As The Pokeball Turns
Imagine a Pokemon interview podcast where every episode dives into personal stories of Pokemon Trainers like YOU.
From picking your first starter Pokemon, meeting lifelong friends, to epic Pokemon Battles, we explore the highs, lows, and unforgettable moments that make Pokemon a lifelong passion that drives us to become the best like no one ever was.
If you're ready for heartfelt moments, surprising insights, and the ultimate celebration of Pokemon, this Pokemon podcast is your next adventure!
More people. More stories. And more Pokemon!
As The Pokeball Turns
TRAINER'S EYE #138 - "Quagsire's Time Capsule" ft. Blue Moon Falls
In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Blue Moon Fallas, a Pokemon Trainer and webmaster of Blue Moon Falls, a passion project fan site for Generations 1 and 2 Pokémon videogames, documenting information, lore, and sprites.
Blue Moon Falls starts her Pokemon journey with Pokemon Leaf Green & FireRed. She is drawn immediately to the Pokemon and the world behind them. Her deep connection with Pokemon Mystery Dungeons allowed her to really grasp and understand Pokemon and the stories they develop before any interaction with a Pokemon Trainer.
Blue Moon Falls reveals her life with disabilities and the misperception behind them. Diagnosed with autism, POTS, and DID, she reveals how her mind works and how Pokemon allowed her to connect with other individuals with similar stories.
Pokemon allowed her the stepping stones to help build her life and is the catalyst for how she approaches life today.
Blue Moon Falls delves into Pokemon 3: Spell of the Unown. She shares the deep story the writers were telling in regards to loss and grief. She identifies with the tragic fate of Molly Hale and how she fears stepping into a future without parents and a preference to stay in the past. You don't want to miss this deep dive into this Pokemon movie!
Finally, Blue Moon Falls dives into the origins of her website. She shares how she was inspired by her interest in documentation and creating a resource for Gen 2 sprites for Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Stadium!
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with Blue Moon Falls: Website | Bluesky
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt
My name is Ayano from Blue Moon Falls, and this is my Pokémon story.
David Hernandez:Welcome to, as the Pokeball turns, we will interview people about their experience with Pokemon. My name is David Hernandez. I'm joined by Ayana from Blue Moon Falls, web host of the website. Ayana, welcome to As the Pokeball Turns.
Blue Moon Falls:Hi, thank you!
David Hernandez:thank you for taking time out of your schedule. And I think a lot of people may not know who you are, but you actually have a very cool website where you kind of dive into like Gen 2 and you also share the sprites. Can you give like people inside of like, what's their website about?
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, so, um, my website is Bloomin Falls. I made it back in, oh god, what year was it? It's been three years at this point. Um, I think 2021 was when I made it. Yes, took me a second. and it's meant to just be a general fan site for, the first two generations of Pokémon. it's very video game centric, so not as much the TCG and anime. and I just do whatever I want related to those, uh, video games on there. Um, there's some articles and there are also tools that you can play with to, mess with your save files or, See other statistics and values related to the games
David Hernandez:I have never seen such an homage to gen two specifically, because I think you uploaded some sprites from, I think it was Pokemon stadium, Pokemon stadium two to where you have the different colors, if I'm not mistaken,
Blue Moon Falls:Oh yeah, there is a tool on the site called the Stadium Hue Previewer, and it has all of the idle animations of the 3D models used in the Stadium 1 and 2 games on the N64 and can drive a slider to hue shift them, because the, um, Stadium 1 and 2 games had a hue shifting feature where a nicknamed Pokémon would be a slightly different color. It's kind of the precursor to Shinies, almost. and the website lets you preview, uh, the colors as they would look on the N64.
David Hernandez:what made you want to start that website? clearly you must be passionate about those generations to have your own website and do all that information.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, so it's funny, people usually think that I'm older than I am, like I must have had experience with Generations 1 and 2 when I was a kid, but
David Hernandez:Mhm.
Blue Moon Falls:I got started with Generation 3, and I didn't play Generation 2 until, the very beginning of 2021, and I was just really surprised by how much I enjoyed them. I just really got into it for some reason.
David Hernandez:Mhm.
Blue Moon Falls:had a lot of fun with my first playthrough and everything, and then towards the end of 2021, I I remember I was trying to train my Pokemon for Pokemon Stadium 2, beating the various battle cups in it, Generation 2 has a precursor to a thing called EVs, they're just, it's a thing in the modern Pokemon games, I was trying to gain stat experience, which is the EV precursor, and I couldn't find much documentation on it, and then actually doing it was a big pain. there was no way to like, automatically calculate it as I was doing it. And then I was like, it's kind of weird that games this old don't have the best modern documentation sometimes on more of this niche stuff. And then I just spontaneously decided, what if I did it? What if I fix this issue? So then I made Bloomin Falls an impulse in an afternoon, and now it's been going for three Mm hmm, mm
David Hernandez:because sometimes we get so caught up in the main series. And, I'd look at it from Pokemon Coliseum and Pokemon XT. Those are very niche games, but there's not much data unless you're very dedicated to it. Going back to you playing Pokemon city and Pokemon stadium too. I remember playing those games a lot. I remember frustrated as hell with them as well.
Blue Moon Falls:Yes.
David Hernandez:And then
Blue Moon Falls:difficult.
David Hernandez:they are, they are immensely difficult. And then just seeing how the different colors of. The Pokemon not realizing like, I guess they're tied to the nicknames that people really wouldn't know unless that information is out there.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, I think the nickname hue shift feature has been relatively known about. Like, if you were to look it up, you'd be able to find out. they change color based on the nickname.
David Hernandez:Right.
Blue Moon Falls:but we didn't know the exact details, for a while. there's research done by somebody, online into how exactly the nickname feature works. It basically checks each letter and then it does some math on the value that represents each letter in the nickname and it compares it with your trainer name and ID and then it spits out a final to hue shift And that's how it determines how far the Pokémon should be shifted in either direction of color. But this was all contained in a Google document. It super accessible and also there was no like automatic thing to see the different colors live. So I took the research, I consolidated it into an article with more images and probably easier to read, and then I made the hue shifter for it. for ages we didn't know the exact details, and then the exact details were all just in a Google document.
David Hernandez:where everything is usually
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, much. Actually,
David Hernandez:you know, your first game was actually with the gen three games, Pokemon, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Talk to me about Josh.
Blue Moon Falls:um, Pokemon Leaf Green was the first game that I
David Hernandez:Oh, really? So you did Canto still.
Blue Moon Falls:Yes.
David Hernandez:tell me about your first experience diving into Pokemon, like playing Leafgreen.
Blue Moon Falls:So, I was, uh, four years old when I had a babysitter, who was like a teenager at the time, and she, Brought her Pokemon Leaf Green to our house, I guess, just cause She got bored. Me and my sister were pretty well behaved. Um, so she would be playing leaf green on the couch and I'd start incessantly asking her questions what she was doing because I thought it was really interesting. and then that year I begged my mom to get me leaf green and the same exact, GBA SP that she had for my birthday on my fifth birthday. And then I got it. I don't remember playing my first playthrough super well because, uh, I was five. but I did pick Squirtle as my first starter because, my babysitter had Blastoise, so I was copying her. that being said, I do consider Bulbasaur to kind of be my first starter because I used to replay the game a lot and I would always pick Bulbasaur. That was kind of the first choice I made of my own and not copying my babysitter. Um, Yeah, that's about it. I used to replay the game over and over because I didn't have any of the other Pokemon games yet So whenever I wanted to play Pokemon, I just restarted Leafgreen a million times
David Hernandez:What did your babysitter think once you got the game? Like, would y'all play the games together? Like was there any kind of connection melt that way?
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, actually we didn't play the games together as much as we Drew together. Uh, she was an artist, hobbyist, and we would print out pictures of various Pokemon and like draw them while she was over together So that was our main Pokemon thing going forward. It was more of just drawing them
David Hernandez:What Pokemon do you remember drawing at the time? Cause I think you said you dabble in artists, if I'm not mistaken.
Blue Moon Falls:Yes, I think we're gonna talk about me having DID later, but you know, one of my alters is, uh, an artist, and so I have art experience kind of through her. Uh, I don't do it very much anymore, but she does, so,
David Hernandez:Mm hmm.
Blue Moon Falls:history is full of art and stuff, so we drew a lot of Pokemon. Mostly Pikachu. Just really like Pikachu. It's what it's made for, it's the mascot.
David Hernandez:That's true. That's true. Hey, better than me and Ali can draw a voltorb and an electrode because they're circles. Ha ha ha.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, makes sense.
David Hernandez:You said, like, you have an altar. Can you give, like, insight on, like, what is that, for those who aren't familiar?
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, so I have dissociative identity disorder. it's a disorder caused by childhood trauma. but it's characterized by having these things called alters. people. usually know them as like multiple personalities in air quotes. We don't call it that anymore, they're called alters. it's basically I have kind of other people in my brain who sometimes take over and do their own thing and then I come back and it's a little hard to explain, but, I've been living with it my entire life. So, yeah.
David Hernandez:At what point did you, I guess, discover that you had this D. I. D.? And, you know, how did it come about that, when it first happened, or what early memories do you have?
Blue Moon Falls:Well, that's a little convoluted because DID is a disorder that's very covert, usually,
David Hernandez:Sure.
Blue Moon Falls:who have it. People with DID often don't realize they have DID for a pretty long time, usually into adulthood. Not always, people can realize earlier, but a lot of people don't realize until their 30s and 40s. Obviously, I'm not in my 30s or 40s, so I realized a bit earlier than that. I realized I had alters when I was 16. Um, I wasn't diagnosed with anything yet. I just realized there was something going on. then through multiple years struggle in the, uh, mental health system for a long time, because DID is really hard to get diagnosed, even if you have it. Just,
David Hernandez:Yes.
Blue Moon Falls:of people who are knowledgeable on it. so, I finally got the right doctor in, like, 2019, and I got diagnosed with it. So, I've been diagnosed for, um, six years now? Like, more like five and a half, because it was the latter half of, 2019. But yeah, so it's been, it's been a while. I've known more or less that I have it for nine years, and then I've been diagnosed for six.
David Hernandez:I think it's difficult for people who aren't in the mental health sphere, because people will think like, oh, maybe you're just like make believe and pretending making your own, personality, but it's more complex than that, because it's like you have a different personality. to where it comes out with, you know, controlling, you still believe it. And for me, it reminds me of when I had clients who had schizophrenia
Blue Moon Falls:hmm.
