On request, I’ve started drafting up an “about” page with pertinent info about myself and this blog, so stay tuned for that tomorrow. In the meantime, feel free to send in questions, be it about general topics or your own pokemon! I’ll do my best to get to them in a timely manner.
Wouldn't you know, I was just having a chat with a coworker about this last week! It's a bit of a sardonic running joke at this point. And it seems that everyone has their own opinion on the matter of how Flygon ought to be classified, so I suppose now's as good a time as any to get into that can of Wurmples.
So, we know certain things about Flygon. It's the third stage of its line, evolving from Vibrava, which evolves in turn from Trapinch. It has excellent vision. It sheds its skin. It prefers flying/hovering to walking, and is well-suited to desert environments, particularly sandstorms.
What a lot of people don't know is that its typing has been the subject of dispute for...well, decades, really. At the moment it's ground/dragon, has been for a while, probably will be for the foreseeable future. The ground typing is indisputable, and Raihan's use of one in most of his gym battles has cemented its reputation as a full-fledged dragon. Even if we wanted to change it, I doubt we could.
But wait. "Barclay," you're probably saying, "what in the name of Lugia are you talking about? What type change?? What else could it be???". And yes, I'm afraid I must apologize, it's a very circular subject and that seemed the best way to break in. Yes, there are arguments about what type Flygon should be. Again, it's indisputably ground, but the dragon part is up for debate in some deeply academic circles. The alternative?
Bug!
So I'm afraid for the sake of simplicity, I'm going to be turning your question around from "is Flygon a reptile?" to "is Flygon an insect?". Insects are easily encompassed within one typing, the bug type, and rarely waver. Meanwhile, pokemon that would suit the title of "reptile" can be found in just about every type out there, making them all the harder to pin down. Phrasing it this way makes it an either/or question. It’s a a reptile, or it’s an insect.
So, is Flygon an insect?
There are a plethora of arguments to be made in favor of it. The way the anatomy of Trapinch and Vibrava are structured most closely resembles the segmentation of fellow bug types. Flygon’s signature “wing-singing”, an ability often found in insects, most famously the Kricketot line. Even its sensory organs, particularly the antennae atop its head, bear a superficial resemblance to our general cultural image of bugs.
And, it hasn’t finished peer review yet, but there is a paper coming down the pipeline that claims to have bred F1 Flygon that exhibit the compound eyes trait. If it gets published, that’ll be a major playing card in this overly complicated game of competitive solitaire, since that means a wildtype Flygon was able to produce offspring with an ability otherwise found only in bug types, implying they’re more closely related than we’ve been led to believe. Might be a few months before it’s widely available but I’ll keep you all in the loop in case there’s any interest.
On the other hand, I can’t say I’m aware of any other 3-stage bug type pokemon that spends its second stage actively out and hunting, rather than hunkering down and conserving energy. Kakuna, Silcoon, Whirlipede, Charjabug, Swadloon, Dottler, the list goes on! It’s crucial for their biology - to undergo such a drastic change, they need that designated period of rest and resource allocation. Despite superficial appearances to other bug types (Yanma comes to mind), Vibrava would be an extreme outlier in this case, to the point where one particularly heated paper made the audacious claim that instituting it as a bug would compromise the integrity of the whole typing. Not sure how I feel about that, but anything is food for thought, I suppose.
(Mind you, I'm not an expert on bug types, so if you want another equally expert point of view I’ll direct you over to the far more qualified @poke-entomology!)
And just to cover our bases, let’s take a quick peek at why it’s been classified as a dragon type. The type standard for that (as far as I understand it, anyway; you want citeable answers, find a specialist) some degree of species-wide competitiveness, incredible power, and a temperament not well-adjusted to captivity. Flygon fits all of those boxes, exhibiting territoriality within the deserts it calls home and a disposition recommended only for expert trainers, not to mention its strength.
At the end of the day, insect or reptile, I can’t find a single fault with the assertion that this critter is 100% a dragon. And isn’t that what matters?
Anyway, I hope this helped at all...apologies if there were any parts that were difficult to parse, you really did manage to land upon one of the most nichely head-spinning topics I’m aware of right now. It's far more suited for a spirited argument among friends around a table, perhaps with snacks. Feel free to ask for clarification on anything mentioned here, too - still getting used to the “writing as outreach” thing.
It’s a draconic insect! Not a true Bug type, at least from what we can tell, but still an insect. Like how Bulbasaur is an animal and a plant, science isn’t able to perfectly categorize literally any creature, no matter how hard we try! So if something exhibits traits of both, why not classify it as both?
...I mean, for some reason people have a hard time looking at a proud, noble dragon and saying, “That’s a Bug!” But personally, I think that’s rude! Dragons and insects both take all forms! (have you even seen all of Salamance’s forms? tiny wingless t-rex, BALL MODE, and lastly a big boy with a blue/green body and red wings? that’s a mystery in itself)
Ahem. Got a little off track. Good points made by @pokemonherpetologist here! Very good read!
Wouldn't you know, I was just having a chat with a coworker about this last week! It's a bit of a sardonic running joke at this point. And it seems that everyone has their own opinion on the matter of how Flygon ought to be classified, so I suppose now's as good a time as any to get into that can of Wurmples.
So, we know certain things about Flygon. It's the third stage of its line, evolving from Vibrava, which evolves in turn from Trapinch. It has excellent vision. It sheds its skin. It prefers flying/hovering to walking, and is well-suited to desert environments, particularly sandstorms.
What a lot of people don't know is that its typing has been the subject of dispute for...well, decades, really. At the moment it's ground/dragon, has been for a while, probably will be for the foreseeable future. The ground typing is indisputable, and Raihan's use of one in most of his gym battles has cemented its reputation as a full-fledged dragon. Even if we wanted to change it, I doubt we could.
But wait. "Barclay," you're probably saying, "what in the name of Lugia are you talking about? What type change?? What else could it be???". And yes, I'm afraid I must apologize, it's a very circular subject and that seemed the best way to break in. Yes, there are arguments about what type Flygon should be. Again, it's indisputably ground, but the dragon part is up for debate in some deeply academic circles. The alternative?
Bug!
So I'm afraid for the sake of simplicity, I'm going to be turning your question around from "is Flygon a reptile?" to "is Flygon an insect?". Insects are easily encompassed within one typing, the bug type, and rarely waver. Meanwhile, pokemon that would suit the title of "reptile" can be found in just about every type out there, making them all the harder to pin down. Phrasing it this way makes it an either/or question. It’s a a reptile, or it’s an insect.
So, is Flygon an insect?
There are a plethora of arguments to be made in favor of it. The way the anatomy of Trapinch and Vibrava are structured most closely resembles the segmentation of fellow bug types. Flygon’s signature “wing-singing”, an ability often found in insects, most famously the Kricketot line. Even its sensory organs, particularly the antennae atop its head, bear a superficial resemblance to our general cultural image of bugs.
And, it hasn’t finished peer review yet, but there is a paper coming down the pipeline that claims to have bred F1 Flygon that exhibit the compound eyes trait. If it gets published, that’ll be a major playing card in this overly complicated game of competitive solitaire, since that means a wildtype Flygon was able to produce offspring with an ability otherwise found only in bug types, implying they’re more closely related than we’ve been led to believe. Might be a few months before it’s widely available but I’ll keep you all in the loop in case there’s any interest.
On the other hand, I can’t say I’m aware of any other 3-stage bug type pokemon that spends its second stage actively out and hunting, rather than hunkering down and conserving energy. Kakuna, Silcoon, Whirlipede, Charjabug, Swadloon, Dottler, the list goes on! It’s crucial for their biology - to undergo such a drastic change, they need that designated period of rest and resource allocation. Despite superficial appearances to other bug types (Yanma comes to mind), Vibrava would be an extreme outlier in this case, to the point where one particularly heated paper made the audacious claim that instituting it as a bug would compromise the integrity of the whole typing. Not sure how I feel about that, but anything is food for thought, I suppose.
(Mind you, I'm not an expert on bug types, so if you want another equally expert point of view I’ll direct you over to the far more qualified @poke-entomology!)
And just to cover our bases, let’s take a quick peek at why it’s been classified as a dragon type. The type standard for that (as far as I understand it, anyway; you want citeable answers, find a specialist) some degree of species-wide competitiveness, incredible power, and a temperament not well-adjusted to captivity. Flygon fits all of those boxes, exhibiting territoriality within the deserts it calls home and a disposition recommended only for expert trainers, not to mention its strength.
At the end of the day, insect or reptile, I can’t find a single fault with the assertion that this critter is 100% a dragon. And isn’t that what matters?
Anyway, I hope this helped at all...apologies if there were any parts that were difficult to parse, you really did manage to land upon one of the most nichely head-spinning topics I’m aware of right now. It's far more suited for a spirited argument among friends around a table, perhaps with snacks. Feel free to ask for clarification on anything mentioned here, too - still getting used to the “writing as outreach” thing.
They certainly do! There's three main proposals for how and why they function, and here they are in descending favoritism.
The first and most widely-agreed upon one (to the point where it's mentioned in the 'dex) is that the bubbles serve a defensive purpose, almost like built-in airbags. Especially in Froakie and younger Frogadier, the texture of the bubbles is less...bubble-y, and more akin to a rubber-y ball sort of thing. Stuff just bounces off of them. Or, sometimes, they bounce off of stuff. Had a friend who swore up and down that she'd seen a wild Pidgeotto snatch up a trainer's Froakie, only for the lucky little critter to wriggle out of its talons and drop to solid ground, none the worse for wear. And having met a few myself, I'm inclined to believe it!
They lose this trait over time, either through age or evolution or both. Makes it a good rule of thumb for estimating how old a Froakie is. "More bubbles, more baby", as a friend of mine likes to say.
Before that, the prevailing theory was that the bubbles were there for moisture preservation. Like most other amphibious pokemon, they breathe through their skin rather than their lungs, so staying damp at all times is crucial to their survival. Having bubbles on hand could act as a barrier from weather or a water reservoir. Since they do seem to be made of slightly modified water (modified by some unknown process to make them sturdier; think Jell-O to the extreme), this has yet to be disproven, though it's growing less popular among researchers.
There's also a more recent proposal that, in addition to any combination of the above, the bubbles are used to create nests for their eggs and young. The theory goes that, similar to the Poliwag line, Froakie create shelters for their eggs made of bubbles which are then sealed off until such a time that the babies are ready to emerge. It's practically predator-proof, protects from any drastic weather changes, and guarantees survival up to hatching.
Unfortunately it's difficult to reach their wild populations to observe them long-term, and we still have yet to figure out what conditions might trigger this behavior in captivity, so it remains only a hypothetical.
Ekans indeed. It wasn't difficult to come up with a mascot for this endeavor, I'll say that much. Hard to ignore the purple snake that's trying to clamber across your monitor while you're navigating a set-up page!
I saw a few other people making blogs in their favored fields of study, and thought it looked like a ton of fun, so here we are. Feel free to ask away about the reptiles and amphibians within the pokemon world - Ekans, Tyrunt, Drednaw, Salazzle, Sandile, you name it! The lines of this classification are blurry so when in doubt if something counts, go ahead and ask anyway! I’m just happy to interact.
Below is the pertinent-feeling info about the character who’ll be running the blog. Questions about them are welcome as well! I’m also poking around for a good picrew to use for them (I can sketch pokemon, ish, but humans still need a lot of practice) so if you have a recommendation I’d be happy to put it to good use. :)
Name: Barclay, sometimes goes by Barker. Personality in a nutshell - steady, meticulous, introverted. Doesn’t talk much unprompted unless it’s about their studies.
They’re a pokemon husbandry researcher with a focus on adaptations within ectothermic species.
Works more as a consultant for the island, especially in matters that involve caring for cold-blooded pokemon. Most of the time they’re off galavanting around regions anyway, collecting population data and doing general observations. If they’re doing work around home, they’re probably doing something or other to refine the care standards that have been published for particular species - at the moment it’s Heliolisk and Arbok, but that’s just scratching the surface!
Barclay doesn’t specialize in specific types so much as certain traits and adaptions that present themselves throughout a lot of types, but if pressed, they’re most comfortable around poison- and ground-type pokemon. c:
They decided to start this blog as a form of outreach - a lot of non-trainers (and even some trainers!) have some misguided beliefs about these pokemon, especially the snake-y ones, so maybe taking to the internet can reach a wider audience. Especially having seen how successful Professor Peach has been, good golly!
So, there we have it, some bare bones. Feel free to send some questions over - Barclay will be taking it from here!
baratheonpilled
stormborns
vaporwave
prguitarman
ellievsbear
kianamaiart