(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Beartic's Shield Pokédex entry (emphasis mine):
It swims energetically through frigid seas. When it gets tired, it freezes the seawater with its breath so it can rest on the ice.
and from Sword:
It swims through frigid seas, searching for prey. From its frozen breath, it forms icy fangs that are harder than steel.

In CT, we gained access to a location literally named "Frigid Sea", where Beartic can occasionally be found... on land only.
 
Rock type should have just been buffed instead of steel type existing. I dont know any characteristics of the type that couldnt be handled by rock (then again im that bitch that still thinks rock and ground should have been the same thing so lol)
Day 475. Still no signs of a WTF button. Morale at an all-time low due to extreme conditions. Brain bleach running out. No signs of relief.

HELP.
 
Beartic's Shield Pokédex entry (emphasis mine):
It swims energetically through frigid seas. When it gets tired, it freezes the seawater with its breath so it can rest on the ice.
and from Sword:
It swims through frigid seas, searching for prey. From its frozen breath, it forms icy fangs that are harder than steel.
In CT, we gained access to a location literally named "Frigid Sea", where Beartic can occasionally be found... on land only.
I guess all the Beartics we come across are too tired to swim, then?
 
I still don't like fairy type. Thematically, 90% of the time it's just PINK, or frilly, despite actual fairies not all being pixies. It's why I love Mawhile categorized as that

Type Effectiveness wise, it became the new Dragon in being OP

Literally, they could have just buffed Ice to be immune to Dragon, make steel SE against Dragon, and made Poison super effective against Fighting to nerf the two. It also helps Poison and Steel's usage
 
No?

In addition to some metals (such as Gold) being found normally in their base form, some types of bacteria feed by reducing metals (that is, taking the oxide/rust and making the base metal from it). Heck, this is being investigated as a way to get heavy metals out of groundwater (since ions dissolve but the pure metal doesn't). We also have plenty of examples of other organisms keeping bacteria around to supply food for them (corals, the evolution of chloroplasts and mitochondria as a whole). Sure, it's not the most rigidly-attached to reality, but metal armour on a living organism is more plausible than the entire Psychic and Ghost types.

Sorry, but metals being labeled "unnatural" in fantasy contexts is a large pet peeve of mine.
I literally said ‘steel’. I know I talked about the interchangeable use of the terms in Pokémon games, but I was talking about actual steel. The manmade thing. Like, I’m aware that metals occur in nature?

EDIT: yes this was probably overly snarky, but MY pet peeve is when people aggressively try to shoot down someone’s point while completely misunderstanding it.
 
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I literally said ‘steel’. I know I talked about the interchangeable use of the terms in Pokémon games, but I was talking about actual steel. The manmade thing. Like, I’m aware that metals occur in nature?

EDIT: yes this was probably overly snarky, but MY pet peeve is when people aggressively try to shoot down someone’s point while completely misunderstanding it.
Earlier in your own post, you talked about how "steel" is basically just a synonym for "metal" as far as Pokemon is concerned. And given the magical nature of Pokemon, I would not be surprised if they could just make literal actual steel.
 
Earlier in your own post, you talked about how "steel" is basically just a synonym for "metal" as far as Pokemon is concerned. And given the magical nature of Pokemon, I would not be surprised if they could just make literal actual steel.
I said the terms were used interchangeably, but I don’t think that a move like Metal Claw involves coating a Pokémon’s claws in just any metal. All the different words seem to be intended as synonyms for steel; the devs —understandably— didn’t want every move to have the word Steel in it, and usually when we talk about metal and iron in an everyday sense we’re talking about some kind of steel. I didn’t think it needed to be said that Pokémon aren’t using mercury or gallium to attack!

The whole point of that first half of my post (perhaps explained poorly) was that the Steel type generally focuses on actual steel, but there are a few weird elements that muddy the waters (the light attacks, Pokémon like Duralodon that seem to be made of a metal that isn’t steel, etc).

Re: generating steel, obviously Pokémon are fictional magical creatures that can do whatever their designers say they can do, but personally I find the idea of creating an industrial alloy out of thin air weirder than summoning a substance in its natural form, even though they’re equally physically impossible tasks. I wondered if maybe the devs thought similarly and that’s why Steel moves don’t go down that route.
 
Re: generating steel, obviously Pokémon are fictional magical creatures that can do whatever their designers say they can do, but personally I find the idea of creating an industrial alloy out of thin air weirder than summoning a substance in its natural form, even though they’re equally physically impossible tasks. I wondered if maybe the devs thought similarly and that’s why Steel moves don’t go down that route.
I was in the middle of going through every Steel-type possibly associated with iron to see if they learned any Fire or Electric moves that could help mix a prospecitve alloy (since biology is usually pretty good at moving carbon and trace metals to the right spot), but this sticks out to me.

The most basic steel is at the low end of complexity. It's iron, carbon, and small amounts of other stuff if you're feeling fancy, in no explicit construction. For a comparison with rock, this puts it at the level of coloured single minerals, but frequently with fewer elements involved. Granite would be an order of magnitude harder to create at the scale biology works at. But no, because shiny things are obviously incapable of being found in nature, metals get pushed to the side.

Side note: why wouldn't Steel types attack with mercury? They need to use toxic somehow.
 

Pikachu315111

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Sorry, but metals being labeled "unnatural" in fantasy contexts is a large pet peeve of mine.
I think people tend to mix up the word with "inorganic" (in addition to metals there's rocks, sand, water & ice), as compared to something which is "organic" which is general living creatures or things created by living creatures (that aren't base elements or energy).

Rock type should have just been buffed instead of steel type existing. I dont know any characteristics of the type that couldnt be handled by rock (then again im that bitch that still thinks rock and ground should have been the same thing so lol)
Steel has many different properties to Rock, notable their interaction with Fire & Grass (and Water and Electricity somewhat). And Steel was meant to be a defensive Typing (and a nerf to Psychic & Dragon) while Rock is more seen as an offense with what it hits super effectively (Rock-types having high Defense is more of an individual thing not inherently connected to the Type).

That said, Rock does indeed have an oddity where a normal rock does have different properties then a gem. Pokemon that are gems should be at least neutral to Water and Grass. Same thing with Ice-types (that are more crystaline than snowish) and Grass-types (which have harder bark than plant stems). In the past I suggested maybe those Types could have a trait where the higher defense ones maybe neutralize some of their older weaknesses but my idea was a bit too complicated for how simple traits are supposed to be. However I instead worked the idea into buffing status moves:

  • Rock-type: Diamond Form: User becomes resistant to Fighting, Grass, & Water-type moves & their Rock-type moves are neutral effective against Fighting- and Steel-types.
  • Grass-type: Janka Form: User receives neutral damage from Bug, Flying, & Poison-type moves & their Grass-type moves are neutral effective against Bug, Grass, & Dragon-types.
  • Ice-type: Crystal Form: User receives neutral damage from Rock- & Fire-type moves & their Ice-type moves are neutral effective against Fire- & Water-types)
NOTE: I also imagine these moves having like a +3 priority.


Day 475. Still no signs of a WTF button. Morale at an all-time low due to extreme conditions. Brain bleach running out. No signs of relief.

HELP.
I imagine two ways to show that reaction:
First is a Psyduck with a tilted head, confused expression, and both hands on its head.
Second is an Aipom doing a facepalm with its tail hand.

I still don't like fairy type. Thematically, 90% of the time it's just PINK

You can never have too much PINK!


