#thus making my own pokemon weaker

[rusty-eevee]

How I played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon as a kid.

[protagonistheavy]

The biggest personal gut punch to me about Pokemon SV is probably that it boasts the "open world" idea but then does every design choice to make it as unopen as possible. The most basic concept they fucked up here was gym leaders and how their pokemon don't scale to your current situation. What a fuck up of a totally normal thing to implement.

It annoys me so much that one of the Pokemon anime specials even thought of this particular conundrum from the games and gave a good answer: that gym leaders purposefully choose weaker and less pokemon depending on your badge count. So if it's your first gym, they go easy on you and pick weaker pokemon -- if it's your last, they pull out an adequate team to really challenge you. This just makes sense for how the Pokemon League has previously worked -- otherwise, the implication is that some gym leaders are just pathetically weak while others are actually competent for their prestige.

Whenever I imagined an open world pokemon game, I just imagined this would be a no-brainer. How difficult would it possibly be to take eight gym leaders and individually tune which pokemon they use based on this factor? It could not possibly be that complicated, just imagine each gym leader as if they're the last, then scale down and remove pokemon as you go down each tier.

But Game Freak didn't do that. And so instead of having real, open world options in this open world game, there's instead a specific route of gyms you're intended to take, and doing otherwise is going to jar your experience, where you'll either be facing gym leaders too powerful for yourself to handle and thus need to go fight weaker ones, or you'll be overleveled and can wipe them out even more easily than usual. Wow what fun and choice.

And from my understanding, the game still closes off your ability to progress at certain checkpoints, requiring you to go do other non-gym leader stuff in order to get to other areas -- the antithesis to open world design!!!!!! I mean my god, the trailers would NONSTOP pride themselves about "being able to do THREE ROUTES at your own schedule!" but you actually can't, because eventually Team Star is in your way and you can't move on without fighting through them. Why advertise the game like this if it simply isn't the case, that you are expected to do all three routes and do them all generally at the same time?

So fucking disappointing. Yet another example of Pokemon teasing the great potential it has, only to relent and go back to basics, doing the same boring shit it's been doing for decades because why not. Why bother. I really do wish at this point they had just not gone for something so """ambitious""" as going open world. If it's gonne be sooo half-assed and learn almost nothing from Legends Arceus, I'd rather they had just made a straightforward, conventional, no-gimmicks Pokemon game. If it's so fucking hard to imagine Pokemon working in an open world and actually getting it to function, then just don't waste the manpower trying to make it happen. So far it feels like the most good SV has done for the series is make SwSh look less terrible in hindsight.

[crystalelemental]

Ongoing Nexomon. My wife is approaching endgame, we assume. I am way back at Hilda.

Her team is largely super stacked. Kitsunox as her starter, Luhava because she caught it, Prismazor which she doesn't love performance-wise but is sticking with, Torrex which has been pretty good for her, Jeeta, and Arctivore which is I think her favorite. She loved that pupper.

My own team has taken a bit of divergence. See, I like to run things based on design, and while there's okay variance, a lot of the final forms are just...very big monster-esque. Most of the things on her team are big beasties, and I like cute. I want to run cute things. So I wound up trading out a lot of my options for...much weaker options, admittedly. The current roster is:

Weabride. I fell in love with Weabride's design super early, I have been resistant to switching it out for anything. Like yes, I have Storm Horse (Storse), and I have Luhava, but are they Weabride? No. The only one that offers competition is Idolette, but I'm kinda irritated with her not learning any good Wind moves. Like, not even Tornado? Come on. Weabride also has an evasion boost effect, so I'm going to play around with that for sure. Far from the best, but I love it.

Lantora. Now this one? This one I have high hopes for. Offensively it's nothing special, and defensively it's a little frail statistically. But, she has an evasion debuff and a shield. And I can make use of that nonsense. I do think the stamina system is going to play her a bit, but I want to try, because this is one of the cutest designs in the game.

Emprabee. I just think it's cool. It was this or Resonect, and I went with this because I like its design a bit better. It's certainly not good. But I do like it regardless. Just wish it had stronger attacks. Still, Arcane Blast does lower Atk, I can work with that. Atk debuffs are actually somewhat substantial.

Seaguard. I just like seahorses. I have no strong motivations beyond thinking it's cool.

Monolix. Mineral is my weakest type, in that I don't particularly love any of them. Monolix wound up hitting a weird sweet spot, though. It's weird, and reminds me of Cofagrigus, and apparently has better raw statistics than the Frulf line somehow, while also having Energy Blast for better neutral damage. So I kinda think it's just better? And thus was sold.

Felynth. I was really excited about Basten at the start of the game, and it will be substituting in as my Fire-type with Fire Claw. It has a confuse move now, and learns Disruption Beam. So I'm happy with this.

I am keeping statistically stronger backups, in the form of a lot of Special and Mega Rare options. I do like the Spink line, and I'll always keep Jeeta around, but I'd really prefer to keep with the team above. Until shown otherwise, we're making it work.

As for mechanics, which I have a lot of thoughts for:

One thing that is interesting is that types are perfectly balanced. Two weaknesses, two strengths, Normal has nothing either way. Normal is both very good and very bad. Good because they all seem to have an attack of another element, so they’re flexible and fill in. Bad in that those coverage moves are often less valuable than a basic Energy Blast, and the lack of resistance makes switching in harder than other types.

All Nexomon only have their base movesets, nothing else can be learned. This makes for less variation, but on the flip side, means you avoid the Sandslash Problem, where you don’t learn a single goddamn move of your designated type without limited resources.

Stats are stats. They do not change, and two of the same Nexomon at the same level are completely identical. This has the benefit of alleviating my worst tendency in Pokemon (resetting for good nature/IVs), but has the detriment of meaning all commons are kinda hosed from the outset. There’s no way to truly salvage something that just isn’t statistically good.

Learned movesets are also a bit of give and take. Weabride has Tornado early, which is a devastating Wind move, but later game there’s an even stronger move that it doesn’t get access to. Alpoca has a Mineral attack, but it’s weak and doesn’t keep up. It’s sad, but even the Uncommons feel like they fall off.

I did track stats from before and after an evolution. They are completely unchanged. To my knowledge, there’s no actual difference. Which is kinda nice, you can run a pre-evolution without actually giving up anything. But it does make me question what the point is.

[deafeningbelieverdreamland]

Succubi and Incubi and Cambions oh my! This species spotlight will feature these three do to their similarities and while technically are separate species in their own right they have many similarities and also interbreed frequently with each other. Kinda a Nidoking and Nidoqueen situation for us Pokemon enjoyers. Also this is part 1 of 2. With that being said let’s get into them and the Omegaverse headcanons. Now the first part to note is that all incubi are alphas (both male and female alphas, marquesses and male betas! Thus succubi are male and female omegas, marchionesses, and female betas! The weird part is that tyrant alphas, tyrant betas, and tyrant omegas are not possible with succubi and incubi but their hybrid Cambion offspring (cambions are human or really mostly anything else/succubi or incubi) can be any of the second genders! Now most likely cambions are going to take after their succubi/incubi parents second gender but not always! It’s really about a 60/40 split percentage wise. Now just because they have crossbred with something doesn’t mean it’ll guarantee a cambion as it also may just be either one of the parents with maybe only physical characteristics from the other. Genetics am I right? Also, if a succubi and incubi mate it will only result in one of them being the species their offspring is. Which one is random. There is also a rumored other hybrid but it seems more myth than anything so hardly worth a mention. Oh I should go into more species lore before more Omegaverse related stuff. Incubi are different in the fact that they actually don’t have as much allure as a succubus! Crazy right? Instead however they rely on an ability only they have which is… The power of transformation! Able to manipulate their form however they like in the dreamscape to match the perfect soulmate the victim is dreaming of. Clever I know. Wait did I mention dreamscape? That’s probably because all three have the ability to enter dreams! They only seek out mates/prey through the dreamscape. So yeah no transforming outside of that but eh ups and downs. Succubi have such a powerful allure that their victims fall for them without any change in looks. But much like the incubi this allure only works in the dreamscape! Yes despite popular beliefs neither one of them can actually use these powers outside of that so if anyone says otherwise that’s probably prejudice or lack of knowledge talking. For cambions their powers rely on which parent they had. So it’ll be a weaker version of both like only transforming the upper or lower half or having a weaker allure. Right, I suppose I’ll move on to heat/rut stuff next. For all three their heats/ruts happen every three days. Yikes imagine feeling that sussy all the time. When they have mates though it actually doesn’t come as frequently. Changing it to like a week apart… Still down horrendous but not as bad. They’re also one of the very few species in which their heat/rut durations can be manipulated by having a mate/mates. Very intriguing I know. While succubi/incubi do require sexual intercourse in order to eat and drain life energy from victims the cambions do not. They can make a meal of someone but it is not their only food source. Regular food does the trick. Unfortunately however, regardless whether they’re eating you or mating with you they will drain your life force if you aren’t also a succubus/incubus/cambion. Other types of demons may or may not be affected it is heavily dependent on the species. Oh yes, nests and things like that. Should mention it. For all three it is dependent on their second gender. They have similar second gender related behaviors during heats/ruts and for nests and other types of spaces to that of humans. So yeah actually not much to report on that front. Oh the dreamscape, yeah so while they do typically prey there they could also just regularly mate there but it’s not required. Though when in heat/rut they will be more tired and more likely want to mate in the dreamscape. So yeah there’s one difference for the heat/rut behaviors. I lied my bad.

[arlakos]

Miraculous Rant

Actually, you know what, while im still mad from the previous post I made, lets go off on a rant. No punches pulled. Lets do this.

The lovesquare is the most terrible ship in this fandom. One girl is a hyper obsessed stalker who tracks her crush with her planner for 3 whole seasons, while the boy couldn’t learn to take a hint and stop flirting for 3 whole seasons until he decided to move on with another girl. Ironically that makes them perfect for eachother, but its in a creepy kind of way, not a loving kind of way.

Adrigami and Lukanette in the S3 Finale were wasted events and never should have occured because they were immediately axed in the first few episodes of the next season. I feel sorry for those that were hoping their ships could be real for at least a short actual while, and it makes me want to curse the writers for their story-boner for the status quo of teases

Despite what I said earlier, none of the girls are good for Adrien. Marinette’s stalkery and a borderline yandere, Kagami’s somewhat controlling and too similar to Adrien help him grow as a person, Chloe is a queen bee beyotch and honestly too much like a sibling to Adrien, and Lila is garbage. Fuck it, have Luka date Adrien and they can play some sweet music together (not like that you pervs, I meant they both play instruments).

Nino needs more love. Not only that, but there needs to be more Adrien/Nino bro moments. If Marinette and Alya can have moments together, why not the bros?

Chloe’s character is a mess, and is neither redeemable, nor notably evil. Her role as a villain in season 1 is very hamfisted, such as in the episodes Mr Pigeon and Kung Food. Not only that, Chloe also lacks any of the qualities that makes a good “bully villain” or rival to Marinette, and her sympathetic moments (which are Written by Sebastien) are mostly overshadowed by the fact that Astruc wants her to be a bully, so it just makes her bipolar and confusing when her character is tugged between two writers.

Chloe should not have joined Hawkmoth in Miracle Queen, see my other post as to why I think so. TLDR, its kinda ooc  for her to go full on 2d villain like Hawkmoth especially after Miraculer, plus Lila was being build up to be the main antagonist of S3

Chloe got kicked from the Team in Miraculer because people know her identity? Fine. Kagami gets to be Ryuko again despite being known to Hawkmoth in Ikari Gozen? Not cool. Ladybug shouldn’t be a hypocrite and be willing to break her own rules just because “Kagami is my friend and Chloe’s not”. Same goes for her breaking the rule with secrect identities with Alya, only for her to go on and on about the rules to Chat when he pries.

Zoe is a bland character who’s only notable trait that she likes Marinette, which automatically makes her worthy of a miraculous after two episodes and no actual development.

Astruc is a petty frick who makes episodes that give the finger to fans of the show that have a different opinion than him. Queen Banana, Miracle Queen, and Reverser are good examples of this (Reverser did Nathaniel dirty).

Master Fu is a shit guardian. Read my post for more.

FRICK THE FEAST EPISODE. Not only did is ruin Fu as character, it ruined all the good theories as to why the order fell, and wasted the idea of a new villain being introduced or even taking over as the main antagonist! Speaking of Feast, despite the sentimonster destroying an order when he wasn’t even big, he still go beat by 2 kids even when he was supersized!

Marinette is not a good Guardian. Her ability to choose heroes does not make her capable, and just because “tradition is stupid” doesnt mean that Marinette shouldn’t be tested like others before her!

Despite the Kwami’s being ancient magical buildings, they seem to act like kids a lot, and that annoys me when in S1 they are supposed to apparently be mentors to their wielders, like how Tikki was before she was mentally de-aged.

Lila is trash and should be removed from the show. The only reasons her lies work is because the writers dumb down every other character in the show and ignore the fact the people have smartphones with google.

The “Miraculous” Ladybug spell should require both Ladybug and Chat Noir to cast, because not only does the power have nothing to do with creation, but it also “destroys” anything created by the akuma, which thematically makes no sense. Also it would place more emphasis on the two heroes being equals and “two halfs of the same coin”

On that note, Ladybug has too many powers. Not only is she the only one who can purify akumas, and can cast a spell that can fix Paris time and time again like its no one’s buisness, but she also now gets a new suit and the ability to nullify Hawkmoth’s akumas. Like COME ON! Give Chat some powers too.

Mayura’s feather’s shouldnt be able to be purified by Ladybug since they have no dark energy, and (thematically speaking) Chat should be given an ability that allows him to “vanquish” the energy in Mayura[’s feathers similar to how Ladybug can purify Hawkmoth’s akumas. At least it would develop a rivalry between Chat and Mayura, and would make Chat necassary against Shadowmoth rather than being replacable with any other hero.

The are too many temporary heroes. They should have just stuck with the 3 heroes from s2 and leave it at that. Sure, new heroes were cool, but the overuse has made the whole hero thing feel less special. It made sense for the first 3 to have them, but now it’s just like Oprah where everyone gets a miraculous. Except Gabe.

Chat Blanc was a stupid reason as to why secret identities cant be revealed, also Chat could have told LB who Hawkmoth once he returned back to normal was and the show would be over.

Hawkmoth should not be Gabriel. Frick the lore about Gabriel’s wife dying and him going evil to get her back, it makes the story feel too much like a star wars/Darth vader reference and leaves Gabriel acting bipolar, flipping from wanting to save his wife and doing this out of necessity to being a power hungry madman wanting to take over the world ( which is said in his canon music video). Having Hawkmoth be his own character means he can be an actual maniac who wants world domination and not just have villanous plot that rely on obtaining magical jewellery (perhaps doing other evil things/taking a more active role), while Gabriel being his own character means he can be a father that has become estranged from his son due to the lose of his S,O, and thus can have a plot about him reuniting with his son (I liked the end seen in Simon says, ok?)

On that same note, I think Mayura shouldn’t have been Nathalie. Considering Hawkmoth’s plans were repetitive as heck for most of the show, when I heard about the Mayura leaks back in Season 2 (when she was called “le Paon”) I was theorising that Mayura would actually being Hawkmoth’s boss, the villain the was responsible for giving him his Miraculous and the one who destroyed the Order of the Miraculous, and would take over as the main villain in season 3 due to Hawkmoth’s failures. However, that turned out not to be the case.

Not only that, but Mayuras power is a copy paste power with some modifications to make it complement Hawkmoth’s power, by basically giving his akuma’s magic pokemon.

Speaking of Hawkmoth’s power, for a miraculous that is supposed to be used for good, how can his power mind control people and make them become evil? More importantly, for a miraculous that is supposedly weaker than the main heroes of the show, having it be able to multiply and posses people to create an army is kinda strong.

Fuck the Maribat ship that the salt fandom came up with. Its trash, it was made to bash most of the Miraculous cast sans Marinette, and anyone thinks it is good are either those same salters or are the same people who think that Rey-lo and the Twilight Saga are masterpieces of romance.

Whew! I needed that vent. Hope you enjoyed it as as much as I did, and Tune in next time on the next episode of:  Arlakos loses his Mind and Rants for 2 pages of writing!

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Munchlax Line

Height two feet, weight two hundred thirty one pounds. I don’t think density works that way.

DESIGN:

I don’t like Munchlax’s face. It’s furry boddy, bear-like feet, fluffy arms, and tall ears are all fine, but when compared to the rest of it not only is its face woefully underdesigned, but the straight line of separation between the two colors that goes all the way around its head makes it look like the top of its head should just pop off like a South Park Canadian. For the most part, it’s cute, and I love the tiny bear-like design, but I really wish the darker color went down behind its jawline.

Also, it has blank eyes. The vast majority of pokemon either have proper irises or some sort of solid eye with a shine to it. Munchlax just has little dots in the middle of white spaces, and while it’s not the only Pokemon with eyes like that, it stands out as a design issue.

Snorlax, on the other hand, is basically perfect. It’s a big, fat bear-like thing that’s just flopping around and doesn’t want any part of this. I do wish the basic design was a bit more textured with less distinct lines to make it clear that this is a furry creature, especially at its forehead, but overall it reads like a real animal that’s not an animal we actually know.  There’s a brief appearance of Snorlax in Detective Pikachu, and honestly it looks perfect there. Just by making it clear that it’s furry the Pokemon gets a huge layer of life… But I can’t really complain about that not being there in most games, as Pokemon has a very smooth graphical style and even fluffballs like Pikachu tend to look overly smooth.

Gigantamax Snorlax is one of my favorite Gigantamaxes, because while Snorlax itself doesn’t really change, its sedentary nature allows foliage to grow up and over it. This brings in a strong addition of color and new design space without feeling as though it’s rewriting the Pokemon’s design. It also just looks like a really nice place to spend an afternoon. Would anyone like to picnic with me on a Snorlax’s tummy?

TYPING: 

Pure Normal is a great defensive type and a poor offensive one. Weak only to Fighting, but not strong against anything, the best normal types tend to be ones built for survivability. Fortunately, that’s exactly what Snorlax is. 

STATS:

With 160 HP, Snorlax is one of the beefiest Pokemon around, even when Legends are considered. 65 Physical Defense is a bit low for a tank, but  the HP more than makes up for it and 110 Special Defense is rather strong. Further, while there are others with more HP, none of them come with a higher Attack or Special Attack than Snorlax’s 110 Physical. It does have to get by with one of the lowest speeds in the game, but that’s a normal tradeoff for tankier builds.

Art by SillyFoe

ABILITIES:

Snorlax’s three abilities are, surprisingly, all quite good.

Immunity, likely the weakest of the three, grants immunity to Poison. As Toxic is one of the deadliest moves to tanky pokemon, this should be beneficial, but if that’s the worry it’s generally better to just include Rest in your build and instead use one of Snorlax’s other abilities.

Thick Fat, generally the best of the three abilities, grants Snorlax resistance to both Fire and Ice attacks. As Snorlax is generally already being used for defense, this is a great ability that allows it to more easily cover more attackers with the only tradeoff being that you’re then susceptible to Toxic. The vast majority of Snorlax builds are going to want Thick Fat.

And then there’s Gluttony. Gluttony allows a Snorlax to eat either a health-restoring berry or an ability-enhancing berry at 50% HP instead of 25% HP. While this is a very limited number of berries, it’s important to remember that Snorlax has access to the move Recycle and that its G-Max move has a 50% chance to restore a consumed berry. Further, Snorlax can use Belly Drum to immediately halve its HP to maximize its attack stat, and being able to trigger a berry off that enables survivability. A Gluttony Snorlax requires building around Gluttony and thus limits options, but a Gluttony build can be very good.

Art by Gyorkland

MOVES:

As a Gen 1 Normal type, Snorlax has access to way more moves than it will ever need, with random TM access like Thunderbolt and Psychic that it really has no need for. That said, Snorlax also has access to a number of solid attacks.

A Snorlax’s primary attack varies by build, but Double-Edge, Body Slam, and Return/Frustration all offer significant power with STAB. A Snorlax build should probably have one of these moves, but which one is entirely up to you.

For a secondary attack, Rock and Steel types both resist Normal but are conveniently both weak to Fighting and Ground. While Snorlax does have some useful Fighting moves, Earthquake also enables it to hit Ghost types, leaving only a few Pokemon like Mismagius and Skarmory to be serious road blocks.

If further coverage is desired, Snorlax has plenty of it, with the elemental punches, Heavy Slam, Seed Bomb, Darkest Lariat, and plenty of other options. Finding the right attacks is simply not an issue for Snorlax.

What Snorlax is best known for, though, is Rest. With its huge HP and solid defenses, a Snorlax can sleep through most attacks, especially if Sleep Talk is used to make up for the lost turns during Rest.  A Return/Earthquake/Rest/Sleep Talk lineup is a solid option on its own.

Another very popular move on Snorlax is Curse. Curse’s speed debuff is basically negligible to a Pokemon who has almost no speed to begin with, and Snorlax both leans heavily on Attack and can really benefit from just a bit of defense boosts. Further, Snorlax’s bulk and support from Rest enable it to build up Curse with less risk than many other Pokemon. 

Art by Heri-Shinato

And then there’s Gluttony. While a normal Snorlax is going to want Thick Fat, there are a few moves that would make it want Gluttony instead.

First off, G-Max Replenish has a 50% chance of restoring a used Berry, so if you’re planning to Gigantimax your Snorlax in a fight, using your berry early and then recovering it can go a long way. 

Second, Recycle simply restores Snorlax’s berry when used, and when combined with a Figy, Wiki, Mago, Aguav, or Iapapa berry this enables Snorlax to regularly recover HP without worrying about the ‘drawback’ of rest, though how much HP it recovers depends on which generation you’re playing.