David Hernandez:they would not like down to the bone, believe there's something coming out of that TV. There's something that there's shadows after them. There's things under their skin, stuff like that to where they're not lying. They actually physically believe it. And that's what it seems similar to me. Like it's obviously schizophrenia and DID is different, But that's the closest comparison I can remember from my own experience. And I can understand that. Yeah. Some people just think you're kind of BSing, but you really aren't. Unfortunately.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, and the thing is DID also comes with a of other symptoms. It's not just the themselves. so, more complex than people give it credit for. I think people just have that misunderstanding that it's kind of just make believe playing pretend as other people just because it, it kind of looks that way on the outside if you don't know what's going on, but it's not. It's a known psychological phenomenon and it's a real thing and, and there's also a lot more to it than just the personality changing aspect, so.
David Hernandez:going back to the Pokemon side of things, you had an alter where you are drawing. You're still engaged with the franchise of playing Pokemon Leaf Green. Did you continue to stick with the franchise throughout. And what about the franchise? Did you enjoy playing
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, we've been Pokémon fans entire life. my mom getting me leaf green for my birthday was a life changing event and my life was never the same after that. Pokémon has been in my life ever since. It's mostly been the video games, most of my life. I did have a brief stint with the TCG in 2019, 2018. And then the pandemic hit, and It became really hard to collect cards because of all the scalping, and I haven't gone back to it since. So, time with the TCG was very brief. and then, I'm actually into the anime now, with the newest season, but I was not into the anime before Gen 9, so, the video games my entire life and I've bought them as they come out and, play them when they're new. so I've seen every generation since Gen 3.
David Hernandez:Do you have a particular favorite, set of games or generation that you enjoy playing more and more?
Blue Moon Falls:Well, you may be surprised to find out it's Gen 2. Yeah, um, it's kind of funny because, again, I don't, I mean, I had the Kanto experience from but I, I just never really I haven't had any feelings about Generations 1 or 2, and all of them are recent in the past two years. But, it's definitely Gen 2. And the more that I play it, the more I like it. So I'm pretty set on it as my favorite.
David Hernandez:Was it about more recent compared to maybe when you first started them that you think caught your interest and made it one more of your favorites now?
Blue Moon Falls:If I'm being honest, it's kind of a mix of things. Because, on one hand, I just do really like the games. the art style. I like the feeling of playing them. I like the simplified battle style.
David Hernandez:Mm hmm. Mm
Blue Moon Falls:less Without the natures and all the complicated stuff, It's almost like, uh, Rock, Paper, Scissors with the type matchups and stuff. I mean, there's, there's more stuff going on than just that, but, I do like the simpler aspects of it, and just all the features and all the side stuff around it too. I just find it all really fascinating by itself. but when I played Gen 2, I was also going through a hard time in my life.
David Hernandez:hmm.
Blue Moon Falls:think Gen 2 kind of helped me with that. And that amplified my attachment to it. So, it's kind of a mix of both things.
David Hernandez:Sounds like Gen 2 is kind of your, I guess, soothing point or your safe space to kind of go to when your life was kind of falling apart and it kind of became a way for you to kind of find yourself when the, you know, the whole world's crashing down.
Blue Moon Falls:And it's funny, because then it led me to making a website, which made me realize even more about myself, which is that I actually want to do web development professionally at some point. Um,
David Hernandez:Oh, wow. Really? Okay.
Blue Moon Falls:yeah, I had no idea when I made the website that it would become such a big deal for me, but, that's actually why I'm back in college now. I want to, do web development. So
David Hernandez:It's kind of interesting to see how Pokemon can be a catalyst for so many people, because for you, it was going back to Gen 2 that led you to me making the Blue Moon Falls website, and now it leads to your potential future career aspirations. That's kind of cool to see how Pokemon is intertwined in your life.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, it's funny because I've met a lot of people have gotten into coding of some sort through Pokemon, which makes a lot of sense because they're video games, but, it just seems to be a common running thread with other people as well.
David Hernandez:Now, I know that we got to talk about your favorite movie, and that's Spell of the Unknown, which came out around the time of Johto. Tell us about that.
Blue Moon Falls:I'm going to be totally honest, I re watched the movie this weekend just to prepare for this podcast. and also just because I wanted to, I really liked the movie.
David Hernandez:Right. Right. Yeah.
Blue Moon Falls:But um, I was like, oh I should re watch it again. Um, yes, Spelled and Unknown is my favorite Pokemon movie, pretty much by a landslide. Uh, it makes me cry every single time I watch it, and I'm 25 years old, so that's saying something. I just really like its depiction of Molly Hale, the little girl character in it. I know that the movie, I'm forgetting the name of the person who wrote it, but the person who wrote it. wrote it for his actual daughter in real life. this was the last Pokemon movie he wrote before he passed away. And I know that he struggled with, like, drug addiction and a bunch of stuff. So, this movie was kind of a love letter to his daughter before he passed away. in the Japanese version, the Molly is named after his daughter. Has a different name. I don't
David Hernandez:Oh, wow. I had no idea about this. Yeah.
Blue Moon Falls:it's crazy. I think, a lot of the interviews and, online posts related to this have only been translated in recent times. I think by, um, Dr. Lava, uh, if you know who he
David Hernandez:Yes. Yes.
Blue Moon Falls:anyway, tangent aside, I think re watching it as an adult, uh, made me realize just, like, how much emotion and, like, serious themes were actually packed into this movie that I did not notice as a kid. Which makes sense, considering where it came from, the basic plot is that, um, there's a girl named Molly Hale and her dad is like a researcher of the unknown, the Pokemon. and he goes to some unknown ruins to research and it never really explains why the unknown do this, but they, they basically teleport him into another dimension, some sort of torment nexus. I don't know.
David Hernandez:It's probably the troll. That's just to be honest.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, yeah, they're just trolling him. And, you know, he disappears. her mom, it says that she disappeared in the dub. I'm pretty sure in the original Japanese, it's more explicit that she's in the hospital for being like really ill or something, but that's besides the point. Both of her parents are gone. and she's obviously very upset about this. She's like five or something. Both her parents are gone. probably dead. Who knows? And The unknown, like, hear her being upset, and like, she's like, messing with some unknown letters on the floor, and the unknown gets summoned to her, and in this movie, the unknown has the power to like, new realities based on people's thoughts and feelings, so essentially, trauma and her grief about her parents gets projected outside of her, and it makes an imaginary Entei because her and her dad read a book together about Entei and she always thought he was cool like Entei and, you know, brave like Entei. So this Entei appears, that the Unknown created and he, like, takes the position of her father for her. and then a bunch of stuff happens from there. Ash and Co have to, basically get her to be like, hey, reality is cool, actually. Um, yes.
David Hernandez:But I mean, That's difficult though, because. basically add more insight. It's basically a book about mythical legendaries of the Pokemon world at that time. And that's what her and her father would read like as kind of a bedtime story. And, you know, once her dad leaves, what does she have left? She's in her by herself with a mansion, you know, her mom, you know, is of course sick. Her dad is nowhere to be found. That's difficult to kind of come to wrestle with, especially at such a young age. Anyway, you were saying, so what, uh, with the movie, I remember that you know, of course the entity comes to life, the unknown, I think they start building like some kind of crystal barrier around the mansion.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, the crystals kind of explode outwards from the mansion, and they encase it, and are like destroying the landscape around and blocking other people out, because she doesn't want anyone to interfere with like her perfect imaginary family, uh, Entei, and also Entei kidnaps Ash's mom. So they're encased in this crystalline castle, pretty much.
David Hernandez:I guess, some of the stuff that you picked up later on that you enjoy about the movie that you didn't pick up when you were younger?
Blue Moon Falls:I just really relate to Molly. the childhood trauma aspect is very raw in the movie, surprisingly. I feel like the depiction of Molly was just really on point. like, for one, Ash's mom gets kidnapped by her, um,
David Hernandez:Oh yeah. She thinks it's the mama. Yeah. I forgot about that.
Blue Moon Falls:she projects motherhood onto Ash's mom and like makes her into her mom. And even when, Ash's mom comes to, like, she remembers where she is and realizes that she's been kidnapped. she still empathizes with Molly. She doesn't like freak out at her or get angry at her. She recognizes that she is a hurting child who is missing her mother and is able to show her care. Even when, um, Entei is fighting Ash, like, Delilah is like to, like, at one point she hugs her and, is trying to tell her like, we don't need to fight and stuff. Like, there's a world out there who loves you. and the, the whole like message of the movie is that. Like, there are real people who will love her, and she doesn't need to be in this imaginary universe to be safe and comfortable. And all the conflict stops, not because Ash, like, defeats Entei, but just because she wants them to stop fighting, and she wants to be with real people again.
David Hernandez:Mm hmm.
Blue Moon Falls:and I just thought that was such a powerful message for going through so much. Just people being willing to see how she is hurting despite the terrible things she's doing, and then bring her to a better place. It's really touching for me. It makes me cry every time I watch it.
David Hernandez:I mean, like I said, it's a very tough topic to talk about because again, you know, she has, you know, that trauma of not having both parents and she has kind of come to, it's basically anybody who's lost anybody or has been through that kind of trauma in general, you know, it's what it's like to kind of be in the darkness and feel your world kind of crash it behind you. And then want to go back to what it was and that's kind of what
Blue Moon Falls:hmm.
David Hernandez:was. She wanted to go back to the time when she was happy when she both had a mom and a dad. She didn't want to kind of face it and I couldn't blame her. Like I I said, they didn't hold back with that movie. That's why it's one, it's a very underrated movie. I remember we talked a little bit about it. I said, I felt that that movie is underrated compared to the other two. Cause I feel like the other two kind of overtake it. But that one is just, I think honestly, one of the better ones that people should watch. Yeah.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, I agree with you. Um, I think a lot of people probably watched it when they were younger and liked it just fine, but it didn't like stand out or anything. I mean, it has some cool fight scenes in it, but I think a lot of it goes over your head until you re watch it as an adult. and people just probably haven't given it that chance. I think that's why it's underrated. That's my guess anyway.
David Hernandez:Hey, it's probably true. Hey, if y'all need to watch Pokemon spell the unknown and let me know if you do,
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah.
Hey you! Yes, you with the ears! Don't go anywhere, just taking a quick ad break. We'll be right back. Hey, trainers, come out to Trainer Con. It's a dynamic Pokemon marketplace and convention offering fans a vibrant place to buy, sell, and celebrate all things Pokemon and collectible. We have trading cards, collectibles, handmade artists are gonna be there. It'll be held March 23rd, 2025 from 10 to 5:00 PM at Dallas Event Center in Farmers Branch at 43 43 Sigma Road in Farmers Branch, Texas. A special thank you to Matt Monkeybread, Gus Ulrich, and all other patrons for your continued support. Now let's get back to the episode.
David Hernandez:of course you played Pokemon games, but you also play Pokemon mystery dungeon, which is the spinoff of the Pokemon main series games. Tell us like, what's your experience with those games and what do you love about those compared to the main series games? I
Blue Moon Falls:in the Pokemon themselves. my opinions have since changed. I also love Pokemon trainers now, but when I was a kid, I thought the Pokemon were, you know, the most interesting part of the Pokemon franchise.
David Hernandez:still have hope. I like you.
Blue Moon Falls:so I saw, um, commercials on TV for, um, Explorers of Darkness and Time were about to come out, and I was seeing the commercials for them. I was like, oh my god, a world without humans, and it's just the Pokemon, that's awesome! So I basically just asked it for it for Christmas, that year just so I could play the Pokemon, because I just, I thought that was inherently interesting. I was not expecting the really good story they have. it was the first video game to ever make me cry. and so I have a lot of nostalgia for them, just for the fact that I was so blown away by the surprise, really nice story. and I've played them in recent times. not as much as main series, still really love them. I'm still very nostalgic about them. So.
David Hernandez:do you have any, uh, key moments that you remember from playing those games? Like any scenes that like, I guess maybe touch you and then you still kind of let live and free in your head.
Blue Moon Falls:This is the most straightforward answer that everyone says about these games, but the ending, where you're, I don't know if you're familiar with the ending of History Dungeon, but um, You basically die at the end. You change the future, but you are from the future, in like, the Explorers games. when you change the future, you disappear, and your partner watches you disappear in front of them, and then they go home crying, and like, telling your story, and the credits roll, and when you're a kid, like, You're just like, oh, I'm dead! Like, the game's over! That's it! It's really, like, it's a tearjerker. It has, like, this very beautiful music playing. And, oh my gosh, it's, like, really heavy. and then after the credits roll, then it reveals that Dialga is, like, thankful for you saving the future. And then he uses his time powers to bring you back. but, at first you think you're gone forever. And That will always stay in my brain forever, because again, first game to make me cry and that's the first time I cried over it,
David Hernandez:Oh yeah. And it's like, oh my gosh, I'm not coming back. There's not going to be a sequel.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, I thought, I thought I just wouldn't be able to play the game anymore, like it's over, I'm gone, but no, you come back at the end,
David Hernandez:Dude, could you imagine like if they did that in the main series games? That'd be wild.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, that'd be crazy.
David Hernandez:It's like I became Pokemon champion and then all of a sudden just pass out and slowly pass away.
Blue Moon Falls:Oh my god, your poor Pokemon get lost in some save file purgatory forever.
David Hernandez:Well, I mean, that's what always made me sad, uh, especially with the Pokemon movies, you know, Pokemon first movie, of course, but then also I think the one that with, uh, Pikachu was worried that Ash had passed away and he, you know, the one time he spoke and it still made me cry.
Blue Moon Falls:You?
David Hernandez:Yeah, I choose you. That's what it was. And it always made me cry to see like how much Pikachu cared about Ash and just seeing those emotions of, you know, what does happen when a Pokemon, when we do move on, you know, like in the Pokemon world, it's yeah.
Blue Moon Falls:I've watched I Choose You before only once, but I remember that one sequence where Ash is like in real life and everything is grayscale and like Pokemon aren't real for a little while, that was that was crazy.
David Hernandez:It was,
Blue Moon Falls:mind more than anything else.
David Hernandez:Because of your experience with Pokemon, you gotta have a favorite Pokemon. What is your favorite Pokemon?
Blue Moon Falls:My favorite Pokémon is Quagsire. there is no competition. Quagsire is my number one favorite Pokémon. when I was first playing Pokémon Crystal, I walked into the grass on the first route that has Wooper and I saw Wooper and I fell in love. I just, that was it. I, I loved Wooper from the instant I saw it in Pokémon Crystal for the first time. and. Then I was already getting into shiny hunting at the very start of my playthrough, um, which is kind of a long story that I might be able to get into in a second, but I shiny hunted a wooper and then evolved it and I had a shiny quagsire on my team named Jelly, and Jelly is like my one and true partner forever, I love her very much.
David Hernandez:Aww. what was the story behind the shiny hunting, since we're already in it?
Blue Moon Falls:Oh my god, yeah, so, Originally, one of my alters was actually playing Crystal, and then I wanted to play it instead, so we, we switched off, um, and then it became my playthrough afterwards. but she had the misinformation, consider, we had never played Gen 2 before, and we didn't really talk to anyone who had before now. So, we didn't know that this was misinformation, but she thought that The shiny odds for gift Pokemon, like, stuff you get from NPCs and stuff, like, including the starters, was around 1 in 120. this came from, like, a YouTuber, she's since corrected the information, it was just an accident. but, We just took her at face value. It's like, okay, sure, uh, the gift Pokemon in Crystal have an odds of like 1 in 120 or so. And so she was like, okay, why not restart for a shiny starter? Why not do the resets? And then she actually got it in 126 resets. Which,
David Hernandez:Oh my god.
Blue Moon Falls:confirmed the, the misinformation to us. and so when she gave the playthrough to me, she let me have the cartridge and then I started playing. she hadn't even left the first town. She basically just got that shiny and then stopped. so it's my playthrough now and I was like, hmm, well, since she got a shiny so fast, why don't I reset for the, the gift Eevee from, from Bill? And, you know, I go, I pass 120 resets and I'm like, okay, I'm a little unlucky. No big deal. And then I get to like, I think 400 resets or so, and I'm like, I don't think this is right. I feel like I should have gotten it by now.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh.
Blue Moon Falls:google the information, I find out the odds are 1 in 8, 192. I have a very late surprised reaction about my Cyndaquil, because I had no idea it was that lucky. But then, I had already sunk all the time into this Eevee. I did 400 resets, and I'm like, I don't want to give up, so I kept going, and I kept going, and I spent an entire month shiny hunting that Eevee until I got it at like one hun eight thousand, hundred something resets,
David Hernandez:Almost full odds, wow. Yeah.
Blue Moon Falls:yep, and I got really lucky. I had such a rush of emotion finally getting it after working so hard for a month. I was like, oh, I want to do shiny hunting more. Um,
David Hernandez:Oh god.
Blue Moon Falls:obsessed with shiny hunting during the playthrough and actually my first team ended up being six entire shinies. I'm kind of a Fulads purist now. I don't mind what other people do, I just like Fulads a lot. But I wasn't a Fulads purist yet. So, um, I hunted Wooper there's like an egg method in Gen 2. It's not called Masuda Method, it's a different method, but,
David Hernandez:Mm hmm. Ha ha ha ha.
Blue Moon Falls:odds, and I got the shiny grouper, and that is, that's how I started shiny hunting, and now I'm a shiny hunter because of this misinformation that I thought was true and then it wasn't, so.
David Hernandez:do you prefer like the full odds because of the challenge or like what makes that your more preference to kind of get shiny Pokemon?
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, it's kind of just about the journey for me, I don't care as much about the end result. Of course I love having the shiny Pokemon, but shiny hunting for long periods of time, it makes me associate the end result with, like, the people I hung out with during that time, and the other things I was doing while I was shiny hunting. So they kind of become mini, like, time capsules, almost, and I get to, like, hang out with people while I do it because it's very, like, brain dead, like, floods hunting is very just press the same buttons thousands of times. it's just kind of a social and memory capsule type of thing, which is why I like it so much.
David Hernandez:It reminds me of my first experience with Wooper because I loved Wooper myself. And I always wanted to be an artist of some sorts growing up because I was always jealous of people who could draw well. And I remembered like, look, I want to say I drew this. So, I think it was actually the Pokemon the movie. They had the pre Pikachu, scene or something like that where Pikachu head butted a Quagsire at some point. And
Blue Moon Falls:I remember what you're talking
David Hernandez:What I did is I paused the movie on my VCR and I got myself a little notebook paper and put it on top of the screen and traced around it just and then that way, you know, they can't see. I just like traced it. But now I was like and then I went to school. I'm like, no, I drew it. Where are you going to see this image from? This is from the movie because I wanted to be an artist so bad.
Blue Moon Falls:That's actually really cute.
David Hernandez:Oh, thank you.
Blue Moon Falls:And actually, you're thinking about the start of the third Pokemon movie? Uh, Spell of the Unknown.
David Hernandez:Yeah, I mean.
Blue Moon Falls:that movie,
David Hernandez:Yeah, because it was right before the, uh, the, I think it was during the credits actually, or the, uh, introduction.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, the opening credits, uh,
David Hernandez:Yes.
Blue Moon Falls:battles a random girl.
David Hernandez:Yep. Never see her again.
Blue Moon Falls:Yep, that Quagsire. They've actually retconned Quagsire's design since Gen 2, but the movie has the old Quagsire design,
David Hernandez:Well, I was going to actually ask you about that since, you know, you have such a fondness for Wooper and Cloudsire. What are your thoughts on Paladin, Wooper, and of course, Cloudsire?
Blue Moon Falls:Oh, they're adorable. I love them. They're not like, they'll never hold a candle to the original Quagsire for me, but I do love them. I think they're very cute.
David Hernandez:Okay. Did you actually use them for your Scarlet Violet playthrough?
Blue Moon Falls:Scarlet and Violet is the only Pokemon game I have not played.
David Hernandez:Really? Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't know that.
Blue Moon Falls:well, one of my alters has
David Hernandez:Mm
Blue Moon Falls:it, so I know about it,
David Hernandez:hmm.
Blue Moon Falls:played it, if that makes sense.
David Hernandez:It does, it does, yeah.
Blue Moon Falls:yeah, but I haven't personally finished a playthrough. The open world stuff just isn't for me, so, um, I haven't played it, and I'm into the anime right now, so I still, like Palde and
David Hernandez:hmm. Do you prefer, like, more of, I guess, the restriction when it came with the pixel games compared to now where everything's open world and you can kind of walk around?
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, I just like, the grid based RPG stuff, I know that BDSP is very controversial, but I do like BDSP on the Switch just because it's in the gameplay style that I like.
David Hernandez:What has kept you kind of coming back to play Pokemon over and over? Because, you know, you've been a long time fan, you've gone through most of the games outside of the open world stuff, What is it about the franchise that you keep enjoying that makes you want to stick with it?
