Pokémon Thread XXIX: Sword, Shield, and Spoilers

[Maryring]

Eh, The Sun and Moon anime is mostly decent. It has some really powerful episodes, like the one where Litten joins Ash's team.

Unfortunately, it also had that one episode that justifies abuse as "alternative training methods" so... y'know. Far from perfect.

[Spore]

Unfortunately, it also had that one episode that justifies abuse as "alternative training methods" so... y'know. Far from perfect.

I mostly quit the Pokemon Anime just after the Orange Islands stuff, but didn't they have a whole rival based on the notion of "abuse is evil" thing with the guy with blue hair. I dont know his name, but he was the evil-Barry stand-in, abusing his Chimchar.

[Aotrs Commander]

I mostly quit the Pokemon Anime just after the Orange Islands stuff, but didn't they have a whole rival based on the notion of "abuse is evil" thing with the guy with blue hair. I dont know his name, but he was the evil-Barry stand-in, abusing his Chimchar.

That would be Paul, the rival in DP.

The GOOD rival.

Make no mistake, he was a reet piece of excrement, but that was what made him a good rival, because he was opposite to Ash and he was a very strong trainer who kept kicking Ash's arse for the longest time. But when Ash did finally get through to him, it made for a better redemption arc. And it made for one hell of a tense League battle.

Unlike whatshisface from Black/White who was basically just nothing and left the story after a boring league fight (was it even not one-on-one, the thing BW had an obession with?) leaving no trace, having learned nothing. Had the narrative not bent over backwards to give him a cheap win at the start, he would have been nothing at all. Dude barely showed up half the time anyway and had no narrative weight to him.



(Like most of DP, the rival part was well-executed, which is why I still hold DP has having the strongest region story arc I've thus seen. If it had had the animation of the more recent series, it's have been mostly perfect. Even the cheap "guy has multiple legendaries ate the league" at the end there seems less bad by comparison than the later embarrassment of the Unova league and the "cannot believe how obvious they made it" of XY&Z.)

[Rater202]

I kind of got soured on the anime in Hoen seasons just because I didn't much like that Ash basically abandoned all of his Pokemon at Oaks and after a while I realized that he was backsliding.

The first couple of episodes of Hoen had Max recognize Ash on sight and rattle off his stats... Few episodes Later Ash is back to being a random noob.

Also, in hindsight and a lot of early episodes are... Incredibly unfair.

Ash lost in the Indigo League conference becuase of outside interference: He was kidnapped by Team Rocket and the process of escaping meant that most of his Pokemon that he had registered for use in the conference was hurt and exhausted. In real life that's the kind of thing that would get a match delayed a few hours so he could drop them off at the Center and take a nap.

But no, he gets there at the last minute(after his opponent insisted that they wait for him) and immediately has o go into the match, and ends up having to rely on his Charizard, who Ash was not at the time a strong enough trainer to control and Charizard basically decided to screw around so he lost a match that otherwise would have been a sweep in his favor.

Next episode he's sad that he lost and his friends say it's his fault becuase he's a bad trainer who didn't train Charizard properly. No, it's not his fault, it's the fault of Team Rocket for fricking kidnapping him and the League for not having a rule in place in the event that a competitor is sabotaged by an outside party.

Like, Tobias showing up with an Aeon and the God of Nightmares was the most blatant case of the universe bending over backward to keep Ash from winning a League that was worth anything, but in hindsight, it becomes really freaking obvious that the world itself is biased against him ever winning an actual, recognized League.

[Saambell]

In regards to Tobias, I think there was several ways they could have improved him. Mostly it involves set up. In such a long season, there was a lot of filler episodes that didn't matter. If they had simply taken one of those out and used it to preview Tobias long before the league it would have fixed a lot of the "out of nowhere" problems he had. Putting an episode involving him a little after Hunter J is introduced would have worked very well, as they could have set him up as a Legend Seaker like her, but while shes brutal and villainous, they could have set him up more as a guy who peacefully seeks them out and earns their respect. In my mind the best way to do that would have an episode where Ash helps Tobias find Latios, even if its not capture. Just setting up early that hes searching for a Latois, maybe show or hint he has a Darkrai, and there goes so much of the issues people had with him.

Of course, the fact they didn't set up such a big thing, in an otherwise very well written season, shows they really just pulled him out of nowhere last minute. I also highly suspect the reason they picked him having a Darkrai was they were doing/planning a Darkrai give away event right around that time, and they wanted to make the thing look real cool to build hype for the event.

[BlueHamsterBean]

Hello everyone.

I’ve been lurking since before the release of Sword and Shield, which wound up being my first console Pokémon game despite the controversy. I started with Go, but recently got frustrated by the heavy RNG in that game one too many times.

I’ve noticed that people sometimes discuss trades here, or at least begin conversations that continue via PM, and I have been having a bit of trouble evolving a Seadra caught in the Isle of Armor expansion of Sword. I have the necessary dragon scale, but I don’t know many people whom I could trade it with.

Would anyone be up for trading a random mon to me to evolve the seadra before trading it back? If so, please PM me!

I look forward to chatting with you all.

Edit: Many thanks to Fredaintdead for helping me evolve a kingdra

[Aotrs Commander]

So it is just me, or did Nintendo make it much more hassle to actually pay money to them? Apparently now you can only pay (for renewing Pokebank) from a Nintendo card (the frack is a sane person going to go to buy one of those) ir by arsing around on the internet to set up a new account. What, being able to pay last time was too easy was it?

FRICKING IDIOTS.

*sigh* So that whole mess is going to be a pain to sort out tomorrow.



Next morning edit: Frack my tin hat, that was more faff than it needed to be. Had to create a Nintendo account (new password to squeeze onto my Tatty Sheet Of Paper - I'm going to have to write a new one soon, and I daren't do it on computer), then link my existing Ninendo Netwrok ID account (and have a new password) and then (at least) link to Paypal, but apparently that was already linked to the latter and then put a tenner on my account (because the buggers never let you put on less than that, of course...) and so the extra £1.50 I needed to make up £4.50 for another year's pass was there.

What a palarva.

[Rater202]

I've always hated the concept of trading in Pokemon.

1: If you got it from a trade, you did not catch it. Someone else did. Some Pokemon can only be obtained by NPC trades(and sometimes they screw you over, like the one who gives a Haunter with an ever stone) and version exclusives mean that in order to own Pokemon, you have trade. Between that and event Pokemon, it is literally impossible to catch them all.

2: The franchise, especially the anime, acts like Pokemon are sentient beings with feelings and that they're friends. Trading your friends like pogs is... Eh.

[Lord Raziere]

I've always hated the concept of trading in Pokemon.

1: If you got it from a trade, you did not catch it. Someone else did. Some Pokemon can only be obtained by NPC trades(and sometimes they screw you over, like the one who gives a Haunter with an ever stone) and version exclusives mean that in order to own Pokemon, you have trade. Between that and event Pokemon, it is literally impossible to catch them all.

2: The franchise, especially the anime, acts like Pokemon are sentient beings with feelings and that they're friends. Trading your friends like pogs is... Eh.

Yeah, and thinking about it, its more bad when you factor in that you need to trade a lot of pokemon to get a complete dex, in Gen 6 I bred nothing but abras to evolve into kadabras at blissey bases then basically use them as one-stop solution to getting all the pokemon I couldn't catch myself because everyone wants an alakazam. so I literally was running an alakazam trading operation for profit. I'd be a monster in-universe.

but wait! it gets worse. there are some people on the GTS who post up some shiny rare pokemon then request a trade that is literally impossible to do like a level 10 charizard. which means these people just put it up to show that pokemon off then leave it there without any actual trading going on. which means from an in-universe perspective these pokemon are just used as trophies in a display case despite being living beings with feelings, while also going against the concept of trading so that no one else can get them and theoretically provide a better home. at least my kadabras all theoretically had the chance to go to people who would actually care for them and use them in some manner.

because with the pokemon storage system, you can at least take it as an abstraction of how Ash's pokemon live at Oak's wilderness area at his lab. Gen 7 even had islands they hang out on. but when you get into trading you really start getting a look into how dark and shady the pokemon world would really be. like wonder trade is its own horrible beast, because the best strategy for it is just to catch something like a magikarp and put it a slot of the box storage space designated the wonder trade slot, then you just repeatedly trade whatever pokemon you get in that slot until you get something good. its literally just discarding and drawing repeatedly. it reminds me of those early episodes in Kanto and Johto of those weird people who seemed to only want to trade pokemon for the sake of it and how Ash seemed uncomfortable around them.

and we all know that realistically, trading of any kind is outdated. the reality is that pokemon would be sold for pokedollars, because then I could've sold all my kadabras for a good price then buy the pokemon I wanted. the kadabra would still evolve because why would it care that that another pokemon is given to me? it only cares that it goes to another person and thus giving someone a kadabra is no different from trading one, or they'd just evolve by leveling up.

oh and finally there is that one NPC in Diamond/Pearl that intentionally puts an everstone on a haunter then trades it with you and laughs at you for expecting a gengar. yeah nice prank, you raised a haunter who is a being with feelings for who knows how long just so you can offer him to the first trainer you see then screw over both that haunter from achieving their higher state of evolution that makes them stronger/more developed and fully grown and screwing the trainer out of the companion they were expecting, all for a juvenile joke. real funny abusing trust like that. you wasted the trainers time for a minute, congratulations.

[Qwertystop]

but wait! it gets worse. there are some people on the GTS who post up some shiny rare pokemon then request a trade that is literally impossible to do like a level 10 charizard. which means these people just put it up to show that pokemon off then leave it there without any actual trading going on. which means from an in-universe perspective these pokemon are just used as trophies in a display case despite being living beings with feelings, while also going against the concept of trading so that no one else can get them and theoretically provide a better home. at least my kadabras all theoretically had the chance to go to people who would actually care for them and use them in some manner.

In at least some generations, that's actually for a duplication glitch.

[OracleofWuffing]

If you really want to screw things up, it's not unheard of for people to hack those impossible-to-obtain pokemon, just to trade it through to the people trolling the GTS. So there's like four or five potential layers of trolling, using sentient beings with memories and emotions and all that as mere pawns.

Selling pokemon is an in-game thing, too, that's how a lot of trainers got their first Magikarps. The Game Corner pokemon also worked on the same premise. There's also a possibility that the Haunter was in on that joke, like the Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar that Ash met before... "earning..." his Marsh Badge.

[Bartmanhomer]

If you really want to screw things up, it's not unheard of for people to hack those impossible-to-obtain pokemon, just to trade it through to the people trolling the GTS. So there's like four or five potential layers of trolling, using sentient beings with memories and emotions and all that as mere pawns.

Selling pokemon is an in-game thing, too, that's how a lot of trainers got their first Magikarps. The Game Corner pokemon also worked on the same premise. There's also a possibility that the Haunter was in on that joke, like the Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar that Ash met before... "earning..." his Marsh Badge.

The only reason why Ash got a Marsh badge because Haunter was making faces to Sabrina.

[LansXero]

"cannot believe how obvious they made it" of XY&Z.)

What was wrong with Alain? I loved XYZ

[unseenmage]

In Pokemon GO which is rarer, a CP 10 with zero stats or a CP 10 with max stats?

[Kareeah_Indaga]

In Pokemon GO which is rarer, a CP 10 with zero stats or a CP 10 with max stats?

...isn’t the CP based on the IVs and overall stats? So I would think it would depend on the species.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

The CP is based on the level, species stats and IV's. Any CP that would end up below 10 is rounded up to ten.

So, imagine Examplemon. Examplemon has such stats that at both level 1 and 2 it will always have CP 10. At level 3 it will only have CP 10 if its IV's are below certain values. That means that a level 3 0 IV Examplemon will be CP 10, but a level 3 max IV Examplemon won't. So 0 IV 10 CP mon are more common.

The only mechanic that could balance this out are the mechanics that make sure some mon will always have at least decent CP's, namely those hatched from eggs and those obtained from raids. Among these mon 0 IV's is impossible, while max IV's is pretty common. However, these mon are never CP 10, except perhaps when it's your first day of playing or something. So this doesn't do anything to balance the situation, and max IV 0 CP is, as concluded above, rarer.

[unseenmage]

...gud stuff...

Wow. Thanks.

See THIS is why I ask here.

[Bartmanhomer]

Have anyone ever nickname their Pokemon? If I have a Magikarp, I would call him Homer Simpson.

[Aotrs Commander]

What was wrong with Alain? I loved XYZ

EVERYTHING.

He was, from the very start, visibly cheap-ass canon-stu inserted just so that Ash would have someone to get beaten by. He was dumb, transparent with no depth whatsoever and it was instantly obvious from the start he was There To Beat Ash in the finals.

And, knowing that, sapped every single iota of interest out of the battles he foguth in. In fact, looking back at my thoughts at the time (for posterity recorded on Pokemopolis (which note not only does not have a profanity filter but also as I was somewhat aping the tone of the episode reviews I was rather freer with them than I am anywhere else)) he never used any strategy, just brute force Because The Plot Said So.

Hell, they even shoved half the plot-critical bits into a side-show instead of the main story, which was equaly dumb.

XY was overall, probably the second-best so far, but by FRAG was Alain the Complete Psionic of the series. XY did many things right (Ash, Bonnie, the animation) and some things not so well (Serena (under-utilised) and Showcases (boring)) but it only fell complete flat with Alain.

To quote my own closing thoughts on the aforementioned thread:

I did not like Alain. Alain came across as a mary-sue, an OC-do-not-steal straight out of bad fanfiction¹. He annoyed me pretty much throughout. His main saving grace was that he was not Trip, which is damning with as faint a praise as possibly. And because of this, the League was extremely poor and felt short-shrifted, with the only battles shown that MATTERED being verses Tierno and Sawyer. Was it the worst league? I dunno. It's close to BW, but I think BW still takes bottom because it only had ONE decent match, and the stupid one-v-one BW obessesion and the sheer gall of Cameron's victory outweigh the blindingly obvious outcome of XY - Ash's fight against Alain was actually at least better animated and Alain actually felt like (albiet clearly writer-favoured) competant enough to actually win.



¹Disclaimer: I read a lot of fanfiction. GOOD fanfiction.

Fortunately, after the total flop of the League, the remaining finale was probably the best they'd ever done.

Have anyone ever nickname their Pokemon? If I have a Magikarp, I would call him Homer Simpson.

Darkspark, Bleakling, Blitzkreig, Sleepstar, Crevasse, Gloomquake, Teratorn, Coldsteel, Ambush, Subterfuge, Incinerate, Cinder, Gagana, WytchFyre, Glorious, Sear, Singe, Ignite, Waverunner, Slurry, Razor, Cloudwisp, Undertow, Overflow, Riptide, Mystery, Radiant, Entrancer, Nova, Galesmite, Chasm, Cerastes, Scitalis, Serpent, Venom, Viper, Toxin, Virulence, Splashdown, Coruscate, Endikiyr, Gloaming, Spite, Wraith, Banshee, Lich, Revenant, Dreamrose, Ethereal, Whipslash, Wingfight, Pterasaur, Windrazor, Mindslayer, Timerender, Starseeker, Starsurge, Sparkle, Balefire, Cavitate, Traproot, Royal Oak, Impact, Iron Slam, Cascade, Bladerush, Mithril, Frigate, Hurricane, Typhoon, Fenstalker, Earthdrake, Grass Slam, Seism, Smoulder, Hopebrand, Iridium, Cavelier, Moonbeam, Drown, Lava, Viledeep, Zaprunner, Bast, Lightspeed, Overburn, Valour, Tyrant, Hellbore, Pounce, Skeleking, Scramble, Iceberg, Doomflood, Desiccate, Brightfang, Magi, Warlock, Enchanter, Smite, Webshock, Argyroneta, Scimitar, Pyreblight, Oceanid, Cacophony, Caustic Mire, Gladius, Patagaly, Abiea, Snowdrift, Illithid, Nightfire and Kunochi, to name but a few members of Carnage Team.

[Ortho]

Have anyone ever nickname their Pokemon?

Let's see... I don't think I've nicknamed any of my Pokemon in Sword, but my crew in Crystal is:

Terry, Perry, TOTODILE, ROCKY, Jim, and Eggmond.

Darkspark, Bleakling, Blitzkreig, Sleepstar, Crevasse, Gloomquake, Teratorn, Coldsteel, Ambush, Subterfuge, Incinerate, Cinder, Gagana, WytchFyre, Glorious, Sear, Singe, Ignite, Waverunner, Slurry, Razor, Cloudwisp, Undertow, Overflow, Riptide, Mystery, Radiant, Entrancer, Nova, Galesmite, Chasm, Cerastes, Scitalis, Serpent, Venom, Viper, Toxin, Virulence, Splashdown, Coruscate, Endikiyr, Gloaming, Spite, Wraith, Banshee, Lich, Revenant, Dreamrose, Ethereal, Whipslash, Wingfight, Pterasaur, Windrazor, Mindslayer, Timerender, Starseeker, Starsurge, Sparkle, Balefire, Cavitate, Traproot, Royal Oak, Impact, Iron Slam, Cascade, Bladerush, Mithril, Frigate, Hurricane, Typhoon, Fenstalker, Earthdrake, Grass Slam, Seism, Smoulder, Hopebrand, Iridium, Cavelier, Moonbeam, Drown, Lava, Viledeep, Zaprunner, Bast, Lightspeed, Overburn, Valour, Tyrant, Hellbore, Pounce, Skeleking, Scramble, Iceberg, Doomflood, Desiccate, Brightfang, Magi, Warlock, Enchanter, Smite, Webshock, Argyroneta, Scimitar, Pyreblight, Oceanid, Cacophony, Caustic Mire, Gladius, Patagaly, Abiea, Snowdrift, Illithid, Nightfire and Kunochi, to name but a few members of Carnage Team.

Good grief, I don't think I've even caught that many Pokemon yet!

Speaking of nicknames, we're on page 48. Time to think up a name for the next thread?

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Re: nicknames, I usually don’t nickname them, the only one I really remember nicknaming was my first ever Feebas, ‘Nibbles.’ While fishing for it I got the ‘not even a nibble’ message a few too many times.

Speaking of nicknames, we're on page 48. Time to think up a name for the next thread?

Pokémon GO Back Inside

[Bashhammer]

Have anyone ever nickname their Pokemon? If I have a Magikarp, I would call him Homer Simpson.

*Looks back in the thread*

Why don't more people name their pokemon in raid battles?! I'm tired of throwing out what I think is a creatively named 'mon, and everyone else is just, "Gyrados." "Tyranitar." "Zacian/Zamazenta." Come on people!

During my initial blind run of sword, when the free toxel you get at the nursery evolved into toxtricity, I made a beeline to go change his name to Sid Vicious. Later on, I joined a raid against something that was weak to electric, so I used him. A third person joins the raid, and the individual pulls out their toxtricity, which was the opposite form of mine. Battle starts, turns out this dude had named their's Nikki Sixx. IT WAS AWESOME! Much annihilation of the electrical variety commenced!

Why can't there be more of that?! Bring me your dumb names, pun names, reference names, and dumb punny reference names! It's more fun that way.

*hard look to the camera*

I honestly am unable to understand how someone CAN'T nickname a pokemon. I'd never name a dog "Dog", a parrot "Parrot", or a rage drake "Rage Drake"*. I mean, I don't think any less of anyone that doesn't, live and let live, but I don't understand it.


*Off-topic, when my group was playing our 4e game in high school, we once caught a rage drake and named him Fluffy. We still talk about him and Horse No. 2 to this day.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I've even nicknamed Pokémon during my small outing in breeding. Which is a problem, because you're going to end up being satisfied with maybe the 30th one you breed or something, and by that time you will have run out of inspiration.

[Aotrs Commander]

Good grief, I don't think I've even caught that many Pokemon yet!

That is just a selection of the primary team members of Carnage Team over the past... Well, TECHNICALLY seven generations, since somenames date back to When I Was Naughty With Emulators, but at the very least Gen III when I did it proper-like.

