House Ribombee: True Sweetness Lies Within
Pokémottos #742 and 743
Tag: Pokémon
Anonymous asks:
What did you think of the third Pokemon film?
Honestly it’s been way too long since I saw it to comment on it in any detail. I remember liking it at the time, and I love that it gives the Unown their due as a mysterious and alien supernatural force. In retrospect the whole “crystal castle of illusions” thing, and having to confront the little girl’s neuroses in order to defeat her monsters, seems super trippy, and that’s not necessarily bad, but I don’t know if the Pokémon anime is necessarily cut out for psychological horror? Might watch it again if I ever have time.
Random Access asks:
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?
Anonymous asks:
Do you like regular exeggutor or alolan exeggutor? Also, why do you think alolan exeggutor is part dragon but the other is psychic?
Well, the Pokédex says “as it grew taller and taller, it outgrew its reliance on psychic powers, while within it awakened the power of the sleeping dragon,” which is clearly meant to sound like it’s explained something without actually telling us anything. Alolan Exeggutor doesn’t learn any traditional Dragon-type moves, and there’s nothing especially dragon-ish about his Dragon Hammer attack. I always used to think that Dragon Pokémon were defined by their connection to the Pokémon world’s abstract “life force,” but that doesn’t really help much either (except insofar as it suggests that Grass/Dragon should probably be a more common combination than it is).
BUT the good news is, there is a kind of palm tree called the Dragon Tree, Dracaena marginata, which is native to Madagascar and not Hawai’i, but is at least suitably tropical. So… I guess maybe that counts?
VikingBoyBilly asks:
The alolan muk can’t learn thunderbolt and thunder and is able to learn rock polish and stone edge. This adds such weird characterization to the forms.
That…
…huh.
That is weird.
Alolan Muk has a lot of particles sticking out of its body that could represent stones and thus justify Rock attacks. Maybe it can’t use electrical moves because it’s adapted for a more terrestrial lifestyle than the primarily aquatic Kantonian Muk?
Anonymous asks:
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.
VikingBoyBilly asks:
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.
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.
Oricorio
I do not have a good record with anything capable of earning the title of “gimmick” Pokémon – Pokémon whose schtick is some unique move, ability or game mechanic that was so clever Game Freak felt they could stop there, and didn’t need to have the Pokémon be any good or the design make any sense. Today we decide whether Oricorio, the dancing honeycreeper Pokémon, fits that description. Four interchangeable and mostly cosmetic forms, a weird signature move, a weirder ability… the phrase “walks like a duck, quacks like a duck” comes to mind, but let’s take a closer look. Continue reading “Oricorio”
The Philosophical Sheep asks:
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.
Pokémaniacal 