frenemymine

@frenemymine

store-bought is fine

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frenemymine
@frenemymine
maleviolent
@maleviolent
devilrose
@devilrose

redraw of
Screenshot of the first battle with Silver in Pokemon Crystal

but with a design intermediate between GSC and HGSS

(longer notes after the cut for whoever is into character design analysis and early 2000s fashion)

Ken Sugimori's Gold/Silver/Crystal artwork for Silver
Ken Sugimori's HeartGold/SoulSilver artwork for Silver
made with @nex3's grid generator
  • fluffy hair from GSC - I took some hints about the shape from HGSS, but keeping it longer. He is after all "the boy with the long red hair"
  • a version of the suit jacket from HGSS. I think that in GSC he's supposed to be wearing one of those hoodies that everyone had in the early 2000s, with the massive kangaroo front pocket, but mistakes were made and in GSC it was drawn simultaneously as a zipper jacket and a front pocket hoodie.
  • Anyway, I like that HGSS gave him something that looks a bit like a suit jacket, to visually strengthen his relation to Giovanni
  • is that button on the shirt in the GSC design the Game Freak logo? :)
  • pants from the GSC design (the HGSS ones are similar though). I think they might be cargo pants, though without the awesome big pockets?
  • shoes from the GSC design but a bit more specific. clarified that the heel has the bubble that was all the rage back then and recently came back in style. otherwise kept them velcro and tall-ankle type, which is an unusual combination, but sure, why not? very Dragon Ball inspired.
  • face closer to the HGSS design. red eyes because why not. I appreciate that HGSS gave him a very distinctive face.
  • last note touching briefly on something that maybe could become an essay in the future - the more I look at Silver's original GSC design and storyline, the more I wonder if rather than the son of Giovanni, he was at some point meant to be the son of Lance. Red hair, similar outfit design as Gen 1 Lance (black and red with the tall boots), and that would explain why there's that whole scene where Lance tells him something offscreen that we never get to hear but seems to change him forever. Naturally this is definitely no longer a thing if it ever was, but I wonder.
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in reply to @devilrose's post:

maleviolent
@maleviolent

this is so well done, i think you blended the two designs together perfectly! at first, i didn't even realize it was both designs together, i just looked at it and went "yep that's silver!" this is because i forgot in gsc he has the goofy fleece hoodie front pocket/zipped jacket situation. very well done!!! the suit jacket vibes also kind of gives japanese high school uniform which feels like kaiba vibes you know? rude teenager would like to challenge you to a battle...

also i've never heard the "lance is his father" theory but it makes a lot of sense tbh! i've always been mystified by the conversation we don't get to hear. in the manga (which is not compliant to the games or to the anime, it's entirely its own thing), silver is kidnapped(? i think?) and raised as a child soldier by pryce/yanagi, the ice gym leader -- although no one knows it's pryce until like... quite a bit into the fiasco. so taking that general situation, the idea of him being kidnapped (from lance) and raised to be without morals (by giovanni) is thought-provoking... my new headcanon....!!!!

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devilrose
@devilrose

wa! thank you for the comment!

KAIBA that's who else he reminds me of like that yes! it is very important to have That look when you're going to be a rude nasty teenager who kicks you in the butt within the first five minutes of game.

I have never encountered that theory either, maybe it's just me :B
I'll be clear, GSC are my favorite Pokemon games but yes, there's an entire important conversation that we don't get to hear about two important characters and. Why. Previously I chalked it up to, that was just poorly done, and that's it. But maybe it is that the plot was retooled so much that the punch of that conversation being offscreen was lost? Because I can see that, if this relation with Lance had been built up more clearly until that moment, then we would have all filled in the blanks when that conversation happens offscreen, giving the reason why it is offscreen in the first place. With that conversation severed, it's just bafflingly away from sight.

Generally I realize more and more, often when something makes little sense in a story, something was wildly retooled and then lost among draft versions.

I haven't read Adventures but I am aware of that version of Silver, and I am also seeing that Pokemon Masters fleshed him up more from the son of Giovanni perspective, and I thought in both cases, that's good, it's good to fill in his character a bit from what was unfortunately missing in GSC.

The fanfiction potential!...

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