We fought well, Luna and Charm. At least Renne is plenty cute and meaningful as well (unfortunately, I keep thinking Tio as uncle). Dang it, Pryce, can't believe you're part of Rocket here.
…while neither had deigned to comment to the press on the beginnings of their relationship, Clair Blackthorn and Jasmine Mikan were clearly infatuated with one another. From how their friends and family had described it, Jasmine was the one who had courted Clair over the past two years. This remains consistent with how the former had been referred to as the groom by both the officiant and many of the attendants of the wedding.
Many high-ranking members and officials of the Indigo League were in attendance, close friends and associates of both Gyms Leaders. Most curious was the presence of both Oak siblings and the absence of Red Isamu…
We love to see girlbosses loving each other. I can just see Indigo (and particularly Blackthorn) culture adjusting to this. "Which one of you is the Suletta and which one is the Miorine".
More pertinent to the Quest is that Red doesn't seem to be in town. If he isn't being a hermit on Mt. Silver anymore, he's probably going to show up at whatever the most dire moment in the Quest is to save our asses. Also not surprised, but glad to see Arvis remembering Gary's sister. God knows I never do unless I'm actually playing HGSS.
Jasmine and Clair are of course the respective Steel-type and Dragon-type gym leaders of Johto. "Mikan" is Jasmine's Japanese name and also a type of citrus fruit. "Blackthorn" is the name of both the town and the clan that Clair and Lance are both members of (he's her older cousin), and (like most towns in Johto) a species of tree. Dragon-tamer clans are a recurring thing in Pokémon that I'm sure we'll get more into later.
…despite ostensibly being an occasion celebrating the marriage between two women, the ceremony itself remains steeped within the traditions and mores of the Blackthorn Clan. 2022 marks the 28th Anniversary of Lance Blackthorn's reign as the 4th Champion of the Indigo League. It also marks 30 years of Blackthorn dominance in the political scene of the two regions.
Lance Blackthorn had ascended to the Championship at age 19, then the youngest in the position's admittedly short history. A record that would be broken twice within two years as the 5th and 6th Champions, Blue Oak and Red Isamu, defeated Lance back-to-back. Despite both youths turning down the position, the embarrassment of losing to two pre-pubescents, combined with the chaos wrought by the initial Rocket Uprisings, many believed that Lance's government was not long for the world.
Yet it endured.
Now more than two decades after the 2nd Capo of Rocket, 1st Champion and Mahogany Gym Leader Pryce Yanagi, was arrested and executed for high treason. Champion Lance is enjoying his cousin's wedding, more secure in his, and by extension the Blackthorn clan's, power than ever before. Political Supremacy unseen since the day of the pre-Great War Indigo Imperial Dynasty. And with continued rumors of an affair with Elite Four member Yellow Tokiwa, it might not be an unfounded comparison…
Wouldn't be a social event in Pokémon Asia without an editor in Pokémon Europe getting weird about the foreigners, though. This article gives some details on the Rocket plotline in Indigo, namely that Pryce (Japanese name Yanagi, "willow") was a Rocket, as he was in the Pokémon Adventures manga...although it seems he was both less sympathetic and less...alive at the end here. Based on other articles it seems that multiple KanJoh Gym Leaders were Rockets, not just big boss Giovanni. The fact that Lance has held on to the Championship for so long is probably a testament to his strength (and character growth), and hopefully not one to him being just as corrupt as the Rockets, though.
Yellow is a manga-exclusive character introduced as a nod to Pokémon Yellow, who's got a history with all the Kanto protags, including Leaf. She's (are we still going with she in this continuity? I'm always up for interrogating the girl-disguised-as-a-boy-for-plot trope) got a number of supernatural abilities and...you know, it's complicated, we'll get into it if she shows up. "Tokiwa" is from the Japanese name for Viridian Forest.
The relationship with Lance is a big ? from me but it could be that they've both got the same supernatural blessings in Adventures, rather than a thing here. Or it could be a thing! It's been 20 years weirder shit has happened.
…At its peak before Kyogre's Awakening, Pacificlog had a population of nearly 40,000 souls, human and Pokemon. While it was the smallest in all of Hoenn, the town was a popular tourist spot due to being a settlement built entirely on a massive Corsola colony. Now ten years later, it is a town that barely reaches 1,000.
Despite efforts by May Birch and Champion Wallace Yunseok to bring back and reassure the Corsola that had made up the foundations of the settlement, many surviving Corsola had migrated to greener waters, primarily in the Orange and Sevii Islands. In some cases bringing on their backs the homes and in very rare cases the families of the humans that had lived in the town. Saved by the attachment the Pokemon held for the humans that coexisted with them. And they were indeed saved as, of the pre-Kyogre population, only 10,000 had managed to reach safety and later refuge in Slateport.
Despite all that, Pacificlog is far from the worst settlement in Hoenn as both Lavaridge and Fallarbor remain uninhabited…
Examples of the fallout of the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire plots. I...didn't actually play those so I'll leave it to experts, but suffice to say that the human and environmental devastation of awakening Kyogre and Groudon in this universe was massive and still ongoing. Please save the Corsola, though. A small rock will be sad otherwise.
Also, Orange Islands shoutout. I think those were anime exclusive?
…Dawn Berlitz's visit to Pueltown was part of the Champion's Almian good will tour. She met with Ranger and government representatives about the strengthening of ties between the two regions. Sinnoh and Almia were already in a mutual economic trading block, this move would further tie the two nations of the Hisui Archipelago together.
After meeting with local authorities, the Champion attended a performance in the city by the Go-Rock Quads. She is later said to have given the band her certified 'Cute!' rating…
So, I don't think Almia was originally adjacent to Sinnoh, but more power to Arvis for making the map more convenient. The Hisui Archipelago obviously comes from the antique name for Sinnoh in Pokémon Legends Arceus.
Anyway other people have already made a connection between Dawn and Trails character Anelace Elfead based solely on the "Cute!" rating, but I need you to understand that Anelace is the best character in Trails.
Also the Go-Rock Quads are a shoutout to the first Pokémon Ranger game I guess I don't know I still haven't played them.
…as the protests in front of the Paldean embassy enter their 2nd week, many Castellians call for the cessation of diplomatic relations with the Empire and the halting of construction of the "International Campus". This has been part of a rising undercurrent of hostility to Unova's alliance with Paldea and the latter's continued occupation of Marinedo and Northern Ferrum.
President Ghetsis reaffirms Unova's commitment to its foreign allies and to the Republic's international character with his continued support for the construction of Teal Academy. Champion Alder had declined to comment on this…
First, Blueberry Academy is Teal Academy presumably for the same reasons that Naranja/Uva Academy is now Mesagoza Academy: the original name was a little too fruity.
More seriously, Blueberry Academy is the institution in Unova where much of the Scarlet/Violet DLC The Indigo Disk takes place. Kieran and Carmine, the key plot NPCs of The Teal Mask, attend school there, and recommend the ScarVi player character to it on a brief exchange program. Notably, it's got a huge Terastal research area called the Terarium, and is home to a really OP battling club that imitates the form of a Pokémon League, with an Elite Four and Champion. Obviously here, it's still under construction. Called shot, but if it becomes relevant to the quest, it'll probably be as a substitute for the Thors Branch Campus from the second half of the Cold Steel games, home to a new class of heroes after a couple year timeskip.
Meanwhile, Ghetsis. Everyone's least favorite evil Team Leader, an unrepentant megalomaniac and child abuser who traumatized Pokémon's biggest blorbo into a naive tool for world domination. Between that and the giant underground castle he's practically a Trails villain already, and in this hell timeline he's president of Unova, placed in apparent opposition to very old all-around good guy Champion Alder. I honestly have no idea where this plot is going because I can't think of a good Trails equivalent, although it's possible this diarchy (and conflict over relations with the Erebonia equivalent) is cribbing from the political subplot of the Crossbell games, setting up Drayden as MacDowell and Ghetsis as Hartmann. But that's a stretch so far.
