Pokémon TCG2: Doduo Adventures - Book One: TCG Island

[rimly]

Spoiler: Chapters 6-8

Jonathan is actually a good rival. Hes skilled, hes cocky in a way that gets under mr gentlemans skin, and ken literally asks mr gentleman to beat him because jonathans gotten too strong. thats a great setup

and then jonathan DOES beat mr gentleman. twice. the first loss is pure bad luck, but the second loss feels earned- jonathan played well, mr gentleman got unlucky again but also just got outplayed plain and simple.

the wager is high stakes (mr gentleman has to sponsor jonathans ENTIRE academy education if he loses) which actually makes me care about the outcome a ton here. I dont want him to win dangit! dude sucks!!! which is really great stuff.

but then mr gentleman straight up cheats and ohh boy. he bribes stephanie to rig his gambler coinflips. and he just... does it. pays her 25% of all his winnings to fix the game, which he doesnt seem too beat up about it really, which makes me wonder if hes done this before...

and the story hasnt really addressed it yet but i assume it will later, mr gentleman justifies it ("if everyone were reasonable and dueled me I would have no need for such a severe handicap!") but thats not how morality works my guy. you made a bet, you're losing because your deck has a weakness and instead of accepting that you cheat. mr gentleman wins, feels vindicated, and moves on. So im sure this will come back later, or maybe this is a sign that our gentleman is falling down a darker path… interesting if thats so.

stephanie is... uncomfortable?

"Her age was one of the only ones that threw me for a loop. She was either eleven years old or had a petite frame being any age up to twenty-one" - why is this ambiguous if shes going to blow a kiss? why is mr gentleman considering if shed be romantic interest material if thats the case? the age ambiguity is weird, i presume its a humor bit but it didnt really land for me

gotan stuff still continues to be good. setting his own heads on fire to distract a kid from touching the flame bowls- thats both funny and shows he might actually be protective/intelligent

the pizza scene broke my heart a little. gotan wants to eat it, starts crying, dry heaving, has to bury his heads in his feathers. :( there’s something up with this bird, but i dont know what juuust yet. sleeping with both heads, seeming disappointed when rick joins permanently, maybe snickering when mr gentleman loses- either gotans smart or mr gentleman is projecting hard

the tabloid bit made me laugh

the newspaper worldbuilding is an exposition dump

just straight up "heres the newspaper let me read you three articles about UBI, doduo disappearing, and neo island immigration policy" - it stops the story dead to deliver lore

some of this matters (doduo vanishing connects to earlier hints about neo buying shipments) but i think it couldve been woven in more naturally.

aaa its getting late, but great stuff so far! I'll keep working my way through :D im curious to see where this is going to go, since I have almost no context for where this game really goes and how this functions, there's some interesting hints of whats coming up and its amusing with a very unique world concept that I havent seen in pokemon fanfic before! :D

 

[rimly]

Spoiler: Chapters 9-11

the psychic club chapter is basically a joke which is funny. everyone just forfeits because they already know theyll lose. stephanie hands him booster packs without even dueling. "We can't be the only club to cower at your all-common deck. We do have some pride" - and then they immediately forfeit anyway. murray is still trying to bend that spoon with his mind while mr gentleman knows its a trick spoon and cant bring himself to say anything. the whole thing is like two pages and its mostly setup for whats coming

the ronald match in chapter 10 timeee

this is the first time mr gentleman has been genuinely challenged since jonathan. ronald knows his deck, knows his tactics, and the back-and-forth actually matters. the first game is a quick stomp but then ronald brings out hitmonchan and wins. the tiebreaker goes down to the wire with both of them at high prize counts

"That's it. THAT'S the potential I saw in you when you first defeated me and became Champion. All this with just a deck of common cards" - ronald respecting the win feels earned because it WAS a real challenge

also them working together on the mothzapper deck concept is sweet. mr gentleman finally has a friend again (besides rick whos mostly there for feathers)

and then chapter 11 happenssss

isaac is a VILLAIN. not just an antagonist, an actual villain. he manipulates his seven year old daughter to hurt mr gentleman emotionally. the setup is sooo tasty, jennifer asking if mr gentleman will let her win so her dad will take her to the amusement park, he throws the match because shes adorable, and then isaac uses that against him

"My poor little girl... He didn't duel you seriously. He was making fun of you. Since you didn't really win I can't take you to the amusement park now"- and jennifer starts CRYING because she thinks mr gentleman was mocking her. :(

the lighting effects during the confrontation are good staging. mr gentleman cant see anything, isaacs voice is circling him, then all the spotlights blind him while isaac tears into him. isaac genuinely believes mr gentleman is trying to steal his family, or is manuplating him, or is lying, who knows! but either way they're goating him and yeah, he responds.

isaac baited him into it but mr gentleman still swung first. which means isaac can claim self-defense when he punches him in the gut and tries to kick him

this undercuts mr gentlemans moral high ground (though he did lose it when he cheated earlier). yeah isaac is manipulating everyone and using his daughter as a weapon, but mr gentleman resorted to violence first.

gotan blocking the kick is great character work though. the bird who loves pain deliberately puts himself between isaac and mr gentleman to stop the violence. "If it weren't for Gotan's known love of pain I would have suspected he was helping!" - yeah no, gotans definitely helping. this is protective behavior

the stakes are now MASSIVE. if mr gentleman loses to isaac he has to give up being Champion permanently. if isaac loses he wont defend himself in a defamation lawsuit

also isaac banned him from the lightning club which means he cant complete his all-common tour of the clubs

I wonder if later the story going to address that mr gentleman cheated his way past jonathan.

i wonder if isaac actually villainous or does he have a point? from his perspective: his former best friend was way better at tcg, made him feel inadequate, married the girl he loved, and is now using an intentionally weak deck to embarrass people. the framing says isaacs wrong but i can see his side from an angle here