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.
Also, Drayden IS pretty hot
Eh. I mean, sure, I can see it, but he’s not really my type. Too gruff and beardy. And how old do you think he is? Dude’s been kicking around since before Pokéballs were a thing, supposedly. He’s gotta be pushing 80, at least.
Do you think it’s time that Pokemon games got rid of the whole “Team Evil” tradition? It seems that they’re just constraining their storylines a lot more by requiring that every villain be the boss of an evil organization. And I feel like Lysandre, for example, would have worked a lot better as a stand-alone villain.
It sort of depends on how much you value the idea of “Team Evil” as a traditional element of the games’ story, like having a choice of three Grass/Fire/Water starters or completing the Pokédex. Personally I tend to like the idea of ditching as many of the formulaic elements of the games as they can get away with, and I think I more or less agree with your assessment of Lysandre (it’s important to note here that his plan does actually imply the presence of an inner circle that he wants to survive the Ultimate Weapon, but that inner circle doesn’t have to be a “team” in the standard Pokémon sense). I think that as long as they insist on keeping a standard set of elements like this, they’re probably never going to come up with a really excellent story that rivals the best games produced by other companies (either Japanese or western). They can keep improving on their own past efforts, though, and I’m still happy to see them do that.
Having just replayed red, I cam honestly say… I just dont get what people mean when they say Blue is a jerk. Like, is it cos he’s kinds cocky? Hes not that hard to beat, so I cant really relate to the whole “rivals used to be challenging!” Rhetoric. imo the hardest rival was probably N.
I wasn’t aware there was such a thing as “rivals used to be challenging” rhetoric. But sure, if there is, it strikes me as probably quite silly.
Anyway, Blue. I think he’s clearly meant to be a jerk, because the whole thing with Oak turning up at the end of the game to call him out for not loving his Pokémon enough doesn’t really make sense if he’s not. Personally I think that, above and beyond just thinking he’s better than you, he consistently goes out of his way to be insulting to you and diminish your accomplishments. Like, I don’t know if he’s necessarily a bad person (well, I mean, he probably is, since he turns up at Silph Co. during the Team Rocket takeover and doesn’t lift a finger to help, but you could easily put that down to poor writing) but he always struck me as rather unpleasant to be around.
I miss douchebag rivals like blue and silver. Why dont they make more characters like that? Do you think they should?
Hmm. Well, it sort of depends what you mean by “douchebag rivals.”
I think rival characters should say something interesting about what it means to be a Pokémon trainer, and sometimes characters with major negative qualities can be good ways to do that. “Nice” rivals like Bianca can do the same thing in different ways, though. Blue was a douchebag because he was supposed to illustrate what a good trainer is not; Silver was a douchebag because he was supposed to illustrate how being a trainer changes you. The closest thing we’ve had to that since Silver is Hugh, who isn’t really a douchebag but does have his troubling anger issues, but he’s sort of doing something different because the point of him is to reframe the Team Plasma conflict with a new perspective. So I suppose I think it’s a matter of whether you can do something clever with it, and what kind of message you can use the character to create.
Adding characters like Colress and Zinnia seem like filler to me. Actually, thinking way, WAYYY back… that guy chasing suicune was the most pointless waste-of-pixels of all of them. What was his name?
Eusine.
Your question has been answered.
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Continue reading “vikingboybilly asks:”We all know you despise Ruin Maniacs, but what’s your favorite Trainer Class and why? (or is this an obvious question and you’re just going to answer ‘Pokémaniac’?)
Well, Pokémaniac, but specifically generation II Pokémaniacs like the one in my Tumblr avatar, where they have the long cape thing and the wide-eyed crazed grin. Not really into that half-baked cosplay they’ve got going in later generations. I’m also quite fond of Channellers and Hex Maniacs.
(And let’s be honest, at least part of the reason I dislike Ruin Maniacs and other fictional archaeologists is because they can just take whatever cool $#!t they want while my friends and I have to be all “responsible” and show “scholarly integrity” or whatever)
How would you design a Champion? I don’t mean in terms of visual design, but personal character and team composition. What kind of profession would they have (if any)? What would their personality be like? What type or theme would they specialize in (if any)? And, of course, what Pokémon would you give them?
Tricky.
Well, we’ve had a rival, a superhero, a geologist, a mythographer, an adventurer, a dragon princess, and an actress… what would I like to have next? Maybe… a politician, a leader? Someone whose philosophy revolves around responsibility, duty, and community? This champion is the mayor of a major city that the player visits on their journey. They’re not on the front lines of crises like Lance, Steven or Alder; instead they’re leading from behind, making sure everyone is where they need to be, when they need to be, protecting civilians from chaos, and taking charge in recovery efforts after disasters. In interactions with the player, they constantly stress the responsibility of Pokémon trainers to use their power and skills for the good of all, and challenge the player to think about how their journey is benefiting people and Pokémon other than themselves. In battle, this Champion’s Pokémon are all Normal-types (because Normal-types need some love), focusing on those that value protectiveness, loyalty or industry – Stoutland, Pyroar, Braviary, Diggersby (with Huge Power, of course) and Sawsbuck, with Mega Kangaskhan to cap it all off.
What do you think of the various Pokemon Champions? We know its a title of prestige but what do you think it functions as besides that? Like Lance is a secret agent, Steven is an archeologist, Diantha is a model/movie star, etc.
I did a series on all the champions a few years ago that goes into wayyyyy more depth than I could justify in answer to this question.
Find them here:
Blue, Lance, Steven, Wallace, Cynthia, Alder, Iris, Diantha
do you have a crush on a pokemon character? and if you don’t, who’s the most fitting to have a crush on? (i know this is weird but meh whatevs) p.s. i’ve been shipping you with silver huehue
…you’re right, this is weird.
Anyway, the first answer is no, and the second is that I’m… not really sure what you mean by “most fitting”? Like… I guess someone who is roughly your age, for starters? And, uh… has a good moral character? Hell, I don’t know; it’s not my job to tell people who they can and can’t write erotic fan fiction about.
why don’t you make a gym leaders series? like, i’m not telling you to do it, it’s just cool, i think. so yeah, hi.
I suppose because I’m not convinced I would have enough to say about each one to make it worthwhile. They don’t have anything like the screentime or character development in the games that the rivals and Champions do, so it’s hard to think of stuff to comment on. The anime is another matter, of course, but to be honest I’d rather just write about the anime than analyse specific characters in it.
Pokémaniacal 