The Quest for the Legends

Chapter 2: The Book (commentary)

This one's got a lot of fun stuff about all my terrible fake legendaries (including the original art I made of the Color Dragons and the Waraider herd in MS Paint when I was twelve), the hand of destiny, Mark being a socially awkward penguin, and a lot of griping about how nothing in this chapter whatsoever makes any sense.

You'll probably get both chapters three and four next week!

If Chaletwo isn't going to appear at the festival every year in the next revision, how is he getting in contact with the trainers he recruits?

Just not at the festival! I toyed with the idea of him making use of Suicune's nightly appearance at the Lake of Purity at one point, watching for trainers who'd stay there past sunset to see Suicune, then stalk them for a while until they've collected enough badges to have a chance against some legendaries.

I mean, it's possible I end up working out something where he appears at the festival anyway; it'd definitely tickle me to be able to keep that. It'd probably involve him beginning to make appearances at the festival after he learns about the War, in order to find recruits (probably roped into it by Mementity/whoever his new not-Molzapart partner would be, since it doesn't really seem like something he'd think of himself), but with some other ostensible purpose to prevent the legendaries from getting suspicious. It might not actually be that hard to get that working. I haven't given too much thought to exactly what I'd do with it, since I didn't start thinking I'd want to change this until after it'd been years since I was actively working on the IALCOTN.

oh right I've been meaning to bring this up for LITERAL YEARS but way back in like 2006 or something, I PM'd you about TQftL and how the ILCOE was better than the IALCOTN because it didn't have the Effect and you said something like "all I did in the IALCOTN was give the effect a name…?" and I was like "no there literally was no Effect in the ILCOE" and you reread these chapters and got back to me like "ah shit you're right that kinda screws me over"
what was the plan
I mean I can probably guess but I'm curious if you have Something More to say about that whole exchange now

Well, it turns out the reason for the lack of Pokémon in northwest Ouen was that Chalenor's skull was buried there - the Effect was supposed to be his power drainage affecting even non-legendary Pokémon when they were close enough. When you made me realize the ILCOE didn't have the power drainage effect there, I thought that screwed me over. But then I actually came up with something I like even better explaining why things are the way they are in the ILCOE: mortal Pokémon adapted and evolved to resist the Destroyer's power drainage ability, while the immortal legendaries by their very nature were unable to do the same. By now, mortal Pokémon still feel uneasy if they're in Chalenor's presence for a significant length of time, and that's why Pokémon stay away from this part of the region - they just don't like the place, though they couldn't quite tell you why - but it doesn't actually drain their power.

I like that even better because it adds a great additional layer to Arceus's attempt to punish the legendaries for their arrogance. He knew the mortals would evolve to resist it, and that was the point: the exact qualities that made the legendaries consider the mortals beneath them, their awesome power and their immortality, are exactly what makes them continue to be vulnerable while the mortals adapt.

It still more or less works with the IALCOTN Effect, though; it'd just mean the mortals evolved to resist it up to a point, but when they're that close the pull is still too strong.

Awww yeah infodumping on Legendaries time!

I always liked how Ash somehow was able to study every last hair on Chaletwo's body, conclude that he's identical to Mewtwo, but also too identical to be a clone.

It's a shame that the classic Chaletwo-appearing-at-the-Pokemon-Festival thing might have to get cut it is indeed Very Iconic. But also… very hard to explain now. But I do like the idea of it being something he decided to do after learning about the War. although he'd probably have to have done it for several years prior to starting to kill trainers. (And, he'd probably have to pick out a candidate and kill them later to avoid having to bring up the Aura of Good that Keeps People Wanting to Come Back Each Year.)

I still can't believe that Molzapart got cut from this chapter and we never even noticed. That's amazing.

And I definitely keep forgetting that the Effect doesn't exist in the ILCOE lmao.

I always liked how Ash somehow was able to study every last hair on Chaletwo's body, conclude that he's identical to Mewtwo, but also too identical to be a clone.

Well, I mean, that bit's actually relatively reasonable! Clones, after all, have identical DNA but still grow as separate organisms, like identical twins, who are not literally identical if you look closely enough, whereas Chaletwo is made from an actual exact copy of Mewtwo's body. So you really would expect every hair on Chaletwo's body to be the same as Mewtwo's in a way that a clone's wouldn't! (Never mind how you'd go about studying individual hairs.)