Ive been thinking this for a while now. When they designed reshiram and zekrom. I honetly feel it wouldve made MUCH more sence for zekrom to be fighting/dragon. I mean, a few shifts would have to be made, like signature moves and stuff. And there isnt a status ailement thats fighting based (confusion maybe?). But fighting is very much an “justified, honour” based time which contrasts with reshirams “sleek, passionate” fire (yes, thats what im going with, sue me). In combat it is also… (Cont.)

This question continues: “…in combat it would also be equal, if not ABOVE dragon/fire as it hits steel types hard. It fits a physical attacker very well. And c’mon. Fighting/dragon would be eeepppiiiccc. (Also that tacked on truth vs ideas thing, it fits that a bit better, probably)”

Hmm.

You know, when you put it like that, Dragon/Fighting makes a lot more sense than Dragon/Electric. Bear in mind that the whole ‘honour and glory’ thing is as much my interpretation of the Fighting type as anything official, but of course I think it makes sense, and it fits very well with Zekrom’s ‘ideals’ thing. I’ve probably mentioned before that I would have written Black and White very differently, allowing the player to choose between Reshiram and Zekrom, and having the story unfold differently depending on the choice, emphasising the differences between their ‘truth’ and ‘ideals’ instead of whitewashing them, and I think if you were going to go that way, Dragon/Fighting is a combination you could do rather a lot with. Naturally, you’re right that it’s also a very potent combination offensively, and a much nearer match for Dragon/Fire (Zekrom wouldn’t miss Earthquake so much, and wouldn’t have to suffer the gross indignity of being totally walled by Steelix, of all things).

The flip side to that is this quote from Ken Sugimori:
“The tails on both Pokemon are the central points of their respective designs — they’re based off of those electric turbines you see, and they give the impression that they’re these great big generators of fire or electric energy.”
Clearly the designers regarded energy as being a very important part of what they were doing here, and changing Zekrom’s type to Dragon/Fighting would require significantly reworking his art to account for the loss of that particular resonance. Reshiram would need to be changed as well.

In short, I like the idea lot, but I feel I should point out that there’s rather more work in it than you may have realised.

Now that it’s been a while since Black and White came out, have you realized that Garbodor is, in fact, lovable and awesome in every single way? I spend about a dozen paragraphs explaining why, point-by-point, over on Bogleech, if you haven’t been there. Also, did you know that your hated Kricketune isn’t even modeled on a cricket? It’s a violin beetle!

You know, funnily enough, someone sent me a link to that article just a few days ago.

For the benefit of readers, here is Bogleech’s take on Garbodor

http://bogleech.com/pokemon/trash.html

and my (admittedly over-the-top) article from last year.

http://pokemaniacal.tumblr.com/post/17760677860/trubbish-and-garbodor

I still think Garbodor is absurd and horrific. What didn’t occur to me at the time was the point you make in your article that some people might actually like things that are absurd and horrific. Honestly I still kinda have trouble wrapping my head around that one, but I suppose it is a valid position to take. I do really like the point you make about Garbodor forming a land/water/air triad with Muk and Weezing, because that does alleviate my concern that Garbodor is just Muk 2.0 (personally I’m still not sure I give the designers that much credit, but it’s difficult to make an argument from that kind of assessment). I guess the thing to take from this is that, as much as I try to be objective about things and excise my own personal taste from my assessments, I can never really get rid of it.

As for Kricketune…
Go go gadget Google images…
Huh. That is now a thing that I know.
It doesn’t make me think Kricketune is any less dumb, ‘cause all the things I hate about Kricketune are still things that they’ve changed from the violin beetle, not copied from it. Also, from what five minutes’ of Googling can determine, violin beetles don’t actually ‘sing’ the way Kricketune and some other insects do, so crickets are still important for the idea (hence the name).

