#the one thing that I was thinking about is the fact that Pokemon concept art books would be super popular

[magichats]

Yeah I’ve been thinking more on that giant game freak Tera leak

And while I have only been looking at the dug up old beta content and not the spoilers for the anime or any of the games moving forward outside of the general “this game is this type that game is that type” talk

It’s terrible that so many people got doxxed because they leaked that.

And what’s worse is that while they haven’t leaked upcoming game source codes, boasting that they even have the source code for that game at all might result in the next gen game after the legends game getting scrapped entirely and it being a 5-10 year wait for the new new generation game. Not to mention worsening trust between game freak as a company and the consumer base.

[txttletale]

hey what DO you watch on youtube? seems like you'd have some neat recommendations :3

i really loathe the like super-highly edited sound effect post-mrbeast slop most of youtube is now so i mostly like stuff that's like... calm and sedate. stuff i've been watching lately in no particular order:

northernlion vods and clips. he's an OG. i especially like his react court series, i must have watched all of them like five times.

speaking of OGs i've been watching zero puncutation (now fully ramblomatic) for like ten years and if anything it's only gotten better. best game review content on the internet. been really enjoying his more recent, slightly longer and more thoughtful 'extra punctuation/semi-ramblomatic' series too.

any austin's skyrim unemployment rate videos. instant classics to me, it's just a guy going around in skyrim trying to figure out the unemployment rate in every town. it's a very dry kind of humour, he plays it admirably straight, and it's weirdly calming.

kitten arcader's foot the bill videos. in a kind of similar vein, he watches the saw movies and then produces an itemized bill for everything jigsaw needed to buy to make his traps. it's kind of like... if cinemasins was fundamentally curious instead of fundamentally incurious, it scratches a similar sort of nitpicky detail-oriented quantifying itch but without inimical to the concept of art.

shuffle up and play. it's a magic the gathering play series that has enough editing that the gamestate is actually legible but not enough editing (or at least, not enough obtrusive in-your-face editing) that its annoying. i also like that they reguilarly play non-edh formats like cube and pauper.

spice8rack. i'm pretty picky about video essays but spice8rack has very obviously actually read books and has interesting things to say about the topics it discusses (mostly magic: the gathering). sometimes it has a kind of grating Theater Kid Energy but the fact that it actually meaningfully structures essays and analysis to earn the silly long runtimes is a rare delight from a video essayist.

jenny nicholson is a long-time favourite and another permanent fixture in my rotation. she's just extremely, remarkably funny which makes her the only 'basically just summarizing a thing' youtuber i think is worth the time of day.

i watch some sketch comedy, mainly wizards with guns and aunty donna, who both consistently put out really funny stuff that's kind of ITYSL-adjacent in its barefaced absurdism and contenmpt for concepts like "stopping a joke at the logical punchline". i also really like alasdair beckett-king and binging the old clickhole backlog for short-form comedy on youtube.

wolfeyvgc is right on the edge of the level of editing i find tolerable but as a long-time fan of multiple esports he Has It, he's absolutelyt fantastic at t elling the narrative of a tournament, explaining plays clearly, and generally making competitive pokemon esports thrilling and interesting ti someone (me) who#s never played it and doesn't care about pkoemon that much

i religously watch every elliespectacular/dathings YTP, the absolute best in the game right now, top tier snetence mixing and really good at actually setting up and paying off jokes in a way it feels like a lot of ytp doesn't. verytallbart is also pretty good.

trapperdapper is a channel i recently binged, it's a really fucking funny parody of minecraft challenge content that veers slowly from obvious angles of parody into pure absurdism with tons of blink-and-you'll miss it subtle visual gags.

too much future is a great youtube series where the two guys from just king things/homestuck made this world play through every fallout game and analyze them in that context. extremely funny and also just top-tier very sharp analysis. really good

another one of the rare good video essayists is jan misali. they're really funny and will go into topics that kind of seem narrow or strange to begin with in such depth and make them so interesting that it's consistently astonishing.

oh and finally sarah z makes pretty good videos. 'the narcissist scare' is an absolutely brilliant deconstruction of one of the most annoying pop-psych phenomena of the last couple years. and remarkably well script supervised i think did anyone else watch it and think 'wow the script supervisor on this must have been, a mind geniuse'

ok i think that's all i've been watching lately. hope you like whcihever of these recs you check out :)

[johntayjinf]

very serene theme that's been stuck in my mind ever since i first heard it

yk, one thing i've slowly come to internalize is that, once you share your art with the world, it's no longer just yours; it's for everyone.

sounds a bit stupid because realistically speaking i still am responsible for arranging and/or writing the songs that i release... but i think people should be free to interpret art however they like, bad or not. you can obviously tell whether or not people interpret a piece of art in bad faith, but i don't think that stops the fact that people are allowed to think what they do.

there have been times where i've tried to change people's minds on why i make specific stylistic choices, but i really should acknowledge that people will interpret it based on their own knowledge and experiences. i feel like i should bring this up because sometimes people don't necessarily see the true intent i want to convey or deliver in a song or my other artistic works, and that's probably for the best. maybe there simply isn't a definitive answer as to what something would truly mean, especially for something so abstract.

people should be allowed to create their own meaning out of the feelings they get from something, though obviously it would be much more appreciated if subjects were handled with more nuance and maturity. people can find their own happiness in their own ways. it's a hard concept to fully grasp, but when you actually slow down and look around... you'll realize that, that minor form of self-expression is a very beautiful thing.

i wrote all that down because this song really just, reminded me about how a song as beautifully written as this one exists in our reality. i personally have never fully played through any pokemon game, so playing gold/ silver/ crystal is out of the question. gameplay just never clicked with me, sorry.

but the thing about this song... or , well, the heartgold/ soulsilver arrange of this song just reminded me of a lot of the beauty in life, despite my suffering.

it's hard for me to have a long-distance relationship, but i am just about as happy as my boyfriend is for us forming a meaningful bond together. his opinions may come off as wacky and kooky and he may be a bit absent-minded; but deep down, i know he really cares a lot about the things he talks about. i've told him many times how unbearable it was watching him squabble with other people about their own opinions, but i still love him regardless. there are times when we respectfully disagree on things so it isn't so grim as i've written it out to be.

i just wished that people would take video games as an art form much more seriously, and when i came to talk to him about it, he agrees with me but simply says he can't do a lot to help the situation; i very much understand that. sometimes we all just have different opinions on things and while that may warrant unwanted conflicts, that's entirely fine.

i like to imagine national park as like, a place that people regularly go to in this universe (no i do not know what part of the pokemon world this is). i like to believe that we'd see different kinds of people here, thus the arrangement reflecting that fact added up with the commentary. you'd never know what you'd learn from other people. the more i appreciate people's perspectives, maybe the more happier i am. like with my boyfriend.

[spittyfishy]

Thoughts on the Typhlosion allegations/pokemon teraleaks?

Okay, here’s what I’ll say about that. (And fair warning, it is nothing positive)

I think the fandoms reaction to these “leaks” has been absolutely ridiculous. They are not canon, they do not change pre-existing information present in the games and anime. Concept art is interesting, but things that were scrapped and did not appear in the actual media should not be regarded as fact.

Especially the Typhlosion thing, it’s like if jk Rowling said ‘oh yeah at one point in the writing process I thought Harry Potter would be a girl, but I changed my mind’ and the fandom went ‘oh my god Harry’s been a girl this whole time!’ Like no, a lot of work and ideas go into the concept and development of works like these, and then creators pick and choose the best of their ideas and use that, but I think it’s very problematic to judge them on the concepts that they themselves already decided weren’t good enough to use.

