Who's that Pokemon (based on)?

[Johans Nidorino]

I'm finding Masquerain interesting. Either you or George Hutcheon should cover it sometime ;D

[The Qu]

#273 Seedot, #274 Nuzleaf & #275 Shiftry
Looking at Seedot, one would be forgiven for thinking this was a plant based family. Looking at their type, one would be forgiven for thinking this was a plant based family. Looking at their moves and abilities one would be forgiven for thinking this is a plant based family. They aren't.

Seedot is quite obviously based on an acorn, yes. That's not even debatable, really. Acorns, as I'm sure everyone knows, are the seeds of the oak tree. They were staples of human diets for centuries, perhaps even millenia. In certain parts of the world, such as the Koreas, they are still major parts of diet. The Koreans, for instance, make jelly with Acorn starch and also make noodles from them.

But Nuzleaf are where it gets interesting. They are based on a type of Japanese spirit called a tengu. Now, I know what everyone is thinking. Yes, this is related to Tenguman from Megaman 8 & Bass, and yes, this is what the Tenga from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers are from.

The origins of Tengu go back to Ancient China, where legends were told of a dog like being called the Tiangou. Right from the bat, you can see where the influence comes from-the word tengu literally means Heavenly Dog, despite their avian form. The Tiangou was an enormous black dog that ate the sun. The first Japanese account comes from 720 AD, in a book called the Nihon Shoki. In it, a shooting star is referred to as a Heavenly Dog (Tengu) by a Buddhist priest, and is taken as an omen to go to war.

It isn't quite known how the Tengu went from being a dog spirit to the more commonly known bird spirit. Possibly the myths became interchanged with the garuda, a race of bird beings from Hindu myth. Buddhist writings spoke of garuda as being a major non-human race. However it happened, the Tengu quickly became a standard of Japanese folklore. It's first characterization was an angry kite ghost that led Buddhist priests astray. Eventually, the folk tales spread out to include them abducting children. The children and priests were returned, but were near death or mad, sometimes from eating animal dung. Just to reiterate, a Pokemon is based on this.

Tengu eventually became quite complexly fleshed out. There are the most common depiction, known as the hanatakatengu, or tall-nosed Tengu. These are the long nosed, red faced Tengu that Nuzleaf is explicitly based on- note shiny Nuzleaf's coloration. There are also Karasu-Tengu, who are more explicitly based on birds. These appeared as crow tengu in the Clover game Okami, itself a great source for yokai.

As the ages went on, Tengu further softened, until there were good and bad tengu. Indeed, there is a legend of a Tengu that aids a Buddhist monastery after they give him information he requests. Traits from this era show up in the Pokemon family, notably Mind Reader . A folktale tells of how a Tengu tormented a farmer by guessing everything the man was thinking. The farmer, angered, hit the Tengu in the nose with his axe. This frightened the Tengu, and he ran away, exclaiming that humans were dangerous creatures who could do things without thinking about them. The leafy fans it has are likely based on the fans Tengu had, though those were magic and could cause noses to grow, rather than being just leaf fans that can control wind. The mischievousness of the Tengu still shine through, as well, with Nasty Plot. Tengu from this era usually live in forests, once again reflected in the Pokemon.

[The Qu]

#196 Espeon
The first of the Eeeveelutions that aren't the original trilogy, Espeon and its sister species Umbreon are interesting for quite a reasons, not the least of which is how they evolve- Espeon by happiness during the day, Umbreon by night. But, we'll save Umbreon for another day. Today we shall focus on Espeon.

First and foremost, the name. The English name, Espeon, refers to ESP, more commonly known as Extracensory Perception. The term seems to have been coined by Sir Richard Burton, an immensely productive man of the 18th century. The term was later used by Dr. Paul Joire, an early parapsychologist. But the term really took off when it was used by J.B. Rhine, a Duke University professor who helped coin the phrase parapsychology, but also studied it exhaustively.

