Tag: Grandpa

Trainer Profile: My Grandpa

Greetings little Watsons.  Today’s blog post will close of the series of tributes I make to my grandfather. Because Detective Pinkie’s blogs always take a lot of time and effort to make I had to seek out a format that fitted the theme of our grand detective but did not take as grand of an amount of time. After playing around with some concepts, we settled on Trainer Profile: A format where we analyze a Character, Blogger , Celebrity or whatever you guys suggest. What would their trainer class be? What type would they have the most affinity with and which six pokémon would they run on their team. As my weak voice disallows me from speaking about grandpa at the funeral I decided to reflect on who he was to me and others by making him my first trainer profile.

Trainer Class: Gentleman

First encountered on the SS Anne the Gentleman trainer class is known for their refined tastes and elegance. Grandpa was a distinguished man himself, some would even call him a snob. While that may have been true up to about five years ago, when he met his current girlfriend he mellowed out on it. Back before my father’s company went bankrupt and before his divorce an alienation from mom.. we were as a family quite well off. Grandpa used to treat us to fancy dinners at michelin star restaurants and in return we would take him to nice dinners or cook fancy meals. He loved mom’s home cooking even if she wasn’t his daughter even after their divorce they kept a warm bond, like a gentleman should. You wouldn’t find him on the SS Anne soon though, he once went on a cruise and did not like it, he did not feel old enough for it he said. While the last years of his life he was plagued  with all sorts of sores and trouble walking right up until he was around 80 he was adventurous and loved to travel and see exocitc new places. Exactly like the gentleman in pokémon. He didn’t like adapting though, even when we went to the fanciests of restaurants he would not dress up, he was the one who paid so he should be able to wear what he wants. Frank Sinatra would have been envious of grandpa.. cause grandpa never did anything that was not his way. Though around the 2013’s range that behaviour led to him become kind of selfish. He had earned the right to be selfish to be sure but he seemed to enjoy things less and less. He stopped going out.. treated my mother as a maid for a while and became harder to deal with. Unfortunately it pushed us apart, traveling to him was tricky for me with my health and financial situation being dire. I would try to come over a few times but either I got no attention because cycling was on tv.. or he did not feel like having people over. So we saw each other very sparingly yet everytime I could actually come over he always had my preferred drink in his fridge. It would be past it’s expiration date..sometimes by a lot…but I was happy to drink it still, because he was so happy that he could serve me my favorite drink and for a little while be that gentleman he was once again.

Preferred Type: Psychic Pokémon.

Grandpa has always preferred the pseudo intellectual talks. Theater shows  running, stuff about his flowers and talks about business and wine where regular conversations at the shared dinner table.  Like I said before grandpa was a little bit elite. Yet he also favored some simple things. In fact the entire reason why I made Detective Pinkie is because he nurtured a passion for crime series in me. From when I was waaaaay to young I was already watching along with him to solve the murders in the red light district in the dutch crime series Baantjer. We would always spar on who done it together as a bonding moment and he kinda sharpened my mind by it.  By the time I was twelve I could recognise narrative structures in crime series that let me to deduce virtually 80% of the murderers as long as I saw the correct set up scene. Sometimes i had to help grandma with her quilting and missed a key scene. Grandpa had a scary talent to play with your mind and help you improve it without sounding all that preachy. He was a master of manipulation even in his later years and he oftenly managed to avoid conflicts by outplaying those who disagree with him. A very clever man that could be somewhat cold and logical seems to fit nice with the psychic type.

The Pokémon Team

Signature Pokemon : Hypno (Psychic Type)

No little Watson’s grandpa doesn’t steal children unlike Hypno, however before I was born he was a teacher of sorts… and a hypnotist. Proficient with a pendulum  it would make them a nice pairing as both can hypnotise you in that case. Grandpa wasn’t the biggest animal lover either and preferred plants or people so it makes sense that his signature pokémon wouldn’t be an animal… there will be one on his team but mostly these are going to be non-animals. Hypno seems the best pokémon on this list because it like my grandpa is sly and smart and to be honest not ALWAYS the nicest. He can be amazing though if things go his way Hypno can be an amazing pokémon that has options to outsmart tanky pokémon or hit much more powerful mon’s much harder than he should be able to himself. You won’t see him on any top 5 or top 10 really, but that is how he likes it. Hidden in plain sight but having the space to do as it wants.So I think grandpa would really have been able to bond with this Pokémon and become best friends. Since grandpa would have probably  would let his Pokémon serve him his drinks ..should he ever figure out he could.. it would also keep Hypno off the streets to prevent him from snagging a kid so it’s a win win.

