Sept. 3, 2025

The Growl Beneath Incineroar's Flame ft. Scintilla | TRAINER'S EYE #176

The Growl Beneath Incineroar's Flame ft. Scintilla | TRAINER'S EYE #176

Some Pokémon don’t just represent us, they help us become who we are. For Scintilla, that Pokémon was Incineroar, a powerful, misunderstood feline that gave him the confidence to build a new identity, both online and off.

We dive into Scintilla’s journey from reluctant art student to passionate Twitch streamer, from teacher to tiger. He shares stories of his grandfather winning Pokémon merch during the Mew craze, how a deaf friend helped him fall in love with the games, and the deep emotional meaning behind characters like Mew, Lugia, and Incineroar. It's a heartfelt conversation about transformation, identity, fandom, and the unexpected power of being seen, even when you’re wearing sandals.

Listen now and rediscover how Pokémon can shape more than just a team, they can shape a life.

🎧 Hear from creative minds bringing Pokémon to life in art and story.

Start listening to the Artists & Writers playlist today!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay 

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 TRAINER'S EYE #176 - Scintilla

TRAINER'S EYE #176 - Scintilla

Schintilla: [00:00:00] My name is Scintilla, and this is my Pokemon story.

So.

David Hernandez: Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns, where every voice, every journey, and every memory brings us closer to the world of Pokemon. I'm David Hernandez and I'm joined by a creator who brings the fire. whether he's streaming JRPG, suiting up as a tiger or [00:01:00] putting heart into his art. Illa lights up every space he enters as a Twitch partner, teacher, and self-proclaimed dorky and he's here to shed the path behind his persona and how Pokemon helped him shape it. Ella, welcome to ask the book, ball Turns. Thank you for coming on.

Schintilla: Hi. Thank you for having me on.

David Hernandez: Absolutely. And you know, we were talking, we were laughing, cheering some moments and I want to get some insight into this Incentor side, but I kind of wanted start with a fun

Schintilla: Mm-hmm.

David Hernandez: So you identify with Incentor in some way. We'll cover that later. But if Incentor had a side hustle, what would it be and why would it be amazing?

Schintilla: If Senator Roy had a side hustle, I would say most likely fixing things and the reason why he'd be good at it, 'cause he would be really fast at getting it done. he would be able to go and listen to people to get the, the work on it. So yeah, probably fixing things like handyman.

David Hernandez: That's so interesting 'cause I was expecting like maybe a bouncer or a cop, but you went to fixing things. Why?

Schintilla: Ah, because I do that on the regular.

David Hernandez: [00:02:00] Okay. I could see it like maybe in similar, I could see it as like a mechanic, like it's in like a little jumpsuit, like a green jumpsuit and just trying to fix the cars and just tells you, Hey, your car's in brake center fixed and whatnot.

Schintilla: If we're gonna go with a, the bouncer I did, no, that would be way better with a, my choke or a, A Champ.

David Hernandez: Well, before we dive into it, let's like, let's dive deeper. Like why is, what's the connection for you with Incent? Is it your favorite Pokemon? What is it about that makes it kind of, you want to be kind of your mainstay?

Schintilla: So the moment I saw the leaks, for sun and moon, I instantly fell in love with them. I'm like, oh God, please let this be the, let this be real. And once they finally revealed in center where I'm like, okay, that's my starter. I'm gonna be going with that one. I particularly favor a lot more feline characters.

And, mu was like always my number one for like, the longest time. And in ro just hit all those like perfect points. I like in a design for characters. I like the red coloring, the red and black coloring was perfect. It was usually my, my general color scheme. Anyways. the wrestling things, it was actually like, wasn't [00:03:00] like in your face, but it was there.

and just his overall design was just very pleasing to me. And despite the fact everyone was hating on the fact that he was a bipedal Pokemon, 

David Hernandez: I remember that 'cause I think it was Del Fox came after that. No. Before,

Schintilla: yeah.

David Hernandez: people were getting kind of tired of the bipedal. Even now some people are still getting tired of

Schintilla: So

David Hernandez: So

Schintilla: like, I think it was, ooh, what's his name? Uh, Teig. A,

David Hernandez: yes,

Schintilla: everyone got mad that he went immediately went and buy Pele. And same thing with, uh, Fein.

David Hernandez: Well for Tepic, I got tired of the firefighting type that just annoyed the hell out. 'cause we got there for three years or three generations straight. That was my issue. It wasn't so much The Pokeball itself, but I always loved, uh, Finnegan. Finnegan was my favorite fire starter or my favorite starter from Gen five.

Well, no was gen six. I'm sorry. And I just loved it. It was just a very cute design. And when it evolved into Del Fox, I was like, okay, you got a wand. I'm okay with that. I just didn't like its Middle Evolution. The Middle Evolution is the one that kind of throws me off a bit. It has a wand out of its butt sometimes.