Espeon may also be derived from Esper, a term science fiction writer Alfred Bester coined in his short story “Oddy and Id”. On the other hand, Espeon's Japanese name, Eifie, most certainly is based on Alfie's neologism. Eifie is a combination of esupaa, which is ESPer filtered through Engrish, and fiiru, which means feel. Esper has some clout among role playing games of the Japanese persuasion, being used by Ted Woolsy for the name of the “phantom Beasts” from Final Fantasy VI, and in Final Fantasy XII as an homage later.

That clears up the name, which does indeed have a surprisingly deep origin. The Pokemon itself, unlike all other Eeveelutions, seems to be based on a feline rather than a canid. In this case, a mythical Japanese creature called a nekomata. Nekomata are best described as evolutions, in the Pokemon sense, of another Japanese creature, called the bake-neko, which means monster cat.

Cats supposedly can become bake-neko after reaching thirteen years of age, growing to 3.75 kg (One kan), or growing a very long tail. Bake-neko are supposed to be incredibly intelligent, as well as sentient. They possess special powers like casting ghostly fire, shapeshifting into humans and possibly reanimating the dead by leaping over them. They also have the surreal ability to eat anything in its way, no matter how big.

Bake-neko can be rather terrible beasts. For instance, one legend tells of a woman who's personality changed after her cat went missing. Years later, her son saw a cat-like beast in his mother's clothes, dining on animal corpses. He slew the beast, only for it to turn back into his mother's long last cat.

However, the opposite is true as well. At least one telling of the Beckoning Cat legend, the legend on which Meowth and all those tacky trinkets you find at mall kiosks are based on, tells of a priest who was standing under a tree during a rain storm. He has a cat named Tama, whom he keeps in spite of his poverty. He tells the cat, “I keep you in spite of my poverty. Won't you do something for this temple?” One day, the lord of the district the priest lived in, was standing under a tree during a rainstorm and noticed Tama beckoning towards him from the temple. The lord left the shelter of the tree, and as soon as he did, the tree was struck by lightning. The lord became friends with the priests of the temple, and donated great amounts of wealth to the temple. A shrine was eventually dedicated to the “beckoning cat”.

One interesting powers Bake-neko alledgedly have is the ability to enter dreams for various reasons. The most common is to make its image in clay in its master's dreams to bring them wealth. They can also attempt to seduce their master in their dreams by shapeshifting. This is interesting because Espeon can learn Dream Eater by TM. Not a definite connection, of course, but interesting nonetheless.

I can almost hear you asking, how does this all go back to Espeon? It certainly sounds like a generic supernatural cat to me. The key lies in Espeon's forked tail. You see, when a Bake-neko's tail grows long enough, it forks. The cat is now called a neko-mata, as mentioned before. The connection is further backed up by its cat-like behavior in some spinoff games, such as the Mystery Dungeon series.

The jewel in its head has been likened to the Carbuncle, a mythical South American creature most known for its appearance in Jorge Luis Borge's Book of Imaginary Beings and its appearances in Final Fantasy games. According to legend, after death, liquid in its brain crystalizes into a jewel. However, I find it just as likely it is linked to myths of a psychic third eye, the likes of which are common in Eastern mysticism.

[The Qu]

#249 Lugia & #250 Ho-Oh
It's not exactly a secret that the three original Legendary Birds are based on mythic birds from world myth. But these two seem to cause some confusion, due to the inobvious nature of the former, and the seeming repeated nature of the second.

To start off, we'll begin with Lugia. First his name, which has little to do with his origin. Lugia is likely derived from the element Lutetium, Atomic Number 71, symbol Lu. The element was named after Lutetia, the Latin word for Paris, the city of Lights. The element is silverey. Lugia was likely named after it in reference to the version he starred in, as well as its coloration.

Lugia is also based on a Japanese God. Yes, a full decade before the Kami trio made their debut in Generation V, Lugia was based on a Japanese deity. The deity in question was Ryujin (Literally meaning Dragon God), the deity of the sea. Considering Japan is an island, with a longstanding historybased around the sea, Ryujin is, conceptually, an important deity. There aren't that many stories around Ryujin from what I can tell, however. Ryujin was a large dragon. That's about all the physical characteristics he has. It is somewhat notable that he is a dragon, however. Lugia can learn one dragon type move, Dragon Rush, naturally, and can learn Dragon Tail by TM.

He lives in the Ryūgū-jō, a palace made of white and red coral. Take a gander at Lugia's normal and shiny forms. Yep, Lugia's colors seem to also be based around the colors of the Ryūgū-jō. I suppose in universe, the Whirl Islands are the equivalent. Notably, there is one piece of information that backs this up somoewhat. Ryūgū-jō had four corners, each a different season. In Lugia's history, as told in Soul Silver, he tore apart the island into four sections.

Lugia's ability to control the tides is likely a reference to the Tide Jewels, mystic items Ryujin possessed that allowed him to control the tides. For instance, he used them in an attack against Korea in one myth, drawing the tides in and drowning the soldiers.

Continuing my theme of referencing Clover's excellent Okami, the Dragon Palace, coral from the Dragon Palace and Ryujin's daughter Otohime are all found in the game.

Lugia's appearance isn't based on Ryujin in any notable way, as previously mentioned. He seems to draw inspiration from various dinosaurs, such as the back plates and tail spikes of the Stegosaurus. He also seems to draw a lot from the Plesiosaur, an aquatic reptile (OK, it's not really a dinosaur) that lived in the Triassic era. They were warm-blooded, sea dwelling creatures with an interesting body type- long necked, on a four flippered body. Contrary to popular belief, they would not have been able to lift their heads above the water. Yes, I grew up with this image too.

The most interesting idea for Lugia's phsycal appearance is a Medieval dragon type called a Wyvern. Well known thanks to constant exposure in RPGs- from Tabletops like Dungeons and Dragons, to JRPGs like Dragon Quest- Wyverns were a type of dragon used in heraldry. They were dragon headed creatures, with wings but no arms, legs and a tail that tips in a barb. This would fit in quite well with Lugia's inspiration from a dragon god.

Now, on to Ho-Oh. Ho-Oh, as one might expect, is based on a phoenix. Now, I can practicaly hear you. But Chase! We already got a phoenix in Generation One! Yes, we did. But, you see, Moltres is based on the Greco-Egyptian-Persian Phoenix, whereas Ho-oh is based on the Chinese Phoenix.

The Chinese Phoenix- or, more properly, Fenghuang- are a species of legendary creature in China. They are also called Ho-ou, although each sex has its own name- males are Fèng ; females Huáng. They are said to appear very rarely, marking the start of a new era, the ascension of a new Emperor, that sort of things. This is quite notable because of Ho-Oh's appearance in the anime, where he is shown when Ash begins his journey. I'm not even sure that was supposed to be Ho-oh- for all I know, it could have been intended to be the Chinese Phoenix. Ho-oh's Crystal Pokedex entry seemingly makes reference of this trait as well.

The Chinese Phoenix became a popular motiff in Japan in the Nara period, which lasted from the late 7th century to the 8th century. This was a depiction that was a chimera of different animals- like the back of a turtle, the tail of a fish, the front half of a giraffe and the back of a deer. In China, the symbol goes all the way back- 7,000 years back. It was originally depicted on charms, but eventually became a symbol of the Empress. Dragons where symbols of the Emperor, creating a connection between the inspirations for these two legendary birds.

Despite being influenced down to the name by the Chinese Phoenix, it maintains connections to the Western phoenix. Most obviously, it has the fire connections, including its signature move, Sacred Fire. In addition, it was canonically reborn by flame, and has a secret ability called Regenerator, that allows it to regain HP by being withdrawn.

[kirbychu]

Nice! I was wondering just the other day about Lugia's origins.

I definitely think the phoenix in the first episode was supposed to be Ho-oh. The colours were wrong, but other than that the design was spot on right down to the markings on its neck. That can't have been a coincidence.

[The Qu]

#377 Regirock, #378 Regice, #379 Registeel &
Golems have long been a staple of fantasy literature and culture. There were a trio of silent films made in German in the 1920s called Der Golem that are particularly important for inspiring major portions of James Whales' 1931 Frankenstein film. They were included in the first supplement to Dungeons and Dragons in 1974, and that has inspired them to appear in almost every type of fantasy game since- there are few Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests without golems. Indeed, the Akira Toriyama designed Golem has became one of the most iconic monsters in Dragon Quest- solid gold figurines of it were produced in the NES era!

Most folks probably know what golems are based on. They are from Jewish folklore, though the term dates back to Bible Days. The phrase goylem is used in Psalms 139:16 to mean “my unshaped form”. The phrase entered into Hebrew lexicon as goylem. In fact, it is still in use as a phrase meaning a dense person.

Now, golems as most folks knew them began taking shape early in the history of the Bible. The Talmud says that Adam, the first man, was created as a golem when he was kneeded into shape from clay. A very holy person could gain access to some of God's powers, and one of these powers was the gift of life. However, the golem would be but a shadow of what He can do, and would not be able to speak.

By the time the middle ages rolled around >2000 years later, folks, particularly of the Rabbi set, were pretty interested in making Golems. They began studying the earliest book of Jewish esotera, the
Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Creation, for tips on making a Golem. The book deals with speculation regarding how He made the Earth, A large deal is made of the Hebrew language. From this, Rabbis and Kabbalists began to believe that a Golem could be made using letters from the Hebrew alphabet.

The word emet, אמת in its original alphabet, is inscribed on a golem's forehead. The word means truth in Hebrew. This is said to allow a Golem life. So begans the classical story of the Golem, wherein a Rabbi in the Czech city of Prague, named Judah Loew ben Bezalel, creates a Golem to defend the city's Jewry. From what, depends on the version, but at least one says Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II was going to kill or expel the city's Jewry. Regardless of the version, the Golem eventually grows violent, killing Gentiles. Rabbi Loew confronted the Golem, and removed the ת from אמת, turning the word into met, meaning death. The Golem deactivated, and was stored in the attic of the Old New Synagogue, where it is supposedly stored to this day.

This is by far and large the most famous Golem story there is, and I have personally heard many variations of it since I was in Elementary School. The emet on the Golem's forehead explains the Braille on the legendary Golem's foreheads. The Prague Golem, like the Legendary Golems, was locked up for fear of its power, as well.

Now, up to this point, Golems had always been made out of clay. Indeed, that's important, since they are created the same way God created Adam, who was also made out of clay. I cannot find exactly when golems of other materials began to crop up in Fantasy, but the earliest I can find at the moment was for certain 1974, when the Greyhawk supplement of the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons was released. In addition to the standard clay/stone golem, there were also Flesh Golems, which were takes on the Frankenstein's monster, and iron golems, who were made of iron. Obviously. Since then, the amount of Golems in pop culture have sky rocketed. The aforementioned Dragon Quest, for instance, has had golems, gold golems and others. Flesh golems, iron golems and rock golems are in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Ice Golems and Fire Golems have been featured in various games.

So, while I cannot say if Regice and Registeel are in reference to anything in particular, I can say they are indicative of how golems have been portrayed for the past forty years. Although, Registeel does bear some thematic similarities to the Iron Golem from D&D....

It should also be mentioned that the three Golems may be in reference to the three ages of man- the Stone Age, the Ice Age and the Iron Age. I cannot really add anything to this, though. It explains itself pretty well.

#486 Regigas
This is somewhat easy. He is based on a Golem. There, done.

In all seriousness, I've covered golems in a prior entry on the three Legedary Golems. Today, we cover their master and creator, Regigas. First, the name. As Regi is derived from the Latin word Regi, which means King, and Gigas, a corruption of the Greek Gigantes, and means Giant. Ergo, Regigigas is the King of the Giants.

