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Good to see this LP going, to be honest, I know I missed out on being able to contribute to GSC with that manga stuff (And was disappointed in myself, but life did not line up in such a way to allow it.) But I've got the itch to maybe belt out some posts regarding PokeSpe's best arc, Ruby and Sapphire. Also yeah Ranmaru and Gumball
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Feb 11, 2018 15:24
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PokeSpe Entry - Fighting Girl meets Boy. So previously in the Pokemon Yellow lets play, I talked about how wonderful the Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures manga was, especially on how it interpreted the characters and scenarios of the Generation 1 games, the introduction of Yellow herself, and their take on the Elite 4. Unfortunately, due to many issues, I missed the GSC LP and never got a chance to talk about that manga, which was a pity because it's good in its own right. However, as GSC hit volume 10, the artist assisting on the PokeSpe manga Mato became ill, and weakness in her hand left her unable to draw anymore. Her replacement was Satoshi Yamamoto and to sum up the differences.  Mato's images had a sort of deformed style to them which made them feel very much like they could have been from the video game itself. Yamamoto, on the other hand, had images more in line with the characters official arts and designs. On the whole, I like them both, for various reasons. Anyway, while GSC continued once more upon the growing world of Red, Green, and Blue along with the newer cast, all the gym leaders and... frankly felt very connected to the RGB arc, much like the game itself, RS felt like a split from that story to a whole new one. Our story opens up, as the game does, with Ruby, our first protagonist, arriving in Littleroot Town, so, what's Ruby like?  So... Ruby and Sapphire introduced the contests to the game mechanics, and, the anime put those in May's ballpark, but Pokemon Special decided instead to make them Ruby's game, despite being the protagonist (Son of Norman, arriving from Johto into Hoenn) he has no interests in battle or anything that isn't beautiful, he simply wants to make his Pokemon stand-out and win contests. He's everything that Red and Gold are not, he has a narcissistic streak and a rather negative attitude overall but deep down, he's a good heart.  But Ruby is only one half of our star cast, after all, if his focus is on contests, and he hates battle, then what does that leave Sapphire?  Sapphire is everything Ruby isn't, he's obsessed with fashion and beauty, she wears literal leaves and shoves her nose up pokemon's asses to tell how sick they are, she's a wild girl, she's obsessed with strength and being the best in battle. You know how Birch is the professor most likely to actually be out in the field doing things? Sapphire takes that to maximum levels. She finds Ruby to be a prat, stuck up and acting pathetic, while he finds her to be nothing more than a brute, rude, crass and dirty.  Our two protagonists are completely opposite of one another, and that ultimately leads to their main conflict for this manga,   Thus begins a tale of two heroes, Ruby, and his travel to become a contest master, and the conflicts that lead him to fight Team Magma, and Sapphire and her goal to become the greatest battler, which pits her against Team Aqua. The best part about Ruby and Sapphire, beyond the obvious twist on what their 'expected' portrayals should be, is that RS really does treat them as equals, there are many chapters that focus on one or the other, their characters start out simple, but develop a lot of depth and nuance, and their conflicts are some of the greatest in PokeSpe, if not the greatest to a lot of people. But uh... Ruby's kind of... ran away from home since his father doesn't accept what he wants to do with himself (Not knowing that Norman has decided to accept Ruby's ambition to master contests.)   And Normans pursuit of his son is intense as hell. Well, I know this is shorter than normal, but we have just started out. I hope you've all enjoyed reading. Onmi fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Feb 12, 2018 |
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Feb 12, 2018 11:55
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Solumin posted:Same. I read the first generation, I think? I remember GSC got weird and then I couldn't find the rest of it to read. Well you can buy them from Viz here https://www.viz.com/read/manga/pokemon-adventures/all (support the official release) Or you can read some average quality scans here. http://jb2448.info/
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Feb 13, 2018 01:35
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Well the funniest thing I can think of is dDLBScWMpDQSVhd Onmi fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Feb 13, 2018 |
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Feb 13, 2018 03:15
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I'm going to enjoy my write up on Team Magma, but the quick summation of 'how' they get around the Admins... not really being the Admins from earlier in the manga, is they claim that the Admin names are actually more 'titles' than the person's real name. Also, the lack of official art for the Admins meant RS got uh... interesting This was their take on Tabitha, Courtney is pretty close to her sprite  But the real interesting thing to talk about in regards to her is her overall character and how she plays into the plot. Again, it's going to be super interesting to discuss
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Mar 7, 2018 14:31
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So I'm wondering which part of the manga to cover next, start tackling the gym leaders? Team Magma/Aqua? What would people be interested in seeing covered?
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Mar 8, 2018 06:50
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I remember Flannery because I always got Combusken and Aron and I had no water types to handle her bulky Fires.