Also, Ferrum is the location of Pokkén Tournament. I know zilch about that game, but another called shot is that if Porto Marinada is supposed to be Portugal, Ferrum is Morocco, in terms of "neighboring foreign powers historically dominated by Spain at one point or another", with Northern Ferrum standing in for Spain's modern overseas territories in Ceuta and Melilla, the Western Sahara, or both.
…Kalos' largest industrial concern announces its cooperation with Lysandre Labs to develop a competitor to the recently released Porygon Phone made by the Paldean Mendoza Group. The two companies have had a long and storied rivalry. First in arms manufacturing, then orbal technology and now electronics. The announcement of a collaboration by the company with a major national competitor within the Kalos market shows the desperation to not be edged out of the world market…
So this actually sets up a Trails parallel, before we get into plot: each of the large powers in Western Zemuria has its own company responsible for Orbal technology on a state level. Erebonia has the Reinford Group, here the Mendoza Group (with their past as weapons manufacturers solidifying the connection I made between Nemona and Alisa in their backgrounds). Calvard has the Verne Company, named after French science fiction pioneer Jules Verne, and its equivalent in Kalos is the Dumas Company, named after French pulp adventuer pioneer Alexandre Dumas. (Liberl, for the record, has a royal monopoly called the Zeiss Central Factory, which I guess is what Macro Cosmos is now since the queen nationalized it as a consequence for Rose being a moron).
Anyway Lysandre Labs seems to be a separate thing that's gonna be the public front/support for Team Flare, which is in the top 3 most evil Pokémon Teams along with Plasma (whose leader is now president of Unova) and Galactic (who is hopefully more dead than the Rockets are). I'm sure them inventing the Rotom Phone will be fine and not horrifying and a means to enable Le Fascisme at all.
…Champion Geeta announces early today to the Imperial Diet and to the press the official completion of the Marinedo-Medali High Speed Railway line. Planning for the railway line had begun four years ago, and while the railway had been considered usable as early as last year, it was only within the recent few months that the last RMP needed to secure the line were established.
As La Primera, the first commoner-born Champion in Paldean History, declares that there will be further marvels, industrial and technological, for the region. Support for her administration continues to grow amongst Paldea's urban citizenry…
Well if I hadn't figured it out last night I'd know it for sure now. Champion Geeta is standing in for Giliath Osborne, the Blood and Iron Chancellor, the...you know what, I can't explain his deal without explaining the whole plot. We're in trouble, though.
…with the theft of Glen's Pokemon, this marks the fourth violent poaching incident involving trainers within this month alone. While no statements have been made beyond condolences and promises to bring the perpetrators to justice by Gym Leader Katie and the Cortondo Governing Council, many suspect that unreported incidents involving the smuggling and illegal poaching of wild and agricultural Pokemon are occurring.
Many continue to criticize Count Cortondo's decision to restrict the Provincial Army to their barracks. His official statement claimed that this was beyond his jurisdiction, and it was an issue for the Gym Leader and the RMP to address…
As everyone has figured out already, this is foreshadowing the plot for the first Field Exercise, and is a direct parallel to the plot of Chapter 1 of Trails of Cold Steel. No need to go into detail when we're like two weeks away from it happening in-thread I suppose.
…the battle had already been over by the time the rest of the Rimean Police and local Rangers had arrived. According to reports by the SSS and later confirmed by the Interpol Rimean office, International Criminal and Rocket Capo, Victor Surge had been sighted amongst the attendees of the underground auction.