Special Sweeper: Mr Mime (Psychic-Fairy Type)

While grandpa’s team might not be that competitive, you can easily suffer if you underestimate him. Mr Mime is such a Pokémon Physically inept , (grandpa was never really fit unlike my other grandpa) but keen of mind is a trait that defines Mr Mime as well as well as the father of my father. Silent is a trait that even suits them better. Though grandpa could actually speak, he didn’t really like talking. Even when we were conversing we rarely were talking. When I felt sad as a kid and told him why..he’d rather buy me a toy or give be a big piece of chocolat rather than talk things through.  He didn’t really like to talk about things. When I asked about the past he would answer but often without really saying anything to substantial as well. If he felt insulted or sad that one of his other sons was giving him trouble, he would never tell and suffer on his own.. building up barriers and reflects.. quite like the pokémon I selected for him. Always very defensive and careful he never showed his cards to much even to those who are important to him. Recently mom had gotten him to open up a bit.. so.. she would definitely have a Brick Break Pokémon.

Special Wall: Clefairy (Fairy Type)

A trainer has to have pokémon that can take special attacks and for grandpa that would be Clefairy Now this doesn’t actually have anything to do with the Pokémon’s outer space lore or the moon even though I think grandpa did have a telescope at one point.. I think he did but the memory is to vague I do recall a thing I wasn’t really allowed to play with and I think it was a telescope.. and eventually we were allowed to play with it as he never used it… but I can’t recall it to sharply. My choice for Clefairy is strictly based on the minigame included in Nintendo 64’s Pokémon Stadium. In which we see a teacher clefairy teaching other clefairies dance and sing.. and bonking those who fail with a hammer. Excluding the hammer, probably, that is exactly what grandpa used to do. He had a choir he ran with people he taught how to sing and also taught the piano.  He had stopped by the time me and my sister was growing up so I never REALLY saw that side of him.. but he tried to teach me piano once. Yet me being very twitchy and and not in full control of my muscles made it hard and he was a bit impatient. My sister DID have the talent and even though it was just once or twice I saw him truly light up when teaching went well. I never saw him really play music himself.I only heard him sing in a sea shanty band he formed with my dad, youngest uncle and some of dads friends, called Sunken deep. Grandpa did not live to make music he lived to teach eat. Since Clefairy has Sing and Metronome in it’s regular moveset so besides from that classic mini game it also has the right tools to help teach music.

Physical Wall: Slowpoke or Slowbro (Water Psychic Type )

It’s kinda funny how much pink Pokémon suit my grandpa ! Maybe we have more i common than we thought. This Pokémon is the hardest for me to do as it makes me a bit queasy. It was on here because it’s kinda lazy but tough as nails. My Grandpa during the last few years kind of was like that. They could bond laying on the couch eating some snacks. They could appreciate each others slow rhythm but they both can stand one hell of a beat down as well.  Grandpa survived tumors, massive kidney problems huge inflammations and plenty of other stuff that could have killed him. Slowbro and Mega Slowbro represent him so well in that manner. Once more a pokémon that is part of the oldest generation but one that has grown and developed and requires a bit of a brain to play. I think he would have really fitted well with my grandpa’s play style should he have had one. He may have been oblivious to how people are around him are feeling and he might have stubbornly done everything at his own tempo he kept fighting and in the end he wasn’t even killed by the new things trying to kill him. It was bad luck, a complication somewhat unrelated to everything he went trough.

Physical Sweeper: Kingler: (Water)

On the list for entirely different reasons than all the others… Kingler is a tribute to a memory of my grandfather teaching me how to each crab. Not talking about that fake stuff either. Grandpa pushed lobster and crab onto me. It’s a special memory of where he took me to this very luxurious grocery store in belgium. You could buy both lobsters and crab from a tank. Of course little girl me was enthralled by the creatures and wanted to buy one. He said he would but that these crabs are  not to keep as pets but they have to be boiled alive. Shocked by the harsh truth I did not want the poor things to die. So he then offered to buy fresh crab meat .. from an already dead crab. Somehow he tricked me into wanting a crab and in the way he phrased it..my brain played a trick on me saying that THAT indeed would be the best answer. I really wanted crab but I did not want it to die so clearly this was the answer. Back at home he had grandma serve it to the three of us and what I tasted was such deliciously sweet meat I was instantly hooked. Which was a good thing because he payed for christmas dinner in a nearby castle where we would be serve lobster. My aunt scoffingly said I would pass on the food and be ungrateful (this was before she had kids) and rather  than argue with her.. grandpa hatched a plan to avoid discussion and fights. Kingler is a physical attacker that attacks with quick precision attacks like Aqua Jet attacks after setting up raising it’s attack with Swords Dance. Grandpa later told me what he did once we had an argument with the same aunt in question. He told me (no joke.. this just translates wonderfully well, that my aunt underestimating his grandkids got him just a little krabby*


*Krabby is the pre-evolved form of Kingler.

Legendary: The Eternal Floette (Fairy)

As I come closer to the conclusion of this post it becomes harder to fight the tears. The final pokémon for my grandpa’s team is the legendary pokémon Eternal Floette. The immortal gardener who gave their energy to everything they have grown, dancing in joy if they do well. It was a regular Floette at first that met it’s unfortunate end to be returned ny it’s trainer who loved it so much it could not accept it’s death. It ended up hurting many people. I do not have the opportunity to build an ultimate weapon to bring him back  so I have to do what AZ could not and let go. I have to say goodbye and though I do not follow any of the ‘popular’ religions I do not fully believe we become wormfood either. I do not believe in heaven but I do believe in something. Something like an energy a force a power that we can not comprehend. Scientific facts stats that the energy that my grandpa had can’t just disappear from this world it’s still around there somewhere. Like I told earlier this week my grandpa ..back in his energetic days loved his plants and garden and it granted him great happiness. Having access to  grass moves and fairy moves..it has this celestial quality to it. So while I picked the rest of his Pokémon as a reflection of the past.. i picked this as a wish for the future. I hope his energy  like that of a Floette can go to the plants he so cherished. When a Floette sees their flower field blooming they do a little dance of joy. Grandpa  I know you will not be able to dance anymore.. but tell you what… if your energy lets the flowers bloom I shall be the do the dancing part. I will miss you.

Tomorrow  is the day of my grandpa’s cremation. I shall not be releasing a blog on that day. Starting on saturday.. maybe on sunday if I am to cried up to write. I am sorry if this first edition of Trainer Profile was dark and not relatable. Do you have a character you like me to profile next time? What would be your trainer class?  Or your team. Leave a like and a comment and remember.
I am not weird, just very pink!
Until we read again!

XO
Pinkie

My Own Pokemon Game

Hey there little monsters! Normally we would pick up to the story of what if Ash turned into a girl this week. However with my grandfather passing I decided to dedicate this week to pokémon talk which serves in memory of my grandfather. Today’s I will tell you about the concept of a Pokémon game  me and my sister developed while sleeping over at our grandparents place. We spend the entire time crafting our own region and custom Pokémon as well as our evil team. Today I will take you on trip through our little vision.

The Heather Region

Our game would have been set in the Region we called the Heather Region.. (translated)  heather is a type of growth or land that is very common in our area. Though my grandparents didn’t actually live on heather it was injoke based on how we referred their house as. The region was entirely based on their garden with gyms being based on rooms of their house. The player would start as bright student of Driveway-Village  and would travel across places like Tullip-Town, Rose-shrine-city, Cascade City, Magicherri, Composthold and White Arch town. There were a handful of other villages which I either forgot because they were minor or do not translate well. Like Lamphoven, which was a reference to a lamp that had a phillips bulb.. a company that is based in the city of Eindhoven.  Like the garden the region was mostly boomerang shaped with mountains instead of hills to the north a neighbouring country ruled by a madman to the west. A desert to the east. (there was a sandy construction lot in real life.. not actual desert) To the south there would our variation of indigo plateau. Since back then Johto and Kanto shared a league name we just named it New Indigo Plateau cause we kinda thought it had to be called that.

The gym leader representing the bathroom  was a water type user . The fire type leader of the Rose-Shrine-City Kitchen Gym dressed like a chef but could not actually cook . Lamphoven was the home of the electric gym leader, her gym represented the computer area. She was very flirty to girls The home office represented the psychic types because in our minds working people where all very smart like psychic types as well. Some of the typings were a bit more far fetched like the living room was normal type because all normal types back then.. or most of them .. like jigglypuff and clefairy and snubbull felt pink and soft and they had pink couches. The garage gym had rock types because it had a stone floor.. and the laundry room had flying types because their drying machine used this hot air hose that was always very prominent in the room.. as we figured the birds in this gym would glide on the hot air. It was kinda cleverly crafted if I do say so myself. Grandpa liked it too.. he said. 

Flora and Fauna

We came up with an interesting concept for the games. We would divide the game in two versions as well. Pokémon Flora and Pokémon Fauna, unlike the Gen I and Gen II games out at the time you’d pick on professor to assist. Professor Jan (my grandpa’s name)   would assist you in Pokémon Flora as he would send you on a quest to protect the lands of Heather from a Pokémon infestation by catching them or by defeating them in battle. He especially hated mole Pokémon (as grandpa hated animals in his yard and killed many mole mouse and bug) in our version though you could still just catch them all to solve the problem. You’d also encounter more grass and ground type pokémon in this version.  It would be somewhat of the ‘evil story’ as you take out all animals to make Heather blossom again.

Pokémon Fauna was the ‘Good Side’ where you followed professor Toos (grandma)  who would try to welcome as many life forms as possible, as she loved animals and to have everyone around. In this version you’d move pokémon to Toos research garden similar to what Oak had in the anime. So Flora would be more of a Noah’s Ark verison of pokémon… or a trump version where you end up yeeting them all over a wall maybe.. we never settled on endgame.  Fauna would have been a more classic experience with the Pokédex.

There was also Team Eco based on my quite successful and rich but distant uncle. They sold nature friendly but crappy pokémon equipment.. like bio-degradable pokeballs.. but that meant the pokémon inside lived in constant fear of being stuck. Potions blessed by Jomanda.. a dutch.. touch healer person who “positively radiates’ your water bottles for health benefits. She was a new age white witch of sorts who at the time was relevant but to our child minds was silly and scamming so we used that. They cared for profit only and would wear outfits quite similar to team flare.. but mixed with hippies.  They would use very natural pokemon such as grass ground and bug types. While Flora would have many exclusive grass and ground types, Fauna would have extra normal and bug types.
Our legendaries were based on grandma’s lapdog, whose name we will redact to Fido cause the real name is way to specific,  and grandpa’s magic Cherry Tree who we gave the name Mystertree .. as I was old enough to read english well enough and it seemed like a great name. Most of the Pokémon designs we made I can not say where great though.

What Fido actually looked like! More or less, she was a bit darker.

My designed Pokémon

We never made a very full Pokédex for the game unfortunately I think we came up with about 30 pokémon and I do not remember the names or designs of my sister’s Pokémon very well. We decided to make non animal starters .. because grandpa needed to like them too. So we ended up with a grass Pokémon that was themed after a cucumber.. would evolve into a zucchini and  end up as an eggplant. Their names were based on their dutch names. Komkom, Courcour and GineGine (after aubergine) .

Our water starter was a bubble that would get larger with more small bubbles as it grew. This one we named in english.
Blue-Bubble.. the blueberry bubble, Purble.. the berry bubble and Rainbubble…the rainbow coloured bubble who knew self destruct cause bubbles so big pops.  It’s pokédex entry stated it that it loved to play with it’’s trainer in the tub and that it occasionally swallows rubber duckies. It would get jealous when his trainer is playing with soap bubbles and would attack them with his own.

Our fire starter was based on a fire pit. Grandpa loved to light these when we stayed with them in summer in the yard. It would evolve into a gas barbeque as its final form but we never settled on a second form, but their old coal barbeque was up for consideration, as well as a burning table ..because I accidentally set on of their tables on fire once. The first one would be named Korf.. after the dutch word Vuurkorf.. being a fire pit. The final evolution was called Schirck..it has to do with the german word for burning and our dialect from Limburg as well as some other things which make it a bit to long to explain properly.


Other Pokémon we invented was a grape that would end up evolving into wine. There was also  a snake based on the garden of Eden..which had moves like apple toss. (In that period we were still being thought religion and it came up for either me or my sister)  and the final one I distinctly remember was a compost pokémon who was our muk clone so it became it poison type named Compie. Yeah I know weird typing..but it smelled so poison!

