Valentine's Day 2021: No Love, Only Love

As I've said, love is around the corner indeed. Today is Valentine's Day, obviously, and it's hard to deny the fact for everyone in the know. It's also hard to deny the fact that this edition of Valentine's Day is very much different, this time for everyone, due to the state that the world is in today. At the same time, whether or not that is the case, love is still present, perhaps in a different form than what one may be used to. That's why I've included the seemingly contradictory phrases in the title of this post, which became my response to a matter that partially involved Pokémon and thus fitting for the current discussion.

In my experience, it seems that some Pokémon fans don't seem to get the love they need - this is the "no love" part above. It may be perceived as "not current", "backwards" (in a developmental sense), or "trivial" in the sense of their relation to Pokémon compared to everything else. Based on a conversation I had with the observers I met today on my errands, that seems to still be the case even today. The hardest part, therefore, would be to convince people that Pokémon is in fact still current, not just backwards but forwards, and major. As a fan, I seem to have to play a role in that through whatever I do with Pokémon as those people observe, and at that point, love might just appear.

As for the "only love" part, that might be a little harder. If there is a good example, it may be found in my figure group. Now two members lead married lives, one I've divulged at a certain point in time and the other practically since I've joined them. What I can garner is that there is a sense of love that has continued to approve of their continued presence in the group, and hopefully that remains the case onwards. Personally, I consider the reversal of the "no love" situation above an important step in transitioning to an "only love" situation, and it would be even better if important people like friends can be involved. They would certainly be the testament to the situation, especially involving Pokémon.

One of my errands today involved going out to shop for groceries, get some outdoor needs, and... enliven the day of a few friends while they enliven mine with possible current and future prospects. This, all the while, was intertwined with some efforts for Pokémon Go. I would say that in doing so, there was a certain spirit of love all around, and by that, I'm tempted to call this Valentine's Day as "Palentine's Day". This last bit actually has a Pokémon connection with certain female characters from there, but maybe now is not the right time to detail that. I still would say that the concept very much applies and can be used to describe this day and beyond with all my Pokémon efforts.

After years of discussing Valentine's Day, I can say that love seems to still remain in this world in some capacity. If that can only remain, I would say that the world would benefit greatly. Likewise, it would benefit with the relations that people have with and to Pokémon. There is no time like now to be able to turn around situations of "no love" and ensure that "only love" is at hand, and if it takes Pokémon for that, then I can only appreciate the effort.

Keep love (and Pokémon) in the world, and Happy Valentine's Day.

One year ago: Valentine's Day 2020: In Pursuit of Love

Two years ago: Valentine's Day 2019: Think Pink

Three years ago: Valentine's Day 2018: Address to a Luvdisc

Four years ago: It's Valentine's Day!

The Love Cup of GBL

After having proven its versatility over the past few months, now it seems apt for Go Battle League to try something new every so often. Since this month is considered by many to be the "month of love", a good thing to do would be to take that theme and run away with it, and that's exactly what the GBL did. As an alternative to the current Master League offerings (regular, Premier Cup, and Classic), which started earlier this week, there is also a special themed cup called the "Love Cup". It's a fair alternative with all things considered.

Like Holiday Cup last month, this alternative uses the Great League as a basis. For this themed cup, only Pokémon that are colored pink or red are allowed; this is based on their regular or non-Shiny form colors, though the respective Shiny forms, even if they are of different colors, are still fair game. However, there are a few other restrictions. Legendary and Mythical Pokémon are not allowed, forcing the use of common Pokémon. Three Pokémon (Mr. Mime, Darumaka, and Darmanitan) also have Galarian forms that are not allowed, but their original forms are. Altogether, the list of allowed species boils down to 105 in total, which makes for a decent list to go through and battle with.

Faithful Trainers who follow both community and official PvP formats will recognize that this themed cup bears a lot of similarity to the Rose Cup of the Silph Arena from last year. Likewise, both allow for Pokémon based on their regular form colors and disallow Legendary and Mythical Pokémon. The differences are that Love Cup excludes the purple and gray colors, which disallows pesky things like Skuntank and - still - Bastiodon, but includes the Water type, which opens the door for other kinds of pesky things like Seaking and Alomomola, both of which can potentially ruin the party of Fire types, which are still plentifully present. Similar strategies are therefore not guaranteed.

That said, a few good teams for this themed cup involve a couple of Pokémon of a specific type along with a complementary Pokémon for cover. The latter would be the lead (the first Pokémon sent out) and the former would constitute what is called the "hole", essentially trapping unexpecting opponents. If cleverly crafted, it may even be possible to use all the members of certain species families (Slowpoke, Chansey, Lickitung) with the right complement for the latter two. The biggest challenge would perhaps be to create a multivariate team that can deal with most opponents without falling into a specific "hole", though in some cases this could be unavoidable. One may have to tread lightly.

Such has been the case for me in the few days that the themed cup was introduced. Sometimes wins are hard to come by, while other times they seem to come on parade. I'll admit that in some cases this may be due to wrong strategies on my part, or conversely, the misfortune of the opposing Trainer. But what I and many of my PvP fellows can agree on is that the Love Cup is considerably easier and more affordable than the Master League offerings that currently accompany it. As a matter of fact, I've been able to spend all the allotted 5 sets of battles per day since the format is addictive and attractive. It will likely be something I'll continue to do until the Love Cup drops out.

There is admittedly "a thing of love" just around the corner, so the Love Cup is only appropriate, as well as for this month in general. Though it does look like an official rehash of a community theme (and staunch fans of the community PvP might still make the claim), as long as it's viable, appropriate, and reasonable, Trainers will come flocking to it - a fact that I can attest. As the saying goes, all is fair in love and war (or battle), and for this one, the fairness is evident however Trainers choose to battle... and love Pokémon afterwards.

One year ago: What to Nominate

Two years ago: Cryptic Pokémon

Three years ago: Two Games at Once?

Four years ago: Cosplay: Japan LovEvolution Vol. 2 - Kaizen

Fourth Anniversary of My Regional Figure Group

February seems to be a month that is rife with many anniversaries, Pokémon or otherwise. Of these, there are two major ones - one personal and the other universal - but those are to be discussed when their times come. Right now, there seems to be one I've missed based on posts in previous years (see below). That would be a group that I have warm connections with, and that would be my regional Pokémon figure group. Evidently, it's still quite warm, even with the current situation looming large over everyone's heads, including mine. A Pokémon-related anniversary such as this one deserves a bit of discussion on this very day, the exact date of the anniversary.

I joined the figure group somewhat late, about one and a half years after its founding, by way of attending one of their opportune gatherings. Even with nary a figure of my own, they were very welcoming and continued to be as such in all occasions when I've been able to meet them, including the last physical one thus far that coincided with a theme event just prior to when things fell apart, as well as the virtual gathering a few months later. As noted, they consider me (and consequently, I consider myself) a "living figure" because the characters I cosplay are present in figure form, and I think that somewhat makes up for my lack of figures. That has to be the warmest reception.

The current anniversary is only moderately special, and yet it is not quite normal either. However, I was told that some things are or were in preparation, and that I could participate in those preparations. In fact, I already hinted about the form of those preparations: it's a "pass challenge", but in a general anniversary form with a cake. One of my figure fellows, who also resides in my local area, also received the call to participate, and we decided to cooperate by recording each other's videos. As of yet, there has been no word on the progress of the overall video, but I have faith that it will be realized soon. 

Now, I did discuss about the possibility that this group of mine had "deactivated", so to speak, a couple of months ago. The discussion was based on the (non-)happenings that had occurred since that virtual gathering. With today's anniversary being pointed out, I'd say that I am neither right nor wrong. What's deactivated is more likely our figure activities at present - now isn't the right time to invest in or even divest of figures, also as I've noted - but the group itself isn't. The leader of my group even closed the anniversary commemoration message with a reminder to stay strong during these times.

A few years have passed by and I've given this specifically personal Pokémon anniversary little thought, but now with current times in mind and the novelty of it, it makes for a good discussion. Figures have never been really a primary Pokémon attraction for me, but as a fan, I oblige myself to own a few at the least. Therefore, I consider my (regional) figure group important, even if we must be separated by distance and if the group has not shown a great amount of activity in recent times. In a month full of anniversaries, even a fun but subdued one like this has some amount of importance.

One year ago: Pokémon as a Study Aid

Two years ago: A Pikachu Pillow Keychain

Three years ago: Anywhere Is

Four years ago: My Essential Pokémon Cosplay Equipment

Friendship Filters in Pokémon Go

Even with the new format I've decided to put in, I can still write all the things I can write as in previous posts, including full writeups of certain things. One of those things is regarding certain features in Pokémon games, for this post being from Pokémon Go. Nearly two years ago, I detailed about the possible things one can put into the search bar for its Pokémon Storage. With further updates, a search bar was also added to the Friend List, and it too eventually gained further capabilities, which for this post I call "filters".

The simplest filter is of course the "name" filter, and that serves to search the list by the typed-in name, in part or in full. But there are also three criteria filters to help narrow down a search: they are "interactable", "giftable", and "lucky". The first one is for friends that haven't been interacted with for the day, the second one is for friends that can be given (in other words, can receive) a Gift, and the third one is obvious - it's for Lucky Friends. Of these, the first two are likely to be of frequent use by many, including myself, to make sure that interactions can proceed as they should; the third one may be of use when Lucky Friends are a major priority.

Level filters also exist in the form of "friendlevel" followed by a number from 0 to 4. "0" represents friends that have only been just made with no interaction, while the rest of the numbers represent the four friendship levels of Good, Great, Ultra, and Best Friends. As with number filters in the Pokémon search bar, dashes can be used to search for friends in the ranges of these levels, though it is most likely that one will search for certain friends in certain levels, possibly to ascertain which friends can and will go up a level at the next possible opportunity. Likewise and naturally, this includes myself in most cases.

The "Boolean operators" that are present for the Pokémon search bar are also present for the friend list search. The forms are the same ("&" for AND, "," for OR, and "!" for NOT) and their usage is the same too. As an all-inclusive example, the search string "friendlevel3, giftable & !lucky" will show me Ultra Friends or friends that can be given a gift but are not Lucky Friends. Though there are far fewer filters for friends than there are for Pokémon, the search string can possibly get complicated when these operators are involved.

With the assumption that things that look the same function the same way, the Friend List search bar definitely fulfills that assumption. There are filters with specific criteria as well as filters for certain levels, and they all can be intertwined to show various friends, depending on what one is looking for. As friends in Pokémon Go develop, so too do the ways for one to seek the necessary friends in their Friend List for particular cases, and all the filters above represent the possible ways that they might occur.

One year ago: To Eat and to Lure

Two years ago: A Pidove Keychain

Three years ago: Memories of Hoenn

Four years ago: LINE Pokémon Stickers

Quickies: Staying Productive with Pokémon

OK, things are about to get incredibly hectic for me within the next few weeks ahead, and those who might have read many of my latest posts might recognize that I've been "stuck in a rut" in regard to their format. Therefore, I've decided to try something new and force upon myself a different format. I call it "Quickies", where I regard a current situation with a Pokémon perspective or a Pokémon situation with different perspectives, all with not more than a few paragraphs (3 to 4 tops). So here I go.

So that "incredibly busy" thing is related to being productive, as the title suggests, though with another thing than Pokémon. Even so, I find that Pokémon in whatever form does help myself pace through whatever it is I'm attempting to stay productive with. Often, a little bit of something Pokémon (like posting on this blog or playing a little bit) helps me to refresh my mind, helping me to not be "stuck in a rut". And it seems that things go both ways regarding this state of affairs.

For both that thing and Pokémon, I have faced a problem in the form of power loss - as in, electricity. It isn't my fault, but the effects are rather profound and leave me literally in the dark. While I'd love to be able to peruse the aid of an Electivire - according to its role, and perhaps that one with the best stats possible in my Pokémon Go storage - that's really only a pipe dream, and I'd have better luck finding something equivalent to a Litwick or Lampent, as one of my Pokémon Go fellows suggested when it happened.

I suppose Pokémon gives me a reason to stay productive, even if some things are purely imaginative. That boost in productivity has to be important to somehow keep myself going and, in the end, everything Pokémon that involves me as well. I'm sure that whatever will go in the next few weeks will benefit from this as well and I can reap the Pokémon benefits at an eventual point in time. It's going to be a heck of a time in the weeks ahead, and hopefully Pokémon and this new blog format will help with that.

One year ago: On (No) Coincidences

Two years ago: Cosplay: Tresno no Matsuri

Three years ago: Hoenn (Fully) Confirmed on Go

Four years ago: Space

"Colored" Moves in Pokémon Games

This month's Community Day in Pokémon Go featured something unique, in that there are both Fast and Charged Moves as the special moves for a Pokémon species. What's even more unique is the latter move, which as I've stated, comes with a specific type. This constitutes a neat phenomenon in Pokémon games in that a move may have effects of different types depending on different circumstances, which can be said to give a move its "color". It's a phenomenon that started and is definitively present in the main series games, but it also really comes into its own in Pokémon Go.

In the main series games, the move of Hidden Power, despite being assigned as a Normal-type move, has an effect (and thus "color") of a certain type that is different from species to species, and even individual Pokémon of that species; the type can be determined through specific means in different games. It is the "classical" instance of this phenomenon. In Pokémon Go, Hidden Power works the same way, except that the assigned type of the move is explicitly shown beside the move, for Pokémon that possess the move. In this way, it makes it possible and convenient for one to be able to collect Pokémon that possess all 18 possible types of Hidden Power, which for a fact some people have attempted to do. It is a niche move, but the quality is special regardless.

