#ether-gearhead

[kynimdraws]

It does somewhat stand to reason that Marlon's lower body doesn't tan if he's constantly in the water, but it is in fact creepy as all hell.

Maybe I can buy that tanline if it weren't so perfectly parallel and ABOVE the swimsuit belt-line

Like what the fuck is this????? IS THE POINT OF THE TAN BECAUSE HE HAS EXPOSED SKIN TO THE SUN??????

[crystalelemental]

I don’t suppose you’d be up for an Urbain/Taunie team analysis? Floette and the starters aside, I mean.

I held on to this one because I legitimately expected that it was just my mood and I'd come around and be more interested in doing this. Sadly, I'm kinda not. Turns out no matter how long I wait or look over their teams, I just do not care about Taunie or Urbain as people. Still, I may as well give it a shot.

I'm not doing screenshots for this one. Urbain's team is astoundingly constant. In contrast to a rival like Hop, or even Nemona who will change her moveset over time, Urbain is astoundingly constant. His team from before the tower, to battling with Mega Floette, to his rematch in the Infinite ZA Royale, changes basically nothing, while the DLC team has only five moves change, and they're not all better. Changing out Crunch as coverage on Avalugg for Icicle Spear is a decision.

The Lead (Meowstic) I've been speaking as Urbain because that's the rival I had, but I decided to check on this and yes, the rivals use their aligned gender for Meowstic. This means very little to me; it's pretty common for trainers to use Pokemon that are the matching gender to their own, as indeed their entire team does. What is useful for Meowstic is the emphasis on Dual Screens. The immediate focus is on defensive play, with its initial moveset holding Psychic and Thunderbolt for coverage. Typically, this combination is, as far as I understand it, considered a strong neutral base, that is completely blocked by Krookodile line. What I'm saying is, this feels pretty indicative of this idiot right off the bat: high focus on being The Protector, very little foresight in how you're going to handle your contingency plans. Even in the DLC, he swaps the Electric coverage for...Wish. Unless the AI is programmed to switch, this changes his inability to get past Krookodile specifically into an inability to get past literally any Dark type, in favor of defense. Urbain is not a thinker.

Shooting Star (Goodra) Urbain's Goodra is. Very silly. Goodra has a rounded stat spread that allows it to pick between physical or special offense. Urbain chooses special. What's odd is that he chooses Draco Meteor, with Water and Ice coverage. So he goes in hard right away, immediately fizzles, then has awkward coverage that does nothing to address his weakness to Fairy, or the hard resists in Steel. His initial iteration also packs Toxic, to try running out a timer, something that always goes well in this game. This changes in the DLC to focus Acid Spray, a means of offsetting Draco Meteor's drop by debuffing the target, and packing at least something to hurt Fairies. So he can learn.

The Abandoned (Avalugg) When Urbain acquires Mega Floette, it is Avalugg that gets the boot. This would not typically be worth mentioning, were it not for the fact that, on balance, this is his most defensive Pokemon. Avalugg's physical defense is sky high, and despite being focused on defense, he drops it for Floette, who is offensive. I read this as a sort of reveal. Urbain is nominally about protecting. His focus is stated to be "I am a defender of Lumiose." And I think he tries to do that? In his own way? But his actions, his choices, are not all that protective. You ditched the defensive option as soon as you had the big mega evolution in Floette, my dude. The Pokemon whose signature move is "cast gun." That is not the action of one who is dedicated to peace.

The Gun (Mega Floette) While only around temporarily, Mega Floette is appropriate as his Pokemon. Consider: Mega Floette is a reanimated corpse, whose signature move is an extremely high-power move that deals sharp recoil damage. Despite the origins of the machine being to revive, to protect life in a sense, it ultimately twists into a weapon at its maker's convenience. Even the second weapon, which I still can't believe AZ made, turns into a weapon. Everything about this guy and his Floette is gun coded. With Urbain, Light of Ruin is its only Fairy move. For some reason, he otherwise has Energy Ball for some reason, then packs Giga Drain and Synthesis to offset the recoil. The focus is very mirrored to AZ. You can do the big destructive thing, and then try to make it better. Power will entice you to enact what you truly believe, but it's fine because you can just change later. You know. The entire thematic heart of this game. Intent matters more than impact, you can just make it better later, it's fiiiiiine.

Personal Ace (Manectric) Manectric is the first Pokemon that is truly Urbain's. What I mean is, the starters he uses are predicated on which one you choose; Manectric is always there regardless of your choice. It's an interesting pick, too. It evolves early, and its focus is on gathering and storing electricity which it uses to stimulate itself into moving fast and soothing aches and pains. Essentially, it is always in Go Mode so it doesn't have to think. And upon mega evolution, its dex entry states that it "cannot control its electricity" anymore. The thing that kept it going, allowed it to over-exert and then comfort itself, is now out of its control. Which I think is really appropriate to Urbain, given his whole focus on going it alone despite having a team to work with. Urbain is, let us not mince words, an absolutely terrible leader. He offers no insights to the team, lets Lida handle all the strategizing, and ultimately contributes less than anyone else, being a net negative through the Rust Syndicate. And these habits, these things that he does to fulfill himself, are not wildly out of his control as he takes over Quasartico. Maybe he'll do a good job. I'm sure the "constantly summons stormclouds" thing is just literal.

The Starters The starters are the oddest part of all of this. To my knowledge, nothing tells us where Urbain was before coming to Lumiose. We know his mother worked for Team Flare, and his grandmother runs Quasartico, but relatively little outside of this. Given his possession of two Pokemon from Johto's starter collection and one from Unova's, this...really does very little for us. I could guess he's from Johto, or at least spent a great deal of time there, given the two-to-one ratio. But the disconnect between Johto and Unova is fairly severe, and all three of these Pokemon do eventually settle in around the tower in postgame. But since there's no clear rationale for where Pokemon are found, because we're all stuck in Lumiose for the rest of eternity, I can't really interpret anything from their existence. What I can point out is oddities.

Specifically, Emboar doesn't get a Fighting move until DLC. Feraligatr's Dragon move is Breaking Swipe until the DLC. Meganium drops Leech Seed, its defensive backbone, for Frenzy Plant, as the only one of the starters to choose to learn an ultimate move. Among these changes, Feraligatr and Meganium showcase that he's moving away from that protective approach, substituting low-BP or non-damaging moves designed to cut offense or heal for high damage moves. Emboar loses its electric coverage for Fighting, and specifically for Close Combat, which actively worsens his defenses. And Feraligatr's Outrage causes confusion, a status I still think has no actual effect in this game. All of his changes by DLC involve removing the protective elements, aiming for big damage and detrimental effects.

Final Thoughts I'm hoping this wasn't hard to pick up on: I don't care for Urbain. I don't like him. I think he's ultimately really self-serving, a terrible leader, and given way too much significance given his inheritance of the only major company in Lumiose despite lacking any skills for success. So it is almost assuredly bias that I read into his final team, and the minor changes between the Mega Floette fight and the DLC, the division between pre- and post-CEO ascendance, as foretelling disaster.

His consistent ace in Manectric is lore-focused on losing all its control upon Mega Evolving, a focus he has in spades. Despite leading with a protective approach, he has no real plan and is very easily worked around. He abandons his protector role in favor of more damaging attacks that evoke a sense of desperation; taking forever to take action, weakening your own defenses for momentary gain, and being wildly confused while doing it. When he does have Mega Floette, a mega that was so important and strong that it required the "Strongest mega evolution user" to wield, he immediately dropped his strongest defensive backbone and swapped in a Pokemon that plays like a gun, blowing everything up and ultimately hurting himself in the process, then focusing on how he can recover from it, how he can make it right. This is the fate of his leadership, thrust into the position of holding this city he cares for afloat alone, burdened by the destiny of the corporate crown his grandmother abdicated, and his mother could not keep him from. There will be no forethought, only reactivity, and a desperate attempt to pick up the pieces of what you've broken. Such destruction will not be his intention, but it will come to pass regardless. Such is the fate of Kalos' cycle.

