Still around

[guiltygearofficial]

[guiltygearofficial]

Hopefully this image will clear everything up!

[guiltygearofficial]

Carl is her dog in this analogy.

[thebobbyarts]

K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025)

[galvanismgal]

[galvanismgal]

Joining the warnge on the side of the wrange! I enjoyed @madeofklay 's Warange drawings so I thought I'd take a shot at the citris situation.

Lady Berg A' mont is based off the bergamont oranges known for being used in perfumes. She enters the warange in an effort to prevent her stolen research from being used for nefarious deeds.

Design notes: She is most likely early adult so I wanted her to still have more green coloring than the yellow mature fruit. While her fighting would involve using her fan (of a plant of the same name) to spread her perfumes to support. Her research would be similar to the agro-bacterium used in old plant genetics to preform gene transfers.

Persimummy is an ancient ruler mummified by strange sorcery from the distant past. In their times a strange disease ripped across the land creating monsters but due to their kingdom's resistance they rose to a dominant power to keep peace and stability. They awoke to preform their sacred duty to prevent the tragedy from repeating itself using their peoples ancient diplomacy modern scholars call gratuitous violence.

Persimummy is based on the persimmon (persimmuny may have been better oh well). I wanted to play with how fruit can be dried but also do some mysterious body horror by making them a more alien shape. Despite wielding sorcery their strongest power is osmosis due to their dried state so they fight like a tricky grappler with each tender caress inviting doom. I wanted them to be a duo of sorts so persi's story tackles monoculture so together they can cover a story similar to papaya ring spot and have an insight into the scientific side of horticulture.

[ymutate]

Toshi Yoshida (Japanese, 1911–1995)

"Aspen", 1973.

Woodblock Print, 37 × 56 cm.

Private Collection.

[fucxingcuties]

[madeofklay]

Return of the WARANGE!

Witness the slashing power of SATSUMA

[galvanismgal]

Move design notes

Egg group:

Bug/field due to it being a bug and terrestrial due to the cat Pokemon influence. This combination is also lacking in the games like the typing so if anything it defaults to bug or field. Since it is a fakemon it doesn't matter much but it would have a wide pool of pokemon to get moves from.

Knitten and Caoot would be the type of pokemon with a large move pool but lacking strong damage options to make up for it. They lack some of the stronger abilities like psychic surge or friend guard and can't trick room so I do not think they would over shadow most supports just make some gimmick teams more viable in higher play.

Move choices:

Pollen puff: An easy choice since it is a bug type move, has relation to the flowers Knitten love sucking the nectar out of, and helps Knitten with its role as a support pokemon. This is the cutest way I could represent hairballs, yarn balls, and bugs.

Pollen Puff is a great move able to heal an ally while also damaging enemies. This means it can't be shut down by taunt and wont heal an enemy if somehow redirected at one.

A slow pollen puff is weaker than a fast pollen puff but allows it to be used on turn one to heal off some damage which gave a good choice when worried about taunt or fake out.

Instruct: Young critters are always crying to let us know they need care. As they age this turns into waking us up, wanting food, opening doors, and pets. I trained my pet to high five and it instead slapped me and taught the others how to as well…Pokemon must surely teach each others things as well. Since knitten falls into the pet category, needs to be communicate its needs, and try to teach knitting to everything because it sees them as just odd shaped knitten I think instruct fits. Other than pets bugs frequently communicate with their colony to pass along instructions of their queen. I like to think this is either an egg move passed down from Caoot itself or else a move tutor move to enhance the sense of community teaching.

In visual use Knitten or Caoot would be using their threads or cuteness so it would be like tugging on someones heart strings to get them to do something.

Instruct has a lot of neat interactions in competitive play. From helping a Pokemon recover after a move or counting as a turn of sleep it also allows a Pokemon to use two different moves in a turn if the instruct user is faster than the target (I've seen wide guard mentioned when I was looking for examples). Since it is using the ally pokemon I do not need to care about the attack stats of knitten to be useful if something needs to die swiftly.

Priority wise its in a fun spot as well since moves can go with increased priority while not being considered priority. It is also one of the moves that calls other moves so it interacts uniquely as well from that. Lots of fun strategies to think of!

I feel like instruct is a better move to use over after me if knitten switches in but after you allows the ally to switch to a different move. Encore: Most pets beg for things and only the strongest of wills resist. While it may not be the same sort of begging some insects or spiders use their behaviors to encourage prey to walk into their traps.

Encore is a hard thing to play around. I expect a lot of dark types or priority hate but anything wanting to fake out, protect, or set up needs to take caution when knitten is on the field. It has some weird interactions possible as well but I don't think they would come up often enough where you wouldn't plan around them while designing a team.

This is one of the reasons I was torn between mental herb and covert cloak since covert cloak is far the better item and the only move that I would have in knitten's move pool to support with faster priority was helping hand. I figured being able to get something off with mental herb would be more useful on a switch in since if Knitten flinches...all the moves target my ally so its more important they don't flinch than me.

After you: When there is community there is always one brave member of it sent to explore new things. If they are little craps they send one out to get caught before attempting to do something while the owner is busy with the first one. This is how my grandparents got their cats by luring them with a hot dog...

Parents frequently want their children to eat, drink, or make it to shelter before they do as well. Knitten falls into the category of sending out a sacrificial member. Caoot is the later so this could be another Caoot -> Knitten move.

Ants are a good insect example of how when one finds something at least one goes back to inform others of it. If I decided to replace after you or instruct with follow me this and the general follow me pets do would be the justification.

Priority after you is a great way to make the speed stat a suggestion rather than a meta defining thing. Both instruct and after you work around armor tail and psyhic terrain due to game mechanics so Knitten can be built in a way I only need to worry about fake out or taunt. After you works differently enough to have both instruct and itself on the same pokemon since After you allows a turn 1 bomb in priority or switch in. It also works well in trick room since if neutralizing gas is up Knitten would lose the priority.

Thought about moves were also:

knock off: every cat smacks things off a table

wide guard: lays across somewhere

chatter: talkative

sappy seed: ties into the plant/nature loving knitten

sparkly swirl: cleric support ties into caddis fly jewlery

siesmic toss: kitten play time

salt cure: Caoot's mineral spit

Follow me: Pets will lead you to the things it wants.

Glare: ended up being snake specific

U turn/parting shot: strong and a good contender with how cats act and how useful turn management is for pokemon. If I had to replace a move it would either be one of these or follow me.

Non pollen puff healing moves: most did not fit typing or vibe

Revival moves: if knitten was more focused on cats I could fit this in with a leppa berry to be evil but I dont think it works for this format.

any web or sticky shield: speed control is good and would give lasting support but knitten has enough speed hate.

gastro acid: hairball but pollen puff is cuter for this and I don't really think ability hate will be commonly needed.

Any field move: knitten is slow...

normal legendary moves: most deal high damage so they were out. Relic song is...something I did not want to deal with.

For most moves I went does a cat pokemon learn this? does a bug learn this? does it support? Most importantly it was do I feel like this fits into theme. Then I went and decided to try and select ones that did well in VCG.

[galvanismgal]

Stat and ability design notes

Stats:

Pokemon has really min/maxed over the years but I don't really use those calculators. I simply went Knitten is slow because of its stocking/age but since it knits it for protection it should have high defense and a strong will to live. I had ideas for the moves at the time as well so I knew I could make a support without needing to deal damage by focusing on secondary effects. Attack, Special attack, and speed could all be lower to reflect the support and will to live nature.

Speed ended up being where it was because I wanted stats to end in 3 if I could since the cat face is : 3.

A fun fact is all of the digits of the date the Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! cover which is used in the nyan cat video are in the stat line. With Nyan cat also being a cat in a thing I think its a cute reference.

I am thankful the speed ended up being faster than spore even if I am losing every single taunt match up. It would have been an issue as well if I did follow me since I could speed type with fake out.

Abilities:

Knitten would have the abilities of prankster, comatose, and (HA) normalize. Caoot drops prankster for parental bond.

Young animals tend to be a handful so prankster was an obvious choice for one of the abilities. This ability is found commonly on supports falling into the screen, tailwind, or disruptive types. I knew I wanted a more unique one than was possible in the games so I focused on the more beneficial ones than disruptive.

Cats in general sleep a lot so comatose fit well. Mainly it would be to prevent spore since ailments do not matter much in the grand design since they lack a recovery move and do not care about speed.

For caoot I wanted to drop the energy theme prankster had and switched to it to parental bond. Cats have many news stories of them adopting other cat's kittens or bonding with other animals.

Knitten had to be more concerned about its own survival but thanks to the friendship and love it received it grew up and learned how to extend that kindness to others. A bond between parent and child are not limited by blood or species...I really enjoy the lets be X with mama memes as well.

This would allow caoot a different support playstyle as well since rather than focusing on priority bending it could take a hybrid role by using moves that lowered, raised, or caused ailments. I feel serene grace could have worked as well but its faster for pokemon with multihit moves and caoot while a peaceful elder still has a mischievous glint in its eye.

For the hidden ability I wanted to make reference to the skitty line. It was also a very normal ability for a normal type. Knitten blurs the line between bug and cat so why shouldn't its moves as well.

Part of me wanted to pose the question as well of what is normal or how is something normalized. A cat bug combination is strange thing to think about but the pokemon world is filled with more fantastical things by comparison. In the real world while cats and dogs are common pets in many places bugs are considered normal pets as well in some places. When I was growing up it was viewed as being weird to have any sort of bug as a pet but now even normal pet stores carry different kinds of creepy crawlies and you can bring up owning one in casual conversation without it being some strange hobby or choice.

The real world is filled with many wonderful and strange things we just don't think of because how common they are in our lives or how little they apply to them. The earth is a pretty rare place in the grand scheme of space.

Not too many bug moves exist that would benefit from normalize for type coverage so it would be a damage boost to them in return for ghost being immune.

[galvanismgal]

Name design notes

Name Process:

Knitten

Originally the name was a combination of kitten and sock but I realized when combined…the name would def get people demonetized.

Stoten (stocking + kitten), Stoun (stocking +kitoun), and knitten were my alternate names.

Stoten ended up being a scientific journal with controversies and while I liked Stoun i felt like it would give too much of a mineral feel without capturing the kitten part at a glance. Using the second half of kitoun would make it harder to make the kitten connection since it uses an old word. I settled with Knitten since it matched well with the lore and design. I debated using an I instead of an E but I think it made it too close to knitting and it is already super close to that.

I did not really focus on the bug part since I used the expression snug like a bug in a rug and the larva shape of kitten's back half I felt it was more important to highlight the knitting its cocoon/shell in the name like yep sure is knitten.

Caoot

Cat plus boot. It has the Ca for calcium, cat, and caddis fly and the oot from boot. Where I am from old coot also is slang for an older person and it sounds like that so it fits the elder vibe making a clear distinction between the energetic knitten and the tired Caoot.

Both insects and cats have clear (or unclear depending what you look at) distinctions between their young and adult forms. Young -> old, squishy -> ridged, and helpless -> helpful the base and evolution focused on trying to be the same world while showing the changes. Both are tight knit to each other and each part relates somehow in the design which leads into the nickname.

Nickname process:

Knitten would be known as the friendly pokemon. Both bugs and small cats can be social creatures so I felt it worked well for both knitten and Caoot. Knitten being young would be quick to try and bond (even if that led to them teaching the other pokemon how to make mischief) since without the bonds it weaves, physically for its stocking and socially with the help it gets, it wouldn't survive in the wild. Caoot falls under the I'm your mother now type animal having grown having to be cared for now can care for others.

Everything will learn to knit and or get licked in an effort for them to gain those bonds, even trainers are not spared.

Knitting was also popular for different charities as well. Both cats and knitting have health benefits tying the two further together past the classic image of a kitten or cat playing with yarn.

Knitten and Caoot can have a mutualistic relationship to humans similar to bees or caddis fly larva since the stocking or other knit goods could be harvested in return for protection. The can be both pets and production pokemon giving them another place in the world to think about and build around.

