You know it really should make perfect sense why Izuku expects Shoto to forgive his asshole father in the end. Izuku was so patient with his own abuser because said abuser was an extremely capable hero in the most literal sense, and once they expressed the smallest inkling of maybe wanting to change, he forgave him without any comment, hesitation or expectation of an actual apology.

Of course he’d see nothing wrong or weird about Shoto doing the same.

I love Deku to death as a character, but holy shit his behavior and the Todoroki family sub plot go together like bleach and urine.

To be fair, Horikoshi admitted that the suicide insult from the first chapters is something he wished he hadn’t written, which really plays into Katsuki’s character in that it’s basically borderline non-canon.

Trying to frame Katsuki as an abuser and attempting to place that similarity is kinda stupid. Remove that scene of the first chapter and you have a kid who screams “die!” and “I’ll kill you!” (fun fact: saying die is a big insult in Japanese customs) for basic comedy purposes. Was a bully but again, Hori treats that shit like it’s toxic non-canon shit.

Also I’m pretty sure Izuku is neutral over this debacle because he very much doesn’t say anything close to your implication (gimme links if you want.), There’s literally no scene where this is implied.

Plus that “small change” was a full blown apology. But again the situation with Endeavor and the Torodoki’s are complicated and nuanced. So my opinion’s is go with the flow.

@writinghelptipsandadvice666​

I know and it’s cool Horikoshi said he regrets that, but unless something is explicitly done about it in the story, an implied retcon or never bringing it up is profoundly unsatisfying to me. He wrote it, it happened, deal with it. Even without it, Bakugo still has a streak of physical (his gauntlet attack in their first exercise) and verbal abuse and open contempt for Izuku that continues into their UA career. The first time Bakugo shows real vulnerability to Izuku is after AM’s Kamino fight, where he straight up assaults Izuku who only fights back to give Bakugo what he wants to pacify his meltdown. That’s where Izuku lays down that he admired Bakugo for his power and skill despite being a gaping asshole otherwise.

When I said Izuku forgave him without expectation of an apology and so on, I was talking about just after that, when AM talks to them and they start training together. Bakugo would still do shit like mock the previous OFA user’s to Izuku and AM’s faces, resent Izuku’s pride in his progress and petulantly throw sharp objects at him, and Izuku just politely cooperates and happily sidesteps and ignores Bakugo’s babyish behavior, even more so than he already didn’t hold it against him. Just cuz his outbursts were played for comedy doesn’t make them less infuriating.

Besides, Izuku still hasn’t commented on Bakugo’s actual apology, which was a shockingly good scene, but it doesn’t really expose the true depth of Bakugo’s abuse to everyone present and doesn’t elicit a direct reaction from Izuku (not to mention blowing the prime opportunity to address the suicide dare in a real way), so Bakugo might as well have delivered his heartfelt apology to a brick wall. That could change once things calm down, but I honestly really doubt it.

For the Shoto thing; Chapter 249, during the Todoroki family dinner:

There it is, Izuku thinks Shoto wants to forgive Enji because Shoto’s a “caring” person, but isn’t ready yet, with Izuku clearly favoring that course of action. His comment of “just say you’ll never forgive him if really hate him” and is literally framed right next to Bakugo, the person who tormented Izuku most but who Izuku never really hated, and feels SUPER presumptuous like he expects Shoto to just sort his feelings right then if he actually hated his dad. Even Bakugo is like “bro, what the hell do you think you’re saying?”  Izuku clearly uses his own experience with a similar kind of situation to inform his advice. And later during his encounter with Dabi in the war Izuku even resolutely defends Endeavor for trying to change and doesn’t even acknowledge what the latter did to Dabi. Izuku is very much not neutral on the topic of Endeavor.

Bakugo and Endeavor are explicitly parallels of each other, with Endeavor being the kind of person Bakugo risked becoming if he didn’t get his head out of his ass and accept his imperfection. All Might says as much in 284. So the comparison between Bakugo and Endeavor isn’t stupid. Bakugo just is an abuser. He abused Izuku, and the scars left inform a ton about Izuku’s character.

I hate the implication that Shoto will forgive Endeavor just because Shoto himself is a “”caring” or “kind” person, and a caring or kind person would by definition eventually forgive Enji for what he did. Coming from Izuku especially because you’re clearly supposed to somewhat agree with him even though Izuku has NO experience setting healthy boundaries and has demonstrated his bar for giving abusers the benefit of the doubt is abysmally low, due his own lack of real self-respect and having had to treat Bakugo’s Fabergé egg of an ego with kiddie gloves for years. I don’t want a complete “fuck off and die” ending for Enji, but Shoto and the rest of the family outright forgiving Endeavor by the end makes me sick to my stomach, and this seems to point that direction. I wish Izuku would stick to reaching out to the villains cuz in these more domestic situations he could really stand to keep his stupid fucking trap shut.

Tbh, this is why I might hate Enji as a person a lot more than I do Bakugo, but Bakugo frustrates me as a character more. With Enji, I feel as though Horikoshi mostly knows exactly what he’s doing with him. It’s why, putting Izuku stupidly inserting himself into the situation and projecting his own issues onto it aside, Enji’s redemption arc doesn’t brush anything under the rug concerning what an absolute monster he has been and how even if “actions speak louder than words, so watch me”, there’s precious little he actually can do to make things right since he’s fucked them up that badly. Even to the most recent point, he doesn’t get the easy way out of “embrace the son he abused and blow up along with him”; it’s the rest of his family’s ice-based Quirk that saves the day rather than his and Touya’s fire-based Quirk, and Enji now will have to live with all the painful physical scarring the battle with Touya inflicted upon him. Bakugo, while not half the monster that Enji was, was still a monster, yet Horikoshi just wants us to forget that as he’s unnaturally shoved into a trio with Izuku and Shoto, has all of his flaws still present but treated as “silly Kacchan” comedy rather than stuff he really should be paying more consequences for, and while the apology was great it feels like Horikoshi expects us to just be fine with it being the end of Bakugo redeeming himself rather than just the start. Bakugo even gets the big self-sacrificing hero moment Enji was rightfully denied; it’s way too good for him. We weren’t ever asked to like Enji even after he started redeeming himself; while it feels like we are constantly being asked to like Bakugo.

the kids are gonna be a bit reckless

Good luck from me too, kids! 🙌🏻

Thanks for the submission!

His Mewtwo Returns comparison pissed me off. He actually got mad because… the 4Kids dialogue made Domino more competent??? And because a few lines of dialogue weren’t the exact same as in Japanese?

Seriously when has an already pretty empowering female character being made EVEN MORE EMPOWERING ever been a bad thing?

There are several things wrong with that comparison.

1. He suddenly bashes the dub to high heavens, calling it terrible just because it isn’t 100% accurate to the Japanese version, even when years ago when his standards weren’t so high he’d said it was one of the better dub jobs 4Kids has ever done.

2. He also used to say it was a great special, now he’s underrating it because it “tries too many things at once”, the same main criticism That Dude in the Suede gave it (Newsflash: it was Takeshi Shudo’s big departure project as Head Writer, he wanted to get in as much serious, thoughtful stuff as he could. Whether it was all successful or not is a matter of opinion, but show some respect and understanding please!)

3. Almost every dialogue change complaint when it comes to Mewtwo is ridiculous, since the same basic point always gets across either way.

4. He say’s Domino’s Japanese line of “we can’t just let you walk out of there after seeing everything you’ve seen” is a “thinly-veiled death threat”, except….it’s not. It just means they’ll get locked up, which Domino does to them.

5. “In the Japanese Sakaki doesn’t say anything about world domination.  Instead he tells Myuutwo to look forward to the day when his army is complete.”  …What do you THINK he’ll use that complete army for, dumbass!?

Really, Dogasu was only dead-right about three things here:

1. Saying that wanking about baby Rhyhorns and Nidoqueens is nitpicking, although that’s extremely hypocritical coming from him.

2. Giovanni’s “Be quiet!” to Persian was a stupid dialogue change, as it’s pretty OOC of him to be so harsh to his beloved cat. 

3. This:

“Finally, I think the fact that Domino hasn’t been used again is nothing short of criminal because she’s an amazingly kick-ass villain who really deserves more screentime than she ended up getting.”

He has never typed truer words. 

Also about the “NO!” thing needing to be a meme.

“Pokemon Team Rocket Domino” by no-broken-hearts on Deviantart

Love her expression.

Pokemon Spring Day 17

The Villains

1. Team Rocket - Not just Jessie, James, and Meowth, but also the excellently portrayed Giovanni and all the agents of Team Rocket created exclusively for the anime. Domino, Wendy, Butch, Cassidy, Attila, Hun, Tyson, Professor Sebastian, the Iron Mask Marauder, Pierce, Dr. Zager, etc. These villains were strong, interesting, and fun in the original series and Best Wishes, where they held the most relevance. Much less so in the two series’ in-between (and we do not count XY TR here, ‘cause they’re not the same).

2. Mewtwo - He got majorly built up in three episodes of the Kanto saga, and then he made his move in the first movie. He did not disappoint. Tragic and confused, but also insidious, menacing, and hate-filled, this was as villainous a Pokemon as you could find. In his rage against life, he committed heinous actions against other Pokemon and even his own cloned Pokemon, to the point where Ash had to sacrifice his life to stop it all! Mewtwo learned better after this and received fantastic character development both there and in “Mewtwo Returns.” His arc was a deep and memorable one, and still is to this day.

3. Gelardan - Also known as “Lawrence III” in other sources (I suspect it’s a pseudonym), he’s a self-centered, eccentric Pokemon collector who just wants the best Pokemon and Pokemon-related things decorating his own little world he lives in. He arrogantly writes off a prophecy specifically warning against what he intends to do, and foolishly does it anyway, risking the destruction of nature itself, all so he can make Lugia a prize in his collection. In his limited screen time, this man was a cool, fascinating, compelling, and memorable antagonist.

4. Molly Hale - A little girl who is both the protagonist of her movie’s story and the antagonist from Ash and friends’ point of view. After losing both her parents, lonely Molly retreated into a childish fantasy world that the Unown made a reality for her. She became fixated on making it as perfect for herself as possible, the consequences be damned. Though selfish and clearly not right in the head, you can’t help but sympathize with her. Like Mewtwo, her character develops nicely by the end. Definitely one of the series’ most unique antagonists.

5. Dr. Yung - As much as people panned this special for it’s voice acting, I thought it had a nice plot and an excellent villain in Yung, AKA the Mirage Master. This sociopathic scientist was displeased with Pokemon’s limited potential and found his man-made Mirage Pokemon to be superior. He’d do anything to perfect his Mirage System and prove his naysayers wrong, even kidnap Professor Oak and force him to grant him access to his lab’s data. As their scenes together show, he’s like the ultimate Anti-Oak: young, callous, and caring nothing for the Pokemon themselves as living creatures, only their power and what they can do for science or mankind. Just a very well done villain.

6. Hunter J - The cold, heartless, greedy, inhumane bounty hunter from the Sinnoh region. Known only by her profession and a letter, J was a badass awesome villain who cast a dark shadow whenever she was present. She’s also one of the most evil villains in the franchise, which fits perfectly within the concept of someone who hunts down Pokemon, petrifies them, tortures them if need be, and sells them off to clients for money. She is also one of the few anime villains to deliberately put humans in harm’s way, and one of the fewer to actually get killed off. That said, she’s a bit overrated and her character has issues. She’s not very interesting on a personal level, she gets talked up as a heartless abomination in-show even when we can see it for ourselves, and her role was ultimately very inconsequential. And I can’t say I’ll miss her.

7. Red Genesect - The strongest and fastest Genesect and the leader of his squad, this thing followed in Mewtwo’s footsteps in being built up a little bit on the show before making his move as the villain of the following movie. Like Mewtwo, he’s confused and lonely, but also malicious and filled with rage and hatred towards humans. However, he’s also freaking nuts, wanting to open fire on an entire civilization of humans before taking back the home they “took” from him and his kind. Fittingly, Mewtwo goes up against him in an epic battle that ends with both Pokemon going up into space. It will not soon be forgotten.

8. Butler - Formerly a scientist whose research was rejected by Team Magma, Butler became a carnival magician who seeks to capture Jirachi so it can make his wishes of reviving Groudon come true. Butler is just plain stylish and cool. While not truly evil, he is devious, arrogant, and selfish, ultimately ending up punished for his hubris when he revives a destructive spirit that nearly kills his beloved. Fortunately she gets better, and he changes his ways from then on.

9. Grings Kodai - No doubt the most evil character to ever appear in the animeverse, Kodai is a greedy, self serving man from Nimbasa City who became Crown City’s biggest business mogul by obtaining a gift from Celebi to see into the future and make his visions into a reality. When he feels his wealth and power is threatened, he goes to any despicable means possible to ensure that he becomes even more powerful. Corruption, blackmail, fraudulence, torture, attempted murder, and even an almost-murder, this guy’s done it all. The downsides to him is that as with J, his blatant pure evilness is talked up too much, and in the third act, he devolves into a crazy, stupid-evil madman whose behavior and actions are just unpleasant to watch. He was compelling beforehand, and for what he is, he works well.

10. Kyurem - The super scary and menacing antagonist of the 15th movie, the most powerful Dragon-type Pokemon of all, being both Dragon type and Ice type. He’s not evil so much as he is amoral by everything except his own honor code. When he feels that Keldeo has violated that code, he goes after him and will not relent until he has his fight with him. Definitely an epic adversary and a true threat for all of his screen time.

11. Damon - A Native Unovan from the “people of the Earth” who served as the antagonist of the previous movie. I don’t remember much about him except his Cruella Deville-esque black and white hair, his goals were well meaning but his actions ended up turning him against his family, and he served as the opposite hero to whatever Ash was, a role originated by Natural Harmonia Gropius. Overall a decent villain, but just a bit underwhelming too.

12. Annie and Oakley - Two teenage girls who are expert thieves and super spies, but NOT in Team Rocket, despite what the dub would have you to believe. We don’t know if they’re sisters, BFFs, or lesbians, but they’re very close. Despite being athletic, cunning, efficient and tough, they also go way in over their heads, especially Oakley. I love these bitches, but let’s face it - they’re not main villain material. They seem more like freelance criminals for hire then Big Bads. It would’ve been better if they’d really been working for Giovanni, or maybe even for Gelardan to score something for his collection. Their scene during the end credits just makes me think of what could have been…

13. Zero - Ugh, this guy. His character was bland, his design is atrocious (especially that outfit), his dialogue was horrendously cliched and by the end he is reduced to just making psycho faces while cackling hammily the whole while. He is the campiest goddamn villain in a Pokemon movie! The one thing I remember most about him is how Dawn damn near murders him in the end. He’s entertaining enough for his narminess, but overall, he’s a joke.

14. Phantom - Aside from the fact that he talks very pompously and wears belts on his beard, he’s a very stereotypical cartoon pirate. The kind of villain who’d work fine in some other dumb animated kid’s movie, but doesn’t fit with what you’d expect from Pokemon. Just lame.

15. Marcus - In my opinion, the most forgettable villain to ever appear in the history of the Pokemon anime. His design is incredibly bland and I cannot remember a single thing he said or did throughout the entire film. You’d think a guy whose actions pissed off the Pokemon God would be better than this…

Now, he didn’t need to clone any pokemon either but he did. I don’t think Domino would be a clone (I think she comes from the same place you mention, that her parents were elites), but the possibility that he would make unfailingly loyal, superhuman agents sounds like something he’d do.

Domino’s Pizza! 

Did you know Mitsuishi Kotono, the Japanese voice actor who plays Usagi Tsukino in Sailor Moon, also did the voice of Domino in Mewtwo Returns? 

Fighting kids by moonlight

Winning battles by daylight

Always running from the big fight!

She is the one…

Domino!

Always running from the big fight!

Me @ Domino:

Pokeani: The Evolution of the Villains

In the original Pokemon video games, the villains were Team Rocket, a criminal organization of thugs led by mafioso Giovanni who used Pokemon for profit and, in Giovanni’s case, attempted world domination.  Their actions made the plot exciting, but their personalities were anything but - they were all the most generic of bad guys who were evil for the hell of it.

In making Pokemon: Indigo League, Takeshi Shudo naturally avoided doing the same thing. Instead, he kept Giovanni as a shadowy, distant force up until the last third of the saga where he came into play as the major antagonist of the Mewtwo arc, giving him more charismatic style and personality than he had in the games and even providing him with a backstory. The central villains of the show, in the meantime, were a duo of original creations within Team Rocket, Jessie and James, along with their talking Meowth companion.  They ended up being very complex characters, running the gauntlet from being sinister, efficient and unlikable to being funny, incompetent and lovable, and somehow it all gelled together perfectly in a set of three-dimensional personalities.  They even each had their own sad backstories explaining just how and why they came to join Team Rocket and why they are so loyal to their cause.

Occasionally, there would be other villains too: Sabrina the psychic and psychotic Gym Leader of Saffron City, Daario the cheating racer, Keith the young con artist, and even another Team Rocket duo, Butch and Cassidy, who served as rivals to Jessie and James.

When the Johto Saga (Pokemon the Series: Gold and Silver) came along, the usual Team Rocket trio, while still endearing, were beginning to wear out their villain cred, becoming totally harmless and much more predictable due to the new episodic formula that had been established.  Shudo wanted to make a new story arc centered around Celebi that would have brought Giovanni back into prominence and potentially new Team Rocket agents along with him, but it was not to be, so he instead made a special concluding the Mewtwo arc which included a particularly cool new Team Rocket operative named Domino at Giovanni’s side. The anime also introduced a new set of silver-uniformed Rockets - the solitary Tyson and the duo of Atilla and Hun, all serving under the sociopathic Professor Sebastian. These villains would have been great lead antagonists for a story arc, but instead they only briefly appeared and then never showed up again, the threat they posed never being resolved to the point where one of the Pokemon movies showed that they were still at large in its opening scene.

In Advanced Generation (Pokemon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire), the show adapted Team Aqua and Team Magma from the current games and their storyline. The problem was that there was absolutely no passion in doing so. Usually we only ever got to see Aqua Admin Shelly and Magma Admin Tabitha, who were cool but not particularly well-characterized, and the leaders, Archie and Maxie, literally only appeared in the two-part finale of the arc, which meant that they had no memorable presence whatsoever. None of the other occasional villains were interesting either, and the Team Rocket trio now officially sucked as villains.

Diamond/Pearl (Pokemon the Series: Diamond and Pearl) attempted to do better.  Not with Team Rocket, they sucked ever harder now, but with the other villains. Team Galactic had more effort put into them and their story arc than Aqua and Magma did, and while all save for Charon were mischaracterized when compared to their game counterparts, it was at least some form of characterization. Less excusable was the group’s goal, which was just to destroy the world and make a new one for only them to be in, with the leader Cyrus actually wanting a new world for only him to be in. This is a severe misrepresentation of what their goal was in the games, which was far more altruistic and truly done for what they saw as for the good of everyone. The anime’s version is more like Team Flare in the XY games. And their three-part finale ended in a massive anticlimax, as there’s not even a semblance of a final battle, Dialga and Palkia are freed easily, Cyrus essentially kills himself, and the total destruction of Sinnoh is literally prevented by Ash, Dawn and Brock praying really hard.

Then there was Pokemon Hunter J, a recurring villain who got attention due to how purely evil and shockingly violent she was for the anime, putting Pokemon through some heavy torture and routinely trying to kill the child heroes - at one point, she set fire to an entire forest in order to burn alive all the people and Pokemon that were in it!  She was so vile that she even got killed off in her final appearance, her airship sinking and then exploding! Damn!

