(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[Imperial Magala]

Gardenia is a flower genus too, named after Dr. Alexander Garden. Whether she decided to use Grass types because of her name or because she lives near Eterna Forest reminds me of a Volker quote if he visits your Villa in Platinum with Flint.

Volkner: When I got my first Gym Badge, I used the move Thunderbolt. Ever since, I've stuck with the Electric type even as I got better. I do it because I don't want to ever forget how happy I was when I won. Incidentally, Flint's fascination with the Fire type is only from his name. Someone told him that a flint is what's used to spark a fire, and that was it.

 

[R_N]

Gardenia is a flower genus too, named after Dr. Alexander Garden. Whether she decided to use Grass type because of her name or if she lives near Eterna Forest reminds me of a Volker quote if he visits your Villa in Platinum with Flint.

Huh go figure about Gardenia


I also love "I got into electric types because I used Thunderbolt to win my first badge. The name is unrelated




Flint, though--"

 

[CPU]

Mmmmmm I mean, yeah, some are like hedged in kanji puns (Brock's Takeshi is like 4 puns deep) but also we get things like Alister's japanese name being onion. Lysander's is Fleur de lys. Vaguely referencing their apeparence or personalty that'd be plainly obvious to anyone. And other times you just get people named after plants just....because, i guess. Melony is Melon (...obviously); Malva is Pachira.
on the flip side we do have our own "subtle" names, Kiawe is specifically from a plant used for charcoal


Gardenia & Skyla are both up there for "you couldn't think of anything else?" for me

Yeah they have unsubtle names too.

Skyla is just a feminized version of Skyler/Skylar, which is already a unisex name. Seemed unnecessary to me.

 

[flyinfilipino]

It's all over the place.

I actually didn't realize that about Professor Oak (for some reason I thought his Japanese name was still a reference to the oak tree), but yeah, they've really just ramped it up in recent generations. I wonder if plant scientific names just lend themselves to being name origins better than say, animal names?

Gardenia & Skyla are both up there for "you couldn't think of anything else?" for me

And while we're on the subject of Volkner, what even is that name?

 

[Imperial Magala]

Melons are Gourds, but sweeter and softer. Melony's son is Gordie. Melony also sounds similar to Melody, which references her ace being G-Max Lapras, who knows Sing, is surrounded by music notes, and uses G-Max Resonance, Japanese name, Kyodai Melody.
Last name origin in this thread. Rosa+Nate=Resonate. This is true with all languages, using either resonance or echo, referencing that B2W2 are sequels.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

And while we're on the subject of Volkner, what even is that name?

I always read all of Volkner's dialogue in a very heavy German accent. Only way that name feels natural.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

I´m personally much more annoyed by the horrible type puns some of the gym leaders have as names. Most of them are subtle and actually kind of clever, like Candice, Whitney or Roxanne, but then there are Gym leaders like Bugsy, Brawly, Roark or Gardenia... Who calls their kid Gardenia? Borderline child abuse if you ask me.

It’s interesting what different people view as the ‘subtle’ names vs the obvious or dumb names, because for me Candice and Roxanne are incredibly obvious while Roark strikes me as a more subtle and interesting approach. And of course, as people have mentioned, Gardenia is a plant genus and an established (if rare) girl’s name in the real world.

Like, in my first playthrough of Sapphire when Norman first tells you to go battle Roxanne I remember thinking ‘oh I guess she’s another Rock-type first gym leader and they just came up with the most obvious name possible for a female Rock specialist.’

Not that I mind obvious names, in all honesty, because usually when a name‘s origin isn’t immediately obvious to me it’s just because I don’t know the reference or because the type in question doesn’t lend itself well to puns based on conventional names.

 

[Magnus0]

It’s interesting what different people view as the ‘subtle’ names vs the obvious or dumb names, because for me Candice and Roxanne are incredibly obvious while Roark strikes me as a more subtle and interesting approach. And of course, as people have mentioned, Gardenia is a plant genus and an established (if rare) girl’s name in the real world.

Like, in my first playthrough of Sapphire when Norman first tells you to go battle Roxanne I remember thinking ‘oh I guess she’s another Rock-type first gym leader and they just came up with the most obvious name possible for a female Rock specialist.’

Not that I mind obvious names, in all honesty, because usually when a name‘s origin isn’t immediately obvious to me it’s just because I don’t know the reference or because the type in question doesn’t lend itself well to puns based on conventional names.

When I say subtle, I mean that names like Roxanne and Candice are normal, common names in the real world. The pun itself is pretty obvious, but I don´t find it distracting because it could just as well be a coincidence. Bugsy on the other hand, is much more obviously called Bugsy just because he uses bug types, like he is predestined to become a bug gym leader from birth.

Also, is Roark an actual name that people irl have? Never heard of it myself. This might be a country/culture thing; not all countries have the same list of common names after all. For example, my irl name is Gerjan. You definitely wouldn't see that outside of the Netherlands, ever, lol.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Also, is Roark an actual name that people irl have? Never heard of it myself. This might be a country/culture thing; not all countries have the same list of common names after all. For example, my irl name is Gerjan. You definitely wouldn't see that outside of the Netherlands, ever, lol.

It's apparently a Gaelic name.

 

[Coronis]

When I say subtle, I mean that names like Roxanne and Candice are normal, common names in the real world. The pun itself is pretty obvious, but I don´t find it distracting because it could just as well be a coincidence. Bugsy on the other hand, is much more obviously called Bugsy just because he uses bug types, like he is predestined to become a bug gym leader from birth.

Also, is Roark an actual name that people irl have? Never heard of it myself. This might be a country/culture thing; not all countries have the same list of common names after all. For example, my irl name is Gerjan. You definitely wouldn't see that outside of the Netherlands, ever, lol.

Yeah my mate was named Roark, pretty sure it was a different spelling tho. Wouldn’t have surprised me if they’d used “Rocky” at some point.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

When I say subtle, I mean that names like Roxanne and Candice are normal, common names in the real world. The pun itself is pretty obvious, but I don´t find it distracting because it could just as well be a coincidence. Bugsy on the other hand, is much more obviously called Bugsy just because he uses bug types, like he is predestined to become a bug gym leader from birth.

Also, is Roark an actual name that people irl have? Never heard of it myself. This might be a country/culture thing; not all countries have the same list of common names after all. For example, my irl name is Gerjan. You definitely wouldn't see that outside of the Netherlands, ever, lol.

That’s fair! I think basically every punny Pokemon name is a real-world name or nickname. Like, Bugsy has its own disambiguation page on Wikipedia because it used to be a semi-common nickname that some famous people (weirdly quite a few mobsters?) had:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugsy_(disambiguation)

Weirdly, Brawly has some history as a name from Middle English. Apparently it means “meadow at the slope of a hill” lol.

It’s fair to say though that if a name is old or unusual enough it stops sounding like a name, especially if it seems like it’s just [type-relevant word with a -y ending].

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Ask yourself, if you were able to go a little off the road and be able to change abilities / nature of your pokemon, would you actually use that bold zubat you caught?

Yes, because now I can actually make it not a steaming pile of marginally tougher garbage.

The whole deal with Nature Mints and Bottle Caps is being able to optimize the mons you already got instead of dumping everyone you used in-game because they're unsalvageable trash.

Jamming Non-Serious Mints (Thanks IoA!) and Bottle Caps post-game is a hilariously bad decision because y'know that Bold Zubat you got? It's garbage and you'll release it on the spot instead of actually training it. Soft-resetting starters because you got a Quiet Scorbunny?

It's really no different than grinding Shards in Plat or Mantine Surf for tutor moves in USUM because Tutors are actually reasonable in that game and MS is fun.

