ACK I'm so happy that people are asking questions about your au!
Could you, um. Could you please explain the turtles' Pokemon powers to me in simple terms? Donnie has "sing" but what does that look like? Can they use their powers at will? Is there a cool down period? Are they tied to weapons (initially) like they are in Rise?
He sings :] And when he sings anyone who hears his voice inevitably falls asleep. :] And the songs donnie chooses to sing are all the 80s hits!
I think uhhh Im gonna have to make refs for them to explain every move and their abilities. Cuz thisll get long really fast. But Ill explain some of the more obscure ones. With Rain Dance, donnie dances and it summons mini rain clouds that make it rain. This has a positive effect on his, raphs, and leos abilities (raph’s “Swift Swim” ability means he becomes faster. Leo’s “Rain Dish” ability means he slowly recovers/heals in the rain, and Donnie’s “Hydration” ability heals him from any status condition [burns, poison, sleep, paralysis, confusion] in the rain). Also note that each of the turtles have four moves and one ability. Leo has only ever used life dew via tears and thats not a typical way how it’s done, but he doesn’t know he can use that move. Life dew heals wounds. Facade: Leo channels his inner fake it til you make it attitude and glows an orangy color before attacking an opponent. If he’s inflicted with a status condition then his hits are twice as strong. I think those are the weird ones, but Ill have to finish refs for the rest.
Yes they can use moves at will. Unless theres an outside factor prohibiting them from doing so. (Certain moves can drain energy or prevent certain attacks)
Kinda. Using moves is like running fast or swimming or anything else. They have limits. Stronger moves require more energy therefore are used more sparingly then weaker moves. This ties in with an in-game mechanic called "power points" where every move can only be used X amount of times before healing, but i wont get into that.
Yep! They each get a weapon that harnesses the power of a legendary pokemon.
This is tied in with their Aura (which is kinda like The Force). Here we are in Pixel makes things up territory. Aura exists in pokemon, humans using pokemon moves through weapons does not. A visual representation of aura also doesnt exist. Not in this way atleast. Ive just always been obsessed with humans bonding with pokemon and being able to use their attacks.
Like in rise canon, donnie does not pick up his. He makes something different for himself instead ;]
OKAY QUESTION TIME (answer as many or as little as you like ^^)
I know it's kinda self-explanatory but I'm curious about your reasoning for choosing each of the turtles' starting moves because I can see how much thought was put into each one and all of them are so perfect
2. KRAANG???? TMNP KRAANG????? FJDDJHJDJSJSQWYSUAOOODKSKSJS (do they have designs, or are there any details you'd be willing to share? :3)
3. So if mutants like repo mantis and meatsweats are human combinations, does that mean that humans exist in this universe? Do they ever interact with the boys? Is there a version of the EPF? I'm kinda rusty on my pokemon lore but I remember there being a group other than team rocket who were kinda the overarching villains
4. Oh speaking of which— does team rocket exist in this au?
5. I also think I remember you mentioning somewhere that the boys had pokemon partners? :3
6. You've probably already answered this but do they ever battle, like at gyms?
7. Would they have a version of the lair games?
8. How are the turtles' personalities different and/or similar from canon?
9. Do they have ninpo? And by extension, is there a hamato clan? Karai? Shredder?? Are you leaning more toward rise or pokemon plot-wise?
Anyway, hope you have a good day/night!!! <3
ALRIGHT ANSWER TIME! I'll try to do all of them! <3
POKEMON MOVES EXPLANATION
Donnie has rain dance and sing bc he's a theater kid at heart. Water pulse is a placeholder. Donnie spinning his bo and projecting ice shards just looks really cool. Also "Eat Iceshard!" is a funny not-curse word Donnie uses. I had him say it in my "mystic mayhem" rewrite.
Leo relies on aqua tail heavily. He loves his tail ok, its special to him. Facade bc he's the face man! Water pulse is also a placeholder. And lifedew is a move he doesn't realize he has, but has unknowingly been using it since they were tots. He has healing tears! Its an egg move passed on if a blastoise breeds with a lapras! (disaster twins have the same poke-dad confirmed?) It's also a nod to the medic leo headcanon.
Raph's are pretty self explanatory. Razorshell looks a lot like his tonfas. Stone edge is a good rock move that just fits with his punchy nature. Except he punches the ground to make the spires appear. Headbutt and Crunch are both things unique to drednaw that I see raph doing.
Mikey break dances when he uses lava plume. Rapid spin bc rise mikey is always going into his shell. Smokescreen is probably the most ninja move they have. I forgot if the 2012 mikey reference was intentional. Bodyslam seems strange but, cmon. Mikey's used to falling on top of his brothers all the time. Ofc he'll weaponize it for anyone else.
