Three step equations worksheets
The Plane Ride From Elle
2024.04.19 23:05 ovoxogkmc The Plane Ride From Elle
Candice has just boarded an American Airlines plane with a booked flight headed to New York City. This particular flight sees Candice partaking in a series of firsts. Not only will it be Candice’s first time visiting “The Big Apple”, it is also her debut in the “big kid’s section” of an aircraft, FIRST CLASS. Candice is a budding writer who has recently published her first book. She is scheduled to speak at NYU in promotion of her release and the University is paying for all of her trip expenses. This is a big moment for Candice as she had never done a speaking engagement of this magnitude
The plane is setting to take off soon and passengers are loading their luggage and settling into their seats. Candice discreetly pulls a bottle of Gas-X from her coat pocket and pops a tablet in her mouth while eyeing the others on the plane as if to not get caught. Candice remembers the last time she was on a flight and had the worst gas she ever experienced. It was quite the humiliating as her the person sitting next to her requested to be moved to another seat several times. Candice was intent on not letting anything like that happen again
As what seemed to be all passengers aboard the plane, a last minute entrance is made by a tall, pale blonde who walks slowly down the aisle keeping an eye out for an open seat. She gets to the middle row and sees that there are only filled seats to her left, however once she turns to her right and sees Candice by the window next to an unoccupied seat, she gently sits down and pulls her phone from out of her pocket. Candice extends a polite welcome to her new neighbor with a soft, “Hello”. However the girl ignores Candice’s greeting and proceeds to type on her phone with her eyes glued to its screen. As a matter of fact from that moment until the plane’s official takeoff, the girl only said one word to Candice. A delayed “sorry” when she accidentally elbowed Candice as she placed her phone back into her pocket.
The plane is now in the air in route to NYC as passengers are quietly reading, napping, or whispering to their neighbors. Candice observes the scene in front of her and remembers that she left her book in her bag. She wanted to go over her notes for the lecture. Candice reluctantly stood up as she did not want to bring too much attention to herself and tried to quickly open the overhead, unzip her bag compartment, and retrieve the book and notes. As she’s doing so she turns around to see the girl giving an annoyed look. She then turns her head and lets out a deep sigh. Candice then looks up to see one of the flight attendants make her way to their seats. Candice grabs the book and closes the overhead without zipping her bag. However the flight attendant is not coming for Candice but the girl beside her. The two exchange whispers and the flight attendant nods with a smile. She then directs her attention to Candice
“Would you like me to help you with that ma’am?” she asks sweetly
“No that’s alright”, responds Candice, “I just needed my book”, as she holds it up and sits back down. The flight attendant nods and gives Candice a “let’s try to stay in our seat for the remainder of the flight mmkay” sort of smile and walks off.
As Candice is going over her notes and highlighting lines in her book, she notices a fairly odd smell come across her nose. She sniffs a few times in a row to try and pick up what this odor could possibly be. Candice looks up from her book page and continues sniffing. The smell is still hanging around. If it were visible, it would resemble a blurry heatwave about three feet long and three feet wide, and it would reek of spoiled eggs and burning tire rubber. Candice refocuses her attention to her book but is finding the strong stench in the air too distracting.
“Here are you Ms. Fanning, anything else I can get you?”
“Ms. Fanning?” Candice thought as she tries to block the stinky mysterious odor from entering her nose by raising her nostrils. “Elle Fanning?” “The actress”? Candice begins piecing the puzzle together in her head. “I thought she looked familiar.” Candice looks over at the Emmy nominated star as she sets her Diet Coke that the flight attendant just handed her in the cup holder. Not too startruck but still somewhat amused, Candice goes back to her book as the stench begins to finally dissipate
30 min in and the flight has gone smoothly thus far. Candice goes over more of her notes as she tries to imagine in her head how the lecture might possibly go. Candice peers over to her famous neighbor, Elle, who now has her earphone in as she sips her beverage. “Hmm, Elle Fanning, pretty cool.” Candice is slightly becoming more impressed with the notion of sitting next to a well-known celebrity. Elle is rather normal looking dressed in a white cropped shirt and low rise jeans so low rise that Candice notices an extra layer of skin peaking out. Elle was nearly sitting bare ass on her seat, if there was no back behind her she’d be baring a whole lot more than just midriff. That’s when Candice notices something else, that odd odor again. This time it was stronger and heavier. Almost as if it hit the gym after it’s first arrival before returning to assault Candice’s nose once more. The stench becomes so potent that Candice must put the tips of her three middle fingers over her nose. The stench persists. Candice then heard a groan from the person sitting behind her. This is followed by muttering between the two passengers beside her and Elle.
“Well it’s not me”, one of them says
Candice thinks to herself, “it’s not me either… this time at least”. The stench continues lingering in the air. “Pew, that is a stubborn odor, my goodness”, Candice is in her head reacting to the pungent smell hanging in the air. She goes to the extra mile to block her nose from further attacks by lifting her sweater over the bottom half of her face. She then looks to her neighbor Elle who’s eyes quickly swing to the side then quickly swing back to a front facing view as the quiet blonde takes another sip of her Diet Coke. To Candice, Elle’s subtle eyeball gesture reeked of guilt just as much the stench in the air reeked of steamy, hot sulfur. Candice suspected Elle to be the culprit of the rotten smell but that look was all the confirmation she needed. It made sense seeing that the odor would take up their entire section whenever it was released, the wafts were no question coming from the direction of one Elle Fanning
“Ugh, my gosh”, Candice mutters to herself as she once again must cover her nose with her sweater. It seems as though Elle is not letting up with her gas which has now entered pervasive territory. Each time the stench would seem to linger for longer periods of time, perhaps Elle was steadily releasing gas as the fumes continued to build in the atmosphere. A stinging, thick, humid coating of rotten boiled eggs and burnt rubber has now filled a good portion of first class.
“Unbelievable”, remarks a man in his seat as he puts his sleeve over his nose.
Two women seated next to each other are fanning their faces with books. Don’t they know they’re just ping pong-ing the stench in each other’s directions?
The flight attendant makes her way down the aisle as she stops at a seat in the back. Candice overhears the conversation between she and another passenger
“Yes I know”. “Yes, mhm.” “We’ve been hearing complaints from other passengers and we’re currently working on it”. “Absolutely” “Again, we’re very sorry”.
The flight attendant quickly heads back up the aisle. Candice observes a bit of urgency in her step as she watches her leave. Candice has tried not to make eye contact with her gassy neighbor, Elle, as to avoid embarrassing the poor girl. First “The Great” gets cancelled, now this. Candice does sneak a slight peak at Elle as another breeze of stink begins passing by. This one more dense and eggier than it’s predecessors. Candice spots Elle slowly move her arm from her lap and place her hand over her stomach. Elle then let’s put a quiet, airy exhale…”phewwwww”. Candice can’t help but feel emphatic for the young starlet. It was only a month ago when she too found herself in that same position. Candice felt compelled to say something. She didn’t want to shame Elle much in the same way the man did who sat next to Candice as she went through her uncontrollable gas attack. However, Candice had no idea what to say, especially since Elle made no effort to be cordial with her since the plane took off. More gas fumes breezed by as Candice cups her nose with her hand.
“Oh my gosh” “It’s stomach turning isn’t it?”
Candice could overhear more reactions from the people behind her
The plane is soon to reach New York and Elle’s gas has refused to cease. The slender blonde has been releasing bomb after bomb the entire plane ride. You’d think she was engaging in nuclear war with the other passengers, many of whom using different methods to block their noses from the abhorrent gas fumes. Candice being one of them as she has kept her sweater over nose for the last 25 min, though she is need of fresh air so she removes her sweater from her face and takes in a small breath. The stench was still around. Eggy, sulfuric, and boiling. There was another strange scent in the air that stunk of mustard gas. Candice peaked over at Elle, she couldn’t believe that such wrecking ball odors were coming from this skinny, thin waisted girl. That’s when she heard a “bpf..pfffffff”. A slightly audible bassy fart that then turned airy as it hissed out from under Elle’s barely covered ass. The actress immediately looks up with widened eyes. She then inhaled and breathes out slow breaths. She places her hand over her stomach and gently rubs her mid-section. Candice is suddenly hit with the most abominable scent. She flutters her eyelashes and mouths to herself, “sweet mother of…”. Candice turns her head to the side they turns back to Elle who turns her head to Candice. The two make eye contact before Elle quickly looks away. She then turns her attention back to her iPad and crosses her legs. Perhaps most lady-like gesture she’s done all day
The plane has now made it to New York. The passengers have somehow made it through a gas storm for the ages. Hollywood beauty queen Elle Fanning has been ripping toxic waste from her within her body for the entire flight. An unprecedented feat. Candice, who has maintained her composure in the classiest fashion, can no longer take the never-ending booty blasts from her neighbor as she fans her sweater covered face with her note paper. It’s obvious Elle has just let yet another gust of wind go as Candice’s selected tools of aid are no match for this new batch of potent gas
Two ladies in the back of the plane are heard conversing about the fart smell
“When I get back to my husband, as soon as I walk through the door I’m telling him, I don wanna talk, I don’t wanna hear a word, I just wanna take a nice, long nap because I was just on a flight for three and had to sit through thee most extinction level farts that I have ever smelled in life”
The unapologetic statement is met with laughter amongst some of the passengers
“I can still smell it”, replied the woman’s neighbor “I haven’t STOPPED smelling it”, the woman responded back”
Candice felt that the remark was uncalled for. Despite the unwavering stench Candice still felt some sympathy for Elle as she knows exactly what the girl is going through
Once the plane landed, Elle made sure to release a few last gasps of air. The stink filled the air as the flight attendant made closing announcements
Now all passengers have stood and Candice retrieves her bag from the overhead. She then turns around only to see Elle blocking her in as the gassy beauty stands between her seat and the one in front of her while leaning against both headrests. Candice stands in front of her own seat and she looks on at Elle’s slightly exposed buttcrack with her light blue jeans dangling below her slim, pale skinned hips. As the line moves along it’s obvious to Candice that Elle is awaiting for everyone to exit the plane so she can go last. Maybe she’d like to stay behind and get out more of her gas. As those in front of Elle make their way down the aisle, the blonde turns to Candice and steps out of the way to let her through. Candice begins walking past the seats, inhaling a cloud of the ripe fermented musk that her neighbor had left sticking in the atmosphere. To Candice’s surprise Elle flashes her a friendly smile as she scoots past. Still no words from her as Candice simply smiles back and says, “thank you.”
As Candice begins to leave she turns around to notice Elle speaking with the flight attendant. No words can be heard, only head nodding and hand talking. Suddenly Elle begins walking to the plane restroom. It is then when Candice realizes what Elle was really planning when she allowed her to go ahead. “Hm, smart move”, Candice says to herself as she makes her way down the steps of the plane
submitted by ovoxogkmc to celebfartfantasies [link] [comments]
The plane is setting to take off soon and passengers are loading their luggage and settling into their seats. Candice discreetly pulls a bottle of Gas-X from her coat pocket and pops a tablet in her mouth while eyeing the others on the plane as if to not get caught. Candice remembers the last time she was on a flight and had the worst gas she ever experienced. It was quite the humiliating as her the person sitting next to her requested to be moved to another seat several times. Candice was intent on not letting anything like that happen again
As what seemed to be all passengers aboard the plane, a last minute entrance is made by a tall, pale blonde who walks slowly down the aisle keeping an eye out for an open seat. She gets to the middle row and sees that there are only filled seats to her left, however once she turns to her right and sees Candice by the window next to an unoccupied seat, she gently sits down and pulls her phone from out of her pocket. Candice extends a polite welcome to her new neighbor with a soft, “Hello”. However the girl ignores Candice’s greeting and proceeds to type on her phone with her eyes glued to its screen. As a matter of fact from that moment until the plane’s official takeoff, the girl only said one word to Candice. A delayed “sorry” when she accidentally elbowed Candice as she placed her phone back into her pocket.
The plane is now in the air in route to NYC as passengers are quietly reading, napping, or whispering to their neighbors. Candice observes the scene in front of her and remembers that she left her book in her bag. She wanted to go over her notes for the lecture. Candice reluctantly stood up as she did not want to bring too much attention to herself and tried to quickly open the overhead, unzip her bag compartment, and retrieve the book and notes. As she’s doing so she turns around to see the girl giving an annoyed look. She then turns her head and lets out a deep sigh. Candice then looks up to see one of the flight attendants make her way to their seats. Candice grabs the book and closes the overhead without zipping her bag. However the flight attendant is not coming for Candice but the girl beside her. The two exchange whispers and the flight attendant nods with a smile. She then directs her attention to Candice
“Would you like me to help you with that ma’am?” she asks sweetly
“No that’s alright”, responds Candice, “I just needed my book”, as she holds it up and sits back down. The flight attendant nods and gives Candice a “let’s try to stay in our seat for the remainder of the flight mmkay” sort of smile and walks off.
As Candice is going over her notes and highlighting lines in her book, she notices a fairly odd smell come across her nose. She sniffs a few times in a row to try and pick up what this odor could possibly be. Candice looks up from her book page and continues sniffing. The smell is still hanging around. If it were visible, it would resemble a blurry heatwave about three feet long and three feet wide, and it would reek of spoiled eggs and burning tire rubber. Candice refocuses her attention to her book but is finding the strong stench in the air too distracting.
“Here are you Ms. Fanning, anything else I can get you?”
“Ms. Fanning?” Candice thought as she tries to block the stinky mysterious odor from entering her nose by raising her nostrils. “Elle Fanning?” “The actress”? Candice begins piecing the puzzle together in her head. “I thought she looked familiar.” Candice looks over at the Emmy nominated star as she sets her Diet Coke that the flight attendant just handed her in the cup holder. Not too startruck but still somewhat amused, Candice goes back to her book as the stench begins to finally dissipate
30 min in and the flight has gone smoothly thus far. Candice goes over more of her notes as she tries to imagine in her head how the lecture might possibly go. Candice peers over to her famous neighbor, Elle, who now has her earphone in as she sips her beverage. “Hmm, Elle Fanning, pretty cool.” Candice is slightly becoming more impressed with the notion of sitting next to a well-known celebrity. Elle is rather normal looking dressed in a white cropped shirt and low rise jeans so low rise that Candice notices an extra layer of skin peaking out. Elle was nearly sitting bare ass on her seat, if there was no back behind her she’d be baring a whole lot more than just midriff. That’s when Candice notices something else, that odd odor again. This time it was stronger and heavier. Almost as if it hit the gym after it’s first arrival before returning to assault Candice’s nose once more. The stench becomes so potent that Candice must put the tips of her three middle fingers over her nose. The stench persists. Candice then heard a groan from the person sitting behind her. This is followed by muttering between the two passengers beside her and Elle.
“Well it’s not me”, one of them says
Candice thinks to herself, “it’s not me either… this time at least”. The stench continues lingering in the air. “Pew, that is a stubborn odor, my goodness”, Candice is in her head reacting to the pungent smell hanging in the air. She goes to the extra mile to block her nose from further attacks by lifting her sweater over the bottom half of her face. She then looks to her neighbor Elle who’s eyes quickly swing to the side then quickly swing back to a front facing view as the quiet blonde takes another sip of her Diet Coke. To Candice, Elle’s subtle eyeball gesture reeked of guilt just as much the stench in the air reeked of steamy, hot sulfur. Candice suspected Elle to be the culprit of the rotten smell but that look was all the confirmation she needed. It made sense seeing that the odor would take up their entire section whenever it was released, the wafts were no question coming from the direction of one Elle Fanning
“Ugh, my gosh”, Candice mutters to herself as she once again must cover her nose with her sweater. It seems as though Elle is not letting up with her gas which has now entered pervasive territory. Each time the stench would seem to linger for longer periods of time, perhaps Elle was steadily releasing gas as the fumes continued to build in the atmosphere. A stinging, thick, humid coating of rotten boiled eggs and burnt rubber has now filled a good portion of first class.
“Unbelievable”, remarks a man in his seat as he puts his sleeve over his nose.
Two women seated next to each other are fanning their faces with books. Don’t they know they’re just ping pong-ing the stench in each other’s directions?
The flight attendant makes her way down the aisle as she stops at a seat in the back. Candice overhears the conversation between she and another passenger
“Yes I know”. “Yes, mhm.” “We’ve been hearing complaints from other passengers and we’re currently working on it”. “Absolutely” “Again, we’re very sorry”.
The flight attendant quickly heads back up the aisle. Candice observes a bit of urgency in her step as she watches her leave. Candice has tried not to make eye contact with her gassy neighbor, Elle, as to avoid embarrassing the poor girl. First “The Great” gets cancelled, now this. Candice does sneak a slight peak at Elle as another breeze of stink begins passing by. This one more dense and eggier than it’s predecessors. Candice spots Elle slowly move her arm from her lap and place her hand over her stomach. Elle then let’s put a quiet, airy exhale…”phewwwww”. Candice can’t help but feel emphatic for the young starlet. It was only a month ago when she too found herself in that same position. Candice felt compelled to say something. She didn’t want to shame Elle much in the same way the man did who sat next to Candice as she went through her uncontrollable gas attack. However, Candice had no idea what to say, especially since Elle made no effort to be cordial with her since the plane took off. More gas fumes breezed by as Candice cups her nose with her hand.
“Oh my gosh” “It’s stomach turning isn’t it?”
Candice could overhear more reactions from the people behind her
The plane is soon to reach New York and Elle’s gas has refused to cease. The slender blonde has been releasing bomb after bomb the entire plane ride. You’d think she was engaging in nuclear war with the other passengers, many of whom using different methods to block their noses from the abhorrent gas fumes. Candice being one of them as she has kept her sweater over nose for the last 25 min, though she is need of fresh air so she removes her sweater from her face and takes in a small breath. The stench was still around. Eggy, sulfuric, and boiling. There was another strange scent in the air that stunk of mustard gas. Candice peaked over at Elle, she couldn’t believe that such wrecking ball odors were coming from this skinny, thin waisted girl. That’s when she heard a “bpf..pfffffff”. A slightly audible bassy fart that then turned airy as it hissed out from under Elle’s barely covered ass. The actress immediately looks up with widened eyes. She then inhaled and breathes out slow breaths. She places her hand over her stomach and gently rubs her mid-section. Candice is suddenly hit with the most abominable scent. She flutters her eyelashes and mouths to herself, “sweet mother of…”. Candice turns her head to the side they turns back to Elle who turns her head to Candice. The two make eye contact before Elle quickly looks away. She then turns her attention back to her iPad and crosses her legs. Perhaps most lady-like gesture she’s done all day
The plane has now made it to New York. The passengers have somehow made it through a gas storm for the ages. Hollywood beauty queen Elle Fanning has been ripping toxic waste from her within her body for the entire flight. An unprecedented feat. Candice, who has maintained her composure in the classiest fashion, can no longer take the never-ending booty blasts from her neighbor as she fans her sweater covered face with her note paper. It’s obvious Elle has just let yet another gust of wind go as Candice’s selected tools of aid are no match for this new batch of potent gas
Two ladies in the back of the plane are heard conversing about the fart smell
“When I get back to my husband, as soon as I walk through the door I’m telling him, I don wanna talk, I don’t wanna hear a word, I just wanna take a nice, long nap because I was just on a flight for three and had to sit through thee most extinction level farts that I have ever smelled in life”
The unapologetic statement is met with laughter amongst some of the passengers
“I can still smell it”, replied the woman’s neighbor “I haven’t STOPPED smelling it”, the woman responded back”
Candice felt that the remark was uncalled for. Despite the unwavering stench Candice still felt some sympathy for Elle as she knows exactly what the girl is going through
Once the plane landed, Elle made sure to release a few last gasps of air. The stink filled the air as the flight attendant made closing announcements
Now all passengers have stood and Candice retrieves her bag from the overhead. She then turns around only to see Elle blocking her in as the gassy beauty stands between her seat and the one in front of her while leaning against both headrests. Candice stands in front of her own seat and she looks on at Elle’s slightly exposed buttcrack with her light blue jeans dangling below her slim, pale skinned hips. As the line moves along it’s obvious to Candice that Elle is awaiting for everyone to exit the plane so she can go last. Maybe she’d like to stay behind and get out more of her gas. As those in front of Elle make their way down the aisle, the blonde turns to Candice and steps out of the way to let her through. Candice begins walking past the seats, inhaling a cloud of the ripe fermented musk that her neighbor had left sticking in the atmosphere. To Candice’s surprise Elle flashes her a friendly smile as she scoots past. Still no words from her as Candice simply smiles back and says, “thank you.”
As Candice begins to leave she turns around to notice Elle speaking with the flight attendant. No words can be heard, only head nodding and hand talking. Suddenly Elle begins walking to the plane restroom. It is then when Candice realizes what Elle was really planning when she allowed her to go ahead. “Hm, smart move”, Candice says to herself as she makes her way down the steps of the plane
2024.04.19 22:51 rmmmmmmmrrr RG Sazabi! (Kampfer recolor)
 | After three months of procrastinating finally finished coloring the RG Sazabi and letting the top coat cure! Next step some decals and a dry brush to cover over the lil mistakes here and there. A beginner custom and taking my time, proud of myself for not rushing, tips+tricks for decals are welcome :) submitted by rmmmmmmmrrr to Gunpla [link] [comments] |
2024.04.19 22:49 throwaway57463815 How can I (24F) deal with a friend (25M) that's always seeking validation?
For context, we met three years ago on a dating app. I had been testing the waters, but ultimately decided that a relationship wasn't something I was ready for. I made this known to him early on and we decided to continue as just friends. Last year, I'd had a very rough bout mentally and had emotionally relied on him often. It's safe to say that we were each other's main source of support. However, this year I'd taken a step back and reexamined my priorities. I decided it would be healthier for both of us to spend a bit less time together, as he still had feelings for me he was trying to move past and I wanted to reconnect with the friends I had isolated myself from the year before. He understood, but I would have to console him often that my taking distance didn't mean I considered him any less of a friend. He would believe when I didn't respond to a message right away that I was angry with him or ignoring him even when I would reassure him otherwise. If I got online late or joined to play Fortnite with just our group of friends rather than with him alone he would feel upset. When he would speak about overcoming his romantic feelings he would use words such as "our" or "we," like he was still hoping I would one day change my mind. I had eventually told him that while I do want to provide reassurance for him that I can't be his sole source of support all of the time, and that it wasn't fair to either of us for me to be both the source of his anxiety and the one to soothe it. I suggested he reach out to other friends if he was feeling overwhelmed and suggested resources should he decide to seek external help, and he seemed to accept this for a time. However, I soon became closer with another friend (21M) who I'll call Liam.
When Liam and I first started growing closer he was in a very dark place mentally. He was suicidal and behaving erratically and had already planned a suicide attempt that he was talked out of. I felt some sense of responsibility to ensure that Liam had the support he needed, and as a result, we did begin spending more time together. However, Liam had also had feelings for me and my friend knew this. He began seeing everything that Liam did as a competition, even though he knew I had no romantic interest in Liam either. If Liam and I watched a movie together he wanted to watch a movie together. If Liam and I were playing iMessage games he wanted to play iMessage games with me too. If I went over to Liam's house he wanted me to go to his. If I went out to eat with Liam he wanted us to go out to eat. Whatever time that I spent with him no longer seemed to be enough. He began to feel as if he were being replaced by Liam, and again, I would tell him this wasn't the case and that my friendship with Liam in no way changed how I felt about him. This conversation, however, has continued to happen over and over and over again.
It's essentially become a cycle where he feels insecure about something I have or haven't done and wants me to assauge those fears, and while I want to help and support him it feels as though little progress is being made. Things will be fine for a week or two, but it's only a matter of time before we have the same conversation again. I told him before that I don't expect his feelings to go away overnight, as I have dealt with similar feelings myself, but it's now like he's turned that into an excuse to not try and manage these feelings at all. And when I suggest alternative options for support he dismisses them, saying he'll consider them once xyz is settled. First, it was getting a job. Then, once he got a job, it was figuring out his financials. And now that he's figured out his financials he says that he will once he chooses and moves into an apartment. I don't want to turn him away and tell him that he can't discuss these things with me, but I want to see him grow and move past them as well. It's draining at times having to constantly reassure him that I'm not ignoring him or upset with him or replacing him, and it's putting a toll on our relationship. What should I do?
TL;DR: My friend constantly seeks validation from me and it's putting a toll on our relationship.
submitted by throwaway57463815 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
When Liam and I first started growing closer he was in a very dark place mentally. He was suicidal and behaving erratically and had already planned a suicide attempt that he was talked out of. I felt some sense of responsibility to ensure that Liam had the support he needed, and as a result, we did begin spending more time together. However, Liam had also had feelings for me and my friend knew this. He began seeing everything that Liam did as a competition, even though he knew I had no romantic interest in Liam either. If Liam and I watched a movie together he wanted to watch a movie together. If Liam and I were playing iMessage games he wanted to play iMessage games with me too. If I went over to Liam's house he wanted me to go to his. If I went out to eat with Liam he wanted us to go out to eat. Whatever time that I spent with him no longer seemed to be enough. He began to feel as if he were being replaced by Liam, and again, I would tell him this wasn't the case and that my friendship with Liam in no way changed how I felt about him. This conversation, however, has continued to happen over and over and over again.
It's essentially become a cycle where he feels insecure about something I have or haven't done and wants me to assauge those fears, and while I want to help and support him it feels as though little progress is being made. Things will be fine for a week or two, but it's only a matter of time before we have the same conversation again. I told him before that I don't expect his feelings to go away overnight, as I have dealt with similar feelings myself, but it's now like he's turned that into an excuse to not try and manage these feelings at all. And when I suggest alternative options for support he dismisses them, saying he'll consider them once xyz is settled. First, it was getting a job. Then, once he got a job, it was figuring out his financials. And now that he's figured out his financials he says that he will once he chooses and moves into an apartment. I don't want to turn him away and tell him that he can't discuss these things with me, but I want to see him grow and move past them as well. It's draining at times having to constantly reassure him that I'm not ignoring him or upset with him or replacing him, and it's putting a toll on our relationship. What should I do?
TL;DR: My friend constantly seeks validation from me and it's putting a toll on our relationship.
2024.04.19 22:42 elizabethbennetpp Can limerence be conducive to healthy relationships? My personal opinion and my research
Before I start with this, I need to mention 2 caveats.
But I think it's necessary to point out that limerence in itself is not the factor that leads to healthy relationships. Someone having their feelings reciprocated may lead to them having the chance to develop a healthy connection with the person they've been limerent about, but in this case, the limerence is more of an obstacle than it is helpful. Here's a quote present in the Wikipedia page about limerence:
Relationships do entail an element of infatuation. When we first meet a person, or during the honeymoon stages, we are bound to think about them a lot and fantazise about a future together. But as Tennov explains:
Why I think it's so important to be careful about this, especially in this subreddit:
For the people who have managed to successfully overcome limerence once reciprocation took place, you need to remember that you are entering a subreddit full of people who are fighting an addiction. Albert H. Wakin's paper "Love-Variant: The Wakin-Vo I. D. R. Model of Limerence" (2008) explains how limerence is akin to drug addiction:
And yes, sure, some of the people still deep in the cycle are going to be "delulu" regardless of what is said in this subreddit. But you don't enter an AA meeting and start talking about how you used to be an alcoholic but ever since you started drinking only one beer a day you stopped being one. Is it possible to have a nuanced conversation about these issues even if your feelings have been reciprocated by the LO? Sure. But I do believe that in this case, the romantic relationship and its real implications need to be separated from the limerent relationship. If limerents are in a state of distorting reality, any kind of clue may lead their limerence to continue or even be enhanced and I find that to be risky.
But again, that's just my opinion. I don't mean to police any kind of content that enters this subreddit (I'm not a mod, I couldn't even if I tried). I'm just defending my position on the issue. I also, again, don't have a PhD in limerence, so I may be completely wrong.
Regarding disclosure:
Now some people have talked about reciprocation when it comes to the aspect of disclosure and in this context, I completely agree with the sentiment that disclosure is SUPER IMPORTANT. In her book, Tennov explains that the two other factors that may work in mitigating limerence are starvation and transference. Starvation happens once the limerent person realizes that the LO doesn't reciprocate their feelings, but given the distorting nature of limerence, sometimes this starvation can only succeed thanks to disclosure. So when it comes to disclosure, I agree that it's one way the cycle of limerence can be broken. Whether through reciprocation or through giving the limerent person a reality check and a chance to move on, it can lead to recovery.
It should be noted, however, that disclosure, just like NC, is NOT a 100% effective method. Many people continue being limerent and having limerent hope and reinforcement even AFTER disclosure and rejection from their LO. Those people might be better suited to initiate NC. In any case, I don't personally believe that NC should be attempted BEFORE disclosure. I think disclosure is the first step a limerent should attempt (of course within the confines of decency and boundaries (if the LO is married/a coworker, disclosure might not be a good idea).
Anyways, those were my two cents. As you can see, this post was too long to be a comment, but I had to post my response somewhere.
submitted by elizabethbennetpp to limerence [link] [comments]
- I am not a psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist or mental health professional. Although I have an ample background on psychology in my career as a teacher, I'm more or less just someone who likes reading and researching mental health conditions, especially when they pertain to limerence.
- These are just MY opinions. The field of limerence is extremely under-researched and even the researchers I mention in this post don't agree with each other, so make of that what you will. HOWEVER, just because I have an opinion on something, doesn't mean this opinion is not based on rational arguments, or that my perception of certain things is based on me being "not alright" or "bitter". I'm basically writing this as a looooooooooooooong response to a discussion I had with u/Forsaken-Visual- on the topic, where basically their perception of what I was saying was that I was somehow trying to portray the phenomena of limerence as more negative than it actually is. Well, again, the research isn't conclusive, so I might very well be wrong in my negative perception of limerence. But this is basically WHY I think this way. It's not just a subjective opinion based on my feelings or experiences, I've spent a lot of time researching this, because I think it's a very important topic worth deconstructing:
But I think it's necessary to point out that limerence in itself is not the factor that leads to healthy relationships. Someone having their feelings reciprocated may lead to them having the chance to develop a healthy connection with the person they've been limerent about, but in this case, the limerence is more of an obstacle than it is helpful. Here's a quote present in the Wikipedia page about limerence:
In her study Tennov identified three ways in which limerence subsides:According to Tennov, reciprocity and consummation is a form in which limerence can be mitigated, meaning that reciprocation can actually help with the symptoms of limerence. What I have a problem with is more with how these 1% of people who have managed to get their feelings reciprocated frame the idea that the "limerence" itself led them to the happy relationship they are in. No. I disagree. And I believe that form of framing limerence is dangerous, because it creates a form of reinforcement in the rest of limerents whose feelings are NOT reciprocated.
Consummation (reciprocation) Each limerent has a slightly different view of acceptable reciprocation, and the reactions to reciprocation vary. Some limerents remain limerent (as documented by Tennov), while for others the limerence subsides as the certainty of reciprocity grows. Other limerents do not achieve any "real" consummation (e.g., physical, or in the form of an actual relationship) but find their limerence waning after a limerent object professes similar feelings.
Relationships do entail an element of infatuation. When we first meet a person, or during the honeymoon stages, we are bound to think about them a lot and fantazise about a future together. But as Tennov explains:
Affectional bonding characterize those affectionate sexual relationships where neither partner is limerent; couples tend to be in love, but do not report continuous and unwanted intrusive thinking, feeling intense need for exclusivity, or define their goals in terms of reciprocity. These types of bonded couples tend to emphasize compatibility of interests, mutual preferences in leisure activities, ability to work together, and in some cases a degree of relative contentment.This form of infatuation is not what the limerents here (at least not in my experience and in a lot of the testimonies I've read here) suffer from. Limerence entails the things we talk about here: obsession, magical thinking, sensitivity due to fear of rejection, confusion and overanalyzing of signals the LO might give, dependance on the perceived reinforcement/rejection of the LO, etc. Why is the difference so important? Because limerence is a distortion of reality, it's not reality itself. Even if the LO reciprocates the affections of the limerent person, the reciprocation still doesn't change this distortion. It may help mitigate it, but it doesn't change that the feelings and perceptions we have of the LO WHILE WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF LIMERENCE are a distortion. In her book "Love and Limerence: The experience of being in love" (1979), Tennov emphazises the difference between what real couples go through while getting to know their significant other and how it differs from what limerents go through when falling in love with their LO. She defines these two different processes through the terms "idealization" (in the case of limerence) and "cristalization" (in the case of affectional bonding). According to Tennov:
The “misperception” of the person experiencing romantic passion has been discussed by writers prior to and following Stendhal, who most often refer to “idealization.” But idealization differs from crystallization in its implication that the image is molded to fit a preformed, externally derived, or emotionally needed conception. In crystallization, the actual and existing features of LO merely undergo enhancement. Idealization implies that unattractive features are literally overlooked; in limerence these features are usually seen, but emotionally ignored. In a study of 2,000 couples, two thirds of the men and three-fourths of the women were able to indicate their partner’s character defects, physical defects and bad habits, e.g., nail-biting. Obviously, perception of these defects was not an impediment.This is why I will stand by my original viewpoint that limerence is NOT conducive to healthy relationships. Can a romantic relationship succeed DESPITE limerence? Yes. Once the process of idealization is replaced with the process of cristalization, meaning, when the LO STOPS BEING A LO and transforms into a significant other and the limerent person starts getting to know the real person instead of idealizing them, sure. But that still means that the symptoms of limerence need to be dealt with and not put on a pedestal or be considered the "root" of the happy, healthy relationship.
Why I think it's so important to be careful about this, especially in this subreddit:
For the people who have managed to successfully overcome limerence once reciprocation took place, you need to remember that you are entering a subreddit full of people who are fighting an addiction. Albert H. Wakin's paper "Love-Variant: The Wakin-Vo I. D. R. Model of Limerence" (2008) explains how limerence is akin to drug addiction:
For the sake of comparison, the object of substance dependence is the substance, while the object of limerence is another person. In limerence, L ultimately experiences impairment and distress. Like in substance dependence, L experiences tolerance, in that he/she displays a markedly greater and greater need for emotional reciprocation from the person/substance in order to maintain the desired level of happiness. Actual or potential absence of the person/substance results in withdrawal symptoms such as physical pain in the chest and abdominal regions, sleep disturbance, irritability, and depression. Further, similar to substance dependence, limerence can also be marked by a pattern of compulsive behavior, where L devotes more and more time to planning for and gaining access to the person/substance. L is unable to control and reduce the need for the person/substance despite being cognizant of the excessive and negative effects on his/her ability to function.In my discussion with another redditor, they accused me of unnecessarily pathologizing the condition of limerence. While it is true that limerence is an under-researched phenomenon, meaning there are no conclusive studies about it, I don't do it just because. I do it based on the research that I have made on limerence during the last 2 years of my life and based on the testimonies I have read on Reddit, at least 80% of the posts in this subreddit actually can be used to prove Wakin's theory that limerence works as a form of addiction. Any form of substance dependance, for me personally, is not conducive to healthy behavior. Now, again, can a relationship that started as limerence eventually become a healthy love bond? Yes. And that's impressive. But it should be pointed out that this process has succeded DESPITE the limerence, not BECAUSE of it.
And yes, sure, some of the people still deep in the cycle are going to be "delulu" regardless of what is said in this subreddit. But you don't enter an AA meeting and start talking about how you used to be an alcoholic but ever since you started drinking only one beer a day you stopped being one. Is it possible to have a nuanced conversation about these issues even if your feelings have been reciprocated by the LO? Sure. But I do believe that in this case, the romantic relationship and its real implications need to be separated from the limerent relationship. If limerents are in a state of distorting reality, any kind of clue may lead their limerence to continue or even be enhanced and I find that to be risky.
But again, that's just my opinion. I don't mean to police any kind of content that enters this subreddit (I'm not a mod, I couldn't even if I tried). I'm just defending my position on the issue. I also, again, don't have a PhD in limerence, so I may be completely wrong.
Regarding disclosure:
Now some people have talked about reciprocation when it comes to the aspect of disclosure and in this context, I completely agree with the sentiment that disclosure is SUPER IMPORTANT. In her book, Tennov explains that the two other factors that may work in mitigating limerence are starvation and transference. Starvation happens once the limerent person realizes that the LO doesn't reciprocate their feelings, but given the distorting nature of limerence, sometimes this starvation can only succeed thanks to disclosure. So when it comes to disclosure, I agree that it's one way the cycle of limerence can be broken. Whether through reciprocation or through giving the limerent person a reality check and a chance to move on, it can lead to recovery.
It should be noted, however, that disclosure, just like NC, is NOT a 100% effective method. Many people continue being limerent and having limerent hope and reinforcement even AFTER disclosure and rejection from their LO. Those people might be better suited to initiate NC. In any case, I don't personally believe that NC should be attempted BEFORE disclosure. I think disclosure is the first step a limerent should attempt (of course within the confines of decency and boundaries (if the LO is married/a coworker, disclosure might not be a good idea).
Anyways, those were my two cents. As you can see, this post was too long to be a comment, but I had to post my response somewhere.
2024.04.19 22:34 vehino Dead of Knight. 01
Chapter One
I could hear the noise those kids were making in the hallway outside my small third story office. It was aggravating. They were stomping around, laughing, trying to impress each other as they looked for something. Typical teenager shenanigans. It went on for a bit until one of them stopped outside my door.
“Here, right here!” he called out to his friends. Then he gave a jaunty little knock.
I muttered darkly to myself. This would make the third group of gawkers this week, eager to have their peek at the new freak in the area and ask the same set of questions the others had already bothered me with. I really needed to do something about this. It had gotten old, fast.
The boy who’d knocked was a smug-looking kid in expensive clothing, as were the other two accompanying him. They looked like they were only a little younger than me. Lousy rich kids looking for some fun in the slums. “So, you’re the crazy null claiming to be a Paladin?” he asked.
I tapped the glass window over my door and gave an irritated nod. “That’s what the sign says, kid,” I replied more politely than he deserved. “Are you here seeking help?”
The kid and his friends responded with loud, disbelieving laughter. “Didn’t I tell you?” he asked them. “Didn’t I tell you? This poor null has cracked his nut!”
I frowned at his choice of words. I didn’t like being called a null. It was true that I couldn’t use magic, but was that such a terrible thing? This punk could and look how he’d turned out.
The kid turned back towards me; his expression was now playful. “So, you’re the Paladin, huh? Chosen by the light itself to oppose the darkness? You? That’s pretty badass, isn’t it?”
“I suppose,” I replied. “I try to stay humble, though. Nice chatting with you.”
I stepped back inside and started to push my door shut when the kid planted a foot in its path, preventing it from closing.
“Now hold on, my good null. I wasn’t finished speaking with you. I'd really like to know more.”
“How strange,” I replied. “I was sure I was done answering pointless questions for the day.”
The kid’s expression, once merely smug, now revealed the ugly edge of malice that had been hiding behind his smile.
“Did you two hear this silly null pop off to me? Isn’t that a gas? Not very smart of him though, is it?”
“Not smart at all, Maxie,” purred the girl standing behind him. She rested a hand on his shoulder and turned her gaze towards me. She looked a little older than the other two, a little closer to my age than theirs; a blue-eyed blonde with a relaxed demeanor that belied the contemptuous look she threw my way.
Those pretty eyes were now emitting a golden gleam of power around each of her irises. She wasn’t channeling her magic yet, but the power had gathered into her, ready to be unleashed in a flash.
“Maybe we ought to teach this silly thing a lesson,” the other boy said.
“Yeah. Maybe we should,” Maxie (heh, Maxie) said in agreement with his little pals.
Oh. So that’s how this was going to go. That was fine by me. I hadn’t had a decent scrap in days, and I was getting bored sitting around, snacking on tasteless city provisions. These twerps looked like they had money on them.
I like money.
“Well, if that’s how you really feel,” I said before I stepped into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind me.
“Get him!” shouted Maxie with the confidence that came with being young and powerful. He swung his fist towards me, his hand suddenly alight with a surge of electric brilliance. His friends, their auras now glowing brightly as well, were right behind him.
Man, where do kids get their energy?
__
These days, I go by the name of Daniel Tabris. It was an alias, and not a particularly good one if you already knew who I was, but it did its job of protecting my identity from the mages, who were the ruling class of this, our crappy little world. If a mage ever learned your real name, they had all sorts of ways of causing you problems. They had the power and the free time to really mess with your life if they wanted to.
The sign outside my apartment read: DANIEL TABRIS (N) PALADIN. NOW ACCEPTING LEGITIMATE QUESTS. NO GENUINE PLEAS FOR AID IGNORED. NO BARGAINS WITH DARKNESS ACCEPTED.
It was the (N) after my name that caused me the most trouble. Ostensibly, it stood for “neutral born.” That meant a human like me that couldn’t channel aetheric energy, which was the fancy way of saying I can’t use magic. But nobody ever called us neutrals; they called us nulls; like we were less than nothing.
If you're wondering, I’m just a regular guy from the Midwest. I live in what used to be called the United States of America; from how the old folks talked about it, the U.S. was the greatest nation in the history of tacos. A bastion of freedom and justice where the rain tasted like Mountain Dew, and all the cheerleaders wanted to marry you. It was a wonderful place if you had money, and a shitty one if you didn’t, but it was still home.
You see, this country once had a promise of fairness that I was raised to take seriously. It was said that no matter who you were or where you came from, you weren’t better or worse than other people. You were an equal in a society of equals and had just as much of a chance to succeed as anyone else.
Of course, the real history of the U.S. was a lot less noble, and a lot more vitriolic and blood-soaked than that with terrible politics as a bonus, but I had to give the place credit where credit was due: The U.S. had a mythic feel to it, that gave it a kind of noble grandeur. It inspired its citizens to aspire for greatness and I respected that.
But that was ages ago before the rising happened. The world as it was now, didn’t even pretend to play by any rules of decency. Outwardly, it looked the same as before. But now, magic, not science, was what drove human industry. Magic allowed the chosen to do whatever they imagined and let them get away with whatever wickedness they wished. You could probably see why that was a bad thing if you were an average citizen who couldn’t belch out bolts of lightning after draining a can of coke.
Nulls were at the bottom of the ladder in this ridiculous new order. In a world where magic existed, being cut off from it entirely was the ultimate societal disadvantage. It was a Gattaca kind of thing, if you’ve ever seen that flick. Which you should. It’s awesome.
With things now as they were, the best way a null could get by in life was by keeping their head down. Over the years, I’d grown sick of watching people being mistreated, and being mistreated myself. But it wasn’t like I could do anything about it, no matter how much I wished otherwise. At least not until this Paladin thing happened to me.
Not that I completely understood any of this stuff.
Let’s just say, I had power now. A level of power that the mages couldn’t ignore. And I was going to do something with it. See, it wasn’t just magic users who preyed on us nulls. The entire world was now crawling with all kinds of things that were just as (if not more) dangerous than they were. The Unseelie, vampires, werewolves, zombies, there were all kinds of things out there waiting in the dark to pull the innocent in for a snack. And no one with the strength to challenge them was willing to do anything about it. They didn’t even pretend to care.
That pissed me off. That really pissed me off. Anyone who lived their lives like the rest of us were background fodder for their biographies would always have an enemy in me.
__
I deposited the three unconscious mages at the corner of my building, next to the rubbish pickup. I’d gone as easy on them as I could, but Maxie was going to need some healing for the hand he’d sucker-punched me with. He’d had some training, I could tell. It’d been a genuinely good roundhouse; too bad he’d broken his knuckles on impact. The poor baby.
With my pockets now jingling with fresh gold and silver thanks to the generosity of those morons, I felt compelled to go out and enjoy a nice hot lunch. Somewhere with a cute waitress, maybe? I stood still for a moment, idly pondering my options when I heard an irritated voice call out my name. “Daniel!”
A glowing blue orb descended from the sky, stopping at eye level to give me what I could only assume was a furious glare. I didn’t bother looking around to see if anyone else noticed it. Past experiences had taught me that I was the only one who could see it.
“Return that money at once! Are you a champion of humanity or a petty thief? How could you bring such shame upon yourself?”
It was a woman’s voice that projected from the sphere. But that didn’t necessarily mean it was a woman using it. As far as I knew, celestials didn’t have a gender.
This particular celestial was a real pain in my posterior. Anyone lucky enough to have a real guardian angel would usually be said to have won life’s ultimate lottery. Imagine always having a super-powered someone at your side who’d protect you from all harm, guide you to great fortune and happiness, and even tuck you in at night with a kiss on the forehead and maybe a warm cup of milk. Sounds good, right?
Not so much for me. I essentially got a hall monitor who snitched on me, twenty-fouseven.
“From he who is gifted, much is expected! Such behavior stains your honor!”
“Oh, come on!” I replied defensively. “They were the ones who started it! If anything, I let them off easy.”
The orb snorted dismissively. “Is that so? More like you knew those children posed no threat so you allowed them to challenge you, knowing you’d humiliate them with ease, all for your selfish enjoyment!”
I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty at that accusation. She knew me pretty well. “Okay, maybe there was a little bit of that going on, but they still had it coming!” I insisted.
“No,” she replied, “They didn’t. A paladin’s purpose is to stand against the darkness and its terrible works. To set an example of greatness for others to follow. The weak must be protected not pummeled! Close your ears to the mockery of the foolish. Turn your cheek to their unjust blows. Indulging in violence for its own sake is an assured path to misery.”
“Teaching lessons seems like it comes with the job too,” I snapped back. “Now these twerps know that appearances aren’t everything and that believing you’re strong enough to bully others doesn’t give you the right to do it! It’s better to wake up wiser than dead, right?”
“That’s…true I suppose,” the celestial said. Inwardly, I grinned wickedly. The celestial constantly beat my head with lectures about how a proper paladin was supposed to behave, but that didn’t make her invulnerable to a good rhetorical argument. If I could make my case logically, there was a good chance I’d get to keep the money I'd taken. And I really wanted to keep it.
“Then as the Paladin, I submit that I’ve done naught but my duty. Let these would-be-wolves awaken to their true natures as gentle lambs, and light willing, they'll never be tempted to engage in unjust violence again. Let the coins I’ve received in exchange be their contribution to a better world.”
(Not to mention a fuller stomach.)
I must have been laying it on a bit thick at that point. The celestial decided I could keep one gold coin for each of the three twerps, leaving me with a total of three. It wasn't the windfall I’d previously earned, but it was still good enough to cover a few reasonably priced meals this week. I guess that was better than being labeled a thief. Only just barely, though.
Just as I was finally on my way to find somewhere to eat, yet another voice called out my name, disrupting my exit. Okay, this was starting to get ridiculous.
I turned my head and saw a big man in a black and red pinstripe suit leaning out of the passenger-side window of a mint-looking El Camino. I didn’t know his name, but I recognized the colors he wore.
“Hey, Altar boy. We have some business with you today. Get inside,” he said, nodding towards the backseat of his ride. He had a deep voice that was both commanding and relaxed. The voice of a man who was used to being obeyed. The kind of voice that instantly got on my nerves.
“Tempting, bigness. So very tempting. I'm afraid I’ve got prior plans, though, so maybe you can take a rain check?”
“There you go with that mouth again, Danny,” the big guy replied. I wished I could remember his name so I could warn him that only my friends got to call me Danny. But what was the point? His kind was a dime-a-dozen. Organized crime was a siren’s call to a certain breed of malicious, steroid-abusing creep. The sort of guy who happily makes a living inflicting his violent urges on society for rich rewards. His sort thought they were untouchable. They always did, and yet they were always so surprised when they got, well, touched.
The gang this gorilla and his crew belonged to, were called the Vorpal Blades. Like the legendary sword from the Lewis Carrol poem, the Jabberwock. Which I actually thought would be a pretty cool name for an 80’s glam metal band, not so much for a bunch of poison-peddling psychopaths.
“I got bad habits, I freely confess,” I replied.
The big guy gave me a calculating look. “Well, maybe you should lose them. For your own sake, Mister altar boy. We’ve got business at the paramount. Get in.”
“Didn’t say I was going anywhere with you.”
“And I didn’t say you had a choice. Get in. Do it before I put you in. This is a quick meeting with management; they just need your opinion on something. Won’t take long.”
Great. This idiot wouldn’t take no for an answer. Not that I couldn’t handle him and whoever he brought for back up, but it wouldn’t be done quietly, and I didn’t want the police breathing down my neck any more than they already were. Besides, the Vorpals would probably use guns and someone innocent could get caught in the crossfire. That was no good.
My brow lowered in irritation. Why did life always have to be so complicated?
“I expect to be compensated for my time,” I said as I took a seat in the back of the car. “Being around you people is unbearable; I should at least be paid for it.”
The driver, a ratty looking creep with a greasy ponytail, snorted disdainfully at me. “You hear that, Lucas? We’re unbearable to be around. He sure doesn’t mind our money though, does he?”
“Just a fact of life, Vitor,” Lucas said, philosophically. “Even, uh, Paladins have to eat, I suppose.”
“Yeah. Paladins,” Vitor said. “Nobody believes that shit. You know that, right? Even my grandma thinks you’re a Feddy plant.”
“Your grandma sounds a little paranoid”, I replied. “She should lay off the medicinal herbs.”
After a slight pause, Vitor said, “Lucas, tell this little bitch that if he talks about my grandma again, I’m gonna hurt him.”
“Danny. It’s distasteful to discuss family members,” Lucas said chidingly.
In a better world, I’d live in a castle. Kings would seek my favor, and great warriors would duel amongst themselves for the honor of fighting at my side. People would throw flower petals as I approached, and maidens would erupt into tears if I smiled at them. Those were inherited memories from prior holders of my title. I glimpsed moments of their lives in my dreams. It seemed awesome. The previous Paladins were like giants to me, titanic in scope and faith, heroic beyond belief.
Now here I was. Their great successor. The first new Paladin in ages. Except nobody believed I was genuine. Being seen hanging out with violent drug dealers wouldn’t help my image either.
Hurray for me.
I guess there were people out in the world who've had worse starts to their careers than this. Sure, I couldn’t think of any off the top of my head, but they had to be out there, right? The world is a big place. For now, I’d settle for seeing what these jerks wanted from me, refusing to help them, and then setting an example if they had hurt feelings about it.
I didn’t think the celestial would mind. She hated Lewis Carroll's poems.
submitted by vehino to HFY [link] [comments]
I could hear the noise those kids were making in the hallway outside my small third story office. It was aggravating. They were stomping around, laughing, trying to impress each other as they looked for something. Typical teenager shenanigans. It went on for a bit until one of them stopped outside my door.
“Here, right here!” he called out to his friends. Then he gave a jaunty little knock.
I muttered darkly to myself. This would make the third group of gawkers this week, eager to have their peek at the new freak in the area and ask the same set of questions the others had already bothered me with. I really needed to do something about this. It had gotten old, fast.
The boy who’d knocked was a smug-looking kid in expensive clothing, as were the other two accompanying him. They looked like they were only a little younger than me. Lousy rich kids looking for some fun in the slums. “So, you’re the crazy null claiming to be a Paladin?” he asked.
I tapped the glass window over my door and gave an irritated nod. “That’s what the sign says, kid,” I replied more politely than he deserved. “Are you here seeking help?”
The kid and his friends responded with loud, disbelieving laughter. “Didn’t I tell you?” he asked them. “Didn’t I tell you? This poor null has cracked his nut!”
I frowned at his choice of words. I didn’t like being called a null. It was true that I couldn’t use magic, but was that such a terrible thing? This punk could and look how he’d turned out.
The kid turned back towards me; his expression was now playful. “So, you’re the Paladin, huh? Chosen by the light itself to oppose the darkness? You? That’s pretty badass, isn’t it?”
“I suppose,” I replied. “I try to stay humble, though. Nice chatting with you.”
I stepped back inside and started to push my door shut when the kid planted a foot in its path, preventing it from closing.
“Now hold on, my good null. I wasn’t finished speaking with you. I'd really like to know more.”
“How strange,” I replied. “I was sure I was done answering pointless questions for the day.”
The kid’s expression, once merely smug, now revealed the ugly edge of malice that had been hiding behind his smile.
“Did you two hear this silly null pop off to me? Isn’t that a gas? Not very smart of him though, is it?”
“Not smart at all, Maxie,” purred the girl standing behind him. She rested a hand on his shoulder and turned her gaze towards me. She looked a little older than the other two, a little closer to my age than theirs; a blue-eyed blonde with a relaxed demeanor that belied the contemptuous look she threw my way.
Those pretty eyes were now emitting a golden gleam of power around each of her irises. She wasn’t channeling her magic yet, but the power had gathered into her, ready to be unleashed in a flash.
“Maybe we ought to teach this silly thing a lesson,” the other boy said.
“Yeah. Maybe we should,” Maxie (heh, Maxie) said in agreement with his little pals.
Oh. So that’s how this was going to go. That was fine by me. I hadn’t had a decent scrap in days, and I was getting bored sitting around, snacking on tasteless city provisions. These twerps looked like they had money on them.
I like money.
“Well, if that’s how you really feel,” I said before I stepped into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind me.
“Get him!” shouted Maxie with the confidence that came with being young and powerful. He swung his fist towards me, his hand suddenly alight with a surge of electric brilliance. His friends, their auras now glowing brightly as well, were right behind him.
Man, where do kids get their energy?
__
These days, I go by the name of Daniel Tabris. It was an alias, and not a particularly good one if you already knew who I was, but it did its job of protecting my identity from the mages, who were the ruling class of this, our crappy little world. If a mage ever learned your real name, they had all sorts of ways of causing you problems. They had the power and the free time to really mess with your life if they wanted to.
The sign outside my apartment read: DANIEL TABRIS (N) PALADIN. NOW ACCEPTING LEGITIMATE QUESTS. NO GENUINE PLEAS FOR AID IGNORED. NO BARGAINS WITH DARKNESS ACCEPTED.
It was the (N) after my name that caused me the most trouble. Ostensibly, it stood for “neutral born.” That meant a human like me that couldn’t channel aetheric energy, which was the fancy way of saying I can’t use magic. But nobody ever called us neutrals; they called us nulls; like we were less than nothing.
If you're wondering, I’m just a regular guy from the Midwest. I live in what used to be called the United States of America; from how the old folks talked about it, the U.S. was the greatest nation in the history of tacos. A bastion of freedom and justice where the rain tasted like Mountain Dew, and all the cheerleaders wanted to marry you. It was a wonderful place if you had money, and a shitty one if you didn’t, but it was still home.
You see, this country once had a promise of fairness that I was raised to take seriously. It was said that no matter who you were or where you came from, you weren’t better or worse than other people. You were an equal in a society of equals and had just as much of a chance to succeed as anyone else.
Of course, the real history of the U.S. was a lot less noble, and a lot more vitriolic and blood-soaked than that with terrible politics as a bonus, but I had to give the place credit where credit was due: The U.S. had a mythic feel to it, that gave it a kind of noble grandeur. It inspired its citizens to aspire for greatness and I respected that.
But that was ages ago before the rising happened. The world as it was now, didn’t even pretend to play by any rules of decency. Outwardly, it looked the same as before. But now, magic, not science, was what drove human industry. Magic allowed the chosen to do whatever they imagined and let them get away with whatever wickedness they wished. You could probably see why that was a bad thing if you were an average citizen who couldn’t belch out bolts of lightning after draining a can of coke.
Nulls were at the bottom of the ladder in this ridiculous new order. In a world where magic existed, being cut off from it entirely was the ultimate societal disadvantage. It was a Gattaca kind of thing, if you’ve ever seen that flick. Which you should. It’s awesome.
With things now as they were, the best way a null could get by in life was by keeping their head down. Over the years, I’d grown sick of watching people being mistreated, and being mistreated myself. But it wasn’t like I could do anything about it, no matter how much I wished otherwise. At least not until this Paladin thing happened to me.
Not that I completely understood any of this stuff.
Let’s just say, I had power now. A level of power that the mages couldn’t ignore. And I was going to do something with it. See, it wasn’t just magic users who preyed on us nulls. The entire world was now crawling with all kinds of things that were just as (if not more) dangerous than they were. The Unseelie, vampires, werewolves, zombies, there were all kinds of things out there waiting in the dark to pull the innocent in for a snack. And no one with the strength to challenge them was willing to do anything about it. They didn’t even pretend to care.
That pissed me off. That really pissed me off. Anyone who lived their lives like the rest of us were background fodder for their biographies would always have an enemy in me.
__
I deposited the three unconscious mages at the corner of my building, next to the rubbish pickup. I’d gone as easy on them as I could, but Maxie was going to need some healing for the hand he’d sucker-punched me with. He’d had some training, I could tell. It’d been a genuinely good roundhouse; too bad he’d broken his knuckles on impact. The poor baby.
With my pockets now jingling with fresh gold and silver thanks to the generosity of those morons, I felt compelled to go out and enjoy a nice hot lunch. Somewhere with a cute waitress, maybe? I stood still for a moment, idly pondering my options when I heard an irritated voice call out my name. “Daniel!”
A glowing blue orb descended from the sky, stopping at eye level to give me what I could only assume was a furious glare. I didn’t bother looking around to see if anyone else noticed it. Past experiences had taught me that I was the only one who could see it.
“Return that money at once! Are you a champion of humanity or a petty thief? How could you bring such shame upon yourself?”
It was a woman’s voice that projected from the sphere. But that didn’t necessarily mean it was a woman using it. As far as I knew, celestials didn’t have a gender.
This particular celestial was a real pain in my posterior. Anyone lucky enough to have a real guardian angel would usually be said to have won life’s ultimate lottery. Imagine always having a super-powered someone at your side who’d protect you from all harm, guide you to great fortune and happiness, and even tuck you in at night with a kiss on the forehead and maybe a warm cup of milk. Sounds good, right?
Not so much for me. I essentially got a hall monitor who snitched on me, twenty-fouseven.
“From he who is gifted, much is expected! Such behavior stains your honor!”
“Oh, come on!” I replied defensively. “They were the ones who started it! If anything, I let them off easy.”
The orb snorted dismissively. “Is that so? More like you knew those children posed no threat so you allowed them to challenge you, knowing you’d humiliate them with ease, all for your selfish enjoyment!”
I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty at that accusation. She knew me pretty well. “Okay, maybe there was a little bit of that going on, but they still had it coming!” I insisted.
“No,” she replied, “They didn’t. A paladin’s purpose is to stand against the darkness and its terrible works. To set an example of greatness for others to follow. The weak must be protected not pummeled! Close your ears to the mockery of the foolish. Turn your cheek to their unjust blows. Indulging in violence for its own sake is an assured path to misery.”
“Teaching lessons seems like it comes with the job too,” I snapped back. “Now these twerps know that appearances aren’t everything and that believing you’re strong enough to bully others doesn’t give you the right to do it! It’s better to wake up wiser than dead, right?”
“That’s…true I suppose,” the celestial said. Inwardly, I grinned wickedly. The celestial constantly beat my head with lectures about how a proper paladin was supposed to behave, but that didn’t make her invulnerable to a good rhetorical argument. If I could make my case logically, there was a good chance I’d get to keep the money I'd taken. And I really wanted to keep it.
“Then as the Paladin, I submit that I’ve done naught but my duty. Let these would-be-wolves awaken to their true natures as gentle lambs, and light willing, they'll never be tempted to engage in unjust violence again. Let the coins I’ve received in exchange be their contribution to a better world.”
(Not to mention a fuller stomach.)
I must have been laying it on a bit thick at that point. The celestial decided I could keep one gold coin for each of the three twerps, leaving me with a total of three. It wasn't the windfall I’d previously earned, but it was still good enough to cover a few reasonably priced meals this week. I guess that was better than being labeled a thief. Only just barely, though.
Just as I was finally on my way to find somewhere to eat, yet another voice called out my name, disrupting my exit. Okay, this was starting to get ridiculous.
I turned my head and saw a big man in a black and red pinstripe suit leaning out of the passenger-side window of a mint-looking El Camino. I didn’t know his name, but I recognized the colors he wore.
“Hey, Altar boy. We have some business with you today. Get inside,” he said, nodding towards the backseat of his ride. He had a deep voice that was both commanding and relaxed. The voice of a man who was used to being obeyed. The kind of voice that instantly got on my nerves.
“Tempting, bigness. So very tempting. I'm afraid I’ve got prior plans, though, so maybe you can take a rain check?”
“There you go with that mouth again, Danny,” the big guy replied. I wished I could remember his name so I could warn him that only my friends got to call me Danny. But what was the point? His kind was a dime-a-dozen. Organized crime was a siren’s call to a certain breed of malicious, steroid-abusing creep. The sort of guy who happily makes a living inflicting his violent urges on society for rich rewards. His sort thought they were untouchable. They always did, and yet they were always so surprised when they got, well, touched.
The gang this gorilla and his crew belonged to, were called the Vorpal Blades. Like the legendary sword from the Lewis Carrol poem, the Jabberwock. Which I actually thought would be a pretty cool name for an 80’s glam metal band, not so much for a bunch of poison-peddling psychopaths.
“I got bad habits, I freely confess,” I replied.
The big guy gave me a calculating look. “Well, maybe you should lose them. For your own sake, Mister altar boy. We’ve got business at the paramount. Get in.”
“Didn’t say I was going anywhere with you.”
“And I didn’t say you had a choice. Get in. Do it before I put you in. This is a quick meeting with management; they just need your opinion on something. Won’t take long.”
Great. This idiot wouldn’t take no for an answer. Not that I couldn’t handle him and whoever he brought for back up, but it wouldn’t be done quietly, and I didn’t want the police breathing down my neck any more than they already were. Besides, the Vorpals would probably use guns and someone innocent could get caught in the crossfire. That was no good.
My brow lowered in irritation. Why did life always have to be so complicated?
“I expect to be compensated for my time,” I said as I took a seat in the back of the car. “Being around you people is unbearable; I should at least be paid for it.”
The driver, a ratty looking creep with a greasy ponytail, snorted disdainfully at me. “You hear that, Lucas? We’re unbearable to be around. He sure doesn’t mind our money though, does he?”
“Just a fact of life, Vitor,” Lucas said, philosophically. “Even, uh, Paladins have to eat, I suppose.”
“Yeah. Paladins,” Vitor said. “Nobody believes that shit. You know that, right? Even my grandma thinks you’re a Feddy plant.”
“Your grandma sounds a little paranoid”, I replied. “She should lay off the medicinal herbs.”
After a slight pause, Vitor said, “Lucas, tell this little bitch that if he talks about my grandma again, I’m gonna hurt him.”
“Danny. It’s distasteful to discuss family members,” Lucas said chidingly.
In a better world, I’d live in a castle. Kings would seek my favor, and great warriors would duel amongst themselves for the honor of fighting at my side. People would throw flower petals as I approached, and maidens would erupt into tears if I smiled at them. Those were inherited memories from prior holders of my title. I glimpsed moments of their lives in my dreams. It seemed awesome. The previous Paladins were like giants to me, titanic in scope and faith, heroic beyond belief.
Now here I was. Their great successor. The first new Paladin in ages. Except nobody believed I was genuine. Being seen hanging out with violent drug dealers wouldn’t help my image either.
Hurray for me.
I guess there were people out in the world who've had worse starts to their careers than this. Sure, I couldn’t think of any off the top of my head, but they had to be out there, right? The world is a big place. For now, I’d settle for seeing what these jerks wanted from me, refusing to help them, and then setting an example if they had hurt feelings about it.
I didn’t think the celestial would mind. She hated Lewis Carroll's poems.
2024.04.19 22:28 PhysicsEagle The Galaxy is in shambles post-RoS, and the Resistance can’t fix it; or, a brief history of galactic metapolitics
This will be a sizable post with my examination of the state of Galactic politics following the events of Rise of Skywalker.
In the course of one year, the Galaxy has gone from having a functional, if stagnant, recognized central authority to having absolutely none. This is radically different from any other regime change we’ve seen prior: for all the difference in policy and demeanor, the Empire and the (Old) Republic were essentially the same government, with updated branding. The paper-pushers were the same guys, they just started pushing different papers. The New Republic (NR) was slightly more radical in its change, but the basic infrastructure of the government (and more specifically, the bureaucracy) remained in place. Then the First Order blows it all up, and is in turn itself blown up by a bunch of randos who found the idea of Zombie Palpatine distasteful. The Galaxy is left with absolutely no central authority, and no one is in the position to form one.
Let’s step back.
The Old Republic existed as a bastion of democracy for a millennia. To quote Michael Stover’s excellent Revenge of the Sith novelization, “no one knew from whence it came or how it started. All that mattered is it was The Republic.” Due to a combination of bureaucratic meddling, corruption, civil war, and intentional subversion, the Republic goes through a massive shift in policy, eventually culminating in the renaming as the Galactic Empire. It is very important to note that aside from cosmetic differences, there is no sudden change in policy at this moment. The Empire still utilizes all the institutions and infrastructure a which have served the Republic for a thousand years.
However, some senators object to the increasingly authoritarian direction things are headed, so they form the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The name is important: this isn’t some ragtag group of insurgents seeking to tear down The System, but an organized, political body with a civilian leadership originally conceived to pressure the legitimate leaders of the Galaxy to return to democracy. Even by the time of Rogue One, we see that the Alliance leadership doesn’t consider direct force to be a viable long term option. The Alliance military exists to persuade, not to overthrow. However, we see from their own organization (leaders are named “minister of state, minister of finance, etc) that they really see themselves as a government in exile. And then the Emperor dissolves the Senate.
In many ways, the Senate is the Republic. Even after the rise of the Empire, people could at least claim that they were nominally represents in government. Even by ANH, Vader still has to cover up his attack on Tantive IV for fear of reprisal from the Senate. With the dissolution of the Senate, 1000 years of continuity is wiped away. This is a whole new ballgame, and the Alliance is ready. They announce that the dissolution of the Senate is illegitimate, and that being lead by loyal senators, the Alliance is the legitimate galactic government. In addition, they now are in the unique position of holding territory themselves (Lothal and Mon Cala), legitimizing their claim to be a real political power, rather than just a weak military one. Additionally, with the Senate gone, there is no longer the possibility of peaceful resolution. The Galactic Civil War has begun in earnest.
The end of the war comes not with destroying the entire Imperial government, but with a treaty between two established states. By the end, the Alliance controlled a significant amount of territory, and simply expanded its provisional government to control all territory ceded in the Galactic Concordance. They then set about establishing a New Republic. This is what the Alliance was originally established to do, so they did it well. Mon Mothma was elected Chancellor. All laws were reestablished as they were prior to the transition from Republic to Empire. Chancellor Mothma has a brief panic attack when she realizes she has all the powers Palpatine had when he went all Emperor, but she uses those powers to return power to the Senate. In fact, the populace as a whole is so wary of centralized power that the executive ends up being incredibly weak, and almost a figurehead. Nevertheless, (and this is important), the basic institutions of governance are carried over. Once again, the paper pushers are the same paper pushers, just pushing different papers. There wells probably some screening for fanatical loyalty to the Empire, but on a whole the bureaucratic infrastructure is the same. Additionally, the Alliance has a legitimate claim to power both legally (being the legitimate successor of the Old Republic by nature of being the Senate-in-Exile), and by conquest (they beat the ruling power in a war, and signed a treaty with them).
Fast forward 30 years. The New Republic is sticking its head in the sand concerning the threat of the First Order, seen primarily as a reactionary party running primarily on a “law and order and the empire wasn’t that bad” platform. The shadowy forces backing it and its disturbing militarism is conveniently ignored by the Powers That Be in the NR. Leia Organa, recently politically disgraced, starts a paramilitary group called “The Resistance,” to raise awareness about the true threat of the First Order and provide a first line of defense. The idea being that if they can expose the true threat, the NR will get its stuff together and mobilize its military. The Resistance is different from the Alliance (colloquially known as “The Rebellion”) in several important respects - first, they are not a breakaway state, and in fact are not a state at all. They recognize the sovereignty and legitimacy of the NR. Second, their goal is not the overthrow of the existing regime, but instead is simply to raise awareness of the threat of the First Order and to give the NR enough time to prepare for the inevitable war. The NR doesn’t endorse the Resistance and doesn’t think they’re right, but they don’t mind them existing. If anything it’s not a bad idea to keep a closer eye on the FO through unofficial means. It is in this situation which we find the Galaxy at the beginning of The Force Awakens.
The FO uses its Starkiller Base to destroy the Hosnian system, containing both the NR government and military. They simultaneously launch a blitzkrieg on the entire Galaxy, taking the most important systems almost immediately and decimating the Resistance within days. Using modern America as an analogy, it would be like dropping a nuke on Washington DC and then rapidly taking over all the major cities in America with overwhelming military force. For all their cosmetic similarities to the Empire, the FO is completely different. They rule by no legitimacy other than “we’re here and we have the biggest guns.” In fact, from what we see the FO by the time of RoS has very little if any government aside from its military. For all intents and purposes, it is a Galaxy-wide military occupation.
A mere year after their conquest, the First Order meets its end in spectacular fashion. Rumors circulate about a living Sheev Palpatine. Upon being told that Kijimi has been destroyed by the FO, the citizenry says “where?” And then war hero General Calrissian announces that he needs all the help and all the ships he can get, and the time to free themselves from military occupation is now. The so-called Citizen’s Fleet joins the remnants of the Resistance and destroys the First Order on both Exegol and the rest of the Galaxy. And then…what?
For the first time in over a thousand years, there is no central authority in the Galaxy. The closest thing left is the Resistance, but it was only formed to fend off the FO and save the NR, not to become a government itself. With the destruction of the NR at Hosnian Prime, the Resistance had failed its primary objective. Smaller than even the early Rebellion, it was never intended to fight a war. Plus, it was mainly formed from loyalists to Leia, and she’s dead. The one with the political clout to lead the Galaxy is Lando, as the commander of the Civilian Fleet, but as stated in the film, the Fleet is composed of “just people.” They only joined to throw off the brutal military occupation and get rid of Zombie Sorcerer Emperor. After that…they’ll go home. And even more importantly, there is no government to rebuild. In every other instance of regime change, the new government was able to build itself on the infrastructure that was there previously. With the decapitation strike on the Hosnian system, the entire infrastructure of governance and bureaucracy, upon which every regime since the Old Republic has been built, is destroyed. The NR was consumed by a raging fire, and then the fire burned out. There is no legitimate authority to take power, and no base on which to do so.
Now, the individual planets are fine. A year of military occupation isn’t enough to completely dismantle local government. There might even be a few small planetary alliances. But there is a massive power vacuum at the center of the Galaxy (politically speaking). So two things can happen: the idealistic and the cynical. First up, idealistic:
Planets in the same sectors form alliances. The most prominent planets such as Coruscant, Corellia, Chandrilla, et al. propose a conference to discuss the future of the Galaxy. The natural place to hold such a conference is the old Senate Chamber on Coruscant, but it is not a meeting of the Senate, and the chair is not a Chancellor. The result is a kind of Galactic UN, with planets retaining sovereignty but agreed to ally themselves for the common good. No one wants a central government, having suffered through the chaos of three such governments falling within 50 years of each other.
The cynical option is summed up by the old proverb, “nature abhors a vacuum.” Someone looks at the chaos of the Galaxy and sees opportunity. It might be a warlord. More likely it’s a crime syndicate. The biggest crime war the Galaxy has ever seen erupts. The Galaxy at large is absolute chaos as no one syndicate can hold power for long. No one planet or sector can expand its influence without running amuck of one of the syndicates. The Galaxy devolves into the Wild West.
So to sum up:
The destruction of the NR by the FO and the subsequent destruction of the FO has done more than removed an ineffectual government. The strike on the NR capital destroyed not just the NR but the millennia of precedent and bureaucratic infrastructure on which it was built. Without this, it is almost impossible to reestablish a central government. The Galaxy will devolve into local alliances and crime syndicates scrambling for power. The Resistance, having been decimated at Crait, its original leaders dead and its new leaders unknown on the galactic scene, and never intending to serve as a government, can’t help at all.
submitted by PhysicsEagle to MawInstallation [link] [comments]
In the course of one year, the Galaxy has gone from having a functional, if stagnant, recognized central authority to having absolutely none. This is radically different from any other regime change we’ve seen prior: for all the difference in policy and demeanor, the Empire and the (Old) Republic were essentially the same government, with updated branding. The paper-pushers were the same guys, they just started pushing different papers. The New Republic (NR) was slightly more radical in its change, but the basic infrastructure of the government (and more specifically, the bureaucracy) remained in place. Then the First Order blows it all up, and is in turn itself blown up by a bunch of randos who found the idea of Zombie Palpatine distasteful. The Galaxy is left with absolutely no central authority, and no one is in the position to form one.
Let’s step back.
The Old Republic existed as a bastion of democracy for a millennia. To quote Michael Stover’s excellent Revenge of the Sith novelization, “no one knew from whence it came or how it started. All that mattered is it was The Republic.” Due to a combination of bureaucratic meddling, corruption, civil war, and intentional subversion, the Republic goes through a massive shift in policy, eventually culminating in the renaming as the Galactic Empire. It is very important to note that aside from cosmetic differences, there is no sudden change in policy at this moment. The Empire still utilizes all the institutions and infrastructure a which have served the Republic for a thousand years.
However, some senators object to the increasingly authoritarian direction things are headed, so they form the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The name is important: this isn’t some ragtag group of insurgents seeking to tear down The System, but an organized, political body with a civilian leadership originally conceived to pressure the legitimate leaders of the Galaxy to return to democracy. Even by the time of Rogue One, we see that the Alliance leadership doesn’t consider direct force to be a viable long term option. The Alliance military exists to persuade, not to overthrow. However, we see from their own organization (leaders are named “minister of state, minister of finance, etc) that they really see themselves as a government in exile. And then the Emperor dissolves the Senate.
In many ways, the Senate is the Republic. Even after the rise of the Empire, people could at least claim that they were nominally represents in government. Even by ANH, Vader still has to cover up his attack on Tantive IV for fear of reprisal from the Senate. With the dissolution of the Senate, 1000 years of continuity is wiped away. This is a whole new ballgame, and the Alliance is ready. They announce that the dissolution of the Senate is illegitimate, and that being lead by loyal senators, the Alliance is the legitimate galactic government. In addition, they now are in the unique position of holding territory themselves (Lothal and Mon Cala), legitimizing their claim to be a real political power, rather than just a weak military one. Additionally, with the Senate gone, there is no longer the possibility of peaceful resolution. The Galactic Civil War has begun in earnest.
The end of the war comes not with destroying the entire Imperial government, but with a treaty between two established states. By the end, the Alliance controlled a significant amount of territory, and simply expanded its provisional government to control all territory ceded in the Galactic Concordance. They then set about establishing a New Republic. This is what the Alliance was originally established to do, so they did it well. Mon Mothma was elected Chancellor. All laws were reestablished as they were prior to the transition from Republic to Empire. Chancellor Mothma has a brief panic attack when she realizes she has all the powers Palpatine had when he went all Emperor, but she uses those powers to return power to the Senate. In fact, the populace as a whole is so wary of centralized power that the executive ends up being incredibly weak, and almost a figurehead. Nevertheless, (and this is important), the basic institutions of governance are carried over. Once again, the paper pushers are the same paper pushers, just pushing different papers. There wells probably some screening for fanatical loyalty to the Empire, but on a whole the bureaucratic infrastructure is the same. Additionally, the Alliance has a legitimate claim to power both legally (being the legitimate successor of the Old Republic by nature of being the Senate-in-Exile), and by conquest (they beat the ruling power in a war, and signed a treaty with them).
Fast forward 30 years. The New Republic is sticking its head in the sand concerning the threat of the First Order, seen primarily as a reactionary party running primarily on a “law and order and the empire wasn’t that bad” platform. The shadowy forces backing it and its disturbing militarism is conveniently ignored by the Powers That Be in the NR. Leia Organa, recently politically disgraced, starts a paramilitary group called “The Resistance,” to raise awareness about the true threat of the First Order and provide a first line of defense. The idea being that if they can expose the true threat, the NR will get its stuff together and mobilize its military. The Resistance is different from the Alliance (colloquially known as “The Rebellion”) in several important respects - first, they are not a breakaway state, and in fact are not a state at all. They recognize the sovereignty and legitimacy of the NR. Second, their goal is not the overthrow of the existing regime, but instead is simply to raise awareness of the threat of the First Order and to give the NR enough time to prepare for the inevitable war. The NR doesn’t endorse the Resistance and doesn’t think they’re right, but they don’t mind them existing. If anything it’s not a bad idea to keep a closer eye on the FO through unofficial means. It is in this situation which we find the Galaxy at the beginning of The Force Awakens.
The FO uses its Starkiller Base to destroy the Hosnian system, containing both the NR government and military. They simultaneously launch a blitzkrieg on the entire Galaxy, taking the most important systems almost immediately and decimating the Resistance within days. Using modern America as an analogy, it would be like dropping a nuke on Washington DC and then rapidly taking over all the major cities in America with overwhelming military force. For all their cosmetic similarities to the Empire, the FO is completely different. They rule by no legitimacy other than “we’re here and we have the biggest guns.” In fact, from what we see the FO by the time of RoS has very little if any government aside from its military. For all intents and purposes, it is a Galaxy-wide military occupation.
A mere year after their conquest, the First Order meets its end in spectacular fashion. Rumors circulate about a living Sheev Palpatine. Upon being told that Kijimi has been destroyed by the FO, the citizenry says “where?” And then war hero General Calrissian announces that he needs all the help and all the ships he can get, and the time to free themselves from military occupation is now. The so-called Citizen’s Fleet joins the remnants of the Resistance and destroys the First Order on both Exegol and the rest of the Galaxy. And then…what?
For the first time in over a thousand years, there is no central authority in the Galaxy. The closest thing left is the Resistance, but it was only formed to fend off the FO and save the NR, not to become a government itself. With the destruction of the NR at Hosnian Prime, the Resistance had failed its primary objective. Smaller than even the early Rebellion, it was never intended to fight a war. Plus, it was mainly formed from loyalists to Leia, and she’s dead. The one with the political clout to lead the Galaxy is Lando, as the commander of the Civilian Fleet, but as stated in the film, the Fleet is composed of “just people.” They only joined to throw off the brutal military occupation and get rid of Zombie Sorcerer Emperor. After that…they’ll go home. And even more importantly, there is no government to rebuild. In every other instance of regime change, the new government was able to build itself on the infrastructure that was there previously. With the decapitation strike on the Hosnian system, the entire infrastructure of governance and bureaucracy, upon which every regime since the Old Republic has been built, is destroyed. The NR was consumed by a raging fire, and then the fire burned out. There is no legitimate authority to take power, and no base on which to do so.
Now, the individual planets are fine. A year of military occupation isn’t enough to completely dismantle local government. There might even be a few small planetary alliances. But there is a massive power vacuum at the center of the Galaxy (politically speaking). So two things can happen: the idealistic and the cynical. First up, idealistic:
Planets in the same sectors form alliances. The most prominent planets such as Coruscant, Corellia, Chandrilla, et al. propose a conference to discuss the future of the Galaxy. The natural place to hold such a conference is the old Senate Chamber on Coruscant, but it is not a meeting of the Senate, and the chair is not a Chancellor. The result is a kind of Galactic UN, with planets retaining sovereignty but agreed to ally themselves for the common good. No one wants a central government, having suffered through the chaos of three such governments falling within 50 years of each other.
The cynical option is summed up by the old proverb, “nature abhors a vacuum.” Someone looks at the chaos of the Galaxy and sees opportunity. It might be a warlord. More likely it’s a crime syndicate. The biggest crime war the Galaxy has ever seen erupts. The Galaxy at large is absolute chaos as no one syndicate can hold power for long. No one planet or sector can expand its influence without running amuck of one of the syndicates. The Galaxy devolves into the Wild West.
So to sum up:
The destruction of the NR by the FO and the subsequent destruction of the FO has done more than removed an ineffectual government. The strike on the NR capital destroyed not just the NR but the millennia of precedent and bureaucratic infrastructure on which it was built. Without this, it is almost impossible to reestablish a central government. The Galaxy will devolve into local alliances and crime syndicates scrambling for power. The Resistance, having been decimated at Crait, its original leaders dead and its new leaders unknown on the galactic scene, and never intending to serve as a government, can’t help at all.
2024.04.19 22:27 Life-Fig-4946 HP DeskJet 3755
I am having an issue with my printer not printing straight, and towards the bottom of the page it’s gets really blurry.
Now, I bought this printer in the fall, I only used for one project.
When I went to use it again that’s when this issue happened.
This what I’ve done so far to “try and fix it” 1- Completely rebooted the printer and started from scratch, which means I had to reconnect to wifi (that’s a whole different issue). 2- Aligned the cartridges 3- Took the ink out put it back in
I have done those three steps a total of 5 times now and nothing is working please help!!!!
submitted by Life-Fig-4946 to printersupports [link] [comments]
Now, I bought this printer in the fall, I only used for one project.
When I went to use it again that’s when this issue happened.
This what I’ve done so far to “try and fix it” 1- Completely rebooted the printer and started from scratch, which means I had to reconnect to wifi (that’s a whole different issue). 2- Aligned the cartridges 3- Took the ink out put it back in
I have done those three steps a total of 5 times now and nothing is working please help!!!!
2024.04.19 22:15 qxtbimp Three round mock, four first round trades
First Round
1.01: CHI-Caleb Williams, QB, USC - Obvious pick
1.02: WAS-Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU - He’s my QB4, but all the reporting is pointing to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get reports of Drake Maye here on draft day.
1.03: NE-Drake Maye, QB, North Carolina - If I’m New England, I’m drafting Maye if he’s there. If not, I’m trading back with Minnesota. JJ McCarthy and Jayden Daniels aren’t in that top tier for me.
1.04: ARI-Marvin Harrison Jr, WR, Ohio State - Many people are projecting Arizona to trade down and then back up, but I’m keeping it simple. Take the best guy who also fills a major need.
TRADE: Minnesota trades 1.11, 1.23, and 2025 3rd to LA Chargers for 1.05
1.05: MIN (via LAC)-JJ McCarthy, QB, Michigan - Great landing spot for JJ.
1.06: NYG-Malik Nabers, WR, LSU - Obvious pick
1.07: TEN-Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame - Obvious pick
TRADE: Indianapolis trades 1.15 and 3.82 to Atlanta for 1.08
1.08: IND (via ATL)-Rome Odunze, WR, Washington - Indy picks up a legit weapon for its second year QB.
1.09: CHI-Dallas Turner, EDGE, Alabama - Even if Chicago gets jumped for Odunze, it still can get the best pass rusher in the draft to play across from Montez Sweat.
1.10: NYJ-Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia - Win now move.
1.11: LAC (via MIN)-Taliese Fuaga, OL, Oregon State - He could push Trey Pipkins to the bench.
1.12: DEN-Byron Murphy, DI, Texas - Denver is the biggest wild card in the draft. I’ll drop Murphy next to DJ Jones and Zach Allen to solidify the DL.
1.13: LV-Quinyon Mitchell, CB, Toledo - Raiders focus on making their defense nasty. No need to reach for Penix in the first round.
1.14: NO-Troy Fautanu, OL, Washington - The Saints need two tackles, and Fautanu can play either side.
1.15: ATL (via IND)-Terrion Arnold, CB, Alabama - Atlanta trades down and still gets a top tier defender in an offense-heavy draft.
1.16: SEA-JC Latham, OT, Alabama - Seattle is a trade back candidate, but I like them staying and grabbing Latham.
1.17: JAX-Brian Thomas Jr, WR, LSU - Could this pick be in play for Brandon Aiyuk? If so, I’d have the 49ers take Thomas too.
1.18: CIN-Amarius Mims, OT, Georgia - I like that Mims wouldn’t start right away if he goes to Cincinnati.
TRADE: Dallas trades 1.24 and 2.56 to LA Rams for 1.19 and 3.99
1.19: DAL (via LAR)-Olu Fashanu, OT, Penn State - Dallas sees Fashanu falling and pounces to get its LT, allowing Tyler Smith to stay at LG.
1.20: PIT-Cooper DeJean, CB/S, Iowa - Even if Pittsburgh likes Donte Jackson after trading for him, he’s older and only has one year left on his deal. DeJean and JPJ can be the future.
1.21: MIA-Graham Barton, OL, Duke - Barton can start at RG while being groomed to replace Terron Armstead in the future.
1.22: PHI-Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB, Alabama - The CB room needs an infusion of youth.
1.23: LAC (via MIN)-Jared Verse, EDGE, Florida State - The Chargers retained Mack and Bosa, but Mack is 33 and a pending free agent, and Bosa likely can’t play a full season anymore.
1.24: LAR (via DAL)-Laiatu Latu, EDGE, UCLA - Latu stays in LA and improves the Rams’ pass rush.
1.25: GB-Tyler Guyton, OT, Oklahoma - The Packers usually don’t go OL in the first round, but I think it could happen this year with how this board fell.
1.26: TB-Nate Wiggins, CB, Clemson - The Buccaneers like Zyon McCollum, but they could use another boundary corner.
1.27: ARI-Chop Robinson, EDGE, Penn State - Arizona spent on IDL this offseason, but the edge is still severely lacking.
1.28: BUF-AD Mitchell, WR, Texas - Seems like he is a consensus first rounder now, and the Bills might have to trade up to get him.
1.29: DET-Jer’Zhan Newton, DI, Illinois - Lions go BPA despite signing DJ Reader and how Alim McNeill took a step forward last year.
1.30: BAL-Jordan Morgan, OG/OT, Arizona - Fills a major need for a team replacing three starters on the OL.
TRADE: Washington trades 2.36 and 3.78 to San Francisco for 1.31
1.31: WAS (via SF)-Kingsley Suamataia, OT, BYU - Washington jumps tackle-needy teams in Kansas City and New England to grab their LT.
1.32: KC-Ladd McConkey, WR, Georgia - I like Ladd going to KC where he can be a useful option and not the main guy.
Second Round
2.33: CAR-Keon Coleman, WR, Florida State
2.34: NE-Troy Franklin, WR, Oregon
2.35: ARI-TJ Tampa, CB, Iowa State
2.36: SF (via WAS)-Max Melton, CB, Rutgers
2.37: LAC-Kris Jenkins, DI, Michigan
2.38: TEN-Darius Robinson, DL, Missouri
2.39: CAR-Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE, Texas
2.40: WAS-Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE, Western Michigan
2.41: GB-Braden Fiske, DI, Florida State
2.42: HOU-Michael Hall Jr, DI, Ohio State
2.43: ATL-Chris Braswell, EDGE, Alabama
2.44: LV-Michael Penix Jr, QB, Washington
2.45: NO-Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida
2.46: IND-Kamari Lassiter, CB, Georgia
2.47: NYG-Tyler Nubin, S, Minnesota
2.48: JAX-Mike Sainristil, CB, Michigan
2.49: CIN-Roman Wilson, WR, Michigan
2.50: PHI-Junior Colson, LB, Michigan
2.51: PIT-Jackson Powers-Johnson, IOL, Oregon
2.52: LAR-Jaden Hicks, S, Washington State
2.53: PHI-Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas
2.54: CLE-Payton Wilson, LB, NC State
2.55: MIA-Ruke Okhorhoro, DI, Clemson
2.56: LAR (via DAL): Trey Benson, RB, Florida State
2.57: TB-Zack Frazier, IOL, West Virginia
2.58: GB-Javon Bullard, S, Georgia
2.59: HOU-Ennis Rakestraw, CB, Missouri
2.60: BUF-Calen Bullock, S, USC
2.61: DET-Cooper Beebe, IOL, Kansas State
2.62: BAL-Xavier Legette, WR, South Carolina
2.63: SF-Malachi Corley, WR, Western Kentucky
2.64: KC-Patrick Paul, OT, Houston
Third Round
3.65: CAR-Khyree Jackson, CB, Oregon
3.66: ARI-Bralen Trice, EDGE, Washington
3.67: WAS-Kris Abrams-Draine, CB, Missouri
3.68: NE-Blake Fisher, OT, Notre Dame
3.69: LAC-Devontez Walker, WR, North Carolina
3.70: NYG-Kiran Amegadjie, OT, Yale
3.71: ARI-Christian Haynes, IOL, Connecticut
3.72: NYJ-Cole Bishop, S, Utah
3.73: DET-Jonah Elliss, EDGE, Utah
3.74: ATL-Ja’Lynn Polk, WR, Washington
3.75: CHI-Jalen McMillan, WR, Washington
3.76: DEN-Bo Nix, QB, Oregon
3.77: LV-Roger Rosengarten, OT, Washington
3.78: SF (via WAS)-Brandon Dorlus, DL, Oregon
3.79: ATL-Edgerrin Cooper, LB, Texas A&M
3.80: CIN-Maason Smith, DI, LSU
3.81: SEA-Theo Johnson, TE, Penn State
3.82: ATL (via IND): Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, S, Texas Tech
3.83: LAR-Mekhi Wingo, DI, LSU
3.84: PIT-Malik Washington, WR, Virginia
3.85: CLE-Cade Stover, TE, Ohio State
3.86: HOU-Adisa Isaac, EDGE, Penn State
3.87: DAL-Jonathan Brooks, RB, Texas
3.88: GB-Cam Hart, CB, Notre Dame
3.89: TB-Blake Corum, RB, Michigan
3.90: ARI-Jaylen Wright, RB, Tennessee
3.91: GB-Marshawn Lloyd, RB, USC
3.92: TB-Austin Booker, EDGE, Kansas
3.93: BAL-Mohamed Kamara, EDGE, Colorado State
3.94: SF-Christian Jones, OT, Texas
3.95: KC-Renardo Green, CB, Florida State
3.96: JAX-Christian Mahogany, IOL, Boston College
3.97: CIN-Ben Sinnott, TE, Kansas State
3.98: PIT-Spencer Rattler, QB, South Carolina
3.99: DAL (via LAR)-Sedrick Van Pran, IOL, Georgia
3.100: WAS-Kamren Kinchens, S, MIA
submitted by qxtbimp to NFL_Draft [link] [comments]
1.01: CHI-Caleb Williams, QB, USC - Obvious pick
1.02: WAS-Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU - He’s my QB4, but all the reporting is pointing to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get reports of Drake Maye here on draft day.
