"Wait, I apparently haven't been following you closely enough. You're going feminine? Should I start using she pronouns for you?"
Hehe, it's, uh, been an interesting year or two self-discovery-wise, yeah. And yes, please. :3 No worries if that takes some getting used to, though. I mean, I still sometimes mess my own name and pronouns up. :P
"Boo! Cyndaquil is my favorite! It's the cuddliest!"
I like how this sounds like it could be one of those EasyChat system messages, possibly in my email inbox right next to Ethan's "ADVENTURE! EXCITED! I love POKEMON!" proclamation. I'm now choosing to imagine someone in New Bark anon'ing this at me after seeing me with a Chikorita and disapproving.
But yeah, I guess what it came down to for me was that Cyndaquil was the only one of the three with whom I didn't have any sort of special sentimental nostalgic connection.
Chikorita is the one I had and the one I remember having in original Silver. For a game that meant as much to me as the original Silver did, I desperately wanted to preserve my file from back then, to transport all those Pokemon I'd spent over a hundred hours raising (yes, even that one) to safety. When I discovered I was already too late, it was... well, a bit devastating, not gonna lie.
After thinking about it, though, I decided to just... proceed with that lore/headcanon for it anyway? Which is why we're now in this weird half-state where I'm giving this game's Chikorita the Neverending Story reference and treating her like I still need to save her from this collapsing world, even though technically the one I needed to save is already dead, and this world is in absolutely zero danger (DS cartridges don't have battery issues or anything like that.) Like I'm still doing this for them, even if the game and world (and even the rest of the party) are subtly different now. It's... well, it's like HG/SS itself I guess: it's a remake of my childhood.
Totodile is the cute and powerful one I probably would have chosen the first time had I known a little more about them, but mostly it's the one I remember from PMD: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, where Leonard the Totodile was my Bulbasaur's partner. They have actual personalities in those games, and Leonard (or whoever you pick as your partner, but the role went to Leonard in my file) is this total sweetheart Cowardly Lion type who dreams of being an explorer someday but is afraid of his own shadow, but through his extremely shippable bond with you, he grows and matures and finds the will to do these absolutely heroic things despite how much he's trembling. I love Leonard's entire character and character arc so much. He is too precious and pure for this world.
Cyndaquil is... there. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Cyndaquil. It is cute! I just can't say much about it compared to the other two.
"Wow my experiences of totodile is completely different from yours. I'm used to a much more... aggressive personality (minor blood warning). From this old Crystal LP. Then again, that totodile would not suffer though Silver's mistreatment. It would... respond."
Wow, now that is the kind of LP that demonizes your own starter for laughs to the point that it strikes me as more than a little mean-spirited now. Then again, maybe I'm just boggling at it because of a strong "THAT'S NOT LEONARD" reaction.
"I'm confused by all the arguments that chikorita's so weak, though."
Chikorita is a bad choice in gen 2, especially if you're used to how awesome a choice Bulbasaur was in gen 1, largely because of how the world treats them.
Like I said elsewhere, the first two gyms in Kanto are Ground/Rock and Water, so picking Bulbasaur means you basically have an invincible murder machine for at least a quarter of the game. (The catch later on is that being half-Poison made it weak to Psychic, and this is gen 1 Psychic we're talking about, but by then you'll have had plenty of time to raise the rest of your team.)
By contrast, Chikorita is more a defensive tank-type Pokemon than an offensive damage dealer, and that playstyle really does not work in the single-player campaign, where most of the strategy is spamming high-damage sweeping moves and leaning on type advantages. More importantly, the first two gyms in Johto are Flying and Bug, and even being a tank isn't going to help against those. People picking Chikorita expecting another Bulbasaur, or at least something that could defeat things, were left feeling a bit deceived and disappointed.
That being said, I am with you on the emotional connection overriding combat prowess. The single-player campaign is not hard, so you absolutely can just play with whichever ones you actually like and still win. At this point, I see Empress sort of like the king piece in chess: arguably the weakest, least-combat capable except maybe pawns, but the most important. The glue that holds my entire side together, preferably from behind the scenes. You'll notice she has yet to not be in my active party, even if she's hanging out in the back slot to the HM users. She'd probably be the one I was walking with in this game, were that role not assigned to your slot-1 party lead who is therefore also the first into battle.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2017-09-20 01:59 pm (UTC)Hehe, it's, uh, been an interesting year or two self-discovery-wise, yeah. And yes, please. :3 No worries if that takes some getting used to, though. I mean, I still sometimes mess my own name and pronouns up. :P
"Boo!
