S – Starters

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.

Starter Pokemon! We’ve mentioned them loads, because, let’s face it, as soon as you start the game you need your starter Pokemon to start your journey with, because without a starter Pokemon, there is no start! And yes, that was a mild exercise in how many times I can get the word start into a sentence 😛

Starter Pokemon will always follow the same format (ignoring Pokemon Yellow, that was a special case to follow after the anime) – there will be three of them, they have a three Pokemon evolution chain, and there will be one Water type, one Fire Type and one Grass type, making a very nice type advantage circle.

In each generation, there are a new three Pokemon, and generally, most of the time, this Pokemon will stay with you throughout your Pokemon journey. I can’t think of a single time when I didn’t keep my starter on my team all the way through the game, although I know that some people do swap them out for others.

Generation 1 – Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle

Generation 2 – Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile

Generation 3 – Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip

Generation 4 – Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup

Generation 5 – Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott

Generation 6 – Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie

 

As has been mentioned in previous posts, you normally get your starter Pokemon from the Professor of the region, right at the start of your journey, usually at the same time as your Pokedex. As soon as you get your first Pokemon, your rival then also picks their first Pokemon, the strong type against the one you chose, and you have a little battle.

In the anime, Ash starts of his Pokemon journey on a bad foot, and is late. So the three Pokemon that should have been there weren’t for him, all that Professor Oak had left was a Pikachu, which was a little grumpy, and didn’t like going inside its Pokeball. Of course, their relationship gets better, and Ash and Pikachu become fast friends.

One thing that is very different from the anime to the games, is that in the anime Ash almost always comes across the other starter Pokemon, and either he, or someone else travelling with him, will end up with the starters in their teams, at least for a little while. In the games, the starter Pokemon are exceedingly rare, and you can almost never catch them in the wild. In later games, you can get hold of the earlier starters, but even then, it’s hard, or you only get one of the three. The only guaranteed way to get all of them is to do some trading with other trainers, usually after breeding some eggs.

Considering your only get to make it once, choosing your starter Pokemon can be a very tricky choice!

 

 

Pokemon of the Day

S is for Swablu

Swablu is a flying Pokemon with a round, blue body, a wings that resemble fluffy white clouds. It does not appear to have a discernible neck, so it can appear like the Pokemon is nothing but a head with wings and attena, although it does have a tail and clawed feet attached to the round body. This Pokemon does not like dirty surroundings and will clean up with its cottony wings, and with then use freshwater springs and streams to wash in when it becomes dirty from cleaning. They live in large flocks in forested areas, but can be seen in towns as well, especially around the spring. It is a very friendly Pokemon, and will often perch on the head, resembling a fluffy hat.

Swablu is adorable, but mainly I like it because it evolves into Altaria, and Altaria is one of my absolute favourite Pokemon. Unfortunately, I like Arcanine just that little bit more, so A had to go to him.

Like Swablu, Altaria is a blue Pokemon with cloud like wings that surround its entire body. So much fluff surrounding an elegant, almost phoenix like body – she’s so pretty! It uses its wings to catch updrafts and gracefully soar through the sky, often singing on humming in soprano tones. This voice can induce a dreamy state in those who listen to it, but it hasn’t lost the affection for people it had as a Swablu, and will often give people it likes soft hugs with it’s cotton like wings.

I mean, come on, who wouldn’t like a graceful, singing, hugging Pokemon! That, and it’s Flying/Dragon type, has a mega evolution, and is just an all round awesome Pokemon. Altaria always has a spot on my team, as soon as I find it or a Swablu living in the wild!

S – Supernatural

No, not the TV show. Although that is a great showcasing of many different types of supernatural creatures.

We’re going to talk about supernatural in the general sense. What’s the difference between fantasy and supernatural? Honesty, not a lot. the two terms are used interchangeable, and there really doesn’t seem to be any defined difference between the two. Supernatural tends to be a subcategory of fantasy, since fantasy is a broad term anyway, and from most of what I’ve seen, supernatural is a term applied to more realistic or modern works involving non-humans and magic. Elves and dragons in a fantasy kingdom? – Fantasy. Werewolves and Vampires in modern day London? – Either, but I’d tend to go for supernatural. I also find that supernatural covers the things that we believe could exist today, ghost, poltergeists, zombies, undead, those sorts of things.

And of course if you throw paranormal into the mix, it gets even more murky.

So what might you find if you look into the box labelled supernatural?