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Mar 12, 2018 03:52
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Been sick and busy with my Masters, so I haven't been able to really do a Manga post, but lets try to get these in before the LP wraps. Team Aqua and Team Magma If you ask people the reason why they love the RS manga so much a good portion will list the villains as part of the reason. Pokemon Special has always had effective villains always found a way to interweve them with the ongoing plot and let the reader feel invested in their defeat. But of course, Ruby and Sapphire have two sets of villain teams, depending on your version, and to be honest... they're boring as poo poo, not that Team Rocket is so interesting, but they're pretty bland and above it all, Pokemon Special has DONE eco-terrorists as villains, how do you not tread new ground? To start with, understand that Ruby primarily fought against Team Magma and Sapphire against Team Aqua, and sort of like in Emerald, the teams are in contention, but not necessarily in the way you'd suspect. I'm only really going to make note of Courtney of the Admin's though they are are rather interesting to varying degrees, and hell, the games also introduce a new Admin for each team, Magma introduces Blaise, who uses Slugma to create heat illusions and mess with his foes. Team Aqua in turn got Gorebyss who produces damaging ripples in the water, neither have paritcularly interesting designs but it is neat they exist   So like in Emerald, Aqua attacks Sapphire, Gabby and Ty at Rustboro in an attempt to kidnap Mr. Stone, which they fail at, but manage to get the Devon Parts Meanwhile Ruby is attacked in the abandoned ship by Magma, who successfully manage to get the Scanner. Magma is presented as the weaker force in the manga, with Archie being the head of Hoenn TV and essentially using his position as propaganda to smear Magma and brush over Aqua's actions. In fact, Magma is presented so much as the underdog that, despite the volcano plan most making sense for them, it is in fact Aqua who enact the plan to turn it dormant and affect Hoenn's climate, and even succeed. In fact, Flannery teams up with Tabitha in an attempt to ignite the Volcano again. Also Tabitha is a beefcake The Gym Leaders even discuss which team they should be siding with (Though ultimately decide not to side with either in the coming conflict.) which is an interesting way of portraying them. But I've mentioned her a few times, let's talk about Courtney. Courtney was a contest star who was good friends with Green's sister, Daisy. She used a special lighter that could transmit and record images through the flames, and her gloves secreted various berry juices she used for various affects like blinding or adhesives. Very early on, Courtney confronts Ruby and determines that he's very similar to her, and takes an immediate liking to him, she has a dark reflection of his love of 'beauty' and attempts to sway him to Team Magma's side. She often seems to have her own agenda and that she's with Magma more because... well it's a place to be, she gives up searching for the Red Orb to focus on Ruby and even though she returns to fight the Gym Leaders, she willingly double crosses Magma to side with Ruby at the Sootopolis confrontation. Perhaps the reason she stands out more than the others is because of her turning to ally with the protagonists... and also her death. The Sootopolis battle is a brutal affair in RS, not only does Steven die from the strain of controlling the Regis, Norman dies getting Rayquaza over there and the country has been destroyed by roaring tidal waves and searing heat followed by earthquakes. It finally looks like they've managed to put Groudon and Kyogre down for the count... and then Tentacruel comes out of nowhere, grabs Courtney by the leg, drags her into the cave of origin and collapses it upon her. Courtney uses her last moments to use her lighter to pass Ruby a message, before passing away.  And that sets the tone of our two Admins, Archie and Maxie. Archie and Maxie are so brutal, so mad and destructive that it makes previous villains like Giovanni, Pryce and Lance seem rather tame. They don't have redeemable qualities, they don't attempt to frame their actions as noble, they kill and torture various characters we've grown to actually like, they have Houndoom set Norman's corpse on fire basically to mock Ruby in his moment of grief. They don't care that clashing the Nature titans against each other has basically hosed Hoenn beyond recognition.  They are truly unrepentant, powerful, and dangerous, their underlings, even their original goals, all fall before addictive power that Kyogre and Groundon presented them with. Even when Wallace takes up the Champion's cape to face them, they grab Winoa, who Wallace had a relationship with (In a mirror to Ruby's relationship with Sapphire) and threaten her to have him stand down, and then viciously beat on him while talking about how satisfying it is. There is no length they wont go to. In the end, Ruby can only defeat Archie and Maxie by unleashing the power of Celebi who he's been carrying since the start of the Manga, using Celebi's power he forcefully rewrites the timeline and ERASES ARCHIE AND MAXIE FROM EXISTENCE and even THAT isn't enough to put them down. In the Emerald saga, Archie returns wearing a suit of armor under the name Guile. During his non-existence, he was approached by Sird, one of the Rocket admin's from FRLG, and a mysterious villain who we don't know the full scope behind. Well, she presented them with a suit of armor that would allow them to manifest in the real world again.  And had them fight to the death over it. And then Archie murdered Maxie. Except the armor Archie was wearing in that moment wasn't the armor made to protect him, it was the fake armor that Gold had been wearing to make a "Dramatic Entrance" and he wound up being cast into oblivion once more. They both reappear in ORAS... sort of. So their conciousness made it to the distortion world and sort of just became one, and then something, some primordial God, basically asked them if they wanted to Live, because it had purpose for them. They responded positively and wound up in Johto, looking like their ORAS selves and knowing that they had to learn Mega Evolution, reacquire the Red and Blue Orbs and protect the planet from the Meteorite that was coming. After their tasks were finished they once more disappeared into dust. I've skipped over a lot, and RS is truly a beast of a manga to cover, but Aqua and Magma are some truly intense villains, getting the better of gym leaders, becoming so successful that they basically completely destroy Hoenn in their competition. If you were to rank Pokemon Specials villains, they'd hit pretty high up there. Onmi fucked around with this message at 13:19 on Jun 3, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 14:39
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Pokemon Adventures: Wallace and Winona I'm doing these Gym Leaders together because of how they mesh and the themes of love, strength, and beauty in the RS chapters of Pokemon Adventures. Winona and Wallace are both Gym Leaders, although their relationship is rather Icy, Winona hates Wallace, over the fact that he slighted her in the past, what that slight is, is sort of a recurring element in RS, that is a decision made by one character in the pursuit of love, that wound up driving the other character away. Wallace loves Winona, he loves her so much that even after he defeated Steven to become the champion, it was all meaningless to him if he couldn't spend his new time and duties closer to her. So he gave up the title and became a Gym Leader. Winona was furious, furious he'd take a lesser position just for her, and furious at the idea of someone so much stronger than her, essentially smothering her with affection that she didn't feel was earned. Again, a recurring theme. Ruby's initial actions to Sapphire is what drove them apart, Norman's actions towards Ruby drove them apart. Mimi, Ruby's Feebas, and her actions towards him drove them apart. So Wallace is secretly the strongest dude on the continent, but mostly spends his times hitting the contest scene and being elegant and beautiful, no shocker then that he winds up becoming Ruby's mentor, in fact, the two are very similar, but while Ruby rejects his talent and hates his violent abilities, Wallace mixes the two and feels complacent, he's heartbroken, because even after all this time he loves Winona even if she wants nothing to do with him, but he expresses himself through contests. When the Gym Leaders initial decide who, of the two teams, they would side with, Wallace is very flat that he's backing Aqua because Water Types, though, again, nothing really comes of this discussion. It's notable that Wallace only decided to mentor Ruby when he learns just how strong he is, he has no intentions of playing into his narcissistic attitude. Which goes along with the idea that Wallace is a more realized, though in his own ways, flawed, version of Ruby. Winona on the other hand, is more like the Gym Leaders well... leader, she directs them and checks up on the derelicts (Like Norman) or the newbies who have no idea what it is they're doing (Like Flannery) When the crisis actually rocks Hoenn she's the one commanding the teams on the sidelines, which shows how well respected she is among the leaders but also reads to an issue she has... She's a warrior. And she knows she's a warrior at heart, and sitting on the sidelines and commanding the battle is not her place in the world, her place is fighting, it's what she loves and where she feels alive. That's why she's a good mentor for the Wild and brash Sapphire, because they are, as Ruby is to Norman, so close and alike. I would say Winona is more civilized and... neutered? Domesticated? In that she's been promoted upstairs to a job she doesn't really want a lot of the time. That said she has great faith in Sapphire's power, being the only other gym leader (Along with Flannery) to vouch for her strength to be added to the Gym Leaders own against Magma and Aqua, and she is a welcome teacher to her, knowing how to pull her out of slumps and to push her to become stronger. It's clear there's a reason Winona is the first Gym Leader who causes Sapphire to stumble, in much the same way that Wallace defeated Ruby and forced him to be humbled. They represent realized versions of our protagonists. That said, it's clear these two haven't found the time or managed to work up the effort to patch up their rocky relationship, it's been hinted at, at the future Wanda and Riley wedding in the Emerald Arc (as terrible as it is) that there's lingering flames. Still... these are examples of fully realized characters in the role of gym leaders and they're a treat to read about. Next time, we'll be talking about Norman. And hoo boy...
