Chasing Waterfalls and The Indigo Disk, Pt. I: Welcome to Blueberry Academy (#215)

[00:00:09] Hello and welcome to EXPIRATE SHARE! Uh, what are we doing? Waterfall? I don't know. Don't go chasing waterfalls. Please stick to the Indigo Disks that you're used to. Which is all I did. Oh, alright. We are firmly in the postgame. Too firmly, some would say. We are firmly...

[00:00:34] Firmly not in a good way. Into the Indigo Disk DLC. I would say. Yeah. Correct, firmly implies like a want to be holding onto it, you know? That's about right. We're like stuck in. Yeah, we've been off air. It's like a swamp.

[00:00:49] We've been stuck in it, stuck in the mud. We have so much to do. Obviously, you know that we've beaten the game. It's weird to call myself the Grand Champion of the Naranja Academy. Considering I am just like... Didn't actually go to class and...

[00:01:06] Didn't ever go to class and... Kind of fucked off. Don't have Pokemon, just have friends. Right, yeah. I don't know how they... What kind of loophole they opened up for you to exploit. I don't know. It happened and I became the Champion of Naranja Academy.

[00:01:20] And I hear through the grapevine, literally, that my associate, Don Joey, has also become the Grand Champion of Uvo Academy. Uva. Uva. Uva. Sorry. Yeah, grape is our thing as far as I understand it. That's funny, yeah. I think it's slang for testicles. Probably. Maybe that's eggs.

[00:01:42] We've danced around it. Could be any of it. Could be any of these oval-shaped things. I am... Who are you? Did you do our intros? I'm Tanner Greenring, by the way. Sometimes you may hear me called Tan Cannon around these parts. Toucanon. Toucanon. That's what Carmine has. Yes.

[00:02:04] At the Blueberry Academy. What, they couldn't look up the Spanish word for blueberry? Game freak? But the issue is, Blueberry Academy is actually built on the seafloor in the Unova region. So they would be back to... Uno-Vs. English or whatever the English equivalent is in the Poké Earth.

[00:02:24] Yeah. Uno-Vs. Yeah, Uno-Vs. Universe. My associate over at the Uva Academy, you may know him as Sinistosh. Sinist... Sinistosh? Sinistee? Sinistah. Sinistah. The macho one? Sinistah. Yep. Sinistosh. A.K.A. Josh Fjelstad. That's the new little...

[00:02:47] Well, I had to fight a bunch of Sinistees the other week, which is how my Esbern, the Sirilege, completed his quest is a bunch of Sinistee pieces or something that I had to give to that lady. Oh, to make armor? I had to give... What are they called?

[00:03:05] Bell Dongs? That can't be right. That's wrong, but I don't know what it is. Bell Gong? That's not a Pokémon! Bell Gong? Bell... We're professional... How long have we... Bronze Dong? We haven't been recording. If the bug catchers can't tell, we're a little rusty.

[00:03:25] I had to take down a lot of Bronze Dongs to get Armourouge, her little arm cannon. Mega Man arm cannon. I'm glad I did. Fuck those things and my little queen looks so... She got a big upgrade. Awesome now. Samus.

[00:03:40] Here I am, Grand Champion of the Naranja Academy. I hear Uvo's been claimed, but I hear that this is a very important event. I hear Uvo's been claimed, but I hear that there's some unclaimed territory deep under the ocean, Joshua. Yes.

[00:04:02] I've got my eyes on that and my dudes are with me and they're like, let's go diving. We started taking snorkeling classes, learning all the flags and stuff. It's a lot to get certified. There's a boat though. How did we get down there?

[00:04:18] When we went over there for the first time after you talked to Director Cyrano... Cyrano, yeah. Clavel got ahead of the allegations that would have been flying because you see Clavel and Cyrano next to each other.

[00:04:32] And you're like, okay, so I guess it's not going to be Clavel dressed up again. But when you go over there, it shows the little airplane. No, it does show a boat icon, I think. I think we must've gotten here by boat. Must be a boat.

[00:04:45] This infrastructure is crazy, but I don't think it could support an airport too. My squad, we took, I don't know, six, seven months training for this. Wow. Spec ops kind of stuff. There's a number of things that we did not get done in that time, I would say.

[00:04:58] Uh-huh. The Kitakami Ogre Clan, didn't check in with them. Glitterati, we missed. The stakes, obviously, we did not follow up on any of the repeat battles, including the Elite Four. Wow. Didn't really have time for that while we were training.

[00:05:11] I don't think you needed to put that much time into the scuba diving lessons because Don Joey didn't do that at all and he was still allowed to get into the Blueberry Academy. Oh, wow.

[00:05:21] Well, let's check in with Don Joey then because it seemed like you needed to kind of do some work this week. Well, Don Joey, he's surrounded by questing knights, so they couldn't resist the pull

[00:05:34] of a few of these threads that we've learned about in our travels through Paldea and Kitakami so far. Oh, they tempted us, but we're like, sorry, we have training. But even then, some of this was insurmountable.

