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fallershipping · 1 month

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Vergo's Revised Ideas of the SunMoon Post-Game

Due to dialogue concerning Anabel in Masters, and a lot of time to cook on this, I've decided to address something interesting and a bit bittersweet.

If you haven't played the post game don't read (i know who you are)

Anabel always knew she attracted UBs, or at least pieced it all on her own. There's so many things about her that is just entirely incorrect in regards to fanon perception.

The woman is amazingly observant. Throughout the whole SunMoon post game, she is picking up on many details; Looker's odd behavior, Nanu and Looker's familiarity despite never knowing about it before, and the fact that UBs always seem to treat her like prey or an enemy. Even in USUM, Anabel knows who the fucking new Alola champion is by just looking at you to Looker's surprise-- she's been around.

And yeah. In Pokemon Masters, even though she still has the same dialogue of never expecting the more experienced Looker working for her and not the other way around, she knew that UBs sought her out. And... She's made peace with that?

"... If I stay out of town, the damage will be kept to a minimum." "As long as I can protect everyone–especially the Ultra Beasts–I am perfectly content with my role."

Which makes me think about Looker's dialogue..

"It may be that she was wandering lost in the wormhole for some time... Regardless of that, she then entered the International Police herself." [Nanu asks if Interpol is using another person as UB Bait again] "Your assumptions, you are half right in. However...this mission, she chose herself."

So much focus on Anabel joining Interpol herself and choosing missions for herself.

By all means-- Anabel didn't have anywhere else to go. With being trapped in a new dimension, she needed to rebuild her life. But one thing is for certain; and that is that she was not forced. Mohn is an example of someone who is a Faller, but was not forced to join Interpol for example.

So much about Anabel's dialogue implies that the woman knows exactly what she signed up for when she joined Interpol.

The International Police is already equivalent to a Secret Agent Organization. In of itself, she knows she's putting her life on the line for the sake of others. She joined Interpol with the full knowledge and acceptance that she is sacrificing her safety to save innocent lives of people and Pokemon-- AND Ultra Beasts. Especially regarding UBs, she feels a kinship-- conscious or otherwise-- with the extradimensional travelers even if they hunt her down because she feels like a way home. She wants to protect them, puts their lives as important as any other, and does not want scientists to experiment on them. (I cannot believe how many people disregard this. When Anabel said it herself.)

In more ways than one, she's honestly just as stubborn as Looker. Overworking herself, thinking about work, and shielding others from danger. She was the kind of person to join Interpol and rank all the way to a leadership role that she ROCKS.

Fanon wise, people have considered Anabel to just be a frail, amnesiac woman who, just like Ingo, is broken and stuck in a time/place that wasn't her original world. That she is just being used by the system, naively pushing forward while everyone keeps the truth away from her.

Anabel literally went "Fuck That" and proved she's always been fucking intelligent and knows what's up, even if she wasn't properly briefed. But Pokespe addressed it-- And now, so did Masters. Anabel probably figured this out all on her own, and simply doesn't care. This is the life she chose and her duty is important to her, especially when Ultra Beasts need her help and countries across the world are always in chaos due to legendary bullshit.

It's also interesting to note that while she only brought Looker with her to the missions and that she always insists that he is a fantastic agent on a rank all on his own, Anabel always puts him in a safe location away from danger because he doesn't have (or had) a partner Pokemon. Regarding ORAS, Anabel might have figured that Looker himself is also a Faller... And just like how Looker hasn't gotten the gut to address this with her-- Anabel might be doing the same to him?

That's just a theory though. But it's still food for thought.

Regardless, Anabel always insists that his presence and backup alone gives her peace of mind. That she relies on him greatly as someone to fall back on, even though she also keeps him from getting the brunt of danger at times too.

And I guess that when they do have this conversation, she'll just say "Oh Looker I've always know. I'm not stupid!"

TL;DR Anabel might have already pieced together long ago that she was attracting UBs and is far more observant than we all assumed. She joined Interpol knowing her life would be at stake but her passion and determination and leadership got her to be Chief all on her own-- And she is proud of it.

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tinukis · 2 months

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FINALLY SHOWING OFF MY COLLECTION !!! i finally reorganized a little bit buuut it still feels incomplete... anyway!! it's a mix of one piece and pokemon... ft other things but mostly one piece

FIRST SHELF:

again, mostly pokemon and one piece. i've been collecting pokemon plushies/merch in general since 2018. and to be completely honest with you, i feel like my life didnt start until 2018. i have no recollection of anything at least irl before 2018... i have a bunch of pokemon plushies still that arent even on here or theyre just hiding from sight! (like behind gladion is a steven stone plushie nfmshd) OH AND I HAD MY GLADION AND MIKO PLUSHIE MADE !! i just drew it and then gave the designs to a manufacturer :3 my next goal is to make another two but with their alt outfits this time :D

also on the top shelf, other than the action figures and plushies, are artbooks! for original sun/moon, usum, scarlet/violet, and it's hard to see but artbooks for the great ace attorney/dai gyakuten saiban as well !! also the gladion acrylic standee blends in well with wano zoro jfkdhjd omg do yall think gladion could do a closet cosplay of zoro (miko got him to do it <3)

also im not rlly big on pop funkos, theyre just gifts <3

AND TWO BINDERS OF POKEMON CARDS... i dont play i just collect them bc i like pretty art

SO UM. SECOND SHELF. one shelf dedicated to zolu, asl, and ace and sabo :3 behind the zolu figures are tiny plushies of them and rubber straps but well, its hard to see em </3

i got into one piece since like. early september and now i have an entire display dedicated to one piece 😭 + other things like persona lol

feat my pokemon boxes and unboxed one piece figures. ofc, this isnt Everything i have but it's Mostly everything

the last two things i'll show and the second post wont be posted until i update my stuff more

so heres my poorly made luffy cutout that was literally made with sweat and tears... in fact i startwd this project like a WEEK after starting one piece 😭😭😭 thats how you know i was strapped in for life

and my corkboard!! some cool one piece works and the wano zolu sc :3 it's really cool to have these things hfmhdjd

the ace print, frobin charms, rubber pins, and stickers i just pinned on are stuff i got from a con. everything else from jp mercari !!

tbh, the sealed gladion acrylic standee is like my most prized treasure... not that i dropped hundreds on it but i got it for a lot cheaper compared to the other sealed ones online :'D + his postcards too are one of my most prized possessions... i wonder who my favorite pokemon character is

honestly idk what to fill the empty space in with but i wanna balance out this corkboard with pkmn and OP so maybe i'll try to hunt for more pkmn stuff

this is all i'll share for now but the next post will show my two ita bags that i have :0 !!! and my comically large arcanine plushie that i named ace 😁🫶

#tin talks #dain's collection #(help me)#one piece #pokemon #how am i into like the biggest franchises ever #theyre my biggest wallet drainers considering theyre literally everywhere you go #I ALSO HAVE WHOLE CAKE ISLAND POSTER BUT next time #i want more gear 5 figures too.... my silliest guy ):#this isnt even my first corkboard either lol #but my first coarkboard is just a lot of tgaa/dgs stuff #and... selfship......... Anyway!!!

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sometipsygnostalgic · 6 months

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"Why is Alola so hated?"

Someone asked this question on Reddit.

The original post:

"Other than too much dialogue what is the worst thing about Alola. Alola is my favorite Pokémon games and region for a multitude of reasons but all I hear about it is that it has too much dialogue. I can understand that but later titles have just as much dialogue especially in the beginning portions of the game. So why is such an issue in these games than any other in the series. Also you thought the GD games were dark, the Aether Family are very dark concept if you want to look into them. Anyways back on topic, why are Alola considered the worst games besides the dialogue of course"

I thought about this question and I ended up writing a lengthy reply, see below. For context I should mention that Sun and Moon were my favourite mainline stories:

"So everyone is mentioning USUM, but since I was around for the launch of the games, I may as well throw my hat into the ring and explain what went wrong:

Everyone was really excited for the games to come out, but there was generally something missing from them. Promotional material was overly vague.

When the original Sun and Moon came out they had the following issues:

The story was very handholdy. I am a GREAT FAN of the story mode, but I have never replayed these games because they are basically visual novels. If you were a Nuzlocker, someone who wanted to replay Pokemon games, or if you didn't like the story, then these versions would automatically become your least favourite because of how long it takes to reach each milestone. It's also easier than a lot of prior games, not as easy as Gen 6 or 8 but up there.

While the region is IMO one of the most cohesive, it's also one of the least expansive. The Alola Region is fucking tiny. There's not nearly as many side things to do as in generations 4 and 5, and the new things they put into the Alola games were a lot less fun gimmick-wise. I like that they abandon the grid system, it needed to go, but Pokemon team don't seem to work well in 3d.

The online multiplayer was total ass. Of course, the online only got WORSE From here on out. How you get worse than Festival Plaza is beyond me, but I think Gen 7 is definitely when Pokemon jumped from having the BEST multiplayer system on Nintendo systems in generation 6 to one of the worst. Personally I was also disappointed the Festival Plaza wasn't a bit more like the Wifi Plaza, which was already a broken terrible mess but at least had some minigames. It seemed to take the wrong inspiration from Wifi Plaza, and tragically Pokemon only went downhill with online compatibility after. Because while technically the online is more fun in gen 8 and 9, it doesn't work.

The games leaked before they came out. Everyone saw concept art of the starters' final evolutions and they were SO MAD that Litten became bipedal. But there were very few surprises in Sun and Moon for people who prowled the reddit, who also seemed to be the least excited about the games.

However, what I don't think you understand is how much LOVE they had. Of all the pokemon games I've been around for the release of, I think Sun and Moon were most unanimously loved. Everyone was talking about the story, and the incredible new designs of the alola pokemon, and yeah they were having a lot of trouble playing online, but people persisted.

When Ultra Sun and Moon came out, people were veeeeery disappointed for three key reasons:

This was a dual release "third version" instead of a sequel. Again, everyone LOVED the story of the original games, by this point it felt that the "third version" idea was dated, and people wanted a damn sequel with their favourite characters! I think BW2 set a very high bar for what the Pokemon team could offer, and unfortunately I don't think they ever met that bar again after they started making 3d games.

It was on the 3DS instead of the Switch. I was NEVER expecting USUM to be Switch games, I knew Pokemon team were not ready for Switch, but for some reason people expected Pokemon Stars to be a Switch game. Everyone was reaaaaally excited for Pokemon Switch after the console launched, but Pokemon has always belonged on the DS, and I felt it had more potential for growth on that console before moving up on the chain. Of course, after the negative reaction to USUM and the begging for Pokemon Switch, Game Freak HAD to start development on Let's Go and Sw/Sh.

