Tag: our world

Do people from different regions have different accents? What do they sound like?

Speaking from experience, yes, we do indeed, anonymous. I must admit it’s rather difficult to describe because there are so many possible accents in the world. Some regions even have multiple possible accents, depending on which part you’re talking about. For example, people from Goldenrod City don’t actually sound like people from Ecruteak City, and even fellow Kinjin may sound different, depending on which district you come from. As an example within an example, both Bebe and I are from the same city, but she comes from the newer Northeast Side, which is close enough to Violet City to experience a sort of blending of the two populations. By contrast, I come from a far older neighborhood in the southwest, which itself has a unique accent due to the high number of rather ambitious immigrants, many of whom have given Goldenrod its reputation as a melting pot and center of art, business, and modern culture. Consequently, my accent is commonly thought to be the typical Goldenrod accent, whereas Bebe’s is far lighter and more mixed with a Violet City accent.

Ultimately, the divisions of accents depends completely on regional and personal history as well as general culture. Specifically, although we all speak the same language, one of the reasons we all have different accents due to the fact that prior to the introduction of Common, our languages were extremely varied. English sounds different from Japanese, after all, so when both speakers made the transition to Common, one could still tell what a person’s original language had been. Additionally, accents can vary from people to people, even if the native language had been the same. For example, Kinjin once spoke Japanese, as did many other people in the Kanto and Johto areas, but they emphasize their vowels, leading to longer, softer-sounding words. This lines up with Goldenrod’s history as a center of commerce: it’s easier to do business if you speak slowly and soften your voice, as you come off as more personable than the stiff and quick-speaking people of Kanto. And of course, there is also the fact that Goldenrod was a major entry point for immigrants, which in turn contributes to how different it sounds compared to the dialects of Kanto and the rest of Johto (what with assimilation and all).

Of course, this overly simplifies linguistics, but these tend to be the primary reasons why we still have accents despite, well, the fact that the majority of us speak the same language.

As for what we sound like specifically, that I can’t answer because it would take far too long to detail every single accent possible. I suppose I can describe my own accent in comparison to my colleagues’ and leave it at that. In which case, yes, I speak a bit slower than the others, and my voice largely comes from the back of the throat, rather than the palate or the front. As a result, my vowels tend to sound longer, and it’s been noted that I have “trouble” pronouncing H and R and that any word wherein R is the predominant sound becomes muddled (although quite honestly, all of you should be able to figure out what I’m talking about from context).

Well, to be fair, you were talking about a charizard’s breath that one time. —LH

Why would I be talking about how far it breathes?! —Bill

How long do pokemon live for? Do some pokemon like rattata, have longer life expectancy than their animal counterparts?

Excellent question.

Yes, for the most part, all pokémon have longer lifespans than their animal “counterparts.” Therefore, yes, a wild rat may live for about one to two years, but a wild rattata may live for up to ten years—sometimes even fifteen if allowed to evolve and if taken care of well.

On that note, evolution can generally extend a pokémon’s life span, but it should also be noted that a pokémon may live twice as long if in captivity, rather than in the wild. For example, whereas a pichu may live for four years in the wild, they live for eight years in captivity. Captive pikachu may live for about fifteen years (same as raticate), and captive raichu may live for over twenty.

Keep in mind that all of these are estimates, of course. There have certainly been records of pikachu outliving some raichu (that is, a pikachu may live for over twenty years), and of course, just because you find a four-year-old pichu in the wild doesn’t mean it’s near death. It all depends on a variety of factors, including and especially the quality of life.

And yes, there are also pokémon who live for so long we’re not entirely sure what their lifespans are. This is especially true for the legendary pokémon, but dragon-types are equally notorious for this. For example, some families in Johto have passed down the same dragonite from parent to child for generations, and that dragonite may not look a day over whatever young age it had reached when it evolved.

Hi this question is about the Pokemon carry limit. I understand that a single trainer is only aloud six Pokemon on them at a time since more then that it gets difficult to care for them. Was wondering what the rule was for family’s and such, like as long as it’s not breaking another law would each member be allowed six Pokemon? And are there exceptions to the rule?

Yes, the carry limit applies per person, so you could, in theory, have an entire family wherein every single member has six pokémon each. It’s just not ideal for practical reasons, which is why a lot of families will only keep one to three pokémon on hand per family member. After all, if you’re a family of five, it gets rather difficult to feed, clean, and accommodate yourselves and thirty pokémon unless you happen to own a lot of land.

There are, of course, exceptions to the six-pokémon limit. Some buildings or communities (particularly those in urban areas) may prevent trainers from carrying a full six if they’re living with other trainers. Alternatively, they may force trainers to keep their pokémon in their poké balls at all times. And of course, if you have a service pokémon, it never counts towards the carry limit, so you could even theoretically have more pokémon in a household than just a multiple of six.

It depends on a number of factors, in other words.

How do you feel about the ethics of the master ball? What if that technology could be reproduced by criminals? Also, would they work on a pokemon that already belongs to someone? I’m scared for my little baby wailord. He’s fragile!

The master ball is just another poké ball, only with an increased capture rate. So if there was anything unethical about it, then there would be something unethical about poké balls in general, in my opinion. After all, you could catch a legendary pokémon with a poké ball just as you could with a master ball; it will simply take more of the former than the latter.

Ultimately, the tool isn’t the problem; it’s the intent. If you used a master ball on a pokémon because either they wanted you to catch them or because you fully intended on taking good care of them, that would be perfectly fine and ethical. However, if you were a criminal intending on using the master ball to poach pokémon or to use a pokémon for nefarious purposes, then that wouldn’t be right, but again, it’s not right because of what you intend to do, not how you go about achieving it. So yes, I would be bothered if Silph allowed the schematics of the master ball to fall into the hands of a criminal organization, but I highly doubt that would happen.

