Hi Everyone, I firstly want to thank everyone that reads this post and offers their thoughts and advice. I have been wracking my brain endlessly on it for weeks and have no idea what to make of it. I have been through a tumultuous therapy experience and feel completely broken by it.
I am 26F and started therapy with a therapist 32F back in Jan 2024. It went extremely well in the beginning, we both have lived very similar lives, are both the same ethnicity and are both queer women. I also have OCD and CPTSD (maybe BPD - not sure). I never connected with another therapist like her before, it felt easy, natural and comfortable. I never felt so seen, so validated, so supportive ever in my life. And she was my type, so romantic transference was easy to happen for me. I started to think of her all day, ever day, like limerent crush. I also carry my heart on my sleeve and whenever she would mention the concept of romantic relationships, I would blush very obviously and be unable to make eye contact. I found myself stalking her LinkedIn and forgot that LinkedIn can track who has seen their page. The next session, the first thing she did was tell me about her entire career history unprompted, subtly letting me know that she knew that I stalked her page.
I then began to express how I find it difficult to connect with certain people, and she brought up the idea that I am just more compatible with some people and not others. She then said "If you and I were to go on a date. we would be compatible". I remember blushing so hard. In retrospect, that was an insane thing to do on her part. I think she wanted to check if I had a crush on her or not. But still I was just a vulnerable person who never felt seen in the way that a therapist could. We had pretty messy boundaries, to be honest, which I think added to this dichotomy - we spoke about music once and she asked to go through my playlists and told me we "had similar taste". You could literally see hearts in my eyes. I have no idea if she was being honest or not. She did one red flag thing that had good intentions but impacted me very negatively. I was very committed to taking notes and learning because I deeply wanted to heal, but felt I was not progressing. She pointed out to me how much better I was doing than her other clients (then told me about how each of them were not doing well. She also told me about a client that had to be referred out and rolled her eyes once about her. As someone racked with anxiety about how people perceive me, this deeply scared me because it meant that she was absolutely capable of judging me in the way that I expected her to. But honestly, she did help me, there were so many new concepts that really opened my mind and enriched me. She continued to make me feel safe, and heard.
I ended up becoming extremely attached to her, to the point of having erotic transference, which became intrusive and unwelcome. If I had a hard day at work, I would have flashes of being with her, of her holding me. So many times, the desire for her to hold me, and be with me was so overwhelming that I would have to write it down in a journal just to feel relief. It really scares me how depraved I have been, it scares me because I feel I am scared of how I would be in an actual relationship. Going back to the music, she said it would be alright if I sent her music that I had been listening to as long as it had to do with Mental health. I sent her several songs about mental health and sent her an extra song that was romantic in nature. I know I shouldn't have sent that song, I knew it was a mistake to do that. I hate that I did that because I put her in such an uncomfortable position and I crossed a boundary. For this, I take full accountability, I suppose I was trying to tell her in my way that I had romantic feelings for her.
The next session, there was a noticeable difference, she was more distant (less validating) and she changed to a harder - more challenging style (almost devil's advocate-y) which caused my attachment to twist inside me. I have an anxious attachment and I was confused by the change, didn't realize why I was in so much pain and incessant rumination trying to figure out what happened. I began to do what any anxiously attached person does, scan for signs of that I had done something wrong, that I would be abandoned. I would replay clips of sessions in my mind over and over trying to figure out if she cared about me or if she did not, there was evidence for both. I became increasingly attached, with the romantic transference which began to scare me because I knew I did not actually know her as a person, I had no idea if she was a bad person who manipulated me into attaching to her or if this was a healthy attachment. It became so overwhelming, she became my first thought in the morning, and my last thought at night. My heart longed for her in a way that it never longed for anyone in my life and my mind was paranoid and anxious of how this happened, and was distrustful of my therapist. She knew though that I liked her, I know because in a later session she began to discuss romantic relationships, and I bit my lip and looked down and I could hear her say "it must be so painful to not be able tell a friend you like them", and then we moved on to the next topic and the moment was over.
In one of our last sessions, I confronted her about how discussing her other client's "flaws'' caused me so much anxiety. She immediately became defensive and went into explanation mode instead of acknowledging the issue and did not apologize for how her action unintentionally hurt me. This broke so much trust in me, how can I feel comfortable in a space where rupture and repair is handled so badly, I just felt unsafe and hurt. The attachment grew, I think shaming myself for it worsened it, I began to to think of her and the complicated love and hate I had for her. I was never present in my life, I could be out with friends, at a concert, at dinner, and I would just find myself slipping into my mind, replaying, reliving, trying to hunt for clues for an explanation. I blamed myself for sending the song, I hated that I became so attached to someone who made me feel so unsafe, who I had felt tricked me into the attachment. I don't know if she intentionally meant to do it or not, I don't think so, but I cannot be sure. In the meanwhile, my anxiety snowballed out of control, I had never been so dissociative, and socially anxious in my entire life, my mind felt like a prison. It felt like all of my trauma, anxiety, stress, social anxiety was coming to the surface after years of it being underwater. I didn’t feel like myself
In our very last session, I couldn't hold it in any longer, and told her everything, told her how terrified I was because of the attachment. I mustered up the courage to finally tell her about the romantic transference and she freaked out and almost yelled “this is a therapeutic relationship (2X)”. I cried over her saying this so much. I could not believe that in the final moments of a fact she knew, and I knew that she shamed me. I was so distraught about it, every time I thought about it, I cried. And after I told her all the pain I had been in, she said “So you learned nothing in the past few weeks” because I had said how much I worried what she thought of me and we had been trying to work on trying to move away from external validation. I could not again believe she made such a huge generalization, I had learned so much, but my attachment was causing me an insane sense of anxiety, and her actions (also a medication that I was on was also adding to the anxiety). We had then redrawn a new plan for therapy - something that would be more step by step, laying down self-compassion first which would have been more helpful.
I ended up having an argument with my father and started to have racing thoughts of wanting her to protect me, and her holding me. I panicked because of how unnatural it felt to have her in my mind, wanting her to protect me. I wrote her an email withdrawing as a client, thanking her for all the lessons I learned and how much the attachment scared me, and how I had flashing thoughts of her wanting to save me when I was arguing with my dad.
For the week after, I missed her like I had never missed anyone in my life. I had somehow made something like a core attachment to her, and felt like a dying child. I woke up in the middle of the night with my heart literally feeling like it would burst out of my body. I then began to do some very intense inner child work, she was in a horrific amount of pain and really longed for my therapist. After hours of work, over the days, I was able to reconnect with her in a way I was never able to. I reassured her that I was there to protect her and love her, and honestly I had so much distrust in myself that she didn’t believe me, but I did end up creating a bond with her. At least in this horrible experience, I was able to come back to myself. I am still recovering from it, but my anxiety is down and I am so much more aware of my thoughts. I feel very conscious that I am not my thoughts, but just an observer experiencing them, but of course I have good and bad days too.
But still I missed her, we had such a good bond, and honestly she became the one of the most important people in my life for the last 4 months. I could easily say I loved her the way that a client could love a therapist. I was heartbroken for weeks to lose that bond, all of her stories, all of the kindness, all of our jokes, I missed her so much. The thought of healing without out shook me to my core, I truly had built such an intense bond with her. I was in so much pain, crying out of nowhere, and angry for her behavior. Angry that she couldn’t take accountability, and sad that I now felt it was hard to trust her. And just upset that the situation had to spiral this far.
I realized, I had hope still, maybe we could work through it, maybe she apologized, and I could apologize and we could start over and move past this. I ended up sending an email requesting that I come back as a client but honestly told her that I don’t trust her, but felt we could hopefully repair that trust. And requested that she take accountability and that I would too. In response, she terminated me as a client and told me it was because “I was no longer benefitting from the modality that she practices”, and offered me 1 more session to discuss the “transition” to a new therapist. And told me she would send my files and explain my situation to another therapist.
I have been in utter chaos for the last few weeks, feeling every emotion you could think of in its extremes. Words could not describe the anguish I had been in. I feel completely abandoned and lost and confused. I still think about her every minute of every day. I am honestly unsure of how to face this situation. A part of me wants to cry, another wants to yell at her and not hold back on all the ways she hurt me. Another part wants to update her on all the good progress that I’ve made, and yet another part wants to send her a cold professional “thank you” email and put this horrible situation behind me. I feel so numb now, unable to choose what to do, unable to know if meeting her for the last time will give me any closure. Afraid that this therapist's wound will affect my life. And unable to stop thinking about her. I just went in to heal, that's all I wanted. I wanted to heal so that I could have happy, healthy relationships in my adult life unlike my parents before me. And all I feel is hurt, abandoned by the one person I felt safe with for the first time in years. I need help and any advice that you have. Thank you again :)

Dear denizens of Wetshaving -
The season of good smells is soon going to be upon us. In the spirit of things, please allow me to introduce the Seventh (?) Annual Feats of Fragrance (FoF) Contest! 🎉👃🌹🏅
Wetshaving is a multi-faceted hobby. Choose a rabbit hole - vintage razors, chasing the latest bases, taking super technical and well composed SOTD pics and hydrating your bowl lathers with a syringe - there is something for everyone to go crazy about.
For me (and I suspect many others), scent is where it’s at. I love pairing soaps, splashes and fragrances of different kinds and probably haven’t used a matching set in more than a year. I like thinking about what synthetic chemicals, EOs and FOs have gone into making a fragrance, what was the inspiration and what were the choices made when composing a scent. If this is you, then you are what Feats of Fragrance aims to celebrate.

History of the Contest

FoF was started by u/hawns, Shawn Maher of Chatillon Lux and Maher Olfactive at some iteration of the Lather Games. Shawn has been a major part of the /Wetshaving community for many years, beginning with Chatillon Lux, making scents and post shave products inspired by the history of St. Louis and a thriving soap collaboration with Declaration Grooming. This culminated in the opening of Maher Olfactive, allowing Shawn to emphasize artistic creativity, over material and budget constraints. Both lines feature fine fragrances that have garnered many, glowing, reviews and was even nominated for the 2020 Art and Olfaction Awards!
For many years, u/whiskyey, followed by u/dganjo ran this competition (along with being a judge for the Lather Games). Thank you both for all the work that you put into it (and for letting me steal from your respective writeups).

So…What is this contest?

From the original competition announcement, FoF is an LG side contest for those who "show olfactory excellence in their post-shave and fragrance routine. It could be education, personal or downright weird."
My interpretation of this is as follows (this is an open interpretation, please feel free to run away with it as you like)

1. How much are you thinking about your scent choices for a particular theme?
2. Why did you choose to dickhole (or if you are like me, non dickhole?).
3. How does your scent evolve over the course of your shave and the day.
4. How do your scent choices make you feel?
5. Can you write out a thoughtful comment/haiku/shitpost to give us an insight into all of this? It does not have to be a million words. Pretty Please - make my life easy.

How do I enter?

Earlier FoF contests considered all SOTD posters as entrants into FoF. This year, however because of how the Lather Games have scaled up, I will be doing things slightly differently.
If you are particularly interested in participating in the FoF side contest, please use the hashtag ‘ #FOF’ in all your SOTD posts through the course of the LG. Note the spacebar before the hastag.
If you forget to tag at any point, you are out of the contest.
Shawn and I will be reading your posts and taking notes to keep track of who’s submissions we have enjoyed the most over the course of the games.
Your performance in this contest will not affect your LG overall score, so it is completely optional.

What will you win?

This years prize pool is pretty gorgeous. Shawn has been kind enough to offer a fair number prizes this year. Dave Kern (u/AMERICANPERFUMER) from American Perfumer, who Shawn worked with to create the amazing Madame Chouteau, Benton Park and Lamplight Penance, is once again a co-sponsor, along with Shawn. The American Perfumer store curates a wonderful collection of American made perfumes and offers spray samples of everything they have in stock, which is a rare treat when trying to test new-to-you scents. Be sure to check out his store and buy a few samples if you're at all curious of anything!
The prize pool this year is

• A Maher Olfactive Scent
• A bottle of original formula Lamplight Penance, released under American Perfumer
• A Chatillon Lux Scent
• A choice of sample set
• $50 GC from a fellow redditor

The winners will decide their prizes as outlines

• 1. The first place winner will have their pick of one items from the list.
• 2. The second place winner will then have their choice of one item from what is left.
• 3. The third place winner follows the above
• 3. The fourth place winner follows the above

I can’t thank Shawn and Dave enough for their generosity this year. We have a lot more (and some pretty effing awesome) prizes and I encourage all of you to bring your A game to the FoF contest.
Happy shaving, splashing, spritzing, and writing!
Cheers

Start off by saying that in no way shape or form am I a perfect DM. To this day I'm still learning to better improve my skills.
The four of us started playing in 2021 during the pandemic. I was the youngest (23) while the rest were late 20's to early 30's. After a year of playing in the DM's campaign I took over. We all got along pretty well, and I was excited to DM for the first time. For the players we had the following:

• The Dm of the previous campaign. Comes from 3.5 and as such was more or less stuck in their ways. Didn't like any of the official D&D adventures, and fully believed that everything should be homebrew. Also had a problem of trying to force characters (mine primarily) into unwanted sexual relationships (me and him worked on this and got in resolved).
  • Surprisingly, he was the least problematic and I could actually talk to him about my troubles.
• A very indecisive player who was also a serious anime enthusiast. A min/max player who hates all the races and classes in D&D, and would rather find a homebrew race/class on a random site. Think one of the bigger issues was that this player firmly believed that I was running the world and society like Medieval times.
  • They played young teenage girl(s) and expected to be married off to some noble.
  • This player also had loud roommates that would distract him or try to make decisions for him.
• The last, was the one I honestly had the most problems with. They started arguments with me over the tiniest of detail. Tbh i have no real clue why they joined other than it was something to do on a Friday night.

Levels 1-6: We started off having fun. A lot of funny and epic moments, Of course I was making mistakes like confusing words and stuff. The first instance that things were going bad was when the problematic player had to leave for two weeks for training. At some point the story drifted towards this player's hometown slipping into the Shadowfell, which was part of the major plot of the campaign. The party was spending an extended amount of time in a city at the time, so it was a good spot for them to dip out while the others took on a side quest for some gear and information. Learns of a dungeon that will have something that'll make their time in the Shadowfell easier, so the other two with some NPC assistance go track it down.
I made this dungeon difficulty for the two of them specifically with the help of 2-3 NPCs, After a some hard fights and puzzles they reach a point where they have to go through a portal. Seems like a good point for a long rest, but they decide to push forward at half health. They find themselves in an underground temple grounds, Journeying deeper in on of them realizes that there's an odd number of stone busts lying around and goes, "Ohhh fuck... We need to go, now," Yep, there's a medusa in here, and it's doing hit and run attacks. Turns one npc to stone and kills another before running away after losing 80% of its health. Party drank all their potions of healing they had and continued on. "I want that item and that medusa's head," the anime enthusiast said. They lose track of it, but end up finding the item. Only problem is that it's guarded by 5-6 skeletons that are on fire. Burning skeletons. The anime enthusiast, whose main weapon is a Flame Tongue, decides to throw Necklace of Fireballs (three beads left) into the room. I tell them that the skeletons took no damage from the fire.
Next part is where heartbreak begins. 5-6 skeletons, not a lot of health, immune to fire damage. They have other weapons and items to use against them. They decide now is the time to run. Skeletons are chasing after them through long narrow hallways throwing fire orbs. The past DM gets downed and is surrounded. The anime enthusiast decides to sacrifice the DM to get away. They only get 20-30ft away before the last Npc gets downed. Anime enthusiast shuts down. "But, I don't want to leave my NPC!" Ended the night in a TPK. I cried that night. First ever time witnessing a TPK. I get a call a couple of hours later from the anime enthusiast. "Please let my character live! I'll do anything! Look my daddy is a devil right? We can say that he sent someone to get her body. I can run three npcs to go in and get them! It's a simple solution! Please!?" The next morning I get notifications in the group discord. It's the argument player and he's pissed. He called me incompetent and unfair. Said I was intentionally trying to kill them as payback for earlier session mishap. I broke down the entire dungeon and how everything should've worked for them. but they didn't believe me. Despite all this (and the fact that I was afraid of being rejected) we still continued, but there was some animosity from the players towards me.
Levels 7-12: A year in. My mind is exhausted. Things kept growing out of control. The past DM came back with a cleric/warlock that made things worse for the party socially. Took roleplay a bit too far. Was extremely lecherous to the point I was uncomfortable with it. Anime enthusiast was brought back to life and had a class change. When the argumentative player's character saved their hometown, he dropped it for a rogue with very specific conditions.
The group is in the last bit of what I had planned. Tbh I just wanted it to end, but I didn't want to just end it on a whim. These guys are level 12. They've seen some shit, done some shit. Ends up getting planeshifted to another realm to capture the BBEG. They arrive in a port town that's currently caught in the middle of a war between elves and humans. The past DM, who is also a drow, proceeds to go into the most poor part of the town to spread the word of his god. Ends up surrounded by common folk who just want him to leave. Says he's not going to leave. One of the commoners brandishes a dagger, and he responds by eldritch blasting him into oblivion. (it was like 30-ish damage) A riot breaks out. The rest of the party are trying not to get involved, but ultimately do. The rogue says they want to quietly grab and interrogate someone for information. Told him to roll for stealth. He just outright says, "NO." i said then you are not stealthed. "Yes I am, and while stealthed...." He then proceeded to roll dice for sneak attack and everything like he already hit. On the other side of the map, the anime enthusiast is running and climbing buildings trying to get away from the mob. "I got the movement speed and stats to just do this automatically." The cleric/warlock proceeded to tell the masses that he was on their side.
At that point I just left.

Hi everyone :)
I’m currently 18F, recently graduated high school. For background, I dealt with a lot of academic burn out during COVID (when I went into high school), so my gpa isn’t great. I decided to pursue cosmetology and will be recurving my cosmetology license next week. After being in cosmetology school for 2 years, I thought I could do this forever. But now, I’m completely rethinking my choices and I don’t think this is my calling anymore. I’ve tried so hard to make myself fall in love with cosmetology, and although I love hair, I don’t like doing it all the time every day of my life. I’ve been having health problems recently- fatigue, nausea, migraines, passing out- it feels like my body is almost rejecting this career. At 18 years old I have a trade, which is more than most people can say coming out of high school. I’ve worked so hard- but I don’t think I want this anymore. I love people and the service industry but not like this. I know most people go through this after high school but I feel trapped. I have a job pretty much lined up for me at a very nice salon, I’m supposed to do a second interview on June 7th, but suddenly I’m seeing people go to college and thrive, which is something I wanted really bad in elementary in middle school.
I don’t know where to go from here. This realization feels like it’s breaking everything I’ve worked for. Everyone is expecting me to become this great hairstylist who makes 6 figures but I simply don’t want to. I want to work hard but I want to work hard in something I truly love, and I’ve honestly lost my passion for hair. How do I move forward? I didn’t apply to any colleges or scholarships, I feel like I’ve screwed myself over chasing a “dream” that I thought was my only option.
I haven’t told any of my family or friends that I’m considering not pursuing hair. Everyone expects this out of me and I don’t want any judgement because of it.
(A little more about myself and careers I’m interested in- I love people. I am pretty awkward and a little quiet, but I want to make a difference in the world. I love coffee shops, and have dreamed about possibly opening my own one day. I’ve thought of social work, because I am a strong communicator. I’ve thought of teaching because I love to teach but I have an irrational fear of school shootings. I’ve thought of nursing, but I’m too scared to pursue it because of burn out. Hmmm…I love to write. I love styling wigs and cosplay. I prefer indoors vs outdoors because I’m very sensitive to heat. I have also thought about being a nutritionist, which I’m actually still pretty interested in.)
Do you have any advice?

It's been so long since I did any analysis of RM's music, the last time I was fifteen and so so depressed. RM has grown as an artist while I grew as a person, in a way it's so personal that every time he comes up with new music, even if it's been long since I really liked BTS music, I just have this ich in my fingers asking me to write down my thoughts. With Right Place, Wrong People I just can't hold myself, Indigo almost made me write my thoughts down in this sub (because that album was made for me, an art theory nerd) but this new album???? Man, I've got things to say. So, sorry for babbling, here are my thoughts:
Before talking about the content, lyrics, and general thoughts, I need to mention and study all the great artists working with RM on this album. First and foremost, San Yawn from Balming Tiger literally could be called the co-creator of this album. Another member of Balming Tiger, bj wnjn, also appears in the credits of a few songs. In the chorus in Dodomachi, you can see the best example of his influence because he's the one who sings it. The sounds, gimmicks, and the way most of the songs in the album are pierced together really feel like Balming Tiger, if anyone is a fan of them you know what I mean. Check them out, they just recently came out with an incredible album: January Never Dies. And for some song recommendations, if you really liked the theme in LOST! in Right Place Wrong People, you will love UP!.
Some other great artists work in production, OHHYUK (from HYUKOH) is the producer of Come back to me, and it really shows. I desperately ask you to go listen to HYUKOH's albums if you liked that song cause, man, that song could have fooled me if you told me it was theirs. Mokyo too, recently has been working with a lot of artists and coming out with really creative stuff, so please check him out (and go listen to Vampire, that song is just pure perfection). Going back to Come back to me, Kuo from Sunset Rollercoaster worked in it too and the guitar in the song really shows it. Check Sunset Rollercoaster too, they deserve a lot more love from the k-rock lovers. Supremeboy, even if he only appears in (I think) the credits of out of love, deserves always the love and respect from old fans of RM, so shout out to him too.
The really rich mixture of sounds and genres in the album really makes me think once again of Indigo, but this time it feels so different. In Indigo RM took a lot of inspiration from the sound of this artist but the message was less introspective in his lyrics than in Right Place Wrong People, now the mix with this artist really mixes so deeply the introspection in the lyrics with the sound. And really, the appreciation we should have for those who worked with RM in the production and writing of the album should be pointed out in bold letters and neon, cause it's fundamental to understand the whole meaning and message of the album, to the understand it's conception.
In the album, RM talks primarily about how he's perceived and how that affects the person he's come to be. It's a beautiful introspection on how others interact and convince him, and how that has affected him, and how he interacts with people. On the one hand, you can see the real symbolism that is the mix of RM's introspection with the people he collaborated with. Most people only look up to the features when we talk about the mix of different artists sounds, but in Right Place Wrong People, the symbiosis of RM's compositions it's with those that he's featuring and with those that work with him in production. See Dodomachi, he's featuring Little Smizs (I promise you I was shocked to see he was collaborating with her, go check out her last album Drop 7, it's GOLD), he collaborates and mixes his sound and lyrics with hers perfectly, but at the same time it's in the production and the choruses where what shines it's the work of bj wnjn, with his distinctive singing and those lyrics heavy where we can hear a more hollow and dark feeling in the "Friend, let's dance here", really showing the true heaviness of dislike for the life of partying he's been pushed to by those called friends. the mix of sounds, the collaboration of other people's voices (this time the right people in the right place) it's what gives the extra layers and deepness to RM's new album.
On the other hand, RM's introspection feels old and comforting for an old fan. I remember when Mono came out and how much I loved (and I still love) Seoul. Listening to this new, older, Namjoon I can't help but see in this new tone the comeback of the idea he presented once:

If love and hate are the same words /I love you, Seoul - Seoul

Back then the music is very conciliatory, and acceptance of change. That has changed, in Indigo we see a brief development on this idea with Change pt. 2:

Love change, friends change, everyone change, no, yeah / It is not strange, hmm, that's the world's shape, aye / You gotta admit it, hmm Don't you get it still? / Someday, a great grief will do come for you, hmm, yeah - Change pt. 2

The song, while being in Indigo, has the same type of violent emotion that connects more with Right Place Wrong People than with the album it's in. It refers to things that connect with songs like LOST!...

Ay, ay, ay, ay (Dump it on the ground, shit) / Ay, ay, ay, ay (Dump it on the ground, shit) / I keep trippin', I can’t stop bleeding / I got lost in the ground, but not beggin' at you

It refers to things that connect with songs like LOST! while also being the stage in between Mono and Right Place Wrong People. The three albums together can be read as the stages of the being of RM, the acceptance of what he was back in 2018, what his art is in 2022, and who he is in 2024. Right Place, Wrong People, as much as you can talk about it being an album of songs giving the middle finger to people, is (for me) an album about RM, how he's now as a person, and how that relates to the people around him and love. For me is an album about love and being oneself openly, and aggressively. It's love connected with pain, "pain divine". It comes back to Seoul and the connection with love and pain, how Seoul and RM's soul were the same, and how he has grown with that deep pain and love. What once was a song written with the calm acceptance of this, in Right Place Wrong People we see how this understanding has grown and RM just can't keep pretending he's not this, someone built by pain and love. In Come back to me we see it:

You are my pain, divine, divine.

A song, talking about someone that's not there for him anymore, connects with this idea RM has been working with for so long in his music, that his soul is built with pain and love. But now he's not only accepted it, but he's confident in it. You can see this in Nuts, where he compares the love between him and others with elements of danger, while also assuring the person that he doesn't wish to change things to be with them, he "can make this place right for" them.

It was a tough relationship, there's a stigma on my chest / It's called you, I can't even believe we were together /It was a flu, and we could see the karma coming through

RM works around the concept of being built by pain and love, and turns it into the concept of painful love. He works around this idea in this album with these two songs especially, but you can see it in others like Around the world in a day with Mosses Summey:

We who are lost don't look so pitiful / Now with a smile, raising the middle finger / Yeah, all the past, the present / I'ma pass, then give it to you / I like myself broken, b!tch, that's the sh!t

I think the more interesting line in this song is the one that goes "My appearance like a lost item hoping to be found / We who are lost don't look so pitiful / Now with a smile, raising the middle finger", and it really connects these songs I've talked about with the rest of the songs in the album, the ones that as he says is a "raising the middle finger" to those that criticize him, in those that expect him to be someone different. This theme is maybe more prevalent, you see it in Out of love or in Dodomachi. In one he says it directly, referring to the (dumb if you ask me) scandal with the picture of him smoking with these lines:

I'm just a pack of cigarette / I'm going to burn down all the love and the hate, the right, the wrongs / Even the goddamn world I've been livin' in for my whole life / Smoking kills, I know / It's my business, you bitches stop, don't talk shit / Ashes falling like snow / I've been changin' the flow

In Dodomachi he uses singing, the dark pessimistic voice of bj wnjn to talk about how he's being pushed by those who call themselves his friends to change, to be what people would expect of an artist as famous as he is, to make him forget who he was before:

I been slipping through all kinda b*llsh*t, I forgot where I came from / All s*ckers wanna get it, take a sip, silently pour it into the glass / All the s*ckers wanna hit it, I'ma lead you to the heaven, blow the flute / All my friends wanna get around in O's, all my friends wanna take another pose / Yeah, I'm knocked out, what a bullsh*t (Get the f*ck down) / Muhf*cka, want a doom sh*t

And while I could continue for days writing my ideas on this album, I think I should conclude (I have an exam tomorrow I should be studying instead of doing this, I blame you Kim Namjoon for my laziness) with what this all concludes in the album. It's called Right Place, Wrong People and that's because of good reason. What comes out of all the ideas RM presents in the songs is one big concept: the confidence of who he is, with the pain and the love that has built him, and how he just doesn't care to conform to those that not understand this and want him to be someone else. From Seoul to Right Place, Wrong People, he shows how not only he has accepted who he is (pain and love) but he also doesn't care if others don't accept him. I think the best examples of this are in ? (Interlude), and Heaven.

You know you got the best of me / Do you know me? / I don't mind at all

This album is one of self-love, introspection, and knowing oneself, to not only accept to be confident in those things painful in one. To give a middle finger to those who want to change him and to those who criticize him for not conforming to the cruel world of fake image, violence, and stardom. It's a beautiful conclusion to ideas he has worked with in BTS and with his early works as a soloist, going as back as 2017 when he asked to be told "everything is alright" in Change with Wale. I think is beautiful how all these ideas have changed and morphed and matured with him, going from:Baby, tell me that we gon' someday stop the fight

And tell me that every, everything gon' be alright / Oh tell me who's stupid, baby, is it me or them? / Just tell me who's insane, baby, is it me or them? / In this crazy world after patience, could we get the pearl?

to...

There are so many unlucky bastards in the world / So what? Just keep going your own way / There are so many incomprehensible bastards in the world / I just step on it harder, just step on it harder / Yeah, I fuck it up, I fuck it up / Hate is harmful but I suck it up /Now I'll go the other way, to the cliff (...) Just lower your eyes, so don't provoke me / If you want to be friends, just pour me a drink, you dig?

PD: I wrote so much, god, and I haven't studied a bit. Going to stay up all night. Wish me luck guys! And go listen to RM's new album and all the others artist that worked with him!!!!!!
PD2: I posted this before but deleted when I was told there was a megathreat for the album, but I think it's a bit too long and counts more of analysis than reaction or discussion of the album? so someone told me I could post it as it one and I agree, if you see this hope work went well!

I want to start this by saying I never thought I’d have a story like this but here we are… for the purpose of this post, all names are fake. And it’s a lengthy one but worth the read.
I met Kate in college about 5 years ago and told her my future plans of being a business owner. (I am now and quite successful.) She always had a taste for the finer things since her father was a wealthy man and never said no. Unfortunately he passed before Kate got engaged so he would not be there to experience it. Kate got engaged to her boyfriend Carl. They set the wedding date to be October 2023. I didn’t know Carl as he lived out of state and I only met him once before he moved here to live with Kate. We have since only seen each other a handful of times as he is also a business owner and very busy. Important for later….
Kate asked me a month after the engagement if I would be a bridesmaid along with 5 others. Of course I said yes and let the wedding planning begin! Little did I know, that was a BIG mistake. Wedding planning is going great and we are planning the bach trip when Kate asks me about having all the BMs chip in to “keep prices as low as possible for her and Carl since business has slowed up.” It wasn’t an issue to for us to pitch in, we knew we would have to and even offered to help more after finding out that Carl and Kate were struggling. Keeping costs low for a 9 day trip to Hawaii is a stretch but after all, it’s a good time. Kates birthday would also fall on this trip so it was a bach/birthday celebration for her.
Kate messaged our groupchat to let us know that we would all split the Airbnb in Hawaii and that we would also be responsible for our dresses, shoes, jewelry, alterations, and the like. Fine… it’s as expected. About $600 for outfit and accessories including the $50 per person for dress alterations. Kate said we could give her the money for the Airbnb so she could pay with her card and it would be all taken care of. We agreed and asked how much it would be for all of us to split it. (10 people going but I offered to pay for Kate’s portion as a gift to her for the wedding/birthday.) It was going to be $900 PER PERSON to stay. That’s a little steep but I figured Kate had picked out the most fabulous of places including a pool, hot tub, sauna.. whatever. I wasn’t thrilled with the price and offered to help her find a cheaper place but she insisted and I gave her the money anyways. Airfare was another $500 per person which went on MOBs card.
We get to the Airbnb and everything is smooth sailing…it’s gorgeous, beachfront, personal chef, housemaids, you name it and it was there. We had so much fun but I noticed like 3 days in that Kate was fake drinking. I only caught it because we’re out and I heard her quietly order a “watered down cranberry juice” that looked very similar to drinks she had been having at the house. I’m sure you can guess where this is going but I didn’t say anything as to alert anyone else. That’s not my news to tell.
We come home from the trip and things start to get busy with the wedding being just a few weeks away. Kate again asks the BM chat if we could possibly help chip in for rooms at the venue if we planned to stay. The drive for me and several others was about 9 hours one way so there were 4 of us that needed a place to stay. We opted to grab a few hotel rooms that were cheaper nearby. This sent Kate into a spiral of anger because “we weren’t helping enough.” I tried politely explaining that we had already paid in a large amount of money and that we had our own things to pay for so we wouldn’t spend all the extra on her wedding and expenses. She stops replying.
It’s wedding day! The venue looks like a scene straight from the movies. Everything went PERFECT with the exception of one minor slip up…. Just before we were entering the reception I stepped into the restroom where I overheard Kate talking on the phone. “Great, thank you! We will see you next week with our stuff!” CLICK! Honeymoon reservations? No. Baby appointment? No. Hmmm…
At the reception there was a big projector screen displaying photos of Kate and Carl. It was cute. Speeches were made, toasts were given and it was Kate’s turn to speak as she had wanted to thank everyone for attending and helping. Kate begins to tear up speaking on her father but states that he had left her the best gift of all… marrying the man of her dreams ALL EXPENSES PAID. He left her a big fat trust in which she could access to pay for her wedding, dress, venue, bachelobachelorette trips, catering, the whole nine. The bridal party sat jaws dropped at what we had just heard after supplying actual thousands to support her wedding and bach trip. WHERE DID OUR MONEY GO?! All of us too stunned to speak just stared at Kate as she ended her speech and scurried out the back entrance where her and Carl proceeded to leave for their honeymoon (also funded by the trust, might I add.) Everyone was frantically calling and texting Kate and Carl trying to figure out what was happening… radio silence.
A week after the wedding, I finally receive a call from Kate explaining the situation. She claims that she didn’t know the wedding and it’s festivities were fully funded until a month before the wedding which I didn’t believe. I asked her if we could get our money back and she said that it had already been spent and that’s she’s sorry but it was a gift so she used it as such. Legally we can’t pursue anything because we all did pay her willingly but it still sucks. (I’ve been in touch with my lawyer over this.) I asked what she had spent the money on and she blew it off and said she had to go and hung up the phone.
Back to where my money went? A Facebook post as quoted: “We are so blessed to announce the best wedding gift of all… Baby blank coming soon! We also want to take this time to thank all of our wonderful bridesmaids, groomsmen, friends, and family for the gracious gifts that we have put towards our new family home!” insert photo of ultrasound picture and photo of $996,000 home here
I have since deleted Kate from everything to and removed Carl from Facebook. I tried to contact her about all of this and never got a response so I gave up. I wasn’t going to write about this anywhere but I got a baby shower invitation in the mail last week and it got me stewing again… lol I will not be going or contributing another cent.
After speaking with others who paid in and are also still furious, we estimate that we all contributed about $25,000 for them to buy a new house. I also found out that Carl knew the whole time and so did Kate’s mom.
TDLR: Bridezilla uses $25,000 dollars of others money to help purchase new million dollar home for herself and family after having her wedding completely funded by a trust her deceased father left to her.

New season, new shakeup! As per usual, we get new moves added to new recipients, and some existing moves get tweaked. Unlike usual, we don't get any all-new moves, but on the plus side, we got all this teased over a week ahead of time, making ol' JRE quite happy. No last minute scramble to get through it all!
But even with a relatively simple move rabalance like this one, there's still plenty to cover. Nowhere will you find analysis that goes to these depths, covering the big names and some others you likely haven't even considered.
Let's do this, people!

(NEW) ATTACK ON TITAN 🌨️

There are several attack changes people are already talking about excitedly with this update, so naturally I'm going to start with... CETITAN? Hear me out, because I think this is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) move addition in this whole rebalance.
"JRE, you're crazy, man. Ice types are a dime a dozen. What makes Cetitan so special?"
Well judging by my initial PvP review on Cetitan when it was released, not much. I noted it had decent overall bulk and was at least better than Avalugg (with the same Body Slam and Avalanche charge moves, but Cetitan having the better fast move with Ice Shard as opposed to Lugg's Ice Fang), and perhaps had some promise in Master League where Ice types have a lot of advantages anyway, particularly Premier where Legendary Ice types are left on the outside looking in. And now? Enter an even much better fast move than Ice Shard: Powder Snow, which beats all the same ML core meta stuff as Ice Shard plus Origin Giratina, Lugia, and Snorlax in 0shield, Altered Giratina, Swampert, and Gyarados in 1shield, Mewtwo and Reshiram in 2shield, and Xerneas and Zacian in both 1 and 2shield. And again, NO new losses... this is a straight upgrade, folks. In the rankings, Cetitan leapfrogs Avalugg, Walrein, Baxcalibur, and even lomg-time staple Mamoswine in the ratings (and in performance) to trail only Kyurem and Hisuian Avalugg among Ice types, and Cetitan can still do things not even those two can like beating Mewtwo, Kyogre, and Reshiram!
Cetitan does move into the upper ranks of Ice types in other Leagues as well, but there is just a lot of established and versatile competition to contend with like Walrein, Dewgong, Abomasnow, Alolan Sandslash, Arctibax, Aurorus, Froslass, Alolan Ninetales, and even old friends like Lapras. Those mostly all fall away in Master League, leaving the new and improved Cetitan to shoot up the charts more decisively. You'll start to see it all over now, particularly in Cups, but I do think Master League is where it will likely make its biggest mark for those with the means to build it up. It can even beat three out of four Necrozmas! (The Steely Dusk Mane fusion being the only exception, for rather obvious reasons.)
One other League to consider is Little Leaue, and CETODDLE, who gets the same moveset update and does good things with it. Stupid trash can lid Bronzor is still a huge issue, of course, as well as obvious Fires and Fighters and such. But this is easily now one of the best Ice types in Little League and should be a fixture of most Little formats from here on out.
Do I think these two are going to suddenly take over their respective Leagues? Probably not. But do they deserve a heck of a lot more usage, even in Open? Absolutely. There's a reason I chose to lead off with these two!

PUNCHING LIGHTS OUT ⚡

Thunder Punch is not exactly an electrifying move in PvP. Like the other Elemental Punches (Fire, Ice, Thunder), as well as other move clones (Aerial Ace and Stomp), it costs only 40 energy, but deals only 55 damage for a passable but unexciting 1.37 Damage Per Energy. Most things that use it (and there are several, such as Ampharos, Muk, Hypno, Pachirisu, and the Super Raichu Bros.) do so as a bait move, though as with any elemental move, the coverage alone can be nice too (for things like Muk and Hypno, at least). Still, often if it goes through unshielded, that's a loss for the user, as they typically want to bait a shield with it leading up to a big closer like Dark Pulse (Muk), Shadow Ball (Hypno), or Wild Charge (Raichus).
And honestly, that mostly remains Thunder Punch's role for the things now recieving it:

• The Pawmot family all get it now. I suppose PAWMO may appreciate it the most as its first move under 45 energy, but it remains a poor overall option. Big bro PAWMOT can use it, I suppose, alongside Close Combat or Wild Charge rather than running both as it typically does now, giving it not only better bait potential but also moves it away from TWO big self-debuffing moves at once. Indeed, it would seem Thunder Punch/Close Combat is a fine sidegrade or even upgrade to Close Combat/Wild Charge, dropping Azumarill but picking up things like Mantine, Talonflame, and Carbink, which are all quite nice. However, it remains far south of a 50% winrate and thus on the fringe even in most Limited/Cup metas. This addition is appreciated, but doesn't really change much. And keep in mind that their fast move, Spark, is getting a nerf... but more on that later.
  
• CHESNAUGHT is an odd one here. Obviously it already has Waters covered with its Grass moves, so the most obvious thing Thunder Punch does is give it a little more teeth against Flyers. As with Pawmot, Chesnaught tends to run with a self-debuffing Fighting move for coverage, in this case Superpower. And honestly, I think that's what it will usually prefer to keep on doing, though Thunder Punch IS a decent overall sidegrade on paper in Great League, dropping stuff like Guzzlord and Shadow Dragonair to instead gain Annihilape and Pelipper. Hmmm... that's actually not too shabby. 🤔 I think I can confidentally say to stick with Superpower in Ultra League, though... without it, you drop stuff like Registeel, Alolan Sandslash, Cobalion, and Guzzlord, which is no beuno.
  
• Another Fighter that gets some anti-air coverage wth Thunder Punch now is LUCARIO. The last elemental move Niantic gave it was Blaze Kick, which has popped up here and there (and given it some new potential wins like Venusaur), but generally it seems to usually still run best with Power-Up Punch (and typically Shadow Ball) instead. Usually. I do see a bit more potential this time around. In Great League, Fire Punch generally performs worse than PuP, but Thunder Punch seems like more of a straight sidegrade, trading away Cresselia to instead pretty reliably take out Carbink. And in Ultra League, Thunder Punch (running alongside Shadow Ball) does still generally lose to Trevenant in a foot race (PuP's lower cost is critical there), but gains Mandibuzz and Tentacruel in exchange, as well as scaring Flyers into potentially burning more shields too. Luc's Counter damage is already beating up Steels that you'd want Fire for, leaving Thunder Punch and Counter with less overlap. PuP Lucario isn't going anywhere, but I DO like Thunder a bit more as an alternative than Fire. We'll see if that ends up truly mattering.
  
• Third time's the charm? Our third and final Fighter getting Thunder Punch now is the most intriguing. SCRAFTY, like Lucario, has long run effectively with Power-Up Punch leading to an eventual Foul Play to close things out. That's been at least Cup-worthy in Great League, and at least borderline meta in Ultra League especially. In Great League, Thunder Punch is at least a decent sidegrade to PuP, sometimes dropping the Shadow versions of Dragonair and Victreebel, but gaining Mandibuzz and Pelipper, two pretty impactful pickups. But it is in Ultra League where Thunder Punch becomes more impactful, bringing in new wins like Golisopod, Alolan Muk, and Gyarados, as opposed to the single new loss to Cobalion that you can get with PuP instead. And Thunder Punch is more of a straight upgrade in other even shield matchups, gaining Tentacruel in 2v2 shielding and Poliwrath, Mandibuzz, and Gyarados with shields down, all with NO PuP wins slipping away. I think this just makes Scrafty better in Ultra and will be the favored move alongside Foul Play moving forward. Neat!
  
• But I think the single biggest winner of the Thunder Punch sweepstakes has to be TYPHLOSION. There are a couple reasons for this that make perfect sense even without looking at sims. First off, Typhlosion's biggest issue since the beginning has been having no charge moves costing less than 50 energy. This means that three Incinerates (or at least seven Shadow Claws) have always been required before Typhlosion could even threaten shields. Thunder Punch changes that math significantly, as only two Incinerates (or five Shadow Claws) are required to hit exactly the 40 energy Thunder Punch requires. That is significant! But the coverage is also fanatastic to hit back at Water types, which Typhlosion always kinda wanted to do with Solar Beam, though that costs FOUR Incinerates to charge up, making it a Hail Mary at best. The end result? Thunder Punch is nearly a straight upgrade. Without any shields in play, Solar Beam CAN manage to shock and awe its way to wins over things like Azumarill and Lickitung in Great League, and Jellicent in Ultra League. But otherwise everything comes up in Thunder Punch's favor, with its own 0shield wins like Charizard in UL and Talonflame, Mantine, Pelipper, and Shadow A-Slash in GL. And Thunder Punch is strictly better in 1v1 shielding by adding Mandibuzz and Mantine in GL and Gyarados and Talonflame in UL, and a TON of new wins in 2v2 shielding like Feraligatr, Mantine, Talonflame, Lickitung, Sableye, Cresselia, and sometimes even Galarian Stunfisk in GL, and Charizard, Toxicroak, Obstagoon, Alolan Muk, Jellicent, Annihilape, Golisopod, Gyarados, Tentacruel, Walrein, Mandibuzz and more in UL! Big big BIG improvements in the horizon for Typhlosion that elevates it to the same tier as Talonflame, Chairzard, and Skeledirge in both Great and Ultra Leagues moving forward. And that's not to even mention the potential of Shadow Typhlosion.... 😱
  

🎼 COME FLY WITH ME, LET'S FLY AWAY! 🦅

Fly is one of the best moves in the entire game: 45 energy for 80 damage, with no drawbacks at all. That's what Sky Attack was from 2018 to 2021, back when it was terrifying in PvP, before dropping to 75 power and eventually going to 50 energy too last year. (What did Sky Attack ever do to you, Hanke?! 😢) But now, in keeping with the seeming skyward theme of the season, old school Sky Attack is being handed out to several new recipients that... uh... could use some help. Is it enough?

• Oh, how long I've wanted FEAROW to work in PvP. Its had its chances, with Drill Run and Steel Wing only getting better over time, and even the nerfs to Sky Attack being mitigated by the long overdue buff to Aerial Ace. And now it gets old-school Sky Attack with the addition of Fly... and it STILL can't break out. Come on, Niantic.. just give it Wing Attack already, will ya? Or at least Quick Attack, maybe? Set my drill running bird free!
  
• SWANNA remains the ugly duckling of Flying Water types. While Mantine and Pelipper and even Gyarados lord over their respective Leagues, and even Swanna's pre-evolution Ducklett remains a tippy top option in Little League, poor Swanna remains consistently ranked outside the top 400, ranked below even Mantyke in Great League... even after getting Fly! It remains trapped behind lackluster fast moves, and until that changes, it remains irrelevant. Let Swanna really soar, Niantic!
  
• The one everyone is talking about is SALAMENCE, particularly in Master League where it has always seemed right on the cusp of potential greatness, with pretty good overall stats and decent enough Dragon moves (Dragon Tail, Draco Meteor, and Outrage as a Legacy move), but no good second charge move. Now it gets Fly, and while it IS much improved, I just don't think it's enough. Not nearly. Not even in Premier. Just too many other Dragons with better tricks up their sleeves. If you're doggedly insistent, I guess you can try again with it now, but I don't see Sal finding sudden success after this, sorry. Give it Dragon Claw or something and THEN we can talk.
  
• So surprisingly, it is humble SWOOBAT that we're left talking about as perhaps the most impactful new Fly user. Though obviously we're not talking Master League anymore, no no. This is a Great League 'mon, and one that's already a little spicy since first getting Psychic Fangs and then the eventual buff to Aerial Ace. But it was left without reasonably priced closing power, with Psychic (the move) just not being worth it as the attempts to nerf Medicham drug Psychic (the move!) into the depths, and Future Sight is just way too expensive with Confusion's average energy gains. So now here comes Fly, and you know what? I like the result! This is no sudden new Open play revelation or anything, but potential spice in the right Cup? I can absolutely see it. Fly grants new wins against GOOD names like Altaria and Gligar in 1shield, and Pelipper, Vigoroth, and the Shadow versions of Gligar, Swampert, and CharmTales in 0shield. There's some real potential here now, more than ever before. Not every improvement has to rock PvP... just some nice new twists like this can be plenty fun. Now we just need Gust for the lulz.
  

NIFTY OR... SWIFTIE? ‍💨

Apologies to the fans of the future Mrs. Travis Kelce (if you know, you know)....
Anyway, long-terrible Normal charge move Swift is finally getting a buff. I think so, at least. Niantic is actually lowing its power from 60 damage to 55, but they are also lowering its cost. How much? That's the part we don't know yet, but PvPoke has speculated it will drop from 55 energy all the way down to 40, and while that's probably the best case scenario, we're gonna roll with it for the purposes of this analysis. If that holds true, the resulting 55 damage/40 every should look quite familiar... it's the same stats as Thunder Punch. And as we talked about earlier, that's usually better for baiting than anything, but it's passable and certainly FAR better than the 60 damage/55 energy it was previously.
Does anything that now gets it (or already has it) actually want to use it, though?

• The first new recipients worth mentioning are the WIGGLYTUFF family, as they are all part Normal-type and thus get STAB damage with Swift too. Eh, maybe? These sims will likely break when the new season goes live, but what the heck, I'll show them anyway. I think out of the two charge moves Wiggly uses now — Icy Wind and Disarming Voice — it is Voice that is the one to potentially drop, as Charm already deals plenty of Fairy-type damage, and Icy Wind not only provides coverage but also obviously extends Wiggly's life by debuffing the opponent's Attack. So assuming you run Icy Wind/Swift, we'll call that a sidegrade to Wind/Voice. "But JRE, it got worse!" Yes, in 1shield it seems to, dropping Dewgong, but you actually win if you go with Icy Wind first, and then closing it out with Swift, just as you can win going Icy Wind and then DIsarming Voice after. Similarly, there are no big differences in 2v2 shielding, but in 0v0 shield, we have a true sidegrade situation, with Swift outracing Pelipper and Shadow CharmTales, and Disarming Voice instead overpowering Gligar and forcing at least a tie a tie with enemy Wigglytuffs. So pure sidegrade, basically. Not a GREAT sign considering that, again, this is the only Charmer that gets STAB with Swift. And while JIGGLYPUFF* and especially IGGLYBUFF have some play in Little League, they are still worlds better with (Legacy) Body Slam rather than Swift. Moving on....
  
• CLEFABLE has a few edge cases where Swift can help, but overall just trust me when I tell you that (at least when running Fairy Wind as the fast move), Meteor Mash and Moonblast are just much. much better. Most all of the advantages for Swift show up in 2v2 shielding, and only in Great League...things like Swampert, Pelipper, and Gligar. But exisiting moves are just better otherwise, including up and down Ultra League. There's really no reason to linger here, so... next!
  
• The only other new recipients are the TEDDIURSA/URSARING/URSALUNA family. I'm going to go ahead and say that I don't think Ursaluna wants it at all. Ice Punch has the same stats as what we're guessing Swift will, and the coverage it provides is massive, especially in Master League were it sees the most play today (with wins over things like Garchomp, Yveltal, and perhaps most critically, Zygarde Complete). Teddiursa seems interesting until you remember that it already has Cross Chop and Crunch, which have more impact than super-effective-versus-nothing Swift... STAB alone isn't really enough. The one that MAY want it is Ursaring. You likely would want to run it alongside Close Combat (in place of PLay Rough), which can then add on Dewgong and Guzzlord in Great League, at the cost of giving up Lanturn and Sableye. In Ultra League, it can add on Guzzlord and Swampert and gives up only Alolan Muk. But honestly, Ursaring remains just bad in both Leagues. And again, this is with likely best-case-scenario Swift. Blech.
  
• Pokémon that already have Swift (and any real potential in PvP) are basically just a list of two. HISUIAN ELECTRODE may actually want it, as it obviously wants to always run Wild Charge (45 energy) but awkwardly has to often try to bait a shield first with MORE expensive Energy Ball (55 energy). Swift COULD fix that by greatly speeding things up, as it costs less than Wild Charge at only 40 energy. But I still think that will be better in theory (and perhaps in Electric Cup, should that return) than in actual practice. Energy Ball is still quite useful for coverage and non-Wild Charge closing power, needing it to beat things like Whiscash and Swampert across various shileding scenarios. Swift does have some advantages in 2v2 shielding for rather obvious reasons, but that's about it.
  
• MUCH more interesting is UXIE. By far the bulkiest of the Lake Trio Legendaries — and in fact, the second bulkiest Confusion user in the game, behind only Cresselia — its problem has always been that all of its charge moves costed 55 energy or more... and with Swift being so bad before, it still usually ran with 60 energy (Thunder) and 65-energy (Future Sight) charge moves. And despite on-paper great potential... well, it was certainly no Cresselia! (And that goes for Ultra League too.) But now it gets the inexpensive move it's been waiting for, with new and improved Swift elevating its performance significantly in Great League (new wins include Altaria, Gligar, Swampert, Whiscash, Alolan Ninetales, Shadow Dragonair) and in Ultra League (new wins like DDeoxys, Pidgeot, Swampert, Venusaur, Charizard, Ampharos, Shadow Dragonite, AND Shadow CharmTales). Not sure that this will lead to a sudden breakout in PvP, but at the very least, it's suddenly spicy.
  

So no big ripples, but hey, Swift is at least not a meme move anymore. And Uxie really likes it now, at least! Let's shake it off 😉 and move along to the last couple move tweaks....

NO GO ADELE 🐉

Sticking with the theme of famous singers... Hello from the other side! 🙃
Okay, sorry sorry. NAGANADEL gets Dragon Claw now. Yay? Sadly this does very, very little for it in PvP, picking up just a single win over Yveltal, of all things, in 1v1 shielding, and no real changes elsewhere. At least this section is easy on me (musical lyric joke counter: 2) and we can move on to the next now.

PATIENCE, YOUNG GRASSHOPPER 🦗

If you don't get the reference, it's from a famous show from the 70s (yes, the 1970s, you youngins) called "Kung Fu". It's a famous show and a famous phrase that you should know. No, I don't just know it because I'm old, it's famous!
...get off my lawn.
Anyway, Counter remains the best fast overall move in the game, so any time something new gets it, that is reason enough to sit up and notice. Even when that recipient is a current Pokémona non grata like LOKIX.
Look, it's very glassy and will likely never be more than spice. This is unlikely to really shake up any meta in a major way. But yes, Lokix is significantly better than before now that it has Counter. It does unfortunately drop Cresselia, but can now outslug stuff like Lickitung, Dewgong, Guzzlord, Vigoroth, Galarian Stunfisk, and even Skarmory and Bastiodon despite how scary those two normally are for Bugs. It sees similar improvement in Ultra League, dropping Fighting-resistent Venusaur and Golisopod but gaining Registeel, Steelix, Alolan Sandslash, Swampert, Walrein, and Greedent, but uh... it has to be leveled up to at least Level 46, and is still a poor option overall. Not worth it, IMO. But keep an eye on it, as the addtion of another impactful charge move could elevate it further. Counter users are ALWAYS worth at least some consideration.

(RE-) PLANTING A SEED 🌱

We all know why Seed Bomb was nerfed from its original 40 to 45 energy: it was felt that something had to be done about TREVENANT, by far the most impactful Seed Bomb user. Yes yes, it got a small damage bump as well (from 55 to 60 damage), but the (completely intended) damage was done, and Trevenant usage dropped quite a bit. The hit wasn't TOO bad, but it was enough.
Now Trevor gets a boost again, with the cost remaining the same but the damage creeping up to 65 now, elevating it from a clone of Wrap (and a slew of stat-altering moves like Icy Wind, Mystical Fire, Lunge, the Forces Of Nature unique Storm moves, and others... but Seed Bomb of course HAS no stat altering and was thus far worse) to a clone of Discharge. Not amazing — a reduction in cost to what it once way would REALLY make a difference — but certainly more palpable.
In the end, it's a small buff to Trevenant — with only a couple new wins like Shadow Dragonair in 1shield and Azumarill in 2shield in Great League, and Feraligatr and Greninja in 1shield and Tentacruel in 2shield in Ultra League — but we'll take it! Those UL wins especially are pretty nice.
Not many other notable Seed Bomb users, but here's what I see: WHIMSICOTT (with Fairy Wind) can now beat Galarian Stunfisk and Azumarill with shields down (in Great League), so that's a small but welcome improvement. Aaaaaaand that's about it. No big changes I see with Little League COTTONEE or BULBASAUR or Little or Great League DARTRIX, and then you're into things like CELEBI. Yeah, this is first and almost entirely centered on Trevenant.

SNUFFING OUT SPARK 🔌

Just as Seed Bomb changes are directly intended to affect one meta Pokémon, so too is the story with the nerf to Spark dropping from 6 damage to 5: this is directly intended to nerf LANTURN. There used to be other meta things that ran Spark because they had to, but they've all gotten other tricks since then that are now preferred (Volt Switch for Magnezone and family, Volt Switch for Charjabug, etc.). Yes, some others like LUXRAY and PROBOPASS remain as collateral damage, but those are just occasional spice considerations. No, the only truly meta change here is to Lanturn, as intended.
But how bad is it? Overall, it's not TOO significant. Lanturn now loses to Registeel in 1v1 shielding (and not surprisingly gets a bit less dominant versus other things like Azumarill and Mandibuzz), Medicham and Charjabug in 0shield, and Altaria and Annihilape in 2shield. Those ARE some big names, but where you primarily wanted it before, it still works, albeit sometimes with a little less left in the tank at the end. Farming things down obviously gets harder! It drops from formerly ranking #12 in Great League 20 spots to now #32 (at the time of this writing), but still... a Top 30ish option is still a really good PvP Pokémon.
...oh, but uh, there's a caveat: it's now ranked at #32 with Water Gun, while Spark Lanturn has dropped all the way down to #66. That may be a little harsh, but does make sense. Ironically, the rating with Water Gun goes UP from #35 to now #32. I don't knwo that I'm quite ready to say that Water Gun Lanturn is now the clear favorite over Spark Lanturn, but they're now both moving into "sidegrade" territory for sure, with Spark still being best for things like Mandibuzz, Poliwrath, and Sableye, but Water Gun carving out wins against Galarian Stunfisk, Shadow Gilgar, Carbink... and the Registeel that Spark now loses to. Water Gun is also far better now [with shields down], beating things that Spark cannot like G-Fisk, Shadow Gligar, and Carbink again, along with Charjabug and Shadow A-Slash, while the only unique win Spark holds onto is Dewgong. Interestingly, Water Gun Lanturn can also now win the head to head with Spark Lanturn in 2v2 shielding. Spark and Water Gun now deal the same damage per turn, so Water Gun's shorter cooldown wins the day.
Again, I do not think Lanturn is going to suddenly disappear from Open formats or even PvP in-person tournaments. But I DO think its use is going to go down as it slips back a tier or two in the meta. I mean, it almost HAS to. And yes, I do think Water Gun variants are going to be far more common now. Again, you almost HAVE to move that direction now, at least for certain team compositions. We'll see how bad it gets soon enough.

A SEARING REVIEW

Speaking of getting bad, a brief mention for the other notable nerf with this update: Scald. It retains its nice cost to damage ratio of 1.7 Damage Per Energy (50 energy for 85 damage), but the chance for it to lower the target's Attack is going to drop. We don't know how much, but considering it currently sits at 50%, something like 30% seems a resonable expectation, and that's what PvPoke has put up speculatively as well. I'm NOT going to turn to simulations here, as moves with a percentage change of triggers are notoriously difficult to portray that way, to the point of almost being deceptive to even try. But I hardly think this marks the death of intended targets like WHISCASH or POLIWRATH unless, perhaps, the percentage change completely craters at like 20% or below. It's still good damage output and still a great STAB move for each of them. The rankings show Shadow Whiscash only dropping from #23 to #27 (though non-Shadow does take more of a hit, from a former #27 to now #42) and Poliwrath sees only a very small dip as well (#31 → #34 for Shadow and #46 → #48 for non-Shadow in Great League, and basically no change in Ultra League {non-Shadow drops only spot from #5 to #6, and Shadow actually rises from #10 to #9 thanks to other meta shifts}). Yes, this will hurt those who have fallen in love with those two, and surely there will be a slight dip in tournament play. But I don't think this is nearly the death knell some are making it out to be.
I DO think this may convince me to give up my Bubble LUDICOLO I've been running in GL of late, though. Scald triggering was the difference between life and death against some things like Gilgar. And other slightly-less-meta things like TENTACRUEL may suffer a little bit as well, but again, the change isn't all that bad. (Tentacthulhu, for example, usually counts on Acid Spray for debuffing hijinks anyway and saves Scald as a closer... it's less reliant on the debuffing it can sometimes provide.)

IN SUMMATION

And that's it! Barring any last minute surprises by Niantic (ALWAYS a possibility), there's your review of all changes coming with the Shared Skies Season. As a quick reminder so people don't panic, keep in mind that while the new season starts on the 1st as per usual, the move updates will not go live until June 3rd, as a nice gesture to not disrupt the planned PJCS and Bologna tournaments that weekend.
By way of quick summary of the above (here's your TL;DR, folks!):
The biggest winners I see in this update are (in rough order) CETITAN (maybe CETODDLE?) with Powder Snow, TYPHLOSION with Thunder Punch, UXIE with Swift, SWOOBAT with Fly, SCRAFTY with Thunder Punch, LOKIX with Counter, TREVENANT with buffed Seed Bomb, and then maybe SALAMENCE (Fly) and WHIMSICOTT (Seed Bomb). Other than Cetitan and Typhlosion, I don't know that any of them move drastically up the ranks, but they're all better with this update and bear watching as spice options at the very least.
Alrighty, that's it for now. Back to analysis on the Necrozma Fusions (already in progress) and beyond! Until then, you can always find me on Twitter or Patreon. Or please feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
Stay safe out there, Pokéfriends. Best of luck as we move into the new season, and catch you next time!

New season, new shakeup! As per usual, we get new moves added to new recipients, and some existing moves get tweaked. Unlike usual, we don't get any all-new moves, but on the plus side, we got all this teased over a week ahead of time, making ol' JRE quite happy. No last minute scramble to get through it all!
But even with a relatively simple move rabalance like this one, there's still plenty to cover. Nowhere will you find analysis that goes to these depths, covering the big names and some others you likely haven't even considered.
Let's do this, people!

(NEW) ATTACK ON TITAN 🌨️

There are several attack changes people are already talking about excitedly with this update, so naturally I'm going to start with... CETITAN? Hear me out, because I think this is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) move addition in this whole rebalance.
"JRE, you're crazy, man. Ice types are a dime a dozen. What makes Cetitan so special?"
Well judging by my initial PvP review on Cetitan when it was released, not much. I noted it had decent overall bulk and was at least better than Avalugg (with the same Body Slam and Avalanche charge moves, but Cetitan having the better fast move with Ice Shard as opposed to Lugg's Ice Fang), and perhaps had some promise in Master League where Ice types have a lot of advantages anyway, particularly Premier where Legendary Ice types are left on the outside looking in. And now? Enter an even much better fast move than Ice Shard: Powder Snow, which beats all the same ML core meta stuff as Ice Shard plus Origin Giratina, Lugia, and Snorlax in 0shield, Altered Giratina, Swampert, and Gyarados in 1shield, Mewtwo and Reshiram in 2shield, and Xerneas and Zacian in both 1 and 2shield. And again, NO new losses... this is a straight upgrade, folks. In the rankings, Cetitan leapfrogs Avalugg, Walrein, Baxcalibur, and even lomg-time staple Mamoswine in the ratings (and in performance) to trail only Kyurem and Hisuian Avalugg among Ice types, and Cetitan can still do things not even those two can like beating Mewtwo, Kyogre, and Reshiram!
Cetitan does move into the upper ranks of Ice types in other Leagues as well, but there is just a lot of established and versatile competition to contend with like Walrein, Dewgong, Abomasnow, Alolan Sandslash, Arctibax, Aurorus, Froslass, Alolan Ninetales, and even old friends like Lapras. Those mostly all fall away in Master League, leaving the new and improved Cetitan to shoot up the charts more decisively. You'll start to see it all over now, particularly in Cups, but I do think Master League is where it will likely make its biggest mark for those with the means to build it up. It can even beat three out of four Necrozmas! (The Steely Dusk Mane fusion being the only exception, for rather obvious reasons.)
One other League to consider is Little Leaue, and CETODDLE, who gets the same moveset update and does good things with it. Stupid trash can lid Bronzor is still a huge issue, of course, as well as obvious Fires and Fighters and such. But this is easily now one of the best Ice types in Little League and should be a fixture of most Little formats from here on out.
Do I think these two are going to suddenly take over their respective Leagues? Probably not. But do they deserve a heck of a lot more usage, even in Open? Absolutely. There's a reason I chose to lead off with these two!

PUNCHING LIGHTS OUT ⚡

Thunder Punch is not exactly an electrifying move in PvP. Like the other Elemental Punches (Fire, Ice, Thunder), as well as other move clones (Aerial Ace and Stomp), it costs only 40 energy, but deals only 55 damage for a passable but unexciting 1.37 Damage Per Energy. Most things that use it (and there are several, such as Ampharos, Muk, Hypno, Pachirisu, and the Super Raichu Bros.) do so as a bait move, though as with any elemental move, the coverage alone can be nice too (for things like Muk and Hypno, at least). Still, often if it goes through unshielded, that's a loss for the user, as they typically want to bait a shield with it leading up to a big closer like Dark Pulse (Muk), Shadow Ball (Hypno), or Wild Charge (Raichus).
And honestly, that mostly remains Thunder Punch's role for the things now recieving it:

• The Pawmot family all get it now. I suppose PAWMO may appreciate it the most as its first move under 45 energy, but it remains a poor overall option. Big bro PAWMOT can use it, I suppose, alongside Close Combat or Wild Charge rather than running both as it typically does now, giving it not only better bait potential but also moves it away from TWO big self-debuffing moves at once. Indeed, it would seem Thunder Punch/Close Combat is a fine sidegrade or even upgrade to Close Combat/Wild Charge, dropping Azumarill but picking up things like Mantine, Talonflame, and Carbink, which are all quite nice. However, it remains far south of a 50% winrate and thus on the fringe even in most Limited/Cup metas. This addition is appreciated, but doesn't really change much. And keep in mind that their fast move, Spark, is getting a nerf... but more on that later.
  
• CHESNAUGHT is an odd one here. Obviously it already has Waters covered with its Grass moves, so the most obvious thing Thunder Punch does is give it a little more teeth against Flyers. As with Pawmot, Chesnaught tends to run with a self-debuffing Fighting move for coverage, in this case Superpower. And honestly, I think that's what it will usually prefer to keep on doing, though Thunder Punch IS a decent overall sidegrade on paper in Great League, dropping stuff like Guzzlord and Shadow Dragonair to instead gain Annihilape and Pelipper. Hmmm... that's actually not too shabby. 🤔 I think I can confidentally say to stick with Superpower in Ultra League, though... without it, you drop stuff like Registeel, Alolan Sandslash, Cobalion, and Guzzlord, which is no beuno.
  
• Another Fighter that gets some anti-air coverage wth Thunder Punch now is LUCARIO. The last elemental move Niantic gave it was Blaze Kick, which has popped up here and there (and given it some new potential wins like Venusaur), but generally it seems to usually still run best with Power-Up Punch (and typically Shadow Ball) instead. Usually. I do see a bit more potential this time around. In Great League, Fire Punch generally performs worse than PuP, but Thunder Punch seems like more of a straight sidegrade, trading away Cresselia to instead pretty reliably take out Carbink. And in Ultra League, Thunder Punch (running alongside Shadow Ball) does still generally lose to Trevenant in a foot race (PuP's lower cost is critical there), but gains Mandibuzz and Tentacruel in exchange, as well as scaring Flyers into potentially burning more shields too. Luc's Counter damage is already beating up Steels that you'd want Fire for, leaving Thunder Punch and Counter with less overlap. PuP Lucario isn't going anywhere, but I DO like Thunder a bit more as an alternative than Fire. We'll see if that ends up truly mattering.
  
• Third time's the charm? Our third and final Fighter getting Thunder Punch now is the most intriguing. SCRAFTY, like Lucario, has long run effectively with Power-Up Punch leading to an eventual Foul Play to close things out. That's been at least Cup-worthy in Great League, and at least borderline meta in Ultra League especially. In Great League, Thunder Punch is at least a decent sidegrade to PuP, sometimes dropping the Shadow versions of Dragonair and Victreebel, but gaining Mandibuzz and Pelipper, two pretty impactful pickups. But it is in Ultra League where Thunder Punch becomes more impactful, bringing in new wins like Golisopod, Alolan Muk, and Gyarados, as opposed to the single new loss to Cobalion that you can get with PuP instead. And Thunder Punch is more of a straight upgrade in other even shield matchups, gaining Tentacruel in 2v2 shielding and Poliwrath, Mandibuzz, and Gyarados with shields down, all with NO PuP wins slipping away. I think this just makes Scrafty better in Ultra and will be the favored move alongside Foul Play moving forward. Neat!
  
