Hi, I'll just get to the bare essentials. I'm a writer. Overall I'm a positive person, a nice guy. I'll warn you ahead of time that I'm very opinionated though. Most Pokemon fans are. =/

Name: Marty

Gender: Male, as if it wasn't obvious. Someone thought I was a girl once because I was "Too sweet to be a boy". Talk about embarrassing, lol.

Age: 20

Birthday: June 7th

Favorites:

Color: Sapphire Blue

Hobby: Writing

Person: Too many to list.

My various essays

Now I get asked, "Isn't there a ship you don't like?" A lot of people have their complaints about Grantedshipping(which I don't support but I accept) and Crystalshipping(which I don't support but I accept). Generally there a lot of shippings that I prefer to others. But if you want to know if there's is a ship I hold animosity towards, there is. I know many will hate me for saying this but:

OldRivalShipping

Okay, before you go ape shit, let me explain. There's nothing wrong with OldRival, and there's nothing wrong with supporting it. Look at all my shippings. And I don't just not like it because it conflicts with LuckyShipping. You've seen my shipping list, I'll admit when a ship of mine is crack, but when I say I don't mind conflicting ships, you know I'm telling the truth. BUT! I think OldRivalShipping is overrated personally.

Now generally, there isn't a such thing as overrated, people like what people like. But this is my opinion. OldRival is constantly at odds with FranticShipping for it's popularity. They both trade off from 1st and 2nd most popular. That's perfectly fine, it's okay to like OldRivalShipping. What gets to me is some OldRivalShipper's overbearing need to assert superiority over everything like it's a freaking political issue.

I hear this too often from strict OldRivalShippers. "Opposites attract! They're so alike! Green always calls Blue pesky like it's a pet name! I'll wait forever for the day it's canon! They confessed in FRLG but the English version replaced it!" And then they go out and attack other ships "I hate LuckyShipping! They're just friends! Blue only flirted with Red to get him to buy stuff! I see them more like brother and sister!" "ChosenShipping won't work! They're like siblings! Blue is too old for Silver!" "FeelingShipping is hintless! Green just trained her!" "OldRivalShipping for the win!".

Okay, do I even have to point out what's wrong with these statements? I do? Okay. Coming from a major in psychology, "opposites attract" will only get you so far. Even if it does spark, your opposite is everything you DON'T like and try to AVOID. If two opposite people like each other then they probably have something in common. And the way I see it, opposites are "one thing-the opposite of that thing" like "Outgoing-Shy". Now am I saying you have to be with someone EXACTLY like you? No. I like AmberShipping and ViridianShipping because they would have a lot to gain by being with each other. For example, a warm person(Yellow), if handling the situation correctly, would be good for a cold person(Silver), to soothe them and give them some inside comfort. If you, oh I don't know, READ THE MANGA AND PAY ATTENTION TO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT you'd see that Blue and Green aren't so different that they're opposites, but aren't similar enough to be alike.

Green has called Blue a pesky girl, FOUR times, just four! And on top of that, the rumor about them confessing is just that, a RUMOR. You honestly expect me to believe that two characters that had spoken to each other twice by that point randomly confessed to feelings without build up, especially main characters? Blue talked to Green ONCE in RGB, and his responses weren't polite or inviting and in my opinion seemed very offputting to her. They didn't talk at all in the Yellow saga. They talked about each other briefly, "pesky girl" for Green and for Blue, the conversation was more about Yellow than Green, she just mentioned that Green probably figured out that Yellow was actually a girl. In GSC, their conversation extends to "Thanks Green" and "Pesky girl". And that "hint" about Green mumbling something off screen, first off, it's a MANGA, you mean to say off panel, and second, how do you know he mumbled something if it happened off panel? I could just as easily say Red and Blue had sex off panel and by that logic, it'd be true. They talked in FRLG, but if they were to confess the writer would've given us a heads up or something pointing towards that possibility like FranticShipping.

Okay, I could go on forever with LuckyShipping, but as a LuckyShipper, I have to say, OldRivalShipping poses no threat as an opposing ship what-so-ever. The common ships consist of FranticShipping(which is cannon), SpecialShipping(which is strongly hinted at), MangaQuestShipping(which is highly possible), and either CommonerShipping or HaughtyShipping(I haven't the foggiest, I haven't gotten too far in DP yet), and sometimes ChosenShipping(which is plausible). And of course OldRival, and whether you want to admit it or not, it's crack.

You can like OldRival, but let's not kid ourselves. It annoys me that's all. And don't come complaining, especially given that I can provide a lot of hints for other ships. There's nothing wrong with OldRival, I just don't like it, and I hope people understand that it's not as likely or full of evidence as it's cracked up to be.
--

I once wrote in description of Pokesupe fans; "this is quite possibly one of the most mature fan bases I've ever seen. Not the smartest but the world is mostly comprised of idiots living in a world controlled by smart people anyway so it doesn't matter. But still fair and mature."... I don't know if something changed or if when I wrote that I just didn't see the worse side of it or if I'm just cursed but the longer I stayed in the pksp fanbase, the worse it got.

But I'm not here to talk about the stupid people. Today(November 24, 2009)'s subject is one that makes me not so much broody(I don't angst, EVER! Ya here? I brood. I don't angst I brood) as it does annoyed. Two essays actually;

Kotone, Soul or whatever her freakin' name is will NOT replace Crystal and even if she did, I would raise HELL!

1st essay: why Crystal is important

"Born to Raise Hell by Motorhead" jokes aside, I'm serious. Crystal is my second favorite character(my first being Yellow). I remember seeing someone saying that although they liked Crystal, she was the most bland, two-dimensional of the Dex Holders. Allow me to politely retort. Bullshit. Pardon my language but Crystal is the most diverse and wide ranged character in the series! She has that sweetness factor that makes her so lovable, and then she has that serious, focused, duty side that let's you know she can get the job done, and then she has that proud adventure side to her, and her capture quest with how she takes care of the challenges before her is what sparked my opinion that Crystal is a female Red.

You can see her doing things so nice that you thought only Yellow would do them, and you can see her being as optimistic as Red, as serious and as smart as Green or as lax as Diamond, and she has that athletic Sapphire feel to her too. She has the widest range, she can do a lot of things. And another comment was that she was a mary-sue. Okay first off, YOUR CHARACTER DOESN'T HAVE TO HAVE A FLAW TO BE GOOD OR WELL WRITTEN, second JUST BECAUSE YOUR CHARACTER HAS A FLAW DOESN'T MAKE YOUR CHARACTER GOOD OR INTERESTING AND DOESN'T MAKE THEM BETTER THAN A MARY-SUE! Thinking either of those things will only limit the extent and quality of writing because you'll be going by a set of writing rules, if you're making a character, you should go by real life behaviors and in my case psychology studies.

But that's a rant for another day. Next there are a lot of characters that fit the sue description that are some of the most loved and popular in the world. I'll name five or so(this of course depends on the continuity);

Superman(particularily pre-crisis and All-Star imprint interpritations)
Batman(break through walls, dodge bullets, world's greatest detective, immune to stress and fear, just a normal human but continues to go up against world-wide crime and superpowered enemies for approximately 30 or so years even though modern studies show that in real life such a career would only last 2 years)
Mario(I can't recall Mario having any specific flaws)
Sonic the Hedgehog(him either)
The majority of the Pokesupe characters.
Where are Red's flaws? The guys a talented, happy-go-lucky, optimistic person who was specially chosen to be a dex holder.
Where are Green's flaws? He's like Pokesupe's Batman, the only thing he can't do is beat Red.
Where are Gold's flaws? Okay the guys a little perverted but it doesn't really affect him in a negative way. He followed Silver and went through a fantastic adventure in the GSC arc fully knowing it was going to be just a fun joyride ahead of time. If that's not sueish insight I don't know what is.

Okay so even if Crystal doesn't have any obvious flaws, she isn't by any means even remotely on a capability level with someone like Superman. And just because any flaws she might have are small, understated or irrelevant to the story doesn't make her perfect, and even if she was perfect does that mean a challenge can't be provided for a perfect character? No. Superman and Batman are pretty much perfect and they have challenges and difficulties that they don't solve right away coming out the ears. So by this argument, everyone who doesn't completely rip off of Spider-Man or someone is a Mary-Sue. Everyone mature or talented in any way is a Mary Sue.

And for flaws Crystal may have, remember in her arc when she broke down because she endangered Suicune and wasn't able to understand what it was doing right away. This can be taken as simple sadness, but it shows that Crystal has her moments, all the Dex Holders do when they're not being perfect(that's a joke in case you missed that). Or it can be blown out of proportion, since it was just a tiny thing to start crying and lose your game(having trouble kicking Poké Balls and aiming and capturing) over, we could estimate that Crystal might have chronic depression. How's that for a flaw?

And also Crystal isn't just a Dex Holder. All of the Dex Holders have a special skill. Yellow's(healing) is considered the most admirable and the most difficult for humans to accomplish, and as we all know, Crystal's is capturing. Now, the manga is very game oriented and very closely and obviously if not then completely based on the games. And the WHOLE FREAKING POINT of the game is to capture Pokemon and complete the Pokedex. Other skills don't quite match.

Battling(Red's skill) gets you through the game, training(Green's skill) is redundant since it's achieved through battling, evolving(Blue's skill) you don't even have to do and should wait to do for the best results though it can be seen as preferable, hatching(Gold's skill) is optional, trading(Silver's skill) is optional, healing(Yellow's skill) you can do with various items but mostly you just use the Pokemon Center in the games, capturing is the WHOLE POINT. Ergo this makes Crystal the most important of the Dex Holders. She has the most important job. Red was on the capture quest before, but he lost interest so now it's Crystal's job. And she, by this extent is the most important. Not to mention research on Pokémon can only occur if you CATCH them so they can BE researched. You know, the whole point of Oak's Dex Holder project?

2nd essay: why there's not going to be a new character and conclusion

Okay, first off, Crys started off with blue hair and it turned brown, perhaps due to hair dye(blue hair dye fading out). And Blue's hair changed too, not just the outfit, everything about Blue(physically), was changed to match her new game counterpart "Leaf". So Crys and this Soul or whatever person's designs actually are NOT that different. So "Soul/Kotone/Dumb Bitch" is to Crystal what Leaf is to Blue. And if you're going to say "they didn't rename her Kris or Crystal so it must be new", the ONLY reason her name isn't Crystal is because Crystal herself didn't appear in Gold and Silver as a gender option wasn't displayed until Pokemon Crystal. And since they WEREN'T remaking Crystal, they didn't feel it appropriate to give her that name.

And also, why are people so okay with the idea of Crys being replaced? I know for a FACT that if they did that with any other Dex Holder(except maybe Emerald, Diamond, and Platina based on popularity) people would panic. And quite frankly let's say Crys was replaced. How do you know Kotone would be a GOOD character and not a shitty one? I'd hate for the character with the most opportunity, the most freedom, and the most important duty to be replaced with someone who could be any number of things, whiny, unsympathetic, mean, narcissistic, you name it.

Okay maybe that view is a bit pessimistic, but Crystal is kind, compassionate, determined, caring, decent, and very under-appreciated, she's like the pksp equivalant of the modern Blue Beetle, an interesting character with one of the most interesting stories, completely undermined in favor of "that character/series is so hot/has violence and naked people in it" seriously, when I started hearing these rumors I was pissed as all hell! If Crystal was replaced and taken out of the main roster, I'd flip, if she was replaced with a character I couldn't sympathize with, look up to, laugh at or any of that, I think I would just wanna DESTROY THE WORLD!! So it's probably a good thing I don't have the means to. I can't find enough words to describe how annoyed I am that the whole fanbase is ready to throw away this great character in favor of one we HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN YET!

Okay, I lied I do have words to describe how annoyed I am. "Motherfucking" being the first one. Please excuse me as I turn off my "keep it cool and be intelligent" switch, to further express my feelings on the subject as I lose my temper and go Angry Video Game Nerd meets Superboy-Prime "click" MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF SHIT FANBASE I AUTTA-SHIT THE FUCK HELL-A SHIT(anger induced profanity please stand by...) =much, much later= AND SHOVE HIS HEAD UP ANOTHER GUY'S ASSHOLE(more anger induced profanity, please stand by even longer...) =nearly a day later= SHUT THE FUCK UP FOREVER, I'LL DO EVERYTHING YOU'D SEE IN JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC(still anger induced profanity) TREE RAPE FROM MOTHERFUCKING EVIL DEAD(we're censoring as fast as we can...) CHAINSAW TO THE DICK! I WILL STAB YOU RIGHT IN THE NASAL CAVATIES(Cover the baby's ears...) RIP OPEN YOUR TORSO WITH A HOOK AND SMASH YOU RIBS, SPINE AND ORGANS WHILE YOU'RE CHAINED TO THE GROUND WITH THE DIRTY SLEDGE HAMMER IN MY GARAGE =so much later that everyone refused to stand by and stopped reading due to the long time and the fact that they couldn't stomach it anymore= STICK 5 INCH NEEDLES IN YOUR EARS AND EYES AND ROLE OVER YOUR DEAD CARCASSES FOR YOUR IDIOCY!! I WILL STAB YOU IN THE BRAIN!! pant, pant, pant. (turns calm switch back on, "click") Ladies and Gentlemen I'm sorry for that terrible outburst, I greatly underestimated my disapproval of the situation. Good night, and good luck and believe me, you'll need it -scowl-.(Note, I'm not actually that mad. I just thought exploding would be funny)

Update: There you have it, I was right, so for all you people saying "I don't think Crys will even get a cameo", suck on it. The only problem is I'm still the loser here because now, Crys has to wear that RIDICULOUS outfit. Oh well, the series hasn't let me down yet, and I could accept Ruby's stupid hat being a stupid hat instead of hair after a while, so I'm optimistic. Ironically I find the outfit's resemblance to Mario's being a strong redeeming factor.

Update 2: I haven't seen a whole lot of HGSS, no one has. But the outfit's not as bad as I thought it'd be. The hat is smaller and less pronounced it looks like. In fact I like it better than her old hat! Silver's hair holds more resemblance to his original style and the Johto trio is overall, less goofy looking than their game counterparts.

A rant that I’ve been saving. Now maybe you enjoy my rants, maybe you don’t. But here they are, by large, just things (about PokéSupe in particular) that bother me. Each rant of course, needs a backstory as not to alienate some one who comes across it. Here’s this one, I once received a private message from someone who came across an argument on Serebii forums which I no longer frequent, and while the thread in question was closed, I received the private message concerning the thread just today (10:25 a.m, August 27, 2010). So you’re probably thinking, “the threads closed, the issue must be resolved”. Yeah well, I only read a few posts mind you; I find that the simple question was being given simple answers. Not to mention the fact that the argument itself not only isn’t smart but comes off as though the person is trying to sound smart. Now I will avoid personal comments on the person who made the argument, addressing anything other than the argument will solve nothing. So without further ado, the thread title reads;

“Pokespecial makes me want to bang my head against a wall.”

While the ensuing article reads:

Quote

“While I initially found PokeSpecial to be very enjoyable, I find that the R/S and FRLG series tries to treat the readers as imbeciles with their terrible writing and character motivation. I might be wrong because I haven't fully read FRLG, but bear with me as I try to explain.

Ruby in R/S somehow captures Celebi, and then uses it to revive everyone who died. Now I know that the manga is for kids, so of course everyone has to live. But the fact that G/S/C established that you need the G/S Feathers to make the G/S ball to capture Celebi, and that time traveling causes temperatures to plummet to 0 and destroy the earth makes me think that the writers really weren't thinking this out. Celebi, who would not/could not bring Pryce back in time to save his Laprii, decides all of a sudden to bring back everyone who died in R/S? Now I know that you'll argue that Pryce was evil and thats why Celebi didn't help him but that's irrelevant because Celebi could have prevented a lot of the bad things that happened if it just helped Pryce revive his 2 Laprii.

Then there comes the FRLG series where Giovanni destroys the Sevii islands, kidnaps a bunch of people, in order to lure the Pokedex owners together, to lure Deoxys to him, to find his son, as opposed to you know, ASKING people? I'm sure that if he just decided to post missing child posters with a name and description, people all over Johto and Kanto would be able to help him because they'll probably know Silver as he was one of the people who saved the world. He could even wear a disguise so people didn't recognize him. Seems like this would be an easier and better alternative to you know, blowing up a bunch of stuff.”

