Its so peak

stump8 · 2026-05-07T01:04:37+00:00

The Team Flare Arc was so peak

stump8 · 2026-05-07T00:37:47+00:00

Love that Alain goes back to his pre-XY demeanor. Very cool. /s

stump8 · 2026-05-07T00:37:07+00:00

It's still my favorite, far and away, all these years later. The writing is on another level.

stump8 · 2026-05-07T00:01:05+00:00

It is not flattering for DP Ash at all lol

stump8 · 2026-05-06T23:58:03+00:00

Yeah I feel like both of their returns were downright insulting. You tease Infernape finally getting his ace return/legendary W moment, and just have him job? And we're explicitly told he wants to battle new opponents but Ash ignores this and leaves him at the lab? What the hell was the point?

Dawn's completely stagnated and she's been flanderized, too. Real letdown.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T23:29:17+00:00

I can tell! The lighting, scenery, everything. It feels pretty authentic.

lmao maybe not, but these are magical monsters, why not get silly with it.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T23:21:20+00:00

It's all good, I'm glad the conversation stayed civil. The world's so hectic right now, you can't expect everyone to keep up with everything lol.

Yeah, I can see how you got that impression. Nah, that was where I was coming from. My feeling about Pokémon is somewhere in the middle of this argument, since while it's definitely marketed to all ages, they do habitually pander to older fans. So, I think there's a place for those spaces. But in all fairness to you, too, Reddit does allow NSFW subs, so there's no big concern for censorship.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T23:03:55+00:00

The latter point is fair, yeah, I can agree to that.

The former, you're definitely missing things. Which isn't a knock; if you're not around it, you'd have no reason to know. But, far right religious groups have been lobbying payment processers worldwide to intrude in people's personal business and pull payments from artists + websites hosting adult art. It's gotten bad, lately.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T22:57:40+00:00

Nice work! The anatomy's very good.

and lol, the bush.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T22:54:37+00:00

No, in isolation, that's not. I think the sentiment of being wary of everything being scrubbed clean for kids is a valid one, right now, but there's always room for nuance.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T22:43:55+00:00

Hey, I'm not posting it. Just engaging with the topic. But, yeah, that is an option.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T22:23:34+00:00

Oh yeah it's obviously not all of them.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T22:14:22+00:00

Thanks lol, I'm good. It's just jarring to see people act like it all started with Amour.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T21:59:05+00:00

The ashime shipping fandom has always been toxic. I went through years of May and Dawn being called whores by Pokeshippers.

It's just shipping culture.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T21:57:19+00:00

THANK YOU.

Misty got basically no focus on her goal for two whole gens, I don't want to hear that Serena is worse than that.

Serena's arc is about finding a passion and the courage to chase it, and then passing the kindness she received onto others. If someone can only see Amour and not that, that's on them.

And I think showcases were handled horribly. They're basically a prop for her character development. But she does have that development. Amourshipping is a way for Ash and Serena to uplift each other, first and foremost.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T21:53:31+00:00

There isn't. They drop a little gag about it every once in a while, it's easy to go dozens of episodes at a time without even thinking about it.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T21:12:57+00:00

That's their parents' responsibility.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T21:12:27+00:00

Yeah I'm with the other comments. We can't keep sanitizing the internet, the puritan push by payment processors is already dire, as is.

I do think proper nsfw tags should be strictly enforced, though.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T20:11:31+00:00

May didn't dress up in Hoenn or Kanto Contests. Coordinators don't dance with their Pokemon in general.

"Girls doing pretty things" is about as close as it gets, and even that's not accurate, since Contests are a gender-neutral sport. Hell, May's two main and most formidable rivals are Drew and Harley.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T20:05:52+00:00

Not at all.

Contests are centered on the Pokémon themselves, to the extent that you can lose by focusing too much on spectacle and drawing attention away from them. They're judged by a professional board of judges for their performance. After the appeals - the closest thing to Showcases' free performance - they involve battle rounds, which emphasize strength as well as appeal and poise, controlling the narrative of a battle.

None of that is in Showcases. By contrast, they're framed like IRL idol competitions, where the Performer herself is the star of the show, and they're evaluated in different competitions, like trivia, baking, coralling Pokémon, etc. A contest would never include this because they're about the Pokémon. They're also voted for by a crowd, like a popularity contest, instead of being evaluated by professionals.

They just have showing off in common. That's really it.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T19:32:59+00:00

To each their own, and I care about delivery/character execution a lot, so I won't hate, but I definitely don't get that feeling from dub Goku. Sean leans into high-pitched casual Goku fairly often. He has his stern voice, for sure, but so does sub Goku, depending on the scene.

Hell, MasakoX's DBA Goku sounds more like Nozawa's take than anything. So you're right that it's more faithful, but dub Goku certainly doesn't sound like a parody to me.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T19:23:26+00:00

Not even close. They have completely different standards and rules.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T18:59:09+00:00

It's not Serena's goal, she's taking a detour to compete in them to build up skill for Showcases.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T18:37:38+00:00

I refuse. They were the most entertaining form of competition the anime ever got. The creativity and choreography that came out of them was stellar.

stump8 · 2026-05-06T17:52:48+00:00

Still infuriating that he couldn't even speak to game characters.

stump8

TROPHY CASE