EDIT: Bogleech’s response on Kricketune:
Yeah, while I like him well enough, I’m just adding that in addition to other criticisms, Kricketune lives a shameful taxonomic lie. Technically, we still have no cricket pokemon, or even a grasshopper or other true Orthopteran. Kricketune wouldn’t even be able to jump with those nub-feet, and jumping is even more integral to being a cricket than singing. There are mute crickets, but if any can’t jump, I haven’t heard of them, and a cricket I haven’t heard of is hardly a cricket at all.

Rereading your entry on Stunfisk, a thought just hit me: you said “and it would actually make sense because he’d no longer be an aquatic Pokémon with a weakness to Water!” in regards to Stunfisk not having Water Absorb. This got me thinking: do you think ‘water’ is the same as ‘Water-type’? I mean, Water Pokémon damage from Water moves, but many live in the water nonetheless. So the question is this: is the water in Water attacks the same as the water in the oceans/rivers/lakes?

The entry, for those who are interested: http://pokemaniacal.tumblr.com/post/17760688728/stunfisk

Well, it’s true that most Water Pokémon do still take damage from Water attacks, but they do resist it. In much the same way, all Pokémon take at least some damage from Gust and Air Slash. I do think that Water attacks are, for the most part, using ordinary water (there are a few exceptions; clearly Bubblebeam is more than just bubbles, but trying to explain specific attacks is just asking for trouble) and that the damage is primarily in the force with which they fire it; for most Pokémon, it’s the impact of a Water Gun that’s doing the damage, not the water itself. For Pokémon that are weak to Water, obviously there’s no reason the water should be physically hitting them harder, so it seems likely that they are in some sense vulnerable to water as a substance. Fire Pokémon, obviously, do not take kindly to being dampened. As to the other two types, Ground and Rock… I vaguely recall reading a fan-fic once which suggested that Ground- and Rock-types possess a sort of exoskeleton made of a porous ceramic material, which can absorb a lot of damage (hence their traditionally high physical defence) but can become waterlogged, slowing them down and taxing their energy.

In short, I think that a Pokémon who is neutral to Water attacks simply takes damage from the crushing force of the water hitting it, while a Pokémon who is actually weak to Water attacks is somehow harmed by water itself, and has no business living an aquatic lifestyle.

Hi there! I’ve been reading your stuff here for a while now, and it’s been quite interesting. If you don’t mind, the obsessive Pokemon fan in me has a question for you: What are your views on the Spiky-eared Pichu, from an in-universe standpoint? Are there any particularly interesting implications to having this random Pichu who traveled through time at least once, and yet recognizes a shiny Pichu from the present? Why can it learn Pain Split while other Pichu cannot, and why can’t it evolve?

Ah, but you see, the thing about the Spiky-eared Pichu is that she is a character who is from the movie Arceus and the Jewel of Life. And the thing about me and Arceus and the Jewel of Life, as you may find out if you’re reading through some of my older entries, is that we do not get along. Specifically, I think it is a putrescent heap of hippo excrement that should ideally be placed in a hermetically sealed vault and shot into a black hole. Unfortunately, if I were to give any thought at all to the in-universe implications of the Spiky-eared Pichu’s unusual status and powers, it would be tantamount to admitting 1) that Arceus and the Jewel of Life really happened, and 2) that some aspect of it might actually make sense.

Thus, I must regretfully inform you that to answer your question would cause the very spark of my fundamental essence to extinguish itself and end my tormented existence on this harsh earth.

What do you think about Cyndaquil — Typhlosion?

This.

http://pokemaniacal.tumblr.com/post/22582243033/cyndaquil-quilava-and-typhlosion

I mean… you say Espeon is your favorite. What does that mean?

I said Espeon was my favourite of Eevee’s evolutions. My favourite Pokémon is Vileplume.

What I mean, though, is that I just like Espeon the best. I have no coherent or defensible reason for liking Espeon the best, and it really comes down to my personal taste. I try to keep that out of my analyses as much as I can – I’ll often think that a Pokemon is objectively well-designed even though I don’t really like it, because I can understand why it would appeal to other people with different tastes (Swampert, for instance); other times I’ll decide that a Pokémon is just badly thought-out and boring even though I myself have a certain affection for it (a lot of Grass Pokémon, like Lilligant, provoke this response, as well as Glaceon, whom I’ll be covering tomorrow).

