Well, let’s explore Lilycove before committing.
There’s a guy who wants to quiz me on contests and asks what Lisia’s pokemon, and for some reason he won’t accept “an altaria” or even my pokedex entry of it, I have to actually go back and bring him the actual pokemon. I suppose I should just be grateful he doesn’t require me to go rename it to Ali.
Then I head inside and everyone spins to see me.
Wow! It’ the real Lucki!
Yeah this is not going to help Lucki’s ego problem, is it?
…so let’s talk to everyone!
I’ve become your fan! When I go back to Kanto, I’ll spread the news about how great you are! So please come to my area, too!
Oh, I wish that there’d be a game that lets you go to all the regions. Wouldn’t that be great?
And imagine, what if there’s new enemy teams in each region, and they keep getting stronger until finally you’re facing L100 opponents and stuff.
Ah! You’re so popular… You’re strong and very kind to your Pokemon. You’re just perfect!
Haha, sure.
I…I want to be your fan forever!
Uh.
Whoa! Lucki! I didn’t expect to see you! Lisia’s fans don’t realize how great you are! Lucki, am I right? Keep showing us your Pokemon’s great performance!
I wonder if I missed out on a bunch of dialogue by not waiting until now to compete.
I became your fan after I saw you in the contest the other day! You seem to have gained quite a bit of popularity, I must say. However! Only I should know your true greatness.
So I have a hipster fan.
I want to keep it all to myself!
Or stalker/murderer. One of those.
My girlfriend is super cute, but Lisia is as cute as her, too!
I’m amazed you have a girlfriend at all after that.
We’re Lissi’s fans! I always play Lissi and Ali with my boyfriend.
Oh, you’re really kinky. That explains it.
I play Lissi, and he plays Ali.
YES I GOT IT ALREADY THANK YOU
There’s also a roselia huggling a photo of Ali.
Outside, a woman says that her pokemon’s been stolen, presumably by Team Magma. Wonder if we’re to do anything about that.
There’s also a Team Magma grunt standing between me and the beach, explaining that I can’t go further due to that being their base. And so I am turned by the grunt’s incredible not-challenging-me-to-a-battle powers.
I try walking in the other direction.
Hm?
Brendan.
Hey, if it isn’t Lucki! Did you come to do some shopping, too?
Christ Brendan how can everyone else know Team Magma is here but not you?
You know what I’m talking about… The Lilycove Department Store! My dad asked me to pick him up a few things here. It’s not like I’m here to buy Dolls or something, r-right! A-anyway, it feels like it’s been ages since we last ran into each other.
I agree, you are a total failure at rivaling.
How about I battle you so you can see which one of us is doing a better job raising our Pokemon?
I just pulled out my real team because I meant to fight Magma. You are fucked, Brendan.
Though I think you and I both know who the winner is gonna be, Lucki!
Indeed.
He leads with a L37 swellow. I lead with my L30 mightyena. It uses double team. Mightyena thunderfangs. Aerial ace then proceeds to do ridiculously little damage, another thunderfang leaves it with but a sliver of health…and it uses double team again, then dies.
Next is his wailord, L37 as well. I send out my L35 grovyle. Leaf blade takes off two thirds of its health, it blows its one and only turn on amnesia.
Desperately, he tries Blaziken (L39) – so I send out Silver Flare, L32. He doesn’t actually have any good moves for this – he’s got bite and fire fang, both a bad idea, and then covet and rock smash. I tell him to rock smash to see if I can get the defense lowering effect, because that seems like it triggers basically every time, but apparently that’s only true when I’m trying to catch pokemon. Blaziken quick attacks him to death. Grovyle! Slam! …Blaziken continues to use quick attack because quality AI. Finally, when Grovyle is almost dead, it uses blaze kick. Go, my thunderdoggy! Blaziken then dodges two thunder fangs in a row while buffing, then Mightyena dodges a blaze kick, but two critical-hit quick attacks put her down. Raiden! Steal the credit! This time, thunder fang takes the blaziken down.
L37 breloom. I leave Raiden out. Despite not having any good moves, he does manage to paralyze the breloom and discharge does reasonable damage. He ends up winning pretty easily.
