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PM-James — 043 Shining C. Learning Shadow Ball
#ball #comic #eevee #fan #normal #pokemon #series #shadow #shiny #tm #tyler #type #shinign #consequece
Published: 2017-11-05 04:07:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 2387; Favourites: 26; Downloads: 3
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I'm early for a change! So here's a page that I think people will find interesting. Tyler here demonstrates his intuition as he figures out how to use TMs without Solar's help (or anybodies help for that matter) and sticks with it despite some failures. That will be explored further as the story goes along. The other element to this I think will be interesting is this demonstrates how the TMs actually work. Pokemon is really vague about them, they never really go into any detail on what a TM actually is and how they actually work. The Pokemon is either able or they're not, no given reason as to why, no details on what to do with the TM. All we really know about them is they teach a specific attack to anything that is capable, regardless of level, and they look like CDs (And they either can or can't be used more than once depending on what game you're playing). So how do they work exactly? Well here's my answer to that question and how TMs work in my stories.Essentially what you do is you get out the TM case, a device that can both hold and use them. The TM case has a center piece where you place the TMs inside. After doing that, you turn it on. The case opens up and the TM inside emits the energy that the user will need to replicate in-order to perform the attack. Specifically, this one is Shadow Ball. So the energy that it sends out is special Ghost type energy with 80 power that has a 20% chance to lower sp.def. These details are significant because they're consistent. It doesn't matter if it's a level 1 Ghastly using Shadow ball or a level 100 Mewtwo. The category, power, typing and effect of the attack are always the same. The difference is typing of the Pokemon them self and the attacking stat they have. So that's the first step of the TM, to demonstrate to them exactly what they need to produce in order to use the attack. The Pokemon will than retrieve the energy from the TM case and learn to replicate it them self, if they can. That's the first reason why some TMs an not be taught. If they can not produce ghost type energy, they will never be able to use the attack.
After that they determine if they can execute the attack itself. Which is what Tyler does towards the end (or tries to), not only does the TM provide an example of the energy they need to use, it also provides it in a way that will be easy to handle and perform the attack with. Sort of like training wheels essentially. So they can also see what the attack is like and then use the energy they've learned to develop themselves in that way. Since just because they can generate energy doesn't mean they know what to do with it. That becomes the second way Pokemon can be unable to learn a TM. For example, Tyler here can generate ghost type energy, so why can't he learn Shadow claw as well? Well because he wouldn't be able to manipulate the ghost type energy in that particular way, with or without the TM's guidance. He simply is not able to do it and thus no amount of practice will help.
The final question this addresses, why don't TMs break anymore? They used to but they don't anymore. Well a possible explanation for that is shown here. As the comic goes on, the energy coming from the TM gets smaller and smaller. That's because the machine goes into a regeneration phase while the Pokemon is experimenting with the energy, the original version didn't do this and the Pokemon would often times end up using all the energy the TM could provide and it would be broken in the process. Now it goes into a regeneration phase where it builds the energy back up before continuing.
Anyway, so that's the explanation and what we have here. Tyler here will be learning several TMs this way, exactly which ones will be revealed as the story goes along, though Shadow Ball is indeed one of them as he will figure it out eventually. One last thing to talk about, this page also addresses the theme of the story, literary tropes and norms, and I will be talking about that very soon. I was kicking around exactly which one to start with but I think the one this one is addressing might be the best t start with. So expect that in the near future.
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Comments: 30
And here I thought that TMs were some kind of instructional DVD, kinda like fitness "tapes".
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Well I wanted something they could physically work with, feel this fits well personally.
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Hmmm, Nightmare is the main Villain of Shining C. and he is weak to Ghost-Types becuase he is one himself. You very rarely do something in your comics that has no meaning or is random aside from may being spontanious. So I say him learning especally Shadow-Ball might have a meaning for a the final battle with Nightmare or another key situation towards the end. Wonder if I am onto something.
