March 8, 2025

TRAINER'S EYE #138 - "Quagsire's Time Capsule" ft. Blue Moon Falls

TRAINER'S EYE #138 -
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Season 1 Pokemon Community Leaders Pokemon Trainers Living With Disabilities

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Blue Moon Fallas, a Pokemon Trainer and webmaster of Blue Moon Falls, a passion project fan site for Generations 1 and 2 Pokémon videogames, documenting information, lore, and sprites.

Blue Moon Falls starts her Pokemon journey with Pokemon Leaf Green & FireRed. She is drawn immediately to the Pokemon and the world behind them. Her deep connection with Pokemon Mystery Dungeons allowed her to really grasp and understand Pokemon and the stories they develop before any interaction with a Pokemon Trainer. 

Blue Moon Falls reveals her life with disabilities and the misperception behind them. Diagnosed with autism, POTS, and DID, she reveals how her mind works and how Pokemon allowed her to connect with other individuals with similar stories. 
Pokemon allowed her the stepping stones to help build her life and is the catalyst for how she approaches life today.

Blue Moon Falls delves into Pokemon 3: Spell of the Unown. She shares the deep story the writers were telling in regards to loss and grief. She identifies with the tragic fate of Molly Hale and how she fears stepping into a future without parents and a preference to stay in the past. You don't want to miss this deep dive into this Pokemon movie!

Finally, Blue Moon Falls dives into the origins of her website. She shares how she was inspired by her interest in documentation and creating a resource for Gen 2 sprites for Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Stadium! 

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect with Blue Moon Falls: Website | Bluesky

Send us a text

Support the show

Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com

Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.306 --> 00:00:03.416
My name is Ayano from Blue Moon Falls, and this is my Pokémon story.

00:00:42.808 --> 00:00:47.049
Welcome to, as the Pokeball turns, we will interview people about their experience with Pokemon.

00:00:47.490 --> 00:00:49.109
My name is David Hernandez.

00:00:49.548 --> 00:00:53.317
I'm joined by Ayana from Blue Moon Falls, web host of the website.

00:00:53.704 --> 00:00:55.774
Ayana, welcome to As the Pokeball Turns.

00:00:56.232 --> 00:00:57.073
Hi, thank you!

00:00:57.820 --> 00:00:59.441
thank you for taking time out of your schedule.

00:00:59.591 --> 00:01:08.463
And I think a lot of people may not know who you are, but you actually have a very cool website where you kind of dive into like Gen 2 and you also share the sprites.

00:01:08.933 --> 00:01:11.713
Can you give like people inside of like, what's their website about?

00:01:12.498 --> 00:01:15.039
Yeah, so, um, my website is Bloomin Falls.

00:01:15.344 --> 00:01:18.254
I made it back in, oh god, what year was it?

00:01:18.924 --> 00:01:20.254
It's been three years at this point.

00:01:20.295 --> 00:01:23.094
Um, I think 2021 was when I made it.

00:01:23.114 --> 00:01:24.954
Yes, took me a second.

00:01:25.444 --> 00:01:29.325
and it's meant to just be a general fan site for, the first two generations of Pokémon.

00:01:29.814 --> 00:01:32.965
it's very video game centric, so not as much the TCG and anime.

00:01:34.495 --> 00:01:39.254
and I just do whatever I want related to those, uh, video games on there.

00:01:39.444 --> 00:01:47.695
Um, there's some articles and there are also tools that you can play with to, mess with your save files or, See other statistics and values related to the games

00:01:48.125 --> 00:01:58.254
I have never seen such an homage to gen two specifically, because I think you uploaded some sprites from, I think it was Pokemon stadium, Pokemon stadium two to where you have the different colors, if I'm not mistaken,

00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:19.854
Oh yeah, there is a tool on the site called the Stadium Hue Previewer, and it has all of the idle animations of the 3D models used in the Stadium 1 and 2 games on the N64 and can drive a slider to hue shift them, because the, um, Stadium 1 and 2 games had a hue shifting feature where a nicknamed Pokémon would be a slightly different color.

00:02:20.175 --> 00:02:22.250
It's kind of the precursor to Shinies, almost.

00:02:22.250 --> 00:02:27.349
and the website lets you preview, uh, the colors as they would look on the N64.

00:02:27.784 --> 00:02:29.625
what made you want to start that website?

00:02:29.932 --> 00:02:34.223
clearly you must be passionate about those generations to have your own website and do all that information.

00:02:34.953 --> 00:02:41.900
Yeah, so it's funny, people usually think that I'm older than I am, like I must have had experience with Generations 1 and 2 when I was a kid, but

00:02:41.955 --> 00:02:42.344
Mhm.

00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:52.924
I got started with Generation 3, and I didn't play Generation 2 until, the very beginning of 2021, and I was just really surprised by how much I enjoyed them.

00:02:52.993 --> 00:02:55.274
I just really got into it for some reason.

00:02:55.538 --> 00:02:55.998
Mhm.

00:02:56.024 --> 00:03:28.381
had a lot of fun with my first playthrough and everything, and then towards the end of 2021, I I remember I was trying to train my Pokemon for Pokemon Stadium 2, beating the various battle cups in it, Generation 2 has a precursor to a thing called EVs, they're just, it's a thing in the modern Pokemon games, I was trying to gain stat experience, which is the EV precursor, and I couldn't find much documentation on it, and then actually doing it was a big pain.

00:03:29.131 --> 00:03:32.901
there was no way to like, automatically calculate it as I was doing it.

00:03:33.368 --> 00:03:40.983
And then I was like, it's kind of weird that games this old don't have the best modern documentation sometimes on more of this niche stuff.

00:03:41.453 --> 00:03:44.002
And then I just spontaneously decided, what if I did it?

00:03:44.002 --> 00:03:47.282
What if I fix this issue?

00:03:47.443 --> 00:03:54.592
So then I made Bloomin Falls an impulse in an afternoon, and now it's been going for three Mm hmm, mm

00:03:54.657 --> 00:03:57.288
because sometimes we get so caught up in the main series.

00:03:57.647 --> 00:04:01.328
And, I'd look at it from Pokemon Coliseum and Pokemon XT.

00:04:01.348 --> 00:04:05.298
Those are very niche games, but there's not much data unless you're very dedicated to it.

00:04:05.888 --> 00:04:08.657
Going back to you playing Pokemon city and Pokemon stadium too.

00:04:08.957 --> 00:04:10.288
I remember playing those games a lot.

00:04:10.288 --> 00:04:12.617
I remember frustrated as hell with them as well.

00:04:13.078 --> 00:04:13.457
Yes.

00:04:14.237 --> 00:04:14.677
And then

00:04:14.807 --> 00:04:15.337
difficult.

00:04:15.527 --> 00:04:17.367
they are, they are immensely difficult.

00:04:17.398 --> 00:04:19.762
And then just seeing how the different colors of.

00:04:19.762 --> 00:04:25.572
The Pokemon not realizing like, I guess they're tied to the nicknames that people really wouldn't know unless that information is out there.

00:04:26.012 --> 00:04:31.831
Yeah, I think the nickname hue shift feature has been relatively known about.

00:04:31.841 --> 00:04:34.112
Like, if you were to look it up, you'd be able to find out.

00:04:34.872 --> 00:04:36.812
they change color based on the nickname.

00:04:37.266 --> 00:04:37.687
Right.

00:04:38.081 --> 00:04:41.021
but we didn't know the exact details, for a while.

00:04:41.341 --> 00:04:47.459
there's research done by somebody, online into how exactly the nickname feature works.

00:04:47.829 --> 00:05:05.839
It basically checks each letter and then it does some math on the value that represents each letter in the nickname and it compares it with your trainer name and ID and then it spits out a final to hue shift And that's how it determines how far the Pokémon should be shifted in either direction of color.

00:05:06.297 --> 00:05:08.447
But this was all contained in a Google document.

00:05:08.447 --> 00:05:15.916
It super accessible and also there was no like automatic thing to see the different colors live.

00:05:16.266 --> 00:05:23.786
So I took the research, I consolidated it into an article with more images and probably easier to read, and then I made the hue shifter for it.

00:05:24.072 --> 00:05:29.762
for ages we didn't know the exact details, and then the exact details were all just in a Google document.

00:05:31.117 --> 00:05:32.247
where everything is usually

00:05:32.661 --> 00:05:34.331
Yeah, much.

00:05:34.718 --> 00:05:35.269
Actually,

00:05:35.303 --> 00:05:39.564
you know, your first game was actually with the gen three games, Pokemon, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.

00:05:39.824 --> 00:05:40.963
Talk to me about Josh.

00:05:41.178 --> 00:05:43.738
um, Pokemon Leaf Green was the first game that I

00:05:43.793 --> 00:05:44.353
Oh, really?

00:05:44.353 --> 00:05:45.584
So you did Canto still.

00:05:45.889 --> 00:05:46.348
Yes.

00:05:46.684 --> 00:05:50.084
tell me about your first experience diving into Pokemon, like playing Leafgreen.

00:05:50.535 --> 00:06:02.305
So, I was, uh, four years old when I had a babysitter, who was like a teenager at the time, and she, Brought her Pokemon Leaf Green to our house, I guess, just cause She got bored.

00:06:02.444 --> 00:06:04.004
Me and my sister were pretty well behaved.

00:06:04.274 --> 00:06:12.199
Um, so she would be playing leaf green on the couch and I'd start incessantly asking her questions what she was doing because I thought it was really interesting.

00:06:12.535 --> 00:06:20.324
and then that year I begged my mom to get me leaf green and the same exact, GBA SP that she had for my birthday on my fifth birthday.

00:06:20.355 --> 00:06:20.985
And then I got it.

00:06:21.432 --> 00:06:25.122
I don't remember playing my first playthrough super well because, uh, I was five.

00:06:25.637 --> 00:06:31.776
but I did pick Squirtle as my first starter because, my babysitter had Blastoise, so I was copying her.

00:06:32.107 --> 00:06:38.367
that being said, I do consider Bulbasaur to kind of be my first starter because I used to replay the game a lot and I would always pick Bulbasaur.

00:06:38.367 --> 00:06:41.637
That was kind of the first choice I made of my own and not copying my babysitter.

00:06:41.997 --> 00:06:43.728
Um, Yeah, that's about it.

00:06:43.728 --> 00:06:51.259
I used to replay the game over and over because I didn't have any of the other Pokemon games yet So whenever I wanted to play Pokemon, I just restarted Leafgreen a million times

00:06:52.194 --> 00:06:54.154
What did your babysitter think once you got the game?

00:06:54.154 --> 00:06:55.625
Like, would y'all play the games together?

00:06:55.625 --> 00:06:57.774
Like was there any kind of connection melt that way?

00:06:58.211 --> 00:07:02.129
Yeah, actually we didn't play the games together as much as we Drew together.

00:07:02.259 --> 00:07:12.548
Uh, she was an artist, hobbyist, and we would print out pictures of various Pokemon and like draw them while she was over together So that was our main Pokemon thing going forward.

00:07:12.548 --> 00:07:14.079
It was more of just drawing them

00:07:14.519 --> 00:07:16.288
What Pokemon do you remember drawing at the time?

00:07:16.298 --> 00:07:18.579
Cause I think you said you dabble in artists, if I'm not mistaken.

00:07:19.238 --> 00:07:28.238
Yes, I think we're gonna talk about me having DID later, but you know, one of my alters is, uh, an artist, and so I have art experience kind of through her.

00:07:28.478 --> 00:07:31.019
Uh, I don't do it very much anymore, but she does, so,

00:07:31.274 --> 00:07:32.884
Mm hmm.

00:07:32.999 --> 00:07:36.798
history is full of art and stuff, so we drew a lot of Pokemon.

00:07:36.819 --> 00:07:37.478
Mostly Pikachu.

00:07:38.069 --> 00:07:39.319
Just really like Pikachu.

00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:42.468
It's what it's made for, it's the mascot.

00:07:43.074 --> 00:07:43.634
That's true.

00:07:43.644 --> 00:07:43.863
That's true.

00:07:43.884 --> 00:07:47.194
Hey, better than me and Ali can draw a voltorb and an electrode because they're circles.

00:07:47.194 --> 00:07:47.923
Ha ha ha.

00:07:48.249 --> 00:07:48.869
Yeah, makes sense.

00:07:49.641 --> 00:07:51.172
You said, like, you have an altar.

00:07:51.172 --> 00:07:54.362
Can you give, like, insight on, like, what is that, for those who aren't familiar?

00:07:54.723 --> 00:07:57.112
Yeah, so I have dissociative identity disorder.

00:07:57.447 --> 00:07:59.776
it's a disorder caused by childhood trauma.

00:07:59.776 --> 00:08:02.466
but it's characterized by having these things called alters.

00:08:02.774 --> 00:08:03.274
people.

00:08:03.295 --> 00:08:06.956
usually know them as like multiple personalities in air quotes.

00:08:06.995 --> 00:08:09.526
We don't call it that anymore, they're called alters.

00:08:09.891 --> 00:08:21.759
it's basically I have kind of other people in my brain who sometimes take over and do their own thing and then I come back and it's a little hard to explain, but, I've been living with it my entire life.

00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:22.490
So, yeah.

00:08:22.795 --> 00:08:26.185
At what point did you, I guess, discover that you had this D.

00:08:26.185 --> 00:08:26.264
I.

00:08:26.264 --> 00:08:26.625
D.?

00:08:26.975 --> 00:08:31.297
And, you know, how did it come about that, when it first happened, or what early memories do you have?

00:08:31.726 --> 00:08:36.187
Well, that's a little convoluted because DID is a disorder that's very covert, usually,

00:08:36.392 --> 00:08:36.701
Sure.

00:08:36.777 --> 00:08:37.376
who have it.

00:08:37.707 --> 00:08:42.441
People with DID often don't realize they have DID for a pretty long time, usually into adulthood.

00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:48.181
Not always, people can realize earlier, but a lot of people don't realize until their 30s and 40s.

00:08:48.211 --> 00:08:51.740
Obviously, I'm not in my 30s or 40s, so I realized a bit earlier than that.

00:08:52.046 --> 00:08:54.475
I realized I had alters when I was 16.

00:08:54.645 --> 00:08:56.216
Um, I wasn't diagnosed with anything yet.

00:08:56.265 --> 00:08:58.535
I just realized there was something going on.

00:08:58.923 --> 00:09:06.469
then through multiple years struggle in the, uh, mental health system for a long time, because DID is really hard to get diagnosed, even if you have it.

00:09:06.528 --> 00:09:06.708
Just,

00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:07.308
Yes.

00:09:07.328 --> 00:09:08.948
of people who are knowledgeable on it.

00:09:09.278 --> 00:09:13.409
so, I finally got the right doctor in, like, 2019, and I got diagnosed with it.

00:09:13.419 --> 00:09:16.129
So, I've been diagnosed for, um, six years now?

00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:19.432
Like, more like five and a half, because it was the latter half of, 2019.

00:09:19.432 --> 00:09:20.890
But yeah, so it's been, it's been a while.

00:09:20.921 --> 00:09:25.551
I've known more or less that I have it for nine years, and then I've been diagnosed for six.

00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:38.426
I think it's difficult for people who aren't in the mental health sphere, because people will think like, oh, maybe you're just like make believe and pretending making your own, personality, but it's more complex than that, because it's like you have a different personality.

00:09:38.426 --> 00:09:42.446
to where it comes out with, you know, controlling, you still believe it.

00:09:42.956 --> 00:09:46.076
And for me, it reminds me of when I had clients who had schizophrenia

00:09:46.136 --> 00:09:46.764
hmm.

00:09:46.926 --> 00:09:51.428
they would not like down to the bone, believe there's something coming out of that TV.

00:09:51.668 --> 00:09:54.308
There's something that there's shadows after them.

00:09:54.308 --> 00:09:58.489
There's things under their skin, stuff like that to where they're not lying.

00:09:58.749 --> 00:10:01.168
They actually physically believe it.

00:10:01.599 --> 00:10:03.318
And that's what it seems similar to me.

00:10:03.318 --> 00:10:08.933
Like it's obviously schizophrenia and DID is different, But that's the closest comparison I can remember from my own experience.

00:10:08.933 --> 00:10:09.943
And I can understand that.

00:10:10.303 --> 00:10:10.604
Yeah.

00:10:10.604 --> 00:10:12.984
Some people just think you're kind of BSing, but you really aren't.

00:10:12.984 --> 00:10:13.653
Unfortunately.

00:10:14.239 --> 00:10:18.469
Yeah, and the thing is DID also comes with a of other symptoms.

00:10:18.469 --> 00:10:20.198
It's not just the themselves.

00:10:20.528 --> 00:10:23.977
so, more complex than people give it credit for.

00:10:23.998 --> 00:10:33.394
I think people just have that misunderstanding that it's kind of just make believe playing pretend as other people just because it, it kind of looks that way on the outside if you don't know what's going on, but it's not.

00:10:33.424 --> 00:10:42.032
It's a known psychological phenomenon and it's a real thing and, and there's also a lot more to it than just the personality changing aspect, so.

00:10:42.657 --> 00:10:46.106
going back to the Pokemon side of things, you had an alter where you are drawing.

00:10:46.437 --> 00:10:49.256
You're still engaged with the franchise of playing Pokemon Leaf Green.

