Pokémon/Headscratchers/Archive Late 2010

• I notice that most of the Gym leader Japanese names are from plants. Is Satoshi hungry?
  • Theme Naming. Why they chose plants is anyone's guess, but hey.
  • Not any more than Akira Toriyama, that's for sure.
  • I wonder if he'll ever use something like Lantana.
• The Slakoth/Vigoroth/Slaking evolution line. Over its lifetime the Pokémon's personality does a complete 180—twice! How do any of them manage to reach the Slaking stage without having severe identity crises?
  • Teen rebelliousness and acting out that dies down with maturity.
    • Vigoroth don't gradually mature and re-evaluate their worldview like a human teen might. Presumably, they're wild and energetic one moment, reach level 36, and then suddenly evolve to lose all interest in anything but eating and sleeping.
      • I always saw it more like "Ohp, my metabolism isn't as good as it used to be, and I never learned how to compensate! Guess I'll- just... zzz... try... zzz... to... zzz... compensate... zzz... some... zzz... other... zzz... Sloooooooooooowpoooooooookeeeeey... zzz... way..."
      • Another way to think of it, Diamond/ Pearl's entry for Slaking says "When it is lounging. It is actually saving energy for striking back." And Slaking has the highest base stats of any non-Legendary, so an explanation could be that using its power takes away so much energy, that it needs to sleep to regain energy. Legendaries don't have this drawback because they have the power to wield this power sans drawback.
• If I'm ten years old and don't have any Pokémon, why do I have a Potion in my PC?
  • Either the main character bought it or received it as a gift from someone else in anticipation of becoming a Pokémon trainer someday.
  • Gift From Mom, sometimes. In at least one set of games (The second generation?) it was from the/a local Professor.
    • They're delicious. Same reason why lemonade is the best curing item ever.
      • But Lemonade only does 50 hp up if I recall correctly. It's the bitter stuff that does the trick, and oh boy, do your pokemon hate you for giving them THAT. (There is of course better stuff, but we don't know the flavour.)
  • The Ken Sugimori illustrated card "Mom's Kindness" shows Dawn's mother slipping a Potion into her bag.
• The addition of new Pokemon always bugs me. Are the lands so isolated that we don't know any Pokemon from other lands? I know there are out of universe explanations, but in universe?
  • Probably. It stretches a little too much when it comes to aquatic mons (who should be free to roam around from land to land), but it appears the Pokedex is the first attempt on cataloguing Pokemon, and it's slowly spreading from region to region. How those previously unencounterable Pokemon suddenly appear after you get the new and improved National Dex, though... I'll leave that for the MST3K Mantra.
    • Not necessarily on the water thing, for big Pokemon like Wailord, I doubt they'd be found in shallowish waters, and other Pokemon might prefer shallow water. Also, fresh water vs salt water. There are also some species on earth that are only found in certain lakes or so, like one albino blind crab that's found in one lake in one of the Canary Islands. By that logic too, bird Pokemon should be able to be found everywhere, because they could fly there.
      • I think you're failing to take in account how small the Pokemon world is. Each region is not that far from each other so, while it'd be the case that big salt water mons wouldn't be found in shallow waters, you'd expect Relicanths and Luvdiscs living near Wailmers and Mantines. And the problem about birds is also valid. But, frankly, I think the way previously unavailable mons suddenly appear after you get the National Pokedex (again, notice: not Universal, not International, not Continental: National; this is a small world, after all).
        • I've always thought that, for example, some water Pokemon may already be from another region, but have drifted away. For instance, Tentacool might have originally been native to say, Hoenn, but it's already spread everywhere. Does that make sense? And then other Pokemon just stay where they are because it suits them. I dunno... just my view.
          • Actually, with Pokemon Black and White the new region will be very VERY far away from all the other regions.
  • That still doesn't explain how people don't know of pre-evolutions. I can understand how added evolutions can possibly not be found in some regions (Magnezone only evolves in one specific area with unusual magnetic fields, the Shiny/Dawn/Dusk stones are very uncommon in the earlier regions), but how does an area which naturally has Pikachu not have Pichu?
    • Pikachu will always have Pichu. But a Chansey will only breed a Happiny if it is holding an item as rare as a Shiny Stone can be.
      • I can't talk for other pre-evos, but Pikachu it was specifically stated once or twice that "no one had ever seen a new-born Pikachu" or something very similar. Since you weren't able to breed in first gen, it's not much of a stretch to say NO ONE did; thus, wild Pokemon guarded their young, and we humans never saw them. Third gen and onwards, all pre-evos required something that wasn't available to the previous generation.
• How the hell does Remoraid which is a fish evolve into a freaking octopus?
  • A useless fish becomes a rampaging behemoth. A horseshoe crab becomes bipedal and grows scythes for its arms. A turtle grows metal pipes out of its shell. A lizard sprouts wings. A different lizard turns into a cocoon and then into a dinosaur. And a fish becoming an octopus bothers you the most? File it under MST3K Mantra and call it a day.
  • It has also been explained in this same page that the evolution isn't exactly "fish to octopus", but "handgun to cannon".
  • Though You've got me on the others the fish turning into a rampaging behemoth is actually based on the fact that the useless fish in question is a carp. There's a legend in Asia about a carp swimming up a river to a certain point and being rewarded for his efforts by being transformed into a dragon.
  • On a somewhat related note, how the hell does a fossil of dried up sap turn into a wyvren-based pteradactyle?
    • It's probably assumed to have a mosquito in it, which in this case would have Aerodactyl's blood and therefore a DNA sample. Rather Jurassic Park-inspired.
• In Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, there are routes where it's always raining and have patches to plant your berries. Why then, do I still need to ride down there every few frikkin hours to water the damn things. What, is the constant (and I do mean constant. It never stops raining there) stream of the stuff not enough for these things?
  • Most likely explanation is that the watering can you use is actually filled with Miracle-Gro and not just plain water. Therefore watering the plant makes it grow better than leaving it for the rain.
  • Adding to that, the rain changes the soil quality. Some berries will grow better in the rain than in places where it isn't.
• Maybe this should be under Fridge Brilliance, but Gary's Raticate dies... and they barely touch on this.
  • To clarify: In RBY you fight Gary on SS Anne. With his Raticate. Next time you see him is in Lavender Tower, which is where people pay their respects to dead Pokemon... and Gary noticeably is missing his Raticate. And only has five Pokemon...
  • Maybe he just let it go.
    • That would make sense if he had a substitute. But why would he let it go and run around with only 5 Pokémon instead of 6?
  • Head on over to the Nightmare Fuel page for this.
  • ...am I the only one who merely thought he stored it away in the PC Because he didn't need it as a Disc One Nuke anymore? When you see him on the S.S. Anne, he says "I already caught 100 kinds, pal" and why doesn't he send one hundred pokemon at you if he only carries the pokemon he caught? Because he's only sending his A-Team. Raticate stops becoming useful around that period of time, so he probably put it in the PC. Who says the PC is only for you to use?
    • I think there are rules that doesn't allow a trainer to use more than 6 pokemon, or at least in the games.
• I'm always bugged by the fact that, honestly, Weedle doesn't look hairy at all for a Hairy Bug pokemon...
• Why is Ice not super effective against the frickin' WATER type?
  • ...because Ice will just melt if you throw it at the water, it will not freeze the water, it will not do anything other than lower a bit its temperature without outside effects, it just isn't effective at all. Icebergs? They don't do anything else than float and if it weren't that the climate is cold already they'd just melt.
  • I was thinking about that, but I always figured that the ice was concentrated for the Pokemon's attack, creating enough cold to freeze the water or something.
  • Just because they're water type doesn't mean they're made of water you know. It means they live in it, and thus would be resistant to cold temperatures.
    • Then why do they resist Fire-type attacks?
      • That's... a good question, actually. They should suffer worse from dehydration. Maybe it only makes sense in an "elemental scale", still considering ice cannot harm water(probably because ice melts into water, making it some sort of "child element").
  • Why aren't electric types strong against steel? Or poison better in general? The answer is, because the type system is weird.
    • If Poison were better in general, then Poison would be OP. Technically, Poison should be good against normal, grass, water, bug, dragon, flying, ground, and rock, if the arguments for it have any meaning. Basically, it should be good against anything corruptible/with a pulse, which counts for about 400 or more Pokémon.
      • rock ground and water wouldn't work under your logic, since they aren't actually alive. corrupting the ground only actually harms the plants and animals on it, hence the super effective against grass
      • You are aware that water can be made undrinkable/uninhabitable? Also, you claimed ground wouldn't work with the scenario. Yet, you mentioned that you'd have to "corrupt the ground" to harm plants. Corrupting the ground. Hmm.
  • On that note, why aren't Flying types weak to Water-type attacks? If you wet a bird's wings, it can't fly. I'd imagine the same would apply to a Pidgey hit with several thousand pressurized gallons of water.
• Charmander supposedly dies if left in the rain long enough to extinguish its tail flame (see: Anime, Pokédex, Manga). But it can fight underwater if you've used Dive on the field.
  • I always figured that (in the pokedex case, at least) instead of Charmander and kin dying when the tail flame goes out, that the tail flame goes out when it dies, sort of like a human's heart will stop when he dies, but not everyone dies when their heart stops (at least, not immediately). I guess the Pokedex maker saw the correlation, but put the causation backwards. Also, in the Manga, Dive surrounds the pokemon in a bubble of air.
• Simply putting: what's the difference between Type 1 and Type 2? Why is, for instance, Geodude Rock/Ground and Rhyhorn Ground/Rock, when that'll mean they have the same weaknesses and strengths?
  • I mean, Geodude is a pokemon that looks like a stone, hence the rock/ground. Rhyhorn is a being that lives underground (according to the pokedex), and has stone plating, rather than being made of stone. Ground/rock. It's not a gameplay thing, but a nice little differentiation between pokes that have the same time.
  • Type one is the primary type, while type two is the secondary attribute. I.e. the Charizard is a Fire-type with flying characteristics and Bulbasaur is a Grass-type, but poisonous.
    • And yet Moltres and Ho-Oh are both Fire-Flying, instead of Flying-Fire, as one would suppose...
    • NOTHING is primarily Flying. Flying is always a secondary type.
      • And that just keeps bugging me!
        • What bugs me is that Gyrados, Mantyke and Mantine are all Flying types too... when they live in the ocean and don't have wings.
          • But Bulbapedia states: 'Unlike real-life manta rays, which can only "fly" through water, Mantine can literally fly in the air if they gain enough speed.' Sooo...
          • Gyarados (when will people learn to spell it correctly?) is partly based on Chinese dragons, which are pretty well known for flying without wings. The Mantine line's pectoral fins basically qualify as wings - to the point where they even learn Wing Attack - and they're explicitly stated in the Pokédex as being able to fly out of water with enough speed buildup.
        • Flying is something Pokemon do. It's not what Pokemon are. (Then again, by that logic, nothing should be primarily Fighting.)
          • But, as most major martial artists will tell you, you don't simply fight, you ARE a fighter.
            • But birds aren't flyers by nature?
              • What about Piplup and its ilk?
                • Piplup's line are based on penguins, which are flightless.
                  • ...'Flying without wings'? WESTLIFE SECOND MOVIE ENDING FLASHBACK. God I love that song.
• I was just reading through, then I realized that every single team in every single game is profoundly stupid. Currently, Team Galactic dissolved as soon as Cyrus disappeared, and after speaking with Saturn, I found that these guys had no idea what they were doing and basically went along with the plan just because Cyrus told them to. Can't there be ONE team member that is acutally smart OTHER then the boss?
  • Saturn is in denial. He's the FIRST PERSON to tell you what the team's ultimate goal was, so he can't really expect us to believe him when he tells us that he had no idea.
  • Cyrus' plan would have involved destroying the universe. Anyone he told about it would refuse to help him unless they were as crazy as he was.
    • I'm not sure if this is in Diamond/Pearl, but in Platinum Cyrus told Team Galactic that he'd use Dialga and Palkia to remake the world, presumably with them in charge. He was lying to their faces, but it's still a valid motive.
    • Cyrus stated he has no emotions whatsoever and plans to erase everyone else from existence, he clearly doesn't care if his grunts are smart or well equipped so long as they can do the simple tasks he assigns them.
      • He's also a lying liar who lies. He clearly HAS emotions, and in all honesty he doesn't hide them all that well.
  • In the first generation, Red defeated Team Rocket's boss Giovanni, who goes into hiding subsequently. In the next generation games, it is shown that Team Rocket is still active, even without Giovanni. Sure, they're trying to find out where he went, but they're managing, having spread throughout Johto, taken over a radio tower, and other various crimes.
    • It's implied that these crimes came after three years of a lack of activity in Kanto or Johto. And what's the actual question? That new Team Rocket is dumb? Well... maybe.
    • Or they could've been being smart for once and laying low until they grew stronger again.
  • And in the third generation, Team Magma's plan to "expand the land" involves blowing up a small, landlocked volcano. The lava wouldn't even make it past Mauville, let alone all the way to the ocean.
    • emerald fixes this by having groudon under there. the eruption would have presumably woken it up
    • Not to mention the fact that an erupting volcano would be far more likely to destroy every nearby town and ruin the land, making it impossible for humans or Pokemon to live there. Then again, Team Magma's plan was to cause a volcano to erupt by using a meteorite.
  • Charon, of Team Galactic, seems pretty savvy before he gets caught—he doesn't care about Cyrus or all the universe-destroying stuff, he's just in it to extort large amounts of money. Jupiter and Mars know when it's time to beat feet. And at least Team Magma/Team Aqua wise up when they see the damage they've done.
• Why is the main character constantly asked to deliver packages and letters in the games? Do those regions not have a postal service or something?
  • With ten-year-olds running around for free labour, as well as pokemon such as Zigzagoon or Wingull that can deliver messages...Who NEEDS a postal service?
  • They probably just gave the packages and stuff to the protagonists because he/she is on their way there anyways. It's free to send a random person who knows the person who you're sending it to.
  • Then again, the postal service between all but the largest towns may consist of no more than a guy on a bicycle, and a pokemon trainer would probably be more reliable than even a truck to get the package unharmed to another town.
  • In the mystery Dungeon games, the freaking POKEMON have a mail delivery service, essentially consisting of wingull delivering letters. So why don't humans just do that? Many different species of animals in real life have been trained to do that, and pokemon are FAR more intelligent than pigeons.
  • I think in this case, it's more like "So you're going to ___? While you're there, could you just deliver this for me, if it's not any trouble?" And at the start of the games, like in GSC, the whole errand thing was more "I'm busy with research and you just want to get out and travel a bit. The town's a few minutes away, so could you pick this up for me kthx?" Living in a village, I go on errands like this all the time for my parents, so it's not that big a deal. Also, consider that it's not that big a deal for you, but some of the people who need these things done don't have pokemon, and even if they did, most of them would be kept as pets and wouldn't be suitable for battle. Personal safety and common sense dictates that they should just leave it to someone who has more protection.
• "Your Pokemon are fully healed, we hope to see you again" .... These friendly nurses HOPE that your Pokemon all faint again? What a bunch of jerks.
  • She's just being polite. Like most politeness, it is empty and meaningless. She doesn't really "hope to see you again" anymore than the great majority of people asking how you are doing want an answer other than "fine."
    • Actually, it can likely be construed as "We hope that if you should ever need a PC, healing for your Pokemon, or a safe place to rest, you will see us as capable and trustworthy."
      • I could buy that if Pokemon centers were a business, but they are offered free of charge.
      • There's a very simple answer to this: the entire point of the game is going out and battling. Any good trainer will want to make sure their partners are kept healthy. Since this is common sense to the nurse (but apparently not to so very many players, since this is still being asked), she's simply saying that she hopes you'll be a good trainer to your Pokemon and get them healed after battles.
  • Even if you don't take a pounding in a battle, you're still losing PP when you turn the enemy poke inside-out with Spacial Rend. They're hoping that not only do you keep them healthy, you also make sure they get enough "sleep".
  • Then again, consider how dangerous Pokemon can be. When she says "We hope to see you again!" she could actually be saying "We hope you aren't maimed/killed by any feral Pokemon!"
  • HeartGold and SoulSilver changed it to the more benevolent-sounding "Please, come back again any time!" Presumably, whatever organization is in charge of Pokémon Centers became aware of the Unfortunate Implications.
    • This troper thinks they should say something else maybe along the lines of what they said in HG/SS, "Please come back again any time", in Isshu. Especially since there are marts inside the centres in Isshu. Maybe because Isshu is based off of America, which likely wouldn't have public health care (what keeps pokemon centres running, dur.) they have to have marts in them to keep from going bankrupt and there aren't Pokémon insurance companies to charge for uninsured 10-15 year olds coming in.
  • In Platinum (in the German version at least) the nurse sometimes says something around the lines of "I hope you will become a famous trainer!" which sounds a bit weird coming from someone you don't know personally and who probably doesn't know anything about what you did, except maybe from the occasional TV interview.
• Okay, so playing Platinum, I get all this flak for almost going into the tall grass with no Pokemon of my own at the start of the game from the NPCs. But if that's the case, how do people get their own Pokemon to begin with other than a gift from someone else? Did Arceus asign the first Pokemon to a first trainer when he created the universe or something?
  • Life actually was pretty dangerous before they learned to capture and train Pokémon, you know. They just killed the Pokémon with machetes.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation. Many people actually have their Pokémon like pets(out of the Pokéball) or capture them without a Pokémon in the mangas.
    • The Vendor trash, and other first stage/baby mons have sucha high catch rate that you can catch them with a normal Pokeball with perfect accuracy without needing to weaken, also take into consideration the safari, where you don't weaken Pokémon to catch them, you just need the right equipment.
    • I imagine that the most common way for trainers to get their first Pokémon is to either get one of their relatives who is already a trainer to go out and catch one for them, or like Wally in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, they visit their local gym leader and get them to help them catch one.
      • Isn't visiting the gym to get your first "starter" Pokemon how it worked in the anime?
        • Ash and the other guys from Pallet Town got their starters courtesy of Professor Oak, who gave them away for free.
        • Also, there were three starters and four guys. They were clearly special mons, not just any starter. Actually, in yellow Prof. Oak personally captured your Pikachu for you.
    • Other aspiring trainers could go and catch their first own Pokemon themselves, but your character is a 10 year old kid who has no business fighting wild Pokemon with his own hands.
    • Maybe it was the same way early man domesticated wolves?
  • This used to bug me too, until I realised how easy it was to go out and capture a Bug or Normal type (like Weedle or Bidoof) with just a normal pokeball, which costs as much as a can of fizzy. Presumably a lot of trainers start out like that.
  • The old man catches them. He doesn't need to weaken pokemon.
    • Then again, the old man is also the Gatekeeper for your friendly neighborhood Eldritch Abomination, so one would think catching a Weedle isn't too hard for him.
  • Some of them might be given hand-me-down eggs from older siblings or friendly trainers, others probably save up and go to the Safari Zone.
  • Obvious solution: The first trainer stole a Pokemon egg and raised it once it hatched.
• Am I the only person who thinks that Fire types should be strong against rock types (considering some rocks can be melted at the right temperature), and poison strong against fighting and water types (Since water can be polluted and most fighters are beaten by getting poisoned, though a cliche in movies)?
  • Well yes, rocks can melt. At ridiculously extreme temperatures. You put a rock in your average campfire, and it's just going to get hot to touch- it's not going to get changed. Most fire types don't spit out fire that hot. With poison vs. fighting, there's a case for it, but there's also a case then that poison should be strong against all the meatwads. For water, I would tend to think the opposite- poison gets quickly diluted in water and rendered ineffective.
    • Actually this is why rocks are resistant, beacuse it takes so much energy to melt rock that it makes them effective at blocking heat, see Rock Beats Laser (See the part talking about real life).
    • You didn't really explain the deal with poison vs fighting.
      • Sure, he/she/it did, if not very clearly. Since fighting types are assumed to be buff, fit pokemon, it could also be assumed that their bodies would be more capable of resisting and filtering toxins. In metaphor; If you present one dose of venom to yourself (A "normal" body), and one dose of the same venom to Michael Phelps (A body that's in ridiculously good shape), Michael Phelps is a lot more likely to come out of it with less damage than you are.
    • To wit: Most fighting-types have a high metabolism and possibly afast heartbeat, which allows poison to spread rapidly through their bloodstream.
      • Incorrect: generally the healthier you are, the stronger your heart it, so the slower your heart rate is because it can pump more blood with one beat than a weaker heart.
  • This troper holds that Poison should be strong against both Fighting and Psychic types (you try moving or thinking much when you're sick). It would make the poison-type more viable, certainly, and it makes more sense than Psychic overpowering Poison.
    • This Troper thought of it as thus: Fighting is weak to Poison because they have to touch the toxic things, whereas Psychics can lob 'em around telepathically. And as a child, she thought Water would beat Poison because it'd purify it or something...
    • Personally this Troper would like to see Water become weak to Poison, if only to give it more than one type to be super-effective against. And back to the Fire point, I find it funny that Fire isn't effective against Rock but works wonders against Steel-type Pokemon.
    • Well, with steel, there is this little thing known as 'blacksmithing'...
    • Metal conducts heat really well. Like, super well. Ever tried putting a seatbelt on on a hot day? Used to drive me nuts as a kid.
    • Rocks get hot on the outside, and take forever to get hot on the inside. Steel-type Pokemon conduct heat so well that it will heat up inside quickly, boiling whatever internal organs they have if they are exosed too long.
  • Gameplay purposes - if Rock was weak against fire, then why bother using it? Maybe to take out flying and bug types, and maybe an ice type if you're lucky and they don't know any water type move? Granted, it's alright enough considering enough types don't resist it a lot.
• Just picked my old Gold version the other day, and realized something with a bit of Fridge Logic. The rival in these games is depicted as cruel and fundamentally evil, who could care less about his Pokémon unless they're strong. He has a Crobat near the end. Golbat only evolves into a Crobat through happiness, and the way that the rival treats his Pokémon doesn't seem like he'd treat one nice enough to get it to evolve. Especially since it's a Golbat; they aren't that strong of a Pokémon compared to a lot of others, so how did it evolve? It wasn't traded, either, you fight it as a Zubat earlier.
  • It's only a Crobat the final time you face him, right? By this time, he's taken Lance's lessons about treating his Pokémon right to heart, so I think Golbat's evolution is supposed to be a symbol of that. Then again, if you go by pure game mechanics, it's not that hard to get a Golbat to evolve so long as it doesn't faint in battle much. Assuming it never fainted aside from the times it fought you and Lance, it wouldn't take that long to evolve. The third possibility comes from Prof Elm's aide when he claimed that a Pokémon used by an evil trainer will eventually turn evil itself. I guess Zubat/Golbat grew to agree with the Rival's outlook on Pokémon and how they should be strong.
  • It's because the rival changed his attitude on Pokemon. How was that not clear to anyone? The REAL question here is why CYRUS has a Crowbat in Diamond/Pearl.
    • It's not that hard to get a pokemon's happiness up to max. Just battle with it for a few days.
    • Happiness in Slavery
    • Cyrus isn't as emotionless as he'd like to think. You'll notice he's also a bit quick to anger for someone trying to destroy such passions.
    • he could have just stolen it
    • Nah, I'm pretty sure in Platinum at least he's shown to have a Golbat. He could've discarded that and nicked a new Crobat, but...
    • Just think of his Golbat like a hammer (that's, at best, how Cyrus would consider it). Do you deliberately leave your hammer sitting in a can of salt water? No, you keep it in good condition. Since Cyrus is amoral instead of immoral, he doesn't mistreat it, so basically it figures things could be a lot worse and evolved.
  • Pokémon seems to be a pretty idealistic bunch of games, maybe they were trying to show that even "gray" villains like Silver weren't entirely evil people, just wrong about a lot of things. Maybe Silver only caught Pokémon who had a similar obsession with being the strongest, anyway, and as long as they were strong enough to win battles he didn't berate them too much.
  • What bugs me about this is that Silver is never really depicted as 'evil', just he had a strong desire to be strong and he didn't care for weak Pokemon. He still could've cared for his Pokemon. Near the end he realises it's probably better to train rather than catch strong Pokemon right off the bat. At least that's what I think.
    • His obsession about power came from the fact that he saw his father Giovanni as weak after he was defeated by Red, and when Giovanni left him he set off to "become strong on his own". He eventually realizes strength isn't everything.
• Magcargo's body temperature is 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The surface of the sun is 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • The Pistol Shrimp can make that temp with its ever-so-awesome nuclear bubble. It's not impossible, just really, really, retardedly hot. Then again, that temp would basically burn all the oxygen off our atmosphere, so maybe we should re-think this.
  • Presumably Macargo is capable of keeping its body heat contained. In the animé, there was a Ponyta who would burn anyone it didn't trust with its mane, but once it did trust someone, they could ride it without suffering any pain at all.
  • One suspects the real temperature is 180 degrees Fahrenheit and someone accidentially added the extra zeros when typing up the entry.
  • The Pokedex researchers Did Not Do the Research.
  • See also, Alakazams IQ being over FIVE THOUSAAAAAAND!!!
    • Because many Pokedex entries are obviously not true I think some of the entries are just myths, urban legends and Common Knowledge.
      • Dude, one thing is to assume Shedinja's hole will suck someone's spirit. That's vague and creepy. Another one, totally different, is tacking huge and definite numbers there. That's just bullshit.
        • And how come you don't get your soul sucked out when you use Shedinja?
      • Supposedly Raticate slows down if you cut off its whiskers, which you would presumably only know by actually doing that. Whoever compiled the Pokedex is clearly an out-and-out liar/psychopath.
        • And is also, apparently, you.
      • During the very very first episode of the anime, the Pokedex said something about Ratata(actually I can't remember what pokemon it was but let's say it was Ratata) and how it likes to play pranks on stupid trainers? All I know is that it called Ash stupid.
  • The people responsible for the Pokédex entries have no sense of scale.
  • The Pokedex research are based from YOURS, or rather, THE CHARACTER'S point of view. It's like a scientific diary or journal or something. Obviously if you're just 10 yrs. old you'd exaggerate.
    • When did you fit in the scientific research between catching the pokemon and seeing the entry. Apparently, Prof. Oak's dream is to have a random kid enable every entry in the Pokedex. Imagine a hacker getting ahold of a Pokedex. "You captured every single Pokemon in the world? You were never even given a starter pokemon!" I'm seriously starting to doubt Oak's trustworhiness.
  • I don't see why it can't be an accurate measure of Magcargo's power. Somehow its skin is just super-insulated so it doesn't cause ridiculous convection currents and superheat the atmosphere. Why isn't Magcargo the undisputed most powerful Pokemon then? Easy. They all have similar levels of power. Steelix is several times harder than diamond, Charizard can melt boulders, Tyrannitar causes maps to be redrawn, etc. This also provides a convenient explanation for why a ruthless crime syndicate like Team Rocket never just pulls out a gun. Any Pokemon is several orders of magnitude more powerful than a firearm, so they have no reason to bother with conventional weaponry.
    • Even Magikarp? Pre-evolution?
    • Yes, even Magikarp. Sort of. The Platinum Pokedex entry for it states it can use Splash to potentially jump a mountain...it just can't hurt an enemy.
    • So Pokémon are to humans as 40,000 is to everything else in existence?
    • This is probably why Rocket/Magma/Aqua/etc. grunts don't just attack you after you beat their Pokémon. Even a Pokémon that's low on HP and exhausted from battle is presumably able to wipe the floor with an average human.
    • Well, Magma and Aqua grunts generally believe themselves to be good guys, and so wouldn't mob a small kid. And Rocket grunts seem to be more along the lines of petty thieves than murderers.
      • And then there is Galactic who had no problem blowing up a whole lakeside with all life inside of it. But when I think about it: the Magikarps survived the explosion. So Pokémon really have to be several times tougher than a human.
    • And then we have Jessie who caught her Ekans by beating it up! Then again, the anime is hardly canon.
• Pokémon Ranger crunches the Willing Suspension of Disbelief so hardly... How is circling a Pokémon with a top supposed to be any demonstration of "friendship" or whatever good feelings the phlebotinum is fueled by? I mean... you can shock the Pokémon, trap them in a bubble, throw rocks at them... and they'll recognize your friendship! How's that supposed to work?!
  • Well, my Willing Suspension of Disbelief is hardly challenged at all by Ranger's concept, honestly, mainly because it looks only like a gentler variant of how in normal Pokemon games, attacking wild Pokemon much more offensively than in Ranger and "enslaving" them in Poke Balls causes them to be perfectly obedient and friendly to you as you use them in battles from then on. I just figure that there's some sort of X-technology-or-element within Poke-Balls that's magically infused with the feelings/personality of the trainer holding them, which is mixed with a generally becalming influence in that same technology/element, and when a Poke Ball captures a Pokemon these feelings and that influence are projected as one to the Pokemon enough that the creature is mentally persuaded to accept/not be overly angry at whoever captured it (That would be my answer to other Poke Ball-related questions below). The Ranger Styler here appears to use this same system in a different way, which in this case is administered in incremental "jolts" with each loop of the Styler's energy-line-looping setup, jolting any Pokemon within the loop's field with this influence until the influence's been layered enough times that the Pokemon isn't angry at you and other things in general. Well hey, maybe Pokemon are a lot more agreeable to being enlisted by humans temporarily if they aren't being permanently "enslaved" in Pokeballs, which is why this strange and more cumbersome-looking Ranger method actually works?
    • I feel there's a strong subtext of dominance under the Pokémon concept. Something in the veins of the good ol' "I'm stronger than you, you should join me!" stuff. But at least in the games it makes sense, it feels more like you are forcing' the Pokémon into becoming yours(the whole weakening and, sometimes, rock throwing stuff). Ranger just makes it look stupid, every five minutes reassuring it's not "beating", but "befriending".
      • It wouldn't be the first time we've seen a character get the crap befriended out of them.
• Why do Venonats look so much like Butterfrees? Did the sprites get mixed up or something?
  • This Butterfree/Venomoth peculiarity actually appears to be a mistake. While there are plenty of different species that look similar, it's clear that Butterfree and Venomoth had their sprites switched somehow (Personally, I like to imagine it happening like those old Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercials). First, compare the appearances of Venonat and Butterfree: Butterfree shares Venonat's feet, hands, mouth, eyes, antennae, and body colour - especially notable considering the fact that Venonat is nothing more than a purple puffball with said features. Venomoth, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing in common with Venonat. Next, compare Venomoth to Caterpie and Metapod. Again, they have a suspicious amount in common. They have the same eyes, the same basic body structure, and the same forehead crest - compare Metapod's head to Venomoth's. Butterfree looks nothing like its evolutionary family. There's really no denying it - Nintendo made a mistake. It seems like they slipped up in the first generation of Pokemon games - rather than owning up to their blunder, they left it as it was.
    • Wouldn't they realize this obvious mistake on the test stage? I mean, it's not like they just program the game and send it to the stores, there's tons of tests to do, someone would have noticed that.
      • Because when you're constantly finding obvious mistakes, obvious starts to become a bit relative. Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to relaize the obvious mistake because you know something is supposed to happen that way and dismiss it, and then the guy you're impressing by testing the game points out that, yes, making the pokemon very weak makes it easier to catch like it's supposed to, but shouldn't knocking it out completely make it extremely easy to catch? Shouldn't the game just say no when you use a rare candy on a level 100 pokemon? And then you start searching for the minor bugs, so the fact j finally works overshadows the fact x is now half broken. Because after the 256th time playing through this part, you know you can do y to get to j faster or z to skip it entirely. And this is unrelated to Pokemon, but imagine the sorrow of a programmer with no tester. That 256 estimate listed above? More like 1024. Programmers in general are screwed, really (but, even as a programmer I must admit I feel sorry for the Pokemon graphics designers. Imagine how much they'll have to do in the 6th generation with 700 something pokemon in 3D, but probably still with all the darn 2d sprites, too).
    • Their Japanese names are derived from "butterfly" (Butterfree, which is its name in both languages) and "moth" (Morphon), and it's clear from the wing shape that Butterfree's sprite is supposed to be a butterfly and Venomoth's is supposed to be a moth's. Also, can you and everyone else quit saying "Nintendo" whenever you're talking about the people who design the games? You're not helping your case that the developers made a mistake when you can even remember who the actual developers are.
      • I'd say the name of the company has very little bearing on whether or not you're inclined to make mistakes. We also are explicitly talking about the sprites here, so the names have no bearing either.
      • Does that even matter? The point in case is: Venonat looks like it'd evolve into Butterfree, whoever the designers are(Gamefreak, I suppose?), that's the point. How does a gnat turn into a moth, anyway?
      • Are you forgetting a fish turning into a sea serpent?
        • Ah, that one is special. A Chinese myth says that a carp that swims up a certain (magical) waterfall will turn into a dragon when it reaches the top. That's probably the basis for Magicarp/Gyarados and later Feebas/Milotic.
      • Butterfrees look like butterflies. Venomoths look like moths. Unless if Game Freak did a messup with the heads of the sprites, I don't see any problem with the Venonat -> Butterfree not Venomoth "error." Then again, switching the heads of Butterfree and Venomoth... *shudders*
  • Not necessarily, have you ever seen pictures of pupae? Caterpillars look nothing like butterflies and some look * exactly* like a Metapod in the pupae stage. Also, moth caterpillars can be fuzzy. However, I will admit this logic can be applied the other way. Moths can look like Metapods in their pupae stage as well and butterfly caterpillars can be fuzzy. So really, the only thing that contributes to the argument is that Venonats and Butterfrees look similar (I will give you that the resemblances are uncanny). However if we go by nature - butterflys and moths going through the stages of caterpillar, pupae and adult - then Caterpies and Metapods make the most sense and Venonats have no right to be morphing into moths because where in nature does a fuzzy fat walking bug turn into a moth? If they were going to go about it logically, they should've done what they did with Eevee or Oddish: have Metapod able to evolve into either Butterfree or Venomoth; just for the simple fact that Venonat makes entirely no sense when compared to nature and I have no idea how they thought of it in the first place.
  • Not to mention Tropius and the Chikorita line.
    • Tropius and Chikorita are based upon the same creature(long necked dinosaurs), it's just normal that they look somewhat alike.
    • Well, yes... but they're also both Grass types. That's easily similar enough to be weird that they ain't part of the same line..
      • Um... both Wurmple and Caterpie are bugs, and both evolve into butterflies... and still they aren't of the same line. I think Chikorita is a "flowersaur", while Tropius is a "treesaur", so they just didn't find a really good motive for putting them into the same line.
        • Plus, you know, there's that thing about Tropius having gargantuan leaf-wings on his back, the dark-green and brown skin/armor, and the bananas/juicy, delicious fruit... -shrug-
          • Delicious fruit, you say?
        • Wurmple and Caterpie lines aren't as strange actually. There are LOTS of butterflies running around and Butterfree and Beautifly do look quite different to each other. All Tropius is missing is Vine Whip.
          • Sigh... and there were multiple kinds of sauropods, and they mostly looked alike(compare a brontosaur and a brachiosaur: almost twins). That, and Tropius is clearly a banana-tree-saur, and bananas don't have classical flowers, while Meganium clearly is a giant flower plant... look, let's just stop at the sixth bullet, ok?
            • You do realize that the Brontosaur was a mistaken conglomeration of skeletons from several sauropods including the Brachiosaur, hence it's similarity? It was removed as a species over 10 years ago, though not from the Flintstones.
              • ... I oughta punch you... but instead I'll just say: then substitute Brontosaur with your favourite sauropod that is not a Brachiosaur. Really, people, this is over-pettiness!
              • And yet, Banana trees with vines would not be the weirdest shit this series has tried to pull.
  • User:Pro-Mole calls coincidence. Something in the veins of "parallel evolution", the fenomena that created a marsupial version of many non-marsupial creatures in Australia (including the noiw extinct marsupial tiger, actually a stray dog). That, or the people at design didn't know how to make segmented eyes in a different fashion...
  • Or guessing by the fact that they're the same type of Pokemon with simular evolutionary lines, they may well be related species.
  • They don't actually look that ^{[dead link]} much alike. (Pictures taken from the original sprites in each case: Red+ Green, Ruby and Gold.)
    • Dude! Venonats! Not Venomoths! Look at those eyes and mouth. And not just sprites, but the official art, too.
  • Well, if resemblance had to be a guide on evolution, Bellossoms shouldn't evolve from Glooms (do they? They changed so many things that I don't even know anymore), but from Roselias...
    • No wai. They look waay more like Oddish (which evolves into Gloom) than Roselia. Think features & coloration rather than overall shape.
• By game rules, Ditto cannot breed with Ditto. So...where do baby Ditto come from?
  • I recall in Science class (no way!) our teacher telling us this: some creatures in real life can actually produce more of their species by having a part of their body removed from the rest (like starfish, for example). Who says that Ditto can't do this, as well?
  • Ditto being 1) asexual and 2) a shapeless blob in its natural form, one can assume they reproduce by fission, like slime molds and bacteria.
    • Pity there's no technique for that in the game. "Clone" or somesuch.
      • This is a recent problem, though. In the first game with breeding, Ditto could breed with another Ditto just fine, producing more Dittos until the cows came home. Nintendo took that out when they made the breeding more sophisticated, when Ditto started to have more effects on the offspring.
        • Really? Why?...
          • At the risk of turning this into an FAQ, Nintendo started having the parents of bred Pokemon have greater and greater influence on the abilities of the children. If Ditto could still breed with Ditto, the Elite Tweaker subset of the game audience would breed one or two Dittos that could produce offspring with absurd stats with the right personality (serious, just don't ask), and use those to produce absurd teams. Theoretically, this is all still possible, but this would require so much more work that most gamers don't bother. Breeding Ditto would greatly speed up the process.
            • And now most breeders just get a hacked ditto. There are also limits to what can be done to improve stats (+ 8 point on every stat, if I remember it right), so it's far from absurdly overpowered.
• Size is fundamentally messed up in the Pokemon universe. But still, they could have avoided putting a freaking whale in the game (Wailord) who should be able to win fights just by being launched from a Pokeball and crushing his opponent to a pulp. As it is, you can defeat the thing with a suitably leveled Pikachu.
  • Don't forget Improbable Species Compatibility - any number of smaller Mons, such as Skitty, are in the same Egg Group as Wailord, the largest Pokemon in the series to date.
    • Well, we've seen Giant Pokemon before, so a Giant Skitty probably isn't too out there, evening things out a tad. Conversely, a Giant Wailord probably doesn't bear thinking about.
      • Not to forget miniatures of said Pokemons, or dwarfmons.
  • Not to mention how one of the largest Pokemon is such a sissy. Onyx is apparently made of ancient styrofoam or something.
  • You mean like this?
    • That wouldn't actually hurt that much, since Wailord appears to be roughly twice as dense as air (1.7 kg/m^3, using some very, very rough approximations).
• How the heck can Pokemon fit inside Pokeballs? Not only that, how is it that just by catching them they are instantly brainwashed into obeying the trainer?
  • In the original games and manga, they're shrunk. In the anime and later games, they're turned into pure energy and stored away. As for the second question, according to the anime, at least, wild Pokemon that attack trainers actually want to be caught, but only by strong trainers, and they battle to see if they're worthy of training them.
    • Of course, a few of Ash's have skipped the battle part and gone staight to joining his team. Perhaps his previous actions in the same episode count as proof enough...
      • The truth is that Pokemon is a thinly-veiled metaphor for BDSM relationships. In theory, the dominant ("Pokemon Trainer") is the one in control of everything. But upon observation, the submissive ("trained Pokemon") is the one with all the actual power. Oh, wait, this isn't the Wild Mass Guessing page...
        • Wait, I thought they turned into data, and that's how they're stored on PC? Which also explains why Porygon can manifest in the real world - it's just the same process backwards.
  • In the manga, at least, badges literally brainwash pokemon (love and affection just make it More Than Mind Control).
    • However, in the games, it's noted that badges 'work' because they serve as proof of a trainer's skills, which in turns helps to convince their pokemon that said trainer is worthy of respect. The anime takes this in stride—as Ash earns more badges and becomes more skilled as a trainer, he has an easier time befriending difficult pokemon.
• The 'Two-type' limit aside, why aren't Charizard and Gyarados Dragon-types? They're Dragon enough for Clair and Lance, both Dragon trainers...
  • Probably because of competitive balance. (Seriously a starter with the over powered dragon type?)
  • Obviously Charizard isn't a dragon. He's a fire-breathing lizard...
    • Semantics. Altaria's a Dragon-type and it's a fricking bird. So something that looks like a Dragon, acts like a Dragon and breathes fire like a dragon...
      • Flygon's a Dragon-type and it's a fricking antlion. Kingdra's a Dragon-type and it's a fricking seahorse. Dialga's a Dragon-type and it's a fricking giant metal horse. What's your point?
        • Time for a little history lesson! Why do the dragon trainers have Horseas, Seadra, and Kingdra? Why is Kingdra a dragon type? Well those of you who know the story of Fruits Basket (Why does the dragon turn into a sea horse when he's hugged?!) can probably answer that. If not, lemme explain - The Japanese saw the Sea Horse as a baby dragon.
      • Antlions, AKA "Sand Dragons."
      • Dialga's a Dragon-type and it's a fricking giant metal horse.? Oh, you make me laugh so.
        • Dialga a horse? It's based on a sauropod.
      • To be fair, The Other Wiki says that birds are descended from dinosaurs, so it makes a sort of sense to have Altaria be a Dragon-type...
      • Altaria has whiskers at least! This troper knows very little about Asian culture, but don't Asian ideas of dragons conventionally have whiskers? Weirdly, this made total sense to me...
        • Altaria doesn't have whiskers if I am not totally blind. I always thought of it as a dragon/lizard living in a cloud. There is probably a Japanese myth to this somewhere.
  • While we're at it, why is Gyarados a flying type in the first place? He can't learn any flying moves, he has no wings and there's nothing particularly bird-like about him.
    • Some old legend about a fish swimming up a waterfall, going through something called the Dragon's Gate and getting turned into a "Flying Serpent". Yes, according to the Fan Dumb, there's a difference...
      • Lots of the pokemon in the game have some root in mythology. Dunsparce is a tsuchinoko, Castform is a teru teru bozu, Arcanine is a Shisa, and the Regis are all Golems.
    • Actually, Gyrados being Water/Flying is a clever bit of game design used to counter his Disc One Nuke nature. Because he's Water and Flying, he's doubly (well, not really in the math, but still) vulnerable to Electricity. That's how I see it, anyways.
    • ^ A tad pointless in a game where a x2 effective move can often be enough for a One-Shot-Kill; In those circumstances, a x4 weakness is overkill. It's not much of a Disc One Nuke if it can be OSK'd by a Pichu.
      • Water/Dragon is only weak to Dragon. In RBY, the ONLY Dragon attack did set damage (Dragon Rage). So back when Gyarados was introduced, well, that would mean that Gyarados would have had no weaknesses. Combine that with great stats, and, well, you have one lethal killing machine.
    • To the above troper; I think you're forgetting to put stats and items into consideration. No way in hell a Pichu is going to one-hit kill a Gyarados unless it's severely shifted in the rodent's favor.
    • Pichu's are legally able to learn Volt Tackle (an egg move). And even Thundershock will be absolute murder at x4 damage.
      • I just ran them through this calculator (let's assume Lv100, 31 IVs across the board, no EVs anywhere, neutral nature, no stat alterations, no items, Pichu x1.5 bonus with STAB, no critical hit). Volt Tackle; I'll concede you that for the most part (though Gyarados can still survive in some cases), but good luck trying to get that attack in with the rodent's paltry defenses. Thundershock; stop exaggerating. This isn't going to take off even half; you need Thunderbolt-level power to get a serious chance at a one-hit kill.
      • On top of that, getting a Pichu with Volt Tackle involves getting a Pikachu with a Light Ball, which is kind of a Disc One Nuke itself.
  • Because typing was seriously screwed up in the first game. Things like the number of Grass-types which are also Poison types, a ludicrous 33 poison types out of the 151 original Pokemon, and the complete lack of effective attacks against Psychic-types. Although it is interesting to note that in the first game Dragon and Ghost types are the only ones super-effective against themselves, each of them is only present on one evolutionary line consisting of 3 Pokemon, and neither has any substantive attack moves.
    • Well, there is one good move against Psychic-types: Pin Missile. Of course, only Beedrill (who's Poison-type anyway) and Jolteon know it, but it makes the latter one a fine addition to any team.
  • Mainly because they only had two identifiers at the time, and decided that Fire/Flying and Water/Flying needed to be emphasized over their Dragon-ness. Note that as soon as the whole Egg Groups thing came out, they got thrown right into the "Dragon" group.
  • There's also the fact that a Dragon-typed starter pokemon would be a little too imbalancing gamewise, even for the massively imbalanced Red/Blue Pokemon games.
    • Not so. While making Gyarados Water/Dragon would have been game breaking, making Charizard Fire/Dragon wouldn't have. He would have had weaknesses to Rock and Ground, two attacking still key today (granted, he still has those weakness, but Fire/ Dragon would have helped his tanking).
    • And that helped Blastoise kill it how? Ingame, it would offbalance the starter trio to much (Well, back then Ice would have been super effective because Fire didn't resist it back then, but it's the FIRE STARTER. How many are going to look at it and throw ICE at it?)
  • Gyarados isn't Dragon-type because a Water/Dragon Pokemon's only weakness is to Dragon moves. However, the only Dragon-type damaging move that existed in the first generation (Dragon Rage) always does 40 damage and ignores type advantages. So, essentially it wouldn't have had any weaknesses. (Note that now that proper Dragon-type attacks exist, there are two Water/Dragon Pokemon in Kingdra and Palkia).
  • Also, consider this: In Generation 1, the only dragon types were Dratini, Dragonair, and Dragonite. Maybe they intended for the Dratini line to be the only dragons?
    • Or, more likely, the simply wanted to keep Dragon-type pokemon as rare as possible- in which they did, to some extend, succeed.
  • Actually, it's because they threw the whole dragon type in at the last minute. Only one move, only three pokemon. Dragon type was an afterthought. Someone (I think it was the person who runs Cave of Dragonflies) pulled some kind of list of type weaknesses and strengths etc out of the games, and discovered that it didn't include, say, "fire versus dragon" after all the other "fire versus X" listings, and then the whole dragon table was tacked on at the very end.
    • The link is here, if anyone's interested.
• While it's nice to be free from random attacks, exactly why aren't there any Pokemon in the Sinnoh Underground? You'd at least expect a Diglett or two...
  • Wasn't the Underground made by man? I don't see why wild Pokemon would be too happy running around down there with all the drills and loud, obnoxious hikers that never seem to leave...
  • There are no native Digletts in Sinnoh. You'd expect a Gabite or two, and maybe a Larvitar if you have Diamond...
    • Diglett can be found on that desert route near the Resort Area along with Dugtrio.
  • 'Cause it'd be bloody annoying! That's why.
  • Nevermind that, why can't you ride your bike in the Underground?
  • The hikers ate all the Pokemon, obviously.
• When you catch a Pokemon and your party is full, the Pokemon is automatically sent to whoever's PC. So why is it that when someone gives you a Pokemon, you need to make room for it in your party? Can't you just do whatever you do with a caught one?
  • Maybe it's not socially acceptable to do so; taking a gift from someone and then immediately storing it away in a PC somewhere, where it can be forgotten easily, just isn't polite.
    • Good point, but I think it's even less polite of the giver to make me go all the way to a Pokemon Center and back first.
      • They're giving you a pokemon that might well be able to shatter mountains someday, and your problem is a minor impoliteness in the method of giving?
      • What bugs ME is that we obviously needed to come up with a reason for that, right? Which means that there isn't really an in-game reason. So... what on earth is the programming reason? It seems like a simple "sendPokemonToPC()" function call would wrap this up in a tidy little package.
        • Probably a project error. There must be two functions, "receivePKMN(id)" and "catchPKMN(id)". Understandable, yet not very bright...
        • I think I know what the problem with this is: with catching Pokémon, the game establishes the stats and everything when you fight the things. Sending a received Pokémon to the PC without allowing the game to "observe" its stats by putting it in your party would probably cause problems with the storage system - it'd be like trying to sort Schr ödinger's Cat as "alive" or "dead" without looking, turned Up to Eleven with all the variables that go into a single Mon.
          • Most likely not. I use a "all encountered Pokémon are shiny" cheat sometimes which interestingly only affects wild Pokémon. Trainers are unaffected and use normally colored Pokés. BUT: when I get a Pokémon or egg from someone, they still are shiny, meaning that the received Pokémon are treated the same as any other wild Pokés you encounter and so it should be no Problem to just shove them into the PC. The reason for getting them into your party is most likely the most simple one: the developers don't want you to forget about them. If you actually fight and catch a Pokémon you will be more likely to remember it than from just talking to someone and the mon then being transferred away.
  • They do do this in FRLG.
  • Hilarious side note - you said do do!
• Why does Gengar weigh 89 pounds when it's a ghost. I mean, Ghastly and Haunter weigh almost nil, so why the change with the third evolution?
  • Maybe Gengar just likes staying solid more.
  • How do you put Gastly and Haunter on a scale? At least Gengar has legs. (No idea how anyone got Giratina on one, though. Maybe he did it as a favor to Newton?)
    • Ignoring the fact that the question was hammered between two others... you make them sit upon it, like a baloon. That, or they stay floating and causing a force field downwards, making the scale accuse a weight. Maybe that's why they weight so little, measurement error.
  • You think that's bad? Giratina, the legendary dragon/ghost type pokemon, weighs over 1600 pounds. Seriously, if it's solid enough to weigh over half a ton, then it should be solid enough to be affected by normal and fighting type attacks.
    • I liked the "inner black hole" theory someone proposed here.
    • And, oh: think about this: one cubic decimeter of water weights 1 kilogram, roughly 2 pounds. It is "solid enough" to weigh all that, but still punching water will not cause it any damage. Just because something weights a lot, it doesn't mean it is solid.
  • Ok, maybe I'm not good at judging how much people weigh by looking at them, but how does Gardevoir, with its thin body and thinner legs weigh 106 lbs? Surely its head and "dress" doesn't weight that much.
    • For the record, Gardevoir is 5'3", which is pretty much the height of this underweight, short Asian troper, exactly. My weight? About 106 pounds.
  • If you put gas in a container, it can get onto a scale and you can get some readings on it. Really, the difference between gas and solid is that gas molecules are not attached to each other and solid's do. As to how they don't get damage from Normal or Fighting, maybe they just phase out or something.
  • Perhaps being a ghost type doesn't explicitly mean that they're made of gas. Maybe they can interact with physical objects like weight scales and fire/water/grass attacks, but not with things that have souls, i.e. normal type attacks and fighting attacks. Normal type projectiles like hyper beam can be explained as a pokemon firing its soul or life energy.
  • Oh, I know this one. You know how it becomes peoples shadows? When you put it on the weight screen, it becomes your weight. It's a shadow of you. Now, granted, shadows don't weigh anything, but that just makes having him follow you around, ready to kill you and take over your life at any minute all the more creepy.
• Cubone. Mother's skull. Breeding. Discuss.
  • You managed to break my brain in a mere 5 words. Props.
  • I'm gonna go with Gameplay and Story Segregation.
  • That was their Pokedex entry back in the Red/Blue games, when breeding didn't exist. Nuff said.
    • I'm sticking with the Pokédex is bollocks and we should've stopped listening to it after "IQ of 5,000."
    • Yeah, I supect that Cubone's "mother's skulls" are already present on them after they hatch.
  • It also brings up the question as to why they aren't extinct yet. If they all wear the skull of their mother, that means there is a 1-to-1 ratio of mothers to children. This means each generation should be half as populous as the last, since they are only replacing 1 half of the breeding pair.
  • Also, why is it that you can breed a Cubone and still have its mother? Where does the skull come from? Not to mention siblings.
  • I'm not familiar with breeding in the games, but is it possible to breed Cubones with each other, or only the evolved Marowak? Because if it's the Marowak, then it can be assumed (for the sake of this argument, at least) that the Marowak still has its skull from when it was a Cubone, and just passes that down.
    • Nope, you can breed two Cubone together, and have both the mother and the child in your party simultaneously. Also, you can breed a male Cubone with a Ditto and get a Cubone clone; the baby will still have its "mother's skull" even though its mother was an invertebrate.
      • It's actually simpler with Dittos: They are shape shifters, so they just transform into a Pokémon of the same type but oppositer. It then simply doesn't transform the skull back to goo after becoming a Cubone. Of course, it'd lose some mass from this.
      • Hey, if Ditto can turn into something that can crush most Pokemon by sitting on them, it can regenerate that mass.
  • I came up with my own theory about that: The skull isn't a skull. In fact, it's not even bone. It's a protective helmet that the mother Cubone/Marowak fashions for its offspring while waiting for the egg to hatch, by mixing its saliva into sand/mud/clay/pebbles/etc. (many real life animal species build their nests out of stuff like that) The mother then places the helmet on the infant's head the instant it comes out of its egg. The "mother's skull" thing was born out of hearsay and misunderstandings.
    • It would have made even more sense if Cubone's skull was like a turtle's shell and was in fact fused to it's face.
      • It would make perfect sense, for it to be some kind of exoskeleton.
  • I came up with the idea that Marowak has an exoskeletal structure around its skull that it sheds when giving birth.
  • Look at those little horns. The mother collects Charizard skulls, because Marowak is just that hardcore.
    • I always thought it was an Aerodactyl skull. So depending on your interpretation, Marowak takes down a fire-breathing dragon that can melt rocks or a stone sky demon with razor-sharp teeth.
      • Aerodactyl are extinct (okay, maybe not anymore, but they were until at least before Red's quest, and Marowak predate him). That would either make it impossible, or they simply dig up fossils, which is far less awesome.
  • My theory: the skull's shape is X gene linked; whatever shape the mother has (or the father's mother, in the Cubone(M)/Ditto case) is what the newborn has.
  • This Troper's personal theory is that the mothers skull helmet is like an exo-skeleton, which she detaches and places on her childs head after birth to protect it until the baby's own skull helmet grows in. After doing this the mother is vulnerable, since she can't protect her head, leading to a lot of dead Marowak, which is where the dead mother thing comes from. If you breed a Cubone, the Skull still comes in eventually, its just takes some time to grow.
  • To combine above theory... Cubone, at birth, get a "skull" made by the mother Marowak, by mixing different materials, because Cubone and Marowak have very soft skulls, which is why Marowak have the skulls. Later, when Cubone evolve, it takes off the first "skull," and grows a real exoskeleton. To sum it up, Cubone's skull is a "booster seat" of a sort, till they don't need it any more.
  • My theory: In the wild, Marowak females have multiple offspring before dying, and the babies compete for her bones. The strongest gets the skull, and the weaker ones have to make do with pelvises or ribcages or whatever. For captive breeding, uh... synthetic materials?
    • (* Cue overly long theorizing in 3...2...1...* ) Perhaps the behavior of Cubone wearing skull helmets was something that was developed and ingrained in members of the species, a couple Pokedex entries mentioned that Marowak used to make do without their bone clubs, so perhaps the skull helmet bit came well after Cubone as a species was present. As for the apparently rampant maternal mortality, uhh... Perhaps Cubone/Marowak make extremely protective mothers and don't feed or sleep as frequently as they should after laying their eggs like some animals in real life (you know, to defend them and keep them from becoming Ekans chow) and dramatically increase their likelihood of succumbing to malnutrition or disease, which would explain why your female Cubone/Marowak doesn't die in the day care (honestly, how long does it take to get an egg and hatch it in the games?). As for where the skulls come from for the offspring of surviving mothers or multiple offspring, erm... they are the skulls of other relatives exhumed from the Marowak graveyards, which would explain why most Cubone seem to suffer from chronic depression. As for captive Cubone, um... they have their skulls created by the poke balls they are stuffed in after hatching.
  • Here's my theory: Marowak mothers tend to die after laying their eggs in the wild, for whatever reason, which is why the cubone's always get the mother's skull. However, in a daycare, they're able to keep the mother from dying when it lays an egg. As for the skulls, maybe the male marowaks all gathered in one place when they died, in case the mother survived, which the mother would instintively be able to find? She could just dig up a skull from there before the egg hatches and put it on the baby's head when it's born.
• Further complicating the matter: when a newborn Kangaskhan hatches from an egg, it already has a child in its pouch.
  • Pokémon don't grow, so it isn't actually a surprise for them to be adult when they rise from the egg. Still, I wonder why after three generations they still haven't made any "Kangaskhid" or something like that yet.
    • This Troper's theory is that they tried but Kangaskid was buggy, leading to 'M (which is why it evolves into Kangaskhan). With a bad taste in their mouth from the 'M bugs, Nintendo decided never to make a baby Kangaskhan.
    • Except for the fact that that's an urban legend that has been around since R/B/Y. Nice try though.
  • Well, Game Freak HAS alluded to growth within different evolutionary stages (e.g. Squirtle's Pokedex entries), they could resolve some of this issue by giving Kangaskhan multiple sprites, e.g. a baby sprite for levels 1-5, an adult sprite for levels >25 and two to four intermediary sprites for everything in between. It would be a neat gimmick and solve a lot of these headaches, but seeing as they couldn't be bothered to create a pre-evo with all of the reference materials they could ever want...
  • Since no pokemon seem able to reproduce asexually, the question is how a Pokémon managed to impregnate the Kangaskhan while it was in the egg. Presumably that thing is just a second head.
    • Problem with that theory: In Pokémon Stadium it crawls out of the pouch and sits on its mother's head during certain attacks.
    • And in Pokemon Ranger, when Kangaskhan uses its beam attack, the baby hides behind the mother.
    • It's probably an underdeveloped parasitic twin; Kangaskhan embryo are formed in pairs, the stronger becoming the 'parent' when it hatched, and the weaker twin becoming the 'baby'.
• Also, newborn ghost-types: stillborn Pokémon?
  • More like "not alive in the first place".
  • Alternatively, they could be gaseous creatures that behave much like normal animals.
    • Gas-types seem more like it, hadn't it been for the walks-through-walls thing.
  • Maybe they're made of some kind of variable-density protoplasm, like Ghostfreak from Ben 10.
  • They're ghosts as a species, not as the spirit of a dead thing.
• And Exeggcute (a group of eggs) hatching from eggs.
  • They are actually seeds.
    • Exeggutors have six heads as well, so are Exeggcutes just heads that have fallen off; and then grows into a new Exeggutor?
      • That's actual canon; it's mentioned in one of Exeggutor's Pokedex entries.
        • And we trust the Pokedex, considering many of the arguments above were started by it.
• And what about Weezing, Dugtrio and Beldum/Metang? When they evolve, they fuse with other Pokémon of the same type. Is it to be assumed that you just find another one somewhere?
  • This is one thing about which I can safely say the Pokedex data is talking bollocks. There is no Fusion in Pokemon, anime or game. Whenever we've seen one of these Pokemon evolve, they just evolve into their higher form without another Pokemon being involved (and you can throw Magnemite into that list, by the by). Even Mantyke evolving to Mantine, which requires you to have a Remoraid in your party, doesn't consume the other Pokemon, despite Mantine's sprite for the first three generations clearly having a Remoraid attached (weirdly, it's Gen IV sprite doesn't have a Remoraid attached, confusing the matter further).
    • On the subject of Magnemite and Magneton, in Pokémon Snap there is an area where there are three Magnemite that you can have fuse together into a Magneton, which might make this even more confusing. (And I'm going with the belief that Snap counts as canon.)
      • Actually Pokemon Snap also shows legendary birds hatching from eggs, so is most likely not canon
    • Maybe it's possible that when they reach the level at which they evolve, they send out some kind of signal that summons other Magnemites/Koffings/Beldums to come and fuse with them.
      • I distinctly remember there being an episode in the anime where a few Magnemites touched together, started glowing, and became a Magneton. It was either in a Grimer-infested Power Plant or in the desert with a herd of Tauros. Both had Magnemites in them.
  • Perhaps they reproduce asexually, and the additional "heads" or whatnot are in fact present within the original Pokemon (in embryonic form) at the moment of evolution.
  • Maybe both work? If we all agree that Magneton > Magnemite anyway, maybe it makes sense for them to team up together and become some kind of... symbiotic robot gang thing?
    • And as usual, Slowpoke is late to this particular party...
  • Also related could be Pokémon that have objects as a part of their character design. This includes Kadabra/Alakazam's spoons, Hypno's penduleum, Farfetch'd's leek, Cubone/Marowak's bone and other "tools".
  • My theory for the combining Pokemon is that Beldum, Magnemite, Koffing, etc. can reproduce in two ways. Sexually, to mix up genes, and asexually, to prepare for evolution. Perhaps this process drains them, and they hide during it in the wild, leading to people to believe that they call others and fuse with them, when really they just don't have all the information. As for Slowpoke, it evolves by being either given a water stone or being traded while holding a Kings Rock. I'm sorry, but that isn't a Shellder. That's a cancerous growth
    • In Pokemon Snap you can see slowpoke evolve into slowbrow by catching shellder on their tails.
    • Maybe it's only wild Beldum, Magnemite, etc. that evolve via bonding. Like a weird social practice. In captivity these pokemon can evolve on their own, but within their own cultures there is a stigma attached to solo evolution. Completely baseless? Probably, but the games seem to be offering no explanation anytime soon.
• Another breeding issue would be egg groups and who is or isn't in them. The most glaring example would probably be the Ralts family. They all look like they belong in the Humanshape breeding group, due to being very human-like, but instead, they're in the Indetermine egg group. Meaning that they breed with blobs and ghost Pokémon.
  • ...maybe they're all Nightmare Fetishists?
    • They may look humanlike, but they don't necessary reproduce like the Humanshapes. For all we know, they have acres of icky ghost tentacles under those skirts.
  • The Humanshape group itself is very odd by including things that are Humanshaped, but not necessarily humanlike at all. Hot Cacturne On Illumise Action, anyone?
• It kind of bothers me how dex entries in Gen III and IV talk about the personalities of certain Pokemon (Gyarados are "angry" for instance), since they now have actual natures. I have a Calm Gyarados and a Jolly Cubone.
  • The dex entries are talking about the species in general, not individual members.
    • How the hell does that make it any better? Describing the species in general (stereotyping species of Pokemon as having specific personalities) is exactly what the OP meant.
  • The worst part is the fact that the pokedex is often very mean. Rhydon is stupid, Croagunk is sneaky, I can't remember the actual entries off the top of my head, but they can be very scathing. Joan Rivers, Pokemon Prof, anyone?
    • Groagunk is described as sneaky for survival. Think of it like how some animals in real life are scavengers: They aren't doing it to be mean, they're doing it because it's their niche in the natural order. And gyarados being angry is much the same as alligators/crocodiles being angry: It's how their brains are developed. Calling a rhydon stupid is mean, though...
  • I have a Calm Primeape. Also, I figure that, for example, a "Jolly" Cubone still wouldn't be the life of the party, but would be fairly Jolly for a Cubone. Like, a neutral level between upbeat and depressed.
• What does the bottom half of Diglett look like?
  • A friend of this troper suggested Diglett's have a pointy bottom, whilst I assumed they were just flat. It's probably for the best that we don't know.
    • I always figured that it was something like this.
    • This Troper prefers this. Dugtrio, but the principle stands.
    • They have feet. That much is certain.
    • The 3D-Incarnations on occasion show that Diglett has no lower body and ends flat when they're subjected to attacks that launch them into the air.
    • The 3D-Incarnations also show Fish Pokémon flying, what I suppose they don't actually do. Anywhat, Digletts have a "Scratch" attack, and are described as "Mole", so they probably have a mole body, probably aligned to their tunnel entrance. Why the hell they never come out, or how Dugtrios come to be, that's probably some huge Gameplay and Story Segregation.
    • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, if you enter a Monster House which includes Diglett or Dugtrio, they drop from the ceiling and you can clearly see that they have no feet. HA!
      • I assume they also have their usual dirt pile with them while falling, meaning that the spriters didn't bother to create separate sprites`?
      • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, the nonviolent NPC Dugtrio refer(s) to having feet, to the surprise of their/his own child. (T)he(y) even say(s) "what do you take us for?!" when asked about it. Presumably, Digletts don't have feet, but Dugtrios do. God only knows how.
        • I'm not sure where you saw that, but a friendly diglett in the first game refers to its feet as well, surprising everyone who hears it. So, that just raises even more questions regarding that particular diglett...
        • This troper once read a fan-fic that proposed that, beneath their cute little heads, they had the vast bodies of an Eldritch Abomination...
          • You mean like this?
  • Extremely coincidental, isn't it, that we have one Pokemon (Diglett) that only shows its face, and another (Cubone) that never shows its face?
    • BOTH Ground-types, at that!
      • ...Has anyone ever seen them in the same room at the same time?
      • Yes. They were fighting.
        • You win, my good troper.
• Water Pokémon in general. How can you fight with them in, for example, a desert (The fishier ones, not partially-land-dwelling ones like Buizel, Vaporeon, Bibarel, etc.)? And how can the smaller ones use Surf, when their trainer is so much bigger? And how can you use the ones you're Surfing on in battles on water?
  • The same logic that applies with small birds being used as transportation with Fly.
    • Which brings up the even more nonsensical fact that even bug/flying types that are bigger than the trainers (Yanmega, in particular) can't learn Fly at all.
  • Or using Golem while surfing.

Golem used Splash. It's a one-hit KO!

• • In the anime you actually can't use many water Pokemon effectively without water present.
  • Simple: you don't necessarily actually ride on the Pokémon when Surfing. You Surf on a piece of driftwood or something and the Pokémon makes the thing stay upright on large waves, rather than forcing submersion into large waves as when it is used as an attack.
  • If you think that's strange, consider that you're still able to ride a Pokemon (via Surf or Fly) when they've fainted.
    • I may be wrong, but I think "fainted" is only what it's called in the English version. In the original Japanese it's just "unable to battle," which is also used in the English dub of the anime.
    • An interesting bit of Fanon gives the pokemon an invisible energy field that protects them from serious damage. When the pokemon's HP runs out, they remain conscious, but the field disappears, and it's illegal to force the pokemon to fight past that point.
  • Don't forget about running from battle by using a Pokemon with the 'Run Away' ability when you're in the middle of the ocean. And no, there exists no water Pokemon with this ability just in case you're rationalizing it that way. Unless Rapidash and Dodrio can run on water, this only serves to make your brain hurt.
    • They're using ninjutsu!
  • Does it bother anyone else at all that ALL water mons can be in any kind of water? Some species have been specifically shown to only appear in oceans or seas, and others in lakes and rivers. Just why don't Polywag shrivel up when in salt water?
    • Because that would be a horrible horrible end for a cute tadpole, and no one would want to see that.
  • On top of all that, you can encounter Entei and Raikou in HgSs... On water. Suicune, I can understand, and even Raikou may just swim instead, but Entei? And before you talk about the impact of the water causing the damage, then tell me how it uses Flamethrower, and how water attacks hurt it (bar Surf and Whirlpool as those have good excuses) when it can just dive under the water to avoid them?
    • This is somewhat explainable by the natural mystique of legendaries; Entei may float slightly above the water due to some unknown power. Also, it is extremely fast, possibly fast enough to run on top of water.
      • Entei also can Run away while asleep. Something like that shouldn't bother you.
• Drowzee and Hypno are both said to be able to NATURALLY eat dreams. They can only learn Dream Eater by TM. Do wild Drowzees/Hypnos find TMs in the wild or what?
  • This is more understandable in the anime, where TM's don't exist and therefore Dream Eater is learned naturally (the anime has pretty much abandoned the Level-up learnset, for that matter, or at least its order).
    • But wasn't there one episode where Ash fights a trainer who uses Persian and it uses Thunderbolt? Even Ash went WTF when he saw that. Try explaining that through the anime's logic.
    • Easy. In the games, Persian learns Thunderbolt by TM (except in Gen II, for some reason), so it's fair game for a Persian to learn it naturally in the anime. The same would apply to any Pokemon; if it learns something by TM in the games, it can learn it naturally in the anime.
      • TMs are sometimes treated like Move Tutors in the anime. The move isn't learnt naturally but can be taught to the Pokémon if the trainer takes the time to do so. The Persian with Thunderbolt is more likely to be this situation than something a Persian can normally obtain.
      • I've always thought of TMs as what they look like: CDs with clear instructions on the forces and muscle controls needed to learn the move. But then there's the problem with CD players...
      • Also, remember: Dream Eater, besides allowing a pokemon to eat dreams, also allows it to deal damage to its opponent. Maybe Hypno and Drowzee can naturally eat dreams without knowing Dream Eater, but don't hurt the pokemon they're feeding off of.
  • Maybe it has become really popular to teach them that move and the ability is getting into the wild populations via runaways and strays. * Shrugs*
  • In the anime, the equivalent of TMs is when stubborn trainers like Ash try to teach an attack to their pokemon that they didn't even know if it was going to work at the start, but worked. Like Pikachu's Iron Tail, or Grovyle's Bullet Seed.
    • Actually, IIRC, Pikachu learned Iron Tail after a lecture and some coaching from a guy who had a pokemon that knew it, which follows with the anime Move Tutors = TMs theory.
• Two questions. Firstly, why is it that the "tuber" trainers (and possibly others, like bug catchers) are clearly younger than you, when you are supposedly 10 (the starting age)?
  • We've seen under-10's with Pokemon in the anime too. Maybe 10 is actually the age when someone can go on a journey?
  • From what This Troper knows, it's a generally-accepted theory that children under ten can own Pokemon, but one must be 10 or older to participate in Pokemon League-sanctioned events such as tournaments and Gym Leader battles.
  • Wait. What if by the time you are 10, you literaly have to go? I mean, I don´t think there is a law, or something, but it could be something like "11 and living with his mother". I´m pretty sure the anime has already Jossed me, though.
• The Pokedex says that Zangoose and Seviper are mortal enemies. Why, then, can they breed?
  • Foe Yay.
    • You win.
  • Rape?
  • I personally think that it's a case of My Species Doth Protest Too Much. I mean, they can work together just fine in double battles...
  • When you raise a cat and a dog at the same time they get along pretty well, too. Since you and the daycare are raising your Pokémon, it is safe to assume that they can get along if they are raised to do so. Pokéball brainwashing may help.
• How do the Jennys and Joys all look the same? Do they get surgery to make them look the same? Do they reproduce asexually? Are they all Ditto? Or do they kill their kids when they don't look exactly like them?
  • See WMG/Pokémon

• Eggs. It bugs me that every, and I say every species of Pokémon, no matter if it's a bug, a reptile, a mammal, a plant or a frikking machine, it lays eggs. Any possible explanation?
  • To save on cart memory, presumably. In universe, it's probably a compatibility thing, to allow the various Pokemon types to interbreed.
  • I always thought of Pokemon as a unique species on their own, just with different variations. It's like how all dogs could interbreed, even though there are tons of different types of dogs.
    • Dude, you're including turtles, butterflies, palm trees, cows, goldfish, robots, jellyfish, pidgeons, beavers, cacti, stones, bagworms and whatnot in the same species... I know the concept of "species" and "variety" is subjective, but what kind of biologist in sane conscience would classify, say, a Chikorita and a Cyndaquil in the same species? Then again, the answer may be: "there are no biologists on Poké-Verse". Yeah, that'd answer pretty much...
      • The manga based on the anime says explicitly that all Pokemon are indeed one species, and that all of the different varieties (no matter how different they look) are sub-species. However, how canonical this is with anything else is unknown.
        • Yeah, if Pokemon are all one species, they are something way far away from normal biology. After all, the creator of the fucking UNIVERSE is a Pokemon!! And there's a whole subspecies (looking at you, Unown) comprised of Eldritch Abominations.
      • I think it's more along the lines of "this Pokemon looks like a turtle" than "this Pokemon is a turtle." I don't think Pokemon are even members of the animal kingdom—they're some entirely different form of life. So it's natural for them to hatch from eggs and be able to breed across subspecies.
        • Now that you mention it, they do mate anyway. Still, cows laying eggs is just... weird.
      • Pokemon breed with each other to produce fertile offspring. They are a single species by definition.
        • Addendum: except for legendaries. Most of them don't produce offspring, and Manaphy produces unfertile offspring. Check WMG. ;)
  • Never confirmed. They always state that it is unknown where the eggs come from, and only assumed that the Pokemon laid them. So perhaps they don't actually lay the eggs so much as wish upon a Jirachi for a child, which is then brought by a Pelipper.
    • The uncertainty, at least, is confirmed in Diamond. One of the NPCs in Solaceon says that nobody has ever seen a Pokémon actually lay an egg, and that there is still no proof that they do. That just raises further questions, of course.
    • In HGSS, if you have a special Arceus you can trigger an in-game Event where you choose one of the DPPt Legends, and it creates a brand new egg for you, but only after a very...bizarre sequence including images of real-life things. Apparently it's canon that this is how EVERY egg comes to be.
      • ...or maybe that's only the case for that special egg coming from a deity, that will hatch into a deity? I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but I couldn't read the Japanese text... =/
  • To confuse issues, there's quite a few Pokedex entries, even after breeding was introduced, that strongly imply mammalian-type births, or even exotic non-egg births. Seems even the creators treat it as just a gameplay mechanic simplification.
    • Could just be that in the wild, the process is hurried along for some species, leading to live births, while in captivity, they can afford the extra development time and lay an egg instead? Although in the end, what it really boils down to is G-Rated Sex
• And BTW, what's with the plant Pokémon? I mean, there are no real animals, and there are Pokémon counterparts for them. So why do real plants co-exist with plant Pokémon? And while we're at it, what'd the deal with fish, too?
  • Someone answered this already; normal animals exist and are rarer.
    • Why would normal animals exist, though? Most of their niches and roles are already filled by Pokemon. And don't bring up the classifications; it's most likely a scientific name, common name, original name predating classification, or some other thing. I don't remember fish, either.
• So, any actual(i.e., in-show/game) reason to why Pokémon can't be kept outside their Pokéballs? Strangely, to a show that works upon trust and friendship aesops, keeping your said friends in vacuum sealed receptacles several times smaller than themselves isn't the best example I've ever seen...
  • Let's see. They're designed to be comfortable. There's a definite advantage to being able to hold an injured Pokémon in a Pokéballs to reduce the amount of pain and risk of aggravating injuries, not to mention how it seems to counteract certain status ailments. Even outside of those circumstances, it seems that trainers spend a lot of time walking long distances, and not forcing smaller or slower creatures to keep up on foot if it isn't necessary is appealing. Your Fly-equipped Staraptor will be relieved to know that it won't have to carry your Steelix, and the same goes for any Surfers.
  • That said, there's a definite IJBM in the idea that Pokémon shouldn't be allowed to travel free, but I've seen very few trainers with that absolute mindset. And most Pokéball-wielding trainers on the show find opportunities to let their Pokémon run around freely. As with most of the training habits in the series, it really depends on the trainer's judgment, and there are times when it's good and times when it's bad.
    • This does not explain why Ash and friends thought it was a good idea to let their Pokémon run around as soon as they got to a desert. They were lucky that the worst consequence was hot squirrel inside hippo action.
  • And before I forget, it was only the fourth episode of the series when Ash was accused of neglecting his Metapod by not recalling it as soon as it was threatened by Beedrills. And the third episode where he was criticized for not letting his Pidgeotto rest after a battle.
  • Yellow has the Pikachu out of a ball until it's fainted. Heart Gold and Soul Silver will have some feature that lets the Pokémon be outside the balls. I think mainly it's just convenience.
• Prinplup, a penguin with normal flippers, learns Metal Claw. Discuss.
  • Talon-feet and good enough balance to stand on one foot for a bit.
    • Perhaps it's just that mine is nicknamed SKIPPER, but kung fu moves. Hai-YA! (Kicks enemy in face with metal talons)
  • There's also those blades on the ends of its wings. Prinplup's Pokedex data seems to suggest that that's what it uses.
    • The above is the correct answer. Prinplup eventually evolves into Empoleon, who's an Emperor Penguin with freakin' steel blades for wings. As Prinplup gets older- and thus, closer to evolving- it learns how to handle and manipulate the already-growing metal ends. Thusly, Steel Claw.
• Is there really any logic behind where pokemon live? There's ponytas in areas where it perpetually rains.
  • Some thought does seem to be put into Pokémon placement. (See the habitat section of the Pokédex in FireRed and LeafGreen.) As for that case, I assume this is just a gameplay limitation. It can't be raining there and perfect weather everywhere else all the time. Though why a Ponyta would be out in the rain...
  • The rain areas in D/P cycle to different routes every day, so it's not perputal rain like in R/S/E.
• Aron a Pokemon with no tail can learn Iron Tail. How?
  • Vestigial tail, maybe? His evolutions do have tails...
  • Same way that Gen-I allowed you to teach a Nidorina Oversized Forehead Drill Horn Drill. (Nidoran female does have a horn, hence the ability. This went away when Horn Drill ceased to be a TM.)
    • Horn Drill doesn't alter the size of the horn, it just spins it. One of Misty's sisters had a Seaking use Horn Drill on Jessie's Arbok once. It stabbed Arbok with a spinning horn, but the attack failed to One-Hit KO.
  • While we're on that evolutionary line, how can Aggron use Aerial Ace? Aggron doesn't have wings, isn't Flying type, and oh yeah it weighs eight hundred pounds.
    • Apparently, it is actually based on a sword move that involves attacking like a bird in some way. So the Pokemon doesn't take off at all, but merely slashes, trying to imitate a bird
• In the games, it is possible to breed the child with the parent, siblings with siblings, etc. You would think that this would cause degrading in the Pokemon stats or something, but its nature and stats are still random. On the other hand, this would explain why none of the Pokemon ever change in appearance and the relatively small number of species considering Pokemon make up the entirety of the Pokemon world's ecosystem aside from trees and humans. So why is it that people consider making animals fight each other for sport and 10 year olds leaving their homes without parental supervision the weirdest parts of Pokemon?
  • Actually, family in-breeding is one of the most used methods to create smaller breeds on dogs. So the Poodle Toy is the result of generations and generations of son-mother and brother-sister breeding of Poodle Standards. And I think I may never want to know how the hell the Dachshund got their atrophiated legs... And with this I mean that, actually, this isn't uncommon in Real Life either.
• If it is possible to bring Pokemon back to life from fossils, doesn't this mean that they've gained a method for immortality? I hardly think that it is more difficult to bring back a pokemon from fossilized remains than it is to reanimate a newly deceased corpse.
  • We don't know that it's the same Poke, mentally speaking. It could easily be a clone. The reason nobody bothers with the recently deceased is that unless we're dealing with a particularly rare one, the result might not be the same being, and (if a clone) might actually have less personality than one of the same level caught in the wild.
  • And while we're at it, Pokemon do actually die? Mostly we see them "fainting", and I don't recall none of them actually dying in the anime or movies. At most, they convert in energy and fly away. As the whole "pokemon from fossil" stuff is game-only, we may conclude that, yes, they can revive the pokemon off-screen. Cool eh?
    • And yet there are Pokemon graveyards in two of the games. Seems like they do die, we just never get to see it.
      • Yes, they die. They just have very long lifespans, longer than that of a human. Darkrai mistook Alice for Alicia, who he met when she was a little girl, remember?
        • Absol only lives for 100 years, and that is considered long lived. A long lived human also lives for 100 years. This means, on average, that a Pokemon doesn't live as long as a human. Only ones whose life spans are described are Absol and Wartortle (Wartortle can apparently live for 10,000 years. Of course, even the Pokedex explains that this is legend). Darkrai, well, it would be believable that a ghostly dark type Pokemon could live for centuries. Anyways, don't forget that the character doesn't age, so why would we ever see a Pokemon die of old age? And if a Pokemon is badly hurt and can no longer battle, well then, what idiot would keep it out of its ball unless necessary (e.g. you're surfing and you don't want to drown due to being miles away from the nearest town with a Pokemon Center)?
    • See every cloning-gone-wrong story ever.
      • Be fair. Despite early difficulties, Mewtwo's feeling better now. Maybe it's for the best that he got his great insanity out of the way quickly.
    • It seems to be more same species than same individual, as the same fossil can give different stats and personalities.
      • Though I agree with the species-over-individual thing, I think that's just the result of Save Scumming, since fossils start as items, not pre-programmed eggs.
      • So if you died and they used a fossil machine to resurrect you, it would be closer to real-world cloning and produce a baby that was genetically similar but potentially very, very different in every other way.
      • I second the previous two commenters. It is more like cloning from remaining DNA than reanimating a corpse.
        • It is cloning, likely from the same project that created Mewtwo. You didn't think they were both on Cinnabar for nothing, of course? However, it is not an altered clone, and they've found some workaround for that problem that caused all clones to die before birth in the movie, at least for Pokémon.
• Why is "Pokemon" pronounced "Poh-kay-mon"(long o like coke, long e like day) if it's short for Pocket Monsters? Surely that would be "Pohkeit Monsters"? And while I'm at it, why is "Charizard" pronounced "Char-ee-zahd" when it comes from the word "lizard"? Shouldn't it be "Char-iz-ad"?
  • On your first question: It doesn't sound like it's short for Pocket Monsters because it's not short for Pocket Monsters. It stands for Poketto Monsutaa, which I am fairly sure is what Pokemon is referred to in Japan. Also, I always pronounced Charizard like it sounded: "Char is zard."
    • Poketto Monsutaa is the Japanese attempt at saying Pocket Monsters, due to Japanese not really handling syllables that end in most consonants. Pocket Monsters would have been used, but apparently would have caused trademarking problems with Monster in My Pocket, so Nintendo settled on using the shortened version of the name which is also used in Japan, with the "Poké" coming from pocket and the "Mon" being derived from Monsters. The accent over the e there is what makes it pronounced the way it is. WHY they decided to put an accent there when coming up with the name? Thats a different question and one I don't know.
    • Viewers are Morons: without the accent it's "poke mon".
      • Sadly, the accent hasn't stopped people (even the voice actors in the dubs) from pronouncing it as "Pokeymon".
  • To the first: It's pronounced Poh-Keh-Mon, I believe. To the second: Rhymes with "hard", duh.
  • For Charizard: Japanese standard on pronuciation, I suppose?
    • It'd be for Pokémon, not for Charizard. Charizard's pronounciation relies more on Rule of Cool, as it sounds more like a monstrous and awesome name than in the "proper" way.
  • Doubtful: Charizard's Japanese name is different: Lizardon.
• So do the different regions in Pokémon just not talk to each other? It seems funny how they're always "discovering" new Pokémon. "Is that a Bulbasaur? Good golly, Miss Molly, I've never seen one of those. I'm from Hoenn, you see. Why no, it never occurred to me to crack open a book. You see--dramatic chord--I can't read!"
  • R/S/E and R/B/Y/FR/LG all take place around the same time, why no one has documented Pokémon before is anyone's guess. Doubly so for G/S/C/HG/SS and D/P/P.
  • That's some weird point, indeed. User:Pro-Mole supposes that the many main character's task is exactly to help publish Pokemon studies, what leads to questions like "why the hemk didn't they simply write on books?!".
  • People in this world consider ten a good age to someone to quit school and leave their home. They clearly have a terrible educational system.
    • Or a very, very good education system.
• What exactly the PokéDex does anyway? Apparently it already has all the info on Pokémon, and only requires you to capture them so, I don't know, it can have a picture to illustrate, but I know it can't be only that, so what?
  • A possibility is that it's a wireless-internet-accessing PDA, so it acquires information on the individual pokemon in question, adding it to a database and downloading the general information on the species. This would also explain continued education; Trainer's Leave is simply an indefinite state of handling one's education over the internet. The reason it's never shown being used for that is simply because homework is boring.
  • It already has the info??? From what I remember, it analyzed the Pokemon when captured to create the entry. Which doesn't explain why you can't just find one, analyze it, and run, but still...
    • Being it so, how does it produce all that information? How can it say, so accurately, that Raticate slows down when its whiskers are cut?
      • What makes you think it's accurate?
        • It would kill the point of capturing Pokémon to complete it completely. Why would the hero be catching Pokémon, sometimes risking his life (ever seen the size of Dialga? Or fighting sea dragons is a completely harmless sport now?) if the whole thing is utter bulshit?
        • The pokemon has to be analysed by the pokedex through the conduit of the pokeball, that is why you have to catch them and you can't just sneak up in the bushes and aim the pokedex at them. It obviously uses some kind of sub atomic analysis method only possible when the pokemon is de-materialised or de-atomised or whatever happens to them when they are put in a pokeball.
        • Now what makes you think the Player Character knows that?
        • In the anime, the creator of the pokedex admits to making much of it up.
  • Varies between the games, anime, and other media.
  • The PokéDex records data, shows stats as approximately as possible within the Pokeverse, sends the actual attacks through brainwaves or some other form of randomness (Bill made it, mmkay?), cancels evolution through the same way as commanding the Mons, records your collected trophies beasts, and finally, it acts as a license for the status of "Official Pokemon Trainer", since the term is interchange with "PokéDex Holder." Does that answer the question?
    • If the pokedex is as powerful as some of the media make it out to be (e.g. be able to analyze pokemon and record data such as their height, weight, habitat, act as a router to the PC system, exercise control over your Mons, etc.), then why on earth can't it run rudimentary apps such as a 10-digit calculator and coin flip program (seriously, you're losing in versatility to a freaking watch?), considering all of the programs people can run on considerably less impressive graphing calculators in real life?
• While I do agree dragons, dinosaurs and stuff are bound to be rare Pokémon, I can't understand why some starters—such as Squirtle, Cyndaquil and Torchic—are supposed to be unique at all. I mean... the game already forces player interaction by having at least four Pokémon version-only in each generation, two in each version; and even massively strong Pokémon's baby forms—Dratini, Larvitar, Bagon and Gabite—are catchable, so why not letting the trainer find some starters at least after the end of the game?
  • They seem to be immensely rare pokemon, like Lapras. For some reason, stronger pokemon tend to be a lot rarer. Professor Oak says that they were just caught in the wild. By the next game, more people have found them, but evidently, they are incredibly uncommon. Presumably, they don't breed that well, and as such, if you killed all the ones you met in the wild they would quickly become extinct.
  • Are they rare? I just thought the fact that they didn't appear in the wild was a game mechanic.
    • Exactly. Why not? You've already captured/evolved/traded a hell lot of poké, just let the player get a starter or two, damn it!
      • Maybe their wild populations were decimated by over-catching by the resident humans, similar to what is happening to macaws in real life. When you live in a world where any animal can be caught by a softball-sized contraption that sells for the price of a higher-end soft drink, it seems logical that every 12-year old and his/her parents is going to gravitate towards catching the adorable, Fun Size mons that turn into among other things fire-breathing dragons, 8-foot tall bipedal alligators, and two flavors of flaming martial artists. As for why you can't find any in the wild anymore: all of the easy pickings are in someone's PC, what's left of the wild starter populations is concentrated in remote corners of the respective region you are in (i.e. all of the blank space outside of the accessible areas of the game map).
  • Apparently they come from special breeders. (You can encounter other people with starters in things like the Battle Tents and Frontier in Emerald, or simple random trainers in 4th generation. Tragically, you cannot steal any of these, and in the Tent/Frontier, they're not even logged in your Pokedex for some reason.) But yeah, there should be some point in (say) 5th generation where you can help out one of these breeder installations and be given a baby Bulbasaur or a Cyndaquil egg.
    • In HG/SS, after completing the game, you can get a 1st gen starter and a 3rd gen starter, so...
    • HG/SS also has the event Pokewalker course "Shopping" which allows you to catch wild Torchic, which seems to suggest that Game Freak are slowly working towards having more starters available.
  • This troper has the belief that the starters are imported from regions that haven't been seen in the games.
  • They are fairly common Pokemon, it's just that the game doesn't want you to get them all without trading.
• So the Pokemon universe has clearly mastered the ability to transport both organic and inorganic matter across vast distances instantaneously. Why are there still cars? Why are there still transportation vehicles? Why aren't there teleporters everywhere? Outside of trainers who need to walk around looking for Pokemon and other people who work in nature. It can't be that hard to teleport things, it happens to countless Pokemon everyday.
  • Giovanni bought them all for one of his hideouts.
  • Maybe Pokemon aren't organic at all. Or maybe their configuration allows them to be teleported, while a human's don't. I, at least, don't remember humans being teleported by technological means in any moment.
    • Sabrina's Gym, Aqua Hideout, Liza and Tate's Gym, Silph Co...
  • Funny, in the games I don't think I've seen barely any cars at all... though you can still transport inanimate objects through computers all the time. Maybe teleporters for humans are expensive and rare, and Team Rocket/Galactic keeps stealing em.
    • There's that one truck that Mew is totally hiding under, and then the truck your character starts out in in Ruby/Sapphire.
    • Colosseum and XD also had some cars.
  • Maybe people just like the scenery. Sortof like in one Asimov short story, "It's Such A Beautiful Day," which involves a society that uses teleporters to go everywhere, until one day one breaks down and a boy has to actually walk to school, but then discovers he likes walking.
  • Maybe it's illegal to teleport humans as part of a government health initiative.
    • That sort of makes sense given that Bill's attempt to teleport himself accidentally turned him into a Pokemon. But then there are teleporters in gyms that you use...
      • Except that Gym teleporters are driven through the trainers psychic powers, at least in Sabrina's case. In other cases, it's possibly psychic pokemons.
  • Items and Pokémon both seem to be stored in balls when not in use. (You find the items in the balls already.) For humans to be teleported this way, they would also have to be put in Storage Balls. I assume that this did not make money, and the service was canceled. The banned episode with Porygon and the seizures dealt with another means of teleportation: direct portals to cyberspace. It turned out to be a bad idea, and cyberspace explosions gave people seizures. Team Rocket still technically has the Porygon Zero from that episode, although it was mostly forgotten; it was one of the three PokéBalls that floated away from them in the episode with the Farfetch'd, which happened before Jessie got Lickitung, despite the dubbers' attempts to cover it up as Lickitung.
    • Pikachu's electric attack was responsible for the seizures; that could very well have happened in any other episode. The idea of human transport was never brought up again, presumably for the same reason Porygon wasn't, which still escapes this troper. Not to mention, all of Dr. Akihabara's (the creator of the project) work was destroyed at the end of the episode, and it would probably take years to do it all over. Judging by the ages of the characters, time just plain doesn't pass in the anime, but then again...
      • Not quite true. It's stated directly when Ash gets back to Viridian something along the lines of "Wow, I can't believe it's already been a year since I was in Viridian last time..." ...Then again. He is, also canonically, still ten years old. ...So Yeah.
  • Possibly, teleporters are too short-ranged/must be directly connected via wires to be efficient other than as a gym puzzle or for navigation through a large building.
• In the RBY (and Fire Red/Leaf Green I suppose) games, you encounter Gary in Silph Co., literally one room away from Giovanni. You needed to have a Card Key to get that far, so why didn't he go and whack the Pokecrap out of Giovanni himself? He even mentions Giovanni after you beat him, so it wasn't like he simply didn't know (unless he's blind and didn't notice the hundreds of Grunts and whimpering employees). Same goes for when you're in Pokemon Tower along with the possessed nuns and Rockets. Does he simply not care?
  • Considering his general attitude (stuck-up and all), yeah, he probably doesn't.
    • The jackass...
• WHY has no one mentioned the Magic Ledge of No-Passing? Somehow you can own an incredibly big and strong Pokemon (such as Onix or a legendary) but still can't climb up a ledge that you can easily bike down. If you can bike down the ledge, it can't be more than one floor high, or else you'd get hurt. Somehow, the more-than-five-story-tall "big" Pokemon in the game can't just lift you up and push you onto the top of the ledge. That would save you a ton of time throughout the whole game. Why can't you pass over a small ledge when you possess towering Pokemon more than 15 feet tall?
  • Sigh... this is one of the most know Acceptable Breaks From Reality in games, though I couldn't find the trope by name. By that logic, Rock Climb should never be necessary, either, if you have three Onix in your party.
    • You're looking for Insurmountable Waist High Fence.
  • Keep in mind that you can also ride a bicycle full speed into a wall or another person without anyone getting harmed, also. Hell, your bike is so magical it will just ride in place if you try to ride straight into the water.
• This has always bugged me about the Pokemon universe: Pokemon evolve. Some can evolve just from experience, but others need rare items, conditions, or actions to initiate the change—for example, being traded. My question is, how do some Pokemon evolve in the wild like this, as you encounter them in random encounters? You honestly can't tell me that they just stumble across the item they need. While I can't think of any particular example in the main series, it's pretty blatantly a problem in Mystery Dungeon, which even requires that Pokemon go to a special place in order to initiate the change... you can't tell me that all the Pokemon in the world who ever evolved went there!
  • Hm, this one's gotta be divided in topics. But before that, PMD is another world entirely, where humans don't exist. In the "normal" games, they simply evolve anywhere.

1. 1. Level up: trivial, here just for the sake it;
   2. Item: Magbys, Elekids and Happinys(and I believe the rest, too) actually carry the item they need to evolve(5 or 50% chance, I heard), so it is possible that, yes, they simply stumble upon them. And while we're at it...
   3. Evolution stone: These rocks must come from somewhere, and D/P says you can mine them, so the answer is simple: Pokémon sometimes dig those up and touch them, and thus evolve. See also the Cleafairy episode in the anime's first season.
   4. Condition: If it's happiness, it's even simpler in the wild. If it's with a move... mostly the move is learned naturally by the Pokémon, so they jsut gotta learn it through leveling up(i.e., growing) and then level up once more.
   5. Trade: Well... okay, this one got me, too. Not even Pokémon Special addresses this properly so... anyone got a hint?

• • • In general, you can't fight Pokemon only available by trade in the wild. The only exception is Steelix in DP. So um...Steelix are special? I dunno.
      • Gengar, too, even though it's Dual-Slot(on D/P, that is). Steelix could be a special case of "holding item evolution", and I think in the series a Slowpoke evolved into a Slowking just by touching a King's Rock. That still doesn't solve the problem for "just trade" Pokémon.
      • They could have escaped after a trade, or worse. Or the 'Link Cables' from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon could be out there... somewhere...
    • Why does trading Pokemon to evolve it make sense in the first place? It's not like anyone in the anime even HAS a Nintendo hand-held (the idea that that's how it works for in-cart transfers is silly enough).
      • Not much thing in Pokémon doesn't make sense, eh?... Nonetheless, the Pokémon Special manga does address the issue(Green's Machoke evolves after he and Red accidentally end up with each other's pokéballs); I just said "not properly", because there are way too many Gengars for all of them be traded.
      • The mysteries of trade-based evolution occuring in the wild just might be answered by in-game Pokedex entries and biological information from other sources, which often give the "canon" info on how they would evolve like that in the wild. Such as, in the wild, Onix evolve into Steelix after living over a hundred years and the pressure of life underground hardening its body to diamond-like metal. And that Slowpoke evolve to Slowking if the Shellder they normally fish for to fusion-evolve into Slowbro happens to clamp onto its head instead of its tail. I presume that these Pokemon actually have several ways of evolving into the same resulting form, the first a "natural", time-consuming biological process you never actually see in the games (only read about in the Pokedex) because it's what's been happening with those wild Pokemon before you ever encounter them face-to-face, and the second a far quicker man-made instant evolution process that man had discovered for themselves apparently by tinkering with the official trading process in regards to specific hold items...
      • Could be that radiation from the trading machine is just enough to stimulate the Pokemon being traded into evolving.
    • Possibly, pure trade evolutions normally occur naturally, but the game just wants you to trade, or, as previously stated, the effects of trading simply trigger this evolution anyway. As for item-related trades, I assume the Pokemon just needs the item to evolve, like a stone, with the trading there just to provide an easy trigger for it gameplay-wise. It's the same way happiness and location evolutions require a level-up to be triggered.
• Of all oddities regarding Pokémon species and biology(of non-legendaries, bear in mind), Porygon sure hits the borderline. It's apparently a software Pokémon, and yet you can find it roaming a garden in D/P. Not only that, in Pokémon Snap, they appeared in the wild, and not less than three fot them! I can easily disregard Snap as non-canon, bit for the other case... how?!
  • The entire Pokémon world is a simulation that came into existence the moment Red woke up.
    • That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!
      • Okay, now User:Pro-Mole is utterly confused... O_o
  • It's possible they simply bio-emerged.
    • They're not there naturally. Mr. Backlot's butler places them there to cover up for his lies about the pokemon in his garden.
  • It's simple, when Porygon was upgraded to Proygon-2 in G/S, two things happened. First, a bug entered the system causing Porygon to begin to emulate biological lifeforms. Second, Proygon passed the technology inteligence threshold, essentially becoming smart enough to creat something smarter than itself. This allowed Porygon-2 to alter its own structure. Since Proygon-2 now had the drive to emulate biological life, its altered itself to allow mating. This alteration was spread throughout the web, which Porygon use as a semi hive mind, allowing other Porygon-2 to alter themselves as well. These Porygon-2 began breeding like other Pokemon, resluting in wild Porygon, which Porygon-2 still considers its base form, that also posses some of the alterations done to Porygon-2, which also allows them to breed. Porygon-Z was created when an attempted fix to this problem reacted badly and altered the evolution inhibitor, which prevented Porygon-2 from altering its own structure too drastically. (i.e. creating a new evolution) The result was Porygon-Z. There, simple
  • Porygon can enter the real world by the same method Pokemon are transferred out of PCs and Pokeballs - they just start off as data rather than starting off as real.
  • Possibly, several Porygons were released into the wild to study how they react to the wild and how the wild reacts to their presence. Or, possibly, to "complete" the create-a-lifelike-Pokemon goal by making them as close to a naturally-occuring Pokemon as they can.
  • It's highly implied that the owner of that garden is a liar. It's also highly implied that his butler covers up for these lies. Notice how Porygon will only appear in the garden after he claims there to be Porygons inhabiting it.

• Why would Pokémon, in universe, call out their own "names"? Thats like calling a cat a Meow and an elephant a BRRRRRIIIIIII because of the sounds they make. The above IJBM offers one explanation, but then you come along to some Pokémon who actually DO roar! Why were they called Rhydon and Charizard?!
  • That's actually Truth in Television. In Japan there is a species of cicada called "Tsuru Tsuru Boushi". The sound it makes sounds like "tsuru tsuru boushi". There are probably more examples.
  • Pokémon just happen to have cries that sound like relevant portmanteaus?
• Every Pokémon that can learn TMs can learn Toxic. Even Pokémon who wouldn't learn any other poison move. Why?
  • Guess the game makers just really liked that move. And it's not that bizarre that non-poison types can learn it. Hitmochan can learn Fire, Ice and Lightning Punch, but it can't learn any other Fire, Ice or Lightning moves.
    • In that case, they are punch moves, it makes sense for Hitmonchan(even though it'd make even more sense if he was called Hitmontyson...). I can't imagine a Pikachu throwing a highly toxic glob of poison in its enemies...
    • I was always under the impression that pikachu WAS a highly toxic glob of poison.
  • I think the high distribution of Grass Knot and Shock Wave is stranger.
• This came up in discussion with a few friends. Aren't all the characters in the games ten years old? And yet every single time, when you tell your mother you're leaving, she's fine with it? This is even worse when you're a girl character if you think about it...
  • Why is it specifically worse for a girl? Well at any rate, it's not just the main character, ten years old is apparently considered the legal age for leaving home in the Pokémon world. Presumably, they just have a more efficient education system and don't need to stay in school as long.
    • Worse for girls due to the fact that girls are...and I say this at the risk of being called a sexist, physically weaker than males, and if someone wanted to kidnap/rape/other such things them, they'd have an easy time with it.
      • Except there still isn't much of a noticeable strength difference at that age.
        • Plus you know, girls hit puberty earlier and are actually larger then boys until they go though it. Setting aside which, the worlds strongest ten year old won't be able to do jack against even a fairly weak adult, making the distinction meaningless.
      • Ah, Pokemon - the great equalizer. If someone wants to rape them, they'd first need stronger Pokemon; try to rape someone with a fire breathing medieval dragon,a mini-godzilla,a fire breathing chinese dragon,bruce lee,a hadoken chucking metal werewolf,and destroyah in conviently place balls on their waist. It will NOT end well. And if they do have stronger Pokemon, being a boy isn't going to help you resist being raped.
        • Raping someone with a Charizard? I'm almost certain there's a fanfic along those lines.
          • This troper's seen it more than once. By accident of course...
    • If you don't know why girls were specified, take a good look at the official art for all the girls. See a pattern? None of them wear pants or skirts going beyond mid-thigh. It's practically rape-bait.
      • Even without the skimpy outfits, aren't females more often targeted for violent crime anyway?
• I cannot think of any females in the games who wear pants. The best I can come up with is shorts for bikers and the G/S/C heroine and the catsuit-type-thing Ace has going on. Not sure about the P/D Rangers, but I'm pretty sure they have shorts, too. Every single other female human appearing in the games apparently wears skirts.
  • This troper approves.
  • This troper is outraged, outraged I say, that the above troper could forget about Flannery.
  • Are you kidding? They like skirts because they're delightfully comfy and easy to wear!
  • How do you know that they're not wearing shorts underneath?
  • In a recent episode, the gang recieved a package of what was revealed to be snow-weather clothing. Guess what Dawn is still wearing? A FREAKIN' MINI-SKIRT. There's fanservice, but that's just taking one for the team.
    • They often are wearing shorts. Hip Japaneses kids love to layer, have you learned nothing from Gwen Stefani?
  • Um, Misty, Sabrina, Kris, Kotone, Whitney, Clair, Karen, Janine, May, Flannery, Winona, Liza, Lucy, Anabel, Greta, Shelly, Gardenia, Maylene, Cynthia, Argenta, Dahlia, Mira, AND Jupiter all wear some kind of pants. I'm not sure how you managed to miss over half the major female characters in this series, but you did.
    • Jupiter? Kotone? What they wear does not count as pants! Where I come from 'pants' implies covering all leg above the knee, at least. 'Pants' and 'short shorts' are very different things.
      • Shorts are "some kind of pants". And you specficially mentioned shorts.
  • I think it's a Japanese culture kind of thing. Japan, from what I've heard, is behind the West in feminism.
  • Uh, did it ever occur to you all that 1) Pokémon is based more on Japan's culture and 2) maybe they LIKE to wear skirts? I know plenty of girls that love wearing skirts.

• Why do the Legendary Pokemon get stronger and stronger every new game? First series had a genetically engineeried monstrosity and it's original source, a Pokemon that can learn EVERY MOVE EVER, second series had a Pokemon that travels through time, third series has not only golems and two Pokemon that shape the Earth, but a Pokemon that is DNA, and in the forth one, we have GOD. What next, Sentient armadas of spaceships? Pokemon that disguise themselves as buildings? A living STAR?!?
  • "Pokemon! More than meets the eye! Pokemon! Monsters in disguise!"
  • Let's hope so.
  • For the last, it already happened. Okay, it's not an actual giant ball of gas burning millions of miles away, but you get the picture.
    • They'll probably retcon Arceus into something lesser than a god, or make some lesser Legandary that's just so cool that nobody cares about how it's a step down. However, I have a particularly disturbing thought about catching legendaries. Isn't it kind of irresponsible of the trainer to catch Pokémon like the Lake Trio, Dialga/Palkia, the Birds, and especially Arceus? Does nobody stop to think that maybe it's a bad idea to put those Pokémon in the balls or on the computer when they have very important work to do, such as keeping spacetime, emotions, and the elements under control?
    • ..."Millions of miles away"?
      • About 93 million miles away! That's why it looks so small!
        • Yeah, but there's only one star that close. The next closest is 2.4 * 10 ^ 13 (93 is 9.3* 10^7). Since "star" is generally used to refer to the ones outside our solar system, we can take that as a minimum. More likely, it is even farther out than that.
          • Technically, that's still millions. It's just a whole lot of them.
  • I find it rather depressing that no one has considered local pantheism as a simple explanation for why this can work. Consider: in D/P/Pt the events of the Spear Pillar incident are seen throughout Sinnoh. And nowhere else. In R/S/E the Sootopolis fiasco's repercussions are felt, if I recall correctly, throughout Hoenn. Nowhere else. The only legendaries who show up in multiple regions all have distinct excuses (Kanto being right next door to Johto in the case of Entei, Raikou and Suicune in Fire Red/Leaf Green, Sinnoh being presumably within flying distance in the case of Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres in Platinum). Or does the entirety of the fandom honestly believe that Sinnoh Is The Center Of The Universe?
    • Groudon and Kyogre created the land and the sea, but only in Hoenn? Dialga and Palkia created time and space, but only in Sinnoh? We're talking about concepts that exist worldwide, and the only real way to justify local pantheism in Real Life is to claim that other religions are wrong. Unless the Teams of each game found out that their legendaries of choice were incapable of doing the things they wanted...
      • Maybe it's a case of misleading pantheism due to the fact that they're so-called legendaries(and they look fucking awesome). As far as I know(no, never been to Hoenn, indeed), the Teams never succeeded, so they didn't actually find out that they are indeed, incapable of the things they're accounted to do. After all, My Dialga can't stop time and crush the enemy team to a pulp while time is stopped... okay, jokes aside, the Pokédex says that the back of Shedinja's shell will suck one's soul into it. When the Pokémon fights with its back directly towards you. Get my picture? Simply putting, local pantheism is still a valid alternative.
        • This troper vaguely remembers reading somewhere that containing Pokemon in Pokeballs (Or at least the legendary Sinnoh trio) limits how much of their power is used. That's why Cyrus was so intent on using the Red Chain to control them.
  • They haven't really gotten stronger and stronger. Mewtwo has been sitting pretty on his 'strongest pokemon in the game' throne for about a decade; the only pokemon that came close to threatening him was Deoxys. Oddly enough, Arceus has the power to trump him, but then Arceus can trump anyone with the right item. So Game Freak doesn't mind making legendaries that aren't QUITE as strong as the current king of the hill.
  • Something to consider is whether or not the legendary pokemon actually ARE as strong as the legends imply. In Platinum, after beating the Elite Four, you can go back to the cave in Celestic City and talk to Cynthia again. There, she mentions the possibility that the ancient people who wrote those myths only believed Dialga and Palkia to be rulers of time and space because they saw them using their signature attacks. In other words, the legends quite possibly blow the apparent power levels of the pokemon out of proportion.
  • Keep in mind a freshly-evolved Kingler is capable of destroying any of these "gods" in one hit if he lands it, or a properly-bred and item'd Rattata can annihilate nearly anything at level five. In the anime, sure, they seem to actually possess these obscene powers; note people don't tend to actually catch or defeat them there either often. In the games though, one assumes whoever wrote the Pokedex listened to a few too many urban legends.^[1]
    • In the games, the Pokedex guy is you.
• Why is nobody bothered by the casinos? I mean, ignoring that the first one was run by a criminal syndicate, they all allow 10-year olds to gamble. Now, I'm willing to accept that 10-year-olds can go on long journeys, they travel in groups and have monsters to protect them. We never see the kids drinking, even in the anime, so there's clearly laws regarding sale of alcohol to minors, or else Brock would be a lush and would be hanging out in bars. So why are there no laws regarding forbidding minors to gamble? As young persons whose brains are not yet fully developed, they cannot make completely rational decisions, which, while helpful in dramatic battles where thinking outside the box with regards to magic monsters is a plus, this lack of rationality is much less helpful with regards to gambling away life savings, which I'm sure all of us players have done at some point in the poke-casino.
  • Gambling away life savings? Try raising and spending almost $1,000,000 to buy a Gorgeus Royal ribbon for your pokemon. Granted, I suppose similar items are available in real life, but I assume they'd typically be a little more hesitant to let a 10 year old buy them.
  • It's possible that the other casinos, while not run by Team Rocket, are equally as corrupt and ask no questions when it comes to customers. As for why the police don't shut them down, they're probably too busy focusing on bringing down Team Rocket/Magma/Aqua/Galactic.
  • One requires a Casino Token Pouch (or whatever the chips are called) to gamble, and you can only get the pouch from another person outside the casino. Perhaps they assume anyone with a game token pouch is over the legal age, or has passed a gambling adddiction psychological test, and they aren't allowed to comment on your apparent age so as not to offend and be fired. (Personally, what bugs me about the casinos is that you can buy pokemon. You gamble to get chips with which you buy sentient beings for pit fights. Stick an E rating on that.)
    • Actually, Pokemon tends to get a mention of 'gambling references' on its label in PAL territories.
  • If it means anything, one of the Celadon City characters groans that the casino gives the city a bad image. Though I suppose people like her get told to keep quiet.
  • Values Dissonance. Japan has a history of circumventing gambling laws with machines that take and accept 'tokens' that can be bought with money and exchanged for prizes, I've heard Shigeru Miyamoto himself often plays these machines. Seems Japan has much less of an issue with gambling than the rest of the world.
    • Arcades in the backs of bowling alleys, anyone?
  • Evidently Nintendo of Europe has noticed this , as the European Platinum release disabled using the machines in the game corner. Coins are now found daily on the machines by talking to them. The EU's regulations may or may not be involved.
    • /em takes another look at the local Suck E. Cheese's. I don't think it's really true values dissonance, just the sort of thing poeple tend to get upset about, even if they don't mind the real version.
    • Ironically you can still BUY coins in the casino at the price 1000 Poké for 50 coins...
  • Maybe the gambling laws are less strict in the Pokemon World? After all, slot machines are a lot more child-friendly than other casino games, where you can bet and lose a lot of money all at once. Slots only accept small amounts of money, pay off fairly frequently regardless of your choices, and would be very hard to lose your life savings on.
• How does Cresselia manage to be Darkrai's foil? She's Psychic. It's Dark. Psychic moves do nothing to Dark types, and she doesn't have Miracle Eye. In fact, she only has two moves that can hurt it. It would be fine if her purpose was limited to counteracting its nightmares, but in both PMD 2 and the anime, she's out to fight it directly.
  • She does have access to Signal Beam, and one of Darkrai's signature abilities (the one that puts both combatants to sleep) backfires as she also has access to Snore. Of course, that's kind of grasping at straws, as Darkrai's dark moves would be super-effective, but she does have options.
  • Problem is, she's his foil as a wild Pokémon. As much as I'd like to see legendaries exchanging shards at a Move Tutor, we can only assume that she is limited to her natural movelist. (Well, maybe not. Mewtwo had Shadow Ball in the movie, after all...)
    • Move Tutor moves are implied to be natural moves that the legendary forgot upon leveling up, so Cresselia learned Signal Beam somewhere along the road as she leveled to 40. If she was serious about fighting Darkrai, she'd use Signal Beam (and maybe Snore). By the time you catch her, she doesn't seem to be actively fighting him, (she's chilling on Full Moon Island while a kid is being menaced by Darkrai Brand Nightmares) so she probably dropped the move somewhere along the way. As for Mewtwo cheatery, he probably just gave himself a TM. He's more than smart enough.
    • This troper considers the four-move limit a definite Gameplay and Story Segregation that doesn't necessarily apply plotwise, and would honestly be very surprised if the Move Tutors or TM shops have never been visited / raided / held up at Hyper-Beam-point by legendaries before.
  • I will concede my use of the anime as support, as it clearly shows that Cresselia's method has nothing to do with battling, save a few seconds of Air Jousting. As for PMD 2, it may be a very good reason for her to seek the assistance of the main characters.
• In the first generation games, why does everyone now there to be 150 Pokémon in the region, when both Mew and Mewtwo are almost complete unknowns? This is especially strange in the manga, especially around chapter 17, where Mew is a total unknown, Mewtwo hasn't been created yet, and Red still says there's 150.
  • It doesn't help that the 150 also includes five "extinct" Pokémon and a species that lists its males and females separately.
  • Don't forget, there's actually 151 in the first generation. 150 gets thrown around a lot because Mew was super secret upon the original Japanese release; I've heard that Satoshi actually snuck it into the game without Nintendo's knowledge, but I don't know if that's actually true. Of course, that's just Mew as an actual programmed entity; Mew is of course referenced all over the burned mansion. So in the games it's inexplicable that it's 150 instead of 149 or 151: knowledge of Mew and Mewtwo is kind of a package deal. As for the anime or manga, that's not my area of expertise, although I've heard that there was a Mewtwo icon on Bill's door several episodes before Mewtwo was actually created in that continuity...
  • The manga is really weird in this regard. In a conversation in chapter 17, Red says there's 150 Pokémon, and Blue refers to Mew as the 151st, but Mewtwo is only about half-done at the time. You'd think they'd say 149 and 150.
  • If you don't consider the manga a continuity, that could just be roundup. It's easier to say 150 than 149.
• The end of the original games really bugs me. After all of your trials and successes, and making it past the Elite Four, you run into your rival again to find that he has accomplished the same tasks. You battle him one more time and win. Then his grandfather shows up and chastises him for being a disgrace to Pokémon training. Um... what? Oak's opinion of his methods aside (we don't get to see everything he did, and the player's methods of training Pokémon are never analyzed), he just beat the Elite Four. His Pokémon are loyal and well-trained. Most people would call what he did a success. Sure, he's arrogant, but he deserves some Insufferable Genius insurance after coming so far. Was it because he didn't bring down a criminal organization along the way? Does Oak believe that "second place is the first loser"?
  • Maybe he overheard the rival whining about how it was unfair that he lost and simply explains that treating Pokémon right is what tipped the scales in your favour.
  • In FireRed and LeafGreen, at least, he doesn't call him a disgrace to Pokemon or whatever. He just says that the player won because the player cared for his/her Pokemon more.
• OK, what was Gary's starter? I don't remember that ever being directly answered in the anime. Was it that Eevee? If so, what the heck happened to Oak's Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander, and why do we never see their trainers?
  • As far as I recall, both Ash's Bulbasaur and Charmander were abandoned by their trainers, that being the reason Ash ended up with them—also, that's why Bulbasaur didn't trust humans, IIRC. Thus, they can be Oak's starters, given the little amount of time between the gievaway and Ash's finding them. But, then again, that's just a theory...
  • Wasn't he shown to have a Blastoise at one point? If so, there's a good chance he went with Squirtle (it's not Charmander, since we saw its original trainer in the episode we met it).
  • Squirtle is definitely Gary's starter, it was confirmed. Eevee, he picked up elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Charmander and Bulbasaur Ash acquired are never hinted to be the same ones given to the other two Pallet town trainers. Remember that we meet Charmander's original trainer Damien? If he was from Pallet, Ash would likely have recognised him, it's a small town after all. The two Pallet trainers were stated to have given up training, it was never said that they abandoned Bulbasaur and Charmander.
    • According to Bulbapedia, Squirtle was given to Gary, Bulbasaur to a boy named Gilbert. Charmander is yet to be confirmed.
      • Aren't the final forms of the starters shown with their trainers in the original intro? Anyway, what is Gary doing with a starter that is weak vs. the protagonist's?
• In the manga, how does Lance's Dragonair know Hyper Beam? The absolute lowest level that Dragonair has ever been able to learn Hyper Beam at is 55, which is the level at which it evolves to Dragonite. I wouldn't peg Lance as the kind of guy to stop evolution on his Pokémon, so... what?
  • In the games, the Dratini family is one of the few families that can learn the Hyper Beam TM at any evolutionary stage (most families have to wait until their fully evolved form).
  • Not actually an answer, but Lance has a history of totally fucking cheating in the games with his movesets and his squad of underleveled Dragonites, so maybe it's just tradition.
  • The absolute lowest level that a Dragonair would be able to know Hyper Beam is level 50. Then again, that doesn't help, since it would require that Dragonair to have been kept as a Dratini from 30-50...
  • Have Dragonair hold back for one level to learn the move, then Lance either lets it evolve normally, or use a conveniently saved Rare Candy.
    • Except for the fact that in the manga, you need to have a Pokédex to stop evolution.
    • That could be true for the manga only. Though if it's true in all cases (and Lance's dragonair uses Hyper Beam in the manga), then yeah, Lance is a cheating bastard.
      • If that's the case, Lance can communicate with Pokemon in the manga, just like Yellow, and is a far more skilled trainer. He must have found a way.
    • You can also use Everstone.
  • That Dragonair was bred, and its father knew Hyper beam. End of discussion. (Yes, you can get L5/L1 Dratinis with Hyper beam by breeding because they learn it by level)
• OK, something just occurred to me. In the 1st Generation saga of the manga, the Elite Four are trying to get each of the gym badges in order to power the device. Why don't they each have a set already? Don't you need all 8 badges to reach the Elite Four in the first place?
  • You need the badges to fight the Elite Four, but is it ever stated you need the badges to join them?
    • Well, how else would you join them, outside of of a "prove your worth" battle?
    • Somehow I doubt someone could be considered "elite" if they didn't have a measly eight gym badges. And since the elite four are explicitly harder to defeat than the gym leaders, we can assume that one has to have defeated at least one region's gym leaders to be considered a candidate for the elite four.
      • Even if you don't need them, what stops them from going out and winning the darn things for themselves?
      • If I recall, they needed special ones. The ones given to trainers were copies, and they needed the 'master set', so to speak
  • If you're talking about the Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures manga, I'm pretty sure the first gen elite 4 was a terrorist organization in that, so there's no reason for them to be expected to have the badges.
• This one's kinda lame and doesn't really bug me, but it's fun to point out. The early battles in Pokemon Puzzle League suggest that Giovanni may be the Puzzle Master Ash needs to defeat to win the competition. After you beat him, Ritchie explains that not only is Giovanni not the Puzzle Master, but Giovanni has never even met him. Here's the problem. The Puzzle Master is later revealed to be Mewtwo. Isn't Giovanni one of the few people who has met him? (And to counter the obvious response, the game was released in the US before Mewtwo Returns was released in Japan.)
  • What does Ritchie know about Mewtwo's origins or his relationship with Giovanni?
    • Probably nothing. He probably doesn't know who the Puzzle Master is, either. So, when Giovanni's deception was revealed, he jumped to conclusions.
• Why do people keep mixing up the names of the manga characters Green and Blue? The Rival is Green and the girl is Blue, right?
  • A hop over to Bulbapedia tells me that the English translation switches their names, giving The Rival the name Blue and the girl Green, probably to fit with the name switch of the original generation games.
    • I strongly believe that The Rival should be called Blue and the girl Green. It's "The M. Bison syndrome" You don't see anyone calling M.Bison, Vega, and Balrug by their original Japanese pre-nameswitch names.
      • But calling The Rival Green makes sense, as Red and Green were the first Pokémon games to be released, with Blue as an Updated Rerelease. So we're introduced to Red and Green as opposite numbers, and then we get Blue a while later.
      • Except that in America, Green wasn't even released. Fact is, most people outside Japan were raised on Red and Blue, so they can hardly be faulted for referring to The Rival in Red and Blue as...Blue. When switching to the manga, it's understandable for translators to retain consistency with the games.
• It's mentioned in the games that Sabrina dislikes battling. Why then is she a Gym Leader?
  • She really wants to train humans. Her belief that people can also learn to use psychic abilities is established in the games. Unfortunately, since everything in the world is related to Pokémon, if she wanted a gym, she would have to train Pokémon in there. Not a big deal, since she gets to work with natural psychics and improve them as well.
• I know that this hasn't been brought up since the GS era (but it hasn't been subject to Retcon, so it's still a legit annoyance), but seriously. Bicycle. One Million in Pokemon currency. No wonder Misty was so pissed at Ash over it getting burned to a crisp. Heck, this ridiculous price implies massive hyperinflation in the Pokemon economy. And to top it off, they can just casually give it away if you have a voucher (and if someone had such a valuable item, why would they give it away to you?)
  • The Pokemon currency seems to be based on Yen rather than Dollars, and a single Yen seems to be more equivalent to a single Cent, so divide the prices by 100. And the particular bike the salesman is trying to sell you was probably the most expensive model he had. Nobody ever said he was a good salesman. (see also: the Slowpoketail salesman)
    • I remember when we were kids that everyone was saying how rich everyone was in the world considering trainers give you like $20 for losing to you and potions cost like two hundred dollars. If you actually assume it's based off of the Yen, it actually makes more sense for what kind of stuff people woudl have laying around in their pockets. (ie, potions costing $2.) And even in canada, the numbers sound reasonable.
  • Have you noticed that there is only one bicycle shop per region? Clearly, the salesman can get away with such barbarous prices due to the lack of competition. Remember kids, monopolies are bad for the consumer!
    • Even though there was one in Goldenrod city and apparently there was never any.
• Aren't they going to run out of animals to model Pokemon on soon? I know (and like) that they use a lot of obscure animals and will continue to do so, but even that can only last so long.
  • Two factors will keep them running: first, is that they don't use just animals(or plants). Gulpin seems to be a stomach, Geodude is (obviously) a rock, and just look at Unown, would you please? Second, they repeat them. Look at Squirtle, Torkoal and Turtwig. Meowth and Skitty. Caterpie, Weedle and Wurmple. They'll never run out of inspiration Pokémon...
    • Pretty much. They materialized a Pokemon that is essentially a mass of vines with shoes. It's been confirmed since the first generation that even if all the ideas for animals ran out, Game Freak will still have quite a while before their supply of inspiration becomes insufficient.
  • There are billions of different species of animals on Earth. And those are just the ones that exist today. Heck, a lot of Pokemon are already based on obscure animals not often seen in pop culture. The fans themselves can think of hundreds of fan-Pokemon, Game Freak will never run out of ideas to use.
    • Not to mention that they still didn't explore much flora, minerals, and fauna. There are still ants, cockroaches, random gemstones, Brazil woods, and friggin' platypii waiting to see a Pokemon counterpart.
      • Psyduck is a platypus. And you forgot to mention the mythological creatures they've only partially touched on. I'd love to see a pokemon based on Charybdis.
      • WTF? Psyduck is a duck. It's right there in the name.
      • Psyduck could go either way but golduck is definately a platypus.
        • Wrong. Golduck is a Kappa.
        • It clearly has front paws. Definitely platypus. "Duck" is because it has a duck bill.
          • Both are called the "Duck Pokemon," not the "Platypus Pokemon." Plus, bees don't have spikes for hands, do they?
            • And Sandshrew and Sandslash are called the "Mouse Pokemon", what's your point?
    • Yeah, but a lot of them are too similar to each other to count. I mean, come on, is there really a big enough difference between african elephants and indian elephants to justify making a different pokemon based on each? Or all the different species of ants? But then again, as stated above, they can use non animals or just repeat themselves to keep themselves going until Pokemon ceases to be profitable.
  • For proof that Game Freak has quite a ways to go, just look at the thriving fakemon community. If, for some reason, Game Freak decides "Okay, that's enough. We're out of ideas", it'll be once there are so many species that pokemon fans will start crying in unison "Please, that's enough! We already have way too many to keep track of!".
    • There's also James Turner, He designed the Baibanira and Goruugo families, didn't he?
  • We haven't gotten centipedes, earthworms/sandworms, wiwaxias, squids, albatrosses, traditional dolphins, panthers, archer fish, newts, pistol shrimp, or coconuts yet, to name a few. Come to think of it, "Wiwaxola" would make a good Corsola evolution, would it not?
    • Coconuts? Exeggutor would like to see you in his office.
• While we're at that... Venonat doesn't look like a Gnat at all. For starters, it doesn't have wings... why is it considered so?
• Wild Caterpie learns tackle and string shot. But wild Metapod only know Harden. But surely wild Metapod evolve from wild Caterpie? So do Metapod automatically forget all their moves as soon as they evolve, unless they're in the possession of a trainer?
  • Well, trained pokemon will be better than untrained ones at the same level. So, trainers help the pokemon get more skilled, as well as more powerful. So, the wild Metapod aren't skilled enough to use moves from inside a cocoon, but with a trainer's help it is.
    • Then how come the Metapod/Kakuna of NPC trainers can only use Harden?
      • They're probably bad trainers. That's why it's okay to beat them up to a pulp. =D
      • It's quite possible that they caught theirs wild. As to why they don't have any attackers, well, that's because they're morons.
• Has anyone noticed how completely fucked some of the moves are? For example, this troper was playing Pearl when her Luxio was fighting a Geodude. Luxio used Bite, and won.

How can it use Bite and still have teeth left? Geodude is a fucking rock!

• • I think it's pretty much consensus that trying to apply logic to Pokémon fights just won't work, except maybe in the anime.
  • Logic does have implications in the manga. Break Sharpedo's teeth -> cut hole in glass -> drain water. Sound familiar?
• In the original Japanese, dragon type is written ???? (doragon) which usually refers to western-style dragons, but all dragon type Pokemon are more like eastern-style dragons and Charizard, the Pokemon who most resembles a western-style dragon, isn't a dragon type. What gives?
  • Charizard couldn't be a dragon type. They gave him wings, so that's flying, and he was a fire type all along, so he had to be fire. Pokemon can only be two types.
    • Also, Charizard can't be part-Dragon because otherwise he'd be overpowered compared to the other two starters.
  • This was also mentioned earlier.
• A Fridge Logic, Mammalian-based Pokemon can somehow lay Egg. WTF?
  • Pokemon aren't identical to real-life animals. And Pokemon consistently lay eggs if they have the capability. I'm not seeing the problem.
  • That, and mammals can lay eggs. Not many of our Real Life mammals do—actually, only two species --, but they could...
• The whole fainting thing always bothered me. I mean, there's flame throwers, some hot enough to melt rock, burning their flesh. Hyperbeams, solar beams, poisons, and some of them even blow themselves up. And they never die, only faint. Huh?
  • It's the result of Satoshi Tajiri attempting to avert Death Is Cheap in a game about battling monsters. An admirable, if nonsensical attempt, if I do say so myself.
  • Maybe they do die, and the balls keep them in data form so they can be resurrected. That would explain why you can't capture an unconscious Pokemon.
  • I always thought the "only unconscious" thing in Pokemon could be explained in two parts. 1) The Pokemon are extraordinarily resilient. If I can accept that fictional monsters breathe fire and attack each other with psionic blasts, I can accept that they're resilient enough to survive attacks like that. The same way superheroes can get punched by other superheroes without their heads caving in. 2) Trainers are shown to have a special bond with their Pokemon, right? I always assumed that a Pokemon could die if exposed to attacks for too long, but trainers have the sense to switch out before that happens.
  • We're talking a setting where a ten pound mouse can get headbutted by a thirteen-hundred pound walking tank, then beat the snot out of said walking tank without requiring so much as a band-aid. And where humans are regularly and seriously electrocuted or sent flying hundreds of feet through the air, with no lasting damage (beyond Ash's probable brain damage). Superhuman stamina and resilience is a given. These things are amazingly difficult to kill.
• 150 Pokemon in the first generation just bugs me. Shouldn't it be 151, or 149? How the hell does the list say 150? Seriously, in their world, how can anybody possibly know about Mewtwo without knowing Mew? On that matter, why is Mew listed after Mewtwo? It's in the name, Mew Two, why is Mew's clone listed first, and why wasn't Mew in the game at all?
  • This one was addressed further up on the page.
• Could someone please explain to me what a Doduo or Dodrio using Fly is supposed to look like?
  • Joust with additional heads.
  • But at least ostriches have wings, if small ones. Doduo/Dodrio would have to just levitate or something.
  • They jump hella high.
  • I figure they spin their heads or legs really fast like a helicopter rotor.
  • The Japanese name can be translated as "Sky Jump", and the Dodrio line is known for their prowess at leaping.
  • A related question: how can Doduo and Dodrio learn Fly, yet Pokemon like Golbat, and in R/B, Charizard, can't.
    • The real question is not which Pokemon can fly, but rather which ones can support a trainer while doing so. Crobat received full Fly permissions, but had the extra wings to help. (Before DPP relented and offered it to Zubat and Golbat as well.) As for Charizard, considering how quickly they changed their minds...
• How do you use dig while surfing? For that matter, how on earth is dive supposed to work while on land?
  • Revealed in the manga: Pokemon actually using Dive, as opposed to simply swimming underwater, create an air bubble around themselves.
• More to the point: Say I Surf on my Azumarill (many, many trainer comments support the interpretation that the Azumarill is literally carrying me). Say I then order it to use Rollout. ???
• Splash. It does nothing. Since the beginning, and for every game afterward, Splash. Does. NOTHING. Why? They don't have to make it do much (I kinda envisioned it slightly raising evasiveness, and hitting the opposing pokemon for minimum damage if used right before evading said pokemon's attack, or something), but at least let it do something.
  • It has become an inner joke, something of a Joke Character in move form. If Splash did something, it would lost the humor value, and Magikarp would no more be useless.
    • Depends how they did it and how things are calculated. For example, if splash did 1 damage before defense was applied, and could be reduced to zero (as far as I know damage math always produces at least a one). Then it would be useless by the time you got the old rod, but at the endgame would be useful. Besides with the contests in RSE splash stopped doing nothing, it was a decent coordinate move for the "Beauty" set. There were better moves, but splash is the tackle of Contests.
      • Another thing about Magikarp. Why does there have to be at least one, though usually more, trainer in the game who brags about how awesome his team is, only to then reveal that he has six Magikarp, usually below level ten? Is it supposed to teach kids about how lame Magikarp is? Or is it just an Overused Running Gag? I mean I know Nintendo isn't big on innovation but come on, every game?
        • Splash is a decent move in Pokemon Contests, so it's not completely useless.
  • This troper came to this conclusion: They wanted to make Magikarp (apparently) useless, but they couldn't simply give him no moves whatsoever. The solution: a move that does nothing.

