Interesting... Kantonian Slowbro just misses out on Sandstorm (as do both variants of Slowking). I suppose Galarian Slowbro's island habitat means it has greater aptitude to fighting in sand? It's characterised as more of a scrapper.
Curiously while looking at the learnset for Sandstorm I noticed Charizard alone loses access to the move after Gen II; it could learn Sandstorm via TM in GSC, then never again until eventually regaining it in Gen IX. The lady who gives it to you describes it as a rough move that damages both combatants and so is only for advanced trainers, which fits with Charizard's aggressive, powerful nature - but from Gen III onwards it didn't really have this descriptor any more and was basically... just another weather condition. Most of the species which learn it in Gen III onwards are Rock, Ground, or Steel (though there's still some exceptions to that like Chansey, Kangaskhan, and Hitmontop).
Yeah Chansey basically learns everything and has massive elemental compatibility, this makes sense
That's... a weird one. Actually no wait, doesn't Articuno get Weather Ball? ...oh, all three of them do. Strange. It fits that Moltres and Zapdos can't learn Hail, I guess but there's so few scenarios for Articuno to be using Sunny Day either.
Again, massive elemental coverage, it learns moves of just about every type. Goodra actually also learns Hail but not Sandstorm... surely Hisuian Goodra learns Sandstorm... yep, it does but weirdly neither form learns Snowscape.
Also general wide Dragon movepools. Always thought it was funny Palkia learned Fire moves at all given its typing (I mean sure, you could argue that just being a Dragon is justification for that, except none of the other Water/Dragons get Fire moves barring Walking Wake, for whom that's an intentional part of its design)
Yep, makes sense. You'd actually think
more Flying-types should get Sandstorm, really.
Elemental affinity & being a mythical. That & and it's basically magic (compressing airborne carbon would be a horrendously inefficient way to make diamonds IRL given how tiny the percentage of carbon in the atmosphere is, but we're not talking real-world physics here)
Fully on board with this.
So for those not mentioned - Mew and Smeargle, obvious; Suicune...? Huh, somehow I never clocked that Suicune got Sunny Day and Sandstorm as well as Hail and Rain Dance (which are obvious fits for it). I mean, why would I, Sunny Day would be a baffling choice for it. Although, as it happens it lost access to it in ScVi.
Fab, thanks! Exactly what I was after.
Huh, so some strange ones here. Zeraora is an odd one given it's an Electric-type - Sunny Day and Rain Dance would both fit the moves it can learn. But then when you consider it's characterised as quite an "earthy" Pokemon without much in the way of elemental affinity - it's a physical fighter and learns very few elemental moves, and almost no status moves which affect the environment vs affecting itself - even Electric Terrain comes from it directly. Urshifu is in a similar boat (the Single Strike form, anyway - the Rapid Strike form can fittingly learn Rain Dance), which I guess makes sense when it's stated to be the embodiment of rage: too impatient and non-spiritual to learn to manipulate the atmosphere. Clobbopus is one of those double-take species because, of course, it's not actually Water-type and that's just where it lives; so there's no real reason it should learn Rain Dance.
There's actually a few Steels and Electrics who you might expect should be able to learn weather moves here (Melmetal, Togedemaru, Genesect, Boltund, Kilowattrel), and also a few Grass Pokemon who lack their type's usual weather affinity (Meowscarada, Brambleghast, Sinistcha). What a lot of them seem to have in common is that they're not particularly supernatural in aspect: Boltund is basically just a dog, Sinistcha's just a blobby little ghost that hides in peoples' houses. Brambleghast is a tumbleweed so very much at the mercy of the wind and weather instead of having control over them. Flamigo, Dubwool, Thievul, and Tinkaton miss out for what I'd think to be similar reasons: too mundane and not concerned with matters of the spiritual/metaphysical.
...never did that Oscar Wilde quote feel more apt than right now.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Anyway. Kilowattral not learning Rain Dance has always seemed intended to me for mechanical reasons - it needs outside support to sweep, which is also demonstrated by its two primary abilities - but in-universe it's stated to be a poor swimmer and so likely isn't suited to setting up rainy weather.
But then even some of the more magical or mystical Pokemon feel like weird exemptions. Meowscarada is a funny one given it's a magician and weather manipulation has long been something associated with magic, but I suppose it's not that powerful of a magician and can only effect small-scale tricks. Hatterene, Grimmsnarl, Alcremie, Orbeetle, Galarian Rapidash, and Indeedee are all very weird omissions, given the typical abilities of Fairy and Psychic Pokemon and the fact that Hatterene, Orbeetle, and Indeedee get a bunch of other environment-manipulating moves: Gravity, Trick Room, Magic Room, Wonder Room, Psychic Terrain, Misty Terrain. Orbeetle even learns Solarbeam! Those three are the ones I'd deem the biggest victims of this apparent design choice - it's entirely possible in a generation or two things will go the other way though.
For Genesect, one could make the case that being cybernetically altered deadened its connection to nature: it can adopt different elements, but only via technology. Paradoxes/Ultra Beasts I guess would have the justification that, as creatures not from our world, they're unattuned to our environment and cannot alter it. Similar reasons probably apply to Melmetal - it's an ancient Pokemon only recently reawakened and not yet in sync with the modern world.
Archaludon, though - that one's particularly strange. You'd think it'd at least get Sandstorm...?
...go home, AI overview, you're drunk.
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