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{{work}}
Older general [[Pokémon]] [[Headscratchers]] entries are archived here. JBM's specific to the [[Pokémon
Please do not add to the discussion of any entries listed here.
'''For the active discussion, see [[Pokémon/Headscratchers]].'''
----
* I noticed that most of the Gym leader Japanese names are from plants. Is Satoshi hungry?
** [[Theme Naming]]. Why they chose plants is anyone's guess, but hey.
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** I wonder if he'll ever use something like Lantana..
* The Slakoth/Vigoroth/Slaking evolution line. Over its lifetime, the Pokémon's personality does a complete
** Teen rebelliousness and acting out that dies down with maturity.
*** Vigoroth don't gradually mature and re-evaluate their worldview like a human teen might. Presumably, they're wild and energetic one moment, reach level 36, and then suddenly evolve to lose all interest in anything but eating and sleeping.
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** Gift From Mom, sometimes. In at least one set of games (The second generation?), it was from the/a local Professor.
*** They're delicious. Same reason why lemonade is the best curing item ever.
**** But Lemonade only does 50
***** Lemonade restores ''80'' HP. It's the Fresh Water that restores 50.
** The Ken Sugimori illustrated card "Mom's Kindness" shows Dawn's mother slipping a Potion into her bag.
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*** emerald fixes this by having groudon under there. the eruption would have presumably woken it up
*** Not to mention the fact that an erupting volcano would be far more likely to destroy every nearby town and ruin the land, making it impossible for humans or Pokemon to live there. Then again, Team Magma's plan was to cause a volcano to erupt by using a meteorite.
** [[The Dragon|Charon]], of Team Galactic, seems pretty savvy before he gets
* Why is the main character constantly asked to deliver packages and letters in the games? Do those regions not have a postal service or something?
** With ten-year-olds running around for free labour, as well as Pokemon such as Zigzagoon or Wingull that can deliver messages... Who ''NEEDS'' a postal service?
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** Well, my [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] is hardly challenged at all by Ranger's concept, honestly, mainly because it looks only like a gentler variant of how in normal Pokemon games, attacking wild Pokemon much more offensively than in ''Ranger'' and ''"enslaving"'' them in Poke Balls causes them to be perfectly obedient and friendly to you as you use them in battles from then on. I just figure that there's some sort of X-technology-or-element within Poke-Balls that's magically infused with the feelings/personality of the trainer holding them, which is mixed with a generally becalming influence in that same technology/element, and when a Poke Ball captures a Pokemon these feelings and that influence are projected as one to the Pokemon enough that the creature is mentally persuaded to accept/not be overly angry at whoever captured it (That would be my answer to other Poke Ball-related questions below). The Ranger Styler here appears to use this same system in a different way, which in this case is administered in incremental "jolts" with each loop of the Styler's energy-line-looping setup, jolting any Pokemon within the loop's field with this influence until the influence's been layered enough times that the Pokemon isn't angry at you and other things in general. Well hey, maybe Pokemon are a lot more agreeable to being enlisted by humans temporarily if they aren't being permanently "enslaved" in Pokeballs, which is why this strange and more cumbersome-looking Ranger method actually works?
*** I feel there's a strong subtext of dominance under the Pokémon concept. Something in the veins of the good ol' "I'm stronger than you, you should join me!" stuff. But at least in the games it makes sense, it feels more like you are ''forcing' the Pokémon into becoming yours(the whole weakening and, sometimes, rock throwing stuff). Ranger just makes it look stupid, every five minutes reassuring it's not "beating", but "befriending".
**** It wouldn't be the first time we've seen a character get the [[
* Why do Venonats look so much like Butterfrees? Did the sprites get mixed up or something?
** This Butterfree/Venomoth peculiarity actually appears to be a mistake. While there are plenty of different species that look similar, it's clear that Butterfree and Venomoth had their sprites switched somehow (Personally, I like to imagine it happening like those old Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercials). First, compare the appearances of Venonat and Butterfree: Butterfree shares Venonat's feet, hands, mouth, eyes, antennae, and body colour - especially notable considering the fact that Venonat is nothing more than a purple puffball with said features. Venomoth, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing in common with Venonat. Next, compare Venomoth to Caterpie and Metapod. Again, they have a suspicious amount in common. They have the same eyes, the same basic body structure, and the same forehead crest - compare Metapod's head to Venomoth's. Butterfree looks nothing like its evolutionary family. There's really no denying it - Nintendo made a mistake. It seems like they slipped up in the first generation of Pokemon games - rather than owning up to their blunder, they left it as it was.
*** Wouldn't they realize this obvious mistake on the test stage? I mean, it's not like they just program the game and send it to the stores, there's tons of tests to do, ''someone'' would have noticed that.
