When my Incineroar, Zjaar, was a Litten he had this odd habit of tapping my shoulder with his paw. I’d give him my arm to rub against but instead he’d very gently put my hand or arm into his mouth. He wouldn’t hurt me but would nibble a little bit, almost like he was holding my hand but with his mouth. He did this less when he evolved and doesn’t at all now that he’s in his final stage. Any idea why he did that when he was a kitten? He never actually sunk his teeth into me luckily.

That was actually a sign of affection, believe it or not. Feline pokémon, especially basic-stage or “baby”-like ones such as litten, will show affection by nibbling their trainer’s hand gently. It has to do with how felines interact with each other. Play-fighting is an important part of cat pokémon development, and they’ll often engage in roughhousing with one another to develop important skills, such as pouncing, clawing, and—of course—biting. Biting then translates into other forms of affection, especially if someone who is very decidedly not a cat gives them a limb for them to “capture” and nibble into. Thus, if your feline pokémon does this, this is a sign that they’re excited and, yes, would like to show you that they consider you a part of their families.

(However, note that if your feline pokémon pushes you away after a nip, this means they would like to be left alone. Always read your pokémon’s body language to ensure that you’re translating their signals correctly.)

As for why it decreased as your litten grew older, the answer is actually equally simple: love bites would hurt you. As a litten evolves, it gains an affinity for the dark type, and with it, it gains an understanding of what using it means. So once it reaches the torracat and incineroar stages, it realizes that it can’t display affection the same way, as this would harm you, a strange incineroar without any of its abilities or resistances, more than help you understand what it’s feeling. So instead, it resorts to other means of affection and only uses “love bites” if it thinks its message isn’t getting across (or if you’ve accidentally trained it to show this form of affection above anything else).

By contrast, it should perhaps be noted that this behavior lingers a little longer in both forms of persian, but that’s mostly because both forms of persian are a little more sadistic than most feline pokémon. Thus, if your persian grabs your arm with a paw, try to gently pull yourself away without getting clawed.

Best of luck!

Hi bill! I need some answers if that’s alright. I’ve noticed that my incineroar carries a different personality compared to others: he’s very sweet and likes to show it, he LOVES helping around, and doesn’t really like fights as much and has never really been disobedient with me. People in Melemele are saying that I should be concerned, but I don’t know. Is it normal for agressive pokémon like my incineroar to be so opposite?

Certainly. Just as humans come with a wide variety of personalities, so too do pokémon. It’s just that the ones we often hear about, such as incineroar’s aggression, are merely the behaviors displayed by the majority of individuals of a particular species; it doesn’t mean that there is no minority.

Besides, the only time you should worry about a pokémon’s personality is when it poses a threat either to the pokémon’s own well-being or the well-being of those around it. (As a note, I don’t just mean hyperaggression, either. Although, yes, an overly aggressive pokémon is worrying, what may be even more worrying is lethargy—especially lethargy that cropped up seemingly out of nowhere—as that may indicate actual health problems.)

In other words, there’s really nothing wrong with your incineroar. He’s simply tame, anonymous.

In term of wrestling, which is better: Hawlucha or Incineroar? They seem to be evenly matched

Surprisingly, they are evenly matched. I say “surprisingly” because for all intents and purposes, hawlucha has more of an edge. It’s smaller, faster, and more nimble, not to mention it possesses a type advantage against incineroar. Yet for reasons that are as of yet not well understood by researchers, incineroar often matches hawlucha move-for-move on the battlefield through the use of sheer size and brute force alone.

It’s even led some researchers to believe that the two merely stage matches, rather than go into them with the intent of actually fighting, but there is understandably quite a bit of debate about that point.

Hi Bill, I have a lovely Sylveon who is really social, and that sometimes leads him to some trouble, particularly with my Bewear and Incineroar, both of whom nearly crush him in their attention, any way to help them not accidentally rip eachother to shreds?

In your case, strength training is of the utmost importance. This may sound odd—training your pokémon to get stronger and all—but in truth, strength training also involves a lot of discipline. By helping your incineroar and bewear to grow stronger, you also help them familiarize themselves with the way their bodies work, which in turn allows them to understand how to apply weaker amounts of pressure if needed. You may also wish to target precision specifically by having them attack specific targets, rather than use all of their force in order to achieve a particular goal. Either way, be vigilant during your training exercises and be sure to guide your pokémon into understanding that control, rather than pure strength, is the key to success both on and off the field.

Once they grasp this, having them show affection to your sylveon should be rather simple.

Your sylveon, meanwhile, might need to be taught a bit of restraint—especially if his charisma has anything to do with his fairy-type abilities, such as Baby Doll Eyes—but by and large, it may be more effective to target your bewear and incineroar’s levels of discipline, especially given the fact that this is their teammate.

Best of luck!

I recently lent an Incineroar to a friend of mine, but ever since getting him back, he only responds to being called ‘Daddy’. What should I do?

First of all, disown your friend.

Bill. —LH

Edit: Fine.

Anonymous, it sounds like you’ll need to retrain your incineroar. Use positive reinforcement by offering him a toy or treat every time he looks at you when you don’t call him … Daddy. Then move on to giving him treats or toys whenever he responds to your voice, then to his proper name. It will be slow going, but with patience, you should be able to train that habit out of him.

Also, disown your friend.

Bill. —LH

Do you think that Hawlucha and Incineroar are natural rivals? Both are wrestling based Pokemon. Hawlucha has a téchnico look to it. In Mexican wrestling the téchnico is like the equivalent to the “face” in American Wrestling (opposite of the Heel). Téchnicos are typically smaller technical wrestlers while the Rudos (Mexican equivalent to “heel” such as Incineroar) are typically brawlers of a bigger stature. So it seems like they would natural want to square off against each other. Though based on the fact one is native to Alola and the other is from Kalos makes me wonder.

BILL: Well, as you’ve noted, @funky-ufo, the two aren’t found in the same habitat. As such, they actually don’t compete for resources, nor have they had any reason to become rivals to one another (unlike pokémon that do host inherent hatred for their counterparts, such as red and blue basculin, seviper and zangoose, or gyarados and anything that moves). So in a way, it would be much like throwing an American and Mexican wrestler in the same arena. While, yes, they’re both wrestlers, they come from different circuits and technically different sports, just as Incineroar and Hawlucha come from different habitats and behave in their own unique ways.

Of course, they have a sort of artificial rivalry, as the idea that these two would be at each other’s throats is actually a very human concept. As such, it’s not at all unusual for humans to stage battles between the two for their own entertainment purposes, and hawlucha fans and incineroar enthusiasts often engage in matches (both on the battlefield and via internet communities) to determine which is the better pokémon. In actuality, when introduced to one another outside of the context of a battle, an incineroar is just as likely to befriend a hawlucha as it is to develop an abject hatred for one, and the same could be said for a hawlucha towards an incineroar. If anything, when not forced to form a rivalry with each other, incineroar and hawlucha tend to enjoy one another’s company because they make for ideal sparring partners between the two, and oftentimes, an incineroar’s “heel” nature is just what a hawlucha needs to fuel its fiery passion for battling. Pun just a little intended.

The Litten Line

Litten
The Fire Cat Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 725
Entry: One of three pokémon traditionally offered to new trainers at the beginning of their journeys in Alola. Litten is known for its self-grooming habits, which it tends to engage in most of the time in lieu of expressing affection or paying attention to its trainer. This routine consists of litten bathing itself by raking its rough tongue over its fur to clean itself of loose hair and dirt. During this process, it has a tendency to swallow stray hair, which collects in its stomach and forms hairballs that are then ignited by litten’s internal flame sacs. Sometimes, litten expels these hairballs as Ember attacks during battle, but more often than not, it will simply expel these flaming hairballs on your wooden floor or carpet and proudly sit next to the growing fire until its humans come to clean it up.

Torracat
The Fire Cat Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 726
Entry: The evolved form of litten, by battle experience. The organ at its throat is a hollow, bell-like structure that rings every time torracat spits fire. This is convenient, largely because torracat possess the same grooming habits as litten and far fewer qualms about spitting flaming hairballs onto perfectly good wooden or carpeted floors. How any houses in Alola are still standing after young trainers bring this pokémon or its preevolution back home is a mystery and point of wonder to the author.

Incineroar
The Heel Pokémon
Type: Fire/Dark
Official Registration #: 727
Entry: The evolved form of torracat, by battle experience. Incineroar is infamous for its openly vicious, selfish persona—a persona that often makes it difficult to tame and handle. However, underneath that violent, selfish persona is really a caring and complicated soul just looking for a kind, gentle trainer who will help it heal from an unspecified past trauma and begin its long and arduous redemption arc … according to most fangirls on the internet, anyway. (In reality, this pokémon will Throat Chop any being it considers to be a challenger, including humans who approach it from the front. Handle it with caution and definitely do not attempt to give it a hug.)