End quote.

You still here? Okay, now I know you feel like reaching for the Pokémon Special/Adventures volumes on your bookshelf to verify, or just going to whatever web source of information you normally get your PokéSpe from. But let me save you the trouble. Prepare for precision F-strikes. Not because I am angry but because I have a terrible problem when using it for emphasis... I know I'm immature but it's one of my favorite words, haha. Now let’s start with the first argument, the one on the Ruby & Sapphire Chapter.

First, it's not a "kid series" it's shonen. There's a difference. Second not everyone has to live, the article itself points out that the Lapras(Laprii?) died. Pryce basically died, Archie killed Maxi! He supposedly hadn't gotten that far in the story but my point stands. And G/S Feathers? You mean the Silver and Rainbow wings? Other posts pointed out the popular and widely assumed belief that Celebi allowed itself to be captured by Ruby to aid him in the final battle. Evidenced by the fact that Ruby no longer has Celebi afterwards, hence Celebi came and left of it’s own accord. Therefore, the Silver and Rainbow wings are more necessary to forcefully capture Celebi.

Now on the Pryce issue. Death is a natural cycle. Things die. Almost nothing dies fairly. Let’s accumulate the plot real quick. The two Lapras (Laprii, whatever the plural is) die leaving a baby one orphaned, and leaving Pryce guilt stricken. He forms a small group of followers, the Masked Children, and then goes for a gambit involving a neo-Team Rocket and the Silver and Rainbow wings after several failed attempts to capture Celebi. Oh yeah, and two of the Masked Children, Blue and Silver, were kidnapped to become Masked Children. All of this is natural, things die, parents die. Batman is considered one of the worlds greatest, well-written and most important and influential characters, his entire story is based on the death of his parents. Sometimes deranged lunatics give rise to questionable organizations, sometimes they do actually kidnap children.

If Celebi had helped Pryce save his two Lapras (Laprii?), a lot of bad things could’ve been avoided. A lot of bad things could’ve been avoided in the argument of what to do with Germany after the First World War(The Treaty of Versailles), which if handled better than it was, would’ve prevented World War II. Bottom line, bad shit happens. One moral of the Gold, Silver & Crystal chapter is that you can’t fix mistakes you’ve made long in the past and you can only deal with something as it’s already happened. Yes all of that could’ve been avoided if Celebi prevented the deaths of those Lapras. But it’s not like death has never occurred before.

Now then that begs the question, if Celebi didn’t help then, why did he help Ruby now? Well let’s see. Psychopath goes kookoo over some deaths and starts stirring up trouble. Very big trouble but what’s done can’t be undone. Ruby just happened to be in Johto and just happened to be able to play a part in preventing the destruction of the world! Seriously. I won’t go into the Celebi Ex Machina until way later if ever at all. But Pryce was just upset about his pets dying; Groudon and Kyogre threatened the entire planet. And aside from Pokémon being very lightly hinted to be from space originally and some that directly are from space, alien life isn’t really a dominant theme in the Pokémon series. So if the earth goes, sentient, multi-celled life might just be done for the most part.

Also, you’re comparing two completely different scenarios to each other. Pryce wanted to go back in time for something that centered around him and to fix his past mistake. Celebi chose to aide Ruby so he could eventually prevent something that was going to happen, and concerned everyone, not just Ruby, the stakes were much higher than a couple of Pokémon dying, news flash, that happens a lot.

That’s why Celebi helped Ruby; it had to do with the balance of the earth’s ecosystem and all of the life on earth. Two SUPERNATURAL forces needed to be stopped, in Pryce’s case, the guy just couldn’t get over what’d happened and he tried to interfere with the forces of nature. Everything Pryce did was his own natural decision. Maxi and Archie made natural choices for insane goals and SUPERNATURAL forces got involved. Everyone being revived may have been just a fortunate side-effect of Celebi’s involvement or a reward to Ruby, or Ruby may have been put in a slightly different timeline altogether. Another thing to remember is that the deaths were all recent and Celebi was already there, unlike the Lapras, which died long ago, and going back to save them would’ve altered the time-stream, especially given Pryce’s life changing actions, and Celebi was no where near the incident. Celebi isn’t a god; it’s not involved in everything. And Celebi allegedly took Ruby and Sapphire to a completely different timeline, rather than altering the current one.

And for a final point, that one point about Celebi somehow ruins the entirety of the Ruby & Sapphire chapter?

Now comes the more annoying thing. It wasn’t the “writers” not thinking it out; it was the result of the reader not paying close enough attention. And here’s a personal pet-peeve, and this is geared towards anyone who says “writers” in the case of Pokémon Special, not just one person in general. THE MAN’S NAME IS HIDENORI KUSAKA! THERE’S ONLY ONE WRITER! A MANGA DOES NOT NEED A “TEAM” OF WRITERS LIKE A TV SHOW THAT’D HAVE HIGHER DEMANDS. IT’S NOT A HARD NAME TO PRONOUNCE, IT’S NOT A HARD NAME TO REMEMBER! IT’S HIDENORI KUSAKA, HIDENORI KU-FUCKING-SAKA!! WHY IS THE POKESUPE FANBASE SO FUCKING BAD AT THIS!?!?! I apologize for that outburst but if you’re gonna go about praising PokéSupe so damn much, learn that it, like almost every other manga, has one writer, and show that you have SOME respect for him by remembering his fucking name. God! It wouldn’t bother me so much if it didn’t seem like I’m the only one on the planet who actually knows this guy's name!

Now I think I’ve debunked the first argument. Now lets move on to the more infuriating second, and I'll explain why it's more infuriating at the end.

The first problem is that you’re assuming Giovanni just now decided to go looking for his son. He admits to not having finished the FireRed and LeafGreen Chapter like a mature person, but clearly he hasn’t read the Gold, Silver & Crystal Chapter, or he didn’t pay attention. Silver was kidnapped when he was TWO! The annoying thing is that everyone trying to answer this kid was missing the point. Silver was kidnapped when he was two, by a giant bird (Ho-oh) that took him away to a secret location where no one could find him and he would be a Masked Child for the rest of his life until he escaped many years later.

Now, let’s think about logical things Giovanni could’ve done. Giovanni goes to the police, Silver was snatched from the spot AND THEN LIFTED INTO THE STRATOSPHERE (or just really high anyway), there’s no trail for the police to follow, detectives, private investigators, forensics teams, worthless, they’d have nothing to go on. Even if he or some other people (i.e. the authorities, Team Rocket agents) asked around, no one could help him, no one knew that a two year old had been abducted by Ho-oh and taken to the Mask of Ice’s hideout. And no one who saw it happen could guess where Ho-oh was going to take him. Other authorities in the PokéSpe universe, the Pokédex holders, they didn’t exist yet, the Elite Four, they started out evil, the Gym Leaders. Pryce, the Mask of Ice, WAS A FUCKING GYM LEADER! Even if you asked for Morty's assistance, "The Eyes for a Thousand Miles" if you recall, Pryce would've been prepared. Silver was kidnapped by Ho-oh, which Morty has spent his life looking for without success. And a trainer powerful enough to pursue Ho-oh would not only be rare but being in the right place when it happened is asking for a miracle. So then we need to go outside the box.

Some people speculate that, Silver being kidnapped was the WHOLE REASON Giovanni started Team Rocket in the first place. I’ll throw my hat in there and say whether Team Rocket started before or after the kidnapping, that couldn’t have been the only reason. So let’s assume Team Rocket was already formed, but not necessarily active. No one could find the Mask of Ice’s hideout. NO ONE. Aided largely by the fact that no one could’ve known they were looking for a madman’s hideout hidden in a mountainous Johto area, guarded by ice Pokemon and with Masked Children under his tutelage.

Now obviously, by the Red, Blue & Green Chapter, Giovanni is setting up plans besides looking for his son (further suggesting Team Rocket existed before the kidnapping or even before Silver was born). Showing he has other priorities and a duty for the team he started. Before the Red, Blue and Green Chapter he may've even given up on finding his son. And up until he was eleven, Silver remained mostly under the radar until he could strike back against the Mask of Ice, possibly longer if just for safety reasons or his cold upbringing. I think that while Giovanni was rebuilding Team Rocket, an ample chance to find his son showed itself (via Deoxys) and he went for it, this time, it actually worked.

Now all that other stuff he did. The explosions, the set ups, all of it. THAT WAS PART OF A DIFFERENT FUCKING PLAN!! It was a plan to seize control of the Sevii Islands, and to frame and discredit Red, Green and Blue. Finding his son was the next thing on the list and was largely a perk, though achieved through the same method, he still would've defeated his biggest threat and gained one of the most powerful Pokémon there is to his beck and call. And remember he wanted Silver to take over as the head of Team Rocket.

Also since when was Silver known as the one who saved the world? He never showed up on camera, we never saw any ceremony held in their honor. The FireRed and LeafGreen Chapter even demonstrates that the Dex Holders aren’t recognized by name or face, but JUST by the fact that they have a Pokédex, meaning Professor Oak, the world's leading expert on Pokémon, trusts them. Red was the champion of the ninth Pokemon League, and even HE wasn't recognized at first, suggesting that the Dex Holders aren't recognized by face. If you’re referring to the end of the Gold, Silver and Crystal Chapter, the final battle took place in a private surrounding, and logically, it was better for Silver to stay below the radar, especially given his new life as a Dex Holder. Giovanni took natural steps to finding his son, and his obligation to his plans for Team Rocket were the reason for his attack on the Sevii Islands, it wasn’t all part of finding his son, he had two plans going on at once. And suppose he was doing it all to locate his son. No one could've known where Giovanni's son was, Silver didn't know he was Giovanni's son, Giovanni's son had been missing for 11 years! Giovanni had no way of knowing what Silver looked like now so he couldn't just hand out a description like you're suggesting, people look very different between the ages of 13 and 2. and besides, when Silver was kidnapped 11 years ago, he probably tried that. Again NO ONE could've found the Mask of Ice's hideout. Deoxys was the ONLY sure fire way to locate his son or even to know whether or not his son was even alive.

And again, this somehow ruins the entire arc? Even the parts that center around Red, Green and Blue? You know, THE STARS OF THE FUCKING CHAPTER!

And that’s just my rant on his argument, never mind the basic minded, less than convincing counterarguments fed to him too. Everyone trying to say “it’s for kids, it’s kodomo, you’re looking too hard, you're not supposed to expect too much depth”… A message to all of you, go out, buy PokéSupe, and do something none of you have ever done and maybe never will… READ IT!!! DON’T JUST SKIM IT; DON’T LOOK UP A SUMMARY, READ THE FUCKING THING FROM START TO FINISH!! AND IT’S NOT KODOMO, IT’S SHONEN! THE TARGET AUDIENCE IS ANYWHERE FROM FIVE TO EIGHTEEN! AND IT’S IN A WAY RELATED TO NINTENDO AND CAPTURES THE GAMES VERY WELL, IT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED FOR EVERYONE!!! E FOR EVERYONE PEOPLE!!! AND WHAT, HAVING CONTENT CHILDREN DON'T NEED TO SEE LIKE UNCENSORED SEX THUS BEING FOR ADULTS WOULD SOMEHOW MAGICALLY MAKE IT DEEPER!?!?! DEPTH AND QUALITY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TARGET AUDIENCE!! READ POKEMON SPECIAL BEFORE TALKING ABOUT IT!! REEEEEAAAD IIIIIIIIITTT!!!!!! LEARN HOW TO READ AND FUCKING READ IT!!! USE A FUCKING DICTIONARY IF YOU FUCKING HAVE TO, JUST PICK THE DAMN THING UP AND READ IT!!!

Pant, pant, pant, wheeze.

So yeah, you can see why I don’t go to Serebii anymore. Instead of getting the answer his question deserved, he got a bunch of people hounding him with excuses instead of actually dissecting the argument and making an accurate assessment. Then again, they couldn’t actually site examples from the manga because only a small minority have actually fucking read it. While I set out to debunk the argument, this, I think, turned into a rant about PokéSupe “fans” in general. Anyway, in conclusion. Arguments like this and the stupid STUPID, and I’m not using any names here nor do I wish these individuals be harassed, counterarguments that followed it, wouldn’t happen if people paid the fuck attention to the manga! Ugh!!!
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Sometimes. And by sometimes I mean often, someone in the Pokémon Special fandom will write an essay of why there should be a Pokémon Special anime. Now they might want this for several reasons. One, they can’t buy the manga or the one being sold has translation problems that they don’t trust. Two, they’re cheap; an anime dubbed on TV or subbed on the internet won’t cost a dime that they haven’t already paid. Three, usually some made up competitive reason. They might think Special needs an anime to be in the big leagues, like Bleach, Naruto, Dragonball, One Piece. You recognize that list almost automatically, when you say Pokémon Special or Pokémon Adventures, unless they think you mean Pokémon Chronicles, nine times out of ten they won’t know what you’re talking about. They may feel as though they need an anime to make the series important or for it to garner respect.

Another potential perceived reason may be a perceived fandom rivalry. Fans of the anime vs fans of the manga, though most fans like both. Or they think if Special is an anime, as opposed to the already very “kiddie” anime, Pokémon as a whole may be seen as more mature, and they might feel more grown up in that respect for saying they like Pokémon. Seeing an Arbok cut in half on TV won’t make your teenage friends think the series is more grown up, more likely it’ll just freak out parents which in turn may affect the hypothetical anime more severely, and even carry over to the games, as opposed to being in a comic that the parent has to purchase and if necessary can skim through anyway to see that scene and say “sorry junior that’s a no go”. Really, it could be just about any reason. Someone brought to my attention, a small essay that was posted somewhere, I’m not sure where, serebii I think. It said something along the lines of “no Pokémon Special anime? I’m starting to think it’s spite and paranoia”. Needless to say the writer of the essay comes off as the one who’s spiteful and paranoid. One of his arguments is that since Special has been around for so long it should have an anime since that’s normally what happens.

That’s a completely different comparison right there. Other manga turned anime are usually done so because they’re popular, not because they’re long runners. Take Fooly Cooly for example. It had a measly two volumes and got a six episode anime. Another thing people are forgetting is that Pokémon isn’t an anime, it’s not a manga, it’s a video game franchise, the anime and the manga aren't separate franchises, they're contributing parts of the same franchise. And let’s take a notice here. The Pokémon anime is mostly a marketing tool. Pokémon Special, like countless other manga based on Pokémon, as it goes is basically a doujinshi. It’s a fanfic of the games. Now it’s getting sold of course, but in Japan selling doujinshi is perfectly legal. Granted, I know it's not technically a doujinshi, but the idea is largely the same. Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon, has spoken highly of the comic with the sentence “This comic most closely represents the world I was trying to convey.” Doesn’t change anything.

Now, contrary to popular belief the reason isn’t because two anime for Pokémon set in different universes would be too confusing. You can very easily comprehend the idea yourself right? If you need a better example, Pokémon is a Japanese franchise; the anime and the manga go to the Japanese first. In Japan, there’s a live action series that’s been going on for 34 years now. It’s called Super Sentai. You probably know it better as Power Rangers. Power Rangers uses footage from Super Sentai while altering the plot and changing actors to better fit American audiences. You can easily find comparisons on YouTube that show case how different the shows are or can be. It may surprise you to know that both air in Japan. Power Rangers is usually dubbed by the original actors for Super Sentai. Sometimes Power Rangers will be aired along with the Sentai it’s based on, i.e. Power Rangers RPM airing with Engine Sentai Go-Onger, Power Rangers Jungle Fury airing alongside JyuKen Sentai Gekiranger, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive alongside GoGo Sentai Boukenger, etcetera. Power Rangers Lost Galaxy actually did better than it's Sentai counterpart Seijuu Sentai Gingaman in Super Sentai's native Japan. Japan expects its audience to be smart enough to tell the difference. If an American or other English speaking audience deemed otherwise, the alternate product simply wouldn’t be translated. But it would still exist. And the Special anime would likely be marketed as a spin off, western audiences could easily grasp this concept. The currently existing anime isn’t preventing a Special anime form being made. In fact it even referenced the original (as in first) Pocket Monsters manga in one episode. You know, the terrible one with the talking Clefairy that is or was the most popular in Japan at one point but is almost universally hated in the west.

