A Pokemon Scarlet and Violet player took up their tools and redrew two characters from the games, Arven and his Pokemon Mabosstiff, in the art style of The Simpsons. The artist posted their original creation on Reddit and received acclaim in the upvotes and comments from other Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fans.
Mabosstiff is the anchor Pokemon of Arven's team and an essential part of the Path of Legends storyline of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. With Mabosstiff serving as one of his trainer's main motivators, the bond between them resonated with Pokemon fans after witnessing what Arven has gone through to cure his beloved Pokemon of a grave illness. After trainers collect all five Herba Mystica by defeating the five Titan Pokemon guarding them, Mabosstiff recovers and returns to the fore of Arven's team for the final battle of the Path of Legends story arc.
A Redditor by the name of Arinu00 was the one responsible for recreating Arven and Mabosstiff in the timeless art style of The Simpsons. In Arinu00's drawing, Arven gave his beloved Pokemon a pat on the head, with some Herba Mystica in hand, and Mabosstiff stared intently at the fourth wall as the pair stood in front of the home of the titular Simpson family. With purple and yellow being the dominant colors of Arven's uniform in Pokemon Violet, Arinu00 chose that design as the basis for their drawing. The art post received over 6,000 upvotes in just over two days, and Arinu00 was praised for their work in the comments by other Reddit users. The comments ranged from references to different episodes of The Simpsons, to how other Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players fared against Arven and Mabosstiff.
Known as the Boss Pokemon, Mabossiff is a Dark-type Pokemon that evolves from Maschiff starting at level 32. With the new ability Guard Dog and a high physical Attack stat, Mabosstiff makes for a solid Dark-type Pokemon for any team, despite the obvious weaknesses to Fighting-type and Fairy-type attacks. Mabosstiff can learn moves such as Crunch to take advantage of its same-type attack bonus (STAB) and can provide coverage with other physical attacks such as Fire Fang, Play Rough, Outrage, and Tera Blast when Terastallized. Given the number of Psychic-type and Ghost-type Pokemon found throughout the Paldea region, having a Mabosstiff in reserve is one way to go about catching them all.
Between turning various trainers into characters straight out of Springfield, and assigning Pokemon to different characters found in The Simpsons, the overlap between fans of both series does not come as a surprise. While both respective series have been around for decades, the contributions from artists such as Arinu00 show that Pokemon and The Simpsons are not ready to fade from the public spotlight anytime soon.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Nintendo Switch.
