Pokémon research & facts!

A lot of things and random bits of Pokémon-related knowledge you won't find on Bulbapedia trivia thing. Probably. Beware of Hardenshipping and bad English.

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why is it called TeacherShipping

it should clearly be RockHardShipping

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And in the latest issue of Coro Coro

#Blaziken, Lucario, Darkrai and Yveltal have some badass babies together

#Absol is an alicorn now and soon will rule over all of Equestria

#Mawile changed its hairstyle from 'terrifying' to 'Lovecraft'

#Mewtwo has a nice hair band, pity he forgot to wear some hair with it

#Ampharos GREW A MAGNIFICENT WHITE MANE your argument is invalid

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So I watched the Thor 2 trailer and I just can't at Loki's hair because well-- Do you know how we call hair curls in Poland? Freaking LOKI I'M DEAD SERIOUS HIS NAME IS THE NAME OF HIS HAIRCUT NOW

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That's... oddly similar. 

The most famous experiment of Benjamin Franklin is the "flying a kite in storm to see if lighting is elecricity" one (that is not confirmed to has been done by him or with an actual kite; the discussion is still going on). He is also known for naming the positive and negative electricity, finding if conduction is changing due to temperature and so on. He was also experimenting with evaporation. Not only that, Franklin managed to chart the Gulf Stream, noticed storms could travel in directions other than that of the prevailing wind and came up with many other ideas how to help sailors.

I won't tell you what type is Froakle supposed to be, because no one knows it yet, but I really hope it's Water/Electric.

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Expanding Earth and Team Magma

(IMPORTANT NOTE: this is probably NOT a "fact" per se, not a scientifically approved theory and I don't know if it's right, or wrong, or somehow both, because I'm not a scientist and don't have any professional knowledge on the topic. I just notice the similarities to the Pokemon games for fun. That is the point of my tumblr, after all.) The Expanding Earth Hypothesis is a fairly new (proposed in the first years of the 20th century) and highly controversial geological hypothesis. Generally speaking, it asserts that our planet is constantly increasing in size and mass. The additional mass comes from space in the shape of meteorites and parts of meteors; in fact, approximately 55 000 ton of these cosmic rocks falls on our planet every year. (to put it into perspective, an African Elephant weights 5 ton). The hypothesis states that when Earth was young, about 250 millions years ago, it was a lot smaller than today and the oceans were non-existent. Then, however, the planet's diameter got larger and larger for... some reason, probably connected to the mass of meteorites, and that huge surface that followed was soon taken by water and thus the oceans were created. (or, in the words of Team Magma, the freaking sea took a lot of perfectly good landmass and won't give it back. Meanie.) Additionally, there are some accounts that say as the "land beneath the land" tends to be constantly destroyed by subsiding into basically the center of the Earth, the "land beneath the oceans" is still being created. From the fragments of nice, dry land, no less. So what does it have to do with Team Magma? It IS a stretch and mostly headcanon, but hey. You could tell that the landmass in the Pokemon world is alive; it's creator and protector, Groudon, can do weird things with the volcanoes and expand the land. Let's say the Expanding Earth hypothesis is right in this world. You know, if the legendary golems push the continents around, maybe PokeEarth doesn't have to have tectonical plates at all.

Groudon can, perhaps, "feel" the energy of the meteorites, "feel" the new mass on its Earth, therefore knows just how much land can it subside, destroy or create to regain balance. To expand the land further than Groudon normally does you would have to a) enrage it (Team Magma did it by accident with a little help of Team Aqua and Kyogre), or b) make it believe that a very, very huge meteorite just fell on the Earth, but there's not much mass, only crazy amounts of energy, and Groudon would go haywire and spew lava everywhere trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The internal core could expand as well because of the sheer force of expanding magma.

I believe that's what that meteorite-powered machine on Mt. Chimney would cause, should it ever be turned on. Conclusion: It's not a great hypothesis, not likely probable. It's just that Maxie doesn't really care. He has a giant erupting camel, he doesn't have to stick to reason.

[accelgor-deactivated20140619]

There is increasing evidence to suggest that the legendary Pokémon are based on Norse Mythology. Yggdrasil, also known as “the World Tree” is a giant mythical Ash Tree in which various gods are said to gather. Three creatures that inhabit the tree are an Eagle, a Stag, and a Dragon.

Yveltal...

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So I was going to have a post on the new legends aka one of my not-so-many facts that aren't about Hoenn, but it seems I was too slow. Well.

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Hardenshipping is more canon than canon, or what the myths of Hawaii tell us

So everyone on tumblr are recently going on about how the plot of Emerald is an "escalation of a really nasty breakup"... and I think this is a bit relevant? Enjoy.

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According to myths, Hawaii, known as the Big Island of the archipelago, was shaped when two drastically different forces of nature - the volcanoes of the island and the ocean surrounding it - engaged in a fight. How it had come to this? On the Big Island there lived a goddess of volcanoes and fire, Pele, whose "real" (sacred) name was Ka-ula-o-ke-ahi ("the redness of the fire"); she was known for her fiery temper and love for the land that she tried to expand continuously. There was also a certain demi-god called Kamapua'a, that in his human form was a handsome, strong man with black eyes, and had not as proper etiquette as Pele, often engaging in quick romances and loving to eat. He had shaved his head once, and after that he had grown a short black bristle on both head and chin. Kamapua'a's life was the ocean, the rain, the water; the opposite of Pele's passions. Both gods had their helpers: Pele - her many brothers and gods of the land and the sun, Kamapua'a - fellow men that he had found himself and gods of the rain.  Pele and Kamapua'a met for the first time on the top of the Kilauea volcano and then the strangest thing happened: Kamapua'a fell in love. But things got out of control and the gods taunted each other, got in a fight, and soon began a war of the land and the sea, that was nothing more than an overblown argument. Pele struck first with her fire and lava, and Kamapua'a replied with waves and rain. Seeing how disastrous this conflict was, other gods were trying to tell Pele to stop her doings, and eventually she obeyed; Kamapua'a did stop as well. What happened afterwards with the two gods, the exact opposites and foes? They became lovers. Not very good with telling each other out, sure, and arguing a lot, in a lot of tellings breaking up soon, but they could certainly work together when they wanted to. To this day their rule is this: Pele cares for the land and volcanoes in the west, and Kamapua'a's domain is the ocean and lakes in the east, and they come together to make plants grow and all the other life on the Big Island exist. --- (Yep, definite context for hardenshipping. It matches the plot of Emerald quite well. When we consider the slash canon. All we need now is for Pele to be a guy, which is funny, because that's exactly what the editors of the polish Wikipedia assumed. HOW can one mistake a not-exactly-unknown goddess for a man, I have no idea. Maybe it's like with the Pokemon translators and poor Tabitha, only it's the other way around now).

BTW I haven't passed my first exam, hurray for physical chemistry.

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Just a quick notice: the posts will be coming much slower now, as I have SIX serious exams and two still important ones during the next two weeks. Be damned forever, physical chemistry and cellular biology!

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Hawaii, Hilo, Hoenn

The Hoenn region was inspired by Kyushu, one of the islands of Japan (in fact, it's geographically the same region, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, as Bulbapedia tells us). However, it also has a lot in common with Hawaii, the main island of you-know-which-archipelago, even having suspiciously similar names. Hawaii is known for its geographical diversity: deserts and jungles right next to each other, a lot of sun and volcanoes in the west, rainforests in the east; likewise, Hoenn has Mt Chimney and all the dry cities in the west, while Lilycove City, Fortree city and the possibly rainiest routes in the Pokemon world (119 & 120) are situated in the east. The largest city is Hilo (...or was it Lilycove?) in the west, overlooking Hilo Bay. It's situated upon both Mauna Loa (active volcano, which is actually futher west, but being very large it in fact builds a half of the island; think Mt. Chimney) and Mauna Kea (a dormant volcano and the most sacred place in Hawaii for many people, with rare animals living on its slopes, and a lot of shrines and burial sites here and there, like on Mt. Pyre). BTW I just learned that the word for "an island" in Hawai'i is "mokupuni". Mokepon, anyone? (I've read like... two chapters of it, but nonetheless they were amazing two chapters.)

