Pokémon Movepool Oddities & Explanations

But by that point the species was already given Lightningrod, it's not the reason why they have it. Unless you're pointing out it has a horn thing which everyone mentioned and that you can thank Blaine's Rhydon for... despite that's being how it was defeated but I guess someone liked the idea of a Pokemon's horn attracting electricity.
All Gen 1 Pokémon who have Lightningrod can trace it back to the Anime - Marowak due to a line in "What kind of Pokémon are you?", Pikachu did this when fighting Surge's Raichu, Seaking as mentioned before and Rhydon is obvious.
 

Celever

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All Gen 1 Pokémon who have Lightningrod can trace it back to the Anime - Marowak due to a line in "What kind of Pokémon are you?", Pikachu did this when fighting Surge's Raichu, Seaking as mentioned before and Rhydon is obvious.
The games come before the anime 99% of the time. The Pokemon utilised Lightningrod in the anime because the Pokemon had it in the games, not the other way around.

Obviously the whole basis for Lightningrod can arguably be traced back to the one icnoic "aim for the horn!" scene in the first generation of anime, but even that's a stretch.
 
The games come before the anime 99% of the time. The Pokemon utilised Lightningrod in the anime because the Pokemon had it in the games, not the other way around.

Obviously the whole basis for Lightningrod can arguably be traced back to the one icnoic "aim for the horn!" scene in the first generation of anime, but even that's a stretch.
Still, the ability was introduced onto the Pokémon after each of those anime occurences...
 

Pikachu315111

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I always thought Low Kick was kicking them in the lower leg (below the knee) since the idea is to make the opponent fall and hurt themselves. Or in other words:



Attacking the joints sounds more like Low Sweep which does fixed damage but reduces the opponent's Speed.

FUN FACT: Low Kick's Japanese name is Kick Down and being it was a very different kind of move in Gen I and II the translators may have thought it was the Pokemon kicking low instead of sweeping the opponent's leg. So it probably should have been called Low Sweep. So what is Low Sweep's Japanese name? Low Kick. Yup, in Japan, Low Sweep is what the translators originally thought Low Kick was but since they already used Low Kick they called it Low Sweep.

In the joints? I always imagined it being down there, but a little bit higher.
That's more of a Dark move than Fighting xD.
And it would do double the damage on male Pokemon. I call it "Belt Shot". ;)
 

Pikachu315111

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Let's bump this thread because it's a fun topic.

Arceus gets Blast Burn and Hydro Cannon by that Hoopa movie event, but not Frenzy Plant. Fuck plants, I guess.
What's even stranger that its 4th move is Earth Power which it learns naturally. Like I would maybe understood if they had its moveset based on what Plate it came with (or if it was Normal or Shiny), but each one came with the same moves. I sometimes question the Pokemon Company's lack of imagination.

NEW ODDITY: Well it's not exactly a weird movepool but its something involving a move. So the Light Clay item extends the effects of Light Screen and Reflect, but not Safeguard. Why? Safeguard is pretty much the status version of those moves and it uses the same animation of being a screen of light (also many Pokemon who learn Light Screen and Reflect usually also learns Safeguard).
 
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Karxrida

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The thing is that the Hyper Beam clones are all Starter-exclusive. They might as well have given Arceus the Primal's sigs + some Fire move if they were trying to get the connection across.
 
The thing is that the Hyper Beam clones are all Starter-exclusive. They might as well have given Arceus the Primal's sigs + some Fire move if they were trying to get the connection across.
I don't think that really matters. They were just going for the most powerful special moves of those types.
 
I'm pretty sure the Fire-Water-Ground coverage was supposed to reflect the "three great forces of nature:" Fire, Water and Ground, which were the elements used with the people's power received from Arceus in order to create the Prison Bottle in the Hoopa movie.

It always confused me before I watched the movie why it had Earth Power instead of Frenzy Plant. Now that I've seen the movie, I see this case as just one of those unusual 4 Move Slot Syndrome cases for event Pokémon (I'm not getting rid of Arceus's signature Judgment for the sake of including a move I'd never use anyway, even if Judgment is learnable by level-up).
 
When Rotom takes on an appliance, it typically inherits a very strong move of its new type, usually the strongest one that isn't an elemental Hyper Beam: Hydro Pump, Overheat, Leaf Storm, or Blizzard. Except for Fan Forme, which does not receive Hurricane, the equivalent supermove-with-a-downside, but rather the much more consistent Air Slash.
 

Karxrida

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Touche.

Edit to not be shitpost:
  • Did we go over how Tympole and its evolutions don't get Waterfall? Because they don't and it's weird when most other Water-types do.
  • Keldeo is one of the few Water-types that doesn't get Ice Beam/Blizzard for some reason (we might have gone over that already, though).
  • Latios and Latias get Surf, Waterfall, and Dive. I wouldn't think psychic dragon jet birds with no legs would be good swimmers, be able to breath underwater, or need to utilize water in the first place.
 
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Pikachu315111

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When Rotom takes on an appliance, it typically inherits a very strong move of its new type, usually the strongest one that isn't an elemental Hyper Beam: Hydro Pump, Overheat, Leaf Storm, or Blizzard. Except for Fan Forme, which does not receive Hurricane, the equivalent supermove-with-a-downside, but rather the much more consistent Air Slash.
Well that's because Hurricane didn't exist in Gen IV and they probably forgot Rotom gets a super strong move upon changing forms. That said I think each Rotom Forme should have its own Level up moveset, even if its just a small one, to at least give it more moves of the type it changes into. They can even have fun with choosing what moves based on the Forme it had taken.
 
Tornadus. Generally thought of as the forgotten genie, it has power over the wind. It can expel enough energy from its tail to cause severe storms, enough to blow houses away.

It can't learn Whirlwind.

And yet Snorlax of all things can.
I've always found weird how Whirlwind and Roar are distributed. Snorlax and even Hippowdon can learn Whirlwind, while Zapdos (and the other bird legends if I recall) learn Roar. Very minor, since the effect is the same, but it'd still make sense if those were inverted.

Maybe Snorlax can blow REALLY hard and Zapdos's kacaw is very loud?
 
I've always found weird how Whirlwind and Roar are distributed. Snorlax and even Hippowdon can learn Whirlwind, while Zapdos (and the other bird legends if I recall) learn Roar. Very minor, since the effect is the same, but it'd still make sense if those were inverted.

Maybe Snorlax can blow REALLY hard and Zapdos's kacaw is very loud?
Well, I can't imagine Snorlax roaring. But, if you look at the Japanese name ("Blow Away"), I can DEFINITELY imagine Snorlax sucking in air and blowing away his opponent. I guess Hippowdon would be similar if it uses its sand jets on its body to blow away the opponent rather than just producing a sandstorm.

As for Zapdos, a bunch of birds do have very loud and scary cries. I can guess that a 5' bird would produce a very loud and scary one. Why can't it learn Whirlwind? Well, those wings are kinda short and most of the time they can't even bend. So maybe they just CAN'T whip up a good wind.
 
Well, I can't imagine Snorlax roaring. But, if you look at the Japanese name ("Blow Away"), I can DEFINITELY imagine Snorlax sucking in air and blowing away his opponent. I guess Hippowdon would be similar if it uses its sand jets on its body to blow away the opponent rather than just producing a sandstorm.

As for Zapdos, a bunch of birds do have very loud and scary cries. I can guess that a 5' bird would produce a very loud and scary one. Why can't it learn Whirlwind? Well, those wings are kinda short and most of the time they can't even bend. So maybe they just CAN'T whip up a good wind.
Fair enough, actually. I didn't know Whirlwind's Japanese name, but it makes a lot more sense now. Some of the non-winged Pokemon that learn it are actually quite "fat" (Snorlax, Hippo, Hariyama) so it makes sense that they can blow very powerfully.

Speaking of Zapdos, I always hated how it is the only bird legend who doesn't learn Hurricane, when he's literally a thunderstorm bird.
 

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