The End of the Road

After I defeated Serena, my fortune changed drastically for the better.  My pokemon were finally strong enough to contend with my foes: battle became much less about guessing how many hits I can take before dying and going for a revenge kill and more about which of my pokemon would defeat the foe the fastest.  I was finally back.

As a matter of fact, the last half of Victory Road was a lot of fun.  One notable match that really sticks-out for me was my Mega Venusaur actually stall-killing a Level 65 Talonflame with Leech
Seed and Poisonpowder.  Talonflame is a Fire/Flying type and this particular Talonflame had both Flare Blitz, the strongest fire attack in the game, and Brave Bird, the strongest flying attack in the game.  You can see how this was exciting to me.  Mega Venusaur is just plain unkillable.  He cannot be defeated.

The road ended with a five-person gauntlet of strong veteran trainers with strong pokemon including skarmory and glaceon--but after this was over (and it was over not a moment too soon) I found myself at the base of the steps up to the Pokemon League.  I had made it to the top.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.54
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.53
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.52
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.53
DRAGALGE/Toxie/lvl.49
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.47

On Rotation: Pikachu, Scrafty, Hippowdon, Gardevoir

No Quarter: Battle at the Summit

What better way to truly test the strength of my new pokemon team than to battle my rival--a trainer whose strongest pokemon is 13 levels higher than mine?

Serena seems to have been busy since the last time we have fought each other, having added a bulky Altaria to her team in addition to her fully evolved Chesnaught and Vaporeon.  The presence of Absol and Meowstic are the pokemon on her side that shy her team away from being a true "Bulky Offensive" squad (my second favorite battle strategy, by the way).
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The "Rival as your friend" thing that the Pokemon series has been glomming-onto since Sapphire version has never really worked for me until fairly recently.  I guess I can attribute this to me being a dumb teenager for most of that time (I think I was fourteen when Sapphire version came out) and the one thing teenagers like more than pretending that no one understands them is being contentious. 

As a result, I wanted all of my enemies to be true enemies--and all of the battles all the time to be "epic" or "badass" without really knowing what either of these words really mean.  Even as early as last year I didn't like the "Friendly Rival" trend because I thought it was juvenile.  Now, though, I think I am starting to see what Nintendo/Gamefreak is going for.

Your rival doesn't have to be a huge jerk or even a classic "bad guy" to be threatening--and they don't need to be an imposing presence to challenge you and get you excited about a fight.  In real life there are surely people who are asses who give you a hard time.  These are people that you just can't wait to "show" as in "I'll show you one day" or "some day you'll see".  These types of rival-characters follow naturally from the "mean jerk" trope that was so especially pervasive in the 90's and early 2000's.  I am not saying that this trope is not currently relevant or motivational, but it is less effective at creating a compelling story.

More often than not the real motivators in life are the friends you know.  They are always challenging you to score better on your tests, work harder at your job, lift the bar for five more pounds, or do one more chin up.  In real life, you always feel better competing against these people as friends and rivals--and the result is a lot more of a fulfilling "hero's journey".  Battling Serena is about testing your mettle and your intestinal fortitude--and it is not one bit less exhilarating than battling Blue at the end of Pokemon Red...well, maybe just one little bit...

Now I should really stop talking about this--before I say something crazy like, "Pokemon Y has taught me to be a better person".
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The battle itself was something of a stall-fest with Serena tanking-out most of my hits and me learning how to use my Venusaur's Mega-Evolution.  Up until this point I have been using Mega Lucario and Mega Aerodactyl, but since Aero' has been left in the PC for the trip through Victory Road, I wanted to test out the durability of Mega-V.

Part of the reason the battle took so long was that I was using the opportunity to figure out what Venusaur can and can't handle in terms of stalling.  My Venusaur is currently running Sleep Powder/Poisonpowder/Leech Seed/Solarbeam at time of writing, so knowing what it can set-up on is crucial to my future Elite Four success.

The results of my experimentation: Mega Venusaur is an absolute tank.  Victory against Serena: 4-0.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.54
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.52
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.51
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.53
DRAGALGE/Toxie/lvl.49
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.49

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Pikachu, Hippowdon, Scrafty

Over Hill and Under Hill

The first part of my trek through the cavernous "Victory Road" was fraught with failure--my severely underleveled pokemon were being picked-off by wild Haunters and Druddigons--to say nothing of the trainers I came across. 