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Comfort-seeking

Next time you play Pokémon Emerald, notice where Maxie and Archie are standing during the beginning of Kyogre and Groudon fight: the middle of an island, at a distance from each other. Then go wake Rayquaza up and return to Sootopolis. During and after the following cutscene the two Team Leaders will now stand side by side on the shore.

I don't know if that was intentional on writers/animators/programmers/whoever part, but I love this little detail. It's like they for a moment forgot they're enemies. Nothing can bring people together like being in danger or something in this manner, I guess.

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Unova Clouds Explained, p.2

The second and the last part of that long, long list. 

Lacunosa - from Cirrocumulus lacunosus, that's a pretty hard-to-find layer cloud that looks like a net/honeycomb. Next to Lacunosa there's Route 12 with a lot of Bug Pokemon to catch (including Combee). Undella - from undies and umbrella, which you often see here. Oh wait, actually it's from altostratus undulatus, a cloud that looks a bit wavy and there's usually no rain from it (Undella is a sunny sea-side place). Anville - from anville clouds aka cumulonimbus aka there's-going-to-be-storming-soon, and I honestly have no theory why they've called it that beside "our trains are faster than lightning". Aspertia - from asperatus, a type of cloud that was only recently discovered (like Aspertia for us, players). They appear after thunderstorms (Black/White plot?) and are not very nice looking, but the storm you expect will most likely not come (you know, happy ending is common in Pokemon games). Floccesy - from Cirrus floccus, clouds suspiciously similar to fluffy Mareep in their appearance (the name even means "a lock of wool"). Virbank - from virga, water that falls out of the cloud but does never reach the ground. It can "react" with supersaturated air and after a while end up throwing a storm. Don't forget the real conflict in B2W2 begins (IMHO) in Virbank, when we start to actually chase Team Plasma. The name's also from cloud bank, which is a lot of clouds seen from a distance (a new land overhead - Castelia.) Lentimas - from Lenticular cloud, something you commonly seen above mountain peaks in movies. Coincidentally, a cloud like that is probably not over Lentimas, because then it would be very hard to get there by plane (let's just say turbulence is not fun). And finally Humilau - from Cumulus humilis, the cloud which is said to a) bring good weather, or b) bring absolutely the worst storm you can imagine. I have a weird feeling it's relevant to the next generation. (yay, overthinking!)

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Unova Clouds Explained, p.1

 It IS on Bulbapedia, I admit, and a lot of what follows will be of as much information as Bulba's trivia, but I tried to dig a little deeper than that.

 As you probably know, all of Unova towns and cities are named after clouds.

