Let’s Go, Mírieliel! Day 3

Tadashi: Welcome back, everyone! HFE’s taking a short break from highlighting and moodboarding Robert Nye’s New Telling of Beowulf to bring you day 3 of Let’s Go, Mírieliel! Solnishka, I hear there’s been a major update in the party breakdown?

Solnishka: That’s right there has!

1. Mírieliel, partner Pikachu: electric. Looking sporty and stylish in the athletic outfit and matching hat! Quirky nature, likes to thrash about. No major benefits or hindrances to any stats. minor boost to physical attack. Reunited in Pallet Town at level 5. Currently at level 24.
   1. Zippy Zap (electric, physical): strikes first and always crits.
   2. Double Kick (fighting, physical): strikes twice in one turn.
   3. Light Screen: halves special damage the user and all allies receive for five turns.
   4. Quick Attack (normal, physical): strikes first.
2. Kementáriel, Gloom: grass / poison. Sassy nature, likes to run. Major boost to special defense, major hindrance to speed―however, also a minor boost to speed. Met at level 4 on Route 1. Currently at level 24.
   1. Razor Leaf (grass, physical): a bunch of leaves fly out, striking all adjacent foes.
   2. Growth: boosts the user’s special attack.
   3. Acid (poison, special): toxic blobs drop on all adjacent targets. 10% chance of lowering their special defense.
   4. Poison Powder: poisons the target.
3. Nienniel, Kantoan Ratatta: normal. Gentle nature, capable of taking hits. Major boost to special defense, major hindrance to physical defense. However, her trait also provides a minor boost to defense. Met at level 15 on Route 5. Currently at level 17.
   1. Quick Attack (normal, physical).
   2. Focus Energy: increases the user’s critical hit chance.
   3. Bite (dark, physical): may cause the target to flinch.
   4. Super Fang (normal, physical): halves the target’s HP.
4. Nerdaneliel, Charmeleon: fire. Timid nature, alert to sounds. Major boost to speed, major hindrance to physical attack, plus another minor boost to speed. Met at level 14 on Route 24. Currently level 19.
   1. Headbutt (normal, physical).
   2. Dig (ground, physical): the users digs underground for one turn, then strikes on the next.
   3. Smokescreen: lowers the target’s accuracy.
   4. Ember (fire, special): still waiting for a better fire type move.

Tadashi: Why’d he change Nienniel to a Kantoan Ratatta?

Solnishka: One reason was, as a Clefable, she wasn’t going to learn anything without TMs.

Toshiro: Oof, limited moveset, that’s a gamebreaker for me.

Solnishka: Absolutely.

Piko: That’s what can happen when you’re using Pokémon who are fully-evolved off the bat. Sure, they’re powerful stat-wise, but the ones that evolve via exposure to evolution items often have a severely limited pool of moves they can learn leveling up. Just compare the gen 7 Clefable learnset to Clefairy’s learnset from the same generation.

Solnishka: Or the gen 7 Pikachu learnset to the Kantoan and Alolan Raichu learnsets.

Tadashi: The reason we’re using the gen 7 learnsets is because that’s the generation Let’s Go Mírieliel! is from. As opposed to Pokémon Caranthirion, which is a gen 8 game.

Toshiro: These are considered games for children, by the way. They make sense when you’ve been playing them since you were a child, but once we set out to pretend to explain these things to people who’ve never heard of Pokémon before, we realized that these games can be hard. And confusing!

Piko: There’s almost 30 years of these games to cover. We’re mostly just talking about the videogames, but we could also talk about the card game, the anime, the plushies.

Tadashi: It’s impossible to learn absolutely everything about Pokémon.

Toshiro: Challenge accepted!

---

Solnishka: Was that a Growlithe?

Toshiro: Dammit! It disappeared before we could catch it.

Tadashi: Looks like it’ll be harder than catching Vulpixes in Let’s Go Riley.

---

Toshiro: Catch any Growlithes yet, Mike?

Mike shakes his head: Haven’t seen another one.

Piko: That’s a shame, but keep at it, Mike. You’re bound to see another one soon.

---

Tadashi: One good thing about slow days is you get time to stop and think.

Solnishka: Ooh, what have you been thinking about, Tadashi?

Tadashi: I’ve been thinking about what HFE learned over the course of this year: enjoy yourself. Enjoy what you’re doing. Don’t focus so much on success that you forget what you’re striving for: a better future. You can’t live in a haunted house, but you can survive it―by embracing your cosmic horror side!

Solnishka laughs. It’s a sound of joyful starlight shining over a lake.

---

Toshiro: Another Growlithe!

Mike tries to catch it: Awww, it ran away…

---

Mike: I got one!

Toshiro: Aw yeah!!!

Nerdaneliel: Growlithe dance party!

Piko: Enjoy your road to success, whatever you believe your success story is.

Tadashi: And however long and winding it becomes.

Toshiro: Now let’s get to Viridian City!

Tadashi: Vermillion City, Toshiro.

Toshiro: What?

Tadashi: You just called it Tokiwa City. We’re headed to Kuchiba City.

Toshiro: Oh! …Yeah, I was wondering if that was something they changed for the Let’s Go games. Like how they added the Nanashima to the FireRed/LeafGreen games.

Solnishka googles a map of Kanto to figure out how that would work. That would be pretty cool, fighting ghosts after fighting water. One immaterial group of monsters after another.

And then she realizes she’s mixing up Viridian City with Lavender Town.

Toshiro: Oh my god, is that the Pikachu outfit???

Solnishka: It looks like Reverse Flash had a kid who’s obsessed with Pokémon. It looks awful!

Piko: It’s nice in pieces. I like the tail design on the back of the hat. The problem is it’s so saturated that it’s an eyesore when you’re looking at all of it at once.

Tadashi and Mike agree. Solnishka and Toshiro remain skeptical, however.

“HFE, this is amazing! Where can we we send you money?”

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Thank you for taking time to read this. I hope you enjoy what you’ve found here.

• Homework (links in this piece).
  • HFE productions:
    • Let’s Go, Mírieliel! (site category).
    • Robert Nye: Beowulf: A New Telling (site category).
    • Patreon Exclusives:
      • Corviknight art.
      • Another Reason to Swap Clefable for Kantoan Ratatta.
    • Toyhouse:
      • Tadashi.
      • Solnishko Blitz.
      • Toshiro.
      • Piko: The First Pikachu.
      • Commander Riley.
      • Mike Emerald.
    • Spotify Playlists:
      • Let’s Go, Mírieliel!
      • The Broideress-Queen’s Secret Knight.
      • Satisfaction.
      • Mike Emerald.
    • Youtube Playlists:
      • Let’s Go, Mírieliel!
      • The Broideress-Queen’s Secret Knight.
  • Tolkien Gateway:
    • Míriel.
    • Yavanna.
    • Nienna.
    • Nerdanel.
  • Music & Songs:
    • Katy Perry ― Firework.
    • Owl City ― Fireflies.
    • Miracle of Sound ― Rise.
    • Yogscast ― Moonquest.
    • 8 Bit Universe ― Gotta Catch Em’ All (Talkbox Pokemon Theme feat. TBox).
    • JT Music ― Join Us For A Bite.
  • Jimquisition:
    • Exposure.
    • Mister Negative.
    • The One Thing Millennials Did Kill.
    • Pokémon Unite: Disgusting But Inevitable.
    • The Addictive Cost Of Predatory Videogame Monetization.
    • It’s Just A Game.
    • The Game Industry’s Performative Concern For Children.
  • Dul-Sayin’:
    • The History of the “Strong Black Woman”.
    • The History of Black Female Athlete Activists.
  • Access-Ability:
    • Niantic Should Expand, not Nerf, Pokémon Go’s Play from Home Features.
    • Pokémon Unite’s Monetisation is a Travesty.
  • Britannica: Pokémon electronic game.