00:10:49.568 --> 00:10:51.908
Did you continue to stick with the franchise throughout.

00:10:51.908 --> 00:10:53.259
And what about the franchise?

00:10:53.259 --> 00:10:54.339
Did you enjoy playing

00:10:55.004 --> 00:10:57.880
Yeah, we've been Pokémon fans entire life.

00:10:58.183 --> 00:11:03.514
my mom getting me leaf green for my birthday was a life changing event and my life was never the same after that.

00:11:05.014 --> 00:11:06.793
Pokémon has been in my life ever since.

00:11:06.885 --> 00:11:08.995
It's mostly been the video games, most of my life.

00:11:09.285 --> 00:11:13.855
I did have a brief stint with the TCG in 2019, 2018.

00:11:14.296 --> 00:11:19.581
And then the pandemic hit, and It became really hard to collect cards because of all the scalping, and I haven't gone back to it since.

00:11:19.591 --> 00:11:21.922
So, time with the TCG was very brief.

00:11:22.245 --> 00:11:34.071
and then, I'm actually into the anime now, with the newest season, but I was not into the anime before Gen 9, so, the video games my entire life and I've bought them as they come out and, play them when they're new.

00:11:34.376 --> 00:11:36.807
so I've seen every generation since Gen 3.

00:11:37.261 --> 00:11:42.125
Do you have a particular favorite, set of games or generation that you enjoy playing more and more?

00:11:42.951 --> 00:11:46.160
Well, you may be surprised to find out it's Gen 2.

00:11:46.160 --> 00:12:02.785
Yeah, um, it's kind of funny because, again, I don't, I mean, I had the Kanto experience from but I, I just never really I haven't had any feelings about Generations 1 or 2, and all of them are recent in the past two years.

00:12:02.806 --> 00:12:04.058
But, it's definitely Gen 2.

00:12:04.078 --> 00:12:05.879
And the more that I play it, the more I like it.

00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:08.369
So I'm pretty set on it as my favorite.

00:12:08.769 --> 00:12:14.708
Was it about more recent compared to maybe when you first started them that you think caught your interest and made it one more of your favorites now?

00:12:15.306 --> 00:12:17.275
If I'm being honest, it's kind of a mix of things.

00:12:17.275 --> 00:12:20.066
Because, on one hand, I just do really like the games.

00:12:20.405 --> 00:12:21.255
the art style.

00:12:21.255 --> 00:12:23.035
I like the feeling of playing them.

00:12:23.056 --> 00:12:24.836
I like the simplified battle style.

00:12:25.061 --> 00:12:25.480
Mm hmm.

00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:25.950
Mm

00:12:25.995 --> 00:12:32.341
less Without the natures and all the complicated stuff, It's almost like, uh, Rock, Paper, Scissors with the type matchups and stuff.

00:12:32.371 --> 00:12:40.951
I mean, there's, there's more stuff going on than just that, but, I do like the simpler aspects of it, and just all the features and all the side stuff around it too.

00:12:40.951 --> 00:12:42.912
I just find it all really fascinating by itself.

00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:46.639
but when I played Gen 2, I was also going through a hard time in my life.

00:12:46.918 --> 00:12:47.298
hmm.

00:12:47.308 --> 00:12:50.528
think Gen 2 kind of helped me with that.

00:12:50.774 --> 00:12:52.964
And that amplified my attachment to it.

00:12:52.974 --> 00:12:54.844
So, it's kind of a mix of both things.

00:12:55.479 --> 00:13:06.639
Sounds like Gen 2 is kind of your, I guess, soothing point or your safe space to kind of go to when your life was kind of falling apart and it kind of became a way for you to kind of find yourself when the, you know, the whole world's crashing down.

00:13:07.303 --> 00:13:14.673
And it's funny, because then it led me to making a website, which made me realize even more about myself, which is that I actually want to do web development professionally at some point.

00:13:14.984 --> 00:13:15.224
Um,

00:13:15.469 --> 00:13:15.989
Oh, wow.

00:13:15.989 --> 00:13:16.399
Really?

00:13:16.408 --> 00:13:16.828
Okay.

00:13:17.163 --> 00:13:23.160
yeah, I had no idea when I made the website that it would become such a big deal for me, but, that's actually why I'm back in college now.

00:13:23.474 --> 00:13:24.994
I want to, do web development.

00:13:25.014 --> 00:13:25.283
So

00:13:25.823 --> 00:13:36.923
It's kind of interesting to see how Pokemon can be a catalyst for so many people, because for you, it was going back to Gen 2 that led you to me making the Blue Moon Falls website, and now it leads to your potential future career aspirations.

00:13:36.923 --> 00:13:39.134
That's kind of cool to see how Pokemon is intertwined in your life.

00:13:39.525 --> 00:13:49.379
Yeah, it's funny because I've met a lot of people have gotten into coding of some sort through Pokemon, which makes a lot of sense because they're video games, but, it just seems to be a common running thread with other people as well.

00:13:50.331 --> 00:13:57.091
Now, I know that we got to talk about your favorite movie, and that's Spell of the Unknown, which came out around the time of Johto.

00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:58.000
Tell us about that.

00:13:58.576 --> 00:14:02.625
I'm going to be totally honest, I re watched the movie this weekend just to prepare for this podcast.

00:14:03.615 --> 00:14:05.826
and also just because I wanted to, I really liked the movie.

00:14:06.091 --> 00:14:06.451
Right.

00:14:06.451 --> 00:14:06.650
Right.

00:14:06.650 --> 00:14:07.030
Yeah.

00:14:07.436 --> 00:14:09.966
But um, I was like, oh I should re watch it again.

00:14:10.552 --> 00:14:15.611
Um, yes, Spelled and Unknown is my favorite Pokemon movie, pretty much by a landslide.

00:14:15.682 --> 00:14:22.042
Uh, it makes me cry every single time I watch it, and I'm 25 years old, so that's saying something.

00:14:22.349 --> 00:14:26.392
I just really like its depiction of Molly Hale, the little girl character in it.

00:14:26.826 --> 00:14:30.946
I know that the movie, I'm forgetting the name of the person who wrote it, but the person who wrote it.

00:14:31.201 --> 00:14:33.341
wrote it for his actual daughter in real life.

00:14:33.692 --> 00:14:36.412
this was the last Pokemon movie he wrote before he passed away.

00:14:36.442 --> 00:14:39.461
And I know that he struggled with, like, drug addiction and a bunch of stuff.

00:14:39.471 --> 00:14:42.991
So, this movie was kind of a love letter to his daughter before he passed away.

00:14:43.375 --> 00:14:47.249
in the Japanese version, the Molly is named after his daughter.

00:14:47.485 --> 00:14:48.225
Has a different name.

00:14:48.235 --> 00:14:48.446
I don't

00:14:48.551 --> 00:14:49.051
Oh, wow.

00:14:49.051 --> 00:14:50.041
I had no idea about this.

00:14:50.150 --> 00:14:50.630
Yeah.

00:14:50.686 --> 00:14:51.755
it's crazy.

00:14:51.755 --> 00:14:57.499
I think, a lot of the interviews and, online posts related to this have only been translated in recent times.

00:14:57.499 --> 00:14:58.851
I think by, um, Dr.

00:14:58.851 --> 00:15:00.272
Lava, uh, if you know who he

00:15:00.456 --> 00:15:00.907
Yes.

00:15:00.907 --> 00:15:03.767
Yes.

00:15:03.802 --> 00:15:13.711
anyway, tangent aside, I think re watching it as an adult, uh, made me realize just, like, how much emotion and, like, serious themes were actually packed into this movie that I did not notice as a kid.

00:15:14.101 --> 00:15:23.666
Which makes sense, considering where it came from, the basic plot is that, um, there's a girl named Molly Hale and her dad is like a researcher of the unknown, the Pokemon.

00:15:23.666 --> 00:15:35.186
and he goes to some unknown ruins to research and it never really explains why the unknown do this, but they, they basically teleport him into another dimension, some sort of torment nexus.

00:15:35.355 --> 00:15:36.196
I don't know.

00:15:36.801 --> 00:15:37.860
It's probably the troll.

00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:38.640
That's just to be honest.

00:15:39.015 --> 00:15:40.836
Yeah, yeah, they're just trolling him.

00:15:40.895 --> 00:15:42.587
And, you know, he disappears.

00:15:42.909 --> 00:15:45.851
her mom, it says that she disappeared in the dub.

00:15:45.871 --> 00:15:53.172
I'm pretty sure in the original Japanese, it's more explicit that she's in the hospital for being like really ill or something, but that's besides the point.

00:15:53.201 --> 00:15:54.381
Both of her parents are gone.

00:15:54.727 --> 00:15:57.081
and she's obviously very upset about this.