1.03: NE-Drake Maye, QB, North Carolina - If I’m New England, I’m drafting Maye if he’s there. If not, I’m trading back with Minnesota. JJ McCarthy and Jayden Daniels aren’t in that top tier for me.
1.04: ARI-Marvin Harrison Jr, WR, Ohio State - Many people are projecting Arizona to trade down and then back up, but I’m keeping it simple. Take the best guy who also fills a major need.
TRADE: Minnesota trades 1.11, 1.23, and 2025 3rd to LA Chargers for 1.05
1.05: MIN (via LAC)-JJ McCarthy, QB, Michigan - Great landing spot for JJ.
1.06: NYG-Malik Nabers, WR, LSU - Obvious pick
1.07: TEN-Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame - Obvious pick
TRADE: Indianapolis trades 1.15 and 3.82 to Atlanta for 1.08
1.08: IND (via ATL)-Rome Odunze, WR, Washington - Indy picks up a legit weapon for its second year QB.
1.09: CHI-Dallas Turner, EDGE, Alabama - Even if Chicago gets jumped for Odunze, it still can get the best pass rusher in the draft to play across from Montez Sweat.
1.10: NYJ-Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia - Win now move.
1.11: LAC (via MIN)-Taliese Fuaga, OL, Oregon State - He could push Trey Pipkins to the bench.
1.12: DEN-Byron Murphy, DI, Texas - Denver is the biggest wild card in the draft. I’ll drop Murphy next to DJ Jones and Zach Allen to solidify the DL.
1.13: LV-Quinyon Mitchell, CB, Toledo - Raiders focus on making their defense nasty. No need to reach for Penix in the first round.
1.14: NO-Troy Fautanu, OL, Washington - The Saints need two tackles, and Fautanu can play either side.
1.15: ATL (via IND)-Terrion Arnold, CB, Alabama - Atlanta trades down and still gets a top tier defender in an offense-heavy draft.
1.16: SEA-JC Latham, OT, Alabama - Seattle is a trade back candidate, but I like them staying and grabbing Latham.
1.17: JAX-Brian Thomas Jr, WR, LSU - Could this pick be in play for Brandon Aiyuk? If so, I’d have the 49ers take Thomas too.
1.18: CIN-Amarius Mims, OT, Georgia - I like that Mims wouldn’t start right away if he goes to Cincinnati.
TRADE: Dallas trades 1.24 and 2.56 to LA Rams for 1.19 and 3.99
1.19: DAL (via LAR)-Olu Fashanu, OT, Penn State - Dallas sees Fashanu falling and pounces to get its LT, allowing Tyler Smith to stay at LG.
1.20: PIT-Cooper DeJean, CB/S, Iowa - Even if Pittsburgh likes Donte Jackson after trading for him, he’s older and only has one year left on his deal. DeJean and JPJ can be the future.
1.21: MIA-Graham Barton, OL, Duke - Barton can start at RG while being groomed to replace Terron Armstead in the future.
1.22: PHI-Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB, Alabama - The CB room needs an infusion of youth.
1.23: LAC (via MIN)-Jared Verse, EDGE, Florida State - The Chargers retained Mack and Bosa, but Mack is 33 and a pending free agent, and Bosa likely can’t play a full season anymore.
1.24: LAR (via DAL)-Laiatu Latu, EDGE, UCLA - Latu stays in LA and improves the Rams’ pass rush.
1.25: GB-Tyler Guyton, OT, Oklahoma - The Packers usually don’t go OL in the first round, but I think it could happen this year with how this board fell.
1.26: TB-Nate Wiggins, CB, Clemson - The Buccaneers like Zyon McCollum, but they could use another boundary corner.
1.27: ARI-Chop Robinson, EDGE, Penn State - Arizona spent on IDL this offseason, but the edge is still severely lacking.
1.28: BUF-AD Mitchell, WR, Texas - Seems like he is a consensus first rounder now, and the Bills might have to trade up to get him.
1.29: DET-Jer’Zhan Newton, DI, Illinois - Lions go BPA despite signing DJ Reader and how Alim McNeill took a step forward last year.
1.30: BAL-Jordan Morgan, OG/OT, Arizona - Fills a major need for a team replacing three starters on the OL.
TRADE: Washington trades 2.36 and 3.78 to San Francisco for 1.31
1.31: WAS (via SF)-Kingsley Suamataia, OT, BYU - Washington jumps tackle-needy teams in Kansas City and New England to grab their LT.
1.32: KC-Ladd McConkey, WR, Georgia - I like Ladd going to KC where he can be a useful option and not the main guy.
Second Round
2.33: CAR-Keon Coleman, WR, Florida State
2.34: NE-Troy Franklin, WR, Oregon
2.35: ARI-TJ Tampa, CB, Iowa State
2.36: SF (via WAS)-Max Melton, CB, Rutgers
2.37: LAC-Kris Jenkins, DI, Michigan
2.38: TEN-Darius Robinson, DL, Missouri
2.39: CAR-Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE, Texas
2.40: WAS-Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE, Western Michigan
2.41: GB-Braden Fiske, DI, Florida State
2.42: HOU-Michael Hall Jr, DI, Ohio State
2.43: ATL-Chris Braswell, EDGE, Alabama
2.44: LV-Michael Penix Jr, QB, Washington
2.45: NO-Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida
2.46: IND-Kamari Lassiter, CB, Georgia
2.47: NYG-Tyler Nubin, S, Minnesota
2.48: JAX-Mike Sainristil, CB, Michigan
2.49: CIN-Roman Wilson, WR, Michigan
2.50: PHI-Junior Colson, LB, Michigan
2.51: PIT-Jackson Powers-Johnson, IOL, Oregon
2.52: LAR-Jaden Hicks, S, Washington State
2.53: PHI-Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas
2.54: CLE-Payton Wilson, LB, NC State
2.55: MIA-Ruke Okhorhoro, DI, Clemson
2.56: LAR (via DAL): Trey Benson, RB, Florida State
2.57: TB-Zack Frazier, IOL, West Virginia
2.58: GB-Javon Bullard, S, Georgia
2.59: HOU-Ennis Rakestraw, CB, Missouri
2.60: BUF-Calen Bullock, S, USC
2.61: DET-Cooper Beebe, IOL, Kansas State
2.62: BAL-Xavier Legette, WR, South Carolina
2.63: SF-Malachi Corley, WR, Western Kentucky
2.64: KC-Patrick Paul, OT, Houston
Third Round
3.65: CAR-Khyree Jackson, CB, Oregon
3.66: ARI-Bralen Trice, EDGE, Washington
3.67: WAS-Kris Abrams-Draine, CB, Missouri
3.68: NE-Blake Fisher, OT, Notre Dame
3.69: LAC-Devontez Walker, WR, North Carolina
3.70: NYG-Kiran Amegadjie, OT, Yale
3.71: ARI-Christian Haynes, IOL, Connecticut
3.72: NYJ-Cole Bishop, S, Utah
3.73: DET-Jonah Elliss, EDGE, Utah
3.74: ATL-Ja’Lynn Polk, WR, Washington
3.75: CHI-Jalen McMillan, WR, Washington
3.76: DEN-Bo Nix, QB, Oregon
3.77: LV-Roger Rosengarten, OT, Washington
3.78: SF (via WAS)-Brandon Dorlus, DL, Oregon
3.79: ATL-Edgerrin Cooper, LB, Texas A&M
3.80: CIN-Maason Smith, DI, LSU
3.81: SEA-Theo Johnson, TE, Penn State
3.82: ATL (via IND): Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, S, Texas Tech
3.83: LAR-Mekhi Wingo, DI, LSU
3.84: PIT-Malik Washington, WR, Virginia
3.85: CLE-Cade Stover, TE, Ohio State
3.86: HOU-Adisa Isaac, EDGE, Penn State
3.87: DAL-Jonathan Brooks, RB, Texas
3.88: GB-Cam Hart, CB, Notre Dame
3.89: TB-Blake Corum, RB, Michigan
3.90: ARI-Jaylen Wright, RB, Tennessee
3.91: GB-Marshawn Lloyd, RB, USC
3.92: TB-Austin Booker, EDGE, Kansas
3.93: BAL-Mohamed Kamara, EDGE, Colorado State
3.94: SF-Christian Jones, OT, Texas
3.95: KC-Renardo Green, CB, Florida State
3.96: JAX-Christian Mahogany, IOL, Boston College
3.97: CIN-Ben Sinnott, TE, Kansas State
3.98: PIT-Spencer Rattler, QB, South Carolina
3.99: DAL (via LAR)-Sedrick Van Pran, IOL, Georgia
3.100: WAS-Kamren Kinchens, S, MIA
2024.04.19 22:10 Bio_Dex 25 [M4F] New York/U.S. - Hoping to connect with an open minded girl on a much deeper level
Hey there! My name is Steven, and I am trying really hard right now to not make this sounds like I'm at a job interview lol. I am looking to connect with someone on a deeper level. Something genuine, where we start off as friends and gradually transition into a long-term relationship.
A little bit bout me:
I am a 25 year old llama🦙 (aka, I am Peruvian), living in New York. I would say I'm pretty open-minded and I'm easy to get along with. I am more on the introverted side but I do love chatting. Although I will admit I love to listen more so if you are chatty/bubbly, then you're more than welcome to talk my ears off. My friends think I'm funny so you know I'd definitely step on a lego or two for them. I believe in treating people the way you want to be treated. I prefer staying indoors but I love going out every now and then, especially with the right company and definitely if there's food. My top three love languages are: Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, and Acts of Service.
I'm more on the geeky side. I love gaming (PC) with my friends and watching anime/reading a manga. I love drawing, even though I don't draw as often as I would like. I love martial arts as it's something I grew up with. I started working out a little bit ago to keep myself in shape, build some muscle, and am slowly working on self-improvement. Appearance wise, I'm a 5'2" with light-brownish skin, dark hair, and a lean-ish build. Here are a few pictures of me that I actually like.
What I'm looking for:
Someone who's genuine, you know. Someone who I vibe with, where we can goof around, have fun, and just enjoy each other's company. Who's open to communicating whenever there's anything that needs to be addressed, or at least willing to try since I know it may not always be easy. Long distance is fine with me, as long as you're still in the U.S. Age wise, I'm open to someone slightly older but I am hoping to meet someone who's at least 21. I feel it's also worth mentioning that I don't mind if you are taller than me or not. As long as it's not a big deal to you (pun intended).
But anyways, I'm pretty much an open book so you can ask me anything. I'm not sure what else to say but if I seem like someone you'd want to chat with, feel free to reach out and we could see where things can go from there.
submitted by Bio_Dex to r4r [link] [comments]
A little bit bout me:
I am a 25 year old llama🦙 (aka, I am Peruvian), living in New York. I would say I'm pretty open-minded and I'm easy to get along with. I am more on the introverted side but I do love chatting. Although I will admit I love to listen more so if you are chatty/bubbly, then you're more than welcome to talk my ears off. My friends think I'm funny so you know I'd definitely step on a lego or two for them. I believe in treating people the way you want to be treated. I prefer staying indoors but I love going out every now and then, especially with the right company and definitely if there's food. My top three love languages are: Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, and Acts of Service.
I'm more on the geeky side. I love gaming (PC) with my friends and watching anime/reading a manga. I love drawing, even though I don't draw as often as I would like. I love martial arts as it's something I grew up with. I started working out a little bit ago to keep myself in shape, build some muscle, and am slowly working on self-improvement. Appearance wise, I'm a 5'2" with light-brownish skin, dark hair, and a lean-ish build. Here are a few pictures of me that I actually like.
What I'm looking for:
Someone who's genuine, you know. Someone who I vibe with, where we can goof around, have fun, and just enjoy each other's company. Who's open to communicating whenever there's anything that needs to be addressed, or at least willing to try since I know it may not always be easy. Long distance is fine with me, as long as you're still in the U.S. Age wise, I'm open to someone slightly older but I am hoping to meet someone who's at least 21. I feel it's also worth mentioning that I don't mind if you are taller than me or not. As long as it's not a big deal to you (pun intended).
But anyways, I'm pretty much an open book so you can ask me anything. I'm not sure what else to say but if I seem like someone you'd want to chat with, feel free to reach out and we could see where things can go from there.
2024.04.19 22:10 Bio_Dex 25 [M4F] New York/U.S. - Hoping to connect with an open minded girl on a much deeper level
Hey there! My name is Steven, and I am trying really hard right now to not make this sounds like I'm at a job interview lol. I am looking to connect with someone on a deeper level. Something genuine, where we start off as friends and gradually transition into a long-term relationship.
A little bit bout me:
I am a 25 year old llama🦙 (aka, I am Peruvian), living in New York. I would say I'm pretty open-minded and I'm easy to get along with. I am more on the introverted side but I do love chatting. Although I will admit I love to listen more so if you are chatty/bubbly, then you're more than welcome to talk my ears off. My friends think I'm funny so you know I'd definitely step on a lego or two for them. I believe in treating people the way you want to be treated. I prefer staying indoors but I love going out every now and then, especially with the right company and definitely if there's food. My top three love languages are: Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, and Acts of Service.
I'm more on the geeky side. I love gaming (PC) with my friends and watching anime/reading a manga. I love drawing, even though I don't draw as often as I would like. I love martial arts as it's something I grew up with. I started working out a little bit ago to keep myself in shape, build some muscle, and am slowly working on self-improvement. Appearance wise, I'm a 5'2" with light-brownish skin, dark hair, and a lean-ish build. Here are a few pictures of me that I actually like.
What I'm looking for:
Someone who's genuine, you know. Someone who I vibe with, where we can goof around, have fun, and just enjoy each other's company. Who's open to communicating whenever there's anything that needs to be addressed, or at least willing to try since I know it may not always be easy. Long distance is fine with me, as long as you're still in the U.S. Age wise, I'm open to someone slightly older but I am hoping to meet someone who's at least 21. I feel it's also worth mentioning that I don't mind if you are taller than me or not. As long as it's not a big deal to you (pun intended).
But anyways, I'm pretty much an open book so you can ask me anything. I'm not sure what else to say but if I seem like someone you'd want to chat with, feel free to reach out and we could see where things can go from there.
submitted by Bio_Dex to ForeverAloneDating [link] [comments]
A little bit bout me:
I am a 25 year old llama🦙 (aka, I am Peruvian), living in New York. I would say I'm pretty open-minded and I'm easy to get along with. I am more on the introverted side but I do love chatting. Although I will admit I love to listen more so if you are chatty/bubbly, then you're more than welcome to talk my ears off. My friends think I'm funny so you know I'd definitely step on a lego or two for them. I believe in treating people the way you want to be treated. I prefer staying indoors but I love going out every now and then, especially with the right company and definitely if there's food. My top three love languages are: Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, and Acts of Service.
I'm more on the geeky side. I love gaming (PC) with my friends and watching anime/reading a manga. I love drawing, even though I don't draw as often as I would like. I love martial arts as it's something I grew up with. I started working out a little bit ago to keep myself in shape, build some muscle, and am slowly working on self-improvement. Appearance wise, I'm a 5'2" with light-brownish skin, dark hair, and a lean-ish build. Here are a few pictures of me that I actually like.
What I'm looking for:
Someone who's genuine, you know. Someone who I vibe with, where we can goof around, have fun, and just enjoy each other's company. Who's open to communicating whenever there's anything that needs to be addressed, or at least willing to try since I know it may not always be easy. Long distance is fine with me, as long as you're still in the U.S. Age wise, I'm open to someone slightly older but I am hoping to meet someone who's at least 21. I feel it's also worth mentioning that I don't mind if you are taller than me or not. As long as it's not a big deal to you (pun intended).
But anyways, I'm pretty much an open book so you can ask me anything. I'm not sure what else to say but if I seem like someone you'd want to chat with, feel free to reach out and we could see where things can go from there.
2024.04.19 22:08 PM_Me_Deus_Vult_Meme Need some advice on a meal (ground beef with potatoes and eggs)
Total cooking amateur here, so please bear with me.
I want to make this ground beef meal I found on youtube (link here) and I need clarification on a certain step.
So, you cook the ground beef for 10 minutes in total (adding the onions and garlic at the three minute mark), then you take it out and put the potatoes in for 12-15 minutes. My question is when exactly do you put the ground beef back in to mix with the potatoes? Is it at some point during the 12-15 minutes to let the ground beef cook some more or is it after the potatoes are done with their 12-15mins?
submitted by PM_Me_Deus_Vult_Meme to Cooking [link] [comments]
I want to make this ground beef meal I found on youtube (link here) and I need clarification on a certain step.
So, you cook the ground beef for 10 minutes in total (adding the onions and garlic at the three minute mark), then you take it out and put the potatoes in for 12-15 minutes. My question is when exactly do you put the ground beef back in to mix with the potatoes? Is it at some point during the 12-15 minutes to let the ground beef cook some more or is it after the potatoes are done with their 12-15mins?
2024.04.19 22:02 JRE47 Magical Leaf Victreebel: A JRE Analysis
It's Community Day time again, this time featuring one of the more hated (or perhaps beloved?) Pokémon that literally tears through PvP: THE Razor Leafer, Victreebel! Is there any reason to fix what doesn't seem broken with a new move that fundamentally changes what Vic does best? Our Bottom Line Up Front will give you an idea before we dive in.
Still with me? Okay, cool, thank you. I'll try to keep it brief, but... I have a soft spot for Victreebel. Don't get me wrong... I have, like you, raged at my screen as the original "Grass hole" has ripped apart my team like a weedwacker, and more than once. (MANY more over the years. Grrrr.) But before all that, before GBL itself even existed, PvP started with grassroots... with The Silph Arena. And a younger, pre-writer JRE entered the second month of organized PvP play — February 2019 — as an inexperienced but excited rookie, encouraged to participate by my local community despite having never participated in ANY competitive Pokémon format ever before.
Indirectly, this is what started my PvP analysis "career". I had to prepare to counter the Twilight Cup meta, one of the best that Silph ever put together. The deep dive meta analysis I've done countless times since began here, this first time just for myself. Knowing that Azumarill was already making a significant mark on PvP (Twilight was its first big meta) and that Victreebel could win many neutral battles with big Dark, Ghost, and especially Fairy types in the meta (only Poison types really out up a stiff resistance to heavy Grass damage), I selected it the night before my tournament with the sixth and final slot on my team. (And still have it as a prized possession, still not even double moved. I should fix that!)
That selection might seem obvious now, but Victreebel had hardly been used at all in PvP to that point. Razor Leaf had only been buffed from its original 8 damage to 11 damage weeks earlier (January 31st, 2019) and "Grass hole" was not yet a thing. (NOTE: Before you go and check, today it deals 10 damage after being slightly nerfed two years later, in January of 2021.) Out of a group of 14 players that went on to be some of the best I ever faced in battle, I was the only one to bring Victreebel to that tournament, inexperience and bad IVs and all. And in my first-ever ranked battles, I faced the #1 player in our area, a great guy we'll just call in this article by his username "TBFIV". And wouldn't you know it, like half the players in that tournament, he was also running Azumarill. Still figuring my own team out, I left Victreebel on my bench (remember that these tournaments were teams of 6, not 3) for the first two games, hard-fought battles that ended up with us tied at 1-1. With IV having brought Azu in both games, I decided to go for broke and pulled out Vic. Holding it in the back, I successful predicted he was holding Azumarill in the back as well, and successfully got it locked in against my Victreebel for a blazingly fast and decisive victory. Victreebel then carried me through the rest of the day, which I ended with 4 match wins and 0 losses, and my first tournament win. From that point on, I was hooked, and kept my analysis (and spreadsheet upon spreadsheet of data) up for subsequent Silph and eventually GBL metas, and just days after that tournament posted the first of what would become the "Nifty Or Thrifty" series, deciding then on the mantra that has driven about 550 analysis articles since... why keep this information to myself when I can share it with others? And for better or for worse 😅, you can trace my whole writing "career" since then back to Victreebel and a fortunate guess at how it was about to shake up PvP.
Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? 🕗
Anyway, now that storytime is over, everyone can have a cookie and a juice box... and the rest of the analysis!
GREAT LEAGUE:
Attack: 136 (133 High Stat Product)
Defense: 95 (96 High Stat Product)
HP: 128 (131 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 1-15-15, 1497 CP, Level 23)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
Attack: 175 (172 High Stat Product)
Defense: 122 (125 High Stat Product)
HP: 167 (168 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-15-12, 2499 CP, Level 48.5)
The typing combination is one of the most common in the game (14 total Grass/Poison Pokémon, tied with Bug/Flying and trailing only Normal/Flying with a whopping 27), so I don't think any of this will come as a surprise, but they actually complement each other rather well in several ways, with Grass negating the usual Poison weakness to Ground, Poison canceling out the typical Grass weaknesses to Poison and Bug, and the two combining for a double resistance to Grass damage. Beyond that, Victreebel gets all the good (resistances to Electric and Water on the Grass side, and to Fairy and Fighting on the Poison side) and bad (vulnerable to Psychic on the Poison side, and Fire, Ice, and Flying on the Grass side) that come with the respective types.
That was a lot, so to quickly review in simple form:
That out of the way, next up are the stats. And here I actually want to dispel at least some notions.
Victreebel is considered as a "glassy", low bulk Pokémon. That's a fair assessment, but it gets perhaps a worse rap then it deserves.
Is it as bulky as fellow famous Grass/Poison Venusaur? No, and it's really not even all that close. But it IS bulkier than Grass/Poison Roserade, and again, the gap between them isn't too close, with Vic having nearly a 100-point advantage in total stat product, which is not an insignificant gap. It's not quite as bad off as many think.
...but yeah, it's not great, being flimsier than other glassy Grass types like Lurantis, Decidueye, Trevenant, and even Shiftry. And that's without the self-destructive Shadowification that many players prefer for their Victreebel, which raises its Attack by about 20% but slashes its already-scary Defense by 20% as well. If I'm doing my math right, that takes it to about 163 Attack and a pitiful 76 Defense in Great League, which is on par with the glassiest viable 'mons in the game like Haunter and Sharpedo. So yes, if we're talking Shadow Victreebel, it really CAN get blown over by a stiff breeze... that reputation is definitely earned.
But of course, Victreebel has been a mainstay in PvP through numerous rebalances and meta shakeups around it, from those earliest days of PvP when it was driving early Silph Arena victories (like mine!) and GO Battle League was still just a twinkle in John Hanke's eye, to play even today where Victreebel strikes fear into teams in Limited and even Open metas alike. It has its very obvious flaws, but with blinding speed can still tear through a swath of unprepared teams.
How does it do it? To this point, it's been primarily with very heavy fast move pressure. After Community Day, though, it's going to have options like never before thanks to its new fast move....
ᴱ - Exclusive (Community Day) Move
FAST MOVES
But I digress. The nutshell is this: to date, Victreebel has achieved much of its victory on the back of pure fast move damage. The fact that it has cheap and/or complimentary charge moves absolutely helps in more drawn out battles, but generally it's just spinning around slicing through stuff with Razor Leaf and not worrying about shields. That has been its best use in general, in fact: forcing battles where shields are still up on both sides and then laughing as it hides behind one or two shields and completely ignores shields the opponent has left. Can't shield Razor Leaf!
Now, take all of that... and throw it out the window. After Community Day, there are now two very distinct flavors of Victreebel you'll be able to run. The first is the same old traditional OG "Grass hole", chewing through whatever is in front of it with Razor Leaf. (Or dying in a blaze of glory when up against something that shrugs off Grass damage.)
The second? Magical Leaf Victreebel. It's a fundamental change, suddenly making those interesting charge moves not only matter more, but become the real focus of how you win many matches. Yes, Magical Leaf still does above average damage, but dropping from 5.0 DPT to 3.33 will still feel like a big dropoff. You simply won't be able to power your way to victory on the back of fast move damage that way. Instead, you still apply some pressure that way (and are still capable of farming down where that's the smart play), but a good bit of your pressure shifts to busting through shields... and punishing the opponent that doesn't have any left to use. This version is perhaps best held in the back behind things that strip shields away and then finishing off everything the opponent has left.
But before I can really show how or IF that really works, we need to formally bring those charge moves into the equation....
CHARGE MOVES
There has been much debate over the years about what second move to run on Victreebel (or if it even needs one!). In the olden days it was really only Sludge Bomb in contention, as prior to March 2019 (a month after my tournament win with Vic), it had only that and Solar Beam to choose from... and Razor Leaf has enough trouble getting to the 50 energy for Bomb in any meaningful spot, much less 80 energy for Beam! But then both Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado were added to its arsenal (five years ago, the last time Vic had any kind of real move shakeup), and they are now #1 and #1a choices for the second move. Not only are they both cheaper than Sludge Bomb, but they synergize well with that Razor Leaf Victreebel wants to do even if shielded: lowering the opponent's Defense to make Razor Leaf all the more deadly (Acid Spray), or indirectly giving Vic more badly needed bulk by lowering the opponent's Attack strength (Leaf Tornado, though whether Tornado triggers or not is a coin flip). Victreebel usually doesn't even care if they get shielded (particularly with Acid Spray), as it is their triggered effects that make the biggest difference, and that works regardless of shielding. These moves are notoriously difficult to sim properly (even the awesome PvPoke does some funky things with how it does or does not shield moves like Acid Spray and you can get some wildly divergent results), but anyone who has used (or faced!) Victreebel can attest for how annoying and game-changing both of these moves can be on Shadow Victreebel in particular.
Put it all together, and in both Great League and even somewhat up in Ultra League, Victreebel works well. And will continue to! I'll reiterate this point later, but any good Razor Leaf Victreebels you have already built are still good, and I think will still absolutely have a place in PvP's future. Don't throw them away! The rest of this analysis will show the benefits of the new fast move, but it's more of an alternative than a true replacement.
Let's finally get into the new move and see what I mean by that!
Magical Leaf itself is a vastly different move to Razor Leaf, as noted up in the fast move section. It still deals above average damage, albeit far lower than Razor Leaf, but it does it while also generating above average energy (as opposed to Razor Leaf which generates about 33% less energy than the average and is tied with a few other moves for lowest energy generation in the game). What this means is that Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado are now less preferred, with Spray in particular losing the great synergy it has with the high damage Razor Leaf. It is now usually better to go for straight damage output with Sludge Bomb. With non-Shadow Victreebel, Bomb can overpower things like Charjabug and Venusaur, while Spray cannot. The difference is unsurprisingly even larger with shields down, with Sludge Bomb taking out Vigoroth, Pelipper, Cresselia, and Shadow Alolan Ninetales in addition to replicating everything that Acid Spray can do. And while not as wide a gap, this still rings true of Shadow Victreebel as well, with Sludge Bomb beating Azumarill with shields down and both Umbreon and Venusaur in 2v2 shielding, beating Razor Leaf Victreebel outright in 1v1 shielding, all while beating everything that Acid Spray can. I won't say that Acid Spray or even Leaf Tornado is now wrong, just perhaps less preferred. Magical Leaf turns Sludge Bomb from the last-ditch Hail Mary it used to be (usually as a parting gift in terrible matchups like Flying and/or Fire types) into a legit weapon that CAN be brought to bear in many meaningful situations and that opponents now must truly respect. Thanks to that, Victreebel is no longer something that can just simply be farmed all the way down in bad matchups... it's much more likely to at least force a shield on the way out, or potentially snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
You may have noticed that, regardless of the second charge move, Magical Leaf Victreebel clocks in with a higher winrate than does Razor Leaf variants. Your eyes do not deceive you: this is actually true... most of the time. In 1v1 shielding, Shadow Vic with Magical Leaf is "strictly better" than Razor Leaf, beating all the same things plus Umbreon, Medicham, Annihilape (as long as it's not spamming Ice Punch, at least), and RL Shadow Vic itself. The one-sided domination mostly continues with shields down too, with Magical Leaf outracing Annihilape, Umbreon, and RL Victreebel again, plus Charjabug, Poliwrath, Dewgong, and Azumarill, while Magical Leaf falls short. (In the case of Azu, with Sludge Bomb actually finishing Azumarill off before it reaches Ice Beam, not Leaf Blade as you might initially think.) BUT, the heavy damage over time of Razor Leaf far outpaces Magical Leaf in 2v2 shielding, with Magical uniquely doing in Venusaur, Umbreon, and Registeel, but Razor Leaf instead wearing down (in order) Annihilape, Dewgong, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Pelipper, Sableye, Shadow Alolan Sandslash, Shadow Victreebel, Vigoroth, and Wigglytuff. Razor Leaf is still brutal as long as Victreebel remains on the field of battle, even when resisted! To reiterate: I don't think Razor Leaf is (or should be!) going away. It will still absolutely have a place on many teams, and this is just one illustration of why.
