My pokemon Black rotation:

Free(Victini) level 44

Gen(Munna) level 11

Kai(Rufflet) level 40

Kurama(Serperior) level 41

Yusuke(Samurott)level 40

Kuwabara(Blaziken) level 42

JET!(Golurk) level 43

Hiei(Zweilous) level 63..onemore leveland I'll show Ghetsis what a real Hydreigon can do

I had trouble with a Mukrow earlier for some reason. It was in the red and I just couldn't get it. It KOed three of my Pokemon before I caught it in a Timer Ball. Man those things come in handy

Remember that Pokemon and Gym Leader thing I posted last month?

Well, more has come (I copy pasted this, so it's not my spelling or grammar)

Via Shell Spider and from the latest Nintendo Dream comes Ohmura talking about the Elite Four.

The Elite Four

Designed by Mr. Ohmura [Bianca, Cheren, Gym Leaders, Oshawott's line]
This time, the planner [Note: Not the designer] for the Gym Leader and the one for the Elite Four, Adler, Cheren and Biance was different.
The person who did the Gym Leaders was much more detailed in creating their backgrounds, and the person who did the Elite Four only gave broad orders.
Origianlly, they wanted to make Shauntel and Grimsley the 'black' and Caitlin and Marshall the 'white' ones, but it did not go as well as hoped [Translator's Note: Notice that this would divide the Four between Ghost and Dark and Psychic and Fighting. Also, they're not talking about skin colour].
A remnant of that for Ohmura is that he still sees Grimsley and Shauntel as Dracula and a werewolf.

Grimsley
Imagined him to be the son of a distinguished family who's since been ruined (I.E. become poor/fallen from grace).
As a result, he is throwing himself into gambling.
His garments are designed to show off his good pedigree.
Also, red and blue are the colours of roulette.
(Ohmura makes a comment that makes us think he know that Grimsley is not wearing socks, so is there a reason for it maybe?)

Shauntel
Ohmura's favourite character.
A woman hoping to become a novelist.
If you ignore the ribbon, gave her a really simple design.
Because she is a Ghost-type trainer, she was designed to look a little like a black cat.
Because of that, her ribbon faster stands out like a cat's nose and makes her look somewhat like a cat.

Marshall
The planner's idea was for him to be a 'Hardened Street Fighter'
He is an unqelcome pupil of Adler's, and he calls Adler 'master' but he has no idea what Adler is thinking.
He's not a very flexible type, and he broods a lot.
His original design had him wearing a big hood and cap and looked very strong, but, you couldn't see his face so he gave up on that design and made him have short hair like a monk.
He is a tiger, in contrast to Adler's lion and so his design alternated between yellow and black.
Because he's a street fighter, at first Ohmura didn't want to give him any particular 'school' (like Kendo) to follow, and had him wearing big baggy pants and a down vest (think Marty McFly, BTTF2) like they were a uniform, but he got advice from Sugimori and decided that before he was a street-fighter, he had done Karate.
His dad, who was an assistant karate instructor, said to him something like 'No matter what the fight, always where your Obi [belt]' and designed Marshall from that backbone.

Caitlin
A more grown up version of the Caitlin from Platinum and HGSS.
Because it's is a few years later [since those games' plots] she may look a little older.
When she was in the Battle Frontier she was supposed to look/be about 14,
and they designed her this time based on the element of the Battle Frontier version, but also gave her a tonne more hair.
He personally wanted someone who used Psychic-types to use their hair for psychic-abilities and so the two ribbons on either side of her hair are held up by psychic-powers and protect the hair-style.
They wanted to give her a slight air of self-importance so they folded her hands behind her back.
Because she's been using Pokemon since she's been young, she's quite strong, but she can't control her own psychic abilities and may loose the ability to control them.
Because of that chance, she came to the Unova region alone to challenge herself.
However, it is hinted that Darach may be watching over her closer than we think.

Here it is

Iris and Drayden were designed as opposites. Drayden is the oldest gym leader, while Iris is the youngest with a lot of potential. She came from the forest and seems to be raised by dragons, while he studied abroad to better understand his favorite type. Drayden is also meant to be a gentleman who is both smart and strong.

Brycen used to be a movie star who got into a slump after he was done making films. Alder told him to use his time to master pokemon so Brycen went alone into an icy cave and trained in silence to gain the most knowledge he could. He also feels it is important to conceal his identity.

Alder ended up having the appearance of a drifter and you can see with his clothes they are somewhat torn and ragged. Original design had a somewhat Christ-like image.

Emmet and Ingo are twins who are supposed to invoke a clown-ish image. Their jackets represent the mix of a subway track-like design with that of a clown's outfit.

Edit: Looks like they posted something else that was new

Pokemon Designs
Sugimori was head director of Pokemon Designs.

Tornedus, Thundurus, Landorus
Masuda [BW Director] asked for Pokemon based on Fuujin and Raijin.
They weren't completed until well into the second half of development.
Fuujin and Raijin are very close to looking human, so they thought hard about how to make them into Pokemon.
Asura statues etc have a really strong image so they asked the designer charged with making them to make their eyes really wide open or intimidating.
At first they were the Red Demon and the Blue Demon but that clashed with Sawk and Throh.
As a result, the horns that Nageki and Dageki originally had were removed and replaced with those eyebrows.
Landorus was added later, after there was a change made to the game.
The idea is to be like the god of soil.
Tornadus and Thundurus flow from their heads backwards, while Landorus flows from left to right, so the angle in their official art is different to set Landorus apart from the other two.

Mienfoo & Mienshao
From the planner's point of view, there weren't enough Fighting-types so they ask for these to be made. Because many of the previous Fighting-types have been human-shape, when they asked for an animal-like one, they got this design that's like a stoat.
Because, up until now, there had been no Fighting-Type that used elements of Kung-Fu, they decided to include that.

Deino, Zweilous, Hydreigon
At first, these incorparted an army tank motif, and the marks that look like a conveyor belt on the upper part of Zweilous's legs are the remnants of that.
Initially, they didn't work as designs and were basically 'put to sleep', however, a three-stage powerful Dragon-type family was ordered and they were resurrected.
In the second half of development, there was discussion about making them a colour that was not used much in the Pokedex, and from all the candidates, a strong looking purple was chosen.
The motif for the line are Yamata no Orochi (mythical Japanese serpent with 8 heads), but actually giving it so many heads made it a little displeasing so they gave Hydreigon one 'real' head, and made its arms and wings look like it had many heads when in silhouette.
The 'heads' of Hydreigon's are really hands and do not hold even the slightest bit of individual brain power.

Golett and Golurk
Designed by an Englishman [Translator's note: James Turner]
This designer will write/draw many pages of details about a single Pokémon.
The metal (?) fixture on Golurk's chest is sealing in uncontrollable power and Mr. Umino states that the seal looking like a band-aide is firmly intended and included as a part of the design.

Vanillite, Vanillish, Vanilluxe
Designed by the same Englishman.
He wanted to make them a 'fusion' evolution, like Dugtrio or Magneton, and suggested as such.
The idea is that Vanillite is a cup, Vanillish is a cone, Vaniluxe is a 2-scoop cone.
The ice on the upper sections of the body are simply covered in snow that looks like ice-cream but they have a proper ice-body hiding underneath.
There are designs of them with their snow completely removed, but these are yet to be released [Translator's Note: Vanillite was seen without its snow in the 4-panel comics from one of the guidebooks]

Durant & Heatmor
Both designed by Sugimori (Sawk, Throh, Zekrom, Reshiram).
These two are a set based on an ant and an ant-eater
These two appear on Victory Road,
There was born from an idea that the ants have dug the cave and that the ant eaters have entered in order to hunt and eat them.
From a long time ago they wanted to make an 'ant' Pokemon be the smallest Pokemon but, this time the form had more importance placed on it.
Because Heatmor is eating steel, added the images of an ironworks into its design.

Tynamo, Eelektrik, Eelektross
Ohmura (Oshawott's line) came up with the idea.
He believed that turning an eel into a monster would look really strong and that belief was realised into a Pokémon.
He says that in the past, he caught a really huge eel in a nearby river and it was really disgusting, but that atmosphere was combined with the original strong image of the line.
The one closest to the original image of disgusting and strong is Eelektrik.
They thought of Tynamo because they wanted the line to mirror how a real eel grows up in the Pokemon's evolution.

Rufflett & Braviary
The opposite of Mandibuzz.
Umino (Pansage, Pansear, Panpour) designed it early on in the development.
Because the region was based on New York, he instantly thought of a bald eagle.
Then, he tried adding the red, white and blue of the Star-Spangled Banner.
He wanted to make a Pokemon you knew was a bird of prey instantly, so he gave it powerful, thick legs and added elements of Native American art.
Rufflett has Native-American-style wings but he really like white-headed fluffy chicks so he basically made it into one of those.

Vullaby and Mandibuzz
Born quite late in development.
At the time the Englishman designed a bird Pokemon they had plenty, but they used his design as a counter-part to Braviary.
The bones on Vullaby are a nest made from the bones of other Pokemon, and Vullaby growns up inside of it.
When Mandibuzz is warming a Vullaby egg inside its nest, it matches the bones of Mandibuzz and look like it's sitting on an upside-down skeleton.

Foongus & Amoongus
Foongus catches trainers who mistake it for a Pokeball, but for Amoogus, no one is going to mistake it for a Pokeball so they included that as part of its [Japanese] name. [Translator's Note: Amoongus's JPN name is Morobareru which includes a verb that means 'to be uncovered/found out']
The black dot in the centre of its face is its mouth and from there it spits out spores.

Ferroseed & Ferrothorn
They were made after an order for a Grass/Steel combo came in the second half of development.
They were designed by the same person as Foongus and Amoongus.
The planner's suggested it be like a seed that attaches to clothing and things.
There's an idea that there'd by many of them attached to rock faces.

Basculin
Born from the realization that they needed to make a relatively 'standard' Water-type Pokemon, which they didn't originally have. Its designed to be a fish-type Pokemon that you could be eaten by.
It's based on a Bass because you can fish for Bass in New York.
They made two forms because of the low number of fish-type Pokemon in the dex.

What is your favourite Unova Pokemon?
Sugimori: Dwebble & Emolga
Umino: Trubbish
Ohmura: Amoongus

I hate when both of ur pokemon die while in a double battle and it won't let you take any of them out so u have to start over. I'm still trying to train t beat the 5th gym.

Oh, that Gym Leader thing, I thought you had one with them commenting on all the Gym Leaders. Anyway moving onto the new Pokemon Design comments:

Tornedus, Thundurus, & Landorus (Kami Trio):
I did find the Kami Trio a bit odd looking. I don't know why, we've had human-like Pokemon before (there's an Egg Group called "Humanshape"), yet I think it's because these were Legendary Pokemon that made it strange or more strange. Also interesting to hear that Throh and Sawk originally had horns but were changed to eyebrows because of Tornedus and Thundurus were also going to have a Red & Blue Demon thing. I wonder what change was made in the game that would call for the creation of Landorus (maybe deciding turning the Musketeer Trio into a quartet? Or maybe they wanted a more encouraging reason to transfer the other Kami into your other game). However I don't understand what the last part is trying to say, The only reason Landorus stands out in the official art is because it's facing forward:

Deino, Zweilous, & Hydreigon:
So they were meant to be a tank design? Also isn't a three-staged powerful Dragon-type family on the list of traditions? Generation I was Dragonite, Generation II had Tyranitar which while wasn't a Dragon-type did fit the role and look to be treated like a dragon, Generation III had Salamence, and Generation IV had Garchomp. And despite a "strong looking purple" being chosen to be their color, the Pokedex lists them as Blue. Also though Purple doesn't has as many as Red or Blue, Black is actually the less-used Pokemon color (and because part of their design is black I don't know why the programmers decided to place them in blue), and Pink and White have less Pokemon in it then Purple (though I kind of understand why they didn't choose pink, though if they made a ferocious pink dragon I would have... probably still laughed at them to be honest, though I would give them credit for trying). Oh, and they're based off Orochi, and yet they didn't make a white wolf Pokemon? Tsk tsk. Wait, so technically does that mean their is still no hydra Pokemon? Hmm, that's interesting, and if they do still make one there is a chance it could be the first Dragon/Poison-type!

