Luke Loves Pokémon (a Forumite Podcast)

That's cool, chief! I'll warn you now- that's Shen's actual favourite monster, so you're gonna have competition.

Tangela.

And that's a year! Christ, the grave is rushing towards us, huh?

Don't think I can compete with that!

How long to Eevee?

The Eevee episode will be October 15th.

In the meantime, here's a Pokemon that's just as exciting and interesting: Goldeen!

Stealth burn! Yes... I struggled to feel the love from that episode, and I can see why.

I actually have things to say about a star!:

I had about of a U-turn with Staryu and Starmie, I originally thought they were stupid with their basic design and "hyaah" noise in the anime and now they're some of my favourites from Gen 1. I think the turning point came in Fire Red/Leaf Green when I struggled in battles against them, so I gave them a try and found their high-speed stats hellah useful.

From there on everything else clicked, the designs were charming with their simplicity and their cries became more funny to me than anything. 5 stars out of 5.

Treesmurf wrote:

5 stars out of 5.

Banger. Although 2 out of 2, surely?

Bigger banger.

There is nothing bigger or better than a banger, please think before making such ridiculous statements next time...

Sent from Topic'it App

Oooh, man, sorry guys! I'm super busy and not online a lot at the moment, plus I'd become kind of accustomed to nobody sending me anything, so I didn't see your Starfish comments

Also, I've already recorded and uploaded Mr Mime and Scyther, and I don't want any extra white man opinions on Jynx. . .

After that, i should be in a better connected position, for podcasting and GNamering.

They were a couple of duffers recently, to be fair (the monsters not the podcasts), but as we get into the back end I'd expect there to be more comments. I'll definitely have something to say about Dragonite. (I've pre-emptively given up on Lapras. )

Anyway, Smurf's a star to me.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Oooh, man, sorry guys! I'm super busy and not online a lot at the moment, plus I'd become kind of accustomed to nobody sending me anything, so I didn't see your Starfish comments

Also, I've already recorded and uploaded Mr Mime and Scyther, and I don't want any extra white man opinions on Jynx. . .

After that, i should be in a better connected position, for podcasting and GNamering.

No problem, I've been too lax with my comments so I thought I might be too late. My opinions on Jynx are probably best left unshared although does anyone remember that one you get from an in game trade that's nicknamed Zynx? That was stupid wasn't it?

Balladeer wrote:

They were a couple of duffers recently, to be fair (the monsters not the podcasts), but as we get into the back end I'd expect there to be more comments.  I'll definitely have something to say about Dragonite.  (I've pre-emptively given up on Lapras. )

Anyway, Smurf's a star to me.

Biggest Banger.

Scyther.

Right. Next week is the one I've been dreading. I think it's coming together, though, it should be my most interesting podcast yet.

Tentatively looking forward... In the meanwhile,

Electabuzz:

Painfully politically correct podcast about Jynx.

Not listened for a while but thought I'd better give this one a listen being kinda important ago.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Painfully politically correct podcast about Jynx.

Needed to be really though. I did crack a wry smile at the beginning of the podcast about that speech coming from the man who loves and defends Nintendo more than anyone on here (about their games and strategies anyway, not about trans rights and stuff necessarily), but this was good stuff. And I saw what you did in that intro! Would you say that Jynx is your least favourite 'Mon of all of them?

I forgot that Smoochum's Pokédex entries actually make it sound kind of cute, kind of successfully. It's not a particularly cute design, but the image of a Smoochum running around with its oversized head and giving things tiny butterfly kisses is... yep, cute. Still doesn't justify its adult form though.

Probably not?
In its purple form, I don't actually dislike Jynx at all. I prefer it to some of the just-a-bird, just-a-fish Pokemon.

I don't defend Nintendo out of a sense of loyalty- i usually just genuinely don't care about the bollocks other people get all worked up about.

The point - I don't want to say conclusion because like you said in the episode, it doesn't feel right for us lot to reach a definitive "answer" to Jynx - raised about the fact that there wasn't any racist intent behind Jynx's design is more or less where I fall on the matter. It's ignorance by way of a culture gap, I'd imagine. Still, I'd be interested to know how the localising team for the game or the anime let Jynx get by without raising a question. They must have known how it'd be received, surely?

I don't know that I can be so kind. Ignorance is no defence for a company of Nintendo's standing, culture gap or no. Still, they have remedied it now.

Still don't like the design, mind.

Oh, don't misunderstand me - I'm not excusing it, but I can understand how it happened. Like you mentioned, Nintendo - especially by the mid to late 90s - should have known better.

Nintendo, maybe, but Pokemon was made by a very small team. It would be the equivalent of a No Man's Sky today - an indie game elevated beyond its expectations. Even today, this is why Game Freak are struggling to keep up with Nintendo's demands. So I can fully understand why nobody stopped Jynx being in the game.

As I said in the episode, I do think it was a huge failing on the part of everyone who translated the game West, but we already know there was a bit of a clash about whether they could change anything.

In the end, I do think Jynx was a misstep. I also think it has been handled well since then, and if anything it deserves to be kept in the game as a sort of message that it is possible to take this kind of criticism on board and do the right thing, and that doesn't count as "censorship" or any of that bollocks, its just learning and growing and doing the right thing.

In that capacity, yeah: I love Jynx.

---

Anyway, we're at the tail end of the first gen pokedex now and we've got a good run of interesting monsters. Then soon Sword and Shield will be upon us. After the game's release and the inevitable spoilercast, I have a plan for the series going forwards.

There will be two episodes a week: on Tuesdays I'll continuing working my way up through gen 2, 3, 4 and so on. On Thursdays, I'll have episodes on the Gen 8 monsters, after which I'll do 7, 6, etc. Wanna be relevant, don't I?

It'll be in that Thursday slot that I might, for example, do a special episode covering monsters with new forms I didn't originally mention and so on.

Electabuzz
With Balla, for the first time in a good while.

Nice to hear more from him, they should feature more of that chap. Wonderful sexy accent too.

That... is his real voice, right?

Couple of good ones coming up. I'll try to submit a proper voice thing for the dragons, but for now:

Pinsir: