Category: Reader Questions

Anonymous asks:

I came across the story of Kupe and the giant octopus of Muturangi and find it really interesting! But I’m having a difficult time following all the (Maori?) words in the text… If you know the story, could you provide a summary of it? And is it popular or well known in New Zealand, or actually an obscure piece of folklore?

I wouldn’t say it’s obscure, but it’s not one of the stories I was taught at school; I know it because I happen to have a Maori language textbook that draws a lot of example sentences from the story.  This page should give you the gist of it.  Here’s a rudimentary glossary of words that might confuse you (note: the letters “wh” in Maori make something close to an “f” sound, so the word for octopus, wheke, is pronounced roughly like “feké”): Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

I love your insight and your posts!!! You’ve made me think about the Pokémon world in ways I never looked at. Just one question, do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by your commitment to this?

AH-HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA BAHAHAHAHAHAHA

ahahahahahahahahahahaha

ha

yes

Seriously though… yes, most of the time.  But the thing is, I’m an academic, and academia has a way of trying to make itself into the only source of achievement or self-worth in your life, in a way that’s honestly kinda toxic.  So even if it’s hard to find the time for it, I think it’s important for me, personally, to keep doing this.  That, and it’s good to always be writing.

Anonymous asks:

What did you think of the third Pokemon film?

Honestly it’s been way too long since I saw it to comment on it in any detail.  I remember liking it at the time, and I love that it gives the Unown their due as a mysterious and alien supernatural force.  In retrospect the whole “crystal castle of illusions” thing, and having to confront the little girl’s neuroses in order to defeat her monsters, seems super trippy, and that’s not necessarily bad, but I don’t know if the Pokémon anime is necessarily cut out for psychological horror?  Might watch it again if I ever have time.

Random Access asks:

I once heard an interesting theory that all Pokémon may descend from ultrabeasts. Do you think it may have merit?

Well, I’d sort of need more than that.  Why might we think that all Pokémon are descended from Ultra Beasts?  I mean, it’s not impossible, but given that we have no idea what the Ultra Beasts’ relationship to modern Pokémon (if any) even is, that seems like the last place to start looking for the origin of all Pokémon.  What’s the reasoning?

Anonymous asks:

Do you like regular exeggutor or alolan exeggutor? Also, why do you think alolan exeggutor is part dragon but the other is psychic?

Well, the Pokédex says “as it grew taller and taller, it outgrew its reliance on psychic powers, while within it awakened the power of the sleeping dragon,” which is clearly meant to sound like it’s explained something without actually telling us anything.  Alolan Exeggutor doesn’t learn any traditional Dragon-type moves, and there’s nothing especially dragon-ish about his Dragon Hammer attack.  I always used to think that Dragon Pokémon were defined by their connection to the Pokémon world’s abstract “life force,” but that doesn’t really help much either (except insofar as it suggests that Grass/Dragon should probably be a more common combination than it is).

BUT the good news is, there is a kind of palm tree called the Dragon Tree, Dracaena marginata, which is native to Madagascar and not Hawai’i, but is at least suitably tropical.  So… I guess maybe that counts?

VikingBoyBilly asks:

The alolan muk can’t learn thunderbolt and thunder and is able to learn rock polish and stone edge. This adds such weird characterization to the forms.

That…

…huh.

That is weird.

Alolan Muk has a lot of particles sticking out of its body that could represent stones and thus justify Rock attacks.  Maybe it can’t use electrical moves because it’s adapted for a more terrestrial lifestyle than the primarily aquatic Kantonian Muk?

Anonymous asks:

Why are foxes across different cultures always portrayed as being sly and cunning tricksters? From Western and Northern Europe to East Asia to South America to West Africa, what’s the deal with foxes getting such a rap?

I’m very much not a comparative mythology person so I don’t know if I can help you with that one, but I would guess because they’re stealth hunters, quite intelligent, and despite being similar to dogs and wolves, are much less social.

Anonymous asks:

Do you think pokemon are carbon based life forms? I’m aware that it’s a make believe world with screwy physics but I just want to prentend we can apply some sort of logic to the world.

…yeeeeees?  I mean, most of them?  Like, there are a lot of them where that seems like a sensible assumption, but then there are also ones like Geodude that should perhaps be silicon-based, or ones like Bronzor that ought to be metallic, and then there’s Carbink who is carbon-based but in a very different way to what we’re used to.  I’ve given up on thinking that “Pokémon” is a biological category that implies common ancestry, so I’m okay with some of them being carbon-based and others not.