Recap / Dr. Crafty Season 2 Month 2: Fakémon Month

Dr. Crafty Recap Index
Season:
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4
Month:
#1: Season 2 Premiere Month | #2: Fakémon Month | #3: Nintendo Month
#4: Beach Month | #5: Fighting Month | #6: Yu-Gi-Oh Month
Bonus Content:
Season 2 Patreon Episodes | Season 2 Promotional Videos

Airing Range: 4/26/18 - 5/17/18

In a sequel to Season 1's Pokémon Month, this month guest stars Darksilvania, a fellow artist friend of Crafty's. He's dropped by to help Crafty refresh some of his fakémon starter designs, covering all three of their stages and their mega evolutions in the final episode. He, Nurse, and Crafty all discuss the Pokémon franchise and its mechanics in-depth.

Tropes Applicable to the Month as a whole:

• Art Shift: Atypically, Crafty renders the shading and highlighting of this month's pieces with a watercolor brush— the same method used in official Pokémon artwork.
• I Am Not Weasel: Throughout the month, Crafty mistakenly holds the belief that his Grass-type Fakémon is a donkey when it's meant to be a rhinoceros. Both Nurse and Darksilvania have to constantly correct him. And after simply telling him doesn't work, Nurse just resorts to beating Crafty with a Wonky Donkey book.
• Nice Mean And In Between: For the entirety of Fakémon Month, Darksilvania is very pleasant and eager to participate in the show, but he's also stuck having to ease Crafty and Nurse's bickering. Crafty is as egotistical as he's been throughout Season 2 so far, putting his opinion above his cohosts and even getting on Darksilvania's case for talking too much in "A Fresh Starter." Nurse, meanwhile, reacts strongly to Crafty's foolishness, losing her temper with him a lot. But she also treats Darksilvania more cordially than Crafty, trying to stay calm by actively engaging with him about the Pokémon franchise.
• Talking with Signs: Darksilvania only speaks through Pokémon-style text boxes throughout his time on the show.

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Main Show E31: "A Fresh Starter"

Air Date: 4/26/18

The trio redesigns a set of starters from Crafty's earlier years, and they pick out one for themselves.

Tropes Found in This Episode:

• Accidental Pun: Darksilvania tries getting Crafty and Nurse to calm down after they start bickering over the "Sister Suffragette" gag, and Nurse makes an unintentional pun about the episode's subject matter of Pokémon starters:
  Darksilvania: You two... Please... Let's calm down, okay?
  Nurse: Well, it was his fault for starting it!
  Crafty: Ho-ho! A pun after my own heart! I'm not even mad!
• Character Filibuster: Crafty lists off all the starter Pokémon he chose, claiming his choices are the best and ignoring all of Nurse's attempts to stop him from speaking.
• Get a Room!: Crafty's more than annoyed by Nurse's Cuteness Proximity behavior to her Water-Type Fakémon starter, suggesting that she gushes over it in private.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Darksilvania points out the unfortunate tendency for Starter pokemon not evolving in the Pokémon anime, because creative directors think they're more marketable than their succeeding forms. Crafty starts to comment on the phenomenon, but he realizes that he's reciting almost verbatim what provoked Nurse's "Sister Suffragette" song in previous episodes and takes off:
  Nurse: Hm. It must suck to be a starter...
  Crafty: So, you can say that they're being... kept...
  [Nurse glares at him.]
  Crafty: ... Cute.
  [Crafty yelps and runs offscreen. He points an arm back into frame at Nurse.]
  Crafty: 'Sister Suffragette' one more time, and I quit!
  Nurse: How can you quit?! This is your show! And I wasn't even going to!

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Main Show E32: "Life as a Teenage Pokémon"

Air Date: 5/3/18

Next up are the second-stage starter designs. The trio discusses how second-stage pokemon measure up as design transitions between the first and third stages of certain Pokemon families.

Tropes Found in This Episode:

• Berserk Button: Darksilvania tries introducing this episode, something Crafty takes extreme issue with:
  Crafty: YOU. DARE!
  [Crafty tackles Darksilvania, throwing him offscreen.]
  Crafty: That's my bit! Get your own!
• Black Comedy: When on the subject of preventing Pokémon evolutions with an Everstone, Crafty notes he can do the same to humans...with enough experimentation, that is.
• True Beauty Is on the Inside: When the Fakémon starters evolve, Nurse is in tears since her Water-type isn't cute anymore, but in the end, she decides to accept it for what it was.

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Main Show E33: "All Grown Up"

Air Date: 5/10/18

The starter's base final forms are designed during this episode, complete with more discussion regarding what makes starter Pokemon so memorable.

Tropes Found in This Episode:

• Faux Horrific: Just the sight of the crude Japanese sprites from Pokémon Red and Green was enough to send Crafty and Nurse running in fright.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Crafty indirectly lets it slip that he watches Glee. A shocked Darksilvania asks to confirm what he just heard, but Crafty declines with a peculiar excuse:
  Crafty: What? No! Of course not! I just... watch it for the commercials in between!

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Main Show E34: "Super fighting monsters! MEGAMON!"

Air Date: 5/17/18

To cap things off, the trio decides to create Mega Evolutions for the three fakémon starters. They reveal their opinions on the Mega Evolution system as it works in-game.

Tropes Found in This Episode:

• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Nurse gets distracted by the diamonds on Mega-Steelix's body, requiring Crafty and Darksilvania to chase her down and get her back on track.
• Dramatic Thunder: The episode begins with more flashes of lightning than normal following everything Nurse and Darksilvania say. Naturally, the dramatic effect is ruined by Crafty.
• Gilligan Cut: When the art is complete, Nurse shows concern over Darksilvania being allowed to use a Fire-Type Fakémon unsupervised. Crafty asks what could possibly happen... and cut to Darksilvania using his Fakémon to terrorize a town.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Another intermission screen appears after a Mega-Slowbro destroys the camera.

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Top Ten Tub E2: "Best Pokémon Designs"

Air Date: 5/1/18

Messi and Crafty delve into Crafty's favorite Pokémon designs. This time, it seems Crafty can barely contain his excitement.

This episode's list contains the following:

• 10. Empoleon
• 9. Tyrantrum
• 8. Garchomp
• 7. Greninja
• 6. Aegislash
• 5. Tsareena
• 4. Golisopod
• 3. Wishiwashi
• 2. Rayquaza
• 1. Buzzwole

Tropes Found in This Episode:

• Early-Installment Weirdness: Like "Original Characters," this Top Ten Tub episode is somewhat at odds with the monthly theme. Rather than count down Fakémon, this list counts down Crafty's favorite official Pokémon. Succeeding Top Ten Tub episodes coincide with the monthly theme directly.
• The Runner-Up Takes It All: Crafty's all-time favorite Pokémon is Heracross. However, he didn't include it as the Number 1 pick on this list because he felt that he wouldn't have much to say about it. He instead opts for another Bug/Fighting-type, one who he lacks as strong an attachment towards but he nonetheless enjoys for similar reasons: Buzzwole.

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Chara-Cafe E2: "Send in the Clowns"

Air Date: 5/1/18

Pepper and Crafty design a fakémon with an uncommon typing, all while they are harassed by a certain clown.

Tropes Found in This Episode:

• Laugh Track: The audience seems to enjoy Crafty and Pepper's post-art jokes a little too much. It turns out the source of the laughter is literal canned laughter left open by someone.
• Monster Clown: The Fakémon design used for the second Chara-Cafe creation uses Harlequins as a basis.

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