V – Victory Road

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.

Victory Road, on the path to victory! Although since it’s a cave most of the time, the road part is open to some interpretation 😛

Victory Road is one of the last parts of the games, and will only open up to you as a trainer after you have defeated the eight gym leaders of an area. Once you pass through into the cave, you will find a bunch of tough trainers to beat, and of course, a whole bunch of wild Pokemon that will jump out at you for experience and catching. Also depending on precisely which game you are playing, your rival might show up for one final battle, depends if they’re the champion or not, which changes between the games. It tend to be a bit of a long journey, and you have to rely on the items in your bag, so it’s actually rather good preparation for the Elite Four, which is what you will encounter at the end of Victory Road.

The Elite Four are much like Gym Leaders. There are four of them, they tend to have a theme type of their Pokemon team, and they are very, very tough to beat. You have to have all eight badges, so these guys are even tougher than the gym leaders, and you will face them one after another with no chance to go back to a Pokemon centre in between, so you better have a lot of medicine items on you. Oh, and the Elite Four will use healing items as well, it’s super annoying.

Kanto and Johto are unusual in that they share their Victory Road and Elite Four between the two regions, although it doesn’t matter if you have the eight Kanto gyms badges or the eight Johto badges, as long as you have eight badges out of the region, you can go challenge them. Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos all have their own Pokemon Leagues.

Taking the last Elite Four (eee, new Elite Four in Sun/Moon!) from Kalos as our example you had:

• Malva, Fire Type
• Siebold, Water Type
• Wikstrom, Steel Type
• Drasna, Dragon Type

They were some very cool fights, with epic rooms themed around the type in question. The dragon room for instance has a huge stone dragon with wings embedded into the walls, and the wings unfurl as you come into the room. Very over the top cool.

And then, once you get passed these trainers, you can go take on the Champion. Fun fact, the champion is the only trainer (apart from your rival, sometimes, in some games) who will have a team of six Pokemon? Even the Elite Four trainers have four or five.

In Kalos the Champion is Diantha, who is not only an actress, but also a very powerful trainer. I liked her, mainly because she trades you a Ralts which is holding the mega stone for Gardevoire, which as you should know is my absolute favourite Pokemon.

 

Pokemon of the Day

V is for Vivillon

Vivillon is a butterfly like Pokemon, thought to be related to Butterfree, with an elliptical shaped body in different shades of grey, and segmented wings that come in a variety of patterns. It has back legs and hands (but no arms) and two long antenna coming out of it’s head.  It is capable of many dust and powder attacks, and has been know to calm the fighting spirit of many Pokemon.

Had a bit of trouble choosing today’s Pokemon. Not because there are a lack of Pokemon, but because most of the Pokemon I would have chosen have already been covered in some form or another by others letters. Vulpix was covered under N – Ninetails. Venasaur was covered under I – Ivysaur. Vaporeon was another choice, except that I’ve already done Eevee, Espeon and Umbreon from the Eeveelutions. So the Pokemon I chose today isn’t a favourite per say, but it is really cool for a particular reason.

The picture you see above is the most common form of Vivillon (for someone like me who lives in the UK), the Meadow pattern. However, Vivillon is highly reflective of the environment that it lives in, and thus the pattern on the wings will change depending on where the Pokemon catcher in question lives in the real world. In total there are twenty known patterns of Vivillon wings, isn’t that cool? It’s a tiny catch them all within a much larger catch them all? So whilst Vivillon isn’t a Pokemon that I would save a spot for on my team most of the time, I do like trying to catch and trade as many different patterns as I can.

V – Violence

“Pack your bags. We’re taking a trip.”

“Oh, where to?” Sebastien asked.

“I’ll tell you on the way.”

“What should we pack for?

“Violence and rescuing.”

Violence, fighting, a good scrap. If you’re writing fantasy, chances are that at some point or other there is going to be some violence. Especially if you’re going for the classic sword and sorcery sub-genre. It’s right there in the description ‘sword’, that there is going to be some fighting and your readers will expect it.

So there are some things that you should remember when writing violence.

1. Make it realistic, and I don’t mean movie realistic

If you can, go along to a martial arts club, or watch some professional fighters. I do kickboxing myself, and I have to say, that real fights are quite a lot different from the fights in movies, and in the more over the tops novels. It is worth getting the feel for real fights, because it will help you write them.

2. Hey, get into a fight yourself if you can

No, don’t start a bar brawl (unless you really, really want to), but there is no substitute for feeling for yourself what it is like to be in a fight. I know what it’s like to feel that first rush of adrenaline, because it happens whenever I spar. I know what it’s like to get hit in the face, because it’s happened to me (a lot, I really need to work on my defence). I know what it’s like to have your knees buckle from a kick, because it’s happened to me. I know what it’s like to feel so angry you lash out, because I have slight anger issues (there’s a really good reason I took up kick boxing in the first place 😛 ). So if you can, go along to a local club, and get into a fight. It gives you really good insight.

3. Keep it short

Did you know that most fights last for a maximum of thirty seconds? Seriously, fighting is exhausting, and unless you character is in a competition or training, the fight is going to be over very quickly. Most streets fights only have a few punch thrown before someone backs out and the fight is over. So if it’s going to last a long time, there needs to be a darn good reason for it. Because in real life, anyone fighting for more than a minute is going to need some sort of special training to have that stamina. Or it’s a epic battle, because those do last for hours.

4. Let the reader’s imagination do the work

As with other things in the book, don’t over describe the detail. Put in the big moves, the punches and kicks that mean something, and throw in a good chunk of emotion and feelings, but don’t give them a blow by blow commentary as if you’re a commentator at a boxing match. Let the reader use their own imagination to give the fight embellishments and nuances. Draw them into the fight, don’t bore them.

5. Give it a point

Violence without a point is stupid. Really it is. Fighting means a high chance of people getting hurt, no matter who it is that is involved, so why is your character fighting? Are they fighting for the love of a girl? Are they trying to take over a town? Has another character wronged them in the past, and they see that they are about to do something similar and decide to stop them with force? Whatever the reason is, make sure there is one, because fighting without a point is the same as a scene without a point – they both belong in the recycle bin.

And there you have my quick guide to violence. I have quite a few fights in my novels, so it’s something that I do actually have a fair bit of practice writing. So I hope this helps any of you out there who maybe don’t have as much experience writing them.

Can’t believe the A to Z challenge is coming to a close, how are other people doing?

P.S. No that photo is not me, but it IS the club I train at 🙂

V – Video

A rather simple one today, but a rather nice one I personally think. Today’s I am going to give you a video, which is a short animated video made by a College Of Fine Arts (COFA) student for The Annual, which showcases student’s talents just before they leave the college. They won the award for best 2D work in the 2010 annual.

Personally, I just think it’s a lovely little story, and it makes me sniff a little when I watch it.

The Butterfly Dragon, by Sushan Yue