Although it is not mentioned in Generation IV, Regigas was sealed away in Snowpoint Temple for people's protection when it became dangerous. This is similar to the Prague legend about Rabbi Loew and his Golem Considering the fame of that particular myth, this is not likely a coincidence.

Likewise not a coincidence is the word for giant that was used in Regigigas' name. The Gigantes were the sons of the Greek God Gaia, who was fertilized by Uranus, after he was castrated by his son Cronus. Cronus captured the Gigantes and imprisoned them in Tartarus, the Greek underworld, alongside the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires, who were one-hundred handed giants, so they would not interefere in his rebellion against Olympus with the Titans. He lost to his son Zeus. The Gigantes were riled up to battle by Gaia, who was incensed by the Titans being locked up in Tartarus.

Long story short, the battle, called the Gigantomachy, ended with the Gigantes being buried underground, where it was said their writhing caused earthquakes and volcanic activity. Their imprisonment is echoed in Regigigas being locked in Snowpoint Temple, dormant till the three Legendary Golems are brought to it as keys, who are themselves locked up using one of the most thought out puzzles in any RPG I've played.

One interesting parallel I've noticed, but is likely just a coincidence, is that the golem made its own golems. If one follows the Talmudic teachings that Adam was a Golem, this could be a long, longshot reference to Adam creating his species. I kinda doubt it, though.

[Shrikeswind]

I do find it worth noting: Metal Golems DO exist. A Golem, essentially, is a servant to their creator with no free will. This is actually one of the things that seperate mundanely-created Golems from divinely-created humans. In real life, Golem-like "entities" can be created using shells of various materials, but for durability, metal is preferred. These Golems, powered not by their creator's faith in God but rather by technological know-how, are robots. Robots are quite reliable as they currently stand, but as science marches on, fear exists that they will eventually become dangerous (Terminator, the works of Asimov, etc., all show this fear quite well.) This fear is along the lines of Dr. Frankenstein's monster, and naturally dates back even further (as Qu mentioned, the Golem of Prague's murderous tendencies.) These fears are well-founded: Robotics is intrinsically tied to computer-coding, and computers are able to glitch, potentially catastrophically. What could happen if a glitch affected a robot? We aren't sure, but motor functions could be affected, which could be silly at best, but dangerous at worst, and if the glitch affected the robot's command processing, it could well lead to the robot interpreting commands wrong, again, humorously at best, dangerously at worst.

[The Qu]

You know, I almost added in a bit about robots, concerning Rossum's Universal Robots, but you bring up a pretty good point.

[TV Eye]

Interesting...but any idea where the braille situation comes from? Or is it just a mindless puzzle

[The Qu]

The Braille probably arose because it's an international language.

[parrothead]

As a child, Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri enjoyed watching not only Godzilla, but also this show, but it was overshadowed by the '60s television version of what The Qu has in his sig banner. So some creators featured in this show and its successors, as well as its predecessor "Ultra Q" influenced the creations of some Pokemon:

[Fryguy64]

Well, I think I spotted Druddigon and Gliscor in there!

[8bitretroshit]

And Pinsir? Maybe. If you're really looking for it anyway.

Cool find Parrothead

[The Qu]

#633 Deino, #634 Zweilous & #635 Hydreigon
Much as most cultures have dragons, as we looked at previously, a surprising number of cultures have polycephalic serpents, meaning with more than one head. Perhaps the most famous is the Lernaean Hydra from Greek myth, a collosal beast with poisonous tracks and “more heads than a vase painter could paint”, according to the poets. She was defeated as one of Heracles' twelve trials, and she was only defeated when he had one of his cousins sew the stumps of her heads shut, for when she was decapitated, she grew two heads in its place. Hydreigon's name obviously comes from the word Hydra. Heracles also fougth the Ladon, who guarded the golden apples in the Garrden of the Hesperides.

More obscure mythologies get in on it too- Hinduism gives us Kaliya and Shesha. The seldom referenced Slavic mythologies gave us the Zmey Gorynych, among other dragons. Even Christian myth gets in on the game with the Seven Headed dragon from the sea that probably represents Rome but maybe not.

What I'm trying to say is that dragons with lots of heads go back probably as long as stories go back. So, the Deino family has a bit of a pedigree. However, as per Pokemon designer Ken Sugimori, they are based on one specific beastie: The Yamata-no-Orochi. I'll get to that in a bit, though. First, let us look at the phenomenon of cave blindness.

Cave Blindness is an adaptation found in animals that spend their lives in caves. There are three kinds of classifications for these animals. Troglobites cannot survive outside of caves, whereas troglophiles can live outside caves. Trogloxenes use caves as shelters, but don't necessarily live in them. Bats are an example of this, and bears too. Troglobites can descned from troglophiles through adaptation.

Troglobites have typically lost both pigmentation and sight through adaptation. After all, no need for those when you spend your life in darkness. Troglobite insects may also not have wings. A prime example of a Troglobite vertabrate are cave salamanders. Blind, pink little lizards that live in caves. I can only imagine how awesome slash creepy these things are- apparently, the massive cave systems under my home state of Tennessee have their own species, so maybe I'll see one in nature some day. Not like those caves aren't commercialized as all out now. Anyways, this all lends to how Deino is blind, since it lives in Victory Road its entire life.

With that explained, let us delve once more into Japanese mythology. In Japanese myth, there was a Heracles-esque god named Susanoo, brother to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Susanoo was expelled from the heavens for tricking his sister. Once on Earth, Susanoo encountered two Earth Gods near the Hi River in the Izumo Province weeping, for they had to give one of their daughters to the foul beast Yamata-no-Orochi once ever seven years. The name Yamata-no-Orochi translates more or less literally to eight-branched giant snake, by the way. The gods describe Orochi as a massive serpent with eight heads and eight tails branching from one body. The serpent is huge enough to cover an entire valley, and has a vulnerable belly. That detail is similar to European dragons and their weak scales. Lemme tell you, comparative mythology is interesting, especially when it comes to dragons.

Susanoo devices a plan to defeat the Orochi. Turning the last maiden, Kushinada-Hime, into a comb (One translator believes this may be a metaphor for Susanoo disguising himself as her), he intructs the family to produce eight vats of eight-fold sake on platforms behind eight gates. The beast took the bait, and stuck its heads through the gates to drink the alcohol. Susanoo leapt into action and began hacking away at the beast with his sword Totsuka-no-Tsurugi (Ten-handed long sword). After cutting off all its heads, he moved on to the tails, and in the fourth tail, he found a sword, Kusanagi-no-Tsuragi, the Grasscutting sword. He offered it to his sister in reconciliation.

Orochi is a popular creature in Japanese culture. The video game Okami, which we've spoken of before, centers around the Goddess Amaterasu and the bumbling hero Susanoo fighting the dread beast. It's a standard in the Shin Megami Tensei series, and other RPGs. Perhaps one of the biggest uses of it is the Godzilla villain King Ghidorah. First appearing in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, the fight film in the Godzilla series, Ghidorah is perhaps Godzilla's greatest nemesis. He has been in over a dozen Kaiju films, including Godzilla Final Wars, Godzilla, Mothra and Ghidorah: All-Out Monsters Attack and Destroy All Monsters. Basically, even the other monsters hate him, as seen in Destroy All Monsters when they gang up on him and quite literally curb stomp him.

You may be asking what does Ghidorah have to do with Orochi when its quite obviously three-headed? Well, in All-Out Monsters, its spelled out that Ghidorah is an immature form of Orochi that has yet to grow five of its heads. Interestingly, Toho, the makers of Godzilla films, have had a film, Yamato Takeru, that was an adaptation of the Orochi myth. Ghidorah's design may have been influenced by Orochi as well, but I am not 100% sure of that. Needless to say, the large, bipedal three-headed dragon design bears a resemblance to Hydreigon, especially with a Mothra-esque Pokemon in the same generation. More Kaiju is always good, I say.

[8bitretroshit]

Posting for the heads up that these are still awesome to read, keep up the good work!