Dangerous new teen trend targets wild trainers, angers many

We all have seen the dangerous trends proliferated on joltikTok, but this new one is putting many at risk. This new trend, "Battle Ditching", involves locking eyes with a trainer, before running away. While it may seem harmless, it has the potential for real harm if the trainer attempts to chase their prey. For instance, one Goldenrod teen, while performing this "prank", ended up running into tall grass and being jumped by a Scyther. Thankfully, the trainer they were tormenting was kind-hearted enough to save them, but many are not as kind to these teen "pranksters". "If ANYONE tries to run from an Arceus-damn good battle again, I'm blasting them to pieces with my Gyrados", writes Joyce Stark, a 84 year old living in the west Kantonian region, on their Pumpkabook blog. Hopefully, this trend will die fast before any serious injuries can happen, and these kids can go back to lip-syncing to pop songs again.

I don't really like ghetsis

I've heard talk about becoming a Champion of a region. Is this merely a rumor, or is it a thing one can accomplish?

Depends on the region, but yeah. The standard route is taking on the gym challenge then fighting the E4 and current Champion to claim the spot. Its both a sports title and a political role in a lot of places, so there are actual responsibilities to it.

Pick your area's average water type and have it use a water move that creates water.

A pidgey could be your best friend. if you wanted it to be. (True fact ✅)

My friend just sent me this. What kind of natural catastrophe is coming his way? Should I be worried about him??

//OOC under cut

Absol-haver here (she's my service pokemon)- if morning has happened already, and the absol wasn't actively warning or nudging him, it's likely that your friend just saw an absol. Which is super cool in its own right! But if he were getting a warning, he would know.

I wanna explore Kanto... y'know, like all the cool Trainers do..?

I know I can't but it sound really really fun....

You're 10, right? In most versions of Kanto you're legally allowed to, permission or not. Just get yourself a pokemon of your own and go. It'll be good for you, and with a pokemon you're generally really safe. Especially staying on the well-worn paths until you build your team.

I have tons of Pokémon friends!!! It's just that Papa is really really protective and worries about me a lot, especially cuz of some stuff that happened in Paldea....so he doesn't let me.

Well, if they're your pokemon in the eyes of the law, you're old enough to head out. Kanto is especially safe, though you might want to keep quiet on who your dad is. 10 is the age of adventuring here, so he doesn't really have to let you, you can just do it.

I wanna explore Kanto... y'know, like all the cool Trainers do..?

I know I can't but it sound really really fun....

You're 10, right? In most versions of Kanto you're legally allowed to, permission or not. Just get yourself a pokemon of your own and go. It'll be good for you, and with a pokemon you're generally really safe. Especially staying on the well-worn paths until you build your team.

Honestly, we should purge all pokémon capable of harm, as well as all humans who use pokémon for harm.

Genuine question- do you feel this way about humans who are capable of harm? Do you believe that every human who is capable of harm should be killed or removed from society?

Another reason I'm very anti-pokémon training is because of how competitive it can get. I've seen friendships ruined and families torn apart by these complete beasts, and it's so saddening to see how the world revolves around it.

I mean - you've seen how people react to my posts, simply having a different opinion makes these thick-skulled trainers lose their minds.

In Alola, the importance of pokémon training went so far that all of the island challenge losers and rejects formed a full evil team.

Hard disagree on the core issue here- pokemon training and companionship has a deep history that spans thousands and thousands of years-, but as a former Champion? Yeah, actually, there's a major issue of over-competitive and short-sighted trainers in the sport that needs to be addressed and not enough people are saying it without going way overboard into abolitionist ideology. Which, imo, is both anthrocentric, culturally dismissive of humanity and pokemon's inherently linked history, and something so far afield that people who actually are looking for changes to the sport and its culture end up discounting rational changes as extremist.

I will say though while I'm not alolan, from what I understand a lot of the issues wrt Team Skull were like. Economical disadvantages, and the group of them were like.... annoying at best. They're no Team Rocket thats for sure. But I wasn't there at the height of it so I can't say, as an outsider.

But overall, there are segments of the competitive scene in pokemon training, especially battle related (coordinators also have the issue but thats a whole other can of wurmples) that go too far. Training routines that harm the pokemon themselves, rivalries turning to actual resentment, corruption and bribery, among other things. It's definitely a discussion that needs to be had. I do think that name-calling (from either side) isn't productive to that conversation, though, and neither is defensiveness. Practices in the sport have changed as our understanding of non-human pokemon evolved over time, our husbandry practices have changed over time, and all of that happened from productive discourse, scientific study, and welfare advocates.

Admittedly, I don't know your full opinions so I don't know the full breadth of what you're saying or why people have been saying what they have about you, but I can tell your opinion is coming from a place of passion and conviction. Discounting that out of hand would be both disrespectful and unhelpful, even if I disagree with the core of your argument here.

I have to thank you for genuinely listening to my point. You seem very experienced and knowledgeable, so I won't argue further. But thank you for contributing. You've given me something to think about.

I personally think unless someone's advocating for genuine harm, everyone's got a point of view that has at least something worth considering. Coming at you, some random person on rotomblr, with hostility isnt helpful to either of us tbh, even if I disagree fundamentally. Being able to have these kinds of hard convos is what separates people with innovative ideas regarding all sorts of things from the kind of guys who would make an evil team, imo.

I would say I'm pretty knowledgeable on this, yeah. If you're interested in having further conversation about this (no arguments, just talking), feel free to shoot me an ask or a DM.

I drew myself and my best buddy pikachu!!

This is awesome

Hi Rotumblr, general question to satisfy a curiosity about a theory of mine.

How many of you exist in a world where (to your knowledge) Glitch Pokemon and/or a Glitch City exists?

If it does. Can you reblog this and describe what it's like?

If not, is it a myth, or is this just something you've never heard anything about before.

I promise you I'm not cracked or anything. Just asking to satisfy my curiosity about... something

I mean, I’ve heard about it, but that was from here so I’m not sure if it was my universe. Although I do remember hearing kids chittering about Missingno during recess. I’m pretty sure there’s a few fantasy books about it? I ‘unno, I always thought it was fictional, but it’s not impossible.

Got possessed by missingno as a kid acutally. From what I understand that's not common behavior for it across the multiverse, but I live in the nightmare dimension sometimes. Still have lingering effects.

Interesting... so Missingno is capable of possession in your world line.

We do have a few pokemon capable of possession. Namely A ゥG, which is a ghost type that feeds off the energy of the hosts it possesses. Luckily human possessions are quite rare! Humans don't have the incredible stores of energy that a pokemon like .PkMn or ▶ A has. They end up being the preferred hosts for a Pokemon like A ゥG!

Could.. you possibly elaborate on what you mean by Nightmare Dimension though?

Nightmare Dimension might be a bit of an exageration on my end? Mostly that things in my world tend to seem... worse, than in a lot of other universes I've seen/been to. And for whatever reason I tend to (or at least used to) get into a lot of trouble regarding supernatural issues like this. Glad to hear that possession is rare though. That tracks.