Category: Reader Questions

Anonymous asks:

It fascinates me that Leech Life being buffed so much in S/M has led to Absorb taking its place on the movesets of a whole lot of Pokemon, even those who have no other Grass powers or have ever had any previously. Obviously this is for game balance, but do you think we could take it to argue that LL and Absorb (and maybe Mega/Giga Drain?) work on similar mechanics, thematically speaking?

Honestly I kinda would have assumed that even before generation VII.  How any Pokémon move works is super vague, and a lot of them probably don’t work the same way for all Pokémon, but both of these moves are doing something that somehow takes the target’s “life force,” whether that’s by sucking blood, or attaching roots like a Leech Seed, or just magic bull$#!t.

Anonymous asks:

Do you have a favourite animal? An extant one, that is.

That’s a tough one… I had a conversation about this with Jim the Editor, whose first reaction is that my favourite animal must be cats.  My response to that was that I have friends who are cats, but that’s not the same thing as cats being my favourite animal (otherwise I’d just pick humans), and that just confused the hell out of him because Jim doesn’t really “get” pets.  I think I might go with the tuatara, which is a reptile we have in New Zealand that isn’t a lizard but looks like it should be, lives for over a hundred years, and has a secret third eye (I am not making any of this up).

Anonymous asks:

Here’s quite a question, how do you think gamefreak decides to place pokemon where they are in the game. For example, some things make sense like placing a claydol in ancient ruins and such, but then somethings don’t make sense, such as placing smeargle among the ancient ruins of alph? Or

I think some more counterintuitive examples must have been cut off the end there.  This is a shame, because I actually do think that Smeargle living in the Ruins of Alph makes a kind of sense – Smeargle is (one of?) the only Pokémon who can do something like writing, which is what the whole area is themed around.  But in terms of the general process… Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

They shoulda made Ash win the Sinnoh League! Ash was at his peak, his rivalry with Paul was such a huge part of that series and they had a 3-episode climactic battle and everything. They literally had to bring out a troll character with multiple legendaries out of nowhere just to stop him! They coulda made Ash win and retired him as the protagonist, and started anew for the Unova series (which woulda worked perfectly because the fifth gen was the reboot gen anyways). Do you agree?

Sinnoh is actually the series that I’ve seen the least of, so I don’t know if I can comment on the appropriateness of that moment specifically.  In general, though… I don’t know, people always bring up getting rid of Ash as something that would be great for the anime and revitalise it, but I don’t think I’m convinced.  For one thing, Ash is pretty iconic by this point and I think the fanbase would inevitably be deeply split on any possible replacement.  For another, Ash’s ingrained cluelessness is actually a useful character trait for the lead in a story about exploration and discovery, because the audience can learn with him, so any replacement would need to resemble him in some important ways anyway.  I don’t think Ash is played out; I think the whole premise of the Pokémon anime and its “Pokémon journey” format is played out – so arguably the better solution is to do exactly what Alola is doing and try to abandon that premise.

Anonymous asks:

You’re a chemist, right? Mind watching a Youtube video called ‘EVERY Steel Type Pokemon EXPLAINED!’ by Lockstin&Gnoggin and tell us what you think? I watched that video and immediately thought it might be something you’d be interested in! 🙂

This is the video we’re talking about

Okay, so, saying that I’m a chemist would be a slight exaggeration; I mean, I have an undergrad degree in chemistry but it is not my professional field.  But whatever.

There’s a few, like, miscellaneous mistakes/head-desk moments scattered through the video, like saying that basalt is a metal (it f#%&ing isn’t) or that hydroxyapatite is “a form of calcium” (in much the same way that pineapples are “a form of carbon”).  Also Gnoggin says EVERY Steel-type Pokémon but I’m pretty sure he missed Bronzong for some reason?  He mentioned it in a list at least once, but I don’t think he ever actually discussed it individually like all the others.  I’m nitpicking though; most of the specific things he says are basically fine. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

It’s Showtime Synergy asks:

Yungoos and Gumshoos have a “detective” theme because Rattata and Raticate have a “thief” theme! Notice the little moustache that Rattata has(like Froakie)it’s kind of a Japanese way to communicate “thief” because cartoonish burglars carry their bags over their heads and a cute moustache-looking knot under their noses. I think the idea is that Gumshoos is the detective who prowls for its prey at the wrong time of day,while Raticate is the fat mob boss whose underlings sneakily steal food for it.

Hmm; this works.  My approval of Gumshoos has risen!

Anonymous asks:

Are you going to talk about the final two episodes Pokémon Generations at any point? I already have an idea as to how you might like them…

…the final two episodes of what now?

…

…oh f#%& that’s right I was doing that whole thing

and then I started playing Moon version and forgot about it

uh

Let’s give ‘em a paragraph each now! Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →