Technology – Pinkie's Paradise

Steampunk? Steamball? Steamboy!

Welcome back to Paradise my dear Island guests, I am dropping the steampunk greetings because I ran out! So instead I will go with: “Good day dear guest, welcome to another beautiful day in Paradise, today we serve you this special blend of Anime-Spritz and the Movie-to. Two parts Steampunk with a solid dash of Katsuhiro Otomo one part Star Wars and expectedly garnished with a bit of Akira. This review will take you through my experience with Steamboy!

Akira but with Steam

Steamboy came out in 2004 and is directed by the man the legend Katsuhiro Otome himself. He is known as the man who revolutionised anime with his iconic flick.. Akira! This movie cost 20.2 million dollars and is one of the most expensive animated movies of all time. Certainly at that time. A Blueray these days costs you about €19,90 which I assume will be the dollar price as well as you guys tend to get that stuff cheaper than us. My version at least offered me the chance to choose between sub and dub and this had me pondering for a bit. I am a sub girl.. very much but the dub cast consists of Alfred Molina, Patrick Stewart and Anna Panquin among others and it sounds absolutely phenomenal. However the matching lip flaps stuff isn’t done as well. As a sub-girl I watched the movie subbed. For two reasons. Anna who plays Ray, our main character fakes a british accent, and while she does it pretty good it is a fairly thick accent.. making it slightly harder for me as a non native english speaker to understand being the most important. The second the main characters being the Steam family. In Japanese their name is not translated.. so Steam and steam .. which both appear in this movie a lot.. are more separable. Watching the dub however I think is completely justified!

The movie tells the story of James “Ray” Steam. Son of the great Dr Edward “Eddie” Steam and grandson of the legendary Lloyd Steam. Unbeknownst to Ray his father and grandfather make an invention that can propel the world into the next age of science. The mysterious Steamball. However after a workplace accident Eddie and Lloyed now follow very different beliefs. One seemingly took the side of the Americans and the O’Hara foundation.. led by the Child-Ojousama Scarlett O’Hara St Jones and the weasley CEO Simon. The other takes the side of Robert Stepehnson, a british nationalist and fellow inventor. When Lloyd mails Ray one of the three Steamballs, he quickly finds himself marooned between both sides and has to fight his way out of many dangerous situations so that the true philosophy of science can survive. In doing so however war between America and Britain almost seems unavoidable as Ray quickly finds out that power corrupts. It’s a fairly interesting story that does have its flaws. With the runtime of slightly over two hours this movie outstayed its welcome just a bit. For me one of those moments happened at the 45 minute mark and the second near the end. I never would have turned it off but there were points where I was like… hmmm we are treading water a bit.

America vs Great Britain

The set piece for this movie is great. An alternative take on Britain in 1866. The concept of steam having reached its limits and people trying to break it is intriguing. The quasi science behind is that people found a liquid water-like element or material that can both solidify and turn to steam within a small margin or something..with a denser base one can cram a lot more steam in small containers and make it more productive. The money hungry Americans want it to make MONEY and lots of it while the proud british want to use it for Queen and Country and to subject those who would oppose them. One of the scientists believes that we should explore all facets of science.. even the ones that can be used for nefarious gains, it is up to humans to handle them responsibly and the other beliefs mankind can not be trusted with power like this. Science is meant to serve man not rule over them. Ray works as a neutral perspective; he just loves gadgets and tech and thinks a tank is really cool when he sees one. He does however think a tractor is pretty dangerous because one nearly destroyed his house. It’s where one of this movie’s greatest strengths yet also it’s weaknesses lie. It doesn’t really choose a side… until very very late in the movie. It does keep the plot exciting and shows us some amazing steampunk tech, pretty cool utilities and wonderful locales.. yet we also see a main character that doesn’t know very well what he is fighting for or who he is running from.

I do not mind this neutral approach but they back out of it hard, at one point one side is revealed to be pretty evil.. and then near the end they are not..or they regret it and flip.. I am not sure how to explain that. A lot of characters have ulterior motives, lie about their beliefs and or change them as the movie goes along and a two hour movie is kind of too short to tell that. It results in a lot of idealistic speeching to get the point across the movie is trying to make but that sometimes doesn’t make sense.. like speaking about your ideals against what is essentially your boss. Or telling a kid waaaay more than you would tell a kid. As a result some of the speeches feel a bit forced. So Ray talks to person A, maybe he can’t be trusted, Person B explains his side, Person C tells Ray to be careful and why science should be treated with more care.. but the person is confused.. so maybe it’s person D who has the right vision..who of course also speeches. In the end they are all kind of assholes..but also not?! It’s a tad much.

When action is happening however this movie is great! The Steampunk inventions work in a really mechanical and realistic way and a slew of interesting gadgets is pulled in. Very early Ray for example has to flee from some bad guys on his steam cycle. It as an invention that has not fully worked yet so before he can fire it up properly he has some issues and tumbles around in the wheel (it is basically one large steam propelled wheel ) .. in trying to flee he tries to lose them by quickly hiding behind a Steam train that is coming their way..but the way rails are designed keeps the cycle locked on track. (He had a ramp to get in before) every scene has tiers as it were. It is not just throwing punches… it is feeling out what the problem is, finding a solution and making it happen. All the fights and action scenes are conquered by clever thinking like how a scientist would. Yes there is a powerful mcguffin but it doesnt give power as one would in Shonen.. people almost never overpowered…except for a war going on in the background.. but the action fits the tone of this movie so much. Then there are the more comedic scenes and discovery scenes that pack so much charm.. it only has too many speeches.

Well put Together

What stood out to me most is how absolutely stunning this movie is! It looks gorgeous! This is a 2004 movie so it’s 16 years old but it looks so clean! Yes it is really brown and grey like all steampunk movies and most period pieces, yet the movie knows when it is enough and treats you to a beautiful coloured scene as well. The details look amazing and this might be the only movie where I do not mind that they used 3d graphics in a 2d movie. It blands in so well and gives everything “mass” Wind effects, steam effects they all look SOOOO great in this movie. I am not a big visual type of person but this , this wowed me! It looks 80’s in design , quite close to Akira but with all the commodities of modern animation. I would not describe it as realistic.. but just by looking at it you can add adjectives to every item. The heavy lever, the creaky crank. Just by looking at some parts you know how much force you would have to use to pull it down or make it move. Pipes twist shapes from having too much pressure little glass cracks from shockwaves nearby. Ray’s aviator goggles shatter after his first crash landing.. there are so many small details

The characters are also great. Scarlett O’Hara St Johnson, who is indeed based on the character from Gone with the Wind for example seems like your typical Oujousama , she feels too good for everything.. she is super shallow but rather than having her completely overcome this it is because of said shallowness she discovers some of her beliefs or some stuff her company does doesn’t work for her. Per example.. she talks to a person she has warm sentiments for seeming worried.. however once she founds out it will give her less money .. she thinks of him as a bad element.. influencing something else she likes.. She really wants to keep that..so her mind finds a way to explain how she can have her way. Later on however she sees one of her machines is causing destruction.. the CEO spins it to her as a marketing tool.. so people can see what they will buy! She is against this however because she doesn’t want the “pretty things” to be broken. We see growth, as in the person learns what they want and do not want and what is more important for them.. but they do not morph into a great hero who learned their lesson.

Ray and both Lloyd and Eddie get plenty of similar obstacles in their way. Ray wants to do right.. but he is very idealistic.. he isn’t in this to do right by some or to do right by the good side.. he wants to do right for all. He also believes man is good.. and those traits get him in trouble.. but he doesn’t give up on that. He stays who he is and sticks with his choices, even if that choice is not making a choice. Eddie and Lloyd also make decisions based on this and even Simon who is but a minor character can’t help but showcase his dominant character trait .. being Greed even when it endangers his life. Yes he is weasley, yes he is your typical “snake man” archetype.. he doesn’t do the whole chickening out thing , not really at least, however he is not stupid enough to die for his greed either. Characters stay themselves rather than being a stereotypical movie role. That can lead to a few eyeroll moments, as “in other movies, the hero would have learned by now” .. but that is just the point.. these situations happen because it just so happens to be these characters that were put in this situation and I love that so much!

Soaring to the Skies

The movie does fall in the pitfall of having too many finales, the final encounter has so many tiers that it stops being interesting in the final step or so. It’s still amusing but I reached a point where I would be fine with any outcome as long as it would end. It’s not quite “you haven’t even seen my final form” levels.. but there are definitely too many elements in the end. Reason is once again those shifting alliances and believes. What starts as Small guy versus big corporate evildoers ends up as England versus America and that ends up in.. about 8 subgroups or so each doing their own things. It makes sense.. but it all is a bit convoluted and it means some plottreats do not go anywhere. There is a big thing about scuba divers in steampunk suits but one falls off the stairs because he trips and that ends the entire thing with the Scuba divers.. We see a character be built up as super important in the conflict and at one point he just stands there and watches.. while he technically was still doing things… and of course for some reason each side has the perfect counter for the other teams surprises packed and loaded on their ships. Air Travel is still unheard of yet when America shows something in those veins. and Brittain goes.. what the F is that thing.. they also go like “Hey now we can test out that weapon we made in case people made such a thing we were just so utterly surprised by” It dulls the background conflict significantly.

The action with Ray and Scarlett amidst that war is finger licking good! The story is descent with flaws, the action only has that one bigger setback. Critics rate this movie with about a 6,6 out of 10 and a 6,9 on IMDB. However I do feel those scores are way too low. On Metacritic this movie scores an 8.7 out of 10 from the audience and that I find is a much fairer score. I would put it slightly lower due to it’s chunky runtime and excessive speeches, which I could forgive if the finale was a BIT more on point but for a movie about the glory of science, for a movie about steampunk I could not wish for much more than what I have got. Even after finding this movie too long I kind of want to rewatch it dubbed sometime.. not right now , not even this year anymore but I really want to watch the dub as well at some point and that has to be a seal of approval right there. A sub-girl who liked this movie so much that she would like to see if the dub would make her appreciate it even more!

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Steampunk D&D The Videogame? Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Rusted Geared Greetings my lovely island guests! Some of you might now I am very into D&D and often reference it! It is my favourite game to play by far as I do have enough imagination to imagine the worlds we visit and see them unfold in better graphics than any engine based game could! I petted a dragon, I yeeted a huge cyberpunk golem into a black hole and I can distinctly visualise those worlds. Today I review the game that brought me closest to this experience I have been with a video game. That game is Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura!

It’s a D&D Game

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a game by Troika Games, you might have heard of them from their game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. One of my favourite RPG’s and BY FAR ..FAR …FAAAAR my favourite vampire game! I still simp for Jeanette! I think that is how I used that word right?! Troika games is pretty well known for deeply complex games built on actual roleplay games mechanics. If Arcanum is an actual roleplaying system I do not know. Yet this game feels the most open world (ish) D&D like that I have ever played. Mimicking the playstyle of a Pen and Paper RPG the most of everything. This starts when you realise that the manual for this game is completely available online from the start up. There is no tutorial, no hints on how to build your character, limitless possibilities with minimal and vague descriptions. Descriptions like “Int” You can raise this stat to raise Intelligence, Some crafts scale from this stat and some magic. Luckily there is the manual…which uses pretty pictures.. a very tiny font.. and has 185 pages. And that is a single language! (European Manuals often were multi-lingual hence the clarification to those who might not have grown up with that). I was arrogant enough that I believed I could do this without the Manual so I made Elle.. my OC in my Isekai series and other media as well.

In D&D classes there exists this game, much like Vampire the Masquerade and Aberrant as roleplaying systems offer you the ability to do anything. Which is amazing! Yet somewhat overwhelming. Choosing between genders races and Portraits gives you about 50 ish choices of what character you want to play as.. of which about 5 have different stats. Based on your race. Then you pick from well over 30 backgrounds that all hugely affect the game. I made Elle an Half-Elf with the background Nitzsche’s Poster Child. Which doubles her critical fail chances but gives her a permanent 10% experience boost! I wanted to give her ice magic.. but that was lacking so instead she got the first offensive spell I could find.. Harm. In regular D&D once you have selected your character and race you distribute your skill points and choose from between 6 stats to level up. The rest is altered by those base stats.. and your class which levels up.. semi separately from the character. In this game however there are no classes! Everything! … EVERYTHING! Is leveled by the same points. So upon start and level up..instead of choosing out of 6 stats..you get to choose out a few more! You can choose out of 50 things to put your points in.

It did not take me long to realise I had not built Elle properly to survive at the start, I kept dying before even exiting the starter area and because I am reviewing here I played the game on easy! Still I kept getting washed as Elle kept falling over! While very much in her character I wondered what was causing it. Was it the Nitzsche thing? No! It was the fact that if you are out of Mana you fall to the floor! As Elle had no Melee investments she could not put up reliable DPS without crashing. Or so I though! Because experience is not based on how much you kill in this game! Experience is based on how much you hit! How many actions you take and all that stuff. I of course still could not hit enough to get away with so much little “mana” which is called fatigue in this game so I had to redo it. So Elle’s much more competent Twin Emma was born. She was Elle’s counterpart.. instead of clumsy and socially awkward she was physically apt with a hint of magic and she had an extreme personality which makes people react to her very hostile or very friendly! I trained her to be skilled with a sword and gave her some magic for a ranged option. As she would grow during our adventure she would develop in a semi rogue, with trickster spells. A bit of a chaotic neutral type player tethering more to the evil side. For those who ask.. yes this game also features alignments.

It’s a D&D Video Game

Emma discovers a lot of things while playing. I was walking to towns but apparently you need to quick travel, or you will travel for hours through empty lands. During travel however you can not rest easy as encounters may pop up! This can be disastrous or a fun challenge depending on what your level is, what your settings are and what kind of gear you are rocking. The game features the ability to play it real time, in which case it plays very similar to Diablo..but shittier. Or you can play it fully turn based in which it kind of plays like Divinity Original Sin 2….but shittier. More on those negatives later! I play the game in Turn based so it felt more like a tabletop and that was the less shitty of the three options but again you will have to check the next section for that. First let’s tell you about the size of the game! Which is sizable… even with many mock locations you can still explore the map with fast travel to discover points of interests. For example, I encountered many mysterious shrines I had come to investigate! Then there are a few important towns connected by railway stations and tech, but also travable in the classic way.

This is what makes this game so interesting. The setting is quite unique, and when I say that I mean it is quite Identical to Fable 3. The Industrial Age in a fantasy setting. However this game leans WAY heavier into it and besides a good and evil alignment your character can either perform well in Steamworks OR Magick Obscura… You choose a side if it were. Though nothing works as well as just hitting things hard with a big metal object which for me .. kind of was a fun change of pace. Don’t get me wrong.. Sword is not the only playstyle.. but it is by far the easiest and it still isn’t easy. Let’s say Sword is Normal Level difficulty.. maybe even Intermediate. Magic is Hard and if you go Tech..well that is by far the hardest to a point that for me personally it is unplayable. It is doable but there is a lot of searching for parts, tinkering , leveling crafting levels to keep things up, leveling traps to use traps, leveling the stat to use it and of course raising your defence so you live long enough. It by far is the biggest package of skills you need to manage, but I am sure that will be someone’s dream playstyle.. save it for a second run though.

A second run is quite playable and manageable because there is lots to see and lot of choices to make! So high points in replayability. In this story you play the only survivor of the Zephyr a blimp that got taken down by Ogre Aviators.. who did not know how to fly a plane so they just tried stuff and took themselves down by flying into the blimp and just exploding against it.. it worked though and only a tiny halfling or gnomish man survived long enough to hand you a ring with some intials on it as your only clue! This person is important to the faith of the world the gnome says. Then a priest shows up and tells you , you are an incarnation of a god.. but since he is just a rookie priest he doesn’t know anything more than the legend. He teams up with you and so an epic journey filled with lots of shady figures and people out for that ring and/or your life begins. While I haven’t been able to complete the game yet, I made a large enough dent in the story that I have a fairly good impression of the world building and it is quite amazing. There are very many ways to move through the story.. so I won’t tell you mine as it might ruin the fun.. because this is not a game you’ll want to play for the gameplay.

It’s a Video Game

The game is a harsh one, there is no backing out of conversations, there is no regret , there is no autosave! If you make a choice it is locked in unless you remember to save before it. You don’t always know when these moments come up so save plenty! For example, fairly early in the game, my character sides with a thief and I destroyed supplies for another … which gave me access to thieves guild.. but the town disliked me! I never got very good sale prices after.. luckily I helped them stop a bank robbery earlier so I was in a more or less neutral position. I befriended a big Ogre that helped me a lot in combat..however I got sent back almost an hour of dungeon crawling when he reached 0 hp. As far as I am aware.. if a character reaches 0 hp it’s dead forever. So I learned to save plenty. I sided with a group of necromancers , I figured since my character used necromancy herself she would not be against it. This does have an effect on other events later on. That kind of world building is pretty standard.. but it is implemented very well here.. but where this game really shines is the side quest.

In the first large city you encounter I got a quest to track down a painting that was stolen.. it plays out a bit like a detective story of sorts, it looks like the husband may be involved but he is hard to find. Unrelated I stumbled upon another side quest to deliver a letter from a shady guy. He kept saying to me I should not open it! Yet Emma is curious and she has a big strong ogre to protect her so she opened it anyway! It directions to a house with a brief but ill foreboding bit of text. Upon delivering the letter they find out I broke the seal and they try to kill me! They kill that monk guy that tagged along so I restart and do the fight better.. These guys were gonna pull a heist or something it seems. However it turns out that in that house you now can rob yourself.. is actually THE painting you’ve been looking for. Quests OVERLAP and I don’t think I have ever seen that. Of course if you decide to deliver the letter like normal you do not go to the house and I am not sure if the painting then would change locations to house you delivered the letter to or if they leave it.. but this world changes so much from you interacting with it.. and what you do in one side quest or what order you do them in can change how events unfold and for a 2001 game that is hella impressive. Even today we don’t see that kind of thing a lot.

Unfortunately mechanically the game is super wonkey! Combat feels super finicky and if you play it in real time mode it feels super floaty and often derails in click spamming, if you have any skills you want to use you are almost forced to play it in turn based mode. Real time does work.. but weird things happen, there is a quick select for example to use skills like in an MMO but they are not telling you which key is what. So I thought for the longest time I had to click them , still real time combat feels muddy and lacks the tactics you can use in turn based. That itself is hindered by hitboxes and context sensitive spells but without proper feedback! For example casting harm on a friendly unit can be done when it stands in front of an enemy. It will say you target your ally but target the enemy instead it feels super unnatural. It looks murky and boring as well in most places! The steampunk elements look super creative , but especially the wilderness is extremely repetitive. It has beautiful music but it loops too often and all in all.. it is kind of a bad video game. Because almost all elements are wonky! It is too hard, it looks bad, (for 2001 standards and did not age well either) it sounds generic and combat and movement feels super floaty and I had a lot of frame drops! IN a 19 year old game! So while it is an interesting video game .. it is also a bad video game.

