Pokémon/Headscratchers/Archive: Difference between revisions

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* Am I the only person who thinks that Fire types should be strong against rock types (considering some rocks can be melted at the right temperature), and poison strong against fighting and water types (Since water can be polluted and most fighters are beaten by getting poisoned, though a cliche in movies)?

** Well yes, rocks can melt. At ridiculously extreme temperatures. You put a rock in your average campfire, and it's just going to get hot to touch- it's not going to get changed. Most fire types don't spit out fire that hot. With poison vs. fighting, there's a case for it, but there's also a case then that poison should be strong against all the meatwads. For water, I would tend to think the opposite- poison gets quickly diluted in water and rendered ineffective.

*** You didn't really explain the deal with poison vs fighting.

**** Sure, he/she/it did, if not very clearly. Since fighting types are assumed to be buff, fit Pokemon, it could also be assumed that their bodies would be more capable of resisting and filtering toxins. In metaphor; If you present one dose of venom to yourself (A "normal" body), and one dose of the same venom to Michael Phelps (A body that's in ridiculously good shape), Michael Phelps is a lot more likely to come out of it with less damage than you are.

** 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.

*** Of course, a few of Ash's have skipped the battle part and gone staight to joining his team. Perhaps his previous actions in the same episode count as proof enough...

***** 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]]).

*** Groagunk is described as sneaky ''for survival''. Think of it like how some animals in real life are scavengers: They aren't doing it to be mean, they're doing it because it's their niche in the natural order. And gyarados being angry is much the same as alligators/crocodiles being angry: It's how their brains are developed. Calling a rhydon stupid ''is'' mean, though...

*** Well we tend to generalize animals with human traits as well. A Rhydon is 'stupid' in human terms so it get's generalized, but as it's own species, it's obviously well off.

* What does the bottom half of Diglett look like?

** 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.]]

** In the anime you actually can't use many water Pokemon effectively without water present.

** Simple: you don't necessarily actually ride on the Pokémon when Surfing. You Surf on a piece of driftwood or something and the Pokémon makes the thing stay upright on large waves, rather than forcing submersion into large waves as when it is used as an attack.

*** I may be wrong, but I think "fainted" is only what it's called in the English version. In the original Japanese it's just "unable to battle," which is also used in the English dub of the anime.

*** An interesting bit of Fanon gives the pokemon an invisible energy field that protects them from serious damage. When the pokemon's HP runs out, they remain conscious, but the field disappears, and it's illegal to force the pokemon to fight past that point.

** When you raise a cat and a dog at the same time they get along pretty well, too. Since you and the daycare are raising your Pokémon, it is safe to assume that they can get along if they are raised to do so. Pokéball brainwashing may help.

* How do the Jennys and Joys all look the same? Do they get surgery to make them look the same? Do they reproduce asexually? Are they all Ditto? Or do they kill their kids when they don't look exactly like them?

* 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|Squicky]], where's the double standard?

***** 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.

*** Think about how the protagonist is a relatively young child. Maybe they just don't want to go into details?

** To confuse issues, there's quite a few Pokedex entries, even after breeding was introduced, that strongly imply mammalian-type births, or even exotic non-egg births. Seems even the creators treat it as just a gameplay mechanic simplification.

* And BTW, what's with the plant Pokémon? I mean, there are no real animals, and there are Pokémon counterparts for them. So why do real plants co-exist with plant Pokémon? And while we're at it, what'd the deal with fish, too?

** Someone answered this already; normal animals exist and are rarer.

*** 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?

** 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.

*** HG/SS also has the event Pokewalker course "Shopping" which allows you to catch wild Torchic, which seems to suggest that Game Freak are slowly working towards having more starters available.

** This troper has the belief that the starters are imported from regions that haven't been seen in the games.

* So the Pokemon universe has clearly mastered the ability to transport both organic and inorganic matter across vast distances instantaneously. Why are there still cars? Why are there still transportation vehicles? Why aren't there teleporters everywhere? Outside of trainers who need to walk around looking for Pokemon and other people who work in nature. It can't be that hard to teleport things, it happens to countless Pokemon everyday.

** Giovanni bought them all for one of his hideouts.

** It's highly implied that the owner of that garden is a liar. It's also highly implied that his butler covers up for these lies. Notice how Porygon will only appear in the garden after he claims there to be Porygons inhabiting it.

* A meta-[[Just Bugs Me]]: have we reached the "Bugging Horizon" for Pokémon already? Haven't seen a new question pop up'for weeksm now. And the last two were one mine and one about the production of the show. Come on, people!

*** It'll take... what? Three years? Nah, I'm going on myself. On the top, I think my theory of "People are lazy" fits like a glove.

***** Yeah, but there's only one star that close. The next closest is 2.4 * 10 ^ 13 (93 is 9.3* 10^7). Since "star" is generally used to refer to the ones outside our solar system, we can take that as a minimum. More likely, it is even farther out than that.

****** Technically, that's still millions. It's just a whole lot of them.

*** Groudon and Kyogre created the land and the sea, but only in Hoenn? Dialga and Palkia created time and space, but only in Sinnoh? We're talking about concepts that exist worldwide, and the only real way to justify local pantheism in [[Real Life]] is to claim that other religions are ''wrong''. Unless the Teams of each game found out that their legendaries of choice were incapable of doing the things they wanted...

**** Maybe it's a case of misleading pantheism due to the fact that they're so-called legendaries(and they look fucking awesome). As far as I know(no, never been to Hoenn, indeed), the Teams never succeeded, so they didn't actually find out that they ''are'' indeed, incapable of the things they're accounted to do. After all, My Dialga ''can't'' stop time and crush the enemy team to a pulp while time is stopped... okay, jokes aside, the Pokédex says that the back of Shedinja's shell will suck one's soul into it. When the Pokémon fights with its back directly towards you. Get my picture? Simply putting, local pantheism is still a valid alternative.

** For proof that Game Freak has quite a ways to go, just look at the thriving fakemon community. If, for some reason, Game Freak decides "Okay, that's enough. We're out of ideas", it'll be once there are so many species that pokemon fans will start crying in unison "Please, that's enough! We already have way too many to keep track of!".

*** There's also James Turner, He designed the Baibanira and Goruugo families, didn't he?

*** Coconuts? Exeggutor would like to see you in his office.

* While we're at that... Venonat doesn't look like a Gnat at all. For starters, it doesn't have wings... why is it considered so?

** ''[[Joust]]'' with additional heads.

** But at least ostriches have wings, if small ones. Doduo/Dodrio would have to just levitate or something.

** I figure they spin their heads or legs really fast like a helicopter rotor.

** The Japanese name can be translated as "Sky Jump", and the Dodrio line is known for their prowess at leaping.

*** 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.

*** Which brings me to my second point. "Your goal is [[To Be a Master]]." A master of '''what'''? '''[[RP Gs 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 [[Hot Skitty-On-Wailord Action|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 [[Mon|mons]] in order to do ''everything''? [[Broken Aesop|What sort of morals does]] ''[[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|that]]'' [[Moral Guardians|teach our children]]?<ref>Then again, even after you ''do'' take on the power structure, you ''still'' [[Status Quo Is God|don't become part of that structure]]. [[What Were We Fighting For|What's the point of fighting the "Champion" if you do not then]] ''[[Asskicking Equals Authority|become]]'' [[What Were We Fighting For|the Champion]]? (Or at least an opportunity to ''actually'' become so at a later date?)</ref> [[Wall of Text|In Sum]]: '''Let Us See The Credits When We Win All 5 Master-Level Contests or All 10 Events on the highest difficulty''' or ''any'' other Star-Gaining achievement! But, no... Gamefreak and Nintendo hang on to outdated [[Violence Is the Only Option|videogame]] [[Monty Python and The Holy Grail|dogma which perpetuates the]] [[Apathetic Citizens|social]] [[Adam Smith Hates Your Guts|and]] [[Karl Marx Hates Your Guts|economic]] [[Hard Work Hardly Works|stratification between NPCs]]! [[Status Quo Is God|If there's]] ''[[Status Quo Is God|ever]]'' [[Monty Python and The Holy Grail|going to be any progress...]]

*** 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.