Greetings Pleasants. I made a promise to my dear Blogging Bestie that I would turn her into a Pokémon!  I have turned Indigo, Irina and Myself into a Pokémon before!  So my bestie deserved this as well…. then stuff happened that every writer goes trough and “crisis”  happened.  Now however the time has finally come to redeem that promise!  And we find out what Summer would have been… had she been a pokémon!

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The Typing of Summer

My best friend on the blogosphere is really easy to classify into pokémon typings. So much so that she has an abundance of typings available to her.  She is a self proclaimed pixie, so the fairy type would be an obvious pick! That would mean I pretty much define everyone ever with the Fairy Type though. It’s my favourite type and while I definitely think Summer is a pixie I think the way how pokémon stereotypes people and pokémon she would actually not fall under that typing. You see, Pokémon quite likes to stereotype, iconography that is immediately clear on why it’s that. Maybe with Summer you’d have to look a bit before you see the pixie! Besides, people seem to quite dislike a lot of humanoid pokémon…or REALLY like them … in the wrong way. I do not want that to happen to Summer! So instead I looked at what would the eye see! After all.. in Pokémon.. if a Pokémon is Blue…. it is PROBABLY a water type! If it is green.. it’s probably a grass type and so on!

Summer and I share a diary in which we write and Summer writes a lot about plants, nature and her cute wooden fence!  Besides that she is a witch, I assume she is Wiccan, though I am not fully sure we ever truly specified, which has deep connections with nature as well. So I feel like making her a grass type would be a fairly logical pick!  She is a type of person I like to have by my side. I am not to keen on using water types, it feels so Vanilla.. but in 90% of my parties you will find a Grass Type and a Fairy Type. So by choosing grass as her main typing she’d be always by my side… Well I say that.. but in the design section I will track back on that point a bit.. but regardless, the grass type is a great base typing for my friend!  It is nurturing, but also durable, it can release powerful attacks with patience or support allies.  That very much feels like Summer! She endures and blooms!

For her secondary typing we have many, many options! As a witch the psychic type makes a lot of sense, but I don’t want her to be a grass variant of Delphox or a Celebi clone. Besides, Summer might like bugs as well!  I am not sure about that one..but she feels like she would talk to bees outside to pollinate her flowers! I could make a rock type joke.. but I won’t!  Fairy was viable as well!  Yet for some reason when I imagine Summer, I always imagine her “element”  is air. I do not why.. that’s just what my inner me tells me!  So she’d initially be a Grass flying type! She lives near vegas so she would not like the cold I assume! .. Though she loves snow she said!  Still…. I think the winds symbolise the wisdom and embracing nature of Summer very well. There is another type that fits her very well.. but that one is for the design.

Designing Summer

While I had some difficulty coming up with a good design for Irina and John/Indigo with Summer I immediately had this picture in my head! Like I said Pokémon likes to stereotype and Summer has a few very distinguishable features!  She is a fair bit older than most other bloggers out there so I feel her design would kind of lean into that! It also works very nicely with the theming of nature! We haven’t had much of an ancient nature spirit!  There is Celebi.. and in fairness, Celebi is already a perfect depiction for Summer. It literally is a nature protecting Pixie spirit thing!  So if I were to give all those I made a Pokémon for a real Pokémon counterpart, mine would be Sylveon, Indigo’s would be Bisharp and Irina would be Froslass  I do want to do something special for Summer though… and I kind of imagine her being this great and mighty willow tree. You know, like the one from Pocahontas.. I hated that movie, and I think she might too but the design of the grandmother willow always stuck with me.

A willow tree naturally already includes the wind element in it a bit it’s design but for Summer I want to make it more of an element. She has other pokemon dancing on her wind, imagine cutiefly and ribombee but also comfy dancing around the gales that come from the tree.  She would be like a mother to all Pokémon.. where Mew is the genetic parent of all Pokémon, Summer would be it’s caretaker, their eternal guardian… not so much of the Pokémon itself.. but the fragile ecosystem that houses them. As such it would only be fitting to make her a legendary pokémon. Saying it like this makes her sound a lot like Xerneas but again, Xenereas is more fauna based while Summer would represent balance in Flora.. and general nature more. Since the grandmother Cedar is a true story in Ojibwe Native American culture, I decided to base her pokémon name on the Ojibwe name for willow, which is Oziisigobimizh. Which might need some tweaking. The Ojibwe word for Grandmother is Nookomis.. which is a lot easier to adapt. We will change it to Nakomis , to be a portmanteau of Nookomis and Nature (as I found no Ojibwe word for Nature.. just for Napkin). 

Nakomis would however get a second form! Much like Darmanitan, she would have an ability to change mode  Somehow Darmanitan goes Zen Mode when he takes damage and takes on an extra typing. Her ability we will call Nature’s Fury! It will not trigger on herself.. but when an ally in her party is on low hp and she is switched in!  If this occurs Nakomis will deroot herself from the earth to punch her enemies away with her massive power! Summer used to be a bodybuilder and was approached for martial art stuff as well.. so her being a vengeful nature warrior would make a lot of sense, and it would just be a Pokémon that otherwise would always be rooted in the round!  The roots hold the earth together though.. so it would explain her ground type immunity while being a flying type!  Now though she is no longer a cheerful protector..in offensive mode… those who put her in that mode.. have to go and they can only be taught the harshest of lessons!