[00:05:49] I would say this about the postgame, aka Chasing Waterfalls for the canon of experience share. This postgame is a little monotonous. It is essentially all battles. The Kitakami Ogre Clan, the Glitterati, the re-challenge of the Gym Leaders slash the Academy Ace Tournament. It's dozens of battles.

[00:06:14] Yeah, it sounds grueling. And our levels were already so high, though. Was it fun battles? Some of them. I took notes of a few because it would just be like it would not be good tape, as they say, for me to just rattle off like every single battle.

[00:06:30] The levels were pretty close. I've been avoiding random trainers in the wild and mostly catching new Pokemon because I'm trying to keep my levels somewhat in the category of making the battles interesting, I guess. Well, you've out leveled me finally. Well, in some places.

[00:06:48] I guess that's because you were so busy scuba diving. Scuba diving. To be fair. But weirdly, haven't out leveled me that much. So I feel like for all that effort going through all those battles, you still didn't even super train. No.

[00:07:03] You gotta keep your eyes on the prize. You're sitting out there like doing battles and I'm like, okay, I'm getting to the Blueberry Academy. There's a whole other Academy out there for me to get out there and conquer. Well, we'll get to that.

[00:07:14] I guess to kind of cover it somewhat quickly. What were some of the cuties you met along the way? Definitely before we get to the rechallenge of the gym leaders, I guess I can quickly say like Kidokami Ogre Clan.

[00:07:27] I kind of tried to do that alongside the Glitterati, but the Glitterati eventually had to mainland Paldea and then I stopped. The Kidokami Ogre Clan had, I've done four battles. I don't know how many there are and I only stopped because I got diverted over to Paldea again.

[00:07:46] But it seems worthwhile to do the Kidokami Ogre Clan. Basically, all of those like dudes who are just hiding around their cultists. Yeah, the cultists who are strewn about Kidokami. If you recall several episodes ago, I accidentally fought Rikiri who had a Raichu that was level

[00:08:04] 75 and just killed my entire team. So now that didn't happen. They do have themes like a gym leader. So like Rikiri, as you might expect, is electric with the trick being that Rikiri has a Probopass. That's fun. And then Vikavolt has Levitate. So that was, you know, tricky.

[00:08:22] Like they're tricky. They're all level 75. The last Paradise Barrens is fire, grass, dark, ghost fire, grass. I guess it's just grass and fire. It's an odd one. I didn't look ahead. Here we go. Oni Mountain. Oni Mountain, Kidokami Clan, Ogre Clan. Oh, so I see. Yeah. Munachica.

[00:08:42] That's the powerhouse. It's all normals. Ambipom, Mousehold, Greedent, Snorlax. No way you're getting through that battle. I think that I have two fighting types might make that one a little... That one I could probably handle, I think. Okay, well. I plan to do these.

[00:08:59] Like the rewards are really good. I got, I think, a Focus Sash, Experience Candies, Rare Candies, Assault Vests. It's like, you know, upper tier held items and experience based items. I think this is unfair to say, and feel free to speculate with me,

[00:09:18] but the barfiest Ogre Clan team, in my opinion, is Hasebe. Who seems to be mostly water type. And it's unfair because Politoed's in there, but Ludicolo is really bringing it down. I think Ludicolo, in contrast with Drednaw and Basky Legion, also just the whole thing is just like...

[00:09:41] It all feels bad. And you look at it in comparison to some of the other ones, and it just stands out as being bad. I don't love the look of Ludicolo, but you remember when I ran a Ludicolo and that was big trouble for you.

[00:09:55] So I like Ludicolo's play style, but I guess... Look at these other clan members though and tell me who's got a barfier team. Let's see... Probopass is redeemed by Luxray and Raichu. Masamune's team is fine. Grimmsnarl, Clefable, Gardevoir, Ribombee. Kotetsu's team... Um, Cockledore, Heracross, Gallade, Komoo. Fine.

[00:10:17] Yeah, Ambipom sucks, but I don't know. I kind of think Mousehole's cute. Yeah. You know I love Greedent. Kunusuna's team, the ice type, is kind of rough. Karbink, fine. Golem, fine. Froslass, beautiful. Mamoswine, fine. I guess it's... See? I think you're right.

[00:10:35] Maybe they're just really good at putting together handsome teams. It's like hard to find fault here. They're pretty handsome teams. That's their skill. I think in general. Well, you know who else is good at putting together a handsome team? Me. I should be leading this clan.

[00:10:48] Well, you're going to have to go and fight all, apparently, eight. Eight of them. And then you could probably kill the leader and then you can become the new leader. Just praise and buy him. Took care of a couple of them already, so shouldn't be too much trouble.

[00:11:01] I guess that one is based on whether or not you need the items. Oh yeah, what do they drop? Choice Band is one of the last ones, which is pretty good choice specs. If I do one more, I get that.

[00:11:11] Oh, they drop all that crazy shit everyone always wants. Yeah, I'll probably keep doing those. I didn't really have anything to report about the battles there. The main ones that I wanted to talk about was the Glitterati, who we've heard, in particular from Greg, very glowing reviews.

[00:11:27] Billy and Oner. Billy and Oner. It's just a wild goose chase where you originally encounter them on Kitakami outside Masui Town. Masui! And they basically alternate between making weird aphorisms and then like very flippant and dismissive statements, which is kind of a combo that I like.

[00:11:49] Oner will say things like, one of them I wrote down was, money and positive energy are similar in that once you have them, you won't know whether you're happy from that or something else. I'm like, okay. They're good looking. Interesting. They look good. Fit the part.

[00:12:08] Yeah, they fit the part. Got Persians. What else are they holding on to? I think it's just the Persian and then like the final battle. You don't even fight them every time. I mean, I guess you only ever fight Oner and you don't necessarily fight them every time.

[00:12:24] You meet them like six or seven times in different locations that alternate between Kitakami and Peltdea. The final battle, I think Oner had two. She's got an Arboliva. Yeah, that's it. Like it's just the Persian the whole time and then eventually the final battle is Arboliva and Persian.

[00:12:45] So there's not really anything to comment on that. It's more of like personality wise. I thought they were funny. So you did the whole thing? I did all of them. So then what's the final grand total of because the whole shtick is like

[00:12:56] you sell the stuff they're giving you, right? That's what Greg said, right? Yeah, I mean it's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars because the final gift is 25 big nuggets. Something sort of gross about that. Each of those is worth $30,000, I think. Yeah. So like do the math.

[00:13:15] I'm rich as hell. Wow, enjoy it. Oh, they're $20,000. Enjoy it in this deep post game. I don't have anything to do with all this money, but I enjoyed that quest. Like Oner is funny. She calls the Kassaroya Lake a puddle very dismissively.

[00:13:30] Like at the end of it, your final battle afterwards, Billie also says something and then she's like, oh, I love your witty repartee and your eruditeness. And going into it, I was like, oh, that's funny.

[00:13:42] Like, you know, it seems like Billie is coded as her rich gay friend. Much in the way of like a... What's the fucking... Can I make it... Is this still going to be relevant? What's the Gwyneth Paltrow's gay friend who shat all over her bathroom recently?

[00:14:02] Oh, God, what's his name? Did he like flee? Yeah, who fled the scene. I've been hearing a lot about this one because of my gay friend and husband. Bobby via Who Weekly. What the hell is his name? Goop's poop friend.

[00:14:21] He's a rich socialite who's gay and supposedly maybe had too much Ozempic and then had uncontrollable explosive diarrhea at her Montecito house. You cannot bring these baseless allegations to our Pokemon podcast, Joshua. Oh, I think it's more than baseless. Now, in any case, I thought that this was...

[00:14:45] I got to get the name of this fucking guy. Derek Blasberg. Derek Blasberg. OK, so I thought Billie was coded as Oner's Derek Blasberg, basically. And she gives him this award, which is also strange. But then it turns out that their trainer type is technically a rich couple.

[00:15:03] So I think... That's tricky. She's giving him a gold Oner award, her lover. They're in together? So I don't know. There's some tricky politics involved. Oh, she's like a fawning wife maybe? Yeah, I guess so. And he's like a simp?

[00:15:17] I thought he was like a, I don't know, like a tycoon and she was his assistant. She's the head of like Paldean Realty or something. She's like a real estate developer or something. No, the other way around. Really? No, wait. No, she's the girl boss.

[00:15:32] Well, I don't know. I've like fought them twice. She's the girl boss. Overall, you know, the amount of money and gifts that you get, which she also says it's to help the struggling common folk and Don Joey is that.

[00:15:45] Yes, she's the president of the realty company and Billie is her subordinate. In more ways than one, it seems like. So anyway, recommend it. Glitterati. It's fun. It doesn't actually take too long. Yeah, make a little cash. Take that to your grave with you.

[00:16:02] Leave it to your kids. What are you going to do with it? Yeah, I don't. I have like well over a million dollars and what what am I going to buy? The like two outfits that I don't have that aren't new. So hideously ugly.

[00:16:17] I got the Power Ranger helmet on that Greg told us about. Oh, I'd like to see that pretty good in that. Well, probably not anymore since I went to Indigo Island and their Blueberry Academy and they put me in there. Scrubby shit.

[00:16:27] Yeah, they slap a new bullshit outfit on you. Although we we learned you can't change it, which I think is you access the map and then you hit the. Not interested. Right. That would be incourteous to this culture.

[00:16:40] Yeah, I left it on for now, although I don't like it and I liked the outfit. I'd finally cobbled together. All right. The other thing I did. Tell me the other thing you did. No. After this break. What do we do now?

[00:17:01] Can we finally go to the Blueberry Academy? I'm here. I'm ready. My seal team is ready. No, fine. I do. I'm not going after those black stakes. There's no dudes there. There are dudes. What?

[00:17:15] There's four other legendary Pokemon and you have to get the only way to get them is you have to pull the black stakes out. Take one look at those four legendary Pokemon that you just mentioned. I haven't looked at them. Let's play.

[00:17:26] Let's do a quick lightning round of. Is it a guy? Joshua, is it a guy? Chien Pow. No, no. I like it, though. Otter little Nordic. I see Otter. Yeah, Nordic Otter. I like it.

[00:17:53] Well, we can say it's not a guy, but can we say whether or not we like it? I like it. Oh, yeah, you can. That can be your thing if you want. But mine is like I only have guys on my team. Is it a sweetie?

[00:18:05] It might be a humans on my team. Yeah, so that one didn't count. Joshua, is it a guy? Ting Lu. Ting Lu. What's up with these names? I don't know. Treasures of ruin Pokemon. No, also quadrupedal like an elk or something. Cool. A moose.

[00:18:26] Again, I like the design, though. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't dislike it. The illustration, at least the sprites not as good. But I like the concept. Is it a guy? Wo Chi N. This one, my last character, what I really liked.

[00:18:44] I don't even remember his name in what game where I had all slugs. Doug Charmer. Doug Charmer. Yeah, it rhymes. Doug Charmer slugged. I was like, I remembered Doug Charmer's Doug. Doug Farmers. Doug Farmers. I remember Doug Farmers famous phrase. Maybe we should. Oh, yeah.

[00:19:04] Maybe we should both recite it. Remember his name, Joshua? Doug's farmer slug Charmer and his famous phrase. Yeah, bugs, slugs. We can say it together. Yeah, bugs, slugs, slugs, crabs, clams, little octopods and other boneless bots. If it ain't got a bone, a ball's getting thrown. Classic.

[00:19:25] Everyone knows it. Everyone remembers it off the top of their head and the name of the character that you played for many hours. Yes, Doug Farmer slug Charmer would love Wo Chi N. He definitely would. Esteban Umano. No, thank you. I like this design too.

[00:19:44] Yeah, that's pretty cool. I don't dislike it. What is it? Dark grass. Yeah. Oh, it's based on a snail, though. We ran into some trouble with those from the slug scientists. Oh, I think if you'll remember correctly, the slug scientists gave me quite a lot of leeway.

[00:20:01] The definition of slug. Yeah. Feast your eyes, Joshua, on Chi U. Dark fire hybrid. Kind of cool. Very cool. Again, these are all cool. It's like a bubble-eyed koi. Not necessarily sweeties, but very cool. Not a guy.

[00:20:19] So we are 0 for 4 on hunting down those dudes because they are not guys. And frankly, we already did our big golden go hunt. I already introduced Chi Avery to all those little men all across Paldea. I got to know the map very well.

[00:20:35] They don't look like potentially questing knights either. To hunt these things. To kill them. These are like the titans. You know, these are like the primordial beasts of Paldea.

[00:20:45] It is tempting for my knights to go on these quests, but I will say I pulled out several more black stakes. But like, I just think it's hard pressed for me without just looking at a guide. But at least we know what's behind those shrines now.

[00:21:01] I think it's 0 humanoids. Notably. 4 kind of cool looking Pokemon. Can I admit something to you, Joshua? Of course. I'm a father now. You have been for several years. 5 years I've been a father. And I'm teaching my boy how to play Pokemon trading card game.

[00:21:21] And we have many decks that we've purchased at Target across the street over the years. Well, humble brag. Target's right across the street. And I was already well aware of all 4 of these Pokemon from, we have decks for each of them.

[00:21:34] So you really already knew what was going on there. Yeah. Okay. But, you know, I was glad to go on that journey with you. Yeah. And I'm sorry I spoiled it for myself before I got to meet them via like this stake quest.

[00:21:47] Because I'm definitely not going to do the stake quest. And I honestly, I feel like I got my fill from the Pokemon trading card game. So yeah, you have enough experience with them. What I would recommend to all of you if you're disappointed that we didn't meet them.

[00:21:59] I would go recommend you play them in the Pokemon trading card game sometime. They're pretty cool. Yeah. And you could also admire their Bulbapedia articles like we did. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see what the effects of that one.

[00:22:11] Oh, I can't wait to dive into this deep blue ocean and swim down to that big bubble at the bottom. No. So Gita gives us a final request once we become the champion of champions. And that is to, no, she's the champion of champions. We're sub champion.

[00:22:26] And she wants us to step in and do her work. Yeah. Which is always what happens to the deputy. Do all the work. And so we had to go and re-evaluate. Well, I had to. And I was like Esteban Umano could not be bothered. Oh, she approached me.

[00:22:41] But I was like, I don't know. Is that OK to do? These are all dudes. Send your thugs out on the gym leaders to evaluate how good their Pokemon are at taking pummeling from real humans. Yeah. Go beat the shit out of some Pokemon.

[00:22:58] And I was like, is that ethical? She's like, I don't give a shit. You could have been the muscle because one of them, Groucha, who also I think we have to take a cap in hand. We misgendered. I am sorry.

[00:23:14] We called Groucha a woman and Groucha is a guy. Let me take another look. Oh, beautiful, beautiful wintry boy. Groucha. Yeah. Pokemon Company makes these characters pretty ambiguous this this game. Yeah. I feel like we've been misgendering a lot.

[00:23:28] They're both progressive on their part to make relatively androgynous people, but then all of them are gendered one way or the other. So then it becomes like kind of a minefield. Yeah. For commentators to make a call on a whim.

[00:23:43] And so I'm trying to like look at the entries, but Groucha, I like didn't bat an eye. And so feel bad about that. Sorry, Groucha. Yeah, sorry, Groucha.

[00:23:52] Groucha makes a comment, I think before you fight him and says that, oh, like he's like fretting the battle because he says that if you lose in these evaluations that they get demoted, I think.

[00:24:04] And I don't know if that means, oh, is that like, you know, you have to go and train again? Or are you like literally did I beat all of these eight gym leaders? Are they out? Yeah, I think there's probably like. Like are they all getting replaced?

[00:24:17] I think you have to like score some certain. Let's work it out. I bet it's like relegation in British soccer. Like it seems like it's a lot of paperwork that Gita would have to do. Let's say we have to do 40 battles in a season.

[00:24:30] OK, they have a season system, let's assume. OK, and if you win all of your battles, you're obviously getting promoted to the elite four. Right. So there's a whole other tier system above this, which is the elite four. That would make sense.

[00:24:42] So if he wins a certain amount, most of them, he can be promoted to the elite four, which is a huge accomplishment. But it doesn't it never happens. Not with the talent Don Joey saw.

[00:24:53] Grusha's like if he would win maybe like 30 of his 40 games, he'd be totally fine. Like that's a total like, you know, in the black, nothing to worry about. He can still stay a gym leader. Then he's got 10 games left. Right?

[00:25:06] Yeah. And I think that's where you're in trouble. I think if you like fall below that 10 games line, that's when you get deregulated. Oh, I see. So I beat him twice, but we don't know how he's fared with the other talent in the region.

[00:25:18] Yeah. So he might be fine. He might be or like, you know, this could have been the final loss on his season. OK, that's finally going to get him. I mean, it could be for all of them. Push down to triple A's.

[00:25:29] If I were Gita, I would not have sent Don Joey out on this evaluation because Gita could have just thrown it. If she didn't want to do all the paperwork of like potentially kicking some of these gym leaders out.

[00:25:42] But like I beat all of them. So if they were on the cusp of like, you know, falling out. Relegation. Yeah. Relegation. Then, you know, she's got a mess on her hands.

[00:25:52] Yeah. And she's going to have to do all that work because I'm not I'm not Don Joey's not a fucking pencil pusher. Oh, and the fans like Grosha's handsome guy. I'm sure he has a ton of fans, you know?

[00:26:03] Oh, yeah. And they're going to be devastated to have him relegated to like what even go down to. Is there like minor league? Maybe they have to go through the the team star like reeducation.

[00:26:16] I bet we at Naranja send our relegated poor performers down to the UVA League. Oh, and then vice versa. No, no, no. You guys dump yours wherever. Think they're probably on par. Maybe we send them over to fucking blueberry. Yeah. No, you would send them.

[00:26:33] You would send her like Kid Akami. That's like the real drags if they're really out. It's like, yeah, yeah. Why over cool heels over and get it got me for a while.

[00:26:43] Yeah, I would only feel bad if Don Joey beat rhyme and then she got relegated because rhyme was still spitting some great rhymes. What rhyme was the ghost type? Yeah, I think hers was like probably one of the best set pieces.

[00:26:58] Yeah, I it's like the only one I like really remember. It was pretty good. The concert. She was like, tell you something. You get to be my age. Time starts passing you by fast like she knows it's curtains. I feel like that scares me.

[00:27:12] I might have relegated rhyme. Yeah, yeah, no, but yeah, she was the best. So at the end of the beating all of these like lightning McQueen at the end of Cars three. Yeah, I guess I only saw the first one.

[00:27:25] No one gets to tell me when it's time to retire. I'll decide when it's time to retire. That's lightning McQueen. Well, that was actually him at the beginning of Cars three. I should say. Okay, guess what happens at the end?

[00:27:38] Does he he against all odds like retains his title or whatever? I have absolutely no idea. I don't even remember what goes on in the first cars against all regulation. Cruiser Ramirez takes over halfway through the race with sporting number 95 for Rusty's.

[00:27:57] So they're like, okay, I guess that's that counts. It can be a whole new race car coming in halfway through the race and it's like a next gen race car. And of course they won because fucking Jackson Storms got his head so far up his ass.

[00:28:11] Who the fuck? I don't know. Army Hammer that I guess. I guess I yeah, I know who that is. I don't know any of the cars are I'm not I'm not kid pilled where I had to watch all this drivel.

[00:28:22] But yeah, she's that's that's rhyme rhyme is lightning McQueen. You could have been making any of those goddamn names up.

[00:28:28] I remember like, okay, well at the end of the evaluation, Gita asked you who you thought was the worst who you thought was the best trainer who caused you the most trouble and then who you liked the most.

[00:28:39] So obviously I said that my favorite was rhyme, that she was the best battler.

[00:28:46] Iono gave me the most trouble actually because she had this kilowatt trail that had wind power as its ability and then it used tailwind and hurricane and it was all like we pumped up plus it looked cool.

[00:28:58] And all of its attacks were powered up and its whole team. So Iono did a pretty good job. Brassius, obviously, who is a hack and has not gotten any better since taking that lady Arboliva under his wing as his muse.

[00:29:14] He still sucks. And I hope he gets kicked out. Kind of a handsome guy. Yeah. Take a look at his pic. I guess so. That's a nice figure.

[00:29:21] After the evaluation, you then do an academy, the Academy Ace Tournament, which I was curious if maybe they changed, but you didn't do it. So I don't know. But I ended up fighting Arvin and Jacques and Dendra. So you like fight the professors plus Arvin.

[00:29:39] Okay, well, because his mom died slash dad. His parents are dead. Yeah. So he got promoted to professor. I think it was a free for all. It could have been anyone. That's why I was curious if like maybe it swaps.

[00:29:49] I imagine it is probably you have to fight Arvin and Jacques and Dendra, who's like the biology teacher in the battle. I'll do it for next week because this actually sounds fun. Unlike pulling stakes. This was fun.

[00:30:00] I mean, I like the Academy Ace Tournament, the rechallenging, the gym leaders, they're all like 65 to 70. So like I didn't really have that much trouble. Yeah, but it's just so many battles that that was why I was like, I can't do any more of the Kidikami clan.

[00:30:14] I was like, it's time for Don Joey to see some new shores. A little less battling and maybe a little bit more endless cut scenes. Oh, no. So let's go over and do the Indigo Disc and enroll in the Blueberry Academy.

[00:30:29] Yeah, I've got bad news about the cut scenes. There's a lot. Plenty. We got plenty. Yes. Walk me through your vision, Professor Cereno, for the Blueberry Academy. Cereno de Bergerac. Cereno de Blueberry Academy. It's a bad joke. But you went for it. That's all that matters.

[00:30:49] You get that one? You know about Cereno? Yeah. Or you took up all your brain space with Cars trivia. I know about both. I can tell you multitudes. The Renaissance, man. Here it is. A bubble on the bottom of the water. Yes.

[00:31:04] And inside of the bubble is Safari Zone. And a mining operation. And this is all basically just dressing up a means of extracting precious deep sea materials in order to fund a terrestrial energy.

[00:31:18] We are here at the Blueberry Academy and they're like, all the Pokemon here can terrestrialize, which is interesting because they're all not Paldean Pokemon. Right. And then everyone's like, wow, that is pretty interesting. Tell us more about like, why do you think that is?

[00:31:33] And then Professor Cereno points up and he's like, it's probably the giant terrestrial crystal we've hung in the air, bathing the entire space in gamma radiation. Yeah. We'll figure out the effects of that later. That's what you're here for. You're a science experiment now.

[00:31:50] Yeah. We're all in on this science experiment. Giant terrarium at the bottom of the ocean somewhere off the coast of Unova. Yes. Our pneumonia here is Lacey. Lacey is a pill. He's very like boisterous and like doesn't hear anyone. He's like a bad boss kind of.

[00:32:09] And he immediately pushes you off on Lacey. Yeah. Who does not want to be your chaperone. No. And every time she someone does something she doesn't like, she makes a little X. She does a little cross. I like that. Like an X. I like that a lot.

[00:32:26] Yeah. I thought that was cute. And then she says, welcome. Let's do the thing we do here, which is all double battles. Lacey, who of course to show off the double battle mechanic that they've been relying on since Gen 3.

[00:32:38] She opens with a plusle and a minun that are level 70. Oh yeah. Fun. Helping hands. Baton pass. All that shit. Yeah, of course. And then who else? Excadrill. Excadrill. A couple of those this week. Tough. The Excadrills are tough.

[00:32:56] Okay. So now we know how to do it. Wow. Thanks for the refresher, Lacey. And it was a pleasure to absolutely humiliate you and your level 70 plusle and minun. Yeah. And then we're finally on to the grand spectacle. The big bubble. The terrarium. 20,000 leagues under the sea.

[00:33:16] It's like a safari zone. There's four big quadrants. Each is a different biome. And each has a different set of Pokemon. And you can go do battles in them too. Yes. There's like an elite four down here as well, right?

[00:33:31] We learn about how the terrarium works, which is that there's four sections to this terrarium. And it's like savannah, coastal mountains and snowy or something like that. Close enough. And then each one has an elite four member attached to it.

[00:33:46] So they've got their own elite four. And we have to do BBQs. Yes. Blueberry quests. BBQs to get BBs. In order to accumulate BPs, which are not battle points anymore.

[00:34:00] They are blueberry points. And you use those to cash in 50 of them in order to do these fights that we will be doing in the subsequent episodes. BBs.

