Difference between revisions of “User:Luigifan18/Fun:Progress & Regress Pokémon”

This essay is an original work by Luigifan18.
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I only claim ownership of the Progress & Regress Pokémon, the Freigos Region, and my own fakemon concepts specifically. All rights to the Pokémon franchise as a whole belong to The Pokémon Company (Nintendo, GameFreak, & Creatures Inc.). The rights to the Kaskade Region belong to Lockstin & Gnoggin. The rights to Create-A-Pokémon belong to Smogon University.

RationalWiki has my permission to use the Progress & Regress Pokémon for the purposes of advertising/self-promotion, advancing its mission, and basically whatever else helps it to achieve its goals. (That’s one of the main reasons why I made them in the first place — I love this site and want to do what I can to help it succeed.)

The Progress and Regress Pokémon are a set of custom Pokémon that I have designed to bridge RationalWiki with the Pokémon fandom, promoting the values that RationalWiki stands for and rebuking the chicanery that RationalWiki opposes. In this article, I will describe the Progress and Regress Pokémon, their signature moves and Abilities, their symbolism (i.e. what they represent), and some other details.

General Characteristics

Gameplay-wise, the Progress and Regress Pokémon are modeled on the Paradox Pokémon from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, with the Progress Pokémon being parallel to the future Paradox Pokémon from Violet and the Regress Pokémon being parallel to the past Paradox Pokémon from Scarlet. All of the Progress and Regress Pokémon have 570 BST (Base Stat Total), with the exceptions of Azureality, Crimsolusion, Dawseculab, and Cleragate (Azureality and Crimsolusion have 680 BST, while Dawseculab and Cleragate have 590 BST).^{(note 1)} With the exceptions of Azureality and Crimsolusion, all of the Progress and Regress Pokémon are directly modeled on an existing Pokémon (whether an official Pokémon or a Pokémon that I designed before Generation IX (and one that’s modeled on a Pokémon designed by Lockstin)).^{(note 2)} Like the Paradox Pokémon, the Progress and Regress Pokémon have completely original names despite clearly being derived from already-existing Pokémon. However, unlike the Paradox Pokémon, whose names are overly-to-the-point two-word descriptions of what they look like, what they do, what they are, or what sort of imagery they invoke through their appearance, the Progress and Regress Pokémon have more conventional names by the standards of the Pokémon franchise (though their names are still slightly unusual). This means that while the names of the Progress and Regress Pokémon are still intended to describe what they represent, they are more akin to actual names, containing portmanteaus, puns, and other such cleverness.^{(note 3)} Each of the Progress and Regress Pokémon is meant to fit into two parallel chains, with each Progress Pokémon hard-countering one of the Regress Pokémon and being hard-countered by another of the Regress Pokémon, and each Regress Pokémon hard-countering one of the Progress Pokémon and being hard-countered by another of the Progress Pokémon. This locks the Progress and Regress Pokémon into a stalemate, so the plot of a hypothetical game featuring them would involve both sets of Pokémon trying to find a Trainer who can help them tip the balance in their favor.^{(note 4)}^{(note 5)}

The shared Ability of the Progress Pokémon, Mind Palace, is based on the future Paradox Pokémon’s Quark Drive; if Psychic Terrain is active or Booster Energy is being held,^{(note 6)} Mind Palace boosts the user’s strongest stat (other than HP) by 30% (50% if the strongest stat is Speed), while also enabling the user to successfully execute priority moves on grounded Pokémon on Psychic Terrain.^{(note 7)}^{(note 8)} Mind Palace is based on the pneumonic device of the same name; basically, the idea is that the Progress Pokémon are at their best when the power of the mind is being facilitated.^{(note 9)} The shared Ability of the Regress Pokémon, Ignorant Grit, is based on the past Paradox Pokémon’s Protosynthesis; if a sandstorm is active or Booster Energy is being held, Ignorant Grit boosts the user’s strongest stat (other than HP) by 30% (50% if the strongest stat is Speed), while also protecting the user from passive sandstorm damage.^{(note 10)} The name of the Ability was chosen to refer to both ignorance and sand. Whereas “Ignorant” is self-explanatory, “Grit” has two meanings here; while it literally refers to sand, it also refers to stubbornness, i.e. “to grit one’s teeth”. The idea is that the Regress Pokémon represent ignorance and distortion of the truth, and are thus at their strongest when the senses are stymied and accurate information is difficult to come by.^{(note 11)}

The shared signature move of the Progress Pokémon is Skeptic’s Scourge, a Normal-type attack with 70 Base Power, 95% accuracy, and 20 PP that is super-effective on Psychic, Ghost, Dragon, and Fairy-type Pokémon, but not very effective on Normal and Bug-type Pokémon (in addition to being resisted by Rock and Steel as usual, though the super-effective matchup against Ghost overrides Ghost’s usual immunity to Normal^{(note 12)}), while also bypassing the semi-invulnerability of Phantom Force and Shadow Force. Skeptic’s Scourge is categorized as a special move by default, but it can deal either physical or special damage — whichever will deal more damage, given the stats and battle effects of the user and target. Skeptic’s Scourge is based on the principle of skepticism and well-reasoned arguments, denying the existence of the supernatural by demonstrating the impossibility and/or meaninglessness of its existence; in-universe, it works by intensifying the laws of physics so that (at least within the area of effect for the length of time it takes to perform the move) the universe is forced to adhere to a materialistic system where pure reason holds sway and science (more precisely, ~~methodological~~ philosophical naturalism) is supreme. Psychic, Ghost, Dragon, and Fairy are generally the most supernatural Pokémon types, so Skeptic’s Scourge is designed to literally deny their very existence, dealing heavy damage to them as a result.^{(note 13)} Likewise, Normal and Bug are generally the least supernatural Pokémon types, so Skeptic’s Scourge doesn’t hurt them very much. On a related note, Skeptic’s Scourge breaks through Phantom Force and Shadow Force because it pays no heed to supernatural stuff like hiding out in other dimensions (like, say, some sort of “spirit plane”). However, Skeptic’s Scourge does have imperfect accuracy — in fact, since its accuracy is lower than 100%, it can miss even if nobody fiddles with the user’s accuracy or the target’s evasion — because pure skepticism can only amount to so much in a world where supernatural beings (namely, Pokémon themselves^{(note 14)}) do exist and supernatural phenomena do happen.

The shared signature move of the Regress Pokémon is Escape Hatch, a Dark-type sound-based attack with 60 Base Power, 90% accuracy, and 15 PP that confuses the target and switches the user out when it successfully hits a target. Escape Hatch is categorized as a physical move by default, but it can deal either physical or special damage — whichever will deal more damage, given the stats and battle effects of the user and target. Escape Hatch is directly based on the dirty debating tactic of the same name, using a nonsensical-yet-technically-irrefutable argument to throw the opponent off-balance (and drive them temporarily insane as they try to process the sheer stupidity of what they just heard) and cover the charlatan’s withdrawal as they unjustly declare victory. Escape Hatch has deliberately worse parameters than Skeptic’s Scourge due to my desire for the Progress Pokémon to have a slight advantage over the Regress Pokémon in a straight fight (reflecting how a progressive society that respects science and a reality-based point of view will, all other factors being equal, be stronger and healthier than a society that buys into conservative, regressive, nonsensical bullcrap), but Escape Hatch does make up for its weak parameters with its useful momentum-preserving effect.^{(note 15)}^{(note 16)}

Three other moves I came up with that are associated with the Progress Pokémon, yet not actually exclusive to them, are Reboot, Coward’s Bane, and Justice Spark.^{(note 17)} Reboot is a Normal-type status move that removes the user’s stat stages, volatile status conditions, volatile battle statuses, type changes, and Ability changes (along with resetting “time on the battlefield” counters like the bad poison counter), as though they had switched out and back in (though, since the user is not actually switching out and back in, it doesn’t trigger Abilities that trigger on entering battle or set off entry hazards). The analogy is to rebooting a computer to clear up memory leaks, malfunctioning operations, and other performance issues, so in addition to the likes of Azureality, Dawseculab, et al, Reboot is available to the majority of technology-based, mechanical, and manmade Pokémon, like the Magnemite line, the Voltorb line, the Porygon line, Mewtwo, the Baltoy line, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, the Beldum line, the Klink line, Genesect, the Type: Null line, and all of the future Paradox Pokémon. Coward’s Bane is a special sound-based Fighting-type move that I came up with as an alternative Fighting-type coverage option for Azureality.^{(note 18)} The idea is that Coward’s Bane entails the user shouting at the target and condemning them for transgressions (e.g. “Stop right there, criminal scum! You’ve violated the law!” from Skyrim), thus using the force of justice to attack,^{(note 19)} so it works like Punishment (right down to having the same initial Base Power of 60), but it powers up less from the target’s stat stages (+15 Base Power per stage, up to a max of +120, as opposed to +20 Base Power per stage, up to a max of +200) in exchange for also gaining +20 Base Power for each volatile battle status^{(note 20)} on the target and each screen or field buff on the target’s side of the field and +30 Base Power for each status move the target knows.^{(note 21)} In addition to Azureality, Dawseculab, Ratitchepy, and Sanarchern, Coward’s Bane can also be learned by other Pokémon with a strong association with justice, like the Ralts line, Absol, Lucario, Reshiram, Zekrom, the Jangmo-o line, Zacian, Zamazenta, and Calyrex. Justice Spark is basically the beta version of Coward’s Bane — the first attempt at making a special Fighting-type move that is not dependent on qi to function.^{(note 22)} Justice Spark functions by releasing a pulse of light infused with the force of justice… however, I realized that this would work better as an Electric-, Fairy-, or Psychic-type move than a Fighting-type move, so I made it an Electric-type Special-category variation of Flying Press (100 Base Power, 95% accuracy, 10 PP) that simultaneously counts as an Electric- and Fighting-type move. In addition to Azureality, Dawseculab, and Renaiagy, Justice Spark can also be learned by the Pikachu line,^{(note 23)} Ampharos, the Ralts line,^{(note 24)} the Riolu line,^{(note 25)} Zekrom, and the Pawmi line.

A move associated with the Regress Pokémon, but absolutely not exclusive to them, is Screed, a Dark-type sound-based special move that’s a direct variation of Confusion — boasting 50 Base Power, 100% accuracy, and 25 PP, with a 10% chance to confuse the target. In-universe, it entails forcing the user’s deranged and disturbed thoughts into the opponent’s head via loud yelling and other such means — essentially, it’s the weaponization of green ink. It’s designed as a low-level move for Dark-type (and sometimes Ghost-type) special or mixed attackers like Gastly, Misdreavus, Houndour, Nuzleaf, Spiritomb, Yamask, Zorua, Litwick, Vullaby, Alolan Meowth, Sinistea, etc., which would eventually be discarded in favor of Snarl, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, or Dark Storm (a Dark-type special version of Hydro Pump that I designed back in Gen IV).^{(note 26)}^{(note 27)}

Progress Pokémon

Azureality

Type: Psychic/Electric
Template: None^{(note 28)}
Symbolism: Rationalism, empiricism, logic, skepticism, science, reason, scientific materialism, social liberalism, social justice, the Democratic Party, left-wing politics
Name Origin: Azure (Blue) + Reality
Signature Move: Rational Flash (Psychic-type version of Electro Drift that trades in 25 Base Power (100 → 75) for 5 base PP (5 → 10), the ability to bypass impeding stage-based stat improvements,^{(note 31)} the ability to partially bypass and weaken protection moves (specifically, the first protection move used by a given Pokémon against Rational Flash does block it, but subsequent attacks on that Pokémon on that turn hit for 25% of their unblocked damage, and regardless of whether or not Rational Flash is blocked, if the target attempts to use (another) protection move on the next turn, its chance to fail increases by 20% multiplicatively; furthermore, if the same Pokémon attempts to block Rational Flash more than once before either itself or Azureality has switched out and back in, the second time onwards just breaks the protection outright, a la Feint, Hyperspace Hole, etc.),^{(note 32)} a 30% chance to cause paralysis or flinching, and a 40% chance to lower the PP of the target’s most-recently-used move by up to 3; however, just like Electro Drift, it deals 33.3% more damage when it is super-effective, on top of the default ×2/×4 multiplier (with a super-effective hit also enabling 20% non-stat-stage stat adjustment piercing, slightly improving the protection piercing to 33% damage of subsequent attacks penetrating the first protection move and making protection moves on the next turn 30% more likely to fail, increasing the chance of causing a status condition to 50%, adding a 10% chance to inflict simultaneous paralysis and flinching, increasing the chance of causing PP reduction to 60%, and improving the potential PP reduction from 1-3 to 2-4))
Signature Ability: Empirical Stage (Activates Psychic Terrain when the user enters battle, increases the user’s Special Defense by roughly 33.3% while Psychic Terrain is active, and allows the user’s priority moves to hit grounded Pokémon on Psychic Terrain (so, basically a defensive version of Miraidon’s Hadron Engine for Psychic Terrain, with an added rider effect to bypass Psychic Terrain’s downside^{(note 33)}))
Base Stats: 85 HP, 90 Attack, 120 Defense, 120 Special Attack, 150 Special Defense, 115 Speed
Theme Songs: “Land of Confusion” by Disturbed^{(note 34)}^{(note 35)} (live), “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder, “Feeding the Fire” by Disturbed, “I’m Alive” by Disturbed (Azureality vs. Crimsolusion), “The Logical Song” by Supertramp, “Who Taught You How To Hate” by Disturbed (Trent)^{(note 36)}

The leader of the Progress Pokémon and embodiment of rationality, science, and logic, Azureality represents RationalWiki and its virtues. It is a blue donkey-goat hybrid draped in symbols of science; its fur resembles a lab coat, its horns resemble test tubes, and its body is decorated with scientific and skeptical symbols such as atoms, cells, and stars.^{(note 37)}^{(note 38)} The donkey part of its design represents the Democratic Party, and the goat part of its design^{(note 39)} represents RationalWiki itself. Its Psychic-type represents logic, intelligence, and critical thinking, and its Electric-type represents science, technology, and novelty (not unlike Miraidon’s reason for being Electric-type).^{(note 40)}^{(note 41)} Azureality’s base stats are derived from Reshiram’s stat-line,^{(note 42)} but with the offensive and defensive stats swapped, HP and Speed swapped, and then taking 10 points of Attack and 5 points of HP and putting them in Speed.^{(note 43)} Azureality’s emphasis on Speed over HP represents the continuous pursuit of knowledge, the (genuine) flexibility of the skeptical worldview, and the progressive’s zeal for improving everyone’s quality of life and establishing a better tomorrow; a rationalist is willing to change their mind when presented with new information (as long as that new information can be properly verified), and a progressive is all too willing to attack the injustices of the status quo.^{(note 44)} Likewise, the emphasis on special stats over physical stats represents the supremacy of a worldview derived from logic and empirically-determined facts, and how humanity’s greatest strength is its intellect and capacity for invention, so the idea of “might makes right” is absurd (if physical strength was all-important, we’d be taking orders from gorillas, tigers, bears, and other animals that have way more physical strength than a human could ever achieve).^{(note 45)}

Azureality’s signature move, Rational Flash, is a Psychic-type special move that is directly modeled on Miraidon’s Electro Drift, but trades in raw power in exchange for more PP and utility. This utility is meant to be symbolic of rationalist debate tactics, i.e. using logic, evidence, and facts to demonstrate why one’s viewpoint is correct. Rational Flash’s ability to bypass and/or weaken several defensive countermeasures against it (like stat changes or protection moves) represents how the only real way to overcome a well-constructed argument is to have a better argument. However, there are some holes in these countermeasures that can allow an opponent who knows how it works to hinder it anyways, reflecting how logic is not perfectly persuasive and a rationalist still needs to be prepared for fallacious arguments in order to beat them. In particular, Rational Flash does not ignore a Dark-type Pokémon’s immunity to Psychic-type moves, which represents how no amount of facts or logic can pierce the willful ignorance (or, worse, fraudulent intentions) of a charlatan who will say and believe whatever they have to to milk as much money and loyalty out of suckers as possible, and the only way to stop such people is to educate the audience so that they know fact from fiction^{(note 46)} and can recognize bullshit for what it is. However, Rational Flash can only be blocked with a protection move by a given Pokémon once, showing how even if a fallacious argument catches a rationalist off-guard the first time it’s used in a debate, once the rationalist knows that their opponent has no intention of debating fairly, they can double down on their facts and call out and shoot down any further fallacies the opponent might try. The paralysis and flinching that Rational Flash can inflict both represent the sense of inferiority, humiliation, and impotence that a small-minded fool would probably feel after picking a debate with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about (as seen in right-wing morons like Andrew Schlafly who can’t and won’t back up their bullshit trying to intimidate opponents into surrendering and/or silence their critics, or, if they can’t do that, swiftly backing down whenever someone actually bothers to accept their debate challenges^{(note 47)}), which would drain their will to continue arguing and incapacitate them – and in the case of small-minded fools whose egos are too large to accommodate the notion of defeat (like, say, Donald Trump), paralysis and flinching still represent being exposed as a complete moron once one’s idiotic arguments are shot down by an expert, which would obviously stifle one’s subsequent arguments. (Also, paralysis is most commonly caused by Electric-type moves and is associated with Electric-type Pokémon (to the point where they’re actually immune to it), and I wanted to squeeze a little bit of Electric-type flair into Rational Flash.) Finally, the PP reduction that Rational Flash can inflict represents the difficulty in continuing to argue or be taken seriously once it’s obvious to everyone (or at least everyone but you) that your argument is bad, your facts are wrong, and your opponent is better than you are. However, I made the PP reduction non-guaranteed and not guaranteed to take full effect even when it does happen (it drains up to 3 PP, not 3 PP every time) both for further symbolism (a sufficiently stubborn crank will refuse to admit that their cause is idiotic and will continue arguing even when it has been firmly demonstrated that they have nothing of value to say) and to avoid Rational Flash completely overshadowing Eerie Spell. I decided to make Rational Flash’s utility functions stronger when it scores a super-effective hit in order to compensate for the lower Base Power in comparison to Electro Drift, since damage multipliers don’t have as much of an effect on a move that’s weaker to begin with (I improved the utility functions of Dawseculab’s Delusion Destroyer on Psychic Terrain for the exact same reason). Even though Rational Flash is essentially a move that involves debating the opponent to damage and defeat them, I decided not to make it sound-based, since I wanted to make it a little more abstract. However, I did make Rational Flash light-based, which is symbolic of the metaphorical “light of reason”… being made literal because this is Pokémon.^{(note 48)} By “the light of reason”, I mean understanding of the universe obtained by using rationalism and empiricism (along with rigorous testing of hypotheses) to deduce the truth. However, what damages the target isn’t so much the bright light (though that does definitely hurt) as the flaws in the opponent’s worldview, stripped bare and exposed. In short, Rational Flash is a psychological attack that hurts the opponent by stripping them of their willpower and their credibility and shattering their protective delusions. (When using Rational Flash, Azureality’s fur crackles with electricity and its horns begin to glow as it charges up power, and a moment later, a lightning-like static discharge occurs and the area is illuminated by a brilliant flashbang-like pulse of light, psychologically dissecting the target and forcing them to make a completely honest comparison between their own worldview and objective reality (which, if nothing else, is likely to leave them feeling insignificant). If it helps, Rational Flash can be thought of as being like the Ludovico Technique from A Clockwork Orange, forcing information and stimuli into the target’s brain that clashes with their worldview — only, instead of the aim being to make the target lose their lunch whenever they think of violence, the aim is to instill a mental block against promoting woo, bullshit, pseudoscience, falsehoods, etc. and to smash worldviews that revolve around woo, bullshit, pseudoscience, and falsehoods by forcing the evidence against such things directly into the target’s brain, bypassing willful ignorance and other psychological defenses. Rational Flash also condenses several months’ worth of pro-skepticism/pro-science material into the span of a few seconds, which is admittedly a bit ridiculous, but hey, this is the Pokémon universe — it doesn’t operate entirely like the real world.)

Another notable move that Azureality can learn is Shut Down, in which the user attempts to telepathically reach into the target’s mind and… well, shut it down. This is literally just the Psychic-type take on the one-hit KO archetype, which means that it is nigh-guaranteed to take the target down instantly if it connects,^{(note 49)} but has breathtakingly terrible accuracy (specifically 30% — and the only way to increase that accuracy is to be higher-leveled than the target). As such, it was invented to be the capstone move for Azureality and other high-grade Psychic-type Pokémon (Crimsolusion can learn Fissure as its capstone, and Azureality needed an equivalent).

Dawseculab

Type: Steel/Flying
Template: Metagross^{(note 50)}
Symbolism: Secularism, the scientific method, controlled experimentation, scientific methodology (double blind, precautionary principle,^{(note 51)} reproducibility, etc.), secular humanism
Name Origin: Richard Dawkins + Secular + Laboratory
Signature Move: Delusion Destroyer (Steel-type Special version of Psyblade that powers up by 50% on Psychic Terrain, but trades in 15 Base Power (80 → 65) in exchange for being super-effective on Poison-, Ground-, and Dark-type Pokémon,^{(note 53)} having a 30% chance to lower the target’s Defense and Special Defense by 1 stage each (which increases to a 45% chance on Psychic Terrain), and having a separate 15% chance to lower the target’s Defense, Special Defense, and evasion by 1 stage each on Psychic Terrain^{(note 54)})
Base Stats: 85 HP, 85 Attack, 130 Defense, 130 Special Attack, 85 Special Defense, 75 Speed^{(note 55)}
Theme Songs: “Liberate” by Disturbed, “Deify” by Disturbed, “There Is No God” by Frank Turner

Dawseculab represents the scientific method — a secular point of view that focuses on empirically gathering information about reality in order to arrive at the most accurate possible conclusions about the workings of the universe, with no presuppositions other than those necessary for science to function (mainly uniformitarianism and materialism). While the typing was chosen first and foremost to counter Crimsolusion via immunity to its STAB types,^{(note 56)} it does carry symbolic qualities as well. Steel is one of the best types to represent modern technology (made possible largely through science), such as cars, trains, computers, smart phones, rockets,^{(note 57)} and satellites; Flying is more of a stretch, but the sky has historically been associated with the divine, so it could represent how science and the understanding of physics and reality allows modern humans to do things that our ancestors would have believed to be the purview of the gods, such as manipulating the weather.^{(note 58)}

Dawseculab’s signature move, Delusion Destroyer, is a Steel-type special move designed parallel to Iron Leaves’ Psyblade,^{(note 59)} having average power on its own but powering up by 50% on terrain favorable to its user’s faction (Electric Terrain for Psyblade, Psychic Terrain for Delusion Destroyer), but trades in 15 Base Power for extra utility functions — namely, being super-effective on more types (specifically Dark, Poison, and Ground) and having a chance to lower the target’s defenses (with Psychic Terrain also making the defense-lowering properties stronger). In-universe, Delusion Destroyer works by bombarding the target with rays of raw reality conjured through sheer commitment to science, empiricism, and rationality, forcefully smashing cognitive dissonance and other forms of denial to pieces and forcing the target to become cognizant of true reality, whether they like it or not.^{(note 60)} This makes Delusion Destroyer super-effective against three types that symbolize malice and/or ignorance — Dark (representing deception and outright criminal behavior), Poison (representing bigotry and other toxic ideologies^{(note 61)}), and Ground (representing nostalgia and outdated ideas^{(note 62)})^{(note 63)}^{(note 64)} — and also lets it weaken the defensive stats of the target (the lowering of defensive stats represents the demolition of psychological defense mechanisms). Psychic Terrain makes Delusion Destroyer even stronger, increasing its power, bolstering its chance of weakening the defensive stats of the target, and giving it a chance to drop the target’s defensive stats even further. The overall idea behind Delusion Destroyer is exactly what it says on the tin — it destroys delusions through science and knowledge, purging the blights of ignorance, superstition, and pseudoscience. (And yes, the name “Delusion Destroyer” is a reference to The God Delusion.)

Ratitchepy

Type: Bug/Fairy
Template: Leavanny^{(note 65)}
Symbolism: Direct action, peaceful protest, civil disobedience, equity, leftist counterculture (hippies, peace & love)
Name Origin: Rational + Christopher Hitchens^{(note 66)} + Itch + Hippy
Signature Move: Hate Breaker (Fairy-type Physical version of Tachyon Cutter that has 20 less Base Power (50 → 30), but has a 30% chance per hit (50% if the target is using an attacking move) to cause the target to flinch in addition to having perfect accuracy and hitting twice^{(note 68)})
Base Stats: 55 HP, 105 Attack, 120 Defense, 75 Special Attack, 115 Special Defense, 100 Speed^{(note 69)}
Theme Songs: “No More” by Disturbed, “Never Again” by Disturbed, “Who Taught You How To Hate” by Disturbed, “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young,^{(note 70)} “Final Straw” by R.E.M., “The Last Stop” by the Dave Matthews Band^{(note 71)}

Ratitchepy is the embodiment of peaceful yet firm and forceful protest against legitimate injustice, such as the civil rights movement, hippie culture, Gandhi pushing the British out of India, the Arab Spring, etc. — but for the most part, yeah, it’s a hippie. It’s big on peace and love, bright colors, clothes whose best days are behind them, funky music, calling out the establishment for dragging its citizens into nasty and pointless wars, etc., etc. Choosing a typing for Ratitchepy was actually rather difficult, as the need to counter Cleragate’s Dark/Ground typing narrowed it down to four options to resist both of Cleragate’s STAB types while hitting super-effectively with both of its own STAB types — Grass/Fighting, Grass/Fairy, Bug/Fighting, and Bug/Fairy. I ultimately went with Bug/Fairy to go with the hippy theme — Fighting doesn’t make much sense for a non-violent movement (for rather obvious reasons), whereas Fairy is associated with pleasant and light-hearted things, and Bug has connotations of being a heroic underdog, given the association of insects with superheroes in Japanese media such as Kamen Rider (which is also the most likely reason why Bug is strong against Dark, for those who were wondering).^{(note 72)} Countering Cleragate figured into Ratitchepy’s stats as well — it’s a physical attacker with high Defense so it can target Cleragate’s lower physical Defense while also withstanding Cleragate’s powerful physical attacks (indeed, its Defense is slightly higher than its Special Defense so that the former gets priority for the Mind Palace boost), and it’s faster than Cleragate so that it can move first and stunlock Cleragate into submission with Hate Breaker before finishing it off with something like Lunge, Leaf Blade, or Play Rough. Indeed, given Ratitchepy’s peacenik basis, its movepool contains a lot of stuff designed to lower the opponent’s damage output or prevent them from moving, like Pounce,^{(note 73)} Struggle Bug, Lunge, Spirit Break, Disable, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, and its signature Hate Breaker. Speaking of that…

Ratitchepy’s signature move, Hate Breaker, is a Fairy-type physical move designed parallel to Iron Crown’s Tachyon Cutter, hitting twice and having perfect accuracy, but trades in 20 Base Power per hit for a 30% chance per hit to cause the target to flinch, which goes up to a 50% chance per hit if the target is attempting to attack. Since the flinch chance applies per hit, the overall flinch chance for both hits is actually roughly around 51% if the target isn’t trying to attack or 75% if the target is trying to attack.^{(note 74)}^{(note 75)} The whole point of Hate Breaker, much like the rest of Ratitchepy’s movepool, is to shut down the opponent’s aggression and stifle attempts at violence. It doesn’t do a lot of damage — that would go against the point of the whole “peaceful protest” thing, so the idea is that it’s less like an attempt to do harm in and of itself and more like a parry that stops an attack in its tracks while admonishing the attacker for employing violence — but it can very easily prevent the target from inflicting any damage at all (at least until its PP runs out).^{(note 76)}^{(note 77)}

Renaiagy

Type: Ground/Water
Template: Beavaum (a Bibarel evolution)^{(note 78)}
Symbolism: Renewable energy, protection of the environment
Name Origin: Renew + Gaia + Energy
Signature Move: Replenishing Flow (Water-type Special version of Mighty Cleave with 25 less Base Power (95 → 70) that, in addition to bypassing protection moves without lifting them, also replenishes a total of up to 12 PP for the other moves of the user and/or any allies it may have on the field in Double, Triple, or Tera Raid Battles (prioritizing moves with the least available PP and most depleted PP first, restoring at least 1 PP to as many depleted moves as possible, and not restoring more than 4 PP to any one move)^{(note 80)})
Base Stats: 130 HP, 60 Attack, 125 Defense, 100 Special Attack, 125 Special Defense, 30 Speed^{(note 81)}
Theme Songs: “Another Way To Die” by Disturbed, “Feeding the Fire” by Disturbed