Pokédex Entries for Summer

Nakomis would be a legendary Pokémon, but it would not be a legendary box art! Instead she would most likely be part of a legendary trio. Having some native american element to it, they would be represented in parts of a totem. The Tree that nurtures nature, the “Sunbird/Roc” that guides humanity and the predator that keeps Pokémon from rampaging. The predator being depicted as some kind of seaweed/moss-like wolf-shark hybrid. Respectively a Fire Flying type that gains the rock type when there is at least two fainted Pokémon in the party for the Sunbird/Roc”  and a Water Flying type that gains the electric type if hit by a super effective move.  They represent the entire spectrum of live together and would be known as the Totem Trio. Their Pokédex entries would describe how they differ from each other:

Nakomis: The wisest and most tranquil of the Totem Trio! Her roots are so deep in the earth, Nakomis can use them to sense threats to nature anywhere on this gloves! Her essence can travel on her own wind to aid where she needs!  When her allies suffer Nakomis awakens and will not rest until the assailant is dragged into the earth where it will remain snared in her roots forever.

The second entry in the mirror game would talk more about their origins.

Nakomis: Believed to be the spirit of a tribes woman who loved Nature so much! Every day she would come to take care of this ancient Willow Tree.. yet one day the wind only brought her spirit to the tree.. and they became a single entity.

The trio would basically be, a human taking care of nature, a pokémon/animal taking care of humanity and a plant creature taking care of Pokémon.  To bring everything into balance. There would be a few tribes scattered across the Pokémon World and depending on which of the trio is depicted at the top would be the one the tribe worships the most. By finding some ancient tables and linking humans to protecting nature, you can enter the sanctuary of the ancient tree Nakomis. Where the player would be able to capture her. The tribe would tell those who capture Nakomis, that this is but one manifestation off her  She can seemingly teleport on winds to wherever she is needed, as can the others of the totem trio.  On the spot where Nakomis would be, there would already be a new sprite! Implying this might be the first legendaries that exist multiple times! However it would be hinted that all Nakomis are the same being and would not be able to fight herself in a Pokémom battle. 

The Totem Trio does seem to battle each other throughout history a few times though!  For example a forest fire that decimated some woods, but created fertile land for man to grow crops would be marked as Nakomis losing to Ondaaman (The FIreBird )  Makéigan (the aquatic plant wolf) losing to Nakomis could happen if pokémon/animals got sick from eating some of the berries meant for smaller species who can’t eat other things or simply nature overtaking an animals former hunting ground. All in all these pokémon would be mentioned on a fairly regular basis in rumors and names. Some may simply say: Our town used to stretch out way more north.. but the forest overtook it all, I guess the spirit of the grandmother proved stronger than our ambition. Stuff like that!

Summer’s Role

Giving a legendary a role is quite hard! They usually are very mixed and do everything quite well! Some things are better than others for sure.. but their base stats are usually so high it doesn’t really matter.  In Summer’s case, she would have a much more specific role!  Summer isn’t the type to immediately spring into action!  She would be more tactical about it! She has endurance! So I feel like Nakomis stats would tend to be more on the defensive side.  She would have a lot of HP and very good special defence and normal defence would be solid as well!  In this form her moveset would probably rely on her casting tricks. Stuff like Tailwind to boost the speed of her team, using Spore to lull enemies to sleep and then use moves like Horn Leech and Drain Punch to keep her own life force up! She would probably use a lot of draining moves as nothing goes to waste. She would get full support move sets as well, moves like Wish/Healing Wish, Aromatherapy or Purify would all be great to run on a Nakomis.

The Battle mode of Nakomis, does still rely on moves like Horn Leech and Drain Punch, but it would also feature moves like Leech Life and ironically, toxic, nature itself can clearly use toxins to defend itself. Strength Sap and Giga Drain would be other moves that could be ran on her!  She gets no moves that “just”  damage the opponent (well toxic maybe). All moves have to have a heal effect. THis can include status though! So moves like Smelling Salts, or Wake Up Slap still can be run on her, as they do have a secondary effect that implies healing.  This does mean her fairy move usability is limited to draining kiss, but hey she can also learn the fairy move moonlight!  While in her combat form, her offensive stats inverse with her defensive stats so she becomes more fragile but able to deal more damage! She is very slow though! This means players do have to balance healing themselves and their allies quite a bit!  But it will be a fun Legendary to use. Her supportive nature represents how the world arounds us allows us to grow and thrive but if we damage it to deeply nature will strike back. 

The Plant Wolf thing Makéigan would start out as a a physical attacker, that swaps into a speedy sweeper, (hoping that he faces already damaged pokemon to now properly outspeed them and take their little remaining hp down). It gets a mix of priority moves but also heavy damaging physical moves.  It represents how a wild animal at first will attack without reservation.. or feast on a large meal.. but in order to survive it must adapt and get smarter.
Ondaarman would change from a special attacker into a physical attacker. Symbolising that lessons to humans are first tried to be bestowed by words ..but if humans refuse to learn from each other eventually man will turn violent and try to teach the lesson through force.

Thus all of them in their own way guide those who face them to adapt and live a better way and keep everything in balance.. and that is what I think Summer’s Pokémon lore would be! Nakomis is my newest Pokémon!

So how about you?! Would you like to become a Pokémon?! What Pokémon would you have made based on Summer?! Let me know in the comments and who knows, you might become a pokémon too , if you let me!