[eme-eleff]

See, my problem isn't with NaLu being canon, it's that the existence of Fairy Nail (particularly Nack and Lucia) and Nasha effectively strip Earthland NaLu of any organic development by giving us two NaLu doppelgangers that are already romantically involved. Personally, though, I think if Mashima wanted to go all-in on the trolling, we would see the absolute final chapter reveal Natsu and Lisanna having hooked up at some point. Shit, maybe Earthland Nasha is a NaLi baby, I dunno! XD

I don't see what's the problem with fairy nail and Nasha. I don't get it.

Mashima is trolling us by giving us two canon Nalus that are not from earthland. It's like "see? they're in love in every single parallel universe that exist but you don't have actual Nalu canon".

You can like Nali but it'd be smth stupid to make Nasha a Nali kid. Like why? It doesn't make sense. But that's just my opinion.

I do like to see a development for Natsu and Lisanna's relationship (as friends bc I really see them like that, I even think Lisanna wants Natsu and Lucy to end up together) and for Lucy and Lisanna's as well.

[faewildwriting]

🌹

Awww. Thanks for the Ask! Your so nice. I love sharing my work with others. This is also from my Luli WIP. As that is my most recent on I'm working on. This one is kinda sad but this fic has some angst too.

Lisanna's body shook with sobs as tears streamed down her face. Lucy hugged her tightly and gently rubbed her back in a comforting gesture. She let Lisanna cry it out,because she knew that Lis would speak when ready.

[natsubeatsrock]

Rather interesting 100YQ chapter today! Can we get your thoughts on it once you get a chance to read it?

Spoilers!

Alright. Generally speaking, this chapter was good. Lucy’s in a tight spot with Mimi, but I’m sure she’ll manage. I’m willing to bet Irene is going to come in the clutch to save Wendy and Erza from Houkou. I didn’t like Gray’s comments about dealing with women, but whatever. Also, I’m pretty sure Carla’s wearing one of those cursed sweaters on the cover.

Though, I’m willing to bet this ask is about my opinons on Natsu and Gray’s dealings with the snow dolls. I feel like now is a good time to bring back something from the past. When I did Quick Notes for Fairy Tail, I’d often make posts with extra jokes and comments for special moments. So, for what may or may not be the last chapter of the year, I present to you:

Extra comments on the Natsu & Gray vs Hakune

Fun fact: A while back, Mashima had a sketch where Gray grabbed Juvia and Natsu grabbed a bunch of other girls. This moment includes all those girls along with Mira and Cana.

If you’re wondering how I feel about Natsu’s harem, I’ve talked about my feelings regarding the Natsu ships before. One addition, I’m not about shipping Wendy with Natsu. I don’t really have a Wendy ship, though...

Honestly, it’s just nice to be acknowledged as a Nali and Natza fan. I know it’s fake, but I’m still here for it. (Wait, is this how I start empathizing with Nalu fans?)

WENDY IS NOT IN LOVE WITH NATSU! WENDY IS NOT IN LOVE WITH NATSU! WENDY IS NOT IN LOVE WITH NATSU! WENDY IS NOT IN LOVE WITH NATSU! WENDY IS NOT IN LOVE WITH NATSU! WEND-

“Here you go, Natsu... Touch me as much as you like.” *gets sucker punched*

I couldn’t have guessed that I needed the image of Natsu punching Lucy. But this year has been weird enough that I’ll embrace it with open arms.

Here’s an interesting detail, Natsu’s final blast visibly destroys the images for all the girls except for Cana and Lisanna. (They probably were destroyed though.)

Funny how both are girls I’ve written being with Natsu romantically.

“Plus, the real one is crazier.” Fandom would have had a field day with this line years ago.

Happy, buddy. You can’t complain about not being recognized as useful in a fight and then become useless in a fight. This is why you won’t grow.

I may do this every now and then. See you!

[rieriebee]

Apparently, Volume 2 of 100 Years Quest has a bonus story called "Your Dark Lucy." Any info on that, mayhaps?

I found this: https://twitter.com/FTOurWorld/status/1103873471015149575

[kynimdraws]

Did you see the box art for Fortune’s Weave? Apparently, it shows the My Unit designs, and it kind of upsets me that Fortune’s Weave in particular has My Units, because when it was revealed, I wanted to play through each Lord’s campaign AS the given Lords, and have them all converge in a climactic final showdown with the Divine Sovereign, whom I’m assuming is the Big Bad this time. I mean, I just think a My Unit is superfluous for this particular game compared to the rest of modern Fire Emblem. Unless My Unit is the titular Fortune’s Weave, but even then I don’t like that idea. Once again, we still have to play four stories, and if we’re giving one Lord an advantage, then there’s probably no golden ending (looking at you, Three Houses!).