When things became  to slow we blatantly plagiarized things. We had a pokémon named Scrappy that evolved into Scooby for example and our legendary trio became a legendary quintet. There was a Red Tyrannosaurus, a Blue Triceratops, Black Mastodont , Yellow Sabertooth Tiger and Pink Pterodactyl. I think they were called Jaty, BiTi, Zama, Trisa and Kimpte. Let’s see if a reader is smart enough to figure out how we got those names! Our main legendaries where Fido and Mystertree. Fido was normal ghost type.. normal because it was based on a normal dog.. and ghost because it was dead and back then neither of those types had a legendary. Mystertree was a Grass ghost type… grass because it was a tree… ghost because.. you probably know where this is going…it was dead.

People of Heather

Even though we went clever in some aspects the same can not really be said for the people inhabiting the Heather Region. The main trainer was a girl rather then a boy but we fixed the issue of Red and Blue .. where you always start as Red even if you had Blue version. You either started with Fauna .. basically my sister or Flora basically me. I remember this making me upset because my sister said that Flora could walk weird like me so that Fauna could be faster. My sister didn’t mean this as insulting but she had to make sure her version of Pokémon was better…because she was better in Pokémon (she was not..but she attack me and hit me if she lost so I played to lose..but she would kick me if I lost intentional so I learned full well how much moves did so I could convincingly lose ) again since not listening to her usually resulted in her launching punches at me .. I agreed but I felt upset that even game me would walk funny. She also wanted to dibs mom and I would get dad… but me and dad do not exactly go along well.. she punched me until I relented. Grandpa told us to play nice and gave me a chocolat for being the bigger person.. actually telling my sister that after which we played nice so she could earn her chocolat as well. However by now I was losing my heart for this.

So we named everyone to people from our village or family. Gym leaders  were based on family. Funniest one now would be dad’s somewhat actively bisexual polyamorous uncle. Back then we did not know. At a family party he was talking to my gay uncle and mom..I was playing waitress when I overheard him saying call me Sletje, which basically translates to little slut. Even though I was .. I think around 14 or 15 here I had no idea what a slut was… I really am panda… so we called him Gym Leader Sletje or translated Gym Leader Little Slut. Little Slut had a catchphrase ‘Hey Listen’ which he would say to access. We did not know about Navi at the time.. which reminds me first time I played Ocarina of Time my first Zelda game.. my sister forced me to play it under the name Turbann (Tulband in dutch) 8. My gay uncle was the gym leader ot the living room just so he could use jigglypuff (fairy types weren’t a thing by then so it’s not meant as a cruel thing to gays or anything) because he sings a lot and really stuff that is waaaay out of my comfort zone.. like italian opera stuff and other classical stuff. In our game he would try to kill us with boredom.

For some reason we decided to name all bug catchers after a classmate of my sister. Cochise was his name. We ended up changing the class to Cochise as well so eventually we ended up with Cochise Cochise wants to battle. Of course we decided to also design a pokemon named Cochise who only knew the move Cochise.. which would have been a bug type.. but we never got around to designing it. Hikers became fat ladies and where called …… ‘s mother.  So rather than Hiker Anthony you’d face Anthony’s Mother. BEcause there was one mom that was REALLY fat and it was a joke towards her.. not PC I know.. but hey we designed this as kids. The champion would be Mario (like super mario) that way we figured we could sell the game to nintendo more easily. 

Game over

Eventually my grandma became less mobile and she got a brand new mobility scooter. That was way more interesting to play on than designing a pokémon game. I would race my sister,  who got to ride the scooter first of course by sliding down the hill on a large plant trolly. Of course I shouldn’t have.. because I was bound to gravity so way faster.

I also always had to babysit my tinier nephews because my aunt made me responsible for them even if I did not feel like playing with them.  One time they wanted to play pranks by ringing doorbells with my sister and I did not feel like it so I went inside for a drink. My aunt scolded at me for so long for leaving her child unattended (they had a tiny one of like 3 or four with them) but my sister was 12 and her oldest was like 10 but I somehow ended up being responsible so every time those kids were there.. I would be in trouble if they broke anything or did something bad. It pissed of my mom that she did that but dad seemed fine with it so I couldn’t exclude myself.

It at least ended up with us gradually forgetting about our Pokémon project so it was never fleshed out more. Being in a reminiscing mood lately I just remembered it and figured it was a nice story to share with you. It’s a shame it never became a full world concept but I think we got the basics knocked out pretty well.  Of course grandpa was a bit insulted he was basically a bad guy what wanted to move all animal life and grandma just said we earned a treat for our hard work and good play but still it was really nice to do and something I have only done so once ever since, for my tabletop campaign.. which currently is unhealthy. Who knows maybe one day I will create a concept for my own Pokémon game again. As for now Pokémon Fauna.. has fainted.

I do hope you guys do not mind how I pay tribute this week. It just felt like a sweet thing to do where I give grandpa his own little place here in my safe space. What would you like to see in a pokémon game, what kind of pokémon would you design? Which one of the ones I mentioned is your favorite! Sorry that I am not an artist .. I tried my  best to draw these from my own memory. Even if you are looking at those though.. .Remember..
I am not weird, just very pink!
Until we read again.

XO
Pinkie

Top 5: Floral Pokemon

Hey little monsters, I am back! Well sort off! Thursday we have to say our final goodbyes to grandpa and friday the cremation will take place so we might see a missed blog. What blogs I get too before the goodbye I would like to dedicate  in his memory. Back when I was the age of an actual Pokémon Trainer (10) grandpa had this beautiful garden. It was a boomerang shaped garden with the greenest and softest lawn I ever saw and beautiful flower beds. All around the boomerang shaped edge (north side) there was a seven feet earthen soundwall he planted sturdy but beautiful plants on. Dead in the middle, for a large part of my life but changed near the end of them living their,  there was a big waterfall made in the middle of that hill leading up to a body of water where I played with my toys or read some of the amazing books they had hidden in their old timey attic. So today’s topic is in honour of that garden.
Princess Pinkie’s top 5 Floral Pokémon!

Floral Pokémon Number 5: Cherrim

Subjects… first a disclaimer, this isn’t my top five grass Pokémon, this is my top five of flowery pokémon. They fit in the garden theme better and they would be something grandpa would have liked over some of my other picks. He hated owls and leapfrogs so it wouldn’t feel right. This means we aren’t limited to a single type either… but since we are talking about flowers… 80% will be.  My first pick would be Cherrim. The evolution of the pokémon Cherubi is one of my favorite floral Pokémon mostly because it resembles me a lot.

While Cherubi is like the cutest cherry you’ll ever see, not including any strippers you might meet going by that name, Cherrim is a much more complex beasty. It has two forms, it’s overcast form in which it hides it entire body behind some large purplish bell shaped flower petals and its sunshine form. Once the sun comes out Cherrim transforms into a happy little dancing pink creature that wields the power of fire.. sort off..it’s still a regular grass type but it has access to fire. If being pink wasn’t enough for me to identify with it , I am also one who hides her true happy but geeky and childish self from the real world a bit. At conventions and when blogging I put up Sunny Day and can transform into my Sunshine Form. You can see how Cherrim is to finally be itself throughout it’s design and that is a strong concept. The versatility in it’s color scheme is also quite amazing. Starting out as a red orb.. it becomes a purple flower to move into pink blossom with a yellow happy little sunshine face.

It’s a flower fit for a queen…or a princess and Cherrim is definitely something I still want to run on my team on playthrough of a fangame or something special. Speaking about cherries… remember when I told you about that waterfall? There used to be a tree there in my youngest days. One day I would ask what sort of tree it was.. and grandpa tricked me into believing it was a cherry tree. He wanted me to eat some fruit.. and I was very picky then..so he told me it was a very special cherry tree and he just plucked the fruit, while giving me a bowl of cherries. A few visits later when I was nagging to grandma about getting come candy (they had a LOT of candy in a cupboard I found out about) when grandpa came in and this time the tree had given other fruit. Instead of giving me candy he gave me an apple. I was amazed by it and gladly ate the ..at least I assumed…magic apple. He never told me what tree it actually was..it always remained the magic cherry tree. When I knew better, but the tree had to be cut down (it was sick and a risk to the garden or something) and I felt blue  he came in with a big chocolate bar.. telling me i’d never believe what the tree dropped for me right before the end. So a transforming cherry seemed a nice fit on this list.

Floral Pokemon Number 4: Sunkern and Sunflora

Sometimes a princess can fall in love with a pauper and that I did, a few years AFTER Pokémon Gold and Silver actually released. Sunkern is a little seed pokémon that transforms into the jolly sunflower pokémon Sunflora when exposed to a sunstone. Both quite basic in design they aren’t all that special at first sight. Yet Sunkern is actually quite well known in the Pokémon Community. It is known as the weakest pokémon ever, and this is factually true. Sunkern has the lowest stat total of any of all the 920+ monster. Now for balancing reasons you might think that Sunflora must be a beast then? Raising the weakest Pokémon to get the strongest? Nope! Sunflora is the weakest evolution final evolution ever.