Schintilla: Finnan was my very [00:04:00] first fire starter Pokemon.

David Hernandez: Really? Yeah.

Schintilla: I was a hard water type Pokemon for like the longest time for the starters. And when I saw Gen six's Pokemon, I wasn't too impressed with, Froakie or Chespin.

David Hernandez: Yeah.

Schintilla: so I just said I was gonna stick with, uh, FEIC. And I was like, okay, I'll use this as the first time to, to go for a fire type.

And then when gen seven came around, I was not liking any of the starter Pokemon, not even, not even litten.

And what ultimately got me to go to a fire type again, was in, was incent Aurora.

David Hernandez: was it difficult for you to shift from all being nothing but water starters to doing a fire starter? Because, I mean, you said you did water basically five, five generations in a row. That's basically 15 years of Pokemon.

Schintilla: Every single game, every single typing, every single uh, remake game always went with the water type.

I started off with a squirtle. I was on a swim team and a friend of mine on the team, she got me to play the game, and she told me, pick Squirtle, you're gonna like squirtle more.[00:05:00]

I'm like, okay. And I actually did like squirtle and uh, when I replayed the games, I found that Squirtle was actually the, the, the more logical Pokemon to go with over, charm mander. 'cause charm mander was probably, in my opinion, was the hard mode, and just everything was taken outta bulbar.

David Hernandez: so you really connected with Squirtle for a while. Were you like a water Pokemon, like phy, like at the time? Or you just did Squirtle and you just picked random Pokemon at that point?

Schintilla: I liked, uh, I liked a lot of the water types at the time, but, I kind of had a mix. Uh, I was like in middle school when Pokemon came out, and so, uh, I, I got right away that you had to have like a little mixture of everything in order to, uh, like have a strong team. And for like the longest time, the squirtle line was actually my number three favorite Pokemon.

And it was, or, and that was taught by, uh, Chu originally. And then when we discovered MU and that craze was going around and I was able to get a mu, I instantly fell in love with Mu

David Hernandez: Wait, so you actually got mute with those early days?

Schintilla: Um, I actually still have, uh, stuff from Toys Russ about the mu [00:06:00] giveaways.

So I was in eighth grade and I wasn't able to go to those. my grandpa would go in my place and he would go and get like free things because he would always lose. 'cause it was a, it was a random raffle to get, to get a mu. And so he would go and he would go out usually empty handed, but he would come back with like a set of stickers or, my favorite thing was he won a bunch of Pokemon items, so he won me a, a Pokemon yellow backpack, which is Pikachu themed and it fit your Game Boy color.

And it was like designed for, for Pokemon gamers. And, so I still have like a whole bunch of little things, even stuff from the first movie when, uh, they were giving Wayne the mu cards for the TCG. But for the longest time, you was my favorite Pokemon.

David Hernandez: So even though you didn't get a chance to go, your grandpa would bring him to you, what did it kind of feel like to kind of receive that from him? I mean, he didn't have to do it, and especially for him as old as he was, I'm sure he didn't know anything about Pokemon.

Schintilla: I know with my grandpa, I was the favorite grandchild.

David Hernandez: That's a low key secret.

Schintilla: No, I knew, [00:07:00] I, I, I knew I, even though my brother was the favorite child in the family, he, I knew I was the favorite grandchild.

David Hernandez: That must have give you some pride, right?

Schintilla: Yeah. Yeah. That's something I, I, I never told my brother, but yeah. No, no, no. Like I was the favorite grandchild.

David Hernandez: I mean, who, who knows. He may listen to this episode or he may not, and you never know.

Schintilla: It's fine. He won't.

David Hernandez: Now, you said that, you know, your friend introduced you. so she introduced you to Pokemon. She wanted you to pick Squirtle 'cause she said you would connect with it. Did she play Pokemon with you as well? Or like what was that kind of connection line in those early days for you?

Schintilla: so I didn't own a Game boy at the time. Um, she was the one who owned the game and the game boy. And so, in between our, turns, 'cause uh, I was like, I only ever played it during competitions. she deleted her game for me cause she already beat the game.

She, she was done and she didn't see them as a form of collecting. She just enjoyed the story. And so she completed the game, deleted her game, and she just brought her, her game boy and had me play it with her. And [00:08:00] she's like, okay, have fun. And mind you, she's also deaf and mute. So she's signing to me. So she, she'll go off and do her route and she's like, okay, how far did you get?

And so I managed to beat the game in like I think two or three swim meets. because we have a lot of downtime between our, between our turns.

David Hernandez: So when it came to those early days, you said it was, she wasn't much into the collection.

So was that the reason why you stuck with Pokemon?

Schintilla: for me it was just one of those early games that just really like spoke to me.

 I got to see the anime first, and I actually really liked the anime, but I didn't know the video games existed until, uh, the anime. So I was about 12 when, everything was coming out. And so, after playing the games, I, I was like really into it and I, I asked my parents for the game and they said no.