With this and the presence of Indigo boogeyman 'Silver' in the city, local politicians have called for an increased crackdown on criminal organizations like Satellite, Chevauchée and Falange…
Meanwhile, the Trails from Zero plot continues apace in Rime City, with this article confirming the existence of the Special Support Section (the Crossbell arc's player party and further proof that the only good cops are failcops) and alluding to the plot of Zero's Chapter 3 and its climax at the Schwarze Auction, where the mafia tries and fails to sell a kid.
(It's more complicated than that).
This also confirms something I expected, tying the Crossbell/Rime City plot into the ongoing Rocket remnant storyline, and its parallels to the truly amazing number of ex-mercenaries who show up at this point in the Trails series. Particularly, it looks like Surge is paralleling Garcia Rossi, an ex-member of the Zephyr jaegercorps who became Revache & Company's chief enforcer and mid-game boss fight, in the same way that ex-Rocket child soldier Leaf is paralleling ex-Jaeger child soldier Sara. Which I'm sure she's about to be very normal about.
Also, let me just say that Rime's news media is way less censored than Crossbell's, and good for them. All of this shit got buried almost immediately in Trails canon.
Anyway, let's name check the evil teams he--
>Satellite
Pokémon Insurgence?
Oh no, the edgy fangames are here. We're definitely in the bad timeline.
(I'm not sure I can look up Chevauchée and Falange, uh, safely, but those are definitely very French EDIT: and Spanish names for fascist orgs)
"Hey Ditzy, have the two of them come back yet?...No? Call me when they have, and also lock up for the week afterwards, and come to the dorms with them. We're going to Rime for a bit…Yes, Wiggly and Missy are coming. Alright take care." Leaf slumps back onto her chair after the call. She spares one last look at the news report and sighs.
Now while she regrets yelling at Silver, why didn't he tell her fucking Surge was in Rime?!
"Are you done preparing, Wiggly?" She asks her starter, receiving a cute little affirmative.
"Thanks, we'll leave after the students get back. I'll just write up instructions for Marianna throughout the week." Grabbing one of the pencils she leaves lying around, she starts writing. She keeps her off of thinking about it, busy to distract herself from—
The pencil snaps, her hand is shaking. She feels Missy embrace her, the coldness of her love for her trainer calming Leaf.
"I'm sorry…probably going to drink once I get back huh…" Missy makes a half-hearted attempt to discourage her. Ditzy and Wiggly will probably try a lot harder to stop her from relapsing.
Surge is probably already gone by now, but it won't hurt to check. And also to yell at Silver and the new kid in person for once. That might make her feel better. Maybe even get an apology gift for Jasmine for not coming to her wedding despite getting invited.
She tries not to look at the mirror, as she cleans up and grabs another pencil to write with. She might see a killer looking back.
Also something to remember is that depending on wether Selene went through the normal or Ultra version of the games, she is one of the few characters for whom actually catching rather than just encountering the box legendary is an actual, explicit plot point.
So there is a small but non-zero chance she has Necrozma in her back pocket as a final "fuck you" button in case of evil teams fucking about in Alola.
Got to say, love how much of Adventure has been adopted into this setting. Including that war-criminal Surge is still a thing (assuming it is Lt- Surge and not just a relative or something). Wonder if his colleagues and a certain couple of E4 members still have ties to Rocket here.
Also oof. Guess Renne wasn't kidding about Leaf carrying quite a bit of baggage, huh.
Please keep interludes like this coming, I consume stuff like this like candy
Ok, jokingly following the lead of the Elite 4 being the Ironbloods, who is who? Poppy is Millium in this instance due to pre-existing rule of funny.
I'm genuinely having trouble separating Larry and Rika and who they'd be. But I think I'll go with..
Rika is Claire (hypercompetent right hand woman with a sorta blue hair in a ponytail)
Larry is Lechter (Comic relief who's surprisingly good at work and has a grudge against his boss but doesn't do anything about it)
But I 100% think you could argue the reverse of Larry being Claire and Rika being Lechter. At the end of the day they're both incredibly competent workers with troubled relations to their boss. Also the brand of comedy Larry brings is closer to Claire, and Rika is more Lechter-like.