• But I think the single biggest winner of the Thunder Punch sweepstakes has to be TYPHLOSION. There are a couple reasons for this that make perfect sense even without looking at sims. First off, Typhlosion's biggest issue since the beginning has been having no charge moves costing less than 50 energy. This means that three Incinerates (or at least seven Shadow Claws) have always been required before Typhlosion could even threaten shields. Thunder Punch changes that math significantly, as only two Incinerates (or five Shadow Claws) are required to hit exactly the 40 energy Thunder Punch requires. That is significant! But the coverage is also fanatastic to hit back at Water types, which Typhlosion always kinda wanted to do with Solar Beam, though that costs FOUR Incinerates to charge up, making it a Hail Mary at best. The end result? Thunder Punch is nearly a straight upgrade. Without any shields in play, Solar Beam CAN manage to shock and awe its way to wins over things like Azumarill and Lickitung in Great League, and Jellicent in Ultra League. But otherwise everything comes up in Thunder Punch's favor, with its own 0shield wins like Charizard in UL and Talonflame, Mantine, Pelipper, and Shadow A-Slash in GL. And Thunder Punch is strictly better in 1v1 shielding by adding Mandibuzz and Mantine in GL and Gyarados and Talonflame in UL, and a TON of new wins in 2v2 shielding like Feraligatr, Mantine, Talonflame, Lickitung, Sableye, Cresselia, and sometimes even Galarian Stunfisk in GL, and Charizard, Toxicroak, Obstagoon, Alolan Muk, Jellicent, Annihilape, Golisopod, Gyarados, Tentacruel, Walrein, Mandibuzz and more in UL! Big big BIG improvements in the horizon for Typhlosion that elevates it to the same tier as Talonflame, Chairzard, and Skeledirge in both Great and Ultra Leagues moving forward. And that's not to even mention the potential of Shadow Typhlosion.... 😱
  

🎼 COME FLY WITH ME, LET'S FLY AWAY! 🦅

Fly is one of the best moves in the entire game: 45 energy for 80 damage, with no drawbacks at all. That's what Sky Attack was from 2018 to 2021, back when it was terrifying in PvP, before dropping to 75 power and eventually going to 50 energy too last year. (What did Sky Attack ever do to you, Hanke?! 😢) But now, in keeping with the seeming skyward theme of the season, old school Sky Attack is being handed out to several new recipients that... uh... could use some help. Is it enough?

• Oh, how long I've wanted FEAROW to work in PvP. Its had its chances, with Drill Run and Steel Wing only getting better over time, and even the nerfs to Sky Attack being mitigated by the long overdue buff to Aerial Ace. And now it gets old-school Sky Attack with the addition of Fly... and it STILL can't break out. Come on, Niantic.. just give it Wing Attack already, will ya? Or at least Quick Attack, maybe? Set my drill running bird free!
  
• SWANNA remains the ugly duckling of Flying Water types. While Mantine and Pelipper and even Gyarados lord over their respective Leagues, and even Swanna's pre-evolution Ducklett remains a tippy top option in Little League, poor Swanna remains consistently ranked outside the top 400, ranked below even Mantyke in Great League... even after getting Fly! It remains trapped behind lackluster fast moves, and until that changes, it remains irrelevant. Let Swanna really soar, Niantic!
  
• The one everyone is talking about is SALAMENCE, particularly in Master League where it has always seemed right on the cusp of potential greatness, with pretty good overall stats and decent enough Dragon moves (Dragon Tail, Draco Meteor, and Outrage as a Legacy move), but no good second charge move. Now it gets Fly, and while it IS much improved, I just don't think it's enough. Not nearly. Not even in Premier. Just too many other Dragons with better tricks up their sleeves. If you're doggedly insistent, I guess you can try again with it now, but I don't see Sal finding sudden success after this, sorry. Give it Dragon Claw or something and THEN we can talk.
  
• So surprisingly, it is humble SWOOBAT that we're left talking about as perhaps the most impactful new Fly user. Though obviously we're not talking Master League anymore, no no. This is a Great League 'mon, and one that's already a little spicy since first getting Psychic Fangs and then the eventual buff to Aerial Ace. But it was left without reasonably priced closing power, with Psychic (the move) just not being worth it as the attempts to nerf Medicham drug Psychic (the move!) into the depths, and Future Sight is just way too expensive with Confusion's average energy gains. So now here comes Fly, and you know what? I like the result! This is no sudden new Open play revelation or anything, but potential spice in the right Cup? I can absolutely see it. Fly grants new wins against GOOD names like Altaria and Gligar in 1shield, and Pelipper, Vigoroth, and the Shadow versions of Gligar, Swampert, and CharmTales in 0shield. There's some real potential here now, more than ever before. Not every improvement has to rock PvP... just some nice new twists like this can be plenty fun. Now we just need Gust for the lulz.
  

NIFTY OR... SWIFTIE? ‍💨

Apologies to the fans of the future Mrs. Travis Kelce (if you know, you know)....
Anyway, long-terrible Normal charge move Swift is finally getting a buff. I think so, at least. Niantic is actually lowing its power from 60 damage to 55, but they are also lowering its cost. How much? That's the part we don't know yet, but PvPoke has speculated it will drop from 55 energy all the way down to 40, and while that's probably the best case scenario, we're gonna roll with it for the purposes of this analysis. If that holds true, the resulting 55 damage/40 every should look quite familiar... it's the same stats as Thunder Punch. And as we talked about earlier, that's usually better for baiting than anything, but it's passable and certainly FAR better than the 60 damage/55 energy it was previously.
Does anything that now gets it (or already has it) actually want to use it, though?

• The first new recipients worth mentioning are the WIGGLYTUFF family, as they are all part Normal-type and thus get STAB damage with Swift too. Eh, maybe? These sims will likely break when the new season goes live, but what the heck, I'll show them anyway. I think out of the two charge moves Wiggly uses now — Icy Wind and Disarming Voice — it is Voice that is the one to potentially drop, as Charm already deals plenty of Fairy-type damage, and Icy Wind not only provides coverage but also obviously extends Wiggly's life by debuffing the opponent's Attack. So assuming you run Icy Wind/Swift, we'll call that a sidegrade to Wind/Voice. "But JRE, it got worse!" Yes, in 1shield it seems to, dropping Dewgong, but you actually win if you go with Icy Wind first, and then closing it out with Swift, just as you can win going Icy Wind and then DIsarming Voice after. Similarly, there are no big differences in 2v2 shielding, but in 0v0 shield, we have a true sidegrade situation, with Swift outracing Pelipper and Shadow CharmTales, and Disarming Voice instead overpowering Gligar and forcing at least a tie a tie with enemy Wigglytuffs. So pure sidegrade, basically. Not a GREAT sign considering that, again, this is the only Charmer that gets STAB with Swift. And while JIGGLYPUFF* and especially IGGLYBUFF have some play in Little League, they are still worlds better with (Legacy) Body Slam rather than Swift. Moving on....
  
• CLEFABLE has a few edge cases where Swift can help, but overall just trust me when I tell you that (at least when running Fairy Wind as the fast move), Meteor Mash and Moonblast are just much. much better. Most all of the advantages for Swift show up in 2v2 shielding, and only in Great League...things like Swampert, Pelipper, and Gligar. But exisiting moves are just better otherwise, including up and down Ultra League. There's really no reason to linger here, so... next!
  
• The only other new recipients are the TEDDIURSA/URSARING/URSALUNA family. I'm going to go ahead and say that I don't think Ursaluna wants it at all. Ice Punch has the same stats as what we're guessing Swift will, and the coverage it provides is massive, especially in Master League were it sees the most play today (with wins over things like Garchomp, Yveltal, and perhaps most critically, Zygarde Complete). Teddiursa seems interesting until you remember that it already has Cross Chop and Crunch, which have more impact than super-effective-versus-nothing Swift... STAB alone isn't really enough. The one that MAY want it is Ursaring. You likely would want to run it alongside Close Combat (in place of PLay Rough), which can then add on Dewgong and Guzzlord in Great League, at the cost of giving up Lanturn and Sableye. In Ultra League, it can add on Guzzlord and Swampert and gives up only Alolan Muk. But honestly, Ursaring remains just bad in both Leagues. And again, this is with likely best-case-scenario Swift. Blech.
  
• Pokémon that already have Swift (and any real potential in PvP) are basically just a list of two. HISUIAN ELECTRODE may actually want it, as it obviously wants to always run Wild Charge (45 energy) but awkwardly has to often try to bait a shield first with MORE expensive Energy Ball (55 energy). Swift COULD fix that by greatly speeding things up, as it costs less than Wild Charge at only 40 energy. But I still think that will be better in theory (and perhaps in Electric Cup, should that return) than in actual practice. Energy Ball is still quite useful for coverage and non-Wild Charge closing power, needing it to beat things like Whiscash and Swampert across various shileding scenarios. Swift does have some advantages in 2v2 shielding for rather obvious reasons, but that's about it.
  
• MUCH more interesting is UXIE. By far the bulkiest of the Lake Trio Legendaries — and in fact, the second bulkiest Confusion user in the game, behind only Cresselia — its problem has always been that all of its charge moves costed 55 energy or more... and with Swift being so bad before, it still usually ran with 60 energy (Thunder) and 65-energy (Future Sight) charge moves. And despite on-paper great potential... well, it was certainly no Cresselia! (And that goes for Ultra League too.) But now it gets the inexpensive move it's been waiting for, with new and improved Swift elevating its performance significantly in Great League (new wins include Altaria, Gligar, Swampert, Whiscash, Alolan Ninetales, Shadow Dragonair) and in Ultra League (new wins like DDeoxys, Pidgeot, Swampert, Venusaur, Charizard, Ampharos, Shadow Dragonite, AND Shadow CharmTales). Not sure that this will lead to a sudden breakout in PvP, but at the very least, it's suddenly spicy.
  

So no big ripples, but hey, Swift is at least not a meme move anymore. And Uxie really likes it now, at least! Let's shake it off 😉 and move along to the last couple move tweaks....

NO GO ADELE 🐉

Sticking with the theme of famous singers... Hello from the other side! 🙃
Okay, sorry sorry. NAGANADEL gets Dragon Claw now. Yay? Sadly this does very, very little for it in PvP, picking up just a single win over Yveltal, of all things, in 1v1 shielding, and no real changes elsewhere. At least this section is easy on me (musical lyric joke counter: 2) and we can move on to the next now.

PATIENCE, YOUNG GRASSHOPPER 🦗

If you don't get the reference, it's from a famous show from the 70s (yes, the 1970s, you youngins) called "Kung Fu". It's a famous show and a famous phrase that you should know. No, I don't just know it because I'm old, it's famous!
...get off my lawn.
Anyway, Counter remains the best fast overall move in the game, so any time something new gets it, that is reason enough to sit up and notice. Even when that recipient is a current Pokémona non grata like LOKIX.
Look, it's very glassy and will likely never be more than spice. This is unlikely to really shake up any meta in a major way. But yes, Lokix is significantly better than before now that it has Counter. It does unfortunately drop Cresselia, but can now outslug stuff like Lickitung, Dewgong, Guzzlord, Vigoroth, Galarian Stunfisk, and even Skarmory and Bastiodon despite how scary those two normally are for Bugs. It sees similar improvement in Ultra League, dropping Fighting-resistent Venusaur and Golisopod but gaining Registeel, Steelix, Alolan Sandslash, Swampert, Walrein, and Greedent, but uh... it has to be leveled up to at least Level 46, and is still a poor option overall. Not worth it, IMO. But keep an eye on it, as the addtion of another impactful charge move could elevate it further. Counter users are ALWAYS worth at least some consideration.

(RE-) PLANTING A SEED 🌱

We all know why Seed Bomb was nerfed from its original 40 to 45 energy: it was felt that something had to be done about TREVENANT, by far the most impactful Seed Bomb user. Yes yes, it got a small damage bump as well (from 55 to 60 damage), but the (completely intended) damage was done, and Trevenant usage dropped quite a bit. The hit wasn't TOO bad, but it was enough.
Now Trevor gets a boost again, with the cost remaining the same but the damage creeping up to 65 now, elevating it from a clone of Wrap (and a slew of stat-altering moves like Icy Wind, Mystical Fire, Lunge, the Forces Of Nature unique Storm moves, and others... but Seed Bomb of course HAS no stat altering and was thus far worse) to a clone of Discharge. Not amazing — a reduction in cost to what it once way would REALLY make a difference — but certainly more palpable.
In the end, it's a small buff to Trevenant — with only a couple new wins like Shadow Dragonair in 1shield and Azumarill in 2shield in Great League, and Feraligatr and Greninja in 1shield and Tentacruel in 2shield in Ultra League — but we'll take it! Those UL wins especially are pretty nice.
Not many other notable Seed Bomb users, but here's what I see: WHIMSICOTT (with Fairy Wind) can now beat Galarian Stunfisk and Azumarill with shields down (in Great League), so that's a small but welcome improvement. Aaaaaaand that's about it. No big changes I see with Little League COTTONEE or BULBASAUR or Little or Great League DARTRIX, and then you're into things like CELEBI. Yeah, this is first and almost entirely centered on Trevenant.

SNUFFING OUT SPARK 🔌

Just as Seed Bomb changes are directly intended to affect one meta Pokémon, so too is the story with the nerf to Spark dropping from 6 damage to 5: this is directly intended to nerf LANTURN. There used to be other meta things that ran Spark because they had to, but they've all gotten other tricks since then that are now preferred (Volt Switch for Magnezone and family, Volt Switch for Charjabug, etc.). Yes, some others like LUXRAY and PROBOPASS remain as collateral damage, but those are just occasional spice considerations. No, the only truly meta change here is to Lanturn, as intended.
But how bad is it? Overall, it's not TOO significant. Lanturn now loses to Registeel in 1v1 shielding (and not surprisingly gets a bit less dominant versus other things like Azumarill and Mandibuzz), Medicham and Charjabug in 0shield, and Altaria and Annihilape in 2shield. Those ARE some big names, but where you primarily wanted it before, it still works, albeit sometimes with a little less left in the tank at the end. Farming things down obviously gets harder! It drops from formerly ranking #12 in Great League 20 spots to now #32 (at the time of this writing), but still... a Top 30ish option is still a really good PvP Pokémon.
...oh, but uh, there's a caveat: it's now ranked at #32 with Water Gun, while Spark Lanturn has dropped all the way down to #66. That may be a little harsh, but does make sense. Ironically, the rating with Water Gun goes UP from #35 to now #32. I don't knwo that I'm quite ready to say that Water Gun Lanturn is now the clear favorite over Spark Lanturn, but they're now both moving into "sidegrade" territory for sure, with Spark still being best for things like Mandibuzz, Poliwrath, and Sableye, but Water Gun carving out wins against Galarian Stunfisk, Shadow Gilgar, Carbink... and the Registeel that Spark now loses to. Water Gun is also far better now [with shields down], beating things that Spark cannot like G-Fisk, Shadow Gligar, and Carbink again, along with Charjabug and Shadow A-Slash, while the only unique win Spark holds onto is Dewgong. Interestingly, Water Gun Lanturn can also now win the head to head with Spark Lanturn in 2v2 shielding. Spark and Water Gun now deal the same damage per turn, so Water Gun's shorter cooldown wins the day.
Again, I do not think Lanturn is going to suddenly disappear from Open formats or even PvP in-person tournaments. But I DO think its use is going to go down as it slips back a tier or two in the meta. I mean, it almost HAS to. And yes, I do think Water Gun variants are going to be far more common now. Again, you almost HAVE to move that direction now, at least for certain team compositions. We'll see how bad it gets soon enough.

A SEARING REVIEW

Speaking of getting bad, a brief mention for the other notable nerf with this update: Scald. It retains its nice cost to damage ratio of 1.7 Damage Per Energy (50 energy for 85 damage), but the chance for it to lower the target's Attack is going to drop. We don't know how much, but considering it currently sits at 50%, something like 30% seems a resonable expectation, and that's what PvPoke has put up speculatively as well. I'm NOT going to turn to simulations here, as moves with a percentage change of triggers are notoriously difficult to portray that way, to the point of almost being deceptive to even try. But I hardly think this marks the death of intended targets like WHISCASH or POLIWRATH unless, perhaps, the percentage change completely craters at like 20% or below. It's still good damage output and still a great STAB move for each of them. The rankings show Shadow Whiscash only dropping from #23 to #27 (though non-Shadow does take more of a hit, from a former #27 to now #42) and Poliwrath sees only a very small dip as well (#31 → #34 for Shadow and #46 → #48 for non-Shadow in Great League, and basically no change in Ultra League {non-Shadow drops only spot from #5 to #6, and Shadow actually rises from #10 to #9 thanks to other meta shifts}). Yes, this will hurt those who have fallen in love with those two, and surely there will be a slight dip in tournament play. But I don't think this is nearly the death knell some are making it out to be.
I DO think this may convince me to give up my Bubble LUDICOLO I've been running in GL of late, though. Scald triggering was the difference between life and death against some things like Gilgar. And other slightly-less-meta things like TENTACRUEL may suffer a little bit as well, but again, the change isn't all that bad. (Tentacthulhu, for example, usually counts on Acid Spray for debuffing hijinks anyway and saves Scald as a closer... it's less reliant on the debuffing it can sometimes provide.)

IN SUMMATION

And that's it! Barring any last minute surprises by Niantic (ALWAYS a possibility), there's your review of all changes coming with the Shared Skies Season. As a quick reminder so people don't panic, keep in mind that while the new season starts on the 1st as per usual, the move updates will not go live until June 3rd, as a nice gesture to not disrupt the planned PJCS and Bologna tournaments that weekend.
By way of quick summary of the above (here's your TL;DR, folks!):
The biggest winners I see in this update are (in rough order) CETITAN (maybe CETODDLE?) with Powder Snow, TYPHLOSION with Thunder Punch, UXIE with Swift, SWOOBAT with Fly, SCRAFTY with Thunder Punch, LOKIX with Counter, TREVENANT with buffed Seed Bomb, and then maybe SALAMENCE (Fly) and WHIMSICOTT (Seed Bomb). Other than Cetitan and Typhlosion, I don't know that any of them move drastically up the ranks, but they're all better with this update and bear watching as spice options at the very least.
Alrighty, that's it for now. Back to analysis on the Necrozma Fusions (already in progress) and beyond! Until then, you can always find me on Twitter or Patreon. Or please feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
Stay safe out there, Pokéfriends. Best of luck as we move into the new season, and catch you next time!

New season, new shakeup! As per usual, we get new moves added to new recipients, and some existing moves get tweaked. Unlike usual, we don't get any all-new moves, but on the plus side, we got all this teased over a week ahead of time, making ol' JRE quite happy. No last minute scramble to get through it all!
But even with a relatively simple move rabalance like this one, there's still plenty to cover. Nowhere will you find analysis that goes to these depths, covering the big names and some others you likely haven't even considered.
Let's do this, people!

(NEW) ATTACK ON TITAN 🌨️

There are several attack changes people are already talking about excitedly with this update, so naturally I'm going to start with... CETITAN? Hear me out, because I think this is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) move addition in this whole rebalance.
"JRE, you're crazy, man. Ice types are a dime a dozen. What makes Cetitan so special?"
Well judging by my initial PvP review on Cetitan when it was released, not much. I noted it had decent overall bulk and was at least better than Avalugg (with the same Body Slam and Avalanche charge moves, but Cetitan having the better fast move with Ice Shard as opposed to Lugg's Ice Fang), and perhaps had some promise in Master League where Ice types have a lot of advantages anyway, particularly Premier where Legendary Ice types are left on the outside looking in. And now? Enter an even much better fast move than Ice Shard: Powder Snow, which beats all the same ML core meta stuff as Ice Shard plus Origin Giratina, Lugia, and Snorlax in 0shield, Altered Giratina, Swampert, and Gyarados in 1shield, Mewtwo and Reshiram in 2shield, and Xerneas and Zacian in both 1 and 2shield. And again, NO new losses... this is a straight upgrade, folks. In the rankings, Cetitan leapfrogs Avalugg, Walrein, Baxcalibur, and even lomg-time staple Mamoswine in the ratings (and in performance) to trail only Kyurem and Hisuian Avalugg among Ice types, and Cetitan can still do things not even those two can like beating Mewtwo, Kyogre, and Reshiram!
Cetitan does move into the upper ranks of Ice types in other Leagues as well, but there is just a lot of established and versatile competition to contend with like Walrein, Dewgong, Abomasnow, Alolan Sandslash, Arctibax, Aurorus, Froslass, Alolan Ninetales, and even old friends like Lapras. Those mostly all fall away in Master League, leaving the new and improved Cetitan to shoot up the charts more decisively. You'll start to see it all over now, particularly in Cups, but I do think Master League is where it will likely make its biggest mark for those with the means to build it up. It can even beat three out of four Necrozmas! (The Steely Dusk Mane fusion being the only exception, for rather obvious reasons.)
One other League to consider is Little Leaue, and CETODDLE, who gets the same moveset update and does good things with it. Stupid trash can lid Bronzor is still a huge issue, of course, as well as obvious Fires and Fighters and such. But this is easily now one of the best Ice types in Little League and should be a fixture of most Little formats from here on out.
Do I think these two are going to suddenly take over their respective Leagues? Probably not. But do they deserve a heck of a lot more usage, even in Open? Absolutely. There's a reason I chose to lead off with these two!

PUNCHING LIGHTS OUT ⚡

Thunder Punch is not exactly an electrifying move in PvP. Like the other Elemental Punches (Fire, Ice, Thunder), as well as other move clones (Aerial Ace and Stomp), it costs only 40 energy, but deals only 55 damage for a passable but unexciting 1.37 Damage Per Energy. Most things that use it (and there are several, such as Ampharos, Muk, Hypno, Pachirisu, and the Super Raichu Bros.) do so as a bait move, though as with any elemental move, the coverage alone can be nice too (for things like Muk and Hypno, at least). Still, often if it goes through unshielded, that's a loss for the user, as they typically want to bait a shield with it leading up to a big closer like Dark Pulse (Muk), Shadow Ball (Hypno), or Wild Charge (Raichus).
And honestly, that mostly remains Thunder Punch's role for the things now recieving it:

• The Pawmot family all get it now. I suppose PAWMO may appreciate it the most as its first move under 45 energy, but it remains a poor overall option. Big bro PAWMOT can use it, I suppose, alongside Close Combat or Wild Charge rather than running both as it typically does now, giving it not only better bait potential but also moves it away from TWO big self-debuffing moves at once. Indeed, it would seem Thunder Punch/Close Combat is a fine sidegrade or even upgrade to Close Combat/Wild Charge, dropping Azumarill but picking up things like Mantine, Talonflame, and Carbink, which are all quite nice. However, it remains far south of a 50% winrate and thus on the fringe even in most Limited/Cup metas. This addition is appreciated, but doesn't really change much. And keep in mind that their fast move, Spark, is getting a nerf... but more on that later.
  
• CHESNAUGHT is an odd one here. Obviously it already has Waters covered with its Grass moves, so the most obvious thing Thunder Punch does is give it a little more teeth against Flyers. As with Pawmot, Chesnaught tends to run with a self-debuffing Fighting move for coverage, in this case Superpower. And honestly, I think that's what it will usually prefer to keep on doing, though Thunder Punch IS a decent overall sidegrade on paper in Great League, dropping stuff like Guzzlord and Shadow Dragonair to instead gain Annihilape and Pelipper. Hmmm... that's actually not too shabby. 🤔 I think I can confidentally say to stick with Superpower in Ultra League, though... without it, you drop stuff like Registeel, Alolan Sandslash, Cobalion, and Guzzlord, which is no beuno.
  
• Another Fighter that gets some anti-air coverage wth Thunder Punch now is LUCARIO. The last elemental move Niantic gave it was Blaze Kick, which has popped up here and there (and given it some new potential wins like Venusaur), but generally it seems to usually still run best with Power-Up Punch (and typically Shadow Ball) instead. Usually. I do see a bit more potential this time around. In Great League, Fire Punch generally performs worse than PuP, but Thunder Punch seems like more of a straight sidegrade, trading away Cresselia to instead pretty reliably take out Carbink. And in Ultra League, Thunder Punch (running alongside Shadow Ball) does still generally lose to Trevenant in a foot race (PuP's lower cost is critical there), but gains Mandibuzz and Tentacruel in exchange, as well as scaring Flyers into potentially burning more shields too. Luc's Counter damage is already beating up Steels that you'd want Fire for, leaving Thunder Punch and Counter with less overlap. PuP Lucario isn't going anywhere, but I DO like Thunder a bit more as an alternative than Fire. We'll see if that ends up truly mattering.
  
• Third time's the charm? Our third and final Fighter getting Thunder Punch now is the most intriguing. SCRAFTY, like Lucario, has long run effectively with Power-Up Punch leading to an eventual Foul Play to close things out. That's been at least Cup-worthy in Great League, and at least borderline meta in Ultra League especially. In Great League, Thunder Punch is at least a decent sidegrade to PuP, sometimes dropping the Shadow versions of Dragonair and Victreebel, but gaining Mandibuzz and Pelipper, two pretty impactful pickups. But it is in Ultra League where Thunder Punch becomes more impactful, bringing in new wins like Golisopod, Alolan Muk, and Gyarados, as opposed to the single new loss to Cobalion that you can get with PuP instead. And Thunder Punch is more of a straight upgrade in other even shield matchups, gaining Tentacruel in 2v2 shielding and Poliwrath, Mandibuzz, and Gyarados with shields down, all with NO PuP wins slipping away. I think this just makes Scrafty better in Ultra and will be the favored move alongside Foul Play moving forward. Neat!
  
• But I think the single biggest winner of the Thunder Punch sweepstakes has to be TYPHLOSION. There are a couple reasons for this that make perfect sense even without looking at sims. First off, Typhlosion's biggest issue since the beginning has been having no charge moves costing less than 50 energy. This means that three Incinerates (or at least seven Shadow Claws) have always been required before Typhlosion could even threaten shields. Thunder Punch changes that math significantly, as only two Incinerates (or five Shadow Claws) are required to hit exactly the 40 energy Thunder Punch requires. That is significant! But the coverage is also fanatastic to hit back at Water types, which Typhlosion always kinda wanted to do with Solar Beam, though that costs FOUR Incinerates to charge up, making it a Hail Mary at best. The end result? Thunder Punch is nearly a straight upgrade. Without any shields in play, Solar Beam CAN manage to shock and awe its way to wins over things like Azumarill and Lickitung in Great League, and Jellicent in Ultra League. But otherwise everything comes up in Thunder Punch's favor, with its own 0shield wins like Charizard in UL and Talonflame, Mantine, Pelipper, and Shadow A-Slash in GL. And Thunder Punch is strictly better in 1v1 shielding by adding Mandibuzz and Mantine in GL and Gyarados and Talonflame in UL, and a TON of new wins in 2v2 shielding like Feraligatr, Mantine, Talonflame, Lickitung, Sableye, Cresselia, and sometimes even Galarian Stunfisk in GL, and Charizard, Toxicroak, Obstagoon, Alolan Muk, Jellicent, Annihilape, Golisopod, Gyarados, Tentacruel, Walrein, Mandibuzz and more in UL! Big big BIG improvements in the horizon for Typhlosion that elevates it to the same tier as Talonflame, Chairzard, and Skeledirge in both Great and Ultra Leagues moving forward. And that's not to even mention the potential of Shadow Typhlosion.... 😱
  

🎼 COME FLY WITH ME, LET'S FLY AWAY! 🦅

Fly is one of the best moves in the entire game: 45 energy for 80 damage, with no drawbacks at all. That's what Sky Attack was from 2018 to 2021, back when it was terrifying in PvP, before dropping to 75 power and eventually going to 50 energy too last year. (What did Sky Attack ever do to you, Hanke?! 😢) But now, in keeping with the seeming skyward theme of the season, old school Sky Attack is being handed out to several new recipients that... uh... could use some help. Is it enough?

• Oh, how long I've wanted FEAROW to work in PvP. Its had its chances, with Drill Run and Steel Wing only getting better over time, and even the nerfs to Sky Attack being mitigated by the long overdue buff to Aerial Ace. And now it gets old-school Sky Attack with the addition of Fly... and it STILL can't break out. Come on, Niantic.. just give it Wing Attack already, will ya? Or at least Quick Attack, maybe? Set my drill running bird free!
  
• SWANNA remains the ugly duckling of Flying Water types. While Mantine and Pelipper and even Gyarados lord over their respective Leagues, and even Swanna's pre-evolution Ducklett remains a tippy top option in Little League, poor Swanna remains consistently ranked outside the top 400, ranked below even Mantyke in Great League... even after getting Fly! It remains trapped behind lackluster fast moves, and until that changes, it remains irrelevant. Let Swanna really soar, Niantic!
  
• The one everyone is talking about is SALAMENCE, particularly in Master League where it has always seemed right on the cusp of potential greatness, with pretty good overall stats and decent enough Dragon moves (Dragon Tail, Draco Meteor, and Outrage as a Legacy move), but no good second charge move. Now it gets Fly, and while it IS much improved, I just don't think it's enough. Not nearly. Not even in Premier. Just too many other Dragons with better tricks up their sleeves. If you're doggedly insistent, I guess you can try again with it now, but I don't see Sal finding sudden success after this, sorry. Give it Dragon Claw or something and THEN we can talk.
  
• So surprisingly, it is humble SWOOBAT that we're left talking about as perhaps the most impactful new Fly user. Though obviously we're not talking Master League anymore, no no. This is a Great League 'mon, and one that's already a little spicy since first getting Psychic Fangs and then the eventual buff to Aerial Ace. But it was left without reasonably priced closing power, with Psychic (the move) just not being worth it as the attempts to nerf Medicham drug Psychic (the move!) into the depths, and Future Sight is just way too expensive with Confusion's average energy gains. So now here comes Fly, and you know what? I like the result! This is no sudden new Open play revelation or anything, but potential spice in the right Cup? I can absolutely see it. Fly grants new wins against GOOD names like Altaria and Gligar in 1shield, and Pelipper, Vigoroth, and the Shadow versions of Gligar, Swampert, and CharmTales in 0shield. There's some real potential here now, more than ever before. Not every improvement has to rock PvP... just some nice new twists like this can be plenty fun. Now we just need Gust for the lulz.
  

NIFTY OR... SWIFTIE? ‍💨

Apologies to the fans of the future Mrs. Travis Kelce (if you know, you know)....
Anyway, long-terrible Normal charge move Swift is finally getting a buff. I think so, at least. Niantic is actually lowing its power from 60 damage to 55, but they are also lowering its cost. How much? That's the part we don't know yet, but PvPoke has speculated it will drop from 55 energy all the way down to 40, and while that's probably the best case scenario, we're gonna roll with it for the purposes of this analysis. If that holds true, the resulting 55 damage/40 every should look quite familiar... it's the same stats as Thunder Punch. And as we talked about earlier, that's usually better for baiting than anything, but it's passable and certainly FAR better than the 60 damage/55 energy it was previously.
Does anything that now gets it (or already has it) actually want to use it, though?

• The first new recipients worth mentioning are the WIGGLYTUFF family, as they are all part Normal-type and thus get STAB damage with Swift too. Eh, maybe? These sims will likely break when the new season goes live, but what the heck, I'll show them anyway. I think out of the two charge moves Wiggly uses now — Icy Wind and Disarming Voice — it is Voice that is the one to potentially drop, as Charm already deals plenty of Fairy-type damage, and Icy Wind not only provides coverage but also obviously extends Wiggly's life by debuffing the opponent's Attack. So assuming you run Icy Wind/Swift, we'll call that a sidegrade to Wind/Voice. "But JRE, it got worse!" Yes, in 1shield it seems to, dropping Dewgong, but you actually win if you go with Icy Wind first, and then closing it out with Swift, just as you can win going Icy Wind and then DIsarming Voice after. Similarly, there are no big differences in 2v2 shielding, but in 0v0 shield, we have a true sidegrade situation, with Swift outracing Pelipper and Shadow CharmTales, and Disarming Voice instead overpowering Gligar and forcing at least a tie a tie with enemy Wigglytuffs. So pure sidegrade, basically. Not a GREAT sign considering that, again, this is the only Charmer that gets STAB with Swift. And while JIGGLYPUFF* and especially IGGLYBUFF have some play in Little League, they are still worlds better with (Legacy) Body Slam rather than Swift. Moving on....
  
• CLEFABLE has a few edge cases where Swift can help, but overall just trust me when I tell you that (at least when running Fairy Wind as the fast move), Meteor Mash and Moonblast are just much. much better. Most all of the advantages for Swift show up in 2v2 shielding, and only in Great League...things like Swampert, Pelipper, and Gligar. But exisiting moves are just better otherwise, including up and down Ultra League. There's really no reason to linger here, so... next!
  
• The only other new recipients are the TEDDIURSA/URSARING/URSALUNA family. I'm going to go ahead and say that I don't think Ursaluna wants it at all. Ice Punch has the same stats as what we're guessing Swift will, and the coverage it provides is massive, especially in Master League were it sees the most play today (with wins over things like Garchomp, Yveltal, and perhaps most critically, Zygarde Complete). Teddiursa seems interesting until you remember that it already has Cross Chop and Crunch, which have more impact than super-effective-versus-nothing Swift... STAB alone isn't really enough. The one that MAY want it is Ursaring. You likely would want to run it alongside Close Combat (in place of PLay Rough), which can then add on Dewgong and Guzzlord in Great League, at the cost of giving up Lanturn and Sableye. In Ultra League, it can add on Guzzlord and Swampert and gives up only Alolan Muk. But honestly, Ursaring remains just bad in both Leagues. And again, this is with likely best-case-scenario Swift. Blech.
  
• Pokémon that already have Swift (and any real potential in PvP) are basically just a list of two. HISUIAN ELECTRODE may actually want it, as it obviously wants to always run Wild Charge (45 energy) but awkwardly has to often try to bait a shield first with MORE expensive Energy Ball (55 energy). Swift COULD fix that by greatly speeding things up, as it costs less than Wild Charge at only 40 energy. But I still think that will be better in theory (and perhaps in Electric Cup, should that return) than in actual practice. Energy Ball is still quite useful for coverage and non-Wild Charge closing power, needing it to beat things like Whiscash and Swampert across various shileding scenarios. Swift does have some advantages in 2v2 shielding for rather obvious reasons, but that's about it.
  
• MUCH more interesting is UXIE. By far the bulkiest of the Lake Trio Legendaries — and in fact, the second bulkiest Confusion user in the game, behind only Cresselia — its problem has always been that all of its charge moves costed 55 energy or more... and with Swift being so bad before, it still usually ran with 60 energy (Thunder) and 65-energy (Future Sight) charge moves. And despite on-paper great potential... well, it was certainly no Cresselia! (And that goes for Ultra League too.) But now it gets the inexpensive move it's been waiting for, with new and improved Swift elevating its performance significantly in Great League (new wins include Altaria, Gligar, Swampert, Whiscash, Alolan Ninetales, Shadow Dragonair) and in Ultra League (new wins like DDeoxys, Pidgeot, Swampert, Venusaur, Charizard, Ampharos, Shadow Dragonite, AND Shadow CharmTales). Not sure that this will lead to a sudden breakout in PvP, but at the very least, it's suddenly spicy.
  

So no big ripples, but hey, Swift is at least not a meme move anymore. And Uxie really likes it now, at least! Let's shake it off 😉 and move along to the last couple move tweaks....

NO GO ADELE 🐉

Sticking with the theme of famous singers... Hello from the other side! 🙃
Okay, sorry sorry. NAGANADEL gets Dragon Claw now. Yay? Sadly this does very, very little for it in PvP, picking up just a single win over Yveltal, of all things, in 1v1 shielding, and no real changes elsewhere. At least this section is easy on me (musical lyric joke counter: 2) and we can move on to the next now.

PATIENCE, YOUNG GRASSHOPPER 🦗

If you don't get the reference, it's from a famous show from the 70s (yes, the 1970s, you youngins) called "Kung Fu". It's a famous show and a famous phrase that you should know. No, I don't just know it because I'm old, it's famous!
...get off my lawn.
Anyway, Counter remains the best fast overall move in the game, so any time something new gets it, that is reason enough to sit up and notice. Even when that recipient is a current Pokémona non grata like LOKIX.
Look, it's very glassy and will likely never be more than spice. This is unlikely to really shake up any meta in a major way. But yes, Lokix is significantly better than before now that it has Counter. It does unfortunately drop Cresselia, but can now outslug stuff like Lickitung, Dewgong, Guzzlord, Vigoroth, Galarian Stunfisk, and even Skarmory and Bastiodon despite how scary those two normally are for Bugs. It sees similar improvement in Ultra League, dropping Fighting-resistent Venusaur and Golisopod but gaining Registeel, Steelix, Alolan Sandslash, Swampert, Walrein, and Greedent, but uh... it has to be leveled up to at least Level 46, and is still a poor option overall. Not worth it, IMO. But keep an eye on it, as the addtion of another impactful charge move could elevate it further. Counter users are ALWAYS worth at least some consideration.

(RE-) PLANTING A SEED 🌱

We all know why Seed Bomb was nerfed from its original 40 to 45 energy: it was felt that something had to be done about TREVENANT, by far the most impactful Seed Bomb user. Yes yes, it got a small damage bump as well (from 55 to 60 damage), but the (completely intended) damage was done, and Trevenant usage dropped quite a bit. The hit wasn't TOO bad, but it was enough.
Now Trevor gets a boost again, with the cost remaining the same but the damage creeping up to 65 now, elevating it from a clone of Wrap (and a slew of stat-altering moves like Icy Wind, Mystical Fire, Lunge, the Forces Of Nature unique Storm moves, and others... but Seed Bomb of course HAS no stat altering and was thus far worse) to a clone of Discharge. Not amazing — a reduction in cost to what it once way would REALLY make a difference — but certainly more palpable.
In the end, it's a small buff to Trevenant — with only a couple new wins like Shadow Dragonair in 1shield and Azumarill in 2shield in Great League, and Feraligatr and Greninja in 1shield and Tentacruel in 2shield in Ultra League — but we'll take it! Those UL wins especially are pretty nice.
Not many other notable Seed Bomb users, but here's what I see: WHIMSICOTT (with Fairy Wind) can now beat Galarian Stunfisk and Azumarill with shields down (in Great League), so that's a small but welcome improvement. Aaaaaaand that's about it. No big changes I see with Little League COTTONEE or BULBASAUR or Little or Great League DARTRIX, and then you're into things like CELEBI. Yeah, this is first and almost entirely centered on Trevenant.

SNUFFING OUT SPARK 🔌

Just as Seed Bomb changes are directly intended to affect one meta Pokémon, so too is the story with the nerf to Spark dropping from 6 damage to 5: this is directly intended to nerf LANTURN. There used to be other meta things that ran Spark because they had to, but they've all gotten other tricks since then that are now preferred (Volt Switch for Magnezone and family, Volt Switch for Charjabug, etc.). Yes, some others like LUXRAY and PROBOPASS remain as collateral damage, but those are just occasional spice considerations. No, the only truly meta change here is to Lanturn, as intended.
But how bad is it? Overall, it's not TOO significant. Lanturn now loses to Registeel in 1v1 shielding (and not surprisingly gets a bit less dominant versus other things like Azumarill and Mandibuzz), Medicham and Charjabug in 0shield, and Altaria and Annihilape in 2shield. Those ARE some big names, but where you primarily wanted it before, it still works, albeit sometimes with a little less left in the tank at the end. Farming things down obviously gets harder! It drops from formerly ranking #12 in Great League 20 spots to now #32 (at the time of this writing), but still... a Top 30ish option is still a really good PvP Pokémon.
...oh, but uh, there's a caveat: it's now ranked at #32 with Water Gun, while Spark Lanturn has dropped all the way down to #66. That may be a little harsh, but does make sense. Ironically, the rating with Water Gun goes UP from #35 to now #32. I don't knwo that I'm quite ready to say that Water Gun Lanturn is now the clear favorite over Spark Lanturn, but they're now both moving into "sidegrade" territory for sure, with Spark still being best for things like Mandibuzz, Poliwrath, and Sableye, but Water Gun carving out wins against Galarian Stunfisk, Shadow Gilgar, Carbink... and the Registeel that Spark now loses to. Water Gun is also far better now [with shields down], beating things that Spark cannot like G-Fisk, Shadow Gligar, and Carbink again, along with Charjabug and Shadow A-Slash, while the only unique win Spark holds onto is Dewgong. Interestingly, Water Gun Lanturn can also now win the head to head with Spark Lanturn in 2v2 shielding. Spark and Water Gun now deal the same damage per turn, so Water Gun's shorter cooldown wins the day.
Again, I do not think Lanturn is going to suddenly disappear from Open formats or even PvP in-person tournaments. But I DO think its use is going to go down as it slips back a tier or two in the meta. I mean, it almost HAS to. And yes, I do think Water Gun variants are going to be far more common now. Again, you almost HAVE to move that direction now, at least for certain team compositions. We'll see how bad it gets soon enough.

A SEARING REVIEW

Speaking of getting bad, a brief mention for the other notable nerf with this update: Scald. It retains its nice cost to damage ratio of 1.7 Damage Per Energy (50 energy for 85 damage), but the chance for it to lower the target's Attack is going to drop. We don't know how much, but considering it currently sits at 50%, something like 30% seems a resonable expectation, and that's what PvPoke has put up speculatively as well. I'm NOT going to turn to simulations here, as moves with a percentage change of triggers are notoriously difficult to portray that way, to the point of almost being deceptive to even try. But I hardly think this marks the death of intended targets like WHISCASH or POLIWRATH unless, perhaps, the percentage change completely craters at like 20% or below. It's still good damage output and still a great STAB move for each of them. The rankings show Shadow Whiscash only dropping from #23 to #27 (though non-Shadow does take more of a hit, from a former #27 to now #42) and Poliwrath sees only a very small dip as well (#31 → #34 for Shadow and #46 → #48 for non-Shadow in Great League, and basically no change in Ultra League {non-Shadow drops only spot from #5 to #6, and Shadow actually rises from #10 to #9 thanks to other meta shifts}). Yes, this will hurt those who have fallen in love with those two, and surely there will be a slight dip in tournament play. But I don't think this is nearly the death knell some are making it out to be.
I DO think this may convince me to give up my Bubble LUDICOLO I've been running in GL of late, though. Scald triggering was the difference between life and death against some things like Gilgar. And other slightly-less-meta things like TENTACRUEL may suffer a little bit as well, but again, the change isn't all that bad. (Tentacthulhu, for example, usually counts on Acid Spray for debuffing hijinks anyway and saves Scald as a closer... it's less reliant on the debuffing it can sometimes provide.)

IN SUMMATION

And that's it! Barring any last minute surprises by Niantic (ALWAYS a possibility), there's your review of all changes coming with the Shared Skies Season. As a quick reminder so people don't panic, keep in mind that while the new season starts on the 1st as per usual, the move updates will not go live until June 3rd, as a nice gesture to not disrupt the planned PJCS and Bologna tournaments that weekend.
By way of quick summary of the above (here's your TL;DR, folks!):
The biggest winners I see in this update are (in rough order) CETITAN (maybe CETODDLE?) with Powder Snow, TYPHLOSION with Thunder Punch, UXIE with Swift, SWOOBAT with Fly, SCRAFTY with Thunder Punch, LOKIX with Counter, TREVENANT with buffed Seed Bomb, and then maybe SALAMENCE (Fly) and WHIMSICOTT (Seed Bomb). Other than Cetitan and Typhlosion, I don't know that any of them move drastically up the ranks, but they're all better with this update and bear watching as spice options at the very least.
Alrighty, that's it for now. Back to analysis on the Necrozma Fusions (already in progress) and beyond! Until then, you can always find me on Twitter or Patreon. Or please feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
Stay safe out there, Pokéfriends. Best of luck as we move into the new season, and catch you next time!

Ideas are for sale, and are bought all around the world, every minute of every day.
​
- Huge problems take root in our societies when too many people choose to buy the idea:
Idea For Sale #1: The only way to be a truly important person in this world, is to become financially super rich, even if it negatively affects others.
​
Not everyone wants a yacht. A lot of people just want to make 'good money.' - They want to be comfortable enough financially to be able to pay whatever needs to be paid, and have a decent sum of money leftover for enjoying life's numerous pleasures. As it stands today, especially since the pandemic, a much larger portion of our Canadian society is slipping into the, 'I can barely make ends meet' zone.
- Here's another one that's ripe for purchase:
Idea For Sale #2: It's cool to want to make large sums of money, but it's the farthest thing from cool to do so while crushing the backs of others.
​
Some people are insatiably chasing after the almighty dollar without any consideration whatsoever as to how their pursuit is affecting others.
- Here's another one ready to go:
Idea For Sale #3: To truly be very important in this world, all anyone has to do is find as many ways as possible to enrich our shared human experience.
​
Life is one huge sale of ideas. Each person really can focus on buying the ones that don't chip away at the quality of life enjoyed by others.
​
​

Hello everyone! As always, I'd like to thank you for your comments and votes under my last post about Anahita/Dunnville Jane Doe. I hope that her name will be given back to her soon and that the people who discarded her will face justice.
I've been writing about a lot of Doe cases lately, so today I'd like to bring up a disappearance case.
BACKGROUND
Charlotte Lester was 44 when she went missing from Warwick, Rhode Island, USA.
She grew up in Massachusetts, attending Miss Hall's Academy in Pittsfield and Natick High School.
According to her family, Charlotte tried to do 20 good deeds every day, for example giving money to homeless people, volunteering for clothing drives at local churches and feeding the ducks on Apponaug Cove. Charlotte was a mother of three and she lived with her poodle, Chloe, with who she was pretty much inseparable and was described as "her baby".
At some point in the past, Charlotte was involved with an older, married man. They weren't a couple anymore when she went missing, but he continued to provide her with a house, a car and money for expenses. Charlotte's family believes that he isn't involved in the case.
Charlotte's brother, Mark Lester, described her as "loving, and beautiful inside and out" and that "She would talk to almost anyone…which again, in our society sounds great, but in reality you have to be careful out there".
Her neighbor, Shannon McKeever, said that she and Charlotte shared their love of animals and would chat about them from time to time, and that Charlotte would sometimes buy toys for her dog.
DISAPPEARANCE
Charlotte was last seen on the 16th of May, in the 3400 block of Post Road in the vicinity of Arnold's Neck Drive and Staples Drive. She and her car, a red 2006 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with a black front bumper and aftermarket rims, which was also missing at that time, were caught on the neighbour's camera on the same day- the neighbor says that Charlotte was at home the whole day, had a friend over and her car left her home around 9:30 PM- and was last seen around 10 PM in Apponaug, a section of Warwick, also on the 16th. Her friends reported her disappearance on the 19th, after a few days with no contact.
What was really worrying was that Chloe, Charlotte's dog, was found abandoned on the 18th a few miles away on Elmwood Avenue. Charlotte was almost always seen with Chloe, which only made the fears that something must've happened to her much worse.
On the 23rd of May, Charlotte's truck has been found in the parking lot of the Kent Hospital (nobody under Charlotte's name was admitted into the hospital). It has been towed away by the police, and Charlotte's brother has confirmed that the car was the one his sister drove. Her phone was described as "unavailable", so I'm assuming it means that it must've been turned off. On the same day, the police has also executed a search warrant at 29 Staples Ave. in Warwick, a place that Charlotte frequented, and a home of a man named Mark Perkins. Gia Catauro, a local woman, said that she saw police enter the home with sniffer dogs, and that she was questioned a couple times. Other neighbors said that the man Mark was "nice, but kept to himself". The home was also surrounded with yellow tape and was put under police watch.
Less than a day later since the discovery of the car, articles of interest relating to the case were recovered in a wooded area near the hospital. The searches have discovered papers directed to Charlotte written by a "Mark", now assumed to be Perkins, which were written like love letters; One of them apparently said "Charlotte, I am falling for you deeply". Mark Lester, Charlotte's brother, said that Kent Hospital kicked out the cars belonging to the searchers from their parking lot, which upsetted him.
On the 18th of June, the local Pawtuxet river was searched by volunteers, kayakers and divers, but it seems like nothing of interest was found. The search took place in the area where Chloe was found in May.
On the 18th of May 2023, a vigil was held in memory of Charlotte.
CONCLUSION
I think that it wouldn't be suprising if I'd say that I am very suspicious of Mark Perkins. The love letters that were found technically aren't confirmed to be from him, but given that Charlotte spend a lot of time at his place and that police had enough evidence to get a warrant to search his house, something is clearly up. It wouldn't be the first time where a man murders a woman for not returning his feelings, if Charlotte even knew about them and Mark didn't just develop an obsession that he kept secret, and hurt Charlotte when he felt she was slipping away from him. It's not known what kind of relationship these two had, but Charlotte's family claim that she was a victim of domestic violence that he perpetrated and that Mark Perkins changed his story twice when asked about Charlotte's wherabouts.
There's always a chance that it could've been a mental breakdown, suicide or a medical episode, but I would say that's less likely. There was no reported change in Charlotte's mood or behavior, she seemed very happy about her life and she didn't have any known illnesses that might've caused her to lose consciousness. Of course, you never know what's happening inside someone's head, but given the evidence I would say that foul play is more likely. Sadly, Charlotte's family seems to think the same, and they assume that she is gone and a victim of murder.
On the 16th of August, a talk show host named John DePedro wanted to interview Mark Perkins during a livestream- John claims that he went onto the property and asked Perkins about Charlotte's case, after which Perkins started to chase him with a lawnmower. Perkins was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, malicious damage, first degree robbery and disorderly conduct. DePedro had to go to the hospital as he was struck in the leg by one of the lawnmower's blades. He said that "Perkins proceeded to punch me to the head, and kicked me to the ground while beating me with my steel tripod and screaming he would kill me".
There's a 20,000$ reward for any information about Charlotte's wherabouts.
Charlotte A Lester was 44 when she went missing and would be 46 now. She was a white woman, 5' 5" - 5' 7" (65 - 67 Inch / 165 - 170 cm) and 128 - 135 lbs (58 - 61 kg). She had brown eyes and short, brown hair (though she was balding due to alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss, and sometimes wore wigs). Her body hair is described as "none to medium". It's unknown what she was wearing when she went missing.
If you have any info about Charlotte's case, contact the Warwick Police Department at (401) 468-4200 (case number 22-2729-OF).
SOURCES:

1. turnto10.com
2. turnto10.com
3. abc6.com
4. eastgreenwichnews.com
5. google maps (interactive map of all the locations mentioned in the investigation)
6. turnto10.com
7. abc6.com
8. the-sun.com
9. providencejournal.com
10. turnto10.com
11. abc6.com
12. abc6.com
13. turnto10.com
14. charleyproject.org
15. NamUS.gov

Charlotte's websleuths.com thread

So there was a recent thread that got me to look back on the original plans for the 2.0 expansion material and I ended up digging through it a bit more than I ever had before. I figured it might be fun to write up a full breakdown of what I was able to gleam from my digging.
Before I begin, I should mention that the information available is spotty and inconsistent in places. For example, according to the TORCommunity database, a lot of these files were added in version 1.3 and 2.0. However, going back to the files that are in those patches (I love you Jedipedia), a lot of those files are not present in those versions. I assume this is internal marking, and is based on the dev's versions and not the live versions. In fact the Sith Warrior dialogues only show up in live in 5.0.0. I have no idea why those dialogues just suddenly popped into existence there.
Generally speaking I have four types of files available to look through.

• The first are the cnv (conversation) files, which are the most useful as they give the actual dialogue thereby telling us what the plot was. We have these for Bothawui for all republic classes, Ziost for Sith Warrior, "open world" (term used for quests between planets or for small instanced planets) for all five of the above, and one random Imp World arc file for Yavin IV. There are some that are blank, but the majority have something.
• The second are quest files for the quests. We have quests for all of the classes on Bothawui, Ziost, and Open Worlds. We have quests for Jedi Knight on Sleheyron. We have world arc quests for Yavin IV for both factions, and side quests for every planet. Unfortunately, these are a bit more hit and miss in their usefulness because some of them are missing strings. So sometimes we can get what all the steps of a quest were going to be, other times the only things we can learn are a name the quest used to go by and how many steps the quest was supposed to have. Even the ones that have all their strings aren't necessarily useful. For example, we have all the steps for the Sith Inquisitor quest, "A Warm Welcome." Step 1, " Take a Shuttle to Your Estate." Great, now we know the SI has an estate! Step 2, " Talk to the Sith Lord." And the usefulness is gone.
• The third type are creature files. These tell us who was planned to show up where, but they are of limited usefulness without context as to what the NPC was doing. For example, I can't immediatly tell the difference between a friendly, an enemy that starts friendly and turns hostile after a conversation, or someone that appears via holo-recording.
• The fourth "type" are "phantom files" that are listed in TORCommunity's databases, but are missing from what I am able independently datamine. I trust that TORCommunity's listings are correct, but there also isn't much to gain from these files since they are all empty (included in these are some of the missing cnv files).

Overall Plan

So to begin, it should be noted that all of these cnv files are located in the directory cnv.exp.01. This is the same naming convention used for the released Rise of the Hutt Cartel files. This makes it difficult to tell what Makeb's original role in the expansion was. It appears that it was intended to be part of the expansion as there is the following line from the Supreme Chancellor that appears to vary based on whether a Smuggler did Makeb before starting Bothawui.

(Did not do Makeb) "Of course I am. The Voidwolf's defeat is the only reason I can ignore being referred to as "Madame Chance. "
(Did do Makeb) "Of course I am. Your success on Makeb bought you considerable leeway with me--but "Madame Chance" is pushing it. "

Additionally according to TORCommunity's "added in patch" data, the majority of Makeb's cnvs were initially added in 1.3, which was the same patch that most of the other files were added for the cut content.
So in addition to Makeb, the planned planets appear to have been Bothawui (Pub), Ziost (Imp), and Sleheyron (Both). These three planets were intended to have class stories and side quests (no evidence of a world arc, but I don't know if none was planned or if they just didn't get to it). There is no evidence that Makeb was ever meant to have any class stories on it. Additionally, there is one conversation file for Imp Yavin IV. It was early on in development when they stopped working on it since the dialogue is just a summary of what happens in the scenes (e.g., a shuttle crashes), but there are quests and NPCs for both Pub and Imp world arcs, so there was more planned.
So in summary the plan appears to have been something like:

• Makeb (Shared Planet with World Arcs)
• Bothawui/Ziost (Faction Exclusive Planets with Class Stories)
• Sleheyron (Shared Planet Class Stories)
• Yavin IV (Shared Planet with World Arcs, placement uncertain but has to be before or after the class stories as an NPC that is kidnapped in a class story is a quest NPC)

Now before I start on discussing the content from each planet, it is worth mentioning that I have little context for most quests and NPCs, so I'm just going to be putting them in alphabetical order.

Bothawui

The overall setting for this Planet seems to have been that the Republic is going on the offensive and the Imperials are going scorched earth while they get pushed off planet.
Something that is well known (I think) at this point is that Dantooine on live is a modified version of the map that originally made for Bothawui. From the dialogue files that I've looked through, I'm betting the dam in the portion of the map we are on was originally called the Bosnar Dam, which was a set piece for one of the JK missions. Also probably worth noting that the there are multiple mentions of Bothawui being an important source of food, which probably factored into their choice to reuse the area since Dantooine is also a farming planet.
Quests

• Storm of Destruction
• The Butchers of Bothawui
• The Stone Ray's Lair
• Wet Work
• (Bonus)
  • Search and Rescue

Ziost

I'm really not sure what the state of Ziost was supposed to be. SW seems to be dealing with Pubs having taken over the planet defense grid. SI and IA seem to be dealing with internal politics. And I have no idea of what BH is up to.
Quests

• [HEROIC 2] Battle of Xeno District
• Caged
• Gateway to the Empire
• [HEROIC 4] The Horror at Black Forge
• (Bonus)
  • Cathar Fury
  • Counter-offensive
  • The Ritual of Naga-Sadow

Sleheyron

Honestly I have less of an idea for Sleheyron than Ziost since Sleheyron is either the least finished planet or the planet with the least files that has slipped into live.
Quests

• (Pub General Quests)
  • Castles in the Skies
  • Devotion to Duty
  • The Battlefield of Tomorrow
  • Tibanna Exchange
• (Imp General Quests)
  • Doomsday Virus
  • Master Logrus
  • Quantum Javelin

Yavin IV

I have very little idea on the Pub side of things. There are some clues for the Imp side though. While he lacks a creature file, the Imp quests make mention of reporting to Servant One. So that means Imps were probably here on a mission for the Emperor. My first instinct is reviving the Emperor, but I don't have enough info. General Heskar also made a return. Oh Imps also spoke to Naga Sadow's force ghost as part of their world arc.
Quests

• (Pub World Arc)
  • Crossing the Guard
  • Kagan's Endgame
  • The Interceder's Vengeance
  • Triumph by Fire
  • Under the Stone
  • (Bonus)
    • Endgame For All
    • Preparing the Temple
    • Prison Camp Sabotage
• (Pub General Quests)
  • Unforgotten Deeds
• (Imp World Arc)
  • Doom
  • Extraction
  • Into the Jungle
  • Meeting the Massassi
  • Rise
  • The Cursed Legacy of Naga Sadow
  • The Empire's Last Stand
  • The Fate of the Empire
  • To Face a Dark Lord
  • (Bonus)
    • A Shrine to Defeat
    • Friendly Competition
    • Marching Orders
    • Old Idols
• (Imp General Quests)
  • For the Emperor
  • Slash and Burn
  • War Games
  • (Bonus)
    • Burning Legacy

Jedi Knight

So the JK's overreaching plot for seems to have been working together with the Protectors (the rescue team we met on Makeb) in order to help evacuate people.
There are multiple mentions of a place called Talravin, which I'm guessing is where the story would start as the JK helps evacuations there. From reading between the lines, it appears that the JK would be sending the refugees to a new world called New Euphrades...and of course the story finishes with us fighting a Sith in orbit as he is trying to destroy it.
Based on quest names, it seems we were meant to go to Alphelion Six, which does not have a wookiepedia article so I guess it was a new planet, at some point. Since the finale seemed to be New Euphrades, I'm guessing this happened between Bothawui and Sleheyron. Whenever it happened, the Protectors were apparently going to join you there.
Seems that there was an ending choice for the JK between joining the Protectors full time or becoming the Battlemaster. There is a lot of dialogue regarding the role of Jedis, so this seems like a conclusion to that arc as the JK chooses whether to be a protector or a warrior? Scourge also mentions that he had additional visions, but doesn't provide anything useful just kind of says "yeah I totally knew you were going to make that choice" after you made it.
Rough Map

• Talravin to start the plot?
• Bothawui to rescue civilians from the fighting
• ??? (Alphelion Six?)
• Sleheyron to ??? (probably rescue more civilians)
• Area where Talaravin gets the shield codes for New Euphrades
• Battle over New Euphrades
• Report to the Chancellor where you get the choice between joining the Protectors and Battlemaster

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Crisis at Alphelion Six
  • Improving Performance
  • Soft Targets
  • The Parting Blow
  • The Price of Eternity
  • Welcome Captain Maddox
  • Welcome Doctor Kantos
  • Welcome Tefani
• Bothawui
  • A Rude Welcome
  • Blight of Bothawui
  • Double Time
  • Not a Drop to Drink
  • (Bonus)
    • Double Time
    • The Road to Vellik
• Sleheyron
  • A Hot Lead
  • Emergency Detour
  • Project Sever
  • The Ortis Problem

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Captain Maddox - Leader of the Protectors that are joining the JK. He joins you on your ship (like members of the Rift Alliance did for the JC?). Also dies, so I assume you might be taking his role if you joined the protectors.
  • Doctor Kantos - Head medical officer for the Protectors. She also joins the JK's ship. You could flirt with her, and she seemed to be receptive to both genders. There are confrontations at the end of the story for both Kira and Doc where you have to choose between your LI or her. So I guess she was planned as a continuous love interest...not sure how that would have worked since she wasn't a companion.
  • Tefani - Tech head for the Protectors who also joined the JK's ship.
  • Darth Legius - Praetor of the Dark Council's army (no idea how that is different than the normal army). He appears to be the main villain for the JK. He had sworn vengeance over us for "lying" about killing the Emperor. Also he had two apprentices that get the one-off villain treatment on Bothawui. Our final battle would have taken place aboard his flagship, the Vindicator after he pissed off the Dark Council. One dialog implies that at some point he becomes the first Sith to publicly acknowledge the death of the Emperor.
  • Darth Marr - No idea what his role was (probably holo-call with Legius?), but he is in the JK files
  • General Var Suthra - He could reappear during the Aphelion Six quest
  • Master Orgus Din - He appears in the Soft Targets files, so I guess we were meant to get more force ghost lessons from him?
• Bothawui
  • Garith - Local resistance fighter who is your initial contact when you arrive
  • Colonel Blight - Villain and probably part time Captain Planet villain. He is an efficiency expert who has been brought in to kill as many civilians as possible as the Imps retreat.
• Sleheyron
  • Agent Galen - Our old cybernetic buddy could show up

Jedi Consular

The JC's arc seems to be the most clear cut. The JC gets a vision of the galaxy burning because of Torwin Vehls and then sets out to find them and stop them. On Bothawui, the JC discovers that Torwin has the power to give power to others, and this includes giving force sensitivity to non-sensitives (and also to animals).
The JC fails to catch Torwin on Bothawui and must continue chasing after him before he find "the Shrouded Ones," which were something related to the Rakata. "The Shrouded Ones were built to be the end of everything. A solution, to our empire's final problem." Not sure if they were something new or something that already exists given a mysterious name. There are talks about them that makes them sound like they are machines powered by the force, but I'm not sure how that solves the Rakata's final problem or meshes with Torwin's power. Then again the Rakata were evil jerks, so maybe their solution was to just murder everyone so they didn't go down alone?
I feel like there is a good chance that this unused arc is the inspiration for at least part of the current arc since one of the powers Darth Nul is mentioned as having is awakening force sensitivity in those unaware they had it (slightly different, but if anyone starts mentioning Shrouded Ones, we know that is not a good sign).
Rough Map

• Get a vision somewhere (Voss diplomatic mission?)
• Bothawui to hunt down Torwin
• ??? (Remnants of Natukar? You work with Darth Kallomena to find a Rakata map to the Shrouded Ones)
• Sleheyron to hunt down the Shrouded Ones
• ???

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Remnants of Natukar
  • The Shrouded One
  • The Stack
  • Unforeseen Circumstances
  • (Bonus)
    • Clearing the Stack
    • Meeting the Delegates
    • Remnants Resistance
    • The Droids Within
• Bothawui
  • A Man of Vision
  • Broken Shield
  • Interpretations
  • Long Left Behind
  • (Bonus)
    • Healing the Land
    • Lured Beasts
    • Plowing the Fields
    • Skirmish at Narless
• Sleheyron
  • Conspicuous Consumption
  • Falling Sky
  • Groundbreaking
  • Into the Eye

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Darth Kallomena - A masked Sith that the JC encounters on Bothawui. She is also seeking Torwin because he is her charge or something along those lines.
  • Gnost-Dural - Shows up in the Unforeseen Circumstances quest
  • Voss - Several Voss also appear in the Unforeseen Circumstances quest, seems to be a diplomatic conference about the Voss wanting to send their commandos home to deal with the Gormak. No Gaden Ko though
  • Hallow Voice - Has some dialogue talking about the Shrouded Ones
• Bothawui
  • The Custodian - A Rakata that was made force sensitive against his will by Torwin in an attempt to bribe The Custodian into giving info on the Shrouded Ones
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Smuggler

Trying to describe this plot feels like a fever dream, but maybe that is appropriate for a continuation of the OG Smuggler story. So the Smuggler gets dragged into the story after an attack on Port Nowhere by a criminal gang.
The Smuggler tracks them down to Bothawui where you learn they are the Womp Family and that they have gotten ahold of a Superdreadnaught, which they refer to as a "space mansion." And they aren't just called the Womp Family, they actually are a family. The plot is essentially that a bunch of hillbillies got their hands on a...fully automated aircraft carrier(?) and are now going around launching air strikes on people that tipped their cows. They literally launch an orbital bombardment on the Smuggler at one point. Not his ship or base that he is at. Just the Smuggler after the Smuggler corners one of their members. They are also trying to extort the Republic. I don't know how things ended, but I imagine the dark side ending has the Smuggler getting a larger ship.
Rough Map

• Port Nowhere is attacked
• Bothawui to look into who was behind the attack
• ??? (Bothawui ends with Risha going to research Barabbula, so I assume we followed up on that lead next)
• Sleheyron to ???
• ??? (Probably the opportunity to steal the Superdreadnaught, but I don't have that dialogue)

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Confidence and Influence
  • Days of Infamy
  • Decontamination
  • Party Down
  • Spoiling the Surprise
  • (Bonus)
    • Securing Valuables
    • Threat Recognition
• Bothawui
  • Bothan Beatdown
  • Camp Shatter
  • Clean Sweep
  • Harsh Introductions
  • (Bonus)
    • Hidden Reset Phase (probably not actually a quest)
    • I Was Never Here
• Sleheyron
  • Celebrity Spotlight
  • Lab Samples
  • Public Spectacles
  • The X Particles

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Master Sumalee - She would have returned! And she had a fade to black! Also revealed that Satele dropped the prohibition against romance off screen. She seems to serve as the Smuggler's contact with the Republic (which was her job for one of the Smuggler endings).
  • Beryl Thorne - Don't know what she was up to, but she apparently reappeared in Party Down
  • Barrabula the Hutt - Owner of the superdreadnaught that was somehow stolen. Also the Supreme Mogul of the Cartel three hundred years ago.
• Bothawui
  • (Nobody I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Trooper

Trooper is leading the front lines of the battle on Bothawui with a reporter in tow. Had a scene that would have been interesting to see where the Trooper was to get airdropped in a bomb modified to serve as an entry craft. The reporter mentions having enough footage on Bothawui, so I'm not really sure where the expansion long arc was supposed to go from there. Immediately after Bothawui, you are the guest of honor at a party held by the Chancellor, so I guess the Sleheyron mission pops up there.
Rough Map

• ???
• Bothawui to liberate the world and get footage
• Be the guest of honor for a party the Chancellor is holding
• Sleheyron to ???
• ???

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Elements of Surprise
  • Freedom from Fear
  • Mercy Mission
  • (Bonus)
    • Surprise Party
• Bothawui
  • Battle of Liahstarn
  • Firing Solutions
  • (Hidden) Speak with Jonas and Chall (Chill?)
  • Reversal of Fortunes
  • Tactical Payload
• Sleheyron
  • Grasp of Shadows
  • Picking Up
  • Sleep Wake Cycle
  • Two for One

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Rylo Kann - Journalist that joins the Trooper for at least part of the expansion.
  • Jaxo - So I guess she was meant to reappear if alive.
• Bothawui
  • Jonas Balker - He would have returned. And he would have had a fade to black...something he still doesn't have on Live yet.
  • Dagger Wing - They would have returned from Belsavis to provide support on your campaign. They have an interesting choice where they ask you how to handle the reporter as he wants to interview them (unaware of the whole accidently war crimes backstory?).
  • Raven Squad - You were supposed to meet them on the battlefield, which would have included them calling bombers on your position. No idea if their current iteration is meant to be the same as this group, but they almost certainly reused the name since it wasn't otherwise being used. Their commander in this iteration is named Varis.
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Sith Warrior

Sith Warrior is the only one of the Imp classes that I have dialog for. On Ziost, the SW is in charge of getting the planetary defenses back after Pubs take them over. However the planetary defenses might only be a distraction because there is dialogue referring to the Sith Warrior saving the Voice who is a necessary component for reviving the Emepror.
The overarching plot seems to be a conflict with Gnost-Dural who seems to be looking into ending the Emperor for good. While the SW is dealing with Ziost, Gnost-Dural prepares to attack the hidden fortress where the Hand resides. The attack starts while the SW is reporting on their success in protecting the Hand. Once here Gnost-Dural captures all of the Servants except for Servant Twelve who goes to the SW for help. Servant Twelve drops the tidbit that if the hand was severed than (in this timeline) the Emperor can no longer revived. Gnost Dural seems unaware of this as he puts the Servants in stasis and carefully probes their minds to get information about the Emperor without hurting them.
Interesting to note that one of the quests is called Showdown on Ossus, so that might have been the inspiration for Gnost-Dural being on Ossus in Jedi Under Siege.
Also there is a dialogue that mentions the Sith Warrior putting down two Dark Council members. Not entirely sure which Dark Council members they were though. Checking the NPC list for all the Sith Warrior locations, the only Darths that are mentioned are Darth Baras and Darth Vowrawn. So I guess they were including Baras. I'm thinking that Vowrawn might have actually sided with Gnost-Dural? There is a line in a conversation during the Hand's Fortress that states, "His source remains a mystery--not even Darth Vowrawn or Zujen Vale knew our location." Zujen Vale is mentioned to be a traitor in a different conversation. So I guess Vowrawn being opposed to the Hand on Rishi might have been inspired by the original plan to make him opposed to the Emperor? And now I have Emperor Vowrawn on live instead. Funny how these things work.
There is also mention of the Sith Warrior making a speech during/after Ziost, which appears to have been about reform and appears to have been directed at the Dark Council. So I guess a LS option to try and put the fear of Wrath into the Dark Council after the Wrath did some house cleaning.
Rough Map

• ??? (The Final Revenge of Darth Baras?)
• Ziost to take back the planetary defenses and save the Voice
• Hand's Fortress to save the Hand
• Sleheyron to track down Gnost-Dural by following a data drop off
• ??? (Track down Gnost-Dural for final confrontation? Showdown on Ossus?)

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • End Times
  • Fracture
  • Showdown on Ossus
  • The Blood Splattered Talz
  • The Emperor and His Wrath
  • The Final Revenge of Darth Baras
  • (Bonus)
    • Breached and Boarded
    • Shattering the Jedi Seal
    • The Emperor's Secrets
• Ziost
  • Armageddon Approaches
  • The Fires of Ziost
  • The Hunt Begins
  • Voice in the Darkness
• Sleheyron
  • Echoes of Gnost-Dural
  • Hook Line and Sinker
  • Shutter
  • Solar Spear

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Servants 1-11 - Whole family reunion in this one
  • Servant 12 - Only one of the Servants to not get captured. Spends some time on your ship after the Hand's Fortress is raided. She is completely uninterested in the SW's attempts to flirt. Unlike the Protectors for the JK or Rylo for the Trooper, Servant Twelve does not have a creature file for the ship, so she might have been cutscene only.
  • Master Gnost-Dural - Seems to have been the main "villain"
  • Darth Vowrawn showed up in Fracture
  • Darth Baras could show up in The Final Revenge of Darth Baras
  • Lord Qet - Vowrawn's apprentice shows up too
  • Zujen Vale - A Sith you meet on Ziost. Secretly works for Gnost-Dural
• Ziost
  • Armageddon Battalion - They return to assist the Sith Warrior
  • Voice of the Emperor - Here to be rescued
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Sith Inquisitor

I have very little idea of what the SI was supposed to get up to. The SI seems to be hobnobbing with the Dark Council on Ziost, but beyond that I'm not quite sure what is going on. You did apparently get your own estate on Ziost though. So neat?
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • A Party to Remember
  • An Empire Divided
  • The Sanctum
  • (Bonus)
    • Crast's Betrayal
• Ziost
  • A Warm Welcome
  • Convergence
  • Lost Army
  • The Emperor's Tower

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Dark Council - Between An Empire Divided and a Party to Remember, I think we have a good chunk of the Dark Council showing up. I don't remember who was on the Council at this time, so I'm just listing all the Darths in the two quests and hope I'm not giving anyone a promotion. Arkov, Marr, Soverus, Acina, Mortis, and Ravage.
  • Lord Qet - I guess Vowrawn is represented by his apprentice while he's off doing things (and being killed?) in the SW story?
• Ziost
  • Moff Pyron - Everyone's favorite lackey showed up
• Sleheyron
  • (no NPCs in files I have)

Imperial Agent

At least part of the IA storyline seemed to be focused on cleaning up after Malgus's rebellion as there are NPCs with Malgus in their name. I'm not sure whether that was the focus of the entire expansion or if you stumble onto something else while dealing with "the betrayer's spymaster."
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • The Beast Awakens
  • The Broken Colonel
  • The Nightmare
  • The Player of Games
  • The Vigil
• Ziost
  • The Betrayer's Spymaster
  • The Grandfather of Terror
  • The Hidden War
  • The Secret Compact
• Sleheyron
  • Doppleganger
  • The Catcher and the Cage
  • The Highest Authority

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Ardun Kothe - Every IA's best friend can return! Although I guess it makes sense as I assume he becomes your handler if you give him the Black Codex
  • Shara Jenn - She would have returned...and gone by the name Nexus? I'm really not sure where that comes from. Weird thing is that her creature file is named shara_jenn, but for whatever reason IA has some NPCs with names. Had her creature file just been named Nexus, I would not have known it was her
  • Colonel Niar - This seems to have been a recurring character who even joins you on your ship (no creature file for him though). I've seen someone say that the IA storyline got converted to be the Imp Makeb storyline, and I suspect this NPC is where that idea originated from. I don't have any dialogue associated with the NPC, but I feel confident is not Katha Niar from Makeb since this NPC is a male (and the gender attribute is properly assigned on other unfinished NPCs). Sort of off topic, but it seems Katha Niar was originally named Kiar Onila.
  • Darth Marr - No idea what his role was, but he shows up
  • Ocean - I guess this is a code name for someone? You bring them to an escape shuttle at one point
• Ziost
  • (Nobody that I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • Saresh - Not sure what her role here was

Bounty Hunter

I have no context to make sense of the info I have for BH. An NPC named Zedania seems to be important. I can't tell what his role in the story was though. I think in one mission we are saving him though? So a client I guess? Also someone named Brand that we get a lot of holocalls from, so either an ally or a very mouthy antagonist?
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Meeting the Board
  • Nebula Station
  • Socio Pathfinding
  • (Bonus)
    • Resorting to Violence
    • Security Shakedown
• Ziost
  • All or Nothing
  • Biding Time
  • Poised to Strike
  • Set the Sky on Fire

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Darth Tormen - You don't get to lose your boss off screen in this timeline
  • Darth Marr - Dude was busy in this expansion. I'm guessing he was meant as an alternative for Darth Tormen
• Ziost
  • (Nobody that I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Random Observations and Quotes

• HK-51 and the ship droid both got reactions to the content in this 2.0. I think HK actually has some in vanilla that is no longer available since 4.0, but Ship Droid has none except for maybe some environmental reactions on Makeb?
• Smuggler (romancing Risha) after getting buried alive
  • If we only have a little air left, I say we use it up vigorously. How's that for a plan?
  • Like all your schemes, it's poorly thought-out and likely to end in violence. I'm in.
• Treek was not originally in the plans for this version of 2.0 as she is missing from the majority of companion reactions, but a small number of lines that mention her appear so I think they had decided to add her in the future before the scope was cut
• Servant One to the Sith Warrior
  • We also bore witness to your speech. The Empire's transformation does not concern the Emperor, but others may prove less tolerant.
• Kira to JK who has been flirting around
  • I'm starting to think that's true. I've been having all these violent urges lately... usually whenever I see you, or Doctor Kantos. And when I see you together? I mean, wow... kind of makes me want to hit you upside the head, you know?
• Elara after a flirt option (not sure if it is a kiss or fade to black since I only have dialogue) while waiting for a shuttle
  • I'm going to file an official commendation for the Bothan shuttle scheduling authority.
• Smuggler talking to someone he saved on Coruscant
  • Randomly shooting Imperials is one of my trademark moves. Glad you enjoyed the show.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed looking at this what if. If anyone has any questions about what is in the files, I can try to answer, but I can't make promises that the answers to your questions exist in the files.

It's not you.. it's me.

—or perhaps it's a bit of both.
Back in 2011, I arrived full of hopes, drawn by the glowing promise of the American Dream.
As I sit here at a Colombian coffee shop, I reflect on a decade of dreams, challenges, and revelations that have brought me to this moment of goodbye.
Our story began way before 2011, though. Do you remember?
It was back in 1993 when I first laid my eyes on you. The day my father brought our family to Poughkeepsie, NY, as an expatriate for a few years.
I didn’t speak your language, yet I found myself in your classroom within the second week.
Each morning, I watched my classmates start the day by singing your praises, their hands on their hearts. Although I couldn’t yet understand the words, I felt a connection.
As my vocabulary grew, I got to know your childhood. I learned how your own history was written by people who sought the comfort of your shores for a new beginning.
Those three years immersed in your culture left something in me—a desire that would drive me for the next 15 years.
The idea of hope, patriotism, and capitalism by merit. That anything was possible by working hard.
These things were not found in France, and I came back to see you in 2011 to pursue my dream with you.
I worked hard. I chased the dream. I followed the footsteps of immigrants that came before me, wanting to be successful.
We even got married in 2021—I was now an American Citizen.
I wanted to be successful, and I was.. but deep down, i was not happy.
I had been consumed by the very reason that brought me here.
I lost myself in the process. I forgot why you were initially such a good fit for me.
So I’ve decided to take some time off now, and I don’t know if I’ll return. Don’t worry, as long as we are still married, you are still collecting my taxes, no matter where I am in the world.
I want you to understand the realization I had, so maybe it could help your future relationships.
I was following a childhood narrative I had created years ago, and I was with you for the wrong reasons.
So as I leave, I hope to rewrite my story. A story that aligns more closely with who I am and what makes me happy.
Your’s truly,
B.

1. Unpacking Childhood Influences:

There are two key moments I remember vividly, both of which have profoundly shaped my drive and aspirations.

The Dodge Viper Commercial

It’s the early 2000s, and I’m lounging on the couch with my dad and brother, just chilling and watching TV.
Suddenly, this Dodge Viper commercial comes on.
I was hooked. I was mesmerized. I wanted that car.
Caught up in the moment, I shouted, “I’ll buy that car one day!”
..You should have seen their faces. They burst out laughing like I’d told the best joke of the year.
For them, the idea of me owning such a beast of a car was hilarious. They mocked me for even thinking that I would ever have a chance to own it one day.
First, it hurt. Then, it made me mad and lit a fire inside me.

First time getting fired.

Flash forward to 2010. I’m working at this fancy hotel in downtown Lyon, France. I know it’s not my dream job, but hey, I’m doing my best—minding my details, knowing I’ll patiently climb that ladder.
Then, out of nowhere, my manager Vladimir calls me into his office. He sits me down and hits me with this math pop quiz.
“what’s 2+2/2”, he asked?
I shoot back “2,” quick as a flash. Wrong answer 😑.
“You see, that’s why we can’t have you working here, Ben. The answer is 3. You’re fired.”
And just like that, I was let go on the spot. I was too stunned to say anything.
Turns out, the guy admitted to another employee days later that he was just offloading his bad breakup mood on me—I was the newest hire, an easy target.
The feeling of injustice I felt at that moment was something I never experienced before.
That day, I said to myself: “I will get my revenge. It will take as long as it takes, but I will buy this hotel just so I can fire him back.”
These two incidents dictated my future professional path without even knowing it. As I discovered many years later, they were not set backs; they were setups.
I would end up owning real estate. Although it was not this particular hotel, it was apartment buildings. And those fancy cars? Got them too, though not the Viper—sadly, they stopped making them in 2017.

We are driven by escape.

One of my favorite hobbies is to study history’s greatest entrepreneurs. By doing this consistently, you discover patterns:
They were usually running away from something. This is what drives us deep down.
Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, and even J.K. Rowling started their paths driven by the need to change their circumstances or to overcome hardships.
Initially, it's all about escape, about proving something, about getting out from under.
And, in many ways, my own journey mirrored this pattern.

2. My American Dream: A Decade in Fast Forward

In 2011, I arrived in LA, filled with ambition. I hustled through various gigs—from selling bus tour tickets to bartending—before venturing into real estate in Florida.
There, I discovered and pursued my passion for investing, eventually leading my own successful firm.
However, rapid growth brought its challenges—unhappy clients, overwhelming demands, and eventually, a personal and professional burnout.
Looking back on those crazy ten years, I see now that I was so focused on proving everyone wrong and winning at everything that I lost sight of what I really loved doing.
It was more about showing them I could do it, rather than following my own dreams.
This led to a moment of reassessment—was I truly pursuing what mattered to me?

3. The 14-Year-Old Boy at the Steering Wheel.

I needed a shift. I needed to travel, change my environment, and break my patterns of thinking. I needed perspective.
And so I did. Panama, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Huku Hiva, Colombia.
Fun fact, it was in Panama (the first trip) where the seed for my first newsletter was planted.
Anyway, back to the story. My realization:
All this time, I was chasing money. Money was my only motivation.
Why? Because I wanted to run away from not having any. I still wanted to prove to my brother and father on that I could make it enough to buy that damn car.
It was not me at the steering wheel of my company—it was my 14-year-old self.
It was not me acquiring these apartment buildings, it was the boy that for unfairly fired in 2010.
And you know what happens when you chase things for the wrong reasons?
You end up with results that you don't value.
The money I got? I spent it—on cars, houses, experiences, lifestyle.
Can you guess what happened as soon as I got them? I was unsatisfied. I immediately needed a bigger house, a better car, more extravagant and exciting experiences.
I finally sat down for a heart-to-heart with my 14-year-old self, realizing how those early fears and motivations had seeped into my adult life.
I needed to understand what I was running away from, and figure out what I wanted to truly run towards.

4. One gets you started, the other pushes you in the right direction.

Running from something is like sprinting from a tiger — you're filled with a rush of energy. Those childhood memories push you hard and fast.
But that kind of running doesn’t hold up forever. Eventually, you realize something's off. The initial spark fades, and you start asking, ‘What am I really chasing?’
That’s when you need to pivot and start running towards something — something that matters, something that sticks.
Finding your true passion, the thing you’re meant to do, that’s the journey worth pursuing.
For me, it all boils down to thinking, writing, sharing, and inspiring—helping others find their way off the rocky roads I once traveled.
If you’re curious about the questions that guided me through my own maze, I’ve compiled them into a cheat sheet for you.
“Easy for you to say, you are young”
Well. No. First, I am 37. And just to show you it’s never too late to change your path, and find your life’s work, just look at these examples:
Ray Kroc joined McDonald's when he was 52 and built it into the most successful fast-food corporation in the world. What did he do before that? He was a milkshake mixer salesman.
Colonel Harland Sanders started franchising his KFC concept at the age of 62, using his first Social Security check to fund the business.
The point is, it’s not too late.

6. This Feels Like a Stepback.. But Is It?

After a decade or two, if you find that you've been driven by the wrong motivations.. Realigning with your true passions often means taking a step back.
This could affect your finances, your social circle, or even your career path.
But as the late Steve Jobs said,“"It's impossible to connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards."
The past 10 years have taught me invaluable skills that are essential for this new journey:

• SEO
• Sales
• Marketing
• Copywriting
• Video Editing
• Website Building
• How to hire and fire
• Managing employees
• Crafting interesting newsletters

When you think about it, it’s not really a step backwards. I see it more as a step sideways.
A realignment to a different path that might just take you where you want to be much quicker.

Final Thoughts

Am I really breaking up with America? Not really.
I am breaking up with the ideas that brought me there.
I am distancing myself from an identity that was shaped more by my past and less by my true aspirations.
If you've ever felt like you're on a path set by someone else—whether by society, your past self, or the expectations of others—I encourage you to pause and reflect.
Know that it's never too late to change direction. Your past experiences haven't trapped you; they've prepared you.
Every skill you've developed and every lesson you've learned can help pave a new, more authentic path forward.

As all of you already know, on Pokemon Home you can have a great number of alternate forms that you can actually deposit, like the regional forms for instance. On the other hand, however, there is also a great deal of undepositable forms, who are usually battle forms or item-dependent forms.
Despite this, you can actually register such undepositable forms on the Pokemon Home pokedex, but I was unable to find a trusted comprehensive source that catalogued how all these forms are registered, as it is not always as simple as depositing the original mon or following the form lore, quite the contrary in some cases.
Because of that, I decided to write this list, using the infos I was able to gather. Please feel free to correct me, I will try to keep this list updated with corrections and new forms from future games (currently updated up to Scarlet and Violet final DLC).
Keep in mind, however, that there exist some forms that Home doesn't track for some reason, like Ogerpon's four Terastal forms, so those aren't covered by this list obviously.
・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●
Mega Venusaur It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Gigantamax Venusaur It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Mega Charizard X It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Charizard Y It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Gigantamax Charizard It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Mega Blastoise It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Gigantamax Blastoise It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Butterfree It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Mega Beedrill It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Pidgeot It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Gigantamax Pikachu It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Meowth It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Mega Alakazam It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Gigantamax Machamp It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Mega Slowbro It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Gengar It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Gigantamax Gengar It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Kingler It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Mega Kangaskhan It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Pinsir It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Gyarados It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Gigantamax Lapras It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Eevee It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Mega Aerodactyl It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Gigantamax Snorlax It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Mega Mewtwo X It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Mewtwo Y It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Ampharos It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Steelix It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Scizor It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Heracross It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Houndoom It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Tyranitar It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Sceptile It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Blaziken It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Swampert It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Gardevoir It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Sableye It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Mawile It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Aggron It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Medicham It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Manectric It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Sharpedo It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Camerupt It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Altaria It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Castform Sunny Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Castform Rainy Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Castform Snowy Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Mega Banette It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Absol It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Glalie It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Salamence It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Metagross It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Latias It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Latios It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Primal Kyogre It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Primal Groudon It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Rayquaza It is registered when the mon knowing Dragon Ascent is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the usage of Dragon Ascent in the games.
Cherrim Sunshine Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Mega Lopunny It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Garchomp It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Lucario It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Abomasnow It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Gallade It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Dialga Origin Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Palkia Origin Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Giratina Origin Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Fighting It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Flying It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Poison It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Ground It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Rock It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Bug It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Ghost It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Steel It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Fire It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Water It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Grass It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Electric It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Psychic It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Ice It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Dragon It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Dark It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Arceus Fairy It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mega Audino It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Darmanitan Zen Mode It is registered when the mon with the Zen Mode ability is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the Zen Mode ability in the games.
Galarian Darmanitan Zen Mode It is registered when the mon with the Zen Mode ability is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the Zen Mode ability in the games.
Gigantamax Garbodor It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Black Kyurem It is registered when both Kyurem and Zekrom are registered. It is coherent as the form can be got only via fusing them together in the games.
White Kyurem It is registered when both Kyurem and Reshiram are registered. It is coherent as the form can be got only via fusing them together in the games.
Pirouette Meloetta It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need to know Relic Song in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Genesect Burn Drive It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Genesect Chill Drive It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Genesect Douse Drive It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Genesect Shock Drive It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
AshGreninja It is registered when the mon with the Battle Bond ability is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the Battle Bond ability in the games.
Aegislash Blade Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Xerneas Active Mode It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form is intrinsic to the mon in the games.
Zygarde Complete Form It is registered when the mon with the Power Construct ability is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the Power Construct ability in the games.
Mega Diancie It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Wishiwashi School Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability and HP stat in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Silvally Fighting It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Flying It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Poison It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Ground It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Rock It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Bug It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Ghost It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Steel It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Fire It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Water It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Grass It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Electric It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Psychic It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Ice It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Dragon It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Dark It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Silvally Fairy It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Mimikyu Busted Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Necrozma Dusk Mane It is registered when both Necrozma and Solgaleo are registered. It is coherent as the form can be got only via fusing them together in the games.
Necrozma Dawn Wings It is registered when both Necrozma and Lunala are registered. It is coherent as the form can be got only via fusing them together in the games.
Ultra Necrozma It is registered when either Necrozma Dusk Mane or Necrozma Dawn Wings are registered. It is incoherent as the mon would need to also know Photon Geyser in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Gigantamax Melmetal It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Rillaboom It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Cinderace It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Inteleon It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Coviknight It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Orbeetle It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Drednaw It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Coalossal It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Flapple It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Appletun It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Sandaconda It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Cramorant Gulping Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Cramorant Gorging Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Gigantamax Toxtricity It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Centiskorch It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Hatterene It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Grimmsnarl It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Alcremie It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Eiscue NoIce Face It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Morpeko Hangry Mode It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Gigantamax Copperajah It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Duraludon It is registered when the mon with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Zacian Crowned Sword It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Zamazenta Crowned Shield It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Eternatus Eternamax It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form is intrinsic to the mon in the games.
Gigantamax Single Strike Style Urshifu It is registered when a Single Strike Style Urshifu with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Gigantamax Rapid Strike Style Urshifu It is registered when a Rapid Strike Style Urshifu with gmax factor is deposited. It is coherent as the form can be got only via the gmax factor in the games.
Calyrex Ice Rider It is registered when both Calyrex and Glastrier are registered. It is coherent as the form can be got only via fusing them together in the games.
Calyrex Shadow Rider It is registered when both Calyrex and Spectrier are registered. It is coherent as the form can be got only via fusing them together in the games.
Palafin Hero Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Ogerpon Hearthflame Mask It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Ogerpon Wellspring Mask It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Ogerpon Cornerstone Mask It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is coherent as the form would otherwise need an item in the games.
Terapagos Terastal Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific ability in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.
Terapagos Stellar Form It is automatically registered when the mon is deposited. It is incoherent as the mon would need a specific tera type in the games in order to transform, which is not checked by Home.

It's not you.. it's me.

—or perhaps it's a bit of both.
Back in 2011, I arrived full of hopes, drawn by the glowing promise of the American Dream.
As I sit here at a Colombian coffee shop, I reflect on a decade of dreams, challenges, and revelations that have brought me to this moment of goodbye.
Our story began way before 2011, though. Do you remember?
It was back in 1993 when I first laid my eyes on you. The day my father brought our family to Poughkeepsie, NY, as an expatriate for a few years.
I didn’t speak your language, yet I found myself in your classroom within the second week.
Each morning, I watched my classmates start the day by singing your praises, their hands on their hearts. Although I couldn’t yet understand the words, I felt a connection.
As my vocabulary grew, I got to know your childhood. I learned how your own history was written by people who sought the comfort of your shores for a new beginning.
Those three years immersed in your culture left something in me—a desire that would drive me for the next 15 years.
The idea of hope, patriotism, and capitalism by merit. That anything was possible by working hard.
These things were not found in France, and I came back to see you in 2011 to pursue my dream with you.
I worked hard. I chased the dream. I followed the footsteps of immigrants that came before me, wanting to be successful.
We even got married in 2021—I was now an American Citizen.
I wanted to be successful, and I was.. but deep down, i was not happy.
I had been consumed by the very reason that brought me here.
I lost myself in the process. I forgot why you were initially such a good fit for me.
So I’ve decided to take some time off now, and I don’t know if I’ll return. Don’t worry, as long as we are still married, you are still collecting my taxes, no matter where I am in the world.
I want you to understand the realization I had, so maybe it could help your future relationships.
I was following a childhood narrative I had created years ago, and I was with you for the wrong reasons.
So as I leave, I hope to rewrite my story. A story that aligns more closely with who I am and what makes me happy.
Your’s truly,
B.

1. Unpacking Childhood Influences:

There are two key moments I remember vividly, both of which have profoundly shaped my drive and aspirations.

