Tag: Pokémon

Anonymous asks:

The Pokemon literally called Psyduck isn’t a Psychic type. What?????

In fairness, its Japanese name (Kodakku – probably ko, child + duck) doesn’t have any reference to psychic ability, and nor does Golduck’s name, in any language.  I’d suggest that the reason Psyduck isn’t a Psychic-type is because of his infamous lack of control over his psychic abilities, which only manifest when his headaches send him into a trance that he can’t remember once it’s over – true Psychic Pokémon have much greater focus.  Then again, I’ve actually argued in the past that this was originally supposed to be a character trait of Misty’s Psyduck specifically, not Psyduck in general.  The first Pokédex entry from Red and Blue says of Psyduck: “while lulling its enemies with its vacant look, this wily Pokémon will use psychokinetic powers,” which is a very different perspective than just about every later portrayal.  It’s only in Yellow version, which is based on the anime, that we get “always tormented by headaches. It uses psychic powers, but it is not known if it intends to do so.”  So what I’m saying now is actually contradicted by other things I’ve thought about Psyduck in the past; I’m probably wrong about one of these things, but I’m not sure which I like better.

Anonymous asks:

Why are Alolan Marowack, Sensu Oricorio,and Decidueye ghost types? They’re not dead!

Well, I don’t think being a Ghost-type necessarily means you are a literal ghost.  Maybe half of them, tops, are said to be the spirits of the dead in legend and folklore (my rule here is “read the Pokédex because it’s really important, but for the love of Arceus, don’t trust it”), but most of the others have their type and abilities on the grounds of an affinity for death and the dead, or in some cases power over them.  Pokémon like Dusknoir and Pumpkaboo, for instance, are known for leading spirits and people between the worlds of the living and the dead, while Chandelure and Jellicent are spiritual predators; I don’t think anyone ever claimed that any of them are the ghosts of dead people or Pokémon, but they can all interact with ghosts.  Similarly, Decidueye is a sort of shaman with the ability to interact with souls as though they were physical things, and Alolan Marowak can summon the aid of spiritual powers through their ritual dances.

Anonymous asks:

You seen this? imgur.com/7zvyE0H

I have not…

I like the idea of trying to put all the pieces together, and I’m certainly always impressed by the effort, but to be honest I’m a little iffy about these attempts to create big schematic maps of the whole cosmology because I’m not totally sure it’s all meant to fit together in a consistent way. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

Since the last FMK question was so interesing… Heres another: Blue, Burgh and Volkner??

oh god

Well, let’s see… I mean, you gotta kill Burgh ‘cause he’s incompetent, pretentious and annoying… but then again, Blue is a huge jerk… eh, I suppose he gets better as he matures though.  Volkner has this kinda hot brooding quality to him but seems like he’d be a super high-maintenance partner.  So… let’s go with fuck Volkner, marry Blue, kill Burgh.

Anonymous asks:

I’ve always wondered about the peculiarities of Techno Blast; one, why did Team Plasma use CASSETTES, of all formats, to work with it? Two, how exactly does one use a cassette to change a laser’s properties? Three, how the heck do you give a laser the properties of water of all things?

Well, (2) is probably the easiest part of this question – the cassettes record predefined settings for Genesect’s laser cannon that change various properties of the beam (frequency, amplitude, etc).  Those settings could be changed manually, but doing so without knowing exactly what you’re doing would be extremely dangerous.  To (1), if you want an in-universe answer, it could be that Team Plasma has kinda retro aesthetic sensibilities (they dress as knights, they have a king and a castle, and just look at Ghetsis), and heck, maybe something to do with the length of the development time on the Genesect project.  The out-of-universe answer… well, believe it or not, cassettes tapes aren’t obsolete in Japan.  Despite having access to plenty of much newer technology, people still use them for recording dictations and notes in office settings, and you can still buy recent albums on cassettes in music stores.  It probably doesn’t seem incongruous at all to the hometown audience.  (3)… oh, I don’t bloody know; magic.  The laser delivers a concussive force like that of a breaking wave.  It resonates with water molecules in the air in such a way that it draws them into a pulsing beam.  I need someone to write better technobabble for me…

Anonymous asks:

Why do you think there hasn’t been a Dark-type gym yet?

Difficult to be sure, but I suspect that it’s because Dark is the “evil” type (literally, in Japanese) – their strongest and most distinctive powers are all pretty much the antithesis of good sportsmanship, relying on trickery, subversion and malice.  Although I don’t think any characters in the games have ever actually said it, that’s a pretty good reason not to have a Dark-type specialist be front-and-centre in your sporting organisation’s public relations, education and outreach programs (and just look at the Dark-type Kahuna in Sun and Moon… the results sorta speak for themselves).  Of course, anyone who actually trains Dark Pokémon knows that they aren’t really evil, just pragmatic, and trainers who are already skilled can do wonderful things with them, but, well, their optics just aren’t good, put it that way.  You also probably don’t want to encourage new trainers to pick them as a speciality.

Anonymous asks:

F*ck, Marry, Kill: James from Team Rocket in the anime, Silver, Grunt B from Team Skull.

Okay so

gotta marry B because let’s be honest I’ve invested way too much quality writing into that relationship for it to end in a one-night stand

James has old money and shows kindness to Pokémon and all, but he’s also really annoying and would probably be the most fun to kill, maybe by lowering into a pit of snakes or something

Silver’s daddy issues might make things a little uncomfortable but he also seems like he’d be into really rough sex which, let’s be real here, is worth experimentation, and I do kinda have a thing for redheaded guys, so…

Anonymous asks:

While playing Black, I encountered a Youngster near the Cold Storage who claims to be a gym leader’s son and fights with Bug types. Is that Clay’s kid? I mean Burgh doesnt seem to be old enough to have a kid who is a trainer….

I feel you should know that this question resulted in a deeply uncomfortable conversation between me and Jim the Editor about whether Bugsy, from the generation II games, could possibly be old enough to have fathered a child, including a line about whether he is able to “produce the… requisite… y’know.”  The answer, for the record, is “OF COURSE NOT HE’S F&$#ING TWELVE”

And then I went and searched for a Let’s Play video of the relevant bit of the game from Youtube in order to look for the asshole in question and find his word-for-word dialogue, and all he actually says is “My dad is working in a Gym!  I am receiving special training there!“  So his dad isn’t necessarily a Gym Leader at all; he’s probably just some random trainer on a Gym Leader’s payroll who hangs out and helps people train, just like we see in most Gyms.

Jim: so this whole conversation was for nothing?
Me: Gonna be honest
Me: seems like

Anonymous asks:

If you could choose to give a group of older, competitively irrelevant Pokemon the Ninetales/Politoed treatment with Electric/Grassy/Psychic/Misty Terrain setting abilities, then which would you choose? BONUS: What about auto-Trick, Magic and Wonder Rooms, and auto-Gravity?

Hmmm… good question…

Well, for Grassy Terrain the first thing that comes to mind is Florges because it fits her flavour perfectly, but Florges doesn’t really suck enough to deserve that kind of buff; likewise Torterra… Bellossom or Sunflora, I would rather give something that emphasised their solar connections… I feel like it kind of makes sense for Wormadam but would interact weirdly with her alternate forms… what about Leafeon?  Yeah… yeah I think Leafeon is a good pick for this. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →