Pokémon Movepool Oddities & Explanations

The "logical" explanation in my head is still the old "wing's are too short" dealy.

Also, thinking of it again, Zapdos knowing roar makes sense. It's an electric type. Its Roar is probably EXTREMELY similar to thunder (Thunder is Zapdos's Japanese name too)
 
The "logical" explanation in my head is still the old "wing's are too short" dealy.

Also, thinking of it again, Zapdos knowing roar makes sense. It's an electric type. Its Roar is probably EXTREMELY similar to thunder (Thunder is Zapdos's Japanese name too)
I must admit his explanation is growing on me.

Because Rain Dance + STAB on Thunder/Hurricane would be too good
I don't think GF ever thinks about things being "too good". Because I am sure that a Dragon/Flying, 780 BST Pokemon with ultra-powered STABs, reduced weaknesses and free item slot IS too good. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I think we all agree balance is not what GF has in mind when making Pokemon.
 
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 always thought Snorlax (and all wingless fat Pokemon who get Whirlwind, for that matter) just farted to scare their opponents away...
 
I always thought Snorlax (and all wingless fat Pokemon who get Whirlwind, for that matter) just farted to scare their opponents away...
Well, that would be pretty scary. If I saw that happen, I'd probably leave too. Although then I'd feel bad for the poor sap that gets sent out next...


Any particular reason why Flareon can learn Shadow Ball? Or Leafeon? ...wait a minute, every Eeveelution can learn Shadow Ball!? I mean, I can kinda buy it for Espeon and Umbreon, but other than that...h-huh?
 
Well, that would be pretty scary. If I saw that happen, I'd probably leave too. Although then I'd feel bad for the poor sap that gets sent out next...


Any particular reason why Flareon can learn Shadow Ball? Or Leafeon? ...wait a minute, every Eeveelution can learn Shadow Ball!? I mean, I can kinda buy it for Espeon and Umbreon, but other than that...h-huh?
Eevee can learn Shadow Ball. That's why all Eeveelutions get it too
 
Eevee can learn Shadow Ball. That's why all Eeveelutions get it too
Ah...alright, that makes sense.

...of course, this begs the question, why can an adorable little fluffy fox-like thingie generate an orb of pure shadows? I mean granted, maybe that's just a "normal types being weird" thing, but Eevee doesn't have nearly as many strange things in its movepool as some of the others do, so why one?
 

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Ah...alright, that makes sense.

...of course, this begs the question, why can an adorable little fluffy fox-like thingie generate an orb of pure shadows? I mean granted, maybe that's just a "normal types being weird" thing, but Eevee doesn't have nearly as many strange things in its movepool as some of the others do, so why one?
Out of all Pokemon that can use Shadow Ball its just the Eeveelutions you have a problem with? Personally I'd more question why the Chansey family, Togepi family, Chimecho family, Audino, and Alomomola learn it when they're suppose to be peaceful Pokemon. Heck, most Baby Pokemon can learn it too.
 
Ah...alright, that makes sense.

...of course, this begs the question, why can an adorable little fluffy fox-like thingie generate an orb of pure shadows? I mean granted, maybe that's just a "normal types being weird" thing, but Eevee doesn't have nearly as many strange things in its movepool as some of the others do, so why one?
Many Normal-types learn Shadow Ball. It also doesn't seem like something incredibly strange on any Eeveelution (assuming Shadow Ball is a ball of dark matter produced through dark thoughts, such as hate and such, which I'm pretty sure all Eeveelutions could feel), like if it could learn Ice Beam but then you evolved it to Flareon or something like that

Here's another one I thought of: Why does Rayquaza get V-Create, even if it's only through an event?
 
Here's another one I thought of: Why does Rayquaza get V-Create, even if it's only through an event?


If you look closely, there's a V on Rayquaza's forehead. It wouldn't be too big of a stretch to imagine it cloaking itself in fire and flying head-on (heh) into its opponent.

EDIT: I just pictured something being hit with V-Create and having a giant "V" seared onto its skin. That would be... incredibly painful, to say the least.
 
Out of all Pokemon that can use Shadow Ball its just the Eeveelutions you have a problem with? Personally I'd more question why the Chansey family, Togepi family, Chimecho family, Audino, and Alomomola learn it when they're suppose to be peaceful Pokemon. Heck, most Baby Pokemon can learn it too.
I think it's just mostly that out of all those Pokemon, Eevee is one of the few that has a somewhat nonsensical sensical moveset...except for Shadow Ball. For other Normal types, there's a certain threshold of weird moves after which I just reason "Oh okay they're just weird I guess," which I don't get with Eevee...if that makes any sense at all. Maybe I'm the one that's just weird.

Many Normal-types learn Shadow Ball. It also doesn't seem like something incredibly strange on any Eeveelution (assuming Shadow Ball is a ball of dark matter produced through dark thoughts, such as hate and such, which I'm pretty sure all Eeveelutions could feel), like if it could learn Ice Beam but then you evolved it to Flareon or something like that
I guess that makes sense...I don't think Eevee or Flareon can learn Ice Beam though. Although that would be kinda cool.
 
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I think it's just mostly that out of all those Pokemon, Eevee is one of the few that has a somewhat nonsensical moveset...except for Shadow Ball. For other Normal types, there's a certain threshold of weird moves after which I just reason "Oh okay they're just weird I guess," which I don't get with Eevee...if that makes any sense at all. Maybe I'm the one that's just weird.


I guess that makes sense...I don't think Eevee or Flareon can learn Ice Beam though. Although that would be kinda cool.
The thing with Eevee is that they need to be careful what moves it learn as that'll mean any of the Eeveelutions can learn that move. So Eevee's moveset is going to be a bit abnormal and generic at the same time, having moves pretty much every other Pokemon learns. And if you need a reason why, remember, its genetically unstable. Anything that has to do with elemental types might just influence it to evolve to the Eeveelution of that type (theoretically). Though it would be neat if a bred Eevee was able to inherit certain moves from its Eeveelution parent (and if Eevee was given more support moves like maybe Slack Off).
 
The thing with Eevee is that they need to be careful what moves it learn as that'll mean any of the Eeveelutions can learn that move. So Eevee's moveset is going to be a bit abnormal and generic at the same time, having moves pretty much every other Pokemon learns. And if you need a reason why, remember, its genetically unstable. Anything that has to do with elemental types might just influence it to evolve to the Eeveelution of that type (theoretically). Though it would be neat if a bred Eevee was able to inherit certain moves from its Eeveelution parent (and if Eevee was given more support moves like maybe Slack Off).
Oh whoops, I meant sensical moveset. That was a huge screwup on my part. I'll go correct that now. I should not be typing these things at 3 in the morning. Actually I should, because my mistakes are hilarious and should be taken as the epitome of comedy. :P

Yeah, honestly the unstable genetic code really does explain Shadow Ball well enough. But yeah, because Eevee can't learn moves one of its evos specializes in (because then a different Evo could get that move), that does limit what the designers can give it. Although the unstable genetic code thing does wonders for explaining it in-universe.
 


If you look closely, there's a V on Rayquaza's forehead. It wouldn't be too big of a stretch to imagine it cloaking itself in fire and flying head-on (heh) into its opponent.

EDIT: I just pictured something being hit with V-Create and having a giant "V" seared onto its skin. That would be... incredibly painful, to say the least.
That still doesn't explain why Rayquaza gets V-Create, it only explains how it uses it

The thing with Eevee is that they need to be careful what moves it learn as that'll mean any of the Eeveelutions can learn that move. So Eevee's moveset is going to be a bit abnormal and generic at the same time, having moves pretty much every other Pokemon learns. And if you need a reason why, remember, its genetically unstable. Anything that has to do with elemental types might just influence it to evolve to the Eeveelution of that type (theoretically). Though it would be neat if a bred Eevee was able to inherit certain moves from its Eeveelution parent (and if Eevee was given more support moves like maybe Slack Off).
That's just what I meant with my Ice Beam Flareon example.
 
