Category: Reader Questions

Anonymous asks:

What is the typical day like for a trainer like youngster Joey?

Joey gets up bright and early every day at 7:00 sharp, devours some toast and a bowl of cereal, and rushes out to try and fit in some training with Rattata before school.  He’s not really supposed to bring Rattata to school ever since the infamous Cheese Curds Debacle in the school music room, but he just can’t bear to be separated from his special little guy, so he reminds Rattata every day to stay curled up quietly inside his Pokéball while he’s in class (Joey doesn’t really understand how Pokéballs work, but he assumes Rattata is curled up in there). Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

Are you more of a cat person or a dog person? Which cat and dog Pokémon are your favorites?

I’m definitely a cat person; no offence to dogs, but I like quieter, less bouncy pets.  As for Pokémon… honestly I kinda think both cat and dog Pokémon are a *little* bit overdone at this point, and a lot of the cats are kind of dull… Glameow, Purrloin and Skitty are all pretty generic Pokémon… Litleo and Litten are amusing, I suppose… Espurr is fun; the whole “uncontrollable psychic fury” angle gives her something to stand out.  I’m not sure whether Shinx is a cat or not, but he’s fine. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

What languages can you speak/sign?

I basically just know tiny bits of a bunch of different languages, but not quite enough of any of them to actually be useful – French, Italian, German, modern Greek, Maori… and I can read and write Latin and ancient Greek pretty well.  As a classics grad student, you’re basically expected to be able to read anything that’s put in front of you, whether or not you’ve studied the language before (you tend to get told things like “this book is in Dutch, but it’s really useful, so good luck”), so you get pretty good at just muddling through with a dictionary and general knowledge of how translation works without ever reaching actual fluency in any one language.

Anonymous asks:

What are some Sinnoh locations you’re excited to see in 3D, when that comes? I’m personally excited for the three lakes, Floaroma (them flowers man), Sunyshore (considering what they did to Mauville in ORAS…), Stark Mountain (laaaavaaaa!), and of course the Arceus-damn Distortion World!

Y’know, other than the Distortion World I’m not sure anything really sticks out.  I’d like to see what they’d do with the Gyms, though; some of the revamped Gyms from Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby were pretty cool, and it’d be nice to see, say, the Eterna and Pastoria Gyms get that treatment.  Honestly though, I’m not super excited about anything that a Sinnoh remake would do, and once we get into the fourth generation I’m not sure updated graphics are a huge draw anymore; the originals hold up a lot better than the third generation games did.

Nakedviolentedpenguin asks:

we have to wait a long time for Ultra Beast reviews, so i want to know some of your thoughts (maybe “review snippets” about Pheromosa, Kartana, Nihilego and Celesteela. (Dont care about the rest, but if you will…)

I don’t really want to comment on them individually before I’ve thought it through properly; you’ll just have to wait, I’m afraid (and I really haven’t properly examined them; off the top of my head I don’t even know what type Kartana is).  On the Ultra Beasts generally… well, aesthetically they definitely succeed at being “alien” and making you wonder “wait, are these even Pokémon?  What else could they be?”  I’m a little sceptical of the Beast Boost ability; it’s certainly strong, but I think I would have preferred abilities that differentiated them a little more.  Obviously it functions differently for different Beasts because it boosts different stats, but because it works as a momentum-building ability, that kinda just serves to make it much better for the aggressive ones who want to be sweeping (e.g. Pheromosa) than for the defensive ones who want to be tanking (e.g. Guzzlord).

Random Access asks:

The only Pokémon with multiple mega evolutions are Charizard and Mewtwo. In Pokémon Origins, Red is given a key stone and a Charizard mega stone by Mr. Fuji, who was also said to have a hand in creating Mewtwo. Do you think there might be some sort of connection?

Ehh… honestly… no, not really.  If that was supposed to be a significant detail, I think Origins probably would have found a way to show one of Mewtwo’s mega evolutions.  I don’t really see anything there that rises above the level of coincidence.

Anonymous asks:

I think they should de-nerf Hyper Beam (and all its variations like Giga Impact and the starter types’ “ultimate moves”) back to Gen I mechanics where it doesn’t need to recharge if it knocks out an opposing Pokémon. What do you think?

Not sure.  I don’t think I’d be opposed to that for Hyper Beam and maybe Giga Impact specifically – Hyper Beam gets used on just about everything in generation I, to the extent that you could maybe argue it’s oppressive, but that’s partly because so many Pokémon just don’t have anything better to do in generation I (there are no really good Fighting, Rock or Ghost attacks, no Bug or Poison ones that are even decent, and basically no Dragon attacks at all), which is no longer the case.  I don’t think allowing everyone to have a good Normal-type special attack is going to break all that much; Normal attacks are terrible anyway.  Even Rock Wrecker is probably fine; Rhyperior’s probably too slow to abuse it.  However, I am extremely antsy about giving, say, Blast Burn with these mechanics to Infernape and Blaziken, or Hydro Cannon to Greninja (for that matter, Roar of Time might be worth a raised eyebrow, but hey, if we care about balancing Dialga, the ship has sailed on that one).  That might be asking for trouble.

Anonymous asks:

Now that you’ve seen all the Alolan forms, I’ve a thought to share: the types they gave to the Alolan forms are all types that have either 0 or 1 representative among Gen I Pokémon. Think about it: Persian, Raticate, & Muk got Dark while Ninetales got Fairy (neither repped in Gen I), Sandslash & Dugtrio got Steel (only Magneton), Exeggutor got Dragon (only Dragonite), & Marowak got Ghost (only Gengar). The exceptions are Raichu (but Pikachu’s popular) & Golem, for which I got nothing. Thoughts?

There actually are Fairy-types in generation I: Jigglypuff, Clefairy and Mr. Mime (if Magneton counts, so do they).  I don’t think this says anything interesting, other than maybe that Game Freak likes type diversity.  Could be they want to give the first generation a bit more of the types that were introduced later.