So whatever battle these kinds of fans think they’re fighting, it can’t be won. It’s like trying to put out a fire by burning down another building (reference to the Half-Life 2 machinima “Civil Protection: Oil’s Well” check it out). So then why hasn’t one been made? Well maybe it’s just because Special isn’t popular enough in its native, Japan, though it is pretty popular there so I can't imagine that's the reason. Maybe there’s no anime just because there’s not. No one is really screaming for one in Japan, and the currently existing anime is primarily there to promote the games, the anime has helped the Pokémon franchise in the long run, it’s not going anywhere, it’s important, it’s key. Maybe there's no Special anime for the same reason there's no anime of the Pocket Monsters manga with the talking Clefairy, or Pokémon Zensho, or Magical Journey. Why should Special get one when none of the others do? I have a few reasons but they're all opinionated and unconvincing.

There are groups of dedicated fans who attempt to make a fan anime that pop up every so often. They usually get as far as voice actors and music but are stopped when they realize they can’t put together an animation team that won’t have crude animation. Usually the animators aren’t good enough to make the animations a fraction of the required or acceptable quality, or even if they are, they can’t produce the animations on a scale that a fan anime would need, and they can’t find other good enough animators to help. Not to mention most of these fans don’t realize just what kind of supervision this kind of a project needs. A professional anime would take anywhere from nine months to a year to get off the ground. A fan anime will most likely take several years, by then most of the probably teenage staff will be pursuing a professional career or will simply have lost patience, interest and faith in the project.

I admire these fans, I really do. But they’re really all heart and no experience. They aren’t using their heads. Not to mention even if they did get animation, music, and acting all off the ground at once, the amount of work to make a season will take a lot longer than they expect. And since this will be a non-profit fan project, they won’t be able to expect payment, thus energy will have to go into their livelihood as well, making production even more difficult and providing less motivation. And since most of the staff is, again, probably teenage, they have a million other social problems that they aren’t mature enough to handle yet going on, and schooling will be a problem. Schooling has forced actors out of professional projects, and even completely halted others. Just as well, since most of it will be online, they can’t even imitate the procedures required to make it professionally. More social interaction is needed for a project of that scale. And the expectation to match the animation to the panels will only make actual animation that much harder. Such projects are sadly born dead. Even the most advantageous of situations will sadly not be able to keep the project form crumbling.

Maybe if there’s a sudden outcry. Like if you ALL learn Japanese and nicely tell the big producers how much you want a PokéSupe anime, you might have a shot. It doesn’t need to be dubbed and brought over. A free fansub is inevitable. Subs are just too easy to make. Personally, I’m happy with just a manga, I don’t see why we need an anime. It’s not going to make it any better. And consider this; there are too many things that can go wrong. The hypothetical anime can’t just copy the manga exactly. Each chapter is roughly 14 pages long. Suppose each chapter is translated into an episode, the amount of content present in the chapter can’t meet the 22 minute mark. Filler. Soon many fans won’t be able to tell what takes place in the actual story and what’s just been added to waste their time. And compare the Red, Blue and Green Chapter, which ran a total of three volumes, to the Ruby and Sapphire Chapter, which ran eight. Usually seasons need to stay within the same number of episodes consistently. To meet that mark you’d have filler episodes up the yin yang in an attempt to prolong the Red, Blue and Green Chapter to meet the length of the Ruby and Sapphire Chapter and other such changes. After which, the Special anime won’t really be that much different from the existing anime *shudders at the idea of Special being reduced to the same quality as the anime*. Or worse, large chunks of the story may be changed, like cutting too much content from the Ruby and Sapphire Chapter and others to match the smaller Red, Blue and Green Chapter. Compare the Inuyasha manga to the Inuyasha anime. The anime goes on way longer than the manga. Compare any manga to its anime counterpart and count the drastic number of changes. In fact, they may just create a new story for the anime entirely.

And keep in mind sometimes the fansub in question is just terrible. Granted wording a Japanese sentence in English isn’t always easy. Some Japanese words have no English equivalent, and others have several, making translation very difficult. And what the more bone-headed fans fail to realize is that you can't just replace every Japanese word with it's English counterpart because Japanese grammar is different from English grammar. The voice actors of any given language (even the native Japanese ones) might suck. In fact I have a beef with most anime voice acting in general. Compare the way an anime character speaks to the way an actual Japanese person speaks. You'll notice a big difference. The animation is made first and the voice tracks are made around it. As a result, both the Japanese and English voice actors usually sound rushed, and less convincing. The only reason you don't notice as easily with the Japanese version is because you didn't grow up speaking Japanese, whereas you should know English inside out considering you're reading this rant. And translations not our only problem.

The animation itself might be cheap. The story might be heavily changed or rewritten completely. Optimistically, it might not. The Pokémon franchise has a lot of money to benefit from. But then there’s not much of a story difference. The biggest problem is that there’s no point in having an anime. Internet celebrities like Marzgurl and MasakoX might see it and give an evaluation but there’s nothing you would get from an anime that the manga doesn’t already get you. What does an anime accomplish? Even if the audience expands, there could still be a lot of story alteration, and don’t think that will only come from dubbing companies, Japanese studios have been known to deviate from the manga its product is based on. In their defense, sometimes things have to be changed to fit the new medium. But that just means there are going to be perhaps drastic changes no matter what you do. Many fans of manga don’t even like to consider the anime of their book canon. Some like to pretend it doesn’t exist. That’s us when a Special anime is made. If you change or add you're putting non-canon material in the story, if you change nothing you may as well read the manga.

In my opinion, a PokéSupe anime has no where to go but downhill. I mean, I know someone who’s dyslexic and he still manages to read as much PokéSupe as possible. If he can do it your lazy ass can. But there’s something no one ever stops to consider. Pokémon Special is more or less a tribute/doujinshi/fan comic/fanfic to/of the Pokémon games. Pokémon is a Nintendo licensed product. It’s made by Game Freak, and published by Nintendo. Hidenori Kusaka wrote Special because he liked the games. All a Special anime would do is put us in the same boat with every other shonen ever made, suddenly it’s like “I liked Pokémon Special better when it was called Naruto, and I liked that show better when it was called Bleach, and I liked that show better when it was called Yu Yu Hakusho, and I liked that show better when it was called Dragonball Z”. It’s an anime now? Whoopdy god damn do, join the club, we’ve got jackets now.

Instead though. How about a Pokémon Special GAME! Think about it. You’d get to run around in the Pokémon Special world, playing as any given Dex Holder or other characters. Then PokéSupe would be there with the games that inspired it, its journey complete, the only thing left to do would be to continue the story. Imagine a game on the Wii, or on the 3DS. Nintendo is the king of gameplay (though the Pokémon games are actually made by Game Freak), and I for one trust Satoshi Tajiri to do the game justice given the games he's given us already, and especially given that he was mentored by Shigeru Miyamoto. It might be an RPG like the main color games, or it could have combat similar to Zelda or Mario wherein you control the Pokémon after they’re released, people have always wanted a game like that (and they kinda got one with PokéPark Wii). Or since both consoles have a mic, you may even give it vocal commands while directly controlling the trainer, or have in-game vocal commands you can select in the style of the spells from Kingdom Hearts if you need to be quiet or just don't feel like talking, or controlling both if the trainer is riding the Pokémon. Or even have a combination of that gameplay. You could have gameplay like Nintendogs too.

Best of all, Story Mode won’t have as much of a problem following the manga exactly the way it goes. You could get the whole, unhindered story, and play it out for extra innovation. They could find an innovative way to make the player use the same strategy that was used in the manga, maybe in the style of the Zelda games. Maybe after you beat it you can just go around and explore. Wouldn't it be fun to go to Mt. Moon and see where Red was frozen AS FireRed and LeafGreen Red!?! Because supposedly Lorlei's ice never melts. It’s implied in the manga that all the Dex Holders still work (to varying levels) to complete the Pokédex, even when they aren’t focused on it, especially Crystal. You can still do that with your preferred Dex Holder, or even with an avatar of sorts (most probably a Mii) with your own team, thus keeping with the original spirit and premise of the games. And maybe you could have one of them follow you around outside of it's Poké Ball like in HeartGold and SoulSilver. Maybe fly can sort of teleport you to places like it does in the games, or maybe it'll actually let you fly around. It could be like the Superman Returns game where you can just mess around and have fun in the sky, ram into buildings or the ground at mach 4(okay, maybe not that fast, not every Pokémon can go that fast) and maybe the character and their Pokémon could have little dizzy animations briefly afterward, or you could fly down near the water. And this series has surf and dive, you could explore an ocean. People have always wanted a game where you could go to all four regions. Well you're basically getting one. In 3D graphics!