Ghosts: Think seances, ouija boards, mediums, all manners of things that we can use to talk to the spirits of the dead. This is one of the big questions – is there life after death? – and if you’re looking at ghosts then the answer is probably yes. Most people can’t see them, and they have trouble interacting with the real world, hence why you can either uses mediums, people who are attuned to the dead, or interfaces such as ouija boards to try and communicate with them. Also the start of many a horror film.

Spirits: Spirits are different from ghosts in that they were never alive. They might inhabit and work in similar ways, but a ghost is an echo of a dead person, whilst a spirit is a representation of something that was never alive, a tree, a rock, a stream, a car. Look to japan for a lot of interesting tales and mythology about spirits.

Angels/Demons: Creatures that may look humanoid (or not) but are linked to the thought of heaven and hell. Typically, I know demons can be played around with a lot, and there are many different incarnations of them, but they started out as being from hell. They have powers, beneficial or harmful, and are very invested in humans and the world.

Werewolves: People who can shift into other forms, usually a wolf, or wolf man, but sometimes other animals. Usually tied to the phases of the moon, or the moon affects them in some way, they tend to be very physical, angry creatures. But, with everything, they have been tweaked in various places by various authors. Normally written as opposed to vampires, although I’ve never heard a good explanation as to why.

Vampires: Blood drinking, good-looking, fast, strong, and most importantly, overdone. Next!

Zombies: The walking dead, shamblers, connoisseurs of brains. For some reason (often plague) the human race gets infected, dies, but keeps on walking around and wanting to eat people, particularly their brains. This sub set of creatures has also had it’s fair share of limelight, but isn’t quite as overdone as vampires. Yet.

Other monsters: The boogeyman, yeti’s, the loch ness monster. There are loads of things with powers attributed to them that are just unique beings. Fun to play around with, since they is less rigid backstory to most of these and it’s great to play around with old myths.

Metaphysical phenomenon: Humans with something extra. Telekinetics, pyrokinetics, clairvoyants, mediums, all the powers that can be wielded by a human mind come under this category.

Witches and Wizards: More modern interpretations (drop the hats and the robes, and occasionally the wands) such as wiccans, pagans, druids and others can be considered supernatural forces as they harness the powers of nature and fate. I quite like this category personally, although it is hard to get some of the details right sometimes, not being a practitioner myself.

And into that you can add anything that cannot be explained by the natural laws of science, which makes it beyond, or super, natural. Which is probably quite a lot!

What would you add into my list?

S – Dragon Society

Dragon society. In a phrase it can be summed up as: it doesn’t exist.

There are of course more intricacies to the situation, but the insular and superior nature of dragons and their need of a lot of resources means that they are solitary creatures by and large, and that means that they do not form societies of their own, despite their intelligent capability to do so.

Occasionally you will get the odd exception to this rule, where a dragon has decided to insinuate itself into the culture of another race, as it will further it’s plans or ambitions, or it feels the need to protect the culture (depending on colour and general nature of the dragon in question). Even more rarely, but not entirely unheard of, dragons will build their own society, but humans tend not to have too much information on these rare occurrences, as they tend to hold themselves apart from human societies for the most part. They have never been known to last for more than a generation of dragons.

Mainly, the cause for a dragon society, when it does happen, is a bigger common threat to the dragons of a large area. Considering how fierce-some dragons are in their own right, you can imagine what kind of threat you would need to have to force dragons to put aside their differences temporarily, so that they can unite against this threat and put it down.

The least rare occurrence of a society would be a family unit, where because of tough conditions, or the rare nature of some dragons, the parents of a new clutch decide to stay together to raise the young wyrmlings into dragons that can fend for themselves before they split. This of course can continue, and large families, generally referred to as clans rather than a society, each claim territory next to one another, so the overall size can exceed that of some nations.

 

When dragons do meet with each other, it tends to be because of a territorial dispute, at which point they will fight, a treasure dispute, at which point they will fight, or more rarely a religious disagreement, at which point they will fight. Dragons don’t tend to interact with each other as a species, and when they do if there is any sort of disagreement or argument between the two of them, then a fight is the most likely outcome, with the victor getting what they want, and the loser having to retreat, although it is interesting to note that these fights are very rarely to the death.

Metallic dragon are more cordial than Chromatic dragons, but they are still territorial, and no dragon likes the thought of another dragon coming in and claiming bits of its hoard. So even though they are generally more good natured than their cousins, even metallic dragons tend to be solitary creatures, though they might be more inclined to interact with the societies or other races.