Lady @Lady@cat.family

trying to do what Legends: Arceus did with a Pokédex size of 400 isn’t feasible within the release schedule that pokémon games have to follow but it’s very clearly what they would like to be doing

i mean it was barely feasible with a pokédex size of 242 which is why Legends: Arceus has almost nothing else

there really is a pretty sharp divide in approach between the “2D” (Gen I–V) and “3D” (Gen VI–IX) pokémon games and this really illustrates it

Gens VI and beyond have really focused increasingly on pokémon ecology and how pokémon might fill different ecological niches in different regions, with larger pokédexes, more reuse of old pokémon, new regional forms, and pokédex entries which emphasize relationships between species of different generations

i think this is generally pretty cool but it also means more of an emphasis on catching (which was disadvantageous prior to Gen VI as it didn't give you experience) as completing the (even regional) pokédex has become a much more arduous task

simultaneously there has been a reduction in the importance of other aspects of the overworld as HMs have been removed and overworld puzzles have been made simpler; you don't explore to get special TMs or items, you explore to catch pokémon

the other interesting thing about newer pokémon games:

• Kanto Regional Pokédex: 150 Pokémon
• Johto Regional Pokédex: 250 Pokémon
• Hoenn Regional Pokédex: 200 Pokémon
• Sinnoh Regional Pokédex: 150 Pokémon
• Unova Regional Pokédex: 150 Pokémon
• Kalos Regional Pokédex: 450 Pokémon
• Alola Regional Pokédex: 300 Pokémon
• Galar Regional Pokédex: 400 Pokémon
• Paldea Regional Pokédex: 400 Pokémon

but yes it is extremely funny that their response to people complaining about the new games not having Every Pokémon is “well maybe humans shouldn't have caused mass extinction then”

i’d say “lately” but i was playing Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire recently and it’s there too so it’s been going on for at least three generations

the pokémon games have been leaning hard into the “we are in the middle of an anthropogenic extinction event”

pokémon fans don't watch the anime they don't know about pollinators

remember when the pokémon anime had an episode about flabébé and it was just like “this is what pollinators are and why they are important”

as gary oak famously stated, “the ecology of pokémon is varied”

is my distaste for pokémon fandom actually grounded in a distaste for the aesthetics of contemporary American urbanism

that’s not the appropriate affect for that holiday??

people at work keep being like “happy thanksgiving” and i’m like ”…no??”

the fediverse IS bad; get over it and get to work and maybe we can achieve something cool

bad instances have always existed and every good thing about the fediverse today was hard-fought and hard-won. making it better will mean more work, fighting, and winning

i’m tired of reductive takes like “the fediverse shouldn't be bad; the fediverse should be good” which erase both the history of struggle and the actual tactics used to get us where we are now

we made this space our own through months of work and a fuckton of drama and infighting. but we did a good enough job that when mastodon took off, OUR culture was the one everybody associated it with

when mastodon first started, activitypub didn't exist yet. the fediverse was a bunch of GNU Social instances communicating over the OStatus protocol. these instances were well-established, and they did not take kindly to the popularity of Mastodon and all the new users taking over their existing, quiet culture

the existing, quiet culture, by the way, was a bunch of channer shit and blatantly anti-gay and anti-trans memes. the instance we saw most often on the federated timeline in those days was shitposter.club, a place which virtually every respectable instance now has blocked. mastodon didn't really *have* blocks back then

i don't have the words to properly situate this within the current discourse right now but you all should be aware that the fediverse is historically an anti-trans and anti-gay space also

• you’re into boys
• you’re REALLY into girls

its time is done; 2023 is the year we switch to saying thorofare

i just can't be bothered to write “ough” these days