I have a SPREADSHEET with the full list of Named Pokémon; considerably outdated (since after about Gen IV I bred so much I stopped counting the overall and haven't even always, I think added all the primary teams) but there's over 150 in the primary teams alone.

(Bearing in mind I have am or will eventuallly play through every main game plus Colosseum and Gale of Darkness from Gen III to Gen VII save UltraMoon once each.)

And after my exploits in Gen 1 (and the re-uses in Gen III) the pattern is "all Pokémon that participate as active team members get a name, as well as some legendaries (if possible)" (I did, I think name a good chunk of the Shadow Pokémon, provided they were not entirely useless-natured.)

[Kareeah_Indaga]

*hard look to the camera*

I honestly am unable to understand how someone CAN'T nickname a pokemon. I'd never name a dog "Dog", a parrot "Parrot", or a rage drake "Rage Drake"*. I mean, I don't think any less of anyone that doesn't, live and let live, but I don't understand it.

Because as far as I’m concerned ‘Raichu’ ‘Charizard’ ‘Fearow’ etc. ARE their nicknames. Presumably they have actual names in Pokémon speech, but I don’t speak that and can’t ask. And given the choice, which would you rather go by - ‘human’ or ‘Flufferdoodle’?

[Ortho]

I honestly am unable to understand how someone CAN'T nickname a pokemon. I'd never name a dog "Dog", a parrot "Parrot", or a rage drake "Rage Drake"*. I mean, I don't think any less of anyone that doesn't, live and let live, but I don't understand it.

There's what, ~900 unique Pokemon so far? It's hard enough to keep track of them all without doubling up on names. (That's my excuse, at least.)

Also, if I recall correctly, the only time you could name your Pokemon prior to Gen VIII was to do it when you caught them - i.e. when you had no idea what they were capable of. Or by searching the entire region for the one person who could change it for you.

[Qwertystop]

There's what, ~900 unique Pokemon so far? It's hard enough to keep track of them all without doubling up on names. (That's my excuse, at least.)

Also, if I recall correctly, the only time you could name your Pokemon prior to Gen VIII was to do it when you caught them - i.e. when you had no idea what they were capable of. Or by searching the entire region for the one person who could change it for you.

Well, yes, but the "one person who could change it for you" is not usually hard to find; they're in a town or city, and you'll find them if you routinely talk to all the NPCs the first time you enter a new area. Which is a good idea anyway because many of them will give you items or gift pokemon or advice or trades.

[Saambell]

Well, yes, but the "one person who could change it for you" is not usually hard to find; they're in a town or city, and you'll find them if you routinely talk to all the NPCs the first time you enter a new area. Which is a good idea anyway because many of them will give you items or gift pokemon or advice or trades.

They are also listed in the Town Map, if anyone bothers looking at that. They also usually have a sign outside their house I think. I know one of the first things I do is find the town with the Name Rater. Super important NPC, along with any tutors, and the IV checker and HP checker.

[Bashhammer]

Because as far as I’m concerned ‘Raichu’ ‘Charizard’ ‘Fearow’ etc. ARE their nicknames. Presumably they have actual names in Pokémon speech, but I don’t speak that and can’t ask. And given the choice, which would you rather go by - ‘human’ or ‘Flufferdoodle’?

Swear on my life, 100% honesty, I'd rather be called Flufferdoodle than human. My species name is not my name. I also don't think pokemon have actual names themselves, pretty sure dogs and cats don't.

And before the inevitable, "You don't think animals are people?!" yes, animals (and pokemon) are people, I just don't think they're sapient/sentient, whichever is the right word, enough to give themselves names.

As far as I'm concerned, a pokemon is a really smart animal. A superpowered animal, but an animal.

...There's gonna be A LOOOOT of people yelling at me in the near future.



Edit: The only exception I have for this are some legendaries and a few mythicals. Giratina obviously has human intelligence, but you cannot make me think that houndoom is any smarter than a particularly bright German Shepard, and it's my favorite pokemon!

[Spore]

Animals might not have names but at least drom judging cata and their territories, they would at least recognize each other with their most defining features.

An overweight orange cat might be paraphrased as Chunkie or Red Giant.