Anonymous asks:

Would you think that horror movies in the Pokemon world would be incredibly lame?

I’m not really into horror so I don’t think I’m the best person to comment on what makes a horror movie lame, but… no?  I don’t think so, anyway?  Horror is fundamentally about the unknown, I think, and there’s a lot of potentially dangerous mystery in the Pokémon world.  The reality often turns out to be perfectly benign on close inspection – just like in the real world – but I don’t see any reason they couldn’t manipulate fear of the unknown in exactly the same way as we do.

vikingboybilly asks:

If Unova is supposed to be New York, how does stuff like the dragon spiral tower and those extremely egyptian-like ruins make any sense? The native Americans (or pre-columbian migrants, whatever) in the northeast didn’t make stuff like that as far as I know. Doesn’t this annoy you as a RUIN MANIAC?

Well, it’s not “supposed to be New York.”  It’s supposed to be the same physical shape as New York, and New York’s cosmopolitan character is supposed to influence the way we think and feel about Unova, but it’s a stretch to say that every feature of Unova, or even most of them, should map to something in the real city – especially given that New York is, y’know, a city, and Unova is a whole region.  I mean, Johto is loosely based on the Kansai region, but I defy you to find the real world equivalent to the Ruins of Alph; Hoenn is Kyushu, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, but it has a big honking desert in the middle of it for some reason; the Parfum Palace in Kalos is clearly the Chateau de Versailles, but it’s just as clearly in the wrong place.  I think it’s reasonable to say that Castelia City is supposed to feel like Manhattan, but beyond that… meh?

Anonymous asks:

I know Pokémon’s weaknesses, resistances, and immunities don’t always make sense, but what do you think is the deal with 1) Normal being immune to Ghost but Fighting isn’t, and 2) Steel being immune to Poison and Rock and/or Ground aren’t?

I think the Normal immunity to Ghost attacks comes from a sort of obliviousness to the paranormal.  Ghosts and spirits have no hold over you if you don’t believe they can harm you, and Normal Pokémon are just too normal, too mundane, too out of touch with the supernatural, to know that they should even be scared.  Steel and Poison… well, Rock and Ground do resist Poison attacks, despite not actually being immune to Poison attacks or the poison status, so I think we probably shouldn’t read too much into it.  However, I suppose I would say that what I think they’re implying here is that Steel-types are more divorced from normal Pokémon biology than Rock-types are; Rock Pokémon have layers of anatomy that are in some sense “normal” underneath their silica-based shells, but the bodies of Steel Pokémon are radically different through-and-through at the level of their biochemistry, which makes them invulnerable to ordinary poisons.

Anonymous asks:

Explain Diglett’s Cave to me.

Well, it’s… a cave.  There are Diglett and Dugtrio in it.  I think it’s at least implied (or possibly stated somewhere; I don’t remember) that they dug the cave, and it’s not entirely clear why they might have done that.  The anime portrays Diglett as being surprisingly organised, and having a long-term plan for managing the landscape in order to maintain and enhance the habitats of other species of Pokémon, so I’m prepared to believe that they could have coordinated on that scale, but I’m lost on why.  It could have been part of an agreement with ancient humans, considering that Pokémon other than Diglett don’t seem to use it.

Anonymous asks:

We all know you despise Ruin Maniacs, but what’s your favorite Trainer Class and why? (or is this an obvious question and you’re just going to answer ‘Pokémaniac’?)

Well, Pokémaniac, but specifically generation II Pokémaniacs like the one in my Tumblr avatar, where they have the long cape thing and the wide-eyed crazed grin.  Not really into that half-baked cosplay they’ve got going in later generations.  I’m also quite fond of Channellers and Hex Maniacs.

(And let’s be honest, at least part of the reason I dislike Ruin Maniacs and other fictional archaeologists is because they can just take whatever cool $#!t they want while my friends and I have to be all “responsible” and show “scholarly integrity” or whatever)