| 1 | The following series in the ''Pokémon'' franchise have their own {{Headscratchers/Headscratchers}} pages. New discussion related to those series should be placed in their respective pages. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[index]] |
| 4 | * Main Series games |
| 5 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonRedAndBlue'' |
| 6 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' |
| 7 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' |
| 8 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' |
| 9 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' |
| 10 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' |
| 11 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonXAndY'' |
| 12 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonSunAndMoon'' |
| 13 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' |
| 14 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' |
| 15 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonSwordAndShield'' |
| 16 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonLegendsArceus'' |
| 17 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' |
| 18 | * Other games with their own pages |
| 19 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonColosseum'' |
| 20 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' |
| 21 | *** ''Headscratchers/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam'' |
| 22 | *** ''Headscratchers/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'' |
| 23 | *** ''Headscratchers/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' |
| 24 | *** ''Headscratchers/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'' |
| 25 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonRanger'' |
| 26 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness'' |
| 27 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokkenTournament'' |
| 28 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonGo'' |
| 29 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonMasters'' |
| 30 | ** ''Headscratchers/DetectivePikachu'' |
| 31 | *** ''Headscratchers/DetectivePikachuReturns'' |
| 32 | * ''Headscratchers/PokemonTheSeries'' |
| 33 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon'' |
| 34 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'' |
| 35 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonHorizonsTheSeries'' |
| 36 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' |
| 37 | ** ''Headscratchers/Pokemon2000'' |
| 38 | ** ''Headscratchers/Pokemon4Ever'' |
| 39 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonHeroes'' |
| 40 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonJirachiWishmaker'' |
| 41 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew'' |
| 42 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonRangerAndTheTempleOfTheSea'' |
| 43 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonArceusAndTheJewelOfLife'' |
| 44 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions'' |
| 45 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonKyuremVSTheSwordOfJustice'' |
| 46 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened'' |
| 47 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonDiancieAndTheCocoonOfDestruction'' |
| 48 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonIChooseYou'' |
| 49 | ** ''Headscratchers/PokemonMewtwoReturns'' |
| 50 | * ''Headscratchers/PokemonOrigins'' |
| 51 | * ''Headscratchers/PokemonAdventures'' |
| 52 | * ''Headscratchers/PokemonDiamondAndPearlAdventure'' |
| 53 | * ''Headscratchers/PokemonGenerations'' |
| 54 | * ''Headscratchers/PokemonEvolutions'' |
| 55 | * ''Headscratchers/PokemonPathToThePeak'' |
| 56 | * ''Headscratchers/PokemonDetectivePikachu'' |
| 57 | * General Headscratchers/PokemonArchive. |
| 58 | * General Headscratchers/PokemonArchiveLate2010. |
| 59 | [[/index]] |
| 60 | |
| 61 | '''''Please add new entries to the bottom of the page.''''' |
| 62 | |
| 63 | '''''Note: When adding an answer please don't use personal anecdotes and/or 'This troper'. They're simply not needed and are unnecessary.''''' |
| 64 | ---- |
| 65 | * So if you try to use a specific item in an area it can't be used, you get a message from Oak saying, "[Player]! You can't use that here!" Um.... is Oak spying on Red through some camera footage or something? |
| 66 | ** In the newer games, the message says something like " Professor So-and-So's words rang in [Player]'s head: ''[Player], there's a time and a place for everything, but not right now.'' " Maybe Red was just thinking of what Oak would say? |
| 67 | * Why hasn't the concept of Pokémon sizes been introduced in the games yet? Its commonplace within nature, that there will be variation between animal sizes of the same species that can be advantageous and disadvantageous depending on the circumstances. Heck, the anime has often touched upon this theme. |
| 68 | ** Once in a blue moon, you could come across a ''Giant Pokémon'' that has insane attack power and defense. They're like tanks, they can take a lot of damage thanks to high stamina, but their speed is poor, they'll almost never get first turn. On the other end of the spectrum, you might encounter the equally rare ''Mini Pokémon'', with low attack power, but speed and evasion is incredible, thanks to its very small size. |
| 69 | *** That'd just be another set of [=IV=]s, and it's frustrating enough already trying to get a Pokemon with [=IV=]s that complement the base stats of its species. |
| 70 | ** [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pumpkaboo_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29 It has been introduced]], [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Gourgeist hasn't it?]] |
| 71 | ** And before that, there was a fisherman in Lake of Rage that rewards you based on the size of Magikarps you show him, indicating that they vary in size. There were also similar {{Non Player Character}}s asking to see a Shroomish and a Barboach in Sootopolis City. |
| 72 | * How did society ever function before the invention of the Pokéball? If wild Pokémon (feeling threatened for no good reason) supposedly attack people, without Pokémon to protect themselves with, how could they ever farm, live off the land, or do anything? People back then must have been at their ''[[NatureIsNotNice mercy]]''. |
| 73 | ** Firearms, explosives, and plain old melee weapons. |
| 74 | ** It could be that back then, they would have had tamers, rather than everyone being able to catch them. For example, certain people could have had N-like powers (To speak with mons) and those people are in small quantity now. |
| 75 | *** Before the invention of the Pokéball, people being at the Pokémon's mercy, people with N-like powers... Why has nobody fanficced this? |
| 76 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonConquest'' shows that before Pokéballs (or at least in a region that doesn't use Pokéballs) Trainers tamed Pokémon, rather than catching them. The Pokémon became their partners because they sensed a kinship, or were impressed by their strength. This seems the most likely answer. Not to mention before Pokéballs they used Apricorns. But how long ago that was, or how many centuries they used them is unknown. |
| 77 | * '''Why''' can't you catch a wild Pokémon if it faints? |
| 78 | ** Would you really want to be prompted to catch every single wild Pokémon you defeat? How do you want the game to differentiate between defeating it to capture it or defeating it for exp, etc., or just to get rid of it? |
| 79 | ** You're prompted when its defeated anyway. The game never prompts you to cancel evolution by simply pressing the B button to stop evolution while it is evolving. Yet every gamer knows this anyway. Would holding down B when it faints cripple the game? |
| 80 | *** Right, let's have the game automatically toss a random Pokéball from your inventory every time you faint a Pokémon. [[SarcasmMode Brilliant!]] What's that, you forgot to hold B this time? Too bad, say bye bye to your Master Ball! |
| 81 | ** Its just an excuse to have stronger Pokéballs and weaker Pokémon. |
| 82 | ** I can't think of an in-universe explanation, but gameplay wise it's there to add challenge instead of letting players brute force their way through the game. |
| 83 | ** In the original game plan for Red and Green, trainers were supposed to keep Pokémon in line with whips, before the ball idea was invented. That's why the Cooltrainer sprite still had whips in the first generation. |
| 84 | ** In the real world, [[TapOnTheHead being hurt so badly that you faint means you have a concussion at best and serious brain damage at worst.]] My explanation is, when they faint, they're either dead or dying, and if they've sustained that much damage the Pokéball can't log them/register them because they're too damaged for it to recognize them. But once you've caught a Pokémon the Pokéball is customized to recognize that Pokémon and nothing else. (which is why you don't get a Pokémon back when you release your Pokés.) So! When you battle and your Pokémon faints, you can return it to the Pokéball and keep it in a time-stasis like state until you reach the Pokémon Center and get it medical attention. But with wild Pokémon you can't. |
| 85 | *** Look, seriously, that's impossible. The whole point is that Pokémon [[NonLethalKO DON'T die.]] Seriously, eating some berries or DRINKING SODA/LEMONADE heals off getting flattened, slashed, burned, '''poison and worse poison''' not to mention several methods of paralysis, there is NO reason to think they fucking die every time they lose all their HP. |
| 86 | *** They don't? '''Explain Lavender Tower then.''' People there even say outright their Pokémon ''died''. |
| 87 | *** Same poster as just above: NonLethalKO. Read the page quote. |
| 88 | ** Hell, in the anime, the characters are required to faint/stun/KO/disable any Pokemon if they want to catch it! |
| 89 | ** One of the primary requirements for a Pokemon Trainer is the ability to befriend caught Pokemons and make them your ally (and it is implied that even Team Rocket cares about Pokemons they use in battle). I think that, when they faint, you can theoretically catch them, but the game will not let you do that. After all, they'll not obey you anyway, because, well, you just beat them to a pulp. |
| 90 | ** The real, canon answer is that Pokémon shrink after being defeated (think Minimize), which helps them heal and makes them too small to catch. This was mentioned by Lucian in the Japanese versions, and reaffirmed by the battle animations showing them shrinking out of sight upon fainting. |
| 91 | * Why isn't Water weak to Ice? For moves like Ice Beam and Blizzard, I can almost understand, as the ice is created and not frozen from existing water, but Ice moves are capable of freezing ''Fire types, including ones composed of lava!'' Not to mention that there are Ice-type moves said to be beams of ''pure cold.'' If something can freeze lava, it should have no trouble dispatching a fish. |
| 92 | ** Actually, as of Gen VI there is a move (Freeze dry) that IS super effective against water. Game freak must have heard your prayers. |
| 93 | ** Ever hold an ice cube under a facet? Flowing water can wear ice down faster than ''fire''. |
| 94 | ** In the real world, cold temperatures are good for fish because it increases the amount of O2 that can be dissolved/contained within water. If the water gets too warm they can't breathe. This is why you can still go ice fishing in the winter. That said a fish out of water should still be susceptible... |
| 95 | ** IRL, water cools more slowly than air, so, for example, coastal areas have milder winters than nearby inland areas. Makes sense that water would resist ice. |
| 96 | * Why is the Ice type weak to Rock and Steel? Shouldn't it be the other way around, given what water freezing in a crack does to surrounding rock? It should also be super-effective against Steel, because extreme cold makes metal brittle and weak. |
| 97 | ** Try bashing a slab of ice with a rock. Try it the other way around. It may not be a perfect explanation, but there you go. |
| 98 | ** Ice is a step up from Ground. It can freeze Ground, but the tiniest rock can smash it. |
| 99 | * Speaking of Water, why isn't it weak to Poison? Marine and freshwater habitats are extremely vulnerable to liquid pollution, and coral bleaching is caused by chemical imbalances in water, so I'm having a hard time thinking up a reason why Water WOULDN'T be weak to Poison. |
| 100 | * Why aren't Bugs weak against Ice? Sure, there are a select few species of bugs that can tough out extreme cold, but those are major exceptions. Bugs are cold-blooded, and they almost always die or go underground in the winter. And this is in temperate biomes, and Ice-type attacks are surely far below normal wintertime temperature. It wouldn't make sense for Bugs to resist Ice just on that basis alone. That would be comparable to Grass taking neutral damage from Bugs because there are plants that eat bugs, or Grass taking neutral damage from Ice because evergreen trees stay green even in cold winter conditions. |
| 101 | * How does an isolated island with less than a thousand people develop so much technology/etc.? For that matter, how big are the regions anyways? |
| 102 | ** Some of the people might well be that intelligent. And so few around, there's very little drain on the natural resources (metals, woods, waters, etc). |
| 103 | ** To answer the latter question, it varies. The first four regions are all locations in Japan, and of them Johto is the smallest. Unova is the smallest region apart from the previous four because it's just a big oval shape. Kalos is the biggest because it is then mitre state of France and has not one, but two Pokedexes you can obtain. |
| 104 | * Did a competitive metagame with tiers exist back in Gen I? Or did Smogon just develop one recently for Gen I fans? |
| 105 | ** The "competitive battling" types didn't exist for most of the Red/Blue era. They slowly began to appear during the time leading up to the release of Gold and Silver in Japan (some of the earliest "competitive battling"-related sites sprang up or became more well-known around this time.) Sometime after the Japanese release, but before we knew all the English names, the Competitive Battling Zombie Apocalypse happened. Suddenly, legions of StopHavingFunGuys swarmed onto the forums and places that were formerly talking about all kinds of Pokémon-related things were drowned in a flood of "rate my team" threads, links to online battle simulators, tier lists, and "standard" movesets. I know, because I was there--I'm a survivor of the AOL Pokémon forums' CBZA (one of the few, it seems--most were either infected, left the forums shortly after the CBZA happened, or lost interest in Pokémon altogether.) So yeah, this sort of mindset (complete with tier lists, "standard" movesets, and online battle simulators) did exist in the Red/Blue era, it just wasn't anywhere near as widespread as it is now, restricted more to small groups of people on certain Pokémon forums rather than being an "everywhere on the Internet" sort of thing. |
| 106 | * Zubat can stare (Mean Look) at you enough to make you run away even though it has no eyes. Did he inherit Brock's eyes? |
| 107 | ** Look at those frightful fangs coming directly at you and try not to run away. |
| 108 | *** I'd try Thundershock, Confusion, or Ice Beam as a reflex action. |
| 109 | *** Frightful? They’re [[CuteLittleFangs so cute]] though! [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Golbat]] on the other hand... |
| 110 | ** Umm, Mean Look doesn't make you run away. It makes you ''unable'' to run away. |
| 111 | ** He makes odd face contortions, trying to use mean look, and fails so epicly your Pokémon is laughing so hard he can't escape? |
| 112 | ** Maybe thats how Zubat's Mean Look works. When a Zubat has to opens its eyes, it can only be trouble. |
| 113 | ** Or he's making an ILLUSION of eyes to scare you. |
| 114 | * How does Wally ever catch any Pokémon of his own? You got him a ''Ralts''. They only know Growl until you level them up. |
| 115 | ** You don't need to weaken Pokémon to catch 'em, but it makes it easier. |
| 116 | *** Yeah sure, maybe if you have a Master Ball. |
| 117 | *** The catch rate in Ruby for a full-health level 7 Skitty with no status effects and a regular pokeball is ~33.65% per ball. Make of that what you will. |
| 118 | ** Struggle. |
| 119 | ** Or just throwing a Poke Ball at a weak Pokémon. |
| 120 | *** Despite the fact that his party consists of a level 16 Ralts (and that's it) in Mauville City... |
| 121 | ** He does live near the Daycare center. |
| 122 | ** You only need to level it up once to get Confusion. A single Rare Candy does the trick. Or Day Care, ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation though the player]] ''[[GameplayAndStorySegregation always]]'' [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard needs a Pokémon by his/her side...]]) |
| 123 | *** He could have used a TM, however I don't remember seeing an NPC with a TM move. |
| 124 | *** Tell that to the Dusclops that I met in the Elite Four that knows Thunderbolt. |
| 125 | *** You don't have to be a prodigy to throw a Poke Ball and get lucky and catch some random Pokémon while you put your good one in the Daycare. |
| 126 | ** OK, [[{{@/bwburke94}} I]] figured it out. Remember how he temporarily had a Zigzagoon? Well, its ability is Pickup, and it picked up a Rare Candy (which was indeed possible in RS). Game Freak just forgot to change it for Emerald. |
| 127 | *** He could have just gotten extremely lucky and caught another Pokemon on his first try. He could put out Ralts, then switch to his other Pokemon. Lather, rinse, repeat. Simple, really. |
| 128 | * The assumption that the Master Ball is 100% effective at capturing any and all Pokemon really bugs me, primarily because my own experience with the game has proven otherwise, but I've not found a single other example from anyone else to verify that that's the case. I know I remember, when I tried to capture Mewtwo and Suicune back in the day with a Master Ball, they kept breaking out, no matter how low I got their health, but for the life of me, I can't seem to find one instance of this happening to anyone else. Did I just imagine it? Were my games glitchy? Or is it just a rare occurrence in the game that a Master Ball fails? |
| 129 | ** You must be imagining things, or you were experiencing one Hell of a glitch. |
| 130 | *** I know I wasn't imagining things; I've had it happen to me when I tried to catch Mewtwo in the original Pokemon Red, and I had it happen to me again when I tried to catch Suicune in Pokemon Silver. Two times in two different games against two different Pokémon can't be a coincidence. I even remember what I was doing when it happened: I was trying to capture them normally with Ultra Balls, and got so fed up with them busting out that I used the Master Ball on them. They busted out of those, too. Maybe that's the glitch; if you use enough of the other Poke Balls on a Pokémon, and they keep busting out of them, then there's a chance the computer will register your use of the Master Ball afterward as just another Poke Ball. |
| 131 | *** The failure in Pokémon Red is somewhat possible due to some stuff at the RNG that actually give it a 255/256 possibility of capturing. However, the rest of it is just a bunch of baseless lies. |
| 132 | ** It's supposed to be 100% effective, but mechanically relies on simply having a 255 times greater chance of successfully capturing a Pokemon. The odds of it failing should be infinitesimal (unless you miss), and close enough to 100% effective for government work, though. |
| 133 | ** The Master Ball can '''only''' fail in RBGY, and in those games it only has a 0.04% failure rate against a perfectly healthy Pokemon with a catch rate of 3 (most Legendaries). In all other games it cannot possibly fail. |
| 134 | ** Hi, sorry, I would like to say that I, too, had one break, and I was playing White. It broke when I was trying to catch a critical health Thundurus. There must be a very tiny fractional chance that it will break across all the games, but it's extremely tiny. I remember because I was incredibly baffled that it broke. I was getting sick chasing the thing around Unova so used my Master Ball, and I was pretty shocked the thing broke (and annoyed because Thundurus fled like an Abra immediately after) and I actually went and checked to see if there was a possibility that it could fail. |
| 135 | ** It's most likely a random bug. In all games, using a Master Ball bypasses the capture algorithm altogether. |
| 136 | * Inspired by the ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill page - a Psychic attack against a Level 2 Bug/Poison Pokémon by a Level 100 Mewtwo. I just wonder... what does it do to that poor little Pokémon? I could imagine a 30-40 level difference to be a MindRape too close to the MoralEventHorizon for comfort. But a difference of 98 levels, what exactly happens there!? |
| 137 | ** All fan-reasoning aside, the grim truth is that (with a few exceptions), Pokemon either had to erect a Great Wall of Separation from Reality or '''somehow''' deal with the ''astounding possibility'' of Pokemon getting killed while fighting each other. YOU try being in the company PR department when kids send tear-stained letters asking if they can bring back Fluffy or Scorchy. Or imagine the reaction to a Pokemon in the anime series getting killed in a battle due to an inexperienced trainer sending it up against a horribly powerful foe. |
| 138 | ** It must be something like that "this is your brain on drugs" ad... |
| 139 | ** [[{{Narm}} The same thing]] [[Film/XMen1 that happens to everything else]]. Bugs, while not resistant to Psychic attacks, can hurt Psychics enough to be a partial counterbalance to a Poison weakness. Now, get a Poison/Fighting Pokémon like Croagunk involved... |
| 140 | ** By the time it faints, it's probably just twitching violently. You don't stick around long enough to see the [[YourHeadAsplode head explosion]]. |
| 141 | ** My personal theory is that super-powerful attacks have a tendency to miss smaller targets (I'd imagine aiming a Hyper Beam at a small squirrel would be rather difficult), but the Pokémon just faints out of sheer terror. |
| 142 | *** How about a Wailord (as big as small whale) using Bounce on a Joltik (as small as a cockroach)? How does it actually work? Or a Groudon (950kg, 2094.4lbs) using Stomp on a Joltik? |
| 143 | *** It would probably end something like [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=random%20doom%20and%20club%20soda&order=9&offset=48#/d1rqwyd this.]] |
| 144 | *** Groudon brings the foot down hard enough to dent but doesn't step all the way down leaving it in a state where it is unable to battle. If it were a trainer battle it wouldn't even matter if it was smashed, it would quickly be converted into data, reconstructed and then rested in a Pokemon Center. |
| 145 | *** Converted to data? Not likely, because Red/Blue/FR/LG brings us Lavender Town's haunted tower, which has gravestones to remember the ''dead Pokemon''. A woman was shown grieving over her dead Pokemon. Therefore, Pokemon can die in the Pokemon Universe, we just never get to experience it firsthand, because I doubt that the creators would like to traumatize young players with the death of their own, or their opponents Pokemon. I say that they get an offscreen death. |
| 146 | *** How many of those died in your trainer battles though? When done "right" ___takes too much, gets called back into virtual Poke Ball world then gets healed later. Most visible in Battle Revolution where after the HP bar is depleted the opponent will just signal it can't fight and then be recalled. Assuming you aren't out to kill like Team Rocket was with Marowak, Joltik should be fine. Even if you are, in theory the opponent could still save their Pokémon by recalling it quick enough (then running from you). |
| 147 | ** It's Pokemon. Like most other works of fiction, it is highly unaffected by real-world physics. You want to know what happens when you use a level 100 Mewtwo against a Level 2 Weedle? It faints in 10 seconds flat and you get miniscule experience. Technically, that was a randomly generated piece of code that no matter what is just erased from existing. |
| 148 | *** Um... minuscule experience? If Mewtwo is level 100 it would gain ''no'' experience. |
| 149 | *** "Don't over-think it", in other words? |
| 150 | ** Mewtwo sees how weak its foe is, holds back, and CherryTaps it. A telekinetic flick of the finger is enough for something so weak. |
| 151 | *** That one reminds me of the second Johto episode, where Charizard beat Casey's Pidgey by breathing on it. |
| 152 | *** That theory makes sense. Using recoil moves, you'll notice that the recoil is based on damage dealt (usually 1/4 or 1/2 depending on the move). OHKO'ing a weak Pokémon with a recoil move will lead to less recoil damage, with an implication that the attacking Pokémon is holding back. |
| 153 | ** Simple - the Psychic attack affects the Pokémon until the moment it faints, which occurs extremely rapidly. After that, no consciousness means no further effect of the attack on the Pokémon. |
| 154 | ** The Pokemon stomps NEXT to the Joltik and the resulting shockwave K.O.s the Joltik. |
| 155 | ** See [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2010/09/27/275-hyper-beam/ here.]] I'd say that's an accurate representation. |
| 156 | ** Once you've trained Mewtwo to listen to your instructions, he attacks exactly as strongly as you want him to. |
| 157 | *** The Pokémon games work partially on cartoon physics. While I wouldn't know how Tex Avery or Bob Clampett would handle hard-hitting psychic attacks, you DO see Pokémon flattened like pancakes and getting knocked out in that way, which would likely be what happens with the Joltik examples. You can also see squashing and stretching in the 3-D animation for Pokémon games, as well as the BigBallOfViolence when using Play Rough. |
| 158 | ** I've been operating on the assumption that whatever energy gives them the ability to fire off move like hyperbeam also serves as a protective barrier of sorts; any actual, bodily harm will either be negated or healed off wolverine-style until the shield goes down (i.e. The pokemon "faints") this would explain why a weak pokemon at a high enough level can overpower a larger one (lv. 100 caterpie has enough power to take down lv.30 venusaurs "shield" despite having no hope of going in for the kill once it does.) |
| 159 | * How the hell is Altaria supposed to be a Dragon-type? It doesn't have any draconic properties at all! Is there some sort of obscure myth that I'm missing? Bulbapedia says something about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Draconis star]] its Japanese name is based off being in the constellation Draco, but the name alone doesn't seem good enough to justify it. |
| 160 | ** They were probably in need of more Dragons in Gen. III, and it was the closest thing to a dragon in the list. Really, it's already been brought up somewhere above... |
| 161 | ** It's probably could be based of a Peng, a mythological Bird with colourful cloud wings; they tend to be portrayed with a dragon's head. It's not a bad thing to think outside of the box. |
| 162 | ** I always thought it was a way to point out that birds descended from dinosaurs. A harebrained way, sure, but a way nonetheless. |
| 163 | * The Pokémon archipelago seems to be too small for the amount of life it has. Specially considering even the insects are at least the size of a human's foot... |
| 164 | ** The first four regions in the core Pokemon games are all based on regions of Japan. Kanto is, well, Kanto. Johto is part of the Kansai region. Hoenn is Kyushu on its side. And Sinnoh is Hokkaido. Japan in real life has over 127,500,000 people living on a mountainous series of islands whose total landmass is about the same as California's. |
| 165 | ** ...GameplayAndStorySegregation? I always assumed there weren't ''really'' that many Pokémon around, but you can find however many you want simply for LevelGrinding or dex completion. |
| 166 | * The huge trading machine. I can understand its existence in the games, but in the anime? When Ash trades his Butterfree for a Raticate, a stupid and out of character move, but that's beside the point for now, they both go through this really complex machine. Why not just, you know, do it by hand, and hand over the Butterfree while he hands over the Raticate? |
| 167 | ** Probably Poké Balls have digital information (headers, maybe) imbued in them, or even the Pokémon themselves, making them prone to act up when handled by the wrong user. That, or they were aiming for making it look more like the games, instead of aiming for realism. |
| 168 | ** On top of that, it's this same mechanic, most likely, that makes Shadow Pokemon in Colosseum and XD irredeemable by conventional means - they've been corrupted to the point that they'd follow the trainer designated as their owner despite any acts of immorality. It should stand to reason that a Snag Machine allows the user to take a Pokemon designated as "owned" by overwriting this information via a pirate signal. How the hell could you justify that if you could just trade Pokémon by simply passing the balls back and forth? |
| 169 | *** Random people giving you a Eevee/Porygon/Beldum just like that in the games makes the machine look entirely pointless, though. |
| 170 | *** But did those people ever use those Pokémon in battle? Was battle ever required to capture them? Maybe in the world of the games, ownership through a Pokéball is based on whether they're used in battle or not. If their previous owner wasn't a "trainer" per se (never actually had them battle against others for EXP), wouldn't it make sense that it would gain only YOUR trainer ID when it's given to you? |
| 171 | *** That point cannot be used. What if I hatched an egg and never used it in battle? Sure, I hatched it, but like the [=NPCs=], I've never actually used it in battle. |
| 172 | *** Doesn't matter if you used it or not. Your OT and ID are registered regardless. NPC gifts are GameplayAndStorySegregation. |
| 173 | *** Alternately the Trainer ID is recorded in a Poke Ball only when the Poke Ball is owned by a trainer with a Pokedex and who are officially recognized as a trainer by the Pokemon League. Works for both Anime and Games. |
| 174 | ** It's probably something to do with the PC. Trainer information, switches the chip over. Pokémon are your sentient wards and companions, swapping pokémon is somewhere between swapping dogs and swapping children. You could just swap if you wanted, but the law's not gonna recognise it. Umpteen million Pokémon flitting through cyberspace, records have to be flawless. Swap pokéballs and you're holding your friend's pokéball for a bit. Put them through the machine and the new Pokémon belongs to you. It's registered to your ID, it's officially yours. Mundane, clerical, but essential. |
| 175 | ** It could also be a measure of enforced honesty. Without the machine, how would you know there was really a Butterfree in that pokéball and not, say a Magikarp? But the machine has screens that display the ball's contents, so neither trader can lie about what they're giving away. |
| 176 | *** Both trainers send out their Pokémon to show it to each other, then recall them to the Pokéballs and trade them. There, no machine needed for species check. |
| 177 | *** Someone could easily pull a sleight-of-hand and use another Pokeball for the transfer. The screen is meant to show it wasn't switched midway. |
| 178 | * What happens when you use the Poke Ball on non-Pokemon? Can you capture humans in a Poke Ball? What about inanimate objects? |
| 179 | ** It has been said that pokeballs can't capture humans |
| 180 | *** On that point, I think the requirements for a pokeball to capture something are that it must either be a pokemon or smaller than the pokeball. |
| 181 | ** At one point in the anime, Ash tried to catch a Mankey and instead accidentally sucked a rice ball into the Pokéball, but that may have just been a one time gag. Then again, in the games, items you find on the ground appear in the form of Poké Balls, so I think, at least in terms of the games, it is possible to store at least certain types of items in balls. As for people, who knows? Personally, I would like to think an object like that would not be made commercially available until it was proven that either humans cannot be sucked into them, or some kind of failsafe is built in to prevent it from happening. Otherwise, kidnappers would have a field day. |
| 182 | ** In the anime continuity, at least, hitting a human with a Poké Ball doesn't do much. The return beam does act like a stunner, though. Given that there are fail-safes to prevent Poke Balls from even working on previously captured (and not yet released) Pokemon, it seems reasonable to assume that the tech doesn't even work on humans or is blocked. The anime and manga both have Poke Balls holding items, but they only seem to grab items smaller than they are, and not shrink them. Larger objects don't seem to get pulled in. |
| 183 | ** One example, though certainly non-canon, of a human entering a Poke Ball is an old [=WB=] advertisement for the show where Ash gets sucked into a Poke Ball and finds [[RuleOfFunny a huge pile of his lost socks.]] |
| 184 | ** Well, Jessie got hit by a Poke Ball, and she received a painful shock instead of getting sucked in. |
| 185 | ** If the target receives the painful shock instead of the jerkass throwing the ball at them, it's probably not a coded failsafe rather than incidental incompatibility with human biology. Better that way, since a programmed failsafe could be hacked or reverse-engineered away. |
| 186 | ** I remember hearing somewhere that a Poke Ball on its own doesn't have enough power to capture a human, but if you boost its power enough, by hooking it up to a [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill nuclear power-station]] for example, it would be able to capture a human and then try to "correct" the error by turning the human into a Pokemon. |
| 187 | *** Try to find the source? That sounds like crazy fanfiction to me. |
| 188 | *** Oddly, I've heard the same, but I've never read Pokemon fanfiction. Maybe it was in a guide? |
| 189 | *** Or you both read the same fan-fic. There's no official source that even resembles what's stated above. |
| 190 | *** The above person states that they have never read a Pokemon fanfiction. |
| 191 | ** I imagine that although you couldn't digitize non-Pokemon to shrink them into balls, if you could manually put an object in (open it and close it with your hands), it would hold it if it fit. Doesn't explain the Poke Balls inside the Poke Balls though... |
| 192 | *** Poke Balls in the anime are shown to be able to shrink to roughly the size of a golf ball so the trainer can easily place them on a belt/bandolier/whatever. The Poke Ball-ception is probably just a shrunken Poke Ball inside a full-size one. |
| 193 | *** [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=040411 Or the balls are actually the balls...]] |
| 194 | ** ''Black 2'' and ''White 2'' prove that inanimate objects ''can'' be held in the balls- specifically, the props at Pokestar Studios. |
| 195 | *** Speaking of Black 2 and White 2, Monica was pulled into a ball in the PokéStar Studios film, "The Giant Woman!" To be fair, though, the ball was apparently cursed and it is a work of fiction in the Pokémon World... |
| 196 | * Why do Pokemon who are in love with their opponent (after having been Attracted) continue to waste turns immobilized by love [[FridgeLogic even when their object of affection is beating the crap out of them?]] |
| 197 | ** LoveMartyr. |
| 198 | ** They think the enemy is Tsundere. |
| 199 | ** Attract appears to work a like a LovePotion ray. It inhibits rational thought. Whether or not your Pokemon attacks depends on whether or not it can reassert itself. |
| 200 | * Why don't some Wild Pokemon have egg moves? I mean, seeing a wild Sneasel with Ice Punch isn't exactly impossible. If the Pokemon can have [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction nonsensical partners]] in the Day Care, they should be able to have them in the wild. |
| 201 | ** They could, but presumably they don't. I guess Pokémon naturally prefer to mate with their own kind. After all, note that you'll usually find more than one of the same type of Pokémon in any area. This probably means that they stick together in herds and flocks, so there would always be breeding partners available right there. |
| 202 | ** As for the Sneasel with Ice Punch, that's actually pretty danged unlikely. Only the Buneary Line or a Delibird can pass that on to Sneasel, and they only learn it through breeding themselves. So to get a Sneasel with Ice Punch, a wild Medicham or Hitmonchan or something has to breed with a Buneary, and then the offspring has to travel from around Eterna Forest, all the way to Snowpoint, and breed with a Sneasel. In the wild. Yeeeeeah. |
| 203 | ** Actually, Delibird do swarm near that area where Sneasel are in D/P/Pt. Of course, that Delibird would have had to get it from a Feraligatr (wouldn't it just eat it?) or a Buneary/Lopunny (though he'd probably be actively trying to get some sweet Lopunny ass, so that's the more likely source). |
| 204 | *** Moves are passed down from the father. The offspring is always of the same line as the mother. If the Delibird is male, then it'd already have the move. If it's female, it'd only lay eggs containing Delibird. |
| 205 | ** RealLife provides an answer. In captivity, people have crossbred coyotes and wolves, coyotes and domestic dogs, and wolves and dogs. This is possible in captivity, but in the wild, coyotes wolves and dogs do not breed with each other, and are bitter enemies with each other. The Mons in game probably act much the same way: while on a team, under the care of a trainer, they will cooperate and can interbreed, but they would be competitors in the wild. Of course, this opens up a whole new can of worms, as Pokes can chain breed like fiends, suggesting that all Mons are in actuality a single genus. The game does say that Mew is ancestral to the other 600+ Mons, but that still makes it very confusing with HotSkittyOnWailordAction. |
| 206 | * Why are games and anime in Japan called "Pocket Monsters" while the Pokémon centers there are marketed as "Pokémon"? |
| 207 | ** "Pocket Monsters" was the original name for the games, but in order to [[CharacterNameLimits save space]], especially on the Gameboy's tiny screen, it was shortened to "Pockemon". The name "Pokémon" was used during the translation of the game for western audiences in 1997-1998 as it was already close to another unrelated franchise, ''Monsters in my Pocket''. Why the company keeps both names is probably due to trademark issues. |
| 208 | * Caterpie (at least the one/ones you catch) evolves into Metapod at level 7. Ok, then explain how can you find and fight level FIVE Metapods in the Viridian Forest in Fire Red? |
| 209 | ** In captivity, a Caterpie would not exactly be killed any Pokémon because it's just a trainer battle; thus they'd grow their hard shell slower. The wild is a very dangerous place for a tiny, soft-bodied caterpillar creature; there'd be the Pidgeys, Pidgeottos, and possibly Pikachus as natural predators (and don't even get me started on the bug-eating Johto Pokémon that arrived to the area in HG/SS, such as Hoothoot and Ariados), and thus they'd grow their hard shell earlier due to these predators. Why the Pidgeottos are underleveled, on the other hand, is a different story... |
| 210 | ** I assumed that underleveled evolved Pokemon existed due to age. While under human care, humans can trigger the evolution process by whatever means needed for the species to evolve. Wild Pokemon on the other hand don't have access to these "triggers" and may simply evolve due to the aging and maturation process. |
| 211 | ** My impression has always been that Pokémon that evolve by level will evolve whenever they feel like it. When under a trainer's care, the trainer likely dictates when they can start evolving (or at least the trainer can stop it), but in the wild, a Caterpie can evolve into a Metapod at any time it wants or when it gathers enough power to do so. Some Pokédex descriptions though, like those for Scrafty, Honchkrow, Empoleon, and Tsareena, indicate a sort of hierarchy based on evolution stage though, suggesting that not all Pokémon are capable of doing so. |
| 212 | * The move Double Team is explained as being the Pokemon moving so fast it looks like it cloned itself many times. Why not use that speed to just attack the opponent directly? Another problem; when a Pokemon attacks a Pokemon using Double Team logically no matter which "clone" it hits it should hurt the Pokemon, because according to the explanation it's not really a true clone, it just appears that way because of the Pokemon moving really fast. It's like saying that if a person runs fast enough, if someone hits them it won't harm them. This move would make more sense if the user really was cloning themselves. |
| 213 | ** Double Team is more accurately an optical illusion induced by the super speed. Sure, by attack where the pokemon ''might'' be is a sensible strategy, but it, on average, only has a fraction of the chance to work as attacking every single one of them at once. And there already are attacks for the first idea; Quick Attack and Extreme Speed. The point of Double Team, in universe, is to slow down opponents so that you have time to think of a strategy while they frustrate and exhaust themselves. |
| 214 | * Who rescues you and takes you to the Pokecenter after you black out? Why doesn't anyone else black out, do you have some sort of psychological/neurological issue? (yes I know WHY they programmed it that way, but the in world reason is another matter) |
| 215 | ** In later games, a message appears that indicates that you yourself return to the Center while protecting your Pokemon. So it could be that "blacking out" is just the trainers' term for having all your Pokemon faint, not an indication that the trainer falls unconscious after a loss. |
| 216 | ** I always took it to mean that the trainer panics and enters "survival mode" when their pokemon faint, and make their way to the pokemon center while avoiding danger. They're not unconscious but might not be thinking clearly, which is why you don't control them on the journey to the pokemon center. Thus it might feel like a black out when looking back. |
| 217 | * I was always baffled by Pokemon Contests that seemed straightforward, but followed a some sort of logic of their own, and my level 50+ legendary pokemon were taking third places at best in all the contests, losing to some caterpies and other nonsense. Turns out, the thing is about 40% your moves and 60% pokeblocks that enhance your pokemon's stats for the contest? Feeding your animal G-rated steroids, anybody? |
| 218 | ** Contests have nothing to do a Pokémon's level or strength. They're about how good a show it puts. |
| 219 | * If Nidoqueen is infertile, why does it have mammaries? |
| 220 | ** Well, a rather common (and highly plausible) theory is that they weren't initially supposed to be infertile, and that Nidorina and Nidoqueen being unable to breed is due to a glitch. Of course, if it's true, this ''does'' raise the question of why they didn't fix it in Crystal or in later Gens. |
| 221 | ** For the same reason that Azurill is still Normal type and has a different gender ratio from its evolutions. Game Freak screwed up when they first implemented the Pokémon (in Azurill's case, they copied Igglybuff's data and forgot to change the type and gender ratio), and later games kept the error for consistency. |
| 222 | ** Actually, it was deliberate. Early lore predating the breeding mechanic established that female Nidoran becomes infertile upon evolving. |
| 223 | * Why don't Solrock or Lunatone - Pokémon based on the Sun and Moon, respectively - appear as Wild Pokémon in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon''? |
| 224 | ** Because the developers said so. This is nearly lampshaded by some NPC who wants to see a sun/moon-related Pokémon that turns out to be Solrock/Lunatone despite them not appearing in Alola. |
| 225 | * This is less something that bothers me and more something that I'm really curious about, but has there ever been an in-universe reason given as to why the starters for each main-series game has always been a Fire/Water/Grass trio? |
| 226 | ** There hasn't been one so far. Professor Oak implies that the Kanto starters were Pokémon he found during his days as a trainer. Professor Elm mentions that he only just caught the Johto starters. Professor Birch is too busy being harassed by wild Pokémon to explain where he found the Hoenn starters. Professor Rowan never got a chance to say anything about the Sinnoh starters in ''Diamond'' and ''Pearl'', since he accidentally left behind the briefcase containing them, but even in ''Platinum'' he doesn't say anything about them. Professor Juniper doesn't meet you in person until you've already got a Pokémon in either pair of games, but neither her note from the originals or her assistant in the sequels mention anything specific about the Unova starters; the fact that she provides the same options both times implies that she has a supply on hand for every new trainer, but nothing's ever explicitly stated. Professor Sycamore sent the Kalos starters with some of your "friends", and he doesn't say anything when he gives you a Kanto starter in person, although the Kanto starter does seem to be an off-the-cuff decision. Professor Kukui doesn't actually get to give you a Pokémon, but Hala does, and it's implied that the Alolan starters are traditional for the Island Challenge. Leon never gives a reason for why he's brought the Galar staters. |
| 227 | ** There may not be an in-universe reason as to why the professor or other authority gives you a choice between 3 Pokémon that are Grass, Fire and Water apart from just [[AppealToTradition "tradition"]]. But the out-of-universe reason is to teach the player (who might be new to the game) about the type triangle (a major game mechanic that's vital to understanding how the game works). Its easy to understand how these types can interact with each other as people should be familiar with what fire, water and plants are. The same can't be said for say Fighting, Dark and Psychic types (hence why they won't change the starting types). |
| 228 | ** For what it's worth, Ultra Sun does show Nanu giving the choice of three Meowth to a random kid so he can start his challenge. Whether this is something normal Kahuna/Professors do, or are allowed to do, is another matter. |
| 229 | * What would happen if someone like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikkel_Hansen Mikkel Hansen]] (one of the best handballers in the world) threw a pokeball at full power at a pokemon? |
| 230 | ** The Pokémon gets swirly eyes and a couple of stars circling around its head for a few minutes, then starts yelling at Mikkel. Or, more realistically, it gets a really bad bruise (Pokéballs seem pretty light, so I don't know how much damage they would do). Either way, not a happy Pokémon. The force of the throw doesn't seem to be related to the capture rate or friendship or anything else--it's the [[MagiTek Magitek]] inside the Pokéballs that counts. |
| 231 | * Why can we never find the third stage of the local regional bird in the wild? Even in the final areas of the game, if the regional bird is found in the wild, it will be a high-leveled second stage. |
| 232 | ** The trainers that came before the player (both recently and for generations prior) caught most of the evolved Pokemon, leaving the ecosystem full of the pre-evoled Pokemon. Presumably this is also why wild Pokemon tend to be at a lower level compared to trained Pokemon in general, and why powerful rare Pokemon stay rare instead of dominating the ecosystem (in-universe, the real meta reason is for difficultly), the trainers that are there first catch most of the choice Pokemon. Third stage Flying-type Pokemon in particular would always be in very high demand, because they are big enough to fly a trainer around, as flying is awesome and most trainers need to travel a lot. |
| 233 | * Why is there ever ONLY one PokeFlute in the entire region? Surely it would be easy for a craftsman to build another flute to wake Snorlax. This extends to the anime as we get two episodes where Ash and company need to locate the ONE PokeFlute to wake Snorlax. |
| 234 | ** Maybe there ''aren't'' any craftsmen alive who can build a Pokéflute and the technique to do so has been "lost". Its a bit like a Stradivarius violin: They're presumably the best quality, but there are very few that survive today and the technique that was used to produce them can't be repeated since that "information" has been lost. A similar thing can be said about the Apricorn Balls and their apparent rarity. |
| 235 | * Why is the trading card game so mixed up when it comes to power levels, why was Charizard given the highest health and damage and not say, Mewtwo? the stats for cards made no sense and didn't seem to reflect the lore of the games or anime. |
| 236 | * When you lose a battle and pass out, how do you get back to the last Pokemon center? I mean, I assume it's possible that some good Samaritan picks you up and drops you off there (after going through your pockets for loose change), but what if you lose to Giovanni or Cyrus? Furthermore, why do you pass out in the first place? None of the NPC trainers pass out after losing. |
| 237 | ** You're not really passing out, you're just running to the Pokecenter to heal your Pokemon. |
| 238 | *** Nope, it clearly states "PLAYER HAS BLACKED [or WHITED] OUT". I never understood, either. |
| 239 | *** Well, recently I heard that in D/P/Pt, they changed it so your character runs to the nearest Pokemon Center. However, that doesn't really explain the old message... |
| 240 | *** Maybe it's intended to be more metaphorical? Like, your Pokemon represent you, so when they've all fainted, that's referred to as you blacking out? |
| 241 | *** [=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=] first added the explicit "player dropped X dollars and scurried to the nearest Center while protecting Pokemon from harm". Presumably, whited out/blacked out is just what happens when a 10-year-old panics and gets rather light-headed as a result. NPC trainers might keep an extra Pokemon on reserve or just be more used to losing, but your character is really into it. Giovanni and Cyrus... maybe they've got standards. |
| 242 | *** Giovanni's barely ahead of the law by the time you fight him, and Cyrus is a pacifist ([[OmnicidalManiac sort of...]]). |
| 243 | *** GameplayAndStorySegregation . If you lose during plot important places they say their same exact dialogue implying that the loss never happened. |
| 244 | *** Except oddly, you still have the EXP you gained from the trainer's Pokemon that you did manage to defeat before losing. |
| 245 | *** Just to be a nit-picker: ...except in plot-important battles like in Colosseum or XD, where the final boss dialogue will reflect you ''returning'' to fight them. |
| 246 | * If the Pokemon Professors are such experts on all things Pokemon, why can none of them offer you anything above level five as a starter, or even fill in Pokedex entries on the Flying- and Normal-types that live within easy walking distances of their labs? For that matter, why does the region's leading expert on Pokemon always live in the far corner of the region with the weakest Pokemon? Wouldn't it make more sense for someone like Oak to live in, say, Saffron City, where there appears to be other research being done? |
| 247 | ** Concerning the issue of why you only get a level five Pokémon: well, you're a rookie. The professor can't just hand out level 70 Dragonite and expect new trainers to use them properly. As for why they can't fill the Pokédex themselves? It's a job that requires lots of traveling. The professors are generally too old and/or too busy with other research to be hiking all over Kanto/Johto etc. As for why they live in quiet areas: well, some people prefer quiet areas. We don't know ''exactly'' what they're researching, but presumably it's stuff they can do on their own or, worst case, via e-mail with other professors. |
| 248 | *** I was sure that in one of the games or manga, it says that the three are Oak's last Pokémon, but that may have been a webcomic. There's barely enough room in my head to keep this info, never mind remember where I got it from... |
| 249 | *** If you look at on the unchosen Poke Ball in [=FireRed=] or [=LeafGreen=], the message will tell you that the Pokemon is the last Oak has. Also, Oak tells you before choosing your starter that these are the last 3 that he has. |
| 250 | *** To give. He could still have other Pokemon available, it's just that these Pokemon are the only ones left of those he wants to give. |
| 251 | ** If he gave you too high a level Pokemon, you wouldn't have the badge to control it. |
| 252 | *** In the Pokemon Special manga, it is stated that Oak lives in Pallet because it is one of the few places where the environment isn't too polluted yet, so Pallet is a perfect place to study Pokemon as they would act in the wild if put in an open field. |
| 253 | *** On that note, why the hell should a professor be expected to raise a Pokemon up to a high level so you can have it? The research is a favour to the professor and all it involves is not throwing away a little red electronic note book that is quite handy. I say that's a fair trade for a beast that can create fire/water/nature. |
| 254 | ** It's pretty clear that the Pokemon professors and researchers in the setting seem to be taking the Pavlov school of research -- having the damned obvious brought to their front door, spicing it up with the correct jargon, and getting into the textbooks. A lot of the Pokédex work seems entirely to be well-established or false, but the basic information like the picture and location must be true. That said, they can't give you a high-level Pokemon because it wouldn't pay attention to your commands until you beat many Gym Leaders, and a high-level Pokemon would make catching most lower-level ones more difficult. If you want to be really charitable, you can also assume that Oak and staff have masses of highly specialized research on most known Pokemon, but they don't want to put false-but-well-known information into this brand new electronic medium or risk a Nannarrup hoffmani (ignoring a new species because 'everyone knows' it's been well documented, like the New York City Park bug species). Maybe they live out in the boonies to keep the cost of living and land down, and telecommute whenever Silph needs some info. |
| 255 | ** Keep in mind the fact that the only professor who asked you specifically to go out on a journey to fill the Pokedex is Oak, who figures that you, his neighbor kid, will do just fine with it, and gives you a rare Mon to help you out. Elm just wanted you to run a favor for him, and gave you the starter as payment. You save Professor Birch with your starter, so he lets you keep it. Rowan either A) wanted the Pokemon you chose to bond with you after spending some time with you, or B) decided to give these two wacky kids Pokemon for giggles, before saddling them with a Pokedex. |
| 256 | *** Actually, there was data in the original games for battling Oak. He would have had the fully evolved forms of the starters, and they would have been at a higher level than Blue's championship battle team. But for some reason they took it out before release. |
| 257 | ** I like to believe that the professor of each region already has the data of each Pokémon of said professor's respective region (all except for the legendaries at least). So why do they send you out to observe all of the Pokémon of the region? As a rite of passage! Depending on the game, the professor has known you and your family for a while and has seen potential in you to become a trainer the likes of a Gym Leader, an Elite Four member, or if you're lucky, the Champion! So the professor gives you (and whatever rival character there might be whom the professor also sees potential in) a specially bred Pokémon that usually no one else in the game has, so you may begin your journey on a high note. |
| 258 | *** This is actually canon as of Black and White. |
| 259 | ** Also, it's explicitly stated in both the games and the anime that high-level Pokemon don't obey inexperienced trainers. He's doing you a favor, really. |
| 260 | ** The professors aren't experts on all things Pokemon anyway. Oak's specialty was Pokemon and human relations. He wanted you to fill the dex for information on the monsters themselves. Juniper's field of study was the origin of species and she already had most of the data, which she said would be revealed when you made captures. |
| 261 | * Grimer is created by sludge exposed to X-rays emitted by the moon... wait, what? |
| 262 | ** the Pokedex was filled in by 10 year old kids, so the people filling it in would be young enough to believe dumb shit like Magcargo is Hotter than the sun or the shedninja steals your spirits, which niether can be true. |
| 263 | ** I think it's a well-established point already that [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the Pokedex fails Biology forever]]. |
| 264 | ** And physics. |
| 265 | ** Considering that the moon in the Pokemon games is thought by some to be home to a large population of freaky pink things, and may drop meteorites that cause said freaky pink things to get slightly freakier and pinker, it isn't too hard to believe that there may well be some kind of connection between Grimer and the Pokemoon. |
| 266 | ** Okay, in real life, moon light is just sun light reflected off the moon. In Pokemon world, moon light and sun light are two completely different things. This is made obvious by many moves learned by the monsters. In real life, leaving a doll behind won't cause it to get possessed by a vengeance monster, cities aren't destroyed by sea serpents and Kanto is not an island. It seems strange that X-rays off the moon is a complaint, it is no where near as improbable as any of the math behind the mons' weight's or the heat of the lava slugs. |
| 267 | ** Actually, if there are Clefairy on the moon, dancing and being pink, then maybe they absorb sunlight and convert it into a new Moonlight? Think about it, they could be some special brand of Clefairy that emit light from, suppose, the tips of their fingers (without Metronome). |
| 268 | * Just ''what'' the hell is Missingno? |
| 269 | ** Canon explanation: There is no such thing. Pokemon debuggers make no mistakes. "Missingno" is an UrbanLegendOfZelda. Actual explanation: It's part of a data overflow bug that results in non-Pokemon data being used to generate a Pokemon for a random encounter. If you mean graphically, I think that it ''looks'' like a thumbnail of a route map, but that it actually is something being misread as graphic data (I do not recall what exactly loads as Missingno's image). There's also a Missingno. that looks like a Charizard and evolves into a Rhydon, if I am not mistaken. |
| 270 | ** That's...not exactly it. Missingno. is a placeholder Pokemon. AsYouKnow, there are 151 Pokemon in Red and Blue. However, there's enough room for 105 more of them. Since the game would crash if it accidentally picked an empty slot, Game Freak put in Missingno. as a placeholder. Notice the name: "Missing Number". They also accidentally forgot to tell the game what wild Pokemon exist on the east coast of Cinnabar Island. When you encounter a Pokemon that area, there's nothing telling the game which Pokemon to use. So it uses the wild Pokemon data from the last area you visited (this is the basis of the "Catch Safari Zone Pokemon" trick). It's a long story, but after talking to the old man in Viridian City and Flying ''directly'' to Cinnabar Island, that data? It's the 3rd, 5th and 7th letters of your name. No problem: The game converts the letters to hexadecimal and poofs up the Pokemon that corresponds to that hex number. Remember what I said earlier, about how Missingno. takes up all the empty slots that the game didn't use? If one of those letters points to one of those empty slots, Missingno. will appear. Since "H" triggers it and lots of people named their character "ASH", this happened a lot. '''TLDR: In Red/Blue, talk to the old man in Viridian City, Fly to Cinnabar Island, Surf up and down the east coast, and the glitch Pokemon Missingno. (or 'M) will appear.''' |
| 271 | *** I heard that there is data for 151 normal Pokémon and 151 shiny Pokémon, so 302 files. However, there were ''303'' "data slots" in the game. Like you said, since that last one was empty, it was "'''Missing''' a '''no.'''" making Missingno. a sort of ghost, or maybe nothing is there and it pulls different attributes from other "slots." |
| 272 | *** Incorrect. First off, shininess in Gen II is dictated by the [=IV=]s of a 'mon according to some weird rules; Gen I games make no distinction between regular and shiny in any way whatsoever. There are so many glitch Pokemon in Gen I games because of how they were programmed: Every Pokemon is in a register that's determined by a two-digit hex value (from 00 to FF) which allows for 256 different slots. In-game, only 190 (01 to BE) of these values are used for "legitimate" Pokemon, the 151 regular ones and 39 Missingno. (Each one of these Missingno. equate to a Gen II 'mon that couldn't be fit into the Gen. I games.) Note that 00 and BE aren't actually used for legitimate 'mons, even Missingno., though they would fill out the rest of the Gen II 'dex. Mostly. Now there ''were'' originally going to be 190 Pokemon in the Gen I games, this is something that's been confirmed by Game Freak themselves, but when they trimmed the list down they just formatted out the data and left Missingno. in their place. Now Missingno. are actually among the ''safest'' glitches you can get in the game, because they at least belong in what's considered "safe" memory. As incomplete as they are, they were at least coded to exist in some sane way. Beyond that? Let's point out ''right now'' that the old Game Boy actually lacked memory protection. Now if you're wondering what memory protection is, in layman's terms it's a system that most modern computers and systems have that prevent a program or process from reading from or writing to memory it shouldn't be able to access; this was non-existent in the Game Boy due to processing power being a premium back then. If a 'mon looks in a segment of memory that stores Mew's cry for the move it learns at level 13, it will pull that data for the move and get a horribly glitchy pile mess for a move. If a 'mon's Pokedex bit (whether it's unseen and not present in the 'dex, seen but not caught, or caught) happens to point to the value of how many of the sixth item in your bag you have, then seeing or catching that 'mon will change that value (and this is exactly what happens with Missingno. and how you're able to turn a single Master Ball or Rare Candy into 128 or 255). If you happen to force an encounter with a 'mon that's not any of the sanitized 190? God help you. The game will try and pull together a 'mon out of whatever part of memory the trash pointers point at like a freakin' Frankenstein's monster. Map tiles for sprite data? Done. BGM for it's cry? Done. Actual runtime code from the game as it's move? Done, and neither the game nor the console's hardware will try and stop any of this from happening and you may end up with something that is so corrupt and glitchy interacting with it in any meaningful way will result in a slew of glitches snowballing onwards. [=TL;DR:=] Missingno. is actually all that remains of the 39 Pokemon that Game Freak didn't have room to finish implementing, and that there are a ''lot'' worse things sitting in the code that you can play with. |
| 273 | ** [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Missingno TO BULBAPEDIA!]] More seriously: the Rhydon and Kangaskhan evolutions are a result of their [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pokémon_by_index_number_(GB) location in the data;]] that's why so many glitches turn into/evolve into one of the two. |
| 274 | * What the hell is going on with Steel/Rock's resistances and weaknesses? Both are resistant to normal-type moves, but weak to fighting-type moves. But the two move types are the same thing - hitting the opponent with part of your body. Take Mega Punch and Mach Punch for example, against an Aggron. Mega Punch is normal-type, with a base power of 80, twice as powerful as Mach Punch, a Fighting-type move. But when you use Mega Punch on the Steel/Rock Aggron, its power is decreased to 20. But Mach Punch's power, used on Aggron, increases to 160. So the weaker move becomes 8 times more powerful than the stronger move, despite the fact that they do ''virtually the same thing!'' |
| 275 | ** Think of it like [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Ryoga's]]... uh... *does quick research* "Bakusai Tenketsu". For a normal person, punching a rock is an incredibly stupid move that does little damage to the rock and probably hurts your fist. But a trained martial artist who can identify the weak point in the rock can break it easily. Both people punch it, but only one knows ''how''. |
| 276 | ** Well, yeah, but that's a rock. How does any Fighting-type move crush ''steel''? I will never accept that my level 58 Steelix was knocked out by a level 30 Riolu's Force Palm. |
| 277 | *** The Fighting-type's effectiveness against Steel is just taking the Rock effectiveness a bit further. We can assume that the Pokemon have enough strength to destroy steel items with correct technique. |
| 278 | *** Or, since metal is malleable, they punch it until it bends. Considering its living, that would hurt alot. |
| 279 | ** @/{{Dragga}}'s always thought of each move type as having a particular energy about its attacks. Helps make the idea that a Caterpie resists a Karate Chop, takes no special damage from a Stomp, but shrivels and dies at a Wing Attack, when each is just a basic physical blow. The energies clash to create the type resistances, weakness, and immunities we're all used to. Besides, that explanation helps explain why you can't just [[KillItWithFire kill anything that crosses your path with a Flamethrower]]. |
| 280 | ** The two punches (Mach Punch and Mega(ton) Punch) are poorly distinguished in the game. Nothing in the descriptions indicate that Mach Punch is focused...it's just fast. Probably not LostInTranslation either. It was probably just one of the many short-sighted decisions made in the first generation. Later games give the Megaton punch exclusively to large enemies (as an innate ability), so it's easy to assume that it's just a powerful but unfocused punch. Somewhat strange that Hitmonchan uses it. (but then again, it uses boxing gloves...) |
| 281 | * Speaking of Rock-type weaknesses, how come it has a whopping FIVE of them? I can live with Steel, Water, and Ground (all of these things erode and break rocks down). Fighting and Grass though? OTOH, Rock resists four types...one of which isn't even used offensively. What the hell? Rocks are tougher than THAT... |
| 282 | ** Its a meta trap, rock resists normal, which is what most low level Pokemon attacked with at low levels in generation one but as the game progresses rock becomes much less useful defensively. However, the larger variety of types makes it much more useful on ''offense'' than in the early game. |
| 283 | ** Fighting is explained above. It's weak to grass because plant roots grow into rocks, and as they grow, they split the rocks. |
| 284 | * Wait, Kyogre and Groudon were locked in a cataclysmic, never-ending battle until Rayquaza showed up and calmed them. But Kyogre is a water-type, and Groudon is a ground-type. Water is super-effective against Ground, so Kyogre should have wiped the floor with Groudon. |
| 285 | ** Remember that Groudon brings about droughts, meaning that it can cancel out Kyogre's flooding. Its rather large movepool also contains a number of Kyogre counters. |
| 286 | ** Tell me, every continent in the Pokemon universe seems to be a relatively small landmass, so I think that Kyogre did pretty well against Groudon. |
| 287 | *** The regions we've seen in the core Pokemon games are just portions of Japan. As far as I know, we have yet to see an actual continent in the games. Also, real life continents have been referenced in the game, such as Mew being found in South America. |
| 288 | *** Don't forget Lt. Surge, the Lightning American. |
| 289 | ** Groudon learns Solarbeam--super-effective against Kyogre--and its ability Drought causes constant sunshine in battle, meaning it doesn't have to wait the extra turn to power Solarbeam up. It doesn't get the STAB bonus and its Special stats are weaksauce compared to Kyogre's, so Kyogre will still wipe the floor with it, but it's something, I guess. |
| 290 | ** Water: 71% of earth's surface. Land: less that 29%. Groudon is just losing. |
| 291 | *** Except they're obviously deadlocked when we actually see them fighting. Millions of years of continental shift would probably alter things, plus who says Earth and the Pokemon world are similar in geography? Conclusion: Groudon is just that badass. |
| 292 | *** Water: 0.04% of earth's mass. Who is losing? |
| 293 | ** It could be localized. They only really affect the Hoenn area. Groudon is not doing as well as we could hope (damn water routes...), but he is still holding his own. |
| 294 | ** Rule of thumb: Most of the mythological stuff in Pokemon is just that - mythology. There wasn't really a massive Kyogre vs Groudon battle that resulted in the creation of the oceans and the landmasses. That was just the story that built up around them as a result of humans in the Pokemon universe observing the two interacting, and the effect that Rayquaza has on them. As for how a battle between the two can be balanced, it's worth noting that the games present a simplified interface and experience, lacking in things like dodging, etc, and we never see them using elemental attacks - they appear to mostly just keep ramming each other (suggestive of Struggle, really). |
| 295 | ** One interpretation is that Groudon's ability over the sun and heat would quickly evaporate, melt, and burn whatever Water-type, Ice-type, or Grass-type move that was heading its way, respectively. Also, being the [[DishingOutDirt creator of the land,]] some geokinesis may come into play here such as blocking attacks by summoning rock walls to shield itself or opening fissures to distance itself from its opponent. Therefore, it couldn't be defeated by Kyogre's attacks. However, Groudon cannot defeat Kyogre due to Kyogre's type advantage and high special defense stats in contrast to Groudon's low special attack stats. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation So, in the end, they're pretty much at a tie until Rayquaza shows up.]] |
| 296 | *** Turns out that [[IKnewIt my theory is correct.]] Primal Groudon's new ability cancels out all Water-type moves. |
| 297 | * Grimer was created by lunar rays hitting toxic sludge. Porygon was created by a computer program. Voltorb is implied to be a sort of mutant Pokeball. If it's so easy to create Pokemon, why don't more people do it? |
| 298 | ** Mewtwo was created. Not only did other manmade specimens pale in comparison, but he also served as an excellent example of why people ''shouldn't'' go around making new ones. (The Porygon types didn't get the memo; then again, their [[AIIsACrapshoot AI isn't too crapshooty]].) |
| 299 | ** Not to mention: Grimer is an accident, more than a creation, and Porygon, being a software, isn't all that simple to create (heck, I imagine how complex the API for creating a Pokémon is...) and may even not be open source... One of the few actually engineered and intended Pokémon was Mewtwo. |
| 300 | *** Porygon most definitely isn't open source. Its code involves copy protection that prevents people from just copy-pasting it into Notepad to make a small army of Porygons, or something along those lines. (Though, apparently, this copy-protection is insufficient to keep an Egg from being formed if a Porygon gets freaky with a Ditto.) |
| 301 | ** [[http://www.obakemono.com/obake/tsukumogami/ oh hai thar.]] Think Tsukumogami on a slightly accelerated scale for Voltorb and similar. |
| 302 | ** Maybe it's just a moral thing about playing God. Or Arceus, if you prefer. |
| 303 | ** Many of the Pokedex entries are merely stories or beliefs about various Pokémon (hence, for instance, the Grimer story). Beyond that, Porygon is part of ongoing research (and still, even Porygon-Z looks pretty rudimentary in terms of "realism"), while the attempt to clone Mew produced a rather nasty side-effect, which likely made them less willing to try to replicate the effort. |
| 304 | * Pokémon Contests and Pokémon Super Contests. Why are they so hard sometimes?! |
| 305 | ** ''Everyone's'' playing to win, not just you. And the people in the Hyper/Ultra and Master Contests are the cream of the crop, so of ''course'' it'd be difficult to win against them. |
| 306 | * Amity Square. "Take a cute Pokémon for a walk!" Who, exactly, defines cute here? Obviously not the same people who judge the cuteness contests just across town! Those final evolution starters ain't so sweet and cuddly, and a maxed out cute stat or contest ribbon does nothing to convince anyone... |
| 307 | ** I think it's quite ''obvious'' it's not a contest stat, since they have a list of predefined Pokémon that can go for a walk with you... Final evolution starters were probably just included for the convenience of the player, who'd not need to catch a Pachirisu/Clefairy only to enter Amity Square. And it's also worth nothing that the ''baby'' versions of the Pokémon admitted in Amity Square are not permitted to enter... |
| 308 | ** It's probably based on which Pokémon Amity Sqaure's owner thinks are cute. |
| 309 | * Why does Mewtwo have a constellation, as revealed in ''Pokemon Snap''? He's existed for what, less than a decade? A little too recent for astronomy to notice, you'd think, and it's hard to imagine people assigning such a meaning to the stars when his existence is not widely known. Did someone predict his creation long ago? Did he decide that a being of his power deserved such a symbol and move the stars himself? Or, considering where the constellation can be seen, was it Mew's doing? |
| 310 | ** Maybe the scientists who created Mewtwo modeled him after the constellation? I haven't played Snap, so hasn't seen the constellation, but if it's like most real constellations, it'd just look like a stick figure, which wouldn't be so coincidental. |
| 311 | *** The constellation looks exactly like Mewtwo. But, well, the thing is, Mew is the only Pokemon up there, and according to the games, Mew was directly involved with Mewtwo (Giving birth to it...), so it could just be that it is a fake sky made by Mew. If it isn't, well, come on, you're somehow floating on a CLOUD in an area that vaguely resembles outer space. The constellations should be the LEAST of your issues |
| 312 | ** I like the idea of Mewtwo going up there and arranging the stars like that himself. |
| 313 | *** I always assumed there was something like a "Mew major and Mew minor" deal and they repurposed one. |
| 314 | * Why isn't Luxray Dark-type? It's got the color-scheme, multiple Dark-type moves, and without it it's way too similar to Manectric. |
| 315 | ** Actually, Manectric is Special-attack oriented and Luxray is physical-attack oriented. And not every Pokemon type should be decided by color. Lord knows there comes a point where everything that shoots fire is red and zaps things is yellow becomes boring. |
| 316 | *** I was actually surprised to find Buizel was water-type, because it was orange. |
| 317 | *** You mean the fact that it looks like an otter crossed with a life raft isn't enough? |
| 318 | ** Also, most of its evolutionary line's names come from word related to ''light'' (lux is a measurement of light, and ray is obvious) in both languages, so that's probably not the idea behind it. |
| 319 | *** Luxray is named after a brand of electric lights. |
| 320 | ** I know what the OP means, I mean it's more easy to believe that he's a Dark type than an Electric, but it's true color doesn't define the Pokemon, but they learn the same amount of dark moves than electric moves by leveling up in Gen IV. On a related note something that bothered this trooper was Shinx's getting the move ''Charge'' (doubles the attack of the next electric move) at level 9 but you have to wait until level 17 (18 if you evolved him) in D&P to learn it's first Electric move. |
| 321 | ** Is there an Electric/Dark type? There should have been. |
| 322 | * In all known Pokemon games you have to pay the winner money if you lose; this is fair game for most cases. What I find ridiculous is that you STILL have to pay Cyrus money in the Distortion World. This is the same person who intends to capture Giratina and create a new world, so I find it hard to believe that he'd want or need your money. |
| 323 | ** Maybe he mugs you just to be a dick. Like that time Lex Luthor stole forty cakes. |
| 324 | *** AndThatsTerrible. |
| 325 | ** He's a stickler for the rules. Which is why he pays you when ''he'' loses too. |
| 326 | * Rocks broken/destroyed with Rock Smash/Strength move back the second you leave the room. Just who is growing rocks and moving them around that fast? |
| 327 | ** The rocks are coprolite (normally, coprolite refers to fossilized... manure, but [[Literature/{{Discworld}} following another context]] it can also refer to the manure of stone creatures). |
| 328 | *** So rocks are made of Onix poop? |
| 329 | *** Actually, [[FanonPokedex/{{Onix}} Onix seem to be the Pokemon equivalent of earthworms (seriously)]], so that might make more sense than you think... |
| 330 | ** It's a [[JustifiedTrope justifiable]] design limitation. Generation V seems to correct this, but it's designed differently, using strength rocks as shortcut makers. Before, the designers wanted to be able to litter these rocks all over the place, and to dedicate space in the user's save file where all these altered rocks are stored would require considerable communication between several different staff members. |
| 331 | *** One other concern with the Strength (moved) rocks is that the user could get themself stuck, or permanently block off a passage. Some of the games will reset the rocks the moment that they are out of view, and for good reason! |
| 332 | * Consider the following truths: |
| 333 | ## Mew can use every TM. |
| 334 | ## Attract and Captivate are moves that can be taught by [=TMs=]. |
| 335 | ## Attract and Captivate only work on Pokemon of the opposite gender of the user. |
| 336 | ## Mew has no gender. |
| 337 | ## A Mew with either of these moves makes ''NO [[PrecisionFStrike FUCKING]] SENSE''. |
| 338 | ** Clearly, Mew is just so smoking hot that no Poke ''cares''. |
| 339 | *** In game mechanics, some genderless Pokémon that use Attract (so far only Mew and Cryogonal can do this) will attract other genderless Pokémon. |
| 340 | *** They're DistractedByTheSexy, simple as that. |
| 341 | ** Along those lines, Mew is said to be the ancestor of every Pokemon. But it completely lacks gender and can't even breed with a Ditto. So how did a Pokemon unable to breed end up with so many descendants? |
| 342 | *** The lack of gender in Mew (and other legendary 'mons) is probably a (slightly clumsy) way to prevent you from breeding a legendary with a Ditto and getting a whole family of Mew. [[@/{{Twentington}} I]] believe that Mew actually ''does'' have a gender, or is a hermaphrodite. |
| 343 | *** They're already in the No Eggs group, so not having a gender doesn't make sense. Especially legendaries like the Bird trio, who are clearly based on living things. |
| 344 | *** In [=RGBY=]/[=FRLG=], it's stated that Mew gave birth to Mewtwo, meaning Mew is female and could theoretically breed if not for GameplayAndStorySegregation keeping you from breeding Legendaries (besides Manaphy, anyway). |
| 345 | *** It's possible that Mew's gender, and the gender of anything else as old as it is (like Arceus) [[BizarreAlienSexes isn't one we're familiar with]]. All Pokémon are naturally attracted to Mew (the moves in question are just when it manipulates them through said attraction) through some genetic memory, or something, but due to evolution, none are actually compatible with it (except Arceus, but it seems to be [[UsefulNotes/{{Asexuality}} asexual]]). |
| 346 | ** In the anime, I believe they have shown multiples of single legendaries, including a baby Lugia. I likely that legendaries CAN breed, but being the ultimate apex predators of the Pokemon world, they can't do it very often or very easily, maybe there's even only a very small time frame in which they're capable of doing it, and they can only breed under certain circumstances. In the real life wild, there are always fewer apex predators than animals lower on the food chain and chain of power, partially because if there were so many of them, they'd destroy everything. It's possibly true with legendaries. Their breeding made even harder in captivity, which is why they won't breed if they're put in a Daycare. |
| 347 | *** And its placement in the ThemedTarotDeck suddenly makes a lot more sense. |
| 348 | *** Genderless 'mons ''can'' breed. Legendaries are simply put in a "no eggs" group. |
| 349 | *** It could just mean that the Day-Care owners are explicitly told by someone at some point to not let these guys breed or it will cause some sort of thing to happen that could cause the end of the world, such as reproducing a ton of Groudon and releasing them, or creating an army of Mewtwo. |
| 350 | * If we're really getting into extreme FridgeLogic here, explain to me how what is essentially a sterile (or hermaphroditic) cat the ancestor of a TURTLE, not to mention whales, birds, and crazy flaming horses? |
| 351 | ** Because it's not a cat, it's a fetus. |
| 352 | *** If it's [[GooGooGodlike a fetus]], than I would hate to see what it does [[FridgeHorror when it's all grown up]]... |
| 353 | ** Speaking of breeding, how does Ditto manage to breed with several Pokemon (like Staryu and Magnemite) that lack gender (and thus can only be bred via usage of Ditto)? |
| 354 | *** Both Mew and Ditto have the ability to transform, meaning that they can be what gender they may feel like. It's assumed that because Ditto can restructure its own cells, it can breed asexually, based only on the species of its partner. |
| 355 | *** As for Mew, I believe that it (along with Arceus) is a Pokémon God. |
| 356 | ** I always assumed that the Mew species is billions of years old and that the other Pokemon varieties (with a few legendary exceptions) arose through Darwinian evolution. The different animal species on our world all have a common ancestor as well, so it's not too far-fetched that Pokemon arose the same way. |
| 357 | *** The above is technically the canon reason. Mew existed millions of years prior to any other "recorded" non-legendary, pre-dating even the fossil Pokemon by a bit. Say that a few other species were known not too long after the arrival of Mew, and including the odd ability of Mew's Transform, Darwinian evolution could easily lead up to what we have now. |
| 358 | ** Alternatively, Pokemon didn't come into being through entirely natural means and Mew was the first model. Use your imagination. |
| 359 | * Mew can learn Steel Wing. Yah. |
| 360 | ** Transform into a bird temporarily for the move? (never mind game mechanics right now) |
| 361 | ** Turns its hand into metal and delivers a [[Series/{{NCIS}} Gibbs]]-[[DopeSlap Slap]]. |
| 362 | ** How would that be any different from Steel Claw, then? |
| 363 | ** It's Metal Claw, not Steel Claw. And my theory is that Mew turns his arm into a wing and then stabs the enemy with it, a la [[OneWingedAngel Sefer Sephiroth]]. |
| 364 | * In Platinum, to trigger a battle with the Legendary Golems (Regice, Registeel, and Regirock), and thus capture them, you must have Regigigas in your party. To battle and capture Regigags, you must have the three Golems in your party. Does anyone else see the problem here? |
| 365 | ** Actually, you need the special 11th movie (Or a movie at least) edition Regigigas which can be obtained at a special event. |
| 366 | *** Plus, although it's never said directly in the games, it's implied subtly that there's more than one of various legendaries. There could easily be more than one of Regigigas and company. |
| 367 | ** Gamefreak wants you to pick up an old copy (or rummage around and find your copy) of R/S/E, get the Golems there, and then use Pal Park. Getting the Golems in D/P/Pt is now a bit redundant, but hey. ;) |
| 368 | * How does the Underground retain any structural integrity with all these treasure-hunting kids running around digging bases and collapsing walls? |
| 369 | ** The tunnels do not look natural to me. I imagine the ceilings and probably certain parts of the walls, such as pillars, are reinforced to prevent cave-ins. |
| 370 | ** Due to there being a coal mine in Oreburgh City, those could well be old mine workings. |
| 371 | * When Red ascends to the heights of Pokemon Champion, the four Elite Four members are Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, and Lance. Three years later, Red's a mute who's holed himself up in Mt Silver (home of the highest-level creatures in the game since the Unknown Dungeon collapsed), Agatha and Lorelei are nowhere to be seen, and the Elite Four now consists of Will, Koga, Bruno, and Karen. What happened to so shake up the Elite Four in the space of only three years? |
| 372 | ** Red's always been a mute. He's a silent protagonist. |
| 373 | *** Someone needs to revisit either Gen I's or Gen II's Saffron and speak with Copycat. If Red's a mute, [[FridgeLogic what could she possibly mimic]]? |
| 374 | *** Maybe she's an empath. City's full of psychics. |
| 375 | ** Red went on with his training, Blue became leader of Viridian Gym, Lorelei returned to her hometown in Island 4 to protect it in case anything happened (as was hinted in FR/LG), Agatha probably retired, Koga was promoted from Gym leader to Elite, Will and Karen joined, and as Red and Blue weren't in Indigo Plateau anymore, Lance ascended in ranks and became Champion. |
| 376 | ** Three years; personally, I prefer to think that something happened within those three years, Red grew up and found out that being Champion wasn't what he was suited to be (free spirit!) and Lorelei returned to her home town. Agatha may have retired or died and Lance challenges the League after Red renounces his title. |
| 377 | * Why isn't Salamence Flygon? Bagon, Shelgon, Flygon. Makes perfect sense. Especially when you consider that Bagons spend a long time wanting to learn how to fly. |
| 378 | ** Bagon/Tatsubay [baby dragon], Shelgon/Komoruu [to seclude oneself], Salamence/Bohmander [violent salamander]. Trapinch/Nuckrar [nutcracker], Vibrava [vibrations], Flygon [dragonfly]. And there's no such pattern in the Japanese, which is the original. |
| 379 | ** By your logic, shouldn't Porygon also be part of the same family? |
| 380 | ** Except Porygon's name is the JapaneseRanguage pronunciation of Polygon. |
| 381 | * What's a wild Pokemon going to do with half of your money?! |
| 382 | ** A Dragon-type probably wants to sleep on it. |
| 383 | ** Line their nests with it? |
| 384 | ** [[Literature/TheHobbit And themselves.]] |
| 385 | ** Buy items and [=TMs=], of course! |
| 386 | ** Loan it out to a Meowth for high interest rates? |
| 387 | ** Pokemon have their life planned out when they're in the wild. |
| 388 | ##Step One: Train |
| 389 | ##Step Two: ??? |
| 390 | ##Step Three: Profit! |
| 391 | *** Ah, so any Pokémon that knows Curse (prior to 5th gen) can complete the meme and make massive profits? |
| 392 | ** They throw it at people, look at it longingly because it's shiny, and build shiny Metagross out of it. |
| 393 | *** The game says "You dropped (amount of money) in panic!", not that the Pokémon picked it up. It probably just lies there until some other Trainer passes by and collects it, or gets scattered by the wind/rain. |
| 394 | * How come none of the [=NPCs=] will notice or care if you are walking around with a party of legendary Pokemon, and why does no one care if you sic an Arceus on their level 2 Magikarp? |
| 395 | ** Dexes are rare and precious things. Some random NPC isn't necessarily going to ''recognize'' Arceus or Giratina, and if they do somehow, they won't necessarily know it's an actual PhysicalGod rather than simply something that looks like a few old decorations from the Hearthome Cathedral. |
| 396 | ** They do notice, but long ago a witch cursed them only to be able to say the same lines of dialogue over and over so aren't able to express their shock. |
| 397 | *** [[EpilepticTrees Doomed to say]] [[WelcomeToCorneria the same thing]] [[AndIMustScream over and over, eh?]] [[PokemonSpeak Hm...]] |
| 398 | *** EpilepticTrees, definitely. If I saw some insignificant kid unleash a giant horse like being with a ring around it's body, and three glowing eyes, I'd say (or scream) something. |
| 399 | *** Or, alternatively, they are in fact surprised, but they don't want to [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu offend the sentient and clearly powerful superbeings]]. |
| 400 | ** Friends with dexes don't care either. Maybe they simply think that its so cool to see one that questioning the logic of the situation would simply ruin it. |
| 401 | *** Maybe they see it as an honor to be defeated by someone so awesome as to bring an Arceus around like a pet or something? |
| 402 | ** If [[HumanoidAbomination some normal-looking kid]] had your world's God all but on a leash, you wouldn't want to do anything that might offend them. |
| 403 | ** I believe I can answer that. According to the [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/The_Official_Pokémon_Handbook Official Pokémon Handbook]], it says it's [[OverlyPolitePals rude to decline a battle]]. By that logic, it's probably also rude to just leave in the middle of a battle (hence the fact that you can't run during a trainer battle). So probably all the [=NPCs=] are just being polite and battling you anyway. |
| 404 | * Pikachu is supposedly some kind of electric mouse that can shoot bolts of lightning... which it stores in special pouches in its cheeks. So wouldn't that make it more of a hamster? It's not even SHAPED like a mouse, for Christ's sake. |
| 405 | ** [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/9/97/025Pikachu_anime.png Pikachu]] isn't [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/c/ce/025Pikachu-TCG.png mouse-shaped]] ''[[OffModel now]]''. |
| 406 | ** Actually, I think there is a reason why its a mouse Pokémon. It turns out that "Pikachu" is a portmanteau of "Pika", a Japanese onomonopia for sparks or sparkles (because electricity!), and "Chu chu", which means "squeak". I'm guessing the squeaking part is why its called a mouse Pokémon, if only because "electric rodent" wasn't as catchy. |
| 407 | * Isn't it kind of irresponsible of the trainer to catch Pokémon like the Lake Trio, Dialga/Palkia, the Birds, and especially Arceus? Does nobody stop to think that maybe it's a bad idea to put those Pokémon in the balls or on the computer when they have very important work to do, such as keeping spacetime, emotions, and the elements and whatnot under control? |
| 408 | ** The Master Ball can capture anything... ANYTHING... in just one attempt, without fail. Even Arceus. And it is a device developed by humans. I guess what I'm saying is that if humans have reached the point of developing technology that can reliably imprison and subjugate the gods themselves, maybe we don't need the gods anymore. |
| 409 | *** Not necessarily. Along the lines of most DeathTakesAHoliday stories, just because you ''can'' bind a powerful force doesn't mean that it's a good idea to do so. Also, second movie. |
| 410 | *** Anime canon is not game canon. Otherwise we'd be Thunderbolting Rhydon and other stupid shit. Also, maybe it works for you because you have a "pure heart" and that apparently gives you carte blanche to do more or less anything you want in the Pokemon universe. |
| 411 | *** Technically speaking, in Gen. I the Master Ball just makes you 255 times more likely to catch something. If it has a catch rate of 0, you've got no chance. |
| 412 | ** Maybe they can still do their jobs, just from a different "office". When you're not using them in battle, they keep themselves busy making the world balanced all from the cozy comfort of their Poke Balls. |
| 413 | ** I'm pretty sure the Poke Balls work as power limiters; hence, why the BigBad of every Generation wants to capture them using other methods. For instance, if Cyrus were to capture Dialga and/or Palkia in Poke Balls, you could still put them down (granted, he could probably take them to a Pokemon Center, but still... he explicitly mentions that he needs the ''full'' power of Dialga and/or Palkia to accomplish his goal.) Now I'd like to know why, if they're in the wild, they aren't as strong as you've been told they are. |
| 414 | *** Probably as a test. That would explain why Giratina doesn't gut you, but instead patiently waits for you - which is even addressed in the in-game text ("Giratina is silently looking at you" or something like that). Or what Suicune does in Crystal. Or why Mesprit chooses to pull an Entei and travel around the land and regard it a funny game instead of fighting you, since it is emotion instead of willpower or wisdom. |
| 415 | *** I believe that to a degree, it's GameplayAndStorySegregation. Some legendaries are noticed, but it's mostly glossed over that you just caught the Pokemon that made Time and Space. [[RuleOfFun But what fun would there be if you couldn't catch these Pokemon, despite there being possibly ramifications?]] |
| 416 | * This is a prime case of FridgeLogic, actually: Mew is the genetic ancestor of ''all'' Pokemon. But the Pokemon Arceus created the Universe. [[FlatWhat What.]] |
| 417 | ** Arceus created Mew, and then that led to the evolution of all current Pokemon species. |
| 418 | *** So... who created ''Arceus''?? |
| 419 | *** You're a very clever troper... but it's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down Arceus all the way down]]. |
| 420 | *** Don't pursue that line of thinking, it just leads to insomnia. |
| 421 | *** The way I see it, Arceus first created Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, and created the universe through them. Then he created the Lake Guardians, then Mew. Mew then gave birth to Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza, who created Earth. Possibly, Mew created such trios for other planets as well. Here's holding out for a trio for all 7 other planets. And Pluto. And, what the hell, let's throw Ceres in there, too. |
| 422 | *** There's no reason why Mew couldn't just be the ancestor of all non-legendaries. The dex may claim it has the DNA of every other species, but how exactly would they have gotten the DNA of Dialga, Regigigas, or so many of the other legendaries? Heck, Mew could just be a template Arceus threw together, then took bits and pieces of to make new species. There might even be imperfect Mew prototypes... |
| 423 | *** According to dex data: "[Arceus] is said to have emerged from an egg in a place where there was nothing, then shaped the world." If Arceus came from an egg then who created the egg? Just a theory (and I doubt it's true, but I like it), but perhaps Mew laid the egg, and then Arceus went on to create the rest of the universe. This would also reaffirm the idea that Mew is the ancestor of all Pokemon. |
| 424 | *** Arceus came from an egg that just came into being when Yin and Yang reached perfect balance. From itself came the Dragon Trio, then the Spirit Pokémon. After that, we're unsure if Groudon and such came before Mew or if Mew came first. It's perfectly natural to say that Mew is the ancestor of all non-legendary and non-artificial Pokémon. Mew could very well be the ancestor of all non-god Pokémon, other than a few select Pokémon that were created. |
| 425 | *** Yin and Yang coming into perfect balance?!? Do we ''have'' to drag Generation V into this? This isn't the WMG page!!! |
| 426 | *** Why can't we bring Gen V into it? It's all canon. Anyway, if we see Arceus as the equivilent to our God(s), weren't they also created out of nothing? Ergo, Arceus is created out of nothing. Not an answer but probabaly one of the most true-to-life ones. Also I think it says somewhere in Gen IV that Arcues created Dialga/Palkia/Giratina who created the universe, then Mew, who created everyone else, like the person a few points above said. (Excuse me inserting this here, I wanted to reply to the guy above). |
| 427 | *** I like to think of Mew as Arceus's personal DNA storehouse. Mew does in fact have the DNA of all Pokémon, even the legendaries, but it was given that by Arceus. In case Arceus needs to massively repopulate an area, he has a way to quickly access the DNA of the Pokemon that are supposed to go there. Mew being able to learn any move via TM/HM/Move Tutor and the move Transform are all side effects of containing all that DNA. |
| 428 | *** When Arceus came into the picture, I thought they were trying to follow Biblical terms; Arceus/God created time/Dialga and space/Palkia, he created the earth/Groudon and seas/Kyogre and sky/Rayquaza, the moon/Cresselia, darkness/Darkrai and so, then Mew came into the picture to populate the planet. |
| 429 | *** In every post-RBY game people mention new Pokémon having been discovered. Simple explanation - Arceus was first but they didn't know about it, and Mew came a while later and everything after it evolved from its DNA. (Actually, only three characters in-game know of Arceus's existence: the Hiker in Platinum activated by the event Arceus, Cynthia, who doesn't even know about Arceus in Platinum, and the researcher in the Ruins of Alph.) |
| 430 | *** Maybe it's a paradox? Arceus created Mew, who then travelled back in time and created Arceus. Mew can do anything. |
| 431 | *** In games past Gen 2, they stopped saying that they discovered new Pokemon. They realized that they'll be making new Pokemon every generation, and these Pokemon didn't just pop up out of nowhere, so it's just a minor retcon each Gen when it comes to the number of Pokemon. |
| 432 | ** It's the result of UnreliableNarrator. The only people who call Arceus the creator of the universe are those in the Sinnoh region, and some of those myths specify that Arceus created the Sinnoh region (instead off the whole world). We've never met an objective source of information except for the Professors and ''they'' ask you to help them gather information. |
| 433 | ** It could be as simple as Mew predating the current universe, or whatever Arceus created.(alternative to all the explanations above this one. |
| 434 | ** It could be that Arceus and Mew are twin Poke-Gods, Mew created all the Pokemon, while Arceus created the universe for them to live in. Think about it, it was said that Arceus created the universe, but nothing about creating life for it. |
| 435 | * Is it just me, or is Brock the only non-white guy in the Pokemon universe? |
| 436 | ** Nan Ash is only part white, also we have Gym Leader Grant from X & Y who is black |
| 437 | *** Ash is neither black nor white, he's Asian. |
| 438 | ** There's Phoebe...? Not a guy, but not white. |
| 439 | ** I always thought Candice's sprite looked rather tannish, and considering that she lives in Snowpoint, any tan one has must be genetic, but she looks plain white in her artwork, so maybe I'm just imagining things. |
| 440 | ** There's the rest of Brock's family. But to get to the root of the question, it's more accurate to say that we haven't been introduced to places where other races live. If each region roughly resembles an island of Japan, then we haven't even left the country yet. |
| 441 | ** They ''finally'' put a black guy in the Pokemon universe in VideoGame/PokemonRanger 2. |
| 442 | ** Has anybody heard of Dahlia, one of the new Frontier Brains? |
| 443 | ** When it all comes down to it, the majority of the cast is Japanese. The only characters I can think of that are confirmed to be otherwise are Lt. Surge and Fantina. And there's that trainer at the beginning of the first movie who, in the original, spoke a lot of GratuitousEnglish. |
| 444 | *** Dahlia's name is the same in Japanese and English... so should she count along with Surge and Fantina? Also Cynthia's ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS Shirona/Sirona]]) original Japanese name was in refence to a goddess from CELTIC mythology. |
| 445 | ** Brock is the same skin color as everyone else, anyway. Also, Barlow is awesome. |
| 446 | ** Well Black and White have more varied skin colours (probably from being somewhat based on American culture which is more racially sensitive and has nothing to do with the name) so that fixes that for the most part. |
| 447 | * In the first few gen games at least... You have two games. You trade your uber lvl 100 team into a new game on your other cartridge. Yes, they don't obey you, but whenever they do decide to make an attack they kill it and they barely take any damage. So why, when you reach Lavender town, when you reach the Ghost Tower, are they too scared to attack? I mean, seriously, some of you ARE GHOSTS too, some of you are legendary creatures that control the elements, and you are all a much higher level. How could you posibily be scared? |
| 448 | ** Dammit dude, you have to go way out of your way to abuse what was supposed to be just an easily finished BrokenBridge which wasn't supposed to be thought of afterwards, give them a break. |
| 449 | ** As for an in-universe explanation, even the most hardcore muscle-bound fighters would probably be freaked out by an actual ghost. Even ghost Pokémon are a level removed from actual ghosts; the paranormal isn't something that can really be directly confronted, is it? |
| 450 | *** Except the ghost-type Pokemon ARE the ghosts from the Ghost Tower. They know the ghosts there aren't real, so they shouldn't be afraid. |
| 451 | ** It's not really the Pokémon that are too scared, but the player. The game just says it's the Pokémon because the young trainer doesn't want to admit that he or she is the one that's paralysed with fear. |
| 452 | * When the entire universe is on the brink of destruction thanks to a madman in Platinum, why doesn't Cynthia drag the Elite Four with her and beat down Team Galactic herself? It was nice of her to be confident with us and all, but with the universe at stake, a bit more help would be appreciated. |
| 453 | ** Which is one reason I love the [[Manga/PokemonAdventures manga]]. Gym Leaders are the first line of defense, and in Hoenn and presumably Sinnoh, the Elite Four and the Champion. |
| 454 | ** Except that in the same manga 4 of the Gym Leaders are villains, and the Elite Four are hypocritical extremists. |
| 455 | ** ''Manga/PokemonDiamondandPearlAdventure'' follows likewise, but with the Gym Leaders (Volkner is absent for undefined reasons). Cynthia's there, however, but she doesn't do much but stop Jupiter with one hit... which, come to think of it, is her role in the anime's Spear Pillar plot too. |
| 456 | ** VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite handles this right - [[spoiler:the Elite Four are defeated by the bad guys just before you approach, and then the Gym Leaders all help to keep the Admins at bay while you go ahead to take on N. Taking on N makes sense, as you hold the legendary counterpart to the Pokémon that he has.]] |
| 457 | ** The devs wanted Cynthia to play a major part in the story like previous Champions, but they didn't have her aid the player in battle like Lance because they wanted to hide the fact she was a strong trainer in an attempt at making her reveal as the Champion at the end more shocking. So she's basically there as a cheerleader for the player for no in-universe reason. |
| 458 | * What is the point of Detect being a move? It's exactly like Protect, a move that can be learned through an infinitely available TM by any mon that can learn any TM, except it only has ''half the PP''. There isn't even any benefit to using both at once, since using either means the other is less likely to work on the next turn. |
| 459 | ** Actually, there's a good reason to use Detect in Double Battles. Given that Protect/Detect make you practically invulnerable for one turn, they're very useful for dodging moves that the other Pokémon uses that hits every Pokemon on the field (such as Explosion, Surf, Earthquake, and so forth) if the Pokemon isn't immune to or absorbs that attack. Given this, some people will put Pokemon on their teams that know the move Imprision, which prevents any Pokémon from using any moves known by the Imprision user, and Protect to nullify the move and prevent the enemy from dodging attacks--for example, on an Explosion-themed team, one would have a Ghost type use Imprision while knowing Protect so that the enemy can't dodge the Pokemon's partner's Explosions. Given that Detect does the same thing but is not a TM and therefore much less likely that the Imprision user will have it as opposed to the much more commonly used Protect, it's a good idea to choose Detect over Protect when possible. Besides, not only is it pretty ineffecient to have a Pokémon know Imprision/Detect/Protect when you've only got four moves to choose from (and only two Pokemon can do this anyway), more often than not a double battle will be over or your Pokemon dead before you can expend all 8 usages of Detect. |
| 460 | ** If you use Detect multiple turns in a row, it always has a 50% chance of succeeding after the first use. It also always has a 50% chance of succeeding if used immediately after Endure or Protect. Protect, on the other hand, has its success rate cut in half each time it succeeds, capping at 12.5%. If each is used 4 times in a row, Detect will be 4x as likely to work as Protect will on the fourth turn. This is the real reason for Detect existing, and also the reason it's not a TM: It's Protect++, so it would be a tad unbalanced if everything could get it. |
| 461 | *** This is completely untrue. Detect functions exactly the same as Protect, they are two separate moves for the same reason that Pound, Tackle, and Scratch are all separate moves. |
| 462 | * Is the water used by Water-types consumable? The ninth anime movie shows Max almost drinking water that came from a Poliwhirl, but the plot stopped him from doing so; is it healthy? Is it unlimited? Why do some people (anime and game) seem to be thirsty if they can drink this kind of water? |
| 463 | ** It's probably as drinkable as any other water available in nature. In other words, boil it first. They aren't firing tap water. |
| 464 | *** Unless they're Suicune. |
| 465 | ** I remember reading a fanfic where trying to live by drinking water used by Water-types would eventually dehydrate the Pokemon. Perhaps they're refraining from it out of concern from the Pokemon. ...plus, most water Pokemon shoot water out of their mouths, so a lot of people would probably... not want to drink it. |
| 466 | *** I think people would readily drink ''any'' liquid substance if they were '''''ON THE BRINK OF DEATH BY DEHYDRATION.''''' Ever heard of desperation? |
| 467 | *** Where did anyone mention that the hypothetical people in this scenario were on the brink of death?? |
| 468 | * Why don't the Professors give you all the starter Pokemon? They tell you to go off and complete the Pokedex for them, yet they don't give you the Pokemon that you cannot catch anywhere else, despite the fact that it's just sitting on the table doing nothing. I understand why they don't give it to you at the start of the game, but why not after you've defeated the Elite Four? C'mon Oak, you sent me on this damn Pokedex mission, I'm three Pokemon away from completing it, if you'd just give me that Bulbasaur I could be finished.... DAMMIT OAK, IT'S SITTING RIGHT THERE! |
| 469 | ** The professors want you to complete the Pokedex for ''them'', and they don't need data on a Pokemon they already have. |
| 470 | *** They only have the base form, meaning they're still missing the evolutions. If they gave it to me I could level it up and get data on the evolved forms. |
| 471 | ** He is the grandfather of Blue Oak, remember - their whole family is out to torment you. |
| 472 | ** It's probably for some third, never seen, Pallet trainer who has yet to reach their starting day. Starters are difficult to replace and Oak probably feels no need to give you more than one. |
| 473 | *** That's exactly it: There's always been 3 new trainers in every Gen. (I) Red, Blue, and Leaf; (II) Gold(Ethan), Kris(Lyra), and ???; (III) May, Brendan, and Wally; (IV) Dawn, Lucas, and Barry; (V) Hilbert/Hilda, Bianca, and Cheren. Your character always gets there a half-hour before the unchosen. |
| 474 | *** Nope, the third Poké Ball is still sitting there by the postgame. Besides, Red and Leaf were never shown to exist simultaneously, and Wally and NPC!Lyra[=/=]Ethan aren't ever implied to get the third starter (Why would they get it? They already had starters in Ralts and Marill respectively). |
| 475 | *** Unfortunately, HGSS has decided to mess with our attempts at making logic out of things. After defeating Red, Professor Oak gives you a choice of one of the Kanto starters. Just one. We don't have the beginning of the game excuse anymore, given that you had to have put the smackdown on some of the greatest Trainers in the world just to get one of the starters, and it doesn't seem likely that he's reserving them for new Trainers (again, he's willing to give one of them to someone who beat the current and former Champions). Maybe Oak's just being a Troll? |
| 476 | *** [[SocializationBonus They depend on you to trade with other people,]] they're not trolling. At least, that's how I see it... |
| 477 | *** Actually, since Oak already had Red to collect information on those three starter families (Red has all three fully-evolved on Mt Silver), there's no particular reason for him to go to particular efforts to give you all of them. He gives you one as a gift, not to complete the Pokedex. My only question is, why can't they at least ''show'' you the Pokémon, for GTS purposes (in Gens IV and V, that is)? |
| 478 | * Why isn't Psyduck/Golduck a Water/Psychic type? It's PSY-DUCK. A psychic duck. But it's only a pure Water type? |
| 479 | ** Why is Psyduck even called Psy''duck'' anyways? It's based off of a platypus. |
| 480 | *** That's pure speculation. Golduck is based off a Kappa, and shares many similarities with a Platypus but has never been confirmed as being based off one. |
| 481 | *** The games say it's often mistaken for a Kappa, but apart from living in water it has absolutely nothing in common with one. Ludicolo and it's relatives, on the other hand, are very clearly a Kappa/Mexican stereotype mix. |
| 482 | *** Jury's still out on why it's called a ''duck'' Pokemon, but the lack of a Psychic type actually make sense after some thought. Psyduck's psychic abilities are consistently referred to as "mysterious", right? Well, how mysterious would they be if Psyduck was a Psychic type? Its typing anomaly is part of what makes it so mysterious in-universe. Granted, other non-Psychics can learn Psychic moves, but usually through [=TMs=], and with a lesser variety of moves than Psyduck learns. |
| 483 | * And why isn't Lugia Water/Flying? It's the beast of the sea. Its counterpart is Fire/Flying. It lives on the seafloor and learns mainly water-type moves. So why is it Psychic/Flying? |
| 484 | ** If it was Water/Flying, it would get a STAB, thus giving it more of an advantage over Ho-oh. |
| 485 | *** That, and it would resist Fire-type moves. Clobbering time much? |
| 486 | *** That's no excuse. Kyogre has STAB over Groundon. |
| 487 | ** Lugia would probably make the most sense as a water/dragon type since it's based off of Ryuu-jin, the Japanese god of water whom takes the form of a dragon. |
| 488 | *** No, Water/Flying would make more sense, considering that it has wings, and its counterpart is Fire/Flying. |
| 489 | ** Because everything that lives in the water doesn't have to be a water type. As long as it's not damaged by the environment who cares, you wanted interesting types so would it really be interesting if you only found water types in the water? Should you only find grass types in the grass? It's not originally a water dweller anyway, it just went to the bottom of the ocean until it was sure it could control its power. |
| 490 | *** What are you talking about? EVERY other Pokémon that lives underwater is Water-type. Being a Pokémon who lives underwater DOES mean that you're water-type in the Pokémon world. Also, Water makes much more sense than Psychic due to the aforementioned reasons. |
| 491 | *** Malamar is a Dark/Psychic squid pokemon that lives underwater. No Water typing to be found. |
| 492 | ** Like it was mentioned, Lugia doesn't originate from the sea, it used to reside in Tin Tower. Saying it should be the same type as its ''current'' location is stupid- that's like saying Sandshrew or Abra should be Grass types since you find them in the grass (plus, it doesn't reside in the sea because it's a Water type, but because its power is so devestating that it fears it might accidentaly cause damage to others, and there's less chance of that happening in such an isolated place). It doesn't matter if it's a direct counterpart to the game's other legendary's typing- Dialga and Palkia, and Reshiram and Zekrom also have typings that don't directly match up (Steel/Water and [[LightningFireJuxtaposition Fire/Electric]] respectively). It learns more Psychic moves than Water. Plus, Lileep and Cradily are classed as Sea Pokémon but aren't Water types. There's no reason why Lugia ''shouldn't'' be Psychic/Flying if that's what the creators want. |
| 493 | * Why is the Dragon type only super effective against itself? It would make thematic sense and make the type more useful to be effective against, say, Normal-types. And while I'm at it, I always expected Ice to be super effective against Water, what with the freezing and such. Okay, the latter has some gameplay justification (if Ice beats Water, Electric becomes worthless), but why not give Electric some other advantage, such as vs. Steel from Gen 2 onward. ...[[Series/{{Columbo}} One more thing.]] Bug attacks were super-effective against Poison in Generation 1. How does that make sense, apart from extending Beedrill's lifespan as the ultimate Erika-killing machine, and if it did make sense, why the change in Gen 2? Arceus knows the Bug type didn't need any more nerfing. |
| 494 | ** On the last point, the bug-type may have been nerfed in that sense, but they got a buff in being super-effective against the Dark type and were given some new attacks like Megahorn that made STAB attacks actually useful. Also, Poison was also super-effective against Bug in Gen I, but were changed to being neutral. |
| 495 | ** Dragon is too powerful a move type as it is. I'd prefer Ice gaining a resist to it. |
| 496 | *** Wait, what? I wouldn't mind seeing Ice resist Dragon, but too powerful? It has the third-narrowest range, after Normal and Poison, and Dialga is the only mon that can count on super effective STAB without opening itself up to the same. |
| 497 | *** Third narrowest range, but only Steel resists it. |
| 498 | ** I usually supplements his Dragon Pokémon with moves outside of it's typing anyways, leaving them with only one Dragon-type move in their respective movesets. |
| 499 | ** After water gets to a certain depth, freezing it becomes nigh impossible. Water types would presumably be used to those cold depths under the ice so it makes sense. Also, the lake tends to be the warmest spot in the winter even when frozen over. |
| 500 | * If [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Satoshi_Tajiri Satoshi Tajiri]] (the creator of Pokemon) likes insects so much to the point that he was called Doctor Bug, why were Bug-types in the first game horribly underpowered? |
| 501 | ** Maybe because it feels harder to rationalize bugs as being creatures of might alongside dragons and rock monsters. |
| 502 | *** Maybe it was a misguided effort to remain neutral. Look at Sakurai, the designer for the Kirby games and Smash Brothers, he was accused of neglecting his own characters in the first two games. Although it doesn't excuse why it took Pinsir so many god damned games to learn its own STAB attack. Tajiri should make it up to Pinsir in the next game by giving Pinsir an exclusive Bug move (that can't be stolen like Rhydon and Heracross's Megahorn) that hits twice, has 100% accuracy, and has 100 base power before adding STAB. |
| 503 | ** Or better yet, give Pinsir an evolution. Like, say, PokéSatan, complete with base stats almost (but not quite) as good as those of Arceus. ''That'' should shut the Bug-doubters up. Plus, seeing a ''stag beetle'' evolve into, well, PokéSatan would be good for a laugh. Egregious pentagram tattoos ahoy!!! |
| 504 | *** I guess Genosect now counts as being the first Bug-type legendary. |
| 505 | *** Its supposed theme might be a little Satan as well. |
| 506 | *** [[MemeticMutation DENNIS]] |
| 507 | *** Mega Pinsir is now one of the best Bug types in the franchise. Justice is served. |
| 508 | * When the Focus Sash item activates, it gets consumed. [[FlatWhat What.]] My Pokemon just ate its Sash? Are they made from the same stuff as edible panties or something? |
| 509 | ** I assume the Pokemon uses the Sash like a bullfighter's cape, directing the final blow towards it instead of the Mon itself. The sash is then torn apart and unusable anymore. Good one, eh? |
| 510 | ** The sash absorbs part of the attack through its effect and is destroyed. |
| 511 | ** It is now part of my personal canon that Focus Sash actually ''is'' a pair of edible panties (with juice from all the type resist berries), and the Pokémon eats it to get a slightly resistance to everything, just barely enough to live with 1 HP. |
| 512 | * Super effective moves like using Thunderbolt against a Water-type cause lots of damage, right? What I'm wondering is, how do moves like that, One Hit KO's, and stuff like Slam against a much weaker Pokemon not kill them? |
| 513 | ** They probably do in the wild, but in a domestic battle they hold back. |
| 514 | ** Cartoon physics. |
| 515 | * I just don't get Sprout Tower. Is it supposed to be a parody of the Tin and Brass Towers, only instead of worshipping Ho-oh and Lugia, the devout monks worship Bellsprout? Or is it really as SeriousBusiness as it appears? And if so, why does it even exist? And also, conversely, the wiggling middle pillar is meant to be like a Bellsprout's stalk. So why do the central pillars in the other two towers wiggle as well? |
| 516 | ** Perhaps the people of Violet City were finding it difficult to comepte with Ecruteak and Goldenrod for tourism. Ecruteak has its towers, Goldenrod has the Department store and Radio tower. So they built their own tower and had to dedicate it to a Pokémon that lived nearby. Bellsprout was the best they could think of. And maybe they stole the moving pillar idea from Ecruteak and claimed that represented Bellsprout's body so people would think that they thought of it first. |
| 517 | *** I like this theory. But out of universe, I'm just wondering why Game Freak decided on dedicating a tower to Bellsprout? |
| 518 | *** Probably the same reason they've created Magikarp: to add a tone of humor. :) |
| 519 | ** The wiggling pillar in the towers do have a practical purpose; apparently it's a kind of technology the Japanese use to protect high-rise buildings from earthquakes (being on the edge of a continental plate and all)... As for why they "worship" Bellsprout, I actually assumed that it was more to represent nature in general, how the ecosystem works, working in harmony, all that stuff. |
| 520 | * Aside from CompetitiveBalance, why are Dark types immune to Psychic moves and resistant to Ghost moves? I don't think being sneaky or having black fur could offer 100% protection from [[GameBreaker Mewtwo]] turning your brain into mush. While we're there, why is biting or sucker punching super-effective against Psychics that can see into the future and Ghosts that are essentially made of gas? |
| 521 | ** Consider that Dark-types are known as "Evil" in Japan. What could be more devastating to a psychic than to peer into the mind of true evil? They can't do it without endangering themselves. (See ''The Cell''.) And without that connection to their opponent, their moves fail. As for ghosts, so many have been portrayed in the anime as happy-go-lucky pranksters that they just aren't conditioned to deal with true malice. |
| 522 | *** Also, Sucker Punch is "Ambush" in Japanese. |
| 523 | ** Dark types are a psychic 'void', rather like blanks in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', meaning that Psychic will just be wasted energy, and ensuring that they can't see that Houndoom's future. The fangs and claws of Dark Pokemon are steeped in the energies of the darkness, meaning they can cut clean through the dimensions and hurt Ghosts. |
| 524 | *** [[FlatWhat what]] |
| 525 | ** That doesn't explain why non-Dark types can use Bite and still have it work. Or why you can Tackle a Geodude for almost no damage, but Bite it for normal damage. Particularly confusing because Bite was a normal-type attack in Generation 1. |
| 526 | ** It could simply be that most dark moves are tricky enough to throw off most defenses. A weak justification, but one nonetheless. |
| 527 | ** It seems that by "Dark" or "Evil"' type we could get to the meaning of 'sneaky' or dirty, under-handed techniques (biting your opponent, anyone?) which holds up when considering its super-effectiveness against the more "honourable" Fighting-type combatants. Perhaps? |
| 528 | *** Unfortunately, you have it backward. The honourable Fighting-types are super effective against the underhanded Dark-types. Evil is unforgivable! |
| 529 | *** Actually, I suspect that it's because underhanded tactics like biting wouldn't help you too much against a trained fighter. Even if you did actually manage to get a bite in, you're leaving yourself open for a counterattack that a trained fighter can and ''will'' take advantage of. |
| 530 | ** Can anyone think of a logical explanation as to why Dark-type Pokémon are weak against Bug-type attacks? Granted, Bug-types could use more potential targets for their attacks, but you'd think with demonic epitaphs like "lord of the flies", the Dark-type would have the upper hand against Bug-types. |
| 531 | *** Simpler brains. To bugs, there is no "Evil" or "Good", just survival. Granted, considering how Pokemon operate, this is just my view on it. |
| 532 | *** Dark-types are nasty and crafty. They aren't a "psychic void", and they aren't immune to Future Sight, Imprison or Trick Room, but when it comes to directly affecting them they just shrug it off; their minds are too tough and too shrewd to be damaged. BUT, if a Psychic can see around the posturing and trickery, their attacks will work, hence Miracle Eye lets them do damage. |
| 533 | ** Dark-type and Psychic-type moves require steady thought and control. Bugs are loud, smelly, poke with sharp little pins, creep and crawl and generally are just too annoying and unpredictable to for Darks and Psychics to stay calm. Fighting-types practice the same motion over and over again until it's natural so they don't need the same focus. |
| 534 | ** Dark types are evil. The Fighting type fights for justice, and therefore destroys evil. Psychic thinks deeply, before knocking out a justice fighter, who probably doesn't think about things as often. The mind of the dark is too evil and twisted to crack, so thinking a Dark-type to death has no use. Ghosts are pranksters, and smart thinkers (Psychic, if you've lost track) lose focus when pranked. Ghosts wouldn't dare attack evil. Fighting can't hurt ghosts because they're immaterial. And ghosts hurt ghosts because they're all out to get eachother in a good old prank. Simple. |
| 535 | * Minor one: why can't you encounter critters in the Battle Frontier in Emerald and log them in your Pokedex? I can see why they don't let you catch them (it probably costs a fortune to ship in ten thousand Electabuzz for the Battle Pyramid, for example), but if you get an Ivysaur in the Battle Factory, there will be no further hints that you've even heard of such a thing, and your Pokedex certainly won't have anything lower than (say) Pikachu. |
| 536 | ** That's a very good question... you can also ask why you can't ask other players to help you by lending their Mons so you can log them in the Dex. GameplayAndStorySegregation, purely. |
| 537 | * What's the deal with Water mons that have Water Sport and Rock mons that have Mud Sport? The number of times I see Geodude using Mud Sport strikes me as ridiculous, and the only mon I found with Water Sport that was actually useful was Budew. |
| 538 | ** Well, Geodude is Rock/Ground, so it at least has the right type. It seems to be primarily there for insurance - if Geodude uses Mud Sport, takes out an enemy Pikachu, and then gets surfed into oblivion by Lanturn, at least Lanturn's Electric moves will be weakened for when you send out your next combatant. Granted, this should only happen if something has gone horribly awry, but given that this happens with grim regularity, it's nice to have a bit of a backup plan. |
| 539 | *** (Returns having checked on the particulars of Mud Sport) Apparently it only lasts while the responsible critter is on the field. Perhaps it's intended to be bred onto a Baton Passer? |
| 540 | ** Quite a few Pokemon have moves that are utterly worthless for themselves, but great for double battles and the like. |
| 541 | ** Both Mud Sport and Water Sport would be more useful in double battles - note that both moves were introduced in Gen III, same as double battles themselves. Beyond that, a lot more Water types (that aren't part-Ground) learn Mud Sport than you think (Krabby/Kingler, Mudkip, and Shellos by level-up, and as egg moves for Squirtle, Slowpoke, Goldeen, Totodile, Mantine/Mantyke, Gorphish, Feebas, Clamperl, Luvdisc, Piplup, Panpour, and Tympole). Water Sport only has Masquerain and Budew/Roselia/Roserade in its set of Fire-weak Pokémon that learn it, but as Water types aren't immune to Fire, it makes sense, especially if the foe might try to use Sunny Day/Drought against you. |
| 542 | * People who block your path without any conceivable reason to do so. The games are pretty linear and it would [[SequenceBreaking break the sequence]] if you were allowed to access certain areas too soon, so there are often people who will stand in front of doorways and such to prevent you going through them. That's fine, but if you're going to do that ''at least give them a good excuse.'' For example, there are two guys in Hearthome City that block the path to Route 209. When you talk to them, they say "Did you know? Sometimes eggs are found in Johto." That's great, NOW GET OUT OF THE WAY. |
| 543 | ** WelcomeToCorneria and NPCRoadblock are the banes of all [=JRPGs=], Pokémon included. |
| 544 | ** Even worse is the guy in FR/LG (can't remember if he was in the originals) who escorts you to Brock's gym. If you want to grind a little more for some reason - insurance, say - and try to move onto the next route, he escorts you to Brock's gym again. And again. And again. Yes, I know that's where Brock's gym is, but I haven't learned Metal Claw yet because I was busy grinding my Metapod, so ''let me on to the friggin' route''. |
| 545 | *** Heh. Grinding your Metapod. |
| 546 | *** For the sake of mentioning, there was a guy blocking that route in the originals as well. He just wasn't nice enough to escort you to Brock's Gym. |
| 547 | ** I found the broken bridges in the 2nd gen games, particularly the immovable NPC variety, to be the worst. When you arrive in Azalea, the well and the gym are both blocked by Team Rocket grunts, the later seemingly for no reason. This is later topped in Mahogany where a random fat guy blocks the gym and tells you to go sightseeing. They didn't even try with that one. |
| 548 | ** I'm pretty sure we can chalk it up to your character being [[HonorBeforeReason frustratingly polite to everyone he meets.]] Your Pokemon are barely alive and some asshole wants to fight you? You're too nice to say no. Some {{jerkass}} standing in your way telling you to do some stupid fetch-quest? Telling him to [[PrecisionFStrike fuck off]] would just be rude... |
| 549 | * If it's always raining in Route 215, how come you still need to water the soil to keep it from drying out? |
| 550 | ** Do you really want to start having to take weather conditions into account when farming berries? It's annoying enough as is, without becoming more complicated. |
| 551 | ** How would not having to water something that's constantly watered by rain that never leaves make berry farming more annoying? |
| 552 | *** When you don't water these berries, it's not that they die, just that they produce less of them. Therefore, I just assume that what you're actually doing is giving them Miracle-Gro or something like that to make them grow better. |
| 553 | * If those wooden planks (or whatever they're supposed to be) are broad enough to bike across at full speed, what could possibly be stopping you from just walking over them? This could be looked over if they were supposed to act as a BrokenBridge until you get the bicycle, but they don't. The BrokenBridge is Cycling Road. It's also not like the bicycle is a secret item; you get it handed to you on a platter, you can't progress without it, and none of the aforementioned planks appear before you can obtain it. So their whole purpose is to annoy the people who prefer to walk. Kind of like the tall grass in reverse. |
| 554 | ** They're there to force you to go back and forth switching the bikes around because only the stunt oriented bike can cross them, forcing you to have that, but then the muddy slopes are only passable on the speed oriented bike. |
| 555 | *** But you don't even have to do that in the 4th gen games. You just get one bike with two gears, and yet the bridges are still there. |
| 556 | ** Safari zone in 3rd gen and grandfather clause in the fourth. |
| 557 | *** Doesn't fourth gen. have at least one of those "ride the Master Bike across a floor before it breaks" zones? If it didn't, you'd have people clamoring for a faster bike (for long distance travel and egg-warming, since the current areas are freaking ''huge'' compared to the Kanto of R/B/Y) or a bike they have more control over (for short-range travel and doing that entertaining little acro bike hop) if they only let you have one bike that didn't switch gears. |
| 558 | ** Apparently the rails are wide enough for bike tires but not for feet. |
| 559 | * If Zangoose has those big-ass claws, why can't it learn Cut? You'd think it would. |
| 560 | ** My only theory is that Cut requires great precision, something Zangoose would have a hard time getting because of those big claws. |
| 561 | ** It wants to keep its claws sharp for carving up Sevipers. |
| 562 | * In the games, a lot of terms are in all Caps, namely Pokemon names, moves, items and important NPC's (Gym Leaders, Trainers), but in Fuchsia City in the first games, a guy named ERIK is hanging around the Safari Zone Zoo looking for SARA who's in one of the Safari Zone houses. Why are these two random NPC's given all Caps names (or any name at all) as if they're important? Could this be leftover beta? |
| 563 | ** Everybody's names are all-caps until fourth gen. It's just a little joke the developers threw in, and you'd only be able to identify them by name since they have generic sprites. |
| 564 | *** But they were specifically given names, only important NPC's got such treatment. |
| 565 | *** Again, it's the only way they could identify them. There was nothing extra about them in the beta, they're just there for you to find and laugh at their stupidity in not being able to figure out where they meet. |
| 566 | *** I spent forever trying to figure out how to get them together. I was sure it was a side-quest of some kind. |
| 567 | * Why haven't any Pokemon professors ever mounted a hidden camera on a Pokemon and put it in the day care centre to see where the eggs come from or something? They're supposed to be researching them, yet they don't give a damn where they come from? Or are they just holding off from publishing this? |
| 568 | ** Perhaps they ''do'' know and just don't want to tell a ten-year-old about red-hot Pokélove. |
| 569 | *** Specially since the player would likely be traumatized by imagining some HotSkittyOnWailordAction. |
| 570 | *** Please, please, this is an E-rated game! We can't go beyond the boundaries of what can slip past the radar, this isn't ''Banjo-Kazooie''! |
| 571 | * How come Magnemite (and evolutions) and Glalie don't have the Levitate ability? They both levitate! It's blatantly obvious! There is no other way they could conceivably move! |
| 572 | ** Perhaps they don't levitate high enough to avoid Ground-type moves, and thus don't have the 'ability', although they still levitate. |
| 573 | ** Magnemite levitates through magnetism, and Ground moves disrupt this, causing it to drop straight onto the rippling earth from Magnitude. Glalie might roll or bounce instead of hovering. |
| 574 | ** I can see why they kept Levitate off Magnemite/ton/zone, because turning its one [[QuadDamage Quad weakness]] into an immunity would make it an absolute GameBreaker. On the other hand though, Glalie sucks as he is, he could really do with an immunity to Ground. |
| 575 | *** Magnemite/ton does learn Magnet Rise, which causes it to be immune to Ground for tive turns. |
| 576 | ** OK, so Levitate would have made Magnemite overpowered, and MAYBE we can forgive Glalie. What is Beedrill's excuse? |
| 577 | *** Too dense to fly at its size? I could easily believe a Beedrill only being able to use its wings as jump jets, and standing on the ground through entire battles (especially since some or most of its sprites show it on the ground, and they tend to stay on the ground except when attacking or moving amongst trees, etc. in the anime). |
| 578 | * Bonemerang cannot hit flying types. Why? Because it's a ground move. Except that it doesn't really have anything to do with the ground; it's an attack that involves throwing a bone at the enemy. There's no reason why anything should be able to avoid it without fail simply because they can fly; at least, no more so than any other physical attack. |
| 579 | ** I guessed about this one on the WMG page: ground moves are relatively slow and easy to evade, and flyers are typically fairly fast. |
| 580 | *** So why can't they evade Rock-type moves, which would logically be just as slow, if not slower? Or just fly away from most Fighting moves? |
| 581 | *** They're resistant to fighting rather than immune because they're avoiding but fighting types are better at anticipating moves, leading to a 'roll with the punches' effect; still not able to come up with anything good for Rock, though. |
| 582 | *** The phrase "kill two birds with one stone". |
| 583 | *** Rocks are slow? Have you tried shooting a rock using a slingshot? It's faster than you thought. |
| 584 | ** This thing about Bonemerang bugs me too. It would be cool if Bonemerang had an added effect and sole distinction as a ground move that can hit flying and levitating enemies. Earthquake would not necessarily be a better option this way. |
| 585 | * What I can't figure out is why people blame Absol, a random animal, for acts of God? And why they never notice even a vague correlation between whatever it does to warn people and the ensuing disaster? Do people in that universe just hate Absol or what? |
| 586 | ** CassandraDidIt |
| 587 | ** If, everytime a certain creature showed up, a huge disaster happened moments later, would you begin to think that it might be responsible? Especially if you were from a small town without much contact with the rest of the world? |
| 588 | ** Yes, but what if you aren't in a small town? What if you're in a large town, or even a city, and you aren't a superstitious person like that? And surely someone, at some point in history, thought, "Hey, it looks like that thing is trying to warn us about something." Also, on the "huge disasters" thing, what constitutes a disaster? Would an Absol consider, say, a particularly hideous 20-car pileup a disaster? How about a chemical fire, or a collapsing building? And I believe that, in one episode of the anime, the people of a town were blaming an Absol for various disasters, but Ash discovered it was trying to warn them. |
| 589 | ** There's not any reason why it'd look more like it was trying to warn people than it causing it. The latter explanation is simpler, and so people would be more likely to jump to that one. |
| 590 | ** Okay, here's a quick question: you are a man living in a small town. You have to go out of town to do business for a few days. On your way out, you see an Absol, doing whatever it does to warn people. You dismiss it and move on. Later, you learn a tornado hit, and there was mild loss of life. Assume that the town hasn't had another disaster like this in your lifetime, and this is the first time you've seen an Absol doing that. The question: would you blame the Absol for it? I think not, if you're a rational, logical human being. Other people could potentially blame it, but most likely not you. |
| 591 | *** How is ''that'' logical? If you were someone who has never seen an Absol before, you might think it's a little suspicious that a disaster struck right after this mysterious Pokemon showed up, doing something you've never seen other Pokemon do. |
| 592 | *** These are the same people that trust a 10-year-old with saving the world. Obviously, they are not the most rational of people. |
| 593 | *** Hmmmm... [[{{Determinator}} Okay, try ''this'']]. Two words: the dex entry. Does it not ''specifically'' state it senses disasters and tries to warn people? |
| 594 | *** Seeing as it can't speak or write, it's not like there's a way it can warn people that's super-obvious as being a warning. |
| 595 | *** "[[TheCassandra What's that, Lassie?]] [[CassandraDidIt You pushed Timmy into the well?]] [[BurnTheWitch BURN IT!!]]" |
| 596 | *** You mean the dex entry that only ten children and four Pokemon experts have access to? |
| 597 | *** It's not so illogical to assume Absol is causing disasters when you know moves like Rain Dance, Sunny Day, and Earthquake exist. Considering how easily Pokemon can tell the laws of nature to sit in the corner, it's actually easy to see how an old folk tale can gain a lot more credence. |
| 598 | *** Every so often, some unfamiliar animal pops up near your door. Every time you see it, soon afterward you find that your trash can has been tipped and garbage spilled on the pavement. Obviously, it was trying to warn you that something's about to tip your trash? I'm not one to assume, but I'd ''guess'' that that wouldn't be your first thought. |
| 599 | *** Here's another thought: Absol, being long-lived Pokemon, has been around since the old days. Y'know, the old days where technology didn't exist and people would believe anything. After generations of the same pattern (Absol showing up followed by disasters), people just jumped to the wrong conclusion and saw it as a disaster-bringer, rather than taking a more rational approach and leaving the place before the disaster took place. After generations, the image of Absol as a disaster-bringer has been kinda etched into everyone's minds. |
| 600 | ** Do Ostrich's stick their heads in their heads in the sand when they see trouble? Do black cats cause bad luck, do catfish cause earthquakes? No you say? Then why do so many people say otherwise when its clearly not the case? |
| 601 | ** In Lacunosa Town, doesn't the old woman state that, despite not really believing in Kyurem, all the residents lock themselves inside at sundown? It's a social habit; the same reason hardcore atheists still so 'Oh my god'. For hundreds, even thousands, of years, Absol have been blamed for the disasters that plague the land. The habit remains today, despite the fact that nobody really believe it any more. |
| 602 | * So, why is Absol Dark-type? The thing it's best known for is trying to save entire cities from impending disasters (and failing). Hell, it's special ability is Justified, which makes your guy stronger when he gets hit by Dark type moves. So not only is it a hero, it hates cheaters to the bone. Why is it associated with the vicious, deceitful, greedy type? |
| 603 | ** Because even though it does a noble thing it still lets anger cloud its thoughts in battle and fights with hate in its heart or at least "dirty"? |
| 604 | ** Because it has an understanding of Darkness, and uses Dark-type tactics. |
| 605 | *** To summarize: Absol is Batman. |
| 606 | * What does "whiting out" mean anyway? I've never heard the term "white out" used to refer to anything other than correction fluid. Now, ''blacking'' out, yes. That made perfect sense, so what compelled them to change it? |
| 607 | ** PoliticalOvercorrectness. |
| 608 | ** They changed back in [=HeartGold=] / [=SoulSilver=]. |
| 609 | ** The Gameboy screen on the RBY games would fade to white when you lost, it would literally "White out". |
| 610 | * Anyone else think that it would've been more consistent if Crystal and Platinum had their names swapped? "Gold, Silver, and Platinum" and "Diamond, Pearl, and Crystal" sound a lot more sensible to me. |
| 611 | ** Perhaps, but it's not like they were planning that far ahead. Plus, Crystal kinda fits with Suicune. |
| 612 | ** Maybe they notice this and decided to fill the void, or not look like gems were gonna be the only titles. |
| 613 | ** The generations kind of led into each other. Yellow to Gold, Crystal to Sapphire, Ruby to Fire Red, Leaf Green to Emerald to Diamond, Platinum to Heart Gold and Soul Silver...okay I got nothing for Black and White unless you say silver is gray. |
| 614 | *** Considering how revolutionary Black and White were, even more so than Gold and Silver for their time, it's safe to assume that the creators wanted to go back to basics and start fresh. |
| 615 | * The competitive Pokémon fansite has a list of all the moves empowered by Hitmonchan's exclusive Iron Fist ability. The list includes Hammer Arm, Shadow Punch, and Meteor Mash; moves that Hitmonchan has ''no'' way of learning. So A: Why does Iron fist power up moves that Hitmonchan can't learn? And B: How did Smogon find that out? None of the Pokes that can use Hammer Arm can copy abilities, for one thing... |
| 616 | ** In answer to A: Perhaps they had originally planned for other Pokémon to have Iron Fist before deciding to make it exclusive to Hitmonchan. In answer to B: Hacking. |
| 617 | ** Perhaps future Pokemon will have Iron Fist and be able to learn those moves? |
| 618 | *** Confirmed, in Gen. V Golett/Golurk can have Iron Fist and learn Hammer Arm. Not sure about Shadow Punch or Meteor Mash, though. Also the Gen V Pokedex (book, not in-game) has a list of all moves powered up by Iron Fist. So, maybe something similar for Gen. IV? |
| 619 | *** Even more! In the Dream World, some Pokémon have Iron Fist as their "Hidden" ability. |
| 620 | ** About how they figured that out, while hacking is the most likely possibility, it can be found out and used legitimately by a Smeargle that knows either Roleplay or Skill Swap, getting the Iron Fist ability, and learning the attacks in question. Even more convoluted, one could get Conversion onto that same Smeargle to change it into a steel-type and get a STAB, Iron Fist-boosted Meteor Mash. |
| 621 | *** With a base 25 Attack stat. ''[[CoolButInefficient Not worth it.]]'' |
| 622 | ** What gets me is that Strength isn't boosted, despite being clearly described as a PUNCH. |
| 623 | *** Just a case of poor translation. The Japanese description doesn't call it a punch, and other similar cases have arisen due to translation issues, too - for instance, Sucker Punch isn't a punch as far as Iron Fist is concerned, because its Japanese name means "Ambush", while Meteor Mash is actually called "Comet Punch" in Japanese (Comet Punch is itself called "Consecutive Punch"). |
| 624 | * I'm surprised no one's brought up Remoraid/Octillery after so many examples. A fish "evolving" into an octopus? [[FlatWhat Whut]]. |
| 625 | ** Yeah, it's kinda weird, but don't think about the animal parallel so much as the weapon parallel (gun to cannon). I think Game Freak tried to be ''too'' clever with that one. |
| 626 | ** Look, a squirrel can evolve into a cat mermaid (Eevee/Vaporeon); a turtle evolves into a triceratops (Aron/Aggron)... all kinds of weird crap happens with evolution. |
| 627 | *** Eevee is a ''cat''. And I think Aggron is supposed to be based on some sort of ankylosaur, but that doesn't really matter without knowing what Aron is supposed to be if not a turtle. But yes, I do agree that both the Remoraid/Octillery evolution is poorly connected, and that evolution can be pretty weird. But (at the top poster) would you ever expect a creature composed of a head and a tail to turn into a practically tailless frog, or a worm with some dozen or more legs to turn into a puddle of goop in a coating of solidified spit into a six-legged thing with wings and a carapace, if you weren't used to it? I think the problem is that Remoraid is a remora with the abilities of a pistol fish, and they turned it into an octopus with the abilities of... Well, an octopus whose propulsion tube was turned into a cannon. That would be like a Zigzagoon evolving into a Seviper. Almost no physical similarities, and not based on anywhere near the same animal, but they live in the same environment and have a similar trademark ability (or in this case, pattern of locomotion). |
| 628 | *** Eevee's as much a cat as the legendary beasts are all gerbils; no one can say for sure what it is (though, cat would be my last guess as - according to [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Eevee#Origin Bulbapedia]] - Eevee shares the most traits with foxes and dogs). |
| 629 | *** Eevee is most likely based off all kinds of loyal household pets and as such, holds similarities to all of them. |
| 630 | *** For the record, the Legendary Beasts are Feline - Entei is a Lion, Raikou is a Tiger, and Suicune is a Panther. I always thought that Eevee and its "Eeveelutions" were dogs, with Espeon being the sole oddity in the set (as it does look a lot like a cat). |
| 631 | *** Eevee is based on a fennec fox (they're adorable, go google them) or a "doe-eyed fox" in some inaccurate translations in the game itself. The evolutions are vaguely domesticated forms (and thus cats; video game logic, since wolves are dogs and such.) of that powered by the elements. Espeon is based on a housecat with physic powers (a bakeneko I believe), for instance. They look sort of doggish for the same reason the 'electric mouse' Pikachu is a rabbit mixed with a hamster who's got a lightning bolt glued to his butt. |
| 632 | *** If the Legendary Gerbils are actually feline, it's possible that the Eeveelutions are as well, considering the rather popular {{fanon}} that the Gerbils were a Flareon, a Jolteon, and a Vaporeon before being resurrected by Ho-Oh. Not confirmed by {{canon}} or anything, but still. |
| 633 | ** It's a ''Pulseman'' reference (''Pulseman'' being a game developed by Game Freak before ''Pokemon''), admittedly one that was more apparent in the data for [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the Spaceworld GS demo]]. Remoraid is a reference to the Gunfish weapon, while Octillery is based on the red octopus-like floating mine in the Australia stage. [[http://pulseman.tumblr.com/post/175078006303/is-no-one-gonna-mention-that-remoraids-beta-design The more you know]].... |
| 634 | * What's with everyone forgetting you the second you leave the Hall of Fame? For that matter, you beat every local champion in every town, and no one even acknowledges it. And yeah, it might be that average people don't know who the League Champion is, but what about when you go for a second run through the Elite Four and the Champion? Shouldn't someone in that building acknowledge that you beat them once before and are actually the League Champion? |
| 635 | ** Same reason maybe one or two people acknowledge that you just saved the region from a drought-from-hell, being flooded by torrential rain, Team Rocket from abusing Pokémon and hijacking Silph Co, or stopped Team Galactic from creating their own universe. |
| 636 | ** WelcomeToCorneria, deal with it. |
| 637 | *** You wanna stay at the Hall of Fame forever, or continue exploring, catching, battling and doing all sorts of neat activities without any limitations by the rules? |
| 638 | ** "You saved the world and beat the Champion, but what did you do for ''me''?" |
| 639 | * Why is it that Pokémon can't gain experience in the Battle Frontier? I get why money might not be used, but why no experience? |
| 640 | ** FakeLongevity. |
| 641 | ** Because you wouldn't be able to have any sort of streak if the Pokemon you use keep gaining levels and cannot be used anymore in the facilities. |
| 642 | * Does the Pokemon world have any sort of violent crime? You think with Pokemon such as Charizard, or Alakazam, that criminals would be running rampant.. |
| 643 | ** Criminal-police arms race. Criminals have such access to Pokemon - ''but so do the people who stop criminals''. |
| 644 | ** Haven't you played ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers of Darkness/Time/Sky''? There are plenty of Pokemon criminals, and there are bounty rewards for explorer teams that capture them. |
| 645 | ** Yes. The players spend most of the story fighting organized crime, and terrorism. Team rocket used its power to take control of two different cities, physically abuse Slowpoke, and steal a number of items. Team Plasma's plan was to gain enough power to force everyone in the Unova region to release their Pokemon. |
| 646 | * Don't the girls get cold from wearing skimpy clothing all the time? |
| 647 | ** Same reason joggers who wear skin-tight or skimpy clothing don't get cold... because they're getting blood pumping, easy as that! |
| 648 | * It's stated in the Pokedex that "Lick" will paralyze any Pokemon that it's used on. How is saliva able to paralyze somebody? |
| 649 | ** I think the idea is that they're paralyzed by pure {{Squick}}. |
| 650 | ** I'm not sure, I've seen this "Ghost Licks Paralyze" trope in other games as well, I think this might be OlderThanTheyThink... |
| 651 | ** You know how ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''-style Ghouls have a paralysing touch? Kinda like that. |
| 652 | ** I always thought that it was some sort of sedative in the sailva. |
| 653 | ** It's shivering from the sheer {{Squick}} of it. As per Japanese myth, [[https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111202145715AAA59A7 ghosts like to get the drop on people in dark places and announce their presence in a creepy way]] -- and it's harder to be creepier than licking someone "Hello". Some Japanese ghosts also like to lick things they like, such as [[http://okami-cj.blogspot.com/2010/09/list-of-bakemono.html lamp oil, bathroom scum, the ceiling]], ''etc''. |
| 654 | * So how does the education system work in Pokemon? How do kids get licensed as Pokemon Trainers? |
| 655 | ** All children go to school for five years. After that, their grades are evaluated. 20% of the kids (those with the worst overall grades) are promptly given a "trainer's license" and kicked out. |
| 656 | ** There's no official explanation. In ''Manga/TheElectricTaleOfPikachu'', anyone who successfully obtains a Pokemon Handler's License (after a day or so's worth of class) is granted a year off in the form of "Trainer's Leave", after which they are required to go back to school. |
| 657 | * Does their world revolve around Pokemon? |
| 658 | ** Yes. Literally, probably, I'll bet that their earth's core is a mass of Slugma and Macargo. |
| 659 | ** There are Pokemon governing the elements, time-space, all kinds of basic concepts (darkness, emotion)... even the creator of the universe is a Pokemon. It makes sense the entire civilization would revolve around Pokemon, since ''everything'' in their universe involves Pokemon somehow. |
| 660 | * So where do trainers get money to buy potions and food anyway? |
| 661 | ** ...Seriously? You don't know? It's not as if trainers are piss poor or that they don't have means to get money, or savings, or parents, or whatever, what kind of question is that? |
| 662 | ** Given that most trainers are kids...tell me, have you ever heard of "pocket money"? It's probably a ritual in Hoenn etc. to save up small amounts of money from 5-10 years old, then depend upon that, winnings, gifts, rewards, and whatever you find on trees. |
| 663 | * Are Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar forms of dead Pokemon or are they their own entity? |
| 664 | ** Well, we see a ghost Marowak, so we can assume actual ghosts take the form of whatever they were while alive. Since you can breed Gastlys, it's probable that they're simply their own species of gas things that happen to usually live in creepy locations, and people just thought they were ghosts. |
| 665 | *** Which makes me wonder, if they are of different natures, then why do Gastlys & Haunters and the dead Cubones & Marowaks all appear as vague blobs before you get the silph scope? |
| 666 | *** Maybe the Gastlys and Haunters are also dead, and you're fighting the ghosts of the Ghost Pokemon. |
| 667 | *** [[MemeticMutation Yo dawg, I heard you like Ghost Pokemon, so we made Pokemon ghosts out of Ghost Pokemon so you can get scared while you get scared.]] |
| 668 | *** Could be that it's simply part of Gastly's natural power set - the ability to cloak yourself as a terrifying spectre rather than a simple grinning purple ball would naturally scare people, protecting you from being caught by anyone without some kind of psychic sensitivity to override it. The Silph Scope counterfeits this, and in later games, a similar system could be installed into Pokegear, Pokenav, or even the later generations of Pokedex. |
| 669 | *** Perhaps this line is proof that some Pokemon fail to adapt to continued life and a whole species dies out. Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar could be a three-form species based on the environmental death of another three-form species. |
| 670 | *** [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l3ztdxkvgJ1qa9qvco1_400.jpg THIS]]. Now you know which one. |
| 671 | ** The Gastly line's species is listed as Gas Pokemon (hence, GAStly). They're actually composed of gas, and are probably grouped as the Ghost Type because of similar physical properties. |
| 672 | * Why do Bellossom and Politoed make little sense compared to the "original" evolutionary path of a given Pokémon? I realize the concept of branching evolution didn't exist at the time Gloom and Poliwhirl were created, but they look nothing like their new evolutions, almost to the point of ridiculousness when you compare Gloom, Vileplume, and Bellossom, or compare Poliwhirl, Poliwrath, and Politoed. Specifically: Gloom's flower in no way sets up for Bellossom, and Poliwhirl doesn't really look like he could become bright green... |
| 673 | ** Maybe Gloom to Bellosom makes little sense, but they are plants; they can change whatever they want. Poliwhirl, on the other hand... if you haven't noticed, it's based on a '''tadpole'''! What do tadpoles become when they grow up? Yeah, there is your explanation. |
| 674 | *** Hm. Just looked it up; you're right. I'd assumed Poliwhirl and Poliwrath were frogs, I guess... which makes it slightly weird that Poliwrath is one of Poliwag's final forms and is aesthetically tougher-looking than a fully-matured frog (I know there's some kind of proper complaint in here, dammit!) |
| 675 | ** If it's any consolation, Bellossom's original artwork gave her a blue body. |
| 676 | ** Additionally, in regards to the flower, just split Gloom's bud thing, then let it mature. If Doduo can grow another head, and if Vulpix can grow additional tails, Gloom can grow another flower. |
| 677 | ** Actually, branching evolution did exist in generation 1. Remember eevee? |
| 678 | ** Maybe Bellossom is a radiation mutant? The stone has to force it to evolve ''somehow''. |
| 679 | * Why can't Godchu gain a win on any Pokemon in the Electabuzz line? The only victory he has was when he teamed up with another Pikachu. It's like the writers knew he was the mascot and gave him victories on loads of Pokemon, but always thought Electabuzz was the superior electric Pokemon. |
| 680 | ** It finally gained one against Volkner's Electivire. |
| 681 | ** Electabuzz IS the superior Electric Pokemon, even without evolving! |
| 682 | * Is there any reason why Gary decided to become a Pokémon researcher? |
| 683 | ** [[PutOnABus Couldn't afford a bus ticket?]] |
| 684 | ** First of all, I had thought that as he grew, he realized that battling wasn't the be-all and end-all of Pokemon, and he wanted to learn more about them. Second of all, are you seriously going to complain about the little tiny smidge of character development they give us? |
| 685 | *** Some people like assholes, unfortunately. |
| 686 | *** Like [[VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising Viridi.]] |
| 687 | ** Probably because the writers wrote themselves into a corner with Gary. They made him too powerful of a rival to carry well into subsequent series. Ash's nature, and the fact his Pikachu was still a small and unevolved mon, made it more reasonable to "reset" him every series. Ash having a demigod for rival (who behaves more like BLUE or a normal player) wouldn't have worked for the show. |
| 688 | * Who else thinks that there should be at least one type pair that can attack each other, and/or a pair that are defensively strong against one another, rather than straight-up ElementalRockPaperScissors? For example, Psychic Pokémon could be weak against Ghost attacks because they're more sensitive on the spiritual level, but Ghost Pokémon are weak against Psychic attacks because they live entirely on the plane where Psychic attacks do their stuff and without a body to hold them together (metaphorically or literally) while they regain their senses, or the other way around where Psychic Pokémon are strong against Ghost attacks because of practice in tranquility and focus, and Ghost Pokémon are strong against Psychic type attacks because they're beings of spirit and Psychic attacks would just be fighting fire with fire. Yes, I know the "both attacks stronger than both defenses" makes more sense (and two Pokémon that had strong attacks against each other would be less frustrating than two Pokémon that could only use CherryTapping attacks against each other), and I have thought this about a couple of different elemental pairings, but I wanted to give a more impartial example. |
| 689 | ** It took me some time checking the type chart on Bulbapedia, but I managed to remember the most obvious example of how that actually does happen already: Ghost and Normal; both types are completely ineffective against the other. |
| 690 | *** And that's cool, isn't it? Annoying, because you have to make sure any Normal or Ghost Pokémon you have have alternate type attacks before going up against an opponent that specializes in the opposing type, since it's No Effect rather than Weak, but cool. |
| 691 | ** Don't forget mutual-resisting Bug and Fighting. |
| 692 | ** This is besides the point, but I wouldn't mind a Light-type being introduced so we could have a mutual-super effective duo. The Psychic-type is essentially Light-type here, but... |
| 693 | ** Dragon is also super effective against other dragons. |
| 694 | * Why are Pokemon's movements so weird? I don't mean the attacks, I mean the movements when they're out of their Poke Balls. In Crystal, they were well done, moving a part of the body and at the same time of the cry, very natural, but in Emerald and beyond, they don't make any sense! Pokemon like Abra and Meditite jump even though they're sitting! And in Generation IV many inflate and deflate for no reason. I know that animating 493 different species of Pokémon in a unique way is kind of hard, but it just bugs me how unnatural all of the movements look. |
| 695 | ** Abra and Meditite are Psychic; they could be floating. |
| 696 | * How do Pokemon with no visible mouths like Hitmonlee eat food? |
| 697 | ** Hitmonlee have mouths under their fur. Some others just crumble it down so that it can be absorbed through a patch of easily permeated skin where their mouths "should" be. And some simply don't eat food, they just eat '''''[[strike:SOULS]]''''' emotions and other environmental energy. |
| 698 | *** So how do those Pokemon eat berries and such? |
| 699 | *** Berries are alive, or at least have something on the psychoemotional plane. See the item entry for that type of berry that "swells roundly" when they sense human emotions. That, or [[VoodooShark they use a straw]]. |
| 700 | ** On that same subject, why does Mamoswine have no mouth? |
| 701 | *** Mamoswine does have a mouth, it's just hidden under that 'tasche of fur under their nose. Dawn has to stick her hand underneath there to feed her Mamoswine Poffins. Also, in Uncrushing Defeat you can see Mamoswine has a tongue too. Anatomically sound. |
| 702 | * The "discovery" of new Pokemon every couple years. While this allows new Pokemon and keeps the series from going stale, it leads to a lot of FridgeLogic. Putting aside the issue of "we haven't seen any two years ago, but now there's hundreds of them", what about the baby Pokemon? How the hell could people have known about Pikachu without knowing about Pichu? |
| 703 | ** For the last question: the same way they didn't know about eggs. Pokemon reproduction is obviously not what we would expect. For the issue as a general... there's no better way to handle that without recurring to patches, which are only possible from this generation and forward. Since the games are not rewritable software, it just won't happen. |
| 704 | ** In the anime, at least, a flashback from before the show's beginning has Ash watching a movie with Gen II Pokemon (starring Red, no less). Not sure about the games. |
| 705 | *** Also, Ho-Oh shows up ''in the very first episode''. |
| 706 | ** Well, to be fair... look at the things that have baby forms: Pikachu lived in a small patch of grass in the back left corner of a creepy forest. Magmar... where did Magmar live in the Gen I games exactly?[[note]]Pokemon Mansion.[[/note]] Was it at all easy to find? Jynx was likely in the same island cave as Articuno.[[note]]No, you had to trade a Poliwhirl for it in Cerulean City.[[/note]] Clefairy lived in a cave that was mostly populated by Zubat (plus it was so incredibly shy that finding the darn things was next-to impossible). Electabuzz lived in an abandoned electricity generation facility filled with belligerent Pokeball monsters and a gigantic electric bird. They probably didn't have Wobbuffets, Marills, Roselias, Chimecos, Sudowoodos, Mantines, and Togepi's line in Kanto at the time. There are only two Snorlaxes at most in Kanto that are encountered in the wild and all they do is sleep. Mr. Mime was only found in one patch of grass in-between Pallet and Cinnabar and... really... who even DREAMS of breeding for more of that abomination? Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee are probably too focused on fighting and whatnot to ever think about breeding. Lucario is incredibly rare as it is and it's a REAL pain to get a female Riolu or a Ditto in the region Lucario is from. Chansey is found pretty exclusively in the Safari Zone in Gen I if I remember correctly and... who's going through the Safari Zone to look for babies when you can get attacked by Scythers, Pinsirs, and Kangaskhans. The ONLY Pokemon that baby forms should have been logically and easily discovered for is Jigglypuff because it lives directly to the right of Pewter City. Professor Oak could have just talked to other professors to learn about these things, but... it only took them a couple of years more to discover these things for Pokemon like Pikachu and Clefairy, so... eh, suspension of disbelief. |
| 707 | ** I always thought that it wasn't that they didn't know about them, it was just that they were on another region and thus you couldn't know about them until you went to that region. Geodudes and Zubats are common mons because they represent rocks and bats, which are not that uncommon in caves all around the world, then Mamoswine just needs colder habitat, like how it's rare for grizzly bears to show up outside of america (ursaring), but there are rats everywhere. At least they patch this up with the Unova region being very far from the more close Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions. |
| 708 | ** The idea of new Pokemon being discovered was dropped in generation three. Each generation just introduces a new "Regional Pokedex" made up of Pokemon that are everywhere like zubat, native to a specific region like Pikachu in Viridian Forrest, and Pokémon that are not native but appear there for some reason like Pikachu in the Hoen Safari Zone. Certain Pokemon aren't in the "Regional Pokedex" because they are not found in the region. The Regional Pokedex may include Pokemon from any generation. There is no reason to catalog foreign Pokémon in the Regional Pokedex. |
| 709 | * Why do Ash & Pikachu KEEP ATTACKING TEAM ROCKET WITH ELECTRICITY??? Jessie & James caught on to that A DECADE AGO! |
| 710 | ** Because Iron Tail would kill them, and using Pikachu is just the quickest way to keep them distracted until they can be bound/foiled/blasted off again. |
| 711 | *** Iron Tail would kill them? But shocking with high voltage lightning and launching them into the stratosphere is perfectly fine?! |
| 712 | *** Electricity is practically harmless (Ash knew that long before Team Rocket ever showed up), and Team Rocket always survives blasting off again. Iron Tail was designed to send non-piercing damage through the stone skin of Rock-type Pokémon, and would [[ArbitrarySkepticism obviously]] shatter any weak human bone that it struck (such as ribs or skull). |
| 713 | *** Iron Tail would not kill them because pokemon cannot kill humans |
| 714 | *** Harmless? Pikachu electrocuted Onix, the GROUND-BASED ROCK snake, in the first season. Imagine how powerful his electric shocks are four to five generations later? |
| 715 | *** It electrocuted an Onix THAT WAS BEING SOAKED BY THE SPRINKLER SYSTEM. Without the sprinklers, electricity was useless on it. |
| 716 | *** Not entirely true, in the first match it was useless, after Ash charges up Pikachu, he is suddenly able to KO a Geodude in ONE HIT and manages to hurt (but not defeat) Onix. Pikachu was on the verge of losing again until his first electrical blast's fire set off the sprinklers, but he had definitely dealt damage (which is impossible in the games. This along with Pikachu defeating a Cubone with electricity seems to imply either Pikachu is above the type rules or the anime as a whole just applies them whenever it wants.) |
| 717 | ** We have a Trope for this: PlotInducedStupidity. |
| 718 | * WHY ARE THERE NO CARS?!?! Seriously? They've got trains, buses, ships, helicopters, motorcycles, and bicycles! Is it too hard to build roads, or what? The only thing remotely resembling a car that we see is a moving van! |
| 719 | ** There are cars, they're just not seen very often as Ash and friends spend most of their time in the wilderness. In the first season we see that bridge that's inaccesible to pedestrians, but allows bikes and cars. Also, in Diamond and Pearl, Brock rode on an 18 wheeler. |
| 720 | ** That in the anime. In the games there aren't any because they aren't needed, and enough with yelling the stupid questions. |
| 721 | ** There was a truck in Red/Blue, wasn't it? |
| 722 | ** I always thought that we never saw cars because maybe there were special routes set aside for trainers, where no vehicles were allowed. That way the cars wouldn't scare away wild Pokemon or run over anyone. |
| 723 | *** I just assumed everyone has capsule cars like in dragonball |
| 724 | *** I've always assumed that [[LawOfConservationOfDetail conventional transport do exist; they're just not being shown because it's just impractical to show them in the game where you have limited memory, and you (as a trainer) are not meant to travel on ashphalt roads anyway.]] |
| 725 | ** There are cars in Pokemon Black and White. |
| 726 | *** So Officer Jenny's finally in the games? |
| 727 | ** In ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', both Wallace and Cyrus have flying cars. |
| 728 | ** In the anime, there's been several cars, such as those owned by Bertha, Scott, Cynthia, a ton of people going to the surfing competition in Seafoam, all the police agents in movie 3, and so on. Although as far as named characters go, we've seen about as many who own cars as who own airships. |
| 729 | ** Colosseum and XD also included a few vehicles. |
| 730 | ** In the Pokemon world, where a lot of people either are trainers or used to be (either way, everyone owns a Pokemon) it's likely that people who need to travel a lot could use Fly with a flying-type Pokemon, instead of spending money on vehicles and maintence and fuel. For all we know, gas prices in Kanto could be outrageous! |
| 731 | ** Go look at Unova. There are both the Skyarrow Bridge and the highway through the Route Four desert. |
| 732 | * Do Pokemon get old? Naturally nothing ages onscreen, but has there ever been an old Pokemon ever in canon? |
| 733 | ** Tracey's Scyther? |
| 734 | ** Also that pilot's old Noctowl in Johto. |
| 735 | ** And an elderly Treecko in the episode when Ash caught his own Treecko. |
| 736 | ** Come on, I can't be the only one who remembers Pooka. |
| 737 | ** Ash and friends once met a thousand-year-old Ninetales. It didn't show any signs of aging at all, but that's probably justified considering Ninetails is based off of Japanese mythology. |
| 738 | ** Onix's flavor text indicates it does have a life-cycle of sorts, indicating that their stones grow smoother, rounder, harder, and black. So an old Onix is basically a string of diamond-hard, giant, black marbles. |
| 739 | * Does anyone know the off-screen reason why Ash got rid of Primeape? It seems odd that they made it such a hard Pokémon to capture (devoting an episode to it), then having Ash go through all that effort to get Primeape to obey him, and then immediately turn around and get rid of it. Did they plan it that way from the start just to showcase the concept of disobediant Pokémon? Did they change their minds, not wanting Ash to have such a powerful team mate? Did fans not like Primeape, so they wrote it out to please them? Just curious. |
| 740 | ** I think Ash left it with Anthony so it could become stronger... |
| 741 | *** S/he said the "off-screen reason" i.e. the REAL reason. The reason why the shows' writers thought it would be a good idea to have a trainer show up, offer to train Primeape, and have Ash agree to it in the first place. |
| 742 | *** Because Ash is not allowed to have any fully evolved Pokémon. It's the rule. Whenever one of Ash's Pokémon evolves, he has to trade it away or leave it with someone. |
| 743 | *** First off, the above statement is so ill-informed it hurts (Ash's Sceptile, Muk, Glalie, Torterra, Infernape, etc. etc. say hi). Secondly, it was probably removed due to low popularity (and they had to make room for the Charmeleon/Charizard, who would essentially fill Primeape's role in addition to being a popular character). |
| 744 | ** The anime was stuck on generic cuteness back then. Charizard got a pass because they anticipated Americans would like it and it was referencing the trading issue from the games. |
| 745 | ** While there's no official statement that we know of, the writers gave Primeape up for the same reason that he gave Butterfree up: Ash needed a DramaPreservingHandicap. Ash's Pokemon being strong and reliable would have meant having to come up with ''actual strategies'' to keep Ash from winning, and the early anime never cared about the battles save where they could be applied to the child-aimed morality plays in nearly every episode. For a long time there ''was'' an implicit rule, but not quite about evolved Pokemon: Ash's regular Pokemon were not allowed to be simultaneously strong ''and reliable''. |
| 746 | *** As a continuation, Pokemon that were ''both'' eventually stopped being Ash's regulars[[note]]Butterfree, Primeape, Pidgeot, and eventually Squirtle and Bulbasaur all left for various cooked-up reasons. Lapras came prepackaged with an excuse for getting rid of it whenever the writers felt like[[/note]] or were never regulars in the first place[[note]]Muk, Tauros, and Kingler were all stowed on Professor Oak's ranch upon capture. Larvitar was always meant to leave[[/note]]. The powerful Pokemon that hung around were disobedient[[note]]Charmeleon, Charizard, and Lavender Town's Haunter, technically; once Charizard began obeying ([=EP105=]), it lasted less than 30 episodes before ''also'' having to leave ([=EP134=])[[/note]]. New "powerful" Pokemon came with behavioral quirks[[note]]Heracross, Cyndaquil, Chikorita, Totodile, and Phanpy all had notable issues that kept getting in the way of either obeying Ash or using their full power[[/note]]. There were even a couple of experiments with ''crippling'' Ash's evolved Pokemon[[note]]Sceptile lost the use of its special techniques for a while out of sheer heartbreak. Turtwig is fast and wins? Grotle and Torterra are slow and lose.[[/note]]. |
| 747 | * Just how does the Pokedex work? In the games, it sounds like your character is entering the data. The manga is a bit more confusing, as Oak describes it as an encyclopedia, but then tells Red to enter his data when he meets a new Pokemon. Nearly every time he uses the thing, he's at least somewhat surprised by the data, so it's clear not all the data is his own, so where does that data come from? |
| 748 | ** The Pokedex is clearly a wireless access terminal to a wiki all Pokemon trainers can edit. Professor Oak must keep the server in his lab. Whenever information in the Pokedex seems like a pile of bullshit, it's because an asshole trainer decided it would be fun to troll the other trainers. |
| 749 | ** Its purpose changes depending on the story. In the games, the original Pokedex was a project of Professor Oak's to collect and catalog the information of every Pokemon in existence, but he had to rely on Red and Blue to record the data for him because he was too old; the player character having to collect information for the Pokedex project has been at least implicitly true for all subsequent generations. In the anime, the Pokedex's data is never indicated to need user input, but to be an electronic pocket reference for the trainer's use. In that manga you mention (''Pokemon Special?''), it sounds like the writer meant for it to be a games-style project but kept using it as an anime-style reference. |
| 750 | * Does anyone wonder why Palkia is a Water and Dragon type? What does time have to do with Water? I'd assume Psychic (and Dragon) to be a better choice... than again I remember it being weird that Lugia isn't a Water and Flying rather than Psychic and Flying. |
| 751 | ** Palkia is space not time anyway 2 below says it best |
| 752 | ** Alright, in the beginning, what covered the earth? Water. |
| 753 | ** SpaceIsAnOcean. |
| 754 | ** Because pearls are from the ocean. This doesn't explain why Dialga isn't Dragon/Ground. |
| 755 | *** Perhaps because you need a time ''machine'' to time travel? I dunno... |
| 756 | *** Don't any of you guys read the script? Dialga is ''Time''. |
| 757 | *** ...Am I missing something? |
| 758 | *** The original question somehow implied that Palkia was related to time. (The real question had to have been about Palkia. Dialga isn't a Water type.) |
| 759 | *** And now it shifted to Dialga, who is Steel. And no, I don't think you need a machine to time travel, that's just one of the possible devices. |
| 760 | *** What are the other possible devices then? Hey, it's an explanation that works, just roll with it. |
| 761 | *** Well, ButterflyEffect used journal pages and photographs, and in some other stories the time travel is made just as a special power, without any sort of device (like ''Braid''), not to mention magic. And no, I don't have a better explanation, I just felt like leaving a lil' refutation. |
| 762 | ** Maybe it is because space is always expanding, like a puddle of water (sort of), and time only goes in one direction for most beings, the flow being as solid as steel and requiring a tremendous amount of power to break? And to add to that, as stated, pearls are from the ocean. Also, diamonds are harder than steel. Steel is the hardest type in the games. So until they create a diamond type... |
| 763 | ** Space is expansive, like water, while Time is solid and immutable, like steel? |
| 764 | ** The refraction of light through water can give the impression that space is distorted. Also, the most reliable ways of measuring time involve metals. |
| 765 | *** Gives the impression that space is distorted? [[FridgeBrilliance So Palkia being a type that causes it to appear that space is distorted in Diamond/Pearl was actually foreshadowing Giratina's importance to the plot of Platinum]]? Never thought of it like that. |
| 766 | ** Well, Palkia is "Pearl", which comes from sea, and Dialga is "Diamond", which comes from inner Earth. The closest type they have to "Diamond" is Steel, because you know, with their hardness and all.. |
| 767 | * Why do ONLY your from-Caterpie evolved and Gym Leader Bugsy's Metapods know the moves Tackle, String Shot, and Harden but all wild Metapods and all the ones from other trainers don't? They should have naturally learned that moves from simply being a Caterpie, so do ALL Metapods in the games except your and Bugsys ones pop into the world? |
| 768 | ** This was mentioned in this page before: Pokemon that belong to trainers are stronger than those in the wild. I assume Metapods on the wild don't need to fight much (it's a cocoon, it should retain its energy for metamorphosis), so it has no reason to retain fighting moves like Tackle, and it already used String Shot for its intended purpose (make a cocoon). When you evolve a Caterpie, its mind is tuned to battle, so it doesn't forget those useful moves. The reason why only Bugsy's Metapod has Tackle must be because he caught it as a Caterpie, while the other trainers didn't. |
| 769 | * Also, why do Caterpie when evolving into Metapod on a level other than seven not learn Harden? It's like their signature move. A literal bug in the game for me. |
| 770 | ** It's not much a bug, more like a game engine idiosincrasy: the game data says that Metapod learns Harden at level 7, so if you evolve your Caterpie at level 8 or beyond, it won't retroactively learn that move (though it'll be able to remember it with the Move Relearner). |
| 771 | ** Agreed. Later versions of the game engine would fix this by having some Pokemon learn moves as a direct result of their evolution (such as moves that earlier stages did not have the physiology for, like Charizard's Wing Attack). |
| 772 | * Why is the Vs. Seeker left out of Heart Gold and Soul Silver? It's easily one of the most important key items in the Sinnoh games, and these leave it out, despite needing it more than ever. And they can't even uses the 'it's a remake' excuse because the Vs. Seeker was introduced in a remake. |
| 773 | ** Wasn't the Vs. Seeker the PokéGear's phone in Gold/Silver/Crystal? I'm pretty sure people called you to battle when they were ready or something like that... |
| 774 | *** You can use the phone, but it's nowhere near as reliable as the Vs. Seeker. Only certain trainers will battle on certain days, and it can take several calls before they finally agree to it. The only way to effectively train your team in the earlier stages is to do a little SequenceBreaking, going to Mahogany Town and taking down Team Rocket early. Still, considering even the wild Pokémon around there are around level 15, I guess they keep you from raising your team too much since there are twice as many Gyms in this game and figure it's better to spread the training out a little more. Not very well implemented though. |
| 775 | *** If you really need extra levels, use the Pokewalker. But be careful, it would suck to accidentally skip a vital move before you have access to the Move Tutor... |
| 776 | *** If they had added the VS Seeker, it would have conflicted with the Pokégear, which already provided rematches -- as well as other functionalities not covered by the VS Seeker. And what do you mean it "needed it more than ever"? GSC has the reputation of being the easiest game in the series. Why ''would'' you need or want to train and over-level your party? |
| 777 | * Why does the Pokeathlon not have alternate controls? Everything else in the game can be done with buttons rather than a stylus, but not one of the best new features. It would be easy to do, and a godsend to people with lost styli (or is it styluses?) or damaged touchscreens |
| 778 | ** Same thing about the Poffin Making in D/P/Pt, I guess, they want to use the DS's unique feature. And, while I didn't get to that part of the game yet, I'm betting that there are some things that you just can't do with buttons... |
| 779 | *** Use your fingernails, [[TheMoreYouKnow These aren't iPhones.]] |
| 780 | *** Don't. That's how my cousin destroyed my old DS Lite. |
| 781 | *** One simply uses a Q tip. |
| 782 | * Does it actually say outside the anime that you start your journey at 10? I can't remember if it does in the original games or not. |
| 783 | ** I'm not sure, but I just assumed that age 10 was the minimum required age to become a licensed Pokémon trainer. You could start your journey anytime after that. |
| 784 | ** The Red and Blue version manuals actually say that "You are an 11-year-old boy". |
| 785 | ** There are 4-9 year old trainers in the games. |
| 786 | * In Platinum, why does some guy just up and give you, a young kid, an empty villa? |
| 787 | ** It contains incriminating evidence he wants to dispose of. |
| 788 | ** Here's from the villa's Bulbapedia: "The description of the previous owner in the game is that he was a rich man hailing from the Hoenn region, who gave it away before going home after collecting all of the rare stones in the region." Now, who does this sound like? It could be that the random man felt you were worthy a (former?) champion's villa due to having collected at least six badges at this point of the game. (Which ''would'' raise the question why Steven thought it would be a good idea to just give the villa away if he hadn't been overly generous in his source game.) |
| 789 | *** Actually, the teacher from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker gives you a villa, due to her having no time to use it; maybe the same rule applies here. |
| 790 | * From the item sprite, Ethers and Max Ethers are clearly in man-made containers, like Potions and the like. Yet you can find them inside of smashed rocks. [[FlatWhat What.]] |
| 791 | ** As a side-note these games are published by [[Creator/{{Nintendo}} the same people]] who [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda give you legal tender and ammo inside jars and the grass]]. |
| 792 | ** Going by the earlier theory that those rocks are actually the poop of Rock and Steel types in the cave, maybe an Onix ate a trainer? |
| 793 | ** Maybe you're finding some other trainer's hidden stash. |
| 794 | ** Or maybe you find the item loose and put it in the containers you [[CrazyPrepared keep for such purposes]]. |
| 795 | ** This sounds rather obvious...someone drops it there. However one thing I'd like to see something done in a Pokémon game is finding trash left by other trainers and then turning them in for collectibles. |
| 796 | *** That would probably be the hidden items you can find on the ground with the Itemfinder or Dowsing Machine. |
| 797 | * Where in the hell does the player character's mother shop in the Gen II remakes? She seems to buy an awful lot of impossible-to-find items and berries. |
| 798 | ** Obviously she shops online at [[{{Pun}} Pok-E-Bay]]. |
| 799 | * If Electric moves are super effective against Water-types because water conducts electricity, shouldn't Steel types be vulnerable for the same reason? |
| 800 | ** Good question. It must have something to do with game balance, because it's only weak for attacking electric, but not for defense. |
| 801 | ** That can actually be easily answered. Steel is not weak against Eelctric because, unlike water, it is in [[AndKnowingIsHalfThebattle metals' ''natural condition'' to conduct electricity]]; even for relatively large amounts, where what changes notoriously is the temperature of the metal rather than (before) its internal composition. Compare water and ''anything'' organic, which can be unreversibly disrupted by a high electrical current (think skin tissue). |
| 802 | ** Plus, while they both conduct electricity, metal (normally) keeps its form and composition intact when electrocuted. On the other hand, electrocuting water is one way to split it up into its base elements (electrolysis) - in other words, breaking it up when subjected to a strong enough electric current. |
| 803 | ** [[GeniusBonus Water only conducts electricity IRL due to salts and other contaminants, pure ph 7 H2O is non-conductive.]] [[FridgeBrilliance Perhaps the fact that water-types conduct electricity in Pokémon means they don't use pure water, and implies that Steel types aren't made of entirely pure metal, either? In this case, it could be that contaminants in their metal disrupt their conductivity enough that they don't take super-effective damage from Electric attacks, but not enough to cancel their natural conductivity entirely (explaining why they take normal damage instead of resisting it).]] ...Or maybe it has to do with electromagnetism, which could also explain Electric types resisting them as Steel attacks naturally being repelled from Electric types. |
| 804 | * Speaking of which, why is Fighting good against Steel? If you tried punching metal you're far more likely to hurt yourself. Same is true with Rock v. Fighting. |
| 805 | ** I figured it had to do with the way steel is molded or shaped... just minus the necessary heat. Most logical thing would be to say that Fighting type moves would exert enough pressure to harm a steel (or rock) body. |
| 806 | ** The Rock component is supposed to invoke martial artists cutting through rocks with their hands; Steel must just be a continuation of that. Either way, it's to balance out Fighting as an out-of-universe answer. |
| 807 | *** Similar to Bug being strong against Dark-type for no apparent reason? |
| 808 | *** Bugs [[BigCreepyCrawlies live and thrive in the darkness]]. That's why they beat them out - they're used to them. |
| 809 | ** Fist is stronger than steel! |
| 810 | * Why are Dark types called "Evil" in Japan when they're no different than other types? The only remotely evil things about them are their appearances (and that's debatable in some cases) and their use of dirty tactics. |
| 811 | ** Yes it's the dirty tactics. |
| 812 | *** But being a CombatPragmatist doesn't necessarily make you evil. |
| 813 | *** If you're fighting for your life, maybe not. But resorting to cheap tricks in an organized League-sponsored match won't earn you much respect. Groin attacks are useful when you're being accosted, but they're not allowed in boxing. |
| 814 | *** That's because you're not allowed to use your feet! |
| 815 | ** When you get down to it, they're an Asshole type. There's a difference between CombatPragmatist and being an asshole... and usually that difference is whether we're supposed to think the person is a hero or a villain. From a neutral standpoint, most CombatPragmatist moves are straight up mean. And Dark moves often seem to go past CombatPragmatist to, well, JerkAss. |
| 816 | ** Really, the whole thing is just not well thought out considering how non-malicious various Dark types are, and how there are malicious non-Darks, and how there are non-Dark moves that might be "dirty" such as Scratch. Really, Dark types being shadowy beings makes more sense than them being "evil". |
| 817 | * Larvitar and Tyranitar are dinosaurs. Pupitar is a cocoon. [[FlatWhat What.]] |
| 818 | ** Not dinosaurs, kaiju. Which can have some odd life cycles. |
| 819 | *** So, its line is a mashup of Minilla/Junior, Mothra, and Godzilla {{Shout Out}}s? |
| 820 | *** You say that like it's a bad thing! |
| 821 | * In first and second generation games, why do I have to go through the trouble to get the Flute and Radio Cards? Why can't I just throw a Poke Ball at the damn sleeping Snorlax blocking the road and call it a day? |
| 822 | ** Because a Snorlax with full health isn't that easily catchable, even when it's sleeping. Why you can't just fight it while it's sleeping, though, is another story... |
| 823 | *** Sure it is. You just throw a Pokeball and it goes inside. This will end one of two ways: either it will be a successful catch, and you will have a Snorlax, or it will break free, an action that requires it to ''wake up'' first. Either way, mission accomplished. |
| 824 | *** Have you ever tried to capture a sleeping Pokémon and fail? I have, and it ''doesn't'' wake up. |
| 825 | *** Curse you, game logic! (shakes fist) |
| 826 | * Stealth Rock causes stones to float in the air around the opponent, right? If Gravity can take Flying-types and levitators out of the air, why shouldn't it do the same with Stealth Rock? |
| 827 | ** Stealth Rock is just stealthy enough to avoid gravity. |
| 828 | ** They are dragged down by gravity, at which point they work exactly like spikes, only made of rock (or if they work like in the anime, drag themselves along the ground to crush the target), so still have the same effect. |
| 829 | * Chatot can't learn Bite. Never mind that it's supposed to be a parrot, and parrots have obscenely strong beaks with obscenely strong biting power... |
| 830 | ** Bite has been Dark since second generation. Chatot's too light, since the only Pokémon that aren't all dark and creepy or Poison/Dark type that have it have been grandfathered in from Gen 1 or their lower forms or are Fire types (most if not all of which have it under the Gen 1 Grandfather Clause). [[PowerGlows Ampharos]], for example, can't use Bite despite sheep being some of the nastiest herbivores to wield a set of teeth. |
| 831 | *** Moves never follow guidelines like that. Pokemon are always assigned moves regardless of which other Pokemon that can use it. |
| 832 | *** No, but they have descriptions: "Bite: The foe is bitten with viciously sharp fangs. It may make the target flinch." Birds don't have fangs. There isn't a single bird that can learn Bite. Peck, Drill Peck, or Pluck, yes. Bite, no. |
| 833 | ** Maybe it's because the majority of Pokémon that learn Bite and/or Crunch have sharp teeth, whereas Chatot doesn't. It ought to at least learn something like Drill Peck, though (and not having a long pointy bill like Fearow never stopped things like Empoleon from getting it). Ah, well - maybe you can assume that Pluck is its bastard parrot bite attack. |
| 834 | ** Pluck is the beaked equivalent of Bite, which uses fangs. |
| 835 | * So Cyrus wants to be rid of emotions. Apparently if you touch Mesprit, you'll lose your emotions in three days. Cyrus had Mesprit to obtain the Red Chain. So... why does he still have emotions the last time you see him? In all likelihood, he had it for longer than three days, and if you consider his closing rant in Platinum, he infers that he'll have to work harder to get rid of them, so it's not simply a matter of that he'd have to wait for the three days to pass. Why didn't he just touch the damn Mesprit and get it over with? |
| 836 | ** On the grounds that maybe, ''just maybe'', Mesprit might know this and instead decides to overload Cyrus with emotions if he touches him/her/it. |
| 837 | ** What Cyrus acutally wanted was for EVERYONE to be devoid of spirit and emotion, not just himself. Simply touching Mesprit wouldn't achive his goal, because while he'd have no emotion, everyone else would. |
| 838 | *** But in the meantime he'd have what he wanted for himself. It'd be a step, and since the very nature of the lake spirits divides emotion from willpower, he'd still have motivation to "save" everyone else. |
| 839 | * I've got two problems with the whole "leaving a Pokémon with another person to get stronger", the first being that it defeats the entire point of being a Pokemon trainer. That is, becoming stronger and learning and making mistakes alongside your team. Second of all, when they really want to leave, that just makes it look like the trainer is completely incompetent. Nice enough to be their friend, but not strong enough to earn their loyalty. |
| 840 | ** The point is that the Pokémon benefits from a different perspective. When the new trainer has a different battle style than the old one, it learns more because of the different experiences. |
| 841 | ** Also, some people are specialists with certain Pokémon types or species. The trainer's job is to do what's best for their Pokémon, which sometimes means letting them be cared or trained for by someone who can do a better job. |
| 842 | * How does whoever manufactures the Potion line of medicine stay in business? The super potion has the medicinal value of a bottle of mineral water! Is the player the only one in the world to ever notice that you can get better healing items from a freaking vending machine at half the price? |
| 843 | ** Because no one bothers to set up such machines anywhere but one building in a major city, while potions are everywhere. Also only Colo and XD let you buy more than one at a time (in which games you do indeed never buy many potions once you hit the vending machines) which is annoying enough to just fork over the extra money to buy 99 at a time. There is also no full restore equivalent of drinks. |
| 844 | ** Maybe potions and super potions are physically much, much smaller than cans of water, and thus it is much more convenient to carry them, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment physically]]. GameplayAndStorySegregation explains why the player never notices the difference in size, and the convenience of buying in bulk is the out-of-universe explanation. |
| 845 | ** It may very well be a simple [[EvilInc monopoly.]] Who's to say the person pulling the strings for the Poke Marts aren't also manufacturing the overpriced potions? |
| 846 | * What's with Clamperl's evolutions? A pearl releasing "Psychic Powers" turns it into an eel/pipefish, with the help of a tooth or a scale? |
| 847 | * Why on earth would the english translators decide to name it "[=PurUGLY=]?" [[HollywoodHomely What exactly is ugly about it?]] |
| 848 | ** It has kinks in its whiskers and its fur pattern makes it look like it's about to burst out of clothes several aizes too small for it. Besides, its original name contains a possible use of the Japanese word for ugly to begin with. |
| 849 | ** It's a bully, an ugly trait. |
| 850 | * What is the point of Phione? Is there some myth/legend that ties it up to Manaphy? It's just a clone only worse... |
| 851 | ** It is an ''unevolved'' manaphy. |
| 852 | *** No, the species is normally Phiones, it's just that [[OneInAMillionChance occasionally]] a Manaphy is born of them [[note]][[GameplayAndStorySegregation Story-wise]], anyway.[[/note]]. That's why Phiones can breed more Phiones and Manaphys only produce more Phiones as well. |
| 853 | * A Magneton is composed of three Magnemite, but weighs more than ten Magnemite. [[MemeticMutation Fucking magnets, how do they work?]] |
| 854 | ** A Magneton is only said to be comprised of three Magnemite in the Pokédex, which most people agree is inaccurate. In truth, a Magneton is just one Magnemite that has evolved. And like any other evolved Pokémon, it's bigger and heavier than it's previous form. |
| 855 | *** While the Pokedex is inaccurate about many things, that's not one of them. It may be that they gain access to more power in a group, and the extra magnetism/power capacity makes them weigh more/push down on the earth more. |
| 856 | *** So going by E = mc[[superscript:2]]... [[OhCrap gulp]]... |
| 857 | *** Good guesses but forgetting about Pokedex problems this series was never good with weight. [[ArtistsAreNotArchitects Look at Onix.]] |
| 858 | ** Weight is amount of force that the earth (or equivalent, if on another planet) is applying to the object. Most Pokémon are only affected by the earth's gravity, but Magnemite/ton/zone are also affected by its magnetic field. And because they're such strong magnets that they're capable of levitating themselves, when they're brought down to earth to be weighed, they're flipped, and thus attract to the earth by the same amount - for Magnemite, this just doubles their real weight, but Magneton aren't aligned with the magnetic field, so their magnet strength must be much more than equal to their weight. Or, they just didn't think it through when giving both weight and description. |
| 859 | * So.....what becomes of Pokemon that the various Teams IE: Rockets and such in the anime used when they are arrested, like Annie and Oakly had an Espeon and Aridos, so...what becomes of them when they were arrested, and wouldn't the Pokemon revolt against new trainers or such if they cared for their Rocket (or other team members) owners? |
| 860 | ** They probably count as possesions and are put in a storage system while their trainers serve whatever sentence they're given. There's probably some visitation opputunities provided. |
| 861 | *** Damn it, now all I can think of is Oakley and Ariados sitting in a booth separated by glass talking to each other over prison phones. |
| 862 | * What does Satoshi Tajiri think of the anime? Everyone keeps saying how he loves the games and some of the manga, but does he just hate the show or something? And if so, why does he not take more direct involvement in it? Is he like Alan Moore or something? |
| 863 | ** He made the game (duh) and adventures/special is his favorite adaptation of them (at least it was 10+ years ago). At the very least we know he prefers the manga comics but he probably doesn't hate what makes him so much money in royalties. Why get involved when he can focus on what he does like? It's not as if he's retired from making video games. |
| 864 | * Why some Pokemon have the ability "Intimidate". What's so Intimidating about a Shinx? (however, it can also have another ability, "Rivalry"). There's no excuse for Staravia, though. It's also an odd ability: a Shinx or a Staravia can lower the attack of OlympusMons? |
| 865 | ** It's probably some sort of mental power. Instead of being so big and fangy that it scares the opponent, it causes the opponent a distinct sense of unease regardless of how big or psychically powerful the opponent is. |
| 866 | ** Even so, what kind of unease would a Shinx or a Staravia put upon, say, Mewtwo, or even anything larger than they are? I guess it's just GameplayAndStorySegregation. |
| 867 | ** It doesn't make sense sometimes. "I am the big, scary, OlympusMon of the land (Groudon), and I'm scared by a pure-Electric mon 1/10th my size." |
| 868 | ** This troper was always curious as to why Masquearin and Mawile, one a bug that loses instantly, and the other is UglyCute (or completely cute). The Pokedex says they're [[InformedAttribute supposed to be intimidating, but... they just aren't.]] |
| 869 | *** The jaws on the back of the head. If something that cute stood there smiling at me, and then whipped around and showed those things at me, I'd be pretty intimidated. |
| 870 | * Gliscor and Gligar, Ground/Flying. HOW? |
| 871 | ** By leaping forth from their earthy abodes and using their wings to aid them in catching their prey. Their names are derived from the word "glide", which makes sense for creatures that are capable of flying but must return to the ground eventually. |
| 872 | *** Still doesn't explain the Ground type. |
| 873 | *** Umm...perhaps, because they're based on bats, which sleep in caves, and scorpions, many of which are ground dwellers...? |
| 874 | ** I think they're based on so-called "su'''gar gli'''ders", hence the name. The sugar glider is an Australian possum (not to be confused with an opossum). As the possum is a family mostly known for scurrying along the ground, the developers decided it would be a Ground type. As the sugar glider is capable of gliding through the air (but not actual flight - gligar and gliscor can't learn Fly, you'll note), they decided it would be a Flying type. And the rest, as they say, is history. |
| 875 | *** Gligar and Gliscor are based on gargoyles partially, which are made of concrete. Ground. Most depictions of gargoyles have wings. Flying. |
| 876 | * [=Porygon2=] is repeatedly stated by the Pokédex to be incapable of flight. But why is it always shown hovering in the air in the 3D games and in the Pokédex's size comparison area? (It's [[DoxieVee my]] favourite Pokémon, natch) |
| 877 | ** The Pokedex is wrong? |
| 878 | ** Maybe it can hover, but not actually ''fly'', and needs to land to move at any significant speed? |
| 879 | ** It's probably just that it can hover above the ground, but it can't go any higher than that hover. |
| 880 | * Platinum's Battle Factory, Level 100 mode. Rhydon and [=Porygon2=] can be used, but Pokemon such as the Hitmons, Ninjask, and Wobbuffet cannot. Also, they are the only two not-fully evolved Pokemon that can be used in this mode (Magneton, Dusclops, and others cannot be used, for example). Why is this? |
| 881 | ** Are you sure that the Hitmons and Ninjask don't show up at all, rather than just being fairly uncommon? (I'm not surprised regarding Wobbuffet) Also, are you sure that Scyther and Onix don't show up? I ask because these are two other not-fully-evolved Pokémon that might show up due to having some advantages over their evolved forms. |
| 882 | * The funny thing about all the Pokedex entries is that I think there's an episode of the show that {{Lampshade}}s this. In one episode of the first series they meet a researcher who wrote entries for the dex and called him out on how some of the entries were mean. He {{Handwave}}d it by saying that "Maybe my assistant threw that in." I think his assistant(s) have been smoking something. |
| 883 | ** For those who don't remember, it was Professor Westwood, and how Slowpoke was called: "The Dopey Pokemon". |
| 884 | * In ''Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Something-or-other'', why did Clayton (the guy who used all of the ridiculous abbreviations) repeatedly call himself a Pokemon-trainer Martial Artist instead of a Pokemart? Did they just not want to stoop that low for the [[StealthPun obvious]] pun? |
| 885 | ** It's ''Sinnoh League Victors''. Also, this makes me wish that Dawn had called upon Pachirisu, simply so he could have called him [[VideoGame/DonPachi Dawnpachi]]. |
| 886 | * Poke Balls are around five inches tall. Voltorb are about a foot tall. [[FridgeLogic How do you mistake a Voltorb for a Poke Ball?]] |
| 887 | ** If you mean the [[ChestMonster items that turn out to be Voltorb]], the Gamecube games show that the "Poke Ball items" are not in Poke Balls, but Poke Ball-themed chests, about the size of a Voltorb. They aren't ''shaped'' like Voltorb now... Maybe Orre's item boxes are just uniquely shaped, and the others are round? |
| 888 | *** The Pokédex states that both [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Voltorb#Pok.C3.A9dex_entries_2 Voltorb]] ''and'' [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Electrode#Pok.C3.A9dex_entries_2 Electrode]] are mistaken for Poké Balls. A Poké Ball is a little bigger than a baseball. Voltorb are one-foot-eight (50 cm). Electrode are three-foot-eleven (1,2 meters). [[FlatWhat What]]? |
| 889 | *** This could be explained by a page in the manga that had many, many Voltorb and Electrode of WILDLY varying sizes, with some Electrode as small as regular Poké Ball, and a Voltorb as big as a regular Electrode. No clue how that happens, but it was in the manga. |
| 890 | *** Pokémon trainers have AWFUL depth perception? |
| 891 | *** Maybe Voltorb and Electrode change size depending on how much electricity they contain and/or can change their own size of their own free will (like how some animals try to make themselves seem bigger when confronted), and whenever you find a Poké Ball only to find it's a Voltorb or Electrode, it was [[SleepModeSize sleeping and thus was in a smaller size]]. |
| 892 | ** Certain characters in some of the Pokemon games ask you to show them particularly ''large'' Pokémon of a certain species. This confirms that, in the games, much as in the manga (as noted above) and, presumably, anime, the sizes given by the Pokedex are merely ''typical''. I'd imagine that Voltorb and Electrode have relatively large variations in size. |
| 893 | * [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction Why can a thousand-pound whale mate with a 2-pound cat?]]. How is said whale only a thousand pounds? How can a water dragon possibly bounce? Why are children encouraged to go out into the wilderness alone where wild monsters lurk? |
| 894 | ** Said whale can also bounce. As can a fish with a tail that looks like wings. |
| 895 | ** Why does said thousand-pound whale weigh less than a sixth the weight of a blue whale's ''tongue''? |
| 896 | *** Wailord is blue and a whale but it's not a blue whale, so... |
| 897 | *** Hell, Wailord is the source of a ''lot'' of FridgeLogic, mostly involving its size. For example, how can you use it in buildings? How can it be used on dry land period without its weight causing it to suffocate? How can it move on dry land at all? |
| 898 | *** [[http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/522945/bored-bow-brown_hair-cabbie_hat-comic-hat-highres- Lampshaded here...]] |
| 899 | *** Hell, how does something ''fifty feet long'' only weigh ''nine hundred pounds''? With some very rough estimation of its volume, it would appear to be less than twice as dense as air at STP (which incidentally answers your question as to how its body doesn't crush itself when on dry land...). |
| 900 | *** This also applies to a lot of fish Pokémon (except for the flailing Magikarp). In the 3D games they appear to be ''hovering''. |
| 901 | *** Wailmer is based on a beach ball and Wailord is based on a blimp. Their weights are ''still'' off but not by that much. The Pokemon you should be asking about is Onix. |
| 902 | * Ghost-type Pokémon can mate. This becomes especially bizarre in light of the fourth-generation Pokémon Spiritomb, who [[spoiler:is composed of 108 spirits]] and can nonetheless [[FridgeHorror mate]]. Or maybe this is just a [[FridgeBrilliance weird case]] of [[OurGhostsAreDifferent xenobiology]]? (Then again, though, one character in the first-generation games [and again in [=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=]] referred to ghosts as having explicitly been [[NeverSayDie killed]].) |
| 903 | *** There seem to be two kinds of 'ghosts' in the Pokémon-'verse. Ghost-type Pokémon, who were never alive in the first place (or were, but have forms that remind people of "real" ghosts), and ghosts of existing Pokémon, such as the ghosts in the Old Chateau and the Marowak ghost in the Pokémon Tower. |
| 904 | * Thhe best bit of FridgeLogic has to be why one would have to use a Poke Flute to wake up a Snorlax blocking the road to battle it, only to ''put it back to sleep'' in-battle to make it easier to catch... |
| 905 | * How is it that a Pokemon can use a move like Rain Dance indoors? It's not like it'll start raining from the ceiling, and I've always gotten the impression that Water-type moves would be powered up if the Pokemon is exposed to the rain. |
| 906 | ** They trigger the sprinkler system? I kinda want to know how they use Sunny Day or Hail inside. |
| 907 | ** It is possible (though very difficult) to form clouds indoors. [[http://io9.com/5892356/artist-suspends-real-clouds-in-the-middle-of-the-room They probably wouldn't last for 5 turns, though.]] |
| 908 | * So I noticed in the Gen IV games during battle, you can see your team's Poké Balls lined up above the attack menu and sometimes, some of the Poké Balls seem to wobble for some reason. In Heart Gold I tried shuffling the team around a bit and realised it was always my Noctowl that was wobbling. So what's this mechanic for? Does it indicate some type advatange/disadvantage? Is it based on my Pokémon's nature? Or is it just for fun? |
| 909 | ** Wobbling means that that Pokemon is about to level up. |
| 910 | *** Ahh, okay, thanks. |
| 911 | * They go through the trouble of making half a spritesheet (just missing biking and fishing poses, plus one for summoning something to use an HM) for a Team Rocket outfit-wearing MC in [=HGSS=] and use it for less than 2 mins, then don't allow you to use it again ever except for a single meaningless photo. [[FlatWhat What]]. |
| 912 | ** Because it's not as hard to create as others might be? |
| 913 | * [[{{Pun}} Scizor takes neutral damage from Rock type attacks]]. Why? |
| 914 | ** Because it's part Bug, which are vulnerable to Rock attacks, but it's also part Steel which is resistant to Rock attacks. |
| 915 | *** It was a joke ([[spoiler:rock beats sissors]]. I know that's "why". |
| 916 | * Whys isn't Mawile part Dark-type? It's called the Deceiver Pokemon, is based off of a yokai, tricks its enemies, and knows far more Dark-type moves than Steel-type ones. |
| 917 | ** [[FridgeBrilliance It's decieving you into thinking it's Dark type]]. |
| 918 | ** Technically the yokai it's based off of isn't that bad- just a girl with a really obnoxious mouth in the back of her head. So the natural type wouldn't be evil (AKA Dark). To put it another way, the cream girly part is the type listed but the dark venusflytrap-ish half is why it's called "deceiver", and the moves are both halves. |
| 919 | * Red's PC "hasn't been used in a long time" and his mom hasn't heard from him for a while, but has a brand new Wii? |
| 920 | ** Red's mother probably bought it for ''VideoGame/WiiSports'' and ''VideoGame/WiiFit''. |
| 921 | ** She brought it for a gift and he never came home for it until you beat him? Or maybe he did play with it but left? A "long time" can be a few months to years. |
| 922 | * Why is Bite Dark-type? Keep in mind that in Japan, the Dark type is the Evil type. Biting something is evil. Blowing yourself up is perfectly normal. Firing a giant laser at something's face is perfectly fine, but ''flinging a berry?!'' How evil! ''Especially'' when that berry then heals any damage the Pokemon just took... |
| 923 | ** The Dark-type seems to be considered dirty fighting, rather than evil, so Bite would fit in with the rest of the Dark type moves. |
| 924 | ** Also, if you're throwing a healing berry, you're doing it wrong... sort of. The objective of flinging berries(or other items) is to stall the opponent, and that's surely sneaky. |
| 925 | ** 悪 (aku) is not evil in the sense that westerners look at it. 悪い (warui) simply means bad. It is somewhat more subjective than our version of evil, which people almost immediately think of as like God and Satan. Eastern cultural views are more balanced...the yin and the yang. In any case, that's why dirty fighting moves fit well as the Dark type. As for Explosion, well...kamikaze pilots during WWII, and the fact that the original game came out 6 years before 9/11. It's still justifiable as a noble sacrifice. |
| 926 | * Why in the games is there an extreme lack of Fire Pokémon? Out of 150 Pokémon in the first game their were only 8 Fire Pokémon (counting evolutions). |
| 927 | ** Actually, there were 12 Fire-types in Generation I. That's better than Sinnoh, were there were only 5 new Fire-types. Hell, before Platinum, you only had the option of Chimchar or Ponyta (Pre-National Dex). |
| 928 | ** Bulbapedia mentions that Fire isn't common in nature and it's kind of hard to find inspirations. Not to mention; Unova adds ''fifteen'' Fire-types. |
| 929 | *** Oh look, somethig I can make a Normal-type of... I'MMA SET IT ON FIRE AND MAKE A FIRE-TYPE!!!! |
| 930 | * How can a lvl. 10 Abra possibly Teleport before a lvl. 20 Bellsprout uses Sleep Powder? |
| 931 | ** Things are damn fast, and Bellsprout's pretty slow. |
| 932 | ** Touch a hot stovetop. See how quickly your brain tells you to get your hand off the stove. Teleportation is a psychic ability. As such, as soon as its brain gives the command, it teleports. |
