Anonymous asks:

I think anime Jessie would find Team Skull appealing, don’t you? What with her growing up poor and becoming a criminal to ‘stick it to the man’ as it were, that’s some Team Skull motivation right there! Not sure if she and Guzma would get on, though… Maybe a frenemy relationship with Plumeria?

Well, I’ve seen exactly one and a half episodes of the Sun/Moon anime, and Team Skull did not feature, so grain of salt and all that, but yeah, I actually think all three of our Team Rocket trio would find a lot to like in Team Skull as they’re presented in the games. Jessie and Meowth would sympathise with their disadvantaged position in Alola’s society and respect their ambition, and I think James – despite his own privileged background – has enough of a rebellious streak to appreciate their desire for change. Also, given that a lot of individual members of Team Skull are actually not particularly malicious, I kinda think James and Jessie would fit right in, with their “only evil because I’m supposed to be” attitude. Jessie and Guzma would immediately battle to the death for control of the team though.

Random Access asks:

So the fundamental concepts of modern physics is older than the concept of the four classical elements?

(follow-up to this)

Ehhhhh, I wouldn’t go that far. It’s more that Thales lived in a time of… let’s call it experimentation. The Greek philosophers of the 6th century BC were kinda throwing stuff at the wall to see what would stick. His notion that water might be the one fundamental “stuff” was just one of several ideas being tossed around at the time; other philosophers suggested air, or aether, and of course the idea that wound up dominating was Empedocles’ belief that there were four different kinds of fundamental “stuff” (earth, water, fire and air). Continue reading “Random Access asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

We all know you hate Arceus and the Jewel of Life, but what’s your FAVORITE Pokémon movie? This does not count TV specials (like the Mewtwo origin) or Origins/Generations. Mine’s probably The Power of One, simply because of pure nostalgia!

Y’know, I gotta be honest, most of them are pretty dumb in a lot of ways; like, I give Jewel of Life a lot of $#!t but Rise of Darkrai gets seriously trippy in places and I’m still not sure what the point of Victini and Reshiram/Zekrom was supposed to be.

Also, in fairness, there are several I haven’t seen.

But I guess I’m a fan of Power of One too, and that probably is nostalgia to some extent, but I still feel in retrospect like the way it treated its legendary Pokémon was relatively sane, most of the characters felt like they actually had reasons to be there (even Team Rocket), and, y’know what? The whole “thus the world shall turn to Ash” thing was satisfying. Dumb. Corny. But satisfying.

Random Access asks:

I think Macargo’s nonsensical body temperature makes a lot more sense if it’s interpreted as an internal body temperature rather than a surface temperature.

…does it, though? It’s still hot enough to vaporise tungsten. What are we supposed to imagine Magcargo’s body is even made of at that point?

EDIT [response]: Well if the heat isn’t on the outside, it would be less dangerous for macargo to, well, exist, as it wouldn’t be on the outside where it’s hot enough to vaporize the atmosphere.

Okay but even then Magcargo’s body still has to be made of something that a) won’t instantly turn into stellar plasma, and b) can actually keep all that heat in.

Anonymous asks:

Do you think Poké Rides should continue to be a thing in future games and/or remakes? I personally think it would be super neat to see different Pokémon in different regions be used for the same purposes (namely, field traversal). Like in Kalos, Rhyhorn fills in the shoes of both Tauros and Mudsdale!

Sure. I think they’re a cool little immersive feature that shows how much people depend on their Pokémon, and using different Pokémon in different regions would be a neat way of showing the uniqueness of their cultures. What’s more, now that Game Freak seem to have finally forsworn the HM system (godawful clunky relic that it was), they probably have to keep doing it. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense to stop at this point.

Anonymous asks:

What do you think of giving Magcargo Desolate Land as a Hidden Ability? I KNOW it’s Primal Groudon’s but come on, that “18,000 degrees Fahrenheit” line should be implemented somehow! Plus, Drought was exclusively Groudon’s until it wasn’t, so I see no reason why Desolate Land should remain exclusive to Primal Groudon. It’d get rid of Magcargo’s double weakness to Water and jack up its Fire attacks. Add Trick Room support and we might make Magcargo usable then.

I don’t think I’m wild about it. For one, I would prefer to keep Desolate Land just for Groudon. It’s true that Drought and Drizzle were exclusive to Groudon and Kyogre until they weren’t, but I also think it matters that, even in generation III, Tyranitar had Sand Stream, so auto-weather as a concept was never exclusive to them. That, and I’m inclined to take the “18,000º F” line as the Pokédex just plain making stuff up. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Pokémon Moon, Episode 18: In Which I Reluctantly Embrace My Alleged Destiny

Four islands, seven trials, four Kahunas, all behind me. In the old days, I’m told, that would have basically been it. I mean, there’s supposed to be a rematch against all four Kahunas up on Mount Lanakila. As far as I can tell, though, that’s traditionally less about the battles themselves and more about getting absolutely plastered on the beach afterwards. The after-party for Professor Kukui’s Final Trial is said to have been the stuff of legends, and saw the genesis of three new cocktails, twenty-four herbal hangover remedies, the Alolan form of Grimer, the character of the Masked Royal, and a devastating new Rock-type move that was instantly banned by sixteen different Pokémon Leagues. Continue reading “Pokémon Moon, Episode 18: In Which I Reluctantly Embrace My Alleged Destiny” →

Anonymous asks:

I’ve been reading about monism and ancient monistic philosophers (particularly Thales), and I find it absolutely fascinating! Could you please explain the topic a little more in-depth, in your usual easy-to-read style? 🙂 I’m also wondering if our current scientific knowledge points to a neo-monistic view of the universe (in that everything is made up of atoms)? (although I understand that atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons) (matter and energy are the same thing, aren’t they?)

Well, pre-Socratic philosophy is not exactly my “thing” but here goes

So Thales was a Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus (modern Milet, western Turkey), probably around the early 6th century BC, who was famous for predicting eclipses, and discovering that any angle in a semicircle is always a right angle, good stuff like that. We don’t have anything written by Thales himself, but we know a fair bit about his thinking and his achievements in engineering and mathematics because he gets quoted a lot by later Greek philosophers. Apparently, one of the things that Thales believed was that everything is water. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →