Category: Pokémon Worldbuilding Questions

Anonymous asks:

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.

VikingBoyBilly 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.

Burrow Behind the Stars asks:

i have an idea on how to resolve the Yungoos and Gumshoos thing. What if there would be like a place in area where you could trade Yugooses and Gumshooses you caught for money or useful items or something? You would be told that the Pokémon are transported in their Pokéballs to their native region and released to wild, thus, in the long run, hopefully getting them all back where they belong. It’s just an idea though.

I kinda like this idea.  It does run into the slight difficulty of drawing more attention to Yungoos’ home region, which doesn’t exist yet, but otherwise, it presents a significantly more sane approach to an invasive pest that’s still compatible with Pokémon’s baseline ethical framework.

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:

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:” →

Anonymous asks:

You know the little cemetery cutscene on Melemele, with the old woman on the Machamp? Her story about her late husband features a really interesting Pokémon – Poké Ball relationship. I am really curious as to what your thoughts are about it!

So the story, for the viewers at home, is as follows.  This old woman and her Machamp are visiting the grave of her husband, Machamp’s trainer.  He died in a car crash that likely would have claimed Machamp’s life as well, but he had the presence of mind to recall Machamp to its Pokéball at the last moment, protecting it.  Machamp subsequently threw away its own Pokéball and refused to use one again.

Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

What do you think of a region dedicated solely to Dragon type Pokemon? Where everything is/evolves into a Dragon type?

Iiiiiii kinda think that’s a very iffy idea from a gameplay perspective.  I mean, almost everything is super-effective against almost everything else, so the strategy gets much shallower.  And you’re limiting the possible design space needlessly with a requirement that everything be a dragon.  I don’t think we need a hundred new Dragon Pokémon.  What would even be the benefit of a single-type region, anyway?

Anonymous asks:

Is it me, or does it seem like the Kanto-Johto superregion hold a lot of influence over the rest of the Pokémon world? Like, Poké Balls started in Johto, then modernized, industrialized, and commercialized by Silph Co. in Kanto (who also made the Master Ball). The Kanto and Johto Professors created the Pokédex and discovered Pokémon Eggs, respectively. The PC system was first invented by a Johto guy who also works in Kanto. What’s going on here, from an in-universe perspective?

I’m hesitant to assign too much importance to something that has a really obvious real-world explanation – i.e. those regions were first, and in Pokémon’s early days there was no certainty that there ever would be other regions, so we find explanations for a lot of important core concepts there.  Also, like, Bill gets a lot of the credit, but every other region has a tech expert who’s supposed to have worked on the PC storage system with him.  Pokéballs… well, there are regions that still don’t use them, right?  Like Fiore, and Almia.  And Pokémon training predates Pokéballs, probably by quite a bit.  Wherever the first ones were used (which I agree is probably Johto, though I don’t think that’s ever actually been confirmed officially), the convenience of the new technology probably caused it to spread very quickly, with little deliberate drive from the creators, and the lifestyles and ways of Pokémon training associated with the technology would have spread too.  Pokémon trainers of the world might have been a much more diverse bunch before Pokéballs were introduced.

Anonymous asks:

If the Pokemon universe had an all out war between regions, which region(s) do you think will survive and which would fall? I’m not really talking about nuclear bombs and guns and stuff like that but the species of Pokemon in that region and how well they do against other Pokemon from other regions, the competency of the gym leaders, elite four, and champion, etc.

The thing about Pokémon trainers is they make terrible soldiers.  They all have wildly different capabilities, so it’s difficult to assign them tactical and operational roles.  They’re competitive and a lot of them have huge egos, so they tend to have poor discipline and unit cohesion.  Their individual battle styles and the different powers of their Pokémon will often work at cross-purposes if they haven’t been training together extensively. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →