Fanfic / Pokédex

Pokédex is a fanfic written by Birdboy, with the first entry published in 2010. As the name suggests, it is essentially an expanded version of the Pokédex, with each Pokémon covered in a chapter. As the entries progress, they eventually reveal an entire interpretation of the Pokémon world, with lots of world building and references to all aspects of the franchise. Can be found here.

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Pokédex contains examples of:

• Action Bomb: Electrodes, of course. And Qwilfish, which can only defend itself by exploding, though it survives the explosion.
• Anti Anti Christ: Silvally was created as a mocking imitation of Arceus but decided to instead imitate Arceus in the best way possible by being compassionate to other Pokémon.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: A fairly popular type of video game level has the player dodge obstacles while running from a giant, rolling Graveler.
• A Good Way to Die: Elderly, terminally ill people often seek out Bruxish to kill them, because the Bruxish give them visions of being young and happy that also prevent them from feeling any pain.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Zangoose believe Seviper to be like this. In real life, Jolteon are always sadists, and Murkrow are always cowards who like pecking and eating eyes.
• Ambiguously Evil: Articuno appears to dying travelers lost in mountains, but legends vary if it is leading them to their doom or trying to help them to safety.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: The regime whose name is forbidden to be spoken, which fought and lost a massive war, performed horrible tortures on prisoners and dissidents, and employed torture squads that bore two ‘S’s on their uniforms.
• And I Must Scream:
  • A group of Forretress has become a living, immortal wall guarding something important enough for them to condemn themselves to that fate.
  • Cascoon as forced to remain as immobile cocoons until they are powerful enough to avenge injuries they have received. But if the person they want to avenge is already dead, they are forced to wait many, many years until someone is born that they believe to be their attacker's Reincarnation.
  • Baltoy were Buried Alive by civilizations who believed they would accompany a king to the afterlife, and those who didn't figure out the easier way to escape are stuck moving minuscule amounts of dirt with their psychic powers over and over again, in hopes of eventually breaking free.
  • There are Carbink who were trapped in the Geosenge megaliths for 5,000 years, but due to being used to extremely long lifespans it is not such a horrible fate for them.
• Animal Assassin: Weedle as typically used as this, due to their small size and the ability for the weak poison in their stingers to be replaced with a more potent one.
• Animal Jingoism: Zangoose and Seviper, as in the video games. Luxray and Mightyena have a similar rivalry.
• Animal Wrongs Group: Team Plasma, just as in the games. Other advocacy groups for Pokémon rights are presented as reasonable, though.
• Another Dimension: Klink are supposed to have come from one of these.
• Apocalyptic Log: Some of the survivors of Volcanion's eruptions are noted to have written these, which are stated to be In-Universe Tear Jerkers.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Lampshaded in Claydol's entry, where it says that Claydol's insistence on carrying maximum of six items "is alien to us, and indeed often appears to do more harm than good, when they are found searching ruins desperately for items to sacrifice to summon what they need. Yet perhaps the Claydol and their 648 brethren find the human habit of carrying no more than six pokemon, no matter how useful a seventh could be for handling obstacles seen when league rules ban it from battle, to be every bit as bizarre.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Cities have been destroyed by Wailord-Sized Skitties born from, well...
• The Atoner:
  • Mewtwo has become this.
  • Grumpig are shunned by society due to their dark pearls making them appear unholy, perhaps as punishment for how they must steal a Clamperl in order to live. The rare fully purified Grumpig now has a pearl the color of a lustrous orb, and it is written that a trainer can summon Palkia with one.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Meowth can produce legal money, which led many to farm them, but it turned out to be too impractical considering they stole far more than they could make.
• Baby Factory: Most Ditto are used just for the sake of breeding and never for battles, leading to feminists often using them as metaphors for their role in society and objectification.
• Badass Adorable: Goodra look whimsical and harmless, but they are just as dangerous as any other pseudo-legendary dragon. The same can be said for Dragonite, though their ferocity is far more recognized by the general public.
• Balkanize Me: Empires partitioning a rival were portrayed in political cartoons as a flock of three Murkrow.
• Barbarian Hero: All Nidoking become this upon evolution, leading an army of Pokémon to fight the advance of human society and commanding loyalty due to their courage and success.
• Bears Are Bad News: Ursaring are so dreaded that they can hibernate in broad daylight without being disturbed, and a conqueror managed to win wars with just Ursaring and Beartic due to the terror they caused.
• Beastly Bloodsports: Roserade "dances", which usually end in most of the dancers being hospitalized or dead. As well as, to a less extent, Pokémon battles themselves. As the narrator notes, despite the advanced healing technologies it is still a blood sport, and serious injuries and fatalities can occur. And then there's hunting with packs of Mightyena.
• Beast of Battle: Unsurprisingly, Pokémon have been trained throughout history for use in warfare. Some, such as Charizard, Steelix, Marshtomp and Garchomp, were used as basic attack animals, but others had more specialized roles. Blastoise, Sheildon and Clawitzer were used as artillery, Donphan and Lairon as living siege engines. When the Poké Ball was invented, allowing a much larger diversity of Pokémon to be used by a much larger amount of people, traditional weapons even became obsolete. However, use of Pokémon in battle faded out with the invention of powerful machine guns, except for Chesnaught, whose shells were quite bulletproof.
  • People tried to use Metagross as this, but the Pokémon were intelligent enough to recognize that War Is Hell and communicate this to the public, making their use rather counterproductive.
  • Trumbeak were an interesting example. Since Pokémon fighting, both in competition and warfare, has always relied on proper use of berries, and since Trumbeak are both adept berry thieves and agile fliers difficult to catch or intercept, ancient Alolan kahunas took to training them as airborne saboteurs to raid enemy berry orchards and to steal berries in the midst of battle and use their boosts themselves.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Jirachi's wish-granting power has led to many tragedies when the wish was granted too literally.
• Bee Afraid: Beedrill are this even as larvae, when they are renowned as effective assassins.
• Best Served Cold: Dustox avenge every injury they receive while they are Cascoon, no matter how long it takes them to get powerful enough.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Presumably why the Mount Coronet civilization that created Golem committed mass suicide after a Last Stand.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Part of why Goodra are typically underestimated despite their great strength is that they are nice to humans and don't pose a threat to them as a result.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Goodra are often underestimated due to being silly-looking, despite being very powerful Pokemon.
• Beyond the Impossible: "And perhaps the tale of an Igglybuff's song was never anything more than a legend formed by the human tendency to believe amazing things happen whenever you go beyond the impossible."
• Blinded by the Light: Ampharos' tail light was historically used to blind people as punishment.
• Blood Knight: Most Pokémon are this. Special mention goes to Flygon Level X, each which was devoted to and happy about killing every other level X, including others of the same species. Eventually, there was only one Flygon left, and it killed itself with its technique after there were no other Level X left to slay.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Minun are suggested to work this way, since no one quite understands what logic or morality drives them to make things disappear from existence and what they choose. It is noted, however, that they care about other Pokémon enough to refuse to use their ability on physical attacks, as it could cripple the attacker.
• Body Horror: It is speculated that this may be why Beldum have such a low catch rate; due to their body shape, the act of a trainer throwing a Poké Ball from their hand appears like this to them.
• Boomerang Bigot: Most Drapion despise poison, despite being poison types themselves.
• Bread and Circuses: Arceus engineered the world to be focused on Pokeémon battles to distract people from wars, etc. Downplayed because this actually seems to be working to make the world more peaceful, though there is a decrease in scholars and other non-trainer jobs so Arceus made the Pokédex to give people the information that humanity might otherwise forget.
• Bullying a Dragon: Some people try to provoke Xerneas and Yveltal into a fight in hopes that Xerneas will make anyone caught in the conflict immortal. That is, as many civilizations have learned to their horror, assuming that Xerneas wins.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In Geodude's entry, it is mentioned that Geodude hunters usually leave their job when they "give up, retire in satisfaction, or end their lives out of guilt from too many Geodude screams."
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Staraptor's attacks are said to rival those of Victini and Arceus, but any battle using them would likely end in the Staraptor's death considering their recoil.
• Brown Note:
  • The reason that the word "explode" derived from Exploud and not Electrode turns out to be that Exploud has a certain frequency that it can use to make people explode.
  • Then there's Masquerain, which makes anyone who sees it at the right angle go mad.
  • And the rare reverse Wooper, which makes anyone who sees it suicidally depressed.
• Buried Alive: Baltoy were buried in ancient times with kings to fight with them in the afterlife, but given they were not actually dead this ended up happening instead.
• But Now I Must Go: Delcatty don't like being held down by a trainer or mate for long, however friendly they might be to that person or Pokémon.
• Cain and Abel:
  • When a Cherrim’s second head grows large enough, it will inevitably challenge the larger one for dominance, stealing their connecting vine and leaving its older sibling as easy prey, while the larger one will try to devour the smaller to gain its valuable nutrients and move closer to evolution.
  • Zweilous heads have a more subdued rivalry, where they take turns controlling the body, keeping score of how much food each head gathers or how many battles it wins. At evolution, the head with a higher score subsumes the other, becoming the Hydreigon’s sole mind.
• Call of the Wild Blue Yonder: Bagon are very intense about their dreams of flying, as in the video games. Bagon's entry points out how humans are also driven by this.
• Canis Major: Arcanine, especially the original, which is the size of a Groudon.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Some nations chose Murkow as heraldry because they admitted having similar negative qualities to it, such as one led by particularly cruel king and another nation and another admitting their religious practices amounted to "plundering shiny objects in the name of their god".
• The Cassandra:
  • According to some legends, Articuno. Everyone assumes due to other legends that it will lead people do their doom, so they run away from it without realizing it was trying to lead them to safety.
  • The crews of ghost ships are not killed by Jellicent like everyone believes, but imprisoned in an Underwater City made of shipwrecks to create technology for their jailors. Those few sailors who escape and make it to shore are always taken for madmen or liars.
  • Absol is also an example, due to people recognizing the danger of listening to it, though this just obliterates their chances of surviving a disaster altogether.
• Cast from Hit Points: Staraptor and Pichu both are strong because of their recoil attacks, while Sunflora's attacks not only drain its health but push it closer to devolving into a Sunkern.
• The Chosen One: Multiple:
  • In "Mew", it is said that a chosen person is foretold to be able to lift a mysterious and impossibly heavy truck to reveal Mew.
  • Klink's entry also reveals that is is actually a Digimon and mentions the chosen ones of that world.
• Cincinnatus: The Chosen One of Kanto, in some legends where he commits suicide rather than be forced to become king of Kanto.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Altaria are the reason this phrase even exists in the Pokémon world, due to their personalities and literal cloud wings.
• Combat Pragmatist: The Masked Royal's Incineroar was known for using this type of tactic, gaining it both fans and detractors.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Banette, who usually fight by stabbing themselves to curse the opponent due to their intense self-hatred and anger.
• Corrupt Politician: Some of these are mentioned to train Krookodiles, reinforcing its reputation.
• Cosmic Retcon: Arceus uses this to create regions and make it so they have always been there.
• Creator Provincialism: All of the modern day stories and most of the historical ones are set in regions where Pokémon games are set, meaning mostly Japan and sometimes New York and France, even though the whole world exists in the Pokédex universe. Justified because Arceus creates each region one by one through Cosmic Retcon, other parts of the world just don't exist in the present yet.
• Creepy Crows: Murkrow, which are known for being cowardly and pecking eyes out.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Implied in Seviper's entry, which notes that its venom was often used for suicide in ancient Egypt because it was a quicker and more painless death than the alternative of "imaginative" forms of execution.
• Cursed with Awesome: The honey of a Teddiursa turns anyone that eats it into a Teddiursa themselves. But some eat it on purpose, because if you are too depressed to take your life anymore, becoming an adorable bear cub living peacefully in a forest (with the ability to grow into a huge bear that no one would want to mess with) is not a bad fate at all.
• Darker and Edgier: Than the regular Pokémon series. Some entries feature genocide, torture, rape, far worse Pokémon abuse and killing than ever seen in the series, or various more supernatural horrors.
• Dark Is Evil: The Dark-type Murkow, which are known for being Dirty Coward Pokémon that peck people and Pokémon and eat their eyes.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • The Zubat line is maligned by most people, to the point where it took until just a few years ago to discover Crobat... which a Golbat becomes just by being happy with its trainer. They actually aren't so much horrible cave pests as forcibly driven into caves by humans, though they are still disease vectors.
  • The worshippers of Darkrai are perfectly decent people who genuinely believe their god to be a benevolent, just deity and mostly keep to themselves, despite other people considering them evil cultists and Darkrai a God of Evil.
• Dead All Along: Living and ghost Vulpix are nearly impossible to tell apart from each other, which can lead to this.
• Deadly Hug: In Scyther mating rituals, the victor hugs the loser as she (well, they don't have genders but she acts as the female) kills him while absorbing his genetic material.
• Death by Childbirth: It is often thought that this happens to all Marowaks, which is why all Cubone are motherless, though in fact they are the results of Kanghaskhan who died in childbirth.
• Death by Despair: One needs emotional strength to escape a Sandygast in the same way one needs physical strength to escape a living predator. Despairing would result in death.
• Death by Materialism: Several people burned to death during the great fire in Alola centuries ago from trying to make the bell at the center of it (believing it to be valuable treasure).
• Death from Above: Charizard are used in war like this, leading to these tactics developing in war far sooner than in the real world.
• Death Is the Only Option: Any Staraptor becomes a useless fighter if it is taught to actually care about self-preservation, but they are extremely powerful when not trained this way.
• Death Seeker: Several Forretress have gone on long journeys to find fire, the only thing that can kill them, to avoid their immortality.
• Decapitated Army: The only way to defeat an army of trees is to kill its sentient Trevenant commander. The trouble is finding the Trevenant amidst the vast forest, though, so few manage to accomplish this.
• Designated Hero:
  • In-Universe, it is noted that the Drilbur of legend that fought Arceus to control the universe is this, because though it is seen as an Inspirational Martyr, it is always ignored how it would have caused uncontrolled overpopulation if it had succeeded.
  • Likewise, those who defeat Thundurus in battle become folk heroes for defeating what is perceived as a monstrous demon (in actuality more of an overzealous, indiscriminate Knight Templar), with their massive, disgusting crimes, which attracted Thundurus' attention to begin with, being generally glossed over.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Delcatty are all this, and were probably created by Arceus for this reason — to find their own purpose just like people do rather than having a set destiny.
• Determinator: Bagon are portrayed as this, evolving by jumping off cliffs, training and sheer force of will. Bacon's entry points out that humans are the same in this respect, though.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: One Smeargle managed to be the only Pokémon to defeat Arceus itself. In a less extreme version, Hideyoshi's Infernape ends up killing Mitsuhide's Articuno. Level one Rattata are also rumored to be able to defeat Arceus, though it is one time only. And then there's Moltres, who is known to exist and challenged many times, but only the League's founder has succeeded in capturing it and only Red, with all six of his Pokémon, has been confirmed to defeat it. Finally, a Noctowl with U-turn was once used in the league to defeat a trainer's Darkrai.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Snorlax are seen in the highest levels of competitive Pokémon battles, but the sheer effort that it takes to feed and take care of them means that most trainers can't afford to keep them and they're in only the highest levels of battles.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Dragon type Pokémon are noted to have been more common in the Mesozoic era.
• Dirty Coward: Murkow are described as being this.
• Disposing of a Body: Krookodile are often used for this purpose.
• Divine Date: Latias' entry describes how she is said to chase humans she is in love with around the world and date them in her human form. At the time, she is waiting for a certain boy from Pallet Town.
• Divine Parentage: Many people, including the first king of Hoenn, have claimed to be the children of Latias in her human form.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • A Johto tyrant used to quite literally kick around a Chikcorita he found on his palace grounds. Said Chikorita uses its aroma to lead an uprising against him, resulting in him being overthrown and killed.
  • Hoopa are often sought out by powerful trainers as a means to an end to summon gods. Unfortunately for them, they usually end up dead, because Hoopa is quite powerful in its own right, and does not take kindly to being used instead of respected.
  • This is one theory as to why one of the normally weak Pyukumuku killed a person who stepped on it; the Pyukumuku was tire of its species being tossed around used as a prank all the time.
• Doomed Moral Victor: The Drilbur of legend is generally seen as this, despite its intentions.
• Dragon Hoard: It is common practice among Dragon-types to amass a precious hoard, typically by forcibly extracting tribute from nearby humans. Noivern tend to choose a rather unconventional type of hoard, though.
• Dragon Slayer: There is a legend about a hero slaying a dragon Pokémon with a Cloyster, and many regions have festivals commemorating this.
• The Dreaded: Male Kanghaskhan, which even ghosts fear. As well as any fully evolved bear Pokémon, especially Ursaring. And Tyranitar, who rule because of the terror they inspire. And the Scizor on the Road Of A Hundred Scizor.
• Driven to Suicide: Several characters (many Geoduck hunters, anyone who sees a reverse Wooper, several people who killed themselves by jumping off Tohjo falls, the whole civilization that created Golem, the giant Bellsprout of Sprout tower, the future chosen one of Mew in some legends.)
• Dug Too Deep: Nearly word-for-word in the Dugtrio entry: cities that dig too carelessly and deep for mineral wealth, without concern for the ecological damage they do, will find themselves buried alive by vengeful Dugtrio.
• Dystopia: Combee hives are positively Orwellian.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Tends to happen whenever a Nidoking attacks a human society.
  • Also happened whenever a Swalot grew too large, because everyone had a common interest in avoiding a Swalot apocalypse.
  • Ho-Oh used to despise Spearow for antagonizing humans into warring with pokemon until the humans came after it. After resurrecting and reincarnating the legendary beasts, it flew to a flock of Spearow and remade them in its image, granting them greater power and the ability to fly forever. Eventually trainers replicated the process with Sacred Ash, though the Fearow that result are not nearly as powerful.
• Everybody Hates Hades: Yveltal is supposed to be a morally neutral god of destruction, but Arceus sees him as going too far and fears he is likely to eventually end the world (and nearly did manage to destroy all life in the Precambrian). As for humans, Yveltal worshippers mostly consist of "a "few eccentrics, contrarians, and mass murderers", with most fearing it.
• Extreme Omnivore: Krookodile can eat almost everything, so they are often used by criminals to dispose of dead bodies and evidence. They are now used to clean landfills. Gulpin have the same ability, though they are not as practical.
• Eye Scream: Murkrow are known for pecking out people's eyes. One king used them in heraldry because he also liked blinding his enemies.
• Face of a Thug: Swadloon always cover their faces because their face is in a perpetual grumpy frown, regardless of what their actual emotions are.
• Fallen Hero: Discussed briefly in Mew's entry, where the narrator points out that "indeed, many villains are heroes corrupted by power."
• Fantastic Drug:
  • Ivysaur flowers have been used as hallucinogens by many early societies.
  • Quagsire slime is used as a drug, with the effect of increasing happiness, though it makes the user physically and mentally slow.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • Many Sunflora consider becoming a Sunkern again this. Injuries caused by Vileplume gas are described in the same way.
  • It is noted that the fate of the Carbink in the Geosenge megaliths would be this, except that the time they were trapped is a very small amount of time compared to a Carbink's lifespan, and such events are not even that unusual to them.
• Fictional Document: The Story of the Great Pod, which is one of the Pokémon world's famous works of literature.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Occasionally, Mamoswine are thawed out of glaciers where they’ve been trapped since the Ice Age. Since their clearest memories of human beings are of stone-age hunter-gatherers who were no threat to an adult Mamoswine, they have no fear of humans, something that inevitably gets them in trouble once they cause enough damage for humans to notice.
• Forced Transformation: Teddiursa honey turns anyone who eats it into a Teddiursa if they go outside on a night with a crescent moon.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Giovanni started out as a Caterpie farmer.
• Gaia's Vengeance: Cobalion, Virizion and Terrakion take this as their purpose, as do Nidokings. And it predictably doesn't end well when people catch too many Dugtrios, given that they are buried very deeply within the Earth, enough to cause earthquakes. Trevenants also take a very dim view of logging, and their vicious counterattacks against human encroachment preserved many of Kalos’ primal forests. Similarly, anyone who breaks their oath to the Sudowoodo they harvested and destroys its forest will face a nasty fate at the hands of other Sudowoodo.
• General Failure: Orange, the protagonist of the fictional work of literature "The Saga of the Great Pod", ends up being killed in battle when one of these uses him as soldier for an ultimately pointless strategy.
• Genius Bruiser: The name "Gurdurr" is used as a byword for Dumb Muscle, but the actual Pokémon are in fact capable of using tools and far more precise construction than a supposedly dumb Pokémon should be capable of. Machoke are similar, as very strong fighting types that are also intelligent. And finally there's Cranidos, who evolve into one of the strongest Pokémon to ever walk the earth in terms of brute force, but are smart enough to have potentially trained Pokémon before humans did.
• Gender Bender: Some female Azurill turn male upon evolution, just like in the video games. Female Tyrogue force themselves to become male through willpower due to intensely valuing masculinity.
• Gentle Giant:
  • Abomasnow turn out to be this, despite their reputation.
  • Goodra are also like this, very large and powerful but too gentle to actually hurt someone.
• Global Warming: It exists in this world, and is mentioned in several entries.
• God Is Good: Arceus is concerned with creating a better Pokémon world. Despite all of the darker aspects that it has, he's mostly succeeded.
• God-Emperor: Diancie is a goddess and queen of the Carbink.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Scythers who lose the battle in their mating ritual are cut in half by the "female".
• Handicapped Badass: The first flightless Torchic, who ended up growing into a fighting type with powerful legs. Her descendants now populate the world, while the flying ones are extinct.
• Hard Head: Gurdurr are stereotyped as stupid due to brain damage caused by carrying a steel beam over their heads, leading to visible lumps. But in fact, they are designed to have hard heads, with a brain low in their skull and lumps acting as natural shock absorbers.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Why Pokémon with signature moves hate Smeargle. It can instantly copy moves that it took them years to master.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • The conqueror who befriended Violet City's Bellsprout, who rescinded his empire and became a pacifist after its death.
  • Also a lot of Alolan would-be villains after kicking a Rockruff.
• Heel Realization: Arceus himself has one after he realized that he really did make grass Pokémon too weak.
• He-Man Woman Hater: The Tyrogue family is a One-Gender Race which is obsessed with ideal masculinity and shuns everything female.
• Hero Killer: The Scizor from the Road of a Hundred Scizor. According to the entry: "even great heroes fear and avoid this road, for a Seizor's claws are sharp enough to cut the threads of fate."
• Heroic Sacrifice: The only way to harvest Sudowoodo stone is to threaten one's forest with an army and agree to spare it at the cost of the Sudowoodo's life. Breaking the promise usually results in the wrath of every other Sudowoodo in the area, which does not end well.
  • Some Turtonator detonated themselves and their island homes so humans could not use their dung as explosives in brutal wars.
• Heroic Suicide: Violet City's giant Bellsprout, which starved itself rather than eat any more Pokémon and thus convinced its friend to become a pacifist. And according to some legends, The Chosen One of Kanto, who commits suicide so he will not have to become king of Kanto and thus end its republic.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Groudon was created to protect the world from Kyogre, but over time came to believe that the ocean should be destroyed entirely.
• Historical Domain Character: Several show up, especially ones that came from Pokémon Conquest. In-Universe, there's a giant Barbaracle who shows up fairly often in Kaiju movies.
• Hive Queen: Trevenant controls trees in battle. The trees are just normal trees, and it is only Trevenant that is sentient and controls their movements.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: After Kyogre’s defeat, Team Aqua thought to flood Hoenn by waking an enormous number of Kingdras and having them drown the region with their twisters and whirlpools. Appalled at the destruction they had caused, the Kingdras ceased their attack and turned their wrath on Team Aqua. Nothing has been heard of the organization since.
• Honor Before Reason: Drapion refuse to use their poison in battle because they think Poison Is Evil.
  • Also the premise behind Machamp's fighting style.
  • And why, in some versions of the legend, The Chosen One of Kanto kills himself rather than be Offered the Crown.
• Horse of a Different Color: Scolipede has historically been used as a mount for cavalry.
• Hot-Blooded: All Charmeleon are this, so much so that they are the derivation of the term "hot blooded".
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: As noted in Skitty's entry, it can indeed breed with Wailord. If the female is a Skitty, the result is a very large specimen of cat Pokémon.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Many times. Zangoose legend tells of the Zangoose rulers being corrupted by the idea of ruling like humans, children who die and become Phantump find the spirits of the forest to be "far kinder than Man", Meditite are far more peaceful than humans, and several species like Machoke and Pichu have borne the brunt of human abuse. However, it is played with overall, like pointing out how, while it doesn't justify the mass slaughter of Kabutops, they were literal bloodsuckers who had killed human children before, how Abra, who escape humans perhaps due to their psychic powers showing their cruelty, evolve into The Dreaded torturers known as Kadabra, and how Combee hives are more oppressive and dystopian than any human society.
• Humans Are Special: Humans like to believe this, on grounds such as being the only creatures to have language or agriculture, but this doesn’t really hold—psychic, ghost and shapeshifting Pokémon can speak just fine or use telepathy to the same effect, and Panpour cultivate trees on a forest-wide scale, as did Sceptile in ancient times. The only actual difference between humans and Pokémon is that humans can’t be caught in pokeballs.
• Human Popsicle: Every now and again, Mamoswine frozen in glaciers since the Ice Age thaw out, no worse for the wear.
• Human Sacrifice: Used to be given to Dunsparce in ancient times to allow hem to enter their large-winged form. The practice was eventually abandoned, until a rogue Team Rocket grunt was found with a large-winged Dunsparce and a pyramid of human skulls.
• Hunter of Their Own Kind: A non-lethal example: Gumshoos, which themselves are invasive species in Alola that threaten the local fauna, are employed by police officers at airports to detect invasive species brought to Alola.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter has a One-Word Title of the Pokemon that's being discussed.
• Inspirational Martyr: Drilbur is seen as this by humans when telling its legend.
• It Only Works Once: Duskull being used to fake an army with Rapidash with the sounds they make only worked once, because ever since that famous example guards have been trained to suspect that noises in the mist might be Duskull.
• Jerkass Has a Point: According to legend, a Sunkern led a rebellion against Arceus and tried to steal the sun due in retribution for his species' weakness, despite Arceus arguing that he had balanced the types perfectly well. But it turned out he had a point, and Arceus pardoned the grass Poké after realizing this, though he cursed Sunken itself to be forever weak unless it could find one of those pieces of the sun.
• Justified Trope: In-Universe, it is a common trope to portray Feraligatr as bipedal instead of quadrupedal, even though Feraligatr can't balance that way, so modern portrayals try to justify it by showing them hunting bird Pokémon.
• Karmic Death: Team Aqua ends up being probably all drowned by the Kingdra they awakened to flood the region.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Rockruff's entry discusses the very literal use of this trope, noting that villains tend to kick dog Pokemon as "the friendliness and harmlessness of species such as Riolu and Lillipup has made harming them a symbol of evil", and speculates that there isn't a true evil team in Alola because anyone who tries to kick a Rockruff only ends up injured, leading would-be villains to either to undergo a Heel–Face Turn or rely on Pragmatic Villainy instead.
  • One tyrannical shogun of Johto also literally kicks a Chikorita he sees on his palace grounds.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Poochyena have a tendency to attack opponents that have fainted, killing them if they are not stopped.
• Kill It with Fire: Bug/steel Pokémon, which in the video games have no weaknesses save fire, here are virtually impossible to kill with anything but fire.
• Know When to Fold Them: Umbreon are more defensive and sneaky Pokémon than quick and powerful, and though they're formidable they will retreat if the battle proves too difficult.
• Kissing Cousins: Mentioned as something that won't go away in society no matter how disgusting many people think it is, as a comparison to Tentacruel bestiality.
• Knight Templar: Zangoose believe in peace but also that Seviper are incapable of wanting this, without realizing their own faults and bloodlust.
• Lady Land: Combee hives. Life is a dystopian hell of constant surveillance for everyone, but the females at least have a chance to evolve and win their freedom, something males are deliberately denied.
• Lady Macbeth: Nidoqueen tend to be like this, which is part of the reason why so many usurpers, dictators, powerful criminals, etc. have had one.
• Lady of War: Diancie II uses diamonds as beautiful and graceful, but also very powerful weapons to fight the diamond cartels.
• Lamarck Was Right: Lampshaded in Granbull's entry, which described their development of chains from birth, developed as a legacy of their time as slaves bound by progressively stronger chains until they began to be born with them, as a "twisted, Lamarckian nightmare".
• Last Stand: The civilization that created Golem, though subverted when they later all kill themselves. And some Hitmonchan who fought entire Roman legions to the death on their own.
• Last Survivor Suicide: The wars of the Level X Pokemon ended with the last Flygon Lv.X, who had used a special technique to easily kill all the other Lv.X Pokemon, turning that technique against itself.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Nuzleaf's ability allows it to heal Pokémon from nearly fatal injuries, but at the cost of them forgetting everything about being a trained Pokémon.
• Literal Genie: Jirachi. It’s not actively malicious, but its interpretations of the wishes it is asked are invariably utterly disastrous.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: Xerneas sure thinks so, and many human theologians and philosophers agree.
• Long-Lived: Klefki have a "nearly endless lifespan".
  • 5,000 years is described as being "only a blink of an eye" in a Carbink's long lifespan.
  • Dragon types in general tend to live long times.
  • Drampa in particular live so long that they've managed to survive apparently without ever having children (though there is confusion In-Universe over whether they really aren't having children, and they might be doomed to extinction as a result of said lack of children).
  • Toucannon can sometimes live for hundreds of years.
• Magicians Are Wizards: Though most magicians are just magicians, some have actual powers that allow them to transform into Gastly.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: It is noted that some people have used Poochyena's tendency to attack fainted Pokémon to "accidentally" kill their rivals' Pokémon in battle.
• Master of None: Sableye become this due to their single-minded focus on not having weakness, though their ability to always move first mitigates this and makes them actually useful in battle.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Why Cubone are usually abandoned by their trainers.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The continents were either created by Groudon or plate tectonics. And Global Warming is either a result of Groudon, Moltres, Ho-oh, or the greenhouse effect. Also, Clefairy's abilities are alien, strange and poorly understood, but there's surely some scientific explanation for them, despite greatly resembling magic—and on a related note, Clefairy dolls are sold as charms and believed to have magic powers, but this is nothing but superstition, despite the fact that wild Pokemon are consistently terrified of them.
• Memetic Mutation: In-Universe, there is a Leek Spin meme that has a girl rumored to be enslaved by Farfetch'd on the Sevii isles.
• Mighty Glacier: Avalugg, quite literally.
• Mind Rape: The personalized psychic tortures that Kadabras have historically used on prisoners of war, which can break even the strongest wills.
• Mithril: The "steel" that makes Lucario a Steel-type. In ancient times, natural deposits were mined to make armor and weapons, but now they're tapped out and people hunt Lucarios for their mithril.
• Moth Menace: The Dustox entry fleshed out how dangerous Dustox poison is. According to it, a sizable chunk of Hoenn's population was flat-out decimated when streetlights were invented, because Dustox would gather en masse and saturate the air with poisonous dust scattered from their flapping winds. The resulting uproar of scared citizens, thinking it was a result of the wrath of the gods instead of mere poisoning, had all the streetlights smashed, and to this day, Hoenn remains very paucily lit because of the trauma this deadly fragment of history inflicted to Hoenn.
• Multiple Head Case: One nation used a two-headed Murkrow in their heraldry, which was supposedly symbolic but actually in imitation of a real two-headed Murkrow.
• Mundane Utility: Krookodile's Extreme Omnivore traits, formerly used for criminal purpose, are now used for eating trash from landfills.
• My Blood Runs Hot: Charmeleon blood is mentioned to be over 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and this is average for a fire Pokémon.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After Team Aqua awakens some Kingdra to flood the region with whirlpools and a typhoon, they look with horror on what they have done, rescue the people, and turn their wrath on Team Aqua itself.
  • Abomasnow weep for people who are killed by colliding with them, and are often seen personally carrying them to be buried.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Why some Mawile have eaten humans on their trainers' orders. Pokémon in general tend to participate in cruel actions due to this mindset.
• Narrator All Along: The narrator is actually Arceus itself.
• Neutral Female: Blissey are willing to serve and heal for any master, not caring if they're good or evil. Subverted later when it is shown many are being used as Stone Walls in the Pokémon league.
• Never Was This Universe: The world as the same continents as the real world, plus societies and historical domain characters, but there are Pokémon there all along as well.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Pupitar shells are virtually unbreakable.
• Nominal Hero: Possibly Avalugg. Some are purported to have grown attached to the people they protect as a wall and defend them from enemies, but there are also arguments that these Avalugg simply happened to rampage on their city's enemies rather than the people they were supposed to have protected themselves.
• Non-Indicative Name: Golduck are not, in fact, gold, leading to theologians believing that Arceus originally named it "Goalduck" due to its ability to score goals in Goal Roll and Soccer.
• Non-Malicious Monster: The whale-sized Skittys born from Skitty/Wailord unions are just as playful and hyperactive as their Skitty parents, but completely unaware of how destructive their “play” really is.
  • Xurkitree can cause hundreds of deaths due to the massive blackouts they create from feeding off power lines but it's their only way to survive away from their homeworld.
• No One Could Survive That!: Why some people think that Ho-oh was killed when the Brass Tower burned down.
• No Ontological Inertia: Averted in Noibat's entry, which notes that "Evolution, however, does not reverse itself when the stresses which put it in motion disappear.]]
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Buzzwole is so incredibly strong because the soil of their homeworld has rich in naturally occurring anabolic steroids. While they're incredibly strong on Earth and possess testosterone levels that would kill most Pokémon, they're actually not particularly strong by their homeworld's standards.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Abomasnow are often thought to be menacing Pokémon, but they cannot control the blizzard they create and grieve for anyone killed by colliding with their snow-camoflauged bodies.
• Nothing Is Scarier: No one knows what exactly happens to a ghost when a Carnivine eats it. Ghost Pokémon are terrified of them, so some people have quite dark speculations about what might happen to them, but it is also possible that they are scared because the Carnivine is still killing them, even if they know they'll just be sent back to the afterlife.
  • What exactly is it that the Forretress in the Ilex Forest are guarding that is so horrible that spending eternity as a wall is preferable to its release?
  • Just how powerful would the hosts of a parasite that is a Physical God itself be?
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Shelgon only fight in wars to be given the experience of flying when they are launched from a catapult. If they evolve from the experience, they usually just fly away. If they have developed loyalty for their side of the war, though...
• Not Quite Flight: Blaziken are able to jump so well that the greatest efforts by religious groups to create a temple insurmountable by them have failed. Theologians eventually gave up and just declared them bird Pokémon. Averted with Dodrio, who actually can fly, but are mistaken for this.
• Obliviously Evil: Skitty are playful and not malicious, but the giant variety can still cause horrible destruction without intending to or immediately realizing it.
  • Shuppet are the ghosts of people who have known little hardship in life and wish to understand people's emotions and how they have wronged them.
• Offered the Crown: In "Mew", it is said that The Chosen One who awakened Mew is said to be given kingship after his victory over some unnamed evil.
• Off with His Head!: Happens in The French Revolution, as in real life, though this time Politoed are among the victims. In Johto, a despised emperor and his Machamp are guillotined by a Pinsir. Pinsir in general love cutting off the heads of royalty or anyone who even resembles them.
• Olympus Mons: Unsurprisingly. Especially since all legendary Pokémon are seen as gods and have religions dedicated to them.
• Omniscient Narrator: Entry #493, Arceus, is entirely in first person. None of the preceding 492 entries directly reveal that Arceus is the narrator, but it comes up from time to time thereafter.
• One-Gender Race: Tyrogue's evolution line is all male. Any rare female forces itself to be male by sheer willpower as a baby. But averted with Kanghaskhan, which actually does have rare male members.
• One-Man Army: Hitmonchan were known to fight Roman legions with just their fist. Salamence and Metagross are both also described as this, given how they are pseudo-legendaries, but it's rare for them to actually choose to fight in wars.
• Out-Gambitted: Xerneas manages to do this to Arceus by giving Zygarde an immortal trainer allied with Xerneas so it can't interfere with humanity in the name of balance.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: In-Universe, Gulpin aren't used for waste disposal despite their abilities due to being outclassed by Minun.
• Palatial Sandcastle: Palossand were once used as actual fortified castles during the Alolan wars. Their walls were as sturdy as the walls of actual castles and their turrets were big enough so that defenders could be stationed within them and fire long-ranged weapons at invaders.
• Parental Abandonment: Some children turned into Teddiursa by eating their honey are abandoned by their parents.
• Plucky Girl: Wooper have a personality like this in general, as they are known for they endless optimism and determination, despite their lack of arms making things difficult.
• Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: Done with Breloom instead of chalices, thanks to Breloom having a 50% chance of being able to eat poison without detriment and a 50% chance of poisoning food they eat. A prisoner winds up switching his own Effect Spore Breloom with a paranoid king's Poison Heal Breloom that he uses as a taster, leading to the king's death.
• Poison Is Evil: Drapion think this, so they never use poison attacks.
• The Power of Love: Muk are powered by this, though people are so repulsed by them that few know it.
• Power of the Sun: Venusaur is a natural user of it, so people are using it genetically engineer TM Solarbeam. The Power of the Sun also fuels Sunflora's evolution and all of its power.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Anyone who tries to literally Kick the Dog in Alola learns the hard way that that's not a good idea (given that the puppies of Alola are Rockruff with flesh made out of stone), so they resort to more subtle types of villainy for this reason.
• Precursors: Before humans, Sceptile made agriculture, Conkeldurr made cities, and Cranidos trained Pokémon.
• Private Military Contractors: Gallades, who often sought out human wars to fight in for pride and glory, took payments in Rare Candies and vitamins, and left for the next conflict.
• Prophecies Are Always Right: Absol are described to be always right in their predictions of disaster, like oracles were, and every prophecy described in the story ends up coming true.
• Proportionately Ponderous Parasites: Deoxys, though due to mutation they're capable of surviving on their own. No one knows what their hosts are like, and given that the Deoxys themselves are Olympus Mons, one can only imagine...
• Rage Against the Heavens: One Smeargle used Sketch to cast its Judgment on ''Arceus'', condemning it for all the world's cruelties.
• Raptor Attack: In-universe, Archen were given the same treatment as raptors in real life, being regularly portrayed at grossly exaggerated sizes, as being able to open locked doors, and as bloodthirsty man-eaters.
• Reality Warper: Stantler may be this, as anyone who is caught in their illusions awakens in a subtly or dramatically transformed reality. It is unknown, however, if they are really reality warpers or if they just alter memories.
• Red Mage: Ditto and Smeargle can be very powerful due to their ability to transform into other Pokémon and copy moves, respectively.
• Reign of Terror: This universe has its own version of the original reign of terror. Many Politoed were killed, and people were quick to claim that they were brainwashed by Malamars.
• Reincarnation: Gengar, due to their attachment to the world and its gods, are eventually allowed to do this.
• Religion of Evil: The cult of Giratina, which as the goal of destroying the world and replacing it with Giratina's. Subverted with the cult of Darkrai, which is persecuted for being seen as this. It is left ambiguous whether the followers are right about Darkrai being Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, though.
• Reluctant Warrior: Wobbuffet have no desire to fight but are forced to by their tails, which have the Shadow Tag ability.
• Remember the New Guy?: In-Universe. Where the new guys are entire regions of the Pokemon world, created by Arceus, who then rewrites history so that they've always existed.
• Resurrective Immortality: Legendary Pokémon can be killed, but are resurrected soon afterwards. Similarly, in the Digimon world, eggs come from dead Digimon.
• Ret-Gone: In a reference to Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, mentioned to be the fate of Grovyle and his partner, though the former managed to convince Dialga to revive the latter.
• Rightful King Returns: Diancie II is sealed underground by diamond cartels to keep their profits, and has to fight to return to her rightful place as queen and creator of diamonds.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Entei takes revenge for being killed in a fire set by a mob in Ecruteak by burning half the city instantaneously with its literal roar.
• Rule of Three: Night is only considered to have begun when three stars appear in the sky, because this means that a Jumpluff can be mistaken for a star, which proves that it is night. Political cartoons also often portrayed nations as a flock of three Murkrow.
• Sadist: Jolteon and Misdreavus are both like this, though the latter can grow out of it with a trainer and thus evolve into a more powerful form.
• Sadistic Choice: Every Pineco, which either grows until it explodes and evolves and becomes immortal, with no way to reverse the choice.
• Scaled Up: According to Zangoose legend, a Seviper king long ago convinced the king and chieftains of the Zangoose to rule with fear and give all duties up to the people like humans do, and over time the Zangoose elite became Severs themselves, only to be overthrown by the rest of the Zangoose.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: Several legendaries have ended up sealed in keys that a Klefki is carrying somewhere.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Once, a prince was sacrificed when an Absol warned of disaster, but it turned out this disaster came from Succession Crisis as a result of no other heirs being born.
  • This is the real reason that Gourgeist songs seem to cause bad luck, they actually aren't curses but ruses to allow the Gourgeist to sneak in and steal items.
• Self-Made Man: The Kabuto-owning peasant who becomes a shogun, and Hideyoshi himself and his badass Infernape.
• Sense Loss Sadness: It turns out this is why Cherrim are depressed except for when there is bright sunlight — without the sunlight they are unable to experience much of everything with their weak senses.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The ending of ''The Saga of the Great Pod" is like this, unsurprisingly given the nihilistic author.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact: In-universe, the supporters of Zekrom note that while it is in power far less often than Reshiram, it has a disproportionately great impact whenever it is.
• Shout-Out:
  • Squirtle are a common enemy in a series of popular platformers.
  • Kyogre is said to lie dead but dreaming beneath the sea, to rise again when the stars are right.
  • There is a popular comic book superhero named Ariados Man.
  • In the video game Graveler Damashii, you play as a Graveler attempting to roll up as many items as possible for the Deoxys King to turn into stars.
  • Klink and the alternate dimension they come from served as an inspiration for the Pokémon world’s version of Digimon.
  • A group of Elgyem disguised as Pikachu-like creatures ^note  unless that’s just what they looked like twenty million years ago devised a grand computer to determine the answer to life, the universe, and everything, which turned out to be 42, the level they evolve at.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Looking into a Shedinja' back in fact does not steal your soul, but makes you remember your forgotten idealistic dreams. Unfortunately, this tends to result in the Shedinja's victim getting this reaction from everyone.
• Single Specimen Species: All legendary Pokémon, though Mew has a genetically altered clone and Arcanine has an inferior version of it that lives as a normal Pokémon.
• Sinister Surveillance: Each of a Combee’s three bodies is constantly spying on the other two, and will report any disobedience to the hive.
• Slain in Their Sleep: One revolutionary who executed an emperor with his Pinsir ends up beheaded in his sleep the next day by that same Pokémon.
• Small Steps Hero: Why Wobbuffet don't use their psychic powers to amputate their sentient tails. They cannot bear to hurt a living being, no matter what the consequences are to themselves and others in the future.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Zangoose believe Seviper to be this. The truth is more complicated.
• Sociopathic Hero: A Jolteon stops Sabrina from creating a psychic dystopia in Kanto with its pin missile, but only because it enjoys causing pain for schadenfreude.
• Spectator Casualty: Very rarely happens in Pokemon battles even with the modern advances in safety measures. One incident with Weezing gas ended with fourteen dead and over 100 seriously injured.
• Spell My Name With An S: Machopman's name was originally written as Machop-man.
• Spurned into Suicide: All Misdreavus are created either when people either commit suicide due to being spurned or are murdered by their former lover.
• Star Power: Ledian gain their energy by absorbing starlight, relying on the strange wavelengths of distant stars.
• Stepford Smiler: Wigglytuff are adorable Pokémon who exude an air of happiness constantly... but evolution just fills them with memories of their exile from the moon, not to mention how they are shunned by Jigglypuff by evolving on Earth, and they are actually sad Pokémon.
• Stronger with Age: Swalot grow ever larger as they grow older and swallow more, and they are not known to age at all or die from aging. Torterra are similar, growing large to the point of having towns built on them, or seeming to be uninhabited islands.
• Stupid Sacrifice: It is mentioned that nearly every city has a story of a Charmeleon sacrificing its life to save them, but most of them would have been able to do so without dying if they had just been more careful.
• Succession Crisis: One kingdom has a succession crisis as a result of killing a prince that an Absol prophecied would bring disaster.
• Sugar Apocalypse: What happened to the pacifistic Amaura millions of years ago, either due to predation or a change in climate.
• Suicidal Pacifism: Mewtwo has taken to practicing this, to the point of nearly being beaten to death by a revenge-minded newborn Murkrow.
• Super-Strength: Machop having this ability led to the creation of the superhero comic in the form of Machopman.
• Taken for Granite: Happens to Slugma if they ever sleep away from magma, though contrary to common belief it results in their evolution, not their death.
• Taking the Bullet: Graveler tend to do this in battles.
• Taking You with Me: A Wurmple trying to poison a Swallow is often assumed to be this. In reality, Swallow get stronger when they are poisoned, and it is actually a symbiotic relationship.
• Terror Hero: Snubbull are kind, but they are terrifying to Pokémon and men (but not women), so intimidation is their most powerful form of defense.
• That's No Moon:
  • Sinnoh is an enormous, ancient Torterra. This came as a bit of a shock to the people living on it.
  • Sleeping Avaluggs are often mistaken for glaciers and even used as fortifications for towns, until they awake and go on a rampage.
• Three Laws-Compliant: Registeel. It is why it is said to be the only true robot of the three regis.
• Time-Delayed Death: Seviper venom coating ancient Egyptian artifacts causes death years after someone touches them. Venom from a live Seviper is much more quick-acting.
• To Be a Master: The goal of most people on the present day Pokémon world.
• Together in Death: Mimikyu become ghosts after they die due to loneliness. When they finally bond with a trainer, "Mimikyu gain lifelong friends and teammates, and their loneliness is vanquished; they linger in this world to help their trainers fulfill their dreams, and at last depart it together with them.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Krokorok are depicted as this in human legends, due to their heat-sensitive vision and tendency for preying on fire types meaning that they try to eat human fires.