My grandpa caught on to me liking the games, and he was ecstatic because it's a Japanese game and family's from Japan. so he's like, okay, cool, cool. Well this is a good way [00:09:00] to try to get you into, uh, learning some of the culture and, getting a foot in the door.

David Hernandez: Okay.

Schintilla: so he bought me a game boy color.

He bought me my first games. my mom reluctantly bought me Pokemon Red. And yeah, it started off from that, that Christmas of when I was 12 years old.

David Hernandez: So you moved on to gen two and gen three? I assume

Schintilla: So I moved on the gen two. Um, I learned about gen two when I was 13. there was a kid in the neighborhood who actually had a, i,

David Hernandez: okay.

Schintilla: wanna say imported copy or a uh, a rom. And he was playing it, uh, at his house. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait. They have a, they have a red ose. And so I waited. I waited, and then I got the high school, and that's when Pokemon, gold and silver came out.

And that's when I started learning about the websites and everything and sebe.net. And it was over from there.

David Hernandez: really, you got dive, you hooked and dived in at that point.

Schintilla: Yeah. And, and I, I remember when se b.net went live,

David Hernandez: You were there the first day.

Schintilla: uh, I was there within the first month. [00:10:00] Uh, I found it, uh, through a Pokemon website. It was actually linked on as an affiliate site, and I remember seeing that site change so much.

David Hernandez: so when it came to, you know, those early days, what was it I guess about gen two that made you finally got hooked? Like, did you just enjoy the story more in that game compared to Gen one?

Schintilla: So I,

David Hernandez: was kind of the one that kind of cooked you in, it sounds like.

Schintilla: yeah, gen two was definitely the, the franchise, well, I was already hooked into Pokemon, uh, into the first gen. I actually ended up playing red, blue, and yellow. And then gen two came out, right around the beginning of my freshman year. And, Still to this day, it's one of my favorite in the franchise.

gen Twos and the remakes, uh, hard gold and soul silver. I picked Silver 'cause I like Lu Gia. Lu Gia was just like that. Pokemon was just like mysterious. I mean, the guy who made the movies for Pokemon 2000, he knew what he was doing. Luga was well built up. And when I realized I was gonna be in the video games too, yeah, I dunno, it was an instant sell.

And, from there yeah, [00:11:00] I just loved that game. That was probably the game I played, put the most hours in, uh, the franchise

David Hernandez: Let's

Schintilla: after Gen three.

David Hernandez: I mean, I remember when I watched the first, the second movie too. It was just kind of cool to see Luie, especially when it came outta the Whirlpool. It just kind of made it more majestic, you know? And then just seeing Ash try to war at it. You could tell, like I said, like you said, they knew what they were doing.

It was just kind of cool to kind of see them kind of bring that into a movie.

Schintilla: That was the movie I actually probably watched the most actually.

David Hernandez: Oh,

Schintilla: Uh, the entire franchise. I've, I've watched Pokemon 2000, probably like far more than I should have.

David Hernandez: Is

Schintilla: I,

David Hernandez: the, just 'cause luie primarily or just something different about it that keeps you going back to it?

Schintilla: I just like the overall story. Um. I actually ended up liking a flower from that movie that ended up becoming one of my favorite flowers. Um, I'm, I'm a big fan of the hibiscus flower 'cause of that movie. my friend and I, when we're in high school, we would go to, because it came out in the middle of summer school for us, so after summer school, we would take the bus to the movie theater before we would go home and stop at the movie theater and watch it.

I think we watched it for [00:12:00] three weeks straight and we were just trying to collect all the cards and watch the movies.

David Hernandez: Wow, that's some dedication to watching the same movie three, three weeks straight in a row and just trying to get it. And was there ever any frustration of getting the same card over at some point, or did you just like the movie so much that you were kind of immune to that kind

Schintilla: So I have a bunch of them still unopened.

David Hernandez: what really.

Schintilla: Yeah. Uh, same thing with Gen three movie. The Gen three movie, uh, uh, sorry. Pokemon, uh, The Pokeball movie three. Uh, the ante one. I still have a bunch of the antes ones sealed. Which I recently gifted one of them to, uh, to a friend.

David Hernandez: That's a very generous gift. I'm sure those are a lot worth a lot right now. Yeah.

Schintilla: Yeah. It was, uh, gamut. Feathers is his name. Uh, he's the guy who does Ana. Uh, when he was younger, someone stole a card from him and it was that, that reverse hollow ante. I am like, oh, okay, you, I'll just give you one of these.

David Hernandez: Aw, that's

Schintilla: still have, I have a whole bunch of them.

David Hernandez: It's such a cool hollow too. I always enjoyed that Inta. That was actually my favorite movie, The Pokeball. The spelled of the unknown, just [00:13:00] 'cause of the story arc. But I really just enjoyed that Pokemon card and I don't know, it felt like I almost owned INTA in a way. When I got, when I got it from the movie.

