It’s possible that it would, but the thing about murkrow is that they’re also highly intelligent and easy to train. If that shiny, red plastic thing was sentient and if its owner trained their murkrow to leave that shiny, red plastic thing alone, then the shiny, red plastic thing and the pokémon living inside it won’t have much to worry about.
Best of luck, friend!
Unfortunately, anonymous, your fate is completely inescapable. You will simply have to live indefinitely with your new hoard of shiny objects.
On a serious note (please don’t look at me like that, Lanette), while murkrow are intelligent creatures, they don’t exactly keep thorough inventory of what’s actually in their collection. You could very well shrink your murkrow’s collection by covertly taking items out of it, so long as you space removals out enough for them to not notice.
Alternatively, if you’d like to confront the problem a little more directly (which you may need to do in order to avoid having your murkrow add more items to their collection in the interim), approach the problem as you would any other bad habit. Clearly establish why you can’t keep large collections, and train your murkrow to resist taking new objects. Reward your murkrow every time they resist or every time they willingly give up an item (the latter especially to cement the idea that downsizing is a good thing). Perhaps also go over their collection, show them which items you wish to discard first, and reward them for allowing you to take them. (Naturally, be firm—but not intimidating—if they retaliate, either because you’ve approached their hoard or because they refuse to let you take items away.)
Best of luck, anonymous!
For a young girl living in Sinnoh, electric-types are the easiest and best choice. Above all else, you’ll want something that can attack from a distance—not necessarily with the intent of hurting the murkrow so much as scaring them off. Electric-types not only have that capability and a well-known type advantage against flying-types such as murkrow but also the ability to spread their attacks if necessary. That is, while a Thunderbolt can strike a single target, with practice, it can also catch multiple birds with one shot, unlike Rock Slide (which requires a considerable amount of accuracy training) or even Ice Beam (which concentrates the ice element into a single beam … never mind the fact that not that many pokémon near Hearthome can utilize it).
As for which pokémon, specifically, to use, to the south of Hearthome is a rather famous pokémon collector named Mr. Backlot. His garden is open to the public, and it’s routinely stocked with different pokémon he wishes to share with others. You’ll be able to find pikachu and pichu there on a daily basis, both of whom may be excellent choices, as well as plusle and minun as part of the rotational stock. Alternatively, although they’re fairy- and normal-types, other stock pokémon such as porygon, clefairy, and castform may also be excellent choices with the right TMs. If, however, none of these will work or if the garden is closed (as it sometimes is, being on private property and all), pachirisu may also be an option for you, so long as you’re willing to cross Mt. Coronet.
Best of luck, anonymous!
There are two possible reasons why your murkrow is doing this. First, your roommate (we’ll call them Roommate A for now) may have more expensive or otherwise “shinier” objects than you or your other roommate (Roommate B). Second, your murkrow may consider Roommate A an easier target (which in itself has its own subset of possibilities: that your murkrow is entertained by Roommate A’s reaction or simply wants their attention).
Regardless of why it happens, there are a few things you and your roommate may wish to consider doing to stop this:
1. First and foremost, training is always a good place to start. Murkrow are intelligent, so sometimes, they can be right handfuls, but with patience and some positive reinforcement (say, presenting your murkrow with an object of your roommate’s and rewarding it every time it doesn’t immediately reach for that object), you may be able to instill good habits in your murkrow.
2. Second, you may wish to help Roommate A become acquainted with your murkrow. Like many pokémon, murkrow can tell when a human is uncomfortable with them, and dark-types especially enjoy using this to their advantage or amusement. Helping your roommate bond with your murkrow (for example, by sitting down with them and walking them through interactions) will help them become used to your pokémon and vice versa. Eventually, your murkrow will be less inclined to steal from your roommate, simply because the two will have bonded enough to see each other as equals—or at least enough for your murkrow to respect your roommate.
3. Or simply have your roommate lock their room and place an object too heavy for your murkrow to move (such as a cooler filled with heavy books) in front of their door.
Congratulations, but yes, you are.
Murkrow aren’t entirely unusual in this, but they’re notorious for it. If you save a murkrow’s life—and, given its reliance on its ability to fly, you very likely did in your eyes—it enters into a life debt with you. What that means is you saved this murkrow, so no matter what, unless you consciously attempt to anger it, harm it, or do wrong to it, then it will consider you to be a good person it needs to protect and reward until either it saves your life or until it dies.
The rest of a murkrow’s murder automatically shares its opinion of you due to the strong bonds between murkrow, and you’ve encouraged this sentiment to develop by feeding them.
For these reasons, the murkrow and honchkrow now feel the need to do good things for you, so you can expect to be protected by them for some time. They may even give you gifts they find, particularly shiny objects.
As a preemptive warning, don’t attempt to capture any of them without their consent, as this may be taken as an attack on their flock, which in turn will result in them switching from protecting you wherever you go to attacking you on sight. If you wish to catch any of them, approach the honchkrow and ask for permission first, then allow it to convey its message of consent to the rest of the flock. Catch only the members of the murder that approach you; do not catch just any murkrow or honchkrow.
Best of luck, anonymous, and enjoy your company!
There are a couple ways you could do this, but the easiest is using a lint roller. That may sound strange, but it’s amazing what you can do with a lint roller.
If your murkrow refuses to sit still for that, fill a spray bottle with cold water, get a pokémon brush, and herd your murkrow into a small room. Make sure the windows are locked, and close the door behind you before starting in. The idea in theory is that you will use the bottle to moisten your murkrow’s feathers (and thus allow the glitter to be combed off) and then use the brush to clean your murkrow. What will actually happen is that your murkrow will likely fly about your room frantically, perhaps land a Peck or two, and then, after your murkrow is exhausted thanks to its attempts to get away from you and your spray bottle, maybe it will allow you to bathe it.
Alternatively, fill a bathtub with cool water and herd your murkrow in, perhaps by using a handheld mirror to guide him. This might also work, but your murkrow might attempt to drink the bathwater if it sees how shiny it becomes as the glitter washes off. Needless to say, you should avoid letting your murkrow drink bathwater.
Best of luck, anonymous … which is a phrase I use often but especially mean here.
Pokémon researchers are admittedly no strangers to the abuse of puns in their naming schemes, and frequently, a pokémon’s name will have not one but multiple etymological origins. “Murky” and “murder” are both listed as the possible origins for the “mur” part of “murkrow,” and to be quite honest, both are equally fitting for such a … fascinating specimen, to say the least.
Murkrow
The Darkness Pokémon
Type: Dark/Flying
Official Registration #: 198
Entry: A crow-like pokémon native to the forests and mountains of Johto and Sinnoh. This wily pokémon is widely feared and loathed by many cultures, including those outside its home regions. Part of this may have to do with its tendency to collect shiny objects: it often steals from unwary travelers, which in turn provokes said travelers to chase after them. Should a human fall into this trap, the murkrow will lead them deep into the densest parts of their territories before flying off, leaving the human lost and stranded in the wilderness. Of course, a human would need to be pretty witless to follow a murkrow in the first place, given the fact that the entire species derives its name from the words “crow” and “murder.”
Bill, didn’t you once have to be rescued after following a murkrow? —LH
That was a fluke. —Bill
Of course it was. —LH
Honchkrow
The Big Boss Pokémon
Type: Dark/Flying
Official Registration #: 430
Entry: The evolved form of murkrow, by exposure to dusk stone. This giant crow-like pokémon is capable of controlling entire flocks of murkrow. When a massive scavenging job needs to be done or whenever nests need to be made, it issues a deep, booming cry to summon every murkrow within miles. Because the numbers of murkrow that respond to this call frequently block out the sun for minutes at a time, honchkrow is colloquially called the “Summoner of the Night.” Which, incidentally, is also a great and surprisingly unused name for a band.
The Pokédex According to Bill 