One lunatic's love-hate relationship with the Pokémon franchise, and his addled musings on its rights, wrongs, ins and outs. Come one, come all, and indulge my delusions of grandeur as I inflict my opinions on anyone within shouting distance.
Why are you doing the reviews out-of-order? You should have done crabominable by now.
I’ve never done my Pokémon reviews in order. Actually, even doing the starters all together at the beginning is kind of a major departure from my practice of generations V and VI.
If Aerodactyl is from prehistoric times, then how do you think there’s a Mega Stone for the species when AZ’s ultimate weapon was fired only three thousand years ago? PS: I hope your PhD is going well!
crap I never thought of it like that
uh…
I suppose it’s possible that either the Aerodactylite results from some relict population of Aerodactyl (the anime seems to like having isolated populations of “fossil” Pokémon that turn out to be not quite extinct) or that the ancient Kalosian kingdom had some magical equivalent of the modern processes used to revive individuals of extinct Pokémon species. But I’m kinda taking shots in the dark here.
PhD is actually kind of on hold at the moment, in favour of a year’s intensive study in Greece, with a bunch of other students at a similar point in their careers. But yes, it is amazing.
Are pokemon all made of some kind of energy? Is that the unifying factor? That would explain a lot.
Well, matter is a kind of energy, so in that sense, yeah, they are. The problem I have with “energy” is that it’s a good way of sounding like you’ve explained something when you actually haven’t – sort of like how calling a substance a “chemical” is always technically correct, but so broad that it’s meaningless.
Based on your answer to the Ultra beast question, WHAT IS A POKÉMON??
Well, I think the Ultra Beasts (and Deoxys, for that matter) suggest that it’s not actually a biological distinction, or even anything scientific at all. I think they just call something a Pokémon if it can battle and take orders. Pokémon moves and types are categories invented by humans to describe what different creatures can do; they don’t necessarily indicate anything consistent about physiology. So it’s not clear whether Ultra Beasts are Pokémon or not, until someone catches one and uses it in a battle, and that fact is formally recognised by one or more Pokémon Leagues; after that, they definitely are. I suspect it’s almost more of a legal/rules issue than anything else.
What’s your position on euhemerism in mythograhy?
(Euhemerism, for the uninitiated, is the idea that mythology derives from retellings and exaggerations of real events)
I’m not super in touch with current trends in the theory of interpreting mythology, and maybe if I were, I would have a favourite theoretical approach, but as it stands, I’m inclined to regard theories like euhemerism and structuralism and myth-and-ritual as a set of tools, which can be more or less appropriate for different jobs. Some myths make sense through a euhemerist lens and some don’t. Most myths can be explained using several different theoretical perspectives, and it’s probably a bad idea to expect any one theory to explain every myth. I think it’s been quite a long time (like 100+ years) since anyone with a real stake in the field seriously believed that euhemerism is sufficient to explain every myth.
I feel like that was a cop out answer on Looker, I’m curious in words what makes you hate him so much. Like I said, I’m indifferent, I personally don’t LIKE him but I don’t DISLIKE him, he’s just a thing that exists and persists at this point.
He’s just very very dumb and makes bad decisions with surprising regularity. Like, in X and Y, the whole plotline with Emma becoming part of Xerosic’s experiments as a guinea pig for the cyborg ninja suit happened right under his nose while he was basically acting as Emma’s guardian. He never achieves anything without the player’s help, is never particularly useful, and often doesn’t even provide much in the way of exposition. He’s been responsible for the deaths of at least one previous partner and possibly more, but somehow remains convinced he is brilliant at his job. He’s an irresponsible, incompetent, credulous git; I’m not sure what more justification I need.
In the course of research for a story I’m writing, I found that the Roman god Janus is a perfect allusion for my main character. Could you perhaps spare a little of your time to tell us a bit about Janus? What his place and role in the Roman pantheon was, what things made him happy/sad/angry, general personality traits he favoured, that sort of thing. Thanks in advance, Doctor-to-be!
Janus is the god of doorways, keys, beginnings and endings, change, and the New Year. He is always depicted with two faces, on the front and back of his head, so he can look through a door in both directions at once, and images of his faces could be set above either side of a doorway to invoke his protection. The month of January, the beginning of the year, is named after him, and his name is related to the Latin word for door, ianua. It’s not clear where he comes from, or whether he represents a standard Indo-European mythological archetype, but he seems to have been a very ancient Italian god whose role in the pantheon may once have been extremely important, though most of his functions are vestigial by the time of the late Republic. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:”
Are ultra beasts legendaries or not?
I’m not sure it matters? Being considered “legendary” doesn’t really imply any particular status, and they don’t follow a consistent set of rules. But… sure. There are certainly legends about them in Alola, and they seem to have been unknown outside of those legends until fairly recently, so in that sense they are literally “legendary.” They aren’t one of a kind, but then again, neither are Heatran, Lati@s, Manaphy, etc. In game terms they certainly have stats commensurate with being called “legendary.” I think probably a much more interesting question is whether they are Pokémon or not, and as far as Game Freak is concerned the answer seems to be “yes,” but I suspect that this implies some less-than-straightforward further questions about what a Pokémon is.
How disappointed are you that the first Dragon-Fighting Pokemon isn’t based on Bruce Lee?
I don’t… think I am at all? Sorry, I don’t really know anything about Bruce Lee, except that he has a Pokémon named after him already.
The fact that every pokémon, with few exceptions, can learn Toxic, Double Team, Protect, and Substitute leads me to the (fallacious) conclusion that all pokémon are ninjas. In a setting where their entire purpose is battling, well, I guess they are by a loose definition. If Joe & Mac are caveman ninjas, why not pokémon?
I don’t know who Joe and Mac are and I suspect I don’t give a $#!t
But, well, we explicitly know that Toxic is a ninja technique from Koga, and Double Team and Substitute (and Protect? Don’t know about that one) seem to be based on legendary ninja techniques. Perhaps more importantly, that makes them human techniques, which means Pokémon can do them regardless of which bull$#!t magical powers they happen to have, or even without necessarily having any bull$#!t magical powers at all.
Pokémaniacal 