Schintilla: And he wasn't even a realte.

It was all an illusion by the unknown. the third movie was like, actually probably one of the, the better of the franchise. And maybe four, but four, kinda fell off.

It left so many holes and they built a story that I, we weren't even, I wasn't even sure if it was gonna be Canon. Uh, I was in high school. I was already starting to make judgements on, is this even canon to the actual anime?

They, they did Red con it, so it, it, it has been Red Con Fund

Marker

Hey you. Yes, you with the ears. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

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David Hernandez: So you talked about how you engage with the games, guess after gen two, what was, I guess more one of more your favorite set of games at that point?

Schintilla: But until, generation three came out gen three lasted a long time too. That went all throughout, uh, all throughout, uh, high school for the last part, and halfway through my undergrad

until, uh, gen four came up.

David Hernandez: You know, it's kind of wild to think about, you know, nowadays we're used to a Pokemon game almost once a year, and I think it'd be unfathomable for people today to imagine going a couple years without a Pokemon game. You know? 'cause there wasn't like side games either. It was primarily just Pokemon, the main Sears games.

You know, they might have Pokemon Puzzle League and stuff like that, but most people expected the Virgins, you know.

Schintilla: I was okay with that and I, I was okay with like a two a a three to four years elite. Because it allowed you to like, invest in the games that you're currently playing at the current [00:15:00] generation. and it was like, it was good. I, I collectively with, uh, Ruby Sapphire, Emerald and Fire Redleaf Green, I probably put in close to 2000 hours.

David Hernandez: Same. And primarily, you know, I learned, I feel like I know the area more intimately with the earlier games than I do nowadays. 'cause nowadays there's so much that I don't get a chance to really. F you know, develop kind of a connection. Even something as simple as Odale Town from Ruby and Sapphire, I remember more so than a lot of the other new cities nowadays.

Schintilla: Yeah,

David Hernandez: it was. I guess just maybe 'cause it's the rapid, you know, pace that Pokemon's going on with

Schintilla: gen

David Hernandez: merchandise.

Schintilla: Gen six.

David Hernandez: Mm-hmm.

Schintilla: I barely remember anything from gen six, but I can tell you everything about omega, ruby, alpha sapphire, the, the whole, uh, deoxy event that was in that, the, the, the buildup of that I, I, until gen seven came out, that was like the hypest event, that the Delta episode, that was the hypest thing I've ever seen in a Pokemon game.

David Hernandez: Yes. They really brought justice to that. I loved it. 

Schintilla: The music going into it and the buildup as it was, it was just like, it was like a [00:16:00] nonstop cut scene that you were actively involved. And then when Deoxy were revealed, I'm like, when did they finally do the thing that I wanted in gen three? That, that they, that they never did?

David Hernandez: Going

Schintilla: Yes.

David Hernandez: Same. It felt, it felt justified. 'cause I always thought, you know, you could go to space and Gen three for the longest time, but. They never did, but then Gen, you know, or Oras comes out and it's like, yo, this is what I always thought would happen.

Schintilla: That's how you do a remake. You take the old stuff and you add new stuff into it and make it more enjoyable.

David Hernandez: Yes, yes. Now, I know Jodo is your favorite region, or Gen two is, what did you think of Har Gold and Soul Silver when it came out?

Schintilla: Instantly a favorite. Uh, I loved it. They did everything they were supposed to do to fix some of the issues from, golden Silver. I still say it's the superior version that you should play. when my friend King Panda 95, got to play Pokemon for the very first time a few years ago.

I forced him to play Pokemon Soul Silver [00:17:00] and that I, I, I like helped him through it.

I'm like, okay, ding, you're fine. And then he, uh, cheekily, uh, defeated Red with Destiny Bond. And Only Destiny Bond.

David Hernandez: Like a full team of dusty bond.

Schintilla: No, he just had one Pokemon that had Destiny Bond. He kept reviving it and so he took, he took out Redwood only Destiny Bond.

David Hernandez: He broke the game. I've,

Schintilla: And everyone was so angry at him and was, that's not how you play. I'm like, no, this is legit.

David Hernandez: that's actually a very good strategy.

Schintilla: This, this is honestly my, the funniest. This, this, this top 10 throwing Excalibur at XUS and de defeating Zerus in front of fantasy four.

David Hernandez: I feel so stupid right now. know why. Just because it's so simple. It's genius. I

Schintilla: I never would've thought of that and it, it would just take someone who was like a big fan of strategy games to do something completely outta the box like that. All of our friends were upset.[00:18:00]

David Hernandez: Well, what is it about the RRP G? 'cause you said you're a big fan of RPGs. What is it about the RP G genre in general that you love the most?

Schintilla: Storytelling.

David Hernandez: them?

Schintilla: Storytelling. Yeah. Storytelling.

David Hernandez: Mm, okay. Like just the emotions that you feel, the character's investment. Like what is it? Do you like the. Sit, the scenery of, oh, not the scenery, the investment that goes into the area, like the lore behind it.

Is it the character driven? Like what kind of do you gravitate towards?

Schintilla: It's a mixture of gameplay story and characters. If the characters aren't good, I'm not gonna get too invested. If the story's kind of lame, I'm not gonna get invested. If the environment's not that great, I'm not gonna get investible with Pokemon. they might not have the characters,

David Hernandez: Right.

Schintilla: but they have the story that's being built up and the, the, the, the traveling aspect of it.

And that's what kinda like related for me when I was playing RPGs for the first time. You got invested in a story and you're playing as those characters. And that's what Pokemon is because literally Pokemon [00:19:00] got me into a lot more games than I was used to. 'cause I, I played mostly like. Platforming games when I was younger that had like no story.

David Hernandez: Yeah, it's just mostly, I'll say skill or timing, I guess is what

Schintilla: Yes,

David Hernandez: Yeah.

Schintilla: yes, yes, yes. And uh, it was like, middle school is when my brother and I were splitting in the types of games that we liked. 'cause we were both in like middle school going into high school. And so I was getting into more thinking games and time-based, uh, story related games while he was going more into like first person shooters.

David Hernandez: Mm-hmm. The Modern warfare,

Schintilla: Mm-hmm. That, that, that's what my brother is, my, my dad is the same way. My dad never understood me enjoying Pokemon or like Final Fantasy or, kingdom Hearts while my dad and my brother was able to relate with their, with their shooting games.

David Hernandez: Now, eventually you decided to start, you know, streaming on Twitch

Schintilla: Mm-hmm.

David Hernandez: also draw, and I kind of wanna do it both and both on this. So what made you wanna start drawing? What does your artistic journey start like when you first started kind of [00:20:00] exploring

Schintilla: I,

David Hernandez: side?

Schintilla: I started drawing in high school. Uh, I was forced into an art class. I didn't want to be in the art class. The teacher I ended up liking and she encouraged me to keep going. And I went into ART two and I was one of two of the only students at my high school that actually got the art four

cause they killed art four my senior year.

So there's like no advanced classes after Art two, but I was one of two students that were able to get that beyond that.

And so I kind of had like a long period where I wasn't focusing on art. But I still had my art teacher's supplies and stuff that she gave me when she retired. So, my second year in college she retired and for my 21st birthday, she gifted me a bunch of prisma color sets and markers and pens and charcoals and stencils and stuff.

And it just sat there in my, uh, my room and ca followed me to where I live now, uh, for years. And it wasn't until like a [00:21:00] s and and, and I became a teacher. and I always doodled in my classroom. All my posters were hand drawn by me. 'cause I always figured that's what you're supposed to do as a teacher.

And, uh, I always had like running jokes in my classroom. Like for instance, if the class was good, I will draw the storyboard of the Pinhead Larry scene on all the boards and walls in my classroom. And I'll just do like one board a day, depending on how well behaved the class was. I'm like, yeah, if you guys are, if you guys are, uh, on good.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna draw something on the wall. And, uh, like when Infinity, uh, infinity Wars ended up happening, I was drawing spoilers on the wall.

I was like, now if you guys don't stop during your test, I'm gonna draw another character on the board that dies.

David Hernandez: Oh my God, that's such a, they did. They take it seriously?

Schintilla: They did.

David Hernandez: Oh,

Schintilla: got some teachers upset 'cause I did that. I was like, that's messed up. Why would you do that? I'm like, it got them to behave

David Hernandez: eh,

Schintilla: in the middle of middle of state testing

David Hernandez: that's not [00:22:00] a bad idea. Like, Hey, if you don't wanna get spoil by this movie, I'm about to spoil it for you, so you better behave, guy. Yeah, I like that.

Schintilla: there. Ha. There hasn't been a good way, a good movie for me to spoil in a while.

David Hernandez: I don't know. You're running outta the mo.

Schintilla: Yeah, there hasn't been a good movie for me to spoil in a while.

David Hernandez: Well, you mentioned how you didn't want to go to art class. Usually most people who are artistic art, artistic people who are artistic that I've met, they've usually, you know, had some early, I'll say, experience. Why were you kind of resistant? Did you just not care for, or you didn't think you'd like it?

Schintilla: It's not what I wanted to take. I was forced into something my mom wanted me to do 'cause she wanted to benefit off.

David Hernandez: Oh, she wanted to use you?

Schintilla: Mm-hmm. That's what it was. She, she was keeping the art so she can feel good for herself. So basically she was living vicariously through me.

she even kept all my art, like a good deal of the high school art that I had.

And, uh, when she decided she didn't want it anymore, she left it with me. And all the art was like damaged with the exception to a few things.

David Hernandez: Mm.

Schintilla: Yeah. So, I, I, a lot of my like, [00:23:00] favorite pieces I worked on in high school got Water damaged.

