VikingBoyBilly asks:

Do you feel pokemon has ever jumped the shark? Granted, jumping the shark does not automatically mean “became bad,” it just means hitting a drastic turning point it can never return from. For me that’s gen 3, because [long list of reasons].

Well, I would take issue with your understanding of the term “jumping the shark,” because I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a single use of it that hasn’t been negative – TvTropes says “it’s reached its peak, it’ll never be the same again, and from now on it’s all downhill,” while Wikipedia says “the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality.”  But whatever; drastic turning points it is.

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X Nuzlocke, episode 9: On the High Seas

Route 12

Ruby: Look, it’s perfectly simple; as my personal minion, everything you know about the Mega Stones now belongs to me.
Amaldos: And so the stars belong in the sky, yet the sky never sought to constrain the stars to wait out the dawn.
Ruby: Yeah, but… that’s not… that analogy makes no sense.
Amaldos: Of course not; for my senses have taken leave of me.
Ruby: If you’re not going to help me find the stones, then why did you want to come along with us in the first place?
Amaldos: There is something new under the sun, old tricks learned again on borrowed time… and soon, a bolt from the blue.  In a matter of life and death, sometimes a Liepard must find more than one way to skin a Purugly in order to change its spots.
Ruby: …okay, sure.  And… the reason I can’t try using yours is…?
Amaldos: It is mine.
Ruby: Ah.  Well.  Fair enough, then.
Amaldos: When you despise something, keep it close; if it leaves you, it was never worth your hatred in the first place.
Spruce: But if the journey is more important than the destination, then why is the road less travelled… um… always blocked by construction workers?
Amaldos: [long silence]
Spruce: And how does someone who walks off the beaten path find their way up the garden path?
Ruby: Uh…
Amaldos: An Accelgor can never catch a Torkoal that has been given a head start.  There is a place nearby where moss gathers on the wrong side of the trees.  Come, blinded one; let us find your stone and set it rolling.
Ruby: [to Spruce] How the hell do you even do that?
Spruce: [shrugs helplessly]

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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.

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.

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X Nuzlocke, episode 8: Seeing Eye Dogs

Shalour City

Chris: Gosh; that tower’s incredible, isn’t it, Ruby?  I’ve read about it but it’s even more amazing to actually see it!
Ruby: Mmm, I suppose even I must admit it’s rather impr- wait, hang on, you can read!?
Chris: Come on!  Korrina said that’s where she hangs out most of the time; let’s go see her!
Ruby: Yes… yes, the human who travels with those two Lucario.  They’ll not escape me this time.  Whatever secrets they hold will be mine!  MINE!  HA-hahahahaha-HAH!
Fisher: …my lady, I must confess you frighten me sometimes.
Spruce: Sometimes?

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X Nuzlocke, episode 7: Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Reflection Cave

Ruby: So… this is what that Lucario meant by “through the looking-glass,” I suppose.  Load of cryptic nonsense… And there’s no other way to Shalour City, Nidorino?
Martial: None that I know of.  But there may be a benefit to travelling through these caves.  Somewhere within lies a Moon Stone that will allow me to evolve into a Nidoking.  I was questing in search of it when I was attacked outside. [to Spruce] I would better be able to serve you in a greater form.  However, you must not delay your own tasks on my account.  It is your decision whether to search for the stone, my saviour.
Spruce: Sure, we can look for it!  Right, Ruby?
Ruby: [raised eyebrow] He’s your minion, Spruce.  What do you think?  Is making him more powerful worth the investment of your time?
Spruce: Um… y-yes?
Ruby: Is that an answer, or another question?
Spruce: Uh… I… yes.  Yes!  We’d be a lot stronger with a Nidoking on the team, even if it’s only temporary!  Let’s do it!
Ruby: As good a reason as any.  Lead the way.
Boreas: If the asking be not injurious, what was thy former quest, good sir?  To what end didst thou seek after thy lunar gem?
Martial: That is irrelevant now.  If and when I am able to repay my life-debt, I will return to my former duty.  Until then, it must be as though my life were forfeit.
Spruce: But maybe if you tell us, we can help-
Martial: I will not speak of it!  If I had been killed, my cause would surely have been abandoned and lost.  As things are, it is merely delayed.  For that alone, my debt is almost beyond reckoning.  I cannot and will not allow you to do more for me until it is repaid.
Ruby: [muttering] Hmph.  Doesn’t know how lucky he is.  What I wouldn’t give for minions like that…
Spruce: What was that, Ruby?
Ruby: Nothing, nothing.  Let’s get moving, shall we?
Fisher: Truly, this place is a wonder… these marvellous crystal panes… like the great mirrors of ice in which Burrito the Lightbringer is said to have seen, reflected, the true soul of the Lazorgator, and the path for love to conquer hate…
Ruby: Don’t stare at those too long.
Fisher: My lady?
Ruby: There’s powerful magic here.  Old magic.  You shouldn’t play with what you don’t understand.
Spruce: But you do that all the time.
Ruby: …well, yeah, but…
Boreas: Thy care for thy fellows is admirable, milady, yet they are but mirrors.
Ruby: Hey, who said I care!?  Fine, gaze into whatever you like for as long as you like, just don’t come crying to me when your soul gets sucked into a gemstone or something…

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Rivals, part 6: Colress

Colress, in all his scientific glory.
Colress, in all his scientific glory.

Okay, I realise that we’re pushing it by including Colress in this series; it’s easy to come up with reasons to lump in N with the list of ‘rival’ characters, even though he behaves very differently to the rest of them, but Colress is very clearly not the same thing.  However, I don’t care and I want to talk about Colress, because shut up.

Nice reasoned argument there.

Thank you.

So, Colress.  Crazy mad scientist character.  I was underwhelmed by him, to be honest.  I mean, what does he even do?

I actually liked him!  I enjoyed the fact that he was working pretty much at right angles to what literally everyone else in the story was trying to do.

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X Nuzlocke extra dialogue: Ruby and Boreas

Ruby the Braixen, self-styled “fiery jewel among Pokémon” and “sorceress supreme,” talks life and mortality with Boreas, the recently reborn Amaura.

Ruby: You have something you want to say.  Say it.
Boreas: How-?
Ruby: Even if you were a difficult person to read, which you’re not, I possess psychic abilities that make sensing surface emotions trivial.  Speak your mind.
Boreas: Milady… by thy power alone was I drawn back into this world.
Ruby: True, but there’s no need to thank me.  Your continued service is compensation enough for my necromantic assistance.
Boreas: Er… quite.  I…remember my death, faintly, brought on in the merest instant by some celestial calamity beyond my mortal ken.  Countless of my kith and kin did fall; whether any did survive, I know not.  Verily, ‘twould be no surprise to learn that this were the final close of our age, as some of our prophets did forescry.
Ruby: Mmm.  Probably was.  I have heard Lavoisier talk about this in the past.  Your “celestial calamity” was likely the impact of an asteroid that struck the earth almost seventy million years ago.
Boreas: Seventy…?
Ruby: Million.  A thousand thousands.
Boreas: …years?  Oh, alas my world, alas my fallen kin…
Ruby: Yes, yes, it’s very tragic, but hey, you’re alive.  Could be worse.
Boreas: But wherefore my new restoration?  What purpose serves my rebirth, and that of the mad Tyrunt we did face?  Thou hast said that thou intended it not.  ‘twas it then the mere whimsy of unthinking Fate?
Ruby: Would that be so bad?
Boreas: I confess thy meaning doth escape me, milady…
Ruby: Look, fate dealt you a bad hand the first time around.  You died, apparently through no fault of your own, and so did everyone you ever knew; it was a bad day.
Boreas: …’tis putting it rather light, milady.
Ruby: Whatever.  But thanks to my awesome power, you’re back in the game.  New hand.  New fate.  More than most people ever get.  You can either sit around feeling sorry for yourself, or you can make the most of it.  Either way, you have to make your own reasons.
Boreas: And… the memory of my people?
Ruby: Dead.  Gone.  No good to you now.  If you think you’ll be stronger by honouring their memory in whatever primitive way you find appropriate, then fine, whatever.  If you’re just going to mope about them, you’re better off forgetting.
Boreas: Milady, in mine era, service to one’s tyrant was an all-consuming duty – ‘twas the reason we did the works of labour, and war, and even love.  To be beholden to no tyrant was to be a- a- a lowly vagabond, naught but a base cullion.  Thou knowest no such devotion to any cause but thine own.  How canst thou understand?
Ruby: [rolls eyes] If it makes you feel better, then think of me as your tyrant.  I know you don’t want to cling to the laws of your old world, though.  You’re smarter than that.  Though just barely, it would seem…
Boreas: Thou speakest true, but…
Ruby: [sigh] Look at Spruce [points skyward].  Spruce is an idiot.  But he’s an idiot who knows what he wants, which is apparently to inflict his idiocy on the world in general, and me in particular.  He is dedicated to his goal, and he is so far achieving it with gusto.  No one told him to be the way he is, or at least I fervently hope no one did; he simply is.
Boreas: Then thou dost counsel me to seek mine own purpose, for mine own good?  And thus to emulate thy gentle companion?
Ruby: …let’s not get carried away here.
Boreas: Milady, I… I would serve thee gladly, as though thou wert my tyrant true, for thou didst bestow upon me this… ‘new hand.’  But I will think on what thou hast said, and haply I may find my purpose as we travel.
Ruby: [shrug] It’s a start.  Come on; we should catch up with the others before one of them does something incredibly stupid.

X Nuzlocke, episode 6: Between a Rock and a Holy Place

Route 8

Ruby: Look, human, just give me the Holo-Caster and- good.  Thank you.  Now leave me the hell alone; I have a call to make.  Let’s see… ah; here we are…
Lavoisier: Ruby!  You look… different.
Ruby: As do you.  Evolution is treating you well, I hope?
Lavoisier: Weeeell, I’ve lost some of my boyish good looks, but I got some really sweet dragon powers, and I can reach the textbooks on the third shelf now, so I’m not gonna complain!  Anyway… what do you need?
Ruby: What do I need?  Can’t a girl place a holo-call just to chat with her little brother?
Lavoisier: …sure, but you wouldn’t.
Ruby: Mmm.  Point taken.  All right; I need more leads.  I tracked down the second Mega Stone you pointed me to, and the results were quite interesting.
Lavoisier: Interesting, as in…? [sigh] How many people died, Ruby?
Ruby: To my knowledge, the net deaths resulting from the experiment were zero.
Lavoisier: That’s… that’s a concerningly specific answer, sis.
Ruby: Would I lie?
Lavoisier: Yes.
Ruby: To you?
Lavoisier: Possibly.
Ruby: …again, point taken.  Anyway, where can I find more stones?
Lavoisier: Ruby, I have no idea.  We’ve just barely finished repairing the lab, and we’ve been having… other problems.  Disappearances, and… Look, hunting for references to the location of Mega Stones is just not something I have time for right now.
Ruby: Hmm.  That’s unfortunate.  You haven’t heard rumours about any other sorcerous artefacts, have you?  I could always return to Lumiose City and take a look at your library myself, I suppose…
Lavoisier: [alarmed] No!  Uh… I mean… no, there’s no need for that.  I, uh… if you want to pursue information on the Mega Stones yourself, you… could go to Geosenge Town.  I guess.
Ruby: The hick town up north?  Why?
Lavoisier: Well, I used to sort of know a couple of Pokémon who are there at the moment and… could help you.  Maybe.  Experts on the Mega Stones, who know a lot more than me about what they’re actually for.
Ruby: We know what they’re for.  They’re incredible sources of arcane power.
Lavoisier: Okay, but you know you’re supposed to use them together with your human, right?
Ruby: What, that idiot? [points at Chris] If that primate gets his hands on anything remotely resembling a magical artefact, he’ll vaporise himself in seconds.  I wouldn’t terribly mind that, of course, except that there’s a good chance he would take me with him.
Lavoisier: I… see.  Well, you could at least try Geosenge Town.  Look for two Lucario.  Their names are Amaldos and Lelanthion.
Ruby: I suppose that will have to do.  It’s better than nothing, anyway.
Lavoisier: You’re welcome, Ruby.

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