As for your final question, rest assured that poké balls in general—including the master ball—cannot work on pokémon that already have a trainer. This has to do with with the fact that a conflict of trainer’s IDs (that is, the act of attempting to apply a trainer’s ID to a pokémon that already has one without first deleting or editing the original through releasing or trading, respectively) actually decreases a ball’s effectiveness to a dramatic degree. This renders a normal poké ball completely ineffective (a pokémon will always break free, even if they’re not trying to do so) and a master ball practically so (a pokémon will break free if they will themselves to do so).

How does a pokemon’s nature affect its stats? Why does a pokemon with a jolly nature get an increase in speed, while its special attack? How about a sassy pokemon getting lowered speed, with an increase in special defense?

Well, that’s an odd way to refer to capabilities. I may have to use that; it’s a far less unwieldy term.

In any case, anonymous, while it might seem odd, a pokémon’s personality has a lot to do with its battle capabilities because of the distribution of will. Let’s take your traits for an example. Let’s assume that you have two pikachu. One of them is a generally jolly pikachu (“generally” because this is what trainers mean by “jolly,” as really, a pokémon’s personality is a complex set of interacting traits, the same as a human’s or animal’s), and the other is a generally sassy pikachu.

Now, where personality comes into play is in a pokémon’s preferences in self-training and development. If you have two human beings, one may prefer to build their strength and stamina, while another may prefer studying to develop themselves intellectually. In the same way, consider the jolly pikachu. Jolly pikachu tend to be highly energetic and perky, and as such, they prefer running about and getting things done quickly, as the constant exercise of speed for them is an adequate outlet for their naturally energetic personalities. Consequently, jolly pikachu tend to be faster than others, simply because they’ve preferred to train themselves to be faster. By contrast, they’re not so adept at using special (or distance) attacks, as they focus more on releasing their energies via running. It isn’t that they never have energy to use special techniques; it’s just that they don’t release as much energy via using techniques as other pikachu do. Eventually, their ability to do so is very much like a bookish human’s ability to lift weights. Even if you attempted to train them to do so, it will take quite a bit of time before they can reach the sorts of levels an athlete may have achieved. Hence, to an outside observer, a jolly pikachu is a fast one, but it’s not particularly a hard hitter.

Meanwhile, there is the sassy pikachu. Unlike jolly pikachu, sassy pikachu tend to be more self-defensive, due to the fact that they are, well, rather cheeky. In order to get away with the mischief they’re inclined to make, sassy pikachu train themselves to be able to handle a few hits. The reason why they focus so much on their special defense (as opposed to physical defense) is because sassy pikachu are usually more intelligent and realize that their species is generally faster than anything they may pester. As such, these pikachu also realize that they can simply run out of arm’s reach, but they can’t outrun an Earthquake. For this reason, they see no point in developing their agility or offensive capabilities; instead, they focus completely on their defensive capabilities.

Any so-called nature follows this same form of logic. While, yes, all pokémon can receive special training to build up certain stats (you can, for example, train a jolly pikachu to launch more powerful distance attacks than other jolly pikachu), by and large, the differences between each nature are the results of pokémon developing skills in their own times, according to what they think would be best for themselves.

Why is pikachu classified as a mouse pokemon as opposed to rabbit with those ears? And why is RATtata a mouse pokemon too?? Who decides these names and why wouldn’t I be surprised if it was you?

When it comes to pikachu, actually, it does strongly resemble a mouse in both aesthetics (past its long ears) and behavior, especially when it comes to its habit of burrowing into walls and biting into the wires inside. Likewise, pikachu generally move about much like mice by scurrying instead of hopping, and they organize themselves into mouse-like nests instead of rabbit-like warrens. In every way, pikachu actually is a mouse-like pokémon; it’s just that its ears have evolved to be a bit longer due to their secondary function of detecting electricity in the air in conjunction with their tails.

As for rattata, that … is actually an excellent question, as they very clearly rats instead of mice. It could very well have to do with the larger raticate’s tendency to battle its own preevolution with incredible viciousness, much like how their mammalian counterparts often hunt and consume mice.

Either way, I assure you, highly qualified pokémonologists are responsible for giving each pokémon their names and official designations, and in any case, I was only responsible for dratini … which I named when I was eight. Just in case you were thinking of judging me for giving dratini a name that amounts to “mini dragon.”

Do you know if it illegal to own legendary pokemon?

Not at all! In fact, for trainers, it’s (unfortunately) a status symbol. If you own a legendary, that broadcasts to others that you’re a strong trainer who may put up quite a bit of a challenge on the battlefield. For this reason, not only are there no laws in place stating you can’t capture a legendary, but also, the training community often encourages you to try.

Of course, “encourages you to try” is the key phrase there. It’s often difficult to capture a legendary, and many of them are innately linked to their respective elements—sometimes to the point where removing them from the wild may do catastrophic damage to the world at large. Luckily, many of these legendaries put up quite a fight, never mind the fact that they’re often extremely difficult to find in the first place.

It’s also worth it to note that, yes, in some cultures, it may also be considered taboo to do so. It will still technically be legal to capture a region’s legendaries, but the locals may not be so happy to see you do it. For example, nothing is stopping anyone from capturing Ho-oh, but to a Johtonian, attempting to do so would make you an incredibly arrogant human being unless Ho-oh itself has deemed you worthy enough to train it.

In other words, it’s not illegal, but the locals may not appreciate it, no.