Excuse me for a moment.  I need to do the cutesy baby-talk thing.

Aw, who’s a cute little deer?  You are!  Yes you are!  Yeshyouare!

You saw nothing; you heard nothing.

Today I’m looking at the Pokémon incarnations of Bambi and his dad: Deerling and Sawsbuck.  Deerling are shy, retreating creatures, much like real deer, but because they’re Grass Pokémon they’re even better at blending into their environments, thanks to their mossy fur.  Surprisingly robust and adaptive, Deerling are the subject of a great deal of research in Unova because of an unusual property they possess, chosen to emphasise one of the new mechanics of Black and White: seasonality.  The Pokémon games have had a concept of day and night since Gold and Silver but only now has Game Freak added in the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, which the games cycle through over the course of four months.  A few Pokémon vary in rarity and in range with the seasons – Cubchoo, for instance, can be found further south in Winter than at other times – but only one or two disappear entirely at certain times of year (from memory, I think Druddigon hibernate in Winter, but that’s about it).  Continue reading “Deerling and Sawsbuck” →