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.
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?
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.
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.
Really love your blog! I was wondering if you could clear something up between the relationship of a pokemons type and there relation to a pokemons physicality or physiology. Like, rock types are weak to fighting cause they are made of rocks and with enough strength, someone could shatter one. But in the case of, lets say, a ground type, it isn’t necessarily made of ground? Like, Hippowdon is just a sandy hippo, so why would it be weak to grass?
Ground is… tricky… I tend to sort of recuse myself from attempting to explain anything to do with the Ground type because I don’t think it actually makes sense and I’m not sure there’s a good reason for it to exist. You could probably explain those particular relationships by positing that they have sort of porous exoskeletal plates which can become waterlogged very easily, and from which Grass Pokémon can also drain water effectively (that being notionally the same reason Grass is strong against Water). Honestly, though, I’m not totally convinced there is a consistent relationship between type and physiology. We know that the same type can encompass Pokémon with radically different biology, and we know that Pokémon within a type do not necessarily share a common ancestor. I kinda lean towards thinking that “type” is just something humans came up with to describe how Pokémon behave in battles and create a heuristic for which of two Pokémon is likely to be favoured in any given match-up, not a real biological phenomenon.
I was wondering what you thought of the pokedex entries on Mega Glalie from Sun and Moon – “The excess energy from Mega Evolution spilled over from its mouth, breaking its jaw. It spews endless blizzards” and “It envelops prey in its mouth, freezing them instantly. But its jaw is dislocated, so it’s unable to eat them.” This seems like pretty direct evidence that Mega Evolution is harmful, and known to be such, by the people who put the dex together. Why are the professors pushing this?
I don’t know how harmful it can possibly be, seeing as mega evolution never lasts more than a few minutes and all the changes are instantly reversed. I think lines like this stress that mega evolved forms are not actually viable organisms and aren’t supposed to be; they’re ridiculous super-overpowered battle modes that exaggerate everything about the base Pokémon to the point that it becomes self-defeating in non-combat situations.
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:”
Oddish is based on the mandrake plant, which is cool, but none of its evolutions seem to retain this cultural influence. Now I KNOW you like Vileplume, but suppose you were given a chance to redesign Oddish’s evolutions so that they keep to their mandrake influence, how would you do it?
Honestly, for a while I kind of thought Oddish wasn’t actually based on mandrakes at all, but just had some coincidental similarities, because other than being a plant that looks like it has legs underground, there’s not really anything there. I did then run over this line from the Yellow version Pokédex though: “If you try to yank it out of the ground, it shrieks horribly.” That hasn’t ever been repeated, and to be honest the Yellow Pokédex has a lot of weird $#!t in it, so I kinda would still be happy to think that Oddish is independent from mandrakes, and that someone noticed the similarities during production on Yellow. I sort of want to just say “give it Perish Song”; I think that’s enough of a nod.
I think Macargo’s nonsensical body temperature makes a lot more sense if it’s interpreted as an internal body temperature rather than a surface temperature.
…does it, though? It’s still hot enough to vaporise tungsten. What are we supposed to imagine Magcargo’s body is even made of at that point?
EDIT [response]: Well if the heat isn’t on the outside, it would be less dangerous for macargo to, well, exist, as it wouldn’t be on the outside where it’s hot enough to vaporize the atmosphere.
Okay but even then Magcargo’s body still has to be made of something that a) won’t instantly turn into stellar plasma, and b) can actually keep all that heat in.
Pupitar and Shelgon have always fascinated me, because they’re cocoon stages for Pokémon that aren’t insectoid at all, but draconic. You’d think that if any draconic Pokémon would have a cocoon stage it’d be Flygon, the actual insectoid dragon. Why do you think Tyranitar and Salamence have to go through cocoon stages? And why not Dragonite, Hydreigon, or Goodra?
Hard to say, and to be honest I suspect the answer is just that the designers want to keep us guessing (it’s kind of just an interesting idea in itself; I’m sort of fine with it if it doesn’t come from anywhere). I had another question one time that touches on something similar, with regard to the Bug Pokémon that either have or don’t have cocoon stages, and there my attempt at an answer was that the ones with cocoon stages are the ones that evolve the fastest, and therefore need a form that is solely devoted to hoarding energy, but that doesn’t really help us with these ones. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:”
Pokémaniacal 