Pokémon Movepool Oddities & Explanations

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

However, Scald Emboar has never really had a good explanation.

Super late response to the Scald Emboar discussion, but it just occured to me that Emboar, as confirmed by Gen 5 interviews, has a lot of distinct Chinese inspiration.

The Unova starters were inspired design wise by three "empires", so to speak, one being France (Serperior), one being China (Emboar), and one being Japan (Samurott).

This works with Emboar getting Scald because people in China love boiled water and drink their water hot, and they have done so since ancient times.

Scald's Japanese name is literally ねっとう , which is "Boiling Water". Which is literally the term for what Chinese people drink: boiled water.

So it's likely a sort of figurative shout out to the culture Emboar was designed around in a sense. With Emboar having a distinctly Chinese inspiration, it's likely a shout out to that aspect of China and it being a fire type means the Water it can use is extra hot. Much like how people in China drink hot water as a cultural tradition.

 

[bdt2002]

Super late response to the Scald Emboar discussion, but it just occured to me that Emboar, as confirmed by Gen 5 interviews, has a lot of distinct Chinese inspiration.

The Unova starters were inspired design wise by three "empires", so to speak, one being France (Serperior), one being China (Emboar), and one being Japan (Samurott).

This works with Emboar getting Scald because people in China love boiled water and drink their water hot, and they have done so since ancient times.

Scald's Japanese name is literally ねっとう , which is "Boiling Water". Which is literally the term for what Chinese people drink: boiled water.

So it's likely a sort of figurative shout out to the culture Emboar was designed around in a sense. With Emboar having a distinctly Chinese inspiration, it's likely a shout out to that aspect of China and it being a fire type means the Water it can use is extra hot. Much like how people in China drink hot water as a cultural tradition.

I’ll take this one step further. All three of the Unova starters take inspiration from other cultures, not just Emboar. Serperior takes a lot of French inspiration (should have been the Kalos starter smh) and Samurott takes a lot of Japanese inspiration. What does this mean for their movepools? Well, not much outside of this example of Scald, but maybe it’s an explanation for why Serperior isn’t a status-based Grass-Type like so many others are? Maybe. Who knows?

 

[Mango Smoothie]

I’ll take this one step further. All three of the Unova starters take inspiration from other cultures, not just Emboar. Serperior takes a lot of French inspiration (should have been the Kalos starter smh) and Samurott takes a lot of Japanese inspiration. What does this mean for their movepools? Well, not much outside of this example of Scald, but maybe it’s an explanation for why Serperior isn’t a status-based Grass-Type like so many others are? Maybe. Who knows?

I dunno if this is an english translation thing, but a quick glance shows Samurott gets Air Slash and Sacred Sword which could fall into that category of flavor (if we're going by the Sword linking). Going off its description Air Slash seems like a likely candidate (at least Sacred Sword's references horns)

Gen 4 & 5: The user attacks with a blade of air that slices even the sky. It may also make the target flinch.
Gen 6 onwards: The user attacks with a blade of air that slices even the sky. This may also make the target flinch.

 

[R_N]

Samurott's slashing moves are more because it uses a sword, rather than a samurai specifically. If the "scalchop" had been present on its design regardless of origin, that part of the movepool would be roughly the same.

Course there's not many "samurai" or "japanese" moves that would be specific to the concept anyway. There's Night Slash & Aerial Ace (both of which it gets) but those go to just about any pokemon with sharp implements.

such an awkward sword.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

If the "scalchop" had been present on its design regardless of origin, that part of the movep

Here's a fun fact: while "scalchop" is the nickname for the shells Oshawott and Dewott, in the case of Samurott those swords are actually officially nicknamed "seamitars".

Just wanted to point that out.

 

[Hugin]

Lucario's moveset is kind of wild. And normally that would mean "lots of event moves" or "was around in Gen I/II", but no, even when it was introduced in Gen IV, Lucario got Dragon Pulse, Water Pulse, Fury Cutter, Blaze Kick, Aura Sphere, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Natural Gift, and Magnet Rise. Sure, there's /some/ justification for some of those, but it really seems like GF decided to just throw every vaguely-appropriate move possible onto it.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Dragon Pulse being a level-up move is especially weird. Back in Gen 4, the only things that learned Dragon Pulse through level up were Dragon-types or things that evolved into Dragon-types like Horsea and Swablu... and then also Lucario for some reason. Its distribution would be expanded slightly in future generations, but it always went to things that were draconic like Lapras or Salazzle (or Clawitzer, who has the same "fuck it, every pulse" gimmick as Lucario). And I'm surprised you didn't mention its weirdest level-up move: Bone Rush. Oh and also Extreme Speed for good measure.

 

[Bakugames]

Clawitzer has a way better justification, being based outta a pistol and its ability. If it had to get coverage, the pulse moves would be a natural to it.

Also I feel like lucarios movepool is bloated simply for the anime. The anime team saw lucario and went "we are going to use this to death so give it cool moves" and the devs were just "ok lol"

 

[iceblazer]

Dragon Pulse’s distribution is pretty wonky as well. You’ve got the normal cases like most Dragon-types learning it, the strange but understandable cases such as Charizard, Lapras, Aerodactyl & Lugia, and the downright weird cases like Krookodile, the Nidos, Steelix and Rhyperior being able to learn it.

 

[michaeloche]

Lucario's moveset is kind of wild. And normally that would mean "lots of event moves" or "was around in Gen I/II", but no, even when it was introduced in Gen IV, Lucario got Dragon Pulse, Water Pulse, Fury Cutter, Blaze Kick, Aura Sphere, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Natural Gift, and Magnet Rise. Sure, there's /some/ justification for some of those, but it really seems like GF decided to just throw every vaguely-appropriate move possible onto it.

Lucario gets Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, and Blaze Kick, but not Fire Punch, for whatever reason.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Dragon Pulse being a level-up move is especially weird. Back in Gen 4, the only things that learned Dragon Pulse through level up were Dragon-types or things that evolved into Dragon-types like Horsea and Swablu... and then also Lucario for some reason. Its distribution would be expanded slightly in future generations, but it always went to things that were draconic like Lapras or Salazzle (or Clawitzer, who has the same "fuck it, every pulse" gimmick as Lucario). And I'm surprised you didn't mention its weirdest level-up move: Bone Rush. Oh and also Extreme Speed for good measure.

In Japan "Aura" is called "Wave" which probably explains why it has a close relation to "Pulse" things, mechanic-wise (infact Heal Pulse is called "Healing Wave" in Japan).

While I know the anime shows it forming a giant energy bone... I think GF might have given Lucario Bone Rush because of its spikes which are probably made of the same structure that makes up its bones. Normally that's a calcium structure but being Lucario is a Steel-type make its bones could be made of a harder mineral.

Extreme Speed I can only assume because it's using Aura to, maybe not make itself physically faster, but amps up its senses and reaction time that it's acting faster.

Lucario gets Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, and Blaze Kick, but not Fire Punch, for whatever reason.

It's a Steel-type so it can't keep itself exposed to fire for a prolonged time. When a Pokemon uses Fire Punch they surround their first with flames, so that won't do. However I imagine Blaze Kick only has the flame exist while doing the kicking motion, maybe even having the flame trailing behind the kick, thus its fast enough and barely makes enough contact to harm Lucario.

 

[spookysocialist]

Lucario having bone rush is probably just because it's based on Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead. So it makes sense there would be a reference to bones in it's movepool. That's also why it has aura powers, since Anubis could see people's souls to judge them

 

[TailGlowVM]

Lucario gets all this stuff... but not Iron Head?



And yet these Pokemon do get it:

 

[Siggu]

Lucario gets all this stuff... but not Iron Head?



And yet these Pokemon do get it:

At least it gets a Steel-type punching move now with Meteor Mash. It might not be particularly good flavor-wise (as it's generally been given to Pokémon with a connection to space) but at least it does not have that bizarre omission from its movepool...

 

[Imperial Magala]

Normally I would defend Lucario not getting Iron Head since it has access to other physical Steel moves, but Lucario can learn Headbutt and Zen Headbutt, so it can use its head in attacks.

 

[TerrickTerran]

Lucario not getting Iron Head reminds me of Golem not getting Head Smash.

 

[PokemonCrusader]

I'm just going to assume that the only reason that Jynx and Gardevoir get flash is because they're psychic types...

I think all psychic types get flash, except for the ones released after gen VI, because flash just isn't available as a TM anymore. The only other exceptions I noticed are gimmick Pokemon like Unown, Wobbuffet and Darminatan zen mode.

I would wager the more zealous members of their fanbase disagree.

 

[The Mind Electric]

Looking at Lucario's moveset from gen 8, it can still learn Zen Headbutt, but it lost the ability to learn regular Headbutt except via transfer from an earlier generation. This means that, at some point, it was decided that Lucario should have Zen Headbutt but not regular Headbutt. Why is that? Simple. Zen Headbutt has a 20% flinch chance, but Headbutt and Iron Head both have a 30% flinch chance. Lucario is simply too honorable to use 30% flinch chance moves.

 

[Siggu]

"Its four ruggedly developed arms can launch a flurry of 1,000 punches in just two seconds."

This is one of Machamp's Pokédex entries.

And yet, it cannot learn Comet Punch (called "Consecutive Punch" in Japanese).

 

[QuentinQuonce]

"Its four ruggedly developed arms can launch a flurry of 1,000 punches in just two seconds."

This is one of Machamp's Pokédex entries.

And yet, it cannot learn Comet Punch (called "Consecutive Punch" in Japanese).

The Stadium move description is as follows:

Although each slap is weak, this attack hits the target two to five times in succession.

Most of the Pokemon which get Comet Punch are unevolved (Pancham, Timburr) or not terribly strong (dear old Ledian, which can't score a KO for love nor money).

The others also make sense - Hitmonchan is strong but its fighting style is more of a jabber than a haymaker; it's the speed with which it can land punches which is usually remarked upon about it, not the strength of those punches. Kangaskhan learning it references the speed at which real-world kangaroos can box, even though it is quite powerful and can learn moves such as Focus Punch and Dizzy Punch. Buzzwole is an anomaly given its much-vaunted strength, but is characterised as quite a boastful Pokemon which likes to show off its prowess; and it's an insect, which tend to be dizzyingly quick.

Whereas Machamp is all about power, and the speed of its punches is more a byproduct of that. It's not going to waste its time ineffectually slapping the foe when it could punch with actual force - hence its association with moves such as Dynamicpunch.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Also worth noting is that Comet Punch's flavor, that being a flurry of punches, is shared with Bullet Punch. In contrast to Comet Punch, Bullet Punch's flurry of strikes seem to happen so fast that its strikes can't be distinguished as individual hits. It's just one single 40-power priority attack. This fits Machamp's absurd 500 punch/second capabilities perhaps even better than Comet Punch, and sure enough, Machamp can learn Bullet Punch. It only learns it through breeding though, so eh.

 

[Worldie]

It only learns it through breeding though, so eh.

To be fair, it's pretty difficult to explain the "learn it by breeding" outside of just gameplay mechanic anyway.

Like, you can file it as "the slight genetic modification from having genes that aren't from its actual species allow the individual to perform a task otherwise not possible", but it's quite a stretch, like the fact a Machamp would be incapable of tickling someone if it hasnt got a altered gene from a Gothitelle...
Doesn't help the fact that before gen 8, several breeding moves could also be acquired via TM/Tutor, which would have killed my explanation in first place.

 

[Bakugames]

Tm/tutor/breeding moves are moves a pokemon can still learn, they just never really bothered to train to do so. Why would a machamp naturally learn tickle on the wild? It's just going to punch you

 

[Worldie]

Tm/tutor/breeding moves are moves a pokemon can still learn, they just never really bothered to train to do so. Why would a machamp naturally learn tickle on the wild? It's just going to punch you

Which makes sense, but I kinda have a hard time how being a half-gothitelle son makes you able to Tickle and being the only way to learn to do so

 

[Bakugames]

Which makes sense, but I kinda have a hard time how being a half-gothitelle son makes you able to Tickle and being the only way to learn to do so

There must be something going on with the move tickle itself but I don't like the implication it poses