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Maybe. All I'll really say about that is in the stories I write, I try to ensure everything I put in a story serves some sort of purpose, exactly what that purpose is varies greatly, such as: character development, foreshadowing, misleading, comedic relief, symbolism, building up a later events, etc. This is no exception.
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As I thought. Thats part of the reasons I consider you such a great writer and artist. Lets see how my theory will play out.
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I ended up connecting TMs with the rest of my pokeball headcanon. It's a little like this, but the TM is a ball with an interactive training room inside that lets the pokemon practice with demonstrations and feedback. They break for the same reasons pokeballs break, at least until later when technology gets to the point where they have the same capabilities as pokeballs to contain owned pokemon - in my headcanon, pokeballs are adjusted once they capture a pokemon (usually back at the Pokemon Center) to be able to contain that one specifically regardless of its attempts to break out. Tyler (a vaporeon, not your Tyler) accidentally obliterates the Ice Beam TM once he finally figures the move out, since it wasn't one of the newer ones.
As you say, the games never really give a reason or method for TMs to work.
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Hey, haven't heard from you in a while, how you doing?
Don't know about the CD versions but I recall the way TMs were originally depicted in the trading card game and manga sounds sort of like that, being these cube like things with a red center. Yeah the TM has always been really dodgy, they never really state how the things work, they just do. I like this method because it covers pretty much all my questions about them, plus it lets these guys have access to them too.
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I am...between projects. It SUCKS. I've got three ideas for books mostly ready to go, but none of them are quite fleshed out to the point where I'm ready to start a draft.
And yeah, your way works too. I enjoy seeing people who actually try to come up with plausible reasons for things instead of just blindly following game mechanics. Mine...I mean, I guess wild pokémon could use it if they knew how. My TMs have an internal exit unlike pokeballs. They're generally not familiar with human stuff though, unless they know a former trainer's pokémon.
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Sorry for late reply. Oh yeah I have been there. For me, my trick to getting around that is to write drafts for later scenes and sequences. Like in Cretaceous Isle, the first scene I wrote for (unreleased of course) was the T.rex's first appearance, despite that not happening for a little ways in. That scene helped put me into the mood I was trying to capture for the story as a wole and was a great way to get me to write more of the story, plus it gave me somewhere to start too. Sometimes just that initial push is all you really need and even if the draft you wrote doesn't work for whatever reason (like mine did), it's a first draft, you'll be rewriting it anyway.
I in general like to do that, play with the lore and come up with my own ideas, characters, etc. Even if I use cannon stuff, like Catch me If You Can does, they're still my versions of them. Just makes the whole thing more unique I think.
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I might do that. I have a few good scenes in mind, especially the one where my two main characters finally come face to face (they're on opposite sides of a war). Thanks!
And yeah, when I write Pokemon I spend a lot of effort separating "game design" from canon. Especially with Pokemon, since mechanics in the anime also frequently mirror the game's visuals, many of which are based on game design necessity. I hate it when people take "getting burned lowers Attack," for example, as gospel truth - or, for that matter, that attacks have to be purely physical or special, or that type advantages are an unchangeable rock-paper-scissors. Damage and status ailments are such a massive simplification of what happens in a fight (which makes perfect sense when you're trying to keep a game accessible to players of all ages) and they don't translate so well to writing good stories. To me, it just feels like those people aren't taking their stories seriously enough to imagine what it would actually be like to live in that world.
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Another trick I use that might help is start writing a little before where you actually intend to start the story. Like I did that for a story I'm writing that may or not may not be released here, haven't decided yet. It opens with a Government trapper named Thomas arriving at the site of where a grizzly animal attack took place to help identify what 'caused the attack and help track local authorities track the animal down. Well in the rough draft version, the story opened with Thomas still in his truck and on his way to the site. I then made it all the way through the scene and got an idea of what the scene was going to be like on paper and went back and found an ideal spot to cut the original drafts opening and I ended up with what I think is a solid opening to the story. I find the trickiest part of opening a story is getting started, but once you have started you generally have no problem continuing on at least for the initial sequence, whatever it is. It also is nice because it doesn't matter how uninteresting, unneeded, or imperfect that opening is since you're going to cut it out anyway, so you can focus more on the opening sequence itself more so than how the story should start up. It also lets you look at the story from the perspective of a reader, what is the most interesting place or way to draw a reader in? Well read what you have and make the cut where you think that spot is. That sort of thing.
I think I should be loyal to the games, as they are the original source, but I put narrative and story telling above that. Like if the games say something should go a certain way, but I feel it be more interesting to go against that, I do. For instance, the four move limit. I don't use that because it be boring. In the games it's fine because limiting the player is a way to make them try to come up with ways to get around the limitation. In a story though, it doesn't really work because the viewer isn't playing a game, they're watching a show, reading a comic, etc. All they care about is what they see, and if Solar were to use psychic over and over and over, it get boring pretty fast. So even though he knows psychic and it's stronger than Psybeam, he'll still use psybeam too to break up the visuals a little. Other things I like to do are introduce some new concepts like the mastered techniques, which are basically when they use the attacks in other ways than the way they're shown in the games (Tyler for example mastered Quick Attack, so he can bounce off walls, increase how fast he can run and dodge with, that sort of thing).
Otherwise I'll add an explanation. For instance, from a narrative perspective, the reason they have TM moves is so they can have attacks they might not otherwise and give them more options in the fights themselves. The games say they need the TMs to do it, so I put an explanation as to why they have access to them in the story itself. So now I can effectively have them use those moves without it being a problem for the universe. If I went strictly by what the games say, then there's be no TM moves for the most part and the fights would get uninteresting fast since they'd be doing the same handful of things every single fight.
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That's essentially it for me. I'm not saying "throw the games out," I just don't like it when people copy/paste game mechanics with no understanding of why they're designed that way. Example: when someone throws out "critical hit." Attacks don't just magically sometimes hit twice as hard, critical hits are a simulation of landing blows on vulnerable spots. Stories shouldn't (generally) be about the simulation, they should be about the thing being simulated, so "a critical hit that took out half the enemy's health" just makes me cringe. There's a whole world of detail and experience that the writer just brushed aside because "that's how it is in the game." I also don't like it when type advantages are interpreted literally, because there's no particular reason a fist made out of ice should hurt a fire pokemon less than a fist made out of rock. They have advantages, like they might be able to melt some of the ice before it gets to them, but the hit itself is still a hit. I guess you could say I don't like abandoning realism, because I think it sells the story even when it's fantasy. Point A and Point B can be weird places, but if it doesn't make sense how you get between them then what are you even doing?
For the idea of the different moves themselves, I generally explain it with an energy reservoir (Tyler in my story also has a water reservoir - he can't just spontaneously generate it, though he can store a lot more than his body mass). Basically yes the espeon could use Psychic constantly, but they'll wear themselves out faster so they'll tend to save it for big hits.
I like the idea of mastery and combos because honestly, if you're not coming up with fun ways to use attacks you're not properly enjoying writing Pokemon. [My] Tyler likes to do a double-Waterfall move, where at the top of the attack he'll use it again, pointed straight down to smash his opponent into the floor (he just liquefies on impact). Bonus points if there's a ceiling to hit first. Or, say, he uses Acid Armor all the time to do things like hide or melt through a metal grate. There are all kinds of fun things that can happen.
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Hmm...interesting idea for what a TM looks like. I've heard that it looks like a CD sized data disk and apparently the pokemon puts it on their head to learn the move. XD
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Thanks, yeah I've always like this method personally.