It seemed that every pokemon I fought was designed specifically to ruin my day.  My Lucario knows Shadow Claw, but the wild Haunter has Sucker Punch and Lucario is KO-ed.  My Venusaur has Petal Dance, but the wild Graveler has Earthquake and Venusaur is KO-ed. 

I had to fight the same damn trainer with the same damn Hawlucha three times before I won, and every time my Psychic/Fairy type Gardevoir was put into an obvious mismatch against a Fighting type (whose attacks would do quarter damage, QUARTER DAMAGE against me) it would have Poison Jab as one of its moves.  Since poison is super effective against fairy, I would have to define this as  "godamn bullshit".

But, through this all, I used my revives and used my super potions and my pokemon got stronger.  Soon I was only losing two pokemon to each wild haunter--and soon enough, I would start defeating them outright.  Eventually, my pokemon became strong enough to take on the trainers' pokemon.  There was still the huge level difference, but my pokemon, being better-trained specifically for certain roles, began to come together.  By the time I made it out of the first cave into the sun, my pokemon were all sitting at a comfortable level 51--and starting to win rather than just not lose so badly. 

It was then that Serena, my rival, caught up to me and challenged me to a battle.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.52
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.51
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.50
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.51
DRAGALGE/Toxie/lvl.49
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.49

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Pikachu, Hippowdon, Scrafty

Before the Storm

With eight badges in hand and a box FULL of pokemon, I found myself at victory road, ready to take on all-comers.  I defeated the gatekeeper in battle and passed through the gate and into the cave and was immediately 6-0ed by a level 60 Weavile.  I didn't even get a chance to attack once...

I am wondering how I even made it this far--the wild pokemon I am encountering are all around level 58 and the strongest member of my team is arguably Gardevoir, who is sitting at a tenuous 47.  Either I am one of the luckiest bastards out there or I am just extremely good at not repeating the same mistakes twice.

Now that I think on it, what I recall of my journey could be described as a series of lucky breaks with one or two clever battle decisions thrown in there for giggles.  Along the way I have been defeated a lot (and I mean A LOT) but I always bounced back with a plan for victory.  A little foresight can go a long way.

But against a series of 5 elite trainers (well, an elite 4 and a champion, heehaw-heehaw-heehaw) I am fairly sunk.  I don't think that the pokemon league will allow me to use my 12-pokemon rotating team.

Finally, at the end of the game, I have to make the tough decision about who to bring with me through the finale--and it is a decision that I am not looking forward to one bit.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.47
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.46
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.47
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.47
DRAGALGE/Toxie/lvl.48
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.45

On Rotation: Pikachu, Scrafty, Hippowdon, Gardevoir

Scrafty Dealings with Gymleader Iris

I have a big list of things I don't like about Team Plasma, but perhaps the best way to illustrate this is to change numbers 1 and 2 to "nonsensical plans" and to read this over and over while pouring live beetles into your pants. I was so sure that the final battle with Team Plasma was going to happen--I literally have the Pokemon Zekrom in my item pouch (in "dark stone forme") and the legendary Reshiram has been awakened--there should be a final battle I need to be fighting right about now, right?

In typical Team Plasma style, N and Ghestis decided to play the hurry up and wait game and now that side-story has kind of just died out. I'm not sure if its over in the anticlimax of the century (with me getting the "dark stone" as a sort-of nuclear deterrent in the pokemon equivalent of the cold war) or just being held-off for the moment, because when I arrived in Opelucid City, the gymleader Iris and her older boyfriend (or is is uncle?) Drayden--who have been hyped-up to be experts on Dragon pokemon as well as legendaries--told me they had no clue what I should do--and that I should just continue with the whole getting badges thing.

Gymleader Iris was a pushover--and carried a "Haxorus", which the pokedex has identified as the final evolution of my Fraxure. Thanks for the spoilers Iris...

The reason Iris was such a joke was because of my new pokemon. As I was leaving for Opeculid City, Bianca challenged me to a battle which "Scrappy" the Scraggy won all alone--despite being several levels below each pokemon on her team. Afterwards, Scraggy evolved into Scrafty at level 39, who is seriously awesome. He might look a little crazy at first, but let him grow on you--he's really cool--and amazingly powerful.

With the Team Plasma ordeal either solved...or not...it is time to travel north to Victory Road...

Current Squad: