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A Backwards Grin (Pokemon) (Mawile SI)

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mm... yeah at this point i'm forseeing that you snap, take a big chunk out of the elekid (partially because you're hungry and still haven't been fed), and then have to run for the hills.
 
The Grey Mage said:
I like how people are talking about 'abuse' when they're literally training for morally acceptable magic dogfighting. Paul is harsh and strict, but having SIwile train for battles by actually experiencing battles is hardly abuse.

Similarly, assuming SIwile is physically capable of killing Paul is a bit premature. Humans in the animeverse can survive a lot, and Paul has about as much experience with Pokémon as Ash and the Rockets.
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If there's one overriding lesson that's the backbone of every single one of the games, it's "good trainers love and support their Pokemon, bad trainers treat them as tools or weapons."

That this sometimes clashes with gameplay doesn't change the fact that the story goes to very considerable lengths to hammer it in.
 
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Yeah not so sure how good this will turn out to be. Seems like its going to be angsty & victimy, if so I'm not so sure if this will continue to be entertaining or transition over to being tiresome.
 
FeepingCreature said:
If there's one overriding lesson that's the backbone of every single one of the games, it's "good trainers love and support their Pokemon, bad trainers treat them as tools or weapons."
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It seems more that the former path is longer and less initially rewarding, but can get you much more surprising results. After all, Ash lost many battles to trainers with the latter mentality, but ended up claiming victory later down the line with a much more motivated pokemon.
 
Flairina said:
"Hah! I did say you wouldn't last long, but I thought you'd have more to offer than this!" Murkrow cackles, back up in the sky once more.
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"Think about what you're advocating here! You do understand that if I actually did catch you, just once, that would mean I eat you alive?!"

"And just what are you laughing at?" Paul interrupts, turning his attention to Murkrow. "Your performance was just as bad. You spent so much time pointlessly taunting and toying with your opponent that not only did you take a hit, you almost got knocked out of the sky. A Murkrow straight out of its egg could have done better."

Murkrow droops, seeming legitimately chastened by the criticism. Despite myself, I actually feel a small pang of sympathy for her, while my anger at Paul surges again.
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"You are sickening. Actually, that raises an interesting point: if I ate you, would that cause me more or less upset than you being alive does right now? I don't see any reason you'd give me any stomach trouble; loads of different sorts of Pokemon have disappeared down the back of my head, and none of them ever gave me any trouble. Well, except for that Teddiursa, I guess."

"I get the feeling this is gonna be fun." Elekid says, grinning. "For me, at least."
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"On that note, could you please hold still while I back towards you? I wanna show you something real quick."
 
Would be interesting if they last just long enough for Paul to get in a battle with another trainer then she immediately turns on him. I wonder how the other trainers would react?
 
The Grey Mage said:
I like how people are talking about 'abuse' when they're literally training for morally acceptable magic dogfighting. Paul is harsh and strict, but having SIwile train for battles by actually experiencing battles is hardly abuse.
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Nothing in this chapter can be described as "training". At no point has Paul given SIwile anything like advice, or practice exercises, or really anything other then demands under threat of pain. Paul's approach to evaluating her wasn't to have her show off some moves against an inanimate target, or even to have a friendly spar, it was to have one of his Pokemon beat the shit out of her until he felt he'd learned enough. He didn't even use a 'mon that would give her a good chance to show off, he used one that out-ranges most of her attacks. His approach to "teaching" her to cast Fairy Wind faster wasn't just to have her practice it a bunch, it was to constantly hit her with painful and disruptive attacks while she desperately tries to manage it. How exactly is she supposed to get better with Fairy Wind if she can't even get a full cast of it out before being shocked? How is she supposed to learn from her mistakes when she has no time or mental space to examine them? It makes sense for a trainer to hold actual battles between their Pokemon, but not like this. This isn't training, it's pure dominance exercise.

Also, did you all notice how Paul treated Murkrow after she "wins" her "battle" with SIwile?
Flairina said:
"The crucial difference being that you're the one lying in the dirt right now." Murkrow snickers. "Really, you should consider yourself lucky that-"

"And just what are you laughing at?" Paul interrupts, turning his attention to Murkrow. "Your performance was just as bad. You spent so much time pointlessly taunting and toying with your opponent that not only did you take a hit, you almost got knocked out of the sky. A Murkrow straight out of its egg could have done better."
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Paul is reminding Murkrow who's really in charge. Murkrow gets to beat up on SIwile, but Paul gets to beat up on her, so she'd better not go around looking happy about things. Just because you win doesn't mean you get to feel good about yourself, not until Paul's got his due.
 
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Just a thought, Flairina is technically one and a half month old right? What she did is technically impressive for her age. Now if only Paul would know that... Or not, don't want him to raise the bar yet.


Edit: For those who says walk away, do remember that Mama Ursin is still after her and considering that a normal bear has an incredible nose and since this is a pokemon so her nose is considerably better so Flairina would need to be incredibly far away to even hope to avoid the Ursin.
 
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Ya know, I was thinking that our little SIwile finding out if Paul is Crunchy and goes well with ketchup would be enough.
Nope! At this point I can only hope she does something so horrendous that it would make a QQ thread queasy about.

But maybe that's just me, maybe... It's Maybelline.
 
Vaalintine said:
So you're going to go the route of him not actually being likable at all or worthy of loyalty, but for some reason you end up submitting to him and being "loyal" (aka his bitch) out of admiration/stupidity? Seriously, just skip to rhe point where you ditch him. "Boot on Face" doesn't make an entertaining story.
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Where on earth did you get the idea that Flairile is going to submit to Paul? From what I can see, she's just waiting for a chance to escape.
 
Skelm said:
Yeah, Paul is being straight up physically abusive here, even if he delegates it to his other Pokemon. It's even more fucked up when you realise that the guy shocking Flarina right now has probably been subjected to the same treatment himself and is just perpetuating a cycle of abuse and violence now that he has the chance to be on top.
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Skelm said:
Nothing in this chapter can be described as "training". At no point has Paul given SIwile anything like advice, or practice exercises, or really anything other then demands under threat of pain. Paul's approach to evaluating her wasn't to have her show off some moves against an inanimate target, or even to have a friendly spar, it was to have one of his Pokemon beat the shit out of her until he felt he'd learned enough. He didn't even use a 'mon that would give her a good chance to show off, he used one that out-ranges most of her attacks. His approach to "teaching" her to cast Fairy Wind faster wasn't just to have her practice it a bunch, it was to constantly hit her with painful and disruptive attacks while she desperately tries to manage it. How exactly is she supposed to get better with Fairy Wind if she can't even get a full cast of it out before being shocked? How is she supposed to learn from her mistakes when she has no time or mental space to examine them? It makes sense for a trainer to hold actual battles between their Pokemon, but not like this. This isn't training, it's pure dominance exercise.

Also, did you all notice how Paul treated Murkrow after he "wins" his "battle" with SIwile?

Paul is reminding Murkrow who's really in charge. Murkrow gets to beat up on SIwile, but Paul gets to beat up on him, so he'd better not go around looking happy about things. Just because you win doesn't mean you get to feel good about yourself, not until Paul's got his due.
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Just want to point out that this is how abusive inclinations perpetuate in real life. Those higher in power abuse those lower than them on the hierarchical chain and so on. Nice to see such represented in fiction. Kudos on good representation of that Flarinia.

Studies on generational abuse patterns.
Article on workplace abuse patterns.
 
Ya know, I find all the people going "why don't you just murder him?" kinda funny. The dude has a squad of pokemon with probably little to no qualms of just beating the shit out of the retarded berserk pokemon trying to kill their meal ticket/bandage distributor/trainer. Hell, she got bodied by a single flamethrower from... Chimchar, I think it was? what's to stop her from getting deep fried again for attacking a trainer?

Nah, I'm all for Flair biding her time for now. There's literally nothing left for her in that forest, and he's at least going to be paying her food bill for a while. What I'd rather see is her walking out on him the second he does his whole "releasing a pokemon for being too weak" schitck. That way she's both deliberately calling him out on his shitty and stupid behavior, and has a partner pokemon to go all 'buddy cop' with as they try to make it out in the big blue world.
 
Skelm said:
Nothing in this chapter can be described as "training". At no point has Paul given SIwile anything like advice, or practice exercises, or really anything other then demands under threat of pain. Paul's approach to evaluating her wasn't to have her show off some moves against an inanimate target, or even to have a friendly spar, it was to have one of his Pokemon beat the shit out of her until he felt he'd learned enough. He didn't even use a 'mon that would give her a good chance to show off, he used one that out-ranges most of her attacks. His approach to "teaching" her to cast Fairy Wind faster wasn't just to have her practice it a bunch, it was to constantly hit her with painful and disruptive attacks while she desperately tries to manage it. How exactly is she supposed to get better with Fairy Wind if she can't even get a full cast of it out before being shocked? How is she supposed to learn from her mistakes when she has no time or mental space to examine them? It makes sense for a trainer to hold actual battles between their Pokemon, but not like this. This isn't training, it's pure dominance exercise.
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That may be true in the real world, but in most fictional universes training from hell is a perfectly viable way to quickly gain strength.
Skelm said:
Also, did you all notice how Paul treated Murkrow after he "wins" his "battle" with SIwile?
Paul is reminding Murkrow who's really in charge. Murkrow gets to beat up on SIwile, but Paul gets to beat up on him, so he'd better not go around looking happy about things. Just because you win doesn't mean you get to feel good about yourself, not until Paul's got his due.
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So he's not teaching them properly because he doesn't give any advice, but when he does give advice - accurate advice, I might add - he's just being abusive? Come on, now.
 
asefsace said:
So he's not teaching them properly because he doesn't give any advice, but when he does give advice - accurate advice, I might add - he's just being abusive? Come on, now.
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No, he's being abusive because he tries to make his Pokemon feel like shit rather then helping them improve. For, I might add, doing something he sanctioned. Murkrow "taunting and toying with [her] opponent" wasn't accidental here, it was clearly something she felt she had been given permission to do by Paul, and she then got ragged on for doing it. There's a reason Flairile's response is a "small pang of sympathy" here, Murkrow actually doesn't deserve the insults Paul is piling on her.

Any single incident doesn't necessarily imply a pattern, just looking at that fight in isolation it could be e.g. that Murkrow is just a shitty training partner, but everything we've seen out of Paul so far fits into this.
 
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I find it kind of amusing that, much as he started it, and imposed it, and is less polite about it, and is generally worse in every way, they both ended up with the conclusion that "I'll keep them around as long as they're useful.".

And after that river scene I want to see a Mawile using their horns as a boat.
 
Radical Sway said:
Pokemon are too smart for it to be like dog fighting and they can give consent.
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And Flair didn't consent. The only reason she isn't peace-ing out is because that carries a high chance of imminent death, which means her decision to stay counts as "coerced." @asefsace What do you think the chances are that Paul's other pokes will stop helping him "train" her if she explains this to them?
 
I'm not one to advocate violence if only because the reprecussions of it are pretty bad. But getting him into legal trouble should be easy enough if a nurse joy or officer jenny gets notified. Beyond that gym leaders are responsible people. And Paul will come into contact with those considering thats required for his goal.

On different note considering the the fact that this is anime canon, mawile could probably learn more than 4 moves at a time, and I kind of wonder what the deal with fairy-type being a known thing means.
 
Paul is very much in the group that promotes negative reinforcement to make others improve. The issue is that Siwile is being thrown into the deep end, and Paul's party is two for two for assholes. The resistance training makes perfect sense in the world they're in, but the entire way Paul set said training up is basically, "You're the new bitch, and my friend here is going to punch you in the kidneys until you stop pissing blood and can hit back."

It's a valid thing to do, but Paul gives absolutely zero fucks about the mental health of his team.

As far as killing Paul, nah, too far for too little. Sure as hell would recommend giving him a few scars if he keeps up the dickishness and lack of empathy, however.
 
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I'm guessing that a poke-centre might be able to help...and Paul is bound to stop by there eventually...

FoolsandTools said:
On different note considering the the fact that this is anime canon, mawile could probably learn more than 4 moves at a time, and I kind of wonder what the deal with fairy-type being a known thing means.
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I'm imagining all the combo moves she could come up with....

Thunder punch in one hand...
Ice Punch in the other....
Fire fang with her Jaws...
Body surrounded in Iron-head energy....
 
Ya know, there is an other option to defecting via running into the forest. There's another trainer around who would probably just shrug at a pokemon who isn't that interested in fighting.
 
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