Place is somewhat dead, but I thought I'd try to stimulate a discussion of movepool flavour in case anybody cares particularly about that sort of thing
So, we have a Steel/Flying frigate bird with a naval officer motif. This gives a number of types that can be easily represented in a level-up movepool, namely Water-, Dark-, Steel-, and Flying-, so there's a huge scope for different takes on the flavour. It would be a shame to see a more or less uniform set of flavoury bits on offer, so hopefully my unfocused rambling will give people some ideas, or at least make them adamant to not accept mine, which is another option in and of itself. Firstly, it's a frigate bird. A frigate bird. This alone has so many connotations you could base its movepool around this alone. I always thought it was an obligate kleptoparasite, but according to Wikipedia only about 5% of its diet occurs through kleptoparasitism. So there's another happy childhood delusion of mine destroyed. In case that sentence meant absolutely nothing to you, the frigate bird's most oft-noted attribute is its tendency to attack other birds such as gulls after they've eaten a meal, attack them until they're forced to vomit, and then swallow that vomit mid-flight. And then they take it back to their chick, who sticks its head into the parent's mouth and feasts on the vomit. Also they knock chicks out of their nests and swallow them too.
So, great. Already Stockpile, Spit Up and Swallow sound like they'd fit this Pokemon perfectly. But given this crafty and roundabout method of obtaining one's lunch, Dark-type moves could, I think, work very well as part of the level-up movepool. Thief, Faint Attack, Foul Play, Knock Off, Snatch, Quash, and Night Slash all seem to be pretty good in this regard. It's a real pity that Sucker Punch, Pursuit and Switcheroo were banned, as they would work well too. But hey, only umpteen moves on a level-up set, so no need to overload it. Other moves that could tie in to this theme could include Covet, Astonish, Fake Out, Leer, Fury Attack... Lock-on might be nice too. I'm pretty sure that Mean Look and Block are both VGMs, so they'd be banned too, but hey, it's the thought that counts.
Water moves would be a fairly neat addition, and I've seen plenty of movepools already posted with Brine, Rain Dance, and the like, and especially the two I just mentioned, since they imply the nautical nature rather than the capacity to use Water-type moves, but oh well. Steel-type moves are fairly hard to comment on - likely as not, apart from Steel Wing, they'll be there for the competitive utility and not much else. The Flying-type moves have perhaps more competitive utility, but also more flavour value, given that it is, well... a bird. I can't really think of a Flying-type move that wouldn't complement this Pokemon pretty darn well. Except Aeroblast. And maybe Chatter. And Bounce. But anyway, special mention goes to Pluck since frigate birds get the majority of their food by plucking it from the surface of the waters they inhabit - and on this note, since they can't dive, giving them Dive as a HM makes ornithologists sad. And you don't want to make ornithologists sad, do you? Gust and Hurricane are again interesting options, tying in the nautical theme again.
What else? A bunch of birds seem to learn Sand-attack, so that could be a neat option (though that may just be my being traumatised by Pidgey as a small child). Lots of them also learn Agility, but that's disallowed too (why am I mentioning all these banned options? Oh well...). Finally, I guess Pelipper is a pretty good source of inspiration if all else fails, especially considering that frigate birds and pelicans are related. Soak, Supersonic, Mist, Water Sport, Aqua Ring, and Fling are all perfectly well and good.
As far as egg groups go, it would be another terrible ornithological crime if Pelipper were not able to breed with Cawmodore, so Water 1 or Flying for at least one group would seem to be nice and flavourful. Of course, we can't let these considerations get in the way of competitiveness, but given that most specified allowed moves can be bred for from these two groups it doesn't seem to be that much of a sacrifice. I won't say anything on the competitive side since that's not what this thread is for.
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So, as you may have guessed, I'm not going to be entering a movepool for this, but discussion of the flavour you'd like to see in the submitted entries is always nice, particularly if you don't feel confident in submitting a movepool yourself. The more options that are suggested, the more variety there will be in the final pool, or at least that's what I would love to think. So please, offer up your suggestions, or criticisms of my suggestions. Some nice discussion would be a good way to put this thread to its intended use. Please do note that if I sounded presumptuous or as if I were doling out precious golden flavour nuggets to the undeserving masses, this was not my intent at all, but to push for a bit more forum activity concerning the movepool stages.
So, cheerio and toodle pip, then.
EDIT: @
Hollymon I don't contribute art because I've been away from Smogon for about a year and only came back about five days ago. No other reason.s
