The Quest for the Legends

I'm reading over the Good Battle Style again and came across this paragraph at the end of the otherwise terribly misguided chapter twelve:

At first, it was just the nightmare he’d been expecting, more reliving the day, more feeling death, more Fangcats and Scythers and more blood, but after that, he saw two yellow eyes, felt horrible pain, and then he woke up, all sweaty. His pokémon were all still asleep. Then he fell asleep again. He had another such dream, but then he was with Mew in front of him, and threw a pokéball. Mew was absorbed into the ball, and he saw himself taking the ball, but he had no face. Then a roar found its way through the dream and Mark woke up to see Scyther awake. It apparently had a nightmare, too. Scyther had seen itself killing Mark, Fangcat, the feeling of the fang through its body, and then it had seen itself attacking various pokémon, but Mark wasn’t there. The other pokémon didn’t have a trainer either. They both went back to sleep, had more nightmares that were all something like that, and kept waking each other. It was a terrible night.

And the reason this is noteworthy is of course that these dreams are all stuffed with deliberate foreshadowing for stuff that I'd already thought up at that point, which is really fun for me to realize again.

First, Mark sees blinding yellow eyes and feels horrible pain. These are of course Chaletwo's eyes, and this directly foreshadows Mark's eventual death. This dream made it into the ILCOE.

Then, Mark sees himself capturing Mew in a Pokéball, but he has no face. This dream is in the ILCOE too, and refers of course to Mark going around trying to capture legendary Pokémon after his supposed "death".

And finally, interestingly, Scyther dreams about fighting Pokémon without a trainer - the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, that is. And this bit really surprised me, because I didn't make up the Scyther/Charmeleon subplot until I was writing this very chapter, and I was pretty sure I only made up the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament as an excuse to have Scyther and Charmeleon resolve their conflict. Finding out I had it planned here is interesting.

Nope, no other point to this. Just musing about the past.

Ha. I find these original chapters and good battle styles kinda funny and entertaning.

To InnerDemon: I beat you, once again. Where are you anyway?

…I think I set the record for most first posts in a row.

Does getting the first post even /matter/ so much? Or are you just doing it out of petty competitiveness?

Anyway! I've always loved looking back over my original works and seeing how much they sucked. Or, alternatively, that they came up with awesome concepts but were kind of hampered by the whole bad writing thing. Dx

Technically, I make all the first posts! >:/

I am now very amused by how much of the overenthusiastic shopkeeper from Merville's dialogue and products are almost identical between the ILCOE and the original. Just compare:

[GBS] “[…]First, you’ll need a H2Oxy 3000, the newest and best. Look…” the man put the small tool over his nose, but quickly took it back off, as it looked like it prevented him from breathing, “…you put it on like that, and make sure it completely covers your nose, and then go underwater, and it will work oxygen out of the water. Clever, isn’t it?”
“Are you sure it… works?” Mark asked, not positive about how he could rely on that thing.
“It should do,” said the shopkeeper and put the H2Oxy 3000 in Mark’s hand.

[ILCOE] “You’ll need an H2Oxy 3000; these things allow you to breathe underwater,” the clerk said, reaching for a small mask-like object on a shelf. “You put it on like this,” he put it on to cover his nose and mouth, then quickly took it off again as it appeared to prevent him from breathing, “and it will work oxygen out of the water. Clever, isn’t it?”

“Are you sure it… works?” asked Mark skeptically. The shopkeeper shrugged. “It should work.”

He stuffed it into Mark’s arms and started searching for something else on the shelf.

[GBS] “Well, the next thing you need is a Aqua compass. It always points at Aqua town.” Mark watched as the needle turned and pointed straight away from the water.

[ILCOE] “Let’s see… you’ll need an Aqua compass. It always points at Aquarium City.” He showed Mark a compass which, unless Mark was very much mistaken, pointed straight west, back to Scorpio City.

[GBS] “And now, of course, you need…” He took some kind of a spray and sprayed it at Mark all over, “Now you repel water and you will step out as dry as you are now! Isn’t that great? Then, here I have a Sharpedo-ward. It will release a very bad smelling liquid that will keep any Sharpedo away from you. And then I have this wonderful rock to make it easier to sink to the bottom at a special price, only 5000! I’m sure you’ll visit again, buddy, right? I’m always ready at hand! This will be 50000.”

[ILCOE] “Well, this spray will make you completely water-repellant.” He sprayed something that smelled like cardboard all over Mark. He coughed.

“Then there’s the Sharpedo-ward,” the shopkeeper continued eagerly, taking out a bottle containing a black, suspicious-looking liquid. “If you open it in the water, it will send any Sharpedo swimming! And there’s a special rock here to be able to sink easier. I’m sure you’ll visit again, buddy? I’m always ready at hand! Now, in total, this will be, uh…” He counted on his fingers. “…9,999 Pokédollars.”

I mean, it's not exactly something one would specifically expect to be changed, but it's not something one would specifically expect to be kept, either. I guess I just thought I pretty much nailed it the first time.

the dreams sound vary interesting (and funny)

Why do I like the GBS version better? 0_0

"Devolution Beam"

[GBS]
“The downside of this, however, is that Devolution beam cannot be used without using another special ability of mine called Power drain. And let’s just say it hurts. Devolving a pokémon requires a lot of power, you see. You have to get the old pokémon’s spirit back from where all pokémon that evolved when they were too young go. And the evolution isn’t too happy about going there. It’s the same reason as why the trainer needs to help a pokémon to stop it from evolving most of the time, except it needs a lot more power. This power can only be supplied by using Power drain, and the power from Power drain is too much for me if I don’t use Devolution beam immediately after it. Power drain can kill a weak pokémon, but Rainteicune is most certainly not weak. However, with Wildness added… Wildness hurts too, you see. So Rainteicune will at least be in a pretty bad condition after it, and there is a chance that he may not make it…”
[UMR]
“The downside of this, however, is that Devolution beam cannot be used without using another special ability of mine called Power drain. And let’s just say it hurts. Devolving a pokémon requires a lot of power, you see. It’s the same reason as why the trainer needs to help a pokémon to stop it from evolving most of the time, except it needs a lot more power. This power can only be supplied by using Power drain, and Power drain can kill a weak pokémon, but Rainteicune is certainly not weak. However, with Wildness added… Wildness hurts too, you see. So Rainteicune will at least be in a pretty bad condition after it, and there is a chance that he may not make it…”

After this I think that plot point was dropped or something, but I'm not sure. Anyways, it's interesting that the older version was more detailed as to why the Pokemon couldn't devolve easily… Heh.

That plot point was dropped because it was profoundly stupid and relied on my bizarre idea of Pokémon evolution being BAD and EVIL and REPLACING THE POKÉMON'S PERSONALITY. There are a lot of plot points from the original that were ditched because they just didn't make any sense or had nothing to do with anything or otherwise just really didn't belong.

Technically I make all of the first posts!

Oh. Never thought about that… I make a lot of first replies?

…Yeah, these are amusing. They just seem, I don't know. Funny. Hilarious.