What is it?!

In the end that is the fatal flaw of this game. It’s not good enough to be a strong video game and it is too limited to be considered a proper D&D adventure. What we get is something that is kind of smack in the middle of it! It wanted to be more a pen and paper game and compromised too little to be a video game. It doesn’t work. Combat is done poorly and unbalanced. A melee hit does less damage.. but costs less stamina and acts faster (mostly) however since hits count towards XP and not kills.. magic deals TOO much damage. You get less xp and more damage because of your build.. it is a system where you can do everything and you can beat it with everything.. but it is also a system that REALLY REALLY REALLY favours Melee and violent characters. Gameplay and idea don’t overlap.. as if they are from two different worlds.

So this will not appeal to those wanting a great RPG and not to those who want the liberty to play tabletop! That being said however I loved this game .. because it is pretty much for people like me! I’ll admit it is too hard and tedious for me.. so I can only stomach it in small sessions , like an hour a day! But I really want to play that hour a day to see Emma get stronger. She isn’t going to be the character I really REALLY want her to be.. but a more functional build of what I want her to be and that is ..mostly fine. There is such an interesting world to explore that I will take broken mechanics for granted. It is no Final Fantasy VI but it is the closest I can come to experience being a player in a tabletop game for now! It’s harsh, punishing and I really stress out while playing it.. but those nerves also are that of a D&D player on low HP. Simply for the world alone this is such an unique game, and it is quite loved among recent players who like games like this.. It really has this niche audience and I belong to it for the most part! I am still annoyed by it’s flaws or my own limitations to play it more freely so for me it’s fine.. for anyone who thrives for difficulty and freedom.. this is an absolute and rare gem.

_{^{<Disclaimer>
The Screenshots I used are not of my own Journey, I was unable to produce my own screenshots properly due to some technicalities, imagine these.. screenshots but with an leather armored girl with swords and the disarm spell for my journey!
<End of Disclaimer>}}

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Pokémon Gadgets for A Pokémon Detective

Top of the day to you my little Watsons. As one may have noticed I am somewhat inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brainchild, Sherlock Holmes, the best detective in entire Galar. However Princess Pinkie told me that there factually is one detective that is greater than mister Holmes. She did seem pretty sure of herself and I could not detect a lie. The detective she said is factually better goes by the name of Bruce Wayne… but when crime is about he turns into… Zubatman!… At least that is what she told me. Wayne seems to be intelligent but not as great as my beloved inspiration, so I can only deduce that this bat-person is the greater detective because of their use of gadgets. In an attempt to further myself as a detective I will look for some to make my own utility belt.

Pokeball Chargers 10,000 mAh

These days we do everything by smartphone! That goes for detective work as well. Not only can I research leads on my 4g internet, this nifty device also allows me to take pictures of evidence, record my own voice to hypothesise or even record others. It also allows me to follow some criminal scum on weird applications called Instagram, Facebook or recently WordPress. The Smartphone is thusly the main and most trusted gadget of a detective. Much like in those sony product placement James Bond movies like Casino Royale. They could do everything for him, they can do so for the world’s pinkest detective as well. The problem with these nifty devices however is the fact that they have a shorter lifespan than Yamcha when facing a Saibaman. Luckily we can compensate by using the power that is inside these Pokéballs. Quite literally in fact. These capture devices can be hooked up to your phone to provide some much needed oomph for your quickly drainable device. Coming in at about 20 american dollars, they are fairly cheap, depending on where you live in the world and what politician would drive your country of the edge of course.Their look is nothing shy of phenomenal, they look just like the real thing with a nice glow when you wield them. Fooling everyone you are trying to spy on that you are just a regular trainer. A great bit of Pokémon parefeniia to collect. They come in three variations, regular pokeball, great ball and master ball. Now we will just have to wait for the love ball variant to release and this detective is good to go.

Pokémon disguises

Sometimes a great detective has to bland in her environment Be unseen, yet still be there. Imagine my surprise when I found out that pokemon disguises can be really cheap in this world. They are called onesies and there is a LOT of them out there. Coming in as cheap as only $9 dollars , not using my own currency but american dollars as it is usually the standard chosen price online. Of course there are pricier ones out there, but the point is we can put together a disguise collection for relatively little money. It is the perfect way to sneak up on a Pokémon Go player who is catching in AR mode or to infiltrate the base of an evil team. They also keep you rather warm and snuggly in your homestead! In fact they are excellent apparel for a lazy sunday or a rainy evening. Keeping you nice and toasty.
A detective should always keep their minds sharp and relaxing in a onesie at the proper time can certainly make this happen. These multifunctional infiltration suits double as a mental soothing contraption and thus are a must have for the pinkest detective.

A robot sidekick

My Ditto called Evidence is a great sidekick to have don’t get me wrong, but being imaginative really hurts it’s practicality. In this day and age I also can not get a young boy or girl to join me on my crusade against crime or people would think ill of me. I tried training a cat once, but PETA showed up and said I could not and when I tried to recruit someone on the sidekick reddit, this government guy showed up at my door telling me I’d need to pay them minimum wage… which is more than what I get! So, with no options left looked to see if there was a gadget that could help me out. Lo and behold the UchiPika Pikachu Robot. For about $58 dollars, excluding shipping you can own this robotic tiny pikachu what bobs it head in such a nice and sweet manner that no bad guy would ever think to harm it. It will teach you some basic japanese, as you need that to control it, which is nice because the more language you speak the more chance you have to overhear some good clues. UchiPika however is a lot more functional than just a training tool. Like a proper electric Pokémon it has the power to turn on electronic devices such as a tv, which is perfect to create diversions and create an opportunity for the detectives to sneak by into another room to continue their evidence gathering. Judging on the commercial I show below it can also create EMP pulse to shut down electronic devices such as lights. This already makes it so much more useful to that homeless man i once tried to hire as a sidekick. He asked for change so I figured turning his life into something heroic would be just the change he needed, he disagreed and tried to steal my kidney. Should such a case ever happen again now though I will be prepared, because I have UchiPika.. and he knows Jūman Volt (Thunder Bolt) so the toy is a taser as well. Though my japanese is a bit rusty it may not EXACTLY work like that, but we shall see.

The Pokérang

Batman has these little bat boomerangs he throws which he seems to be using to great effectiveness. We can deduce such a gadget must certainly work. Not having access to any of Wayne Enterprises production companies , I was forced to scour the net for a replacement. I think I found the perfect devices to use. They are called fidget spinners. A long time ago these enjoyed some popularity but in this day and age , no one seems to really care for them, making it plausible the aspiring detective/superhero can buy them in bulk for cheap. Unfortunately the cheapest one I found, was one featuring a Pikachu design coming in at about 18 dollars , for a tossable that is a bit steep and that one had blunt edges. The one I would prefer has edges. I found it online for 44 …. well I don’t exactly know the currency, the page was in arab and the currency symbol look strange to me as well. More research is needed, but who knows if 44 , unknown arab currency equals like 4 dollars I might be able to know the guns out of people’s hand with some obsolete gadget soon. If nothing else it can at least help me relax while I wait for my Pikabot!

The Pikachu evidence collector

Gathering evidence is an important task of a detective. As Pikachu is a detective himself he knows this to be true, so it makes sense that this evidence collector device has been fabricated with his face on it. The concept of this device is very simple. You carry a portable vault with you once you put evidence on the button on top of the vault the device will crack open a little bit as a pikachu made of plastic will come out and paw the evidence inside the vault for safekeeping. A wonderful device to assist any detective. Pikachu does however seem to be kind of fickle in the type of evidence he collects. He seems to function best when a small flat disclike metal object is placed on the button. Peculiar he is so picky because anything can be evidence. Luckily it also works with dried up gum, which can contain dna evidence and when combined with these discs or even with a regular coin it can also rake in hairs and other small materials. However with the average price of $30 I would have hoped for just a little bit more practicality. Nonetheless. since Pikabot will not collect evidence having this Pikachu do it is still better than not collecting it at all? Why I can’t collect it myself? Well because I am ZUBATGIRL!

Now that we are equipped with gadgets maybe Princess Pinkiie will stop picking on me! Thank you for helping me find these gadgets little Watsons or is it little Robins…little Tailows? Maybe little SideKricketots? Let me know your preferred nickname and your favorite gadget in the comments! Stay sharp my junior detectives and remember!
I am not weird just very pink!
Until we read again.

Theory: A post-apocalyptic world

Welcome to another post my little Monsters. Since 1996, 1998 or 1999, depending where in the world you are from, we have been referring to ‘the wonderful world’ of pokemon. Yet in today’s Thursday’s Theory we will be taking a look at a contemplation of mine, which is shared by some on the net. However I decided not to take a look at these. So all evidence I bring for this theory is the ones I found by simply playing the original games and the original anime.

Some reservations before getting started
Alola in both anime and game has been shown to be fairly utopian, Kalos was quite decadent and nice as well so over time the vision on how the world of Pokémon should be has changed quite a bit. So the theory we will be addressing today isn’t really based on it’s modern intentions. Much of the Pokémon world were decisions due to its large success. Spin-off games and the explosive growth of the franchise would always have led to create a much more moldable world, a continuation of the rules established in Kanto would have driven the franchise against a creative wall. So for the purposes of this post, we will only look at the original games and the first ‘season’ of the series. Rather than asking if the pokemon world IS post apocalyptic, we focus more on the question if it was ever meant to be.

Don’t expect anything like this, clearly this is untrue… Ethan doesnt wear his cap.

Evidence: No government
The ‘wonderful’ world of pokémon, doesn’t seem to possess any form of government. The rules of the region seem to be established by the pokémon organisation. If that even is a thing. Though in Galar we can see a stricter hierarchy, in the original games and in the anime we never really see those who have decided that 10 year olds can travel the land with their pokémon. We see some chairmen around the time Ash participates in the pokemon league but that is about it. Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu argued that a government should exist with three separate forms of power. The legislative, the executive and the judiciary power.

Here I thought I could never give him Pokémon flavor? Why is stage 1 a cat though?

The first and the second barely seem present, if anything there is only the laws leading up to the Pokémon League and its organisation. Even if that is what goes for those powers, they are controlled by the same organ, the league organization, which is a no no. However there seem to be no laws, except for some very basic criminal ones when it comes to non trainers. Everyone can open their own stores, there doesn’t appear to be any fines on polluting and trespassing etc, no gambling age or any sort of systems for civic control. The only law that does seem to exist is criminal law, and even that seems to mostly based on the common moral and values rather than hard written laws. All in all, the legislative force’s presence is neglectable in Kanto. Their judiciary force is up next, which quite honestly is a joke. In the anime, there basically only is Jenny who has to do it all. Yet like the lawmakers, there is little to no real influence. Though later in the series we are introduced to Looker and his organisation that try to prevent crime, which is a basic task of those who need to enforce justice, the Jennies seem to function reactively only. Their capabilities far beneath sub par, where in basically every instance we see them they do require some aid from our protagonist. To me it feels more like the officers are actually renegades trying to do the right thing, or something else I will talk about later. The executive force, why would it surprise anyone is also sorely missing. Schools, for non trainers aren’t a thing, like at all 10 year olds can travel the world using their Pokémon but later throughout the anime , and also in the game it’s revealed that there are even younger ones drifting on the road. There is educational tv and that’s about it.
In the games we at least have a trainer passport, showing some kind of governing agency to hand those out, but in the first game.. not so much, in the anime Ash just pins the badges to his vest and carries no form of ID what so ever. In no gyms do you actually have to identify yourself as a legit trainer and in the anime, Ash discovers the Pokémon League challenge by accident , seeing a poster, never it being his true goal. All in all it’s pretty solid proof that there is no government so at least there is something wrong with this world..

Rumor: The War
Fact, Kanto has recently seen a war at the beginning of Red and Blue, and though people theorise Red is Ash’s father, I do not believe that theory for in the japanese game Red and Ash are both named Satoshi. No that is not a last name, he is named after Satoshi Tajiri the creator of Pokémon, Tajiri being his family name/ last name. (In Japanese he is called Tajiri Satoshi) Since Red and Ash are thusly established as the same person it’s safe to say he would have seen the war as well. Lieutenant Surge is the one who talks about using his Pokémon in the war to zap his enemies into paralysis, yet it would be a war that did not do Kanto any favours. Perhaps Surge even belongs to those who ‘took over’ or deleted the Kantonian government. Making the Pokémon Organisation a potential antagonist. Evidence of this war is found throughout the entire game, evidence which would not fly nowadays cause it might not be totally PC. Kanto has a severe lack of adults, mostly of mature men above the age of 25 and below the age of 65. Given Lieutenant Surge’s age being mid 30’s at best, quite possibly younger this war could not have happened over 20 years ago. Since Ash father is nowhere to be seen, it would make very much sense if he was drafted, yet killed after he at least made Delia pregnant, meaning this war at least ended a little less than 11 years ago.

The Pokémon War Theory fits inside my theory…apparantly so does Bobba Fett

Whatever this war was about, it left deep wounds onto Kanto. Gyms are oftenly entrusted to kids, males are sparse and are often either extremely capable, like Koga and his ninja’s , beefy bulky sailors, or soldiers, warriors and the likes. Scientists are still there, but their role in a war would have probably put them out of harm’s way, But are these even kantonians? Could it be that the scientists are the ones that took over, because Mew was in Kanto? It is no secret that Professor Oak would have a boss battle at the end of the game. Maybe Team Rocket are actually old world kantionian rebels fighting to regain their independence from the Pokémon company. It would explain why they steal Pokémon from the government, because they do want to topple the system. It would also explain why the want Mewtwo.. to prevent the government from abusing it. This might just seem like wild speculation, but let’s look at Team Rocket’s motto for a bit shall we? To protect the world from devastation! To unite all peoples within our nation! To denounce the evils of truth and love!. These are the three lines that speak mostly about their intentions. Their original writing not a lot different except for the last line. In japanese they say’ To prevent the destruction of the world! To protect the peace of the world! To stand by the evils of love and truth!’
Rather than denouncing truth, they stand by it.So these people seem to fight for peace and against the furthering of the apocalypse. They also wish to let you know the truth!. Truth doesn’t sound evil.. but it IS evil if a lying organisation took over, which prevent the world from knowing the truth. So perhaps in this war, the League organisations took over, wiped out Kanto as it was before and Rockets are the (R)ebels to fight

Team Rocket being good is ASO a seperate theory… well apparantly I am onto something! Just look at theem being good!

The technology
Pokémon has always felt a little odd in the technical aspect, on the one hand, there is a company that is capable of dematerialising throwable pocket dimensions in your hand and store them in their grand database, as well as healing tables that seem to radiate healing energy inside those pocket dimensions. The common folk however have technology that seems miles and miles away from this. Your overruling company can send Pokémon through time, people rarely even have TV’s. Roads are barely being maintained, while the company is able to make life.
Cloning clearly is a thing, no matter what the Joys and Jennies say, they aren’t sisters. It has been ESTABLISHED in the world, that the Pokémon Company, which they work for have cloning technology as Mewtwo was a Mew clone and Ditto basically a failed mew clone.. manmade. To test it first on the legendary Pokémon that created all Pokemon live makes no sense, they must have test it on others first. ‘We are sisters’ has never really been proven in the series.
Technically even if cloned they would not even be lying coming from the same parent.. the Joy factory or whatever. Common sense would say that the likelihood of all Joy’s being 100% the same, would all end up in the same job but at different cities would be extremely flimsy at best. But no one notices.. because no one goes to school anymore to learn some common sense!If it was an anime only thing I could understand it being a running joke, but the same joke twice odd. Joy is funny because it could work due to sprites, but the same logic is not applied to anything else, hikers all look different in the anime. Jenny even is barely a thing in the game so why?!Because they are clones thats why! Just because a character says something, it doesn’t mean they have to speak truthfully. When Rose tells Jack she would never let him go, she was just saying something. When Ash in the first episode of the series told he would swear he would become a pokemon master, he was kinda full of garbodor. Clones working for the evil company.. sounds pretty messed up and post apocalyptic to me, after all , all the other nurses and health care has gone away.

If you even doubt these are clones you might need some X Intelligence!

Much like in fallout, there is plenty of drugs that are commonly available as well. Steroids for your pokemon? No problem have some X attack, pretty much what Psycho is in Fallout, how about a PP up? Well that’s just some jet! What utopian world would allow you to alter your Pokémon’s core by pumping it full of medicine? How about forcing it to learn moves it would not naturally learn by using training discs. Yet this is all technology that is readily available. However lights in a well traveled cave, roads to drive, no investment is made in that because it has nothing to do with Pokémon, so the company can’t do it therefore doesn’t care. Besides Gary’s car, we rarely see any technology that isn’t owned by the company.
No matter how you twist or turn things, something doesn’t add up in the difference in tech, the power balance shifted to an extreme, Gary proves that exist(ted) but he again is linked to the company, for the power balance to tip so far in one direction, some big event must have happened. Where did all that normal tech go? Why is the gap that big? It doesn’t match with the utopian theme. Something bad must have happened

Propganda I say! Tech is only available to those who follow the will of the company!

Closing thoughts
Nowadays it seems unlikely that the organisation behind Pokémon is evil, look at how chill professor Kukui is, elegant stuff went in Kalos. Lance became a great hero, though all he ever did was face Rocket, which may have just been a resistance. Lorelei helps you in let’s go, but only to stop team Rocket. But there is not a snowball’s chance in hell that gym leaders and elite four could be evil right? No one ever intended that?! …. Well if we follow the manga , they are all pretty darn evil. World ending and “I‘d have to murder your pokemon to stop you” evil.
However there is no way the company destroyed the world of Kanto and rebuild it in their image so they can just earn money and experiment with Pokémon right? There is no way professor Oak would ever be evil? Well he might have been, there was this boss battle… and he didn’t look too friendly with the sprite. So yes I do think it is entirely plausible that at some point in the development of at least Red and Blue , it was designed with a different vision than it has now. Ideas that seeped into the world, however the project had been adapted because the game took on more hype then expected and might have been better than expected. Now i’ll finish this up, if iI have to think of a peaceful post apocalyptic world that is kind of nice to have fun in as a young boy…I would depict that in one scene. Four boys, walking on a railroad.

So my little monsters, that ends yet another blog on the subject of Pokémon. I really like dedicating myself to a subject , it may be niche but I do hope you enjoy some of my content.
Please keep reading in the future, catch them all and most of all stay pink! Also let me know why you think Montesquieu evolves from a cat please!
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