I have so many Pokemon memories but my favourite has to be at comic con last year where the original cast of the anime were all in attendance. I've been friends with Veronica Taylor for 12yrs at this point (and became a voiceactor myself because of her) but it was my first time meeting Eric Stuart and Rachael Lillis. Also, Jay Goede was there too- the original voice of Mewtwo from the first Pokemon movie as well as Jason Paige who sang the original theme and there was a screening of said first movie too. The screening was HUGELY popular and brought together so many Pokemon fans to sing that epic theme song, laugh at all the one liners and, as we all do, cry at THAT moment in the movie. It felt so wholesome to be around so many likeminded people who also grew up with this franchise and who are just as passionate as me. There was a panel afterwards with Veronica, Eric, Rachael and Jay and some wonderful questions were asked and there was even some in-character improv. You can even see in the video of the panel the point where Veronica spots me in the audience and waves at me. I did meet all of the cast later that weekend too, had a wonderful photo with them all and talked about all things voiceacting. Rachael (rest her beautiful soul) told me some wonderful things about my voice and charisma that really inspired me to keep pushing my performance career and to be the best voiceactor and presenter that I can be... and what she said to me will stick with me for the rest of my life; to know that yet another of my childhood heroes sees potential in me and believes in me is the most powerful thing.

So, I haven't been TOO lucky with Ex cards (I do have a few) but I find seeing so many of the same Psychic type Mewtwo Ex + Gardevoir decks to be REALLY boring and, actually my favourite deck doesn't have a single Ex in it! I like using a Fighting type deck, with signature cards being Onix, Grapploct and Golem. Onix and Golem are tanks and powerhouses, utilising Brock support cards to give them multiple energies in 1 turn make them super useful... and with Onix, I don't even need to spend time evolving it. Grapploct is honestly just fun... I was caught in a battle using it and the opponent had a Pidgeot with "Drive off" which switches the Active Pokemon to the bench and Grapploct's "Knock Back" also does the same, so the entire battle was like a revolving door of Active Pokemon on both sides which was hilarious! I did actually win that battle in the end as well. It was just really fun and I like the deck a lot. It may not be the strongest out there due to the lack of Ex's, but I think it works well.

Cards in the deck:

-Mankey

-Geodude

-Clobbopuss x2

-Primeape

-Graveller

-Onix x2

-Grapploct x2

-Golem

-Potion x2

-X Speed

-Poke Ball

-Prof Research x2

-Giovanni

-Brock x2

I wasn't sure whether to go with anime or game here so I went with game...

SPOILERS AHEAD!

For me, personally... it HAS to be Volo from Legends Arceus! The subtle teases at him having Cynthia's iconic team hinted at throughout with his Togepi and Gible were fun to pick up on, but they mostly just felt like little references as with many of the characters in that game... however, the plot twist of him being the insane villain obsessed with Arceus' power felt like the narrative had been dialed up to 11. As with the original Sinnoh games, the villains were Team Galactic and there was no such evil team established in Legends Arceus at that point, so it really begged the question of who was going to be the threat to the legendaries and, ultimately, the world.

Then the battle begins... and oh what a battle! The same Spiritomb lead as Cynthia, the ICONIC piano that sends chills down any Gen 4 player's spine as soon as they hear it, from having developed a crippling fear of the instrument in their childhood years, to the epic remix of the rest of her battle theme... then enter Giratina and its powerful theme too. My boy, the Pokemon equivalent of the devil, being summoned to battle alongside Volo making it a 7v6 unfair battle... but then, ONE MORE PLOT TWIST... Origin Giratina making it an 8v6 and you truly feel outmatched as you square off against this high level, high power team plus both forms of Giratina afterwards. Giratina is, by far, my favourite legendary and what an introduction it had in this game; being brought into the final battle and used as, essentially, a cheat to make the Cynthia 2.0 fight all the more terrifying, as well as unbalanced... and that's why I love this battle so much. It did everything right from a narrative standpoint, to the setup of Volo mirroring Cynthia's team, the music, the Giratina summon AND 2nd phase- everything combined just made it the perfect battle.

And, for bonus funsies... enjoy Alpharad's reaction to Volo's battle because of how relatable (and hilarious) it is:

I have so many memories about Pokemon but a VERY special one for me is the first time I met Veronica Taylor at a convention. I was about to go to university, studying film and television and she happened to be attending a small comic con in my home county, which really surprised me so I went to meet her and we had such a lovely chat; because it was such a small con so I had plenty of time to hang with her. I told her about the things I was interested in doing, about my love of Pokemon and just so many other random things. She was so sweet and made the meet so much more personable than any other guest I've met at a con before.

After the event itself we connected on social media and continued talking about things and she'd support my studies and my work. I'd meet her a few other times at conventions after I'd graduated as well and over time, I started doing voiceacting work and hosting at comic cons too and we just became friends through all of that. I've now known her for 11 years and we've been to countless events together. She's a dear friend as well as a mentor and inspiration. It's a genuine honour to be friends with my childhood hero and I will forever be thankful for that.

Here's just a few of the many times we've crossed paths at events.

My favourite fact is probably one of the more well-known ones but I find it so interesting in its randomness...

Every Spinda that you encounter in any of the games has a completely random unique pattern. Which is just an absurd thing to think about. It's such a random, small detail that makes the Pokemon different as no other Pokemon has this gimmick. It has no bearing on the gameplay at all but it's just a fun little visual difference... and it can lead to some funny patterns like the "bald" Spindas that have no red on their head.

I built a camp at one of the monorail cars in the Crnaberry Bog and designed it to look like a station platform- being a well-seasoned train traveller, it felt fitting. There's a vendor to shop for items in, various food and drink stands for a quick snack, all the necessary crafting benches for any 76 player and even a ticket booth!

There's even a little story to behind why I chose this location to build a CAMP. So, my friends and I would play a game called Nuka'd and Afraid, where we would drink Nukashine- which is a drink that will make you black out and teleport to 1 of 36 random locations and wherever we end up, we must race back to the origin of the Nukashine quest 4 times, naked with no perks or weapons either. This point is the farthest away spawn point and is also in the highest level area of the map, so there's a lot of tough enemies to dodge; making running from here both time-consuming and stressful. So, I decided to just live there, since I ended up there so much.

The build itself was quite complicated to figure out as Fallout 76 is very particular about what is classed as "the ground" for you to build on and where you can place your CAMP. Luckily, there was a spot that high off of what you would typically consider the ground where I could place it and the "height" of your build can only be 3 "tiles" higher or lower than where you place it, so I managed to hide the CAMP itself within the monorail car and then attached platforms above the monorail part that was classed as "the ground" and then extended the platforms to create the station itself and then a cafe/bar opposite for people who have a slightly longer wait for their monorail.

This may sound pretty cheesy but my community inspires me to keep making content. I stream as a casual hobby, not for a full-time job and I never expect anyone to watch my content. My career takes me to all sorts of places, doing all sorts of shows for inconsistent periods of time so it makes having a reliable stream schedule somewhat tricky... but knowing that I have NEVER had a stream to 0 viewers is incredibly humbling and it shows that no matter what else I have going on, I have people who will be there to watch me stream and hang out. Even while I am away from streaming, I still do my best to update my other socials with my acting and modelling content to let the community know what I'm up to when not live.

Also, some of my streamer friends motivate me to keep going too. I don't have the time to put in as much effort as they do on their content but they inspire me to find ways to grow with what time I can actually spare on content creation. Surrounding myself with such friendly, supportive, creative people has helped form a positive atmosphere in my online spaces.

I wouldn't say my gaming tastes have "changed" in a sense of I've dropped certain games/genres, but moreso my tastes have expanded. As a child I was HOOKED on collectathons and platformers, I loved being able to jump around and pick up loads of shiny things until all the numbers were maxed. It gave child me an unparalleled happiness. I STILL like playing those kinds of games to this day, sometimes something simple and colourful feels so cosy to unwind to and those kinds of games have become my comfort games in my adult years. The nostalgia alone gives me serotonin but getting that satisfying 100% is the cherry on top.

I used to avoid games that focused on "human" characters in "realistic" settings, my child-brain found them boring and I didn't want to follow along with all of this dialogue and dramatic scenes when I could just jump around various platforms and pick up random objects for no reason. If there was a simple story, I'd follow along but it wasn't a crucial feature for me. However, as time went on I ventured into some RPG's which are VERY story heavy but they still had a lot of exploration and collecting, which I still thoroughly enjoyed and as I got older, I found following stories and learning those more complex mechanics/strategies a lot easier to do. I'd say RPG's like Final Fantasy were the bridge between the colourful platformers of child me's interest and the girtty action-adventure games that I love now. I'd learnt how to appreciate a good story with immersive voiceacting and now some of my favourite games are games I probably would've never gone near as a kid. My gaming library is just incredibly expansive with over 20yrs of content from all sorts of genres to explore and enjoy. That's the best way I can summarise it.