Scyther and Scizor

bills-pokedex:

Scyther
The Mantis Pokémon
Type: Bug/Flying
Official Registration #: 123
Entry: Contrary to popular belief, scyther are not inherently violent and easily enraged pokémon. They are, in actuality, extremely proud pokémon with a full range of emotions, including compassion. It just so happens that they have scythes for hands and the alien morality of an insectoid species, and these tend to get in the way of what human beings would define as “compassion.”

Scizor
The Pincer Pokémon
Type: Bug/Steel
Official Registration #: 212
Entry: The evolved form of scyther, via trading if the subject has had a metal coat applied to it. Upon evolution, scyther’s signature blades metamorphose into scizor’s pincers. One would think that an absence of a cutting edge along with the maturation induced by evolution would render scizor a safer pokémon to handle than its preevolved counterpart, but in actuality, it uses its pincers—now reinforced with a steel-like exoskeleton—to violently hammer anything into the ground, be it an enemy pokémon, a piece of machinery, or an innocently bystanding researcher who in no way provoked said scizor.

Mega Scizor
The Pincer Pokémon
Type: Bug/Steel
Official Registration #: 212+
Entry: The advanced form of scizor, via scizorite. Mega scizor is a subject of interest to scientists due to its fantastic levels of instability in combat. To pokémonologists, the fact that it is virtually incapable of holding a mega evolution for extended periods of time without doing damage to itself points to the idea that it may answer the age-old question of why some pokémon can mega evolve while others cannot. To sociologists, the fact that it is virtually incapable of holding a mega evolution for extended periods of time without doing damage to itself points to the idea that it may answer the age-old question of why some trainers are fantastically terrible people who insist on using mega scizor anyway.

Pinsir

bills-pokedex:

Pinsir
The Stag Beetle Pokémon
Type: Bug
Official Registration #: 127
Entry: A large, beetle-like pokémon native to the dark forests of Kanto and Kalos. Pinsir attacks by gripping their prey within their giant, thorny pincers and pulling until their victims are torn in half. While this is a terrifying tactic indeed, it should be rather interesting to note that pinsir lack the strength to open their pincers again, which means this pokémon may be easily defeated simply by holding its pincers shut. This is about as comical on the battlefield as one would think, especially when basic-level grass-types with Vine Whip are involved.

Mega Pinsir
The Stag Beetle Pokémon
Type: Bug/Flying
Official Registration #: 127+
Entry: The advanced form of pinsir, via pinsirite. Contrary to popular belief, pinsirite only slightly boosts pinsir’s capabilities. That is to say, all pinsir have wings; it’s simply that pinsirite and mega evolution strengthen those wings enough to fly. Which is of course may be of some comfort to anyone who might have tested the validity of the above entry regarding a depowered pinsir and, more specifically, its jaw strength. Or in other words, should you have tried testing the claims mentioned in the entry concerning non-mega pinsir, at the very least, when the subject in question abruptly flies at you, the result will only slightly hurt.

Heracross

bills-pokedex:

Heracross
The Single Horn Pokémon
Type: Bug/Fighting
Official Registration #: 214
Entry: A massive, beetle-like pokémon first discovered in the Johto region. Known for its massive horn, heracross are capable of valiantly defending their territories and beloved honey trees by slipping said horn beneath an enemy and flinging them away. However, despite this habit, heracross are normally docile pokémon; it’s only when eating honey—its favored food—that a trainer should beware of being attacked. Interestingly enough, despite its absolute love for honey, it is not a good idea to offer it some in an attempt to establish a rapport with it. Rather, this is an excellent way to guarantee that the heracross you’re attempting to befriend will slam its horn into your stomach, lift you up, and throw you directly into a tree before taking the entire pot of honey for itself.

Mega Heracross
The Single Horn Pokémon
Type: Bug/Fighting
Official Registration #: 214+
Entry: The advanced form of heracross, via heracronite. As it turns out, the above-mentioned strategy for befriending heracross does not benefit from the bonds between trainer and pokémon required to activate mega evolution. Rather, what does benefit from a heracross’s mega evolution is its strength, which means that, should you offer a mega heracross in Johto a pot of honey, it is very likely you will wake up a day later in Kanto.

Why is the flygon line not bug type?

The trapinch line, despite their insectoid appearances, do not actually exhibit any affinity for the bug element naturally, anonymous. (Or, well, vibrava is capable of learning Bug Buzz without assistance, but other than that, I mean.) Rather, the entire line exhibits a strong alignment with the ground-type at first, then with the dragon-type as it grows into its advanced stages. This goes for both its offensive and defensive capabilities. It’s not only true that members of the trapinch line are incapable of learning bug-type moves, but it’s also true that none of them display any of the weaknesses or resistances of a bug-type.

Remember, anonymous, a pokémon does not simply receive an elemental classification according to its physical appearance. What matters more is that pokémon are both capable of controlling a certain element and respond to other elements in a certain way.

Dewpider and Araquanid

Dewpider
The Water Bubble Pokémon
Type: Water/Bug
Official Registration #: 751
Entry: A small, diving bell spider-like pokémon native to the tropical region of Alola. It lives primarily underwater and by large bodies of fresh water, using the air bubble on its head to survive. This, of course, means that quite literally nowhere on this planet is safe from bug-type pokémon, which in short means that the author is strongly considering adopting a dewpider or few for the educational benefit of a certain water-type gym leader who adores bug-types just as much as she adores trespassing.

Araquanid
The Water Bubble Pokémon
Type: Water/Bug
Official Registration #: 752
Entry: The evolved form of dewpider, by battle experience. Despite its fierce appearance, it actually cares deeply for pokémon and will often bring smaller ones into its bubble to protect them. However, it is more popularly known for drawing enemies into its bubble to drown them, a misconception born from erroneous observations of araquanid in the wild. Given araquanid’s fierce appearance and its reputation despite its actual behavior, the author is naturally also considering adopting a few for his property.

The Grubbin Line

Grubbin
The Larva Pokémon
Type: Bug
Official Registration #: 736
Entry: This small, larva-like pokémon lives underground in tropical regions, particularly wherever electric-type pokémon are found. It spends most of its life burrowing beneath the surface of the earth, coming close to emerging only when it feeds. During its feeding times, it will dig upwards until its long, strong pincers emerge from the earth to clamp down around a root so that its mouthparts can bite down and drink the sap from its target. Unfortunately, grubbin often have some level of difficulty telling the difference between a young tree and a being of equal weight and stature (specifically, humans), so trainers may wish to be cautious when traveling through known grubbin fields.

Charjabug
The Battery Pokémon
Type: Bug/Electric
Official Registration #: 737
Entry: The evolved form of grubbin, by battle experience. Like many pupa pokémon, charjabug is a largely immobile pokémon. It spends most of its time buried just beneath the surface of the earth in very close proximity to trees, which it will continue to feed on throughout the duration of this stage. The sap and detritus it consumes is then converted into electricity, which it stores as it prepares to evolve into its final form. Because it spends much of its time preparing for this evolution, charjabug is fairly easy to find and dig up. Once dug up, it’s an extremely handy to keep on hand, as one only has to give it one end of a USB cable to charge their pokégears and other devices. Of course, this is also an excellent way to lose a USB cable, as charjabug don’t always understand the difference between a wire and food, but at least by that point, your gear should be fully charged. Besides, what sort of unfortunate soul travels without backup cables these days?

Vikavolt
The Stag Beetle Pokémon
Type: Bug/Electric
Official Registration #: 738
Entry: The evolved form of charjabug, by battle experience when in an area rich with magnetic minerals. Like its cousin and natural rival pinsir, vikavolt possesses a pair of huge jaws, which it relies upon for its highly potent attacks. However, unlike pinsir, these jaws are primarily used to channel electricity into strong blasts, and as such, electricity is often seen arcing between these jaws, especially shortly before it attacks. Needless to say, either way, just like with its fellow beetle pokémon, it is a highly ill-advised idea to stick one’s hand between these jaws, even if it’s for science and the sake of measuring the exact voltage a vikavolt puts out. Just assume that the voltage is a relatively high number (because it certainly feels like such).

Dwebble and Crustle

Dwebble
The Rock Inn Pokémon
Type: Bug/Rock
Official Registration #: 557
Entry: This small, hermit crab-like pokémon conceals much of its fragile body inside a shell it carves from a rock. Many dwebble are discerning about this rock and can spend days searching for the perfect one for its tastes and needs. However, this rock does not grow with each dwebble, and every few months to few years (depending on the age of the dwebble in question), it must search out a new rock to carve into a new shell. Therefore, one easy way to study dwebble is by putting it in a room full of nothing but clear synthetic shells right as it’s about to begin the hunt for a new home. Not only will this allow one to observe its rarely seen soft abdomen, but it will also be a great opportunity to discover just how hard and fast a dwebble can throw a roomful of synthetic shells at the head of a human observer.

Crustle
The Stone Home Pokémon
Type: Bug/Rock
Official Registration #: 558
Entry: The evolved form of dwebble, by battle experience. While crustle shells are among the hardest shells in the pokémon world, they can easily be broken by other crustle shells. This happens when two or more crustle engage in battle with one another over territory. These battles can be extremely vicious and never end until one crustle’s shell is broken, after which the crustle with the intact shell is declared the winner. The loser, meanwhile, walks away with not only a broken shell but also a broken sense of self-confidence, and it’s important for a trainer to reassure it that it’s beautiful, no matter what its shell looks like. (Of course, if the trainer also had a tub of cement or shell epoxy at the ready, that would be a good idea too.)

UB-02: Buzzwole and Pheromosa

Buzzwole
The Swollen Pokémon
Type: Bug/Fighting
Official Registration #: 794
Entry: One of the Ultra Beasts, or strange pokémon that had appeared from another dimension. Gifted with an impressive physique, this mosquito-like pokémon has been sighted showing off its body by smashing cars in half with single punches and by flexing its muscles. Researchers are still not entirely certain whether these displays are meant to be a boast or a threat. However, having met highly athletic humans who enjoy showing off their muscles and tossing short, skinny, muscularly underdeveloped teenagers into dumpsters, the author is inclined to say boasts and threats are not mutually exclusive conditions.

Pheromosa
The Lissome Pokémon
Type: Bug/Fighting
Official Registration #: 795
Entry: One of the Ultra Beasts, or strange pokémon that had appeared from another dimension. This elegant, cockroach-like pokémon has been spotted running at incredible speeds across the land. However, it has not been seen touching anything but the ground, and it in fact refuses to do so. The reason why it refuses to touch anything is either because it senses some uncleanliness in the world that’s actually there or because it perceives the world to be unclean and is therefore fantastically judgmental and rude; the research community is currently debating which is more likely.

Wimpod and Golisopod

Wimpod
The Turn Tail Pokémon
Type: Bug/Water
Official Registration #: 767
Entry: An isopod pokémon native to tropical beaches. Notorious for its cowardly nature, wimpod are most often seen scurrying along beaches … desperately trying to get away from anything that moves. The best method to catch them is the obvious: barreling straight for them atop a five-foot-tall, 195-pound tauros charging at top speed across unstable shorelines.

Golisopod
The Hard Scale Pokémon
Type: Bug/Water
Official Registration #: 768
Entry: The evolved form of wimpod, by battle experience. Upon evolution, wimpod don’t simply gain height and mass; they also gain a hard, armor-like shell that protects them from physical blows, as well as a set of six sharp claws. These gifts in combination give golisopod a highly intimidating appearance, and as such, most wild pokémon know not to approach it. However, golisopod will fiercely battle any pokémon who’s brave enough to face it anyway … until, of course, golisopod’s special ability—and the last remaining vestiges of its personality as a wimpod—activates, forcing it to flee the battle in terror after sustaining a certain amount of damage.

Cutiefly and Ribombee

Cutiefly
The Bee Fly Pokémon
Type: Bug/Fairy
Official Registration #: 742
Entry: To most pokémon and humans, this small, fuzzy bee fly pokémon is both adorable and essential to the environment. Their abundance of soft fur and love for resting in flowers make them ideal pollinators, and the docile natures they have as adults make them highly popular pets. Given these traits, it should really come as no surprise to anyone who had read this blog for very long that young, wild cutiefly are vicious predators of other insect pokémon and that it singlehandedly controls certain insect populations of its native Alola by way of laying eggs in their nests and burrows, forcing them to take care of the hatchlings, and allowing said hatchlings to feast on the eggs and young of their own victims.

Ribombee
The Bee Fly Pokémon
Type: Bug/Fairy
Official Registration #: 743
Entry: The evolved form of cutiefly, by battle experience. This bee fly-like pokémon gathers pollen from a wide variety of flowers to roll into balls. The easiest way to tell the difference between a male and female ribombee is by what each specimen does with these balls: males will roll them up and give them to females, and females will keep both the balls they form and the balls given to them on their bodies. These balls are highly nutritious and vital to the health of a ribombee’s young, and as such, they’re normally given to newly hatched cutiefly that have consumed the young or eggs of their host species. It’s also possible to harvest these pollen balls for human consumption, as they’re thought to be excellent probiotics and general nutritional supplements in the same way honey is for our species. However, this is ill-advised for two reasons, other than the obvious fact that wild ribombee are more than capable of defending themselves. First, there isn’t enough evidence to definitively prove that a ribombee’s pollen balls are as nutritional to humans as they are to cutiefly. Second, to be blunt, whereas male ribombee carry their pollen balls in their scarves (because they handle so few of them at a time), female ribombee not only utilize their scarves but also the fur on their backsides, and yes, farmers aren’t particularly discerning as to which part of the ribombee pollen balls are harvested. According to the very same people who take ribombee pollen balls as daily herbal supplements, the “added organic matter” is a bonus. Make of that what you will and take at your own risk.