I have very strict opinions about what counts as canon, and that very simply is ‘what is in the work itself’. Unused concepts, things a creator said years later online, and really popular headcanons don’t count. They’ll never count, sorry but that’s not how language works, you can’t just redefine canon to encompass anything that maybe could have been a part of the project. It can be super neat to look at what changes could have been made, but it needs to be understood that that does not impact what the actual game is like.

This Typhlosion thing especially, it *could* be neat if people just took the scrapped stories to go “oh yeah the Pokémon world could have had myths and legends similar to our own! That will be interesting to explore in fan works!” But that’s not what the majority of people did. Instead, people took it to mean that somehow all Typhlosion are secretly evil and shouldn’t be left alone with children and anyone who has one or likes that Pokémon should be ridiculed based on nothing.

Because the stuff that in those leaks (baring things about unreleased games) are nothing. Looking at them in the sense of seeing ‘How It’s Made’ is interesting, fine go for it yeah sure, but they have absolutely no bearing on the actual franchise itself. And I have no patience for the people taking them as gospel and insisting they be considered more true over the actual canon.

[quillfeather21]

What I think of Zenless Zone Zero so far, as someone who has played Genshin and HSR (going to try Honkai 3rd soon)

Pros!

/ I really like the combat style, from what I’ve seen it’s basically Honkai Impact: 3rd, but with tweaks that fit the world of New Eridu. It’s easy and fun.

/I enjoy the art style and the character designs. They’re interesting without being “busy” or “over complicated” unlike some of the other Hoyoverse designs (side eyes Genshin and HSR because like why does everyone need a garter belt).

/the animation is bouncy and gives life to the characters and how they interact with one another. And honestly they don’t really have “unrealistic” body types unlike some of Hoyoverse games. It’s nice to see the characters in games actually looking like they have room for their organs.

/I actually really love the concept of being like, a secret organization that operates around the government, and our username is in fact, a username for their fake account. It’s interesting, and a concept that is honestly very unique.

/speaking of the “Proxy” thing because Wise and Belle? They are some of my favorite characters and I’m REALLY interested in learning more about them. Like how are the able to do what they do? WHY are they able to do it?

/I chose Wise and he’s my bbg. Him and Billy Kid have my entire heart

/the storyline seems decently paced without feeling rushed (the combat aids this because it goes by relatively quickly so you can focus more on the story)

/i really like the “comic book” set up they use for some scenes. It gives it an urban feel (fitting the game) and it allows people to read at their own pace.

/WE CAN PET THE CATS

/I REPEAT WE CAN PET THE ANIMALS

Cons!

/ the game is brand new, so they’re still working on some glitches. I have yet to experience any but I know many players have.

/the SIZE. Why is it so big? I believe I seen one thing where it was bigger than GENSHIN. I had to abandon my Pokemon on Pokémon GO! In order to make room for the full game of ZZZ.

/The Prologue is kind of a snooze fest, but most game prologues are. This one was legit just introducing us to our main crew.

Conclusion!!!

Zenless is a really good game, and I really enjoy it so far! I can’t wait to see where the story and the crew working on it takes us.

Meanwhile I wanna just about Wise because mean I LOVE his design? His dark circles, the light in his eyes? I legit said “oh my god he’s so pretty” when THIS scene happened

[ratwithhands]

I made these guys earlier in the christmas break, anyways carnivorous plant alien submas AU :7. (Don't mind the simple doodle style, I was in a bit of an art block when I made this)

The race is called Sapioflora, and they're basically half flesh, half plant matter. There's a couple different types in terms of species, but generally most rely on photosynthesis and absorption through roots. The difference with these two is that they are carnivorous and rely less on sunlight and soil than others, hence why they're fine having more covering clothing. Their civilization has managed to develop to the point of spreading to other planets in the same star system, and running into other alien species. As of right now I'm debating between a few different versions of this concept to write about since there's:

one where the story focuses solely on the twins as conductors and no other characters from pokemon are present

one where other characters from pokemon are present as other Sapioflores

one where other characters from pokemon are present as other alien species

one where the twins work as bounty hunters (and may or may not run into other pokemon characters)

The last one is particularly funky since it delves into Sapiofloran colonies on other planets, interspecies relations/conflict between Sapioflores and other aliens, and how the twins use their abilities to their advantage.

Oh speaking of that, it was pretty fun to mess around with how their designs work! Emmet is a much more vibrant colour, and his body is much more soft and flexible due to him constantly regrowing his body and making new vines. He wears shorter sheer clothing to take advantage of the sunlight, and has a wide open panel on his back to leave room for him to sprout new vines in the event of battle or to just help with a task. He eats an absurd amount of food in order to get enough energy to make this constant growth and replacement possible.

As for Ingo, his body is much more woody and solid, so he tends to move slower but hit harder (and take hits better). He sprouts leaves when more sunlight is available, draining them dry and discarding them once he's had his fill. He tends to wear more thick clothing to protect from harsh temperatures/prevent moisture loss, though he has gaps and slits all over in order to allow him to sprout as needed. Here's a sketch:

There was more but I can't remember what it was, anyways here's some bonus doodles. Have a good night and let me know what you think :7

^ doodle of Emmet's vines. Emmet is mostly thorny, he's also able to make modified thorns into blades. This is more prevalent in the bounty hunter version concept, but he can still do this in the others (Ingo can do this too! Depending on the situation they'll either make blades or saws)

^ Emmet will use his vines when he doesn't want to do something directly, usually to do two things at once, but he'll sometimes use it when he's tired

^ Emmer :7 fun fact his teeth are just weirder thorns, so they have the same colour as them. (I still haven't decided whether Sapioflores have eyes, but they'd probably sit under the leaves on their faces)

[accio-victuuri]

Sugar Rush : August 2023 CPNs

As with all other CPN posts that involve this lovely pairing, everything in here is speculation/interpretation based on popular concepts in the fandom. facts are also mixed in as well + events that happened before. This is not meant to “deceive or lie” to anyone. If it wasn’t clear, posts like this or similar to it are for cpfs only — and even other cpfs are encouraged to pick and choose what they believe in depending on what makes sense to them. You have to know some of the “lore” in this fandom to appreciate it, or be in that mindset wherein bjyx is probably/possible to be real.

These monthly round-ups, especially for August, have additional commentary and cpns that I didn’t share as an individual post for a variety or reasons. So there may be something “new” here for you.

Enjoy all the sugar! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

• rumor/cpn : XZ anonymously booked 26 cinema screenings in chongqing for yibo’s movie. the funny thing is there was a comment that if they find anonymous screenings for condor heroes movie in henan ( yibo’s hometown ) , they will join the bjyx supertopic 😂😂😂

this could be a different person but we cpn that it’s xz who booked since it’s in CQ. also whoever this was booked premium tickets and not discounted.

no one “released” a rumor or anything, some fans just noticed this while booking their tickets and found it interesting.

• another round of bottled joy cpns, this time around wyb’s alleged renewal with them on september and so much more

• reasons why we think the 26th bday letter post was from xiao zhan

• clues in the bday instagram post art

• fake rumor of wyb’s script having drawings

• XZ’s work week around WYB’s birthday

• Bottled Joy bday greeting to Yibo + Chen Shuo’s bracelet

• A cpf said yibo looked at their phone because her phonecase was a photo of wyb and xz. but again, this is not the proper behavior — following him around and shoving your phone in his personal space. I do not take this as candy, but for archiving purposes, it’s here.