I think that's how it worked in gen 3, with the CD hovering over their head, but if I recall all the items worked basically like that when you used them, just a little cinematic of the item being used so I don't know if that's how it actually works. Might be wrong, been a while since I played gen 3. I usually stick with gen 4 and up due to the physical, special split taking place at that point.
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Haven't played gen 3 or 4 so I wouldn't know.
I do like the design of the machine that appears to open up the TMs so they can be learned without a trainer. Clever. Who invented the said device?
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My guess would be either Devon corp or Silph Co. The device is modeled after the TM case as it's depicted in the 3rd gen games. In those games it just holds them from what I can tell but here it holds them and allows you to use them.
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I always assumed you inserted the TM into 'equator' slot of the Pokeball...
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Could be, though the TM would be pretty tiny if that were the case. I've always imagined them being at least the size of a regular CD or bigger (4 1/2 inches). The Pokeball is about the size of a base ball at it's biggest size, about 3 inches in diameter. The TM would have to be about that size too to fit in there. That's entirely possible, it be about the size of the Nintendo Game Cube's disks, but way smaller than I've always imagined them personally.
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GameCube CDs are 3.14" wide. Meanwhile, I saw PokeBalls as more of a Softball size than a Baseball; a difference from 2.94" (not that far off from GC CDs) to 3.5".
While the main anime hasn't had TMs, the Mystery Dungeon Special mentioned them in Japanese, suggesting they may not be human-exclusive (but I wouldn't be surprised if a human introduced them, maybe with the help of an electric Pokemon). Another, in Origins, was stored inside a Floppy Disc case (a great nod to the earlier age of computers). Surprisingly, the regular floppy is about 3.5" wide, the same size as the Softballs.
Also, according to the manga, the TM is put in a case which you crack open, sprinkles energy onto said Pokemon (an Eevee in this case, 
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Well exactly how big the Pokeball is for sure I don't know, since it's never been measured but Soft ball sounds like a fine comparison too. TM still be much smaller than I always thought they were XD
The TM has always been something they've been really vague about. How it works, what you do to make them work, etc. Even what they look like to a certain extant. So there's plenty of different ideas on how they function, how big they are, etc. I like the method shown here personally as it covers the most questions I personally have about them but I'm sure there's other methods that would work too.
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I like the way you made TM's work alot more intricate than another method I have seen. Also why would Tyler stick his paw into a questionable beam of power.
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Thanks, what other methods have you seen?
Well the answer to why he does that without a care is kind of complex, I don't know if you want the detailed answer but the shortest version is Tyler has no reason to fear it. When he says he's never seen energy like that, he means the type it is. He's never seen Ghost type energy, the energy itself is similar to what he has used before via the moves he knows at this point (normal, fairy and ground) and isn't dangerous by itself. He also has seen other types: fire, water, dark and psychic, so he's well aware types he doesn't use exist too, so seeing one he doesn't recognize doesn't really mean anything to him either.
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The simplest way I have seen is just plopping the TM on the subjects head akin to the third gen games. One of the more unusual methods that I have seen revolved a "brain cap" which would have the pokemon undergo a painful process to learn the move.
Tyler really is open to any new possibilities when it comes to types that are out there.
Also, is shadow ball the only TM that he will try to use.
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Ahh, yeah it's pretty different here I guess but this makes the most sense to me.
Yeah well he is an Eevee with friends and family that are also Eevee(lutions), so he sees and interacts with Pokemon of different types more frequently than others do.
No, this is the only one I'll show him learning but he will be learning others as well.
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One of the methods I have seen is in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Silver Resistance by ScytheRider they did it as a virtual reality inside the mind of the Pokemon.
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Basically the way I see it that when a Pokémon learns a tm it become bound by DNA and it’s the matter of harvesting it from memory to put it into actual use. The same way a person learns something.
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So how do the TMs themselves work though, how do they teach it to them?
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There have been multiple theories that before they didn’t break, the Pokémon would step or touch the tm, the data transmitted into their mind and the tm itself would break into dust.
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