Finally, while not exclusive to a Gluttony Snorlax, the use of Belly Drum to halve your HP and immediately max out your Attack stat is far safer when that move triggers berry recovery.  A Gluttony build that includes Belly Drum, Recycle, Body Slam (or Double-Edge), and Earthquake can work quite well for a Gigantamax Snorlax. 

Art by oddsocket

OVERALL:

Snorlax is a great Pokemon with a strong move variety, good abilities, and the ability to play as either a tank with decent attacks or a powerful attacker that can take hits. If anything, it has too many move options, but as more and more Pokemon exist, it’s leveling out to somewhere near fine. In the early days, Snorlax was an overpowered force to be reckoned with, getting weaker overall not because it’s any less competent than it was in Gen 1, but because there’s simply more competition from things like Mega Evolutions and Ultra Beasts.

That said, with a base stat total similar to that of a fully-evolved starter, Snorlax could certainly get a Mega Evolution without breaking anything… unless you’re of the opinion that Megas are already broken. Either way, Snorlax doesn’t really need any help to realize its full potential, it’s just having a bit of trouble keeping up with power creep.

Art by FistEastwood

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale reviews: Pokemon Sword & Shield

(Art by @knightsweeties​ / Trainer design by @nerdydoodler​. )

Spoilers below

For this review I decided to Divide this up into something a bit more coherent.

The Good vs The Bad.

The features and Mons:

The good:

This Game does the best out of ANY Pokemon game in bringing how Pokemon in the real world would be like.

I loved how it handled Pokemon encounters, Especially the encountering of High Leveled Monsters. That REALLY puts the trainer in a state of worry, especially in a nuzlocke. I liked the massive world routes it made the Pokemon world seem so much bigger.

I love the new variant evolutions to the Pokemon roster, Obstagon, Perscuter and Sir Fetch are AMAZING alt Pokemon evolutions for previous mons. The Galar variants (Save for Stunfisk) Are awesome

I also LOVE some of the new Pokemon introduced (Eiscue & Toxtricity have Stolen my heart, as well as the Impdimp Line.) I can't think of a Pokemon added that I didn't like. 

I also do enjoy Gigamax, it gives all Pokemon a chance to be super without having to get a mega evolution, and justifies the massive stadiums used for battles.

The Raid battles are amazing, both offline and online (though online is supperior) the Gigamax forms are all pretty awesome, even with special moves.

Pokemon Camp is amazing and Broken as hell when it can heal your entire team with a decent curry in almost any situation.

I also enjoyed having access to the Pokemon box without needing a pokemon center.

I greatly enjoyed the tweaks with the exp candies, nature mints, and boosts to stat booster meds which make competitive SO MUCH more viable for the less experienced.

The Bad:

I hate that you have to have a number of Gym Badges to catch certain Pokemon. If I am able to get a level 36 Bewear down to 2 hp with my team of level 11, I SHOULD be able to catch it! I hate that I have to either some how beat it or run for my life. I get that its suppose to make it harder for people to just not plow through gyms with the High leveled beasts, but honestly people Surprise trade and can get level 100 starters without batting an eye. So really it doesn't mean much.

I hate that you can't turn off the Exp share. I know that it is to encourage Team variation, but I am not dropping my starter at ANY TIME.

Okay and because everyone mentions it, The National Dex was limited. Which considering what the devs were doing, I understand it. Maybe in the next games they could add more of the roster. 

But those are my two main gripes with the mechanics.

_______________________________________________________________________

THE STORY AND CHARACTERS:

I absolutely ADORE the set up to the League challenge. Unlike in other games where the character gets a Pokemon from a professor, a pokedex and told to “Catch em all” This game has you given a Pokemon by the UNDEFEATED CHAMPION LEON, and given a letter of endorsement, allowing you to enter the league. This means not everyone can be a league challenger, there is a barrier, there is something that makes you special. You and Hop are given endorsements from the champion, thus giving you a personal connection with the champion, the man that stands at the top of the world. You see your goal, and though the journey you see just how amazing Leon is, and you also see that you are slowly catching up to him.

I love the Rival Characters: Hop, Bede, and Marnie.

Hop: The younger brother of Leon, you start your league challenge at the same time and he picks the starter weaker to yours. At the start, he is someone you can easily beat, and as the story picks up, he starts going through a character arc where he starts doubting his abilities, (because of Bede), but thanks to your support and his own growth, he sees what he wants to do, and in a way finds himself as a match for his own brother. (I don't want to spoil what his dream is)

Bede: The Trainer endorsed by Rosé the Chairman of the Pokemon League. He sees himself as a monolith, a trainer that will be the best because the Best recognized him. He starts off as the douche rival character and even messed with Hop’s Head after giving the boy a beating. He does get Kicked out of his challenge by the very man he wanted to make proud. He ends up getting training by Opal, (one of my favorite Gym Leaders EVER) and is trained to be her successor.

Marnie: The shy punk rocker who has all of Spikemouth Cheering for her. She is a pretty good trainer and has Team Yell, as her fan club. Though despite Team Yell’s mean antics, she always tells them to knock it off and tries to win fairly. She is honestly adorable and love how she just wants to make her brother proud.

Next off is Sonia:

She is hilarious and she is my favorite Professor don't @ me.

She is hilarious, sassy,  and a bit of a scatter brain. She is always a delight on screen and She gets a good character arc.

Now we get to the main guy, The undefeated LEGEND. Leon:

I LOVE THIS MAN! He is my favorite champion, yes, even more the Cynthia.

Leon is Oozing personality, charm, and charisma. He is a battle enthusiast that just wants a good battle, he is awful with directions, and is basically in charge of handling things whenever there is a crisis. I kind of imagine him as All Might from My hero Academy in this regard. The Galar region sees him as this paragon of Might and he is expected to do what is best, but he is just a guy.

Rosé sees him as such, and it allows for the two to have an interesting dynamic, 

The battle with Leon is the most fun I have had in a champion fight. It had been so long since I fought a champion with such vigor, he TRULY MADE it a spectacle.

I could also go on about the Gym leaders and How I love all of them, but I think I will just say its best to experience them for yourself. (Especially Opal, Nessa, Piers, and Raihan)

The Bad:

Rosé disappointed me. I liked him in the first half, but he never really seemed like a villain. His motivation and actions could have LITTERALLY waited like a day, but he just HAD to intervene at the tournament. It is kind of dumb and makes almost no sense. I wish they gave him something more sinister or maybe revealed that the energy reserves were actually dwindling at a much faster rate. Something to give Rosé a reason for his urgency. This motive also makes his actions of kicking Bede out of the league challenge hypocritical, if gathering wishing stars was so important, he should have not scolded Bede so fiercely.

Honestly Sordward & Shielbert were more compelling villains, wanting to prove Royalty. It would have actually been interesting having Rosé be someone dedicated to the future while having the two royal D-Bags dedicated to the past.

The post game, outside of the Hop character development was kind of boring.

The Pacing of the story was weird in some places but not the worst I have seen.

_______________________________________________________________________

Overall I would argue that this Game is one of the best Pokemon has produced in terms of capturing the magic of Pokemon experience.

I give it a solid 9 out of 10. I am currently on my second Play through and Hope you guys can join in too.

[pokemonswshbutionlyplayedsword]

All gym leaders ace turned into first stage of evolution ex piers obstagoon turn into a zigzagoon, melony snom, allistir gengar into gastly and kabu arcanine into growlith

The overall effect would probably shut down the pokemon league until the problem solved itself. Whether it’s temporary or the trainers have to evolve their partners again, no one can challenge them until their team is back to normal. I also changed a couple of the examples you gave me, because in my mind, their ace is the one that they Dynamax, other than Piers, but Obstagoon is the highest level on his team, so it’s pretty clear who his ace is anyway.

Milo’s ace is Eldegoss. Therefore, his pokemon becomes a Gossifluer. It does stop his gym for a while, but it doesn’t affect his life otherwise. He still does his farm work, and Gossifluer is still able to help, albeit a bit less. He doesn’t really have many feelings one way or another. He likes both Eldegoss and Gossifluer the same, so he doesn’t really prefer either one. He just wants to have his normal pokemon back.

Nessa’s ace is Drednaw. Thus, her pokemon becomes a Chewtle. Personally, I think Chewtle is ugly, but I’m pretty sure Nessa loves it. She’s gushing over how cute her pokemon is now. She spends a lot of time reminiscing about when they were young and just starting off as trainers. She misses how strong he was, but there’s nothing she can do. She does her best to train with him anyway, trying to evolve him again and get him back to where he was. That’s what she does most of the time, rather than the things she normally does, like modeling and swimming. She’s convinced that things will be back to normal soon, though.

Kabu’s ace is Centiskorch, so his pokemon becomes Sizzlepede. Kabu is pretty fond of Sizzlepedes, though. He thinks they’re really cute and he pretty often has a Sizzlepede in his coat or pocket anyway. Sizzlepede was the first pokemon he caught when he came to Galar, so he’s pretty bonded with his ace. He’s currently trying to evolve his pokemon again so things can get back to normal as soon as possible. But in the meantime, he’s not too upset. It reminds him of when he was young and wild and all of the wonders of Galar he discovered. He doesn’t think Sizzlepede misses being so small and cute, either. It likes to ride on his shoulder or in his pocket most of the time.

Bea’s ace is Machamp, therefore, her pokemon is now a Machop. She still works with Machops and Machokes a lot, so she has no problem accommodating for her pokemon. She’s disappointed that her pokemon is much weaker now, but she’s trying to seem unaffected. It won’t stop their training even a little. In fact, Bea plans on training with him even harder so they can get back to normal. Bea is frustrated because she realizes she’s not getting as much training for herself in because Machop is so much weaker than when he was a Machamp. She has to remind herself to be patient and keep working. Things will be back to normal if she just keeps working hard. It is a good reminder of when they were younger, though. She does think back fondly of the past when she sees Machop.

Allister’s ace is Gengar, so his pokemon is Ghastly. It’s a bit scary for him because Gengar is a lot weaker again and he just doesn’t feel as protected. Also, Ghastly tends to phase in and out of the living world. He can’t always be found nearby because he’s in the “afterlife” so to speak. So he doesn’t really stay as close to Allister as he does when he’s a Gengar. It kind of makes him nervous, but at least he has the rest of his team with him. He’s trying to evolve Ghastly again so that things can be normal, but it’s hard because working with Ghost type pokemon is already a challenge. It also kind of reminds him of the accident and when Ghastly first came to him, which is something he doesn’t like to think about very much. He just wants things to go back to normal.

Alcremie is Opal’s ace, so it’s now a Milcery. It’s not that upsetting for her. She doesn’t really care that much about her strength as a trainer, it was always more about strategy for her anyway. But this also gives her other opportunities. It will be easy to evolve Milcery back into an Alcremie, since she has plenty of the sweets and all it takes is a spin. The challenge is training her enough to make her as powerful as she was before. She evolved Alcremie before she realized that there were so many different options. She kind of regrets that, so this is an opportunity to give Alcremie a “makeover” so to speak. But Milcery is cute, if not a little messy, so she’s not complaining in the mean time.

Gordie isn’t really sure how to feel. His ace was Coalossal, so he’s now a Rolycoly. He loves his buddy, and this reminds him of when he was young and just starting out. But he has to admit that Rolycoly is a lot less cool and Coalossal. He feels like he lost a lot of his cool factor with his tiny rock pokemon by his side. He just wants things back to normal because it’s frustrating him. Also, Rolycoly was the pokemon that Gordie first brought home that started the fight between him and his mom. He loves Rolycoly, but he really just wants to leave all of that behind. He just wants things to be back to where they were, he doesn’t like being unstable like this. He’s trying to enjoy his pokemon being small and cute again, but it’s just stressing him out.

Melony is the only gym leader that isn’t stressed about anything. Lapras doesn’t evolve at all, so everything’s completely normal for her. She spends most of her time consoling the other gym leaders and helping them train. She doesn’t have her gym open for challenges, because she feels like it’s unfair that she gets to continue normally while the others are in a crisis. She and her Lapras are trying their best to help everyone get back to where they need to be. She’s not worried about her own team, but she does worry about the other gym leaders.

Piers is a bit conflicted as well. His ace, Obstagoon, becomes a Zigzagoon. Piers’ favorite pokemon is Galarian Zigzagoon. He loves them and thinks they’re adorable, so he’s not complaining that his closest companion is cute and cuddly once again (not that he wasn’t already, but it’s a lot easier when he’s tiny like this). His problem comes when he needs Obstagoon. As a bipedal pokemon, Obstagoon could do a lot of things to help Piers, and now he can’t. Also, Obstagoon doubles as Piers’ service pokemon, and he can’t task while he’s a Zigzagoon as easily, so that poses some health risks. It’s not a huge danger, but in certain situations, things could go really bad. Also, Obstagoon is probably one of the harder pokemon on this list to evolve because you need to evolve him twice, once at night. Piers has his work cut out for him, at least.

Raihan is also doing fine. His ace, Duraludon, doesn’t evolve either, so his gym is perfectly fine. He’s taking care of most of the damage control. It’s kind of a region wide panic. He’s doing his best to keep everyone calm and help the other gym leaders. He also closes his gym because he’s so busy helping everyone else. There’s no point in having it open when he’s only there for a couple hours a day. He travels around Galar pretty frequently to help every gym leader. He stops by Spikemuth a lot because he knows that not having Obstagoon is putting Piers in a pinch. He’s doing the best he can.

Leon is really disheartened. His Charizard is now a Charmander and he’s not sure what to do from here. It took a lot of time and effort to get Charizard to be as powerful as he was, and Leon just doesn’t know if he can do it again. Raihan is giving him a lot of support right now, promising that everything will go back to normal. Still, Leon has to keep training and at the very least try to recover even a little. He’s stressed because Rose keeps asking him to make public appearances to reassure everyone, and he’s forced to pretend he’s not bothered at all. It gives him little time to process his emotions and train with Charmander. It’s really stressful and frustrating for Leon that everything he worked so hard for is taken away and he can’t understand why.

[themattress]

I GRADE: Cyrus - Final Fates

Diamond/Pearl: Cyrus fails to control either Dialga or Palkia to destroy and remake the universe in his own image thanks to the hero and the Lake Trio. After being defeated in battle by the hero, Cyrus swears to try this plan again someday, as he won’t stop until he becomes a god. He and his minions then go into hiding, with the rest of Team Galactic going legit.

Platinum: Cyrus successfully controls both Dialga and Palkia, but is prevented from creating his new universe by Giratina, who drags him into the Distortion World. Giratina’s rage disturbs the balance between worlds, and Cyrus plans on capitalizing on this to make his goal happen anyway. The hero defeats him and Giratina, which stabilizes the worlds’ connection. Cyrus has a momentary breakdown before electing to stay in the Distortion World in order to unlock its secrets, hoping that he can find a way to make his perfect new world without spirit yet.

Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon: A version of Cyrus from a reality where he was successful is encountered in Rainbow Rocket Castle. His first instinct is to seek to enact his plan to remove spirit from this world as well, but after being defeated by the hero, he decides against it and shows signs of reconsidering his view of spirit as a thing that makes living creatures weaker.

TCG: Per the rules of the game, Cyrus can either triumph or he can be defeated and end up with his deck in the Discard Pile, which is the equivalent of him being arrested.

Anime: Cyrus begins creating his new universe that will supplant the old one by controlling Dialga and Palkia, but Ash, Dawn and Brock break this control. As Cyrus’ new world begins to vanish from existence, a completely delusional Cyrus jumps into it while screaming about how it’s his and his alone. Cyrus and his universe are then wiped out by Dialga and Palkia. 

Generations: Cyrus successfully controls both Dialga and Palkia, but is prevented from creating his new universe by Giratina, who drags him into the Distortion World. Rather than raging, Giratina is tranquil, as it sees a kindred spirit in Cyrus. Cyrus feels the same way and even feels like the Distortion World would make a good home, thus he chooses to make it so.

Pokemon Adventures/DPA: In both of these mangas, Cyrus is defeated at the Spear Pillar during the D/P-based section of it and has an epiphany about how he was wrong all this time. In the Platinum-based section, after thinking this over more, he officially reforms and disbands Team Galactic, although Saturn, Mars and Jupiter remain by his side out of loyalty. 

And now, my personal ranking, countdown-style:

7. Anime - Cyrus doesn’t even get to fight in this version, ever, and he takes himself out like an idiot...and in a pretty disturbing way, all things considered, as if Atsuhiro Tomioka wanted to top Hunter J’s death from the previous episode, which just creates an anti-climax.

6. Diamond/Pearl - Cyrus fucks up his own plan and then just...leaves, having learned nothing and vowing to start the same failed plan all over again? What a freaking let-down!

5. TCG - A standard TCG fate, nothing much else to say about it. 

4. Generations - Well, he’s got a home and a friend. That’s nice, but it doesn’t account for how he’s going to pull in the rest of humanity, since Cyrus isn’t just some lonely guy, he’s got a Messianic complex that demands he take charge of humanity’s “evolution” into what he considers an idealized form. If he’s just totally content with this, it’s OOC behavior for him.

3. Platinum - A great open-ended fate, with Cyrus still having learned nothing just like in the D/P games, but now with his original plan to ascend to godhood utterly demolished beyond a re-do and now he’s going to have to endure his own self-imposed Hell in order to come up with a new one. Whether he’ll ever see the light or not can be left to the player’s imagination.

2. Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon - What’s this? A hint at redemption! Excellent!

1. Pokemon Adventure/DPA - I don’t know why redemption fits an omnicidal madman like Cyrus so well, but it does. Seeing him learn a better way and find a new lease on life is just as satisfying as seeing it with Archie and Maxie; maybe even moreso given his backstory.

[turqrambles]

Digimon World - Midgame - Some Assorted Thoughts

At the time of writing this post, I’m sitting at around 31 Prosperity for the first Digimon World game for the PS1, which I could consider pretty mid-game for this type of game, so I just want to write down what I think about this little adventure.

For the record, I am talking about the original Playstation version of the game. The one with the T-rating (which feels way too high for this game since there’s no swear words and the battle damage is fantasy-level at best - is it because of all the poop in this game?) and the one with the CGI Metalgreymon on the cover for the NTSC versions of the game.

I’m playing this game on a physical copy that somehow survived like five moves on my PS3, just for reference. 

(Yes that’s that actual price I paid for it. That was a big price for little kid me.)

The Past Trials of My Schoolchild Self

First thing’s first - as a kid, I actually did not like this game very much!

For starters, I didn’t get very far in the game. My Digimon would keep pooping all over the place for one since I don’t think I fully understood the timing of this mechanic. I stopped playing the game when my Airdramon was one poop away from turning into a Sukamon and I found myself unable to stop it because I saved right before my Airdramon would make the final poop, thus trapping me in an unwinnable game loop. If I turned the game back on, I could only watch as my beautiful flying feathered snake transformed into a poop with eyeballs as I was powerless to stop it.

My Digimon had to suffer for my mistakes.

But besides that, I just found the game far too cryptic to figure out just what was going on, and my Digimon would never turn into anything cool. My Airdramon really was the coolest thing my Digimon ever evolved into, so the yellow turd Digimon really was like salt on a wound.

But, to add insult to injury, one time I hatched a baby Botamon and talked to the old man, only to have this giant dinosaur run up to me and blast the literal infant into smithereens.

Greymon is a dick.

What I remember from kid me’s file of this game - I finished the Drill Tunnel, I got to the dinosaur world one time, and I’m pretty sure I entered Myotismon’s mansion one time because out of sheer luck, my Agumon digivolved into a Bakemon one time.

I know what I didn’t do - I never recruited any of the shopkeeper Digimon so I was doing an itemless run as a kid. A big mistake, considering how important items are in this game!

A Brutal Beginning

Playing this game in 2020 when I’m an adult and have a better concept in how these types of games work is making this playthrough a lot easier for me, but don’t be fooled. This game is still pretty difficult.

I’m going to be real. One of the main turn offs for this game for a lot of players, especially little kids in the year 2000 with dial-up internet and no strategy guide like myself, is that this is one of those games where the beginning starts out slow. Real slow.

Sure, most great RPGs give you a real sense of power and accomplishment once you figure out the mechanics and get stronger as you progress through the game, but in this game, you have less options at the start because, as it turns out, the shopkeepers, the superior meat farmers, the air taxi service, and all those fun little options typically available to you in other RPGs have all turned feral as a result of A Bad Thing That Happened on File Island and it’s up to you and your plucky partner Digimon to explore the wilds and beat them up one by one until they gain a little humanity (...digitanity) and expand the town. 

While it is really cool to see the town expand through the course of the game - buildings are built and lights are gradually installed - but man, the fact that you go for a long time without having a shop if you don’t know what to do kinda sucks. A lot. I kept thinking to myself about how Pokemon is a lot more generous with the item drops and, while the shop inventories at Viridian City and Pewter City aren’t great, they’re there from the beginning.

Note: To get this guy, you have to chase a rumor from a Baby Digimon that there’s a fish that shows up after a certain time on a certain map. Then you have to progress through the jungle enough that you find the one Betamon that isn’t an enemy. There. Now the shop’s open. What, are you saying that’s super convoluted? Why yes it is. Welcome to Digimon World.

Not only that, but this game’s biggest flaw comes from one tiny feature it omits from the game - Digimon World doesn’t have a world map.

See this artwork? This is the most you’re ever going to get.

You know how a lot of RPGs - your Pokemon, your Final Fantasy, etc etc - have a world map that’s easy to access from the start menu? Yeah, this game doesn’t have that. It instead prints a rather rudimentary map in both the instruction manual and on the design of the actual disc. You know what that means? You’re SOL if you ever bought this game used.

I didn’t of course, but physically cracking open my disc case just to be like “ah okay I need to go north” was more annoying than anything. Maybe if the instruction manual came with an actual physical map you can unfold would’ve been better?

The Starter Dilemma

Like most monster collecting games, you have a choice of starters at the beginning of the game. Depending on how you answer the questions at the beginning of the game (all two of them, with only one of them truly mattering), you can start with either an Agumon or a Gabumon. Cool, right?

Well, it starts the fall apart the moment you fight the first boss in the game - a wild Agumon with weaker stats than your partner. And that’s when you realize that one of the starters starts out with a major battle disadvantage at the very start.

Agumon’s starting move is a little ranged attack that it can shoot at enemies. It can hit the enemy from pretty far away so he can evade a lot of close up attacks.

Gabumon’s starting move is an ineffective little flailing of his arms that requires him to get up super close to the other Digimon in order to hit them.

Did I mention this attack is weaker than Agumon’s starting move? This type of starter set-up is utterly baffling to me. Why would you intentionally hobble one of the choices?

So if you were a kid hoping to go on a grand adventure with your happy little dog lizard (instead of doing what a lot of people recommend, which is train your dog lizard for several in-game days until he evolves into something better) expect to see a lot of battles where the enemy Digimon just casually moves out of the way as your dog lizard yells “PWAH”.

Luckily this problem ceases to exist once you start digivolving and learning new techniques, but it’s still a major bummer to start the game on.

On top of that, unlike Pokemon, your Digimon can die. It can only faint three times in battle before he crumbles into a pile of bits and data in a rather brutal cutscene involving the flesh being ripped off your partner’s wire frame while the old man Digimon just kinda glumly stands off to the side and is like “lol he ded”.

So uh, have fun with that, children who accidentally run into a boss Digimon while trying to figure out where the hell anything is.

Sometimes Being Cryptic Is Good

That being said, in an age where I can just peek at my phone if I’m stuck, this game is kinda refreshing in a “playing your first Pokemon game” kind of way.

With no in-game maps and only vague hints of what to do next purely by talking to the villagers, you’re just kinda...left to your own digivices (see what I did there) as you explore this vast, uncharted world and slowly figure out what you’re supposed to do next and, since the world is arranged in a circle around the town, you can go in multiple directions and progress in any way you want.

There’s no set progression, with the story advancing based on how many Digimon you befriend rather than what places you’ve beaten. There’s no pressing incentive to go beyond the Native Forest if you don’t feel ready for that yet. Sure, the town won’t expand if you don’t, but you can still go at things at your own pace until you get a better feel for the environment. You’re just left to experiment as you gradually figure out how to make your Digimon evolve into cooler things.

And honestly, it’s kinda fun playing a game where I don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head in terms of how to get a certain Digimon so a lot of times I’m genuinely surprised at the evolutions I get.

You just, you know, need a lot of patience. Especially when this game’s English translation is...not great. (which is common with a lot of PS1 games)

The land changed after the land changes happened.

Current Consensus

You need a bit of patience to play this game, but it’s definitely rewarding if you stick by it. I’m certainly having fun playing this game, but I will say out loud that I’m also playing this game while watching a couple let’s plays and having GameFAQs open.

I will say that, as an adult, I actually find myself appreciate this game more than when I did as a child.  It has its flaws, but after a pretty intense learning curve, it becomes pretty rewarding. You know, when it’s not requiring me to fish The Lake Guardian at 9 am with a piece of meat attached to my fishing rod in order to improve my gym.

I give it a “It’s Fun When It’s Not Being Bullshit” out of 10.

Quick Bullet Points

This game has some bangers in the soundtrack so at least it’s pleasant to listen to.

I do like that you can evade the enemy Digimon on screen so you can reasonably enter some places with a lower leveled Digimon than what that area requires. This is just not advisable since most of the Digimon are befriended with a boss fight. That being said, item management is a big thing in this game so enemy dodging is still a useful trait.

You can buy portapotties to keep your Digimon from shitting on the ground but since your Digimon has only one use animation, it uses it by eating it.

 Cherrymon has a radically different design in this game than any other piece of Digimon media and it’s kinda funny how creepy he looks in this game.

The Monochromon Shop minigame earned the reputation that it has - it truly does suck ass and leave you at the mercy of RNG.

It’s been proven by hacking the game that the Bonus Try in the Gym exercises is rigged so never use it.

I like how this game creates recolors to make sure you can tell the difference between the recruitable Digimon and the Digimon that are just meant to be fought against....only for the series to then make these recolors recruitable, defeating their original purpose. I guess I should be glad they’re all considered proper Digimon now.

Poop is an element. You can have creatures of the Poop type.

No seriously Monochromon’s Shop minigame has given me a hatred for Veggiemon and I don’t think I can ever recover.

[broken-endings]

I’m replaying Pokemon Crystal for the first time I since I played it on gameboy color.

I can’t remember if I did more than one playthrough cuz I’m a big saver and probably wouldn’t have wanted to lose my current pokemon to restart. And by the time I decided I wanted to replay it, I then found out about the battery that runs out for GSC games due to the time function and rendered them unplayable after a few years.

So I finally bought a digital copy on my 3DS

and I have a BUNCH of mini plans to fill my playthrough. All of them are things I’ve never done before. 

Use only Gen II pokemon on my teams. The only Gen 1 pokemon I raise are the ones that I can evolve into Gen 2 evolutions. Pretty sure I never got a Crobat in my original playthrough. I didn’t even know friendship was a thing. I just knew it took like 45ish levels to evolve my Eevee into Espeon and Togepi into Togetic. Now that I know the mechanic I doubled down to get Togetic by level 22, and Crobat at level 26 with haircuts. And this gen-II-only rule is also having me creatively hunt for Unown’s with an attack type I need. Like I used a rock Hidden power against Faulkner, and a Fighting Hidden power against Whitney, and continue to raise the latter to use against Jasmine. (i can still gen I for HM purposes and False Swipe, etc, but not for gym or story battling)

Catch all Unown. I’ve never completed the Unown dex. Also nicknaming each Unown with a one syllable name that begins with the letter they represent.

Catch the legendary dogs, thus unlocking Ho-oh. And of course also get Lugia (my fave)

Get CELEBI. I’m excited about getting to experience this for the first time.

Try to craft my rotating mains to be viable at the Battle Tower. Now that I’ve had lots of experience being competitive with battling from Gen 6 and 7, as well as lots of use of Pokemon Showdown, I want to test my mettle there. It really helps that I know the whole spiel about Sp. Attack vs Attack with the types being evenly divided between them rather than each attack having its own designation. It’s the only thing I have to be actively conscious of (moves I’m used to thinking of as physical or special can be opposite), but I think I’ve got it memorized which type is which. It’ll make for a bigger challenge though. Like Togetic who has a higher Sp Attack, but because Normal moves are affected by the Attack stat, so there’s no good STAB move. Or poor Quagsire who is water/ground with a better Attack stat, but all water moves are Special, so I guess I should stick with ground moves for offense. The game of figuring out which is better, a STAB move with the weaker stat, or a non-STAB move with the higher stat.

Sure I beat the game when I played it originally, but catching the dogs was too hard so I never ended up with legendaries other than Suicune in the end. It was 2001 so there wasn’t internet guides. And I was 13 anyway. So I don’t think I even knew how to get Lugia. Maybe I got it, maybe I didn’t. I’d completed both Gold and Silver before playing Crystal, so I could’ve known what the special item was for when I got it?

I know that I knew Espeon needed it to be day to evolve, but I might’ve only found that out from in-game NPCs.

[psychic-master-will-archive]

Headcanon Time: Will’s Elite Position

((This is more of an inference based on game canon, which is peppered with my own takes.

It’s no secret that out of all the Indigo Elites in Gens 1 and 2 (and their remakes), Will is by far the weakest level wise. While HGSS does rectify this with a rematch battle, in terms of pokemon levels, Will is still quite weak.

Now, it is not uncommon for the first elite in Gens 1-4 to be the weakest, since they are first and do set the stage for what is to come, but compared to Lorelei, Sidney, and Aaron, Will is still weaker. He is fully aware of this, and while he does tend to act like a total clown, and childlike now and again, this is his way to cope with the sheer amount of pressure he faces.

I should also mention that, in gen 2 Will mentions how he just became a member of the Elite Four, meaning he had worked his butt off prior to facing the player and was finally accepted. He traveled all around the world to hone his abilities and his pokemon battling skills, so he was feeling pretty great until he was handed his first ever loss. He even talks about this in Masters, and while he takes it in stride, I can only imagine the defeat upset him greatly.

Now going back to the pressure he faces: Will knows he’s the weakest of all the Indigo elites, especially his predecessor, Lorelei. As such he knows that he has to work harder than any of the others to maintain his position, as well as to buff up his reputation. He also knows he’s looked down upon for being the weakest, which makes it all the more important for him to pull out all the stops and push himself beyond his limits. He is new to this gig and worked too hard to fail, which is yet another pressure he faces.

In the games he strives daily to train and push himself, and with that comes immense strain physically, and mentally. He also relies heavily on his powers to make up for where he lacks, and he relies on his powers to develop deep bonds with his pokemon. Using his powers for too long of a time leads to incredible burnout and intense migraines that will leave him sick for days, if not a good week or more.

There is also the added burden of being born with psychic abilities, and thus being looked down on as defective, inferior, creepy, destructive, and just plain unnatural. Not only that, but he is the first psychic we meet who is an Elite, and while I believe Sabrina is far stronger, Will does outrank her. Not to mention that having psychics with incredible powers in positions of power within the league is rare, which makes Will a pioneer of sort for Psychic elites to follow. He knows that being an Elite, along with being a psychic gives him an opportunity that most don’t, and he feels responsible to make sure that others like him are represented well and positively, and that children born with psychic powers can have a good and positive role model to look up to.

As I mentioned earlier, Will resorts to humor and foolishness as a way to cope with his burdens, along with acting in an over the top manner. While a good chunk of this is rooted in his actual personality and character, another good chunk is simply a facade meant to keep him afloat so that he doesn’t crack, because there are many days where he nearly caved under the pressure. Will also has a tendency to keep what e’s feeling to himself, so by the time he reaches a breaking point, it is often too late to help, or no one is around to help him apart from his pokemon.

In his manga verse, he has the added burden of the trauma he faced while working under Pryce, which is a whole other dimension.

Tl;dr: Will acts the way he does to cope with immense pressure, and this pressure is one he has learned to hide well.))

[fluffyfairychild]

Fae

Thank you to @pkmnrivalbede for the inspiration for this AU (? sort of) -- if you don’t know them, you should give them a follow. Their Bede is incredible.

On an added note -- if any other Bede RPers or writers wish to use this -- feel free. Hell reblog it straight up if you like, I don’t mind.