FYI: The context of the "My Units" for Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave

Not gonna lie, I am gonna just avoid thinking about their presence until I get more info. I do hope their role is not super intrusive bc yeah as you said...I wanna play through as the 4 main characters in their own routes!!! I don't want another story-warping avatar situation that 3Houses Byleth had ughhh....

[crystalelemental]

This is almost certainly true, in that people do tend to focus on initial stage as the one you're most likely to catch, and final stage as the one you're most likely to end on in any given playthrough.

But also, I dunno, I feel like there are a ton of middle stage Pokemon that I like better than their final form, and a good chunk are my favorite in the line. In fact, I'm now listing all of them below the cut. But I dunno, I think if that is the case, it's an issue of people not paying attention, or thinking more about the stinkers than the grand successes. There are a lot, and the list is just "my favorites of the line," I'm not counting things like Quilava, who I think is better than the final despite liking the first stage best.

Wartortle: the head wings and bushy tail really appeal to me, I like it a lot better than Blastoise

Clefairy: more star-shaped than its evolution, which feels a bit too elongated

Kadabra: it's the big tail, I legitimately think Alakazam is the least interesting part of the design because it loses it

Magneton: I feel like Magnezone is kinda lumpy, this is purely my own taste but I think Magneton has more of an uncanny creature feel

Haunter: Gengar is really uninteresting to me, but Haunter rules; it's the disconnected hands

Magmar: Unlike Electivire, who does get cooler as a big tough monster on evolution, I think Magmortar looks dumber and don't love the arm cannon thing

Togetic: I think it's incredibly cute, and I think Togekiss is just kinda lumpy

Piloswine: it's so fluffy and great, but Mamoswine loses a lot of that to be cool, and I prefer cute

Grovyle: I mean. Come on.

Kirlia: Yeah, I'll say it, I like Kirlia's little ballerina gimmick over Gardevoir, I think it adds a ton of personality

Roselia: While Roserade is extremely cool, I kinda just like the simple vibe of Roselia; it has a cute look

Sealeo: While I like this entire line, something about Sealeo's mustache just draws me in, it looks so silly and I adore it

Dewott: Just a cool looking thing; I think cuter than Oshawott, while Samurott just tanks in my estimation

Swadloon: Love the entire line, but come on. Come on, that's so cute, it's so grumpy and it evolves from here via friendship, come on.

I'm interjecting here to say, while I adore Braixen, I've come to prefer Fennekin by a slim margin of late, so it's not the favorite in the set, but it's a really close call. Basically, at any point, Delphox is my least favorite part of the line despite still being S-tier.

Frogadier: Frogadier actually is kinda cool without the gross tongue scarf thing Greninja has, and Froakie was never cute so it is easily discarded. I'd say "Sceptile-esque" in how easily the mid-stage in the favorite, but that implies I hold any animus toward Sceptile or Treecko, and I do not.

Fletchinder: Actually pretty cool looking bird; Talonflame just looks kinda weird to me. It's like Rapidash, something about it is too uncanny for me.

Floette: The literal only thing AZ and I would ever agree on

Sliggoo: It's actually got the snail shell effect going on with its goo, and is just a precious little baby

Trumbeak: I really like woodpeckers, Trumbeak is a great continuation off Pikipek, shame about Toucannon being the final stage

Steenee: Kirlia effect. To be clear, I do really like Tsareena, but Steenee is just really cute and it's unfortunately one of those three-stages where the second stage has low, flat stats all around and no access to the final stage's signature move, so there is just no saving the poor thing. Which is endearing to me.

Morgrem: It's the passable design in an evolutionary line I hold a deep disrespect for.

Dolliv: It's a cute little doll with olive hair bunches. Yes I know Arboliva is majestic but it is a doll with olive hair, what are we doing?

Tinkatuff: Yes, really, I like the ponytail hair.