The more impressive leap — and where I might consider moving more fully away from Razor Leaf in the future — is non-Shadow Victreebel. Its high bar with Razor Leaf was always lower than Shadow, with the occasional standout win thanks to better bulk like Cresselia, but far more losses, such as how Shadow can overpower Annihilape, Vigoroth, Sableye, and Bastiodon and Registeel, which non-Shadow has no real shot at. But now with Magical Leaf, non-Shadow Victreebel jumps up to be right on the same level as Shadow. It's all gains, with Magical Leaf Victreebel gaining Annihilape (with or without Ice Punch!), Charjabug, Pelipper, Sableye, Venusaur, Vigoroth, and Razor Leaf Victreebel, and beating everything else non-Shadow Vic with Razor Leaf could in the process.
Again, no right or wrong way to do this moving forward... there are teams that will want Shadow, some that won't, and some that benefit from new Magical Leaf, and others that will remain strongest with Razor Leaf. But I know you're sitting here wondering what is now "best", so again keeping in mind that everyone's play style and teams are a little different, I'll say that, in a vacuum, I would roughly rank them as:
1.) Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 2.) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 3.) Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf 4.) ... 5.) ..... 6?) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf
Really, those first three are all very close, and IF you can, it would be a good idea to emerge from Community Day with all three in your arsenal. Keep in mind that, as a fast move, Magical Leaf can be taught even to Shadow Victreebel that still has Frustration!
The only rank I will stand behind there with any real conviction is the last one. If you're going to run non-Shadow Victreebel in the future, I think Magical Leaf is the clear favorite now. If you want to Razor Leaf everything like you're the Fruit Ninja champion, I think Shadow is (still) the way to go.
Before WE go, however, a briefer peek at Vic in Ultra!
But I think that's somewhat academic... because I think Magical Leaf is just better now. As in Great League, it shows well in 1v1 shielding (adding on Annihilape, Virizion, Steelix, Umbreon and Gyarados) and 0shield (NO new losses as compared to Razor Leaf, and gains of Virizion, Gyarados, Greedent, Tentacruel, and Feraligatr). But UNlike Great League, Magical Leaf seems to even be superior in 2v2 shielding, with Razor Leaf scratching out unique wins over Walrein, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Golisopod, and Gyarados, but Magical Leaf more than holding its own with wins instead versus Venusaur, Virizion, Umbreon, Toxicroak, Cresselia, and Registeel!
That said, it runs in an awkward problem that's a bit more apparent at this level than it was in Great League... why run even Magical Leaf Victreebel when you have Venuaur sitting right there? For what it's worth, the relative speed (and shield busting pressure) of Leaf Blade means that Victreebel does surpass Venusaur a bit in 2v2 shielding (with wins like Registeel, Feraligatr, Tentacruel, Toxicroak, Umbreon, and Venusaur itself), but otherwise the advanatages seem to all lie with Venusaur still. So while I think it IS worth it to at least evolve one good Ultra League Victreebel while you can get Magical Leaf for free, I wouldn't consider building one to be as high a priority as Great League. It's neat, but not quite as special.
(And for the second, Venusaur and Magical Leaf Vic are generally much closer in performance in Great League, just to close the book on that comparative analysis.)
Alright, my friends, that's all I got for today. Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this, and for those of you who indulged my story time. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular Pokémon GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon if you like.
Good hunting, folks. Do stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!
submitted by JRE47 to PokemonGOBattleLeague [link] [comments]
B.L.U.F.
- Long a terror of PvP, Victreebel remains that today and past Community Day... and now it will have TWO terrorizing modes!
- Traditional Victreebel will still have its same role in PvP and should NOT be going away, but Vic with its new fast move is no less potent, busting through shields instead of avoiding them, but with mostly the same devastating results.
- By the numbers, the new move actually looks like it might be a bit better, though? It's a larger improvement for non-Shadow Vic than it is for Shadow, but both are worthy targets to hunt down during Community Day, and are well worth a decent grind. Good luck!
Still with me? Okay, cool, thank you. I'll try to keep it brief, but... I have a soft spot for Victreebel. Don't get me wrong... I have, like you, raged at my screen as the original "Grass hole" has ripped apart my team like a weedwacker, and more than once. (MANY more over the years. Grrrr.) But before all that, before GBL itself even existed, PvP started with grassroots... with The Silph Arena. And a younger, pre-writer JRE entered the second month of organized PvP play — February 2019 — as an inexperienced but excited rookie, encouraged to participate by my local community despite having never participated in ANY competitive Pokémon format ever before.
Indirectly, this is what started my PvP analysis "career". I had to prepare to counter the Twilight Cup meta, one of the best that Silph ever put together. The deep dive meta analysis I've done countless times since began here, this first time just for myself. Knowing that Azumarill was already making a significant mark on PvP (Twilight was its first big meta) and that Victreebel could win many neutral battles with big Dark, Ghost, and especially Fairy types in the meta (only Poison types really out up a stiff resistance to heavy Grass damage), I selected it the night before my tournament with the sixth and final slot on my team. (And still have it as a prized possession, still not even double moved. I should fix that!)
That selection might seem obvious now, but Victreebel had hardly been used at all in PvP to that point. Razor Leaf had only been buffed from its original 8 damage to 11 damage weeks earlier (January 31st, 2019) and "Grass hole" was not yet a thing. (NOTE: Before you go and check, today it deals 10 damage after being slightly nerfed two years later, in January of 2021.) Out of a group of 14 players that went on to be some of the best I ever faced in battle, I was the only one to bring Victreebel to that tournament, inexperience and bad IVs and all. And in my first-ever ranked battles, I faced the #1 player in our area, a great guy we'll just call in this article by his username "TBFIV". And wouldn't you know it, like half the players in that tournament, he was also running Azumarill. Still figuring my own team out, I left Victreebel on my bench (remember that these tournaments were teams of 6, not 3) for the first two games, hard-fought battles that ended up with us tied at 1-1. With IV having brought Azu in both games, I decided to go for broke and pulled out Vic. Holding it in the back, I successful predicted he was holding Azumarill in the back as well, and successfully got it locked in against my Victreebel for a blazingly fast and decisive victory. Victreebel then carried me through the rest of the day, which I ended with 4 match wins and 0 losses, and my first tournament win. From that point on, I was hooked, and kept my analysis (and spreadsheet upon spreadsheet of data) up for subsequent Silph and eventually GBL metas, and just days after that tournament posted the first of what would become the "Nifty Or Thrifty" series, deciding then on the mantra that has driven about 550 analysis articles since... why keep this information to myself when I can share it with others? And for better or for worse 😅, you can trace my whole writing "career" since then back to Victreebel and a fortunate guess at how it was about to shake up PvP.
Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? 🕗
Anyway, now that storytime is over, everyone can have a cookie and a juice box... and the rest of the analysis!
VICTREEBEL
Grass/Poison TypeGREAT LEAGUE:
Attack: 136 (133 High Stat Product)
Defense: 95 (96 High Stat Product)
HP: 128 (131 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 1-15-15, 1497 CP, Level 23)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
Attack: 175 (172 High Stat Product)
Defense: 122 (125 High Stat Product)
HP: 167 (168 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-15-12, 2499 CP, Level 48.5)
The typing combination is one of the most common in the game (14 total Grass/Poison Pokémon, tied with Bug/Flying and trailing only Normal/Flying with a whopping 27), so I don't think any of this will come as a surprise, but they actually complement each other rather well in several ways, with Grass negating the usual Poison weakness to Ground, Poison canceling out the typical Grass weaknesses to Poison and Bug, and the two combining for a double resistance to Grass damage. Beyond that, Victreebel gets all the good (resistances to Electric and Water on the Grass side, and to Fairy and Fighting on the Poison side) and bad (vulnerable to Psychic on the Poison side, and Fire, Ice, and Flying on the Grass side) that come with the respective types.
That was a lot, so to quickly review in simple form:
| "Not Very Effective" | "Super Effective" |
|---|---|
| Electric | Fire |
| Fairy | Flying |
| Fighting | Ice |
| Water | Psychic |
| Grass (2x) |
Victreebel is considered as a "glassy", low bulk Pokémon. That's a fair assessment, but it gets perhaps a worse rap then it deserves.
Is it as bulky as fellow famous Grass/Poison Venusaur? No, and it's really not even all that close. But it IS bulkier than Grass/Poison Roserade, and again, the gap between them isn't too close, with Vic having nearly a 100-point advantage in total stat product, which is not an insignificant gap. It's not quite as bad off as many think.
...but yeah, it's not great, being flimsier than other glassy Grass types like Lurantis, Decidueye, Trevenant, and even Shiftry. And that's without the self-destructive Shadowification that many players prefer for their Victreebel, which raises its Attack by about 20% but slashes its already-scary Defense by 20% as well. If I'm doing my math right, that takes it to about 163 Attack and a pitiful 76 Defense in Great League, which is on par with the glassiest viable 'mons in the game like Haunter and Sharpedo. So yes, if we're talking Shadow Victreebel, it really CAN get blown over by a stiff breeze... that reputation is definitely earned.
But of course, Victreebel has been a mainstay in PvP through numerous rebalances and meta shakeups around it, from those earliest days of PvP when it was driving early Silph Arena victories (like mine!) and GO Battle League was still just a twinkle in John Hanke's eye, to play even today where Victreebel strikes fear into teams in Limited and even Open metas alike. It has its very obvious flaws, but with blinding speed can still tear through a swath of unprepared teams.
How does it do it? To this point, it's been primarily with very heavy fast move pressure. After Community Day, though, it's going to have options like never before thanks to its new fast move....
ᴱ - Exclusive (Community Day) Move
FAST MOVES
- Magical Leafᴱ (Grass, 3.33 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Razor Leaf (Grass, 5.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.0 CD)
- Acid (Poison, 3.0 DPT, 2.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)
But I digress. The nutshell is this: to date, Victreebel has achieved much of its victory on the back of pure fast move damage. The fact that it has cheap and/or complimentary charge moves absolutely helps in more drawn out battles, but generally it's just spinning around slicing through stuff with Razor Leaf and not worrying about shields. That has been its best use in general, in fact: forcing battles where shields are still up on both sides and then laughing as it hides behind one or two shields and completely ignores shields the opponent has left. Can't shield Razor Leaf!
Now, take all of that... and throw it out the window. After Community Day, there are now two very distinct flavors of Victreebel you'll be able to run. The first is the same old traditional OG "Grass hole", chewing through whatever is in front of it with Razor Leaf. (Or dying in a blaze of glory when up against something that shrugs off Grass damage.)
The second? Magical Leaf Victreebel. It's a fundamental change, suddenly making those interesting charge moves not only matter more, but become the real focus of how you win many matches. Yes, Magical Leaf still does above average damage, but dropping from 5.0 DPT to 3.33 will still feel like a big dropoff. You simply won't be able to power your way to victory on the back of fast move damage that way. Instead, you still apply some pressure that way (and are still capable of farming down where that's the smart play), but a good bit of your pressure shifts to busting through shields... and punishing the opponent that doesn't have any left to use. This version is perhaps best held in the back behind things that strip shields away and then finishing off everything the opponent has left.
But before I can really show how or IF that really works, we need to formally bring those charge moves into the equation....
CHARGE MOVES
- Leaf Blade (Grass, 70 damage, 35 energy)
- Leaf Tornado (Grass, 45 damage, 40 energy, 50% Chance: Lower Opponent Attack -2 Stages)
- Acid Spray (Poison, 20 damage, 45 energy, Lowers Opponent Defense -2 Stages)
- Sludge Bomb (Poison, 80 damage, 50 energy)
- Returnᴾ (Normal, 130 damage, 70 energy)
- Solar Beam (Grass, 150 damage, 80 energy)
There has been much debate over the years about what second move to run on Victreebel (or if it even needs one!). In the olden days it was really only Sludge Bomb in contention, as prior to March 2019 (a month after my tournament win with Vic), it had only that and Solar Beam to choose from... and Razor Leaf has enough trouble getting to the 50 energy for Bomb in any meaningful spot, much less 80 energy for Beam! But then both Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado were added to its arsenal (five years ago, the last time Vic had any kind of real move shakeup), and they are now #1 and #1a choices for the second move. Not only are they both cheaper than Sludge Bomb, but they synergize well with that Razor Leaf Victreebel wants to do even if shielded: lowering the opponent's Defense to make Razor Leaf all the more deadly (Acid Spray), or indirectly giving Vic more badly needed bulk by lowering the opponent's Attack strength (Leaf Tornado, though whether Tornado triggers or not is a coin flip). Victreebel usually doesn't even care if they get shielded (particularly with Acid Spray), as it is their triggered effects that make the biggest difference, and that works regardless of shielding. These moves are notoriously difficult to sim properly (even the awesome PvPoke does some funky things with how it does or does not shield moves like Acid Spray and you can get some wildly divergent results), but anyone who has used (or faced!) Victreebel can attest for how annoying and game-changing both of these moves can be on Shadow Victreebel in particular.
Put it all together, and in both Great League and even somewhat up in Ultra League, Victreebel works well. And will continue to! I'll reiterate this point later, but any good Razor Leaf Victreebels you have already built are still good, and I think will still absolutely have a place in PvP's future. Don't throw them away! The rest of this analysis will show the benefits of the new fast move, but it's more of an alternative than a true replacement.
Let's finally get into the new move and see what I mean by that!
GREAT LEAGUE
Again, here is our barometer with Shadow Victreebel wit Razor Leaf. (And here's a look at non-Shadow.) And now we'll just jump right in with a look at Victreebel with its new move Magical Leaf (in both Shadow and non-Shadow form). 👀Magical Leaf itself is a vastly different move to Razor Leaf, as noted up in the fast move section. It still deals above average damage, albeit far lower than Razor Leaf, but it does it while also generating above average energy (as opposed to Razor Leaf which generates about 33% less energy than the average and is tied with a few other moves for lowest energy generation in the game). What this means is that Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado are now less preferred, with Spray in particular losing the great synergy it has with the high damage Razor Leaf. It is now usually better to go for straight damage output with Sludge Bomb. With non-Shadow Victreebel, Bomb can overpower things like Charjabug and Venusaur, while Spray cannot. The difference is unsurprisingly even larger with shields down, with Sludge Bomb taking out Vigoroth, Pelipper, Cresselia, and Shadow Alolan Ninetales in addition to replicating everything that Acid Spray can do. And while not as wide a gap, this still rings true of Shadow Victreebel as well, with Sludge Bomb beating Azumarill with shields down and both Umbreon and Venusaur in 2v2 shielding, beating Razor Leaf Victreebel outright in 1v1 shielding, all while beating everything that Acid Spray can. I won't say that Acid Spray or even Leaf Tornado is now wrong, just perhaps less preferred. Magical Leaf turns Sludge Bomb from the last-ditch Hail Mary it used to be (usually as a parting gift in terrible matchups like Flying and/or Fire types) into a legit weapon that CAN be brought to bear in many meaningful situations and that opponents now must truly respect. Thanks to that, Victreebel is no longer something that can just simply be farmed all the way down in bad matchups... it's much more likely to at least force a shield on the way out, or potentially snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
You may have noticed that, regardless of the second charge move, Magical Leaf Victreebel clocks in with a higher winrate than does Razor Leaf variants. Your eyes do not deceive you: this is actually true... most of the time. In 1v1 shielding, Shadow Vic with Magical Leaf is "strictly better" than Razor Leaf, beating all the same things plus Umbreon, Medicham, Annihilape (as long as it's not spamming Ice Punch, at least), and RL Shadow Vic itself. The one-sided domination mostly continues with shields down too, with Magical Leaf outracing Annihilape, Umbreon, and RL Victreebel again, plus Charjabug, Poliwrath, Dewgong, and Azumarill, while Magical Leaf falls short. (In the case of Azu, with Sludge Bomb actually finishing Azumarill off before it reaches Ice Beam, not Leaf Blade as you might initially think.) BUT, the heavy damage over time of Razor Leaf far outpaces Magical Leaf in 2v2 shielding, with Magical uniquely doing in Venusaur, Umbreon, and Registeel, but Razor Leaf instead wearing down (in order) Annihilape, Dewgong, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Pelipper, Sableye, Shadow Alolan Sandslash, Shadow Victreebel, Vigoroth, and Wigglytuff. Razor Leaf is still brutal as long as Victreebel remains on the field of battle, even when resisted! To reiterate: I don't think Razor Leaf is (or should be!) going away. It will still absolutely have a place on many teams, and this is just one illustration of why.
The more impressive leap — and where I might consider moving more fully away from Razor Leaf in the future — is non-Shadow Victreebel. Its high bar with Razor Leaf was always lower than Shadow, with the occasional standout win thanks to better bulk like Cresselia, but far more losses, such as how Shadow can overpower Annihilape, Vigoroth, Sableye, and Bastiodon and Registeel, which non-Shadow has no real shot at. But now with Magical Leaf, non-Shadow Victreebel jumps up to be right on the same level as Shadow. It's all gains, with Magical Leaf Victreebel gaining Annihilape (with or without Ice Punch!), Charjabug, Pelipper, Sableye, Venusaur, Vigoroth, and Razor Leaf Victreebel, and beating everything else non-Shadow Vic with Razor Leaf could in the process.
Again, no right or wrong way to do this moving forward... there are teams that will want Shadow, some that won't, and some that benefit from new Magical Leaf, and others that will remain strongest with Razor Leaf. But I know you're sitting here wondering what is now "best", so again keeping in mind that everyone's play style and teams are a little different, I'll say that, in a vacuum, I would roughly rank them as:
1.) Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 2.) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 3.) Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf 4.) ... 5.) ..... 6?) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf
Really, those first three are all very close, and IF you can, it would be a good idea to emerge from Community Day with all three in your arsenal. Keep in mind that, as a fast move, Magical Leaf can be taught even to Shadow Victreebel that still has Frustration!
The only rank I will stand behind there with any real conviction is the last one. If you're going to run non-Shadow Victreebel in the future, I think Magical Leaf is the clear favorite now. If you want to Razor Leaf everything like you're the Fruit Ninja champion, I think Shadow is (still) the way to go.
Before WE go, however, a briefer peek at Vic in Ultra!
ULTRA LEAGUE
Victreebel is far less common in Ultra, but it CAN work on the right team, and thankfully even "bad" IVs that save you a ton of XL Candy works just about as well.But I think that's somewhat academic... because I think Magical Leaf is just better now. As in Great League, it shows well in 1v1 shielding (adding on Annihilape, Virizion, Steelix, Umbreon and Gyarados) and 0shield (NO new losses as compared to Razor Leaf, and gains of Virizion, Gyarados, Greedent, Tentacruel, and Feraligatr). But UNlike Great League, Magical Leaf seems to even be superior in 2v2 shielding, with Razor Leaf scratching out unique wins over Walrein, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Golisopod, and Gyarados, but Magical Leaf more than holding its own with wins instead versus Venusaur, Virizion, Umbreon, Toxicroak, Cresselia, and Registeel!
That said, it runs in an awkward problem that's a bit more apparent at this level than it was in Great League... why run even Magical Leaf Victreebel when you have Venuaur sitting right there? For what it's worth, the relative speed (and shield busting pressure) of Leaf Blade means that Victreebel does surpass Venusaur a bit in 2v2 shielding (with wins like Registeel, Feraligatr, Tentacruel, Toxicroak, Umbreon, and Venusaur itself), but otherwise the advanatages seem to all lie with Venusaur still. So while I think it IS worth it to at least evolve one good Ultra League Victreebel while you can get Magical Leaf for free, I wouldn't consider building one to be as high a priority as Great League. It's neat, but not quite as special.
(And for the second, Venusaur and Magical Leaf Vic are generally much closer in performance in Great League, just to close the book on that comparative analysis.)
IN SUMMATION
YES, Magical Leaf Victreebel is a worthwhile hunt for PvP this Community Day, particularly in Great League where Vic already has quite the reputation. But NO, this is not the end of the the OG "Grass hole", I don't think... Razor Leaf Victreebel will still be driving players to victree... er, victory as it has for a long, long time. Since at least 2019. 😀Alright, my friends, that's all I got for today. Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this, and for those of you who indulged my story time. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular Pokémon GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon if you like.
Good hunting, folks. Do stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!
2024.04.19 22:01 JRE47 Magical Leaf Victreebel in PvP (A Community Day Analysis)
It's Community Day time again, this time featuring one of the more hated (or perhaps beloved?) Pokémon that literally tears through PvP: THE Razor Leafer, Victreebel! Is there any reason to fix what doesn't seem broken with a new move that fundamentally changes what Vic does best? Our Bottom Line Up Front will give you an idea before we dive in.
Still with me? Okay, cool, thank you. I'll try to keep it brief, but... I have a soft spot for Victreebel. Don't get me wrong... I have, like you, raged at my screen as the original "Grass hole" has ripped apart my team like a weedwacker, and more than once. (MANY more over the years. Grrrr.) But before all that, before GBL itself even existed, PvP started with grassroots... with The Silph Arena. And a younger, pre-writer JRE entered the second month of organized PvP play — February 2019 — as an inexperienced but excited rookie, encouraged to participate by my local community despite having never participated in ANY competitive Pokémon format ever before.
Indirectly, this is what started my PvP analysis "career". I had to prepare to counter the Twilight Cup meta, one of the best that Silph ever put together. The deep dive meta analysis I've done countless times since began here, this first time just for myself. Knowing that Azumarill was already making a significant mark on PvP (Twilight was its first big meta) and that Victreebel could win many neutral battles with big Dark, Ghost, and especially Fairy types in the meta (only Poison types really out up a stiff resistance to heavy Grass damage), I selected it the night before my tournament with the sixth and final slot on my team. (And still have it as a prized possession, still not even double moved. I should fix that!)
That selection might seem obvious now, but Victreebel had hardly been used at all in PvP to that point. Razor Leaf had only been buffed from its original 8 damage to 11 damage weeks earlier (January 31st, 2019) and "Grass hole" was not yet a thing. (NOTE: Before you go and check, today it deals 10 damage after being slightly nerfed two years later, in January of 2021.) Out of a group of 14 players that went on to be some of the best I ever faced in battle, I was the only one to bring Victreebel to that tournament, inexperience and bad IVs and all. And in my first-ever ranked battles, I faced the #1 player in our area, a great guy we'll just call in this article by his username "TBFIV". And wouldn't you know it, like half the players in that tournament, he was also running Azumarill. Still figuring my own team out, I left Victreebel on my bench (remember that these tournaments were teams of 6, not 3) for the first two games, hard-fought battles that ended up with us tied at 1-1. With IV having brought Azu in both games, I decided to go for broke and pulled out Vic. Holding it in the back, I successful predicted he was holding Azumarill in the back as well, and successfully got it locked in against my Victreebel for a blazingly fast and decisive victory. Victreebel then carried me through the rest of the day, which I ended with 4 match wins and 0 losses, and my first tournament win. From that point on, I was hooked, and kept my analysis (and spreadsheet upon spreadsheet of data) up for subsequent Silph and eventually GBL metas, and just days after that tournament posted the first of what would become the "Nifty Or Thrifty" series, deciding then on the mantra that has driven about 550 analysis articles since... why keep this information to myself when I can share it with others? And for better or for worse 😅, you can trace my whole writing "career" since then back to Victreebel and a fortunate guess at how it was about to shake up PvP.
Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? 🕗
Anyway, now that storytime is over, everyone can have a cookie and a juice box... and the rest of the analysis!
GREAT LEAGUE:
Attack: 136 (133 High Stat Product)
Defense: 95 (96 High Stat Product)
HP: 128 (131 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 1-15-15, 1497 CP, Level 23)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
Attack: 175 (172 High Stat Product)
Defense: 122 (125 High Stat Product)
HP: 167 (168 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-15-12, 2499 CP, Level 48.5)
The typing combination is one of the most common in the game (14 total Grass/Poison Pokémon, tied with Bug/Flying and trailing only Normal/Flying with a whopping 27), so I don't think any of this will come as a surprise, but they actually complement each other rather well in several ways, with Grass negating the usual Poison weakness to Ground, Poison canceling out the typical Grass weaknesses to Poison and Bug, and the two combining for a double resistance to Grass damage. Beyond that, Victreebel gets all the good (resistances to Electric and Water on the Grass side, and to Fairy and Fighting on the Poison side) and bad (vulnerable to Psychic on the Poison side, and Fire, Ice, and Flying on the Grass side) that come with the respective types.
That was a lot, so to quickly review in simple form:
That out of the way, next up are the stats. And here I actually want to dispel at least some notions.
Victreebel is considered as a "glassy", low bulk Pokémon. That's a fair assessment, but it gets perhaps a worse rap then it deserves.
Is it as bulky as fellow famous Grass/Poison Venusaur? No, and it's really not even all that close. But it IS bulkier than Grass/Poison Roserade, and again, the gap between them isn't too close, with Vic having nearly a 100-point advantage in total stat product, which is not an insignificant gap. It's not quite as bad off as many think.
...but yeah, it's not great, being flimsier than other glassy Grass types like Lurantis, Decidueye, Trevenant, and even Shiftry. And that's without the self-destructive Shadowification that many players prefer for their Victreebel, which raises its Attack by about 20% but slashes its already-scary Defense by 20% as well. If I'm doing my math right, that takes it to about 163 Attack and a pitiful 76 Defense in Great League, which is on par with the glassiest viable 'mons in the game like Haunter and Sharpedo. So yes, if we're talking Shadow Victreebel, it really CAN get blown over by a stiff breeze... that reputation is definitely earned.
But of course, Victreebel has been a mainstay in PvP through numerous rebalances and meta shakeups around it, from those earliest days of PvP when it was driving early Silph Arena victories (like mine!) and GO Battle League was still just a twinkle in John Hanke's eye, to play even today where Victreebel strikes fear into teams in Limited and even Open metas alike. It has its very obvious flaws, but with blinding speed can still tear through a swath of unprepared teams.
How does it do it? To this point, it's been primarily with very heavy fast move pressure. After Community Day, though, it's going to have options like never before thanks to its new fast move....
ᴱ - Exclusive (Community Day) Move
FAST MOVES
But I digress. The nutshell is this: to date, Victreebel has achieved much of its victory on the back of pure fast move damage. The fact that it has cheap and/or complimentary charge moves absolutely helps in more drawn out battles, but generally it's just spinning around slicing through stuff with Razor Leaf and not worrying about shields. That has been its best use in general, in fact: forcing battles where shields are still up on both sides and then laughing as it hides behind one or two shields and completely ignores shields the opponent has left. Can't shield Razor Leaf!
Now, take all of that... and throw it out the window. After Community Day, there are now two very distinct flavors of Victreebel you'll be able to run. The first is the same old traditional OG "Grass hole", chewing through whatever is in front of it with Razor Leaf. (Or dying in a blaze of glory when up against something that shrugs off Grass damage.)
The second? Magical Leaf Victreebel. It's a fundamental change, suddenly making those interesting charge moves not only matter more, but become the real focus of how you win many matches. Yes, Magical Leaf still does above average damage, but dropping from 5.0 DPT to 3.33 will still feel like a big dropoff. You simply won't be able to power your way to victory on the back of fast move damage that way. Instead, you still apply some pressure that way (and are still capable of farming down where that's the smart play), but a good bit of your pressure shifts to busting through shields... and punishing the opponent that doesn't have any left to use. This version is perhaps best held in the back behind things that strip shields away and then finishing off everything the opponent has left.
But before I can really show how or IF that really works, we need to formally bring those charge moves into the equation....
CHARGE MOVES
There has been much debate over the years about what second move to run on Victreebel (or if it even needs one!). In the olden days it was really only Sludge Bomb in contention, as prior to March 2019 (a month after my tournament win with Vic), it had only that and Solar Beam to choose from... and Razor Leaf has enough trouble getting to the 50 energy for Bomb in any meaningful spot, much less 80 energy for Beam! But then both Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado were added to its arsenal (five years ago, the last time Vic had any kind of real move shakeup), and they are now #1 and #1a choices for the second move. Not only are they both cheaper than Sludge Bomb, but they synergize well with that Razor Leaf Victreebel wants to do even if shielded: lowering the opponent's Defense to make Razor Leaf all the more deadly (Acid Spray), or indirectly giving Vic more badly needed bulk by lowering the opponent's Attack strength (Leaf Tornado, though whether Tornado triggers or not is a coin flip). Victreebel usually doesn't even care if they get shielded (particularly with Acid Spray), as it is their triggered effects that make the biggest difference, and that works regardless of shielding. These moves are notoriously difficult to sim properly (even the awesome PvPoke does some funky things with how it does or does not shield moves like Acid Spray and you can get some wildly divergent results), but anyone who has used (or faced!) Victreebel can attest for how annoying and game-changing both of these moves can be on Shadow Victreebel in particular.
Put it all together, and in both Great League and even somewhat up in Ultra League, Victreebel works well. And will continue to! I'll reiterate this point later, but any good Razor Leaf Victreebels you have already built are still good, and I think will still absolutely have a place in PvP's future. Don't throw them away! The rest of this analysis will show the benefits of the new fast move, but it's more of an alternative than a true replacement.
Let's finally get into the new move and see what I mean by that!
Magical Leaf itself is a vastly different move to Razor Leaf, as noted up in the fast move section. It still deals above average damage, albeit far lower than Razor Leaf, but it does it while also generating above average energy (as opposed to Razor Leaf which generates about 33% less energy than the average and is tied with a few other moves for lowest energy generation in the game). What this means is that Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado are now less preferred, with Spray in particular losing the great synergy it has with the high damage Razor Leaf. It is now usually better to go for straight damage output with Sludge Bomb. With non-Shadow Victreebel, Bomb can overpower things like Charjabug and Venusaur, while Spray cannot. The difference is unsurprisingly even larger with shields down, with Sludge Bomb taking out Vigoroth, Pelipper, Cresselia, and Shadow Alolan Ninetales in addition to replicating everything that Acid Spray can do. And while not as wide a gap, this still rings true of Shadow Victreebel as well, with Sludge Bomb beating Azumarill with shields down and both Umbreon and Venusaur in 2v2 shielding, beating Razor Leaf Victreebel outright in 1v1 shielding, all while beating everything that Acid Spray can. I won't say that Acid Spray or even Leaf Tornado is now wrong, just perhaps less preferred. Magical Leaf turns Sludge Bomb from the last-ditch Hail Mary it used to be (usually as a parting gift in terrible matchups like Flying and/or Fire types) into a legit weapon that CAN be brought to bear in many meaningful situations and that opponents now must truly respect. Thanks to that, Victreebel is no longer something that can just simply be farmed all the way down in bad matchups... it's much more likely to at least force a shield on the way out, or potentially snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
You may have noticed that, regardless of the second charge move, Magical Leaf Victreebel clocks in with a higher winrate than does Razor Leaf variants. Your eyes do not deceive you: this is actually true... most of the time. In 1v1 shielding, Shadow Vic with Magical Leaf is "strictly better" than Razor Leaf, beating all the same things plus Umbreon, Medicham, Annihilape (as long as it's not spamming Ice Punch, at least), and RL Shadow Vic itself. The one-sided domination mostly continues with shields down too, with Magical Leaf outracing Annihilape, Umbreon, and RL Victreebel again, plus Charjabug, Poliwrath, Dewgong, and Azumarill, while Magical Leaf falls short. (In the case of Azu, with Sludge Bomb actually finishing Azumarill off before it reaches Ice Beam, not Leaf Blade as you might initially think.) BUT, the heavy damage over time of Razor Leaf far outpaces Magical Leaf in 2v2 shielding, with Magical uniquely doing in Venusaur, Umbreon, and Registeel, but Razor Leaf instead wearing down (in order) Annihilape, Dewgong, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Pelipper, Sableye, Shadow Alolan Sandslash, Shadow Victreebel, Vigoroth, and Wigglytuff. Razor Leaf is still brutal as long as Victreebel remains on the field of battle, even when resisted! To reiterate: I don't think Razor Leaf is (or should be!) going away. It will still absolutely have a place on many teams, and this is just one illustration of why.
The more impressive leap — and where I might consider moving more fully away from Razor Leaf in the future — is non-Shadow Victreebel. Its high bar with Razor Leaf was always lower than Shadow, with the occasional standout win thanks to better bulk like Cresselia, but far more losses, such as how Shadow can overpower Annihilape, Vigoroth, Sableye, and Bastiodon and Registeel, which non-Shadow has no real shot at. But now with Magical Leaf, non-Shadow Victreebel jumps up to be right on the same level as Shadow. It's all gains, with Magical Leaf Victreebel gaining Annihilape (with or without Ice Punch!), Charjabug, Pelipper, Sableye, Venusaur, Vigoroth, and Razor Leaf Victreebel, and beating everything else non-Shadow Vic with Razor Leaf could in the process.
Again, no right or wrong way to do this moving forward... there are teams that will want Shadow, some that won't, and some that benefit from new Magical Leaf, and others that will remain strongest with Razor Leaf. But I know you're sitting here wondering what is now "best", so again keeping in mind that everyone's play style and teams are a little different, I'll say that, in a vacuum, I would roughly rank them as:
1.) Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 2.) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 3.) Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf 4.) ... 5.) ..... 6?) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf
Really, those first three are all very close, and IF you can, it would be a good idea to emerge from Community Day with all three in your arsenal. Keep in mind that, as a fast move, Magical Leaf can be taught even to Shadow Victreebel that still has Frustration!
The only rank I will stand behind there with any real conviction is the last one. If you're going to run non-Shadow Victreebel in the future, I think Magical Leaf is the clear favorite now. If you want to Razor Leaf everything like you're the Fruit Ninja champion, I think Shadow is (still) the way to go.
Before WE go, however, a briefer peek at Vic in Ultra!
But I think that's somewhat academic... because I think Magical Leaf is just better now. As in Great League, it shows well in 1v1 shielding (adding on Annihilape, Virizion, Steelix, Umbreon and Gyarados) and 0shield (NO new losses as compared to Razor Leaf, and gains of Virizion, Gyarados, Greedent, Tentacruel, and Feraligatr). But UNlike Great League, Magical Leaf seems to even be superior in 2v2 shielding, with Razor Leaf scratching out unique wins over Walrein, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Golisopod, and Gyarados, but Magical Leaf more than holding its own with wins instead versus Venusaur, Virizion, Umbreon, Toxicroak, Cresselia, and Registeel!
That said, it runs in an awkward problem that's a bit more apparent at this level than it was in Great League... why run even Magical Leaf Victreebel when you have Venuaur sitting right there? For what it's worth, the relative speed (and shield busting pressure) of Leaf Blade means that Victreebel does surpass Venusaur a bit in 2v2 shielding (with wins like Registeel, Feraligatr, Tentacruel, Toxicroak, Umbreon, and Venusaur itself), but otherwise the advanatages seem to all lie with Venusaur still. So while I think it IS worth it to at least evolve one good Ultra League Victreebel while you can get Magical Leaf for free, I wouldn't consider building one to be as high a priority as Great League. It's neat, but not quite as special.
(And for the second, Venusaur and Magical Leaf Vic are generally much closer in performance in Great League, just to close the book on that comparative analysis.)
Alright, my friends, that's all I got for today. Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this, and for those of you who indulged my story time. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular Pokémon GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon if you like.
Good hunting, folks. Do stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!
submitted by JRE47 to TheSilphArena [link] [comments]
B.L.U.F.
- Long a terror of PvP, Victreebel remains that today and past Community Day... and now it will have TWO terrorizing modes!
- Traditional Victreebel will still have its same role in PvP and should NOT be going away, but Vic with its new fast move is no less potent, busting through shields instead of avoiding them, but with mostly the same devastating results.
- By the numbers, the new move actually looks like it might be a bit better, though? It's a larger improvement for non-Shadow Vic than it is for Shadow, but both are worthy targets to hunt down during Community Day, and are well worth a decent grind. Good luck!
Still with me? Okay, cool, thank you. I'll try to keep it brief, but... I have a soft spot for Victreebel. Don't get me wrong... I have, like you, raged at my screen as the original "Grass hole" has ripped apart my team like a weedwacker, and more than once. (MANY more over the years. Grrrr.) But before all that, before GBL itself even existed, PvP started with grassroots... with The Silph Arena. And a younger, pre-writer JRE entered the second month of organized PvP play — February 2019 — as an inexperienced but excited rookie, encouraged to participate by my local community despite having never participated in ANY competitive Pokémon format ever before.
Indirectly, this is what started my PvP analysis "career". I had to prepare to counter the Twilight Cup meta, one of the best that Silph ever put together. The deep dive meta analysis I've done countless times since began here, this first time just for myself. Knowing that Azumarill was already making a significant mark on PvP (Twilight was its first big meta) and that Victreebel could win many neutral battles with big Dark, Ghost, and especially Fairy types in the meta (only Poison types really out up a stiff resistance to heavy Grass damage), I selected it the night before my tournament with the sixth and final slot on my team. (And still have it as a prized possession, still not even double moved. I should fix that!)
That selection might seem obvious now, but Victreebel had hardly been used at all in PvP to that point. Razor Leaf had only been buffed from its original 8 damage to 11 damage weeks earlier (January 31st, 2019) and "Grass hole" was not yet a thing. (NOTE: Before you go and check, today it deals 10 damage after being slightly nerfed two years later, in January of 2021.) Out of a group of 14 players that went on to be some of the best I ever faced in battle, I was the only one to bring Victreebel to that tournament, inexperience and bad IVs and all. And in my first-ever ranked battles, I faced the #1 player in our area, a great guy we'll just call in this article by his username "TBFIV". And wouldn't you know it, like half the players in that tournament, he was also running Azumarill. Still figuring my own team out, I left Victreebel on my bench (remember that these tournaments were teams of 6, not 3) for the first two games, hard-fought battles that ended up with us tied at 1-1. With IV having brought Azu in both games, I decided to go for broke and pulled out Vic. Holding it in the back, I successful predicted he was holding Azumarill in the back as well, and successfully got it locked in against my Victreebel for a blazingly fast and decisive victory. Victreebel then carried me through the rest of the day, which I ended with 4 match wins and 0 losses, and my first tournament win. From that point on, I was hooked, and kept my analysis (and spreadsheet upon spreadsheet of data) up for subsequent Silph and eventually GBL metas, and just days after that tournament posted the first of what would become the "Nifty Or Thrifty" series, deciding then on the mantra that has driven about 550 analysis articles since... why keep this information to myself when I can share it with others? And for better or for worse 😅, you can trace my whole writing "career" since then back to Victreebel and a fortunate guess at how it was about to shake up PvP.
Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? 🕗
Anyway, now that storytime is over, everyone can have a cookie and a juice box... and the rest of the analysis!
VICTREEBEL
Grass/Poison TypeGREAT LEAGUE:
Attack: 136 (133 High Stat Product)
Defense: 95 (96 High Stat Product)
HP: 128 (131 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 1-15-15, 1497 CP, Level 23)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
Attack: 175 (172 High Stat Product)
Defense: 122 (125 High Stat Product)
HP: 167 (168 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-15-12, 2499 CP, Level 48.5)
The typing combination is one of the most common in the game (14 total Grass/Poison Pokémon, tied with Bug/Flying and trailing only Normal/Flying with a whopping 27), so I don't think any of this will come as a surprise, but they actually complement each other rather well in several ways, with Grass negating the usual Poison weakness to Ground, Poison canceling out the typical Grass weaknesses to Poison and Bug, and the two combining for a double resistance to Grass damage. Beyond that, Victreebel gets all the good (resistances to Electric and Water on the Grass side, and to Fairy and Fighting on the Poison side) and bad (vulnerable to Psychic on the Poison side, and Fire, Ice, and Flying on the Grass side) that come with the respective types.
That was a lot, so to quickly review in simple form:
| "Not Very Effective" | "Super Effective" |
|---|---|
| Electric | Fire |
| Fairy | Flying |
| Fighting | Ice |
| Water | Psychic |
| Grass (2x) |
Victreebel is considered as a "glassy", low bulk Pokémon. That's a fair assessment, but it gets perhaps a worse rap then it deserves.
Is it as bulky as fellow famous Grass/Poison Venusaur? No, and it's really not even all that close. But it IS bulkier than Grass/Poison Roserade, and again, the gap between them isn't too close, with Vic having nearly a 100-point advantage in total stat product, which is not an insignificant gap. It's not quite as bad off as many think.
...but yeah, it's not great, being flimsier than other glassy Grass types like Lurantis, Decidueye, Trevenant, and even Shiftry. And that's without the self-destructive Shadowification that many players prefer for their Victreebel, which raises its Attack by about 20% but slashes its already-scary Defense by 20% as well. If I'm doing my math right, that takes it to about 163 Attack and a pitiful 76 Defense in Great League, which is on par with the glassiest viable 'mons in the game like Haunter and Sharpedo. So yes, if we're talking Shadow Victreebel, it really CAN get blown over by a stiff breeze... that reputation is definitely earned.
But of course, Victreebel has been a mainstay in PvP through numerous rebalances and meta shakeups around it, from those earliest days of PvP when it was driving early Silph Arena victories (like mine!) and GO Battle League was still just a twinkle in John Hanke's eye, to play even today where Victreebel strikes fear into teams in Limited and even Open metas alike. It has its very obvious flaws, but with blinding speed can still tear through a swath of unprepared teams.
How does it do it? To this point, it's been primarily with very heavy fast move pressure. After Community Day, though, it's going to have options like never before thanks to its new fast move....
ᴱ - Exclusive (Community Day) Move
FAST MOVES
- Magical Leafᴱ (Grass, 3.33 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Razor Leaf (Grass, 5.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.0 CD)
- Acid (Poison, 3.0 DPT, 2.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)
But I digress. The nutshell is this: to date, Victreebel has achieved much of its victory on the back of pure fast move damage. The fact that it has cheap and/or complimentary charge moves absolutely helps in more drawn out battles, but generally it's just spinning around slicing through stuff with Razor Leaf and not worrying about shields. That has been its best use in general, in fact: forcing battles where shields are still up on both sides and then laughing as it hides behind one or two shields and completely ignores shields the opponent has left. Can't shield Razor Leaf!
Now, take all of that... and throw it out the window. After Community Day, there are now two very distinct flavors of Victreebel you'll be able to run. The first is the same old traditional OG "Grass hole", chewing through whatever is in front of it with Razor Leaf. (Or dying in a blaze of glory when up against something that shrugs off Grass damage.)
The second? Magical Leaf Victreebel. It's a fundamental change, suddenly making those interesting charge moves not only matter more, but become the real focus of how you win many matches. Yes, Magical Leaf still does above average damage, but dropping from 5.0 DPT to 3.33 will still feel like a big dropoff. You simply won't be able to power your way to victory on the back of fast move damage that way. Instead, you still apply some pressure that way (and are still capable of farming down where that's the smart play), but a good bit of your pressure shifts to busting through shields... and punishing the opponent that doesn't have any left to use. This version is perhaps best held in the back behind things that strip shields away and then finishing off everything the opponent has left.
But before I can really show how or IF that really works, we need to formally bring those charge moves into the equation....
CHARGE MOVES
- Leaf Blade (Grass, 70 damage, 35 energy)
- Leaf Tornado (Grass, 45 damage, 40 energy, 50% Chance: Lower Opponent Attack -2 Stages)
- Acid Spray (Poison, 20 damage, 45 energy, Lowers Opponent Defense -2 Stages)
- Sludge Bomb (Poison, 80 damage, 50 energy)
- Returnᴾ (Normal, 130 damage, 70 energy)
- Solar Beam (Grass, 150 damage, 80 energy)
There has been much debate over the years about what second move to run on Victreebel (or if it even needs one!). In the olden days it was really only Sludge Bomb in contention, as prior to March 2019 (a month after my tournament win with Vic), it had only that and Solar Beam to choose from... and Razor Leaf has enough trouble getting to the 50 energy for Bomb in any meaningful spot, much less 80 energy for Beam! But then both Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado were added to its arsenal (five years ago, the last time Vic had any kind of real move shakeup), and they are now #1 and #1a choices for the second move. Not only are they both cheaper than Sludge Bomb, but they synergize well with that Razor Leaf Victreebel wants to do even if shielded: lowering the opponent's Defense to make Razor Leaf all the more deadly (Acid Spray), or indirectly giving Vic more badly needed bulk by lowering the opponent's Attack strength (Leaf Tornado, though whether Tornado triggers or not is a coin flip). Victreebel usually doesn't even care if they get shielded (particularly with Acid Spray), as it is their triggered effects that make the biggest difference, and that works regardless of shielding. These moves are notoriously difficult to sim properly (even the awesome PvPoke does some funky things with how it does or does not shield moves like Acid Spray and you can get some wildly divergent results), but anyone who has used (or faced!) Victreebel can attest for how annoying and game-changing both of these moves can be on Shadow Victreebel in particular.
Put it all together, and in both Great League and even somewhat up in Ultra League, Victreebel works well. And will continue to! I'll reiterate this point later, but any good Razor Leaf Victreebels you have already built are still good, and I think will still absolutely have a place in PvP's future. Don't throw them away! The rest of this analysis will show the benefits of the new fast move, but it's more of an alternative than a true replacement.
Let's finally get into the new move and see what I mean by that!
GREAT LEAGUE
Again, here is our barometer with Shadow Victreebel wit Razor Leaf. (And here's a look at non-Shadow.) And now we'll just jump right in with a look at Victreebel with its new move Magical Leaf (in both Shadow and non-Shadow form). 👀Magical Leaf itself is a vastly different move to Razor Leaf, as noted up in the fast move section. It still deals above average damage, albeit far lower than Razor Leaf, but it does it while also generating above average energy (as opposed to Razor Leaf which generates about 33% less energy than the average and is tied with a few other moves for lowest energy generation in the game). What this means is that Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado are now less preferred, with Spray in particular losing the great synergy it has with the high damage Razor Leaf. It is now usually better to go for straight damage output with Sludge Bomb. With non-Shadow Victreebel, Bomb can overpower things like Charjabug and Venusaur, while Spray cannot. The difference is unsurprisingly even larger with shields down, with Sludge Bomb taking out Vigoroth, Pelipper, Cresselia, and Shadow Alolan Ninetales in addition to replicating everything that Acid Spray can do. And while not as wide a gap, this still rings true of Shadow Victreebel as well, with Sludge Bomb beating Azumarill with shields down and both Umbreon and Venusaur in 2v2 shielding, beating Razor Leaf Victreebel outright in 1v1 shielding, all while beating everything that Acid Spray can. I won't say that Acid Spray or even Leaf Tornado is now wrong, just perhaps less preferred. Magical Leaf turns Sludge Bomb from the last-ditch Hail Mary it used to be (usually as a parting gift in terrible matchups like Flying and/or Fire types) into a legit weapon that CAN be brought to bear in many meaningful situations and that opponents now must truly respect. Thanks to that, Victreebel is no longer something that can just simply be farmed all the way down in bad matchups... it's much more likely to at least force a shield on the way out, or potentially snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
You may have noticed that, regardless of the second charge move, Magical Leaf Victreebel clocks in with a higher winrate than does Razor Leaf variants. Your eyes do not deceive you: this is actually true... most of the time. In 1v1 shielding, Shadow Vic with Magical Leaf is "strictly better" than Razor Leaf, beating all the same things plus Umbreon, Medicham, Annihilape (as long as it's not spamming Ice Punch, at least), and RL Shadow Vic itself. The one-sided domination mostly continues with shields down too, with Magical Leaf outracing Annihilape, Umbreon, and RL Victreebel again, plus Charjabug, Poliwrath, Dewgong, and Azumarill, while Magical Leaf falls short. (In the case of Azu, with Sludge Bomb actually finishing Azumarill off before it reaches Ice Beam, not Leaf Blade as you might initially think.) BUT, the heavy damage over time of Razor Leaf far outpaces Magical Leaf in 2v2 shielding, with Magical uniquely doing in Venusaur, Umbreon, and Registeel, but Razor Leaf instead wearing down (in order) Annihilape, Dewgong, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Pelipper, Sableye, Shadow Alolan Sandslash, Shadow Victreebel, Vigoroth, and Wigglytuff. Razor Leaf is still brutal as long as Victreebel remains on the field of battle, even when resisted! To reiterate: I don't think Razor Leaf is (or should be!) going away. It will still absolutely have a place on many teams, and this is just one illustration of why.
The more impressive leap — and where I might consider moving more fully away from Razor Leaf in the future — is non-Shadow Victreebel. Its high bar with Razor Leaf was always lower than Shadow, with the occasional standout win thanks to better bulk like Cresselia, but far more losses, such as how Shadow can overpower Annihilape, Vigoroth, Sableye, and Bastiodon and Registeel, which non-Shadow has no real shot at. But now with Magical Leaf, non-Shadow Victreebel jumps up to be right on the same level as Shadow. It's all gains, with Magical Leaf Victreebel gaining Annihilape (with or without Ice Punch!), Charjabug, Pelipper, Sableye, Venusaur, Vigoroth, and Razor Leaf Victreebel, and beating everything else non-Shadow Vic with Razor Leaf could in the process.
Again, no right or wrong way to do this moving forward... there are teams that will want Shadow, some that won't, and some that benefit from new Magical Leaf, and others that will remain strongest with Razor Leaf. But I know you're sitting here wondering what is now "best", so again keeping in mind that everyone's play style and teams are a little different, I'll say that, in a vacuum, I would roughly rank them as:
1.) Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 2.) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 3.) Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf 4.) ... 5.) ..... 6?) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf
Really, those first three are all very close, and IF you can, it would be a good idea to emerge from Community Day with all three in your arsenal. Keep in mind that, as a fast move, Magical Leaf can be taught even to Shadow Victreebel that still has Frustration!
The only rank I will stand behind there with any real conviction is the last one. If you're going to run non-Shadow Victreebel in the future, I think Magical Leaf is the clear favorite now. If you want to Razor Leaf everything like you're the Fruit Ninja champion, I think Shadow is (still) the way to go.
Before WE go, however, a briefer peek at Vic in Ultra!
ULTRA LEAGUE
Victreebel is far less common in Ultra, but it CAN work on the right team, and thankfully even "bad" IVs that save you a ton of XL Candy works just about as well.But I think that's somewhat academic... because I think Magical Leaf is just better now. As in Great League, it shows well in 1v1 shielding (adding on Annihilape, Virizion, Steelix, Umbreon and Gyarados) and 0shield (NO new losses as compared to Razor Leaf, and gains of Virizion, Gyarados, Greedent, Tentacruel, and Feraligatr). But UNlike Great League, Magical Leaf seems to even be superior in 2v2 shielding, with Razor Leaf scratching out unique wins over Walrein, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Golisopod, and Gyarados, but Magical Leaf more than holding its own with wins instead versus Venusaur, Virizion, Umbreon, Toxicroak, Cresselia, and Registeel!
That said, it runs in an awkward problem that's a bit more apparent at this level than it was in Great League... why run even Magical Leaf Victreebel when you have Venuaur sitting right there? For what it's worth, the relative speed (and shield busting pressure) of Leaf Blade means that Victreebel does surpass Venusaur a bit in 2v2 shielding (with wins like Registeel, Feraligatr, Tentacruel, Toxicroak, Umbreon, and Venusaur itself), but otherwise the advanatages seem to all lie with Venusaur still. So while I think it IS worth it to at least evolve one good Ultra League Victreebel while you can get Magical Leaf for free, I wouldn't consider building one to be as high a priority as Great League. It's neat, but not quite as special.
(And for the second, Venusaur and Magical Leaf Vic are generally much closer in performance in Great League, just to close the book on that comparative analysis.)
IN SUMMATION
YES, Magical Leaf Victreebel is a worthwhile hunt for PvP this Community Day, particularly in Great League where Vic already has quite the reputation. But NO, this is not the end of the the OG "Grass hole", I don't think... Razor Leaf Victreebel will still be driving players to victree... er, victory as it has for a long, long time. Since at least 2019. 😀Alright, my friends, that's all I got for today. Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this, and for those of you who indulged my story time. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular Pokémon GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon if you like.
Good hunting, folks. Do stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!
2024.04.19 22:00 JRE47 Magical Leaf Victreebel in PvP: A Community Day Analysis
It's Community Day time again, this time featuring one of the more hated (or perhaps beloved?) Pokémon that literally tears through PvP: THE Razor Leafer, Victreebel! Is there any reason to fix what doesn't seem broken with a new move that fundamentally changes what Vic does best? Our Bottom Line Up Front will give you an idea before we dive in.
Still with me? Okay, cool, thank you. I'll try to keep it brief, but... I have a soft spot for Victreebel. Don't get me wrong... I have, like you, raged at my screen as the original "Grass hole" has ripped apart my team like a weedwacker, and more than once. (MANY more over the years. Grrrr.) But before all that, before GBL itself even existed, PvP started with grassroots... with The Silph Arena. And a younger, pre-writer JRE entered the second month of organized PvP play — February 2019 — as an inexperienced but excited rookie, encouraged to participate by my local community despite having never participated in ANY competitive Pokémon format ever before.
Indirectly, this is what started my PvP analysis "career". I had to prepare to counter the Twilight Cup meta, one of the best that Silph ever put together. The deep dive meta analysis I've done countless times since began here, this first time just for myself. Knowing that Azumarill was already making a significant mark on PvP (Twilight was its first big meta) and that Victreebel could win many neutral battles with big Dark, Ghost, and especially Fairy types in the meta (only Poison types really out up a stiff resistance to heavy Grass damage), I selected it the night before my tournament with the sixth and final slot on my team. (And still have it as a prized possession, still not even double moved. I should fix that!)
That selection might seem obvious now, but Victreebel had hardly been used at all in PvP to that point. Razor Leaf had only been buffed from its original 8 damage to 11 damage weeks earlier (January 31st, 2019) and "Grass hole" was not yet a thing. (NOTE: Before you go and check, today it deals 10 damage after being slightly nerfed two years later, in January of 2021.) Out of a group of 14 players that went on to be some of the best I ever faced in battle, I was the only one to bring Victreebel to that tournament, inexperience and bad IVs and all. And in my first-ever ranked battles, I faced the #1 player in our area, a great guy we'll just call in this article by his username "TBFIV". And wouldn't you know it, like half the players in that tournament, he was also running Azumarill. Still figuring my own team out, I left Victreebel on my bench (remember that these tournaments were teams of 6, not 3) for the first two games, hard-fought battles that ended up with us tied at 1-1. With IV having brought Azu in both games, I decided to go for broke and pulled out Vic. Holding it in the back, I successful predicted he was holding Azumarill in the back as well, and successfully got it locked in against my Victreebel for a blazingly fast and decisive victory. Victreebel then carried me through the rest of the day, which I ended with 4 match wins and 0 losses, and my first tournament win. From that point on, I was hooked, and kept my analysis (and spreadsheet upon spreadsheet of data) up for subsequent Silph and eventually GBL metas, and just days after that tournament posted the first of what would become the "Nifty Or Thrifty" series, deciding then on the mantra that has driven about 550 analysis articles since... why keep this information to myself when I can share it with others? And for better or for worse 😅, you can trace my whole writing "career" since then back to Victreebel and a fortunate guess at how it was about to shake up PvP.
Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? 🕗
Anyway, now that storytime is over, everyone can have a cookie and a juice box... and the rest of the analysis!
GREAT LEAGUE:
Attack: 136 (133 High Stat Product)
Defense: 95 (96 High Stat Product)
HP: 128 (131 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 1-15-15, 1497 CP, Level 23)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
Attack: 175 (172 High Stat Product)
Defense: 122 (125 High Stat Product)
HP: 167 (168 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-15-12, 2499 CP, Level 48.5)
The typing combination is one of the most common in the game (14 total Grass/Poison Pokémon, tied with Bug/Flying and trailing only Normal/Flying with a whopping 27), so I don't think any of this will come as a surprise, but they actually complement each other rather well in several ways, with Grass negating the usual Poison weakness to Ground, Poison canceling out the typical Grass weaknesses to Poison and Bug, and the two combining for a double resistance to Grass damage. Beyond that, Victreebel gets all the good (resistances to Electric and Water on the Grass side, and to Fairy and Fighting on the Poison side) and bad (vulnerable to Psychic on the Poison side, and Fire, Ice, and Flying on the Grass side) that come with the respective types.
That was a lot, so to quickly review in simple form:
That out of the way, next up are the stats. And here I actually want to dispel at least some notions.
Victreebel is considered as a "glassy", low bulk Pokémon. That's a fair assessment, but it gets perhaps a worse rap then it deserves.
Is it as bulky as fellow famous Grass/Poison Venusaur? No, and it's really not even all that close. But it IS bulkier than Grass/Poison Roserade, and again, the gap between them isn't too close, with Vic having nearly a 100-point advantage in total stat product, which is not an insignificant gap. It's not quite as bad off as many think.
...but yeah, it's not great, being flimsier than other glassy Grass types like Lurantis, Decidueye, Trevenant, and even Shiftry. And that's without the self-destructive Shadowification that many players prefer for their Victreebel, which raises its Attack by about 20% but slashes its already-scary Defense by 20% as well. If I'm doing my math right, that takes it to about 163 Attack and a pitiful 76 Defense in Great League, which is on par with the glassiest viable 'mons in the game like Haunter and Sharpedo. So yes, if we're talking Shadow Victreebel, it really CAN get blown over by a stiff breeze... that reputation is definitely earned.
But of course, Victreebel has been a mainstay in PvP through numerous rebalances and meta shakeups around it, from those earliest days of PvP when it was driving early Silph Arena victories (like mine!) and GO Battle League was still just a twinkle in John Hanke's eye, to play even today where Victreebel strikes fear into teams in Limited and even Open metas alike. It has its very obvious flaws, but with blinding speed can still tear through a swath of unprepared teams.
How does it do it? To this point, it's been primarily with very heavy fast move pressure. After Community Day, though, it's going to have options like never before thanks to its new fast move....
ᴱ - Exclusive (Community Day) Move
FAST MOVES
But I digress. The nutshell is this: to date, Victreebel has achieved much of its victory on the back of pure fast move damage. The fact that it has cheap and/or complimentary charge moves absolutely helps in more drawn out battles, but generally it's just spinning around slicing through stuff with Razor Leaf and not worrying about shields. That has been its best use in general, in fact: forcing battles where shields are still up on both sides and then laughing as it hides behind one or two shields and completely ignores shields the opponent has left. Can't shield Razor Leaf!
Now, take all of that... and throw it out the window. After Community Day, there are now two very distinct flavors of Victreebel you'll be able to run. The first is the same old traditional OG "Grass hole", chewing through whatever is in front of it with Razor Leaf. (Or dying in a blaze of glory when up against something that shrugs off Grass damage.)
The second? Magical Leaf Victreebel. It's a fundamental change, suddenly making those interesting charge moves not only matter more, but become the real focus of how you win many matches. Yes, Magical Leaf still does above average damage, but dropping from 5.0 DPT to 3.33 will still feel like a big dropoff. You simply won't be able to power your way to victory on the back of fast move damage that way. Instead, you still apply some pressure that way (and are still capable of farming down where that's the smart play), but a good bit of your pressure shifts to busting through shields... and punishing the opponent that doesn't have any left to use. This version is perhaps best held in the back behind things that strip shields away and then finishing off everything the opponent has left.
But before I can really show how or IF that really works, we need to formally bring those charge moves into the equation....
CHARGE MOVES
There has been much debate over the years about what second move to run on Victreebel (or if it even needs one!). In the olden days it was really only Sludge Bomb in contention, as prior to March 2019 (a month after my tournament win with Vic), it had only that and Solar Beam to choose from... and Razor Leaf has enough trouble getting to the 50 energy for Bomb in any meaningful spot, much less 80 energy for Beam! But then both Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado were added to its arsenal (five years ago, the last time Vic had any kind of real move shakeup), and they are now #1 and #1a choices for the second move. Not only are they both cheaper than Sludge Bomb, but they synergize well with that Razor Leaf Victreebel wants to do even if shielded: lowering the opponent's Defense to make Razor Leaf all the more deadly (Acid Spray), or indirectly giving Vic more badly needed bulk by lowering the opponent's Attack strength (Leaf Tornado, though whether Tornado triggers or not is a coin flip). Victreebel usually doesn't even care if they get shielded (particularly with Acid Spray), as it is their triggered effects that make the biggest difference, and that works regardless of shielding. These moves are notoriously difficult to sim properly (even the awesome PvPoke does some funky things with how it does or does not shield moves like Acid Spray and you can get some wildly divergent results), but anyone who has used (or faced!) Victreebel can attest for how annoying and game-changing both of these moves can be on Shadow Victreebel in particular.
Put it all together, and in both Great League and even somewhat up in Ultra League, Victreebel works well. And will continue to! I'll reiterate this point later, but any good Razor Leaf Victreebels you have already built are still good, and I think will still absolutely have a place in PvP's future. Don't throw them away! The rest of this analysis will show the benefits of the new fast move, but it's more of an alternative than a true replacement.
Let's finally get into the new move and see what I mean by that!
Magical Leaf itself is a vastly different move to Razor Leaf, as noted up in the fast move section. It still deals above average damage, albeit far lower than Razor Leaf, but it does it while also generating above average energy (as opposed to Razor Leaf which generates about 33% less energy than the average and is tied with a few other moves for lowest energy generation in the game). What this means is that Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado are now less preferred, with Spray in particular losing the great synergy it has with the high damage Razor Leaf. It is now usually better to go for straight damage output with Sludge Bomb. With non-Shadow Victreebel, Bomb can overpower things like Charjabug and Venusaur, while Spray cannot. The difference is unsurprisingly even larger with shields down, with Sludge Bomb taking out Vigoroth, Pelipper, Cresselia, and Shadow Alolan Ninetales in addition to replicating everything that Acid Spray can do. And while not as wide a gap, this still rings true of Shadow Victreebel as well, with Sludge Bomb beating Azumarill with shields down and both Umbreon and Venusaur in 2v2 shielding, beating Razor Leaf Victreebel outright in 1v1 shielding, all while beating everything that Acid Spray can. I won't say that Acid Spray or even Leaf Tornado is now wrong, just perhaps less preferred. Magical Leaf turns Sludge Bomb from the last-ditch Hail Mary it used to be (usually as a parting gift in terrible matchups like Flying and/or Fire types) into a legit weapon that CAN be brought to bear in many meaningful situations and that opponents now must truly respect. Thanks to that, Victreebel is no longer something that can just simply be farmed all the way down in bad matchups... it's much more likely to at least force a shield on the way out, or potentially snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
You may have noticed that, regardless of the second charge move, Magical Leaf Victreebel clocks in with a higher winrate than does Razor Leaf variants. Your eyes do not deceive you: this is actually true... most of the time. In 1v1 shielding, Shadow Vic with Magical Leaf is "strictly better" than Razor Leaf, beating all the same things plus Umbreon, Medicham, Annihilape (as long as it's not spamming Ice Punch, at least), and RL Shadow Vic itself. The one-sided domination mostly continues with shields down too, with Magical Leaf outracing Annihilape, Umbreon, and RL Victreebel again, plus Charjabug, Poliwrath, Dewgong, and Azumarill, while Magical Leaf falls short. (In the case of Azu, with Sludge Bomb actually finishing Azumarill off before it reaches Ice Beam, not Leaf Blade as you might initially think.) BUT, the heavy damage over time of Razor Leaf far outpaces Magical Leaf in 2v2 shielding, with Magical uniquely doing in Venusaur, Umbreon, and Registeel, but Razor Leaf instead wearing down (in order) Annihilape, Dewgong, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Pelipper, Sableye, Shadow Alolan Sandslash, Shadow Victreebel, Vigoroth, and Wigglytuff. Razor Leaf is still brutal as long as Victreebel remains on the field of battle, even when resisted! To reiterate: I don't think Razor Leaf is (or should be!) going away. It will still absolutely have a place on many teams, and this is just one illustration of why.
The more impressive leap — and where I might consider moving more fully away from Razor Leaf in the future — is non-Shadow Victreebel. Its high bar with Razor Leaf was always lower than Shadow, with the occasional standout win thanks to better bulk like Cresselia, but far more losses, such as how Shadow can overpower Annihilape, Vigoroth, Sableye, and Bastiodon and Registeel, which non-Shadow has no real shot at. But now with Magical Leaf, non-Shadow Victreebel jumps up to be right on the same level as Shadow. It's all gains, with Magical Leaf Victreebel gaining Annihilape (with or without Ice Punch!), Charjabug, Pelipper, Sableye, Venusaur, Vigoroth, and Razor Leaf Victreebel, and beating everything else non-Shadow Vic with Razor Leaf could in the process.
Again, no right or wrong way to do this moving forward... there are teams that will want Shadow, some that won't, and some that benefit from new Magical Leaf, and others that will remain strongest with Razor Leaf. But I know you're sitting here wondering what is now "best", so again keeping in mind that everyone's play style and teams are a little different, I'll say that, in a vacuum, I would roughly rank them as:
1.) Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 2.) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 3.) Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf 4.) ... 5.) ..... 6?) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf
Really, those first three are all very close, and IF you can, it would be a good idea to emerge from Community Day with all three in your arsenal. Keep in mind that, as a fast move, Magical Leaf can be taught even to Shadow Victreebel that still has Frustration!
The only rank I will stand behind there with any real conviction is the last one. If you're going to run non-Shadow Victreebel in the future, I think Magical Leaf is the clear favorite now. If you want to Razor Leaf everything like you're the Fruit Ninja champion, I think Shadow is (still) the way to go.
Before WE go, however, a briefer peek at Vic in Ultra!
But I think that's somewhat academic... because I think Magical Leaf is just better now. As in Great League, it shows well in 1v1 shielding (adding on Annihilape, Virizion, Steelix, Umbreon and Gyarados) and 0shield (NO new losses as compared to Razor Leaf, and gains of Virizion, Gyarados, Greedent, Tentacruel, and Feraligatr). But UNlike Great League, Magical Leaf seems to even be superior in 2v2 shielding, with Razor Leaf scratching out unique wins over Walrein, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Golisopod, and Gyarados, but Magical Leaf more than holding its own with wins instead versus Venusaur, Virizion, Umbreon, Toxicroak, Cresselia, and Registeel!
That said, it runs in an awkward problem that's a bit more apparent at this level than it was in Great League... why run even Magical Leaf Victreebel when you have Venuaur sitting right there? For what it's worth, the relative speed (and shield busting pressure) of Leaf Blade means that Victreebel does surpass Venusaur a bit in 2v2 shielding (with wins like Registeel, Feraligatr, Tentacruel, Toxicroak, Umbreon, and Venusaur itself), but otherwise the advanatages seem to all lie with Venusaur still. So while I think it IS worth it to at least evolve one good Ultra League Victreebel while you can get Magical Leaf for free, I wouldn't consider building one to be as high a priority as Great League. It's neat, but not quite as special.
(And for the second, Venusaur and Magical Leaf Vic are generally much closer in performance in Great League, just to close the book on that comparative analysis.)
Alright, my friends, that's all I got for today. Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this, and for those of you who indulged my story time. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular Pokémon GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon if you like.
Good hunting, folks. Do stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!
submitted by JRE47 to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]
B.L.U.F.
- Long a terror of PvP, Victreebel remains that today and past Community Day... and now it will have TWO terrorizing modes!
- Traditional Victreebel will still have its same role in PvP and should NOT be going away, but Vic with its new fast move is no less potent, busting through shields instead of avoiding them, but with mostly the same devastating results.
- By the numbers, the new move actually looks like it might be a bit better, though? It's a larger improvement for non-Shadow Vic than it is for Shadow, but both are worthy targets to hunt down during Community Day, and are well worth a decent grind. Good luck!
Still with me? Okay, cool, thank you. I'll try to keep it brief, but... I have a soft spot for Victreebel. Don't get me wrong... I have, like you, raged at my screen as the original "Grass hole" has ripped apart my team like a weedwacker, and more than once. (MANY more over the years. Grrrr.) But before all that, before GBL itself even existed, PvP started with grassroots... with The Silph Arena. And a younger, pre-writer JRE entered the second month of organized PvP play — February 2019 — as an inexperienced but excited rookie, encouraged to participate by my local community despite having never participated in ANY competitive Pokémon format ever before.
Indirectly, this is what started my PvP analysis "career". I had to prepare to counter the Twilight Cup meta, one of the best that Silph ever put together. The deep dive meta analysis I've done countless times since began here, this first time just for myself. Knowing that Azumarill was already making a significant mark on PvP (Twilight was its first big meta) and that Victreebel could win many neutral battles with big Dark, Ghost, and especially Fairy types in the meta (only Poison types really out up a stiff resistance to heavy Grass damage), I selected it the night before my tournament with the sixth and final slot on my team. (And still have it as a prized possession, still not even double moved. I should fix that!)
That selection might seem obvious now, but Victreebel had hardly been used at all in PvP to that point. Razor Leaf had only been buffed from its original 8 damage to 11 damage weeks earlier (January 31st, 2019) and "Grass hole" was not yet a thing. (NOTE: Before you go and check, today it deals 10 damage after being slightly nerfed two years later, in January of 2021.) Out of a group of 14 players that went on to be some of the best I ever faced in battle, I was the only one to bring Victreebel to that tournament, inexperience and bad IVs and all. And in my first-ever ranked battles, I faced the #1 player in our area, a great guy we'll just call in this article by his username "TBFIV". And wouldn't you know it, like half the players in that tournament, he was also running Azumarill. Still figuring my own team out, I left Victreebel on my bench (remember that these tournaments were teams of 6, not 3) for the first two games, hard-fought battles that ended up with us tied at 1-1. With IV having brought Azu in both games, I decided to go for broke and pulled out Vic. Holding it in the back, I successful predicted he was holding Azumarill in the back as well, and successfully got it locked in against my Victreebel for a blazingly fast and decisive victory. Victreebel then carried me through the rest of the day, which I ended with 4 match wins and 0 losses, and my first tournament win. From that point on, I was hooked, and kept my analysis (and spreadsheet upon spreadsheet of data) up for subsequent Silph and eventually GBL metas, and just days after that tournament posted the first of what would become the "Nifty Or Thrifty" series, deciding then on the mantra that has driven about 550 analysis articles since... why keep this information to myself when I can share it with others? And for better or for worse 😅, you can trace my whole writing "career" since then back to Victreebel and a fortunate guess at how it was about to shake up PvP.
Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? 🕗
Anyway, now that storytime is over, everyone can have a cookie and a juice box... and the rest of the analysis!
VICTREEBEL
Grass/Poison TypeGREAT LEAGUE:
Attack: 136 (133 High Stat Product)
Defense: 95 (96 High Stat Product)
HP: 128 (131 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 1-15-15, 1497 CP, Level 23)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
Attack: 175 (172 High Stat Product)
Defense: 122 (125 High Stat Product)
HP: 167 (168 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-15-12, 2499 CP, Level 48.5)
The typing combination is one of the most common in the game (14 total Grass/Poison Pokémon, tied with Bug/Flying and trailing only Normal/Flying with a whopping 27), so I don't think any of this will come as a surprise, but they actually complement each other rather well in several ways, with Grass negating the usual Poison weakness to Ground, Poison canceling out the typical Grass weaknesses to Poison and Bug, and the two combining for a double resistance to Grass damage. Beyond that, Victreebel gets all the good (resistances to Electric and Water on the Grass side, and to Fairy and Fighting on the Poison side) and bad (vulnerable to Psychic on the Poison side, and Fire, Ice, and Flying on the Grass side) that come with the respective types.
That was a lot, so to quickly review in simple form:
| "Not Very Effective" | "Super Effective" |
|---|---|
| Electric | Fire |
| Fairy | Flying |
| Fighting | Ice |
| Water | Psychic |
| Grass (2x) |
Victreebel is considered as a "glassy", low bulk Pokémon. That's a fair assessment, but it gets perhaps a worse rap then it deserves.
Is it as bulky as fellow famous Grass/Poison Venusaur? No, and it's really not even all that close. But it IS bulkier than Grass/Poison Roserade, and again, the gap between them isn't too close, with Vic having nearly a 100-point advantage in total stat product, which is not an insignificant gap. It's not quite as bad off as many think.
...but yeah, it's not great, being flimsier than other glassy Grass types like Lurantis, Decidueye, Trevenant, and even Shiftry. And that's without the self-destructive Shadowification that many players prefer for their Victreebel, which raises its Attack by about 20% but slashes its already-scary Defense by 20% as well. If I'm doing my math right, that takes it to about 163 Attack and a pitiful 76 Defense in Great League, which is on par with the glassiest viable 'mons in the game like Haunter and Sharpedo. So yes, if we're talking Shadow Victreebel, it really CAN get blown over by a stiff breeze... that reputation is definitely earned.
But of course, Victreebel has been a mainstay in PvP through numerous rebalances and meta shakeups around it, from those earliest days of PvP when it was driving early Silph Arena victories (like mine!) and GO Battle League was still just a twinkle in John Hanke's eye, to play even today where Victreebel strikes fear into teams in Limited and even Open metas alike. It has its very obvious flaws, but with blinding speed can still tear through a swath of unprepared teams.
How does it do it? To this point, it's been primarily with very heavy fast move pressure. After Community Day, though, it's going to have options like never before thanks to its new fast move....
ᴱ - Exclusive (Community Day) Move
FAST MOVES
- Magical Leafᴱ (Grass, 3.33 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Razor Leaf (Grass, 5.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.0 CD)
- Acid (Poison, 3.0 DPT, 2.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)
But I digress. The nutshell is this: to date, Victreebel has achieved much of its victory on the back of pure fast move damage. The fact that it has cheap and/or complimentary charge moves absolutely helps in more drawn out battles, but generally it's just spinning around slicing through stuff with Razor Leaf and not worrying about shields. That has been its best use in general, in fact: forcing battles where shields are still up on both sides and then laughing as it hides behind one or two shields and completely ignores shields the opponent has left. Can't shield Razor Leaf!
Now, take all of that... and throw it out the window. After Community Day, there are now two very distinct flavors of Victreebel you'll be able to run. The first is the same old traditional OG "Grass hole", chewing through whatever is in front of it with Razor Leaf. (Or dying in a blaze of glory when up against something that shrugs off Grass damage.)
The second? Magical Leaf Victreebel. It's a fundamental change, suddenly making those interesting charge moves not only matter more, but become the real focus of how you win many matches. Yes, Magical Leaf still does above average damage, but dropping from 5.0 DPT to 3.33 will still feel like a big dropoff. You simply won't be able to power your way to victory on the back of fast move damage that way. Instead, you still apply some pressure that way (and are still capable of farming down where that's the smart play), but a good bit of your pressure shifts to busting through shields... and punishing the opponent that doesn't have any left to use. This version is perhaps best held in the back behind things that strip shields away and then finishing off everything the opponent has left.
But before I can really show how or IF that really works, we need to formally bring those charge moves into the equation....
CHARGE MOVES
- Leaf Blade (Grass, 70 damage, 35 energy)
- Leaf Tornado (Grass, 45 damage, 40 energy, 50% Chance: Lower Opponent Attack -2 Stages)
- Acid Spray (Poison, 20 damage, 45 energy, Lowers Opponent Defense -2 Stages)
- Sludge Bomb (Poison, 80 damage, 50 energy)
- Returnᴾ (Normal, 130 damage, 70 energy)
- Solar Beam (Grass, 150 damage, 80 energy)
There has been much debate over the years about what second move to run on Victreebel (or if it even needs one!). In the olden days it was really only Sludge Bomb in contention, as prior to March 2019 (a month after my tournament win with Vic), it had only that and Solar Beam to choose from... and Razor Leaf has enough trouble getting to the 50 energy for Bomb in any meaningful spot, much less 80 energy for Beam! But then both Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado were added to its arsenal (five years ago, the last time Vic had any kind of real move shakeup), and they are now #1 and #1a choices for the second move. Not only are they both cheaper than Sludge Bomb, but they synergize well with that Razor Leaf Victreebel wants to do even if shielded: lowering the opponent's Defense to make Razor Leaf all the more deadly (Acid Spray), or indirectly giving Vic more badly needed bulk by lowering the opponent's Attack strength (Leaf Tornado, though whether Tornado triggers or not is a coin flip). Victreebel usually doesn't even care if they get shielded (particularly with Acid Spray), as it is their triggered effects that make the biggest difference, and that works regardless of shielding. These moves are notoriously difficult to sim properly (even the awesome PvPoke does some funky things with how it does or does not shield moves like Acid Spray and you can get some wildly divergent results), but anyone who has used (or faced!) Victreebel can attest for how annoying and game-changing both of these moves can be on Shadow Victreebel in particular.
Put it all together, and in both Great League and even somewhat up in Ultra League, Victreebel works well. And will continue to! I'll reiterate this point later, but any good Razor Leaf Victreebels you have already built are still good, and I think will still absolutely have a place in PvP's future. Don't throw them away! The rest of this analysis will show the benefits of the new fast move, but it's more of an alternative than a true replacement.
Let's finally get into the new move and see what I mean by that!
GREAT LEAGUE
Again, here is our barometer with Shadow Victreebel wit Razor Leaf. (And here's a look at non-Shadow.) And now we'll just jump right in with a look at Victreebel with its new move Magical Leaf (in both Shadow and non-Shadow form). 👀Magical Leaf itself is a vastly different move to Razor Leaf, as noted up in the fast move section. It still deals above average damage, albeit far lower than Razor Leaf, but it does it while also generating above average energy (as opposed to Razor Leaf which generates about 33% less energy than the average and is tied with a few other moves for lowest energy generation in the game). What this means is that Acid Spray and Leaf Tornado are now less preferred, with Spray in particular losing the great synergy it has with the high damage Razor Leaf. It is now usually better to go for straight damage output with Sludge Bomb. With non-Shadow Victreebel, Bomb can overpower things like Charjabug and Venusaur, while Spray cannot. The difference is unsurprisingly even larger with shields down, with Sludge Bomb taking out Vigoroth, Pelipper, Cresselia, and Shadow Alolan Ninetales in addition to replicating everything that Acid Spray can do. And while not as wide a gap, this still rings true of Shadow Victreebel as well, with Sludge Bomb beating Azumarill with shields down and both Umbreon and Venusaur in 2v2 shielding, beating Razor Leaf Victreebel outright in 1v1 shielding, all while beating everything that Acid Spray can. I won't say that Acid Spray or even Leaf Tornado is now wrong, just perhaps less preferred. Magical Leaf turns Sludge Bomb from the last-ditch Hail Mary it used to be (usually as a parting gift in terrible matchups like Flying and/or Fire types) into a legit weapon that CAN be brought to bear in many meaningful situations and that opponents now must truly respect. Thanks to that, Victreebel is no longer something that can just simply be farmed all the way down in bad matchups... it's much more likely to at least force a shield on the way out, or potentially snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
You may have noticed that, regardless of the second charge move, Magical Leaf Victreebel clocks in with a higher winrate than does Razor Leaf variants. Your eyes do not deceive you: this is actually true... most of the time. In 1v1 shielding, Shadow Vic with Magical Leaf is "strictly better" than Razor Leaf, beating all the same things plus Umbreon, Medicham, Annihilape (as long as it's not spamming Ice Punch, at least), and RL Shadow Vic itself. The one-sided domination mostly continues with shields down too, with Magical Leaf outracing Annihilape, Umbreon, and RL Victreebel again, plus Charjabug, Poliwrath, Dewgong, and Azumarill, while Magical Leaf falls short. (In the case of Azu, with Sludge Bomb actually finishing Azumarill off before it reaches Ice Beam, not Leaf Blade as you might initially think.) BUT, the heavy damage over time of Razor Leaf far outpaces Magical Leaf in 2v2 shielding, with Magical uniquely doing in Venusaur, Umbreon, and Registeel, but Razor Leaf instead wearing down (in order) Annihilape, Dewgong, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Pelipper, Sableye, Shadow Alolan Sandslash, Shadow Victreebel, Vigoroth, and Wigglytuff. Razor Leaf is still brutal as long as Victreebel remains on the field of battle, even when resisted! To reiterate: I don't think Razor Leaf is (or should be!) going away. It will still absolutely have a place on many teams, and this is just one illustration of why.
The more impressive leap — and where I might consider moving more fully away from Razor Leaf in the future — is non-Shadow Victreebel. Its high bar with Razor Leaf was always lower than Shadow, with the occasional standout win thanks to better bulk like Cresselia, but far more losses, such as how Shadow can overpower Annihilape, Vigoroth, Sableye, and Bastiodon and Registeel, which non-Shadow has no real shot at. But now with Magical Leaf, non-Shadow Victreebel jumps up to be right on the same level as Shadow. It's all gains, with Magical Leaf Victreebel gaining Annihilape (with or without Ice Punch!), Charjabug, Pelipper, Sableye, Venusaur, Vigoroth, and Razor Leaf Victreebel, and beating everything else non-Shadow Vic with Razor Leaf could in the process.
Again, no right or wrong way to do this moving forward... there are teams that will want Shadow, some that won't, and some that benefit from new Magical Leaf, and others that will remain strongest with Razor Leaf. But I know you're sitting here wondering what is now "best", so again keeping in mind that everyone's play style and teams are a little different, I'll say that, in a vacuum, I would roughly rank them as:
1.) Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 2.) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Magical Leaf 3.) Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf 4.) ... 5.) ..... 6?) Non-Shadow Vic w/ Razor Leaf
Really, those first three are all very close, and IF you can, it would be a good idea to emerge from Community Day with all three in your arsenal. Keep in mind that, as a fast move, Magical Leaf can be taught even to Shadow Victreebel that still has Frustration!
The only rank I will stand behind there with any real conviction is the last one. If you're going to run non-Shadow Victreebel in the future, I think Magical Leaf is the clear favorite now. If you want to Razor Leaf everything like you're the Fruit Ninja champion, I think Shadow is (still) the way to go.
Before WE go, however, a briefer peek at Vic in Ultra!
ULTRA LEAGUE
Victreebel is far less common in Ultra, but it CAN work on the right team, and thankfully even "bad" IVs that save you a ton of XL Candy works just about as well.But I think that's somewhat academic... because I think Magical Leaf is just better now. As in Great League, it shows well in 1v1 shielding (adding on Annihilape, Virizion, Steelix, Umbreon and Gyarados) and 0shield (NO new losses as compared to Razor Leaf, and gains of Virizion, Gyarados, Greedent, Tentacruel, and Feraligatr). But UNlike Great League, Magical Leaf seems to even be superior in 2v2 shielding, with Razor Leaf scratching out unique wins over Walrein, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, Golisopod, and Gyarados, but Magical Leaf more than holding its own with wins instead versus Venusaur, Virizion, Umbreon, Toxicroak, Cresselia, and Registeel!
That said, it runs in an awkward problem that's a bit more apparent at this level than it was in Great League... why run even Magical Leaf Victreebel when you have Venuaur sitting right there? For what it's worth, the relative speed (and shield busting pressure) of Leaf Blade means that Victreebel does surpass Venusaur a bit in 2v2 shielding (with wins like Registeel, Feraligatr, Tentacruel, Toxicroak, Umbreon, and Venusaur itself), but otherwise the advanatages seem to all lie with Venusaur still. So while I think it IS worth it to at least evolve one good Ultra League Victreebel while you can get Magical Leaf for free, I wouldn't consider building one to be as high a priority as Great League. It's neat, but not quite as special.
(And for the second, Venusaur and Magical Leaf Vic are generally much closer in performance in Great League, just to close the book on that comparative analysis.)
IN SUMMATION
YES, Magical Leaf Victreebel is a worthwhile hunt for PvP this Community Day, particularly in Great League where Vic already has quite the reputation. But NO, this is not the end of the the OG "Grass hole", I don't think... Razor Leaf Victreebel will still be driving players to victree... er, victory as it has for a long, long time. Since at least 2019. 😀Alright, my friends, that's all I got for today. Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this, and for those of you who indulged my story time. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular Pokémon GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon if you like.
Good hunting, folks. Do stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!
2024.04.19 21:59 LowMistake7491 My friend group is imploding and it’s literally the stupidest shit ever.
My friend group has been together since the three of us were college freshman, which was three years ago. I fully expected to graduate side by side with the these people, but now that might not happen, and it’s all for the stupidest reason ever.
So basically, our friend group has three of us; me, Molly, and Andrea. Now, and I promise this is relevant, Molly is 4’10 and pretty insecure about it, to the point that she’ll avoid leaving the house if she can’t wear heels or platforms. Andrea got a new boyfriend a couple months ago, Trevor, who’s 6’5, and one of the first things he said to Molly when the two first met was something like “wow, you look like a toddler from up here” and chuckled to himself. Molly got kinda pissed at him, and Andrea asked him to apologize, but he didn’t, and insisted he was “just making an observation”. Molly seemed to get over it once she realized he wasn’t going to back down, but ever since then, she constantly insults him to his face, no subject is off limits to her. Everything from the way he looks, to his major, to his job, to speculating about his manhood (“if he’s allowed to insult my body, why can’t I insult his?”). Every time we try to call her out or get her to quit it, she just says “what, I was just making an observation?” in a mock deep voice. She said that if Trevor apologizes for calling her a toddler, she’ll quit it, but he dug his heels in and started insulting her back, and now we can’t have those two in the same room without them slinging verbal abuse at each other and ruining the vibe.
At this point, Andrea’s thrown her support behind Trevor. She says it’s time for Molly to move on, that’s she’s proved her point and is now just being a jerk for no reason. Me, I’m trying to remain neutral, but I’m so fucking done with Trevor. He started this, even if he didn’t mean to, and all he has to do to end it is apologize, but he won’t because, well my best guess is that he just doesn’t want to “lose” to her, but honestly who knows at this point. If he had just but the bullet and apologized back when he called her a toddler, none of this would have happened. For the record, I also think that Molly’s being an ass, and I’ve tried my damndest to get her to just be the bigger person and drop it. But no, she’s so insecure that she can’t just let it go.
Now, Andrea won’t speak to Molly and is threatening not to speak to me if I keep being friends with Molly. I’m so fucking frustrated, this is middle school bullshit! I can’t keep playing mediator like this, it feels like I’m the only adult in a group of twelve year olds. Not one of these people, who I used to hold respect for, will step up and be the bigger person. Ugh, fuck my life lol.
submitted by LowMistake7491 to TrueOffMyChest [link] [comments]
So basically, our friend group has three of us; me, Molly, and Andrea. Now, and I promise this is relevant, Molly is 4’10 and pretty insecure about it, to the point that she’ll avoid leaving the house if she can’t wear heels or platforms. Andrea got a new boyfriend a couple months ago, Trevor, who’s 6’5, and one of the first things he said to Molly when the two first met was something like “wow, you look like a toddler from up here” and chuckled to himself. Molly got kinda pissed at him, and Andrea asked him to apologize, but he didn’t, and insisted he was “just making an observation”. Molly seemed to get over it once she realized he wasn’t going to back down, but ever since then, she constantly insults him to his face, no subject is off limits to her. Everything from the way he looks, to his major, to his job, to speculating about his manhood (“if he’s allowed to insult my body, why can’t I insult his?”). Every time we try to call her out or get her to quit it, she just says “what, I was just making an observation?” in a mock deep voice. She said that if Trevor apologizes for calling her a toddler, she’ll quit it, but he dug his heels in and started insulting her back, and now we can’t have those two in the same room without them slinging verbal abuse at each other and ruining the vibe.
At this point, Andrea’s thrown her support behind Trevor. She says it’s time for Molly to move on, that’s she’s proved her point and is now just being a jerk for no reason. Me, I’m trying to remain neutral, but I’m so fucking done with Trevor. He started this, even if he didn’t mean to, and all he has to do to end it is apologize, but he won’t because, well my best guess is that he just doesn’t want to “lose” to her, but honestly who knows at this point. If he had just but the bullet and apologized back when he called her a toddler, none of this would have happened. For the record, I also think that Molly’s being an ass, and I’ve tried my damndest to get her to just be the bigger person and drop it. But no, she’s so insecure that she can’t just let it go.
Now, Andrea won’t speak to Molly and is threatening not to speak to me if I keep being friends with Molly. I’m so fucking frustrated, this is middle school bullshit! I can’t keep playing mediator like this, it feels like I’m the only adult in a group of twelve year olds. Not one of these people, who I used to hold respect for, will step up and be the bigger person. Ugh, fuck my life lol.
2024.04.19 21:50 mrdhood Building an MLB prop bet model
I've been building a collection of MLB data for a few years; I have data going back to 2011 but as an example here is the 2022 data. I've been building scripts to bet on the money lines of games for the past couple of years and have had decent luck so far, but now I want to start making prop bets and maybe draft kings lineups, from the data.
The first prop I'm focusing on is Over 0.5 hits by using the hitter's stats on the season leading into the game against the pitcher's stats, specifically throwing the type of pitches that the batter does well against and the zones that the batter does well in.
So far I've done some reading about the Random Forest model and got the concept working, although the accuracy isn't what I'd hope for. I only started experimenting with Python and machine learning this week - so I'm looking for some guidance on maybe something I'm overlooking, maybe a different model is better.
To explain some of what this data represents, everything is comparing the batter and the starting pitcher (I don't know who the relief pitchers will be so we only consider the starter):
I was able to get it to 75% without AI on my own but after filtering out a lot of criteria (possible over-fitting) so I'm a little disappointed in how this is going so far. I'd like to get a prop bet model giving me bets, every time the batting order is official, live this month. I'm happy to collaborate on building the model and will provide the data daily if we can get something going well.
submitted by mrdhood to algobetting [link] [comments]
The first prop I'm focusing on is Over 0.5 hits by using the hitter's stats on the season leading into the game against the pitcher's stats, specifically throwing the type of pitches that the batter does well against and the zones that the batter does well in.
So far I've done some reading about the Random Forest model and got the concept working, although the accuracy isn't what I'd hope for. I only started experimenting with Python and machine learning this week - so I'm looking for some guidance on maybe something I'm overlooking, maybe a different model is better.
To explain some of what this data represents, everything is comparing the batter and the starting pitcher (I don't know who the relief pitchers will be so we only consider the starter):
- pitches-seen: the number of pitches the batter has on the current season being factored into the equation
- pitcher-hit-rate: percent of pitcher's pitches that result in a hit
- hand-batting-average: batter's batting average against pitches from pitcher's with the same throwing hand as the starting pitcher
- type-batting-average: this is poorly named, probably, and is instead a representation of the sum of the batter's batting average against each pitch type (curveball, fastball, etc) multiplied by the percentage of pitches the starting pitcher has thrown that way on the season -- i.e. if someone hits a fastball 50% of the time and the pitcher throws fast balls 10% of the time it counts as 0.050.
- zone-batting-score: in the same vein as type-batting-average except considering the 9 zones instead of the pitch types
- batter-best-pitch-type-pitch-percent, batter-second-best-pitch-type-pitch-percent, batter-third-best-pitch-type-pitch-percent: the three pitch types the batter does the best against times the frequency that the starting pitcher throws those pitches
- batter-best-pitch-zone-pitch-percent, batter-second-best-pitch-zone-pitch-percent, batter-third-best-pitch-zone-pitch-percent: the three zones the batter does the best against times the frequency that the starting pitcher throws those to those zones
- did-hit-sp: The batter hit against the starting pitcher
- did-homer-sp: The batter hit a home run against the starting pitcher
- did-hit-game: The batter hit at some point during the game, regardless of the pitcher
- did-homer: The batter hit a home run at some point during the game, regardless of the pitcher
- pitcher-hit-rate 0.134021
- zone-batting-average 0.122285
- hand-batting-average 0.115812
- batter-best-pitch-zone-pitch-percent 0.098621
- batter-second-best-pitch-zone-percent 0.092986
- batter-second-best-pitch-type-percent 0.088805
- batter-third-best-pitch-zone-percent 0.088523
- batter-third-best-pitch-type-percent 0.087964
- batter-best-pitch-type-pitch-percent 0.085480
- batting-order 0.050846
- batter-home 0.017513
- batter-favorite 0.017144
I was able to get it to 75% without AI on my own but after filtering out a lot of criteria (possible over-fitting) so I'm a little disappointed in how this is going so far. I'd like to get a prop bet model giving me bets, every time the batting order is official, live this month. I'm happy to collaborate on building the model and will provide the data daily if we can get something going well.
2024.04.19 21:46 Sanguiniusius I think the ulcerated tree spirits are the spirits of any trees that were burned, not just minor Erd trees. I think ulcerated are the spirits of trees that rotted.
 | Edit- the second ulcerated in the title should read putrefied :) submitted by Sanguiniusius to EldenRingLoreTalk [link] [comments] The ulcerated tree spirits are a bit of a mystery, really unreferenced by any text. Mr Miyazaki is a very visual story teller so i wanted to write up what i could see from the visual evidence available. Maybe it will help us discuss them further? So the first thing i did was machine translate their Japanese name to see what i could get 爛れた樹霊 google gives me 'burnt tree spirit' now this fits nicely with the English translation- burns after all can give you ulcers, so the English translation is more descriptive of the tree spirit now (it does indisputably have a lot of ulcers), while the Japanese talks about how it got those ulcers- via burns. this is a cool example of both translations adding complimentary facts to the lore analysis. I decided to follow up on the theme of burning trees, so i went to find some trees that i knew were DEFINITELY BURNT. Take a look at these trees at the dragon burnt ruins. yep, that's a burnt tree A few leaves hang on Then take a look at the back of the tree spirit The leaves that didn't fall off tell a story You'll see they both look like charred trees with a few leaves remaining as survivors of the fire. I personally see a lot of similarity between the shapes and ratios of leaves left remaining. This is where i set out my premise really- these spirits are spirits of trees that have been burned, what can i find to support that? Can we show that both the tree and the spirit have been burned? Interesting fact- the tree spirit uses golden fire and at 50% health sets itself permanently ablaze. This thing is so hard to photo It is using fire as a weapon. Does it have a positive or a negative relationship with its weapon? Well ulcerated tree spirit has a cousin called putrefied tree spirit. It uses scarlet rot INSTEAD OF FIRE (well its pallet swapped fire but it is red and does scarlet rot damage) Putrefied tree spirit seems a lot more direct of a concept, it was rotted by scarlet rot we know that EVERYTHING is rotted by scarlet rot if they come in contact- it is also using that rot that putrefied it as a weapon.... So I extrapolate that ulcerated tree spirit was burnt- it is using the fire that burnt it as a weapon, weaponizing its death and making those that burnt the tree suffer its own fate (looks like the gold flames of Elden beast...) and at 50% it sets ablaze literally reliving the burning of the tree. Ok so it looks like a burnt tree, and it seems as though it too was burnt. The final step is to take each ulcerated tree spirit and see if i can link burnt trees to them! We know one of these spirits is located at a minor erdtree that has been burnt. Great start! Does it follow for the rest? Well I think it does but the one thing that doesn't follow is that it needs to be linked to an ERD TREE Lets inventory all the ulcerated tree spirits:
A lot of dead, possibly burnt, trees and some living gold trees
Shouldn't have started that fire... i imagine chopping the wood didn't help either.
Ok so the summary of my thoughts are-
I think there are several possibilities but there are 2 i would like to suggest as most likely:
Going firmly into the world of my opinion here- red in Elden ring represents living energy- it represents growth and life. At a basic level red and blood, as it frequently manifests, are pure untapped formless life energy. Horah Loux is covered in blood after his transformation, crytalians wear a red cloak to symbolize their life, Mohg's area is covered in almost cancerous, formless red growths etc.. On that Mohg is trying to marry the god of abundance which he can fuel with his red blood energy from the formless mother (hey we see that blood turns to flame which is visual storytelling of blood being a source of raw energy.) The red on these spirits is the manifestation of the life energies that turns these things from wood into living creatures in my opinion. This life energy has been damaged by the linked tree's experience and is ulcerated to reflect this damage This is very much tied up in my view of what blood is in Elden Ring- your mileage may vary. Going to real life quickly- Tree spirits are a theme in Japanese mythology- called 'Kodama' I am not going to lecture you on this as I am no expert, but from a little reading it seems that sometimes they are considered linked to a tree, or sometimes they move between trees. I do believe this concept is what influences Elden Ring's tree spirits. ulcerated tree spirit in happier times?? So what do you think? I think we need to spend more time staring at trees and plants in this game to unlock a few more aspects of the lore. If you got this far, thanks for reading! |
2024.04.19 21:44 LogixDesigner Parent green card stuck at "Card is being produced step"
Hi All,
I've exhausted my research options on this issue (and found help) via searching this sub but i have additional questions that I could not find an answer for. So there goes:
My parents arrived in the US via I-130 and NVC process successfully on March 26. I had paid the immigrant fees on March 4th in anticipation of any delay. I have both receipts for the payments starting with IOE and I've been tracking those.
Both receipts changed to we "We have approved your OS155A step and ordered your cards to be produced on April 6"
However, my dad's status changed within days to card mail and then eventually delivered and now he has it.
But my mom's receipt is still stuck for two weeks at:
"We have approved your Form OS155A, Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration, Receipt Number IOEXXXXXXXXXX. On April 6, 2024, we ordered your card to be produced. We will mail your card to the address you gave us"
Things I have attempted to do thanks to searching this sub:
You may create an account to track the status of your Permanent Resident Card.
If you have any case specific question or technical issues, please send us a message using your USCIS online account inbox. You can also send us an inquiry on specific technical issues at"
The frustrating thing is that I have already done all these steps and i still cannot add the case. I was told by another agent that those types of receipts do not receive access codes.
Another incredibly rude agent told me that the card production failed due to an error, picture color biometrics etc and that i should just sit patiently and wait for correspondence. a 3rd agent verified to me that this isnt true and that they cannot see more than what we see for the receipt status and that the previous agent was guessing.
Questions:
submitted by LogixDesigner to USCIS [link] [comments]
I've exhausted my research options on this issue (and found help) via searching this sub but i have additional questions that I could not find an answer for. So there goes:
My parents arrived in the US via I-130 and NVC process successfully on March 26. I had paid the immigrant fees on March 4th in anticipation of any delay. I have both receipts for the payments starting with IOE and I've been tracking those.
Both receipts changed to we "We have approved your OS155A step and ordered your cards to be produced on April 6"
However, my dad's status changed within days to card mail and then eventually delivered and now he has it.
But my mom's receipt is still stuck for two weeks at:
"We have approved your Form OS155A, Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration, Receipt Number IOEXXXXXXXXXX. On April 6, 2024, we ordered your card to be produced. We will mail your card to the address you gave us"
Things I have attempted to do thanks to searching this sub:
- Created a USCIS account with my mother's info and had her verify her identity.
- Tried to add the receipt to the account which asked for an online access code that i do not have
- Talked to agent via email 3 times now trying to get the code, but the agent says i have to submit the inquiry.
- Filed a case with the ombudsman
- Filed an E request for "did not receive card" from the USCIS account.
- I have informed delivery in case they have already mailed the card without changing the receipt status - No luck
- I submitted the inquiry from the USCIS account requesting an access code but I get an automated reply back that goes:
You may create an account to track the status of your Permanent Resident Card.
- Create a USCIS online account at myaccount.uscis.gov;
- Once your account is created, select Verify Your Identity;
- Enter your A-number and DOS Case ID number;
- Review all requirements; and
- Confirm your identity
If you have any case specific question or technical issues, please send us a message using your USCIS online account inbox. You can also send us an inquiry on specific technical issues at"
The frustrating thing is that I have already done all these steps and i still cannot add the case. I was told by another agent that those types of receipts do not receive access codes.
Another incredibly rude agent told me that the card production failed due to an error, picture color biometrics etc and that i should just sit patiently and wait for correspondence. a 3rd agent verified to me that this isnt true and that they cannot see more than what we see for the receipt status and that the previous agent was guessing.
Questions:
- What additional evidence do i need to attached to the ombudsman case? They mention a 797 notice but the immigrant fee does not provide this type of notice
- Is it true that i cannot add immigrant fee cases to the uscis portal?
- How do I properly get a human on the phone? the automated voice thing either gives me the same status update for the receipt or hangs up on me when i ask for agent
- How does USCIS know how to contact us if they needed new Biometrics, pictures or anything else?
- Where do i go from here?
2024.04.19 21:41 BitterHarvxst If physicalism isn’t hate speech there is no “hate” speech; the (idea of the) refrigerator seals the deal, [<](https://i.redd.it/lmzr0rpkmvtc1.jpeg)[%](youtu.be/a8jzvh5Wb00)[#](https://old.reddit.com/r/neurophilosophy/comments/1c7fnn0/the_invention_of_the_refrigerator_could_never/l08bhk8/?context=3)
tl;dr The invention of the refrigerator could never have been the effect of a phenomenal cause- brain chemistry. The existence of the refrigerator is proof that man taps not just the phenomenal, but the noumenal. The number Pi is noumenal. The refrigeration cycle is noumenal. TMBR, 1c7fnn0/comment/l08bhk8
This world, in this day and age, is so favorably disposed to the case for the philosophy of physicalism over and against the case for the philosophy of personalism, that there can be no fair trial; the outcome is merely a self-fulfilling prophesy. Hell en vivo. The case for the philosophy of personalism is labeled [pejoritivemisinformation, pseudo science, schizophrenia, high, etc. and worse etc.], and summarily dismissed, or worse. The personalist is a fair receptacle for hate, to the thinking of the physicalist, because the physicalist will not accept even the existence of the victim person(alist). Imagine: …
this, physicalism, is, and at the most foundational level, “hate”; and it is an on-going and continuing “threat of hate,” to self and others
If the physicalists were to cancel themselves as rabidly as they cancelled personalists, no physicalist would ever be allowed to win a nobel prize. If the physicalists were to cancel themselves as rabidly as they cancelled personalists, no courtroom would accept physicalist experts. If the physicalists were to cancel themselves as rabidly as they cancelled personalists, schools would be devoid of physicalist teachers. If the physicalists were to cancel themselves as rabidly as they cancelled personalists, the whole point of the world-wide-web would be about empowering “the people,” with respect to their best selves!
Personalists dignify themselves by dignifying others.
The deference has been warranted though: personalism is game over.
Like George Washington stepped away from the presidency for the people
The evidence of your personship has always been right under your nose. Know thyself. To thine own self be true. Ultimately, the buck stops with you. Man the measure. …
“The objector who would open the eternal permanence of the soul to doubt, then, must assail the proofs of a priori knowledge; for as long as these remain free from suspicion, there can be no real question as to what they finally imply.” – A.D. 1899
To say that the refrigeration cycle simply “fell out” of some simple would-be physicalist cause-and-effect, is demeaning; and if it is insisted upon despite my unmet challenge, “hateful.”
(So of course it will be worse than that!:it’s me (personalists) who is (are) squelched and disadvantaged before corporatepopular, power, data, govt, ai, etc. interests!)
To say that the refrigeration cycle simply fell out of physicalist necessity is pitifully reductive. Equating a dissertation on the miracle of the refrigeration cycle, a shattered crystal vase, and a sexual assault victim as all simple physicalist phenomena remains socially abhorrent despite the overwhelming pysicalist sctick of the day, because physicalism is ultimately abhorrent!
Said the author of the widely used textbook on thermodynamics (from the 1980’s), Herbert Callen, in reverence:
“Only inspired insight guided by faith … somehow revealed the interplay of the concepts,”- p.461
There are rules we cannot break, yes, but we are partners with God in the miracle of creation.
The (idea of the) refrigerator seals the deal.
<%#
Test My Belief, Reddit,?
but don’t blame your need to mis-meta Jesus on the fact that we must, qua physics, remain somewhat reciprocally unknown one-to-another%%
submitted by BitterHarvxst to consciousness [link] [comments]
This world, in this day and age, is so favorably disposed to the case for the philosophy of physicalism over and against the case for the philosophy of personalism, that there can be no fair trial; the outcome is merely a self-fulfilling prophesy. Hell en vivo. The case for the philosophy of personalism is labeled [pejoritivemisinformation, pseudo science, schizophrenia, high, etc. and worse etc.], and summarily dismissed, or worse. The personalist is a fair receptacle for hate, to the thinking of the physicalist, because the physicalist will not accept even the existence of the victim person(alist). Imagine: …
this, physicalism, is, and at the most foundational level, “hate”; and it is an on-going and continuing “threat of hate,” to self and others
If the physicalists were to cancel themselves as rabidly as they cancelled personalists, no physicalist would ever be allowed to win a nobel prize. If the physicalists were to cancel themselves as rabidly as they cancelled personalists, no courtroom would accept physicalist experts. If the physicalists were to cancel themselves as rabidly as they cancelled personalists, schools would be devoid of physicalist teachers. If the physicalists were to cancel themselves as rabidly as they cancelled personalists, the whole point of the world-wide-web would be about empowering “the people,” with respect to their best selves!
Personalists dignify themselves by dignifying others.
The deference has been warranted though: personalism is game over.
Like George Washington stepped away from the presidency for the people
The evidence of your personship has always been right under your nose. Know thyself. To thine own self be true. Ultimately, the buck stops with you. Man the measure. …
“The objector who would open the eternal permanence of the soul to doubt, then, must assail the proofs of a priori knowledge; for as long as these remain free from suspicion, there can be no real question as to what they finally imply.” – A.D. 1899
To say that the refrigeration cycle simply “fell out” of some simple would-be physicalist cause-and-effect, is demeaning; and if it is insisted upon despite my unmet challenge, “hateful.”
(So of course it will be worse than that!:
To say that the refrigeration cycle simply fell out of physicalist necessity is pitifully reductive. Equating a dissertation on the miracle of the refrigeration cycle, a shattered crystal vase, and a sexual assault victim as all simple physicalist phenomena remains socially abhorrent despite the overwhelming pysicalist sctick of the day, because physicalism is ultimately abhorrent!
Said the author of the widely used textbook on thermodynamics (from the 1980’s), Herbert Callen, in reverence:
“Only inspired insight guided by faith … somehow revealed the interplay of the concepts,”- p.461
There are rules we cannot break, yes, but we are partners with God in the miracle of creation.
The (idea of the) refrigerator seals the deal.
<%#
Test My Belief, Reddit,?
but don’t blame your need to mis-meta Jesus on the fact that we must, qua physics, remain somewhat reciprocally unknown one-to-another%%
2024.04.19 21:41 Unforeseen_blind Yang isn't (that) difficult... Once you think about it.
You know what they say, it's easier when you're aware of it.I find Yang the second easiest enemy to beat, after the CEO. Because his actions can be provoked, and therefore more predictable.
Here's what fighting Yang has taught me.
First phase
I- The first thing to bear in mind is the DIFFERENCE IN SKILLS. The game wants you to understand that Yang is better than you in every way. What you can do, he can do, and probably better. So attacking him head-on is (largely) pointless, unless you know exactly what you're doing, which isn't the case for all of us. Your primary weapon is "parry" (To break Yang's structure). Secondary, "Avoid" (To restore structure) and "Timed Attack" (to do damage to structure and health).
II- The second thing to understand is YANG BEHAVIOUR. If you don't manage to hit him, or if he manages to hit you, he'll come back to the centre of the room to provoke you. On the other hand, if you do manage to hit him, he'll keep trying to attack you until he hits you, or until you fail to hit him. So you always have to be in a situation where you manage to continuously hit him, without him thinking you're his punching bag.
III- The third thing is YOUR BEHAVIOUR. Don't hold the block button. Prefer parying over blocking. Don't dash unnecessarily. keep your distance and let Yang come to you. If he doesn't come? Provoke him.
How is this useful? The structure gauge of the bosses and those of the players work in the same way. If they do nothing, their gauge decreases. You want to be able to lower your gauge while continuing to raise Yang's.
IV- The fourth thing to bear in mind is DISTANCE. Yang is quite creative at close range, but he's much easier to deal with from a distance. He has two types of mid-range attack:
The second phase differs from the first in numbers, but the principle remains the same (wait for Yang's kick to attack, run away from the rest).
Here, Yang doesn't provoke any more (he's probably already very angry). He's constantly looking for you, but while walking. In a way, this makes it easier to read his behaviour.
Continue to wait for Yang from a distance. He will then behave in two ways.
1- First, he will attack from mid-distance (which is what you are waiting for). There are two ways of doing this
TL-DR: Watch from afar, don't be fajar. If he kicks, beat his cheeks. If he don't, outta the zone.
Did you find easier way to beat Yang ? Or other bosses ?
submitted by Unforeseen_blind to SifuGame [link] [comments]
Here's what fighting Yang has taught me.
First phase
I- The first thing to bear in mind is the DIFFERENCE IN SKILLS. The game wants you to understand that Yang is better than you in every way. What you can do, he can do, and probably better. So attacking him head-on is (largely) pointless, unless you know exactly what you're doing, which isn't the case for all of us. Your primary weapon is "parry" (To break Yang's structure). Secondary, "Avoid" (To restore structure) and "Timed Attack" (to do damage to structure and health).
II- The second thing to understand is YANG BEHAVIOUR. If you don't manage to hit him, or if he manages to hit you, he'll come back to the centre of the room to provoke you. On the other hand, if you do manage to hit him, he'll keep trying to attack you until he hits you, or until you fail to hit him. So you always have to be in a situation where you manage to continuously hit him, without him thinking you're his punching bag.
III- The third thing is YOUR BEHAVIOUR. Don't hold the block button. Prefer parying over blocking. Don't dash unnecessarily. keep your distance and let Yang come to you. If he doesn't come? Provoke him.
How is this useful? The structure gauge of the bosses and those of the players work in the same way. If they do nothing, their gauge decreases. You want to be able to lower your gauge while continuing to raise Yang's.
IV- The fourth thing to bear in mind is DISTANCE. Yang is quite creative at close range, but he's much easier to deal with from a distance. He has two types of mid-range attack:
- During the first, he throws a kick, and three slow punches. These are easily PARRIED. Then he throws two heavy elbows. ABSOLUTELY AVOID (downwards). After these elbows, ATTACK.
- The second starts like the first. except that at one point, he cancels the action and takes a step to the side. AVOID his next attack downward, and ATTACK.
The second phase differs from the first in numbers, but the principle remains the same (wait for Yang's kick to attack, run away from the rest).
Here, Yang doesn't provoke any more (he's probably already very angry). He's constantly looking for you, but while walking. In a way, this makes it easier to read his behaviour.
Continue to wait for Yang from a distance. He will then behave in two ways.
1- First, he will attack from mid-distance (which is what you are waiting for). There are two ways of doing this
- 1 kick, one slow blow (you PARRY both), then two heavy elbow strikes (you AVOID them), then you ATTACK
- 1 kick, two slow blows (PARRY), then he steps back and prepares a big attack. When he comes back, three quick, heavy blows (you mash the AVOID, always downwards), then you ATTACK.
TL-DR: Watch from afar, don't be fajar. If he kicks, beat his cheeks. If he don't, outta the zone.
Did you find easier way to beat Yang ? Or other bosses ?
2024.04.19 21:27 defaultgameer1 M3 Wireless Pairing issues
So I have been using my M3 for maybe half a year now. Initially had issues with pairing but sorted that out first day. Now I seem to be having a new crop of issues out of the blue.
submitted by defaultgameer1 to Keychron [link] [comments]
- No longer paired to USB A receiver and I can not get it to pair. Windows does see the dongle, and the mouse when wired in. Same for USB C Dongle
- It keeps trying to pair in Bluetooth. No matter what mode it is on. G/Off/B All three will make the mouse pop up in windows to pair over bluetooth?
2024.04.19 21:16 Jem-Rook Fantasy Booking: AEW's Ring Of Honor - Ep.1, 15/Mar '22 - A New Era of Honor
 | Segment 1: In-Ring
R3 Iron League
R3 Crimson League
Match 1: R3 Iron LeagueDante Martin (0 pts) vs. Christopher Daniels (0 pts)
R3 Iron League
Segment 2: Backstage
Willow: Awh, come on Lexy. Sorry to cut you off but, you don’t have to be so formal just because we’re at work. It's just Willow, it's always Willow. Lexy, smiling: Okay, Willow, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me, especially on such short notice as we were just made aware that not only is the Survival of the Fittest tournament returning but you have a qualifying match later on tonight? What is your immediate reaction to all of this news? Willow: Shock. Excitement. Maybe feeling a little overwhelmed? Haha, but, no, seriously, I found out at the same time as everyone else, I’m not even in my gear yet because I wasn’t told I was wrestling tonight. But to have a chance to qualify for the Survival of the Fittest, a match that has been an institution of Ring of Honor, is a dream. Lexy: Yes, absolutely, and speaking of qualifying, your qualifying match tonight will be against ‘The Professor’ Serena Deeb. Having never faced off with Deeb one-on-one can you speak to your chances against her or perhaps what strategy you’ll be looking to deploy against such a tenured veteran of the wrestling industry who has ten years of experience on you? Willow: Well, I don’t think I can tell you my strategy & not just because I had this match sprung on me at the last moment, haha, but because giving Serena Deeb any more information that she can add to her to encyclopaedia of wrestling knowledge would be the same as forfeiting the match. Serena may be the best technical wrestler in the world. She knows better than anybody how to use the smallest piece of information about her opponent & squeeze it for all its worth. She is the prime example of a ring general. But, I will say this, despite all her knowledge, all her experience & expertise she’s never faced anyone like Willow Nightingale. Lexy: Ok, and just one more question because I know you have to go prepare for your match but speaking of the unknown, the Survival of the Fittest match has six spots available, is there anyone in the women’s division that you hope is unsuccessful in their qualifier? Willow: There’s nobody I want to avoid. When I fight for the ROH Women’s World Championship, I want to know that I earned it, that I faced the best & I beat the best. At Supercard of Honor XV, the last pay-per-view of the old era, I had a chance to do just that & I came up short. And I have to be honest, it has put one massive chip on my shoulder and the only way I’m going to be able to get rid of it is by winning the Survival of the Fittest match & becoming world champion. ???: That was a great speech Willow
Willow: Hello to you too Serena. Serena: Cute. Do you want to say it or should I?
Serena, backing away: I hope so.
Match 2: Survival of the Fittest QualifierAnna Jay vs. ???
Segment 3: Backstage
Dante: Who are you? Spears: That’s a good one, kid.
Dante: Uh, that’s great, but what are you doing? Spears: You ask a lot of questions. Not very charismatic, real 2 behaviour. See, that’s exactly the type of stuff that I’m here to help you with Dante. With my help I can get you from a 2 to a 6 easily. Easily! And one day, who knows, maybe you can become a 10 like me. Dante: Okay, this is great and all, and y’know, you’re in Ring of Honor, good for you. But, what do you want with me? Spears: I don’t know how I can make this any simpler, kid. I want to be your sensei! Your coach! Your partner! You and me taking on the world! Becoming champions! Dante: And why would I do that? Spears: Well, it’s not like you’re going to win the R3 & it's better than waiting for your injury prone brother to recover.
Match 3: R3 Crimson LeagueHook (0 pts) vs. Dax Harwood (0 pts) w/ Cash Wheeler
R3 Crimson League
Segment 4: Backstage
Kaz: Hello, Chris, is there something I can do for you? Daniels: Haha, you hear this guy? I mean maybe you could’ve been out there with me, huh? Like the good ol’ days? Kaz: Yeah, sure. I mean, I’m kind of- Daniels: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re busy now, you’ve got the suit but if you ever came back, we’d team together, again, right? Kaz: Look, Chris, I-
Kaz: What? Tay: Her match! Anna: Why was I in a match with someone who doesn’t even go here? Kaz: Uh, Chris, I have to deal with this. Chris: Sure man, I’m going to hit the showers, I’ll see you next week. Kaz: Yeah, sure. Okay, so what do you two want? Anna: I want Maki Itoh removed from the Survival of the Fittest match & replaced by me. Kaz: You know I can’t do that, she works for ROH so that’s not going to happen. Anna: Okay, then at least promise right now, on camera, that you won’t cheat Tay out of the Survival of the Fittest like you cheated me by surprising me with Maki Itoh. Kaz: Sure, I promise. Tay: And that I‘ll get an opponent we actually know. Anna: Yeah, someone we’ve at least wrestled.
Anna: And I’m going to be at ringside to make sure there’s no funny business.
Match 4: Survival of the Fittest QualifierWillow Nightingale vs. Serena Deeb
Segment 5: Backstage
Match 5 (Main Event): R3 Iron LeagueRicky Starks (0 pts) vs. Bandido (0 pts)https://preview.redd.it/996c9v2akhvc1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ba47e2827eecb6bf9354ab14af32d99ac51e253
R3 Iron League
|