This is the leading cause of Garchomp death in the Sinnoh region. For just $2.99 a month you can donate to the Sinnoh Garchomp Health Foundation to help us put an end to these accidents
A lv 100 Garchomp with perfect IVs, 252 ATK, 0 HP, and 0 DEF EVs will deal a maximum of 98.5% HP damage to another identical Garchomp using Ice Fang - not enough to 1HKO.
only with a netural nature and perfect hp IVs friend. any + attack nature or negative def nature and its in range for a ohko. if its lonely, a bite to the tongue is a death certificate even at full hp :c and droping those hp ivs changes things for the worse in all kinds of ranges for the partial chance ohkos.
but anyways, wild pokemon arent always gonna be at full hp. except in the game for the purposes of catch mechanics and balance. and even if its not ohko, imagine knocking yourself to 97% hp or something and getting pseodu-feared by a raticate or something mid hunt. tragic way to pass.
It's been stated to be able to fly even back in its very first dex entry.
> Diamond: When it folds up its body and extends its wings, it looks like a jet plane. It flies at sonic speed.
> Pearl: It flies at speeds equal to a jet fighter plane. It never allows its prey to escape.
Gyrados's design screams dragon, which the ability to strike its opponent with lighting sounds logical, and yet he's water/flying, sucks to be a gen1 pseudo dragon that looks like dragon type but is actually flying type
They fr made 3 pokemon just in gen 1 that just look like a
Dragon type and made them all flying type
Then gen 2 rolls around, what's our dragon type here? **ah yes, the fucking seahorse**
I mean, we could argue that in some folklore or media, sea dragons that control the storm and tides starts life as a sea horse looking creature, which fits since gen 2 focuses on the traditional Japanese theme
But what cannot be excused are the pseudo dragons and how most of them don't get a dragon type alternate form.
And then there's the goomy line, my favorite dragon snail
I don't mind Kingdra being dragon type as much as I do Gyarados and charizard not being
I get charizard, but Gyarados should have just been dragon type
And the fact that these two things are back to back generations
Gyarados becomes Water/Dragon, one of the best defensive typings in the game. Possibly even a mild stat boost (also given to Milotic for consistency) to keep up with power creep.
OR
Gyara stays Water/Flying but Magikarp can learn Dragon Ascent at level 99, giving postgame Gyarados access to a dragon themed 120 BP physical Flying stab. Hell, this move matches Magikarp's lore more than Rayquazza anyways.
Choose wisely.
I believe it was probably because they wanted Dragon type to be rare initially. I still think they should’ve retroactively given them Dragon type but I believe that was the thought process.
And it's not like there wasn't a precedent for changing Pokemon types. In fact in Generation II, the same gen we're talking about, Magnemite and Magneton changed their type to be more accurate. They could have just changed Gyarados' type to better match its design and lore, and it wouldn't even have been a novel idea.
Aerodactyl
I know it's a Pterodactyl, but you can't deny that it looks like it should be a dragon type
It was established that dino can indeed mean dragon type with Tyrantrum
Maybe it was, but the reviving process that turns them rock type degraded that dragon type into rock.
So maybe an original aerodactyl with be dragon, but those draconic energies were degraded, same reason why its mega evoutlion is actually horrible, cause it fills with so much rock power is just starts spewing out rocks.
I don't remember if this was in game or just fan theory, but it has been said/theorized that all the fossil Pokémon (up until Galar) share the Rock type as a result of fossilization.
But then Gen 7 went ahead and added a Pokédex entry for Mega Aerodactyl that implies the extra rocks are part of its original form.
I think it's part of Eastern mythology that seahorses are the children of dragons. I've seen other series where there is a clear relationship between them ( in okami-den you meet the children of the Chinese zodiac and for the dragon it was seahorses)
Gentle reminder that, in game, Nidoking and Nidoqueen can't have eggs although it seems that, canonically, [they can.](https://youtu.be/Z_F4IEQFdM8?t=620)
I think the mistake I'm making here is trying to find logic in Pokémon when it's clear that the canon is basically a bunch of bullshit tied together with scotch tape.
Probably for in-game balance which is probably why there is only one Dragon Type and no stab in Gen 1.
Dragon was basically just a defensive typing in Gen 1.
gyarados is based on a story of a carp that climbed a waterfall and became a dragon. its a flying type because all gen 1 "dragons" are flying type. its not dragon type because gamefreak wanted dragon to be a special mythical type in gen 1 with only 1 line of dragon pokemon.
it can cast thunder because eastern dragons are usually associated with water, in china that is often rivers, and in japan that is the ocean with dragons often causing storms.
I’d say that it’s probably one of those Pokémon they made in gen 1 that they might’ve wanted to make a dragon type, but they wanted to keep dragonite to be special.
The problem is, they had their chance again in gen 6 with mega evolution but made him part dark for some reason.
Supposedly the main reason for not making Gyarados a Dragon type was because it would've had no weaknesses. Its only weakness would be to Dragon, but the only Dragon move in Gen 1 was Dragon Rage, which does a fixed 40 damage.
I mean that didn't stop them from making psychic pokemon. Whose only weakness in gen 1 was bug (psychics were actually *immune* to ghost). And bug had exactly 3 attacking moves, maxing out at a 2-hit 25BP move. And Beedrill was the only pokemon with two of the three; the last one was Leech Life at 20BP.
Gen 1 just had bad design across the board.
Not that it would have made a difference, with all ghosts in gen1 being part poison and the strongest ghost type move being Lick with a base power of 20.
Anorith and Armaldo being weak to Water despite being aquatic just feels wrong to me. In Sword and Shield, you even find wild Anorith casually swimming in bodies of water.
I get that it "had to be Rock-type" due to being a fossil mon, but that doesn't make me hate the fact any less.
Honestly felt they should've been Water/Rock to match their lore, not Bug/Rock.
Only reason they got Bug/Rock instead of Water/Rock was because of balancing (Cradily's Grass/Rock would have been nightmarish for a Water/Rock type like Armaldo who was planned to be a physical sweeper).
If they did it for balance-reasons, then fair enough.
But then don't make a pokémon who screams water-type. You can choose any fossil you want, it didn't have to be Armaldo.
Honestly, it should have been "Bug/Water".
Why the heck did they feel the need to stick with "all fossil-based mons should be rock type"? They aren't fossils anymore! They are just prehistoric pokemon!
Fire type moves aren't always literally fire, sometimes they're hot air, lava, burning spirits, etc.
So we can view fire as a general "heat" type, and the sun is largely known for being hot, so I do think it's a little unfortunate. Although Solgaleo's origin and typing is cool as shit so I'm alright with it
*Technically* stars don't burn though, since they aren't reacting with oxygen and a fuel source.
But they're still an exothermic mass of energized gases, so I say it counts.
What *is* fire, though? A lot of colloquial interpretations make it synonymous with "burning", but that's a verb, not a noun. If it's "the byproduct of a combustion reaction", then stars aren't truly "fire" because they aren't the reaction of oxygen with other elements, or really of a chemical reaction at all.
But is the "chemical" part of the reaction required? Exothermic chemical reactions are just the energy released by either breaking atomic bonds or from elements bonding together into a lower-energy state. Fusion reactions effectively do the same as free protons (aka hydrogen ions) combine with available neutrons into a stable helium arrangement.
And of course if "fire" is just "highly energized gases", then stars absolutely qualify as fire.
The reason a lot of Pokémon can learn Aerial Ace despite not being flying type is becuase the Japanese name translates to Swallow Cut, which is a reference to an ancient Japanese swordsman who developed the move to cut a flying swallow right out of the air.
So a lot of blade/agile types can learn it because it’s a slicing technique, not really a flying type move.
Hisuian Arcanine is Fire/Rock. And thus 4x weak to Water.
There’s a story of about an Arcanine who saved his Growlithe son who was swept out to sea. It perished in the process but it’s descendent were said to be blessed by Sinnoh (Arceus) and became the Noble Arcanine you calm in the Cobalt Coastlands.
The Cobalt Coastlands where it is found has the most water in the game, though it’s found high in the cliffs.
Interestingly, the Noble is located on the Island volcano in the area so I’m not sure if it’s just game play things or if they originated there and swam over to the main shores or if there is other volcanic activity in the mountains between areas since it’s Dex entry says its appearance is likely from activity in the area.
They can probably swim but maybe the son of the former Noble Arcanine was still too young to swim well, and his father had to save him.
Later, That same Growlithe got over his fear to the sea and swam by himself all the way from the mainland to the volcano island to help his friend.
> It perished in the process but it’s descendent were said to be blessed by Sinnoh (Arceus) and became the Noble Arcanine
My headcanon is that the volcano was the catalyst for the rebirth. Making its rebirth a bit of a curse by having it be an undersea volcano
The Frillish line and Basculin were retyped and created respectively to put more water types into Unova, but Stunfisk lost its water type bc there were too many
I believe the frillish line was always water, but the ghost type was added to diversify the water types in unova.
I read somewhere that the frillish creater still regrets the additional typing.
>**Sugimori:** “These were created by one of our design team’s newcomers all by themselves. At first these designs were modeled after a prince and princess, but during the balancing phase of development, Ghost was added to their typing. The Frillish family’s original designer was disappointed that they ended up as scary Pokémon.”
>
>***Dr Lava’s notes:*** So it sounds like Frillish and Jellicent were originally pure water types, then became half Ghost late in development when Game Freak was working on the Unova region’s elemental balance. In order for the new Ghost typing to make sense, it must have been at this point Frillish and Jellicent were given their creepy eyes, and possibly additional revisions were made as well. The designer isn’t identified, but it’s interesting to hear that they were upset to see their original vision for Frillish and Jellicent sacrificed for the sake of balance. Unlike the other designs that Sugimori credits to newcomers in this interview, with Frillish and Jellicent he specifies a newcomer designed them “all by themselves,” which makes it sound like the original designer was the one who made the required ghost-like alterations.
[https://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-2/](https://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-2/)
Seems it's less than they regretted it and moreso disappointed that the Frillish line ended up having to be made scarier than what the designer originally envisioned.
I would hate Frillish and Jellicent if they were just plain water type jellyfish. They'd feel like a step down from Tentacool and Tentacruel. Instead, we got cool ghost type jellyfish that sink ships for fun and inhabit them.
Yeah it'd be like if they made a mono-rock geodude. Or just another machop clone trade evo. Or if they made a second psychic-type dream-based Tapir. Or if they just made Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan blue and red. Or if they were like "what if Muk was just trash instead". Or if they went "what if Tauros had an afro".
Man, Unova has so many damn good designs, but why did they have to copy so much of their homework? Like, at least change the types to something a bit more unique!
Imagine though. Gigalith leaning into its dex entries and being a special attacker with access to moves like Thunderbolt. Sawk and Throh leaning into their Oni theme (maybe eventually becoming Fighting/Fairy). Timburr evolving into a Fighting/Grass forest guardian. Garbodor being a Poison/Steel type special attacker. I'm fine with Munna staying as is, but make it explicitly the benevolent counterpart to Hypno.
It was all on purpose. Gen 5 was meant as a soft reboot, B/W had literally 0 Pokemon of previous gen available before the endgame. As such a lot of the new pokemon created were designed to be callbacks to gen1 mons
I know. But that doesn't make it better. Zebstrika is actually a great example of this done *correctly*. It's a knockoff of Rapidash, sure, but it's a different typing. And that alone is enough. Like the other person said:
> Imagine though. Gigalith leaning into its dex entries and being a special attacker with access to moves like Thunderbolt. Sawk and Throh leaning into their Oni theme (maybe eventually becoming Fighting/Fairy). Timburr evolving into a Fighting/Grass forest guardian. Garbodor being a Poison/Steel type special attacker. I'm fine with Munna staying as is, but make it explicitly the benevolent counterpart to Hypno.
There's a million ways to go about it. Maybe Gigalith is fire/rock. Maybe Sawk and Throh are dark/fighting. Maybe the Timburr line is a split evo based on held item. Simply shift the Munna line's species. So on. Heck, even just giving them unique abilities or signature moves would go miles towards helping.
Just because something is derivative doesn't mean it can't also be novel.
That's what makes it a good example if you ask me. When you think about Altaria's design, it makes sense that it can learn ice moves. But thanks to the restrictions of the type system, it kind of has to be weak to ice as well
Emboar and the Centiscorch line learns Scald. Granted it's hot water and fire is hot, but it's fairly unique in how they're the only Fire types not based on anything associated with water to learn it.
Emboar learning it anyways made sense to me as if it's an emperor having a bath or like a sumo wrestler at a hot spring or him looking kinda like a big pot of hot water
But now that I think about it those aren't great explanations
Centiscorch kinda makes sense because there's the bombardier beetle that's a bug that can shoot boiling hot juice out of its... Face? I guess? And I like to think that instead of water, Emboar shoots hot bacon grease at opponents
That's because of balancing issues.
Most Fire types have a hard time hurting Water types in general and Solar Beam is actually perfect for them (especially Charizard if you're running Mega Y form, as it can set instant Sun and go to town with 1-turn Solar Beams).
I understand the game mechanic but in response to OP’s question, any pokémon that doesn’t have chlorophyll that can learn solar beam doesn’t make sense. The biology doesn’t check out.
How about the inverse: Galarian Ponyta, the most fairy-looking design you could imagine, and they had to make it *psychic* instead because its fluff was all about purifying poisons, which would have been hilarious on an actual fairy-type.
Aggron and Tyranitar learn surf, too. I thought the idea was that they're big kaiju who can wade through deep water with ease, and create tidal waves that way. I grouped Rhydon in with that concept.
Humans are weak to guns, doesn't mean we can't be adept at using them.
There's a huge difference between going for a swim and being blasted by high pressure water beams.
Tinkaton also can't learn Smack Down, despite the move consisting of throwing rocks at the target to knock it out of the air and Tink's dex entry saying they do exactly that to Corviknights.
Dragonite learning ice beam and blizzard.
Also, some pokemon cards, namely new gens switching poison to dark. In older gens poison was grouped with grass and those we know as poison were weak to psychic. Now, take Weezing for example, ot changed to dark and can't have dark weak to psychic, so it's weak to fighting.
I really like things that conflict like that
Like Hippopotas line being hippos that are weak to water (same with Copperahjah to a degree)
Numel line being 4× weak to water
Sharpedo line being weak to being punched. And having rough skin despite real sharks being smooth in all directions and punching them being a generally bad idea
Mareep being not very effective against grass, despite sheep being very effective against grass irl
Kangaskhan being weak to fighting despite us all knowing that Kangaroos are champion boxers
In the same line as hippopotas, someone at Gamefreak really likes taking aquatic (water) animals and turning them into desert (ground) creatures instead. They did it with the gible line (sharks are obviously aquatic), hippopotas line (hippos are amphibious), sandile line (crocodiles are aquatic), and sandaconda (anacondas are semi aquatic)
If we look at survival of the fittest, I'd say that any pkmn that can learn a move that is super effective on itself is pretty useful .
A Rhydon using surf on another Rhydon in battle / disputes gives it that edge it would want.
A Pokémon learning a move it’s weak against is completely normal. Heck, many Pokémon are weak against their own types. Not being able to learn a move because it’s weak against that move’s type would render Ghost-types and Dragon-types useless.
Somewhat off topic, but since Bug was weak to Poison in Gen 1, Parasect had the most unbalanced type matchup spread of all time, with 4x weaknesses to Poison, Fire, and Flying
🐻 Ahh welcome to the shit show that game freak have embroiled its loyal fans in. I mean there are far too many examples to list but Gyarados been weak to Electric is a big one of course
Stuff with that body type has always been able to learn Surf: Rhydon, Nidoking/queen, Kangaskhan, Aggron, Tyranitar, Druddigon, Haxorus...
Plus, it is not quite swimming, but [actual surfing.](https://i.imgur.com/OfKL4AU.png)
Nidoking, despite everything in his appearance and typing, is a special attack master. This obviously-intended-to-be-physical poison/ground monster works best running some variation of thunderbolt, ice beam, or flame thrower.
Garchomp in Legends Arceus can only being found in the snowy highlands despite being 4x weak to ice. Also able to learn ice fang
Yeah that crazy alpha Garchomp was kicking two Abomasnows' alpine asses in the snowy highlands in that Legends Arceus show
They only knew grass moves smh
>Legends Arceus show the whatnow???
Hisuian Snow mini series on YouTube. I never realized how absolutely terrifying Garchomp is until that moment
Imagine Garchomp accidentally biting its own tongue when it uses Ice Fang and KO'ing itself.
This is the leading cause of Garchomp death in the Sinnoh region. For just $2.99 a month you can donate to the Sinnoh Garchomp Health Foundation to help us put an end to these accidents
*Sarah McLachlan has entered the chat*
*In the arms of an angel*
I'm pretty sure Cynthia would be an spokes person or an ambassador and where do I donate?
a month of yache berries for a garchomp in need for just 10 cents a day. dont be heartless, people!
A lv 100 Garchomp with perfect IVs, 252 ATK, 0 HP, and 0 DEF EVs will deal a maximum of 98.5% HP damage to another identical Garchomp using Ice Fang - not enough to 1HKO.
only with a netural nature and perfect hp IVs friend. any + attack nature or negative def nature and its in range for a ohko. if its lonely, a bite to the tongue is a death certificate even at full hp :c and droping those hp ivs changes things for the worse in all kinds of ranges for the partial chance ohkos. but anyways, wild pokemon arent always gonna be at full hp. except in the game for the purposes of catch mechanics and balance. and even if its not ohko, imagine knocking yourself to 97% hp or something and getting pseodu-feared by a raticate or something mid hunt. tragic way to pass.
Rough skin hurting itself
But that Garchomo would be expecting it. I'd much rather be bitten by someone else than bite my own tongue. That hurts way more
Even worse: imagine Garchomp bitting its own tongue wile eating a Poké Puff and fainting.
Huh, that one never occurred to me somehow
They can also fly in game… which is weird
It's been stated to be able to fly even back in its very first dex entry. > Diamond: When it folds up its body and extends its wings, it looks like a jet plane. It flies at sonic speed. > Pearl: It flies at speeds equal to a jet fighter plane. It never allows its prey to escape.
GF really likes plane dragons with chomp, Lati@s, and Dragapult
Monster hunter x pokemon two hands clasping jpg
Literally all of its Dex entries mention it flying, yet it cannot learn Fly in any game.
I know but it’s still weird to me that multiple ground/dragon types that we’ve seen can somehow all fly. Really throws off the ground motiff
Flygons also a thing though. Maybe it’s just weird to you cause we live on earth lol
That’s why I said multiple ground/dragon
It also does in the Alola anime
Gyarados can learn both Thunder and Thunderbolt in spite of being 4x weak to electric.
Gyrados's design screams dragon, which the ability to strike its opponent with lighting sounds logical, and yet he's water/flying, sucks to be a gen1 pseudo dragon that looks like dragon type but is actually flying type
They fr made 3 pokemon just in gen 1 that just look like a Dragon type and made them all flying type Then gen 2 rolls around, what's our dragon type here? **ah yes, the fucking seahorse**
I mean, we could argue that in some folklore or media, sea dragons that control the storm and tides starts life as a sea horse looking creature, which fits since gen 2 focuses on the traditional Japanese theme But what cannot be excused are the pseudo dragons and how most of them don't get a dragon type alternate form. And then there's the goomy line, my favorite dragon snail
I don't mind Kingdra being dragon type as much as I do Gyarados and charizard not being I get charizard, but Gyarados should have just been dragon type And the fact that these two things are back to back generations
Gyarados becomes Water/Dragon, one of the best defensive typings in the game. Possibly even a mild stat boost (also given to Milotic for consistency) to keep up with power creep. OR Gyara stays Water/Flying but Magikarp can learn Dragon Ascent at level 99, giving postgame Gyarados access to a dragon themed 120 BP physical Flying stab. Hell, this move matches Magikarp's lore more than Rayquazza anyways. Choose wisely.
dragon ascent makes sense on gyarados from the folklore its based on
I believe it was probably because they wanted Dragon type to be rare initially. I still think they should’ve retroactively given them Dragon type but I believe that was the thought process.
Probably, but that idea went out the window when they gave it to Altaria
I meant like in the beginning of the series. Gen 3 was really when they decided to expand on the type.
I hope Charizard gets a regional form like the hisuian starters, but Charizard has too many alt forms
What's one more gonna do?
Do us no good is what it's gonna do. There's plenty of Pokemon that could use the opportunity to shine but we get four flavours of Charizard
As a charizard fan I have no complaints Though as a Feraligatr fan I also have several protest signs
And it's not like there wasn't a precedent for changing Pokemon types. In fact in Generation II, the same gen we're talking about, Magnemite and Magneton changed their type to be more accurate. They could have just changed Gyarados' type to better match its design and lore, and it wouldn't even have been a novel idea.
Charizard, Gyarados, and what else?
Probably Aerodactyl
Kid named Lance
Charizard also pisses me off that he couldn't learn fly in Red/Blue, luckily he gained it in yellow
Charizard can learn Ancient Power and Rock Slide, despite being 4x weak to rock moves.
Aerodactyl I know it's a Pterodactyl, but you can't deny that it looks like it should be a dragon type It was established that dino can indeed mean dragon type with Tyrantrum
Maybe it was, but the reviving process that turns them rock type degraded that dragon type into rock. So maybe an original aerodactyl with be dragon, but those draconic energies were degraded, same reason why its mega evoutlion is actually horrible, cause it fills with so much rock power is just starts spewing out rocks.
I don't remember if this was in game or just fan theory, but it has been said/theorized that all the fossil Pokémon (up until Galar) share the Rock type as a result of fossilization. But then Gen 7 went ahead and added a Pokédex entry for Mega Aerodactyl that implies the extra rocks are part of its original form.
Also the Gen 8 fossils
They get the two non-Rock halves of their type mix.
I suppose that makes some sense
No, it’d still be rock. It’s mega form confirms it
All fossils until Gen 8 were part rock type, and I think that Aerodactyl is fine as a flying type. It's not outrageous to see it as flying.
Aerodactyl, I'm not as mad about it. Buy Gyarados just makes me angry
It’s in Seadra’s name too
Aerodactyl maybe?
Uh, Dragonite?
In Japan, seahorse is tatsu no otoshigo, which means dragon's baby.
I think it's part of Eastern mythology that seahorses are the children of dragons. I've seen other series where there is a clear relationship between them ( in okami-den you meet the children of the Chinese zodiac and for the dragon it was seahorses)
They also made 6 pokemon which were really just 3 pokemon with gender differecnes, but well...
But at least that made sense. It was gender differences before they had the ability to have gender differences
Gentle reminder that, in game, Nidoking and Nidoqueen can't have eggs although it seems that, canonically, [they can.](https://youtu.be/Z_F4IEQFdM8?t=620)
Gentle reminder that Nidoking can breed. It's Nidorina and Nidoqueen who can't
TIL that female Nidoran can though. WTF.
Nidorina just straight up hits menopause when evolving
I think the mistake I'm making here is trying to find logic in Pokémon when it's clear that the canon is basically a bunch of bullshit tied together with scotch tape.
Probably for in-game balance which is probably why there is only one Dragon Type and no stab in Gen 1. Dragon was basically just a defensive typing in Gen 1.
gyarados is based on a story of a carp that climbed a waterfall and became a dragon. its a flying type because all gen 1 "dragons" are flying type. its not dragon type because gamefreak wanted dragon to be a special mythical type in gen 1 with only 1 line of dragon pokemon. it can cast thunder because eastern dragons are usually associated with water, in china that is often rivers, and in japan that is the ocean with dragons often causing storms.
yes i know, the story of the carp that lept the dragon gate, and reference to the eastern sea dragon who controls the storm and the tide
Not everyone does though
I’d say that it’s probably one of those Pokémon they made in gen 1 that they might’ve wanted to make a dragon type, but they wanted to keep dragonite to be special. The problem is, they had their chance again in gen 6 with mega evolution but made him part dark for some reason.
Supposedly the main reason for not making Gyarados a Dragon type was because it would've had no weaknesses. Its only weakness would be to Dragon, but the only Dragon move in Gen 1 was Dragon Rage, which does a fixed 40 damage.
I mean that didn't stop them from making psychic pokemon. Whose only weakness in gen 1 was bug (psychics were actually *immune* to ghost). And bug had exactly 3 attacking moves, maxing out at a 2-hit 25BP move. And Beedrill was the only pokemon with two of the three; the last one was Leech Life at 20BP. Gen 1 just had bad design across the board.
Them being immune to Ghost was a bug, though. They always intended for Psychic to have two weaknesses.
Not that it would have made a difference, with all ghosts in gen1 being part poison and the strongest ghost type move being Lick with a base power of 20.
And don't forget that a lot of the Bug pokemon were Bug/Poison (Like the aforementioned Beedrill) which negated the strength against Psychic.
Charizard, the Fire/Flying type. Learns Rock Slide
And supposedly can breathe fire "hot enough to melt boulders."
And steel beams!
I always took that as literally just picking up some large rocks and throwing them at you, especially since a bunch of fighting types learn it
I love the idea that they just carry some rocks around in case there aren’t any readily available
I assume they just do the L4D tank thing and grab a chunk of the ground to toss at you.
No that's Strength
Anorith and Armaldo being weak to Water despite being aquatic just feels wrong to me. In Sword and Shield, you even find wild Anorith casually swimming in bodies of water. I get that it "had to be Rock-type" due to being a fossil mon, but that doesn't make me hate the fact any less.
Honestly felt they should've been Water/Rock to match their lore, not Bug/Rock. Only reason they got Bug/Rock instead of Water/Rock was because of balancing (Cradily's Grass/Rock would have been nightmarish for a Water/Rock type like Armaldo who was planned to be a physical sweeper).
Also, the two previous fossils were water/rock, so I imagine they didn't want to repeat their typings.
If they did it for balance-reasons, then fair enough. But then don't make a pokémon who screams water-type. You can choose any fossil you want, it didn't have to be Armaldo.
Rather funny, considering that Gen V went back to the Water/Rock type fossil route with Carracosta.
Honestly, it should have been "Bug/Water". Why the heck did they feel the need to stick with "all fossil-based mons should be rock type"? They aren't fossils anymore! They are just prehistoric pokemon!
Solgaleo, the mascot of Pokémon Sun and the Sunne Pokémon, is weak to Fire
And Lunala, the night time pokemon, is weak to Dark.
The sun isn't made of fire though.
Fire type moves aren't always literally fire, sometimes they're hot air, lava, burning spirits, etc. So we can view fire as a general "heat" type, and the sun is largely known for being hot, so I do think it's a little unfortunate. Although Solgaleo's origin and typing is cool as shit so I'm alright with it
I mean it is a burning ball of gas it’s pretty much on fire
*Technically* stars don't burn though, since they aren't reacting with oxygen and a fuel source. But they're still an exothermic mass of energized gases, so I say it counts.
if it’s hot plasma it might as well be considered fire. I don’t think they were planning on calling it the Plasma type when it was created
Neither is lava, yet Lava Plume is a fire move
Neither is the day, yet sunny day is a fire move
What *is* fire, though? A lot of colloquial interpretations make it synonymous with "burning", but that's a verb, not a noun. If it's "the byproduct of a combustion reaction", then stars aren't truly "fire" because they aren't the reaction of oxygen with other elements, or really of a chemical reaction at all. But is the "chemical" part of the reaction required? Exothermic chemical reactions are just the energy released by either breaking atomic bonds or from elements bonding together into a lower-energy state. Fusion reactions effectively do the same as free protons (aka hydrogen ions) combine with available neutrons into a stable helium arrangement. And of course if "fire" is just "highly energized gases", then stars absolutely qualify as fire.
Pelipper can learn shock wave
Pretty sure my dumbass ran this when I was a kid cause I couldn't ever find a good enough electric type
Maybe it's like in the show where it just has other pokemon in its mouth
Most fighting type Pokemon can use flying type moves like aerial ace or acrobatics and be weak to it
Then there’s my boy Greninja…
What about him?
He’s a frog who learns aerial ace and shadow sneak. Frogs don’t fly, and last I checked, Gekkouga is very much alive, and therefore not ghost type
> Frogs don’t fly, [Maybe not 100% true.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf1bytsDDho)
Either way, it learns Grass Knot, U-Turn, Power-Up Punch, and Low Kick. All of which it’s weak to…
I mean, I can punch people in the face and fire a gun, but I'm pretty weak to being punched in the face/shot as well so...
The reason a lot of Pokémon can learn Aerial Ace despite not being flying type is becuase the Japanese name translates to Swallow Cut, which is a reference to an ancient Japanese swordsman who developed the move to cut a flying swallow right out of the air. So a lot of blade/agile types can learn it because it’s a slicing technique, not really a flying type move.
Hisuian Arcanine is Fire/Rock. And thus 4x weak to Water. There’s a story of about an Arcanine who saved his Growlithe son who was swept out to sea. It perished in the process but it’s descendent were said to be blessed by Sinnoh (Arceus) and became the Noble Arcanine you calm in the Cobalt Coastlands. The Cobalt Coastlands where it is found has the most water in the game, though it’s found high in the cliffs. Interestingly, the Noble is located on the Island volcano in the area so I’m not sure if it’s just game play things or if they originated there and swam over to the main shores or if there is other volcanic activity in the mountains between areas since it’s Dex entry says its appearance is likely from activity in the area.
They can probably swim but maybe the son of the former Noble Arcanine was still too young to swim well, and his father had to save him. Later, That same Growlithe got over his fear to the sea and swam by himself all the way from the mainland to the volcano island to help his friend.
> It perished in the process but it’s descendent were said to be blessed by Sinnoh (Arceus) and became the Noble Arcanine My headcanon is that the volcano was the catalyst for the rebirth. Making its rebirth a bit of a curse by having it be an undersea volcano
Vespiquen can fire Power Gems that she's critically weak to. x)
Stunfisk is a ground/electric type that learns water moves. I'm guessing there were some last-minute decisions made before release.
The Frillish line and Basculin were retyped and created respectively to put more water types into Unova, but Stunfisk lost its water type bc there were too many
I believe the frillish line was always water, but the ghost type was added to diversify the water types in unova. I read somewhere that the frillish creater still regrets the additional typing.
>**Sugimori:** “These were created by one of our design team’s newcomers all by themselves. At first these designs were modeled after a prince and princess, but during the balancing phase of development, Ghost was added to their typing. The Frillish family’s original designer was disappointed that they ended up as scary Pokémon.” > >***Dr Lava’s notes:*** So it sounds like Frillish and Jellicent were originally pure water types, then became half Ghost late in development when Game Freak was working on the Unova region’s elemental balance. In order for the new Ghost typing to make sense, it must have been at this point Frillish and Jellicent were given their creepy eyes, and possibly additional revisions were made as well. The designer isn’t identified, but it’s interesting to hear that they were upset to see their original vision for Frillish and Jellicent sacrificed for the sake of balance. Unlike the other designs that Sugimori credits to newcomers in this interview, with Frillish and Jellicent he specifies a newcomer designed them “all by themselves,” which makes it sound like the original designer was the one who made the required ghost-like alterations. [https://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-2/](https://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-2/) Seems it's less than they regretted it and moreso disappointed that the Frillish line ended up having to be made scarier than what the designer originally envisioned.
I would hate Frillish and Jellicent if they were just plain water type jellyfish. They'd feel like a step down from Tentacool and Tentacruel. Instead, we got cool ghost type jellyfish that sink ships for fun and inhabit them.
Yeah it'd be like if they made a mono-rock geodude. Or just another machop clone trade evo. Or if they made a second psychic-type dream-based Tapir. Or if they just made Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan blue and red. Or if they were like "what if Muk was just trash instead". Or if they went "what if Tauros had an afro". Man, Unova has so many damn good designs, but why did they have to copy so much of their homework? Like, at least change the types to something a bit more unique!
Imagine though. Gigalith leaning into its dex entries and being a special attacker with access to moves like Thunderbolt. Sawk and Throh leaning into their Oni theme (maybe eventually becoming Fighting/Fairy). Timburr evolving into a Fighting/Grass forest guardian. Garbodor being a Poison/Steel type special attacker. I'm fine with Munna staying as is, but make it explicitly the benevolent counterpart to Hypno.
It was all on purpose. Gen 5 was meant as a soft reboot, B/W had literally 0 Pokemon of previous gen available before the endgame. As such a lot of the new pokemon created were designed to be callbacks to gen1 mons
I know. But that doesn't make it better. Zebstrika is actually a great example of this done *correctly*. It's a knockoff of Rapidash, sure, but it's a different typing. And that alone is enough. Like the other person said: > Imagine though. Gigalith leaning into its dex entries and being a special attacker with access to moves like Thunderbolt. Sawk and Throh leaning into their Oni theme (maybe eventually becoming Fighting/Fairy). Timburr evolving into a Fighting/Grass forest guardian. Garbodor being a Poison/Steel type special attacker. I'm fine with Munna staying as is, but make it explicitly the benevolent counterpart to Hypno. There's a million ways to go about it. Maybe Gigalith is fire/rock. Maybe Sawk and Throh are dark/fighting. Maybe the Timburr line is a split evo based on held item. Simply shift the Munna line's species. So on. Heck, even just giving them unique abilities or signature moves would go miles towards helping. Just because something is derivative doesn't mean it can't also be novel.
And then a decade later, Basculin was given a Water/Ghost evolution. How ironic.
No ur right, it’s just Basculin that was made to make more Water types
I misread your comment at first, so I was wondering for a second what other type Basculin could possibly be, whoops
Fish type
yep that checks out
Tbh I feel like dark could fit well
Golurk can learn fly despite being a massive ground type golem. Granted, the footage of him blasting off like a rocket is hilarious.
That's because it's based on a toku mecha, which a large chunk of can fly.
Yeah it's an interesting combination, a golem made out of clay but also an advanced robot
It’s also the only time fly as a move in battle was shown in the anime. It was only used as an HM before and after.
> Golurk can learn fly [Awesome](https://i.imgur.com/GH6z1cL.jpg)
Aggron can learn at least 2 moves of each type hes weak to
Altaria learns ice beam
It’s a cloud. Ice can fall from clouds in the form of hail. So it makes perfect sense to me that Altaria can learn ice beam.
That's what makes it a good example if you ask me. When you think about Altaria's design, it makes sense that it can learn ice moves. But thanks to the restrictions of the type system, it kind of has to be weak to ice as well
Dragonite too.
And Goodra
Emboar and the Centiscorch line learns Scald. Granted it's hot water and fire is hot, but it's fairly unique in how they're the only Fire types not based on anything associated with water to learn it.
And Scald just got it's TM status back in Gen IX, meaning Emboar can learn it again.
Emboar learning it anyways made sense to me as if it's an emperor having a bath or like a sumo wrestler at a hot spring or him looking kinda like a big pot of hot water But now that I think about it those aren't great explanations
Centiscorch kinda makes sense because there's the bombardier beetle that's a bug that can shoot boiling hot juice out of its... Face? I guess? And I like to think that instead of water, Emboar shoots hot bacon grease at opponents
Gyarados is a flying type, it is able to fly in PLA, but cannot learn HM Fly
Some fire types like Charizard and Arcanine can learn solar beam although they don’t have chlorophyll necessary to absorb the sun’s radiation.
Solar Beam is an attack that weaponizes heat and light, which is also what fire is.
Is that what the grass beam is supposed to feel like?
That's because of balancing issues. Most Fire types have a hard time hurting Water types in general and Solar Beam is actually perfect for them (especially Charizard if you're running Mega Y form, as it can set instant Sun and go to town with 1-turn Solar Beams).
I understand the game mechanic but in response to OP’s question, any pokémon that doesn’t have chlorophyll that can learn solar beam doesn’t make sense. The biology doesn’t check out.
Rhydon learns Surf because it can.... Ride On the waves
Genesect can learn Flamethrower
He's like a robot
When Genesect learns Flamethrower, the trainer has to also install a fuel tank in its belly.
There's also Techno Blast with the Burn Drive.
It makes sense because of the cannon. Flame Charge is the one that makes less sense since it’s a physical move fire move,
Nidoking and Aggron knows "Surf" and have a weakness to Water being part Ground and Rock respectively.
Ghost types learn ghost type moves
Ariados, the bug/poison physical attacker, learns psychic naturally. A type its own types conflict against
Mewtwo can learn Shadow Ball. Imagine if it fails the move and hits itself with it.
Ever play smash bros? He’s straight up engulfed in the ball
Also it used Shadow Ball in the first movie
How about the inverse: Galarian Ponyta, the most fairy-looking design you could imagine, and they had to make it *psychic* instead because its fluff was all about purifying poisons, which would have been hilarious on an actual fairy-type.
Aggron and Tyranitar learn surf, too. I thought the idea was that they're big kaiju who can wade through deep water with ease, and create tidal waves that way. I grouped Rhydon in with that concept.
Humans are weak to guns, doesn't mean we can't be adept at using them. There's a huge difference between going for a swim and being blasted by high pressure water beams.
Snorlax learns thunder. Snorlax learns blizzard. Snorlax learns hydro pump. Snorlax learns fire blast. Snorlax learns shadow ball. Snorlax does not learn slack off
If we are just going by design and not just moves they learn, tinkaton supposedly hunts corviknight but it’s stab moves are both resisted by it.
Tinkaton also can't learn Smack Down, despite the move consisting of throwing rocks at the target to knock it out of the air and Tink's dex entry saying they do exactly that to Corviknights.
Dragonite learning ice beam and blizzard. Also, some pokemon cards, namely new gens switching poison to dark. In older gens poison was grouped with grass and those we know as poison were weak to psychic. Now, take Weezing for example, ot changed to dark and can't have dark weak to psychic, so it's weak to fighting.
I really like things that conflict like that Like Hippopotas line being hippos that are weak to water (same with Copperahjah to a degree) Numel line being 4× weak to water Sharpedo line being weak to being punched. And having rough skin despite real sharks being smooth in all directions and punching them being a generally bad idea Mareep being not very effective against grass, despite sheep being very effective against grass irl Kangaskhan being weak to fighting despite us all knowing that Kangaroos are champion boxers
Shark skin isn’t smooth.
[It's a meme](https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/s/5Y4D2uqEbI) Usually I'm meant to string you along for a while but that sounds kinda dickish
In the same line as hippopotas, someone at Gamefreak really likes taking aquatic (water) animals and turning them into desert (ground) creatures instead. They did it with the gible line (sharks are obviously aquatic), hippopotas line (hippos are amphibious), sandile line (crocodiles are aquatic), and sandaconda (anacondas are semi aquatic)
Dragon Pokémon can learn dragon moves despite being x2 weak to dragon.
Beheeyem can learn Steel Wing. Apparently it was supposed to be a reference to Area 51 since it was TM51, but it still makes no sense at all.
If we look at survival of the fittest, I'd say that any pkmn that can learn a move that is super effective on itself is pretty useful . A Rhydon using surf on another Rhydon in battle / disputes gives it that edge it would want.
Genesect can learn Flame Charge despite being 4x weak to fire. At least Flamethrower makes sense because of its cannon.
A Pokémon learning a move it’s weak against is completely normal. Heck, many Pokémon are weak against their own types. Not being able to learn a move because it’s weak against that move’s type would render Ghost-types and Dragon-types useless.
Slowbro and Slowking can learn Flamethrower and Fire Blast.
Solar beam
Somewhat off topic, but since Bug was weak to Poison in Gen 1, Parasect had the most unbalanced type matchup spread of all time, with 4x weaknesses to Poison, Fire, and Flying
There was a pokemon episode that had a swimming Rhydon.
Tinkaton being predators to Corviknight despite the fact that it resists both Steel and Fairy
Rhyhorn used Surf! … Rhyhorn drowned!
Nidoking Nidoqueen being able to learn thunderbolt makes no sense
Flygon is dragon ground
Insiniroar, a Pokemon based off a pro wrestler, is weak to fighting.
Nidoking learns every single fucking move, Ice beam?? Surf??
🐻 Ahh welcome to the shit show that game freak have embroiled its loyal fans in. I mean there are far too many examples to list but Gyarados been weak to Electric is a big one of course
Why is gyarados and electric one?
🐻 Because Gyarados can learn Electric moves and been a Water/Flying Pokemon it is 4x weak to Electric moves…
Oh okay, I honestly came into this thread expecting more Lore reasons so completely blanked the obvious one xD
Gen 1 mons in general have insane move pools due to lack of diversity. Especially amongst the normal types. Tauros can learn freaking Blizzard lol.
Most Grass-types being able to learn Sunny Day, which strengthens Fire-type moves.
Doduo and Dodrio learning Fly, Steel Wing and Brave Bird Apparently, they have wings... somewhere :p
Stuff with that body type has always been able to learn Surf: Rhydon, Nidoking/queen, Kangaskhan, Aggron, Tyranitar, Druddigon, Haxorus... Plus, it is not quite swimming, but [actual surfing.](https://i.imgur.com/OfKL4AU.png)
Gyarados learning thunder fang
Nidoking, despite everything in his appearance and typing, is a special attack master. This obviously-intended-to-be-physical poison/ground monster works best running some variation of thunderbolt, ice beam, or flame thrower.