Let me specifiy it: In-game explanation as to why it gets V-Create
Well, to be serious; I think I will just ignore any event-exclusive moves for this because for one thing, it's not something they naturally learn (much more akin to hacking in Hyper Beam for Magikarp); for another they're technically not canon to the game universe; and for a third at least half of them make no sense anyway. Them being odd and weird as shit is kind of the norm rather than the abnorm in this case which is kind of not what the thread's about.
 

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It got it due to winning a popularity poll in Japan on "who is the best legendary" and gave it that special move as an event. I'm going to ignore "movepool oddity" for this due to two things: One, it's an event move. Two, rule of fucking awesome
Pretty much. Everyone else I think voted for Arceus while I think it was Korea who voted Rayquaza and, not wanting to give them a Rayquaza you could play Gen III or HGSS to get, gave it a special move to compensate (a novel concept nowadays since they seem against giving a Pokemon a special move that isn't a useless/lackluster Event Move (and rather embarrassed they did it pre-Gen VI)).

Let me specifiy it: In-game explanation as to why it gets V-Create
Because Rayqauza kicks so much @$$ that it's victory is always assured so why not use the move that's the embodiment of victory. Though as Kurona said, there's no in-universe reason why it'll get it and is treated as something non-canon. Though considering V-Create can only be received by Event one could say the same is true for Victini...
 
Pretty much. Everyone else I think voted for Arceus while I think it was Korea who voted Rayquaza and, not wanting to give them a Rayquaza you could play Gen III or HGSS to get, gave it a special move to compensate (a novel concept nowadays since they seem against giving a Pokemon a special move that isn't a useless/lackluster Event Move (and rather embarrassed they did it pre-Gen VI)).



Because Rayqauza kicks so much @$$ that it's victory is always assured so why not use the move that's the embodiment of victory. Though as Kurona said, there's no in-universe reason why it'll get it and is treated as something non-canon. Though considering V-Create can only be received by Event one could say the same is true for Victini...
Eeeeh, I'd say Victini is a special and... supremely weird case, at least in my opinion. It's very clearly made for and associated with Victini in terms of design and such, is used in just about every official media by it and aside from the special Rayquaza event is a move exclusive to Victini (at least, I'm pretty sure. I'm not missing anything, am I?). It's pretty clear to everyone that it's it's second signature move alongside Searing Shot - hell, more people'd know about it having V-Create than knowing Searing Shot even exists. It's the sort of thing that baffles me as to why it's an event move at all and why it isn't a level-up move yet; my only guess as to the former is to differentiate it from the original Victini event in BW where you could go to that island and catch your own, but...
 

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Rayquaza flies faster than the speed of light so the air molecules dont have time to get out of the way of its face and begin to undergo nuclear fusion in the area right in front of its face, creating a rapidly expanding ball of nuclear destruction that obliterates everything within 5 miles

the explosion also weakens Rayquaza, explaining the stat drops and stuff
 

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Unless there are errors on both Bulbapedia and Serebii, Finneon learns Nature Power by TM while Lumineon doesn't.

That's just weird.
If true sounds like a mistake on the programmers part... though knowing GF they'll probably keep it like that and claim they've grandfathered it in (this is a Nidorina/Nidoqueen can't breed joke... seriously GF just fix your mistake).
 
How do Pokemon that learn Metronome actually use the moves? So I checked the Bulbapedia page for Metronome and I learned for the first time that a shitload of Pokemon can actually learn metronome from tutor/hm. The pokemon that naturally learn Metronome are all, or at least used to be, normal types so I'm guessing they use their "normal" (lmao) powers of being able to use many elements. Question is, how is geodude, machop and many other pokemon able to use every move in existence?
 

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