
House Venomoth: Bright Wings, Dark Winds
One lunatic's love-hate relationship with the Pokémon franchise, and his addled musings on its rights, wrongs, ins and outs. Come one, come all, and indulge my delusions of grandeur as I inflict my opinions on anyone within shouting distance.

House Venomoth: Bright Wings, Dark Winds

House Parasect: Spread the Spore

House Bellossom: We Dance with the Dawn
What do you think of the new formes of Zygarde that were revealed? They turned him into Cell from DBZ.
Oddly enough, Dragon Ball Z’s Cell is not what leaps out at me, though I certainly wouldn’t want to rule him out as a possible influence. Conceptually, the way Zygarde’s forms are described – scattered cells that operate independently, gaining full power when they reunite – that reminds me, more than anything else, of Jenova from Final Fantasy VII. The black and green colour scheme, the notion of many individual units working as one under a single intelligence, along with Zygarde’s existing designation as the Order Pokémon… well, that, bizarrely enough, calls to my mind Star Trek’s Borg Collective. The red and blue elements of Zygarde’s “perfect” form hint at Yveltal and Xerneas being somehow absorbed (or assimilated? :-p) into it – which sounds like Cell, I admit, but is already something that exists in Pokémon, in the person of Kyurem’s augmented forms. In any case… all this possibly has interesting symbolic resonance with Zygarde’s presumed role as guardian of Kalos’ ecosystem, in that Zygarde is itself, apparently, a self-contained ecosystem of sorts, a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. A strikingly appropriate theme for the “Order Pokémon,” I think.
Also, I feel compelled to note that Bulbapedia seems to have decided that Zygarde’s dog and humanoid forms are based (in line with the Norse mythology theme that someone decreed back when X and Y were released) on Jormungandr’s siblings, Fenrir and Hel, respectively. Hel, the goddess of the underworld, who was a beautiful woman above the waist and a rotting corpse below. I mean, okay, maybe this is what they’re referencing, but if so, they’re doing it badly. It’s a stretch, for me. Presumably if Zygarde’s “10%” form were a goat, people would be saying it was based on Tanngniost and Tanngrisnir; if it were a horse, people would point at Sleipnir; if it were a boar, people would point to Gullinbursti. I have little patience for that whole conceptual house of cards.
So hey I just wanted to let you know you’re like my favorite single blog I follow that isn’t run by one of my personal IRL friends and you make me laugh all the time. I also thought that you Roman Glass thing was facinating (even if I admit Im in a very small demographic) and would love to see more history stuff.
D’awww, thanks! Knowing that people enjoy it is probably the main reason I keep this up, so it’s much appreciated! I sort of feel bad about spending a lot of my time on the history/archaeology stuff instead of Pokémon stuff, since it’s (I assume) not really what most people read my blog for – but sometimes if a topic is on my mind a lot anyway from work, it’s easier to bang something out quickly. I’ll definitely keep that up, subject to inspiration striking. 🙂

House Vileplume: In Dusk We Bloom

House Crobat: We Feast on Weakness

House Wigglytuff: Music Hath Charms

House Ninetales: Ashes Avenged

House Clefable: Our Destiny Amongst the Stars