Pokemon Design Misconceptions

[octoboy]

Okay, so simple, what mistakes did you have about Pokemon designs when you first saw them.

For example, I've been playing Pokemon since Red and Blue and for all these years I thought Poliwag's mouth was its nose. All these years... and I just figured that out this year.

Probably didn't help that a few how-to-draw books called poliwag's mouth a nose. I personally always knew it was a mouth though. Those drawing books did mislead me in other ways, probably the most extreme being the books' leading me to believe that zubat's ears were actually big, bulging eyes. I'm also still a little undecided on what the deal with pikachu's eyes are. Are the white bits supposed to be highlights, or does pikachu actually have inverted eyes with black whites and white pupils as one drawing book and one moment in Ash Catches A Pokémon suggest?

Speaking of Pokémon Ash caught, this thread can't be complete without the one major contender for confusing designs: metapod.

Which side is the front exactly? Is the pointy part supposed to be a nose? Or is it supposed to be a horn in the back of its head? Or are there two of those things and are they claws? And why can't even official drawings agree about this?

Probably doesn't help that chrysalis don't exactly have faces in the first place, so it isn't exactly simple to picture one with a face.

 

[OceanicLanturn]

Cradily. I thought the eyes were the spots, but then the white ball was its tongue, in one of the shots

It looked like the black stuff were the mouth, and the white stuff is the tongue, and then the eyes. What a deceiving Pokemon.

 

[RaichuArcanine]

Yeah I've been playing for six years now and I always thought it was Poliwag's nose as well. I thought it was cute, cause I was all like "aww look at that tadpole with a nose and no mouth" and now I know.. I think it's ugly XD.
~RaichuArcanine~

 

[CAH]

....wait what?

The first time I see Poliwag, I immediately see the red part as its mouth, not a nose.....

Yeah, I don't get how so many people thought it was a nose. The line in the middle makes it obvious that it is in fact it's lips/mouth. I can't even find a picture where it looks even remotely like a nose, but everyone sees things differently I guess. On a further note, perhaps this confusion arose because Poliwhirl and Poliwrath have no mouth, so it looks like the spiral thingy on their belly is their mouth, so perhaps people assumed the same with Poliwag. Despite looking like their mouth, I don't think the spiral thing is actually their mouth. I'd assume it'd look something like this: http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/235/0/9/poliwrath__s_mouth_by_ross_sanger-d5c60cw.

We'll never know for sure though.

As for my own response to this thread, when I first saw this sprite of Wailmer http://guidesmedia.ign.com/guides/059687/images/blackwhite/pokemans_320.gif I couldn't tell which dots were it's eyes. It looked like the top two were it's eyes, and the bottom two, it's nostrils. Turns out the bottom two are it's eyes however (which I was glad to find out, as it looked retarded the other way).

 

[ParaChomp]

Anything with misleading eyes, Armaldo and Cradily in particular. 3D models fix everything (hooray for X and Y) because I noticed it in Battle Revolution (hate the last round of the Masters Battles) as well as Kabuto in Stadium. I also use to think that Gardevoir had no legs but 3D models fixed that. Lotad's bill was a nose (I was partially right) while Lombre's bill was a lip. Also used to think Banette's zipper was a tooth, then a bar used for a marionette, and then thanks to cartoon this time, I found out it was a zipper. I still like the idea of a bar better, a puppet getting stabbed in the back of its head with one of its own bars. Gruesome. Nosepass also looked round to me until I saw it in the cartoon where I was confused. So many examples from generation 3, why? Probably because I stopped watching the show as much and didn't buy the 3D games for the Gamecube.

Hooray for 3D models in 3D!

 

[Crystal]

I had one about Hydreigon. Though, I don't think that is my mistake, but rather mistake on everyone that interprets Hydreigon's pictures and sprites though general aesthetic sense.

Everyone and every website I visited said Hydreigon's "legs" are shortened or atrophied or degenerated through the evolution process. For me personally, those might look like "legs" by first glance, but it is really not legs, but rather feels like protruding "fur" to me. One proof is that for every animating sprites you can find on games, and all Hydreigons introduced in anime, their "legs" never move.

That is something like Espeon's fur protruding beneath its ear, where I believe someone may had mistake Espeon had two pairs of ears before.

 

[AllHailThrall]

When I first got Ruby, I didn't realize Gardevoir's sprite and Sugimori art had it looking to the right. I always saw it looking to the left (and thus that the pointy thing on the left of its face was its little pointy nose). And a lot of people mentioned this one, so I'm going to mention something new: Am I the only one that thought Gastrodon had three eyes? In the anime at least, it seems to have two eyes and its middle "eye" is just an eye-like mark, since during Paul's battle against Ash, it faints and only the two outer eyes turn swirly.

 

[☭Azimuth_055☣]

Cradily. I thought the eyes were the spots, but then the white ball was its tongue, in one of the shots

It looked like the black stuff were the mouth, and the white stuff is the tongue, and then the eyes. What a deceiving Pokemon.

I also thought of Cradily that way as well. Really, its head really confuses me.

 

[tomboyTrainer305]

Always knew Poliwag has a mouth so since that's covered for me, I think Mawile's and Excadrill's designs got me a bit confused. I used to think that Mawile's 'jaws' was actually its mouth from the front view while fro Excadrill; when it first came out, I used to think the red diamond-shaped spots was his eyes and the drill was his mouth.O__o I didn't realized that underneath the drill was his face.^^;

Probably didn't help that a few how-to-draw books called poliwag's mouth a nose. I personally always knew it was a mouth though. Those drawing books did mislead me in other ways, probably the most extreme being the books' leading me to believe that zubat's ears were actually big, bulging eyes. I'm also still a little undecided on what the deal with pikachu's eyes are. Are the white bits supposed to be highlights, or does pikachu actually have inverted eyes with black whites and white pupils as one drawing book and one moment in Ash Catches A Pokémon suggest?

Speaking of Pokémon Ash caught, this thread can't be complete without the one major contender for confusing designs: metapod.

Which side is the front exactly? Is the pointy part supposed to be a nose? Or is it supposed to be a horn in the back of its head? Or are there two of those things and are they claws? And why can't even official drawings agree about this?

Probably doesn't help that chrysalis don't exactly have faces in the first place, so it isn't exactly simple to picture one with a face.

Yah I remember seeing some Pokemon products w/ Pikachu having black pupils and all around white eyes, it did creeped me out a a kid,:/ and lol yes Metapod, I too get confused on what it was supposed to look.>.<

 

[octoboy]

Yeah, I don't get how so many people thought it was a nose. The line in the middle makes it obvious that it is in fact it's lips/mouth. I can't even find a picture where it looks even remotely like a nose, but everyone sees things differently I guess. On a further note, perhaps this confusion arose because Poliwhirl and Poliwrath have no mouth, so it looks like the spiral thingy on their belly is their mouth, so perhaps people assumed the same with Poliwag. Despite looking like their mouth, I don't think the spiral thing is actually their mouth.

We'll never know for sure though.

Actually, there are a few dex entries which state the polis' spirals are intestines seen through transparent skin. Apparently there are real tadpoles which look like that.

I can partially understand why some would consider the evolved forms' spirals mouths, as in the anime, they appear to send water gun from their spirals, but in that case, those people must've missed all the episodes with poliwag in them, because poliwag pretty clearly sprays water gun from its mouth. Unless those people assumed poliwag was snorting water out.

Lotad's bill was a nose (I was partially right) while Lombre's bill was a lip.

I used to think lombre had a red lip too. I remember ludicolo being the only member of that line that looked ducklike to me.

Speaking of bills, magmar confuses me, even now. I've heard a lot of people say magmar looked like a bird to them, and that honestly confused me because I always saw magmar as having yellow lips. I don't even know who was right now.

Dustox is also kind of ambiguous. I originally thought it was supposed to have compound eyes, but I think bulbapedia (or maybe a page of wikipedia) said that it was meant to have three pupils in each eye. I'm not sure which of those are right.

Another one is jynx. I thought the black faced version of jynx was supposed to have its face hidden in the shadows with only its eyes and mouth showing, kind of like how tangela's face just looks like eyes in the shadows. It honestly confused me when people compared jynx to blackface.

 

[Birds of Paradise]

Masquerain....I thought that the face was the mouth

 

[Regality]

Okay, guys.. I used to think that bit was ho-ohs eye.

[IMG300]http://s15.postimg.org/gyoduzid7/Gn_Fd_KSd.png[/IMG300]

 

[AJ]

I could never tell what lileep's eyes were as I thought the designs on the sides of its head were they eyes

 

[CAH]

Actually, there are a few dex entries which state the polis' spirals are intestines seen through transparent skin. Apparently there are real tadpoles which look like that.

Just googled it O_O........ cannot....... be...... unseen

 

[WildHennaCharizard]

Here's another one look at the "bump" between Kadadbra's legs...

 

[Will-powered Spriter]

Hmm, lessee...

Venomoth's legs are not a mouth like pinsir's mouth.
Masqurain's antennae are not its eyes OR its wings.
The swirl on the poli line are not part of their face, so they're not another walking head pokemon like jigglypuff.

 

[supersmew]

Also, I used to think Zubat's legs was it's tail. But Bulbapedia says otherwise.

Zubat is a small, blue bat-like Pokémon. It has two long, skinny legs. Zubat's face lacks any eyes and a nose. The insides of Zubat's ears and undersides of its wings are purple. Zubat's wings are supported by elongated 'fingers', and four teeth can be discerned from inside its mouth, two on the lower jaw and two on the upper.

 

[T-Bolt]

I'm still not sure what Relicanth's eyes are. Is it the red dot, or the line nearer to its mouth, which looks like a closed eye?

 

[fitzy909]

I'm still not sure what Relicanth's eyes are. Is it the red dot, or the line nearer to its mouth, which looks like a closed eye?

i think it is the line. the dot looks too far back, so i think the line is supposed to be it's eye, but closed.

 

[☭Azimuth_055☣]

I also thought that Masquerain's wings were its eyes.