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May 2, 2018 13:13
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Pokemon Adventures: Norman Strap yourselves in folks, we're about to go on a trip. Norman is, much like in the games, a new arrival from the region of Johto who is taking the position as the Petalburg Gymleader and is Ruby's father. Treating training and self-improvement as near Dogma, his brutal training, and personality are viewed through the scope of Ruby's abject terror towards his father. Completely unaccepting of his son's desire to keep away from battling and pursuing contests (At least, we're lead to believe this) Norman is an overarching shadow on Ruby's journey, something he is eventually going to have to face, the father who has vowed to hunt him down for running away from home.   Also, dude crushes phones with his bare hand. He's nothing to gently caress with. It's also worth noting how different he is to his game counterpart, he refuses to help Wally catch a pokemon due to his illness, he seems to look down upon those who are weak in stature and will and it's Ruby lending Wally his Ralts that gets the young boy started on his journey... Well that and Ruby falling off a cliff before being able to retrieve Ralts. From there he hunts down his son like a terminator, leaping into the ocean to test water currents, pushing his way past reporters to look at camera feeds he doesn't have permission to view, the entire time he is a constant looming threat over Ruby's head, a pursuer that we've every reason to believe is the only one who can take him down. And he does, at the weather institute. He uses pokeblocks to lure Ruby's pokemon in and... well...    Norman beats the everloving poo poo out of Ruby, he is as brutal to his son as he'd been built up to be, having no qualms physically beating him  Or have his slacking swing a staircase it ripped from the ground with him on it.  Ruby realizes he has to fight his father, but all of his team learned to battle from attacks that Norman taught Ruby how to use, the source of Ruby's intense battle skill is clearly Norman's teachings and this is a case where the student cannot beat the master with the masters own tools.  Ruby relies on his Marshstomp a pokemon that Norman has never seen him use in battle and who he himself initially wrote off (Due to not being beautiful)  Ruby notes that everything from the weather to the terrain is in his favor and he bloody well needs it because even with all this one false move spells his end.  So Norman has Slacking smack Ruby with a staircase again.  Their fight (Where Ruby tries to shoot his father with the mudshot pipe) is interrupted by Castform and then the weather institute collapsing beneath them... And then we get the kicker.  Ruby, who in his narcissistic arrogance assumed his father would never accept him and his desires has in fact been the cause of all this worry as he refused to contact anyone and refused to listen when his father had planned to use his birthday and the move as a chance to tell Ruby he accepted him an wanted him to pursue his own dreams. In the end, as strained and violent as their relationship is, Norman loves his son.  Norman tries desperately to save his son from a fall that will literally kill both of them if he doesn't let Ruby go, barely surviving due to Ruby's Running Shoes (That Norman gave him as a birthday gift, of course) Norman seems ready to continue the pursuit until Winona pops onto the scene and Norman tells Ruby what he intended to tell him all this time.  "Succeed, because a man always does what he sets out to do. Also, call your mother." But why, why does Norman have such a rage towards his son? Why does Ruby hate him so much? What is it that drove them apart. It all started 5 years ago, 5 years ago Ruby defended himself when a Salamence attacked him, but since he didn't finish the Salamence off, it went rampaging and destroyed a facility, ruining years of research. Norman recognized the Salamence's damage as being caused by Ruby and wanting to spare his son any punishment, took the blame. It caused him to fail his gym leader exam, and he was punished to be forced to find Rayquaza. What's worse is that from that incident onwards, Ruby refused to train as a battler anymore, even as Norman basically crucified himself to protect his son, in turn, his son turned from him and acted as if he were a monster. Their relationship strained, as mentioned in the previous update, because Norman loved his son too much to see him suffer, and took actions to keep him safe, but in doing so, he was in turn hurt, and it backfired on him monumentally. Eventually, he turns up with Wally, who has grown into a strong trainer, having raised a team of Green pokemon (And gotten Treeko) as Norman is glad he kept tabs on him. You see, they've come to the Sky Pillar and Norman's goal lies atop there. He trains Wally the entire time, leading him to the top, and using the thinner air to help train and develop the sick boy's lungs. In tandem, they opened the path to Rayquaza and Wally realizes that his participation in all of this was actually intended for Ruby. The battle between Groudon and Kyogre had pretty much totaled Hoenn at this point and Norman takes Rayquaza to put an end to it. Arriving at Sootopolis, he and Ruby team up one last time to use the Red and Blue Orb, along with Rayquaza to silence the Titans and put the calamity to an end... and that's when Norman dies. Rayquaza didn't have an Orb to control it, and 5 years ago, the event that lead to the facilities destruction was an attempt to create a Green Orb. Without that, controlling Rayquaza through will and guts, the toll it exerted on Norman is too much and he dies in his son's arms. Ruby is left screaming, asking why his father took the blame for him, why he'd endured punishment and humiliation for his sake, why after everything he'd died for him. And the answer, as Courtney left for him, was the same reason he'd protected his loved ones. You do things for the ones you love, things that cause you great pain. He never told Ruby, so that Ruby could continue to grow and develop on his own, not burdened by the knowledge that his fathers suffering was his fault. Norman would then have his body immolated by Maxie's houndoom to rub it in Ruby's face how much he'd suffered and lost by being pigheaded and stupid. Though in the end, his own actions at the end of the arc would reverse what had occurred. That all said, in the ORAS storyline, Father and Son would actually team up to find Rayquaza, and actually have a pretty good relationship. So, at the end of it all, from his highs to his lows, is Norman a good father? It's hard to say, clearly hitting his son and fighting him so violently isn't exactly earning him father of the year. But it's clear his use of force comes in response to Ruby's stubborn, vain, narcissistic attitude. As well as the feeling of being disrespected, which was entirely intentional. He clearly loves his son, and has suffered greatly for him, but that doesn't excuse him. In the end, he's flawed, and that's why he's so likable. Next time, we're going to be talking about Wally, The third protagonist who never was because they decided to give us Emerald the Bastards.
