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What’s up with Flygon? Is it a reptile?

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.

Thanks for the question!

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