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bobombun · 3 months

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10 characters 10 fandoms

I got tagged by @skuitti like two months ago, and kept forgetting, but here I am! So, ten characters I enjoy, in no particular order

Alphinaud Leveilleur from Final Fantasy XIV. He is my brother, he is my son, and I love him to death. Ride or die. The assistance to his artisticness. In ARR he starts off overly sure of himself, and I have a weakness for characters like that, and then he grows from uh, that little experience in post-ARR and keeps learning about the world and how to live in it. A bleeding heart, though I'm sure he'd put it in different terms. He's way too smart for his own good, buddy needs to stop getting involved in every project in existence, but then he wouldn't be Alphinaud, I suppose.

Seere from Drakengard 1. He's kind in a world that offers little solace to those whose strength comes from kindness and compassion, and despite going through all that happens in DoD1, he doesn't lose that compassionate heart in DoD2.

Masumi Usui from A3! (the game, I never watched the anime). I have a fondness for character types like him, who love someone with their whole being and then some. Though he also tries to understand why the one he loves thinks it's unhealthy, and reflects on it, which I appreciate, since it's a bit less common to see in media with characters like him.

Byleth Eisner from Fire Emblem Three Houses (disclaimer: I only finished the Golden Deer ending). I actually love silent protagonists, and I thought it was fun how the game gave us a reason the MC didn't emote much. Yet the game allowed Byleth to mourn properly instead of glossing over that whole thing, which I also really appreciated. A low-emotion character was allowed to show their emotions, and not thought of as weird for it. I also thought it was sweet how throughout the game Byleth learns to show their emotions more, and seems to become happier than before. I also see myself in them somewhat, so there is that.

Atton Rand from Knights of the Old Republic II. He's fun, he's sassy, and he's always got the one-liner for the job. Despite that, he struggles with his past, and is hard to dig out the truth from, which I thought was a nice contrast. Every time I play KOTOR2 I have him in my team.

Gundham Tanaka from Super Danganronpa 2. He's such a fun character to play around with and ponder about. He's eccentric, and not afraid to show that. Unapologetic about being who he is, and yet he clearly has some issues I'd love to explore. I so badly want to learn how the world he's constructed in his head works, I want a guided tour and a pamphlet.

Infinite the Jackal from Sonic Forces. Now listen. He's cool, he's edgy, and over-the-top. What more could you want in a villain? If I had the money and the know-how, I'd love to make a proper cosplay of him.

Piers from Pokémon Sword and Shield (I've only played the game, I haven't seen the anime). He looks like a depressed raccoon, and moves in such slouchy arcs I can't help but relate. I respect and admire his attitude, in how he's ready to give hell to anyone who's trying to force him to conform, and how he goes his own way as much as he can without outright breaking the rules.

Albedo from Genshin Impact. I enjoy and relate to his calm but teasing personality, as well as how curious he is about everything. I find his lore interesting, and would love to hear more about it all. Besides that, I also really like the Dragonspine mountain, so that might've made me like him more. If I ever get back into Genshin, I'll try to pull for his constellations, he's like the most built character I have.

Kurapika from Hunter x Hunter (I stopped reading at around when the gang heard about the Dark Continent). I don't really have an explanation as to why I like him, I just remember him being instantly my favourite out of the main team. I did find it somewhat funny though how when he's traveling with Gon & Co. he's really enjoying himself, but when he's out and about by himself, he is absolutely miserable, and wallowing in rage. Poor guy needs a break. I actually almost made my first ever cosplay him, but ended up not doing that. Maybe if I ever pick up HxH again, I'll get inspired to do that. His robe looks so comfortable, and I'd love to wear the chain "glove" he has. Man, now that I've said that, I feel like going back to reading HxH (maybe re-read it?) just for him. Maybe this time I'll get past where I left off, which I've done twice now.

All in all, to become a character I like, you have to either be difficult to parse/be mysterious, be low-emotion, be fun, or be goth.

#tag game #i kinda wanted to add rion from nier reincarnation but that'd be a second character from drakenier so no can do

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missnobodymadness · 5 months

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7,8,10,11,14,19, 23 for the anime asks ^^

Hiii, thank you so much for sending some, you already know how much I love these! ♥

Alright, let's go! :P

"7. anime you are currently watching "

I know I am late for this one but I am currently watching Bleach! I started it a few months ago but I my short attention span is giving me a really hard time to keep up with the pace so I am still trying to get to the recent episodes, I'm like...150 episodes or so behind? So yeah, still a lot to watch. ^^' So far Yoruichi is my favourite character though. xD

"8. anime character you are most like"

Suwa Rei, from Buddy Daddies, is by far the anime character I relate to the most, we have too much in common, unfortunately looks is not one of our similarities, I wasn't that lucky. D: Even his relationship with his father is very similar to mine with my mother, of course, without all the illegal stuff. xD

"10. favorite anime animal sidekick"

Hmmm, are Naruto tailed beasts considered an animal sidekick? If they are, Gyūki (Aka Eight-Tails) is probably my favourite, I love Gyūki's relationship with his jinchūriki.

If they don't count I am hoping that Pokémon count as such because I am picking da best boy ever, my boy Charizard.

"11. anime you didn’t expect to like but did"

Believe it or not, Spy x Family, which is now on my top of favourite animes ever, life is so ironic. LOL Everything looked so "kawaii", I felt like I was about to watch a romance or something and since I dislike that genre I wasn't expecting much...well, such a nice surprise I had. I learned that day that I should never judge an anime by a few gifs I saw on Tumblr, so glad I gave it a chance.

"14. saddest anime you have ever watched"

Now that I think about that, I don't think I've ever watched a really sad anime, just really tragic, such as Attack On Titan, for example. I guess Vinland Saga is probably the saddest one I've watched so far but not the one who made me cry the most, that place is for Naruto. LOL

Would advice to watch this one, for real, it's an amazing anime.

"19. favorite anime ships"

I love for all of them. :')

"23. unpopular character you love"

Very unpopular opinion, I know, but for me she had one of the best developments in the entire anime and I hate how most people can't really understand her character very well which for me is the proof that we as humans are closed-minded hypocrites. It breaks my heart to know that we aren't able to see past our hate, we clearly aren't ready to understand the complexity of our minds and lives.

#anime ask game #anime #aot #spy x family #naruto

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badvgopinions · 2 years

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This is such a stupid article that I could barely bring myself to read all of it because I facepalmed so hard.

https://gamerant.com/pokemon-scarlet-violet-team-star-trend-skull-yell-goals-threat-comparison/

It claims that Team Skull, Team Yell and Team Star are bland and part of a devolving trend because they're nuisances instead of threats and apparently that makes the story less compelling because there's lower stakes or something.

Ignoring the fact that both of the OTHER organisations in those games had goals that nearly destroyed both Alola and Galar, with the Aether Foundation unleashing Ultra Beasts on Alola and accidentally triggering a near apocalypse in Alola and Ultra Megalopolis because of Necrozma, and Chairman Rose triggered the Darkest Day again which nearly turned ALL of the region's Pokémon into rampaging kaiju. That's pretty high stakes to me.

There's also the fact that SCARLET AND VIOLET AREN'T OUT YET. We have no idea what Team Star's goals are. They article immediately jumps to conclusions that they're only pointless trouble makers or something when they could be planning their own apocalypse thing. We don't know WHAT their goals are yet so how can they judge them?

There's also the fact that the article claims that "The first villainous team to truly stand out negatively in the mainline series was Team Skull" …Excuse me? I've been a fan of Alola since it's release and I've never heard any negative opinions on Team Skull. Hell, Truegreen7 did a favourite characters poll recently and Team Skull was voted as the second most popular evil team behind Team Plasma. To claim they "stood out negatively is just false.

There's a few things I wanted to say, couldn't choose which one so I'm going to say all of them.

Team Skull was made partially because people were getting kind of tired of the usual terrorist who knew what they were doing. I'm pretty sure THEY were getting tired of that, too, which is why they made Team Skull the focus while the real villains were lurking in the background. And they are the best villain team ever. They're self-aware, relatable and are just really, really funny.

With that out of the way, of course I'm expecting a "secret, true villain" for Violet and Scarlet, but at the same time I kind of don't want there to be. I won't complain if there is but for these games I kind of want your school adventure to be interrupted by a Pokemon. Maybe one that wakes up after 10,000 years and just does destructive Pokemon stuff because they're a destructive Pokemon.

This is probably because futuristic/prehistoric seems to be a theme for these games and I'm probably thinking about Lavos from Chrono Trigger.

Team Star as far as I can tell is just a rival school group or something, which sounds like fun, honestly. I'm not really sure though, nobody is. Like you said, the games aren't out yet. Maybe it'll turn out that they are actually terrorists. Maybe the people behind them will turn out to be someone who's been puppeteering them in the background. Maybe it won't. Maybe we should stop making assumptions about a game that's not out yet, again, like you said.

I am making myself excited for the game though, wanting to know just how the story will be where you're open to get badges in any order. It'll probably be like the Gen 1 games where the order of badges you get doesn't effect the story. But again, nobody outside from the developers knows because the game's not out yet!

#gt: pokemon #pokemon scarlet #pokemon violet and scarlet #pokemon violet #team star

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whoaffle · 4 months

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I got asked about Defeated By A Mere Child...

I didn't want to go and answer the asks with a huge dump of text, so I decided to post this separately to whoever is interested in reading a bit more about my reasons for being in a hiatus.

There was more than only one factor that led me to the hiatus.

First of all: time. I graduated in 2019 from Language Arts course, but back in 2021 I started another course (Game Design), and I also got a job in 2022… So for the past 1 year and a half or so, I've been not only studying again, but working too, meaning that time has become scarce… And here I need to mention that DBAMC is not my only creative project, even though it is one of the only projects I ever managed to actually "put out there in the world", I guess… But with all the games I'd like to make, all the unfinished fanfictions in my AO3 (Including the DBAMC one!), all the other comics I still want to create (fancomics and original projects), drawings I still want to make, RPG campaings I'm playing (with sessions that I owe my friends), yada yada, DBAMC has become only one of thousands of things "in line", and yet another project that I keep thinking of and wishing to some day finish. Specially because the little free time I've got, at the end of the day, always ends up being consumed by playing Baldur's Gate or watching Youtube, simply because I'm too tired to produce actual content after a whole week of work (that's modern capitalism for you)…

All that aside, there are emotional factors related to it as well. (Sad Backstory Unlocked).

Jokes apart, I lost a dear relative around the time Legends Arceus was first around, and it was a difficult period for me, meaning I found it hard to keep up with the Pokémon franchise (and any other franchises to be fair). Pokémon released Legends, the Sinnoh remake, DLCs, and in the middle of all that I was still trying to successfully incorporate the characters from SwSh into my comics... I had no time and energy to look up the new content, couldn't play the games since I don't have a Switch, and just ended up stressed abouot not knowing the new content, thinking I should be working on it to keep up with the fandom for the sake of the comics - Now, I want to clarify, I created this problem myself, in my head, on my own (as one with anxiety does). No one from my followers ever pressured me to keep up with releases or anything, but I ended up turning it into a problem in my head and couldn't tackle it in a productive manner.

The fact that now ScaVio has also launched and I still haven't even touched anything from Legends or even the SwSh DLCs should explain how much I distanced myself from the new Pokémon content ever since, in part due to bad emotional associations with the loss I experienced, but also due to not liking how GameFreak / Nintendo have been managing the development of their games recently, AND also due to simple lack of time to go after anything other than "let me take a look at the new pokémon" (Tinkaton is my favorite Fairy Type ever, just in case anyone is interested).

Thing is, I couldn't keep up with the new content, as much as I love Pokémon and as much as I love all the content up to SwSh. The fact I couldn't keep up led to my anxiety acting up (plus emotional difficulties due to personal life stuff), leading to me deciding to take a break. Lack of time in general ended up becoming the main reason why the break hasn't ended yet, unfortunately.

So, all the context aside, am I gonna get back working on DBAMC content?

The short answer is: I don't know. I want to, but I don't know if I'll manage. I do want to do it, eventually.

I still have no idea when I'll be able to work on comics again, being 100% honest. But there are two things I can tell:

First, it's not gonna happen before July 2024, because that's when I'm expecting to finish my graduation project. I'll still have to finish one or maybe more disciplines after that, but the most difficult part should be over by the middle of next year... Still, this is not a promise DBAMC will be back after I finish college. I'm just saying that it will certainly not happen before that.

Second is that, whenever I manage to get back, I have decided that I will not incorporate newer content in the comics, at least not so soon. This has to do with the reasons cited above, of course, but also has to do with all the complicated "logistics" that adding new characters to comics turned out to be (incorporating Rose and Piers was a lot harder than I expected, since I had to re-write and change already written scripts and change the order of comics and etc... I won't be able to do that again with even newer characters).

All that said, I have at least ONE good thing to say: I've been revisiting my written content in AO3, wanting to get back writing some projects, and that includes the prequel I wrote to my DBAMC comics! I've been wanting to at least publish the last two chapters so that the story can be complete! So this is something I am planning to do in January, if everything works out. :)

I understand that it's definitely not the news any old follower of the blog expected... But it's what I can do for now...

If you read everything... Wow. Thank you!

Happy new year, everyone!