Blue Moon Falls:That's a really good question, because I could answer in like 10 million different ways, it feels like,
David Hernandez:Let's go. We got 10 million minutes to go.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, I guess so. but like, there's, you know, my website. I really, I do genuinely enjoy the process of documentation. There's just something about compiling information that I find very satisfying. probably on account of me being autistic. That's very possible. but I love doing that. And then, I do genuinely just love the world of Pokemon. I think it's comforting, There is childhood bias. I played it as a kid, and enjoyed it as a kid. So, I enjoy it now, partially for that reason. but the Pokemon games are just so expansive. There are so many details in them. it feels like I can research them or play them forever, and I will never get to the end of everything that is in them. And because of how you can team build different teams each time, and there's so much variety, it feels like playing them is never quite the same thing over and over. so I think it's just that. I just, I like knowing information about Pokemon. I like, being kind of an encyclopedia as much as possible. Um, I find it entertaining and it never ends. And then there's, you know, new stuff coming out too. So then I get to learn about that too. And it just, it never ends. That, that's why.
David Hernandez:I agree the same way because I always love, when I know a random fact, an obscure Pokemon fact, and I get to share it with people because it's like people know, of course, some of the common stuff, I love the deep dive of. The history or the mythological side of Pokemon in Diamond and Pearl, if you go to the Canalave library I think or something like that
Blue Moon Falls:Yes.
David Hernandez:to kind of read the little bookshelves and get some of the tidbits that people tend to probably overlook because it's not part Of the main story. I like breaking down and learning about the Pokemon world because there's So much more that's even just within the games that There's to uncover and that's what I enjoy about Pokemon too and I can kind of understand like for you being autistic it fits your need to kind of grasp the information be able to kind of spew it out because you don't need to become hyper focused and then also you get to organize stuff too.
Blue Moon Falls:Mm hmm.
David Hernandez:Yep.
Blue Moon Falls:and then on top of that, Pokemon is a social experience. Most of my friends I've met through Pokemon and, It always keeps me coming back to hang out with people. So that, that's a huge part of it too. there's just such a big community.
David Hernandez:you've been very vocal about, disabilities, you know, you have POTS, you have autism. And then of course, we talked about DID. We How has the Pokemon community been kind of, I guess, engaging, willing to welcome you, when it comes to your disability?
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, it's nice because, um, so much of the community is online. and so even when I'm sick at home or not feeling well, I'm able to communicate with people. I think the internet also just, there's a layer of separation. People can't immediately judge me for my disabilities if they aren't as visible immediately. but on the other hand. I'm talking about how Pokemon appeals to me in an autistic way. Same thing for a lot of other autistic people. So I have met unfathomable amount of autistic people specifically through Pokemon. Especially once you get into these more nerdy circles of like technicalities and stuff.
David Hernandez:Mm hmm.
Blue Moon Falls:You meet a lot of other people. So it's let me connect with people who are like minded to me and that's been helpful. And then, You know, so much of it, again, is over the internet, so that helps too. that being said, it has brought me out into the real world a little more. I was a bit of a shut in. Uh, I'm working on that now. I'm in a much better place in my life than I was, but for a while I didn't really leave my house a whole lot, for a variety of reasons, health concerns, and also just mental health issues and whatnot. Pokemon community has actually got me out more recently. Last year, I went to a Pokemon convention, like a local, small, hosted convention for Pokemon. I ran like a mystery gift booth, where you could come up and get mystery gifts, event Pokemon for the old games again.
David Hernandez:Oh, wow.
Blue Moon Falls:yeah, and then, um, like, went to, uh, a regionals last year, just for fun. Um, and I met up with some internet friends, in a different state, and that was fun too. So. It feels like I'm always finding new ways to meet people and do stuff when it comes to Pokemon. So
David Hernandez:You know, you said you were more of a shut in and, you know, you're kind of more to yourself because of, you know, part of the way you were alive, part of the mental health, how difficult was it for you to go and step outside of your comfort zone to go to the regional to do this mystery event?
Blue Moon Falls:Well, at first it was harder last year was better in that regard. I had already kind of started working on that. But it was, it was a process. It took a while for me to get more outside again. I had dropped out of college in 2019. So actually not because of the pandemic, even though the pandemic up timing really well, with that. But, I dropped out of college in 2019, and I was just going through a lot of mental health issues. and also I hadn't been diagnosed with POTS yet. and I didn't know what was wrong with me physically, but I knew that something was wrong. so I had to take a break to sort out all my health stuff. And then that combining with the pandemic, where we had to be inside for a while, kind of exacerbated my already existing issues with You know, being afraid to leave the house and, just struggling with socializing and all of that. and then the pandemic ended and then I kind of just kept not leaving my house. It kind of felt like I was still sheltering, even when I wasn't to. but I knew that was an issue. I knew that I wanted to get out. I just was dealing with too much. And then in 2023, I think I really started working on that. I started getting out a little bit more, you know, going to dinner or, you know, just stepping outside for my doctor's appointments and, small outings, nothing, nothing crazy. And then, towards the end of 2023, I was like, okay, I want to do some bigger things. I want to go to regionals in February to meet like my internet friends and, do some other stuff. And that was a bigger jump. Bye. I had a little bit of experience at that point, and, I think from there, once I, you know, conquered going to another state and, like, talking to people I'd only ever talked to on the internet, it felt like I could kind of do anything. from there on out, I've been a little bit more confident. And, you know, now I'm going back to classes, for the first time since 2019, and I'm going in person, and I'm handling it pretty okay so far, so, Pokemon was definitely a stepping stone in that process, for sure. but things were doing better now than they were.
David Hernandez:It's kind of amazing, though, to see, like, you know, you had this crisis going on for 2019 2020, of course, makes it worse. But thanks to Pokemon, it allows you to kind of relive your life again and to get started and.
Blue Moon Falls:feels like that.
David Hernandez:Yeah, that's kind of, it's kind of cool. Like Pokemon gave me a rebirthing or in a way.
Blue Moon Falls:and it's, again it's cool too because I mentioned this earlier, but It also made me realize what I want to do as a living.
David Hernandez:Yeah. Yeah.
Blue Moon Falls:kind of a rebirth of its own. yeah, I had no idea when I made Blue Moon Falls that I would, you know, I love it so much. the web design stuff was kind of a means to an end at first. I just, I wanted to provide the information in a way that was accessible. and I didn't realize that I was really into actually like coding and doing the web stuff until I was, neck deep in some projects for Bloomin Falls. And I was like, wait, I actually really enjoy this. it's a hobby. So.
David Hernandez:Blue moon falls. Of course, it's coming on three years. You mentioned that way earlier when we started recording.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, actually it just passed three years. It
David Hernandez:Oh,
Blue Moon Falls:a second to
David Hernandez:happy birthday to three years. All right. Blue moon falls hit three years.
Blue Moon Falls:Yeah, I actually, I made it two days after my birthday, like just my actual birthday. So, uh, it's, I can kind of tie it with my birthday in my mind because it's very close.
David Hernandez:What has been the feedback since starting the website? Like what have people, what have people responded to when they come across Blooming Falls? That's awesome. Well, Blooming Falls,
Blue Moon Falls:successor to Geocities, which was, anyone younger who is listening and probably doesn't know what Geocities is, um, it was an old web hosting thing, like you could make your own websites on Geocities, and that was the main way that people presented themselves online in like, you know, 90s and early 2000s. it's been defunct for a long time, but NeoCities is kind of a spiritual successor that like, takes the idea of Simple web hosting, like the code on there is pretty simple. It's all static. So there's no like back end to websites. You just kind of write the HTML and the CSS and like the JavaScript and that's it. to be yourself to. a creative place on the internet. and the reason I bring this up is because NeoCities has sort of social media features. there's a search bar. You can actually search up websites on NeoCities. and you can like add tags to your website. So like Blue Moon Falls has the so early on, before the website was actually, you know, getting attention from outside of NeoCities, most people found it through the NeoCities website browser. And it was slow at first, I mean, there wasn't much on the website so that makes sense, but, you know, I got some nice messages occasionally. and then I think, the first time I ever got, More attention on the website from outside of NeoCities and outside this, like, web niche, was when I did the Crystal Sprite GIF archive. it's literally just, a dump of all the crystal sprites, like the animated ones, but they have transparent backgrounds. for some reason, until I made that webpage, there was No source of the crystal GIFs, it seemed, with transparent backgrounds that either had white backgrounds or they were APNGs, which are not GIFs and, are a lot more finicky to display on things or save. and I just wanted them as gifts so I did it myself and I posted it on Twitter and like some people saw it and thought it was useful probably just for adding gifts to like stream layouts and that kind of thing. I was already in the shiny hunting community so people who need the shiny sprites on their layouts and stuff saw it. and then it's been a steady stream since then. Um, every time I upload a new big project, I get like an influx of people seeing the website for the first time because the thing gets spread around to different places. and nowadays I have, I don't, NeoCity statistics aren't reliable. So I don't know how reliable this number is, but, I get like around 2, 000 unique visits every day, roughly, if we're NeoCity statistics. I have like a guest book on the website where you can like leave a comment, I'll just the website, and it has 134 signatures, I just checked. suffice to say I've gotten a lot of positive attention that I was not expecting first made the website. I've never really had anything other than positive attention in particular, so,
David Hernandez:I want to finish this interview with the last question. It's gonna be a fun one. If somebody was going to battle you. What six Pokemon would you bring?
Blue Moon Falls:Okay, I have this for you. It would be Typhlosion, Pitmontop, Quagsire, Umbreon, and Ampharos. That was my first crystal team and they're my partners.
David Hernandez:All right. I love it. I love it.
Blue Moon Falls:They're all shiny. This is very important. I've shiny hunted all of them.
David Hernandez:well, blue moon falls. Thank you for coming on. As the pokeball turns before you go, if people want to connect with you, if they want to check out your website, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.
Blue Moon Falls:the main place I am on the internet is my website, it's bluemoonfalls. com. no hyphens, no anything weird, it's just that. And then, um, my personal social medias are PikaVs, which is Pika, like Pokemon, and then Vs, like the end of Eevee, with an S at the end, so it's A V E E S. Um, yeah. I'm on, like, Blue Sky these days. Um, I don't really use Twitter anymore. And, um, that's about it. I'm kind of quiet on the internet, so should just check out my website. Blumenfeld is, like, my main thing.
Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Follow all my socials and join our Discord community to stay connected by clicking any of the links in the description of this episode. Tune in next time for more episodes featuring more people, more stories, and more Pokemon. Until next time.
