Pokemon - The Heart of the Team

            In February of 2016, I finally accomplished a capitalist hunger of mine: purchase an used, and original, copy of “Pokémon HeartGold”. No, I don’t follow “Pokémon” anymore: the franchise is a zombie for me now. However, that doesn’t stop me from remembering the first games, and some of the anime, with a giant smile. “Pokémon”, at least the first part, is one for my favorite franchises ever. So, getting the remake of the Second Generation was a dream for me, considering that the Johto Saga was my favorite.

            Well, time passed, I played the game with so much joy, and, in the middle of last year, I got an idea in my mind: making a pic featuring the team I made for the videogame. However, when I grabbed my drawing notebook and some pencils…I was in blank. I put it in hiatus, and pretty much forgot about it and move on with my lfe.

            Suddenly one day, I checked out the sketches of that dead work, and I said to myself: “NO! This can’t finish like this. Let’s get this FINALLY started!”. Therefore, this time I compromised myself more, and started the pencil drawings, which became into Illustrator vectors, to finally being a PSD file.

            I’m so proud of this: after more than six months later, I have this work in my hands at least, so, I want to share it with you. I hope you like it.

            I wasn’t, of course, the very first person to represent their Pokémon team on a fanart; I actually came across with a pencil drawing of that theme too here in dA. But, I still wanted to give it a try, with some fresh ideas.

            So, I decided to draw the Pokémon digitally to put them later on a photography, in order to get a “The Amazing World of Gumball” Effect. And, to get a more credible illusion, I shaded the drawings and even put cast shadows so they could really look like they were there.

            The idea of the scene was to have my game avatar having a relaxing time along with its Pokémon, which would be doing something funny on that place, as much alone as together. I will also draw the Poké Balls I used to caught them on the floor.

            For the background, I knew that I had to get the photo myself, and not use a Google search for this; as much for respect to copyright as for quality. So, I only had a place in mind: “La Encantada” Park, a natural and recreative place from my city.

            I looked for a great spot near the lake of the park, with some tress around in order to have a nicer scenery. After a giant photo hunt, and many months, I finally chose the best one you can see now.

            So, let’s finally pass to the stars of the picture:

            First, the Avatar: Lyra. Yes, even if I’m a fucking 24-years-old man, like with Firered, I chose the girl character to play the videogame. They always looks cute and pretty, and they are perfect for my Toy Girls series, therefore, I want to have experience with them.

            For my party, I decided to name her as “Molly”, in honor, of course, of one of the two protagonists of “Milly, Molly”. Yes: it’s my favorite name ever thanks to that character, so I used it for that reason.

            Then, we have the Pokémon themselves. Before continuing, I want to let in  clear that I always pick a theme to name my Pokémon Party: natural disasters, eastern weapons, freaking Internet Celebrities, etc. So, this time was about Heroes from Fiction.

            And so the chosen ones are:

            Fullmetal, my male Typhlosion.

            I’m a big sucker for the Fire Starters, as you can see in my profile; well, at least until the Fourth Generation. I’m even a big fan of the concept of fire, like in Firebending for example. As a kid, I always chose them for my party. Charmander was my childhood love, I of course had to pick Torchic for Hoenn, and my favorite was Cyndaquil.

            Even if a restarted my Silver Version copy over and over with Cyndaquil, I couldn’t help but to do it again with this game. It was a very strong link, and a big source of many fond memories of mine. So, when I was starting this new adventure, Cyndaquil had to come with me.

            I don’t regret this in the slightest. Like the first one, I had it always as the strongest, and defeated almost all the enemies in front of it. Also, it was finally with this Typhlosion that I got a Fire Type Pokémon with a balanced move set. It knew two powerful Fire Type Moves, “Flamethrower” and “Eruption”; the Rock Type attack “Rollout”, so it could get invincible in a couple of turns; and “Solarbeam”, a plant move so it could defend against its weaknesses: Water, Rock and Ground.

            Logically, I named him after Edward Elric, from “Fullmetal Alchemist”, my favorite hero of all time, borrowing the first part of his infamous nickname, very ironic considering that this was my main Pokémon to deal with the Steel Type.

            Also, yes, by default I got it with a normal Poké Ball as any starter.

            For the scene, like the starter, I put him cuddling with Molly, because of the great love it has for her. It even pushed her hat to the floor for hugging her so much. Even if they are normally spiky and violent, I drew Fullmetal’s flames curved, slow and smooth, to represent that they are just starting to burst, and they are calmed because of how happy Fullmetal is at the moment. Speaking of which, I added shades, texture and bright to the flames so they could look more realistic.