#personal stuff #about my other blog #dbamc #long post

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cacklefrendly · 10 months

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TELL US ABOUT GOOD BOY AND WOCJAA COWARD

FUCK YOU COME HERE AND ASK LEADING QUESTIONS ABOUT THEM YOURSELF okay wait actually ive got Menthol Illinois and you've handed me an excuse now—

so like Wocjaa n Kit are both similar opposites yeah. that's why Kit's uncomfortable with Wocjaa and part of why Wocjaa's obsessed with Kit.

part of this similarity is shown through what visible traces their gods left behind: Kit's eyes became red, Wocjaa's arm became tentacles, and like. not to scream about symbolism but to SCREAM about symbolism there's something really meaty abt Kit "i was raised by a cultist and my worldview was purposely skewed" Bismuth's change being his eyes and Wocjaa "i am building a cult to this god primarily because i crave personal power" [REDACTED]'s change being his arm. it feeds really well into that thing i was explaining about how they're like both sides of an abusive relationship with the changes showing how different their relationships with their gods currently is (Kit can p much ignore his eye color, but Wocjaa is quite literally handicapped in order to hide his arm -> Kit has long since rejected his god, while Wocjaa rejects the idea of living without his).

while im at it, the specifics of their Immortality* plays with how the gods viewed and treated them — Kit's god saw him as a pawn to be moved and sacrificed to win, so while he can die he will always come back fresh for the next round of the 'game'. meanwhile Wocjaa's god sees him kind of like if you gave a fish a diving reel: he's valuable as he marks her way to the surface and she would sure like to keep him, but she doesn't need him. so yeah, he is truly immortal and can not die no matter how hard you try, but she will cut him off and let him die if he's ever more trouble than he's worth.

also i just realized that i refer to Kit's god with he/it pronouns and Wocjaa's with she/it. huh.

as for Good Boy, just,,,, , man. there is Something about a being that is entirely defined by the fact that is acts as other beings and has no name of its own??? I've been wondering 'if i were to write something fromg Good Boy's POV, how would i refer to it' and i came to the conclusion that i would use the name of whatever it was acting as but in all caps — it's mimicking a dog named Bruce, so i would say that BRUCE was barking — and that reminds me of naming your character in, like, a Pokémon game??? which fits weirdly well????? because again, Good Boy isn't pretending to be something else, it acts as something else, as in it's an actor, a blank slate to be drawn on, to be projected onto, for a role to be assigned to it.

and then i started thinking about the whole 'names carry power' thing and how it'd relate to Good Boy and then i started thinking 'what if someone actually saw IT and gave it a name of its own' and THEN i thought 'wait how could someone see IT' and somehow that train of thought lead to a scenario where a person experiences ego death so hard that Good Boy, patron saint of Where The FUCK Am I, manifests as them to lead them through a journey of self-discovery to figuratively find themselves again and IM SORRY THE SAINT OF LITERALLY LOST DOGS LEADING A FIGURATIVELY LOST PERSON IS. MMMMMMMMMMM

still don't know what would happen if someone tried to properly give Good Boy a Name but im considering the vibe of saying a word into a microphone and holding it up to the speaker it's connected to

#cackle rants #oc: Wocjaa #oc: Kit Bismuth #oc: Good Boy #actually on second thought continue to send me questions here #it tricks me into actually posting about my OCs instead of thinking really hard about them

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digitallytrying · 2 years

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POKEMON LEGENDS: ARCEUS SPOILERS || POST-GAME SPOILERS

So, I've seen a lot of talk about Volo's relationship with his team of Pokemon and I wanted to add my two cents cause I love headcannons for Pokemon/Trainer dynamics.

I know a lot of people think Volo loves his Pokemon, and while I agree, I think it's a lot more complicated than that, so I wanted to explore this deeper.

"I am the great wielder of Pokémon. And you... You battle alongside your Pokémon. In the end, I was alone... But not you. You will fight together with your Pokémon to seize whatever dreams you have."

This is what he says to you after you defeat him. I think it's very interesting how he stresses a difference between your relationships with Pokemon. He says that he was alone, and implies that this is the reason he lost, because a Weilder can't compare to a Trainer.

How can someone with a full-party of Pokemon (in a time period where only you and rematch Ingo, the TIME TRAVELLERS are able to manage this feat) with a team that consists of three friendship evolutions and the rest being notoriously powerful and difficult to raise - how is someone like that unable to sync up with his team like a Trainer would? We know his Pokemon love him, but does he?

