The Cave of Dragonflies

dragonflycave.comMy Glitched JolteonPart reminiscence, part game mechanics deep dive, about a harmlessly strange Jolteon deleted in 2003 and the effort to uncover what was going on with him two decades later.

16 Nov 2024

Hello, Bluesky! Follow this account for updates to The Cave of Dragonflies. What sort of thing does this website contain? Here is an article about how I had a glitched Jolteon back in 2003 and how I found out exactly what was wrong with him two decades later. www.dragonflycave.com/kanto/my-gli...

dragonflycave.com10/20/26: Odds and EndsA few different smaller things I've been doing thanks to tips by others: The Iron Island B3F encounter table no longer shows swarm slots with Onix...

www.dragonflycave.com/update/10-20... A few little updates, most notably adding the Z-A Pokédexes to the List Generator.

dragonflycave.com07/07/26: Pokéwalker Battle MechanicsSo the other day Altissimo asked me about confirming some mechanics in the disassembly of the HG/SS Pokéwalker accessory, and I was promptly...

8 July

I've added a fun new article about the battle mechanics of the Pokéwalker. Includes a calculator and fun visualizations! www.dragonflycave.com/update/07-07...

dragonflycave.com05/04/26: Gendered FavoritesJust a bit more Favorite Pokémon Picker. After the last update, Torch commented suggesting the ability to choose whether to use male or female as...

5 May

www.dragonflycave.com/update/05-04... The Favorite Pokémon Picker now has a default gender setting (2000% more of a headache than you think) and the options have been organized a bit.

dragonflycave.com04/08/26: Still MoreAnd I'm not done! A couple more Favorite Pokémon Picker options have been added, since I'm on a roll. First, another very common feature request:...

9 Apr

Two more Favorite Pokémon Picker options have been added: you can now include or exclude e.g. legendaries, and you can have forms count as the base Pokémon's generation. www.dragonflycave.com/update/04-08...

dragonflycave.com04/05/26: Shiny PickingHow about that update streak, huh? The Favorite Pokémon Picker now has an option to include shiny Pokémon as separate Pokémon. This has been a...

5 Apr

There is now an option to treat shinies as separate Pokémon in the Favorite Pokémon Picker. www.dragonflycave.com/update/04-05...

dragonflycave.com04/04/26: More Picker TweakingIt is now possible to include or exclude base Pokémon under the "Include forms" setting in the Favorite Pokémon Picker. This makes it possible to,...

5 Apr

You can now exclude base Pokémon (non-forms) in the Favorite Pokémon Picker if desired. www.dragonflycave.com/update/04-04...

dragonflycave.com04/03/26: Z-A FavoritesSince Pokémon Home has finally added compatibility with Legends: Z-A and given us official artwork of both the normal and shiny versions of the...

3 Apr

Since the Pokémon Home artwork is finally out, the new Z-A mega forms have now been added to the Favorite Pokémon Picker. www.dragonflycave.com/update/04-03...

dragonflycave.com04/02/26: April Fools once againGlad you all enjoyed yesterday's April Fools' Day joke. I have now undone the style override and added a bit of a writeup on it to the April...

2 Apr

The writeup for this year's April Fools' Day joke is now up. www.dragonflycave.com/update/04-02...

1 Apr

Due to the many changes in my life recently, I have made a pivot towards a new niche going forward - mommy blogging 🥰🙏 www.dragonflycave.com/update/03-31...

dragonflycave.com03/14/26: Affiliation UpdatesA minor update: I have been making some tweaks and additions to the affiliation requirements. In particular: I now explicitly reserve the right to...

14 Mar

I've updated my affiliation requirements for the first time in a long time. www.dragonflycave.com/update/03-14...