[00:34:11] In one way, I like this quest mechanic, except I was hoping there might be some real open world game style quests where you're helping denizens. But it's all like catch a Pokemon, find 10 things on the ground. It's big, but it's not that big.

[00:34:28] You get a camera, take a photo of a swimming Pokemon is one of the ones I got. It's that same lady who gave us the camera. She's here with her little growl leaf. Oh, Perrin. Yeah. Perrin, who was in Kitakami as well.

[00:34:41] Yeah. Whose quest almost certainly we will not complete, which is like you need to find a registered 200 Pokemon in your Pokedex here. And I think it was 150 in Kitakami. No, I won't do that. For now, she gave us the looking good emote.

[00:34:57] So you can do that. Thank you. At your leisure. Oh, I didn't. If you want to emote. Okay, thank you. I'm flattered. It's fine to emote. Shows a lot of strength. Yeah. But yeah, these areas are not nearly as big as in Paldea.

[00:35:11] The terrain is relatively similar to different environs there. And there's big cubes. Yeah. Separating them because it's like this simulated environment. Then we are sort of out of the lock cut scene and we're let loose on the Blueberry Academy in the terrarium. We have a way marker. Yeah.

[00:35:34] Which is we have to get out to this punk. We got to go out to the coastal area. We get out there. There's a few little trainer battles along the way. Yeah. There's Darius and there's Max, and it's all just like more sort of like student double battles.

[00:35:49] I think like Max has two pink or a coreos. Yeah, which is easy to beat. This place is packed full of or a coreos. Yep. Once you're there and you've beaten Max, she's like go find Max and then battle him.

[00:36:02] And then you're in your first class, which is like find the Alolan forms of some Pokemon. Yeah, you got to catch an Alolan Pokemon. Which for me took forever. I was like, okay, there must be one right around here somewhere.

[00:36:12] And I apparently just went the complete wrong direction because I just wandered off into the wilderness. Forgot what I was doing. Yeah, sounds about right. Came back, finally found a Muk. Goopy Alolan Muk. Yeah, I found a Muk too actually. And showed it to the professor.

[00:36:30] We got it right. And immediately promptly dismissed it from my team. Not a guy. That's not a valiant knight. It's kind of the least valiant knight looking thing I've ever seen. So we've accomplished our first BBQ. I had a great time and I've earned some BPs.

[00:36:46] And I'm ready to head back to Central Plaza to run into whatever riffraff I find. Yeah, which I guess is this is where we get the whole explanation of how they work from the new Carmine. Although Carmine's here as well, but the new one is Drayton.

[00:37:03] Drayton, yeah, he's... Carmine hates him. Carmine introduces him as he's the worst and he sucks. Which is funny, and he does look like he sucks. Yeah, he's got kind of a sucky look. He's got a bad energy. He's got the Mabostive.

[00:37:19] Yeah, he sort of walks us around the academy. He introduces us to everything. He tells us about the four trainers out there in the wilderness that we've got to go beat. And then, Joshua, we step outside and do the big battle for this week.

[00:37:33] With our good friend, Carmine. We should talk about the Pokemon we brought into that battle. In! Level check. Level check. Who'd you bring? Donjoey's Knights remained the same and I suspect that could be how it goes unless we really encounter, you know,

[00:37:52] someone who's got a really interesting backstory and quest that needs redemption along the way out here in the Terrarium. But for now, it is the Duke. It is Pallmott. It is level 82. Nice. We have Dame Trish of Lavencia, the Tinkerton, level 79. Nice. And Earl Jangles, Koma'o, level 78.

[00:38:14] Baron Claude Sire, Claude Sire, level 81. Viscount Arthur, Vaxcalibur, level 80. And Esbern, untitled because he has not been here for very long. Cyril Edge, level 80. I guess the titles could change. There's still room for growth for all of them in these Elite Four battles that we have coming up.

[00:38:34] Yeah. But I think the Knights have all proved themselves one way or another and it seems unlikely that they're going to go some other way, you know, stray from the path. We've got a new teammate. Whoa, Esteban Umano. Tell me about it.

[00:38:49] My friend Donna went to Joshua Tree, do some soul searching. The drugs have finally worn off. Understand like who she is, what she is. And she came back to me and said, you've absolutely destroyed my car.

[00:39:05] Can I put it in the shop and rejoin your team as the proud, confident human being that I am? I said, yeah, of course, Donna. So welcome back to the team. Donna Baker. Meow-scaratta. Level 76. We got to get her a little bit caught up.

[00:39:23] She's been in the box for a bit, but I think we can do it. I believe in Donna Baker. I'm glad to see her back. How are they all getting around without the car? They're just walking, hoofing it. Well, we're just in this bubble.

[00:39:36] Yeah, I guess it's easy now. I don't think you're allowed to have cars down here. I guess so. There's already enough radiation. They don't need the extra pollutants from the car too. Yeah. Level 81. Gregor Samsa, rapsca. Level 83. Lady Beth, armarouge. A level 77. Fiona Eilish, wellspring, ogre pawn. Level 75.