**** Because when you're constantly finding obvious mistakes, obvious starts to become a bit relative. Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to relaize the obvious mistake because you know something is supposed to happen that way and dismiss it, and then the guy you're impressing by testing the game points out that, yes, making the pokemon very weak makes it easier to catch like it's supposed to, but shouldn't knocking it out completely make it ''extremely'' easy to catch? Shouldn't the game just say no when you use a rare candy on a level 100 pokemon? And then you start searching for the minor bugs, so the fact '''j''' finially works overshadows the fact '''x''' is now half broken. Because after the 256th time playing through this part, you know you can do '''y''' to get to '''j''' faster or '''z''' to skip it entirely. And this is unrelated to Pokemon, but imagine the sorrow of a programmer with no tester. That 256 estimate listed above? More like 1024. Programmers in general are screwed, really (but, even as a programmer I must admit I feel sorry for the Pokemon graphics designers. Imagine how much they'll have to do in the 6th generation with 700 something pokemon in 3D, but probably still with all the darn 2d sprites, too).
*** Their Japenese names are derived from "butterfly" (Butterfree, which is its name in both languages) and "moth" ([[wikipedia:morpho butterfly|Morphon]]), and it's clear from the wing shape that Butterfree's sprite is supposed to be a butterfly and Venomoth's is supposed to be a moth's. Also, can you and everyone else quit [[
**** I'd say the name of the company has very little bearing on whether or not you're inclined to make mistakes. We also are explicitly talking about the sprites here, so the names have no bearing either.
**** Does that even matter? The point in case is: Venonat looks like it'd evolve into Butterfree, whoever the designers are(Gamefreak, I suppose?), that's the point. How does a gnat turn into a moth, anyway?
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** [[User:Pro-Mole]] calls coincidence. Something in the veins of "parallel evolution", the fenomena that created a marsupial version of many non-marsupial creatures in Australia (including the noiw extinct marsupial tiger, actually a stray dog). That, or the people at design didn't know how to make segmented eyes in a different fashion...
** Or guessing by the fact that they're the same type of Pokemon with simular evolutionary lines, they may well be related species.
** They [http://veekun.com/dex-images/yellow/049.png don't] [http://veekun.com/dex-images/yellow/012.png actually] look [http://veekun.com/dex-images/rusa/357.png that]{{Dead link}} [http://veekun.com/dex-images/silver/154.png much] alike. (Pictures taken from the original sprites in each case: Red+ Green, Ruby and Gold.)
*** Dude! [http://veekun.com/dex-images/yellow/048.png Venonats!] Not Venomoths! Look at those eyes and mouth. And not just sprites, but the official art, too.
** Well, if resemblance had to be a guide on evolution, Bellossoms shouldn't evolve from Glooms (do they? They changed so many things that I don't even know anymore), but from Roselias...
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**** This is a recent problem, though. In the first game with breeding, Ditto could breed with another Ditto just fine, producing more Dittos until the cows came home. Nintendo took that out when they made the breeding more sophisticated, when Ditto started to have more effects on the offspring.
***** Really? ''Why''?...
****** At the risk of turning this into an FAQ, Nintendo started having the parents of bred Pokemon have greater and greater influence on the abilities of the children. If Ditto could still breed with Ditto, the [[Elite Tweak
******* And now most breeders just get a hacked ditto. There are also limits to what can be done to improve stats (+ 8 point on every stat, if I remember it right), so it's far from absurdly overpowered.
* Size is fundamentally messed up in the Pokemon universe. But still, they could have avoided putting a freaking ''whale'' in the game (Wailord) who should be able to win fights just by being launched from a Pokeball and crushing his opponent to a pulp. As it is, you can defeat the thing with a suitably leveled Pikachu.
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** Not to mention how one of the largest Pokemon is such a sissy. Onyx is apparently made of ancient styrofoam or something.
** You mean [http://razorcat.deviantart.com/art/Wailord-used-BODY-SLAM-106280391 like this]?
*** That wouldn't actually hurt that much, since Wailord appears to be roughly twice as dense as air (1.7
* How the heck can Pokemon fit inside Pokeballs? Not only that, how is it that just by catching them they are instantly brainwashed into obeying the trainer?
** In the original games and manga, they're shrunk. In the anime and later games, they're turned into pure energy and stored away. As for the second question, according to the anime, at least, wild Pokemon that attack trainers actually ''want'' to be caught, but only by strong trainers, and they battle to see if they're worthy of training them.
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***** Wait, I thought they turned into data, and that's how they're stored on PC? Which also explains why Porygon can manifest in the real world - it's just the same process backwards.
** In the manga, at least, badges ''literally'' brainwash pokemon (love and affection just make it [[More Than Mind Control]]).
*** However, in the games, it's noted that badges 'work' because they serve as proof of a trainer's skills, which in turns helps to convince their pokemon that said trainer is worthy of respect. The anime takes this in
* The 'Two-type' limit aside, why aren't Charizard and Gyarados Dragon-types? They're Dragon enough for Clair and Lance, both Dragon trainers...
** Probably because of competitive balance. (Seriously a starter with the over powered dragon type?)
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*** To the above troper; I think you're forgetting to put stats and items into consideration. No way in hell a Pichu is going to one-hit kill a Gyarados unless it's severely shifted in the rodent's favor.
*** Pichu's are legally able to learn Volt Tackle (an egg move). And even Thundershock will be absolute murder at x4 damage.
**** I just ran them through [https://web.archive.org/web/20120707184304/http://deathquake.awardspace.com/tools/damcalc.html this] calculator (let's assume Lv100, 31 IVs across the board, no EVs anywhere, neutral nature, no stat alterations, no items, Pichu x1.5 bonus with STAB, no critical hit). Volt Tackle; I'll concede you that for the most part (though Gyarados can still survive in some cases), but good luck trying to get that attack in with the rodent's paltry defenses. Thundershock; stop exaggerating. This isn't going to take off even half; you need Thunderbolt-level power to get a serious chance at a one-hit kill.
**** On top of that, getting a Pichu with Volt Tackle involves getting a Pikachu with a Light Ball, which is kind of a [[Disc One Nuke]] itself.
** Because typing was seriously screwed up in the first game. Things like the number of Grass-types which are also Poison types, a ludicrous 33 poison types out of the 151 original Pokemon, and the complete lack of effective attacks against Psychic-types. Although it is interesting to note that in the first game Dragon and Ghost types are the only ones super-effective against themselves, each of them is only present on one evolutionary line consisting of 3 Pokemon, and neither has any substantive attack moves.
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*** Ignoring the fact that the question was hammered between two others... you make them sit upon it, like a baloon. That, or they stay floating and causing a force field downwards, making the scale accuse a weight. Maybe that's why they weight so little, measurement error.
** You think that's bad? Giratina, the legendary dragon/ghost type pokemon, weighs over ''1600 pounds''. Seriously, if it's solid enough to weigh over half a ton, then it should be solid enough to be affected by normal and fighting type attacks.
*** I liked the "inner black hole" theory someone proposed here before
*** And, oh: think about this: one cubic decimeter of water weights 1 kilogram, roughly 2 pounds. It is "solid enough" to weigh all that, but still punching water will not cause it any damage. Just because something weights a lot, it doesn't mean it is ''solid''.
** Ok, maybe I'm not good at judging how much people weigh by looking at them, but how does Gardevoir, with its thin body and thinner legs weigh 106
*** For the record, Gardevoir is 5'3", which is pretty much the height of this underweight, short Asian troper, exactly. My weight? About 106 pounds.
** If you put gas in a container, it can get onto a scale and you can get some readings on it. Really, the difference between gas and solid is that gas molecules are not attached to each other and solid's do. As to how they don't get damage from Normal or Fighting, maybe they just phase out or something.
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*** Maybe it's only ''wild'' Beldum, Magnemite, etc. that evolve via bonding. Like a weird social practice. In captivity these pokemon can evolve on their own, but within their own cultures there is a stigma attached to solo evolution. Completely baseless? Probably, but the games seem to be offering no explanation anytime soon.
* Another breeding issue would be egg groups and who is or isn't in them. The most glaring example would probably be the Ralts family. They all look like they belong in the Humanshape breeding group, due to being very human-like, but instead, they're in the ''Indetermine'' egg group. Meaning that they breed with blobs and ghost Pokémon.
** ...maybe they're all [[Nightmare Fetishist
*** They may ''look'' humanlike, but they don't necessary ''reproduce'' like the Humanshapes. For all we know, they have acres of [[Naughty Tentacles|icky ghost tentacles]] under those skirts.
** The Humanshape group itself is very odd by including things that are Human''shaped'', but not necessarily humanlike at all. [[Squick|Hot Cacturne]] [[High Octane Nightmare Fuel|On Illumise Action]], [[Brain Bleach|anyone]]?
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** A friend of this troper suggested Diglett's have a pointy bottom, whilst I assumed they were just flat. [[Noodle Incident|It's probably for the best that we don't know.]]
*** I always figured that it was something like [http://hail-nekoyasha.deviantart.com/art/Biglett-26374938 this.]
*** This Troper prefers [https://web.archive.org/web/20120429202508/http://saladbowl.deviantart.com/art/Dugtrio-Underneath-the-Surface-95213791 this]. Dugtrio, but the principle stands.
*** They have feet. That much is certain.
*** The 3D-Incarnations on occasion show that Diglett has no lower body and ends flat when they're subjected to attacks that launch them into the air.
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*** This is somewhat explainable by the natural mystique of legendaries; Entei may float slightly above the water due to some unknown power. Also, it is extremely fast, possibly fast enough to run on top of water.
**** Entei also can [http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f278/katietiedrich/comic153.png Run away while asleep.] Something like that shouldn't bother you.
**** I think that they're just fast enough to run on water. That's why you only get one shot at them before they get
** And what about Flying from on water? You leave your Pokemon there.
* Drowzee and Hypno are both said to be able to NATURALLY eat dreams. They can only learn Dream Eater by TM. Do wild Drowzees/Hypnos find TMs in the wild or what?
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* Why, or better how, can there be male lopunny's and female machoke's? (amongst other pokemon) surely they breed with other pokemon. and surely they dont look like they could be different genders. it makes me hope for more drastic gender differences in the next games...
