Good job. I was afraid this would just be a potshot at Smogon, but I like that you gave a more nuanced take on competitive battling and the thought behind it.

Well, this was definitely unexpected.

While I wholeheartedly agree with Argenta's (and I guess yours) stance on competitive battling and only use the strongest Pokemon mentality, Game Freak is, at the very least, partially to blame for letting this to happen.

Let me explain myself: sure, the Pokemon, both the anime and the games, enocurage players to choose whatever Pokemon they like, while overlooking stuff like stats and movepools (Karen's somewhat infamous statement on this issue comes to mind). The thing is, even for non-competitive, casual players that only play for fun such as myself when I played the games, there are MANY Pokemon that are simply unplayable due to how bad they are.

Trying to defeat the Elite Four, or the more powerful Gym Leaders with Pokemon like Gligar, Aipom, Clefairy/Clefable, Parasect, Tangela, Onix or Hitmonchan was not just unefasible, it was nearly impossible. I know because I tried this. When you have such a power gap between groups of Pokemon, you're basically encouraging players to choose only a few.

(Keep in mind that I'm talking about the 2-3 first gens here, I don't know how things changed from D&P onwards)

That's why I like the fangame Pokemon Uranium. While some Pokemon are stronger than others, every single Pokemon is strong on its own, and can be used to defeat the storngest opponents such a Gym Leaders. Not to mention the very creative and wide typing of many Pokemon.

Anyway, it was an interesting read. Good job as usual.

First off let me say, it was a very good piece. I was surprised to see Mitsumi and I wish to see what else you will do with her. Argenta was also a blast to see. The master of all types that she is, I would not be surprised if she has a Flareon or something else labelled as bad in the wings. That monstrous Pachirisu though… That thing is a monster.

There were a few spelling errors here and there from what I can see.

I will admit though, I got scared when I saw Smogon be called out. Now I'm not with them by any means, I dislike seeing the same thing done again and again even if I stay out of competitive play. Now the reason I got nervous was I didn't want to see them being baited and come running and an argument break out. Maybe I'm just not fond of the 'Take That" trope when it comes off as mean spirited.

Anyway, once I got through that and decided to just read the piece I found myself enjoying it like I said. This is why I enjoy the Interlude, Gaiden pieces of Reset Bloodlines. There's so much that might not be touched in the main story and we have permission to fill in the blanks like you did here.

Argenta was really well done and I look forward to seeing your take on her again.

anyway, keep up the good work.

Another interlude, another awesome one. It's an interesting issue you chose to address here, specifically, the choice in Pokémon based on the tiers (first time I've heard the "Smogonite" term, by the way). I have my own specific pattern for choosing my team in each region, and regardless of what others think of it, I like to stick to it (for the most part following Karen's advice on "winning with your favorites"). I enjoyed reading this, and as a matter of fact, Argenta is my favorite amongst the Sinnoh Frontier Brains, I'm not sure why XD

Which reminds me, I need to get back to work on my own Reset oneshot. Hoping to see more of your work, keep it up.