Renaiagy represents renewable energy and environmentally-friendly technology that doesn’t rely on finite and/or dirty resources like fossil fuels. Yes, that does mean the concept of renewable energy as a whole; while no Pokémon is allowed to have more than two types, and Renaiagy’s typing therefore focuses on hydroelectric power, geothermal power, and tidal power (making it Ground/Water,^{(note 82)} to hard-counter Koallution’s Fire/Electric typing), Renaiagy also encompasses the concepts of solar power, wind power, and biofuels, which gives it access to Fire-, Flying-, and Grass-type moves (and Electric-type moves, since it represents generating electrical power).^{(note 83)}

Renaiagy’s signature move, Replenishing Flow, is a Water-type special move designed parallel to Iron Boulder’s Mighty Cleave, being a strong attack that bypasses protection moves (albeit without breaking them and allowing subsequent attacks to bypass them as well), but it trades in 25 Base Power in exchange for replenishing a total of 12 PP to moves other than itself known by its user and/or its user’s allies (with the caveat that replenishment of other Pokémon’s moves only applies to allies that are currently present on the battlefield in Double, Triple, or Raid Battles; in Single Battles, only Renaiagy itself can get the benefit).^{(note 84)}^{(note 85)} Which moves a given use of Replenishing Flow refills is governed by a formula that accounts for those moves’ current PP and maximum PP and the ratio between them, with moves with lower current PP, lower maximum PP, and lower current PP relative to maximum PP receiving higher refill priority; furthermore, Replenishing Flow will try to restore at least 1 PP to as many moves as possible (excluding itself and moves that already have full PP), and a given move can only regain up to 4 PP from a single use of Replenishing Flow (avoiding the issue of spamming one particular move an inordinate number of times and then refilling all of that energy in one shot).^{(note 86)} Replenishing Flow’s PP-restoration gimmick is designed to encapsulate the idea of sustainable power generation that can meet a facility or community’s energy needs for a long time; one of the biggest hard-cap factors that limits how long a Pokémon can continue to battle is the finite PP of its moves (especially in the case of strong moves that tend to have low enough PP to realistically run out during a single battle), and refilling those supplies without the need for a PP-replenishing item, like a Leppa Berry, can keep a Pokémon going for far longer than it would normally be capable of. Replenishing Flow also counteracts the PP drain that Koallution’s Resource Burn inflicts, which further symbolizes how vital renewable energy is to humanity’s continued development (and, for that matter, how vital renewable energy is to humanity’s continued existence (or at least not returning to the Stone Age)).^{(note 87)}

Explastravrs

Explastravrs represents the origins of the universe as accurately understood by modern science; matter condensed in a single point that abruptly exploded, forming stars, planets, asteroids, and other cosmic objects. The Fire-type represents stars and the explosive force of the Big Bang, while the Ground-type represents the planets and the sheer age of the universe — a scale of billions, not thousands of years.^{(note 94)}

Vaxxalkin

Vaxxalkin represents medicine done right, using proper scientific protocols to discover and utilize the best chemicals, procedures, etc. to facilitate and maintain health. Take pithy anecdotes and all that alt-med garbage and throw it in the trash; this is the domain of qualified medical doctors, drugs proven through rigorous testing, skilled surgery, vaccination, and, well… look, there are better articles on this site for a synopsis of the subject, but the long and short of it is that this is real medicine. As such, Vaxxalkin’s typing was specifically chosen to crush Creikipath, the embodiment of the aforementioned alternative medicine. Compared to its template, Conkeldurr, Vaxxalkin’s Attack is noticeably lower due to fighting with large syringes rather than huge honkin’ concrete pillars, but it makes up for this by being a viable mixed attacker that isn’t horrendously slow.^{(note 99)} Vaxxalkin also boasts a better supporting movepool with moves like Heal Pulse, Wide Guard, Helping Hand, and its quasi-signature Medical Injection (which works like Heal Pulse with the extra benefit of removing status conditions). Admittedly, Vaxxalkin only having base 130 Attack going up against Creikipath’s base 160 Defense means that Vaxxalkin won’t be able to secure a quick, clean victory, but Vaxxalkin does resist both of Creikipath’s STAB types while hitting super-effectively with its own STAB, Creikipath’s offensive stats are really unimpressive, and Vaxxalkin has access to some healing moves as well, so Vaxxalkin should win a battle of attrition.^{(note 100)}

Fluxicsence

Lucharveyton

Type: Dark/Rock
Template: Rhyperior^{(note 106)}
Symbolism: Satanism (actual Satanism, not the Satanic panic kind^{(note 107)}), the Satanic Temple, antitheism/New Atheism, militant atheism
Name Origin: Lucifer + Sam Harris + Anton LaVey + Satan
Base Stats: 96 HP, 148 Attack, 151 Defense, 72 Special Attack, 83 Special Defense, 20 Speed
Theme Songs: “Deify” by Disturbed, “Run” by Disturbed, “Inside the Fire” by Disturbed,^{(note 109)} “Sympathy For The Devil” by The Rolling Stones, “Haunted” by Disturbed, “Lucifer” by the Alan Parsons Project

Lucharveyton is the representation of Satanism, more specifically the rationalist and/or anti-religious forms such as LaVeyan Satanism and the Satanic Temple. While it doesn’t represent Satan as an icon of pure evil (like how Christians usually see him), it’s still the black sheep (or black rhino) of the Progress Pokémon in many ways, due to embodying Satan as an icon of rebellion — even violent rebellion — and the desire for absolute upheaval of the status quo — the complete abolishment of religion, regardless of the positive qualities of religion or the harm that’s done in the process. This makes it the one Progress Pokémon that could be said to be genuinely villainous, even if its destructive goals are borne from good intentions.^{(note 110)} The Dark-type obviously represents Satan and acts of defiance against authority and society; the Rock-type is more of a stretch, but can be taken to symbolize the bleakness of Hell and its typical depiction as a subterranean realm.^{(note 111)}

Evarwilect

Evarwilect embodies the theory of evolution and the mechanism of natural selection — the well-adapted survive and prosper, while the maladapted flounder and perish. As such, the overall design of Evarwilect is meant to be simultaneously vibrantly alive and Grim Reaper-esque,^{(note 116)} since it embodies both the life on which natural selection operates and the death that swiftly befalls the weak. It sounds dickish, sure, but natural selection has no real regard for concepts like “morality”, “protect the weak”, or “mercy” — nor can it, since it’s not sentient. Organisms that can’t hack it in their habitat die quickly with few or no offspring, while organisms that are capable of meeting the challenges around them live on and breed a lot. Through this unguided culling of bad traits and promotion of good traits, organisms gradually become more and more capable of survival over numerous generations. That’s just how it is. Evarwilect’s typing reflects this dichotomy that drives evolution; the Ice-type represents death, while the Grass-type represents life. Its stat spread also ties into the idea of culling the weak by falling squarely within the archetype of an assassin — incredible speed and solid attack power offset by horribly low defenses. Evarwilect is good at putting opponents down before they can react to its presence (especially with Psychic Terrain preventing priority moves from non-Progress Pokémon), but anything that can take a hit from Evarwilect and survive (especially a Fire- or Steel-type) is in a good position to wreck it with their reprisal.

Pussitchesto

Type: Steel/Grass
Template: Perrserker^{(note 117)}
Symbolism: Feminism, reclamation of pejorative terms, LGBTQ rights, positivity, environmentalism^{(note 118)}
Name Origin: Pussy + Bitch + Manifesto + Chesto^{(note 119)}
Base Stats: 90 HP, 120 Attack, 100 Defense, 120 Special Attack, 100 Special Defense, 40 Speed^{(note 121)}
Theme Songs: “Hello, Meadow” by Bitch & Animal, “Pussy Manifesto” by Bitch, “Words of the Witch” by Lonewolf

I ought to preface this by saying that this Progress Pokémon was one of the hardest for me to figure out for quite some time. The type combination of Steel/Grass was the best I could think of to counter Legandeeract’s Fairy/Ground-typing (taking neutral damage from Ground and resisting Fairy), and I wasn’t really sure what RationalWiki-positive symbolism I could get from Steel/Grass; the best I could think of was some sort of “harmony between nature or technology” or genetic engineering. Then in the middle of August 2024, in the middle of a family vacation at Cape Cod, I saw the show “Hey Bitch! A Musical Journey to Planet Bitch” in Provincetown, in which Bitch recounted her life story. During the show, I came to the realization that Bitch’s blend of tough-as-nails feminism and heavy environmentalism was perfect for the type combo. Everything else pretty much fell into place from there.

Pussitchesto represents movements that seek justice for the downtrodden, particularly feminism and LGBTQ rights, as well as environmentalism and protecting Mother Earth. A special part of its portfolio is the defanging and disarming of insults and slurs such as “bitch”, “pussy”, or “faggot” by reclaiming them as compliments and terms of endearment. Appearance-wise, in addition to wearing Bitch’s colorful and provocative outfit, Pussitchesto also draws a lot from the witch iconography that Bitch uses in her performances,^{(note 122)} with brooms embedded in its claws that it can channel moves like Energy Ball, Solar Beam, Flash Cannon, and Mystical Fire through.

Sanarchern

Type: Fire/Rock
Template: Groinxin (one of the very first fakemon I created, a Rock/Electric parallel species to Onix and Steelix known for its dedication to justice)^{(note 123)}
Symbolism: Socialism, anarchy, social democracy, equality, social justice, Antifa^{(note 124)}^{(note 125)}
Name Origin: Sanity + Bernie Sanders + Anarchy + Burn
Base Stats: 90 HP, 80 Attack, 80 Defense, 80 Special Attack, 160 Special Defense, 80 Speed^{(note 127)}
Theme Songs: “The Sound of Silence” by Disturbed, “Ten Thousand Fists” by Disturbed, “Who Taught You How To Hate” by Disturbed, “Do You Hear The People Sing?” from Les Miserables

Sanarchern represents progressive, social-justice-oriented, and equality-minded political movements such as socialism. While Azureality also represents progressivism, Azureality and Sanarchern approach it from different angles. Azureality approaches social justice and morality from an intellectual, well-reasoned angle, e.g. “good people have better quality of life in the long run than evil people, and moral behavior is based around what’s best for everyone“; Sanarchern approaches social justice and morality from an emotional, instinctually-group-minded angle, e.g. “doing bad things makes me feel bad”.^{(note 128)} Sanarchern’s passionate approach is a big part of the reason for its Fire-typing, e.g. “flames of passion” and “hot-blooded”. In particular, its character would take some inspiration from Enjolras from Les Miserables.

Since Sanarchern is the lowest-ranked of the Progress Pokémon, it’s the first one that the player receives in the Reason version, and thus serves as a segway into their overall themes and mechanics. Thus, it leans somewhat heavily into social justice and doesn’t ask the player to put too much thought into it right away; rationalists may already suspect where things are headed (especially since Azureality would be on the cover and the title screen), but the less intellectually-inclined can be eased in before the science starts coming in.^{(note 129)}

Regress Pokémon

Crimsolusion

Type: Poison/Ground
Template: None^{(note 130)}
Symbolism: Denialism, crankery, fascism, authoritarianism, Nazism, cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, nostalgia, longing for an idealized past, pseudoscience, misinformation, propaganda, ignorance (willful or otherwise), the Republican Party, right-wing politics
Name Origin: Crimson (Red) + Illusion/Delusion^{(note 131)}
Signature Move: Obfuscating Mudspray (Ground-type version of Collision Course that trades in 25 Base Power (100 → 75) for 5 base PP (5 → 10), the ability to raise one of its user’s defensive stats (Defense, Special Defense, or evasion) or lower one of the target’s offensive stats (Attack, Special Attack, or accuracy) by 1 stage, a 50% chance of causing another 1-stage defensive stat adjustment (raising one of the user’s defensive stats or lowering one of the target’s offensive stats), a 30% chance to cause poison or confusion, and a 40% chance to lower the PP of the target’s most-recently-used move by up to 3; however, just like Collision Course, it deals 33.3% more damage when it is super-effective, on top of the default ×2/×4 multiplier (with a super-effective hit also adding a 20% chance to cause a third 1-stage defensive stat adjustment, increasing the chance of causing a status condition to 50%, adding a 10% chance to inflict simultaneous poison and confusion, increasing the chance of causing PP reduction to 60%, and improving the potential PP reduction from 1-3 to 2-4))
Signature Ability: Sands of Denial (Activates a sandstorm when the user enters battle, boosts the user’s Defense by roughly 33.3% as long as a sandstorm is active, and protects the user from taking sandstorm damage (so, basically a defensive version of Koraidon’s Orichalcum Pulse for sandstorm, with an added rider effect to bypass sandstorm’s downside^{(note 133)}))
Base Stats: 115 HP, 120 Attack, 150 Defense, 90 Special Attack, 120 Special Defense, 85 Speed
Theme Songs: “The Curse” by Disturbed (live), “Land of Confusion” by Disturbed, “Corporate America” by Boston, “I’m Alive” by Disturbed (Azureality vs. Crimsolusion), “Bad Man” by Disturbed (Adon)^{(note 134)}

As the leader of the Regress Pokémon, Crimsolusion is the embodiment of irrationality, fascism, and nostalgia run amok. It is a red elephant-eagle hybrid^{(note 135)} decorated with symbols of deranged and dangerous ideas;^{(note 136)} its wings vaguely resemble the robes of a priest,^{(note 137)} and the tendrils on its tail resemble a swastika (yes, specifically the Nazi version).^{(note 138)}^{(note 139)} The elephant part of its design symbolizes the Republican Party, and the eagle part of its design represents the original Nazi Party (i.e. Hitler & his crew).^{(note 140)}^{(note 141)} Its Poison-type represents closed-mindedness, hatred, bigotry, and ignorance (especially of the willful variety), while its Ground-type represents “ancient wisdom”, old culture, nostalgia, and the concept of a golden age.^{(note 142)} Crimsolusion’s base stats are derived from Zekrom’s stat-line,^{(note 143)} but with the offensive and defensive stats swapped, then taking 10 points from Special Attack and 5 points from Speed and putting them in HP. Crimsolusion’s emphasis on HP over speed represents a conservative’s stubbornness, refusal to accept change, idealization of what once was or currently is (or what they believe once was), and complete disregard for reality; a regressive will stoop to any lengths of denial and deceit to avoid coming to the unpleasant realization that their worldview is anywhere short of completely and absolutely perfect, let alone flat-out false and/or evil.^{(note 144)} Likewise, the emphasis on physical stats over special stats represents the fascist’s willingness (if not outright eagerness) to use force and violence to get their way and impose their will, especially once the hilariously-inept logical foundation of their worldview is torn to shreds by those who are cognizant of reality.

Crimsolusion’s signature move, Obfuscating Mudspray, is a Ground-type physical move that is directly based on Koraidon’s Collision Course, but trades in raw power in exchange for more PP and utility. This utility is meant to symbolize anti-rationalist debate tactics – Gish Gallops, Chewbacca Defenses, one-way hash arguments, logical fallacies, and other intellectual shortcuts and half-baked substitutes for actual evidence, logic, and reasoning that can nonetheless be quite effective at emotionally manipulating people, easily persuading audiences (or at least those who don’t already know fact from fiction) to buy the charlatan’s woo (both literally and figuratively).^{(note 145)} Obfuscating Mudspray’s ability to raise its user’s defensive stats represents willful ignorance, with the user insulating itself from reality to maintain its belief in the perfection of its worldview no matter how much evidence stacks up against it; lowering the target’s offensive stats has similar symbolism, nitpicking the tiniest flaws in an opposing argument as an excuse to disregard the entire thing and damage the credibility of the opponent and their facts. (Incidentally, Rational Flash ignoring hindering stat changes is designed to hard-counter this, as even if one’s debating opponent is too stubborn to admit to being wrong, one can at least show the audience that they’re a con-man and/or imbecile who should be disregarded.) Unlike Rational Flash, whose two possible status conditions – paralysis and flinching – both have the same root symbolism of “your argument is invalid and I can prove that it’s invalid, so shut up”,^{(note 146)} Obfuscating Mudspray’s two possible status conditions – poison and confusion – are symbolic of two different ways that one can be stymied by underhanded debate tactics. Poison is symbolic of poisoning the well^{(pun intended)} (ha, see what I did there?), e.g. bringing up or outright inventing negative qualities of a debating opponent to undermine their argument and taint the audience’s opinions against them – this may not always be immediately or inevitably fatal, but if an attempt at poisoning the well isn’t promptly debunked, one can easily find one’s credibility being unfairly damaged beyond repair by crooked rumor mills and spin doctors, forever crippling one’s attempts to fight misinformation. This is reflected in poison not directly hindering its victim’s combat effectiveness like a burn would,^{(note 147)} but being a rather potent form of damage over time that can seriously impair the victim’s longevity. (Also, poison is most commonly caused by Poison-type moves and is associated with Poison-type Pokémon (to the point where they’re actually immune to it), and I wanted to squeeze a little bit of Poison-type flair into Obfuscating Mudspray.) Confusion, on the other hand, represents the information overload caused by a Gish Gallop and the difficulty in trying to refute several arguments at once without boring the audience to tears and/or getting bogged down in a quagmire of delusion.^{(note 148)} Finally, the PP reduction that Obfuscating Mudspray can inflict represents the difficulty in continuing to argue while your opponent disregards everything you say, constantly talks over you, and continues piling more and more bullshit into the debate far faster than you can rebut it. However, I made the PP reduction non-guaranteed and not guaranteed to take full effect even when it does happen (it drains up to 3 PP, not 3 PP every time) both for further symbolism (it is actually possible to defeat a Gish Gallop with just evidence and logic – it’s just difficult to pull off) and to avoid Obfuscating Mudspray completely overshadowing Eerie Spell.^{(note 149)} I decided to make Obfuscating Mudspray’s utility functions stronger when it scores a super-effective hit in order to compensate for the lower Base Power in comparison to Collision Course, since damage multipliers don’t have as much of an effect on a move that’s weaker to begin with (I improved the utility functions of Cleragate’s Abrasive Sermon in a sandstorm for the exact same reason). Even though Obfuscating Mudspray is essentially a move that involves debating the opponent to damage and defeat them, I decided not to make it sound-based, since I wanted to make it a little more abstract. Indeed, Obfuscating Mudspray doesn’t have a usage classification at all, since the closest it would have to one is “throwing mud to attack”; while it isn’t the only Ground-type move to do this (Mud-Slap,^{(note 150)} Mud Shot, and Mud Bomb are also examples), literal mud-slinging isn’t really able to branch out of the Ground-type, whereas a proper “usage classification”, like sound, punching, biting, or light, can encompass moves of multiple types. Yes, Obfuscating Mudspray is a literal take on the term “mudslinging”, i.e. bringing up the negative qualities of one’s opponent (regardless of how relevant they are or whether or not the accusations are even true) in order to discredit them and destroy their popularity and credibility. The damage isn’t only being dealt to the opponent’s body; it’s being dealt to their reputation as well, burying them in a flood of lies, misinformation, distortion, and heckling. (When performing Obfuscating Mudspray, Crimsolusion scoops up a large chunk of earth with its trunk, charges the dirt with toxic anti-cognitive energy (liquefying it in the process), then forcefully hurls the resulting mud at the enemy, bowling them over and covering them with mud as though they’d been caught in a landslide. Even with a glancing blow (such as the mud merely getting into the victim’s eyes), the anti-cognitive energy can have a similar effect to the Phantom Ruby from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, distorting the victim’s senses and producing hallucinations that are so frightfully intense that they can impact the victim as though they were actually real.)

Another noteworthy move for Crimsolusion is Venom Crush, a Poison-type move that works like a stronger but more situational physical version of Venoshock. Specifically, Venom Crush has 80 base power, 90% accuracy, and 10 PP by default; if it’s used on a poisoned target, it deals 1.5× its usual damage, and if it’s used on a badly poisoned target, it deals 2× its usual damage instead. Venom Crush also has a 10% chance to poison the target and a 5% chance to badly poison the target, but the bonus damage is only dealt if the target was already (badly) poisoned when Venom Crush was used.^{(note 151)} In-universe, Venom Crush entails the user body-slamming the target while emitting poison from their skin or analogous surfaces, and it’s not exclusive to Crimsolusion; it can also be used by other rough-and-tumble and/or big-bodied Poison-type or toxin-emitting Pokémon, such as Nidoking, Nidoqueen, or Toxicroak. The main reason I made Venom Crush was to occupy an analogous slot in Crimsolusion’s movepool as Expanding Force for Azureality, being a move of ordinarily borderline-mediocre power that becomes devastatingly powerful in the right circumstances.^{(note 152)} Granted, in Expanding Force’s case, that condition is just “Psychic Terrain is active” (and Azureality sets up Psychic Terrain just by entering battle), while Crimsolusion has to put a bit more effort in to get the most out of Venom Crush, but that’s just another “Azureality has a noticeable-but-not-egregious-let-alone-anywhere-near-insurmountable advantage over Crimsolusion” thing. (Venom Crush also has slightly more Base Power than Expanding Force to begin with, so it hits harder against a badly poisoned Pokémon than Expanding Force does on Psychic Terrain… well, before the standard 30% power boost that Psychic-type moves get on Psychic Terrain is accounted for, anyways.)

Cleragate

Type: Dark/Ground
Template: Mujanorak (a Fighting/Ground Pokémon designed as a respectful parody of Islam and Islamic warriors throughout Islam’s history)^{(note 153)}
Symbolism: Fundamentalism, religion gone bad, Dominionism, megachurches, cults, bigotry, hatred, the Ku Klux Klan, the Westboro Baptist Church, hate groups in general, dogma, intolerance of dissenting opinions^{(note 154)}
Name Origin: Cleric^{(note 155)} + Rage + Hate + Gate (more specifically Watergate, e.g. scandal)^{(note 156)} + Create (e.g. Creationism)
Signature Move: Abrasive Sermon (Ground-type Physical version of Hydro Steam that powers up by 50% in a sandstorm, but trades in 15 Base Power (80 → 65) in exchange for afflicting the target with critical susceptibility (moves used on a Pokémon with critical susceptibility gain +2 stages to their critical hit ratio), having a 30% chance to afflict the target with critical vulnerability (which increases to a 45% chance in a sandstorm; critical vulnerability causes a Pokémon to take double damage rather than 1.5× damage from critical hits), and having a 15% chance to grant the user the effect of Focus Energy in a sandstorm)
Base Stats: 85 HP, 130 Attack, 80 Defense, 80 Special Attack, 130 Special Defense, 85 Speed^{(note 158)}
Theme Songs: “Ten Thousand Fists” by Disturbed,^{(note 159)} “Prayer” by Disturbed, “Run” by Disturbed,^{(note 160)} “Divisive” by Disturbed

Cleragate represents Evangelical pastors, Wahhabist imams, televangelists, and other (questionably-sane) religious leaders and pundits who support theocratic movements (such as the Religious Right in the United States) and other forms of way-too-old-school, exclusionary, tribalistic, holier-than-thou, no-dissent-allowed, don’t-question-my-worldview, ~~no-seriously-don’t-question-my-worldview-or-I’ll-fucking–kill-you,~~ only-my-opinion-matters, my-holy-book-is-the-only-valid-source-of-knowledge-so-anyone-who-disagrees-with-me-is-wrong-at-best religion.^{(note 161)} The typing was chosen first and foremost to counter Azureality, but it does have symbolic qualities as well. The Dark-type symbolizes the malice, selfishness, violence, and underhandedness that underlies fundamentalism (with the piety often being a front for the childish, mean-spirited attitude of a bully or something worse), while the Ground-type has similar symbolism to Crimsolusion — an ancient ideology with an ancient moral code (with “ancient”, in addition to the literal meaning, also carrying rather heavy implications of “out-of-date”). (Though in Cleragate’s case, the Ground-type also has the same symbolism as its template, Mujanorak, representing the deserts of the Middle East — which is appropriate, considering the common origin and many similarities of Islam and Christianity.)

Cleragate’s signature move, Abrasive Sermon, is a Ground-type physical move designed parallel to Walking Wake’s Hydro Steam, having average power on its own but powering up by 50% in weather favorable to its user’s faction (harsh sunlight for Hydro Steam, sandstorm for Abrasive Sermon), but trades in 15 Base Power for extra utility functions — namely, making critical hits on the target more frequent and more devastating. Abrasive Sermon represents inflammatory language that calls for ethnic cleansing (read: the genocide of detested minorities), the persecution of detested lifestyles (most prominently homosexuality), and the total obliteration of non-believers and dissenters from the dogma of the cult; in-universe, it works via the user viciously and maliciously ranting and raving about the target being unclean and unworthy of life, stirring up a torrent of sand particles to lunge towards the target, engulf them, and savagely scour them (the “Abrasive” part of the name is meant both figuratively and literally).^{(note 162)} Fitting its basis in hate speech and inflammatory language, the critical vulnerability and critical susceptibility conditions that Abrasive Sandstorm can inflict will most likely result in the target taking substantially more damage as long as they stay on the battlefield, making their odds of surviving another few turns about as good as a Jew’s odds of surviving a year in Auschwitz (read: very, very poor).^{(note 163)} To be more precise, critical susceptibility makes the victim receive critical hits more often (all moves that hit it get +2 stages to their critical hit ratio), while critical vulnerability makes critical hits received by the victim deal more damage (raising the multiplier from ×1.5 to ×2). Critical susceptibility and critical vulnerability are volatile status conditions that don’t wear off on their own, but (like all volatile status conditions) can be cleared by switching out. Neither critical susceptibility nor critical vulnerability can be stacked with themselves (a Pokémon is either afflicted with either or both conditions or it’s not), but they can be stacked with other factors that adjust critical hit probability and damage, such as Focus Energy, Super Luck, Scope Lens, or moves with enhanced critical rates. While it is technically possible for the victim to escape heavy damage (read: not suffer a critical hit from any given attack) after being hit by the base version of Abrasive Sandstorm, the sandstorm version throws in a chance for Cleragate to gain the effect of Focus Energy for a total of +4 critical hit ratio, making it guaranteed to land critical hits on the victim with all of its moves and ensuring their swift destruction unless they can escape from the battlefield ASAP. Abrasive Sermon does not have a higher-than-usual critical hit ratio by itself, but it can benefit from the buffs and debuffs inflicted by prior uses of the move. Since critical vulnerability and critical susceptibility are debuffs on the target rather than buffs on Cleragate, they can also be exploited by Cleragate’s allies, which means (among other things) that the target is in for even more pain if Cleragate has a partner with Sniper (such as Fearow, Octillery, or Inteleon) — y’know, just in case double damage from all attacks on top of factors like STAB and type effectiveness wasn’t enough overkill.^{(note 164)} So, basically, Abrasive Sandstorm is all about making the target feel like, well, ~~a Jew during the Holocaust~~ anyone on the receiving end of genocide — facing an enemy who’s hell-bent on their utter destruction and realizing that any given moment could be their last, so the only hope of survival is to GTFO.^{(note 165)}

Koallution

Koallution represents the fossil fuel industry and its contributions to the denialist movement (namely, the denial of global warming), as well as attempts to accentuate the downsides and downplay the advantages of other possible energy sources, like nuclear, solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc. Never mind that there’s only so much oil and coal available on the planet (we’re going to run out sooner or later), the severe impacts that burning large amounts of hydrocarbons has on the atmosphere, or how catastrophically oil drilling and coal mining can (and sometimes do) go wrong^{(note 170)} — like many businesses, the fossil fuel industry seems hell-bent on riding its ~~gravy~~ profit train as hard, long, and far as it can, the overall well-being of humanity (and everything else on the Earth) be damned. While Koallution’s typing was picked to hard-counter Dawseculab, the symbolic qualities should be obvious; Fire is burning coal, and Electric is generating power.

Koallution’s signature move, Resource Burn, is a Fire-type special move designed parallel to Raging Bolt’s Thunderclap, boasting both decent power and higher-than-standard priority at the cost of only working if the target is attempting to attack; however, it trades in 15 Base Power in exchange for reducing the PP of the target’s chosen move by 3 if it connects (and given that Resource Burn also only works if the user actually moves before the opponent, this will reduce the PP of the chosen move before it can actually be executed). This represents how once fossil fuels are burned, they’re gone; they can’t be reclaimed and burned again for more power. There’s only so much fossil fuel on the planet, so if we haven’t worked out some alternative means of meeting our energy needs by the time we run out, we’re in big trouble. Resource Burn puts the opponent in a situation similar to that of a society that has reached peak oil, needing to think very carefully about how they expend their resources, lest they run out of vital fuel while they still need it. Sure, Resource Burn’s limitations as a derivative of Sucker Punch mean that it can’t strip the PP of status moves such as Recover, Swords Dance, or Nasty Plot, but that just means that more pressure is placed on Pokémon that have dedicated some of their moveslots to status moves and have fewer available for attacking moves. Stronger moves tend to have less PP as a trade-off, so a Pokémon that attempts to hit Koallution with its strongest moves right away and gets hit with Resource Burn may not have enough PP left to finish the fight with them. Even worse, a move that gets reduced to 0 PP by a given use of Resource Burn fizzles out, causing the victim to waste their turn entirely. While no move is likely to get stifled by the first Resource Burn it gets hit with, moves with less maximum/starting PP can be brought to the 3-or-less threshold for the next use of Resource Burn to stop them in their tracks much more easily, and even one or two uses of Resource Burn can make the continued use of a low-PP move unsustainable for the remaining duration of the battle.

Inceruction

Type: Steel/Fire
Template: Heatmor^{(note 171)}
Symbolism: Warfare, the military-industrial complex, warhawks, warmongers (George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, etc.), conquest, imperialism, discovery doctrine, destruction, nuclear bomb
Name Origin: Incinerate + Insurrection + Destruction + Surtr^{(note 172)}
Signature Move: Casus Belli (Steel-type version of Burning Bulwark that afflicts an attacker with critical vulnerability or critical susceptibility instead of burn)^{(note 174)}^{(note 175)}
Base Stats: 116 HP, 121 Attack, 91 Defense, 112 Special Attack, 50 Special Defense, 80 Speed^{(note 176)}
Theme Songs: “Warrior” by Disturbed, “Indestructible” by Disturbed

Inceruction represents warfare, particularly of the aggressive and imperialistic kind that is waged to expand a country’s dominion at the expense of others. It also represents aggressive politicians who drag their nations into wars that could have been avoided, as well as the destruction that war causes, which frequently has lingering after-effects even after the bloodshed has run its course — particularly in the modern era, when bombs (particularly of the nuclear variety) can reduce thriving cities to rubble in mere moments.^{(note 177)} The Fire-type represents egregious destruction (especially in the form of bombs), while the Steel-type represents weapons and vehicles such as machine guns and tanks. Appearance-wise… well… it’s basically Heatmor in a stereotypical generalissimo outfit, complete with a tacky hat and an exorbitant number of medals.

Inceruction’s signature move, Casus Belli, is a Steel-type status move designed parallel to Gouging Fire’s Burning Bulwark that — in addition to blocking attacks — afflicts attackers with critical susceptibility or critical vulnerability (see Abrasive Sermon for details on how those work) rather than a burn. This reflects a warmonger or bully’s willingness and eagerness to use any slight, regardless of how trivial the offense may be or whether or not it actually happened, to pick a fight and start wrecking people and property alike. (Indeed, the name I chose for the move is straight-up a Latin phrase translating roughly to “cause for war”, though that’s the literal translation — “pretext for war” might be more accurate.) While Casus Belli can’t afflict an opponent with critical vulnerability and critical susceptibility at the same time like Abrasive Sermon can — it has equal odds to pick one or the other upon blocking an attack — it does inflict critical vulnerability a bit more reliably than Abrasive Sermon does, and much like Rational Flash and Obfuscating Mudspray are designed to afflict the target with whatever status condition they can if the status chance procs and one of the status conditions can’t be applied, if Casus Belli blocks an attack from a Pokémon that is already afflicted with either critical susceptibility or critical vulnerability, it will afflict them with the other condition (in which case the Pokémon in question is pretty much screwed unless it switches out ASAP). Inceruction may not be a particularly defensively-built Pokémon (it’s more suited for relentless aggression, since, y’know, it’s a warmonger), but Casus Belli gives it a means to ward off some of its opponents’ aggression while also enabling it to hit them even harder.

Creikipath

Type: Rock/Grass
Template: Carbink^{(note 178)}
Symbolism: Crystal healing, Reiki, homeopathy, naturopathy, herbalism, alternative medicine
Name Origin: Crystal + Reiki + Homeopathy/Naturopathy ~~+ Sociopathy~~
Base Stats: 70 HP, 60 Attack, 160 Defense, 60 Special Attack, 160 Special Defense, 60 Speed
Theme Songs: “Chemi-Kill” by Exodus^{(note 180)}

Creikipath represents the myriad fields of alternative medicine that claim to heal the body in strange and miraculous ways — and virtually never pan out in practice. It has a special focus on crystal healing, homeopathy, naturopathy, and herbs, hence its Rock/Grass typing.^{(note 181)} Naturally, its movepool contains a lot of healing moves, like Recover, Leech Seed, Giga Drain, Heal Pulse, and Life Dew (which are a lot more effective in a Pokémon battle than crystal healing or homeopathy are in real life). Given the obvious parallels between Creikipath and Diancie (both being Carbink ascended to Legendary/Mythical status), it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Creikipath’s stat-line is similar to Diancie’s, though Diancie is a little stronger overall (even before Diancie’s Mega Evolution is factored in). However, while Creikipath doesn’t hit nearly as hard as Diancie, it is a little bit tankier than both Carbink and Diancie,^{(note 182)} even without Ignorant Grit’s stat boost (and given that it’s a Rock-type and Rock-types inherently get a Special Defense boost in a sandstorm… yeah, Creikipath in a sandstorm might be able to give Blissey a run for its money in terms of standing up to special attacks).

Noharkaiak

Noharkaiak is the representation of creationism and creation myths, particularly the global flood narrative that Christian fundies just can’t stop raving about (nor can they stop trying to push it as a real thing that totally happened, no matter how many times the story gets poked full of holes and debunked). More generally, it’s the representation of people clinging to belief in a creation myth as a factual account of the origins of humanity and universe, rather than a blind guess developed before the scientific method or observation-augmenting technology that has since been supplanted by better theories with actual supporting evidence, all because they can’t stomach the idea of their religion or their holy book being wrong in any way whatsoever, and thus they desperately try to depict science as something false and wicked in an effort to preserve their (deeply flawed) traditions and stave off cognitive dissonance and the realization that their holy book is not even an accurate description of reality, let alone literally true. Noharkaiak has a very defense-oriented stat spread, with high defenses and massive HP (not unlike Scream Tail if it traded its speed in for even more HP), at the expense of offensive stats; if conservatives are stubborn, then creationists take that to a whole other level, but their arguments for their position are laughably incompetent and won’t win over anyone with even a shred of competence at critical thinking or scientific literacy (which probably explains their efforts to force their hairbrained ideas onto hapless children by smuggling them into public schools, Establishment Clause be damned). Noharkaiak’s Water/Flying-type is obviously based on it being the incarnation of the global flood myth, and its place in the Progress/Regress hard-counter chains (hard-countering Explastravrs (Fire/Ground), the embodiment of the Big Bang and deep time, and being hard-countered by Fluxicsence (Water/Electric), the embodiment of physics and uniformitarianism) reflects the origins debate and how creationists tend to perform in it. Namely, the illusionary parsimony and unfalisifiability of creationism tends to make it look good to the uneducated ~~masses~~ sheeple and politicians with axes to grind (which isn’t helped by creationists’ refusal to accept the validity of scientific arguments), but anyone who actually bothers to think about the matter and study the evidence will find that everything about creationism (especially young earth creationism) is hysterically flawed.

Odiodama

Type: Ghost/Fire^{(note 186)}
Template: Gengar^{(note 187)}
Symbolism: Ghosts, mediums, spiritualism, despair, suicide, capital punishment
Name Origin: Odio (Latin for “hatred”/”I hate”) + Hitodama^{(note 188)}
Base Stats: 100 HP, 50 Attack, 80 Defense, 150 Special Attack, 70 Special Defense, 120 Speed
Theme Songs: “Haunted” by Disturbed,^{(note 190)} “Inside the Fire” by Disturbed, “Fugue for the Lord of Dark”, “Megalomania”, “Pure Odio”^{(note 191)}

Odiodama is the representation of paranormal phenomena, especially of the ghostly and undead variety. I was reading an LP of Live A Live and the game’s trope page while I was naming it, so I couldn’t resist naming it after the Demon King/Lord of Dark Odio, the main antagonist of said game. Despite said name (and its design pulling a lot from Odio as well, like including the cape and claws), Odiodama is ultimately on the lower half of the Regress Pokémon totem pole (with Crimsolusion and especially Cleragate already having raw hatred covered in their portfolios). Thus, while there are some elements of hatred, hate crimes, and genocide in Odiodama’s symbolism, those are heavily downplayed in favor of representing supernatural phenomena with loose, tenuous, or nonexistent connections to religion and New Age — again, that primarily means ghosts and the tropes and woo associated with hauntings, ghost hunting, séances, etc., but there’s a bit of psychic power, fortune telling, and astrology in there as well. There are a few things outside the narrow domain of ghosts that Odiodama can lay claim to, though; namely grudges, despair, suicidal ideation, and capital punishment. Ghosts in ghost stories tend to come about from people dying miserable deaths full of regrets, after all.^{(note 192)} The base stats were designed to make Odiodama noticeably bulkier than its template, Gengar, particularly on the physical side,^{(note 193)} while also hitting a little harder and faster than Gengar (it’s not as strong or fast as Mega Gengar, though). It does lose some Attack, but that was a dump stat anyways.^{(note 194)}

Regress Pokémon #8

Legandeeract

Type: Fairy/Ground^{(note 196)}
Template: Quagsire^{(note 197)}
Symbolism: Freemen on the land, sovereign citizens, tax protesters, strawman theory, misunderstood admiralty law, the distortion of facts into nonsense
Name Origin: Legal + Land + Legend^{(note 198)} + Free (as in “freeman”)^{(note 199)} + Contract^{(note 200)}
Base Stats: 125 HP, 80 Attack, 110 Defense, 125 Special Attack, 100 Special Defense, 30 Speed
Theme Songs: “Innocence” by Disturbed^{(note 202)}

Legandeeract represents the schmucks and charlatans who peddle and practice pseudolaw and somehow expect actual legal professionals such as lawyers and judges to take them seriously. (I imagine that its appearance would be a very poor facsimile of a lawyer (with its costume clearly trying to look like a lawyer, but being so bad at it that it ends up looking completely ridiculous), and it would carry around a copy of the Citizen’s Rule Book or Black’s Law Dictionary that it would even use like a spellbook, Fire Emblem style, in some of its attack animations.) The Fairy/Ground typing in particular was selected as a pun to describe how the tactics and arguments of freemen on the land {Ground} have about as much relevance to actual law as fairy tales {Fairy} and magical thinking do to material reality — i.e. somewhere between “kernels at best” and “absolutely none” (with whatever connections can be claimed to exist probably being the result of confused perception rather than genuinely existing).^{(note 203)} Fairy is also one of two types that can be interpreted as “Law” types (the other being Fighting), the idea being that they stand in opposition to the criminal-representing Dark-type; both Fairy and Fighting are strong against Dark for reasons that largely relate to good triumphing over evil and light triumphing over darkness (and the third type to hit Dark super-effectively, Bug, has similar reasoning, as I mentioned while discussing Ratitchepy). Fairy is strongly associated with “light magic”, is the closest thing Pokémon has to a “Holy” type,^{(note 204)} and also represents rules-lawyers and tricksters (which fairies were traditionally depicted as being) who can bend the rules without breaking them and beat criminals at their own dirty game, while Fighting overcomes dirty tricks through sheer skill, discipline (said discipline being treated as analogous to “law”), and strength without needing to forsake honor in the process (the idea being that a trained and honorable martial artist would still know what kinds of dirty tricks an underhanded fighter would employ to compensate for their lack of technique and how to bypass and defeat such schemes). Indeed, fairies/the “fair folk” in traditional mythology were known for following bizarre, arcane, and outright incomprehensible moral and legal codes which they took incredibly seriously — not unlike pseudolegal cranks! So it really makes a lot of sense for a Pokémon representing a legal code — even a twisted one — to be a Fairy-type.^{(note 205)}^{(note 206)}

Buchanincel

Type: Fire/Ice
Template: Mamoswine^{(note 207)}
Symbolism: Men Going Their Own Way, incels, pick-up artists,^{(note 208)} white supremacy, Neo-Confederates/the Confederate States of America, Lost Cause of the South, rage and discomfort caused by loss of privilege, music-related moral panics (backward masking, the mere existence of rock and roll, etc.)^{(note 209)}
Name Origin: James Buchanan^{(note 210)}^{(note 211)} + Incel^{(note 212)}
Base Stats:
Theme Songs: “Pain Redefined” by Disturbed,^{(note 214)} “Criminal” by Disturbed, “Cruel Summer” by Ace of Base,^{(note 215)} “Bowser’s Rage Stage” from Super Mario Wonder^{(note 216)}

Buchanincel represents various movements that have convinced themselves that society is going down the tubes because previously-marginalized demographics are gaining equal rights and previously-dominant demographics are losing their privilege (or, more specifically, the people who care way too much about having privilege and are losing their minds over others having rights^{(note 217)}). While the most inspiration has been drawn from Men Going Their Own Way, incels, men’s rights activists, and other residents of the manosphere (i.e. people who are upset about women gaining rights — especially the right to live their lives on their own terms, without needing to be totally dependent upon and subservient to a man), it also encompasses white supremacists, black supremacists, fundamentalists, and others who — whether they’ll openly admit it or not — are pissed at the idea of living in a world where they’re not the top dogs who get whatever they want whenever they want it and/or who everybody else (or at least everybody in a certain subgroup or subgroups) has to obey or else, have convinced themselves that their not having privilege is a great injustice, and are willing to resort to all sorts of antisocial nastiness, including murder, propaganda, totalitarianism, and incessant whining, to obtain a position of privilege that their demographic has historically been denied or retain a privileged position that their demographic has historically possessed.^{(note 218)} The Fire-typing symbolizes the rage and entitlement that drives these movements (and ultimately leads to mass shootings and other violent outbursts, or at best, fucking horrifying screeds, if not somehow kept in check (or better yet, stopped before it starts)^{(note 219)}), while the Ice-type represents the surface-level apathy, emotional coldness, despair, pride, etc. that covers and fuels the rage (again, I’m mainly thinking of incels and MGTOW here).

Buchanincel is heavily associated with a new move named “Rhythm Heat”. This is not a signature move, as it can be learned by other Pokémon (including Explastravrs), but it was designed with Buchanincel in mind.^{(note 220)} Rhythm Heat is a special Fire-type move that is both sound-based^{(note 221)} and a pulse move^{(note 222)} that operates like a souped-up version of Triple Kick and Triple Axel. Rhythm Heat starts with 15 Base Power and 90% accuracy (and has 5 PP) and can hit up to 4 times, with each hit having a separate accuracy check and any of them missing causing the remainder to be skipped; each successive hit raises the Base Power by 15 (15→30→45→60) and lowers the accuracy by 5% (90%→85%→80%→75%).^{(note 223)} If all 4 hits connect, the total power is 150 (equal to Hyper Beam, Blast Burn, and the rest of Hyper Beam’s variations, but without a recharge turn (which is why I incorporated the accuracy decay as a counterbalance)), but if only 3 hits connect, the total power will only be 90 (equal to Flamethrower, yet far less reliable), 2 hits (45 total power) is barely stronger than Quick Attack (without the increased priority that makes Quick Attack and its variations worth knowing and using (even considering 4-moveslot syndrome) despite being ridiculously weak), and 1 hit will barely do anything. Thus, doing something about the accuracy problem (such as equipping Loaded Dice) is practically mandatory to use Rhythm Heat effectively.^{(note 224)} In-universe, Rhythm Heat is a series of consecutive intensifying heat shockwaves produced at a steady and consistent rhythm (the idea being that it’s simultaneously heat waves^{(note 225)} and sound waves, playing on the idea of shockwaves and sound waves both being kinds of vibration). Since the shockwaves are produced at a consistent rhythm, evading one means that the rest can be evaded as well with the right timing.

Malitiasturm

Type: Poison/Fighting^{(note 226)}
Template: Scrafty^{(note 227)}
Symbolism: Blackshirts, edgelords, useful idiots (i.e. Proud Boys and other rank-and-file fascists), Trumpism, gun nuttery, thinly-veiled or openly-expressed threats and desire to commit (gratuitous) violence on bigotry targets and/or ideological opponents (e.g. “fuck around and find out”, Day of the Rope, etc.)
Name Origin: Malice + Militia^{(note 228)} + Sturm (German for “storm”, as in Stormfront, The Daily Stormer, or “strum und drang“/”storm and stress”)^{(note 229)}^{(note 230)}
Base Stats: 100 HP, 85 Attack, 95 Defense, 105 Special Attack, 95 Special Defense, 95 Speed^{(note 232)}
Theme Songs: “Divisive” by Disturbed, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” (a.k.a. “the (song that often gets (mis)interpreted as some sort of) Hitler Youth anthem”)

Malitiasturm represents the rank-and-file grunts of fascist movements — Proud Boys, the SS and Gestapo, etc. — or really anyone who’s dumb, ignorant, desperate, and/or hate-addled enough to think that beating the crap out of arbitrarily-chosen “punching bags” can solve their problems and/or that fascism is a viable way to run a nation (as opposed to a complete disaster that’s not a matter of if, but when it ends in either self-destruction or getting stomped into the dirt once everybody else gets tired of their shit). As such, while the higher-ranking Regress Pokémon (particularly Crimsolusion and Cleragate) represent the ringleaders and supporting pundits of fascist movements who stir up popular resentment and/or bigoted sentiments and call the shots of the carnage, Malitiasturm represents the fuckwits who are directly and personally dealing much if not most or all of the actual death and damage.^{(note 233)}

Since Malitiasturm is the lowest-ranked of the Regress Pokémon, it’s the first one that the player receives in the Faith version, and thus serves as a segway into their overall themes and mechanics. The fact that it represents rioters, thugs, and right-wing goons is therefore meant to be a red flag that tips off intelligent, rational, and empathetic people that actually siding with the Regress Pokémon is a bad idea — and simultaneously to be bait to lure in people who are sympathetic to right-wing causes, so that the rug can be pulled out from under them later by the plot twists designed to challenge their worldview and showcase the full horror that conservative ideology leads to if swallowed and followed.^{(note 234)}

Other Subjects of Note

That’s all for the Progress & Regress Pokémon themselves, but there are some related topics I want to cover before I’m done with the subject.

Narrative

The region the Progress and Regress Pokémon are native to is named Freigos (“freedom” + “logos”), and it’s intended to be analogous to Washington D.C. and the surrounding areas in the real world (i.e. Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and a bit of Pennsylvania and/or North Carolina)^{(note 235)} — the choice of setting was rather obvious, what with the Progress and Regress Pokémon being tied to American politics and all. The Freigos region is located a fairly short distance to the south of the Unova region (the setting of Pokémon Black & White, which is based on New York, New Jersey, and a bit of New England), so the two regions have quite a bit of cultural and historical exchange. The games starring the Progress and Regress Pokémon would probably be named something along the lines of Pokémon Reason & Faith (with Reason being the Progress Pokémon version and Faith being the Regress Pokémon version), but those are working titles.^{(note 236)} The storyline would be substantially different between the two versions, given that the PC would be siding with one of two diametrically opposed factions (a little like how in Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire, either Team Magma or Team Aqua is allied to the PC while the other is an enemy, but with far bigger impacts on the storyline). There would also be an expansion of the legendary acquisition setup for Lugia and Ho-oh in Pokémon Gold & Silver and their remakes, in which the Progress and Regress Pokémon are both available in both games, with the faction the PC initially sides with being acquired during the main storyline and the opposing faction needing to be acquired in the post-game for plot reasons that would differ depending on the version.^{(note 237)} The two versions would also have different sets of male and female PCs (though the PCs of each version would be rival-esque NPCs in the other version alongside the PC you chose not to play as, similar to the setup in Ruby & Sapphire, Diamond & Pearl, and X & Y, where the PC you don’t choose is still involved in the plot as an NPC, with the setup taking special inspiration from X & Y with a set of friendly rivals who are NPCs in both versions), since the PCs of each version would need to have different personalities in order for the early point of divergence to work properly. (In particular, the Faith PC is not a malevolent fascist; they’re just naïve and gullible enough to be duped into working for malevolent fascists, but are willing to turn on said fascists if and when they cross the line into naked villainy. The Reason PC, in contrast, is more skeptical and inquisitive and is considerably less prone to taking dubious claims at face value.^{(note 238)})

Alongside the Progress and Regress Pokémon themselves, there are human factions that seek to support and harness them to achieve their visions, like Teams Magma and Aqua in Ruby & Sapphire (though unlike those two, the Progress Pokémon’s faction — Team Science {working title},^{(note 239)} led by Trent^{(note 240)} — is unambiguously heroic (albeit with a bit of a trigger-happy, overly-skeptical-of-redemption streak that eventually causes the Faith PC some trouble), while the Regress Pokémon’s faction — Team Glory {working title},^{(note 241)} led by Adon^{(note 242)} — is rather blatantly villainous, though they do have a facade of good intentions that initially suckers the Faith PC into working for them). The human factions drive the plot just as much as the Progress & Regress Pokémon themselves do, with Adon and Crimsolusion collectively being the Ghestis-esque ultimate antagonist. A special mention has to go to one of Trent’s admins/helpers, Natural Harmonia Gropius, A.K.A. N. Yes, that N, from Pokémon Black & White and its sequels. Due to his ability to fluently communicate with Pokémon, he’d be crucial in helping the player character and their friends understand the Progress and Regress Pokémon, harmoniously work with the former, and even possibly rehabilitate the latter, ascending from background presence to tritagonist status and mentor figure in the last third of the game. (It also helps that N has prior experience with being manipulated by a narcissistic asshole with ambitions of dominance and conquest (the aforementioned Ghetsis (the narcissism is arguable, but he’s definitely an asshole)), and the Faith PC would already be disillusioned with Adon and trying to covertly undermine him by the time they start interacting with N, so N would have common ground with the Faith PC and would be able to help them come to terms with being exploited by Adon and inspire them to openly work against him.)

The climax of the first half of the story, occurring after the sixth gym, is Adon and his flunkies going full mask-off and basically going on a January 6-esque killing spree against the minorities they hate alongside the Regress Pokémon (with the exceptions of Malitiasturm, Buchanincel, Legandeeract, and Regress Pokémon #8 in the Faith version if the player has acquired any of them prior to that point). Trent, his allies, and the Progress Pokémon do their best to stop and contain the carnage, but several innocent people ultimately still end up dead, much to the horror of the PC and their friends, who end up in the thick of the action. This incident is what finally convinces the PCs to put everything they’ve got into opposing Team Glory; the Reason PC finally sees them as legitimately dangerous lunatics (as opposed to lunatics that one can just laugh at and dismiss), while the Faith PC is appalled that they got suckered into working for Team Glory when their idea of “making a better world” really just amounted to getting rid of everyone they don’t like. This all culminates in a battle with an admin of Team Glory wielding Odiodama as his trump card (followed by a chance to catch Odiodama in the Faith version).^{(note 243)}

^{(note 244)}

The Final Enemy — Revladutchyu

Type: Ice/Ghost
Template: N/A
Symbolism: Communism, authoritarianism, corrupted ideals, failed states, horseshoe theory, the Red Scare, actual Russian interference (communist infiltrators, troll farms (such as the Internet Research Agency), etc.)^{(note 245)}
Name Origin: Revolution (as in Communist Revolution (see also February Revolution & October Revolution)) + Vladimir Lenin + Vladimir Putin + Juche + Benjamin Netanyahu^{(note 246)}^{(note 247)} + Horseshoe theory
Signature Move 1: Seize the Means^{(note 249)} (Ghost-type version of Collision Course that trades in 20 Base Power (100 → 80) in exchange for 5 base PP (5 → 10) and stealing the target’s stat boosts, screens and field buffs (Reflect, Light Screen, Safeguard, Mist, Lucky Chant, Tailwind, etc.), and volatile battle statuses (Aqua Ring, Ingrain, Focus Energy, Substitute, etc.) before dealing damage, with any stolen stats and buffs being randomly and evenly distributed between the user and any allies it may have on the field (with any remainder going to the user),^{(note 250)} in addition to dealing 33.33% more damage when super-effective)
Signature Move 2: Redistribution of Health (Ice-type version of Electro Drift that trades in 20 Base Power (100 → 80) in exchange for 5 base PP (5 → 10) and healing the user and its teammates for an amount equal to the damage dealt, divided evenly among them (with any health in excess of a given Pokémon’s max HP being redistributed to the others and the user getting the final remainder), in addition to dealing 33.33% more damage when super-effective)
Signature Ability: Soviet Spectre^{(note 251)} (Activates snow and Haunted Terrain^{(note 252)} when the user enters battle, as well as boosting the user’s Speed by 33.33% on Haunted Terrain and draining 1/8 of each adversary’s health per turn a la Leech Seed in snow^{(note 253)} (though the health-drain effect can backfire if an opposing Pokémon has Liquid Ooze))
Base Stats: 100 HP, 125 Attack, 135 Defense, 125 Special Attack, 135 Special Defense, 80 Speed
Theme Songs: “Bad Man” by Disturbed, “I’m Alive” by Disturbed,^{(note 254)} “Haunted” by Disturbed

Revladutchyu was created to be a common enemy that Azureality and Crimsolusion could team up to defeat in the post-game’s climax in order to cement the uneasy truce between the Progress and Regress Pokémon set up by N and the player character. As such, I had to ask myself “What’s something that both rational leftists and conservatives can agree is a bad thing?”, and the immediate answer was communism. Rationalists certainly aren’t opposed to socialism, social democracy, or other forms of economic balancing (which is why those are embodied by Sanarchern), but flat-out communism just doesn’t work for humans because the basic human mindset shaped by natural selection is far from completely selfless. (If you want to see communism actually working, go look at an anthill or a beehive. Non-eusocial species like humans will have to make do with a system that allows for some amount of selfishness.) As for conservatives, they don’t like communism because it’s a direct threat to everything they hold dear (mainly their wealth, privilege, and material possessions). After selecting communism as the big threat that would make the Progress and Regress Pokémon set aside their differences (at least for the next few years, anyways), I decided to make the final adversary and Necrozma/Eternatus-esque hostile third mascot legendary of the game a stand-in for Russia’s toxic influence on America and the world, both as the Soviet Union and as Vladimir Putin’s fiefdom.^{(note 255)} Design-wise, Revladutchyu is mostly a bear (because bears are emblematic of Russia), but it also has aspects of horses (for the horseshoe effect) as well as squirrels and hedgehogs (the latter two animals being a reference to a North Korean propaganda cartoon uncreatively titled “Squirrel and Hedgehog“). The Ice/Ghost typing grants Revladutchyu a type advantage against both Azureality and Crimsolusion (while also symbolizing the cold climate of Russia and communism’s refusal to die despite a lot of Karl Marx’s underlying theory being discredited and several failures to its name), and the stat spread was selected to emulate Kyurem with increased bulk. Revladutchyu’s signature Ability, Soviet Spectre, changes both the weather and terrain to its terms (e.g. snow and Haunted Terrain) when it enters the battlefield, stripping Azureality and Crimsolusion of their Psychic Terrain and sandstorm,^{(note 256)} while also granting Revladutchyu gradual regeneration at its opponents’ expense and boosting its Speed as long as the snow and Haunted Terrain remain active. Revladutchyu also has two signature moves, Seize the Means and Redistribution of Health, both of which involve taking something from the target (Seize the Means steals buffs (both stat-oriented and miscellaneous) and one-sided field effects, while Redistribution of Health steals HP) and then sharing the spoils with its allies as evenly as possible, which represents communism (at least on paper) ~~being the concept of sharing taken up to eleven~~ placing a very, very large emphasis on sharing. Like Azureality and Crimsolusion, both of Revladutchyu’s signature moves are modeled on Collision Course and Electro Drift, with Seize the Means being a physical Ghost-type move, Redistribution of Health being a special Ice-type move, and both getting a power boost when they’re super-effective, but they trade in some Base Power for extra PP and the aforementioned utility functions (though they hit slightly harder than Rational Flash and Obfuscating Mudspray (though still not as hard as Collision Course and Electro Drift) in exchange for their utility functions being narrower in scope). (Not only that, Seize the Means being a physical move and Redistribution of Health being a special move was a deliberate choice, done in order to hit Azureality and Crimsolusion with the types they’re weak to in their weaker defensive stats.) Yes, Revladutchyu is overtuned as heck,^{(note 257)} but it is the final boss of the post-game, so it’s supposed to be extremely powerful (its BST is 700, for crying out loud). At least it’s nowhere near as strong as Eternamax Eternatus (it’ll just have raid-boss inflated HP in the final battle, similarly to the Titan Pokémon and Terapagos in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet).

Freigosian Forms

Regional forms are a concept that was introduced to the Pokémon games in Gen VII, based on the concept of divergent evolution (populations of a species that are prevented from interbreeding by geological barriers or other obstacles end up becoming very different over time, especially if they’re subjected to different selective pressures). Given the nature of the real-world basis, regional forms are characterized by being alternative takes on existing Pokémon species with different types, Abilities, movepools, and/or stats (though the movepools and stats tend to not be wildly different from the originals, with a handful of exceptions), with some of them having new evolutions as well. Pretty much every region since Alola (the setting of Pokémon Sun & Moon, based on Hawaii) has had a few regional forms of previous generations’ Pokémon to help them stand out from the rest, and Freigos would be no different — though, much like Paldea (the setting of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, based on Spain and Portugal), since Freigos is not an island and is not isolated from other regions (with Unova in particular all but being a next-door neighbor, with the relationship between the two being akin to Kanto and Johto), there would be less opportunity for divergent evolution to occur in Freigos in comparison to Alola and Galar (the setting of Pokémon Sword & Shield, based on the United Kingdom), and thus fewer regional forms. (In particular, there wouldn’t be any Freigosian variants of any Unovan Pokémon, since most of them would be able to travel from Unova to Freigos and back again easily enough.)

Freigosian Chansey & Blissey:^{(note 258)} Basically Chansey and Blissey after drinking way too much homeopathic Kool-Aid. (In-universe, they would be a product of Chansey and Blissey’s traditional nurse-assistant role being co-opted by alt-med loonies, causing them to steadily become more and more obsessed with “the healing powers of water” while the doctors who actually knew what they were doing started going with Audino. Still, since Freigosian Chansey and Blissey are more the result of artificial selection and hanging out with the wrong crowd than natural divergent evolution, the Kantonian/Johtonian default versions might also have a presence in Freigos, with the two forms being found in different parts of the region, not unlike the forms of Shellos and Gastrodon in Sinnoh/Hisui; the situation could also be compared to the two versions of the Sneasel line co-existing in Hisui before the Johtonian line outcompeted the Hisuian line.) Chansey changes from a Normal-type to a Fairy-type, while Blissey changes from a Normal-type to a Fairy/Water-type. In comparison to their Kantonian and Johtonian default forms, Freigosian Chansey and Blissey both lose 5 base HP and 10 base Special Defense in exchange for gaining 15 base Defense, slightly toning down their infamous special tanking prowess in exchange for not being wrecked quite as badly by physical attacks. While Freigosian Chansey and Blissey both keep the Natural Cure Ability of their default forms, Serene Grace is traded in for their new signature Ability, Volatile Health, which doubles the effectiveness of all healing-over-time and damage-over-time effects they are subjected to.^{(note 259)}
Freigosian Remoraid: The Remoraid line with less emphasis on being weapons of war and more emphasis on being weapons for self-defense and/or crime sprees, adding a new type (not sure what yet, but I’m leaning towards Steel or Dark) and lowering their HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense by a little bit (with more being lost from the defensive stats) in exchange for being much faster (like an inversion of the Galarian Meowth situation). Freigosian Remoraid would not evolve into Octillery, but a new Pokémon named Garbine based on some kind of fish and a rifle, which would evolve again into a Pokémon named Tunassault that is more like a machine gun.^{(note 260)}^{(note 261)} Suction Cups would obviously have to be replaced with something else, but I haven’t decided that yet; Quick Draw seems like the most obvious choice.
Freigosian Togepi line: Alternate form of the Togepi line based on trolling and cyberbullying, with the final evolution being named Togekys rather than Togekiss (pronounced the exact same way, though).^{(note 262)}^{(note 263)} The Freigosian Togepi line changes from the Fairy-type to the Poison-type, changing the type of the latter two forms from Fairy/Flying to Poison/Flying (the Poison-type having similar “toxic mindset” reasoning as Crimsolusion and Malitiasturm), and it has somewhat higher Attack, Special Attack, and Speed in exchange for lower HP, Defense, and Special Defense. Much like Freigosian Chansey and Blissey, the Freigosian Togepi line would be explained as a change brought about by associating with bad people through some sort of artificial selection, and the original versions would still be available in the Freigos region, albeit in different areas.^{(note 264)}
While not a regional variant or alternative evolution, I might put a Spamton Expy fakemon in Freigos, given how a huge part of that character’s shtick is, well, scams. (Okay, maybe it could be some sort of Porygon variant. I still think it would probably work better as its own thing, though.)
Freigosian Smeargle: A Ghost-type karmic trickster that loves doodling all over deceptive facades to reveal what they truly are. For instance, many a crisis pregnancy center in Freigos has closed down after a Freigosian Smeargle has written “THIS IS NOT A REAL ABORTION CLINIC” all over it in huge letters overnight.

Notes

↑ For the most part, these are the same Base Stat Totals used by the Paradox Pokémon; most of them have 570 BST, with the exceptions of Roaring Moon, Iron Valiant, Walking Wake, Iron Leaves, Raging Bolt, Iron Crown, Gouging Fire, and Iron Boulder, which have 590 BST, and Koraidon and Miraidon, which have 670 BST. (Yes, Azureality and Crimsolusion’s BST is 10 points higher than Koraidon and Miraidon’s, but this is because Azureality and Crimsolusion’s stat spreads are modeled on Reshiram and Zekrom rather than Koraidon and Miraidon (more details on that later).)
↑ The in-universe explanation for this could be something similar to what Manazda and Arctikull did for Tamunk and Temunk in the backstory of Lockstin’s Kaskade region or what Pecharunt did with the Loyal Three and (to a lesser extent) Ho-oh did with the legendary beasts — e.g. Azureality and Crimsolusion uplifting ordinary Pokémon to Legendary status in exchange for their loyalty as generals in their forces. (Unlike the Paradox Pokémon, all of the Progress and Regress Pokémon are considered to be Legendary Pokémon. And yes, the backstory of uplifting means that none of the Progress or Regress Pokémon are fusions like Iron Valiant.)
↑ The Paradox Pokémon’s names were designed to completely defy the usual naming scheme for Pokémon in order to put emphasis on their being mysterious, strange, and not fully belonging in the world that currently exists (they’re from the distant past or distant future of parallel timelines, meaning that they’re out of place in terms of both time and space). The Progress and Regress Pokémon’s names are also intended to be a little strange in that they describe what the Progress and Regress Pokémon represent moreso than what they (physically) are, because the Progress and Regress Pokémon aren’t fully “natural” due to the previously-mentioned uplifting thing, but they’re meant to be considerably less strange than the names of the Paradox Pokémon because the Progress and Regress Pokémon still “fit” in the world they live in more than the Paradox Pokémon do. (I may be tooting my own horn a bit here, but I’ve been creating custom Pokémon since the start of the franchise (yes, I was around since the days of Red & Blue), and the names of the Progress and Regress Pokémon are some of the best I’ve come up with yet.)
↑ In-universe, the Progress and Regress Pokémon would be native to a region named Freigos (the name being derived from “freedom” and “logos”, the latter being a Greek word that is the basis for the English word “logic”), based on Washington D.C. and its surrounding areas (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, etc.). Since Unova is based on New York, New Jersey, and New England, Freigos would naturally be located just to the south of Unova in the Pokémon world (maybe with room for another region in between), with the distance between them being a week’s travel time by walking at most (with that being a generous estimate); with a horse, that would be shortened to about a day or two, and travel by train, car, or plane would easily be less than a day. Given the short distance between the regions, it would be quite simple for cultural exchange to occur between Unova and Freigos, and for Freigos’s Legendary Pokémon (including Azureality, Crimsolusion, and the rest of the Progress and Regress Pokémon) to have a connection to Unova’s Legendary Pokémon. More details can be found further down the page, but I’m bringing it up here so you can keep it in mind when I compare Azureality and Crimsolusion to Reshiram and Zekrom later on.
↑ The strict adherence to hard-counter typings did have the unfortunate side effect of preventing me from using some types and type combos where they would have been appropriate (and ironically forcing me to shoehorn some concepts into being represented by weird type combinations); for instance, there are no Psychic- or Dragon-type Regress Pokémon, Azureality is the only Psychic-type Progress Pokémon, etc. This is partially because of the complex and imperfect type balancing in Pokémon, where some types have several strengths and weaknesses and others don’t have many of either, and some types are great offensively but terrible defensively or vice versa. For instance, Grass, Fire, Rock, and Ground showed up a lot because of their large numbers of non-neutral type matchups, while the aforementioned Psychic and Dragon didn’t get included because of how few types they’re super-effective against (Dragon is literally only super-effective on itself, and I never got to use its resistances to Grass, Fire, Water, and Electric in a way that another type couldn’t do better; Psychic is only super-effective on Fighting and Poison, which didn’t show up in the Progress and Regress chains very often, and only resists itself and Fighting). However, I felt it was important to the overall theme to put the Progress and Regress Pokémon in a Lensman’s arms race-style stalemate.
↑ Yes, this is the same Booster Energy that the Paradox Pokémon use. I saw no need to complicate things ~~any further~~ by making a new item just for the Progress and Regress Pokémon; if anything, the existence of the Progress and Regress Pokémon would be a substantial increase to the number of Pokémon for which Booster Energy is actually useful (roughly doubling the number if only the canon Paradox Pokémon are accounted for).
↑ Yes, the Progress Pokémon are associated with Psychic Terrain, despite psychic powers being an example of the supernatural/paranormal pseudoscientific bullshit that RationalWiki opposes. This is because the Psychic-type in Pokémon is associated with the functions of the brain and the qualities of the mind (which is only natural, given the concept of psychic abilities being “the power of the mind”), and as such, it (both ironically and unsurprisingly) embodies several qualities that RationalWiki holds in high regard, such as intelligence, logic, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Many Psychic-type Pokémon are famous in-universe for their keen intellect and/or philosophical tendencies, such as Alakazam, Slowking, Metagross, Oranguru, and Orbeetle. (Orbeetle and its pre-evolutions in particular embody a nerd/scientist archetype (albeit that of the mad scientist).) As such, it makes sense for the Pokémon that embody RationalWiki’s values to have a connection to the Psychic-type, even where they are not Psychic-type themselves.
↑ As for Psychic Terrain specifically, it is usually described in-game as “the battlefield got weird”, indicating that the game itself (let alone anyone in-universe) isn’t quite sure what’s going on when it’s in effect; it seems to be something that’s rather bizarre and mysterious, even by the standards of psychic phenomena (which, in Pokémon, includes stuff like astrology, ley lines, esoteric knowledge of the ancients, etc. in addition to the expected stuff like telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, etc.). However, when the Progress Pokémon use Psychic Terrain, it would be recontextualized to an area where skilled and coherent brain usage (i.e. critical thinking, rationalism, empiricism, science, logic, etc.) is facilitated and reinforced, with the flavor text for setting Psychic Terrain up with Empirical Stage in particular being something like “Logic reigns supreme over the battlefield”. (The move Psychic Terrain would probably still have its usual effect activation message, since Psychic Terrain isn’t functioning any differently (the Progress Pokémon ignoring its usual anti-priority effects is a property of Mind Palace and Empirical Stage, and by extension, the Progress Pokémon themselves, not any modification to the field effect), though perhaps the activation message of the move could be changed as well when it’s used by a Progress Pokémon (all of them can learn it naturally, much like all of the future Paradox Pokémon can learn Electric Terrain) to reflect the reduced emphasis on psychic powers in and of themselves and increased emphasis on intelligence, thought, and the capabilities of the brain.)
↑ Incidentally, I got the idea to name this Ability “Mind Palace” from Berdly’s combat flavor text in Deltarune.
↑ The Regress Pokémon have an association with the Ground-type due to its association with ancient civilizations and Bronze Age values that conservatives often seek to “reconnect” with. (Yes, I know that Sandstorm is a Rock-type move, not Ground-type, but the weather condition seems to align with both Rock and Ground, given how often Ground-types have sandstorm-related Abilities.) Sandstorm also symbolizes misinformation that obfuscates and conceals the truth that progressives and the reality-based community wish to reveal.
↑ Just like Protosynthesis and Quark Drive, Mind Palace and Ignorant Grit (and Azureality and Crimsolusion’s special versions, Empirical Stage and Sands of Denial) cannot be copied, suppressed, replaced, or changed during battle in any way (they can be bypassed by Mold Breaker, Turboblaze, Teravolt, Sunsteel Strike, Moongeist Beam, and Photon Geyser (or by super-effective Rational Flash to a more limited extent), but that’s it). (Among other things, this does prevent the Progress and Regress Pokémon from being given Serene Grace to make their signature moves’ additional effects more likely to happen.) Furthermore, the same special rules for item manipulation apply to the Progress and Regress Pokémon as to the Paradox Pokémon — namely, item-manipulating moves and Abilities (such as Fling, Trick, and Symbiosis) cannot transfer Booster Energy to or from a Progress or Regress Pokémon (other than Azureality and Crimsolusion, who can’t use it).
↑ And yes, since Skeptic’s Scourge is super-effective against Ghost, it does work on Ghost-types with Wonder Guard, such as Shedinja… wait, no, it doesn’t work on Shedinja, since Shedinja is Bug/Ghost and Bug resists Skeptic’s Scourge, bringing the effectiveness back down to neutral. However, Skeptic’s Scourge does work on Eyeceps (a Ghost/Fighting alternate evolution of Duskull I made back in Gen III that also has Wonder Guard), and it would also work on “WonderTomb” (a Spiritomb hacked to have the Wonder Guard Ability to exploit its Ghost/Dark type combination having no weaknesses prior to the introduction of Fairy).
↑ Not only are these types the most supernatural, but Fairy is the closest thing in Pokémon to a “Holy”-type (even though “holy” is a relatively small part of Fairy’s portfolio (it’s much moreso about, well, fairies), it does have some angel-like Pokémon, such as Gardevoir and Togekiss, and the Tapus are literally described as deities), with Psychic and Dragon not being far behind (hence Psychic and Dragon being over-represented among Legendary and Mythical Pokémon and Fairy not being far behind despite only being introduced in Gen VI). In fact, Psychic was the de facto “divine-type” in Gen I and II (and still is to some extent in later generations), which is why Lugia is Psychic/Flying rather than Water/Flying (despite its “ocean guardian” shtick) and why Latios and Latias (which are partially based on “aeons” from Gnostic mythology) are Dragon/Psychic. Dragon can also be considered a “Sorcery” type (with Fairy being its more druid-esque counterpart for the sake of Dungeons & Dragons comparisons). As for the Ghost-type, it literally deals with matters relating to spirits and the afterlife, so, yeah, it’s inherently supernatural.
↑ Yes, even a lowly Rattata, Pidgey, Bidoof, or Fletchling is capable of doing things that would qualify as “magic”. (Heck, even Magikarp is capable of some insane feats, like leaping over entire mountains.)
↑ In general, the signature moves of the Progress and Regress Pokémon have lower Base Power than the signature moves of the Paradox Pokémon, in exchange for having greater utility. This increased utility varies from move to move, and will be discussed for the individual moves when I get to them. Not only are the Progress and Regress Pokémon signature moves weaker in terms of raw damage output/potential than their Paradox counterparts, they’re also weaker than the standard high-end reliable moves of their own types and categories (Rational Flash is weaker than Psychic, Psyshock, and Psychic Terrain-boosted Expanding Force (with Rational Flash’s super-effectiveness bonus making it only barely stronger than the former two and still not bringing it anywhere near the last one); Delusion Destroyer is weaker than Flash Cannon (with Delusion Destroyer’s Psychic Terrain bonus making it only modestly stronger); Hate Breaker (even with both hits accounted for) is weaker than Play Rough (as well as Spirit Break, which Ratitchepy can also learn); Replenishing Flow is weaker than Surf and Scald; Obfuscating Mudspray and Abrasive Sermon are weaker than Earthquake and High Horsepower (even with Obfuscating Mudspray’s super-effectiveness bonus and Delusion Destroyer’s sandstorm bonus, they’re only barely on par with the latter); Resource Burn is weaker than Flamethrower (though Flamethrower does lack priority)). This forces players to consider whether the utility is worth sacrificing some attack power from alternative moves.
↑ Just to drive the point about the power-utility trade-off home, I also created signature moves for each set of Paradox Pokémon as a whole to contrast with Skeptic’s Scourge and Escape Hatch. The past Paradox Pokémon get Primal Heatdown, a Fire-type physical move with 35 base power, 90% accuracy, and 15 PP that hits 2 to 5 times. The future Paradox Pokémon get Techedge Gatling, an Electric-type special move with 25 base power, 90% accuracy, and 15 PP that hits a number of times equal to the number of non-fainted Pokémon without non-volatile status conditions on the user’s team, a la Beat Up. Both are designed to not be fancy, but to hit hard (while also having a fairly heavy dependency on luck or team health conservation to reach their full potential to make sure that they don’t completely overshadow Flare Blitz, Electro Drift, or Thunder). (As for the names, “Primal” is used in the sense of “ancient”, “Heatdown” is a portmanteau/pun of “heat” and “beatdown”, “Techedge” is a shortening and rearrangement of “cutting-edge technology”, and “Gatling” refers to the Gatling gun. Incidentally, Techedge Gatling counts as a ball move, so it gets nullified by Bulletproof.)
↑ The Progress Pokémon represent RationalWiki, progressivism (as indicated by the name), and skepticism/science in general, whereas the Regress Pokémon represent cranks, bigots, conservatives/reactionaries, and other… problematic people, making the Progress Pokémon the good guys by default. Naturally, I’ll be showing some degree of favoritism towards the Progress Pokémon over the Regress Pokémon.
↑ Azureality specializes in its special stats, so its best coverage options would have to be Special attacking moves. The most widespread Special Fighting-type moves, Aura Sphere and Focus Blast, are reliant on qi and/or aura, which means that they wouldn’t be appropriate on a Pokémon that embodies skepticism of those and other dodgy concepts; thus, I had to come up with an alternative to give Azureality a way to get past Dark- and Steel-type checks and potential counters without undermining its core ideals.
↑ Yes, I know that “the force of justice” isn’t realistic, but this is the Pokémon universe I’m talking about; real-world realism can only go so far!
↑ This concept is pulled from an old revision of Bulbapedia’s page on status conditions. It refers to buff effects other than stat stages that affect the user personally (rather than their team or their field, so Reflect, Light Screen, Tailwind, etc. don’t count, though Coward’s Bane does track and get powered up by those as well); examples of “volatile battle statuses” include Aqua Ring, Ingrain, Magnet Rise, and Focus Energy.
↑ I may or may not also throw in a toned-down version of Pursuit’s effect, in which Coward’s Bane would hit a target attempting to switch out and hit slightly harder (not twice as hard) while doing so. It would be appropriate for a move named “Coward’s Bane” to punish attempts to retreat, but it might already be a bit overtuned.
↑ The concept of qi or “aura” is tied in pretty heavily with the Fighting-type in general, not just its special attacks. I don’t want to speculate too much, but I suspect that this is due to the influence of the Dragon Ball franchise; ki is the metaphysical force in that setting.
↑ Justice Spark is an Egg move for the Pikachu line, but yes, they do have access to it. It’s the series mascot, so why the heck not?!
↑ Again, Justice Spark is an Egg move, but a major part of Gardevoir’s shtick is protecting its loved ones, even at the risk of its own life, so the move is a good fit.
↑ Once again, Justice Spark is an Egg move, but I couldn’t not give it to Lucario…
↑ Dark Storm is also pretty heavily associated with the Regress Pokémon, since it involves weaponizing malicious thoughts by harnessing them into a hurricane-like maelstrom of dark energy; it’s learned by a lot of vicious and/or malicious Pokémon, so the Regress Pokémon are a perfect fit. (However, while Dark Storm is “energy-based”, it is not wind-based.) I didn’t give Dark Storm much focus in the main text because it predates the conceptualization of the Regress Pokémon by over 10 years (Dark Storm is Gen IV, whereas the Progress & Regress Pokémon are Gen IX), so it obviously wasn’t designed with them in mind.
↑ The idea of a move being “energy-based” is currently only relevant for Dimensional Cannon, a sort of Future Sight/Light Screen/Protect hybrid move that I designed in Gen IV as a second signature move for Palkia. Dimensional Cannon involves creating a wormhole to nullify incoming energy-based attacks by sucking them in, black hole-style, then spitting the accumulated energy back at the enemy two turns later. (Escape Hatch, Techedge Gatling, Rational Flash, Resource Burn, Coward’s Bane, Justice Spark, and Screed are also energy-based. Contact moves are never considered energy-based, even if they have another classification that would normally qualify them, such as light or wind. Non-contact moves that involve transmitting force directly through matter or with little to no involvement of matter, such as Earthquake (ground vibrations), Surf (conjures water into a tsunami), Hydro Pump (high-pressure water jet), or Psychic (psychokinesis), also don’t qualify as energy-based; “energy-based” moves are those that involve extremely-low-density matter, plasma, or other physically-manifested energy, like Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Flash Cannon, or Hyper Voice.)
↑ Okay, there might be traces of Gogoat in there. Probably because they’re both goats.
↑ The first pronunciation just mashes up the proper pronunciation of “azure” and “reality”. The second pronunciation is largely the same, but substitutes the second syllable of “azure” for “oor” as in “moor”, since the latter flows better into the first syllable of “reality”. I’m not entirely sure which one I prefer, though I lean towards the second.
↑ Fun fact: the name “Azureality” actually started out as a nickname that I intended to give to my Miraidon in Pokémon Violet, with the idea being that clinging to the past is akin to clinging to a falsehood and embracing reality requires embracing the future (since Miraidon’s main shtick as a legendary Pokémon is embodying the future, and its counterpart Koraidon embodies the past). Then I remembered that Miraidon is violet, not azure or any other shade of blue, so “Azureality” would have to go to an entirely new Pokémon built around the name. Then I decided that a Pokémon worthy of the name “Azureality” would have to be tied to RationalWiki (perhaps even to the point of being a mascot for the site), and being RationalWiki’s mascot would require it to be a goat, and Azureality would need an archrival embodying falsehoods, deception, scams, pseudoscience, etc. (which is where Crimsolusion’s name came from — the concept of illusions), and the whole Progress and Regress Pokémon project ended up developing from there.
↑ This excludes stat and damage modifiers derived from Abilities, screens, held items, and other miscellaneous modifiers; if Rational Flash is super-effective, such modifiers still have 80% of their default effectiveness against it. In particular, type effectiveness applies normally (aside from the gimmick of super-effectiveness being stronger than normal), so Rational Flash is still completely useless against Dark-type Pokémon.
↑ In the event that multiple Pokémon on the same team are capable of using Rational Flash and are on the field together, each tracks whether or not Rational Flash has been blocked (and by which Pokémon) separately. For instance, if two Pokémon attempt to use Rational Flash on the same target on the same turn, the target is using Protect, and neither of the Pokémon using Rational Flash have had it be blocked by that target yet, the first Rational Flash to execute will get blocked (and register that it was blocked for future uses), while the second Rational Flash will hit for 25% damage (or 33% if the target is weak to Rational Flash; either way, it will technically not be considered to have been blocked, so a future usage of Protect from that target could block a Rational Flash from the second user).
↑ No, Hadron Engine doesn’t have any rider effects allowing Miraidon to do things that normally can’t be done on Electric Terrain, like putting Pokémon to sleep. Including such an effect would have been GameFreak’s prerogative, not mine, and Miraidon can’t learn any sleep-inducing moves other than Rest, anyways. I gave Empirical Stage a rider effect because it improves a defensive stat rather than an offensive stat, which might otherwise make it appear less impressive. Unlike Sands of Denial, the rider effect of Empirical Stage can actually come into play without needing to invoke Terastallization or weird Doubles tactics, as Azureality can learn a few priority attacks, including Quick Attack, Extreme Speed, Reactive Blast (a Steel-type Special variation of Sucker Punch), and Amygdala Warp (a Psychic-type Special move with 60 Base Power, perfect accuracy, and +2 priority). This was intentional to make Empirical Stage marginally stronger than Sands of Denial, this being one of a few factors that give Azureality a slight advantage over Crimsolusion despite their type combinations being mutually strong against each other.
↑ Most of the Progress and Regress themes are by Disturbed. (This is an intentional choice to follow up on and contrast them with Team Hammer, my Gen VIII villain team concept (the idea being that they were terrorists who fought for a deeply-distorted view of “justice”, loosely based on the concept of an “SJW” (though it’d be more accurate to call them “bad guys who don’t realize they’re bad guys”)), which (along with Virtiustama, the legendary Pokémon they pursued) primarily used songs by Hammerfall.)
↑ Yes, I know that “Land of Confusion” is more of a social justice/political reform anthem than a song about rationalism. I haven’t been able to find any songs about rationalism that slap hard enough to be good boss battle music, so nothing has managed to supplant “Land of Confusion” as Azureality’s primary theme song (“Superstition” by Stevie Wonder is the closest I’ve gotten).
↑ Trent is the leader of the Progress Pokémon’s human allies (yes, he’s named after RationalWiki’s founder). “Who Taught You How To Hate” isn’t as strongly associated with Trent as “Bad Man” is with Adon (the leader of the Regress Pokémon’s human allies) — “Who Taught You How To Hate” may also be used for Ratitchepy and/or Sanarchern — but Trent and Azureality would be the final bosses of the main game in the Regress Pokémon version (Pokémon Faith), so Trent does need a battle theme.
↑ One thing that I was on the fence about, yet still brought up to BaeFakemon (the artist I commissioned to draw the Progress and Regress Pokémon), was the idea that some parts of Azureality’s body would look holographic, like Isaac from Cobalt Core (another scientifically-inclined goat). While it would certainly look cool and science-y, holograms are more of a sci-fi thing than actual science, and while I want to have a lot of pop science in Azureality’s design to get across that it represents the concept of science (hence the test tube horns and lab-coat-like fur), I had a few reservations about resorting to applying phlebotinum that may or may not be scientific. Ultimately, only the front knees and ankles ended up being holographic.
↑ One smaller detail in Azureality’s design that’s worth bringing up is that its body allows itself to be reconfigured and augmented with external equipment to allow it to use moves like Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Surf, Earth Power, etc.; Azureality does have a very wide movepool, and the fact that it’s a Pokémon means that it has some supernatural abilities (it has the psychokinetic and electricity-manipulating abilities that would be expected from its typing, and it even mixes them a bit when it uses Rational Flash), but the Progress Pokémon’s connections to real-world science and materialism means that they’ll have their supernatural qualities heavily downplayed in comparison to most other Pokémon.
↑ TV Tropes doesn’t have a heroic goat trope; the closest thing available is inverting or subverting Gruesome Goat (the evil goat trope). (There isn’t a “heroic donkey” trope, either.) I’m not happy about this — goats deserve better, darn it — but I can’t really think of enough heroic goats in fiction or positive goat symbolism to make a trope out of.
↑ The Pokémon franchise lacks a “Digital” type or other type that is explicitly symbolic of science and advanced modern or futuristic technology such as computers; the closest things to such a Digital-type are Electric and Steel. I ultimately made Azureality Psychic/Electric rather than Psychic/Steel because the former type combination is a lot less common (with its only representative so far being Alolan Raichu; in particular, Generation VII had introduced a Psychic/Steel major legendary Pokémon (Solgaleo), so I felt that Generation IX was too soon to create another one. (Never mind that both Gen VII and Gen VIII introduced Psychic/Ghost major legendary Pokémon (Lunala and Shadow Rider Calyrex, respectively) — that was Game Freak’s prerogative, not mine, and Calyrex was introduced in the latter half of Pokémon Sword & Shield‘s DLC, anyways.)
↑ Azureality notably resists both of its own STAB types; this was mostly accidental, but it does reflect how there is ultimately only one objective truth of reality, so a society focused on seeking that truth would (hopefully) have relatively little conflict.
↑ In case you’re too lazy to click on the Bulbapedia link or the site is down for some reason, that’s 100 HP, 120 Attack, 100 Defense, 150 Special Attack, 120 Special Defense, and 90 Speed.
↑ Speaking of Reshiram and Zekrom, while the Progress and Regress Pokémon were first and foremost designed as an alternative take on the Paradox Pokémon’s past-and-future contrast theme (with the Progress and Regress Pokémon representing the recent past (okay, maybe not that recent) and imminent future (or at least what the future should look like if humanity doesn’t manage to completely screw itself over) rather than prehistory and the distant future), they also function as a sort of weird synthesis of Reshiram and Zekrom’s truth and ideals theme, with the Progress Pokémon representing healthy ideals shaped by the objective truth of the universe and the Regress Pokémon representing a distorted “truth” shaped by bullshit ideals. (In other words, the Progress Pokémon lean a bit more towards truth (they represent science, which generally focuses on what is rather than what ought to be) and the Regress Pokémon lean a bit more towards ideals (their core desire is to impose their own worldview on everybody else at all costs and squash all challenges to said worldview). Nevertheless, I reckon that both Reshiram and Zekrom would be inclined to side with the Progress Pokémon (though Zekrom’s idealism might cause them some headaches if it ever drove it to attempt something impossible or ill-advised (even though Zekrom means well), and both Reshiram and Zekrom might annoy the Progress Pokémon a little due to being dragons and embodying yin and yang).)
↑ The defense-oriented nature of Azureality and Crimsolusion’s stat spreads is more gameplay-oriented than symbolic; there haven’t really been any Pokémon with a BST of 670 or higher with defensively-oriented stat spreads other than Lugia, Altered Forme Giratina, Crowned Zamazenta, and Eternamax Eternatus, with most box legendaries being offensive behemoths first and foremost. So I decided that I was going to make my own box legendaries defensively-oriented. In fact, the defense-oriented nature of Azureality and Crimsolusion’s stats and Abilities was the very first thing I decided on about them, before their typings, symbolism, signature moves, etc., or even the idea of them being “Progress & Regress Pokémon” tied to RationalWiki and its allies and adversaries (though I did want to make the Abilities similar to Orichalcum Pulse and Hadron Engine from the start). I did decide to deliberately make Azureality faster than Lugia so that it would have more of a niche, since Lugia’s stat spread is even more defensively-oriented than Azureality’s or Crimsolusion’s.
↑ One could make the argument that Azureality, being a scientist and a skeptic, should be physically-oriented (representing a materialistic worldview) and Crimsolusion, being a crank and a borderline fundie, should be specially-oriented (representing belief in magic and the supernatural), but I decided to adhere to the trope of intelligence correlating with mystical power and make Azureality specially-oriented to represent its worldview being more intelligent, well-thought-out, and accurate to reality than Crimsolusion’s. (Bear in mind that Azureality and Crimsolusion exist in the Pokémon universe, where supernatural stuff actually does happen.)
↑ By this, I mean proper education that teaches facts, not homeschooling nonsense that serves only to indoctrinate.
↑ See, for instance, the Lenski affair blowing up in Andrew’s face, or his efforts to cover up the embarrassment that was Conservapedia’s “FBI Incident”.
↑ Granted, “light-based” isn’t an official usage classification with actual in-game effects as of Gen IX. Even within my own fakemon, I haven’t thought of many effects for light-based moves outside of being boosted by Ultra Radiance (a Hidden Ability given to Ultra Necrozma) and counteracting the effects of Corruption (the signature move of Mistikal, a Gen IV Poison/Psychic legendary Pokémon that’s essentially a sentient toxic gas cloud given life by Cipher to serve as their ultimate weapon; Corruption itself is basically a mind-control technique in which Mistikal invades its target’s body to directly manipulate their brain with its toxins, but the mind-control can be broken and Mistikal can be forced out by exposure to bright light).
↑ I say “nigh-guaranteed” because survival is still possible with a Focus Band or Focus Sash, and Pokémon with the Sturdy ability can’t be affected by one-hit KO moves, period.
↑ Metagross’s main rivals for the position of Dawseculab’s template were Noctowl and my own evolution for it, Sabiowl, since I wanted to use a Pokémon known for its intelligence and thoughtfulness, and since I was following similar rules to making Paradox counterparts of existing Pokémon, the template had to already be either Steel- or Flying-type, but not both (Metagross and Sabiowl both being Psychic-types also helped in narrowing it down to those two). Metagross ended up getting the nod because of its literally being a supercomputer (very helpful for running experiments) and my desire to cast it in a more heroic light (I’d already explored its predatory side in other stories I’ve written).
↑ This is meant in the sense of ethical science, e.g. not doing depraved shit just to see what happens.
↑ The first syllable is pronounced identically to the first syllable of “Dawkins” (Dictionary.com presents this as “dɔ”; I’m not sure why it only shows the IPA pronunciation option without the option for a phonetic respelling), or “dawn” without the “n”. The second syllable is pronounced identically to the first syllable of “secular”. The third syllable is pronounced like the formally-stressed version of “you”; I chose this rather than “yuh” (the second syllable of “secular”) for the sake of flowing into the next syllable, though I suppose “yuh” is also acceptable. The fourth and final syllable is identical to the first syllable of “laboratory”.
↑ This is in addition to the usual type matchups of Steel, e.g. being super-effective on Rock-, Ice-, and Fairy-type Pokémon and not very effective on Fire-, Water-, Electric-, and Steel-type Pokémon.
↑ Yes, both effects can proc at once, resulting in the victim getting −2 Defense and Special Defense and −1 evasion.
↑ Dawseculab’s BST is 590 rather than 570 because the Progress and Regress Pokémon are designed to be parallel to the Paradox Pokémon, and Dawseculab in particular is intended to be the Progress Pokémon’s counterpart to Iron Valiant (the only future Paradox Pokémon to have a BST of 590 before Pokémon Scarlet & Violet got DLC). It also helps that both Iron Valiant and Dawseculab’s templates — Gardevoir, Gallade, and Metagross — are capable of Mega Evolution, allowing for the designs of the Paradox/Progress Pokémon to pull from the stronger forms of their inspirations. (Yes, Dawseculab’s design is largely derived from Mega Metagross rather than standard Metagross. (I think the chin spike could get reworked into a beard of some kind — never mind that Richard Dawkins doesn’t have a beard.))
↑ As previously mentioned, the Progress and Regress Pokémon are intended to fit into two parallel chains where each member hard-counters one of the opposite side (specifically the link immediately above it in the opposing chain) and is in turn hard-countered by another (specifically the link immediately below it in the opposing chain). In Dawseculab’s case, it hard-counters Crimsolusion (Steel is immune to Poison and Flying is immune to Ground) and is itself hard-countered by Koallution (Fire is super-effective against Steel and not resisted by Flying, Electric is super-effective against Flying and not resisted by Steel, Fire and Electric both resist Steel, and Electric resists Flying).
↑ Well, rockets that can carry things to outer space, at any rate; the Chinese had the basics of rocket construction figured out sometime in the 13th century CE.
↑ Yes, that is actually a real thing that humans have figured out how to do. We can’t quite make the weather whatever the heck we want it to be, but we can do stuff like inducing rain sooner than it would naturally happen and/or altering the properties of the rain by seeding clouds.
↑ As previously mentioned, the Progress and Regress Pokémon in general are modeled on the Paradox Pokémon (which is why most of them use existing Pokémon as templates rather than having more unique designs; that was an intentional design choice as a parallel to the Paradox Pokémon all having a close resemblance to other Pokémon (due to being ancestors or descendants) rather than having their own unique designs). This modeling extends to their signature moves, with all of the non-shared Progress and Regress Pokémon signature moves being designed to emulate one of the signature moves of one of the Paradox Pokémon, but with some of the Base Power of the original move being traded in for additional effects. In addition, all of the Progress Pokémon signature moves emulate the signature moves of the future-derived (Violet-exclusive) Paradox Pokémon, while all of the Regress Pokémon signature moves emulate the signature moves of the past-derived (Scarlet-exclusive) Paradox Pokémon — this reflects how the mindset symbolized by the Regress Pokémon looks towards the past, while the mindset symbolized by the Progress Pokémon looks towards the future.
↑ Yes, I know that reality doesn’t work like this in real life. It would be incredibly convenient for the reality-based community if cranks, pseudoskeptics, fundies, and others who promote woo and/or cling to irrational viewpoints could be forced to face their cognitive dissonance head-on, consider the evidence, accept the facts, and revise their worldviews, but direct thought manipulation is not possible in real life (and even if it was, there would be serious ethical concerns with actually using it). However, the Progress and Regress Pokémon are, well, Pokémon. They exist in a world where supernatural and sci-fi phenomena are not only possible, they’re downright commonplace (most protagonists in the series can’t even leave their hometowns without running into birds that can conjure whirlwinds and hurricanes and rodents or other small mammals that can be taught to conjure lightning bolts, beams of cryronic energy, and/or tsunamis), and combat is explicitly non-lethal and actually rather harmless in the long run (indeed, most Pokémon actively enjoy testing their strength against others). Thus, it’s perfectly fine and natural that Dawseculab (and Azureality and the Progress Pokémon as a whole, for that matter) is able to weaponize real-world materialism and the essence of the scientific method as a way of overcoming rivals.
↑ Heh. Poison. Toxic.^{(pun intended)} Get it? (No, I’m not particularly skilled at getting points across subtly, why do you ask?)
↑ Yes, I know that associating the Ground-type with nostalgia and ignorance is a bit of a stretch (the idea is that it’s an extension of the Ground-type being associated with bones, fossils, and other such things that are very old and/or are relics of things that once were and no longer are, a la Cubone and Marowak), since the Ground-type generally is meant to be taken in the far more literal sense of dirt and soft minerals (harder minerals are the domain of the Rock-type (and the Steel-type if metals are considered to be “minerals”)). I made Azureality Psychic/Electric and Crimsolusion Poison/Ground because I wanted their matchup to not be extremely lopsided like some other version mascot legendaries’ matchups have been (Kyogre vs. Groudon and Xerneas vs. Yveltal immediately come to mind). I deliberately set the typings of my version mascots up so that they can both hit each other super-effectively with their STAB signature moves. Azureality is intended to have a slight advantage over Crimsolusion, yes, but that comes in the form of Azureality being faster, having a slightly better signature Ability, and Rational Flash’s main utility countering Obfuscating Mudspray’s main utility; Crimsolusion can take the upper hand easily enough in the right circumstances, especially given its superior bulk, immunity to Electric moves, and the chip damage from sandstorm (which Crimsolusion is immune to and Azureality is not). If I had given Crimsolusion a more conventionally-evil Poison/Dark typing, it would have a straight-up huge advantage over Azureality, which would throw off the overall symbolic qualities I want the Progress and Regress Pokémon to have — that logic and science are preferable in every way, both pragmatically and morally, to ignorance and superstition, but the latter won’t succumb to the former easily. It’s not like the Ground-type being associated with evil is completely unprecedented, either, given that it’s the type preference of Giovanni — the head of Team Rocket and a Yakuza/Mafia don who’s a classic power-hungry schemer with few, if any redeeming qualities (he’s also strongly associated with Nidoking and Nidoqueen, which themselves happen to be Poison/Ground). In gameplay terms, Delusion Destroyer hits Ground and Poison super-effectively because Dawseculab is meant to hard-counter Crimsolusion, but Steel/Flying by itself is only immune to Poison and Ground, without being able to hit back with super-effective damage. (Yes, Dawseculab has access to Psychic-type moves by virtue of being derived from Metagross, but it doesn’t get STAB with them.) In contrast, Cleragate’s Dark/Ground typing means that it can hit Azureality with super-effective STAB while also having immunity to Azureality’s STAB without any monkeying around with type matchups being required.
↑ It bears repeating that Delusion Destroyer’s special type effectiveness properties supplement the usual type matchups of Steel, rather than replacing them. As a Steel-type move, Delusion Destroyer is naturally super-effective on Rock (metal is generally harder and denser than rock, and thus easily smashes it), Ice (metal is generally harder and denser than ice, and thus easily smashes it), and Fairy (one of the more common elements of fairy lore is that metallic substances (particularly iron and steel) are anathema to fairies, often to the point of metallic tools and objects being literally toxic and/or corrosive to them, or at least repelling them (like how garlic is said to repel vampires)), but not very effective on Fire (metal conducts heat, and enough heat melts metal), Water (something about oxidization/rust or water slowing metallic projectiles such as throwing knives and bullets down and making them a lot less dangerous), Electric (metal conducts electricity), and Steel (hard, dense metal striking equally-hard, equally-dense metal results in neither object taking much, if any damage).
↑ Being resisted by both Fire and Electric, yet super-effective on Ice coincidentally but notably makes Delusion Destroyer not very effective on Reshiram and Zekrom (truth and ideals, respectively), but super-effective on Kyurem (emptiness). Again, there are some strong connections between the Progress and Regress Pokémon and the Legendary Pokémon of Unova — especially the Tao trio — so there’s some serious symbolic potential with a move that represents weaponizing reality to demolish malformed worldviews not having much impact on the embodiments of truth and idealism, yet being devastating against the embodiment of emptiness.
↑ Leavanny was the template almost right from the start because it could have been retooled to work into any of the options for Ratitchepy’s typing — Bug/Fairy, Bug/Fighting, Grass/Fairy, or Grass/Fighting — while also being simple enough to redesign into the hippy theme (just dress it up like a hippy or some sort of eccentric college professor and give it some signs to wave around). I did briefly consider Breloom, but I decided that I would rather focus on the “very colorful clothing” hippy stereotype over the “smoking lots of weed and shrooms” hippy stereotype. (Yes, part of the reason why Leavanny got the nod is its association with making clothing.)
↑ Yes, I am aware that there is not a particularly strong connection between Christopher Hitchens and the concepts that Ratitchepy embodies, but I wanted to work some big names of atheism into some of the Progress Pokémon’s names, and the “Four Horsemen” of New Atheism were the biggest I could think of. This is also why Dawseculab’s name evokes Richard Dawkins and Lucharveyton’s name evokes Sam Harris. (I couldn’t think of anything for Daniel Dennett.)
↑ The first syllable is taken directly from the word “rational”, hence it being said like “rash” (though “ratch” as in “ratchet” might also be acceptable if that flows into the second syllable better). The second syllable is simply “itch”; it’s derived from “Hitchens” (which Dictionary.com gives no advice on pronouncing), but it’s also a play on bug-induced itchiness. The third syllable is pronounced like the latter half of “step”; I didn’t want to use “ip” as in “hip” because that doesn’t transition as effectively between the second and fourth syllables IMO (maybe I should ask my mom about this — she’s a speech pathologist…). (Also, I wanted to use “e” instead of “i” in the transition to make it clearer that “itch” is derived from “Hitchens”.) The final syllable, “ee”, is directly derived from “hippie”.
↑ Yes, the flinch chance does apply independently for each hit, so Hate Breaker is more likely to inflict flinching than its raw secondary effect chance indicates.
↑ I am considering upgrading Ratitchepy’s BST to 590, since there are four Paradox Pokémon in each set with that BST and the Progress and Regress Pokémon are meant to be parallel to the Paradox Pokémon (Dawseculab’s BST is 590 rather than 570 to make it the Progress Pokémon’s counterpart to Iron Valiant). If I go through with this, the most likely tune-ups will be +5 HP, +5 Attack, +5 Special Defense, and +5 Speed (though Special Attack might get an increase instead of Attack and/or Speed, since I want Ratitchepy’s Attack and Speed to be good but not great in order to keep Hate Breaker somewhat balanced); the base HP feels a little low for a defensive Pokémon, and the base Special Defense being lower than the base Defense bothers me a bit (especially since Mind Palace increases the user’s highest stat). (Granted, I did set that up on purpose to make it more likely for Defense to be boosted (the better to counter physical attackers). Furthermore, I focused on Defense and Special Defense over HP in Ratitchepy’s stat spread because the former two stats can be boosted mid-battle by stat stages, items, and Abilities, whereas HP can only be improved by Dynamax (which is not available in Freigos due to the necessary in-universe conditions not being present there).)
↑ Hey, the song fits. (See our article on Kent State.)
↑ This just so happens to be my favorite song of all time, so the fact that it’s an anti-war song and thus fits Renaiagy like a glove is really fortunate for me. 😜
↑ I also shied away from Bug/Fighting because I didn’t want to re-use any type combinations from the Paradox Pokémon, and Slither Wing already has Bug/Fighting covered.
↑ I created a custom move named Pounce all the way back in Gen II, but my version is a Dark-type two-turn semi-invulnerable move that has 90 Base Power, 95% accuracy, 15 PP, and a 10% chance to make the target flinch. My move named “Pounce” is derived from the idea of a cat or fox pouncing on its prey, whereas the official Pounce is more like a bug leaping into your face. Thus, Ratitchepy gets the official Pounce, but not the custom one.
↑ When I asked for help with calculating these odds on the CAP Discord, I was informed that the easiest way to calculate the math was to invert it. A 30% chance to flinch is a 70% chance to not flinch, so when that gets applied over two hits, the chance works out to 70% × 70% = 49%, making the chance to flinch 51%. As for the 50% chance working out to 75% for two hits, that’s because it’s basically two coin flips where one or two heads have essentially the same result.
↑ Sure, Melmetal’s Double Iron Bash does essentially the same thing as Hate Breaker and is twice as strong, but Hate Breaker has three things going for it; perfect accuracy, a higher flinch chance when the target is trying to attack, and its user being sufficiently fast for the flinch chance to actually be worth a damn against more than a small handful of potential opponents (well, outside of Trick Room, anyways…).
↑ Granted, protection moves that punish attackers, like Spiky Shield, King’s Shield, Obstruct, Silk Trap, Baneful Bunker, Burning Bulwark, or Casus Belli, do a better job of getting the idea of “parrying” across, but my rules for making the Progress and Regress Pokémon demanded that I make a spin-off of Tachyon Cutter as Ratitchepy’s signature move, so a weak attack with a great chance of causing a flinch would have to do. (Yes, Iron Crown comes after Iron Boulder in the Pokédex, but Iron Crown got its signature move attached to the higher-ranked Progress Pokémon by virtue of being revealed first (and the Paradox Pokémon signature move that’s a protection move is attached to Gouging Fire, which is a past Paradox Pokémon). Speaking of which, my first impulse was actually to make Hate Breaker work like Thunderclap — hitting once and having priority, but failing if the target wasn’t attacking that turn — but Thunderclap is the signature move of a past Paradox Pokémon and the Progress Pokémon are pulling from the future Paradox Pokémon (the Regress Pokémon pull their moves from the past Paradox Pokémon), so the Thunderclap spin-off went to Koallution instead.)
↑ Speaking of Obstruct, Ratitchepy can learn that move. I wanted it to have an actual “parry and punish” move in its movepool, and while King’s Shield would have been a better thematic fit in a mechanical sense (since it lowers the attacker’s Attack stat, whereas Obstruct lowers the attacker’s Defense), Ratitchepy is not particularly regal and doesn’t carry a large shield around (it parries by using its signposts to block like how one would block a sword with one’s own sword in a (stereotypical) sword-fight), so King’s Shield wouldn’t be the kind of move that it would be able to actually use. It helps that Obstruct is officially the signature move of Obstagoon, which is based on a punk (both the music genre and the subculture), and punks and hippies are both known for protesting against the establishment (especially when the establishment is engaging in… morally questionable activities).
↑ I went with a beaver Pokémon here because I had dams and hydroelectric power in mind (though Renaiagy is meant to embody all kinds of renewable energy), so Beavaum was the immediate choice.
↑ The first syllable is pronounced like “wren” rather than like the first syllable of “renew” (“ri-noo“) in order to properly flow into the following syllables. The second and third syllables are just “Gaia” without the “g”. The final syllable is the last syllable of “energy”.
↑ Replenishing Flow actually got a slight buff late in conceptualization; it originally restored up to a total of 10 PP. I increased this because while a 10-PP replenishment spread amongst 1 to 7 other moves in a Single or Double Battle is rather balanced (if anything, it’s probably overkill, since it’s rather rare that all of a Pokémon’s moves would spend 4 PP over the course of 1 battle), it’s actually somewhat underpowered in a Triple or Raid Battle, where that 10 PP could be stretched over 3 to 15 moves. I considered only buffing the PP replenishment in a Triple or Raid Battle, but this felt too arbitrary to accept. Since even a 10-PP replenishment would be hard to use to its utmost in a Single Battle, I decided to apply the increase to all battle formats.
↑ I am considering upgrading Renaiagy’s BST to 590, since there are four Paradox Pokémon in each set with that BST and the Progress and Regress Pokémon are meant to be parallel to the Paradox Pokémon (Dawseculab’s BST is 590 rather than 570 to make it the Progress Pokémon’s counterpart to Iron Valiant). If I go through with this, the most likely tune-ups will be +5 Defense, +10 Special Attack, and +5 Special Defense, to give Renaiagy even more bulk and help it threaten opponents (especially Koallution) more effectively. I might swap the Defense and Special Defense boosts with +10 HP in order to allow Mind Palace to still boost Special Attack in more offensive builds.
↑ …What? There’s more symbolism that can be assigned to the Ground-type than just being old. Heck, this wouldn’t even be the first time that the Ground-type has been used to represent the ecosystem and protecting the environment; Zygarde, a Dragon/Ground-type legendary Pokémon, is very much defined by its role as the guardian of the ecosystem (a duty that it takes pretty damn seriously) and maintainer of balance — including not only ecological balance, but also the balance between life and death.
↑ I was tempted to include nuclear energy, too (which would probably be Poison-type (or maybe Steel-type) moves; this isn’t Pokémon Uranium, so there’s no Nuclear-type), since nuclear energy has a lot of upsides over fossil fuels (including, unintuitively enough, environmental friendliness), but {indefinite} renewability is not one of those advantages. Heck, fossil fuels might technically be more renewable than nuclear energy — it’s just that the timespan for new fossil fuels being formed is roughly millions of years (and that assumes that human activities like deforestation don’t destroy the precursors before they get the chance to start becoming fossil fuels), so that’s very much a moot point, and most estimates based on current fuel consumption rates predict peak oil and peak coal happening a lot sooner than peak uranium or peak plutonium.
↑ Indeed, given that Bibarel and Beavaum’s Speed stats are average at worst, the main reason I made Renaiagy’s Speed stat rather terrible is to all-but-ensure that Renaiagy moves after the majority of Pokémon that it could possibly be partnered with, making it much more likely that they’ll be able to receive some benefit from Replenishing Flow. (Well, that and allowing more of Renaiagy’s BST to be allocated to its defensive stats and make it the best tank it can be; it’s the embodiment of renewable energy, so it needs to be able to stick around for a long time!)
↑ While Replenishing Flow can’t replenish its own PP (to avoid the issue of making its own PP literally infinite in practice; as hilariously appropriate as that would be for the embodiment of renewable energy, it would be somewhat OP), it can replenish the PP of another instance of Replenishing Flow known by another Pokémon. However, since Replenishing Flow is Renaiagy’s signature move (meaning that no other Pokémon can legitimately learn it), Renaiagy is one-of-a-kind in-game and in-story (like all of the Progress and Regress Pokémon — yes, they do follow the same only-one-can-be-obtained-per-save-file stipulation as most Legendary Pokémon), and pretty much every competitive battle format ever has some form of Species Clause (only one of a given Pokémon species is allowed on a team), the only feasible means of exploiting this loophole without hacking the game would require a Pokémon that can copy another Pokémon’s moves through means such as Sketch, Mimic, or Transform. (Replenishing Flow could also be called by something like Metronome or Assist, but the actual odds of that happening even once, let alone several times in a given battle (without very specific team design for the latter) are too weak to rely on.)
↑ In case anyone’s wondering; yes, Replenishing Flow does work on Revival Blessing. No, Renaiagy can’t learn Revival Blessing itself; while that would be hilariously appropriate (again, it’s renewable energy, so high sustainability is kind of its entire shtick), it would also be way too OP for even me to stomach (and I’m the guy who came up with a fakemon whose signature move allows it to zombify its opponents and use them as meatshields). At least in a Double or Triple Battle, the opponent can focus fire on Pawmot or Rabsca to keep this from getting out of hand. (Come to think of it, Revival Blessing would also be suitable for Vaxxalkin to learn, considering that defeated Pokémon are merely knocked unconscious or too exhausted to continue fighting, rather than being outright killed…)
↑ Yes, Renaiagy could still end up in trouble if it lets Resource Burn drain Replenishing Flow’s PP (since it can’t refill itself), but Earth Power would be a better option to use against Koallution anyways (having 20 more Base Power and a ×4 type effectiveness modifier rather than ×2).
↑ I was pretty sorely tempted to use Claydol as the template instead, but Lediva got the nod due to actually having a star motif, making it better-suited as a template for a Pokémon that’s intended to embody the Big Bang and outer space.
↑ This is more specifically space in the sense of the expansive totality of the universe, rather than space as a component of space-time or dimensions; the latter is already embodied by Palkia.
↑ “Astronomy” also works here, but I had “astral” in mind to more generally refer to things relating to outer space (okay, and maybe also the Astral Plane from Dungeons & Dragons to some extent — that’s basically just the D&D fantasy version of outer space anyways).
↑ The first two syllables are like “explode”, but with “oh” changed to “ah” and the “d” removed in order to segue into “astral”. The third syllable (and the end of the second syllable) is pulled from “astral”, though the “l” at the end is removed. The final syllable is simply the last syllable of “universe”.
↑ Zen Mode Lediva already has a BST of 570 (the base forme has a BST of 550; I went rather overboard in terms of “making Ledian’s stats actually good”), so Explastravrs’s BST isn’t actually any better; all I could do was move some stats around. (To be fair, I made Lediva in Gen V, and at that point in time, the lowest BST amongst Legendary Pokémon was 580, so Lediva still wasn’t as strong as any Legendary Pokémon. Legendary Pokémon (and quasi-Legendary Pokémon such as Ultra Beasts and Paradox Pokémon) with BSTs of 570 or less didn’t start being a thing until Gen VII.)
↑ …Yes, I know that this song isn’t actually about outer space (it seems to be moreso about nihilism than anything else). It’s mostly here because I didn’t have any better ideas and I had to give Explastravrs something that could serve as background music for a fight with it. And besides, the song slaps.
↑ The Ground-type symbolizing really old stuff doesn’t have to be a bad thing; in fact, it’s more of a neutral thing in and of itself. The bad part is people who put nostalgia and/or mythology-laden wistfulness ahead of logic or common sense and automatically assume that older is always better (at least up to some arbitrary and idealized point), even when actual analysis would indicate the opposite being true in many cases.
↑ Conkeldurr seems like a weird choice to embody medicine — indeed, I did a mental double-take when I realized that the carny concrete-swinger of all Pokémon was the best candidate for the position of Vaxxalkin’s template — but I was choosing a Fighting- or Steel-type (that wasn’t already both, which immediately disqualified Lucario). What made Conkeldurr the standout candidate was that it’s noted to be quite intelligent in-universe, having mastered the mixing of concrete before humans did (to the point where it taught humans how to mix concrete), being incredibly skilled at mixing concrete (the Pokédex notes that concrete mixed by a Conkeldurr is harder and tougher than its composition suggests it should be), and utilizing centrifugal force in its fighting style rather than relying solely on its own considerable muscle-power. I’ve decided to take a page from Lockstin’s Kaskade region’s major Legendary Pokémon, Manazda and Arctikull, and their scouts, Tamunk and Temunk, as well as Pecharunt and the Loyal Three (and Ho-oh and the legendary beasts to some extent), and make it explicit in the lore that the Progress and Regress Pokémon (other than Azureality and Crimsolusion themselves) once were the Pokémon that are their templates before being uplifted by Azureality and Crimsolusion. Therefore, Azureality could have noted a Conkeldurr’s high intellect even relative to its species’ standards and pushed that intellect in the direction of medicine moreso than architecture. (Also, the idea of taking a Pokémon that’s most notable for its immense strength and reminding everyone that it’s also extremely intelligent by turning it into a medical doctor is hilarious to me for some reason.) (I did consider using Medicham as the template instead, but I don’t think yoga would fit too well, and the idea of using Revavroom as some sort of drug-mixer was too absurd to seriously consider. Honestly, I’d have to say that the runner-up would be Toxicroak due to its sharp fingers being repurposable as needles.)
↑ Yes, I know that the Fighting/Steel typing seems odd for the symbolism of evidence-based medicine. I went with this because it was fitting for the Progress Pokémon that counters the Grass/Rock type of Creikipath, the Regress Pokémon which symbolizes alternative medicine (especially homeopathy, Reiki, herbal medicine, and crystal healing). Bug and Ice could hit a Rock/Grass-type Pokémon super-effectively, but their weakness to Rock makes them poorly-suited as hard counters. Heck, I was tempted to use the Poison-type to represent drugs and medicines (which can be toxic if not taken carefully, since they do interfere with body chemistry and functionality; the main thing that makes medicine medicine is that it’s formulated so that its interference is helpful rather than harmful if it’s taken in the right circumstances, i.e. when there’s actually a problematic imbalance that the medicine can correct), since Poison is strong against Grass, but Rock resists Poison, canceling out the advantage — so that wouldn’t work as a hard counter, either. Besides, I’m reserving Poison/Fighting for the last of the Regress Pokémon anyways (since that’s the only type combination to take ×4 damage from Psychic-type attacks). As for what relevant symbolism Fighting and Steel have with regard to medicine — Fighting can represent the potential of the body when properly honed and cared for, while Steel can represent modern technology — medical technology in this case. (Steel can also be a cheeky reference to vaccination needles and the trace amounts of mercury in thiomersal.)
↑ Yes, I know that Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine, rather than the concept of vaccination in general. His name is just catchier and easier to remember.
↑ The first syllable is taken directly from “vaccine”, the second syllable is just “Salk”, and the last syllable is the ending of “medicine”.
↑ I wanted Vaxxalkin to have better HP, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed than Conkeldurr. Even with the BST being raised from 505 to 570, I couldn’t do that to the degree I wanted without making its Attack somewhat lower.
↑ Also, while Creikipath’s base Defense and Special Defense are equal, in practice, its Defense will be lower during a sandstorm (which the Regress Pokémon want to keep active to benefit from Ignorant Grit), since sandstorms boost Rock-types’ Special Defense by 50%. Furthermore, while Vaxxalkin lacks Guts to boost its Attack or Sheer Force or Iron Fist to boost the power of its moves, it does have Mind Palace, which will give it an Attack boost as long as Psychic Terrain is active without requiring it to suffer a burn or another non-volatile status condition or sacrifice the additional effects of its moves.
↑ I was tempted to go with Ludicolo as the template, since it’s known for its lively dancing that could be likened to flowing movements, but I decided that Huanchi was more appropriate for the flowing river symbolism.
↑ Once again, Water/Electric seems like a weird typing to represent these concepts, but it fits for the Progress Pokémon that counters the Water/Flying type of Noharkaiak, the Regress Pokémon that symbolizes creationism and the narrative of Noah’s Ark.
↑ The concept of emergence (complex entities and phenomena arising from interactions between simpler units) wasn’t part of the original symbolism, but it turned out to tie that together as well as the name (as well as supporting deep time and evolution), since it helps to explain how ~~life, the universe, and everything~~ the universe, nature, and indeed life itself could have gotten started and developed to become as intricate as they are without a supernatural entity needing to intervene or the core laws of physics needing to be modified or suspended at any point of the universe’s existence.
↑ While “consistency” has been folded into the syllables derived from “emergence”, it’s actually quite important, as it is being used as a (rough) synonym and/or key aspect of uniformitarianism. A big part of the basis of uniformitarianism is that there is no meaningful evidence that the laws of physics have ever been changed from how they can currently be observed to operate (and where our observations of the laws of physics have changed, the only thing that has actually changed is our comprehension of them and/or our awareness of the variables, forces, and factors at play within a given situation or event). Whether such a change to the laws of physics would have occurred on some divine entity’s whim or for some other reason is not relevant — one of the lesser-known axioms of science is that the fundamental forces of the universe have always and will always operate in the same fashion, because this is necessary for observation of the world to yield any meaningful information. Thus, if there was meaningful evidence of the laws of physics being mutable, the very concept of “evidence” (and most other human knowledge) would be in serious trouble. (A more detailed analysis of the subject can be found in our article on uniformitarianism (natch).)
↑ I’m still a bit torn on what I should call this Pokémon. I want the name to incorporate “flux”, “physics”, “emergence”, and “consistency”. Other possibilities include “Fluxixence” (which saves on letters, but looks less like it incorporates “physics” and more like it includes a mangling of “sixth sense”) and “Emerflucsence” (which incorporates “emergence” more clearly, but it’s kind of hard to see “physics” in there).
↑ I couldn’t think of any Dark- or Rock-type Pokémon based on animals that are typically considered Satanic, like goats or snakes (well, aside from Onix, which is actually more like an earthworm), so I had to go with a Pokémon that’s seen as ferocious or imposing. This brought it down to Weavile and Rhyperior, and Rhyperior ultimately won out (this was in part due to the Sneasel line recently getting a regional variant in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and thus not really needing another burst of prominence in Gen IX). (Hydreigon technically was an option as well, but it already has a Paradox Pokémon based on it (and it’s one of the future Paradox Pokémon as well), and I didn’t want to reuse any Pokémon that already got Paradox variants. Recent Pokédex entries have indicated that Hydreigon’s reputation for ferocity may not be entirely deserved, anyways.)
↑ Granted, Lucharveyton is still hostile enough towards religion (especially Abrahamic religion) and those who subscribe to it to make this distinction somewhat academic… sure, it is emphatically not interested in literally casting Christian kids down into the bowels of hell, but it might still think that they’re better off dead than indoctrinated and spreading their “mind virus”, and as far as physical survival in the real world is concerned, a dagger through the ~~chest~~ heart is a dagger through the ~~chest~~ heart, regardless of whether or not it was planted there as part of a kooky ritual. On the other hand, actual Satanism has “don’t bother people who aren’t bothering you” as one of its core principles, so Lucharveyton would probably stick to that and not go out of its way to harass or slaughter ~~Christians~~ religious people without the influence of a violent Trainer…
↑ The pronunciation of Lucharveyton’s name had to diverge a bit from the words that make up the portmanteau, largely because some sounds had to be changed for the syllables to flow together in their new arrangement. “Lucifer” is pronounced as “loo-suh-fer”, in which the first two syllables have the “loo” sound followed up with an “s”, but since the next syllable, taken from Sam Harris’s surname, would be “har” (and mashing the start of “Lucifer” up with “Harris” effectively produces the start of “character”), using the “s” sound there felt weird and I had to end the syllable with a hard “k” instead, making it pronounced like “Luke” (which is distinguished from “look” by the longer form of the double-o sound — “look” rather than “look”). “Har” with a short “h” sound (i.e. “hair”), as in “Harris” (except not quite), “hare”, “harem”, or “character” (again, not quite), could work, but given that the prior syllable ends with a hard “k” sound, I think “har” with a long “h” sound, as in “harlot” (hahr-luht), might be more suitable. “Vay/vey” as the second syllable of “LaVey” could be spliced in as is, so that didn’t really change. However, “Satan” is pronounced as “seyt-n”; since only the latter half of “Satan” was included in Lucharveyton’s name, this uneven distribution of syllables couldn’t be spliced in properly, so I ended up strongly considering using “tuhn” (the pronunciation of “ton”) instead. Then I remembered that the previous syllable is essentially just “seyt” with a “v” sound instead of an “s” sound and the ending “t” sound removed, so I was able to mash the “t” in and make the proper pronunciation of “Satan” work after all. (Gah, this was tough to explain by myself with just Dictionary.com. My mom’s a speech pathologist, so I have some familiarity with explaining pronunciation from being around her, but I’m by no means an expert.)
↑ This song is largely here for Satan being the narrator; Lucharveyton has little to do with suicide (aside from occasionally telling religious people to kill themselves… it really hates religion and wants it to die).
↑ This “ends justify the means” mentality is why Lucharveyton is associated with “Run”, despite that song being essentially a murder anthem. I intentionally attached it to Lucharveyton anyways because it’s the most unfettered and trigger-happy of the Progress Pokémon, and has a bit of a “Reddit atheist” streak that could potentially drive it to take action to literally destroy religion, such as flat-out murdering religious people, burning down churches, smashing crosses, shredding Bibles, etc.. (Before anyone asks — no, the rest of the Progress Pokémon would not approve of such horrible antics. In fact, they’d be flat-out appalled, and they would go out of their way to rein Lucharveyton in if it ever acted out like that (Dawseculab in particular could very easily bring any such rampages to a halt with a well-placed Delusion Destroyer).)
↑ I went with Rock instead of Fire because the latter would have been too clichéd, and Odiodama (which Lucharveyton is meant to hard-counter) would resist Fire. Lucharveyton can still learn Fire-type moves such as Heat Dash (Fire-type Take Down) and Flare Blitz, though.
↑ I was tempted to go with Shiftry or some other mean Ice- or Grass-type (to reflect how natural selection, being a non-sentient unguided process, has no regard for human morality or conventions of guarding the weak from harm — it culls organisms that are unsuited for their environment without any pity or remorse), but then I remembered that Gogoat exists, and then I went with that because… duh… goat.
↑ I went with Ice/Grass both to counter Grass/Ground and to establish a life-death juxtaposition (ice is often associated with death, especially in Japan, while plants are often associated with life).
↑ The first syllable is derived from the beginning of “evolution” (while also transitioning into the second syllable), and is thus pronounced more-or-less identically to “eve”. The second and third syllables are derived from “Darwin”, so the second syllable is pronounced as a long “ar”, as in, well, “Darwin” or “harlot”, and the third syllable is pronounced like “will” in order to segue into the final syllable. The final syllable is simply pulled from the end of “select”.
↑ Evarwilect was one of the last Progress Pokémon I set a stat-line for, and I noticed that none of the others had an especially high Speed stat that might be eligible for a Mind Palace boost (indeed, Azureality and Ratitchepy were the only ones with a base Speed stat of 100 or more), so I decided that Evarwilect might as well be the resident speedster on the grounds that death can come at any time with little warning. (And yes, I know that Gogoat is slow as heck, which is really kind of a travesty for a Pokémon that’s designed to resemble a freaking motorcycle.)
↑ Since it’s an Ice-type, the Night King from Game of Thrones would also work.
↑ This choice was made more-or-less immediately when I decided to base this Pokémon on Bitch and her musical biography, Hey Bitch!, particularly the “Pussy Manifesto” part. I already knew that I wanted this Pokémon to be Steel/Grass to fit into the counter chains (specifically, to serve as the hard-counter to Legandeeract), and once I decided that Bitch would be the design basis, I wanted to use a feline Pokémon to fit with “pussy” being turned into a compliment (e.g. the “reclamation of pejorative terms” theme). The only fully-evolved feline Pokémon with either of those types as of Gen IX are Perrserker (Steel-type) and Meowscarada (Grass/Dark-type). Using a starter Pokémon as a template for a Progress or Regress Pokémon felt weird (a problem that also came up with Buchanincel), which ruled out Meowscarada; that left Perrserker as the most viable candidate. (Using Perrserker as the template (and just having the Galarian Meowth line be present in Freigos at all) also works as a sort of historical in-joke referencing how the Vikings (which Galarian Meowth and Perrserker are largely based on) tentatively explored America long before other Europeans started exploring and colonizing it.) The only really viable alternative was Catteraxe from Lockstin’s Kaskade region, and that’s a near-blind cryptid — given how often “blind” is used as shorthand for “foolish, ignorant, and/or prone to making bad decisions”, I did not like the implications of that on a Progress Pokémon, and especially not on the embodiment of feminism, gay rights, and justice for the historically-oppressed in general. (Also, Catteraxe technically isn’t fully evolved.) So, Perrserker got the nod.
↑ Before I decided to base this Pokémon on Bitch, the best symbolism I could come up with was some sort of “harmony between nature and technology” stuff and/or genetic modification, and I really had no idea what I could do with that… however, environmentalism in general still made it in because that’s an issue that Bitch strongly believes in, and Pussitchesto is largely based on her.
↑ Funnily enough, mashing the components together the way I did resulted in the name ending in “Chesto”, which is actually a type of Berry in the Pokémon series (it’s based on a chestnut and can be consumed to wake the holder up if they’re put to sleep during a fight). Despite the Grass-typing, this wasn’t intentional in any sense resembling the way GameFreak designed Pecharunt to be a peach/Pecha Berry-based Pokémon (Pecharunt is basically “deranged Momotaro“, with the added bonus of its Poison-type and “(ingested-)poison-based mind-control” shtick being a twisted parody of the Pecha Berry normally curing poison), but the coincidence is still good enough to roll with a little. Bitch is pretty loud, so Uproar could fit in the movepool pretty well.
↑ This is a rather straightforward pronunciation. The first syllable is taken from “pussy”, the second syllable is taken from “bitch”, and the last two syllables are taken from “manifesto”.
↑ My initial plan was to make Pussitchesto somewhat faster than Perrserker (yet still slower than its non-Galarian counterpart, Persian), with somewhere around 75-90 Speed (Perrserker’s base Speed is 50, while Persian’s base Speed is 115). However, bringing the special stats up to the level of the physical stats took up more of the BST than I anticipated, and having equivalent physical and special stats to reflect equivalent physical and mental strength and fortitude was more important than the Speed stat. (I did also consider toning the physical stats down to make Pussitchesto more specially-oriented, but I didn’t want to stray too far away from Perrserker’s mold — yes, that’s somewhat lame reasoning (and a bit hypocritical, considering what I did with Dawseculab), but I’d really rather not let Buchanincel (the embodiment of antifeminism) roast Pussitchesto too easily with its type advantage, either, so solid defenses and being able to make good use of physical Rock-type moves were a must.)
↑ No, I’m not making this up. One of Bitch’s main catchphrases is “Let’s do some bitchcraft!”
↑ I was really struggling to come up with a template for this one, to the point where the front-runner was Salazzle of all things, until I remembered Anthanine and Groinxin, my very first custom Pokémon ideas (yes, my brother and I created those two all the way back in 1998).
↑ Antifascist Action would also be part of Azureality’s portfolio to some extent, but I feel like Sanarchern has a stronger claim to it, given its ties to more explicitly left-wing ideologies.
↑ Communism was left out on purpose, as it’s essentially what happens when left-wing ideology goes batshit insane. More precisely, it’s great on paper, but terrible in practice, because in all honesty, it really wasn’t thought through very well. (That’s not to say that communism was left out of this project completely, since its legacy can still be felt in the current struggle between rationalism and fascism…)
↑ The first syllable is just the first syllable of “sanity”, which it partially shares with “sand” and “Sanders”. The second syllable is pronounced like “ark” (“arch” ending with a hard “k”) in order to transition between the first and third syllables (the pronunciation of “anarchy” wouldn’t have worked right). The third syllable is pulled from “burn” and “Bernie”.
↑ I am considering upgrading Sanarchern’s BST to 590, since there are four Paradox Pokémon in each set with that BST and the Progress and Regress Pokémon are meant to be parallel to the Paradox Pokémon (Dawseculab’s BST is 590 rather than 570 to make it the Progress Pokémon’s counterpart to Iron Valiant). If I go through with this, the most likely tune-ups will be +10 HP and +10 Attack; Sanarchern is supposed to be countered by Crimsolusion, so it makes sense to make Sanarchern oriented towards physical offense and special defense so that it will struggle a bit against physical tanks like Crimsolusion. While it seems weird to buff Sanarchern rather than Explastravrs, it helps Sanarchern’s case that its template, Groinxin, is already a specially-oriented counterpart to Steelix (Sanarchern’s Special Defense is actually toned down from base 200 to make the rest of its stats more well-rounded), and that Groinxin is capable of Mega Evolution, like Steelix, Gardevoir, Gallade, and Metagross (the templates for Iron Valiant and Dawseculab). There are two other factors that might justify making Sanarchern a little bit stronger than most of the other Progress Pokémon. First, since Sanarchern is the lowest-ranked of the Progress Pokémon and Crimsolusion is the highest-ranked and strongest of the Regress Pokémon, it feels a little odd to force Crimsolusion to go out of its way to deal with Sanarchern unless the lower-ranking Regress Pokémon struggle a bit to deal with it. Second, it also feels appropriate to make the Sanarchern vs. Crimsolusion matchup just a little bit less of a curb-stomp in Crimsolusion’s favor and to make the curb-stomp based just a little bit more on type advantage than statistical superiority.
↑ If it helps, this kind of “instinctual group-mindedness” is probably a contributing factor to what Karl Marx referred to as “primitive communism”, i.e. people tending to share things with their tribes and treat their clansmen as equals before society developed to the point where hierarchies became a thing.
↑ Unlike the Faith version, the Reason version isn’t really looking to bait-and-switch anybody. The worldviews and concepts embodied by the Progress Pokémon are genuinely what’s healthiest for humanity and Earth, and the target audience is probably already aware of that to some degree (though some might be more aware than others). (I’d even go so far as to call this preaching to the choir, but not all progressives, social justice warriors, or left-wingers are rationalists or skeptics; in fact, there’s a decent amount of woo, pseudoscience, conspiracy theorizing, crankiness, and other such silliness that is more appealing to the left wing than the right (New Age, GMO fearmongering, certain alternative medicines, and tankieism come to mind.) In contrast, the worldviews and concepts embodied by the Regress Pokémon are stupid and wicked, but flat-out telling holders of those worldviews that they’re wrong and idiotic will probably just drive them to stick their fingers in their ears, so the Faith version would need to be designed to draw in woo-believers and edgelords with a narrative that initially looks like it’s going in a direction that supports their views until it suddenly calls them out and beats them over the head with the consequences of their foolishness. The closest the Reason version would get to that is abruptly calling out tankies in the post-game.
↑ Okay, there might be a bit of Donphan or Copperajah in there. Probably because they’re both elephants.
↑ While “illusion” is the primary source of Crimsolusion’s name here, “delusion” is also extremely appropriate, given the reality-opposing mindset that Crimsolusion represents.
↑ The first syllable is taken directly from “crimson”. The second syllable is taken from “solution” mixed with “sew” in order to flow into the next. The third syllable is taken from “solution” and “illusion”, and the fourth syllable is taken from “illusion”.
↑ No, Orichalchum Pulse doesn’t have any rider effects enabling Koraidon to do things that normally can’t be done in harsh sunlight, like freezing Pokémon. Including such a rider effect would have been GameFreak’s prerogative, not mine, and Koraidon can’t learn any freeze-inducing moves, anyways. I gave Sands of Denial a rider effect because it improves a defensive stat rather than an offensive stat, which might otherwise make it appear less impressive. Besides, the rider effect in question is something that already tends to be attached to Abilities that interact with sandstorm, like Sand Rush, Sand Force, and Sand Veil (as can be seen on Pokémon with those Abilities that aren’t Rock-, Steel-, or Ground-type, such as Cacturne, Stoutland, and Houndstone). (The rider effect is also redundant, since Crimsolusion has sandstorm immunity by default due to being a Ground-type (which was intentional, to make Sands of Denial slightly less useful than Azureality’s Empirical Stage), but it can come into effect if Crimsolusion somehow has its type changed, such as if it Terastallizes or gets hit with Soak or Magic Powder.)
↑ “Bad Man” is actually Adon’s theme, not Crimsolusion’s, but I felt that it was worth mentioning here. Adon’s role in the Freigos games would be similar to that of Cyrus, Ghetsis, Lysandre, etc. as the primary human antagonist, being the leader of the faction of Trainers supporting the Regress Pokémon. Yes, his name is a combination of Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump. Yes, he is just as much of a scumbag as those two. More details can be found in the Narrative section.
↑ The eagle in question is not a bald eagle, because it’s not America as a whole that I’m criticizing. (What eagle species did the Nazis use as their icon again? I think it’s the golden eagle, but I’m not sure.)
↑ The Eye of Providence on the upper forelimbs being yellow was actually BaeFakemon’s idea, as a reference to Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls. Somehow, I didn’t notice this until Crimsolusion went up on their Instagram and they admitted to it in a comment.
↑ This resemblance should be vague, because my aim is not to bash religion in general; I’m specifically attacking fundamentalism and other outright harmful manifestations of religion.
↑ This resemblance should be very subtle, because blatantly using Nazi iconography, even to attach it to an icon of ignorance and stupidity and point out the irrationality of Nazi ideology, is just asking for controversy. While I’m not afraid to make controversial statements if I feel that there’s an important point to be made, setting off PTSD in Holocaust survivors and their families would certainly be going too far; the point is to emphasize that fascism and ignorance go hand in hand and that they’re bad, not to cause exorbitant panic and outrage!
↑ BTW, the tail tendrils aren’t present on the artwork to the right, but they are present in the rough sketch; I had to ask for them to be taken out after I got thrown out of the CAP Discord server for showing off the rough sketch. They’re still there in spirit, though; Crimsolusion can extend and retract its tail tendrils at will, and just isn’t displaying them in the final artwork.
↑ Yes, Crimsolusion can fly (despite its wings, as large and powerful-looking as they are, not appearing to be strong enough to lift its it’s-literally-a-freaking-elephant frame off the ground), but its flight capabilities are relatively poor (I could rattle off a very long list of Pokémon that are more agile, faster, capable of flying for longer distances, etc. — and quite a few of those Pokémon aren’t even Flying-types (or at least bearing the Levitate Ability) or fully evolved).
↑ As it turns out, winged elephants play an important role in a lot of Indian myths and legends. I wasn’t aware of this while conceptualizing Crimsolusion (I heard about it in Lockstin’s Neopets name explanation video of all things), so it’s just a coincidence (I just wanted to mix an elephant with an eagle for the Republican-Nazi equivocation), but the fact that Crimsolusion — a winged elephant — is the leader of the evil Regress Pokémon makes for a nice “fuck you and your bigoted bullshit” to Hindutva and its associated parties in addition to the American ~~conservatives~~ fascists it’s aimed at lampooning.
↑ Crimsolusion is highly resistant to its own Poison-type STAB, but weak to its own Ground-type STAB; this was largely accidental, but does have some symbolism behind it. On one hand, anti-rationalist movements can and do form united fronts (with their adherents often being the same people) to support each other against their common enemies of science and reality, regardless of how incompatible they may be with one another (with this phenomenon being common and observable enough to be labeled as “vindication of all kooks”). On the other hand, ideologies based on hatred of outsiders and disregard for truth (like, say, fascism) are inherently unstable; in the event that they do eliminate their enemies somehow, their followers will probably turn on each other (since they’ll need a new outgroup to focus their hate and anger against).
↑ In case you’re too lazy to click on the Bulbapedia link or the site is down for some reason, that’s 100 HP, 150 Attack, 120 Defense, 120 Special Attack, 100 Special Defense, and 90 Speed.
↑ Notably, most of Crimsolusion’s fellow box legendaries have base Speed stats of 90 or more, meaning that Crimsolusion usually won’t get the first strike in the Ubers tier. Making Crimsolusion slower than its peers (and thus liable to get hit by them before it has a chance to knock them out, stifle them, and/or buff itself) was a deliberate choice to highlight how the stubbornness of conservatism can prove to be its undoing, as its refusal to adapt to change and progress leads to its adherents being left behind by society (even if that does sometimes take a while due to the aforementioned stubbornness). (Crimsolusion does speed tie with Terapagos and Complete Zygarde and outspeed Hoopa, non-Ultra Necrozma, and base and Ice Rider Calyrex, though (as well as Revladutchyu without its Speed boost from Soviet Spectre).)
↑ There was a time when I fell for this sort of bullshit myself – namely my teenage years, when I was a dedicated acolyte of Kevin Trudeau. Likewise, I bought into Donald Trump’s “drain the swamp” hype in 2016 (though I still preferred Bernie Sanders over him and simply considered Trump to be the lesser evil to Hillary Clinton), and didn’t fully recognize Trump and the Republicans as the pure evil that they are until they tried to seize control of the government by force in 2021.
↑ That “I can prove your argument is invalid” bit is very important, with extra emphasis on proof. Saying “your argument is invalid because you’re stupid/evil/following a dangerous ideology” would be fallacious (specifically an ad hominem).
↑ I went with poison instead of burn for Obfuscating Mudspray because toxic mud made more sense than scalding-hot mud, the Poison-type is important to Crimsolusion’s overall symbolism, and the “poisoning the well” symbolism and pun was way too good to pass up.
↑ Confusion is also is what anyone with ~~more than 500 properly-functional brain cells~~ enough sense to not fall for conservative lies would feel after listening to the sales pitch of a crank and/or the malignant, slimy, paranoid, and/or incoherent ramblings of right-wing politicians and talking heads like Tucker Carlson, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ken Ham, Kirk Cameron, Michael Coombs, Andrew Schlafly, Kenneth DeMeyer, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sarah Palin, or Donald Trump. (Especially Donald Trump and the lunatics who think he’s a hero rather than a crime against humanity made flesh.) And by “confusion”, I mean “a mix of bewilderment and outrage” – unless it’s a really bad case of listening to someone who’s not even wrong, in which case actual confusion is likely.
I actually came up with this reasoning for Obfuscating Mudspray to cause confusion first, when I was trying to ask for advice in building Rational Flash and Obfuscating Mudspray on the Fakemon Discord, but in hindsight, it’s more of a Take That against the Republican Party than an actual illustration of illegitimate debating technique.
↑ …Okay, Rational Flash overshadowing Eerie Spell was a legitimate concern, since Rational Flash and Eerie Spell are both Psychic-type Special-category moves; the difference is that Rational Flash is light-based instead of sound-based (yes, Eerie Spell is sound-based) and has 5 less Base Power, but can do a lot more things on top of PP draining. No, Azureality can’t learn Eerie Spell legitimately (it’s Galarian Slowking’s shtick, and Azureality, being a representative of rationality, skepticism, and science, wouldn’t want to associate with “magic” anyways), but Rational Flash isn’t hard-locked to Azureality like Dark Void is hard-locked to Darkrai, Hyperspace Fury is hard-locked to Hoopa Unbound, or Aura Wheel is hard-locked to Morpeko, so Rational Flash and Eerie Spell could end up competing for a moveslot when people are hacking to put any move on any Pokémon. The issue of overshadowing is less of a concern for Obfuscating Mudspray, since Obfuscating Mudspray is a Ground-type, Physical-category move, and thus Obfuscating Mudspray and Eerie Spell would have somewhat different niches and wouldn’t necessarily be competing for the same moveslot if a given Pokémon could somehow learn both of them. The real reason I made the PP reduction ability of Obfuscating Mudspray weaker than that of Eerie Spell is that Rational Flash and Obfuscating Mudspray are counterpart signature moves for counterpart legendary Pokémon, and I wanted both of them to have similar parameters.
↑ Funnily enough, the original Japanese name of Mud-Slap is “Mud-Spray”.
↑ The only reason why Venom Crush has only 90% accuracy is so that it doesn’t completely outclass Poison Jab, which also has 80 Base Power and has a chance to poison its target, but lacks the “extra damage against already-poisoned targets” shtick; that aspect was inspired by Infernal Parade, ~~Bitter Malice,~~ Barb Barrage, and Dire Claw. Likewise, Venom Crush only has a chance to inflict poison (which is quite low) instead of being guaranteed to do so so that it doesn’t outclass Barb Barrage (and not outclassing Barb Barrage is also why it requires bad poison specifically in order to deal double damage).
↑ The main reason why I didn’t give Crimsolusion the aforementioned Barb Barrage or Dire Claw instead is that neither of those moves make sense given Crimsolusion’s physiology. (Well, that, and Barb Barrage and Dire Claw still don’t hit anywhere near as hard as Expanding Force does.)
↑ Warning: I wrote Mujanorak’s design document over 10 years ago, and have only really updated its movepool (and added its Gigantamax form) since then. As such, some of the introductory paragraphs contain viewpoints (such as a small degree of sympathy towards Al Qaeda) that I may no longer hold, or not to the same degree. To be more precise, my viewpoint has always been less sympathy for Al Qaeda and more understanding why they would feel driven to commit egregious violence and that some of their victims may have provoked them or “had it coming” to some degree, while still not believing that they were justified in attacking innocent people (especially civilians and people with loose or no connections to or endorsements of the injustices perpetrated against the Middle East (and really, symbolic attack on America’s capitalist economy and the concept of “war profiteering” aside, I’m hard-pressed to imagine how slamming planes into the World Trade Center (thus directly harming Americans who are not part of the American armed forces) could rationally be considered proper retaliation for American military shenanigans in the Middle East)). Indeed, I’ve gone out of my way to emphasize that while Mujanorak may use terrorist weapons such as flamethrowers and explosives (due to representing the entire history of Islamic warfare), Mujanorak as a species is not inclined towards terrorism and in fact finds unprovoked violence to be repugnant (though if it is provoked, it’s not likely to show any mercy).
↑ I’m tempted to include counter-jihad as well, since Cleragate is most heavily inspired by Christian fundamentalism, but it’s also meant to represent lunatic insular fringes of other religions as well (such as Wahhabism and Hindutva), and making it particularly Islamophobic might be too much of a divergence from Mujanorak.
↑ “Clergy“ also works, but I had the term “cleric” in mind more specifically — probably because of Fire Emblem and Dungeons & Dragons.
↑ There’s also the notion of gatekeeping, e.g. excluding people from a community, but, again, the main thing I had on my mind when I named Cleragate was Watergate.
↑ The first syllable is pulled from “clerical” rather than “cleric” or “clergy” in order to not sound… weird with the following syllables, though I used “a” as the second syllable rather than “i” in order to put extra emphasis on the “rage” aspect of the name and flow into the third syllable. The third syllable is simply “gate” (which happens to rhyme with “hate”).
↑ Cleragate’s BST is 590 rather than 570 because the Progress and Regress Pokémon are designed to be parallel to the Paradox Pokémon, and Cleragate in particular is intended to be the Regress Pokémon’s counterpart to Roaring Moon (the only past Paradox Pokémon to have a BST of 590 before Pokémon Scarlet & Violet got DLC). It also helps that the templates for Roaring Moon and Cleragate — Salamence and Mujanorak — both have stronger alternate forms that can be incorporated into the Paradox/Regress designs (Salamence is capable of Mega Evolution, while Mujanorak is capable of Gigantamax). Indeed, Cleragate would incorporate Mujanorak’s Gigantamax form into its design (though my mental picture of what Mujanorak looks like is admittedly stuck on “Tusken Raider”, despite its concept being a conglomeration of Islamic warriors throughout Islam’s history, and Cleragate would be the same dressed up like a Protestant pastor…).
↑ I know it’s probably not what Disturbed intended, but given lines like “Power unrestrained, dead on the mark is what we will deliver tonight” and “Leave the weak and the haunted behind”… seriously, “Ten Thousand Fists” sounds like a fascist anthem.
↑ As I stated earlier, “Run” is essentially a murder ballad, and given what Abrasive Sermon does and what it represents, that is fiendishly appropriate.
↑ I had Fred Phelps in mind in particular.
↑ As horrifying as the idea of being shredded by a miniature sandstorm that intentionally eats you alive may be, there’s something even worse lurking beneath it; namely, what that quasi-sentient mini-sandstorm represents — a lynch mob assaulting anyone who their ringleaders declare anathema and relentlessly pummeling, choking, and torturing their victims until the unfortunate hate-targets stop moving and breathing forever. Yes, this is exactly what far too many people (black, gay, Jewish, or otherwise) have gone through at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups. Yes, it’s fucking horrifying on every possible level. No, it has not stopped happening, and it will not stop happening until the very concept of bigotry is thoroughly discredited and permanently destroyed — which can only be achieved by continuously teaching youngsters about the concept of diversity and why it’s not something to be afraid of and is actually pretty darn awesome (which may be a big part of why the Republican Party seems to be hell-bent on turning the educational system into a pathetic farce). As cool as Abrasive Sermon is probably going to sound throughout the paragraph I stuck this note in, I would like to draw attention to my reason for creating it in the first place — to illustrate the destructiveness of hate and declare that intolerance cannot and must not be tolerated, and the main thing that is worthy of hatred is hate itself (though cruelty and injustice should be hated, too).
↑ This analogy actually got me kicked off of the Fakemon Discord, even though the whole point of the analogy is to clarify how dangerous and vile bigotry, hate speech, and fascism are. I would say that I don’t get it, but in hindsight, I really shouldn’t have brought up the subject of lynch mobs and Holocaust comparisons on an apolitical Discord channel that had already balked at Mujanorak (the respectful parody of Islam, particularly its warlike side, that is Cleragate’s template) and Disealago (a plague-based Poison/Flying-type fakemon inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, to the point that its original name was Corovideen). I’m still confused by their reacting like I was siding with the lynch mobs and Nazis, though…
↑ Did I mention that critical hits in Pokémon ignore the target’s defensive stat buffs and the attacker’s offensive stat debuffs (more or less exactly like Rational Flash does by default)? So, no, the target buffing its defenses won’t help them survive.
↑ I did want to have some critical hit facilitation in Abrasive Sermon from the get-go, since it represents inflammatory language, hate speech, and the real-world effects they can have (with the formation of lynch mobs being the baseline, and the effects potentially going as far as incitement of ethnic cleansing, genocide, atheophobia, war on infidels, etc.), but I also initially wanted to make some of the utility functions of Abrasive Sermon more defensively-oriented, given that the Regress Pokémon (including Cleragate) represent conservatism, which on some level entails defending the status quo (for better or for worse — usually for worse) at all costs. I just couldn’t think of any defensive functions that would be appropriate for a move that symbolizes the fundamentalist/bigoted desire to savagely and thoroughly destroy outsiders to one’s ethnicity, nationality, and worldview, so I went all in on the critical hit facilitation.
↑ Torkoal could also have been used, and to be frank, I kind of forgot about it when choosing the template. Coalossal is literally made of coal, making it the very obvious choice.
↑ The first syllable is literally just “coal”, while the second and third syllables are pulled from “pollution”.
↑ Resource Burn has 10 PP, which is 5 more than Sucker Punch and Thunderclap as written. However, I’ve held the opinion that Sucker Punch should have more PP than Extreme Speed (as compensation for Sucker Punch having a failure condition where Extreme Speed does not) ever since Gen IV (when Extreme Speed and Sucker Punch both had 80 power and +1 priority). This opinion only grew stronger when Sucker Punch had its power nerfed (80 → 70) and Extreme Speed had its priority buffed (+1 → +2) in Gen VI. Thus, I’m treating Sucker Punch and Thunderclap as though they have 10 PP in my comparisons.
↑ I am considering upgrading Koallution’s BST to 590, since there are four Paradox Pokémon in each set with that BST and the Progress and Regress Pokémon are meant to be parallel to the Paradox Pokémon (Cleragate’s BST is 590 rather than 570 to make it the Regress Pokémon’s counterpart to Roaring Moon). If I go through with this, the most likely tune-ups will be +5 Attack, +5 Defense, +5 Special Attack, and +5 Special Defense; a well-rounded boost for a well-rounded tank. (Plus, Koallution’s Defense stat is actually toned town a bit from Coalossal’s, and this would remedy that a bit.)
↑ I’m not even sure where to begin with listing famous oil spills, mining accidents, and other disasters. I recall BP making a big mess in the 2010s, though.
↑ Heatmor was picked because… well, it just looks vicious and violent. The only other candidate I had in mind was Revavroom.
↑ The inclusion of Surtr’s name was kind of a happy accident that came around when I was explaining the pronunciation (the second syllable of “insert” is actually “surt“, but I had to remove the “t”). Given what Surtr is like in Norse mythology and especially in Fire Emblem Heroes (in both sources, he’s a fire-wielding warmonger who engages in relentless conquest and a rather large amount of murder, and in the latter, he viciously burns someone to death at one point and explicitly states that he frequently engages in this particular method of murder because he enjoys watching his victims writhe and scream in pain as they get consumed by flames… his description of what burning to death is like is high-grade nightmare fuel), adding his name, even indirectly, is rather fitting for Inceruction.
↑ The first syllable is pulled from “incinerate”, whereas the second syllable is from “insert” (the second syllable of “insurrection” is “suh“, which doesn’t lead into the following syllables very well). The third and fourth syllables are pulled from “destruction”.
↑ Gouging Fire’s signature move being a protection move (a status move, not an attack) very nearly threw a monkey wrench into my “Progress and Regress Pokémon signature moves are analogous to Paradox Pokémon signature moves, but are weaker in exchange for greater utility” plans; a protection move is already the kind of thing that is entirely focused on utility. Inceruction was the next in line to get special treatment after Koallution, and I had a lot of difficulty coming up with a protection move that could fit in with Inceruction’s warfare theme (Inceruction is supposed to be aggressive, since it’s the embodiment of war-hunger, the military-industrial complex, imperialism, etc.). I very nearly gave up on making a proper Burning Bulwark counterpart and considered crafting a “M.O.A.B.“ move that would behave like Perish Song, except that all Pokémon on the field 3 turns after its use would be K.O.’d regardless of whether or not they were there when the M.O.A.B. move was used (with the only means of escape being a well-timed Dig, Dive, Phantom Force, or Shadow Force (but not Fly or Bounce, since those wouldn’t get far enough away from the blast to be safe without the protection of a sizable quantity of dirt or water)). However, this felt too much like it was exchanging utility for power rather than the other way around. Then I remembered the critical susceptibility and critical vulnerability conditions that I came up with for Cleragate’s Abrasive Sermon, and switched gears to make a protection move that could inflict those on attackers instead.
↑ This also technically fits the “exchanging power for utility” scheme, since burn is a non-volatile status condition and critical vulnerability and critical susceptibility are volatile status conditions, which means that a burn is a lot harder to get rid of than critical vulnerability or critical susceptibility. Critical vulnerability and critical susceptibility can be cleared up by switching out or ending the battle, while eliminating a burn requires using certain moves, items, or Abilities, such as Refresh (which isn’t even usable in Gen IX), Rest, Heal Bell, Rawst Berry, Lum Berry, Natural Cure, etc., and in the absence of any of those, it will persist for the remainder of the battle (and after the battle is done outside of competitive settings where post-battle healing is automatically performed). On the other hand, Casus Belli having two status conditions it can inflict means that it can debuff an opponent twice rather than once, and certain Pokémon with immunity to burn (namely, Fire-types and Pokémon with certain Abilities, such as Water Veil, Water Bubble, Comatose, Thermal Exchange, etc.) will suffer no consequences from hitting a Burning Bulwark outside of having their attack blocked, whereas no Pokémon are immune to critical vulnerability or critical susceptibility (outside of Pokémon with immunity to critical hits (Battle Armor, Lucky Chant, etc.) rendering them moot, which is immunity to the effects of the status condition rather than to the status condition itself).
↑ I am considering upgrading Inceruction’s BST to 590, since there are four Paradox Pokémon in each set with that BST and the Progress and Regress Pokémon are meant to be parallel to the Paradox Pokémon (Cleragate’s BST is 590 rather than 570 to make it the Regress Pokémon’s counterpart to Roaring Moon). If I go through with this, the most likely tune-ups will be +1 HP, +7 Attack, +7 Special Attack, and +5 Speed, in order to jack up Inceruction’s damage output and make it more of a glass cannon. (The precise numbers might be changed around to add less power and more HP and/or speed.)
↑ Not that pre-20th-century wars were free of property damage, what with armies committing arson and salting the earth, very large rocks being thrown at castles, the occasional rudimentary bomb being snuck or thrown behind enemy lines, etc.… it’s just a lot worse in modern times, given how much destructive force bombs can have and how easy it is to drop them onto enemy infrastructure with airplanes or ICBMs.
↑ I almost went with Probopass for the template, but then I remembered that Carbink exists and is way more suitable for a Pokémon that’s based on the concept of crystal healing.
↑ I had a hard time deciding whether the first half of the name should be pronounced like “crikey” (“cry-key”), a la Steve Irwin, or like “cray-key”. Dictionary.com only had an IPA transcription of “Reiki” (coming across as “reɪkɪ”), though it also indicated that it is derived from the Japanese “rei” and “ki”, the former of which is pronounced like “ray” (“rey”) and the latter of which is pronounced like “key” (“kee”). Thus, I settled on the final pronunciation being a succession of “cray”, “ki”, and “path”. (It helps that “cray” starts in almost the same way as the first syllable of “crystal”, making it a vaguely decent way to mash “crystal” and “Reiki” together… it’s admittedly still a stretch, but it works well enough to be used without compromising the rest of the name to find a better alternative.)
↑ This song isn’t really about alternative medicine per se, but it’s extremely hostile towards Big Pharma, to the point where I’ve referred to it as a “Kevin Trudeau anthem” back when I still supported him.
↑ The Rock/Grass typing was also chosen over other things (like, say, Rock/Water or Rock/Poison) to counter Renaiagy. (Indeed, Water or Poison might have been better fits than Grass with homeopathy in mind — Water for the concept of water memory, and Poison for “like cures like” (i.e. the idea of using toxic substances to somehow counteract the same toxic substances). Thankfully (from my perspective as a Pokémon designer, anyways), there are enough plant-based alternative medicine practices for Rock/Grass to make sense.)
This is actually a bit of a complicated case. Grass by itself would be enough to hard-counter Renaiagy’s Ground/Water typing, since Grass resists and is super-effective against both of those types. (In fact, Grass is the only weakness of the Ground/Water type combo other than Freeze-Dry (and yes, that includes Delusion Destroyer, since Water resists Steel).) However, since Renaiagy encompasses the entire concept of renewable energy (as opposed to just hydroelectric and geothermal energy like its typing might suggest), it also gets a lot of Fire- and Flying-type coverage moves (representing solar and wind energy) that it could wreck Grass-types with. The best typing to handle both Fire and Flying is Rock, which unfortunately is weak to Water and Ground-type moves. So the combination of Rock and Grass ends up being something that takes neutral damage from most of Renaiagy’s movepool while still having super-effective STAB against it (which Creikipath kinda needs to be a viable counter, since Renaiagy is very bulky and Creikipath’s offensive stats are rather crappy).
↑ …Well, at least outside of the types that exchanging Fairy for Grass raises its vulnerability to… yet especially for the types that exchanging Fairy for Grass reduces vulnerability to…
↑ I seriously considered using Naviathan — one of Smogon’s CAPs — as the basis for this Regress Pokémon. I honestly couldn’t think of any official Pokémon or any of my own fakemon that would be more fitting. Then I remembered that Wailord exists. (Dondozo almost got used as the template instead, but I decided on Wailord as a nod towards Wailord’s ridiculously low density (the darn thing is lighter than air, let alone water) and as an allusion to another famous Biblical sea story.)
↑ The first syllable is simply “no”, as taken from “Noah” or “Noh” (as in the kind of Japanese theater, not some weird abbreviation of “Number One” as Dictionary.com suggests). I’m not sure whether or not the “h” should be outright silent, let alone emphasized, so the second syllable could be taken from either “ark” or “hark”. The third and fourth syllables are just taken directly from “archaic”, though the “k” sound comes from the second syllable.
↑ This admittedly isn’t a super-great fit; I picked it mainly for the flood imagery.
↑ I was sorely tempted to go with Ghost/Psychic to represent psychic power woo in addition to ghosts and paranormal woo, or Ghost/Electric to incorporate the electromagnetic woo often associated with ghosts (such as the electronic voice phenomenon), or even Ghost/Ice for the “ghostly chill” trope, but none of those would be super-effective on Fighting/Steel (and Ghost/Ice would actually be weak to Steel-type moves).
↑ Gengar was really the obvious choice here; it’s the original Ghost-type and is well-known for being sinister and malicious. I hardly even considered anything else, though several non-Fire-type Ghost-type Pokémon, like Annihilape, Dusknoir, Dollmise (my Banette evolution), Sableye, and Spiritomb (especially Spiritomb) were on my radar.
↑ Yes, the name is a reference to Odio, the main villain of Live A Live. Given that “Odio” means “hate” and the danger posed by hatred (in particular, how insidious and destructive hatred can be) is a big overarching theme of both Live A Live and the Regress Pokémon, I just had to reference it somewhere. (“Odiodama” sounds cooler than “Hateodama”, anyways. Yes, Cleragate leans way harder into the hatred symbolism than Odiodama (with Odiodama being largely symbolic of ghost-hunting shows and other paranormal woo), but I already locked in Cleragate’s name several months before I even conceptualized Odiodama.)
↑ Given that “Odio” is a Latin word, it’s not in Dictionary.com’s database, but “odious”, which has “odio” as its root word, is included, so I was able to get the phonetic spelling from there (though it was exactly what I was expecting it to be). “Hitodama” isn’t in Dictionary.com’s database, either, since it’s a Japanese word, and I wasn’t able to find a phonetic spelling of “hitodama” at all (the best I got through Google was an entry on PronounceItRight.com), so I had to play that by ear (I’m pretty sure it’s “heet-oh–dah-muh“, with “hit” being pronounced like “heat”, “o” simply being the basic “o” sound, and “dama” rhyming with and being pronounced similarly to “Rama” — that’s how the voice file on PronounceItRight says it).
↑ Aside from the obvious “haunted = ghosts” angle, the lyrics of this song are amazingly appropriate for Odio…
↑ Odio’s themes aren’t serious contenders for Odiodama’s main theme song (it’d be one thing to strike a recording deal with Disturbed or make soundalikes of their music, and quite another to grapple with Square-Enix’s legal team), but yes, I’m playing the Odio and Live A Live tropes to the hilt. Anyone who is utterly consumed by hatred is, for all intents and purposes, a demon — a being of malice and destruction. And anyone who has hatred in their hearts can potentially become a demon… with enough hatred, perhaps even a demon king — a being of such intense spite, malice, and self-righteous wrath that their very existence is a clear and present danger to all mankind. (That’s a not-too-subtle hint that Trump and the rest of the Republican Party needs to be thrown in jail, BTW.)
↑ Also, in Live A Live, Oersted became Odio after being duped into committing regicide and systematically stripped of everything he held dear, so the despair symbolism is yet another Odio connection. The capital punishment symbolism is connected to Odio, as well, since he spent the entirety of Live A Live judging and punishing humanity through his incarnations throughout history, with the ultimate aim of wiping humanity out entirely if his “humans are bastards” stance wasn’t refuted.
↑ Before ascending to the role of Demon King Odio, he was the knight Oersted, who wore armor like knights tend to do. Thus, I made Odiodama a little bulkier on the physical side than on the special side (to the point where Odiodama’s Special Defense is slightly lower than Gengar’s, though Odiodama’s higher HP more than compensates for that).
↑ I am a little sad that Odiodama’s Attack is so low, since Oersted was a proficient swordsman and his repertoire of moves in Live A Live included a lot of physical sword skills (so I would have liked to give Odiodama a few physical moves that it could use to good effect), but Odiodama is meant to be loosely inspired by Odio rather than a direct importation of the character (heck, there could be a bit of Streibough mixed in as well), and some of Gengar’s already-lacking Attack stat had to be sacrificed for the gains in HP and Defense, considering that I was only improving the BST from 500 to 570. At least I can give Odiodama access to Body Press as a TM, though with a base Defense of 80 and a base Special Attack of 150, even Body Press will be of questionable usefulness compared to the likes of Aura Sphere or Focus Blast (or Secret Sword, which I gave Odiodama access to in order to further play off the Odio connections and black knight theme).
↑ Quailstion is a Ground/Flying-type from Lockstin’s Kaskade region (specifically the region’s “regional bird”) that already derives a lot of its inspiration from conspiracy theorists, making it a perfect fit for the Regress Pokémon going all the way into that sort of thing. It helps that quails (the bird it’s based on) don’t actually fly all that frequently, so losing the Flying-type in exchange for another “down-to-earth” typing such as Grass is not a big deal. I also consider the Freigos region to exist in the same AU as the Kaskade region, which allows stuff from the Kaskade region to exist in Freigos, and due to my admiration of Lockstin, I wanted to pull at least one element from the Kaskade region into the Freigos region.
↑ I was sorely tempted to go with Water/Fighting or Water/Fairy for baptism symbolism, but this Pokémon is meant to counter Lucharveyton, so neither of those type combos felt quite right. (Plus, Water/Fairy doesn’t resist Rock, and I couldn’t think of a type combo to counter Water/Fighting that would itself be countered by Malitiasturm’s Poison/Fighting typing. (I have to end the Progress and Regress chains with what Azureality’s Psychic/Electric and Crimsolusion’s Poison/Ground typings hard-counter at some point, and since Rational Flash and Obfuscating Mudspray have the gimmick of being stronger when they’re super-effective, hitting ×4 weaknesses to Psychic and Ground was the best way for them to hard-counter something. Admittedly, they don’t get pumped up any further from hitting a ×4 weakness as opposed to a ×2 weakness, but it’s the sentiment that counts here. The point is, there has to be an end/loop-point somewhere.) This did come at the cost of Fairy/Ground itself being nigh-impossible to hard-counter, particularly without Levitate (all of the types that resist Fairy are weak to Ground — seriously, why the heck does Fairy not resist itself?!), and the type combo that comes the closest (Steel/Flying) was already taken by another Progress Pokémon way higher up the counter chains, but eh, Steel/Grass comes close enough.) Also, once I decided on the freeman on the land symbolism, Fairy/Ground ended up being a great pun on the concept — they’re freemen on the land, and their entire legal strategy is about as realistic as a fairy tale.
↑ Other contenders included Azumarill, Whiscash, and Krookodile. Quagsire won out when I decided on the freeman on the land symbolism because its Water-typing also fits the admiralty law that freemen on the land are obsessed with and the original intent for a baptism theme, and more importantly, because Quagsire in particular is known to be… incredibly oblivious and/or stupid (it frequently bonks its head on boat hulls and doesn’t even notice; in fact, I made a pretty decent gag out of Quagsire’s stupidity in my past writing). Also, the idea of Lucharveyton — the Pokémon that represents Satanism, and a big, scary-looking demon rhino thing — being hard-countered by an uplifted Quagsire (read: an adorably-derpy axolotl-salamander-mudfish thing) trying to cosplay as a lawyer and not quite succeeding at it is just hilarious.
↑ The first half of the portmanteau was intended to simply be the combination of “legal” and “land”; the fact that the result came out as a corruption of “legend” was coincidental. However, I decided to roll with this on the basis of a legend being a story with some basis in fact, but a lot of inaccuracies due to information being distorted during transmission and/or over time, with some details being lost and others being stretched or invented. In addition to the correlation between legends and fairy tales, I also realized that I could use the concept of a legend as an analogy for how freemen on the land mangle numerous valid legal concepts to form their incoherent and fallacious “legal” philosophy.
↑ The middle of the portmanteau (combining “land” and “free”) producing the word “deer” was completely coincidental; Legandeeract has nothing to do with deer.
↑ The inclusion of “contract” in the name stems from how freemen on the land perceive most laws as being semi-voluntary contracts between citizens and the state that people are tricked into following, rather than firm rules that citizens are supposed to follow (and for which the state can and will enforce compliance if necessary).
↑ The first syllable is pulled from “legal”. The second syllable is intended to be pronounced like “land” with a “g”, so I pulled it from “gander”. The third syllable is the ending of “free”, while also being pronounced a little bit like the “ee” sound in “deer” or “steer”. The final syllable is the last syllable of the noun form of “contract”, though with the first “t” removed.
↑ This song might actually rock a bit too hard for a Quagsire in a bad lawyer costume… 🤪 Seriously, Legandeeract is a bit silly and hard to take seriously (until it starts smacking you around with its nearly unresisted STAB combo, anyways…), and its theme is a hard metal tune about miscarriage of justice. Wow. I suppose it still works from the POV of a Citizen’s Rule Book juror (read: right-wing dipshit) who is determined to find someone innocent (e.g. “Lynchin’ blacks ain’t a crime”) or convict them on the basis of prejudice, 12 Angry Men/To Kill A Mockingbird style (e.g. “Hang the baby-murdering bitch”), regardless of the facts of the case… Seriously, though, I want Legandeeract to (on a visual basis) be nigh-impossible to take seriously (it’s not like legal professionals take freemen on the land seriously), so that it comes as that much more of a shock when Legandeeract demonstrates that it’s way more competent in battle than the people it’s based on are in court and that it has the power to back up its fearsome reputation as a Legendary Pokémon.
↑ I also used Fairy for one of the Regress Pokémon on purpose because I noticed that Odiodama was the only Regress Pokémon up to this point to be weak to Skeptic’s Scourge. Given that Dragon is only strong against itself and Psychic is only strong against Poison and Fighting, their chances of being worked into the hard-counter chains this late were next to nil.
↑ Associating “Holy” with “Law/Justice” is admittedly a bit of a holdover from the time (not that long ago) when I was still a very committed Catholic. Nonetheless, YHWH is repeatedly described in the Bible as being a god of justice as well as a god of mercy, and let’s face it, it’s rather hard for justice to work as a concept when there is no law to be enforced. (Fairy being associated with God(s) as well as with more mundane nature spirits is also part of why I made Skeptic’s Scourge super-effective against it, as discussed back in the general characteristics section.)
↑ I didn’t use Fairy/Fighting because it was already used by both Iron Valiant and Virtiustama (a judge-based legendary Pokémon that I created in Gen VIII as Calyrex’s right hand and the focal point of the Team Hammer plotline).
↑ It is admittedly awkward that Fairy is super-effective on (and resistant to) Fighting, which has a stronger claim to the status of “Law-type”, when in reality, pseudolaw always loses to actual law. Given that Fairy’s only weaknesses are Steel and Poison (and Ground resists the latter and is super-effective against both), it’s a bit hard to think of a way around this.
↑ I initially had a hard time choosing a template for this Pokémon, but then I remembered Mamoswine and the “sexist pig” jokes that practically wrote themselves were way too good to pass up. (Emboar could also have worked, but I didn’t want to use a starter Pokémon as a template.) Admittedly, having Ground-type moves in the movepool will be uncomfortable, since Sanarchern is supposed to hard-counter this thing, but, again, the “chauvinist pig” angle just works way too well, and Mamoswine is an Ice-type porcine Pokémon… it’s a practically-perfect match!
↑ Given the whole “men whose toxic personalities prevent them from getting laid” thing, there’s also some elements of purity culture, but the rest of the symbolism should make it clear that Buchanincel is moreso representative of people who get outraged, whine, and throw destructive tantrums when they’re not given what they want when they want it or otherwise treated like kings.
↑ I put this in small font because it’s very minor compared to the rest of Buchanincel’s symbolism, particularly the entitlement and privilege-clutching. Heck, the only reason it fits at all is Rhythm Heat and Cruel Summer (more details on those below).
↑ James Buchanan got incorporated into the name of a Regress Pokémon for his bigoted and boneheaded policies as U.S. President causing numerous problems for the nation, the worst of which being to top off the powder keg of national tensions that erupted into the American Civil War once somebody with a relatively-sane-for-the-times-and-circumstances approach to tackling the issue of slavery got elected… and I understated that. Our own article on James Buchanan has more details, but the man was basically a walking disaster area and a living wet dream for the very concept of bigotry itself (which, come to think of it, is also an apt description of Donald Trump). Working James Buchanan into the name also serves as an oblique reference to white supremacy, given that its very existence is part of his slave-owner-fellating legacy. In short: James Buchanan being name-dropped for a Regress Pokémon is not a compliment; it’s the exact opposite.
↑ I’m aware that despite his sympathies to African-Americans in general and slaves in particular, Abraham Lincoln tried to be magnanimous to the slave-owners of the South, to the point where he didn’t act to abolish slavery until the Confederacy basically forced his hand. However, it is precisely because of this fairness and pragmatism that I call his approach “relatively sane” (indeed, I use the term “relatively” because Lincoln would still be considered a bigot by modern standards). A full analysis would be beyond the scope of this project (we have our own article on Abraham Lincoln for that), but to summarize, while Lincoln despised slavery, he also wanted to avoid war and preserve the United States as a single nation. A gung-ho “crush the oppressors and free the slaves at all costs” attitude would certainly have spooked the (white) people of the Southern states (including the small handful of relatively reasonable ones) into seceding and/or attacking the North to attempt a coup d’état, so Lincoln deliberately avoided doing that. Instead, he took an approach that sought justice for everyone, oppressor and oppressed alike, seeking to reform the institutions of slavery in a fashion that would improve slaves’ conditions and gradually abolish the systems while also allowing for the natural development of morally and economically-superior replacements (reasonable and persuasive arguments have been made that the institution of slavery was actually harmful to the Southern economy in the long run). If the Dixiecrats were rational people with properly-functional consciences and enough intelligence, pragmatism, and business sense to recognize a decent deal upon its being presented to them, Lincoln’s approach probably could have worked out really well for everyone in the long run. Unfortunately for everyone, the Dixiecrat slave-owners in charge of making the big decisions in the Southern states were a lot like their Trumplican descendants of the modern day — too ~~dastardly,~~ paranoid, bigoted, zero-sum-minded, terrified of change, and attached to their positions of privilege to accept anything other than a society with themselves at the top and everyone else (especially black people) being treated like dirt. As a result, they panicked at the mere thought of Lincoln being President, tried to secede, and long story short, much bloodshed and mayhem ensued.
↑ I wanted to add something else to the name, like “air” from “despair“, but “Buchanan” turned out to be long enough for mashing “incel” into it to hit the 12-character name limit.
↑ Nothing too complex here; it’s pronounced exactly like how “Buchanan” flowing directly into “incel” would be expected to sound. I thought the trickiest part would be tacking the “b” onto the start of “yoo” (pronounced as in “you”) in a way that didn’t sound weird (I initially thought it was something on the borderline between one syllable and two), but that actually turned out to be simple when I looked up the pronunciation of “Buchanan”. The rest of the syllables were taken naturally as from “can”, “in”, and “cel/sell” (to match the pronunciations of “Buchanan” and “incel”).
↑ Not only is this song an apt description of the pain of relationship failure (“Now I lie to myself so I can believe her as she disassembles my life”, anyone?), but in my ongoing Sonic fanfics, it’s also the main theme of the Happy Sperm Club, an organization of human-trafficking pimps who kidnap and enslave women and have them get fucked senseless by anyone willing to pay for prostitution services (complete with beating and starving women who underperform or resist). Yes, the organization is just as horrible as it sounds (with their sole redeeming quality being a genuine commitment to quality service and customer satisfaction), and there have been casualties (both physical and psychological) from their horrific mistreatment of their captives. (I actually came up with these villains before I watched Taken… my mind can go to some seriously dark places.) I have a feeling that incels would be a huge part of the Happy Sperm Club’s customer base, and the cross-reference between my writing projects was too good to pass up. Given how much respect the manosphere tends to show to women (read: none at all), the comparison between the incel mindset that Buchanincel represents and godawfully horrific pimps is… rather easy to make.
↑ This is admittedly a rather big stretch, but this song is about both a nasty heat wave (fitting for a Fire-type) and crushing loneliness (fitting for an incel).
↑ …Yes, Bowser is a Pokémon Trainer in the fanfics I write, with his team including Darkrai, Garchomp, Blastoise, Houndoom, Heatran, and Baxcalibur. And they all have edgy nicknames, like Blackveil, Landjaw, WaterKoopa, Tearthroat, Doomforge, and Breakblade. Anyways, out of all of the Regress Pokémon, Buchanincel fits Bowser the best — he’s constantly thirsting for Peach and she is not freaking interested in him. Much like “Megalomania” for Odiodama, “Bowser’s Rage Stage” would probably end up being attached to Buchanincel’s Trainer (who would use a very Bowser-esque team) rather than Buchanincel itself.
↑ Yes, I’m being generous by assuming that these people had minds that they could lose to begin with. I couldn’t really think of an alternative way to express this idea.
↑ Though I’m sure that some of them are in it for pettier reasons, like making sure that women can’t refuse to sleep with them. I’m not going to assume that some of these scoundrels (like, say, incels) have particularly lofty ambitions in the same way that others (like, say, white supremacists) do.
↑ Gun nuts would recommend preventing mass shootings by arming everyone (the “good guy with a gun” theory), the idea being that nobody would want to randomly open fire on people if it would result in immediate and ultimate retaliation. In reality, handing out highly-lethal, long-range, nigh-impossible-to-react-to-let-alone-dodge weapons to any random schmuck on the street is… not exactly a good idea, and reaching out to frustrated or troubled people and helping them to resolve their problems in a healthy way before they have the chance to cross the Despair Event Horizon would be more likely to be more effective.
↑ More specifically, Rhythm Heat is (loosely) based on the beat of “Cruel Summer”, which I treated as Buchanincel’s main theme song (yes, even taking precedence over “Criminal” despite not being a Disturbed song) before I realized just how well “Pain Redefined” fits.
↑ Since Rhythm Heat is a sound-based move, that means that Exploud, Sowunamut, Rillaboom, Toxtricity, and Skeledirge can learn it, on account of music being a big part of their overall themes. However, Rillaboom will need to use a GM in order to learn Rhythm Heat. (A GM (Gaiden Machine) is essentially the same thing as a TM (Technical Machine), but using a separate numbering system so I don’t have to re-number my custom moves with GMs every time the TM list gets expanded; I had to rework a lot of documents every generation until I came up with the GM idea in Gen VII.)
↑ I was originally going to call it “Heat Pulse” until I decided that “Rhythm Heat” was catchier, but I kept the aura/pulse classification on account of that being a very small group of moves. Being a pulse move means that Rhythm Heat is compatible with Mega Launcher, and yes, both Blastoise and Clawitzer can learn it, though Blastoise needs to use a GM.
↑ Rhythm Heat’s power scaling is intentionally lower than the rate at which Triple Axel scales up (20→40→60, with 90% accuracy for each hit (no accuracy decay)), as compensation for adding an additional maximum hit. I even considered having Rhythm Heat start with 10 Base Power and adding 10 onto each strike (10→20→30→40, with no accuracy decay for this version), but this capped the total Base Power at 100, which I considered to be too low for a move that is hampered by multiple accuracy checks (Triple Axel caps at 120 total Base Power).
↑ I asked the CAP Discord to run the math on the actual odds for getting any given number of hits, given the consecutive accuracy checks. It worked out to a 45.9% chance to hit 4 times, a 15.3% chance to hit 3 times, a 15.3% chance to hit 2 times, a 13.5% chance to hit 1 time, and a 10.0% chance to not hit at all, giving an average effective BP of 91.53. Since Rhythm Heat has no additional effects and only 5 base max PP (upgradable to 8 (5 × 1.6) with PP Ups), having an average effective power that’s only barely higher than Flamethrower is… not good. So yeah, gotta get that accuracy up (or condense to one accuracy check with Loaded Dice).
↑ Yes, a move named “Heat Wave” officially exists, but that’s more about heat waves as an atmospheric thing; its original Japanese name is “Hot Wind”, it’s a wind-based move, and it can be learned by a lot of Pokémon with wings.
↑ Yes, Malitiasturm’s typing is intended to counter Pussitchesto (Fighting is super-effective against Steel, Poison resists Grass) and be countered by Azureality. I’m aware that Fire would be better-suited to counter Steel/Grass (since it resists and is super-effective against both), but Poison/Fighting is the only type combo to be doubly weak to Psychic, the counter chains had to loop back to the start at some point, and I can only think of so many things that RationalWiki would be for and against. Besides, Pussitchesto will have access to quite a few Rock- and Ground-type moves to deal with Koallution, Inceruction, Odiodama, and Buchanincel, and maybe not quite as many Psychic-type moves.
↑ Scrafty is already based on gang members, thugs, and hoodlums and is known for spitting acid at its opponents, so this was an obvious choice for the Pokémon representing the rank-and-file supporters of fascism (like SS goons and the January 6th rioters).
↑ “Malitia” is an actual Latin word, which the English “malice” is derived from, and its meaning is similar to the English “malice” (specifically, “malitia” means “bad quality, ill-will, spite”), but I was unaware of this when coining the name “Malitiasturm”; I was simply mashing “malice” and “militia” together.
↑ While Stormfront and other Neo-Nazi storm imagery was my primary reason for including “Sturm” in the name, I chose the German version of the word over the English version for two reasons. The first was to acknowledge the original Nazis being German; the second was as a reference to Sturm from the Advance Wars/Nintendo Wars series.
↑ I was tempted to tack an “ox” onto the end of the name for Fox News, but Pokémon names can’t be longer than 12 characters, and “Malitiasturm” is already 12 letters long. (This is why “(i){l}lusion” in Crimsolusion’s name and “(uni)v{e}rs{e}” in Explastravrs’s name are misspelled; the extra letters would go over the limit.)
↑ The first syllable is pulled from “malice”, the second and third syllables are pulled from “militia”, and the final syllable is simply “sturm”. (Since “sturm” is a German word, it lacks an entry on Dictionary.com, but “Sturm und Drang” was available.)
↑ I am considering upgrading Malitiasturm’s BST to 590, since there are four Paradox Pokémon in each set with that BST and the Progress and Regress Pokémon are meant to be parallel to the Paradox Pokémon (Cleragate’s BST is 590 rather than 570 to make it the Regress Pokémon’s counterpart to Roaring Moon). If I go through with this, the most likely tune-ups will be +5 HP, +5 Defense, +5 Special Defense, and +5 Speed; Malitiasturm is supposed to be countered by Azureality, so it makes sense to make Malitiasturm oriented towards special offense and physical defense so that it will struggle a bit against special tanks like Azureality. I’ll admit that it seems weird to buff Malitiasturm rather than Creikipath, and Malitiasturm’s template, Scrafty, is a Magically Inept Fighter in terms of offensive capabilities (its defensive stats are equally good; I actually made Malitiasturm’s Defense and Special Defense lower than Scrafty’s to reflect how, at the end of the day, most MAGAnons’ idea of “self-defense” is less about actual self-defense and more of a (flimsy) justification for murdering people who aren’t part of their “clan” (though I also raised Malitiasturm’s HP in comparison to Scrafty to compensate for that)). Furthermore, unlike Groinxin for Sanarchern, Scrafty doesn’t even have access to Mega Evolution or Gigantamax to help Malitiasturm’s case. I have two main reasons for considering buffing Malitiasturm both despite and because of its being the lowest-ranked Regress Pokémon. First, since Malitiasturm is the lowest-ranked of the Regress Pokémon and Azureality is the highest-ranked and strongest of the Progress Pokémon, it feels a little odd to force Azureality to go out of its way to deal with Malitiasturm unless the lower-ranking Progress Pokémon struggle a bit to deal with it. Second, it also feels appropriate to make the Malitiasturm vs. Azureality matchup just a little bit less of a curb-stomp in Azureality’s favor and to make the curb-stomp based just a little bit more on type advantage than statistical superiority.
↑ Since Malitiasturm represents low-level fascist goons, the initial plan was for there to be several Malitiasturm (with the player receiving one halfway through the Faith version) before I decided that all of the Progress and Regress Pokémon would be Legendary Pokémon and that Azureality and Crimsolusion had uplifted specific individuals from more ordinary Pokémon species, Ho-oh/Manazda/Arctikull/Pecharunt-style, to that lofty status to add generals of a sort to their ranks, thus making all of the Progress and Regress Pokémon one-of-a-kind in-universe. Malitiasturm would still probably lead a squadron of Scrafty and Scraggy in order to get across the general idea of a fascism-induced riot, though.
↑ This ain’t Ethnic Cleaning, ~~fool,~~ this is Pokémon! And this ain’t Pokémon Clover, either! This is RationalWiki! We use reason, empiricism, compassion, and friendship here!
↑ Many fakemon creators set their custom regions as analogues to the places where they live. I couldn’t do that because I already live more-or-less in the area represented by Unova. (Plus, Washington D.C. is better-suited to the themes I’m going for.)
↑ Given my Catholic background and most of the Catholics I know not being assholes, I’m not willing to make the claim that religion is inherently bad — quite the opposite, really. At worst, religion is a tool for social cohesion that frequently gets abused as a tool for over-the-top control. The religious worldview is admittedly outdated, particularly in terms of being an explanation of reality, but NOMA exists for a reason… I do want the name of Crimsolusion’s version to be something that could feasibly have a positive spin put on it, though (even fascists aren’t dumb enough to give their groups names that make their evil intentions flagrantly obvious), so “Pokémon Foolishness”, “Pokémon Idiocy”, “Pokémon Stupidity”, “Pokémon Ignorance”, and “Pokémon Crank” are right out.
↑ This would only apply to the original games and their remakes. Once the Progress and Regress Pokémon start making cameo appearances in later games (as Legendary Pokémon tend to do), they would be properly version-exclusive.
↑ In fact, maybe the Reason PC is a bit too skeptical of the danger posed by the Regress Pokémon, and while they’re willing to collect the Progress Pokémon for the sake of Pokédex completion and having powerful Pokémon to challenge the Pokémon League with, they aren’t fully invested in the conflict until something happens midway through the game to make it clear that the stakes are very real and very high.
↑ There are quite a few possibilities for the team that sides with the Progress Pokémon, to the point where I’m not quite sure what to pick; I’m also considering “Team Rationality” and “Team Skepticism”.
↑ Yes, he’s named after User:Tmtoulouse. I could have gone with “Bernie”, “Biden”, “Barack”, or something like that, but the Progress Pokémon are meant to be more emblematic of RationalWiki than the Democratic Party. How could I not reference the site’s founder?
↑ The name “Team Glory” is meant to be evocative of MAGA and Trumpism. The name is admittedly overly-generic, but I’d like to avoid being excessively on-the-nose here, which makes names like “Team Theocracy”, “Team Theos”, or “Team MAGA” feel too awkward to use. “Team Fox” or “Team Dominion” might work, but “Team Fox” could get awkward if taken literally (I happen to really like foxes, in part due to being a Sonic fanfic writer with several fox OCs) and “Team Dominion” feels a little too sinister for someone who isn’t drunk on fundie Kool-Aid to want to associate with (it’s a plot point that the Faith PC is naïve, gullible, and prone to taking noble-sounding claims at face value (for instance, thinking that “make Freigos great again” and “drain the swamp” mean “clean up government corruption and make the American Dream realizable for the little guy” when they actually mean “expel, enslave, or eradicate everyone who isn’t part of our ethnic and religious group and establish a theocratic dictatorial ethnostate”), but is not willing to go along with heinous acts like hate crimes and ethnic cleansing).
↑ The name is a combination of “Adolf” and “Donald” as an unsubtle equivocation between Hitler and Trump, though it is also derived from “Adonis”, a name that seems to be associated with narcissists and other grandiose, self-centered personalities for some reason (or at least from my frame of reference being Disgaea‘s Dark Adonis).
↑ Odiodama’s Trainer could continue the Live A Live references by having other Pokémon that correspond to Odio’s incarnations, like Tyrantrum for Odo, Mienshao or Medicham for Ou Di Wan Lee and Odie O’Bright, Seismitoad for Ode Iou/Gamahebi, Rapidash or Zebstrika for O. Dio/Comanche, and Golurk or Metagross for Odeo and OD-10 (with the sixth member of the team being Odiodama itself representing Odio). This could be the battle where “Megalomania” plays (until it switches to “Haunted” when Odiodama comes out), and it could be the climactic battle of the halfway point in both versions, with both PCs being forced to defend themselves when Odiodama’s Trainer attacks them (he just sees the Reason PC as an ideological enemy to be exterminated, but in the case of the Faith PC, he correctly deduces that the Faith PC is having doubts about the Regress Pokémon’s cause, and decides they have to be killed off as a loose end before they can cause trouble for Adon and his henchmen).
↑ The idea of having the Progress and Regress Pokémon have to reconcile their differences more-or-less peacefully was not in my original script, which depicted the Regress Pokémon as an evil influence on the world that must be squashed. Heck, Crimsolusion is not above flat-out trying to murder Azureality and the rest of the Progress Pokémon (which it does still attempt to do in the Faith pre-credits climax before the PC stops it), and while Azureality isn’t willing to stoop that low, it does want Crimsolusion and the rest of the Regress Pokémon detained and locked away so that they won’t be able to hurt or mislead anyone. The new direction for the late-game and post-game (and with it, the ability to actually acquire the opposite faction in the post-game) came about in a conversation with Amber/Automatree, one of the old guard of the Fakemon Discord who I went out of my way to stay in contact with due to holding great respect for their opinions and their reasoning for said opinions (even though they did relentlessly criticize my work). Amber pointed out that Pokémon is a very idealistic franchise that goes out of its way to assign the bulk of the moral agency (for good or for ill) to humans rather than the Pokémon themselves, since the idea is that the player should be able to catch and befriend any Pokémon, even powerful, dangerous, and morally-shady ones. Indeed, Pecharunt and the Loyal Three are the only canon Pokémon that could be called unapologetically evil, and they’re just petty thieves (who admittedly aren’t above occasionally killing someone during a heist, though that earned them a massive beatdown from their victim’s friend, Ogerpon) and con artists (who aren’t seen running a con that they intentionally started so much as they are rolling with people mistaking them for heroes after they received the aforementioned beatdown (said assumption having come about when people witnessed the beatdown without also witnessing the burglary that provoked it)) at worst; other “evil” Pokémon have some ambiguity to their wickedness and/or tragic backstories that explain their behavior while also evoking sympathy, such as Mewtwo being the product of horrific genetic experiments, Necrozma being driven mad (in both senses of the term) with pain, rage, and desperation due to a crippling injury that it sustained at the hands of greedy humans long ago (and explicitly being generous and benevolent before that incident), Kyurem just wanting to make itself whole again after Reshiram and Zekrom split off from it during its old human allies’ argument over whether truth or ideals should govern a nation, Eternatus being an extraterrestrial lifeform that (not unlike Lovecraft’s Old Gods) literally does not realize (or care) just how much damage it’s causing just by existing in a world that’s foreign to it, Yveltal just doing its job of destroying old things to make way for new creation, and Giratina wanting to maintain the balance between dimensions and being upset with Arceus for locking it away. Furthermore, many of these Pokémon get a lot nicer with the influence of the PC (particularly Giratina, which goes through a heavily-implied redemption arc after being defeated and humbled in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Necrozma, whose reason for causing trouble pretty much goes away when the Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon PC goes out of their way to treat its wounds and soothe its pain). I decided to pull special inspiration from Giratina’s redemption arc (along with the general “Defeat Means Friendship/test of worthiness” implications behind the process of catching Pokémon) for justifying how the Regress Pokémon, which represent harmful ideologies like fascism, could tone down their wickedness. Namely, authoritarian ideologies like fascism put a lot of emphasis on strength and power, i.e. the concept of “might makes right”, so if the PC can beat the Regress Pokémon, that might be enough for the Regress Pokémon to reconsider their actions and listen to the PC’s point of view. Even then, there will be implications that the Regress Pokémon aren’t truly redeemed, but are simply reining themselves in out of respect for the PC’s skill and conviction. Actual redemption for the Regress Pokémon would be possible, but it would take a lot of time, patience, and firm demonstration of how their ideologies don’t help anyone, including themselves.
↑ Maybe a bit of Posadism could be squeezed in. I dunno, Ice/Ghost doesn’t seem like the best type to represent blowing everything to hell.
↑ Revladutchyu has little if anything to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict, but I still wanted to throw some shade at Benjamin Netanyahu and the current Israeli government for engaging in an ethnic cleansing campaign.
↑ I’m aware that I somehow managed to spell “Dutch“ by mashing “Vlad”, “Putin”, “Juche”, and “Netanyahu” together. This was accidental. Revladutchyu has nothing to do with the Netherlands, and I mean no offense towards the Dutch.
↑ “Reh” is the first syllable of “revolution” (“rev”) with the “v” at the end removed (due to redundancy with the next syllable) and replaced with an “h” sound (to make sure that it’s pronounced the same way as in “revolution” instead of as “ri” or something like that). “Vlad” is taken from “Vladimir” (using the English pronunciation rather than the Russian pronunciation for the sake of flow between the other syllables). “Ootch” is just “scooch” (alternately spelled “scootch”, pronounced “skooch”) without the “sk” sound and with a non-silent “t” forced in; it came about by mashing together the “oot” syllabic bridge in “Putin”, a mangled interpretation of “Juche” (I’m not fluent in Korean, so I thought that it was pronounced “jooch” (rhyming with “scooch”) rather than “joo-chay” until I looked it up on Wiktionary (it wasn’t on Dictionary.com, go figure)), and a condensation of bits of “Netanyahu” into a single syllable. “Hyoo” came about by using “hew” as a syllabic mashup of the end of “Netanyahu”, a bit of “Juche”, and “shoe” (as in “horseshoe”).
↑ My initial impulse was to name this move something along the lines of “Seizure”, but that could be taken as referring to the medical condition rather than the act of taking property by force. “Seize” on its own would have been too boring and generic for a signature move, so I made the name of this move a more explicit reference to “seize the means of production”.
↑ For instance, if the target had +2 Attack and the user had one ally on the field, the user and their ally would both get +1 Attack. If the target had +1 Attack and +1 Defense and the user had one ally on the field, the user would get either +1 Attack or +1 Defense randomly and its ally would get the other boost.
↑ This was originally a working title, as I didn’t think it had much to do with communism and was (at best) only loosely related to Russia screwing with other nations’ political processes. I was thinking of calling it “Holodomor” (or “Feast and Famine”), but that might be a bit too dark. Then I found that “soviet” is a Russian compound word that roughly means “workers’ council”, and I decided that “Soviet Spectre” does fit well enough after all.
↑ Haunted Terrain is a new terrain effect I came up with so that Revladutchyu would have a terrain corresponding to its type that it could use. Haunted Terrain is associated with the Ghost-type, of course, and it powers up Ghost-type moves by 30% and protects all grounded Pokémon from stat reductions (this effect being essentially the same as Mist, much like Misty Terrain mimicking the effect of Safeguard). (Incidentally, Seize the Means works around this protection by resetting the target’s stat boosts instead of lowering the target’s stats.)
↑ There are no rider effects here; Soviet Spectre does not allow Revladutchyu to lower other Pokémon’s stats on Haunted Terrain (though it would still protect non-Ice-types from hail passive damage if that was still a thing in Gen IX (since that was established by Sand Veil all the way back in Gen III), it doesn’t grant non-Ice-types the Defense boost given by snow). It’s already a combined version of Empirical Stage/Sands of Denial or Orichalcum Pulse/Hadron Engine for snow and Haunted Terrain; it doesn’t need to be stronger than that. As for boosting Speed and HP when those are actually Revladutchyu’s statistical weak points, well, the other four stats were already taken by the aforementioned Orichalcum Pulse, Hadron Engine, Empirical Stage, and Sands of Denial. (I did have Soviet Spectre drain opponents’ health over time rather than simply regenerating Revladutchyu’s health like Ice Body in order to bring the old damage-over-time effect of hail back in spirit.)
↑ The re-use of the pre-credits final boss theme is a nod to Red doing the same thing in Pokémon Gold & Silver and their remakes.
↑ I see the Cold War as being partially responsible for the current epidemic of fascism in the U.S.; fighting communism (a.k.a. leftism gone bugnuts insane, especially given how Josef Stalin bastardized it) for several decades has pushed the Overton window far enough to the right to not only make fascism “acceptable” to many, but to make it outright strong enough to completely consume the more right-leaning major political party.
↑ This Ability effect was intentionally chosen to be a different approach to screwing over the other members of its trio than that taken by Terapagos (whose signature Ability in its Stellar Forme, Teraform Zero, nullifies the effects of weather and terrain altogether while it’s on the battlefield). With Revladutchyu’s approach, if it enters the battlefield after Azureality and/or Crimsolusion or is slower when they simultaneously enter the battlefield (which, oh look, it is), then snow and Haunted Terrain take hold, but if Azureality or Crimsolusion (or something else with a weather or terrain-setting Ability, like Koraidon or Miraidon) enters after Revladutchyu, then the later-arriving Pokémon gets their weather or terrain effect to be active.
↑ Let’s count the ways; very high BST, two signature moves (one of which is essentially an upgraded Spectral Thief effect-wise (albeit with lower Base Power, though it will actually steal a Substitute before dealing damage) and the other of which has better HP-draining efficiency than Oblivion Wing), a signature Ability that effectively combines two other Legendary signature Abilities… yeah, I’ve designed broken Pokémon before, but this might be a whole other level of busted.
↑ There’s no Freigosian Happiny; it’s the same as it is elsewhere. A Happiny that evolves with a certain new item will become Freigosian Chansey.
↑ As of this writing, I am not sure yet whether or not I’ll replace their Hidden Ability, Healer, or what I’ll replace it with. Right now, Triage, Hospitality, Rain Dish, Dry Skin, and Curious Medicine are all under consideration.
↑ Both names were given to me when I requested naming help on the CAP Discord server. As much as “Barrelcuda” is a cool name as well, I felt it didn’t sound “gun” enough.
↑ And speaking of Octillery, I did design an evolution for that as well in Gen III, which I named Squiannon, so this isn’t quite an Obstagoon situation in my eyes… wait, I made a Linoone evolution (named Curvoone) in Gen V… hmm… oh, I never made an evolution for Kantonian Mr. Mime, so that comparison could work. But, yeah, Octillery has another evolution as well, but that’s not part of the Freigos project and is therefore of limited relevance to RationalWiki, so that’s all I’ll say about it here.
↑ Yes, the name is derived from the “kill yourself” acronym. It’s a dumb pun (and this is coming from someone who loves puns), it’s potentially triggering and/or offensive, it’s disrespectful to Togekiss (which is one of my favorite Pokémon, to be honest), and I feel like I need to apologize to everyone who loves Togekiss and/or has actually had suicidal thoughts at some point in their lives. I just could not get this shit out of my head once the idea popped in, and part of the point of the Progress & Regress Pokémon and the Freigos region project is to relentlessly mock terrible people, such as trolls who unironically tell the emotionally vulnerable to end their own lives, while also extolling the virtues of compassion, logic, reasoning, education, critical thinking, multiculturalism, social harmony, etc., so I have to begrudgingly admit that a cyberbullying Togepi line fits in with a bunch of alt-right parodies. In fact, I feel like I need to repeat myself to make myself clear; the idea is to mock the bullies who get sick kicks out of making people kill themselves, not people who suffer from depression and/or feel enough despair to end their own lives (though I did get a bit of inspiration from HoopsandHipHop’s Paradox Togekiss concept). I still don’t think I can take this concept entirely seriously as something I’d want to create; even by the standards of someone who is willing to risk stirring up dangerous amounts of drama for the sake of denouncing awful things and promoting justice, it’s still a bit too dark. (As a further side note, Togekys was originally an alternate evolution for standard Togetic, using a different evolution method than a Shiny Stone, but I decided to expand its concept into a full line of regional forms (which expands on the idea of the occasional sinister Togepi cropping up in the actual Pokémon franchise and also allows me to make Togekys into simply a Freigosian Togekiss if I feel like referencing the “kys” acronym is just too offensive to deal with). Freigosian Togetic would still use a different evolutionary stone than Johtonian Togetic, though.)
↑ I’d also be tempted to use Nightwish’s “Cadence of Her Last Breath” as a loose theme for Togekys to go along with the whole “suicide dare” and “tragedy of suicide” thing, but I already made a Pokémon which is more explicitly based on that song.
↑ Or maybe not. The Togepi line’s Pokédex entries do make a point of stating that they despise living in areas full of strife, and the conflict between the Progress and Regress Pokémon would probably be very uncomfortable for them to deal with.