Pokémon Black and White/Headscratchers

General

• How does a 1-metre, 150kg Cryogonal have Levitate!?
  • Same reason why Munna and Musharna clearly float but don't have it. An Arceus did it.
  • Don't forget the Magnemite family. Beldum and Metang, as well.
    • Magnemite DOESN'T have it anymore. Presumably for balance reasons, since ground is one of its 3 weaknesses vs. a whopping THIRTEEN resistances. It can, however, learn a move that changes its ability to Levitate... which is deemed an electric move.
      • Actually, Magnemite NEVER had it. At all. And it was able to learn Magnet Rise in Gen IV.
    • The Beldum line and Bronzor line can have levitate. And are part PSYCHIC. So, there you go.
    • Neither Beldum's line nor Magnemite's have ever had Levitate. What they do have is Magnet Rise, a move that gives them the same advantages of Levitate for 5 turns.
  • Why does Watchog's Pokedex entry say it spits seeds when it doesn't learn Bullet Seed? Why can't Purrloin and Liepard naturally learn Thief? It will forever be a mystery...
  • Carnivine similarly has no excuse.
  • Venomoth and Beedrill, too.
    • They both have wings, but are already poison / bug. Why wouldn't they be able to avoid ground moves?
    • The Dev Team Didn't Think Of Everything.
    • No, because they DON'T levitate; they fly. If there was some "Flapping Wing" ability that was functionally the same, they probably would have got it. But there isn't.
    • That doesn't really explain Flygon though...
    • For that matter, Eelektross has Levitate. Sure, its pre-evolutions appear to be floating, but Eelektross... isn't. Its battle animation clearly indicates that it is standing on its... leg-fin things. So why does it have Levitate? To give an Electric type an immunity to its only weakness, thus causing it to have no weaknesses? ...I think I just answered my own question.
• Either the Atlantean civilization that inhabited the Abyssal Ruins started off underwater or had the audacious foresight necessary to predict that they would end up sinking and put water-based booby traps in their temples accordingly.
  • I think if and when it was ever above water, the traps actually caused whirlwinds, not torrents of water.
• Why give Delibird the "Insomnia" ability in the Dreamworld, when it already has "Vital Spirit"?
  • Follow the fridge brilliance above, it's already following its dreams?
  • So that you can't get one with Hustle from the Dream World?
• How can Cryogonal learn Attract when it doesn't even have a gender?
  • To make matters worse, Larvesta, Volcarona, Ferrothorn, and Ferroseed CAN'T. And they HAVE genders!
  • Its mustache is just that sexy?
    • It's the new Memetic Sex God of Pokemon.
      • Actually, it's probably because Cryogonal is partially based on a giant mirror. There are a couple of moves that don't make sense for it to have--Flash Cannon and Solar Beam--until you realize that those attacks are light-based and mirrors reflect light. So the reason why it learns Attract...is because it's reflecting its opponent, trying to make its opponent fall in love with its own image!
  • Also, Ferrothorn is kinda ugly.
• If Cofagrigus is stated to be covered in gold and is in the mineral breeding group, then why isn't it part Steel?
  • More importantly, why can't normal moves hit it if it's solid?
  • It can't be part Steel, silly, it's made of gold!
  • Maybe since the sarcophagus isn't alive, it doesn't actually affect the damage that Cofagrigus takes from an attack?
• Eelektross is mentioned as coming out of the ocean in its Pokedex entries and is an eel/lamprey, so why isn't it a Water type and why is Tynamo found in a cave?
  • Doesn't even get any Water moves.
    • Nor is it even part of a water-based egg group.
  • It said that it came from the Ocean. Who's to say it didn't end up reaching that cave and evolving into the floating electric sardine we see today?
  • Because everything that lives in the water shouldn't be a water type or have water moves. That would be boring, lazy and unimaginative. Furthermore Eelektross lives in the ocean, its larva stage does not, simple.
• With the introduction of the Spooky Manor and Rugged Mountain in the Dream World, how come none of the other locations had Pokemon become available that required you to beat those two locations' respective games to beat them? They could at least Retcon Pokemon who were already available. I mean, it's kind of jarring that you play as a Sableye in the gem collecting game, but that's not the game you play to get one from the Spooky Manor.
• Why is the pier Team Plasma's boat docked at named Prime Pier? The one at Liberty Pier takes you to Liberty Garden, Unity Pier's boat takes you to Unity Tower, Cruise Dock has the Royal Unova, and the irrelevant one on the far right was left unnamed. Going by this pattern there should be a Prime _____ somewhere that the Plasma Boat was supposed to take the player to, yet there is none.
• You guys all know Icirrus City, right? well, the nearest patch of grass is in a measly six spaces away from the fence, now, are you ok with the fact that there are wild Druddigon roaming 6 ft. away from your town?
  • Dragon Pokemon are weak to Ice-types. Icirrus' Gym Leader specialises in Ice-types. Problem solved.
  • Repel - your best friend!
• If you can only buy castelia cones on Tuesday, then why do people continue to hang around the ice cream stand the rest of the week? I'm having a hard time believing that they've sold out for the day when I can show up in the early morning on any day besides Tuesday and still hear the same thing.
• What was the point of the FMV of N when he only spoke twice?

Questions About The Characters

• If N can talk to Pokémon, does that mean he knows Pokémon-Speak? If so, does he use his own name^[1] ("Natural! Gro, gropius, nat harmonia natural monia gropius!") or the name of the Pokémon he's talking to^[2] ("Sam samurott" if he's talking to a Samurott, etc.)? Serious Rule of Funny potential there, though it doesn't seem too clearly established whether Pokémon-Speak actually exists in the continuity of the main games. ^[3]
  • Pokémon clearly understand human languages, so N doesn't have to actually speak their "language"; he just needs to be able to understand it for him to be able to carry on a proper conversation.
• Bianca's sprite. She's pulling for her ball. How? They should be in pockets. Did she have something on top of them or something? She may be a bit messy and unorganized, considering she's also clumsy.
  • What about the fact that she's pulling for them during your first battle? Why did she put it in her bag if she's the one that calls for the match?!
  • Not everyone is going to put them in their pockets. A lot seem to put them on belts, so where they place them seems to vary from person to person. And do you see any pockets on her?
    • Her bag pockets. Look at your bag in any game; It has compartments. Plus she was clearly pulling from her bag.
    • ...Isn't that just negating what you just said?
    • Yeah, take one look at Alder's necklace of six Poke Balls - maybe he keeps them there.
  • No. I said she looks like she's pulling the balls out of her bag. What's there to pull? Are they over something? They should be in their pockets unless she just throws her stuff in there.
    • What's wrong with that?
    • "Unless she just throws her stuff in there." You just answered your own question. Bianca's character is described as clumsy, unorganized, and unreliable. Therefore, it would only make sense that she just tosses stuff in her bag without making a distinction of "this pocket is for Poke Balls, this pocket is for Technical Machines." And as pointed out, not all trainers keep the Poke Balls containing their Pokemon in their actual pockets. (Especially considering certain classes, like the Lass and Idol, don't even have pockets.)
    • Though if she does just throw her stuff in there, I must wonder if she often opens her bag to find one of her Pokemon outside of its PokeBall due to her clumsily tossing her Balls in there.
    • Considering that the anime has shown anything that goes into her bag to come out looking like an inanimate version of Pig-Pen, it's probably safe to assume that her bag is disorganized to say the least.
• Why does N have white hair as a young child and green hair as an adult?
  • It's probably just the lighting.
    • And the quality of the FMV.
  • I assumed at the time of playing it that Reshiram represents truth because it also represents the "natural" or "traditional" state -- things staying the same -- while Zekrom, being part machine, represents ideals because it also represents "progress" in all its forms, including technological -- things changing. Correct me if I'm wrong (theOtherWiki has failed me), but isn't change/lack of change another duality that the Yin/Yang represents?
  • The shading on his hair is greenish on the bulbapedia picture of N as a child, and lots of people have lighter hair as children than as adults.
• Why does Cheren always seem to know exactly when I've gotten a gym badge? Does he follow me around with binoculars? Does he have xray vision? Is he psychic? All of the above?
  • Unless I missed any details that point out he might be actively stalking you, he just happens to be there at the right time when you just got the badge. If I'm not mistaken, sometimes he's just leaving the gym with his own newly-acquired badge, too.
    • I believe the only time he left the gym with his own badge was in Castelia, and he challenges you after you get your badge anyway.
  • And speaking of Cheren, is it just me or does his Samurott have near perfect accuracy with its flippin' Blizzard attack? I can count the number of times he has used it on me and missed on my fingers.
    • Perhaps he truly does stalk you and studies your Pokémon behavior patterns to know where to have its Pokémon aim its Blizzard attacks. Or he's just really lucky.
  • He could just be checking the signs...
• What kind of Pokemon was Alder's late partner? We're not given any clues as to so much as the type, unless I missed something.
  • Maybe it was a bug type. He seems to have a fondness for bugs.
  • Champions seem to have a penchant for the pseudo-legendaries, so I'd guess a Hydreigon. I was rather surprised when he turned out not to have one.
• Cynthia. I beat her in Diamond, then transfer that Pokemon to Black. The info on that Pokemon says that it went through a long journey through time. So why does she look exactly the same as when I beat her?
  • It's probably referring to real-world time. (4 years is pretty long)
• N always uses Pokemon from the area you're battling him in except for the last battle. His version legendary makes sense(he swept the E4 with it). The Zoroark is likely the one we see him with in the opening sequence as a Zorua. He probably didn't want to release the fossil Pokemon (Carracosta and Archeops) because they weren't native for this time and would wreck havoc on the ecosystem. What are Klinklang's and Vanilluxe's excuses? (Don't say that the Klinklang was the evolved Klink he had in Chargestone Cave because if so, why didn't he release it along with the others?)
  • Klinklang is the same one from Chargestone Cave because it decided it really liked N and wanted him to be its Trainer, while the other Pokemon with him at the time liked him but not that much. N tried to dissuade it repeatedly, but he wouldn't abandon a Pokemon friend that wanted to stay that badly, so it ended up staying with him. As for Vanilluxe, probably another childhood friend like Zoroark, and same deal with the fossils.
    • Klinklang is also likely another one of his childhood friends, given how technically the battle takes place at his castle and not at the league. It's quite possible that he stopped down there before fighting the Elite 4 given how it's right underneath the league building.
• Let's say hypothetically the Striaton Trio members are the Shadow Triad.. What's their Character Alignment? Would they be True Neutral's? Chaotic Good? Chaotic Neutral? They did say the reason they help Ghetsis because they saved their lives, so maybe they're just paying a debt but don't agree with his plans?
• Why is it that when people complain about fighting Elesa, they claim that her pair of Emolga are difficult because there's only one Rock-type (Roggenrola) and it's too slow (which is true)? You can pick up a Dwebble in Desert Resort (accessible prior to Elesa's gym) that learns Rock Polish (boosts speed) and Smack Down (allows Ground-type attacks to hit Emolga). The fight is much easier with one of these guys on your team.
  • They do not appreciate having access to dozens of pokemon and realizing that only one is effective when they have already lost the battle.
  • Dwebble isn't even that effective against her Emolgas. It's too slow for rock polish to make any kind of difference in the battle flow and Dwebble's low special defence means it goes down within about 2 Volt Switches.

Questions About The Pokemon

• This is making me scratch my head in confusion. Why would Dewott and Samurott, whose entries state they would use physical weapons, have a high special attack stat instead?
  • Sp. Atk is usually considered to be skill^[4] (Attack is strength, Defense is bulk, etc), and you need skill to wield a weapon. So...
    • Indeed. Which would do more damage: a guy who smacks your armor really hard or a guy who expertly find the chinks in your armor and slips his blade into them?
      • Same reason why it (a sleek and streamlined sea lion) is slower than Blastoise (a giant turtle).
• Why is Escavalier one of the slowest Pokemon in history, considering its Pokedex entry in Black states that it flies around at high speeds?
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation. That and speed doesn't refer to movement speed, but reaction speed. It could take a long time to accelerate.
    • If that's the case, then shouldn't it have speed boost as its ability?
    • Not if it comes to a stop again after moving.
    • But a pokemon never keeps its in-battle stat boosts/losses after a battle.
      • Because it's a fucking snail.
• Zorua/Zoroark's Illusion ability... aren't illusions more typically a Psychic thing?
  • Considering their typing, they're using their Illusion to trick people, like a fox, right? They trick their opponents with their Illusion, which is what some Dark and Ghost types are known for, tricking and deceiving people. He's also based off the kitsune, foxes that tricked people for fun. Maybe it seems Psychic-y, but tricking people is something much more fun and mean, thus the Dark-typing.
• Shouldn't Haxorus be a steel type?
  • No, it was never stated to be made of metal.
  • I didn't know Axes are made from Dragons.
    • Its axe-tusks are probably made of bone (not metal), like real-life animal tusks.
• It's nice to have a pure Flying type after all these years, but why is Tornadus the only member of its trio to not have a second type?

Questions About The Plot

• This might be due to a bad translation I read, so please correct me if I'm wrong about this, but N's goal is to become the Pokemon League Champion in order to let Team Plasma take over Unova. Why exactly was that necessary? Do you become ruler of Unova if you beat the Champion? If so, that's a really stupid way to form a government. (It also makes me want to punch Red for shirking his political responsibility by hanging out on a mountain.)
  • This definitely sounds more like Wild Mass Guessing there, let's wait for the true English games to come out to find out how the government works in Unova... as well as the other regions.
  • Where'd you read this? Maybe Ghetsis misled N? I mean... he DID admit he was using Team Plasma so he could dominate the region.
  • Being the Champion means you have a lot of clout as the strongest trainer in the region. Your average, run-of-the-mill trainer isn't going to challenge the guy, and if he's got a powerful legendary, well, that's something beyond what normal trainers are used to. N would have not just the power Ghetsis needed, but the title and prestige to back it up.
  • Indeed, when N becomes champion, he tells everyone to release their Pokemon.
  • The Champion wields the most clout, and other Trainers, even the Gym Leaders, have to do what he says (fortunately, all of them have been cool people or you prevented them from being Champions for long *cough* Blue *cough*). N tells everyone to let their Pokemon go, and they'd have to comply. All according to plan for Ghetsis, who would have then murdered his son and taken over the country.
  • It seems that it was actually a combination of him being champion and having Reshiram/Zekrom that did it. He's the Champion, *and* he's proven himself to be a hero of legend with the power to change the region. Both give him legitimacy, and people who set stock in the myths would go along with it without question, at the very least.
• Wait a sec, how did N challenge the Elite Four? I don't remember him winning badges, so any prestige he gets in beating the Champion shouldn't count. (Unless it does, they were fighting seriously... gah, my brain hurts).
  • Maybe I'm not far enough yet, but he does exit the second Gym, so I guess he was fighting against Lenore?
  • Maybe the guard people were afraid of the big honking dragon. Or he just flew over them.
• The only question I have is, why is it that Team Plasma mistook a Dragonite skeleton for the version legendary? Dragonite is smaller than either of them, not at all extinct, and only sort of legendary. Sure, there are no Dragonite in Unova (at first), but this is sort of like saying somebody from California wouldn't know an elephant when they see one because they aren't native to that region.
  • Perhaps nobody knew what the legendary Pokemon actually looked like until they were revived? It was thousands of years ago, after all.
  • Dragonite is really quite rare - there are few, if any, the wild, and the only notable trainers with them are Lance, Clair if one of her Dragonair evolved, Drake could have one but isn't using it, and possibly Ethan/Lyra, being player characters and everything. Cipher got hold of one, but no-one cares about Orre so it doesn't matter. It's possible none of the people involved had ever seen a Dragonite, and thus didn't realize it wasn't what they were looking for.
    • Dragonite is even CATCHABLE in Unova... And in the water just outside the Dragonspiral Tower, no less. So it's still hard for me to believe that Team Plasma made such a silly mistake.
      • They're not experts, and skulls don't look too different to one another, particularly if one or possibly both of them has never been seen. Would you be able to tell the difference between, say, a T-Rex skull ^{[dead link]} and an Allosaurus skull if you were in a hurry?
  • Or simply they were told to steal something related to the legendary Pokemon, which was said to be a dragon. When they got to the museum, they only saw one thing related to dragons, which is Dragonite's skeleton. How would you know that some weird pretty looking round stone sitting in the corner is the dormant dragon?
• So just where the hell did Team Plasma get Genesect's fossil? The player can't find any unlike with normal fossils, and there doesn't seem to be any large excavation site in Unova.
  • Maybe Ghetsis had it stolen from a museum somewhere else?
• More just a legitimate question than a headscratcher/something bugging me, but was there a point to the ghost-girl who had an Abra on the Marvelous Bridge other than to freak you out?
  • Nope. Just like the ghost people in the Old Chateau in Sinnoh.
• If someone else becomes the champion, why should you beat the old champion instead of him to become champion?
  • It's possible that N wasn't really the official Champion. He just beat the official Champion, without going through all the proper channels, getting 8 Gym badges, etc. He just pulled up with a Legendary Dragon and challenged the Champion straight-up. You'll notice in the older games that you have to fight Blue to become the Champion.
    • There's no real indication that he collected the 8 gym badges but both Shauntal and Grimsley claim that N battled them before you showed up, which implies that he had to defeat the Elite Four before he could face the champion.
  • Because N went away at the end? Even if he got all 8 badges (which I think he did, as we see him leaving at least 1 gym and then as we leave another) and fought all the Elite 4 members (even more likely, as two of them mention him, as above troper mentioned), if he's not around, perhaps the Champion title just defaulted back to Alder. Or Alder just battled the Elite 4 members over again for the sake of formality and they just reinstated him in the absence of N.