  • The last king of Alph, who never, ever bothered to consult the Xatu oracles until he was facing a coalition of every other king in the region thanks to provoking them all of the time.
  • Alolan authors and poets sometimes seek out Bruxish-induced hallucinations for inspiration. Given that Bruxish use said hallucinations to stun prey so they can kill it...
• Tortured Monster: The Type-Null that survived are miserable creatures. Defied by the one that managed to evolve, though.
• To Serve Man: Mawile have a reputation for this, though in reality they will never eat a person unless ordered to by humans. Goldeen actually do occasionally eat human flesh in the wild, and Murkrow eat people's eyes along with Pokéman's. Also, confused Rampardos have tried to attack buildings and eat their inhabitants, due to breaking rocks and eating the minerals inside them in the wild.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted and parodied on Ditto's entry.
  "These poorly-trained Ditto are as unable to beat a Magikarp as they are Arceus himself, for transformation takes time and opposing Pokemon (unlike most anime villains) do not respect the custom of not attacking during a transformation sequence".
• Turtle Island: Large Torterra have been often mistaken for uninhabited islands. The Sinnoh region is actually a giant Torterra, just as its creation myths said.
• Uncanny Valley: Midnight Forme Lycanroc are often thought to be unnerving In-Universe for this reason — they behave very much like humans despite not being exactly human.
• Underestimating Badassery: Everyone assumed that Bruno's Nidorino would be useless in the Pokémon League due to not being fully evolved. He wasn't.
  • Goodra tend to get this treatment due to their appearance, something which Goodra trainers take advantage of.
  • Elite trainers who are challenged by Crabrawler often try to go easy on them due to them being a weak, unevolved Pokemon, only to learn that they are stronger then they appear (though they are still easily defeated by elite trainers using their full strength).
• Underwater City: The Jellicent are the keepers of one made out of shipwrecks and flotsam, beneath a Jellicent-shaped dome and populated by kidnapped sailors.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • A trait of Grovyle as a species, though the Grovyle from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers is noted to be far more loyal than even that.
  • Natu are examples as well, as a symbol of loyalty for eternally standing guard over Alph. But it is also speculated that it might just be out of a grudge over its destruction.
  • While most Cofagrigus are bound to guard tombs as punishment for crimes, some choose to do so out of loyalty and devotion they felt or the tomb’s occupant in life, choosing undeath and servitude out of the belief that those bound to their roles by magic could never equal those who choose to stand guard out of ultimate loyalty.
• Unfinished Business: Decidueye, which evolve from slain Dartrix, are bound to the mortal world until they avenge their death. As a result, Decidueye trainers are extremely careful to never let them battle the trainer they died against, lest their Pokémon vanish. It also meant that in the past, assassins of Dartix would allow themselves to be defeated by Decidueye in battle in order to make their foe vanish forever.
• Un-person: The despotic, Nazi-esque power that fought the often-mentioned war in the backstory, committing many atrocities in the process, now known only as “the regime whose name is forbidden to be spoken”.
• Vegetarian Carnivore: The Bellsprout in Violet City, who decided to starve itself to death rather than eat any more Pokémon.
• Villain Ball: "Criminal organizations have found a defense against Klefki, but only by giving passwords to every member who needs them, one of whom is inevitably foolish enough to blurt them out to the hero".
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Binacles tend to get along rather well with their rock-mates, but their enormous egos mean they’re always bickering.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Meditite species may or may not have arisen from humans transforming into them for religious purposes.
• Walking the Earth: The supposed reason for Entei’s status as a Roaming Pokémon is that it is searching for a place like Ecruteak City was before the Brass Tower was destroyed, a place it can call home. It’s still looking.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Bastiodon are extremely sturdy but just as extremely vulnerable to earthquakes, leading to them going extinct from just one.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Mightyena packs not led by a trainer tend to devolve into this, with them arguing too much to actually hunt.
• Wham Episode: Arceus' entry reveals a lot of shocking information about the fic's universe.
• Wham Line: Several chapters end with one.
  • Bulbasaur's entry: "Professor Oak of Pallet Town is far older than anyone knows."
  • Espeon's entry: "There are very few people who realize that Espeon fur is not lavender, but bright green, for rare is the Espeon who allows their fur to grow at all."
  • Latias's entry: "Latias still waits for a boy from Pallet Town to finish his Pokémon journey and return to her side, and treasures the memories of the time she shared with him in Alto Mare City like nothing else in over a thousand years."
  • Torterra's entry: "One can only wonder what will happen to the civilization on its back when the Torterra named Sinnoh awakens once more."
  • Cranidos’ entry: "Cranidos’ vast brain size and the value of many of these items for Pokémon trainers today suggest another explanation: that Pokémon training did not begin with Man’s evolution, but is far older than he could possibly have imagined."
  • Befitting its status as a Wham Episode, Arceus' entry starts with one: "I am Arceus, the Omega of Sinnoh, creator of the world."
• Wild Card: Avalugg "walls" are just as likely to attack your city as they are to defend it.
• With This Herring: Kabuto's entry describes a peasant in the Sengoku era who is given only a Kabuto, a poorly made sword and a shield. He later rises to be a shogun.
• When Trees Attack: Trevenants are able to animate and command normal trees, using them as armies to fight off human encroachement.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?:
  • Wartortle get to choose between being very Long-Lived or evolving to gain more power (though still living hundreds of years), and almost all choose the latter. Likewise Pineco slowly grow until they fall of the branches they live on and explode, and can only be saved by evolving. However, evolving makes them have nearly Complete Immortality, though they can still be killed by fire, and it is a difficult choice for many.
  • Arceus sees the stagnation that will arise from a world without death, so it tries to balance Yveltal and Xerneas's powers. Xerneas vehemently disagrees.
• A World Half Full: There is a lot of horror and sadness in the Pokédex, but it is still a genuinely better world than it was in the past or that it could have been. Illustrated in Stantler's entry, where the narrator notes that "Although this world of peace and Pokémon is perhaps not the best of all possible worlds, there are so many ways it could have gone horribly wrong, and so few which would have made it better."
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Seeing a Masquerain directly makes you Go Mad from the Revelation, making them difficult to defeat in battle. The only way to defeat them is to fight them during a rainstorm, because they can see their reflection in rain and they're not immune to their own effect.
• You Dirty Rat!: Raticate have had a bad reputation ever since they were used by a terrorist organization to gnaw through Silph. Co, and have now replaced Electrode as the most common Pokemon for terrorists.
• You Shall Not Pass!:
  • The word-for-word message given by the Forretress creating a wall in the Ilex forest.
  • Also, Walrein's entry compares a battle fought with that Pokemon to the famous battle of Thermopylae, but the former ends more successfully thanks to Walrein's ability to infinitely stall its enemies in the hail.