Tag: Anonymous

Is it ethical to catch a Wailord? I could see someone keeping and caring for one fi they lived in coastal Hoenn or Alola where one would have access to the open ocean, but to try and bring one along on a journey seems like it would require too much care to be feasible. Even though it’s insanely light for its size, being out of the water like some water types do must be very uncomfortable.

Well, that would depend on who you are, anonymous. If you have enough room to care for a wailord, then there’s nothing in terms of ethics that should stop you from catching a wailord. Likewise, keeping in mind that tamed water-types float, even if you were a trainer on the road, you may find that it’s easier to care for and battle with a wailord than one would think. However, if you don’t have enough space to care for one or if you battle primarily indoors, then yes, I wouldn’t recommend catching one.

Unless, of course, you happen to be the protagonist in a very specific subgenre of comedy that may or may not be highly popular with those who enjoy certain types of dubiously legal side hobbies.

Bill, help me! I was once doing a night stroll at Malie Garden but then I saw a giant UFO close to the pagoda! It was a full moon night, so I could see the thing was as big as a radio antenna, it seemed to be green and had three parts, like two arms made of bamboo, then, like a rocket, it flew away! I tried to tell my friends about this but they called me delusional and now I see some guys in black suits behind me everywhere I go! What was that, Bill? Was it a pokémon? Or something else?

image

Really, Bill? You’re stooping that low? —LH

Anyone could set the bar high, Lanette. It takes talent to set it low. —Bill

…I’m going to stop talking to you for the rest of the evening. Dealing with you when you’re like this can’t be good for my health. —LH

what qualifies a pokemon as your partner? i have a lot of pokemon i love and dont want to choose between them by calling them a partner and not the others!

Any pokémon you have a strong bond with can be considered your partner, anonymous. There is no real limit to how many that term covers, either. So long as you feel close enough to your pokémon that you would do anything for them, then they’re your partners.

So I wouldn’t worry about it, anonymous, unless your team consists of forty pokémon or more. Then perhaps choose six at a time—if not for anything else, because there are League rules about that.

How did no one realize pokemon like the clefable line, the wifglytuff line, the togepi line, the gardivor line, etc was fairies until recent years? Why aren’t the skitty line and the blissey line fairies?

These two asks cover your first question, anonymous:

http://bills-pokedex.tumblr.com/post/149815193841/so-typings-are-interesting-before-the-fairy-type

http://bills-pokedex.tumblr.com/post/150152083081/i-do-sometimes-wonder-if-our-understanding-of

To put it in short, though, type classification is a complicated process, especially given how vastly different the physiologies of each member of a type actually is. This isn’t just taking into consideration secondary typings either (although, yes, things such as the fact that wigglytuff doesn’t respond to the fighting type the same way as gardevoir does due to one being fairy/normal and the other being fairy/psychic does make things a little more complicated). It’s also taking into consideration the actual, literal physical differences between the two. Taking wigglytuff and gardevoir for an example again, wigglytuff are a hardier species than the more physically fragile gardevoir, so even if both shared the exact same type configuration, figuring out that they are, in fact, the exact same type would require a keen enough eye on a researcher’s part to understand the difference between physical and elemental response. In other words, if a gardevoir and a wigglytuff were simply fairies (and not fairy with a secondary typing), if you punched such a gardevoir, it would bruise more than the wigglytuff, and it takes someone with particularly keen observational skills to know that this is because of physical frailty, not a weakness to the fighting element.

This all is to say that determining a pokémon’s type is a lot harder than many trainers know due to the interaction of different factors, and to do it because you had just found a type and need to go through hundreds of already discovered pokémon to see if there are any examples of that type in action is even harder. You can’t simply tell what a pokémon is at first glance, and there isn’t an interface that will tell you what moves are and aren’t super effective against a defending pokémon. You simply need to know what to look for, and sometimes, the signs are subtle.

As for your question concerning the skitty and chansey lines (blissey included), that’s actually an excellent example of what I was just saying at work. While it’s true that blissey can take a physical, fighting-type strike, the fact of the matter is that blissey reacts to the fighting element as a normal-type, not as a fairy-type. Likewise, skitty’s body reacts as a normal-type. Just because a pokémon is pink and/or cute doesn’t make it a fairy-type. For another example, jynx, which is thought to have witch-like powers, is not a fairy-type but rather a psychic, simply because she reacts to elements as a psychic would. It’s all about elemental reaction, not physical appearance, in short.

What do you consider the top 10 scariest Pokémon in the world?

Well, if we start off from 10…

10. Lugia. You see, in Johto, parents used to tell children stories about Lugia—specifically that it would drag misbehaving children to its dark, cold lair beneath the Whirl Islands. In theory, this was supposed to keep children in line; in practice, it simply gave many of us nightmares.

9. Suicune. Technically all of the Johtonian legendary beasts because of their duty as judges for humanity, but Suicune is the least frightening. After all, while it, too, flies across the region to determine our worthiness and smite those who aren’t quite as worthy, it also purifies water, helps with crops, and is generally the most merciful of the three.

8. Entei. Like Suicune, Entei’s duty is also to wander the region and smite the unworthy in an attempt to purify Johto and prepare it for Ho-oh’s return. Likewise, it controls volcanoes, and it’s said that volcanic activity occurs whenever it roars. As both Kanto and Johto are highly volcanic regions, this of course is cause for worry alone, but at the very least, Entei is a very justice-minded pokémon and (according to legend, anyway) prefers to simply observe than exercise its power.

7. Raikou. As with the other two beasts, Raikou is also a judge of humanity, but unlike the other two, it freely uses its power against those who cross it. Some say it’s because its power is neither beneficial to humanity (like Suicune’s) or sourced from the earth itself (like Entei’s) but rather both destructive and contained wholly within its own body, allowing it to use it whenever it wishes. Regardless of the cause, Raikou’s Thunderbolts are about as potent as the Thunderbolts from a thousand pikachu, so it’s not a pokémon I would wish to cross myself.

6. Celebi. Despite its cute appearance, Celebi is not a pokémon you would want to encounter. It’s notoriously capricious, and with its time-traveling ability, it’s been said that anyone who encounters it may disappear, perhaps lost through time. I don’t think I need to go into the repercussions of that anytime soon, no pun intended.

5. Dialga. On that note, Dialga is essentially like Celebi in that it has the power to control and travel through time. It’s just that Dialga is the embodiment of time itself, and with that much power, who knows what it’s capable of doing to any human in its presence?

4. Palkia. As Dialga’s partner, Palkia’s abilities are just as potent but tied completely to space. However, as such, Palkia’s powers aren’t well understood, even within its religious contexts. According to stories, Palkia has the power to transport anything across space in an instant, as well as alter the very fabric of reality itself. In this sense, Palkia may have the ability to erase anything it deems unworthy from existence itself (thereby removing it from its own domain of space), if not simply transport that nuisance across space to the very edge of the universe.

3. Azelf. Granted, all three of the Lake Guardians of Sinnoh are terrifying in their own rights (Mesprit can remove a human’s ability to feel emotion upon physical contact, and Uxie has the ability to completely erase the memories of anyone who looks into its eyes), but Azelf’s power is by far the most terrifying. According to Sinnohan belief, if a human being harms Azelf, even by accident (apparently aside from consensual battling), Azelf will remove that human’s will to do anything. Not just live, mind you, but literally do anything at all. Imagine suddenly being trapped in your body and not even minding.

2. Darkrai. My reasons for this are very much like Azelf’s. According to Sinnohan folklore, Darkrai has the ability to trap anyone within an unending nightmare. Thus, the victim is forced to spend the remainder of their lives dreaming horror after horror, all while their bodies in the physical plane waste away. Azelf is one thing; at least you don’t even care that you waste away. But with Darkrai, you’re aware of yourself. You may not be fully aware that you’re dreaming, but you know you want your torment to end. The worst part about it is that attempting to wake you through normal, conventional means (anything from shaking you to using a pokémon’s Dream Eater on you) won’t work according to that very same legend; the only way to wake you is to obtain a feather from the equally rare and difficult-to-find Cresselia.

1. Fearow. For … for reasons.

Bill, I have a problem. While studying in Alola for school, I happened across a Mimikyu. There are only a few pokemon that scare me, and Mimikyu is one. I tried to quitely sneak off, but the little ghost kept following me. Im not sure if it smelled the food for my other pokemon or what, but it wont leave me alone! To add onto this, I spilled some pokeballs while trying to get away, and the Mimikyu went ahead and got caught in one! What should I do?

Well, now that it’s been captured, it should be easier to handle, anonymous. Simply take your new mimikyu to either an adoption center (shelter, pokémon center, breeding center, etc.) or create a listing on the Global Trade Station for it. The latter is perhaps preferable, as you’ll be able to connect with other verified trainers around the world and thus have better chances of finding a caring home for this mimikyu.

Best of luck, anonymous!