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Pokémon Movepool Oddities & Explanations
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
Because I have.
I'm still not out of the hospital.
Dhelmise can learn Surf. It's an anchor.
A really bad anchor, apparently.
A really bad anchor, apparently.
No, Dhelmise is the algae that are attached to the anchor.
So they must be using the anchor as a surfing board of sorts.
I agree it doesn't make sense... but at the same time I want HMs back just so I can surf on an anchor.
Coming back to this thread to ask a pivotal question:
Why does Greninja not learn Swords Dance.
In most of its appearances outside the game, Greninja is able to use Water Katanas. It's fellow ninja counter parts ( Shedninja and Ninjask) can learn Sword's Dance even though Shedninja has stubs for arms. Heck, Venusaur can learn swords dance but not Greninja, a pokemon shown to be able to use the moves cut and night slash in a sword like manner
Why does Greninja not learn Swords Dance.
In most of its appearances outside the game, Greninja is able to use Water Katanas. It's fellow ninja counter parts ( Shedninja and Ninjask) can learn Sword's Dance even though Shedninja has stubs for arms. Heck, Venusaur can learn swords dance but not Greninja, a pokemon shown to be able to use the moves cut and night slash in a sword like manner
shedinja.
the only mon with base 1 hp.
the only mon that is a ghost and bug type.
the only mon that ohkos itself from max hp with double edge,
it also gets highly useful moves in sandstorm and final gambit as well as very useful utility in rest and substitute.
we all thought there at least needed to be some logic and common sense involved...
but then again, this is gamefreak.
the only mon with base 1 hp.
the only mon that is a ghost and bug type.
the only mon that ohkos itself from max hp with double edge,
it also gets highly useful moves in sandstorm and final gambit as well as very useful utility in rest and substitute.
we all thought there at least needed to be some logic and common sense involved...
but then again, this is gamefreak.
Doesn't get Nasty Plot either which you would also think is a give-in. At least it has Work Up...
To be fair, Nincada and Ninjask learn all of these moves too (Final Gambit is specifically an Egg Move), so it's more like GF couldn't be asked to remove those moves from its movepool. They're probably thinking If you want to run a Shedinja with one of these moves than go right ahead, you ain't gonna get very far and they've provided more than enough alternatives that this is something you put on yourself.
According to my Google search the move is called "Life Risk" in Japanese, which sounds like the perfect move for a Shedinja.
Shedinja being able to get Final Gambit is not really an oddity because it's Nincada who gets it as an egg move. If it doesn't hatch with Final Gambit, Shedinja cannot get it.
Substitute does count as an oddity... and that's because Game Freak does not really bother shrinking the TM learnset in an evolutionary line, regardless of the move making sense or not. See Iron Tail for Alakazam when it was a TM.
I'm more curious at Greninja not being able to learn Guillotine, being a ninja and Guillotine being a slashing move.
One can say "but Guillotine requires pincers". Kartana learns it at Level 73.
Substitute does count as an oddity... and that's because Game Freak does not really bother shrinking the TM learnset in an evolutionary line, regardless of the move making sense or not. See Iron Tail for Alakazam when it was a TM.
I'm more curious at Greninja not being able to learn Guillotine, being a ninja and Guillotine being a slashing move.
One can say "but Guillotine requires pincers". Kartana learns it at Level 73.
I'm shocked no one has brought up that Passimian can learn Electroweb.
Is Passimian based on a spider monkey? If so, that's pretty clever.
He looks more lemur than monkey, but it could also be a reference to goal nets, and lemur --> monkey --> spider monkey isn't big of a leap. However, I don't understand why Game Freak didn't just give Passimian access to Sticky Web like they did with Slurpuff, Ribombee, and Araquanid, and instead had him join Mew and the Porygons as the only non Bug or Electric Pokemon to learn Electroweb.
On the topic of Passimian, while he eventually gained access to it via tutor, I find it odd that he doesn't learn Seed Bomb through level up or breeding.
Considering Passimian is inspired by rugby/american football, which lacks goal nets, the 'spider monkey' hypothesis seems more plausible.
And about Porygon... I wonder if it's a pun on internet and websites, and that those things are related to electronic devices..
While Nasty Plot also would make sense, Swords Dance is much more egregious since Greninja has been shown to use Katanas. In the anime alone, one of Greninja's main attacks, Cut
Perhaps because it's a dance and most grass pokemon seem to do all sorts of dancing.
I guess that could make sense, but Lilligant doesn't get Swords Dance, so I'm not sure that is a reason why Venusaur can get it. Edit: I don't even think Ludicolo gets Swords Dance, which is probably more egregious
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Swords might be in the name, but there's no mention of them in the description of the move: "A frenetic dance to uplift the fighting spirit". Maybe Greninja don't typically have a good fighting spirit? *shrug*
Yes, but if they really had intended for it to be a Ninjask move, they would have put it in its level-up movepool, just to prevent Shedinja from learning it. Nincada really doesn't need to have the move either, nor is it particularly justified from a flavour standpoint. But they gave it to Nincada anyway, so it was accessible to Shedinja as well. And I believe the hilarity of Shedinja using that move is what caused them to give it to the entire evolutionary family in the first place.
This is where it wields a literal flamethrower (and still has two arms left for punchin').
In gens 1-3, Psyduck and Golduck couldn't learn Psychic through TM. This is despite, of course, a lot of its lore and concept; the fact it gets Confusion through level up; and a lot of oddities like Poliwrath, Corsola and Magmar getting it.
At first you might think it was an oversight that got corrected in Gen 4... but Psyduck was actually able to get Psychic in Gen 2 and 3. Through breeding. And yet TM29 would not work.
At first you might think it was an oversight that got corrected in Gen 4... but Psyduck was actually able to get Psychic in Gen 2 and 3. Through breeding. And yet TM29 would not work.