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Pokémon XY General Discussion
- Thread starter Stellar
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I think chinese mythology/symbols will stick to the fire starters. I mean with Froakie and Chespin they have kept the whole aquarian or based off of prehistoric animals thing intact. Welp, time to read some chinese mythology.
The reason I tried making the connection at first is because it can be argued that the Gen IV starters' final evos also have a strong cultural connection between themselves. Torterra is a world turtle, a metaphysical theory that was once famously argued to be real by an old Chinese woman, Empoleon's artistic basis having stemmed from emporer penguins can be taken as a reference to Chinese/asian emporers, and Infernape, as previously inferred, is based on Sun Wukong, the monkey demon from Journey to the West. I personally think that there is some small degree of artistic unity that Sugimori kept in mind when finalizing Chespin, Fennekin and Froakie's designs, as highly questionable as it is, which he may have also done with the starters of the last two generations, though the tone of the supposed unity may not be stagnant.
I think you're reaching too far there. They probably just come up with whatever designs they think look alright and have not been done before. A fine way to do it I might say. Not everything has to have some deep symbolic meaning or namedrop/reference something from history or mythology.
On another news, the Nintendo 3DS E-shop has added pictures of the dual-screen interface for the game. Just the design changes.
Wow, this actually looks really great. Not quite as mechanical/technical in its design in previous gens with hard lines everywhere. I think I like the curvy lines more. I just hope they retain the ability to just use the buttons and not the stylus, cause I never fight that way.
I'd also like them to bring back the auto B mode from HGSS that made running so much easie,r I have no idea why they removed that in Black and White @_@ Makes no sense.
I wonder why gamefreak bothers to attach mythology to Pokemon when the targeted audience is little kids who don't understand such things. Perhaps they go to mythology for inspiration to design new creature. It seems that this generation the designs are more simplistic, e.g. look at pancham. What I am excited about is the legendary trio. The best design IMO were the legendary beast, since then there hasn't been a design that scream legendary while at the same time not overly doing it.
The mythology feature is quite an important part of Pokemon games as it attracts the more older audiences because it's interesting and adds a new dimension of the story. I'm really hoping that they have the Norse mythology theory. I agree that Pokemon is usually to the younger audience but the mythology enhances the story which makes older audience dig the story as opposed to only competing to only to catch Pokemon and train for competitive battling. The folklore makes you imagine. Another reason probably is the mythology designs are pretty amazing.
I'm loving how the pics look on my 3DS. Can't wait to see the dynamics of it. (please release a demo soon. please. please)
As for the mythology in Pokemon. Sure younger audiences may not fully understand it, but it draws inspiration, gives depth AND attracts to more mature audiences. So, they're important in their respective plots IMO.
Someone on a page on facebook mentioned that the "dark" area could mean Dive is returning. However, I am doubting this as I feel it may just be an aesthetically invisible barrier. What do you think guys?
isn't that just a buoy or whatever?
But yeah hmmm that water. It looks like it could be the end of the map or whatever because it's at the very edge of the map and stuff. But doesn't Pokemon tend to put rocks and stuff to block off where you can go in the water? God that would be depressing if you couldn't go further in that direction because of an invisible barrier. I can hope it's a dive spot though. That would be nice. I dunno. If it was dive it would probably just be in like one area like in Black and White instead of being badass like in R/S/E
But yeah hmmm that water. It looks like it could be the end of the map or whatever because it's at the very edge of the map and stuff. But doesn't Pokemon tend to put rocks and stuff to block off where you can go in the water? God that would be depressing if you couldn't go further in that direction because of an invisible barrier. I can hope it's a dive spot though. That would be nice. I dunno. If it was dive it would probably just be in like one area like in Black and White instead of being badass like in R/S/E
Japanese kids =/= American kids
As for the water, that's definitely just a barrier. The location and the buoy are dead giveaways.
Is it really for the older players, or is it because they want to make their own mythology/series of legends? Myths and mythology fleshes out any fictitious world, and basing key Pokémon on real-world myths is an easy way to make the Pokémon world as realistic as possible by having relatable legends.
During the anime prequel that aired before the movie was released, Mewtwo had a flashback where it was held up and tested on in a laboratory completely different from Dr. Fuji's.
I guess, from the trailer and the anime movie special. A different set of scientists were shown with NewMew.
Cresselia~~
Junichi Masuda likes this!!
Why mythology?
As people above had suggested: Japanese kids =/= American kids.
Japanese education start very early, and kids read books before they are school aged. They read story books in kindergarten also, it was a big thing.
Also, Chinese mythology is a big thing for Japanese kids. It's usually what kids start with.
I've seen with my own eyes, Japanese kid book place (where they can borrow for free) having very very thick Journey West books for like 6 year olds.
Infernape is definitely Sun Wukong, no arguments.
Sha Wujing though, I never knew he was a buffalo.
Ninetales is as everyone should know, the nine tailed fox-ish demon thing.
Actually, in the early 90's, Ninetales, Arcanine and many other red Pokemon were called Chinese Pokemon at the time. Of course, this won't be translated into English.
As people above had suggested: Japanese kids =/= American kids.
Japanese education start very early, and kids read books before they are school aged. They read story books in kindergarten also, it was a big thing.
Also, Chinese mythology is a big thing for Japanese kids. It's usually what kids start with.
I've seen with my own eyes, Japanese kid book place (where they can borrow for free) having very very thick Journey West books for like 6 year olds.
I think Tepig line is probably Ju Bajie/ Zu Bajie from Journey West.
Infernape is definitely Sun Wukong, no arguments.
Sha Wujing though, I never knew he was a buffalo.
Ninetales is as everyone should know, the nine tailed fox-ish demon thing.
Actually, in the early 90's, Ninetales, Arcanine and many other red Pokemon were called Chinese Pokemon at the time. Of course, this won't be translated into English.
Going on with this, it has already been suggested that Yveltal and Xerneas are based on Yatagarasu and Shishigami.
I never brought the whole Tree Of Life speculation. Maybe it's both myths combined. Makes you wonder, if Xerneas will get a forme based on a giant forest spirit, maybe Fairy/Ghost? Probably not.
I never brought the whole Tree Of Life speculation. Maybe it's both myths combined. Makes you wonder, if Xerneas will get a forme based on a giant forest spirit, maybe Fairy/Ghost? Probably not.
Cresselia~~
Junichi Masuda likes this!!
I believe the Nordic Myth hypothesis too.Going on with this, it has already been suggested that Yveltal and Xerneas are based on Yatagarasu and Shishigami.
I never brought the whole Tree Of Life speculation. Maybe it's both myths combined. Makes you wonder, if Xerneas will get a forme based on a giant forest spirit, maybe Fairy/Ghost? Probably not.
Xerneas even stood in front of a really big tree in the trailer.
Yeah, and the forest god from Princess Mononoke is also standing in front of massive trees in that screenshot.
#deersontrees
I first thought that Yveltal was directly based on the Yatagarasu/Sanwuzu because it glows white-hot in the first trailer, so I associated creating an intense internal light-source as having some relation to the sun, which the Yatagarasu is associated with according to myth. Yveltal even glows while using O-Wing, but it may simply be it gathering up dark energy for the attack, unless their choice to make the attack a red beam of light is supposed to be based on some sort of light of destruction-meets-beam of sunlight meta-socio-mythos mashup of origins. But what I want to say regarding massive trees is that the assumed mythological connections the fans have made to their environments are about as shaky as my cultural starter unity theories, and while it's something to speculate about, I don't expect any of it to be taken very seriously until we're given every bit of information about the two of them. Personally, I'd need their Pokedex entries and any available lore from the in-game Kalos natives before making any strong educated guesses...
...do I care too much about art?
#deersontrees
I first thought that Yveltal was directly based on the Yatagarasu/Sanwuzu because it glows white-hot in the first trailer, so I associated creating an intense internal light-source as having some relation to the sun, which the Yatagarasu is associated with according to myth. Yveltal even glows while using O-Wing, but it may simply be it gathering up dark energy for the attack, unless their choice to make the attack a red beam of light is supposed to be based on some sort of light of destruction-meets-beam of sunlight meta-socio-mythos mashup of origins. But what I want to say regarding massive trees is that the assumed mythological connections the fans have made to their environments are about as shaky as my cultural starter unity theories, and while it's something to speculate about, I don't expect any of it to be taken very seriously until we're given every bit of information about the two of them. Personally, I'd need their Pokedex entries and any available lore from the in-game Kalos natives before making any strong educated guesses...
...do I care too much about art?
Cresselia~~
Junichi Masuda likes this!!
Hmm... too bad I don't know much about Norse Mythology. Most of the websites about them aren't in English. (Norwegian I guess?) But I was talking about that one special big tree :3 (like it helped? :p)
They can do a cross-culture fusion though.
I agree that there wouldn't be an issue in creating Pokémon out of a combination of known myths, since there are several incidents of Pokémon showing multiple points of artistic inspiration already, but the plausibility of any origin theory right now is based on the popularity the myths have with the fans. A quick google search tells me that there's also a world tree in Hungarian mythology that holds up the sky and grows out of the head of a deer (they specify that it's a reindeer), and a mythical bird called the turul inhabits the uppermost branches.
Not knowing anything else about the Magyars mysticism, there's a tree (and therefore, an important connection to forests), a nod to the significance of the sky, a deer and a legendary bird. Following fanbase logic, this is everything a religion needs to be seen as the origin of Xerneas and Yveltal.
Tbh, the new mewtwo form is not sitting well with me, at least from what I saw from the trailer. I mean, Mewtwo is not suppose to dodge attacks, it is much cooler when he just raise up has hand and defect everything. Also, most of the audience has already associated Mewtwo with the male gender, so making it a female is a big gamble for Gamefreak. Mewtwo is supposedly the most powerful Pokemon and strongest Trainer of all, why it turn into a little Newtwo and bother battling mediocre Pokemon is ridiculous.
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