Reblogs galore :)

"Does thou understand thy task?"

"I-I still don't know why I'm even doing this. What's my purpose in coming here? Pokémon don't even exist-"

"Once more I shall reiterate: Achieve Perfection, and come to the Summit. You will find me waiting."

"I..don't know what "perfection" even is! Why did you send me to this place?! Why did you choose-"

The sound of a rooster's loud caw made your eyes snap open, realizing that you were having yet another bizarre dream.

You sighed, waking up and rubbing your eyes, before checking the time.

6:00 AM.

"Oh well..time to make breakfast and get to work." You muttered to yourself, stretching out your limbs before getting out of bed and starting the day.

No time to muddle over your dream.

But you knew for certain that your encounter with the mythical Arceus--the God of all Pokémon itself--was no dream the first time around, as it decided to send you to this strange new land..

A land called Stardew Valley.

You didn't think there was any special reason it chose you. You've just finished schooling in Paldea and had plans to travel the world with your Pokémon. Although apparently god itself decided to fling you into an entirely different world..not one where Ultra Beasts nor Giratina existed.

But rather a world where you quickly realized Pokémon didn't even exist.

It was just you and your team: Herdier, Gogoat, Mudsdale, Vespiquen, Oinkolonge, and Blazkien--your start who's been by your side since your Pokémon journey began back in Hoenn.

You were thankful Arceus sent them along with you, or else you probably would've lost your mind at this point..

The moment you were dropped down into a dilapidated farmland, you quickly realized that you had to make a new home for yourself here...and as you've gotten acquainted with the locals in the nearby town, you also learned how to make some good profits.

Farming wasn't something you expected to do in your journey, but what other option did you have?

Besides, your team adjusted rather well to the roles you've assigned them: such as Oinkolonge sniffing out truffles, Vespiquen and Gogoat ensuring your crops were growing well, Herdier digging up bones and artifacts for you to sell, donate, or gift, Mudsdale helping you get around town on horseback, and Blaziken aiding you with the physical labor and being your bodyguard in the mines.

When you've heard rumors of monsters dwelling there, you assumed Pokémon and became eager to catch some....only to discover that they weren't even Pokémon at all--but rather hostile creatures that had no types or weaknesses you could exploit.

Your Pokedex and pokeballs were basically null and void.

So again, you had to adapt. This time you needed to sharpen up your combat skills, even though Blaziken was able to take them down pretty easily without you ever lifting your sword.

That was one problem taken care of.

The other...involved the villagers who don't know what a "poke-man" is, the majority thinking you were insane for going to the mines. You've become close friends with a lot of the guys over the past year or so, and while they've seen you, Mudsdale, and Herdier together, you never told them you were a Pokémon trainer.

For all they knew, you were just someone from Zuzu City who owned a "unique" dog and horse. They didn't know you came from a world entirely different from theirs.

They were wary of anything new--including yourself--and were especially terrified of the monsters, hearing nothing but rumors and horrible things happening to people in the mines.

What would they think if they discovered you owned "monsters" of your own who had special powers? You had no idea if they'd be scared of you..and everything you've done to build up friendships with them would come crashing down.

But a few hours later, while you and your companions were preoccupied with their outdoor tasks, you failed to notice one of the guys was approaching the farmland.

And you had little time to react to their presence before they spotted one of your Pokémon...

.......

This is based off a text post that I can’t find anymore! If someone can find it pls lemme know 😭 but yeah! lol Corbeau responding to “honey” from player character lol

Goes into spoilers and stuff

Goes into spoilers but also primarily sex as a topic of his character so uh. nsfw warning i guess idfk

We know from the starting scenes of the game that the farmer's grandfather loved Stardew Valley. So why did he leave? Pelican Town is a good place to grow old; George and Evelyn are just fine. It's a fine place to raise a kid, but maybe he just wanted to raise his child closer to real schools and other children.

Or maybe, just maybe, he understood.

Was there a day when he was in his thirties where he looked at his friends and realized they weren't like him? That he could run faster than them, work longer, explore deeper into the hidden places of the valley?

Was there a day when he went to the wizard to ask him for help, for knowledge if nothing else? Did he learn then that his family was different? Special? Chosen? And how did he react? He couldn't possibly raise a child in the valley if they would be as strange and fey as him. He had to leave. There was no other way.

But years later, on his deathbed, did he regret that choice?

Is that why he gave the farmer the letter?

Is that why they went back home?

When the farmer steps off the bus that first day, the valley is still on the cusp of winter, just barely tipping over into spring. The flowers are starting to bloom, but a chill still hangs in the air. As soon as the farmer's boots touch the soil there's a change. The air gets warmer. The trees get greener. Not by too much, not all at once, but it changes.

The junimos watch the farmer as they do their work. They're new to farming, but take to it with frightening speed; their first batch of crops is perfect. None of the townsfolk tell them that parsnips don't normally grow in less than a week, that cauliflowers don't grow to be ten feet tall, that fairies don't visit when the sun goes down and grow potatoes and beans and tulips overnight. The junimos talk amongst themselves in their strange, wild language, and agree: this is the one. They're back. The valley recognizes its own, even when they've left for a generation. The farmers have come home.

Things change fast in the valley. The community center, empty and decrepit for so many years, is rejuvenated. (Lewis says it was abandoned only a few weeks after the farmer's grandfather left. Strange coincidence, he says, that it both came and went with the farmer's family.) The mines and the quarry, similarly abandoned, are explored for the first time in ages. The town becomes cleaner, brighter, more vibrant, happier.

And it is happier. Not just the environment, but the people. It's the talk of the town for weeks when Haley does her first closet purge. Leah's art show in the town square is a huge success. Shane's smiling for the first time since he moved to the valley. All of them, when asked, say it's all thanks to the farmer.

People love to ask why Lewis didn't fix the community center on his own. Why Willy never repaired the boat to ginger island. Why Abigail or Marlon never went down to fix the elevator in the mines, or why Clint didn't fix the minecarts.

But isn't it so much more interesting to ask how those things were there in the first place? How they got so broken down? If the stories the townspeople tell are true, the valley was once a beautiful place, flourishing and full of life; why did that change? When did it change?

Was it when the farmer's grandfather, the locus of the valley, its chosen representative, left town?

They think that they’re thieves, agents of an elite criminal group led by Giovanni, stealing rare pokemon and advanced technology and such. And there might have been a time this actually was their jobs. In the first season or two, they frequently get angry phone calls about how they’ve fucked everything up, or get their expense account cut off because they have literally never turned a profit on their criminal enterprises and constantly procure and then lose/destroy expensive and elaborate devices.

But then the world came within a hair’s breadth of being destroyed, several times, and Jesse, James, and their weird cat rescued everybody. As terrible as they’ve always been at criminal endeavors of any kind, when the apocalypse approaches and they’re forced to step up, they’re really fucking good at saving the day.

And Giovanni is over here like… if the planet is destroyed, or time/space becomes unrecognizable, or civilization collapses, there’s no way for me to run a profitable criminal enterprise anymore. I need this planet, because it’s where I keep all my stuff. And I don’t pretend to understand the why of it, but these couple of bumbling nutcases that I should have fired years ago seem to be an important component of that? Somehow? So you gotta stop thinking about them in terms of acquisitions and start considering them… loss prevention. As in, even if you waste a million dollars a month on giant cat-faced robots and a vast array of fancy ball gowns and they never turn a profit, they are preventing all of your assets from going away at the same time because of something you can’t do anything about.

