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Description
Note: Please do not harass the original author or anyone who makes content related to this pasta. This review was simply made for entertainment purposes only. This is all based on MY OPINION as well.

DISCLAIMER: Please read the source of the following story by sparklingdemon for more context. I will not explicitly provide every single image or detail of the story throughout this review to encourage my audience to read the original source material. I’ll provide some screenshots when needed and tell which page I’m on and provide a link for respective page number for the review, but I still highly encourage everyone to read the story itself and check out all of sparklingdemon’s other work. I'll still provide summaries and breakdowns of the story since some people struggled to read the original source material, but ALL CREDIT goes to sparklingdemon. [Source]

This is PART 2 of my review. Read Part 1 first if you haven't already.

Page 12 Pics 76-85
(Pic 76) The screen faded to white, and it cut to Myra sleeping in the rainbow void. Squirtle was nowhere in sight. Myra yawned and got up from her slumber to look around for a bit. The following text appeared on the screen, “Welcome!”

(Pic 77) Myra became shocked when she saw the sight of what looked like a colorless Charmander crawling out of the ground. And then, various other colorless Pokémon crawled out of the ground as well. More and more just came out of the ground.

(Pic 78) It was then the protag realized that it was all of the starter Pokémon for the specific PMD game they were playing. They were not only colorless, but their eye sockets were empty as well.

(Pic 79) The Bulbasaur then spoke “Welcome to the world of Pokémon!” repeatedly. Then all of their icons appeared as if they were all saying the exact same thing in unison. Each of them also had the same chains around their necks as Myra did.

(Pic 80) The screen cut to black and showed the following text in a blood-colored red, “Welcome to MY world.”

(Pic 81) The 16 starter Pokémon approached closer to Myra as they were all ready to attack her at once, which would’ve been major trouble for Myra. The protag had Myra start out in the upper left corner to take out all of them one at a time. The Pokémon moved in unison with Myra for every step she took.

That is honestly very creepy to think about. Being ambushed by a big group of colorless, eyeless Pokémon who willingly want to hurt you and they only move whenever you move.

(Pic 82) Myra started attacking Bulbasaur first. The odd thing was when Bulbasaur was defeated, the textbox said “Bulbasaur was erased” instead. It was long before the others tried to avenge Bulbasaur, taking it all out on Myra.

(Pic 83) Myra tried to escape the mob, but it was no use with the others following her in unison. Myra was getting flanked by too many Pokémon at once.

(Pic 84) With a few Pokémon remaining and Myra only having 5 units of HP left, a textbox appeared for her: “(Your body... feels heavy...)”

(Pic 85) The next shot shows Myra collapsing onto the ground, looking defeated, and the screen fades to black. The protag shook their DS in anger, fear, and desperation as if Myra meant a lot to them. “That couldn’t be how Myra died, could it?” They questioned, thinking that the game wasn’t going to just throw them into a winnable boss battle and kill Myra after only a couple of hours of gameplay. They were clearly afraid of what was going to happen now. Sometimes, you never know with these cursed cartridges.

Page 13 Pics 86-91
(Pic 86) Shadow: “Why are you doing this?!”
Squirtle: “Hahaha! That’s a laugh!”
Squirtle: “What about YOU, “partner”? You’ve completely betrayed me!”
Shadow: “What did I do? Myra did nothing to deserve this-”
Squirtle: “She stole my life, my destiny! She replaced me, then she stole you from me... She deserves every last bit of this torture.”
Shadow: “Maybe our destinies have changed.”
Squirtle: “They didn’t change, they were corrupted! I was going to be the hero, you as my partner, but then she came and ruined it all...”
Squirtle: “I won’t let go of our world. I’ll do anything to make it right again.”
Shadow: “Look at yourself! Look at the world around us! We’re living in a nightmare! Do you think any of this is right?”
Squirtle: “I’m doing everything I can to make us right! I’m tearing myself apart for us! She turned me into this!”
Shadow: “That doesn’t mean she should suffer, too!”
Squirtle: “I’M the one who’s suffering! It’s not fair! I’m not supposed to be like this!”

(Pic 87) The next shot showed Squirtle crying with tears in her eyes, which caught the protagonist off.

Squirtle: “I’M the one who’s suffering! It’s not fair! I’m not supposed to be like this!”
Shadow: “...I’m sorry.”
Shadow: “But, I think... Maybe you’re suffering because she’s the hero after all-”
Squirtle: “No! I was supposed to be the hero! That’s MY future she stole from me!”
Shadow: “All you can think about is yourself! You’re stealing MY future! You’re stealing everyone’s future!”
Squirtle: “She’s the one who did this to us! You say I’m the monster, but it’s her!”
Squirtle: “She doesn’t belong in this world. It only started when SHE showed up.
Shadow: “The world started dying before Myra came here! I... I don’t believe one Vulpix could cause the end of the world!”
Squirtle: “Then what else COULD?”
Shadow: “... You.”
Squirtle: “What-?!”
Shadow: “You’re the reason everything’s falling apart! You say this’ll fix it, but will you really be able to? How am I supposed to believe that?”
Shadow: “No matter who I choose, someone has to die to save everyone else... I can’t make that decision!”
Squirtle: “You already have.”
Squirtle: “You said it yourself. You hate me. You want me dead, just like her.”
Squirtle: “At this point, I should just kill you too!!”
Shadow: “W-Wait, no, please don’t...!!”
Squirtle: “Don’t worry, I won’t, Shadow... I know SHE’S the one who’s making you think this way.”

(Pic 88) Squirtle: “You don’t have the nerve to save me, Shadow, but I’ll still save you.”
Squirtle: “Even if you won’t believe me now, I promise you... When she’s gone, we’ll be right.”
Shadow: “No! We’ll never be right!”
Shadow: “I was never supposed to be in this world!”
Shadow: “When I first saw Myra... I instantly felt... like I was born to be with her.”
Shadow: “But when I was with you... I never felt anything at all!”
Shadow: “I’ve realized it now... I was never your partner! I’m Myra’s!”

A sound of footsteps was heard, implying Shadow was running away.

Squirtle: “Shadow! Where are you going?! Shadow!!”
Squirtle: “... Fine. If you want to be that way...”

I really appreciate the argument here because it makes it seem like Shadow deeply cares about Myra on the inside and rebels against Squirtle for trying to get him to kill her. Squirtle is trying to convince Shadow that Myra is the real antagonist here. It’s like a game of manipulation within a love triangle. And if it wasn’t obvious already and well, I have to assume you readers have already read my reviews for the previous two remakes, Squirtle is saying that Myra stole her future as a reference to how the protagonist constantly kept resetting their game from the personality quiz until they got Vulpix instead of Squirtle. Shadow calling out Squirtle’s selfishness in wanting to be in the spotlight and demanding him to do things for her shows their relationship is unstable and Shadow is through with Squirtle on the unhealthy relationship.

Page 14 Pics 89-91
(Pic 89) Meanwhile back at the gradient arena with Myra, a textbox popped up and said, “Shadow used Discharge!” The rest of the Pokémon took calamitous damage and were “erased”.
I kind of wonder how Shadow was able use Discharge with the gradient world Myra is in. It makes me wonder if everything with the other starters was all in Myra’s head as it was all an illusion.

(Pic 90) After all of the Pokémon were defeated, the screen turned black and there was a large crack transition that appeared on the screen. Myra appeared to be back in the overworld once again with Shadow right in front of her. The cracked screen transition is very odd, but okay.

(Pic 91) Shadow told Myra to hold still and looked like he was ready to charge up an attack as he muttered the following statement: “This should be enough to take us out...” Shadow begins to charge up his Discharge attack which was larger than beforehand. I like this because it shows Shadow’s desire to kill himself and Myra so they both don’t have to suffer through Squirtle’s antics.

Pics 92-97

(Pic 92) Shadow: “And when that happens... We’ll both be-”

(Pic 93) A loud slicing sound and animation emerge on Shadow as static flashes onto the background once more. Not only does Shadow’s dialogue get cut off, but something else involving him gets cut off as well.

(Pic 94) Shadow: “Free-!!” Shadow’s eyes had tears rolling out of them as blood began to drip out of his mouth and from his mutilated body too. Nooooo!! Not Shadow! He was my favorite!

(Pic 95) Myra actually showed a concerned, worried expression next. I feel like her face shows how much she cared about Shadow too. It could just be from shock from the scene, but she expresses great worry on her face in that icon.

(Pic 96) Shadow was shown to have his body cut in half. He lifted his head as he use the last of his strength to squeeze out his final words to Myra.
Shadow: “I-I’m s-soorry, Myra, I... failed... Please run away... Whatever you do... don’t...”

Shadow collapsed onto the ground as his blood spilled all over the ground.

>Original: Shadow uses his final breaths to defeat Squirtle and save Myra while being cut in half.
>V2: Shadow tries to kill himself and Myra, but gets sliced in the process. Tries to laugh it off and dies.
>Rewrite: Shadow tries to kill himself and Myra, but gets sliced in the process. He uses his last breaths to apologize to Myra and pleads for her to flee for her life before passing away.

In my V2 review, I discuss how Shadow’s character arc didn’t feel completed in that version but was still arguably better than in the original. A part of me still prefers Shadow using his last strength to defeat Squirtle to save Myra, but I think him apologizing to Myra about his failure to save her works a lot better here compared to V2 because the remake builds up that he felt more obligated than passionate to kill off Myra just for the sake of Squirtle’s selfish desires, but he managed to hold back on killing Myra because he believed she was the hero of the journey. And the fact that Shadow apologizes and begs Myra to flee has a much better emotional impact than him just being like “Haha... looks like I failed...” and collapsing in V2. The remake’s interpretation of this scene has a lot of emotional impact because despite being sliced in half, it shows that he was more concerned about Myra’s wellbeing than his own.

(Pic 97) Squirtle: “There’s nothing you can do now.”
Squirtle passed over Shadow. The protagonist couldn’t do anything including fighting nor moving, all they could do was watch Squirtle step over Shadow’s dead body. Squirtle used Guillotine! Myra took calamitous damage! Oh no! Myra was defeated! Surprisingly, Myra’s sprite just vanished out of existence. No gory mess or anything.

Is that a metaphor for how Squirtle finally got rid of her, and she no longer existed? I’m not sure because of the next scenes...

(Pic 98) When the protagonist loaded up the last outing that had the following message: “Just try, I dare you.”, Myra ended up on the same beach as before in the beginning. She stood up with textboxes that read, “(I can’t win like this...)”
“(I have to go back.)”
“Back to the beginning...”
Myra turned to look right at the protagonist as she said this. It was like there was a mutual understanding between Myra and the protagonist. They knew what they had to do as they flipped off the power switch to turn the game off and on again.

Myra actually spoke... I have to admit that this was a good build-up with Myra staying silent the whole time throughout the adventure and just talking with facial expressions, but it turns out that she can actually speak and she spoke when she needed to towards the protagonist.

Page 15 Pics 99-102
(Pic 99) The protagonist selected to start an entirely new adventure after viewing the title screen displaying Squirtle and Vulpix being on an expedition together. It was disgusting to them.

As simple as that is, I have to admit it works pretty well and it’s pretty fitting as a way of showing the protag their options and how it’s metaphorically a battle between Squirtle and Vulpix.

Next was the personality quiz. It asked some unusual questions:
“When you see a switch, do you feel an overwhelming urge to flip it?” >Yes | No
“Do you think that no matter what, life goes on?” >All the time! | Never
“Once you’ve decided something, do you see it through to the end?” >Yes | No
“Have you ever looked at your reflection in a mirror and thought to yourself, “What a horrible person”? Certainly | >Well, not really...
“There’s a runaway trolley in the path of five people! You can pull a lever to hit one person to save the rest, or do nothing. What do you do?” >Pull it. | Do nothing.

Some of them are in the vanilla game like the "life going on", "seeing something through to the end", and the one about your "reflection" is the same except it asks "what a COOL person" instead.

The protag was stunned by how dark that last question was and didn’t recall that one being in the guide they looked up earlier and assumed it was just added in. They answered that they would save the five people if it meant only killing one. They waited for their results and judgment, only to get the following textbox: “You think you’re awfully bold, don’t you?” but it faded to the textbox saying the protagonist is the relaxed type instead of being bold.

Wait, is that last question a reference to that one puzzle the internet would constantly show for those advertisements? That’s odd, but it kind of works for its dark context and fitting for a personality quiz question. And something tells me Squirtle altered the questions to ask some unusual ones to mock the protagonist.

(Pic 100) The results revealed a happy-go-lucky Squirtle. The protagonist knew Squirtle had somehow skewed the results to force them to play as her instead of Vulpix. They weren’t ready to accept the results yet but proceeded with the partner selection screen.

(Pic 101) The protagonist wasn’t prepared for what they saw on the partner list. There was a colorless Shinx pre-named Shadow, and he was bleeding from the mouth and from his sliced-up body. Selecting Shadow wasn’t a choice either as the text said that “Shadow cannot be your partner.” The protag even tried to reset their game constantly in an attempt, but it still couldn’t bring him back to life.
I like how the protagonist is actually smart and is willing to try their options to test their current limits within the game even if it doesn’t seem necessary. It just makes it seem like the protagonist isn’t willing to concede, go with the flow, or let all of the creepy factors run over them. It’s a way of letting the readers know that the protagonist is trying to get out of the “cursed” situation with a variety of options, but their other options fail. It’s like a way of answering questions the readers may have of “Why did you try using an escape rope to get out of there?” for example in advance.

(Pic 102) It was hard for the protagonists to accept that they couldn’t have Shadow as their anymore, but they were flexible enough to switch to having a different partner. Vulpix was an option with no altered features of blood or gore. The protagonist happily selected the Vulpix and named her Myra. And even more of a shock, the game accepted the protagonist having Myra as the partner.

Page 16 Pics 103-105
(Pic 103) The NEW adventure starts off with Squirtle lying on the beach, seemingly unconscious. Myra was walking alongside the shore as if she switched to Shadow’s position from the previous adventure. Myra began to approach the Squirtle and spoke.

(Pic 104) Myra: “Kill her and make this right...”
It was the exact same words Shadow said beforehand and she wasn’t hesitant unlike Shadow was with her. It was time to finish this off. Myra prepared her attack to unleash every ounce of energy she had upon the Squirtle for everything she’d done to her. Looks like the tables have turned. Seriously, I love this callback to what Shadow had said earlier. It was difficult to pick which quote to have displayed for this review, but I chose this one because it's the whole "make this right" quote is said by various Pokémon throughout this pasta like the Bidoof said, Squirtle tries to convince Shadow that killing Myra will make things "right", and now, Myra says it too. I find that pretty interesting.

(Pic 105) The protagonist quietly rooted for her until a flash of whiteness splat onto the screen. The Squirtle got up and sped past Myra. Myra flinched in pain. Myra had a knife embedded in her forehead. Squirtle, a tease, still had the knife on her tail the whole time. Myra was in disbelief as her now lifeless body collapsed onto the shores. Squirtle looked back at her one more time before walking away as the screen faded to black. So that’s where the whole time with Myra having a knife indulged in her forehead came from.

Pics 106-112

(Pic 106) A textbox appeared, “You should have just accepted who you are.”
The screen faded into a terrifying sight displayed for the title screen. It showed a blood-covered Squirtle with no Vulpix next to her. That was a good foreshadowing and build-up with having Vulpix there beforehand.

(Pic 107) Selecting a new game, it skipped straight to the results of the personality quiz, saying the protagonist is a bold type and will be a Squirtle. And onto the partner selection list was Myra, who was now grayscale just like Shadow, the knife still embedded in her forehead, and chains wrapping all around her icon. The screen faintly became darker as the textboxes went by.

“Myra cannot be your hero.”
“Myra is the mask you used to hide yourself with.”

(Pic 108) “Myra is not you.”

(Pic 109) “I am.”
The protagonist nearly screamed at the sight of the Squirtle’s piercing red eyes. The protagonist shut off the game afterward. They didn’t boot up the game again. They were curious about what would happen if they chose the other starters, but they felt like that would feed into the Squirtle’s desires. Even if Squirtle would be the only playable option, they weren’t going to accept her as them.

I know some readers would be asking “Why could they just play the game as Squirtle and get over the fact she’s a Squirtle?” Well, if this was over a decade ago, you could assume this was during their childhood and people tend to have their preferences in who they want to play as, especially when they’re kids. It’s pretty common. It’s just like building up a team for any of the core Pokémon games. You prefer what Pokémon you want to use. Plus, after all of the trouble the Squirtle gave them, I wouldn’t blame them for refusing to play as her due to trauma and all.

(Pic 110) The story all happened over a decade ago. The protagonist has grown up and is still a casual Pokémon fan, but hasn’t touched a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon since now when they got the demo version of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX from the eShop. They booted up the game and admired the art style new title screen. Vulpix wasn’t a playable character in this game, so they planned to use Eevee as a substitute for Myra since they were inspired by the Eevee that appeared on the new game screen.

(Pic 111) They breezed through the personality quiz and when the results came in, the Pokémon was... Squirtle!

(Pic 112) The protagonist was given the options to confirm their results of being a Squirtle, which were “Yes, exactly!” or “No, that isn’t right!” They didn’t hesitate to pick the “no” option...

"I guess some people never change."

END OF STORY

FURTHER THOUGHTS

You left out the best part from the original, sparklingdemon! The part where the protagonist goes to the kitchen to get a brownie. (A Discord server jokes around about that part.)

Real talk: I think this was the best interpretation of the "epilogue" involving the protagonist out of the trilogy. It was straight to the point, wasn't cheesy at all, and didn't drag on.

One thing that I wonder about this pasta is what was the meaning behind the Vulpix's tail in the cauldron.

I feel like more could've been done with Squirtle manipulating Shadow into believing that she was the hero and that Myra was the villain like after Myra defeats various zombie Pokémon, Squirtle is like, "She's a very violent and aggressive monster! Did you see what she did to all of those poor souls in this dungeon?" and Shadow tries to defend Myra saying something like, "I'm not foolish! They're attacking her! She's attacking them out of self-defense! She's not a monster!"

It's a SPOILED PASTA...

As in, this pasta got "SPOILED" with so many visuals and effort.

So, obviously it's a FRESH PASTA because what else is there to say about it?

The story is amazing, the build-ups and tensions are well-done, and just the amount of effort put into the screencaps to make it convincing is mind-blowing. This pasta has at least 250+ screencaps, and it's a nice comic format to tell the pasta in. There is tons of potential with these characters and it's no surprise that sparklingdemon was able to execute it even better. I still enjoyed star-byte's interpretations of the story. If anything, the only problems I really had with star-byte's versions were the endings with the protagonists, but the parts with Myra, Shadow, and Squirtle were still good for what they had to provide.

Now, I'm not going to say this is how a creepypasta should be like because if anything, I think this one is in the levels of "overachieving" if anything with providing so many visuals, which I won't say is a bad thing. I just think the story with all of its anticipation is how it should be with build-ups and good pay-offs and it has a variety of creepy factors into the mix. That's how I think a creepypasta should be because it's doing its job of being creepy by providing a story. However, I will say that Prevention of Evolution (2020) did have a better reason for the protagonist staying mentally attached to the game than not just being plain curious.

I understand some people may think having all these screencaps may arguably make the pasta less convincing because why would the protagonist spend so much time and energy taking photos of what's happening within their "haunted cartridge" and they were able to take so photos at the right time and especially for the context of this story is why Myra had so many close calls with the dungeon battles which is probably because the protag spent so much time taking screencaps with each event happening, which may take some focus out of the game for sure. And I can see why people may have that argument because I've seen it used for other pastas like "I hate you" and "NES Godzilla" since the protagonist took screencaps during battles or troublesome moments that makes you question if they need to put their focus on the game rather than trying to take a screencap.

But let's be real here, without the screencaps for the pasta, some of the shots wouldn't seem very believable. Just like BEN Drowned, would we really find it as good if it wasn't for the WMV it provided?

One more thing: There's actually a QnA on the lore of this pasta and an "Ask" tumblr page for these characters that I think you all should check out as well. Thank you, YourFriendlyNeighborVessel on Discord, for sharing these with me.

The most relevant question answered from that page for me would probably be the one about why Myra is killing everyone other than in self-defense since I constantly kept making theories on that aspect of the pasta.

Myra is actually saving everyone by ending Squirtle's dying world that she is desperately clinging onto because Myra is intended to be the "hero" according the protagonist and she's bringing them to her world rather than Squirtle's dying world since they will be brought back to life in Myra's new world. It has a connection to Sunflora's quote to Myra being the "light". That's why

My rankings for the reviewed PokéPastas so far (from best to worst, top to bottom):
1. PMD: Explorers of Death (Remake) - Fresh
2. Prevention of Evolution (2020) - Fresh
3. Easter Egg - Snow on Mt. Silver – Fresh
4. Forever Mine (Remake) - Fresh
5. Absol (Reaper) - Fresh
6. La Condena de Milotic – Fresh
7. Hypno's Lullaby – Fresh
8. Forever Mine (Original) - Fresh
9. Disabled - Fresh
10. Top Percentage - Fresh
11. Strangled Red – Dried
12. Zombreon - Dried
13. Lost Silver – Dried
14. PMD: Explorers of Death V2 - Dried
15. PMD: Explorers of Death (Original) - Dried
16. White Hand and Buried Alive - Dried
17. Pokémon Violet - Dried
18. Lavender Town Syndrome - Dried
19. Creepy Black – Dried
20. The Umbreon - Dried
21. Abandon Lonliness - Spoiled
22. Nunca Ignores Su Llamado - Spoiled
23. Pokémon Dead Channel – Spoiled
24. Pokémon Dead Channel 2 - Spoiled
25. Prevention of Evolution (Original) - Spoiled
26. Depressing Insanity - Spoiled
27. Milotic's Revenge – Spoiled
28. Glitchy Red - Spoiled
29. Nurse Joy - Spoiled
30. Leaf Green Beta Scene - Spoiled

10 Fresh Pastas | 10 Dried Pastas | 10 Spoiled Pastas

CAN WE SERIOUSLY STOP IT WITH GETTING THE EXACT SAME NUMBERS ALL ACROSS?! It's going to make it seem like these ratings are rigged just to have all three of the numbers the same every time. And trust me, they're NOT rigged. These have been how I genuinely feel about each pasta on this list.

I apologize for the amount of delays for this review and even on art in particular. Dovey and I have been writing some story arc with our characters that we plan to have out for next year. And of course, work and responsibilities have been obstacles for us as well. I'll still do these reviews for sure. In fact, I feel like they've become so popular this year, especially during my hiatus, which I find very odd, but I'm glad you all enjoy them. I mean, half of the reviews I've posted this year have over 40+ favorites. Each of my reviews back in the year 2021 would only get roughly around 10 favorites each. You don't know how much I appreciate the support! :3

Next Time: I'm just going to do something short and simple. Just a discussion on Missingno in particular and on why they've been so big within the pokepasta community despite being just a glitch.

Click here to view the full list of every PokéPasta review so far

Description
Note: Please do not harass the original author or anyone who makes content related to this pasta. This review was simply made for entertainment purposes only. This is all based on MY OPINION as well.

DISCLAIMER: Please read the source of the following story by sparklingdemon for more context. I will not explicitly provide every single image or detail of the story throughout this review to encourage my audience to read the original source material. I’ll provide some screenshots when needed and tell which page I’m on and provide a link for respective page number for the review, but I still highly encourage everyone to read the story itself and check out all of sparklingdemon’s other work. I'll still provide summaries and breakdowns of the story since some people struggled to read the original source material, but ALL CREDIT goes to sparklingdemon. [Source]

This is PART 2 of my review. Read Part 1 first if you haven't already.

Page 12 Pics 76-85
(Pic 76) The screen faded to white, and it cut to Myra sleeping in the rainbow void. Squirtle was nowhere in sight. Myra yawned and got up from her slumber to look around for a bit. The following text appeared on the screen, “Welcome!”

(Pic 77) Myra became shocked when she saw the sight of what looked like a colorless Charmander crawling out of the ground. And then, various other colorless Pokémon crawled out of the ground as well. More and more just came out of the ground.

(Pic 78) It was then the protag realized that it was all of the starter Pokémon for the specific PMD game they were playing. They were not only colorless, but their eye sockets were empty as well.

(Pic 79) The Bulbasaur then spoke “Welcome to the world of Pokémon!” repeatedly. Then all of their icons appeared as if they were all saying the exact same thing in unison. Each of them also had the same chains around their necks as Myra did.

(Pic 80) The screen cut to black and showed the following text in a blood-colored red, “Welcome to MY world.”

(Pic 81) The 16 starter Pokémon approached closer to Myra as they were all ready to attack her at once, which would’ve been major trouble for Myra. The protag had Myra start out in the upper left corner to take out all of them one at a time. The Pokémon moved in unison with Myra for every step she took.

That is honestly very creepy to think about. Being ambushed by a big group of colorless, eyeless Pokémon who willingly want to hurt you and they only move whenever you move.

(Pic 82) Myra started attacking Bulbasaur first. The odd thing was when Bulbasaur was defeated, the textbox said “Bulbasaur was erased” instead. It was long before the others tried to avenge Bulbasaur, taking it all out on Myra.

(Pic 83) Myra tried to escape the mob, but it was no use with the others following her in unison. Myra was getting flanked by too many Pokémon at once.

(Pic 84) With a few Pokémon remaining and Myra only having 5 units of HP left, a textbox appeared for her: “(Your body... feels heavy...)”

(Pic 85) The next shot shows Myra collapsing onto the ground, looking defeated, and the screen fades to black. The protag shook their DS in anger, fear, and desperation as if Myra meant a lot to them. “That couldn’t be how Myra died, could it?” They questioned, thinking that the game wasn’t going to just throw them into a winnable boss battle and kill Myra after only a couple of hours of gameplay. They were clearly afraid of what was going to happen now. Sometimes, you never know with these cursed cartridges.

Page 13 Pics 86-91
(Pic 86) Shadow: “Why are you doing this?!”
Squirtle: “Hahaha! That’s a laugh!”
Squirtle: “What about YOU, “partner”? You’ve completely betrayed me!”
Shadow: “What did I do? Myra did nothing to deserve this-”
Squirtle: “She stole my life, my destiny! She replaced me, then she stole you from me... She deserves every last bit of this torture.”
Shadow: “Maybe our destinies have changed.”
Squirtle: “They didn’t change, they were corrupted! I was going to be the hero, you as my partner, but then she came and ruined it all...”
Squirtle: “I won’t let go of our world. I’ll do anything to make it right again.”
Shadow: “Look at yourself! Look at the world around us! We’re living in a nightmare! Do you think any of this is right?”
Squirtle: “I’m doing everything I can to make us right! I’m tearing myself apart for us! She turned me into this!”
Shadow: “That doesn’t mean she should suffer, too!”
Squirtle: “I’M the one who’s suffering! It’s not fair! I’m not supposed to be like this!”

(Pic 87) The next shot showed Squirtle crying with tears in her eyes, which caught the protagonist off.

Squirtle: “I’M the one who’s suffering! It’s not fair! I’m not supposed to be like this!”
Shadow: “...I’m sorry.”
Shadow: “But, I think... Maybe you’re suffering because she’s the hero after all-”
Squirtle: “No! I was supposed to be the hero! That’s MY future she stole from me!”
Shadow: “All you can think about is yourself! You’re stealing MY future! You’re stealing everyone’s future!”
Squirtle: “She’s the one who did this to us! You say I’m the monster, but it’s her!”
Squirtle: “She doesn’t belong in this world. It only started when SHE showed up.
Shadow: “The world started dying before Myra came here! I... I don’t believe one Vulpix could cause the end of the world!”
Squirtle: “Then what else COULD?”
Shadow: “... You.”
Squirtle: “What-?!”
Shadow: “You’re the reason everything’s falling apart! You say this’ll fix it, but will you really be able to? How am I supposed to believe that?”
Shadow: “No matter who I choose, someone has to die to save everyone else... I can’t make that decision!”
Squirtle: “You already have.”
Squirtle: “You said it yourself. You hate me. You want me dead, just like her.”
Squirtle: “At this point, I should just kill you too!!”
Shadow: “W-Wait, no, please don’t...!!”
Squirtle: “Don’t worry, I won’t, Shadow... I know SHE’S the one who’s making you think this way.”

(Pic 88) Squirtle: “You don’t have the nerve to save me, Shadow, but I’ll still save you.”
Squirtle: “Even if you won’t believe me now, I promise you... When she’s gone, we’ll be right.”
Shadow: “No! We’ll never be right!”
Shadow: “I was never supposed to be in this world!”
Shadow: “When I first saw Myra... I instantly felt... like I was born to be with her.”
Shadow: “But when I was with you... I never felt anything at all!”
Shadow: “I’ve realized it now... I was never your partner! I’m Myra’s!”

A sound of footsteps was heard, implying Shadow was running away.

Squirtle: “Shadow! Where are you going?! Shadow!!”
Squirtle: “... Fine. If you want to be that way...”

I really appreciate the argument here because it makes it seem like Shadow deeply cares about Myra on the inside and rebels against Squirtle for trying to get him to kill her. Squirtle is trying to convince Shadow that Myra is the real antagonist here. It’s like a game of manipulation within a love triangle. And if it wasn’t obvious already and well, I have to assume you readers have already read my reviews for the previous two remakes, Squirtle is saying that Myra stole her future as a reference to how the protagonist constantly kept resetting their game from the personality quiz until they got Vulpix instead of Squirtle. Shadow calling out Squirtle’s selfishness in wanting to be in the spotlight and demanding him to do things for her shows their relationship is unstable and Shadow is through with Squirtle on the unhealthy relationship.

Page 14 Pics 89-91
(Pic 89) Meanwhile back at the gradient arena with Myra, a textbox popped up and said, “Shadow used Discharge!” The rest of the Pokémon took calamitous damage and were “erased”.
I kind of wonder how Shadow was able use Discharge with the gradient world Myra is in. It makes me wonder if everything with the other starters was all in Myra’s head as it was all an illusion.

(Pic 90) After all of the Pokémon were defeated, the screen turned black and there was a large crack transition that appeared on the screen. Myra appeared to be back in the overworld once again with Shadow right in front of her. The cracked screen transition is very odd, but okay.

(Pic 91) Shadow told Myra to hold still and looked like he was ready to charge up an attack as he muttered the following statement: “This should be enough to take us out...” Shadow begins to charge up his Discharge attack which was larger than beforehand. I like this because it shows Shadow’s desire to kill himself and Myra so they both don’t have to suffer through Squirtle’s antics.

Pics 92-97

(Pic 92) Shadow: “And when that happens... We’ll both be-”

(Pic 93) A loud slicing sound and animation emerge on Shadow as static flashes onto the background once more. Not only does Shadow’s dialogue get cut off, but something else involving him gets cut off as well.

(Pic 94) Shadow: “Free-!!” Shadow’s eyes had tears rolling out of them as blood began to drip out of his mouth and from his mutilated body too. Nooooo!! Not Shadow! He was my favorite!

(Pic 95) Myra actually showed a concerned, worried expression next. I feel like her face shows how much she cared about Shadow too. It could just be from shock from the scene, but she expresses great worry on her face in that icon.

(Pic 96) Shadow was shown to have his body cut in half. He lifted his head as he use the last of his strength to squeeze out his final words to Myra.
Shadow: “I-I’m s-soorry, Myra, I... failed... Please run away... Whatever you do... don’t...”

Shadow collapsed onto the ground as his blood spilled all over the ground.

>Original: Shadow uses his final breaths to defeat Squirtle and save Myra while being cut in half.
>V2: Shadow tries to kill himself and Myra, but gets sliced in the process. Tries to laugh it off and dies.
>Rewrite: Shadow tries to kill himself and Myra, but gets sliced in the process. He uses his last breaths to apologize to Myra and pleads for her to flee for her life before passing away.

In my V2 review, I discuss how Shadow’s character arc didn’t feel completed in that version but was still arguably better than in the original. A part of me still prefers Shadow using his last strength to defeat Squirtle to save Myra, but I think him apologizing to Myra about his failure to save her works a lot better here compared to V2 because the remake builds up that he felt more obligated than passionate to kill off Myra just for the sake of Squirtle’s selfish desires, but he managed to hold back on killing Myra because he believed she was the hero of the journey. And the fact that Shadow apologizes and begs Myra to flee has a much better emotional impact than him just being like “Haha... looks like I failed...” and collapsing in V2. The remake’s interpretation of this scene has a lot of emotional impact because despite being sliced in half, it shows that he was more concerned about Myra’s wellbeing than his own.

(Pic 97) Squirtle: “There’s nothing you can do now.”
Squirtle passed over Shadow. The protagonist couldn’t do anything including fighting nor moving, all they could do was watch Squirtle step over Shadow’s dead body. Squirtle used Guillotine! Myra took calamitous damage! Oh no! Myra was defeated! Surprisingly, Myra’s sprite just vanished out of existence. No gory mess or anything.

Is that a metaphor for how Squirtle finally got rid of her, and she no longer existed? I’m not sure because of the next scenes...

(Pic 98) When the protagonist loaded up the last outing that had the following message: “Just try, I dare you.”, Myra ended up on the same beach as before in the beginning. She stood up with textboxes that read, “(I can’t win like this...)”
“(I have to go back.)”
“Back to the beginning...”
Myra turned to look right at the protagonist as she said this. It was like there was a mutual understanding between Myra and the protagonist. They knew what they had to do as they flipped off the power switch to turn the game off and on again.

Myra actually spoke... I have to admit that this was a good build-up with Myra staying silent the whole time throughout the adventure and just talking with facial expressions, but it turns out that she can actually speak and she spoke when she needed to towards the protagonist.

Page 15 Pics 99-102
(Pic 99) The protagonist selected to start an entirely new adventure after viewing the title screen displaying Squirtle and Vulpix being on an expedition together. It was disgusting to them.

As simple as that is, I have to admit it works pretty well and it’s pretty fitting as a way of showing the protag their options and how it’s metaphorically a battle between Squirtle and Vulpix.

Next was the personality quiz. It asked some unusual questions:
“When you see a switch, do you feel an overwhelming urge to flip it?” >Yes | No
“Do you think that no matter what, life goes on?” >All the time! | Never
“Once you’ve decided something, do you see it through to the end?” >Yes | No
“Have you ever looked at your reflection in a mirror and thought to yourself, “What a horrible person”? Certainly | >Well, not really...
“There’s a runaway trolley in the path of five people! You can pull a lever to hit one person to save the rest, or do nothing. What do you do?” >Pull it. | Do nothing.