THE KRANG
Yes. The krang went through many iterations. I believe the latest I have are that they are nihilego/deoxys fusions. A nihilego tries to control/consume a deoxys and it backfires. The space virus that created deoxys corrupts the nihilego, turning them from a species lacking any free will outside of survival to something more consciously malicious and intelligent.
HUMANS
Humans exist! The turtles have a similar situation regarding humans to the original show. As in they hide away. But some human pokemon characters become important to this au. Burgh, dr. fennel, the submas twins, iris, n are just a handful i had planned! Oooh and Hunter J. ;]
The EPF exists as pokemon's International Police. Haven't decided whether to keep Looker and Bishop separate characters or merge them together.
TEAM ROCKET?
I had a Giovanni cameo in my comic rewrite of "mystic mayhem", but I don't think I planned anything for team rocket. For now they are disbanded.
THE TURTLE'S POKEMON
They do get pokemon! Raph has stufful, Leo sprigatito, Donnie builds his own porygon and mikey has larvesta! They get more pokefriends down the road but these are the first ones they get
GYM BATTLES?
Raph's whole dream is wanting to be a pokemon trainer. He wishes he could challenge pokemon gyms and participate in the pokemon league. Sadly being a mutated pokemon doesn't really allow him that. So yes to them battling but no to them battling gyms. They're still a secret from the larger society.
THE LAIR GAMES
Good question. In my notes I have "happens but i wont write it". I'd imagine it'd be the same but more games that would allow them to use their pokemon abilities. Donnie's sing is banned
CANON VS TMNP PERSONALITIES
I try to keep to their canon personalities, but there are some subtle changes. Most changes are a direct result of The Incident that happens ten years prior to the series. Splinter is probably the biggest change. He is a lot more paranoid and overprotective. He ping pongs between being absent and overbearing. Like canon, he loves his sons and would burn the world for them, but he's still a traumatized mess that hasn't been the best father.
NINPO AND THE HAMATO CLAN
They don't have ninpo, but they have something similar. The hamato clan exists and they are a long line of Aura Guardians. And (stay with me here we are now in pixel makes things up territory) every hamato has a legendary patron that influences what they can do with their aura.
Yes to karai. She doesn't die right away and helps the turtles train like how she was supposed to if s2 didn't get cut.
And yes to shredder. All I'll say is eternatus and the darkest day.
RISE OR POKEMON??
As for which I lean most towards...I wanna say rise. I sometimes worry I lean too heavily on rise but I think it's just a byproduct of me not committing to a typical rise pokemon crossover. The rise lore influences the pokemon lore and vise versa. I keep both pokemon characters and rottmnt characters. The overarching plot was a merge of the two properties. So maybe its equal? I'm not afraid to warp pokemon to fit rise if that makes sense. But sometimes I feel like rise holds me back and i should give in more to pokemon. This is actually a constant struggle with this au for me ^^'
And I read that Leo didn't want evolve into a blastoise cuz he doesn't wanna give up his tail but I would like to introduce to you
Egho Blastoise
From a pokemon fangame called "Pokemon Infinity"
I play a lot of pokemon fangames and it just reminded me lol
Look at that glorious cloud tail and it get to keep the wings
Aww thank you!! Ive gotten a bit distracted lately with other things, but I really want to give this au attention again.
Ill bite with the egho blastoise
You know, he doesnt look too bad! Not quite sold on the red shiny so I did a color palette with normal shiny blastoise. Idk what does everyone prefer?
Wont be canon to my au but it was fun to see what he’d look like. I already kinda go off the rails on the lore with this au so Ive been trying not to do to much pokemon fan stuff.
I only have one question for your Rottmnt x Pokémon AU (Or rather, several questions actually haha, I'm quite interested)
What type of Pokémon did Splinter mutate into? Are yokai like Big Mama or Draxum also Pokémon? And what types of attacks do the other brothers have? Not counting Rapha because you already showed him, as far as I can see, What kind of Pokémon would classic mutants like Meat Sweet or Repo Mantis? Could I ever see a design for them?
Another thing, I think they were very good decisions for the 4 brothers, considering that canonically the older ones are aquatic turtles except for Mikey, I also liked your choice of an Ice/Water type for Donnie; I can imagine him thinking of a thousand ways to fight without his Ice typing putting him at a disadvantage
I wish I could ask more, but I feel like I'm overwhelming you with so many things, haha. By the way, congratulations on participating in the AUS competition, even though you didn't win, I'm very happy To be able to meet a good artist like you
Oh wow thank you! Im just glad I got to participate! My goal by entering was to have an excuse to draw this au, not so much to win since there are so many established aus. Poor tmnp has been neglected for a year now on top of me withholding so much lore. But ya, Im kinda surprised at how well this au did for the first round. With that, Ill be glad to answer your questions!
Splinter is an alolan raticate!!
Yokai are pokemon fusions….but also something a bit more. Their human-like intelligence is a mutation related to deoxys. Which may or may not be related to tmnp’s version of the krang.
The brothers each have four attacks and they change slightly over the course of the series. At “season 1” their movepool includes:
Donnie: Ice Shard | Water Pulse | Rain Dance | Sing
Leo: Aqua Tail | Water Pulse | Facade | Life Dew
Mikey: Lava Plume | Rapid Spin | Body Slam | Smokescreen
I fully intended to make refs like raph’s but ahahaha…my interests abruptly changed back in march and I havent gotten around to doing that. Donnies was almost finished too.
Meat Sweats and Repo Mantis would be pokemon/human fusions! Mutated thanks to Draxum’s Oozielfies! (Genetically modified cutieflies). I never fully settled on which design but heres some concept art. Now that I think about it, repo could start as a scyther and then eventually evolve into scizor.
Yep! Mikey is a bit of an outlier by being a fire type! He’s special like that. Huge chosen one energy with this one haha. Oh lapras donnie holds such a special place in my heart. Him being a lapras is sooooo plot relevant for what i had planned. He cant be any other pokemon. I almost made him tirtouga, but mmmmm lapras for story reasons.
It makes me happy that people are interested in this au! Pokemon is my og fandom, so half the joy is sharing that interest with rise!
Nah, unfortunately I dont have anything written. Just an entire season outline of s1 and 2. An idea and major story arcs for s3-5.
Oh. I guess I finished rewriting the first episode of rise to make it fit tmnp for a comic. Same plotpoints but its used to highlight the differences between tmnp and the original show before i deviate and do my own thing.
Basically I have a years worth of stuff hidden away and have never shown anyone outside my bestie/editor. And whatever I shared under the #tmnp tag on this blog.
Im sorry.
I want to change that tho. Its unrealistic for me to do everything I wanted to do IN ORDER. So I might be open to sharing what I planned for the au, rather then try and perfectly do the things i wanted to do in chronological order.
2.) Are we just gonna ignore the fact that Leo is that only one of them that can both mega evolve and be gigamaxed?
1. WHOS THAT POKEMON??
Mayhem went through many iterations, but I think ive settled on a more traditional approach as opposed to...what ive got going on with tmnp's version of yokai. Especially after placing it in the plot. Opened up so many doors for me. I simultaneously nerfed and buffed mayhem with this choice. Hoping to give it justice with this au! The poketurtles + april encounter it simalarly to the first episode of rise.
Also yes. Mayhem uses it/its pronouns in this au!
2. I did realize that a handful of the poketurtles could mega evolve/gigantimax. Leo unfortunately would not be able to, since he never becomes a blastoise. Raph and Donnie however....
Maybe Ill touch on this concept later down the road. Perhaps in relation to their "ninpo". But otherwise...ew dynamax (sry i was so anti this concept in swsh. Bigger does not equal better, pokemon company. Despite its ingame flaws, you peaked with mega evolution)
Im having another "if draxum had his way" moment in regards to gigantimax
Does your au have its own version of the hidden city ?
Yep! The hidden city is located in the Dream World. Which for those that dont know, was a browser game linked to pokemon bw/bw2. Its sadly now lost media. I took the general concept and repurposed it to be more fantastical and other worldly, but here's what its based on
I still need to come up with concept art of this bc tmnps version does NOT look like this outside of the floating islands.
But ya, here's my description of the location in my notes:
The Hidden City is located in a realm called the Dream World, a pocket dimension that exists outside of reality. This realm is home to fusions, gijinka, hisui pokemon, paradox pokemon, pokemon with hidden abilities, and extinct pokemon. Time works parallel to the real world.
The Dream World consists of multiple floating islands. The Hidden City is located on one big island with multiple levels and layers. Some of these levels go below ground. In the middle of the city is the Tree of Dreams and is one of the doors to the real world. Draxum’s lab is located on one of the outskirt islands. Nobody knows what happens to pokemon who fall off through the cloud cover and into the void below. Rumors have it that that’s Darkrai’s realm of nightmares.
The guardian of the dream world is Cresselia. She helped create it as a way for “yokai” to live in peace. There are many shrines dedicated to cresselia. The “yokai” see her as a deity.
There are a couple ways to enter the Dream World. Hidden Grottos, Dream Mist, the Entree, and on a rare occasion–sleeping.