And all the other things you could do. Maybe each Dex Holder and their team possess abilities that the others don’t, and maybe you can only reach certain areas with the right Dex Holder, maybe you could switch on the spot, or to be interesting, go to that Dex Holder's house or secret base or wherever they normally are to switch. And mini games! There could be a racing mode. Imagine this. A four player race shooter is taking place. Player 1 is Ruby, his high speed shoes accelerate him across the area while a Mudkip (Zuzu) is on his shoulder shooting little water bullets or a stream ala water gun at targets, Player 2 is Sapphire, she goes on all fours across the area, not as fast as Ruby, but able to access areas he can’t while Toro/Chaka (as a Torchic) is firing embers or a stream of fire at targets. Player 3 is Emerald, he has his magic, extending hands and his E-Shooter or another small shoulder Pokémon, Player 4 is Silver, he has the ability to jump higher and more repeatedly than the others and has Sneasel firing ice at targets. And different levels to play this game in.

There may be other mini games in the story mode map that you can participate in if you’re playing with the right Dex Holder, or an out of story mode menu to take you there, and high scores and such. A bike race or bike trick style game with Red. Red isn’t really known for tricks but he rode a bike on the back of a wild Onyx while battling, so he’s probably pretty good. A stealth game with Blue, a timed, press the button when the icon appears game with Green (think back to when he was using Scyther, now a Scizor to chop boulders in the Yellow chapter), a fishing game with Yellow, a pool game with Gold, a stealth or high jump, platforming game with Silver, a capture based or kick a ball at the targets game with Crystal, a high speed running game or Nintendogs style grooming with Ruby (though I think most of the Dex Holders groom their Pokémon to some extent anyway).

Let's not forget all the stuff the series already has. Trainer Battles, you could rechallenge people like the Gym Leaders, Pokémon Ranger gameplay, Pokémon Contests, catching contests, the same gameplay you get from Hey You Pikachu, or Pokémon Channel. And here's an idea, certain chapters of the manga could be animated and then put into a TV function, thus you'd kinda have your anime right there without any worries of it sucking too much. Battle replays could be saved if you wanted them to. You could go to Prof. Oak's lab and interact with a huge area with Pokémon that you can just feed and interact with. Remember Pokémon Ranch? Or how in Twilight Princess you could pet the goats and pick up cats and play fetch with a dog? Nintendogs? Pokémon go out and do stuff? All easy to incorperate.

And there might be normal foot racing with each character’s unique mode of transportation, Red's bike/Areodactyl, Blue's Blastoise, Silvers jumping abilities, Ruby's high speed shoes, there might be a jump race where one player is Silver and the other is Sapphire. Heck, one character could be Green with a wooden sword and one could be Gold with his billiard cue and there could be some kind of sword fighting mode. There could be a lethal mode if you wanted to go the extra mile where Green uses a real sword and Gold uses his billiard cue’s drill function. That last one is a real stretch but still it could be there. And there could just be a battle mode. You could play as Red and another person could play as Green and you could explore together or you could battle. Out of Story Mode (or even IN Story Mode) you might not have to be a Dex Holder. You might want to play as Brock and your friend may want to battle you as Lance. Then after a while you might change your mind and want to play as Professor Oak. Or you could hook up your team from a different game and play as yourself ala Mii.

The possibilities are ENDLESS! Doesn’t that sound much better than an anime? I believe it does. I mean that might happen. If enough people POLITELY message Game Freak or Nintendo, this might actually happen; especially given Nintendo and Game Freak tend to listen to their western audience thoroughly… You know what; I think we should start a petition. Somehow… Anyway, remember the Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards? The category of “Favorite Manga Series”? You all voted on that and it played a part in Viz’s decision to start selling PokéSpe again. Pokémon Special fanbase, for all of your faults, YOU did that, you brought PokéSupe back to the English speaking world. Maybe we can get a game made, maybe we can’t. I think such a movement would be much better than one for an anime. Video games in general have much more potential than anime series! And it brings Special to a wider audience, including the already existing audience of the games.

Similar problems with an anime can be more easily handled with a game. Bad actors? Switch the language controls, English writing, Japanese voice actors who know to take their role seriously. Or English voice actors who are less annoying than the Japanese ones. They don't need voice actors at all really, think about the Zelda series. And a bad translation will be a lot less likely, especially in the hands of Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe. This game would probably have a bit higher rating; it would be to Pokémon what Twilight Princess was to The Legend of Zelda (topless, loincloth clad great fairy with godiva hair strikes me as a little less tasteful than the PokéBoobs scene). It wouldn’t be perfect but it’d certainly be better. You’d still have to pay for it but considering it’d be a Nintendo game, it’d be well worth the money and cheaper than most other games. Besides, no one likes cheap people, and it’d have multiple volumes in the game, ultimately lowering the overall cost of the normal series.

Think about it. With all of that said, I’m going off to plot a way to make a movement for it happen. Join us!
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A Love Letter to SpecialShipping

Whether you support it or not, SpecialShipping bumps into you a lot as a PokeSupe fan. A lot more than say, NewRivalShipping. It’s a popular ship, I have friends who are SpecialShippers (MichaelaTheUchiha comes to mind). And occasionally I get asked questions about it. Like if I like it, why I like ships that go against it, what do I like about it and I’m willing to answer all of these questions.

I actually like SpecialShipping. Yellow has been a very influential character in my life. And Red has been a big influence in hers. People seem to forget this, Red gave Yellow the advice that she bases her life philosophy on, “Treat Pokémon with a kind and gentle heart and they’ll always be your friends”. Yellow isn’t smitten with Red, she looks up to him. He’s her hero and being like him is probably higher on her list of priorities than being with him. That being said lets be fair, most of you like SpecialShipping because it feels likely. SpecialShipping is heavily hinted at and it is possible and as someone who is more of a LuckyShipper, it’s even probable that these two will end up together. That doesn’t mean it’s a good pairing.

Okay, I understand for a lot of people that’s very “Bizzaro” logic and I expected to get flamed mercilessly for this either way. But hear me out. How many of you would stick with SpecialShipping if it didn’t turn out to be the final couple? There was a poll done for an essay on FeelingShipping vs SpecialShipping on a website that’s gone now called some time ago. Supposedly the majority of FeelingShippers said they’d stick with FeelingShipping even if it was proven wrong, and the majority of SpecialShippers said they wouldn’t if their ship was proven wrong. So why didn’t they just like SpecialShipping for SpecialShipping?

Well usually, whenever I’m on one of my many rereads of Pokémon Special, I would find myself filled with some form of animosity whenever Red and Yellow did virtually anything together. At first I thought it was just because I was primarily a LuckyShipper, and that I should man up and get over it, after all, I can’t let something as immature as a shipping preference affect my view or enjoyment of the series or the characters. And like I mentioned above I actually came to like SpecialShipping in that I like the role Red and Yellow have played in each other’s lives. But I still disliked a lot of their scenes together. And it wasn’t until roughly 3:30 a.m of March 10, 2011, while reading volume 12 of all volumes that I found out why. And yes I know I'm a real night owl. I have a few reasons in fact, let’s go over them.

To start, I hate the concept of the red string of fate. I realize in the east and west, several fictional works and several people are pro-destiny. I am not one of them. Destiny is a frightening thing. And everybody has a destiny? So a depressed but otherwise nice teenager is destined to be bullied and live a meaningless life before committing suicide? If I was told by, let’s say, a god of love, I had a red string of fate around my pinky, I'd be tempted to cut off my pinky. I don’t want some string to decide who I fall in love with, I want it to be my own choice, I want freedom, and I’m more than willing to mutilate myself to keep that freedom. My favorite stories are the ones that either don’t bring up destiny or hold the moral that you can avert destiny. But I could forgive that.

The story of PokeSupe is very good, and indeed I could get over a little red string hint, or an “our Pokémon are together therefore we must fall in love” hint, which I also hate. For that matter the superstition of trainers falling in love if their Pokémon do was never stated in the manga, and I don’t know if it was ever brought up in the games or if it’s an invention of the anime. But still I could forgive that. The keyword being “could”. I could forgive that, all of it, if SpecialShipping weren’t so forced.

It’s not this emotional, tender or romantically suggestive relationship with the red string of fate thrown in for good measure. It's just the red string of fate and nothing else. Through most of RGB and Yellow, their relationship is pretty straightforward. Red rescues Yellow from a Dratini, helps her catch a Pokémon, takes her to what could be parents or could just be concerned townspeople, and gives her her life philosophy, as stated above. After his battle with Giovanni she patches up his wounds and he promises to one day take over as the Gym Leader of Viridian City. So far so good, it’s actually very sweet, Red helps guide a little girl through her first steps as a Pokémon trainer and she starts to look up to him as he promises to be the Gym Leader of her town some day. I love it.

Next comes the Yellow chapter, we see how Red’s example in Yellow’s life has come to fruition. She has become a kind, gentle, compassionate and loving person, and seems to have followed Red’s advice even better than he has. And it’s all thanks to Red. So naturally when she discovers he’s in danger, she agrees to help Blue save him. Hence the plot for the chapter. Later when Red finally reveals himself to make his big return, she’s seen pounding on the soundproof, two way mirror thing and shouting his name. Probably because she's trapped and she still looks up to him. Later after Lance is defeated Red catches her from falling in the lava and smiles at her.

I really like this, Red’s kindness has come back to reward him, his good influence on one person saved all of humanity, and Yellow’s character as the Healer has been firmly established, she’s such a wonderful character and a wonderful person and he played a role in that. I can’t wait to see how he feels about this and having seen how much that girl he helped has grown, or how Yellow feels about seeing her hero again or what he thinks of all this. Wait what’s with the blushing? Is she nervous? *String Shot around pinkies* Wait, what the hell? Where did that come from? Why does the suggestion of living together make her so flustered? Are they supposed to become a buddy sitcom?

Okay, so I guess the string is trying to tell us that these two will become a couple sometime in the future, which is odd because in an earlier panel the string was around Red’s thumb, and he just leaves it on there halfway through the trip back home until she wakes up just for that worthless little romance hint? That's really forced, it's hard to believe he'd just leave the string there and what reasons he could possibly have for doing, as far as what I can think of, are really creepy. There is no reason that string should still be on his hand and no reason this moment should've happened. Okay, it comes out of nowhere but I like the series so far, this should be interesting, let’s see how this plays out. Enter GSC, what hints are present during this? Well nothing really shippy happens but Red attempts to become the Gym Leader of Viridian, the little girl he made the promise to who gave him the idea in the first place never crosses his mind, how convenient, well at least he's still intent on doing it, made even more annoying is that Yellow never thinks back to it either. So he can’t due to an injury he got from Lorelei in the Yellow chapter and he lets Green take the spot as the Gym Leader for him just because. I get the vibe that Red doesn’t even remember why he wanted to be the Gym Leader in the first place. Yellow's a bit more excusable, it's probably good to her that Viridian has a Gym Leader at all, regardless of whether or not it's Red.

He leaves Pika in Yellow’s care for the time being. Which is where Pika meets Yellow’s own Pikachu, Chuchu. Fast forward, oh look they had an egg together. And either because this somehow implies that she’ll end up with Red or more likely and more in character, she’s just surprised they did it all, she has a close relationship with Pika and Chuchu, then she turns her back on them for a little while (by passing out), and they go at it and have egg. Her shock is understandable. That or her brain ceased to function when faced with how in the name of god two mammalian-like Pokémon managed to have a freaking egg.

Later she has to reveal her true gender, Red is shocked, doesn’t get to talk to her about it and nothing shippy actually happens until Red is called by Misty, who was trying to reach Erika. Earlier we saw that Red talking to Yellow on the internet was apparently so depressing to Misty that she had to run away. Maybe she didn’t know that Red still thought Yellow was a boy. Misty tears up (really now, aren’t you being a little over dramatic?) and asks how Red’s been. He puts his hand behind his head and can’t seem to give her an answer. Well the events that conspired were kind of complicated. Yellow has a thought bubble where she wonders what they’re talking about, because it somehow matters to her. Blue apparently sees a “battle” going on and repeats Red’s line of living together. Which feels like it comes out of nowhere.

I don’t know why she thought there was a “battle” going on, why Yellow thought the statement included her or why Red and Yellow proceed to look at each other awkwardly. She didn’t fucking say or do anything! Seriously, Misty calls asks Red how he’s doing, Yellow mentally wonders what they’re talking about, “Why don’t you just live together?” And that’s about it. Misty just asks how Red’s been, then he gets really awkward about the whole thing, did he hear her tearing up or something?

I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know WHAT the fuck just happened, or why everyone’s getting so embarrassed. I mean is “living together” code for something in Japanese? Did the Chuang Yi translation just fuck up somewhere? And what possessed them to think it meant something romantic or suggestive? Someone want to explain to me what’s going on? Because I don’t get it.

It’s an unbelievably forced scene, very poorly written. Is Blue disoriented from the mental torture of her bird phobia, the fall off of Moltres, the overall final conflict with her childhood kidnapper, and being groped? And why were Red, Yellow and Misty so embarrassed, they didn’t DO ANYTHING!! Did she say it because she heard Misty tearing up (for pretty much no reason at all)? Wow what a bitch. I’m sorry; I just really HATE this scene. I'm especially annoyed because there're people who say that this half-assed attempt at a love triangle is their favorite scene. That's like saying One More Day is your favorite Spider-Man comic. At this point, I could’ve convinced myself that Hidenori Kusaka could not write romance.

But I started PokeSupe on the Ruby & Sapphire chapter. Romance was much more prevalent in that chapter than in previous ones, and it was FLAWLESS. The relationship between Ruby and Sapphire and the relationships of other characters were done perfectly, and that meshed well with Kusaka’s previously established talents, intriguing action, good use of Chekhov’s guns and other such devices, intelligent strategies, interesting dialogue and compelling characters. I don’t know why he couldn’t do it for Red, Yellow or Misty, but damn. All of these things made the RS chapter, to quote Ruby, beautiful.

Okay, so finally glossing over what may be the manga’s stupidest moment (even stupider than the so called Celebi Ex Machina), let’s move on to FR/LG.

Red and Yellow don’t see or talk to each other until they meet on Team Rocket’s airship. They’re focused with their tasks at hand; Yellow wants to help but is looking for Silver. And again, nothing shippy happens for a while until Red has Deoxys open a void to take Yellow and Mewtwo to safety and she casts her fishing line out to catch Red’s arm because there’s still something she needs to tell him. And it’s around their pinkies. For no reason at all, Yellow’s cast her line without wrapping it around herself several times before now and it should not have wrapped itself around Red's pinky either. I mean it wraps around them while Yellow is being pulled through a void, wouldn't that hurt!? The next few moments aren’t particularly romantic either. This is just Kusaka telling us again that these two will be together, preferring to shove it in our face than actually convince us.

Later Yellow is talking about how Red always keeps his promises to convince herself he’ll be okay like he said in her sleep, apparently forgetting he didn’t become the Gym Leader of Viridian like he promised. Well he passed the test and that's good enough for her apparently. And becoming the Gym Leader was really his only promise, and if you look at the series Red's not really a promise keeper, Gold is the one who always keeps his promises, even if he's a bit of an asshole(comedic and lovable none the less) but anyway. Fast Forward, Red’s back, he goes over to Blue, who’s holding Yellow and gives Yellow his old Pokédex. Talking about how she’s one of them and such. One problem, she’s still asleep. This scene ISN’T sweet or emotional. In fact it’s really CREEPY.

I mean dude, she’s unconscious! And you’re not wearing a shirt. Why wouldn’t you want to wait until she’s awake to give her a Pokédex and tell her this? You know, SO YOU WON’T HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT WHEN SHE WAKES UP! Oh and Blue, Silver, Green, and Mewtwo are watching this shirtless guy give a Pokédex to this unconscious girl, and give his little speech even though she’s not awake to hear it any of it, and not one of them is at all concerned by this. In fact Blue egged it on. Bull. I don’t care if she’s smiling, I don't care if everyone around you is just going with it, I don’t care if you being shirtless has its own fan club on MangaFox. IT’S STILL CREEPY!!!