Cyndaquil is my favorite!
It's the cuddliest!"
I like how this sounds like it could be one of those EasyChat system messages, possibly in my email inbox right next to Ethan's "ADVENTURE! EXCITED! I love POKEMON!" proclamation. I'm now choosing to imagine someone in New Bark anon'ing this at me after seeing me with a Chikorita and disapproving.
But yeah, I guess what it came down to for me was that Cyndaquil was the only one of the three with whom I didn't have any sort of special sentimental nostalgic connection.
Chikorita is the one I had and the one I remember having in original Silver. For a game that meant as much to me as the original Silver did, I desperately wanted to preserve my file from back then, to transport all those Pokemon I'd spent over a hundred hours raising (yes, even that one) to safety. When I discovered I was already too late, it was... well, a bit devastating, not gonna lie.
After thinking about it, though, I decided to just... proceed with that lore/headcanon for it anyway? Which is why we're now in this weird half-state where I'm giving this game's Chikorita the Neverending Story reference and treating her like I still need to save her from this collapsing world, even though technically the one I needed to save is already dead, and this world is in absolutely zero danger (DS cartridges don't have battery issues or anything like that.) Like I'm still doing this for them, even if the game and world (and even the rest of the party) are subtly different now. It's... well, it's like HG/SS itself I guess: it's a remake of my childhood.
Totodile is the cute and powerful one I probably would have chosen the first time had I known a little more about them, but mostly it's the one I remember from PMD: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, where Leonard the Totodile was my Bulbasaur's partner. They have actual personalities in those games, and Leonard (or whoever you pick as your partner, but the role went to Leonard in my file) is this total sweetheart Cowardly Lion type who dreams of being an explorer someday but is afraid of his own shadow, but through his
extremely shippablebond with you, he grows and matures and finds the will to do these absolutely heroic things despite how much he's trembling. I love Leonard's entire character and character arc so much. He is too precious and pure for this world.Cyndaquil is... there. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Cyndaquil. It is cute! I just can't say much about it compared to the other two.
"Wow my experiences of totodile is completely different from yours. I'm used to a much more... aggressive personality (minor blood warning).
From this old Crystal LP.
Then again, that totodile would not suffer though Silver's mistreatment. It would... respond."
Wow, now that is the kind of LP that demonizes your own starter for laughs to the point that it strikes me as more than a little mean-spirited now. Then again, maybe I'm just boggling at it because of a strong "THAT'S NOT LEONARD" reaction.
"I'm confused by all the arguments that chikorita's so weak, though."
Chikorita is a bad choice in gen 2, especially if you're used to how awesome a choice Bulbasaur was in gen 1, largely because of how the world treats them.
Like I said elsewhere, the first two gyms in Kanto are Ground/Rock and Water, so picking Bulbasaur means you basically have an invincible murder machine for at least a quarter of the game. (The catch later on is that being half-Poison made it weak to Psychic, and this is gen 1 Psychic we're talking about, but by then you'll have had plenty of time to raise the rest of your team.)
By contrast, Chikorita is more a defensive tank-type Pokemon than an offensive damage dealer, and that playstyle really does not work in the single-player campaign, where most of the strategy is spamming high-damage sweeping moves and leaning on type advantages. More importantly, the first two gyms in Johto are Flying and Bug, and even being a tank isn't going to help against those. People picking Chikorita expecting another Bulbasaur, or at least something that could defeat things, were left feeling a bit deceived and disappointed.
That being said, I am with you on the emotional connection overriding combat prowess. The single-player campaign is not hard, so you absolutely can just play with whichever ones you actually like and still win. At this point, I see Empress sort of like the king piece in chess: arguably the weakest, least-combat capable except maybe pawns, but the most important. The glue that holds my entire side together, preferably from behind the scenes. You'll notice she has yet to not be in my active party, even if she's hanging out in the back slot to the HM users. She'd probably be the one I was walking with in this game, were that role not assigned to your slot-1 party lead who is therefore also the first into battle.