Vanillite, Vanillish, & Vanilluxe:
Fusion evolution? I guess they count, but I think more people would agree Klink and its evolutions fit that bill better. So that white clump on their heads isn't their face and they actually have an icy face underneath with art to match. That would be interesting to see... actually after looking around, someone on Serebii posted said guidebook comic:

Durant & Heatmor:
So Durant was suppose to be the smallest Pokemon yet? Hm, I guess they liked the idea they decided to give that honor instead to Joltic.

Tynamo, Eelektrik, & Eelektross:
Oh child traumatic experiences, first you bring us Giygas and now this? Though with that joke aside, where exactly did the idea of giving the Levitate Ability and not make it part Water-type come from?

Rufflett & Braviary:
Oh it was so nice for them to remember "Oh yay, Unova is based on New York!". Seriously, they put no effort into the "based on New York" thing besides from Braviary, Castelia City, the Stadiums in Nimbasa City, and a few other things, the rest feels like they might as well just have it based in a faraway Japanese region. Oh and since when did Cowboys live in New York unless you're talking about a particularly unclothed one?

Vullaby & Mandibuzz:
Actually if Mandibuzz sits on Vullaby the bones will look like an upside-down skull not skeleton, but still a clever idea.

Basculin:
I like how they pretty much admitted Basculin was meant to be a Magikarp expy, lol.

Started Black yesterday. First part of the game, with a Snivy & Panpour was torture, so much wasted experience (FIVE rival battles, one gym, two Plasma encounters as well as N) before I could catch Drilbur, the earliest available Pokémon I wanted to use. Wish I had a second DS available so I could have traded something from White, but my old one used for trading for HeartGold is beyond dead...

So yeah, so far I've got a Drilbur & a newly evolved Whimsicott. Second gym (which I needed Servine for to lower HP before Drilbur came along (yes, it got enough experience to evolve just after the first gym!) was difficult, third gym was torture. Just completed the fourth gym, which should have been easier than it was...flipping Emolga...could have had some Joltik or Eelektrik, but now, flying types...and Drilbur learnt Rock Slide with the experience gained from beating Elesa...*sigh*...

I'm nicknaming them after characters from Hamlet. Servine is Claudius & Panpour Polonius. Drilbur gets Hamlet whilst Whimsicott is Yorick. I also plan to have Horatio the Beartic (he'll be my next catch, going to wait for winter once I've arrived at Mistralton so Cubchoo can blitz that gym), Ophelia the Volcarona, Laertes the Golurk (night trade a Golett with my White via GTS once I've seen it, get it a little early) and Fortinbras the Hydreigon (bred Deino on White to have Ice & Thunder Fang, I'll be trading him via GTS too).

So much fun Pokémonising some Hamlet lines...

"Frailty, thy name is 4x weakness to the Rock type."

"Something is rotten in the region of Unova."

"Do you know me, my lord?"
"Excellent well, you are a Magikarp salesman!"

EDIT: I want Kyogre to have Hurricane...

Mysterious Silhouette Discovered!

With generation of children being computer savvy, there are those who see a new feature on a website as a container of secrets that they can't help but to crack through. This new feature today is the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online and the secret that has been cracked is an unknown silhouette of possibly a new Pokemon:

It looks to be a canine creature with spikes on its back.

Though we know next to nothing about this silhouette, it still brings a boatload of questions (besides the obvious "What is it?"): What is it's connection with the main games? Will it be in the third Generation V game, fan-named Pokemon Grey? Is it a new Pokemon altogether or an evolution/pre-evolution/alternate form of a current existing Pokemon?

Right now there is only one thing to do, and that's wait...

Anyone else managed to complete the Break Out game on Pokémon.com yet?

EDIT: Not sure this has been discussed here, but I've just discovered that you no longer need badges to use HMs. I've just traded a Panpour with Surf to my Black and I can Surf! I'm off to get my Larvesta egg two badges early! Pretty awesome development in my opinion.

Yes, but there are certain situations, most prominently trading. This is particularly notable on Meister's Island in Sinnoh.

You trade with someone else to get a Finneon, never picking up a rod throughout the game. You teach it Surf and nothing else. You take it and nothing else to Meister's island, and trade it for his Magikarp You have no Rare Candies. What do you do? You're on an island with only a Magikarp and no way to encounter a wild Pokémon.

Not often that that can happen, but...yeah.