** Yeeaah, that's one hell of a close-minded remark. You know, though some Pokemon are based on human society and culture (most on '''animals''' though, and you can't figure out the gender by looking at them either) , it doesn't mean that they need to wear [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics|a ribbon or a cap]] in order for us to figure out a gender. And I assume you then thinks of it automaticly as male. Isn't it [[Unfortunate Implications|unfortunate]] that if it has male aspects you do accept it as female but if you're told it's male while having female aspects you don't? I suggest ot read [[Double Standard|this]]
*** Um... what? The OP was asking about male Lopunnies and female Machokes. Both are pokemon that look strongly like the opposite sex they actually have. They're both equally [[Squick
**** The [[Double Standard]] here is: Male equals muscle and Woman Equals Hips. It can't be the other way around.
***** Odd. I swear you said "if it has male aspects you do accept it as female but if you're told it's male while having female aspects you don't", which only works in one direction(if it looks female, it can't be male, but it can look male and be female). But I must be mistaken.
****** Thus Double Standard.
******* You said that, but then you said it applies for both sexes. It's not a double standard if the problem is that both sexes should look like we expect them to. There's no double standard, only one standard.
** Oh, actually
** I'm not sure if Machoke count as mammals, but censoring that would be too hard either way. I don't see how Loppunny doesn't look like it could be male. You can always hope there's a Gallade counterpart, though.
*** But... Machoke and Machamp all wear pants and no shirt... They might look weird with a belt and no pants, but... Well, at least in the official handbook the speedos are flat with no indiciation of the modeling pokemon's gender, but does anyone recall seeing Machoke in the anime?
** Is there really any reason why a completely different (and fictional) species would share secondary sexual characteristics with humans?
*** No reason at all. Still, as they share the basic body shape with humans, they probably should.
** I should point out that, regarding Lopunnies, [http://pokemon.marriland.com/images/cards/dp/big/dp_30_lopunny.jpg those aren't breasts]. The game art shows it with its arms folded. The round fluffy things are its HANDS. I don't see any secondary sex characteristics on this thing at
*** Never seen breasts even in the official art, but you must admit that these are some killer hips out there...
**** I've been able to draw a masculine Lopunny without changing any anatomy. The thing is because of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], The game obviously can't have unique Pokemon in a species so a generalised sprite of the entire species is used. It isn't hard to see male versions of feminine pokemon, especially since in the Pokemon universe, feminine traits are solely from a human perspective. To me, many bird species always look female even, confusingly, female birds with dull colours. Machoke are a bit harder, because of their human traits and notable clothing. But the belt,undergarments arguably have another use and these pokemon are similar to apes in terms of gender differences, but the sprite is censored in females. Even adjusting the size of the chest would cause some trouble.
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** To save on cart memory, presumably. In universe, it's probably a compatibility thing, to allow the various Pokemon types to interbreed.
** I always thought of Pokemon as a unique species on their own, just with different variations. It's like how all dogs could interbreed, even though there are tons of different types of dogs.
*** Dude, you're including turtles, butterflies, palm trees, cows, goldfish, robots, jellyfish, pidgeons, beavers, cacti, stones, bagworms and whatnot in the same species... I know the concept of "species" and "variety" is subjective, but what kind of biologist in sane conscience would classify, say, a Chikorita and a Cyndaquil in the same species? Then again, the answer may be: "there are no biologists on
**** The manga based on the anime says explicitly that all Pokemon are indeed one species, and that all of the different varieties (no matter how different they look) are sub-species. However, how canonical this is with anything else is unknown.
***** Yeah, if Pokemon are all one species, they are something ''way'' far away from normal biology. After all, the '''''creator of the fucking UNIVERSE''''' is a Pokemon!! And there's a whole subspecies (looking at you, Unown) comprised of [[Eldritch Abomination
**** I think it's more along the lines of "this Pokemon looks like a turtle" than "this Pokemon is a turtle." I don't think Pokemon are even members of the animal
***** Now that you mention it, they ''do'' mate anyway. Still, cows laying eggs is just... weird.
**** Pokemon breed with each other to produce fertile offspring. They are a single species by definition.
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* So, any actual(i.e., in-show/game) reason to why Pokémon can't be kept outside their Pokéballs? Strangely, to a show that works upon trust and friendship aesops, keeping your said friends in vacuum sealed receptacles several times smaller than themselves isn't the best example I've ever seen...
** Let's see. They're designed to be comfortable. There's a definite advantage to being able to hold an injured Pokémon in a Pokéballs to reduce the amount of pain and risk of aggravating injuries, not to mention how it seems to counteract certain status ailments. Even outside of those circumstances, it seems that trainers spend a lot of time walking long distances, and not forcing smaller or slower creatures to keep up on foot if it isn't necessary is appealing. Your Fly-equipped Staraptor will be relieved to know that it won't have to carry your Steelix, and the same goes for any Surfers.
** That said, there's a definite IJBM in the idea that Pokémon ''shouldn't'' be allowed to travel free, but I've seen very few trainers with that absolute mindset. And most
*** This does not explain why Ash and friends thought it was a good idea to let their Pokémon run around as soon as they got to ''a desert''. They were lucky that the worst consequence was [[Improbable Species Compatibility|hot squirrel inside hippo action]].
** And before I forget, it was only the fourth episode of the series when Ash was accused of neglecting his Metapod by not recalling it as soon as it was threatened by Beedrills. And the third episode where he was criticized for not letting his Pidgeotto rest after a battle.
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***** In the anime, the creator of the pokedex admits to making much of it up.
** Varies between the games, anime, and other media.
** The
*** If the pokedex is as powerful as some of the media make it out to be (e.g. be able to analyze pokemon and record data such as their height, weight, habitat, act as a router to the PC system, exercise control over your [[Mons]], etc.), then why on earth can't it run rudimentary apps such as a 10-digit calculator and coin flip program (seriously, you're losing in versatility to a freaking watch?), considering all of the programs people can run on considerably less impressive graphing calculators in real life?
* While I do agree dragons, dinosaurs and stuff are bound to be rare Pokémon, I can't understand why some
** They seem to be immensely rare pokemon, like Lapras. For some reason, stronger pokemon tend to be a lot rarer. Professor Oak says that they were just caught in the wild. By the next game, more people have found them, but evidently, they are incredibly uncommon. Presumably, they don't breed that well, and as such, if you killed all the ones you met in the wild they would quickly become extinct.
** Are they rare? I just thought the fact that they didn't appear in the wild was a game mechanic.
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**** Except that Gym teleporters are driven through the trainers ''psychic powers'', at least in Sabrina's case. In other cases, it's possibly psychic pokemons.
**** Again, simply harness the power of psychics to teleport. We already have a teleport move that lets you travel any distance to a Pokemon-center.
** Items and Pokémon both seem to be stored in balls when not in use. (You find the items in the balls already.) For humans to be teleported this way, they would also have to be put in Storage Balls. I assume that this did not make money, and the service was canceled. The banned episode with Porygon and the seizures dealt with another means of teleportation: direct portals to cyberspace. It turned out to be a bad idea, and cyberspace explosions gave people seizures. Team Rocket still technically has the Porygon Zero from that episode, although it was mostly forgotten; it was one of the three
*** Pikachu's electric attack was responsible for the seizures; that could very well have happened in any other episode. The idea of human transport was never brought up again, presumably for the same reason Porygon wasn't, which still escapes this troper. Not to mention, all of Dr. Akihabara's (the creator of the project) work was destroyed at the end of the episode, and it would probably take years to do it all over. Judging by the ages of the characters, time just plain doesn't pass in the anime, [[Comic Book Time|but then again...]]
**** Not quite true. It's stated directly when Ash gets back to Viridian something along the lines of "Wow, I can't believe it's already been a year since I was in Viridian last time..." ...Then again. He is, also canonically, still ten years old. ...[[So, Yeah]].
** Possibly, teleporters are too short-ranged/must be directly connected via wires to be efficient other than as a gym puzzle or for navigation through a large building.
* In the RBY (and Fire Red/Leaf Green I suppose) games, you encounter Gary in Silph Co., literally one room away from Giovanni. You needed to have a Card Key to get that far, so why didn't he go and whack the Pokecrap out of Giovanni himself? He even mentions Giovanni after you beat him, so it wasn't like he simply didn't know (unless he's blind and didn't notice the hundreds of Grunts and whimpering employees). Same goes for when you're in Pokemon Tower along with the possessed nuns and Rockets. Does he simply not care?
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**** Or for a less 'game mechanic' reason, it could be because they know how strong Pokemon are and therefore have built the walls out of some random, magical material sturdy enough to withstand pokemon.
** Keep in mind that you can also ride a bicycle full speed into a wall or another person without anyone getting harmed, also. Hell, your bike is so magical it will just ride in place if you try to ride straight into the water.
* This has always bugged me about the Pokemon universe: Pokemon evolve. Some can evolve just from experience, but others need rare items, conditions, or actions to initiate the
** Hm, this one's gotta be divided in topics. But before that, PMD is another world entirely, where humans don't exist. In the "normal" games, they simply evolve anywhere.
## Level up: trivial, here just for the sake it;
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** They haven't really gotten stronger and stronger. Mewtwo has been sitting pretty on his 'strongest pokemon in the game' throne for about a decade; the only pokemon that came close to threatening him was Deoxys. Oddly enough, Arceus has the power to trump him, but then Arceus can trump anyone with the right item. So Game Freak doesn't mind making legendaries that aren't QUITE as strong as the current king of the hill.
** Something to consider is whether or not the legendary pokemon actually ARE as strong as the legends imply. In Platinum, after beating the Elite Four, you can go back to the cave in Celestic City and talk to Cynthia again. There, she mentions the possibility that the ancient people who wrote those myths only believed Dialga and Palkia to be rulers of time and space because they saw them using their signature attacks. In other words, the legends quite possibly blow the apparent power levels of the pokemon out of proportion.
** Keep in mind a freshly-evolved Kingler is capable of destroying any of these "gods" in one hit if he lands it, or a properly-bred and item'd [[Lethal Joke Character|Rattata]] can annihilate nearly anything at level ''five''. In the anime, sure, they seem to actually possess these obscene powers; note people don't tend to actually catch or defeat them there either {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|often]]}}. In the games though, one assumes whoever wrote the Pokedex listened to a few too many urban legends
*** In the games, the Pokedex guy is {{spoiler|you}}.
** If you put all the Pokedex entries together you can kind-of sort-of put together a single mythology (Arceus showed up, made Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina and Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem, then the Hoenn trio, Regigigas and the golems, Landlos and Shaymin, etc., blah blah blah) but it's complicated as hell and you run into problems like having three thunder "gods" running
* Why is nobody bothered by the casinos? I mean, ignoring that the first one was run by a criminal syndicate, they all allow 10-year olds to gamble. Now, I'm willing to accept that 10-year-olds can go on long journeys, they travel in groups and have monsters to protect them. We never see the kids drinking, even in the anime, so there's clearly laws regarding sale of alcohol to minors, or else Brock would be a lush and would be hanging out in bars. So why are there no laws regarding forbidding minors to gamble? As young persons whose brains are not yet fully developed, they cannot make completely rational decisions, which, while helpful in dramatic battles where thinking outside the box with regards to magic monsters is a plus, this lack of rationality is much less helpful with regards to gambling away life savings, which I'm sure all of us players have done at some point in the poke-casino.
** Gambling away life savings? Try raising and spending almost $1,000,000 to buy a Gorgeus Royal ribbon for your pokemon. Granted, I suppose similar items are available in real life, but I assume they'd typically be a little more hesitant to let a 10 year old buy them.
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** [[Values Dissonance]]. Japan has a history of circumventing gambling laws with machines that take and accept 'tokens' that can be bought with money and exchanged for prizes, I've heard Shigeru Miyamoto himself often plays these machines. Seems Japan has much less of an issue with gambling than the rest of the world.
*** Arcades in the backs of bowling alleys, anyone?
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20100814151734/http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/showthread.php?t=37831 Evidently Nintendo of Europe has noticed this] , as the European Platinum release disabled using the machines in the game corner. Coins are now found daily on the machines by talking to them. The EU's regulations [http://www.pokecommunity.com/showpost.php?p=4725140=1 may or may not be involved].
*** /em takes another look at the local [[Suck E. Cheese's]]. I don't think it's really true values dissonance, just the sort of thing poeple tend to get upset about, even if they don't mind the real version.
*** Ironically you can still BUY coins in the casino at the price 1000 Poké for 50 coins...
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*** This troper considers the four-move limit a definite [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] that [[MST3K Mantra|doesn't necessarily apply plotwise]], and would honestly be very surprised if the Move Tutors or TM shops have ''never'' been visited / raided / held up at Hyper-Beam-point by legendaries before.
** I will concede my use of the anime as support, as it clearly shows that Cresselia's method has ''nothing'' to do with battling, save a few seconds of [[Air Jousting]]. As for PMD 2, it may be a very good reason for her to seek the assistance of the main characters.
** What bugs this Troper is that they could've given her a special legendary ability (like Teravolt or Turboblaze) that works like Miracle
*** It would even make sense symbolically. Even beyond any dream-related roles, she is the representation of a light that illuminates the darkness.
* In the first generation games, why does everyone now there to be 150 Pokémon in the region, when both Mew and Mewtwo are almost complete unknowns? This is especially strange in the manga, especially around chapter 17, where Mew is a total unknown, Mewtwo hasn't been created yet, and Red still says there's 150.
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*** And yet I'm the one who's constantly changing my team and releasing Pokémon without a moment's thought while my rival (sans Raticate) kept his original team throughout the game...But back to the original point, Oak's behaviour bugs me too. After all, didn't Oak originally send the player and the rival out to [[Gotta Catch Them All|Catch Them All]] instead of sending them to fight the Elite 4? One would think the Rival did a pretty damn good job considering he caught about 40 by the time the player meets him on the S.S. Anne...
* OK, what was Gary's starter? I don't remember that ever being directly answered in the anime. Was it that Eevee? If so, what the heck happened to Oak's Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander, and why do we never see their trainers?
** As far as I recall, both Ash's Bulbasaur and Charmander were abandoned by their trainers, that being the reason Ash ended up with
** Wasn't he shown to have a Blastoise at one point? If so, there's a good chance he went with Squirtle (it's not Charmander, since we saw its original trainer in the episode we met it).
** Squirtle is definitely Gary's starter, it was confirmed. Eevee, he picked up elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Charmander and Bulbasaur Ash acquired are ''never'' hinted to be the same ones given to the other two Pallet town trainers. Remember that we meet Charmander's original trainer Damien? If he was from Pallet, Ash would likely have recognised him, it's a small town after all. The two Pallet trainers were stated to have given up training, it was never said that they abandoned Bulbasaur and Charmander.
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** The absolute lowest level that a Dragonair would be able to know Hyper Beam is level 50. Then again, that doesn't help, since it would require that Dragonair to have been kept as a Dratini from 30-50...
** Have Dragonair hold back for one level to learn the move, then Lance either lets it evolve normally, or use a conveniently saved Rare Candy.
*** Except for the fact that in the manga, you need to have a
*** That could be true for the manga only. Though if it's true in all cases (and Lance's dragonair uses Hyper Beam in the manga), then yeah, Lance is a cheating bastard.
**** If that's the case, Lance can communicate with Pokemon in the manga, just like Yellow, and is a far more skilled trainer. He must have found a way.
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* A [[Fridge Logic]], Mammalian-based Pokemon can somehow lay Egg. WTF?
** Pokemon aren't identical to real-life animals. And Pokemon ''consistently'' lay eggs if they have the capability. I'm not seeing the problem.
** That, and mammals can lay eggs. Not many of our [[Real Life]] mammals
* The whole fainting thing always bothered me. I mean, there's flame throwers, some hot enough to melt rock, burning their flesh. Hyperbeams, solar beams, poisons, and some of them even blow themselves up. And they never die, only faint. Huh?
** It's the result of Satoshi Tajiri attempting to avert [[Death Is Cheap]] in a game about battling monsters. An admirable, if nonsensical attempt, if I do say so myself.
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**** Paul doesn't care about Pokemon except for how strong they are. He has no love or understanding for the Pokemon he catches, to him they are tools to be used and discarded when they aren't up to his very high expectations. Ash dislikes Paul for that, not for the fact that he releases Pokemon.
**** There was an episode in the anime that centered in a rehabilitation center that helped released Pokemon work their way back into the wild. So no, it isn't without cost. Paul is abandoning his Pokemon to a desperate life, and he's pushing overly aggressive abuse victims on the world.
* I know the page lists it as [[You Can't Thwart Stage One]], but there was what [[Tropers/Lord Pentium|I]] consider a bit of [[Bad Writing]] around the Snowpoint Gym. OK, so we've got this cool story going where Team Galactic had kidnapped Azelf and Mesprit, and they've headed up to Lake Acuity to grab Uxie. We're moving forward. You've braved the [[Grim Up North]]. You've come a long way. Finally, this game is truly [[Averted Trope|averting]] [[Excuse Plot]]. You get to a fork in the road, and... NOPE! There's a Rock Climb section between you and Lake Acuity, and you can't use Rock Climb outside of battle until you get the Badge from Snowpoint Gym. Commence [[Level Grinding]] against anything and everything for as long as it takes until you can beat Candice.<ref>Yes, I know picking Chimchar at the beginning makes it easier, but Fire/Fighting is an utterly useless type combo for anything else and I needed a strong reliable Surf user like the evolutions of Piplup in a game where I didn't know if I'd get Magikarp and have a chance to [[Magikarp Power|evolve it]] before needing Surf. Screw off.</ref>
** From [[Tropers/Lord Pentium|the same guy]]: after the climax. You know how I said that the League thing is [[The Artifact]]? Well, aside from that spot with Uxie, I feel that the best indicator of that is the feeling I (at least) got after beating Cyrus and catching Giratina (in ''[[Updated Rerelease|Platinum]]''). So I've traveled through [[Eldritch Location|the Distortion World]], whooped [[Big Bad|Cyrus]], captured [[Eldritch Abomination|Gira]][[Olympus Mons|tina]]... [[So What Do We Do Now?|What's next?]] Oh, right. Another Badge, and the Elite Four. Yeah, just doesn't compare with catching a being that, according to its Pokédex entry, was "banished for its violence" and now lives in a world of its own making just like [[Satan]]. I appreciate Platinum adding a little more postgame content with Charon and Heatran, which may not compare to Cyrus and Giratina but doesn't really have to due to the break, but you still gotta [[Level Grinding|grind your fucking ass off]] to get there. [[Boss Rush|The Elite Four]] in general and [[Final Boss|Cynthia]] in particular are really strong and tough to beat without having 100 Revives and twice that many each of Full Restores, Full Heals, and Max Potions on hand. Yes, even if you're carrying [[Infinity+1 Sword|Giratina]] around with you. Thank Arceus for the Vs. Seeker, or that shit would have been impossible. In short: best Pokémon yet, but it's still got some nasty [[Pacing Problems]] courtesy of [[The Artifact]].
*** As others have said, if you're having trouble with battles and need to level grind, something's wrong. (Oh, and besides being incredibly fast, Infernape has a very good type combination and stat distribution, in addition to a wide movepool.) This troper has never had to level grind in Platinum any time besides ''before'' the E4, and if you can take Cynthia and her optimized Garchomp down you're more than ready for the Battle Zone.
** Story's your issue? Whoa whoa whoa whoa, my friend, slow down. Pokémon has always had an [[Excuse Plot]]. That...hasn't really changed even for Black and White. The Galactic thing is a fun distraction, as are most stories behind Pokémon (remember Mewtwo. Yeah...okay). Pokémon is a game about training little animals for battle. The league is definitely ''not'' [[The Artifact]]. Your goal is [[To Be a Master]]. Embrace this. EMBRACE IT LIKE A CHILD, OKAY, PLEASE? And I think you're exaggerating on the Elite Four and Post-Game content a little there. If you're having that much trouble, methinks you're not the best trainer. I managed to get through there without using the VS Seeker once. And if you didn't get Chimchar, you probably should've had a Ponyta a while ago for beating Gardenia, and there's the Riolu you got from Riley if you didn't. Candice's Pokémon really aren't even that much higher up from Byron, and you've had the whole mountain thing and Routes 216-217 to help you level up. Oh, and Pro-Tip: You can obtain an Old Rod as early as ''Jubilife'' and you don't get Surf until four gym leaders later. AND there's the Day Care right before Veilstone if training Magikarp is too hard. The Day Care levels Pokémon up really fast for low leveled Pokémon. Magikarp levels up at level 20, and Crasher Wake's (the guy you beat to get Surf) Pokémon are 33, 34, and 37 so most of your Pokémon ought to be way above Magikarp's leveling point by then.
*** ''[[Troper/Donaldthe Potholer|Not]]'' the OP: First up: you're saying that an event that could trigger [[The End of the World as We Know It|a civilization- (if not universe-)ending crisis]] is Gamefreak's '''[[Values Dissonance|idea of a distraction]]'''? [[Pokémon Red and Blue|Team Rocket's antics, back in the day]], ''could'' qualify as a "distraction", but their problem is that they're ''[[But Thou Must!|literally]]'' in your way of your goal. Apart from their guards blocking up the paths to at least two gyms,
*** Which brings me to my second point. "Your goal is [[To Be a Master]]." A master of '''what'''? '''[[RPGs Equal Combat|Warfare?]]''' What if I wanted to be a master of Performance Art (Contests & Musicals)? Or athletic training ''not'' involving [[Violence Is the Only Option|direct combat]] (Pokeathalons)? Or of [[Improbable Species Compatibility|breeding]] for any of the above 3 purposes? Or a [[Awesome By Analysis|master of research]] by [[Gotta Catch Them All|collecting all species of Pokemon]] (or [[Bragging Rights Reward|all variants of a particular Pokemon]]) ''without'' having to usurp the present power structure? But, no; [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|the first two ultimately do not matter]], and the third can ''only'' be done ''after'' [[Violence Really Is the Answer|you battle the Elites and the Criminal de jour]]. "[[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|Embrace it like a child]]?" [[Voodoo Shark|What if a child]] ''doesn't'' want to battle their [[
*** First off...[[Wall of Text|holy cow]]. Second, Pokémon is about training Pokémon the fight. That's what it always has been since Gen I. Taking it off of the back of the box, it says, "Catch, train, and battle your favorite Pokémon and discover ancient, mythical Pokémon in this exciting new adventure!" That's literally all it says about the story. Also, they didn't even have anything about contests until Gen III and a lot of people totally hated that. If you want to do Contests, Musicals, Pokétlon, whatever, fine, great, but that's not the main point of the game. Yes, Team Galactic is still a distraction. A super huge fun dangerous distraction, but a distraction none the less. And why the hell are you looking for morals in Pokémon? It's a video game, calm the heck down.
*** This troper is torn. On the one hand, sure, the franchise is about catching and training creatures to battle and [[To Be a Master]]. The point is, Gen IV was the first Gen to get more than an [[Excuse Plot]] by Game Freak. They added more motivation. DPPt, though being far from perfect, had a logical storyline with only a few obvious [[Broken Bridge
*** [[Fridge Brilliance|But you have to get to the lake too late to stop Uxie from being captured.]] That said, some of us ''like'' that the plot is something your character just kind of gets caught up in. It's cool that it's incidental to your goals, and you just happen to be in the right place at the right time.
** You really shouldn't have any problems finding a Surfer, and every fight is easily beatable no matter which starter you pick. I've beaten Platinum 5 times now, using each starter (Torterra and Infernape twice) and I've had very little problem. I also make sure I never use the same pokemon twice in a run through (except Torterra and Infernape on their second runs), and I've still been fire. For Candice, any Fire, Fighting, or Steel pokemon is great. I've used Magmortar, Heracross, Magnezone, Flareon, and Lucario, and you can even make due just with a pokemon with Flamethrower (the TM is really easy to get). As for Surfers, I've used Gastrodon, Dewgong, Floatzel, and Tentacruel (though Tentacruel got very little use, he was really only good for setting up Toxic Spikes for me). And you don't exactly have to level grind for the Elite Four, I've beaten them with Pokemon in the medium 40s and low 50s. You just have to get a good spread of types (the first time I reach them, I can almost always beat the first two, and I just keep fighting them for experience until my guys get good enough to beat the last two and the champion).
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