Luke Loves Pokémon (a Forumite Podcast)

Fair enough, good luck with the new mike!

I actually attended a Fortean Society virtual talk on Stonehenge the other day. The presenter's suggestion was that it was used as a mnemonic device, aiding memory before words were a thing. She cited current-day Aboriginal devices and places of similar structure with similar purpose. Like the rock-boy himself, it was really interesting.

There was one recent podder that made me actually genuinely giggle a lot, but now I can't remember what it was, sorry.  Corsola was good, but then anything that made you get on your high Ponyta about climate change was always going to get a from me.  Sorry I sounded so halting and circular about Drakloak.


Anyway!  What to do after Gen. 8 expires and you've had a break.  The obvious answer is 'what you want', but assuming you're looking for actual suggestions: not Gen. 7, I reckon now's the time to get back on track and do the rest of them in 'the right' order.  Apart from anything else it'll give you more time to stretch the pod out for without padding, assuming that's what you want.

What I think would be really quite cool is for you to look at different monster-based franchises and 'love' the mascots as an excuse to chat about a series a week, or a fortnight, or whatever.  Digimon, Yo-Kai Watch, MonHun, Nexomon...  Obviously you wouldn't be able to talk in-depth about some of these, but you could research the mascots, read their Pokédex equivalents, and get other people who know more about those series to fill in the blanks...

...or just pretend they're Pokémon and do them completely straight, with made-up competitive info. and Pokédex entries, and really confuse people.  I'd laugh my head off at that.  Anyway, I think that might be a fun idea, but you do what makes you happy, natch.

I would love to do Luke Loves Digimon but everything's a bit more vague and nebulous with Digimon. It's not like Pokémon where every monster is numbered, the game canon supersedes all else and the families are well defined.

I'd also like to do an open Luke Loves Monsters and just look at mythology, maybe starting with Japan, but that would be a lot of work so it won't happen any time soon.

As it happens, the fates seem to have intervened. Right as I was wondering what to do . . . a Monster Hunter Direct went and happened, reinvigorating me and the boys. So my current thinking is that Monster Mash might fill up my Thursday podcasting slot.

Fair enough, enjoy! Who knows, if I get into Rise I might starting listening along too...

It has begun; I now have three different podcasts coming out on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays respectively.

Looking at the LLP schedule, November will be pretty standard episodes about Phanpy and Donphan, Stantler, Smeargle and Miltank.
Then through December and January we'll have all the Gen 2 Legendaries, Tyranitar and the Gen 3 starters! These are cool and exciting monsters which I guess people will have things to say about, so I figure I ought to give plenty of warning that you should all be getting in touch!

I don't actually care all that much about the Legendary Do- (is silenced) That said, the Stantler one was one of my recent faves, simply because I didn't know it was so interesting! It does feel like Stantler should've been Normal/Dark or something to make it stand out.

Is that one of my jingles playing at the start of the Legendary Beast episodes? Sounds better than I remember!

Yep, that's your choral version of the opening.

Woo, Season 3!  Hoping for plenty of Andy this time around.

I never made the fighting cock connection with Blaziken, which I think is probably a Good Thing - for my enjoyment of the monster anyway.

Damn it, I never made the connection with hyenas and therefore pronounced the names wrong for my entire segment.

Still listening to and enjoying these on a regular basis! Chalk the 'pearls before swine' thing about Spoink up as another obvious reference I completely missed when playing the games.

What's the deadline for me submitting something about Cacturne and for you actually being able to react to it in the pod, Buska? Also: we're nearing Absol week, or at least we're nearing the point where I record what I want to say for Absol week. How long am I allowed to waffle on about Absol for, reasonably speaking? Because I have a lot to say about Absol.

Thanks man! This is ticking away at half-decent numbers; we'll hit the 10,000 downloads soon (although we definitely already have because the metrics are fucked and the number rebooted when I changed providers). People still joining the facebook now and then, and none of them messaging me, and between this and Mash the Patreon subscribers are covering the upload fees.

I generally record one week in advance. I wake up, write, record, edit, upload to the patreon and then schedule it on the main feed.

Ah, glad it's doing well. This thread's obviously dead and I don't see the replies on Twitter, so I was a bit worried! Although I know it's mostly a passion project for you anyway.

I'll try and get Cactus Man up this weekend. What are your thoughts on my permitted level and length of Absol gushing?

I'm slowly realising that only, like, less than 1% of a podcast's audience tends to engage and get in touch. On the podcasts I listen to, like TCGS or the Back Page, it's always the same names cropping up in interactive sections.

But as I always say on Mash, I do it because I want it to exist. I actually don't care much who listens

I think there's something to be said for having a backlog of content you've made to go back and listen to someday. I chucked on a random 2018 episode of Mash one night when I was heading to bed and enjoyed listening back to past Jay and the lads talk some shite about monsters.

I can get a real kick out of doing that with Mash, but I don't know if LLP would be fun in the same way for me to go back to. Less bantz

I'm a fair bit behind on LLP myself but I tend to listen to them in chunks anyway so I'd say it works very well in that sense, it's not like it's gonna age as Pokémon is a constant. For that same reason I tend not to contribute much in terms of feedback as well (that and the lack of meaningful comments I can make).

Oh I'm not sure any of my comments are meaningful. See Wailord on the subject.

Any forumites who have fallen behind or are not regular listeners might still enjoy the episode which is going live on Christmas Day; Andy and I doing a "Christmas Top of The Pops" and counting down our rankings of the Pokémon Theme Tunes from worst to best.

Just listened to the PLA spoilercast (not very spoilery) on two long-for-London walks.  I liked it!  Kate's such an infectious ball of energy (sadly probably anxious energy) that she's always a pleasure to have on these things, and I enjoyed James' material too.  Good to hear people from such various Pokébackgrounds enjoying Arceus, although of course I sided with you on most stuff Luke/Buska.  Shame we couldn't hear them discussing with each other: I thought it would be a discussion between all three of you, but I'm guessing time zones wouldn't allow it?

Oh, and - 'my best friend Andy'?  Putting the rest of the Mashers in their places there.

Did I call Andy my best friend? They're all my best friends . . .

Yeah, Canada, Japan and Germany was just not feasible. I reckon I did a half-decent job of stitching two convos together.

I know it wasn't that spoilery, but thats just the term people use for "big chat after finishing a game"

Was going ask for link to the cast but saw it in my YouTube subscriptions a video version.

Will give a watch whilst playing some Switch.

In terms of spoilers how far in to it does it go? I only just finished the main story last night so still have all the epilogue stuff to do, am I safe or should I wait till I've done that too?

masofdas wrote:

Was going ask for link to the cast but saw it in my YouTube subscriptions a video version.

That one is the full, unedited chat with Kate. I'm planning to do the same with James (after I've edited one or two moments where we discuss personal stuff he doesn't want public) and I was thinking of putting the edited podcast to game footage and uploading it, though I may just not bother and put it up with a still image like I do regular episodes.

Treesmurf wrote:

In terms of spoilers how far in to it does it go? I only just finished the main story last night so still have all the epilogue stuff to do, am I safe or should I wait till I've done that too?

I'd only finished the main story, it turns out Kate hadn't even done that, and we barely end up discussing any spoilers in detail anyway so you're safe!

Neat as I'm not sure what James you're on about.

Buskalilly wrote:

Treesmurf wrote:

In terms of spoilers how far in to it does it go? I only just finished the main story last night so still have all the epilogue stuff to do, am I safe or should I wait till I've done that too?

I'd only finished the main story, it turns out Kate hadn't even done that, and we barely end up discussing any spoilers in detail anyway so you're safe!

James does mention a character who turns out to be pretty important later on, but frankly if you didn't spot the signs you deserve a slap on the head. Otherwise, as mentioned above, not really spoiler at all!