 

[ttr]

It’s interesting what different people view as the ‘subtle’ names vs the obvious or dumb names, because for me Candice and Roxanne are incredibly obvious while Roark strikes me as a more subtle and interesting approach. And of course, as people have mentioned, Gardenia is a plant genus and an established (if rare) girl’s name in the real world.

Speaking of this, the player characters in Sw/Sh are named Gloria / Victor in English (from promotional material). Glory and Victor(y) Why did it take me until now to realize how obvious their default names are.

 

[PokemonCrusader]

Ok I find this confusing. Why would you expect those two to come back? Were you thinking Kanto and Johto were going to have two different E4s with overlapping membership who just shared the same building? Do all of them wait there and sub in/out depending on what region the next challenger’s badges are from? Is Koga allowed to stay for Kanto challengers or is he also an interloper in your eyes?

Tbh I kinda like that there are some unexplained absences. It fits with how other things in Kanto have changed (Power Plant, Cinnabar, Safari Zone) and gives the player room to speculate.





I kind of agree, but I feel like the flipside of this is that being able to edit Pokémon makes every individual Pokémon more usable, even if it’s because they mostly converge on an agreed-upon ‘ideal’ nature/IVs/whatever.

I think I’d be more inclined to use that Bold Zubat if I knew I could edit its abilities later, since under the current system I’m more inclined to box it, release it, or reset for a better one. In the meantime I might feel more free to experiment with other options, knowing that I could shift to a more optimal set later.

I do wish that Johto had its own Elite 4 myself. It made the region feel less like its own dominion and more of a Kanto colony.

I am fine with no explanation.

The problem with the Kanto changes is that they were all changes that made the region duller, IMO.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

I do wish that Johto had its own Elite 4 myself. It made the region feel less like its own dominion and more of a Kanto colony.

I am fine with no explanation.

The problem with the Kanto changes is that they were all changes that made the region duller, IMO.

Oh I totally agree that all the changes were space-saving shortcuts first and foremost

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

Jamming Non-Serious Mints (Thanks IoA!) and Bottle Caps post-game is a hilariously bad decision because y'know that Bold Zubat you got? It's garbage and you'll release it on the spot instead of actually training it. Soft-resetting starters because you got a Quiet Scorbunny?

Do you guys actually do this? It’s pretty rare that I even check the natures of my in-game Pokemon, and when I do find them out it’s usually unintentionally and a while later. It’s not really like it matters.

On that note, I basically can’t imagine wanting to EV train my in-game team, or check its IVs, yet I see that stuff mentioned sometimes.

 

[R_N]

Do you guys actually do this? It’s pretty rare that I even check the natures of my in-game Pokemon, and when I do find them out it’s usually unintentionally and a while later. It’s not really like it matters.

On that note, I basically can’t imagine wanting to EV train my in-game team, or check its IVs, yet I see that stuff mentioned sometimes.

yeah at most i see a nature and go "oh thats nice" or "oh, bummer" but it really just does not matter. Same with IVs and EVs.

 

[Samtendo09]

[...] Ever since Team Rocket of Gen 1 and 2, a lot of grunts use either a Poison-type (most often a Zubat or Golbat), a Dark-type, the regional rodent, or in the case of Team Aqua and Magma, a Carvanha or Numel respectively, with a very few deviations in-between. The Hypno line was also uncommon but still oft-present in comparison whenever that line was available. [...]

That really reeks a lack of originality between the teams, and it especially hurts the Team Flare grunts, admins, and even the underwhelming scientists as they got nothing to really stand out from past teams in terms of what Pokémon they use.

Repost it from Unpopular Opinions. I'll add a few more things here;

• With the exception of Giovanni himself (he's was Ground-type specialist for a reason), the Admins did nothing to really soften the "Zubat/Koffing" spamming problem that plagued the Team Rocket grunts. Not even Archer himself is immune to this problem despite having Houndoom in almost all of his appearances. The biggest culprit is the second battle against Petrel, who has a team of five Koffing and one Wheezing, all having the almost same exact moveset!
• Team Aqua and Magma's grunts were also badly hurt because the only Water-type/Fire-type the grunts really used are Carvanha/Numel line, respectively, as otherwise, it's just Poison-types + Poochyena line with extremely few curveballs in-between. A big missed opportunity.
• Team Plasma and Team Skull aren't any better either, as the majority of them just use a majority of one or two Poison-type, Dark-type, and the regional rodent, with extremely few variations in-between. Team Yell also ran into that problem, but at least the Dark-type makes sense considering their unsportsmanlike and loud behavior and also because their leader just happens to be a Dark-type Gym Leader too.
  • Pikachu315111 also told me to add Team Flare in this list, and although I wouldn't want to mention it as I already made it obvious, it is especially jarring as not only Poison-type doesn't even fit Team Flare, but also a major missed opportunity of actually using Fire-type even if they would end up being more similar to Team Magma.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Just to give my quick opinion on the naming conventions of the past few games:

From Gen I to V the translation team pretty much always gave the characters different names from the Japanese except for a few cases (notably Grass-type Gym Leaders cause them being named after flowers make thematical sense). Does it seem a bit corny that the Gym Leader's names just so happen to match the Type they specialize in? Sure, but at the same time it does make them more memorable which I feel is more important than thinking too hard on why their parents gave them their name (also many Gym Leaders do seem to come from families which had a sort Type specialty to them so they could have very well been born into being that Type Specialist).

It was with Gen VI that for some reason now they decided to try and have the names be inline with the Japanese names. Don't know why, did they change translation teams who wanted to stay "closer to the true spirit of the originals" (egh...) or was this a sudden decision passed down from GF now that they were going to release games at the same time globally (I can see them thinking this would speed up the translation process but I think if anything it would require the translation team more time to find a name that works in both English and the original Japanese meaning).

Back to Gen VI, normally it would have felt out of place, and it did a bit for veteran players, but they were more able to hide it as Kalos was based on France and they REALLY enforced that with having a lot of French words. Thus the odd change in naming kind of got mixed in with that so you could write off the stranger names is just a "Kalos French thing". I do though want to give the translation team some credit for being able to come up with both names that represented their Type Specialty as well as their original Japanese names (when they just didn't use a French word, lol).

Gen VII was also more able to easily hide the change in naming as it swapped to using a lot of French words with using a lot of Hawaiian words. That said, once again the translation team did a pretty good job making name puns with Hawaiian words, at least for few of the characters. Of course there's no hiding the names for the Aether Foundation and the Ultra Recon Squad...

However things finally caught up in Gen VIII. Unlike the past two gens, Galar is based on the UK so they can't really hide the names within another language. Thus we get names like Milo, Bea, Gordie, and Melony. This is also most notable for the none Type specialists like Hop, Oleana, Rose (though they did give Rose a rose-pattern theme like with Wyndon's stadium), Mustard, Honey, and now we're getting Peony.

I wish they'd go back to not worrying about sticking in theme with the Japanese plant name. If they can great, but if they're having problems just make a pun in English, it worked for the first 5 gens and no one complained.

Team Plasma and Team Skull aren't any better either, as the majority of them just use a majority of one or two Poison-type, Dark-type, and the regional rodent, with extremely few variations in-between.

Add Team Flare to that, even though their name makes you think they'll use Fire-type they stick with Poison- and Dark-types too.

 

[Samtendo09]

Just to give my quick opinion on the naming conventions of the past few games:

From Gen I to V the translation team pretty much always gave the characters different names from the Japanese except for a few cases (notably Grass-type Gym Leaders cause them being named after flowers make thematical sense). Does it seem a bit corny that the Gym Leader's names just so happen to match the Type they specialize in? Sure, but at the same time it does make them more memorable which I feel is more important than thinking too hard on why their parents gave them their name (also many Gym Leaders do seem to come from families which had a sort Type specialty to them so they could have very well been born into being that Type Specialist).