And that’s it. Even playing really badly, I win with pokemon to spare.
My grovyle’s evolving, too! From lithe ninja-lizard to sceptile, who promptly learns “dual chop” which is somehow a dragon move.
The leaves growing on Sceptile’s body are very sharp edged. This Pokémon is very agile—it leaps all over the branches of trees and jumps on its foe from above or behind.
So Brendan was good for something, at least.
Boy, that stings a bit.
A BIT? A BIT????
I had a head start on you as a Pokemon Trainer, but still… I, uh… I’m planning on going home to Littleroot.
It’s like you looked at your pathetic showing here and said to yourself, I’m already a terrible rival, but could I be an even worse one?
You know how I’ve been helping out my dad with the Pokedex, and it’s been coming together pretty decently. So…I ought to go back home and show it to him.
Now, in fairness, quitting as a trainer in the face of constant humiliating losses to a newbie is actually a reasonable thing, character wise. What it isn’t, though, is a satisfying outcome. I want a rival I can enjoy beating, not someone with a pathetic team who then gives up in despair.
Lucki, what are you gonna do?
Drown the world.
You still thinking of collecting all the Gym Badges and taking on the Pokemon League challenge?
How is that even a question? You know what, no, I’m not, I’m busy SAVING THE WORLD FROM THE ENEMY TEAM RUNNING ALL OVER THIS VERY TOWN YOU OBLIVIOUS IDIOT!
Huh? Really? I’ve gotta say, I always kind of thought that you’d go all the way and aim to be Champion.
Brendan Brendan Brendan. I aim to be God. If becoming Champion helps in that, sure, but it’s not the goal in itself.
…Uhhh. Huh? Did you… Lucki, I think there’s something…
Say anything about my megalomania and you die, Brendan.
There’s something, like, sparkling in your Bag…
Oh. Haha. Right. That is nothing at all and you definitely shouldn’t try to take it from me because it is mine. Also unimportant. And mine.
It’s the same kinda light that Meteorite had, the one you showed me in Lavaridge…
HAHA WHAT AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE BUT YOU KNOW METEORITE, ALWAYS SPARKLING LIKE LOTS OF OTHER THINGS, METEORITE’S JUST A KIDDER LIKE THAT, YOU KNOW HOW IT IS, JOKING, SPARKLING JUST LIKE OTHER THINGS, THAT’S OUR FRIEND METEORITE WHO IS DEFINITELY BACK IN LAVARIDGE AND NOT KIDNAPPED AND IN MY BAG
Ahhh, never mind!
Oh thank god it’s still mine.
No one must have the precious.
Just… Good luck out there!
I don’t need luck, I have save states.
I go to the department store, where I buy all the TMs and all the decorations. I sell all my unneeded items, then some of my QR code fossils to get the money. On the roof, there’s someone complaining about being thirsty, but I don’t seem able to give them a drink.
Beyond, I find the museum.
There’s someone in the lower right who wants to sell me his art.
Paradoxical Popper: … You suddenly feel empty! You wonder if you’re worthy in this world. You worry you may be forgotten without producing anything. You feel living may be meaningless! But you still live! Finally, you’ll discover the limitless possibilities in yourself and in the life you thought was empty!
Meditative Seat: … What are you looking at now? Does it really exist? All may not exist! When you realize that! Your world will lose its light! And what you’ll have is a void without light… But because of that, you feel it! You feel something with substance! You feel a powerful life!
Heterarchical Loop: … Do you have a bright future? Your next step… Will it really create your future as you wish? You get frightened! You may not escape from this chaos ever again! But no matter what kind of future awaits, you still nervously take a step wondering what kind of future unfolds!
I go with the last one, which incidentally about wipes out my funds.
Above, we have a picture of Giratina, which Lucki, being uneducated, just describes as It’s an odd landscape with bizarre and fantastic scenery. I don’t know how she’s even getting that and not at least “It’s a bizarre and fantastic pokemon.” You can see the pictures pretty well and that painting is almost entirely Giratina.
There’s also a picture of what looks like a present day ralts that’s described as It’s a very old painting. The paint is peeling here and there. So maybe my theory of rapid pokemon change is out. Then again, it’s so small that there could be differences I can’t see, plus barring a date Lucki may only have the peeling to make her assume it’s “very old” and it could be relatively recent and just in poor condition.
In the lower right section are statues. There’s what looks like a pidgeot statue, which apparently depicts an ancient bird Pokemon so perhaps not a pidgeot, a tablet with maybe a lucario on it but it looks weird if so, and most interestingly, It’s a big Poke Ball carved from a black stone. It was apparently used in festivals in the olden days. So…how old are pokeballs?
Come to think of it, just because it resembles a modern pokeball doesn’t mean it is – apricorn pokeballs are mostly distinguished by color, and as the raw materials were hard to find and the production was labor intensive, it’d make sense that would be something worth praying over.
The timeline is important, I think. BW/BW2 come to the idea the problem with the relationships between pokemon and humans is the pokeball, and I think DPP was the one with the books saying that in the old times, humans and pokemon lived in houses as equals. The invention of the apricorn pokeball may start the decline, with modern pokeballs accelerating the process enough that it’s more visible. Even the mega evolution stuff ties loosely to this – the way it’s portrayed back in XY is that mega evolution is ancient, likely predating pokeballs of any kind, but forgotten/impossible to scale up enough for the masses. The original bond between human and pokemon might’ve been how mega evolution allows pokemon to become stronger through partnership.
Even if we go on the idea pokemon are just animals, so it’s not inherently wrong they don’t have full human rights, the pokeball marks the point they become commodities. It’s sort of like how sure, dogs are domestic animals, but they used to be respected for the help they gave us and when we no longer needed that we bred them into crippled monsters for fun – and let’s emphasize the “we bred them” because a bunch of the current breeds are so inbred as to actually refuse to reproduce and it has to be done by hand. That’s where the pokemon world is going. Today you shove skitty and wailord into the daycare together because you want egg moves or IVs, tomorrow you’re paying the daycare people to jack off the one and then stick a turkey baster up the other because you want the right stat layout and you don’t care they’d rather play with other pokemon due to being siblings, and before long snubbull are turned into bloated monstrosities that overheat if they breathe too hard because they look more interesting that way.
In conclusion, N for god king of the world.
“Drown the world”
But you’re going to get Groudon, how can you drown the world with him?
“On the roof, there’s someone complaining about being thirsty, but I don’t seem able to give them a drink.”
Well at least you’ll be a benevolent dictator.
Also remember that one book in the Sinnoh library where it mentioned about how pokemon bones should be left after eating the pokemon?
Once you have one god under your control, the rest should be easy to get.
But you’re going to get Groudon, how can you drown the world with him?
Certain that Magma is the real problem, I’m going to try to stop their plan. This will mean removing Groudon from the system by stuffing it into a tiny ball. Kyogre will be completely unchecked.
It’s just like my fanfic!!! Except also I get to have Groudon rather than die.
Also remember that one book in the Sinnoh library where it mentioned about how pokemon bones should be left after eating the pokemon?
A belief many ancient cultures had…including ones that also had stories of people having sex with animals.
(By extension, this probably means there was a degree of cannibalism going on.)
Brendan/May made much better “rivals” when they weren’t actually trying to be rivals even if they did happen to have the starter strong against yours. In Gen 3 they seemed like they were only their dad’s research assistant and completing the dex was their goal – the battles with the player were a break from their dexwork. Having them actually claim to be battle rivals and having this be only what, the 4th battle? 3rd? and having all of four Pokemon 6 badges into the game makes them pretty pathetic rivals.
I vaguely remember seeing in a Let’s Play that saying “no” to whether you’re planning on getting the badges and challenging the league was met with something like “Oh? Whatever you’re planning to do instead must be interesting, then” when playing as a boy so seeing it left at just “oh, so you don’t think you can do it” for the girl irks me. But bulbapedia doesn’t seem to have the Lilycove quotes for ORAS so I’m wondering if I just imagined the dialogue difference.
I gave up trying to figure out the timeline of pokeballs when Drayden said he was born before the invention of pokeballs in either B/W or B2/W2.
The difference in dialogue prior to the yes/no already has May being more fawning from what I remember of my quick check, plus Brendan seems to always do that if you say no, so you’re probably right.
You can make it work if Drayden means mass produced pokeballs. So the timeline is:
Humans learn to make friends with wild pokemon.
Humans learn to make pokemon cages to bind extremely powerful, dangerous pokemon so they can’t kill everyone, as seen in that episode with the ancient ruins and giant pokemon fighting.
Humans get better at making pokemon cages. They start using them to control unruly pokemon, letting them out when needed but putting the away when they would cause trouble. Friendship starts being less important as humans have a way of shutting down angry pokemon.
By the time of the apricorn, things are looking very similar to the modern day outwardly, but apricorn balls are rare and very difficult to use on powerful pokemon, so pokemon are still cherished, and no one catches hundreds of them just for the sake of it. Friendship is no longer absolutely necessary, but because most humans have to start with very young, low level pokemon, in practice they generally do care about their pokemon. Drayden is born into this period.
When he’s older comes the invention of cheap, plentiful, and higher quality mass produced pokeballs. By the time he’s an old man, people have so little attachment to their pokemon that they’re inventing stuff like wondertrade where they send a pokemon they don’t care about to a complete stranger just to see what random pokemon they get in return. This is the fastest and most dramatic change, so to Drayden, “pokeballs” in common use are a completely different thing than the apricorn balls of his youth.
So by analogy to dog breeds, people start off taming wild animals, start domesticating them, their numbers grow but their usefulness diminishes but they remain important to people, then finally we’re turning them into grotesque monstrosities because we think it’s fun.
But there are no incest blocks in this game. The only way to avoid pairing eevee after eevee with its own dad is to keep track of it yourself. It would be so much better if the willingness to breed went down instead of ‘it has a different trainer but is the same species so max chance of getting an egg’
I desperately want them to ease up on having pokemon identified by original trainer. Its such a part of them being a commodity and it just makes no sense that a lv 1 pokemon I got from wonder trade and raised, its only memory being its original trainer checking its ivs and then giving it up, and it is not mine and I can’t give it a real name.
This was less of a tangent in my head. Yes N needs to come back and take over the world instead of these clowns.
Huh, so apparently they took that out after the second gen. Weird. I just always assumed it was in place. Well, I guess that means we’re already at the final stage and deformed monstrosities are go.
The whole nickname thing always seemed so weird. No one who actually loved their pokemon would name it DUX, but I can’t give it a better name? Are you saying I care less about it than someone who gave it a stupid name and traded it for a dirt common pokemon, really? And yet it’s so important to someone that they made a whole second OT number and hid it just to keep anyone from being able to match OT numbers and treat a traded pokemon like their own.
I have released so many wondertraded pokemon with nicknames that just barely make it past the swear filter or are otherwise insulting. :/ Just why? If they could be renamed after trading it wouldn’t be an issue. I mean especially for the younger kids playing the game that get pokemon with nicknames like “Fckyou” and “Smellycnt” and can only trade them back out to other people or release them if they don’t want them (and the way the anime discourages abandoning pokemon a lot of younger kids who actually get attached to these pixels are discouraged from releasing).
Huh, I thought the way Gen 2 did incest checks was by checking how many IVs the pokemon had in common (because of how many IVs were guaranteed to be passed down) and not allowing them to breed if they shared too many regardless of if they were actually related. Guess that’ll be something to look up later.
I wonder if the whole nicknaming and stuff thing makes sense in Japan, or if those players are as baffled as we are?
And yeah, gen 2 had it so that if they matched on inherited IVs, they wouldn’t breed. I believe it meant you could still breed siblings but not parent/child.
And just think how much of the creepy inbreeding stuff could be avoided if they just let you modify IVs on existing pokemon instead of having to breed for competitively usable ones. It could be some expensive post-game-only item. I mean they already have the ability capsule as a step in the right direction.
It’s funny – they have EVs, and they made it so those can be distributed in all sorts of different ways, and they even gave us a way to rearrange those so that you didn’t need to start over after fighting your way through the main storyline and getting a random layout. So they seem to understand that you should be able to modify pokemon’s stats rather than starting over if anything goes wrong.
And yet, IVs. And all they did there was double the number of them and lock a bunch of legendaries so those couldn’t be perfect. WHY.