The Cave of Dragonflies reposted

Johto Times

@johtotimes.bsky.social

9 Feb

Our second AMA is now live on the Johto Times Community Forum! This time around, our guest is Dragonfree from The Cave of Dragonflies! We look forward to your questions here: forum.johtotimes.com/d/180-ama-wi...

dragonflycave.com01/02/26: Happy 2026!Happy 2026, everyone! It's likely to be a big year ahead for Pokémon, what with the franchise's 30th anniversary in February; I'm looking forward...

2 Jan

The annual New Year's update is up. www.dragonflycave.com/update/01-02...

dragonflycave.com12/09/25: URLs and Guide RewritesAnother kind of technical upgrade: something that has been bugging me for a little while now is that the site's URLs since I rewrote the backend...

9 Dec 2025

www.dragonflycave.com/update/12-09... TCoD's URLs are now a bit nicer and more consistent, and I accidentally rewrote a couple of guides (most importantly, the reviewing guide).

dragonflycave.com11/20/25: Technical UpgradeI've just done a long-overdue Python upgrade for the site, which also came with upgrading various libraries and so on. I believe I tested most...

20 Nov 2025

www.dragonflycave.com/update/11-20... The site is now finally running on Python 3 instead of 2.7. Ideally this means nothing you would notice, but I feel a lot better now.

dragonflycave.com11/12/25: Game Refurbishments and Minor ThingsI've made some smaller updates, some already pushed to the site at some point since the anniversary update: The Pokémon Hangman, a game of great...

12 Nov 2025

www.dragonflycave.com/update/11-12... I've made some smaller updates, most prominently to the Hangman and Number Game.

Random musings sparked by going through all my pages for the anniversary update:

I just do not have that degree of investment in Pokémon Go, and eventually basically stopped playing it. For a long time I vaguely meant to get around to updating it all but put it off because of all the work I'd have to redo. I guess I feel better having just put the final nail in that coffin.

Finally: why did I never just bring the Pokémon Hangman into the site layout proper. It doesn't even really have the nostalgia thing going for it because I did redo the look of it at some stage; I just redid it still as a standalone page for some reason. I should do that.

Random musings sparked by going through all my pages for the anniversary update:

I had really, really forgotten just how long and comprehensive my Pokémon Go guide was. I'd forgotten half the mechanics I meticulously explained there, even. In hindsight it's a bit painful that I spent so much effort on it for a game that would inevitably go change those mechanics later.

Writing guides for a regular game makes sense: people might pick up that game at any point in the future and whatever you wrote still makes sense. For a live-service game, you'd have to stay invested and keep redoing it every time the developer decides to change stuff around.

Random musings sparked by going through all my pages for the anniversary update:

I enjoyed rereading all the game reviews I've done. The oldest, for Pokémon Colosseum, is from 2005, and I was very obviously fifteen and did not really know how to review things. Trozei (2006) and Ranger (2008) are getting better but still a bit awkwardly written and rambly.

Then I started to hit my stride with it in 2009 (Blue Rescue Team, Explorers of Time, Shadows of Almia), though with some lingering awkwardness, and by 2012's Conquest review I've started producing something I can basically read today and nod along with. It's fun to watch myself improve!

Random musings sparked by going through all my pages for the anniversary update:

(Originally I had these TRUTH pages for each generation, briefly debunking misinformation I'd seen going around. I kept the R/S/E one at the time because people were still saying Shedinja needed a ball in your bag, but both of the other rumours on there are just completely unheard of today.)

I guess the secondary motivation for keeping that page was to not completely retire *all* the TRUTH pages, which were important to the site's identity when I first started it - I was very invested in debunking other sites that were wrong on the internet.

Random musings sparked by going through all my pages for the anniversary update:

I retired some but not all of my original game pages for the first three generations in 2005. Today I'm not sure why I removed the G/S/C Tips and Tricks instead of just making rewrites, and think I should probably not have retained the "TRUTH of R/S/E" page.

dragonflycave.com11/02/25: Twenty-Three YearsTime for feasting and glee now that you're twenty-three. Happy birthday, dear website! You're so important to me. The Cave of Dragonflies is...

www.dragonflycave.com/update/11-02... The Cave of Dragonflies is twenty-three years old today, and to celebrate I went and added some related pages to the bottom of every page within the layout - picked by hand for each one, because I am slightly mad.

dragonflycave.com08/24/25: More Morphic DrabblesI've put up another little Morphic extra, another set of three hurt/comfort-themed prompt bingo fills. As the theming suggests, they're all very angsty.

24 Aug 2025

I've added some more extra angsty Morphic drabbles! www.dragonflycave.com/update/08-24...

dragonflycave.com07/30/25: Capture Calculator FixesI've made a couple of adjustments/fixes to the various capture calculators: Previously, there was a bug which meant if you had the "Show all"...

31 July 2025

I've made some fixes and adjustments to the capture calculators. www.dragonflycave.com/update/07-30...

dragonflycave.com04/21/25: Commenting UpdatesThe Mew trick essay got its 21st comment a couple of days ago (from TheScythe!), and this ended up prompting me to make a number of updates to the...

22 Apr 2025

www.dragonflycave.com/update/04-21... Boring meta update: I've made a number of updates and improvements to the commenting feature on the site.

dragonflycave.com04/02/25: Back to NormalHope you all enjoyed this year's April Fools' Day joke! I have now added a writeup to the joke archive and reset the changes back to normal – but...

2 Apr 2025

Hope you all enjoyed this year's April Fools' Day joke! I've now added a writeup to the joke archive, while the 131,500 words of new content will remain accessible (though off the menu). www.dragonflycave.com/update/04-02...

dragonflycave.com03/31/25: Site ExpansionWelcome to the new, expanded Cave of Dragonflies! I've been thinking lately about how, well, Pokémon is still one of my passions, but so are many...

1 Apr 2025

Today, The Cave of Dragonflies substantially expands its subject matter! www.dragonflycave.com/update/03-31...

open.substack.comXIII: Eras of Pokémon Fanfiction w/ ButterfreeThis week we talked to Butterfree, an Icelandic author of several works of speculative Pokémon fanfiction and the longtime webmaster of Kevin’s favorite Pokémon website The Cave of Dragonflies. We als...

28 Mar 2025

And if you're interested, I was also interviewed for a second podcast released today, Synthesized Sunsets. The podcast is about speculative fiction, and that discussion centered more on Pokémon fandom and fanfic, but also touched upon the website a bit.

Dragonfree@antialiasis.dragonflycave.com

I was interviewed for this week's As the Pokéball Turns podcast... and also for a speculative fiction podcast coincidentally also released today, Synthesized Sunsets! open.substack.com/pub/synthesi...

The Cave of Dragonflies reposted

As The Pokeball Turns

@asthepokeballturns.bsky.social

28 Mar 2025

🦋Join us as we interview the webmaster of @dragonflycave.com. 🐉 From her journey with Pokémon Yellow to building a fan site that’s lasted 25 years, this episode is a must-listen! 🎧Tune in now on your favorite podcast app or here: bit.ly/ATPT144 #MyPKMNStory #Pokemon

14 Mar 2025

Just finally got around to setting up the site's Bluesky handle being the site's actual domain, which I should have done a while ago. Hope this doesn't break anything.

dragonflycave.comWhen Rumours Come True: The Mew TrickA deep dive on the Mew trick, its history, how it works, and why it circulated for close to eleven months if not more before it properly made waves in the Pokémon community.

11 Mar 2025

www.dragonflycave.com/essays/the-m... I have completely revamped the old Mew trick thought into a new 9000-word deep dive essay into the history, context and inner workings of a truly miraculous glitch.

dragonflycave.com01/01/25: Happy 2025!Happy new year! 2025 sure seemed like a faraway, distant future when I started this website, but here we are, still kicking in the final year of...

1 Jan 2025

www.dragonflycave.com/update/01-01... The annual New Year's update is up, with some thanks.