The things they'd added into the game were not as impressive as the other Third Versions. Pokemon Emerald and Pokemon Platinum were objective improvements from the original, though I have some things to say about Emerald's pacing. I like the minigames from Ultra, I fell SO in love with the Camera mode!!! Spent so much time fucking around in it and still have a folder in my computer to this day. HOWEVER, the people still yearn for a Battle Frontier! The Battle Factory they put in USUM seems to be based on community, which was already a pain in the ass, and as you know, it's now impossible to play online with others, so RIP to that as well. I like the changes to the Battle Tree, I love Rainbow Rocket, but while Platinum and Emerald were NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS from the ground up, USUM only improved some of the battles and held down everything else with more, worse cutscenes.

The story was much worse than the original, choosing to cut and change content instead of improve upon what was there. The story of Platinum and Emerald doesn't come across as worse than DP and RS, but EVERYONE thinks the story for USUM is a downgrade. The reason for this is because if Lillie was the true protagonist of the games originally, the Ultra versions tried to cut her down, but only for a couple of her most important scenes. She and Lusamine basically have every scene intact except for their most important, climactic moments. It's like if instead of BW2, they made Pokemon Grey but it was split in half, and instead of being an evil fucko gunning for world domination, Ghetsis was trying to use the power of the two Dragons to stop Kyurem from freezing the world, except he still abused pokemon, and he still abused N from childhood, and N never showed up to become champion and N never realised the truth of pokemon or turned against his father. How terrible would that be?

No remakes or anything special at the end of the gen. For the past few generations we'd either had remakes or sequels, but Gen 7 released USUM and Let's Go. It's debatable whether the Lets Go games are part of gen 7, but I wouldn't consider them remakes the same way that HGSS or ORAS are, and they are CERTAINLY not a favourite with a hardcore Pokemon audience. At least Gen 8/9 had decent DLC and Legends Arceus as a halfhearted apology note, but unfortunately there was no swan song at the end of Generation 7.

I think ultimately that's what made people go from "Gen 7 could be the best yet" to "Gen 7 bad". The launch was very strong, but the followup was the poorest out of almost any gen.

My personal opinion of USUM is it is one of the best pokemon games for general battles, I think it would be a lot more fun to nuzlocke than the original Sun and Moon, but there's a lot of better pokemon games to replay than USUM, especially if you're taking modded into account. I think sun and moon were the most immersive out of the games I've played, at the very least because it had improvements like trainer models in battles without the uncanny as hell stuff you got in the next two gens. I remember the games fondly, even if I do feel bitter about the story changes."

I thought this reply was worth sharing on this blog. I put a lot of effort into it.

#pokemon #pokemon sun and moon #smusum #do they call it smusum

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elbdot · 1 year

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Jesus christ so hey congratulations on completing tha dubs! Excited to experience them later this month 😄

I do want to take this opportunity tho to ask about your overall thoughts on S&V? Like what you think of the stories, characters, and....Paldea's possible inclusion in these comics 👀?

Excited to hear your thoughts!

OKAY I've gotten a bunch of Pokemon S&V Questions since November and now that I FINALLY played through the game I can FINALLY answer them HERE WE GO

POKEMON SCARLET AND VIOLET IS... GOOD

IS REALLY GOOD

It has some really nice storylines, some weaker, some stronger, I REALLY liked the characterization of all the Team Star Admins (even though the team's backstory is a bit all over the place), Arven was my favorite, followed by Nemona and Penny is- Penny is certainly there 😶

Geeta is not really a memorable champion...I don't really care much for her, but I do find it interesting that she's apparently quite unpopular amongst the Gym leader for her strict management. I don't think we ever had an in-universe unpopular Champion before.

My favorite part of the game was undoubtedly exploring the region with my Pokemon! Taking on the Gyms was more of a chore I had to do to be able to catch and train higher leveled Pokemon but I gotta say, the Gym challenges were always really fun and sometimes I reseted my game just to play the mini-games again :D

But I THINK I spent the most time trying to take selfies and pictures of me and my Pokemon whenever something fun happened or I found a really nice location or the sun was about to set. Taking photos is a HUGE hobby of mine and games that give me this kind of freedom with the photo-option are a HUGE plus in my book (You have NO idea how much time I spent in the USUM Photo Club Mini game)

I gotta say tho the Pokemon of this Region...?

BIGGEST weak point in my opinion. WEIRDEST bunch I've ever seen. Weird doesn't always have to mean BAD but in this case...yeah no there were a lot of weird AND bad ones in there, sometimes great concepts but VERY STRANGE execution that left a lot to be desired for me personally.

I was very open to what kind of Pokemon I would catch in this game. I ended up having only ONE new Paldean Pokemon on my team. And it wasn't even an all new Pokemon, it was Paldean TAUROS :'D Gotta say tho, I never cared THIS much about Tauros before. REALLY love my big black bull (ye I have the regular one, the rare ones are cool but I fell in love with this big fella)

I had a Kilowattrel and Amarouge on my team for a bit, but I switched them out after a while, I was really hoping I'd click with Amarouge more, but in the end I gave space for old and familiar faces instead. Kilowattrel I really like tho! But the fact I could walk around and interact with some of my favorite Pokemon overworld made me SO obsessed with adding them onto my team, THIS is the kind of Pokemon experience I've been waiting for for quite a while :DD

I haven't played through post game yet and I haven't finished all of the school classes yet, but I'm looking forward to complete them, as the cast of this game is really vast and fun!

In case of the comics however, just like with Galar I don't think we'll see an inclusion of this region within the story. Given the narrative of Scarlet and Violet, it would also be difficult to tie in its story with those of EAA and to be honest - I know you guys want to see El and her friends in other regions, which is very sweet, I'm happy you care so much about her that you want to see them travel around the world! But...I NEVER felt the desire to make this comic a world travel tour and I don't really understand where this idea came from that so many people expect El to leave Alola any time soon :'D

"El's Alolan Adventures" will continue to be about El's Adventures in Alola :'D I still love Alola and since El is currently Alolas Champion, she doesn't have any plans to leave the region any time soon and there are still SO many stories to tell with the cast of the Alola region! DON'T FORGET Gladion's Arc I still need to finish!!

HOWEVER

I THINK it's a fair assumption that you'll definitely see SOME fanart from me for this region :D In fact, you can already see my first (ANIMATED) piece on patreon! ☺️

AND I'll show a few more of my "travel pictures" as I've taken...A LOT of them... BUT YEAH Pokemon Scarlet, best main-line game since Sun and Moon for me!! OH and Legends of Arceus was REALLY FUN too of course

#pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon scarvio #pokemon #mod #reply

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aetherceuse · 6 months

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I've read your posts about disliking Ultra SM but what are your thoughts on the Aether Foundation and Rainbow Rocket?

Hello anon, you asked a very normal question two months ago, and now I’m going to give a very deranged, not normal, ‘I have been dealing with the horrors of USUM for what feels like my entire life’ answer. / lighthearted.

LET ME START THIS OUT WITH: I love all of the characters involved, I am loudly and obnoxiously a fan of both sides in Pokémon, however:

The amount of criticism I have for the whole RR arc plays directly into the problems I have with the way that Lusamine’s character was assassinated in USUM. Beginning with the way that Lusamine was completely defanged and dethroned from being one of the most compelling antagonists in all of Pokémon, only to become the most mild, unappealing, borderline irritating presence in the entirety of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. It completely ruined all of the character growth that Lillie and Gladion experienced in the initial two games, and it also made the dynamic between Lusamine and Guzma a lot less compelling.

The fact that they trashed the entire Nihilego arc and ruined the entire Aether family story for the sake of shoehorning Necrozma into the plot, is something I will never, ever be over, and I believe that the decline in Pokémon antagonists began with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

Anyways. They somehow make it worse with the entirety of the Rainbow Rocket plot. They further make Lusamine less remarkable and turn her into a damsel in distress, all for the sake of the nostalgia gauntlet that was the whole RR post-game. Honestly, in my opinion, there was no reason for that to happen at the Aether Foundation. You mean to tell me, that a group of megalomaniac men who all were WINNERS in their respective timelines, all decided that they didn’t have good enough resources for— whatever the fuck they wanted to continue doing, and had to go and storm Aether? And they managed to that simply by— having Faba hand over the keys.

It makes me want to throw my head through an entire wall and eat my own shoe.

I truly refuse to believe that the entirety of Aether would just surrender in a situation like that. It just made all of those characters look ridiculous. I’m so bitter and annoyed by it.

I’m also especially annoyed, because it isn’t as if Sun & Moon Lusamine and Aether as a whole were just standard, run-of-the-mill antagonists, this was a MAJOR organization that rivaled the other science-heavy syndicates in the games. They make it way too abundantly clear that Lusamine is almost like the opposite side of the coin to Giovanni. Aether made contact with Ultra Space. Aether captured Ultra Beasts AND designed the Beast Ball specifically to hold those beasts. Aether had the technology and brilliance to conduct the Type: Full & Beast Killer projects in order to create Type: Null and Silvally. The RKS System is an attempt to replicate ARCEUS. Aether didn’t even need to get Silph Co to work with them in order to accomplish this— Lusamine and Aether funded this on their own. And while the Beast Ball and Silvally aren’t exactly as impressive as the Master Ball and Mewtwo on paper, those are still major accomplishments that the majority of the world cannot claim.

They could had done something far more compelling and given respect to Lusamine’s character if they treated her and Aether as a symbolic competitor to Rocket. It would had spoken volumes to both organizations if there was an actual fight put up in order for Rainbow Rocket’s siege to be successful, because I know damn well my lady here wouldn’t just let a bunch of men roll up to the Aether Paradise and take it. She has UB’s for fuck’s sake.

I also still refuse to believe that somebody like Lysandre would willingly work alongside Giovanni, but, that’s a different rant for a different day. Love all these characters, but that whole entire plot was executed poorly.

And don’t even get me started on how it got even W O R S E in PokeMas. “Oh wow who could had leaked this sensitive information wow nobody in the foundation could had done that—“ Lusamine said as Faba was literally standing right there, the same Faba who had already done the same bullshit.

I hate it here. Lusamine is my OC now.

The TL;DR version: It could’ve been better.

#anonymous #✧˖°.« 𝚂𝚞𝚋𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝙽𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚎 » Answered

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writers4all · 3 months

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"BAD GUYS DESERVE HAPPY ENDINGS, TOO!" Except It's A Random Person's Essay Opinion On It.

So I've legit lost count the number of times I've seen people say that villains deserve to get a fairytale Happily Ever After and whatnot. But here's the thing ... I always get the vibe that they mean it as in it's always rainbows and butterflies (it's not) where the good guy gives the bad guy a Heel-Face Turn.

No, no, no. Stop right there.

While I don't entirely mind there being complicated af relationships going on in stories — OG Fiction or Fanfiction, it matters not — we really need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. How about instead of having the bad guy having a Heel-Face Turn or whatever we just flat out have The Bad Guy Win? It's actually been done before, and quite a lot, surprisingly. Here are a couple of examples down below:

Pokemon USUM where the big bads from Gen 1 to Gen 6 (Giovanni, Archie, Maxie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre) won in an alternate timeline.

Most of the SAW films with a vast majority of the traps.

Batman Arkham Knight actually succeeded in doing this by having Scarecrow reveal who Batman truly is ... ... ... ... ... TO THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD VIA LIVE TELEVISION.

Injustice: Gods Among Us played with this when The Joker manages to successfully brainwash Superman into killing Lois Lane. This one's pretty triggering, though, so head's up.

Dragon Ball Z plays with this as well for the timeline Future Trunks is from Cell actually won due to everyone except for Bulma and Trunks dying by the hands of Androids 17 + 18 and Cell.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers played with this for the Rangers actually lost the ability to morph permanently via the morphers they had at the end of the series thus having to obtain the Zeo Crystals to morph into the Zeo Rangers and not the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Mortal Kombat 11 plays with this if you choose Shang Tsung over God Liu Kang and have it to where Raiden and Fujin are mindless servants.

Something similar happens in Injustice 2 where you choose Superman over Batman to where the latter becomes a mindless servant of the former (thus scarring the young Supergirl).

With all of that being said, why not have it to where the villains do have a happy ending but not in the way we expect it. Get your readers emotionally invested to where they're not happy with the outcome kind of like when Sephiroth killed Aerith out of nowhere in the OG FF7. Or, if you really want to, make it to where they get a kick out of it kind of like how The Joker makes Batman laugh at the end of The Killing Joke. Just have the bad guy win every now and again.

#the bad guy wins #writing advice #writing tips #villains #antagonists #antagonist #protagonists #protagonist #good guys vs bad guys #good guys #bad guys #happy endings #happy ending #happily ever after #heel-face turn

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shinysamurott9 · 1 month

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2024 Games: Pokemon Sword

So this was a bit of a weird time. This is a pretty long read as after playing this game after so many years that, along with the borderline nuclear fallout that was the fandom reaction to it, was a major contributor to me kind of falling out of active interest in pokemon, my ultimate takeaway was that the game was actually not that bad. It was pretty fun, a little underrated even.

My history with this game starts around 2018ish. USUM had come out and I really liked that game. Gen 7 was an all around good time overall which I still appreciate today. The release that year was Let's Go, which I'll be real, I wasn't a fan of it in premise, I'm still not tbh. I could go into that but, in short, it was a game I had little to no interest in and I ultimately decided to skip it to see whatever was next. I bring this up because I think this was the start of me falling out of interest in pokemon, at least for a while. But while Let's Go may have planted the seed, SwSh was what solidified it.

Enter the announcement of Sword and Shield, my friends and I were pretty excited for it, the game looked pretty interesting, a region based on England? That's pretty neat. The new pokemon looked really cool too, we were genuinely excited about it. But if you're familiar with this game's history, you know exactly what happened. In the middle of the game’s hype cycle, GameFreak announced the titanically controversial decision to not include roughly half the existing pokedex in the game meaning that many pokemon would simply not exist in Pokemon SwSh. This was probably one of the biggest Internet shitstorms I've ever been witness to, and the whole thing, both the actual decision and visceral reaction, only made worse by bad actors in the community fanning the flame, just really turned me off SwSh and Pokemon as a whole in a way. In some ways it was a good thing, in the time I wasn't playing Pokemon I was exploring other series I was less familiar with like Devil May Cry, Zelda or Xenoblade or further exploring series I hadn't fully played yet like Metroid or Mega Man, most of which are series I absolutely adore today.

I still kept up with Pokemon to some extent, mostly playing the games while keeping my distance from the wider community. I played BDSP when it released and was not as disappointed as everyone else while still feeling fairly apathetic to it. Played Legends Arceus when it came out and genuinely loved it for it's fresh take on pokemon while also offering a ton of history and lore on Sinnoh that I really appreciated and I played Scarlet and dropped it a couple days in after discovering Pokeball warps and absolutely breaking the game letting me do a lap around the whole region and getting a lvl 40 starter before ever entering the school. Yhe vast majority of my time with pokemon was playing older games in Gen 3 or shiny hunting. That was til about 6 months ago. I had been playing Emerald and I wanted to take on the Battle Frontier and get the Gold Symbols. While I was prepping to do this I was watching a couple videos on the Ribbon Master Challenge and since I was already doing the Frontier and with the looming closure of Pokemon Bank, I thought that I wanted to take that on. And it's been something I've been working on the past few months. Massive shoutouts to CannedWolfMeat and SirToastyToes for their excellent videos that inspired me to do this. And now I'm here basically at the end,prepping to play through Scarlet for the the last few Ribbons in that game.

Of course though, In order to get the ribbons in Sword, I had to actually play through it for the first time. The playthrough, while really easy Leon and early Klara not withstanding, was extremely strong in terms of options for team members, especially with Isle of Armor options thrown in. I love pokemon games that offer a large variety of team members to use, it's a big reason I enjoy XY more than most. I found myself using 10 whole team members by the end of the playthrough. Would have had more but I literally never found Applin and Cursola is Shield exclusive. Many of these were new Galarian Pokemon which are for the most part fantastic. Galar imo has one of the strongest lineups of new pokemon in the series, though I feel Alola did regional forms better. Seriously though, I was using all these guys by the end.

Something thatvalso surprised me was the locations. While the Wild Area is a little boring, I found myself enjoying many of the locations. The two big cities, Hammerlocke and Motostoke are cool and feel very large, Ballonlea and the Glimwood Tangle are actually really great areas visually and Wyndon is imo, one of the best cities we've seen in a Pokemon Game in terms of both scale and looks. While I do like these areas, I will say progressing through them is extremely linear, it feels like there's very little opportunity to go off the beaten path. It's a pretty big shame when even more linear games like XY or Gen 7 had at least a couple of optional areas to explore.

I will say the main story isn’t great. I enjoyed some of the characters. Bede had a neat story with him basically trying to get validation from a father figure who doesn't seem to care much about him. Marnie was an all around good character with some fun interactions who genuinely is just doing her best for her home town and much of the dlc cast like Mustard, Klara and Peony were genuinely entertaining. I did enjoy some of the main game side characters too like Bea and Piers.

Where the plot falls is, well, the plot, not a lot really happens. The game does build up Rose's plan with Eternatus, but you're kept out of the action for most of the events leading up to it. The game basically doesn't have an antagonist until right at the end, where it just kinda feels forced. Everything with Macro Cosmos at Rose Tower only happens because Leon was meeting Rose and we didn't like that for some reason? And of course there's the climax with Eternatus, where as everyone and their mother has pointed out, Rose basically unleashes the apocalypse because he couldn't wait one day to solve a problem 1000 years away. I do like how nonchalant he is about it though, that's kind of funny and Eternatus is actually a pretty cool legendary, though there really isn't much on it storywise beyond the fact it crashed to Earth 3000 years ago and it is the source of Dynamax.

The DLCs though do have more interesting stories. With Isle of Armor focusing on Klara and her being humbled through the dojo and then bonding with Kubfu to raise him to his ultimate form. And Crown Tundra was actually really interesting as you have Calyrex be an actual character. The king of the land who lost his power over time, seemingly losing faith in himself and subsequently losing the people's worship and his steeds. Heck the fact that Calyrex properly talks to you really helps make him and his story stand out from other legendaries and is really neat I think.

I will say, there may be something to be said about how many of the best parts of this game are locked behind DLC. I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, the DLC itself definitely justifies its purchase, but I do agree that the main game is a little lacking in some areas that the DLC does help make up for but that of course has the price tag attached. I also have to say the way the DLC is designed is a liitle strange. While Isle of armor does a decent job being something you can do at any point. Having access to the Crown Tundra as early as the Wild Area is extremely weird. The levels don't scale like the Wild Area or Isle of Armor so no matter when you go there you'll be fighting stuff in the high 50s or low 60s. While this does mean you can't catch anything in the wild, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing the Dynamax adventures and catching not just a massive variety of overleveled fully evolved mons but basically any legendary from the previous generations. And with that stuff, it's not unreasonable to be able to do literally everything in the Tundra after that except for catching Calyrex. While I would agree this is a fair decision, when you're already handing me literally anything I could want to steamroll the game, blocking off Calyrex and only Calyrex just seems weird.

For some other Miscellaneous stuff. The Battle Tower: It's pathetically easy, especially by previous Tower standards. The NPCs are limited to the Pokedex available at launch and you have no restrictions on useable mons. I'm not really complaining about this as it felt good to have a Facility that was basically just a victory lap after doing every other Tower in the past 6 months or so, and it is very worthwhile to do for rewards like Bottle Caps, Candies and the Nature Mints. 50 BP for one mint sounds like a lot but it's really not as bad as it sounds. But it is slso incredibly funny that shit like this is allowed.

Speaking of, the Nature Mints, those are a genuinely fantastic addition to the series. I'm very happy to see how accessible optimising pokemon has become since Gen 7. Between Hyper Training, Very easy levelling with jow many candies you can get through Raids, Nature Mints, easily accessible EV Training through the dojo and items like the Ability Capsule and Patch (Even with how expensive the patch is in SwSh), you can make pretty much any pokemon perfectly optimised for competitive use with, for the most part, not much time investment, it's genuinely great.

One thing I have to say as someone who enjoys a bit of Shiny Hunting, SwSh are kind of a slap in tge face with how many mons are shiny locked. Stuff like Type Null which was huntable in Gen 7, the starters which are a cardinal sin to shiny lock imo, and Cosmog who has literally no practical reason to be shiny locked when you can get Solgaleo or Lunala from the Max Lair with massively boosted shiny odds. It only really reinforces how little reason there actually is to shiny lock stuff imo and SwSh has among the most in the series. It's extremely annoying. Doesn't help that the game’s shiny hunting method is kinda eh, and wasn't properly figured out til ages after it's release.

So overall, I do think SwSh is a pretty flawed game, but I feel like it has a lot of strong aspects that get overlooked due to how initial reactions colored people's opinion on the game. Is it the best pokemon game? Not by a long shot imo. Is it still good though? I would say so yeah. I'd put it around B Tier I think. It has made me pretty interested to get to SV, which I'll have to do soon for the last few ribbons.

#My stuff #2024 games talk #Pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon swsh #pokemon ribbons #ribbon master

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rubalotl · 4 months

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I've been contemplating how I want my 2024 to go. There are three pillars of my life that I want to focus on and balance.

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Lifestyle 🥦🏃🕉 • I want to get stricter with what I eat again and go back to more strict keto like I used to do and set a schedule for when I eat. • I want to start running once we approach spring because it's a fantastic way to do HIIT workouts. • I want to meditate more and start learning more about spirituality again.

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Art 🎨 • Get the script to Lotl Life to feel complete and easy to follow when making comic pages. • Make references for AT LEAST Lotl and Api, preferably more Toonocosm OCs too. • Do things to make art FUN. The tricky thing is getting myself to WANT to sit down and spend my time drawing, how do I do that? I want to build something up and feel like I'm making progress, and NOT stagnate. It's the stagnation that makes me feel burnt out. I want to feel seen and appreciated and feel like what I create has value for myself and others.

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Gaming 🎮 • I want to play through: Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak, Coromon, Faefarm, and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. • Possibly also: Moonstone Island, Paleo Pines, and Little Kitty Big City. I'm sure there will be some surprise drops throughout the year. • I'm going to continue playing Guild Wars 2 because I love it, and I still want to play more Planet Zoo. • Low priority goal, but I want to shiny hunt the legendaries I don't have as shinies in USUM and Shining Pearl. I also gotta shiny hunt VC Crystal Celebi, that's high priority.

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Other things 📝 • Dad and I are going to restructure their entire kitchen garden this spring and plant fun stuff. • I'm going to contact LSS and see if I can get a contact person to help break my isolation and help me deal with agencies.

#bookmarking this post so I can remind myself of my goals #rubabble

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cyberdragoninfinity · 7 months

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What do you think about the mainline Pokemon games (RBY, GSC, etc.)?

LIKE...... IN GENERAL, OR..?????

ok well. let's see. there's ones I like and ones I don't, naturally. I said this in another ask but imo Pokemon design gets cooler and stronger with each passing generation, even if the games themselves weren't that good. LOVE Galar's designs for the most part, but good god Sword and Shield were not. good games. >__>

I'm eternally partial to RSE (Ruby was my first pkmn game, Hoenn's still one of my favorite regions, the Gen 3 era soundtrack is so nostalgic to me.) Gen 4 was a monumental generation for so many reasons, Platinum is a just a goddamn good game, and BDSP is a fucking embarassment lol. I love Gen 5's games, I've been wanting to replay Black sometime, I miss her. White 2 I think my be my favorite mainline Pokemon game of all time (though I have to be real, Violet is up there now too--warts (and bugs) and all, Scarvio was the most fun I've had in a mainline pokemon game in YEARS, and the story knocked my ass clean into the street. I just like it! I love Paldea!!)

I love Alola's Dex, I love so much of Sun and Moon's story and characters, and I fucking wish they were better games, I wish USUM wasn't a letdown (as much as Necrozma's everything makes me insane.) I didn't grow up with RBY or GSC so I don't really have any nostalgic attachment to them at all lol--in RBY's case I played the virtual console DS version and kind of. did not enjoy myself at all HHSGGDFG i would be perfectly content never going to Kanto in a pokemon game ever again.

Legends Arceus also kicked ass and I genuinely hope they do more games like that in the future. If they do Legends Unova I'll go absolutely ape, slash pos. (or whatever it is it seems like they're lurking towards with whatever the next 'big' game is, Unova wise--I genuinely dont think it's BW remakes (which also I don't think they should even make in the first place; the games look FINE, just PORT THEM FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.))

Scarlet and Violet's soundtrack goes so fucking hard.

And. um. X and Y's graphics aged like murky dogshit 🥴

#fgjdghfgh just a smattering of thoughts. pokemon opinions i feel confident enough sharing #that wont make me have to go into witness protection for saying. lmao #pokemon chattering #asks #anonymous

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doggendoodle · 1 month

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just finished Pokémon Y today (technically Wilting Y, a difficulty hack) and have been having the time of my life with Ultra Moon and ORAS, and I need everyone who kept complaining that Pokémon "went downhill" as soon as they went 3D to shut the fuck up actually

Pokémon X and Y were alright - not amazing, but far from the garbage people kept calling it - and ORAS and USUM are fucking high-tier. in fact I will gladly say that so far, I consider them on the same level as Platinum

in fact I've never felt more confident that the culprit for the sharp decline is entirely the yearly release cycle - more specifically, playing Ultra Moon and seeing how much Shield poorly cribbed from it has basically cemented my pre-existing theory that Galar was part filler episode, part tech demo, and that if they were allowed to not release any mainline games for a couple of years after USUM that even with it being filler, Sword and Shield would have been vastly improved and people would have been a lot more receptive to it

update: USUM is just as good as Black and White. you will not sway me on this

#and also maybe scarlet and violet wouldn't have had skyrim level bugs #because that game was EASILY the best made in the entire series but i cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone ever #pokemon

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blueberry-gills · 10 days

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Alola! Or just. Hello! right, that's only for alola....

Anyway! My...uh. You can call me Dillisk! That's like, a code name. My real name situation is a bit of a mess right now, sorry ,^_^ I. Have vague memories of another name-? But for now, Dillisk works best.

She/He! I'm a member of the Ultra Recon Squad! The Ranger Division, to be precise! If you don't know, they're a squad that...does reconnaissance! We research Ultra Space, Ultra Beasts, light...among other things. We're stationed in Ultra Megalopolis, usually. But we do plenty of travel to other worlds!

Uh...right! 'Trainer' card. It looks a little weird, but...it should suffice, I think.

Yeah! Uh. I made this blog so I could...actually have a social life? I think that'd be fun. ^^ Maybe find out more about. Me. Where I'm from? If this site really is connected to the multiverse and all. Ooh! Maybe I'll post pictures of work or something! I don't....think that violates any NDAs or anything....?

Oh! Right. Here are my partners!

Ink (Poipole) ((UB-00A Adhesive if you like to go with the codenames ig)) - My main partner! I've been with them for a while. They, uh...still can't really control their poison and everything, but it's fine! I'm...mostly adjusted to it! ^<^

Quill (Celesteela) ((UB-04A Blaster)) - Technically, they're not my partner! I just caught them on a mission (With a Beast Ball !), and they're still associated with my ID. They're currently recovering, and I'm thinking of applying to have them officially added to my team...but! Well. Ultra Beasts are rather dangerous and all ,^_^ Quill's wonderful though! But. Uh. They can't really. Fit in most public spaces. 👍

Uh! That's all! Feel free to talk if you'd like! Until next time! ^^

Picrew Link!

//Get Ultra Gill'd !

//I have so much Ultra Space brainrot it's wild. This is the culmination of playing so much of that Ultra Space ride minigame in USUM to get all the shiny Pokemon in there ajkdgjjgdjdfk

// !! I also made too much lore for her too so uh we'll see what happens JAKSDFGDDL

//THERE WILL BE!! 2 ASK GAMES REBLOGGED FOR THIS EVENT!! probably. One because it fits the theme, and another because it'll offer lore insight. Just wanna say that because I can, as u do

#pkmn irl #pokemon irl #pokeblr #pokeblogging #rotomblr #tw memory loss #tw amnesia #<- Implied!#milkyway myosotis event #dillisk posting

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quixot1sm · 8 months

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what exactly is it that inspired you to start hilbertverse, and/or was the thing that ignited its start ? i've been getting really similar devoted feelings for another game lately and it's really cool seeing someone else thinking this far with the pieces they've been handed and taking them way farther than people ever thought :O

so because my favorite game is pkmn white version, i used to do this thing every two years where id reset and play through it all over again. i did this again in 2020, but for some reason, i inexplicably got very attached to my starter... and that was cordelia!

this was just after i'd tried and failed to make ocs out of my swsh team + trainer because lol swsh, so i decided i'd attempt to do so again but with the pokemon i'd use in this particular playthrough instead. i really wanted to make them well-rounded, with a background and story and development, so i found that the best way to utilize them would be to assign them as the team of the bw protagonist. from there, hilbert as a character started to form.

it's worth mentioning that at this time, my dear friend @/deathsofglitter had been working on their interpretation of the aether cast from sumo/usum, so they definitely inspired me to really dig deeper into making something of bw/2's potential!

it's been over 3 years since i started this, lots has changed (hilbert used to be high energy and spunky. could you imagine.), and i'm proud of how far i've come with it! thank you, and i hope you have fun too!!

#asks #anonymous #i don't reset white anymore because it'd take the literal apocalypse to delete the hilbert file now

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neon-moon-beam · 2 months

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I've seen these things widely disliked in Pokemon games from SwSh onwards, and I'm hoping they'll be taken into account in the future (spoilers for SV and their DLCs):

Nobody is a fan of long intros, excessive tutorials, hand-holding throughout the intro and at other parts of the game, etc (though I haven't played SM or USUM, I've heard these games have it fairly bad too). SwSh at least allows you to skip the catching tutorial if you already have caught a Pokemon by the time Leon goes to show you, but this did not return later. Excessively long intros and tutorials can make a game hard to get into, and it's worse for returning players unless the mechanics have drastically changed. Hand-holding makes the player feel like they're playing little more than a playable cutscene.

Time travel just...isn't a good idea if it's not leading to anything. PLA didn't even resolve its time travel plotline, let alone explain how Ingo got there. SV left so many details about the time machine up in the air. And just what was the Pokemon that attacked Mabostiff? Arven would have accused Koraidon/Miraidon of doing so if the more aggressive one had done it since he doesn't know there's a second one, and you'd think he'd react to a paradox Pokemon of the same species on the way down to the Zero Lab, but he doesn't. We're just left to theorize. If a serious plot point isn't going to conclude, it's probably best not to do it at all. Being left to guess, theorize, hope for answers later, or get answers in supplementary material stops being fun fast, if it's fun at all. Time travel as a plot point just seems to cause more problems than create an interesting story.

So many people are not happy that the player was forced to lie to Kieran for the sake of the plot. You can argue that yes, Kieran's grandfather asked the player and Carmine not to tell him the truth yet, and the player, not being a member of the family, had no right to mess with what was technically not their business. However, it just doesn't sit well with so many people, especially because we're supposed to be befriending Kieran, and in the end it's something that took a lot of players out of the story. It may have been the most forced plot point of SV.

A lot of people are disappointed that at the end of the base game of SV, we weren't allowed to hug Arven, or otherwise comfort him in some way. The guy just found out that his estranged parent has been dead for years and had to meet the AI that's been impersonating his parent since then. And all this after nearly losing his Mabostiff. Instead of being able to comfort our friend in his time of need and newfound trauma, we instead decide to take a long, back road back to school like that just makes everything better. Doesn't make one feel like a good friend.

People were looking forward to Secret Bases in BDSP until they found out that instead of having a variety of decor to use as we did in DPPt, we instead got a bunch of statues. People were also hoping to decorate the dorm rooms in SV. The closest we got was changing the decor theme and music in the BB League club room, but even then the options were very limited. People enjoy being able to make a space their own, as well as being able to show it to others.

The school uniforms in SV were...not well liked. After a few games with many options for clothing, being forced into a uniform wasn't fun. The uniforms were often hard to coordinate with (particularly the Naranja Academy outfit) and even the jinbei and BB Academy uniforms often stifled creative expression. A lot of people were not happy about the complete lack of skirts and dresses in SV. Apparently this may have been due to them not wanting to upskirt people on Koraidon/Miraidon, but in SwSh all the skirts have modesty shorts built in. Not sure why, other than time constraints, this couldn't be implemented for SV.

There's probably a lot more, but this is what I've seen and heard a lot in my experience.

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