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May 4, 2018 13:50
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I should point out I'm purposefully leaving off details for later write ups. So I didn't give the whole story.
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May 4, 2018 17:21
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Crosspeice posted:That's just the kind of attitude we need to transition into the fact that I can't put this off any longer! Thanks for all the submissions everyone! Take your time, the Frontier is in fact pretty hellish.
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May 5, 2018 02:31
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limeicebreakers posted:Viz sure, um, tried to censor that. Yeah Viz's releases have a lot of that. There's a time in GSC where Crystal is down in the dumps due to failing to catch Suicune, and her mother see's her lost in her funk and gives her a smack across the face in a "Pull yourself together" sense. This was changed to a "Deathly stare" 
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May 5, 2018 06:10
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Agh, lightning! Ruby is slipping away from my grasp...
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Pokemon Adventures - Wally Wally is, as he is in the games, a sick child with some sort of lung condition. He initially hopes that Norman can help him catch a pokemon, but Norman goes to his parents and learns how ill he actually is and that his parents are taking him somewhere to recover. Norman can't guarantee Wally's safety and the world of Pokemon can be dangerous (As Norman well knows) and he doesn't want to bring Wally, who clearly can't take it (He was wheezing and clutching his chest from trying to catch a pokemon on his own earlier) into that world, and instead he should focus on getting better. Ruby, because he's of the opinion of "gently caress my dad" and because he takes a liking to Wally, gives him his Ralts on loan and leads him out to capture a pokemon, Wally's first capture is a Keckleon (To Ruby's disappointment, as it's ugly.) and Wally feels better from having actually pushed himself and made the capture. Before they can return though an earthquake rips through the area and Ruby falls to his apparent demise, Wally left with his Ralts. He knows Ruby's survived since Ralts can detect his emotions through its horn, so he decides to look after Ralts till then and grow stronger for his friend. We don't see Wally for a long time and the next time he does appear is at Pacifidlog Town, he's got a new respirator suit that features a face mask to help him regular his breathing, he's caught two more pokemon, evolved Ralts, and he can even fire pokeballs from his sleeve.  However this is right about the time Kyogre and Groudon are waking up, causing Hoenn to get rather loving ruined, as Wally spots a floating Pokeball containing Treeko, he uses his Cacturne to retrieve it with Needle Arm, along with the Pokedex. Aaaaand here's where things get strange. In the magazine release of Pokemon Adventures, Wally registered his name in the Pokedex, becoming the third holder. At the time it seemed there wasn't going to be an addition of an "Emerald" and they'd already established Wally's name as being 'Wally' So instead he wore all green, used green pokemon, and was Emerald in all but name... Until they released the volume version, changed it so he never registered his name, all so they could introduce... this rear end in a top hat.  I'm not going to do an Emerald breakdown, so I'll cover him in quick here... So at the end of the GSC arc they do a bookends bit with the opening of the GSC games and the radio show where Oak introduces someone unseen to the world of Pokemon, Emerald reveals that to be, well, Emerald. But Oak didn't let him have the Pokedex because of how young he was, and also because he was an rear end in a top hat towards Pokemon. Emerald lost his parents and grew distant from Pokemon and treated them more like tools, you could call him a version of Smogon/Competitive player incarnate, looking at Pokemon in terms of their statistics and moves and not, ya know, partners or living creatures. To the point he resents himself for winning a match by crying out for his pokemon to succeed. He's an rear end in a top hat. Emerald is just annoying, bratty, unlikable and portrayed as way too skilled for way little effort in comparison to all previous protagonists, we're also supposed to accept him as equal to Red in terms of battling and well... he isn't. Worst of all, he's the reason Wally isn't the third protagonist. And Wally is gloriously cool and seeing his growth and becoming healthier is super neat. Anyway, enough about the dweeb. Norman is there to witness Wally saving Treeko and asks if Wally wishes to train with him as he's in need of his strength at the Sky Pillar. Wally agrees and they travel to the Sky Pillar, his first task is to climb the Sky Tower alone, all 50 floors in a single run. Doing so evolves Treeko to Grovyle and gets Wally strong enough to reach the top, Norman gives him a Flygon (Notice his all-green team) and then starts training him in double battles. Wally's last moment is to assist Norman in reaching Rayquaza and waking the dragon up, before passing out from exhaustion. At the end of the series he'd return the Pokedex, Grovyle and Kirila (Who had evolved as well) to their respective owners and faded into the background. Wally doesn't have a big role, but he's still neat to see, and it's a pity they decided to make Emerald rather than use Wally. Onmi fucked around with this message at 08:30 on May 6, 2018 |
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May 6, 2018 02:30
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:He got better. Yellow had good villains to bounce off a decent length story that afforded her time to grow and expanded upon the conflict and scope of Kanto as a region. More than that, she is easily slotted into a place that Red, Green and Blue didn't already fill, had great respect for her seniors and had been shown on screen in the Viridian Gym arc. Emerald basically tries to be both Yellow and Red mixed in with early Silver He's a genius at battling and he can recognize a Pokemon's "Birthplace" and calm them down, but he's a cold rear end in a top hat who doesn't care about Pokemon for anything more than battling. And his big emotional crux is forced, his arc happens to quickly, and his treatment of Ruby and Sapphire endears him to all of no one.
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May 6, 2018 08:35
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Pokemon Adventures - Steven Stone At the pokemon league tournament previous to RS starting up, Steven Stone battles Wallace in the finals to determine the champion, and Steven lost, Wallace, not wanting to be separated from Winona, the woman he loved, gave up the title, leaving Steven crowned champion and the 4 runner-ups the "Elite 4" of Hoenn. Despite his unearned position as Hoenn's champion, Steven acts as something of the 'Big Good' of the region, well aware the Aqua and Magma are run by insane people, he from the start using Devon Corp attempts to craft several counter-measures to Operation: Wake up these two sleeping behemoth's and who knows maybe they'll make more water/land. Submarine-1 was his first attempt, as he figured if they could seal the Seafloor Cavern then there wasn't all that much that Magma or Aqua could do but stick a thumb in it. Failing that, he had a blind boy learn braille and gave him a fractured stone carving to track down the Regi's, if, after all, Magma and Aqua did succeed, they'd need something with firepower to put a stop to them... and seeing how the Salamance Incident cost them any chance of controlling Rayquaza they had to make do with what they could find. His next action was tracking down powerful trainers who could help stand against Magma and Aqua.  Sapphire was tasked to find him by Mr. Stone, but Ruby is actually the one who encounters him, with Steven helping evolve his Skitty and considering recruiting Ruby to help him fight Aqua and Magma, he decides against it because, and you'll find this hard to believe because it's Pokemon... but Steven recognizes that Ruby is 10 years old and is a little too young to be getting involved in saving the world. simultaneously making him the smartest and most reasonable human being in the Pokemon world and also completely thick. So you know that letter in the games you deliver to Steven and then nothing comes of it again? Well, as I said, Sapphire was supposed to deliver it to him, but he doesn't actually meet her until everything has gone to hell in a handbasket, With Kyogre and Groudon raging about, Sootopolis warped by the energy of two titans colliding, Sapphire is finally able to pass the letter on to Steven... which contains the missing contents of the stone tablet he tasked the boy to translate, the method of freeing the Regi's. Unlocking Regirock, Regice, and Registeel, he and the Elite 4 command the Trio in an effort to at the very least contain Groudon and Kyogre's battle while Norman fetches Rayquaza. However, as RS has frequently stated, trying to control legendary pokemon without capturing them is horrifically strainful on the body, and Steven is trying to control three at once for almost a full day. Eventually, it takes its toll and Steven collapses and dies.  He gets better. And I'll go over eventually how I feel regarding the RS ending when I do my final wrap up, so please hold out until then. In Platinum he shows up selling his Villa to Platinum so she can conduct her investigation of the island in Sinnoh, meanwhile he's gotten all the stones he wanted from Sinnoh and in the end, Steven is nothing more than a gigantic rock nerd. Which makes it funny of course that ORAS would happen and now he has to stop a giant rock from smashing into Hoenn. Steven represents the "Science" faction here, the group consisting mainly of Devon, who believe they can use technology, Hoopa's warping abilities, and the energy absorption technology to teleport the Meteor to another universe and make it "Someone Elses Problem" he's of course, in conflict with Zinnia, who represents the Draconids and kinda hates Devon because they maybe sorta killed Aster, see... we keep going back to Rayquaza in the end, 5 years before RS Devon was trying to control it so they could put a stop to any future Kyogre/Groudon fuckery, but creating a 'Jade Orb' doesn't come without sacrifice and in their battle to capture Rayquaza they kinda... killed her, and took several of the Keystones she had. The third faction is 'Nature' for the sake of being complete, that appears to be the Planet itself bringing back Archie and Maxie to revive Groudon and Kyogre and use them to destroy the meteor. Basically it's an excuse to bring back two Deader than Dead guys with their new designs (Before killing them again. Pokemon Adventures really hates Maxie and Archie) Steven, overall, is a pretty chill guy, he takes responsibility and he's trying his damndest to keep his stupid, stupid continent from being blown the hell up. To be clear he wasn't responsible for what happened with Zinnia, so much as Devon Corp as a whole was, but them's the breaks of previously-unintroduced plot tribes. They make things complex. I might devote a post to ORAS, all depends on if Crosspiece intends to cover Episode Delta in any way.
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May 7, 2018 02:05
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Montegoraon posted:I really can't imagine what the Regis could possibly do against the likes of Kyogre and Groudon. It's a bit like bringing an old infantry shield to fend of a couple nukes. It was less "These things can fight Groudon and Kyogre" and more "These things can stop them from leaving Sootpolis and murdering everyone while Norman gets Rayquaza." They are, if nothing else, tanks.
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May 7, 2018 09:53
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Apologies for the disappearances in manga updates. My computer decided to commit suicide, and writing long-form on a phone is terrible.
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May 14, 2018 21:24
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Pokemon Adventures: Fighting Boy meets Girl A fair warning, I'm going to basically be posting a gigantic chunk of chapter in this one. Remember as always to support the official Viz Media release. So I've left out quite a few things in regards to events as they related to 3 years before RS starts, I've talked about the themes of love, the dumb things you do for love and how it all ties together in a nice pink bow. You may also remember that the first update I wrote for this stuff, was "Fighting Girl meets Boy" That was a bit of a misnomer, it really should have been "Fighting Girl meets Boy Again."   5 years ago, in Johto, a young boy met a young girl. The boy was a brat, always ready for a scrap, he wanted nothing more than to be just like his father and become the best battler in the world. The girl was delicate, like a princess, she adored cute and beautiful things. The girls father had come to Johto to wish his friend, the boys father, luck, as he took his exam to become a Gym Leader.    Unfortunately, the boy and girl were attacked while they were out playing by a Salamence, the boy rose to protect the girl, he used everything his father taught him, and successfully beat it back. However, the wounds he sustained in the battle caused the girl to cry, shattering his heart.   For the young boy, he blamed himself for causing her to cry, for failing to consider her feelings, for acting so brutally. For the young girl however? She hated herself for being unable to do anything but cry, for being a burden. The children's father's engrossed themselves in self-training and in research respectively, as the boy's father had failed his exam. It was then they decided to completely change themselves, the boy decided to become beautiful and to hide his talent as a battler, to never let anyone see how he fought. The girl decided to devote herself to battling, to become stronger than ever. That was when Ruby and Sapphire first met, and it was what pushed them towards the characters we see of them in the RS chapter. The reason Norman took the blame for the Salamence attack was because he knew Ruby had fought it, I mean his son's bleeding forehead from the claw gashes across his head would likely have been the dead giveaway. The 'Training Trip' he took, was actually a quest to locate Rayquaza which the Pokemon Association had been trying to control with the 'Jade Orb' that they were creating. If you're wonder what it was the Salamence let out when it attacked, it was in fact, Rayquaza. Now perhaps it's coming closer together as to why Ruby's actions set so much into motion, just a facility? That's nothing. But freeing a legendary pokemon, destroying the prototype-Jade Orb, setting them back years of effort... there's repercussions for actions like that. When Ruby and Sapphire met again, they despised each other, and why not, here was this prancing pretty boy that reminded Sapphire of nothing more than the person she used to be. And this wild, jungle like girl was nothing more than a stark contrast to the way Ruby'd decided to live his life. But in the end the two always came together, teaming up with Plusle and Minun in the Abandoned ship, Fighting Team Aqua and Magma, stopping Groudon and Kyogre in Sootopolis, fighitng in the undersea's cavern, and training together on Mirage Island with Juan, Tate and Liza. And it was pretty inevitable that new feelings would develop.    This is the first time Ruby realises that she is the girl who he met 5 years ago, and we also see a far reaching effect of Red's victory all the way back in RGB, before Red, Champions were all older, late-age teenagers, adults... Red completely shattered expectations by being the youngest champion in history, he redefined what young kids thought they could do.   And of course, in continuing with the trend of the series, doing things to protect those you love, ultimately hurting them with good intentions...  Ruby seals Sapphire in the Air Car after taking the Blue Orb from her, so that he can go and fight Groudon and Kyogre alone. Why?   Because he loves her, and love is a stupid, moronic thing that makes you do stupider, moronicer things. It makes you act crazy, to the point where even if you want to see someone be happy and safe, you'll do things directly to hurt them.  It's what made Courtney use her last breath to pass information on to Ruby, to help him.           It's why Norman took the blame for his son, damning himself for 5 years, and essentially accepting a suicide mission.   It's why Wallace, who could have beaten Archie and Maxie, gives up, lets himself be defeated, to save Winona's life.   It's why Ruby's Feebas came back to him, even though he'd called it ugly, throwing it away, telling it to never return.   And why she evolved when he finally opened up his own heart to her.  Love makes the world go round. Upon defeating Archie and Maxie, Ruby doesn't want them to die, not after so many others have died, but he needs to retrieve the orbs from them, and, ultimately, he needs to stop them from being able to do such harm again.   Since the first chapter, Ruby has had Celebi with him, he didn't use it unless he had to. This I feel is sort of a weakness of the arc, but I also sort of accept it. Time begins to unravel, and as Ruby and Sapphire float hazily in the void, Ruby himself thinks to those who've died, believing he's lost them forever...    The interesting part about it though, is that it's not clear if the world has been rewritten, or if Celebi simply took Ruby and Sapphire to an alternate timeline in which they succeeded with no deaths. His description of a "Time slip" indicates it's the latter, but Courtney's comments indicate that it's the former. As for Archie and Maxie? As I described in previous posts, they've been cast out of reality.  And hey, Celebi even gave them one more day to finish their contest, Sapphire simply has to beat Norman and Ruby has to win the Master Rank contests. In the end, both managed to complete their trials, though it seems Ruby has no memory of their love confession (He does, he's just pretending he doesn't, because all the other times I've brought up characters in this series being dumb for reasons of love)  We're given one last look through every character from the chapter, as Ruby and Sapphire rush back to Littleroot town to celebrate her birthday, and his, since they didn't celebrate his at the start of the series. And so we end with our two young lovers running off into the sunset, Good En-  Aw son of a bitch.
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May 29, 2018 06:12
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Crosspeice posted:There must have been a better way to end the RS Arc than surprise Celebi. Like come on, what's even the point of that? It really boggles the mind, cause it's such a sharp twist that it nearly breaks the story's neck. They finally concluded the actual romance in the ORAS manga.     I figure it was just a case of the author seeing Fire Red and Leaf Green announced, realising "I'm eventually going to have to come back to Hoenn" and choosing to continue to play off the "Will they, wont they"
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May 29, 2018 23:30
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Crosspeice posted:Yes I've read the ORAS arc, but come on, if you're gonna have some romance, I need a bit more than that! Least Ruby stops being an idiot for five seconds, so whatever, I'll take it. Y'just double salty because we've been waiting 3 years for the BW cliffhanger to have some payoff.
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May 30, 2018 00:04
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Solumin posted:Why is sapphire a derpy-eyed vampire?? She has large incisors to emphasise the "Jungle Girl" aspect of her character. As for why her eyes are like that, that's just emulating the current art-style of eyes.
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May 30, 2018 01:33
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Verant posted:Better question, why are Professor Cozmo's assistants muppets? Jirachi is there in the Emerald side which WE'RE NOT COVERING BECAUSE IT'S DUMB... ... But if you must know, the reason is because they needed to use Jirachi to wish the Fire Red/Leaf Green team back from being turned into stone statues. They basically did the Fake-Groudon movie except instead of Fake Groudon, it's Fake Kyogre
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May 30, 2018 07:58
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Kikas posted:And then Deoxys sends Green's parents (which she spent her entire life tracking) into a void as she watches but can't warn them, which breaks her mind and puts her in a coma. No that was before in the FRLG chapter.
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May 30, 2018 10:00
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Blaze Dragon posted:That is incredibly optimistic. Far more optimistic than the B2W2 manga deserves. Is the B2W2 manga not the reason it's stopped being collected in "Volumes" and changed to being "Pokemon Adventures: ORAS chapter" etc. and being collected individually? Or is that just an online thing?
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May 30, 2018 14:49
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The Orre games should be very good, I've personally been playing through them with patches that add in the Physical/Special split. I'm glad the manga updates could be enjoyed, I really did gloss over a tonne of RS (And didn't cover E because it's bad and they should feel bad) and I'm a little upset I miss Crystal since I never got to talk about Gold.
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May 31, 2018 00:13
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hopeandjoy posted:You got names of those patches? I don't like dealing with the classic physical/special differences these days. https://projectpokemon.org/home/forums/topic/38582-pokemon-xd-physicalspecial-split-patch/ XD's one I cannot seem to find the Colosseum one.
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May 31, 2018 00:36
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