Pokémon/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The following series in the Pokémon franchise have their own Headscratchers pages. New discussion related to those series should be placed in their respective pages.



Please add new entries to the bottom of the page.


  • Certain mispronunciations bug this troper:
    • Pokey-mon (instead of Poke "eh" mon)
      • Aren't both correct? They say both in the animé. When I was younger I always thought Poke-eh-mon was the plural and pokey-mon was the singular.
      • Watched WTFP Episode 1. Poke-eh-mon is the correct pronunciation, but the dub is so bad (*what did you expect, it's 4KIDS*) that they don't even pronounce it right.
      • Given that it's a Japanese term, the correct pronunciation is actually Poh-Keh-Mon. And to be clear, this is the same as saying Pocketmon, without the "t".
    • I'm fairly certain Poke "eh" mon is correct (or at least more correct). Official english sources affiliated with nintendo typically pronounce it with an "eh" sound (Animé does it most of the time, [but what do you expect from 4 kids], Pokemon Stadium games, Super Smash bros, etc.), more often than not. When it's being referenced by kids wb, cartoon network, or burger king (whatever the channel or sponsor is that isn't affiliated with nintendo) the pronunciation is pokey-mon. I can't speak for everyone, but most people I know who were serious fans say it with an "eh". Also, consider that it's a contaction of the term pocket monster, the "e" is short.
      • Or pokey-mans.
      • The pronunciation guides on the fifth gen in-game TV show Koukan Talk say "poke-ay-mon". Word of God, bitches.
      • Different accents pronnous things differently. It's easier and flows better for some accents to say pokey-mon.
      • People tend to not notice, or simply not care, about the fact that there is an accent over the E in Pokemon. It doesn't help that an accent can mean anything to every different language. The E seems to be pronounced as an A, so it would mean that it is said the same way a french person would pronounce words with that same accent.
    • Zapados (instead of Zapdos)
      • Because it is close to a real word, people subconsciously say something close to the real word instead of the pun
    • Pig-eh-chu
      • Peek-ah-chew
    • Ratta-tatta
      • Ratatat is a common onomatopoeia, they are speaking closer to it without thinking
  • Why was Pidgey's moveset changed when Gust became a Flying move, but Pikachu still has thunderbolt at level 3? The only thing I can think of is to make early GSC a touch tougher by preventing you from one-shotting the large amount of Weedle, Caterpie and Bellsprout in the first couple of routes. But now in FR/LG you can one shot Pidgys for a few quick level ups. What's the reasoning behind that?
    • Popularity Power. Pikachu gets by on that reason alone.
    • Might you be suffering from Critical Research Failure? Pikachu starts with Thundershock, which is a great deal weaker than Thunderbolt, which it learns much later. It can Learn thunderbolt by use of a Technical Machine, but it's doubtful that you'd have one early in the game. I can't seem to find where you had the idea that Pikachu learns Thunderbolt, or any levelup move, at level 3.
    • It increases your chances of scoring a critical hit, though in the first generation it didn't work and actually reduced your critical hit ratio.
      • Why in the world are you talking about Focus Energy?
    • You don't get Pikachu as a starter in FR/LG...
      • Nowhere in the discussion was that ever brough up, nor would that really relate to anything that's going on here anyway.
    • Because then it would deal Super Effective damage to your Grass Starter and be a Demonic Spider.
    • Pikachu's are rarer, while Pidgey's are as common as dirt. Somebody impatient, or casual players wouldn't have the patientence to grind for a Pikachu if they didn't find one the first time. Therefore, it is logical it could be better or stronger. Most of the rarer Pokemon are either tough from the start, decent but can be brought to tough, or, in some cases, have Magikarp Power, like Generation III's incredibly tough to get Feebas, which can be brought to a Milotic.
  • Zubat can stare (Mean Look) at you enough to make you run away even though it has no eyes. Did he inherit Brock's eyes?
    • Look at those frightful fangs coming directly at you and try not to run away.
      • I'd try Thundershock, Confusion, or Ice Beam as a reflex action.
      • Frightful? They’re so cute though! Golbat on the other hand...
    • Umm, Mean Look doesn't make you run away. It makes you unable to run away.
    • He makes odd face contortions, trying to use mean look, and fails so epicly your pokemon is laughing so hard he can't escape?
    • Maybe thats how Zubat's Mean Look works. When a Zubat has to opens its eyes, it can only be trouble.
  • How does Wally ever catch any Pokémon of his own? You got him a Ralts. They only know Growl until you level them up.
    • Struggle.
    • Or as a Troper in the very top said, just throwing a Pokeball at a weak Pokemon.
      • Despite the fact that his party consists of a level 16 Ralts (and that's it) in Mauville City...
    • He does live near the Daycare center.
    • You only need to level it up once to get Confusion. A single Rare Candy does the trick. Or, as the previous troper stated, Day Care (though the player always needs a Pokemon by his/her side...)
      • He could have used a TM, however I don't remember seeing an NPC with a TM move.
      • You don't have to be a prodigy to throw a pokeball and get lucky and catch some random Pokemon while you put your good one in the Daycare.
    • OK, I figured it out. Remember how he temporarily had a Zigzagoon? Well, its ability is Pickup, and it picked up a Rare Candy (which was indeed possible in RS.) Game Freak just forgot to change it for Emerald.
  • The assumption that the Master Ball is 100% effective at capturing any and all Pokemon really bugs me, primarily because my own experience with the game has proven otherwise, but I've not found a single other example from anyone else to verify that that's the case. I know I remember, when I tried to capture Mewtwo and Suicune back in the day with a Master Ball, they kept breaking out, no matter how low I got their health, but for the life of me, I can't seem to find one instance of this happening to anyone else. Did I just imagine it? Were my games glitchy? Or is it just a rare occurrence in the game that a Master Ball fails?
    • You must be imagining things, or you were experiencing one Hell of a glitch.
      • I know I wasn't imagining things; I've had it happen to me when I tried to catch Mewtwo in the original Pokemon Red, and I had it happen to me again when I tried to catch Suicune in Pokemon Silver. Two times in two different games against two different pokemon can't be a coincidence. I even remember what I was doing when it happened: I was trying to capture them normally with Ultra Balls, and got so fed up with them busting out that I used the Master Ball on them. They busted out of those, too. Maybe that's the glitch; if you use enough of the other Poke balls on a pokemon, and they keep busting out of them, then there's a chance the computer will register your use of the Master Ball afterward as just another Poke Ball.
        • The failure in Pokémon Red is somewhat possible due to some stuff at the RNG that actually give it a 255/256 possibility of capturing. However, the rest of it is just a bunch of baseless lies.
    • It's supposed to be 100% effective, but mechanically relies on simply having a 255 times greater chance of successfully capturing a Pokemon. The odds of it failing should be infinitesimile (unless you miss), and close enough to 100% effective for government work, though.
    • This troper would like to personally vouch that you are not alone: I have never been able to find another person who has had a Master Ball fail either. In my case, I was a young teen girl playing Sapphire for the first time when it was released, with no cheat codes or shortcuts. It came to the ultimate battle against Kyogre, which I had saved my only Master Ball specifically for; after spending a good few hours getting Kyogre's health low enough without losing my entire team, requiring a HELL of a lot of resets in the process, I finally tossed the Master Ball at it upon subduing it into critical health, waiting triumphantly for the reward of all my hard work... I subsequently nearly had an aneurysm when the stupid whale just popped right out of it again. At that point, I remember standing still for a few minutes, trying to grasp what had just happened, before calmly polishing off Kyogre's remaining HP, saving the game, switching my GBA off and throwing it across the room with the rage of a baboon with blood-lust whilst swearing never to touch it again. In hindsight, this was definitely not the best reaction to the predicament, as there was no chance of ever catching Kyogre once I got over my nerdrage and continued with the game - but in my defense, the sheer unfairness of the situation replaced the desire of wanting to catch Kyogre with a stronger desire to see it die with immediate effect. To this day, I have never forgotten that unbelievable piece of bad luck, never been able to fully trust Master Balls and furthermore, I have never caught or owned a Kyogre.
    • The Master Ball can only fail in RBGY, and in those games it only has a 0.04% failure rate against a perfectly healthy Pokemon with a catch rate of 3 (most Legendaries). In all other games it can not possibly fail.
  • The National Dex. What is the point? Why do the games forbid you to catch Pokémon of previous generations until the end of the game? Are the creators afraid that no-one will use the new Pokémon unless they're forced to? Gold, Silver and Crystal had just as many generation one as generation two Pokémon available right through the game, so why has this trend changed?
    • It seems each region has its own Pokèdex, and only at the end of the game does the updated version with info from other previous regions reach yours. It doesn't answer another important question: why can't you find them before having the National Dex? I'd understand if you only found them in previously unreachable places, or if you traveled back to Kanto or Hoenn, but the way it is, it's unexplainable, indeed...
    • That's honestly the reason I didn't like Sapphire and Diamond as much as Silver, Crystal, or Soul Silver. My favorite Pokemon are mainly Gen I, with a couple of Gen II and just a few Gen III (Skitty being the only one to come to mind).
    • If you can catch every pokemon from every previous Gen, the number of pokemon catchable will be overwhelming. Normally, being able to catch around 150 pokemon (Kanto dex originally contained 151, Johto Dex contained 251 but a lot were uncatchable before Elite Four, Hoenn dex contained around 200, Sinnoh dex originally contained around 151, same as the original Gen I dex, Unova dex also contains 150 excluding events) in a game is probably best (not too many, not too little). Therefore, if you're going to introduce 120 new pokemon, you'd expect that they will be catchable and used (otherwise, why would you bother?). Hence, you have only around 30 pokemon from previous generation to fill in. And the regional dex will contain those 30 pokemon but not the rest (saving space). But since veterans whine too much about not being able to catch their fav pokemon, they put in some more and therefore introduce the National Dex. The National Dex is also the only reason to make the players keep wanting to play after beating the Champion (assuming there isn't a Battle Frontier).
    • Yeah, Gen 2 didn't have the "National Dex," but are you forgetting that a good deal of the Gen 2 Mons were utter junk until Diamond and Pearl came along and fixed them up? Everyone would just rush back to their old favorites without giving the new ones the slightest chance if they didn't have to. Plus, similarly to what someone mentioned, if you had all the old ones and new ones, even if it was just the Red/Blue/Yellow ones along with whatever the new batch is, you'd either have to have insanely low appearance rates on everything (okay, there are 10 old mons and 10 new ones on this route, but they each only have 5% chance of showing up), OR you'd have to have everything showing up on only one or two routes.
  • Inspired by the There Is No Kill Like Overkill page - a psychic attack against a Level 2 bug-poison Pokémon by a Level 100 Mewtwo. I just wonder ... what does it do to that poor little Pokémon? I could imagine a 30-40 level difference to be a Mind Rape too close to the Moral Event Horizon for comfort. But a difference of 98 levels, what exactly happens there!?
    • It must be something like that "this is your brain on drugs" ad...
    • The same thing that happens to everything else. Bugs, while not resistant to psychic attacks, can hurt psychics enough to be a partial counterbalance to a poison weakness. Now, get a Poison/Fighting Pokémon like Croagunk involved...
    • By the time it faints, it's probably just twitching violently. You don't stick around long enough to see the head explosion.
    • My personal theory is that super-powerful attacks have a tendency to miss smaller targets (I'd imagine aiming a Hyper Beam at a small squirrel would be rather difficult), but the pokemon just faints out of sheer terror.
      • How about a Wailord (as big as small whale) using Bounce on a Joltik (as small as a cockroach)? How does it actually work? Or a Groundon (950 kg, 2094.4 lbs) using Stomp on a Joltik?
      • It would probably end something like this.
      • Groudon brings the foot down hard enough to dent but doesn't step all the way down leaving it in a state where it is unable to battle. If it were a trainer battle it wouldn't even matter if it was smashed, it would quickly be converted into data, reconstructed and then rested in a Pokemon center.
        • Converted to data? Not likely, because Red/Blue/FR/LG brings us Lavender Town's haunted tower, which has gravestones to remember the dead Pokemon. A woman was shown grieving over her dead Pokemon. Therefore, Pokemon can die in the Pokemon Universe, we just never get to experience it firsthand, because I doubt that the creators would like to tramatize young players with the death of their own, or their opponents Pokemon. I say that they get an offscreen death. I doubt a Groudon would hold back on bringing its collosal foot down onto some small Pokemon, or Mewtwo mentally shattering some poor Weedle.
      • How many of those died in your trainer battles though? When done "right" ___takes too much, gets called back into virtual Pokeball world then gets healed later. Most visible in Battle Revolution where after the HP bar is depleted the opponent will just signal it can't fight and then be recalled. Assuming you aren't out to kill like Team Rocket was with Marrowack Joltik should be fine. Even if you are, in theory the opponent could still save their pokemon by recalling it quick enough(then running from you).
    • It's Pokemon. Like most other works of fiction, it is highly unaffected by real-world physics. You want to know what happens when you use a level 100 Mewtwo against a Level 2 Weedle? It faints in 10 seconds flat and you get miniscule experience. Technically, that was a randomly generated piece of code that no matter what is just erased from existing.
      • "Don't over-think it", in other words?
    • Mewtwo see how weak it's foe it, holds back, and Cherry Taps it. A telekinetic flick of the finger is enough for something so weak.
      • That one reminds me of the second Johto episode, where Charizard beat whatshername's Pidgey by breathing on it.
    • Simple - the psychic attack affects the pokemon until the moment it faints, which occurs extremely rapidly. After that, no consciousness means no further effect of the attack on the pokemon.
  • How the hell is Altaria supposed to be a Dragon-type? It doesn't have any draconic properties at all! Is there some sort of obscure myth that I'm missing? Bulbapedia says something about the star its Japanese name is based off being in the constellation Draco, but the name alone doesn't seem good enough to justify it.
    • They were probably in need of more Dragons in Gen-III, and it was the closest thing to a dragon in the list. Really, it's already been brought up somewhere above...
    • It's probably could be based of a Peng, a mythological Bird with colourful cloud wings; they tend to be portrayed with a dragon's head. It's not a bad thing to think outside of the box.
    • I always thought it was a way to point out that birds descended from dinosaurs. A harebrained way, sure, but a way nonetheless.
  • The Pokémon archipelago seems to be too small for the amount of life it has. Specially considering even the insects are at least the size of a human's foot...
    • The regions in the core Pokemon games are all based on regions of Japan. Kanto is, well, Kanto. Johto is part of the Kansai region. Hoenn is Kyushu on its side. And Sinnoh is Hokkaido. Japan in real life has over 127,500,000 people living on a mountainous series of islands whose total landmass is about the same as California's.
    • ...GameplayAndStorySegregation? I always assumed there weren't really that many Pokémon around, but you can find however many you want simply for Level Grinding or dex completion.
  • The huge trading machine. I can understand its existence in the games, but in the anime? When Ash trades his Butterfree for a Raticate, a stupid and out of character move, but that's beside the point for now, they both go through this really complex machine. Why not just, you know, do it by hand, and hand over the Butterfree while he hands over the Raticate?
    • Probably Pokéballs have digital information (headers, maybe) imbued in them, or even the Pokémon themselves, making them prone to act up when handled by the wrong user. That, or they were aiming for making it look more like the games, instead of aiming for realism.
    • On top of that, it's this same mechanic, most likely, that makes Shadow Pokemon in Colosseum and XD irredeemable by conventional means - they've been corrupted to the point that they'd follow the trainer designated as their owner despite any acts of immorality. It should stand to reason that a Snag Machine allows the user to take a Pokemon designated as "owned" by overwriting this information via a pirate signal. How the hell could you justify that if you could just trade Pokémon by simply passing the balls back and forth?
      • Random people giving you a Eevee/Porygon/Beldum just like that in the games makes the machine look entirely pointless, though.
        • But did those people ever use those Pokémon in battle? Was battle ever required to capture them? Maybe in the world of the games, ownership through a Pokéball is based on whether they're used in battle or not. If their previous owner wasn't a "trainer" per se (never actually had them battle against others for EXP), wouldn't it make sense that it would gain only YOUR trainer ID when it's given to you?
        • That point cannot be used. What if I hatched an egg and never used it in battle? Sure, I hatched it, but like the NPCs, I've never actually used it in battle.
  • In the Pokémon Special manga, during the Ruby/Sapphire arc, Hoenn was pretty much in mortal danger because of Kyogre and Groudon's fighting. Why, then, did Norman make Wally fight his way up 50 or so crumbling floors, which could not have taken a small amount of time, so he could help summon Rayquaza? Why not just fly him up there, as Norman was pretty clearly able to do so with that Flygon he had? I know, Rule of Cool and all, but it just seems like it was a big waste of time.
    • The point was not to get to the top of the tower directly, as it would be a big waste of time. Norman was intent on training Wally instead, and a do-or-die scenario was the best he could do given the circumstances. If Wally couldn't rise to the challenge, he couldn't succeed as a trainer, end of story, and Norman has been shown to be the Training from Hell kind of guy.
      • What the Hell, Hero?! Training from Hell is bad and all, but to stake the entire world on that? That's a bit too far, and Norman should've known that. If the entire world was in danger and you only had so much time before everything went ka-boom, would you rather risk your butt climbing up 50 floors and waste a whole lot of time or even lose all the time you had, or fly up there in a fraction of the time and save the effort and the world?
        • Something along the lines of "that storm's too powerful, so we can't fly to Rayquaza, and I can't do it alone without a child's help, so I need to make you and your Pokémon strong enough to get up to the top." Makes sense if you think about it that way.
  • What happens when you use the Poke Ball on non-Pokemon? Can you capture humans in a Pokeball? What about inanimate objects?
    • At one point in the anime, Ash tried to catch a Mankey and instead accidentally sucked a rice ball into the Pokéball, but that may have just been a one time gag. Then again, in the games, items you find on the ground appear in the form of Pokéballs, so I think, at least in terms of the games, it is possible to store at least certain types of items in balls. As for people, who knows? Personally, I would like to think an object like that would not be made commercially available until it was proven that either humans cannot be sucked into them, or some kind of failsafe is built in to prevent it from happening. Otherwise, kidnappers would have a field day.
    • In the anime continuity, at least, hitting a human with a Poké Ball doesn't do much. The return beam does act like a stunner, though. Given that there are failsafes to prevent Poke balls from even working on previously captured (and not yet released) Pokemon, it seems reasonable to assume that the tech doesn't even work on humans or is blocked. The anime and manga both have poke balls holding items, but they only seem to grab items smaller than they are, and not shrink them. Larger objects don't seem to get pulled in.
    • One example, though certainly non-canon, of a human entering a Pokeball is an old WB advertisement for the show where Ash gets sucked into a Pokeball and finds a huge pile of his lost socks.
    • Well, Jessie got hit by a Pokeball, and she received a painful shock instead of getting sucked in.
    • If the target receives the painful shock instead of the jerkass throwing the ball at them, it's probably not a coded failsafe rather than incidental incompatibility with human biology. Better that way, since a programmed failsafe could be hacked or reverse-engineered away.
    • I remember hearing somewhere that a Pokeball on its own doesn't have enough power to capture a human, but if you boost its power enough, by hooking it up to a nuclear power-station for example, it would be able to capture a human and then try to "correct" the error by turning the human into a Pokemon.
      • Try to find the source? That sounds like crazy fanfiction to me
      • Oddly, I've heard the same, but I've never read Pokemon fanfiction. Maybe it was in a guide?
      • Or you both read the same fan-fic. There's no official source that even resembles what's stated above.
    • I imagine that although you couldn't digitize non-Pokemon to shrink them into balls, if you could manually put an object in (open it and close it with your hands), it would hold it if it fit. Doesn't explain the Pokeballs inside the Pokeballs though...


  • Why do Pokemon who are in love with their opponent (after having been Attracted) continue to waste turns immobolized by love even when their object of affection is beating the crap out of them?
  • Why don't some Wild Pokemon have egg moves? I mean, seeing a wild Sneasel with Ice Punch isn't exactly impossible. If the Pokemon can have nonsensical partners in the Day Care, they should be able to have them in the wild.
    • They could, but presumably they don't. I guess Pokémon naturally prefer to mate with their own kind. After all, note that you'll usually find more than one of the same type of Pokémon in any area. This probably means that they stick together in herds and flocks, so there would always be breeding partners available right there.
    • As for the Sneasel with Ice Punch, that's actually pretty danged unlikely. Only the Buneary Line or a Delibird can pass that on to Sneasel, and they only learn it through breeding themselves. So to get a Sneasel with Ice Punch, a wild Medicham or Hitmonchan or something has to breed with a Buneary, and then the offspring has to travel from around Eterna Forest, all the way to Snowpoint, and breed with a Sneasel. In the wild. Yeeeeeah.
    • Actually, Delibird do swarm near that area where Sneasel are in D/P/Pt. Of course, that Delibird would have had to get it from a Feraligatr (wouldn't it just eat it?) or a Buneary/Lopunny (though he'd probably be actively trying to get some sweet Lopunny ass, so that's the more likely source.)
    • Real Life provides an answer. In captivity, people have crossbred coyotes and wolves, coyotes and domestic dogs, and wolves and dogs. This is possible in captivity, but in the wild, coyotes wolves and dogs do not breed with each other, and are bitter enemies with each other. The Mons in game probably act much the same way: while on a team, under the care of a trainer, they will cooperate and can interbreed, but they would be competitors in the wild. Of course, this opens up a whole new can of worms, as Pokes can chain breed like fiends, suggesting that all Mons are in actuality a single genus. The game does say that Mew is ancestral to the other 600+ Mons, but that still makes it very confusing with Improbable Species Compatibility.
  • When you lose a battle and pass out, how do you get back to the last Pokemon center? I mean, I assume it's possible that some good Samaritan picks you up and drops you off there (after going through your pockets for loose change), but what if you lose to Giovanni or Cyrus? Furthermore, why do you pass out in the first place? None of the NPC trainers pass out after losing.
    • You're not really passing out, you're just running to the Pokecenter to heal your Pokemon.
      • Nope, it clearly states "PLAYER HAS BLACKED [or WHITED] OUT". I never understood, either.
        • Well, recently I heard that in D/P/Pt, they changed it so your character runs to the nearest Pokemon Center. However, that doesn't really explain the old message...
        • Maybe it's intended to be more metaphorical? Like, your Pokemon represent you, so when they've all fainted, that's referred to as you blacking out?
      • Firered/Leafgreen first added the explicit "player dropped X dollars and scurried to the nearest Center while protecting Pokemon from harm". Presumably, whited out/blacked out is just what happens when a 10-year-old panics and gets rather light-headed as a result. NPC trainers might keep an extra Pokemon on reserve or just be more used to losing, but your character is really into it. Giovanni and Cyrus... maybe they've got standards.
        • Giovanni's barely ahead of the law by the time you fight him, and Cyrus is a pacifist (sort of...).
  • If the Pokemon Professors are such experts on all things Pokemon, why can none of them offer you anything above level five as a starter, or even fill in Pokedex entries on the flying and normal types that live within easy walking distances of their labs? For that matter, why does the region's leading expert on Pokemon always live in the far corner of the region with the weakest Pokemon? Wouldn't it make more sense for someone like Oak to live in, say, Saffron City, where there appears to be other research being done?
    • Concerning the issue of why you only get a level five Pokémon, well you're a rookie. The professor can't just hand out level seventy Dragonites and expect new trainers to use them properly. As for why they can't fill the Pokédex themselves? It's a job that requires lots of traveling. The professors are generally too old and/or too busy with other research to be hiking all over Kanto/Johto etc. As for why they live in quiet areas, well, some people prefer quiet areas. We don't exactly what they're researching, but presumably it's stuff they can do on their own or, worst case, via e-mail with other professors.
      • I was sure that in one of the games or manga, it says that the three are Oak's last pokemon, but that may have been a webcomic. There's barely enough room in my head to keep this info, never mind rememeber where I got it from...
      • In the Pokemon Special manga, it is stated that Oak lives in Pallet because it is one of the few places where the environment isn't too polluted yet, so Pallet is a perfect place to study Pokemon as they would act in the wild if put in an open field.
      • On that note, why the hell should a professor be expected to raise a Pokemon up to a high level so you can have it? The research is a favour to the professor's and all it involves is not throwing away a little red electronic note book that is quite handy. I say that's a fair trade for a beast that can create fire/water/nature.
    • It's pretty clear that the Pokemon professors and researchers in the setting seem to be taking the Pavlov school of research—having the damned obvious brought to their front door, spicing it up with the correct jargon, and getting into the textbooks. A lot of the Pokédex work seems entirely to be well-established or false, but the basic information like the picture and location must be true. That said, they can't give you a high-level Pokemon because it wouldn't pay attention to your commands until you beat many gym leaders, and a high-level Pokemon would make catching most lower-level ones more difficult. If you want to be really charitable, you can also assume that Oak and staff have masses of highly specialized research on most known Pokemon, but they don't want to put false-but-well-known information into this brand new electronic medium or risk a Nannarrup hoffmani (ignoring a new species because 'everyone knows' it's been well documented, like the New York City Park bug species). Maybe they live out in the boonies to keep the cost of living and land down, and telecommute whenever Silph needs some info.
    • Keep in mind the fact that the only professor who asked you specifically to go out on a journey to fill the Pokedex is Oak, who figures that you, his neighbor kid, will do just fine with it, and gives you a rare Mon to help you out. Elm just wanted you to run a favor for him, and gave you the starter as payment. You save Professor Birch with your starter, so he lets you keep it. Rowan either a/ wanted the Pokemon you chose to bond with you after spending some time with you, or B/ decided to give these two wacky kids Pokemon for giggles, before saddling them with a Pokedex.
      • Actually, there was data in the original games for battling Oak. He would have had the fully evolved forms of the starters, and they would have been at a higher level than Gary's championship battle team. But for some reason they took it out before release.
    • This troper likes to believe that the professor of each region already has the data of each pokemon of said professor's respective region (all except for the legendaries at leat). So why do they send you out to observe all of the pokemon of the region? As a rite of passage!. Depending on the game, the professor has known you and your family for a while and has seen potential in you to become a trainer the likes of a gym leader, an elite four member, or if you're lucky, the champion! So the professor gives you (and whatever rival character there might be whom the professor also sees potential in) a specially bread pokemon that usually no one else in the game has, so you may begin your journey on a high note.
      • This is actually canon as of Black and White.
    • Also, it's explicitly stated in both the games and the anime that high-level Pokemon don't obey inexperienced trainers. He's doing you a favor, really.
    • The professors aren't experts on all things Pokemon anyway. Oak's specialty was Pokemon and human relations. He wanted you to fill the dex for information on the monsters themselves. Juniper's field of study was the origin of species and she already had most of the data, which she said would be revealed when you made captures.
  • Grimer is created by sludge exposed to X-rays emitted by the moon... wait, what?
    • I think it's a well-established point already that the Pokedex fails Biology forever.
    • And physics.
    • Considering that the moon in the Pokemon games is thought by some to be home to a large population of freaky pink things, and may drop meteorites that cause said freaky pink things to get slightly freakier and pinker, it isn't too hard to believe that there may well be some kind of connection between Grimer and the Pokemoon.
    • Actually, it's not that surprising that that the Pokedex makes no sense, as it's being filled in by a ten-year old.
    • Okay, in real life, moon light is just sun light reflected off the moon. In Pokemon world, moon light and sun light are two completely different things. This is made obvious by many moves learned by the monsters. In real life, leaving a doll behind won't cause it to get possessed by a vengeance monster, cities aren't destroyed by sea serpents and Kanto is not an island. It seems strange that X-rays off the moon is a complaint, it is no where near as improbable as any of the math behind the mon's weight or the heat of the lava slugs.
  • Just what the hell is Missingno?
    • Canon explanation: There is no such thing. Pokemon debuggers make no mistakes. "Missingno" is an Urban Legend of Zelda. Actual explanation: It's part of a data overflow bug that results in non-Pokemon data being used to generate a Pokemon for a random encounter. If you mean graphically, this troper thinks that it looks like a thumbnail of a route map, but that it actually is something being misread as graphic data (he does not recall what exactly loads as Missingno's image). There's also a missingno that looks like a Charizard and evolves into a Rhydon, if I am not mistaken.
    • That's...not exactly it. Missingno. is a placeholder Pokemon. As You Know, there are 151 Pokemon in Red and Blue. However, there's enough room for 105 more of them. Since the game would crash if it accidentally picked an empty slot, Game Freak put in Missingno. as a placeholder. Notice the name: "Missing Number". They also accidentally forgot to tell the game what wild Pokemon exist on the east coast of Cinnabar Island. When you encounter a Pokemon that area, there's nothing telling the game which Pokemon to use. So it uses the wild Pokemon data from the last area you visited (this is the basis of the "Catch Safari Zone Pokemon" trick). It's a long story, but after talking to the old man in Viridian City and Flying directly to Cinnabar Island, that data? It's the 3rd, 5th and 7th letters of your name. No problem: The game converts the letters to hexadecimal and poofs up the Pokemon that corresponds to that hex number. Remember what I said earlier, about how Missingno. takes up all the empty slots that the game didn't use? If one of those letters points to one of those empty slots, Missingno. will appear. Since "H" triggers it and almost everyone named their character "ASH", this happened a lot. TLDR: In Red/Blue, talk to the old man in Viridian City, Fly to Cinnibar Island, Surf up and down the east coast, and the glitch Pokemon Missingno. will appear.
    • TO BULBAPEDIA! More seriously: the Rhydon and Kangaskhan evolutions are a result of their location in the data; that's why so many glitches turn into/evolve into one of the two.
  • What the hell is going on with Steel/Rock's resistances and weaknesses? Both are resistant to normal-type moves, but weak to fighting-type moves. But the two move types are basically the same thing - hitting the opponent with part of your body. Take Mega Punch and Mach Punch for example, against an Aggron. Mega Punch is normal-type, with a base power of 80, twice as powerful as Mach Punch, a fighting-type move. But when you use Mega Punch on the Steel/Rock Aggron, its power is decreased to 20. But Mach Punch's power, used on Aggron, increases to 160. So the weaker move becomes 8 times more powerful than the stronger move, despite the fact that they do virtually the same thing!
    • Think of it like Ryoga's... uh... *does quick research* "Bakusai Tenketsu". For a normal person, punching a rock is an incredibly stupid move that does little damage to the rock and probably hurts your fist. But a trained martial artist who can identify the weak point in the rock can break it easily. Both people punch it, but only one knows how.
    • Well, yeah, but that's a rock. How does any Fighting-type move crush steel? I will never accept that my level 58 Steelix was knocked out by a level 30 Riolu's Force Palm.
      • Force Palm is a Special attack. Steelix have crummy Special Defense. Also, Riolu is a Fighting / Steel type. So, iron fist meets iron body.
    • User:Dragga's always thought of each move type as having a particular energy about its attacks. Helps make the idea that a Caterpie resists a Karate Chop, takes no special damage from a Stomp, but shrivels and dies at a Wing Attack, when each is just a basic physical blow. The energies clash to create the type resistances, weakness, and immunities we're all used to. Besides, that explanation helps explain why you can't just kill anything that crosses your path with a Flamethrower.
  • Speaking of Rock-type weaknesses, how come it has a whopping FIVE of them? I can live with Steel, Water, and Ground (all of these things erode and break rocks down). Fighting and Grass though? OTOH, Rock resists four types...one of which isn't even used offensively. What the hell? Rocks are tougher than THAT...
    • Its a meta trap, rock resists normal, which is what most low level Pokemon attacked with at low levels in generation one but as the game progresses rock becomes much less useful defensively. However, the larger variety of types makes it much more useful on offense than in the early game.
  • Wait, Kyogre and Groudon were locked in a cataclysmic, never-ending battle until Rayquaza showed up and calmed them. But Kyogre is a water-type, and Groudon is a ground-type. Water is super-effective against Ground, so Kyogre should have wiped the floor with Groudon.
    • Remember that Groudon brings about droughts, meaning that it can cancel out Kyogre's flooding. Its rather large movepool also contains a number of Kyogre counters.
    • Tell me, every continent in the Pokemon universe seems to be a relatively small landmass, so I think that Kyogre did pretty well against Groudon.
      • The regions we've seen in the core Pokemon games are just portions of Japan. As far as I know, we have yet to see an actual continent in the games. Also, real life continents have been referenced in the game, such as Mew being found in South America.
        • Don't forget Lt. Surge, the Lightning American.
    • Groudon learns Solarbeam—super-effective against Kyogre—and its ability Drought causes constant sunshine in battle, meaning it doesn't have to wait the extra turn to power Solarbeam up. It doesn't get the STAB bonus and its Special stats are weaksauce compared to Kyogre's, so Kyogre will still wipe the floor with it, but it's something, I guess.
    • Water: 71% of earth's surface. Land: less that 29%. Groudon is just losing.
      • Except they're obviously deadlocked when we actually see them fighting. Millions of years of continental shift would probably alter things, plus who says Earth and the Pokemon world are totally similar in geography? Conclusion: Groudon is just that badass.
      • Water: 0.04% of earth's mass. Who is losing?
    • It could be localized. They only really affect the Hoenn area. Groudon is not doing as well as we could hope (damn water routes...), but he is still holding his own.
    • Rule of thumb: Most of the mythological stuff in Pokemon is just that - mythology. There wasn't really a massive Kyogre vs Groudon battle that resulted in the creation of the oceans and the landmasses. That was just the story that built up around them as a result of humans in the Pokemon universe observing the two interacting, and the effect that Rayquaza has on them. As for how a battle between the two can be balanced, it's worth noting that the games present a simplified interface and experience, lacking in things like dodging, etc, and we never see them using elemental attacks - they appear to mostly just keep ramming each other (suggestive of Struggle, really).
  • Grimer was created by lunar rays hitting toxic sludge. Porygon was created by a computer program. Voltorb is implied to be a sort of mutant Pokeball. If it's so easy to create Pokemon, why don't more people do it?
    • Mewtwo was created. Not only did other manmade specimens pale in comparison, but he also served as an excellent example of why people shouldn't go around making new ones. (The Porygon types didn't get the memo; then again, their AI isn't too crapshooty.)
    • Not to mention: Grimer is an accident, more than a creation, and Porygon, being a software, isn't all that simple to create (heck, I imagine how complex the API for creating a Pokémon is...) and may even not be open source... One of the few actually engineered and intended Pokémon was Mewtwo.
      • Porygon most definitely isn't open source. Its code involves copy protection that prevents people from just copy-pasting it into Notepad to make a small army of Porygons, or something along those lines. (Though, apparently, this copy-protection is insufficient to keep an Egg from being formed if a Porygon gets freaky with a Ditto.)
    • oh hai thar. Think Tsukumogami on a slightly accelerated scale for Voltorb and similar.
    • Maybe it's just a moral thing about playing God. Or Arceus, if you prefer.
    • Many of the pokedex entries are merely stories or beliefs about various pokemon (hence, for instance, the Grimer story). Beyond that, Porygon is part of ongoing research (and still, even Porygon-Z looks pretty rudimentary in terms of "realism"), while the attempt to clone Mew produced a rather nasty side-effect, which likely made them less willing to try to replicate the effort.
  • I can hardly forgive Ruby, but how did Sapphire not recognize Ruby from the past? He even wore that same weird cap!
    • It's likely that there are a number of other trainers with caps of similar nature who passed through Littleroot during her years as Birch's assistant. The identifying feature are the scars above his left eye, as he revealed near the end of the RS arc.
      • You also forget, watching your (admittedly, very new) friend get slashed across the face is a pretty traumatic experience. Combined with the fact that it happened about half their lifetimes ago, it's possible that they only remember the basic event, forgetting the finer details. To them, it's probably like "I remember really liking this person, but I don't really remember much about it". It's the same way in that you might remember hanging out with a person at summer camp without remembering names or faces.
  • Pokémon Contests and Pokémon Super Contests. Why are they so hard sometimes?!
    • Everyone's playing to win, not just you. And the people in the Hyper/Ultra and Master Contests are the cream of the crop, so of course it'd be difficult to win against them.
  • Amity Square. "Take a cute Pokémon for a walk!" Who, exactly, defines cute here? Obviously not the same people who judge the cuteness contests just across town! Those final evolution starters ain't so sweet and cuddly, and a maxed out cute stat or contest ribbon does nothing to convince anyone...
    • I think it's quite obvious it's not a contest stat, since they have a list of predefined Pokémon that can go for a walk with you... Final evolution starters were probably just included for the convenience of the player, who'd not need to catch a Pachirisu/Clefairy only to enter Amity Square. And it's also worth nothing that the baby versions of the Pokémon admitted in Amity Square are not permitted to enter...
  • Why does Mewtwo have a constellation, as revealed in Pokemon Snap? He's existed for what, less than a decade? A little too recent for astronomy to notice, you'd think, and it's hard to imagine people assigning such a meaning to the stars when his existence is not widely known. Did someone predict his creation long ago? Did he decide that a being of his power deserved such a symbol and move the stars himself? Or, considering where the constellation can be seen, was it Mew's doing?
    • Maybe the scientists who created Mewtwo modeled him after the constellation? This Troper hasn't played Snap, so hasn't seen the constellation, but if it's like most real constellations, it'd just look like a stick figure, which wouldn't be so coincidental.
      • The constellation looks exactly like Mewtwo. But, well, the thing is, Mew is the only Pokemon up there, and according to the games, Mew was directly involved with Mewtwo (Giving birth to it...), so it could just be that it is a fake sky made by Mew. And even if it isn't, well, come on, you're somehow floating on a CLOUD in an area that vaguely resembles outer space. The constellations should be the LEAST of your issues
    • I like the idea of Mewtwo going up there and arranging the stars like that himself.
  • Why isn't Luxray Dark-type? It's got the color-scheme, multiple Dark-type moves, and without it it's way too similar to Manectric.
    • Actually, Manectric is Special-attack oriented and Luxray is physical-attack oriented. And not every Pokemon type should be decided by color. Lord knows there comes a point where everything that shoots fire is red and zaps things is yellow becomes boring.
      • This troper was actually surprised to find Buizel was water-type, because it was orange.
        • You mean the fact that it looks like an otter crossed with a life raft isn't enough?
    • Also, most of its evolutionary line's names come from word related to light (lux is a measurement of light, and ray is obvious) in both languages, so that's probably not the idea behind it.
      • Luxray is named after a brand of electric lights.
    • I know what the OP means, I mean it's more easy to believe that he's a Dark type than an Electric, but it's true color doesn't define the Pokemon, but they learn the same amount of dark moves than electric moves by leveling up in Gen IV. On a related note something that bothered this trooper was Shinx's getting the move Charge (doubles the attack of the next electric move) at level 9 but you have to wait until level 17 (18 if you evolved him) in D&P to learn it's first Electric move.
    • Is there an Electric/Dark type? There should have been.
  • In pretty much all known Pokemon games you have to pay the winner money if you lose; this is fair game for most cases. What I find ridiculous is that you STILL have to pay Cyrus money in the Distortion World. This is the same person who intends to capture Giratina and create a new world, so I find it hard to believe that he'd want or need your money.
    • Maybe he mugs you just to be a dick. Like that time Lex Luthor stole forty cakes.
      • And that's terrible.
    • He's a stickler for the rules. Which is why he pays you when he loses too.
  • Rocks broken/destroyed with Rock Smash/Strength move back the second you leave the room. Just who is growing rocks and moving them around that fast?
  • Consider the following truths:
    1. Mew can use every TM.
    2. Attract and Captivate are moves that can be taught by TMs.
    3. Attract and Captivate only work on Pokemon of the opposite gender of the user.
    4. Mew has no gender.
    5. A Mew with either of these moves makes NO FUCKING SENSE.
    • Clearly, Mew is just so smoking hot that no poke cares.
      • In game mechanics, genderless Pokémon that use Attract (so far only Mew and Cryogonal can do this) will attract other genderless Pokémon.
      • They're Distracted by the Sexy, simple as that.
    • Along those lines, Mew is said to be the ancestor of every Pokemon. But it completely lacks gender and can't even breed with a Ditto. So how did a Pokemon unable to breed end up with so many descendants?
      • The lack of gender in Mew (and other legendary 'mons) is probably a (slightly clumsy) way to prevent you from breeding a legendary with a Ditto and getting a whole family of Mew. This troper believes that Mew actually does have a gender, or is a hermaphrodite.
      • In RGBY/FRLG, it's stated that Mew gave birth to Mewtwo, meaning Mew is female and could theoretically breed if not for Gameplay and Story Segregation keeping you from breeding Legendaries (besides Manaphy, anyway).
    • In the anime, I believe they have shown multiples of single legendaries, including a baby Lugia. I likely that legendaries CAN breed, but being the ultimate apex predators of the Pokemon world, they can't do it very often or very easily, maybe there's even only a very small time frame in which they're capable of doing it, and they can only breed under certain circumstances. In the real life wild, there are always fewer apex predators than animals lower on the food chain and chain of power, partially because if there were so many of them, they'd destroy everything. It's possibly true with legendaries. Their breeding made even harder in captivity, which is why they won't breed if they're put in a Daycare.
        • And its placement in the Themed Tarot Deck suddenly makes a lot more sense.
        • Genderless 'mons can breed. Legendaries are simply put in a "no eggs" group.
        • It could just mean that the Day-Care owners are explicitly told by someone at some point to not let these guys breed or it will cause some sort of thing to happen that could cause the end of the world, such as reproducing a ton of Groudon and releasing them, or creating an army of Mewtwo.
  • If we're really getting into extreme Fridge Logic here, explain to me how what is essentially a sterile (or hermaphroditic) cat the ancestor of a TURTLE, not to mention whales, birds, and crazy flaming horses?
    • Because it's not a cat, it's a fetus.
    • Speaking of breeding, how does Ditto manage to breed with several Pokemon (like Staryu and Magnemite) that lack gender (and thus can only be bred via usage of Ditto)?
      • Both Mew and Ditto have the ability to transform, meaning that they can be what gender they may feel like. It's assumed that because Ditto can restructure its own cells, it can breed asexually, based only on the species of its partner.
      • As for Mew, this Troper believes that it (along with Arceus) is a Pokémon God.
    • This troper always assumed that the Mew species is billions of years old and that the other Pokemon varieties (with a few legendary exceptions) arose through Darwinian evolution. The different animal species on our world all have a common ancestor as well, so it's not too far-fetched that Pokemon arose the same way.
      • The above is technically the canon reason. Mew existed millions of years prior to any other "recorded" non-legendary, pre-dating even the fossil Pokemon by a bit. Say that a few other species were known not too long after the arrival of Mew, and including the odd ability of Mew's Transform, Darwinian evolution could easily lead up to what we have now.
    • Alternatively, Pokemon didn't come into being through entirely natural means and Mew was the first model. Use your imagination.
  • Mew can learn Steel Wing. Yah.
    • Transform into a bird temporarily for the move? (never mind game mechanics right now)
    • Turns its hand into metal and delivers a Gibbs-Slap.
    • How would that be any different from Steel Claw, then?
  • In Platinum, to trigger a battle with the Legendary Golems (Regice, Registeel, and Regirock), and thus capture them, you must have Regigigas in your party. To battle and capture Regigags, you must have the three Golems in your party. Does anyone else see the problem here?
    • Actually, you need the special 11th movie (Or a movie at least) edition Regigigas which can be obtained at a special event.
      • Plus, although it's never said directly in the games, it's implied subtly that there's more than one of various legendaries. There could easily be more than one of Regigigas and company.
    • Gamefreak wants you to pick up an old copy (or rummage around and find your copy) of R/S/E, get the Golems there, and then use Pal Park. Getting the Golems in D/P/Pt is now a bit redundant, but hey. ;)
  • How does the Underground retain any structural integrity with all these treasure-hunting kids running around digging bases and collapsing walls?
    • The tunnels do not look natural to me. I imagine the ceilings and probably certain parts of the walls, such as pillars, are reinforced to prevent cave-ins.
  • When Red ascends to the heights of Pokemon Champion, the four Elite Four members are Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, and Lance. Three years later, Red's a mute who's holed himself up in Mt Silver (home of the highest-level creatures in the game since the Unknown Dungeon collapsed), Agatha and Lorelei are nowhere to be seen, and the Elite Four now consists of Will, Koga, Bruno, and Karen. What happened to so shake up the Elite Four in the space of only three years?
    • Red's always been a mute. He's a silent protagonist.
    • Red went on with his training, Blue became leader of Viridian Gym, Lorelei returned to her hometown in Island 4 to protect it in case anything happened (as was hinted in FR/LG), Agatha probably retired, Koga was promoted from Gym leader to Elite, Will and Karen joined, and as Red and Blue weren't in Indigo Plateau anymore, Lance ascended in ranks and became Champion.
    • Three years; personally, I prefer to think that something happened within those three years, Red grew up and found out that being Champion wasn't what he was suited to be (free spirit!) and Lorelei returned to her home town. Agatha may have retired or died and Lance challenges the League after Red renounces his title.
  • Why isn't Salamence Flygon? Bagon, Shelgon, Flygon. Makes perfect sense. Especially when you consider that Bagons spend a long time wanting to learn how to fly.
    • Bagon/Tatsubay [baby dragon], Shelgon/Komoruu [to seclude oneself], Salamence/Bohmander [violent salamander]. Trapinch/Nuckrar [nutcracker], Vibrava [vibrations], Flygon [dragonfly]. And there's no such pattern in the Japanese, which is the original.
    • By your logic, shouldn't Porygon also be part of the same family?
  • What's a wild Pokemon going to do with half of your money?!
    • A Dragon-type probably wants to sleep on it.
    • Line their nests with it?
    • And themselves.
    • Maybe it is good to eat?
    • Buy items and TMs, of course!
    • Loan it out to a Meowth for high interest rates?
    • Pokemon have their life planned out when they're in the wild.
    1. Step One: Train
    2. Step Two: ???
    3. Step Three: Profit
      • Ah, so any pokemon that knows Curse (prior to 5th gen) can complete the meme and make massive profits?
  • How come none of the NPCs will notice or care if you are walking around with a party of legendary Pokemon, and why does no one care if you sic an Arceus on their level 2 Magikarp?
    • Dexes are rare and precious things. Some random NPC isn't necessarily going to recognize Arceus or Giratina, and even if they do somehow, they won't necessarily know it's an actual Physical God rather than simply something that looks like a few old decorations from the Hearthome Cathedral.
    • They do notice, but long ago a witch cursed them only to be able to say the same lines of dialogue over and over so aren't able to express their shock.
    • Friends with dexes don't care either. Maybe they simply think that its so cool to see one that questioning the logic of the situation would simply ruin it.
  • Pikachu is supposedly some kind of electric mouse that can shoot bolts of lightning... which it stores in special pouches in its cheeks. So wouldn't that make it more of a hamster? It's not even SHAPED like a mouse, for Christ's sake.
  • Isn't it kind of irresponsible of the trainer to catch Pokémon like the Lake Trio, Dialga/Palkia, the Birds, and especially Arceus? Does nobody stop to think that maybe it's a bad idea to put those Pokémon in the balls or on the computer when they have very important work to do, such as keeping spacetime, emotions, and the elements and whatnot under control?
    • The Master Ball can capture anything... ANYTHING... in just one attempt, without fail. Even Arceus. And it is a device developed by humans. I guess what I'm saying is that if humans have reached the point of developing technology that can reliably imprison and subjugate the gods themselves, maybe we don't need the gods anymore.
      • Not necessarily. Along the lines of most Death Takes a Holiday stories, just because you can bind a powerful force doesn't mean that it's a good idea to do so. Also, second movie.
      • Cartoon canon is not game canon. Otherwise we'd be Thunderbolting Rhydons and other stupid shit. Also, maybe it works for you because you have a "pure heart" and that apparently gives you carte blanche to do more or less anything you want in the Pokemon universe.
      • Technically speaking, the Master Ball just makes you 255 times more likely to catch something. If it has a catch rate of 0, you've got no chance (at least in the first gen; it might be absolute nowadays).
    • Maybe they can still do their jobs, just from a different "office". When you're not using them in battle, they keep themselves busy making the world balanced all from the cozy comfort of their Pokeballs.
    • I'm pretty sure the Pokeballs work as power limiters; hence, why the Big Bad of every Generation wants to capture them using other methods. For instance, if Cyrus were to capture Dialga and/or Palkia in Poke Balls, you could still put them down (granted, he could probably take them to a Pokemon Center, but still... he explicitly mentions that he needs the full power of Dialga and/or Palkia to accomplish his goal.) Now I'd like to know why, if they're in the wild, they aren't as strong as you've been told they are.
      • Probably as a test. That would explain why Giratina doesn't gut you, but instead patiently waits for you - which is even addressed in the in-game text ("Giratina is silently looking at you" or something like that). Or what Suicune does in Crystal. Or why Mesprit chooses to pull an Entei and travel around the land and regard it a funny game instead of fighting you, since it is emotion instead of willpower or wisdom.
      • They use other methods for: to try to prevent them to escape, because they hate the bad guy, or because the bad guy does not know how to do the pokemon battle properly and uses other methods instead, or they don't have any pokeballs (and nobody will give to them), or to avoid recording the data in the computer, etc.
    • They aren't the gods; people just made up stuff and called them the gods because they are a bit more powerful than other pokemons.
  • In generation 2, Hitmonlee learns Meditate at level 6, and Tyrogue evolves at level 20. Now, the obvious explanation for this is that the learnset was programmed before Tyrogue was added in, and Gamefreak was being lazy, and therein lies the problem. Because of the developers' laziness, we lost a potentially useful move for a Pokemon that desperately needed an attack booster! Lugia and Ho-oh also got locked out of Whirlwind (potentially useful due to their tankish abilities), and Celebi lost Heal Bell, Leech Seed, and RECOVER due to it being encountered at lvl. 30. WTFGF!?
    • Lol no, those moves were put at those levels on purpose, and if you wanted them you had to use the move relearner in Pokemon Stadium 2, which was a gimmick of it but not the only reason to buy it, so it was fine. Anyway, there were move relearners in later generations, but they costed heart scales, while the Stadium 2 one was free anytime you defeated the Elite 4, so there is little point in complaining.
      • Much easier to find Heart Scales than it is to defeat the E4 just for one move...
        • You didn't have to beat the Elite 4 for the move relearner, you just had to beat Red. Granted, you needed to beat the Elite 4 (and all of the Gyms) to get to him, but once you could fight Red, you only had to fight and defeat him to allow any Pokemon in the party you brought along to relearn moves... even the ones that you didn't actually bring into the fight. Sure, he was tough, but it was just one match, not 5.
      • And that's why it only stayed that way one generation, jeez... the point is that those moves were available and not put in the game by mistake or anything.
  • According to this list, there are more HeartGold exclusives than SoulSilver exclusives. One Game for the Price of Two is bad enough, but could you at least make the two equal?
    • Well, technically, the "extra" ones that HeartGold has are just evolutions/baby forms, not completely different mons. If you go by base forms alone, they're equal. Also, SoulSilver gets Skarmory, which has to be worth at least three.
      • Still doesn't give them an excuse. Why couldn't they just swap Gligar for, say, Delibird? Heart Gold loses one Pokemon, Soul Silver gains one, and the balance is maintained. Sure, some people would bitch about the Pokemon not matching the originals, but it would be a smaller portion than the amount that bitch about this.
      • The better question is why Skarmory didn't get a pre-evolution while Mantine did, and the same for the counterpart of whatever other Pokemon is causing a misbalance.
      • Or just toss in a random gen3 or gen4 Pokémon to balance it. Though you can catch one of the HG exclusives on a Pokéwalker route. Though you can only get it by going to a location-based event in Japan >_>
  • Forgive me if this has been mentioned above (I don't think it has), but this always really bugged me: In Gen I, Psychic-types were weak to Ghost attacks. However, there's really no point in using a Ghost type against a Psychic at all because A) the Ghost trio are also Poison-type, making them weak to Psychic, and B) of the three or so Ghost-type attacks, only the low-damage Lick attack could take advantage of the type advantage. On a similar note, Psychics were also weak to Bug attacks, but the same basic complaints apply. Not as bad though because Jolteon could learn Pin Missile at a reasonable level.
    • Psychic was immune to Ghost in G1. Anyway, there's a reason the type got nerfed in G2, what with Steel- and Dark-types...
    • Those of us who have been able to look past the Nostalgia Filter and the pokemon designs would realize that Generation 1 really wasn't well thought out when you think about it, and that was one of the prime reasons, if not THE prime reason. If you ask me, while the Psychic type was fixed considerably by Generation 2 adding Dark as well as some mons like Scizor, Heracross, and maybe Forretress helping make the bug type feasible at higher levels (Pinsir and Scyther only go so far, especially since they didn't get any Bug-type moves in Generation I), the Ghost type really wasn't fixed until Generations 3 or 4. Sure, there was Misdreavus in Generation 2, even though it comes rather late in the game (I'd have thought Morty, the Ghost-type gym leader, would have had one...)
  • This is a prime case of Fridge Logic, actually: Mew is the genetic ancestor of all Pokemon. But the Pokemon Arceus created the Universe. What.
    • Arceus created Mew, and then that led to the evolution of all current Pokemon species.
      • So... who created Arceus??
        • You're a very clever troper... but it's Arceus all the way down.
        • Don't pursue that line of thinking, it just leads to insomnia.
          • The way I see it, Arceus first created Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, and created the universe through them. Then he created the Lake Guardians, then Mew. Mew then gave birth to Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza, who created Earth. Possibly, Mew created such trios for other planets as well. Here's holding out for a trio for all 7 other planets. And Pluto. And, what the hell, let's throw Ceres in there, too.
          • There's no reason why Mew couldn't just be the ancestor of all non-legendaries. The dex may claim it has the DNA of every other species, but how exactly would they have gotten the DNA of Dialga, Regigigas, or so many of the other legendaries? Heck, Mew could just be a template Arceus threw together, then took bits and pieces of to make new species. There might even be imperfect Mew prototypes...
          • According to dex data: "[Arceus] is said to have emerged from an egg in a place where there was nothing, then shaped the world." If Arceus came from an egg then who created the egg? Just a theory (and I doubt it's true, but I like it), but perhaps Mew laid the egg, and then Arceus went on to create the rest of the universe. This would also reaffirm the idea that Mew is the ancestor of all Pokemon.
          • Arceus came from an egg that just came into being when Yin and Yang reached perfect balance. From itself came the Dragon Trio, then the Spirit Pokémon. After that, we're unsure if Groudon and such came before Mew or if Mew came first. It's perfectly natural to say that Mew is the ancestor of all non-legendary and non-artificial Pokémon. Mew could very well be the ancestor of all non-god Pokémon, other than a few select Pokémon that were created.
            • Yin and Yang coming into perfect balance?!? Do we have to drag Generation V into this? This isn't the WMG page!!!
            • Why can't we bring Gen V into it? It's all canon. Anyway, if we see Arceus as the equivilent to our God(s), weren't they also created out of nothing? Ergo, Arceus is created out of nothing. Not an answer but probabaly one of the most true-to-life ones. Also I think it says somewhere in Gen IV that Arcues created Dialga/Palkia/Giratina who created the universe, then Mew, who created everyone else, like the person a few points above said. (Excuse me inserting this here, I wanted to reply to the guy above).
          • I like to think of Mew as Arceus's personal DNA storehouse. Mew does in fact have the DNA of all pokemon, even the legendaries, but it was given that by Arceus. In case Arceus needs to massively repopulate an area, he has a way to quickly access the DNA of the Pokemon that are supposed to go there. Mew being able to learn any move via TM/HM/Move Tutor and the move Transform are all side effects of containing all that DNA.
          • When Arceus came into the picture, I thought they were trying to follow Biblical terms; Arceus/God created time/Dialga and space/Palkia, he created the earth/Groudon and seas/Kyogre and sky/Rayquaza, the moon/Cresselia, darkness/Darkrai and so, then Mew came into the picture to populate the planet.
          • In every post-RBY game people mention new pokemon having been discovered. Simple explanation - Arceus was first but they didn't know about it, and Mew came a while later and everything after it evolved from its DNA. (Actually, only three characters in-game know of Arceus's existence: the Hiker in Platinum activated by the event Arceus, Cynthia, who doesn't even know about Arceus in Platinum, and the researcher in the Ruins of Alph.)
          • Maybe it's a paradox? Arceus created Mew, who then travelled back in time and created Arceus. Mew can pretty much do anything.
          • In games past Gen 2, they stopped saying that they discovered new Pokemon. They realized that they'll be making new Pokemon every generation, and these Pokemon didn't just pop up out of nowhere, so it's just a minor retcon each Gen when it comes to the number of Pokemon.
    • It's the result of Unreliable Narrator. The only people who call Arceus the creator of the universe are those in the Sinnoh region, and some of those myths specify that Arceus created the Sinnoh region (instead off the whole world). We've never met an objective source of information except for the Professors and they ask you to help them gather information.
    • It could be as simple as Mew predating the current universe, or whatever Arceus created.(alternative to all the explanations above this one.
  • Is it just me, or is Brock the only non-white guy in the Pokemon universe?
    • There's Phoebe...? Not a guy, but not white.
    • I always thought Candice's sprite looked rather tannish, and considering that she lives in Snowpoint, any tan one has must be genetic, but she looks plain white in her artwork, so maybe I'm just imagining things.
    • There's the rest of Brock's family. But to get to the root of the question, it's more accurate to say that we haven't been introduced to places where other races live. If each region roughly resembles an island of Japan, then we haven't even left the country yet.
    • They finally put a black guy in the Pokemon universe in Pokémon Ranger 2.
    • Has anybody heard of Dahlia, one of the new Frontier Brains?
    • When it all comes down to it, the majority of the cast is Japanese, even if they don't look Asian. The only characters I can think of that are confirmed to be otherwise are Lt. Surge and Fantina. And there's that trainer at the beginning of the first movie who, in the original, spoke a lot of Gratuitous English. Having Japanese characters that look Caucasian is rather common in anime.
      • Dahlia's name is the same in Japanese and English... so should she count along with Surge and Fantina? Also Cynthia's (Shirona/Sirona) original Japanese name was in refence to a goddess from CELTIC mythology.
    • Brock is the same skin color as everyone else, anyway. Also, Barlow is awesome.
  • Well Black and White have more varied skin colours (probably from being somewhat based on American culture which is more racially sensitive and has nothing to do with the name) so that fixes that for the most part.
  • In GSC/HGSS, the rival is literally a criminal, right? He steals things and kicks people. Why do I constantly let him just flounce off once all his Pokemon are unconscious, as opposed to knocking him out and taking his stolen starter back to Professor Elm?
    • You're ten. I'd guess the rival is at least fifteen. He'd probably kick your ass in a fistfight. This troper would love to see Kotone beat him up, though.
      • Why would it have to be a fistfight? Some of my Pokemon are still fine. If, hypothetically, I've got an Oddish with Sleep Powder still standing, why can't I use that?
        • I always assumed that using a Pokémon to attack an actual person would be illegal. True, the rival is engaging in criminal activity too, but at ten years old, you're a little young to become a vigilante.
          • In HG/SS, Lance makes his Dragonite use Hyper Beam on a person. And he survives.
        • On the other hand, as soon as the player hears anything about Team Rocket s/he becomes a vigilante so fast you'd think it was hir lifelong ambition.
    • You're not ten in HGSS. That's the anime and the anime alone. The only ages ever given in the games is Red being 11 years old in RBY.
  • In the first few gen games at least... You have two games. You trade your uber lvl 100 team into a new game on your other cartridge. Yes, they don't obey you, but whenever they do decide to make an attack they kill it and they barely take any damage. So why, when you reach Lavender town, when you reach the Ghost Tower, are they too scared to attack? I mean, seriously, some of you ARE GHOSTS too, some of you are legendary creatures that control the elements, and you are all a much higher level. How could you posibily be scared?
    • Dammit dude, you have to go way out of your way to abuse what was supposed to be just an easily finished Broken Bridge which wasn't supposed to be thought of afterwards, give them a break.
    • As for an in-universe explanation, even the most hardcore muscle-bound fighters would probably be freaked out by an actual ghost. Even ghost Pokémon are a level removed from actual ghosts; the paranormal isn't something that can really be directly confronted, is it?
      • Except the ghost-type Pokemon ARE the ghosts from the Ghost Tower. They know the ghosts there aren't real, so they shouldn't be afraid.
    • It's not really the pokemon that are too scared, but the player. The game just says it's the pokemon because the young trainer doesn't want to admit that he or she is the one that's paralysed with fear.
  • When the entire universe is on the brink of destruction thanks to a madman in Platinum, why doesn't Cynthia drag the Elite Four with her and beat down Team Galactic herself? It was nice of her to be confident with us and all, but with the universe at stake, a bit more help would be appreciated.
    • Which is one reason I love the manga. Gym Leaders are the first line of defense, and in Hoenn and presumably Sinnoh, the Elite Four and the Champion.
    • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure follows likewise, but with the Gym Leaders (Volkner is absent for undefined reasons). Cynthia's there, however, but she doesn't do much but stop Jupiter with one hit... which, come to think of it, is her role in the anime's Spear Pillar plot too.
    • Pokémon Black and White handles this right - the Elite Four are defeated by the bad guys just before you approach, and then the Gym Leaders all help to keep the Admins at bay while you go ahead to take on N. Taking on N makes sense, as you hold the legendary counterpart to the pokemon that he has.
  • What is the point of Detect being a move? It's exactly like Protect, a move that can be learned through an infinitely available TM by any mon that can learn any TM, except it only has half the PP. There isn't even any benefit to using both at once, since using either means the other is less likely to work on the next turn.
    • Actually, there's a good reason to use Detect in Double Battles. Given that Protect/Detect make you practically invulnerable for one turn, they're very useful for dodging moves that the other pokemon uses that hits every Pokemon on the field (such as Explosion, Surf, Earthquake, and so forth) if the Pokemon isn't immune to or absorbs that attack. Given this, some people will put Pokemon on their teams that know the move Imprision, which prevents any pokemon from using any moves known by the Imprision user, and Protect to nullify the move and prevent the enemy from dodging attacks—for example, on an Explosion-themed team, one would have a Ghost type use Imprision while knowing Protect so that the enemy can't dodge the Pokemon's partner's Explosions. Given that Detect does the same thing but is not a TM and therefore much less likely that the Imprision user will have it as opposed to the much more commonly used Protect, it's a good idea to choose Detect over Protect when possible. Besides, not only is it pretty ineffecient to have a pokemon know Imprision/Detect/Protect when you've only got four moves to choose from (and only two Pokemon can do this anyway), more often than not a double battle will be over or your Pokemon dead before you can expend all 8 usages of Detect.
  • Is the water used by Water-types consumable? The ninth anime movie shows Max almost drinking water that came from a Poliwhirl, but the plot stopped him from doing so; is it healthy? Is it unlimited? Why do some people (anime and game) seem to be thirsty if they can drink this kind of water?
    • It's probably as drinkable as any other water available in nature. In other words, boil it first. They aren't firing tap water.
      • Unless they're Suicune.
    • I remember reading a fanfic where trying to live by drinking water used by Water-types would eventually dehydrate the Pokemon. Perhaps they're refraining from it out of concern from the Pokemon. ...plus, most water Pokemon shoot water out of their mouths, so a lot of people would probably... not want to drink it.
      • I think people would readily drink any liquid substance if they were ON THE BRINK OF DEATH BY DEHYDRATION. Ever heard of desperation?
  • Why don't the Professors give you all the starter Pokemon? They tell you to go off and complete the Pokedex for them, yet they don't give you the Pokemon that you cannot catch anywhere else, despite the fact that it's just sitting on the table doing nothing. I understand why they don't give it to you at the start of the game, but why not after you've defeated the Elite Four? C'mon Oak, you sent me on this damn pokedex mission, I'm three Pokemon away from completing it, if you'd just give me that Bulbasaur I could be finished.... DAMMIT OAK, IT'S SITTING RIGHT THERE!
    • The professors want you to complete the Pokedex for them, and they don't need data on a Pokemon they already have.
      • They only have the base form, meaning they're still missing the evolutions. If they gave it to me I could level it up and get data on the evolved forms.
    • He is the grandfather of Gary Oak, remember - their whole family is out to torment you.
    • It's probably for some third, never seen, Pallet trainer who has yet to reach their starting day. Starters are difficult to replace and Oak probably feels no need to give you more than one.
      • That's exactly it: There's always been 3 new trainers in every Gen. (I) Red, Blue, and Leaf; (II) Gold(Ethan), Kris(Lyra), and ???; (III) May, Brendan, and Wally; (IV) Dawn, Lucas, and Barry; (V) Hilbert/Hilda, Bianca, and Cheren. Your character always gets there a half-hour before the unchosen.
        • Unfortunately, HGSS has decided to mess with our attempts at making logic out of things. After defeating Red, Professor Oak gives you a choice of one of the Kanto starters. Just one. We don't have the beginning of the game excuse anymore, given that you had to have put the smackdown on some of the greatest Trainers in the world just to get one of the starters, and it doesn't seem likely that he's reserving them for new Trainers (again, he's willing to give one of them to someone who beat the current and former Champions). Maybe Oak's just being a Troll?
      • Actually, since Oak already had Red to collect information on those three starter families (Red has all three fully-evolved on Mt Silver), there's no particular reason for him to go to particular efforts to give you all of them. He gives you one as a gift, not to complete the Pokedex. My only question is, why can't they at least show you the pokemon, for GTS purposes (in Gens IV and V, that is)?
  • why isn't Psyduck/Golduck a Water/Psychic type? It's PSY-DUCK. A psychic duck. But it's only a pure Water type?
    • Why is Psyduck even called Psyduck anyways? It's based off of a platypus.
      • That's pure speculation. Golduck is based off a Kappa, and shares many similarities with a Platypus but has never been confirmed as being based off one.
      • Jury's still out on why it's called a duck Pokemon, but the lack of a Psychic type actually make sense after some thought. Psyduck's psychic abilities are consistently referred to as "mysterious", right? Well, how mysterious would they be if Psyduck was a Psychic type? Its typing anomaly is part of what makes it so mysterious in-universe. Granted, other non-Psychics can learn Psychic moves, but usually through TMs, and with a lesser variety of moves than Psyduck learns.
  • And why isn't Lugia Water/Flying? It's the beast of the sea. Its counterpart is Fire/Flying. It lives on the seafloor and learns mainly water-type moves. So why is it Psychic/Flying?
    • If it was Water/Flying, it would get a STAB, thus giving it more of an advantage over Ho-oh.
      • That, and it would resist Fire-type moves. Clobbering time much?
      • That's no excuse. Kyogre has STAB over Groundon.
    • Lugia would probably make the most sense as a water/dragon type since it's based off of Ryuu-jin, the Japanese god of water whom takes the form of a dragon.
      • No, Water/Flying would make more sense, considering that it has wings, and its counterpart is Fire/Flying.
    • Because everything that lives in the water doesn't have to be a water type. As long as it's not damaged by the environment who cares, you wanted interesting types so would it really be interesting if you only found water types in the water? Should you only find grass types in the grass? It's not originally a water dweller anyway, it just went to the bottom of the ocean until it was sure it could control its power.
      • What are you talking about? EVERY other Pokémon that lives underwater is Water-type. Being a Pokémon who lives underwater DOES mean that you're water-type in the Pokémon world. Also, Water makes much more sense than Psychic due to the aforementioned reasons.
    • Like it was mentioned, Lugia doesn't originate from the sea, it used to reside in Tin Tower. Saying it should be the same type as its current location is stupid- that's like saying Sandshrew or Abra should be Grass types since you find them in the grass (plus, it doesn't reside in the sea because it's a Water type, but because its power is so devestating that it fears it might accidentaly cause damage to others, and there's less chance of that happening in such an isolated place). It doesn't matter if it's a direct counterpart to the game's other legendary's typing- Dialga and Palkia, and Reshiram and Zekrom also have typings that don't directly match up (Steel/Water and Fire/Electric respectively). It learns more Psychic moves than Water. Plus, Lileep and Cradily are classed as Sea Pokémon but aren't Water types. There's no reason why Lugia shouldn't be Psychic/Flying if that's what the creators want.
  • Why is the Dragon type only super effective against itself? It would make thematic sense and make the type more useful to be effective against, say, Normal-types. And while I'm at it, I always expected Ice to be super effective against Water, what with the freezing and such. Okay, the latter has some gameplay justification (if Ice beats Water, Electric becomes worthless), but why not give Electric some other advantage, such as vs. Steel from Gen 2 onward. ...One more thing. Bug attacks were super-effective against Poison in Generation 1. How does that make sense, apart from extending Beedrill's lifespan as the ultimate Erika-killing machine, and if it did make sense, why the change in Gen 2? Arceus knows the Bug type didn't need any more nerfing.
    • On the last point, the bug-type may have been nerfed in that sense, but they got a buff in being super-effective against the Dark type and were given some new attacks like Megahorn that made STAB attacks actually useful. Also, Poison was also super-effective against Bug in Gen I, but were changed to being neutral.
    • Dragon is too powerful a move type as it is. I'd prefer Ice gaining a resist to it.
      • Wait, what? I wouldn't mind seeing Ice resist Dragon, but too powerful? It has the third-narrowest range, after Normal and Poison, and Dialga is the only mon that can count on super effective STAB without opening itself up to the same.
      • Third narrowest range, but only Steel resists it.
    • This troper usually supplements his dragon pokemon with moves outside of it's typing anyways, leaving them with only one dragon-type move in their respective movesets.
    • After water gets to a certain depth, freezing it becomes nigh impossible. Water types would presumably be used to those cold depths under the ice so it makes sense. Also, the lake tends to be the warmest spot in the winter even when frozen over.
  • If Satoshi Tajiri (the creator of Pokemon) likes insects so much to the point that he was called Doctor Bug, why were Bug Types in the first game horribly underpowered?
    • Maybe because it feels harder to rationalize bugs as being creatures of might alongside dragons and rock monsters.
      • Maybe it was a misguided effort to remain neutral. Look at Sakurai, the designer for the Kirby games and Smash Brothers, he was accused of neglecting his own characters in the first two games. Although it doesn't excuse why it took Pinsir so many god damned games to learn his own STAB attack. Tajiri should make it up to Pinsir in the next game by giving Pinsir an exclusive bug move (that can't be stolen like Rhydon and Heracross's megahorn) that hits twice, has 100% accuracy, and has 100 base power before adding STAB.
    • Or better yet, give Pinsir an evolution. Like, say, Poké Satan, complete with base stats almost (but not quite) as good as those of Arceus. That should shut the Bug-doubters up. Plus, seeing a stag beetle evolve into, well, Poké Satan would be good for a laugh. Egregious pentagram tattoos ahoy!!!
        • I guess Genosect now counts as being the first Bug-type legendary.
          • Its supposed theme might be a little Satan as well.
          • DENNIS
  • When the Focus Sash item activates, it gets consumed. What. My Pokemon just ate its Sash? Are they made from the same stuff as edible panties or something?
    • I assume the Pokemon uses the Sash like a bullfighter's cape, directing the final blow towards it instead of the Mon itself. The sash is then torn apart and unusable anymore. Good one, eh?
    • The sash absorbs part of the attack through its effect and is destroyed.
  • Super effective moves like using Thunderbolt against a water-type cause lots of damage, right? What I'm wondering is, how do moves like that, One Hit KO's, and stuff like Slam against a much weaker Pokemon not kill them?
    • They probably do in the wild, but in a domestic battle they hold back.


  • I just don't get Sprout Tower. Is it supposed to be a parody of the Tin and Brass Towers, only instead of worshipping Ho-oh and Lugia, the devout monks worship Bellsprout? Or is it really as Serious Business as it appears? And if so, why does it even exist? And also, conversely, the wiggling middle pillar is meant to be like a Bellsprout's stalk. So why do the central pillars in the other two towers wiggle as well?
    • Perhaps the people of Violet City were finding it difficult to comepte with Ecruteak and Goldenrod for tourism. Ecruteak has its towers, Goldenrod has the Department store and Radio tower. So they built their own tower and had to dedicate it to a Pokémon that lived nearby. Bellsprout was the best they could think of. And maybe they stole the moving pillar idea from Ecruteak and claimed that represented Bellsprout's body so people would think that they thought of it first.
      • I like this theory. But out of universe, I'm just wondering why Game Freak decided on dedicating a tower to Bellsprout?
        • Probably the same reason they've created Magikarp: to add a tone of humor. :)
    • The wiggling pillar in the towers do have a practical purpose; apparently it's a kind of technology the Japanese use to protect high-rise buildings from earthquakes (being on the edge of a continental plate and all)... As for why they "worship" Bellsprout, I actually assumed that it was more to represent nature in general, how the ecosystem works, working in harmony, all that stuff.


  • Aside from Competitive Balance, why are Dark types immune to Psychic moves and resistant to Ghost moves? I don't think being sneaky or having black fur could offer 100% protection from Mewtwo turning your brain into mush. While we're there, why is biting or sucker punching super-effective against Psychics that can see into the future and Ghosts that are essentially made of gas?
    • Consider that Dark-types are known as "Evil" in Japan. What could be more devastating to a psychic than to peer into the mind of true evil? They can't do it without endangering themselves. (See The Cell.) And without that connection to their opponent, their moves fail. As for ghosts, so many have been portrayed in the anime as happy-go-lucky pranksters that they just aren't conditioned to deal with true malice.
      • Also, Sucker Punch is "Ambush" in Japanese.
    • Dark types are a psychic 'void', rather like blanks in Warhammer 40,000, meaning that Psychic will just be wasted energy, and ensuring that they can't see that Houndoom's future. The fangs and claws of Dark Pokemon are steeped in the energies of the darkness, meaning they can cut clean through the dimensions and hurt Ghosts.
    • Of course that doesn't explain why non-Dark types can use Bite and still have it work. Or why you can Tackle a Geodude for almost no damage, but Bite it for normal damage. Particularly confusing because Bite was a normal-type attack in Generation 1.
    • It could simply be that most dark moves are tricky enough to throw off most defenses. A weak justification, but one nonetheless.
    • It seems that by "Dark" or "Evil"' type we could get to the meaning of 'sneaky' or dirty, under-handed techniques (biting your opponent, anyone?) which holds up when considering its super-effectiveness against the more "honourable" Fighting-type combatants. Perhaps?
      • Unfortunately, you have it backward. The honourable Fighting-types are super effective against the underhanded Dark-types. Evil is unforgivable!
        • Actually, I suspect that it's because underhanded tactics like biting wouldn't help you too much against a trained fighter. Even if you did actually manage to get a bite in, you're leaving yourself open for a counterattack that a trained fighter can and will take advantage of.
    • can anyone think of a logical explanation as to why dark type pokemon are weak against bug type attacks? Granted, bug types could use more potential targets for their attacks, but you'd think with demonic epitaphs like "lord of the flies", the dark type would have the upper hand against bug types.
      • Simpler brains. To bugs, there is no "Evil" or "Good", just survival. Granted, considering how Pokemon operate, this is just this Troper's view on it.
      • Dark types are nasty and crafty, they aren't a "psychic void", they aren't immune to future sight, imprison or trick room but when it comes to directly affecting them they just shrug it off, their minds are too tough and too shrewd to be damaged. BUT, if a psychic can see around the posturing and trickery, their attacks will work, hence miracle eye lets them do damage.
    • Dark type and psychic type moves require steady thought and control. Bugs are loud, smelly, poke with sharp little pins, creep and crawl and generally are just too annoying and unpredictable to for Dark and Psychics to stay calm. Fighting types practice the same motion over and over again until its natural so they don't need the same focus.
  • Minor one: why can't you encounter critters in the Battle Frontier in Emerald and log them in your Pokedex? I can see why they don't let you catch them (it probably costs a fortune to ship in ten thousand Electabuzz for the Battle Pyramid, for example), but if you get an Ivysaur in the Battle Factory, there will be no further hints that you've even heard of such a thing, and your Pokedex certainly won't have anything lower than (say) Pikachu.
    • That's a very good question... you can also ask why you can't ask other players to help you by lending their Mons so you can log them in the Dex. Pretty much Gameplay and Story Segregation, purely.
  • Speaking of Pokemoooon... what's the deal with water mons that have Water Sport and rock mons that have Mud Sport? The number of times I see Geodudes using Mud Sport strikes me as ridiculous, and the only mon I found with Water Sport that was actually useful was Budew.
    • Well, Geodude is Rock/Ground, so it at least has the right type. It seems to be primarily there for insurance - if Geodude uses Mud Sport, takes out an enemy Pikachu, and then gets surfed into oblivion by Lanturn, at least Lanturn's electric moves will be weakened for when you send out your next combatant. Granted, this should only happen if something has gone horribly awry, but given that this happens with grim regularity, it's nice to have a bit of a backup plan.
      • (Returns having checked on the particulars of Mud Sport) Apparently it only lasts while the responsible critter is on the field. Perhaps it's intended to be bred onto a Baton Passer?
    • Quite a few Pokemon have moves that are utterly worthless for themselves, but great for double battles and the like.
    • Both Mud Sport and Water Sport would be more useful in double battles - note that both moves were introduced in Gen III, same as double battles themselves. Beyond that, a lot more Water types (that aren't part-Ground) learn Mud Sport than you think (Krabby/Kingler, Mudkip, and Shellos by level-up, and as egg moves for Squirtle, Slowpoke, Goldeen, Totodile, Mantine/Mantyke, Gorphish, Feebas, Clamperl, Luvdisc, Piplup, Panpour, and Tympole). Water Sport only has Masquerain and Budew/Roselia/Roserade in its set of Fire-weak pokemon that learn it, but as Water types aren't immune to Fire, it makes sense, especially if the foe might try to use Sunny Day/Drought against you.
  • People who block your path without any conceivable reason to do so. The games are pretty linear and it would break the sequence if you were allowed to access certain areas too soon, so there are often people who will stand in front of doorways and such to prevent you going through them. That's fine, but if you're going to do that at least give them a good excuse. For example, there are two guys in Hearthome City that block the path to Route 209. When you talk to them, they say "Did you know? Sometimes eggs are found in Johto." That's great, NOW GET OUT OF THE WAY.
    • Welcome to Corneria and Dronejam are the banes of all JRPGs, Pokémon included.
    • Even worse is the guy in FR/LG (can't remember if he was in the originals) who escorts you to Brock's gym. If you want to grind a little more for some reason - insurance, say - and try to move onto the next route, he escorts you to Brock's gym again. And again. And again. Yes, I know that's where Brock's gym is, but I haven't learned Metal Claw yet because I was busy grinding my Metapod, so let me on to the friggin' route.
    • This troper found the broken bridges in the 2nd gen games, particularly the immovable NPC variety, to be the worst. When you arrive in Azalea, the well and the gym are both blocked by Team Rocket grunts, the later seemingly for no reason. This is later topped in Mahogany where a random fat guy blocks the gym and tells you to go sightseeing. They didn't even try with that one.
  • If it's always raining in Route 215, how come you still need to water the soil to keep it from drying out?
    • Do you really want to start having to take weather conditions into account when farming berries? It's annoying enough as is, without becoming more complicated.
    • How would not having to water something that's constantly watered by rain that never leaves make berry farming more annoying?
      • When you don't water these berries, it's not that they die, just that they produce less of them. Therefore, I just assume that what you're actually doing is giving them Miracle-Gro or something like that to make them grow better.
  • If those wooden planks (or whatever they're supposed to be) are broad enough to bike across at full speed, what could possibly be stopping you from just walking over them? This could be looked over if they were supposed to act as a Broken Bridge until you get the bicycle, but they don't. The Broken Bridge is Cycling Road. It's also not like the bicycle is a secret item; you get it handed to you on a platter, you can't progress without it, and none of the aforementioned planks appear before you can obtain it. So, basically, their whole purpose is to annoy the people who prefer to walk. Kind of like the tall grass in reverse.
    • They're there to force you to go back and forth switching the bikes around because only the stunt oriented bike can cross them, forcing you to have that, but then the muddy slopes are only passable on the speed oriented bike.
      • But you don't even have to do that in the 4th gen games. You just get one bike with two gears, and yet the bridges are still there.
    • Safari zone in 3rd gen and grandfather clause in the fourth.
      • Doesn't fourth gen. have at least one of those "ride the Master Bike across a floor before it breaks" zones? And even if it didn't, you'd have people clamoring for a faster bike (for long distance travel and egg-warming, since the current areas are freaking huge compared to the Kanto of R/B/Y) or a bike they have more control over (for short-range travel and doing that entertaining little acro bike hop) if they only let you have one bike that didn't switch gears.
    • Apparently the rails are wide enough for bike tires but not for feet.
  • If Zangoose has those big-ass claws, why can't it learn Cut? You'd think it would.
    • My only theory is that Cut requires great precision, something Zangoose would have a hard time getting because of those big claws.
    • It wants to keep its claws sharp for carving up Sevipers.
  • In the games, a lot of terms are in all Caps, namely Pokemon names, moves, items and important NPC's (Gym Leaders, Trainers), but in Fuchsia City in the first games, a guy named ERIK is hanging around the Safari Zone Zoo looking for SARA who's in one of the Safari Zone houses. Why are these two random NPC's given all Caps names (or any name at all) as if they're important? Could this be leftover beta?
    • Everybody's names are all-caps until fourth gen. It's just a little joke the developers threw in, and you'd only be able to identify them by name since they have generic sprites.
      • But they were specifically given names, only important NPC's got such treatment.
      • Again, it's the only way they could identify them. There was nothing extra about them in the beta, they're just there for you to find and laugh at their stupidity in not being able to figure out where they meet.
        • I spent forever trying to figure out how to get them together. I was sure it was a side-quest of some kind.
  • Why haven't any Pokemon professors ever mounted a hidden camera on a Pokemon and put it in the day care centre to see where the eggs come from or something? They're supposed to be researching them, yet they don't give a damn where they come from? Or are they just holding off from publishing this?
    • Perhaps they do know and just don't want to tell a ten-year-old about red-hot Pokélove.


  • How come Magnemite (and evolutions) and Glalie don't have the Levitate ability? They both levitate! It's blatantly obvious! There is no other way they could conceivably move!
    • Perhaps they don't levitate high enough to avoid Ground-type moves, and thus don't have the 'ability', although they still levitate.
    • Magnemite levitates through magnetism, and Ground moves disrupt this, causing it to drop straight onto the rippling earth from Magnitude. Glalie might roll or bounce instead of hovering.
    • I can see why they kept Levitate off Magnemite/ton/zone, because turning its one Quad weakness into an immunity would make it an absolute Game Breaker. On the other hand though, Glalie pretty much sucks as he is, he could really do with an immunity to Ground.
      • Magnemite/ton does learn Magnet Rise, which causes it to be immune to Ground for tive turns.
    • OK, so Levitate would have made Magnemite overpowered, and MAYBE we can forgive Glalie. What the hell is Beedrill's excuse?
      • Too dense to fly at its size? I could easily believe a Beedrill only being able to use its wings as jump jets, and standing on the ground through entire battles (especially since some or most of its sprites show it on the ground, and they tend to stay on the ground except when attacking or moving amongst trees, etc. in the anime).
  • Bonemerang cannot hit flying types. Why? Because it's a ground move. Except that it doesn't really have anything to do with the ground; it's an attack that involves throwing a bone at the enemy. There's no reason why anything should be able to avoid it without fail simply because they can fly; at least, no more so than any other physical attack.
    • I guessed about this one on the WMG page: ground moves are relatively slow and easy to evade, and flyers are typically fairly fast.
      • So why can't they evade Rock-type moves, which would logically be just as slow, if not slower? Or just fly away from most Fighting moves?
      • They're resistant to fighting rather than immune because they're avoiding but fighting types are better at anticipating moves, leading to a 'roll with the punches' effect; still not able to come up with anything good for Rock, though.
      • The phrase "kill two birds with one stone".
      • Rocks are slow? Have you tried shooting a rock using a slingshot? It's faster than you thought.
    • This thing about Bonemerang bugs me too. It would be cool if Bonemerang had an added effect and sole distinction as a ground move that can hit flying and levitating enemies. Earthquake would not necessarily be a better option this way.
  • What I can't figure out is why people blame Absol, a random animal, for acts of God? And why they never notice even a vague correlation between whatever it does to warn people and the ensuing disaster? Do people in that universe just hate Absol or what?
    • If, everytime a certain creature showed up, a huge disaster happened moments later, would you begin to think that it might be responsible? Especially if you were from a small town without much contact with the rest of the world?
    • Yes, but what if you aren't in a small town? What if you're in a large town, or even a city, and you aren't a superstitious person like that? And surely someone, at some point in history, thought, "Hey, it looks like that thing is trying to warn us about something." Also, on the "huge disasters" thing, what constitutes a disaster? Would an Absol consider, say, a particularly hideous 20-car pileup a disaster? How about a chemical fire, or a collapsing building? And I believe that, in one episode of the anime, the people of a town were blaming an Absol for various disasters, but Ash discovered it was trying to warn them.
    • There's not any reason why it'd look more like it was trying to warn people than it causing it. The latter explanation is simpler, and so people would be more likely to jump to that one.
    • Okay, here's a quick question: you are a man living in a small town. You have to go out of town to do business for a few days. On your way out, you see an Absol, doing whatever it does to warn people. You dismiss it and move on. Later, you learn a tornado hit, and there was mild loss of life. Assume that the town hasn't had another disaster like this in your lifetime, and this is the first time you've seen an Absol doing that. The question: would you blame the Absol for it? I think not, if you're a rational, logical human being. Other people could potentially blame it, but most likely not you.
      • How is that logical? If you were someone who has never seen an Absol before, you might think it's a little suspicious that a disaster struck right after this mysterious Pokemon showed up, doing something you've never seen other Pokemon do.
        • These are the same people that trust a 10-year-old with saving the world. Obviously, they are not the most rational of people.
        • Hmmmm... Okay, try this. Two words: the dex entry. Does it not specifically state it senses disasters and tries to warn people?
        • Seeing as it can't speak or write, it's not like there's a way it can warn people that's super-obvious as being a warning.
        • "What's that, Lassie? You pushed Timmy into the well? BURN IT!!"
        • You mean the dex entry that only ten children and four Pokemon experts have access to?
      • It's not so illogical to assume Absol is causing disasters when you know moves like Rain Dance, Sunny Day, and Earthquake exist. Considering how easily Pokemon can tell the laws of nature to sit in the corner, it's actually easy to see how an old folk tale can gain a lot more credence.
      • Every so often, some unfamiliar animal pops up near your door. Every time you see it, soon afterward you find that your trash can has been tipped and garbage spilled on the pavement. Obviously, it was trying to warn you that something's about to tip your trash? I'm not one to assume, but I'd guess that that wouldn't be your first thought.
      • Here's another thought: Absol, being long-lived Pokemon, has been around since the old days. Y'know, the old days where technology didn't exist and people would believe anything. After generations of the same pattern (Absol showing up followed by disasters), people just jumped to the wrong conclusion and saw it as a disaster-bringer, rather than taking a more rational approach and leaving the place before the disaster took place. After generations, the image of Absol as a disaster-bringer has been kinda etched into everyone's minds.
    • Do Ostrich's stick their heads in their heads in the sand when they see trouble? Do black cats cause bad luck, do catfish cause earthquakes? No you say? Then why do so many people say otherwise when its clearly not the case?
    • In Lacunosa Town, doesn't the old woman state that, despite not really believing in Kyurem, all the residents lock themselves inside at sundown? It's a social habit; the same reason hardcore atheists still so 'Oh my god'. For hundreds, even thousands, of years, Absol have been blamed for the disasters that plague the land. The habit remains today, despite the fact that nobody really believe it any more.
  • So, why is Absol Dark-type? The thing it's best known for is trying to save entire cities from impending disasters (and failing). Hell, it's special ability is Justified, which makes your guy stronger when he gets hit by Dark type moves. So not only is it a hero, it hates cheaters to the bone. Why is it associated with the vicious, deceitful, greedy type?
    • Because even though it does a noble thing it still lets anger cloud its thoughts in battle and fights with hate in its heart or at least "dirty"?
    • Because it has an understanding of Darkness, and uses Dark-type tactics.
  • What does "whiting out" mean anyway? I've never heard the term "white out" used to refer to anything other than correction fluid. Now, blacking out, yes. That made perfect sense, so what compelled them to change it?
    • Political correctness.
    • They changed back in HeartGold / SoulSilver.
  • Anyone else think that it would've been more consistent if Crystal and Platinum had their names swapped? "Gold, Silver, and Platinum" and "Diamond, Pearl, and Crystal" sound a lot more sensible to me.
    • Perhaps, but it's not like they were planning that far ahead. Plus, Crystal kinda fits with Suicune.
    • Maybe they notice this and decided to fill the void, or not look like gems were gonna be the only titles.
    • The generations kind of led into each other. Yellow to Gold, Crystal to Sapphire, Ruby to Fire Red, Leaf Green to Emerald to Diamond, Platinum to Heart Gold and Soul Silver...okay I got nothing for Black and White unless you say silver is gray.
  • The competitive Pokémon fansite has a list of all the moves empowered by Hitmonchan's exclusive Iron Fist ability. The list includes Hammer Arm, Shadow Punch, and Meteor Mash; moves that Hitmonchan has no way of learning. So A: Why does Iron fist power up moves that Hitmonchan can't learn? And B: How did Smogon find that out? None of the pokes that can use Hammer Arm can copy abilities, for one thing...
    • In answer to A: Perhaps they had originally planned for other Pokémon to have Iron Fist before deciding to make it exclusive to Hitmonchan. In answer to B: Hacking.
    • Perhaps future Pokemon will have Iron Fist and be able to learn those moves?
      • Confirmed, in Gen. V Golett/Golurk can have Iron Fist and learn Hammer Arm. Not sure about Shadow Punch or Meteor Mash, though. Also the Gen V Pokedex (book, not in-game) has a list of all moves powered up by Iron Fist. So, maybe something similar for Gen. IV?
        • Even more! In the dream world, some pokemon have iron fist as their "Hidden" ability.
    • About how they figured that out, while hacking is the most likely possibility, it can be found out and used legitimately by a Smeargle that knows either Roleplay or Skill Swap, getting the Iron Fist ability, and learning the attacks in question. Even more convoluted, one could get Conversion onto that same Smeargle to change it into a steel-type and get a STAB, Iron Fist-boosted Meteor Mash.
    • What gets me is that Strength isn't boosted, despite being clearly described as a PUNCH.
      • Just a case of poor translation. The Japanese description doesn't call it a punch, and other similar cases have arisen due to translation issues, too - for instance, Sucker Punch isn't a punch as far as Iron Fist is concerned, because its Japanese name means "Ambush", while Meteor Mash is actually called "Comet Punch" in Japanese (Comet Punch is itself called "Consecutive Punch").
  • I'm surprised no one's brought up Remoraid/Octillery after so many examples. A fish "evolving" into an octopus? Whut.
    • Yeah, it's kinda weird, but don't think about the animal parallel so much as the weapon parallel (gun to cannon). I think Game Freak tried to be too clever with that one.
    • Look, a squirrel can evolve into a cat mermaid (Eevee/Vaporeon); a turtle evolves into a triceratops (Aron/Aggron)... all kinds of weird crap happens with evolution.
      • Eevee is a cat. And I think Aggron is supposed to be based on some sort of ankylosaur, but that doesn't really matter without knowing what Aron is supposed to be if not a turtle. But yes, I do agree that both the Remoraid/Octillery evolution is poorly connected, and that evolution can be pretty weird. But (at the top poster) would you ever expect a creature composed of a head and a tail to turn into a practically tailless frog, or a worm with some dozen or more legs to turn into a puddle of goop in a coating of solidified spit into a six-legged thing with wings and a carapace, if you weren't used to it? I think the problem is that Remoraid is a remora with the abilities of a pistol fish, and they turned it into an octopus with the abilities of... Well, an octopus whose propulsion tube was turned into a cannon. That would be like a Zigzagoon evolving into a Seviper. Almost no physical similarities, and not based on anywhere near the same animal, but they live in the same environment and have a similar trademark ability (or in this case, pattern of locomotion).
      • Eevee's as much a cat as the legendary beasts are all gerbils; no one can say for sure what it is (though, cat would be this tropers last guess as - according to Bulbapedia - Eevee shares the most traits with foxes and dogs).
        • Eevee is most likely based off all kinds of loyal household pets and as such, holds similarities to all of them.
      • For the record, the Legendary Beasts are Feline - Entei is a Lion, Raikou is a Tiger, and Suicune is a Panther. I always thought that Eevee and its "Eeveelutions" were dogs, with Espeon being the sole oddity in the set (as it does look a lot like a cat).
  • What's with everyone forgetting you the second you leave the Hall of Fame? For that matter, you beat every local champion in every town, and no one even acknowledges it. And yeah, it might be that average people don't know who the league champion is, but what about when you go for a second run through the Elite Four and the Champion? Shouldn't someone in that building acknowledge that you beat them once before and are actually the League Champion?
    • Same reason maybe one or two people acknowledge that you just saved the region from a drought-from-hell, being flooded by torrential rain, Team Rocket from abusing pokemon and hijacking Silph Co, or stopped Team Galactic from creating their own universe.
    • Welcome to Corneria, deal with it.
      • You wanna stay at the Hall of Fame forever, or continue exploring, catching, battling and doing all sorts of neat activities without any limitations by the rules?
  • Why is it that pokemon can't gain experience in the Battle Frontier? I get why money might not be used, but why no experience?
    • Fake Longevity.
    • Because you wouldn't be able to have any sort of streak if the Pokemon you use keep gaining levels and cannot be used anymore in the facilities.
  • Does the Pokemon World have any sort of violent crime? You think with Pokemon such as Charizard, or Alakazam, that criminals would be running rampant..
    • Criminal-police arms race. Criminals have such access to Pokemon - but so do the people who stop criminals.
    • Haven't you played Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness/Time/Sky? There are plenty of Pokemon criminals, and there are bounty rewards for explorer teams that capture them.
    • Many of the pokemons will refuse to work with them if they try too much, and those that do will be stopped by the other pokemons (especially if they have good trainers; maybe the good trainers are more calm, although this is not necessary for this to work).
  • Don't the girls get cold from wearing skimpy clothing all the time?
    • Same reason joggers who wear skin-tight or skimpy clothing don't get cold... because they're getting blood pumping, easy as that!
      • "Getting blood pumping" would only make you colder faster. I think what you're getting at is "generating heat through physical activity". I'd like to use different words, but then I'd start going all Bio-major on you, and undoubtedly leave more than a few of you wondering what the hell I'm talking about.


  • It's stated in the Pokedex that "Lick" will paralyze any Pokemon that it's used on. How is saliva able to paralyze somebody?
    • I think the idea is that they're paralyzed by pure Squick.
    • I'm not sure, I've seen this "Ghost Licks Paralyze" trope in other games as well, I think this might be Older Than They Think...
    • You know how Dungeons & Dragons-style Ghouls have a paralysing touch? Kinda like that.
    • Obviously the saliva contains poison
  • So how does the education system work in Pokemon? How do kids get licensed as Pokemon Trainers?
    • All children go to school for five years. After that, their grades are evaluated. 20% of the kids (those with the worst overall grades) are promptly given a "trainer's license" and kicked out.
  • Does their entire world revolve around Pokemon?
    • Yes. Literally, probably, I'll bet that their earth's core is a mass of Slugma and Macargo.
  • So where do trainers get money to buy potions and food anyway?
    • ...Seriously? You don't know? It's not as if trainers are piss poor or that they don't have means to get money, or savings, or parents, or whatever, what kind of question is that?
    • Given that most trainers are kids...tell me, have you ever heard of "pocket money"? It's probably a ritual in Hoenn etc. to save up small amounts of money from 5–10 years old, then depend upon that, winnings, gifts, rewards, and whatever you find on trees.
  • Are Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar forms of dead Pokemon or are they their own entity?
    • Well, we see a ghost Marowak, so we can assume actual ghosts take the form of whatever they were while alive. Since you can breed Gastlys, it's probable that they're simply their own species of gas things that happen to usually live in creepy locations, and people just thought they were ghosts.
      • Which makes me wonder, if they are of different natures, then why do Gastlys & Haunters and the dead Cubones & Marowaks all appear as vague blobs before you get the silph scope?
      • Maybe the Gastlys and Haunters are also dead, and you're fighting the ghosts of the Ghost Pokemon.
      • Could be that it's simply part of Gastly's natural power set - the ability to cloak yourself as a terrifying spectre rather than a simple grinning purple ball would naturally scare people, protecting you from being caught by anyone without some kind of psychic sensitivity to override it. The Silph Scope counterfeits this, and in later games, a similar system could be installed into Pokegear, Pokenav, or even the later generations of Pokedex.
      • Perhaps this line is proof that some Pokemon fail to adapt to continued life and a whole species dies out. Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar could be a three-form species based on the environmental death of another three-form species.
        • THIS. Now you know which one.
    • The Gastly line's species is listed as Gas Pokemon (hence, "GAStly"). They're actually composed of gas, and are probably grouped as the Ghost Type because of similar physical properties.
  • Why do Bellossom and Politoed make little sense compared to the "original" evolutionary path of a given Pokémon? I realize the concept of branching evolution didn't exist at the time Gloom and Poliwhirl were created, but they look nothing like their new evolutions, almost to the point of ridiculousness when you compare Gloom, Vileplume, and Bellossom, or compare Poliwhirl, Poliwrath, and Politoed. Specifically: Gloom's flower in no way sets up for Bellossom, and Poliwhirl doesn't really look like he could become bright green...
    • Maybe Gloom to Bellosom makes little sense, but they are plants; they can change whatever they want. Poliwhirl, on the other hand... if you haven't noticed, it's based on a tadpole! What do tadpoles become when they grow up? Yeah, there is your explanation.
      • Hm. Just looked it up; you're right. I'd assumed Poliwhirl and Poliwrath were frogs, I guess... which makes it slightly weird that Poliwrath is one of Poliwag's final forms and is aesthetically tougher-looking than a fully-matured frog (I know there's some kind of proper complaint in here, dammit!)
    • If it's any consolation, Bellossom's original artwork gave her a blue body.
    • Additionally, in regards to the flower, just split Gloom's bud thing, then let it mature. If Doduo can grow another head, and if Vulpix can grow additional tails, Gloom can grow another flower.
    • Actually, branching evolution did exist in generation 1. Remember eevee?
  • Why can't Godchu gain a win on any Pokemon in the Electabuzz line? The only victory he has was when he teamed up with another Pikachu. It's like the writers knew he was the mascot and gave him victories on loads of Pokemon, but always thought Electabuzz was the superior electric Pokemon.
    • It finally gained one against Volkner's Electivire.
    • Electabuzz IS the superior electric Pokemon, even without evolving!
  • Is there any reason why Gary decided to become a pokemon researcher?
    • Couldn't afford a bus ticket?
    • First of all, I had thought that as he grew, he realized that battling wasn't the be-all and end-all of Pokemon, and he wanted to learn more about them. Second of all, are you seriously going to complain about the little tiny smidge of character development they give us?
  • Who else thinks that there should be at least one type pair that can attack each other For Massive Damage, and/or a pair that are defensively strong against one another, rather than straight-up Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors? For example, Psychic pokemon could be weak against Ghost attacks because they're more sensitive on the spiritual level, but Ghost pokemon are weak against Psychic attacks because they live entirely on the plane where Psychic attacks do their stuff and without a body to hold them together (metaphorically or literally) while they regain their senses, or the other way around where Psychic pokemon are strong against Ghost attacks because of practice in tranquility and focus, and Ghost pokemon are strong against Psychic type attacks because they're beings of spirit and Psychic attacks would just be fighting fire with fire. Yes, I know the "both attacks stronger than both defenses" makes more sense (and two pokemon that had strong attacks against each other would be less frustrating than two pokemon that could only use Cherry Tapping attacks against each other), and I have thought this about a couple of different elemental pairings, but I wanted to give a more impartial example.
    • It took me some time checking the type chart on Bulbapedia, but I managed to remember the most obvious example of how that actually does happen already: Ghost and Normal; both types are completely unneffective against the other.
      • And that's cool, isn't it? Annoying, because you have to make sure any Normal or Ghost pokemon you have have alternate type attacks before going up against an opponent that specializes in the opposing type, since it's No Effect rather than Weak, but cool.
    • Don't forget mutual-resisting Bug and Fighting.
    • This is besides the point, but this Troper wouldn't mind a Light-type being introduced so we could have a mutual-super effective duo. Of course, the Psychic-type is essentially Light-type here, but...
    • Dragon is also super effective against other dragons.
  • Why are Pokemon's movements so weird? I don't mean the attacks, I mean the movements when they're out of their pokeballs. In Crystal, they were well done, moving a part of the body and at the same time of the cry, very natural, but in Emerald and beyond, they don't make any sense! Pokemon like Abra and Meditite jump even though they're sitting! And in generation IV many pretty much inflate and deflate for no reason. I know that animating 493 different types of pokemons in a unique way is kind of hard, but it just bugs me how unnatural all of the movements look.
    • Abra and Meditite are Psychic; they could be floating.
  • How do Pokemon with no visible mouths like Hitmonlee eat food?
    • Hitmonlee have mouths under their fur. Some others just crumble it down so that it can be absorbed through a patch of easily permeated skin where their mouths "should" be. And some simply don't eat food, they just eat SOULS emotions and other environmental energy.
      • So how do those Pokemon eat berries and such?
        • Berries are alive, or at least have something on the psychoemotional plane. See the item entry for that type of berry that "swells roundly" when they sense human emotions. That, or they use a straw.
    • On that same subject, why does Mamoswine have no mouth?
      • Mamoswine does have a mouth, it's just hidden under that 'tasche of fur under their nose. Dawn has to stick her hand underneath there to feed her Mamoswine Poffins. Also, in Uncrushing Defeat you can see Mamoswine has a tongue too. Anatomically sound.
  • The "discovery" of new Pokemon every couple years. While this allows new Pokemon and keeps the series from going stale, it leads to a lot of Fridge Logic. Putting aside the issue of "we haven't seen any two years ago, but now there's hundreds of them", what about the baby Pokemon? How the hell could people have known about Pikachu without knowing about Pichu?
    • For the last question: the same way they didn't know about eggs. Pokemon reproduction is obviously not what we would expect. For the issue as a general... there's no better way to handle that without recurring to patches, which are only possible from this generation and forward. Since the games are not rewritable software, it just won't happen.
    • In the anime, at least, a flashback from before the show's beginning has Ash watching a movie with Gen II Pokemon (starring Red, no less). Not sure about the games.
      • Also, Ho-Oh shows up in the very first episode.
    • Well, to be fair... look at the things that have baby forms: Pikachu lived in a small patch of grass in the back left corner of a creepy forest. Magmar... where did Magmar live in the Gen I games exactly?[1] Was it at all easy to find? Jynx was likely in the same island cave as Articuno.[2] Clefairy lived in a cave that was mostly populated by Zubat (plus it was so incredibly shy that finding the darn things was next-to impossible). Electabuzz lived in an abandoned electricity generation facility filled with belligerent Pokeball monsters and a gigantic electric bird. They probably didn't have Wobbuffets, Marills, Roselias, Chimecos, Sudowoodos, Mantines, and Togepi's line in Kanto at the time. There are only two Snorlaxes at most in Kanto that are encountered in the wild and all they do is sleep. Mr. Mime was only found in one patch of grass in-between Pallet and Cinnabar and... really... who even DREAMS of breeding for more of that abomination? Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee are probably too focused on fighting and whatnot to ever think about breeding. Lucario is incredibly rare as it is and it's a REAL pain to get a female Riolu or a Ditto in the region Lucario is from. Chansey is found pretty exclusively in the Safari Zone in Gen I if I remember correctly and... who's going through the Safari Zone to look for babies when you can get attacked by Scythers, Pinsirs, and Kangaskhans. The ONLY Pokemon that baby forms should have been logically and easily discovered for is Jigglypuff because it lives directly to the right of Pewter City. Of course, Professor Oak could have just talked to other professors to learn about these things, but... it only took them a couple of years more to discover these things for Pokemon like Pikachu and Clefairy, so... eh, suspension of disbelief.
    • This troper always thought that it wasn't that they didn't knew about them, it was just that they were on another region and thus you couldn't know about them until you went to that region. Geodudes and Zubats are common mons because they represent rocks and bats, which are not that uncommon in caves all around the world, then Mamoswine just needs colder habitat, like how it's rare for grizzly bears to show up outside of america (ursaring), but there are rats pretty much everywhere. At least they patch this up with the Unova region being very far from the more close Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions.
  • Why do Ash & Pikachu KEEP ATTACKING TEAM ROCKET WITH ELECTRICITY??? Jessie & James caught on to that A DECADE AGO!
    • Because Iron Tail would kill them, and using Pikachu is just the quickest way to keep them distracted until they can be bound/foiled/blasted off again.
      • Iron Tail would kill them? But shocking with high voltage lightning and launching them into the stratosphere is perfectly fine?!
        • Of course. Electricity is practically harmless (Ash knew that long before Team Rocket ever showed up), and Team Rocket always survives blasting off again. Iron Tail was designed to send non-piercing damage through the stone skin of Rock-type pokemon, and would obviously shatter any weak human bone that it struck (such as ribs or skull).
          • Harmless? Pikachu electrocuted Onix, the GROUND-BASED ROCK snake, in the first season. Imagine how powerful his electric shocks are four to five generations later?
            • It electrocuted an Onix THAT WAS BEING SOAKED BY THE SPRINKLER SYSTEM. Without the sprinklers, electricity was useless on it.
    • We have a Trope for this: Plot Induced Stupidity.
  • WHY ARE THERE NO CARS?!?! Seriously? They've got trains, buses, ships, helicopters, motorcycles, and bicycles! Is it too hard to build roads, or what? The only thing remotely resembling a car that we see is a moving van!
    • There are cars, they're just not seen very often as Ash and friends spend most of their time in the wilderness. In the first season we see that bridge that's inaccesible to pedestrians, but allows bikes and cars. Also, in Diamond and Pearl, Brock rode on an 18 wheeler.
    • That in the anime. In the games there aren't any because they aren't needed, and enough with yelling the stupid questions.
    • There was a truck in Red/Blue, wasn't it?
    • I always thought that we never saw cars because maybe there were special routes set aside for trainers, where no vehicles were allowed. That way the cars wouldn't scare away wild Pokemon or run over anyone.
      • This troper just assumed everyone has capsule cars like in dragonball
    • There are cars in Pokemon Black and White.
      • So Officer Jenny's finally in the games?
    • In Pokémon Special, both Wallace and Cyrus have flying cars.
    • In the anime, there's been several cars, such as those owned by Bertha, Scott, Cynthia, a ton of people going to the surfing competition in Seafoam, all the police agents in movie 3, and so on. Although as far as named characters go, we've seen about as many who own cars as who own airships.
    • Colosseum and XD also included a few vehicles.
    • In the Pokemon world, where a lot of people either are trainers or used to be (either way, pretty much everyone owns a Pokemon) it's likely that people who need to travel a lot could use Fly with a flying-type Pokemon, instead of spending money on vehicles and maintence and fuel. For all we know, gas prices in Kanto could be outrageous!
    • Go look at Unova. There are both the Skyarrow Bridge and the highway through the Route Four desert.
    • To avoid taking up space by roads for cars. Maybe also avoid the pollution by cars.
  • Do Pokemon get old? Naturally nothing ages onscreen, but has there ever been an old Pokemon ever in canon?
    • Tracey's Scyther?
    • Also that pilot's old Noctowl in Johto.
    • And an elderly Treecko in the episode when Ash caught his own Treecko.
    • Come on, I can't be the only one who remembers Pooka.
    • Ash and friends once met a thousand-year-old Ninetails. It didn't show any signs of aging at all, but that's probably justified considering Ninetails is based off of Japanese mythology.
  • Does anyone know the off-screen reason why Ash got rid of Primeape? It seems odd that they made it such a hard Pokémon to capture (devoting an entire episode to it), then having Ash go through all that effort to get Primeape to obey him, and then immediately turn around and get rid of it. Did they plan it that way from the start just to showcase the concept of disobediant Pokémon? Did they change their minds, not wanting Ash to have such a powerful team mate? Did fans not like Primeape, so they wrote it out to please them? Just curious.
    • I think Ash left it with Anthony so it could become stronger...
      • S/he said the "off-screen reason" i.e. the REAL reason. The reason why the shows' writers thought it would be a good idea to have a trainer show up, offer to train Primeape, and have Ash agree to it in the first place.
        • Because Ash is not allowed to have any fully evolved Pokémon. It's the rule. Whenever Ash's pokemon evolves, he has to trade it away or leave it with someone.
        • First off, the above statement is so ill-informed it hurts (Ash's Sceptile, Muk, Glalie, Torterra, Infernape, etc etc say hi). Secondly, it was probably removed due to low popularity (And they had to make room for the Charmeleon/Charizard, who would essentially fill Primeape's roll in addition to being a popular character).
    • The cartoon was stuck on generic cuteness back then. Charizard got a pass because they anticipated Americans would like it and it was referencing the trading issue from the games.
  • Just how does the Pokedex work? In the games, it sounds like your character is entering the data. The manga is a bit more confusing, as Oak describes it as an encyclopedia, but then tells Red to enter his data when he meets a new Pokemon. Nearly every time he uses the thing, he's at least somewhat surprised by the data, so it's clear not all the data is his own, so where does that data come from?
    • The Pokedex is clearly a wireless access terminal to a wiki all Pokemon trainers can edit. Professor Oak must keep the server in his lab. Whenever information in the Pokedex seems like a pile of bullshit, it's because an asshole trainer decided it would be fun to troll the other trainers.
  • Does anyone wonder why Palkia is a Water and Dragon type? What does time have to do with Water? I'd assume Psychic (and Dragon) to be a better choice... than again I remember it being weird that Lugia isn't a Water and Flying rather than Psychic and Flying.
    • Alright, in the beginning, what covered the earth? Water.
    • Space Is an Ocean.
    • Because pearls are from the ocean. Of course, this doesn't explain why Dialga isn't Dragon/Ground.
      • Perhaps because you need a time machine to time travel? I dunno...
      • Don't any of you guys read the script? Dialga is Time.
        • ...Am I missing something?
          • The original question somehow implied that Palkia was related to time. (The real question had to have been about Palkia. Dialga isn't a Water type.)
            • And now it shifted to Dialga, who is Steel. And no, I don't think you need a machine to time travel, that's just one of the possible devices.
              • What are the other possible devices then? Hey, it's an explanation that works, just roll with it.
                • Well, Butterfly Effect used journal pages and photographs, and in some other stories the time travel is made just as a special power, without any sort of device (like Braid), not to mention magic. And no, I don't have a better explanation, I just felt like leaving a lil' refutation.
    • Maybe it is because space is always expanding, like a puddle of water (sort of), and time only goes in one direction for most beings, the flow being as solid as steel and requiring a tremendous amount of power to break? And to add to that, as stated, pearls are from the ocean. Also, diamonds are harder than steel. Steel is the hardest type in the games. So until they create a diamond type...
    • Space is expansive, like water, while Time is solid and immutable, like steel?
  • Why the heck does the game even feel the NEED to have LEVEL 60 METAPODS?
    • Lethal Joke Character gone wrong? I enjoy leveling up certain pokemon without evolving them, even if I never enter competitive play. Maybe the trainer just likes metapods, or the metapods in the area find it more suitable to stay as metapods for a few tens of levels, or even close to or all of their whole natural lives (hoping they could finish metamorphosing at the last minute, like mayflies, or not bother to evolve at all)?
    • Okay, since it was put back, let me ask a question back: why should the game not have lvel 60 metapods? Should some sort of constraining rule forbid metapods, and only metapods, from reaching level 60? How would that make any sense?
      • The only person with level 60 Metapods is a trainer in Kanto's forest in Heartgold. He only uses three Metapod on that level, all only using Harden (when I recall correctly). Why does such a person bother you with a match with a team that is in no way capable of hurting you? To embarass this retard I used only a Level 5 or so Togepi and won, even if it took several minutes.
      • Because there are no area of that level with wild Metapod, and it was supposed to evolve 50 levels ago. Even if, for some reason, you wanted a Buterfree with Bug Bite (The last move Caterpie learns; Metapod only learns Harden), then You would get a Metapod at level 15 and a Butterfree at level 17. The point is, that guy should have had 3 Butterfrees.
    • Does the level 100 magikarp bother you too, then?
    • My problem with them would be...
  • Why do ONLY your from-Caterpie evolved and Gym Leader Bugsy's Metapods know the moves Tackle, String Shot, and Harden but all wild Metapods and all the ones from other trainers don´t? They should have naturally learned that moves from simply being a Caterpie, so do ALL Metapods in the games except your and Bugsys ones pop into the world?
    • This was mentioned in this page before: Pokemon that belong to trainers are stronger than those in the wild. I assume Metapods on the wild don't need to fight much (it's a cocoon, it should retain its energy for metamorphosis), so it has no reason to retain fighting moves like Tackle, and it already used String Shot for its intended purpose (make a cocoon). When you evolve a Caterpie, its mind is tuned to battle, so it doesn't forget those useful moves. The reason why only Bugsy's Metapod has Tackle must be because he caught it as a Caterpie, while the other trainers didn't.
  • Also, why do Caterpie when evolving into Metapod on a level other than seven not learn Harden? It´s like their signature move. A literal bug in the game for me.
    • It's not much a bug, more like a game engine idiosincrasy: the game data says that Metapod learns Harden at level 7, so if you evolve your Caterpie at level 8 or beyond, it won't retroactively learn that move (though it'll be able to remember it with the Move Relearner).
  • What the hell is with the Olivine-Cianwood gym hodgepodge? Seriously, if you train for one of them, you only get wild pokemon to train for the other. It was bad in the originals, and infuriating in the remakes, because they have an easy remedy in the form of the vs. seeker...which leads to the below IJBM.
  • Why is the Vs. seeker left out of Heart Gold and Soul Silver? It's easily one of the most important key items in the Sinnoh games, and these leave it out, despite needing it more than ever. And they can't even uses the 'it's a remake' excuse because the Vs. seeker was introduced in a remake.
    • Wasn't the Vs. Seeker the Poké Gear's phone in Gold/Silver/Crystal? I'm pretty sure people called you to battle when they were ready or something like that...
      • You can use the phone, but it's nowhere near as reliable as the VS Seeker. Only certain trainers will battle on certain days, and even then, it can take several calls before they finally agree to it. The only way to effectively train your team in the earlier stages is to do a little Sequence Breaking, going to Mahogany Town and taking down Team Rocket early. Still, considering even the wild Pokémon around here are around level 15, I guess they keep you from raising your team too much since there are twice as many gyms in this game and figure it's better to spread the training out a little more. Not very well implemented though.
        • If you really need extra levels, use the Pokewalker. But be careful, it would suck to accidentally skip a vital move before you have access to the Move Tutor...
  • Why does the Pokeathlon not have alternate controls? Everything else in the game can be done with buttons rather than a stylus, but not one of the best new features. It would be easy to do, and a godsend to people with lost styli (or is it styluses?) or damaged touchscreens
    • Same thing about the Poffin Making in D/P/Pt, I guess, they want to use the DS's unique feature. And, while I didn't get to that part of the game yet, I'm betting that there are some things that you just can't do with buttons...
      • Use your fingernails, These aren't iPhones.
        • Don't. That's how my cousin destroyed my old DS Lite.
      • One simply uses a Q tip.
    • Or if you don't like touch screens. (I don't like touch screens, myself; however, using a stylus is better than having to touch it by hand)
  • Does it actually say outside the anime that you start your journey at 10? I can't remember if it does in the original games or not.
    • I'm not sure, but I just assumed that age 10 was the minimum required age to become a licensed pokemon trainer. You could start your journey anytime after that.
    • The Red and Blue version manuals actually say that "You are an 11-year-old boy".
  • In Platinum, why does some guy just up and give you, a young kid, an empty villa?
    • It contains incriminating evidence he wants to dispose of.
  • From the item sprite, Ethers and Max Ethers are clearly in man-made containers, like Potions and the like. Yet you can find them inside of smashed rocks. What.
    • As a side-note these games are published by the same people who give you legal tender and ammo inside jars and the grass.
    • Going by the earlier theory that those rocks are actually the poop of rock and steel types in the cave, maybe an Onix ate a trainer?
    • Maybe you're finding some other trainer's hidden stash.
    • Or maybe you find the item loose and put it in the containers you keep for such purposes.
    • This sounds rather obvious...someone drops it there. However one thing I'd like to see something done in a Pokémon game is finding trash left by other trainers and then turning them in for collectibles.
  • Where in the hell does the player-character's mother shop in the Gen 2 remakes? She seems to buy an awful lot of impossible-to-find items and berries.
  • If Electric moves are super effective against Water types because water conducts electricity, shouldn't Steel types be vulnerable for the same reason?
    • Good question. It must have something to do with game balance, because it's only weak for attacking electric, but not for defense.
    • That can actually be easily answered. Steel is not weak against Eelctric because, unlike water, it is in metals' natural condition to conduct electricity; even for relatively large amounts, where what changes notoriously is the temperature of the metal rather than (before) its internal composition. Compare water and pretty much anything organic, which can be unreversibly disrupted by a high electrical current (think skin tissue).
    • Plus, while they both conduct electricity, metal (normally) keeps its form and composition intact when electrocuted. On the other hand, electrocuting water is one way to split it up into its base elements (electrolysis) - in other words, breaking it up when subjected to a strong enough electric current.
  • Speaking of which, why is fighting good against steel? If you tried punching metal you're far more likely to hurt yourself. Same is true with Rock v. fighting.
    • I figured it had to do with the way steel is molded or shaped... just minus the necessary heat. Most logical thing would be to say that fighting type moves would exert enough pressure to harm a steel (or rock) body.
    • The Rock component is supposed to invoke martial artists cutting through rocks with their hands; Steel must just be a continuation of that. Either way, it's to balance out Fighting as an out-of-universe answer.
      • Similar to Bug being strong against Dark type for no apparent reason?
    • Fist is stronger than steel!


  • Why did team Magma/Aqua use the Blue/Red Orb to summon Groudon/Kyogre in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire? YMMV but to me, you would summon a land spirit with a red orb, and a sea spirit with a blue orb, and not the other way around.
    • Notice that they were pissed off when they awoke. Groudon and Kyogre were likely enraged into appearing due to their opposing element's presence. Heck, each may have thought that the other was somewhere near.
      • True, but irrelevant. I asked why Magma/Aqua thought it was a good idea, not why Game Freak did.
    • We have a trope for this: Plot Induced Stupidity. Who said team Magma and Team Aqua were smart? Their plan is to expand the land or ocean to have more space for their pokemon. Maxie tries to erupt a volcano that's nowhere near the ocean, and Archie apparently doesn't think that maybe because there is land, that people would get overcrowded quickly if not die out in the floods?
  • Why are Dark types called "Evil" in Japan when they're pretty much no different than other types? The only remotely evil things about them are their appearances (and even that's debatable in some cases) and their use of dirty tactics.
    • Yes it's the dirty tactics.
      • But being a Combat Pragmatist doesn't necessarily make you evil.
        • If you're fighting for your life, maybe not. But resorting to cheap tricks in an organized League-sponsored match won't earn you much respect. Groin attacks are useful when you're being accosted, but they're not allowed in boxing.
          • That's because you're not allowed to use your feet!
    • When you get down to it, they're basically an Asshole type. There's a difference between Combat Pragmatist and being an asshole... and usually that difference is whether we're supposed to think the person is a hero or a villain. From a neutral standpoint, most Combat Pragmatist moves are straight up mean. And Dark moves often seem to go past Combat Pragmatist to, well, Jerkass.
    • They used the words "dark" and "evil" to describe it; that doesn't necessarily mean that it is necessarily actually dark or evil.
  • Larvitar and Tyranitar are dinosaurs. Pupitar is a cocoon. What.
    • Not dinosaurs, kaiju. Which can have some odd life cycles.
      • So, its line is a mashup of Minilla/Junior, Mothra, and Godzilla Shout Outs?
        • You say that like it's a bad thing!


  • In first and second generation games, why do I have to go through the trouble to get the Flute and Radio Cards? Why can't I just throw a Poke Ball at the damn sleeping Snorlax blocking the road and call it a day?
    • Because a Snorlax with full health isn't that easily catchable, even when it's sleeping. Why you can't just fight it while it's sleeping, though, is another story...
      • Sure it is. You just throw a Pokeball and it goes inside. This will end one of two ways: either it will be a successful catch, and you will have a Snorlax, or it will break free, an action that requires it to wake up first. Either way, mission accomplished.
        • Have you ever tried to capture a sleeping pokemon and fail? I have, and it doesn't wake up.
        • Bad aim.
          • Curse you, game logic! (shakes fist)
  • Stealth Rock causes stones to float in the air around the opponent, right? If Gravity can take Flying-types and levitators out of the air, why shouldn't it do the same with Stealth Rock?
    • Stealth Rock is just stealthy enough to avoid gravity.
    • They are dragged down by gravity, at which point they work exactly like spikes, only made of rock (or if they work like in the anime, drag themselves along the ground to crush the target), so still have the same effect.
  • Chatot can't learn Bite. Never mind that it's supposed to be a parrot, and parrots have obscenely strong beaks with obscenely strong biting power...
    • Bite has been Dark since second generation. Chatot's too light, since the only pokemon that aren't all dark and creepy or poison/dark type that have it have been grandfathered in from Gen 1 or their lower forms or are fire types (most if not all of which have it under the Gen 1 Grandfather Clause). Ampharos, for example, can't use Bite despite sheep being some of the nastiest herbivores to wield a set of teeth.
      • Moves never follow guidelines like that. Pokemon are always assigned moves regardless of which other Pokemon that can use it.
        • No, but they have descriptions: "Bite: The foe is bitten with viciously sharp fangs. It may make the target flinch." Birds don't have fangs. There isn't a single bird that can learn Bite. Peck, Drill Peck, or Pluck, yes. Bite, no.
    • Maybe it's because the majority of Pokémon that learn Bite and/or Crunch have sharp teeth, whereas Chatot doesn't. It ought to at least learn something like Drill Peck, though (and not having a long pointy bill like Fearow never stopped things like Empoleon from getting it). Ah, well - maybe you can assume that Pluck is its bastard parrot bite attack.
  • So Cyrus wants to be rid of emotions. Apparently if you touch Mesprit, you'll lose your emotions in three days. Cyrus had Mesprit to obtain the Red Chain. So... why does he still have emotions the last time you see him? In all likelihood, he had it for longer than three days, and if you consider his closing rant in Platinum, he infers that he'll have to work harder to get rid of them, so it's not simply a matter of that he'd have to wait for the three days to pass. Why didn't he just touch the damn Mesprit and get it over with?
    • On the grounds that maybe, just maybe, Mesprit might know this and instead decides to overload Cyrus with emotions if he touches him/her/it.
    • What Cyrus acutally wanted was for EVERYONE to be devoid of spirit and emotion, not just himself. Simply touching Mesprit wouldn't achive his goal, because while he'd have no emotion, everyone else would.
      • But in the meantime he'd have what he wanted for himself. It'd be a step, and since the very nature of the lake spirits divides emotion from willpower, he'd still have motivation to "save" everyone else.
  • I've got two problems with the whole "leaving a pokemon with another person to get stronger", the first being that it defeats the entire point of being a Pokemon trainer. That is, becoming stronger and learning and making mistakes alongside your team. Second of all, when they really want to leave, that just makes it look like the trainer is completely incompetent. Nice enough to be their friend, but not strong enough to earn their loyalty.
    • The point is that the pokemon benefits from a different perspective. When the new trainer has a different battle style than the old one, it learns more because of the different experiences.
  • Has anyone else noticed that when you fight Misty in the first game, she claims her strategy is all out offensive, yet in the battle she goes on the defensive, spamming Harden and X-Defend?
    • Obviously a clever bluff so that you'll be expecting an all-out offensive, then be caught off guard when you don't get one. Misty is a tricky snake!
      • That doesn't seem too effective; the opposite (appearing meek but striking fast) would be better. However, there may be an socio-emotional component to this, (see the "tomboy" IJBM below).
  • Something this troper noticed when playing Platinum. How is it possible for Dugtrio to learn slash?!I mean, they're just three heads poking out from the ground!
    • Whatever is below ground, it obviously has claws.
    • I'm pretty sure there's a similar question above, but... it's a mole(or three moles joined by the neck), so it has claws.
      • Diglett. Imagine 3 of those. Dugtrio with slash is totally justified.
  • How does whoever manufactures the Potion line of medicine stay in business? The super potion has literally the medicinal value of a bottle of mineral water! Is the player the only one in the world to ever notice that you can get better healing items from a freaking vending machine at half the price?
    • Because no one bothers to set up such machines anywhere but one building in a major city, while potions are everywhere. Also only Colo and XD let you buy more than one at a time (in which games you do indeed never buy many potions once you hit the vending machines) which is annoying enough to just fork over the extra money to buy 99 at a time. There is also no full restore equivalent of drinks.
    • Maybe potions and super potions are physically much, much smaller than cans of water, and thus it is much more convenient to carry them, physically. Of course, Gameplay and Story Segregation explains why the player never notices the difference in size, and the convenience of buying in bulk is the out-of-universe explanation.
  • What's with Clamperl's evolutions? A pearl releasing "Psychic Powers" turns it into an eel/pipefish, with the help of a tooth or a scale?
  • Why on earth would the english translators decide to name it "PurUGLY?" What exactly is ugly about it?
    • It has kinks in its whiskers and its fur pattern makes it look like it's about to burst out of clothes several aizes too small for it. Besides, its original name contains a possible use of the Japanese word for ugly to begin with.
    • Who cares what it looks like, its a bully, an ugly trait.
  • What is the point of Phione? Is there some myth/legend that ties it up to Manaphy? It's pretty much just a clone only worse...
    • It is an unevolved manaphy.
      • No, the species is normally Phiones, it's just that occasionally a Manaphy is born of them.[3] That's why Phiones can breed more Phiones and Manaphys only produce more Phiones as well.
  • A Magneton is composed of three Magnemite, but weighs more than ten Magnemite. Fucking magnets, how do they work?
    • A Magneton is only said to be comprised of three Magnemite in the Pokédex, which most people agree is inaccurate. In truth, a Magneton is just one Magnemite that has evolved. And like any other evolved Pokémon, it's bigger and heavier than it's previous form.
      • While the Pokedex is inaccurate about many things, that's not one of them. It may be that they gain access to more power in a group, and the extra magnetism/power capacity makes them weigh more/push down on the earth more.
      • So going by E = mc2... gulp...
      • Good guesses but forgetting about Pokedex problems this series was never good with weight. Look at Onix.
    • Weight is, literally, amount of force that the earth (or equivalent, if on another planet) is applying to the object. Most pokemon are only affected by the earth's gravity, but Magnemite/ton/zone are also affected by its magnetic field. And because they're such strong magnets that they're capable of levitating themselves, when they're brought down to earth to be weighed, they're flipped, and thus attract to the earth by the same amount - for Magnemite, this just doubles their real weight, but Magneton aren't aligned with the magnetic field, so their magnet strength must be much more than equal to their weight. Or, they just didn't think it through when giving both weight and description.
  • So.....what becomes of Pokemon that the various Teams IE: Rockets and such in the anime used when they are arrested, like Annie and Oakly had an Espeon and Aridos, so...what becomes of them when they were arrested, and wouldn't the Pokemon revolt against new trainers or such if they cared for their Rocket (or other team members) owners?
    • They probably count as possesions and are put in a storage system while their trainers serve whatever sentence they're given. There's probably some visitation opputunities provided.
  • What does Satoshi Tajiri think of the anime? Everyone keeps saying how he loves the games and some of the manga, but does he just hate the show or something? And if so, why does he not take more direct involvement in it? Is he like Alan Moore or something?
    • He made the game(duh) and adventures/special is his favorite adaptation of them (at least it was 10+ years ago). At the very least we know he prefers the manga comics but he probably doesn't hate what makes him so much money in royalties. Why get involved when he can focus on what he does like? It's not as if he's retired from making video games.
  • Why some Pokemon have the ability "Intimidate". What's so Intimidating about a Shinx? (however, it can also have another ability, "Rivalry"). There's no excuse for Staravia, though. It's also an odd ability: a Shinx or a Staravia can lower the attack of Olympus Mons?
    • It's probably some sort of mental power. Instead of being so big and fangy that it scares the opponent, it causes the opponent a distinct sense of unease regardless of how big or psychically powerful the opponent is.
      • So, Intimidate basically works like Fluttershy's Stare.
  • Gliscor and Gligar, Ground/Flying. HOW?
    • By leaping forth from their earthy abodes and using their wings to aid them in catching their prey. Their names are derived from the word "glide", which makes sense for creatures that are capable of flying but must return to the ground eventually.
      • Still doesn't explain the Ground type.
        • Umm...perhaps, because they're based on bats, which sleep in caves, and scorpions, many of which are ground dwellers...?
    • I think they're based on so-called "sugar gliders", hence the name. The sugar glider is an Australian possum (not to be confused with an opossum). As the possum is a family mostly known for scurrying along the ground, the developers decided it would be a Ground type. As the sugar glider is capable of gliding through the air (but not actual flight - gligar and gliscor can't learn Fly, you'll note), they decided it would be a Flying type. And the rest, as they say, is history.
  • Porygon2 is repeatedly stated by the Pokédex to be incapable of flight. But why is it always shown hovering in the air in the 3D games and even in the Pokédex's size comparison area? (It's my favourite Pokémon, natch)
    • The Pokedex is wrong?
    • Maybe it can hover, but not actually fly, and needs to land to move at any significant speed?
    • It's probably just that it can hover above the ground, but it can't go any higher than that hover.
  • Platinum's Battle Factory, Level 100 mode. Rhydon and Porygon2 can be used, but Pokemon such as the Hitmons, Ninjask, and Wobbuffet cannot. Also, they are the only two not-fully evolved Pokemon that can be used in this mode (Magneton, Dusclops, and others cannot be used, for example). Why is this?
    • Are you sure that the Hitmons and Ninjask don't show up at all, rather than just being fairly uncommon? (I'm not surprised regarding Wobbuffet) Also, are you sure that Scyther and Onix don't show up? I ask because these are two other not-fully-evolved pokemon that might show up due to having some advantages over their evolved forms.
  • The funny thing about all the pokedex entries is that I think there's an episode of the show that Lampshades this. In one episode of the first series they meet a researcher who wrote entries for the dex and called him out on how some of the entries were mean. He Handwaved it by saying that "Maybe my assistant threw that in. I think his assistant(s) have been smoking something.
  • In Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Something-or-other (Frontier, I think), why did Clayton (the guy who used all of the ridiculous abbreviations) repeatedly call himself a Pokemon-trainer Martial Artist instead of a Pokemart? Did they just not want to stoop thjat low for the obvious pun?
    • It's Sinnoh League Victors. Also, this makes me wish that Dawn had called upon Pachirisu, simply so he could have called him Dawnpachi.
  • Pokeballs are around five inches tall. Voltorb are about a foot tall. How do you mistake a Voltorb for a Pokeball?
    • If you mean the items that turn out to be Voltorbs, the Gamecube games show that the "Pokeball items" are not in Pokeballs, but Pokeball-themed chests, about the size of a Voltorb. Of course, they aren't shaped like Voltorb now... Maybe Orre's item boxes are just uniquely shaped, and the others are round?
      • The Pokédex states that both Voltorb and Electrode are mistaken for Poké Balls. A Poké Ball is a little bigger than a baseball. Voltorb are one-foot-eight (50 cm). Electrode are three-foot-eleven (1,2 meters). What?
      • This could be explained by a page in the manga that had many, many Voltorbs and Electrodes of WILDLY varying sizes, with some Electrodes as small as regular Pokéballs, and a Voltorb as big as a regular Electrode. No clue how that happens, but it was in the manga. x'3
      • Pokémon trainers have AWFUL depth perception?
      • Maybe Voltorb and Electrode change size depending on how much electricity they contain and/or can change their own size of their own free will (like how some animals try to make themselves seem bigger when confronted), and whenever you find a Pokéball only to find it's a Voltorb or Electrode, it was sleeping and thus was in a smaller size.
    • Certain characters in some of the Pokemon games ask you to show them particularly large pokemon of a certain species. This confirms that, in the games, much as in the manga (as noted above) and, presumably, anime, the sizes given by the pokedex are merely typical. I'd imagine that voltorbs and electrodes have relatively large variations in size.
  • Why can a thousand pound whale mate with a 2 pound cat?. How is said whale only a thousand pounds? How can a water dragon possibly bounce? Why are children encouraged to go out into the wilderness alone where wild monsters lurk?
    • Said whale can also bounce. As can a fish with a tail that looks like wings.
    • Why does said thousand-pound whale weigh less than a sixth the weight of a blue whale's tongue?
      • Wailord is blue and a whale but it's not a blue whale, so...
      • Hell, Wailord is the source of a lot of Fridge Logic, mostly involving its size. For example, how can you use it in buildings? How can it be used on dry land period without its weight causing it to suffocate? How can it move on dry land at all?
        • Lampshaded here...
        • Hell, how does something fifty feet long only weigh nine hundred pounds? With some very rough estimation of its volume, it would appear to be less than twice as dense as air at STP (which incidentally answers your question as to how its body doesn't crush itself when on dry land...).
      • This also applies to a lot of fish Pokémon (except for the flailing Magikarp). In the 3D games they appear to be hovering.
      • Wailmer is based on a beach ball and Wailord is based on a blimp. Their weights are still off but not by that much. The Pokemon you should be asking about is Onix.
  • Ghost-type Pokémon can mate. This becomes especially bizarre in light of the fourth-generation Pokémon Spiritomb, who is composed of 108 spirits and can nonetheless mate. Or maybe this is just a weird case of xenobiology? (Then again, though, one character in the first-generation games [and again in FireRed and LeafGreen] referred to ghosts as having explicitly been killed.)
    • There seem to be two kinds of 'ghosts' in the pokémon-'verse. Ghost-type pokémon, who were never alive in the first place (or were, but have forms that remind people of "real" ghosts,) and ghosts of existing pokémon, such as the ghosts in the Old Chateau and the Marowak ghost in the Pokémon Tower.
    • Ghost-type pokemons are not (usually) actual ghosts, just having some of the properties of ghosts, which means that they are ghost type.
  • Thhe best bit of Fridge Logic has to be why one would have to use a Poke Flute to wake up a Snorlax blocking the road to battle it, only to put it back to sleep in-battle to make it easier to catch...
  • How is it that a Pokemon can use a move like Rain Dance indoors? It's not like it'll start raining from the ceiling, and I've always gotten the impression that water-type moves would be pwoered up it the Pokemon is exposed to the rain.
    • They trigger the sprinkler system? I kinda want to know how they use Sunny Day or Hail inside.
    • Pokemons have their own water, and the rain dance will spread it like raining.
  • So I noticed in the Gen IV games during battle, you can see your team's Pokéballs lined up above the attack menu and sometimes, some of the Pokéballs seem to wobble for some reason. In Heart Gold I tried shuffling the team around a bit and realised it was always my Noctowl that was wobbling. So what's this mechanic for? Does it indicate some type advatange/disadvantage? Is it based on my Pokémon's nature? Or is it just for fun?
    • Wobbling means that that Pokemon is about to level up.
      • Ahh, okay, thanks.
  • They go through the trouble of making half a spritesheet (just missing bikeing and fishing poses, plus one for summoning something to use an HM) for a Team Rocket outfit wearing MC in HGSS and use it for less than 2 mins, then don't allow you to use it again ever except for a single meaningless photo. What.
    • Because it's not as hard to create as others might be?
  • Scizor takes neutral damage from rock type attacks. Why?
    • Because it's part bug, which are vulnerable to rock attacks, but it's also part steel which is resistant to rock attacks.
      • It was a joke (rock beats sissors. I know that's "why".
  • Whys isn't Mawile part Dark-type? It's called the Deceiver Pokemon, is based off of a yokai, tricks its enemies, and knows far more Dark-type moves than Steel-type ones.
  • Red's PC "hasn't been used in a long time" and his mom hasn't heard from him for a while, but has a brand new Wii?
    • Red's mother probably bought it for Wii Sports and Wii Fit.
    • She brought it for a gift and he never came home for it until you beat him? Or maybe he did play with it but left? A "long time" can be a few months to years.
  • Why is Bite Dark type? Keep in mind that in Japan, the Dark type is the Evil type. Biting something is evil. Blowing yourself up is perfectly normal. Firing a giant laser at something's face is perfectly fine, but flinging a berry?! How evil! Especially when that berry then heals any damage the Pokemon just took...
    • The Dark type seems to be considered dirty fighting, rather than evil, so Bite would fit in with the rest of the Dark type moves.
    • Also, if you're throwing a healing berry, you're doing it wrong... sort of. The objective of flinging berries(or other items) is to stall the opponent, and that's surely sneaky.
  • Why in the games is there an extreme lack of fire pokemon? Out of 150 pokemon in the first game their were only 8 fire pokemon (counting evolutions).
    • Actually, there were 12 Fire Types in Generation 1. That's better than Sinnoh, were there were only 5 new Fire Types. Hell, before Platinum, you only had the option of Chimchar or Ponyta (Pre-National Dex).
    • Bulbapedia mentions that Fire isn't common in nature and it's kind of hard to find inspirations. Not to mention; Unova adds fifteen fire types.
      • Oh look, somethig I can make a Normal-Type of... I'MMA SET IT ON FIRE AND MAKE A FIRE-TYPE!!!!
  • How can a lvl. 10 Abra possibly teleport before a lvl. 20 Bellsprout uses Sleep Powder?
    • Things are damn fast, and Bellsprout's pretty slow.
    • Touch a hot stovetop. See how quickly your brain tells you to get your hand off the stove. Teleportation is a psychic ability. As such, as soon as its brain gives the command, it teleports.
    • Irrelevant correction: your brain tells you no such thing. Reflexive actions in humans route directly from sensory input to motor reaction via the spinal column precisely because it takes too long to route all the way to the brain, wait for it to process, then perform the reflex.
  • How can Hypnosis possibly miss?
    • The targeted Pokemon looks away?
    • Also, how the heck do moves like Growl, Hyper Voice, and other sound-based moves miss? I really hope your Pokemon aren't idiots and growl in the wrong direction.
      • The target dodges out of the way.
      • Interference.
  • How cold is Sinnoh? It's the coldest region and it even snows quite a bit however girls can still walk around in skirts and both genders in revealing clothing.
    • It's not neccessarily incredibly cold. I live in a region where it doesn't snow much, but when it has, I've been quite comfortable in a t-shirt. It's also probably not as cold in the southern regions of Sinnoh.
  • This is more a fanfic issue than a canon one, but guns. Most fanfic I see seems to assume guns exist. Why? Guns should never have been developed in the pokemon universe. Making the first modern handgun involved basing the model off of a previous, less effective gun, which was in turn based off of another, even less effective gun, etc. In order to do that, you would need a reason or desire for a weapon. Why would you need a weapon like those medieval European muskets that you can't aim with when you have magical animals that can breathe fire and obey your every command? Not to mention you have things like quick attack and swift, as well. While modern weapons are more effective than pokemon, terrible prototype guns are not, and therefore no one would have made them in the first place. And due to the way technological advancements work, there would be no base model to improve off of, and therefore no one would ever create anything like the modern handgun.
    • Their presence in Legend of Dratini is the only thing that keeps me off the "The world has no guns because everyone trains the vicious animals instead" idea, may work for the games though.
      • That can be subjected to the same "things that only appear in the anime's first season can be ignored" policy that allows people to ignore the occasional non-Pokemon animals.
    • What about the fact that there are moves explicitly referencing weapons? Water Gun, Bullet Seed, Swords Dance, Hydro Cannon, Octazooka... how would they come up with those names with no weapons to have gotten the terms from? And let's not forget, there are areas like Orre where there aren't many Pokemon to begin with, where weapons could have been developed in place of Pokemon.
      • While that's a good point, I have a new follow-up to my argument: If guns exist, why don't the terrorist crime syndicates use them? When a ten-year-old walks in and tries to infiltrate their base, the grunts don't just whip out a gun and shoot him, they challenge him to a pokemon battle. Even if you argue that the grunts are idiots, why don't the leaders or executives do that? Cyrus, in particular, is not one to screw around with things like pokemon battles if there are quicker and more pragmatic solutions. (Ditto for Team Snagem) Yet when you beat them, they don't try to attack you further, submit, and act like there's nothing more they can do. Also, for Orre, my previous argument still stands. Team Snagem is by far the most dangerous team, yet they don't just try to shoot you either. I don't really know what to say to the move names, though.
      • Because while they could shoot, Pokemon are far more effective weapons. We know for a fact that people used to have weapons, seeing the Veilstone myth where there was a man who hunted Pokemon with a sword. Now, I dunno about you, but I'd take a Charizard over a pistol any day. Far more potentially damaging, and it has other uses. Not to mention that since moves like Flamethrower can only make Pokemon faint and not kill them, it's logical to assume Pokemon are quite durable, so bullets may not do much to them... presumably they did have weapons in the past, but abandoned them when they began to build relationships with Pokemon.
        • Explains "Swords Dance". Throws names like Water Gun, Octozooka, Bullet Seed, and perhaps even Hydro Cannon into Fridge Logic range, if not all the way to Curse Sharpedo. The only way I can see it is as some weird forme of Translation Convention.
        • You're supposed to use guns against the trainer, not the Mon. A gun can probably be drawn and fired faster than a trainer can draw and throw a pokéball and fully materialise his defending critter, and at greater range, too. Also, isn't Lt. Surge some kind of army veteran?
          • Aaaaaand that just gave me visions of Surge crouching in a trench, giving orders to his soldiers, all while fire blasts and flamethrowers are flying above and the enemy throws Voltorbs at them, because war in Pokemon is conducted with... Pokemon.
          • Well it's technically possible to use pokemon as war-like weapons, just counting pokemon from Gen 1, coffing with his poison gas, voltords would had been used as granades, a blastoise or onix with any kind on defensive move would had been great, and heck what if gravellers were suidide bomber with explotion.
    • Fanfics with guns don't realize that the anime is actually a different continuity than the games. Geechisu's plan makes less sense in the anime where the Safari Zone warden has a gun - in the games? No gund - meanig that if he's the only one with a pokemon, they won't fight back.
    • Let's look at this from a historical angle, shall we? Let's start by assuming that, since the Pokédex mentions real-world countries, that Europe exist. Now, prove that pokémon existed in Europe. Can you? No. Let us assume that China (or a China analouge) invented gunpowder. Now, we do know that fireworks exist in the animé, at least. As such, that means that gunpowder was invented at some point. Now, let's assume that gunpowder makes it to the pokémon-less Europe. What does Europe, who is often locked in war, want? New weapons. Therefore, they shall invent and eventually begin to perfect the gun, which shall go with them to their colonies, thus spreading guns. Just because Japan of the pokémon world has no guns, does not mean that the rest of the world does not have guns. Now, the teams? Team Rocket might have them, but they might also simply rely on pokémon to do everything because of an honor code or one of Giovanni's edicts. Cyrus? He may be a madman, but he isn't the kind of person who will kill someone. Team Galactic in general? I doubt they could even figure out where the trigger is. Other, Orre teams? Who knows? Pokémon are probably considered more powerful than guns, especially if the corrupt local governments take away gun rights, thus taking away another means of protection. And Ghetsis ain't exactly sane. Just because Team Plasma thinks it can take away Pokemon and rule the world doesn't mean it can.
      • Slight conflict with your spoiler: The UnovaDex. There is an entirely different set of Pokemon in Eastern North America than in East Asia. This allows for a native Pokemon population in Europe. Now, it could be that said population were overused during the equivalent of the Roman Empire with the balance dying out between the Black Plague, the Crusades, and perhaps pre-Colonial religious persecutions. Meanwhile, such Ameridian groups as the Confederation of Six and the Five Nations, as well as perhaps the Inca, probably managed their Poke-Population better. (Or at least didn't come up with the death rate lowering advances that would necessitate increased resource consumption. Not sure about The Aztec and Maya, however.) In effect, while the colonists could gain the Eastern Coasts, as well as a nice initial push, they likely met with stout resistance deeper in the interior. Also note that some North American Tribes are shamanic; these would have a better relationship with Pokemon than even the Japanese. Non-shamanistic tribes would be forced into an Enemy Mine situation agaisnt the Europeans.
        In sum: the natives would not have needed the White Man's firepower because they still had their Magical Beasts, whereas Europe did not.
        As a result, we have a East Coast that is less developed than in our world. Castelia City is likely a long-term European Colony that was returned to the Natives in the 20th Century; it does sit on the site of RL New Amsterdam and there is a waste to the immediate north that could've been both deforested farmland and a battlefield. Still doesn't explain the attack names, (again, apart from Translation Convention, which may now have a justification,) because the citizens of Poke-Japan still would only know of firearms by story and legend. Or did I just answer my previous question?
        • This could also explain why Oore is such a despotic wasteland and without firearms: If most of the Pokemon have been corrupted or killed/driven off, and weapons never made it to the American Pacific coast, it would make the region quite bare and defenseless. Wes did his job all too well, and his efforts to undo what he did may actually explain his absence in XD: He's probably trying to track the native fauna of Oore and coax them back from their new nesting ground. Meanwhile, the Pokespots are a secret relief effort by Poke-Japan to try to rehabilitate the area.
    • It could also be that guns do exist in the Poke-verse, but because of the ready availability of Pokemon, there's simply not much demand for them. Thus, there are very few in existence, and the few that do exist are so expensive (even, and possibly especially, on the black market) that they're not really practical for anything other than military and maybe law enforcement use. It might even be that the only people who make them are military contractors. Which may explain why Team Rocket is constantly trying to extort money...
    • You're using the fact that certain moves are named after weapons as your hand wave? Flame thrower throws flames, there is not reason to associate that with the weapon which fires sticky napalm. Torpedo was an animal before it was a weapon. Gun could easily refer to say a glue gun, bullet, like bullet points in a presentations or the train? Or those names could have just arose from the Pokemon moves themselves. What was the reasoning behind aerial ace or smellingsalt? Maybe flare blitz was used to describe the move of Arcanine, who was already known for having extreme speed?


  • Why do we always have to take on trainers if they see us? Couldn't we just tell them to go away while we get to a Poke Centre or the Sky Pillar or whatever? It's your first triathlon? Glad to hear it, but it's the 18th time I've saved the world, and it's a lot easier if you can go directly there without having to waste time on belligerent morons, so go piss up a rope and I'll take you on when we're not all about to die, 'kay?
    • Honor Before Reason?
    • One of the funnier WMGs concerning this topic is that you are not just a Pokemon trainer, you're also a ninja. You get the jump on every Pokemon you run into in the wild, being able to throw a Poke Ball at it or run away before the Pokemon can even attack. Also, if you run away, the Pokemon has no chance of catching up to you. As far as the Pokemon is concerned, you just vanished. Therefore, you're a ninja.
    • At some point, the games have explained that Always Accepting a Challenge is one of the Pokemon League rules (The games also specifically define this as "Eye Contact" I think, but that's a gameplay conceit). Basically, you have to do it in order to gain access to Pokemon League Gyms, carry a Pokemon Trainer License and use Pokemon League resources and facilities - it's part of the End User License Agreement for your equipment basically.
      • Why doesn't the protagonist have the same attitude? Every trainer (barring bosses), as soon as you walk in front of them, will march up to you and demand a battle. But the protagonist will happily stand around staring at other trainers and then go merrily on his way without even saying hi!
    • In black and white some trainers run away from you if look at them and there are always trainers you don't have to fight if you don't talk to them(which they take as a challenge) so...
  • Gym Leaders are only available to battle on certain days. Then why is it I can take photos with Claire for a whole day, but she won't agree to battle? Is all she doing taking photos (narcissistically)? And if I call a Gym Leader up, but don't battle them for days/months/years, they just stay there, meaning they must not be TOO busy! Man, they must just hate the protaginist.
    • Well, in 3rd generation at least, after you beat the crap out of their Pokemon, they decide "Hmm, better do some more training, since I just got beaten up by a ten-year-old. Again."
  • Does Golem have nostrils? It has them in its Silver and RSE sprites, but not in its official artwork.
    • Perhaps from FRLG on Sugimori decided he didn't like nostrils on Golem anymore.
  • If Manaphy lays Phione eggs and Phione lays Phione eggs, what lays Manaphy eggs?
    • Maybe Phione evolves into Manaphy, but through a method the players don't have access to.
    • Phiones, but only very, very, rarely (And not in game.). Phione does not evolve into Manaphy. They have to be born that way.
    • All we can be sure of is that Manaphy come in what are unique objects that we call Manaphy Eggs. They may not actually be eggs. For instance, perhaps it's actually a true cocoon for a Phione undergoing a transformation (not an evolution) into a Manaphy. Or maybe they're actually the offspring of yet another, undiscovered pokemon. Or maybe there's an undiscovered incense that enables a Manaphy to breed another Manaphy (or a special stone, somewhere, that gives off the necessary radiation to enable it). All we really know is that they're very rare and can't be bred by the player, and thus are classified as Legendary.
  • In Pokemon Gold, why is no one at all concerned that a Pokemon thief is obviously going through populated areas while making no attempt to disguise himself? Is law enforcement really just that pathetic?
    • Yes.
    • Other than the cops that battle you (and stay in only one spot) there are hardly any police at all in the Pokemon world. My guess is that Silver beat them in a battle and they just gave up.
  • Silver's team at its peak bugs me, for two reasons:
    • One, it appears that his Pokemon only gained experience when they were being abused. OK, I know that everybody has a certain peak, but couldn't they have just risen their levels up a little higher?
    • Two, the fact that he doesn't have a Weavile or Magnezone. I can kind of understand the latter, as he would have to trade to a Sinnoh trainer, but they could have given the excuse that he DID trade it to someone who evolved it, as he has both Gengar and Alakazam.
      • Silver's too busy bonding with his Pokemon and not training, too bad. And for the second one, maybe he wanted to keep his Sneasel and Magneton unevolved. I still have a Magneton because I like it that way; Silver probably likes his Pokemon as they are, too.
      • There's a way to get Magnezone in Heart Gold and Soul Silver without training, now?
  • How in the world are the Pokemon Center's paid for? The trainer never pays for the Pokemon to be healed; where do they obtain the resources to run these facilities at no charge?
    • I always assumed that one of the few things the government in Pokemon actually did was to pay for health care.
    • Maybe in Isshu at least they're supported by the Pokémarts because the health care industry in the U.S. is all profit-based insurance companies. But then again though; maybe it's just way cheaper to pay for machines that heal pokémon rather than humans who develop all sorts of complex diseases so people don't have a problem with paying for other trainers' pokémon to be healed. I don't know if the Anime or the manga have like, Pokémon surgeries or pokémon ailments rather than Pokérus (And even then, it's symbiotic) but if it's just a magical machine that revitalizes pokémon? Maybe it's so cheap people aren't objected to pay for it the way they are in real life.[4]
    • Fridge Brilliance: We have Pokemon that heal (such as Chansey in the first gen). Perhaps a new technology was developed that could replicate its powers. Therefore, total cost goes way, way down when all you need is a functional healing machine and a pretty nurse who just sits there and presses a button to heal your Pokemon.
  • There's Lemonade and Nomel Berries. Does that mean there are normal fruit and berries in the universe? Or should Lemonade be called "Nomelade" or even "Edanomel"?
    • I'd like to assume berries replace fruit like Pokemon replace animals. "Lemonade" may just be Grandfather Clause in action. The only other problem is apples instead of Leppa Berries in the Mystery Dungeon games. While on the subject of fruit and berries, can someone tell me what Iapapa is based on? I thought papaya at first, but then we have Payapa Berries. The only other fruit that gets repeated is Yache and Custap Berries, but those are at least different names for the same fruit. Finally, why are there Shuca and Charti Berries if their inspiration isn't fruit (Cashew and Artichoke.)?
      • So, Iapapa is definitely Papaya(it even looks like one), while Payapa is a Calabash(though the name is based on Papaya). Cashew is obviously a fruit. Artichokes... not much, but the berry is based on the core of the thing, which might count so, since the artichoke is a flower.
        • Heh, didn't realize cashews were fruits. Always thought they were legumes, like peanuts.
      • Chesto Berries were once called Mint Berries. Sitrus Berries were once called Gold Berries. Grandfather Clause didn't apply there.
  • In Sinnoh, the overworld sprites for the Veterans have beards and bald heads. In battle, they have a full head of hair (unless it's a wig) and no beards. Obviously, they were too lazy to make new sprites, but that still bugs me.
    • They do the same with Rangers and Ace Trainers. Just lazy, that's all.
  • Zensho. Why are they just giving out badges, and Pokemon, to Satoshi for helping them? The manga has like six actual battles scenes. He got basically all of his Pokemon from people. It's a wonder how any of them leveled up when he apparently rarely battles.
  • Why is it that I can battle a legendary pokemon down to 1 health and then throw a pokeball/greatball/ultraball and I miss the pokemon? I could understand if it was something I could control, but there is nothing allowing me to aim the pokeball at the pokemon, I just press the button. How does it miss? And for some of those pokemon that disappear the minute the battle is over why should I hope that I saved somewhere nearby or just settle for losing that pokemon forever? Is it just a case of fake difficulty because there's honestly nothing I can do to fix it.
    • IIRC, the message says the pokemon broke free, not that you missed it. And yes, it's supposed to be difficult. You're trying to catch a force of nature, deal with it.
      • In the first generation games, there's a message that says the Pokeball missed, where in the later games you see the Pokemon go into the ball and break out immediately. (No shakes.) And as for the legendary Pokemon disappearing at the end of the battle if you accidentally defeat it, that's not fake difficulty, that's just common sense. It's the only one of its kind, what do you think will happen if it dies? (Faints. Whatever.)
      • Actually I'm talking about the whole missing the Pokemon, you know the thing I was complaining about. It feels like fake difficulty because it hinders me without anything I can really do to fix it. I'd rather get the message where it says that the pokemon broke free because at least then my pokeball would have been doing something.
    • Its because they moved out of the way. 1 health hasn't weakened them enough, so try lowering their stats or inflicting a status condition.
  • How is Misty a tomboy? She doesn't seem feminine or tomboyish.
    • If Misty is not feminine nor a Tomboy then what the hell is she?
      • A boy. Duh.
    • A girl. She's a regular girl. Not too feminine but neither a tomboy.
    • How is she not a tomboy? She's all sporty and shit. Very Shorttank.
    • There's an IJBM earlier in the page that contrasts Misty's "offensive boasting" with her in-battle "defensive" strategy. Perhaps that also applies here. She has the tomboyish attitude as a "front"; i.e. she thinks people won't take her seriously as a battler if she acted like a normal girl. And while that may be tactically advantageous, she's relatively low on the totem pole and likely has a higher priority on image than subtlety. (Only being allowed to use Pokemon half as powerful on her "trainer team" as Blaine's "trainer team" may have something to do with that.) She may have grown out of that conflict by HG/SS, though.
  • The Rocket executives. I know it's Theme Naming but are they supposed to be Japanese like, arguably, almost everyone else in the series up until now?
  • If Spoink goes into cardiac arrest when it stops bouncing, then HOW can it faint in a battle, and still be alive for your next fight with just a little use of revive or a trip to the Pokemon Center?
    • Maybe its unconscious body keeps bouncing automatically.
    • It falls on its tail, which is shaped like a spring, so it keeps leaping. That's all I got.
    • People don't die right away when their heart stops; only when the brain shuts down are they considered dead. So if a Spoink stops bouncing after fainting, there's still time to get it healed before it actually bites the dust.
    • How does it sleep? Or eat? Or drink? Or reproduce? It's apparently got to keep bouncing or it will die! Is this why we never see wild Grumpig?!
    • Fainted Pokémon aren't "fainted" as in unconscious, they are just unable to battle. Exact same reason "fainted" 'mons can use HM moves.
    • The Pokedex entries aren't 100% reliable. It is likely that Spoinks don't actually go into cardiac arrest, but they probably find it harder to breathe (not impossible) without the extra force.
  • Something that I never understood was why Team Rocket/Aqua/Magma/Galatic don't have more than 6 Pokémon in their team. I mean, the limit is something in the League rules and this guys are criminals, if they are trying to take over Kanto/Increase the oceans/landmass/destroying the Universe it wouldn't be surprising they didn't follow the rules of a League they aren't even in! (except for Giovanni who is a Gym Leader).
    • Practicality. The larger your team, the harder it is to raise them all evenly. Most trainers in the the actual game don't even have six because many find it easier to just focus on a handful. The teams probably figure it's better to have a small number of strong Pokémon than loads and loads of level 2 and 3 critters who can be easily wiped out.
      • Of course that doesn't explain why some of them don't grind their way up with over six Pokemon. Also considering their low levels and the weak types they generally use we definitely can't attribute their decisions to intelligence.
    • The final boss of XD does use 7 Pokes.
    • I know this is a game IJBM, but I feel I should say this. In one episode featuring Diglett, Gary pulls all 50837974947 of his Pokèmon from Hammerspace and buries a Diglett in the Pokèballs. Meaning he carries all 834572895747 of his Pokèmon with him.
      • Actually no, it's shown when Ash caught Crabby that the Pokemon caught with a full team are teleported to the lab just like in the games, the thing is that unlike Ash, Gary was actually trying to catch em' all so he had all those Pokeballs to catch them, since we all know how many pokeballs some pokemon take before they're finally caught.
    • Maybe the actual pokeball technology is the reason for this - perhaps the same mechanism that causes a newly-caught pokemon to be sent to the local storage system is actually inbuilt into the pokeballs themselves, and if you have six already, you can't actually get the seventh. The only way you could conceivably overcome this would be to use Kurt's natural versions... but Kurt is unlikely to help a bad guy to catch extra pokemon.
  • I like shorts, their comfy and easy to wear!...... seriously wtf?
    • It's true. I've worn shorts every day since my childhood except when it was snowing.
  • A so-called official guidebook I have lists Charizard as being 5'7. In the anime, he clearly towers above Ash and company. Does this mean that I, at 5'9, would be a giant in the Pokemon world? Seriously, are all these people midgets or something?
    • Sizes among species can vary in the anime, unlike the game's descriptions. In fact, it's entirely possible that a Pokemon's development may include an increase in size, if Ash's Gliscor is any indication. Also, Ash and his friends are still prepubescent.
    • The anime doesn't follow the same rules as the game(s) do, ya know.
      • Which I find amusing, because in the Anime Groudon it as tall as a skyscraper, and in the games it's only 11 feet tall. It's still pretty tall, but compared to the anime counterpart it's frigging hilarious.
      • To say nothing of the building-size Tentacruel in one episode.
    • Even in the games, although not visually represented, or described properly in the pokedex, pokemon do canonically vary in size. This is seen in certain cases on an NPC offering rewards to see particularly large instances of certain pokemon. In Sootopolis City, for instance, there's a pair of residents who ask to see large Barboaches and Shroomish (in Ruby and Sapphire) or Seedots and Lotads (in Emerald).


  • Vending machines. That is not a can of soda or water that dropped down, my friend.
    • Then what is it? Other than lemonade.
      • A bottle.
        • I don't get it. Is it because it's a can? Where I live we have vending machines with cans...
          • Okay, well, when you get a drink from the vending machine in the games, it always says that a can dropped down. However, the image for the Fresh Water and Soda are clearly bottles.
  • The Kimono Girl's English, French, and Italian names. Why bother changing the Japanese names into different Japanese names?
      • Same reason they turney "Kyou" into "Koga". It's still pointless, though.
      • The changed Japanese names are supposedly easier to pronounce. "Kyou" would very likely throw someone off with English phonetics, and "Naoko," is much easier to figure out the pronounciations for than "Koume," and "Sumomo" would look weird and funny (moreso than "Kuni") to a kid growing up in an English-speaking country.
  • Who the heck are those chubby technology guys in the starter town, and where do they live?
  • Pokeballs bug me, they only cost as much as a bottle of water. For a moment consider the apparent technologies present in a Pokéball:
    1. Frickin' Laser Beams
    2. Shrink ray/matter-to-data conversion
    3. Environmental simulation
    4. Automated hinge
    5. Teleportation/broadcast-range wireless communication
    6. Levitation
    7. Homing capability
    8. EXTREME durability
    9. Massively efficient and/or self-generated power source
    10. Compact, portable design
      • Taking in account they seem to be made out of fruit, I wouldn't be surprised if it was magic rather than technology. Besides, technology marches on and things get cheaper.
        • Only the Apricorns were Poke Balls made of fruits. They were the early form of Poke Balls, and it was stated somewhere that Apricorns were made by hollowing out the fruit, and fitting them with some kind of machine.
        • The fact that Pokéballs aren't 100% guaranteed to capture Pokémon probably reduces their value somewhat. Also, considering the world's entire economy seems to revolve around Pokémon, it's not going to be very good for business if the balls are so expensive that only a few people can afford them. It'll mean very few people become trainers, so no-one buys potions, TMs or other Pokémon related items, no-one battles in gyms or uses Pokémon Centers and as a result, the whole infrastructure falls apart. In the long run, the Pokéball manufacturers make more money by charging less.
      • I'll accept that Poké Tech™ Co.Ltd.Inc. might take a financial hit for greater reception, but not that the technology could be cheaper in the Pokémon world. If it's cheap and compact, then every car and boat we've seen should hover instead of roll or float, and either the repurposed Pokémon Tower shouldn't need a ton of equipment on the roof or every building should have at least one teleporter - not just those of megacorporations, criminal organizations, and Gyms (Which I guess get a lot of TV coverage to explain their wealth). Even the super stores can't afford them! And with cheap shrink rays or matter-to-data conversion, who needs moving vans?
  • I can't be the only one who found it slightly odd that all the trainers in Goldenrod gym (presumably including Whitney) managed to be taken out of the fight by a single Rocket Grunt, can I? I mean, even if the grunts at that stage were using level 24 Com Mons, that's only 5 levels higher than Whitney's Miltank. Surely they could've gotten out of the kitchen gym and saved the radio tower without the main character.
    • Made worse by the fact that Whitney IS That One Boss. She can destroy your whole team with that freakin Miltank and yet she (probably) gets beaten by a grunt you easily take out. Made even worse from there if you go by the theory that Gym Leaders have a personal team that may be stronger than the team you fought in the gym.
    • Well, that may depends on how good of a strategist Archer is. If he's a good strategist, he'd attack the Gym first and neutralize it before setting foot in the Radio Tower. Even if not, it could be that Whitney is the only person in town to own Pokemon that are above Level 40. Said Pokemon would likely be mobbed by Rocket's higher quantity. And even if she wins through, you can't break down the doors without the key card... which is in Rocket's local base in the underground. Still doesn't explain why Whitney isn't conducting a siege of the Radio Tower waiting for reinforcements (in the forme of a few more Gym Leaders and an Elite, as opposed to an eleven-year old upstart) when said upstart happens on the scene.
    • They would make Whitney cry.
  • Here's an odd one: When you attempt to catch a Pokemon, and it gets out after one shake, it displays the message "Aww! It appeared to be caught!". Is the game telling me that the Pokemon I'm trying to catch is already owned? If I'm just not looking at it right, someone please tell me.
    • On the battle screen there's a little pokéball icon before the name of the pokémon you're trying to catch if you already own(ed) one. As for the various messages as you mentioned, I always thought they were uttered by the player character.
      • That wasn't what I was saying. I meant that it was pretty much telling me that the Pokemon I was trying to catch already belonged to someone else.
      • No, it means "Aww, it looked like it was going to be caught (But the Pokeball broke at the last second so it wasn't)".
      • OOOOOHHHH. Oh.
  • How come the Captain of the SS Anne gets sea sickness, and while the ship is docked, no less. If he gets sea sick and he's the captain of a round the world cruise ship, he should probably find a new job.
    • Maybe he only gets sea sick when it's docked.
    • I believe I've heard that when a person who spends a lot of time at sea finally makes port, it can feel strange adjusting to being back on solid ground, so maybe the above theory is correct.
    • Maybe he ate something bad on the ship that made him sick, and he thought it was seasickness?
  • So why's everyone rejoicing about how the trainers in Gen V are teenagers and not children? Wasn't it actually the anime and the manga that said that 10-year-olds were able to become pokemon trainers, and everyone else just assumed that the trainers were 10? Did I miss something in the manual where it says the protagonists were all 10?
    • Red was said to be 10 or 11 or something in the manual, I believe.
      • That I would believe. I don't know if it was said about all gens - The Gen IV trainers (In D/P/Pt) Definitely look 10 years old.
        • Considering how much of a big deal that has been made about the Isshu trainers' ages, I think it would be safe to assume all previous protagonists were roughly the same age.
    • First of all, Red is eleven (fourteen Post-Time Skip) and that's the only age we can go on. Next, the "Ten year olds become trainers" is an anime made rule. People were just happy to see older protagonists, and a Darker and Edgier plot.
    • The place that stuff regarding age was said that the protagonists were "older than ever before" so it's safe to say everyone else is indeed younger.
      • Still though, for all we know, they could just mean "Oh, these guys are obviously fifteen to seventeen years old. I thought the trainers in Gen III looked thirteen to fifteen years old.
    • I refuse to believe that any of the protagonists are only 11. I mean, look at them!
      • I can believe the protagonists of Gen IV being eleven because they look pretty young. Gen III? They look 13-15. Gen II? 13-14. Heck for that matter I thought they looked thirteen in Gen V, too. And even then they're essentially a paper doll for you to interact with the world, so...does age even matter? Maybe if you're thinking o what they are. (Because I can imagine some pretty surprising things the Gen IV Protagonists are going through if they're eleven.)
    • They all look eleven. Puberty hits people in different ways, but they all look young compared to the older characters (Red, Green, Misty, Whitney, Courtney, Wes, etc)
  • Where do the starter pokémon come from? They never appear in the wild.
    • Several starter Pokémon appear in the wild in Pokémon Ranger.
      • Which are in different regions than the mainline games. The Professors likely imported them.
    • Gameplay and Story Segregation.
    • Didn't the anime have specialized and secluded farms for Starter Pokemon?
    • It's implied fairly strongly that they're simply very rare, and can be found in some very out-of-the-way places that you don't generally have access to. As a special case, there's torchic to be found on the Sightseeing Pokewalker path. Presumably, Pokemon Birch has gone for a walk on that path. Maybe some of the others are found on other, unavailable Pokewalker paths, or other such locations.


  • Sabrina. What is her Character Alignment? It seems Neutral Good, yet Sugimori has official art of her being.. Creepy to put it simple. She doesn't seem like a Chaotic Good, and I doubt those red eyes mean anything other then her using her powers.
    • Chaotic Neutral, then? She doesn't seem evil(at least not in the games, especially in G/S/C where she doesn't really even like to fight anymore), but I guess she just doesn't care much about what's right or wrong. Then again, I suppose she could be Chaotic Good, but more fierce in battle(which is, so to speak, a controlled situation where no one will get hurt)
    • Not everyone has Character Alignment?
    • It depends on the portrayal of her. Pokemon Special or whatever has her as a villain, whereas Electric Tale of Pikachu has a more sympathetic portrayal of her. The Anime apparently shows her as merely having a television-style Split personality. (I woudln't know - I don't watch the Anime after seeing a couple episodes and finding Ash Ketchum to be a complete Idiot Hero that's not even entertaining.)
      • I meant in the games.
      • Depends on how you look at it. In the games, she doesn't get involved in stopping Team Rocket, since she just wants to focus on psychic training (it's stated somewhere that she doesn't even like battling that much). So she might be True Neutral, or maybe Neutral Good since she's a benevolent figure in the games. By the events of the Johto games- mostly in the remakes where we see her interact with others outside of her gym- her apparent character development definitely makes her Neutral or Lawful Good. That card art looks a little odd, but she doesn't seem to be doing any actual harm, just surprising Misty and Psyduck. Plus it's the card game which really isn't in canon anyway.
    • I'm assuming the TCG card is less her being creepy and doing something to Misty, and more her simply beating her in a battle. I put Sabrina as Neutral Good in the games.


  • You need to have all the gym badges to get to Victory Road, so how the hell did Silver make it over there?
    • Given his Jerkass nature, he A) stole them, or B) kicked those guards aside.
      • Guards should be stronger than that, otherwise any old kid could just shove their way through. Stole I guess I might take if they were clearer about it.
  • Why the hell do wild Pokemon keep attacking you even though you're significantly stronger than them? For that matter, why do they hurt themselves to achieve this with moves like Self Destruct and Explosion?
    • I have an answer for the second one. It's the same concept many Real Life animals use to deter predators - being poisonous when eaten. Sure, they're dead, but that animal isn't going near one again. Now, how many Geodudes have you decided not to fight after having one blow up on you...?
    • For the first, I believe that they said in-game that they want to prove themselves to you.
      • By...suicide?
      • I read somewhere that wild Pokemon get jealous when they see Trainer-owned Pokemon and will attack that Pokemon or the trainer.
        • That explanation was from the first episode of the anime, and it didn't sit right with me back then, as it was largely an excuse for the Spearow to change its target from the human who just assaulted it to a completely innocent Pikachu so that Ash could prove himself by risking his life to protect him.
    • Self Destruct and Explosion make sense if their nests are nearby and they think you are a threat, so they are sacrificing themselves to defend their children.
  • In the Pal Park, why does Shuckle appear in the sea? I fail to see the connection.
    • It's based on a turtle. Turtles are sea-faring creatures.
      • No, it's not. But Shuckles are only found inside rocks in Cianwood, which makes them more connected to mollusks that live inside rocks. Thus, in the sea.
  • What the heck is with Blue (the rival of R/B/Y and FR/LG) at Silph Co? The mafia has taken over a building he is somehow in the middle of, he's one hall over from their boss, who he could probably take down, and instead he goes "Hey, my rival" and ATTACKS you when you come to do it. Is any reason ever given at all why he turns evil for about 20 minutes and then goes back to being good. Maybe that's what Prof. Oak meant when he called him a "discrace to pokemon". Silver does the same thing in G/S/C and HH/SS, charging at Team Rocket, noticing you, removing your discuise in the front of an evil minion, calling you weak for being subtle, then leaving you to face a massive army of Rocket Grunts. Then, later you are in the Goldenrod tunnels to save a hostage and he shows up, says he was just trailing you to find Lance and then attacks you, while you are still surrounded by mooks. You beat him and he just leaves you to take care of saving the hostage with half your team KO'd from fighting him. Basically what I'm saying is WHY DO THE RIVALS CARE MORE ABOUT LOSING TO YOU THEN FIGHTING EVIL?
    • Well, Silver in particular just really hates them, and he doesn't really seem to care about the evil aspect of it. For Blue...I was thinking that maybe he might've been scared (they're the freaking mafia) to face them and wants to fight you to try and maintain his dignity.
    • I'm sure they're there to show just how single-minded they are: They care more about defeating you, the player character, than stopping evil, working their way through Team Rocket's strongholds merely because they know you'll show up there. This is particularly true with Blue, who was able to cream everyone he faced and beat every Gym Leader before you but is somehow not able to lay a finger on you. (I'd say it's ver much like how int he anime, Paul is frustrated over being unable to beat Brandon.) Silver had no compassion for anyone anyway, so he'd do whatever he felt suited him best.
    • Also considering that Blue (and Silver) are eleven when they come face to face with Team Rocket. Even if you had ridiculously strong Mons on your side its asking a little much for kids to face up to the freakin' Mafia that the law enforcement can't even fight off. I thought they were acting rather realistically considering how young they are.
    • Blue's a massive douche. He really doesn't care about the Rockets or what they do to Pokemon as long as they're not in his way... he's only in Silph to face you, the player. He's pretty obsessed with beating you, it seems, and nothing else.
  • In HG/SS you can get water-dwelling Pokémon that can't walk, to "walk" with you. How does that work exactly? If I sent out my Lanturn on dry land, wouldn't it kind of desperately flop around while it slowly dehydrates? In fact, I've never understood the workings of battling with those Pokémon anywhere other than in water.
    • That's a nice case of Fridge Horror right here. While I agree that it wouldn't work, I'm ready to suspend my disbelief for it.
    • I think that those...whatever those console games where had water-type Pokémon magically floating. Who knows, maybe water-type Pokémon are different than real-world fish and can stay out of water for long periods of time.
  • Have there been any games that have been hacked to hell and back as much as Pokémon? I mean, in Mario Kart Wii, which I'm sure sees a significant overlap in players, no one has been able to figure out the formula for getting high grades for Mario Grand Prix, but it would seem like a piece of cake to people who hacked Pokémon and found every means of a Pokémon's acquiring moves, happiness, base stats, EVs and IVs, Dream World Abilities, and so forth. I know Pokémon lends itself to people taking the battling system apart due to its meticulous nature, but it feels like the only series that's been like this.
    • I think it owes to the fact that the data structures in Pokemon change little from game to game to maintain compatibility. This leads to hacks used as back as Generation I being still viable in Generation V, or easily convertible. So with each new feature all they need to do is find how and where Pokemon data is stored, something that's much easier found out since the data is very similar to previous games. In other words, the hackers had much more time to play around with it than any other game. (Or so I think. I'm not a Pokemon hacker.)
      • Thanks for the answer. From what I hear, it actually has changed substantially—this is the reason why trade between Generations 2 and 3 are impossible, for instance. But yeah, the same principles would remain. I suppose it came from the very nature of this game compared to other games. After all, this is probably the most Guide Dang It series ever conceived as far as competitive play is concerned. Super Smash Bros.. has this too, it seems—people know the exact number of frames for every character's movements and the exact size of their hitboxes (the space another character needs to occupy to be affected by a move). Still, it would've been interesting to know how scoring works in the Mario Kart games.
        • That's because you've mainly been playing Nintendo series. Games like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has very big features on hitboxes or frame detecting too. So does Street Fighter and a lot of other of fighting games. And in Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, they also look very in depth to the mechanics.
  • How can Lucario be part Steel? I don't see any Steel-like qualities about him.
    • Those little spike...things...look steel to me.
    • This troper sees it as being a stealth pun on Lucario's "iron will" since his abilities all revolve around his Heroic Spirit.
    • I figured that Lucario had metal bones (and the spikes on their hands and chest stuck out like elephant tusks). Kinda like Wolverine. That would make sense for it to be part steel.
  • Why is the psuedo-rival's number mandatory in Heartgold and Soulsilver? They never actually call you with anything plot important.
    • They're your childhood friend; in-character, you would naturally want to keep in contact.
      • But can't they make it so that you go and ask yourself? I really don't care about what their Marill smells like. And why have you never had it before, anyway?
      • Your Pokegear was in the shop for repairs, as I recall, it's not uncommon for phones to lose all numbers in real life if they're broken (I've seen way too many Facebook posts about it). So they notice you got it back and give you their number, since, after all, Ethan and Lyra are friends. Why wouldn't the other one give it to the player? As for plot importance, perhaps not, but call in the right place and they'll give you some trivia about certain areas or a hint about something special you can do with the right following Pokemon. (For example, take a Togepi to Cerulean Gym and see what I mean.)
        • Yeah, but the way it was put makes it seem like the very first time it was ever given. And it's not important enough a mechanic, I don't really care all that much about what happens with following Pokémon, especially because I often don't have whatever Pokémon they're talking about. I understand why you would want to get it in-character, but they should've made it something you can get yourself if you want to, like Bill's number, instead of them forcing it upon you. Your mother's number, I can understand, Professor Elm, yeah, he needs to tell you about eggs or Pokérus and whatever, Professor Oak, he's got the thing with the Pokédex, but little trivia isn't something I want pushed on me.
          • See, now it sounds like you're just whining over a little thing. You don't have to read the messages in-depth. Press A and fast-forward through it. You say they "force it upon you" like it's a Bad Egg or something... it's just for fun, you're taking it far too seriously.
            • Just saying, it's an irritating distraction. It's annoying to have to stop fairly often to press the A button a bunch of times. Or, if you ignore the call, you listen to an annoying ringing sound. (Random thought, but it would be totally awesome if you could have a ringtone, say a battle theme or something, for your Pokégear.)
            • Then just turn off your sound until the call stops...
  • Why can't Nidoqueen or Nidorina breed? It wouldn't bug me half so much if it were the same for Nidorino and Nidoking. I know this problem has been adressed before, so exactly why are we in generation IV with the problem still not fixed or at least explained?
    • What makes it worse is that we are actually in Gen V. However, I'm guessing this is to avoid retcons.
    • I always supposed it was due to some reason related to their natural social structure, that will never be talked about in the series due to the plot of the series.
  • It bugs me that neither of the Nido evolution lines got Drill Liner, and yet Pokemon like Fearow do. I mean, Fearow needs all the help it can get, but it's weird.
    • While I agree with the Nidos, (they are the Drill Pokemon) Fearow actually makes perfect sense. It's already shown drilling capacity- Drill Peck!- and you know full well what that badass mother can do its Japanese name is Onidrill, which can be translated as both Demon Bird and Demon Drill. It's pretty much par for the course for him, though this raises the question of why Beedrill (admittedly "Spear" in Japan, but still) didn't get it. Incidentally, the only Pokemon besides Fearow that get it are Rhyhorn's family and the drill moles. Personally, I'm calling Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann shout-out, but who knows?
  • How tall is Red pre-timeskip (RGBY)? I've seen official artwork of him for gen-1, and he seems shorter then both Leaf and Misty.
    • Well, if you're comparing gen-1!Red to Leaf, there's probably going to be some height differences due to the art styles. Other than that...there's not really a way of knowing, because the only confirmed heights are for the Gen IV trainers (And maybe the Gen V trainers? I don't know if your Pokédex gets upgraded to show heights later or anything.)
      • I'm comparing their Generation 1 designs to each other.
        • ...What picture of Leaf in generation 1 are you talking about?
        • It's probably the one that Green (or Blue in Japan) from Adventures is based on. Though Ken Sugimori has changed his style significantly since Gen 1, so you should probably base the comparisons on current artwork. Though girls do tend to be taller than guys at that age. But if you're going by Gen 1 art, it can be hard to tell because they're not standing right next to each other. But as we know, Artists Are Not Architects.
  • Why are shiny Rapidash's flames gray? What would make fire become gray?
    • Why did they choose any colors for shinies? Jeez, is Rule of Cool lost on you?
      • It's just a bit strange considering shiny Ponyta has blue flames.
        • Yeah, because no other Pokémon has a different shiny color upon evolution...
        • Methinks the point here is that blue flames is more logical and looks cooler, and for a Pokemon whose colors are exactly the same as its prevolution, the random change is a little nonsensical.
          • It's not quite a random change, a lot of Pokémon's evolutions have different colors for shinies, even if normally they are the same color.
    • I figured it out. Its fire is gray because it's old.
  • What's with Will's generation 2 artwork? It looks nothing like his sprite.
    • You could say that with a lot of the sprites back then. Why was Koffing's skull-and-crossbones above its face in the game and below it in the artwork for Red, Blue, and Green? Why was Misdreavus's eyes a lot rounder in Gold and Silver than in the artwork?
      • Those are Pokemon. All other humans had accurate artwork.


  • The halls in the Pokéathlon stadium. What is the purpose of putting up exhibits dedicated to the outstanding performance and stats of your most notable trainers, up to and including statues built in honor of the single best trainer and his/her Pokémon, if that trainer is the only one permitted to go in and see them?
    • For self-aggrandizement?


  • Why is Carnivine's ability Levitate? It is never shown to be off the ground normally in the anime, and its type takes half damage from Ground moves anyway.
    • Anime doesn't count, and came after Carnivine was designed anyway. The designers just love to troll us like that.
    • Because they can avoid stuff on the ground easily; that is what the "Levitate" power does (even if you cannot levitate).
  • Why is Pikachu the Pokemon featured in every one of the intro panels for Viridian Forest in HG/SS? It's the rarest pokemon to find in that place, a panel with Caterpie or Weedle would make more sense.


  • The redesign of the Violet City Gym in HG/SS bugs me. In GSC it looked like it was on ground level, but in the remake it's quite high up. Wouldn't that cause problems for any Trainer who happened to be terrified with heights? And I can't say Claire's Gym looks very safe, what with the fast moving platforms with no handrails or anything of the sort being the only thing stopping the protagonist from falling into lava!
  • What did Red have on his original hat? Is that some sort of button or a badge? Is it related to the League, like Blue's patch?
  • Lyra/Ethan has a Marill from before you got your Pokémon, so how come they waited for you to go ahead first before they went adventuring? And on a related note, why do they keep calling you saying their Marill evolved when it is clearly still a Marill? And then they'll do that multiple times.
    • Pet Marill; Marill collection, it's never the same Marill you fight that evolved.
    • Actually you never fight them, nor do they go on a journey of their own. They only show up on Route 34 since their grandparents live there. Most likely they decided to stop the evolution (or Marill's holding an Everstone and they forgot).
      • No, they also show up in one of the gate...things, and they mention that they're upset that you've gone faster than them. They also appear all the way in Kanto. And anyway, they distinctly say it evolved, they would have mentioned that they stopped it if they did. And if it was holding an Everstone the topic of evolution wouldn't have come up.
      • They meant they're upset you got to where you were both heading faster than they did. It's never even remotely implied they're going after badges. And hey, you want to throw out a legitimate answer so you can continue to whine about something minor that has no effect on the plot, be our guest.
      • I'm not trying to whine, I just want to understand what goes on with their Marill. And I never said they were going after badges, but they pop up in a few different towns so I'm wondering how they got there, especially considering trainers jump on you as soon as they see you walk by.
      • Whining is a big part of Headscratchers. If you didn't want to see whining you shouldn't have gone on to Tvtropes.
  • Maybe this is only in Gen I, because I haven't played anything past Yellow for years, but HOW THE HELL CAN YOU USE DIG WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING AT SEA?
    • Because Pokemon games do not take the fighting ground in account when checking which moves work or not. Heck, the only time when battlefield makes any difference is to determine what Nature Gift is and what animation Secret Power will have. In other words, Gameplay and Story Segregation.
    • You can also use Dive when miles away from any source of water.
    • Personally, I've always thought that moves like that should behave slightly differently depending on location, along with other appropriate moves (for instance, Splash should actually do very minor damage if used on water). But it's not hard to just argue that Dig and Dive actually act like each other in the opposite terrain - that is, for instance, Dive will go underground when on land, because the pokemon uses its natural Water magic to turn the ground to liquid as it passes through it.
    • They go into the stadium to battle.
  • Critical hits in general. It's like they designed a wonderful in-depth battle system and decided to completely undermine it by slapping on a small chance that everything you've done was pointless. Trying to catch that pokemon? Lol critical kill. Acupressure'd your way to max evasion and defense against a max swords dance enemy? Lol critical ignores defense boosts. Switch into an attack that you can take, and intend to outspeed and heal it off next turn? Lol critical nope. It infuriates me to no end. The amount of happiness I get from favorable criticals is absolutely nothing compared to the rage I get with unlucky criticals. The whole mechanic takes a dump on stall teams. Just...why, Game Freak, why.
    • Because, troper, because. Because if combat was completely predictable, it wouldn't be as enjoyable. Because critical hits also work on your favor(so you never were in the situation where you were just one hit away of being obliterated and was saved by a critical hit? Ever?). Because it might be the only way to counter certain teams. And no, critical hit does not ignore defense boosts. At least not after Gen 1, so I wonder where you have been for the last 10 years or so.
      • Critical hits are not the only thing keeping combat from being completely predictable. There's already a large amount of random variance in damage, who knows what pokemon on are on what team, who knows what moves they're packing, who knows what ability they have, who knows what hold item they have, lots of moves have small chances of granting a bonus effect, hit chances, etc. Already extremely robust. As I said, the critical hits in my favor are nowhere near satisfying enough to make up for all the rage they've caused, and uh, yes, they do ignore defense boosts. Derp. The only change since Gen I in that regard is they no longer ignore attack boosts too, even more in favor of the attacker.
        • Hm, yes. Critical hits ignores bonus in favor of the attacker. Well, most those things aren't random. If you're playing against an NPC, you can check Bulbapedia or Serebii to see exactly what Pokemon they have, what moves they pack, what ability they have, what items they have... if you're playing against someone, the same. Those things are not random, once defined they're defined. There's an optimal behavior in Pokemon battles, and critical hits shift the optimal in favor of someone. I can't argue that they needed critical hits for any other reason than other RPG have them, but I don't see any reason for it not to be there except being a control freak.
          • Well I speak in more of a competitive online battling context, where the mechanic purely serves to undermine the otherwise delicate process of managing boosts, switches, and moves. It could be thought of as a solution to stalling (as mentioned earlier, a +6 evasion +6 [special] defense mon is otherwise absolutely unkillable), but if they wanted to do that there are much more consistent and better mechanisms that could be used instead. It's very rarely even fiddled with; a few moves and abilities modify the critical hit chance and damage, but they are rare and only slightly change it, save the two new weak always-crit moves.
    • And, more to the point: because it's a staple of RPGs in general and they saw no reason why not to use it.
    • I'd like to point out that critical hits are a lot more common in Gen 5, thus imbalancing the game more and rendering the "they're rare so don't complain" point moot.
      • And "I'd" be wrong. No one has proved that claim
  • Why is the Marsh badge gained in a psychic gym, and the soul badge in a poison gym.
    • I read somewhere that it was a mix up that stuck.
    • It could be that the Marsh is meant to represent the mind of someone under psychic attack: everything's hazy, it's hard to think, let alone move, and every minute that goes by means you lose just a little bit more control. // As for the Soul Badge, it's because being poisoned also affects the soul, maybe worse than the body; it hurts to feel your strength ebbing away without anything you can do to stop it.


  • So, if Arceus is the god Pokemon, the one that created the universe and all the Pokemon in it, and Mew is the ancestor of Pokemon... Is Mew the ancestor of Arcues? If not, does that mean Arceus isn't technically a Pokemon? How does that work?
    • The anime is very confusing on this point. Mew is the precursor of all pokemon on Earth.
    • I always saw it as "Arceus creates Mew, and over time Mew evolves into all the various species of Pokemon we have today".
    • I'll tell you how it works: Mew's precursor status is just speculation by scientists in the Pokemon world. No, seriously. Look at Mew's pokedex entries: Most of them just say it is said to contain the DNA of all Pokemon[5] while the stuff about being a precursor is just what many scientists believe.
    • The pokedex and the other things people say about them are extremely exaggerated.
  • Why does Missingno. evolve into Kangashkhan? A Kangaskhan that can learn surf ( and fly (and Super Glitch, why not?)), no less.
  • Why the heck is Salamence only four feet eleven inches tall? That would make it about the same height as an average sixth or seventh grader! And in the anime, it's huge - check out this shot: [1] [dead link]
    • Since the cartoon follows the games and not the other way around, it's the former that's screwed up in this case.
    • Just assume it's exceptionally large for its species.


  • Why do so few people, NPC's and Players alike, name their pokemon? When it comes to pokemon with names, the only pokemon in any game this troper has ever played other than my own are pokemon seen in contests, musicals, or pokemon obtained through an in-game trade. I can understand grunts not naming their pokemon, since they view their pokemon more as weapons than companions, but what about the gym leaders? The Elite four members? The Champions? The trainers you meet as you explore the every region (especially Joey's infamous ratata, you'd think a guy who thinks so highly of his ratata would have named it by now)? What's their excuse? As for players, why wouldn't you want to name your pokemon? Sure, some species names aren't as easy to remember as others, but that's what the internet is for. What grinds my gears even more is that one of my friends one time asked me why I name my pokemon like she would ask me why I would pour grape juice into my cereal instead of milk or something similarly unusual. Naming your pokemon is just another way to let them know that they're part of the group and an individual as well.
    • This troper and his friends have always named their Pokemon, at least the ones they actually use in battles. As for NPCs, don't forget that it might not be immediately obvious to a newer player what a Pokemon was if its name wasn't visible, and for when their pokemon has fainted so the game tells you what the NPC is switching to...
      • Well that's nothing a little bit of rephrasing can't resolve. For example, suppose you and I were to engage in a pokemon battle and I send out my dragonite. It could be phrased like "Trainer Clover has sent out his dragonite, Derek." As for grunts or anyone else who for some reason don't name their pokemon, the dialogue box could say "(criminal organization) Grunt sent out their (insert pokemon here).
      • How do we know the NPC trainers don't nickname their mons? The text box only says "Trainer sent out Ratata", rather than "Go! Ratty!" or "I choose you! Ratty!" or something.
      • NPC trainers don't nickname their Pokemon simply because it would be easier on the writers.
  • Why are the Hikers so fat? You would think that they would be some of the least tubby characters in the game, what with all the hiking they supposedly do.
    • "Go Geodude! Carry me up the mountain!"
    • Fat doesn't mean their not athletic. Perhaps they just eat a lot.
      • Or the fat is for extra body warmth, given that the mountains are really cold. (I'm looking at you, Mt. Silver and Spear Pillar)
  • What is the point of ever giving a Poke'mon an Everstone if you can cancel their evolving anyway just by pressing 'B' when it is about to happen?
    • When this Troper got a Golbat in Firered, it couldn't evolve since I didn't yet have the National Dex. It got really irritating to watch the evolution screen over and over again when it would just cancel itself out, so the Everstone came in really useful. I'm guessing other impatient players find it easy to just lug it on an unevolved Pokémon as well instead of waiting until they can cancel it out on the evo screen.
    • I thought the same, but figured it out the other day. Some items and abilities have hidden effects other than what is stated in their description. In particular, when breeding, a pokemon holding an everstone has a 50% chance of passing down its nature.
    • However, neither applies to Gen II, which introduced the Everstone.
    • So people don't have to worry about pressing B every level.
  • In Heart Gold and Soul Silver, it's said that the Embedded Tower was built by people from Hoenn. How were they able to build a tower so high up into the sky, AND the bottom of the ocean? Never mind a place where Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza can all reside? I take it that it must have been like the Sky Pillar, that is before it was ravaged. Still not sure how those legendaries resided there. Also, do HG/SS take place after Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald after the Red and Blue Orbs have been used?
    • Yes. Gen II is stated to take place three years after Gen I. Gen III is generally considered to have run concurrently with Gen I, since the remakes can contact Gen III without the need for a time machine.
  • Karen, the Dark-type Elite Four member in GSCHGSS. Only three of her five Pokés are Dark-type, and when they had enough Dark types to fill up her team(Sneasel and Tyranitar) in GSC, it just seems weird to have two non-Dark types, especially at a time where Elite Four trainers kept to one type for battles(not counting second types) and even now, they only have one other-typed Pokémon to "balance" out the team- not two.
    • Actually, in the first two games it was much more common for Elite Four members to have Pokemon outside their speciality type (probably due to there being fewer Pokemon of certain types back then). Agatha is said to be a Ghost-type trainer but in fact all her Pokemon are poison-type, Lance has more flying-types than Dragons (true for both gen 1 and 2). Lorelei has Slowbro, Koga has Forretress, Bruno had his two Onix. So Karen isn't really much of an anomaly - it's only from Gen III onwards that Elite Four members really start using types exclusively. That said, I do find it odd that GSC had an Ice-type gym and a Dark-type elite four member, and chose to not use the Dark/Ice Sneasel in either one of them.
  • Baby pokemon don't make a lot of sense to this troper. I mean, I get that there are pokemon that are way too mature-looking for it to be believed that they came straight out of the egg like that, but what makes these baby pokemon any different from most first-stage pokemon that they're unable to breed until they evolve? What I'm asking is if anyone else finds it a bit jarring that an adolescent-looking, bipedal canine pokemon can't bear children yet, but a freakin' caterpillar can?
    • It depends: do you find it a bit jarring that an itty-bitty shrew can bear children but a rather huge newborn elephant cannot?
      • There's a difference between size and age.
    • So the complaint is that caterpillars should be considered baby Pokemon but are not, while many other Pokemon who should have gotten baby forms like Kangaskhan did not?
  • On another note, this troper also thinks that a ghosts immunity to normal and fighting-type moves should be changed to an immunity to physcial attacks instead. It just seems ridiculous to me that hurling star-shaped formations of energy or a concentrated ball of the user's fighting spirit at a ghost pokemon won't do crap for damage, but throwing a rock at it will.
    • The sad thing is that it's probably the fan's fault since we see that in each generation they try to apply more physics to the games and also making rules to make a move serve the same strategy it can be used in the anime (example Roadspin).
    • Because making Ghost-types immune to physical moves - roughly half the moves in the game - would make Ghost-types horribly overpowered. It's just Gameplay and Story Segregation, it's not pretty but it works.
    • Because "ghost type" is not quite the same as "insubstantial type".
  • Question: How on Earth (or whatever the Pokeworld is called) can you get phone reception in the middle of a mountain? Then again, they have figured out how to shrink some ridiculously sized critters to the size of a baseball, so that may explain it...
    • Satellites.
    • They don't shrink; they use a special space to allow them to fit in the ball.
  • It pretty much goes without saying that any domesticated ditto since gen II has seen more action in the daycare than on the battlefield, but there's one thing that this troper has been wondering since I first figured out the mechanics of breeding. When a pokemon is put into the daycare with a ditto, one would assume that the ditto turns into the opposite gender of the aforementioned pokemon's species and the mating ensues. But when an opposite gender of said pokemon doesn't exist, what does the ditto turn into? You could argue that in the case for female exclusives (Kangaskan, Miltank, Mandibuzz, and Jynx) that the ditto turns into a male pokemon of a common egg group with the respective female, but what about Tauros, the three evolve forms of Tyrogue, Sawk, Throh and Braviary? What would a ditto turn into that if I were to put my braviary in the daycare with a ditto, a rufflet would be born as a result?
    • Miltank is a cow. Tauros is a bull (Granted, Miltank can't lay Tauros eggs and thus it can be argued that they aren't connected, but it's still rather obvious, if unacknowledged, connection).
    • While I'm on the subject, genderless pokemon, what does a ditto turn into that's more appealing to a genderless pokemon than another genderless of the same egg group let alone the same species?
    • Maybe it combines DNA asexualy, then duplicates itself into an egg, and removes the excess DNA?
    • As we don't even know how the eggs are made in the regular instances, it's kind of absurd to expect to understand the subtleties of the Ditto case. It's entirely possible that the pokemon do a special ritual dance around a special stone, and it turns into an egg... and ditto, being able to replicate genetic information, allows this ritual to work. Or maybe they actually do have some pokesex. We just don't know.
      • Well, whatever it is, it isn't like ordinary biology.
  • This is about a manga called Pokewake. One of the chapter suggests that Pokemon and humans met each other very recently, since the clothing is modern and the protagonist is Bill as a kid. That.. Makes no sense whatsoever. It's probably a myth in that manga, but still.
  • If they barely had enough room on the original GB cart for Mew after removing debug features, how did they fit both the original Kanto region and Johto on the same GBC cart, plus all the new Pokemon and characters? Was it made on a different card? New compression features? What?
    • I'm unsure too. The cart is a Game Boy cart, not a Color one. They probably used a different sort of compression data, or a bigger chip or something.
    • Gamefreak were not very experienced designers back when they did Red and Green. Also, the original games had much content they did not have a chance to implement, Gold and Silver added a lot of what they wanted Red and Green(Blue) to have
    • The cart had more space for Gold and Silver - Red and Blue were 1 MB, while Gold and Silver were 2 MB. It wasn't the only addition, remember - it also had a clock in the cart.
      • The clock does not take up ROM space (and probably only a few bytes of address space).
  • Ok I see they're gonna keep doing it in Best Wishes, so when a pokemon decides it wants to be caught without battling, why is everyone still in suspense waiting for the shaking of the pokeball to stop?
    • Because pokeballs have to be shaky to detect them so that the pokemon can fit inside properly without being cramped.
  • I work at McDonald's, where we currently have the Pokemon Black and White toys. We have Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott, Zorua, Zoroark, Zekrom, Reshiram, and... Pikachu. Which one of these things is not like the others?
    • Pikachu is the Series Mascot and the Spotlight-Stealing Squad. I'm not surprised that it made its way onto the toys.
    • Honestly, I think zorua's more the odd one out in this situation. Think of what we have here: Two different species of dragons, a mouse, a snake, a piglet, an otter, a fox, and a pup of the aforementioned fox.
  • Have you noticed that when you put two pokemon in the daycare together and their capable of mating, even if they don't like each other much, they will reproduce eventually? If they don't like each other, then why bother mating? Was there some sort of Slap Slap Kiss action going on, or was the mating process... less than consensual?
    • Angry sex.
    • Foe Yay.
      • Remember, NPCs in Pokemon are kinda dumb. There was an episode of Wild Thornberries where Eliza stopped two turtles from reproducing because she mistook their mating ritual for a fight. The daycare folks are cut from the same cloth.
  • Single-gender Pokemon. How do they exist in the wild? If it's an all-male species, there would be no eggs. Ever. If it's an all-female species, theen it's down to whether species interbreed in the wild or only in domesticity (if that's a word). If the two genders make up separate species, like Nidoran M/F or Tauros/Miltank, then after a single generation, all the males would be dead. I think this goes a step beyond failing biology forever.
  • Do pokemon like Jinx, Chansey, Lilligant, Kangaskhan, the hitmon family and the karate family depend solely on other Pokemon to breed? since all of them only have one gender but don't have an opposite gender counterpart like Braviary/Mandibuzz, Tauros/Miltank, etc.
    • No they rely on ditto as they lack egg moves in the wild.
    • Yes; pokemon breeding is not like ordinary biology.
  • Eye colors. In generation 1, almost every human had Brown Eyes or cartoony black eyes. In generation 2, they changed that however several characters have Brown Eyes in their artwork. Later they were changed to different colors, often matching the adaptations. For the adaptations did they use a blind guess that happened to be used for the games, the game designers told them to use certain colors, or are the game colors a Mythology Gag?
    • Different eye colours common in other places.
  • Shiny Mewtwo. If Mewtwo is a one of a kind clone of Mew, then how could a variant exist? Surely that'd make it Mewthree?
    • Gameplay and Story Segregation. Perhaps the anti-shiny marker on Victini, Zekrom, and Reshiram was designed with this thing in mind?
    • That just means that in your game Mewtwo was born blue.
  • There isn't a Pokemon MMO, despite the concept being perfect for it!
    • Actually, there is. It's called Pokemon Cyrus.
    • Because if there was an official MMO, new Pokemon would be updated through patches, meaning you wouldn't have to buy new games anymore. As well, trading would be ridiculously easy to do, taking away the One Game for the Price of Two part of Pokemon.
      • They could introduce new Pokemon in expansions rather than patches, and I personally always felt the paired versions were to encourage trading by making it so that trading was the only way to complete the Pokedex, rather than having players by the same game twice. The real answers is because Game Freak don't develop for computers.
  • There isn't any Pokefusion (Fuselution?) in the games. There's already precedent for two Pokemon becoming one in the games (Slowpoke + Shelder = Slowbro) and a few others actually.
  • Why/how do the areas with tides have three tide cycles per day? You'd need at least two moons for a planet to get that to happen even a couple times a year, much less every day. For that matter, are only a couple areas affected by tides, which really ought to affect all shorelines?
  • So, why didn't they change Pikachu's name in any of the localizations? They changed nearly everyone else's.
    • They're the mascot. It needs to be a recognizable name.
  • Just why the hell does Shellder look 'entirely' different in it's regular form than it does when attached to Slowking? Also, where the hell does it come from when Slowbro evolves? For that matter, Where do the extra two Magnemite or Diglett come from when they evolve?
    • Well they're Gen 1 Pokemon, if at least Slowbro came in later generations it probably would have had a different method of evolution probably similar to Matine's.
  • Is there any reason why every protagonist either has Blue Eyes or Brown Eyes?
    • There aren't many eye colors left
  • Is it just me, or is Game Freak unaware that orange is a color? Seriously, look at how many pokemon are classified as red or brown that are clearly orange.
    • What do you want them to be listed under? There isn't an 'orange' colour group.
      • But why isn't there an orange color group? There's plenty of orange pokemon, so it would only make sense that they be classified by the pokedex as orange.
        • They're probably trying to avoid difficulty with all the reddish orange Pokemon, I think they already have enough with all the bluish purple, bluish green (I'm looking at you Bronzor) etc.
  • Since we're on the subject of color, why are so many Pokemon in that color group? some are covered more in another color but you could give them a pass since they still have the color somewhere (well except to maybe red Druddigon and purple Gothitelle), but can someone explain to me why is Lampent white, Snorunt grey and worst of all, Keldeo yellow
    • Keldeo's main body is yellowish-white and the part of Snorunt's body that isn't covered by its poncho is dark grey. Lampent, I have no idea.
  • In the Pokedex, it's said the skull on Cubone's head is the one of its dead mother. Now let's say you put a Marowak and another Pokemon in its Egg Group in the daycare center. Congratulations, your egg has hatched into a Cubone! But wait- it has a skull on its head. So if the skull on its head is the one of its dead mother, how come the mother is still alive and it has a skull on its head?
    • The Pokedex entry makes a lot more sense if you only apply it to the Marrowack team rocket killed in Lavender Town's tower and not the entire species.
  • Why is spike cannon a normal-type move when the only pokemon who can learn it are water-type? If withdraw can be a water-type move despite not having anything to do with water besides for the first pokemon who was able to learn it (squirtle's evo-chain and slowbro), I don't see why spike cannon can't be water-type as well. And to hammer my point further: the move coil, it's a poison-type move despite not having anything to do with poison so much as it has to do with snakes (the exception being elektrik, which is an eel). Even then, only two of the five pokemon (yes, I'm counting ekans' and snivy's evo-chains as two pokemon rather than 5) are actually poison type, and they're from gen 1 and gen 3. Coil is a gen 5 move.
    • This is from the same company that implemented the God-awful mechanic called Stealth Rock. You've got to take what you can get.
      • What does the tedious effects of Stealth Rock have to do with the questionable typing of spike cannon?
        • Simply that it's also a mechanic that doesn't make sense (and is in this case detrimental), but that we can't do anything about.
        • What doesn't make sense about stealth rock? It's a rock type move where a pokemo releases rocks into the air which will hurt any opposing pokemon that switches in after the opponent the user was originally fighting. As a bonus (for the pokemon using the move that is) the damage from the stealth rocks varies depending on how vulnerable the opponent is to rock-type attacks. Sure, it'll only leave a few measly scratches on a pokemon like steelix. But it'll come in handy against that arrogant, nostalgia-drunken Pokemon "fan" who thinks every pokemon after gen 1 is oh-so inferior when he brings out his charizard to play. Spike Cannon on the other hand is a move that could've been learned by any pokemon that has sharp protrusions coming from its body. However, Game Freak Decided to only let it be learned by three water-type pokemon (omanyte's evo-chain, cloyster, and corsola), and only two of which have another common typing. Yet for some reason, it's a normal-type move instead of a water-type move. Y'all see where I'm coming from now?
        • Stealth Rock is the best move in the game, sure, but that's just the problem. It's extremely short-sighted in design, considering what it's supposed to do (making perfectly viable Pokemon worthless is not the mark of a good balancing measure). Also, how about we stop talking about Stealth Rock while we can. As far as your Spike Cannon problem is concerned though, Gamefreak could probably get away with making it a water move, but it probably makes more sense to leave it as normal. It's kind of for the same reason that Wrap and Constrict aren't grass type for instance, even though they work more or less on the same principle as Vine Whip (and a load of Grass types learn Wrap).
  • If Professor Oak is really sending you out to research the world's Pokemon and add them to the Pokedex ... how does he know exactly how many there are? How can they be assigned numbers in any way other than order of discovery? Something's rotten here.
    • He wants you to RESEARCH them, not DISCOVER them. The number of Pokemon at any given time isn't a secret or mystery, but he wants you to capture them to get more insight on their biological data to add the the encyclopedia that is the Pokedex, with things such as height, weight, dietary details, whatever, etc.
  • Why is it that after the first game, the player character is the only person on the entire continent who is ever listed on the 'Winning Trainers' list in the gyms? It bugs me in particular that the subsequent rivals after Blue seem to be completely incapable of getting gym badges, which becomes very odd once they start to equal/exceed the power of the elite four. This is even weirder when you consider all the cooltrainers and such inside victory road, which should imply that they too managed to beat the region's gyms...
    • Perhaps the PC just skipped all the names, only bothering to see the names he recognizes (which is himself and the rival).
      • This is likely the case for Wally, who was on his way to challenge the Elite Four before your final battle with him. As for the other rivals, Silver was only concerned with beating Team Rocket and you, Brendan/May didn't seem to ever really care about challenging the Pokemon League and eventually decided to focus on building up the Pokedex, and the other player characters didn't count as rivals. As for your other rivals, Barry, Cheren, and Bianca all had their names on the winning trainers list (although I think Barry's was missing from Sunnyshore Gym's). Cheren is special in that he's the first rival since Blue to have beaten the Elite Four (though he never fought and beat the champion). As for why people like Silver don't seem to need to collect badges to get past certain obstacles and have their Pokemon obey them, we can dismiss that as Gameplay and Story Segregation.
      • Wally only set out a long time after you did, so would have been beating gyms whilst you were saving the world (and then caught up with you because you swept out Victory Road before he got there). The game only shows the list immediately after you win, so doesn't show his name because you beat him to all of them. Silver most likely just stole some badges and Brendan/May & Lucas/Dawn probably get some special privileges from being assistants to the regional professor.


  • Is there any kind of government in Pokemon world? Are regions independent countries? There have to be some kind of menagement, taxes to keep police and Pokemon Centres running. I have always thought that Pokemon League is some kind of governmentm, no I find this quite ridiculous idea.
    • Yes, we've seen mayors, we just aren't subject to those trivial details just because a few fans are curious. If you ask loud enough you may get a tongue and cheek government history paper back from Nintendo
  • Attract. Pokemon can only breed based on egg groups and yet any Pokemon can become infatuated, including genderless ones when the move is used by another genderless Pokemon. Why? What sense does it make for something to be sexually attracted to something it can't breed with? Furthermore, I know humans aren't Pokemon, but does this mean that a Pokemon of the opposite gender (let's ignore the other sexual orientations for now) can infatuate them if they use Attract? Disregarding the fact that the move would become nearly useless in battle, the move should only be working on things that can breed with each other.
    • Genderless can infatuate Genderless? Wow! Anyway, the Doylist in me wants to play the Pokemon are for Kids card, but even then it still wouldn't explain why any Pokemon can be fawning over any Pokemon of the opposite gender with just a wink. Breeding groups aside, one would think that there would be more qualities of attraction, per species or in general, than "does this person have a plug/hole?" Then again, the anime, for what it's worth, doesn't take stock of breeding groups for their Pokemon Love Interest of the week. (Buneary being a notable exception, but she was a party member.)
    • Its using psychic powers to inspire something resembling love and true love doesn't care about reproduction or sexual attraction. Gender is just the attack's limitation.
    • Same reason as why some people out there can get attracted to animals, objects, etc. The real question is, why is it restricted to opposite gender (or, in the case of genderless, other genderless)? It's not like it directly says it's sexual attraction, it could have simply been the equivalent of being starry-eyed over them (much as happens to some people in presence of celebrities).
      • Why this "attract" is work like any of these things describe here (including different kind of pokemons too) is because this "gender" is not the same kind of things we would usually think of "gender"/"sex".
  • Why on earth would Celadon Game Corner, or any Game Corner for that matter, allow a 10-year old to gamble?
    • In the first generation games, Celadon Game Corner was owned by Team Rocket. They are crime syndicate, who cuts off Pokemon tails. They don't care or are even happy that stupid kids come to their casino and waste money there. Pokemon world may just has very liberal law about gambling minors. They don't seem to have a problem with kids traveling around the world on their own, fighting with crime and saving the universe. In the Black and White main character is specifically asked to find seven sages aka run-away heads of crime organisation. Why should kids be banned from casinos if they can do such things on regular basis? On the other hand this issue was touched upon in Headscratchers.
  • Something always confused me about Old Chateau. I know you can catch Rotom and get Old Gateau there, but what's with the ghost man and girl? Can you actually TALK to them, or are they just there for creepy effect?!
    • creepy effect, and nothing more.
  • So the popular belief on why fighting beats dark is because fighting-type pokemon battle with honor while dark types play dirty. So then why are fighting-type pokemon capable of learning dark-type attacks? My infernape for example knows Fling and always keeps a fossil on hand (one of the second most powerful items to be utilized with fling) for when he uses the move. Aslo, croagunk and its evolve form toxicroak; what part of this sleazy-looking pokemon screams "honorable warrior"?
    • While honour may play a part of it, my theory about Dark vs Fighting is that it's basically equating to a martial art expert fighting an ordinary guy with no real fighting skills, so he attempts to fight dirty. The thing is, a proficient martial artist should be able to to handle underhanded tactics. For example, let's say the dirty fighter attempts to kick the martial artist in the groin. A decently trained fighter can easily block or dodge such a move with little effort or difficulty. In other words, "it's not very effective". However, that doesn't mean a martial couldn't use dirty moves themselves if they wanted to. I see Fighting's advatnage as not Honour Before Reason, but skill trumping lack of skill.
  • Why is Gyarados part flying when it can't learn flying type moves (except Bounce in Platinum) or why can't it learn flying type moves when it's part flying
    • It's based on a Chinese myth that carp who manage to make it up a waterfall and leap over the Dragon Gate become dragons—hence, flying fish. Plus, from a gameplay standpoint, it gives Gyarados a bit of balance—it's maybe one or two steps below a pseudo-legendary in terms of stats, but it has a quadruple weakness to electric attacks.
      • Yes, but why as of Gen 5 the only flying move it has is Bounce, which he can only get in Platinum. It's not the only pokemon who that has happened, but it's weird one as commonly used even by game characters as Gyarados hasn't been fixed yet.
        • Oh, gotcha. Probably Game Freak wants to emphasize its water- and dragon-nature over the flying part—it doesn't have wings or a beak, so a lot of the flying moves (Fly, Drill Peck, Wing Attack) would look kind of weird on it.
          • Yeah I know, but there are a few flying moves that he should be able to learn that have a medium power (so the theory that it's so he doesn't become overpower is out), like Sky Drop or Aerial Ace (a move with 60 power that a lot of pokemon can learn even the likes of Boufalant, Regigigas, Groudon, Tyranitar and Dugtrio)
    • To be fair, any magikarp you get from the Dream World will have Bounce as one of its moves as well.
    • For gameplay purposes - you can get it before the second gyms in most games.
  • SilverPowder apparently boosts the power of Bug-type moves by 20% when held, but I don't see what it has to do with bugs at all.
    • Maybe it has some connection to the move Silver Wind.
    • Silver Powder was introduced in Gen II while Silver Wind was introduced in Gen III. Hm......
  • An acquaintance of mine once told me that in either his Red or Blue cartridge (I can't remember which one he was talking about right off hand) in the area where you fight Mewtwo, there's a glitch that'll gain you access to an Early-Bird Cameo of the pokemon Blissey. I have never heard this story from anyone else, nor have I seen any other source confirming this. I also have no access to a red or blue cartridge to find this out for myself. What do you guys think? Can any of you confirm this, or is my acquaintance just making up an Urban Legend of Zelda?
  • What 's the deal with most signature moves? Is there any reason why any of these traits (in no particular order) must apply to the only pokemon who was able to learn it during the move's debut and/or still the the only one able to learn it?
    • Being unable to learn it until the pokemon in question reaches a really high level usually way past when the pokemon's supposed to evolve, and it's only gonna have to level up even higher if it evolves on its way to learning its signature move (and in meowth's case, it had better wait until lvl 30 before evolving into persian lest it lose its opportunity to learn Pay Day; Mewtwo and volcarona don't even get theirs until lvl 100).
    • The move is a weaker version of a another move the pokemon can learn (the Kadabra line's Kinesis which has the same effect as Flash but with less PP and Accuracy).
    • The move is normal-type despite the pokemon being typed something else (hitmonlee's mega kick).
    • The move does not work in favor of the pokemon's stats (Exeggcute and exeggutor's barrage is a physical move despite the pokemon being better with special attack in both stages. Stack that on top of barrage being a normal-type move inspite of exaggcute/exeggutor's grass/psychic typing, and you have yourself a double whammy of sig. move fail there).
      • Make that a triple whammy, exeggcute can learn bullet seed which has the same effect as barrage, but is stronger and is a grass-type move meaning that the pokemon can get STAB from it.
  • Can anyone explain Jirachi being primarily a Steel-type Pokemon? It's the lightest Steel-type, it's soft (as seen in Jirachi: Wishmaker), and none of its abilities or moves are properly Steel-themed. Flash Cannon is Steel-type, but it's one of many generic non-damaging "burst of light" attacks, and Doom Desire doesn't even count as Steel-type, since it ignores typing, weaknesses, and (according to Bulbapedia) STAB! As for its Psychic typing, that was hyped in the movie and the game info. I pored over its Bulbapedia page, and my memories of how it was treated in the movie, and found one thing that even remotely justifies its typing: Jirachi's head/headdress has a metallic gleam. According to my memories of the movie, this "gleam" is highly inconsistent, and its head appears to be soft, unless Max doesn't mind using a hard metal star as a teddy bear. Aside from defensive, game-balancing purposes (and I will be sorely irritated but understanding if that is the only reason anyone can give), I can find no reason for Jirachi to have Steel-type, and that doesn't even explain why it's a primary Steel-type.
    • Flash cannon is a damaging move.
      • Acknowledged, I was wrong about that. However, it's still a very weak reason (even a secondary or near-afterthought reason) to make Jirachi steel-type.
    • Jirachi is based on wishing stars, in other words it's a Thunderbolt Iron.
      • Ah, that makes sense. However, it just reverses the problem, as a troper further down in the section noticed (including not being able to learn the Steel-type Comet Punch/Meteor Mash).
    • I think a better question would be why Jirachi can't learn that many steel type moves despite being his primary type to the point were even when it's based on a star it can't learn Meteor Mash (Comet Punch is Japanese). It can't even learn Gyro Ball with TM 74 in gen 4 or 5
  • Why does pinsir learn more useful fighting-type moves by leveling up than heracross who's an actual fighting-type?
    • Pinsir probably should be a Fighting-type, considering the whole Japanese Beetle Brothers thing with it and Heracross, and what they are commonly used for in Japan. However, the designers seem to oppose changing a Pokémon's type in general. Not that it stopped them from adding Steel to the Magnemite family when the opportunity arose.
    • Pinsir should not have been Fighting. It was one of the only two good Bugs in Gen I, so the last thing it needed was a type combination that made Psychic attacks neutral against it.
      • That's a pretty good way to think about it. The two can be counterparts with fairly similar movesets, but one gets the Fighting STAB and resistances (one of which is to those accursed rocks), while the other stymies Psychics and is slightly less Flying bait.
  • Say you're surfing on your Feraligatr. Suddenly, you encounter a swimmer and he wants to fight! So you send out your...Feraligatr. Who fights the opponents. With you on his back. And can get KO'd. Just how do you make sure you're not hit and you don't drown? Alternate version: you're surfing on a friggin' Azurill. An AZURILL. Then you start fighting with a trainer and you send out a Steelix. Which is 9 meters long and can't neither float nor fly. While surfing. On your tiny Azurill. Just...just HOW?
    • I think the trainer might get off of whatever they were surfing on and just swim while the battle happens.
      • I thought about that, but makes me still wonder how the hell can an Azurill (way smaller than you) carry you around outside of battle...and do the Pokemon you send in battles have to swim as well? Poor Steelix...
    • How? Simple.
      • Yes. (My idea was to make the game to avoid this problem, but I didn't do that.)
    • Imagine sending out a huge Snorlax into Nimbasa City's tiny ferris wheel. *SPLOTCH*
    • The surf(and fly) HM's field effect is not the same thing as actually riding on the Pokemon, it uses the Pokemon's power to create a shark for you to sit on(or creates a giant bird). Compare how the two NPCs take off on Dragon Spiral Tower. One gets on his Pokemon and rides it, the other just uses an HM. Compare Giratina dragging Cyrus to using fly.
  • Why do they keep calling the changes to Pokemon 'evolution'. While in real life it might sound better it has nothing to do with actual evolution. What the Pokemon are doing is closer to incredibly beneficial mutation or simple aging.
    • "Metamorphosis" would be the closest. It's probably just a wonky translation that's stuck out of tradition.
      • Not so: The original Japanese uses ?? shinka, which means evolution with the exact same definition and connotation as the English word "evolution". Keep in mind, however, that the Pokemon world is different from ours; language could have developed differently, and evolution could have become a blanket term for Pokemon mysteriously growing as well.
    • It's really more of a maturation most of the time: Small thing becomes bigger, stronger, and gets decorative bits added onto it. But because it is difficult to show the pokemon actually growing, it is represented in bursts.
    • Hollywood Evolution and Did Not Do the Research / They Just Didn't Care at their very finest. You could just as easily ask why the writers of Star Trek: Voyager thought evolution meant Paris and Janeway magically mutating into amphibians.
      • Personally, I'm leaning towards They Just Didn't Care, since the Pokeworld apparently features Darwinian evolution as well. (Just look at all the Pokemon that have been naturally selected into extinction.)
    • The word evolution(and Shinka) existed long before Charles Darwin. Darwin evolution isn't the only evolution, even if your biology teacher gave you a good grade for saying it was.
    • Generation I is on a small display and the word "metamorphosis" won't fit; in later games they just kept "evolution" for consistency.
  • From what I've read for Pokémon Rumble Blast, Cobalion (the leader of the Three Musketeers-style legendary Pokémon) is the antagonist, even going so far as to steal magic liquid from the player, the liquid needed to bring the Pokémon toys to life. But didn't the dex entries in Black and White state that Cobalion PROTECTED the Pokémon from humans?
    • Darkrai has it even worse. My guess is that the team who made it isn't the same team as the main games.
    • Or that the Mystery Dungeon and Rumble series are not part of the main series's plot and have different rules. Main series Cobalion and Darkrai are nice enough, Mystery Dungeon Darkrai and Rumble Cobalion are evil. The same reason why Show! Sabrina is a Smug Super and Manga! Sabrina is evil while main series Sabrina is a modest Technical Pacifist.
      • Turns out Cobalion in Rumble Blast is a good guy, he stole the liquid in order to prevent a bigger evil from being released. He even sacrifices himself to save the player!
  • How are Steel-type Pokémon immune to Poison-type attacks when acid corrodes metal?
    • Because Acid is just One attack out of the whole spectrum of poison moves (Not that they are very varied). And the logic goes more along the lines of "Metal can't be poisoned" or something.
  • How come Eelektrik and Eelektross have the Levitate ability when their animation is shown as being on the ground?
    • Same reason Gengar, Dusclops, Vibrava, and Flygon have the Levitate ability when their animation is shown as being on the ground. The designers wanted them to have Ground immunity but couldn't make them Flying type for whatever reason.
  • Why are you always the only member of your household that owns a bedroom? Where does your mom sleep?
    • IIRC most of the houses have a couch.
    • We can also assume there's other rooms upstairs. After all, do we ever see that the exit downstairs leads only and directly into the player's room?
  • I have a question. The move "Water pulse" can confuse a foe. But why would a ball of water "confuse a poke'mon"?
    • It's not "creating a ball of water", it's more like "creating underwater ultrawaves". Just like Supersonic, but underwater. Now, how come you can create "underwater ultrawaves" when NOT underwater, that's another thing... (Maybe you hurl a ball of water packed with ultrawaves?)
  • The move Metronome only makes sense as Gameplay and Story Segregation: from the game point of view, it just randomly selects a move from the whole movepool, but in the Pokémon world you could actually see, say, your Clefairy shoot fire, explode, poison your foe or even drill it with no plausible explanation whatsoever.
    • Metronome is apparently supposed to be magic, so it can probably spawn temporary drills or whatever on the Pokemon depending on the move it selects.
  • Parasect's mind is supposedly taken over by its mushroom parasites upon evolution, thus more or less turning it into a completely different person than it was as a bug. Why then, does it keep its nature (Adamant, Jolly, Modest, etc...) upon evolution from Paras? Shouldn't it be a completely different entity by then? Also, what happens when you make a "magic potion" out of Parasect's mushroom? Does it just turn back into a Paras, or what?
    • The mushrooms were already making their way into Paras's brain while it was a Paras, so the nature change doesn't seem that drastic. A mushroom is just the reproducing part of a larger fungus, removing it would just cause another one to grow in its place, so long as the fungus had enough nutrients and water.
    • They didn't take it over entirely; that is an exaggeration; it is actually only partial.
  • Already there's Internet Backdraft about "y they continue Pokémon Black and White?". Am I the only one who's thinking most of it is "Why aren't you continuing Red&Blue/Gold&Silver/Ruby&Sapphire/Diamond&Pearl because they were my favourites"?
  • Why isn't "dream eater" affected by the "liquid ooze" ability? Considering that the only pokemon with that ability are poison-type, that's really the only draining attack they have to worry about.
    • Isn't it obvious? Dreams have nothing to do with how gooey the body is.
  • Wild Abra can only know Teleport. So how do wild Abra ever level up beyond level 1 or level 5, depending on version? Is there a secret organization handing out Rare Candies to them?
  • More of a meta example but, a lot of people say Unova is the first region to be based off something outside of Japan.. Does Orre apparently not exist?
    • Not part of the main series. Yes, they should be saying "first of the main series not in Japan." Main being Red-Blue, Ruby-Sapphire, ect
  • Do they speak English or Japanese in Orre and Unova? Both?
    • From the game's point of view: English. From a logical point of view: Japanese. As a matter of fact: Japanese with some Gratuitous English.
      • Or maybe each translation of the games is in an Alternate Continuity where they speak the player's language in all regions. This would make sense if you want to figure the Meister and foreign Dex entries into canon. Maybe NPCs who speak other languages come from the alternate continuities.
  • Why has no one ever looked into making a non-turn based version of Pokemon games? You know, something like Mortal Kombat where they can move around the field and use their moves on each other rather than just having sprites vibrate and stuff.
    • There's at least one Pokemon fighting game online, but there's two main problems that arise:
      • 1.) Creating a full set of animations for all the hundreds of Pokemon is impractical.
      • 2.) The main draw of the series is the strategy in it's turn-based combat.
      • 1a.) They could use 3D models instead, like with Pokémon Stadium or Pokémon Battle Revolution.
      • 2a.) Not all of the moves really work all that well/make a lot of sense in a turn-based system.
  • What happens if Cubone's mother is a Ditto?
    • Ditto creates a replica of the skull and gives it to Cubone.
  • Why is Charizard's second type Flying instead of Dragon? He is clearly a dragon, much more than, say, Garchomp (a dragon type Pokémon that looks nothing like one), instead it's classified into the Flying type just because it has wings (unlike another Flying type, Doduo, but that could be because Doduo is based on an ostrich - a bird that can't even fly, ironically). Seriously, it doesn't make sense...
    • It makes perfect sense if you consider it from a gameplay perspective. Dragon has only two weaknesses, both of which don't really pop up until very late in Red/Blue, and in later generations there are more Dragon moves besides Dragon Rage that are only weak against Steel, a relatively uncommon type. If he was part Dragon Charizard would be a complete Game Breaker, since Charmander's your first Pokémon and he could evolve to his third stage much faster than other Dragons, and would be a massively more popular choice than the other starters (more than he already is anyway).
    • Same reason Gyarados is Water/Flying. If it were part dragon, it'd be a complete Game Breaker and poor Bulbasaur&Squirtle will be extinct cause duh, pick the dragon type. (although Fire/Dragon is weak to Rock and Ground, Ground of which is a common attack type)
    • Only two types are possible, not three.
  • Why do trainer-owned Pokemon need to be told by their trainers which move they should use? Of course it's a game mechanic, but it doesn't make sense in-universe. Unless they get brainwashed when they're caught and thus stop thinking with their own heads during a battle.
    • Because Pokemon aren't smart enough to use strategy. Wild Pokemon will just use random moves, but trainer-owned Pokemon will actually use what is most effective.
    • Because you will need a battle commander.
    • So that the player can select them. The trainer doesn't necessarily need to, but the player does need to.
  • Why is it impossible to Ether and Max Ether anywhere? Makes no sense.
    • ...I can't get the logic out of your sentence.
    • Because they are too rare (candy is also rare).
  • How the fuck you can sent out Shedinja? Looking at the hole in its back is supposed to steal one's soul... and you see it everytime you send out Shedinja. Yet, the hole is displayed perfectly and no side effects happen, either due to lazy programmers... or maybe because it's just too scary to see what would happen if programmers DID add that thing?
    • Pokédex entries are dubious, rarely are they accurate stories. They read more like lore & folk tales said about the pokémon, similar how cats in real life 'have nine lives', a Shedinja's hole in the back does not steal your soul, that's just a story.
  1. ↑ Pokemon Mansion.
  2. ↑ No, you had to trade a Poliwhirl for it in Cerulean City.
  3. ↑ Story-wise, anyway.
  4. ↑ Even though Americans have actually been doing just that for awhile, albeit indirectly and without their knowledge. Whenever somebody who is uninsured goes to the hospital, they charge insurance companies, who then hock the cost onto their customers. Places with UHC? Private insurance companies are never charged for uninsured people going in.
  5. ↑ It doesn't, as there are nearly a dozen Pokemon completely unrelated to Mew who formed as a result of human activity.
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