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SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon
- Thread starter stage7_4
- Start date
Pretty sure Digimon has no problems using 666 as a plot point. Look at VenomVamdemon.
What's a dig-i-mon? :P
That other franchise with collectible monsters primarily aimed at small children with toys, trading cards, and an anime that's supposed to be ripping off us. Or we're ripping off them, I've lost count at this point.
I'm pretty sure Game Freak already played with the number 108 being bad news with Spiritomb. 108 in the Sinnoh dex. Weighs 108.0 kg. Formed from 108 spirits bound to an odd keystone. Both base defenses are 108 each. It's also known as the Forbidden Pokemon, and at the time its Dark/Ghost typing had no type weaknesses under normal circumstances.While I understand that this "mark of the beast" Vivillion thing is just a long joke, it wouldn't make much sense for a Japanese developer to use 666 as a demon sign. You'd think it would be 444...
...well, I guess it's evolution Garchomp is the Scrub Devil of sorts (although I'd think that would also be Stealth Rock) but still not that imposing. Maybe drop a digit to 44.
Ehh. Well, what about just 4?
Whoose the cutest fire demon? You are! Yes yoo are!
Well, how about the combos? 24, 42, and 49 are supposed to be really bad juju (double death, to the death, and suffer until death respectively). What's that group got?
,
,
Marginally better than the last three for sure, especially getting Arbok in there, but I still feel like something's missing.
108 is another bad number in the East, maybe that's our demon-
Oh. Guys, I think this is a dead-end.
And let's not forget the Pokemon who purposely brings up Devil/demon imagery:
Based on a hellhound which in many folklore has been said to being a minion of the Devil (but not the prince of darkness himself), Houndoom still exhibits more devilish traits: The horns (normal Houndoom being twisty like a goats horn while Mega Houndoom has the common image of it standing straight up) and the tail (normal is shaped like a triangle which is a common appearance of the Devil's tail while Mega has its tail resembling a pitchfork which is the Devil's weapon of choice). If you REALLY want to go into detail the cuffs on the leg could represent the binds which would be put on the Devil at the end of days to imprison him in the Lake of Fire (with Mega's showing it "breaking free"). You could also make a case of its Dark/Fire-typing (remember "Dark" is called "Evil" in Japan) and skeletal appearance (the Devil is often portrayed as a lanky and almost malnourished looking creature. Also a skull is another Devil iconography especially that of a goat's) being further details to make it look like the Devil has come. Pokedex wise it mentions the pain of burns by this Pokemon never go away (hellfire which eternally burn those who were wicked in their lives) and has pungent smelling flames (a reference to sulfur/brimstone which Hell is said to smell like). SATAN!
Digitalmon: Well technically came out first as a tamagatchi-type toy though honestly both came out around the same time so it was just coincidence. The series sort of developed on their own up until both animes were created when international TV studios who wanted to compete with Pokemon picked up Digimon to do so. Thus the battle between the two series officially started and while for the most part Digimon had the better anime Pokemon had the better merchandising. This become evident as the years went by as Pokemon marched on while Digimon sort of fell to the background releasing a new series and game every once in a while.
And while Digimon had that 666 plot point, it also just had a Digimon based on the Devil as the first villain of the main series (heck, Digimon is filled with Biblical characters, notably the Seven Great Demon Lords and the Celestial Digimon).
Based on a hellhound which in many folklore has been said to being a minion of the Devil (but not the prince of darkness himself), Houndoom still exhibits more devilish traits: The horns (normal Houndoom being twisty like a goats horn while Mega Houndoom has the common image of it standing straight up) and the tail (normal is shaped like a triangle which is a common appearance of the Devil's tail while Mega has its tail resembling a pitchfork which is the Devil's weapon of choice). If you REALLY want to go into detail the cuffs on the leg could represent the binds which would be put on the Devil at the end of days to imprison him in the Lake of Fire (with Mega's showing it "breaking free"). You could also make a case of its Dark/Fire-typing (remember "Dark" is called "Evil" in Japan) and skeletal appearance (the Devil is often portrayed as a lanky and almost malnourished looking creature. Also a skull is another Devil iconography especially that of a goat's) being further details to make it look like the Devil has come. Pokedex wise it mentions the pain of burns by this Pokemon never go away (hellfire which eternally burn those who were wicked in their lives) and has pungent smelling flames (a reference to sulfur/brimstone which Hell is said to smell like). SATAN!
Digitalmon: Well technically came out first as a tamagatchi-type toy though honestly both came out around the same time so it was just coincidence. The series sort of developed on their own up until both animes were created when international TV studios who wanted to compete with Pokemon picked up Digimon to do so. Thus the battle between the two series officially started and while for the most part Digimon had the better anime Pokemon had the better merchandising. This become evident as the years went by as Pokemon marched on while Digimon sort of fell to the background releasing a new series and game every once in a while.
And while Digimon had that 666 plot point, it also just had a Digimon based on the Devil as the first villain of the main series (heck, Digimon is filled with Biblical characters, notably the Seven Great Demon Lords and the Celestial Digimon).
Dogs in mythology with the underworld aren't always evil, heck the xolotl wich is the dark side of Venus aka quetzalcoatl is a deity that rip it's own face to create the dogs as guardians and companions of the mankind after quetzalcoatl infused the mixed bones with blood from his own testicles, this myth is shared thorough almost every part of Latin America, heck several of the Mayan survivor tribes of my region used to call themselves the sons of the dogs during the evangelistion as in their deluge myth it was a dog that served as womb for the new mankind(of course it ripped it's own skin beforehand to transform into a woman but the principle lies there).
Another shared myth is that the dog would guide the human through the multiple levels of xibalba always warding the dangers of the realm so the humans could meet their destination. Yep mesoamerican cultures loved their hairless dogs with a passion even before they fully built their empires, that didn't stop from eating their "brothers" every once in a while.
It's not weird to have dog based effigies as forces of order like cerberus and orthos wich served as neutral figures given that they where guardians, yet they where never fully antagonistic figures in Greek mythos even when orthos had to be killed off.
On modern mythos we have El Cadejo, mostly an apparition that protects the drunken in their way home and it's the size of a horse jet black and with an awful stench with a somehow hollow gaze. Then the truly terrifying version of it, a dog that has to be exercised and hit with iron rods bathed in Holy water to harm, wich after exorcised roots almost immediately and leaves a spot where grass never grows again.
Heck my grandmother and 3 out of her sisters(they where 8 children talk about having no tv) claim to have seen an incident with one near their house, the local priest doing the exorcism rite on full lung force some of the farmers with pitchforks and machetes surrounding a house with an unbearable stench of sulfur(my grandmother knows the smell as outside of the town her aunt made soap with pig fat) and after four hours several gun shoots and mass prayers a beast white as a flower fleeing into the mental ward outskirts. To this day my grandmother swears on the bible to those accounts. So take the myths with a grain of salt or inspiration on normal stuff that was fueled by mass hysteria.
Another shared myth is that the dog would guide the human through the multiple levels of xibalba always warding the dangers of the realm so the humans could meet their destination. Yep mesoamerican cultures loved their hairless dogs with a passion even before they fully built their empires, that didn't stop from eating their "brothers" every once in a while.
It's not weird to have dog based effigies as forces of order like cerberus and orthos wich served as neutral figures given that they where guardians, yet they where never fully antagonistic figures in Greek mythos even when orthos had to be killed off.
On modern mythos we have El Cadejo, mostly an apparition that protects the drunken in their way home and it's the size of a horse jet black and with an awful stench with a somehow hollow gaze. Then the truly terrifying version of it, a dog that has to be exercised and hit with iron rods bathed in Holy water to harm, wich after exorcised roots almost immediately and leaves a spot where grass never grows again.
Heck my grandmother and 3 out of her sisters(they where 8 children talk about having no tv) claim to have seen an incident with one near their house, the local priest doing the exorcism rite on full lung force some of the farmers with pitchforks and machetes surrounding a house with an unbearable stench of sulfur(my grandmother knows the smell as outside of the town her aunt made soap with pig fat) and after four hours several gun shoots and mass prayers a beast white as a flower fleeing into the mental ward outskirts. To this day my grandmother swears on the bible to those accounts. So take the myths with a grain of salt or inspiration on normal stuff that was fueled by mass hysteria.
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The one mystery I can't get is why a Pokémon that is titled a princess is genderless...
The idea is that we cannot tell their gender by normal means. Diancie is OBVIOUSLY feminine, but as a species, we cannot tell their physical sex. This is why in most media, legendaries are given one pronoun or the other. They are able to identify themselves as one or the other while humans cannot tell.
Then there are the truly genderless like Magnemite line and Metagross line.
All hail gender stereotypes.
Glory to the new waifu.
They also cannot determine their gender by breeding because Arceus sterilized all legendaries including himself (Manaphy got away though).
Also gender and sex are technically two different things. Your sex is biological but your gender is a mix of biological, social, and self identity. Legendaries sex seem to be hard to determine but some Pokemon self identify themselves to a certain gender. So Diancie's gender is female, but its biology has changed so its reproduction works differently or it's sterile (which for Diancie would make sense since it's a transformation of Carbink. When one Diancie finally dies (or whatever happens to them when they reach the end of their existence) a new Carbink will transform).
A lot of Legendaries in the Mystery Dungeon series use gender pronouns to refer to themselves even though in the main games they have no gender (which is actually sex, but they can't really use that word so they use gender instead).
A lot of Legendaries in the Mystery Dungeon series use gender pronouns to refer to themselves even though in the main games they have no gender (which is actually sex, but they can't really use that word so they use gender instead).
I think the thing in Mystery Dungeon is because the Pokemon are much more salient beings, which could allow them to comprehend the concept of Gender vs Sex if they do at all. In the main games, the Pokemon are almost all animalistic to some degree, and even the more intelligent ones aren't human to the degree of understanding the difference between Gender and Sex. Besides, most of the gender connotations like "Prince of the Sea" and such assigned to Manaphy are purely human monikers based on their appearance.
That's what I mean. Oddly going back to Digimon, in Digimon Tamers (3rd season with Guilmon, Renamon, and Terriermon) it was some point revealed the kids had Digimon so Renamon joined Rika's family when they were having supper. Rika's grandmother asked if Renamon was a girl and Renamon explained Digimon technically don't have genders but some do relate and assign themselves with certain genders. I think its sort of the same case with Legendary Pokemon, they don't have a technical gender (or at least in a way we understand) but some which are higher intelligence relate themselves to a certain gender if only to make communication with "lesser" beings easier.
Which doesn't stop the Internet from ignoring this little plot point.
At any rate, thanks for explaining that a lot better than I ever could, guys.
The internet ignores everything it wants to, most often for stuff decidedly NSFW.
God, Vivillion is a hassle to get them all. GTS itself is a mess, with people asking for insane stuff just for Deerling/Burmy, too. Annoying because I had all Deerling/Burmy but for some reason never traded them to this gen before selling my old copies. Grrr...
Yeah the glass statue is an odd one. I actually didn't know you could acquire it (looooong list of extras to do before getting to that, and other games call to me. I'm essentially background playing AS now).
I only really singled the BW2 timeline because it's the one that's already branched before decisions are made by player (including buying the game). A situation like mega/non-mega timeline. I mean, all B2's areas seem to be more technologically advanced, with White2's less advanced, one even looking devastated. Now the cave near Lentimas is water in B2, but lava in W2... Did W2's timeline suffer an ecological disaster in the past (volcanic eruption) being the cause of the differences? Just a fan theory that's just a little plausible.
As for Etra Link (forget what it's called), isn't it some sort of "inbetween world" between the real (game) world and the dream world? How that works in-world, god only knows. Some sort of digital waypoint maybe that you interact in, converting the psychic/dream energy into digital (like storage) then into real Pokemon from there. Bizarre. That's some powerful tech!
As for time passed. Pokemon Origins Red took five days (or was it five weeks...damn I only JUST watched it! LOL) to reach Pewter City gym. I mean, it's only around the corner from the beginning but it's a tiny guesstimate of how big things are given it (Origins) sticking to game facts.
Yeah the glass statue is an odd one. I actually didn't know you could acquire it (looooong list of extras to do before getting to that, and other games call to me. I'm essentially background playing AS now).
I only really singled the BW2 timeline because it's the one that's already branched before decisions are made by player (including buying the game). A situation like mega/non-mega timeline. I mean, all B2's areas seem to be more technologically advanced, with White2's less advanced, one even looking devastated. Now the cave near Lentimas is water in B2, but lava in W2... Did W2's timeline suffer an ecological disaster in the past (volcanic eruption) being the cause of the differences? Just a fan theory that's just a little plausible.
As for Etra Link (forget what it's called), isn't it some sort of "inbetween world" between the real (game) world and the dream world? How that works in-world, god only knows. Some sort of digital waypoint maybe that you interact in, converting the psychic/dream energy into digital (like storage) then into real Pokemon from there. Bizarre. That's some powerful tech!
As for time passed. Pokemon Origins Red took five days (or was it five weeks...damn I only JUST watched it! LOL) to reach Pewter City gym. I mean, it's only around the corner from the beginning but it's a tiny guesstimate of how big things are given it (Origins) sticking to game facts.
I got lucky and traded off all my junk legendaries (timid Entei, lax Thundurus, etc.) to complete my Vivillion collection before ORAS came out (so said legendaries were more valuable). And now I just realized how much that sounds like stock trading.
To get the glass statue you have to win all master rank contests with 800+ points in RSE, then grab it from the Lilycove Art Curator. In ORAS, you have to fill the entire museum's picture gallery, by winning each master rank contest 3 times (not necessarily with the same pokemon).
White was always the more "natural" one, and an active volcano is a sign of a healthy environment, not necessarily a bad environment. It goes to show you that "natural" is neither benign nor malevolent. Having a volcano fill with water is a sign it's gone extinct, and is no longer active. So it's now a caldera (or becoming one). I guess it's just B/W's theme against extreme viewpoints, completely technical versus completely natural. With the good and the bad both present.
I still really really want to talk about Entralink but I just need to devote an entire post to it and I'm easily distracted.
Lastly, I wouldn't take Origins as entirely faithful. While it was better as pokemon anime goes, Red's Jolteon still died to a Rhydon's thunderbolt. Don't aim for the horn?
To get the glass statue you have to win all master rank contests with 800+ points in RSE, then grab it from the Lilycove Art Curator. In ORAS, you have to fill the entire museum's picture gallery, by winning each master rank contest 3 times (not necessarily with the same pokemon).
White was always the more "natural" one, and an active volcano is a sign of a healthy environment, not necessarily a bad environment. It goes to show you that "natural" is neither benign nor malevolent. Having a volcano fill with water is a sign it's gone extinct, and is no longer active. So it's now a caldera (or becoming one). I guess it's just B/W's theme against extreme viewpoints, completely technical versus completely natural. With the good and the bad both present.
I still really really want to talk about Entralink but I just need to devote an entire post to it and I'm easily distracted.
Lastly, I wouldn't take Origins as entirely faithful. While it was better as pokemon anime goes, Red's Jolteon still died to a Rhydon's thunderbolt. Don't aim for the horn?
Why do you need Running Shoes to Run?
Or a Fishing Rod to fish? You could just blow all the fish out of the water...
And why do you need Surf to ride over water? We see plenty of Swimmers.Divers all over the waters of every region...
Why do we need Poke-Balls to train Pokemon? why can't we just become their friends?
Likewise, why is 6 the maximum amount of Poke Balls we can carry at one time?
Additionally, where is Interpol based? You see only one agent ever (or maybe like two others to arrest people, i dont recall)...
Or a Fishing Rod to fish? You could just blow all the fish out of the water...
And why do you need Surf to ride over water? We see plenty of Swimmers.Divers all over the waters of every region...
Why do we need Poke-Balls to train Pokemon? why can't we just become their friends?
Likewise, why is 6 the maximum amount of Poke Balls we can carry at one time?
Additionally, where is Interpol based? You see only one agent ever (or maybe like two others to arrest people, i dont recall)...
In order:
Certain shoe types (sneakers, for instance) are better for moving quickly. Lord only knows what you wear before.
If you're looking for that one specific mon, it's probably better to do things the old-fashioned way.
Pokemon are...difficult to simply befriend. The invention of Poke Balls is a long story that probably shows up in fan theories or a manga, but there is an explanation somewhere.
There are two commonly-accepted answers: League rules (although what stops Team Whatever from simply swarming you like in ORAS only worse), and showing adequate love and care to more than six at a time is difficult.
Who knows. Note that Pokemon Interpol actually behaves like many assume Interpol to work IRL (so something U.N.C.L.E-esque), whereas the actual International Police is a body for coordinating law enforcement across the various nations.
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1. Yeah, honestly at this point they should just have it as a natural extension of your character. Have a quick mention your character can run by pressing "B" somewhere for those who didn't try.
2. The fishing rod lures in the Pokemon allowing you to pull it into a battle. Sure you can try having your Pokemon nuke the water but my guess is that all the nearby Pokemon would swim away as fast as they can and probably won't be back for a while.
3. Well gameplay wise it creates a natural barrier. But meta wise it's a whole can of worms. "Why can't our trainer swim"? Well for one thing we have a ton of stuff on us (including electronics) so we probably don't want to get wet (though then the question of Dive comes in). For another thing we usually need to swim for long distances and being a kid we might get tired easily. "Why does our Pokemon need to learn Surf to sail us"? Maybe there's a certain way for a Pokemon to carry someone across the waters on their back. Or it could just be a shortcut, like they can naturally learn how to surf a human across but we don't have time to train them to do that so we just teach them a move that gives them that knowledge instinctively.
4. Capturing a Pokemon is like instantly taming them. Either there's something about the Pokeball that makes them more obedient or the Pokemon understands it has been defeated and you are the master/leader/alpha. Also it's easier to take them around all over the place.
5. I'm guessing the 6 rule is more to do with the Pokemon League enforcing competition rules. There has to be a max to how many Pokemon you can use. Arceus knows why the villains follow those rules but it could be that 6 Pokemon has been considered the average best amount of Pokemon a trainer can focus on training.
6. Interpol probably has HQ all over the place but its just that we don't need to know or go there.
where are their officers, though? We only ever see Looker right... You'd think they'd call out a bit more firepower to take down the escaped leaders of a cult that threatened to destroy the world...
Plus, if you try to burn one with fire, you're possibly liable to get burned yourself (due to Powder, not that I've seen it used competitively). I mean, who else can use fire like that?
I think the villain team's plans are just happening too fast for any police force to mobilize. And even then they're probably busy investigating the last incident that happened that by the time they get the call (if they even do) the villain team has appeared again they'd probably be gone before they get their and have to start a whole new investigation thus giving the villain team more time to follow their plan.
Also they probably don't want to panic the public.