Pokémon/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

The Anime and Movies

• This guy won the Lily of the Valley Conference using multiple legendary Pokémon, when the last time someone caught a legendary it almost caused the end of the world^[1]. But then I realized: in the games, don't players usually use the legendaries they caught to beat the Elite Four relatively easily? The entire fiasco could be a Take That to those sort of players!
  • From a less cynical standpoint, the battle is one of the final events that convinces Ash to continue training and head to Unova. People familiar with the plot of Pokémon Black and White may notice that you are expected to catch one of the headliner legendaries and use it in battle to resolve the plot. Combine this with the mandatory legendary battles in RSE and DPP, and earlier legendary-training characters like Brandon and Noland (ever notice that he uses one of the legendaries that was causing problems in 2000?), and the plot seems to be moving away from the message of the second movie and arguing that responsible and respectful use of legendaries isn't reprehensible. Nobody seems to have a problem with Tobias, after all, and the Heatran user wasn't even brought up.
    • Well, I imagine it depends on which legendaries one is capturing. Darkrai, Articuno, etc. probably have multiple members of their species (in the Jap version of Pokémon Heroes, there's a sequence with many Latios & Latias), and the legendary birds in the Orange Islands are established as special cases. Catching certain ones - such as Arceus - is insane (at least permanently), but when there are many members such as the Regi trio (Brandon's), having their power under a responsible trainer doesn't seem morally questionable (and despite how people feel about him, Tobias didn't seem like a bad sort). We'll have to see where this goes in the future, though
  • This troper had a bit of fridge brilliance regarding the character's choice of dub name (and may possibly imply something about his origins). He's called Tobias, which doesn't sound like the name of a legendary-wielding champion. But it turns out that "Tobias" is also the name of a biblical figure in Hebrew religion- this Tobias went on a journey, guided and protected by the archangel Raphael. And, get this- one of Raphael's patronages is nightmares.
  • It may be a reference to The Battle Tower. As you rack up wins the game does whatever it can to stop you, including using Legendary Pokémon. Now that Ash is getting better and better, the writers are doing whatever they can to stop him, like giving his opponents Legendary Pokémon.
    • Except that Ash isn't stronger and he gets dumber with each series, i.e. forgetting how to catch Pokémon in Unova. Infectedglory
      • Well in fairness, it seems there's some kind of ridiculous contract which declares the first attempted capture in each major Pokémon "series" absolutely must involve a trainer being inexperienced/stupid. And if Ash's first attempt at a Treecko is any indication, the guy has some Ambiguous Disorder which causes him to forget basic knowledge (only temporarily, though - it's only in the first episode that he outright had no idea how to catch Pokémon. You can also chalk up some of his early slip-ups - especially that second battle with Trip - to overconfidence. I mean, if Ash's first loss to Trip was mostly due to Zekrom being an (apparent) Jerkass God, then of course he's not going to think Trip has a perfect strategy to pulverise his entire team. It's not like Ash was ever one who specialised in pre-planned strategy - this is the guy who often invokes Heart Is an Awesome Power through his bond of trust with his Mons. It's not an ideal justification, but it at least makes the series less migrane-inducing.
• Why did that recurring Jigglypuff suddenly disappear after the first Advanced season? Could just be that the joke was getting old... or it could be that that time corresponds to the first time in the game where there are Pokémon naturally immune to sleep, thanks to the abilities Insomnia and Vital Spirit? Jigglypuff's whole purpose for travelling was to find someone who would listen to her song without dozing off, so she probably found some Pokémon with those abilities and sang for them full-time.
  • True, but some on-screen resolution for a long-running recurring character would've been nice.
• The message in Pokémon the First Movie wasn't so much as fighting is bad, but certain types of fighting is bad. Take for example the fight near the end of the first movie. Very gritty and violent, much different compared to the first fight in the beginning where it wasn't so violent.
• I just realized why Gary Took a Level In Kindness. Gary's based off Blue (or Green), who becomes nicer in Gen 2. He also seems to like Red, who Ash is based on, in HG/SS.
  • How's this Fridge Brilliance? It's obvious.
• The short at the beginning of Pokémon the First Movie climaxes with Charizard stuck in a plastic tunnel with just about every other Pokémon there trying to pull him out, his firebreathing until recently always struck me as being useless until i realised that he was trying to make the tunnel expand even slightly. That Charizard might not be as boneheaded as he looks!
• The first movie struck this troper as poignant, artistically and emotionally, when I was thirteen but I couldn't understand now. Even then it seemed like Mewtwo's use of Pokémon was commenting on something. Many years later, after many viewings of the movie, I finally realized that Mewtwo was consciously deconstructing competitive Pokémon training while also subconsciously seeking to become human, all because of his feelings of a lack of power in his life. I also connected my identification with this struggle to my own issues, but that goes somewhere else.
• Ash not taking any of his previous Pokémon (sans mascot Pikachu) for his Hoenn adventure may seem like a pointless way to have him catch new Pokémon. But considering that players couldn't trade their Pokémon from the first two generations of games to their copies of Ruby and Sapphire, it wouldn't be fair for Ash to do what players couldn't. It seems this logic is broken when Ash doesn't bring over his old Pokémon to Sinnoh, when players were able to bring their GBA Pokémon into the DS games. But, when you consider the fact that access to GBA Pokémon is restricted until players beat the League and get the National Dex, and that Ash uses his old Pokémon for the Sinnoh League tournament, Ash is in a way still emulating when players have access to old Pokémon.
  • To add to that last point, Ash usually gets a Pokédex upgrade from the local professor of a new region once he gets there. He already has the National Dex!
• When I first saw a Japanese preview for Arceus and the Jewel of Life, I was extremely surprised to see the voice actor they chose for the eponymous Olympus Mons: Akihiro Miwa. The voice fit perfectly, but as for everything else... in hindsight and after research, he may have been the aptest choice possible for the role. He has many traits in common with Arceus: more age than appearances suggest, ambiguous gender, golden highlights, high popularity among the other characters despite holding strong beliefs and having some Jerkass tendencies, first-hand experience with "judgment" raining down upon a city...
  • On a related subject, Arceus's dub voice. A lot of people say it doesn't fit him, and in several ways, it probably doesn't. But rather than discussing that aspect, let's discuss how, when asked who should have voiced him, a lot of people immediately suggest someone like Dan Green. The fact is, despite his many roles, Dan has only voiced two legendaries to date. The first was a man-made clone of an existing Pokémon that doesn't speak telepathically and sounds far cuter. The second was an illusion created by the Unown, based upon a little girl's memories, and the creature they emulated merely roars. The logical conclusion is apt, not only for the show, but also for the fanbase. Dan Green is not what legendary Pokémon sound like. Dan Green is what humans think legendary Pokémon should sound like.
    • You just gave this troper a Fridge Brilliance moment as well. Both of these Pokémon specifically were created by the human mind. Mewtwo by Team Rocket who probably wanted the voice to sound more like the way he speaks and Entei by Molly Hale who was reminded as her father, plus Entei would sound like that as far as humans would like it to be.
      • I don't know what you mean by "wanted the voice to sound more like the way he speaks" (such as if the "he" in what I quoted was Dan Green or Mewtwo), but that is the voice Mewtwo projects psychically. If Dan Green (or Philip Bartlett's Majestic Voice Mode) is how humans think Legendaries should sound, and Mewtwo was created by/raised by humans, maybe that's how Mewtwo thinks Legendaries should sound.
• I'm still not sure how I should be reacting to this one, but it clicked after seeing the entry for Brock on the Lovable Sex Maniac page... I never really thought twice about that - it was business as usual, after the third episode he was in- but now that I've looked back over the Indigo League, it makes a strange amount of sense. What was Brock's motivation during that saga? To be the world's best Pokémon breeder.
  • Another theory is possible. When Brock was growing up, he had to devote all his time to either running the Gym or taking care of his own family; he had no time for himself. How old is Brock supposed to be? Fifteen. Meaning he missed out on the beginning years of puberty doing the work that should have belonged to his father. His outrageous pursuit of women is two or three teenager years exploding at once.
• Another. In earlier seasons we repeatedly see the Team Rocket trio whining about how they haven't eaten anything for days because they don't have any money. Around Hoenn and Sinnoh, these complaints stopped. Why? Because all of the stuff they sold at various contests and little tournaments proved wildly popular and thus paid for their Humongous Mecha and food.
• Brock ended up giving his Onix to his brother Forrest and later when Brock returned to the Gym, he found his Onix is now a Steelix. When thinking about it along the video game lines, it makes sense. In the game, the only way to evolve your Onix to Steelix is to trade your Onix while it is holding a Metal Coat.
  • Okay, so where did Brock get the Metal Coat?
    • Forrest probably had it and gave it to Onix, since the anime already established that Pokemon who evolve by a specific evolutionary item need only to hold that item to evolve.
• This is almost definitely coincidental, but Gary is an anagram for (the American English spelling of) Gray, and Ash is a shade of gray. Compare Red, Green/Blue, and Green from the games.
• In the episode "Purrloin: Sweet or Sneaky?", the titular Pokémon Dropped a Bridget on TR's Meowth and Ash's Oshawott. I get why Meowth might be fooled, since he's from Kanto, but what's Oshawott's excuse? He's Unovan.
  • Me again. I always wondered if Team Rocket ever really thought about the implications of stealing other people's Pokémon. The way I see it, there are two possible outcomes: 1) Every Pokémon, the moment it's released, demands to see its Trainer, and opens up on them when they refuse; 2) Pokémon morality states that "he who holds the ball, makes the rules", which is kinda disturbing.
• Just a silly little thing, but in 'Beheeyem, Duosion and the Dream Thief' the Power Trio's reactions to Officer Jenny's entrance make a lot of sense. Iris waves her arms around, Cilan stays (mostly) still, but apologizes profusely, and Ash bows several times in quick succession. It struck me as odd at first, since you often see everybody bow when they apologize for something, but that was in any one of the Japan-based regions, and Unova is based on New York. Unovans wouldn't bow when apologizing, but Ash-- from Kanto, as we all recall-- would and does.
• It would seem random that Ash would catch a Palpitoad. However, the Tympole family it belongs to are considered expies of the Poliwag family. So by extension, Palpitoad is an expy of Poliwhirl, which happens to be Satoshi Tajiri's favorite Pokémon and a Pokémon that Red (Ash's Pokémon Special counterpart) had.
• I always wondered why Pikachu never seems to grow in power, until I read this very page and realized something. Pikachu can't get any more powerful, because he can't evolve. Because he never evolved, he never learned better moves, and never got the stat boost becoming a Raichu would give him. Because of his/Ash's lack of foresight in his third (?) gym battle, Pikachu can be defeated by many lower level Pokémon (for example, Cress' Panpour, a water type, early on in Best Wishes) and is probably lucky to have ever defeated anything better than him.
• In Best Wishes, Team Rocket start off as promoted elite agents wearing black versions of their usual attire and taking orders directly from Giovanni, who was now wearing a black military-stile uniform. As of episode 25, Giovanni became too busy to oversee their missions, so they demoted themselves and switched back to their familiar white uniforms. Who are they working for now? Dr Zager, a guy in a white lab coat. It fits the Black and White theme!
• Here's a subtle one - Tepig's "Well Done, Son" Guy tendencies prior to his evolution. While it's understandable that he's have low self-esteem after an abandonment by a previous trainer, having it so bad that even Lenora points out he tries 'really' hard for Ash stands out (and he's upset when he ties with a Vanillite, even though he battled well). Then come the episode we finally meet his former trainer - who as it turns out, claimed to have left Tepig behind because he felt it would be better for a weak Pokémon to not be forced to battle (hint: he's lying). Suddenly it makes sense - while Ash would never ditch a Pokémon friend even if they had a losing streak, Tepig does not believe such a thing exists. It takes confronting his trainer on the truth to invigorate his self-esteem.

Red,Blue,Green,Yellow,Fire Red And Leaf Green

• Lance is infamous for having illegal Dragonite. However, him owning three underleveled Dragonite is deliberate; Lance had been hanging around Mahogany Town a lot, which is precisely where Team Rocket were conducting experiments to make Pokémon evolve. It's taken this troper nine years to figure that one out.
  • His Dragonite also know Barrier, a move which is still impossible for a Dragonite to learn even in Gen IV. His Aerodactyl also knows Rock Slide, which it can't learn.
    • Aerodactyl can learn Rock Slide in Gen IV with TM80. However, You're right that Dragonite can't learn Barrier.
      • Not even in Gen. V?
        • Not even in Gen. V. Looks like they never noticed?
          • It actually does make sense. In Dragon's Den, you are capable of, through answering a set of questions to the elder correctly, getting a Dratini that knows ExtremeSpeed... which cannot be learned by the Dragonite line. Maybe Lance got one with Barrier instead?
  • Team Rocket didn't start doing their experiments in Mahogany until GSC, though, as that was where they were testing the radio signal that they intended to use at the Radio Tower. Although in the GSC remakes he does have a level 40 Dragonite, so maybe this could still apply if his teams between RBY and GSC are actually different Pokémon.
• This troper got to thinking about why Team Rocket arms its members with nothing Rattata and Zubat - after all, it isn't that hard to go out into the wild and catch a few Pokémon with more type diversity. Then one thinks about Team Rocket as an organization: in general, they steal everything they want. And what sort of creatures are best for theft in dark places? Rats and bats. Team Rocket thinks of their Pokémon as tools to the point that they don't even consider training them for direct encounters with other Pokémon.
  • They're also fairly common, and easy to catch. Not too great in terms of of Pokémon. Much like military standard issue weapons, nothing fancy, gets the job done.
  • In a big, power-centric criminal organization like Team Rocket, do you want to give your grunts powerful monsters with which they have a chance to rally together and usurp you? No. That's why you give them low-level weak Pokémon species with which they'll probably be able to repel most intruders, but not you. The same principal works with the Executives; they need powerful Pokémon to protect themselves from their subordinates, but you, the Boss, will keep the most powerful monsters for your own protection.
• When you meet your rival in Lavender Town in Pokémon Red and Blue, he asks you if any of your Pokémon died. Then you realize not long after that his team has an empty spot, and that his Raticate vanished.
  • Still don't get it. Explain in more detail.
    • I think I get what he's saying. In the third Rival Battle, the Rival has a Rattata. In the fourth battle, it evolved into a Raticate. In the fifth battle, it isn't there. A Kadabra is. Sometime between the fourth and fifth battle, the Raticate died.
      • And that's exactly why he's in Lavender Town in the first place!
  • And here I thought he was just calling my Pokémon weak... oh God...
  • I just thought of something: that question about your Pokémon dying was presented in a mean-spirited manner. And he did say he caught a Cubone in the Tower. This brings the possibility that he just didn't care about Raticate's death at all. Then this ties in to his actions at Silph Co. And that makes what Oak tells him after the final battle carry more weight.
  • Or, for more fridge horror, he killed the Raticate off himself. If his Raticate died off by accident, he'd probably be more concerned about other Pokémon and would be more willing to help the player stop them at Saffron. Instead, he blows him off, not thinking that Team Rocket is worth his time in the least. This meshes more with his personality. Oak probably knew about this and was this close to trying to make sure Gary would never be a trainer again if he didn't learn his lesson. Obviously, Oak and Red got through to him since he became a Gym Leader when Gen. II came.
  • Orrrrrrrrr, he just shoved Raticate in the box after it outlasted its usefulness. The rival captures a lot of Pokémon that he doesn't use or care about (over 50 species by the S.S. Anne, for heaven's sake). Not to mention he doesn't ask what it's like to have a Pokémon die. He asks "What are you doing here? Your Pokémon don't look dead to me!" As he says, he's looking for more Pokémon (he leaves since he can't find Marowak), and he's just being a dick to the player.
    • He still has a space in his team, though. Unless he left a space open for a Marowak, then walked all the way back through the tower and across town to put the Cubone in the PC Box just to go back for a Marowak (which I consider a perfectly reasonable assumption if he also went to heal his team), he probably has neither the Raticate nor the Cubone. I still don't see why he would leave a space in his team just so he doesn't have to wait to use his new Marowak if he got stomped to the point of running to a Pokémon Center when trying to catch a Cubone, so Occam's Razor still says he probably only has five Pokémon at that point.
  • Lavender Town's Pokémon tower holds mostly Ghost types, right? Raticate's a normal type who can only learn Normal attacks without the use of HMs or TMs in Generation I. Normal doesn't affect Ghost. The Raticate isn't necessarily _Dead_. Gary may just not want a guaranteed-to-fail on him, opting to keep the space open because the other Pokémon are too weak to contend with this area's wild Pokémon, and that a freshly captured one would fit well; with the idea in the player's head that they caused his Raticate's death instilling a guilt trip in the Player being a bonus.
    • Doesn't explain why he replaced it with a Kadabra. Psychic types are weak to ghost, remember? If he wanted a type advantage, then he wouldn't have swapped his Normal Ratticate for a Psychic Kadabra.
      • All the Ghosts in the Tower are part Poison. And Ghost doesn't offer any resistance to Psychic.
      • Well technically, due to a coding error in Gen I, Psychic types were completely immune to Ghost type attacks. But since certain dialogue in the game hints that the current type matchup was still intended, I suppose that doesn't really count...
  • Also, in Gen III Raticate learned several Dark-type moves, which would have made it very useful against the Ghosts. More importantly, Ghost's immunity to Normal works both ways -- that is, Normal is immune to Ghost-type attacks, too. Meaning that if nothing else he could have used Raticate to stall while he healed the rest of his team.
• I wondered why your rival in the first generation had a Gyarados, as he didn't exactly strike me as the guy willing to train a lowly Magikarp up to level 20. However, I then realized that you never actually fought his Gyarados as a Magikarp. In fact, it is the only member of his team who never fights you in its basic form. He probably took a shortcut and just caught a Gyarados instead of a Magikarp, illustrating his lack of patience, dislike of weak Pokémon, and unwillingness to commit to a lasting friendship with his Pokémon. --Dragoryu3000
  • That, or he left it at the Daycare until it reach Level 19, then raised it to 20. -- Medicus
• This troper always found it strange that Misty only had two Pokémon, Level 18 and 21 Staryu and Starmie respectively, yet she trains at Seafoam Islands where the lowest level Pokémon there is probably Level 26. The more I thought about it, I realized that the Staryu and Starmie aren't her only Pokémon, and she has a set whose levels are much higher. Then I realized that all Gym Leaders probably have a set of Pokémon used to face each challenger based on their skill level. For example, if Giovanni would have been present as Red's first Gym Leader, he would have used the level of Pokémon that Brock used to face you, then Brock would've used the level of Misty, etc.
  • Makes sense. In G/S/C when you visit the Kanto Gyms, all of the leaders there have sets of Pokémon in the 40s/50s level range, and all have more than two.
  • Giovanni? I had this Fridge Brilliance myself in terms of the other Gym Leaders, but I get the feeling that Giovanni would simply crush any trainer who came to him...so Red was better off with Giovanni being absent.
  • But he wasn't publicly the Big Bad. If he had taken on a brand new trainer with his toughest team, he'd probably have the other leaders or League officials on his ass, which would be bad for him.
  • Aren't the middle gyms of Gen I nonlinear in order, but still keep their levels and such? Even in the remakes, they still have set levels no matter what order you decide to do them in.
• Giovanni is the leader of Team Rocket. He's also the last Gym Leader you battle. After you get a badge from him, all Pokémon will obey you, regardless of if you captured them or not.
  • Unless they're above level 100, but that requires Missing No. or the ZZAZZ glitch anyway.
• Realized the other day that in the Japanese, the Badges in Red and Blue (Green) were named after their respective colors instead. Now the last Gym Leader you face is Giovanni, who gives you the Earth Badge (Green Badge). In GSC, you hear the tale of Red who beat Team Rocket, became the League Champion and disappeared. In Giovanni's place is Red's rival... Green! Now it makes more sense that his team was multi-type in the Ground-type Viridian Gym.
  • The Gym is also stationed in Viridian City. Viridian is a blue/green-ish colour. Made even better by the renaming of Green to Blue outside of Japan - Viridian applies to both.
• This troper was playing FireRed and she was wondering about something. Your rival says that you're a "chatty gossip", which doesn't make any sense considering your Heroic Mime status. Then she got to noticing that the player character actually does talk. You always talk when you call out your Pokémon, you introduce yourself to people, and you even say sentences to Copycat that she echoes. Combined with the fact that you and your rival were childhood friends, who's to say that you never were a gossip?
  • It took you until Fire Red? I figured that out in the Blue Version... the first time I answered "Yes" or "No". Also, this little exchange occurred within a week of the purchase.

Copycat (mimicking Red): blahblah I'll get your Dolly for you blah

Me: Wait, I never said that. I thought she only spoke by repea-- oooohhh...

• The Legendary Birds are given an internal numerical order via Spanish: Artic UNO, Zap DOS, Mol TRES. One, two, three.

Gold, Silver, Crystal, Heart Gold and Soul Silver

• Blue's rematch team includes a Pidgeot with Return, which is always at maximum power when used by the AI. Checking his team in the original games, a Pidgeot is on his team (in varying evolutionary stages) in every battle but the one in the lab. It's probably the same Pidgeot, which he's had for three years - it makes sense that it would like him!
• In HeartGold and SoulSilver, when you visit Copycats new home, her parents mention that she lost the doll a boy gave to her a few years ago. Go upstairs and visit Copycat and what Pokémon does she have? Banette, the abandoned doll Pokémon.
• One thing that bothered me in the HGSS remakes was Petrel's team - specifically, that he had a more varied 3-Mon team in the first battle but a 6-Mon team with five Koffings and one Weezing in the second battle. I put this down to just being a direct remake without alteration, but was still bothered, especially when I saw Proton's team was upgraded from the original Gold And Silver (he originally had a Koffing in the 1st fight and Golbat in the 2nd - in HGSS, he starts with Koffing & Zubat and then advances to their evolved forms). Then I realised that it fits his incompetent personality perfectly - of course he's going to overload in numbers instead of creating a more balanced team when he probably follows TR's philosophy to the letter rather than works intricately!
• In Crystal, a Pokefan on the S.S. Aqua has a rather pathetic team of a Furret and four Sentrets. After the battle, she remembers that she has to get her Pokemon out of daycare. How'd she wind up with such a weak, repetitive team? Her other Pokemon is a Furret of the opposite gender, and when she kept leaving the two Furrets in daycare together, she wound up with a bunch of Sentret eggs. This could also explain countless other trainers with four or five identical Pokemon. At least it sounds better than them catching the same thing five times over out of stupidity.

Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald

• A little thing I noticed about Latias and Latios: their normal colors are red and blue respectively, obviously representing Ruby and Sapphire. But then, you also notice that their shiny colors each add green (Emerald)-- red + green = yellow, and blue + green = cyan! Possible Genius Bonus for those who are familiar with the light spectrum? --Blueeyedrat
  • Red and green absolutely do not make yellow, neither do blue and green make cyan. Yellow is a primary color and therefore cannot be made, and cyan is cerulean blue with a touch of yellow and white in it. I prefer to think that Latios and Latias' shiny forms are a shout-out to the first Gen. colors - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow.
  • On the light color wheel, red and green do make yellow, and blue and green do make cyan.
• A lot of people complain that May is too busty for a kid her age. Ignoring the fact that it is possible for someone of ten years old to be that size, May's never said to be ten in the games. The only protagonist with an age is Red (and by connection, Leaf) who is eleven. May can be anywhere from eleven to thirteen for all we know.
• When one travels to Navel Rock, there is no mountain in the overworld, but Ho-Oh is on top of a huge mountain that you have to travel up 10 or so ladders to get to. This troper thought that was weird at first, but then I realized that you first enter the chamber, then go down a ladder, and then walk down an extremely long hallway. The mountain that Ho-Oh is on top of is a long way behind Navel Rock, you just can't see it.

Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

• In Diamond and Pearl, you can find Hoppip and Skiploom. In Platinum, you can't. The reason? Sinnoh got colder, and the dandelion Pokémon couldn't handle it, so they left.
• In Platinum, you can find Absol on Mt. Coronet. The reason? Impending disaster of an inter-dimensinoal variety.

Black and White

• The world of Black is tech-savvy and the world of White is nature-based. Their respective legendaries have opposite themes. There are two reasons for this. One, this ties in the Tao theme really well; they are the other, opposite colored dot of the world. Two, N tries to fight you with the correctly-themed dragon; this is the dragon who probably won over the other the first time, hence how Unova came out. You conquering the opposite-themed dragon and it conquering the other shows that what it represents is just as valid as the other, not better or worse.
  • Precisely. Not just simple colors on opposite ends of the spectrum, but the ideas of differing world views that can be seen with "Black and White morality" as opposed to "Shades of Gray". N says that straight up at one point.
• As of June, 2010, a new Gen V Pokémon was revealed as the local bird. It was a pigeon. At first I was all like, "WTF", but then, I remembered that Unova is filled with CITIES!
• Little minor thing, but the Waiter sports fan who battles you in the Stadiums has a CLAMPERL and gives you a FRESH WATER. So, basically, you're (or your team members, really) drinking Pokémon spit. Fridge squick, indeed. Is that the case if you're stranded in a desert with only a water Pokémon? Would that be your means of survival?
  • Isn't it just possible that the Waiter was carrying around a bottle of water from a vending machine or a store? Plus wouldn't having your water Pokémon use up its own water while in a desert be a bit hazardous if survival is at stake since it might dehydrate if it doesn't retain as much water as possible? Plus regurgitated water would likely make you sick.
  • Thinking back, the waiter probably the bottle of water with him so that his Clamperl could stay hydrated, regardless of where the two of them went.
  • This troper was just hit with some fridge brilliance. Waiter sports fans handing out water... water boys!
• The mascots are Dragon / Fire and Dragon / Electric dual types. Team Plasma tries to get one. Plasma is a state of matter that can be formed by FIRE and is typically part of LIGHTNING. So, Team Plasma is getting a component of itself. A helluva lot better than the "Galactic wants Time/Space/Antimatter" from D/P/Pt.
• In Opelucid City there is a man in White that wants to get in contact with his son in the future to see how he turned out. I ignored this until my friend showed me her Black version: Opelucid City is completely high tech and non-relic looking like it was in mine. When she went to the same building there was the guy's son, wanting to reach the past. It then occured to me that this means that White takes place in the past, and Black takes place in the future, and the comment about the battle with the legendaries being a repeating cycle hit me like a brick.
  • Actually, this isn't quite true. It is heavily implied by other characters in the game that Black and White happen at exactly the same time, but in different, parallel worlds.
    • Wonder how they will adapt that for the Anime...
      • There are two movies coming out with similar plot lines and minor differences in each Victini and the Black Hero Zekrom and Victini and the White Hero Reshiram
• The creators stated that the three starters of Isshu/Unova are each based on a different part of the world: Japan, China, and the West (specifically, France). Now, counting the version mascots (and assuming that Kyurem will be the third version mascot), we also have three legendary trios. What are they each based on? Japanese gods, the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang, and the French novel The Three Musketeers. -- Dragoryu3000
• Chargestone Cave might seem like a cheap gimmick of a cave. It's basically an electrically-charged cave that doesn't seem to exist for any particular reason. However, when one looks at the Pokémon in the cave, they seem to be rather odd. We normally associate plants and insects with nature and metal and electricity with technology. The cave itself is a blend of nature and technology, as well as the Pokémon who inhabit it, who are a blend of nature and technology themselves; Ferroseed is a mix of nature and technology because it's a plant (natural), but it has a metallic coating (unnatural) and Joltik is a mix of nature and technology because it's a bug (natural), but it can manipulate electricity (unnatural).
  • Interesting if you consider the version mascots representing nature and technology. The Aesop of the game is not the clashing of two different things, but understanding and adapting each other, right? In fact, what about Genesect?
• I realized on a second playthrough that after saving Bianca's Munna early on, Iris gives you a Yache berry. Of course the Dragon Gym Leader gives you a berry lowering Ice damage!
• Some may find it strange that Reshiram (a white Pokémon) is the mascot of Black Version, and Zekrom (a black Pokémon) is the mascot of White Version. But let the fact that they're based on yin and yang sink into your mind for a bit. What does the symbol for yin and yang contain? A white dot in a black area (Reshiram) and a black dot in a white area (Zekrom).
  • In philosophy we were learning about Taoism and Yin & Yang. Reshiram and Zekrom came to mind immediately, but it wasn't until the professor mentioned the dots in the symbol that I understood why they weren't the mascot of the corresponding game.
  • On the same note, the concepts yin and yang for Americans are backwards. Yang is not dark and Yin is not light. They're reversed since the Chinese read right to left and Americans read left to right. Whether this is lampshaded is optional.
  • Also that the mascots would be almost invisible on the game covers due to them being almost entirely one color with no shade variation.
• At first the Unova Dex's terrible learn sets (most Pokémon can't find anything beyond STAB and normal moves) seemed like bad design, then it struck me. Gen V was meant to evoke Gen I. Gen I did have terrible learn sets all around, all with the exact same issue!
  • This is both Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Logic at the same time -- "bad on purpose" is still bad.
  • Or, it was because now that TMs are no longer single-use, you don't need to rely on a Pokémon's natural learnset anymore.
• In the OST, the theme that plays when N appears is called 'The Equated Captives'. When this troper first read that, before I finished the game, I assumed it was a reference to the way N equates all Pokémon as being captives of trainers. But on checking the OST again after finishing it, it became obvious: the 'equated captive' is N himself! He was kept captive in his room by his father, in order to satisfy an equation for power he had worked out! To drive the idea home, a remix of the theme - 'The Child Of Pokémon, N' - plays when you visit the room in which he was held captive! This makes even more sense in Japanese - the language doesn't designate plurals, so you'd go through the game reading the title as 'The Equated Captives', until you reached the end and realized that it was actually 'The Equated Captive', singular!
  • Another common translation for that track is "One Captivated by Formulae". This can of course allude to N's general interest in mathematics, but then again, also stand for his near-obsession with finding the "equitation that changes the world" (i.e. freeing the Pokémon). And then of course, him being held captive by his father in the Plasma castle is still valid too.
• You can trade for a Basculin that has an ability no other Basculin has. I have recently gotten into trading on the GTS for the Shiny breeding benefits and Dex completion, but am paranoid of hacks. But you can trade for an "illegal" Pokémon right in the game! Perhaps Game Freak was just slipping in the message that they really don't care if you hack Pokémon? There's so much hack-exclusive bonus material in all the games, so I really shouldn't be surprised by this. - Alternate Mew
  • The "hax" ability in question is Rock Head, whereas a normal ability any Basculin can possess is Reckless. Rock Head prevents recoil damage from attacks like Double-Edge, while Reckless increases the power of recoil attacks (and the subsequent recoil). Since both abilities are essentially equal to one another, it was likely either intentional on Game Freak's part, or a minor mix-up in coding, but it really doesn't affect much.
• Anyone ever wonder why N never has the same team twice? He releases them after he battles you! This also explains why they're Pokémon you can find in the immediate area!
• At first, it struck this troper odd that there where so many more black characters in 5th gen then in the others. But then it struck me: Unova is based off of America - of course there are more black people then in the Japanese-based regions!
• N is this so much. His party changes each time, because he's the leader of a Pokémon Rights Group which doesn't believe in keeping Pokémon. When this philosophy begins to break down, he appears to keep a Pokémon and even evolve it. His full name is Natural Harmonia Gropius. N and Harmonia creates "enharmonic". N is an empty variable, the same as the character is an empty variable in Team Plasma's plot. N means natural number, and he's a mathematician. The Menger Sponge around his belt has infinite value (N becomes king) and no value (he's a figurehead) at the same time. It seems like N was designed just to radiate this trope.
• Just realised. Kyruem has just got a "Zekrom" form and a "Reshiram" form. However, these still have ice on them. This is because it's not complete. Kyurem is the body from which both Zekrom and Reshiram came from. It's not complete without both of them.
• Unova's Victory Road is a tall, dome-shaped hill pockmarked with a multitude of random entrance/exit holes that lead to a vast network of caverns. While you'll find the typical rock-types and bat pokemon inside, the most common wild pokemon nesting in the cave is the bug/steel hybrid, Durant. Outside, your most common opponent is the fiery anteater, Heatmor (Durant's natural predator). Victory Road is a giant termite mound appropriated by the Pokemon League as their "final gauntlet" for prospective challengers.
• Similar to how Gen 1 hid Spanish in the Legendary Birds' names, there is German in one of the Gen 5 pseudo-legendary evolutuion families: dEINo, ZWE Ilous, and hyDREIgon. Again, one, two, three.
• It just occurred to me: according to Bulbapedia, Genosect is an abandoned Team Plasma experiment. It uses "drives" to change its type. Arceus uses "plates" for the same purpose. Team Plasma was trying to create the god and creator of Pokemon in their own image!
  • Except drives don't change his type. In at least BW (because we don't know what they prepared for sequels...), he is always Bug/Steel. Only Techno Blast changes type, and ironically that signature move is inferior in Fire-, Electric- and Ice-types as the only Water-type move Genesect can get is Hidden Power. Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Ice Beam - they all have more PP, power than Techno Blast, plus they have additional effects. Without Drive it's Normal-type, and aside from Selfdestruct, Explosion, Hyper Beam and Giga Impact, and they all have drawbacks.

Spin-off Games

• In Guardian Signs, there's a Stable Time Loop. Ben goes back in time and inspires Ravio to become the hero of Oblivia. Ben is then inspired by Ravio to become the next hero of Oblivia. But why did Celebi take Ben back? Considering Celebi's nature, could it be to preserve the time loop?
• So, I was playing Shadows of Almia the other day, and I noticed TWO interesting bits of Foreshadowing: first, the swirl in Kincaid's hair; it doesn't have significance other than being silly earlier on, but after The Reveal...it is Team Dim Sun's logo. Kincaid is The Dragon to Dim Sun. Another interesting piece is the dark sunglasses Kincaid gains in his Dim Sun outfit. They're identical to Blake Hall's sunglasses, and HE is the Big Bad of this game! (Though arguably, Kincaid is a far worse human being. And basically the predecessor to Purple Eyes, no less.)
• Why is Darkrai such an irredeemable, cold-hearted, cowardly villain in Time/Darkness/Sky? In this universe the Pokémon all have human-level intelligence. Darkrai didn't start out evil as shown when he joins your team after the memory wipe. His ability, Bad Dreams, no doubt kept away people. He felt lonely and, eventually, angry at all of the Pokémon whom were able to be surrounded by friends and loved ones. The solitude and seclusion would drive anyone insane, especially over the many years he's implied to have lived. He wanted everyone to share in his despair, hence his plans to corrupt the Gods and plunge the world into eternal darkness. Losing his memories was likely the only way to free himself of all that hatred. A new life that eventually gets friends for him thanks to you.
  • And now Dakrai has gone from a maniacal and utterly sadistic entity to a sad and destructive being. Giving Ghetsis the gold medal for worst sentient in the known Pokémon multiverse.
  • Nope, that honour belongs to Purple Eyes from Pokémon Ranger Guardian Signs. He not only tried to to kill every human in existence, even ARCEUS deems it unsafe for him to be in the mortal plane. Even Ghetsis wasn't whisked off to be judged. Yet.
• Finally figured out why Double Battles are the default battling style in the Orre region. The bad guys there are much more willing to directly attack defenseless people (i.e. people who just lost a battle), so having two Pokémon out at once covering for each other lessens the chance.
• In Pokémon Colosseum, when you first capture a Shadow Pokémon you can't order it to use any of its none Shadow moves until you open up its heart a certain amount, yet the trainers you snagged them from can have a Shadow Pokémon use all of its moves(Except for the opens replace by Shadow moves). Why is that? Because the Shadow Pokémon opened its heart to them. Nowhere does it say that you're the only one who can open a Shadow Pokémon's heart. You basically kidnap them, so of course they're going to shut their heart to you.
• The first 3D games were titled Pokémon Stadium, which underlines the "battle as sport" theme of the main series RPGs. "Colosseum", however, is an allusion to ancient Roman mortal combat between slaves...and the plot depicts Pokémon who are stolen and robbed of their free will.

The Pokémon themselves

• Have you noticed Drifloon/Drifblim's stats? Insane amounts of HP (150 is more than any other Flying or non-legendary Ghost has ever had) but its defenses are quite pitiful. Balloon. It bursts like a balloon!
• Tommy X: Elgyem's Pokedex entry says it first appeared in the desert, so why does it appear in a tower further north? Elgyem is Psychic, and there are two Dark types native to the area, as well as a couple Bug types and Ghost types. So it left the desert and went to live in the Celestial Tower. Why it's living with another Ghost type, though, I can't figure out.
  • Another thing I realized: Elgyem is more common the further you go up in the tower. That's because it's trying to get the attention of its friends in space!
  • Another reason they're interested in the Celestial Tower? It's a good place to study certain attributes of human society, considering they're an alien race and all...
• In psychology, this troper was watching a film on MPD called 'The Three Faces of Eve.' Suddenly, she realised where Eevee's name comes from - it evolves into one of three 'faces'.
  • Or it could just be from saying the first two letters of EVolution - which is what Eevee does best.
• In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Platinum, there are no wild Riolu, but in Black and White, there's a cave filled with the little buggers. This can mean only one thing: Riolu is actually native to Unova instead of Sinnoh! By extension, this may also mean that Riley (who gives the Riolu egg) is from Unova!
  • In Ruby and Sapphire, there are no Beldum in the wild, but you can catch them wild in Diamond and Pearl. So Steven got his Beldum from Sinnoh and gave it to you because they are actually native to Sinnoh.
    • Nope. They are swarms of beldums that come from Unova. They are found normally in the Giant Chasm. Looks like it's a great place for mystic, magic or simply strange pokémon. Kyurem's presence attracts all sorts of strange pokémon
• If looked at in retrospect, it is very clear the Pokémon are Pocket Monsters, that are more than content to maul any human that lacks the ability to defend themselves ("It's unsafe! Wild POKEMON live in tall grass! You need your own POKEMON for your protection."). This neatly explains why Duels Decide Everything (you are trying to remove your foe's defense against your deadly monster or vice versa) and such. This isn't so "fridge" in Special and Orre though, where it is a tad more explicit.
  • Except if all your Pokémon faint, you're still able to run away from it AND protect your Pokémon at the same time. You do lose money though. The player is in such a panic that their money falls out of their pockets.
• I read in the Gameplay and Story Segregation page that Arcanine's Pokédex entry regards it as really fast, yet lots of Pokémon manage to have a higher Speed stat. Even Rapidash, considered the fastest land Pokémon in Kanto, has a Speed stat lower than Electrode. Kind of a mess up, isn't it? But then it hit me: Pokémon battles take place in an enclosed area. The Speed stat doesn't reflect their top Speed, but rather their Speed within that area, which would drop if the Pokémon doesn't have enough room to properly accelerate.
  • Also, Arcanine learns extremespeed.
  • It's not really top running speed; it's reflexes, agility, and reaction time, which is why it determines move order.
• I was reading the Characters sheet for the Gen I families and I got to the Machop line. As I read the entry, I read that there's a 3:1 ratio of males to females, and it hit me: with so few females, there must be a lot of competition for available mates... so naturally, the Pokémon would train to be as strong as they can.
  • Except female machops can mate with any male member of the Human Like group.
• I was wondering, "How come Kingdra is a Dragon type?". Then it hit me. It's based off of the sea dragon.
  • Actually, the word seahorse has the word "dragon" in it in Japanese. That's why Hattorri transforms into a seahorse when he's the Dragon of the Zodiac in Fruits Basket.
• If Arceus is God and created everything, he technically created humans too. Which means that in the Pokémon universe, humans are technically Pokémon too. Which makes the fact that people eat Pokémon (Slowpoketails, anyone?) totally valid.
  • It also explains why attacks are relatively harmless-we're as tough as Pokémon!
  • In episode 27 of the original series, Ash says "That Magikarp looks ready for the deli counter." proving Pokémon are eaten.
  • It also explains why there are so many psychic trainers as if such an ability isn't uncommon. People are Psychic-type Pokémon. The psychic trainers are the ones who leveled enough to learn psychic moves.
    • This also explains the Dark type Pokémons' abysmally low reputation. Not only are those Combat Pragmatist predator's signature attacks super effective against us -- they are also the only ones completely immune to our signature mind fuckery.
• I an still using Serperior, Simipour, and Victini after obtaining 7 badges. Then I realize: this is why the Snivy line has such a bad moveset! You get your starter at the beginning of the game, then shortly after get the elemental monkey with a type weak to your starter, then by the time you are ready to get your third badge, you can get Victini. If you do not get Snivy, you end up with two good Fire-types (Tepig for those who choose it and Pansear if you choose Oshawott). But if you have Snivy, then you have a good Fire, Water, and Grass Pokémon. To keep things a bit more fair, they made it weaker. - Stinkoman 87
  • Except Victini is an event-only Pokémon. -Mogotoo.
    • That is available during the first couple of months that the game is out; that's when the bulk of the games were sold.
• Vullaby. The cute baby vulture. at first I was: "Ooh! she's wearing a bone as a diaper! And theres a heart shape on it! And three small bits on top..." Then I realized ITS WEARING A HUMAN SKULL!! (Can't find it? Turn the "diaper" upside down.)
• For a while now, people have debated Arceus' pronunciation. In Japan, they say 'ar-SAY-us' whereas in the US, it was dubbed as 'ar-KEE-us'. Well, this troper just stumbled across an article that explained how the 'archeus' (pronounced 'ar-KEE-us') is the lowest astral plane that watches over all of creation... genius.
• This troper only just realized that the Pokémon name Kangaskhan is a pun on Genghis Khan.
  • Kangaroo Genghis Khan. They were very clever in Gen I, for sure.
• Delibird has the ability Vital Spirit, which prevents sleep. It would need this because it's based on Santa Claus, who delivers presents all night.
• Why can Wooper learn Recover? Because the real-life animal it's based on, the axolotl, can regenerate its own limbs if they get cut off!
• The reason Wailord, a 14.5 meter (47 ft., seven-inch) long whale weighs 400 kilograms (877.4 lbs), roughly the weight of a riding horse, is because it's based on a blimp. It's probably full of air, which gives it an extremely low weight for its size.
• This Troper thought Giratina was a nonsensical Pokémon that seemed to be thrown into what seemed to be a carefully crafted mythology. All of the other Pokémon Arceus created had a clear role - time, space, memory, willpower, and emotion. Giratina was just sort of there. And the explanation that it lived in a parallel dimension that was integral to the existence of the real world when it was so small was pretty strange. Then Junichi Masuda clarified that Giratina was the personification of anti-matter and now it all makes perfect sense and is kind of awesome. The reason Giratina's world is so small is because of baryogenesis, and the reason its cut off from anything else is because logically it should explode if it went to the real world (instead it just transforms to handwave it not exploding). And its creation by a Pokémon God actually has a purpose and sense. How many series have a God of Antimatter in them?
  • A lot of people are obsessed with viewing the legendaries in trios. After beating Platinum this troper deiced to puzzle out just exactly who would fall under where in the whole mythologies. Giratina, it turns out, fits amongst all the major legendaries in the game as a counterpart. It is counter to the Uxie/Mespirit/Azelf as a being of human NEGATIVE emotion, it's counterpart to Palkia and Dialga as outside either of their realms, 'of everything else' if you will, and counterpart to Arceus as ruler of the world opposite of ours, and it's sole inhabitant. Giratina is basically equal-but-opposite every other legendary set in DPP.
    • Adding on to the idea that Giratina is a being of negative thought and emotions is its location- where are the pixies found normally? In three caves that are in lakes. And where is Giratina found (Asside from the distortion world)? A cave in a hidden fourth lake.
• Time for some pseudo-theological rambling, as this had bugging me for a while. Why would Arceus (and by extension ANY legendary) let itself get caught so (relatively) easily? I mean, he's the freaking creator of the Universe (at least in this/that plane of existence), he has power over everyone and everything (supposedly, either directly or not) and is supposed to be God... Then one fine day, the truth struck me in the head like a snowball coming from nowhere. It's actually simple: Arceus, being God, is immortal, while us puny mortals get to live... how much? 70 years? 90 at best? Guessing that such a short amount of time could barely mean anything to God, I've come to the conclusion it's a fair deal (and admittedly a pretty devious one): you get to "own" God for a while, then after your time has come, he either OWNS you (if some people's beliefs are to be right) or simply he sets himself free and continue with His business. After all, what's a human lifespan to Arceus - ever thought of that? Maybe he had been flipping you off all the time, or just wanted to give you the illusion of having caught a GOD FOR REAL! and gloat about it while it lasts. Or, simply put, he took a liking to you and wanted to be pals with you, again while it lasted. As frightening such a thought could be, it's true - such things can happen in the great scheme of things (provided there's one), so I have to say, kudos to you, good sir!
  • Edging slightly into WMG, but it always seemed a little unlikely that demi-grade Pokemon like Rayquaza or Arceus would allow themselves to be captured by mortal trainers. But some, like Dialga, are essentially described as literally the element they represent (e.g.: time). It seems more plausible that the Pokemon is a mere fragment of this god made in flesh and gifted to a worthy trainer. It explains the abundance of the non-event ones, at any rate.
  • Not to mention, you did help save the entire universe from Cyrus. Arceus would owe you some gratitude...
• It bugged me that Kyogre has type advantage over Groudon, when they're supposed to be equals in strength. Then I realized that they aren't supposed to be equals in strength: In their battle years ago, Kyogre created the ocean, while Groudon created the landmasses. Now, what is there more of on Earth's surface, continent or sea? --Dragoryu3000
  • Fridge Brilliance on the Fridge Brilliance: Groudon and Kyogre have the same base Speed stat, so it's a tossup as to which one would strike first. Both could get Super Effective hits on each other. They are almost completely evenly matched. --Darkelourd
  • Fridge Logic on the that Fridge Brilliance in regards to the OTHER Fridge Brilliance: Except that they're not. The move Groudon uses in order to KO Kyogre is the special, Grass-type Solarbeam. Kyogre can use any Water attack or Ice attack to KO Groudon. Not to mention that Groudon is playing off its weaker Attack stat and Kyogre's stronger Defense stat AND doesn't get STAB, while Kyogre is getting the better end of both conditions. Groudon is still pretty much screwed against Kyogre.
    • Why else does Hoenn have more water and surf routes than any other region? And why else is the amount of land and water more even than most other regions? It's Kyogre and Groudon fighting for dominance over the region. K Man
• Tropes Will Ruin Your Life in action here. Over on the Pokémon Fetish Fuel page, someone mentioned Combusken among Pokémon that look somewhat...phallic, and it's kinda true. Combusken also happens to be a 3-foot-tall chicken that, like all starter Pokémon, is primarily male. In other words...it's a giant cock. --Spiri Tsunami
  • And it learns Peck, making it...a pecker. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
• This troper just put two and two together. Lugia used to reside on the top of one of two towers in Ecruteak City, though it now lives deep in the Whirl Islands. It is known to have the power to both calm and give rise to storms. Several Pokédex entries mention that Lugia isolates itself because its powers are too strong. Now, back to the two towers in Ecruteak. One of them is still standing; the other one burned down when it was suddenly struck by lightning. Guess which one Lugia used to roost on?
  • I think that was supposed to be obvious...
  • This troper read the whole thing and realized Lugia IS the master of the beast trio, with Suicune (Water-typed, the rain in the storm), Raikou (Electric-typed, the lightning bolt), and Entei (Fire-typed, the Fire that burned it down) that were created DURING the incident.
  • Yet all three of them died from the fire, and Ho-Oh is the master of them for bringing them back to life.
    • Reading these two previous statements, it makes even MORE sense the Lugia is the Master of the Bird Trio. They all fly, staying in the sky, and as such it can be taken that they represent snow storms (Articuno) thunder storms (Zapdos) and heat storms (Moltres). Lugia can both calm and give rise to storms!
      • Only one little problem with that theory: What the heck is a "heat storm"?
        • Probably meant fire storm. Like during the Victoria bushfires in Australia a year or two back...
        • Heat wave, maybe? Not a particularly flashy kind of weather, not like a thunderstorm or blizzard, but deadly all the same.
        • And another bit of Fridge Brilliance: the Pokémon that died in the storm were probably Flareon, Vaporeon and Jolteon, but came back as Entei, Suicune and Raikou due to Ho-Oh's powers.
          • ...Which is backed up by the Beast Trio's Dream World abilities being the same abilities said Eeveelutions possess normally!
• All official media has red-striped Basculin and blue-striped Basculin listed separately, even though they are the same species and are functionally identical. It wasn't until catching one and reading the Black version Pokédex entry--which states that they are very hostile in general and that the red and blue ones start fighting with one another instantly--that this troper realized that, this generation being based on America rather than Japan, they're a subtle reference to the Bloods and the Crips.
  • I always thought it was Republicans vs Democrats...
  • Basculin is way more likely to be based on Red Oni, Blue Oni. Yeah, they're both violent, but the blue one looks calmer.
• I've heard that some people really dislike Klink, because it's a strange design. But think about this: Unova is a very technologically advanced region, compared to others, right? Couldn't it be that they reverse-engineered this from the Pokémon? -Beyondnor-
  • And why exactly does Klink's evolutionary line have the least drastic changes with each stage? Consider this: Prof. Juniper stated that Klink appeared in Unova only a hundred years prior to the events in the game. Since Klink naturally existed for only a short period of time, it didn't have the time to make the drastic changes that, say, the Bagon line has made. And note that I said "naturally" for Klink, since the Porygon line (which has made drastic changes in each of its stages of evolution) was created digitally. -Kingdom Xathers-
• As I took a peek at the new Pokémon, I rejoiced as I saw there was an anteater/ant duo! But then I noticed the anteater was a Fire type, and the ant was Bug/Steel, which meant the anteater clearly had the upper hand, a very odd thing for a rivalry. Until I realized it wasn't supposed to be a rivalry after all.
• Scraggy and its evolution Scrafty are two lizards dressed in a punk-style getup (the latter sporting an additional mohawk and hoodie), and its type is fittingly Dark/Fighting. When I saw that it was weak to Fighting, one of its own types, I came up with an idea. Other Fighting types like Machoke and Hitmonlee are based on martial artists with training and some combat strategy, while Scrafty represents an untrained thug. Normally, a trained fighter has an advantage in a fight over someone with no training. Even if two Scrafty fight, it'll be like two gang rivals dueling, since both will use Fighting type moves and go down quickly.
• I now know why the "gift" Pokémon (ex. the starters, Castform, Lapras, Eevee) are all so rare and can only be given to you in captivity. All gift Pokémon have a natural male-to-female ratio of 7 to 1, meaning that there are very few females in the wild to impregnate and give birth. It is a scientific fact that a single male with a group of females will produce more offspring than a single female with a group of males, causing an entire species of Pokémon to be very rare. - Waxing Name.
  • Though, this does not explain why Jigglypuff and Skitty are both rare, despite having a male-to-female ratio of 1 to 3.
    • The male ratio needs to be larger than the female ratio. For example, 7 male Lapras can't impregnate 1 female Lapras. Because of that, their population grows smaller because of fewer of females to impregnate. However, 1 male Jigglypuff can impregnate several female Jigglypuff, allowing the female Jigglypuff to procreate even more. The Skitty example, however, is a little harder to explain because it isn't as common as Jigglypuff.
      • Skitty may live in prides similar to lions - one male has a large harem of females, but whenever a new male takes over the pride, all kittens are killed off. And if there are male kittens born, then they are chased off or killed by the adult male about as soon as possible. This would not only explain why Skitty are relatively rare, but also their gender ratio.
  • Another explanation of the 7 to 1 starter sex ratio is that the ratio is not natural; it merely reflects that the trainers have 87.5% possibility to receive a male starter Pokémon. These Pokémon are rare in the wild, but every region need a large number of them for starters (not just you and your rival!), so they have to breed them. To maintain less cost and more efficiency in breeding, they need a lot more females than males. Naturally the Professors are more willing to give out males to new trainers.
    • Jossed. When you breed your starter (if you have a Ditto or another one of the opposite gender not related to eachother) then the male to female ratio is still the same.
  • Nitpicky detail: the gift Pokémon Castform and Lapras actually have a male-to-female ratio of 1 to 1, not 7 to 1.
• At first glance, the Pokémon Trubbish and Garbodor seem to show that the developers have run out of ideas and/or motivation to be creative. However, there's a reason they haven't been in previous generations. While previous regions were based on areas in Japan, Unova is based on New York and the U.S. east coast. Trubbish and Garbodor are actually a reference to the massive landfills and garbage problems that America has. - PAK 215
  • So explain Grimer and Muk.
    • Sludge is a toxic byproduct of factories that cannot be recycled. Garbage, however, can, for the most part, be recycled. Japan has strict recycling laws while America produces massive amounts of garbage. Also, Japan uses nuclear power. Lots of toxic sludge there.
  • Black and White is also basically a big reference to the first games. About 150 Pokémon, none from other regions. So, there are some repeating themes. Like the pollution (Grimer and Muk) Pokémon and the trash Pokémon. Theres also the new Electric / Flying- and pure Flying-type Pokémon and Pikachu.
  • Here's what I think it is. In the first generation, we had the poison-type Pokémon Grimer, Muk, Koffing, and Weezing. Those two families represent toxic sludge and poison gas, or rather, pollution in two states of matter, liquid and gas. Now that we have Trubbish and Garbodor, the trio is complete with the Solid Waste (ie, garbage) Pokémon.
• Why does Raticate/Rattata has the ability "Guts"? Because of the saying "A cornered rat will bite the cat".
• Deino and Zweilous have the "Hustle" ability, raising their attack, but lowering their accuracy. At first I thought this was just to make it harder to get Hydreigon, but then I realized, Deino and Zweilous are blind! Of course they have a hard time landing hits, they don't get eyes until their final stage!
• Dark types are usually cruel, but Absol warns people of disasters before they happen. The 'Dex says that since they were easy scapegoats for the disasters, people hunted them down. I figure that to protect themselves, they developed more vicious moves, which is why they're Dark typed. But they never dropped their old habits.
• Gardevoir looks feminine, but can be both genders. And its/"her" Pokedex entry suggests that it/"she" will always watch over its/"her" trainer, even if it meant endangering it/"herself." Acccording to Bulbapedia, Gardevoir wasn't intentionally designed to look female.
• Togepi has tan skin, but its evolutions are white all over. Why the change? Togepi is a baby bird, its feathers grow in when it evolves!

Moves and Types

• Has anyone else ever wondered why there was never a pure Flying-type Pokémon prior to Gen V or why no Flying-type Pokémon has Flying as its primary typing? What if Flying isn't a stable type? Also, the only pure Flying-type Pokémon is a legendary because only a Pokémon of legendary status and specialty in Flying-type attacks can remain stable enough to not need another type to take over as its primary typing. Anything weaker would probably result in an avian Pokémon similar in metamorphic biology to Eevee.
  • Flying-type moves are all things like "gust" and "air cutter", so I always imagined that 'Flying' meant the actual wind or air. There aren't any purely Flying-type Pokémon because they're animals as well, with physical body.
• I just realized why Rock types work well on Flying. Try getting a bat wing out from underneath a big frickin boulder.
  • More likely "two birds with one stone", since it works for smaller stones against bigger birds as well.
  • This Troper always figured it was because birds' bones are hollow and rather brittle to allow them flight. Getting hit with a rock would likely hurt them a lot more than, say, a Ground-type, whose entire body is akin to earth and therefore more solid and sturdy.
  • Or, try and maintain a forward flight path (and therefore remain airborne) with a giant rock in your face.
• I was wondering how the TMs work, since the animation from Gen III just shows a CD being placed onto the Pokémon's head. But then I read something on the series's main page that mentioned the players' items possibly being converted into information the same way Pokémon are. That's when I realized: The CDs aren't being placed into the Pokémon; they're being loaded onto the Poké Balls containing them! -phazonfarmer
  • This can also be used to explain the Hyperspace Arsenal: Instead of carrying around ridiculous amounts of enormous supplies, you're just carrying around cards (or something) that have the information for the supplies on them! -phazonfarmer
    • Well now hey, there are little teleporters scattered all over the place in Gyms and basements of villainous teams, who's to say there aren't bags that utilize this technology?
    • Or you could just go by the first set of manga. The TMs are audio-books, and the player puts the headphones on the Pokemon.
• Dark types have never had a Gym, because it's the villainous teams who use them.
  • Err, no. The Dark-type is actually "Evil Type" in Japan, which is why the Gym Leaders don't use it and the bad guys do.
    • Explain the Elite Four in Johto, Hoenn, and Unova, then.
      • The Elite Four are supposed to test your abilities as a trainer, so of course they're going to throw curveballs at you by using Pokemon types that didn't have a Gym and even using types villains would use. If you can beat them then they assume you're ready for whatever the current Champ can throw at you.
• It just struck this troper a possible reason that Bug Pokemon are more effective against Dark Pokemon. The whole thing about Dark types is that they cheat and fight dirty. But how can you cheat or distract something that is essentially single minded like a bug?
  • So bugs are too stupid to be tricked? Make sense to me.
    • Not stupid, just alien. They can't be tricked by feints abused by Darks because they think differently.
  • For me, it's always been something like "You know what kind of animals is able to create light? Bugs. You know what does not like light? Darkness."
    • That would also mean that the Dark type would be weak against the Fire and Electric types, which it's not.
  • I like to think that Bug-types are good against Dark-types because of their compound eyes, and I don't mean the ability. These allow insects to better see things that are moving rapidly as well as being much more sensitive to light waves. So I'd say that the quick movements and dark abilities of Dark-types just simply wouldn't work due to the Bugs' developed eyesight, thus leading to a huge advantage on the latters side.
• The fact that bugs are resistant to Fighting-type moves made no sense to me, since bugs are easy to crush. But then it hit me... cockroaches are hard to kill using only Fighting-related moves.
• Realized why Bug beats Dark. When are bugs most active? At night. What is night? Light or Dark?
  • But no, in the games Dark Type =/= Opposite of Light. And that reasoning would at best cause Bug and Dark to be neutral to each other. It's the "Evil" type in Japan, in that moves and Pokemon with this type play dirty. So the above reasoning "a bug is Too Dumb to Fool probably works the best".
• It always bugged me that Bug attacks (I get it. But this fridge brilliance revolves around this) are super-effective against Psychic and Dark types. Then it hit me: Psychic types focus spiritual energy for power, and cutting off their focus hurts them. How do you do that? Contaminate their minds with evil thoughts; (Dark) scare the living piss out of them; (Ghost) and bother/distract them, also known as bugging them (Bug!). As for Dark types, remember that in Japan, it's literally called the Evil type. Almost every Smug Snake, Manipulative Bastard, or Magnificent Bastard is evil. In a lot of movies and books I've been exposed to, said villain considers the hero protagonist to be nothing more than a pest. The villain often compares the hero to a Bug. In the end, the hero defeats the villain who called him a bug. Bug beats evil. Therefore, Bug beats Dark. -- Spenny
• Many of the type advantages make sense to this troper, but he had trouble figuring out exactly why Ground-type moves are super-effective against Steel, of all things. Then it hit him: large steel buildings are most easily damaged and toppled by earthquakes.
  • It may be an architecturally political reference regarding Japan's building designs having evolved originally from bamboo and wood, and their skyscrapers having been engineered to weather their earthquakes, as compared to the British Empire's descendants mostly using designs that evolved from wood and stone and have only recently (within the scale of our use of tall buildings) been built to deal with earthquakes instead of last through them by brute force of the materials used.
• Just realized why the "Brine" attack in Pokémon inflicts double damage when the opponent is low on health. Saturated salt water in your wounds? Ouch.
• Finally figured out why Curse is different between Ghost types and other types. Imagine a Slowpoke cursing!
  • Yooooouuuuu... ...mooootthhheeeeeerrrrr... ...fffffffuuuuuuuuckkeeeeeerrrrr.....
  • OR, Ghosts just know how to use it properly, as Curse was reclassified as Ghost-type in Gen V.
    • And then there's Snorlax, whose most-used moveset has it doing very little but resting and cursing. (And eating, as is standard among Snorlax.) Chances are that sounds like someone you know.
• I wondered for a long time, why the Dark-Type is super-effective against the Ghost-Type, when ghosts practically live in the Dark. And then I remembered Bite. How to kill/do heavy damage to supernatural beings that are resistant/immune to physical attacks like Vampires and Ghosts? Make a Werewolf BITE them.
• For a while, the move Hypnosis confused me - how do you knock someone out just by mentally telling them to go to sleep? Then I read The Lost Hero, which mentioned a minor Greek god named Hypnos. Now it makes sense -- the word "hypnosis" was derived from Hypnos's name, and he's the god of sleep!
  • I don't know how to break it to you, but Pokemon didn't come up with the concept of "hypnosis".
• I couldn't understand why Dark-type moves weren't effective against Fight-types. Fighting dirty should bring an advantage to the Dark-type, right? I only realized otherwise when I saw Throh in Gen 5, and my mind first made the connection -- Fighting-types aren't just using strong attacks, they're actually using martial arts. Now imagine someone trained in martial arts going up against a street thug...
• A different thought about Ghost/Dark relations: In some Eastern cultures (and, I assume, many cultures around the world), a good deal of emphasis is placed on respectful treatment of the dead. This can even extend to the point of praying to the spirits of one's ancestors. Now, Dark-type attacks are known for their..."pragmatic" nature. So, using such an underhanded (or "dishonorable") tactic against a Ghost is comparable to dishonoring the dead. It's not that the attack itself is particularly effective, it's the disrespectful nature that the attack represents that's so powerful against Ghosts. From the other side, too, Dark-types can resist Ghost-type attacks because they have no respect for the dead, and so the dead can do little against them.
• So, think of it, Dark types are just pragmatic fighters, how does that make them immune to Psychic attacks? Well, maybe it's because their mind is filled with thinking about how they're going to take out whatever's in front of them, except maybe a bit more... viscerally than how other types do it? Who would want to read that, and similarly to the Ghost example above, maybe those thoughts add extra hurt to someone attacking a mind reader?

Other/Overlapping

• This might overlap with continuity nod, but take a look at Moltres' pokedex entry in the Sinnoh games. They mention that its arrival signals an early spring. Now take a look at its entry in the Johto games. They state that Moltres ends winter early when it travels to cold climates. The people of Sinnoh think that Moltres merely signals that Spring will come early, like the Groundhog myth, which explains the wording in the pokedex!
• This troper wondered why the Sealed Chamber in Generation III where you unseal the Regis/Golems says "We sealed the Pokémon away. We feared it." Why would three Pokémon be referred to collectively as "it?" Then Generation IV brought us Regigigas, and you need the three golems from Gen III to wake it up - the Sealed Chamber was using the word "Pokémon" in the singular, not the plural, and the "it" is Regigigas, who they sealed away using the other golems. Ergo, a seemingly nonsensical sentence in Generation III was actually foreshadowing the appearance of a new legendary in Generation IV.
  • Or, "Pokémon" could be used as plural, as you require the golems to awaken Regigigas, therefore sealing the golems away would prevent Regigigas from being awakened. No golems, no (non-Wi-Fi event) Regigigas.
• For a long time I thought the grunts of any criminal organization not having names while other trainers do was just a result of a combination of laziness and a way of keeping anyone from sympathizing with them. Then I realize, how would you know what their names are in the first place? Trainers tell you their names (offscreen) so you'll remember them especially if they want a rematch, Gym Leaders introduce themselves because that's part of their job, and important villains tell you their names mostly out of ego (the same goes for the Scientist working with Team Rocket and Team Galactic), but grunts are just battling to get you to go away and wouldn't want you to know their names because that would make it harder for them to evade law enforcement if they left the team. --thatother 1 dude
  • Alternatively, the scientists have their names sewn onto their coats (like on the pocket). I can't see them telling you their names, but if they had identifiers on their clothing, it would be inevitable.
  • To extend on that, Cipher Peons have the opposite issue - they do give out their names, but only their mouths are exposed. No eyes, no facial features other than their lips, NOTHING! Aside from in-suit registration devices, how the flying fudge is anyone supposed to tell who's who, especially the police? Doubles as Fridge Horror if you think about it long enough. --Cerotech Omega
• When you get an egg from they Day Care Center, they always say they don't know how it got there. I've always thought of this as a not-so-clever way to Hand Wave it, keeping the game rated E. But then I realized they're saying it because the protagonist is 10 years old - they don't want to talk The Talk to him/her. --Barry Ogg
  • That seems a bit patronizing to this troper. I remember getting the sex talk some time before I was 10.
  • Makes you wonder how they're going to sidestep it in Gen V, what with the protagonists being 15...
    • They aren't 15 for sure, they're simply older. For all we know, they're only 11 and it won't matter.
    • They in no way look 11 and definitely appear to be within the ages of 15 to 16.
    • They may be older now, but since it's hard to give The Talk to your own kids, they won't give it to OTHER's kids.
    • The talk might be even more awkward since it might have to explain Improbable Species Compatibility . Also, depending on the context and the possible need for charts with that example, I think someone might call the cops if you just randomly start talking about those things to random children.
    • Or, in Black and White, they assume that, since you're older, you already know. Either way, eggs appear from nowhere because Arceus creates all of them with the power from Earth and all its beings. No sex, just a God Pokémon making eggs from scratch every few seconds in every region in the world, even the ones we don't know about yet!
    • And either way - the games never states the Trainers to be exactly 10, that's mostly anime canon. Red and Leaf actually have a confirmed game age, and they're 11 anyway.
• Sevii = Seven + VII!
  • I have a better one. Sevii = Seven + Hawaii!
• Oh, here's a minor one. I always wondered why the PC could never run without the Running Shoes. Was he that picky that he had to be wearing Nikes to run? Then I realized: Oh, hey, he could be wearing flip-flops. Those are impossible to run in, without losing one anyway.
  • Except, that's not right. Every main character has sneakers on, except Dawn and Hilda, who wear boots.
• A relatively small one, but one that could double as a possible Brick Joke, in a sense of the term. Back in the first generation, when you fought either of the two available Snorlax and defeated them, instead of catching them, you were given dialogue that they "returned back to the mountains", indicating that Snorlax's natural habitat is in the mountains. At that point, most would simply write it off as the mountains appearing to the north of Kanto in whatever printed artwork was available for the game. Come Gen III we are introduced to Munchlax, the perceived pre-evolution of Snorlax. Luckily, these guys can be found in the wild, albeit annoyingly rarely. Now, what nation can they be caught regularly in? The Gen IV region, Sinnoh, which is, to date, the most mountainous region in the series.
  • Seeing as Snorlax can learn Surf...
    • Speaking of Snorlax learning Surf, did you know that fat is less dense than water?
• With the upcoming Fifth Generation, I'd been wondering about the possibility of Gen III remakes. I'm not saying I'd support them (Gen III felt like a low point to me), but since there have been remakes of the first two generations, I figured it was inevitable. But then I started thinking, "What was the point of those remakes, anyway?" and I came up with one, maybe two reasons. The first was to update those games with the new functions: the EV and IV system, combat, and so on were all rebuilt between Gens II and III. The second was to put some ointment on the wounds that were made when people discovered they couldn't send their Lvl. 100 Legendaries into their new games. Once I realized this, I remembered that Nintendo had promised that Black and White would be backwards-compatible with all the games from Gen III onwards. Then I asked, "If the games are compatible, would they really need remakes of the older versions?" I believe the answer is no, which means we may finally have moved to an era of Pokémon that's not One Game For The Price Of Seven.
  • I'm sorry, but I doubt your second reason applies. The fifth generation is being marketed towards the D Si and D Si XL. The DS and DS Lite could read Game Boy Advance games, but the D Si can't. This means that you won't be able to transfer your Gen. III Pokémon again. Oh, and Game Freak likes money. They'll probably re-release Ruby and Sapphire again, and we'll all complain about it, but buy it anyway.
    • No, I checked Bulbapedia. The page for the Black and White versions says "DS". Not D Si, not D Si XL, just DS.
    • Of course, the game itself WAS designed with the D Si in mind, though it's compatible with the DS, hence why you lose the bonuses the D Si version gets. They're going to cater to those who have a D Si instead of a DS, hence why we're more than likely going to get R/S remakes.
      • But Black and White have the Pokéshifter, similar to Pal Park where you can transfer Pokémon from a Gen IV game to them. By utilizing both Pal Park and the Pokéshifter you can transfer a Pokémon straight from a Gen III game to a Gen V game, thus making the need for R/S remakes null.
        • In theory, if you have an earlier model DS. But they've stopped making the DS and DS Lite which had the GBA slot in favor of the DSi and DSi XL which don't. Pretty soon, probably not too far from the March 6, 2011 North American release of B/W, they're going to premiere the 3DS in the West, not only completely nullifying anything that was special about the DSi and making it an utterly redundant piece of technology, but removing the DS line yet another step from the Game Boy line that preceded it. They won't want a gamer picking up an earlier DS cheap at a pawn shop to get their precious Rayquaza from Generation III to B/W; rather, they'd want you buying one of their new pieces of hardware which can make them some money. Hence the probability of a Generation III remake. Just because it's possible doesn't mean Nintendo wants you doing it, especially if they can make money off of a different way of doing it. Hence event-only Pokémon, and for that matter the whole One Game for the Price of Two system. Also, another set of Generation I remakes: possible, or no? The same tech changes that just made R/S/E obsolete also took down FR/LG. Maybe they could use the 3DS Virtual Console to get the original R(/G?)/B/Y out there and make a system to transfer them to B/W? OK, that's very unlikely. Maybe merge their Pokémon diversity with the likely R/S/E remakes? Only slightly less unlikely. Maybe a Wii spinoff of some sort? Dear God, please prevent that from happening.
    • R/S/E remakes (or rather, two Emerald remakes with elements from Ruby and Sapphire to distinguish them) are inevitable, for the above stated reasons. The third version to Black and White will probably be out for the holiday season 2012, and the Gen III remakes will follow either in mid-2013 (and then Gen VI in 2014-2015 etc). But Gen I re-remakes are unlikely because of...Johto! The Gen II remakes include the full Kanto Pokédex, split between Red/Gold and Blue/Silver. The plot of Gen. I is lost to time, but the point of the remakes is ostensibly so every Pokemon can be obtainable between the current generation and the last one. If all of the Kanto Pokemon can be found in Johto, there's no need to re-redo Kanto.
    • By the way, the remakes have been possibly confirmed.
    • Also, apparently people have gone through BW's code, and data exists for the Shoal Shell and Shoal Salt -- items that are useless outside of RSE.
  • But every single Pokémon that existed as of Gen. IV can be caught/obtained in some way THROUGH Gen IV., including all the Hoenn Pokémon (yes, even starters and legendaries). According to your reasoning, since the main reason to make remakes is to consolidate the need for games to two generations, remakes of RSE would be unnecessary.
  • I always figured that the remakes of RBY and GSC served one purpose and one purpose only: the originals are flat-out incompatible with RSE and beyond in any way, shape, or form. Essentially, that cut Kanto and Johto out of the loop. The remakes bring the regions back, along with the stories. Future remakes are unnecessary because the cut off for the current mechanics occurred in RSE. And by "current mechanics", I'm referring to RBYSGC having the IVs be 0-15, RSE and on being 0-31. The current seems here to stay, so revamps of the past are now null. As for Pokémon becoming unobtainable due to lack of the correct systems and/or games to get them, new event exclusives, anyone? I'm sure no one likes the idea of their fav legendary or starter becoming an event exclusive, but it might happen.
  • FireRed and LeafGreen were remakes of the ENTIRE Gen I, with both games incorporating some small parts of Yellow. Heart Gold and Soul Silver remade ALL of Gen II, with small parts of Crystal. If they made a remake of Gen III, I would guess that it would be ALL of Gen III. Meaning Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and FireRed and LeafGreen, all condensed into two games. Imagine a single game with both Hoenn and Kanto!
    • Well, R/S/E start off with the protagonist moving there from another region...
    • FYI that region is Johto.
    • And what's near Johto? Say it with me...KANTO!
    • ...Johto IS Kanto now? And Fire Red and Leaf Green are remakes of Gen 1 games, technically, so I doubt Kanto would be included in a Gen 3 remake anyway.
  • The way it is now, it's still kind of One Game For The Price Of Seven, given how... You still need all of the older versions to get dex completion. Not only do you need the gen 3 games (which are fairly old by now, Emerald came out back in 2005), you need to transfer them to a gen 4 game and then to a gen 5 game. Having a gen 5 remake of gen 3 would simplify things quite a bit as you could trade directly between them.
• In RBY, you get to capture a Snorlax. There are two Snorlax in RBY. In GSC, when you go to the Kanto region, the setting of the previous game, you can catch also catch a Snorlax, but there is only one. Because Red, the protagonist of the previous generation, caught the other one.
  • Well, for one, you can catch both of them in Gen I, and two, do you really think that big bastard was just hanging around for three years?
  • It's Snorlax...SNORElax. What do you think he was doing?
• This troper never really understood the Pokéwalker, figuring it was just another bright idea from Nintendo / Game Freak to make nerds get some exercise. A few days ago, she remembered something - the Pokémon Pikachu 2, a step counter that was released around the same time as the original Gold and Silver. Not only did they reboot the games, they rebooted the accompanying gadget! -Quillpaw
• This troper never got why sleeping would heal your Pokémon, but then she remembered the move Rest.
  • In addition, Pokémon Centers don't charge anything because they just speed up the healing process. Who would pay for something they could just get by sleeping?
• I was wondering how the people in the games would have discovered Leafeon and Glaceon. I doubt it was something as random as "Hey, what would happen if Eevee touched this rock?", but for anything else to work, they would have to have already known about it. But then it occurred to me that Sinnoh, the first region to feature those two evolutions, is also the only place where you can find Eevee in the wild. Prior to Gen IV you had to receive Eevee from an NPC. In fact, when playing R/S/E, which take place in the region furthest from Sinnoh, you don't even get that; you have to import one from FR/LG/C/XD! But I digress; the point is, it's probable that Eevee are native to Sinnoh, and that people have known about Leafeon & Glaceon for as long as they've known about Eevee. The reason they haven't been mentioned in the games sooner is probably because the information is useless outside of Sinnoh.
  • Except that the only place in the wild that you can find wild Eevee in is the Trophy Garden. Even then, they don't become available until after you beat the Pokémon League. According to Bulbapedia, Mr. Backlot's butler imports the Eevee in after Backlot tells you that there are Eevee in his garden so that he doesn't get outed as a liar.
• I was trying to make sense of how trade evolutions could happen in the wild, and I looked at the other methods of evolving to find similarities, and then it hit me. The experience points you collect after knocking out a Pokémon are electromagnetic waves that Pokémon naturally give off when they lose consciousness. All evolutions, even if they are more metamorphosis, are essentially mutations brought upon by these EM waves. This theory could also be applied to other methods of evolution. The evolutionary stones have already been stated to emit some sort of radiation, which would be on the EM spectrum. Evolutions dependent on location would be because different areas have different electromagnetic resonances.
  • By extension day/night evolutions can fall under this as well... but I think one difference is in trade evos that deal with items, like Porygon. I always thought that the Pokemon distorts during the trading process because Pokemon seem to temporarily become data in a trade (in-universe as well). I figure maybe certain Pokemon merge with their hold items due to a glitch that is never quite understood. Granted, this can still follow the above in addition to my idea.
  • If Pokemon gain experience because of EM waves, then Team Rocket was able to make Pokemon in the Lake of Rage evolve by using radio waves...which ARE EM waves.
• This troper always wondered why using an evolutionary stone on the majority of pokemon caused it to get a huge stat boost, but then made it unable to learn any new moves. Then it hit me; I remembered reading or hearing that stones, "radiates a mysterious energy." So I start thinking, "they're radioactive," and then it made sense. The stones radioactivity force the pokemon to move beyond its normal final stage, into a powerful creature (think about the three-eyed fish from the simpsons), but stunt its growth permanently, which is why they stop learning other than from the TMs! This made me think that some pokemon are better conditioned for this (Isn't Eevee's genetic code already unstable?), which is why they still learn moves, or that the method had been lost to time, or they're unique, which could also be why, "area methods," work. How rare is it to find another mossy stone radiating an energy Eevees can use? -- Deimel Longshot
• I've always wondered how you could see your pokemons condition. After seeing the Manga with translucent pokeballs, all the times a trainer looked at their pokeballs in the anime, somehow seeing their pokemon, made sense. It also explains how the player can see their pokemon's stamina (health), condition, and so on. -- Deimel Longshot
• It bugged me a little to find that there were none of the Pokemon seen in the last 4 generations were available in Generation V. But then I realized, why would a region based off of the American East Coast have the same wildlife is areas based off of Japan?
• Every town in Kanto is named after a shade of a color.
  • Except Pallet, which is a joke.
  • And Johto, as well, signifying the relationship between the two regions; Cherry(grove), Violet, Azure(Azalea), Gold(enrod), Mahogany, Ecru(teak), Cyan(Cianwood), Olive(Olivine) and Black(thorn).
  • Double the awesome, because not only are they all based off colours and therefore continuing the theme from Kanto, they are also all names of trees or shrubs therefore creating the region's own theme.
  • Wow! It's just a Pallet town of colors, isn't it?
    • That's meant to tie in to the brilliance.
• I just realized why the evil teams back off once you beat them. Imagine Pokemon in a wild west setting. Everyones got a gun/Pokemon. Everyone is walking around with a revolver hanging off their belt. With a limited amount of bullets. You get in a fight with a baddie and you out shoot them, knocking their gun from their hand or they use up all their bullets. There you are, gun out, bullets loaded, and they have nothing. Gen V establishes that there are no guns, so Pokemon are weapons for evil teams. You have Pokemon at strength and theirs are gone. Would you mess with someone who has just disarmed you and can make you their next target? --May Be Thomas
  • And how many Pokemon can you carry at once? Six...just like bullets in a standard wild west gun.
• The Lava Cookie being found by the infamous truck in FireRed and LeafGreen? The Lava Cookie is tied to the Hoenn region. And how did the player character start Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald? In a very similar truck. Perhaps the truck at the Vermilion dock is the same moving truck?
• It always bugged me that in the anime and games, every place they went to in Kanto was named after a color...except Pallet Town. It seemed random, and for a while I wrote it off as "It's the hero's home town so it's special. Don't think too much." Then I realized "Duh, colors, palette."
• Expanding on the above, with the names of Pokemon games becoming more and more valuable things, people wondered how they could top the value of "Platinum". Since "Black and White" is referring to the philosophy of seeing things in black and white (a major theme in the game), one could say it has transcended materialism. Whether or not that is more valuable is a matter of opinion, but it's certainly clever and no other naming scheme would have worked the same way.
• While playing through the Desert Resort, I noticed that, instead of just not being allowed into the deep sand like HG/SS/D/P/Pt's tall grass and marsh tiles, the bicycle runs very slowly when running through it. For awhile I passed this off as another style of deterrent, but, while hunting for Sigilyph, it struck me: running through sand is the fastest, walking gives you normal speed, and biking is almost unbearably slow-- what's faster, walking normally or walking a bike? (There's no sprite change to back this up, but I'm going with it!)
  • Actually, you aren't necessarily walking your bike. It's possible to ride a bike through sand IRL, but it's slower than walking.
• At first, it seems like a terribly done Broken Bridge that you can't go to Sunnyshore due to a power outage. However, when one considers it houses an ELECTRIC-type Gym...
  • Didn't it say in-game that Volkner's Gym was so full of electrical stuff that he singlehandedly caused the blackout?
  • Alternatively, it was a fault with the solar panels, which double as roads there. So they needed to try to keep people off them until they were fixed.
• The final Rocket Grunt in Gold/Silver/Crystal, who spoke in broken English in the English-speaking versions, apparently spouted Gratuitous English in the original Japanese, and in HeartGold/SoulSilver, it's revealed that he is indeed a foreigner and that he intends to return to his homeland to try to restart Team Rocket there. He's then found in Icirrus City in Black & White. Whereas the first four regions were all based on regions of Japan, Unova is based on a region of America--presumably their native language really is English whereas the native language of Kanto/Johto/Hoenn/Sinnoh is Japanese! -SpiriTsunami
  • And when you keep in mind that all of the other regions were based off Japan, and Unova was the first to be based on America, when he says he will try to restart Team Rocket in his homeland (presumably Japan), he is actually referring to the fact that in every Japanese region, Team Rocket (or whoever happened to be there), was wiped out and shut down.
• I just figured out why Teams Aqua/Magma are so lethal. Think: the idea of "berries" was greatly expanded upon in Generation III, with 43 berries in Ruby/Sapphire compared to 10 in GSC and NONE in the originals. Clearly, the soil of Hoenn is far more fertile than in any previous region. Bring in Team Magma, with the blazing sun caused by Groudon; and Team Aqua, with constant rainfall from Kyogre. Plants need both sunlight and water to survive, but having too much of one, with little of the other, will probably kill plants or stunt their growth. Realizing that Hoenn's way of life is clearly centered around its climate and crops, Team Magma and Team Aqua may actually be the most devastating villain team of any Pokémon game.
  • Dear sir, I applaud you. Finally, a feasible explanation!
  • A bit of expansion here. In Emerald, these two extremes of rain and shine alternate instead, making the weather unnatural. While it could also destroy plant life (although some plants can live with it), it also has a more noticeable effect on animals and even humans, like your allergies acting up. Not to mention, one of the two warring Pokémon will have to win eventually anyway.
• Tommy X: I knew for a while that Route 4 and Relic Castle was supposed to be based off Egypt. When I first got to the Relic Castle, I wondered why Sandile were there. It's final form's name, Krookodile, is a corruption of "crook" and crocodile. The Sandile and Krokorok in the Relic Castle are supposed to be grave robbers.
  • Being Egyptian I also have some inside information. The ancient Egyptians also had a god named Sobek. What did he look like, you ask? A crocodile.
    • Krookodile's Japanese name, Waruvial, is a combination of warui, "evil", and "gavial". Nothing to do with crooks, unless the evil bit has to do with something. Also, don't crocodiles live in the Nile River and the Nile River is in Egypt?
• In the third generation games, a scientist in a building in Rustboro Town says that they're working on a device that visually reproduces the dreams of Pokemon. Come Gen V, there's the Pokemon Dream World.
  • May or may not imply that Fennel is the scientist's daughter. Seems kinda logical.
• Stone edge- "The user stabs the foe with sharpened stones from below. It has a high critical-hit ratio. " Why do you think it has a high critical hit ratio?
• Does it ever bother you that the levels of wild Pokemon are increasing with your travels? That it seems like the Pokemon's levels are conveniently rising as you progress? Like the Pokemon decided that you'd be fighting them ahead of time and planned their homes with your route in mind? Well if so, you're thinking of things backward. The Pokemon didn't plan their habitat around your travel routes, the travel routes were planned around where the more dangerous Pokemon are. The League likely put the Gyms in order of how dangerous the wildlife in the area was to help travelers train.
  • Even better (at least in Diamond) they don't continue going up, so if you take different routes or go back their levels are set, giving credence to this.
• In Sinnoh, he two Pokemon Nosepass and Magneton can only evolve into their final forms by being leveled up in Mt. Coronet. In Unova, Chargestone Cave fills this role. That got me to wondering, why those two Pokemon? What do they have in common? Then, it hit me. Nosepass and Magneton are both associated with magnetism. After all, Magneton is just a bunch of magnets, and Nosepass acts like a compass with its gigantic nose. Mt. Coronet has been explicitly stated to have an unusual magnetic field. Chargestone Cave has floating rocks, so it must also have some interesting magnetic activity.
  • Word of God also states that in the Japanese version, Coronet was Tengam. Or rather magneT. It was just lost in translation.
• In a similar vein to the above Fridge Brilliance, it took me a while (and a little bit of research) to realize the connection between the three Pokemon that evolve from knowing AncientPower: Mamoswine looks like a mammoth (obviously), Yanmega is based off a prehistoric dragonfly called the Meganeura, and Tangrowth is based off a caveman!
• Someone this troper knows provided a double Fridge Brilliance (for themselves and the actual troper). Koga is a Kanto Gym Leader and later in the Johto Elite Four. He specialises in Poison Pokemon, and is a ninja. In Japan, there's group of ninjas that identified as "Koka". Koka ninjas were experts in poison. They are also known as "Koga". Makes his name make more sense.
• Notice how out of the 5 main series regions, Sinnoh has the harshest environments. Looking at the final evolutions of each starter, it seems as if they were tailor made to be adapted to the harsh environments of the Sinnoh region. Torterra being part ground type (as well as its appearance making it out to look like a rugged pokemon in general) means that it would be able to traverse rocks and cliffs with ease. Infernape being part fighting type as well as being a monkey would suggest that it would be very agile. This would allow it to climb steep cliffs and allow it to jump across short chasms if necessary. Empoleon is based on a penguin which means it would be able to cross icy waters without freezing to death, as well as just handling snow and cold temperatures in general. Rowan knows you'll have to cross Mt. Coronet and travel to Snowpoint City at some point in the journey. So he wants to give you a pokemon that can handle cold, mountainous environments well (Although in Torterra's case it would at least be able to handle craggy areas well, I don't know about the cold part) And Look at their secondary typings. What do you encounter mostly in mountains? Rocks. They each have the three types resisting rock, making Torterra and Empoleon resistant to rock and removing Infernape's rock weakness. And of course they can all learn rock climb.
• So I was on Serebii.net earlier tonight, and my eyes wandered over to the TCG section. I saw that Japan had gotten the Red Collection for the TCG, to round out your selection of available Pokemon. Then it hit me- sure, Victini is colored red, and it is one of the last Pokemon in the pack. But also, the color red in the Pokemon series...Doesn't it sound familiar?
• For the longest time, I've always wondered why certain Pokemon were either only available by either trade(mainly in R/B/Y with Farfetch'd, Jynx, and Mr.Mime) or were really rare(there were only two Snorlax in R/B/Y, one in G/S/C and there was only one Sudowoodo in G/S/C). But then it hit me, it's possible that these Pokemon aren't actually FROM the region that each game is set in. For instance, while there's only one Farfetch'd in R/B/Y(from the trade), you can actually catch them in G/S/C meaning that the guy might've just caught his there. Jynx was also catchable in the Ice Caves in Johto while there was only one in Kanto. This also works for Mr. Mime(you can find a lot of Mime Jr. in Sinnoh while Mr. Mime is only available through trade in R/B/Y and is hard to find in G/S/C), Snorlax(Munchlax is catchable in D/P/Pt and while they are rare, you can catch more than two), and Sudowoodo(similar to Mr. Mime, while there's only one in Johto, Bonsly are rather common in Sinnoh).
• This is kind of meta, but bare with me. In Black/White, Team Plasma's goal is to separate humans and Pokémon and one way is by making propaganda speeches. Do you know what would be the ultimate counter-propaganda to that? The first American theme song of the Pokémon anime.
• At first it seems strange that the only trainer you seem to battle in each generation with a full team is the champion. Then I realized that in each generation, you always encounter the champion long before you battle him or her. This would seem to indicate that the champion probably has traveled all over the region and has thus been able to obtain a full team. The other trainers you encounter(including the gym leaders) probably never leave their hometown(except when helping the hero battle the evil team), so they never have time to catch any more Pokemon.
• Just something about the games in general: NPCs are always telling the player about how much respect and love he has for his Pokemon. This seems a little strange, since the game is about him forcing them to fight other Pokemon for fun and profit. But when his whole party faints, he passes out and wakes up in the Pokemon Center. The player has such a strong emotional connection to his team that he literally collapses when they've been hurt too badly. Compared to other trainers, who stick around and sometimes even make jokes after you defeat their Pokemon, you really are the world's most caring trainer!
• The original Pokemon games were originally based on the [i]real[/i] world, examples; The origin of Mewtwo was that it was born from a genetic experiment on a Mew which was said to have 'given birth to', they even mention that Mew was found somewhere in South America. Lt Surge is explicitly mentioned that his nationality was American. Plus there's a model Columbia spaceship inside the Pewter Museum which was edited any mentioning of the ship's name itself and just called it a generic spaceship. (There was also the case of the RBY region being called Kanto; named after a real place in Japan)
  • I assume that they Retconned the geography to remove any real world references, Mewtwo in the anime DID come from a cloning experiment....though they couldn't wipe Surge's Americanism away though, barring his gratuitous use of English in the manga and naming his traded Pokemon Volty. (That was a Pikachu in HG/SS...?), Pokemon probably turned out to be a giant success by the time G/S was almost released in Japan, proving that they were onto a cash cow and have to make their world more fantasy-based so that future games didn't seem TOO Japanese by using too well known references.

Fridge Horror

• In the Pokémon anime:
  • In the episodes centred around Sabrina: When Ash comes and challenges her, she says they have to "play with her" if he loses. In this case, that means getting teleported to a town model and getting run over by a giant ball, or getting turned into dolls to literally be used as such. Ash and company escape thanks to Sabrina's dad...but suppose not everyone who lost received the same privilege...
  • Pretty much everything about the premise of Pokémon is horrific. The whole story is about enslaving sentient creatures and forcing them to take part in gladiatorial contests for our entertainment. The fact that some of them do get eaten adds to the fridge horror, but honestly there is nothing really nice about that society...
    • Not really, seeing as they are sentient creatures quite capable of killing humans. They are not being enslaved and they obey their trainers by choice. Only a few humans treat them as slaves, but those are usually the villains.
    • Note that Pokemon are G-Rated blood knights. Whether that makes things better than worse, Your Mileage May Vary.
• Ditto can breed with any other Pokémon, which makes perfect sense since it can Transform. But really think about what that means. It is Transforming into other Pokémon to induce them into having sex with it (or however it is that Pokémon breed). And of course when you leave Pokémon at a day care center you don't actually tell them the purpose of such is to get them to breed, so Ditto is doing this of its own will. Ditto is an in-universe Memetic Sex God/Memetic Molester, able to seduce any (non-gender neutral) Pokémon by shapeshifting into their image of a physically ideal mate.
  • And the real kicker - who's to say it doesn't do this to humans?
• In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Platinum, you can find an Antidote in the already creepy Old Chateau. This Antidote is found in the dining room. Let that sink in for a second.
  • Anyone find it weird that Trainers battle you at places like the Pokémon Tower, Mt. Pyre, and that one tower in D/P/Pt? People are mourning their Pokémon passing and these guys are hanging around. Why? Because they know that the people coming will be trainers. Screw the fact that one of your Pokémon is dead, I want to BATTLE.
    • Lampshaded by Awkward Zombie... yet again. Seriously, this dude must read our writings. HE'S AMONG US!! http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=050911
      • • That's a girl. Besides, Norrin wrote the script for that one. Blame him, not Katie.
    • Except... it's always the other guy who challenges you. So, they're grieving over their Pokémon dying, and yet make you battle anyway.
      • Also, many of the items you find in those places get Fridge Horror applied to them.
    • Another thing to consider about Lavender Town: In the original game, it's speculated that you might actually kill your rival's Pokémon, see here.
  • Giratina. First of all, where it's located is filled with floating land-masses, inexplicably growing giant flowers, and land masses that just appear and disappear for no logical reason, and that the ENTIRE area is an alternate dimension comprised of anti-matter in which Giratina is the only living thing that dwells there. Second, it's essentially an Eldritch Abomination in Ghost-Dragon form. In other words, you're trying to capture/defeat something that simply should not exist. Think about it. You're pretty much fighting a Pokémon version of Yog-Sothoth himself.
  • How about the fact that almost, if not every Pokémon can learn the move Toxic? Does the Pokémon vomit on the opponent? ewwwwww...
  • I wonder why every Cubone I see is wearing a skull for a helmet. There are hundreds of them, all of them wearing that creepy skull, all from their mothers. Are the mothers of Cubone destined to a horrible fate upon the birth of their offspring?
    • Well, salmon die after going up the exact rivers they were born in. It's really not all that incomprehensible that the mother would die after giving birth. As to why your Cubone/Marowak in the Day Care doesn't die? Gameplay and Story Segregation.
    • Unlike salmon, though, every Cubone takes the skull of its mother for its helmet. Thus, they breed only at the replacement rate. So, any time you refuse to let a Cubone evolve, you are permanently decreasing the size of their species. When your Cubone dies, it will have no progeny, and there will be one less in the world, never to be replaced. If you interrupt a Cubone's evolution, you're a MONSTER.
    • Lampshaded in this Awkward Zombie strip: http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=011011
    • And then the Fridge Logic sets in. It hatches from its egg with its mother's skull already on its head. How is that supposed to work?
    • Though it could just mean that the skulls are hierlooms passed on from generations. "Getting a skull from it's mother" means more along the lines of "given a helmet from it's parents". Or, to fit with the born with it thing, it might just mean that the skull-like helmet passes from the female parent, a GENETIC gain instead of taking your dead mommy's head.
  • A sage in Black and White questions whether or not N is Ghetsis' son. If this is true, where did he get N from?
  • Arguably, the entire concept of the games (and the anime by extension) runs on this. Think about it a bit. It should be noted that, while some fridge horror aspects have until now been justified by rather sparse references or Word of God (the fifth-gen games explore more of these issues), it doesn't deter players from actively taking part in this phenomenon, maybe even without realizing it.
    • These aspects are actually explored by the Megami Tensei series. In fact, it Deconstructed Trope the concept of Mons 10 YEARS before Pokémon codified it.
  • Pokémon Black and White has the mask Pokémon Yamask, which evolves into the Egyptian coffin Pokémon Cofagrigus. According to the Pokédex, Yamask's gold mask is its face from its time as a human before turning into a mummy. Cofagrigus is a coffin ghost that swallows humans whole and turns them into mummies. Now you get to know how they reproduce...
    • And remember, you can breed them.
      • With other species of Pokemon. G-rated necrozoophillia anyone?!
    • Also, you can train them like any other Mon. Yamask clearly remember being human beings, so they're essentially condemned to slavery.
      • Awkward Zombie strikes again.
• Pokémon Black and White takes place in Unova, which is based off of New York. And in Unova is the Resort Desert, which has the Relic Castle. The entrances to the Relic Castle consist of two, broken towers... two, broken towers in a fictional region based off of New York...
  • Yeah, there's a huge desert in New York, too. Haven't you seen it before?
    • The desert could be the equivalent of Ground Zero, which is essentially in ruins. The whole Egyptian motif doesn't fit, though.
  • And there are Ghost-type Pokémon in there: the Yamask and Cofagrigus.
  • The official Pokédex text describing Spoink says it "bounces around on its tail. The shock of its bouncing makes its heart pump. As a result, this Pokémon cannot afford to stop bouncing - if it stops, its heart will stop." What do you think will happen when it faints in a battle?
    • Fridge Brilliance here -- in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Sky, a Spoink says that he's lost his pearl, and without it, he's bouncing unpredictably. Since bouncing is what makes their heart pump, erratic bouncing is causing irregular heartbeat -- which the pearl is there to balance out!
  • XD has the two sailors thrown overboard in the opening, without even a life-vest and are explicitly missing 3 days after the event. It is not so much "fridge" as "we can't flat out say they died with an E rating".
    • Now that one thinks about it, Orre is a Nightmare Fuel Refinery, and Fridge Horror is merely a byproduct. A desert region with almost no wild Pokémon, criminal presence out the ass, a horrifically ineffectual police department even by Pokémon standards, and Cipher, who mindrapes Pokémon for power and profit, trains their personnel in the arts of spreading terror, and has no qualms whatsoever about hurting - or even killing - anyone who obstructs their dominion (see the note above about the missing sailors - that's Cipher's handiwork). Researching every brand of Fridge Horror in-depth is such an arduous process that I will instead redirect you to Pokémon's Nightmare Fuel page so you can research the Orre folder for yourself. But what's scarier about all this? How many games outside of Colosseum and XD reference Orre by name? Fucking zero - not even Black and White utter a word of this. Then again, what's listed above may have something to do with the lack of references... sweet dreams.
      • Actually in Shadow of Almia it talks about Orre in a newspaper.
  • In Pokémon Black/White, the battle sprites are more animated, and there are some special details like Pokémon's eyes closing when they're put to sleep. Aw, that's so cute! And when you use a sleep attack on a Kangaskhan, its baby closes its eyes too! Awww, that's adora--wait. Oh dear, does that mean that every status ailment affects a Kangaskhan's baby as well? Paralysis? Burns? Even Toxic?! Oh boy, what kind of monsters are we?!
    • Future Cubone?
  • Catch a common Pokémon (a Rattata, for example) and train it in that same area against others of its kind. Chances are, you're PITTING YOUR POKEMON AGAINST ITS FAMILY AS THEY TRY TO STOP YOU FROM CATCHING THEIR LOVED ONE!!!!
    • Considering that animals have been known to attack one another in the wild for territorial reasons, and that it's not unusual for certain species to eat each one another via cannibalism, I don't think most Pokémon would be too concerned if another one of their own species or family member attacked one another. They'd be more inclined to attack to protect their territory than to save a loved one. Plus, it's implied in the games that being captured by a worthy trainer is a sign of honor and respect among Pokémon.
      • Actually wild pokemon apparently hate Pokémon with trainers, as seen in the first episode of the anime.
  • If a Charizard, who's known to be able to melt rocks, Level 100, with max Special Attack, uses Overheat, the strongest Fire move, against a low level Pokémon, the poor Pokémon would theoretically be melted.
    • Charizard is said to be able to control how intense its fire-based attacks are. Still doesn't change the fact that even the weakest flames would at the very least severely burn many Pokemon.
  • A Groudon's weight is around 2100 lbs, or 950 kg. It uses Stomp on a Skitty. Splatz.
    • On the topic of Skitty, it's in the same egg group as Wailord, meaning it can breed. Either way, Skitty loses.
  • Then we come to Ghetsis, the undoubted God-King of fridge horror in the Pokémon franchise. Not much more has to be said.
    • Not neccesarily. We all know that it's all but stated that Ghetsis has reduced his son into an Adult Child, and was planning on Offing the Offspring. That's bad enough. However, Ghetsis admits he enjoys it when someone loses all hope. Which is what poor N must have felt when Ghetsis revealed he was an Unwitting Pawn. Meaning there's a very good chance that Ghetsis did this not because You Have Outlived Your Usefulness or he was angry at his plans being foiled, but because he wanted to make him suffer to satisfy his sadism.
    • It gets better. After defeating Ghetsis, three of his servants accost the player in an end-game area and hand over the Adamant, Lustrous, and Griseous Orbs, which are used for three legendary Pokemon in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum that are the embodiments of time, space, and chaos.. It raises three big questions: 1.) Exactly what plans did the guy have for these things?, 2.) How did he get them?, 3.) What happened to the player character from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum?
• In Platinum, after you defeat Team Galactic in the Valley Windworks, the little girl tells you, "I think the balloon Pokemon will come visiting again!" The only Pokemon she could mean is Drifloon, who can be found there on Fridays. Drifloon are also said to abduct children. Let that sink in for a moment.
  • Except the Pokedex says they always fail.
• In Platinum, Mr Backlot likes to lie about the Pokemon you can see in his garden. His butler then goes to get the Pokemon, and suddenly, you can catch them there. Where did the butler get them from, Team Rocket? And what if they can't survive there? Is that why you can only catch two of the rare Pokemon at a time? Also, consider that these are mostly baby-Pokemon.
  • Um... Nowhere does it imply he lied. He just seemed to be lying AT FIRST, but then the butler proves his words. So not a fridge horror.
• Remember the S.S. Anne? The luxury liner that sails the world? As we know, it's never come back (even in G/S/C and it's remakes, where it is replaced by another ship). In R/S/E, you come across the Abandoned Ship, which is, well, abandoned. Here's my idea. The Abandoned Ship is the S.S. Anne. It was on it's way to Hoenn when it crashed. It began to take in water, perhaps some passengers (and unsuspecting Pokemon) drowned, while others (probably those who had Water-types) made it out alive. - Ahatake5000
  • The only problem is that the Abandoned Ship was originally called the "S.S. Cactus". - KZN 02
  • In the anime, didn't the S.S Anne actually sink? Or am I mistaken with another ship? - Master K
• "It happened one morning - a boy with extrasensory powers awoke in bed transformed into Kadabra." That is the Pokédex entry for Kadabra in FireRed. The question is, which of the Kadabra you've ever battled was that boy? - Ahatake5000
  • Ten bucks says, it was Sabrina's brother. I mean, she did have psychic powers, so it stands to reason that if she had a sibling, s/he would have powers too. -Firegod00
  • That would explain the whip from Generation I. Kadabra doesn't want to battle. -cue whip crack- Kadabra used Psychic!
• Super Effective shows us a very good point why cut grass = no encounters. -Centimental
• A recent Maractus episode (in Best Wishes) showed one of the musical contestants with 3 Zen Mode Darmanitan. If you understand how the ability Zen Mode works, imagine how that contestant managed to get all the Darmanitan into Zen Mode. - Kindle 4 Light.
• In Black/White, the Relic Castle contains a pair of ruined towers. The ruined towers are in Unova, which is based on New York City. Inside the towers are Yamask and Cofagrigus, which are stated to be the souls of dead humans. So if you capture these Pokemon? You're enslaving the souls of 9/11 victims to fight for you for the rest of your life.
  • Jossed. While Unova is loosely based off of New York, it's also based on the USA (and parts of Europe) in general and the Ruined Towers have nothing to do with 9/11. They're based off of Ancient Egypt.
    • Ancient Egypt isn't in the USA or Europe...
• A ton of battles in the anime and in the games have Pokemon getting knocked out. Obviously to a child this is bad, but not necessarily devastating. The Pokemon's just going to sleep as far as they know. But once you learn more about health and anatomy you realize that these Pokemon are taking hits serious enough to knock them unconscious. In other words, it is entirely possible for the majority of human-owned to be suffering from brain damage, internal bleeding and major damage to their organs because they live in a world with irresponsible trainers and a healthcare system of one girl and a few Chansey's per town. And that's not even getting into the long term affects of being repeatedly poisoned, burned and electrocuted. It's a wonder if the Pokemon you have will make it past their equivalent to middle age.
  • Except that if you check on the Pokemon after its fainted it'll say that it has no energy left to right so its not nesccarily knocked out unconsious. Just lost too much energy to fight. Also in the anime, they'll just dizzy for a sec and is still conscious and can utter sad moans. Most often seen with Pikachu.
• The Pokemon have short lifespans, sure, but what about their Trainers? A lot of registered trainers are around 10 or 11 years old when they start their official journies, and we don't know how they got to actually obtain a lisence to train Pokemon (except for in the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga.) I highly doubt that every single one of those children has been taught a full arsenal of wilderness survival skills, or that they all know how to actually take care of themselves properly. Injuries could occur very easily, or the kid could get lost and vanish, or they could not have proper nutrition. Even car accidents (cars exist in the anime and manga) could be a very credible threat to a kid travelling with his team of trained monsters. Any number of things could happen to a kid on his journey, dangerous things. Don't these kids' parents realize this? What eleven year old is ready to live on their own? Really? This always bothered me as a kid - I get the feeling that the number of Pokemon-journey-related deaths is underreported, and almost certainly glossed over by the media (the society glorifies Pokemon training, for chrissakes!). God, all those poor parents who wouldn't know what happened to their son or daughter...
  • It's heavily implied in the games that the routes you take in the games are pathways specifically created for trainers to get from "Point A" to "Point B" as quickly and safely as possible. Likewise, you can still visit (or call in some games) your mom and let her know you're ok. Not to mention that (at least in the Electric Tale Of Pikachu Manga) you have to pass a test before you can start your journey as a Pokemon trainer. Plus, going outside and going (relatively) far away from home is/was rather normal for many children.
• Vacuum Wave is a Fighting type move, so its not very effective against Flying types. But a move that sucks the air away from you should screw you over if you're airborne.
• The Pokemon Paras is said to be a bug that is being controlled by sentient mushrooms. On its own that's creepy enough but what would happen if those mushrooms ever decided to take over a human? It would be a regional zombie apocalypse!
  • You think that's bad? Watch this. The mushroom on its back is slowly taking over the Paras, and by the time it evolves it has explicitly been entirely taken over by the mushroom and is nothing but an empty shell. The first stage is implied to have the same level of sentience as most Pokemon, but the second is just a mindless zombie. Imagine yourself as the Paras...
• In most games, whenever you go the the Pokémon center to heal up, Nurse Joy responds "We hope to see you again!" Seems like an odd thing to say, doesn't it? Well, let's consider that you are of primary school-age (secondary school-age in some games) out on your own in a nigh-on Death World under constant fire by massive criminal organizations, each with a special plan for this world. It's at this point one realizes: Nurse Joy hopes to see you again because, to be frank, it shows her you're still alive.
  • This also explains why your mom heals you by force whenever you talk to her. That extra potion that she just saved you could literally save your life.
• For the longest time I was mystified by the way Rockets would instantly surrender to a ten year old boy after losing a simple sporting creature duel. Years later it occurred to me: after taking down all their Pokemon, who's gonna be your level 38 Charizard's next target if he doesn't surrender? Now consider the potential innocent irresponsibility of a child!
• If all of the plants and animals in the real world have been replaced with Pokémon, and all of our food comes from plants and animals, then what do humans eat?
  • Berries?
• Evolving exeggcute in general. Count the number of heads on exeggcute, then exeggutor. You should realize that their numbers are different then.
  • The Pokedex says that Exeggutor heads can fall off and become Exeggcute again so presumably only a few heads become Exeggutor and the rest go on to form new batches of Exeggcute.
• At least in the anime, most Pokémon are shown to at least be intelligent enough to have their own languages, and are able to communicate complex ideas amongst each other and sometimes to their human trainers. So, trainers are basically capturing and enslaving sentient beings and forcing them to fight each other endlessly. How do you think that would go over if one human did it to another human?
  • Well, at least they kind of explored this with Team Plasma.
• Breeding is seriously screwed up in these games. You can basically force a baby Pokemon to breed moments after its birth, often with a member of its own family. I for instance, remember breeding (for IV and egg move purposes) a male level 100 Dragonite with his newborn level 1 Gible grandaughter, letting him impregnate the little girl with several eggs before being satisfied with the result. Then, after discarding (releasing) all of her extra children and keeping only one for myself, I proceeded to release her as well, as she was taking up too much box space. Yeah, that's right. I pretty much took a baby girl, forced her to bear a load of children with an old man, threw away most of her babies, and when she finally produced the offspring I wanted, I kept her last child for myself and told her to beat it. And to top it off, I used her one surviving child as the equivalent of a pit fighter. I mean, correct me if I'm looking too much into this, but there just seems to be something fundamentally creepy about Pokemon breeding.

Fridge Logic

• Professor Oak sure changes his tone in between his opening blurb and your first meeting with him after becoming the character. One minute he's telling you how people and Pokémon have learnt to live together in peace and harmony. This illusion lasts until you try stepping into the long grass, when suddenly he leaps forward to drag you back out before you get attacked by a wild Pokémon. Peace and harmony? Someone must have been lying in his exposition.
  • But, of course, he then explains that you need your own Pokémon for your protection, and then gives you a Pokémon that he caught in his youth (and hasn't managed in all the many years since to get beyond Level 5). Presumably he did this in the manner he later teaches you: beat the wild Pokémon senseless so that it's powerless to resist as you force it into your slavery. You can now use this poor, terrified Pokémon to defend you from the wild ones.
    • Does this put rebellious Pokémon in a new light? Only Pokémon that you received in a trade rebel: you weren't the one who gave them the original ass-whooping, so they don't have the same respect as the ones you caught yourself. Traded Pokémon rebel when their Level exceeds that of your latest Gym Badge, meaning they reckon they're stronger than you now.
• There are many examples on this page of pokemon with illegal move sets that may have been Handwaved by a anime episode, in which Ash's Bulbasaur learns Dig in a life threatening situation.
• 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.
  • The first part of your question was answered in one piece of supplementary material (Pokémon Special, 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.
  • 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.
    • Too bad neither of those explanations are canonical to the games.
• As soon as you catch a Pokémon, you can see every location in the region in which such creatures can be caught.
  • Detecting energy signature and plugging into GPS?
    • 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.
    • Given the uniqueness of the protagonists, they may likely be receiving training to be something along the lines of pokemon researchers. Think about it: Most other trainers just have a couple of pokemon 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 pokemon, 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 pokemon.
• Barry, your rival in D/P/Pt, is characterized as a hasty and impatient guy. Then how come he has 2 rare Pokémon in his main team that you can only encounter in Honey Trees, where you have to wait for them to come out?
  • There's actually an "easy to miss if playing a game, yet easy to see if you take it as real life" way: He put the honey in the trees before he went to bed! The ultimate form of multitasking!
  • Maybe he traded for them?
• I'm not sure if I read it wrong, but didn't the books in the library in Canalave City say that Pokémon were created (by Arceus) to help humans and that's why we encounter them in the tall grass? I get the helping part when they battle us, since fighting them does level our Pokémon up. And it kind of explains why some Pokémon don't allow us to escape (way too eager to help), but what about the ones that use status effect moves (poisoning, paralysis, sleep, etc.) on our Pokémon? Wouldn't they know that it's painful for the Pokemon and doesn't really help in it's level up?
  • Its just an extra layer of trial for you to overcome. YOU have to heal the Pokémon with something, since few if any Pokémon Moves result in nullifying Status effects.
• It seems that the only non-Pokemon are humans. Just like it's a bit of a stereotype to consider humans the only non-animals. Humans could be Pokemon 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 Pokemon. They can converse with other Pokemon. Just a theory, but who knows? What is a "Pokemon" 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?
  • More on that. What if Pokémon aren't some sort of Starfish Aliens from an alternate counterpart to our world? What if the Pokémon world is actually Earth, our Earth, only set in a distant future after The End of the World as We Know It, 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.
    • Imagine now what would happen if any of the 'Teams' managed to get around the Pokeball's anti-human capture failsafe. Cue Fridge Horror.
      • There's one flaw to that and that is Bulbapedia proves there are real animals as well as Pokemon means it really is an alternate universe made by Arceus.
        • 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 Chuck or have been retconned out of existance.
          • Here's another possibility since most of the real life animals where shown as food maybe most of the real animals where eaten to extinction either worldwide or within certain regions and the pokemon evolved to replace them...
  • Human's only have 4 moveslots, just like Pokemon. "Fight" "Bag" "Pokemon" "Run".
• This troper thought it was interesting that right before Dragonspiral Tower Cedric gives you an Old Gateau. Where's the only place where you can obtain Old Gateau? The Old Chateau in Sinnoh. He could have given you just a Casteliacone, which does exactly the same thing, cure all status ailments. Why was he at the Old Chateau to begin with? Hell, why Sinnoh? We know it had to be made in Sinnoh because the description from the item specifically refers to the Old Chateau, so what was he up to there? He's supposed to be a researcher of the origins of Pokémon. And Sinnoh's legendaries are responsible for a lot of creating. Later on in BW, you get the stones which summon said legendaries. Could there be a very weak, overanalyzed connection here?
• Sandile and its evolutions are gavials, which mostly eat insects. But since they're Dark-typed, they're weak to Bug-type moves...
  • Um, Sandile/Krokorok/Krookodile are actually based off of the crocodiles in general (In particular the Spectatled Caiman). They feed on far more than just insects. Plus, eating a Bug-Type Pokemon as food and battling it in a trainer-based battle are two completely different things.

1. ↑ though to be honest, they've never really been consistent with how "legendary" the legendaries are.