Tag: Pokémon

Anonymous asks:

What do you think shininess to do with Pokémon evolution, if anything? I remember in the Johto games, the shiny Gyarados was red because it was force-evolved from the naturally-red Magikarp, right? And is it a coincidence that Mega Charizard X has similar coloration to a shiny Charizard?

I’m sceptical.  Like, what happens at Lake of Rage, supposedly, is that they’re forcing a whole bunch of Magikarp to evolve.  The red Gyarados that you fight isn’t the only Gyarados there, it just happens to have caught everyone’s attention because… well, it’s red.  Team Rocket’s original plan in Mahogany Town (aside from perfecting their radio technology for their later plot in Goldenrod City) was to turn a tidy profit converting useless Magikarp into valuable Gyarados – not just one, but several.  Honestly they probably would have been better off without the extra attention drawn by the red one, but once people did start getting curious, they opportunistically started making a bit of extra money on top of that by setting up a toll booth near the lake.  Or at least, that was my reading of it.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Mega Charizard X and shiny Charizard are both black, but I don’t think that’s the direction of the causal relationship; I think they’re both black because of a third, unrelated factor – namely, black Charizard are super badass (also, none of the other mega evolutions have this relationship, and the only one who does, Charizard, also has another mega form that doesn’t).

Anonymous asks:

My turn for an FMK question! Lance, Steven Stone, Wallace!

oh Christ more of these

uhhh

Okay, Lance and Wallace both wear capes so both of them are clearly trying way too hard, but only Lance actually goes out of his way to act like a superhero, which is a major warning sign, so let’s kill him

As for Steven, I am on the record as saying a number of disparaging things about geology (many of them including the phrases “not real science” or “really just applied physical chemistry”) but at least he’s also interested in archaeology and mythology, which is probably the closest thing I’ve got here to a solid foundation for a relationship, so let’s marry him

So I guess fuck Wallace?  I mean… sure???

Anonymous asks:

You like mythical and folkloric inspiration for Pokémon, so how come you didn’t talk about or even mention Sun Wukong in Infernape’s entry? You mentioned the ‘world turtle’ myth in Torterra’s!

Well, I don’t strictly remember, on account of because I wrote it five years ago, but in the Disqus comments on that one I said “I am aware of this, but having not read Journey to the West myself there’s very little I can say about it,” which remains true, unfortunately.

Anonymous asks:

You play Magikarp Jump yet? If so, do you have any comments or opinions about it. (For me the art and the concept of the game are really cute, but gameplay can get a bit repitive)

I haven’t, and I know I probably should but I’ve got a trip coming up and stuff to organise and I really just want to get on with writing about Sun and Moon, so honestly I’m probably not going to any time soon.

Pokémon Moon, Episode 16: In Which I Am Judged By The Forces Of Nature, As Personified By A Giant Angry Lizard

Hapu and Mudsdale are waiting for us at the entrance to the Vast Poni Canyon, beneath a tall dead tree.
“Did everything go well?” she asks Lillie.
“Yes, it did!  Though Chris had to help me out of all sorts of trouble, like usual.”
“Nothing wrong with that.  People cannot survive all on their own.  They have got to help one another out.”  Hapu suddenly notices B, and pauses.  “You are one of those Pokémon thieves, Team Skull,” she says in a calm, level voice.
“We ain’t no thieves just ‘cause we got a few tricks up our sleeves!” B objects.
“It’s fine, Hapu; he’s with me,” I tell her.  That gets me a cocked head and a hint of a smirk.  “That is, with us,” I clarify irritably.  Hapu squints at B suspiciously. Continue reading “Pokémon Moon, Episode 16: In Which I Am Judged By The Forces Of Nature, As Personified By A Giant Angry Lizard” →

Anonymous asks:

Are you gonna continue your X Nuzlocke at any point? I enjoyed it immensely and hope it’s simply on hiatus… Not trying to pressure you, though!

I’m not sure… I would like to, but I also feel like probably, for most of my readers, it’s relatively less important than most of the other things I could be writing.  Like, it strikes me as a bad idea to finish the Nuzlocke at the expense of delaying my reviews of the 7th generation Pokémon by another couple of months.  And now OH CHRIST ANOTHER ONE ALREADY!?  WHY IS THERE ALWAYS ANOTHER ONE!?  And should I finish the Nuzlocke instead of writing about that?  That doesn’t sound right.  The problem is there’s always going to be something else that has a higher priority, but I don’t want to just leave it unfinished (and Jim the Editor keeps nagging me to get back to work on it as well).  So I don’t know; what do people think?

(If you have no idea what we’re talking about, you can start here)

Anonymous asks:

Can Pokemon consent?

Consent to what, exactly?  I don’t think we have any instances of a Pokémon being able to make a binding legal agreement, and their trainers seem to act in loco parentis with respect to all decisions about their medical treatment.  They clearly have the intellectual capacity to literally agree to do things, though.  My impression is that human law treats them as being roughly analogous to children – but of course neither the games nor the anime spends a lot of time on legal minutiae.  Procedural drama fan fiction about lawyers in the Pokémon universe…?

Anonymous asks:

A post on the internet made me realize that Grant, the Kalos Rock-type Gym Leader, is probably named after Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park, right down to only having dinosaur Pokémon! (not a question, I just thought it was neat, especially since you’ve brought up JP and fossils in Pokémon before)

Well, I think his name is probably more likely to come from granite, actually, though it’s hard to tell because his English name isn’t used for any of the other languages the games are translated into.  But this is certainly a happy coincidence!

Anonymous asks:

how about an FMK but with places? let’s call this “visit, live in, nuke”? idk, i’m just making this up as i go. so, visit, live in, nuke: Verdanturf in Hoenn, Lacunosa in Unova, and Cherrygrove in Johto.

Okay, well, gonna nuke Lacunosa Town because it has a stupid name, as I’m sure you will agree after reading this paragraph taken from my old playthrough journal of White 2: Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

I was reading you latest sm update and when you were talking about how the gods are twerps it reminded me of (i’m so sorry) how umm.. certain kinds of people tend to look at native/pacific islander religions and traditions as silly and superstitious (this isnt a judgement call I SWEAR)

Don’t apologise; I invoked the trope myself in an earlier chapter:

“I mean, I want to get rid of Alola’s whacko bird cults and volcano rituals and freaky voodoo $#!t as much as anyone.  You could at least cut out the human sacrifices.”  Kukui goes stony-faced at that.
“How did you know about-?”
“Didn’t.  I was totally going off random guesswork and thinly-veiled racism.  Until now.  Seriously, dude!?”

The point of the “thinly-veiled racism” line is that (in-character) I just assumed the Alolans practised human sacrifice because they seemed to me like the sort of people who would.

The line you’re talking about is something different, though – the point of that comment was that it was supposed to come from the perspective of someone who actually has dealt with gods before (Giratina, Arceus, etc, whom we have met in previous games)… and has not been impressed.