It was with Gen VI that for some reason now they decided to try and have the names be inline with the Japanese names. Don't know why, did they change translation teams who wanted to stay "closer to the true spirit of the originals" (egh...) or was this a sudden decision passed down from GF now that they were going to release games at the same time globally (I can see them thinking this would speed up the translation process but I think if anything it would require the translation team more time to find a name that works in both English and the original Japanese meaning).

Back to Gen VI, normally it would have felt out of place, and it did a bit for veteran players, but they were more able to hide it as Kalos was based on France and they REALLY enforced that with having a lot of French words. Thus the odd change in naming kind of got mixed in with that so you could write off the stranger names is just a "Kalos French thing". I do though want to give the translation team some credit for being able to come up with both names that represented their Type Specialty as well as their original Japanese names (when they just didn't use a French word, lol).

Gen VII was also more able to easily hide the change in naming as it swapped to using a lot of French words with using a lot of Hawaiian words. That said, once again the translation team did a pretty good job making name puns with Hawaiian words, at least for few of the characters. Of course there's no hiding the names for the Aether Foundation and the Ultra Recon Squad...

However things finally caught up in Gen VIII. Unlike the past two gens, Galar is based on the UK so they can't really hide the names within another language. Thus we get names like Milo, Bea, Gordie, and Melony. This is also most notable for the none Type specialists like Hop, Oleana, Rose (though they did give Rose a rose-pattern theme like with Wyndon's stadium), Mustard, Honey, and now we're getting Peony.

I wish they'd go back to not worrying about sticking in theme with the Japanese plant name. If they can great, but if they're having problems just make a pun in English, it worked for the first 5 gens and no one complained.



Add Team Flare to that, even though their name makes you think they'll use Fire-type they stick with Poison- and Dark-types too.

I think Team Flare has already stated their problems about their own Pokémon roster back in Unpopular Opinions, so I do not need to mention it here again. And even then, them using Fire, Poison and Dark-type would be way too reminiscent of Team Magma, so minimizing the usage of Poison would at least separate it from Team Rocket and Magma.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Do you guys actually do this? It’s pretty rare that I even check the natures of my in-game Pokemon, and when I do find them out it’s usually unintentionally and a while later. It’s not really like it matters.

On that note, I basically can’t imagine wanting to EV train my in-game team, or check its IVs, yet I see that stuff mentioned sometimes.

Depends. I don't usually check IV's because it's a hassle, but natures?

You can bet I'm not using Quiet Scorbunny.

EV training in-game is just silly.

 

[Pikachu315111]

You can bet I'm not using Quiet Scorbunny.

Well I think most veteran players will soft reset their Starters (and the Legendaries), it's why we complained about Sun & Moon's sequence of getting a Starter because it's sandwiched between long cutscenes.

However, for the random Pokemon you catch on the routes? Most people I'd imagine would just go with the punches with whatever they catch, or for those who really care may try catching a few more to see if they can't get lucky with something better. But I don't think anyone is going to Nature grind for the best Nature for each of their com mons during the main story portion of the game. Let's be honest, the Ability Capsule, Nature Mints, and Bottle Caps aren't meant to be used on a com mon you caught straight from the wild, it's meant to fix any small issues a Pokemon you've bred from being close to perfect.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Let's be honest, the Ability Capsule, Nature Mints, and Bottle Caps aren't meant to be used on a com mon you caught straight from the wild, it's meant to fix any small issues a Pokemon you've bred from being close to perfect.

Because they're locked on post-game.

If you give people the option to use them early, they most likely will.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Because they're locked on post-game.

If you give people the option to use them early, they most likely will.

Oh, I'm sure some will (if it's affordable enough), but I'm just saying for the most part players would do what I suggested.

 

[Kurona]

In-game I don't mind bad natures -- I've used some really bad stuff like a Bold Gallade before. But I absolutely agree with the assertion that post-game, getting the likes of bottle caps and nature mints to fix them shouldn't be an issue.