Other Features A tad of history in Kalos

[rolen120]

How I got the idea
During a class on the World Wars, I was thinking about Pokemon and found an interesting connection. The northern and north-eastern parts of Kalos bear a striking resemblance to France's post World War state. The entire article will be about WWI and not WWII simply because it is more accurate to the connections we see in Kalos.

A rough outline of the article

• First will be some background information on the cities and areas both in Kalos and France. I want to keep this part as brief as possible so I don't bore the readers.
• Next will be a paragraph (or maybe a series of them) about chronologically what happened in WWI France and compare the locations with Pokemon cities and routes.
  
• Next would be an analysis of Kalos asking the questions of what matches and what doesn't match.

Afterthoughts so far
This feels too short but I'm honestly not sure about how length. This is my first article submission and I'm ready to be hit hard with feedback.

 

[skylight]

Hi! Thanks for submitting an article idea. It's an interesting idea but since it's your first id like to see how you'd go about it so we can give more feedback. It's just that this topic could potentially be tackled a few different ways, so would you mind writing a sample paragraph for us? :) thanks for submitting nonetheless, and the idea is cool but formalities and all!

 

[rolen120]

Here goes. I want to mention beforehand that I am notorious for being able to write everything in passive voice but I'm trying to overcome it.
I honestly had no idea how this was going to look/sound until I starting writing it.


As soon as you reach Route 14 the tone of the game shifts majorly. This place is not like any of the last areas. Even the map description says "The lush trees and boggy swamps of this trail give off an eerie vibe, even in broad daylight." Surprisingly, it starts with an open field where a small empty playground was built. The playground doesn't seem happy like a playground should be. Instead it seems rather creepy especially because no one else can be seen in the area. No one really knows any explanation behind this playground, It just kind of exists. Pretty spooky when you think about it.
The other main feature in Route 14 is the Scary House. Again, no one knows any real reasons behind it other than to annoy players with a pointless story event. I think the Scary House may actually stand as a small reference to the Douaumont Ossuary. Those long words I put in right there are the name of a sort of memorial for the Battle of Verdun. In the memorial people have piled up any and all unidentified bones of soldiers. It looks nothing like the Scary House we find in the games but for a good reasons, it would simply make the game way too creepy. The narrator in the Scary House bases most of his story off of a horde of faceless men. The unidentified bones in the Ossuary match almost too well with the horde of faceless men. Geographically there is a slight hiccup however, I'm fairly certain the games were not going for accuracy in that sense. Again, I just want to point out possible theories and we don't certainly know quite a bit of information.

 

[skylight]

rolen120 I think I'm willing to give this a go. Just a few tips, though, I don't think it's really necessary to describe what the map says in quotes but rather paraphrase it. I think you should probably try to describe the things. Like a few things are up in the air like the playground. Why do you think that's the case? "Again, I just want to point out possible theories and we don't certainly know quite a bit of information." possibly not really necessary. And "Again, no one knows any real reasons behind it other than to annoy players with a pointless story event." is kiiind of obvious information. Just jump straight to your theories c: Also maybe describe a bit of the battle of verdun? Like just explain more in your paragraphs pretty much. And hoarde of faceless men could probs be re-explained. Most readers probably haven't replayed through Kalos in a few months so they don't really remember things that well. Sooo with that in mind it'd probably be best to flesh out a few things there. Just pretend that the readers don't know these things. Make it seem interesting to them to read, as well as educational.

Before I greenlight it, I'd like to see you write another paragraph where you put in a little more explanation and description into it, if that's okay. :3

 

[rolen120]

At this rate I'm going to have the entire article written before I get let in XD.

After Laverre City you reach Route 15, Brun way. Brun from French translates to brown. I’m not sure if that actually means anything but I think it’s worth pointing out. In this route you can find a variety of Dark-type and Ghost-type Pokemon. Mightyena makes almost a direct reference to war dogs. Pawniard stands out the most because of its reference to chess. In case you missed it when you were speed-running, this section of Kalos makes large reference to chess. With these ruined structures that have parts of chess boards it becomes very obvious a fight took place here. This looks quite a bit like many parts of modern France. There are many places where the trenches were that still have ongoing cleaning projects because of the leftovers from the first world war.

 

[skylight]

Okay I'm gonna say you're ready rolen120.

Thanks for your interest in writing for The Smog! We'll work on getting you access to Article Workshop as soon as possible. You can discuss the progress of your article(s) on #thesmog (on synirc) with other writers, however keep in mind this is the only place you can discuss your article(s). The channel name is also secret too, so keep that low key! If you have any questions, feel free to PM any of The Smog Staff, otherwise enjoy your time writing for the webzine. :)

Toast++ you know what to do.

Oh and in the future just edit the prefix at the top of the thread where you think this is most suited :) For this I'd say Other Features!

 

[Toast++]

kdone.

You should have access now.