Mascots
The Cave of Dragonflies has two (or well... three) of its own mascot characters, who have never had a name other than their species name but nonetheless served an important purpose in the history of the site by starring on all the different splash pages. This page has a little biography for each of them.
The Story
The splash pages have vaguely told a story - mostly the first two, which were animations with dialogue, but to an extent also the later ones. This story is not particularly thought-out or sensical, but here goes a summary of it, anyway:
Charizard (as a Charmeleon), Butterfree (as a Metapod) and a Scyther were, for some reason, friends who travelled together to some extent. One day they were being chased by a hungry, mad Fangcat, which was perhaps not that uncommon, but it was gaining on them very quickly and they would have ended up as that Fangcat's dinner had Scyther not turned to fight it. Meanwhile, Charmeleon (carrying Metapod) ran to the next shelter he found, namely a nearby cave. Fangcat killed Scyther after a bloody battle and then came towards Charmeleon and Metapod in the cave, but bizarrely, the danger gave them the sudden strength to evolve and fend the Fangcat off together. After this they lived in the cave and a large group of bug- and dragon-like Pokémon somehow joined up with them and they all lived together peacefully.
However, one day a human entered the cave. Charizard, standing guard by the entrance, stopped it and called Butterfree for help on what to do, but Butterfree (more of a leader) judged that they might as well show the human the collection of things that they had in the cave as it had already found the hideout.
After this, the location of the cave spread through word of mouth; more and more humans came to the cave, and Charizard and Butterfree realized to their frustration that this could not be stopped now, and now they have to live with humans invading the cave en massé to party while they have to camp outside and roast marshmallows on Charizard's tail flame.
Transcript of the dialogue of the first two splash pages
Charizard
Quick Facts
- Gender: Male
- Favorite thing to do: Teasing Butterfree
Biography
While initially distrustful towards the invading humans, Charizard has grown to accept them - ironically unlike Butterfree whose stance evolved in quite the opposite direction. Charizard is not as much of a leader as his kind is famous for; he tends to be nervous and insecure, and while he's usually playful and calm and has a great sense of humour, he just can't stand responsibility.
Butterfree
Quick Facts
- Gender: Female
- Favorite thing to do: Sweatdropping about humans
Biography
Butterfree was initially the one who insisted that the humans were harmless and could as well be let in, but has regretted it ever since. She has simply discovered that while harmless, humans have an extraordinary ability to invade other creatures' living space and be generally annoying. Now she is the most active anti-human of the entire cave, even though secretly she loves attention and is actually a little impressed by all those huge numbers on the hit counter.
Butterfree also once ran off with a Nidoking, but that appears to have ended fairly quietly.
Magikarp
Quick Facts
- Gender: Male
- Favorite thing to do: Flopping on the ground and staring stupidly into the air
Biography
The cave is full of dragonlike Pokémon, including the Magikarp/Gyarados evolution line. Unfortunately Magikarp is a little dense. This became famous when after Charizard and Butterfree officially went on leave from the splash page, Magikarp claimed to know all about splashing, only to find out that what they were talking about involved being stuck on a page of a website and having to stay there for a few months. After this incident, he is a favorite for slapping on the splash page when Charizard and Butterfree aren't around, and takes his job very seriously. I think.
The Splashes
(Also worth looking at just to see the dramatic improvement in my art!)
- Charizard and Butterfree's debut/introduction (late 2002/early 2003 - spring 2003)
- The story of the finding of the cave (spring 2003 - mid-2003?)
- Charizard and Butterfree go to sleep (mid-2003? - October 2003)
- Halloween splash (October 2003 - December 11th 2003)
- Splash, Magikarp's debut (December 11th 2003 - May 28th 2004)
- 150,000 front page hits; first hit milestone splash (May 28th 2004 - August 26th 2004)
- 200,000 front page hits (August 26th 2004 - October 3rd 2004)
- Autumn splash (October 3rd 2004 - December 10th 2004)
- 300,000 front page hits/Christmas splash (December 10th 2004 - April 8th 2005)
- 400,000 front page hits (April 8th 2005 - August 12th 2005)
- 500,000 front page hits (August 12th 2005 - February 19th 2006)
- 600,000 front page hits (February 19th 2006 - July 1st 2006)
- 700,000 front page hits (July 1st 2006 - September 28th 2006)
- 800,000 front page hits (September 28th 2006 - January 10th 2007)
- 900,000 front page hits (January 10th 2007 - February 15th 2007)
- 1,000,000 front page hits (February 15th 2007 - January 31st 2008)
- 1,500,000 front page hits (January 31st 2008 - October 10th 2008)
- 2,000,000 front page hits (October 10th 2008 - April 1st 2009)
- 2,500,000 front page hits (April 1st 2009 - present)
Random fact: All the graphical hit milestone splashes after 300,000 follow a naming pattern of either [number]splash.[extension] or splash[number].[extension]. What's more is that they always alternate between the two with each new splash, which is absolutely unintentional; each time I make a new splash I forget which naming scheme I used last, think it's the other and decide to settle with it, but of course then forget it. Weird.
Page last modified April 04 2009 at 03:43 GMT