While it is true in the main verse of my blog that Bede has some connection with the fae and spirits of the glimwood tangle, that most likely being the reason Opal made him the gym leader in the first place, in this AU (? still not sure if I want to make this a full blown AU or instead just make this the canon because it fits a bit too well) it goes a bit further. While in the main verse it is worth noting that Bede instead holds minor abilities that some trainers don’t have which give him an edge in battle, in this verse it goes a lot further.

Story

There once was a baby boy who was born in a not so nice place somewhere on the outskirts of Bellonlea. His parents were always fighting, they were never truly happy. They screamed and they shouted, which always made the human child cry. This often times disturbed the faeries of the forests, faeries which were never truly fond of loud ruckus. They decided that they would punish the parents by bringing a child of foul luck to them. A child which would curse them for their disruption. In the dead of night the fae slipped in with help of the spirits and replaced the baby with a changeling. They were sad to see the fairy child go, but knew it was for the best for the rest of the fae in the area.

Four years passed, the boy grew. He was not in the healthiest environment, but very rarely did harm come of him. His father, seeing as how the hair which the baby had grown was a bright blond instead of his dark brown, immediately accused his wife of infidelity. The wife, on the other hand, barked back by saying that she hadn’t really left that house without him in a good ten years, making such things impossible. Bede ignored their screaming, their shouting, spending his days slipping out into the woods beyond his home to be somewhere he felt safer, felt happier. It was escapism at it’s finest, he didn’t like their screaming, the noise terrified him. This would have been fine, except that his parents never truly were aware of their ‘son’s’ trips.

One night, the boy never came home. A search party was sent out to find him, which led to an event so tragic. It seemed the fae were not happy with how slow things were going and as such decided to silence the dreadful parents by lulling their ‘son’ deep into the tangle via will-o-wisp. Bede was found in the middle of a fairy circle in a deep sleep, but not before his parents had fallen down a sharp drop. The drop had effectively ended their lives, leaving the changeling an orphan. The fae would have collected the boy then, but saw that to substitute the human child back in now would be foolish given how much the baby had changed, nobody would buy that it was the same child, and for them to just take him would lead to those humans to stomp all throughout the tangle searching for days... Something none of them wanted. They knew he would come back so instead they bit their tongues.

As such Bede went to the orphanage, unaware of his identity or his true classification. He was always an outcast of a child, fighting and arguing with the other children who believe him to be something inhuman -- something he had never even thought about. He didn’t even really remember the existence of faeries, let alone the possibility that he was one of them. He spent most of his time stealing, causing trouble, fighting, and hiding away -- living a life that he believed was Hell incarnate. One day an important man came to the orphanage, Chairman Rose. That man knew something powerful when he saw it. He couldn’t tell that Bede was a changeling, but he knew he was much different from the other children. As such he took him in.

The relationship between the two was rocky at best. They had their moments, but for the most part Rose was just far too busy for him. This led to Bede, with his solosis, to take on the gym challenge on his own. His abilities as a changeling helped him with battling. Being able to predict his opponents, sense their moods, mindsets, and even be able to recognize status effects within an instant. That and the fact that being a faerie gave him the advantage of knowing the perfect way to make his pokemon stronger, it all was just too easy for him. As such he climbed the ranks quickly, gathering wishing stars in an attempt to hopefully gain approval. Introduce the events of Pokemon Sword and Shield as we know them.

When Opal took him in, after he was cast to the side by Rose, she did it because he was ‘pink’... ‘Pink’ meaning that she knew he was not human. She had spent decades researching the fae and communicating with them. As such she did all she could to teach Bede who he truly was. Part of the reason he wanted to get away from her was because of the fact that he didn’t want to accept his origins. If he believed it than it meant he was the one responsible for his own ‘parents’ death. In the end, however, he realized that perhaps it was for the best that he took her spot as Gym Leader and thus accepted his true identity. She told him that he would be protecting Bellonlea as well as the Glimwood Tangle -- she would be giving the fae just a little bit of control and preventing incidents like his own. As such Bede did just that. He spends his days living in the glimwood tangle, communicating with the fae and being a sort of middle man in order to prevent more incidents like stolen children. Either that or pretending to be an ordinary human in battles so spectacular that people come far and wide to witness.

He has no idea what happened to the human that he was swapped with and doesn’t really wish to know.

Abilities

High Intelligence and Uncanny Future Sight (75% accuracy)

Minor Shape Shifting (changing his eye color or minor changes to height)

Animal Communication and a Natural Green Thumb

Near Immortality (However he is not completely immortal)

Ability to Conjure Will-O-Wisp or Illusions (Within Limit)

Weaknesses

Cream (it is known to intoxicate faeries like alcohol)

Poisonous Bugs (why he doesn’t like bug type pokemon very much)

Large Amounts of Iron or Silver (makes him nauseous, he is mildly allergic)

Industrialization (The less nature he is around for the longer period of time the weaker his abilities get)

Secrets

He often times puts up signs to guide people away from things like Fairy Paths, Fairy Trees, Fairy Forts, and other such constructs of fae kind and has actively told people not to step into the glimwood tangle at night -- but many people aren’t aware that this is his doing.

He is technically of the Seelie Court and often times carries bells with him to protect himself, and those around him from the Unseelie Court. On a familiar note, if he is not at his cottage than chances are he is probably with fae kind and is best left on his own

He does in fact spread rumors around Bellonlea that are more fact than fiction in order to frighten his opponents -- many individuals in Bellonlea are familiar with the not-so-false rumor that Bede is a changeling. Whether they believe it or not is a mystery.

Despite the fact that he is a changeling that’s part of the Seelie Court, it does not mean he is completely kind. He still has his grudges and human traits. (IE he still has a grudge against Chairman Rose which he will forever bottle up and lash out over)

It’s worth noting that Bede’s specific species of Faerie can be traced back to the sprite -- but due to his life among humanity he has changed significantly, as changelings are bound to do upon a diet of human food.

[slothcritic]

Dragon Ball Z Abridged - Episode 7 Review

Humor that doesn't let up. This episode is non-stop, action-packed, and delivers on everything it tries to do.

The cold open for Saiyans? On My Planet? (It's More Likely Than You Think) has a continuation to the "are we there yet?" skit, capped off with the Saiyans collapsing a building and cratering into the concrete, thus finally arriving on Earth. It's simple dialogue but the pacing, the delivery and the fact that it closes off a running joke makes it a wonderfully effective opener.

[Title Sequence]

Most of this scene has comedic and plot-relevant heft to it. Nappa glasses a city because he hates awkward silences and we as viewers are reminded that the Saiyans are here for the Dragon Balls. The "epic foreshadowing" joke however just feels needless and clunky. I wouldn't say it's out of character, Vegeta constantly begrudges Nappa's idiocy, but perhaps this line should've been written with less flashing bells and alarm signals reading "HEY GUYS, WE'RE MAKING A JOKE OVER HERE."

After a brief back-and-forth with Gohan and Piccolo, Krillin shows up, and... goodness me his voice is squeaky. Let me take a timeout from discussing this episode in a self-contained context. I'll criticize the microphone quality or the writing or the weaker visual gags or the editing missteps, but it's important to point out that not all of the show's improvements have been made through technical means. The cast has also improved personally as voice actors over the years. These contrasts are most notable in characters like Vegeta, Krillin and King Kai. Their modern voices are rounded out much better on delivery, whereas from the outset they're scratchy, unrefined, or even muddled. This also matters partially in-context of the episode itself, because goodness did that voice take me out of my viewing experience.

Krillin and Gohan catch up on how their respective year of training has been. While Gohan has no qualms about his stay with Piccolo, we're treated to distant laughter and an ominous pair of eyes in the background while Krillin undergoes what I can only assume is a PTSD-induced flashback.

One Fight Club reference later, the Saiyans finally meet the main ensemble of Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin.

"Hi."

Appreciating Nappa's role in this series is not exactly an uncommon or niche opinion, but I don't feel the urge to dismiss his humor or succinct, faithful-to-character writing just for the sake of being a contrarian or trying to get a reaction out of people.

I can see it now - "Nappa's characterization as a bumbling oaf is wildly inconsistent with the idea that he would've been a Saiyan General, or one of the most respected military mights in the universe. Vegeta would've been well aware of his character and annoying tendencies from a very young age and would've gotten the hell out of dodge the second he was capable. This depiction is nothing but a transparent flanderization of an originally unremarkable character created for the sole purpose of having a quotable, marketable personality with viral potential in a show that has so far been 'mildly entertaining' at it's peak."

Let me be clear. This is a parody. It’s meant to be pointlessly funny about certain topics. It’s meant to breathe life into creative interpretations of characters for the sake of humor. If I don’t think it’s funny, I will be critical of that. But I see no point in disliking something that I think is funny purely because it is either “popular” or, dare I say it, a “mainstream” opinion.

Vegeta is the kind of person who needs a strong sidekick who's subservient, loyal, and doesn't question orders. Nappa checks most of those boxes across both the original series and this one. Additionally, unlike a lot of other jokes or attempts at humor in this series, Nappa's very simple writing has consistently been a hit. Aside from the Arlia montage with no music, I can't think of a single line of dialogue or joke that Nappa has said that was a complete, useless dud. If it works, it works.

"So, you guys are the Saiyans?" "No."

I want to put on the record that I paused the episode after Nappa said "Hi", wrote for ten minutes on that, then resumed the episode and this line played. I immediately had to pause it again because I was laughing. Just the sheer childishness or petty playfulness that constantly surrounds Nappa and his counter-play with Vegeta injects something completely new and wonderful into this series.

The jokes don't stop after this one. This skit continues with the rule of threes, a callback to Vegeta being a prison bitch, a nerd joke, a eunuch joke, and more. I don't want to talk about all of these individually or I'll be here all day, but let's put a bookend where Nappa reads their power levels. These are all excellent jokes that keep up with the consistently funny pace set by Nappa's introduction. Perhaps the weakest skit is the two Saiyans snickering at Piccolo. It would probably work better if redone now, but the delivery on the laughter isn't entirely convincing enough to flow like everything else does. That said, the joke that an asexual race wouldn't have genitals lands pretty neatly within Nappa's ballpark of humor.

The idea that the Saiyan's power levels are measured based on units of Raditz, and the notion that they can actually grow beings with the same power level as Raditz, is hilarious. Nappa's "Taa-daa" after the Saibamen are revealed is like icing on a very dramatic cake.

I've gotta say I'm with Tien on this one - As someone who grew up in the city where they filmed the Fraggles, I take offense to the implication that they're obscure!

"More bald people!" - I have no idea what Toriyama has against drawing hair (let alone facial hair), but this is a very recurring trend in his art style and I'm glad TFS made fun of it. A cameraman earlier had made the same joke, but it wasn't Nappa saying it, so it was automatically less funny.

Another extremely iconic scene, and at the time a complex visual gag for what the series has done so far, is when Nappa throws the Pokeball at Chiaotzu. The fact that Vegeta deals with so much of Nappa's annoying shit but plays along here just makes this scene so much better.

"That's because you have to damage it first."

This joke has questionable veracity with only Nappa and his “lul so random” take on Chiaotzu’s appearance, but these concerns are immediately dashed by Vegeta, and this is why the dynamic works - Nappa on his own would just be too much stupidity, but Vegeta's deadpan counterbalance provides a nice anchor to reality and solidifies this joke even if Nappa is the one carrying it.

I'm actually rather surprised they didn't draw any comparisons to the Saibamen being Pokemon either. There's six of them, they're all vaguely creature-like beings of adequately short stature, and could quite literally be described as pocket monsters because they can be grown by seeds you keep on your person.

Yamcha lands on the scene with his big damn hero speech, and then immediately one of the Saibaman uses Self Destruct on him. No fight scene, no escalation, just immediate death for you good sir. The scene lingers on Yamcha's corpse while Krillin sheepishly cheers in the background, and that's where the outro plays.

Conclusion

Holy hell this was a good episode, even in retrospect. Almost all of the jokes landed, the pacing and consistency was on point, and we finally have some dramatic gravitas with the Saiyans arriving on Earth. A lot of this episode disappears fast because of how much it draws you in with the interactions and back-and-forth between all of the characters. It's succinct, it's well-written, and the balance and coordination of different kinds of humor play into each other wonderfully here.

If I had to say anything negative about this episode at all, it might be that some scenes played out for too long. While the "humor floor" and "humor ceiling" are definitely a lot higher in this episode than in almost every other episode, there is some variation in joke quality. As I said, nearly every joke in this episode works, but how much does it work? We've reached the point where if the jokes were athletes in a 100m dash, they're no longer breaking both of their legs at the start, but someone still has to cross the finish line first and last. This is also a very dialogue-heavy episode. That can be a good thing, but there's little attention elsewhere in the production of this episode. Things like non-obligatory or joke-dependent sound design come to mind. The video quality is also rather poor. KaiserNeko does switch over to high quality footage for Season 2 and onward, but in Season 1 it's very easy to see the frames shaking or jerking as they spice entire scenes back and forth for their lip flaps. Everyone still has cheap mics.

With that said, I feel like this is a landmark episode for TFS finding their style and settling into a confident stride for the rest of the series.

Score: 80

Passing Thoughts

"You're a prince?" "No." "Fuck you Nappa."

"Oh my god, he blew up the cargo robot. AND THE CARGO WAS PEOPLE!"

"Those readings are useless." "You mean like YouTube friends?" - OOF. That was a great line in 2008, and I personally still think it is, but does YouTube even have a friend system anymore? Or did that get integrated by some other Google platform?

[zchaotic]

Things that Grind My Gears USUM and common complaints

1. People that said USUM butchered SM’s Story.

I loved SM’s story, I found Lillie’s growth to be amazing and I loved it when Lillie stood up to her mother. The story focused on her was great until the ending where Lillie went back to her mother to help her recover, it undoes most of her growth, we are given no indication that Lusamine has learned anything and the worse part, it ends the story with no closure.

Gladion also got stuck in a position pretty horrible, having to run the place he was abused in. It was a sloppy conclusion that dampened a great story.

Ultra Sun and Moon’s changes to the story are as followed; the Ultra Recon Squad being added in, focus on Necrozma as a villain, Lusamine’s motives being changed and how they affected her kids, Lillie’s focus and the post game.

While the Ultra Recon Squad didn’t do much besides foreshadow Necrozma and the pokemon could do a bit more for build up, Necrozma gave what is to me a better climax boss compared to Mother Beast.... in that we get to fight the fused alien monster.

Further more, USUM attempted to change Lusamine for a bit more than just fitting the Necrozma story, it tried to humanize her on screen. Something that SM DID NOT DO! For many, Lusamine in SM was an irredeemable, child abusing bitch and we didn’t get the info as to why she was doing things in the first place until the post game. Wrong place and wrong time for that backstory.

In USUM, they actually mentioned Mohn and add weight to Lusamine’s backstory. Him disappearing caused her downward spiral into the villain she became, who didn’t want to let things go. That is why she froze her pokemon and that is why she became such a control freak to her kids. This also adds to Lusamine’s “Mother knows best” mindset, where she believed she was right and everyone else should shut up and let her deal with things. Which is part of the reason she used Nebby for her goals this time, to feed that ego/ messiah complex and prove to everyone that she was right.

This dangerous thinking helped motivated Gladion when he took Type:Null and ran, he saw potential in the pokemon that Lusamine sure as hell didn’t. Gladion wanted to be free from that control and knew Type:Null was treated like dirt, so he wanted to give that pokemon a better life and prove its potential as a pokemon.

Lillie is a similar deal, she took Nebby and ran because she didn’t like how it was being treated. She did the only thing she could have done to stop this mistreatment and rescued the Cosmog. That is what lead to her escaping.

She still got inspired by you the player to become a trainer, change from the outfit her mother forced on her into her Z powered form, have a talk with her mother and have that goodbye with Nebby, in a more meaningful place and for reasons that make a bit more sense than. “I’m not a trainer.”

While Exeggutor Island was cut out and it was a bummer since that was less moments with Lillie. The majority of the things she said outside of what Lusamine use to be was moved over to Rainbow Rocket’s ending OR we got to see it. While Lillie’s talk with Lusamine was off screen, the girl told us what was going to happen so we can have an idea what was being talked about while we fight Necrozma.

We got to see Lusamine take that turn around for the better. It was no different from SM where Lusamine had a recovery off screen and Lillie decided to help her recover. (The later is worse for a LOT of reasons.)

While I admit that Lillie’s lack of focus made her part of USUM’s main story weaker, it gave a better conclusion to her family and other characters in comparison due to the following.

Lillie got to become a trainer on screen and continue to live with Kukui and Burnet, far away from Lusamine. Lillie still had around the same growth, though it isn’t the focus.

Gladion got to get away from Aether and live out life on his own with Silvally. He occasionally visits and there are signs that he isn’t in completely bad ties with his family.

Lusamine, though it is in dialogue, got an onscreen turn around. Thawed out her frozen pokemon after Rainbow Rocket/ was starting to do that, let her kids go and had closure with Mohn. A more believable redemption and closure compared to her SM ending where we see nothing but her as a villain.

Guzma had a bigger redemption arc as of RR.

The Captains have a last hurrah at Mina’s trial.

Hau had a more complete story arc where he takes things more seriously. I can close this story book and know how it ends for our characters.

Where exactly was things ruined outside of the lack of focus on Lillie? To me.... nothing.

2. USUM’s “Plot Holes” compared to SM.

In relation to the story, things play out the same way and the changes to Lusamine raised a lot of questions.

a. Why does Lillie still have the same look as in SM when Lusamine doesn’t have an obsession with Nihilego in USUM?

b. Why did Nihilego show up in USUM when Lusamine’s plans have nothing to do with it?

c. Why didn’t Lusamine use the legendary the Ultra Recon Squad have to go after Necrozma or why did the Recon Squad let Lusamine do what she did with Nebby.

d. Gladion’s reason for stealing Type:Null doesn’t make sense in USUM since it is just to get stronger and protect his family?

e. Why did they retcon Lusamine into “she didn’t do nothing wrong”/ Why is the game trying to depict Lusamine as a good person when she still abused her kids, has the frozen pokemon and tried to kill Nebby?

My answers are not popular... but here they go.

a. I did use to believe that Lusamine dressed Lillie up to resemble Nihilego, but then USUM changed that woman’s motives to where it had nothing to do with wanting that beast. But instead of raging about that “plot hole”, I believe that the resemblance is ultimately just a coincidence and nothing more in both sets of games. No one in the two sets of games has pointed out the resemblance. Just that Lusamine demanded Lillie and Gladion do what she says/ treated them like ornaments.

Lusamine was still such a control freak to her kids that she didn’t even let them pick their own look. They look what SHE wanted them to look/ do what she wanted them to do because “Mother Knows Best.” It’s pretty messed up, emotional abuse, it is why Lillie has little self confidence because she was treated as a child that should shut up and listen to the adult. It is how Gladion has all that frustration and need to do things his way.

Lillie changing her look and taking life into her own hands still has the same weight and impact in both sets of games. Lillie is stepping out of that smothering shadow and became her own person.

b. Nihilego showed up at Aether Paradise because the Aether Foundation was messing with Ultra wormholes. That is a given in both games, the reasons for the wormhole opening were different, BUT that is why the wormhole opened up. The Wormhole was just Nihilego’s, in SM that part was intended while in USUM it wasn’t.

c. Now for the legendary the URS have, that pokemon was their only ride in and out of home at Ultra Megaopolis, if they let their Solgaleo/ Lunala near Necrozma... that prism would eat them and they be screwed over. They let Lusamine do what she did with Nebby because it was a more acceptable lose/ result in a safer way to fight Necrozma in a more controllable way. The URS resulted to using theirs as a last resort when Nebby (You and Lillie’s only way into Ultra Space.) got eaten by Necrozma.

d. In USUM, Lusamine never had that obsession with the Ultra Beasts that escalated as it did in SM. Gladion took Type:Null and ran because 1. He had it with Lusamine’s abuse, didn’t like how she was treating Type:Null, stole it and ran to prove to that woman that she was wrong. With plans to come back once Null’s Power was realized. This can also split open in SM, where Gladion took Null and wanted to stop Lusamine, that woman was GONE and that boy’s only objective is to protect the family he had left and face his problems head on. So his change wasn’t that drastic and it opens him up more as a boy that has to manage quite a lot on his hands by himself.

e. As for the “Retcon!” There had to be a reason why Lusamine was nowhere near as extreme as she was in at SM. There was a reason why Lusamine’s goal had nothing to do with Nihilego in USUM. The post game of SM had this to say in the matter along with Guzma’s description of what Nihilego does to you.

From Wicke’s Note on Nihilego. “There have been sightings reported of this beast in Alola's past. Its most distinctive feature is its parasitic capability. When Nihilego latches on to a host, it does not manipulate its actions directly. Rather it awakens the host's own capabilities and boosts them to an extreme extent in order to protect itself. It injects the host with a sort of neurotoxin to achieve this effect. This neurotoxin of Nihilego's is incredibly stimulating and inspires feelings of extreme excitement and a lack of inhibition in its host. In other words, anything or anyone that a Nihilego latches on to will have its native skills forcibly activated to their fullest extent and will then act as it naturally desires to.”

This was the games attempt at trying to tell us that prior to SM’s events, Lusamine either got affected by the venom in some way or form... probably from the Wormhole experiments in opening the wormhole and trying to find Mohn or she kept focusing on the beasts and kept digging down the rabbit hole. Which was how she focused only on Nihilego and nothing else. It doesn’t excuse any of the crap she pulled, but it is the only real explanation we have and to be honest, she chose to dig that deep.

In USUM, Lusamine never got affected by that venom/ had something else to focus on and thus her motives for messing with the wormholes are different, she shows a care for her kids, the pokemon she has, etc.