• Unintentional matching 😂😂😂😂

• WYB plays card with Chongqing people 🃏

• Fake stories from paparazzi(s) who “followed” the boys back in 2018/19

• 8/11/2023 Rio Livestream candies

• 8/13/2023 LRLG 🍓🥝

• Yes please, drop more photos and do more similar captions with posts that are days or a week apart 👀

• throwback : the best bottled joy cpn

• 8/13, WYB allegedly drove and went to XZ’s LOCH shoot. You may see some photos and videos that is allegedly the proof but you can’t even see the driver’s face. There’s also some talk that “WYB” was wearing a motorcycle helmet so there will be no chance people seeing him. I don’t know what to think. I understand how exciting it is, how hilarious that people even speculate about this and the fact that cpns like this is dangerous. i would hate for melon/yxh accounts to pick this up and get them in trouble. We already heavily speculate that they visit each other on set because or some clues we see — no need to dig and investigate too much. 🙏🏼

• In the morning of 8/17, Paparazzi were saying XZ and his co-star from the past are not real and have no chance. This went on #1 HS. As expected, XZS pulled some mild sweets. 18:33! YIBO ZHAN ZHAN!

YBO updated minutes later. But my favorite would have to be their second update with 22:30 AI AI ZHAN!

• WYB became the first spokesperson for Pokemon Trading Cards, this is wonderful cause we know how they are big fans of it. I’m happy seeing them basically be the face of brands that they have always loved ( like chanel and gucci for example )

• 8/20/2023 YBO vlog candies 🧁🍭

• Yibo’s signature hand gesture confirmed to mean “wang”

• Qixi Festival number games

There is also some conversations that said XZ was not seen going to work that day. He & WYB could be working on Ad materials and other things, but that means they can go back home earlier. They don’t need a full day to spend Qixi together, tho that would be nice too. They just need time to be together on this romantic day. Maybe we will get more details in the months to come but we wish them all the happiness! 💕

• A new BTS on XZ sort of complaining about WYB/LWJ not looking at XZ/WWX with “yearning” as he walks away. This is so hilarious to me cause it’s so on point on what we have seen from XZ. He may be the calm & poised XZ to everyone but with WYB, he can act spoiled. He can demand more and be frank. The way he wants WYB/LWJ to show the kind of devotion he expects is just— why? why????? and you have WYB who will willingly spoil him and grant his every wish. ✨ A true example of XZ wanting the love WWX/LWJ have to happen to him too.

• similar “trick” of twirling a cloth by their fingers & how different they are

• revisiting the bts of XZ saying he prefers WYB with no makeup on ( he was just stating a universal truth that wyb is handsome even when he is bare faced )

• wool/felt doll cpn

• 8/25 XZS and YBO similarity

• revisiting the blurred background in ZZ’s mirror selfie 📷

• A wedding gift of t-shirts signed by the boys

• WHITE COUPLE SUITS! ☺️

• This month, I saw 2 questionable videos going around related to them. I do not endorse spreading these videos around but i can’t help that it pops up on my weibo feed and fans really have different etiquette when it comes to this. But i have to say that it should be a genera rule to not promote these proxy shooting because it’s too invasive. If they are hiding, we should not be the ones exposing them. They are already working enough as it is to keep their privacy. Please do not ask me for the video. I am mentioning it here for archiving purposes only.

One video is from WYB’s shoot of Luoyang, Lele & YanYan were assisting another guy aside from WYB with an umbrella. Why would they do that? We know the hiding by umbrella ploy was used before, like in SDC 3. So are they using the same tactic to protect this friend when he is visiting the crew?

Second one is at a hotel. Video is allegedly from a 🍤, they were more interested with XZ but they filmed WYB was also in the same hotel. XZ went in without any luggage too.

The videos are not clear at all, to the point that you can’t provide this as evidence in court that “based on this video it’s clearly wyb or xz” , so take it with a grain of salt.

• ZZ draws poker cards

• The start of everyone’s love for the AU pair Shengyang x Chen Shuo! This Sunshine couple! ☀️ These two are so passionate about their dreams, one with art and other w/ dancing. Their smiles. Their positive disposition. How can you not love them???

There is also the observation that SBMS premieres 9/1, conveniently when all the activities for Summer Movies, which includes OnO is done. This is not the first time this year that their projects were not released within the same period. It feels too much of a coincidence. This drama will be done in a month so i don’t know if WYB’s Bright Road can still squeeze in it’s airing before the year ends, tho i’m not optimistic cause drama licensing is tricky. Before LOCH gets released Spring Festival 2024. No matter what happens, All I know is BXGs are booked and busy!

• SOMEONE OPENED A WEBSITE THAT INCLUDES a very detailed timeline analysis of the BTS. If you’re into that and wanna go back & take a look then please do. It’s so interesting! Doing a day by day timeline of the BTS and events that happened, with photos and videos is tedious work so this is such a treat! 💕

-END. See you next Month!

Note : if you plan to reblog this post. Please do not tag it as “Wang Yibo” or “Xiao Zhan” because this does not belong there. It’s specifically for CP audience and tagging it on individual name will expose it to people who are not.

➡️➡️ (2023 previous posts) Jan-June / July

[sparklingdemon]

Hi, I'm coming here bc you've been talking to starry ^^' n theyve been chatting with me here and there abt it, and it made me think of some things i wanted to ask actually. Less ask more give you the option to talk about more: Please tell me more about monochrome blue to me he's a very interesting character, along with honestly a lot of the other characters that haunt the narrative of monochrome, id love to hear about them all (I'm mostly referring to blue, oak, the main two NPCS, but I would love to hear about red and leaf but i figure that can go into a spoilery territory) and your thoughts on them, or well, at least what you can give without spoilers.

OH BOY I WOULD LOVE TO RAMBLE ABOUT THIS. i hope you don't mind that my musings will be mostly meta bc i think i've talked a lot about blue as a character already but we'll see how carried away i get, haha!!

putting this under a cut because it might turn out pretty long........

FIRST of all i wanna expand upon what i said earlier about how monochrome!blue was meant for a "scrapped project." i was initially going to learn how to rom hack for the first time and make what was ESSENTIALLY pokemon monochrome as hacker cody had intended it (though without the gen 1-3 swapping because that's just Not Fucking Possible In Real Life.) i saw the idea in twitch plays pokemon's burning red playthrough but i don't think an actual downloadable rom exists out there so i couldn't build off of it if i wanted to. either way the project was way too ambitious for my smooth brain so i scrapped it. BUT there are a lot of leftovers from my time brainstorming for it that have all essentially become canon for monochrome!blue.

here's an old concept art from four years ago that focused on blue. the plot of the hack was always centered around blue and his grief over the fact that his best friend was Freaking Possessed and he wanted to save them from you.

in the rom hack, you would enter the name for the player, but blue would never refer to red/leaf by that name. he distinctly uses red/leaf's names for them, and the player's name for you. (other NPCs would avoid the use of you and red/leaf's names altogether, making it all the more potent when blue/oak use your/their names.) conversely, if you entered a name besides "BLUE" for him, other characters wouldn't acknowledge it. they'd still call him blue, the game's nametag would still call him blue when he spoke. BUT, when you battle him, it says "RIVAL [NAME]" like whatever you named him as. blue doesn't acknowledge it at first, but at some point in the late-game, he would call the player out for daring to think they have the right to name him, for daring to think they have the right to decide HIS identity.

at one point during my development of the hack, i brainstormed the idea that blue would eventually reject his OWN name, but i eventually scrapped this idea. instead, monochrome!blue starts off VERY confident of himself and his identity, only to come to the crushing realization that he never had any free will in his situation. the "best friend" he had been fighting so hard to save never even existed. red/leaf were the player all along, even during blue's "good" memories of them. and now that the player doesn't love the world of pokemon anymore, red/leaf don't love blue anymore either. all he is, and all he ever was, is an obstacle for the player to defeat. he never had any chance of winning because the game is centered around the player. his world is centered around the player. so he decided he didn't want to live in the player's world anymore.

anyways!!! i wanted to show off some scrapped dialogue bits from the hack, back when i was still working on it. these are dubiously canon to monochrome (meaning they're canon until i decide something contradicts it.) i'm gonna add some notes for context.