            Rorschach, my male Sudowoodo.

            Yeah, I’m pretty aware that the Rock Type sucks a lot: it’s the second type with more weaknesses, just after the Grass Type. Also, many of them are slow, or get blended with other types that turn into HORRIBLE combinations. However, I’m just a big fan of Sudowoodo.

            For me, it’s one of the most interesting Pokémon out there. It really attracted me with its weird Rock Type, considering its look of a tree. Time later, I will discover that this was because Sudowoodo was based in prettified wood, which just made it way more interesting for me. Also, it’s very memorable for being a very iconic obstacle in the first part of the game. And we can’t forget that Sudowoodo is the first Pure Rock Type of the game, so, no extra weaknesses included.

            I don’t remember if I ever used it for one of the parties in my Silver Version, but, when I finally had to face it to battle Morty, it was romance at first sight. So, I caught it for the next adventures.

            Even with all the bad reputation of its type, Rorschach showed itself as one of the best choices I made. It was literally a brick wall. It got the famous great defense of the Rock Type, yes, but it also managed to resist the strongest attacks from its weaknesses without faitning, and it was still able to bring the final blow.

            It also got the best move pool out of all my Pokémon. He learnt a very strong attack of its type, “Rock Slide”; a Fighting Type move, “Hammer Arm”; and the most powerful Ground Type attack to get rid of even the strongest enemy, “Earthquake”. However, which takes the cake is, without any doubt, “Wood Hammer”, its Grass Type secret weapon. Got thanks to a Heart Scale, it wasn’t only its best defense against its worst weaknesses, Water and Ground, but it could use all its potential thanks to its ability “Rock Head”, which protected it against recoils. So, yeah, it was a god among the Rock Type.

            For its name, considering the blues of its type, I named it after Walter Kovacs, AKA “Rorschach”, from the infamous graphic novel “WATCHMEN”. Note to myself: draw Sudowoodo dressed up as Rorschach.

            Seeing that I was in the remake of Johto, I knew I had to use some of Kurt’s hated Poké Balls for my party. So, I caught Rorschach with a Heavy Ball. It wasn’t easy: I failed in the first attempt, and I had to restart from the last save.

            Remembering its gimmick and origin, I decided to portray Rorschach knocking a tree to see if it wasn’t really another Sudowoodo XD.

            Batman, my male Noctowl.

            When I purchased this game, I was aware that it would be pretty pointless to make the same things from the old game, like choosing the exact Pokémon. If I had already the updated version of that game, why not be different.

            In the Silver Version, aside of Cyndaquil, I always used to pick a Noctowl for my team, which I never used because I had the costume of just going Rambo with my starter and the rest of the Pokémon were just there as ornament.

            However, at the same time, I knew I had to at least pick one Pokémon which could learn Fly, so the options were pretty narrow.

            But then, when I started this game, and I stumbled with a Hoot Hoot, the nostalgia defeated me again, and I caught it

            It was a smart option, because with Noctowl, even if it was fulfilling the slot for the Flying Pokémon, Batman was able to learn psychic and ghost attacks, which made him a great nightmare for Fighting Type.

            For its moves, I made it learn, of course, the HM “Fly”, and a Heart Scale attack, “Sky Attack”, both needing two turns, but compensating this by their power. Of course, it also got “Psychic” and the Ghost Type move “Shadow Ball”.

            For having wings and a Death Glare, I had to name it after the DC Comics hero Batman without any excuse.

            Because I always try to catch a member of my party with the first Poké Balls I got, I did this with Batman, however, to not copy and paste only, I drew its ball in a different angle and with a different tone from the one of Fullmetal; it’s the pale one at the right.

            Because I ran out of space in the ground, I decided to put Batman flying, and add its reflection on the lake.

            Twilight, my female Ampharos.

            In the middle of the game, I was still debating if I had my team full of only males, or doing half and half, so, I opted for the latter. Therefore, the next Pokémon are female for that reason.

            BTW, this was another case of Nostalgia Attack. When I was a Kid, I always caught a Mareep I will use until it evolved into Ampharos, but it was inevitable: with only 100 Pokémon, Mareep is one of the few Electric types I could get from the second generation, a valuable type to fight against Water Pokémon.

            So, when I was crossing the route to the Azalea Town, I couldn’t help but to find a female Mareep, and its cuteness made it impossible to not integrate it into my team, so, I caught her to repeat the cycle.

