no it really does look like it's still rendering as it's driving around like it hasn't fully spawned in to the life sim yet lmao
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- Thread starter Yung Dramps
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no it really does look like it's still rendering as it's driving around like it hasn't fully spawned in to the life sim yet lmao
I come at this problem from a weird angle that most people here won't share, and one that is admittedly "cringe" to admit: As a teen, I read a lot, and I mean a lot, of Pokemon fanfiction, and I've even written some.
Now, I don't mean the stereotypical idea of it, where it's taking two characters and making them have a crush on each other. The stories I was interested in were the ones that went in-depth on these problems, and if they had romance that wasn't a big part of my enjoyment. Now, in fanfic spaces, there are two major factions of fiction you can categorize:
-Media with little meat on its bones, leading to a very malleable and easy. These are mostly used for their setting, often discarding characters from the original source entirely.
-Media that is very much focused on individual plot elements, where it's more about individual characters than the setting.
With almost every generation of Pokemon, they fit into the first category, with a few into the second. Spinoffs have their own weird thing, mainly Pokemon Mystery Dungeon for obvious reasons, and it's kind of "in the middle" if it were a spectrum. A lot of stories though focus on entirely new characters in a fleshed-out version of a Pokemon world, filling in the worldbuilding, inventing new concepts or remixing existing ones.
However, one of the things that would vary the most between stories was The Question, The Ultimate Question, how do you depict Pokemon actually. It's a surprisingly interesting question, because if you go to different periods and media sources for Pokemon, you can make an argument for just about anything.
Now, I've always defaulted to "Pokemon are basically People" because of things like Mystery Dungeon and how the anime portrays the situation. Whereas the games have rarely had Pokemon-to-human communication, from the start the anime has always been more in-depth, naturally.
Simply thought: the concept of "moves". Now we can make an argument that just using the words of each attack could be like how you can train animals just by the tone of your voice to do certain actions, but Pokemon in the anime have entire segments where they talk to each other, and if Pikachu can hear Ash say "Do you wanna go to McDonalds or some shit bruh" and respond "Pika" with a nod, then that goes far beyond just training some phrases.
Now you have others like the manga where Pokemon are portrayed closer to the original games, more animalistic and less intelligent. And the games themselves have changed over time too. You have media like Pokemon Conquest that is... at face value, probably one of the "universes" we know of in the several canons? And it has more similarities with the anime. In recent years, what has sometimes honestly felt like a softcore "ban" on Pokemon and humans interacting much in the main series games lifted, and now just about every game has some Pokemon characters. Not human characters in Pokemon, but outright Pokemon characters, where the humans talk to them and they respond, they have emotions - Calyrex talks, entirely.
There's however, outside of just canon of course, a lot of different ways people see it especially with which era of the series they got into. I've seen stories where the league is a full-on profession with Pokemon being given little personality. There's stories where Pokemon are incomprehensible to humans until they get to know each other, ones where Pokemon talk with psychic ability plot devices, there's ones where Pokemon can just talk. Do Pokemon eat each other? There are more than two answers to that question, there are probably dozens - there's interpretations where mammal Pokemon only eat seafood, for instance. On the subject of intelligence itself, sometimes it depends on Pokemon. Rattata are dumb rats, Jynx are basically human.
There's basically different bits of lore you can use to support any of these positions.
One of the fundamental focuses is actually on what "scale", "spectrum", whatever you'd like to call it, how human are the Pokemon? And this of course plays into how different people tackle the ethics, be it trying to write it however which way they want. And I'll tell you, there are plenty of better ideas for it being ethical and it being unethical than the conclusions Game Freak has presented.
There's actually a lot that you can piece together in many ways using logical conclusions from the tidbits of Pokemon lore the devs, who 100% aren't committed to lore at all, still add into the games. One that I've always liked is the concept of "Infinity Energy" introduced in X and Y, named in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. This is a mini plotline where you go to the sunken ship and read letters that talk of how Devon Corp gets energy, and to be blunt, it's implied They're Killing The Dogs:
Now, the main thing here that matters is the last energy. "That they had used Pokemon bioenergy to create Infinity Energy." This is interesting, and on its own sounds bad enough, but what we also know in retrospect is that what AZ used to fuel The Ultimate Weapon is the exact same source.
The Adventures Manga makes it even more transparent, though I do not claim that to be technically "canon" or if it's held up to some internal standards:
Now this is actually really interesting storytelling, and it gives us a lot of possibilities. For one, it makes Devon Corp seem really fucking evil, but you can use this sort of conclusion all over the place. Let's say Revives.
Now, to be clear, I am not claiming this is the original intention all the way back in 1996, or that this is even true, but we can take the drip-feeds of information they give us to craft interesting ideas. Revives do not seem like human-made medicine in the same way that Potions do, Max Revives especially being rare and generally being found outdoors rather than in Marts. Considering the versatility of Infinity Energy, and how with AZ's Floette it can keep it alive eternally, it's not an insane reach to conclude that Revives could be natural "Infinity Energy deposits". The games never actually give an explanation to their creation and especially Max Revives are interesting, there is other medicine to help revive Pokemon that is generally closer to real medicine unlike this and other types of items.
This is the type of stuff you can do when you think about these things for a second, and this is part of what makes reading fan made stories around the series interesting. Tidbits that can be interwoven to create a more concrete lore, better worldbuilding as a whole. But then you get to stories based on actual plots.
So like, I don't think it's about "can they explain their worldbuilding", more a question of "do they want to." Clever writers will bridge gaps and do the mental math to not only create a coherent, or at least semi-coherent world, but also attempt to make it as interesting as possible. It's about the fact that the developers just don't want to. Hell, as much as I said the modern games are going more in the anime's direction, Legends Arceus basically says "no" to most old lore about Pokemon ethics from the official source.
The consensus used to be that Pokemon that we encounter on routes are actively looking for trainers that are strong, and that is why they battle and go to these carved-out routes rather than I dunno, the bundles of trees the player can't even walk into. A bit of a messy explanation, but it was official and at least was something. With turn-based gameplay and little animation, we can fill in the blanks in our head and make our own story. And then Legends Arceus goes and basically makes it out to be explicitly "This wild Pokemon is running from me, scared, and I'm gonna hit it in the back of the head aren't I?"
Along with that, even as a lore nerd, I can tell you I honestly do not understand Scarlet/Violet's lore and that it was much more interesting before the DLC in all honesty with "wish theory" or whatever you'd like to call it. And Sword/Shield's lore with Dynamax is literally contradictory within about every media source.
So it's really less that we can't explain things, humans are clever. It's that Game Freak actively doesn't want to, and honestly, nowadays kinda just goes out of their way and makes decisions that make shit make less sense for vibes-based media. Legends Arceus was Game Freak's "What if Pokemon were dangerous and attacked humans!!!!!!" game tone wise, so they just threw away previous tones and boom.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, to be clear. I mean I think Scarlet/Violet uses its Huh?? lore to make a Wow!! story, and Legends Arceus is also an interesting setting. Recent years in the franchise has shown that we're heading into a direction of "Fuck it we ball", just about any setting can/will be crossed with Pokemon if they think it's cool, so I don't expect this to change, and that's fine!
Last time I talked about Pokemon lore people replied to me like I was mad it doesn't make sense and like. To be explicitly clear for the third time in a row: I am not mad about Pokemon lore not making sense, I am explaining the perspective that there isn't a reason Pokemon can't make sense, it's that they don't care to make it / don't want it to.
I could make a pretty coherent explanation for Pokemon training to be 100% ethical, but that's ultimately just fanon and Game Freak would prefer that we just fill in the gaps in our head. It's something that books do well, and why people prefer books over movies sometimes. The book lets me imagine my version of the events, the movie has one version. And I think that some videogames really prefer that, and I think it's also a deliberate choice with these kids-friendly franchises that try to play for all audiences.
Game Freak doesn't want to pick a lane on lore because if they do that, there will always be millions and millions of people whose headcanons are invalidated and therefore hinder their enjoyment of the series a bit. Because everyone has their own individualized interpretation, even those who don't actually give a shit- it's the nature of this type of series.
I also think Game Freak has thought about this because like, we just got massive leaks that show they actually do put effort into lore docs, the mythology of the series, etc. If they really wanted to just pick one coherent vision they could! They choose not to.
Yup, this is how you keep a megafranchise relevant for decades. Marvel/DC would not have lasted as long as they have without leaving surpluses of room for all the different branches of their heroes to do whatever
The only series at this level that has strictly adhered to a very narrow concept of canon is, as you said, Star Wars, and it has been a profound, ongoing disaster for it. Even something like Star Trek that technically has one timeline keeps the various series far apart enough chronologically to not matter beyond absolute basics like "Don't radically change the look of this alien species"
I'm a poet and I didn't even know it
Kung Fu Panda 2 is Identity Crisis: The Movie
The serious plot elements are good and the comedy is good...individually.
I'm the kind of person who loves surprisingly dark themes in children's media. This movie should be a slam dunk for me. Why is the humor so funny and the plot elements intriguing but feel like oil and water clashing?
Simply put, this movie barely ever knows when to let tense scenes speak for themselves. It feels like it pays lip service to the idea of serious themes, which truly baffles me because the first 20 minutes very clearly want to go for a more somber tone and do so excellently - the humor feels natural there. But then the movie keeps going and almost always undercuts its serious scenes with jokes, that, while funny, grow increasingly overplayed. Oh my goodness, this movie has genocide, it's so dark, wait no let's have our climax preceded by a joke where the at peace hero and murderous psychopath villain can barely hear each other. Stuff like that is wonderful occasionally, but it just feels like the movie ultimately wants to have its cake and eat it too. Either be a dark movie with occasional comedy or be a overly comedic movie with occasional serious bits (like the first movie). Trying to go back and forth constantly utterly wrecks my immersion and investment.
"It's a PG movie, you're 27 and expecting too much" - The Prince of Egypt and Megamind were also PG movies by the same studio that knew how to let darker moments breathe. If you're gonna have the guts to bring up PTSD, genocide, and parental abandonment in your movie, then go all the way with it and don't make funny haha zany quip #597. It just feels kinda insincere.
It's such a shame too because I think all the elements for an amazing dark story with good jokes ARE there in Kung Fu Panda 2, heck I think it's still a good to great watch in spite of its incredible tonal inconsistency. I just hate the way it's told.
The serious plot elements are good and the comedy is good...individually.
I'm the kind of person who loves surprisingly dark themes in children's media. This movie should be a slam dunk for me. Why is the humor so funny and the plot elements intriguing but feel like oil and water clashing?
Simply put, this movie barely ever knows when to let tense scenes speak for themselves. It feels like it pays lip service to the idea of serious themes, which truly baffles me because the first 20 minutes very clearly want to go for a more somber tone and do so excellently - the humor feels natural there. But then the movie keeps going and almost always undercuts its serious scenes with jokes, that, while funny, grow increasingly overplayed. Oh my goodness, this movie has genocide, it's so dark, wait no let's have our climax preceded by a joke where the at peace hero and murderous psychopath villain can barely hear each other. Stuff like that is wonderful occasionally, but it just feels like the movie ultimately wants to have its cake and eat it too. Either be a dark movie with occasional comedy or be a overly comedic movie with occasional serious bits (like the first movie). Trying to go back and forth constantly utterly wrecks my immersion and investment.
"It's a PG movie, you're 27 and expecting too much" - The Prince of Egypt and Megamind were also PG movies by the same studio that knew how to let darker moments breathe. If you're gonna have the guts to bring up PTSD, genocide, and parental abandonment in your movie, then go all the way with it and don't make funny haha zany quip #597. It just feels kinda insincere.
It's such a shame too because I think all the elements for an amazing dark story with good jokes ARE there in Kung Fu Panda 2, heck I think it's still a good to great watch in spite of its incredible tonal inconsistency. I just hate the way it's told.
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Daredevil Born Again, more like Flopdevil the Same Story again lmao gottem
Me complaining about current MCU is not anything new, in fact I'm not even following it rn, but I liked the Netflix show, and with this being advertised as the continuation I had to watch it. But now we're at the halfway point of the season and all I can say is "maaaaaan what a downgrade". It's just really difficult to care about Matt giving up on being Daredevil and his "is it ok to kill or not?" when we've already seen a lot of this stuff in the previous show. The action scenes don't pack the punch they used to, and I don't know if this is to blame on the direction or the troubled production (or both?). Also episode 5 REALLY sucks, just a padded bank heist with constant "connected MCU" reminders. (Episode 3 innocent, but I'm not really trusting Disney in concluding well that storyline)
If you told me like 1 year ago that it's going to be the Agatha show which clears all of the new Marvel shows I wouldn't believe you lol
Me complaining about current MCU is not anything new, in fact I'm not even following it rn, but I liked the Netflix show, and with this being advertised as the continuation I had to watch it. But now we're at the halfway point of the season and all I can say is "maaaaaan what a downgrade". It's just really difficult to care about Matt giving up on being Daredevil and his "is it ok to kill or not?" when we've already seen a lot of this stuff in the previous show. The action scenes don't pack the punch they used to, and I don't know if this is to blame on the direction or the troubled production (or both?). Also episode 5 REALLY sucks, just a padded bank heist with constant "connected MCU" reminders. (Episode 3 innocent, but I'm not really trusting Disney in concluding well that storyline)
If you told me like 1 year ago that it's going to be the Agatha show which clears all of the new Marvel shows I wouldn't believe you lol
I don't think the movie "Hoodwinked!" has bad animation.
Like yeah if you're comparing it to Pixar or DreamWorks it might look a little odd. But on its own merits I think it looks just fine.
Like yeah if you're comparing it to Pixar or DreamWorks it might look a little odd. But on its own merits I think it looks just fine.
Box legends shouldn’t be captured in a master ball. Work for it. Earn it.
This was an April Fool’s by the way I hope I irked someone or at least raised an eyebrow
This was an April Fool’s by the way I hope I irked someone or at least raised an eyebrow
/dt stomp
Despite Smogon having a pretty big social media presence, being increasingly known by even very casual Pokemon players on the internet, and being used and shown by many many big Youtubers
It still has one of the most insular competitive scenes I've ever seen where between the same tourney each year it's 90% the same players, and most of the tournaments also are those same players
And it's not even that many relatively speaking to other competitive games
It still has one of the most insular competitive scenes I've ever seen where between the same tourney each year it's 90% the same players, and most of the tournaments also are those same players
And it's not even that many relatively speaking to other competitive games
Update 3 Weeks Later: Yeah... about that...
It might already be happening...
So one night I opened YouTube and a short autoplayed from a Gen 5 fan, so I check the comments...
...They're actually divided...
It was either Genfivers, People sick of genfivers, or gensixers and genseveners.
People are starting to getting sick of Genfivers now, and with PLZA around the corner, 3DS Era glazing might soon be upon us.
finally it will be cool to be a kalos fan. we have waited long for our promised kingdom.
I mean, I would probably call the Unova games my favorites, but it's not like I don't get it. Even as someone who shares the general feeling that something was lost in the transition to the 3DS, the constant beating of the "Everything went downhill after the DS games!" drum has just gotten really tiring for me at this point, and it's not like subsequent games are totally without merit — I could even offer a lukewarm defense of X/Y! I also understand exasperation with the social media nostalgia circuit for these games. If you engage with Pokémon content on YouTube or other social media platforms in any capacity, you will be inundated with uncritical glazing of the older games and exaggerated, performative bashing of the newer ones from people who just want some easy engagement. 3DS glazing is at least a more novel opinion.
I would rather argue with a brick wall then argue in Youtube comments, because at least the brick wall doesn't spout ridiculous nonsense
I unironically think USUM could have been the best pokemon game of all time if it just came out as USUM instead of being a functionally changeless predecessor with the only real difference being slight changes to (albeit above average difficulty for the franchise) a handful of bosses, a handful of new pokemon and a complete assassination of every single driving factor behind the game's storyline and character arcs for the side characters 80% through the story.
fuck usum bro i had such high hopes that it would fix the issues SM had. it kinda did but then it replaced those issues with a somehow even bigger issue it's genuinely ridiculous
fuck usum bro i had such high hopes that it would fix the issues SM had. it kinda did but then it replaced those issues with a somehow even bigger issue it's genuinely ridiculous
pokemon discussion on the internet being insufferable tribalism is more likely than the sun rising tomorrow. this really shouldn't be news to anyone.