Questions About The Moves (And Other Gameplay Aspects)

• If a trainer has to be at least 10 to become a Pokemon trainer... why did they throw in the "Kindergartner" trainer class in this game?
  • Because that requirement is anime-only. And there have been younger Pokemon trainers since the first generation.
  • Did I perhaps miss something where they said you had to be at least ten to be a Pokémon trainer in the games? I don't recall the games ever saying you had to be at least ten years old to be a trainer; I know some have stated that the trainers were ten, but the others don't actually say you're only ten years old, until Gen V where they say they're teenagers. As if that actually makes a difference beyond how they look - I actually thought the trainers in Gen III were 13-15 because they didn't look like they were ten years old!
    • Of course the anime isn't canon to the games, unless they're specifically stated to continue the game's story (WoW's Expanded Universe movies, cartoons, comics, etc. are in alternate universes). Garbage, though? Definite YMMV.
  • I always thought that most of them were people with Pokemon; it's never been said even in the anime that you need to be 10 to have a Pokemon, just 10 to leave home on your quest, and the kindergartners clearly show that: kids who have Pokemon but are still in school, just like the people you fight in their schools in several games.
• After two generations of averting it, why the sudden change back to Schrödinger's Player Character (minus the cameo in the Battle Subway)? Especially since this Gen is so much more plot heavy than the rest and the protagonists seem to be getting a better reception than the previous installments...
  • They wanted a return to Pokemon's roots. And they probably weren't going to significantly change a game that far along just because people liked the protagonists' character designs. Adding another main character would mean additional story drafting and all that other stuff. Two rivals is already plenty.
    • Not to mention that N may not be called so but fill the qualifications of a rival (you battle him a 5 times and he even becomes Champion, something not seen since Blue). So you got Cheren, Bianca (and) N. Though I myself thought they should had replaced Cheren or Bianca for the opposite gender rival and just give it their story, in fact and even more interesting thing would had been to change Cheren for the male counterpart if you chose the girl and to change Bianca for the female counterpart if you chose the boy.
  • It's a retraux gen. Gen 1 and Gen 2, which these games allude from heavily, didn't have the other protagonist.
• Cryogonal is genderless. It can learn Attract via TM. What. Even more so, Larvesta and Volcarona can't, despite having genders and being TM-compatible!^[5]
  • The gendered Ferrothorn can't learn Attract either, for absolutely no reason. Also, Cryogonal can actually utilize Attract, but only on fellow genderless Pokemon, like Golett.
    • Can't say anything for poor Ferrothorn (Volcarona may have an excuse because it's a super rare Pokemon...maybe), but as already explained in the first folder, Cryogonal may be partially based on a mirror. Logically, it's trying to make its opponent fall in love with its own reflection.
• The new move "After You". It bugs me.What is the strategic purpose of such a move? Well,I know that "splash" already existed (and it's far from being the most useful move) and Me First too (and this one, I can actually see a point to this move), but letting the foe attack before you?
  • I think it's like Helping Hand, it's not made for the Pokemon using it in itself in single battles, but for using on another Pokemon in double and or triple battles. You can use it to aide with decreased priority moves, for example. You have a Heracross (speed 85) with Revenge and your opponent has Beartic (speed 50) with Avalanche. Revenge and Avalanche both have the same power (60), effect (doubles the damage to 120 if the Pokemon is hit first) and priority (-4). So your Pokemon being the faster one would had gone first if it wasn't for After You. It's also good for using it on the opponent so you go first when using Focus Punch, and moves like Roar, Dragon Tail, Circle Throw and Whirlwind who will switch out the opponent before he has a chance to do anything. Quash is the same move but with more range in triple battles. I never got the point of giving Splash to any Pokemon other than Magikarp.
• What happens to your Global Link account if you were to start a new game on the Black or White cartridge you have connected to it? Would you still be able to use it with your new game? Will the account be dissolved if you can't? What would happen to any Pokemon that you may have currently uploaded into the Global Link if you start over depending on one of the above solutions?
  • If you're that worried, don't erase your game then.
  • Customer support. Ask them to remove the link. Easy as pie.
• In Route 11 there are some waterfalls, one going up and another going down to a ranger battle and some dark grass. I've explored the lower section a bit and I cannot seem find a way out of there without using either Waterfall or Fly. Since you don't need either to get there, surely that's a bit dangerous as you could get stuck down there... unless I'm just missing the exit.
  • Although it doesn't ask for you to use it, you should only be able to go down a waterfall if you know Waterfall.
• In Hiun/Castelia City, there's streets where there are lots of people busily running back and forth. But when you get to the Central Plaza, there's barely any people there. What happened to them?
  • It's a big city. They probably just turn off while you're actually making your way to Central Plaza.
• Where did that backpacker chick get those two fossils from? Ya think this might be answered once the sequels come out?

1. ↑ if Pokémon-Speak is a "universal" language spoken with different "accents" by different Pokémon that makes it sound like their name
2. ↑ if each Pokémon has their own language, or if what sounds like the Pokémon's name is more like an animal-like set of cries than an actual language
3. ↑ Needless to say, if N appears in the anime, the most likely option will be that he speaks Japanese/English/the viewer's language to the Pokémon, it replies in Pokémon-Speak, and he translates for the viewer.
4. ↑ Its IV boost wing is the genius wing, Pokemon with high Sp. Atk often have high skill in the Pokeathalon, etc.
5. ↑ Nincada can't learn Attract either, but don't forget that this is a way to keep genderless Shedinja from having it. Volcarona doesn't have this excuse.