| 933 | ** Irrelevant correction: your brain tells you no such thing. Reflexive actions in humans route directly from sensory input to motor reaction via the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex_arc spinal column]] precisely because it takes too long to route all the way to the brain, wait for it to process, then perform the reflex. |
| 934 | * How can Hypnosis possibly miss? |
| 935 | ** The targeted Pokemon looks away? |
| 936 | ** Also, how the heck do moves like Growl, Hyper Voice, and other sound-based moves miss? I really hope your Pokemon aren't idiots and growl in the wrong direction. |
| 937 | *** That would be hilarious, we need fanart of that. |
| 938 | * How cold is Sinnoh? It's the coldest region and it even snows quite a bit however girls can still walk around in skirts and both genders in revealing clothing. |
| 939 | ** It's not neccessarily incredibly cold. I live in a region where it doesn't snow much, but when it has, I've been quite comfortable in a t-shirt. It's also probably not as cold in the southern regions of Sinnoh. |
| 940 | * This is more a fanfic issue than a canon one, but ''guns''. Most fanfic I see seems to assume guns exist. ''Why''? Guns should never have been developed in the Pokémon universe. Making the first modern handgun involved basing the model off of a previous, less effective gun, which was in turn based off of another, even less effective gun, etc. In order to do that, you would need a reason or desire for a weapon. Why would you need a weapon like those medieval European muskets that you can't aim with when you have magical animals that can breathe fire and obey your every command? Not to mention you have things like Quick Attack and Swift, as well. While modern weapons are more effective than Pokémon, terrible prototype guns are not, and therefore no one would have made them in the first place. And due to the way technological advancements work, there would be no base model to improve off of, and therefore no one would ever create anything like the modern handgun. |
| 941 | ** Their presence in Legend of Dratini is the only thing that keeps me off the "The world has no guns because everyone trains the animals instead" idea, may work for the games though. |
| 942 | *** That can be subjected to the same "things that only appear in the anime's first season can be ignored" policy that allows people to ignore the occasional non-Pokemon animals. |
| 943 | *** [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness There's a Trope for that]]. [[EarthDrift Maybe more than one.]] |
| 944 | ** What about the fact that there are moves explicitly referencing weapons? Water Gun, Bullet Seed, Swords Dance, Hydro Cannon, Octazooka... how would they come up with those names with no weapons to have gotten the terms from? And let's not forget, there are areas like Orre where there aren't many Pokemon to begin with, where weapons could have been developed in place of Pokemon. |
| 945 | *** While that's a good point, I have a new follow-up to my argument: If guns exist, why don't the terrorist crime syndicates use them? When a ten-year-old walks in and tries to infiltrate their base, the grunts don't just whip out a gun and shoot him, they challenge him to a Pokémon battle. Even if you argue that the grunts are idiots, why don't the leaders or executives do that? Cyrus, in particular, is not one to screw around with things like Pokémon battles if there are quicker and more pragmatic solutions (ditto for Team Snagem). Yet when you beat them, they don't try to attack you further, submit, and act like there's nothing more they can do. Also, for Orre, my previous argument still stands. Team Snagem is by far the most dangerous team, yet they don't just try to shoot you either. I don't really know what to say to the move names, though. |
| 946 | *** Because while they could shoot, Pokemon are far more effective weapons. We know for a fact that people used to have weapons, seeing the Veilstone myth where there was a man who hunted Pokemon with a sword. Now, I dunno about you, but I'd take a Charizard over a pistol any day. Far more potentially damaging, and it has other uses. Not to mention that since moves like Flamethrower can only make Pokemon faint and not kill them, it's logical to assume Pokemon are quite durable, so bullets may not do much to them... presumably they ''did'' have weapons in the past, but abandoned them when they began to build relationships with Pokemon. |
| 947 | *** Explains "Swords Dance". Throws [[LanguageEqualsThought names like]] Water '''Gun''', Octo'''zooka''', '''Bullet''' Seed, and perhaps even Hydro '''Cannon''' into FridgeLogic range, if not all the way to [[VoodooShark Curse Sharpedo]]. The ''only'' way I can see it is as some weird forme of TranslationConvention. |
| 948 | *** You're supposed to use guns against the ''trainer'', not the Mon. A gun can probably be drawn and fired faster than a trainer can draw and throw a Poké Ball and fully materialise his defending critter, and at greater range, too. Also, isn't Lt. Surge some kind of army veteran? |
| 949 | *** Aaaaaand that just gave me visions of Surge crouching in a trench, giving orders to his soldiers, all while Fire Blasts and Flamethrowers are flying above and the enemy throws Voltorb at them, because war in Pokemon is conducted with... Pokemon. |
| 950 | *** In ''Lucario and the Mystery of Mew'', it was show that people use to use armored Pokémon in wars, presumably alongside human soldiers. No way of knowing if this carries over into the games, though. |
| 951 | *** It's possible (and probable, going by the aforementioned moves' names) that there are indeed conventional weapons in the Pokéverse. However, they're very rare, can only be obtained a few ways[[note]]Like the black market, for example. Conventional police officers are probably allowed to carry guns as well (in concealed holsters), but prefer the safer alternative (Pokémon) whenever possible.[[/note]], and would attract too much attention to their users. The police are normally fine with letting new trainers deal with criminals (possibly as a rite of passage), and sometimes feign incompetence, but all that stops the instant you pull out a gun. Criminals know that the police can and will outright kill them if they threaten anyone with a gun, and thus just stick to using Pokémon. |
| 952 | ** Fanfics with guns don't realize that the anime is actually a different continuity than the games. Ghetsis's plan makes less sense in the anime where the Safari Zone warden has a gun - in the games? No guns - meaning that if he's the only one with a Pokémon, they won't fight back. |
| 953 | ** Let's look at this from a historical angle, shall we? Let's start by assuming that, since the Pokédex mentions real-world countries, that Europe exist. Now, prove that Pokémon existed in Europe. Can you? No. Let us assume that China (or a China analouge) invented gunpowder. Now, we do know that fireworks exist in the animé, at least.[[note]]As of X and Y, fireworks have been confirmed to exist in game continuity, too.[[/note]] As such, that means that gunpowder was invented at some point. Now, let's assume that gunpowder makes it to the Pokémon-less Europe. What does Europe, who is often locked in war, want? ''New weapons''. Therefore, they shall invent and eventually begin to perfect the gun, which shall go with them to their colonies, thus spreading guns. Just because Japan of the Pokémon world has no guns, does not mean that the rest of the world does not have guns. Now, the teams? Team Rocket might have them, but they might also simply rely on Pokémon to do everything because of [[HonorBeforeReason an honor code]] or one of Giovanni's edicts. Cyrus? He may be a madman, but he isn't [[TechnicalPacifist the kind of person who will kill someone]]. Team Galactic in general? [[TooDumbToLive I doubt they could even figure out where the trigger is]]. Other, Orre teams? Who knows? Pokémon are probably considered more powerful than guns, especially if the corrupt local governments take away gun rights, thus taking away another means of protection. [[spoiler: And Ghetsis ain't exactly sane. Just becuase Team Plasma thinks it can take away Pokémon and rule the world doesn't mean it can.]] |
| 954 | *** Slight conflict with your spoiler: [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite The UnovaDex]]. There is a different set of Pokemon in Eastern North America than in East Asia. This allows for a native Pokemon population in Europe. Now, it could be that said population were overused during the [[FantasyCounterpartCulture equivalent of the Roman Empire]] with the balance dying out between the Black Plague, the Crusades, and perhaps [[BurnTheWitch pre-Colonial religious persecutions]]. Meanwhile, such Ameridian groups as the Confederation of Six and the Five Nations, as well as perhaps [[NobleSavage the Inca]], probably managed their Poke-Population better. (Or at least didn't come up with the death rate lowering advances that would necessitate increased resource consumption. [[TheSavageIndian Not sure about]] [[HumanSacrifice The Aztec and Maya]], however.) In effect, while the colonists ''could'' gain the Eastern Coasts, as well as a nice initial push, they likely met with stout resistance deeper in the interior. Also note that some North American Tribes are [[NatureHero shamanic]]; these would have a better relationship with Pokemon than even the Japanese. Non-shamanistic tribes would be forced into an EnemyMine situation agaisnt the Europeans.\ |
| 955 | [[WallOfText In sum]]: the natives would not have needed the White Man's firepower because they still had their Magical Beasts, whereas Europe did not.\ |
| 956 | As a result, we have a East Coast that is less developed than in our world. Castelia City is likely a long-term European Colony that was returned to the Natives in the 20th Century; it does sit on the site of RL New Amsterdam and there is a waste to the immediate north that could've been both deforested farmland and a battlefield. Still doesn't explain the ''attack'' names, (again, apart from TranslationConvention, which may now [[JustifiedTrope have a justification]],) because the citizens of Poke-Japan still would only know of firearms by story and legend. [[FridgeBrilliance Or did I just answer my previous question?]] |
| 957 | *** This could also explain why Oore is such a despotic wasteland and without firearms: If most of the Pokemon have been [[TheCorruption corrupted]] or killed/driven off, and weapons never made it to the American Pacific coast, it would make the region quite bare and defenseless. Wes did his job all too well, and his efforts [[TheAtoner to undo what he did]] may actually [[WMG/{{Pokemon}} explain his absence in XD]]: He's probably trying to track the native fauna of Oore and coax them back from their new nesting ground. Meanwhile, the Pokespots are a secret relief effort by Poke-Japan to try to rehabilitate the area. |
| 958 | ** It could also be that guns do exist in the Poke-verse, but because of the ready availability of Pokemon, there's simply not much demand for them. Thus, there are very few in existence, and the few that do exist are so expensive (even, and possibly especially, on the black market) that they're not really practical for anything other than military and maybe law enforcement use. It might even be that the only people who make them are military contractors. [[FridgeBrilliance Which may explain why Team Rocket is constantly trying to extort money...]] |
| 959 | ** You're using the fact that certain moves are named after weapons as your hand wave? Flame thrower throws flames, there is not reason to associate that with the weapon which fires sticky napalm. Torpedo was an animal before it was a weapon. Gun could easily refer to say a glue gun, bullet, like bullet points in a presentations or the train? Or those names could have just arose from the Pokemon moves themselves. What was the reasoning behind aerial ace or smellingsalt? Maybe flare blitz was used to describe the move of Arcanine, who was already known for having ''extreme speed''? |
| 960 | *** The problem with that is that the examples you mentioned (bullet points, bullet trains, glue gun) got ''their'' names from the weapons (bullet points resemble bullet holes, bullet train travels as fast as a bullet, glue guns resemble the firearm), rendering your whole argument invalid. |
| 961 | *** Bullets got their name from Middle French boulette, meaning small ball. Weapons are subject to the same phenomenon as bullet points etc.: they often get their names based on similarity to something else. Therefore, a non-weapon etymology is entirely possible for the Pokemon universe. |
| 962 | ** Guns exist because they want to kill people not just hurt them how many times were the Rocket Team hit with something that should have killed them in other words guns can kill but pokemon can not |
| 963 | * Why do we always have to take on trainers if they see us? Couldn't we just tell them to go away while we get to a Poke Centre or the Sky Pillar or whatever? It's your first triathlon? Glad to hear it, but it's the 18th time I've saved the world, and it's a lot easier if you can go directly there without having to waste time on belligerent morons, so go piss up a rope and I'll take you on when we're not all about to die, 'kay? |
| 964 | ** HonorBeforeReason? |
| 965 | ** One of the funnier [=WMGs=] concerning this topic is that you are not just a Pokemon trainer, you're also a ninja. You get the jump on ''every'' Pokemon you run into in the wild, being able to throw a Poke Ball at it or run away before the Pokemon can even attack. Also, if you run away, the Pokemon has no chance of catching up to you. As far as the Pokemon is concerned, you just vanished. Therefore, you're a ninja. |
| 966 | ** At some point, the games have explained that Always Accepting a Challenge is one of the Pokemon League rules (the games also specifically define this as "Eye Contact" I think, but that's a gameplay conceit). You have to do it in order to gain access to Pokemon League Gyms, carry a Pokemon Trainer License and use Pokemon League resources and facilities - it's part of the End User License Agreement for your equipment. |
| 967 | *** Why doesn't the protagonist have the same attitude? Every trainer (barring bosses), as soon as you walk in front of them, will march up to you and demand a battle. But the protagonist will happily stand around staring at other trainers and then go merrily on his way without even saying hi! |
| 968 | ** In ''Black'' and ''White'' some trainers run away from you if look at them and there are always trainers you don't have to fight if you don't talk to them (which they take as a challenge) so... |
| 969 | * Gym Leaders are only available to battle on certain days. Then why is it I can take photos with Claire for a whole day, but she won't agree to battle? Is all she doing taking photos (narcissistically)? And if I call a Gym Leader up, but don't battle them for days/months/years, they just stay there, meaning they must not be TOO busy! Man, they must just hate the protaginist. |
| 970 | ** Well, in Gen. III at least, after you beat the crap out of their Pokemon, they decide "Hmm, better do some more training, since I just got beaten up by a ten-year-old. Again." |
| 971 | * Does Golem have nostrils? It has them in its Silver and RSE sprites, but not in its official artwork. |
| 972 | ** Perhaps from FRLG on Sugimori decided he didn't like nostrils on Golem anymore. |
| 973 | * If Manaphy lays Phione eggs and Phione lays Phione eggs, what lays Manaphy eggs? |
| 974 | ** Maybe Phione evolves into Manaphy, but through a method the players don't have access to. |
| 975 | ** Phione, but only very, very, rarely (and not in game). Phione does not evolve into Manaphy. They have to be born that way. |
| 976 | ** All we can be sure of is that Manaphy come in what are unique objects that we call Manaphy Eggs. They may not actually be eggs. For instance, perhaps it's actually a true cocoon for a Phione undergoing a transformation (not an evolution) into a Manaphy. Or maybe they're actually the offspring of yet another, undiscovered Pokémon. Or maybe there's an undiscovered incense that enables a Manaphy to breed another Manaphy (or a special stone, somewhere, that gives off the necessary radiation to enable it). All we really know is that they're very rare and can't be bred by the player, and thus are classified as Legendary. |
| 977 | * Silver's team at its peak bugs me, for two reasons: |
| 978 | ** One, it appears that his Pokemon only gained experience when they were being abused. OK, I know that everybody has a certain peak, but couldn't they have just risen their levels up a little higher? |
| 979 | ** Two, the fact that he doesn't have a Weavile or Magnezone. I can kind of understand the latter, as he would have to trade to a Sinnoh trainer, but they could have given the excuse that he DID trade it to someone who evolved it, as he has both Gengar and Alakazam. |
| 980 | *** Silver's too busy bonding with his Pokemon and not training, too bad. And for the second one, maybe he wanted to keep his Sneasel and Magneton unevolved. I still have a Magneton because I like it that way; Silver probably likes his Pokemon as they are, too. |
| 981 | *** There's a way to get Magnezone in Heart Gold and Soul Silver without training, now? |
| 982 | * How in the world are the Pokemon Center's paid for? The trainer never pays for the Pokemon to be healed; where do they obtain the resources to run these facilities at no charge? |
| 983 | ** I always assumed that one of the few things the government in Pokemon actually did was to pay for health care. |
| 984 | ** Maybe in Unova at least they're supported by the Pokémarts because [[FridgeLogic the health care industry in the U.S. is all profit-based insurance companies.]] But then again though; maybe it's just way cheaper to pay for machines that heal Pokémon rather than humans who develop all sorts of complex diseases so people don't have a problem with paying for other trainers' Pokémon to be healed. I don't know if the Anime or the manga have like, Pokémon surgeries or Pokémon ailments rather than Pokérus (And it's symbiotic) but if it's just a magical machine that revitalizes Pokémon? Maybe it's so cheap people aren't objected to pay for it the way they are in real life.[[note]]Even though Americans have actually been doing ''just that'' for awhile, albeit indirectly and without their knowledge. Whenever somebody who is uninsured goes to the hospital, they charge ''insurance companies'', who then hock the cost onto their customers. Places with UHC? Private insurance companies are ''never'' charged for uninsured people going in.[[/note]] |
| 985 | *** You're right in XY the Pokemart is the Pokecenter |
| 986 | ** FridgeBrilliance: We have Pokemon that heal (such as Chansey in the first gen). Perhaps a new technology was developed that could replicate its powers. Therefore, total cost goes way, way down when all you need is a functional healing machine and a pretty nurse who just sits there and presses a button to heal your Pokemon. |
| 987 | * There's Lemonade and Nomel Berries. Does that mean there are normal fruit and berries in the universe? Or should Lemonade be called "Nomelade" or even "Edanomel"? |
| 988 | ** I'd like to assume berries replace fruit like Pokemon replace animals. "Lemonade" may just be GrandfatherClause in action. The only other problem is apples instead of Leppa Berries in the ''Mystery Dungeon'' games. While on the subject of fruit and berries, can someone tell me what Iapapa is based on? I thought papaya at first, but then we have Payapa Berries. The only other fruit that gets repeated is Yache and Custap Berries, but those are at least different names for the same fruit. Finally, why are there Shuca and Charti Berries if their inspiration isn't fruit (Cashew and Artichoke.)? |
| 989 | *** So, Iapapa is definitely Papaya (it even looks like one), while Payapa is a Calabash (though the ''name'' is based on Papaya). [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Twin_Cashews_From_Kollam_Kerala.jpg Cashew is obviously a fruit]]. Artichokes... not much, but the berry is based on the core of the thing, which might count so, since the artichoke is a flower. |
| 990 | *** Heh, didn't realize cashews were fruits. Always thought they were legumes, like peanuts. |
| 991 | *** Chesto Berries were once called Mint Berries. Sitrus Berries were once called Gold Berries. GrandfatherClause didn't apply there. |
| 992 | * In Sinnoh, the overworld sprites for the Veterans have beards and bald heads. In battle, they have a full head of hair (unless it's a wig) and no beards. Obviously, they were too lazy to make new sprites, but that still bugs me. |
| 993 | ** They do the same with Rangers and Ace Trainers. Just lazy, that's all. |
| 994 | * Zensho. Why are they just giving out badges, and ''Pokemon'', to Satoshi for helping them? The manga has like six actual battles scenes. He got all of his Pokemon from people. It's a wonder how any of them leveled up when he apparently rarely battles. |
| 995 | * Why is it that I can battle a legendary Pokémon down to 1 HP and then throw a Poke Ball/Great Ball/Ultra Ball and I miss the Pokémon? I could understand if it was something I could control, but there is nothing allowing me to aim the Poke Ball at the Pokémon, I just press the button. How does it miss? And for some of those Pokémon that disappear the minute the battle is over why should I hope that I saved somewhere nearby or just settle for losing that Pokémon forever? Is it just a case of fake difficulty because there's honestly nothing I can do to fix it? |
| 996 | ** IIRC, the message says the Pokémon broke free, not that you missed it. And yes, it's supposed to be difficult. You're trying to catch a force of nature, deal with it. |
| 997 | *** In the first-generation games, there's a message that says the Poke Ball missed, where in the later games you see the Pokemon go into the ball and break out immediately. (No shakes.) And as for the legendary Pokemon disappearing at the end of the battle if you accidentally defeat it, that's not fake difficulty, that's just common sense. It probably leaves or something, embarrassed at being beaten by a mortal. |
| 998 | *** Actually, I'm talking about the whole missing the Pokemon, you know the thing I was complaining about. It feels like fake difficulty because it hinders me without anything I can really do to fix it. I'd rather get the message where it says that the Pokémon broke free because at least then my Poke Ball would have been doing something. |
| 999 | ** It's because they moved out of the way. 1 HP hasn't weakened them enough, so try lowering their stats or inflicting a status condition. |
| 1000 | * [[{{Pun}} Why is Fire not super effective against Fire?]] |
| 1001 | ** Because that doesn't actually work... or rather, using a controlled fire to burn down the path an uncontrolled fire would spread across to impede it doesn't translate very well to ElementalRockPaperScissors. |
| 1002 | ** Because fire nullifies fire, which means fire attacks will be made weaker by the opponent's fire(which explains the 1/2 effectivity both ways). [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Fire]]. |
| 1003 | * How is Misty a tomboy? She doesn't seem feminine or tomboyish. |
| 1004 | ** If Misty is not feminine nor a Tomboy then what the hell is she? |
| 1005 | *** A boy. Duh. |
| 1006 | ** A girl. She's a regular girl. Not too feminine but neither a tomboy. |
| 1007 | ** How is she not a tomboy? She's all sporty and shit. Very ShortTank. |
| 1008 | ** There's an IJBM earlier in the page that contrasts Misty's "offensive boasting" with her in-battle "defensive" strategy. Perhaps that also applies here. She has the tomboyish attitude [[RealWomenNeverWearDresses as a "front"]]; i.e., she thinks people won't take her seriously as a battler [[StayInTheKitchen if she acted like a normal girl]]. And while that may be tactically advantageous, she's relatively low on the totem pole and likely has a higher priority on image than subtlety. (Only being allowed to use Pokemon half as powerful on her "trainer team" as Blaine's "trainer team" may have something to do with that.) She may have grown out of that conflict by HG/SS, though. |
| 1009 | * The Rocket executives. I know it's ThemeNaming but are they supposed to be Japanese like, arguably, almost everyone else in the series up until now? |
| 1010 | ** Well, several human characters (some important, some not) have non-Japanese names... |
| 1011 | * If Spoink goes into cardiac arrest when it stops bouncing, then HOW can it faint in a battle, and still be alive for your next fight with just a little use of revive or a trip to the Pokemon Center? |
| 1012 | ** Maybe its unconscious body keeps bouncing automatically. |
| 1013 | ** It falls on its tail, which is shaped like a spring, so it keeps leaping. That's all I got. |
| 1014 | ** People don't die right away when their heart stops; only when the brain shuts down are they considered dead. So, if a Spoink stops bouncing after fainting, there's still time to get it healed before it actually bites the dust. |
| 1015 | ** How does it sleep? Or eat? Or drink? Or reproduce? It's apparently got to keep bouncing or it will die! [[FridgeHorror Is this why we never see wild Grumpig?!]] |
| 1016 | ** Fainted Pokémon aren't "fainted" as in unconscious, they are just unable to battle. Exact same reason "fainted" 'mons can use HM moves. |
| 1017 | ** The Pokedex entries aren't 100% reliable. It is likely that Spoinks don't actually go into cardiac arrest, but they probably find it harder to breathe (not impossible) without the extra force. |
| 1018 | ** Gen VI has your answer: Spoinks return to their ball before they fall to the floor. |
| 1019 | * Something that I never understood was why Team Rocket/Aqua/Magma/Galatic don't have more than 6 Pokémon in their team. I mean, the limit is something in the League rules and this guys are criminals, if they are trying to take over Kanto/Increase the oceans/landmass/destroying the Universe it wouldn't be surprising they didn't follow the rules of a League they aren't even in! (except for Giovanni who is a Gym Leader). |
| 1020 | ** Practicality. The larger your team, the harder it is to raise them all evenly. Most trainers in the actual game don't even have six because many find it easier to just focus on a handful. The teams probably figure it's better to have a small number of strong Pokémon than loads and loads of level 2 and 3 critters who can be easily wiped out. |
| 1021 | *** That doesn't explain why some of them don't grind their way up with over six Pokemon. Also considering their low levels and the weak types they generally use we definitely can't attribute their decisions to intelligence. |
| 1022 | ** The final boss of XD '''does''' use 7 Pokes. |
| 1023 | ** I know this is a game IJBM, but I feel I should say this. In one episode featuring Diglett, Gary pulls all 50837974947 of his Pokèmon from [[Hammerspace]] and buries a Diglett in the Poké Balls. Meaning he carries all 834572895747 of his Pokémon with him. |
| 1024 | *** Actually no, it's shown when Ash caught Krabby that the Pokemon caught with a full team are teleported to the lab just like in the games, the thing is that unlike Ash, Gary was ''actually'' trying to ''complete the Pokedex'' so he had all those Poke Balls to catch them, since we all know how many Poke Balls some Pokémon take before they're finally caught. |
| 1025 | ** Maybe the actual Poke Ball technology is the reason for this - perhaps the same mechanism that causes a newly-caught Pokémon to be sent to the local storage system is actually inbuilt into the Poke Balls themselves, and if you have six already, you can't actually get the seventh. The only way you could conceivably overcome this would be to use Kurt's natural versions... but Kurt is unlikely to help a bad guy to catch extra Pokémon. |
| 1026 | * I like shorts, their comfy and easy to wear!...... seriously wtf? |
| 1027 | ** It's true. I've worn shorts every day since my childhood except when it was snowing. |
| 1028 | * A so-called official guidebook I have lists Charizard as being 5'7. In the anime, it clearly towers above Ash and company. Does this mean that I, at 5'9, would be a giant in the Pokemon world? Seriously, are all these people midgets or something? |
| 1029 | ** Sizes among species can vary in the anime, unlike the game's descriptions. In fact, it's entirely possible that a Pokemon's development may include an increase in size, if Ash's [[spoiler:Gliscor]] is any indication. Also, Ash and his friends are still prepubescent. |
| 1030 | ** The anime doesn't follow the same rules as the game(s) do, ya know. |
| 1031 | *** Which I find amusing, because in the anime Groudon it as tall as a skyscraper, and in the games it's only 11 feet tall. It's still pretty tall, but compared to the anime counterpart it's frigging ''hilarious.'' |
| 1032 | *** That was the fake virus Groudon, which was just an EldritchAbomination ''resembling'' Groudon. When an actual Groudon popped up in Hoenn saga, it was smaller. |
| 1033 | *** To say nothing of the building-size Tentacruel in one episode. |
| 1034 | *** That one actually had and in-story explanation though; the Rocket trio accidentally dumped something on it that caused it to mutate. |
| 1035 | ** Even in the games, although not visually represented, or described properly in the Pokedex, Pokémon do canonically vary in size. This is seen in certain cases on an NPC offering rewards to see particularly large instances of certain Pokémon. In Sootopolis City, for instance, there's a pair of residents who ask to see large Barboach and Shroomish (in Ruby and Sapphire) or Seedot and Lotad (in Emerald). |
| 1036 | * Vending machines. That is not a can of soda or water that dropped down, my friend. |
| 1037 | ** Then what is it? Other than lemonade. |
| 1038 | *** A bottle. |
| 1039 | *** I don't get it. Is it because it's a can? Where I live we have vending machines with cans... |
| 1040 | *** Okay, well, when you get a drink from the vending machine in the games, it always says that a ''can'' dropped down. However, the image for the Fresh Water and Soda are clearly ''bottles''. |
| 1041 | *** Soda Pop is actually ramune, and water is usually in bottles anyway. I guess they just used "can" because it's what people associate with vending machines? |
| 1042 | * The Kimono Girl's English, French, and Italian names. Why bother changing the Japanese names into different Japanese names? |
| 1043 | *** Same reason they turney "Kyou" into "Koga". It's still pointless, though. |
| 1044 | *** The changed Japanese names are supposedly easier to pronounce. "Kyou" would very likely throw someone off with English phonetics, and "Naoko," is much easier to figure out the pronounciations for than "Koume," and "Sumomo" would look weird and funny (moreso than "Kuni") to a kid growing up in an English-speaking country. |
| 1045 | * Who the heck are those chubby technology guys in the starter town, and where do they live? |
| 1046 | * Poke Balls bug me, they only cost as much as a bottle of water. For a moment consider the apparent technologies present in a Poké Ball: |
| 1047 | ## EnergyWeapon |
| 1048 | ## Shrink ray/matter-to-data conversion |
| 1049 | ## Environmental simulation |
| 1050 | ## Automated hinge |
| 1051 | ## Teleportation/broadcast-range wireless communication |
| 1052 | ## Levitation |
| 1053 | ## Homing capability |
| 1054 | ## EXTREME durability |
| 1055 | ## Massively efficient and/or self-generated power source |
| 1056 | ## Compact, portable design |
| 1057 | *** Taking in account they seem to be made out of ''fruit'', I wouldn't be surprised if it was magic rather than technology. Besides, technology marches on and things get cheaper. |
| 1058 | *** Only the Apricorns were Poke Balls made of fruits. They were the early form of Poke Balls, and it was stated somewhere that Apricorns were made by hollowing out the fruit, and fitting them with some kind of machine. |
| 1059 | *** The fact that Poké Balls aren't 100% guaranteed to caputre Pokémon probably reduces their value somewhat. Also, considering the world's entire economy seems to revolve around Pokémon, it's not going to be very good for business if the balls are so expensive that only a few people can afford them. It'll mean very few people become trainers, so no-one buys Potions, [=TMs=] or other Pokémon-related items, no-one battles in Gyms or uses Pokémon Centers and as a result, the whole infrastructure falls apart. In the long run, the Poké Ball manufacturers make more money by charging less. |
| 1060 | *** I'll accept that PokéTech™ Co.Ltd.Inc. might take a financial hit for greater reception, but not that the technology could be cheaper in the Pokémon world. If it's cheap and compact, then every car and boat we've seen should hover instead of roll or float, and either the repurposed Pokémon Tower shouldn't need a ton of equipment on the roof or every building should have at least one teleporter - not just those of megacorporations, criminal organizations, and Gyms (Which I guess get a lot of TV coverage to explain their wealth). Even the super stores can't afford them! And with cheap shrink rays or matter-to-data conversion, who needs moving vans? |
| 1061 | *** Anyone else think it's a possibility that [[FridgeLogic the manufacturing process for Great Balls / Ultra Balls has a risk of failure, and the cheapo less-effective Poke Balls are just the ones that aren't top-grade?]] They're essentially selling them so cheap to clear out stock, rather than just throwing them away. Plus, with as much as they charge for Great and Ultra Balls, I'm sure they're making a killing in the long run. |
| 1062 | * I can't be the only one who found it slightly odd that all the trainers in Goldenrod Gym (presumably including [[ThatOneBoss Whitney]]) managed to be taken out of the fight by a single Rocket Grunt, can I? I mean, even if the grunts at that stage were using level 24 ComMons, that's only 5 levels higher than Whitney's Miltank. Surely they could've gotten out of the [[strike:kitchen]] Gym and saved the radio tower without the main character. |
| 1063 | ** Made worse by the fact that Whitney ''IS'' ThatOneBoss. She can destroy your whole team with that freakin Miltank and yet she (probably) gets beaten by a grunt you easily take out. Made even worse from there if you go by the theory that Gym Leaders have a personal team that may be stronger than the team you fought in the Gym. |
| 1064 | ** Well, that may depends on how good of a strategist Archer is. If he's a good strategist, he'd attack the Gym ''first'' and neutralize it before setting foot in the Radio Tower. Even if not, it could be that Whitney is the only person in town to own Pokemon that are above Level 40. Said Pokemon would likely be mobbed by Rocket's [[DeathOfAThousandCuts higher quantity]]. If she wins through, you can't break down the doors without the key card... which is in Rocket's local base in the underground. Still doesn't explain why Whitney isn't conducting a siege of the Radio Tower waiting for reinforcements (in the forme of [[TheCavalry a few more Gym Leaders and an Elite]], as opposed to an eleven-year old upstart) when said upstart happens on the scene. |
| 1065 | ** They would make Whitney cry. |
| 1066 | * Here's an odd one: When you attempt to catch a Pokemon, and it gets out after one shake, it displays the message "Aww! It appeared to be caught!". Is the game telling me that the Pokemon I'm trying to catch is already owned? If I'm just not looking at it right, someone please tell me. |
| 1067 | ** On the battle screen there's a little Poké Ball icon before the name of the Pokémon you're trying to catch if you already own(ed) one. As for the various messages as you mentioned, I always thought they were uttered by the player character. |
| 1068 | *** That wasn't what I was saying. I meant that it was telling me that the Pokemon I was trying to catch already belonged to someone else. |
| 1069 | *** No, it means "Aww, it looked like it was going to be caught (But the Poke Ball broke at the last second so it wasn't)". |
| 1070 | *** OOOOOHHHH. Oh. |
| 1071 | * How come the Captain of the SS Anne gets sea sickness, and while the ship is docked, no less? If he gets sea sick and he's the captain of a round-the-world cruise ship, he should probably find a new job. |
| 1072 | ** Maybe he only gets sea sick when it's docked. |
| 1073 | ** I believe I've heard that when a person who spends a lot of time at sea finally makes port, it can feel strange adjusting to being back on solid ground, so maybe the above theory is correct. |
| 1074 | ** Maybe he ate something bad on the ship that made him sick, and he thought it was seasickness? |
| 1075 | * Where do the starter Pokémon come from? They never appear in the wild. |
| 1076 | ** Several starter Pokémon appear in the wild in Pokémon Ranger. |
| 1077 | *** Which are in different regions than the mainline games. The Professors likely imported them. |
| 1078 | ** GameplayAndStorySegregation. |
| 1079 | ** Didn't the anime have specialized and secluded farms for Starter Pokemon? |
| 1080 | ** It's implied fairly strongly that they're simply very rare, and can be found in some very out-of-the-way places that you don't generally have access to. As a special case, there's torchic to be found on the Sightseeing Pokewalker path. Presumably, Pokemon Birch has gone for a walk on that path. Maybe some of the others are found on other, unavailable Pokewalker paths, or other such locations. |
| 1081 | * You need to have all the gym badges to get to Victory Road, so how the hell did Silver make it over there? |
| 1082 | ** Given his JerkAss nature, he A) stole them, or B) kicked those guards aside. |
| 1083 | *** Guards should be stronger than that, otherwise any old kid could just shove their way through. Stole I guess I might take if they were clearer about it. |
| 1084 | ** What makes you think he didn't just win the badges against the gym leaders? |
| 1085 | * Why the hell do wild Pokemon keep attacking you even though you're significantly stronger than them? For that matter, why do they ''hurt themselves'' to achieve this with moves like SelfDestruct and Explosion? |
| 1086 | ** I have an answer for the second one. It's the same concept many RealLife animals use to deter predators - being poisonous when eaten. Sure, they're dead, but that animal isn't going near one again. Now, how many Geodudes have you decided not to fight after having one blow up on you...? |
| 1087 | *** [[GoddamnBats That's not an option.]] |
| 1088 | ** For the first, I believe that they said in-game that they want to prove themselves to you. |
| 1089 | *** By...suicide? |
| 1090 | *** I read somewhere that wild Pokemon get jealous when they see Trainer-owned Pokemon and will attack that Pokemon or the trainer. |
| 1091 | *** That explanation was from the first episode of the anime, and it didn't sit right with me back then, as it was largely an excuse for the Spearow to change its target from the human who just assaulted it to a completely innocent Pikachu so that Ash could prove himself by risking his life to protect him. |
| 1092 | ** Self Destruct and Explosion make sense if their nests are nearby and they think you are a threat, so they are sacrificing themselves to defend their children. |
| 1093 | ** Self Destruct and Explosion don't ''kill'' the user - they just make them faint. Seeing as a nap on a cot works just as well as a Pokecenter when it comes to healing your Pokemon, they probably just sleep the massive damage off. |
| 1094 | * In the Pal Park, why does Shuckle appear in the sea? I fail to see the connection. |
| 1095 | ** It's based on a turtle. Turtles are sea-faring creatures. |
| 1096 | *** No, it's not. But Shuckles are only found inside rocks in Cianwood, which makes them more connected to mollusks that live inside rocks. Thus, in the sea. |
| 1097 | *** Um, actually you are both incorrect, Shuckle is actually based on a type of mold not a sea organism. Don't know why they are found in the sea area though. |
| 1098 | * What the heck is with Blue (the rival of R/B/Y and FR/LG) at Silph Co? The mafia has taken over a building he is somehow in the middle of, he's one hall over from their boss, who he could probably take down, and instead he goes "Hey, my rival" and ATTACKS you when you come to do it. Is any reason ever given at all why he turns evil for about 20 minutes and then goes back to being good. Maybe that's what Prof. Oak meant when he called him a "disgrace to Pokémon". Silver does the same thing in G/S/C and HH/SS, charging at Team Rocket, noticing you, removing your discuise in the front of an evil minion, calling you weak for being subtle, then leaving you to face a massive army of Rocket Grunts. Then, later you are in the Goldenrod tunnels to save a hostage and he shows up, says he was just trailing you to find Lance and then attacks you, while you are still surrounded by mooks. You beat him and he just leaves you to take care of saving the hostage with half your team KO'd from fighting him. What I'm saying is WHY DO THE RIVALS CARE MORE ABOUT LOSING TO YOU THEN FIGHTING EVIL? |
| 1099 | ** Well, Silver in particular just really hates them, and he doesn't really seem to care about the evil aspect of it. For Blue...I was thinking that maybe he might've been scared (they're the freaking mafia) to face them and wants to fight you to try and maintain his dignity. |
| 1100 | ** I'm sure they're there to show just how single-minded they are: They care more about defeating you, the player character, than stopping evil, working their way through Team Rocket's strongholds merely because they know you'll show up there. This is particularly true with Blue, who was able to cream everyone he faced and beat every Gym Leader before you but is somehow not able to lay a finger on you. (I'd say it's ver much like how int he anime, Paul is frustrated over being unable to beat Brandon.) Silver had no compassion for anyone anyway, so he'd do whatever he felt suited him best. |
| 1101 | ** Also considering that Blue (and Silver) are eleven when they come face to face with Team Rocket. Even if you had ridiculously strong Mons on your side its asking a little much for kids to face up to the freakin' Mafia that the law enforcement can't even fight off. I thought they were acting rather realistically considering how young they are. |
| 1102 | ** Blue's a massive douche. He really doesn't care about the Rockets or what they do to Pokemon as long as they're not in his way... he's only in Silph to face you, the player. He's pretty obsessed with beating you, it seems, and nothing else. |
| 1103 | ** Blue probably just went to see Giovanni to get his Earth Badge. Giovanni, either amused/impressed by the boy's audacity or wary of taking Prof. Oak's grandson as a hostage (and possibly having the old man and his LVL70+ team show up), obliges him. |
| 1104 | * Have there been any games that have been hacked to hell and back as much as Pokémon? I mean, in ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'', which I'm sure sees a significant overlap in players, no one has been able to figure out the formula for getting high grades for Mario Grand Prix, but it would seem like a piece of cake to people who hacked Pokémon and found every means of a Pokémon's acquiring moves, happiness, base stats, [=EVs=] and [=IV=]s, Dream World Abilities, and so forth. I know Pokémon lends itself to people taking the battling system apart due to its meticulous nature, but it feels like the only series that's been like this. |
| 1105 | ** I think it owes to the fact that the data structures in Pokemon change little from game to game to maintain compatibility. This leads to hacks used as back as Generation I being still viable in Generation V, or easily convertible. So with each new feature all they need to do is find how and where Pokemon data is stored, something that's much easier found out since the data is very similar to previous games. In other words, the hackers had much more time to play around with it than any other game. (Or so I think. I'm not a Pokemon hacker.) |
| 1106 | *** Thanks for the answer. From what I hear, it actually has changed substantially--this is the reason why trade between Generations 2 and 3 are impossible, for instance. But yeah, the same principles would remain. I suppose it came from the very nature of this game compared to other games. After all, this is probably the most GuideDangIt series ever conceived as far as competitive play is concerned. ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' has this too, it seems--people know the exact number of frames for every character's movements and the exact size of their hitboxes (the space another character needs to occupy to be affected by a move). Still, it would've been interesting to know how scoring works in the VideoGame/MarioKart games. |
| 1107 | *** That's because you've mainly been playing Nintendo series. Games like VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom 3 has very big features on hitboxes or frame detecting too. So does Street Fighter and a lot of other of fighting games. And in ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' and Team Fortress 2, they also look very in depth to the mechanics. |
| 1108 | * How can Lucario be part Steel? I don't see any Steel-like qualities about him. |
| 1109 | ** Those little spike...things...look steel to me. |
| 1110 | ** I see it as being a stealth pun on Lucario's "iron will" since his abilities all revolve around his HeroicSpirit. |
| 1111 | ** I figured that Lucario had metal bones (and the spikes on their hands and chest stuck out like elephant tusks). Kinda like Wolverine. That would make sense for it to be part steel. |
| 1112 | * Why can't Nidoqueen or Nidorina breed? It wouldn't bug me half so much [[DoubleStandard if it were the same for Nidorino and Nidoking]]. I know this problem has been addressed before, so exactly why are we in generation IV with the problem ''still'' not fixed or at least explained? |
| 1113 | ** What makes it worse is that we are actually in Gen V. However, I'm guessing this is to avoid retcons. |
| 1114 | ** I always supposed it was due to some reason related to their natural social structure, that will never be talked about in the series due to the plot of the series. |
| 1115 | ** Gentlemen, Gentleman, Gentleman. Double Standard? Of course not. Come, now: Nidorina's a quadruped ''[[OutWithABang with a back full of toxic spikes]]''. I don't care who you are, ''ain't '''nobody''' wanna tap that''. |
| 1116 | *** Except probably other Poison-types. |
| 1117 | ** Now, Nidoqueen may not suffer from that ''exact'' problem (having become bipedal), but she has a hide thick as iron and her spikes, now even bigger and stronger, certainly aren't friendly to the cause. |
| 1118 | ** It was probably a bug originally, as I heard somewhere, and Game Freak really, ''really'' hates to {{Retcon}} even when it's desperately needed. "Incense" items, anyone? What about Espeon and Umbreon evolving by friendship just because Eevee couldn't use a Moon Stone in G1, so it ''obviously'' couldn't in G2? |
| 1119 | ** Game Freak had no problem making pre-existing Pokémon Fairy-type in Gen VI, so it being for "consistency" doesn't hold water. |
| 1120 | *** GF only changes Pokémon that were normal-type, clearly implying that those Pokémon just weren't labeled their "true" type in previous gens because it hadn't been discovered yet. |
| 1121 | ** Not a bug, official lore back in Gen I established that Nidoran female loses that ability to lay eggs upon evolving. |
| 1122 | * It bugs me that neither of the Nido evolution lines got Drill Liner, and yet Pokemon like ''Fearow'' do. I mean, Fearow needs all the help it can get, but it's weird. |
| 1123 | ** While I agree with the Nidos, (they ''are'' the Drill Pokemon) Fearow actually makes perfect sense. It's already shown drilling capacity- Drill Peck!- and [[strike:[[Anime/CodeGeass you know full well what that badass mother can do]]]] its Japanese name is Onidrill, which can be translated as both Demon Bird and Demon Drill. It's par for the course for him, though this raises the question of why Beedrill (admittedly "Spear" in Japan, but ''still'') didn't get it. Incidentally, the only Pokemon besides Fearow that get it are Rhyhorn's family and the drill moles. Personally, I'm calling ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' shout-out, but who knows? |
| 1124 | * Why are shiny Rapidash's flames gray? What would make fire become gray? |
| 1125 | ** Why did they choose any colors for shinies? Jeez, is RuleOfCool lost on you? |
| 1126 | *** It's just a bit strange considering shiny Ponyta has blue flames. |
| 1127 | *** Yeah, because no other Pokémon has a different shiny color upon evolution... |
| 1128 | *** Methinks the point here is that blue flames is more logical and looks cooler, and for a Pokemon whose colors are exactly the same as its prevolution, the random change is a little nonsensical. |
| 1129 | *** It's not quite a random change, a lot of Pokémon's evolutions have different colors for shinies, even if normally they are the same color. |
| 1130 | ** I figured it out. Its fire is gray because it's old. |
| 1131 | *** Shiny Pokemon aren't older versions of the species, they're alternately coloured versions, probably by being exposed to a different climate or enviroment. |
| 1132 | *** No, they mean Rapidash's shiny sprite's flames are gray, because they're older versions of shiny ''Ponyta's'' blue flames. |
| 1133 | * What's with Will's generation 2 artwork? It looks nothing like his sprite. |
| 1134 | ** You could say that with a lot of the sprites back then. Why was Koffing's skull-and-crossbones above its face in the game and below it in the artwork for Red, Blue, and Green? Why was Misdreavus's eyes a lot rounder in Gold and Silver than in the artwork? |
| 1135 | *** Those are Pokemon. All other humans had accurate artwork. |
| 1136 | * The halls in the Pokéathlon stadium. What is the purpose of putting up exhibits dedicated to the outstanding performance and stats of your most notable trainers, up to and including statues built in honor of the single best trainer and his/her Pokémon, if that trainer is the only one permitted to go in and see them? |
| 1137 | ** For self-aggrandizement? |
| 1138 | * Why is Carnivine's ability Levitate? It is never shown to be off the ground normally in the anime, and its type takes half damage from Ground moves anyway. |
| 1139 | ** Anime doesn't count, and came after Carnivine was designed anyway. The designers just love to troll us like that. |
| 1140 | * What did Red have on his original hat? Is that some sort of button or a badge? Is it related to the League, like Blue's patch? |
| 1141 | ** It depends on which particular picture you're referring to. In his most common pictures, that's an Earth Badge he's got pinned to his hat, but there are a couple of pieces of first-gen Pokemon art with him sporting Cascade or Rainbow badges on his hat or elsewhere on his person. |
| 1142 | * Lyra/Ethan has a Marill from before you got your Pokémon, so how come they waited for you to go ahead first before they went adventuring? And on a related note, why do they keep calling you saying their Marill evolved when it is clearly still a Marill? And then they'll do that multiple times. |
| 1143 | ** Pet Marill; Marill collection, it's never the same Marill you fight that evolved. |
| 1144 | ** Actually you never fight them, nor do they go on a journey of their own. They only show up on Route 34 since their grandparents live there. Most likely they decided to stop the evolution (or Marill's holding an Everstone and they forgot). |
| 1145 | *** No, they also show up in one of the gate...things, and they mention that they're upset that you've gone faster than them. They also appear all the way in Kanto. And anyway, they distinctly say it evolved, they would have mentioned that they stopped it if they did. And if it was holding an Everstone the topic of evolution wouldn't have come up. |
| 1146 | *** They meant they're upset you got to where you were both heading faster than they did. It's never even remotely implied they're going after badges. And hey, you want to throw out a legitimate answer so you can continue to whine about something minor that has no effect on the plot, be our guest. |
| 1147 | *** I'm not trying to whine, I just want to understand what goes on with their Marill. And I never said they were going after badges, but they pop up in a few different towns so I'm wondering how they got there, especially considering trainers jump on you as soon as they see you walk by. |
| 1148 | *** Whining is a big part of {{Headscratchers/Headscratchers}}. If you didn't want to see whining you shouldn't have gone on to Tvtropes. |
| 1149 | * Maybe this is only in Gen I, because I haven't played anything past Yellow for years, but HOW THE HELL CAN YOU USE DIG WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING AT SEA? |
| 1150 | ** Because Pokemon games do not take the fighting ground in account when checking which moves work or not. Heck, the only time when battlefield makes any difference is to determine what Nature Gift is and what animation Secret Power will have. In other words, GameplayAndStorySegregation. |
| 1151 | ** You can also use Dive when miles away from any source of water. |
| 1152 | *** Not in PMD. Which is really irritating if you're used to the surroundings making no difference in fights at all. The hell do I care if there's no water around to dive into? It never mattered before! |
| 1153 | ** Personally, I've always thought that moves like that should behave slightly differently depending on location, along with other appropriate moves (for instance, Splash should actually do very minor damage if used on water). But it's not hard to just argue that Dig and Dive actually act like each other in the opposite terrain - that is, for instance, Dive will go underground when on land, because the Pokémon uses its natural Water magic to turn the ground to liquid as it passes through it. |
| 1154 | *** About the Splash thing... For localization reasons, that wouldn't really work since it's actually called "Hop" in Japan. Don't ask me why they changed the name. |
| 1155 | * Why is the Marsh badge gained in a Psychic Gym, and the Soul Badge in a Poison Gym? |
| 1156 | ** I read somewhere that it was a mix-up that stuck. |
| 1157 | ** It could be that the Marsh is meant to represent the mind of someone under psychic attack: everything's hazy, it's hard to think, let alone move, and every minute that goes by means you lose just a little bit more control. //As for the Soul Badge, it's because being poisoned also affects the soul, maybe worse than the body; it hurts to feel your strength ebbing away without anything you can do to stop it. |
| 1158 | ** Read a theory somewhere that Soul Badge was called that because it used to be Agatha's Gym (before she went to the E4), and it was Ghost-type (hence, Soul). Since all the Ghost-types in Kanto were also Poison, Agatha was really a Poison specialist as well. At some point she got tired of the limited pool of Ghosts she had to work with and turned the Gym into a Poison Gym, keeping a Gastly/Haunter/Gengar and adding Poison types as well. It also explains why Agatha's entire team in Poison-type when you challenge her in the E4. |
| 1159 | * So, if Arceus is the god Pokemon, the one that created the universe and all the Pokemon in it, and Mew is the ancestor of Pokemon... Is Mew the ancestor of Arceus? If not, does that mean Arceus isn't technically a Pokemon? How does that work? |
| 1160 | ** The anime is ''very'' confusing on this point. Mew is the precursor of all Pokémon on ''Earth''. |
| 1161 | ** I always saw it as "Arceus creates Mew, and over time Mew branches into all the various species of Pokemon we have today". |
| 1162 | ** I'll tell you how it works: Mew's precursor status is just speculation by scientists in the Pokemon world. No, seriously. Look at Mew's Pokedex entries: Most of them just say it is said to contain the DNA of all Pokemon[[note]]It doesn't, as there are nearly a dozen Pokemon completely unrelated to Mew who formed as a result of human activity.[[/note]] while the stuff about being a precursor is just what many scientists believe. |
| 1163 | ** Mew may just be the ancestor of all Pokémon that have been extensively ''studied''. Other Legendaries are of uncertain or mythological origin. |
| 1164 | * Why does Missingno. evolve into Kangashkhan? A Kangaskhan that can learn Surf (and Fly (and Super Glitch, why not?)), no less. |
| 1165 | ** It has to do with the way that data is stored in the Gen. I games. Rhydon and Kangaskhan are located in the first two slots when the Pokémon of Gen. I are listed by index number, so many glitch Pokémon evolve into them by virtue of looking for the first available Pokémon data when the evolution sequence is triggered. |
| 1166 | * Why the heck is Salamence only four feet eleven inches tall? That would make it about the same height as an average sixth or seventh grader! And in the anime, it's huge - check out this shot: [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/a/ae/J_Salamence.png]] |
| 1167 | ** Since the anime follows the games and not the other way around, it's the former that's screwed up in this case. |
| 1168 | ** Just assume it's exceptionally large for its species. |
| 1169 | * Why do so few people, [=NPCs=] and Players alike, name their Pokémon? When it comes to Pokémon with names, the only Pokémon in any game I have ever played other than my own are Pokémon seen in contests, musicals, or Pokémon obtained through an in-game trade. I can understand grunts not naming their Pokémon, since they view their Pokémon more as weapons than companions, but what about the Gym Leaders? The Elite Four members? The Champions? The trainers you meet as you explore the every region (especially Joey's infamous Rattata, you'd think a guy who thinks so highly of his Rattata would have named it by now)? What's their excuse? As for players, why wouldn't you want to name your Pokémon? Sure, some species names aren't as easy to remember as others, but that's what the internet is for. What grinds my gears even more is that one of my friends one time asked me why I name my Pokémon like she would ask me why I would pour grape juice into my cereal instead of milk or something similarly unusual. Naming your Pokémon is just another way to let them know that they're part of the group and an individual as well. |
| 1170 | ** My friends and I have always named their Pokemon, at least the ones they actually use in battles. As for [=NPCs=], don't forget that it might not be immediately obvious to a newer player what a Pokemon was if its name wasn't visible, and for when their Pokémon has fainted so the game tells you what the NPC is switching to... |
| 1171 | *** Well that's nothing a little bit of rephrasing can't resolve. For example, suppose you and I were to engage in a Pokémon battle and I send out my Dragonite. It could be phrased like "Trainer Clover has sent out his Dragonite, Derek." As for grunts or anyone else who for some reason don't name their Pokémon, the dialogue box could say "(criminal organization) Grunt sent out their (insert Pokémon here). |
| 1172 | *** How do we know the [=NPC=] trainers don't nickname their mons? The text box only says "Trainer sent out Rattata", rather than "Go! Ratty!" or "I choose you! Ratty!" or something. |
| 1173 | *** NPC trainers don't nickname their Pokemon simply because it would be easier on the writers. |
| 1174 | * Why are the Hikers so fat? You would think that they would be some of the '''least''' tubby characters in the game, what with all the hiking they supposedly do. |
| 1175 | ** "Go Geodude! Carry me up the mountain!" |
| 1176 | ** Fat doesn't mean they're not athletic. Perhaps they just eat a lot. |
| 1177 | ** {{Acrofatic}}? Several Hikers in Sinnoh mention how much they love food. |
| 1178 | *** Or the fat is for extra body warmth, given that the mountains are really cold. (I'm looking at you, Mt. Silver and Spear Pillar.) |
| 1179 | * What is the point of ever giving a Poke'mon an Everstone if you can cancel their evolving anyway just by pressing 'B' when it is about to happen? |
| 1180 | ** When I got a Golbat in Firered, it couldn't evolve since I didn't yet have the National Dex. It got really irritating to watch the evolution screen over and over again when it would just cancel itself out, so the Everstone came in really useful. I'm guessing other impatient players find it easy to just lug it on an unevolved Pokémon as well instead of waiting until they can cancel it out on the evo screen. |
| 1181 | ** I thought the same, but figured it out the other day. Some items and abilities have hidden effects other than what is stated in their description. In particular, when breeding, a Pokémon holding an Everstone has a 50% chance of passing down its nature. |
| 1182 | ** However, neither applies to Gen II, which introduced the Everstone. |
| 1183 | ** So people don't have to worry about pressing B every level. |
| 1184 | ** Pokemon that evolve by trading cannot be interrupted. The only way to prevent a trade evolution is an Everstone. |
| 1185 | * Baby Pokémon don't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, I get that there are Pokémon that are [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Kangaskhan way too mature]][[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Scyther -looking for it to be believed]] [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Onix that they came straight out of the egg like that]], but what makes these baby Pokémon any different from most first-stage Pokémon that they're unable to breed until they evolve? What I'm asking is if anyone else finds it a bit jarring that an [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Riolu adolescent-looking, bipedal canine Pokémon]] can't bear children yet, but a [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Caterpie_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29 freakin' caterpillar]] can? |
| 1186 | ** It depends: do you find it a bit jarring that an itty-bitty shrew can bear children but a rather huge newborn elephant cannot? |
| 1187 | *** There's a difference between size and age. |
| 1188 | ** So the complaint is that caterpillars should be considered baby Pokemon but are not, while many other Pokemon who should have gotten baby forms like Kangaskhan did not? |
| 1189 | * On another note, I also think that a Ghost's immunity to Normal and Fighting-type moves should be changed to an immunity to physcial attacks instead. It just seems ridiculous to me that hurling [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Swift star-shaped formations of energy]] or [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Focus_Blast a concentrated ball of the user's]] fighting spirit at a Ghost Pokémon won't do crap for damage, but [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Rock_throw throwing a rock at it will]]. |
| 1190 | ** The sad thing is that [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks it's probably the fans' fault]] since we see that in each generation they try to apply more physics to the games and also making rules to make a move serve the same strategy it can be used in the anime (example Roadspin). |
| 1191 | ** Because making Ghost-types immune to physical moves - roughly half the moves in the game - would make Ghost-types [[GameBreaker horribly overpowered]]. It's just GameplayAndStorySegregation; it's not pretty but it works. |
| 1192 | *** Well they don't have to be immune to all physical moves. I'm willing to accept ghost types taking damage from [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Night_Slash blades of darkness]] or [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Shadow_Claw claws charged with a ghastly energy]]. |
| 1193 | ** I was part of the Pokemon Anime Style Battle League over on UPN / Serebeii, and this was exactly how we did it. To balance out the immunity to physical attacks, ghosts would take extra damage from Special attacks. |
| 1194 | * Question: How on Earth (or whatever the Pokeworld is called) can you get phone reception in the middle of a mountain? Then again, they have figured out how to shrink some ridiculously sized critters to the size of a baseball, so that may explain it... |
| 1195 | ** Originally you didn't. In Gen II you couldn't make phone calls while in, say, Mt. Silver. It was annoying as hell because Bill wouldn't call you to tell you your Box was filled up. Come the remakes it doesn't matter anymore but they probably changed it anyway to be less frustrating. |
| 1196 | |
| 1197 | * It goes without saying that any domesticated Ditto since gen II has seen more action in the daycare than on the battlefield, but there's one thing that I have been wondering since I first figured out the mechanics of breeding. When a Pokémon is put into the daycare with a Ditto, one would assume that the Ditto turns into the opposite gender of the aforementioned Pokémon's species and the mating ensues. But when an opposite gender of said Pokémon doesn't exist, what does the Ditto turn into? You could argue that in the case for female exclusives (Kangaskan, Miltank, Mandibuzz, and Jynx) that the Ditto turns into a male Pokémon of a common egg group with the respective female, but what about Tauros, the three evolve forms of Tyrogue, Sawk, Throh and Braviary? What would a Ditto turn into that if I were to put my Braviary in the daycare with a Ditto, a Rufflet would be born as a result? |
| 1198 | ** Miltank is a cow. Tauros is a bull (Granted, Miltank can't lay Tauros eggs and thus it can be argued that they aren't connected, but it's still rather obvious, if unacknowledged, connection). |
| 1199 | ** While I'm on the subject, genderless Pokémon. What does a Ditto turn into that's more appealing to a genderless Pokémon than another genderless of the same egg group let alone the same species? |
| 1200 | ** Maybe it combines DNA asexualy, then duplicates itself into an egg, and removes the excess DNA? |
| 1201 | ** As we don't even know how the eggs are made in the regular instances, it's kind of absurd to expect to understand the subtleties of the Ditto case. It's entirely possible that the Pokémon do a special ritual dance around a special stone, and it turns into an egg... and ditto, being able to replicate genetic information, allows this ritual to work. Or maybe they actually do have some Pokesex. We just don't know. |
| 1202 | |
| 1203 | * This is about a manga called Pokewake. One of the chapter suggests that Pokemon and humans met each other very recently, since the clothing is modern and the protagonist is Bill as a kid. That.. Makes no sense whatsoever. It's probably a myth in that manga, but still. |
| 1204 | * If they barely had enough room on the original GB cart for Mew after removing debug features, how did they fit both the original Kanto region and Johto on the same GBC cart, plus all the new Pokemon and characters? Was it made on a different card? New compression features? What? |
| 1205 | ** I'm unsure too. The cart is a ''Game Boy'' cart, not a Color one. They probably used a different sort of compression data, or a bigger chip or something. |
| 1206 | ** Game Freak were not very experienced designers back when they did Red and Green. Also, the original games had much content they did not have a chance to implement, while Gold and Silver added a lot of what they wanted Red and Green (Blue) to have. |
| 1207 | ** The cart had more space for Gold and Silver - Red and Blue were 1 MB, while Gold and Silver were 2 MB. It wasn't the only addition, remember - it also had a clock in the cart. |
| 1208 | * OK, I see they're gonna keep doing it in Best Wishes, so when a Pokémon decides it wants to be caught ''without'' battling, why is everyone ''still'' in suspense waiting for the shaking of the Poke Ball to stop? |
| 1209 | * I work at [=McDonald's=], where we currently have the Pokemon Black and White toys. We have Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott, Zorua, Zoroark, Zekrom, Reshiram, and... Pikachu. [[Series/SesameStreet Which one of these things is not like the others]]? |
| 1210 | ** Pikachu is the SeriesMascot and the SpotlightStealingSquad. I'm not surprised that it made its way onto the toys. |
| 1211 | ** Honestly, I think Zorua's more the odd one out in this situation. Think of what we have here: Two different species of dragons, a mouse, a snake, a piglet, an otter, a fox, and a pup of the aforementioned fox. |
| 1212 | * Have you noticed that when you put two Pokémon in the daycare together and their capable of mating, even if they don't like each other much, they will reproduce eventually? If they don't like each other, then why bother mating? Was there some sort of SlapSlapKiss action going on, or was the mating process... [[UnfortunateImplications less th]][[FridgeHorror an consensual]]? |
| 1213 | ** Angry sex. |
| 1214 | *** Remember, [=NPCs=] in ''Pokémon'' are kinda dumb. There was an episode of [[WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys Wild Thornberries]] where Eliza stopped two turtles from reproducing because she mistook their mating ritual for a fight. The daycare folks are cut from the same cloth. |
| 1215 | |
| 1216 | * Single-gender Pokemon. How do they exist in the wild? If it's an all-male species, there would be no eggs. Ever. If it's an all-female species, theen it's down to whether species interbreed in the wild or only in domesticity (if that's a word). If the two genders make up separate species, like NidoranM/F or Tauros/Miltank, then after a single generation, all the males would be dead. I think this goes a step beyond [[ArtisticLicenseBiology failing biology forever]]. |
| 1217 | ** Nidoran F actually has a 50/50 chance of breeding a Nidoran M, just like Illuminise has a chance of breeding a Volbeat, I think the rest can be seen as GameplayAndStorySegregation, and that those are things that need to be fixed. Thought researching this I found out a much bigger problem. (bellow) |
| 1218 | *** Speaking of nidoran f, how come Game Freak hasn't [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] nidorina and nidoqueen into the field and monster egg group yet? Has it really not occurred to the programmers in [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver the]] [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire past]] [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl 12]] [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite years]] since breeding was introduced that [[ArtisticLicenseBiology it makes no sense whatsoever for the least mature metamorphic state of any creature to be the only stage capable of reproduction]]? |
| 1219 | *** At this point their only excuse is either SacredCow bullshit or some really lame company in-joke. |
| 1220 | *** [[BizarreAlienBiology Nidoran F goes through menopause when it evolves?]] *shrugs* |
| 1221 | *** No, it's just that Nidorina's venomous spines deploy when she's agitated, which might get in the way of ''quadruped sex''. |
| 1222 | * Do Pokémon like Jynx, Chansey, Lilligant, Kangaskhan, the Hitmon family and the karate family depend solely on other Pokemon to breed? Since all of them only have one gender but don't have an opposite gender counterpart like Braviary/Mandibuzz, Tauros/Miltank, etc. |
| 1223 | ** If so, that would explain why they are rare, having to find viable females of another species and all. |
| 1224 | ** No they rely on Ditto as they lack egg moves in the wild. |
| 1225 | * Eye colors. In Generation 1, almost every human had brown eyes or cartoony black eyes. In Generation 2, they changed that however several characters have brown eyes in their artwork. Later they were changed to different colors, often matching the adaptations. For the adaptations did they use a blind guess that happened to be used for the games, the game designers told them to use certain colors, or are the game colors a MythologyGag? |
| 1226 | * Shiny Mewtwo. If Mewtwo is a one of a kind clone of Mew, then how could a variant exist? Surely that'd make it Mewthree? |
| 1227 | ** GameplayAndStorySegregation. Perhaps the anti-shiny marker on Victini, Zekrom, and Reshiram was designed with this thing in mind? |
| 1228 | ** That just means that in your game Mewtwo was born blue. |
| 1229 | *** Shiny Mewtwo is green... that's Mew you're talking about. |
| 1230 | * There isn't a Pokemon MMO, despite the concept being perfect for it! |
| 1231 | ** Actually, there is. It's called [[http://pokecyrus.net/ Pokemon Cyrus]]. |
| 1232 | ** Because if there was an official MMO, new Pokemon would be updated through patches, meaning you wouldn't have to buy new games anymore. As well, trading would be ridiculously easy to do, taking away the OneGameForThePriceOfTwo part of Pokemon. |
| 1233 | *** They could introduce new Pokemon in expansions rather than patches, and I personally always felt the paired versions were to encourage trading by making it so that trading was the only way to complete the Pokedex, rather than having players by the same game twice. The real answers is because Game Freak don't develop for computers. |
| 1234 | ** Now we have the Dream World, where you go online and find Pokemon and items to put in your games, and online WiFi battling has been a thing for two generations now (Gen IV and V). What would be the point of an official MMO? |
| 1235 | * There isn't any Pokefusion (Fuselution?) in the games. There's already precedent for two Pokemon becoming one in the games (Slowpoke + Shelder = Slowbro) and a few others actually. |
| 1236 | ** Mantyke evolve into Mantine if you had a Remoraid in the party. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation It's the only one to do so, though.]] |
| 1237 | *** DNA Splicers fit the role for now (granted, only for one Pokémon). |
| 1238 | ** Karrablast and Shelmet turn into Escalvier and Acelgor, respectively, when you trade one for the other. Kyrem fuses with either Reshiram or Zekrom. |
| 1239 | * Why/how do the areas with tides have three tide cycles per day? You'd need at least two moons for a planet to get that to happen even a couple times a year, much less every day. For that matter, are only a couple areas affected by tides, which really ought to affect all shorelines? |
| 1240 | ** Well, it is the same world where a season is only a month long... |
| 1241 | * Oshawott's Scalchop is said to grow from its bellybutton, except... how can Oshawott have a bellybutton? Pokémon are oviparous, which means that they come from eggs. |
| 1242 | ** Even Oviparous species have Belly buttons, it's where the yolk sac connects to the developing body. |
| 1243 | * So, why didn't they change Pikachu's name in any of the localizations? They changed nearly everyone else's. |
| 1244 | ** They're the mascot. It needs to be a recognizable name. |
| 1245 | * Just why the hell does Shellder look 'entirely' different in it's regular form than it does when attached to Slowking? Also, where the hell does it come from when Slowbro evolves? For that matter, Where do the extra two Magnemite or Diglett come from when they evolve? |
| 1246 | ** Well they're Gen 1 Pokemon, if at least Slowbro came in later generations it probably would have had a different method of evolution probably similar to Matine's. |
| 1247 | * Is there any reason why every protagonist either has blue eyes or brown eyes? |
| 1248 | ** There aren't many eye colors left |
| 1249 | * Is it just me, or is Game Freak unaware that orange is a color? Seriously, look at how many Pokémon are classified as [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_color#Red red]] or [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_color#Brown brown]] that are clearly orange. |
| 1250 | ** What do you want them to be listed under? There isn't an 'orange' colour group. |
| 1251 | *** But why isn't there an orange color group? There's plenty of orange Pokémon, so it would only make sense that they be classified by the Pokedex as orange. |
| 1252 | *** They're probably trying to avoid difficulty with all the reddish orange Pokemon, I think they already have enough with all the bluish purple, bluish green (I'm looking at you Bronzor) etc. |
| 1253 | * Since we're on the subject of color, why are so many Pokemon in that color group? some are covered more in another color but you could give them a pass since they still have the color somewhere (well except to maybe [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/a/ad/621Druddigon.png red Druddigon]] and [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/3/38/576Gothitelle.png purple Gothitelle]]), but can someone explain to me why is [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/a/a5/608Lampent.png Lampent white]], [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/6/6b/361Snorunt.png Snorunt grey]] and worst of all, [[http://xous54.deviantart.com/art/Keldeo-v-2-188268442 Keldeo yellow]] |
| 1254 | ** Keldeo's main body is yellowish-white and the part of Snorunt's body that isn't covered by its poncho is dark grey. Lampent, I have no idea. |
| 1255 | * In the Pokedex, it's said the skull on Cubone's head is the one of its dead mother. Now let's say you put a Marowak and another Pokemon in its Egg Group in the daycare center. Congratulations, your egg has hatched into a Cubone! But wait- it has a skull on its head. So if the skull on its head is the one of its dead mother, how come the mother is still alive and it has a skull on its head? |
| 1256 | ** The Pokedex entry makes a lot more sense if you only apply it to the Marowak Team Rocket killed in Lavender Town's tower and not the entire species. |
| 1257 | * Why is Spike Cannon a Normal-type move when the only Pokémon who can learn it are Water-type? If Withdraw can be a Water-type move despite not having anything to do with water besides for the first Pokémon that was able to learn it (Squirtle's evo-chain and Slowbro), I don't see why Spike Cannon can't be Water-type as well. And to hammer my point further: the move Coil, it's a Poison-type move despite not having anything to do with poison so much as it has to do with snakes (the exception being Eelektrik, which is an eel). Even then, only two of the five Pokémon (yes, I'm counting Ekans's and Snivy's evo-chains as two Pokémon rather than 5) are actually Poison-type, and they're from Gen 1 and Gen 3. Coil is a Gen 5 move. |
| 1258 | * If Professor Oak is really sending you out to research the world's Pokemon and add them to the Pokedex ... how does he know exactly how many there are? How can they be assigned numbers in any way other than order of discovery? Something's rotten here. |
| 1259 | ** He wants you to RESEARCH them, not DISCOVER them. The number of Pokemon at any given time isn't a secret or mystery, but he wants you to capture them to get more insight on their biological data to add the encyclopedia that is the Pokedex, with things such as height, weight, dietary details, whatever, etc. |
| 1260 | * Why is it that after the first game, the player character is the only person on the entire continent who is ever listed on the 'Winning Trainers' list in the Gyms? It bugs me in particular that the subsequent rivals after Blue seem to be completely incapable of getting Gym badges, which becomes very odd once they start to equal/exceed the power of the elite four. This is even weirder when you consider all the Cooltrainers and such inside Victory Road, which should imply that they too managed to beat the region's Gyms... |
| 1261 | ** Perhaps the PC just skipped all the names, only bothering to see the names he recognizes (which is himself and the rival). |
| 1262 | *** This is likely the case for Wally, who was on his way to challenge the Elite Four before your final battle with him. As for the other rivals, Silver was only concerned with beating Team Rocket and you, Brendan/May didn't seem to ever really care about challenging the Pokemon League and eventually decided to focus on building up the Pokedex, and the other player characters didn't count as rivals. As for your other rivals, Barry, Cheren, and Bianca all had their names on the winning trainers list (although I think Barry's was missing from Sunnyshore Gym's). Cheren is special in that [[spoiler: he's the first rival since Blue to have beaten the Elite Four (though he never fought and beat the champion)]]. As for why people like Silver don't seem to need to collect badges to get past certain obstacles and have their Pokemon obey them, we can dismiss that as GameplayAndStorySegregation. |
| 1263 | *** Wally only set out a long time after you did, so would have been beating gyms whilst you were saving the world (and then caught up with you because you swept out Victory Road before he got there). The game only shows the list immediately after you win, so doesn't show his name because you beat him to all of them. Silver most likely just stole some badges and Brendan/May & Lucas/Dawn probably get some special privileges from being assistants to the regional professor. |
| 1264 | * Is there any kind of government in Pokemon world? Are regions independent countries? There have to be some kind of menagement, taxes to keep police and Pokemon Centres running. I have always thought that Pokemon League is some kind of governmentm, no I find this quite ridiculous idea. |
| 1265 | ** Yes, we've seen mayors, we just aren't subject to those trivial details just because a few fans are curious. If you ask loud enough you may get a tongue and cheek government history paper back from Nintendo |
| 1266 | * Attract. Pokemon can only breed based on egg groups and yet any Pokemon can become infatuated, including genderless ones when the move is used by another genderless Pokemon. Why? What sense does it make for something to be sexually attracted to something it can't breed with? Furthermore, I know humans aren't Pokemon, but does this mean that a Pokemon of the opposite gender (let's ignore the other sexual orientations for now) can infatuate them if they use Attract? [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Disregarding the fact that the move would become nearly useless in battle]], the move should only be working on things that can breed with each other. |
| 1267 | ** Genderless can infatuate Genderless? [[GoodBadBug Wow]]! Anyway, the {{Doylist}} in me wants to play the [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids Pokemon are for Kids]] card, but even then it still wouldn't explain why ''any'' Pokemon can be fawning over ''any'' Pokemon of the opposite gender with just a wink. Breeding groups aside, one would think that there would be more qualities of attraction, per species or in general, [[UnfortunateImplications than "does this person have a plug/hole?"]] Then again, the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]], for what it's worth, doesn't take stock of breeding groups for their [[GirlOfTheWeek Pokemon Love Interest of the week]]. (Buneary being a notable exception, but she was a party member.) |
| 1268 | ** Its using psychic powers to inspire something resembling love and true love doesn't care about reproduction or sexual attraction. [[MagicAIsMagicA Gender is just the attack's limitation.]] |
| 1269 | ** Same reason as why some people out there can get attracted to animals, objects, etc. The real question is, why is it restricted to opposite gender (or, in the case of genderless, other genderless)? It's not like it directly says it's sexual attraction, it could have simply been the equivalent of being starry-eyed over them (much as happens to some people in presence of celebrities). |
| 1270 | ** It isn't without precedent, there are more than a few people that are attracted to [[MermaidProblem mermaids]], [[SnakePeople lamias]], and [[{{Robosexual}} Robot]] [[RobotGirl Girls]][[note]]Although this is plausible, if they're built to be, ahem, [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration fully functional]].[[/note]], among others. Love (or in this case, a crush) knows no bounds, least of all the logistics of it. |
| 1271 | * Why on earth would Celadon Game Corner, or any Game Corner for that matter, allow a 10-year old to gamble? |
| 1272 | ** In the first generation games, Celadon Game Corner was owned by Team Rocket. They are crime syndicate, who cuts off Pokemon tails. They don't care or are even happy that stupid kids come to their casino and waste money there. Pokemon world may just has very liberal law about gambling minors. They don't seem to have a problem with kids traveling around the world on their own, fighting with crime and saving the universe. In the Black and White main character is specifically asked to find seven sages aka run-away heads of crime organisation. Why should kids be banned from casinos if they can do such things on regular basis? On the other hand this issue was touched upon in Headscratchers/PokemonArchive. |
| 1273 | ** It's not that weird. As long as you aren't getting actual money in return it's not technically gambling. I used to go to the boardwalk as a kid and they'd have slot machine games where you put tokens in and got tokens out that you could exchange for cheap toys and candy and such. It's no different here, just that you're getting live animals as prizes. |
| 1274 | * Something always confused me about Old Chateau. I know you can catch Rotom and get Old Gateau there, but what's with the ghost man and girl? Can you actually TALK to them, or are they just there for creepy effect?! |
| 1275 | ** creepy effect, and nothing more. |
| 1276 | * So the popular belief on why Fighting beats Dark is because Fighting-type Pokemon battle with honor while Dark-types play dirty. So then why are Fighting-type Pokémon capable of learning dark-type attacks? My Infernape for example knows Fling and always keeps a fossil on hand (one of the second-most powerful items to be utilized with Fling) for when he uses the move. Aslo, Croagunk and its evolved form Toxicroak; what part of this sleazy-looking Pokémon screams "honorable warrior"? |
| 1277 | ** While honour may play a part of it, my theory about Dark vs Fighting is that it's equating to a martial art expert fighting an ordinary guy with no real fighting skills, so he attempts to fight dirty. The thing is, a proficient martial artist ''should'' be able to to handle underhanded tactics. For example, let's say the dirty fighter attempts to kick the martial artist in the groin. A decently trained fighter can easily block or dodge such a move with little effort or difficulty. In other words, "it's not very effective". However, that doesn't mean a martial ''couldn't'' use dirty moves themselves if they wanted to. I see Fighting's advatnage as not HonourBeforeReason, but skill trumping lack of skill. |
| 1278 | * Why is Gyarados part Flying when it can't learn Flying-type moves (except Bounce in Platinum) or why can't it learn Flying-type moves when it's part Flying? |
| 1279 | ** It's based on a Chinese myth that carp who manage to make it up a waterfall and leap over the Dragon Gate become dragons--hence, flying fish. Plus, from a gameplay standpoint, it gives Gyarados a bit of balance--it's maybe one or two steps below a pseudo-legendary in terms of stats, but it has a quadruple weakness to electric attacks. |
| 1280 | *** Yes, but why as of Gen 5 the only Flying move it has is Bounce, which he can only get in Platinum. It's not the only Pokémon who that has happened, but it's weird one as commonly used even by game characters as Gyarados hasn't been fixed yet. |
| 1281 | *** Oh, gotcha. Probably Game Freak wants to emphasize its Water- and Dragon-nature over the Flying part--it doesn't have wings or a beak, so a lot of the Flying moves (Fly, Drill Peck, Wing Attack) would look kind of weird on it. |
| 1282 | *** Yeah I know, but there are a few Flying moves that he should be able to learn that have a medium power (so the theory that it's so it doesn't become overpowered is out), like Sky Drop or Aerial Ace (a move with 60 power that a lot of Pokémon can learn even the likes of Boufalant, Regigigas, Groudon, Tyranitar and ''Dugtrio''). |
| 1283 | ** To be fair, any Magikarp you get from the Dream World will have Bounce as one of its moves as well, and it can be taught Bounce by a tutor in HG/SS (a Magikarp caught on the "Stormy Beach" Pokéwalker route will also know Bounce). |
| 1284 | ** For gameplay purposes - you can get it before the second gyms in most games. |
| 1285 | * [=SilverPowder=] apparently boosts the power of Bug-type moves by 20% when held, but I don't see what it has to do with bugs at all. |
| 1286 | ** Maybe it has some connection to the move Silver Wind. |
| 1287 | ** SilverPowder was introduced in Gen II while Silver Wind was introduced in Gen III. Hm...... |
| 1288 | ** Ever touched a butterfly's wings? They have very small scales on them, which look like a silvery powder when they rub off on your fingers. |
| 1289 | * An acquaintance of mine once told me that in either his Red or Blue cartridge (I can't remember which one he was talking about right off hand) in the area where you fight Mewtwo, there's a glitch that'll gain you access to an EarlyBirdCameo of the Pokémon Blissey. I have never heard this story from anyone else, nor have I seen any other source confirming this. I also have no access to a Red or Blue cartridge to find this out for myself. What do you guys think? Can any of you confirm this, or is my acquaintance just making up an UrbanLegendOfZelda? |
| 1290 | ** Definitely an UrbanLegendOfZelda. Not even one of the more famous ones. |
| 1291 | * What 's the deal with most signature moves? Is there any reason why any of these traits (in no particular order) must apply to the only Pokémon who was able to learn it during the move's debut and/or still the only one able to learn it? |
| 1292 | ** Being unable to learn it until the Pokémon in question reaches a really high level usually way past when the Pokémon's supposed to evolve, and it's only gonna have to level up even higher if it evolves on its way to learning its signature move (and in meowth's case, it had better wait until lvl 30 before evolving into persian lest it lose its opportunity to learn Pay Day; Mewtwo and volcarona don't even get theirs until lvl 100). |
| 1293 | ** The move is a weaker version of a another move the Pokémon can learn (the Kadabra line's Kinesis which has the same effect as Flash but with less PP and Accuracy). |
| 1294 | ** The move is Normal-type despite the Pokémon being typed something else (Hitmonlee's Mega Kick). |
| 1295 | ** The move does not work in favor of the Pokémon's stats (Exeggcute and exeggutor's barrage is a physical move despite the Pokémon being better with special attack in both stages. Stack that on top of barrage being a Normal-type move inspite of Exeggcute/Exeggutor's Grass/Psychic typing, and you have yourself a double whammy of sig. move fail there). |
| 1296 | *** Make that a triple whammy, exeggcute can learn bullet seed which has the same effect as barrage, but is stronger and is a Grass-type move meaning that the Pokémon can get STAB from it. |
| 1297 | * Can anyone explain Jirachi being primarily a Steel-type Pokemon? It's the lightest Steel-type, it's soft (as seen in ''Jirachi: Wishmaker''), and ''none'' of its abilities or moves are properly Steel-themed. Flash Cannon is Steel-type, but it's one of many generic non-damaging "burst of light" attacks, and Doom Desire ''doesn't even count as Steel-type'', since it ignores typing, weaknesses, ''and'' (according to Bulbapedia) ''STAB''! As for its Psychic typing, that was hyped in the movie and the game info. I pored over its Bulbapedia page, and my memories of how it was treated in the movie, and found '''one''' thing that even remotely justifies its typing: Jirachi's head/headdress has a metallic gleam. According to my memories of the movie, this "gleam" is highly inconsistent, and its head appears to be soft, unless Max doesn't mind using a hard metal star as a teddy bear. Aside from defensive, game-balancing purposes (and I will be sorely irritated but understanding if that is the only reason anyone can give), I can find no reason for Jirachi to have Steel-type, and that doesn't even explain why it's a ''primary'' Steel-type. |
| 1298 | ** Flash cannon is a damaging move. |
| 1299 | *** Acknowledged, I was wrong about that. However, it's still a ''very'' weak reason (even a secondary or near-afterthought reason) to make Jirachi steel-type. |
| 1300 | ** Jirachi is based on wishing stars, in other words it's a ThunderboltIron. |
| 1301 | *** Ah, that makes sense. However, it just reverses the problem, as a troper further down in the section noticed (including not being able to learn the Steel-type [[DubNameChange Comet Punch/Meteor Mash]]). |
| 1302 | ** I think a better question would be why Jirachi can't learn that many steel type moves despite being his primary type to the point were even when it's based on a star it can't learn Meteor Mash (Comet Punch is Japanese). It can't even learn Gyro Ball with TM74 in gen 4 or 5 |
| 1303 | *** Perhaps it can't learn many Steel moves for the same reason it doesn't even seem like it should be part Steel: the only quality it has that's remotely metallic is the whole ThunderboltIron thing. It just doesn't have enough hard metal for most Steel moves to work with. It can learn Flash Cannon because that's a [[KamehameHadouken "light energy"]] attack, and thus one of the few Steel attacks that could be thematically associated with stars. |
| 1304 | * Why does [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pinsir_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29#Learnset pinsir learn more useful fighting-type moves by leveling up]] than [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Heracross#Learnset heracross who's an actual fighting-type]]? |
| 1305 | ** Pinsir probably ''should'' be a Fighting-type, considering the whole JapaneseBeetleBrothers thing with it and Heracross, and what they are commonly used for in Japan. However, the designers seem to oppose changing a Pokémon's type in general. Not that it stopped them from adding Steel to the Magnemite family when the opportunity arose. |
| 1306 | ** Pinsir should not have been Fighting. It was one of the only two good Bugs in Gen I, so the last thing it needed was a type combination that made Psychic attacks neutral against it. |
| 1307 | *** That's a pretty good way to think about it. The two can be counterparts with fairly similar movesets, but one gets the Fighting STAB and resistances (one of which is to those accursed rocks), while the other stymies Psychics and is slightly less Flying bait. |
| 1308 | * Say you're surfing on your Feraligatr. Suddenly, you encounter a swimmer and he wants to fight! So you send out your...Feraligatr. Who fights the opponents. With you on his back. And can get KO'd. Just how do you make sure you're not hit and you don't drown? Alternate version: you're surfing on a friggin' Azurill. An AZURILL. Then you start fighting with a trainer and you send out a Steelix. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Which is 9 meters long and can't neither float nor fly. While surfing. On your tiny Azurill.]] Just...just HOW? |
| 1309 | ** I think the trainer might get off of whatever they were surfing on and just swim while the battle happens. |
| 1310 | *** I thought about that, but makes me still wonder how the hell can an Azurill (way smaller than you) carry you around outside of battle...and do the Pokemon you send in battles have to swim as well? Poor Steelix... |
| 1311 | ** [[WatsonianVersusDoylist How?]] [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Simple.]] |
| 1312 | ** Imagine sending out a huge Snorlax into Nimbasa City's tiny ferris wheel. *SPLOTCH* |
| 1313 | ** The surf(and fly) HM's field effect is not the same thing as actually riding on the Pokemon, it uses the Pokemon's power to create a shark for you to sit on(or creates a giant bird). Compare how the two [=NPCs=] take off on Dragon Spiral Tower. One gets on his Pokemon and rides it, the other just uses an HM. Compare Giratina dragging Cyrus to using fly. |
| 1314 | * Why do they keep calling the changes to Pokemon 'evolution'. While in real life it might sound better it has nothing to do with actual evolution. What the Pokemon are doing is closer to incredibly beneficial mutation or simple aging. |
| 1315 | ** "Metamorphosis" would be the closest. It's probably just a wonky translation that's stuck out of tradition. |
| 1316 | *** Not so: The original Japanese uses ?? ''shinka'', which means evolution with the exact same definition and connotation as the English word "evolution". Keep in mind, however, that the Pokemon world is different from ours; language could have developed differently, and evolution could have become a blanket term for Pokemon mysteriously growing as well. |
| 1317 | ** It's really more of a maturation most of the time: Small thing becomes bigger, stronger, and gets decorative bits added onto it. But because it is difficult to show the Pokémon actually growing, it is represented in bursts. |
| 1318 | ** HollywoodEvolution and ArtisticLicenseBiology at their very finest. You could just as easily ask why the writers of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' thought evolution meant Paris and Janeway magically mutating into amphibians. |
| 1319 | *** Personally, I'm leaning towards ArtisticLicenseBiology, since the Pokeworld apparently features Darwinian evolution as well. (Just look at all the Pokemon that have been naturally selected into extinction.) |
| 1320 | ** The word evolution(and Shinka) existed long before Charles Darwin. Darwin evolution isn't the only evolution, even if your biology teacher gave you a good grade for saying it was. |
| 1321 | * From what I've read for Pokémon Rumble Blast, Cobalion (the leader of the Three Musketeers-style legendary Pokémon) is the antagonist, even going so far as to steal magic liquid from the player, the liquid needed to bring the Pokémon toys to life. But didn't the dex entries in Black and White state that Cobalion PROTECTED the Pokémon from humans? |
| 1322 | ** Darkrai has it even worse. My guess is that the team who made it isn't the same team as the main games. |
| 1323 | ** Or that the Mystery Dungeon and Rumble series are not part of the main series's plot and have different rules. Main series Cobalion and Darkrai are nice enough, Mystery Dungeon Darkrai and Rumble Cobalion are evil. The same reason why Show! Sabrina is a SmugSuper and Manga! Sabrina is evil while main series Sabrina is a modest TechnicalPacifist. |
| 1324 | *** Turns out Cobalion in Rumble Blast is a good guy, he stole the liquid in order to prevent a bigger evil from being released. He even sacrifices himself to save the player! |
| 1325 | * How are Steel-type Pokémon immune to Poison-type attacks when acid corrodes metal? |
| 1326 | ** Because Acid is just One attack out of the whole spectrum of poison moves (Not that they are very varied). And the logic goes more along the lines of "Metal can't be poisoned" or something. |
| 1327 | * How come Eelektrik and Eelektross have the Levitate ability when their animation is shown as being on the ground? |
| 1328 | ** Same reason Gengar, Dusclops, Vibrava, and Flygon have the Levitate ability when their animation is shown as being on the ground. The designers wanted them to have Ground immunity but couldn't make them Flying type for whatever reason. |
| 1329 | * Why are you always the only member of your household that owns a bedroom? Where does your mom sleep? |
| 1330 | ** IIRC most of the houses have a couch. |
| 1331 | ** We can also assume there's other rooms upstairs. After all, do we ever see that the exit downstairs leads only and directly into the player's room? |
| 1332 | *** In the original Red/Blue/Green/Yellow, the exit from your room is a staircase, implying that it's the only room on that floor. This could just be a graphical limitation, though. |
| 1333 | ** Finally addressed in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet SV]]: interacting with the door to the left of the stairs in your house yields the response [[AC: That's your mom's room! Better not go in there without asking]]. Of course, she still stands motionless in the common area, and given that you can fly back home, she couldn't have had any forewarning of your arrival... |
| 1334 | * I have a question. The move Water Pulse can confuse a foe. But why would a ball of water "confuse a Pokémon"? |
| 1335 | ** It's not "creating a ball of water", it's more like "creating underwater ultrawaves". Just like Supersonic, but underwater. Now, how come you can create "underwater ultrawaves" when NOT underwater, that's another thing... (Maybe you hurl a ball of water packed with ultrawaves?) |
| 1336 | ** The supersonic move would never confuse a mutant creature, I once in my life have been woken up by my dad's rock music and I never got 'confusion' so why would it work on a more [[FridgeHorror violent mutant being?]] |
| 1337 | *** 'Supersonic' means 'beyond sonic', meaning 'faster than the speed of sound'. If the mutant beast producing the 'supersonic' attack caused [[MindScrew sound to suddenly travel faster than sound]] then wouldn't it confuse the other mutant beast it's fighting? Also, how does rock music equate to a Pokémon attack? If we're taking the meaning to be 'an ultrasonic soundwave' (that is, a soundwave with a frequency above that audible by the average human ear), then it would act similarly to a dog whistle or something. Kind of a HellIsThatNoise for Pokémon that disorients them instead of alerting them the way dog whistles do real dogs. |
| 1338 | * The move Metronome only makes sense as GamePlayAndStorySegregation: from the game point of view, it just randomly selects a move from the whole movepool, but in the Pokémon world you could actually see, say, your Clefairy shoot fire, explode, poison your foe or even drill it with no plausible explanation whatsoever. |
| 1339 | ** Metronome is apparently supposed to be magic, so it can probably spawn temporary drills or whatever on the Pokemon depending on the move it selects. |
| 1340 | * Parasect's mind is supposedly taken over by its mushroom parasites upon evolution, thus more or less turning it into a completely different person than it was as a bug. Why then, does it keep its nature (Adamant, Jolly, Modest, etc...) upon evolution from Paras? Shouldn't it be a completely different entity by then? Also, what happens when you make a "magic potion" out of Parasect's mushroom? Does it just turn back into a Paras, or what? |
| 1341 | ** The mushrooms were already making their way into Paras's brain while it was a Paras, so the nature change doesn't seem that drastic. A mushroom is just the reproducing part of a larger fungus, removing it would just cause another one to grow in its place, so long as the fungus had enough nutrients and water. |
| 1342 | * Why isn't "dream eater" affected by the "liquid ooze" ability? Considering that the only Pokémon with that ability are Poison-types, that's really the only draining attack they have to worry about. |
| 1343 | ** Isn't it obvious? Dreams have nothing to do with how gooey the body is. |
| 1344 | * Wild Abra can only know Teleport. So how do wild Abra ever level up beyond level 1 or level 5, depending on version? Is there a secret organization handing out Rare Candies to them? |
| 1345 | ** Perhaps a vicious predator comes after a sleeping Abra, it teleports away, a guardian Kadabra shows up to drive the predator off, and the Abra shares the experience. If it works for trainers... |
| 1346 | ** I don't think Abra evolves natrually, most of the games the only way to get Kadabra is by raising one yourself, or from a endgame dungeon which could be populated by released Kadabra |
| 1347 | ** Or Abra evolves by itself with time, or it uses struggle to attack |
| 1348 | * More of a meta example but, a lot of people say Unova is the first region to be based off something outside of Japan.. Does Orre apparently not exist? |
| 1349 | ** Not part of the main series. Yes, they should be saying "first of the main series not in Japan." Main being Red-Blue, Ruby-Sapphire, ect |
| 1350 | * Do they speak English or Japanese in Orre and Unova? Both? |
| 1351 | ** From the game's point of view: English. From a logical point of view: Japanese. As a matter of fact: Japanese with some GratuitousEnglish. |
| 1352 | *** Or maybe each translation of the games is in an AlternateContinuity where they speak the player's language in all regions. This would make sense if you want to figure the Meister and foreign Dex entries into canon. Maybe [=NPCs=] who speak other languages come from the alternate continuities. |
| 1353 | ** I like to think the Pokemon universe has its own language, that's just being translated for player convenience. |
| 1354 | * Why has no one ever looked into making a non-turn based version of Pokemon games? You know, something like ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' where they can move around the field and use their moves on each other rather than just having sprites vibrate and stuff. |
| 1355 | ** There's at least one Pokemon fighting game online, but there's two main problems that arise: |
| 1356 | *** 1.) Creating a full set of animations for all the ''hundreds'' of Pokemon is impractical. |
| 1357 | *** 2.) The main draw of the series is the strategy in it's turn-based combat. |
| 1358 | *** 1a.) They could use 3D models instead, like with VideoGame/PokemonStadium or Pokémon Battle Revolution. |
| 1359 | *** 2a.) Not all of the moves really work all that well/make a lot of sense in a turn-based system. |
| 1360 | * What happens if Cubone's mother is a Ditto? |
| 1361 | ** Ditto creates a replica of the skull and gives it to Cubone. |
| 1362 | * Why is Charizard's second type Flying instead of Dragon? He is ''clearly'' a dragon, much more than, say, Garchomp (a dragon type Pokémon that looks nothing like one), instead it's classified into the Flying type just because it has wings (unlike another Flying type, Doduo, but that could be because Doduo is based on an ostrich - a bird that can't even fly, ironically). Seriously, it doesn't make sense... |
| 1363 | ** It makes perfect sense if you consider it from a gameplay perspective. Dragon has only two weaknesses, both of which don't really pop up until very late in Red/Blue, and in later generations there are more Dragon moves besides Dragon Rage that are only weak against Steel, a relatively uncommon type. If he was part Dragon Charizard would be a complete GameBreaker, since Charmander's your first Pokémon and he could evolve to his third stage much faster than other Dragons, and would be a massively more popular choice than the other starters (more than he already is anyway). |
