Who's that Pokemon (based on)?

[Johans Nidorino]

Speaking of items... Just like Muk and Grimer, the Garbage Dump Pokémon, Dasutodasu, may be holding a Nugget when caught. Dasutodasu can even be holding a new item called Huge Gold Orb (or "Huge Nugget") if gotten from the Dream World. These items could reference the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure".



The truth is, this doesn't differ much from how you can ocassionally find items inside trash bins in the Pokémon and Mother series. It's probably just a joke if you don't look much into proverbs.

[kirbychu]

Oct 1, 2010 9:52:12 GMT -5 The Qu said:

And yes, the reference was to Spark.

Ah, okay. I never really thought about meanings behind the TM or breeding moves before.

[JoshCube]

Oct 1, 2010 10:39:37 GMT -5 kirbychu said:

Oct 1, 2010 9:52:12 GMT -5 The Qu said:

And yes, the reference was to Spark.

Ah, okay. I never really thought about meanings behind the TM or breeding moves before.

Zubat can learn Brave Bird from eggs. Bats were believed to be birds in the past.

[The Qu]

I don't think most TM moves have much thought behind them, but occasionally you'll see a breeding move that has some behind it- case in point, Politoad can learn Bounce by breeding, a pretty obvious reference to frogs hoppin'.

[Johans Nidorino]

Bounce is actually Politoed-exclusive (can't be known by a Poliwag when hatching). Croagunk and Toxicroak were given it too from Platinum onwards.

The hilarious part is that Magikarp can get the move too by tutoring or when gotten from a special Pokéwalker Route, making it a specialized Splash of sorts (happened to other Pokémon that originally learned Splash, too).

[kirbychu]

Makes sense. Splash is called Hop in Japan, which explains why a bunch of Pokémon with no relation to water can learn it.

[Johans Nidorino]

Yeah Another parallelism is in Mystery Dungeon, where Splash is surprisingly a damaging move.

It's still a mystery why Goldeen has Splash in the Super Smash Bros. series (granted, all fish do that outside of water, but then why bother naming it at Smash Bros. Dojo? Eh, feels stupid to discuss it but also to see it).

[kirbychu]

Yeah, I always assumed it was based on that moment in the anime. But I've always, always, always thought that Magikarp should've been the booby prize Pokémon in SSB instead. Using Goldeen for it makes no sense to me.

[TV Eye]

Well, Goldeen was seen more in the anime as opposed to Magikarp. Everytime Misty would release her, she'd just flop around until water was found.

Though, Goldeen has been shown to put up a fight, I dunno why they didn't just let her use Horn Attack or something, considering even Pokemon Stadium had Magikarp as the flopping around Pokemon for the Splash minigame...

[The Qu]

Remember the Napoleon/Empoleon thing? I just noticed something that makes me feel stupid- Napoleon was emperor of France, and Empoleon is based on an emperor penguin. It's taken me four years to get this. =/

[Johans Nidorino]

Oct 1, 2010 19:17:50 GMT -5 The Qu said:

Remember the Napoleon/Empoleon thing? I just noticed something that makes me feel stupid- Napoleon was emperor of France, and Empoleon is based on an emperor penguin. It's taken me four years to get this. =/

Everybody knew about Napoleon and the emperor penguin, but nobody cared about the height... But you did the other way around. Fascinating!

[The Qu]

The first fifth gen feature, with an opening from SuperSeaking from the Bulbapedia forums!

Uniran, Daburan and Rankurusu

You guys know how Rankurusu and its pre-evolutions are based on cells, right? Well, it occurred to me that each evolutionary stage is actually based on a different phase of cell mitosis. This is supported by the middle evolution Daburan being called the Splitting Pokemon, or even the Mitosis Pokemon.

Yuniran is based off the interphase, where organelles, DNA, etc are duplicated for division. Interphase is not actually considered part of Mitosis, although it is much longer. This would explain why it evolves at the late level of 32. I think the yellow thing attached to the nucleus is supposed to represent something, although Im not sure what.

Before cells divide, Im pretty sure they make more cytoplasm, which causes them to expand. Daburan does look bloated compared to the rest of its evolutionary family, so this is likely what happened.

Rankurusu is when the cell actually starts to divide. Centrioles move to opposite sides of the cell, creating spindle fibers. Rankurusus arms likely represent the centrioles and spindle fibers. The nuclear membrane dissolves, and the spindle fibers pull the genetic material to opposite sides. The cell nearly pulls itself apart, and pinches itself in two. Rankurusu never actually loses its nuclear membrane and it never completely splits into two cells, but it kinda looks like its trying to.
Also, notice how Daburon has one ear-thingy, and Rankurusu has two. This seems to be referencing how everything Rankurusu has got divided in two.

Along with these physical similarities, Rankurusu also displays abilities that cells have. For example, it learns Explosion, which could represent apoptosis, which is basically a cell intentionally blowing itself up.

Sorry if a lot of you guys thought this was obvious, I just wanted to point it out for people that hadnt thought of it.

However, this is just one half of their inspiration. The other half is decidely more... shall we say, adult? You see, for most of human history, people just flat out didn't understand how women got pregnant. Oh sure, they understood sex was part of it, as was that sticky white substance. That was known as far back as 3000 years ago- check the hilarious Biblical story of Onan for a particularly hilarious example.

You see, in 1684, Mathmatecian and Physicist Nicolaas Hartsoeker discovered sperm cells in semen. Yes, it took that long. The guy came up with the idea that inside these cells were preformed little humans. Thus began the Preformation theory, as well has the preformation variation on the Homunculus, a relic of the Alechmists from the Middle Ages. They even went as far as to say that the Homonculi had Homonculi inside them, thus explaining how Original Sin existed- all of us had sinned inside Adam.

The original Homunculi were artificially created humans- a fine example can be found in Goethe's classic Faust. This is the most recognized version of the name, as the Spermitist theory has long faded into obscurity. A fine example of this in a modern game was the Homonculi enemy in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, which was a small artificial human still connected to a vat of acids via an umbilical cord.

And in case you think I'm reaching on this, Rankurusu's name has the Japanese equivalant to Homunculus in it, homonkurusu.

[Johans Nidorino]

Old science seems stupid nowadays, and it's becoming Pokémon. Imagine what will they do in 2000 years mocking our views of the Universe... xD

Could the cells they're based on be specifically neurons? Ranculus' Black Pokédex entry seems to imply the concept of synapse, and its type also seems to suggest it: When Rankurusu join hands, their brains gain a network connection, amplifying their psychic powers.

Though I always imagined if there ever were to be "nervous system Pokémon", their type would be Electric/Psychic or something.

[The Qu]

That totally makes sense. The neurons, I mean.

[Johans Nidorino]

Normally, Bulbapedia articles of Pokémon species contain their origin information in the trivia section, but this is something that was placed within the physical description section for Croagunk, the Toxic Mouth Pokémon:

The markings on its body make it look like a Muay Thai fighter, and its jutting teeth make it appear to be wearing a mouthguard. The black around its eyes and the white bands make it look like an injured fighter with black eyes and broken ribs.

I hadn't paid attention to the part about the black eyes, possible "injured chest" or the teeth being a mouthguard. I knew there was something about those teeth...

Speaking of those teeth, they never were used for biting or similar uses until the move Super Fang became learnable by Croagunk and Toxicroak (and a lot of other Pokémon) in HeartGold/SoulSilver.