“Critically, X and Y are objectively bad Pokémon ga—“
Okay but did you stay up hours wandering the streets of Kalos pretending it was your home? Hm??
Did you weave your way through every single plaza and still get lost ? Wander through alleys just to see which trainers would spawn there?
Did you spend your time trying to get five stars in all the minigames?? Match the color of your poképuffs to the pokémon you were feeding? Visit the shops every day for new clothes? Battle your way through waiters to get Style Points? Talk to the citizens of Kalos, bike circles around Lumiose Tower? Did you hatch eggs for fun before you could even grasp the concept of shiny hunting, you simply hatched and hatched because you liked the pokémon and nothing more? Did you spend all night wondertrading just to see how many people across the world you could connect with, and what interesting pokémon they would give? Did you accidentally stumble across the Lumiose ghost girl prior to knowing she was in the game and nearly cry yourself to sleep that night you were so terrified? Did you cherish the random shinies you’d get through trade, regardless if they were hacked or not? Did you regularly visit Professor Sycamore just because you loved him and wanted to see how he was doing? Did you pummel the Elite Four time and time again not for the money but just to make yourself feel like a real champion and see the victory screen? Did you spend hours wondering who wrote that message on the time tables, waiting for an event that never happened? Did you race another person for a pokémon on the GTS? Did you spend hours making the perfect trainer PR video and constantly jump at the opportunity to show it off to some rando on the PSS? ?
Did you???? Did you?????
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Xerneas and Yveltal are Fungi: Let Me Explain...
Source: Bulbapedia, Wikipedia, Bulbapedia, Enchanted Nature
Xerneas and Yveltal are my favorite legendary designs. There's something weirdly alien about these bio-luminescent approximations of fauna, like they're trying to look like animals and failing. I've always thought they looked a little bit...fungal.
Xerneas and Yveltal are like batteries. They're life energy brokers; Xerneas distributes life, while Yveltal drains it. Supporting and draining life is one of the main characteristics of fungi. In fact, it's like their whole thing.
Some fungi have a mutualistic relationship with their hosts, where they actually benefit their health. And in general, fungi are essential to supporting the ecosystem. Then there's fungi that are simply parasitic.
Fungi can also go dormant, as well as their spores. Staying still is their thing, just chilling in dark places. Xerneas and Yveltal's dormant forms are especially weird, showing just how anomalous these creatures are.
Now allow me to lichen fauna to fungi.
Sources: Bulbapedia, New Forest Pics, Wikipedia, Mushroom Diary Blog
This is xylaria hypoxylon, also known as Stag's Horn fungus. (Not to be confused with Yellow Staghorn.) It reminds me a lot of the dormant form of Xerneas, or the "deactivated" form it takes in the PC.
Stag's Horn is also bio-luminscent, which means the tips of the fungus faintly glow - much like the tips of Xerneas's antlers.
Speaking of the first legendary Fairy Pokemon, mushrooms are often associated with fairies. Fairy Rings are circles of mushrooms that are connected by mycelium underneath. (I'll get into mycelium in just a second.) There are too many myths about Fairy Rings to get into here, so for now I'll just point out the Fairy Ring around Valerie's Gym in Laverre City.
Sources: Bulbapedia, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Enchanted Nature, UK Wildlife
I'm not sure whether Bulbapedia or Dr. King on Pokemon Amino first likened Yveltal to Devil's Fingers, but the similarities are uncanny. Like Yveltal emerges from its cocoon, Devil's Fingers emerge from what is called their "egg stage". I tried to find the least unsettling picture of this that I could. Enjoy...?
I mean, what kind of bird turns into a cocoon, anyway? Honestly though, fungus isn't supposed to hatch from an egg either, so this is all mixed up.
Okay, so Xerneas and Yveltal are based on different aspects of Yggdrasil. But if you were going to design Pokemon based on Yggdrasil, the World Tree that connects the universe, wouldn't you base it on fungi rather than an actual tree? Mycelium can actually partner with the roots of plants and other fungus to create a widespread beneficial mycorrhizal network, a truly interconnected ecosystem of organisms.
Source: BBC News - How Trees Secretly Talk to Each Other
And that's why Xerneas and Yveltal are fungi. Or it could be part of their inspiration, at least. They're not necessarily inspired by these specific fungi, but I think the concept may be part of their design. Either way, Gen VI is especially fun to research!
Reviewed by @fluffybunnybadass.
Check out my posts about Pokemon Legends: Z-A:
Poll: What Does the Λ in Legends Z-A Symbolize?
Pokemon Legends Z-A: What Is the Λ?
Is Z-A Just Zygarde-A? (%1000 Zygarde and the Fragments of the Tree of Life)
Aaah, it's an A! Is the A in Z-A the Tree of Life?
How much longer am I going to have to wait for a freakin' Unova remake?!
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This goomy is another portion of the trainersona illustration I started last year! Snails and slugs are very common around my house, and since I love the designs of goodra and Hisuian goodra, goomy was another easy choice for my team. I included the strawberries because I imagine goomies would decimate a strawberry plant just like real slugs do (I did not eat a single strawberry from the plant I grew last year :) ).
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