| 1364 | *** Hey, at least Garchomp is a reptilian creature that can fly. Even Vibrava, which is very clearly an insect, is somewhat justified in this respect since it evolves into a dragon. Let's just wait for Trollfreak to do type recons and skip Charizard while they randomly go turn Scolipede into a Bug/Dragon type because they feel like it. [[InsaneTrollLogic You know, because Scolipede's Japanese name is Pendora, derived from scolopendra, and both of them sound vaguely like the "-dra" in "dragon"! And also because of its elongated body and its size!]] |
| 1365 | ** Same reason Gyarados is Water/Flying. If it were part dragon, it'd be a complete GameBreaker and poor Bulbasaur&Squirtle will be extinct cause ''duh'', pick the dragon type. (although Fire/Dragon is weak to Rock and Ground, Ground of which is a common attack type) |
| 1366 | *** And yet we still get Kingdra, a Water/Dragon type. |
| 1367 | *** Yes, but that was in Gen. 2. In that time, Kingdra wouldn't have been as Gamebreaking. |
| 1368 | *** The thing is, ANY Pokémon with the Dragon/Water sub typing has a VERY easy time during the game. In general, Dragon combined with anything leaves it open to game breaker status. The reason why Dragon/Water is so good is because its ONLY weakness is of course, other Dragons. The way moves worked in the first generation was that the ONLY Dragon type move in the original games was Dragon Rage. A move that did 40 damage, no matter what. As such: If Gyrados was a Water/Dragon, it would have no weaknesses. AT ALL. As such, it would be even more game breaky then it already is. At the time of Generation 1, the designers had no idea Pokémon would explode the way it did. As such, they didn't know they'd have to make more Dragon-type moves for Generation 2. |
| 1369 | *** And now, in Gen VI, it Mega-Evolves into a Water/Dark. At least it learns Bite and Crunch naturally. |
| 1370 | * Why do trainer-owned Pokémon need to be told by their trainers which move they should use? Of course it's a game mechanic, but it doesn't make sense in-universe. Unless they get brainwashed when they're caught and thus stop thinking with their own heads during a battle. |
| 1371 | ** Because Pokémon aren't smart enough to use strategy. Wild Pokémon will just use random moves, but trainer-owned Pokémon will actually use what is most effective. |
| 1372 | ** The answer can be seen from the Battle Palace of Hoenn. Pokémon, wild or not, can use moves without being commanded, and the distribution of used moves will fit its [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Nature nature]]. |
| 1373 | * Why is it impossible to buy Ether and Max Ether anywhere? Makes no sense. |
| 1374 | * How the fuck you can sent out Shedinja? Looking at the hole in its back is supposed to steal one's soul... and you see it everytime you send out Shedinja. Yet, the hole is displayed perfectly and no side effects happen, either due to lazy programmers... or [[FridgeHorror maybe because it's just too scary to see what would happen if programmers DID add that thing]]? |
| 1375 | ** Not all entries are true. |
| 1376 | * How do badges ensure the obedience of Pokémon, and how do they ensure obedience of Pokémon up to a certain level? It's like me showing my dog a badge and saying, "Now you have to obey me." Would an animal will understand the meaning of a man-made construct like a Gym badge? And this also implies that Pokémon are aware of what level they're at, although level also seem like something created by humans to gauge Pokémon growth; they're not actually real. Of course, Pokémon could just be more intelligent than regular animals but still... |
| 1377 | ** I think what's happening in-universe is that the Poké is getting stronger and is aware of the fact. The badges are proof that you know what you're doing, and so the Pokémon won't follow your orders if it thinks it can do a better job on it's own. |
| 1378 | ** Right, traded Pokémon disobey you because, well, who the hell are you besides some dude who took it from its master? Proper training (ie winning tournaments/badges) is proof that they can trust you |
| 1379 | ** This ''always bothered me''. And it still does! Its the designers PUNISHING you for '''training and trading your Pokémon'''. I cannot comprehend that idiotic decision they made, even to this day. If you want to level up your Pokémon, spend time with them, love and nurture them, congratulations, you've established trust between you and your Pokemon - they should obey. What Pokemon should NOT be impressed by, [[BlingOfWar are pieces of plastic you won in a battle]]! |
| 1380 | ** Maybe Pokémon do recognise the badges and think "ah, this is a skilled and experienced trainer" since some of them do have human-level intelligence. But it's also possible that pokemon simply respond to your skill and sensitivity as a trainer, and since your trainer themselves doesn't grow in levels, the badges in this case work as an abstraction of your skills as is common for [=RPGs=]. Then it would be your skill that matters, and the badges are a shorthand for that. |
| 1381 | ** I understand why high-leveled Pokémon wouldn't obey their inexperienced new trainer right away, but it's weird that traded Pokémon can suddenly stop obeying you once they reach a certain level. Out-of-universe, it probably to balance the boosted experience outsider Pokémon get. |
| 1382 | * I checked my team and... Lucario and Leavanny are 1.2m. Watchog is 1.1m, Ampharos is 1.4m, Samurott is 1.5m and Crobat is 1.8m... how Crobat is that size? Note that Samurott is heavier than Crobat by almost 20kg, yet it's only 1.5m. |
| 1383 | ** Gamefreak just has a tendency to give their Pokémon less than credible measurements. |
| 1384 | ** Did you take wingspan into account? |
| 1385 | * Why does the Ground type not have any resistance to the Fire type? And if someone could also explain to me the logic behind Rollout hitting a flying type but Mud Shot not being able to, that would be great also. |
| 1386 | ** For Rollout, the user might be rolling into the flying type by jumping at it. As for Ground not resisting Fire, Pokemon's perception of type strengths and weaknesses varies. It has logical weaknesses (Water>Fire) and undefined strengths (Bug>Dark). |
| 1387 | * Why do the designs of Pokémon added with each new generation keep getting more and more bizarre? Most of the originals and generation 2 ones were all like make-believe creatures based on real life animals... but now we have things like a disembodied human nose, a floating valentine, and ice cream cone, a plastic garbage bag, and... an Egyptian sarcophagus. What the hay? |
| 1388 | ** They're not. Your perception is skewed due to familiarity since you were exposed to those designs at a younger age. There were 3 metal eyeballs clustered together with magnets stuck on, Mimes with misleading names, globs of toxic moonsludge, headless humanoids with springy legs, a fighter based on (of all things) a SPINNING TOP. I don't even know what to say about the designs of Weezing, Lickitung, and Jynx. Every gen has its oddball designs, but the likes of jynx and lickitung will never be out "bizarred" IMO. |
| 1389 | *** Tangela the walking tentacles; Girafarig the giraffe with a second weird head for some reason; Uknown the living alphabet; Wobbuffet the living punching bag; Misdreavus; Sneasel; Dunsparse the winged, snake with a weirdly distributed body and a stinger; and the Electabuzz, Chansey, Gigglypuff and Togepi family. |
| 1390 | ** Yeah, I am kind of a Pokémon old timer. I was born in the 90's and have been playing the games since I was very little, so it's probably just how I perceive it, being most familiar with the original 'mons... |
| 1391 | *** Refer to [[https://www.dropbox.com/s/i1tx2qahqmpznsm/pokmon-the-more-they-stay-the-same.png this picture.]] |
| 1392 | * In Lilycove there's the old couple on the bottom cliff who are saying something along the lines of "We've been happily married for 60 years... mufufufu fwohohoho" and at first I thought the second sentence was because they were being possessed by Magma grunts (because no other characters have an evil laugh) but they say the exact same thing after I get rid of Magma, and after I defeat the Elite Four. Anyone explain what's going on with them, or is this a [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse]]? |
| 1393 | ** I think you're reading a little too much into it. It's not an "evil laugh" at all, it's just a chuckle. Why the random chuckling? Probably just due to the hamminess of a great number of Pokémon [=NPCs=]. |
| 1394 | * Why is none of the physic defying technology of this universe for anything besides capturing Pokémon. You have matter/energy converters that can be carried in your pocket and can turn giant creatures into a carriable form. A power source that can go for months if not for years without needing to be recharged. Teleportation via converting something into energy and then taking out from a common PC is possible. Bringing back creatures who are FOSSILIZED for millions if not tens of millions of years to life. Instant healers that are so cheap that they can heal your pets you use for fighting for free. This is the technology of Star Trek. Hell it is even better because it actually is reliable. The teleportation and the matter conversion alone would make every form of transportation instantly obsolete. You don't need to have giant transport ships carrying goods when you can order something as large as the ship and have it emailed to you. Why does the entire world still look like it is 21st century at BEST, and all this tech is only used for animal fighting? |
| 1395 | ** Medicine has advanced so much that you can cure damage, burns, frostbite, poisoning and paralysis from any from of life, even alien with a spray so it possibly applies to humans too. Many things specially in gyms seem to indicate that they're well advanced in other things. |
| 1396 | ** Perhaps MisappliedPhlebotinum is part of Pokemon's [[PlanetOfHats hat]]? Or alternatively, TooDumbToLive seeing as how the world seems to [[AdultsAreUseless constantly be saved by children]]? |
| 1397 | * Are there any [=NPCs=] that DON'T like Pokémon? I mean, people are all different, so I I find it hard to imagine that EVERY SINGLE PERSON would at least like Pokémon. |
| 1398 | ** It might be a hyperbole and their not saying they like every Pokémon species, like saying you like all animals while being afraid of snakes and spiders. |
| 1399 | * Why is Mewtwo's Pokédex number "150" and Mew's is "151"? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I mean Mew obviously came first as Mewtwo was made from Mew's DNA. |
| 1400 | ** Numbering doesn't say anything given the different regions, but from a gameplay point of view it was because Mew was a SecretCharacter, and jumping a number would had hinted at too much. |
| 1401 | *** Mew was added at the last second. |
| 1402 | * I read recently on Bulbapedia that the IV items (like Power Bracer, Lens, Anklet, etc) can be attached to a parent to pass on [=IV=]s while breeding in Platinum, and not just HGSS/present. While that would be awesome if it were true, has it been proven that they're not lying about it? It would be really good to not have to rely so much on luck breeding in Platinum whereas in HGSS you can shift the tides in your favor pretty easily, but I never recall reading that anywhere else. Granted, it's a Wiki that anyone can edit, but anything stupid or false gets deleted almost instantly, and it's still listed there, so i'm curious if anyone else knows it's verified. |
| 1403 | ** Try Serebii. Only the people in charge can edit the pages. |
| 1404 | * In ''PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure'', if you stand still in the Iceberg zone for a few seconds, Pikachu will shiver. Why does he shiver if he has fur to keep him warm? |
| 1405 | ** Because [[RuleofCute it's cute]] and makes sense to kids. |
| 1406 | ** Because he isn't adapted to an arctic environment. His fur isn't thick enough to protect him from the cold entirely. Put any animal that's used to warmer climates in the arctic and it'll die of hypothermia within a day. |
| 1407 | * On the Character pages, Dark-type Pokemon, as well as Pokemon capable of learning even one Dark-type attack, are listed as having the CastingAShadow trope. This troubles me because 1) Most attacks that actually deal with manipulation of darkness as an element are of the Ghost-type, not the Dark-type; 2) Aside from Dark Pulse and Night Daze, the latter of which is restricted to Zoroark, there are ''no'' Dark-type attacks that have anything to do with manipulating darkness as an element; and 3) The majority of the Pokemon listed with the CastingAShadow trope cannot learn Dark Pulse. It just seems ''ridiculous'' to me that the very first trope listed for Jesse's Arbok is "CastingAShadow" just because it can ''bite'' things. And on a similar note, it's even more ridiculous that Jesse's Lickitung has the SoulPower trope because it can ''lick''. |
| 1408 | ** It would be a good idea to arrange a lengthy effort to change non-elemental Dark moves to CombatPragmatism. |
| 1409 | * During the Groudon/Kyogre battle in Sootopolis City, why didn't anyone send out a Psyduck or Golduck and let their Cloud Nine ability stop the world-threatening weather? |
| 1410 | ** Perhaps the conflicting weather was too powerful for Cloud Nine? |
| 1411 | ** If you visit other parts of the region during this sequence, you'll see that all of Hoenn is being affected, which is probably way out of Cloud Nine's scope. |
| 1412 | * How did the scientists of the Kanto Pokemon Mansion encounter Mew? Pokedex entries say Mew was widely thought to be extinct and to appear only to those who were pure of heart and, more importantly, had a desire to see it. Unfortunately the answer of "One of the scientists just really hoped to see something, even a fossil, of Mew" doesn't work, as the writer of the mansion journals said Mew was a new discovery and gave it a name afterward. They clearly did not know of Mew so how could they have a desire to meet it? |
| 1413 | * Why did Cynthia send the player on an assignment that she could have done faster herself? When she gives the player a Secretpotion to use to help cure the headaches plaguing the group of Psyduck on Route 210, the player does just that. And then Cynthia appears immediately after the player heals the Psyduck to give the player another delivery mission. I could understand if the latter was to test the player but the former seems borderline cruel to the Psyduck if it was a test. Or maybe she didn't really think things out too well, which leads me to my next question... |
| 1414 | * Why was Cynthia almost completely useless against Team Galactic? In Eterna City, she never figured out Team Galactic was stealing Pokemon despite the group being a hot topic for Eterna City NPC's to discuss, and one person flat out admits his Pokemon was taken by them (Funnily enough, Cynthia gives the player [=HM01=] right in front of the building Team Galactic is using). We don't see her at all during the storming of Team Galactic's headquarters in Veilstone either. And Cynthia only heals the player's Pokemon one time during the entire Mt. Coronet/Distortion World section of the game. She proved herself to be a less useful version of Lance. At least Lance figured out the location of Team Rocket's hidden base and brought out a Dragonite to help the player stop Team Rocket, in addition to doing some interrogating. And this was just when Lance thought only the Pokemon at the Lake of Rage were in jeopardy, never mind the world-threatening Mt. Coronet section of Platinum. |
| 1415 | ** ItsUpToYou. |
| 1416 | *** This doesn't answer anything. It has ''always'' been up to the player (Lance in Silver/Gold even says he hangs back so the games could abide by this) but that does not excuse Cynthia for doing very little in the face of danger. Danger which, by her own admission, threatened the world. Even before the Distortion World portion, she was seemingly off doing... something, likely related to Pokemon mythology. It just seems so out of place for a Champion to not get involved in such an ordeal when the previous set of games showed a Champion doing the exact opposite. Good thing Steven didn't find a lovely batch of rocks while Team Magma was in the Mossdeep space station. |
| 1417 | *** It may not answer anything but it's the truth. It's a common game trope, there's never going to be a definite answer. Maybe Cynthia was testing you? Maybe she doesn't care that much until it gets really serious? Maybe the player character is TheChosenOne who was destined to do anything even if someone with more experience is right next to them? Also, Cynthia probably isn't just chilling out in a villa while you're taking down Team Galatic grunts, [[OffscreenMomentofAwesome she's most likely doing something important too.]] |
| 1418 | *** Cynthia does suggest that it destined for the player and Giratina to face off. As for her offscreen activities, she is often researching Pokemon mythology. This leads to how the player even knows the name of Giratina (she gives some slight backstory to Giratina before entering the Distortion World). |
| 1419 | *** To answer both Cynthia-related questions: the impression seems to be that Cynthia is stal... ''running into you'' and asking you to do favours and generally hanging around for the purpose of testing you to see your potential as a strong Champion. If anything goes seriously wrong she can step in with her Garchomp, but for the meantime she'll hang back and see how you shape up. Maybe a time-and-space-distorting wormhole on top of Spear Pillar isn't the best time for the grasshopper to be knocking the pebble from her hand, but [[TrainingFromHell hey]]. (Don't forget Norman, who made Wally climb the entire Sky Pillar during Kyogre and Groudon's big battle.) |
| 1420 | * Not sure if this actually belongs on this page, but what is the point of Endure? Ignoring the Pokémon that only have it and not Protect, Protect does the exact same thing without almost killing you. I'm pretty sure they (and the rest of the 'fail if used too many times in a row' moves) use the same counter so I don't see any use for it. |
| 1421 | ** Endure followed by Reversal or Endeavor kicks ass. |
| 1422 | ** Using Endure to survive a hit may activate a held item or beneficial ability (Swarm, Overgrow, Blaze, Torrent, etc.), or even both. A Swarming Heracross with 1 HP and a Salac Berry boost tossing out base 200 Reversals can end a match very quickly. |
| 1423 | *** Swarm boosts the power of Bug-type moves. Reversal is a Fighting-type move. |
| 1424 | * Is Pupitar seriously that heavy? So you're telling me this thing which is short, slams the floor when it's sent out of its Poke Ball, but the likes of, say, Mewtwo or Haxorus don't? That sounds rather farfetched if you ask me (no pun intended). It's by far the shortest Pokemon that slams the floor (read: it thuds, makes a loud sound and you can see some yellow circles surrounding that), at least as far as I know of, but is it seriously heavier than so many that are stronger? |
| 1425 | ** You realize Pupitar is a cocoon completely made of stone right? Heavy stuff. |
| 1426 | * What ''are'' the regions in Pokemon? I always thought that they were each an individual country, but abbreviated and cut-down for gameplay reasons, though the lack of large cultural differences between them makes me doubt that a bit. As well as the lack of a passport needed to travel between Johto and Kanto; or are they a singular country? Unova and Orre are stated to be farther away from the Gen I-IV regions, though Orre uses the same Pokemon as those in Kanto/Johto/Hoenn, so it's obviously closer to those regions than it is Unova. Are they just provinces? They seem too big and self-contained for that...states in a Federalist country? Would someone from Saffron identity themselves as Saffronian, a Kanto-dweller, or a citizen of the Kanto-Johto nation? I'm not fond of the "Pokeworld is the exact same geopolitcally as our world, but influenced by Pokemon" theory, so it's possible that Sinnoh and Hoenn are too far away from the Kanto-Johto complex to ever be considered in the same country. ''This is legitimately troubling me''. For all we know, Team Magma's/Aqua's terrainian campaigns could've been seen by other regions as an international act of war! |
| 1427 | ** They're the Pokémon equivelent of a counrty. |
| 1428 | ** It takes for Norman about 30 minutes to go from Littleroot to Petalburg. For player, that should hardly take 30 seconds. Conclusion: The overworld is scaled version of actual region. |
| 1429 | ** Seeing how each of the regions are based off of individual Japanese ones, each region is a state. Unova is Poke-New York, after all (plus part New Jersey). |
| 1430 | * Bill created a TIME MACHINE and no one seems to give a flying f. The hell! One would think this discovery would be a big deal. Hell, the fact that Bill told a random child about this means that a possible "secret government experiment" reasoning is now null. |
| 1431 | ** This is a world where the God of Time is a known force, as is at least one species of time-traveling benevolent plant fairies. Chances are anybody swimming against the current in the river of time for any reason but parlor tricks is going to be on the wrong end of a Roar of Time before long, and everybody probably knows it. |
| 1432 | ** This is the universe that matter-energy conversion, teleportation, and ability to store things in other dimensions. All of this is just used for glorified ''cock-fighting.'' Time travel is positively mundane in comparison. |
| 1433 | * Several things have bugged me about movesets: |
| 1434 | ** 1. Zekrom can't learn Earthquake: Even though things such as Ekans, Girafarig, and Latias can. Zekrom's the heaviest Pokémon who can't learn Earthquake, in fact. [[FlatWhat What.]] |
| 1435 | ** 2. Palkia can't learn Psychic or Teleport: It's a Spatial Diety! Shouldn't it be able to manipulate space and use telekinetic forces and teleportation? |
| 1436 | ** 3. Dialga can't learn Future Sight: It's a Temporal Diety! Shouldn't it manipulate time to see the future? |
| 1437 | ** 4. Giratina can't learn Explosion: [[OverlyLongGag It's an Antimatter Diety!]] Shouldn't antimatter explode upon contact with regular matter? |
| 1438 | *** [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Gameplay and Story Segregation]] is your trope. (If it helps any, Zekrom can learn Earth Power in BW2.) |
| 1439 | *** Giritina is actually {{Gravity|Master}}, not Antimatter. |
| 1440 | * How the hell hatched Pokémon get into Poké Ball without actually using up one (Bag contents don't change)? There's a gameplay reason why, but still... Shedinja is also weird in Generation III, since it retains Nincada's Poké Ball yet the amount of them in Bag is not used (fixed in Gen IV where it gets in regular one and uses up it upon evolution; unless you don't have one then no Shedinja). |
| 1441 | ** In the Anime at least, the Daycare gives you a hatcher that includes a Pokeball for when the egg hatches. In the games it's probably the same, just not shown. |
| 1442 | * Attacks such as Thunder Fang, Poison Fang, Poison Sting and the like. They do absolutely no damage against some types (Ground and Steel respectively), but these types are not immune to a regular Bite, Crunch, or other similar attacks from other types ! That does not make sense. They should at least be sensitive to the physical part of them ! |
| 1443 | ** It's possible that the physical part of those attacks is much weaker than normal physical attacks, so it's not enough to hurt the target. |
| 1444 | ** Very weak damage is not null damage. So a small Ember from a weak Pokemon can hurt a high-leveled Ground-Water type, but a strong Thunder Fang does no damage to a level 1 Wooper ? |
| 1445 | *** They may wanna use the PMD solution. Stuff was changed - 2x is now 1.4x, 0.5x is 0.7x and 0x is 0.5x (ineffective attacks or "It has little effect"). However few immunities still exist there, eg. Poison-type can't be poisoned and Levitate still makes you immune to Ground-type moves. And yes, it stacks so eg. Gastrodon gets "not very effective" from Electric-type moves. |
| 1446 | * Before Gen IV fixed it, standard Repel was available in 2 marts (RBYGSC) or 3 (FRLG). The only problem with that didn't had Hoenn (6 Marts). That means the upgraded version are actually more common[[note]]Except Hoenn which got it somewhat right with upgraded ones being less common than standard one[[/note]], especially Max Repel in FRLG (RBY/GSC/RSE/FRLG - Super Repel 4/5/4/4; Max Repel 3/5/4/'''7''')... [[FlatWhat Wait, what?]] PS. This also partially applies to Potions, status ailment healers and Balls itself (though as far as I saw it's not that severe and isn't case in some games like Repel in Hoenn, and some also are available via Crystal's Goldenrod sale, such as Full Restore as early as GOLDENROD) |
| 1447 | * I fail to see a difference between Thunderbolt and Thunder in animé... or I am just blind? Well, I always imagined that Thunderbolt is a direct bolt of lightning, while Thunder hits cloud and then comes back down to hit target, explaining why in intense sunlight it's harder to hit, while in rain - in Gen IV it's easier to hit while in Gen V it bypasses the accuracy and evasion checks. |
| 1448 | ** Well, in Pokespe, at least, a Thunderbolt comes out of the body while Thunder is summoned from the sky. |
| 1449 | * I know this has been asked before, but why do the Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir and Gothita/Gothorita/Gothitelle species have males as well as females? They are designed to resemble girls in dresses, and there are exclusively female Pokémon species, such as Smoochum/Jynx, Miltank, and Petilil/Lilligant. |
| 1450 | ** {{Wholesome Crossdresser}}s? |
| 1451 | ** Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir aren't that feminine when it boils down. Gardevoir's name in Japanese is "Sir Knight", it has no feminine traits other than a dress and strange hairstyle (no boobs, kiddos. Look closely, ole Gardy's flatter than a pancake). That red thing that looks like a bow/chest-centerpiece? That's its heart. The only time Gardevoir gets especially female is when it Mega Evolves, and as the Dex explains (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ekBwmdjD-w), Mega Gardevoir references Shakespearean plays, specifically Romeo & Juliet. And back in the day, woman weren't allowed on stage, so men wore dresses, explaining why there's still male Gardevoirs. The Gothita line references Goth culture, and the majority of Gothic outfits can sometimes look feminine, even on the most manly of men. |
| 1452 | * What is the problem with poaching in the Pokemon world. I know that in the real world it's a serious problem, but in a lot of the cases it seems to me that poachers are, for the most part, catching Pokemon just as everybody else does, albeit with different methods. I understand them drawing the line at stealing other people's, but in a world where you are supposed to CatchEmAll (at least at first)... |
| 1453 | ** Poachers use illegal methods of catching Pokemon, while regular trainers are sanctioned and regulated by the regional leagues, using Poke Balls instead. |
| 1454 | * How the hell wings (actually feathers but [[CharacterNameLimits limits]]) work? You use them on Pokémon, but what, you stick them to Pokémon? Well if you pick them, then why nothing happens, not even slightest thing (because seemingly full thing uses them or something)... Like Rare Candy... though eating Rare Candy is apparently equivalent to eating dog food. |
| 1455 | * Gastly, Haunter and Silph Scope. So ok, you need that for Pokémon Tower (Lost Cave is justified as it's late-game location and you should have that by the time you reach it)... but not anything else? Gastly appears in Tin Tower (Bell Tower) and Sprout Night in GS as well as Route 31, 32 and 36 in Crystal (fittingly he appears only when it's night). Diamond and Pearl give it in Route 209, Old Chateau and Lost Tower, Platinum exchanges Route for Eterna Forest. HGSS takes original GS and adds Safari Zone. Unova has it in White Forest! Haunter? Route 8 in GS, and also Rock Tunnel in Crystal (both night-only). With dual slot, appears in Old Chateau and Turnback Cave in Diamond and Pearl (only Chateau in Platinum), HGSS once again takes Gold and Silver and adds Safari Zone, Heck, even GENGAR appears in Old Chateau if you have ''any'' Generation III game in dual slot - a Pokémon that you get by '''[[SocializationBonus TRADING]]'''. So I ask again, why the fuck you don't need Silph/Devon Scope for all that? Are they all built-in later in your Bag/thingies? Or what... (Okay, Gen II can be forgiven, since we don't know if that thingy would fit on cartridge considering all the cut areas, but later games have no damn excuse for that) |
| 1456 | ** The way I understood it, the Silph Scope was necessary to unmask the Marowak ghost, which was stirring up all the gastlies in the tower. |
| 1457 | ** Would you REALLY want to need an item to interact with ghosts every single game? It'd be more trouble than it's worth, they could throw in a handwave to explain but is it really needed either? Just move on... |
| 1458 | * Why does the Pokedex list separate stages of a Pokémon like they're separate creatures all together rather than group all stages of one Pokémon under the same number? |
| 1459 | ** Because the original researchers classified them as different animals, and it stuck? That, or they're actually considered separate creatures in-universe. |
| 1460 | ** Because many pokemon act drastically different once they reach maturity, some even doing complete 180's from their larval stages. It's like having a section of a report on butterflies that only talks about the caterpillars, and a second section that only talks about the butterflies. |
| 1461 | * So what's the general consensus with foes and their [=IV=]s? For comparison, I was battling Colress in Black 2 the other day, and my Krookodile with 159 Speed was slower than his Level 74 Klinklang. I put a max IV'd Klinklang's stats into Psypokes' stat calculator and there its max is 161. But earlier today, my Serperior used Giga Drain on a Backpacker's Level 62 Omanyte and gained 58 HP, and if Omanyte has no [=IV=]s or [=EVs=] at Level 62, it has 115 HP (115 / 2 = 57.5, rounded up is 58). And Cynthia's team in DPPt has max [=IV=]s on all her Pokemon. So my guess is that some of the harder trainers have max [=IV=]s on some of their team, but normal trainers don't have any? |
| 1462 | ** As far as I know, this goes that way, though not exactly. I think the [=IV=]s depend on the Trainer, so probably Trainers like Twins would have low [=IV=]s, Ace Trainers midhigh, Veteran higher, Gym Leader even higher, Elite four EVEN higher and champion the highest (Cynthia's Mons apparently have 31 in everything). |
| 1463 | *** On a similar note, I was playing another file today, and I was battling alongside my rival in the Plasma Frigate. I noticed his Emboar had 185 HP at Level 50, so I took a max IV'd Level 50 Emboar with no [=EVs=] to the stat calculator and it had 185 HP. And at Lacunosa Town, he was Level 43 with 160 HP, and that matched too. So Hugh (or whatever you end up naming him) might have max [=IV=]s also, that may just be for the tag battles and not your battles with him, but I thought i'd share that. |
| 1464 | ** That might be better asked in a specialized board or wiki. |
| 1465 | * The Amulet Coin doubles the money you get from battles, but where does the extra money come from? |
| 1466 | ** The sky. |
| 1467 | ** When trainer's lose, they pay out half the money they have (Like how if you Black out, you lose half your money in Generation III and prior). When you use the Amulet coin they can pay you double quite easily. Of course, now you made them broke. Good job. That's how it worked Gen III and Prior, in Gen IV, the payout is probably less than half their money, and they can still double it. |
| 1468 | * Why are Psychic and Dark types weak against Bugs? Where's the connection? Also, why is Poison only effective against Grass? It should be effective against Water (pollution), Steel (corrosion), and Normal types (intoxicated). |
| 1469 | ** Psychic's weaknesses are based on three of the most common fears in people - darkness, bugs and ghosts/death. |
| 1470 | ** Bug beats Psychic I'd assume because bug minds are too weird for them, or maybe it's just a fear of bugs screwing them up. Poison doesn't affect those types well because water dilutes it, steel can't be penetrated (and animal venom wouldn't affect it anyway), and normal-types have no reason to be weaker against it than other Pokemon. |
| 1471 | ** Bugs usually operate under HiveMind--the ability that powers up Bug-type moves is ''Swarm''--while Dark types are implied to be either evil or some kind of psychic void and Ghosts are... well, [[DemonicPossession gho]][[SpookySeance sts]]. Same answer as above for Poison. (Or, if you're in a more Doylist mood, Psychic types ''really'' needed to be nerfed after the first generation and they didn't want Poison types to be overpowered.) |
| 1472 | * In ''[[VideoGame/PanelDePon Pokémon Puzzle Leauge]]'', Sabrina keeps saying "I told you so". What did she say exactly? Is there some sort of subliminal message I'm not getting? |
| 1473 | ** WelcomeToCorneria; that was a generic enough voice clip from the anime that the gamemakers decided it was suitable, presumably as a losing animation. I got sick of hearing Ash exclaim "Pikachu!" after chain clearances, and as Team Rocket's clips, especially as a) they were the final bosses of the level, & b) the Nintendo Online Account N64 emulator doesn't allow the ability to replay the last few minutes like the other emulators, so I had to put up with it until I finally broke through. |
| 1474 | * In Let's Plays, why do people always say "that didn't do that much at all" when their attacks don't do enough to 2HKO the opponent? Is almost half "not that much at all"? Just because something won't kill in two hits doesn't mean it's pathetic. |
| 1475 | ** That's not much of FridgeLogic, take your questions to them... |
| 1476 | * Why are trainers that specialize in dragon types, considered so amazing? I'm thinking of the hype centered around Lance and Clair, and to a lesser extent later dragon masters in other region's E4s. But let's be honest, ''anyone'' can buy a Dratini from the game corners, or fish for one in the safari park, then level it up to a Dragonite. I'm not saying it's easy, cheap, or even quick, but it's do-able. Plus, it's not like their entire teams are made solely of 'dragon' types either. The amount of ''dragon masters'' that use Gyarados for instance (who is water/flying) that levels up from the ridiculously common and easy to capture Magikarp (that evolves as low as level 20), or Charizard (final level starter). Kingdras as well (gen 2 onwards) can be gained just by trading Seadra's with a dragon scale. It's perfectly possible for the player to make a strong team out of maybe Dragonite, 2 Dragonairs, a Kingdra, a Gyarados and a Charizard, with higher levels than anything Clair and Lance have, and yet Lance has a huge fan following, and Clair is considered ''blessed user of dragon Pokémon''. And the elder of the Dragon clan talks about how the Dragon's Den is "off limits to anyone that isn't a dragon trainer" like it's some kind of unique or special thing. Maybe during the initial hype of the first gen (back when people were still considering Mew a rumour) the dragon type might have been epic, but now it just seems kind of all talk. |
| 1477 | ** GameplayAndStorySegregation. A player training a dragon type may be as simple as any other Pokemon, but in-universe raising a Dragon is supposed to be very difficult, not only they are rare to catch, training them is also hard, not only actual dragons but Charizard and specially Gyarados can't be trained by just anyone (again, in-universe), the Dragon den is closed to any but some trainers because dragons are like endangered species and if anyone were allowed to enter the place where they live and catch them without limits they'd become even rarer. |
| 1478 | *** What particularly bothered me about the snobbery of the elitist dragon clan was the notion that you couldn't enter their den until you had been blessed as a dragon user. But you can't really be a dragon user, unless you actually own and train a dragon type. But you can't get a dragon type until you enter the den (the only place they are catchable excluding the game corners). So you end up only being able to catch your first dragon Pokémon until after you're considered a dragon user. It's just... FlatWhat. I understand they segregate the gameplay and story (heaven knows that trope has been mentioned about a dozen times on this very page already), and they still intend to maintain the mythical hype of dragon types while still allowing them to be achievable for the Pokedex. But the dragon clan members must be inbred or something (we know they're an enclosed family), because they're really stupid. I'm half tempted to label their 'blessed dragon worshipping culture' as some kind of independent backlash counter-culture, because no one else in the Pokemon universe could put up with their retardness. Hence why they all isolate themselves in Blackthorn with their own socially constructed hierarchy, so they can embrace what little merit they have in the world. Of course, the notion that dragon types are endangered and rare, that the clan doesn't want to allow any old random person (considering Team Rocket's strive to return) to capture and mistreat the colonies that do exist is fair enough. They're protecting them, sure. But the way they act like they're the authority over who is more capable of befriending a dragon type is just pathetic. Surely if they really worshipped dragon types, and admired their intelligence, they'd let the dragon types decide who they do or don't want to fight for themselves. not to decide for them. If you ask me, I think the Blackthorn dragon clan are the ones that are ironically mistreating dragon types, by locking them away and trying to claim monopoly on their ownership. Owning dragon types is the only thing that makes them ''special'', and they don't want to lose that, so they hinder others from sharing the same privilege (unless they bow down to their publicity). Otherwise Lance and Clair would just be standard trainers/gym leaders, it's a selfish drive. "How ''dare'' anyone else own Dragon types? Those are ''my types''". |
| 1479 | *** ...[[AuthorFilibuster You have problems man.]] |
| 1480 | *** To be fair, from the way the trainers in the Blackthorn Gym talk, I do get the impression that there's a bit of CultOfPersonality centered around the Blackthorn dragon clan, and around Lance and Clair in general. Seeing as no other trainers seem to have dragon types, apart from the ones that surrender themselves as fanatics only. Also, just a reminder of basic human etiquette, just because someone discovers something you hadn't thought about before doesn't mean they ''have problems''. That's just rude. |
| 1481 | *** The CultOfPersonality thing seems to be a holdover from the first and second generations, when Dragon-type Pokemon were far rarer. In ''Black and White'' Iris and Drayden don't really get treated any differently than the other gym leaders, and Iris herself is a fairly low-key Champion. Now that Fairy-type Pokemon are on their way... |
| 1482 | *** On a slightly related note, why do Lance and the dragon clan elder talk about how Pokémon should be treated with friendship and compassion, yet the blessed user of the clan (Clair) gives you the rising badge that makes ''all Pokémon obey you without question''? I wasn't aware deception and manipulation were compassionate strands of true friendship. I kind of get the vibe that the Blackthorn dragon clan is kind of a 'can preach but can't practice' all-talk cult too. |
| 1483 | *** I don't think badges work via mind control. I think the idea is that Pokemon will obey you if you've proven yourself to be a competent trainer (by having badges). |
| 1484 | *** Obey seems like a strange word for the game to use though, because it kind of suggests unquestioned obedience which has UnfortunateImplications. If it was just about proving to Pokémon that you're a competent trainer, it should probably be referred to as respect instead, rather than being ''obeyed''. I'unno, I always felt it was a strange word to use. |
| 1485 | *** It's possible that it's not that badge that makes all Pokémon obey you, it's owning 8 badges in total. When you own 8 badges, most Pokémon look at you, think, "Eight badges? S/He must be a ''genius''!", and obey whatever you tell them because they think you're going to win. |
| 1486 | * This applies to both Black and White as well as Black and White 2, and since it wasn't easy to decide which page to put it on, it'll go here. ''Why'' does Ghetsis seem to think he is a threat? Why does the ''fanbase'' regard this man as a threat? He was a monster, yes, but, his goals could be ''easily'' thwarted. While Ghetsis would have succeeded without the player character intervening, he was only taking over one region and there were FOUR OTHER REGIONS with PLENTY of people stronger than him (every previous main character, every previous rival, every gym leader of every region, every elite four member of every region, ''Professor Oak''). Oh yes, Professor Bloody Oak, if you regard his unused team data as a canon, Oak has Pokemon that are LEVELS beyond Ghetsis, exceeding him in sheer power, and, given this is a new generation, Oak would most likely have newer moves on his Pokemon's team. ''Professor Oak'' could have stopped this man. And before you bring up "Oh, if his plan succeeded, he would have had N with the legendary Pokemon as the figurehead", Ghetsis himself summed up everything that is wrong with that assumption. A Pokemon, even if it's regarded as a god, is still just a Pokemon. Standard weaknesses apply to Reshiram and Zekrom, N wouldn't have been able to fend off an angry world of Gym Leaders, ex-protagonists, Elite Fours, and, for the final time, ''Professor Bloody Oak''. |
| 1487 | ** ...Because he's raving insane ("I AM PERFECTION!") and outright attempts to ''murder'' the protagonist? Just because he can't outright obliterate everything and everyone in one go doesn't mean Ghetsis can't cause some serious damage. Who knows how many people would lose their Pokemon, through theft or being forced to release them or hacking the PC? If they can hack the Pokemon storage system, what about banks? What's to stop them from marching into Pokemon centers with high-level teams they stole from other people? Yes, someone from Kanto/Johto/etc. would step in eventually, but in the meantime--well, imagine Hugh's sister's Purrloin, on a country-wide scale. |
| 1488 | ** Is Ghetsis going to stroll into Oak's lab and go ''"Hey Professor, let's have a legal and safe Pokemon battle!"''? What's stopping him, flying over Kanto with N and spamming giant fireballs from the sky or waltzing into Hoenn and sicking his Pokemon on the general public? Gym Leaders and Elite Four can't do anything if they're dead or permanently injured. Sure, it was kept normal for gameplay purposes but this ''won't'' be gameplay. So far, he's proven he doesn't actually care what he does to the people of the region, now imagine him with his full army, without the protagonist there to stop him. And despite the protagonists tenacity to keep on going, you have to remember, even though Reshiram/Zekrom are just Pokemon, who's going to stand up to them? Do you think people will be up in arms against them? Hell, a normal person would probably run screaming from the sight of them, not even trying for a fight. |
| 1489 | *** Agreed with this, but I should also add that Ghetsis stated that his plan in the first game in particular would be his ticket to total world domination. If he took over this one region, it's the equivalent to taking over a country and being in possession of all its' resources, namely its' Pokemon. What does the dictator of one nation do when he wants to take over all the other nations of the world? ''Declare war.'' With all the Pokemon in the Unova region, Reshiram and Zekrom included, Ghetsis would open fire on one region at a time, doing the same thing to them he did to Unova. The more regions he conquers, the more Pokemon get added to his arsenal for when he takes on the next region. And yes, he's not going to play by the rules at all. While his chances of ultimately succeeding are still unlikely, he'd still do a ton of damage ''and'' at the very least have a shot at success that one should be unwilling to let him have. He still had to be stopped. Similar to how Cyrus needed to be stopped even though he shot himself in the foot in DP by letting you free the Lake Trio, and how in Platinum his actions disturbed Giratina, which put a stop to things anyway. |
| 1490 | * ...how can you give Aspear Berry to a frozen Pokémon? Shouldn't it be like... encased in ice? |
| 1491 | ** [[AsYouKnow Simple;]] Aspear berries contain juices that induce higher body temptatures in pokemon, so by squeezing the juices over a 'mon, they'll warm up and defrost themselves. (Though throwing them like one would a rotten tomato could suffice in a pinch.) Also, I refuse to believe the pokemon are put in a block of ice, instead the body is partially covered with enough frost to simulate being frozen completely. Many parts of the body are still exposed, but not enough to simply shake off the cold. |
| 1492 | * This is a question that may or may not have been asked in the past, but why are there so many people that don't like X items? I can't really find a precise reasoning for people shrugging them off and acting disappointed when they see them. "It wears off if you switch out!" So do stat boosting moves like Dragon Dance and Calm Mind, and yet people still use those. And X items have higher priority, so you can use them BEFORE taking a hit and reduce the damage they deal, unlike, say, Calm Mind, where if you're slower you'd have to take the hit first. Also, X items don't take up a moveslot. They're listed on the GameBreaker page, yet they're so useless in the eyes of those people. Really, the question is, why? |
| 1493 | ** I've never used them, just sold them because I don't feel like using them. Why people ''hate'' them, I have no idea. Myself, as I said earlier, I just don't use them. |
| 1494 | ** It may be because the majority of people who discuss move usefulness are referring to their applications in tournaments, where using items from the bag is usually not permitted. |
| 1495 | * I always wondered what the Coolness means. Does it man cool as something that's good/popular/whatever (like cool sunglasses), or cool as in calmness; calmness in intense situation (guess you can call that control over emotions). Of all the Conditions, this one's name is ambigious! |
| 1496 | * In Generation IV, if you have the battle style on Set, and something of yours faints to a wild Pokémon, the "Use next Pokémon?" feature is no longer there (as in, you can't attempt to run until you send out your next Pokémon). Why does this only happen in DPPt and HGSS (and wild double battles in Gen V)? If they're gonna not do it that way in one generation, then they do in one and change it the next, that doesn't make much sense. |
| 1497 | * The reason Pokémon can use berries but not Potions or Antidotes is because they can't use manmade items which is understandable for animalistic Pokémon like Rattata but what about the more intelligent and humanoid Pokémon like Alakazam? |
| 1498 | ** Probably the same reason [[GameplayAndStorySegregation it can remember anything but a fifth move]]. |
| 1499 | * Why do Bug Catchers never evolve their Pokemon? Even if they're just unusually attached to the first and second stage evolutionary forms, there is absolutely ''no'' excuse to not have at least one Butterfree or Beedrill when you already have multiple level 16+ Caterpies/Weedles. Seriously? They can't even bring themselves to let ''one'' bug from their collection evolve and become viable in battle? |
| 1500 | ** Because they're little kids, and little kids who play Pokemon tend to do just that. |
| 1501 | ** Because they're Ash? ([[CharacterizationMarchesOn Early seasons!Ash]], that is.) |
| 1502 | * So wait, what again was the reason for making the flutes vendor trash in Unova games? You can obtain them on Route 13 (from the treasure guy, which may take a while considering the pool of items is rather big, or in sequels, Ace Trainer who gives just Flutes).[[note]]On side note, why the fuck Blue Flute was in ''Battle items'' pocket? It wakes up Pokémon, which unlike confusion or infatuation, does '''not''' wear off after the battle[[/note]] |
| 1503 | * What happens when you use a Pokéball on a person. Would it just bounce off without doing anything or would you get a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcggYZn32zk Pokéman?]]? |
| 1504 | ** The animé has shown that it would just bounce off. Plus, in the games, if you try to catch another trainer's Pokémon (without cheats that is) it would say the trainer "blocked the Pokéball". |
| 1505 | *** In one episode of the anime, if a human gets hit by the tractor beam that a Poké Ball creates when returning a Pokémon into it, they will get stunned for a short period of time. |
| 1506 | * Given Joltik's size (about the size of a real world bug) how is it able to break out of a Pokéball with it's small size? |
| 1507 | ** If Pokemon has taught anyone anything, it should be that Pokemon size doesn't correlate to power. |
| 1508 | * Why is Druddigon listed in the Red Pokédex color when only its head and fins are red and the rest of its skin is blue? |
| 1509 | ** Well, its name comes from "ruddy" (red), so I guess that's the important aspect. Kinda like how a blue-tongued skink is mostly brown, but the blue part gets the attention. |
| 1510 | *** On that note, one other thing I noticed when I was using a Druddigon against a Horde battle was its behind sprite has some red carvings under the blue part of its skin. So that must explain the part that connects to its head; if the blue "shell" or whatever wasn't on it there would be that. |
| 1511 | * I understand why the game functions the way it does from a gameplay mechanic way. However in-universe is there any reason why Pokemon congregate around certain areas by level and why you're generally restricted to that area at the start? Sometimes (Black and White 2) it's explained that you can't be allowed to leave until you've earned a gym badge, does EVERYBODY in a given region always start their adventure in the same city and collect badges in the same order? Again mechanically it's because the gyms are dungeons and you advance in a certain order but in universe I'd expect people to challenge their local gym before starting to travel but anybody who beat Cinnabar's gym (Red/Blue,Fire Red, Leaf Green) would tear through the other gyms on sheer power alone type and strategy be damned. |
| 1512 | ** It's implied a couple times in the later generations that Gym Leaders have leveled teams. A team of level 10-ish Pokèmon, a team of level 20-ish Pokèmon and so forth. When you battle them they're just using the team they feel is best suited to your current strength. I haven't been able to find an explanation for the wild Pokèmon, though. |
| 1513 | * Why doesn't the Inner Focus ability prevent confusion? If it states that the Pokémon concentrates intensely, then it should be able to focus and not get messed up in the head. That would have been a nice tweak for X and Y, like how Oblivious blocks Taunt. |
| 1514 | ** If it prevented flinching and confusion, then Own Tempo would be just a lamer version of Inner Focus. |
| 1515 | ** You mean like how "strong jaw" is "tough claws" but restricted only to biting moves?[[note]]Despite what the name suggests, "tough claws" powers-up any moves that involve making physical contact, including biting attacks, rather than attacks that involve the user's claws.[[/note]] |
| 1516 | *** Though we have two abilities that prevent sleep and nothing else (Insomnia and Vital Spirit), and yeah I know those are the same and not one being a lamer version of the other, but yeah I guess that doesn't really explain anything. Not to mention Dragonite with Outrage would have been even more fearsome with it. |
| 1517 | * Why do most water routes have Tentacool and Tentacruels and very little else? Aside from gameplay issues, it's also a bit unrealistic to have a body of ocean solely to have one species. Even if we limit to Gen 1-2 Pokemons, they could have more Gyaradoses, Seadras, Mantines, Remoraids, and in some cases even Dragonites, Chinchous/Lanturns, and Seels/Dewgongs roaming around. With Gen 3, we can have Wailmers and Sharpedoes, and Sealeos/Walreins. Come Gen 4, there's at least Finneon. |
| 1518 | ** It's probably a representation of the jellyfish overpopulation in Japan. |
| 1519 | *** That could be the case, but that still feels unrealistic. (And it doesn't explain why tranversing water should be more monotonous, and more filled with DemonicSpiders than necessary.) |
| 1520 | *** Why is it unrealistic, it's based on an issue that's happening currently on real life, how more realistic than that could it be. In the same way that caves are plaged with zubats and geodudes. |
| 1521 | *** Well, there were at least 2, in most patches of random encounters, and I've seen 3+. It's only the Kanto/Johto waterways, that, most of the time, only use one evolutionary line of Tentacools. And this is where you'd expect other species to possibly migrate, like what some aquatic creatures do in real life. |
| 1522 | * If mega stones are ancient and Mewtwo is a fairly recent phenomenon (either man made outright, or recently born as mentioned in Gen 1) how are there not one, but two, Mega Stones for Mewtwo? |
| 1523 | ** It's [[PopularityPower Mewtwo]]. (Seriously, that's probably the answer in-universe: the sheer amount of power Mewtwo gives off was enough to make two versions of a mega stone--one for each game.) |
| 1524 | ** Mewtwo is a clone of Mew, a Pokemon with the genetic material of all Pokemon. The real question is, why aren't there MORE mega stones for Mewtwo? For that matter, where's Mew's mega stone? |
| 1525 | * If you need to be at least ten to be a Pokemon trainer, why do I keep running into and battling kids who are way younger? |
| 1526 | ** I'm not sure, but I don't think the age requirement is ever mentioned in the games. |
| 1527 | ** These are little kids who have been left with their caretaker's (teacher's, parent's, etc) pokemon. The caretaker isn't letting the kid watch the pokemon, they're trusting the pokemon to watch out for the little bugger while the kid plays outside. |
| 1528 | ** You need to be ten to go on a Pokemon adventure and compete against Gyms and in the League, you can have a Pokemon of your own at any age. |
| 1529 | ** That's an anime-only rule. |
| 1530 | * Speaking of Mewtwo, why doesn't it have Sheer Force as its Hidden Ability? Its Pokédex entry in (Heart) Gold says its power is the ultimate level and it thinks only of beating its foes. Read that Pokédex entry and tell me this thing wasn't fucking ''made'' to abuse attacks with Sheer Force. |
| 1531 | ** The idea behind Sheer Force is that the Pokemon compensates for it's limited abilities with brute strength. Mewtwo is intelligent, and knows how to use additional effects - Ones that aren't any less about defeating foes. |
| 1532 | *** "Limited abilities"? That explains why already very strong Pokémon like Darmanitan and Conkeldurr (the latter of who is good with cement) get the ability, doesn't it? |
| 1533 | *** "Limited" as in the opposite of versatile. Not as in weak. |
| 1534 | * When you challenge Sabrina for the first time, she tells you that she doesn't like fighting. If she doesn't like fighting, what's she doing as a Gym Leader? |
| 1535 | ** She probably meant fighting as in either human-on-human fighting or as in battles with actual animosity (as opposed to most Pokemon battles, which are done for sport and with no ill will towards the opposing trainer). |
| 1536 | ** No, she was talking about fighting in general, including Pokémon battles, as she basically says "I dislike fighting, but will do it if that's what you want". In the remakes, she even says ''battling'' instead of fighting. |
| 1537 | ** Also, if she dislikes battling so much, why did she challenge and beat the Fighting Dojo back when it was Saffron City's other Gym in order strip it off its status as an official Gym and ensure hers is the only one in the city? |
| 1538 | ** Because she wants to teach people to develop their psychic powers and being a Pokemon Gym Leader is the best way to do that. |
| 1539 | * Is the Single-Front Coat Dress Pink piece of female clothing supposed to bear a striking resemblance to Dawn's outfit in Platinum? Go look at them and tell me they don't look awfully similar. |
| 1540 | * The fact that the Pokedex always starts out as empty bugs me. We ''know'' that the various professors are in contact with one another. They also seem to know the exact number of Pokemon types native to the region, as they know exactly when you've seen all the Pokemon there is to see. And yet, you always have to start completely from scratch. In Kalos there's only about 69 Pokemon that haven't been documented somewhere else, and yet you're tasked with documenting the ~380 Pokemon they should already grabbed the data for several times over. What's more, the 'dexes ''never'' have any data on the two starters you didn't pick, even though the region's designated professor was in possession of all three of them just minutes before. Is Pokemon research being hamstringed by copyright issues, or are Pokemon professors just incapable of sharing data? |
| 1541 | ** By this point, I'm pretty sure it's less about the Professors getting all the data and more about ''you'', the PlayerCharacter, getting all the data--the series has gone from "take this starter and go out on this big journey specifically to fill out the Pokedex for me, the local Professor" to "take this starter and go out and have a big adventure! Oh, and take the Pokedex along, you might find it useful, I dunno". The Pokedex and the idea of 'gotta catch 'em all' has become such an [[TheArtifact artifact]] of the series (understandably, what with 717 Pokemon running around) that I wouldn't be surprised if it's just tradition at this point to toss in a Pokedex along with the kid's flamey/sludgy/leafy thing. |
| 1542 | ** I've always thought that the Pokedex is just an encyclopedia that doesn't tell you jack shit until you're face to face with the thing, much like the anime's pokedex. "Huh, there's a thing I've never seen before. Maybe the pokedex knows what it is and can help me catch it." |
| 1543 | * So how come guys like Pidgey and Poliwag are considered different species to their evolved forms when they're more or less younger versions of them? If we apply that logic to real life, then we'd have to consider chicks and kittens to be a different species from chickens and cats rather than "baby" chickens/cats. |
| 1544 | ** Thank Arceus I'm not the only one who notices and is bothered by this. I mean, would it have been so hard to classify all of a pokemon's stages as one species that just goes through metamorphic changes? |
| 1545 | *** Maybe because some Pokemon do a 180 when they mature? It's obvious to tell that some pokemon are just bigger versions of their pre-evo, but could someone honestly explain to me that Bellossom and Vileplume are even remotely related without saying "because they are" or making me witness the evolution? |
| 1546 | * Why are what are essentially performance-enhancing drugs with [[GRatedDrug cleaner names]] legal in the Pokemon league? |
| 1547 | ** They're not the equivalent of steroids. They're the equivalent of protein shakes. |
| 1548 | * So at the end of Red/Blue, Red beats the Elite Four, and you think you're at the end of your journey until you learn Blue beat you to it and is now the Champion. Red beats Blue and becomes the champion for real. However, he gets bored and goes to stand on a mountain for three years, leaving the Champion spot open. So then in Gold and Silver, you beat all eight Johto gyms, go through the Elite Four, and you meet... Lance. Not Blue, the previous Champion who also beat the Elite Four. Lance. The guy who lost to Blue before. Am I the only one who was bugged by this? |
| 1549 | ** Blue's busy being the Viridian City Gym Leader. |
| 1550 | * So the pokedex says that flygons kick up sandstorms whenever they take flight. So then why don't flygons have "sand stream" as their ability rather than "levitate"? |
| 1551 | ** Because one is continuous and the other is just for a moment. |
| 1552 | * Sorry about my ignorance, but is it legal to take a Ditto to gym battles and leagues? Knowing that it turns into any Pokémon. |
| 1553 | ** Of course. Ditto is hardly that powerful - Most have to use up a turn to transform. Even Ditto with the Impostor ability will just be a duplicate of the other (legal) Pokemon with less PP. |
| 1554 | * Prior to the change in the physical/special split in Generation IV, Dark-type moves were classified as special moves. Every Dark-type move that actually existed during that time is now a Physical move. Why was the Dark-type classified as "special" at all? |
| 1555 | * '''''WHY''''' do most Pokemon say their own names? You'd think something like Haxorus would get a MightyRoar or something! |
| 1556 | ** In the games, they do roar/bark/whatever instead of saying their name. In the show's universe, it could be assumed that Pokemon are named after the sounds they make. |
| 1557 | * Why does everyone assume Pokemon reproduce via sexual intercourse? There's no sign of them having the necessary equipment, not even a bump or something for the males, and HotSkittyOnWailordAction couldn't take place if they did. |
| 1558 | ** Because most pokemon are based on animals that reproduce sexually, so it's just common sense. Also, just because they don't appear to have reproductive organs, doesn't mean they really don't have them. This is a kids' game, after all. |
| 1559 | *** Real-life mammals don't walk around with their junk wobbling out. Well, except those pesky human-types. |
| 1560 | * Roar of Time is not a roar. It's a beam. It's not even a sound-based move. Explain. |
| 1561 | ** Roar is presumably what initiates the attack. |
| 1562 | * Why hasn't a Demon Tribe/Mazoku showed up yet!?! They've shown up in Mario(Bowser, Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings at least) and Zelda(Ganon, Demise, Ghirahim, Vaati, Bellum, Maladus, Chancellor Cole, Moblins, Bokoblins and Miniblins) and they are two of Nintendo's major Nintendo franchises so why shouldn't Pokemon yet another major Nintendo franchise have the Demon Tribe/Mazoku make an appearance!?! |
| 1563 | * The move "steel wing" is a contact move, meaning that a pokemon who uses the move will touch their target when executing the attack. So why does the animation for the move imply that your pokemon is flinging metal feathers at the opponent? |
| 1564 | * Why is Charmeleon a different color than Charmander and Charizard? |
| 1565 | ** Evolution can change Pokemon in all sorts of ways, including color. Just look Pokémon such as Raichu, [=Porygon2=], and ''all'' the Eeveelutions. |
| 1566 | ** This seems to be a trend for middle-stage Pokemon. Wartortle, Marshtomp and Machoke has the same issue. |
| 1567 | * What ''is'' in Repels what causes every Pokémon to not fight you, anyway? Like, does there exist some sort of repellent which causes most animals to avoid you? |
| 1568 | ** Yes. Likely some sort of anti-pheromone, |
| 1569 | * The three starters you get in every game. Why can't they be found in the wild? Is there some area somewhere that these Pokemon live in, that we'll never see? Also, why those starters? Almost every NPC trainer in every game (and Anime) started with non-starter Pokemon, even lampshaded in the anime when one of Rowan's assistants said he started his journey with a Bidoof. |
| 1570 | ** Possibly because the starters are borderline legendary just from an aesthetic standpoint. In the first gen we have a flaming dragon thing, a giant turtle tank, and a dinosaur with a tree growing out of its back. While their introductory stages are cute and cuddly these creatures grow up into proper monsters and their populations are probably somewhat more limited. |
| 1571 | ** Their habitats are likely protected and not available to the public so you never get to go there. |
| 1572 | * Gardevoir is one of the most feminine-looking Pokémon and yet its Japanese name is the manliest ever? |
| 1573 | ** It's name is Sirknight, because Gardevoir is based on magical knights from anime and manga. It's just that it looks feminine to people (presumably) outside Japan. |
| 1574 | *** Gardevoir has a freakin' skirt, and have you looked at its Mega form? There's no way its feminine look was unintentional. |
| 1575 | *** Pokémon comes from the same country where the {{Bishonen}} character type originated and became popular. It is very possible Gardevoir is meant to be seen as androgynous like that. There are many other Pokémon that look more male or female but can be either gender (such as the very masculine Machamp, which can be female, Primarina is actually far more likely to be male despite the feminine mermaid look, etc.) The designers do seem to like playing around with gender stereotypes for some reason. |
| 1576 | ** Some Pokémon names made more sense for their beta designs. For instance, Girafarig's back originally mirrored its front, with a head (rather than a tail with a face) and all, fitting his palindrome name. Perhaps Gardevoir's Japanese name is another remnant of an early concept? It might have looked less feminine in its early designs. |
| 1577 | * There is a Patrat from the Furious Fists set. It has 60 HP, and an attack for one energy called Safety Check. The attack does no damage, and it allows you to look at one of your prize cards. What on Earth is the purpose of this effect? You can't use your prize cards, so it doesn't matter if the card you find is useful to you or not. It's not like this card has been made obsolete. At the time of this post, Furious Fists is the most recent set! |
| 1578 | ** You ''do'' get to use your Prize Cards when you KO an opposing Pokemon. You choose one of them of your choice. Unless Patrat makes you shuffle the Prize Cards, it would be useful to check if a Prize was any good or not. |
| 1579 | * Why does Nidorina/o need a Moon Stone to evolve? Other Moon Stone users evolve into something cute, pink and/or fairy-like, but those two are infused with Rhydon's genes and getting a Ground-type instead? |
| 1580 | ** Nidoran is [[MoonRabbit rabbit-like]]. |
| 1581 | * Why is the Gastly line part Poison-type? What's even poisonous about them? The strategy guides and anime pointed out that if you wanted to sweep Sabrina, you should get yourself a Haunter (or better yet, trade for a Gengar), but even ignoring the fact that Psychic ended up ''immune'' to Ghost instead of weak to it due to a programming error, Game Freak gave the ''only Ghost-types'' in the ''entire game'' a secondary type that was ''weak'' to Psychic moves! They don't even learn any Poison moves by level-up or TM! (Except Toxic, which hardly counts as literally everyone can learn it.) |
| 1582 | ** Gastly is made of poisonous gas, hence part Poison. As for why they made this the only Ghost type in Gen 1, I have no idea. |
| 1583 | ** They're made of the gaseous decomposition of bloated, poorly preserved Pokemon corpses. |
| 1584 | * Why isn't Sky Attack classified as a contact move?!? It's physical and it literally involves plowing head-first into the opponent from the air!! |
| 1585 | ** Maybe Sky Attack's actually energy in bird form? That would explain the animation and the user glowing in the first turn. |
| 1586 | *** Then why isn't it a special attack? |
| 1587 | ** There are a lot of moves that suffer fallacies like that. Other examples are "psycho cut", "natural gift", "spark", "water shuriken", and "fusion bolt" (classified as physcial moves despite no solid objects hitting the target pokemon). |
| 1588 | *** Spark actually makes contact. Psycho Cut is more or less a blade formed by psychic power. Water Shuriken is made of compressed water. Fusion Bolt is Zekrom/Kyurem charging into the opponent... which makes no sense, actually. Nothing on Natural Gift. |
| 1589 | * If Missingno. is 10ft tall and weighs over '''3,500 pounds''', how on earth does it have '''0''' defense (as in, it's ''completely'' defenseless)!? What is that supposed to be equivalent to in real life? |
| 1590 | ** Missingno. isn't even a legit pokemon. It's a glitch. It wasn't meant to exist. It doesn't follow the same rules for coding that the rest of the pokemon that existed at the time did. |
| 1591 | ** It just stands there and takes it? |
| 1592 | * So there are certain legendary pokemon that are shiny-locked, meaning that there is no chance of them being shiny when you encounter them in-game. Assuming this is because canonically there only supposed to be only one of each of those specific legendaries in existence, why did the developers even go through the trouble of making shiny variants of those pokemon if there will be no legit way to obtain them as shiny? |
| 1593 | ** To prevent the game from crashing when someone decides to hack one. To exist in the game, Pokémon need to follow a data template of some kind. This template probably needs data for a shiny form, [[DummiedOut even if this shiny form isn't supposed to be found by the players]]. There is also the chance that there will be some kind of future event where the shiny form of said legendary is given out. |
| 1594 | * Why isn't Azurill a Water-type? |
| 1595 | ** It's too young to know how to swim? It's probably similar to Bidoof and Bunnelby's situation as well: There's a strong affinity towards a certain element, but it somehow isn't realized until it evolves. |
| 1596 | ** This trope previously read that when the devs implemented Azurill, they copied the data of another baby Pokémon to its slot (either Cleffa or Igglybuff, forgot which one), and forgot to change its typing. This also explains why Azurill has a different gender ratio as its evolutions (which led to the transgender Marill glitch, before they fixed it in Gen 6); that's another thing they forgot to change. |
| 1597 | * Why can Hyperspace Hole and Hyperspace Fury get past Protect, Detect, and the likes? Hyperspace Fury's flavour text seems to imply it's because it warps space, but then... why can't Spatial Rend get past Protect and Detect? In Japanese, the moves are called Dimensional Rush and Dimensional Hole. So, as the names imply, Hoopa is travelling through an alternate dimension and back to attack its opponent. In the attack animation, Hoopa dives into a hole and comes out beside the opponent to attack for HH, and he sends a bunch of rings around the opponent, where his fists then come out to strike them for HF. So how would that in any logical sense ignore Detect and Protect? Why would moves that are essentially just a teleport (HH) or playing with portals (HF) pass through Protect, but not a move that literally tears the fabric of space? (Also note Spatial Rend is called Subspace Tear in Japan, and in science fiction, subspace and hyperspace are essentially the same thing). |
| 1598 | ** Because they can create portals behind Protect's barrier. |
| 1599 | * Why is the player character not able to join the region's criminal organization? The closest we got was in Pokemon Colosseum, where Wes apparently quit his membership in Team Snagem shortly before we get to control him. |
| 1600 | ** Because all of the player characters are actively opposed to their region's criminal organization. |
| 1601 | ** Because they're all trying to take over/destroy the world/commit genocide? Also Pokemon excells at many things, but non linear gameplay is not one of them. |
| 1602 | * Can someone explain why in the name of Arceus's spikey hula-hoop thing that a move whose actual, in-game description reads "The user shoots a sinister, '''bluish-white flame''' at the target to inflict a burn." in Gens V and VI, "The user shoots a sinister, '''bluish white flame''' at the foe to inflict a burn" in Gen IV, and "A sinister, '''bluish white flame''' is shot at the foe to inflict a burn." in Gen III is depicted as ''dark purple-pink flames''? It's supposed to be coloured more like the flame of a shiny Litwick, why bother describing what Will-o-Wisp looks like if you're going to totally ignore it?! |
| 1603 | ** [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Linking together flavor text and the actual game has never been Pokéemon's forte]]. |
| 1604 | *** OK grand, but why haven't they fixed this in the past decade or so? |
| 1605 | * Is it just me, or are there ridiculously few Pokémon species? The Kanto region has only 150 different species of birds, fish and animals. That's 50 species all in all. Ridiculously few, compared to the real world. |
| 1606 | ** Pokémon are much larger and more powerful than animals in real life, naturally they need more space to themselves which doesn't leave room for as much overlap. |
| 1607 | * How does Sunny Day work in caves and ''at night''? |
| 1608 | ** The Pokémon probably creates an artificial sun. |
| 1609 | *** In ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops'' during a Fused Loop between ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', Rock has his Porygon use Sunny Day and it increases the ambient lighting in the Rocket Hideout. Evidentally, it increases ambient lighting wherever you are if there's no sun. |
| 1610 | * In games up to at least the third generation, you can carry hundred of Poké Balls but only 6 can have Pokémon in them. Also, when you catch additional Pokémon (over the limit of 6) they are transported to your PC, but for some reason you have to move to a computer to transfer your party Pokémon to PC. |
| 1611 | ** The first part of your question was answered in one piece of supplementary material (''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', if I'm not mistaken). You can certainly keep as many Pokémon as you want on your person, but you might not focus on all of them equally. Six Pokémon is just enough for one Trainer to take care of evenly while having as many Pokémon as possible. |
| 1612 | ** The anime also recently answered this. The 7th Pokémon onwards has the Poké Ball go into a lockdown mode, being unable to expand until rotations are made. |
| 1613 | *** Too bad neither of those explanations are canonical to the games. |
| 1614 | *** If something doesn't seem to make sense, and you get an explanation for it that makes sense and doesn't contradict anything, denying it out of hand is a bit pointless. There's no point questioning something if you refuse answers. |
| 1615 | *** Except that those explanations ''don't'' make sense for the games, as the games specifically tell the player that their Pokémon was sent to the PC. The player can also confirm that they don't remain in their party or their inventory. |
| 1616 | *** There are two other possible explanations: Either "filled" Poké Balls take up a lot more space in the bag, or it's a legal limit imposed by the Pokémon League. |
| 1617 | *** The ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' manga explains this in ''A Flaaffy Kerfuffle'': Six Pokémon is the limit because that's the maximum amount a trainer can give all of their Pokémon sufficient care and attention. |
| 1618 | * As soon as you catch a Pokémon, you can see every location in the region in which such creatures can be caught. |
| 1619 | ** Detecting energy signature and plugging into GPS? |
| 1620 | *** But shouldn't the Pokédex already know the locations of the Pokémon? I mean, shouldn't the energy signature information be stored in a central database and then transferred to every new (and old for National Dex) Pokédex the moment it's manufactured? It would make the Trainer's work a lot easier. |
| 1621 | *** Given the uniqueness of the protagonists, they may likely be receiving training to be something along the lines of Pokémon researchers. Think about it: Most other Trainers just have a couple of Pokémon they likely met around the park down the street. The protagonists on the other hand receive their instructions directly from senior researchers, and they are encouraged to "catch 'em all" instead of just training a select few intensely. This would typically be called sample collection. To find out about specific Pokémon, you would have to either go look it up yourself at the library (like how most students start their research) or go out and discover them yourself. The professors can't be expected to just hand all the answers to you, since they want to encourage the habit of scouring the entire region to find new and possibly undiscovered Pokémon. |
| 1622 | * It seems that the only non-Pokémon are humans. Just like it's a bit of a stereotype to consider humans the only non-animals. Humans could be Pokémon too. Among the most highly advanced species in intellect, they can learn a variety of different things. But they are not much different from other Pokémon. They can converse with other Pokémon. Just a theory, but who knows? What is a "Pokémon" anyways? A "Pocket Monster"? A term created by humans, who created devices to encapsulate all living beings with the exception of themselves (presumably). In the grand scheme of things, what are they? Are "humans" any different? |
| 1623 | ** More on that. What if Pokémon aren't some sort of StarfishAliens from an alternate counterpart to our world? What if the Pokémon world is actually Earth, ''our Earth'', only set in a distant future after TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and 'Pokémon' is just a newly created all-around term to classify everything with a certain degree of intelligence? It would not only mean that humans are Pokémon as well, but explain why plants (as long as they're sentient) and creatures obviously dead or inert such as Ghosts and many Rock and Ground types are also classified as Pokémon. It would also explain why Pokémon such as Deoxys (a virus from space) and Elgyem can be captured and contained in Pokéballs, even though they come from outer space and should lack whatever kind of DNA or else the Pokéball recognizes in Pokémon to capture them.'' It's not that Pokéballs are engineered to capture all Pokémon. It's that they're engineered to capture '''everything''' but '''humans'''.'' |
| 1624 | *** Imagine now what would happen if any of the 'Teams' managed to get around the Poké Ball's [[HoistByHisOwnPetard anti-human capture]] [[FailsafeFailure failsafe]]. Cue FridgeHorror. |
| 1625 | *** There's one flaw to that and that is [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Animals Bulbapedia proves there are real animals as well as Pokémon]] means it really is an alternate universe. And Junichi Masuda himself confirmed that it's an alternate reality. |
| 1626 | *** ...but that still raises the question of ''where'' the humans in ''that'' world came from. Assuming that evolution by natural selection applies in this universe, and since the Pokémon came first (from Arceus), would that mean that ''every'' living thing (including humans) is also a Pokémon? |
| 1627 | *** with the exception of the barnacles in guardian signs and the refernce to being "mad as a hornet" in the battle subway, very few references to real life animals have been made since the first generation in the anime, leading one to beleive that they have suffered either the same fate as [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Chuck]] or have been [[RetCon retconned]] out of existance. |
| 1628 | *** Here's another possibility since most of the real life animals where shown as food [[FridgeHorror maybe most of the real animals where eaten to extinction either worldwide or within certain regions and the Pokémon evolved to replace them]]... |
| 1629 | *** I doubt it would be to total extinction; while a lot of preditors and large herbivores might be replaced by Pokémon, there are still heaps of different ecological niches left over for regular animals to fill (plus I'm pretty sure I've seen a few post-Gen 1 scenes in the anime with regular butterflies in them). Regular animals just aren't shown because this series is about Pokémon and well, they'd just get in the way of the battles. |
| 1630 | ** Humans only have 4 moveslots, just like Pokémon. "Fight" "Bag" "Pokémon" "Run". |
| 1631 | ** And their ability is Arena Trap, because you can't run from a Trainer battle. |
| 1632 | ** Humans are not the only non Pokémon. The most apparent non Pokémon are the plant life. Then there are the microbes, ''then'' there is [[spoiler:the bitter cold]]. That is at least four categories of non Pokémon life. Most likely, the only things Pokémon, who are very powerful have not driven to extinction... yet. |
| 1633 | ** Let's also not forget the fact that some humans are able to use the same power as a Lucario: Aura. It's either divergent or convergent evolution at work there... And no, I don't mean the metamorphosis that all Pokémon species undergo. Additionally, we've only really seen three heights per gender of humans, being baby-sized, tween/teen-sized, and then fully-grown adult. Kinda reminds you of a certain other group of life-forms that undergo rapid changes in size, no? |
| 1634 | * The extent of which Pokémon are loyal to their owners can be rather chilling. It's noticeable in the anime where, even when Ash is possessed by the evil King of Pokélantis, his Sceptile still acts out his cruel orders. Considering that [[KnightOfCerebus Ghet]][[AbusiveParents sis]], [[WouldHurtAChild Hunter]] [[LackOfEmpathy J]] and ''Grings frikkin Kodai'' have all had Pokémon willing to follow him fully of their own volition, one has to wonder just ''how'' bad you have to be [[EvenEvilHasStandards for them to object?!]] |
| 1635 | ** Pokémon can be evil themselves... |
| 1636 | *** Yes indeed, case in point: The villainous Togepi in the Best Wishes series. |
| 1637 | *** As for the Pokélantis King battle, the terms of the deal were that they battle in a fair fight. If any of Ash's Pokémon backed, out, it's possible that the battle would have been declared "won" in the King's favor. |
| 1638 | *** Though there's also the question of why, say, Silver's Pokémon don't turn on him; he's clearly abusive, and every single one of them can seriously harm a preteen boy easily, unless he has some special disciplinary device that seriously harms them if they do step out of line. Or Blue, who is apparently neglectful, for that matter? And why in the world did that Munna not give those Plasma grunts the psychic beatdown of their life? Several Trainers go on about how Pokémon are merely tools, why don't their Pokémon do anything? |
| 1639 | * In regards to Trainer battles: |
| 1640 | ** Using all six of your Pokémon against any evil-team member is justifiable. But against more civilised Trainers, why can't the player conduct a civilized 1-on-1, 2-on-2, or 3-on-3? |
| 1641 | ** Winning against gym Trainers to meet the gym leader is more understandable. And winning against a evil-team member will be necessary to rescue the region. But why is the player still forced to do a rematch against an ordinary Trainer that s/he lost to, if s/he wants to move on with his/her story? |
| 1642 | *** Another point on gyms: exploiting type advantages in a gym is very rude. Notice how each gym is dedicated to a particular type. Everyone in the gym is training with that type. Why? Are they just not smart enough to figure out they'll beat the gym leader more easily if they have a type advantage? No. There's no way so many people could all be that dumb, ''that'' blinded by their enthusiasm. Clearly, it's an unspoken rule that the gym is ''specifically'' intended for training ''that type of Pokémon'', and for competing in the field of skill in regard to ''that particular type of Pokémon''. And the player character just comes into the Celadon gym with his Charmander and thoroughly impresses them all with the power of fire Pokémon, right? No. That's what they say, but inside, they're shaking their heads. Because that's ''exactly'' like going into a kung-fu tournament and taking someone out with a gun. Who is that supposed to impress? Like, oh, look, you can kill someone. Now get out of our dojo. |
| 1643 | *** If that's the case, then how do you explain the gym guide? At the beginning of every gym, there's a guy manning the door who will give you specific advice about how to exploit the gym's type disadvantages. |
| 1644 | ** I believe the error is believing they are trying to replace the leader. But if you think about it, they often talk about him/her with a good deal of admiration, some even having a personal debt: they are there to help. They use Pokémon of that specific type because they work for the gym leader and he sets the rules for them, while those who (like the player) are trying to earn their badge are not restricted to that, and so can use different types (and since is established the gym are there to actually teach something, is logical that some advice on type advantage is provided, it's a pivotal tactical point that's important to learn). |
| 1645 | * So, I stick two Pokémon in a daycare... And why do my Pokémon get along with outsider Pokémon better than those they have battled side-by-side with? Aside from any game mechanic explanation? It's not just in the "they simply see each other as friends" way either, the daycare man says himself that they don't seem to like each other much. ...Huh? |
| 1646 | ** It's probably the UsefulNotes/WestermarckEffect. The psychological effect where two people, such as siblings, who grow up next to each other during the first few years of the lives don't find each other sexually attractive. A Pokémon Trainer and their Pokémon form a "family unit" of sorts where the Trainer is the "parental figure" and the Pokémon are the "children". They probably don't feel comfortable breeding with Pokémon they view as "siblings". |
| 1647 | ** I did consider the possibility, but the daycare man specifically says that they don't seem to like each other very much, as to why I said "It's not just in the 'they simply see each other as friends' way either". |
| 1648 | ** Maybe he just assumed you're only interested in breeding compatibility(why else would you be talking to him?) and is just referring to that; they might get along as far as normal interactions, but when the subject turns to breeding they nope out of the idea. |
| 1649 | * Why were cars invented? If you think deeply about it, there are plenty of faster Pokémon available, Pokémon that can fly, and Pokemon that can Teleport, etc... It should have led to an AliensNeverInventedTheWheel scenario because there is no good reason or need for the civilizations to invent cars when they have so many easy, simpler options for transportation. |
| 1650 | ** Pokémon need to be captured, tamed and trained to be ridden, and not everyone in the Pokémon world has the time, energy and skill to do that. You can't just find a wild Rapidash, jump on its back, and expect it to take you wherever you want to go. There's also no guarantee that riding on a Pokémon will be safe even if they are trained. For likely many citizens, riding on a Pokémon is a frightening experience, whereas vehicles are clearly substantially safer. Remember that for millennia, equines, bovines and other ungulates were regularly used for transport, but that didn't stop cars - and an enormous variety of other vehicles - from being invented. |
| 1651 | * According to the Pokédex, Dodrio's heads represent and express sorrow, anger and joy respectively. So how come two of them always have angry eyes? |
| 1652 | ** The joy head has its game face on. |
| 1653 | * This question has been lingering in my head for years. What happens if you smash a Pokeball with a Pokemon inside? Do they die or get released? If the former is the case, then the implications are downright horrifying. It doesn't matter if you are a starter or a legendary, your pokeball getting smashed with you inside means instant death. Pesky trainer snooping around your criminal activities but your grunts keep getting owned by his top tier team? Knock him out while he is unprotected and smash his pokeballs. A legendary that is stopping your EvilPlan? Trap it in a Master Ball and smash it. Surprised no one asked this before. |
| 1654 | * Do fishermen eat the Pokémon they fish? |
| 1655 | * Why do all Fighting-type specialists train themselves for fighting as well? It's the Pokémon that do the battling, not them. Yet all Fighting Gym Leader and Elite Four members, as well as trainer classes like Black Belts, Battle Girls and Bodybuilders, are fighters themselves. Even Korrina (whose gimmick is rollerskating, rather than fighting) stated in the anime that Fighting Gym Leaders must train themselves for fighting, not just their Pokémon, so her grandpa made her train since young. |
| 1656 | ** It's probably easier for a trainer to understand a Fighting-type Pokémon's fighting style if they learn something like it themselves. It could also be that people who are already predisposed to be martial artists start using Fighting-type Pokémon to help themselves train. |
| 1657 | * Why are characters like Cynthia or Steven Stone still considered Champions in later games despite having lost the title to the player character? You could chalk up the fact they're still Champions within their games when you re-challenge the Pokémon League to GameplayAndStorySegregation, as it allows the player to have rematches with them. But the fact they're still called Champions when they appear in later games is clearly a matter of story that has nothing to do with gameplay. |
| 1658 | ** My guess is that a title such as champion sticks with a trainer regardless of whether or not they are still actively holding that position in their region's pokemon league. |
| 1659 | * So what's the deal with legendaries not having a gender (bar Latios and Latias)? Is it to prevent players from breeding them? If so, then why even give Latios and Latias genders in the first place? |
| 1660 | ** Most legendaries are designed to be one of a kind in lore. Giving them genders makes it seem as though they're species, rather than unique beings. |
| 1661 | * Does anyone know if anyone has attempted to contact Game Freak as to why female nidorans become sterile upon evolving into Nidorinas even 21 years after the option to breed pokemon had been introduced to the franchise? One would think that such a glaring mistake would have been corrected by now. |
| 1662 | ** Consistency. Egg groups are among the Pokémon attributes that Game Freak rarely (if ever) changes, like experience types, catch rate, steps to hatch, etc. |
| 1663 | *** Flygon and Noivern are a part of the dragon egg group as of Sword and Shield, which they weren't in any previous generation of the franchise. What's the excuse now? |
| 1664 | *** How about "'''rarely''' does ''not'' mean '''never'''"? |
| 1665 | ** It turns out this was intentional. A Japan-exclusive official Pokémon encyclopedia released in 1996 states when Nidoran female evolves into Nidorina, she loses the ability to lay eggs. So the games made Nidorina and Nidoqueen sterile in order to [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration follow official lore.]] |
| 1666 | * How come that some of the things that use the "Poké-" prefix are spelt with a space in the middle (Poké Ball, Poké Doll, Poké Toy, Poké Snack), while others aren't (Pokémon, Pokédex, Pokégear, Pokénav)? |
| 1667 | ** This happens with pretty much every name involving hyphens. One likely answer is that names without hyphens are easier to type and therefore more marketable. |
| 1668 | * What does Toxel appear to be based off? |
| 1669 | ** A lizard or newt probably. |
| 1670 | * Why did the localizations give the characters from the first 4 generations western names when those gens were set in Japan? |
| 1671 | ** Because they're videogames from the 90s and 2000s aimed at small children, so there was no need back then to preserve foreign names. Names native to one's own culture are more marketable on a mass scale, and the games themselves barely have any cultural references that would make specific names stand out. |
| 1672 | * Why can't you register 'mons in your Dex by encountering them outside of battle, like that Slowbro/Electrode in Cerulean City? |
| 1673 | ** Maybe it's because you haven't seen it in battle or in the wild. You aren't able to tell what type of Pokemon it is by simply looking at it. |
| 1674 | * Why are they called Team Rocket? All the other teams have names that either tie into their goals (Aqua and Magma want to expand the sea and land respectively, Galactic wants to recreate the universe, and Plasma is both seeking out the power of a legendary Pokémon that can use either electricity or fire (the components of plasma) and seeking to separate Pokémon and humans (like how, in plasma, electrons are separate from nuclei)) or are threatening/cool-sounding and their outward styles match (Flare wears fiery orange outfits, Skull wears skull-inspired hats, and Yell carries around those weird megaphones/vuvuzelas). Nothing about Team Rocket, whether in their goals or in their visual style, seems particularly rocket-y to me. |
| 1675 | ** It could just be a cool name to attract potential new members. "Hey, kid, wanna join our cool gang, Team Rocket?" They were the first evil team, they don't need a good reason for their name. |
| 1676 | ** It's a different continuity, but the Adventures manga suggests it was an acronym. Not that "Raid On City Knockout Evil Tusks" makes sense in any way. |
| 1677 | * If looking another trainer in the eye is what's supposed to trigger a battle, why does it still happen if you're facing a different direction? |
| 1678 | ** It seems to be the trainer spots you and decides you want a battle. After all, in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', for instance, the Reflection Cave's surfaces allows trainers to spot you and challenge you if you're trying to pass by behind them. |
| 1679 | * Why is it called the Grass type, rather than Plant type? Not all Grass Pokémon are related to grass, but they're all related to plants and vegetation. |
| 1680 | ** Agreed. And grass ''is'' a plant, after all. |
| 1681 | ** On a similar note, why is there a Bug type ''at all'' when all their damage is done with stabs and swipes and pokes and scratches? Very few Bug-type moves have anything intrinsically "buggy" about them. |
| 1682 | * Is it just me or are Pokémon who are able to learn certain moves seem like they shouldn't? For instance, many Pokémon can learn Aura Sphere, but going by lore, only Lucario should be able to learn it due to being able to manipulate Aura. Lucario can also learn Bone Rush despite not being associated with bones (Mandibuzz is a vulture hence why she can learn it. The anime and ''VideoGame/PokkenTournament'' have Lucario's Bone Rush being a staff of energy but the point still stands). Finally, Grapploct, Horsea and Remoraid can learn Octazooka despite the move being called ''Okutank'' Cannon which means Octillery Cannon and as such, only Octillery should learn it. |
| 1683 | ** A lot of move distribution reasoning isn't immediately obvious. To run with your examples: Lucario is partially based on jackals, who are carrion-eaters just like vultures, and also on Anubis, an Egyptian death god. So Bone Rush makes sense for it. And just because Lucario is known for its use of aura doesn't mean other Pokemon can't use it just enough for Aura Sphere. |
| 1684 | * Why do the games not give a way of finding out which Pokémon are in which egg groups? If there was a brief explanation somewhere in the games of how egg groups work, if the Pokédex listed each Pokémon’s egg groups (and if they could only breed with Ditto or not at all, it would say so), and you could filter by egg groups in the Pokédex to see which of your Pokémon could breed with each other, it would make breeding a lot easier so people wouldn’t have to go online to look up the egg groups. How are you supposed to know that Delibird can’t breed with most other bird Pokémon, or that Nidorina and Nidoqueen can’t breed at all but Nidorino and Nidoking (and both Nidorans) can? Especially since the Pokédex does bother listing stuff with less practical utility, like body shape or colour. |
| 1685 | * How exactly is it that every pokémon knows the typing of each other pokémon and apparently the ''entire type weakness chart'' (as evidenced by them always using moves with the best effectiveness despite that a Pikachu that's spent its life in the Viridian Forest should have no way to know anything about the pokémon you caught half a continent away)?! |
| 1686 | ** What sort of wild battles are you talking about? It is my understanding that most wild pokémon will randomly use whatever moves they currently know, regardless of type effectiveness. Even the seemingly wild Totem Pokémon are noted to have been trained by Trial Captains to some degree. |
| 1687 | * Almost all evolved Pokémon's cries sound like their pre-evolutions, but louder, deeper and/or longer. But why do some of their cries sound almost nothing like their pre-evolution's? (e.g. Pidgeotto and Pidgey, Metapod and Caterpie, Vileplume and Gloom) |
| 1688 | * Sandile and its evolutions are gavials, which mostly eat insects. But since they're Dark-typed, they're weak to Bug-type moves... |
| 1689 | ** Um, Sandile/Krokorok/Krookodile are actually based off of crocodiles in general (in particular, the Spectacled Caiman). They feed on far more than just insects. Plus, eating a Bug-Type Pokémon as food and battling it in a trainer-based battle are two completely different things. |
| 1690 | ** The Japanese name of Sandile refers to crocodile, but the two evolutions refer to gavials, as do their head shapes. Being weak to bug moves does not matter much, though. They are ambush predators. |
| 1691 | * When flying on the back of Mega Latios/Latias, one can engage in midair battles against flying wild Pokémon. You can use Pokémon that can't fly for this. And even more baffling, you can use Primal Groudon, the second-heaviest Pokémon in existence, with no consequences. |
| 1692 | * It's said that Yungoos is not native to Alola, and it was brought in from another region. That's all well and good, but we haven't seen it in any of the regions that have appeared so far, so... where exactly ''did'' it come from? |
| 1693 | ** Maybe it's going to be a hook for a future game? |
| 1694 | ** Corphish was a similar case, having been stated to be foreign Pokémon imported to Hoenn as exotic pets. |
| 1695 | ** And we later saw that Corphish also lives in the Sinnoh and Kalos regions, so maybe we'll have a future region with Yungoos. |
| 1696 | ** [[RiddleForTheAges Or it will never be touched on again.]] |
| 1697 | ** One possibility is [[VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet Paldea]], as the Yungoos line are found in the wild there and none of the dex entries for Yungoos and Gumshoos mention them being from another region. They may also be from an unseen region based in the Pokémon world's equivalent to South Asia to reflect the specific mongoose species the line is based off of, the small Indian mongoose, akin to many of Cufant and Copperajah's dex entries mentioning them being from an unnamed "distant region," and ''Legends: Arceus'' {{retcon}}ning the Indian elephant mentioned in Raichu's ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''Sun'' dex entries into a Copperajah. |
| 1698 | * Why is Gumshoos a Totem Pokémon? Don't they evolve from Yungoos, which are specifically mentioned to be imported from another region? How long have they been in Alola to be hold such a presumably sacred position? Is the island challenge just an event where they pick random Pokémon at hand for each at the totems? |
| 1699 | ** Totem Pokémon are specifically noted to be larger and more powerful than normal members of their kind. Presumably if you attain or are given such power, you can qualify for the position regardless of how long your species has lived in Alola. |
| 1700 | *** Good on the people of the Alola region to not hold such prejudices. |
| 1701 | *** It'd be pretty easy for an invasive species with no natural predators to become an apex specimen. |
| 1702 | *** Totem Pokémon could be a name given to Pokémon who've been exposed to otherworldly power, so Gumshoos was just in the right place at the right time, and these spots were discovered by humans and any Pokémon living in these spots were considered Totems. Another possibility is hinted at in the library in the game, where one of the historical texts states Solgaleo/Lunala gave the Tapus power of unknown origin (Ultra Wormhole energy, most likely). It would stand to reason that the Tapus could also give this energy to other Pokémon they consider worthy, making them into Totem Pokémon. |
| 1703 | *** Also, all the Totem Pokémon are stated to have been trained by the Trial Captains, so using them seems to be out of personal preference. |
| 1704 | * Why are the two forms of Lycanroc considered different forms and not completely different species? They have different shapes, cries, flavor-dex behaviors, base stats, most of their abilities, and level-up moves. |
| 1705 | ** In a way, they're pretty much the opposite of the Alolan forms: same typing, same moves (the only divergences being their evolution moves and two that they get from the relearner), but different behaviors and appearances. But like the Alolan forms, people in-universe presumably saw enough similarities to lump them under one species. |
| 1706 | * Why does Sensu Oricorio remind people of Kanto specifically about their homeland? Johto is the most traditional region with most of the old ways remaining, so doesn't that apply to people from there as well? (In fact, much of traditional Japanese culture originated from Kansai, which Johto is based on). |
| 1707 | ** Well... Kanto and the Sensu style ''are'' both based on Japan, so it's not really that much of a stretch. Especially when you consider that Kanto is literally right next to Johto; people from Kanto would likely have at least passing knowledge of Sensu. |
| 1708 | ** Actually, I figured it was more of a reference to how one Hawaiian island (I forget which) has a higher Japanese American population and cultural influence than the other ones. |
| 1709 | * How the heck can Wishiwashi summon a bunch of other members of its species at any place, at any time, no matter how inland? |
| 1710 | ** [[AWizardDidIt Probably for the same reason Water-types can spew Hydro Pumps bigger than themselves/their natural water supply, Grass-types can spontaneously summon up razor leaves (that are/aren't part of their natural bodies), or various types can summon rocks that come through dimensional holes (i.e. Rock Slide).]] |
| 1711 | * The August 1st trailer introduced Mudbray, the pre-evolution of Mudsdale. Mudbray is a donkey that grows up (evolves) into a ''horse''. Wait, what? Still, stranger things have happened (Remoraid to Octillery, anyone?). |
| 1712 | ** Well, the donkey is a member of the overall horse family; one could say he simply changes breeds upon evolution. |
| 1713 | ** We've had tons of Pokémon who become a different species when they evolve, it's nothing new even discarding Remoraid and Octillery (sparrows becoming birds of prey or cranes, rats turning into muskrats, rattlesnakes becoming cobras, mice turning into kangaroo rats, pangolins turning into porcupines, mites turning into moths, house cats turning into pumas, one breed of goldfish turning into another breed of goldfish, common starfish turning into crowns-of-thorns, horseshoe crabs becoming Eurypterids — those are just the Gen 1 examples!). There have always been Pokémon whose evolutionary families covered more than one species growing up (or even related species! Remember the sloth that turns into a gorilla?) and never 100% followed the biological logic of the animal it's based on. |
| 1714 | ** Plus the anime episodes where Ash's Treecko was introduced had an elderly Treecko and a later episode where a Torchic younger than May's evolved before hers, showing that Pokémon can age normally even if they don't evolve into later forms. |
| 1715 | ** Might be accidental, but they probably were going with the mimic octopus and the fact the sometimes cephalopod (especially squid larvae) looks slightly similar to planktonic fish larvae, except the false "fish larvae" constantly moves and floats upward like a cephalopod. That could be solved by giving small nubby tentacles around Remoraid's mouth or making it capable of shooting small multiple watersprouts out of its mouth. |
| 1716 | *** It also helps if you look at Remoraid and Octillery as a gun evolving into a cannon, rather than a fish into an octopus. |
| 1717 | * The reason that Hisuian Typhlosions aren't running around is likely that the spiritual energy it was absorbing came from the Space-Time Rift, and as the Gen 4 games don't have it Quilava can't absorb energies from it to gain the Ghost Type. |
| 1718 | ** Meanwhile at no point in the games so far could the player bring a Oshawott or a Rowlet into Sinnoh, so there was no way to see if Rowlet would evolve into Hisuian Decidueye beforehand. |
| 1719 | * The way PP works in the games is a bit strange. Some moves, like Tackle or Flamethrower, seem reasonable enough — your active Pokémon is just too tired to keep throwing itself at the enemy, or is out of juice for its BreathWeapon. But what about moves like Swagger? It has 15 PP, so after 15 uses, is your Pokémon just unable to think of anything that would enrage the opponent? And if your Pokémon knows both Flamethrower and Fire Blast, it could be unable to breathe a steady stream of fire, but still be able to breathe a huge blast of fire that'd take way more energy. |
| 1720 | * What is it about humans that drive Sneasel into an aggressive state? They won't stop chasing you, no matter how long you lead them around. |
| 1721 | ** Sneasel's Pokédex entries don't actually indicate that. They just mention that it's a cunning, vicious Pokémon with sharp claws that love stealing eggs. |
| 1722 | ** Alright well, go find some in Sword & Shield or Scarlet & Violet and set them off by getting too close. You'll notice they'll chase you around for maybe 10-15 seconds, take a brief break in which they watch you suspiciously, before they suddenly get triggered and start chasing you again. I thought cats (which are what Sneasel are mostly based on) lose interest when their prey keeps eluding them and they move on to something more interesting. |
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