...Which leaves Hassel as the Jade Rook I suppose? That's one hell of an emotional Jade Rook aha~
This does mean that the chances of Adventures!Juliana being the one we run into in this world are higher than zero, which is hilarious. Also maybe a bit heartcrushing for Mariana since she so effortlessly makes Nemona's heart go dokidoki.
Meanwhile, Ghetsis. Everyone's least favorite evil Team Leader, an unrepentant megalomaniac and child abuser who traumatized Pokémon's biggest blorbo into a naive tool for world domination.
No way, Ghetsis traumatized Ingo from the Battle Subway?! This monster must be stopped!
(Please do not ask me why Ingo is so popular. I never understood it. It's not because of his role in Legends: Arceus, he was put in that game because of his pre-existing inexplicable popularity)
Anyway Lysandre Labs seems to be a separate thing that's gonna be the public front/support for Team Flare, which is in the top 3 most evil Pokémon Teams along with Plasma (whose leader is now president of Unova) and Galactic (who is hopefully more dead than the Rockets are). I'm sure them inventing the Rotom Phone will be fine and not horrifying and a means to enable Le Fascisme at all.
They aren't likely to be developing the Rotom phones. In X/Y Lysandre Labs was responsible for developing the Holo Caster. Which, moderately unfortunate name aside, is basically just a phone with a hologram projector above the screen. So your video calls can be in glorious 3D, viewable on your Nintendo 3DS™.
They aren't likely to be developing the Rotom phones. In X/Y Lysandre Labs was responsible for developing the Holo Caster. Which, moderately unfortunate name aside, is basically just a phone with a hologram projector above the screen. So your video calls can be in glorious 3D, viewable on your Nintendo 3DS™.
Also something to remember is that depending on wether Selene went through the normal or Ultra version of the games, she is one of the few characters for whom actually catching rather than just encountering the box legendary is an actual, explicit plot point.
So there is a small but non-zero chance she has Necrozma in her back pocket as a final "fuck you" button in case of evil teams fucking about in Alola.
And that's on top of the already existing fuck you buttons already there, the island deities don't fuck around when it comes to something they dislike, and Selene probably has their respect.
While Selena keeping Necrozma as a secret nuke trump card is a kind of funny/cool idea, thematically speaking Necrozma feels like the kind of mon you'd have to have a Master Ball crossed with a Beast Ball and some divine intervention to catch it, even while in its weakened state.
While Selena keeping Necrozma as a secret nuke trump card is a kind of funny/cool idea, thematically speaking Necrozma feels like the kind of mon you'd have to have a Master Ball crossed with a Beast Ball and some divine intervention to catch it, even while in its weakened state.
Don't know why I thought French used a cognate at some point but wikipedia tells me I'm full of shit. French fascists don't even use "fascist" now that I look it up, possibly because that would mean admitting that Italians invented something they like.
There's a cult in Insurgence named Satellite? I don't remember that.
Satellite is me going 'what would a Rocket knock-off run by expats call themselves'
There's a cult in Insurgence named Satellite? I don't remember that.
Satellite is me going 'what would a Rocket knock-off run by expats call themselves'
There's a cult in Insurgence named Satellite? I don't remember that.
Satellite is me going 'what would a Rocket knock-off run by expats call themselves'
I think I conflated a couple edgy fan games in my head. There is a "Satellite Corps" building in Insurgence, but it's just where you go to get Genesect or something. There's a different game I was thinking of where the evil team has...probably a similar one and not Satellite, I guess. I don't know, all my knowledge of Pokémon romhacks comes from vetting my son's youtube viewing.
For whatever reason that just reminds me of some having Giratina being the calmest of those three a least after Arceus. Recall one fic where they're running their own nation...Also the princess who looks like Dawn becoming a traveling companion.
Know more about Sun and Moon then BW2 despite playing neither.
Though is certainly the areas from the DLCs for Scarlet and Violet.
