How To Appreciate Pokemon WITHOUT Supporting Corporate Nonsense

im gonna be real guys i am not exhibiting mentally healthy behaviors

Good news, fellow artists! Nightshade has finally been released by the UChicago team! If you aren't aware of what Nightshade is, it's a tool that helps poison AI datasets so that the model "sees" something different from what an image actually depicts. It's the same team that released Glaze, which helps protect art against style mimicry (aka those finetuned models that try to rip off a specific artist). As they show in their paper, even a hundred poisoned concepts make a huge difference.

(Reminder that glazing your art is more important than nighshading it, as they mention in their tweets above, so when you're uploading your art, try to glaze it at the very least.)

he’s licking his lips…

he’s checking it twice…

What are some chronic illnesses that can only occur in a fantasy setting?

Every single odd number has an “e” in it.

Group of friends who are close because they all have the same superpower except no they don't.

New outfit idea

glad that im not popular enough to have an evil shadow version of my blog that exists just to make contradictions on my posts

How to Appreciate Pokemon WITHOUT Supporting Corporate Nonsense

in light of gen 9's bonkers release timescale and the steadily-decreasing game quality in recent years, you may want to pull your support for pokemon until they get their shit together. however, you might feel too attached to the franchise to just drop it.

if that's your problem, this is the post for you!

originally this was a comic, hence the "special project" i was talking about, but my laptop decided to delete it randomly (rip) so you're getting a written guide.

rbs > likes for exposure, everything's under the cut!

to clarify something real quick, nintendo/the pokemon company owns the franchise and oversees the games + merch but gamefreak actually makes the games themselves. if you're going to be (rightfully) mad, get mad at the right people.

also a lot of this stuff might not come as a shock, but i still felt this was an important post to make, especially for younger/newer pokemon fans.

that being said, here we go!

games

you can play pokemon games multiple ways without supporting gamefreak!

buy games/devices secondhand (often cheaper and better for the environment, though it's still spending money)

borrow a friends device/copy of the game and play on that

use emulators (just a quick search on duckduckgo is a good place to start with this!)

play fangames

make your own fangames! i personally recommend rpg maker mv for game-making purposes. you can get a free, fully-functioning copy of rpg maker mv on steamunlocked!

cards

we all know that joke about collecting the cards because they're pretty but not knowing how to play the card game. you can always:

buy the specific cards you want second-hand

find the cards you want and print them out

draw your own cards if you wanna have fun with it

figurines

here's where we're getting into interesting territory. usually by the time you can save up for these, they're out of stock.

your options are:

buy them secondhand (again, cheaper, better for the environment, and usually your only feasible option anyway)

learn 3d modelling (try blender, it's free and has a ton of tutorials out!) and make your own custom ones with 3d printing

fanart, fanfic, and misc merch

the reblog button is gonna be your best friend. likes don't give exposure and they only serve to dishearten creators that were so excited to show their hard work to the world but might not even bother if they only get likes. what's the point if nobody sees what you do?

buying merch from individual creators on sites like redbubble and etsy not only tells these creators that you like and care about what they do, it gives them money to go towards important things so they can keep creating amazing things for you to enjoy!

merch on redbubble can range anywhere from stickers to blankets and pillows, and merch on etsy can be things like plushies, stickers, keychains, you name it! personally i'd recommend redbubble, though, since it doesn't charge the artist just to open a shop and have listings. etsy is notoriously shitty about how it treats its users.

you can also commission artists directly to draw whatever you want within their guidelines, not just pokemon! (shameless plug but my commissions are here, my phone recently broke ^^;) this is an even better option, since rather than the site taking a cut from what the artist would make, the only cuts taken are small fees by whatever the artist uses, which is usually paypal.

conclusion

look at you, you made it through this overly-wordy guide!

before you go, if you really want to make a statement, email/tweet @/write to gamefreak/the pokemon company to tell them exactly why you won't be supporting them rather than just. not.

sending a clear message with specific complaints, then withholding money from their grubby corporate hands until they act right, is the best way to incite change as money's their only motivator.

however! it'll only work if this happens in large enough amounts with the same complaints, so be sure to encourage your friends to take these options too instead of doing it alone.

if this helps even one person, it was a post worth making in my opinion, so thanks for reading! have a good day/night!