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

Tangeh

Well-Known Member
I like to think that cut was a move invented by humans due to legality issues in the pokemon world. Perhaps the law states that pokemon trainers can only use cut to alter their surroundings? After all, kids going around hyper beaming every little tree they find is dangerous to say the least. There are no pokemon that learn cut by level-up - it is purely an HM move. It was likely invented to be a weak move with a broad learn-spread that can efficiently cut trees with minimal risk of accidental harm to the surrounding area.

Makes sense in my mind anyways.

One thing that always bugged me about the pokemon world is how pokemon can be immediately sexed as soon as they are encountered. It's one of three things you can always see about the other pokemon, the other two being species and level. Obviously we can tell what species a pokemon is by looking at it... level is a bit more ambiguous, but necessary for gameplay.

...Gender, though? Some pokemon have gender differences, sure, but the vast majority do not. Most pokemon look exactly the same regardless of whether they are male or female. Where is my character looking when it first spots the thing.....?! Even in the anime Ash only knows the gender of some of his pokemon because another gender-specified pokemon used attract on them.
 

Griever789

Well-Known Member
One thing that always bugged me about the pokemon world is how pokemon can be immediately sexed as soon as they are encountered. It's one of three things you can always see about the other pokemon, the other two being species and level. Obviously we can tell what species a pokemon is by looking at it... level is a bit more ambiguous, but necessary for gameplay.

...Gender, though? Some pokemon have gender differences, sure, but the vast majority do not. Most pokemon look exactly the same regardless of whether they are male or female. Where is my character looking when it first spots the thing.....?! Even in the anime Ash only knows the gender of some of his pokemon because another gender-specified pokemon used attract on them.

I always figured the game charecters knew the genders because of their pokedexes. Like they scan the pokemon and it will tell you it's gender.
 

JohnBurgundy

Active Member
What do people eat in the Pokemon World if there are no animals? Are there farms where Miltank are running around happily only to be slaughtered shortly after? A Miltank would easily overpower a human as they are far more dangerous than regular cows. Does that mean the slaughterhouses employ pokemon to help? Is there a chopping line of Scythers? If a trainer is stuck in a cave and lost, do they just call out a pokemon and eat it? If you are having a double battle and send out Ursaring/Magikarp, Pyrour/Deerling wouldn't one just eat the other.
 

Blaze The Movie Fan

Reviewer and PokéFan
What do people eat in the Pokemon World if there are no animals? Are there farms where Miltank are running around happily only to be slaughtered shortly after? A Miltank would easily overpower a human as they are far more dangerous than regular cows. Does that mean the slaughterhouses employ pokemon to help? Is there a chopping line of Scythers? If a trainer is stuck in a cave and lost, do they just call out a pokemon and eat it? If you are having a double battle and send out Ursaring/Magikarp, Pyrour/Deerling wouldn't one just eat the other.

But there are animals, Pokémon are the animals. And yeah that's exactly what people eat in the Pokémon World.

As for why Pokémon don't eat each other in battle, well, their basic instincts are to battle instead of eating another Pokémon like the animals on our planet.
 

octoboy

I Crush Everything
I like to think that cut was a move invented by humans due to legality issues in the pokemon world. Perhaps the law states that pokemon trainers can only use cut to alter their surroundings? After all, kids going around hyper beaming every little tree they find is dangerous to say the least. There are no pokemon that learn cut by level-up - it is purely an HM move. It was likely invented to be a weak move with a broad learn-spread that can efficiently cut trees with minimal risk of accidental harm to the surrounding area.
That would explain why it's possible for a pokémon to know cut yet be unable to cut a tree. Maybe it is possible to get rid of trees other ways, just not allowed.

The case with rocks does seem odd though then. Is there really a point in disallowing someone from breaking a rock far off inside a cave away from anyone? Maybe using stronger attacks could be dangerous due to cave-in risks and all, but in that case why is it ok to blast a pokémon that gets in your path with any attack you like? Strength is even weirder. What would make it so important to disallow trainers from just having their stronger pokémon push rocks? They wouldn't even have to do anything that destructive to do that.

Unless perhaps the idea of those laws is to prevent inexperienced trainers from venturing too deep into caves. That could partly explain it, though it seems strange not to just eliminate the middleman and just outlaw spelunking without getting some sort of permit.

This is pretty funny anyway.

One thing that always bugged me about the pokemon world is how pokemon can be immediately sexed as soon as they are encountered. It's one of three things you can always see about the other pokemon, the other two being species and level. Obviously we can tell what species a pokemon is by looking at it... level is a bit more ambiguous, but necessary for gameplay.

...Gender, though? Some pokemon have gender differences, sure, but the vast majority do not. Most pokemon look exactly the same regardless of whether they are male or female. Where is my character looking when it first spots the thing.....?! Even in the anime Ash only knows the gender of some of his pokemon because another gender-specified pokemon used attract on them.
Who says knowing a pokémon's gender isn't necessary for gameplay? Breeders have spend enough time capturing or hatching pokémon only to release them due to being the wrong nature. Should there really be an extra layer of ambiguity for trainers to have to risk completely needlessly wasting time on a capture?

I think the deal with the show is that pokémon originally didn't have confirmed genders in the games and the writers didn't want to make a sudden change. Especially considering interactions with pokémon that were in the 1st gen seasons.
 
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Tangeh

Well-Known Member
I always figured the game charecters knew the genders because of their pokedexes. Like they scan the pokemon and it will tell you it's gender.

Why not also tell me its moveset, then? Or its typing? Or its ability? etc. (being able to look up a pokemon's type in the pokedex during battle would be so nice especially because there's so many species now :< I was disappointed when they didn't make this a thing in XY. Being able to see the possible abilities for a given pokemon (but not the specific one) would be nice too. Although knowing another pokemon's moveset would admittedly make the game far too easy so I totally get that)

Unless perhaps the idea of those laws is to prevent inexperienced trainers from venturing too deep into caves. That could partly explain it, though it seems strange not to just eliminate the middleman and just outlaw spelunking without getting some sort of permit.

I'm pretty sure that's it, considering you need a certain badge in order to use HMs in most of the games (except get V, for whatever reason. lolnolawsinunova)

Who says knowing a pokémon's gender isn't necessary for gameplay? Breeders have spend enough time capturing or hatching pokémon only to release them due to being the wrong nature. Should there really be an extra layer of ambiguity for trainers to have to risk completely needlessly wasting time on a capture?

I think the deal with the show is that pokémon originally didn't have confirmed genders in the games and the writers didn't want to make a sudden change. Especially considering interactions with pokémon that were in the 1st gen seasons.

I don't think it would affect breeding at all, in that respect anyways. Just put a pokemon with attract on your team and you'll know the gender after one turn. If this was a thing there'd probably be abilities or moves to reveal gender as well.

Not saying I'd like that, just saying it makes more sense as per the topic.
 

Endolise

TengenToppaBoogaloo
What do people eat in the Pokemon World if there are no animals? Are there farms where Miltank are running around happily only to be slaughtered shortly after? A Miltank would easily overpower a human as they are far more dangerous than regular cows. Does that mean the slaughterhouses employ pokemon to help? Is there a chopping line of Scythers? If a trainer is stuck in a cave and lost, do they just call out a pokemon and eat it? If you are having a double battle and send out Ursaring/Magikarp, Pyrour/Deerling wouldn't one just eat the other.

While some Pokémon are certainly used for food (if I recall correctly, Basculin is described in the Pokédex as being a delicacy, and ancient people used to eat Pokémon as well according to a myth in Sinnoh), Masuda's own statement on the matter is as follows:

Q: Is everyone in the world of Pokémon a vegetarian? Do people eat Pokémon? When they are eating steak are they eating a Tauros?
Masuda: There’s a lot of fruits and vegetables in the world of Pokémon. There is also a variety of snacks and various candies and whatnot that come from the different regions. The Pokémon world is much more technologically advanced than the world of our own, so perhaps there is probably a lot of different food that we can’t even think of. One example of that is there is even a Rare Candy which is an actual snack or piece of candy that can make you stronger, raise your level. There are all kinds of strange food that really doesn’t exist in our universe.
Q: It’s funny you bring up Rare Candy, because my next question is, can humans eat Rare Candy, and what happens if they do?
Masuda: You probably could eat a Rare Candy as a human, but it might not taste very good. It might be kind of like, an example of our world, a human eating dog food. It’s edible, but it probably doesn’t taste very good. You might hurt your stomach by doing so.
 

VampirateMace

Internet Overlord
Seen that before. He kind of just dodged the question there. I don't think they want to admit to the anime fans that the meat in the pokemon world is probably pokemon, despite the in-game evidence that it is.

Playing XY, I change my chars clothes a lot... how is she keeping that all (and her supplies) in her purse? I've heard the pokeball theory, but dang that's a lot of pokeballs for a tiny purse.
 

Murder Doll

Button Presser
The same way she has an entire bicycle in her bag :|

The space capacity of your bag has always been something that makes no sense in pokemon.
 

octoboy

I Crush Everything
Seen that before. He kind of just dodged the question there. I don't think they want to admit to the anime fans that the meat in the pokemon world is probably pokemon, despite the in-game evidence that it is.

Playing XY, I change my chars clothes a lot... how is she keeping that all (and her supplies) in her purse? I've heard the pokeball theory, but dang that's a lot of pokeballs for a tiny purse.
Pokéballs have been shown to shrink smaller than they're generally shown. It's shown less, but there were plenty of examples early in the series in which the balls could shrink to the size of a marble until they were used. That still leaves the question of how one can locate the right outfit immediately. There must be quite a bit of fumbling in the bag.

Yeah, as much as it can actually get on my nerves how some people seem completely unable to imagine a world where nobody eats meat for some reason, I don't see why that should be denied when pokémons' being edible has been canon since farfetch'd's first pokédex entry.
 

Monster Guy

Fairy type Trainer
Pokéballs have been shown to shrink smaller than they're generally shown. It's shown less, but there were plenty of examples early in the series in which the balls could shrink to the size of a marble until they were used. That still leaves the question of how one can locate the right outfit immediately. There must be quite a bit of fumbling in the bag.

According to the Pokemon Special manga, the balls are translucent, so you can see what's in them.

The real reason for all of these things though, game mechanics!
 
Descriptions of Cut state that the target is cut with a scythe or claw and these descriptions are very similar to those of Slash, Dragon Claw etc. There is no reason why Cut is the only way any given Pokemon can get rid of a tree.
I agree with this. I doubt it would happen, but I would like to see GameFreak introduce some workable overhaul of the entire system of moves used in the field.


The same way she has an entire bicycle in her bag :|

The space capacity of your bag has always been something that makes no sense in pokemon.

Actually, at least one of the games referred to the Bicycle as a collapsible bicycle. They may not have completely explained why it fits, but they took a step toward explanation.


I'm actually wondering whether they use cloud storage for the outfits.
 

Blaze The Movie Fan

Reviewer and PokéFan
Seen that before. He kind of just dodged the question there. I don't think they want to admit to the anime fans that the meat in the pokemon world is probably pokemon, despite the in-game evidence that it is.

I don't see how they're "trying to hide it" in the anime.

Usually when people talk about bull meat they call it steak.

In our world, we don't say the name of every animal of the food we're eating.

That's probably why you never hear anyone in the anime say something like a Floatzel meat. Do they need to say it? No, they don't in my opinion.
 

Tangeh

Well-Known Member
Another thing that doesn't make sense:

Doduo's pokedex entries in stadium, crystal, emerald, firered, and X all state that it can run at a pace of "over 60 MPH".

Dodrio's pokedex entries in yellow, D/P/P, B/W and B2/W2 all state that it can run at a pace of "nearly 40 MPH".

??? I checked and yes dodrio's base speed stat is higher - it's at 100 while doduo's is only 75.

Seems legit. ...oh yeah and both of them can learn fly
 
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octoboy

I Crush Everything
Speed does determine how fast an attack comes out, so maybe being able to move a distance faster doesn't necessarily mean having quicker reflexes. Dodrio has another head that can react to commands and surrounding threats sooner, but that head also weighs it down, so it might not be able to run as fast.

Might explain how pidgeot is apparently able to fly super fast but doesn't have the best speed stat.
 

Tangeh

Well-Known Member
Many of the pokedex entries talk about dodrio's running abilities, though. If this is such an important ability, why evolve if it could run faster as a doduo? An evolution that's worse off doesn't make sense. The pokedex also says dodrio gains an extra heart and set of lungs, which would assumably counteract the weight of the extra head.

I like your explanation of speed though, especially comparing dodrio's running speed at just under 40mph being base 100 and pidgeot's flying speed being mach 2 (HOW lol) at base 91.

That or the pokedex is just incorrect lol.
 

Mudcat

Well-Known Member
It's just flavor text. Think too hard on it and your head will use Self-Destruct.
 

octoboy

I Crush Everything
Dodrio isn't necessarily worse-off. The advantages of having an extra head probably outweigh the disadvantages in dodrio's case, the aforementioned improved reflexes being an example. Dodrio also gets a boost in the rest of its stats, so quite likely, it manages to more than make up for the long-distance speed it loses.

If anything, its running speed is a small sacrifice in comparison to the loss vigoroth suffers when it evolves. Or the loss in attacking ability trapinch gets when it evolves. There's definitely no sign that evolving means an outright boost in every way. Looking at its entries, it's described as "capable of running long distances without rest". This could mean that while lacking doduo's sprinting abilities, it has improved stamina when it runs.
 

appelpower

Sinnoh Champion
Dodrio isn't necessarily worse-off. The advantages of having an extra head probably outweigh the disadvantages in dodrio's case, the aforementioned improved reflexes being an example. Dodrio also gets a boost in the rest of its stats, so quite likely, it manages to more than make up for the long-distance speed it loses.

If anything, its running speed is a small sacrifice in comparison to the loss vigoroth suffers when it evolves. Or the loss in attacking ability trapinch gets when it evolves. There's definitely no sign that evolving means an outright boost in every way. Looking at its entries, it's described as "capable of running long distances without rest". This could mean that while lacking doduo's sprinting abilities, it has improved stamina when it runs.

That still doesn't explain how the Speed stat is still boosted. Speed and Stamina have nothing in common in terms of stats.
 
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