I think Volo's problem is he's intentionally creating distance between him as his Pokemon. He's a fantastic trainer with revolutionary skill, control and discipline over an infamously terrifying team, but he makes the choice to think of them as tools, a means to an end, so that's the only thing they can be.

We get a lot of lore in this game about the realities of how violent and depressing life with Pokemon is before people learned how to co-exist with them. Most note-worthy, of course, is Beni detailing how his and Kamado's hometown was burned to the ground and their people had lost friends, family and colleagues. How this tragedy is what drove them to Hisui in the first place. But throughout the game we see the way people treat Pokemon with fear and caution, stories of Corps members getting mauled, electrocuted and the likes, how hard it is to get these injured back up on their feet. Cyllene literally tells you that sending you out into the wild if you fail to impress the Galaxy Team would likely lead to your death.

Why is this important?

"You see, ever since I was young, whenever I met something painful or heartbreaking... I couldn't help but wonder why life was so unfair. Why I was cursed to live through such things."

Not to point out the obvious, but Volo is a character who is very noticeably alone. No village, no clan. He's apart of a Guild that has him wandering about the region, but he has no attachment to it and is never seen interacting with its members. The only person he has genuine ties to is Cogita, who must be related to him, but given the way they speak to each other it feels distant and strained, and I wouldn't call Cogita's demeanour to him particularly maternal.

We don't know Volo's backstory. I'm not trying to tackle his backstory (yet, anyway). But it's not a leap in logic to assume that Volo has had to deal with some shit, and it only seems likely Pokemon were involved in hardships.

I can't help but think the term "conquer your fears" is very applicable to Volo. Let's go into his party more.

Arcanine: "Snaps at its foes with fangs cloaked in blazing flame. Despite its bulk, it deftly feints every which way, leading opponents on a deceptively merry chase as it all but dances around them."

Spiritomb: "It lays curses by thinking wicked thoughts. Writing tells that this Pokemon was born out of the assembly of five score and eight malevolent spirits."

Roserade: "Hidden within the bouquet on each hand are throned whips loaded with virulent poison. Roserade moves gracefully as it corners its prey and mercilessly lashes them with its whips."

Garchomp: "Soars across the heavens at blinding speed - a magnificent sight! It has a feral disposition. Utmost caution is required if one meets a Garchomp out in the wilds."

These four Pokemon are TERRIFYING. They're all known as either feral, wicked or have behavior patterns of playing with their prey. Lucario is an outlier to the rest of the team here, but given Lucario's unique history with legends and myths throughout the franchise I'm going to overlook its inclusion as an exception, not a rule. The reason I'm pointing out that this team is filled with monsters is because I think Volo was very selective in the team he built. Both powerful tools to help him rapidly chase his goals, but also reliable for protection in the wilds given their impressive might.

So for the most part Volo has a scary team that has a lot of practical applications, both offensively and defensively. And I think he's been perfectly content to treat these Pokemon with respect, but at a distance.

But what about Togekiss?

I will throw hands over this - that man loves his fucking Togekiss.

Togekiss is powerful but it doesn't fit the team dynamic at all, given its reputation as a symbol of peace in the Pokemon world. And Volo's had this thing since it was a Togepi - we know it's the same one because Togepi and Togekiss are always female when you battle him. This man has a photo of him posing with his funny little egg outside the photography studio. It is THE friendship evolution, more than any other, as with what the the Pokedex says about Togetic:

"Rumors abound that it evolves under the loving care of a trusted human companion, upon whom the Pokemon then bestows great joy."

So why is a Togepi apart of his team? Why is it the first Pokemon you ever see him use, but it's only level 5 despite how much he obviously adores the thing? Why is it the exception to the rule?

Togepi had always been an interesting Pokemon within the franchise. It has an infantile design, its first ever anime appearance was as an egg that was hatched by Misty and then was raised diligently over the course of (multiple?) Seasons, and in Platinum you receive it as an egg from Cynthia and have the choice to hatch it and raise it as your own. Togepi is a baby Pokemon - the FIRST baby Pokemon if I'm remembering this right.

And you know what babies aren't? Threatening. They are unassuming blobs of life tumbling through new experiences that are utterly harmless and completely dependent on others.

Here's a thought, a bit of a headcannon: Volo is young and afraid of Pokemon, he's never had a Pokemon before, but then he's given an egg (from Cogita most likely) and told he's responsible for its well-being. It hatches, and the baby Togepi is unassuming as can be and it is dependent on him. This isn't a monster that can wreak devastating harm on people, it's an infant that needs loving care and attention.