Some of them are in the vanilla game like the "life going on", "seeing something through to the end", and the one about your "reflection" is the same except it asks "what a COOL person" instead.

The protag was stunned by how dark that last question was and didn’t recall that one being in the guide they looked up earlier and assumed it was just added in. They answered that they would save the five people if it meant only killing one. They waited for their results and judgment, only to get the following textbox: “You think you’re awfully bold, don’t you?” but it faded to the textbox saying the protagonist is the relaxed type instead of being bold.

Wait, is that last question a reference to that one puzzle the internet would constantly show for those advertisements? That’s odd, but it kind of works for its dark context and fitting for a personality quiz question. And something tells me Squirtle altered the questions to ask some unusual ones to mock the protagonist.

(Pic 100) The results revealed a happy-go-lucky Squirtle. The protagonist knew Squirtle had somehow skewed the results to force them to play as her instead of Vulpix. They weren’t ready to accept the results yet but proceeded with the partner selection screen.

(Pic 101) The protagonist wasn’t prepared for what they saw on the partner list. There was a colorless Shinx pre-named Shadow, and he was bleeding from the mouth and from his sliced-up body. Selecting Shadow wasn’t a choice either as the text said that “Shadow cannot be your partner.” The protag even tried to reset their game constantly in an attempt, but it still couldn’t bring him back to life.
I like how the protagonist is actually smart and is willing to try their options to test their current limits within the game even if it doesn’t seem necessary. It just makes it seem like the protagonist isn’t willing to concede, go with the flow, or let all of the creepy factors run over them. It’s a way of letting the readers know that the protagonist is trying to get out of the “cursed” situation with a variety of options, but their other options fail. It’s like a way of answering questions the readers may have of “Why did you try using an escape rope to get out of there?” for example in advance.

(Pic 102) It was hard for the protagonists to accept that they couldn’t have Shadow as their anymore, but they were flexible enough to switch to having a different partner. Vulpix was an option with no altered features of blood or gore. The protagonist happily selected the Vulpix and named her Myra. And even more of a shock, the game accepted the protagonist having Myra as the partner.

Page 16 Pics 103-105
(Pic 103) The NEW adventure starts off with Squirtle lying on the beach, seemingly unconscious. Myra was walking alongside the shore as if she switched to Shadow’s position from the previous adventure. Myra began to approach the Squirtle and spoke.

(Pic 104) Myra: “Kill her and make this right...”
It was the exact same words Shadow said beforehand and she wasn’t hesitant unlike Shadow was with her. It was time to finish this off. Myra prepared her attack to unleash every ounce of energy she had upon the Squirtle for everything she’d done to her. Looks like the tables have turned. Seriously, I love this callback to what Shadow had said earlier. It was difficult to pick which quote to have displayed for this review, but I chose this one because it's the whole "make this right" quote is said by various Pokémon throughout this pasta like the Bidoof said, Squirtle tries to convince Shadow that killing Myra will make things "right", and now, Myra says it too. I find that pretty interesting.

(Pic 105) The protagonist quietly rooted for her until a flash of whiteness splat onto the screen. The Squirtle got up and sped past Myra. Myra flinched in pain. Myra had a knife embedded in her forehead. Squirtle, a tease, still had the knife on her tail the whole time. Myra was in disbelief as her now lifeless body collapsed onto the shores. Squirtle looked back at her one more time before walking away as the screen faded to black. So that’s where the whole time with Myra having a knife indulged in her forehead came from.

Pics 106-112

(Pic 106) A textbox appeared, “You should have just accepted who you are.”
The screen faded into a terrifying sight displayed for the title screen. It showed a blood-covered Squirtle with no Vulpix next to her. That was a good foreshadowing and build-up with having Vulpix there beforehand.

(Pic 107) Selecting a new game, it skipped straight to the results of the personality quiz, saying the protagonist is a bold type and will be a Squirtle. And onto the partner selection list was Myra, who was now grayscale just like Shadow, the knife still embedded in her forehead, and chains wrapping all around her icon. The screen faintly became darker as the textboxes went by.

“Myra cannot be your hero.”
“Myra is the mask you used to hide yourself with.”

(Pic 108) “Myra is not you.”

(Pic 109) “I am.”
The protagonist nearly screamed at the sight of the Squirtle’s piercing red eyes. The protagonist shut off the game afterward. They didn’t boot up the game again. They were curious about what would happen if they chose the other starters, but they felt like that would feed into the Squirtle’s desires. Even if Squirtle would be the only playable option, they weren’t going to accept her as them.

I know some readers would be asking “Why could they just play the game as Squirtle and get over the fact she’s a Squirtle?” Well, if this was over a decade ago, you could assume this was during their childhood and people tend to have their preferences in who they want to play as, especially when they’re kids. It’s pretty common. It’s just like building up a team for any of the core Pokémon games. You prefer what Pokémon you want to use. Plus, after all of the trouble the Squirtle gave them, I wouldn’t blame them for refusing to play as her due to trauma and all.

(Pic 110) The story all happened over a decade ago. The protagonist has grown up and is still a casual Pokémon fan, but hasn’t touched a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon since now when they got the demo version of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX from the eShop. They booted up the game and admired the art style new title screen. Vulpix wasn’t a playable character in this game, so they planned to use Eevee as a substitute for Myra since they were inspired by the Eevee that appeared on the new game screen.

(Pic 111) They breezed through the personality quiz and when the results came in, the Pokémon was... Squirtle!

(Pic 112) The protagonist was given the options to confirm their results of being a Squirtle, which were “Yes, exactly!” or “No, that isn’t right!” They didn’t hesitate to pick the “no” option...

"I guess some people never change."

END OF STORY

FURTHER THOUGHTS

You left out the best part from the original, sparklingdemon! The part where the protagonist goes to the kitchen to get a brownie. (A Discord server jokes around about that part.)

Real talk: I think this was the best interpretation of the "epilogue" involving the protagonist out of the trilogy. It was straight to the point, wasn't cheesy at all, and didn't drag on.

One thing that I wonder about this pasta is what was the meaning behind the Vulpix's tail in the cauldron.

I feel like more could've been done with Squirtle manipulating Shadow into believing that she was the hero and that Myra was the villain like after Myra defeats various zombie Pokémon, Squirtle is like, "She's a very violent and aggressive monster! Did you see what she did to all of those poor souls in this dungeon?" and Shadow tries to defend Myra saying something like, "I'm not foolish! They're attacking her! She's attacking them out of self-defense! She's not a monster!"

It's a SPOILED PASTA...

As in, this pasta got "SPOILED" with so many visuals and effort.

So, obviously it's a FRESH PASTA because what else is there to say about it?

The story is amazing, the build-ups and tensions are well-done, and just the amount of effort put into the screencaps to make it convincing is mind-blowing. This pasta has at least 250+ screencaps, and it's a nice comic format to tell the pasta in. There is tons of potential with these characters and it's no surprise that sparklingdemon was able to execute it even better. I still enjoyed star-byte's interpretations of the story. If anything, the only problems I really had with star-byte's versions were the endings with the protagonists, but the parts with Myra, Shadow, and Squirtle were still good for what they had to provide.

Now, I'm not going to say this is how a creepypasta should be like because if anything, I think this one is in the levels of "overachieving" if anything with providing so many visuals, which I won't say is a bad thing. I just think the story with all of its anticipation is how it should be with build-ups and good pay-offs and it has a variety of creepy factors into the mix. That's how I think a creepypasta should be because it's doing its job of being creepy by providing a story. However, I will say that Prevention of Evolution (2020) did have a better reason for the protagonist staying mentally attached to the game than not just being plain curious.

I understand some people may think having all these screencaps may arguably make the pasta less convincing because why would the protagonist spend so much time and energy taking photos of what's happening within their "haunted cartridge" and they were able to take so photos at the right time and especially for the context of this story is why Myra had so many close calls with the dungeon battles which is probably because the protag spent so much time taking screencaps with each event happening, which may take some focus out of the game for sure. And I can see why people may have that argument because I've seen it used for other pastas like "I hate you" and "NES Godzilla" since the protagonist took screencaps during battles or troublesome moments that makes you question if they need to put their focus on the game rather than trying to take a screencap.

But let's be real here, without the screencaps for the pasta, some of the shots wouldn't seem very believable. Just like BEN Drowned, would we really find it as good if it wasn't for the WMV it provided?

One more thing: There's actually a QnA on the lore of this pasta and an "Ask" tumblr page for these characters that I think you all should check out as well. Thank you, YourFriendlyNeighborVessel on Discord, for sharing these with me.

The most relevant question answered from that page for me would probably be the one about why Myra is killing everyone other than in self-defense since I constantly kept making theories on that aspect of the pasta.

Myra is actually saving everyone by ending Squirtle's dying world that she is desperately clinging onto because Myra is intended to be the "hero" according the protagonist and she's bringing them to her world rather than Squirtle's dying world since they will be brought back to life in Myra's new world. It has a connection to Sunflora's quote to Myra being the "light". That's why

My rankings for the reviewed PokéPastas so far (from best to worst, top to bottom):
1. PMD: Explorers of Death (Remake) - Fresh
2. Prevention of Evolution (2020) - Fresh
3. Easter Egg - Snow on Mt. Silver – Fresh
4. Forever Mine (Remake) - Fresh
5. Absol (Reaper) - Fresh
6. La Condena de Milotic – Fresh
7. Hypno's Lullaby – Fresh
8. Forever Mine (Original) - Fresh
9. Disabled - Fresh
10. Top Percentage - Fresh
11. Strangled Red – Dried
12. Zombreon - Dried
13. Lost Silver – Dried
14. PMD: Explorers of Death V2 - Dried
15. PMD: Explorers of Death (Original) - Dried
16. White Hand and Buried Alive - Dried
17. Pokémon Violet - Dried
18. Lavender Town Syndrome - Dried
19. Creepy Black – Dried
20. The Umbreon - Dried
21. Abandon Lonliness - Spoiled
22. Nunca Ignores Su Llamado - Spoiled
23. Pokémon Dead Channel – Spoiled
24. Pokémon Dead Channel 2 - Spoiled
25. Prevention of Evolution (Original) - Spoiled
26. Depressing Insanity - Spoiled
27. Milotic's Revenge – Spoiled
28. Glitchy Red - Spoiled
29. Nurse Joy - Spoiled
30. Leaf Green Beta Scene - Spoiled

10 Fresh Pastas | 10 Dried Pastas | 10 Spoiled Pastas

CAN WE SERIOUSLY STOP IT WITH GETTING THE EXACT SAME NUMBERS ALL ACROSS?! It's going to make it seem like these ratings are rigged just to have all three of the numbers the same every time. And trust me, they're NOT rigged. These have been how I genuinely feel about each pasta on this list.

I apologize for the amount of delays for this review and even on art in particular. Dovey and I have been writing some story arc with our characters that we plan to have out for next year. And of course, work and responsibilities have been obstacles for us as well. I'll still do these reviews for sure. In fact, I feel like they've become so popular this year, especially during my hiatus, which I find very odd, but I'm glad you all enjoy them. I mean, half of the reviews I've posted this year have over 40+ favorites. Each of my reviews back in the year 2021 would only get roughly around 10 favorites each. You don't know how much I appreciate the support! :3

Next Time: I'm just going to do something short and simple. Just a discussion on Missingno in particular and on why they've been so big within the pokepasta community despite being just a glitch.

Click here to view the full list of every PokéPasta review so far