00:15:57.081 --> 00:15:58.390
She's like five or something.

00:15:59.030 --> 00:15:59.971
Both her parents are gone.

00:16:00.258 --> 00:16:01.057
probably dead.

00:16:01.187 --> 00:16:01.748
Who knows?

00:16:02.028 --> 00:16:31.976
And The unknown, like, hear her being upset, and like, she's like, messing with some unknown letters on the floor, and the unknown gets summoned to her, and in this movie, the unknown has the power to like, new realities based on people's thoughts and feelings, so essentially, trauma and her grief about her parents gets projected outside of her, and it makes an imaginary Entei because her and her dad read a book together about Entei and she always thought he was cool like Entei and, you know, brave like Entei.

00:16:31.976 --> 00:16:38.235
So this Entei appears, that the Unknown created and he, like, takes the position of her father for her.

00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:40.149
and then a bunch of stuff happens from there.

00:16:40.179 --> 00:16:44.580
Ash and Co have to, basically get her to be like, hey, reality is cool, actually.

00:16:44.899 --> 00:16:45.269
Um, yes.

00:16:46.154 --> 00:16:48.389
But I mean, That's difficult though, because.

00:16:48.581 --> 00:16:49.730
basically add more insight.

00:16:49.730 --> 00:16:55.441
It's basically a book about mythical legendaries of the Pokemon world at that time.

00:16:55.900 --> 00:17:00.341
And that's what her and her father would read like as kind of a bedtime story.

00:17:00.850 --> 00:17:05.330
And, you know, once her dad leaves, what does she have left?

00:17:05.330 --> 00:17:11.320
She's in her by herself with a mansion, you know, her mom, you know, is of course sick.

00:17:11.320 --> 00:17:13.560
Her dad is nowhere to be found.

00:17:13.993 --> 00:17:17.713
That's difficult to kind of come to wrestle with, especially at such a young age.

00:17:19.433 --> 00:17:27.453
Anyway, you were saying, so what, uh, with the movie, I remember that you know, of course the entity comes to life, the unknown, I think they start building like some kind of crystal barrier around the mansion.

00:17:27.818 --> 00:17:44.262
Yeah, the crystals kind of explode outwards from the mansion, and they encase it, and are like destroying the landscape around and blocking other people out, because she doesn't want anyone to interfere with like her perfect imaginary family, uh, Entei, and also Entei kidnaps Ash's mom.

00:17:44.603 --> 00:17:47.833
So they're encased in this crystalline castle, pretty much.

00:17:48.151 --> 00:17:52.810
I guess, some of the stuff that you picked up later on that you enjoy about the movie that you didn't pick up when you were younger?

00:17:53.273 --> 00:17:54.733
I just really relate to Molly.

00:17:55.045 --> 00:17:58.835
the childhood trauma aspect is very raw in the movie, surprisingly.

00:17:59.131 --> 00:18:02.540
I feel like the depiction of Molly was just really on point.

00:18:02.578 --> 00:18:06.198
like, for one, Ash's mom gets kidnapped by her, um,

00:18:06.442 --> 00:18:06.702
Oh yeah.

00:18:06.702 --> 00:18:07.583
She thinks it's the mama.

00:18:07.623 --> 00:18:08.113
Yeah.

00:18:08.232 --> 00:18:08.857
I forgot about that.

00:18:09.147 --> 00:18:13.845
she projects motherhood onto Ash's mom and like makes her into her mom.

00:18:14.315 --> 00:18:19.987
And even when, Ash's mom comes to, like, she remembers where she is and realizes that she's been kidnapped.

00:18:20.347 --> 00:18:21.867
she still empathizes with Molly.

00:18:21.897 --> 00:18:24.077
She doesn't like freak out at her or get angry at her.

00:18:24.077 --> 00:18:30.357
She recognizes that she is a hurting child who is missing her mother and is able to show her care.

00:18:30.357 --> 00:18:41.146
Even when, um, Entei is fighting Ash, like, Delilah is like to, like, at one point she hugs her and, is trying to tell her like, we don't need to fight and stuff.

00:18:41.146 --> 00:18:42.797
Like, there's a world out there who loves you.

00:18:43.115 --> 00:18:45.271
and the, the whole like message of the movie is that.

00:18:45.271 --> 00:18:51.731
Like, there are real people who will love her, and she doesn't need to be in this imaginary universe to be safe and comfortable.

00:18:51.771 --> 00:18:59.051
And all the conflict stops, not because Ash, like, defeats Entei, but just because she wants them to stop fighting, and she wants to be with real people again.

00:18:59.352 --> 00:18:59.811
Mm hmm.

00:19:00.311 --> 00:19:04.622
and I just thought that was such a powerful message for going through so much.

00:19:04.771 --> 00:19:11.113
Just people being willing to see how she is hurting despite the terrible things she's doing, and then bring her to a better place.

00:19:11.460 --> 00:19:12.410
It's really touching for me.

00:19:12.630 --> 00:19:14.109
It makes me cry every time I watch it.

00:19:14.734 --> 00:19:33.045
I mean, like I said, it's a very tough topic to talk about because again, you know, she has, you know, that trauma of not having both parents and she has kind of come to, it's basically anybody who's lost anybody or has been through that kind of trauma in general, you know, it's what it's like to kind of be in the darkness and feel your world kind of crash it behind you.

00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:36.240
And then want to go back to what it was and that's kind of what

00:19:36.420 --> 00:19:37.146
hmm.

00:19:37.160 --> 00:19:37.339
was.

00:19:37.339 --> 00:19:40.759
She wanted to go back to the time when she was happy when she both had a mom and a dad.

00:19:41.109 --> 00:19:43.190
She didn't want to kind of face it and I couldn't blame her.

00:19:43.190 --> 00:19:44.450
Like I I said, they didn't hold back with that movie.

00:19:44.450 --> 00:19:46.660
That's why it's one, it's a very underrated movie.

00:19:46.660 --> 00:19:47.839
I remember we talked a little bit about it.

00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:50.573
I said, I felt that that movie is underrated compared to the other two.

00:19:50.573 --> 00:19:52.482
Cause I feel like the other two kind of overtake it.

00:19:52.722 --> 00:19:56.042
But that one is just, I think honestly, one of the better ones that people should watch.

00:19:56.053 --> 00:19:56.073
Yeah.

00:19:56.400 --> 00:19:57.279
Yeah, I agree with you.

00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:03.509
Um, I think a lot of people probably watched it when they were younger and liked it just fine, but it didn't like stand out or anything.

00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:08.230
I mean, it has some cool fight scenes in it, but I think a lot of it goes over your head until you re watch it as an adult.

00:20:08.586 --> 00:20:10.246
and people just probably haven't given it that chance.

00:20:10.246 --> 00:20:11.486
I think that's why it's underrated.

00:20:11.516 --> 00:20:12.526
That's my guess anyway.

00:20:12.701 --> 00:20:13.500
Hey, it's probably true.

00:20:13.500 --> 00:20:16.691
Hey, if y'all need to watch Pokemon spell the unknown and let me know if you do,

00:20:18.270 --> 00:20:18.601
Yeah.

00:20:19.185 --> 00:20:25.086
Hey you! Yes, you with the ears! Don't go anywhere, just taking a quick ad break.

00:20:25.365 --> 00:20:26.536
We'll be right back.

00:20:27.130 --> 00:20:29.349
Hey, trainers, come out to Trainer Con.

00:20:29.619 --> 00:20:37.210
It's a dynamic Pokemon marketplace and convention offering fans a vibrant place to buy, sell, and celebrate all things Pokemon and collectible.

00:20:37.690 --> 00:20:41.380
We have trading cards, collectibles, handmade artists are gonna be there.

00:20:41.740 --> 00:20:50.954
It'll be held March 23rd, 2025 from 10 to 5:00 PM at Dallas Event Center in Farmers Branch at 43 43 Sigma Road in Farmers Branch, Texas.

00:20:51.906 --> 00:20:57.207
A special thank you to Matt Monkeybread, Gus Ulrich, and all other patrons for your continued support.

00:20:57.797 --> 00:20:58.997
Now let's get back to the episode.

00:21:01.423 --> 00:21:07.748
of course you played Pokemon games, but you also play Pokemon mystery dungeon, which is the spinoff of the Pokemon main series games.

00:21:07.988 --> 00:21:12.478
Tell us like, what's your experience with those games and what do you love about those compared to the main series games?

00:21:12.499 --> 00:21:17.407
I

00:21:17.778 --> 00:21:18.867
in the Pokemon themselves.

00:21:20.055 --> 00:21:21.414
my opinions have since changed.

00:21:21.414 --> 00:21:27.174
I also love Pokemon trainers now, but when I was a kid, I thought the Pokemon were, you know, the most interesting part of the Pokemon franchise.

