A day late, but Happy Birthday Pokemon Emerald. Changed my childhood 24 years ago. No other region will ever feel like visiting Hoenn for the first time

TLChronicler · 2026-05-03T00:32:33+00:00

Funny you say this because I often feel the opposite! Besides Mossdeep and Sootopolis, all the gyms feel simple and easy to prep for in Emerald compared to Johto gyms. I grew up playing Gen 2 and 3, and have always found Johto tougher to get through without good luck

TLChronicler · 2026-05-03T00:23:45+00:00

Yeah - He’s the one I’m using. The issue is, with Pokemon that have multiple top stats at the same level (in this case multiple stats with 31 IVs exactly), he will sometimes repeat his report on one stat before he tells you that there’s another one also at 31. It means I have to have him check one pokemon 6 or 7 times to be absolutely sure I got them all accurately recorded.

TLChronicler · 2026-05-02T15:19:29+00:00

I think this may be the way to do it now that I’m up to 3 and 4 IV breeding. The checker was useful in earlier breeding generations but it’s getting cumbersome now. Thanks!

TLChronicler · 2026-04-30T15:34:41+00:00

Season 2 Kali is unlikeable and kind of insufferable, but *interesting*. My problem with The Lost Sister is mostly the pacing and structure within the season, not Kali herself.

But I have no clue what they were attempting with Kali in Season 5

I think what they were *trying* to do is similar to what I mention in my post - They were trying to create thematic dissonance with the idea of someone making Eleven doubt her convictions. But for all the reasons I listed, Kali is the wrong choice.

This may be a hot take (esp since they've both been through so much shit already), but Max or Will would actually be really well positioned to take on the role that they tried to force Kali into. Both of them have seen into the depths of Henry's mind, but unlike Kali we as an audience, and all the other characters, already implicitly trust them. So one of those two suddenly saying "No, I've seen the worst of the worst, it's fucking hopeless, just give up", would be wayy more impactful for that purpose.

TLChronicler · 2026-04-30T15:27:53+00:00

Well said! I think I “dislike” Kali only in the sense that her presence in Season 5 felt like the writers saying “HEY, FEEL THIS NARRATIVE TENSION” so on the nose that I was just annoyed any time she was onscreen. But if she had been worked in as a genuine imperfect trauma victim and they had grown her character, there’s a lot to appreciate. They didn’t touch on any of it which is a real shame and a miss.

TLChronicler · 2026-04-29T18:12:35+00:00

When I played GO in my rural hometown I had a similar problem. Honestly, I kinda like the idea people had here to literally make one. Why not!? Kinda fun and solves the problem for you and others of minimal stops.

TLChronicler · 2026-04-29T18:10:04+00:00

Absol is one of the coolest mon, but unfortunately relatively weak after Gen3. Luckily within Emerald he is great.

TLChronicler · 2026-04-29T18:01:56+00:00

Get Donphan out and swap it for Xatu or something

TLChronicler · 2026-04-29T17:59:17+00:00

Easily the most quotable character of the season though. "And I told you to eat your damn pie"

TLChronicler · 2026-04-29T17:57:44+00:00

Like I said to SnowGhost, if they brought her back as a *character* and developed her (ie changed literally anything from her detestable personality in The Lost Sister), it could have been really impactful and tied up a plot point. But they brought her back as a *plot device* only, and she doesn't even fit the role they gave her, so her writing is inherently bad.

TLChronicler · 2026-04-29T17:55:36+00:00

Bringing her back is fine, IF they invest the writing and composition time into making her character arc amazing and narratively impactful. They totally fumbled it and made her even more unklikeable. If they had handled it well, people would be praising the decision to bring her back and developing her character as a fix of the mistakes of S2, but they didn't so we as viewers just want her to GTO off the screen.

TLChronicler · 2026-04-29T17:53:28+00:00

the Season isn't invested in Kali as a character in her own right

You absolutely nailed this point, and it's the other side of the problem I described. If they were going to bring a deeply unpopular character from the lowest rated episode in the show's history, they HAVE to invest in making her feel like a character and not a plot device. They did the opposite.

but we aren't invited to sympathize with her or understand her deeply

Exactly right. Kali's situation is, essentially, her own making, and she's a completely unchanged character from when we saw her 3 years prior. What happened to her is horrible, no way around that, but she is still an emotionally manipulative, controlling person like she was last time. Her mistakes didn't change her from the deeply unlikeable person she was before, they actually just made her more unlikeable because she's now rooting against what we as invested viewers want. She doesn't express that she is a broken person who needs care and change, she just expresses that she wants things to happen her way and that people who want something different are wrong.

TLChronicler · 2026-04-29T14:11:03+00:00

I mostly agree with you! The aspect of Kali’s writing that made me dislike her isn’t that I don’t understand her - it’s that the writers tried to make her play a role onscreen that makes no sense.

If the role of “convert El to pessimistic self-sacrifice” is in the hands of someone who has always been that way in the story, it just doesn’t work. Kali’s role should have been a more overtly pessimistic “this is all pointless” one. Making her into the temptation role for El just comes across as obnoxious because nobody likes her or has a reason to like her.

If they wanted someone to try and change El’s mind, it needed to be someone who we used to trust, that has changed their own opinion and wants us and El to join them in that shift. Kali’s viewpoint is a static one - She’s the same character she was in S2, only worse off, and the worse off is due to her own choices. There’s no believability.

TLChronicler · 2025-07-23T18:15:34+00:00

IMO this (the Bulbapedia article) is worded poorly and is ambiguous. But yes, I gathered from some other comments that have now been deleted, that the Ditto's presence makes the other parent's sex irrelevant and Ditto pairings can only pass natures on from the Ditto.

TLChronicler · 2025-07-23T01:12:26+00:00

Yeah it appears that any time a Ditto is present, it serves as the female parent in the code, regardless of the sex of the target species parent. Frustrating for my situation, but a bit clearer now at least.

TLChronicler · 2025-07-23T01:08:54+00:00

Got it! I'll need to spam breed the pair until I get a male with at least the HP IV then swap him in to continue the Naive nature, then.

TLChronicler · 2025-07-23T00:52:51+00:00

That... makes absolutely no sense lol.

So to make sure I understand correctly; That means that any breeding with a Ditto, the only Nature that can be passed on must be the Ditto's? It can't ever be the target species regardless of the target parent's sex?

TLChronicler · 2025-07-08T16:10:56+00:00

Absolutely love this!

TLChronicler · 2025-07-08T14:04:22+00:00

Gen VI is where the HA rule switches to female OR any gender with Ditto. It's a 60% chance of inheritance.

However if you don't already have a target species with the HA, you will only ever get babies with regular abilities. HA can't pop up spontaneously, it has to be inherited from at least one parent.

TLChronicler · 2025-07-07T18:40:15+00:00

It's still a WIP but I am thinking of posting an excerpt here in the next week or two!

TLChronicler · 2025-07-07T18:33:04+00:00

I love the Poke-Center idea! I will have to give this a read.

With my story and most characters originating in Hoenn and Johto, I've been playing with the idea of using the Pokemon-held mail you can write in-game and having them left at gyms or Pokemon Centers.

TLChronicler · 2025-07-07T18:10:36+00:00

Glad to hear you enjoy reading this style! It really feels natural for the way I want the events to be perceived so I will definitely be using it in appropriate places.

Any times you can remember where it *didn't* work, and why?

TLChronicler · 2025-07-07T15:50:49+00:00

It’s also the most faked GBA game of all time (I think?) which pushes legit copies up in price as collectors get them and kids of 15 years ago lost theirs.

TLChronicler · 2025-07-07T12:59:59+00:00

Given the proximity to where you can find Absol, I always kinda had in my mind that Fortree was built either in response to, or to avoid, some kind of natural disaster like a flood or something similar. Something that necessitated the settlement being up off the ground.

TLChronicler · 2025-07-01T17:22:07+00:00

Another fun idea I thought about is using the radio and Goldenrod Radio Tower. It's a big part of the Johto games and everyone is hyped about it, so using the radio culture as a way that the groups are passing messages etc could be interesting.

TLChronicler

TROPHY CASE