VikingBoyBilly asks:

How come heatran has sexes (not ‘genders’) and can’t breed? It’s the only legendary that is like this (Latias and Latios have fixed sexes, Manaphy can breed).

Well, Latias and Latios probably have genders because they’re supposed to reference Gnostic aeons, which come in male/female pairs (I’m not altogether convinced by this interpretation, but it’s the best suggestion I’ve seen for what they’re about); Manaphy can breed because being a legendary Pokémon that can breed is Manaphy’s particular gimmick. Heatran… well, to be honest my best guess (and I do not think it is a terribly good one, but it’s what I’ve got) is that Heatran was originally not intended to be a legendary Pokémon, and somehow its genders were retained by mistake. There isn’t really anything particularly “legendary” about Heatran other than its stats, after all, particularly not in comparison to some of the other nonsense going on in the fourth generation. If you’re looking for an in-universe explanation, I would say that Heatran can and do breed – but since they’ll only lay their eggs in a volcano that isn’t already claimed by another Heatran, good bloody luck to anyone who wants to try it.

Anonymous asks:

If Aphrodite were an important pkmn trainer (respected one, leader, champion, etc.) what would be her team and strategy? More over, how would you design an Aphrodite-based pokemon?

Well, “strategy,” in the vaguest possible sense of the word, would involve everything knowing Attract, and probably as many other delaying techniques as possible. Aphrodite is not a confrontational goddess – she “fights” in the Trojan War, for instance, but in her case “fighting” is more floating around doing vaguely protective motions towards heroes she likes, taking Paris out of the battle when he’s about to get murdered by Menelaus, that sort of thing. So lots of moves that heal, protect, delay, and so on. Milotic is obligatory, since she’s seen as an ideal of beauty in the Pokémon world, and the Milo- part of her name is thought to be in reference to the Venus de Milo. Cloyster makes a lot of sense, in reference to the famous Botticelli painting The Birth of Venus, which has her rising out of the ocean on a scallop shell. Sparrows and doves are sacred to Aphrodite, and probably the closest we’ve got to that is Pidove, but I’ll take a bit of artistic license and give her an Altaria. Swoobat, for the heart motif. Heatmor for her husband, Hephaistos, and a big scary Fighting-type, maybe Infernape, for her lover, Ares.

As for designing a Pokémon… to be honest I’m not particularly inspired by the idea of something directly “based” on a character normally depicted in human form; I don’t really think that allows you to do anything terribly interesting. Mechanically speaking, I think it would be really interesting to make a Pokémon that somehow tries to make Attract not suck, probably using custom abilities or moves; if I wanted to bring Aphrodite into that somehow I would probably do it by basing said Pokémon on one of her sacred animals – sparrow, dove, swan, dolphin, or maybe even her sacred plant, the myrtle, but I’m not sure that necessarily would add anything to the idea of a Pokémon that fights with infatuation.

Anonymous asks:

You like adventure time?

Never seen it.

Anonymous asks:

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

It’s kind of an odd question to ask, really, because who the f&$% dreams about sheep? Well… except, like… sheep farmers. We count sheep before we fall asleep; we don’t dream about the damn things. What kind of lame-ass android is so myopic that it can’t think of anything better to dream about than a sheep? Although… I guess it is an electric sheep, which implies that the android is a Pokémon fan, so at least it’s got that going for it.

Anonymous asks:

What would you do to give Beheeyem a bit of a boost? Do you think widening its movepool to give it a niche that’s not already filled by Reuniclus is possible, or is an evo (mega or otherwise) the only way to save them from the metaphorical Tartarus that is forgetabiity?

Let’s see… at the moment, what Beheeyem is good at is slow, powerful special attacks, often within a Trick Room, which Beheeyem himself can set up. Which is fine, and Beheeyem’s not even bad at that, really; if he can get a power bonus from Analytic, stacked on top of an item boost, his attacks seriously sting. It’s just that Reuniclus, as you note, is significantly better at exactly the same things, being tougher, and protected by either Magic Guard or Regenerator, which makes spamming Calm Mind a solid option. And to be honest, I don’t really think movepool stuff really changes that. You could add Focus Blast, I guess, but that’s just copying Reuniclus more; Dazzling Gleam or Flash Cannon might be justifiable, but I’m not convinced they would help much. Zap Cannon would be hilarious, but of questionable value. Beheeyem’s support movepool already has just about everything you could ask for, except maybe Hypnosis (…come to think of it, why doesn’t Beheeyem get Hypnosis?). The trouble is, being as slow as Beheeyem just doesn’t work for a Pokémon that physically frail. I think at minimum you have to rejigger his stats… swap his special attack and physical defence, maybe? Dunno if that makes him better; I mean, it helps on the “different from Reuniclus” front, I guess, but those souped-up Analytic special attacks are most of what he’s got going for him at the moment. To make matters worse, Beheeyem’s base stat total is at an awkward spot where getting another evolution seems really unlikely… I don’t know. Mega Evolution might be the only way to go with this one.

RandomAccess asks:

I was thinking about Pokemon not being classified by sex but their internal gender, and that pokemon are sexless. But then I was thinking how these genders are classified by male and female which are classifications for biological sex, not one’s internal gender, which would be man, woman, or non-binary. It’s probably because the word sex is a bit too PG for an E rating, so they just used gender instead. Though male and female can be used for gender. Would the original Japanese reveal anything?

Oh, that is almost certainly what they really mean; I don’t even think there’s any doubt about that (although I can’t read Japanese, so I’m afraid you’re on your own there). I just think it’s more entertaining to make wild speculations based on their poor word choice.

Anonymous asks:

Could you try to fix carnivine for me? I quite like the concept as a beginning but wish there were a bit more…

Like, mechanically speaking? Eh, I can give it a shot, but no promises…

So, what’s wrong with Carnivine? Um. Well. Just about everything, to be honest, but the short list would be rock-bottom speed, mediocre defences, and a terrible offensive movepool (which does a brilliant job of mitigating the one useful thing about Carnivine, its good – but by no means excellent – attack stat). So, um… what do we do with that?

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ThatsWhatEllieSaid asks:

YOU LEAVE US AND IWATTA DIES SEE WHAT HAPPENS?!?!??!!? (p.s rip Iwatta and hope your shit is going well)

I CAN’T TAKE CARE OF EVERY LITTLE THING OKAY I TRY TO KEEP THE NINTENDO EXECUTIVES IMMORTAL BUT SOMETIMES ONE JUST SLIPS THROUGH THE CRACKS

(Seriously though… the news about Satoru Iwata is terrible; his death is a tragic loss not just to Pokémon and Nintendo, but to the gaming world as a whole. His approach to running things was unorthodox at times, but you can’t deny it worked, and his kindness and playfulness made Nintendo what it is today. 55 is too young.)

ThatsWhatEllieSaid asks:

How do you think the government functions in the pokemon universe? I don’t think there’s ever been any reference to any higher powers in either the games or the anime.

Well, Ash and his friends do occasionally encounter local government, in the form of the mayors of a few of the towns they visit. The mayor of Trovitopolis, in the Orange Islands, is preoccupied with reelection when they meet him in The Mystery Menace, which implies that this particular city’s government is democratic, and in the absence of any further information I would assume that this is true across the board. To be honest, I think this is one case where, if they don’t tell us anything, it’s probably because they just assume it works the same way as it does in the real world.

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