Tag: asks

What happens to a zweilous’s second head when it evolves? Do both its heads become the hydreigon’s hands? Are the hand-heads conscious like the main head?

Evolution is a bit more complex than it looks, I must admit. During evolution, pokémon convert themselves to an energy state and reform into the shape best suited to maximize their power. In zweilous’s case, their heads first merge, then split back apart so that the pokémon operate on one central brain but maintains their ability to attack with multiple mouths. It’s the best of both worlds, essentially.

In other words, the central head is the merger of both of zweilous’s heads, but the hands do in fact have rudimentary intelligences themselves, as they contain fragments of both original brains.

Are elgyem and beheeyem really from other worlds? What about cleffa or lunatone & solrock, and what about deoxys? Is this proof of extraterrestrial life? Could there be another world out there that evolved pokemon, and could it be habitable for us???

Of these, deoxys technically is from space but not from another world. It’s simply an extraterrestrial virus that mutated after exposure to certain types of radiation in space. (We know this via computer simulations and a digital analysis of samples taken from an inactive deoxys core.) Of course, the specific origins of said virus aren’t known, but it’s likely it simply came to be on the surface of an asteroid.

As for the others, that entirely depends on which theories you follow, as this is actually a matter of heated debate among scientists—particularly when it comes to the cleffa line. The most popular theory states that the elgyem line is indeed extraterrestrial in nature, as its appearance in Unova was abrupt and confined to one area.

Regarding cleffa, if it had indeed been extraterrestrial, it came here thousands if not millions of years ago, as clefairy colonies are well-established and often ancient (albeit extremely difficult to find). And lunatone and solrock are thought to either be sentient meteorites or mutated (and thus inactive) evolution stones, depending on whom you ask in the scientific community.

Personally, though, and in regards to your last question, I believe that even if these pokémon didn’t actually come from space (although I also admit that I believe they did), statistically speaking, there’s no doubt there are inhabitable worlds out there—and, perhaps, extraterrestrial pokémon. It simply wouldn’t make sense for there to be a great vastness that only developed one instance of life, to be frank.

How come shellos are considered the same species despite having different colors and traits depending on habitat, but latios and latias are considered different species? Is it just based on the sounds they make?

Unlike Latias and Latios (or male and female nidoran, for another example), every breed of shellos is genetically similar enough to be considered the same organism. The only reason why the two known varieties look like that is because they adapted to their respective waters to do so, but neither adapted so drastically that they created an entirely new species.

In other words, it really comes down to genetics, anonymous.

Bill, some Pokemon is raiding my garbage cans. Every. Single. Night. I once caught a glimpse of it, and it appeared to me like a canine Pokemon with four legs. How should I go about capturing this thing, and what should I do with it when the job is done?

Well, that depends. “Canine pokémon” is a bit of a broad category. It could be anything from a houndour to a zigzagoon (the latter of which can sometimes be mistaken for a canine in low-light settings). You could always hire a professional trainer to figure out what it is and catch it for you, but if you wish to take care of the issue yourself, I would recommend using a nocturnal pokémon or one otherwise suited for nighttime battling, such as hoothoot or houndour. Which one would work best depends entirely on the species of your visitor. Try to get a better look at it to figure out what type of pokémon you’re dealing with. When you’re ready to battle your visitor, approach it with stealth to avoid driving it away, then battle and catch it normally. You may wish to use a dusk ball, which works best in low-light environments.

Afterwards, what you do with it is up to you, but if you wish to release it, do so in a wooded area, not a park. If you live in an urban environment, this pokémon may adapt well to a home, though, so you might be able to keep it if you take it to a pokémon center for a check-up first.

Otherwise, there are pokémon-proof garbage can lids if you wish to avoid fighting this at all. Alternatively, consider composting edible refuse if you can, rather than simply throwing it out.

What is the relationship between sawk and throh? Were they just a case of divergent evolution, or do they fill the same niche?

It is indeed a case of divergent evolution, though not one most people would expect. While both sawk and throh fill the same niches, occupy the same territories, and generally live extremely similar lives, the only difference between them is, quite literally, their fighting styles. Fossil evidence shows that they had once been the same species millions of years ago, but somewhere along the lines, the species split into two groups: one that practiced a technique that centered around rapid, hard-hitting precision strikes and the other preferring a style centered around defenses and overall body strength.

It is perhaps the pettiest example of divergent evolution scientists have ever discovered among pokémon.

Can magnemite evolve to magneton on their own, or do they always need other magnemite to fuse with? Same goes for beldum and metang– do I have to worry about my beldum going out and fusing with another trainer’s beldum? (And, if so, who gets ownership of the pokemon?)

In the wild, yes, beldum and magnemite (and diglett, for that matter) need fellow pokémon to evolve. This is largely because these pokémon don’t naturally gain enough energy on their own, but they can gather this energy by pooling their resources together. When tamed, though, trainers will usually develop their pokémon’s abilities, which in turn allows them to develop the energy reserves needed to evolve on their own. Thus, these pokémon essentially undergo a form of budding that allows them to create clones of themselves in order to evolve. This may sound disturbing, but because evolution is often spontaneous, most trainers are fortunate enough not to see this process happening.

Slowpoke undergoes a similar transformation, by the way. The only difference is that in the wild, they simply force innocent shellder to merge with them, rather than members of their own species. Slowpoke are, truth be told, extremely terrifying once one gets past their slowness and innocuous appearances.

Regarding object-mimic pokemon– which comes first, the pokemon or the object? For example, did people model leis after comfey, or did comfey evolve to look like leis?

It depends. For the most part, the two are actually unrelated. Comfey, for example, simply likes to collect flowers and does so in the way that’s most efficient for its species. Leis, meanwhile, come from a rich cultural background that has less to do with comfey and more to do with the tapu.

On the other hand, sometimes, objects are indeed tied to pokémon or vice-versa. For example, punching bags were absolutely inspired by the wobbuffet line (right down to their general shape), and if you believe in certain ancient legends, many languages were based on unown shapes. (The modern-day language of Common also based its writing system on unown markings, which is why many of our letters seem blocky and thick.) Conversely, sometimes, objects come before the pokémon, especially in the case of many ghost-types, which tend to inhabit objects. (Banette, the honedge line, and dhelmise are all examples of this.) Then of course, you have the voltorb line, which looks the way it does because of an object, but it’s more because an accident or other strange happening involving said object led to the creation of the pokémon.

Alternatively, some pokémon appeared much later in time, and scientists theorize that these pokémon actually adapted themselves to look like inanimate objects in order to better interact with humans. The drifloon line, for example. Or the trubbish line for an example that doesn’t involve consuming the souls of the living.

i’m suing, bill

Oh, please do. For whatever reason, both the Pokémon Cutting-Edge Technology Research Center and the Pokémon Association have teams of lawyers they’ve hired to cover the things I do and say, so I might as well get their money’s worth.

Bill, they’re not your personal lawyers… —LH

Let’s be honest with each other, Lanette. There is literally no difference between my private and professional lives at this point, so close enough. —Bill