Hello, Captain Spock!

This review may be coming out of nowhere since it’s been seven years since you finished the story and a year since the last review. I noticed how you liked talking about your thought process while writing and how you loved getting feedback, so while I read the story I jotted down a quick note every time I felt a strong reaction so that I can put together a massive, heartfelt review incorporating a lot of what I felt while reading your story!

I first saw your story maybe three or four years ago. I think I skimmed through part of the story but lost interest at some point, not feeling up to reading the whole long thing through. I skipped to the last chapter, noticed your plot summary in the author’s notes, read through it, and moved on. A few days ago, I came across this story again. Vaguely remembering Boreas and Aqua being really cute together, I started reading. This time, I was thoroughly hooked. I’ll start off by saying that your story is so awesome, well-written, and emotionally moving that I nearly cried at three points of the story; I don’t think I’ve come close to crying for any reason for a very long time! See if you can guess what three points I nearly cried at.

Romance is what draws me into most stories, and the romance you portrayed between Boreas and Aqua was downright incredible. I loved it! There were times that were utterly sweet to read, and also times when they fought some very legitimate arguments. You’ve probably heard this a lot already, but it’s absolutely brilliant how you weaved in the start of Boreas and Aqua’s relationship throughout the first five parts of the story. The romance was present from the very start and I would look forward to every romantic interlude. Having Boreas and Aqua separate at multiple times of the story was also a great tactic as I would look forward to their passionate reunion each time. I felt crushed after their violent breakup in Chargestone Cave but was so happy when they got together again in the grasslands.

I loved the way Aqua’s views developed throughout the story. It was already incredibly interesting how Boreas and Aqua had extremely conflicting views about the relationships between humans and pokemon. At the end of their first meeting in Driftveil, Aqua insisted that Boreas talk with his team before leaving him, which showed off how she was, in a sense, already mature and unselfish. Her development throughout the story was more about her views, as opposed to Boreas’s development of overcoming his personal selfishness and growing up. When they met in Chargestone Cave, I hated how self-centered Boreas sounded and I also hated how extreme Aqua sounded with her view of the world. I can understand her joining N, but while Aqua was hospitalized in Icirrus City, I couldn’t believe she had plans to rejoin Team Plasma after seeing their atrocious acts! I jumped for joy when Boreas returned from Nacrene City and Aqua told him she changed her mind and traveled with his team instead. During this time, she was neutral to the war and didn’t think all humans were evil, which was an improvement. Once she saw the trainer and pokemon die to Team Plasma grunts first hand, she began fighting for what was right and rejoined Boreas, but she was still conflicted. Right before the final assault on Team Plasma’s castle she finally overcomes her cowardice and swears to stay with the group. This point is the point where I believe she truly agrees that not all humans are evil and the friendship between good humans and good pokemon is worth fighting for. I’m happy Aqua got to develop her views separately from Boreas while also loving him the whole time. I’m also happy she never got kidnapped at some point near the end and somehow used as leverage against Boreas since a lot of stories tend to do that to the main character’s love interest. I was dreading something stupid like that going into the final part but instead, Aqua proved her faith in the right cause and got to fight valiantly with no foul play.

Lucius and Selene were both amazing for comic relief. I laughed a lot from their lines! I usually don’t like characters who are nasty like Lucius, but the jokes that came from him made me really like him. I found it hard to believe Boreas would tolerate Lucius being on the team permanently after Boreas assaulted Lucius over stealing eggs and eating a Pidove (presumably a trainer’s Pidove that was left at the daycare). Selene’s crazy and random dialogue and her seemingly stupid, actually ingenious plans like using a fake Light Stone and playing dead made me really like her, too. I think the Light Stone trick was sheer luck but playing dead to kill Ryoku was definitely planned. On the other hand, I felt pretty neutral about Toxica; she seemed boring to me throughout the whole story. Regarding Capella, I really liked her as a nice, wholesome character. However, I vaguely recalled that she would die early since I read about it in your last author’s note years ago, so I didn’t feel too hurt by her death. I really shouldn’t have spoiled myself!

I found it very intriguing how Octa and Boreas, despite being Black’s pokemon, basically have lives of their own. Boreas leaves his team in Driftveil to go on dates with Aqua, leaves the team for three weeks on Route 7 to temporarily travel with Aqua. Octa has a whole family outside of Black’s team and while they were waiting to discover the Light Stone in Icirrus City Octa leaves to visit his family, even taking a train without a human. This is totally unlike the games, the anime, and typical pokemon stories where pokemon are bound pretty solidly to their trainers and don’t wander the human-controlled world on their own. It is one of the reasons that make your story overcome the typical problems with stories that loosely follow the usual eight gym leader and evil team plot of the main games. Your story was not held back by the fact that your protagonists were owned by a trainer. Octa and Boreas were not stuck to Black; they had their own things going on as well.

The House of Equinox was a very interesting institution. The first strange part was that they were very traditional while existing in the modern world. Also, it was a noble house of pokemon! We also see that there are many other noble pokemon houses. The most perplexing thing is that they talk about how they are superior to everyone else, but they were also allied to Crimson Breeders, calling them their human friends. They praise ancestors who “belonged” to famous human heroes. I can’t believe a noble house would want to associate with human breeders. However, things got more complex as we found out that they train women to fight and also allowed a same-sex marriage. It was interesting to see that they followed some traditional rules incredibly strictly while also allowing some modern ideas. Overall though, I really liked the House of Equinox. I like medieval things and I really liked how the Equinoctes fought, as you’ll see later.

It’s been a very long time since I played Pokemon Black and I usually rushed through the stories of the main games anyway, but almost every time we had a Team Plasma encounter in your story, I got a flashback to that encounter in the game. Reading each encounter was awesome because it expanded on my flashback. For example, in Accumula Town, I remembered N’s line, “Your Snivy, just now, he was saying-” but since your story was from Boreas’s point of view and Octa was actually talking, it made the experience even richer. In the games, when N talks to your pokemon, it’s pretty lame. Here though, it’s an amazing read that ties into the game. Another thing regarding the pokemon point of view is how hilarious it is when Black assumes his pokemon are saying the exact opposite of what they actually said!

Something I wasn’t expecting was how it took months to travel between major cities. I guess it makes sense that the routes should be long and there would be towns along the way. The fact that they were in Chargestone Cave, the White Mountains, and Victory Road for months each were pretty shocking against my expectations. I can’t imagine being in a cave for that long. I was wondering why they didn’t take a train between cities, but you addressed it one of the chapters: because going on the journey made the team stronger. Regardless, the time it took to go travel through the nice routes was unexpectedly long and the caves were absolutely brutal. This was a true adventure through Unova, completely unlike what the games portray.

I figured out that Zeph was Diego before Boreas thought there was a mole and before the battle in Relic Castle. I thought of the feet shifting, the request to not be touched, and the fact that Zeph wasn’t sleeping as evidence towards Zeph being Diego. When Diego appeared in Relic Castle with bloodshot eyes, that confirmed it for me and I continued on reading in absolute horror. Refusing to get treated at the pokemon center and sinking into the bog only reinforced my prediction. I thought about how Diego knew Boreas’s memories of his family’s last words and figured it was the mind-reading from Ryoku’s Exeggutor. I was happy I got that part right! What I didn’t notice was Zeph’s lisp; I thought those were typos. I also hadn’t thought of the smell or Selene knocking Diego down. I can’t believe Diego went through all of that trouble for two months!

At Victory Road, I couldn’t understand why Boreas felt so bad about his plot to murder Diego. The dude was such an absolute villain after hanging Boreas by the tail, trying to kill Aqua, and impersonating his dead brother for two whole months! I didn’t get why Boreas wanting to kill Diego was such a big deal to him. Similarly, I wasn’t sure why Octa giving up was such a big deal to him and made him feel like such a coward. I felt like both of those feelings seemed a little exaggerated to push the intended plot, but it’s not a big deal. Speaking of the times on Victory Road, with Aqua sneaking onto the train and Boreas’s team meeting N, my prediction was that Aqua would find them while they were still with N. Since N said he was sorry for Boreas’s loss, Boreas said Aqua’s death was a lie, and Diego covered up the lie, I thought for sure that Aqua would show up and it would begin N’s realization of the truth behind Team Plasma. Unfortunately, N didn’t get to encounter Aqua until the final battle.

The final battle with the attack on the castle was epic. I was getting bored during part ten with the elite four battles and scrolled through some parts but I was hooked the whole time through part eleven. I love how N transfers Reshiram to the PC and fights using his team, as I remembered the games urging you to transfer one of your other pokemon to the PC after catching the dragon. I dislike using legendaries in the games because they feel like cheating and I’d rather use my team. I’m happy Black agrees. The battle with N was also awesome in my opinion. It made sense that Boreas was able to knock out N’s four random friends easily. Aqua bravely taking on Zekrom with a bunch of Ice Beams to prove she wasn’t a traitor was great, and Selene winning in the end with Swagger and Double Team was perfect. I was looking forward to N possibly joining Black but I knew Diego would murder him.

I knew Black would die since I spoiled myself reading the ending author’s note years ago and somehow remembered that part. My theory on how Boreas would kill Ghetsis was that White Kyurem still had a part of Black inside of it, which is why it didn’t combine with Black Kyurem. Since White Kyurem was Black, it would refuse to kill Ghetsis. Instead, Boreas used logic to get White Kyurem on his side. I thought it was funny how Ghetsis says Boreas is a tool for an already dead man when Boreas was actually the mastermind behind Black’s victories all along. The part that made me cry was when the Equinoctes arrived at the battle. There was something so glorious about them coming in with Solar Beams and making a speech that I was overcome with emotion. I read that passage several times over. I didn’t know that it was a Lord of the Rings reference and it still got that reaction out of me. I also thought about Golurk telling Toxica that she had an important role in a big battle in the future which was supposedly about something at Dragonspiral Tower. Was it actually her rallying the Equinoctes when they were retreating after Octa’s father died?

I felt utterly crushed when Boreas had the thought of agreeing to Ghetsis’s offer right before the point of view shift. I knew that Boreas and Aqua went to a distant land in the sequel, and Ghetsis specifically said he’ll put Boreas and his friends on a boat to leave Unova. I couldn’t believe this was the ending! Then I read on and saw that Black Kyurem left the battle to go to the throne room and I jumped for joy, thinking that Boreas would see Black Kyurem and take his shot at Ghetsis, knowing his friends were safe. Then you switched to Lucius, making me wait even longer to see what happens! You really had a firm grip over readers’ emotions in that chapter. Turns out Boreas was unaware that Black Kyurem left the battle but decided to sacrifice himself and his friends anyway.

The second time I cried was right after the dragons exploded, during Octa’s rallying speech in honor of Boreas. Even though I knew Boreas would live somehow since there was a sequel, I felt overwhelmed by the combination of Octa praising Boreas and him commanding the rest of his allies to fight on. I guess I’m a sucker for rallying speeches! The third time I cried was when Lucius avenged Capella by killing Ryoku. During the summary of the battle at the beginning of that chapter, I thought it was strange that Ryoku was regaining control of the battle but then suddenly died. The moment you switched to a flashback from Lucius’s point of view, I guessed that Lucius and Selene were the ones who had caused Ryoku’s sudden death. Selene’s hilarious plan to play dead had me laughing since it’s totally something she would want to do while also confirming my prediction. When I read Lucius’s line, “This is for Capella, you son of a bitch,” I choked and my eyes teared up. I know that line is used a lot, but it was so well placed!

Needless to say, this story is a masterpiece. It was a massive conglomeration of tantalizing romance, ingenious battle scenes, well-thought-out character development, and mind-boggling surprises. I hope you enjoyed this crazy long review, seven years after the story was finished!

Hey, just found this story and it looks pretty interesting. Looking forward to reading it!

I saw the name of this chapter after 48 hours of my little pony

Glorious story, it must have been raining inside my house with how wet my face was during the climax

wonderful story so far, but I have to wonder if aqua is just a trap laid out by team plasma to cause boreas to leave Black's team, making it much easier to stop black's interference. call it paranoia, but with boreas being the cause of most thier victories, attract being a skill, them running into her on the trail of team plasma, and finally her lying about her past already. ..I'm suspicious

First Reaction:

This story was incredible. Legendary perhaps! Out of any work of fiction, movie, game or even a certain other fan fiction I have just read recently, this is my favorite ever. One of this story's largest strengths is character development in the pokemon. This final chapter left all of the characters in hopeful areas of just joy seeing them all do what they love best. And to top it all off, you're even writing a sequel, replacing my normal sadness of seeing a book end with joy that It's not over yet! Thank you for writing this, you have my utmost respect! Kudos! Kudos forever!

you filthy, lying bastard, you said he was dead! Not just in the chapter, but also in the annotations, and in the responses to our questions!

i want to fucking kill you so much right now for putting me through that, but this story has been so amazing, that i cant bring myself to do that...

he died...really died, nl coming back. i cant stop crying why did it had to end like this? no no fuxk why no fuck fuck please no, it cant, please, some deus ex machina. your authors comment smust be a lie plesese not no no poor aqua why fuck WHY HWY WHY WHY WH HWY FWYFYE UW i cant focus i cant bbreathe i just want someone to live, not more lissses

First Reaction:

That battle between Diego and Boreas was FUCKING AWESOME! It lasted a long while, and was SO GOOD to see Diego finally die after what he has caused! (...i swear im not a psycopath...) but now i worry that boreas has really pushed himself too far...please live

black is dead...i wish he got more character development because i dont feel as sad for him as i feel i should. maybe his slowly increasing ablility to communicate with pokemon was interesting, but that is about it for me. i still feel sad for him and febby though, may they rest in peace

i dont want to see octa and toxica die in saddness. please make up with eachother before your final battle please pleasse. the marriage was cute though, i imagine boreas presenting aqua with a beautiful ice flower in a small beautiful water and ice dome/cone. aaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwww...

First Reaction:

This fight was really well done in my opinion. It was full of action and didn't get dull at any point! My faith in Aqua has been restored, but too bad all of the sages will most likely end their lives...

this is it...

First Reaction:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...
But I can't help but worry about something. Call me paranoid, but what if Aqua was a spy the ENTIRE time? What if from the very beginning it was all a ploy, and it will play out in the end resulting in many a death and heart break? I hope I'm wrong. At first I was suspicious it was Diego, but after Boreas having...intimate...encounters with her ever since her return, I highly doubt that. But still, if she is truly a spy the entire time...i dont know if i could handle it.

First Reaction:

I've noticed something very worrying...if Black reawakens Reshiram, he will have 7 pokemon on his team. In the best case scenario, he just puts someone away into a box and they all live, but considering you have no rules against death in this story...please live...please...