Does that clear things up?

Hello from a fan! I love your blog so much I’ve introduced it to many a fellow Pokemon fan. But I realized that your “post categories” page, as far as I can tell, hasn’t been updated for your most recent series, including the Eevee-lutions and these awesome mini-Pokevaluations (hehe). Would you consider updating it, if you think it’s worthwhile and not too arduous a task? And… I guess while I’m at it, I really love Shroomish and am interested in what you think of it and Breloom! – AC

Yeah, I’m sort of used to the idea that I don’t need to change that page very often, because anything I’m currently working on is normally on the front page anyway. It’s only in the last couple of weeks that people have started sending me two or three questions a day and swamping everything I write. If this keeps up, I may need to rethink how the whole damn blog is organised.

Shroomish and Breloom? Well, Shroomish I don’t find particularly interesting, although he does work with the decomposition aspect of mushrooms that Paras doesn’t look at, so he’s filling a niche that needed to be filled. Breloom is crazy and awesome. I don’t know how Game Freak managed to get from a little mushroom creature to a kickboxing dinosaur (or whatever he is… I suspect he may actually be intended to resemble a kangaroo, which would make sense) but I think it’s a wonderfully creative design. They haven’t just taken an animal and converted it into a Pokémon, they’ve come up with something totally new and weird. It doesn’t hurt, either, that Poison Heal is one of the best abilities gifted to any Pokémon ever, or that Spore (which, unlike Parasect, Breloom can use effectively because, again unlike Parasect, he can actually fight) makes for a brilliant combo with Focus Punch.

Ooookkk, I really don’t want to be a bother but I really do love your writing, so: Starmie OR Blissey. Just pick whichever you prefer ♥

I’ve always been a big fan of Starmie. Enough people have written about Starmie’s incredible power and skill that there’s no need for me to, but I love its design as well. Connecting a starfish Pokémon with actual stars is an intuitive but also interesting move, and the strong departure from naturalism created by the addition of the central gem gives it a nice air of mystery and power. People know Starmie’s up to something, as it sends its cryptic signals out into the night sky, but it’s anyone’s guess what that is… and wouldn’t it be fun to find out?

Ooh, you’re doing mini-analyses now? What’s your opinion on Hoothoot and Noctowl?

I knew I shouldn’t have said that.

Hoothoot and Noctowl? Well, I love that they were trying. An owl is a bird with enough nice symbolic associations and cultural backstory that they don’t just come across as “oh, look, another Pidgeotto” which is what they could so easily have been. The strong connection with time and timekeeping is a nice addition to the traditional ‘wisdom’ thing that owls have going, although other than that they’re basically just owls who happen to have a few minor Psychic abilities. As design goes, I’ve seen much worse.

It’s just a shame they’re so terrible. I suppose if you focus heavily on Noctowl’s special defence, and then give him Reflect to cover him from Physical attacks, he’s pretty tough, and then you can muck around with all those nice support moves he gets, like Hypnosis and Tailwind. It’s cool that he can get Nightshade as an egg move, so he doesn’t have to rely on his… depressing offensive stats. Noctowl could really use a few more points in physical defence, and some more thematically appropriate support moves… think we could get away with Will’o’Wisp?

I can understand why Heracross is a part Fighting-type: Hercules Beetles are commonly used in insect fighting, a common Asian spectator sport. What doesn’t make sense is that Pinsir is a Stag Beetle that is very similar, yet is only a Bug-type.

*shrug* Probably because the designers hadn’t thought of that connection yet. Pinsir was made a number of years before Heracross; I’d say they just thought stag beetles were cool, and didn’t decide to focus on insect fighting as a source of inspiration until later, when they did Heracross.

Pinsir’s kind of a sad little Pokémon… Heracross is everything he should have been, and now no-one cares about him. So sad…