Things in the Pokémon world which just don't make sense (by pokémon standards)

[zhixun]

I would say that arceus is the god pokemon while mew is the basic form of all life. Which one came first?

I think god does not necessary imply the basic form of all life. God may be lifeless so I guess Arceus comes first then Mew.

 

[phanpycross]

I would say that arceus is the god pokemon while mew is the basic form of all life. Which one came first?

The togepi or the blaziken, there you go

 

[Sunset Star]

I would say that arceus is the god pokemon while mew is the basic form of all life. Which one came first?

Nintendo games and continuity don't go well together. At least Pokémon has a better continuity than The Legend of Zelda...

 

[WildHennaCharizard]

How could Ash fantasize about eating a magikarp? I thought Pokemon was life?? What

Easy besides Pokemon battling,contests,pokeathoen etc certain Pokes can be considered food. Far Fetched anyone?

 

[zhixun]

Easy besides Pokemon battling,contests,pokeathoen etc certain Pokes can be considered food. Far Fetched anyone?

Ducks are not as popular as fish or beef in Japan. I think other possibilities for food are 128 Kentauros or 241 Miltank besides 129 Koiking.

 

[VampirateMace]

Nintendo games and continuity don't go well together. At least Pokémon has a better continuity than The Legend of Zelda...

This is a normal reaction to the fact that in Japanese culture alternate stories are more popular/familiar, than they are in Western culture. It's part of why they renamed the heroes (and the game) and removed the boktai references when they translated Lunar Knights. But with all the remakes and retellings Hollywood has been doing lately, that may change.

 

[octoboy]

Can someone explain to me how Pokémon like Staraptor and Braviary are Normal/Flying instead of just flying?

Not only does it make them neutral to fighting-type moves which is unfair, it also makes no sense.

I mean they do look like pure birds to me.

A bird is an animal, and if an animal that doesn't specialize in any kind of element is a normal type, so is a similar bird.

Also, there are a few practical reasons. Being a pure flying type would make it impossible to use roost, which would leave staraptor et al without any recovery options. Unless it's proposed that roost causes a pure flying type to have no type, which would mean no weaknesses, which sounds broken.

I've speculated that might be part of why mimic stopped being an option for nearly every pokémon since gen 5. If tornadus could use mimic, it could potentially use roost, and that would make no sense.

 

[Akashin]

A bird is an animal, and if an animal that doesn't specialize in any kind of element is a normal type, so is a similar bird.

Also, there are a few practical reasons. Being a pure flying type would make it impossible to use roost, which would leave staraptor et al without any recovery options. Unless it's proposed that roost causes a pure flying type to have no type, which would mean no weaknesses, which sounds broken.

I've speculated that might be part of why mimic stopped being an option for nearly every pokémon since gen 5. If tornadus could use mimic, it could potentially use roost, and that would make no sense.

Correct me if I'm wrong (my knowledge comes from Bulbapedia rather than first-hand, but I see no reason to assume incorrectness), but don't pure Flying types default to Normal if they use Roost? Pretty sure they stopped defaulting to ??? in Gen V.

 

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

A bird is an animal, and if an animal that doesn't specialize in any kind of element is a normal type, so is a similar bird.

Also, there are a few practical reasons. Being a pure flying type would make it impossible to use roost, which would leave staraptor et al without any recovery options. Unless it's proposed that roost causes a pure flying type to have no type, which would mean no weaknesses, which sounds broken.

I've speculated that might be part of why mimic stopped being an option for nearly every pokémon since gen 5. If tornadus could use mimic, it could potentially use roost, and that would make no sense.

Ok, first of all MOST Pokémon, even these based on animals, aren't part-normal. So that throws the first argument out the window. And last time I checked birds DO specialize in flying-type.

Secondly, the existence of roost shouldn't be a reason for these Pokémon to be Normal/Flying.

These poor Pokémon have to deal with Pokémon like Conkeldurr and get hit high by them. Conkeldurr might not use moves that are be super effective against them, but with huge attack stat like that along with abilities which the increase the power of the move, normal/flying types still get major damage.

Though you do make a good point that making them no type would be broken. But there is a solution to this, just make the move recover and do nothing else.

I mean it makes no sense that flying-types lose their weakness to ice or electric simply for the fact they happen to be on the ground a bit.

 

[Sunset Star]

I thought Roost merely made Flying-types loose their resistance to Ground for a turn, rather than removing their actual Flying-type? Unless I'm mistaken...

 

[Endolise]

Can someone explain to me how Pokémon like Staraptor and Braviary are Normal/Flying instead of just flying?

Well, they're based on plain, old, common birds. It makes sense that they would be part Normal-type, because aside from the fact that they have wings and can fly, there is nothing exceptional about them.

I would say that arceus is the god pokemon while mew is the basic form of all life. Which one came first?

Well for starters, Arceus isn't "the god Pokémon."

This is oversimplifying things and failing to account for all of the facts.

For one thing, Arceus is only believed to be the creator of Sinnoh/the Pokémon world/the Pokémon universe by ancient Sinnohans, and even their myths can't agree on what it is he actually made aside from the Spacetime and Lake trios, and some aspect of the world in which they lived. HGSS seemed to imply that Arceus is actually some kind of commanding consciousness for the Unown; I and others speculate that the Unown were the "formless chaos" that spawned the Egg from which Arceus hatched, and that when it was born, it was able to direct the Unown (which would metaphorically be its "1,000 arms") in order to give shape to the universe (the Unown have been known to warp reality, and the Unown Report in HGSS says that they are arranged in a specific order - so who arranged them, and for what purpose?). But no matter what, its status as the creator of the universe is not certain.

Likewise, Mew is only believed by some scientists to be the genetic ancestor of all Pokémon. But how would they know? How would they have managed to enter the Hall of Origin or Palkia's dimension in order to get a DNA sample to test that theory? As far as they know, Pokémon like Arceus and the Spacetime trio don't exist in anything other than legends, so Mew may just contain the genetic code of all of the Pokémon that they are aware of or have access to. It's a very bold claim on their part, and is highly unsubstantiated.

Essentially, in both cases, the answer is the same - the myths about Arceus and the theories about Mew are just flavor text that is meant to give either Pokémon a sense of mystique or uniqueness, and should not necessarily be accepted as absolute fact, unless you want to get into the nitty-gritty details of it, in which case, you will end up with considerably more abstract answers like the one above about Arceus being a driving consciousness for the Unown (not that that is unfounded - there is quite a bit of evidence for it in the games, but it is a complicated issue that takes time to explain in detail).

Nintendo games and continuity don't go well together. At least Pokémon has a better continuity than The Legend of Zelda...

Strictly speaking, Pokémon is not a Nintendo game. Pokémon is made by Game Freak.

 

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

Well, they're based on plain, old, common birds. It makes sense that they would be part Normal-type, because aside from the fact that they have wings and can fly, there is nothing exceptional about them.

Can plain ordinary birds attack with powerful giga impact or copy the exact moves whoever attacked it used? (Mirror move) I don't think so.

 

[Endolise]

Can plain ordinary birds attack with powerful giga impact or copy the exact moves whoever attacked it used? (Mirror move) I don't think so.

No, but plain, old birds aren't Pokémon. However, I didn't say that they were plain, old birds. I said that they were based on them. Obviously, the fundamental differences between real animals and Pokémon are implicitly acknowledged but deemed to be beside the overall point, because there is just no getting around them. The concept is what matters here.

 

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

However, I didn't say that they were plain, old birds. I said that they were based on them

Arcanine is based off a dog.

Toxicroak is based on a frog.

And I could go on and on.

Being based on ordinary birds doesn't mean they should be normal-types.

 

[Sunset Star]

Strictly speaking, Pokémon is not a Nintendo game. Pokémon is made by Game Freak.

Good point, actually. X3 It's second-party, though, so close enough. I *think* Metroid has an actual continuity that makes sense, but I don't really play that series...

 

[Endolise]

Arcanine is based off a dog.

Toxicroak is based on a frog.

And I could go on and on.

Being based on ordinary birds doesn't mean they should be normal-types.

Arcanine may be based on a dog, but is is very clearly imbued with a fire elemental concept. They are perfectly capable of taking an ordinary creature and then designing it to have an affinity for some element, and they are equally as capable of not doing that. Look at Pikachu, for example. Should Pikachu being electricity-based prevent Rattata from being a Normal-type? Or should Arcanine being a Fire-type stop Herdier for being a Normal-type? Sometimes, they choose not to give a Pokémon an elemental affiliation because it fits the concept better.

Toxicroak is based on a Poison-dart frog, so that half of it should be obvious. The other half, its Fighting-type, is conceptual - they wanted to mix a poison dart frog with a fighter, and so that is what they made.

Quit trying to apply a rigid "one-size fits all" logic to conceptual design. It is futile and very, very limiting. Pokémon like Staraptor and Braviary are not meant to have any elemental affiliation (hence the Normal-type), and in most of their archetype's cases, they are early-game, common birds. Average. Everyday. Braviary is an exception because it is found in the late game, but it still has no elemental affiliation, nor any exceeding affinity for the Flying-type since the only thing that ties it to that is its wings. Compare that to Tornadus, who is based on a bird, but is also based on a wind deity. Deities are not typically things that you would see flying around in a blue sky. There is nothing "Normal" about Tornadus; it is meant to parallel deities who are wind incarnate, which is why it is a pure Flying-type. It is the wind. Braviary, on the other hand, is meant to parallel an eagle, while Mandibuzz, Braviary's Dark/Flying counterpart, parallels vultures, but also integrates the cultural association of vultures with death and scavenging (which manifests in the form of its bone apron, and in the Pokédex entries saying that it preys on and cannibalizes weakened Pokémon) into its concept so as to associate it with the Dark-type.

 

[octoboy]

I thought Roost merely made Flying-types loose their resistance to Ground for a turn, rather than removing their actual Flying-type? Unless I'm mistaken...