[00:40:01] And proud Avery, golden go. Level 77. Goldengo. Still proud. Very proud, even though it's well into July now. Yeah. That's the team. I beat her with that team. Who did she have? So she's got mighty Ina, scrafty, sinistra. The sad one is really hard to say.

[00:40:22] The evolved form of sinistra. That's like a matcha version of poltegeist. Yeah, it's cute. Sinistra. It is cute, but it is not Joshie Sweetie. Joshie Sweetie is too canon. Her too canon. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this.

[00:40:38] I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this. But in its animations, because we know that it's beak heats up,

[00:40:50] But in its animations, because we know that it's beak heats up, which is why its signature move is so good. which is why its signature move is so good. Beak Blast. Now it heats up and you see it animate like that.

[00:41:00] Now it heats up and you see it animate like that. But then I caught one later, and its Pokédex entry is pairs of two canon are considered symbols and its Pokédex entry is pairs of two canon are considered symbols of companionship as these Pokémon

[00:41:10] will raise the temperature of their beaks to warm each other. Doesn't that warm your heart? That's so nice. How sweet the two canon is. My wife and I just did that on the plane this morning. It was too cold.

[00:41:22] You raised the temperature of your beaks to warm each other? I raised the temperature of my body and pushed it up against her so she wouldn't be so cold like a human blanket. That's very sweet. You're like our real life symbols of companionship. Yeah, thank you.

[00:41:34] Everyone on the plane clapped. That's what they need. Unifying the plane. Yeah, it's double battle, so you're doing battles with two of these at the same time. It goes quick. She's only got four. Yeah, still, despite not doing all the extra stuff you did in Paldea,

[00:41:55] my levels were still high enough to just absolutely dominate her. Yeah, she though is not going to end up being our final boss. Our final boss, it seems that because we have a few, I would say, charged interactions with Kiki who did not take the breakup well.

[00:42:15] He's a wreck. Kiki has gone down a really dark path. He reinvented himself. It's not good. That's not a good reinvention though. Whatever, maybe I'm bitter. Maybe I'm bitter too. He's haughty and rude. He's abusive to his subordinate. He's got a new hairstyle.

[00:42:36] He's got a weird new hairstyle. Didn't even recognize him. Yeah, he's barking at some kid. Some kid's like, yeah, he lost some. I don't know what the relationship is. I don't know how he's in this seat of power,

[00:42:48] but people seem to look up to him and want something from him. This kid comes up to him and says, I'm sorry I lost the battle. My mom is sick or something like that. Kiki's like, I don't give a shit. You're out. Shut up. Shut up.

[00:43:06] I didn't ask for your life story. It's really bleak. It's all our fault. Maybe it's on us to pull him out. What's that kind of therapy where you confront the issue? It's like an intervention. Karamo made someone do it once.

[00:43:19] We need to set him on a redemption path. I can save him. We can fix him, Tanner. We could fix him. That'll be next week, I guess. Because I didn't go after him. We should say though, I had an item finder that was earlier in this.

[00:43:37] The Synchro Machine. Kind of an inexplicable addition to the game where you can become your partner Pokemon at any time. I didn't really understand why I would want to do that. We had to do a tutorial for it. You basically inhabit the Pokemon.

[00:43:55] I use Cyril Edge because I thought it would be cool to walk around like that guy. Did it feel good? It felt good. I mean, you slash with his bitter blades, and then in the auto battle, you're the Pokemon. I don't know how it comes into play,

[00:44:11] but it's sort of a nice to have feature, I guess. You can fly. You can inhabit a flying one and fly around. I should try that. That could be good. Let me try that out. Use the toucan in that. I got it. I went through the tutorial

[00:44:26] and I was like, okay, I don't know what I would do with this. No, I'm not sure. It's not something I asked for. I don't want to inhabit their bodies. I never would have thought of even asking for it.

[00:44:35] I've already done it once in a game called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and I famously hated it. That's true. So next week, we will be doing each of the biomes Elite Four representatives. So you got to do Savannah, Canyon, Coastal, Polar. No problem. Knock them all out.

[00:44:52] These boys have been through everything. Boys and girls, Donna's back. So that in the following week, we will take on our ex Kiki and hopefully set him straight. Interesting choice of words. He could be oriented, whichever way, but I just mean in terms of living an inclusive

[00:45:13] and non-abusive life, we're setting him straight in that way where he's not going to be rude to everyone. This has been Experience Share. It has been a Pokemon podcast. My name has been Tan Cannon. I have been joined by Sinistosh. Sinistosh.

[00:45:31] Please do rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and do follow the show everywhere that you follow podcasts. Follow me and Josh at EXPSharePod on X and threads, Instagram. And then also you can check out our subreddit, reddit.com slash r slash bug catchers.

[00:45:48] And if you want some merch, we still got that. And that is at EXPSharePod.com. That's it. Alola. Au revoir. Bottom of the episode to you. Goodbye. Smell you later.