Category: Uncategorized

Hey bill, i have a lot of anxiety and depression problems and wondered what the best Pokémon to help me through panic attacks and depressive episodes are?

Well, that may depend on what you need, and it may perhaps be a good idea to work with your therapist if you have one to determine the perfect pokémon for your situation.

If you’d like to know about what options you have before meeting with your doctor, some of the ones for anxiety are outlined here and here. It’s worth it to pay particularly close attention to the second link, as that describes in detail the way empathic resonance (or the act of “sharing an emotion” with another being) works in a therapeutic environment, which may be better suited to helping you through depressive episodes than aromatherapy, but really, many of the pokémon outlined in either post would work just as well.

Alternatively, for depression specifically, some people prefer to work with a pokémon known for empathy or affection, such as audino, the chansey line, or sylveon. Audino and chansey in particular are also typically medically trained (that is to say, they’re often frequently retired nurse pokémon), which means that not only are they capable of helping you through an episode, but they can also look after you in a medical sense as well. Other patients, meanwhile, prefer the company of popular pet pokémon such as growlithe, houndour, or clefairy, or pokémon that can be trained to hold conversations (either vocal or signed), such as chatot or jynx. All of these species are known to reduce stress through playtime or simple, straightforward interaction, so they’re ideal for more high-functioning individuals. 

However, while it’s not exactly unheard of to have more than one service pokémon, you may find it easier to work with a single pokémon that can be empathic and help you through anxiety attacks, such as gardevoir or meowstic. As I’ve mentioned in the earlier posts, these pokémon are not only capable of giving off “comforting vibes,” as it were, but they’re also capable of foreseeing when an attack might happen, which allows them to be better prepared to step in than most other pokémon. Combine that with the aforementioned empathic resonance (or simply that some of the pokémon in this category are highly affectionate in a physical sense), and it’s easy to see why psychics tend to be rather popular as service pokémon.

Of course, I must emphasize that I can only mention options to you, and this should in no way be taken as medical advice, psychologically speaking or otherwise, as I’m possibly … not the least qualified individual to dispense medical advice but not exactly one who can legally offer any. Check with your doctor first (if you can) to go through these options or to find others I might not even be aware of. If you can’t get a doctor, most regions have their own social programs set up to connect individuals with social workers who can, in turn, help them find a suitable companion pokémon.

Best of luck, anonymous!

Hello Bill, do you think you can tag your Pokedex entries by the Pokemon’s type? I am currently doing research into Ghost-types, and would appreciate a way to gather all the Ghost-type Pokemon data into one place. I also know another person who would shamelessly indulge in all of your entries about one particular type – Flying – and I would like to assure you that I am not that person. I just wanted to suggest a sort-by-type tagging system.

Certainly! This might take a bit, as we have quite a few entries to sort through and tag, but my editor and I will get started on this at once. I’ll be sure to make a second post to let everyone know when work is completed.

Incidentally, should anyone like us to add tags for anything else—including for triggers we may have missed—please don’t hesitate to send us an ask. There’s no way we can ignore requests like those.

The Deino Line

Deino
The Irate Pokémon
Type: Dark/Dragon
Official Registration #: 633
Entry: An aggressive, dragon pokémon primarily native to caves. Beneath the black fur covering its head, there is nothing but dragon skin—that is to say, this pokémon cannot see, as it has no eyes. Strangely enough, unlike other pokémon that lack eyes, it does not navigate its surroundings by either feeling the vibrations of the earth or through the use of echolocation. Rather, it simply moves forward, bumping into anything in its way and biting anything that moves in response. One would think this wouldn’t be particularly advantageous to the species’ survival, and in any case, why would anything adapt to the point where it would do that, but the answer, readers, is that when you develop the ability to Crunch and Dragon Pulse anything that could possibly pose as a threat against you, your species can develop into anything it merry well pleases.

Zweilous
The Hostile Pokémon
Type: Dark/Dragon
Official Registration #: 634
Entry: The evolved form of deino, by battle experience. This aggressive dragon pokémon is built to eat and does little else besides that. When it completely depletes its food sources in its current part of the cave, it moves to another part and begins eating once more. This process, of course, is a bit more complicated due to the fact that zweilous’s twin heads rarely get along and constantly compete for food, which you would also think would be a disadvantage to the species, but again, very little poses a true threat to zweilous. This is because if there’s one thing that its two heads can agree upon, it’s “we like destroying things very much.”

Hydreigon
The Brutal Pokémon
Type: Dark/Dragon
Official Registration #: 635
Entry: The evolved form of zweilous, by battle experience. Upon evolution, zweilous’s brains merge, and the newly emptied head splits into two at the ends of both of hydreigon’s arms. Additionally, this pokémon grows a set of six wings, which it uses to travel out of its cave home and into the surface world, where there are enough food stores to feed all three of its heads. The author would take the time to describe this pokémon as “an aggressive dragon,” but by now, he’s convinced his readers can already figure that part out. They learn Outrage at this point, so if you see one in the wild, godspeed.

So um, I think my Homchkrow is trying to make a Maifa? My Murkrow recently evolved into one and now it keeps on having these “late night” meetings in my backyard with other Murkrow and it getting to the point of being corncerning. They have like, trades between shiny objects & food. ONE time, they brought a Hoothoot and seem to start interrogation it! Luckily I crash into the meeting before they could possibly hurt it. What do I do? I’m afraid of my Honkrow will sent a hitman after me or w/e

Actually, this sounds about right for the average behavior of a honchkrow, anonymous. Luckily, honchkrow mafias tend to focus only on pokémon, meaning they don’t generally attack humans or rope them into their dealings. To them, humans are essentially godlike creatures: untouchable because they always provide. Thus, you can at least rest assured that your honchkrow will never actually be angry enough to turn its enforcers on you.

Unfortunately, I can’t entirely say the same about the neighborhood pokémon. You could try to continue interfering and explaining to your honchkrow that you’d prefer it if interrogations (or worse) didn’t happen—perhaps even make a deal with honchkrow involving food that will reinforce this—but frankly, you’ll have no guarantee that honchkrow won’t simply take its business to a place where you won’t be able to interfere or find out about its dealings. Honchkrow … tend to be a bit tricky like that.

Why is Swellow such a great, beautiful pokemon <3

You really ought to look into farfetch’d, Falkner. Those are good, reliable pokémon.

Edit: I have just been informed by my editor that this response may be considered “rude.”

It’s difficult to say what, objectively, makes a pokémon so great, anonymous. In my personal opinion, I find its protective flocking habits to be fascinating: that’s unusual for a final-stage bird pokémon. Most others prefer living on their own or controlling vast amounts of territory that their pre-evolutions just happen to live on. Swellow, on the other hand, live in true communities, and it’s quite inspiring to see the lengths they would go to in order to protect their flocks.

Of course, that’s just my opinion, and other people are certainly welcome to disagree or to find something else even more fascinating about swellow.

Hey Bill, I’ve had a Kirlia for a long time, and he’s getting close to evolving, he’s been my travel partner for the longest time, and I want to give him the choice of if he evolves into a Gardevoir or a Gallade, any advice for my Kirlia and I?

As always, research is key here. Do as much research as you can into kirlia’s evolution, using the internet, opinions from trainers who own gardevoir or gallade themselves, and guidance from your pokédex or regional professor. Share all of the information you gather with your kirlia at each stage of your investigation, and let him decide what feels best for his identity, based on what you’ve told him.

I’d like to refrain from giving you too many specifics because I don’t want to sway your decision, but I will say that, of course, gardevoir is the more psychic evolution, while gallade is the more physical. Both stand on equal footing, as both fulfill their respective roles reasonably well. It’s just that gallade might be slightly more difficult to obtain due to the rarity of dawn stone, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be worthwhile to train (or that he’s more desirable than gardevoir, for that matter).

Best of luck, anonymous, but one last piece of advice: give your kirlia an everstone until he’s ready to evolve. He needs to focus on his decision, not on resisting evolution, and the effort put into resisting evolution may either put him off the idea of being a gardevoir or make him feel like he needs to give up and become one, depending on his personality.

Out of curiosity, what *are* your theories involving Mr. Mime and evolution?

Oh, quite simply that it can evolve, anonymous.

Let me put it this way. Of the 151 Kanto Dex pokémon, several were archived as single-member evolution families. Of those, four are considered to be standalone, bipedal, borderline humanoid or actually humanoid pokémon: magmar, electabuzz, jynx, and mr. mime. HOwever, in the Johto Dex, three of these were recorded with pre-evolutions (magmar with magby, electabuzz with elekid, and jynx with smoochum). Mr. mime, before the archival of the Sinnoh Dex, was thus considered to be an oddity.

Of course, that changed when the Sinnoh Dex was archived, which added magmortar, electivire, and mime jr. (The conditions a mr. mime needs to meet in order to produce a mime jr. are a bit complicated, hence mime jr.’s obscurity up until this point.) Thus, mr. mime was placed in the same general category as jynx, as being one of the aforementioned Kanto pokémon with a pre-evolution but no evolution.

Granted, the argument against this logic is that mr. mime, when bred without the odd incense, only produces more mr. mime, which means it has more in common with snorlax than jynx, but I say what’s stopping snorlax from evolving? There could be an as-of-yet unknown super-snorlax evolution, just waiting for discovery!

That … is genuinely terrifying, Bill. And this is coming from someone who has heard this exact theory of yours so many times she should be immune to its horror by now. —LH

I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. Who wouldn’t want to see a bigger, more powerful—oh, now I see what you mean. —Bill

Shuppet and Banette

Shuppet
The Puppet Pokémon
Type: Ghost
Official Registration #: 353
Entry: This handkerchief-like pokémon floats through the air at night, feeding off negative emotions. It’s particularly attracted to overwhelming feelings of jealousy, vindictiveness, or general anger, and it will congregate with many other shuppet under the eaves of houses where someone is experiencing particularly strong variations of these emotions. For that reason, if you see entire flocks of these pokémon nestled along the gutters of a house, it’s very likely that inside resides a murderer, a scorned lover, or a teenager going through the Hoennian public high school system.

I’m going to assume you’re not thinking of anyone in particular. —LH

…I’ve tried for the past half an hour to come up with something witty to say in response, but I’ve realized saying any one of the things that came to mind would result in terrible, terrible consequences. —Bill

Good boy. —LH

Banette
The Marionette Pokémon
Type: Ghost
Official Registration #: 354
Entry: The evolved form of shuppet, by battle experience. This doll-like pokémon is said to have been the reanimated remnants of a discarded toy, given new life by cursed energies trapped within it. Powered by its need for either vengeance or closure, it moves at night, supposedly to seek out its former owner. Typically, when presented with a name that reminds him of one of his colleagues, the author would make a witty comment involving that pokémon and said colleague, but seeing as only one system administrator has a name that rhymes with “banette” and seeing as the author realizes going down this route would be a terrible idea, he’s just going to leave the entry at that. It is a cursed doll pokémon and nothing more, and there is absolutely nothing funny to point out about it. Yes.

Okay, now you’re pushing it. —LH

My kirlia has just evolved into a gardevoir and her attitude has completely changed. When she was young, she was shy and usually only made physical contact with me when it was supper or bedtime. Now since she evolved, she’s become much more touchy, such as holding onto my arm, or laying down near or on me. I’m only worried because it seems like her nature did a complete 180. It’s not a bad change, but i’m worried for if something happened to her mind or not?

Evolution does funny things to a pokémon, anonymous, and behavior changes are certainly a possibility. In gardevoir’s case, their psychic abilities are boosted exponentially, and physical contact further amplifies their already potent telepathic and empathic powers. In other words, touching you feels far more intense than it had been when your gardevoir was younger. Imagine being nearsighted and going about your entire life only seeing your world as one massive blur, and all of a sudden, someone gives you a pair of glasses that sharpens every little detail. Everything seems sharper and newer, and thus, the world feels more exciting to you. This is what it feels like to be a pokémon that undergoes evolution, but it’s especially true with something as sensitive to others’ psychic energies as gardevoir.

That boost, in turn, factors into the other changes about her. All pokémon, when undergoing evolution, typically become more mature or confident, in a way. Think of evolution as being the process of growing up, with the first stage being your childhood and the last stage being adulthood. While some adults are certainly childlike, many others become wiser or otherwise more confident what they can do. This is true for pokémon that reach their final evolution as well. Just as adults grow more and more capable with interacting with the world around them, final-stage evolutions grow more comfortable with their abilities and interacting with their trainers (either in a positive or negative light). Combine this with the aforementioned power boost, and you have one of the most protective pokémon in existence.

In other words, the “touchiness” you’re describing is actually perfectly normal for a gardevoir. It’s her way of not only taking in how different you feel (now that her powers are at their best) but also of establishing a literal personal connection (as to her, being in physical contact with you is not only a sign of affection but also a nonverbal reassurance that she’s there to protect you). It should only really be a cause of concern if she takes the affection too far or if it otherwise becomes uncomfortable for you—which sometimes happens with gardevoir trainers. If that ever occurs, it’s important to establish boundaries. Tell her politely that you appreciate what she’s doing, but you’d prefer physical distance. Let her know that you still want her to protect you and to work with you in a trainer-pokémon relationship; it’s just that your bond should be strictly platonic.

Good luck, anonymous, and congratulations on the recent evolution!