• Why is there not a Pokemon type that's weak to Normal type? Is it supposed to be representative of the "everyman" Pokemon? I know there are moves that make Ghost-type Pokemon vulnerable to Normal-type attacks, but thus far, there is not a Normal-Type attack that can be Super Effective. Why not?
  • Normal seems to be designed for being "not too special". It has one immunity and one weakness, and two on "not very effective", while other types normally have at least five types among "weak" and "not very effective against". It's normal, but not scrappy.
  • You obviously haven't tried foresight(or the other moves) against ghost type, have you? Foresight is a move that turns offensive Normal moves against Ghost pokemon from ineffective to super-effective. Works even against Spiritomb. Everybody just overlooked this move because it's too situational to be useful.
    • Incorrect, actually: Foresight makes Noraml and Fighting-type moves simply effective. You if you were getting any "Super Effective" results, then that was you using a Fighting-type move against a Dark/Ice and Ghost Pokemon. Normal, no matter what the case, always remains super effective against nothing. But, like the above troper said, it has few weaknesses and even contains a resistance, so...
  • What would Normal be particularly good against?
    • Magikarp?
• I'm surprised no one has mentioned what, in my opinion, is the most significant IJBM in all of Pokemon. The fact that I can't catch Pokemon after they faint is never explained. Characters always say "Weakened Pokemon are easier to catch." Logically that should mean the fainted ones are easiest to catch, right? This one is particularly annoying, if I'm trying to capture a rare Pokemon, and I take extra care to get its health into the red zone, but accidentally score a critical hit.
  • For gameplay reasons, I'd assume. There'd be very little challenge in catching them if you could.
  • Yeah, gameplay. They catch fainted Pokemon all the time on the show.
    • Yeah, but they're usually still conscious IIRC.
• Why was Pidgey's moveset changed when Gust became a Flying move, but Pikachu still has thunderbolt at level 3? The only thing I can think of is to make early GSC a touch tougher by preventing you from one-shotting the large amount of Weedle, Caterpie and Bellsprout in the first couple of routes. But now in FR/LG you can one shot Pidgys for a few quick level ups. What's the reasoning behind that?
  • Popularity Power. Pikachu gets by on that reason alone.
  • Might you be suffering from Critical Research Failure? Pikachu starts with Thundershock, which is a great deal weaker than Thunderbolt, which it learns much later. It can Learn thunderbolt by use of a Technical Machine, but it's doubtful that you'd have one early in the game. I can't seem to find where you had the idea that Pikachu learns Thunderbolt, or any levelup move, at level 3.
  • It increases your chances of scoring a critical hit, though in the first generation it didn't work and actually reduced your critical hit rating.
• Zubat can stare(mean stare) at you enough to make you run away even though it has no eyes. Did he inherit Brock's eyes?
  • Look at those frightful fangs coming directly at you and try not to run away.
    • I'd try Thundershock, Confusion, or Ice Beam as a reflex action.
    • Frightful? They’re so cute though! Golbat on the other hand...
  • Umm, Mean Look doesn't make you run away. It makes you unable to run away.
• How does Wally ever catch any Pokémon of his own? You got him a Ralts. They only know Growl until you level them up.
  • Struggle.
  • Or as a Troper in the very top said, just throwing a Pokeball at a weak Pokemon.
    • Despite the fact that his party consists of a level 16 Ralts (and that's it) in Mauville City...
  • He does live near the Daycare center.
• The assumption that the Master Ball is 100% effective at capturing any and all Pokemon really bugs me, primarily because my own experience with the game has proven otherwise, but I've not found a single other example from anyone else to verify that that's the case. I know I remember, when I tried to capture Mewtwo and Suicune back in the day with a Master Ball, they kept breaking out, no matter how low I got their health, but for the life of me, I can't seem to find one instance of this happening to anyone else. Did I just imagine it? Were my games glitchy? Or is it just a rare occurrence in the game that a Master Ball fails?
  • You must be imagining things, or you were experiencing one Hell of a glitch.
    • I know I wasn't imagining things; I've had it happen to me when I tried to catch Mewtwo in the original Pokemon Red, and I had it happen to me again when I tried to catch Suicune in Pokemon Silver. Two times in two different games against two different pokemon can't be a coincidence. I even remember what I was doing when it happened: I was trying to capture them normally with Ultra Balls, and got so fed up with them busting out that I used the Master Ball on them. They busted out of those, too. Maybe that's the glitch; if you use enough of the other Poke balls on a pokemon, and they keep busting out of them, then there's a chance the computer will register your use of the Master Ball afterward as just another Poke Ball.
  • It's supposed to be 100% effective, but mechanically relies on simply having a 255 times greater chance of successfully capturing a pokemon. The odds of it failing should be infinitesimile (unless you miss), and close enough to 100% effective for government work, though.

• Inspired by the There Is No Kill Like Overkill page - an psychic attack against a Level 2 bug-poison Pokémon by a Level 100 Mewtwo. I just wonder ... what does it do to that poor little Pokémon? I could imagine a 30-40 level differce to be a Mind Rape too close to the Moral Event Horizon for comfort. But a difference of 98 levels, what exactly happens there!?
  • It must be something like that "this is your brain on drugs" ad...
  • The same thing that happens to everything else. Bugs, while not resistant to psychic attacks, can hurt psychics enough to be a partial counterbalance to a poison weakness. Now, get a Poison/Fighting Pokémon like Croagunk involved...
• How the hell is Altaria supposed to be a Dragon-type? It doesn't have any draconic properties at all! Is there some sort of obscure myth that I'm missing? Bulbapedia says something about the star its Japanese is based off being in the constellation Draco, but name alone doesn't seem good enough to justify it.
  • They were probably in need of more Dragons in Gen-III, and it was the closest thing to a dragon in the list. Really, it's already been brought up somewhere above...
• The Pokémon archipelago seems to be too small for the amount of life it has. Specially considering even the insects are at least the size of a human's foot...
  • The regions in the core Pokemon games are all based on regions of Japan. Kanto is, well, Kanto. Johto is part of the Kansai region. Hoenn is Kyushu on its side. And Sinnoh is Hokkaido. Japan in real life has over 127,500,000 people living on a mountainous series of islands whose total landmass is about the same as California's.
• The huge trading machine. I can understand its existance in the games, but in the anime? When Ash trades his Butterfree for a Raticade, a stupid and out of character move, but that's beside the point for now, they both go through this really complex machine. Why not just, you know, do it by hand, and hand over the Butterfree while he hands over the Raticade?
  • Probably pokéballs have digital information (headers, maybe) imbued in them, or even the Pokémon themselves, making them prone to act up when handled by the wrong user. That, or they were aiming for making it look more like the games, instead of aiming for realism.
  • On top of that, it's this same mechanic, most likely, that makes Shadow Pokemon in Colosseum and XD irredeemable by conventional means - they've been corrupted to the point that they'd follow the trainer designated as their owner despite any acts of immorality. It should stand to reason that a Snag Machine allows the user to take a Pokemon designated as "owned" by overwriting this information via a pirate signal. How the hell could you justify that if you could just trade Pokemon by simply passing the balls back and forth?
    • Random people giving you a Evee/Porygon/Beldum just like that in the games makes the machine look entirely pointless though.
• In the Pokemon Special manga, during the Ruby/Sapphire arc, Hoenn was pretty much in mortal danger because of Kyogre and Groudon's fighting. Why then did Norman make Wally fight his way up 50 or so crumbling floors, which could not have taken a small amount of time, so he could help summon Rayquaza? Why not just fly him up there, as Norman was pretty clearly able to do so with that Flygon he had. I know, Rule of Cool and all, but it just seems like it was a big waste of time.
  • The point was not to get to the top of the tower directly, as it would be a big waste of time. Norman was intent on training Wally instead, and a do-or-die scenario was the best he could do given the circumstances. If Wally couldn't rise to the challenge, he couldn't succeed as a trainer, end of story, and Norman has been shown to be the Training from Hell kind of guy.
• What happens when you use the Poke Ball on non-Pokemon? Can you capture humans in a pokeball? What about inanimate objects?
  • In the animé once, Ash tried to catch a Mankey and instead accidentally sucked a riceball jelly donut into the Pokéball, but that may have just been a one-time gag. Then again in the games, items you find on the ground appear in the form of Pokéballs, so I think, at least in terms of the games, it is possible to store at least certain types of items in balls. As for people, who knows? Personally I would like to think an object like that would not be made commercially available until it was proven that either humans cannot be sucked into them, or some kind of failsafe is built in to prevent it from happening. Otherwise kidnappers would have a field day.
  • In the anime continuity, at least, hitting a human with a PokéBall doesn't do much. The return beam does act like a stunner, though. Given that there are failsafes to prevent pokéballs from even working on previously captured (and not yet released) pokemon, it seems reasonable to assume that the tech doesn't even work on humans or is blocked. The anime and manga both have pokéballs holding items, but they only seem to grab items smaller than they are, and not shrink them. Larger objects don't seem to get pulled in.
  • One example, though certainly noncanon, of a human entering a pokéball is an old WB advertisement for the show where Ash gets sucked into a pokéball and finds a huge pile of his lost socks.
  • Well, Jessie got hit by a Pokeball, and she received a painful shock instead of getting sucked in.
  • If the target receives the painful shock instead of the jerkass throwing the ball at them, it's probably not a coded failsafe rather than incidental incompatibility with human biology. Better that way, since a programmed failsafe could be hacked or reverse-engineered away.

• Why don't some Wild Pokemon have egg moves? I mean, seeing a wild Sneasel with Ice Punch isn't exactly impossible. If the Pokemon can have nonsensical partners in the Day Care, they whould be able to have them in the wild.
  • They could, but presumably they don't. I guess Pokémon naturally prefer to mate with their own kind. After all, note that you'll usually find more than one of the same type of Pokémon in any area. This probably means that they stick together in herds and flocks, so there would always be breeding partners available right there.
  • As for the Sneasel with Ice Punch, that's actually pretty danged unlikely. Only the Buneary Line or a Delibird can pass that on to Sneasel, and they only learn it through breeding themselves. So to get a sneasel with Ice Punch, a wild Medicham or Hitmonchan or something has to breed with a Buneary, and then the offspring has to travel from around Eterna Forest, all the way to Snowpoint, and breed with a Sneasel. In the wild. Yeeeeeah.
  • Actually, Delibird do swarm near that area where Sneasel are in D/P/Pt. Of course, that Delibird would have had to get it from a Feralagtr(wouldn't it just eat it?) or a Buneary/Lopunny(though he'd probably be actively trying to get some sweet Lopunny ass, so that's the more likley source.)
• When you lose a battle and pass out, how do you get back to the last Pokemon center? I mean, I assume it's possible some good Samaritan picks you up and drops you off there (after going through your pockets for loose change), but what if you lose to Giovanni or Cyrus? Furthermore, why do you pass out in the first place? None of the NPC trainers pass out after losing.
  • You're not really passing out, you're just running to the Pokecenter to heal your Pokemon.
    • Nope, it clearly states "PLAYER HAS BLACKED[or WHITED] OUT". I never understood, either.
      • Well, recently I heard that in D/P/Pt, they changed it so your character runs to the nearest Pokemon Center. However, that doesn't really explain the old message...
      • Maybe it's intended to be more metaphorical? Like, your Pokemon represent you, so when they've all fainted, that's referred to as you blacking out?
    • Firered/Leafgreen first added the explicit "player dropped X dollars and scurried to the nearest Center while protecting pokemon from harm". Presumably, whited out/blacked out is just what happens when a 10-year-old panics and gets rather light-headed as a result. NPC trainers might keep an extra pokemon on reserve or just be more used to losing, but your character is really into it. Giovanni and Cyrus... maybe they've got standards.
      • Giovanni's barely ahead of the law by the time you fight him, and Cyrus is a pacifist (sort of...).
• If the Pokemon Professors are such experts on all things Pokemon, why can none of them offer you anything above level five as a starter, or even fill in pokedex entries on the flying and normal types that live within easy walking distances of their labs? For that matter, why does the region's leading expert on Pokemon always live in the far corner of the region with the weakest pokemon? Wouldn't it make more sense for someone like Oak to live in, say, Saffron City, where there appears to be other research being done?
  • Concerning the issue of why you only get a level five Pokémon, well you're a rookie. The professor can't just hand out level seventy Dragonites and expect new trainers to use them properly. As for why they can't fill the Pokédex themselves? It's a job that requires lots of travelling. The professors are genrally too old and/or too busy with other research to be hiking all over Kanto/Johto etc. As for why they live in quiet areas, well some people prefer quiet areas. We don't exactly what they're researching, but presumably it's stuff they can do on their own or, worst case, via e-mail with other professors.
    • On that note, why the hell should a professor be expected to raise a pokémon up to a high level so you can have it? The research is a favour to the professors and all it involves is not throwing away a little red electronic note book that is quite handy, I say that's fair trade for a beast that can create fire/water/nature.
  • It's pretty clear that the Pokemon professors and researchers in the setting seem to be taking the Pavlov school of research—having the damned obvious brought to their front door, spicing it up with the correct jargon, and getting into the textbooks. A lot of the Pokedex work seems entirely to be well-established or false, but the basic information like the picture and location must be true. That said, they can't give you a high-level pokemon because it wouldn't pay attention to your commands until you beat many gym leaders, and a high-level pokemon would make catching most lower-level ones more difficult. If you want to be really charitable, you can also assume that Oak and staff have masses of highly specialized research on most known pokemon, but they don't want to put false-but-well-known information into this brand new electronic medium or risk a Nannarrup hoffmani (ignoring a new species because 'everyone knows' its been well documented, like the New York City Park bug species). Maybe they live out in the boonies to keep cost of living and land down, and telecommute whenever Silph needs some info.
  • Keep in mind the fact that the only professor who asked you specifically to go out on a journey to fill the Pokedex is Oak, who figures that you, his neighbor kid, will do just fine with it, and gives you a rare Mon to help you out. Elm just wanted you to run a favor for him, and gave you the starter as payment. You save Professor Birch with your starter, so he lets you keep it. Rowan either a/ wanted the Pokemon you chose to bond with you after spending some time with you, or B/ decided to give tthese two whacky kids Pokemon for giggles, before saddling them with a Pokedex.
• Grimer is created by sludge exposed to X-rays emitted by the moon...wait, what?
  • I think it's a well-established point already that the Pokedéx fails Biology forever.
  • And physics.
  • Considering that the moon in the Pokemon games is thought by some to be home to a large population of freaky pink things, and may drop meteorites that cause said freaky pink things to get slightly freakier and pinker, it isn't too hard to believe that there may well be some kind of connection between Grimer and the Pokemoon.
• Just what the hell is missingno?
  • Canon explanation: There is no such thing. Pokemon debuggers make no mistakes. "Missingno" is an Urban Legend of Zelda. Actual explanation: It's part of a data overflow bug that results in non-pokemon data being used to generate a pokemon for a random encounter. If you mean graphically, this troper thinks that it looks like a thumbnail of a route map, but that it actually is something being misread as graphic data (he does not recall what exactly loads as Missingno's image). There's also a missingno that looks like a charizard and evolves into a rhydon, if I am not mistaken.
  • That's...not exactly it. Missingno. is a placeholder Pokemon. As You Know, there are 151 Pokemon in Red and Blue. However, there's enough room for many more of them. Since the game would crash if it accidently picked an empty slot, Game Freak put in Missingno. as a placeholder. Notice the name: "Missing Number". They also accidently forgot to tell the game what wild Pokemon exist on the east coast of Cinnibar Island. When you encounter a Pokemon that area, there's nothing telling the game which Pokemon to use. So it uses the wild Pokemon data from the last area you visited (this is the basis of the "Catch Safari Zone Pokemon" trick). It's a long story, but after talking to the old man in Viridian City and Flying directly to Cinnibar Island, that data? It's the 3rd, 5th and 7th letters of your name. No problem: The game converts the letters to hexidecimal and poofs up the Pokemon that corrosponds to that hex number. Remember what I said earlier, about how Missingno. takes up all the empty slots that the game didn't use? If one of those letters points to one of those empty slots, Missingno. will appear. Since "H" triggers it and almost everyone named their character "ASH", this happened a lot. TLDR: In Red/Blue, talk to the old man in Viridian City, Fly to Cinnibar Island, Surf up and down the east coast, and the glitch Pokemon Missingno. will appear.
  • TO BULBAPEDIA! More seriously: the Rhydon and Kangaskhan evolutions are a result of their location in the data; that's why so many glitches turn into/evolve into one of the two.
• What the hell is going on with Steel/Rock's resitances and weaknesses? Both are resistant to normal-type moves, but weak to fighting-type moves. But the two move types are basically the same thing - hitting the opponent with part of your body. Take Mega Punch and Mach Punch for example, against an Aggron. Mega Punch is normal-type, with a base power of 80, twice as powerful as Mach Punch, a fighting-type move. But when you use Mega Punch on the Steel/Rock Aggron, its power is decreased to 20. But Mach Punch's power, used on Aggron, increases to 160. So the weaker move becomes 8 times more powerful than the stronger move, despite the fact that they do virtually the same thing!
  • Think of it like Ryoga's... uh... * does quick research* "Bokusai Tenketsu". For a normal person, punching a rock is an incredibly stupid move that does little damage to the rock and probably hurts your fist. But a trained martial artist who can identify the weakpoint in the rock can break it easily. Both people punch it, but only one knows how.
  • User:Dragga's always thought of each move type as having a particular energy about its attacks. Helps make the idea that a Caterpie resists a Karate Chop, takes no special damage from a Stomp, but shrivels and dies at a Wing Attack, when each is just a basic physical blow. The energies clash to create the type resistences, weakness, and immunities we're all used to. Besides, that explanation helps explain why you can't just kill anything that crosses your path with a Flamethrower.
• Wait, Kyogre and Groudon were locked in a cataclysmic, never-ending battle until Rayquaza showed up and calmed them. But Kyogre is a water-type, and Groudon is ground-type. Water is super-effective against Ground, so Kyogre should have wiped the floor with Groudon.
  • Remember that Groudon brings about droughts, meaning that it can cancel out Kyogre's flooding. Its rather large movepool also contains a number of Kyogre counters.
  • Tell me, every continent in the Pokemon universe seems to be a relatively small landmass, so I think that Kyogre did pretty well against Groudon.
    • The regions we've seen in the core Pokemon games are just portions of Japan. As far as I know, we have yet to see an actual continent in the games. Also, real life continents have been referenced in the game, such as Mew being found in South America.
      • Don't forget Lt. Surge, the Lightning American.
  • Groudon learns Solarbeam—super-effective against Kyogre—and its ability Drought causes constant sunshine in battle, meaning it doesn't have to wait the extra turn to power Solarbeam up. It doesn't get the STAB bonus and its Special stats are weaksauce compared to Kyogre's, so Kyogre will still wipe the floor with it, but it's something, I guess.
• Grimer was created by lunar rays hitting toxic sludge. Porygon was created by a computer program. Voltorb is implied to be a sort of mutant Pokeball. If it's so easy to create Pokemon, why don't more people do it?
  • Mewtwo was created. Not only did other manmade specimens pale in comparison, but he also served as an excellent example of why people shouldn't go around making new ones. (The Porygon types didn't get the memo; then again, their AI isn't too crapshooty.)
  • Not to mention: Grimer is an accident, more than a creation, and Porygon, being a software, isn't all that simple to create(heck, I imagine how complex the API for creating a Pokémon is...) and may even not be open source... One of the few actually engineered and intended Pokémon was Mewtwo.
  • oh hai thar. Think Tsukumogami on a slightly accelerated scale for Voltorb and similar.
• I can hardly forgive Ruby, but how did Sapphire not recognize Ruby from the past? He even wore that same weird cap!
  • It's likely that there are a number of other trainers with caps of similar nature who passed through Littleroot during her years as Birch's assistant. The identifying feature are the scars above his left eye, as he revealed near the end of the RS arc.
    • You also forget, watching your (admittedly, very new) friend get slashed across the face is a pretty traumatic experience. Combined with the fact that it happened about half their lifetimes ago, it's possible that they only remember the basic event, forgetting the finer details. To them, it's probably like "I remember really liking this person, but I don't really remember much about it". It's the same way in that you might remember hanging out with a person at summer camp without remembering names or faces.
• Amity Square. "Take a cute Pokémon for a walk!" Who, exactly, defines cute here? Obviously not the same people who judge the cuteness contests just across town! Those final evolution starters ain't so sweet and cuddly, and a maxed out cute stat or contest ribbon does nothing to convince anyone...
  • I think it's quite obvious it's not a contest stat, since they have a list of predefined Pokémon that can go for a walk with you... Final evolution starters were probably just included for convenience of the player, who'd not need to catch a Pachirisu/Clefairy only to enter Amity Square. And it's also worth nothing that the baby versions of the Pokémon admitted in Amity Square are not permitted to enter...
• Why does Mewtwo have a constellation, as revealed in Pokemon Snap? He's existed for what, less than a decade? A little too recent for astronomy to notice, you'd think, and it's hard to imagine people assigning such a meaning to the stars when his existence is not widely known. Did someone predict his creation long ago? Did he decide that a being of his power deserved such a symbol and move the stars himself? Or, considering where the constellation can be seen, was it Mew's doing?
  • Maybe the scientists who created Mewtwo modelled him after the constellation? This Troper hasn't played Snap, so hasn't seen the constellation, but if it's like most real constellations it'd just look like a stick figure, which wouldn't be so coincidental.
    • The constellation looks exactly like Mewtwo. But, well, the thing is, Mew is the only Pokemon up there, and according to the games, Mew was directly involved with Mewtwo (Giving birth to it...), so it could just be that it is a fake sky made by Mew. And even if it isn't, well, come on, you're somehow floating on a CLOUD in an area that vaguely resembles outer space. The constellations should be the LEAST of your issues
• Why isn't Luxray Dark-type? It's got the color-scheme, multiple Dark-type moves, and without it it's way too similar to Manectric.
  • Actually, Manectric is Special-attack oriented and Luxray is physical-attack oriented. And not every Pokemon type should be decided by color. Lord knows there comes a point where everything that shoots fire is red and zaps things is yellow becomes boring.
    • This troper was actually surprised to find Buizel was water-type, because it was orange.
      • You mean the fact that it looks like an otter crossed with a life raft isn't enough?
  • Also, most of its evolutionary line's names come from word related to light (lux is a measurement of light, and ray it obvious) in both languages, so that's probably not the idea behind it.
    • Luxray is named after a brand of electric lights.
  • Is there an Electric/Dark type? Sounds like a lost opportunity to me.
• In pretty much all known pokemon games you have to pay the winner money if you lose, this is fair game for most cases but what i find ridiculous is that you STILL have to pay Cyrus money in the distortion world, the same person who intends to to capture Giratina and create a new world i find it hard to believe he'd want or need your money.
  • Maybe he mugs you just to be a dick. Like that time Lex Luthor stole forty cakes.
    • And that's terrible.
  • He's a stickler for the rules. Which is why he pays you when he loses too.
• Rocks broken/destroyed with Rock Smash/Strength move back the second you leave the room. Just who is growing rocks and moving them around that fast?
  • The rocks are coprolite (normally, coprolite refers to fossilised... manure, but following another context it can also refer to the manure of stone creatures).
    • So rocks are made of Onix poop?
      • Actually, Onix seem to be the Pokemon equivalent of earthworms (seriously) so that might make more sense than you think...
• Consider the following truths:

1. 1. Mew can use every TM.
   2. Attract and Captivate are moves that can be taught by TMs.
   3. Attract and Captivate only work on Pokemon of the opposite gender of the user.
   4. Mew has no gender.
   5. A Mew with either of these moves makes NO FUCKING SENSE.

• • Clearly, Mew is just so smoking hot that no poke cares.
  • Along those lines, Mew is said to be the ancestor of every Pokemon. But it completely lacks gender and can't even breed with a Ditto. So how did a Pokemon unable to breed end up with so many descendants?
    • The lack of gender in Mew (and other legendary 'mons) is probably a (slightly clumsy) way to prevent you from breeding a legendary with a Ditto and getting a whole family of Mew. This troper believes that Mew actually does have a gender, or is a hermaphrodite.
      • And its placement in the Themed Tarot Deck suddenly makes a lot more sense.
      • Genderless 'mons can breed. Legendaries are simply put in a "no eggs" group.
• If we're really getting into extreme Fridge Logic here, explain to me how what is essentially a sterile (or hermaphroditic) cat the ancestor of a TURTLE, not to mention whales, birds, and crazy flaming horses?
  • Because, it's not a cat, it's a fetus.
  • Speaking of breeding, how does Ditto manage to breed with several Pokemon (like Staryu and Magnemite) that lack gender (and thus can only be bred via usage of Ditto)?
    • Both Mew and Ditto have the ability to transform, meaning that they can be what gender they may feel like. It's assumed that because Ditto can restructure its own cells, it can breed asexually, based only on the species of its partner.
    • As for Mew, this Troper believes that it (along with Arceus) is a Pokémon God.
  • This troper always assumed that the mew species is billions of years old and that the other pokemon varieties (with a few legendary exceptions) arose through darwinian evolution. The different animal species on our world all have a common ancestor as well, so it's not too far-fetched that pokemon arose the same way.
    • The above is technically the canon reason. Mew existed millions of years prior to any other "recorded" non-legendary, pre-dating even the fossil Pokemon by a bit. Say that a few other species were known not too long after the arrival of Mew, and including the odd ability of Mew's Transform, Darwinian evolution could easily lead up to what we have now.
• Mew can learn Steel Wing. Yah.
  • Transform into a bird temporarily for the move? (never mind game mechanics right now)
  • Turns its hand into metal and delivers a Gibbs-Slap.
• In Platinum, to trigger a battle with the Legendary Golems (Regice, Registeel, and Regirock), and thus capture them, you must have Regigigas in your party. To battle and capture Regigags, you must have the three Golems in your party. Does anyone else see the problem here?
  • Actually you need the special 11th movie (Or a movie at least) edition Regigas which can be obtained at a special event.
    • Plus, although it's never said directly in the games, it's implied subtly that there's more than one of various legendaries. There could easily be more than one of Regigigas and company.
• How does the Underground retain any structural integrity with all these treasure-hunting kids running around digging bases and collapsing walls?
  • The tunnels do not look natural to me. I imagine the celings and probably certain parts of the walls, such as pillars, are reinforced to prevent cave ins.
• When Red ascends to the heights of Pokemon Champion the four Elite Four members are Lorelei, Bruce, Agatha and Lance. Three or four years later (I forget specifically) Red's a mute who's holed himself up in Mt Silver (home of the highest-level creatures in the game since the Unknown Dungeon collapsed), Agatha and Lorelei are nowhere to be seen, and the Elite Four now consists of Will, Koga, Bruce and Karen. What happened to so shake up the Elite Four in the space of only three or four years?
  • Red's always been a mute. He's a silent protagonist.
  • Red went on with his training, Blue became leader of Viridian, Lorelei returned to her hometown in Island 4 to protect it in case anything happened as was hinted in FR/LG, Agatha probably retired, Koga was promoted from Gym leader to Elite and Will and Karen joined, as Red and Blue weren't in Indigo Plateau anymore Lance ascended in ranks and became Champion.
  • Three years; personally, I prefer to think that something happened within those three years, Red grew up and found out that being Champion wasn't what he was suited to be (free spirit!) and Lorelei returned to her home town. Agatha may have retired or died and Lance challenges the League after Red renounces his title.
• Why isn't Salamence Flygon? Bagon, Shelgon, Flygon. Makes perfect sense. Especially when you consider that Bagons spend a long time wanting to learn how to fly.
  • Bagon/Tatsubay [baby dragon], Shelgon/Komoruu [to seclude oneself], Salamence/Bohmander [violent salamander]. Trapinch/Nuckrar [nutcracker], Vibrava [vibrations], Flygon [dragonfly]. And there's no such pattern in the Japanese, which is the original.
• What's a wild pokemon going to do with half of your money?!
  • A Dragon-type probably wants to sleep on it.
  • Line their nests with it?
  • And themselves.
  • Buy items and TMs, of course!
• How come none of the NPCs will notice or care if you are walking around with a party of legendary pokemon, and why does no one care if you sic an Arceus on their level 2 Magikarp?
  • Dexes are rare and precious things. Some random NPC isn't necessarily going to recognise Arceus or Giratina, and even if they do somehow, they won't necessarily know it's an actual Physical God rather than simply something that looks like a few old decorations from the Hearthome Cathedral.
  • They do notice, but long ago a witch cursed them only to be able to say the same lines of dialogue over and over so aren't able to express their shock
    • Doomed to say the same thing over and over, eh? Hm...
• Pikachu is supposedly some kind of electric mouse that can shoot bolts of lightning...which it stores in special pouches in its cheeks. So wouldn't that make it more of a hamster? It's not even SHAPED like a mouse, for Christ's sake.
  • Pikachu ^{[dead link]} isn't mouse-shaped ^{[dead link]} now.
• Isn't it kind of irresponsible of the trainer to catch Pokémon like the Lake Trio, Dialga/Palkia, the Birds, and especially Arceus? Does nobody stop to think that maybe it's a bad idea to put those Pokémon in the balls or on the computer when they have very important work to do, such as keeping spacetime, emotions, and the elements and whatnot under control?
  • The Master Ball can capture anything...ANYTHING...in just one attempt, without fail. Even Arceus. And it is a device developed by humans. I guess what I'm saying is that if humans have reached the point of developing technology that can reliably imprison and subjugate the gods themselves, maybe we don't need the gods anymore.
    • Not necessarily. Along the lines of most Death Takes a Holiday stories, just because you can bind a powerful force doesn't mean it's a good idea to do so. Also, second movie.
    • Cartoon canon is not game canon. Otherwise we'd be Thunderbolting Rhydons and other stupid shit. Also, maybe it works for you because you have a "pure heart" and that apparently gives you carte blanche to do more or less anything you want in the Pokemon universe.
    • Technically speaking, the Master Ball just makes you 255 times more likely to catch something. If it has a catch rate of 0, you've got no chance (at least first gen; it might be absolute nowadays).
  • Maybe they can still do their jobs, just from a different "office". When you're not using them in battle, they keep themselves busy making the world balanced all from the cozy comfort of their Pokeballs.
  • I'm pretty sure the Pokeballs work as power limiters; hence, why the Big Bad of every Generation wants to capture them using other methods; otherwise, if Cyrus were to capture Dialga and/or Palkia, you could still put them down. Now I'd like to know why, if they're in the wild, they aren't as strong as they're supposed to have been told about.
    • Probably as a test. That would explain why Giratina doesn't gut you but instead patiently waits for you which is even adressed in the in-game text ("Giratina is silently looking at you" or something like that). Or what Suicune does in Crystal. Or why Mesprit chooses to pull an Entei and travel around the land and regard it a funny game instead of fighting you, since it is emotion instead of power or wisdom.
• In generation 2, Hitmonlee learns meditate at level 6, and Tyrouge evolves at level 20. Now, the obvious explanation for this is that the learnset was programmed before Tyrouge was added in, and Gamefreak was being lazy, and therein lies the problem. Because of the developers laziness, we lost a potentially useful move for a Pokemon that desperately needed an attack booster! Lugia and Ho-oh also got locked out of whirlwind(potentially useful due to their tankish abilities), and Celebi lost heal bell, leech seed, and RECOVER due to it being encountered at lvl. 30. WTFG!?
  • Lol no, those moves were put at those levels on purpose and if you wanted them you had to use the move relearner in Pokemon Stadium 2, which was a gimmick of it but not the only reason to buy it, so it was fine. Anyway, there were move relearners in later generations, but they costed heart scales, while the Stadium 2 one was free anytime you defeated the Elite 4, so there is little point in complaining.
    • Much easier to find Heart Scales than it is to defeat the E4 just for one move...
    • And that's why it only stayed that way one generation, jeez...the point is that those move were availiable and not put in the by mistake or anything.

• This is a prime case of Fridge Logic actually: Mew is the genetic ancestor of all Pokemon. But the Pokemon Arceus created the Universe.
  • Arceus created Mew, and then that led to the evolution of all current Pokemon species.
    • So...who created Arceus??
      • You're a very clever troper... but it's Arceus all the way down.
      • Don't pursue that line of thinking, it just leads to insomnia.
        • The way I see it, Arceus first created Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, and created the universe through them. Then he created the Lake Guardians, then Mew. Mew then gave birth to Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza, who created Earth. Possibly, Mew created such trios for other planets as well. Here's holding out for a trio for all 7 other planets. And Pluto. And, what the hell, lets throw Ceres in there, too.
        • There's no reason why Mew couldn't just be the ancestor of all non-legendaries. The dex may claim it has the DNA of every other species, but how exactly would they have gotten the DNA of Dialga, Regigigas, or so many of the other legendaries? Heck, Mew could just be a template Arceus threw together, then took bits and pieces of to make new species. There might even be imperfect Mew prototypes..
        • According to dex data: "[Arceus] is said to have emerged from an egg in a place where there was nothing, then shaped the world." If Arceus came from an egg then who created the egg? Just a theory(and I doubt it's true but I like it), but perhaps Mew layed the egg and then arceus went on to create the rest of the universe. This would also reaffirm the idea that mew is ancestor of all pokemon.
        • Arceus came from an egg that just came into being when Yin and Yang reached perfect balance. From itself came the Dragon Trio then the Spirit Pokémon. After that we're unsure if Groudon and such came before Mew or if Mew came first. It's perfectly natural to say that Mew is the ancestor of all non-legendary and non-artificial Pokémon. Mew could very well be the ancestor of all non-god Pokémon, other than a few select Pokémon that were created.
• Is it just me, or is Brock the only non-white guy in the Pokemon universe?
  • There's Phoebe...? Not a guy, but not white.
  • I always thought Candice's sprite looked rather tannish, and considering that she lives in Snowpoint any tan one has must be genetic, but she looks plain white in her artwork so maybe I'm just imagining things.
  • There's the rest of Brock's family. But to get to the root of the question, it's more accurate to say that we haven't been introduced to places where other races live. If each region roughly resembles an island of Japan, then we haven't even left the country yet.
  • They finally put a black guy in the Pokemon universe in Pokémon Ranger 2.
  • Has anybody heard of Dalhia, one of the new Frontier Brains?
  • When it all comes down to it, the majority of the cast is Japanese, even if they don't look Asian. The only characters I can think of that are confirmed to be otherwise are Lt. Surge and Fantina. And there's that trainer at the beginning of the first movie who, in the original, spoke a lot of Gratuitous English. Having Japanese characters that look Caucasian is rather common in anime.
    • Dahlia's name is the same in Japanese and English...so should she count along with Surge and Fantina? Also Cynthia's (Shirona/Sirona) original Japanese name was in refence to a goddess from CELTIC mythology.
  • Brock is the same skin color as everyone else, anyway. Also, Barlow is awesome.
• Well Black and White have more varied skin colours (probably from being somewhat based on American culture which is more racially sensitive and has nothing to do with the name) so that fixes that for the most part.
• In GSC/HGSS, the rival is literally a criminal, right? He steals things and kicks people. Why do I constantly let him just flounce off once all his Pokemon are unconscious, as opposed to knocking him out and taking his stolen starter back to Professor Elm?
  • You're ten. I'd guess the rival is at least fifteen. He'd probably kick your ass in a fistfight. This troper would love to see Kotone beat him up, though.
    • Why would it have to be a fistfight? Some of my Pokemon are still fine. If, hypothetically, I've got an Oddish with Sleep Powder still standing, why can't I use that?
      • I always assumed that using a Pokémon to attack an actual person would be illegal. True, the rival is engaging in criminal activity too, but at ten years old, you're a little young to become a vigilante.
        • In HG/SS, Lance makes his Dragonite use Hyper Beam on a person. And he survives.
      • On the other hand, as soon as the player hears anything about Team Rocket s/he becomes a vigilante so fast you'd think it was hir lifelong ambition.

• In the first few gen games at least. You have two games. You trade your uber lvl 100 team into a new game on your other cartridge. Yes, they don't obey you, but whenever they do decide to make an attack they kill it and they barely take any damage. So why, when you reach Lavender town, when you reach the Ghost Tower, are they too scared to attack? I mean, seriously, some of you ARE GHOSTS too, some of your are legendary creatures that control the elements, and you are all a much higher level. How could you posibily be scared?
  • Dammit dude, you have to go way out of your way to abuse what was supposed to be just an easily finished Broken Bridge which wasn't supposed to be thought of afterwards, give them a break.
  • As for an in-universe explanation, even the most hardcore muscle-bound fighters would probably be freaked out by an actual ghost. Even ghost Pokémon are a level removed from actual ghosts; the paranormal isn't something that can really be directly confronted, is it?
• When the entire universe is on the brink of destruction thanks to a madman in Platinum, why doesn't Cynthia drag the Elite Four with her and beat down Team Galactic herself? It was nice of her to be confident with us and all, but with the universe at stake, a bit more help would be appreciated.
  • Which is one reason I love the manga. Gym Leaders are the first line of defense, and in Hoenn and presumably Sinnoh, the Elite Four and the Champion.
  • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure follows likewise, but with the Gym Leaders (Volkner is absent for undefined reasons). Cynthia's there, however, but she doesn't do much but stop Jupiter with one hit...which come to think of it is her role in the anime's Spear Pillar plot too.
• What is the point of Detect being a move? It's exactly like Protect, a move that can be learned through an infinitely available TM by any mon that can learn any TM, except it only has half the PP. There isn't even any benefit to using both at once, since using either means the other it less likely to work that turn.
  • Actually, there's a good reason to use Detect in Double Battles. Given that Protect/Detect make you practically invulnerable for one turn, they're very useful for dodging moves that the other pokemon uses that hits every pokemon on the field (such as Explosion, Surf, Earthquake and so forth) if the pokemon isn't immune to or absorbs that attack. Given this, some people will put pokemon on their teams that know the move Imprision, which prevents any pokemon from using any moves known by the Imprision user, and Protect to nullify the move and prevent the enemy from dodging attacks—for example, on an Explosion-themed team, one would have a Ghost type use Imprision while knowing Protect so that the enemy can't dodge the pokemon's partners Explosions. Given that Detect does the same thing but is not a TM and therefore much less likely that the Imprision user will have it as opposed to the much more used Protect, it's a good idea to choose Detect over Protect when possible. Besides, not only is it pretty ineffecient to have a pokemon know Imprision/Detect/Protect when you've only four moves to choose from (only two pokemon can do this anyway), more often than not a double battle will be over or your pokemon dead before you can expend all 8 usages of Detect.
• Is the water used by Water-types consumable? The ninth anime movie shows Max almost drinking water that came from a Poliwhirl, but the plot stopped him from doing so; is it healthy? Is it unlimited? Why do some people (anime and game) seem to be thirsty if they can drink this kind of water?
  • It's probably as drinkable as any other water available in nature. In other words, boil it first. They aren't firing tap water.
    • Unless they're Suicune.
  • I remember reading a fanfic where trying to live by drinking water used by Water-types would eventually dehydrate the Pokemon. Perhaps they're refraining from it out of concern from the Pokemon. ...plus, most water Pokemon shoot water out of their mouths, so a lot of people would probably... not want to drink it.
• Why don't the Professors give you all the starter Pokemon? They tell you to go off and complete the pokedex for them, yet they don't give you the Pokemon that you cannot catch anywhere else, despite the fact that it's just sitting on the table doing nothing. I understand why they don't give it to you at the start of the game, but why not after you've defeated the Elite Four. C'mon Oak, you sent me on this damn pokedex mission, I'm three Pokemon away from completing it, if you'd just give me that Bulbasaur I could be finished.... DAMMIT OAK, IT'S SITTING RIGHT THERE!
  • The professors want you to complete the Pokedex for them, and they don't need data on a Pokemon they already have.
    • They only have the base form, meaning they're still missing the evolutions. If they gave it to me I could level it up and get data on the evolved forms.
  • He is the grandfather of Gary Oak remember - their whole family is out to torment you.
  • It's probably for some third, never seen, Pallet trainer who has yet to reach their starting day. Starters are difficult to replace and Oak probably feels no need to give you more than one.

• On a similar note, why isn't Psyduck/Golduck a Water/Psychic type? It's PSY-DUCK. A psychic duck. But it's only a pure Water type?
• And why isn't Lugia Water/Flying? It's the beast of the sea. Its counterpart is Fire/Flying. It lives on the seafloor and learns mainly water-type moves. So why is it Psychic/Flying?
  • If it was Water/Flying, it would get an STAB, thus giving it more of an advantage over Ho-oh.
• Why is the Dragon type only super effective against itself? It would make thematic sense and make the type more useful to be effective against, say, Normal-types. And while I'm at it, I always expected Ice to be super effective against Water, what with the freezing and such. Okay, the latter has some gameplay justification (if Ice beats Water, Electric becomes worthless), but why not give Electric some other advantage, such as vs. Steel from Gen 2 onward. ...One more thing. Bug attacks were super-effective against Poison in Generation 1. How does that make sense, apart from extending Beedrill's lifespan as the ultimate Erika-killing machine, and if it did make sense, why the change in Gen 2? Arceus knows the Bug type didn't need any more nerfing.
  • On the last point, the bug-type may have been nerfed in that sense, but they got a buff in being super-effective against the Dark type and were given some new attacks like Megahorn that made STAB attacks actually useful. Also, Poison was also super-effective against Bug in Gen I, but were changed to being neutral.
  • Dragon is too powerful a move type as it is. I'd prefer Ice gaining a resist to it.
    • Wait, what? I wouldn't mind seeing Ice resist Dragon, but too powerful? It has the third-narrowest range, after Normal and Poison, and Dialga is the only mon that can count on super effective STAB without opening itself up to the same.
    • Third narrowest range, but only Steel resists it.

• If Satoshi Tajiri (the creator of Pokemon) likes insects so much to the point that he was called Doctor Bug, why come Bug Types in the first game were horribly underpowered?
  • Maybe because it feels harder to rationalize bugs as being creatures of might alongside dragons and rock monsters.
    • Maybe it was a misguided effort to remain neutral. Look at Sakurai, the designer for the Kirby games and Smash Brothers. Guess which series he overpowered while the game was being made. Although it doesn't excuse why it took Pinsir so many god damned games to learn his own STAB attack. Tajiri should make it up to Pinsir in the next game by giving Pinsir an exclusive bug move (that can't be stolen like Rhydon and Heracross's megahorn) that hits twice, has 100% accuracy, and has 100 base power before adding STAB.

• When the Focus Sash item activates, it gets consumed. My pokemon just ate its Sash? Are they made from the same stuff as edible panties or something?
  • I assume the Pokemon uses the Sash like a bullfighter's cape, directing the final blow towards it instead of the Mon itself. The sash is then torn apart and unusable anymore. Good one, eh?
  • The sash absorbs part of the attack through its effect and is destroyed.
• Super effective moves like using Thunderbolt against a water-type cause lots of damage, right? What I'm wondering is, how do moves like that, One Hit KO's, and stuff like Slam against a much weaker Pokemon not kill them?
  • They probably do in the wild, but in a domestic battle they hold back.

• It kinda bugs me that, when creating the fourth generation Pokémon, they brought the Pokédex up to 493 and then stopped. Why? Seven more Pokémon and we'd have a full 500. Not to mention we really could have used some extra Fire types in Diamond and Pearl.
  • Because the number of real-world animal species probably isn't a round number either? Let's be honest, it would seem a little... weird. Plus, it's never been a round or meaningful number: first there were 151, then 251, then 386.
    • The first part of the answer is simply irrelevant. Now, about the past Pokemon numbers, the two first generations made round numbers, when not counting secret pokémon (150 without Mew, and 250 without Celebi). Things really started getting weird by Gen-III, and no one knows why...
    • Irrelevant how? It would be strange and unrealistic if it was always a round number. Not to mention that the so-called "secret" Pokemon were never secret at all- Mew is explicitly mentioned as the progenitor of Mewtwo in Cinnabar lab, and Gold and Silver's big hook was "One hundred new Pokemon!" And if you don't count events, then that would make fourth-gen only 490, since Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus weren't officially revealed until their events. Everyone still knew about them, though, just like Mew and Celebi.
      • Irrelevant, because it has nothing to do with the question. The number of real-life species is also not a round number, but also in real life we can't send animals/plants/rocks/gods in vacuum sealed containers through the internet to wherever we are. Of the unrealistic things in the Pokeverse, the one that'd bother me less would be a round number of species(or items, berries, whatever).

About the numbers, fine, forget about the "secretness". 151 in first gen, plus 100 in second, plus 135 in third and 107 in fourth. "107" is a very weird number to add, when the last ones were round(multiples of 5, at the very least), the first genereation being just one over the boasted 150.

• • • So "irrelevant" because... why now? Comparing the Pokemon world's technology to the actual creatures isn't a good metaphor. Animals exist in real life. Teleportation and dimensional transcendism don't. You can't really compare the two. There's no real reason why Game Freak should have come up with a round number of species for each generation. Just... why? Until they ever say why they chose whatever random numbers they did, you can't really dismiss an explanation that makes sense. And let's be honest, is this really going to matter in the long run? Is there such a Broken Base now that the number of Pokemon you can collect is going to affect your enjoyment of the game?
      • Fine, then compare it to any other aspect of the game, such as interspecies reproduction, "evolution" or anything alike. You're the one claiming having round number would make it unrealistic, and I'm saying that's irrelevant with all the lack of realism being flung on your face during the course of the series. Finally, answering your question: no, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game at all, I didn't even count them before. Turning the question back to you, would a round number of Mons affect your enjoyment of the game?
    • Nope, it wouldn't. Just because large parts of the game are unrealistic, though, doesn't mean it all has to be. Clearly there are parts that are based on fact. See Zangoose and Seviper, parallel to the mongoose and viper, and that's just one of many things. Game Freak can pick which parts they want to be based on reality and which ones they don't, just because you don't like it doesn't make that any less true. And if my explanation really bothers you that much, think of it this way instead: the seemingly random numbers make the dex seem incomplete, and we all know new Pokemon are coming out every generation. It could easily be a way of implying there's still lots of Pokemon out there to discover.
      • Hm, this one now is really good, I like it.
• I just don't get Sprout Tower. Is it supposed to be a parody of the Tin and Brass Towers, only instead of worshipping Ho-oh and Lugia, the devout monks worship Bellsprout? Or is it really as Serious Business as it appears? And if so, why does it even exist? And also, conversely, the wiggling middle pillar is meant to be like a Bellsprout's stalk. So why do the central pillars in the other two towers wiggle as well?
  • Perhaps the people of Violet City were finding it difficult to comepte with Ecruteak and Goldenrod for tourism. Ecruteak has its towers, Goldenrod has the Department store and Radio tower. So they built their own tower and had to dedicate it to a Pokémon that lived nearby. Bellsprout was the best they could think of. And maybe they stole the moving pillar idea from Ecruteak and claimed that represented Bellsprout's body so people would think that they thought of it first.
    • I like this theory. But out of universe, I'm just wondering why Game Freak decided on dedicating a tower to Bellsprout?
      • Probably the same reason they've created Magikarp: to add a tone of humor. :)
  • The wiggling pillar in the towers do have a practical purpose; apparently it's a kind of technology the Japanese use to protect high-rise buildings from earthquakes (being on the edge of a continental plate and all)... As for why they "worship" Bellsprout, I actually assumed that it was more to represent nature in general, how the ecosystem works, working in harmony, all that stuff.

• Aside from Competitive Balance, why are Dark types immune to Psychic moves and resistant to Ghost moves? I don't think being sneaky or having black fur could offer 100% protection from Mewtwo turning your brain into mush. While we're there, why is biting or sucker punching super-effective against Psychics that can see into the future and Ghosts that are essentially made of gas?
  • Consider that Dark-types are known as "Evil" in Japan. What could be more devastating to a psychic than to peer into the mind of true evil? They can't do it without endangering themselves. (See The Cell.) And without that connection to their opponent, their moves fail. As for ghosts, so many have been portrayed in the anime as happy-go-lucky pranksters that they just aren't conditioned to deal with true malice.
  • Dark types are a psychic 'void', rather like blanks in Warhammer 40,000, meaning that Psychic will just be wasted energy, and ensuring that they can't see that Houndoom's future. The fangs and claws of Dark Pokemon are steeped in the energies of the darkness, meaning they can cut clean through the dimensions and hurt Ghosts.
  • Of course that doesn't explain why non-Dark types can use Bite and still have it work. Or why you can Tackle a Geodude for almost no damage, but Bite it for normal damage. Particularly confusing because Bite was a normal-type attack in Generation 1.
  • It could simply be that most dark moves are tricky enough to throw off most defenses. A weak justification, but one nonetheless
  • It seems that by "Dark" or "Evil"' type we could get to the meaning of 'sneaky' or dirty, under-handed techniques (biting your opponent, anyone?) which holds up when considering it's super-effectiveness against the more "honourable" Fighting-type combatants. Perhaps?
    • Unfortunately, you have it backward. The honourable Fighting-types are super effective against the underhanded Dark-types. Evil is unforgivable!
• Minor one: why can't you encounter critters in the Battle Frontier in Emerald and log them in your Pokedex? I can see why they don't let you catch them (it probably costs a fortune to ship in ten thousand Electabuzz for the Battle Pyramid, for example), but if you get an Ivysaur in the Battle Factory, there will be no further hints that you've even heard of such a thing, and your Pokedex certainly won't have anything lower than (say) Pikachu.
  • That's a very good question... you can also ask why you can't ask other players to help you by lending their Mons so you can log them in the Dex. Pretty much Gameplay and Story Segregation, purely.
• Speaking of Pokemoooon... what's the deal with water mons that have Water Sport and rock mons that have Mud Sport? The number of times I see Geodudes using Mud Sport strikes me as ridiculous, and the only mon I found with Water Sport that was actually useful was Budew.
  • Well, Geodude is Rock/Ground, so it at least has the right type. It seems to be primarily there for insurance - if Geodude uses Mud Sport, takes out an enemy Pikachu, and then gets surfed into oblivion by Lanturn, at least Lanturn's electric moves will be weakened for when you send out your next combatant. Granted, this should only happen if something has gone horribly awry, but given that this happens with grim regularity, it's nice to have a bit of a backup plan.
    • (Returns having checked on the particulars of Mud Sport) Apparently it only lasts while the responsible critter is on the field. Perhaps it's intended to be bred onto a Baton Passer?
  • Quite a few pokemon have moves that are utterly worthless for themselves, but great for double battles and the like.
• People who block your path without any conceivable reason to do so. The games are pretty linear and it would break the sequence if you were allowed to access certain areas too soon, so there are often people who will stand in front of doorways and such to prevent you going through them. That's fine, but if you're going to do that at least give them a good excuse. For example, there are two guys in Hearthome City that block the path to Route 209. When you talk to them, they say "Did you know? Sometimes eggs are found in Johto." That's great, NOW GET OUT OF THE WAY.
  • Welcome to Corneria and Dronejam are the banes of all JRPGs, Pokemon included.
  • Even worse is the guy in FR/LG (can't remember if he was in the originals) who escorts you to Brock's gym. If you want to grind a little more for some reason - insurance, say - and try to move onto the next route, he escorts you to Brock's gym again. And again. And again. Yes, I know that's where Brock's gym is, but I haven't learned Metal Claw yet because I was busy grinding my Metapod, so let me on to the friggin' route.
    • Heh. Grinding your Metapod.
  • This troper found the broken bridges in the 2nd gen games, particularly the immovable npc variety, to be the worst. When you arrive in Azalea, the well and the gym are both blocked by Team Rocket grunts, the later seemingly for no reason. This is later topped in Mahogany where a random fat guy blocks the gym and tells you to go sightseeing. They didn't even try with that one.
• If it's always raining in Route 215, how come you still need to water the soil to keep it from drying out?
  • Do you really want to start having to take weather conditions into account when farming berries? It's annoying enough as is, without becoming more complicated.
  • How would not having to water something that's constantly watered by rain that never leaves make berry farming more annoying?
    • When you don't water these berries, it's not that they die, just that they produce less of them. Therefore, I just assume that what you're actually doing is giving them Miracle-Gro or something like that to make them grow better.
• If those wooden planks (or whatever they're supposed to be) are broad enough to bike across at full speed, what could possibly be stopping you from just walking over them? This could be looked over if they were supposed to act as a Broken Bridge until you get the bicycle, but they don't. The Broken Bridge is Cycling Road. It's also not like the bicycle is a secret item; you get it handed to you on a platter, you can't progress without it, and none of the aforementioned planks appear before you can obtain it. So basically their whole purpose is to annoy the people who prefer to walk. Kind of like the tall grass in reverse.
  • They're there to force you to go back and forth switching the bikes around because only the stunt orientated bike can cross them forcing you to have that but then the muddy slopes are only passable on the speed orientated bike
    • But you don't even have to do that in the 4th gen games. You just get one bike with two gears, and yet the bridges are still there.
  • Safari zone in 3rd gen and grandfather clause in the fourth.
    • Doesn't fourth gen. have at least one of those "ride the Master Bike across a floor before it breaks" zones? And even if it didn't, you'd have people clamoring for a faster bike (for long distance travel and egg-warming, since the current areas are freaking huge compared to the Kanto of R/B/Y) or a bike they have more control over (for short-range travel and doing that entertaining little acro bike hop) if they only let you have one bike that didn't switch gears.
• If Zangoose has those big-ass claws, why can't it learn Cut? You'd think it would.
  • My only theory is that Cut requires great precision, something Zangoose would have a hard time getting because of those big claws.
  • It wants to keep its claws sharp for carving up Sevipers.
• In the games, a lot of terms are in all Caps, namely Pokemon names, moves, items and important NPC's (Gym Leaders, Trainers), but in Fuchsia City in the first games, a guy named ERIK is hanging around Safari Zone Zoo looking for SARA who's in one of the Safari Zone houses. Why are these two random NPC's given all Caps names (or any name at all) as if they're important? Could this be leftover beta?
  • Everybody's names are all-caps until fourth gen. It's just a little joke the developers threw in, and you'd only be able to identify them by name since they have generic sprites.
    • But they were specifically given names, only important NPC's got such treatment.
    • Again, it's the only way they could identify them. There was nothing extra about them in the beta, they're just there for you to find and laugh at their stupidity in not being able to figure out where they meet.
      • I spent forever trying to figure out how to get them together. I was sure it was a side-quest of some kind.
• Why haven't any Pokemon professors ever mounted a hidden camera on a Pokemon and put it in the day care centre to see where the eggs come from or something? They're supposed to be researching them, yet they don't give a damn where they come from? Or are they just holding off from publishing this?
  • Perhaps they do know and just don't want to tell a ten-year-old about red-hot Pokelove.
    • Specially since the player would likely be traumatized by imagining some Improbable Species Compatibility.

• How come Magnemite (and evolutions) and Glalie don't have the Levitate ability? They both levitate! It's blatantly obvious! There is no other way they could conceivably move!
  • Perhaps they don't levitate high enough to avoid Ground-type moves, and thus don't have the 'ability', although they still levitate.
  • Magnemite levitates through magnetism, and ground moves disrupt this, causing it to drop straight onto the rippling earth from Magnitude. Glalie might roll or bounce instead of hovering.
  • I can see why they kept Levitate off Magnemite/ton/zone, because turning its one Quad weakness into an immunity would make it an absolute Game Breaker. On the other hand though, Glalie pretty much sucks as he is, he could really do with an immunity to Ground.
    • Magnemite/ton does learn Magnet Rise, which causes it to be immune to Ground for tive turns.
  • OK, so Levitate would have made Magnemite overpowered, and MAYBE we can forgive Glalie. What the hell is Beedrill's excuse?
    • Too dense to fly at its size? I could easily believe a beedrill only being able to use its wings a jump jets, and stand on the ground through entire battles (especially since some or most of its sprites show it on the ground, and they tend to stay on the ground except when attacking or moving amongst trees, etc. in the anime).
• Bonemerang cannot hit flying types. Why? Because it's a ground move. Except that it doesn't really have anything to do with the ground; it's an attack that involves throwing a bone at the enemy. There's no reason why anything should be able to avoid it without fail simply because they can fly; at least, no more so than any other physical attack.
  • I guessed about this one on the WMG page: ground moves are relatively slow and easy to evade, and flyers are typically fairly fast.
    • So why can't they evade Rock-type moves, which would logically be just as slow, if not slower? Or just fly away from most Fighting moves?
    • They're resistant to fighting rather than immune because they're avoiding but fighting types are better at anticipating moves, leading to a 'roll with the punches' effect; still not able to come up with anything good for Rock, though.
    • The phrase "kill two birds with one stone".
  • This thing about Bonemerang bugs me too. It would be cool if Bonemerang had an added effect and sole distinction as a ground move that can hit flying and levitating enemies. Earthquake would not necessarily be a better option this way.
• What I can't figure out is why people blame Absol, a random animal, for acts of God? And why they never notice even a vague corelation between whatever it does to warn people and the ensuing disaster? Do people in that universe just hate Absol or what?
  • If, everytime a certain creature showed up, a huge disaster happened moments later, would you begin to think that it might be responsible? Especially if you were from a small town without much contact with the rest of the world?
  • Yes, but what if you aren't in a small town? what if you're in a large town, or even a city, and you aren't a superstitious person like that? And surely someone, at some point in history, thought, "Hey, it looks like that thing is trying to warn us about something." Also, on the "huge disasters" thing, what constitutes a disaster? would an Absol consider, say, a particularly hideous 20-car pileup a disaster? how about a chemical fire? or a collapsing building? And I believe that, in one episode of the anime, the people of a town were blaming an Absol for various disasters, but Ash discovered it was trying to warn them.
  • There's not any reason why it'd look more like it was trying to warn people than it causing it. The latter explanation is simpler, and so people would be more likely to jump to that one.
  • Okay, here's a quick question: you are a man living in a small town. You have to go out of town to do business for a few days. On your way out, you see an Absol, doing whatever it does to warn people. You dismiss it and move on. Later, you learn a tornado hit, and there was mild loss of life. Assume that the town hasn't had another disaster like this in your lifetime, and this is the first time you've seen an Absol doing that. The question: would you blame the Absol for it? I think not, if you're a rational, logical human being. Ohter people could potentially blame it, but most likely not you.
    • How is that logical? If you were someone who has never seen an Absol before, you might think it's a little suspicious that a disaster struck right after this mysterious Pokemon showed up, doing something you've never seen other Pokemon do.
      • These are the same people that trust a 10-year-old with saving the world. Obviously, they are not the most rational of people.
      • hm...Okay, try this. Two words: the dex entry. Does it not specifically state it senses disasters and tries to warn people?
      • Seeing as it can't speak or write, it's not like there's a way it can warn people that's super-obvious as being a warning.
      • "What's that Lassie? You pushed Timmy into the well. BURN IT!!"
      • You mean the dex entry that only ten children and four pokemon experts have access to?
    • It's not so illogical to assume Absol is causing disasters when you know moves like Rain Dance, Sunny Day, and Earthquake exist. Considering how easily pokemon can tell the laws of nature to sit in the corner, it's actually easy to see how an old folk tale can gain a lot more credence.
    • Every so often, some unfamiliar animal pops up near your door. Every time you see it, soon afterward you find that your trash can has been tipped and garbage spilled on the pavement. Obviously, it was trying to warn you that something's about to tip your trash? I'm not one to assume but I'd guess that that wouldn't be your first thought.
• What does "whiting out" mean anyway? I've never heard the term "white out" used to refer to anything other than correction fluid. Now blacking out, yes. That made perfect sense, so what compelled them to change it?
  • Political correctness.
  • They changed back in HeartGold / SoulSilver.
• Anyone else think that it would've been more consistent if Crystal and Platinum had their names swapped? "Gold, Silver and Platinum" and "Diamond, Pearl and Crystal" sound a lot more sensible to me.
  • Perhaps, but it's not like they were planning that far ahead. Plus Crystal kinda fits with Suicune.
• why do all the legendaries all look so freakin' ridiculous?! When there are normal Pokemon that are more threatening looking than you, you've done something hideously wrong. Probably the worst of them is Shaymin. Neither of it's forms look threatening at all.
  • All? Don't Dialga, Palkia and Giratina look threatening at all? Heck, even Cresselia and Arceus look quite fierce! And that's just 4th gen! But, anyway, about those legendaries which are non-threatening... simply they weren't supposed to look threatening, a la "stronger perfumes come in the smallest flasks". What's the matter with something immensely rare being also incredibly cute?
  • Well, yes, those ones do look quite threatening, but the main problem is some of the riidiculous ornamentation. I'm not saying they don't look threatening, but the various...things that they have attached to them just look dumb. Arceus' cross, Dialga's crest, Suicune's "hair"... I could go on all day, really. My point is, they do look threatening, but it's usually offset by some weird ornamentation thing.
    • This troper finds that the most recent Legendaries don't even look like living creatures. It's like the artist just drew some random shapes and said "Whatever".
    • In regards to the ornamentation: What about Mewtwo, the bird trio, Ho-Oh, Lugia, the golem trio, Groudon, Kyogre, Giratina (Origin Forme moreso), Heatran, and Darkrai? And Arceus's cross ring isn't that ridiculous. Oh, and sorry that the pokemon of space, time, antimatter, and creation look different than living creatures.
    • In response to that, You seem to have forgotten that I specifically said usually, not always. And those that you mentioned? I would like to mention that both Groudon and Kyogre (Seriously, what's with these things names?) have a very odd looking pattern all over them, Giratina does indeed have ornamentation (The wings), and i am fairly sure that Mewtwo is a shade of pink. PINK. Basically, when the design is cool, the ornamentation ruins it. When there isn't ornamentation, the design is extremely weird, with the possible exception of Articuno, the golems, and Lugia.
    • Mewtwo is white and purple. Mew is pink. The only thing that looks at all odd about Moltres is the beak structure. Ho-Oh doesn't look weird by any stretch of the imagination.
    • Oh, and the names - Kyogre is based on 'orca' and Groudon is based on, um, 'ground'.
      • I think it's meant to be more of a Japanese pun - do is earth and kai (ky) is sea.
  • Personally, I think it's safe to say that how good or bad each legendary looks is down to personal preference. (incidentally, Shaymin's job is to... grow flowers. It doesn't need to look more threatening than a Chia pet.)
  • Note that the Legendaries tend to feature prominently on the game boxes and in marketing and merchandise. They put the extra mile into how they look, because they have to show off the games.
  • I always thought Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno looked quite fierce when they wanted to but quite beautiful when they wanted to as well (well...except Zapdos). The games don't do a very good job with their images for the most part. Mew is supposed to look and act cute and childish and Mewtwo is supposed to be a horrible ugly mesh of human and pokemon corrupted angsty freak. And those are the only legendaries.
    • Umm...the only legendaries in Gen. 1, yes. Not in the whole series.
• The competetive Pokémon fansite has a list of all the moves empowered by Hitmonchan's ecxlusive Iron Fist ability. The list includes Hammer Arm, Shadow Punch, and Meteor Mash; moves that Hitmonchan has no way of learning. So A: Why does Iron fist power up moves that Hitmonchan can't learn? And B: How did Smogon find that out? None of the pokes that can use Hammer Arm can copy abilities, for one thing...
  • In answer to A: Perhaps they had originally planned for other Pokémon to have Iron Fist before deciding to make it exclusive to Hitmonchan. In answer to B: Hacking.
  • Perhaps future Pokemon will have Iron Fist and be able to learn those moves?
  • About how they figured that out, while hacking is the most likely possibility, it can be found out and used legitimately by a Smeargle that knows either Roleplay or Skill Swap, getting the Iron Fist ability, and learning the attacks in question. Even more convoluted, one could get Conversion onto that same Smeargle to change it into a steel-type and get a STAB, Iron Fist-boosted Meteor Mash.
  • What gets me is that Strength isn't boosted, despite being clearly described as a PUNCH.
• I'm surprised no one's brought up Remoraid/Octillery after so many examples. A fish "evolving" into an octopus? Huh?
  • Yeah, it's kinda weird, but don't think about the animal parallel so much as the weapon parallel (gun to cannon). I think Game Freak tried to be too clever with that one.
  • Look, a squirrel can evolve into a cat mermaid (Eevee/Vaporeon); a turtle evolves into a triceratops (Aron/Aggron)...all kinds of weird crap happens with evolution.
    • Eevee is a cat. And I think Aggron is supposed to be based on some sort of ankylosaur, but that doesn't really matter without knowing what Aron is supposed to be if not a turtle. But yes, I do agree that both the Remoraid/Octillery evolution is poorly connected, and that evolution can be pretty weird. But (at the top poster) would you ever expect a creature composed of a head and a tail to turn into a practically tailless frog, or a worm with some dozen or more legs to turn into a puddle of goop in a coating of solidified spit into a six-legged thing with wings and a carapace, if you weren't used to it? I think the problem is that Remoraid is a remora with the abilities of a pistol fish, and they turned it into an octopus with the abilities of... Well, an octopus whose propulsion tube was turned into a cannon. That would be like a Zigzagoon evolving into a Seviper. Almost no physical similarities, and not based on anywhere near the same animal, but they live in the same environment and have a similar trademark ability (or in this case, pattern of locomotion).
      • This troper is fairly sure Eevee is supposed to be a fennec fox.
• What's with everyone forgetting you the second you leave the Hall of Fame? For that matter, you beat every local champion in every town, and no one even acknowledges it. And yeah, it might be that average people don't know who the league champion is, but what about when you go for a second run through the Elite Four and the Champion? Shouldn't someone in that building acknowledge that you beat them once before and are actually the League Champion?
  • Same reason maybe one or two people acknowledge that you just saved the region from a drought-from-hell, being flooded by torrential rain, Team Rocket from abusing pokemon and hijacking Silph Co, or stopped Team Galactic from creating their own universe.
  • Welcome to Corneria, deal with it.
    • You wanna stay at the Hall of Fame forever, or continue exploring, catching, battling and doing all sorts of neat activities without any limitations by the rules?
• Why is it that pokemon can't gain experience in the Battle Frontier? I get why money might not be used, but why no experience?
  • Fake Longevity.
  • Because you wouldn't be able to have any sort of streak if the Pokemon you use keep gaining levels and cannot be used anymore in the facilities.
• Does the Pokemon World have any sort of violent crime? You think with Pokemon such as Charizard, or Alakazam, that criminals would be running rampant..
  • Criminal-police arms race. Criminals have such access to pokemon- but so do the people who stop criminals.
  • Haven't you played Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness/Time/Sky? There are plenty of Pokemon criminals, and there are bounty rewards for explorer teams that capture them.
• Don't the girls get cold from wearing skimpy clothing all the time?
  • Same reason joggers who wear skin-tight or skimpy clothing don't get cold...because they're getting blood pumping, easy as that!

• It's stated in the Pokedex that "Lick" will paralyze any Pokemon that it's used on. How is saliva able to paralyze somebody?
  • I think the idea is that they're paralyzed by pure Squick.
  • I'm not sure, I've seen this "Ghost Licks Paralyze" trope in other games as well, I think this might be Older Than They Think...
  • You know how Dungeons & Dragons-style Ghouls have a paralysing touch? Kinda like that.
• So how does the education system work in Pokemon? How do kids get licensed as Pokemon Trainers?
  • All children go to school for five years. After that, their grades are evaluated. 20% of the kids (those with the worst overall grades) are promptly given a "trainer's license" and kicked out.
• Does their entire world revolve around pokemon?
  • Yes. Literally, probably, I'll bet that their earth's core is a mass of Slugma and Macargo.
• so where do trainers get money to buy potions and food anyway?
  • ...Seriously? You don't know? It's not as if trainers are piss poor or that they don't have means to get money, or savings, or parents, or whatever, what kind of question is that?
  • Given that most trainers are kids...tell me, have you ever heard of "pocket money"? It's probably a ritual in Hoenn etc. to save up small amounts of money from 5–10 years old, then depend upon that, winnings, gifts, rewards, and whatever you find on trees.
• Are Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar forms of dead pokemon or are they their own entity?
  • Well, we see a ghost Marowak, so we can assume actual ghosts take the form of whatever they were while alive. Since you can breed Gastlys, it's probable that they're simply their own species of gas things that happen to usually live in creepy locations, and people just thought they were ghosts.
    • Which makes me wonder, if they are of different natures then why do ghastlys & hunters and the dead cubones & marowaks all appear as vague blobs before you get the silph scope?
    • Maybe the Gastlys and Haunters are also dead and you're fighting the ghosts of the Ghost Pokemon.
      • Yo dawg, I heard you like Ghost Pokemon, so we made Pokemon ghosts out of Ghost Pokemon so you can get scared while you get scared.
    • Could be that it's simply part of Gastly's natural power set - the ability to cloak yourself as a terrifying spectre rather than a simple grinning purple ball would naturally scare people, protecting you from being caught by anyone without some kind of psychic sensitivity to override it. The Silph Scope counterfeits this, and in later games, a similar system could be installed into Pokegear, Pokenav, or even the later generations of Pokedex.
• Why do Bellosom and Politoed make little sense compared to the "original" evolutionary path of a given Pokémon? I realize the concept of branching evolution didn't exist at the time Gloom and Poliwhirl were created, but they look nothing like their new evolutions, almost to the point of ridiculousness when you compare Gloom, Vileploom, and Bellossom, or compare Poliwhirl, Poliwrath, and Politoed. Specifically: Gloom's flower in no way sets up for Bellossum, and Poliwhirl doesn't really look like he could become bright green...
  • Maybe Gloom to Bellosom make little sense, but they are plants, they can change whatever they want. Poliwhirl on the other hand, if you haven't noticed its based on a tadpole! What do tadpoles become when they grow up? Yeah, there is your explanation.
    • Hm. Just looked it up; you're right. I'd assumed Poliwhirl and Poliwrath were frogs, I guess...which makes it slightly weird that Poliwrath is one of Poliwag's final forms and is aesthetically tougher-looking than a fully-matured frog (I know there's some kind of proper complaint in here, dammit!).
  • If it's any consolation, Bellossom's original artwork gave her a blue body.
  • Additionally, in regards to the flower, just split Gloom's bud thing, then let it mature. If Doduo can grow another head, and if Vulpix can grow additional tails, Gloom can grow another flower.
• Why can't Godchu gain a win on any Pokemon in the Electabuzz line, the only victory he has was when he teamed up with another Pikachu. Its like the writers knew he was the mascot and gave him victories of loads of Pokemon but always thought Electabuzz was the superior electric Pokemon.
  • It finally gained one against Volkner's Electivire
  • Electabuzz IS the superior electric Pokemon, even without evolving!
• Is there any reason why Gary decided to become a pokemon researcher?
  • Couldn't afford a bus ticket?
• Who else thinks that there should be at least one type pair that can attack each other For Massive Damage, and/or a pair that are defensively strong against one another, rather than straight-up Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors? For example, Psychic pokemon could be weak against Ghost attacks because they're more sensitive on the spiritual level, but Ghost pokemon are weak against Psychic attacks because they live entirely on the plane where Psychic attacks do their stuff and without a body to hold them together (metaphorically or literally) while they regain their senses, or the other way around where Psychic pokemon are strong against Ghost attacks because of practice in tranquility and focus, and Ghost pokemon are strong against Psychic type attacks because they're beings of spirit and Psychic attacks would just be fighting fire with fire. Yes, I know the "both attacks stronger than both defenses" makes more sense (and two pokemon that had strong attacks against each other would be less frustrating than two pokemon that could only use Cherry Tapping attacks against each other), and I have thought this about a couple of different elemental pairings, but I wanted to give a more impartial example.
  • It took me some time checking the type chart on Bulbapedia, but I managed to remember the most obvious example of how that actually does happen alerady: Ghost and Normal; both types are completely unneffective against the other.
    • And that's cool, isn't it? annoying, because you have to make sure any Normal or Ghost pokemon you have have alternate type attacks before going up against an opponent that specializes in the opposing type, since it's No Effect rather than Weak, but cool.
  • Don't forget mutual-resisting Bug and Fighting.
• Why are pokemons movements so weird, I don't mean the attacks, I mean the movements when they're out of their pokeballs, in crystal they were well done moving a part of the body and at the same time of the cry, very natural, but in emerald and beyond, they don't make any sense! Pokemons like Abra and Meditite jump even though they're sitting! And in generation IV many pretty much inflate and deflate for no reason, I know that animating 493 different types of pokemons in a unique way is kind of hard but it just bugs me how unnatural all of the movements look.
  • Abra and Meditite are Psychic; they could be floating.
• How do Pokemon with no visible mouths like Hitmonlee eat food?
  • Hitmonlee have mouths under their fur. Some others just crumble it down so that it can be absorbed through a patch of easily permeated skin where their mouths "should" be. And some simply don't eat food, they just eat SOULSemotions and other environmental energy.
    • So how do those pokemon eat berries and such?
      • Berries are alive, or at least have something on the psychoemotional plane. See the item entry for that type of berry that "swells roundly" when they sense human emotions. That, or they use a straw.
  • On that same subject, why does Mamoswine have no mouth?
• The "discovery" of new Pokemon every couple years. While this allows new Pokemon and keeps the series from going stale, it leads to a lot of Fridge Logic. Putting aside the issue of "we haven't seen any two years ago, but now there's hundreds of them", what about the baby Pokemon? How the hell could people have known about Pikachu without knowing about Pichu?
  • For the last question: the same way they didn't know about eggs. Pokemon reproduction is obviously not what we would expect. For the issue as a general... there's no better way to handle that without recurring to patches, which are only possible from this generation and forward. Since the games are not rewritable software, it just won't happen.
  • In the anime, at least, a flashback from before the show's beginning has Ash watching a movie with Gen II Pokemon (starring Red, no less). Not sure about the games.
• Why do Ash & Pikachu KEEP ATTACKING TEAM ROCKET WITH ELECTRICITY??? Jessie & James caught on to that A DECADE AGO!
  • Because Iron Tail would kill them, and using Pikachu is just the quickest way to keep them distracted until they can be bound/foiled/blasted off again.
    • Iron Tail would kill them? But shocking with high voltage lightning and launching them into the stratosphere is perfectly fine?!
      • Of course. Electricity is practically harmless (Ash knew that long before Team Rocket ever showed up), and Team Rocket always survives blasting off again. Iron Tail was designed to send non-piercing damage through the stone skin of Rock-type pokemon, and would obviously shatter any weak human bone that it struck (such as ribs or skull).
        • Harmless? Pikachu electrocuted Onix, the GROUND-BASED ROCK snake, in the first season. Imagine how powerful his electric shocks are four to five generations later?
  • We have a Trope for this: Plot Induced Stupidity.
• WHY ARE THERE NO CARS?!?! Seriously? They've got trains, buses, ships, helicopters, motorcycles, and bicycles! Is it too hard to build roads, or what? The only thing remotely resembling a car that we see is a moving van!
  • There are cars, they're just not seen very often as Ash and friends spend most of their time in the wilderness. In the first season we see that bridge that's inaccesible to pedestrians, but allows bikes and cars. Also, in Diamond and Pearl, Brock rode on an 18 wheeler.
  • That in the anime. In the games there aren't any because they aren't needed, and enough with yelling the stupid questions.
  • There was a truck in Red/Blue, wasn't it?
  • I always thought that we never saw cars because maybe there were special routes set aside for trainers, where no vehicles were allowed. That way the cars wouldn't scare away wild Pokemon or run over anyone.
    • This troper just assumed everyone has capsule cars like in dragonball
  • There are cars in Pokemon Black and White.
    • So Officer Jenny's finally in the games?
  • In Pokémon Special, both Wallace and Cyrus have flying cars.
  • In the anime, there's been several cars, such as those owned by Bertha, Scott, Cynthia, a ton of people going to the surfing competition in Seafoam, all the police agents in movie 3, and so on. Although as far as named characters go, we've seen about as many who own cars as who own airships.
  • Colosseum and XD also included a few vehicles.
• Do Pokemon get old? Naturally nothing ages onscreen, but has there ever been an old Pokemon ever in canon?
  • Tracey's Scyther?
  • Also that pilot's old Noctowl in Johto.
  • And an elderly Treecko in the episode when Ash caught his own Treecko.
  • Come on, I can't be the only one who remembers Pooka.
• Does anyone know the off-screen reason why Ash got rid of Primeape? It seems odd that they made it such a hard Pokémon to capture (devoting an entire episode to it), then having Ash go through all that effort to get Primeape to obey him and then immediately turn around and get rid of it. Did they plan it that way from the start just to showcase the concept of disobediant Pokémon? Did they change their minds, not wanting Ash to have such a powerful team mate? Did fans not like Primeape so they wrote it out to please them? Just curious.
  • I think Ash left it with anthony so it could become stronger...
    • S/he said the "off-screen reason" i.e. the REAL reason. The reason why the shows' writers thought it would be a good idea to have a trainer show up, offer to train Primeape, and have Ash agree to it in the first place.
• Just how does the Pokedex work? In the games, it sounds like your character is entering the data. The manga is a bit more confusing, as Oak describes it as an encyclopedia, but then tells Red to enter his data when he meets a new Pokemon. Nearly every time he uses the thing, he's at least somewhat surprised by the data, so it's clear not all the data is his own, so where does that data come from?
  • The Pokedex is clearly a wireless access terminal to a wiki all Pokemon trainers can edit. Professor Oak must keep the server in his lab. Whenever information in the Pokedex seems like a pile of bullshit, it's because an asshole trainer decided it would be fun to troll the other trainers.

• Does anyone wonder why Palkia is a Water and Dragon type? What does time have to do with Water? I'd assume Psychic (and Dragon) to be a better choice... than again I remember it being weird that Lugia isn't a Water and Flying rather than Psychic and Flying.
  • Alright, in the beginning, what covered the earth? Water.
  • Space Is an Ocean.
  • Because pearls are from the ocean. Of course, this doesn't explain why Dialga isn't Dragon/Ground.
    • Perhaps because you need a time machine to time travel? I dunno...
    • Don't any of you guys read the script? Dialga is Time.
      • ...Am I missing something?
        • The original question somehow implied that Palkia was related to time. (The real question had to have been about Palkia. Dialga isn't a Water type.)
          • And now it shifted to Dialga, who is Steel. And no, I don't think you need a machine to time travel, that's just one of the possible devices.
            • What are the other possible devices then? Hey, it's an explanation that works, just roll with it.
              • Well, Butterfly Effect used journal pages and photographs, and in some other stories the time travel is made just as a special power, without any sort of device(like Braid), not to mention magic. And no, I don't have a better explanation, I just felt like leaving a lil' refutation.
  • Maybe it is because space is always expanding, like a puddle of water (sort of), and time only goes in one direction for most beings, the flow being as solid as steel and requiring a tremendous amount of power to break? And to add to that, as stated, pearls are from the ocean. Also, diamonds are harder than steel. Steel is the hardest type in the games. So until they create a diamond type...

• Why do ONLY your from Caterpie evolved and Gym Leader Bugsys Metapods know the moves Tackle, String Shot and Harden but all wild Metapods and all the ones from other trainers don´t? They should have natureally learned that moves from simply being a Caterpie, so do ALL Metapods in the games except your and Bugsys ones pop into the world?
  • This was mentioned in this page before: pokemon that belong to trainers are stronger than those on the wild. I assume Metapods on hte wild don't need to fight much(it's a cocoon, it should retain its energy for metamorphosis) so it has no reason to retain fighting moves like Tackle, and it already used String Shot for its intended purpose(make a cocoon). When you evolve a Caterpie, it's mind is tuned ot battle, so it doesn't forget those useful moves. The reason why only Bugsy's Metapod has tackle must be because he caught it as a Caterpie, while the other trainers didn't.
• Also, why do Caterpie when evolving into Metapod on a level other than seven not learn Harden? It´s like their signature move. A literal bug in the game for me.
  • It's not much a bug, more like a game engine idiosincrasy: the game data says that Metapod learns Harden at level 7, so if you evolve your Caterpie at level 8 or beyond, it won't retroactively learn that move(though it'll be able to remember it with the Move Relearner).
• What the hell is with the olivine-cianwood gym hodgepodge? Serioursly, if you train for one of them, you only get wild pokemon to train for the other. it was bad it the originals, and infuriating in the remakes, because they have an easy remedy in the form of the vs. seeker...which leads to the below IJBM

• Why is the Vs. seeker left out of Heartgold and soulsilver? It's easily one of the most important key items in the sinnoh games, and these leave it out, despite needing it more than ever. and they can't even uses the 'it's a remake' excuse because the vs. seeker was introduced in a remake
  • Wasn't the Vs. Seeker the Poké Gear's phone in Gold/Silver/Crystal? I'm pretty sure people called you to battle when they were ready or something like that...
    • You can use the phone, but it's nowhere near as reliable as the VS Seeker. Only certain trainers will battle on certain days and even then, it can take several calls before they finally agree to it. The only way to effectively train your team in the earlier stages is to do a little Sequence Breaking, going to Mahogany Town and taking down Team Rocket early. Still, considering even the wild Pokémon around here are around level 15, I guess they keep you from raising your team too much since there are twice as many gyms in this game and figure it's better to spread the taining out a little more. Not very well implemented though.

• Does it actually say outside the anime that you start your journey at 10? I can't remember if it does in the original games or not.
  • I'm not sure, but I just assumed that age 10 was the minimum required age to become a licensed pokemon trainer. You could start your journey anytime after that.
• In Platinum, why does some guy just up and give you, a young kid, an empty villa?
  • It contains incriminating evidence he wants to dispose of.
• Why did they remove HM cut's outside of battle ability in Generation IV?^[2] I can completely understand the reason for this in HG/SS since it added the feature where a Pokémon can follow you outside of their balls, if it had problems animating the effect. But what was wrong with it in D/P/Pl?
  • Even worse, removing the ability to cut grass makes having Cut and Rock Smash even more redundant.
    • What? Does Cut smash rocks, or Rock Smash cut those little trees?
      • Well, the rocks are pretty much "cave trees", so they are pretty much different versions of the same moves (like the games themselves!)
      • Except rocks have pokemon in them, trees don't. It is a difference.
  • Clearly because of the new PokeRadar. Either they didn't want to complicate their code, or they didn't want players to abuse the function by creating an ideally shaped patche of grass for easy chaining.
• From the item sprite, Ethers and Max Ethers are clearly in man-made containers, like Potions and the like. Yet you can find them inside of smashed rocks.
  • As a side-note these games are published by the same people who give you legal tender and ammo inside jars and the grass.
  • Going by the earlier theory that those rocks are actually the poop of rock and steel types in the cave, maybe an Onix ate a trainer?
  • Maybe you're finding some other trainer's hidden stash.
  • Or maybe you find the item loose and put it in the containers you keep for such purposes.
• Where in the hell does the player-character's mother shop in the Gen 2 remakes? She seems to buy an awful lot of impossible-to-find items and berries.
  • Obviously she shops online at Pok-E-Bay.
• If Electric moves are super effective against Water types because water conducts electricity, shouldn't Steel types be vulnerable for the same reason?
  • Good question. It must have something to do with game balance, because it's only weak for attacking electric, but not for defense.
  • That can actually be easily answered. Steel is not weak against Eelctric because, unlike water, it is in metals' natural condition to conduct electricity; even for relatively large amounts, where what changes notoriously is the temperature of the metal rather than (before) its internal composition. Compare water and pretty much anything organic, which can be unreversibly disrupted by a high electrical current (think skin tissue).
• Speaking of which why is fighting good against steel? If you tried punching metal you're far more likely to hurt yourself. Same is tru with Rock v. fighting.
  • I figured it had to do with the way steel is molded or shaped...just minus the necessary heat. Most logical thing would be to say that fighting type moves would exert the enough pressure to harm a steel (or rock) body.
  • The Rock component is supposed to invoke martial artists cutting through rocks with their hands; Steel must just be a continuation of that. Either way, it's to balance out Fighting as an out-of-universe answer.
    • Similar to Bug being strong against Dark type for no apparent reason?
  • Fist is stronger than steel!

• Why did team Magma/Aqua use the Blue/Red Orb to summon Groudon/Kyogre in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire? YMMV but to me, you would summon a land spirit with a red orb, and a sea spirit with a blue orb, and not the other way around.
  • Notice that they were pissed off when they awoke. Groudon and Kyogre were likely enraged into appearing due to their opposing element's presence. Heck, each may have thought that the other was somewhere near.
    • True, but irrelevant. I asked why Magma/Aqua thought it was a good idea, not why Game Freak did.
  • We have a trope for this: Plot Induced Stupidity. Who said team Magma and Team Aqua were smart? Their plan is to expand the land or ocean to have more space for their pokemon. Maxie tries to erupt a volcano that's nowhere near the ocean, and Archie apparently doesn't think that maybe because there is land, that people would get overcrowded quickly if not die out in the floods?
• Why are Dark types called "Evil" in Japan when they're pretty much no different than other types? The only remotely evil things about them are their appearances (and even that's debatable in some cases) and their use of dirty tactics.
  • Yes it's the dirty tactics.
    • But being a Combat Pragmatist doesn't necessarily make you evil.
      • If you're fighting for your life, maybe not. But resorting to cheap tricks in an organized League-sponsored match won't earn you much respect. Groin attacks are useful when you're being accosted, but they're not allowed in boxing.
  • When you get down to it, they're basically an Asshole type. There's a difference between Combat Pragmatist and being an asshole... and usually that difference is whether we're supposed to think the person is a hero or a villain. From a neutral standpoint, most Combat Pragmatist moves are straight up mean. And Dark moves often seem to go past Combat Pragmatist to, well, Jerkass.
• Larvitar and Tyranitar are dinosaurs. Pupitar is a cocoon.
  • Not dinosaurs, kaiju. Which can have some odd life cycles.
    • So, its line is a mashup of Minilla/Junior, Mothra, and Godzilla Shout Outs?
• Stealth Rock causes stones to float in the air around the opponent, right? If Gravity can take Flying-types and levitators out of the air, why shouldn't it do the same with Stealth Rock?
  • Stealth Rock is just stealthy enough to avoid gravity.

• Chatot can't learn Bite. Never mind that it's supposed to be a parrot, and parrots have obscenely strong beaks with obscenely strong biting power...
  • Bit has been Dark since second generation. Chatot's too light, since the only pokemon that aren't all dark and creepy or poison/dark type that have it have been grandfathered in from Gen 1 or their lower forms or are fire types (most if not all of which have it under the Gen 1 Grandfather Clause). Ampharos, for example, can't use Bite despite sheep being some of the nastiest herbivores to wield a set of teeth.
    • Moves never follow guidelines like that. Pokemon are always assigned moves regardless of which other Pokemon that can use it
      • No, but they have descriptions: "Bite: The foe is bitten with viciously sharp fangs. It may make the target flinch." Birds don't have fangs. There isn't a single bird that can learn Bite. Peck, Drill Peck or Pluck, yes. Bite, no.
  • Maybe it's because the majority of Pokémon that learn Bite and/or Crunch have sharp teeth, whereas Chatot doesn't. It ought to at least learn something like Drill Peck, though (and not having a long pointy bill like Fearow never stopped things like Empoleon from getting it). Ah, well - maybe you can assume that Pluck is its bastard parrot bite attack.
• So Cyrus wants to be rid of emotions. Apparently if you touch Mesprit, you'll lose your emotions in three days. Cyrus had Mesprit to obtain the Red Chain. So...why does he still have emotions the last time you see him? In all likelyhood, he had it for longer than three days, and if you consider his closing rant in Platinum, he infers that he'll have to work harder to get rid of them, so it's not simply a matter of that he'd have to wait for the three days to pass. Why didn't he just touch the damn Mesprit and get it over with?
  • On the grounds that maybe, just maybe, Mesprit might know this and instead decide to overload Cyrus with emotions if he touches him/her/it.
  • What Cyrus acutally wanted was for EVERYONE to be devoid of spirit and emotion, not just himself. Simply touching Mesprit wouldn't achive his goal, because while he'd have no emotion, everyone else would.
    • But in the meantime he'd have what he wanted for himself. It'd be a step, and since the very nature of the lake spirits divides emotion from willpower, he'd still have motivation to "save" everyone else.
• I've got two problems with the whole "leaving a pokemon with another person to get stronger", the first being that it defeats the entire point of being a Pokemon trainer. That is, becoming stronger and learning and making mistakes alongside your team. Second of all, when they really want to leave, that just makes it look like the trainer is completely incompetent. Nice enough to be their friend, but not strong enough to earn their loyalty.
• Hsas anyone else noticed that when you fight Misty in the first game, she claims her strategy is all out offensive, yet in the battle she goes on the defensive, spamming Harden and X-Defend?
  • Obviously a clever bluff so that you'll be expecting an all-out offensive, then be caught off guard when you don't get one. Misty is a tricky snake!

• Something this troper noticed when playing Platinum.How is it possible for Dugtrio to learn slash?!I mean, they're just three heads poking out from the ground!
  • Whatever is below ground, it obviously has claws.
  • I'm pretty sure there's a similar question above, but... it's a mole(or three moles joined by the neck), so it has claws.
• How does whoever manufactures the Potion line of medicine stay in business? The super potion has literally the medicinal value of a bottle of mineral water! Is the player the only one in the world to ever notice that you can get better healing items from a freaking vending machine at half the price?
  • Because no one bothers to set up such machines anywhere but one building in a major city, while potions are everywhere. Also only Colo and XD let you buy more than one at a time (in which games you do indeed never buy many potions once you hit the vending machines) which is annoying enough to just fork over the extra money to buy 99 at a time. There is also no full restore equivalent of drinks.
• What's with Clamperl's evolutions? A pearl releasing "Psychic Powers" turns it into an eel/pipefish, with the help of a tooth or a scale?
• Why on earth would the english translators decide to name it "PurUGLY?" What exactly is ugly about it?
  • It has kinks in its whiskers and it's fur pattern makes it look like it's about to burst out of clothes several aizes too small for it. Besides, its original name contains a possible use of the Japanese word for ugly to begin with.
• Why on earth wouldn't they give Morty, the Ghost-Type Gym Leader a Misdreavus, the only new ghost type in Generation 2? Especially since you can't find one until the end of the game.
• What is the point of Phione? Is there some myth/legend that ties it up to Manaphy? It's pretty much just a clone only worse...
  • It is an unevolved manaphy.
    • No, the species is normally Phiones, it's just that occasionally a Manaphy is born of them.^[3] That's why Phiones can breed more Phiones and Manaphys only produce more Phiones as well.
• A Magneton is composed of three Magnemite, but weighs more than ten Magnemite. Fucking magnets, how do they work?
  • A Magneton is only said to be comprised of three Magnemite in the Pokédex, which most people agree is inaccurate. In truth, a Magneton is just one Magnemite that has evolved. And like any other evolved Pokémon, it's bigger and heavier than it's previous form.
    • While the Pokedex is inaccurate about many things, that's not one of them. It may be that they gain access to more power in a group, and the extra magnetism/power capacity makes them weigh more/push down on the earth more.
• So.....what becomes of Pokemon that the varoius Teams IE: Rockets and such in the anime when they are arrested, like Annie and Oakly had an Espeon and Aridos, so...what becomes of them when they were arrested, and wouldn't the Pokemon revolt against new trainers or such if they cared for their Rocket (or other team members) owners?
  • They probably count as possesions and are put in a storage system while their trainers serve whatever sentence they're given. There's probably some visitatgion opputunities provided.

• What does Satoshi Tajiri think of the anime? Everyone keeps saying how he loves the games and manga, but does he just hate the show or something? And if so, why does he not take more direct involvement in it? Is he like Alan Moore or something?
• Why some Pokemon have the ability "Intimidate". What's so Intimidating about a Shinx? (however, it can also have another ability, "Rivalry"). There's no excuse for Staravia, though. It's also an odd ability: a Shinx or a Staravia can lower the attack of Olympus Mons?
  • It's probably some sort of mental power. Instead of being so big and fangy that it scares the opponent, it causes the opponent a distinct sense of unease regardless of how big or psychically powerful the opponent is.
• Gliscor and Gligar, Ground/Flying. HOW?
  • By leaping forth from their earthy abodes and using their wings to aid them in catching their prey. Their names are derived from the word "glide", which makes sense for creatures that are capable of flying but must return to the ground eventually.
    • Still doesn't explain the Ground type.

• Porygon2 is repeatedly stated by the Pokédex to be incapable of flight. But why is it always shown hovering in the air in the 3D games and even in the Pokédex's size comparison area? (It's my favourite Pokémon, natch)
  • The Pokedex is wrong?
  • Maybe it can hover, but not actually fly, and needs to land to move at any significant speed?
  • It's probably just that it can hover above the ground, but it can't go any higher than that hover.
• Platinum's Battle Factory, Level 100 mode. Rhydon and Porygon2 can be used, but Pokemon such as the Hitmons, Ninjask, and Wobbuffet cannot. Also, they are the only two not-fully evolved Pokemon that can be used in this mode (Magneton, Dusclops, and others cannot be used, for example). Why is this?
• The funny thing about all the pokedex entries is that I think there's an episode of the show that Lampshades this. In one episode of the first series they meet a researcher who wrote entries for the dex and called him out on how some of the entries were mean. He Handwaved it by saying that "Maybe my assistant threw that in. I think his assistant(s) have been smoking something.
• In Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Something-or-other (Frontier, I think), why did Clayton (the guy who used all of the ridiculous abbreviations) repeatedly call himself a Pokemon-trainer Martial Artist instead of a Pokemart? Did they just not want to stoop thjat low for the obvious pun?
  • It's Sinnoh League Victors. Also, this makes me wish that Dawn had called upon Pachirisu, simply so he could have called him Dawnpachi.
• Pokeballs are around five inches tall. Voltorb are about a foot tall. How do you mistake a Voltorb for a Pokeball?
  • If you mean the items that turn out to be Voltorbs, the Gamecube games show that the "Pokeball items" are not in Pokeballs, but Pokeball-themed chests, about the size of a Voltorb. Of course, they aren't shaped like Voltorb now... Maybe Orre's item boxes are just uniquely shaped, and the others are round?
    • The Pokédex states that both Voltorb and Electrode are mistaken for Poké Balls. A Poké Ball is a little bigger than a baseball. Voltorb are one-foot-eight (50 cm). Electrode are three-foot-eleven (1,2 meters). How is this possible?
    • This could be explained by a page in the manga that had many, many Voltorbs and Electrodes of WILDLY varying sizes, with some Electrodes as small as regular Pokéballs, and a Voltorb as big as a regular Electrode. No clue how that happens, but it was in the manga. x'3
• Why can a thousand pound whale mate with a 2 pound cat?. How is said whale only a thousand pounds? How can a water dragon possibly bounce? Why are children encouraged to go out into the wilderness alone where wild monsters lurk?
  • Said whale can also bounce. As can a fish with a tail that looks like wings.
  • Why does said thousand-pound whale weigh less than a sixth the weight of a blue whale's tongue?
    • Wailord is blue and a whale but it's not a blue whale, so...
    • Hell, Wailord is the source of a lot of Fridge Logic, mostly involving its size. For example, how can you use it in buildings? How can it be used on dry land period without its weight causing it to suffocate? How can it move on dry land at all?
      • Lampshaded here...
      • Hell, how does something fifty feet long only weigh nine hundred pounds? With some very rough estimation of its volume, it would appear to be less than twice as dense as air at STP (which incidentally answers your question as to how its body doesn't crush itself when on dry land...).
    • This also applies to a lot of fish Pokémon (except for the flailing Magikarp). In the 3D games they appear to be hovering.
• Ghost-type Pokémon can mate. This becomes especially bizarre in light of the fourth-generation Pokémon Spiritomb, who is composed of 108 spirits and can nonetheless mate. Or maybe this is just a weird case of xenobiology? (Then again, though, one character in the first-generation games [and again in FireRed and LeafGreen] referred to ghosts as having explicitly been killed.)
  • • There seem to be two kinds of 'ghosts' in the pokémon-'verse. Ghost-type pokémon, who were never alive in the first place (or were, but have forms that remind people of "real" ghosts,) and ghosts of existing pokémon, such as the ghosts in the Old Chateau and the Marowak ghost in the Pokémon Tower.
• Thhe best bit of Fridge Logic has to be why one would have to use a Poke Flute to wake up a Snorlax blocking the road to battle it, only to put it back to sleep in-battle to make it easier to catch...

• How is it that a Pokemon can use a move like Rain Dance indoors? It's not like it'll start raining from the ceiling, and I've always gotten the impression that water-type moves would be pwoered up it the Pokemon is exposed to the rain.
  • They trigger the sprinkler system? I kinda want to know how they use Sunny Day or Hail inside.
• So I noticed in the Gen IV games during battle, you can see your team's Pokéballs lined up above the attack menu and sometimes, some of the Pokéballs seem to wobble for some reason. In Heart Gold I tried shuffling the team around a bit and realised it was always my Noctowl that was wobbling. So what's this mechanic for? Does it indicate some type advatange/disadvantage? Is it based on my Pokémon's nature? Or is it just for fun?
  • Wobbling means that that Pokemon is about to level up.
    • Ahh, okay, thanks.