I've heard some guides saying roost can be useful for removing flying-type-related weaknesses. Bulbapedia confirms roost completely removing the user's flying type (but not its levitation abilities, lucky latias).

Correct me if I'm wrong (my knowledge comes from Bulbapedia rather than first-hand, but I see no reason to assume incorrectness), but don't pure Flying types default to Normal if they use Roost? Pretty sure they stopped defaulting to ??? in Gen V.

Huh. Bulbapedia does say that. I was baffled as to what that mechanic could be for, but come to think of it, kecleon could always mimic the move and use it after changing colour. What happened to a kecleon that did that in gen 4? Did doing that make it lose all weaknesses? Kind of too bad that didn't last if it were true. Protean roosting kecleon would have been pretty humorously gimmicky. Kecleon doesn't even seem tough enough for it to be cheap (especially if it would likely only be reliable in a double battle).

Quit trying to apply a rigid "one-size fits all" logic to conceptual design. It is futile and very, very limiting. Pokémon like Staraptor and Braviary are not meant to have any elemental affiliation (hence the Normal-type), and in most of their archetype's cases, they are early-game, common birds. Average. Everyday. Braviary is an exception because it is found in the late game, but it still has no elemental affiliation, nor any exceeding affinity for the Flying-type since the only thing that ties it to that is its wings. Compare that to Tornadus, who is based on a bird, but is also based on a wind deity. Deities are not typically things that you would see flying around in a blue sky. There is nothing "Normal" about Tornadus; it is meant to parallel deities who are wind incarnate, which is why it is a pure Flying-type. It is the wind.

This does beg the question of what's so common and everyday about a colossal golem that pretty much no one ever sees excepting in the momentous occasion that three other colossal seldom-seen golems are in the same place at he same time.

Come to think of it, I've always found the idea of dual-typed normal types to be curious (excepting flying types, as it's implied flight isn't really an elemental power). If heliolisk has electrical powers, what makes it normal? Maybe bibarel might slightly make sense as it evolves from a normal type, but then there's the fact that azurill ceases to be normal type after evolving and gaining the water type in most games while bibarel doesn't. And then there's meloetta. If there's nothing normal about tornadus, there's even less that's normal about meloetta, which is an even less commonplace sight. And it has strong enough psychic powers to justify a psychic type (or strong enough physical ability to justify a fighting type if it's used relic song) so what justifies its being classified as "normal" if it clearly has powers and is extremely rare?

 

[dirkac]

I've heard some guides saying roost can be useful for removing flying-type-related weaknesses. Bulbapedia confirms roost completely removing the user's flying type (but not its levitation abilities, lucky latias).


Huh. Bulbapedia does say that. I was baffled as to what that mechanic could be for, but come to think of it, kecleon could always mimic the move and use it after changing colour. What happened to a kecleon that did that in gen 4? Did doing that make it lose all weaknesses? Kind of too bad that didn't last if it were true. Protean roosting kecleon would have been pretty humorously gimmicky. Kecleon doesn't even seem tough enough for it to be cheap (especially if it would likely only be reliable in a double battle).



This does beg the question of what's so common and everyday about a colossal golem that pretty much no one ever sees excepting in the momentous occasion that three other colossal seldom-seen golems are in the same place at he same time.

Come to think of it, I've always found the idea of dual-typed normal types to be curious (excepting flying types, as it's implied flight isn't really an elemental power). If heliolisk has electrical powers, what makes it normal? Maybe bibarel might slightly make sense as it evolves from a normal type, but then there's the fact that azurill ceases to be normal type after evolving and gaining the water type in most games while bibarel doesn't. And then there's meloetta. If there's nothing normal about tornadus, there's even less that's normal about meloetta, which is an even less commonplace sight. And it has strong enough psychic powers to justify a psychic type (or strong enough physical ability to justify a fighting type if it's used relic song) so what justifies its being classified as "normal" if it clearly has powers and is extremely rare?

Indeed.

Kecleon would become the ??? type for the rest of the Turn, and have completely Neutral Type-Matchups.


I just always viewed all Types to merely be a form of Energy, with Normal being a blank version of all said Energy. Not really much an explanation but there really isn't much regarding it.

 

[GreenKitea]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned earlier or not, but it doesn't make sense to have all of those employees in the Coumarine City monorail station. The woman behind the desk is the one who permits you to ride the vehicle, and the man simply tells you to speak to the woman before he will let you through to ride the train. What is his purpose? It doesn't make sense, they could use a turnstile or something...

 

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

I am willing to admit, you guys have given a good explanation for normal/flying types being that.

I still think that's it's stupid they're normal/flying instead of just flying, and I don't think anything is gonna convince me otherwise.

But here comes another thing I don't get.

What's the logic behind Pyroar, Heliolisk, Diggersby, Malloetta and Girafarig being part normal?

With Sawsbuck I can somewhat understand. But I don't see what makes these normal-types.

Also, many of these DO already have a sub-type that's of something elemental, so that argument doesn't work there.