P – Professors & Pokedex

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

P! The letter for everything Pokemon! Practically everything can have Poke- added to the front of it in this world, so there was a heck of a lot to choose from for today’s letter! I did, in the end, manage to get it narrowed down though, to two important aspects of the Pokemon world – The Professors and the Pokedex.

We’ve touched a little on Pokemon Professor’s before. They’re an expert on Pokemon in the region in which they live, there is often only one Professor per region (although they tend to have assistants and can travel around) and they are often the first person that you as a brand new trainer meet, responsible for giving out your very first Pokemon and the Pokedex!

As well as helping new trainers out, they also have an area of research that they focus on. It would be pretty unusual to be called a Professor otherwise. This research will of course involve Pokemon in some fashion, but each of the Professor’s has a different topic that they specialise in.

Rowan, Elm, Sycamore, Oak, Juniper, (Ivy), Birch

 

 

There are six Professors from the ‘core’ series, one for each region (and of course there are others in side games and the anime).

• Professor Oak, Kanto, studies the relationship between Pokemon and humans
• Professor Elm, Johto, studies Pokemon breeding patterns
• Professor Birch, Hoenn, studies Pokemon habitats
• Professor Rowan, Sinnoh, studies Pokemon evolution
• Professor Juniper, Unova, studies the origins of Pokemon
• Professor Sycamore, Kalos, studies Mega Evolution

Of course, they do publish some of their work, and if you can get your hands on a copy of Pokemon Researchers Monthly, you can find exciting articles such as “Pokemon adaptive variation as a function of regional distribution” or “Challenges facing anthro-Pokemon global co-habitation”.

And as already stated, the Professors are the people who give you your Pokedex, which is a very key part of the games, the anime, and the Pokemon world! Originally created by Professor Oak, in the very first game, and every game afterwards, you are given a Pokedex with the goal of completing it.

The Pokedex is a handheld electronic device which is designed to record and retain information on every Pokemon that is encountered by the trainer. This can be when a trainer meets a Pokemon in the wild, meets the Pokemon of another trainer, or sometimes even seeing a picture of it (mostly for legendary Pokemon this one). Basic information is recorded upon meeting a Pokemon, but detailed information is not stored until the trainer either catches the Pokemon, trades for the Pokemon, or acquires it in some other fashion. Detailed information includes a few sentences describing the Pokemon, habitat and wild activities of the Pokemon, height, weight, cry, footprint, history, anatomy, and of course, a picture.

One of the goals of the games is to attempt to get a complete Pokedex. Of course, with every generation that gets released, that gets a little bit harder. But since Pokedexes are only ever given to a few exception trainers, or those with exceptional potential, I always feel like I owe it to the Professor to at least try and encounter as many Pokemon as I can, even if I don’t catch them all.

But, you know, since the catch phrase of the entire Pokemon world is ‘Gotta catch em all’, I generally at least attempt to catch quite a number of Pokemon, even if I don’t end up using them. That, and I am a completionist at heart.

 

Pokemon of the Day

P is for Pikachu.

Pikachu is a short yellow rodent Pokemon, with long pointed ears, a lightning bolt tail, and two red circles on its cheeks, which is where it stores electricity. In the wild, Pikachu live in groups in forested areas, and it uses its electricity to roast berries before eating them. It can unleash varying degrees of electrical energy, absorb energy from both human and natural sources, cause lightning storms when in large groups, and although it is classed as a quadruped, it can walk on its hind legs as well.

Of course P is for Pikachu. Pikachu is the official mascot of the Pokemon franchise, Ash’s only permanent team member in the anime, and it was even the special starter for the original Yellow game. In the anime, Ash shows up late on his first day as a trainer, and because of that, he gets Pikachu instead of the usual starters. They have a rocky start, but eventually they become fast friends, and you never see them far from each other. Pikachu doesn;t like being in it’s Pokeball either, so he’s usually out either walking or riding on Ash. To mirror this, in the Yellow game, the Pikachu you get follows you around as well, walking behind you for the whole game. it also refuses to evolve, much like Pikachu did in the anime. Either way, I remember having Yellow as my original game, and my own Pikachu got ridiculously strong, because I basically didn’t use many other Pokemon. Why would I need to? I have my tiny yellow mouse! Although these days I have other favourites, but that happens when they keep bringing out new ones.

 

 

 

 

P – Plot

Ah! Day late! Oh well, it was going to happen sometime or other. This is the downfall of posting day by day, but at least it took me until P to slip up 😛

Today we are talking about plot. We’ve talked a lot about things that go into books, whether they be essential things like characters, conflict or setting (coming late in the month!), or smaller bits like beats, narration and genres.

Plot is the events of a novel (or play, film, ect.) that are present in an interelated sequence. Basically, it’s what happens to your characters, because there are things that are happening to them, because why would you write a story where nothing happens?

Of course a plot doesn’t have to be simple, and there will often be sub-plots, side plots, tangent plots, minor plots, tangled in and happening at the same time as the main plot, or bigger plots.

Plot will often involve the conflict, because there is nothing like a bit of conflict to drive characters into doing something, or dealing with the consequences of actions that were taken before. Plot gets people from a to b whether it’s through a physical event, a decision from a character, a change in relationships between characters, or a change in knowledge where characters learn new information or their understanding changes.

So have you heard of the three act structure? If you’re a writing, probably. It’s one of the most common structures for plot.

First of all, you set the scene. The readers have to get to know the characters, the setting, a bit about them for the plot to build momentum. The you have an incident, called the inciting incident. This is something that makes the characters get of the sofa, get out into the world and do something. They might then have second thoughts about what they are doing, and think that going back to sofa might be for the best. And then at the end of act one will be ‘The Point of No Return’ (dun dun dun!!!!) which means that for whatever reason they cannot go back to the way things were.

Act two is all about obstacles and conflict. Things keep getting in the way, and the characters have to overcome them, often you can throw in disasters and consequences of previous choices that makes things worse for the characters. I like to think of this as a fun time, because it’s all about throwing things in the way and seeing how creative and resilient they can be. All the time, the conflict is growing, and there’s often a twist in the middle, but still the conflict rises. The is the point of the second act, and it ends with another climax.

Act three is resolutions and wrapping up. The plots that have been growing throughout the story need resolutions, they need endings, to be solved. The actions wraps up, we go into the descending limb and everything should get resolved. Unless you are having a series of books of course, then some things should be left over to lead into the next book. But if it’s just one book, then everything needs an ending otherwise you risk dissatisfying your readers.

Of course there are other structures, but this is the most common. It provides guidelines for the plot, and what should be happening throughout the story. I personally don’t plan, so I never write with this sort of thing in mind, but it generally fits this shape when I read it back after I’ve finished.

One thing to point out is that plot and story are not the same thing, Plot is just the events that happen. Story is the full parcel, with characters, and feelings, and events, and all of it. But plot is something that needs to be in there.

Got any interesting plot twists? My current one involves the classic betrayal by a close friend.

P – Physiology

Physiology: the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts.

So thanks to the wonderful medium of technology, despite the fact that when this actually gets posted, I shall be driving to a field for a fun filled four days of camping over Easter weekend, I can still fulfill my posting obligations. I love schedules publishing. Today is going to be about physiology: how do dragons function biologically? (Anatomy will also come into this, but we passed A ages ago.)

For dissection today we shall take the classic western form of a dragon: long reptilian body, four legs, wings, wedge shaped head, long tail.

Skeletal Structure: The skeletal structure is thought to comprise of over 500 bones, more than doubles that of humans. Although they are more commonly compared to reptiles in apperance, the dragon’s skeleton is more like a feline is structure with it’s backbone and four legs. The bones thmselves are hollow like a bird, whic enables them to fly with ease, since their overall weight is reduced. Within the body the bones are increadably strong, but once the dragon dies or the bones are exposed to air, they become very brittle indeed, tending to crumble away at a touch, which is what make fossilised bones so rare.

Muscular System: The muscle system of a dragon is very strange indeed, coming in at a cross between a reptile and a large cat, if one were to compare it to other creatures, but it is probably best to look at it function wise. The chest and wing muscles are very dense and provide great power to the wings for flight, but this is still not enough to get a dragon off the ground, which is why it is thought that they use their elemental energies, which they appear to store in their hollow bones, to assist them in flying. The wings muscles are also very mobile, allowing the dragon to rotate their wings and control their flight once in the air. Because of the density of the muscles, this area is well supplied with blood, which flows in great quantity, and because of this the toxins which cause fatigue in humans are washed away before they affect the dragon, so they can fly for hours at a time without needing to rest, as long as they are not going at top speed. The muscles from neck top rump, including legs, resemble those of a great cat for aid in hunting, whilst the tail and neck are more like those of a constricting reptile.

Major Organs: A dragon’s brain is large, both proportionally and absolutely. A big part of this is dedicated to the acts of reasoning, logic and memory, and another big part to the sensory organs of the dragons, and a third to the channeling of learned behaviours into their brain to overcome some of their more base instincts. This part is interesting because it can add to the natural flight or fight response that most animals are born with, and develop new instincts for situations that it has been in before. A dragon’s voice is capable of ranges both far above and below what the human voice can replicate, and what humans can hear as well. The lungs are like an avian’s in construction since they need to deal with massive amount of oxygen, and the thinness of the atmosphere when flying at height. The heart of a dragon is the source of its power in lore. Whilst it still has four chambers like a human heart, it is said to pump strongly enough to crush granite. It generates all the elemental energy that a dragon uses for it’s magic, breath weapon, and flight and is doubtless the most important part of the dragon. The blood is produces is thinner than a human’s, and darker as well, nearing black in colour. Another important organ is the fundamentum, which is the source of a dragon’s breath weapon, and is a bit like a large artery, channeling energy rich blood from the heart directly into the upper stomach. The upper stomach stores this until it is needed, making the term ‘breath weapon’ inaccurate, since technically it comes from the stomach rather than the throat. It also deals with food, and uses large plates and muscles to crush the food up and digest.

That’s it for today, but more to come on this topic when we look at T – Traits, for all the external parts of the dragon.