Togekiss is the exception to a team of terrifying, violent beasts with aggressive dispositions because Volo was given the chance to love it despite it being a Pokemon. And I think that's true regardless of how and when he got his Togepi.

And I personally think the reason Togepi is so low-level at the start of the game is because Volo didn't want it to be apart of the team? For whatever reason he changes his mind, but I imagine it would be hard to resort to using a trusted companion in battle if you aren't able to think of battles as something positive to experience with a partner.

ALL OF THAT being said, though, at the end of the game Volo learns that lesson. He Weilds Pokemon, and you train them. You trust your pokemon and will seize your dreams with them at your side.

So maybe Volo too could take that lesson to heart and learn to accept all of his pokemon as his family. Something obviously went right by the time we get down to Cynthia, after all.

#long post #headcannons #character analysis #pokemon #pokemon volo #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon legends arceus spoilers #pla spoilers

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smilingperformer · 3 years

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Discussing the good and bad of Pokémon Journeys: Part "Ash Ketchum"

I'm just gonna go ahead and start discussing my opinions on how Journeys is handling Satoshi aka Ash Ketchum in Pokémon (2019)/Journeys, no need to do any intro talk.

If you want a TLDR version, I'll basically be talking about how Satoshi's handling has changed from pre-JN and how I've started to feel like Satoshi isn't exactly written that interestingly this time around, and how I'm more and more feeling less interested in his current goal of PWC, while also discussing what I have liked. Rest is under the cut, and I'll be abverting the show to JN from now on.

So. I'm just gonna start talking about whatever comes to mind first, so let's talk about Satoshi's current goal in JN: The Pokémon World Championships.

In theory, the concept of PWC is pretty much what was teased back in Diamond & Pearl with Shirona/Cynthia's Champion's League matches, and how Satoshi aimed to battle in one some day. I LOVED the introduction to the whole event when it was revealed, as it gave us the big picture of huge potential in it.

Satoshi would be battling trainers all around the world, whenever his Rotomphone would peep with a match closeby, and with Wataru/Lance's return, it sparked huge potential with past character returns, and it certainly has delivered in the forms of Korrina/Corni, Shijima/Chuck, and soon I most likely believe Shigeru and Iris to be PWC opponents as well. I love this concept a lot! However, there's been some huge issues with it that have, for me, been making this goal feel a bit... boring? Not interesting to watch? Not feeling invested in it? And the biggest issue would definitely be in the pacing.

Let's first remember how it took Satoshi a whopping 13 episodes to even get a goal established compared to Gou whose goal got established in episode 6. This further highlights my issue with Satoshi's goal handling, and is related to how I feel about PWC.

In just a span of one year, Satoshi has climbed a whopping 3500+ ranks, and is soon about to enter the Hyper Class ranking. And how many battles have we seen on screen? Somewhere between 10-20 I think, I don't have exact numbers. And there was a time when he jumped a HUGE amount of ranks without showcasing it to us, and it made me feel like I wasn't allowed to see him progress. It made him feel insignificant and honestly, I feel so sad in not feeling invested in this goal. Like, right now I'm not sure if we'll see him rank up to Hyper Class on screen, thou that's probably the pessimist in me speaking, since a lot of the battles have been off screen. Yes. Off screen. We've been shown that he's done battles to get up those ranks but we haven't actually seen him do it. I don't WANT to feel like this, but I just, do.

"But why does it matter, it's not like every match is gonna be interesting." You're right. But here's the thing. We're allowed to see every single capture Gou does on screen, each episode progressing his goal. But we don't for Satoshi. That makes me feel like Gou is the more important one, and Satoshi's just there with a goal they don't want to show us fully. And while I get it's hard to show all of the matches, it still stinks.

Like, compare to past goals he's had. He's done Pokémon Gyms, Island Challenge, Battle Frontier. Each time we actually got to see each of the Gym Battles, Trials and Battle Captain battles. We were shown his struggles, wins, trainings, made it feel like we should root for him. In between each gym and trial captain, we'd see him battle other trainers, friends, companions, Rocket Gang, other evil gangs, and so on. For me, there was never a moment where I felt like his goal was just there to give him a goal. Because we actually always saw him do it. Were there gaps between each episodes sometimes? Yes. But that never, ever bothered me. Because we'd still see him train. Hell, when it comes to leagues, Alola League's my favourite due to us seeing every single match in it, not skipping a single one. I felt so invested in it, and I'm not that interested in the actions scenes!

Even in JN, I am not bothered by not seeing important PWC matches that often. I am more bothered by not seeing him battle for it at ALL. Compared to Gou's goal, Satoshi's goal doesn't seem like it was that though out. And the fact that he's in Hyper Class already, makes me wonder what exactly they intend to do with him. Because if they do another "drop a class" arc for him and he climbs back up without us seeing it, I don't see the point for it. It's exactly how I feel about the JN036 episodes nowdays. I used to like the episode, and it DID make me like Gou as a character back then as well. But nowdays, I don't see the point for it anymore. As he climbed back up to Super Class without us seeing it happen. And it, honestly makes me sad.

Which brings me to another point. Satoshi has for the longest time, been one of my absolute fav characters in Pokeani. He's been tons of fun to watch, tons of fun to follow, and just, truly enjoyable. For me, his peak was in Sun & Moon, where we got to see him do stuff he'd not really done before. I loved the whole setting of the show, I loved how Satoshi has such good episodes like SM020 and SM125, and like, seeing him truly enjoy his life to fullest in Alola was just so darn good. I truly loved watching him there.

In JN? I'm honestly feeling a bit bored with him. While he's still the same Satoshi in a sense, he kinda feels insignicant and... less of a protagonist than before. Most of his episodes in JN have been all about battles, or being an inspiration to Gou. Even his Pokémon team often feels like it's mostly Lucario and Pikachu, and now maaaaaybe Negigaknight/Sirfetch'd (it's too early to tell). Gengar and Dragonite have sort of, poofed, only making random appearances in the Sakuragi Laboratories. Not to mention how his newest capture, Uonoragon/Dracovish, hasn't made a single appearance since its debut (but based on recent special preview, will finally reappear soon). I feel like this is the worst case of how Satoshi's poketeam has been handled in any series so far. And I used to love Riolu/Lucario. Like... damn it. I truly miss looking forward to his episodes. Then again, it WAS apparently said by the head writer, Yonemura-san, himself that he considers Satoshi complete and finds him hard to write due to it. Which would explain why Satoshi feels less important and more of a tool for Gou's developments.

I COULD talk about how I feel about his dynamic with Gou, but I'm gonna leave that to its own post. But I guess I could say for now is that, I USED to like it, but now, not that much.

Their bond for me feels like two brothers who are able to do whatever they want with each other and not feel akward about it, and they like, work so well together. Their dynamic IS good.

But me not liking it that much anymore, I feel like it's partly due to the fanbase being a bit on the scary side for me, and every time I see posts of them, I'm reminded of that side. But also due to how I feel like it highlights the issues in Satoshi's current character handling. Mainly in what I mentioned before: Gou gets progress towards his goal in almost every single episode. Satoshi on the other hand doesn't. And that, to me, makes Satoshi feel like he's not an equal protagonist with Gou, but more like what past companions have been like. And I'm not sure how to feel about it.

And if anyone's gonna come and say that "we've known Satoshi for 20+ years", then yeh, YOU guys have. I myself have only known him truly for 4 to 5 years now (with ofc having binged all episodes during the span). But new viewers with no prior knowledge don't. And I seriously wonder, how many people find Satoshi interesting to watch compared to Gou, who's been getting most development and progression in this series so far. Also in a crazy fast pace. But that's for another post.

I also want to highlight the fact that, even if statistics were to imply that the focus episodes have been even between Gou and Satoshi, it still FEELS like Satoshi gets them less. Which is an incredibly weird feeling to have, and I hope JN can manage to flip this feeling in me around soon.

Anyway. I hope I managed to explain how I feel about Satoshi's character handling in this show. There have been some good episodes in this series, but so far, none have reached the same level of "oh this episode is SO GOOD" like I felt during Sun & Moon (it being in the freshest memory). And I miss that. So, in a way, I'm prepared for the possibility of this series being Satoshi's last, unless they reboot the show completely since Satoshi's starting to run out of any goals to progress on. As to me, PWC is the ultimate last step for him as the protagonist. And even then, he's not feeling like one.

Even if he said becoming the World Champion is the "first step in becoming a Pokémon Masters", it certainly feels like the opposite to me. But I don't know.

So, what exactly would make me feel invested in watching Satoshi progress then? By making us see some glimpse of his PWC matches between each PWC ep. Just a mention would be fine as well, or like show the end of the match. It'd still be off screen, granted, but less so. But also, give him episodes that would focus FULLY on him and his Pokémon. Without Gou. Or if Gou has to be around, make him not catch a Pokémon, or even try catching one. Give us an episode that would explore his current mindset. Because I miss that from Sun & Moon.

But that's enough rambling about Satoshi in JN, I HOPE I remembered all there was to talk about. Next post I plan on posting, it will be about how I feel about Gou.

So, if you read this far, thanks for reading, sorry for the rambles, and hope you guys are having a great day! And remember, these are just my opinions, and if you love JN, you are completely valid. And I just needed to get these out of my chest.

Til next time! Aleira, aka Smiling Performer, signing out.

#pokemon #pokeani #anipoke #pokemon jn #discussions #on recent episode #ash ketchum #satoshi #character discussions

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sage-nebula · 6 years

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I don't really relate to Alain /That way/ since I've never experienced things like those in my life. However he is without a doubt one of my /favorite/ characters in the Pokemon franchise. He's compelling, he's complex, he's unique and a "first first" for all of Ash's rivals. Alain and Paul are just god sends imo. I can acknowledge well written character when I see one. (I roleplay Alain actually, lol) But no, I can see your heavy love for the guy. Way more than me. I was just taken back is all.

Alain used to have a cult following in the Pokemon fandom back when he was first introduced (Like, everyone wanting him to replace Ash, he’s such a badass yada yada etc) but ever since his League victory (Which I don’t agree with tbh) over Ash. People will occasionally shit talk him and associate the bad ending to his character quality. Which is idiotic and cringy. People can’t formulate their own opinions I suppose. First they want to ride him to next week then hate him for TV Tokyo’s stupidity

Alan’s League victory was 150% deserved from both a narrative and a pokémon standpoint. The only nonsense that happened in that League battle was that Greninja lasted as long as it did, and it only lasted that long because of Plot Armor and Rule of Drama (because honestly, blocking multiple Thunder Punches with Water Shuriken is “aim for the horn!” levels of nonsense). No matter which way you run the stats through a battle damage calculator (and I’ve run them through multiple different ways myself), Lizardon should have landed an OHKO on Greninja, full stop. If Ash really wanted a shot at winning, he would have sent Greninja against Tyranitar, and would have saved Pikachu for Lizardon (which, by the by, would not guarantee him a win, but would at least give him more of a shot). But he didn’t, and so he lost. Alan and Lizardon fought hard for, and earned, that victory fair and square. Fandom may refuse to see it, but fandom is wrong. Full stop.

(Not to mention the fact that the idea that fandom somehow managed to delude themselves into thinking Ash would win anyway is just … beyond ridiculous. Ash will never win a major League. Never. Not ever. Not once, not ever, not once. If he wins, then the series will end. This has been stated by people working on the show. In fact, years ago, someone asked one of the lead showrunners at the time whether Ash would ever become a Pokémon Master, and the man reportedly fell back on the sofa laughing at the mere idea, because that would mean the end of the anime. So thinking, even for a second, that Ash has a shot at winning the League is ridiculous. Finalist is as far as he’s going to become. Fandom needs to accept that, and then go from accepting that to appreciating both the show and his character for what they are. That fandom was ~omg let down~ by this was fandom’s own fault. We went through five regional sagas before Kalos. Fandom should know better by now.)

But yes, the fact that people hate Alan for this is beyond ridiculous. He put in the effort, on-screen, to become the strongest alongside Lizardon. He had, from a narrative standpoint for this genre (shounen anime) a more worthy reason for wanting to win (the strength to protect those he cares about vs. Ash’s desire for glory and accolades). And aside from all of that, Ash and Alan’s relationship was not about battling, not really. Battling was a way they spent time together, a way they enjoyed one another’s company, but their relationship runs so much deeper than that. To reduce them to “omg Ash should win so that their rivalry can be concluded” is nonsense. It’s not about that. Even their League battle was not about that. Their League battle was about them finding happiness in one another’s company, and about Alan reassuring himself that he has the strength to protect others. That’s it. So yeah, the fact that people miss that is frustrating. The fact that people still, even more than a year later, bash Alan for beating Ash in the League is ridiculous. I can’t look at Pokémon videos on YouTube because of this, because the comments are still filled with nothing but vitriol. Iwane-san, one of the animators for the anime, posted an animation and some illustrations of Alan on Twitter a couple weeks ago, and there were people posting hate on those because Alan beat Ash in the League, fair and square. It’s ridiculous and upsetting, and tbh I’m just tired of this fandom’s childish nonsense. Ash was happy and proud of how far he made it in the Kalos League, so why can’t his fans be just as happy and proud of him as he is of himself? It’s a real mystery, but it’s an even bigger shame.

#raijinj

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