly wanted to join Kieran, but then seemingly left with a happy smile, traumatizing him forever. He then grew angry, and swore to become the best battler there ever was to proof that he can defeat Ogerpon, and the Loyalists with enough training, freeing Kitakami from them and becoming a hero. He went for this reason to the academy and after having crushed the elite four, his Pokémon evolved, and after some time, became stronger and stronger. He wanted shortly before her arrival to return to his home, but she knew what happened next. Now he can't train anymore, he is just weak and his Pokémon don't like him anymore, they just like Ogerpon didn't followed him, and he admits to having been a jerk, I just wanted perfection, and pushed others for it, so that they follow me...but he admits that being a foolish dream of his, he could never inspire anyone or be a hero, even his best friend ended up liking some stranger's cat more than him.

Liko realizing that this brutal devil was just a broken hero who wanted simply to have a free life where he can be himself, tells him he is wrong about his Pokémon, and himself. In the two battles she fought with him, his Pokémon always gave their all for him, and while yes, Incineroar likes Meowscarda, he tried his hardest to put his feelings behind for you, and it took me and my Pokémon's full strenght to take him down, and that hardly anyone challenged her like this since her battle with Gibeon, and as intense as it was, those battle with Kieran were fun. Liko also tells him that ultimately true heroism comes from standing up for yourself and following your heart, even if it hurt. She also apologizes for having misjudged him and that she really didn't wanted to punish him with the recordings, just beat him. She begs him to believe her, and even if he was defeated, he would not be a lesser trainer than her, he tried his very best, as did his Pokémon, even with all that pressure. Maybe he should trust others to help him more, to make his route easier, since no one can by himself do everything, even she needed to work hard. Kieran seeing sincirety in her eyes, thanks her for her kind words and apologizes to her for his behavior, and that he will make it up to his Pokémon, his peers and to her. Liko then reflects on him liking Nidothing, which makes Kieran embarrased, but she confirms that she is a mega fan of her as well, and the two begin to quickly bond, with Meowscarada joing with Incineroar, both holding hands. Kieran says that now, these two Cats are a couple, confirmed and all laught happily about this union of love.

Part 1 is over.