Anonymous asks:

So where would you like to see a region based on? Greece? Italy? Pre-columbian America? (or have you already answered this in your “if i was in charge” stuff?)

You know, I think it came up in the Disqus comments to… something… once… somewhere… which I really can’t be bothered looking for…

I think as a classicist I’m “supposed” to say, like, “ancient Greece!” or “the Aegean!” or “the Mediterranean!” which, you know, don’t get me wrong, I would enjoy and all, and I know a lot of people are really positive about the idea of doing something along those lines, but to be honest, meh?  Do we really need Pokémon to pander to “the West” and its collective fangasm over classical Greek and Roman civilisation like that?  Actually, if I could pick the next Pokémon region, I would almost certainly go for something based on India.  India has a distinctive, recognisable culture, an ancient and glorious history, and an important place in the economy and politics of the modern world, which plays into what I’ve taken to calling Pokémon’s “international spirit.”  The huge variety of climates and terrain types – deserts, mountains, jungles, plains, rivers, swamps, you name it – is the icing on the cake; you can fit almost any damn Pokémon you like in there.  I think an Indian Pokémon region could turn out really cool.

Anonymous asks:

Could you try to fix carnivine for me? I quite like the concept as a beginning but wish there were a bit more…

Like, mechanically speaking?  Eh, I can give it a shot, but no promises…

So, what’s wrong with Carnivine?  Um.  Well.  Just about everything, to be honest, but the short list would be rock-bottom speed, mediocre defences, and a terrible offensive movepool (which does a brilliant job of mitigating the one useful thing about Carnivine, its good – but by no means excellent – attack stat).  So, um… what do we do with that?

Continue reading “Anonymous asks:”

ThatsWhatEllieSaid asks:

YOU LEAVE US AND IWATTA DIES SEE WHAT HAPPENS?!?!??!!? (p.s rip Iwatta and hope your shit is going well)

I CAN’T TAKE CARE OF EVERY LITTLE THING OKAY I TRY TO KEEP THE NINTENDO EXECUTIVES IMMORTAL BUT SOMETIMES ONE JUST SLIPS THROUGH THE CRACKS

(Seriously though… the news about Satoru Iwata is terrible; his death is a tragic loss not just to Pokémon and Nintendo, but to the gaming world as a whole.  His approach to running things was unorthodox at times, but you can’t deny it worked, and his kindness and playfulness made Nintendo what it is today.  55 is too young.)

ThatsWhatEllieSaid asks:

How do you think the government functions in the pokemon universe? I don’t think there’s ever been any reference to any higher powers in either the games or the anime.

Well, Ash and his friends do occasionally encounter local government, in the form of the mayors of a few of the towns they visit.  The mayor of Trovitopolis, in the Orange Islands, is preoccupied with reelection when they meet him in The Mystery Menace, which implies that this particular city’s government is democratic, and in the absence of any further information I would assume that this is true across the board.  To be honest, I think this is one case where, if they don’t tell us anything, it’s probably because they just assume it works the same way as it does in the real world.

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bold0727 asks:

Remember when you made Squiddy? Maybe you should ask your fans to make a rom hack with an entirely new region and Pokemon the community made! It would be a really great project.

Oh gods no.  I mean… not like it wouldn’t be kind of cool but no way do I have the time to coordinate something like that.  Besides, it’s not like there aren’t other people doing that.  What would me and my readers specifically bring to that kind of project?

Anonymous asks:

You mentioned most members of the Marill line technically being transgender. If Pokémon could be transgender, how would this work with your ideas on Pokémon gender?

Disclaimer first of all that my ideas on Pokémon gender are totally bat$#!t and probably bear little resemblance to anything Game Freak’s designers have ever thought in the privacy of their own brains… 

…and secondary disclaimer that since the last time I babbled about Azurill, someone has pointed out to me that Game Freak actually did remove/fix(?) the gender thing in generation VI…

…and tertiary disclaimer that I’m cis and have no close friends who are trans (or… I don’t think I do…), so I kinda don’t really know what I’m talking about here…

…but my understanding is that transgender is basically when your biological sex doesn’t match up with your psychology or the social role you’re comfortable with, and in a world where gender works the way I outlined in that article, this… well, wouldn’t happen.  What little sex differentiation Pokémon exhibit is directly tied to their psychology, so by definition they’re all cisgender.  Which means that if you believe my rambling nonsense, what Azurill is doing is something quite different, where her gender identity actually changes (the point of trans being that your gender identity was the same all along and everything else about you is catching up, so to speak – which is how you’d interpret Azurill if we do think Pokémon have biological sex differentiation), for which I think the term is genderfluid but I’m not really sure?

I’m just confusing myself now so I’ll shut up before I offend anyone I haven’t already.

Rivals, part 7: The X/Y Kids

Serena.
Serena

Okay.  Just me this time.  Jim’s played Omega Ruby, but not X or Y, so he’s not terribly familiar with Serena/Calem and the rest of the gang from X and Y.  Let’s… see if I can still write one of these on my own, then.  So, first impressions, then; what do we think of the X/Y rivals?

…right, right; it’s just me.  Bollocks; this is harder than I remember.

Continue reading “Rivals, part 7: The X/Y Kids”

RandomAccess asks:

So. Today on E3 2015 they announced that there’s gonna be a Final Fantasy VII remake. If you’ve seen the trailer, what are your thoughts on it?

[N.B. Yes, this is how long it takes me to answer questions sometimes.  If I’m honest, this isn’t even unusual.  Regular readers may wish to begin embedding references to current events in their questions in order to keep me honest.]

Well, aside from that once dalliance with Final Fantasy VII two years ago, I’m not really an aficionado of the series, and I don’t exactly have strong opinions about it.  Besides which, the trailer basically consists of “we’re remaking Final Fantasy VII; look how pretty our graphics engine is,” so there’s not really anything I can think of to say about it, even if it were particularly close to my heart.  I suppose the one point that really comes to mind for me is that it’s going to be difficult for them to do a strong portrayal of Aeris’ death, because much of its force in the original came from being violently unexpected, and a big chunk of their market for this game will be people who’ve played the original.  They’re going to have to think long and hard about that one.  Beyond that… le shrug.

However, Jim the Editor, who grew up with Final Fantasy VII, would like to add, and here I quote: “ZOMGIAMSOFUKKKINEXCITEDTHEYBETTERNOTFUKKTHISUP.”