As far as potential connections to ToCS characters, I've brought it up before but I'll collate it here. Her canonical background as the daughter of a major industrial producer - brought to this universe pretty much verbatim from ScarVi - technically puts her in the same social standing as Alisa, but her actual personality and social role within Class VII actually most resembles Laura S. Arseid, heiress to the most prestigious school of swordsmanship in all of Erebonia and by a wide margin the biggest threat in a physical fight in the party (who doesn't rely on plot powers, having a pet robot, or flashbangs).
Which is interesting in a way, because Nemona was actually the least physically fit of the SV protagonist's friend group. IIRC, she's the only one that gets worn out during the descent to the depths of Area Zero.
After meeting with local authorities, the Champion attended a performance in the city by the Go-Rock Quads. She is later said to have given the band her certified 'Cute!' rating…
President Ghetsis reaffirms Unova's commitment to its foreign allies and to the Republic's international character with his continued support for the construction of Teal Academy. Champion Alder had declined to comment on this…
Also something to remember is that depending on wether Selene went through the normal or Ultra version of the games, she is one of the few characters for whom actually catching rather than just encountering the box legendary is an actual, explicit plot point.
So there is a small but non-zero chance she has Necrozma in her back pocket as a final "fuck you" button in case of evil teams fucking about in Alola.
Necrozma is not a mandatory catch during the plot of Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. In fact, you cannot catch Ultra Necrozma during the story-mandated battle with it; you have to wait until it appears on Mt Lanakila later on to have a chance at catching it.
Selene should still have her Solgaleo/Lunala, as that is a mandated story capture that feeds into explicit plot points later on, but she almost definitely won't have Necrozma.
With that said, Solgaleo and Lunala are still capital-L Legendaries, seemingly more capable than the island's guardians in the Tapu. If she's kept her mandated capture, that should probably be the single strongest Pokémon anyone in the world has.
(Which is not to mention that the island does still have its Tapu, of course, and that Gladion separately has an unmasked Silvally. Good luck to anyone trying to invade Alola; I think that place is significantly better defended than even Indigo and it's multiple Champions right now.)
Reading up on them, they actually remind me a lot of the Capua family from Trails in the Sky - a family of petty "sky bandits" who serve as initial antagonists but eventually team up with the heroes a la the gang from Castle in the Sky (the Miyazaki film), and reform into a delivery company by the start of the third game.
Reading up also indicates that they used instrument-based Stylers to control their Pokémon parters which is...interesting given Jenkins's dragon flute and the bit about Gideon from Trails and his beastmaster artifact I mentioned several pages ago.
With that said, Solgaleo and Lunala are still capital-L Legendaries, seemingly more capable than the island's guardians in the Tapu. If she's kept her mandated capture, that should probably be the single strongest Pokémon anyone in the world has.
The Game Events and Former Protags post has Lunala listed as (Temporarily/Unknown by the Public). So it would seem she has not kept her mandated capture.
Reading up on them, they actually remind me a lot of the Capua family from Trails in the Sky - a family of petty "sky bandits" who serve as initial antagonists but eventually team up with the heroes a la the gang from Castle in the Sky (the Miyazaki film), and reform into a delivery company by the start of the third game.
Reading up also indicates that they used instrument-based Stylers to control their Pokémon parters which is...interesting given Jenkins's dragon flute and the bit about Gideon from Trails and his beastmaster artifact I mentioned several pages ago.
Not entirely Capua equivalents since I'm pretty sure they last a full game as the villains, where the Capua family are entirely entry level.
Though redemption also tends to be a thing for a lot of the Ranger villains, I think (I admit, I only played the first Ranger game. The other two never bribed me with a Manaphy). The lesser bad guys turn good in two out of three games, the main bad guys realize the error of their ways in two out of three.
Shout out to the third villain, an archeologist with slicked back purple hair who proves such a genuinely awful person he convinces Arceus itself to get rid of him. Cyrus might have some competition for the role of Georg Weissman.
