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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
Steel Beam is definitely not "absurdly good". You can't compare it to Freeze Dry or Pursuit, they aren't even in the same ballpark.
Being living whipped cream, I kind of assumed Alcremie was genderless.
Alternatively it could also just ben 3:1. Notable 3:1 Pokemon in this case are the Skitty family, Gothita family, and Oricorio; all Pokemon with a female lean though there are still male members pretty much because there's no reason there shouldn't be.
Also it's likely the closest they could get to one of the main gender differences between beetles that they can. Female beetles generally do not have horns or long pincers, which makes sense as the reason males have those body parts is to specifically fight other males to breed. However they can't really just remove the horn from female Heracross, and even if they shorten the horn the prongs still would give it a masculine appearance (by beetle standards). However, by replacing the prongs with more rounded protrusions (heart-shape aside), it does "soften" the appearance getting across the desired effect (and they didn't even need to shorten the horn).
I always thought it was odd female Pinsir didn't have smaller pincers, but after writing this, I wonder if it's because all they could do was make the pincers shorter, but since Pinsir's signature trait IS the pincers diminishing them in any way would take away from Pinsir overall (and I don't think smoothing out the pincers would do anything either).
Stereotype. While there's plenty of male fey-like creatures, they would have to pick it to become a Pokemon to start with. And unless its a mythical creature which is connected to the place the region is based on, I'd imagine Pokemon who are picked/made to be Fairy-types usually lean on the feminine (as well as possibly cutesy or graceful). There are of course exceptions, and because of those I do feel Pokemon is generally better at presenting "fairy" stuff to not completely fall into the stereotype.
If I had to guess why, it's cause they feel giving the already tanky Pokemon a 50% max recovery move would move it a bit into OP territory. Lore-wise, Snorlax nor Munchlax "slack off". When Snorlax rests, it goes into a deep sleep, it doesn't do "naps". Munchlax meanwhile is awake for a lot of the time as it's constantly eating, if I had to guess it only goes to sleep when it needs to, but otherwise its instinct is to stay awake. Hence, neither get into the right mindset that is needed to "Slack Off".
My fringe theory is that why it's Normal-type would become more obvious when it no doubt evolves into this gen's cute plant girl: it's an allusion to virgin olive oil.
That's on purpose, its supposed to be a heel wrestler. Gimmicks with heel wrestlers is that, unlike what you think an actual wrestler would do and go all-in fighting, heel's tend to use dirty tricks whenever they could do make it so they DON'T have to fight as hard.
I wouldn't be against that. Or rather, instead of a Signature, just make an Electric-type version of Liquidation (I would call it "Circuit Break").
I also think the Misdreavus family should have become Ghost/Fairy as it's at the very least partially based on a banshee which is often described as a fey as much as it is a spirit (or both).
Still beat by Kartana
> 31 SpD
> 59 HP
> Double weak to Fire
It's so paper think it's in danger of fainting from an Ember.
Not sure about fanfic but I've put out there a theory I have called the "time ripple".
I would have gone with Whaq, Aie, & Moel.
It does.
Automatic 50% HP loss even if it missed and the fact there aren’t many Special Attacking Steel-type to begin with makes the move a non-issue on it’s own. Pokémon like Magearna and Celesteela are already powerful and even then, 50% HP loss is costly and ill-advised to spam unless you know the get-arounds.
I can't remember a time when I wanted Pokemon to not do something more than I don't want them to do this.
I'm noticing we're having a lot of that on this thread as of recently.
Does anyone have a gallon or two of brain bleach lying around?
I was originally going to say that your theory seemed a bit overcomplicated. I generally just assumed separate timelines in most cases, because surely it wouldn't make sense if the heroes of past generations were running around with their overpowered Legendaries and not helping save the world in other regions...
...but then I remembered about Colress' appearance in Gen 7. So I went on Bulbapedia to check that out and
So did you not notice that Kyurem's Dragon attacks actually weren't doing damage to Whimsicott? I guess it's possible that in this timeline, the events of BW2 happened with Fairy types. The BW cover legends are strong, but not world-changing like some of the others, so it's possible that it could stay confined to Unova.Bulbapedia said:
Oh wait, Cynthia also shows up in cameos, let see what we have there
So you're telling me that there's someone running around with a god in their pocket? And they're not intervening even when significant portions of a country are being frozen in ice?Bulbapedia said:
(Side note: The absurd scale of the Creation Trio's power in comparison to everything else in the series has always annoyed me. I guess the player just wants to use the nigh-omnipotent being to battle instead of asking it to eliminate pollution or provide infinite clean energy or whatever. The same goes for any other story where the hero gets infinite power with no catches and decides to do nothing with it.)
Sure, they probably just put those characters in there for the nostalgia factor and didn't think much about it, but god this writing can be frustrating.
On a lighter note:
252+ SpA Choice Specs Sceptile Frenzy Plant vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kartana: 208-245 (80.3 - 94.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
What pollution exactly? Outside of Galar no region has ever had anything resembling industrial damage. And Galar has special Weezings that evolved specifically to counteract that.
There are already regular Electric-types for that.
Kanto? Celadon is stated to have become highly polluted since nothing but Grimer can be found in the city's pond (admittedly, this doesn't affect the city's appearance at all). The Power Plant and the Cinnabar Mansion, are abandoned in RGBYFRLG while in GSCHGSS the former is being repurposed. Kanto, of course, has vastly more Poison-types than any other region.
In general, the pollution aspect is played up a lot more in the anime and manga - in the former, many cities, particularly in Kanto, are shown to be grimy and polluted, and in the latter Lance is shown to have met his Dratini when he rescued it from a poisoned body of water; ecological damage by humans is the primary motivation of the Kanto Elite Four, who are trying to wipe out humanity. The games tend to focus on pollution by emphasising that it's being avoided - characters will talk about the efforts they're taking to keep their cities clean or the work they do to stop ecological damage from occurring.
Thank you for giving me another Massive Outbreak shiny hunt idea
#freeelectrode
To play Devil's Advocate, simply poofing the pollution and waste out of existence doesn't solve the greater problem (that is, industry PRODUCING that waste constantly), and with Grimer and co. cited, might have other ecological consequences. A couple Poison types, particularly Grimer, Muk, Weezing, and their regional variants, feed on this kind of waste or garbage for natural sustenance to the point of being employed explicitly to do so in some areas, with clean-up in certain regions resulting in the decline or extinction of Grimer's population. This is also without considering Pokemon who might eat specific things that are considered waste products, like various rats and birds eating foodstuff garbage. If you just poofed all pollution out of existence, there are probably a few Poison Pokemon who become endangered as a result, be it the above or things they prey on for toxins instead like Trubbish and Garbodor.
As weird as it is to frame this way, Pokemon's environmental concerns are less the Pollutant generation at all and moreso the degree of it, since Poison Types were already a pseudo-Green solution within the fiction for a lot of it. Now they can't really bring waste creation to 0 without having to handwave the eating web for some of their creatures
You're quite right. Rather, the message from various NPCs that "we have to be ecological" (paraphrasing) simply reinforces Pokemon's overall green message.
And the games confirm this:
Kantonian Muk Moon Pokedex entry: After recent environmental improvements, this Pokémon is now hardly seen at all. People speculate that it may go extinct at some point.
Kantonian Muk Ultra Sun Pokedex entry: Their food sources have decreased, and their numbers have declined sharply. Sludge ponds are being built to prevent their extinction.
Though of course we see in Alola that on Ula'ula Island there's a garbage facility where the operator's Grimer eats the trash, which is neat. Hope future generations do similar things; Garbodor seems to fill that niche in Galar.
Besides, as the Sword and Shield plot proved us, it's easy to solve the environmental problems caused by humanity, just wipe everyone out by unleashing a primordial doom on them
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After learning that, in the anime, Rose's grand plan for Eternatus was to use it to power steam turbines, I've become increasingly convinced that Sword and Shield's plot was a really shitty attempt to scaremonger about the supposed 'dangers' of nuclear power (which I guess Eternatus is supposed to represent). I guess there might be a different cultural perspective in Japan, what with Hiroshima/Nagasaki and Fukushima to consider, but even if we accept that nuclear power is bad (it isn't), Sword and Shield did a really bad job of making that point when it took an entirely different media to actually connect the dots that it was laying out.
What annoys me about SwSh more than anything is that with a mild perspective tweak, this entire scenario could actually work as a legitimately important and effective environmental Aesop. Instead of this weird "Leon's putting the problem off" angle it seems to go with, the conflict could revolve around Rose invoking the (pardon pun) Nuclear option by just haphazardly awakening Eternatus to immediately try and solve the problem. Play out the climax more or less the same, and then maybe Eternatus is captured along with some MacGuffin/Item that enables its Eternamax form, which you turn over to Magnolia/Sonia to research.
Make it the source of Eternatus's Dynamax Energy creation, explaining why you can have Eternatus itself for gameplay but letting them research it as an energy asset (and a handwave for not having access to Dyna/Eternamax with it yourself). It'll take time but the power can be harnassed, if it's understood and controlled.
In case I rambled a bit, the Aesop I think this plot could support is to consider the crisis, but not to rush to a solution while there is time to deal with it. We have cases of solutions to big problems (Energy/Environmental or otherwise) that try to be pushed out quickly and cause more harm than good as a result of not being fully understood or optimized, and much of it is avoidable rather than adoption pains. I think most players, critical or fans of Gen 8, would agree that Rose's problem was not strictly the push for a solution, but his rush into something drastic to solve it NOW NOW.
The annoying part comes from how they evidently didn't intend this read, or they communicated it so poorly that neither kids nor adults generally attribute it as the intention. The pieces are almost all there by accident despite that making for an effective take on the issue in the context of a young-players' story mostly broaching the topic rather than deeply examining it.
I’m certain I saw comparisons to nuclear power concerns in at least a couple of places before the anime came around to that story.
That said, I don’t know if I’m especially convinced that that’s what the games were aiming for, or that they were looking for any kind of specific analogy to real-world energy problems. I think it’s nothing more than a message about how rushing forward into any endeavor without regard for the people who will be affected by what you’re doing, all because you want to take the glory and assurance of legacy for yourself, is foolhardly and shallow.
There’s a pretty constant theme throughout the plot of Sword & Shield about recognizing when it’s time to let go and pass the mantle onto the next generation of people. Two of the game’s Gym Leaders retire during the storyline, and are replaced by their chosen successors in the post-game. Professor Magnolia hands off her coat to Sonia to cement her as the new Professor. Sordward and Shielbert eventually come to terms with their family’s version of Galarian history being corrected by the true accounting of events. People have frequently noticed that Leon takes charge of all the random Dynamax incidents during the main campaign, leaving you to simply continue on with your Gym Challenge, but what’s less remarked-upon is how that torch is passed to you after becoming the Champion, where now it’s your turn to be the one running back and forth dealing with Sordward and Shielbert’s Dynamax experiments.
We even know that this ideal (for better or worse) was reflected in the game’s development team, with the younger developers being entrusted with more of the decision-making responsibilities than usual.
Rose is the thematic antagonist because, due to his all-encompassing influence, he has essentially built the Galar region as it stands today. But rather than accepting the fact that he will one day inevitably be surpassed, he obsesses about Galar’s future — an abstract future he’ll never live to see — in order to justify a drastic and radical measure that he thinks will enshrine him as Galar’s savior for generations to come. He calls it “my purpose, my duty, my destiny.” He’s not actually a well-meaning-if-reckless environmentalist (which is a dumb trope that was dumb back when they did it in Gen 3 and I’m glad it wasn’t repeated here because it’d be even more dumb in today’s climate). He’s a billionaire mogul superstar who revels in the spotlight. His concern for Galar’s energy prospects is entirely self-interested. He’s doing what he’s doing simply because he believes it can bring him even more fame and a lasting legacy, consequences and risks be damned. Which, uhh… yeah, that sounds like the attitude of a celebrity billionaire to me. This is why I kind of groaned when the anime grafted on some sob-story background about his dad, because he’s not supposed to be sympathetic. He’s supposed to be ego-driven, rash, and unwilling to compromise.
(Small digression here, but it’s probably worth noting the contrast between him and the Hero Wolves, who protected Galar from destruction in the distant past, but have been erased from history and all but forgotten up until the release of Sonia’s book.)
If anything, I think the issue with his motive wasn’t that the “impending catastrophe” wasn’t sooner (because I don’t think the nature of the problem he’s solving is really the point), but rather, that he didn’t have, like, a terminal diagnosis making him desperate to ensure his legacy before the clock ran out. That’d perhaps be a little dark for a Pokémon game, but it would underscore what his true motive is: Unlike the wolves, he wants to be remembered for his accomplishments for all time even after he’s gone from the world. He doesn’t want to relinquish the mantle to those who succeed him.
Probably, but the steam turbines thing is what flipped it from "this could maybe possibly be an analogy for nuclear power, or it could just be warning about fucking around with any incomprehensibly powerful force that we can't adequately control" to "yeah they're talking about nuclear power" for me anyways.
It certainly seems like a hell of a coincidence, at least if you assume that game Rose's plot is the same as anime Rose's plot. A source of both incredible energy and incredible destruction, that gets mishandled and nearly causes a catastrophic disaster, and we're using it to power steam turbines? Coming from a company based out of a country that was the victim of two of the worst tragedies involving nuclear power in human history? I would find it hard to believe that there isn't some inspiration there, at the very least in a subconscious cultural context.
I was going to ask if Rose's motivations were slightly clearer in the original Japanese, but Esserie's analysis was amazing.
...And now I'm sad.
I mean, I'll take that over the other theories floating around the Regis. Regirock represents the rock that fissile material is extracted from, Registeel represents the steel comprising the reactor chamber or whatever, Regice represents the cooling systems, Regieleki represents the electricity generated, and Regidraco represents what happens when it all goes wrong or gets weaponized.
100% horoscopic confirmation bias bullshit, but it's literally just as strong as the "regis represent ages of human development" theory lmao.
100% horoscopic confirmation bias bullshit, but it's literally just as strong as the "regis represent ages of human development" theory lmao.
The Pearl Pokédex said:
Eternamax Eternatus: *snaps fingers*Besides, as the Sword and Shield plot proved us, it's easy to solve the environmental problems caused by humanity, just wipe everyone out by unleashing a primordial doom on them
Humanity: *404'd*
So... Regigigas created two WMDs (Regieleki and Regidrago) that are so powerful individually, let alone together, they have to be sealed in the same cave by a puzzle that can only unlock either.
That actually makes a lot of sense!
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