The move of Weather Ball in the main series games is assigned a Normal type, but its type actually changes according to weather. It is Fire when sunny, Water when raining, Ice when there is hail, Rock when there is a sandstorm, and Normal otherwise. In Pokémon Go, the move is typed or "colored" in the same way as Hidden Power above, and its types correspond to any of the possible types above. The previous case of Weather Ball-Fire for Roserade is one example; other cases are Castform with Weather Ball-Normal and Abomasnow with Weather Ball-Ice. Water and Rock types for Weather Ball may also be expected. Castform notably possessed this move as its "signature move", but in all cases, now the case is no longer apparent.

While nothing has been explicitly said and not much has been revealed, the move of Techno Blast as the "signature move" of Genesect in Pokémon Go is indicated to be able to possess "color" by different types as well. If in the main series games the type of the move is determined by the Drive that Genesect holds (Electric for Shock, Water for Douse, Fire for Burn, Ice for Chill, and Normal without), in Pokémon Go the move is typed or "colored" accordingly and becomes a special move of Genesect in possession of certain Drives. So far, only Genesect with Techno Blast-Fire has been unleashed thanks to the Unova Celebration, but it doesn't seem hard to expect that later on there will be more Genesect possessing their corresponding Drives with other "colors" of Techno Blast. That much can already be expected.

It is amazing that some Pokémon moves can have type or "color" effects beyond their assigned types. The main series games demonstrate this quite well with the effects that relate to three moves above, and yet, Pokémon Go also provides a unique take on the phenomenon by actually assigning types to the same move, varying it for different Pokémon as above. While the action of the two games can be regarded as different as night and day, it is nice that the latter maintains some reference points to the former, especially in regard to moves and the "colors" of types associated with them.

One year ago: Coming Up Roses

Two years ago: Cosplay: Eien no Kiseki

Three years ago: Seeking Confirmation

Four years ago: Time

The Sweetness of "Attractors"

A unique facet of the world of Pokémon is how certain creatures that bear the name can attract with or be attracted by certain things. These things, which I will call "attractors" for the purpose of this post, have a key characteristic in that they are sweet, and that is definitely something attractive for most beings. What probably comes to mind, especially mine, is just how sweet those things are, particularly in their ability to attract Pokémon. That leads to the conception of this post in order to flesh out the sweetness of those "attractors". Specifically, I'm considering a few well-known things that do the job.

One of those things is the move Sweet Scent, or at least what results from the move. It is usually depicted as a pink cloud and/or a shower of pink petals. The petals, of course, are reminiscent of cherry blossom or sakura petals, and similar plants tend to produce similarly sweet-smelling things. The pink cloud that results can be construed as being redolent of the smell, allowing it to attract Pokémon of different kinds. Yet, it also has to be considered that different Grass-type Pokémon have different capabilities, and this might possibly affect the quality of the Sweet Scent. The Roselia species family, for example, which is expected to be capable of Sweet Scent, would be expected to have a more rose-like smell than a cherry-like smell. Regardless, the capability would remain the same.

In the Sinnoh region, it is possible to encounter golden trees with a sweet smell. These don't attract Pokémon all on their own, but if one had a jar of Honey in possession, then the bark of the tree could be slathered with it, and it would eventually attract Pokémon. There would be no question that the Honey would be similar to the same object in real life, but because of its evidently attractive and sweet quality, it could be construed to be sweeter and still more fragrant than the actual object in real life. The fact that it could be slathered on trees might also lead to the conclusion that it's a little stickier, perhaps like the sap from certain kinds of trees. The attractive force would still be its heavy sweetness. 

Of things that attract Pokémon, it's hard to escape items that many Pokémon Go Trainers frequently put into use: Incense and Lure Modules. They emanate a general or specific sweet aroma to attract Pokémon. With the pink cloud or petals present by putting them into use, the principle would perhaps be not much different than a Sweet Scent, but the aroma would be considerably different depending on the general or specific aroma intended to attract any kind or specific kinds of Pokémon and which item is used.

The "attractors" of the Pokémon world are quite varied, but they are united by the way that they work, which is by exuding sweetness to draw Pokémon, at which point they can then be battled and/or captured. They are all unique just as the Pokémon themselves are unique, and they can seemingly work with attuned levels of sweetness. That should be sweet enough for any Pokémon and their Trainers in any kind of attracting situation.

One year ago: Memories and Mnemonics

Two years ago: Pokémon Clocks

Three years ago: (It's a Wonderful) Local Ex-Raid, 2/8/2018

Four years ago: Serena-Shipping: "Heaven Help My Heart"