This is exactly what endeared me so to it.  When in my early tens playing this game I just saw an average looking pokémon that would not fit on my team, I tried it because I liked Sunkern.. but I could not use it so it ended up in my box without thinking much more of it. Years later when I found out it was so weak I became endeared to it again. Rooting for the underdog and all, but it also became a good metaphor of Pokémon to me.

You start out with a little sprout and need to give it love to make it great. In Sunflora’s case you need a LOT of love to accomplish that.  People oftenly look down on Pokémon and how “weak” it is. ‘Oooh turn based combat is so 1990’s…’ ‘Oooh they use crappy textures the game should look like breath of the wind’. Pokémon is like sunkern and sunflora itself.  Yes there are better functioning games out there, better designed and better looking. Even now that Pokémon has evolved it still falls behind the pack when it comes down to graphics and maybe even gameplay. Like a Sunkern , it will never be NEEDED on your team. You don’t have to have played a Pokémon game to be a gamer, you use  sunkern and play pokémon because you love it. A lot of trainers in the game tell you a true pokémon trainer doesnt just use the strongest pokémon but use the pokémon they want to use and Sunflora has been designed with this very idea in mind, and who can resist that smile.

Floral Pokémon Number 3: Budew Roselia and Roserade.

Probably the most generic top 5 pick you’ll find on this list is the rose Pokémon. Roselia being my absolute favorite of the evolutionary line, but cheers to the baby pokémon budew for all the misery it put me through to train it up.  Budew is a little sprout that can finally blossom into a Rosellia if you befriend it enough and level it up during daylight. To evolve Roselia into Roserade you need to find a Shiny Stone.. one of the rarer stones to find in the Pokémon world. Which encapsulates the idea of growing your own flowers perfectly well.


I can not do it! In dutch we say those who are good with plants have green fingers..well that must mean mine are black with death. I am so bad with plants I even managed to kill plastic ones. I once won some hyacinth with a lottery and decided those would be my babies.. I gave them love and attention plenty of water.. and they grew! So fast! So fast that their heads became too heavy for their stems and they snapped and died. Luckily Pokémon gave me a  evolution-line where I could not mess up (Although Budew fainted a lot) . The difficulty to raise it reminds me of an actual plant so for some weird reason Roselia is the pokémon I identify most as a grass type because it reminds me of how difficult it is.

Roses where grandpa’s favorite gardening project for a very long time, during a time we used to visit them a lot so I saw the process he had to get trough. They had their own little fertilizer and he clipped acces leafs so it would not have to work to feed all those leafs. I was not allowed to play around them. My my little pony ball was banned from entering the rose area and whenever I asked to help with the roses my attention was diverted elsewhere… which in hindsight was good because of my touch of death. It is funny, while giving someone roses is seen as something very romantic , every time we see people depicted taking care of them, they are slightly toxic grumpy folks and this cartoony stereotype I found out to be at least semi true. Which makes it funny that roselia is a grass and poison type to me.  When the designers made Roselia they could have focussed on the romantic aspect of roses, maybe nowadays making it a grass fairy type. Yet instead we got the reflection on how it is to raise the flower, so I have to wonder. Did the designer have a grandpa like mine?

Floral Pokémon Number 2: Floette

A pokemon that is not a grass type? For Shame! Why put it in this list Pinkie? ‘The pokémon technically isn’t even the flower it just holds it’! That is Princess Pinkie to you!  Even though I know Floette is holding a flower it’s never found without one..like how spoink would not make sense without his pearl Floette would not make sense without it’s flower so it is on this list.
Unlike the previous two entries on my list the other two forms are not included. Though cute and fine they aren’t as iconic and symbolic as Floette to me. Flabébé  is the name of the base form and using a Shiny Stone Floette can evolve into florges. Whose “hip’ design I find somewhat disagreeable making Floette a single entry. Floette is just a cute twin tailed fairy like creature clutching tight to one of five possible coloured flowers. Technically six but one is quite obtainable through normal means. 

Being A fairy type Floette can withstand the foe of any dragon. Having quite good special defences (for a mid tier pokémon) and passable special offence it can measure up to quite a few pokémon on this list even more so if you allow it to evolve. This isn’t a list of battle prowess however because Roselia and Roserade would certainly kick their ass. Floette is the ultimate gardner Pokémon.  Often sought out by royalty to landscape their castle gardens.  Which means it’s a perfect one for a princess like me. It is also kind hearted, it protects flowers dearly and wishes to see them grow and bloom. Flabébé it’s prevolution seeks a flower to call it’s own to draw power from, while Florges the evolution recovers its stamina by basking in the plants energy. Floette follows a different path. It bestows the plants with its own energy to  make them grow. Putting in their soul if it were to protect their own flower beds. This is what every true gardner at heart does and what I saw my grandpa do. Even when his body ached he would try to be there for his dear plants…until he got to old and passed it onto a gardner and after grandma passing away moving away so he did not have to worry about those things anymore. Everyone with a passion for their garden can relate to Floette in some way at least. Having their favorite flower and clutching onto them tightly.

Yet Floette ‘s story goes even deeper.  Floette plays a crucial role in the story of Pokémon X & Y teaching us a lesson about accepting death.
In ancient times Kalos was ruled by a king named AZ. His Floette fought in this war which lead to it passing away. Heart broken by his loss AZ created ‘The Ultimate Weapon’ in order to bring Floette back. That process cost the life of so many soldiers and Pokémon of each site that when Floette finally got back it was devastated at the price that was payed to ensure it’s return that it could not accept AZ anymore and it left him. It left AZ to suffer near eternally ever he waited hundreds of years to be reunited with his Pokémon and his attempt nearly led to the extinction of all life because others would abuse the weapon. It teaches us that sometimes letting go and keeping a memory can be better. Like a flower all life is made to bloom and wither in the end. Without the withering we would not be able to appreciate the bloom so there is always a price to pay. So even if we have to sometimes say goodbye and it can hurt like mad, without it.. life would lose it’s dazzling gleam.

Floral Pokemon Number 1:  Bellsprout, Weepinbell Victreebel

By now it should come to no surprise that I pick one of the ugliest flowers in the pokéverse as my favorite flower. I love my underdogs. Bellsprout arguably is one of the most simple pokémon designs that is just a stone thrown away from being a stick figure. It’s evolutionWeepinbell quite dopey looking and victreebel being full on weird.

Unlike all the others there are no deep stories why I like these pokemon so much. My grandfather did not have any carnivorous plants in his yard, nor did he particularly like yellow flowers. We did not bond over me sharing stories about either. There’s only one pokémon my grandpa ever knew by name.. and that might become a blog post itself and it wasn’t any of these.  This line I just love ..just because. I don’t particularly use it very often nor do I have great tales about DingDong the Bellsprout and how I used it in one of my adventures. Yet every time I see a Bellsprout I feel happy. Everytime I hear Weepinbell say it’s name I have this goofy grin that makes the pokemon seem less derpy than me. When James obtained Victreebel in the anime their interaction became something I totally loved and applauded at like a small child. Bellsprouts magnificent performance in the pokémon league or even when Weepinbell is shown during the pokémon rap it was always a little burst of happiness.

I love it when other people use it in nuzlockes or let’s plays, I love it when it showed up in a pokéball in Super Smash Bros and I can’t exactly tell you why. Maybe that’s why my bond with it is so strong, I don’t need anything to like it I just do and always will. Sometimes when I play Pokémon Let’s go I just take a bellsprout out and let it walk next to me …just to see bellsprout walking.. and I can turn on a game just for a brief burst of that. I giggle and turn the game off again and move onto something else.  Battlewise it’s stats are nice enough but nowhere near spectacular.

It’s definitely usable even in some of the harder fangames but it’s not a pokémon that you’ll see in competitive. Aside from bellsprout itself it doesn’t have great shinies either. It’s a pokemon where objectively there is nothing to love about it, yet i love everything about it instead. In fact it’s kinda like a flower, you can’t REALLY use it, you do not gain a direct benefit from having it, it tastes a lot worse than it smells and smells way less strong than people make you believe and usually scary bugs go near it. Yet when we look at them sitting in the grass, being taken into our home or even if we just see a painting of picture of it we can’t help but feel content.

There you have it readers my top five floral pokémon. I hope you had a good read even if backdrop is on account of something sad. I must say I felt happy doing these posts and getting some stuff out. What is your favorite flower Pokémon?  What’s your favorite flower? Or anything else you want to share with me? Let me know in the comments and I will get back to you!
Remember,
I am not weird, just very pink!
Until we read again.