Ironbound

I...can't refute that. I deserve everything I get. Banned for pointing this out to me!

Banned because I forgot this thing existed.

Teal deer? But mine is green.

Oh. Hi. Micky?

All this military talk reminds me of a very boring old windbag of a relative of mine. My grandmother's brother-in-law, so to speak. He was an accountant as well, and rose up the Air Force behind a desk all the way up to Air Vice Marshal, but he gives himself airs as if he'd seen any actual action in battle. Not to say that the support systems of the armed forces are unimportant; can't run it without people to manage the money.

Dialga

*yawns* Good morning. Are you still talking about ice cream... Weenie.

I would definitely recommend switching gothitelle for Gardevoir. Gardevoir is faster, stronger, learns excellent moves like Psychic, Calm Mind and Moonblast by level up, and adds a fairy type to your team which is greatly beneficial in the coming few laps of the game. I would also add ExtremeSpeed over Flamethrower on Arcanine, as the spark fire move is redundant over flare blitz. It can learn ESpeed via Heart Scale; if you have discovered the House Key in the rock-smashable walls of the railnet, take it back to the Onyx Ward Move Title's house to allow her to reteach moves to you (she gives you one Heart Scale to start with, too.) Payback is redundant with Crunch on Scrafty and is actually not very good in conjunction with DD, which raises speed. Having Brick Break for a reliable, non-recoil fighting STAB may be better. Emolga is unfortunately useless by this stage. I seriously recommend getting a...ahem, Magnezone. It's worth all 180 Kg of its weight in gold. If not, then the woods above have a Joltik event (at night, if I remember aright) and Galvantula is a much better electric type, with access to Bug Buzz, Sticky Web and dangerously accurate Thunders with compoundeyes. Or, a truly worthwhile addition to you team could be Heracross, which can be found in the southern woods after solving the log and spiderweb puzzle with Tauros, bouffalant, and the other Heracross and Pinsir that you can't catch but will clear obstacles if you beat their rival. Heracross or Galvantula makes the upcoming psychic and dark gyms much easier, while Gardevoir helps out with the Dark gym as well.

Already rated/10 And I told ya, the quote is my own. I don't remember the circumstances which prompted me to say it, though. Still, it's true enough.

Hahahahahaha, Xiri, you have to add Torterra to the list! I'm inclined to think more kindly of the toitles myself. When a last-mon Torterra in monotype grass beats an entire team of monotype dragon! http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/reborn-monotyperandombattle-57449

I never stated that I dislike memes that much. I just expressed my confusion at yet another meme which I don't seem to understand. It'd be rather hypocritical of mw to say that "all memes are bad" when my Magnezonism is itself a meme of sorts. No, I think I can safely say that I don't like some memes in particular, and am usually confused by the rest. Juu?

Ha. Juu.

"Quest not for the fruit of reward, worry not for the result of labour; do thine duty and do it efficiently for its own sake." - Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, Karma-yoga (the discipline of action) I agree inasmuch that to talk of the divine is beyond daily needs. As long as you ascribe to the philosophy of abiding by one's Dharma, it matters not whether you investigate into the concept or whether or not you wish to acknowledge a divinity (after all, by universal definition, God, whatever it may be, doesn't need an ant to believe in it to exist if it is truly God!) Indeed, it can be argued that to talk of these matters is beyond man's ken, and thus the Buddha's theory of agnosticism; it is not man's place to question or debate the existence of greater beings; it is sufficient for us to be good for good's own sake. "Service to mankind is service to God." - Vivekananda.

I'm not annoyed. Completely uninterested is closer the mark. The desk is here. Call the chair! Hunter will appear.

Giratina

Instant death.

I am glad to see the thread pick up again. I shouldn't be the only one who initiates things, after all. And no, I don't think the topic is improper; discussions here can include anything and everything. Religion is not a taboo thing to discuss, but of course, one should stay respectful. I can always say I believe in Magnezone and you and I both believe that to be a ridiculous thing, but you still can't deny me for praising the Magnet Lord. To answer you seriously, I do think what one calls God exists. To me, it makes more sense to believe that something came from somewhere rather than to say that it came from nowhere. Indic mythology details 33 million vedic gods, from major ones like the Trimurtis to minor ones like one who represents doors and one who represents pillars and flooring (not joking.) The idea, of course, is explained by Hindu philosophy (which is very different from our mythology, do keep that in mind) as God being of various forms but fundamentally a single concept. God in Hinduism (or properly speaking, the Sanathana Dharma, the word 'Hinduism' being another clear-as-mud Anglicisation) is fundamentally viewed as nothing but pure Energy. Shakti is the name given, and it means not just energy as we know, but a conscious, sentient, omnipresent force that exists in everything and everyone. Shakti is what created the universes and all within, Shakti is what runs the world and permeates it, Shakti is what birthed all the gods' avatars and Shakti is what is revered and worshipped in temples, not a stone idol itself. The idol itself is an embodiment of that particular deity, one of the forms of the divine Energy, and is merely our mortal beings' attempt to give an understandable form to Energy, a device through which we describe its infinite powers and forms. Shakti being a sentient energy is regarded by a female pronoun, being the Mother of everything. Everything in the world was thus energy. Before matter, before whatever science is now proving, what has already been deduced in our philosophy, energy is the purest and most fundamental state of existence, which always was and always is as God. (Energy can neither be destroyed nor created, etc etc) therefore the purpose of all life is to take form in diverse forms of this energy, converting from one to the other, and aim towards the ultimate reunion with the fundamental Shakti. The philosophy of Karma (meaning loosely in English 'action', 'fate' or 'consequence') explains the cycle of the continued birth and death, that is, passage of a soul in this physical dimension and lifetime from one cycle to the next, until it can eventually unite with God and become part of pure Energy. That, then, is the goal of every soul or Atma: to unite again with the Paramatma or Ultimate Soul, meaning, Shakti, or God. This is done via being true to one's Dharma, which again English cannot find a true word to describe, but which can be incompletely referred to as 'duty', 'nature', 'tradition', etc. So in short, a being which is truest to its nature and lives its life in such self-mastery and self-truth will minimise the number of cycles it has to pass through before it is pure or true enough to rejoin with Shakti. This is a matter of conscience or instinct or what have you; a tiger which kills and sires offspring and lives to adulthood is true to its nature and does its duty; likewise, a banker who is diligent, conscientious, intelligent and of impeccable honesty, and a warrior who is dutiful and fearless and unhesitatant to obey his leige are both also true to their natures and can die happy. Ultimately, doing ones duty makes one happy or content in the long run, and by achieving this kind of contentment one is a step closer towards enlightenment and bliss, which is supposed to be the last stage prior to the last death, after which the soul is once again pure energy. Life then, is happiness, and true happiness is in duty. Doing things averse to one's duty only prolongs the cycle of life and death, so the soul simply has to try again. There is no Heaven or Hell of simplified reward and punishment in Hindu philosophy. God, therefore, is within us. The schools of thought are three in Hinduism: Advaita (meaning 'undivided'), which states that the divine and the mortal are one and the same, and that 'God is me, I have the energy in me.'; Dvaita (meaning 'split in two' or 'dual'), which states that the divine and the mortal are two fundamentally separate things, and Visishtadhvaita (meaning 'severally divided') which believes that there is a divine aspect in various means in mortals. I am of the Dvaita school of thought, in that the divine and the mortal are different. How can the mortal soul, being so incomplete and argued by vices, ever be the same as the purity of Shakti which is worshipped? Logically unpalatable to me. Sure, God is within me, but God is not me. That's a huge difference. There is purity and divinity in everyone, and everyone can have the divine as a part of them, but one cannot BE the divine itself. We can seek to join Shakti eventually, but we can never become Shakti itself. Aaaand that's it. Make of it what you will, but that is my explanation of why I exist, and I am pleased with it. God, when defined as Energy, cannot be said to not exist, for energy is there and everywhere, and energy is alive, and we are alive because of energy.

I remember saying quite clearly when I drew noivern that it was a casual sketch, with no effort on lines whatsoever. This is a more concerted drawing, hence the improvement that you doubtless seem to have noticed. So comparing this with noivern isn't the best gauge if my performance capacity, but I take the compliment regardless. The face has a thicker line because, idk, I wanted it to look like a defined, shirt fur, not the wispy longish fur/feathers on the rest of its body. I agree that I took a lot of liberties with this; the chest markings are there, however. They're just the smallish darker flecks on its torso. I also interpreted the swirl on its wing as a wing covert. I like how you said 'Gloomy'.

Rubbish. We all have our tight spots and tribulations, but I see problems only in two ways: one, if there something to do to improve the situation, then do it, and two, if there is nothing one can do to improve the situation, then it is not a problem. Being morose is pointless and only does a needless injury to oneself and one's esteem. While you're here and seemingly have nothing better to do (or else you would be doing that, I presume, instead of feeling sorry for a predicament beyond one's powers to alter) why don't you tell me if I should do Empoleon, Haxorus or Milotic next in my Mega series?

Umbreon

Dead frogs again

A book on Types of Ethical Theory left to me by my grandfather that I picked up as a lad of six. I used it as a seat or sorts, since it was so damn fat. I read it too, of course, several years later when I was old enough to understand its contents...and it's not too bright. It's idly interesting to leaf through when I feel like contemplating something pointless, but it's a waste of time otherwise. Breaking the mould again, what's the latest good meal you've had, and what was in it?

Do you ask me about sentimentality? I should not even figure on the list of people to discuss that with. And yes, I suppose morality and compassion are two different things. Anyways, I'm waiting for more, as usual.

5/10 steel types don't like fire. Joking aside, it's a tad too much anime and crowded for my tastes. I prefer to keep things simple. And the quote is my own. Quoting other people is unoriginal in the extreme, isn't it?