Pokemon attacks in reality

[Razor Shiftry]

Right, well, i used the search button and i couldn't find any other threads like this so i thought i woudl make one xD

I'm starting out a fanfic of pokemon set in the real world and something that occured to me was how pokemon, if they were like animals per se, how would they perform some of these attacks in reality?

Theories:

Fire pokemon: well, i think that Fire pokemon are mostly predators. digesting meat releases methane and if the pokemon and control his methane and provide some way of igniting it. or some fire pokemon like Rapidash make release alot of body heat (as Rapidash can run FAST) which surface on the body and...errm...any other ideas?

water pokemon: well, if they're out of their element, the i think water pokemon are pretty weak. i think they should be able to use physcial water attacks from secreating water to cover their bodies to attack but for those who say they would take mositure out of the air; to perform a water gun attack, think of how much water you would have to condense! so does anyone have any thoughts on how water pokemon could perform their attacks out of water?

Grass pokemon: a majority of grass pokemon have some symbolisis with plants such as Tropius and Shiftry, providing food for/from the host etc. their attacks are pretty obvious, in that they fire sharp leaves and such or the plant has a semiconciousness from being attached to the pokemon allowing it to be controled...?

Rock/earth pokemon: what has always mystified me is Stone edge. how is this attack performed? does the pokemon pick up a boulder and smash it on another pokemon? its it a stronger form of rock blast where the pokemon smashes big rocks and instead of a couple of rocks being accuratly(?) fired, its just one HUGE one? and what about Earth power? how does that work? and also, would rock pokemon (which aren't part water etc) drown if they were exposed/thrown into water? i guess they would wouldn't they?

these are just my thoughts and opinions of if pokemon were brought to the real world. i just wanna hear other people's thoughts about them and anything else pokemon/pokemon-attack related other people are confused about

 

[The Admiral]

Fire pokemon: well, i think that Fire pokemon are mostly predators. digesting meat releases methane and if the pokemon and control his methane and provide some way of igniting it. or some fire pokemon like Rapidash make release alot of body heat (as Rapidash can run FAST) which surface on the body and...errm...any other ideas?

Re: the second example - I'm not so sure how fact you'd have to run to produce enough heat via friction with the air to ignite something, but I don't even think it could run quite that fast, but it's an interesting idea.

For the first - it's possible but would still require a method of ignition, which is not especially likely to exist.

Rock/earth pokemon: what has always mystified me is Stone edge. how is this attack performed? does the pokemon pick up a boulder and smash it on another pokemon? its it a stronger form of rock blast where the pokemon smashes big rocks and instead of a couple of rocks being accuratly(?) fired, its just one HUGE one? and what about Earth power? how does that work? and also, would rock pokemon (which aren't part water etc) drown if they were exposed/thrown into water? i guess they would wouldn't they?

I don't think they'd all drown, but given their mass, generally speaking, unless they were really good swimmers, the likelihood of them managing well in water is pretty low. Moreover, most rock Pokemon aren't shaped for movement through water.

It's an interesting idea, but I have no idea how it could be pulled off, if at all.

 

[Blivsey]

This is another example of over-thinking it. It's the Pokémon world, not ours. Physics could run entirely differently there. Just go with it.

If you needed a real explanation, though, as for Rock Pokémon, layers of rock lie not too far from the surface. If they had the ability to generate a field to attract said rocks on impulse, they could probably pull rocks out of the earth to perform most of their attacks. Then again, how would they create anything to pull rocks like that? Or, on non-rocky battlefields, they use what they've got. Concrete Slide? Sod Throw?

And given that most of them are either made of rock or have rocks attached, they would probably sink.


Most of your explanation is well-founded, though. Now explain Electric-types to me.

 

[SnoringFrog]

Most of your explanation is well-founded, though. Now explain Electric-types to me.

I'd venture to say they'd be little more than electric eels and whatnot, just stronger for some of the stronger moves and with the ability to project the electricity instead of just generating a small field around themselves.

 

[you]

Well in the Encyclopedia Pokemonia we have several articles about the types and theories on how they can use such attacks and so on. We even include sub-types of types, such as Internal and external Steel types. Feel free to use them if they help you at all...

 

[Razor Shiftry]

Well in the Encyclopedia Pokemonia we have several articles about the types and theories on how they can use such attacks and so on. We even include sub-types of types, such as Internal and external Steel types. Feel free to use them if they help you at all...

ahh, yeah, thats what i needed. i'm guessing with fire types it would be a chemical mixture within its organs which would release various gases which are flamable. i read this book before on a theory on how Dragons could exist in real likfe and their theory on them breathing fire came from Methane being released from their stomach from digesting meat and then the dragon must eat Flint or some kind of material capable of producing sparks and something or other happens and TAH DAH, flame thrower.

was with water, looking at the encyclopedia, i guess the idea of a water sack within the body as well as the idea of the cells having been evolved to hold 1.5 times more water than normal. classing Floatzel/Buizel/Wingull/Pelipper/Golduck/Psyduck/Seel/Dewgong etc as Amphibians is a little...off though. they're mamals which have adapted to aquatic life eg sea weasels, water birds, Pylatapus (?), seals, Beavers etc.

Another point i would like to discuss is the Dark type. does any one have any theories they would like to express about the dark type?

 

[.Bright Side.]

For water, couldn't they be in the same position as fire types, where a mixture of Carbon and Oygen mix to form a limitless supply of water? They can nutrients from the food they eat into carbon, and the air they breath on land can mix with the nutrients they gather from food to create their attacks.

As for dark, what's there to theorize? Its a darker shaded normal type that shares the same weakness and resistances as normal excluding bug.

 

[Razor Shiftry]

For water, couldn't they be in the same position as fire types, where a mixture of Carbon and Oygen mix to form a limitless supply of water? They can nutrients from the food they eat into carbon, and the air they breath on land can mix with the nutrients they gather from food to create their attacks.

As for dark, what's there to theorize? Its a darker shaded normal type that shares the same weakness and resistances as normal excluding bug.

i assume you're talking about hydrogen rather than carbon right? water is made from oxygen and hydrogen. i'm not sure where you got this idea of carbon from the food they eat as in order to get carbon, that would require burning like burning wood.

as for the dark type, thats an interesting start but then the question is why are they weak to bug? why are Dark types immune to psychic attacks? is there a plausable explination? do dark typed pokemon have an unusual mindset in their brains meaning that psychic attacks like confusion and psywave wouldn't affect their mind like it would to other pokemon? like some sort of specialised brain that 'hides' their brain electronic siganls meaning that they can't be affected by the assult from psychic attacks?

any other ideas/questions?

 

[SnoringFrog]

as for the dark type, thats an interesting start but then the question is why are they weak to bug? why are Dark types immune to psychic attacks? is there a plausable explination? do dark typed pokemon have an unusual mindset in their brains meaning that psychic attacks like confusion and psywave wouldn't affect their mind like it would to other pokemon? like some sort of specialised brain that 'hides' their brain electronic siganls meaning that they can't be affected by the assult from psychic attacks?

Maybe their 'darkness' is both in physical aspects as well as mental ((pretty much what you ended that quote with)). Somehow, I'd say their brains are entirely disguised from a psychic's mind. As for a weakness to bug pokemon, I'm not sure...it doesn't make much sense. Maybe their resistance to psychic is in itself almost a psychic-type "move" persay. Which is what blocks them from those attacks, then, because they have that up all the time, they share the weakness of bug types with psychics.

 

[Razor Shiftry]

thats an interesting point. continuing on on that train of thought, it may be that their 'darkness' is an evolutionary trait in that if hides the pokemon from being sensed by psychics as well as being seen (the general black colouring of dark pokemon).

their dark 'coat' would also be a reason why there is only one special dark attack being that the 'darkness' wouldn't normally be able to manifest into an attack outside of the body as it is being used to 'hide' the pokemon all the time. this would also bring it to being the opposite pf the physic type even more as it has very few physical moves.

i think the being weak to bug aspect (after a while in thinking upon it) stems from the fact of how bugs are parasitic in some cases and would be the worst nightmare to a type which thrives on stealth and being unseen. and if the dark coating is a form of a psychic attack, the buzzing from certain bug pokemon would disrupt the mental concentraion, concious or subconcious, needed to keep the darkness going, thus hurting them and weakening them...?

 

[Wondrous Sableye]

Dark-types are to do with actual physical darkness in the same way that birds are to do with air. The Japanese name used for the type translates directly as "evil". If you pay attention, you'll notice that just about every Dark-type attack uses some "underhanded" tactic.

As to why they and Psychics are weak to Bug (and why they're immune to Psychics), Bugs are generally uncomplicated in terms of mental processes when they're not hive minds.To draw a parallel for why Psychics are weak to Bugs, I think a Discworld example is appropriate. In the Discworld novels there is a technique referred to as "Borrowing". This allows one to more or less hitch a ride on the mind of whatever has one and sort of "steer" it with suggestions. A hive mind like a bee swarm's is nearly impossible to Borrow because of the simple fact that everything is all over the place. Presumably the process works similarly in the case of the Bug-Psychic relationship.

In the case of Dark-types, the idea is presumably that their minds are corrupt, insane, or just plain different enough in their workings that they aren't affected by Psychic moves. As for the Bug weakness, it could be similar to the Bug-Psychic relation, or there again it could be that Bug tactics are versatile enough that trying to defend in the manner that Dark-types use is simply not as effective as the normal method.

Just my two cents on that.

 

[Razor Shiftry]

well, it seems the dark type aspect of pokemon is thought realistically seems resolved pretty quickly xD

i suppose in order to link it up a bit, does anyone have any detailed theory on how psychic attacks might work? my idea would be that some pokemon can release a...errm...thingy (can't think of the right word) which can manipulate/disrupt the electrical impulses in the brain such as the attack confusion, extrasensory, Dream eater, psybeam and psywave, thus being able to cause confusion, pain etc. while Psychic is merely controlling to cause pain, as it making the opponent fly into a wall or levitate and smash into the ground, so theoretically only damaging on collateral impact...?

 

[SnoringFrog]

For how psychic attacks work, I say they all stem from either telekinesis or telepathy. Those attacks which slam pokemon into objects obviously stem from the telekinetic side of psychic powers. Others are all in the mind. Psywave/beam sounds to me like a type of burst of psychic energy, entering the opponent's mind and telling them they are feeling pain, even when they aren't really, while confusion would merely confuse ((duh)) and disorient the opponent, possibly hurting them mentally or even causing them to simply walk into things or trip or attack themselves.

I like the idea that the simplicity of a bug's mind is what makes it strong against psychics ((or complexity, when dealing w/ the hive mindset)). Perhaps bugs are too simple to be controlled and thus they shut a psychic down?

Speaking on the dark types' 'underhanded' tactics and stealth, that seems to fit well in saying that they someone cloak themselves from being able to be 'located' or 'borrowed' ((as Wondrous Sabeleye put it)) by a psychic type. It is kinda cheap, I guess you could say, and the stealth of it is salient enough. Or, going back to how it was mentioned that they're 'evil', it could be that their minds are such horrible places that a psychic can't bear to be in there. Maybe the thoughts found there are more than the average psychic would want to be let in on?

 

[Razor Shiftry]

how about this theory? since the brain operates though electical signals between neutrons in the brain, psychics can use their telepathy to interrupt this and redirect the impulses to cause pain/confusion/sleep etc. maybe dark pokemon have a brain which has evolved in such a way that their brains cannot be affected by psychics telepathy in the mind. i don't really like the idea that dark pokemon's minds are so hellish that psychics can't bare to be in their minds. doesn't seem right really. dark pokemon may display sadistic 'evil' natures but i think a better explination to their resistance to psychic attacks is due to a superior evolved brain or some kind.

 

[Wondrous Sableye]

There's also a few Psychic moves that seem to be being ignored here: Agility and Rest, for starters. There would, it seems, need to be some greater force at work in order to become fully refreshed in the span of, for example, about two minutes or make oneself more speedy by relaxing.

Perhaps Rest allows a sort of controlled-REM sleep to be used while some other psychic force clears out the body's more mundane injuries; Recover is less effective but is a Normal-type move, so perhaps the sleep makes the user more susceptible to help as well as harm.

Agility, meanwhile… it seems the anime has encouraged a description incongruous with the description used in the games since at least R/S; the anime shows it as something in the same vein as Double Team except with actual movement rather than illusions, while the games (though animation-wise not terribly different) say that the user relaxes their body. That sort of thing seems more along the lines of standing still, taking a breath, closing one's eyes, counting to ten, exhaling… that sort of thing usually assosciated with on-the-spot-relaxation.

Both of the above attacks, however, seem to involve a sort of self-hypnosis. Which makes sense, if you think about it.

As to the interior of a Dark-type's mind, my thoughts were along the same route as SnoringFrog's; however, we also have special cases like Absol, which quite frankly rather mucks up that line of thought. It seems rather more likely that as far as the Dark-type weakness of Psychics is that a Pokemon that spends most of its energy on mental technique isn't going to be all that prepared for tactics like sucker punches, bites (where claws would suffice, or, failing that, blunt force), or attacking out of turn. In a manner of speaking, Pokemon battles in the games seem to work more like old-fashioned war; you take turns shooting at the other fellow and whoever's left standing is the victor. Meanwhile, Dark-type attacks seem more typical of guerilla/modern warfare. An old-fashioned army commander wouldn't be likely to expect an enemy to hit them when they were retreating (Pursuit) or attack under a flag of surrender (Faint Attack). In that sense, perhaps the best definition of the mental processes of a Dark-type is that old-fashioned honor does not come into play.

I do hope all that made sense.