While Pokemon does have a lot of pink Fairies, to be fair they do also have a lot of non-traditional Fairies which is something to say compared to other franchises where fairy is just a winged pixie creature. Even many of the pink Faeries aren't strictly pixies:
  • Clefairy family are the closest of being pink pixies, though they do have some alien traits to them at least thematically.
  • Jigglypuff family are super soft rabbit-y creatures with soothing voices.
  • Mr. Mime family are mimes/clowns.
  • Snubbull family is based on a fairy dog from Celtic Mythology called a Cù-sìth.
  • Marill family are water rabbits (it's Fairy-type comes from a strange chain of thought where Fairies have a connection to the moon, in Japanese mythology rabbits live on the moon making sake, so therefore rabbits are fairy-like).
  • Ralts family are ballerinas/ballroom dancers.
  • Mawile is based on a female Yokai.
  • Whimsicott in addition to being based on the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary could also have some influence for the Brazilian imp Saci.
  • Spritzee family is based on perfume, plague doctors, and I think flamenco/can-can dancer?
  • Swirlix family is based on cotton candy, also known as fairy floss.
  • Dedenne's Fairy-type could be due to its gremlin-like nature of stealing electricity. Also the French version of the Tooth Fairy is a mouse *shrugs*.
  • Carbink & Diancie are based on the mythical carbuncle, a fairy-like animal with a gem growing on its forehead.
  • Xerneas is a deer, probably based on ideas of mythical guardians of forests taking forms of deer & other horned animals.
  • Primarina is a mermaid.
  • Comfey is a lei.
  • Morelull family are mushrooms and the idea a circle of mushrooms, called a fairy ring, are gateways into the fairy's realm.
  • Mimikyu is an ugly fey spirit trying to look innocent and appealing, a common fairy-tale trope (such as Hags).
  • Alolan Ninetales is a aurora kitsune.
  • The Island Guardians are based on the Hawaiian Gods who are more nature spirits compared to other gods like the Greek/Roman, Egyptian, and Norse gods.
  • Magearna is a doll brought to life, think Pinocchio.
  • Alcremie is based on whipped cream.
  • Hatterene is a combination of a witch and damsel locked in a tower, classic fairytale imagery.
  • Galarian Weezing is a sort of subverter of base Weezing and its industrialist design, instead of making more pollution it cleans it up!
  • Galarian Ponyta family are unicorns.
  • Zacian likely is Fairy as a nod to Morgan Le Fey of Arthurian Legend.
Infact I'd say Fairy-type Pokemon are probably some of the few Pokemon who designs are unpredictable as there's plenty of room to "bend" the definition of what a "Fairy" is, maybe even more so than ghosts and dragons.

Re: generating steel, obviously Pokémon are fictional magical creatures that can do whatever their designers say they can do, but personally I find the idea of creating an industrial alloy out of thin air weirder than summoning a substance in its natural form, even though they’re equally physically impossible tasks. I wondered if maybe the devs thought similarly and that’s why Steel moves don’t go down that route.
Well when it comes to Steel Physical moves, they probably do imagine the Pokemon summoning "metal energy" around the part of their bodies they want to make hard as steel. It's only a temporary transformation, much like many other times a Pokemon creates matter out of thin air (I have a strange theory about that which I've dubbed "Poke-Matter", essentially this strange form of temporary meta-matter Pokemon can create which has the basic functions of what they're imitating but not the exact physical traits).

Anyway, the reason probably why we don't see any Special Steel-type moves where the Pokemon is creating metal is because, well, metal is a physical object. Same reason why Rock and Ground-types moves which create rocks and ground are physical instead of special. The only way I can see a Steel-type special move that's the Pokemon is creating metal to use is if the metal is molten, like a Steel-type Scald (Smelt?). I suppose liquid metal could also be treated like a special move such as ferrofluid or mercury.

Side note: why wouldn't Steel types attack with mercury? They need to use toxic somehow.
Mercury can be corrosive to other metals.
 
Literally, they could have just buffed Ice to be immune to Dragon, make steel SE against Dragon,
Been there, done that. (Not really, I made Steel immune and Ice resistant to Dragon, but I digress.)

It doesn't work. Dragon/Fire coverage steamrolls through that. There needed to be a patch type. The problem really boils down to how it was implemented.

Type Effectiveness wise, it became the new Dragon in being OP
And this is probably the biggest problem. New management, same as the old.

Also, a couple Psychic legendaries like Mew and Celebi should've been retyped. (Psychic/Fairy and Grass/Fairy respectively).

Not really? They just made a lot of strong Fairy-type Pokemon, just like how they made a lot of strong Dragon-type Pokemon. In terms of type effectiveness, neither Dragon nor Fairy are really all that insane.
But that's the problem. The types themselves aren't stupid broken until you notice that they're just really good neutral types. Ghost and Normal are kind of in the same boat, but Ghost mons and wack moves keep them in check.

Fairy doesn't really have that problem. Strong spammable moves, solid mons...

The type that was introduced as a balance patch (and it's very obvious when you look at its defensive chart) became an offensive problem because of how haphazardly the offensive chart was made.