like. imagine seeing versions of characters based on who they want to be or wish they could be (their dreams) or based on how they think that they are (insecurities and subconscious thoughts)

or even seeing versions of characters based on how they’re perceived by other people. like imagine a concept where a character sees another version of themself based on how they’re perceived by other people or even just someone with strong thoughts towards them

the AZ thing was so fucking cool because it was a variation of the concepts mentioned. a version of a character based on someone’s dreams (wanting to see him again) it was very impactful and a perfect end to his story so like… what if…

i really like to think that the side missions where you get each of their outfits are examples of this. it’s so vague that sometimes it seems like they’re actually the characters and then other times it doesn’t but i like to believe that they’re not real because … that makes the most sense lmao

like. corbeau’s dimension in the rust syndicate is the old building where paxton did the first “job”. that implies that someone was thinking about it enough for it to appear (you had to ‘wish really hard’ for rayquaza to appear… stated by our lovely mable)

so like. was corbeau just thinking about it (subconsciously or not) that much to the point it became a proper dimension?? that’s actually really interesting (and lwk cute)

So, Gallade is stated over and over again to be a protector, as well as a fierce battler.

Its dex entry from Shield:

Sharply attuned to others’ wishes for help, this Pokémon seeks out those in need and aids them in battle.

Corbeau is honestly pretty similar to it. He may be kind of shady but at the end of the day he does use his organization to help people in Lumiose. He sends you to deal with lost wild Pokémon and annoying people that are bothering children, he even sends Philippe to keep people away from the rogue Mega Starmie so they won’t get hurt. He’s also shown to enjoy Pokémon battling and expresses appreciation towards the player after your promotion match against him, even inviting you to come back and battle with him again. Not to mention the scene where he throws hands with you against that random guy that was part of the protest against Jett… my man loves to fight. Gallade = him.

Now, as for the Gardevoir, it parallels the player. Much like Gallade, Gardevoir is also a protective Pokémon, and its dex entries tell us that it holds extreme psychic power.

Its dex entry from Violet:

It unleashes psychokinetic energy at full power when protecting a Trainer it has bonded closely with.

The game is setting up from the beginning for the player to be the most powerful Mega Evolution user, and that you will need to use this power to protect Lumiose. Much how a Gardevoir will unleash its full power to protect its trainer. Even outside of that you’re doing your part as a Team MZ member with taking care of all of the rogue Mega Evolutions. Heck, even all of the side quests where you help out npcs. The player, while they may be a tourist, clearly comes to hold love for the city and the people and Pokémon that live there.

in those earlier years

I looooove the expressions here, the choice coloured shots and shadows looming from above. "Sometimes I wonder if there's a point to all of this at all" EXACTLYYYYY. The despair, the nihlism, for when the efforts you give do not match the return. Anyone can fall prey to this, and I think it's the especially kind, like Corbeau, who would wrestle with it over and over.

1) scolipede is very slow

2) froslass is decently fast

3) you can use one (1) will-o'-wisp on corbeau's scolipede and then just outrun him for the rest of the battle

After having a heart-to-heart talk with Piers at the Curious Tea Party, the Butler-Subway-Boss extraordinaire Emmet combined his new talents and challenged him to a serious sing off -battle! Their siblings are here to root for them!

"Astounding!!" "Bravo!!" "Do your best!!" Ingo shouts swinging the glowsticks around like a very excitable traffic police. Marnie taps on his shoulder at times to remind him keep his voice down enough so his cheering won't drown the singing!

Pretty sure both Emmet's EN & JP VAs make stellar singers just listening to their speaking vocal range! Piers would be impressed!

This is such a funny ask! I also hated that Avalugg, but also the Alpha Houndoom. Literal PTSD.

First of all, since Corbeau is a bit controlling, I would imagine he tracks his partner. He never asks where you are going since your location is always available to him. With this in mind, when Corbeau notices you've been in Zone 12 for quite a while... he raises his brow at the behavior and proceeds to call you. When you do not pick his call up after, what, 5 times? That's when he gets worried and goes over there on his own terms.

Once he arrives, brushing past the wild Pokemon here and there, Corbeau spots you essentially throwing hands with an Alpha Pokemon. Not only does this shock him, but it's also frightening to see you partake in such aggressive behavior. He knows you're rough and tough - just not to this extent. It doesn't help that your Absol is BEGGING for you to just leave it alone.

Funnily enough, you end up winning and don't bother catching the damn thing because it pissed you off so much. You're cold and wet; a brutal combination, and you just want to go home at this point. Absol also wants to leave because they're sick of your antics. But once you walk back up the steps, your face goes blank once you see Corbeau: his own expression is unreadable - what did he just watch? You cannot tell if he's afraid, upset, or in disbelief at your actions.

Eventually, Corbeau shakes his head and asks, "Have you lost your mind?" He doesn't even allow you to respond - his brain is too rattled to listen to your reasoning for fighting an Alpha Pokemon bare-handed. All he does is shrug his coat off and wrap it around your shoulders.

"You really are something else," Corbeau sighs before pinching your cheek, "but don't EVER do that again, got it?"

Octavinelle + Diasomnia with Airhead! Jellyfish! Reader

Azul Ashengrotto

Azul was prepared for almost anything—except you. At first, your airheaded nature confounded him. You’d stare blankly into space during conversations, occasionally blurting out unrelated thoughts like, “Do you think stars get lonely?” or “What’s the difference between squid ink and octopus ink?”

To Azul, you seemed like an easy mark. Someone too scattered to notice loopholes in contracts or the fine print. But the first time he tried to rope you into a deal, you stared at the contract for an uncomfortably long time, then pointed out five contradictory clauses and suggested a more efficient way to write it.

Azul had never been so humiliated yet so intrigued. How could someone so spacey also be so sharp? He began inviting you to the Mostro Lounge under the guise of needing “assistance,” but it was just an excuse to pick your brain.

Zombies are docile when adorned with flowers.

Settlements overgrown with herbs and flora.

Barely any banditry; everyone is focused on farming and gathering.

Different human factions and towns named after flowers like Lilies, Orchids, Roses, etc.

It’s incredibly risky to attack zombies. The scent of the attacker’s aggressive intent coupled with spilled pungent rotten blood drives other zombies into a frenzy.

Zombies given funeral rites grow flowers within their bodies, eventually bursting from their chest and head area. These zombies are naturally gentle and their presence tames other zombies in the vicinity. Due to their helpfulness, it’s taboo to harm “blooming” undead:

Sweaty summers are the worst and everyone hopes they have enough dried flowers to last the winter. 

It’s a colourful apocalypse! An overabundance of flowers in the world leads to plenty of dyes and busy little honey bees!! Scented candles are a thriving export.

Survivors who help spread flowers, look after “blooming” undead, cull the hordes, and herd zombies away from safe areas are affectionately called Florists.

Regular weapons such as guns and knives are still used but everyone prefers perfumed water guns, spray bottles, and incense.

Take this absolutely gorgeous mostly peaceful flower zombies idea

And put it with this idea

Just imagine.

You’re an American(the true horror), and what survives of humanity in your country is paranoid, violent towards the dead, focusing purely on survival. The apocalypse started when you were barely a teenager, and you’re an adult. Running is all you know.

You manage to get on a boat and escape, hoping to find some kind of help in other countries.

Days, maybe weeks later, after storms, falling into the ocean at least once, you are soaking, but at least you’re clean for probably the first time since the apocalypse started, you wash up on land. You’re not sure where exactly, but you’re decently sure it’s Europe.

You wander for a short while, and to your horror, you see zombies.

But they all have flowers, some of them have flowers blooming out of their bodies, and don’t pay any attention to you, when usually, zombies would already have gotten a whiff of your scent, and attacked. The zombies with flowers blooming from them seem to be herding the other zombies, in a way.

What’s more, a group of children is playing by the zombies, and bringing them flower crowns.

One of the children spots you, and points you out to the eldest of the group, a teenager, who’s at most 15. They run over to ask who you are, because they know there’s no settlements that way, and also quickly give you soap, telling you to clean up.

They lead you back to their settlement, where you see flowers being grown everywhere, and where there are adults, who quickly get you inside, insisting you need a bath immediately.

After being cleaned, they explain to you what they discovered about zombies.

The village leader, a blind woman in her 70s, explains to you how they received word of the flowers. Some other survivors had traveled to their town, 8 years ago, telling you of how it was discovered. A child from their group had given a flower crown to a zombie.

After being able to calm the existing zombies, people could start focusing on rebuilding, and honoring those who died by decorticating their bodies in flowers had become a tradition. They’d sent word by trained messenger birds to everywhere they could, and found that that unlike America, most of the world has made these discoveries, or had already been informed, and have been recovering more or less peacefully.

There were just a few points I wanted to add if you/your followers were interested (caveat: I am not a native speaker but would say I’m fairly fluent and have experience living and working in Japan.)

1. にいちゃん [Nii-chan] being used for Ivor: actually, this doesn’t necessarily indicate that Corbeau is younger than Ivor. Nii-san is also often used to refer to anyone who looks fairly young (under 30), even by older people. Him using -chan adds an ever so slightly patronising connotation to it but with no real ill-intent given the scene/Corbeau’s character, whereas if said in a slightly different context (imagine a scene of a random thug calling out to a young college student who’s found themselves in the wrong part of town) it could be a lot more malicious/mocking in tone. The same applies for Nee-san/Nee-chan.

2. 正義の味方 [seigi no mikata] ‘Ally of Justice’ used for the player: this is quite a common phrase in anime/game dialogue, it’s not quite the same nuance as just “law abiding citizen”. In Japanese it sounds very lofty and you certainly wouldn’t refer to yourself with this, unless you were a kid playing at being superheroes with your friends, which is precisely why it’s often used by villainous or morally grey characters to taunt the heroes of a story by making their ideals and heroics seem childish. Again in this case, there’s no real venom (haha) in Corbeau’s use of the term as he does genuinely think highly of the player character and is just joking around — Philippe (and the audience) would immediately know who exactly he’s talking about on this phone call when he says this (even though you haven’t shown up on screen yet), perhaps why the localisation team opted for “our favourite” to give that same effect. I’ve seen fanart of Corbeau where he uses this term for the player in a self-deprecating sort of way too, to play up their virtue and heroic nature in comparison to him, the leader of a yakuza group who’s had to resort to unsavoury things (“you’re a righteous ally of justice, my hands are bloodied and dirty” kind of duality).

3. Corbeau’s use of Kansai-ben in general and how this would be received by a Japanese audience: You’re right that it is sometimes associated (by Standard Japanese speakers) with gangsters: this comes from a mutually-reinforcing combination of both the Kansai region having a more pronounced history of organised crime and the portrayal of such characters in media as speaking with variations of Kansai-ben (often Hiroshima-ben, but also Osaka-ben), which over the years has solidified this reputation. It’s used by many characters in the Yakuza games, who are written as coming from this part of Japan. Speakers of Osaka-ben, with Osaka historically being a city of merchants and working people, also has a reputation for being either down-to-earth and warm or crass and uncultured, depending on who you ask (interestingly, this contrasts heavily with neighbouring Kyoto: elegant and refined or haughty and insincere, even though they technically also use a variant of Kansai-ben). As you noted, it is also associated with comedy routines. This is because of the large number of successful comedians who have come from this part of Japan, to the point where the Kansai-ben has now taken on a reputation as being inherently funny, much like regional dialects elsewhere in the world. Non-Kansai natives may put on the dialect when trying to sound funny (e.g. in a TV commercial) but often Kansai natives can detect that this is inauthentic (they refer to it as エセ関西弁), and there is a great deal of regional pride in being better at comedy than Tokyoites and other Standard Japanese speakers. Anyway, the point is there’re a lot of layers to a character using this dialect that plays into how they might be received by a Japanese-speaking audience.

Back to Pokemon: the in-universe Kansai-ben has been dubbed as “Kogane-ben” (I’m not sure if fans created this term or if it’s used in the games — I haven’t really played them in Japanese) to refer to Kogane City (Goldenrod City) in Johto, which is based on Osaka, and this has influenced some headcanons around Corbeau’s hometown in the Japanese fandom. Another popular character who uses this dialect is Rika from SV, and I’ve seen a fair bit of fanart depicting Rika and Corbeau as old acquaintances haha. All in all, it’s quite fitting for him and I really love that he’s not a one-dimensional evil mob boss character and instead someone with a big heart who is looking out for the people of Lumiose City in his own way. He’s super popular with Japanese fans right now too (the ‘honourable yakuza’ trope often is!) and there’s plenty of fanart that depicts Corbeau using Kansai-ben if you’d like to see more of this!

Sorry, this got super long but I hope you found this all interesting/helpful!! ٩( ᐛ )و

(The post about Kansai-ben here, second post about Ivor and "the ally of justice" here.)

IT'S CALLED KOGANE-BEN. There's no way I could've found out that on my own. So important. I need to see that fanart.

This is great thank you for sharing your wisdom!! I'm going to add some of this to the posts, then it's like a collaborative research paper lol.

I could tell the Seigi no mikata line was some sort of reference that I didn't get, this makes a lot of sense. It's like saying "The big bad villain" in the sense that it's sort of cartoonish and exaggerated, not something people would say in real life. Except it's a hero, of course. I guess there isn't really an English term for that? Maybe "The hero of legend" or "The savior of humanity" or "The one who saves the day".

"Our favorite do-gooder" doesn't hit the same huh. Us English speakers are missing out on that dynamic of him seeing the player as the most upstanding person in the world (even if he said that sarcastically, it had to come from somewhere). That's not healthy Corbeau!!! And from the fact that, in that side quest where you get questioned by a cop, you can answer everything with "No comment", I don't think the player is all that lawful. You have to have been questioned by the police before. Idk that's my head-canon. The player character is really interesting to me. What a little freak.

Thanks especially for the notes on Kansai-ben's reputation in Japan, I was going mostly off of memory on that. Only recently, when talking about Corbeau, did I hear people saying it's associated with gangsters. As expected, it's hard to summarize or understand a whole country's mindset about a specific local dialect.

Rika speaks Kogane-ben too, I didn't play Scarlet/Violet for more than an hour so I can't say anything about her character. Commander Kamado also speaks it in Legends Arceus. Did some more research for this ask, and I've found out that not every character in Johto speaks Kansai-ben, despite Johto being the in-game version of the Kansai region. Only in Goldenrod City, and Azelea Town. Gym Leader Whitney speaks it, as well as Bill and Kurt and some NPC's.

(Now I need to go learn more about Osaka-ben, to find out if Corbeau speaks it... And HG/SS, I guess. I tried to buy it once but I got scammed LMAO. Begging for a remake/remaster so I don't have to pay a bazillion doll hairs for it.)

I did get around to watching some Japanese youtubers play the game—I don't think I'll be making a big post about it—and the general consensus there seems to be "He's scary!" -> "He's... kind of hot?" -> "Ah, so this must be where the Otome game starts, Corbeau's Route is here. He's about to call me an Omoshiroi onna. He must be very popular."

(Translation note, an Otome game is a genre of romance game. I don't know Love in Deepspace personally but I think it might be similar? Mystic Messenger, too. There's an array of love interests, usually the same archetypes, and you carry out their specific events to get their Route. Omoshiroi onna, Interesting woman, is a term that gets said a lot in those games, it's like "You're a funny one" or "You're not like the rest".)

I see a lot of folks on tumblr complaining because they don't like that the loan sharks actually turn out to be nice people, and they're supposed to like them, as if they aren't literally loan sharks. Whereas the JP youtubers I watched didn't say anything about that, they just started disliking Urbain/Taunie for running off all the time instead of dealing with their own debt. One said something like, "Corbeau, well, he is the reason the interest rate is so high, and he's making me work. That's true. But at least he says himself that he's not a good person, you know? Urbain is ignoring his friends so he can help out strangers, fix your own problems for once!"

They don't just think that because they're Japanese, of course. But it could be relevant, at least for the idea that the situation might read a little differently in the Japanese language version.