Nuvema - from Nuvem, "cloud" in portuguese. Simple as that. Accumula - from Cumulus. Note that the word "Cumulo-" means "a heap (of something)" in Latin. Due to it's appearance, Accumula Town looks like a heap of three ground layers. Striaton - from striations clouds; those are constantly swirling around (put an obvious reference to Striaton Triplets here). They are also a sign that a natural disaster (tornado, heavy storm, hail) is coming. Considering you have your first Gym Battle there, and you also meet Ghetsis and N... Nacrene - from nacreous clouds. They are brightly glowing, colourful clouds, and they sometimes look like an abstract painting in the sky. Nacrene is a city of artists. Castelia - from Altocumulus Castelanus, also known as "Jellyfish Clouds". They form when layers of dry air trap moist air in the middle (which would be understandable in Castelia City, as it's between a sea and a desert). Nimbasa - "nimbus" is a "cloud" or a "storm", generally means a cloud that you expect a lot of water to fall from, and a prefix "nimbo-" is added to other names to indicate a certain cloud producing some kind of rain, snow etc. It's more likely a sarcastic name, seeing as there's always sunny in Nimbasa. Driftveil - the first part is from "cloud drift", basically "a bunch of clouds that are moving". The other part is from "velum", "a sail", which is the name of cloud that doesn't look like a sail at all, but it sounds cool. Driftveil's an important port city and the ships are likely going to other regions and back like crazy, so you could say it's a whole bunch of velum drifting or something. Mistralton - from "mistral", a regional cold wind in France. It comes from the north/northwest, which is accidentaly exactly where the Celestial Tower is in relation to Mistralton (cue cold wing howling). "Mistral" means "masterly". So we have, you can say, a wind master in a shape of Skyla, the Flying-type specialist. Can be also from "alto-" clouds, for example Altocumulus cloud, that is a puffy mass looking like a very angry Swanna (or Altaria, which might have its name delivered from "alto-"). Icirrus - as much as I would like to say its name is from an epic "I, Cyrus", it's actually from cirrus clouds. These have a lot to do with ice (a lot like Brycen) and are known to make "special effects" appear, like glories and halos (and boy, is Brycen familiar with optical illusion because of constantly working with that epic green screen in Black2/White2). Opelucid - can be from Opacus Clouds, that are essentialy a thick layer that covers the sun. If the previous cities' names indicated a storm (aka a plot) is coming, this one is screaming "holy fuck, it's the Elite Four and the freaking hacked Hydreigon now, isn't it".

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All in the intros

A little one that you have probably noticed.

In the intro for Pokémon Ruby, when there's a scene with the protagonist biking and his Pokemon catching up with him, you can see some mountains on the horizon. When this scene comes up in the Sapphire intro, there's sea in the background instead.

And in Emerald there are, for some reasons, the same mountains as in Ruby. You can say that the background contains some sky, though.

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Camerupt are hax

Out of three plot-wise-important Camerupt you fight in Pokémon Emerald, two are prematurely evolved (Maxie's at level 25 and Flannery's at level 26). The only trainer with a legit one is Tabitha, with his Camerupt apparently freshly evolved at level 33.

In Pokémon Ruby, however, Tabitha is as much of a hacker as everyone else, with his Camerupt being level 32.

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Archie and Maxie have no clue what STAB is

...or at least it seems like it when you see their final teams. All of their Pokémon can't attack with one of their types.

So we have two Crobat that don't know any Poison-type moves and two Mightyena that don't know any Dark-type ones (well, there is Taunt, but it's non-damaging). Maxie's Camerupt doesn't know any Fire-type moves and Archie's Sharpedo is apparently clueless where it comes to Water-type moves (justified since it can learn no such move by leveling in gen III).

That's why I think Maxie fighting Steven is hilarious. Had his Camerupt had any Fire-type move, he would OHKO this poor Skarmory and not try to Earthquake it (yes, it happened once when I was playing Emerald: Maxie apparently thought Skarmory and Altaria were weak to Ground attacks, and he wouldn't. Stop. Using them. AI had its beautifully dumb moments back then. Good times).

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Roxie's name

I can't be the only one that thought Roxie was a Rock-type trainer because of her name. This was indeed the case earlier with Brock, Roxanne, Roark... however, the pun here is not on "rock" as in "stone", but as in "rock music" (that's kinda obvious). "Roxie" sounds similar to "toxic", which should also give a clue about the typing being Poison.

And don't forget that there actually was a popular rock band called "Poison".

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Shelly the Ranger

 (If you can't tell by now, I absolutely adore the III gen. Hence a lot of Hoenn facts.)

In Pokémon Black and White, you can fight a certain female Ranger on Route 15. She has an Abomasnow and an Altaria, and her name is Shelly (strangely, it sounds exactly that in both Japanese and English versions). She even looks a bit like the III gen's Shelly, partly due to the female Ranger's sprite having similar fluffy (but dark) hair. It was a nice shout-out.

And then Black2/White2 came out, and we can now go to Icirrus city and find two former members of Hoenn villainous Teams, that are apparently a couple. And guess what, Team Aqua's former member is a female Ranger.

Not that I'm implying anything, but still...

WELL PLAYED, WRITERS. WELL PLAYED.