The Pokédex - Extended Fanon Edition

Not really much consensus on the data thing, I'm guessing.

We should probably move on to actual Pokémon entries. Which species first?

Meanwhile, how is training / the Pokémon League handled? Are starters routinely distributed ala the anime, or do trainers just start with whoever they can get? Is the League a governmental department, or a professional organization?

EDIT: Post 151! We should start with a Kanto species, then.

edited 27th Mar '10 9:41:46 PM by Tangent128

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?

Bulbasaur, of course.

I'd say trainers start with whatever they happen to have (befriended, caught freehand, handed down from trainer parent/friend etc.), and a classic starter is provided by the League through certain middlemen (Oak, etc.) if they don't have one.

edited 27th Mar '10 10:18:53 PM by Pykrete

That would explain why Lyra owns a Marill.

Sensible enough.

One interesting note- in HG/SS, your character has a trainer card before ever getting a Pokémon. Perhaps a trainer card is given as proof of passing a simple theory test? Depending on the League's relationship to the government, it may be that you get carded when buying Pokéballs.

Anyways, Bulbasaur is a good starting point. What information do we want to establish?

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?

On how the plant on the back and the amphibian/reptile establish a symbiotic relationship, for starters.

Well, if we're taking a biological analysis of this, we were gonna run into massive Squick sooner or later. Brain Bleach on standby from here out, fellas. And my roommate says welcome to pre-med.

The ingame Dex claims the seed is planted on the saur's back at birth by the mother — but we can observe the plant in place at hatching, in absence of the mother. This leaves two interpretations.

1) Motherless 'saurs don't get a plant and die soon after hatching. Those lucky enough to get the plant have its roots graft invasively into the lower spine while they're thankfully too young to remember the experience. 'Saur eggs in the game having the plant already are Gameplay and Story Segregation.

2) The plant symbiote penetrates the egg prior to laying...so I'd assume "seed" works on two different levels here.  ^*

The plant grafting into the spine happens during embryonic development, which is at least a kind of ick we don't have to watch, and is basically in place by hatching.

edited 28th Mar '10 1:08:06 AM by Pykrete

The plant sends its seeds into the mother.

I prefer the idea that the plant is so bound up to the mother that the Bulbasaur zygote has a seed attached to it as it matures into an egg (in the wild). The germinating plant embryo will fuse with the maturing Bulbasaur embryo, and become a complete part of it as it hatches.

For bred Bulbasaurs (via Ditto), the copied geno-data will also include the data for the plant, which will be formed as part of the baby.

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

Did it ever say that the plant on its back, actually IS a parasitic/symbiotic plant and not just a plant-like organ?

Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!

Maybe the Bulbasaur species stole the whole genome for a plant and incorporated it into their DNA! After all, humans did the same with some viruses.

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

That would work. Bulbasaurs are animal lichens.

I second(third?) that. If we're in agreement, what comes next?

:smug:

Squirtle Family next! Let's talk about the biological pressure cannons Blastoise has!

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

And why Squirtle and Wartortle have decidedly mammalian tails.

I'm pretty sure the Squitle family stores large amounts of water in a chamber in their shells, which is then drained into a special organ and fired at high pressures via muscles. Blastoise's cannons, while metallic looking, are made of bones with the muscles responsible for spraying at the base of the barrel, and possibly down the length.

As for the tails, maybe they just evolved tails like that to attract mates or something.

Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!

So a Blastoise empties its swimming bladder through the cannons?

Ballast guns!

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

Aren't Swimming Bladders filled with air, not water?

And no, they're separate organs used to store water specifically for the cannons.

Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!

Perhaps a Ballast Bladder, then. I'm sure there's an animal somewhere that needs a ballast bladder to sink into the water.

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

Hmm, so a Squirtle line would have ballast bladders - when emptied they float, and they sink to hunt.

I buy what Neo Crimson said about the Squirtle family. It sounds reasonable enough. Perhaps their tails were meant to help protect themselves or be used as a type of tool before they are able to shoot water.

I think it needs to be said (if it has not already) that any Pokedex information from the games should be taken with a grain of salt. The Pokedex entries tend to say some unbelievable and probably exaggerated things that seem inconsistent with how Pokemon actually are. For legendary Pokemon I suppose the explanation for their dex entries would be that they are just recounting legends, but it seems kind of difficult to use that as a justification for the entries of the other Pokemon.

edited 28th Mar '10 10:23:50 AM by LouieW

"irhgT nm0w tehre might b ea lotof th1nmgs i dont udarstannd, ubt oim ujst goinjg to keepfollowing this pazth i belieove iN !!!!!1 d

^Indeed, Magcargo is the most egregious though. I seriously doubt that it's internal body temperature is twice as hot as the surface of the sun...

Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!

If it were then the Pokemon world should have burned already.

That would be half the motivation for this project.

Next couple posts will be the entries for the Bulbasaur and Squirtle lines, then. The above biology looks good, but what about habitat and diet information? Courting and childrearing?

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?