Even without Nihilego, everything... from the abuse of her kids, the frozen pokemon, taking advantage of others and even allowing Null to happen were ALL from her and that is the reason we want to see this woman get knocked off her high horse. The things we should be mad at her for, because they all stemmed from her and it is why she is a villain in USUM.

For a bigger compare and contrast. http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167852568320/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-1-while-her

http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167853295755/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-2-in-sm

http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167853828520/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-3-in-sm

USUM just made the changes so we can have that desire to see her get kicked and feel bad for how it got to the mess it did in the first place, while giving us the hope that she can be salvaged and have a turn around/ repair her relationship with her kids.

She became a problem for most of the game because she was going to go Leeroy on everyone and as everyone feared, it would have made things worse.

It is called, humanizing your villain on screen. Lusamine is less scary as a villain in this game, but she came off as a character with some actual depth to the things she has done as well as the villain Game Freak intended to make. One that can turn around for the better and have a hope of reconnecting with her kids in the end.

Nothing was really retconned, but things were cleared up in a way to show us what she would have been like without going down the rabbit hole she did in SM.

3. Lusamine’s abuse of her kids got swept under the rug, her turn around came out of nowhere and she got off Scott free in USUM.

a. It didn’t, Lusamine admitted to her kids that they were right to take the pokemon and run. She started making amends to the Cosmog she hurt right when you came back and Lillie only came back to Aether to see Nebby recover, after that they parted ways. Lusamine also had an identity crisis in between the post game and RR, where she realize just how much of a fuck up she was and after RR she decided on how to fix herself.

Getting her ass kicked was already done by Necrozma and more of it was not needed now that she learned her lesson and started making amends. This woman letting her kids go was another hint that she knew what she did was wrong, she got that and she hopes the best for them. (Seen with the goodbye between her and Gladion.)

b. Lusamine’s whole Leeroy Jenkins thing backfired, Necrozma is causing problems on Alola... problems she tried to prevent and funny enough, problems she caused in SM. The Ultra Recon Squad were chewing her out for her crap and Lillie had her turn with her while you were fighting Necrozma. It may have been off screen, but it is common sense to think THAT is when people were able to get it through her head in just how reckless she has been and get her to self reflect on the things she has done.

c. Despite Lusamine getting sick in SM at the end... she and the whole of Aether got off scott free for their shit in there as well. It’s pokemon, it is very likely Lillie and Bill would fix her up and she would recover. (Sacred Ashes exist for a reason people... its that strong of medicine.)

Another thing in Pokemon. Archie, Maxie, Colress and grunts from various villain teams have gotten off scott free for their shit and in USUM, Lusamine not having legal repercussions isn’t that different from them. So this didn’t bother me so much and if anything, Aether being raided by Team RR works as karma since now they are being taken advantage off... by force.

4. USUM should have been a sequel instead of ruining SM’s story/ should have been DLC.

a. I don’t understand why they didn’t make a sequel, BW2 was known for this... but there were a couple plot holes that came from BW2. One, what happened to the previous protagonist and all the characters that got involved with that one just mention them? It made things a bit shallower since the new protagonist is a substitute for them.

In addition, BW2′s story... compared to BW... wasn’t that great. It was a basic, bad guys are using a legendary for their goals, cause trouble in random locations etc that we see in every other game and unlike BW it wasn’t the whole plot. While a Sequel to SM might give closure... it would have caused as many problems as what BW2 did.

So I kind of appreciate that USUM was a rewrite of the story, it helped polish things out and give a better sense of closure. While SM had a more emotional story, I would take USUM as a whole over it due to that one giving closure while still having some of those emotions.

Also, DLC wouldn’t have covered a whole new challenge with the trials, trainers, new pokemon ETC... this was done in Crystal, Emerald and Platinum. So why is USUM doing any problems when some games with DLC abuse the hell out of it and milk us for money?

I apologize for the long rant, but I wanted to get this out of my system.

SM are good games, but USUM came around, did things a lot better in most areas and became the definitive edition of this generation. I really wish more people see it as the improved version of SM instead of a hindrance to Gen 7, it and the story doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.

[tumblunni]

My ideas if Wales gets referenced in this new britain region which is probably unlikely but we can hope:

* Another sheep pokemon/a mareep regional variant/just mareep being common over here

* llamhigyn y dwr regional variant of gligar! As a kid i always thought gligar was meant to be one of those! Its a mytholigical flying frog with a scorpion tail, and really the only reason i dont think gligar is based on it is because its ground instead of water type. Like its really specifically similar right down to the wings being webs under the arms!

* Welsh Lady pokemon! (The traditional costume kids wear at eisteddfods)

* Maybe instead some sort of legendary based on eisteddfods in general? Theyre a poetry/art festival where the winner gets "the chairing of the bard" aka just imagine ur average school contest except if ur in wales u literally get knighted with a fake sword, crown and The School's Personal Throne. Its very weird in retrospect but it just seemed normal when i was a kid. I won it once and i was so anxious having to go thru the big celebration thing!! Like aaa just let me take my certificate and run! XD So yeah maybe a legendary based on the eisteddfod throne itself? Its called a throne but its more of a fancy wooden chair with patterns carved into it. So some sort of wooden dragon! And the legend would be that only the most talented bards can ride it and it bucks off anyone it thinks isnt purehearted enough. And maybe it could have a lovespoon for a tail cos thats also another wooden welsh thing. (Fancy carved spoons for good luck and/or romantic gifts)

* welsh cake pokemon!! Theyre just a sweetened scone with raisins in it, but i think it could be really cute as a design. Im thinking a rock type that just coincidentally looks like a cake with raisins, and it rolls around sideways like a big goofy crab~

* or if you wanna go for other local foods maybe mix the kelpie with bara bryth? (Seaweed bread paste stuff) So its just a loaf of bread that evolves into a badass horse and it would make no sense to anyone except brits, lol.

* perhaps a legandary based on the bard taliesin? It could be similar to nebby in starting off with a weak baby form but then becoming a badass! Cos his origin story was that he wasnt naturally all super cool so talented at singing that he could make literal magic happen just by sheer creativity. Instead he accidentally drank a magic potion of creativity that a witch made, and his abilities came at the cos of Pissing Her Off Forevermore. So maybe the baby form cpuld be a witch's cauldron? And have a tail made of chains to symbolize how he was enslaved as that witch's assistant and managed to escape with her most valuable prize. And then his ethereal fancy humanoid form could maybe be similar to meloetta's living music thing but more with calligraphy instead? But perhaps still have a similar chain tail to show his origins, except now the links in the chain are all fancy calligraphy Os, lol

* accompanying legendary possibilities: ceridwen (the evil witch from that story) or morfran (her innocent son) Morfran did nothing wrong but is often painted as more of the villain of the story than she is, simply because he was black. Yeah there's racism even back in our mythology, ugh...! I always felt so depressed for morfran cos the story is that ceridwen only made this super magical potion of being the best bard ever cos everyone said her son was the ugliest man on earth and EVEN SHE AGREED so she thought she had to give him some magic powers to stop people from hating him. And instead taliesin steals it and goes off to be the most powerful and respected and also handsome man ever, the end. And seriously the ONLY THING they mention about why this child is ugly is that he was "black like a crow" and also his name means evil crow. And thats just the end of his story forever, being some other dude's origin story and then forgotten into the void :( So like hey a pokemon criticizing that part of the myth wouls be great too! Like maybe have morfran be a counterpart legendary like latias to latios and he just looks equally beautiful with a reversed colourscheme of dark skin and white calligraphy patterns. And maybe the pokedex entry could be like "taliesinmon got its powers thru a magical gift from meloetta" and "morfranmon worked really hard for its powers all on its own and also is very socially anxious and relateable and tumblr user tumblunni's favourote character in all british mythologies despite also representing the worst part of our nation but hey its not this man's fault please rescue him ok" Srsly its not like its common to see taliesin referenced in fiction but morfran is even more forgotten and i think he needs at least one positive fictional depiction to make up for being screwed over in the original myth.

* Another myth with unintended bad messages is the one of Blodeuwedd or Dwedd (friends may recognize that i named my Gourgeist after her!) Her story is that she was an artificial human created out of plants in order to be some guy's sex toy basically. Yet she's the villain of the story cos she refused to marry him and ran off with another guy. Like seriously she was BORN to marry this dude! Even if he's the big mythological prince we're supposed to root for, with modern morality perspectives its kinda impossible to see it that way. At least unlike morfran she actually does do other stuff to establish her as a villain other than just existing, she comes back with her new boyfriend to kill the dude who made her and thus set the course of history awry cos he was A Really Inportant Destiny Prince And All. But seriously dude this is 100% your own fault for being creepy enough to not want to date real women and instead have some messed up preprogrammed woman who'd do whatever you want. "The only reason she wouldnt obey like he wanted must be because the seed of evil was in her heart" yeah no maybe it was the seed of free will u bastard. Anyway they have a funny sequence where prince douche mc douchebag is prophesized to never be killed by etc etc etc so dwedd and her new boyf have to trick him into THE MOST CONTRIVED CIRCUMSTANCE EVER to find a loophole. I think it was something like one foot on a goat and one on a bucket while at the border line between two countries at the crack of dawn? And as fitting a standard boring hero story of course eeeevil dwedd gets thwarted and prince pompous is ressurected and she's punished forever by being turned into an immortal owl for some reason.

* SO YEAH! Plant owl legendary! I just thought this myth in particular would be cool cos a female plant legendary with a disney villain aesthetic instead of the cliche pretty sexy thing everyone would probably expect. Make her bombastic and badass and terrifying!!! The pumpkaboo line is the closest thing so far cos bat pumpkin is KINDA close to daffodil owl. At least in terms of spooky aesthetic, lol

* oh and also her boyfriend was named gronw pebr and honestly he barely does anything in the whole story but he has a really cool name so i felt like mentioning it

* our national flower is the daffodil and our national vegetable is the leek so maybe a farfetch'd variation with a daffodil? Or maybe a saucepan or somethin. It could kinda work with farfetch'd origin, plus one of our most famous nursery rhymes is about saucepans. AR GATH WEDI SCRAPU GROOKEY BACH

* our national animal is actually the dragon not the sheep! So definately give us some good dragon types!! Our flag is a dragon so maybe our legendary could be that? And perhaps reference the whole "red dragon beats the white dragon symbolizing how much england sucks" legend by having it have two forms like minior or darmanitan and the weaker cowardly defensive one is england. Just sayin!!

* i dont think you can really make a pokemon personification of england conquering and literally owning us and us taking so long to even get considered a separate country again and be able to have our native language in schools except it was already so many generations passed of it being forbidden to be spoken that barely anyone still knew it and even nowadays when we have billingual road signs the rate of billingualism is incredibly low and im really jealous of my sister growing up in a school that taught it from a young age cos i was thrown into intermediate level welsh without having the basic lessons and thus nevee managed to learn it at all and felt both stupid and disconnected from my ancestors irretreiveably

* MAYBE A RUGBY POKEMON I DUNNO LOL