Category: Other Gaming/Pop Culture Questions

Team Hufflepuff asks:

What are your thoughts on the Harry Potter books/films?

Well, I grew up with the books (I remember Deathly Hallows being released in my last year of high school, and trolling everyone in my Latin class by yelling out “Voldemort is Harry’s father!”), but I haven’t read them in a while.  I think I only saw the first three movies in cinemas, but I’ve watched the rest on my somewhat regular 15-hour trans-Pacific flights to visit my family in New Zealand (I watch a lot of movies on planes).  They’re not super-important to me as, like, formative inspirational building blocks of my developing psyche, but I always enjoyed the books, and they’re part of the general late 90s/early 00s cultural milieu that shaped a lot of people in my age group, same as Pokémon was.

I have taken the Pottermore sorting hat quiz – the definitive quiz, which bears the imprimatur of the Sainted Rowling – a number of times, and have historically been borderline Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw, but my year in Greece may have made me more adventurous and strengthened my convictions, and my most recent result was actually Gryffindor, which was something of a surprise to me.

Intersections with this blog’s normal schtick are of course rare, but you might be interested in an article I wrote shortly after the advent of Pokémon Go, in which I discussed the philosophies of the three competing teams and attempted to link them to (among other things) the values of the Hogwarts houses.

Also, I think that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (the first one; I haven’t seen the second) is a really solid live-action Pokémon movie, and is the standard against which Detective Pikachu should be judged.

Random Access asks:

Have you been watching teamfourstar’s Final Fantasy VII: Machinabriged?

I have, but to be honest I’m not terribly enthused by it.  I think the somewhat more freeform nature of the story after the characters leave Midgar City, with less interaction between the members of Cloud’s party, makes it difficult to abridge, because it’s very much a plot-driven story with a couple of nice character moments, not a character-driven story that also has a decent plot.  It’s an RPG; it’s intentionally designed to give you space to interpret the characters yourself, which is great in its way, but doesn’t give you that much material for parody in the way that Team Four Star’s flagship abridgement, Dragonball Z, does.

Anonymous asks:

Are you a superhero fan at all? Comics, movies, TV series, cartoons, games, anything?

Not particularly.  I’ve watched a fair bit of Arrow and The Flash, and some movies here and there (I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy, which… I don’t know, is that still a “superhero” movie because it’s Marvel, or is it sci-fi?  What are the boundaries there?) but I don’t go out of my way to engage with superhero stuff, and I wouldn’t have called myself a fan of the genre broadly.

Anonymous asks:

I hate asking anything non-Pokémon here (assuming you even answer another, I know this is a Pokémon blog-thing) but in response to that previous Star Wars question, you mentioned the many Bothans who died – wasn’t that to get the plans to the OTHER Death Star? I thought I distinctly remember that being the other Death Star, which was why they weren’t in the movie…

see this is why I’m a Pokémon nerd and not a Star Wars nerd

BennettF asks:

I caught that Doctor Who reference! “Coward, any day.” Great read as usual, I always love your way of looking at things from a realistic point of view and taking that to the logical conclusion. Congratulations on completing your Moon write-up!

Wasn’t actually meant to be a reference to anything, other than my own comments about cowardice in a previous chapter, but sure, let’s roll with it.  I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Anonymous asks:

You play Magikarp Jump yet? If so, do you have any comments or opinions about it. (For me the art and the concept of the game are really cute, but gameplay can get a bit repitive)

I haven’t, and I know I probably should but I’ve got a trip coming up and stuff to organise and I really just want to get on with writing about Sun and Moon, so honestly I’m probably not going to any time soon.