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Post by The Qu on Jan 8, 2011 2:17:04 GMT -5
Have some official video.
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Post by The Qu on Jan 7, 2011 20:23:23 GMT -5
Here's four Pokemon from gen V. Special thanks go to Jonathon Wojcik of Bogleech.com for information for this one. #588 Kaburumo, #589 Shubarugo, #616 Chobomaki & #617 Agirudaa The first four generations have brought up some creative ways to evolve Pokemon. Radioactive stones and trading in the first generation, trading with specific items, happiness and times of days in the second, beauty stats, empty shells, the fourth brought us leveling up in specific locations and gender specific evolutions. But the fourth generation brought us one of the craziest forms of evolution: Trading with specific Pokemon! When one trades Kaburumo with Chobomaki, the devious little Kaburumo steals Chobomaki's shell and becomes the plate armored Shubarugo, whilst the now shelless Chobomaki metamorphizes into the ninja like Agirudaa. All in all, it's a bizarre way to evolve. After all, whoever heard of snails getting their shell stolen by a beetle? An entomologist, that's who. You see, the relationship between these two Pokemon is likely based on actual behavior exhibited by a family of beetles, the Carabid family. Also known as the ground beetle family, some of these beetles- especially the Scaphinotus angusticollis- have evolved long, slender heads to dig into the hole of a snail's shell to dig out the fleshy mollusk. This can be seen somewhat on Kaburumo, with the shovel like extension on its head. It may also owe some to our old pal, the Rhinoceros Beetle, on which Heracross was based. Indeed, it even looks like a baby Heracross, doesn't it? Chobomaki doesn't seem based on any specific snail. Indeed, some people seem skeptical that its a snail at all! I've heard people bandy about it being a a land nautilus, or even a giant tube worm. I find both of these ideas a bit silly, considering that its species is listed as Snail Pokemon. It does have major characteristics shared by most snails, including a logarithmicly coiled shell (Created by the way a snail's shell grows) and sticky mucus (Chobomaki's is poisonous; a snail's helps it by reducing friction. This makes it easier for it to glide along the ground. It can even slide across sharp objects like straight razors without harm!) The shell it has is, of course, an exaggeration of a snail's real shell. Real snail shells are made as larva, and are made out of calcium carbonate. A few land snails make their shells out of Conchiolin, a protein. The shell is mainly for, what else?, protection. They can even be used to protect a snail from a snake! Snakes can't get into the shell to eat the snail, so they are safe. Pretty amazing, no? Shubarugo is based on a jousting knight and a beetle. Sometimes these are just bizarre to think, aren't they? Jousting was a sport in the Middle Ages practiced primarily by knights to train their skills on horseback. The two needle-like appendages Shubarugo has in reference to the lance, the primary weapon used by jousting knights. Well, in the most familiar aspect of jousting. A joust would considt of various games, each with a different weapon. Battle axes, swords and daggers were among the other weapons. The primary goal was to knock the other knight off of his horse. Inntersetingly, jousting lances were often painted with stripes, just as Shubarugo's lance is. The steel typing of Shubarugo suggests a knight's plate armor, as does its crest. While Shubarugo becomes the Medieval European idea of a warrior, Agirudaa becomes a Feudal Japan idea of an assassin. Without its shell, Agirudaa becomes much more agile. Dressed in tattered rags, it resembles the popular image of a shinobi, or, to my fellow Westerners, a ninja. Ninja were feudal assaassins and masters of unorthodox warfare in pre-modern Japan. Despite everything we have ever seen in pop culture, real ninja did not actually dress in black. While that's rather effective, especially in the days before electric lighting allowed people to see well at night, it is highly conspicuous. They probably just wore civilian clothes, or mission specific disguises. The idea of a ninja garbed head to toe in black cloth probably comes from drawings of them from centuries ago, that garbed them in black to convey a sense of invisibility. It may also be derived from bunraku theater, wherein black clad stage hands moved props to convey them being moved independently. People who saw the theater just ignored them. Overall, ninja were- and are- renowned for their agility. Most Eastern martial arts have some sort of agility training to them, so it's not particularly surprising. This is portrayed with Agirudaa's high speed and number of priority moves such as Quick Attack and stat increasing moves such as Agility. Interestingly, it can learn Substitute and Double Team- these may refer to ninja tactics, real and imagined. Ninja were the sort that could use tactics such as lighting fires away from where they were, or lying still in a ball position to be mistaken for a stone to draw attention away from themselves. I can see this sort of subterfuge being represented with Substitute, which involves the enemy attacking something disguised as the Pokemon being attacked. Double Team's animation seemingly involves the Pokemon splitting into to two Pokemon. Indeed, the Japanese name means Shadow Divide. This may be a case of something being shaped like itself though, as the move is in reference to the mythical ninja technique sometimes called Shadow Clone in English, wherein a ninja could allegedly split into two individuals. Still, the fact is that the ninja Pokemon has the move. The move raises the user's evasion stat by one stage, fitting for a ninja. Agirudaa also knows several poison type moves. While this is likely a leftover from its pre-evolution, it could also be in reference to ninja using poison in their assassanations. For instance, legendary ninja Ishikawa Goemon, the guy the pineapple haired Konami star is based on, allegedly tried dripping poison from a string into Oda Nobunaga's mouth!
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Post by The Qu on Jan 7, 2011 14:53:22 GMT -5
Even simpler: Wool conducts electricity.
That said, I do buy the electric sheep thing myself, if just because of other examples of electric sheep in Japan, such as Sheep Man from MM10.
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Post by The Qu on Jan 7, 2011 2:32:41 GMT -5
Happy birthday to Blueberry Pie!
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Post by The Qu on Jan 7, 2011 1:08:44 GMT -5
I bring you fellows a double dose of generation one dragons! #129 Magikarp & #130 Gyrados Magikarp. The Pokemon every smart trainer passes over.Gyrados. The secret weapon every smarter trainer picks up early in Generation One. These two odd Pokemon have long gripped the generation that played Pokemon Red and Blue when they first came out. And why not? It's an odd Pokemon- a nigh useless Pokemon that evolves into a first disc nuke- if you have the perseverance to train it. And by train it, I mean take advantage of the fact that switching out gives the switched out Pokemon experience. And this isn't even getting into the fact that, the evolution makes no sense.... …because it does. Magikarp and Gyrados are based on a Chinese myth slash proverb. I'll be getting into that in just a bit, as I always do. But first, Magikarp. Did you know its based on a carp!? Crazy, I know! In particular, it's based on the Asian carp. Well, one species of Asian carp- the term is an umbrella term for several species of carp. One in particular, the Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys harmandi) is of particular note. This fish is a scaredy fish. It is quite easily frightened, by boats and the like, and can jump high into the air. And when I say jump, I mean some Michael Jordan stuff here- they have been recorded as jumping as high as ten feet into the air. These are hefty fish too- they can grow as big as 100 lbs/45 kgs. People have been cut by their fins, had bones broken and received concussions. From a fish no less. How embarrassing, eh? This explains Magikarp's infamous Splash move, and it learning Tackle as well. Now, that leaves Gyrados. Many of my people have wondered exactly how a little fish evolves into a big dragon. Well, I'm going to tell you after I school you on the prerequisite stuff about Asian Dragons, Chinese in particular. There are two major divides in Dragonology, a term I just made up: Western and Eastern. Western is the kind you are perhaps most familiar with- overgrown lizards, on four legs, wings, breathing fire, sleeping on a trove of treasure, sewing babies from their teeth. The Eastern dragon is quite a bit different. Rather than being a malevolent force, it is a benevolent force. It is traditionally associated with water, rain good luck. The Dragon has been associated with the Emperor historically, although three and four clawed Dragons have been associated with commoners (The five clawed with the emperor.) The Dragons are usually simplified as looking like long snakes with draconian faces, but there is actually a ridiculously complex design for them, as recorded by the Han Dynasty scholar Wang Fu: “The people paint the dragon's shape with a horse's head and a snake's tail. Further, there are expressions as 'three joints' and 'nine resemblances' (of the dragon), to wit: from head to shoulder, from shoulder to breast, from breast to tail. These are the joints; as to the nine resemblances, they are the following: his horns resemble those of a stag, his head that of a camel, his eyes those of a demon, his neck that of a snake, his belly that of a clam (shen) his scales those of a carp, his claws those of an eagle, his soles those of a tiger, his ears those of a cow. Upon his head he has a thing like a broad eminence (a big lump), called chimu. If a dragon has no chimu, he cannot ascend to the sky.” Pretty crazy design eh? Much more imaginative than the Western Dragons. Eastern Dragons don't usually have wings, although they'd been drawn with bat-like wings before. They can fly not through physical abilities, but mystical powers. This shows on Gyrados, as they are part flying, but don't have any visible wings. (Short aside, but the real reason Gyrados is part flying was that had it been dragon/water like originally planned, it would have been completely overpowered, as it would have only one weakness. Ice wasn't nearly as prevalent than as it is now, and it's still a pretty rare type.) Even Gyrados' color may have some basis in Chinese myth. Chinese myth assigns a mythical creature to each direction, with the Azure Dragon being the god of the east, as well as symbolizing the Chineses element of wood. This may be a stretch, though, as Gyrados really doesn't have any other relation to the Azure Dragon. But that's enough about this. That's now why you are reading this entry, is it? No, you are reading it to learn more about why a little fishy evolves into a huge dragon, and why I said it had some basis. Well, let's dip our toesies into Chinese proverbs, shall we? One Chinese proverp states that if a carp can leap to the top of a waterfall to reach something called the Dragon Gate (This may be the name of the waterfall), it will turn into a dragon. Many waterfalls are allegedly the famous Dragon Gate, such as the Wei River, and at Tsin in the Shanxi Province. If you recall Pokemon Snap, in the valley stage, you could help a Magikarp eventually reach a waterfall wherein it evolved into a Gyrados. So, this myth has even been referenced in the games, albeit not the main games. Furthermore, some sources have the carp as golden, befitting Magikarp's shiny form! However, this could also be a reference to actual carp colors. Heck, red was often a color used for Chinese Dragons, so perhaps Gyrados' colors are a nod to that. I've seen Now, obviously this myth is not just a myth. It's a proverb- a story designed to give a particular lesson from it, similar to Christ's parables if I may be blasphemous. This particular story tells of how perseverance can grant people high positions. This was especially true two thousand years ago, when Chinese youths' exams determined if they got an Imperial position. In fact, there is a saying that roughly equates to “A youth doing their exams is like a carp at the Dragon Gate” or something of that sort. Of course, this can also be used as a generic parable of someone working hard to get what they want. This leaves us with the matter of Gyrados' name. Well, that's a strange bit. It's Japanese, and honestly, has no basis in English. It was originally going to have the name Skullkraken, after the famous Norse beast called the Kraken, but that fell over the character limit. So, they went with the Japanese name. It can be broken down into gyakusatsu meaning massacre or slaughter, and gyakkyō, meaning hardship or adversity. The dos at the end may be in reference to dosu, a Japanese onomatopoeia representing the tearing of flesh. Pretty violent, isn't it? #147 Dratini, #148 Dragonair & #149 Dragonite Let's head back to dragons, shall we? The three Pokemon we are looking at today are the only dragon type Pokemon found in the original generation. They were among the rarest Pokemon that weren't legendaries, available only through the casino in Celedon City. It had next to no weaknesses (By which I mean dragon and ice, and the only dragon type move did set damage), and in general had great stats. They were amazing Pokemon. It's pretty obvious they are based on Eastern Dragons, which we discussed earlier in the origin of Magikarp and his violent relative. If the shape didn't convince you, the name would. If the name didn't, the type would. If that didn't convince you, you're dumb. Right from Dratini, we've got references to myth. Eastern Dragons, in contrast with Western Dragons, have a convoluted growth cycle. Most sources agree they start like this: They start out in an stone called a Serpent's Egg. After it hatches, it spends one thousand years under water in a form called a water snake. Sounds like Dratini, doesn't it? Following this, the dragons grow scales, horns and later wings. It isn't until they are a few thousand years old that they meet mortals. This may explain why Dratinis are so rare. Dragonair offers a few more links to the Eastern Dragons. Most obviously, it controls the weather, just as Eastern Dragons do. Those puzzling pearls that Dragonair are another piece. You see, in the oldest of depictions of Chinese Dragons, they wear pearls upon their neck. The pearls are said to glow blue or white, and have a bright halo about them. They are associated with wealth and prosperity, being said to be worth quite a bit. The pearls are also said to have a comma shaped apendage on it, indicitive of yin and yang, the masculine and femine combining. This isn't surprising, as dragons are said to have 81 of their 117 scales yang (Positive) and 36 yin (Negative.) The pearls are also possibly associated with thunder and lightning, perhaps giving a reason why Dragonair changes the weather with them. There is also another possible origin in the Korean dragon. Koreans dragons start out as serpents called Imugi, Imugi would remain giant serpents until they could catch a Yeouiju that had fallen from the sky. The Yeouiju was a mythical stone or pearl modeled on Cintamani jewel or pearl in Hinduism and Buddhism. The Cintamani was a wish granting stone that the beholder could use to wish for or wish away positive or negative things. Imugi were feathered in the dreadfully bad Korean blockbuster D-Wars, and the Cintamani was the treasure Nathan Drake quested for in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Lastly, this brings us to Dragonite. The previous two basically looked similar to one another; this is the dragon matured. Dragonite still has a major focus on the sea, showing its Eastern origins. It appears more like a Western Dragon, but instead of being quadrupedal, it stands on two legs. And, of course, it has gained wings at long last. Generally, Dragonite doesn't have as much to its origin as the other two do.
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Post by The Qu on Jan 6, 2011 0:21:55 GMT -5
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Post by The Qu on Jan 2, 2011 0:24:59 GMT -5
#425 Drifloon & #426 Drifblim Looking at these two, it isn't hard to immediately see what they are based on. Drifloon is a balloon and Drifblim, despite its name, is a hot air balloon. The bizarrely dark Pokedex entry for Drifloon tells another story though. As I do in these, I'll start out with obvoius origins first. And, much to my surprise, I can't find a history of balloons. I mean, this isn't totally surprising- it's such a mudane object, I'm not sure anyone as ever wondered who “invented” them. The closest I can find is that pig bladders, for centuries, were inflated and used for various things, ranging from play in Carnival, to carrying paint. In 1824, the modern rubber balloon was invented by Michael Faraday, who wanted to experiment with hydrogen gas, and needed a container for the gas. Faraday is most famous for inventing the electric motor, a huge achievement for a fellow who also invented what would eventually become a toy. On a small aside, the high school I attended is on a Faraday Street, named after him. It's a street gimmick in my hometown of Alcoa. Rubber toy balloons were mass produced the following year by Thomas Hancock, a rubber inventor, in the form of a DIY kit. You had to make your own rubber with a solution. Long way to go for a balloon, ain't it? Drifblim is based on a hot air balloon, obviously. Hot air balloons were invented in 1782 by the Montgolfier Brothers, Josheph-Michel and Jaques-Etienne. An untethered flight was made the following year by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes. However, the idea of a hot air balloon predates that by centuries. Millenia, actually. The super smart guys in Ancient China had unmanned hot air balloons/lanterns act as signals in battle. This tactic was used by Zhuge Liang, of the Three Kingdoms. As in, Romance of. These are called Kongming lanterns, by the way. There is also some specuation that the people of Nazca may have used balloons to scout out their iconic lines. But we'll get into those mysterious artifacts some other time, all righty? Now, with those two histories out of the way, we can approach the interesting aspect of these origins. As I mentioned previously, in the Duskull family entry, there is a folkloric concept called the Psychopomp. The Psychopomp is a spirit guide who takes souls into the afterlife. The most famous of these is the Grim Reaper, a medievel idea that Death takes the form of a cloaked man with a scythe. Greece had Thanatos and Charon; Christianity St. Michael, St. Peter, Azrael (Who pulls double duty for Islam too), and more. But for some reason, many cultures have birds as psychopomps. Now, I'm not talking about birds that are linked with death, such as vultures or other raptors. No, I'm referring to small birds. Song birds. In fact, various Native American tribes believed that the singing of birds was an omen of death. Whip-poor-wills are a psychopomp is New English folklore. They go as far as to say that they can sense souls leaving and can capture them. HP Lovecraft, bringer of such gooey horrors as (ph'nglui mglw'nafh) Cthullhu (R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!), used whip-poor-wills in his short story “The Dunwich Horror”. Another example of a song bird said to be a psychopomp is the sparrow. Stephen King memorablly used this to horrifying extent in his novel The Dark Half, where I first heard of the concept of Psychopomps. Other birds said to be psychopomps include owls, crows and ravens. These, however, are perhaps a tad more understandable. I can't say for certain that this is what the two Pokemon are based off of. But the various Pokedex entries for Drifloon make for an interesting case- the Platinium and Black and White entry says that it is called a “sign post for wandering spirits” in folklore. The infamous Pearl Pokedex entry states that they try to steal children away- to the land of the dead, as the Japanese version clarifies. At any rate, this is a Pokemon with an interesting, if possibly unintentional, etymology.
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Post by The Qu on Jan 1, 2011 20:37:11 GMT -5
I didn't know the latter- that's interesting.
Man, why is Shiny Nidoqueen that color? It's not a weird color or anything, but it sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to the rest of teh Nidos.
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Post by The Qu on Jan 1, 2011 4:04:46 GMT -5
I'm back with a new one! #29, Nidoran, #30 Nidorina, #31 Nidoqueen, #32 Nidoran, #33 Nidorino, & #34 Nidoking Think that's enough Pokemon for one entry? I certainly do- it's the second largest Pokemon family there is, and I can guarantee it's the largest you'll get out of a single entry. I'm going to be frank here. Any inspiration for the Pokemon aside for Nidoking is mostly speculation- and Nidoking is only marginally less so. So let's start with the bare basics of the basic Pokemon- the two Nidorans. This might come as a surprise to some of my less biology centered readers, but there is an actual term for species that have visible differences between genders: Sexual Dimorphism. Simply put, this means that some species have much larger differences between genders than we, as humans, are used. A great example: Male peacocks have large tail feathers they use to attract mates. Female Peahens don't have the plumage. Yep, peacocks are male. Gee, with a name like Peacock, who would have thought. It's somewhat interesting that they chose to do a Pokemon like this as early as Generation One. It's no secret that the original plans Satoshi Tajiri included differences between genders and even individual Pokemon. Perhaps this was a way to include that. Considering that Nidorino is based on a design from the manga Capsule Monsters, Tajiri's prototype, this is a possiblity. Note that the design from Capsule Monsters really looks nothing like the final Nido family. It's more lizard like than anything. There is a good-ish amount of evidence to suggest that the base Nidos and perhaps the first stage evolutions are based on rabbits. It's somewhat noticeable in the bases- they have the posture of a rabbit, and the general form. Female Nidorans have whiskers and even twitch their nose according to the Stadium games, similar to a rabbit, male Nidorans have prominent teeth, like a stereotypical drawing of a rabbit, and both have big ol' ears. However, both are odd colors (Purple and blue for male and female; more information on this in a bit.) and just in general don't look like bunnies. I mean, they don't look furry unless you look way to hard at their official art. They appear to have spines, and some Pokedex entries say Nidorina can retract these when they are relaxed. Hedgehogs, animals somewhat similar to rabbits in terms of size and general shape, can relax their spines when they aren't in immediate danger. The rabbit hole, to make an unintentional pun, goes deep, and in this case, you can't be sure if its on purpose or just an optical illusion. (Read: Looking too much into stuff.) Note that the Nido that appears in all of their names is based on needle. Now, that's just about all we know of the base and the first stage evolutions. On to the final forms! Of all the Nidos, I feel that Nidoking has the most interesting origin. You see, I'm a fan of the Toho Kaiiju films. Godzilla and the like. In the mid 1960s, Toho got the license from Universal to make Frankenstein films in Japan. Rather than go for some sane movie in the style of James Whales' 1931 classic Frankenstein, they chose to make a kaiju film, Frankenstein Conquers the World.. In it, Frankenstein is an enormous monster, yet ultimately benevolent. A subterranean monster named Baragon, rampages through the land and frames Frankenstein. The two end up fighting, of course, and Baragon is swallowed up by the earth. Baragon was a bizaarre looking monster, with giant rabbit ears, a horn in the middle of its forehead and a long tail. Gee, sounds familiar, don't it? While not confirmed, it's been believed for quite some time that Baragon insired Nidoking. It's not as hard to believe as it seems- Baragon appeared in at least three more movies- Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla, Monthra & King Ghidorah: All-Out Monsters Attack and Godzilla: Final Wars. Furthermore, the suit was used in Ultraman several times. It's a well known Kaiju, thought not nearly on the level of, say, Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera or the other big wigs. It's perhaps on the same level as Anguirus, a monster I guarantee we'll see again. Note that Baragon was capable of burrowing underground- not only are the final stage Nidos ground-type whereas their pre-evolutions are poison type, but Nidoking can learn Dig. Nidoking may be purple because purple has been historically a color linked with royality. See, Tyrian Purple, the dye most often historically used to dye cloth purple, was a difficult die to come by. It came from, of all things, sea snails. Yeah, people actually wanted cloth died with sea snail gunk. OK, that's not exactly fair. The reason it was wanted was because it didn't fade like other dyes- it actually became more vibrant the more it weathered! Purple has been considered a royal color since then. In fact, Nidoking's color is close to Tyrian Purple! This, more than anything else in this article, surprised me. As for Nidoqueen, it's a female Nidoking. Near as I can tell, there isn't any fancy origin for it.
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Post by The Qu on Dec 31, 2010 22:10:56 GMT -5
If you need tracks for comparison, I've got the entire Brawl OST. All you need to do is ask.
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Post by The Qu on Dec 31, 2010 21:34:14 GMT -5
Minnicinno is based on the same things as its evolution- the chino cloth. I don't mind it, since they now share an etymology.
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Post by The Qu on Dec 31, 2010 2:40:57 GMT -5
That episode has yet to air in the US because of the innuendo. It's being eidited to, at the least, cut out the Aquaman line.
The fact that they didn't cut it out until after it had aired in some countries is hilarous.
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Post by The Qu on Dec 30, 2010 21:39:52 GMT -5
Somewhat spoilerly cameo: After you beat the true final level, you get some concept art for it. One piece of concept art has a Virtual Boy themed minecart section, actually called Virtual Boy Rails. It isn't in the final level, so I'm not counting it as a spoiler.
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Post by The Qu on Dec 29, 2010 18:33:02 GMT -5
I pointed this out a while back, but I recently found out that Starbits are based on a type of candy, Kompeito. Revives in Pokemon are physically based on them too. The name is a pretty obvious nod, though.
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Post by The Qu on Dec 27, 2010 14:04:46 GMT -5
Some of the eggs in this DKCR level look an awful lot like Yoshi eggs.
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