[PICKING A STARTER]

OAK: Here, [PLAYER]. There are three POKéMON here. Haha! The POKéMON are held inside these POKé BALLS. When I was young, I was a serious POKéMON TRAINER. But now, in my old age, I have only these three left. You can have one. Go on, choose!

BLUE: Hey! Gramps! Why not let me pick first, huh?

OAK: Be patient, Blue. You'll get your turn!

so for this bit it's a very subtle change but blue is kinda pressing oak to go off-script and let him pick the starter first this time. oak doesn't listen, trying to keep things on-script, not out of spite towards blue, but he's just trying to do his "job". oak thinks that his hands are tied when it comes to going against the player, that it's better to just give them what they want and hope they change.

[PRE-BATTLE BLUE DIALOGUE IN LAVENDER TOWN]

Oh! [...]You got here sooner than I thought you would. I came here to catch POKéMON, but honestly? I'm not in the mood anymore. What's the point trying to show off to you now? So, I'm just[...] taking a minute. What? No, I'm not here to grieve for a POKéMON. Nah. I'm grieving over someone else. Can you guess who it is?

this one was a subtle jab at the raticate theory. i wrote it specifically this way to confirm raticate theory wasn't a part of the hack's canon.

[DEFEAT DIALOGUE]

It's YOU, stupid!

[POST-BATTLE DIALOGUE]

What happened to you?! You used to put your heart into these battles! Now you're acting like it's just a chore for you! Does this mean anything to you? Tch[...] Whatever.

those are really the only two that i consider still part of monochrome canon - the rest of my notes are all outdated stuff from when i was still spitballing ideas for my old hack so it doesn't line up with the fleshed out ideas monochrome added to it.

now! time to talk about oak a little bit.

so oak's whole deal is that he knows something is wrong with the world now, but he's just choosing not to say much about it and just keep playing his intended role as best as he can. he's trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy, vainly hoping the player will find something to care about in the world of pokemon again.

he doesn't approve of the player's apathy, but he wants to give them the freedom to change on their own. he only finally speaks up once he realizes how badly the player's actions have hurt blue.

but unfortunately, oak's passive nature towards the player makes blue angry at him, and blue runs off, never to be seen again.

afterwards, oak actually was intended to appear in route 1, walking around near the tall grass looking for blue. if you were to talk to him, he would ask you if you would be willing to help oak bring blue back home. you can accept, and oak says he will be waiting for you, or you can refuse, and oak will be disappointed. either way, after the exchange, oak walks back to his lab. oak doesn't know exactly what happened to blue, but considering the boy released all his pokemon and ran off, it's easy to assume the worst. he is 99% certain blue isn't alive and wants the player to start a new game. (i never wrote the dialogue for this scene bc it's something monochrome's players will never get to see, but i want to note that oak's dialogue would have been written very carefully and vaguely. oak would never directly say the words "start a new game", simply stating that he will be there to help you bring blue back, should you choose to go back to the beginning.)

hacker cody skipped the oak dialogue, so oak is still waiting on route 1.

as for red and leaf. hmm. i don't know how much i can talk about those two... their presence within the story is very vague on purpose, and i feel like giving answers about their lore would ruin the mystery a bit.

i will say this though - i do think that they are equals. leaf isn't "more important" than red just because the glitch was caused by playing as her. it's not that leaf became sentient first and therefore red did as well. instead, i think they were just two hurting souls came together from two parallel timelines that hacker!cody had accidentally bled together. leaf and red made each other "whole". they each filled in gaps in the other's memories, giving them context that the other was lacking about all of the pain and hurt that cody put them both through. together, they are the amalgamation of all of cody's memories with the world of pokemon. hacker cody gave red/leaf sentience subconsciously, because despite characterizing red/leaf as empty vessels for the plot of their hack, their true feelings towards red/leaf were so strongly baked into the heart of cody's game that it couldn't be suppressed. cody wanted to kill red/leaf not because they "weren't real" to them anymore, but because they had become too real to them.

that's all i'll say on them though! i don't know how much of red/leaf we'll see get to in canon, because they are dead and meant to haunt the narrative, not be actual askable characters like cody/the three ghosts, but i'd love to explore those two in more depth in a noncanon setting in the distant future someday!

either way i think that's all the thoughts i have!! thank you for listening to me ramble <3

[pillarsalt]

Wikipedia anon here, i feel SO embarrassed for misremembering so much about that article. the concept of the cotton cieling and the reminder of the sheer amount of institutions/resources that have been taken over by tims/tras makes me so upset i didn't want to recheck the article again, even though i should have. (it was some time ago i saw the rb of your comic and did my first check, then saw your comic again and remembered about doing so, to clarify. yes i'm an absolute mess i apologize)

i appreciate you so much for not only getting what i was trying (and failing lmao) to explain but also looking into and linking the talk page because JFC!!! so sharing differing opinions for a topic (with cited sources!!) on wikipedia is a no-no, but it's totally fine when you and your friends retroactively decide pro-topic views make you look bad and so you delete the entire article and rewrite the definition of said topic to be about generically "being left out of spaces :.-(" instead of being honest about it being homophobic, rapist rhetoric (which is the reason you're trying to hide it in the first place) hoooooooly SHIT

if genderism ever blows over (with how long it's stuck around for, and with no one being willing to talk about objective/legal concerns like the WPATH files and Maya Forestater, let alone even have a conversation with a GC person, at this point i'm not hopeful...) everyone who contributed to the widescale abuse and trauma of women (especially lesbians), girls, gay men, gnc people, and tip (medicalized or not) could spend the rest of their lives begging for forgiveness and it wouldn't be anywhere near enough. not that i'm expecting them to do that, of course. it's not even blown over yet and we can see from the cotton ceiling article that they'll absolutely try to just gaslight everyone and pretend it never happened (and if it did, it wasn't that bad, and if it was bad it was your fault for not doing your research, etc etc)

ANYWAY i'd rather end on something positive, so thank you again for sharing your wonderful art on here!! seeing there's a talented, feminist female artist who's into pokemon and mlp but hasn't bought into trans ideology is so healing for me. hope you have a lovely day!!! :) :) :)

I wouldn't be embarrassed, I mean the article's not completely empty but it's obviously been stripped down to next to nothing compared to what it used to contain, and half the cited sources aren't really relevant at all. They briefly mention the MTF porn actor who coined the term but failed to mention the scores of other popular MTFs who were vehement proponents of the rhetoric (Riley J Dennis is the first one that comes to mind). And yeah that dude in the discussion page saying he's going to be watching the page and reverting any edits he doesn't like, isn't that very wikipedia illegal? I don't edit wikipedia but I'm fairly certain that camping on an article to make sure your edits aren't edited is not allowed.

It's definitely been a trend with "progressives" to flip the script on anything they've done and can see was wrong in retrospect, claiming "no actually YOU said this, not me." It's a very good reason to keep things documented, and I have huge respect for people who keep the receipts so we can hold people accountable for the harmful bullshit they've spread around. (Speaking of which, I think now is a good time to remind everyone that Eli Erlick is a rapist, another interesting fact that has been unsuccessfully scrubbed from the internet.)

Thanks for your wonderful words as well :) Have a great day too!

[skulgan]

Bogged and Leeched: Pokemon Redesigns PT 1

@bogleech is a horror artist and blogger who is, demonstrably, a fan of strange and bizarre creatures and intriguing animals. He is also a fan of Digimon and Pokemon, and has two different series' critiquing the designs of both.

I enjoy these critiques, and have binge-read his Pokemon reviews and cannot wait for when he finally finishes reviewing Gen 9 (coming soon, surely), but when he doesn't like something about a Pokemon's design, or, alternatively, dislikes the 'mon altogether... OH BOY, does that man let you know!

As someone who has appreciates nearly every Pokemon and hasn't a negative opinion on any of them, really, I find his critiques in this department to hurt my soul a little... because, to an extent, I completely agree with his gripes. The man spits.

Something he has also done, on occasions where a design offends him just enough to have a gripe with it but not enough to reject the concept altogether, is draw up his own takes on designs for that Pokemon, and those combined with his region concept makes it very clear that he is, in fact, the same guy who drew the webcomic Awful Hospital and the indev tabletop game Mortasheen. They're not bad! But they basically always completely redo the Pokemon from the ground up using Bogleech's personal design philosophy when it comes to monster making, and it always feels like something winds up lost in the end.

Unsatisfied with this and always hounded by a desire to pander to internet micro-celebrities that I respect and like, I came up with an idea: take Pokemon Bogleech had a particularly negative reaction to and tweak their designs in an attempt to remedy the gripes he had with them, all while trying to keep the things that made people originally fans of those Pokemon to avoid turning too many people away.

Starting this... series? No idea if I'll make a second part, but! We begin with a line that Bogleech actually adored... right up until the ultimate betrayal.

The goomster!!!

The Goomy evolution line of Pokemon was introduced in Generation Six in the Pokemon X and Y line of games and is considered to be the game's "psuedo-legendary" dragon type Pokemon. Yes, it may not look it, but this slug eventually becomes a dragon, more on that later!

In his review, Bogleech's opinion of Goomy is... tepid, but optimistic, and upon evolving into Sliggoo, the 'mon quickly became his personal favorite for its strange, slightly disconcerting Pokedex entries and unique eyes.

Looking at it, its appeal is pretty clear: its a dopey sluggy slug that perfectly tows the line between cute and goofy. Goote? Coofy?

However, Bogleech's hopes are eventually dashed as the unique design is abandoned for a body plan and face reminiscent of Generation One's Dragonite.

On one hand, I disagree with how he feels about Goodra's body plan. Like it or not, but this is a dragon type Pokemon, and the Generation's psuedo-legendary dragon. There was no hiding from its inevitable fate, the slug had to become a dragon. In my opinion, the tubby, bottom heavy goof dragon style that was initially used by Dragonite was realistically the only real angle a dragon slug Pokemon could've taken that wouldn't just feel incorrect. Granted, there are some sea slugs that get real wacky with it, but Goomy's line is, demonstrably, not that. I have no qualms with how this thing is built, very strange fan-art on Google notwithstanding.

But that face...

Yeah, this does not inspire joy.

Bogleech gripes about its toddler-like head and facial proportions when critiquing its Hisuian design, and I actually think that issue is largely the fact that they just. stuck the face of a person on it. Were it more stylized like Sliggoo and I don't even think it'd be a problem.

One thing about this design that I also don't quite like that Bogleech never mentions is just how little the newly introduced green slime is used on the design. It's on the arms, it hangs off the bottom of the jaw like a really gross goatee, and that's it. I definitely don't think it should be used everywhere, but just a bit more surely wouldn't hurt, right?

However, I also understand that people adore Goodra and I, personally, love Goodra to pieces. With that in mind, here was the design I concocted to try and strike a middle ground between Leech's bogged down hopes and the current design:

Obviously, the change is very minor if you start from the bottom and work up, I added some more loose green slime coming off of the back of the calves/thighs (drumsticks? It's all one mass who knows), but left the rest of the body unchanged. Making it slightly less bottom heavy was largely accidental, as I couldn't quite get the proportions correct. Some may find that an improvement, to those who don't, just fish eye lens the bottom half of this design in your mind by like, 5%? And that should fix your issue.

The real big change here was the face and some of the head, as I went with a design that better follows the design philosophy of Sliggoo's face by borrowing the eyes from it verbatim. To not make it feel as derivative, I added an extra line to the eyes to make them almost eyelash like. They are also the only real indicator that the false eyes all along the side of Goodra are actually false. Or are they? Let your imagination go wild in that department.

I also changed the mouth to make better use of that split between the underbelly and back, ending in jowl-like flaps that protrude slightly out of the head to create the effect of a big mouth. However, that's simply a ruse! The actual mouth of this Goodra is still a cute little anime-like :D hiding underneath that loose slugskin. I also made an attempt to better connect the slime coming off of the bottom of the head to the actual mouth, so the drool-like effect should hopefully come off a bit more clearly.

I, personally, really like this design, and I think you lot will enjoy it too. But will The Insidious Bogleech? Eh, probably not. But I tried!

[theredstargalaxy]

helloo, new mutual! i'm waving so much! o/

you all seem really cool and i just wanted to send an ask to enquire about anything any of you might want to infodump about. i love to listen and learn about anything and everything under the sun, so don't hold back!

thanks in advance for your time!

Hello there, friends! Thank you for the follow, and this lovely message! We appreciate that you're here with us!

There are many things I could infodump about; so many that, if I were to dabble in all of them, we'd be here for years. So, I'll pick one subject, and give you some knowledge on it. The question is: What should I talk about?

How about something I've been familiar with for twenty odd years: Pokemon?

I'll begin this infodump with a question: What Pokemon is the first one? For some, this is a question they may know the answer to on the basic level; it's just an innocuous inquiry with no real reason to be all that deep. For those well-versed in the Pokemon canon, this question is, in fact, quite vague, and even can be seen as a trick. Allow me to elaborate.

In Pokemon, there's this nifty little device called a Pokedex; a device that holds data on every Pokemon you encounter on your journey. Every monster is sorted numerically. In Pokemon Red, Blue, and Green, the Pokemon with the number 001 is Bulbasaur, the grass type categorized as the Seed Pokemon. This makes it the first Pokemon in the Pokedex.

In the Pokemon mythos during the franchise's early days, there was only one Pokemon that was deemed the creator of all others. A Pokemon that, somehow, avoided scientists for decades up until the events of Red, Green, and Blue. This creature was the subject of many a playground rumor when these games were still fresh. And before you ask: No, you can't find it under the truck in Vermillion City. You can, however, find it with another method--I'll get to that later. In terms of the question asked above, this Pokemon was canonically the very first, and the creator of all other Pokemon. The monster in question is, of course, Mew.

However, there is still one other Pokemon who has the right to claim that title. This monster was the first to be created by art director Ken Sugimori, appearing in the earliest documented concepts for the game. It was also the first to be programmed into the games when development began. This Pokemon is none other than the Rock/Ground type, Rhydon.

Now, for that method I mentioned earlier. Back in Pokemon Red and Blue, a programmer at Gamefreak added Mew at the last minute, which not only angered Nintendo, but could have completely broken the game. The first Pokemon games weren't exactly all that stable; it was less like a well-built home, and more like a hut put together with toothpicks and glue. So, as you can see, the last minute addition was a tad dangerous. However, as you are already aware, the game launched without a hitch. But, our little, cat-like friend was nowhere to be seen-- until someone discovered it years later, in 2002.