The Dodge Viper Commercial

It’s the early 2000s, and I’m lounging on the couch with my dad and brother, just chilling and watching TV.
Suddenly, this Dodge Viper commercial comes on.
I was hooked. I was mesmerized. I wanted that car.
Caught up in the moment, I shouted, “I’ll buy that car one day!”
..You should have seen their faces. They burst out laughing like I’d told the best joke of the year.
For them, the idea of me owning such a beast of a car was hilarious. They mocked me for even thinking that I would ever have a chance to own it one day.
First, it hurt. Then, it made me mad and lit a fire inside me.

First time getting fired.

Flash forward to 2010. I’m working at this fancy hotel in downtown Lyon, France. I know it’s not my dream job, but hey, I’m doing my best—minding my details, knowing I’ll patiently climb that ladder.
Then, out of nowhere, my manager Vladimir calls me into his office. He sits me down and hits me with this math pop quiz.
“what’s 2+2/2”, he asked?
I shoot back “2,” quick as a flash. Wrong answer 😑.
“You see, that’s why we can’t have you working here, Ben. The answer is 3. You’re fired.”
And just like that, I was let go on the spot. I was too stunned to say anything.
Turns out, the guy admitted to another employee days later that he was just offloading his bad breakup mood on me—I was the newest hire, an easy target.
The feeling of injustice I felt at that moment was something I never experienced before.
That day, I said to myself: “I will get my revenge. It will take as long as it takes, but I will buy this hotel just so I can fire him back.”
These two incidents dictated my future professional path without even knowing it. As I discovered many years later, they were not set backs; they were setups.
I would end up owning real estate. Although it was not this particular hotel, it was apartment buildings. And those fancy cars? Got them too, though not the Viper—sadly, they stopped making them in 2017.

We are driven by escape.

One of my favorite hobbies is to study history’s greatest entrepreneurs. By doing this consistently, you discover patterns:
They were usually running away from something. This is what drives us deep down.
Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, and even J.K. Rowling started their paths driven by the need to change their circumstances or to overcome hardships.
Initially, it's all about escape, about proving something, about getting out from under.
And, in many ways, my own journey mirrored this pattern.

2. My American Dream: A Decade in Fast Forward

In 2011, I arrived in LA, filled with ambition. I hustled through various gigs—from selling bus tour tickets to bartending—before venturing into real estate in Florida.
There, I discovered and pursued my passion for investing, eventually leading my own successful firm.
However, rapid growth brought its challenges—unhappy clients, overwhelming demands, and eventually, a personal and professional burnout.
Looking back on those crazy ten years, I see now that I was so focused on proving everyone wrong and winning at everything that I lost sight of what I really loved doing.
It was more about showing them I could do it, rather than following my own dreams.
This led to a moment of reassessment—was I truly pursuing what mattered to me?

3. The 14-Year-Old Boy at the Steering Wheel.

I needed a shift. I needed to travel, change my environment, and break my patterns of thinking. I needed perspective.
And so I did. Panama, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nuku Hiva, Colombia.
Fun fact, it was in Panama (the first trip) where the seed for my first newsletter, The Illusion of Being Stuck, was planted.
Anyway, back to the story. My realization:
All this time, I was chasing money. Money was my only motivation.
Why? Because I wanted to run away from not having any. I still wanted to prove to my brother and father on that I could make it enough to buy that damn car.
It was not me at the steering wheel of my company—it was my 14-year-old self.
It was not me acquiring these apartment buildings, it was the boy that for unfairly fired in 2010.
And you know what happens when you chase things for the wrong reasons?
You end up with results that you don't value.
The money I got? I spent it—on cars, houses, experiences, lifestyle.
Can you guess what happened as soon as I got them? I was unsatisfied. I immediately needed a bigger house, a better car, more extravagant and exciting experiences.
I finally sat down for a heart-to-heart with my 14-year-old self, realizing how those early fears and motivations had seeped into my adult life.
I needed to understand what I was running away from, and figure out what I wanted to truly run towards.

4. One gets you started, the other pushes you in the right direction.

Running from something is like sprinting from a tiger — you're filled with a rush of energy. Those childhood memories push you hard and fast.
But that kind of running doesn’t hold up forever. Eventually, you realize something's off. The initial spark fades, and you start asking, ‘What am I really chasing?’
That’s when you need to pivot and start running towards something — something that matters, something that sticks.
Finding your true passion, the thing you’re meant to do, that’s the journey worth pursuing.
For me, it all boils down to thinking, writing, sharing, and inspiring—helping others find their way off the rocky roads I once traveled.
If you’re curious about the questions that guided me through my own maze, I’ve compiled them into a cheat sheet for you.
“Easy for you to say, you are young”
Well. No. First, I am 37. And just to show you it’s never too late to change your path, and find your life’s work, just look at these examples:
Ray Kroc joined McDonald's when he was 52 and built it into the most successful fast-food corporation in the world. What did he do before that? He was a milkshake mixer salesman.
Colonel Harland Sanders started franchising his KFC concept at the age of 62, using his first Social Security check to fund the business.
The point is, it’s not too late.

6. This Feels Like a Stepback.. But Is It?

After a decade or two, if you find that you've been driven by the wrong motivations.. Realigning with your true passions often means taking a step back.
This could affect your finances, your social circle, or even your career path.
But as the late Steve Jobs said,“"It's impossible to connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards."
The past 10 years have taught me invaluable skills that are essential for this new journey:

• SEO
• Sales
• Marketing
• Copywriting
• Video Editing
• Website Building
• How to hire and fire
• Managing employees
• Crafting interesting newsletters

When you think about it, it’s not really a step backwards. I see it more as a step sideways.
A realignment to a different path that might just take you where you want to be much quicker.

Final Thoughts

Am I really breaking up with America? Not really.
I am breaking up with the ideas that brought me there.
I am distancing myself from an identity that was shaped more by my past and less by my true aspirations.
If you've ever felt like you're on a path set by someone else—whether by society, your past self, or the expectations of others—I encourage you to pause and reflect.
Know that it's never too late to change direction. Your past experiences haven't trapped you; they've prepared you.
Every skill you've developed and every lesson you've learned can help pave a new, more authentic path forward.

Context: this is a post from a formally big coach... I left the name out because I don't want to completely bash her.
and I don't want to say I am interested and opt into whatever sales process this is. I was just curious for those who know more about MRR...
Is this basically a pivot to MRR?
My business fell apart
My income plummeted.
I spent years being super successful at creating and selling online courses, and all of a sudden ... it stopped working.
Honestly? I believe that that is as simple as: it was no longer aligned.
Alignment matters.
And you can be the most 'expert' person in the room, with all the skills, tips, tricks, and also huge value to share, meaning your work HELPS people, but if you're not feeling it anymore?
At a certain point it just stops working.
Sometimes there's just one or two things which need tweaking so you are back to firing on all cylinders being you.
Sometimes it's a complete overhaul.
For me it was one part: I was tired creatively, I spent over 18 years online marketing, most of that creating new courses, and I needed a break while just focusing on my private clients and my membership course and not always continually coming up with a NEW thing,
and one part that I gave my life fully to God (as opposed to the run and hide version I'd been doing for years) and realised I could no longer align with many parts of who I'd been, or what I'd sold.
18 months later, and my business and life is wildly different to how I was known for years.
It was confusing because I loved and do love so much of 'her' ... yet I knew it was an ending era.
I'd be on fire when with clients or teaching, but so often just DONE behind the scenes in the in between parts.
I couldn't figure out how to keep doing what I love (write, speak, create, coach) while somehow not doing the continual things which were part of ... erm ... doing what I love!
But as is always the case in God, bit by bit the new thing came to be shown.
Online, but scaled back.
Writing, speaking, coaching, but different.
New courses, but less.
Being 'that girl' online but in a whole different way and also as just one piece of the pie of my life not a huge chunk.
I'm fortunate that I've made more money in property than in online the past few years, but it still put me in a verrrryyyy interesting and confronting position to have my online biz change so drastically so fast.
Honestly it has been the best and most rewarding part of my entire journey online, the unbecoming bit!! Scary and nerve-wracking, sure. But freeing and exciting? ABSOLUTELY.
It's also made space for me to see new ways, different ways, to make money online, ways I wouldn't have had bandwidth for before.
Right now I am building a brand new faceless IG account for one of those new ways of making money, and I'm using the account to tell the no holds barred story of how my business fell apart, all the lessons and the glory in that.
I'm also sharing how to deal with it when you stop being driven by the thing you chased for years, were even successful at, and / or it just stops WORKING.
As well as things I was always trying to hold together or things I wish I saw differently even during my most successful years. Mostly without even quite realising it, as is often the way.
So many people in the coaching space are burnt out and done.
I don't think the industry is done, not by a long shot.
But for some of us we just need a freaking change!
And for others it's a realisation that there is a whole new way, or that there can be a fun blend of the old and the new!
I've found a whole new way to make serious money online which I'm pretty excited to experiment with. And it's something I think could help a lot of people in this space.
I'm not going to share my new IG or what I'm doing publicly, because I want to keep it at least somewhat behind the scenes, but if you're interested and I'll DM you details.

Hey everyone.
I'm 17 years old, turning 18 in July.
I feel kind of lost right now. I get that it's hard for 99% of the people that just turn " 18 " and are " just " entering life and learning the hardships, I've always been aware of these and prepared. I love working, like genuinely love it and spend 24/7 wanting to work.
I just don't know what or where.
So, a little " picture " of me. I was hit by a car back in 8th grade, I don't remember exactly what age that is. In result I was in the hospital for 4 months, had to " re-learn " how to walk since my body had technically forgotten it since I hadn't walked for so long. And this affected what I could do for a couple of years, and I kind of sometimes find it hard to "memorize" stuff. I had broken my left leg, spine, nose and my skull. Worst part was the skull, had to get a VERY risky operation, which thank God it went great and now I've got a very " cool " big ol' scar on my head lol. I was very sporty, I loved sports and wanted to pursue " fighting " sports such as mma and grappling as I got older, so like the age that I am now. But since this happened, Sports & MOSTLY those sports came out of the picture. I used to be a really good b'bal player, I was always put up with people 4-5 years older than me, but stupidly I was " shy " of how skinny I was. Anyways, I was SUPER skinny, and I hated that so much. And I'm basically an ectomorph, no matter HOW much I eat I genuinely don't get fat. So, I put my mind to it, ignoring what the doctors said and started working my ass out. And now, I'm much better, don't feel anything related to the accident. My head just feels a little overwhelmed when let's say I run constantly for like 5+ mins. Anyways, now I'm very very very pleased with my body. It's quite the " dream " body for my age.
I know you might be thinking what in the fuckery does this have to do with me asking for advice about " work ", I'm basically trying to tell you that if I put my mind to something nothing stops me. I don't need "motivation" to pursue something, all I need is the " start " and I just chase till finish. And That is how it is for me, 99% of the time the start is hard for me.
I guess I'm good with languages. I speak Armenian, Persian, English and a little Russian // Spanish (Can get them both to an advanced level if I find the " need " for it) & I started learning French, because I'm going to go to a French UNI and I wanted a HeadStart compared to the other students, but my mom kind of shut me down and said why are you wasting your time learning a "language" when they're going to teach you that from scratch. Instead learn something actual (she was referring to programming). I mean yeah, I guess I agree with her, since I don't know anything for the "future" to work. But anyways in no way do I want a job in anything related to languages (Like a translator etc...)
I was 15-16, I worked as a logistics operator and was able to make $1600 in a month. But the market kind of died, so did the office, so I stopped, then I focused on my exams for UNI and I'm accepted now. I will be studying Marketing, but probs will switch to Business on my 2-nd year. I have plans to get a Master's degree as-well. Either the opposite of what I study (so If I get a bachelor's in marketing, I'll go for a master's in business or if I have enough finances to pay for it myself, I'll go for CS).
So now, after I've finished everything, School exams done, UNI has been applied // accepted to and I'm just " getting " into life I'm worried day and night about work. I feel like I genuinely don't know anything to find a work for or just in general don't know anything. And I know people say there is so so much time ahead of you, you're still young and you'll find it. But I don't want to waste a single second, since each second can be spent studying or even better working.
I am decent at forex trading; I am able to make decent profit (demo account obviously) and have general knowledge of the market and know how it works basically. Of course there is still much to learn, like anyone in any field. My dad works as a trader as-well. See this is something that I enjoy, but I can't have this as a " main " job. It will be something on the side, and I need to have another MAIN source of income to be able to grow my account and get decent profit. Anyways as I mentioned that 1.6k I've got saved, I'm going to be opening an account at like $300 and I can see me making decent money from it, but still as I said that's not going to be a main " field" or "job" I don't know the word.
That's basically all that I "know" or am good at.
I talk to my mom, asking her to help // guide me. She keeps on saying programming, go become a programmer (saying this person makes tons, that person pays for her whole family and has tons of money for himself etc...). I know programming is an amazing job, mostly pay-wise, but I just don't enjoy it. I ask her to give me an idea for something else, I don't enjoy this and sarcastically she says go become a barber or a server or something. It's quite irritating because my sister has just finished her master's degree (she's 22) and makes good money, and she looks " down " at me, treats me like she's "higher?", ha-ha.
So currently, for the past week I've been studying programming (Python to be exact), and I guess I can see me finding a junior position during August or September probably. But as I mentioned, I don't really enjoy this. It's just not my thing I guess, writing stuff on and on and on all day is eh... to me.
I'm a person who genuinely loves working, just need guidance. Also, another reason why I'm so EAGER to just " jump" into life and start ACTUAL work, is because I want to get myself a car (fully paid by me) and much more stuff on my bucket list.
Sorry if this is stupidly long and half of this is just " pointless " but I guess I'm ranting and trying to get advice.
Thank you if you read all of this,
Kindly put down thoughts!
I wrote this down last week, now I've decided to go for a driver license, so a few hours of my day for the next like 2-3 weeks will be spent on studying to get a license as-well. But yeah, kindly help me with your thoughts.
Best Regards

*UPDATE*
I really appreciate all of the advice from y'all! I was already pretty set on what I was going to do, and then about an hour ago I hear dry heaving and I come out of my room to check on things just in time to see her throw up all over my living room near my bar cart because she's drunk for some reason at 11AM on a Tuesday. I'm done. I let her clean herself up and then I tell her that I don't think we're compatible as roommates and that I'm giving her 30 days to find a new place and move out. Like one of y'all said, she gave me a sob story about how she just found out a couple of days ago she has a heart condition and begged if I could give her one more month to show she's not like this because we live in New York and how it's hard to find a place, and I said I understood and genuinely sympathize about her condition, but that should've been thought of before disrespecting my space and my peace. And the sex on the sofa happened before the diagnosis, so it just sounds like an excuse. Then she called me disrespectful and I pointed out that that's untrue and that I've been more than fair and patient in all of this. She isn't taking it well and while I'm in my room I hear her walking around yelling out that "she's a dumb bitch" and that she doesn't want to be around me and that she can't stand me and slamming doors even louder than she normally does. My aunt is flying up here tomorrow to stay with me for a while just to be sure nothing goes too south. I'm honestly exhausted.
At least I have some new questions to add when I'm vetting roommates, like do you have a drinking problem haha! Appreciate y'all!
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(Reposting because it didn’t get much traction last night and I’d really love any advice on this!)
I’m at my wits end and I desperately need any advice anyone could offer. This might be a little long, but I want to give as much context as possible! So my old roommate recently moved out to move in with her boyfriend and I’m already missing her so much given the current circumstances.
My new roommate, who we’ll call Jan, moved in a few weeks ago. I met her on this roommate app that I’ve met all my former roommates on with no problems and some I even still keep in touch with. I asked her all the same questions I’ve asked previously that have landed me with great roommates and she seemed to be on the same page in the way we both want to live as roommates and in a shared space! I thought she was perfect so I extended her the offer and she moved in.
Important to note that even before she moved in I met her in person after our FaceTime call so she could see the place and we went out for a couple of drinks to get to know each other and we got along great, and no outward red flags.
The first night went fine, I came home late from a work event and she was chilling in the living room, I made sure she was settling in ok and answered any questions and went to bed. So I felt good about the decision. Then the second night came.
I had worked from home that entire day, so when she came home we watched a movie together and then I went to bed. So, she knew I was home. This was around 9PM. An hour in I hadn’t fallen asleep yet when I hear her yelling loudly at her cat about something. She does this sporadically through the night and I’m mentally thinking “oh no” because it’s the middle of the night and she knows I’m trying to sleep and is yelling at the top of her lungs at the cat and also slamming the bathroom door whenever she leaves it. I make a note to talk to her about it in the morning and try to go to sleep.
The random noises continue but I’m a heavy sleeper and I’m almost asleep when I hear our front door buzzer go off and someone's at the door. I don’t think much of it and assumed maybe she just ordered food, that is until a few minutes later I hear LOUD moaning coming from somewhere in the apartment. I shoot up in bed because I genuinely can’t believe what I’m hearing. And it is loud. Then I text my sister cause I don’t know what to do at this point. I’m hoping that was a quick slip up and also hoping that there was a man over cause the alternate would be especially weird. But the loud moaning continues, and y’all, it’s obnoxiously loud, our apartment isn't that big, she knows I’m home and it’s 1AM at this point. So I’m thinking it’s coming from her room since it’s right next to mine so I poke my head out my door intending to give a light knock on her door when I realize the noise is actually coming from the living room.
It’s the second night that she’s my roommate and she’s having sex with this guy in the living room on my sofa! I’m furious but also shocked cause I can’t believe this is happening, so I ask them if they could stop cause it’s late and they’re being loud cause I don’t know what to even say in the moment and they act all embarrassed and cover up but it’s like, y’all weren’t embarrassed when you were purposely making all of that noise KNOWING I’m home??
And yes... they left a stain.
Anyway I go to bed and the next morning I call my mom, aunts and sister to get some advice and also have them talk me down. Half of them wants me to kick her out and the other half says to talk to her and give it a month so I decide to talk to her and I would base how I’d move forward depending on her reaction.
I basically tell her that that was extremely disrespectful and felt that she took advantage of my kindness and the fact that I’m chill (maybe too chill if she thinks I’d be ok with this), and that something like that cannot ever happen again. Jan was really remorseful and seemed sincere, and she also genuinely seemed embarrassed and said that she knows it’s not an excuse but she was drunk. I made sure to ask her if she often does impulsive things like that when she’s drunk and she says no. I’m skeptical and even though I was still weirded out that someone would think that’d ever be ok, especially your second night as someone’s new roommate, but because she seemed sincere I thank her for the apology and try to move past it.
Since then everything’s been ok I guess. She does annoying things that wouldn’t bother me as much, but are grating on my nerves and stand out a bit more due to that incident. But still, nothing too out of the way until tonight, which is what prompted me to write this.
I went out of town for Memorial Day to visit family. I left on Friday evening and came back tonight on Monday. I was a little worried but walked in to a seemingly well kept apartment, so I took my suitcase to my room to go to sleep. But when I was rolling past, her door was open and I saw she was using our throw blankets from the living room as her curtains. I was a little annoyed, but again, just made a note to tell her tomorrow morning to put them back in the living room. But then I go to the bathroom and there’s stains on the toilet seat, the seat itself is off center, and there’s stains in the toilet bowl, and I had cleaned the toilet before I left so HOW did it get this dirty in less than 3 days? The bathroom sink was also dirty. After cleaning the bowl, I go in the kitchen to get a Clorox wipe to clean the seat when I see broken glass (my poor pink wine glass) shattered and left in the dish drying rack and also some shards on the floor. I understand accidents happen, but I thought it was common knowledge to not leave fragile glass in a drying rack with heavier items, and then if you do and it shatters, not to just leave it?? And what if I walked in barefoot and cut my foot? She had to have seen the glass.
Am I being unreasonable in the level of frustration I now have? Then to top it off my recycling bin is gone and so I decide to just text her and ask her where it is and also if she knows there’s broken glass in the dish drying rack? She ignores the glass question and says she’s using the recycling container in her room to empty out her stuff (I don’t understand why she keeps taking common area things into her room and then not bringing them back out) and then asks me to “please be patient with her during the process.” Not to mention she's still yelling loudly at the cat and slamming doors still and it's past 11PM at this point.
I feel as if I’ve been more than patient, possibly too patient, so to be told to be patient after asking a reasonable question and also having her ignore the glass issue sent me over the edge. I want to talk to her at some point today and I’m wondering if I should in painstaking detail go over boundaries and expectations, or go with my gut and tell her I don’t think we’re compatible and that she should plan to move out since she hasn’t fully unpacked yet anyway? I don’t want to be harsh, but I feel like these are common sense things that I shouldn’t even have to set boundaries or establish guidelines for? But my aunt always says common sense ain’t so common, so should I give her the benefit of the doubt? I really don’t think I should, but I’m also big on letting someone know the problems I have with them before abruptly ending a situation. I'm of the belief that we're all adults and should be able to live without having to set "house rules" and I've never had to with my old roommates and I don't want to be someone's mother and I don't plan on starting now. But the way things are going, I might have to or find someone else that I'm more compatible with.
Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any advice on this or even what to say to her in the case of letting her know I don’t think we should continue living together anymore (of course giving her 30 days).

Dear A,
I'm still going through the process of elimination in trying to figure you out, where your energy fits into my life. I've tried friend, partner, romantic interest, rival, competitor, enemy, ghost, and spiritual brother. I still enjoy your sexual energy every now and then, but you're still on my mind, so there must be more to you than that. What is it? How can I properly use your energy in my life? It's still there for a reason.
I was prematurely awakened at 4am this morning, and I didn't have to be up until 7a, so I had to go back to sleep. In the last dream I had, I had one of my haunting dreams: I had missed several days of math class. I came back just in time to review for the final but was scared that my low grade would fail me, and I wouldn't end up graduating.
When I did wake up, I was immediately confronted with all my unfulfilled dreams of chasing academia. In fact, one of them was taking the SAT. I know that, since I had already graduated college, it doesn't matter. But it was one of those things that I had wanted to accomplish when I was 15, but because my own loser parents didn't fulfill their dreams, they spent my precious teenage years crushing and ruining mine. Eventually, I gave up.
Well, now that I've been given a second chance to fulfill my dreams and eventually lay the groundwork for my future business and legal career, I can now place your energy properly. You wouldn't be so concerned about the past, because that's over now. You wouldn't be so worried about the present, because the present is obvious. But ... if you were to function very well in my life ... you would be concerned about what's most important to me: my future. You'd be my study partner as I juggle the SAT and LSAT. You'd be there helping me write my personal statement as I apply to law school. You'd provide your own insight as I dream about whether my business should stay a sole proprietorship, an LLP or a LLC.
So, what does that mean in the present? Chase the future. If you are really worth all this energy, then you'll show back up in my real life and we'd be pursuing this together.
~ K