Red and Yellow’s romantic moments are the most forced, unnatural, jaw dropping excuse for a romantic subplot. And it’s purely symbolic besides. Yad-da-da-da-da red string of fate, yad-da-da-da-da our Pokémon end up together, skippity-skip-skip confusing scenes, la-la-fucking-la red string of fate again, yes-oh-my-isn’t-this-fun creepy scene where you try to give an encouraging speech to a girl while she’s in her sleep! That’s all there is, there’s no emotion behind what happens to them. I didn’t need anymore reason to hate the red string of fate.

And here's a tad bit of why part of me is in fact, against SpecialShipping. When Sird shows up and gives her speech and they charge her, Red's carrying Yellow. I mean not only does it make him look very weird in the next panel but you're going to rush the dangerous criminal involved with murder, eco-terrorism, and kidnapping while holding the unconscious girl the writer's trying to convince us you love so much. Instead of leaving her with one of your Pokemon and getting her taken to a safe place, like Silver did with Giovanni. I mean what were you going to do? Use her lifeless body as fail? Someone I talked to once tried to justify this by saying he "doesn't want to be away from her". Not only is that assuming how the character's feeling, but that would mean he's so bent on being physically close to her that he's willing to endanger her while she isn't even awake. Another said if she were awake she'd rush with the rest of them. Maybe so. But she wasn't! And more importantly, if she were awake, she and Red could hold their own. When holding her sleeping body, you're putting a girl who can't defend herself in danger, and you're making it so you can't even use your arms. Again, the only practical purpose for doing this is to use Yellow as a flail. Which would be horrible. And yet hilarious.

And just to rub salt in the wound left by the sheer stupidity, while many fans apparently like that a shirtless Red holding Yellow "bridal style" was put in statue form and stayed that way for two months, but Yellow wouldn't even have to have been turned to stone if it wasn't for this. All the fans ever see is a reason to support their ship, proving they care more about the shipping than the characters themselves, or even a good story. CHARACTERIZATION COMES BEFORE SHIPPING, and if ever I hated Red for anything, this would probably be it. If I were one of Yellow's friends I'd never let Red see her again after this. And what really grinds my gears is that no one calls him out on this, this is never alluded to, Red never apologizes for it. NOTHING!

Compare to Red and Blue. I know, you’re all rolling your eyes because this looks like the “my ship is better than yours” part of the argument but hear me out. We have flirty, teasing encounters between them throughout RGB, and we’re told the Kanto trio has kept a good friendship through the years in Yellow, evidenced by when Blue and Green meet up with Red, in GSC, Blue helps Red out by lending him her Blastoise, he shows his concern for her during the battle with the legendary birds, and while it probably isn’t flirting unless that’s another confusing part of that overall confusing scene, her use of Red’s living together comment shows that she will still tease him, at Misty or Yellow’s expense. Now that’s all fine and good. We know they’re still friends, the Yellow chapter and the FR/LG chapter imply that they keep in touch between the story arcs we see them in, and the flirting is a nice touch, but that’s not the real relationship I’m getting at here.

In FR/LG, Blue’s parents, whom she’s been separated from for eleven years, disappear at the hands of Deoxys right before her eyes. Let’s remember Blue has a lot of demons, so this impacts her so heavily that she goes into a coma. Red takes her to a hospital and upon finding out exactly what happened, rather than try to give her something like a gameboy or whatever and give an encouraging speech in her sleep, decides to take action against the thing that caused this. He calls Blue his best friend, says he’s not going to stand for having her heart shattered, and goes on to learn the grass-type ultimate attack (Frenzy Plant) to fight Team Rocket and Deoxys in the hopes of finding Blue’s parents as well as the missing Prof. Oak. And after finding out Team Rocket had something to do with Blue’s parents disappearing, he goes frikin’ ape shit!

Fast Forward, Red’s confidence is shattered because of what happened to his Pokémon and his overwhelming defeat from Deoxys. Blue shows up and we all know how this scene goes. She wants to personally thank Red because he’s done this “all for her sake”. Then she goes on to clear up Red’s misunderstanding about the Pokédexes and set him on the path to regaining his confidence. So what does all of this mean? What it means is that for all of Blue’s teasing, for how shady she was and how antagonistically their relationship started, Red and Blue love each other. And I know some of you are thinking “that’s just a nice thing, she would do that for anyone she cared about” I don’t care, that’s not the point. The point is that she does care about him, and he wouldn’t have been this determined if he didn’t care back.

In short they love each other, it’s not specifically romantic or platonic, sibling love or good friend love, it’s just love. These are the sort of things you do when you love someone. Red and Blue have that love, that caring, that compassion. Red and Yellow have the red string of fate. That’s about it. Red and Yellow haven’t had a single moment, much less an entire arc that’s partially dedicated to showing how deeply they care about each other. That they're going to get together? Sure. That they have a relationship or that I should give a rat's ass if they get together or not, no.

And I suppose it’s possible that Red and Yellow talk off panel, as people often argue with me, but here’s the thing. I don’t care what happens off panel. FR/LG’s quote “I haven’t seen them in so long”, the fact that it took Red so long to figure out Yellow’s gender, and how little they talk to each other on panel, hints that they don’t talk to each other much off panel anyway. I don’t mind Red and Yellow ending up together, I really don’t, but not like this. This is just pathetic, Red and Yellow don’t have a relationship building, they butcher each other’s characters whenever they’re together. Pessimistically Red's creepy when he interacts with Yellow. Optimistically, he's just stupid. You hear people say Red is oblivious but those people are always SpecialShippers. Red's not normally this stupid or this creepy.

I’ve thought of all this, and a part of me wishes I hadn’t because I like Pokespe a lot less now. I’m sorry I simply cannot accept this relationship, it is insulting. Now all of that being said, how is it that I still like SpecialShipping? Because of the early chapters, Red shaped Yellow’s life for the better, and his influence made a kindhearted, gentle, caring and compassionate person who would save all of humanity with his advice guiding her. He’s her hero, that’s the relationship I liked, that’s what I wanted to see explored. I didn’t want to have a red string of fate around to constantly rub the inevitable in my face. This relationship isn’t sweet, these two aren’t in love with each other, and yet every time they’re in an arc, it finds someway to mercilessly shove this forced, empty relationship down my throat.

It's gone in all the wrong directions. The way I see it there’re four possibilities. 1, The characters continue to age without ever getting together with anybody and this cycle goes on forever, 2, Red and Yellow will end up together in, from what I’ve seen so far, will be a jarring and unconvincing way(I'd rather they be alone than keep going like this). Or the better options, 3, The relationship between Red and Yellow is rectified to be more believable, it doesn’t have to go in the direction I described, it just has to be better, or 4, The whole red string of fate deal is dropped and we focus on the relationships these character actually have with others and each other. Either we go in these directions or variations thereof.

Anyway it’s too late now. Even if he were to try and rectify this, it wouldn’t matter. He could do some rewriting in later arcs I suppose but it's already left such a sour taste in my mouth, I simply can’t buy into this relationship and the one I was getting excited to see never came along. It’ll be hard to convince me that these two make a good couple. But if you want to do so, you’re going to have to do a LOT more than tie their pinkies together and make their Pokémon have an egg. And indeed I do think a big brother-little sister relationship would work better because it more closely fits the hero-admirer mold they started with. But I still wouldn't mind if that relationship led somewhere romantic! Because that relationship works!

It’s been hard and it took two years but I finally found something in Pokémon Special to get upset about, not that I was looking. Kusaka could pull off Crystal in Kotone's outfit, he could pull off Ruby's dumbass hat, being a dumbass hat as opposed to more dignifed hair, he could make the trainers as involved as the Pokémon, he could meaningfully juggle all of these places and characters, he could build a beautiful relationship for Ruby and Sapphire, but he couldn't pull off this. Even after the RS chapter he couldn't pull it off. Now I understand that it’s his book, and in it, SpecialShipping is still likely, and that it might end up happening. And because it’s his book, he can do whatever he wants, that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about. This subplot sucks. And most people have admitted to liking SpecialShipping mostly because “it’s practically canon”. In this sense, whether you realize it or not, SpecialShipping is really more accepted than liked.

But you know, I could still forgive this if we had a Pokémon Special game. ;)

You know looking at the above, I can be a real piss ant sometimes. o_O Take it with a grain of salt, I've mellowed out since writing this and these are all lighthearted subjects anyway.