#hoenn meta

[albi-mander]

I like to think that, when Archie and Maxie were trainers like three decades ago, showmanship was a huge part of pokemon battling? Like, it was still important to fight skillfully and see who was the better trainer--that’s the answer anyone would give you if you asked why trainers battled--but a significant number of people also REALLY cared about the aesthetic side of battling too.

You were kind of expected to put on an over-the-top act of some kind, and legit people would get really into it. People were coming up with their own unique trainer personas, putting together their own flashy, homemade costumes, and practicing cool poses and one-liners. Half the fun of battling was acting over-the-top and looking awesome, and if you think the pokemon weren’t in on it too, you’d be wrong. Superheroes like the Pokemon Rangers were all the rage and practically every other kid was either a superhero or superhero-adjacent, which of course prompted a lot of the adults, edgy teenagers, and edgier preteens to come up with supervillain personas.

You had this whole pro-wrestling adjacent scene where trainers would just outright put on a staged performance and everyone would go along with it and pretend to think it was legit. Certain trainers could become fan favorites because they were really good at losing in the most dramatic way possible. Even rivalries were more about whether or not you could put on a good show with the other person, and you’d get “rivals” who would end up competing to see who could make the other look coolest.

Sure, you definitely had the more reserved or shy people who didn’t vibe with that, but the coolness factor was still a part of what it meant to battle respectfully? Even in the (smaller, more niche) competitive scene where you were expected to take battling very very seriously, you’d have pros who would take liberties to show off sometimes, or to set their opponent up so they could go out with style.

Archie and Maxie were 100000% into the superhero thing, they LOVED this type of battling. They absolutely made their own outfits and set up little skits with each other and flipped a coin to see who got to be evil this time. As far as they’re concerned, it’s barely even pokemon battling if you CAN’T dress in cool outfits and deliver dramatic monologues.

I think the showmanship thing started slowly dying off shortly after Archie and Maxie returned from their pokemon journeys and left the battling scene. There was a recession like 25 years back (yes, Hoenn had a recession, I’m not making that up, that’s just canon), and I think that cut into a lot of people’s free time, creative energy, and disposable income. It also caused a bit of a shift in the culture, prompting people to be somewhat more skeptical and jaded.

By the time Red and Blue show up on the proverbial cultural map, I think pokemon battling had become extremely hard for some kids to actually participate in? A lot of them just couldn’t get their foot in the door, and a lot of them would end up joining gangs because it was their only real way to participate. The invention of the pokedex ended up creating a ton of opportunities for kids who might’ve otherwise never had a way to get started on their journeys, and I think Red and Blue’s success as champions ended up sparking a bit of a renaissance, both as an inspiration to kids who might’ve otherwise never tried to go on their own journeys, and as proof of the pokedex program’s effectiveness.

Red and Blue happened to be excellent competitive pokemon battlers, so I think both the competition and battling parts of pokemon got...somewhat overemphasized with the revitalization of training culture. Pokemon training became more of a sport than anything else, and I think the reason pokemon contests hadn’t been invented sooner was because the culture around pokemon battling actually used to be more permissive towards people who wanted to show off their pokemon or do skits with them. Interestingly, even though contests do fill that niche, they don’t really get away from the “competition” aspect that strongly defines high-level pokemon battling.

I think Archie and Maxie made their leader personas with the battling culture of 30 years ago in mind? They kinda missed the boat on becoming the fun, wacky supervillain adults they battled against as kids, and I can see them making Teams Aqua and Magma so they could help the kids they saw fall through the cracks, giving them an opportunity to connect with pokemon, feel like they’re part of a community, and maybe change the world for the better in the process?

#i swear i think about pokemon a normal amount #aqua leader archie #magma leader maxie #pokemon #team aqua #team magma #hoenn #this is not a meta analysis #i made it up for my own purposes (hardenshipping backstory) #it's canon COMPATIBLE #there's nothing in the games that directly contradicts it #but pokemon is remarkably bad at this sort of contextualizing #so have my pokemon cultural evolution rant #in case you were curious the timeline for the economic recession was provided by the Mauville lore #and i made this with the idea that Archie and Maxie were in their early 40s

[torchickentacos]

Discuss. Pokeani traveling companion nightmare blunt rotation options. Long post under cut, I put way too much thought into this.

Detailed thoughts under cut.

Faba. Look, I never watched all of SM so I can't speak for his anime counterpart, but going off of gameverse Faba, there is zero way that adding him to ANYTHING will improve it. I feel like I don't need to explain this one.

Nicholai. He's a furry (not a negative) who dresses as pokemon while trying to catch them (that's the negative). He also refuses to call shorts anything but knickerbockers. Traveling with him means you'll be hearing about knickerbockers and scaring off pokemon with giant zigzagoon costumes before you can even catch pokemon.

Baron Alberto. You get to decide if he's a lickilicky or not. I feel like I don't need to explain this one much, either. Just watch the darkrai movie.

Brandon. Okay, look. On one hand, you can travel with him and just fly places in the Battle Pyramid (which flies, by the way). On the other hand, he might yell at you ("NOOOOOOO") and you might have to make occasional pit stops to haunted ruins where kids get posessed by the king of pokelantis. You also might get crushed by a Regirock in his presence. But hey, you'll have an uber.

Butler. Diane will not be there to travel with you guys, which I think turns Butler from a powerful companion to a cringefail magician without his wife to keep him in check. Diane needs a raise. You might get absorbed by Meta Groudon if you choose to travel with him. However, if you have beef with Team Magma, he'll be ready to prove himself to them. This could be either a pro or a con depending on how he goes about this. Historically it has been a... decently large con.

Brianna. Look. I could make her worse. I could fix her. I could make her an actual character, but it's honestly funnier to just keep her the exact same. She's probably a largely normal, nice girl outside of her Brianna-ness, but if you choose to travel with her then Drew will be there too so you have to watch her Brianna all over the place. Also, this means traveling with Drew, which could go very many different ways. He himself barely escaped this list, if only due to personal bias. This one's a real coin flip. On one hand, she (probably) won't get you killed like Butler or Brandon might. On the other hand, Brianna. (/affectionate. I love Brianna. Something's wrong with her <3.) Safer bet but also has potential to be an incredibly annoying, cringeworthy bet that gets you stuck watching and subsequently dealing with tween relationship drama.

Charon. Another self-explanatory one I think.

Seymour (clefairy guy). Look, this guy's just annoying to me. I don't have any concrete reasons to have him here, other than the fact that he annoys me personally.

Anime Bill. He just creeps me out. That's all.

Kenny. So, look. I won't be too harsh on Kenny here, most of my Kenny hate is a joke (I don't actually hate him but hating on him is something of a meme with my friends), but I'm also not sure he'd be my first choice of a travelling companion. He's kind of whiny and likes to get a rise out of people. He's a petty and largely joking addition but also, he could be pretty annoying. I could fix him though.

Morrison. Loud. Likes sandwiches. Largely forgotten by the fandom because nobody watches Hoenn/AG for anything but the coordinators or battle frontier brains. He's mostly on this list for being loud.

Tommy. Yeah.

Hunter J. Also... yeah. Have fun getting arrested for associating with a criminal. I'm sure some of y'all would risk it all for her, though 👏

Harley. Even if you're on his good side, whatever that side may be, you're still going to have to be around his Harley-ness, and there's no guarantee that you won't be called upon to help him ruin the life of a ten year old. He gets a gif instead of a plain image. 80/20 chance you end up in his burn book (a canonical thing that he owns).

Roderick. Again, nothing WRONG with him per se, but he's an old guy who lived on an island with wynaut for 40something years, and his only confirmed pokemon is a bellsprout iirc. Roderick also just kind of watched a couple ten year olds presumably die and he seemed disproportionately chill about it, so there's no guarantee he'll be much help in an emergency. If not for May, Drew would have drowned because Roderick was not much help. Go watch Who What When Where Wynaut. Also, he's Paul's grandfather. Not canonically, but... trust me. He does have a boat, though. So that's cool.

Sid. Actually, there's nothing wrong with Sid other than not respecting personal space much and not being able to tell when someone's not interested. Go watch Destiny Deoxys, by the way. Fun movie THAT I COULD FIX DEAR GOD LET ME FIX IT. If you don't know my issues here then send me an anon and I swear to god I'll get into it, I always have this rant locked and loaded. EDIT: Sid is also now on this list because his google images was a weird adventure I don't wish to go on again. I got this image and no others. RIP anyone who tries to look up images for any pokemon anime character ever.

Zero. Weird emo with professor/father figure issues (???) or just issues in general, honestly. Really wants Giratina's power. Invented Siri. Wears a onesie. Failed star wars villain.

Dr. Yung. Did anyone even watch the mirage island special? I did. I still don't know what happened in it. Those 30 minutes of my life are a nonexistent blur. Something about Mew and Mewtwo, idfk. Traveling with him will get you into some shit, but it'll be incredibly forgettable shit that the fandom largely is unaware of. He's also evil, by the way, but kind of looks like a sad wet cat when he's not in evil mode.

Kevin. He's just kind of boring. His sister's way cooler. He's just Kevin. When I looked him up for images, the fourth image was a really buff, bipedal bidoof, which tells you about Kevin, I think.

Greta. Fire. Explosions. G r e t a .

#ok to rb. look at my posts‚ boy. #taylor's tag #taylor talks #pokeani #pokemon #taylor's trashcan #this one's going in like half my tags khfsdkjhfgdkj #i am NOT tagging all of these characters. sorry sdhdfsdkjfhskjghk

[leavingautumn13]

Hi, I'm new to your blog and is there any chance you could post that pokemon emerald fic you mentioned? Are your comics anywhere specific or just randomly on this blog? And could you please make a list of your fave (completed) pokemon fanfics? I'm having a hard time finding a lot of good pokemon fics but I'm hoping you might know some? And since you like Hoenn you might like Borne of Caution by VibeLordess (reposted to ao3 from ff with permission). It's not completed but there is a LOT to read and its very explorative with the meta. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul by Level99Eevee is really good too.

hey, welcome! i will be posting that pokemon emerald fic... as soon as i have completed chapters to post! i'm hoping to have chapter 1 up by the end of the year but my beta reader's on vacation right now so editing turnaround has been a little slow. my ao3 is here and my fanfic blog is @new-eyes-extra-colors; i'll be posting completed chapters to both places.

i sometimes post fic snippets as i work over on that blog; here's the tag for the emerald fic. i also don't mind talking about the plot and characters and stuff, so if you're interested in learning more to see if it's going to be your kind of thing, feel free to direct any asks to that blog (or here, tbh i don't mind either way)!

as far as my comics go, if you mean comics related to my fic, i do not have a particular tag for them. searching by character is probably your best bet; here's protagonist may's tag in case you want to go through that. as far as unrelated comics i do have a comic tag here, and if you like pmd i run a pmd webcomic/askblog over on @askteamsupernova.

as far as fic recs go, i don't have too many recs for completed works because i don't read that much fic--but here's a link to my favorite author's page (there is a lot of completed work there) and here's a link to my favorite piece xe's written. it's actually my favorite fanfic of all time. other pokemon fic authors i enjoy are my friends DarkObscurities and slamdunkrai.

finally, thank you for the fic recs! i like explorative stuff so i will have to check that out. thank you very much for reaching out! <3

#thanks for the ask! #most of this stuff is also in my pinned post on this blog btw #so you don't have to go hunting for this post again if you need to navigate my blog #autumn.ask

[the-dead-sea-trilogy]

4, 5,and 6 for TDS trilogy? Any of them obvs :]

4. What detail in [insert fic] are you really proud of?

Honestly, as with most of TDS, all the little subtle things that are going on and the parallels with time, underlying motivations of characters (the people AND the pokemon involved). Whenever there are repeated words or phrases. For example in the last update, in Interlude, II - Lifeline when flash-forward Maxie calls Colress and says "Colress, I'm trying to keep this professional, I have a favor to ask you," and then in the next chapter, Icarus Maxie says "Colress, I'm--um. Trying--I have a favor to ask you." I do that a lot and I never get tired of it. Time is a flat circle etc.

Because I have so much of the trilogy plotted out and written already, I have a lot of opportunity to play like that both within the books themselves and between books in the series. For example there have been phrasing and imagery callbacks to Devil several times in Icarus already, and I added inklings of Icarus in Devil when I was editing it before I posted it. (I had started writing Icarus while I was finishing Devil - Devil was posted all at once after a few rounds of edits). There are hints of Mother Earth in Icarus. Etc etc etc. You get it.

Ophelia has kind of been on its own for a while, but it definitely influenced the way I write Colress and I'm considering how it fits in more in his characterization. I also may start releasing Ophelia at some point. It's like 80% complete and 120k words in.

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!

"WAIT IS YOUR USERNAME SUPPOSED TO BE META OR SOMETHING" yes. yes it is >:)

Without revealing too much, while Maxie is the main protagonist, I consider the series to be Archie's story.

6. What’s one fact about the universe of [insert fic] that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself?

It's kind of implied in the worldbuilding but will probably never be explicitly stated, but my version of the Pokemon universe is like, superimposed over the real world. It's why I have them say things like "oh my god/gods" and "christ" etc instead of the traditional fandom "oh arceus" (which is a trope that I personally find distracting, but no shame to anyone who uses it. i've definitely seen some creative Pokemon Swears. just my preference). And why they mention real places like Hawaii as well as Alola etc. Both worlds exist at once.

The geography is weird and is not 100% hammered down in my head, nor do I think it needs to be, but as such, Hoenn is somewhere off the coast of Florida. Archie is a pirate of the Caribbean. Don't ask me why there's a volcano there then, I don't know. Unova is in New York (Castelia City either usurped NYC or is a LARGER adjacent city), Alola is near Hawaii, etc etc etc. Don't ask me where Kanto and Johto are, I don't know. The logic of my universe would set them in Japan which cANNOT be right unless it all functions like Phoenix Wright Japanifornia which at this rate, you know, it could. I know the logic of this would then also set Hoenn in Japan. But look. Archie and Maxie are Pokemon world's "Florida man" okay. I don't make the rules. They just are.

#the dead sea trilogy #asks #writing asks #worldbuilding #hardenshipping

[pokemongoloresociety]

This Reeks Of...

I read the Hoenn quest leaks, and had some thoughts! Feel free to share you own with me by tagging this tumblr or quoting. Spoilers ahead!

I'm going to try my best to keep my perspectives and speculations surface-level. Yes, there is a lot here; but having a year between story updates gives you too much time to think.

GO Rocket Leaders In General:

I genuinely feel sorry for them. I've always felt sorry for them, and I've always thought the three of them were in a boiling frog situation given the brand of Giovanni they're working under. These lines cement those feelings. If anything, they're worse off than I thought and are extremely vulnerable but talented people brimming with potential under the right form of guidance.

All of them are riding on a facade of confidence in various flavors. It's an interesting take on its own. They're acting like how they think they should act while how they genuinely feel still comes through. This might be one of those 'fake it til you make it' tales, which would be cool, if not a little meta.

The theme of the three of them running away from themselves becomes more obvious. We saw the GO Leaders overcome their weaknesses; we're witnessing little fragments of the GO Rocket leaders being consumed by them.

Cliff cites Arlo and gives him proper credit for where his knowledge comes from. Sierra doesn't care much, but she does take credit for telling you the info. Arlo uses it as a moment to dunk on Candela AND Willow. (I might have to make an entire post just unpacking Arlo's details alone.)

Arlo and Cliff start out aggressive, with Cliff becoming more personable and Arlo going a bit more resistant. Not entirely tsundere, as he's still very resistant and insistent on keeping a status quo. Despite being appointed leaders (or at least execs/admins), you see parts that would turn potential followers away.

I'm appreciating the level of psychology and nuance they're introducing in such a simple format, and exploring the aspects of what being a leader can take. Self-care, self-forgiveness, and facing your shortcomings are pillars. If I had to say: Cliff lacks self-care (all his care is on Giovanni); Sierra lacks self-forgiveness, and Arlo lacks the courage to face his fears.

I'm also appreciating the fact that all six of them are embodiments of certain core traits, mirroring the positive and negative sides of them. The GO Rocket leaders show a new potential: that their negative sides aren't something they need to overcome, but to utilize in a better light. Pokemon has always shown us that the world is more complicated than good vs bad; that "good" fairy types can be some of the most dangerous; and that scarier types like dark (called "evil" in Japan) and ghost can be misunderstood saviors.

Based on these details, I will write another post later on exploring how each Rocket Leader could potentially contribute to the GO Leaders, and vice-versa.

Cliff:

Cliff's backstory as a rancher fills my prior suspicions about him relying on calculation. Running farms and ranches takes a lot of work and cannot be done alone; not only do you have books to balance and resources to juggle, but you have to develop extra senses for your animals (or, in this case, Pokemon) and the seasons. I wonder what made him lose it?

Combined with the prior themes of abandonment, I'd suspect that some parts of Cliff's demeanor is what pushed people away. You can't run a ranch by yourself, and we see it decaying in his intro video. You can see how he'd be a great and encouraging leader, and he presents his wisdom in a way that's easy to follow. But, there are cracks in his line of thought and personality.

What stood out to me was how he thought Willow was your leader, and was surprised to hear otherwise. Even with all the time that's passed, Cliff has holed himself into a line of thought. Even Arlo presents himself as being observant enough to refer to Willow properly.

I'm now under the impression that Cliff may not be as well-liked as I thought in GOR. I've known people like Cliff. Very loyal, but this loyalty is steeped in sadness, fear, and insecurity. He's happy to be around the grunts and play with them, like when they invaded the 2020 festival and he was eager to get back to hanging out with them after beating you up. But, you also see in his intro where he's losing his absolute shit at the grunts sitting around; presumably without even asking what they were doing (for all we know, they could have been on a break or avoiding overexerting themselves). While most of the grunts love Giovanni, Cliff has made Giovanni into his religion.

Sierra:

Sierra gave me whiplash. When you beat her normally, she assures you that it's not going to happen again. In this text, she's more obviously self-deprecating. I would not be surprised if she blamed herself for all of her loss and situations; like her own Absol (And misappropriated to misery, just like an Absol).

For context to #1, I'm still not sure if she was just an orphan; or if she was an orphan who ALSO lost her own husband and child when she got the chance to start her own family, which would add another layer to her reclusive nature and lone lioness motif. The intro shows two sets of images and it's easy to interpret it as two different bad outcomes. Her being in charge of the Rocket eggs says a lot about her hidden nature as it is. She definitely wants a family or a place to belong to, but she keeps telling herself otherwise.

She acknowledges loss as a lesson, but she also still treats it like something that could warrant punishment. I get the impression that her fear of failure isn't an ego thing, but acknowledging the price of her security. If she fucks up too much, she may lose the last sanctuary that she's known under Giovanni. It needed to be noted that this Giovanni comes off as less forgiving and on par with the Rainbow Rocket version than the one defeated by Red.

This brings me back to her same-differences with Spark. Both are willing to take their chances, but Spark is ready to gamble. His lapel pins are a pair of die that, together, make "88", a good luck symbol. If one could assume that both she and Spark had the exact same experiences up to a point, Spark took his losses as lessons, and learned to trust his instincts in order to take those gambles. It's as if he says: "I've been through worse, I can take it because the prize at the end might be worth it!" Sierra took them as punishments, and she's afraid of losing her safety net.

I think it hits me harder because she's witty. It's rare you see a female character who's both hot AND funny, and is clearly in on the joke if she isn't the one who's leading it. It makes me want to see her have a happy ending. Definitely Bayonetta and Fujiko Mine energy.

Arlo (Holy shit, this guy is baggage incarnate despite having the least revealed backstory how is that even possib):

Starts out aggressive like Cliff. He does become more tsundere, but it needs to be noted that his level of resistance towards receiving any affability is beyond the moe trope. I found it unsettling and well-written.

He's more focused on resisting his feelings, unless they involve his play for power.

He has absolutely no love for Giovanni. I can't recall a Pokemon character like this who's worked for Rocket. I've seen admins show greed and cynicism to some things, but they've largely been respectful to Giovanni (or at least pretended to be). Arlo does nothing of the such, and even corrects himself to imply that the glory will be his, and not Team Rocket's.

I'll admit; it is interesting to see Rocket being used as a tool from within. If Arlo had his shit together, he could be one of the few named Poke G-Men (Could he still be?) Candela said Arlo didn't even like Team Rocket, and he still doesn't, even after all of this. I had a headcanon that Arlo is a double agent. And he's... still kind of is. At least for himself.

He's reminding me more and more of Lear from Pokemon Masters before his character evolution. I'm pretty sure Lear was inspired by Arlo, likely a mashup of both Candela and Arlo. Lear and Arlo are both nobles, and it's safe to assume, considering the things Arlo has said, that they were expected to play into a harsh game of life, and that any kind of softness/sweetness was seen as weakness. Both of them go pants-on-head crazy when they get a blow to their ego and do something big. Though, I'd say Pasio is a somewhat more positive thing (the ethics of making an artificial island aside) than, uh, what's involved in making Shadow Pokemon and being a dimensional/space terrorist.

Arlo cannot proverbially get off of Candela. The fact that he's actually an engaging orator and capable of having some clarity on a situation makes his obsession with her more jarring. Even though it's just some quest text, I could tell he could be a good teacher. He has the underpinnings of some of the most well-loved rivals in the franchise. He's also very much a mad scientist.

Even with Arlo's insanity, it's hard NOT to feel bad for him. His shit goes way deeper than just BAWW CANDELA MEEN uWu; We need to remember that he's still an adult carrying on like this with a lot of power, battle skill, and authority (rather the facade of it) in his hands. There's a lot to unpack here. I'll dig more into that in the future.

Because of this, Candela is Arlo's strawman. Flowing with the theme of the GOR leaders running away from themselves, it's easier for him to blame her than it is for him to look deeper within and fix himself or question his presumed upbringing or personal beliefs. If I had to guess, this is likely a factor as to why Candela was crying when she gave Willow her part of the Mysterious Scraps to Willow one week later. There is no sane reason to go as far as Arlo did to get revenge against one person for merely 'beating' him. It's bad enough that he was, presumably, gunning to become Valor leader. But I think it goes beyond that. People who act like Arlo have a hard-set narrative in their heads, and lose it when people don't play to their fantasy. This actually reminds me of some of Giovanni and how he seems to surround himself with the competent, but insecure, so that he can control his little world. He's just blunt about it.

With the new dialogue, the fact that his uniform resembles a fireman's outfit and his intro quote: "Remember, fire is a fickle thing. When controlled, it provides warmth, but in the wrong hands, it burns." enforces that Arlo is afraid of enduring pain in order to become stronger, as well as unable to comprehend that some elements must be embraced as they are, and not tamed. It also (and likely mostly) shows that Arlo goes into unknown situations with the expectation that trust won't be granted, so he has to shield himself. This makes more sense when we understand that many Pokemon, especially fire types, will work hard to avoid hurting the humans they come to love in trust. He's trying to compete against someone who's been shown to hug the soul-eating Litwick. I'm beginning to assume Arlo didn't become a leader because he wasn't ready to endure and only wanted to aggressively dominate. The catch is that Candela's or (presumably) Moltres' fires weren't his fear, but his own inner flame that's dying to thrive.

Pretty crazy for Giovanni to run an entire campaign presumably spearheaded by the grudge of your newest member and admin who is only loyal to his own reflection and his personal vendetta; isn't it? Gio really is a devil-figure. He knows what he's doing and he doesn't care. I am under the impression that Gio's plan is to take everything once Arlo has failed.

So, what DOES this reek of?

A redemption plot! No idea if I'm right. I guess we'll see! But, I've heard this story too many times from too many different angles not to see the potential makings of one. I expect at least one of them to pull a 180, if not all three.

What would it take for these three to leave Rocket?

Cliff and Sierra would have to get the boot from Giovanni to leave Team GO Rocket. This would be a devastating blow to both of them, as they've found refuge within Team Rocket.

I imagine Cliff would be the only one who really begs to come back, while Sierra would blame herself, try to move on, and likely become more isolated.

Of the three, Arlo might be the one in the most danger and may not simply be sacked; he may even use the chance to usurp Giovanni. He's sly and manipulative; so is Giovanni. I came to suspect that the target of Arlo's manipulations might be Giovanni, and it looks as if that's the possibility. I do think Giovanni may be one step ahead of Arlo; well-aware that they're both using one another, and milking Arlo of his knowledge and insight until it becomes too inconvenient to play into his shenanigans.

I'll add that it seems as if I may have bias towards Arlo and Candela, but they've had the most loaded story in GO that shows a lot and still has its own mysteries behind it. Arlo also feels more like the game's antagonist than Giovanni does, at times.

I'll follow up in the future with my thoughts regarding how each pair of foils balance off of one another.

#pokemon go #spoilers #giovanni pokemon #leader arlo #leader cliff #leader sierra #team go rocket #hoenn tour

[umbramatic]

The Umbra Lore Post

OK I did this for Vaespar, one of my other sonas, so I'm going to do a lore thread for what is arguably my main sona, Umbra.

This will have more Meta Context than the Vaespar thread did (there is meta context to Vaespar and I will get to it eventually but it is best saved for... elsewhere) so I'm gonna be starting with said meta context. 

To start off... the entity now known as Umbra was once two separate characters. 

For the first... I have a story setting I call Multiverse Warriors. It started when I was 12 as a really stupid idea for a fanfic series that essentially crossed Pokemon over with everything else I'm into but slowly evolved into an original fiction superhero-y science fantasy thing. 

When it started, I decided to give the Multiverse Warriors, the titular main characters, a boss, simply referred to as The Boss. The Boss was basically me but cooler and sexier, as one does, and gave the Multiverse Warriors their missions. The Boss remained a constant fixture of my mental theater adventures of the Multiverse Warriors. 

Cut to the tail end of me being 19. I joined a certain RP called We Are All Pokemon Trainers, or WAAPT for short. I whipped up a character that was by all means unusual (for the time) - an immortal (this was pre-AZ) priest of Giratina who holed himself up on an island for 600 years until finally venturing back into the outside world. As my representative in this RP he was dubbed Umbramatic, or Umbra for short, and he went on many, many adventures with a gaggle of other characters, both my other characters I made for the RP and the characters of my fellow RPers. 

(Art by Pikaninja on Deviantart)

These two characters existed alongside each other as entirely different yet vaguely conceptually related entities for years. But then at one point I thought "heh, wouldn't it be funny if The Boss looked like Umbra as sort of a continuity joke" and that was a thing for a while. 

But then it got to "hey what if they were the same character just at different points in time" (with the plan being to broad strokes the Pokemon bits in a copyright-friendly way in any "official" Multiverse Warriors material) and that's where things got WEIRD. That decision led to Umbra becoming my sona, an extension and representation of myself - and around the time of that decision was when my idea of who I was was starting to change wildly. 

So now let's get into the (current, post-WAAPT stuff is subject to change) in-universe timeline shall we? It starts with the WAAPT stuff. 

Umbra was born Joseph Nox on April 10, 1353 (WAAPT uses a Pokemonified pseudo-Gregorian calendar) on Shadedrake Island, an island not far from Hoenn that was settled by Sinnoh natives fleeing calamity long ago. Unbeknownst to him, he had been experimented on before birth, by Giratina cultists that spun off  from an ancient civilization of Alakazam and Metagross, and stole a special formula from Nicolas Flamel, who in this continuity happens to be an Infernape. This formula gave Umbra immortality (again this was pre-AZ) that prevented him from dying of old age, disease, and such, as well as the ability to use Obscura (the existing WAAPT Dark/Ghost counterpart to Aura and psychic powers). He did not realize this at first and had a normal childhood with his sister Marie. He grew up to be a high priest of the Giratina religion, gaining the title "Umbramatic," and got some Ghost-type partner Pokemon. Things were going great.

Then a plague struck and every human on the island died except for Umbra. 

Umbra still had his Ghost type companions (one of which was the Sableye ghost of his dead sister, who wouldn't be the last literal ghost from his past to haunt him) but after a few years he did what seemed like the wise thing and took said ghost companions and left. He ended up in a land familiar to those who have played the best Pokemon spinoff - Ransei. 

In Ransei he worked his way up the ranks of the nation Spectra. While he was doing so, he met a lovely lady named Duolis, who he eventually married.

(Art by Pikaninja on Deviantart)

Eventually he succeeded Nō as the leader of Spectra and became known as The Ghost Lord, after which Giratina loaned him part of their power. 

This is where things turned sour. 

Umbra quickly grew mad with power. He started to rule Spectra with an iron fist. Soon all knew and feared the name of the Ghost Lord.

(Art by Pikaninja on Deviantart) He got into various shenanigans with the other residents of the new generation of Ransei (read: my fellow RPers in that particular side arc) before someone finally put his reign to an end. That someone was... his girlfriend from the future, transformed into a white Arcanine for a ridiculous Okami homage I am still weirdly proud of all these years later. 

We'll get back to her later, obviously. 

(Art by Katie Tiedrich)

But even though she gave him an ass beating, despite him turning into a powerful Giratina-Black Kyurem hybrid ghost dragon named Penumbra, she did not in fact kill him, because she did not want to even with the evil overlord phase and also this is a stable time loop. So Umbra, oblivious to the true nature of his assailant, was wracked with guilt over his deeds. He dropped everything, said goodbye to his wife (more on her later), then went right back to Shadedrake Island where he and his Pokemon remained holed up for the next six hundred years. 

(Art by Augdgreen on Deviantart)

Eventually, however, (partially due to Giratina pulling a Mufasa) he and his mons mustered up the courage to leave. And that's where things really got started. 

He, eventually, found his way to Fortree City. There he met a particular group of Pokemon trainers: the J-Team. They are a group of champion-level vigilante Trainers who go about adventuring together. They promptly did the sensible thing and adopted Umbra and his Pokemon as their own. 

From there Umbra had a Wailordload of adventures with the J-Team including but not limited to (take notes kids some of these are important later): 

-Gaining a whole bunch of Pokemon friends

-Discovering  another immortal named Lina, who was created as his backup by the Giratina cult and was his unseen rival in the Ransei days

(Art by Pikaninja on Deviantart)

-Finding the truth about his Sableye sister

-Finding out the truth about his origins

-Finding a girlfriend named Amaterasu or Ammy for short who can change between human and Volcarona at will

-Getting into a deconstruction of love triangles with Ammy and Lina 

-Being the Grumpy of a Seven who is also a Hydregion with false memories and also The Beast in a Kingdom Hearts/Epic Mickey-esqe plot

-Having more of his past confront him vis a Waka-esqe Latios who knew him back then -Dealing with Ammy having a short-lived affair (they make up)

-Dealing with Ammy going back in time and becoming his arch-nemesis as a white Arcanine, thus finding the truth about his past and turning their relationship to enemies to lovers retroactively (they make up)

-Finding out one of his colleagues, Pent, is his and Duolis' descendant

-Finding out one of his friends is the human avatar of the Xerneas-created artifact of power he sought in his Ghost Lord days

-Switching bodies with that friend

-Finding his ex-wife is now a Doublade with her own story and issues

-Coming out as having a crush on ANOTHER archnemesis

-Becoming Luke Skywalker

-Creating a universe with the help of his friends in a ridiculous Homestuck homage (that would become the Yangverse, hence Yangverse!Arceus' human form looking like him)

-Being sent to a dimension where he never stopped being the Ghost Lord, and where he and Lina had a son

-Him and his friends having to be broken out of a different dimension by said son

-Making up with that one archnemesis crush from earlier

-Him and Ammy finally getting married and riding off with their friends into the sunset

That last bit was mostly the end of Umbra's story in WAAPT, as I moved on to focus on other, newer characters. 

...But as for his story overall it was only the beginning. Now we enter the post-WAAPT-canon bit which is a transition to... something else. 

See, long after the events of WAAPT, bad things start happening for Umbra as the immortality monkey's paw starts curling. Most of his human friends and Pokemon companions alike start dying off one by one of old age or other factors. Even some of his Ghost pokemon passed on for real, their purpose in the mortal realm done. 

And then it happened. 

After her long Volcarona-demigoddess-based lifespan kept her going for well over a millennium, Ammy finally died of old age.

Umbra, naturally, was devastated. However he was devastated enough to take drastic measures. 

See, he had close connections with a WAAPT organization called PEFE, which had a super secret advanced island base. He used their technology to isolate himself to an alternate timeline of the WAAPTverse that had all human and Pokemon life raptured in an unknown incident, and isolated himself in the remains of PEFE there, cutting himself from almost everyone else. The only surviving companion that came with him was Xion the Porygon-Z, and she kind of forced herself along. 

Umbra stayed alone with Xion in this facility for a long, long time. Sure, he kept himself busy, like with repairing the facility, but he never actually left. Xion meanwhile had much of her programming altered to the point she wasn't a Porygon-Z or even a Pokemon anymore, and came to be known as X. 

Eventually, however, X convinced Umbra to go out just a little. So while he had no intention of ever going back to his home timeline due to all the trauma he did use the multiverse-traveling tech that got him here in the first place to start visiting entirely different timelines. 

The timelines and his little vacations to them were varied. Many of them were very different worlds than the Pokemon-based one he had left behind (leading him to discover to his initial shock and horror what "animals" were), though he visited plenty of other Pokemon worlds too. Eventually during these visits, he started opening up again. He started, you know, actually making friends. Some of them even became new lovers, though none filled the hole Ammy left behind.

It was then he met The Shimmerweaver.

The Shimmerweaver is an archfey entity of immense magical power. Umbra met and befriended them in his travels, and they had a fling or two. But while The Shimmerweaver is not malevolent they are mischievous. Prone to fucking around with their powers to see what happens. 

So one day, they gave Umbra a "gift," that gift being irradiating him with an obscene amount of fey magic. 

After this Umbra found he was no longer a human, but an elf. And not just any old Tolkien-style elf but an elf that was one of the olden fair folk, with all the urges, strengths, and weaknesses. His magical powers expanded widely beyond just his original latent ability to use Obscura, including the ability to shapeshift into other beings via stealing small snippets of their metaphysical identities, but he became vulnerable to silver and prone to dark urges to do awful things to mortals. Also pointy ears and longer hair of course. He could better control his Penumbra dragon form - including making it more anthropomorphic as well -but would also lapse into an eldritch elf form not unlike the Shimmerweaver under pressure.

(Art by Shorah_Art)

But the most pronounced effect this had on Umbra... was the ability for him/her to trans his/her gender.

Umbra was horrified at first. Asked The Shimmerweaver to change him/her back, only to get a "this will be good for you I swear". And. Indeed he/she started getting used to it. In particular started using his/her shapechanging and genderchanging abilities to present and feel euphoria in ways he/she had never before. On one hand it caused him/her to be more ambitious in his/her multiversal adventures. On the other he/she felt the need to keep his/her new nature a secret from most, using his/her powers to make it look like nothing had changed. 

And ultimately, even with his/her many multiversal excursions and newfound powers to toy with, aside from the presence of X he/she led a very lonely life at home. 

(Art by lilsmolfoxdraws on Twitter)

Then the second shakeup happened. 

One morning over his/her morning coffee Umbra found a gaggle of strange children - named Otto, Giselle, Minalli, and Darrin - in one of his lair's modules.

Art by @drrandombear

Said children were child experiments with multiple superpowers, who had escaped their lab via a multiverse-traveling machine. This, however, caused them to crash-land in Umbra's facility. Initially not trusting each other, Umbra nevertheless provided food and shelter for the children. Over time they learned to, in fact, trust each other, aside from Umbra withholding his/her fey, gender-changing, and draconic secrets out of Anxiety, and after a point Umbra had basically adopted the children. Another child named Trina, from yet another universe, eventually joined them as well after one of their adventures, Umbra adopting her as well. 

It was Trina's story - being rescued from a race of crystalline demons that gave her strange powers - that gave Umbra an idea. 

See, he/she had seen a lot of things across the multiverse. A lot of amazing things, but also a lot of terrible things. Many, many people who for whatever reason needed help. 

So he trained the children in rescue, and combat, and deflecting and circumventing disaster. Those children eventually started putting their training into action across the multiverse, saving lives. They referred to Umbra as The Boss. And he/she gave them a name too: The Multiverse Warriors. 

They went on many adventures with Umbra, or The Boss, at their command. But will Umbra ever open up to them about his/her secrets? We'll find out eventually. 

And here is where we loop back to the meta stuff. Because through all this bullshit, in-universe and out, Umbra has become an extension of my identity. Sure, Umbra's not *literally* me. Sure, Umbra-as-a-character vs. Umbrra-as-a-representation-of-me is kind of fuzzy, and what's canon in that regard is a little messy. But Umbra, *spiritually*, is me... or at least one form of me, along with my other sonas. He/she got me out of my shell with my writing and character development. He/she helped me explore my gender identity. Umbra is very special to who I am as a person...  and while I've tried to document as much as his/her story as possible here, it's sure to gain new wrinkles from here on out.

#original character #sona #original fiction #pokemon #rp #lore dump

[thundercloudshipping]

💌, 👀, and ☕️ for the insert ask game?

Hi iris!

💌: How would your dynamic be portrayed? What might people focus on most? Any misconceptions?

I think the thing people would focus on most would either be ashs obliviousness or amys ability to fall in love easily lol. I think the one misconception is that amy started travelling with ash just cause of his noctowl, which is somewhat true but not really.

👀: How does your ship with your f/o influence both of your characterisations and the world? Would there be any interesting metas written about your dynamic?

Well im not exactly sure. I guess theres a influence to ashs characterisation in that hes actually shown being romantically interested in someone heh. As for the world im not sure.

☕️: What are the most common plots of shipping fics between you and your f/o?

I reckon most of them would be set during the hoenn arc of the anime. Thats where their relationship really develops. Maybe a lot of plots center around something happening that ends up with the two alone, and fluff ensues :]

Thanks for asking iris!

#cloudy answers #iris-kinnie #selfship ask game #thundercloudshipping #selfship #selfshipping #proselfship #self ship community #selfship community #selfshipping community #self shipping

[fattybattysblog]

All of my OCs

I just wanna share my OCs today :) You can find them and their artwork on my refsheet (NSFW warning there) but here's the basics and some images.

I try to use only my own art for all of these but I HAD to share the Amea x Zant commission because it is one of my absolute faves. I scoured my entire back log of bought commissions because they didn't put their name on the art but I think it was this person?? If not them then... they may have deleted their account from where I bought it.

Saphira Nightingale, my main tippy top OC

A shapeshifter and the last of her kind. I use her for lots of original stories as well as series where I don't have a dedicated character. The rule of thumb is "if she has clothes, it's an AU".

Mako Bianchi, Saphira's ex

A reaper that I used to pair with Saphira. She is now with other people and he is back to being the guy I draw sexy because I crave men. It's a toss up whether he's a skeleton or an elven winged man at any given moment.

Valus Nesrine

An incubus I used for my original novel. You can read about him there and in a short story, but they're both pretty naughty hahaha. He's charming and sweet. I love writing him.

Thorne

A mothman and the focus of some more stories. He's a bastard. But a sexy bastard. Honestly, that's all he has going for him.

Tarine

A bio android OC for Dragon Ball. She's mostly just there for pairing with Piccolo, lmao. But she did have some cool fights in the server where she was made.

Majin Mani

Same boat as Tarine, but for more of a "I like messing with these guys" vibe than the former. Mani was made for Dragon Ball Xenoverse so she is a time cop (ranger? whatever they were called)

Amea

A mercenary in Twilight Princess. I have her for an AU specifically but she is my Zant lover OC. She is half Twili and half Hylian. Does that work? Not really, but I really loved the idea.

Arin Ferris (and all of her Pokemon)

Arin is an Ex Rocket (which placed her at around 30 at the time so that's just her age now) and now owns a daycare off the coast of Hoenn. I like giving her the poison aesthetic but she doesn't use too many poison types.

Lia (Alix) Bech

A keyblade wielder who kinda sucks at fighting. She far prefers staying out of fights. Yeah she's just here to bang the organization. But she also has identity issues :D

Pire

More of an "everyday" OC for Zelda. I use her in all other Zelda games while Amea is for Twilight Princess only. She is a tech whiz and she makes mechs, hahah. And this was before TOTK was even announced!

Celeste Wade

An OC for Final Fantasy 9. She's a noble in Treno and she captures monsters to sell as pets and manor security. So she packs quite a punch without lookin like she can! I haven't designed her monster hunting get up yet.

Boriell

You know Lawachurls from Genshin Impact? Well I didn't like the game, but I loved these guys <3 So I made one for myself. He's the only remnant of my Genshin knowledge.

Velka, the Arcta Knight

My Kirby OC. She is a bad guy and I use her to antagonize everyone in the game. She has a vendetta against Meta Knight. And she got her powers illegitimately from Nightmare.

Thalia Vanfin, another favorite

A fishwoman bar owner/bounty hunter. Yep! Another one for shipping. But I love writing her encounters and drawing her being cute with people. Not always romantically but mostly romantically.

Fatei

Monster man with mask face and tentacles~ He's got a human form since he was turned into a beast like everyone else. But I usually only draw his monster form.

Dia "Dragoon" Chambers

A depressed college student who uses the Dark World as escapism from her life. Anything that makes her feel like she doesn't have to go back home. She comes with some friends! Laguna the Rogue and Phish!

Laguna the Rogue

Phish does not have any character traits beyond "is an Addison", but here's Laguna! She was originally made for an Undertale AU but now she's just a crazy ass monster and the only one looking out for Dia.

#battyart #original character #OC List #my ocs #masterlist

[ghostypetrainer]

Noboringo goes to Hoenn for a mini vacation & to visit Hikari (who is currently terrorizing both the gyms & contest halls of that region), comes back with both a shiny new mega bracelet and a meta evolving Latios to add to his legendary team. Hikari has a matching mega bracelet and Latias. Emmet is completely unsurprised and frankly a little jealous of all the legendaries at this point

Emmet: how do you keep finding all of these Pokemon?

Nobori: apparently it's a reoccurring problem for people who've already caught one legendary. you just keep getting more.

Emmet: ...how do you even know that?

Nobori, holding up his phone: oh there's a group chat

#asks #reincarnation au #lmao between the two of them soon they'll collectively hold champion titles in every region

[mspaintbunny]

whats ur favorite pokemon gen??

thats gotta be the third one! and i know its a cliché to have the first gen you played be your favorite, but what can i say, that developing brain really be susceptible now here's my actual reasons

it is one of my favorite gens competitively, i really enjoy gens 1 and 2's respective metas, but more-so from a distance, they're really volatile and the pacing is not my thing gen 3 retains the classic feel {although the physical/special split WAS a blessing} and has some really interesting and cute stuff going for it and its just before gen 4 with its heatrans, before gen 5 with its eternal weather wars and its genies and its ferrothorns {yes i know sandstorm reigns supreme in gen 3 but thats just another layer of complexity} gotta say tho, gen 6 is when i really got into competitive and ill always have a soft spot for it, i didnt really play gen 8 but i found the last season of vgc interesting, from a distance, and of course im all about the current meta another reason is both kanto and hoenn have what i feel are the best designed regions, in term of how the player progresses through them, there's interesting ideas there that were never really revisited and that were sorely missed in gens 5 to 8 {with credit due to gen 5's and some of 6's route design} i love how the world of kanto worked as a blueprint for the whole franchise and the way hoenn's land and people all work towards furthering its themes, i love secret bases the most gen 3 also has the majority of my favorite pokemon in it, and i'll admit that susceptibility also played a factor there shoutouts to marshtomp and gardevoir and minun and latias and torkoal and nincada and snorunt my babies <3 lots of people {rightfully} complain about how to catch them all you needed to have ALL of the games, including colosseum the lack of gen 2 pokemon is noticeable, but as someone who only knew of the gen 1 anime and of the gen 3 games at the time, that only worked to mystify them in my eyes, and the few chances that there were to actually find them {the sevii islands in frlg and the expansion to the safari zone in emerald} felt all the more special i read on a magazine about how you could get a johto starter in emerald if you completed the regional dex and i fell in love with chikorita then and there i had to find out about celebi even existing and that was mind-blowing lastly, emerald's battle frontier is still the best one idc

#ty for the ask wehffrdgnfdfbhnb i really got to go off with this one #ask

[torchickentacos]

#pokemon #pokeani #anipoke #hoenn movies #tumblr. why is it one day or one week. #come on.

[franstastic-ideas]

I guess I’m numbering these!!

LACONIC WANDERER. I learned a whole new word from you, honestly that synonym works better than saying “silent” or something, it adds a new layer of mystery. Maybe the style and spelling and vibe of the word. Ignis hehe, Latin for fire, that one sure is popular, granted I’ve only seen it used one other time, but def much nicer than other fire based English names.

Kotone, ah the Johto games always gave off a more justice vibe to me. I had to erase a whole spiel I accidentally went off on here, but it definitely captures the passion in those games. Even TR acknowledges that about the protagonist. Cute Pokémon name too!

Haruuukaaaa my 2nd fav, ugh weren’t those Pokémon Evolution episodes SO good for her and Leaf? Adventurous Darling!!! Oh she SO is, under the SEA into SPACE, the varied climate for Hoenn is BUILT for adventure. And v cute too, very lovable. Steven got roasted by his dad and Zinnia over the better newer Champ AND by Hoenn Radio, only game to have it too I think? I’m biting my lips to not launch into a rant about every girl and their region, you’re activating my Pokémon Fanatic side and this CAN get into deep meta territory if I’m not careful.

Candeloro!! Yes, Blaziken, giant candle, I can see it, very shaped. The whole loro at the end is very nickname-y, and I wonder if I feel that way bc of the nickname Toro by her manga counterpart from Pokespe.