David Hernandez: I mean that must have felt rough. 'cause usually art's pretty personal, even if you didn't like it. What was it like to kind of receive that from your mother?

Schintilla: Why are you dropping this off at my house?

David Hernandez: Annoyed.

Schintilla: This is the past. Why are you dropping it off at my house? Uh, like some of my favorite pieces that I had in there that she kind of like kept.

David Hernandez: Mm-hmm.

Schintilla: They all got destroyed. A, a Kingdom Hearts piece I worked on, a piece I drew for Tony J uh, there's a few of my, my art pieces that are like in my city.

My, my hometown still like, still hung up.

David Hernandez: Oh really?

Schintilla: Yeah. my hometown, I drew a portrait of, uh, the city council, one of the city council and city treasurers, who was my friend's grandfather. Her and he was very important to the city 'cause he was a very big encourager of the arts. So much so that he contributed to an art school that's in my city, my, my hometown.

And so I gifted it to his wife [00:24:00] and when she passed away, she, uh, it was gifted to the city and, and now it currently sits up in the city hall.

David Hernandez: that's gotta be amazing. Like do you ever, you gotta have some sense of pride though to think that your art pieces is like almost memorable at this point.

Schintilla: That was the only piece I ever sent off to an art competition, and I got at least a ribbon.

I actually sent it off to an art contest. My, uh, during my junior year of high school, my art teacher actually sent it off to a competition

David Hernandez: Mm-hmm.

Schintilla: won. It went through the city and it went to the county. And, my friend who went in the art four with me, he's the one that actually went all the way up to the state.

He was really good. But uh, I ended up running into a childhood friend because of that, who was also an artist,

David Hernandez: Mm-hmm.

Schintilla: we took similar paths and we split in the opposite direction. So he went into an art field while I went into a teaching field when he was originally thinking about becoming a teacher, and I was originally thinking about going to an art field, and we just went the opposite directions.

David Hernandez: But you know, you start, I see, first time I saw you was on Twitch, you were drawing. [00:25:00] What made you a, I guess, wanna start Twitch and incorporate your art that way?

Schintilla: So there was a mixture of things. FI like doing like, I like making stuff. And I did consider it like back in 2022. 2021. No, it was 2021 about starting the stream. I was actually brought over to the Twitch by an artist, uh, an industry artist. And uh, they had some animations on YouTube and I started following them on Twitter and.

He started advertising, oh, hey, I'm gonna start streaming on Twitch as I do my animations. I'm like, okay, I wanna see this animation. So I followed on Twitch and then I made an account on Twitch and for like a year I was like following him on, on a regular every time he went live. And eventually he stopped and I kind was like watching other art streamers and other artists. And I, and I eventually built up the courage to stream myself. And the final straw was a student. so this group just graduated this year. so I had this one student when he was a [00:26:00] freshman, use his classroom points for me that draw him something.

And

David Hernandez: And

Schintilla: he just requested, he was like, oh, I'm gonna, uh, he's like, I'm gonna use all my points. I want you to draw me something. I'm like, okay, what do you want me to draw? And he's like, I want you to draw. I want you to draw Mr. Horse.

And I'm like, why? Why Mr. Horse? Like it doesn't have to just be any Mr. Horse. It needs to be the specific Mr. Horse. And it was the nipple salesman episode, the baby bottle nipple,

and he wanted me to draw the face. The reaction after he opens the door while he's wearing the baby bottle nipples, we're like, fine.

You used, you used over a thousand points. Fine, fine. I will draw it. And so, I waited until, school ended and I knew he was gonna be in summer school 'cause he was one of my avid students. So, I finished it up during The beginning of the break and I went over to his cla, his PE area where he was doing PE for the summer and I delivered it to him and he's like, there's no way you did this.

I didn't, wasn't expecting you to do this. I'm like, I drew it, take it. I colored it in, I shaded it, [00:27:00] I put a lot of work. I pulled out my color pencils from hi from my teacher

David Hernandez: Oh

Schintilla: that very thing.

David Hernandez: This is the moment they're waiting for.

Schintilla: And so he's like, I love it so much. And when he graduated, he showed me the photo and he still has it hung up on his wall.

His mom was like, because I saw her the next year for back school night. She's like, why do you draw him that? It's like, it's the creepiest thing I've ever seen. Like, you should talk to your son. He's equally creepy

telling me that he, that I drew him something creepy. You, your whole family runs a mortuary.

David Hernandez: Oh my God.

Schintilla: He, he cr.

David Hernandez: ISS kind of in the resume right there.

Schintilla: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, his, his, uh, his, uh,

David Hernandez: uh,

Schintilla: homemade job that he did for school was a mortuary service,

David Hernandez: oh my God.

Schintilla: and he, he, he convinced two classes to build a mortuary, a mortuary, program for their made up job, for their grade of like, you know, you know, it doesn't really count you.

You already have knowledge. You're gonna be inheriting a mor uh, [00:28:00] mortuary.

David Hernandez: If there's anybody who's, uh, runs a mortuary and loves Pokemon, please come on the podcast. That sounds so interesting. I'm sorry.

Schintilla: Yeah, he was a weird kid.

David Hernandez: I'm sure I'm not surprised. I don't think there's no normalcy when it comes to running a mortuary, so mortuaries aside, you side to stream on Twitch, it sounds like, because of that reaction, is that kind of fair to say?

Schintilla: Um, no, uh, what ultimately got me to decide the stream on Twitch was actually v tubers and artists.

so yeah, the, the person who brought me the Twitch was called Jazz Light. he is an industry artist and, kind of pushed me into the, the furry fandom and stuff. it was just his overall demeanor and how he was just, was as a streamer that just like interested me in going streaming.

David Hernandez: Mm-hmm.

Schintilla: But at the same time, in 2022 when I was just getting ready to start streaming, I just spent a year back in the classroom after being an online teacher for a year and a half. So, This was [00:29:00] post COVID stuff, and so I spent a year and a half as a teacher online, and during that time, I actually enjoyed teaching online than I did in person.

Some of my best memories as a teacher so far has been online teaching. I was already at the point where I was about to make a V YouTuber for stream for teaching online.

I had Like special things I did like chat stuff that I would do, like now as a streamer. So like there was a lot of stuff that I was doing back then that ended up becoming more of a streaming thing Now.

Over time there was a couple of streamers that I knew that, noticed that I was drawing Pokemon and stuff and because that, that's how my stream started.

I started drawing Pokemon. I started off with, drawing in center wars on stream.

and then I started drawing other Pokemon because a student recommended I just start drawing all the fire type Pokemon and just started from there. And, every week I was drawing fire type Pokemon until I did every single one of 'em.

David Hernandez: And that's basically how you started to, from Twitch.

Schintilla: Yeah, and I started as an artist and my [00:30:00] channel grew. I grew as a streamer. I changed a lot. it took me five months to get affiliate ' cause uh, I wasn't a big channel. I had like two viewers at the most, for the, for the longest time on my stream. And then I hit affiliate in December of that year of 2022.

And, I was already in the process of rebranding and so I stopped, I removed my original character design and I drew my first incent row on my phone. ' cause I have a, a phone with a drawing, drawing pen.

David Hernandez: right.

Schintilla: And I transferred it over, loaded it up. That was my profile picture. And one of the streamers that I've followed since pretty much the beginning, he told me, he is like, oh, you should probably go as a, as an center row.

There's no one that does them like. You're, you're reading my mind.

David Hernandez: You're already sensing it.

Schintilla: And so I was already in the process of making a, a new p and g tuber that wasn't gonna be using discord. And so I made a p and g tuber. It was actually animated, so I did my first little [00:31:00] animations. I, added stuff to 'em and, uh, I even did a whole talking thing too. It was hard as heck.

But yeah, I was like really happy with how it turned out.

And so at the end of 2022, I rebranded as an incentor and everyone was super excited for that. and I stayed in Incentor for about a year and a half until, I started reworking Scintilla and I went back to the drawing board and I threw a lot more in center into his design, like his color scheme, for instance.

So I went from being an orange, an orange tiger thing to a. A tiger with a lot of similar references in my design.

David Hernandez: Does it feel like, I guess, the incent or doesn't fit what you, I guess, perceive of yourself and you kind of identify more scintilla? Like how does that kind of identity work between the two, I guess?

Schintilla: The way how I tell 'cause, 'cause the lore to the character is he's able to transform.

David Hernandez: Hmm.

Schintilla: So he started off as the original scintilla became incent order to be more comfortable with how I wanted to be. And so incident war was more of a stepping stone to [00:32:00] how I wanted my character to be in the end.

David Hernandez: It kind of reminds me of how when we're growing up, we kind of. Identify different personas we see, whether it be online or in person. You know, for me, I grew up, um, I remember John Cena, I remember the Rock. Um, I was a wrestler guy, but if y'all don't know, I like Goku Dragon Ball. And in a way I kind of molded myself off them. And to me that's kind of how it seems like you kind of did with with Illa because you did that with CIN and then coming back as, you know, picking the parts you liked and kind of mixing it, if that makes sense.

Schintilla: Yeah. A and the one thing I get a lot from a lot of people is like, oh no, if I were tovo, if they were to have incident voice by somebody, they want me to voice. I'm like, yeah, that ain't gonna happen.

David Hernandez: Hey, it could, you never know.

Schintilla: But

David Hernandez: listening, Hey, this guy wants to voice in cinema anyway, but,

Schintilla: no, a couple of my friends, we would make jokes. Like I would go into someone's streaming or VR and they see someone in an incident model and they, they hear, they, they're expecting my voice, but they hear someone else like, that's not illa.

David Hernandez: I guess [00:33:00] what have you kind of guess discovered by doing this? 'cause you said at the time you didn't know Santana was like at the first, you didn't know you adopted incent war. What did you kind discover after coming back from incent that you identified with, I guess?

Schintilla: I have a lot of the same traits of Incent Aurora as with kids and stuff. 'cause I work with, I'm, I'm a, I'm a teacher.

David Hernandez: Sure.

Schintilla: So it's just like that some of that trait where incident war is he puts on a face, but he's actually a lot kinder than he puts than what he puts on.

David Hernandez: do you feel like there's kind of some misjudgment, I guess?

Schintilla: Oh yeah. Incident war gets heavily misjudged in the anime and in the fandom itself. well, The Pokeball fandom, um, uh. How I am actually IRL, uh, so I get portrayed as the mean person at school. The one that's like really rough and, and, and, brash to the kids. I'm blunt with everyone.

David Hernandez: Mm-hmm.

Schintilla: it's like, I, I, I'm not, I'm not gonna sugarcoat things to the kids.

I'm gonna tell 'em as, as I see it,

David Hernandez: Right.

Schintilla: I'm gonna tell 'em. I'm gonna tell 'em what they don't want to hear.

David Hernandez: because you, it sounds like you value honesty over [00:34:00] just trying to tell 'em like, oh, eventually things are kind of working. Well, not that

Schintilla: Yeah.

David Hernandez: You value them, to be honest, to know that this is what's coming. More so than saying you're gonna have, I guess, cloud nine, I guess, aspiration, if that makes sense.

Schintilla: Yeah, it, it's why they don't want me talking to parents.

David Hernandez: I can see why it's okay. Well, my last question just in regards to, you know, this all to wrap it up because you know. like you said, you wear so many faces. You've got the illa, you adopted incent war for a bit. You're the teacher. What's the one side that people see the most of that you wish people would see differently, I guess,

Schintilla: I'm pretty much the same online and offline.

David Hernandez: Even better.

Schintilla: Yeah,

David Hernandez: Yeah.

Schintilla: I, I'm, I I'm pretty much the same online and offline

David Hernandez: Well, 'cause you said that, you know, you were blunt, so I guess that may be off-putting. So do you wish people saw more instead of your bluntness? Maybe another part of you that gets kind of overshadowed because you are as blunt as you are.

Schintilla: sometimes. but I think. With streaming more, and also in [00:35:00] the, the fandom itself. A lot of people just, they, they're, I get seen more as the the mature adult figure

David Hernandez: mm-hmm.

Schintilla: the time. And there's just times I just wanna like, why am I the one responsible for all, for everyone?

David Hernandez: It's like, why do I have to be a responsible one here? Can

Schintilla: like if I go to a con, if I go to a con, I become the con dad. Or everyone comes to me for their problems. I'm like, uh, I kind of wish you guys understand. I'm like, Hey, yeah, I need a break from people too.

David Hernandez: It's like you don't wanna be the parental figure. You just want to be either by yourself or maybe a different role. Yeah.

Schintilla: Yeah. I, I'm strict with my students. I'm like, look, I am here for you guys 'cause I'm, my job is to be here, but the moment I'm outside of this, this, these grounds, if you see me in sandals, do not talk to me.

David Hernandez: Oh, I like that. See, that's the bluntness. Yeah. You set the boundaries.

Schintilla: I had neighbors that were former students too. I, I, I, I used to wear pants at school, but now I wear shorts all the time. and I used to tell them if I'm in shorts, I'm in sandals. Do not come over here talking to [00:36:00] me.

David Hernandez: Well, I wanna finish on this last question. It's gonna be a fun one 'cause I know it's been kind of a heavy interview. want you to give me your dream Pokemon team. If somebody was gonna come battle with you six on six, what six Pokemon would you bring to this

Schintilla: Oh ha. Hands down, uh, Inc. Centro, um, mu Caron, um, swamper, uh, write you, uh, for my electric and, I need a fairy type, probably room snarl.

David Hernandez: Oh. I like that one. Gr. What did you do gmax?

Schintilla: Yeah. For the GM max

David Hernandez: Okay.

Schintilla: for.

David Hernandez: And if they wanna check your content, if they wanna watch your stream, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

Schintilla: Oh yeah. they can find me over at Twitch, under Twitch tv slash uh, scintilla vt. I do post, stuff on my, socials on Twitter and Blue Sky. most my, traditional art, I take group photos of 'em and I upload them up on Twitter and Blue Sky, at least once every few weeks. And, all my, bigger arts I do on Blue Sky or I only.

[00:37:00] Do the, show them off on Twitch.

David Hernandez: Thank you for listening to, As The Pokeball Turns, if this story resonated with you, share the podcast with a fellow trainer. Don't forget to follow us with more voices. I'm sorry. To follow us for more voices, more journeys, and more memories. I'm David Hernandez, and remember. Your next Pokemon adventure begins here.