Speaking of that chart... Why does Fairy even interact with Fighting? That bothers me a lot because it steps heavily on Psychic's best interaction.

I imagine two ways to show that reaction:
First is a Psyduck with a tilted head, confused expression, and both hands on its head.
Second is an Aipom doing a facepalm with its tail hand.
Excellent. Who do we @ for it to be implemented ASAP? :psysly:

Whimsicott in addition to being based on the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary could also have some influence for the Brazilian imp Saci.
Between the Fairy-type and Prankster, I can see that. Considering everything else... That ain't it chief.

You could even make the exact same argument for Impidimp and it'd be equally weird. Nothing about Whimsicott really resembles the Saci.
 

Pikachu315111

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Alright you gotta explain me this one, I can't see anything sací-like from whimsicott and I've researched about brazilian folklore too much
Just stating what Bulbapedia says.

Speaking of that chart... Why does Fairy even interact with Fighting? That bothers me a lot because it steps heavily on Psychic's best interaction.
Fairy has essentially become another "magic" Type and it's a common trope that magic overpowers strength.
If you REALLY need me to BS something up, probably could have to do with Fighting-types key sometimes pronounced kai means all the same ki energy not reacting well against Fairy-type fey energy as both are from different realms. Just like how Fighting can't hit Ghost because ki is essentially life energy which Ghost-types are a void to as beings from the "death realm", Fairy-types are from a parallel "fey realm" which they can slip in and out of. Ki energy can be seen as "mortal" energy, its existence is only that of the "mortal realm" and so when used against a creature who's only half-in, half-out said creature only receives half of the blow. Normal-type is just pure energy and the other Types neutral to Fairy just use an energy form which does not matter whether the being is from different realms.
 

Pikachu315111

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Ki literally means energy
so saying Ki energy means you're saying Energy Energy :P
As much as weebs and others try to mystify the word
True, I guess I don't need to say "energy" at the end but it is a specific kind of energy, different then the pure energy which Normal-types generate.
 

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i think a lot of the gen 8 signature move/ability stuff is just weird and badly designed. a lot of the concepts feel unfinished or not sufficiently expanded on.

stunfisk galar is probably one of the most obvious examples. snap trap being its signature move really just makes no sense (what use would it possibly have for a low-powered grass type attack?) and mimicry is pretty wacky cause stacking types doesn't really work when you're a really slow and defensive mon.

another good example is polteageist. alright we got a cool ghost type shell smash sweeper, its coverage is a little limited so it doesn't get out of control, and for its signature move... it makes all the pokemon on the field eat their berries. what is this? what was their plan when they put this in the game?

a lot of these ideas seem to be designed around doubles, which already means that for everyone except doubles players these abilities will be completely irrelevant, so you need to put a good amount of thought into the design. anyway, they made power spot, an ability that gives the ally pokemon additional power on its moves...and they put it on a slow and specially frail dude who has wide guard as his only doubles-relevant move (no trick room, no ally switch, none of that). the vast majority of the time having 2 good pokemon is better than having 1 slightly better than normal pokemon and 1 stonjourner. did they think this through at all?

what was the idea with sandaconda and sand spit? did they think players would use it over sand stream for some reason?

cramorant truly mystifies me. so basically you have a pokemon on par with drizzle-less pelipper and it has this incredibly convoluted ability where you reach a new form by using surf or dive successfully, and the form you reach depends on your current hp level, and it goes away when you switch out or dynamax, and if your opponent hits you while youre in the form then they take 25% hp and either get -def or parad depending on the form you were in. this is so confusing. why couldn't they just make it get the pikachu form regardless of hp level? why couldn't they let it catch something with any water type move?

why does the scorbunny line have libero? what the hell is libero? was there something wrong with just letting them have protean?

why does drednaw have jaw lock, a dark type move that traps it and its opponent? this isn't even that bad of a move, it just makes 0 sense on a swift swim sweeper

there are obv other ridiculous pokemon such as grapploct and zamazenta but others in the thread have covered this

anyway that's all i have to say. gamefreak was def pretty experimental with stuff this gen and a lot of it just looks weird or pointless to me.
 

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