Previously on Pokémon FireRed
Chapter 17: I Want To Ride It Where I Like
[[Nilbog Notes:
Jynx
#124
Ice/Psychic
Evolves from Smoochum at Level 30
"It seductively wiggles its hips as it walks. It can cause people to dance in unison with it"
So full disclosure, Jynx was, like Mr. Mime, on my short list to be my Psychic type in this playthrough until, like Mr. Mime, I remembered that the nickname was changed in FR/LG from what it was in the original Red and Blue and was a serious downgrade. In Red and Blue, the Jynx's name was Lola, which I would have absolutely loved as a reference to the song by The Kinks (which younger readers may know better as the source of Weird Al's fan-favorite parody "Yoda"). And I would have especially liked sneaking an Ice Type on there as I feel like Ice Types and their moves are grossly underappreciated, and this happened twice (I'll go into this more in a later episode).
I can't say Jynx has ever been a Pokémon I've particularly favored, but I do find something fascinating about it that has mae it grow on me as the years have passed, even though I've never used one - I rarely use Pokémon that don't evolve, and like many others I've covered its pre-evolution was not introduced until later games and often gatekept by breeding. You may notice the sprite has a purple face while the artwork I'm using shows it in black. Well, that had to do with some unfortunate coincidences. You see, while Jynx is inspired by a figure of Japanese folklore called the Yama-Uba, a mountain crone who preys on weary travelers by seducing them, a dark face with prominent lips tends to bring to mind something far more sinister in players outside of Japan (and Japan itself being a notoriously xenophobic country has had issues with blackface-adjacent characters or worse in their media before). While it seems obvious to me that no maliciousness was intended, I agree with Game Freak and Nintendo doing the safe thing when people starting asking questions and changing Jynx's skin to purple starting in Generation 3.]]
[[Nilbog Notes: Mail was introduced in Generation 2 with the concept of held items, and I don't know a single soul who ever used it unironically]]
[[Nilbog Notes: While most of the hidden items are findable without the Itemfinder if you know where to look, a few require you to activate it while standing on the square it's located in.
The Leftovers are actually not an altogether bad held item, letting it's holder recover a tiny amount of HP at the end of each turn.]]
Hmmm....could be useful...
[[Nilbog Notes: The Amulet Coin doubles all cash rewards from battle. Normally I'm okay not using it, but for this LP i'm going to experiment with swapping it between my team as I level. If you have a Meowth or Persian with Pay Day on your team, always make sure it has the Amulet Coin]]
D'awwww!
All right, let's get on our bikes and ride!
Ugh...bikers.
There are plenty of perfectly ni - morally good bikers in the world, but I'm willing to bet that people who bring motorcycles on a bike path probably aren't among them
I am going to avoid the Terminator reference because you look like you haven't washed in forever so I'm just going to get on my way aaaand there's the Pokéballs...
How 'bout no?
I do clearly.
Stop calling me rodents then. Unless it's a capybara. Which...wait, HAVE we gotten a strain of capybara to evolve into Pokémon yet?
Yeah, but then I'd have to come back this way UPhill. Are you mad?
Woah wait holy crap I CAN'T STOP slowwww dowwwwnnnnnnnnnn!!
[[Nilbog Notes: Welcome to Cycling Road's gimmick. After a certain point, gravity takes over and you are forced to speed downhill if you don't press any buttons. If you hold any directional button other than down, you will travel that direction but at basic walking speed. If you hold B, you will stay still (good for interacting with hidden items). Also, the Start menu and dialogue boxes will pause you.]]
It's like I'm talking to myself sometimes.
Well, you've got good body positivity at least...
Abandoned power plant, you say?
Maybe...
[[Nilbog Notes: The joke here is that Machoke evolves via trading....which I have altered in this playthrough, muahaha]]
Same, honestly.
I don't know what that is (but if it's what I think it is you're not getting your hands on my Binks if and when she evolves)
Just as long as it's not primarily on land, eh?
Made it!
***
[[Nilbog Notes: Another shorter episode because the "first half" took more screen time than I expected and this week has been too heavy for me to work on an overstuffed episode, even with the extra time I got from releasing last week's episode early. We should still be working on a good narrative pace and there will definitely be an supersized episode coming sometime within the next month or so. In the meantime, our team:
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