Also I really like hold hands in pokemon and Vivillon is a bug type that not only was one of the pokemon to receive the move from an event but also was shown outside the games using it. If a move needs to be replaced and I don't catch it in time hold hands has some sportsman ship to it as well. I'm the type of player who doesn't play pokemon for VCG or to win its more to have fun imagining being friends with them and I hope everyone can see a friend in knitten or Caoot.

[galvanismgal]

Typing design notes

I knew early on I wanted knitten to be normal type since they were based on my experiences with my dearly departed pet. Normal types also have made strong showings as support pokemon in the various games although other types have over taken them in higher level vcg thanks to unique moves or abilities.

The bug typing came from me going ok I want the stocking/sock look and while I could go for grass to have a better competitive pokemon I went oh yeah I remember being really into caddis fly jewelry which I can use for its evolution boot as well and really give knitten and caoot a place in the world.

Knitten has the ability to hold hands like vivillion though which is more important. Friendship and community is the strongest tools in nature. Lets evolve to be kinder people like knitten.

Bug/Normal is also a type missing from the pokedex so it was a fun surprise finding that out as I was looking for canon examples. While I could have it look like a cat without the normal typing there is no bug/normal typing in the games and several cat based pokemon are normal type. Cats and bugs are really common after all and most status moves are normal type. Knitting is also viewed as a normal activity.

Pokemon doesn't really follow design rules for what something can be e.g. being green is enough for a cat to be grass type so I wanted to go the extra mile in the design to go yes this little larva cat is bug/normal. Look at it! Look at it!

The weakness of it also reflects in the moves and stats and how the type resistances/strengths play out. Knitten is something that evokes emotion which helps against psychic or dark pokemon. The strengths and weakness make sense for the types of things they would encounter in their environment even ghost since cats normally are involved with the supernatural and insects don't fear magic nor god.

All of the weakness are found commonly in other high level VCG types so being bug is not the biggest drawback since it is combined with another type that does not give it x4 weakness (it also resists fighting which helps being part normal.

[galvanismgal]

Additional thoughts and notes

General list of things both knitten and ft500

Is knitten competitive?

I wanted to try and do something you could not do in the game with prankster. Could knitten be a one pokemon army with min maxed moves? Yes but at that point it feels less like a support pokemon and more of the vcg "support" aka random support moves but still hits like a truck. Support has many different forms so I wanted to focus on something not able to be seen to try and break the system that way. Otherwise I could have just looked at smogon and the vcg and science out a strong mon first than designed around it.

I could knit pick (pun intended) every little thing that would make knitten good or bad but it feels like I have already went ok my drawing level is this but my thought process is this enough. I simply went ok this is for a blind pick and for theme so nothing that harms the team it is placed on and something that can support all playstyles of pokemon.

Fun try hard things:

Attacks with higher priority and instruct mean they could be done twice in one turn. Triage boost, extreme speed, or +1 and higher speed would all work. I think Triage boost would be the only one able to hit multiple targets.

Lets all ignore the speed stat together ; ) having prankster lets you and the ally dump speed and not rely on the VCG after you chlorophyll sets which have seen some use in less powerful formats.

Do your best beam instruct lets you really ignore all your pokemon's stats lol. If something like cresselia or anything high stat tanky it would be a blood bath.

Mental herb isn't the most useful item so I'm not super worried about the trick item moves and while I did debate a protect your ability in ability shield they don't see high level play so I chose it as a known risk since I don't worry about any attacks needing accuracy and if something sticks truant on me its better than my ally (which instruct helps against)

I enjoy the stress encore gives to the opponent. I know whimsicott learns it but I think endevor is the hot move to use right now since it runs focus sash anyways.

you can grantee a two two of everything with a sesmic toss type move and instruct. This would be a wildly inefficient use of it since knitten already runs into a "why not just attack twice" issue that plagues any competitive game.

General thoughts:

I expect a lot of dark, ghost, and steel pokemon. I feel fairy and dragon will pop up due to being strong.

Taunt, fake out, and follow me will be popular because they are easy to toss onto kits and call it a day while being high impact. Same with any protect+ move which I should have done but oh well! I did not want to.

In formats like this its either hyper offense of stall. I expect hyper offense to win out since min maxing and freedom of moves makes it easy to find away around stall.

A lot of banned smogon stuff will be seen like para/confusion. Baton pass might make a rare appearance but in doubles it feels less useful.

Screens will slip under the radar and be good but I feel its the lets go moves or aurora veil since every move counts in this format move compression is good.

I have seems a surprising lack of hard hitting multi-pokemon moves that are common in VCG. I expected a lot more since they tend to be one click wins 75% of the time if your opponent can't counter them and doesn't double protect.

Everyone will ignore spore and spore will be good. Knitten not being grass type makes it worse competitively since I could have been immune and picked up jungle healing.

We will see things like prankster destiny bond, hopefully some fun ghost cure, and perish song teams. I feel like it is easy to go oh broken thing because smogon has an any ability format so its a lot more interesting to look at how creative people are.

I am sad with my held item but while covert cloak and rocky helmet are better items I would hate to be a dead weight on the team. Fake out is the only time I worry about flinching unless neutralizing gas is also in play but its more important my ally is immune than myself. If my item gets switched to a choice item I still have the flexibility of pollen puff or instruct to help.

I don't care too much about abilities? Priority hate does not stop me, losing my ability still allows me to be useful and my only issue is other pranksters which I can buy 1 turn from mental herb.

...I feel like only trick room teams have cleric support in high level VCG and cleric lets go eevee is not highly ranked. I think sparkly swirl is a good move for it but I feel like its a win more than preventing a loss.

Clerics might be harder in the traditional sense since unless its target removal you risk removing an ally's buff or status they want.

I lack any sort of self recovery from left overs or sappy seed leech seed. I feel like we will see some tanky pokemon sets with it which is exciting. That and triage since priority moves will be strong and you can make a beast of a triage unit.

Ability hate is either good or weak since a lot of kits will rely on their ability but I'm unsure how many would spare an ability or move outside of neutralizing gas.

Both bugs, cute pokemon, and a baby get prankster so it should be fine knitten gets it. I worry since I explained a lot and wanted to show off a full picture of a concept for both knitten and its evo line it will suffer more than if I had focused on the art and kept the focus more narrow than laying everything out step by step...the design process was very yes this! even down to the 8ish moves I was deciding on so I did not have much of a process to walk through.

I really hope people don't mind knitten pretty much being the coughing baby against hydrogen bombs. I understand people not wanting baby pokemon to be hurt but I want them to throw hands with mama.Really Pachirisu at worlds vibes/ karen win with your favs blah blah

[galvanismgal]

Design appearance process

Over all and some specific choices for knitten. They are a bit scattered since I went I want this concept and enjoyed having little references tossed in.

Overall process: I wanted to have my fakemon reference back to n0rdist stema project with some vauge scientific (hopefully not incorrect but being wrong is part of learning). I wanted to represent the process of calcium making clothes stiff or some sort of permineralization between the basic and evolution. The idea grew from there so it is no longer the main focus since it would require the evolution so knitten focused more on what would a bug/normal type be like. Cat had Ca in it and could work as a pun and also Caddisfly has the Ca in its name as well so it could pull triple duty. Due to the caddis fly and kittens going though the cute little Christmas tree stage tail when they were young I could use stockings as a link between the two and act as the "shell" that would protect them. By being a cat and bug knitting its own stocking was a great fit just like how insects knit there own cocoons. The phrase as snug as a bug in a rug comes to mind as well.

Caoot the parent could then lick the cocoon woven by the knitten causing it to harden into the boot the evolution wears over time.

Design:

The simplest part of the design was the back 3/4ths of the body. All that was needed was the woven shell being the color of materials around knitten and I could use the flower or a common item to make the top part of a Christmas stocking. This could look like a slug as well.

Like the Caddis fly knitten would stay in its shell so I could do the multi paw design common in caterpillar/cat fusions but I thought it would be more interesting if was never shown like diglett since its fun to see what people imagine them to be. Just know its soft like a cats tummy and covered in fur. The fur would allow knitten to collect pollen by rolling around or sit in flowing bodies of water to try and catch some food in it as well.

The head is a blockier cat one since pokemon tends to like pointy or round ones. In our family we tend to chose blocky headed pets so its just my own bias.

The paws are cat like as well with 3 claws and one of the claws would be more of a hook shape to help with weaving and knitting. Knitten would mostly be using string that it produces but other pokemon threads or things like grass could be used as well. The thread is less sticky than other bug pokemon in return for being ready to weave so knittens don't use it to move around or stick to things. The curved claw also helps with movement and holding onto their parents.

The whiskers could double like an insects feelers since both are sensory organs.

The eyes are the little black ones some bug pokemon have.

Caoot

For the evolution I knew it needed to be harder so a sock goes into a boot so it was easy to have that be what caoot would be in. It reminded me of the mario games where you get the shoe (which would be the gigamax evolution).

Since cats mellow out in age I knew it would maintain the slow speed due to being heavier so the design would need the weight from it being solid and blocky compared to knittens more horizontal squish. The lower body would still be mysterious but would retain the stretchy squishy part to allow Caoot the mobility needed to snag a knitten that was up to no good.

I debated the tongue being like a proboscis but I don't think it would be too relevant to the design or lore since a shorter one could work better for grooming. Most of the design notes are the same as knitten but with how caoot would sit in the boot the paws would look like the mandible parts of insects. The ear tuffs for Caoot would not be fur but instead be small sensory organs like moth feelers. As mentioned in the dex entries the caoot would also have an enzyme/protein in their saliva to change the fur pattern of knitten or fellow caoots. I wanted everyone to be able to represent their pets! Growing up allergic to cats we were told it was due to a protein in their saliva so I thought it was a neat way to tie that in without forcing trainers to have allergies.

I feel like overall the designs are in the blob bug category for pokemon than oh this is a bug bug but we have a grass/dark or fire/dark type that is a cat so the charm of knitten is being a gateway bug for people to get over their fear of bug types. Insects make great pets too!

[galvanismgal]

Dex Entries

1: You might hear the expression like a knitten in a field of flowers to describe messy children. If you give knitten their favorite treat nectar its not hard to see where it came from.

For the first entry I wanted something to give an idea of how knittens act when they are not struggling to survive in the wild.

2: Knitten uses it feeble cries to call and instruct others how to take care of it. The only thing it knows how to do by itself is diligently knit its home and get into mischief Tie in knitten in being weak alone but friendly in the way kittens bother other pets for things. I think for Chihuahua and some other animals/babies there discussion of them evolving to look cute to be taken care of.

3. Don't be startled if your knitten looks different after being licked by a Caoot! An enzyme in Caoot's saliva will cause their fur to take on new patterns. Scientist believe this is to help them camouflage in the wild.

More science based both for survival, a scientific question that could be researched in the pokemon world. Even more so its an excuse for customizable knitten and caoots so everyone can have a knitten/caoot that looks like their own furry friend (or bug buddy)

Overall dex entries would be light in nature with no sinister hints like some of the earlier dex entries have. At most there would be a sad one about an abandoned knitten using its cries for help. As a note thanks to the pokemon world and pokemon having a love of battling their isn't as much worry about knitten decimating bird pokemon populations.

[galvanismgal]

Here is my submission for @n0rtist 's fakemon 500 design challenge, Knitten! I will be updating the post with my thoughts on things as I organize them.

Knitten

Type: bug/normal

Ability:prankster

Held item: Mental herb

Moves: After you, Encore, Instruct, Pollen puff

Stats:

Hp: 123

Attack: 50

Defense: 123

Special attack: 50

Special defense: 123

Speed: 31

Total: 500

Team role: early or late game support

Dex Entries

Appearance Design notes

Additional design notes and thoughts

Additional type design notes

Name and nickname design notes

Stats and ability design notes

Move design notes

[eggpuffs]

i think about this scene all the time

[stealingpotatoes]

it’s eunuch Tucker’s adoptiversary and defacto birthday today <3

[stealingpotatoes]

Who would win in a fight? The noble eunuch Tucker or Sith Lord Darth Vader?