Pokémon Movepool Oddities & Explanations

The funny thing is that the description was originally perfectly inclusive, even in its first generation where Onix & Glalie were the only non-armed pokemon that could get it
In RS (also Emerald by extension) it was: Blocks the foe's way to prevent escape.

it was only starting with FRLG (brief pit stop to Emerald aside) that it started specifying "arms"
 
So apparently Nidoking and Nidoqueen can learn Hex starting in Gen 8.

I was originally confused, since while kaiju Pokemon are known for having bonkers movepools, the Nidos are the only kaiju to learn Hex, and they've never been associated with mystical powers before. But as it turns out, a decent number of Poison-type Pokemon can learn Hex starting in Gen 8. Which I guess is to complement Venoshock, but now I'm wondering what the Poison type has to do with evil eyes.
 
green_typhlosion said:
Block's a weird move, isn't it? Well actually it isn't but I'm going to take issue with the move description this time around.

Prevents escape - okay, cool, with you so far.

The user blocks the target's way with arms spread wide to prevent escape.

Right, okay, that makes sense for the Pokemon which learn it. But who gets it by breeding?
  • Exeggcute, which doesn't have arms
  • Onix, which also doesn't have arms
  • Snorunt, which doesn't have... you see where I'm going with this, right?
  • Dwebble, which has tiny pincers that you'd struggle to describe as arms
  • Tirtouga, which, surprise surprise, does not have arms
  • Honedge, which hey guess what guys, it doesn't have arms!
  • Rolycoly, which... three guesses what I'm going to say
The thing is, this move makes sense for the majority of those. One can quite easily imagine the likes of Crustle, Steelix, Coalossal, and Carracosta using this move. But why specify arms? Why not just say "it uses its body to bar the foe's way" or something similar? Is it just a translation goof?
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Can anyone check the Japanese description?

Eitherway, Since it makes sense for the Pokemon that naturally learn it by Level-Up the Description isn't entirely inaccurate. Egg Moves have always sort of meant to be a sort of "hack" or genetic manipulation, a Move that's not normally learned by the Pokemon by it's own skills or taught with TMs/Tutors but can be acquired via inheriting from a parent whose pairing may not naturally happen in the wild. Most of the time this is used to get certain elemental coverage, but there are moves such as Status Moves where what we know about the Move doesn't match with the Pokemon, yet it gets it via an Egg Move.

In Block's case, since whoever wrote description only saw it being done via Pokemon that learn it naturally and they use their arms, that's what they put down as how the move works. However, as you noted, there are a batch of Pokemon who get it as an Egg Move who don't have arms but can use other parts of their body to do the job just as well.

So in the end either the description is a technical oversight or the Egg Move Pokemon are exceptions that prove the description true as you had to go out of you way to have these Pokemon hatch with the natural ability to Block instead of learning it naturally.

DrPumpkinz said:
So apparently Nidoking and Nidoqueen can learn Hex starting in Gen 8.

I was originally confused, since while kaiju Pokemon are known for having bonkers movepools, the Nidos are the only kaiju to learn Hex, and they've never been associated with mystical powers before. But as it turns out, a decent number of Poison-type Pokemon can learn Hex starting in Gen 8. Which I guess is to complement Venoshock, but now I'm wondering what the Poison type has to do with evil eyes.
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The description for Hex is pretty basic and the animation is just a swirl of dark energy. Anyone can give someone the "evil eye/stink eye", with the usual interpretation of them doing so is they wish misfortune upon the receiver. Explains why its Ghost-type, so how can so many Poison-types access such a power (which surprisingly not that many Dark-types learn)? Well, while Ghosts inflict lasting harm upon the individual spiritually, the Poison-type inflicts lasting harm upon the individually physically. Whether you feel pain from a cursed soul or pain from a poison working through your body, it's two types of individual violation. Hex/Evil Eye is the user making the infliction they likely caused worse without needing to physically touch the opponent. It's such a malevolent act that a Pokemon which can gather these negative emotions will just naturally form into a Ghost-type move; you're attacking the opponent with your own malevolence against them and the more malevolent you have been toward them the more damage it does.
 
So a lot of times when it comes to questions of "why doesn't this Pokemon learn this move" it can plausibly be explained away with "Game Freak didn't want the Pokemon to have access to that for mechanical reasons (this is not limited to endgame/competitive moves)".

This is not one of those times. This is pure flavor.

:ss/snover::ss/abomasnow:

So for the entirety of these two's existence, they've learned Razor Leaf at a very low level. Now, that wouldn't normally be anything of note. After all, it's a pretty common low-level Grass move. However, Snover and Abomasnow are coniferous trees. While they do have leaves, and said leaves are probably more well-equipped for combat than most real-life trees, those leaves are too small and long to be shaped into the shurikens that Razor Leaf is typically depicted as.

What I'm saying is, why don't Snover and Abomasnow learn Needle Arm? It has more or less the same power and accuracy as Razor Leaf, and those tiny sharp leaves are usually called needles.
 
With needle arm it seems more based on Thorns, which is why it was the signature move of the 2 cactus Pokemon and Chesnaught, whose arms can become thorny (its how spiky shield works).
So that might be why, they didn't consider the pine needles to be on par with thorns?


Now that you've pointed it out though, it would make a lot of sense as something like an egg move. You can pracitcally imagine those green bits being just covered in needles.
 
Not a movepool issue anymore but why did it take Unfezant 3 generations to learn Brave Bird?

The requirements for Brave Bird were never strict. You have to just be a bird, or even slightly similar to a bird, and you get it. Staraptor got it. Talonflame got it. Toucannon got it. So why did Gen 5's regional bird not get it until Gen 8?

My guess is they just forgot it exists until, inexplicably, they brought it back in Gen 8 over the other regional birds (aside from Noctowl and Talonflame in IoA) and realized "oh shit this thing doesn't have Brave Bird." I wouldn't even blame them for it either, I forget Unfezant exists too
 
Chadlad50 said:
Not a movepool issue anymore but why did it take Unfezant 3 generations to learn Brave Bird?

The requirements for Brave Bird were never strict. You have to just be a bird, or even slightly similar to a bird, and you get it. Staraptor got it. Talonflame got it. Toucannon got it. So why did Gen 5's regional bird not get it until Gen 8?

My guess is they just forgot it exists until, inexplicably, they brought it back in Gen 8 over the other regional birds (aside from Noctowl and Talonflame in IoA) and realized "oh shit this thing doesn't have Brave Bird." I wouldn't even blame them for it either, I forget Unfezant exists too
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If I had to guess, at least pre Gen 8 the common theme of the birds that learn Brave Bird naturally is that they are birds of prey, which Unfezant distinctly isn't. Staraptor was the first notable bird to learn Brave Bird naturally and that's a hawk or something like that. In Gen 5, you have Braviary and Mandibuzz who can learn Brave Bird, and both are birds of prey. Talonflame is also a bird of prey, and so is Corviknight. Swanna is sort of an odd one out in that regard though.

Especially based on their dex entries, the birds I mentioned are all birds of prey in that they are aggressive hunters. Unfezant isn't a bird of prey and isn't particularly the type that hunts, so it didn't learn Brave Bird for a thematic reason. Instead its ultimate STAB ended up being Sky Attack ("God Bird" in Japanese and having a similar animation to Brave Bird in Gen 4-5), which is okay in-game but highly impractical competitively because of the charge turn.

But yeah it was likely a thematic reason, but one that was ultimately detrimental to its performance in battle.
 
ScraftyIsTheBest said:
If I had to guess, at least pre Gen 8 the common theme of the birds that learn Brave Bird naturally is that they are birds of prey, which Unfezant distinctly isn't. Staraptor was the first notable bird to learn Brave Bird naturally and that's a hawk or something like that. In Gen 5, you have Braviary and Mandibuzz who can learn Brave Bird, and both are birds of prey. Talonflame is also a bird of prey, and so is Corviknight. Swanna is sort of an odd one out in that regard though.

Especially based on their dex entries, the birds I mentioned are all birds of prey in that they are aggressive hunters. Unfezant isn't a bird of prey and isn't particularly the type that hunts, so it didn't learn Brave Bird for a thematic reason. Instead its ultimate STAB ended up being Sky Attack ("God Bird" in Japanese and having a similar animation to Brave Bird in Gen 4-5), which is okay in-game but highly impractical competitively because of the charge turn.

But yeah it was likely a thematic reason, but one that was ultimately detrimental to its performance in battle.
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Makes sense. Gen 8 seems to be the gen where they're starting to focus a bit more on the competitive aspects of Pokemon (see: Cynthia's new Garchomp) so that could be why they sucked it up and gave Unfezant Brave Bird
 
I'm not sure I buy the "bird of prey" theory when Farfetch'd, a duck, got it in gen 5 and gen 4 breeding let Pidgey, Doduo, Taillow, etc get it and I wouldn't call those birds any more or less a bird of prey than a pheasant (well maybe Pidgey, the line's not really a "pigeon" any more than just Generic Bird)

Gen 7 had a woodpecker that turns into a toucan get it!
 
Worldie said:
To be fair have you seen Toucannon's face, the bird is out for murder I tell you
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1637029224131.png
 
While I understand it's a Pokémon deliberately designed to be cute, Pachirisu's level-up movepool is... odd, to say the least.

1637348977523.png


A level 9 to 12 wild Pachirisu will have:
- A move that reduces Attack by 1 level
- A move that reduces Attack by 1 level with priority
- A damaging move
- A move that reduces Attack by 2 levels
 
Siggu said:
While I understand it's a Pokémon deliberately designed to be cute, Pachirisu's level-up movepool is... odd, to say the least.

View attachment 386274

A level 9 to 12 wild Pachirisu will have:
- A move that reduces Attack by 1 level
- A move that reduces Attack by 1 level with priority
- A damaging move
- A move that reduces Attack by 2 levels
Click to expand...
Pachirisu is now called the Pacifist pokemon
 
Siggu said:
While I understand it's a Pokémon deliberately designed to be cute, Pachirisu's level-up movepool is... odd, to say the least.

A level 9 to 12 wild Pachirisu will have:
- A move that reduces Attack by 1 level
- A move that reduces Attack by 1 level with priority
- A damaging move
- A move that reduces Attack by 2 levels
Click to expand...

I think all of this would make some better sense if they replaced Growl with Nuzzle, progression wise at least. Like if you were to hatch a Pachirisu from an egg & start training it:

Level 1s: Nuzzle & Baby-Doll Eyes (so you start out with a STAB attack move, it's weak but does 100% Paralyze, and an increased priority status move that decreases Attack. It could in theory win battles even if it has to rely on Paralysis hax).
Level 5: Quick Attack (Alright, a stronger move that always hits first, giving more options for Pachirisu to win battles battle quicker and preserve Nuzzle's PP)
Level 9: Charm (while at first seems like a waste as you have Baby-Doll Eyes, it does decrease Attack by 2 in exchange relying on the Speed stat. Pachirisu is fast so you would think Charm would be better, but at Level 9 it might still be slow to some opponents so ones you really don't want hitting may still be better to use Baby-Doll Eyes on just to be sure)
Level 13: Spark (The important level. Not just cause it gets a more powerful STAB move, but it's Move five so that means you gotta delete a move. Nuzzle's 100% paralysis is too valuable and Quick Attack can hit Ground-types so those are staying; it's a choice between Baby-Doll Eyes and Charm. By now Pachirisu is probably getting to be faster and outspeeding opponents on a similar Level, so that's a push toward Charm)
 
R_N said:
Yeah they made some interesting decisions in gen 6. Baby Doll Eyes being a priority attack drop, Confide have perfect accuracy (I dont mean 100% I mean --%. It's like swift)...
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Baby Doll Eyes having priority is the reason I thought every single stat-related status move had priority when I first started playing

Why specifically that move?
 
R_N said:
Maybe the idea is you can do the cute eyes thing super quick in a way growling can'?
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I think that's it. Growl is an action that needs to be done. Baby-Doll Eyes (or Round Eyes in Japanese) is more just a trait the Pokemon has and can "use" quickly to make the opponent feel bad for harming a cute thing.

I also looked up Baby-Doll Eyes page and surprised to see that not a lot of Pokemon actually learn it. Vulpix (both normal & Alolan), Eevee, Teddiursa, Zigzagoon (both normal & Galarian), Shinx, Buneary, Lillipup, Audino, Minccino, Furfrou, Popplio, Stufful, & Mimikyu (with Sentret, Pachirisu, and Milcery via Egg Move).

Yeah, that's it. Like, I thought all the Baby Pokemon and a whole batch of Fairy-type, aka "cute" Pokemon, would at least get it but its a pretty exclusive move all things considered. Also, it shares its animation with Tearful Look which in a way is a similar concept (though Tearful Look is more like the Bulk Up to Charm's Sword Dance).

Honestly, Baby-Doll Eyes most notable trait is that its Eevee's first Fairy-type move via level-up meaning it's likely the move that is used to evolve it into a Sylveon. But, surely that can't be the reason why it was made, especially since Eevee learns Charm later on and they could have easily just made it so Eevee learned Charm later on.

Very strange, and now I want to see a drawing of Obstagoon using Baby-Doll Eyes.
 
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