The only major problem with this villain is that she was an absolute waste of potential. In a 191 episode series, Hunter J only showed up in 7 episodes - two of them being a two-part story and two others being the first two parts of a three-part story, so really she only showed up five times in total.  There was no excuse for this - Hunter J was not in the games, she didn’t have a single evil plot to adapt, she was purely the writers’ creation and they were free to use her as much as they wanted.  She could have made a great Big Bad-type figure for the DP series, but instead, she disappeared for such a long stretch of time between her third and fourth appearances that it was pretty easy to forget she existed. Worse still, her final appearance and death happened as part of the Team Galactic arc finale, and was treated as just a footnote.  Ash, Dawn and Brock were not even present to see it happen, and nobody ever talks about it afterward. This was an absolutely criminal waste of a good, well, criminal.

Like with many things, I believe that Best Wishes (Pokemon the Series: Black and White) was where a big, important turnaround was made. First off, the Team Rocket trio received a promotion and new militaristic training in order to become a serious, competent threat and a bigger force within their organization - still the central villains as always but now operating on the scale that Aqua, Magma and Galactic did previously.  As such, the writers ended up discovering something important, something that even Takeshi Shudo never grasped: you don’t need Team Rocket in every episode, nor do you need them in a major role if they’re in one. They now got to sit many episodes out, or they appeared in episodes for just a few scenes (sometimes even just one scene) where they made some small advancement in their current overarching plan. After so many years, a little Team Rocket can go a long way, and spacing out their appearances this way was something that was desperately needed. 

Team Rocket’s story arc of attempted Unova conquest went through five different major operations: the mission to secure the Meteonite and combine it with Dream Energy to produce a threatening new energy flow, the mission to steal all the Pokemon from the Nimbasa City Pokemon Center and escape through the subway system, the mission to draw out the Weather Trio on Milos Island and capture them, the mission to resurrect a Pokemon fossil and use the revived Pokemon to open the Time Gate into the ancient past at Twist Mountain, and the biggest mission of all, “Operation Tempest”, to record Meloetta’s song and then capture it in order to unlock the Reveal Glass of Abyssal Temple that would grant Giovanni control over the Weather Trio. All of these were engaging and you could see a slow advancement of Team Rocket’s presence in Unova as a whole through each one, particularly due to the continuous presence of Giovanni and/or the stand-in Big Bad figure of Dr. Zager.

The evil team from the games, Team Plasma, didn’t fare quite so well. Intended to be a running presence through the show’s Myth Arc, the combination of an unexpected natural disaster and an unexpected development of sequels rather than a third, special edition of the games caused these plans to change, so Team Plasma only showed up as the villains of a 14-episode story arc after the Unova League, in their less ambiguous B2/W2 incarnations. The stories of the original B/W and B2/W2 were hastily cobbled together, and the team leader Ghetsis had an even more minimal presence than Cyrus did, being outshone by the more active Dr. Colress. With that said, the story wasn’t a bad one at all (it got especially good in its second half), Team Plasma was effective as a threat, and Colress was an excellent villain, maintaining his science-obsessed amorality from the games while having a hammier edge. 

For the first two years of XY (Pokemon the Series: XY), there wasn’t much to talk about in the way of villains - various one-shot villains weren’t the worst but nor were they the best, and Team Rocket was schizophrenic: they still kept out of many episodes but were still in more than they needed to be, and sometimes they were competent threats ala BW while other times they were harmless villains ala AG/DP.  The most intriguing villainous presence was Lysandre in the Mega Evolution specials, because he wasn’t portrayed as a villain, and thus gradually and successfully began to manipulate the hero Alain over to his side, and there was definitely the sense that he had big plans for Kalos that he was slowly but surely advancing.

In the third and final year, XY&Z, we got the payoff. Team Flare, the secret criminal subsidiary of Lysandre Labs, launched a plan to capture an infant Zygarde and use scientific means (chiefly Mega Evolution energy that Alain obtained for them) to forcibly alter the state of its being and its powers. This resulted in an explosive, action-packed five-part climax immediately following the Kalos League, and Lysandre secured his place as being on par with Giovanni as the best major villain the Pokeani has ever had. His backstory, motivations and the tragic nature of his villainy was maintained from the games, but the forced sympathy other characters tried to get the players to feel for him was excised in favor of emphasizing just how far gone he truly is. And in the end, he actually gets killed off, falling headfirst into an explosion and being vaporized. It was a suitably epic conclusion to a truly epic villain.

Team Flare had the best regional evil team villain arc to date, with none of the issues that plagued Aqua/Magma, Galactic and Plasma to be found. They were also portrayed better than they were in the games - coldly scientific and believing that they were doing things for the greater good - basically, the anime swapped them and Team Galactic around in terms of characterization.  My only minor quibble with their arc would be that it’s pretty obvious that head writer Tomioka tried to fit in stuff from B/W Team Plasma that he never got to do in the BW series: the evil team attacking right after the League transpires is straight out of B/W’s climax, and sometimes you might as well call Alain and Lysandre “N and Ghetsis.” Also, saving it all for the third year in preparation for the expected Z game ended up pointless, there was no such game.  Other than that, the writers did an unexpectedly excellent job.

With Sun and Moon (Pokemon the Series: Sun and Moon), Team Rocket has undergone a major return to form. Like in BW, they have a new status quo with new supporting characters (Mimikyu, Bewear and Mareanie all feel like unique individuals in their own right, and even Wobbufet feels like a character again and not a cheap joke dispenser) and a higher level of competence than usual, plus no more “blasting off” (thank you, Bewear!)  But unlike BW, where their personalities were flattened into serious professionals in order for their villainous arc to work, this time around their personalities have been brought back to how they were in the Original Series!  They’re not the exaggerated caricatures they were for most of AG and DP, nor the interchangeable zany lunatics they were for most of XY - they’re the three-dimensional characters they were when Takeshi Shudo was around, which is something I never thought would ever happen.  I seriously feel like a kid again when watching them now!

Beyond them, we have Team Skull, represented in the trio of Tupp, Rapp and Zipp who, true to the games, are even sillier and less competent than Team Rocket ever was, and the two trios share an entertaining dynamic as respectful rivals.  And in the Nebby arc, we get Aether Foundation Branch Chief Faba, a self-serving weasel who is usually pretty humorous but can occasionally be pretty twisted and despicable.  He also has a great dynamic with Team Rocket, which may lead to some interesting things down the road if the US/UM games are of any indication. A source of contention is that he replaces the human Big Bad of the games, Aether Foundation President Lusamine, in the role, and Lusamine is portrayed as a good person instead. While that kind of sucks, thanks to Faba’s meddling it looks like we’ll be seeing Lusamine in an antagonistic role yet, even if not a truly evil one of her own choice.

In short, the Pokeani started off good with its villains, got increasingly bad with them, but recently has gotten back on track with them. Who knows what the future will bring?  I don’t know, but personally I’m holding out hope that we’ll find gold at the end of the rainbow.

SIGH….hoo boy, those hopes sure were held out for nothing, huh?

OK, maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but it really does need to be said: Sun and Moon has a villain problem. In terms of the Pokeani as a whole, it regressed past BW and XY on the villain front, stopping short of the horrendousness of AG and DP, and is thus closer in nature to the Johto Saga: the villains that pop up in it are excellent, but the show’s writers have no clear idea what to do with them and so they ultimately end up as a blatant waste of potential.

Not only did things not progress in the US/UM direction with Faba, but they went in the opposite direction and he became a frequently appearing full-on good guy! And the way this was handled was ridiculous, as he isn’t really punished beyond being demoted to Wicke’s assistant, which he handles with far more grace than he did in the games, and he’s pretty much immediately forgiven and trusted by everyone, including his biggest victim Lillie! After how twisted they made him behave, this feels jarring. Now, Faba actually becomes endearing as a good guy pretty quickly and so I’m glad his turn happened, and later information we learn makes his initial villainous demeanor make more sense in retrospect…I just wish the transition was done with more care and nuance. As it stands, it feels like the flip of a switch.

Meanwhile, Lusamine’s temporary antagonistic role as the crazed “Mother Beast” who battled Ash and friends inside Ultra Space was handled very well, but afterward she didn’t just become an occasional guest character like I thought she would, but also a heavily recurring good guy in a very powerful position as the commander of the Ultra Guardians. Like Faba, I am ultimately glad for this since it gave Lusamine’s character even more depth and lovability, but it’s highly jarring for people who became accustomed to Lusamine as the Big Bad of the Gen VII games to tune into the anime expecting the same only to see her as the Big Good.

Following Nihilego, the Ultra Beasts that the Ultra Guardians ended up facing were always one-off characters, usually without much personality to speak of and sometimes not even being antagonistic at all. The main exception, Necrozma, was a dangerous foe that took four episodes to defeat, but was also inflicted with Adaptational Heroism: in the games, Necrozma was attacking others and stealing light not just out of pain but a justifiably angry and vengeful attitude, it wanted to make others hurt as much as it was always hurting. In the anime, it’s just totally crazy due to the pain, with no malevolent intent. And whereas in US/UM it remains a vicious foe even when first regaining its “Blinding One” form of Ultra Necrozma, in the anime regaining this form brings it back to its senses and it immediately returns to being the benevolent ruler of Ultra Space and creator of Alola (a status that is exclusive to the anime).

There was an occasional human villain who suddenly began appearing on the show, a rich asshole named Viren. But despite how many episodes he showed up in, he never ended up amounting to anything important…in fact, he got less threatening and more buffoonish with each passing appearance he made! Somewhat more important but no less buffoonish was the continued presence of Team Skull, which was always great when it happened but also frustrating in that it didn’t happen nearly enough. As is typical, the regional evil team of the current generation was inexplicably given the shaft in terms of overall episode count, even when in this case it makes little sense. The duality of Team Skull being handled well but also not well at all is best embodied in their boss, Guzma, who only ended up appearing in 8 episodes of the show’s third year, and simply as the villain of the Alola League story arc. Guzma was the most frequently appearing and developed villain in the Gen VII games, and yet the anime version, while faithfully rendered and utilized well enough, is just a guest star. 

And last but not least there’s Team Rocket. While the usual gang remained mostly great in how they were written and depicted as characters, they ended up peaking as villains late into the show’s second year, with a decisive battle between Mimikyu and Pikachu on Ula’ula Island. Afterward, their development steered them more toward heroism, as their attempts at being bad usually failed and they found themselves more successful doing honest work, not to mention more appreciative of their Alola lifestyles and bond with Bewear and Stufful. While this wouldn’t be a problem in of itself, it is within the larger context: namely, the fact that a greater threat from the higher-ups in Team Rocket never fully materialized in place of them. The elite unit of Matori Matrix was a one-and-done presence in the Necrozma event, and neither they nor how they may connect with the TRio is developed much further. And there isn’t even that much of a pay-off in the end: Giovanni just calls Jessie, James, Meowth and Wobbuffet back to HQ because he still wants them around, and they have a touching farewell with all of their Alolan Pokemon family before blasting off back to Kanto and the status quo.

I still adore Sun and Moon, but man oh man did it drop the ball in this category.

It’s three in the morning and I was catching up on SvTFOE and realized how flat and simple the art style was- and how much I liked it. So I decided to draw one of the characters I play on tumblrp in the style (anybody remember Agent Domino from MewTwo Returns?)

It‘s about three on the AMs right now, so it’s not very careful, and this was my first attempt with the style…

EDIT: forgot the other stripe on her glove, I’m such an airhead

domino valentines to send to potential crime partners and/or  romantic intrest

I remember both these characters and I love this ship! :)

150 Domino Icons

Ripped straight from the movie so there’s also no artist guilt. ^u^ Here’s a link to dropbox for your convenience, or you can download them individually below the cut.

Please like or reblog if you use them. :3

Read More

You can show up with 20 grunts if you want to, Giovanni, but I shan’t draw them.