This method to finding Mew is fairly complicated, and requires the use of the Trainer-Fly glitch. This particular glitch occurs thusly: When encountering a trainer that's looking south, you have exactly one frame to press the Start button before you're dragged into a battle. If you successfully pressed Start, then the main menu will pop up. You can do one of two things here: You either go to your party, and select a Pokemon that knows Fly, Dig, or Teleport and use that move to flee. Or, you go into your bag and use an Escape Rope. Once the move or rope is selected, you will be transported away from the trainer. This makes the game think that you've started a battle, which causes certain data to be read incorrectly. Once you've successfully done that, you can move on to the next step: Battling a different trainer. You can't simply walk up to a trainer; you have to be approximately one or more tiles away for this to work properly. If you're too close to the trainer, your game will softlock, meaning you'll have to reset your console and restart the process. After you battle the trainer, you'll have to Fly back to the location of the one you fled from. Then, the game will call up a prebattle text box with the ID of whatever text that was previously seen-- which should be the start menu. Once that pops up, close the menu and a battle will start. Depending on the special state of the previous Pokemon you fought, a random Pokemon will appear. If the previous monster's special stat was 21, then you'll encounter Mew. I suggest finding a trainer with a Shellder, or Slowpoke, whose special stat is 21.

There are two methods that you can obtain Mew with. However, if I were to go into detail about those, then we'd be here for 94 years./j So, I'll end it here. If you'd like to know more, I suggest using Bulbapedia or searching it up on YouTube. Thank you for reading this entire infodump, friend!

[screen-universe-official-thingie]

Plague Doctor Cindy!

Hi, I drew this concept art sheet thing shortly after drawing the Butcher!Aurora art and I took a break after that. Sorry I didn't post this one immediately.

Edit: Some close ups and extra commentary have been added

Rambling below (TW: medical subject matter like diseases and surgery, death, delusions, and cannibalism)

Meta wise, she started out as a mad scientist for the sake of being a mad scientist by listening to Novocaine by Cree-P and GHOST, and Black Box Warrior-OKULTRA by Will Wood. I just imagined Cinderella going too hard or harsh on Lady Tremaine, her patient/ser-worker/co-star, with her research, experiments, and surgeries out of frustration, stress, and madness. Hell, I would not be surprised if she tried lobotomy at some point during her side jig/job as a doctor.

But ever since I listened to Butcher Vanity by Vane and Flavour Foley, Cinderella later grew to be more than just a plain old mad doctor as I revisited her Screen Universe para concept and explore what her deal is. From why exactly did she fall into this path, to her relationships with the characters related or relevant to her story. She became another tragic character. This time, someone who developed an obsession with finding a cure for the prions after it "ate up" her once villain co-worker friend with in-character or canon compliant delusions.

Some close ups

The other state was meant to say production as well, but I'm too lazy to fix the typo now

Cindy with the Bok-su pose is slightly cursed ngl, but it keeps living in my head rent free. The fact that they're both doctors doesn't make it any better ToT

Eldritch Cinderelly (the note says healthy because their true forms's color and brightness changes if they get certain health conditions. In this one, she should have been a bit dimmer and grayer due to the Discontinuation Rot)

Herbs and spices stuffed in the beak like a true plague doctor. Though, Cindy does this for different reasons. Instead of the original reasoning where the herbs will ward off the plague, she does this to replace the smell of burning and rotting flesh with as much fragrance as possible. It also puts her at ease

Stolen Ideas Inspo :>

How it'd look like under her apron/dress thing

Goggles stuff for eye protection

Eyes. Eye eyeballed (eh? eh?) her eye color because I can not find a good proper close up of her face and eyes in the official material and the coloring in the og movie looks a bit inconsistent at times.

Screen shots from the ID server itself again of course

OKULTRA cranking up the mad doctor inspiration (ft. Novocaine starting the whole thing prior to listing to OKULTRA)

I think this one is still pre-butcher vanity arc

meme

Typical Disney para behaviour

more Cinderella angst lore because yes

A shit ton of other paras have not so healthy relationships with their characters at this point. They include, but not limited to some Pokemon characters, and SpongeBob.

Health anxiety go brrrr

This is from when Butcher Vanity arc or obsession hit around. It expanded her lore and everything. It was a game changer for this specific para tbh. I think this is about four months after posting the past Cindy rambles shown in the previous screenshots

Ok, this one is from an ID adjacent server, but I feel like this is still a bit relevant to the whole thing

(Also from the ID adjacent server) Ok, this one is kinda complicated since I mentioned another para who had something to do with a different Disney centered subplot that somehow affected the plot and lore of the entire paracosm. Basically, Snow White helped one of her ser-workers to found a cult and... everything went downhill and batshit insane from there. Ruined or fucked over the entire government and all... you may either dig through my casual account for the answer or ask through the Screen Universe blog about it.

Bonus: A joke relevant to the whole Cinderella x Sleeping Beauty ft. prion plague debacle arc/subplot (I found this god damn image from Pinterest and I captioned it as "Cinderella and Aurora")

TLDR: 1950 Disney princess becomes a mad plague doctor, grows into another tragic para, becomes vegan as a trauma response, loses her villain patient to the plague's delusions, goes off into a deep end after burning said patient, despises cannibals, and turns into their world's equivalent to a veteran in a "has seen the origins of modern day problems and the horrors of war" way but the war is the plague from the distant past.

[autisticempathydaemon]

for the matchups, please? this is very long oops :^)

What song are you fixated on at the moment? What lyric or verse, and why?

magnolia by laufey!!! love the first verse, specifically, "stars in her eyes, handpicked from the skies." i just think it's very pretty :))

What is your Enneagram type?

type 4w5 (looking at the other submissions this is very popular?!)

Do you love gargantuan Youtube video essays, and if so, which is your favorite and why?

the youtuber strange æons has this video where she does a deep dive on an old harry potter fanfiction writer called ms.scribe, i think it's really fascinating stuff!

Tell me about your childhood imaginary friend.

i don't know if this technically counts as an imaginary friend? there was this one time i found a little praying mantis and gave him a whole backstory (he was a legendary samurai!!) and pretended to sword fight with him. i think about that often

What is your go-to way to fall asleep?

get snuggled up in bed and consume content til i pass out wwww

If you had to change your name, what would it be, and why? (In tandem, if you have changed your name, why did you pick that one?)

i named myself after my favorite artist :))

What is your favorite of Redacted’s audios, and why?

caelums first audio! it was the first redacted audio i listened to ever and im very attached to it just for that

What Redacted boy holds no appeal to you, and why? Like, not the one you hate but the one who you don’t get the hype for. (I won’t judge, I promise.)

james! not really into him, he doesn't stand out to me

Tell me about that one book/movie/tv show you know all the words to.

bee and puppycat! i can even mimick puppycats voice hehe (if you haven't seen it, puppycat makes mechanical beep sounds, sorta like animal crossing noises instead of talking) i just find the concept of it charming, a girl who feels isolated from everyone else finding a magical little pet that takes her on grand adventures. the subtleness of its commentary i find really appealing. also if we're just talking about aesthetics it's all soft colors and stars, very pretty and very my thing.

Which Redacted boy are you platonically attracted to? Like- forget dating, which dude do you want to be your best friend?

asher!! he's funny and energetic but also very relatable to me, which are qualities I like in a friend :))

Do you have a go-to thing you ramble about when you’re tired, and if so, what is it? (For example, my boyfriend knows I’m ready to sleep when I start talking about space.)

i basically turn into a pokedex during my late night phone calls with my friends. if the conversation goes out, i'll start speaking about random pokemon facts (it's the special interest talking..)

Tell me your go-to gas station and drink combo.

gas stations and convenience stores are separated where i live xD i like to get a strawberry smoothie from 7-eleven, but tbh i mainly do it because i just think the machine is cool...

What’s your guilty pleasure media, and why?

dating sims! i just like feeling included :,)

And whatever else you think tells me about who you are!

im a drawing artist mostly, but i dabble in a ton of other creative/artistic hobbies, and im in a band :^) also, i have hyperphantasia. that's pretty cool

A Free Spirit, a creative, and artist with a love of the stars- who else could you be but Elliott’s Sunshine, his brightest star?

I love pairing our favorite Dreamwalker with artists; it’s just an irrefutable match, you know? With your hyperphantasia, I bet he’d love to be a guest in your dreams, to firsthand see what you see and bring into the world through art. Elliott is just such a sweetpea, the most fun and supportive boyfriend you could imagine. As someone who works in art/architecture himself, he gets you. He understands creative blocks, the frustration and excitement of trying out a new concept or medium, the desire to not rest until you have made something, a desire he’d make sure to nip in the bud when necessary.

Speaking of your art, he is your biggest fanboy, because Elliott highkey has fanboy energy, don’t you think? He’s picking you up from practice, he’s attending every gig, he hyping you up every chance he gets. He’d also use his magic to give you the most exciting gifts. Think the dragon flashback audio but for you. He could put you in the world of Bee and Puppycat! He could make you a dream dating sim where all the romanceable npcs are him in different hats.

Song:

Pull it out of park, put it in drive/ I can feel your heart beatin' with mine/ Underneath the stars lookin' for a sign/ Glowing in the dark 'til the sun shines/ Made it pretty far on the first try/ Might've set the bar a little too high/ Started with a spark, now we're on fire/ Started with a spark

I had to give you a fun song with star motifs, I couldn’t help it~ This is also a fun, sweet song with chill, lowkey make out vibes. Elliott also totally strikes me as a The Neighborhood, Sweater Weather fan.

Runner-ups:

Vincent is a really fun runner-up because he would be such a good groupie; like, can’t you imagine him front and center of any of your performances, saying “you were great, Lovely, I bought you a brand new guitar.” Anton is another fun runner-up because he’s so technically-inclined, so I think an artist would contrast him beautifully.

note: thank you for your entry~!

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌

[oldsweetchildomeow]

Reviewing GG character design part #1 GG 1998 Axl

I chose him first because he's the best char obviously.

Hear me out. Character design is not meant to be appealing to all viewers, they are meant to tell you about the character. If it end up being appealing to you, it's for a personal reason. FGs will, obviously, try to be as appealing as possible with their character menu for you to choose the most appetizing because they need money from your horniness and devotion. But despite all that capitalism mindset, the idea is always to explore the origin, personality, preferences and such, from the respective character.

I will try to separate it into some sections that are relevant, such as: 1. What does it tell about their personality (in Axl's case, British) 2. Is it visually appealing to some extend? (a bit more personal from an artistic pov) 3. Is it actually PRACTICAL realistically speaking? (a bit more logical from a "would anyone actually use this to fight?) and etc.

I was actually considering putting every GG game in this post, but it would take way too long and be boring to read, I think.

GG 1998

This design is quite interesting and pleasant. I see that many of us, Axlettes (this sound literally like a pokemon name, but I will stick to that for serious reasons) seem to like this one.

What does it tell you about Axl?

He's British.

just kidding. Actually... not entirely. He has that damned flag on his boots' tip, and it's a detail that really does tell you where he is from, specially in a game where you won't hear him s'peakin like di's mate. I'm not including his stage bg of course, but exclusively what you can tell by simply looking at him. He wears some grunge/punk-like bracelets, which makes him look like... well, a punk. The bandana he wears, his choice of weapon, his torn sleeves, and even the fact that his eyebrows aren't visible, gives you the impression of someone dangerous, someone you would easily see on a gang. I wouldn't be surprised if anyone who just started this game, and had just seen him, would fear him somehow. To some extend, he gives me the same energy as Billy Kane from the Fatal Fury/KOF series (they are both British and zoners and do the cat emoji smirk).

Is it visually appealing overall?

Short answer: Yes, it is. He wears a short jacket that has the same color as his shorts. That's very, very pleasant to watch, due to the harmony it presents. It gets even better when both pieces are torn at the ends. And to continue this harmonic idea, his boots are the same color as his gloves, and the details on his boots are red like his bandana. It's a never ending cycle of good usage of colors. The only considerably random color choice is that the bracelets have blueish spikes on in-game sprites, but it matches both the blue are of the flag on his boot, and the jeans colored clothing he wears. Although...

Here you can see that on the art they are white, like they were supposed to. It's normal to change when in-game due to pixel reasons, but either way. Now, with that picture from just above in mind, I wanted to say that it's very nice detail from his belt having a skull (he's sooo fire dude wow), which compliments the grunge concept of his one-arm spiky bracelet. His sickle matches the spikes very nicely too, but the best part of all that is the gap between his short jacket and his shorts. They just compliment in a very satisfactory parameter, not making it entirely blueish, but just enough for it to match nicely (it's kind of hard to explain it, but when I keep repeating this over and over on the next reviews it will make more sense).

But what I'm trying to say is this.

Just see how nicely the colors were placed on his design. It just follows a very perfect cycle. I KNOW my friends tend to think i'm out of my fucking mind because of how perfectionist I'm about those little things but it's so amazing really.

Is it actually PRACTICAL to fight with that figurine?

Mostly, yes. I do think so. Despite the fact that high boots really do bother you when you do complex movements with them, I wear them a lot and even when walking sometimes it bothers me, I can't even imagine fighting. But it's just a minor detail, they aren't even high enough to actually be some nuisance. His short clothes make it easier to move, despite being jeans. But it's a nice choice, you can actually fight with that in general and still look cool.

THIS is not practical at all. At some point everyone will see your boobs and it's not nice. But if he wants to be a whore...

Overall

Masterpiece, beautiful and functional. It's something someone like him would wear really, specially from his epoch and all. And I want to kiss Ishiwatari's mouth

[hapuriainen]

Now that I've played at least one game in every Pokemon region, it is of course time for a ranking. Though note that the criteria is less based on how "good" I think the games are objectively and more on, like, vibes and such and if I have good memories of playing.

10. Sinnoh - This was the only gen I skipped when it came out because I didn't have a ds and didn't know how to emulate one, and when I finally did get one, Black & White were already out and Gen 4 was old news. But a while ago I did play Brilliant Diamond and really didn't have a good time at all. At that point everything felt extremely by-the-numbers and dated and I can't think of anything that this game offered that I didn't already get from the other titles. Some of the Gen 4 Pokemon are nice but it also has so many legendaries, which I really don't like as a concept (I mean I don't like it when the game tells me which Pokemon I'm supposed to find special and interesting). Also not a fan of the art style in the remake and I find Barry incredibly annoying.

Almost all of the BDSP customisation options were S-tier and Cynthia made for a great boss, but that's about it.

9. Kanto - I was there for the first anime episode so I have a lot of nostalgia for the early days for the franchise, even though I didn't get to play the original GB games. And when I did get Yellow on an emulator I already had Gold, which already covered Kanto so why bother? By now I've played Let's Go Eevee though and didn't really enjoy myself. The Kanto story is so nothing, and the motion controls just kill the whole thing for me. Also Trace is the worst rival character.

Most of my apathy towards Kanto is its overuse though, like the franchise has done interesting things beyond the original 151 but always when there's new forms or a major character hails from a different continent or whatever, its always Kanto and I've grown sick of it.

8. Galar - There are some characters I really like, but otherwise the Galar games felt pretty hollow. There's a lot of cool looking locations but there isn't any substance to them and you can't do anything in them, and the open area was a great concept but you can't do anything in it either. The giant forms don't do a lot for me either since I tend to prefer small and cute Pokemon so making them bigger and more ""badass"" usually doesn't work for me.

Out of all the Switch titles I like the Galar art direction best (as in how the characters look) at least.

7. Alola - I remember there being a lot of talk how the Alola games supposedly shook up the formula because they didn't have gyms, but, like, they totally had gyms, they were just outdoors and had a different name. My main memories of playing Moon are about being constantly interrupted by handholding and the unbearable Rotom Dex, and even with the setting being something completely different from usual, I barely remember anything about it. The customisation was surprisingly boring too and I couldn't care less for Z-moves or Ultra Beasts. Lillie is super cute though and Team Skull was a lot of fun and regional forms are an excellent idea, even if it was wasted on Kanto only in this generation.

6. Hoenn - I had Sapphire on an emulator and later a Alpha Sapphire, and I must say I didn't manage to finish either (I think I didn't even make it out of Mauville in that run), which is why I debated if I should put the Alola games higher just because I made it almost to the end there. But in the end I think Gen 3 did a lot more for the franchise, the berries, contests, secret bases, abilities and double battles are great. I don't have a lot of motivation to go back and finish Alpha Sapphire, all the surfing really doesn't sound inspiring, "too much water" isn't just a meme! Though maybe I should try at least.

5. Kalos - Now we get to the games where my feelings are a lot more positive. I remember being super stoked for the 3d graphics, and somehow for the fact that your character could sit down on a bench (???). The customisation is also great and roller skating was a fun way to get around. The story was pretty weak though and I really don't like the bland rival friend group. I dunno man, the more I think about it, the harder it is to think about things that actually matter to the gameplay experience that I really like, but regardless I have pretty good memories of Y.

4. Unova - White was my first game on an actual console (and not an emulator) so that alone makes it special to me. It's hard to come up with anything specific about the gameplay this time around either, but I remember having a good time, the world was fun to explore, N was a great rival and the story was good too. And the Big City of the region was amazing (and so was Kalos' for that matter) and the changing seasons made for beautiful graphics.

3. Paldea - The graphics were ugly and the performance was a mess, but I like nonlinear open world games okay? And honestly even that didn't work properly since the gym levels didn't scale and I unintentionally did the easiest gym fourth so I was stupidly overleveled, and the world wasn't that interesting to explore either. But I still had a decently good time and also the game had been patched by the time I got around to playing it so I didn't encounter that many bugs.

Also points for making the friendly rival and box art legendary into something I actually liked for once, the school stuff was fun (would've liked even more), the Arven story line is one of my favourite Pokemon stories, and the Area Zero part was great. And overall the game managed to make the overused "beat 8 gyms and deal with the evil team and local legendary" plot feel somewhat fresh.

2. Johto - The Kanto nostalgia pandering doesn't work on me, but Johto sure does. Gold was my first Pokemon game and I have so many good memories playing it, especially the nighttime Goldenrod city with the 8-bit music is my jam. I would also say that for its time it has been the best improvement on what came before, and of course it's the only time we get two games (or maybe 1,5) for the price of one instead of the other way around with the inclusion of Kanto. Then there is HGSS which contains still the best implementation of follower Pokemon. The story and characters will improve from here and the old gameplay jank doesn't really motivate me to revisit the games but they will always have a special place in my heart.

1. Hisui - There really isn't any contest here, the gameplay is simply so much better in LGA than in any of the others. Catching and battling Pokemon is so streamlined, the HM equivalents are useful and make exploring more enjoyable rather than being glorified keys, and the story is different for once. And I said I like nonlinear open world games but this is fine as well, when you get a huge area to explore at once, even when they're unlocked in an order. Like what I have an issue with is if you can't take three steps without running into an unskippable NPC scene or some arbitrary roadblock.

I do have issues though, the Pokemon box and Pokedex menu fiddling is atrocious and a way bigger issue here than in any of the other games since there's a lot more incentive to catch and use different Pokemon, I don't really like the art direction, and the customisation options suck and I had to use 90% of the default look for the whole game. But regardless I would really like it if the franchise went into this direction in the future.

[art-g0blin-draws]

A story about progression, if you have the patience for it.

This is a concept I had over ten years ago, that reached its most current form after the arrival of pokemon scarlet and violet.

In 2013, I made a drawing of an alternate evo for Venusaur that at the time I called ESPasaur. It was designed to evolve from a high-leveled ivysaur that had recovered from pokerus. This was done on a cracked version of paint tool sai, the first art program I’d ever learned how to use.

Its name was ESPasaur because through the use of its mind, it was able to conquer the virus, becoming a grass/psychic type. The thought was there, but i wasn’t very experienced with fakemon stuff, so at the time, i thought it was great, but looking back, i know it had potential, but wasn’t really quite right.

I revisited the concept again in 2017 (not long after gen 7 came out.) This time I referred to it as an alolan venusaur, because of course. Regional variants were the popular thing at the time. This was done on Clip Studio Paint, before they turned against pretty much everyone who offered them patronage.

This time it was a grass/dragon variant. There wasn’t really any reason for it, outside of my love of dragon type. I think i got closer with this one, but i still wasn’t quite there, though at the time i was very proud of this one as well.

I recently revisited the concept again, and as i was with the last two, i am pretty proud of this one. This time, I’m approaching it from the perspective of having it as a paradox pokemon. The Grass/Dark type, Grasping Vine!

This one was a lot of fun. I got an iPad for Christmas. (despite being a 33-year-old adult who earns my own money and lives with my own wife, my mother enjoys encouraging my hobbies. Love you mom.) Since having it, i delved into procreate. Initially the minimalist design was jarring, compared to Sai and Clip studio before, and the stabilization tool was a hot bag of ass until i adjusted it. But i find myself drawn to procreate more and more as i continue to use it.

With this one, i took in some fun facts about ancient plants, as well as utilized some of my own theories about scarlet’s paradox pokemon.

For one, i have a theory that paradox pokemon from scarlet evolved through generations into branching trees of pokemon. For instance, roaring moon is obviously an ancestor to salamence and its more basic forms, bagon and Shelgon. but i theorize that because of its dragon/dark typing and general body structure, it could also be related to hydreigon and its own more basic forms, deino and zweilous!

With that in mind, i gave Grasping vine a “trap” that more closely resembles a carnivine! I also gave it viness that are more actively used to grasp and subdue prey.

So far as fun facts are concerned, there’s a theory among scientists that ancient, prehistoric plants used a molecule called Retinal to create metabolic energy from the sun. Retinal had a purple pigment, and so scientists believe that most of the organisms on early earth would have been purple, supposedly. Scientists believe it predates chlorophyll and photosynthesis!

Also, the flower in its core has a small pool of nectar. It uses that flower to lure pokemon in before the trap leaves snap shut around them. :D

TLDR, if you stick with doing the things you like, you’re going to get better at them. You have no choice but to do so. I don’t get a lot of commissions, but i do this mostly for me anyways. It’s something i love doing. I’m sure years from now I’ll revisit this concept again, and it’ll look even better than grasping vines. But for now, I’m really proud of this one. :D