            But again, this was a decision which helped me a lot. Twilight became into one of the most powerful Pokémon of my team, even if it was in the 4° Place. Because of her type, it only got one weakness (Ground), and it also got a great move pool to face many enemies: “Thunder”, “Signal Beam”, “Iron Tail”, and Fire Punch; but having to replace “Signal Beam” with “Rock Climb” to face Red. Damn it!

            At first, I nicknamed it as “The Bride”, in honor to Uma Thurman’s character in “Kill Bill”, remembering the colors of Ampharos. However, the name just didn’t sound good, so, I opted to name it after Twilight Sparkle, from “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, and it worked greatly.

            Even after the rant of JWittz, I decided to catch it with a Heal Ball, just to use its bad gimmick, and for the pink color.

            For the scene, I drew it lying on the ground near the shore, having above it my next Pokémon.

            Yuno, my female Heracross.

            So, after Chuck, I got 5 Pokémon in my team, so, near the end of the Johto Badges, I had to quickly find the sixth one. However, I wanted to make the best choice. So, because I don’t repeat types on my team, I checked out the other 12 left, and the Pokémon which offered from the Second Generation.

            Therefore, I decided to go for the Bug Type, because Heracross looked like the better option. So, I heatbutted it out from a tree, and caught it to a very low level compared to the rest of my team, so, I had to train it for a long while, but it was worth the effort.

            Yuno wasn’t only a cool Pokémon, but it showed its strength. Even if it was a giant bait for Flying Type, it was the best option to get rid of many other ones: Rock, Ice, Steel, Dark, and, ironically, even Psychic and Ghost. This was thanks to its rich move pool: “Close Combat”, “Night Slash”, “Ghost Claw”, and “Megahorn”; the only fucking Bug Type Attack it could learn.

            Because I couldn’t think in another very good heroine I liked, I named her after Yuno Gasai, the yandere girl from “Mirai Nikki”. It fitted way much XD.

            For some reason, especially to not have another Poké Ball, I caught it with a Quick Ball. It combined with its body color.

            For the scene, I decided to draw it together with Twilight, having a nice “Girl Time”. BTW, for that reason, I drew it with the Female difference from Heracross. To make this pic more “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, I decided to draw Yuno holding a bunch of fruits, like if it was having a titanic snack; BTW, I took a photo of the fruits my family is actually selling at our new Fruit Store . It even shares a banana with Twilight.

            Finally:

            Korra, my female Mantine.

            Something I really hated from my Silver Version was the Pokémon it didn’t include: many of the best ones. However, which sucked the most was that the Gold Version took many of the new Water Types of back then. But it was OK; because my version got Skarmory, Lediba…Delibird…MAN, IT SUCKED!

            Therefore, I wanted exclusively the HeartGold Version to get all those Pokémon I never could catch. Also, having this in mind, I also wanted to capture one of those creatures for my main team, and I decided to indeed get one of the Water Types from there: Mantine.

            It was one of the coolest looking Pokémon I never got, and even its cry was fucking awesome, imitating the one of a whale. So, when it was time to finally get the Pokémon for Surf, and I was in the mission to get the medicine for Jasmine, I hunted for one, and I caught it.

            However, this was the Pokémon with the most nitpicks I got. First, I got one with “Swift Swim” instead of “Water Absorb”, then, it was also at a very low level (Lv. 15), while there were wild ones in the wild at Level 25, and it got the most boring move pool at the end: “Surf”, “Hydro Pump”, “Ice Beam” and “Seed Bob” (which sucks and it was fucking hard to get), and it was a bull’s-eye for Electric Pokémon because of its dual type. Do I regret capturing it? No!.

            Even if I put in purpose in the last place of my team, Korra is still a great addition to my party. Its water attacks were Strong and cool, and Ice Beam made it the perfect candidate to beat Lance Team of Dragon Type.

            I decided to capture it with a Lure Ball, even if I didn’t’ fish it, just to use another Kurt’s ball.

            Because of its Water Type, I nicknamed it after the protagonist of “The Legend of Korra”. It was the nickname I loved the most.

            Since the beginning, I knew I had to put Korra on the lake; that’s why I took the photo on the park. However, it was until in the middle of the sketching when I got the idea of having Korra breaching like a whale, remembering its great cry. So, I did that as realistic as possible.

            Well, a project of a “lifetime” finally done. It was a lot of fun, laughs, tears and blood. Hope you like it!

            BTW, I’m planning to offer the service of commissions of this theme: drawing your theme along your avatar on a photo. It’s $60.0 USD. No joke!

            Please, if you like it as much as I did, fave it for your profile, and I will wait your comments with a giant smile. See yoU! A great hug since Mexico!