• Scizor takes neutral damage from rock type attacks. Why?
  • Because it's part bug, which are vulnerable to rock attacks, but it's also part steel which is resistant to rock attacks.
    • It was a joke (rock beats sissors. I know that's "why".
• Whys isn't Mawile part Dark-type? It's called the Deceiver Pokemon, is based off of a yokai, tricks its enemies, and knows far more Dark-type moves than Steel-type ones.
  • It's decieving you into thinking it's Dark type.
• Red's PC "hasn't been used in a long time" and his mom hasn't heard from him for a while, but has a brand new Wii?
  • Red's mother probably bought it for Wii Sports and Wii Fit.
  • She brought it for a gift and he never came home for it until you beat him? Or maybe he did play with it but left? A "long time" can be a few months to years.
• Why is Bite Dark type? Keep in mind that in Japan, the Dark type is the Evil type. Biting something is evil. Blowing yourself up is perfectly normal. Firing a giant laser at something's face is perfectly fine, but flinging a berry?! How evil! Especially when that berry then heals any damage the Pokemon just took...
  • The Dark type seems to be considered dirty fighting, rather than evil, so Bite would fit in with the rest of the Dark type moves.
  • Also, if you're throwing a healing berry, you're doing it wrong... sort of. The objective of flinging berries(or other items) is to stall the opponent, and that's surely sneaky.
• Why in the games is there an extreme lack of fire pokemon? Out of 150 pokemon in the first game their were only 8 fire pokemon (counting evolutions).
  • Actually, there were 12 Fire Types in Generation 1. That's better than Sinnoh, were there were only 5 new Fire Types. Hell, before Platinum, you only had the option of Chimchar or Ponyta (Pre-National Dex).
  • Bulbapedia mentions that Fire isn't common in nature and it's kind of hard to find inspirations. Not to mention; Unova adds fifteen fire types.
• How can a lvl. 10 Abra possibly teleport before a lvl. 20 Bellsprout uses Sleep Powder?
  • Things are damn fast, and Bellsprout's pretty slow.
  • Touch a hot stovetop. See how quickly your brain tells you to get your hand off the stove. Teleportation is a psychic ability. As such, as soon as its brain gives the command, it teleports.
  • Irrelevant correction: your brain tells you no such thing. Reflexive actions in humans route directly from sensory input to motor reaction via the spinal column precisely because it takes too long to route all the way to the brain, wait for it to process, then perform the reflex.
• How can Hypnosis possibly miss?
  • The targeted Pokemon looks away?
• How cold is Sinnoh? It's the coldest region and it even snows quite a bit however girls can still walk around in skirts and both genders in revealing clothing.
  • It's not neccessarily incredibly cold. I live in a region where it doesn't snow much, but when it has, I've been quite comfortable in a t-shirt. It's also probably not as cold in the southern regions of Sinnoh.
• This is more a fanfic issue than a canon one, but guns. Most fanfic I see seems to assume guns exist. Why? Guns should never have been developed in the pokemon universe. Making the first modern handgun involved basing the model off of a previous, less effective gun, which was in turn based off of another, even less effective gun, etc. In order to do that, you would need a reason or desire for a weapon. Why would you need a weapon like those medieval European muskets that you can't aim with when you have magical animals that can breathe fire and obey your every command? Not to mention you have things like quick attack and swift, as well. While modern weapons are more effective than pokemon, terrible prototype guns are not, and therefore no one would have made them in the first place. And due to the way technological advancements work, there would be no base model to improve off of, and therefore no one would ever create anything like the modern handgun.
  • Their presence in Legend of Dratini is the only thing that keeps me off the "The world has no guns because everyone trains the vicious animals instead" idea, may work for the games though.
    • That can be subjected to the same "things that only appear in the anime's first season can be ignored" policy that allows people to ignore the occasional non-Pokemon animals.
      • There's a Trope for that.
  • What about the fact that there are moves explicitly referencing weapons? Water Gun, Bullet Seed, Swords Dance, Hydro Cannon, Octazooka... how would they come up with those names with no weapons to have gotten the terms from? And let's not forget, there are areas like Orre where there aren't many Pokemon to begin with, where weapons could have been developed in place of Pokemon.
    • While that's a good point, I have a new follow-up to my argument: If guns exist, why don't the terrorist crime syndicates use them? When a ten-year-old walks in and tries to infiltrate their base, the grunts don't just whip out a gun and shoot him, they challenge him to a pokemon battle. Even if you argue that the grunts are idiots, why don't the leaders or executives do that? Cyrus, in particular, is not one to screw around with things like pokemon battles if there are quicker and more pragmatic solutions. (Ditto for Team Snagem) Yet when you beat them, they don't try to attack you further, submit, and act like there's nothing more they can do. Also, for Orre, my previous argument still stands. Team Snagem is by far the most dangerous team, yet they don't just try to shoot you either. I don't really know what to say to the move names, though.
    • Because while they could shoot, Pokemon are far more effective weapons. We know for a fact that people used to have weapons, seeing the Veilstone myth where there was a man who hunted Pokemon with a sword. Now, I dunno about you, but I'd take a Charizard over a pistol any day. Far more potentially damaging, and it has other uses. Not to mention that since moves like Flamethrower can only make Pokemon faint and not kill them, it's logical to assume Pokemon are quite durable, so bullets may not do much to them... presumably they did have weapons in the past, but abandoned them when they began to build relationships with Pokemon.
      • Explains "Swords Dance". Throws names like Water Gun, Octozooka, Bullet Seed, and perhaps even Hydro Cannon into Fridge Logic range, if not all the way to Curse Sharpedo. The only way I can see it is as some weird forme of Translation Convention.
      • You're supposed to use guns against the trainer, not the Mon. A gun can probably be drawn and fired faster than a trainer can draw and throw a pokéball and fully materialise his defending critter, and at greater range, too. Also, isn't Lt. Surge some kind of army veteran?
  • Fanfics with guns don't realize that the anime is actually a different continuity than the games. Geechisu's plan makes less sense in the anime where the Safari Zone warden has a gun - in the games? No gund - meanig that if he's the only one with a pokemon, they won't fight back.
  • Let's look at this from a historical angle, shall we? Let's start by assuming that, since the Pokédex mentions real-world countries, that Europe exist. Now, prove that pokémon existed in Europe. Can you? No. Let us assume that China (or a China analouge) invented gunpowder. Now, we do know that fireworks exist in the animé, at least. As such, that means that gunpowder was invented at some point. Now, let's assume that gunpowder makes it to the pokémon-less Europe. What does Europe, who is often locked in war, want? New weapons. Therefore, they shall invent and eventually begin to perfect the gun, which shall go with them to their colonies, thus spreading guns. Just because Japan of the pokémon world has no guns, does not mean that the rest of the world does not have guns. Now, the teams? Team Rocket might have them, but they might also simply rely on pokémon to do everything because of an honor code or one of Giovanni's edicts. Cyrus? He may be a monster, but he isn't the kind of person who will kill someone. Team Galactic in general? I doubt they could even figure out where the trigger is. Other, Orre teams? Who knows? Pokémon are probably considered more powerful than guns, especially if the corrupt local governments take away gun rights, thus taking away another means of protection. And Geetis ain't exactly sane. Just becuase Team Plasma thinks it can take away pokémon and rule the world doesn't mean it can.

• Why do we always have to take on trainers if they see us? Couldn't we just tell them to go away while we get to a Poke Centre or the Sky Pillar or whatever? It's your first triathlon? Glad to hear it, but it's the 18th time I've saved the world, and it's a lot easier if you can go directly there without having to waste time on belligerent morons, so go piss up a rope and I'll take you on when we're not all about to die, 'kay?
  • Honor Before Reason?

• Gym Leaders are only available to battle on certain days. Then why is it I can take photos with Claire for a whole day, but she won't agree to battle? Is all she doing taking photos (narcissistically)? And if I call a Gym Leader up, but don't battle them for days/months/years, they just stay there, meaning they must not be TOO busy! Man, they must just hate the protaginist.
  • Well, in 3rd generation at least, after you beat the crap out of their Pokemon, they decide "Hmm, better do some more training, since I just got beaten up by a ten-year-old. Again."
• Why are some shipping names so random? For example, VolknerxMaylene is called Firecrackershipping, which doesn't make all that much sense at all. If you're going to go out of your way and name a ship, at least make it make sense.
  • Your first mistake was asking shipping to make sense... they have some logic behind it, but it's usually very strained or obscure. The best choice would be to avoid shippers altogether, after all, that's what I do...
  • Coming straight from the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, I agree, but personally, I think that "creative" pairing names are much nicer than horrors like "Destiel.
• What's with the time? I called up Erika at 10 AM on Sunday, and she told me "I'm usually free Sunday mornings." Then I called Sabrina, who is free on Sunday afternoons, and sure enough, she was ready to battle. Since when was 10 o'clock considered Noon/Afternoon? Is that the way it is in Japanese culture?
  • After 10 AM, it's called daytime (in G/S/C at least, don't know about HG/SS), and gym leaders call it afternoon for simplicity's sake.
  • This leads to something that bugged me for a while: We have Morning, Day, and Night. Why is evening missing? Morning is cool with soft light, evening is hot with (usually) colorful light. It's like saying we have Spring, Summer, and Winter, but not Fall/Autumn.
  • It gets even nuttier in Black/White. Seasons are added, and they change depending on your DS's clock. But instead of being traditional three-month seasons, you get a season every few months. To put it elaborately, January, May and September get Spring, February, June and October get Summer, March, November and July get Fall, and April, August and December get Winter. WINTER IN AUGUST. Does Mr. Freeze visit Isshu in the summer?!
    • You want to wait until December to have winter? Some parts of routes are only accessible during a certain season, as well as the availability of some Pokémon - I'd much prefer not having to wait until December to get Vanipeti since Baibanira's pretty good.
• Does Golem have nostrils? It has them in its Silver and RSE sprites, but not in its official artwork.
  • Perhaps from FRLG on Sugimori decided he didn't like nostrils on Golem anymore.
• If Manaphy lays Phione eggs and Phione lays Phione eggs, what lays Manaphy eggs?
  • Maybe Phione evolves into Manaphy, but through a method the players don't have access to.
  • Phiones, but only very, very, rarely (And not in game.). Phione does not evolve into Manaphy. They have to be born that way.

• In Pokemon Gold, why is no one at all concerned that a Pokemon thief is obviously going through populated areas while making no attempt to disguise himself? Is law enforcement really just that pathetic?
  • Yes.
  • Other than the cops that battle you (and stay in only one spot) there are hardly any police at all in the Pokemon world. My guess is that Silver beat them in a battle and they just gave up.

• Silver's team at its peak bugs me, for two reasons:
  • One, it appears that his Pokemon only gained experience when they were being abused. OK, I know that everybody has a certain peak, but couldn't they have just risen their levels up a little higher?
  • Two, the fact that he doesn't have a Weavile or Magnezone. I can kind of understand the latter, as he would have to trade to a Sinnoh trainer, but they could have given the excuse that he DID trade it to someone who evolved it, as he has both Gengar and Alakazam.
    • Silver's too busy bonding with his Pokemon and not training, too bad. And for the second one, maybe he wanted to keep his Sneasel and Magneton unevolved. I still have a Magneton because I like it that way; Silver probably likes his Pokemon as they are, too.
    • There's a way to get Magnezone in Heart Gold and Soul Silver without training, now?
• How in the world are the Pokemon Center's paid for? The trainer never pays for the Pokemon to be healed; where do they obtain the resources to run these facilities at no charge?
  • I always assumed that one of the few things the government in Pokemon actually did was to pay for health care.
  • Maybe in Isshu at least they're supported by the Pokémarts because the health care industry in the U.S. is all profit-based insurance companies. But then again though; maybe it's just way cheaper to pay for machines that heal pokémon rather than humans who develop all sorts of complex diseases so people don't have a problem with paying for other trainers' pokémon to be healed. I don't know if the Anime or the manga have like, Pokémon surgeries or pokémon ailments rather than Pokérus (And even then, it's symbiotic) but if it's just a magical machine that revitalizes pokémon? Maybe it's so cheap people aren't objected to pay for it the way they are in real life.^[4]
• There's Lemonade and Nomel Berries. Does that mean there are normal fruit and berries in the universe? Or should Lemonade be called "Nomelade" or even "Edanomel"?
  • I'd like to assume berries replace fruit like Pokemon replace animals. "Lemonade" may just be Grandfather Clause in action. The only other problem is apples instead of Leppa Berries in the Mystery Dungeon games. While on the subject of fruit and berries, can someone tell me what Iapapa is based on? I thought papaya at first, but then we have Payapa Berries. The only other fruit that gets repeated is Yache and Custap Berries, but those are at least different names for the same fruit. Finally, why are there Shuca and Charti Berries if their inspiration isn't fruit (Cashew and Artichoke.)?
    • So, Iapapa is definitely Papaya(it even looks like one), while Payapa is a Calabash(though the name is based on Papaya). Cashew is obviously a fruit. Artichokes... not much, but the berry is based on the core of the thing, which might count so, since the artichoke is a flower.
      • Heh, didn't realize cashews were fruits. Always thought they were legumes, like peanuts.
    • Chesto Berries were once called Mint Berries. Sitrus Berries were once called Gold Berries. Grandfather Clause didn't apply there.
• In Sinnoh, the overworld sprites for the Veterans have beards and bald heads. In battle, they have a full head of hair (unless it's a wig) and no beards. Obviously, they were too lazy to make new sprites, but that still bugs me.
  • They do the same with Rangers and Ace Trainers. Just lazy, that's all.
• Zensho. Why are they just giving out badges, and Pokemon, to Satoshi for helping them? The manga has like six actual battles scenes. He got basically all of his Pokemon from people. It's a wonder how any of them leveled up when he apparently rarely battles.

• Why is it that I can battle a legendary pokemon down to 1 health and then throw a pokeball/greatball/ultraball and I miss the pokemon? I could understand if it was something I could control, but there is nothing allowing me to aim the pokeball at the pokemon, I just press the button. How does it miss? And for some of those pokemon that disappear the minute the battle is over why should I hope that I saved somewhere nearby or just settle for losing that pokemon forever? Is it just a case of fake difficulty because there's honestly nothing I can do to fix it.
  • IIRC, the message says the pokemon broke free, not that you missed it. And yes, it's supposed to be difficult. You're trying to catch a force of nature, deal with it.
    • In the first generation games, there's a message that says the Pokeball missed, where in the later games you see the Pokemon go into the ball and break out immediately. (No shakes.) And as for the legendary Pokemon disappearing at the end of the battle if you accidentally defeat it, that's not fake difficulty, that's just common sense. It's the only one of its kind, what do you think will happen if it dies? (Faints. Whatever.)
    • Actually I'm talking about the whole missing the Pokemon, you know the thing I was complaining about. It feels like fake difficulty because it hinders me without anything I can really do to fix it. I'd rather get the message where it says that the pokemon broke free because at least then my pokeball would have been doing something.
• Why, oh why, did Word of God state that Giratina is representative of Antimatter? It very clearly represents dimension (In the "alternate dimension" sense.) to go with time and space! It lives in an alternate dimension and its signature move even entails dimensional travel! Dimension is the "Z-axis" of reality, after all!
  • Dimension is already covered by Space. Having Giratina be Dimension would be redundant. Anti-matter makes perfect sense; it's the complement of time and space. Time and space basically make up all matter, so the only thing that fits is anti-matter. It also works with Giratina being Ghost type.
    • Space doesn't cover Dimension. Two objects could theoretically occupy the same time and space if they were in different dimensions, making it a third "axis" on the coordinate plane that is existence. Time and space don't make up matter, either; matter exists on them. Besides, anti-matter does not fit into the theme. It's just (anti) particles, while time, space, and dimension are measurements of the universe.
      • Wait, aren't Time and Space dimensions themselves? Or, rather, composed of dimensions?
        • No. Time, space, and dimension are all separate. Dimension is only theoretical, as we have yet to discover any "alternate dimensions". However, if there was a third member of the space-time continuum, it would have to be dimension by any other name. Imagine a coordinate plane. Time is the X-Axis, and Space is the Y-Axis. Now imagine a Z-Axis, perpendicular to the X and Y. By adding this Z-Axis, you've added depth, and created many copies of the original X-by-Y plane, all stacked on top of each other. Each of these planes are identical along X and Y, and are their own separate continuities. Hence, dimension! It IS a bit complicated, but I don't see how Game Freak would deny it if they put all the evidence there in the first place.
        • Two different definitions of dimension are being uses. One means dimension as in in "We live in a 4 (3 space + 1 time) dimensional universe", and the other other one means dimension as in "Giratina is found in an alternate dimension".
          • That's what I've been saying. Giratina represents alternate dimensions. Also, most people don't consider time to be the fourth dimension anymore. Time runs separately from spacial geometry.
        • Alright, think back to Pokémon Platinum. As Cyrus noted, Giratina's dimension is the opposite of our world, with the Reverse World and our world being opposite strands of DNA, like Cyrus explained. Our world is matter. Therefore, Giratina's dimension is antimatter, and Giratina itself is the deity of antimatter. Plus, they were going in the 1D/2D/3D/4D method, not the x/y/z-axis method.
          • Still, dimension would fit so much better than antimatter. That's what bugs me. Or it could be diety of both.
• In Generation IV, most Pokemon are of the same gender as their trainers. The only exceptions are Pokemon that are more likely to be a certain gender, like Lucario. However, Bugsy, Commander Saturn and Will are all males with all female Pokemon. Why?
  • Maybe for unexpected difficulty for people who make use of the Attract move?
  • Maybe Bugsy really is a girl?
    • No, he's just a little boy.
  • With Bugsy, it's most likely because in the world of bugs, the one who actually get things done are the females.
    • Woah, dude, that's some serious Fridge Brilliance.
  • All 3 of them are pretty androgynous.
  • I'm more bugged by the fact that the even-gendered Pokemon all default the same way on the same team. I mean, they're Gym Leaders! Surely, they know the tactical deficiencies inherent in Crippling Overspecialization!
• Why is Fire not super effective against Fire?
  • Because that doesn't actually work...or rather, using a controlled fire to burn down the path an uncontrolled fire would spread across to impede it doesn't translate very well to Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors.
  • Because fire nullifies fire, which means fire attacks will be made weaker by the opponent's fire(which explains the 1/2 effectivity both ways). Fire.

• How is Misty a tomboy? She doesn't seem feminine or tomboyish.
  • If Misty is not feminine nor a Tomboy then what the hell is she?
    • A boy. Duh.
  • A girl. She's a regular girl. Not too feminine but neither a tomboy.
  • How is she not a tomboy? She's all sporty and shit. Very Shorttank.
• The Rocket executives. I know it's Theme Naming but are they supposed to be Japanese like, arguably, almost everyone else in the series up until now?
• If Spoink goes into cardiac arrest when it stops bouncing, then HOW can it faint in a battle, and still be alive for your next fight with just a little use of revive or a trip to the Pokemon Center?
  • Maybe its unconscious body keeps bouncing automatically.
  • It falls on its tail, which is shaped like a spring, so it keeps leaping. That's all I got.

• Something that I never understood was why Team Rocket/Aqua/Magma/Galatic don't have more than 6 Pokémon in their team. I mean, the limit is something in the League rules and this guys are criminals, if they are trying to take over Kanto/Increase the oceans/landmass/destroying the Universe it wouldn't be surprising they didn't follow the rules of a League they aren't even in! (except for Giovanni who is a Gym Leader).
  • Practicality. The larger your team, the harder it is to raise them all evenly. Most trainers in the the actual game don't even have six because many find it easier to just focus on a handful. The teams probably figure it's better to have a small number of strong Pokémon than loads and loads of level 2 and 3 critters who can be easily wiped out.
    • Of course that doesn't explain why some of them don't grind their way up with over six Pokemon. Also considering their low levels and the weak types they generally use we definitely can't attribute their decisions to intelligence.
• Why does Silver have silver eyes in the games? He looks far more appealing with red, as shown in the intro. His official artwork and his VS sprite show him with grey eyes though. The sprites were obviously a mistake in the intro, since they colored in Ethan's eyes brown instead of blue. Game Freak loves Curtains Match the Window so why give him silver eyes other then for a theme and to make a point he's different from you? Even his original concept art showed him with red eyes.
  • His name is Silver. As such, the artists (the official ones) give him silver eyes.
• I like shorts, their comfy and easy to wear!...... seriously wtf?
  • It's true. I've worn shorts every day since my childhood except when it was snowing.
• A so-called official guidebook I have lists Charizard as being 5'7. In the anime, he clearly towers above Ash and company. Does this mean that I, at 5'9, would be a giant in the Pokemon world? Seriously, are all these people midgets or something?
  • Sizes among species can vary in the anime, unlike the game's descriptions. In fact, it's entirely possible that a Pokemon's development may include an increase in size, if Ash's Gliscor is any indication. Also, Ash and his friends are still prepubescent.
  • The anime doesn't follow the same rules as the game(s) do, ya know.
• This is fan stuff, so let's keep the heat down. So, what's the deal with the "In my time there were only 150 Pokemon" people? As in, what exactly is so good about there being only 150 Pokemon in the game? That meant, among other things, that most type combinations were unexplored(some because, obviously, there was no Dark or Steel type at the time), including Spiritomb's awesome Ghost/Dark combo and the newest Bug(Shedinja's Bug/Ghost and the newer Bug/Fire) and Ghost(from what I know, now we have Ghost/Water and Ghost/Fire) combinations, as well as pokemon based on cool and unusual species(Shuckle's an endolith, Burmy is a realistic bagworm, Zangoose a mongoose to make up for that completely weird and over-the-top episode on the first season, lol). So, aside from sounding like a grumpy old man at 22 years old(if you played Red/Blue when it came out at 10 years old), what are these people implying that's so bad about having more pokemon?
  • Personally, I just got confused with the increasing number of things to keep track of. Having to memorize 150 names and stats was enough work for this then-10 year old player (yes, I know I didn't have to memorize them, but it was a huge hassle to keep opening a guide book whenever I played). Later Pokemon just seemed unnecessary; you start Gold/Silver with a choice between Chikorita, Totodile, and...that fire thingy, and the best way I could think to remember them was, "Chikorita is this game's Bulbasaur". If you like more variety and stuff, good for you, but I gave up after finishing Gold.
    • I've got nothing against new Pokémon being added, but I do get irritated at the way most of the old Pokémon get dumped in favour of new ones except for a few favourites (and just who gets to decides which the old favourites are anyway? I can't be the only one tired of running into Tentacool). If all Pokémon were available in each game without having to go through that National Dex nonsense and we could all choose whether we want old favourites or brand new critters, I imagine many people wouldn't be so opposed to new Pokémon.
      • I don't think Tentacool is a favorite. Probably they keep appearing because it makes sense for jellyfish to be swarming the sea(and they never had any commitment to using only new pokemon as they did in Gen V). The reason for the "National Dex nonsense" is because the most important thing about every generation is the new pokemon, so they want you to know them all before catching the older ones(again, except some of the older whose niches haven't been filled by new pokemon; usually Tentacool and Geodude). And, as it is, you can catch any pokemon in the new games, with the exception, maybe of legendaries and starters(albeit some with unusual methods, such as that GBA cartdrige thing).
  • I dunno, the original types and Pokemon were enough for me. When they started throwing things like Steel and Dark (which I'm pretty sure could fall under Ghost) into the mix, I stopped paying attention.
    • Dude, that was like 10 years ago, they only added new types once in 5 generations and the only reason the did it was to balance the game because Psychic was so damn broken in the first gen, I don't know what are you complaining about.
    • And no, Dark types can't fall under Ghost types unless they are Ghost/Dark, which there are only two of.
    • You're pretty sure the Steel and Dark types could fall under Ghost? Uhm...no offense but I'm glad you're not working for Game Freak, because Dark was made to balance the overpowered psychic type, as well as give us more reasons to use bug types beyond the first and maybe the second gym. (It was strong against poison in Gen I) Not to mention, it represents under-handed techniques and the like, Ghost doesn't represent that. Steel also helped to balance it since it resisted Psychic, but the main reason for Steel was that we needed a defensive type that was actually defensive. Rock didn't cut it. (Rock is weak to fighting, water, grass, ground, and steel. Four of which are some of the most common offensively-used types in the games. Not to mention; with a lot of pairings, it's got double weaknesses or gains even more. Defensive type my ass, Brock.) Rock's more offensive, anyhow.
  • We have a trope for this: The Nostalgia Filter. Oh, it was so cool because you have so many pleasant memories attached to Gen I...I play it nowadays even with said pleasant memories and it's practically an Obvious Beta of Gen II with all the imbalances, full house of glitches, the stat use that made no sense, as well as stats that made no sense...
• Shiny Pokémon. And I am not talking "whine, whine, whine they are way too rare."(Which they are, but that's the whole point of their existance.) No, what I am talking about are shinys who almost exactly look like their non shiny counterpart. Like the shiny Pikachu that is oh so slightly more orange than yellow. They did give awesome new colors to some Pokémon. The black Charizard is the best thing ever. So why do they give some other Pokés only those slightly lighter/darker colors? It can't be because they focused on the most famous Pokémon or Pikachu wouldn't be friggin' orange.
  • Torchic is even worse. Orange to slightly different shade of orange. Also, I disagree with black Charizard being the best thing ever. That would have to go to green Machamp.
• Vending machines. That is not a can of soda or water that dropped down, my friend.
  • Then what is it? Other than lemonade.
    • A bottle.

• Who the heck are those chubby technology guys in the starter town, and where do they live?
• Pokeballs bug me, they only cost as much as a bottle of water. For a moment consider the apparent technologies present in a Pokéball:

1. 1. Frickin' Laser Beams
   2. Shrink ray/matter-to-data conversion
   3. Environmental simulation
   4. Automated hinge
   5. Teleportation/broadcast-range wireless communication
   6. Levitation
   7. Homing capability
   8. EXTREME durability
   9. Massively efficient and/or self-generated power source
   10. Compact, portable design

• • • Taking in account they seem to be made out of fruit, I wouldn't be surprised if it was magic rather than technology. Besides, technology marches on and things get cheaper.
      • The fact that Pokéballs aren't 100% guaranteed to capture Pokémon probably reduces their value somewhat. Also, considering the world's entire economy seems to revolve around Pokémon, it's not going to be very good for business if the balls are so expensive that only a few people can afford them. It'll mean very few people become trainers, so no-one buys potions, TMs or other Pokémon related items, no-one battles in gyms or uses Pokémon Centers and as a result, the whole infrastructure falls apart. In the long run, the Pokéball manufacturers make more money by charging less.
    • I'll accept that Poké Tech™ Co.Ltd.Inc. might take a financial hit for greater reception, but not that the technology could be cheaper in the Pokémon world. If it's cheap and compact, then every car and boat we've seen should hover instead of roll or float, and either the repurposed Pokémon Tower shouldn't need a ton of equipment on the roof or every building should have at least one teleporter - not just those of megacorporations, criminal organizations, and Gyms (Which I guess get a lot of TV coverage to explain their wealth). Even the super stores can't afford them! And with cheap shrink rays or matter-to-data conversion, who needs moving vans?
• I can't be the only one who found it slightly odd that all the trainers in Goldenrod gym (presumably including Whitney) managed to be taken out of the fight by a single Rocket Grunt, can I? I mean, even if the grunts at that stage were using level 24 Com Mons, that's only 5 levels higher than Whitney's Miltank. Surely they could've gotten out of the kitchen gym and saved the radio tower without the main character.
  • Made worse by the fact that Whitney IS That One Boss. She can destroy your whole team with that freakin Miltank and yet she (probably) gets beaten by a grunt you easily take out. Made even worse from there if you go by the theory that Gym Leaders have a personal team that may be stronger than the team you fought in the gym.
  • They would make Whitney cry.
• Here's an odd one: When you attempt to catch a Pokemon, and it gets out after one shake, it displays the message "Aww! It appeared to be caught!". Is the game telling me that the Pokemon I'm trying to catch is already owned? If I'm just not looking at it right, someone please tell me.
  • On the battle screen there's a little pokéball icon before the name of the pokémon you're trying to catch if you already own(ed) one. As for the various messages as you mentioned, I always thought they were uttered by the player character.
    • That wasn't what I was saying. I meant that it was pretty much telling me that the Pokemon I was trying to catch already belonged to someone else.
    • No, it means "Aww, it looked like it was going to be caught (But the Pokeball broke at the last second so it wasn't)".
    • OOOOOHHHH. Oh.
• How come the Captain of the SS Anne gets sea sickness, and while the ship is docked, no less. If he gets sea sick and he's the captain of a round the world cruise ship, he should probably find a new job.
  • Maybe he only gets sea sick when it's docked.
  • I believe I've heard that when a person who spends a lot of time at sea finally makes port, it can feel strange adjusting to being back on solid ground, so maybe the above theory is correct.
  • Maybe he ate something bad on the ship that made him sick, and he thought it was seasickness?
• So why's everyone rejoicing about how the trainers in Gen V are teenagers and not children? Wasn't it actually the anime and the manga that said that 10-year-olds were able to become pokemon trainers, and everyone else just assumed that the trainers were 10? Did I miss something in the manual where it says the protagonists were all 10?
  • Red was said to be 10 or 11 or something in the manual, I believe.
    • That I would believe. I don't know if it was said about all gens - The Gen IV trainers (In D/P/Pt) Definitely look 10 years old.
      • Considering how much of a big deal that has been made about the Isshu trainers' ages, I think it would be safe to assume all previous protagonists were roughly the same age.
  • First of all, Red is eleven (fourteen Post-Time Skip) and that's the only age we can go on. Next, the "Ten year olds become trainers" is an anime made rule. People were just happy to see older protagonists, and a Darker and Edgier plot.
  • The place that stuff regarding age was said that the protagonists were "older than ever before" so it's safe to say everyone else is indeed younger.
    • Still though, for all we know, they could just mean "Oh, these guys are obviously fifteen to seventeen years old. I thought the trainers in Gen III looked thirteen to fifteen years old.
  • I refuse to believe that any of the protagonists are only 11. I mean, look at them!
    • I can believe the protagonists of Gen IV being eleven because they look pretty young. Gen III? They look 13-15. Gen II? 13-14. Heck for that matter I thought they looked thirteen in Gen V, too. And even then they're essentially a paper doll for you to interact with the world, so...does age even matter? Maybe if you're thinking o what they are. (Because I can imagine some pretty surprising things the Gen IV Protagonists are going through if they're eleven.)
  • They all look eleven. Puberty hits people in different ways, but they all look young compared to the older characters (Red, Green, Misty, Whitney, Courtney, Wes, etc)
• Where do the starter pokémon come from? They never appear in the wild.
  • Several starter Pokémon appear in the wild in Pokémon Ranger.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation.
• So Why No Dark/Psychic Pokémon?
  • They haven't thought of something to attatch it to yet.
    • Well, I don't know you, but for me Girafarig fits like a glove!
    • We need a black hole Pokemon!

• Sabrina. What is her Character Alignment? It seems Neutral Good, yet Sugimori has official art of her being.. Creepy to put it simple. She doesn't seem like a Chaotic Good, and I doubt those red eyes mean anything other then her using her powers.
  • Chaotic Neutral, then? She doesn't seem evil(at least not in the games, especially in G/S/C where she doesn't really even like to fight anymore), but I guess she just doesn't care much about what's right or wrong. Then again, I suppose she could be Chaotic Good, but more fierce in battle(which is, so to speak, a controlled situation where no one will get hurt)
  • Not everyone has Character Alignment?
  • It depends on the portrayal of her. Pokemon Special or whatever has her as a villain, whereas Electric Tale of Pikachu has a more sympathetic portrayal of her. The Anime apparently shows her as merely having a television-style Split personality. (I woudln't know - I don't watch the Anime after seeing a couple episodes and finding Ash Ketchum to be a complete Idiot Hero that's not even entertaining.)
    • I meant in the games.

• At the risk of sounding like a Pokèmon Grammar Nazi, Why is Arceus pronounced "Are-Key-Us" instead of the gramatically correct "Are-See-Us"? AFAIK, C followed By E means it's a soft C, as in Place, Trace, etc. I know of no other Pokèmon name that has a grammatical error such as this (though please, correct me). If it was spelled "Arcaeus" it would have been correct for the pronounciation.. :P
  • Maybe because of it's proximity to Latin. I pronounce it "Are-tse-us". (Englisch isn't my first language, and I know that every teacher has a different rule of pronunciation for the letter c, so I wouldn't know which one would sound closer to what Latin students learn in English speaking countries, but I think a "k" sound is most common. Depends on which vowel follows.)
  • I pronounce it Arc-ayus, as in a combination of Arch (meaning "chief or most important") and Deus (meaning God). Being that it (at this point) is basically the god of the Pokemon world (being more powerful than the various trios that basically served as gods before Arceus was introduced) it's the Most Important God, the Archdeus (which becomes Arceus if you remove the H and D).
  • The logical pronunciation would indeed be with a soft C. The romanized version of its Japanese name is roughly "Aruseusu" which is pretty much directly translated into Arceus. The only reason the hard C is so popular is the anime. It's worth pointing out that they mispronounce a lot of things in the anime, like "Bonsly". Some just stick harder than others.
• You need to have all the gym badges to get to Victory Road, so how the hell did Silver make it over there?
  • Given his Jerkass nature, he A) stole them, or B) kicked those guards aside.
    • Guards should be stronger than that, otherwise any old kid could just shove their way through. Stole I guess I might take if they were clearer about it.
• Why the hell do wild Pokemon keep attacking you even though you're significantly stronger than them? For that matter, why do they hurt themselves to achieve this with moves like Self Destruct and Explosion?
  • I have an answer for the second one. It's the same concept many Real Life animals use to deter predators - being poisonous when eaten. Sure, they're dead, but that animal isn't going near one again. Now, how many Geodudes have you decided not to fight after having one blow up on you...?
  • For the first, I believe that they said in-game that they want to prove themselves to you.
• In the Pal Park, why does Shuckle appear in the sea? I fail to see the connection.
  • It's based on a turtle. Turtles are sea-faring creatures.
    • No, it's not. But Shuckles are only found inside rocks in Cianwood, which makes them more connected to mollusks that live inside rocks. Thus, in the sea.

1. ↑ and tried to blow up his Golem with dynamite, or cut the whiskers off a Raticate For Science!. Honestly, the Pokedex guy has issues. Don't take him too seriously
2. ↑ from Gen I to Gen III, you could use cut in grassy areas, where it would cut away all of the grass surrounding you. It even cut long grass into short grass!
3. ↑ Story-wise, anyway.
4. ↑ Even though Americans have actually been doing just that for awhile, albeit indirectly and without their knowledge. Whenever somebody who is uninsured goes to the hospital, they charge insurance companies, who then hock the cost onto their customers. Places with UHC? Private insurance companies are never charged for uninsured people going in.