Congrats to BW for being the only game to deliberately call the protagonist a hero of something of prophecy. Very battle-ready, good ol’ Unova where they demand active students for competitive programs but god forbid you actually fight for social change. You said every girl’s personality was different and honestly I see it, and it fits them and where they grew up perfectly. Throw them in a room together and it will be so interesting how the dynamics work. Gretchen? I had to look that one up, and it’s interesting. Even if someone didn’t know the meaning of any of these names, just the way they roll off the tongue feels like a name that matches each girl’s character. Vowels and consonants and all that.

I’m scared of this thing refreshing on me so I’ll continue in another ask.

So! Leaf was in fact the last of the girls to receive her title. I knew I wanted to use the adjective 'Laconic', but no matter where I looked, there wasn't a word to describe someone who happens to appear at the right place at the right time.

And that's kind of what she does? Leaf didn't set out to track down Team Rocket, she kept arriving at just the right moment to interfere. But Wanderer works well for her, because that's what she loves to do. Leaf travels at her own leisurely pace, that's her approach to life too. She enjoys stopping to sniff the Roselia, so to speak.

Kotone's was another one that took some time. I wanted a title that conveys her strongest quality, her compassion. She is ceaselessly gentle and kind, no matter how combative and rude Silver is towards her. Her patient attitude towards him also contrasts well with her friends' feelings. Hibiki is easily intimidated by him, and Kris thinks what the redhead needs most is a good kick to seat of the pants.

Even though Kotone is almost always shown with Chikorita as a partner, I think Typhlosion is best for this AU's incarnation of her. Kotone's Typhlosion, Eva (who is actually male), his name means 'life'. Fire doesn't have to only bring destruction. It can also bring warmth, and I feel that's something which matches Kotone's outlook. She tries to see the good in everything and everyone.

Haruka, I've always described how I see her as 'the perfect blend of tomboy and girly girl'. She can be both! She's traveled all across the region and has even gone to space, she's become the strongest trainer in Hoenn, she also collects Poké Dolls and performs onstage as a beloved Contest Star.

Similarly to Kotone more often than not being shown with Chikorita, Touko usually is given Tepig/Emboar as a partner. Without looking at who her partner is in Sisterhood, one may assume from her title that this is the case here as well.

However, a Serperior is her starter! The 'Hot-Blooded' in Touko's title pertains to her being Reshiram's Chosen instead. I think if someone were to tell her that a Fire-type suits her better, she would respond with something like,

"My partner may not have flames on the outside, but that doesn't matter! The flames of passion burn bright inside her!!"

#Leaf #Kotone #Haruka #Touko #pokemon #Sisterhood AU

[crystalelemental]

12.5K Master Mode - A Guide To Stall

Pokemon Masters is releasing its new 12.5k Master Mode, alongside a new, limited mode that focuses entirely on one type weakness.  Given these adjustments, with the "free" condition giving 300 points being a massive damage reduction to off-type, many players may be looking at this and bemoaning the fact that now, you'll be expected to have more than one competent damage dealer in each type.  In fact, you'll be asked to have up to five.  This is a daunting prospect for many, I imagine, as several types barely even have five damage dealers, let alone competent ones.  Types like Ground are almost entirely limited too, which raises a significant concern about clearing stages if you didn't pull for them.  It can be daunting, and some may be wondering if there's a way to work around this.

I have good news, friends.  Parameter updates as they are, an ancient technique long forgotten has made its resurgence.  Stall is making a comeback.

Stall in Pokemon Masters Around December 2021, Pokemon Masters underwent a major meta shift, with the introduction of Legendary Gauntlet as the fresh new game mode, and Champion Stadium updating to the 10k Master Mode setting.  This meta shift did not introduce new parameters, however, and as a result, certain playstyles thrived or suffered accordingly.  And they suffered so badly that, I imagine, new players since that time probably don't even know what I'm talking about.

Stall died that day.  Not in a strict sense, but in a functional one.  Gauntlet thrives on resetting status or becoming immune to status, so the only real utility to such skills is for multipliers.  The 10k Master Mode meta forced choices regarding improved Strength, which meant stall was dealing with higher offensive power than before.  In addition to modern CS like Sinnoh and Hoenn coming in with significant multipliers they actually set up, Stall fell from reasonable viability, and DeNA does not seem keen on the idea of providing premium stall tech for us anymore.  So for the last year and a half, roughly, no one's talked about Stall. But the new parameters added have, somehow, made it easier for Stall to succeed in the 12.5k meta than the 10k meta.  Stall has a place again, and with the threat of needing five striker types at once for the new limited CS, I think it's going to be really beneficial for newer players to learn about what used to be one the most powerful strategies the game had to offer.

The Essence of Cheese There are four key components of a good Stall team:

Passive Damage

Consistent Healing

Offense Debuffing

Defense Buffing

We'll go over each of these components here, listing out sync pairs that are effective in each particular role.  Once we've looked at these traits, we'll discuss team compositions, aiming for five teams that utilize these tactics to success.

Passive Damage Stall does not concern itself with dealing damage directly.  Your attacks exist solely to apply conditions that will deal damage over time for you.  The primary conditions for this are Toxic and Trap, though other conditions now exist.

Toxic is your big effect.  Unlike regular Poison, Toxic builds over time, dealing successively greater damage over time, and it's this growing damage that's significant.  Toxic is a fairly rare trait, with most Pokemon applying regular Poison.  That said, the F2P meta has the majority of options, with BP Erika, Lucy, Koga, BP Janine, SS Leaf, and Tech Golbat being the main users.  Emma can also apply.

Trap generally deals less, though depending on foe's resistance to it, Trap can outperform Toxic.  Trap is significant additional damage, but it requires monitoring, as it wears off after a few actions.  Your trap user wants to be careful to re-apply it on center the moment they are freed.  Usually, this is about two actions after first sync, for a functional explanation of timing.  Trap, like Toxic, is a relatively rare trait, though not as rare as Toxic.  Applicators include BP Erika, Lucy, Wallace, Bertha, Serena, Viola, Blaine, Lodge Lillie, Tech Sandslash, Tech Lickitung, Tech Cloyster, and Tech Venomoth.  There's also Anni Raihan, and SS Lyra.

Ancillary effects include passive damage from weather like Sandstorm, Hail, or Damage Fields.  Sandstorm and Hail can deal reasonable damage, but generally don't last too long.  Bertha is the only relevant abuser of Sandstorm passive damage, due to everything else she's stacking.  Damage Fields deal so little due to every stage having DF Resistance 9 on center anyway, so they're good for maybe 33 damage per action.  It's so negligible as to be laughable.  Toxic and Trap are your only real concerns.

You may notice, some units repeat on those lists.  BP Erika and Lucy apply both Toxic and Trap in one unit.  This kind of role compression is significant, and will be pointed out where relevant, for the purposes of constructing teams.

Consistent Healing Healing sources are a significant part of stall tactics.  If your team doesn't have the ability to heal, then eventually your foe will overrun your defenses, guaranteed.  Remember, each sync buff is a 50% damage bonus, and your foes mostly have Lessen Poison/Trap 9.  Taking 2-3 sync moves isn't unreasonable.  You need to be prepared.  There are two general approaches to survival. Potion is the general pop heal, that's incredibly useful for your center mon.  Double MPR on grid is naturally the best outcome, and can potentially bring you from your last use back to full if both activate in tandem.  There are other means of pop healing as well, but generally speaking, the more powerful and the more uses, the better.  Useful Potion users include Skyla, Misty, Cheryl, Leaf, SS Leaf, Dawn, BP Morty, Hop, and Sonia.  Other options include Swimsuit Misty, NY!Sabrina, Lance, Spring May, and C!Red, among others.  Note SS Leaf for Toxic.

Synchro Healing and Recuperation are the other means.  If you have the ability to consistently heal the team through sync use, then let that unit use every sync.  Not like it will deal damage.  Synchro Healing is useful to heal the whole team for AoE heavy stages, while Recuperation is a bigger pop heal on whoever used it, and is good for stages that mostly target the tank.  Useful Synchro Healers include MU Torchic, MU Mesprit, BP Clemont, Lodge Lillie, Lodge Morty, BP Morty, BP Surge, Lillie, MU Cobalion, MU Regirock, and Evelyn.  Others include Halloween Caitlin, and probably others but a lot of these are on grid.  Note Lodge Lillie for trap.

Recuperation users include Jasmine, Leaf, Lodge Elesa, BP Janine, and probably others but it's a rare skill.  Shoutouts to Wallace for having it though.  NY!Sabrina and C!Bede also have Recuperation 2, of all things.  Note BP Janine for Toxic, and Wallace for Trap.

Offense Debuffing A critical facet of survival is debuffing your opponent's offenses.  The lower their offenses, the better your tank takes hits.  This is often something that has to go hand in hand with maximizing your defenses, though some stages can get away with one or the other.  Additionally, most stages require you to debuff both.  Some are strictly physical, often the Fighting types, while some are mostly special.

Mixed offense debuffers include Janine, Ghetsis, Lodge Lillie, and Tech Nidoqueen.  Anni Raihan and Anni Skyla are worth noting for Disarm, C!Iris for her double drop AoE debuffs, and Anni N for debuffing both AoE, but also for ignoring passives that reduce damage.  Note Lodge Lillie now participates in three of the critical roles.

Relevant attack debuffers include Dawn, Bertha, and NY!Dawn.

Relevant special Attack debuffers include Viola.  That's it, really, but she applies Trap too.

Defense Buffing Defense buffing is the other critical stat focus.  The higher your defenses, the less damage you take.  This is pretty much all in the hands of your support unit, with ideal supports carrying this and probably your healing game.  Like debuffs, the ideal is mixed buffing, though sometimes you can get away with one or the other.

Mixed defense buffers include BP Morty, BP Clemont, Leaf (kinda), Aaron, Evelyn, and Lodge Dawn (skews Sp Def).  Others include Swimsuit Misty, SS Morty, Summer Hilda, .  Special mention to MU Mesprit and Melony, not for buffing defenses, but having Reflect and Light Screen at the same time.

Relevant defense buffers include Jasmine, Dawn, Skyla, Hop, Sonia, MU Regirock, and MU Cobalion.  Note all of them carry some form of significant healing, with Dawn having attack debuffing as well.

Relevant special defense buffers include Lodge Elesa, and SC Jasmine.  There's fewer of these, I feel.

Parameters to Set With these traits in mind, it's time to get started on conquering stages.  First order of business is identifying the parameters you'll need to achieve a full 2.5k clear.  Below is a list of recommended traits to activate, in order to properly stall a stage:

Physical Dmg Reduction (50)

Special Dmg Reduction (50)

Def & Sp Def Up 1 (50)

Def & Sp Def Up 3 (100)

Max HP Up 2 (100)

Physical Damage Reduction (100)

Special Damage Reduction (100)

Critical-Hit Defense (150)

No Change to Weather, Terrain, or Zone (150)

Def & Sp Def Up 5 (150)

HP Up 4 (200)

Ally Move Gauge -2 (300)

Max HP Up 6 (300)

Standard Damage Reduction (300)

Max HP Up 8 (400)

These parameters total 2500 points, without boosting enemy offensive stats at all.  It maintains the ability to debuff your foe, heal for full potential, and start with maximum HP to permit Endurance options.  While you could theoretically make adjustments if needed, there is very little reason to shift any of these parameters off when using stall.

Watch For Counterplay As powerful as stall is, you have to be able to recognize what traits are going to sink a run.  There aren't a ton, but when they exist, it hurts.

Sync Cure is the single most devastating trait a foe can have.  This removes status from the opponent on sync.  Because you cannot stop your opponent's sync, this is guaranteed to go off.  When it does, Toxic is removed, which resets the counter.  Unless your team has incredible healing potential, this skill is a sure loss.

Gradual Healing is also significantly painful.  It lasts through 8 actions, and your opponent will be healing about what you deal in passive damage, significantly slowing down your progress through the stage, and near-guaranteeing they receive an extra sync.  Again, good healing potential is necessary here.

Impervious, or any ability to block offense debuffs, can seriously mess with you.  Bruno's Machamp in I believe Johto has this skill, and with his high BP moves, this stage is a serious threat to stall tactics.  Defense buffing and healing potential are integral here.

Stat boosts post-sync are rare, and easier to handle if you know they're coming, but some offensive threats like Phoebe's Banette will boost offensive stats on sync.  It's something to be aware of, and ready to respond to.

High BP moves are also a problem.  Some stages dish out repeated powerful hits, throwing out Flare Blitz, Close Combat, Mega Kick, Hyper Beam in some cases.  These are inherently dangerous even at base offenses, and stages geared toward this aggressive playstyle tend to require pop healing over sync healing, and likely need MPRs to activate.

I don't think I've seen it, but if a stage is ever full-on immune to Toxic or Trap, just...give up there.

Teambuilding Now it's time to teambuild.  Our goal is five teams that all work with reasonable consistency, applying Toxic, Trap, healing, debuffing, and buffing.  Some may miss one of the traits, and generally if you need to drop one, it's the buffing or the debuffing.  Our goal is to align these as F2P as possible, so all five teams will be constructed using general pool tools, or tools you can pick up freely.  It should also go without saying, but to be clear: everything on these teams should be running Vigilance as a lucky skill, unless it's already baked in.  Nothing will tank a run faster than oops, your foe crit on sync and now your side is dead.

Team 1: BP Erika, BP Morty, Tech Nidoqueen BP Erika is one of the best stall bots in the game.  For the low price of one regular BP Voucher at 100 BP (two days of clearing the region rotation or like three missions in a modern event), you can take BP Erika and have Toxic/Trap ready.  BP Morty is another BP unit with fantastic value, offering defense buffing, Potion, and Synchro Healing on grid.  Tech Nidoqueen supplies the last condition with Venom Drench, debuffing the foe's offenses while they're afflicted with Toxic.  Morty takes every sync, Erika applies her Trap repeatedly to center, Nidoqueen debuffs until all foes are at -6.  Avoid using Astonish on center.  Flinches are the death of stall, because sides will just push center toward sync.  You want center to wear itself down fast.  That said, Morty's additional Confuse is potentially hilarious.

Team 2: Lucy, BP Clemont, Janine Lucy is BP Erika, but in the general pool, with her own Gradual Healing trainer move to boot.  BP Clemont buffs both defenses, has Endurance, and has Synchro Healing.  Let him take every sync, and your team will consistently heal.  Janine is the better Tech Nidoqueen, offering the same debuffing, but also better speed for gauges, and most critically, evasion to cheese out some attacks as the secondary defensive option.

Team 3: Koga, BP Janine/Lodge Dawn, Lodge Lillie Koga supplies Toxic, and Lillie provides Trap.  Lillie debuffs attack with every move, while Satisfied Snarl 4 can debuff special attack, with some inconsistency.  The decision from there is up to preference.  BP Janine is another shot at Toxic, since Koga's is only a 50/50, and you want to work quick to apply it, but she has no defensive backbone.  She does have evasion, but that's less consistent.  The alternative is Lodge Dawn, who is more consistent about special attack debuffs and has defensive buffing and Gradual Healing access, but has far less in defense boosting.  Lodge Lillie should take every sync for Synchro Healing.  Her healing matches Janine's, so there's no reason to use Janine.  However, if your HP is fine, Dawn could take first sync for Evasive Rush 3, and get just as much evasion as Janine's likely to get, with better defenses.

Team 4: Tech Golbat, Leaf, Ghetsis/Viola/Bertha Tech Golbat has Poison Fang, but little else.  Leaf is arguably the best stall support in the game.  Each sync not only gives her Recuperation, but +2 to all stats, building up defenses.  With double Potion MPR, Leaf sustains like crazy.  Ghetsis debuffs both offenses, and while this lacks added Trap damage, the team can be bulky and sustain-oriented enough that Leaf still wins.  Though if you'd like trap, Viola has special attack debuffs for stages that skew toward that, while Bertha can debuff attack under Sandstorm.  Both Viola and Bertha have solid passive healing, conserving Leaf's Potions.

Team 5: SS Leaf, Jasmine, Wallace If you didn't pull SS Leaf, don't worry too much about it.  Realistically, you only need four teams that can clear CS, since just about every pair now has at least one competent F2P striker to clear a stage.  For those who correctly pulled her at 1/5, this team rules.  SS Leaf has AoE toxic, while Wallace provides Trap.  The reason this team is so effective is because Leaf and Wallace both have significant bonus damage on their passive effects.  Leaf also provides a metric ton of healing, including Potion with the higher MPR3 and Gradual Healing.  Jasmine packs Recuperation 2, which is 40% healing every sync she takes, and buffs defenses sky high.  The team is weaker against special stages, but I've used it to clear 2500 point Master Mode way before the current parameter update, so they'll get the job done.  I do want to note that 5/5 Leaf has Noxious Hit to debuff offenses, but really want to stress that this isn't necessary.  2/5 Leaf has Potion and MPR on trainer move if desired, while 3/5 gets Master Healer, but I'd wager they can do it at 1/5 too.

Rotation Order In order to properly execute stall, some consideration must be given to the rotation of your actions.  Notably, who is applying what.  Turn order for opponents is Center-Right-Center-Left-Center spam until death.  For teams where your Toxic and Trap users are separated out, apply center, apply right, apply left, done.  For BP Erika and Lucy, the rotation is as follows: Toxic Center -> Toxic Right -> Trap Center -> Toxic Left -> Trap Left or Right -> Trap the other -> in 2 turns, spam Trap on Center until it is re-applied.  This will maximize the damage dealt over time.

Final Notes Toxic Stall is a beautiful thing that I have missed dearly.  It technically still worked in 2k Master Mode, but was heavily reliant on your MPR game on Potion most of the time.  Some stages are still going to be like that, or potentially be impossible to properly stall.  Modern CS has issues like oops it's Sun forever, while even old CS stages could overwhelm with significant firepower or obnoxious status.  And of course, counterplay exists, and will likely be leveraged against us in the limited CS event.  But I'd say about 90% of CS stages are fully cheesable on an F2P budget.  It can require a few 5* tools to get consistent with it, and brand new players might take a bit to get their BP units to 3/5 for Synchro Healing, or get a Lodge unit, but I'd argue this is likely a lot faster than building up five damage dealers of the same type, for a lot cheaper.

If you've never tried stall, the first Kanto CS on the 3rd is a good time to try.  Kanto is an old one, so the power level is a lot lower and a lot more forgiving.  And if Electric-weak Lorelei is there...listen, I didn't know.  That's not my fault, okay?

#pokemon masters #guide to stall #stall #stall tactics #this is technically a remake but I couldn't find the tag for the original #so I gave up #anyway please enjoy the new CS stall meta #I for one will be having a great time

[sage-nebula]

Oh dang. I was under the impression that Hoenn was/was on a separate landmass to Johto, Kanto and Sinnoh

Hoenn is based on Kyushu, which is part of the main part of the continent that makes up Japan IRL. However, the Hoenn region does show it rotated, so it's possible that in the PokéWorld it is its own separate island. That said, I still imagine that Hoenn is close enough to make up what we think of as PokéJapan, since it is still based on a region of Japan IRL just like the other three are. Here's the map of Japan that Bulbapedia has that shows the breakdown of the PokéJapan regions:

Obviously they don't think of themselves as "PokéJapan" any more than Unova thinks of themselves as "PokéNew York" etc, but that's the best way to describe them in a meta sense I think. These four are the Japan regions (4.5 if we want to consider Sevii, but again, I consider the Sevii Islands to basically just be part of Kanto), and so this whole area of the planet was just really going through it for a while there.

#randoxtalore #pokemon

[rarestones-aa]

fantasy au -- heir to hoenn.

steven stone is the sole offspring of joseph stone, the crowned ruler of the kingdom of hoenn. as such, he is the sole prince and heir to the throne. the royal family itself is very small -- just the king and the prince ( the queen passed some time ago due to illness ) -- but the staff in the royal palace makes up for it. there are a number of different members of staff -- cooks, maids, stablemen, tailors, and, of course, members of the court.

while his father, the king, typically handles the more essential and demanding components of the kingdom ( i.e. disputes in the villages, finances ), steven himself attends to more of the social matters. in particular, he does most of the work putting together balls, garden parties, and so on. as such, he is a more publicly known face than the king to other kingdoms.

he possesses a steed named meta, so named for the steely silver color of its coat. it is trained very well and quite gifted in all manner of tasks that may be required of a steed. thus, it is steven’s number one companion.

steven is trained in various manners of combat -- hand-to-hand, shortsword, longsword, bow and arrow, to name a few. though he does not appear physically imposing, he is quite skilled in combat and trains with palace staff several times a week.

#FANTASY AU FANTASY AU FANTASY AU #++ 𝔞 𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔟𝔩𝔢𝔪 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔬𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔴 ( tbt ) ++ #++ 𝔥𝔦𝔧𝔦𝔫𝔨𝔰 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔰𝔥𝔢𝔫𝔞𝔫𝔦𝔤𝔞𝔫𝔰 ( dash commentary ) ++

[picavecalyx]

Meta Masterpost

             note: some of the unlinked topics listed are topics that will be written on, but just haven’t had their own post yet. This could also include study posts, drabbles, and even threads if they are seen as more important.                                                                       last updated: 6/4/2022

  UNIVERSAL

Not Verse Specific

Eyes i | Eyes ii | Eyes iii | Rosy Eyed Lenses i | Rosy Eyed Lenses ii | Rosy Eyed Lenses iii | Rosy Eyed Lenses iv | Rosy Eyed Lenses v | Rosy Eyed Lenses vii | Rosy Eyed Lenses viii | Rosy Eyed Lenses ix | Rosy Eyed Lenses x | Goal i | Goal ii | Positive Meta i | Positive Meta ii | Positive Meta iii | Narcolepsy | Text v. Speech | Favourites | Intelligence i | Intelligence ii | Intelligence iii | Verse Reasoning | Fears i | Fears ii | Very Forgiving i | Very Forgiving ii | Selective Hearing | Danger | Strength i | Pity | Honest i | Snaggletooth | Autism | Birthday i | Birthday ii | Listening i | Listening ii | Voice Claim | Give i | Like Glass | Singing i | Anger i | Anger ii | Addiction i | Dialogue i | Empathy i |

Dash Games

Horror Trope | Horror Trope ii | Assigned Character Arc | A Rock | Likeable Person Test | What Kind of Stupid Are You? | Light/Dark Triad | Why Do You Hurt? | Where Does Your Anger Lurk? | What Kind Of Voice Are You? | What Creature Lies In Your Soul? | What Paranormal Being Are You? | What Body Part Are You? | What Rage Language Are You? | Who Are You In The Murder Investigation? | What Do You Wish You Could Say? i | What Do You Wish You Could Say ii | What Kind of Evil Are You? | What Are You Seeking? | What Kind of Herb Are You? | What Is Your True Role In The Story? | Mach-IV Test |

  ONE PIECE VERSE

General Knowledge Overview

Saboady

Poppinal | Meeting Poppinal | The Grove | Buli i | Buli ii | Possibility of WG/Marine | Instrument Making i | Instrument Making ii | Isolation | Celestial Dragons i | Eye Loss | 

Beast Pirate Verse

Duties | Udon | King the Wildfire | The Calamities | Kaido | Other Beasts i | Other Beasts ii | Outburst |

Impel Down Verse

Magellan | Other Wardens | World Government Intervention

Biology

Lunarian Traits | Fire i | Fire ii | Song of the Bagatella | Defensive Capabilities | Height | Bagatella’s Eyes | Hair | Devil Fruit i | Devil Fruit ii | Devil Fruit iii | Devil Fruit iv | Tattoo | Horns i | Horns ii | Wings i | Wings ii | Origin i | Origin ii |

Snapped

Snapped i | Snapped ii |

Other

Favourite Food | General | Random i | Random ii | Random iii | Random iv | Random v | Random vi | Random vii | Random viii | Random ix | Growth Spurt |

more tbd.

  POKEMON VERSE

General Knowledge Overview

Team Flare

Repeating Philosophy | Opinion on Flare i | Opinion on Flare ii | Watching Them Fall | Zygarde Cores i | Responsibility i | Like Family | Ungrateful i |

Pokemon

How They Met i | Boreas i | Boreas ii | Boreas iii | Boreas iv | Boreas v | Boreas vi | Boreas vii | Boreas viii | Keyley i | Keyley ii | Keyley iii | Keyley iv | Keyley v | Keyley vi | Archel i | Archel ii | Blue i | Navi i | Navi ii | Murder i | Murder ii | Pickle i | Seline i | Seline ii | Seline iii | Favourite Type | Specialties | Fearful i | Fearful ii | Fearful iii | Customized | Pokeballs | Possible Future Partners i | Possible Future Partners ii | Levels | Pokedex Entries | Verse Teams |

Wild Life

Diet | Lifestyle | Suspicion of Humanity | Snowbelle i | Snowbelle ii | “Snowbelle’s Cryptid” i | “Snowbelle’s Cryptid” ii | “Snowbelle’s Cryptid” iii | Wulfric i | Trapped Suns | Reason for Abandonment | Biological Parents i | Biological Parents ii | Biological Parents iii | Name i | Family i | Family ii | Family iii |

Adopted Life

Adoption | Lysandre | Adjustment Period i | Adjustment Period ii | Adjustment Period iii | Sneaking Out i | Sneaking Out ii | Growth Spurt |

On The Run

Timeline of Events | Escaping Kalos i | Escaping Kalos ii | Helpful Advice | Train Away | Homeless i | Where | Unova i | Sinnoh i | Galar i | Hoenn i | Faebula i | Alola i | Alola ii | Alola iii | Conflicted i | Poffins | Keep Moving i | Locations to Sleep i | Locations to Sleep ii | Supplies | Holocaster i | Reasoning | Scars i | Scars ii | Scars iii | Denial i | Denial ii | Returning Home i | Returning Home ii | Guilt i | Traveler not Trainer | Other Evil Teams i | Hunted i | Not The Best Conditions i |

Experimentation

The Accident | The Accident i | The Accident ii | The Accident iii | The Accident iv | Traumas i | Traumas ii | Traumas iii | Narcolepsy’s Play | Conditioning i | Conditioning ii | Conditioning iii | Unstable i | Reasoning i | Reasoning ii | Immortality i | Immortality ii | Immortality iii | Immortality iv | Immortality v | Eyes i | Dreams and Night Terrors i | Dreams and Night Terrors ii | Dreams and Night Terrors iii | Dreams and Night Terrors iv | Irreversible | Put Under | Tough Skin | Energy i | Human or Pokemon i | Human or Pokemon ii | Human or Pokemon iii | Human or Pokemon iv | Compatible i | Addictive i | Biology i | Ability i | Control i |

Hisui

Pokemon in Hisui | Partners’ Reaction | Amnesia | Lingering Traumas | The First Marks | Philosophy Difference | Comfort | Ticking Time Bomb i | Where | 

Rainbow Rocket

Gloves | Avoiding | Apathy | Addiction i | Positivity i | Positivity ii | Battle i | Battle ii | Halted Aging | Loyalty | Propaganda |

Other

Random i | Random ii | Random iii | Random iv | Random v | Random vi | Random vii | Random viii | Random ix | Age i | Age ii | Bagatella Family i | Bagatella Family ii | Bagatella Family iii | Bagatella Family iv | Athletics i | Blinking | Loud Noises i | Song of the Bagatella | Diet i | Mornings | Swearing | Accent i | 

more tbd.

  OTHER VERSES TBD.

#study ;; beneath a piteous smile #holy fuck this lasted way longer than i thought it woulAJSIODJASIODA #there's probbaly shit missing #there's DEFINITELY shit missing #but for now #*Throws*