Sorry bout the mess...

I spent way too much time thinking about this. So much that I made a spreadsheet, that I used to narrow down my pool of favorites into 4 potential thematic teams: Rival-flavored, sandstorm, ground gym, and water gym. Rival-flavored feels the most "me", so this is what I would put for that:

I didn't bother giving them EVs or whatever, these are smogon automatic suggestions. The movesets and items are basically placeholders to give a general vibe of what their role is. I know that they're not the best movesets sometimes, but they're more thematic than anything. I love my bulky attackers.

But, if you want to get a sense of what my favorite pokemon are and look at the other teams I thought of, check out my thought process here:

Saw my recent rock tutorial blow up a bit, wanted to also share this mountain painting tutorial I‘ve made!

Her plans for the West are clear: to conquer and reshape the world into a place ruled by the Zeniths, where the human tribes are subjugated or eradicated entirely. But Alpha doesn't see herself as just a servant of the Zeniths—she sees herself as their true heir. She wants to be the one who rules, the one who controls the fate of humankind.

In her eyes, Aloy is the last remaining obstacle to her achieving this goal. And so, she sends her newly transformed allies to kill Aloy—no mercy, no second chances.

Alpha’s Psychological Warfare

The real danger with Alpha lies not just in her enhanced strength or intelligence, but in her ability to break people down emotionally and mentally. She would never just kill Aloy. Instead, she wants to torment her. She enjoys watching others suffer, especially when their suffering involves the betrayal of those they hold dear.

Erend might have been a pillar of loyalty and friendship, but Alpha sees his bond with Aloy as a weakness to exploit. She knows how to manipulate his grief, playing on his sense of duty and guilt over the loss of his sister. Alpha could twist his emotions, making him doubt his own memories and ultimately turning him into a weapon against Aloy.

Kotallo, the noble warrior, could be pushed to the edge by Alpha’s psychological tactics. His honor is everything to him, so Alpha could use his sense of honor and duty to manipulate him into believing that Aloy is the true enemy of the West. She might even promise him an eternal place of honor within the Zeniths' new world order, using his dreams of a better future to turn him into an agent of destruction.

Zo is a natural tactician, and Alpha could exploit her strategic mind, turning her into a manipulative agent of war. With her intellect and tactical knowledge, Zo would make a fearsome foe who knows exactly how to undermine and defeat Aloy in battle. But with Alpha controlling her, Zo could become a calculating machine who sees no value in the old world, only in creating the perfect one under Zenith rule.

Alva, whose emotional fragility might have made her susceptible to manipulation in the past, could be twisted by Alpha’s promises of a new order—one where the old world’s constraints no longer bind her. Alva’s intellectual brilliance would be harnessed for Alpha’s advantage, allowing her to design weapons and tactics to defeat Aloy’s every move.

Varl, once a mentor figure, is perhaps the most tragic of all. Alpha could exploit Varl’s sense of family and duty to break him down, making him believe that the future Aloy seeks is futile. She could twist his deep connection to the past, using his memories of his family and his painful loss to turn him against her.

Beta: The cruelest irony of all—Beta, who once shared a sisterly bond with Aloy, has been turned against her. In this version of the story, Beta may still harbor some shred of love for Aloy deep inside, but the Zenith transformation has buried it beneath layers of Alpha’s manipulation. Alpha could use Beta as a final instrument of betrayal—having her face Aloy in a direct confrontation, perhaps forcing Beta to kill Aloy, only to leave her with the unbearable knowledge of what she’s become.

Please join me in the Olivia cult, and write some fanfic, guys. 👉👈 I would also love to read some!

Like the matoran, they were created for one task. They were intensively traned in that task. And they were told that this task was more important than them. And then they were packed away like tools in a toolshed, never knowing when - or even if - there'll be need for their use.

They were created to be things. Or rather:

In particular, the scene with Whenua and de-powered Onua facing the swarm of scorpions and it simply does not occur to Onua to make a strategic retreat, he thinks he absolutely HAS to fight them… because that is what he was made and trained for. Of course he thinks being a Toa is about being “a mighty arm to strike down your enemies” and that not doing so means failure.

Whereas Whenua started life as a Matoran, so even when he was a Toa, he didn’t jump straight to “beat the shit out of it” as a response to threats.

The idea that some or all of the Toa Mata had to learn how NOT to act like living superweapons, had to learn gentleness and restraint, is kind of fascinating to me.

Unlike most mentors in superpowered stories, the Turaga’s primary role is not to teach the heroes how to use their powers or how to fight, they already know how to do that when they wash ashore. Their primary role as mentors is to remind the Toa of how human they are. Well, their true primary role is to spout exposition, but their secondary role is—!

Nearly every significant character interaction between the Toa and their Turaga takes the form of the Turaga reminding the Toa that they are not an invincible paragon demigod, but that they are flawed, vulnerable beings with a lot to learn. On the island, the Toa receive almost nothing but praise from the Matoran. And despite being the ones who set the villagers’ expectations so high, the Turaga spend most of their time with the Toa being the only people who know how deeply human they are and understand the pressure they are under.

In their very first interaction, Whenua tells Onus that even though saving Mata Nui is their destiny, their success is nor certain, only that it is their duty to try their best. Nokama shows Gali the cave with carvings of the Toa Metru because she wants Gali to know that she isn’t alone, that she truly understands what Gali is going through on a personal level. Vakama pleads with Tahu to understand the depth of responsibility that comes with the power of the Vahi. And the Turaga constantly tell the Toa how they need each other, how they can’t do this all on their own.

Even more so once their past is revealed, the Turaga are very clear that the lessons they are imparting are not battle strategies or even how to save people, it’s about the costs of hubris and ignorance, and driving home the idea that sometimes the most heroic act is simply keeping hope alive for the future. Vakama challenges Tahu to say what he fears, and in a moment of vulnerability Tahu admits he is deeply scared that he’ll do something stupid and cost his friends their lives.

The Turaga are very interesting mentors because the lessons they impart are not about being warriors, but about knowing their limits and understanding their vulnerability.

Honestly, imagine being old Vakama, meeting with the incarnation of flame himself, trying to gently relate and get this new, completely unknown toa to behave appropriately. It would have been terrifying, to be honest, training an amnesiac child with godlike powers of destruction how to lead a team into danger. Tahu starts out as a total stranger, when the turaga had previously thousands of years of combined contextual experience of the relationships and attitudes of the matoran in their care.

This is a Scrapper. It is a small, acquisition class machine that is incredibly similar in appearance to a Scrounger. Appearance-wise, the most noticeable part is on the inside of the mouth. Scroungers have a large insert in the roof of their mouth, while Scrappers don’t. I’ve provided a picture from my post about Scroungers at the end of this one for a comparison.

Their purpose is also identical to that of a Scrounger- They break down machine carcasses for the purpose of recycling it. They also travel in packs, and can be found near scrap heaps.

Unlike Scroungers, these machines are present in both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. However, the strategy for fighting them changes depending on the game being played. The two biggest changes present are that in Forbidden West, it gains the ability to prevent Aloy from using the focus for about 30 seconds, and the Power Cell on its back, which can be hit to create an AOE to deal shock damage has also been replaced with a Plasma Cell, requiring the usage of Plasma Arrows specifically to set it off for an AOE.

Horizon: Forbidden West #029

Source: Unknown

[CRACKS KNUCKLES] Watch me try to stay as concise as I can with this post, hahaha.

First thing I'll say is--I'm an absolute sucker for a strong-based friends to lovers ship. The loyalty, the devotion, the knowing each other before and after the world changes them and every stage between, the slow strengthening of feelings, the contending with blurred boundaries, the oh moment, the it was this all along, the I have always been here and so have you and so we will, the settling into even deeper contentment with the other, hoo boy I can go on and on. I especially like it when it comes in a sapphic flavor of the Burdened Chosen One and their Tender, Caring, Supportive Best Friend.

[looks directly at camera]

So you can already see where I'm coming from, here. But--truly, for me--it comes down to 1) the similarities AND innate differences in their life stories/situations and 2) their interactions in HZD. A combined one-two punch that crushed my windpipe and stole my lunch money.

I'm a sucker for a friends to lovers ship, and I'm also a sucker for a ship with compelling parallels. What interests me most about the Aloy/Talanah dynamic is that they're narrative mirrors, but foils in situation. Both are highly-skilled hunters; both driven by their fixation on a parental figure (either avenging or uncovering); both lost their father (figure) to a cruelty much too large for them, with their fathers' shared desire for them to survive; both inheriting new titles (Sunhawk, Alpha Prime) and shouldering the burdens of their deceased parental figure; both proving their place and worth in the world as based on, in Talanah's words, more than the nature of their birth alone; I could keep going. (Don't tempt me.) But here Aloy was an outcast, while Talanah is from one of the noblest houses of her tribe--the difference of change from without versus change from within, and all the ways in which both are complicated. So narrative mirrors coming from opposing situations--how does that make them alike, and how does it make them different? How does it change they way they navigated through the world, and how does it change the way they would navigate one another?

I also love to point out the fact that Talanah is the perfect example of what Rost was trying to demonstrate to Aloy in his final lesson. The strength to stand alone and to make a stand. Her dedication to a selfless cause--ambition not for her own sake, but to restore her family's legacy, and to change her culture. GOD. My fingers are going numb just thinking about it.

What I'm trying to say is that Talanah is in a unique position to see and empathize with the burden Aloy feels post-HZD, and I'm not sure I'll ever forgive the writers for not capitalizing on that during the pivotal time of HFW. Carrying on of your parent's legacy is not easy, and even if Talanah doesn't know it by weight, she knows it by shape. Importantly, to me--Talanah understands--she's lived analogous experiences to Aloy's--but she's also different enough to challenge her. In fact, it goes both ways. There's a mutuality to the way that they make up for what the other has maybe lacked--puzzle pieces instead of cognate shapes, or the same image repeated twice, amplifying itself. There's harmony where there could just be volume.

That got away from me, so I'll just keep on going with how their interactions in HZD fishhooked me. I made a post the other day about Aloy's joy in the Redmaw victory, and that's a major part of it. The rest is just--the sense of ease and understanding that comes out in all of their conversations? And how Talanah always and consistently from the beginning sees Aloy as Aloy, not a Seeker, not a savior, not an oddity, just based on her own merit alone? How she heard Aloy give herself a name--Aloy despite the Nora--says she'll remember it, and then does, TWICE? Every smile she brings out of Aloy, every moment of bare genuineness between them, that giggle from Aloy post-quest? And don't get me started on the "you made this possible, Aloy" parallel. Don't even let me think about "you'll always have a special home here, if you want it." It'll end badly for all of us, category 10 blorbo emergency.

But it's not only what Talanah can offer Aloy (a deep bond of loyalty and fondness, a sense of belongingness, the simple fact of being seen as exactly how you yourself want to be seen)--Aloy gives back to Talanah as well!! Much more deeply than just helping her earn the Sunhawk title and restoring her family's legacy. Think about their pre-Alight conversation: "I won't stand aside while one of mine fights alone. Not again." Aloy has become one of Talanah's--a person who has lost everyone dear to her. Something that must be absolutely terrifying (see my post-HZD Lanah characterization, lmao) but still worth fighting for.

I was lucky enough to read the entire Sunhawk comic directly after the credits rolled on HZD, and that again just blew me out of the water with how much sense they make. The fact that Talanah was the only one to see Aloy leave makes my brain wanna come gushing out of my ears. And how they just--keep running into one another (more on this in the next paragraph). But perhaps the most important comic moment is Talanah's affirmation of "you don't owe me anything" after Aloy apologizes for leaving. That right there is respect to Aloy's agency and personhood (versus instrumentality!!) and the burden Talanah can sense she's under. She trusts Aloy to have told her what was up, if she had wanted her to know. And trusts that whatever she is doing must be important. Even if it's been difficult to be without her, Talanah knows she can't ask Aloy for more than what she is or what she can give.

(that's not to say Talanah isn't hurt. I think she still is--and projects a lot of that hurt and attachment onto another woodsy hermit--but that's a topic for a different post. You can trust and accept something like this while still being hurt by it.)

You asked how I came to the conclusion of THEM, so I haven't really included HFW in this analysis (I was clearly a goner from HZD), but it's there too. The way Aloy just happens to find out Talanah is nearby after her entire worldview is cracked open at Latopolis, how seeking her out and finding her seems to just make things okay again despite everything? (again, the constant finding of each other.) The fondness of their reunion? "It feels good to hunt by your side again"? The easy way they settle into old comfortable patterns of conversation? The tone of You love him, don't you and Really??? and Come here.? It's just all there screaming at me. I can't.

I just. I love them so much. It's so clear to me how they already have helped and can continue to help each other grow. Especially now that the series has placed them in yet another paralleled situation post-HBS. From where I see it, they've been dancing around each other since the beginning. And the way they've both sought things with others (ALSO EACH HAVING PARALLELS TO THE OTHER) only to walk away makes me wanna go absolutely feral. I can very, very clearly see this playing out into an what was I looking for when there was you moment and it might actually be the thing that makes me perish

All three major toa teams + Takanuva are living as matoran on Mata Nui but something is wrong. They should be somewhere different. They should look different. Details of their different eras of life are mixed together when they shouldn’t be. None of the koros’ turaga’s name is ever mentioned, nor is any detail of their appearance.