Kangaskhan.
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SPOILERS! "What Isn't A Pokemon Yet" Repository (+ Type Combinations & Super Forms)
- Thread starter Pikachu315111
- Start date
Kangaskhan is no more a kangaroo than Lanturn is a dolphin. I'd argue that Breloom is more kangaroo-like, minus the pouch and joey. Kangaskhan is more like some weird armoured mammal.
"
Origin
Kangaskhan is based on a kangaroo with elements of Mongolian Laminar armour, evident in its helmet-like plate with ear flaps and its epaulettes."
~Bulbapedia
I mean come on man, look at the name and the fact it carries it's young in it's pouch.
The name and the carrying of young in the pouch is where the similarities between kangaroos and Kangaskhan ends. Kangaroos are slender creatures with long tails, and skinny arms and legs. Kangaskhan is a seven-foot tall armored beast. I see very few visual similarities between the two.
Mightyena, Wolf Or (Mighty) Hyena:
Mightyena is yet another combination beast with wolf and hyena traits. However its the hyena part of it that is focused on. For now I'll add wolf onto the list as "Real" Wolf, a label which I'm going to explain a bit later.
Chatot is more parrot than anything else. It's also partially based on a metronome and musical note.
As for Donphan, I see it more like a tire and there's really no other Pokemon that's an elephant that can fit the tropes Donphan is missing (yes, Mamoswine is based on a Mammoth, but its more pig then elephant). For example I wouldn't put a Kangaroo on the list because we have Kangaskhan and Breloom covering most of the Kangaroo's traits.
Mightyena is yet another combination beast with wolf and hyena traits. However its the hyena part of it that is focused on. For now I'll add wolf onto the list as "Real" Wolf, a label which I'm going to explain a bit later.
Chespin has spikes, and yes its suppose to be a hedgehog. And of course there's Shaymin which I assume is the spike comment is directed too. They may not be the hedgehogs you want, but they are hedgehogs (but if you want a hedgehog as in Sonic the Hedgehog, well there is a category up there you may be interested in...).
Well known things will of course go onto the list, but this list isn't only for well known things. Would you say the Japanese Robin is well known? A pangolin? An antlion? A bagworm? A pistol shrimp? The various mythological/cultural elements they draw from? One point of this thread is also to not only collect a list of things that aren't Pokemon yet but to show there's PLENTY of things to draw inspiration from. Personally, as long as it looks or has a trait that's interesting I think its worthy of a spot, but that's just me and is why I say we can put things up to vote. Also once we're done with all the popular things where else will we go?
Chatot is more parrot than anything else. It's also partially based on a metronome and musical note.
Hmm, I would say Parasect is the closest thing they could get to a cordyceps fungus (aka the fungus that takes over a bug host (aka yes the fungus that takes over the world in The Last Of Us)). I wouldn't exactly call it a zombie, or maybe not in the typical sense.
And that's another reason for this list. You're right that a 1:1 representation of a real life thing to a Pokemon would be boring if all Pokemon did that. That's why this list can also be seen as a "component" list of things that isn't a Pokemon. Right now there's not much you can do with the idea, though if we start filling in the Object/Concept/Mythology categories you'll start to seeing some potential (at least I do).
As for Donphan, I see it more like a tire and there's really no other Pokemon that's an elephant that can fit the tropes Donphan is missing (yes, Mamoswine is based on a Mammoth, but its more pig then elephant). For example I wouldn't put a Kangaroo on the list because we have Kangaskhan and Breloom covering most of the Kangaroo's traits.
The Spritzee line is partially based on a Flamingo I'll give you that, but there's so many other things thrown in I think "Real" Flamingo will get the idea across.
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One thing that hasn't been made is a winged horse.
Suicune looks pretty wolfy to me.
On kangaroos - I always thought Ampharos was one (though God knows what Mega-Amphy is - a banana split?) So we have three if you count that and Breloom.
You know what's cool? Trains. They look fucking awesome and make the best sounds, and it'd be a good excuse to give something Gear Shift (fuck cars). Nobody would complain that it's based off an inanimate object because they're so gosh darn amazing.
Thinking about it, I'm actually kind of surprised how many "easy" ones Game Freak has missed, like Zombie and the aforementioned Dolphin. Just goes to show that they're not being pussies about designs (then again we have stuff like Herdier aka "my mom's dog").
Thinking about it, I'm actually kind of surprised how many "easy" ones Game Freak has missed, like Zombie and the aforementioned Dolphin. Just goes to show that they're not being pussies about designs (then again we have stuff like Herdier aka "my mom's dog").
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It's all marketing decision. They perfectly know a majority of people want a Pokemon based on a Dolphin, Peahen, and other popular things but they don't give it to us all at once so that way they have 1. a Pokemon they know will appeal to many players so they're likely to buy the game that Pokemon is in and 2. allows them to explore with other animals and things they can make into Pokemon. Its why it took so long for us to get a proper T-Rex Pokemon, the Tyrunt family were probably consider one of the "selling point" Pokemon in Gen VI (and since they held back on it so long they got to experiment with other prehistoric animals they might have never done had they only focused on the popular ones).
Some of you may know this or not, but Paras and Parasect are actually based on cicadas, not hermit crabs. Nincada and Ninjask are also cicadas, but they're more obvious. Shedinja is just a cicada's shed shell.
Has anyone suggested literal interpretations of figurative phrases? If not, I'll start with "When pigs fly". I can understand why they haven't made a reference to said idiom, though, since we already have three pig lines (Swinub, Spoink, Tepig, and their respective evolutions).
Has anyone suggested literal interpretations of figurative phrases? If not, I'll start with "When pigs fly". I can understand why they haven't made a reference to said idiom, though, since we already have three pig lines (Swinub, Spoink, Tepig, and their respective evolutions).
Thing is, Pokémon are designed in Japan, mainly for a Japanese audience, and then exported. It's not an international product first and foremost (and even if it was, that particular phrase and many like it exist only in English and few if any other languages). As such, phrase-based designs are usually taken from Japanese language and culture, and hence we get designs like Farfetch'd, which is based on the phrase "A duck comes bringing green onions".
Then again, we also have Spoink, which seems to be based on the (explicitly Western) connotation between pearls and swine, so... well, maybe?
That's why I made the "Concept" category for. ;)
And that's the thing, we're six Generation in and, while there is plenty of Japanese culture left that can be turned into a Pokemon, there's a WHOLE entire world outside of Japan with its own cultural things they can turn into Pokemon. If they solely concentrate of Japanese things they'd start either running out of Japanese things to base Pokemon or start getting into the obscure stuff. Expanding into other cultures no only guarantee's Pokemon longevity but also makes it feel like an international product. It's why they started making regions based on New York and France, different culture from their own and gives them a chance to base new Pokemon on things they wouldn't have in a Japanese based region.
Also, I think a new competition in the "monster catching" genre might push them to start going a bit more international: Yokai Watch. Yokai Watch is CRAZY popular (in Japan, who knows if it'll come international though I'm sure the creators would like to expand) and also VERY Japanese. All of the creatures in Yokai Watch are heavily based in Japanese mythology, many which Pokemon hasn't even touched on yet. While I doubt Pokemon has anything to worry about, one advantage is has over Yokai Watch is its international outreach and they can base Pokemon on things outside of Japanese culture. I'm no market expert, but if Yokai Watch is still popular by the next generation I think it might be a good idea to maybe start focusing on Pokemon based on international culture (they can still do Japanese stuff, of course they can, but I wouldn't advise solely relying on it).
dwarfstar
mindless philosopher
We have no shortage of potential insect mons. Off the top of my head, cases can be made for scarab beetles, mosquitoes, mantises (yeah, I know, they call Scyther the mantis Pokemon, but neither its appearance nor its behavior are anything like the real animal, so I don't count it), termites, shield bugs, weevils (most any of them could work, but the giraffe weevil would be hilarious), earwigs, and flies of any kind. Moving on to arachnids, some lovely untried options include wolf spiders, net-casting spiders (a little iffy on this one, since a case can be made for all the web-based attacks kinda covering that already), peacock spiders, the assassin spider, amblypygids, and solifugids. Rounding out the rest of the terrestrial arthropods, we haven't had a millipede yet.
Reptiles leave us with a few interesting options. We haven't had a Komodo dragon yet (or any kind of monitor lizard, for that matter). Likewise with the thorny devil,the basilisk (forgot Heliolisk existed), iguanas, the draco lizard, Gila monsters/beaded lizards, anoles, or skinks. Regarding snakes, it's worth noting that we haven't seen anacondas (or any other constrictor, really) or the sea krait.
Notable amphibians we could run with include the flying frogs (or treefrogs in general, for that matter), Darwin's frog and other gastric-brooding frogs, the fire-bellied toad, newts, and ambystomatid salamanders.
I could spend ages on potential fossil mons, but the really well-known extinct animals we're missing include dromaeosaurs ("raptors"), stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, or any of the hadrosaurs (Parasaurolophus might be a good one to work with from here), ichthyosaurs, "terror birds",sabertooth cats (forgot Raikou somehow), Dimetrodon, Dunkleosteus, and any of the various bizarre amphibians that lived during the Carboniferous period.
Reptiles leave us with a few interesting options. We haven't had a Komodo dragon yet (or any kind of monitor lizard, for that matter). Likewise with the thorny devil,
Notable amphibians we could run with include the flying frogs (or treefrogs in general, for that matter), Darwin's frog and other gastric-brooding frogs, the fire-bellied toad, newts, and ambystomatid salamanders.
I could spend ages on potential fossil mons, but the really well-known extinct animals we're missing include dromaeosaurs ("raptors"), stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, or any of the hadrosaurs (Parasaurolophus might be a good one to work with from here), ichthyosaurs, "terror birds",
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I actually had a surprisingly similar idea, but with a bus instead of a train lol.
Also, since I mentioned donkeys, and someone else mentioned flying pigs and Pegasus, it would be pretty amazing if they trolled us by making a flying donkey instead of the Pegasus (in some parts of the world such as Italy, they say "when donkeys fly" instead of pigs)
Added many except for a few:
Mantis: Yes, Scyther is a combination of several things, though I would argue its mostly based on a mantis. If you want we could put up a vote to have a "Real" Mantis on the list.
Wolf Spider: It's kind of too much of a common spider unless you know something we don't.
Basilisk: Heliolisk is partially based on one, hence the last part of its name (and being able to learn Surf).
Iguana: Scraggy and Scrafty are based on Iguanas, if not directly.
Anaconda: A large snake is kind of lost in franchise where many final evolution of snake Pokemon are large snakes.
Tree Frog: Politoed seems to be at least partially based on a Tree Frog. Actually Politoed seems to embody all the "green frogs".
Sabertooth Tiger: Raikou may be officially classified as a beast, but at least one of those beasts is a Sabertooth Tiger.
Wolf Spider: It's kind of too much of a common spider unless you know something we don't.
Basilisk: Heliolisk is partially based on one, hence the last part of its name (and being able to learn Surf).
Iguana: Scraggy and Scrafty are based on Iguanas, if not directly.
Anaconda: A large snake is kind of lost in franchise where many final evolution of snake Pokemon are large snakes.
Tree Frog: Politoed seems to be at least partially based on a Tree Frog. Actually Politoed seems to embody all the "green frogs".
Sabertooth Tiger: Raikou may be officially classified as a beast, but at least one of those beasts is a Sabertooth Tiger.
Anyway I myself added my list to the last four sub categories of the Aquatic animals.
dwarfstar
mindless philosopher
Pikachu315111 Good catch on Raikou and Heliolisk; I forgot those existed, and the post has been edited to reflect that. I'm not seeing iguanas as especially influential on Scraggy compared to any other lizard, but I could be wrong about that, and you've got a good point regarding the anaconda. My thought about the wolf spiders is mostly just a big difference from the other spiders we've got so far, both in terms of outward appearance and the lifestyles of the actual animals. Spinarak and Ariados are based on the happy-face spider in particular, and share traits with the mostly-sedentary web-spinners in general; Joltik and Galvantula take inspiration from jumping spiders (and also from tarantulas, in the latter case), which look very different from the web-spinners and are active hunters (as are wolf spiders). I suppose it could be argued that a large wolf spider looks enough like a tarantula to someone who doesn't know much about entomology that it wouldn't be unique enough.
I do stand by the treefrogs and mantises, though. Treefrogs differ markedly from the semiaquatic frogs Politoed is based on in terms of habitat and lifestyle, and to a lesser extent in terms of morphology. I already explained my issue with Scyther.
Also, it occurred to me that we don't have a cassowary or a grasshopper yet. Those would probably make pretty cool Pokemon.
I do stand by the treefrogs and mantises, though. Treefrogs differ markedly from the semiaquatic frogs Politoed is based on in terms of habitat and lifestyle, and to a lesser extent in terms of morphology. I already explained my issue with Scyther.
Also, it occurred to me that we don't have a cassowary or a grasshopper yet. Those would probably make pretty cool Pokemon.
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Dodrio has traits of both ostriches and cassowaries, though Doduo is an emu. Spritzee and Aromatisse are kiwi birds, though they could have gotten their beaks and color scheme from flamingos.
If you were to count Smogon's Rental Pokemon (the CAP Project), we also have an icy mantis, a more humanoid mummy, a lizard with wooden armor, a harvestman (Fidgit is not a spider), a levitating strata, an octopus pirate, a spectral demon dog, a cloud dragon that resembles a sheep, a land narwhal who happens to be good at basketball, a krill, a voodoo doll man, a Mayincatec sand cat with avianoid fur, a flytrap miko, a cone snail with a lava lamp shell, an angelic moth, a giant snake with an apple for a tail, a frigatebird who joined the Navy, a vampire squid, and a stingray. But CAP is non-canon, unfortunately.
If you were to count Smogon's Rental Pokemon (the CAP Project), we also have an icy mantis, a more humanoid mummy, a lizard with wooden armor, a harvestman (Fidgit is not a spider), a levitating strata, an octopus pirate, a spectral demon dog, a cloud dragon that resembles a sheep, a land narwhal who happens to be good at basketball, a krill, a voodoo doll man, a Mayincatec sand cat with avianoid fur, a flytrap miko, a cone snail with a lava lamp shell, an angelic moth, a giant snake with an apple for a tail, a frigatebird who joined the Navy, a vampire squid, and a stingray. But CAP is non-canon, unfortunately.
Okay, first I updated the list with all the Bugs and Cells I had. Infact I found I had so many I ended up sub-categorizing it (Insects & Arachnids, anything else went under the Bug category). Also I separated the Cells into its own category (and added Micro for the micro animals on that list).
Added in Talpr0ne's "When Donkey's Fly", combining it with "When Pigs/Donkey Fly".
Added in dwarfstar's other recommendations except for Basilisk and Sabertooth Tiger. Mantis added in as "Real" Mantis and Anaconda was added as Anaconda/Constrictor.
Integer Mova, being CAPs are fanmade sadly they aren't counted, BUT we can take the components that made the CAPs and add them to the list if no official Pokemon is the thing that CAP is based on.
Added in Talpr0ne's "When Donkey's Fly", combining it with "When Pigs/Donkey Fly".
Added in dwarfstar's other recommendations except for Basilisk and Sabertooth Tiger. Mantis added in as "Real" Mantis and Anaconda was added as Anaconda/Constrictor.
Integer Mova, being CAPs are fanmade sadly they aren't counted, BUT we can take the components that made the CAPs and add them to the list if no official Pokemon is the thing that CAP is based on.
For plants: Sundew
It's a carnivorous plant who's leaves trap and digest insects.
It's a carnivorous plant who's leaves trap and digest insects.
I'm disappointed that there's no snow leopard pokemon.A griffin would be cool too.
Orcinus orca(a dolphin)
It's not the run of the mill bottlenose,but it's a dolphin.
Kyogre
Orcinus orca(a dolphin)
It's not the run of the mill bottlenose,but it's a dolphin.
Thank you for telling about Yokai Watch, it looks awesome :)
The Kiwi, I believe, has no representation. Perhaps you could argue Doduo is one, but I'm pretty sure that's an Ostritch.
No Urchin either
No Urchin either