00:21:27.515 --> 00:21:28.085
still have hope.

00:21:28.154 --> 00:21:28.585
I like you.

00:21:30.904 --> 00:21:38.115
so I saw, um, commercials on TV for, um, Explorers of Darkness and Time were about to come out, and I was seeing the commercials for them.

00:21:38.904 --> 00:21:50.509
I was like, oh my god, a world without humans, and it's just the Pokemon, that's awesome! So I basically just asked it for it for Christmas, that year just so I could play the Pokemon, because I just, I thought that was inherently interesting.

00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:54.029
I was not expecting the really good story they have.

00:21:54.333 --> 00:21:56.252
it was the first video game to ever make me cry.

00:21:56.616 --> 00:22:02.616
and so I have a lot of nostalgia for them, just for the fact that I was so blown away by the surprise, really nice story.

00:22:02.636 --> 00:22:04.603
and I've played them in recent times.

00:22:04.633 --> 00:22:07.207
not as much as main series, still really love them.

00:22:07.207 --> 00:22:08.567
I'm still very nostalgic about them.

00:22:08.646 --> 00:22:08.926
So.

00:22:09.417 --> 00:22:12.077
do you have any, uh, key moments that you remember from playing those games?

00:22:12.077 --> 00:22:16.887
Like any scenes that like, I guess maybe touch you and then you still kind of let live and free in your head.

00:22:17.407 --> 00:22:28.397
This is the most straightforward answer that everyone says about these games, but the ending, where you're, I don't know if you're familiar with the ending of History Dungeon, but um, You basically die at the end.

00:22:29.038 --> 00:22:33.407
You change the future, but you are from the future, in like, the Explorers games.

00:22:34.097 --> 00:22:51.657
when you change the future, you disappear, and your partner watches you disappear in front of them, and then they go home crying, and like, telling your story, and the credits roll, and when you're a kid, like, You're just like, oh, I'm dead! Like, the game's over! That's it! It's really, like, it's a tearjerker.

00:22:51.657 --> 00:22:53.557
It has, like, this very beautiful music playing.

00:22:53.587 --> 00:22:55.647
And, oh my gosh, it's, like, really heavy.

00:22:56.025 --> 00:23:01.805
and then after the credits roll, then it reveals that Dialga is, like, thankful for you saving the future.

00:23:01.805 --> 00:23:04.505
And then he uses his time powers to bring you back.

00:23:04.924 --> 00:23:07.087
but, at first you think you're gone forever.

00:23:07.097 --> 00:23:13.198
And That will always stay in my brain forever, because again, first game to make me cry and that's the first time I cried over it,

00:23:13.488 --> 00:23:14.678
Oh yeah.

00:23:14.857 --> 00:23:16.528
And it's like, oh my gosh, I'm not coming back.

00:23:16.528 --> 00:23:17.768
There's not going to be a sequel.

00:23:18.105 --> 00:23:25.025
Yeah, I thought, I thought I just wouldn't be able to play the game anymore, like it's over, I'm gone, but no, you come back at the end,

00:23:25.115 --> 00:23:27.345
Dude, could you imagine like if they did that in the main series games?

00:23:27.345 --> 00:23:28.184
That'd be wild.

00:23:28.464 --> 00:23:29.214
Yeah, that'd be crazy.

00:23:30.055 --> 00:23:34.545
It's like I became Pokemon champion and then all of a sudden just pass out and slowly pass away.

00:23:35.855 --> 00:23:40.154
Oh my god, your poor Pokemon get lost in some save file purgatory forever.

00:23:42.515 --> 00:23:56.355
Well, I mean, that's what always made me sad, uh, especially with the Pokemon movies, you know, Pokemon first movie, of course, but then also I think the one that with, uh, Pikachu was worried that Ash had passed away and he, you know, the one time he spoke and it still made me cry.

00:23:56.609 --> 00:23:56.940
You?

00:23:57.180 --> 00:23:57.880
Yeah, I choose you.

00:23:57.880 --> 00:23:58.430
That's what it was.

00:23:58.839 --> 00:24:09.700
And it always made me cry to see like how much Pikachu cared about Ash and just seeing those emotions of, you know, what does happen when a Pokemon, when we do move on, you know, like in the Pokemon world, it's yeah.

00:24:10.083 --> 00:24:21.173
I've watched I Choose You before only once, but I remember that one sequence where Ash is like in real life and everything is grayscale and like Pokemon aren't real for a little while, that was that was crazy.

00:24:21.952 --> 00:24:22.502
It was,

00:24:22.673 --> 00:24:23.942
mind more than anything else.

00:24:24.339 --> 00:24:27.059
Because of your experience with Pokemon, you gotta have a favorite Pokemon.

00:24:27.130 --> 00:24:28.599
What is your favorite Pokemon?

00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:30.859
My favorite Pokémon is Quagsire.

00:24:31.159 --> 00:24:32.229
there is no competition.

00:24:32.229 --> 00:24:33.679
Quagsire is my number one favorite Pokémon.

00:24:34.409 --> 00:24:41.782
when I was first playing Pokémon Crystal, I walked into the grass on the first route that has Wooper and I saw Wooper and I fell in love.

00:24:41.782 --> 00:24:42.722
I just, that was it.

00:24:42.762 --> 00:24:46.363
I, I loved Wooper from the instant I saw it in Pokémon Crystal for the first time.

00:24:46.657 --> 00:24:47.268
and.

00:24:47.363 --> 00:25:05.335
Then I was already getting into shiny hunting at the very start of my playthrough, um, which is kind of a long story that I might be able to get into in a second, but I shiny hunted a wooper and then evolved it and I had a shiny quagsire on my team named Jelly, and Jelly is like my one and true partner forever, I love her very much.

00:25:05.750 --> 00:25:06.480
Aww.

00:25:06.824 --> 00:25:09.203
what was the story behind the shiny hunting, since we're already in it?

00:25:09.979 --> 00:25:19.900
Oh my god, yeah, so, Originally, one of my alters was actually playing Crystal, and then I wanted to play it instead, so we, we switched off, um, and then it became my playthrough afterwards.

00:25:20.250 --> 00:25:27.401
but she had the misinformation, consider, we had never played Gen 2 before, and we didn't really talk to anyone who had before now.

00:25:27.744 --> 00:25:42.258
So, we didn't know that this was misinformation, but she thought that The shiny odds for gift Pokemon, like, stuff you get from NPCs and stuff, like, including the starters, was around 1 in 120.

00:25:42.616 --> 00:25:46.707
this came from, like, a YouTuber, she's since corrected the information, it was just an accident.

00:25:46.990 --> 00:25:48.789
but, We just took her at face value.

00:25:48.789 --> 00:25:55.049
It's like, okay, sure, uh, the gift Pokemon in Crystal have an odds of like 1 in 120 or so.

00:25:55.374 --> 00:25:58.394
And so she was like, okay, why not restart for a shiny starter?

00:25:58.403 --> 00:25:59.614
Why not do the resets?

00:26:00.034 --> 00:26:02.973
And then she actually got it in 126 resets.

00:26:03.023 --> 00:26:03.314
Which,

00:26:03.324 --> 00:26:04.203
Oh my god.

00:26:04.403 --> 00:26:07.263
confirmed the, the misinformation to us.

00:26:07.513 --> 00:26:11.900
and so when she gave the playthrough to me, she let me have the cartridge and then I started playing.

00:26:12.228 --> 00:26:13.458
she hadn't even left the first town.

00:26:13.468 --> 00:26:15.688
She basically just got that shiny and then stopped.

00:26:16.058 --> 00:26:25.048
so it's my playthrough now and I was like, hmm, well, since she got a shiny so fast, why don't I reset for the, the gift Eevee from, from Bill?

00:26:25.345 --> 00:26:29.817
And, you know, I go, I pass 120 resets and I'm like, okay, I'm a little unlucky.

00:26:30.095 --> 00:26:30.865
No big deal.

00:26:30.884 --> 00:26:37.609
And then I get to like, I think 400 resets or so, and I'm like, I don't think this is right.

00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:39.589
I feel like I should have gotten it by now.

00:26:40.125 --> 00:26:40.884
Oh my gosh.

00:26:41.390 --> 00:26:45.529
google the information, I find out the odds are 1 in 8, 192.

00:26:45.530 --> 00:26:51.298
I have a very late surprised reaction about my Cyndaquil, because I had no idea it was that lucky.

00:26:51.728 --> 00:26:54.807
But then, I had already sunk all the time into this Eevee.

00:26:54.896 --> 00:27:07.217
I did 400 resets, and I'm like, I don't want to give up, so I kept going, and I kept going, and I spent an entire month shiny hunting that Eevee until I got it at like one hun eight thousand, hundred something resets,

00:27:07.321 --> 00:27:08.442
Almost full odds, wow.

00:27:08.471 --> 00:27:08.821
Yeah.

00:27:08.876 --> 00:27:10.666
yep, and I got really lucky.

00:27:10.916 --> 00:27:14.886
I had such a rush of emotion finally getting it after working so hard for a month.

00:27:15.217 --> 00:27:16.967
I was like, oh, I want to do shiny hunting more.

00:27:17.257 --> 00:27:17.606
Um,

00:27:18.132 --> 00:27:18.662
Oh god.

00:27:18.737 --> 00:27:23.527
obsessed with shiny hunting during the playthrough and actually my first team ended up being six entire shinies.

00:27:23.894 --> 00:27:25.714
I'm kind of a Fulads purist now.

00:27:25.714 --> 00:27:28.325
I don't mind what other people do, I just like Fulads a lot.

00:27:28.727 --> 00:27:30.987
But I wasn't a Fulads purist yet.

00:27:31.237 --> 00:27:35.656
So, um, I hunted Wooper there's like an egg method in Gen 2.

00:27:35.656 --> 00:27:38.007
It's not called Masuda Method, it's a different method, but,

00:27:38.021 --> 00:27:38.442
Mm hmm.

00:27:38.442 --> 00:27:40.951
Ha ha ha ha.

00:27:41.021 --> 00:27:49.652
odds, and I got the shiny grouper, and that is, that's how I started shiny hunting, and now I'm a shiny hunter because of this misinformation that I thought was true and then it wasn't, so.

00:27:50.424 --> 00:27:57.375
do you prefer like the full odds because of the challenge or like what makes that your more preference to kind of get shiny Pokemon?

00:27:58.045 --> 00:28:02.603
Yeah, it's kind of just about the journey for me, I don't care as much about the end result.

00:28:02.633 --> 00:28:14.809
Of course I love having the shiny Pokemon, but shiny hunting for long periods of time, it makes me associate the end result with, like, the people I hung out with during that time, and the other things I was doing while I was shiny hunting.

00:28:15.157 --> 00:28:24.166
So they kind of become mini, like, time capsules, almost, and I get to, like, hang out with people while I do it because it's very, like, brain dead, like, floods hunting is very just press the same buttons thousands of times.

00:28:25.230 --> 00:28:29.720
it's just kind of a social and memory capsule type of thing, which is why I like it so much.

00:28:30.490 --> 00:28:34.529
It reminds me of my first experience with Wooper because I loved Wooper myself.

00:28:34.819 --> 00:28:40.910
And I always wanted to be an artist of some sorts growing up because I was always jealous of people who could draw well.

00:28:41.281 --> 00:28:43.961
And I remembered like, look, I want to say I drew this.

00:28:44.192 --> 00:28:46.343
So, I think it was actually the Pokemon the movie.

00:28:46.343 --> 00:28:51.772
They had the pre Pikachu, scene or something like that where Pikachu head butted a Quagsire at some point.

00:28:52.432 --> 00:28:52.942
And

00:28:53.083 --> 00:28:53.873
I remember what you're talking

00:28:54.107 --> 00:29:04.337
What I did is I paused the movie on my VCR and I got myself a little notebook paper and put it on top of the screen and traced around it just and then that way, you know, they can't see.

00:29:04.337 --> 00:29:05.647
I just like traced it.

00:29:05.847 --> 00:29:07.157
But now I was like and then I went to school.

00:29:07.157 --> 00:29:08.028
I'm like, no, I drew it.

00:29:08.028 --> 00:29:09.288
Where are you going to see this image from?

00:29:09.288 --> 00:29:12.688
This is from the movie because I wanted to be an artist so bad.

00:29:13.417 --> 00:29:14.488
That's actually really cute.

00:29:14.708 --> 00:29:15.367
Oh, thank you.

00:29:16.137 --> 00:29:18.448
And actually, you're thinking about the start of the third Pokemon movie?

00:29:18.557 --> 00:29:19.718
Uh, Spell of the Unknown.

00:29:20.008 --> 00:29:20.738
Yeah, I mean.

00:29:20.738 --> 00:29:21.178
that movie,

00:29:21.387 --> 00:29:26.327
Yeah, because it was right before the, uh, the, I think it was during the credits actually, or the, uh, introduction.

00:29:26.621 --> 00:29:27.721
Yeah, the opening credits, uh,

00:29:27.820 --> 00:29:28.141
Yes.

00:29:28.300 --> 00:29:29.260
battles a random girl.

00:29:29.621 --> 00:29:29.871
Yep.

00:29:29.881 --> 00:29:30.631
Never see her again.

00:29:31.050 --> 00:29:33.111
Yep, that Quagsire.

00:29:33.151 --> 00:29:37.750
They've actually retconned Quagsire's design since Gen 2, but the movie has the old Quagsire design,

00:29:38.030 --> 00:29:41.810
Well, I was going to actually ask you about that since, you know, you have such a fondness for Wooper and Cloudsire.

00:29:41.810 --> 00:29:44.780
What are your thoughts on Paladin, Wooper, and of course, Cloudsire?

00:29:45.215 --> 00:29:45.915
Oh, they're adorable.

00:29:45.915 --> 00:29:46.375
I love them.

00:29:46.375 --> 00:29:51.086
They're not like, they'll never hold a candle to the original Quagsire for me, but I do love them.

00:29:51.086 --> 00:29:51.965
I think they're very cute.

00:29:52.391 --> 00:29:52.721
Okay.

00:29:52.721 --> 00:29:54.951
Did you actually use them for your Scarlet Violet playthrough?

00:29:55.403 --> 00:29:58.333
Scarlet and Violet is the only Pokemon game I have not played.

00:29:58.897 --> 00:29:59.577
Really?

00:29:59.617 --> 00:29:59.988
Okay.

00:30:00.008 --> 00:30:00.208
Okay.

00:30:00.208 --> 00:30:00.538
I'm sorry.

00:30:00.538 --> 00:30:01.048
I didn't know that.

00:30:01.192 --> 00:30:02.742
well, one of my alters has

00:30:02.843 --> 00:30:02.853
Mm

00:30:02.992 --> 00:30:04.363
it, so I know about it,

00:30:04.893 --> 00:30:05.252
hmm.

00:30:05.383 --> 00:30:06.702
played it, if that makes sense.

00:30:06.722 --> 00:30:07.873
It does, it does, yeah.

00:30:07.873 --> 00:30:10.303
yeah, but I haven't personally finished a playthrough.

00:30:10.630 --> 00:30:17.597
The open world stuff just isn't for me, so, um, I haven't played it, and I'm into the anime right now, so I still, like Palde and

00:30:17.972 --> 00:30:17.982
hmm.

00:30:18.145 --> 00:30:25.210
Do you prefer, like, more of, I guess, the restriction when it came with the pixel games compared to now where everything's open world and you can kind of walk around?

00:30:25.670 --> 00:30:34.190
Yeah, I just like, the grid based RPG stuff, I know that BDSP is very controversial, but I do like BDSP on the Switch just because it's in the gameplay style that I like.

00:30:34.746 --> 00:30:37.855
What has kept you kind of coming back to play Pokemon over and over?

00:30:37.915 --> 00:30:46.990
Because, you know, you've been a long time fan, you've gone through most of the games outside of the open world stuff, What is it about the franchise that you keep enjoying that makes you want to stick with it?

00:30:47.414 --> 00:30:52.345
That's a really good question, because I could answer in like 10 million different ways, it feels like,

00:30:52.404 --> 00:30:52.904
Let's go.

00:30:52.904 --> 00:30:54.565
We got 10 million minutes to go.

00:30:56.498 --> 00:30:57.238
Yeah, I guess so.

00:30:57.238 --> 00:30:59.847
but like, there's, you know, my website.

00:30:59.847 --> 00:31:03.387
I really, I do genuinely enjoy the process of documentation.

00:31:03.397 --> 00:31:07.417
There's just something about compiling information that I find very satisfying.

00:31:07.750 --> 00:31:09.391
probably on account of me being autistic.

00:31:09.431 --> 00:31:10.441
That's very possible.

00:31:11.740 --> 00:31:13.361
but I love doing that.

00:31:13.701 --> 00:31:16.063
And then, I do genuinely just love the world of Pokemon.

00:31:16.123 --> 00:31:18.655
I think it's comforting, There is childhood bias.

00:31:18.655 --> 00:31:21.476
I played it as a kid, and enjoyed it as a kid.

00:31:21.496 --> 00:31:24.205
So, I enjoy it now, partially for that reason.

00:31:24.673 --> 00:31:27.012
but the Pokemon games are just so expansive.

00:31:27.123 --> 00:31:29.012
There are so many details in them.

00:31:29.413 --> 00:31:34.633
it feels like I can research them or play them forever, and I will never get to the end of everything that is in them.

00:31:35.010 --> 00:31:43.691
And because of how you can team build different teams each time, and there's so much variety, it feels like playing them is never quite the same thing over and over.

00:31:44.050 --> 00:31:44.951
so I think it's just that.

00:31:44.980 --> 00:31:48.090
I just, I like knowing information about Pokemon.

00:31:48.101 --> 00:31:51.288
I like, being kind of an encyclopedia as much as possible.

00:31:51.637 --> 00:31:54.417
Um, I find it entertaining and it never ends.

00:31:54.478 --> 00:31:56.587
And then there's, you know, new stuff coming out too.

00:31:56.617 --> 00:31:58.557
So then I get to learn about that too.

00:31:58.557 --> 00:31:59.778
And it just, it never ends.

00:31:59.817 --> 00:32:00.617
That, that's why.

00:32:01.718 --> 00:32:13.028
I agree the same way because I always love, when I know a random fact, an obscure Pokemon fact, and I get to share it with people because it's like people know, of course, some of the common stuff, I love the deep dive of.

00:32:13.028 --> 00:32:19.307
The history or the mythological side of Pokemon in Diamond and Pearl, if you go to the Canalave library I think or something like that

00:32:19.748 --> 00:32:20.268
Yes.

00:32:20.357 --> 00:32:25.617
to kind of read the little bookshelves and get some of the tidbits that people tend to probably overlook because it's not part Of the main story.

00:32:25.917 --> 00:32:45.270
I like breaking down and learning about the Pokemon world because there's So much more that's even just within the games that There's to uncover and that's what I enjoy about Pokemon too and I can kind of understand like for you being autistic it fits your need to kind of grasp the information be able to kind of spew it out because you don't need to become hyper focused and then also you get to organize stuff too.

00:32:45.691 --> 00:32:46.111
Mm hmm.

00:32:46.300 --> 00:32:46.510
Yep.

00:32:47.184 --> 00:32:49.464
and then on top of that, Pokemon is a social experience.

00:32:49.494 --> 00:32:54.212
Most of my friends I've met through Pokemon and, It always keeps me coming back to hang out with people.

00:32:54.212 --> 00:32:55.903
So that, that's a huge part of it too.

00:32:56.279 --> 00:32:57.470
there's just such a big community.

00:32:58.185 --> 00:33:01.855
you've been very vocal about, disabilities, you know, you have POTS, you have autism.

00:33:01.855 --> 00:33:03.972
And then of course, we talked about DID.

00:33:03.972 --> 00:33:09.932
We How has the Pokemon community been kind of, I guess, engaging, willing to welcome you, when it comes to your disability?

00:33:10.269 --> 00:33:13.319
Yeah, it's nice because, um, so much of the community is online.

00:33:13.410 --> 00:33:18.105
and so even when I'm sick at home or not feeling well, I'm able to communicate with people.

00:33:18.516 --> 00:33:21.506
I think the internet also just, there's a layer of separation.

00:33:21.506 --> 00:33:25.625
People can't immediately judge me for my disabilities if they aren't as visible immediately.

00:33:25.895 --> 00:33:26.715
but on the other hand.

00:33:27.069 --> 00:33:29.940
I'm talking about how Pokemon appeals to me in an autistic way.

00:33:30.210 --> 00:33:32.049
Same thing for a lot of other autistic people.

00:33:32.049 --> 00:33:37.553
So I have met unfathomable amount of autistic people specifically through Pokemon.

00:33:37.682 --> 00:33:42.863
Especially once you get into these more nerdy circles of like technicalities and stuff.

00:33:43.067 --> 00:33:43.518
Mm hmm.

00:33:43.702 --> 00:33:46.542
You meet a lot of other people.

00:33:46.903 --> 00:33:51.292
So it's let me connect with people who are like minded to me and that's been helpful.

00:33:51.323 --> 00:33:54.363
And then, You know, so much of it, again, is over the internet, so that helps too.

00:33:54.712 --> 00:33:57.633
that being said, it has brought me out into the real world a little more.

00:33:57.982 --> 00:33:59.063
I was a bit of a shut in.

00:33:59.103 --> 00:34:00.232
Uh, I'm working on that now.

00:34:00.232 --> 00:34:09.612
I'm in a much better place in my life than I was, but for a while I didn't really leave my house a whole lot, for a variety of reasons, health concerns, and also just mental health issues and whatnot.

00:34:10.023 --> 00:34:13.155
Pokemon community has actually got me out more recently.

00:34:13.155 --> 00:34:18.806
Last year, I went to a Pokemon convention, like a local, small, hosted convention for Pokemon.

00:34:19.170 --> 00:34:25.463
I ran like a mystery gift booth, where you could come up and get mystery gifts, event Pokemon for the old games again.

00:34:25.682 --> 00:34:26.373
Oh, wow.

00:34:26.659 --> 00:34:32.210
yeah, and then, um, like, went to, uh, a regionals last year, just for fun.

00:34:32.260 --> 00:34:36.170
Um, and I met up with some internet friends, in a different state, and that was fun too.

00:34:36.179 --> 00:34:36.489
So.

00:34:37.150 --> 00:34:41.539
It feels like I'm always finding new ways to meet people and do stuff when it comes to Pokemon.

00:34:41.539 --> 00:34:42.019
So

00:34:42.606 --> 00:34:54.996
You know, you said you were more of a shut in and, you know, you're kind of more to yourself because of, you know, part of the way you were alive, part of the mental health, how difficult was it for you to go and step outside of your comfort zone to go to the regional to do this mystery event?

00:34:55.387 --> 00:34:59.519
Well, at first it was harder last year was better in that regard.

00:34:59.539 --> 00:35:01.489
I had already kind of started working on that.

00:35:01.820 --> 00:35:03.070
But it was, it was a process.

00:35:03.070 --> 00:35:05.230
It took a while for me to get more outside again.

00:35:05.574 --> 00:35:07.923
I had dropped out of college in 2019.

00:35:07.934 --> 00:35:13.016
So actually not because of the pandemic, even though the pandemic up timing really well, with that.

00:35:13.344 --> 00:35:17.324
But, I dropped out of college in 2019, and I was just going through a lot of mental health issues.

00:35:17.324 --> 00:35:19.664
and also I hadn't been diagnosed with POTS yet.

00:35:19.697 --> 00:35:22.407
and I didn't know what was wrong with me physically, but I knew that something was wrong.

00:35:22.764 --> 00:35:25.295
so I had to take a break to sort out all my health stuff.

00:35:25.335 --> 00:35:36.208
And then that combining with the pandemic, where we had to be inside for a while, kind of exacerbated my already existing issues with You know, being afraid to leave the house and, just struggling with socializing and all of that.

00:35:36.532 --> 00:35:41.023
and then the pandemic ended and then I kind of just kept not leaving my house.

00:35:41.023 --> 00:35:45.503
It kind of felt like I was still sheltering, even when I wasn't to.

00:35:45.940 --> 00:35:47.121
but I knew that was an issue.

00:35:47.121 --> 00:35:48.760
I knew that I wanted to get out.

00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:50.670
I just was dealing with too much.

00:35:50.710 --> 00:35:54.561
And then in 2023, I think I really started working on that.

00:35:54.942 --> 00:36:02.920
I started getting out a little bit more, you know, going to dinner or, you know, just stepping outside for my doctor's appointments and, small outings, nothing, nothing crazy.

00:36:02.931 --> 00:36:07.423
And then, towards the end of 2023, I was like, okay, I want to do some bigger things.

00:36:07.423 --> 00:36:11.568
I want to go to regionals in February to meet like my internet friends and, do some other stuff.

00:36:11.597 --> 00:36:12.905
And that was a bigger jump.

00:36:13.135 --> 00:36:13.375
Bye.

00:36:13.809 --> 00:36:24.077
I had a little bit of experience at that point, and, I think from there, once I, you know, conquered going to another state and, like, talking to people I'd only ever talked to on the internet, it felt like I could kind of do anything.

00:36:24.077 --> 00:36:26.409
from there on out, I've been a little bit more confident.

00:36:26.409 --> 00:36:36.110
And, you know, now I'm going back to classes, for the first time since 2019, and I'm going in person, and I'm handling it pretty okay so far, so, Pokemon was definitely a stepping stone in that process, for sure.

00:36:36.460 --> 00:36:38.311
but things were doing better now than they were.

00:36:38.891 --> 00:36:45.141
It's kind of amazing, though, to see, like, you know, you had this crisis going on for 2019 2020, of course, makes it worse.

00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:49.900
But thanks to Pokemon, it allows you to kind of relive your life again and to get started and.

00:36:50.041 --> 00:36:50.760
feels like that.

00:36:50.800 --> 00:36:52.280
Yeah, that's kind of, it's kind of cool.

00:36:52.280 --> 00:36:54.451
Like Pokemon gave me a rebirthing or in a way.

00:36:54.918 --> 00:36:59.918
and it's, again it's cool too because I mentioned this earlier, but It also made me realize what I want to do as a living.

00:37:00.177 --> 00:37:00.768
Yeah.

00:37:00.978 --> 00:37:01.447
Yeah.

00:37:01.487 --> 00:37:02.947
kind of a rebirth of its own.

00:37:03.318 --> 00:37:08.213
yeah, I had no idea when I made Blue Moon Falls that I would, you know, I love it so much.

00:37:08.248 --> 00:37:12.217
the web design stuff was kind of a means to an end at first.

00:37:12.248 --> 00:37:15.797
I just, I wanted to provide the information in a way that was accessible.

00:37:15.818 --> 00:37:24.818
and I didn't realize that I was really into actually like coding and doing the web stuff until I was, neck deep in some projects for Bloomin Falls.

00:37:24.818 --> 00:37:26.838
And I was like, wait, I actually really enjoy this.

00:37:27.668 --> 00:37:28.248
it's a hobby.

00:37:28.248 --> 00:37:28.608
So.

00:37:29.117 --> 00:37:29.748
Blue moon falls.

00:37:29.748 --> 00:37:31.297
Of course, it's coming on three years.

00:37:31.297 --> 00:37:33.597
You mentioned that way earlier when we started recording.

00:37:33.918 --> 00:37:35.637
Yeah, actually it just passed three years.

00:37:35.657 --> 00:37:35.788
It

00:37:35.797 --> 00:37:36.197
Oh,

00:37:36.217 --> 00:37:36.717
a second to

00:37:36.777 --> 00:37:37.918
happy birthday to three years.

00:37:37.918 --> 00:37:38.317
All right.

00:37:38.318 --> 00:37:39.887
Blue moon falls hit three years.

00:37:40.175 --> 00:37:44.505
Yeah, I actually, I made it two days after my birthday, like just my actual birthday.

00:37:44.525 --> 00:37:48.360
So, uh, it's, I can kind of tie it with my birthday in my mind because it's very close.

00:37:49.210 --> 00:37:51.871
What has been the feedback since starting the website?

00:37:51.871 --> 00:37:55.581
Like what have people, what have people responded to when they come across Blooming Falls?

00:37:55.581 --> 00:38:00.364
That's awesome.

00:38:00.364 --> 00:38:05.739
Well, Blooming Falls,

00:38:06.309 --> 00:38:23.829
successor to Geocities, which was, anyone younger who is listening and probably doesn't know what Geocities is, um, it was an old web hosting thing, like you could make your own websites on Geocities, and that was the main way that people presented themselves online in like, you know, 90s and early 2000s.

00:38:24.188 --> 00:38:32.722
it's been defunct for a long time, but NeoCities is kind of a spiritual successor that like, takes the idea of Simple web hosting, like the code on there is pretty simple.

00:38:32.751 --> 00:38:33.612
It's all static.

00:38:33.612 --> 00:38:35.601
So there's no like back end to websites.

00:38:35.661 --> 00:38:39.731
You just kind of write the HTML and the CSS and like the JavaScript and that's it.

00:38:40.132 --> 00:38:40.992
to be yourself to.

00:38:41.722 --> 00:38:43.063
a creative place on the internet.

00:38:43.460 --> 00:38:48.090
and the reason I bring this up is because NeoCities has sort of social media features.

00:38:48.463 --> 00:38:49.253
there's a search bar.

00:38:49.262 --> 00:38:52.213
You can actually search up websites on NeoCities.

00:38:52.646 --> 00:38:54.637
and you can like add tags to your website.

00:38:54.657 --> 00:39:05.641
So like Blue Moon Falls has the so early on, before the website was actually, you know, getting attention from outside of NeoCities, most people found it through the NeoCities website browser.

00:39:05.969 --> 00:39:12.001
And it was slow at first, I mean, there wasn't much on the website so that makes sense, but, you know, I got some nice messages occasionally.

00:39:12.362 --> 00:39:22.793
and then I think, the first time I ever got, More attention on the website from outside of NeoCities and outside this, like, web niche, was when I did the Crystal Sprite GIF archive.

00:39:22.815 --> 00:39:28.768
it's literally just, a dump of all the crystal sprites, like the animated ones, but they have transparent backgrounds.

00:39:28.829 --> 00:39:42.389
for some reason, until I made that webpage, there was No source of the crystal GIFs, it seemed, with transparent backgrounds that either had white backgrounds or they were APNGs, which are not GIFs and, are a lot more finicky to display on things or save.

00:39:42.856 --> 00:39:53.027
and I just wanted them as gifts so I did it myself and I posted it on Twitter and like some people saw it and thought it was useful probably just for adding gifts to like stream layouts and that kind of thing.

00:39:53.476 --> 00:39:58.880
I was already in the shiny hunting community so people who need the shiny sprites on their layouts and stuff saw it.

00:39:59.251 --> 00:40:01.494
and then it's been a steady stream since then.

00:40:01.525 --> 00:40:10.222
Um, every time I upload a new big project, I get like an influx of people seeing the website for the first time because the thing gets spread around to different places.

00:40:10.603 --> 00:40:15.003
and nowadays I have, I don't, NeoCity statistics aren't reliable.

00:40:15.014 --> 00:40:24.128
So I don't know how reliable this number is, but, I get like around 2, 000 unique visits every day, roughly, if we're NeoCity statistics.

00:40:24.489 --> 00:40:31.922
I have like a guest book on the website where you can like leave a comment, I'll just the website, and it has 134 signatures, I just checked.

00:40:32.197 --> 00:40:37.387
suffice to say I've gotten a lot of positive attention that I was not expecting first made the website.

00:40:37.686 --> 00:40:41.836
I've never really had anything other than positive attention in particular, so,

00:40:43.782 --> 00:40:45.742
I want to finish this interview with the last question.

00:40:45.742 --> 00:40:46.641
It's gonna be a fun one.

00:40:46.811 --> 00:40:48.501
If somebody was going to battle you.

00:40:48.972 --> 00:40:50.822
What six Pokemon would you bring?

00:40:51.711 --> 00:40:52.952
Okay, I have this for you.

00:40:53.211 --> 00:40:59.568
It would be Typhlosion, Pitmontop, Quagsire, Umbreon, and Ampharos.

00:40:59.677 --> 00:41:02.018
That was my first crystal team and they're my partners.

00:41:02.288 --> 00:41:03.157
All right.

00:41:03.297 --> 00:41:03.858
I love it.

00:41:03.858 --> 00:41:04.407
I love it.

00:41:04.818 --> 00:41:05.487
They're all shiny.

00:41:05.507 --> 00:41:06.327
This is very important.

00:41:06.347 --> 00:41:07.378
I've shiny hunted all of them.

00:41:09.264 --> 00:41:10.195
well, blue moon falls.

00:41:10.195 --> 00:41:10.945
Thank you for coming on.

00:41:10.954 --> 00:41:15.844
As the pokeball turns before you go, if people want to connect with you, if they want to check out your website, where can they go?

00:41:15.844 --> 00:41:17.425
By all means, please plug away.

00:41:17.856 --> 00:41:21.456
the main place I am on the internet is my website, it's bluemoonfalls.

00:41:21.456 --> 00:41:21.867
com.

00:41:22.237 --> 00:41:24.396
no hyphens, no anything weird, it's just that.

00:41:24.786 --> 00:41:36.632
And then, um, my personal social medias are PikaVs, which is Pika, like Pokemon, and then Vs, like the end of Eevee, with an S at the end, so it's A V E E S.

00:41:36.632 --> 00:41:37.851
Um, yeah.

00:41:38.681 --> 00:41:40.302
I'm on, like, Blue Sky these days.

00:41:40.331 --> 00:41:41.751
Um, I don't really use Twitter anymore.

00:41:41.802 --> 00:41:43.052
And, um, that's about it.

00:41:43.101 --> 00:41:46.632
I'm kind of quiet on the internet, so should just check out my website.

00:41:46.661 --> 00:41:47.822
Blumenfeld is, like, my main thing.

00:41:48.144 --> 00:41:50.755
Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns.

00:41:51.074 --> 00:41:57.724
Follow all my socials and join our Discord community to stay connected by clicking any of the links in the description of this episode.

00:41:58.324 --> 00:42:03.795
Tune in next time for more episodes featuring more people, more stories, and more Pokemon.

00:42:04.164 --> 00:42:05.125
Until next time.