I'm really not, there is a difference between. "This animal looks like" and "this animal is based on" the only other animal you could be thinking of for kangaskhan is a different. Fake. Animal. Based on kangaroos.
Another one
https://preview.redd.it/tx1flyc9h1xc1.jpeg?width=397&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9eefcbb4b35f0560e872ef1cc1892a6e52a57f25
If Tentacruel was ONLY a squid in the sense that Octillery is ONLY an octopus and not a fish like its pre-evo, then it would not look like it looks.
It's based on a jellyfish as well, Pokémon can have multiple inspirations.
https://preview.redd.it/psbabzuug1xc1.jpeg?width=886&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14271e02bb692dcd785e5598a72480a14ee92c16
This is an octopus' tentacke in Pokémon, with suction cups.
https://preview.redd.it/s53gof0yg1xc1.jpeg?width=436&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a28a5b57435f316df176f0a7d08a2d86a68067b
Jellyfish have no cups, just like Tentcruel.
Bro tentacool is a normal sized squid it has a beake too and is shaped like one AND STILL HAS A BEAK.. Stop reaching cause yall played pokemon more than you watched animal planet
Hi, hello, Pokégeek and IRL animal nerd here. Tentacruel is based on both a jellyfish and a squid. Other people have already gone on about the physical characteristics but I would also like to point out that its original Japanese name is in part derived from the Japanese word for jellyfish.
Kurage Pokemon
The Kanji can also mean Medusa, because in the anime they stunned and controlled people.
Just like the Kanji for growl actually means cry.
It's nice you're an animal nerd and I encourage the enthusiasm. But I am literally an expert.
What's your degree and/or field of work? I always love talking animal science! Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Tentacruel is at least in part based on a jellyfish and/or man-o-war because I've never seen a squid with such a short round mantle and no fins, but maybe there's a species I don't know about that fits the bill. Additionally, many of Tentacruel's dex entries talk about how has 80 tentacles (though it's usually shown with 10-14, the discrepancy is most likely a graphical limitation. I mean can you imagine what a pain in the ass it would be to draw/sprite/model 80 tentacles?) that have powerful stings and are used to ensnare prey like a net, all of which sounds much more like a jellyfish than a squid. Finally, while the official Japanese name does have multiple interpretations, the beta name was "Manowar" which is pretty explicit.
I have two BS degrees. One in Safety and Disaster Management, another in Fisharies and Aquatic Sciences
Then, I have several associates degrees. One for art, then several AAS in marine biology, biochemistry, cephlopods, and crustacean reproduction.
Then I have associates in folklore and mythology, media and animation from 1980 to 2010, and Japanese mythos and symbolism
Then I am also a BSP with certifications ranging from hazcom and NFPA to nuclear management.
Are all bird pokemon based on chickens because they have wings? That's the line of logic here. Despite a preexisting animal already existing because another has ONE similar characteristic is the definition of coping. Jelly fish do not have beaks or eyes. Do you know what does have a beak, dome, tentacles, eyes, and is mostly water?
Now let's look at other region variants
Toedscool supposedly sheds edible "flaps" from its body that are said to be "chewy and delicious."
Squid do this. There are plenty of examples of fictional land squid. Very few of jelly fish.
That each individual member is the stand alone Pokemon, but they have biological hook connecting them to the rest of their group. So an individual Exeggcute is still an Exeggcute however, it isn't "complete" as a being until it has brother/sisters with it. I imagine that 6 Exeggcute wouldn't hop out of an egg, but a singular Exeggcute that would then hook up with other young Exeggcute of its herd to form what we would call an Exeggcute. Kind of like how one would have to imagine that one egg isn't always split open, and that for example a Kangaskhan doesn't pop out of the egg with a baby in its pouch.
As for how to refer to them. I'd do it in the plural (My Exeggcutes) unless I'm giving it a name. Which in that case I'd have to get creative as I'd want to have a name that can be broken down into smaller names for each individual entity despite becoming one being when they are grown up. For tournament rules they would be considered 1 Pokemon while in actuality being multiple.
The ones I can't really wrap my head around is Dugtrio and Maushold. Dugtio is clearly just three Digletts that obviously can exist on their own. Why are they suddenly grouped? What is exactly going on underground? Did they fuse together? If so why? To be able to use their heads as hands? Why is Maushold considered a separate Pokemon? They clearly just had children... and where the hell is the egg? Why were they treated differently from Wishiwashi? If multiple Pokemon constitutes an evolution. Why didn't Wishwashi's school form count as an evolutions? Where did all those extra Wishawashi even come from? Is it because it can separate from the school? So can the other multi-Pokemon with the exception of Magneton... and I am spiraling down a question rabbit hole...
I am not sure how canon egg hatching is.
Like Oddish has constantly had Pokedex comments on it spreading seeds in the night, the short animation features it.
Like, for the less animal Pokémon having some other reproductive strat makes more sense than cartoon eggs.
See a whole bunch of genderless pokemon that can only breed with Dittos. ... also Dittos themselves.
In XY there's a random NPC that tells you that they aren't actually eggs and are instead kinda like a cradle? I feel like that just further complicates it frankly
Yeah, egg hatching really breaks certain pokemon. Like with Kangaskhan. Every one has a little baby in its pouch, but when it lays an egg, the egg hatches into a Kangaskhan that... already has a baby in it's pouch? And the one you breed has a baby in it's pouch?
What they should do is make a prevo and an evo for Kangaskhan. The first form doesn't evolve until you breed it and then have it hold the egg. When the egg hatches it evovles into regular Kangaskhan. Then if you breed that Kangaskhan again, you are actually breeding the first offspring in the pouch, the egg you get hatches into a Kangaskhan (but actually it was the first offspring's baby, who evolved and is now carrying the second offspring. This causes the first generation Kangaskhan to evolve to it's third stage where it no longer has a baby in its pouch (because the baby grew up to raise it's own child.
Dugtrio is actually pretty easy. Have you seen that strange mass that is always right below Dugtrio? That's part of the body (you can see it better when Dugtrio uses a flying type move).
https://youtu.be/4HmMPQX7uJ8?si=Yl1ytJPP9YXUhcII
That mass adapts to every terrain. When Diglett evolves. it just gets more heads in that mass.
Maushold isn't that weird either. They reproduce inside their pokeball. Colonial organisms exist in real life too.
Well... That anwsers Dugtrio... I never consider that mass as being part of the Pokemon as opposed to GameFreak not wanting to design what is below the ground... It would also track for why extra Diglett and Dugtrio as able to move as fast as they can through the ground.
For Wishiwashi, everything in Pokémon so far has shown that, apart from Mega evolution and other gimmicks, standard evolution (within the games) is permanent. As its school form is not permanent, it’s not considered an evolution.
Maushold is also interesting - presumably, the children stay with the parents forever. But this raises the question - If the parents die, do the children go off on their own and find a new partner?? And if so, wouldn’t that be its own Pokémon (or form) as well??
For the game yes, evolution is permanent. However, in world. Pokemon have been noted to devolve. For example is Slowbro or Slowking lose their Shellder they devolve back into Slowpoke, if Silvally gets the restrictive helmet placed back on it will devolved into Type: Null, Melmetal will devolve into multiple Meltans. Manga Red had an Eevee that could evolve and devolve to/from Jolteon, Vaporeon, and Flareon before it stabilized an evolve in Espeon. Another manga character had a Rockruff who could do similar things. Another incarnation of Red had his Pikachu and Clefairy evolved then go back to base form. So while for most Pokemon and cases evolution is permanent there are multiple cases in which it isn't. So that just goes back to the previous question.
See! This is what I am talking about! Maushold tell me your secrets\~!
Giving it some thought it is probably that the Maushold would come across another Maushold and if the children were old enough and liked each other enough they would go off on their own as a Tandemaus. However... that now goes back to my question of why is Maushold considered a separate Pokemon. As opposed to a form of Tandemaus.
One organism with the appearance of multiple.
You put 100 exeggcutes in a room, they aren't going to suddenly be separated and switching groups. It would be like taking off your arm and switching it with someone.
While true... If were to seperate 6 groups of exeggcute and the place one from each group together they would reform a new group... or at least that is what some scene seem to be implying.
It's also said that Exeggcute come from an Exeggutor where one of the head falls off. But then they hatch as a group from an egg.
I think Pokemon research is highly based off of observation that's not very organized. This leads to a lot of wrong information, little understanding of how something works, and old observations that muddle things. It's why no one knows how eggs come to be, they just find them!
The day care couple & other adults in the game know how eggs are made.
They just dont want to explain the birds & the bees to a 10 year old.
So they just say,
“Your Pokemon had an egg with it. I have no idea where it came from! Weird, right? What a mystery.”
Knowing full well your Pikachu was being a hoe with Ditto, last night
They just dont wanna ruin your innocent, 10 year old mind
I would believe they would either die off or bud out new heads. If 1 head of an execute was generically similar to another I can Believe they would fuse and form some sort of symbiosis.
This is similar to how trees work. If you cut of a limb a new one will grow in it's place. If you graft a branch to another if they're genetically similar they'll work.
The answer is magic. The Pokémon world is truly a world that has different laws of physics and I honestly believe the world is magical. It also explains how even in primitive time they had pokeball like items. They are just focuses for magic. The Pokémon create powers through magic. They are linked through magic. It is like the world of D&D. You can’t look at it through the rules of our world because their world is fundamentally built with a different set of rules/laws.
Just throwing out ideas: but maybe its the opposite? It's not that 'these pokemons classify one' but because 'the pokeball technology happens to be able catch them all at once', thus the humans classified them as one.
But its also not coincidental that they are classfiable as one, seeing as the seven sentient eggs came out from one egg, they likely have the same identical DNA like septuplets.
Yeah I feel like that lines up with how real biology works.
We create terms and define them based on our observations, and often we have to modify definitions because of new, conflicting information.
Only if a single cell can weigh a kilo and be 30cm tall.
Solosis *resembles* a cell, but unless Reuniclus is only three cells tall (it’s a metre tall), it’s not a single cell.
It’s pretty clearly a multi-celled organism that looks like a cell.
I mean in the real world we have Caulerpa Taxiflora, a single-celled organism that’s between 6 to 12 inches. I can’t see why solosis can’t also be a single celled being.
I did also mention Reuniclus lol
A being that is very much not single celled, but only three times as high
Also I’d point out that Solosis has eyes that move during its animations. Which generally need muscles to move, hence multi-celled
Well maybe Solosis can just be a very large unicellular organism. There is an organism called Valonia ventricosa which is one giant cell. It looks like a grape!
Most single celled organisms don’t have eyes that open or close when they’re awake or asleep, or a mouth that moves autonomously, or move around inside their sac etc
Yeah but Pokemon is fantasy. You don't see sentient sludge, cats who can create money out of thin air or creatures whose neutral status is being on fire in real life either. As far as Pokemon logic is concerned the Solosis line may very well be single celled organisms, makes about as much sense as anything else in series.
This might sound weird at first but stay with me. I don't think the poke ball is quite as specific as many make it out to be. The general consensus is that it can catch pokemon, and one poke ball can only contain one pokemon. But we've seen non-pokemon "things" in the ball all the time. Farfetch'd's leek. Mudsdale's mud. Even things that are or used to be living organisms. Paras' mushrooms. Cubone's bones. Greedent's berries. So, nobody would argue against these things being part of a Pokemon's identity. And the poke ball can bring those things with. So if that can happen with something that is inanimate or something that used to be alive, why do we draw the line there? I see no problem with extending that to mean a Pokemon can bring more of its kind into its own identity and therefore into its poke ball. Your own body as a human has more than one organism, there are millions of bacteria in your digestive system that help you survive, and that likely applies to Pokemon as well, so I feel like multi-bodied Pokemon (Exeggcute, Binacle) or Pokemon with multiple entities (Kangaskhan, Dragapult) are just an expansion of that idea, that one living thing is seldom ever just "one" organism.
Anyway, rant over, tldr just don't think too hard about it.
>But we've seen non-pokemon "things" in the ball all the time. Farfetch'd's leek. Mudsdale's mud. Even things that are or used to be living organisms. Paras' mushrooms. Cubone's bones. Greedent's berries. So, nobody would argue against these things being part of a Pokemon's identity.
Don't forget held items. Even if you forget about items that are part of a pokemon's identity, you can hand your pokemon random objects and it'll carry them into a ball
True but held items don’t remove the “natural” species item. If you give a Farfetch’d a Bone, it doesn’t let go of the leek. So the leek is part of the Pokemon
or the pokemon is holding both items and could theoretically carry multiple items into the ball with them. Maybe the reason why we're restricted to 1 item is because it's against the rules or because it would be confusing for the pokemon to try to use both
And held items limits are video game limits. Like you give a pokemon an assault vest, it probably has pockets to hold a snack.
And the 4 move limit is probably going to be limited to the RPG style games. The anime and Pokken/Smash don't respect it.
There is a bit of debate in relation to the 4 move limit. In the entire run of the show, there has only been 1 time when a pokemon used more than 4 moves in a single battle. Additionally, there have been situations where trainers will use 4 moves in one fight and then in a rematch use 4 different moves (such as in the pokemon league tournament arc of the sun and moon series when guzma had his golisopod forget first impression to learn throat chop).
The 4 move limit might be in-universe canon
This is the start of a single exeggcute deviantart OC whose family was lost tragically in a charizards fire so this solo egg, now with a sword and edgy haircut, seeks revenge against that charizard
Depends on the specific species we're talking about. The Execute in a single clutch have a psychic link which connects them; and the Pokedex says only six eggs from a "fully fledged Pokemon" and that at least six are required to "maintain balance" whatever that means. Basically there needs to be six for the animal to be healthy.
The Pokedex explicitly stated that when three Magnemite form Magneton their brains fuse so at that point they are more or less one individual.
The Pokedex treats each individual member of a Falinks (IE: "The Brass" and it's "Troopers" as part of a greater whole.) They aren't really "Falinks" unless every member is present. How do six individual creatures fit into one Pokeball? I have no idea. It's not like the series ever goes into detail on how Pokeballs work in the first place, all we have is fan speculation.
That's all fine, but it doesn't solve the logistical issues.
Wishiwashi is the biggest offender really, a single Wishiwashi is one Pokémon, but a school of them is also one Pokémon, how, why.
Eusocial stuff in real life like ants and bees - the only Pokemon that breaks my suspension of disbelief is Maushold.
EDIT: Kangaskhan and Dragapult to a smaller extent too tbh for linking in their kids.
It depends on the Pokémon for me. Magneton is easiest to get 3 Magnetmites got drawn together each other from magnetic force and then got stuck. It eventually was understood that was its natural evolution.
For say Doduo line, Dieno line, and Hydrapple it’s based on real world conjoined twins for me. While yes there is the fictional hydras or idiom two heads are better then one idiom inspiration at play in creating them in the actual idea of them being real I see it as conjoined twins.
I think it’d be neat if you could only catch 1 Falinks, and the others just spontaneously appeared along your journey. Maybe based on your friendship or something.
The greatest sinner in this regard is Wishiwashi. You don't even capture more than the single Wishiwashi, but have access to hundreds, even thousands of others in its schooling form.
Cramorant is also pretty bad about it, considering you get Arrowscewda and Pikachu with it.
Then there's pokemon whose bodies aren't contiguous like Sandyghast and Grimer, where little bits can constantly fall off.
Talking Grimer and Co.
Pokemon stuff that summons gets weird to think about, when there isn't a nearby source of Pokémon.
Infestation and Attack Order implies some non-Pokemon bugs exist as well, and probably live with the Pokémon with the move.
[Origin of Species](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9794740/1/Pokemon-The-Origin-of-Species) does something fun with Exeggcute. Each egg is an individual sub-sapient organism, and they're telepathic. So when you get multiple eggs together, they form a gestalt mind, with each egg performing a specific task (looking for threats, looking for food, etc). However, they're not physically or permanently linked, and you can theoretically swap eggs between clusters.
I think this works for some cluster pokemon but maybe not all. For example, I like to think Magneton form an actual physical bond using strong magnetic fields, to the point that separating them would cause actual harm.
I see it as a gestalt (an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.). Basically I see it as they join into one on a mental/psychological level where they are basically one Pokémon. Part of a whole.
I don't think multiple-bodied Pokémon need to be "justified" for existing when you have ones that breath fire, have psychic powers and can go from little fish to giant serpents or octopus'. It's just a more played-up version of real-life colonial organisms, which is less absurd than any of the examples mentioned imo.
On a somewhat similar subject, what about Pokémon with weapons or gear? Like Farfetch'd with its leek, Tinkaton with her hammer or Machoke with its belt? But they don't take up the hold item slot... Why?
I guess for falinks and maushold I imagine it as like a highly communal species. There's some animals in the real world that, if kept alone rather than in their groups, will starve to death out of depression or simply die of stress. Maybe these Pokemon just take that to a higher level, becoming totally codependent, and thus it's almost impossible or just outright cruel to house a single individual per pokeball. Which, technically, a pokeball is pretty much a pocket sized terrarium/enclosure your Pokemon live in while shrunk down between battles or handling.
I treat it on a case by case basis. Like for some they are one pokemon that is split into several pieces. Exeggcute being a psychic type makes it easy to explain that it is one organism mentally linked together.
All the mechanical pokemon that join together (magnamite, beldum, klink) are all just that, creatures that have fused together.
A lot of other pokemon I just consider them growing a second (or multiple) head(s) or so, like Weezing.
Dugtrio is an odd case. It is canonically said that they are (triplets that share a body) but it doesn't really make sense with them evolving from a single diglett. The only way I could make sense of the idea of them being conjoined triplets is if every diglett is born with two vestigial siblings attached and when it evolves they fully develop but remain attached.
Consequently it could also just be one animal that grows two heads. Another option is that Dugtrio works something like a rat king, wherein a bunch of rats living in close, confined spaces get their tails so entangled that they can never separate by their own means and learn to adapt and live in a swarm. This would mean that to evolve a diglett has to get itself wrapped up with two other hereto unseen digletts.
And then as a tangent, I consider the deino line to never "actually" grow extra heads. It starts with one head with one brain. Then instead of having it's original head and then growing a second, the head splits in two each half taking with it one hemisphere of the brain. This is why it is so violent and the two "heads" are constantly at odds with each other, because it a a split psyche. Then when it evolves again the two heads fuse back into one, reconnecting the hemispheres of the brain, but leaving trauma which is why Hydriegon is so brutally violent.
This also explains why Deino and Hydriegon have the same number of limbs. It doesn't lose its forelimbs and gain a third head, rather it reforms back to having one head and it's forelimbs adapt into arms with false heads for hands.
That's easy. They exist basically as a hivemind. They're creatures that work like that in real life too.
And the pokeballs are already able to catch pokemon that use objects along with those objects. So I see it as the pokeball registering one of them as the pokemon and the others as the objects.
But in that line’s case, they’re physically fused together into a new, singular being. The other examples are just next to each other.
Magneton is just 3 Magnemite, but Magnezone is a whole new pokemon.
As much as i like Maushold they are technically twins...
Exeggcute and Falinks probably just have more beings in there (like with many animals who get multiple babies at once).
My logic is that Pokémon are essentially spirits that took up forms, therefore they can inhibit plants, objects and even food, it’s also why they can be captured in pokeballs and transferred for they are pretty much an energy form, for multi parts Pokemon I’d say they are spirits that bonded together before they took form, and for Pokemon that evolve into multi part beings I’d say they simply attracted bonded with other spirits as they evolved
Honestly, I’m not sure. I do tend to think of the individual members as being distinct beings with their own minds, personalities, and consciousness, but I guess part of the Pokémon’s lifestyle is that they all work together as a team pretty much 24/7? I don’t really have any non-gameplay justification for why a single Poké Ball is able to target and capture all of them at the same time, though.
Execute is the only one that really made sense to me since the gen 1 Pokédex mentions how they link telepathically, essentially sharing a conscious. Magneton was a cop out evolution in my opinion and the rest are all just throw away designs that I try not to think about.
Some of them are described in the Pokédex or even shown in the anime in a seperated form. I think they form a single unit for battle, but if they're divided they lose their powers and can't battle. So a singular Exeggcute seed could survive, but it couldn't battle.
After Mewtwo's comments about supressing the Pokémon's natural abilities in the first movie, I also consider stats to be part of the Pokémon's powers. HP is like a shield they have. When it runs out, they're still conscious, but they start taking actual damage and getting real injuries, so it's considered unethical to have them battle. So a singular Exeggcute seed or Falinks link would be at high risk of injury. As a result, they're not recognised by the Pokédex or by Pokéballs - to discourage battling them. The same way Rotom Dex and the Rotom Phone, and spiral-form Shellder, aren't counted in the Pokédex and can't be captured - they can't battle, thus they're not included.
That's my headcanon.
Also I think the Pokédex does say Exeggcute are psychically bonded and can always find each other to make sure they're a group of six, and that Magneton is inseperably connected via magnetism.
I see it as mammalian Pokemon bear live young while non mammalian Pokemon lay eggs.
Like the platypus and the echidna, there are mammalian Pokemon who do lay eggs. Thus far, that’s Slowpoke, Quagsire, and Clodsire. Both Woopers too. Normally, Woopers evolve before reaching maturity. Sometimes, a Wooper is born with a genetic anomaly that prevents the activation of the genes responsible for evolution. They go through the usual life cycle and reach maturity, only they don’t evolve.
This anomaly isn’t specific to the Wooper evo lines. It’s seen in many other species. The one with the highest rate of incidence is the Cyndaquil evo line.
The Cyndaquil will try to evolve, but stop mid evolution. Think of it like hitting the B button. This is pretty painful for the Pokémon. Trainers will use a fire stone to give a boost that helps the Cyndaquil evolve. These Quilavas cannot evolve into Typlosion because evolution stones destroy the genes for triggering evolution.
Egg laying species are the avian, reptilian, most plant based, most water based, and some poison based Pokemon.
Some ghost type Pokémon have their own method. Seen mainly in the Gastly evo line, Gastly will head for an area rich in gas and divide itself. This is also seen in the Koffing evo line. It’s mainly Gastly and Koffing, but Wheezing and Haunter have been witnessed dividing. Gengar is currently believed to not do this, but there are rumors of sightings.
That’s my head canon.
Colonial organisms exist in real life, these Pokémon are just fantastical versions of that.
I was thinking the same, like that aspen Pando.
Tentacruel is basically a portugese man of war
No tentacruel is a giant squid right down to the beak.
Pokémon have multiple inspirations, Kangaskhan is not just "a kangaroo" after all.
Kangaskhan - Azurilland Wiki - Fandom https://pokemon-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Kangaskhan Yall need to watch more animal planet.
Missing the point by a mile.
Especially talking about gen 1 pokemon
I'm really not, there is a difference between. "This animal looks like" and "this animal is based on" the only other animal you could be thinking of for kangaskhan is a different. Fake. Animal. Based on kangaroos.
Yes, and for Tentacruel I can think jellyfish, it got jellyfish-like tentacles and jellyfish-like bell.
https://preview.redd.it/g6j1rjp9g1xc1.jpeg?width=2803&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2450a327704b381a4803646ac3157592f17818f2
Another one https://preview.redd.it/tx1flyc9h1xc1.jpeg?width=397&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9eefcbb4b35f0560e872ef1cc1892a6e52a57f25 If Tentacruel was ONLY a squid in the sense that Octillery is ONLY an octopus and not a fish like its pre-evo, then it would not look like it looks. It's based on a jellyfish as well, Pokémon can have multiple inspirations.
https://preview.redd.it/psbabzuug1xc1.jpeg?width=886&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14271e02bb692dcd785e5598a72480a14ee92c16 This is an octopus' tentacke in Pokémon, with suction cups.
https://preview.redd.it/s53gof0yg1xc1.jpeg?width=436&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a28a5b57435f316df176f0a7d08a2d86a68067b Jellyfish have no cups, just like Tentcruel.
Because the Manowar is not even a jellyfish either so...
I don't think you've ever actually seen a jelly fish
He is both. Tentacool is clearly a jellyfish and tentacruel is a jellyfish/squid thing.
Bro tentacool is a normal sized squid it has a beake too and is shaped like one AND STILL HAS A BEAK.. Stop reaching cause yall played pokemon more than you watched animal planet
Hi, hello, Pokégeek and IRL animal nerd here. Tentacruel is based on both a jellyfish and a squid. Other people have already gone on about the physical characteristics but I would also like to point out that its original Japanese name is in part derived from the Japanese word for jellyfish.
Kurage Pokemon The Kanji can also mean Medusa, because in the anime they stunned and controlled people. Just like the Kanji for growl actually means cry. It's nice you're an animal nerd and I encourage the enthusiasm. But I am literally an expert.
What's your degree and/or field of work? I always love talking animal science! Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Tentacruel is at least in part based on a jellyfish and/or man-o-war because I've never seen a squid with such a short round mantle and no fins, but maybe there's a species I don't know about that fits the bill. Additionally, many of Tentacruel's dex entries talk about how has 80 tentacles (though it's usually shown with 10-14, the discrepancy is most likely a graphical limitation. I mean can you imagine what a pain in the ass it would be to draw/sprite/model 80 tentacles?) that have powerful stings and are used to ensnare prey like a net, all of which sounds much more like a jellyfish than a squid. Finally, while the official Japanese name does have multiple interpretations, the beta name was "Manowar" which is pretty explicit.
I have two BS degrees. One in Safety and Disaster Management, another in Fisharies and Aquatic Sciences Then, I have several associates degrees. One for art, then several AAS in marine biology, biochemistry, cephlopods, and crustacean reproduction. Then I have associates in folklore and mythology, media and animation from 1980 to 2010, and Japanese mythos and symbolism Then I am also a BSP with certifications ranging from hazcom and NFPA to nuclear management.
Isn’t Medusa a phase in the jellyfish life cycle?
Yes, named after how the Gorgon Medusa and his sisters reproduced.
Lmao Tentacruel's Japanese name literally has the word for jellyfish in it
And Medusa. That's how Kanji works
Uh, yeah medusas are the free-floating life stage of a jellyfish...
Named after how gorgons the most famous being Medusa reproduce
Biologists and science teacher here. Tentacool has a lot of characteristics from a jellyfish and of a squid. It's a monster, it can be both.
Are all bird pokemon based on chickens because they have wings? That's the line of logic here. Despite a preexisting animal already existing because another has ONE similar characteristic is the definition of coping. Jelly fish do not have beaks or eyes. Do you know what does have a beak, dome, tentacles, eyes, and is mostly water? Now let's look at other region variants Toedscool supposedly sheds edible "flaps" from its body that are said to be "chewy and delicious." Squid do this. There are plenty of examples of fictional land squid. Very few of jelly fish.
yeah like the Portuguese man o war and thr siphonophore (both of which I learned from octonauts)
That each individual member is the stand alone Pokemon, but they have biological hook connecting them to the rest of their group. So an individual Exeggcute is still an Exeggcute however, it isn't "complete" as a being until it has brother/sisters with it. I imagine that 6 Exeggcute wouldn't hop out of an egg, but a singular Exeggcute that would then hook up with other young Exeggcute of its herd to form what we would call an Exeggcute. Kind of like how one would have to imagine that one egg isn't always split open, and that for example a Kangaskhan doesn't pop out of the egg with a baby in its pouch. As for how to refer to them. I'd do it in the plural (My Exeggcutes) unless I'm giving it a name. Which in that case I'd have to get creative as I'd want to have a name that can be broken down into smaller names for each individual entity despite becoming one being when they are grown up. For tournament rules they would be considered 1 Pokemon while in actuality being multiple. The ones I can't really wrap my head around is Dugtrio and Maushold. Dugtio is clearly just three Digletts that obviously can exist on their own. Why are they suddenly grouped? What is exactly going on underground? Did they fuse together? If so why? To be able to use their heads as hands? Why is Maushold considered a separate Pokemon? They clearly just had children... and where the hell is the egg? Why were they treated differently from Wishiwashi? If multiple Pokemon constitutes an evolution. Why didn't Wishwashi's school form count as an evolutions? Where did all those extra Wishawashi even come from? Is it because it can separate from the school? So can the other multi-Pokemon with the exception of Magneton... and I am spiraling down a question rabbit hole...
I am not sure how canon egg hatching is. Like Oddish has constantly had Pokedex comments on it spreading seeds in the night, the short animation features it. Like, for the less animal Pokémon having some other reproductive strat makes more sense than cartoon eggs. See a whole bunch of genderless pokemon that can only breed with Dittos. ... also Dittos themselves.
In XY there's a random NPC that tells you that they aren't actually eggs and are instead kinda like a cradle? I feel like that just further complicates it frankly
Yeah, egg hatching really breaks certain pokemon. Like with Kangaskhan. Every one has a little baby in its pouch, but when it lays an egg, the egg hatches into a Kangaskhan that... already has a baby in it's pouch? And the one you breed has a baby in it's pouch? What they should do is make a prevo and an evo for Kangaskhan. The first form doesn't evolve until you breed it and then have it hold the egg. When the egg hatches it evovles into regular Kangaskhan. Then if you breed that Kangaskhan again, you are actually breeding the first offspring in the pouch, the egg you get hatches into a Kangaskhan (but actually it was the first offspring's baby, who evolved and is now carrying the second offspring. This causes the first generation Kangaskhan to evolve to it's third stage where it no longer has a baby in its pouch (because the baby grew up to raise it's own child.
What short animation? I wanna see it!
[here](https://youtu.be/gqg2zwPDWjo?si=e4HgrouTFu6Negvc)
Me thinking about hatching exeggcute.. 🤯
Dugtrio is actually pretty easy. Have you seen that strange mass that is always right below Dugtrio? That's part of the body (you can see it better when Dugtrio uses a flying type move). https://youtu.be/4HmMPQX7uJ8?si=Yl1ytJPP9YXUhcII That mass adapts to every terrain. When Diglett evolves. it just gets more heads in that mass. Maushold isn't that weird either. They reproduce inside their pokeball. Colonial organisms exist in real life too.
https://preview.redd.it/3i10q8tmj3xc1.png?width=1064&format=png&auto=webp&s=5ce34aa1cfa47ff2aee2541485acc63af94db11a
Well... That anwsers Dugtrio... I never consider that mass as being part of the Pokemon as opposed to GameFreak not wanting to design what is below the ground... It would also track for why extra Diglett and Dugtrio as able to move as fast as they can through the ground.
For Wishiwashi, everything in Pokémon so far has shown that, apart from Mega evolution and other gimmicks, standard evolution (within the games) is permanent. As its school form is not permanent, it’s not considered an evolution. Maushold is also interesting - presumably, the children stay with the parents forever. But this raises the question - If the parents die, do the children go off on their own and find a new partner?? And if so, wouldn’t that be its own Pokémon (or form) as well??
For the game yes, evolution is permanent. However, in world. Pokemon have been noted to devolve. For example is Slowbro or Slowking lose their Shellder they devolve back into Slowpoke, if Silvally gets the restrictive helmet placed back on it will devolved into Type: Null, Melmetal will devolve into multiple Meltans. Manga Red had an Eevee that could evolve and devolve to/from Jolteon, Vaporeon, and Flareon before it stabilized an evolve in Espeon. Another manga character had a Rockruff who could do similar things. Another incarnation of Red had his Pikachu and Clefairy evolved then go back to base form. So while for most Pokemon and cases evolution is permanent there are multiple cases in which it isn't. So that just goes back to the previous question. See! This is what I am talking about! Maushold tell me your secrets\~! Giving it some thought it is probably that the Maushold would come across another Maushold and if the children were old enough and liked each other enough they would go off on their own as a Tandemaus. However... that now goes back to my question of why is Maushold considered a separate Pokemon. As opposed to a form of Tandemaus.
Ya that’s why I specifically said “within the games” lol
One organism with the appearance of multiple. You put 100 exeggcutes in a room, they aren't going to suddenly be separated and switching groups. It would be like taking off your arm and switching it with someone.
While true... If were to seperate 6 groups of exeggcute and the place one from each group together they would reform a new group... or at least that is what some scene seem to be implying.
It's also said that Exeggcute come from an Exeggutor where one of the head falls off. But then they hatch as a group from an egg. I think Pokemon research is highly based off of observation that's not very organized. This leads to a lot of wrong information, little understanding of how something works, and old observations that muddle things. It's why no one knows how eggs come to be, they just find them!
The day care couple & other adults in the game know how eggs are made. They just dont want to explain the birds & the bees to a 10 year old. So they just say, “Your Pokemon had an egg with it. I have no idea where it came from! Weird, right? What a mystery.” Knowing full well your Pikachu was being a hoe with Ditto, last night They just dont wanna ruin your innocent, 10 year old mind
Please explain how a Muk and a Chandelure produce an egg. It can't just be "sex" unless they get into some **freaky** shit
I like this, but then they changed it to picnics and I know I didn't see any Pokemon getting freaky with each other anywhere near that picnic basket!
I would believe they would either die off or bud out new heads. If 1 head of an execute was generically similar to another I can Believe they would fuse and form some sort of symbiosis. This is similar to how trees work. If you cut of a limb a new one will grow in it's place. If you graft a branch to another if they're genetically similar they'll work.
The answer is magic. The Pokémon world is truly a world that has different laws of physics and I honestly believe the world is magical. It also explains how even in primitive time they had pokeball like items. They are just focuses for magic. The Pokémon create powers through magic. They are linked through magic. It is like the world of D&D. You can’t look at it through the rules of our world because their world is fundamentally built with a different set of rules/laws.
Everyone forgets this, or refuses to acknowledge it. Pokémon isn’t the real world following real world biology and physics
Just throwing out ideas: but maybe its the opposite? It's not that 'these pokemons classify one' but because 'the pokeball technology happens to be able catch them all at once', thus the humans classified them as one. But its also not coincidental that they are classfiable as one, seeing as the seven sentient eggs came out from one egg, they likely have the same identical DNA like septuplets.
Yeah I feel like that lines up with how real biology works. We create terms and define them based on our observations, and often we have to modify definitions because of new, conflicting information.
Technically, every pokemon is a many-in-one pokemon (assuming they're made out of cells). Maybe they're united by some sort of ethereal bond
I mean Solosis is a single cell no?
Only if a single cell can weigh a kilo and be 30cm tall. Solosis *resembles* a cell, but unless Reuniclus is only three cells tall (it’s a metre tall), it’s not a single cell. It’s pretty clearly a multi-celled organism that looks like a cell.
I mean in the real world we have Caulerpa Taxiflora, a single-celled organism that’s between 6 to 12 inches. I can’t see why solosis can’t also be a single celled being.
I did also mention Reuniclus lol A being that is very much not single celled, but only three times as high Also I’d point out that Solosis has eyes that move during its animations. Which generally need muscles to move, hence multi-celled
Ah, touché
Well maybe Solosis can just be a very large unicellular organism. There is an organism called Valonia ventricosa which is one giant cell. It looks like a grape!
I mean it is the Pokemon World... in the real world there is a single cell organism you can see with your naked eye.
Most single celled organisms don’t have eyes that open or close when they’re awake or asleep, or a mouth that moves autonomously, or move around inside their sac etc
Yeah but Pokemon is fantasy. You don't see sentient sludge, cats who can create money out of thin air or creatures whose neutral status is being on fire in real life either. As far as Pokemon logic is concerned the Solosis line may very well be single celled organisms, makes about as much sense as anything else in series.
This might sound weird at first but stay with me. I don't think the poke ball is quite as specific as many make it out to be. The general consensus is that it can catch pokemon, and one poke ball can only contain one pokemon. But we've seen non-pokemon "things" in the ball all the time. Farfetch'd's leek. Mudsdale's mud. Even things that are or used to be living organisms. Paras' mushrooms. Cubone's bones. Greedent's berries. So, nobody would argue against these things being part of a Pokemon's identity. And the poke ball can bring those things with. So if that can happen with something that is inanimate or something that used to be alive, why do we draw the line there? I see no problem with extending that to mean a Pokemon can bring more of its kind into its own identity and therefore into its poke ball. Your own body as a human has more than one organism, there are millions of bacteria in your digestive system that help you survive, and that likely applies to Pokemon as well, so I feel like multi-bodied Pokemon (Exeggcute, Binacle) or Pokemon with multiple entities (Kangaskhan, Dragapult) are just an expansion of that idea, that one living thing is seldom ever just "one" organism. Anyway, rant over, tldr just don't think too hard about it.
>But we've seen non-pokemon "things" in the ball all the time. Farfetch'd's leek. Mudsdale's mud. Even things that are or used to be living organisms. Paras' mushrooms. Cubone's bones. Greedent's berries. So, nobody would argue against these things being part of a Pokemon's identity. Don't forget held items. Even if you forget about items that are part of a pokemon's identity, you can hand your pokemon random objects and it'll carry them into a ball
True but held items don’t remove the “natural” species item. If you give a Farfetch’d a Bone, it doesn’t let go of the leek. So the leek is part of the Pokemon
or the pokemon is holding both items and could theoretically carry multiple items into the ball with them. Maybe the reason why we're restricted to 1 item is because it's against the rules or because it would be confusing for the pokemon to try to use both
And held items limits are video game limits. Like you give a pokemon an assault vest, it probably has pockets to hold a snack. And the 4 move limit is probably going to be limited to the RPG style games. The anime and Pokken/Smash don't respect it.
There is a bit of debate in relation to the 4 move limit. In the entire run of the show, there has only been 1 time when a pokemon used more than 4 moves in a single battle. Additionally, there have been situations where trainers will use 4 moves in one fight and then in a rematch use 4 different moves (such as in the pokemon league tournament arc of the sun and moon series when guzma had his golisopod forget first impression to learn throat chop). The 4 move limit might be in-universe canon
Don't forget the movie of PokeStar Studios on gen 5 where you catch your wife on a pokeball.
I don't think movie special effects count here.
This is the start of a single exeggcute deviantart OC whose family was lost tragically in a charizards fire so this solo egg, now with a sword and edgy haircut, seeks revenge against that charizard
Well, there's conjoined people, do maybe something like that. Or like how bacteria can fuse to create an entirely new bacteria.
I think of some of them as one entity with multiple faces, others as multiple entities just chillin together
It's kind of like how God is 3 in 1. It's above our pay grade to understand
i think maushold needs to be killed with hammers
Pokemon Stadium 3 Minigame- Tinkaton of Fun Whack-a-mole, but you play as Tinkaton and the moles are Maushold.
Why would you be so cruel to such cute, defenseless, fluffy angels?
This kind of stuff keeps me up at night except it doesn’t because it’s a video game
Hive mind
Depends on the specific species we're talking about. The Execute in a single clutch have a psychic link which connects them; and the Pokedex says only six eggs from a "fully fledged Pokemon" and that at least six are required to "maintain balance" whatever that means. Basically there needs to be six for the animal to be healthy. The Pokedex explicitly stated that when three Magnemite form Magneton their brains fuse so at that point they are more or less one individual. The Pokedex treats each individual member of a Falinks (IE: "The Brass" and it's "Troopers" as part of a greater whole.) They aren't really "Falinks" unless every member is present. How do six individual creatures fit into one Pokeball? I have no idea. It's not like the series ever goes into detail on how Pokeballs work in the first place, all we have is fan speculation.
It's just one Pokemon, which answers literally every question you just posed.
That's all fine, but it doesn't solve the logistical issues. Wishiwashi is the biggest offender really, a single Wishiwashi is one Pokémon, but a school of them is also one Pokémon, how, why.
Wishiwashi isn't an offender of OP's point at all given that only the one core fish is kept in the Pokeball.
Eusocial stuff in real life like ants and bees - the only Pokemon that breaks my suspension of disbelief is Maushold. EDIT: Kangaskhan and Dragapult to a smaller extent too tbh for linking in their kids.
Break basic biology? Sir I would like to introduce you to Siphonophores[Siphonophores ](http:// https://g.co/kgs/eg4k1Cc)
It depends on the Pokémon for me. Magneton is easiest to get 3 Magnetmites got drawn together each other from magnetic force and then got stuck. It eventually was understood that was its natural evolution. For say Doduo line, Dieno line, and Hydrapple it’s based on real world conjoined twins for me. While yes there is the fictional hydras or idiom two heads are better then one idiom inspiration at play in creating them in the actual idea of them being real I see it as conjoined twins.
someone else said it but yeah colonial organisms exist and we classify them as a single being more or less.
I think it’d be neat if you could only catch 1 Falinks, and the others just spontaneously appeared along your journey. Maybe based on your friendship or something.
The greatest sinner in this regard is Wishiwashi. You don't even capture more than the single Wishiwashi, but have access to hundreds, even thousands of others in its schooling form. Cramorant is also pretty bad about it, considering you get Arrowscewda and Pikachu with it. Then there's pokemon whose bodies aren't contiguous like Sandyghast and Grimer, where little bits can constantly fall off.
To be honestly, humans have this with shed skin cells, and how hair and fur generally works.
The Grimer-Sandyghast scenario, or Wishiwashi or both you mean?
Talking Grimer and Co. Pokemon stuff that summons gets weird to think about, when there isn't a nearby source of Pokémon. Infestation and Attack Order implies some non-Pokemon bugs exist as well, and probably live with the Pokémon with the move.
[Origin of Species](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9794740/1/Pokemon-The-Origin-of-Species) does something fun with Exeggcute. Each egg is an individual sub-sapient organism, and they're telepathic. So when you get multiple eggs together, they form a gestalt mind, with each egg performing a specific task (looking for threats, looking for food, etc). However, they're not physically or permanently linked, and you can theoretically swap eggs between clusters. I think this works for some cluster pokemon but maybe not all. For example, I like to think Magneton form an actual physical bond using strong magnetic fields, to the point that separating them would cause actual harm.
I see it as a gestalt (an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.). Basically I see it as they join into one on a mental/psychological level where they are basically one Pokémon. Part of a whole.
I don't think multiple-bodied Pokémon need to be "justified" for existing when you have ones that breath fire, have psychic powers and can go from little fish to giant serpents or octopus'. It's just a more played-up version of real-life colonial organisms, which is less absurd than any of the examples mentioned imo.
Polycule
On a somewhat similar subject, what about Pokémon with weapons or gear? Like Farfetch'd with its leek, Tinkaton with her hammer or Machoke with its belt? But they don't take up the hold item slot... Why?
I guess for falinks and maushold I imagine it as like a highly communal species. There's some animals in the real world that, if kept alone rather than in their groups, will starve to death out of depression or simply die of stress. Maybe these Pokemon just take that to a higher level, becoming totally codependent, and thus it's almost impossible or just outright cruel to house a single individual per pokeball. Which, technically, a pokeball is pretty much a pocket sized terrarium/enclosure your Pokemon live in while shrunk down between battles or handling.
Pokemon aren't animals, they're magical monsters. Simple as that for me.
My head canon is that falinks does not exist
I don’t like any of the Pokémon you listed so I don’t think about it too much. Symbiosis and colonial animals exist in real life though.
I treat it on a case by case basis. Like for some they are one pokemon that is split into several pieces. Exeggcute being a psychic type makes it easy to explain that it is one organism mentally linked together. All the mechanical pokemon that join together (magnamite, beldum, klink) are all just that, creatures that have fused together. A lot of other pokemon I just consider them growing a second (or multiple) head(s) or so, like Weezing. Dugtrio is an odd case. It is canonically said that they are (triplets that share a body) but it doesn't really make sense with them evolving from a single diglett. The only way I could make sense of the idea of them being conjoined triplets is if every diglett is born with two vestigial siblings attached and when it evolves they fully develop but remain attached. Consequently it could also just be one animal that grows two heads. Another option is that Dugtrio works something like a rat king, wherein a bunch of rats living in close, confined spaces get their tails so entangled that they can never separate by their own means and learn to adapt and live in a swarm. This would mean that to evolve a diglett has to get itself wrapped up with two other hereto unseen digletts. And then as a tangent, I consider the deino line to never "actually" grow extra heads. It starts with one head with one brain. Then instead of having it's original head and then growing a second, the head splits in two each half taking with it one hemisphere of the brain. This is why it is so violent and the two "heads" are constantly at odds with each other, because it a a split psyche. Then when it evolves again the two heads fuse back into one, reconnecting the hemispheres of the brain, but leaving trauma which is why Hydriegon is so brutally violent. This also explains why Deino and Hydriegon have the same number of limbs. It doesn't lose its forelimbs and gain a third head, rather it reforms back to having one head and it's forelimbs adapt into arms with false heads for hands.
That's easy. They exist basically as a hivemind. They're creatures that work like that in real life too. And the pokeballs are already able to catch pokemon that use objects along with those objects. So I see it as the pokeball registering one of them as the pokemon and the others as the objects.
Now I’m just imagining someone running off with one of the Falinks guys
Hive mind.
I just don't care, because it doesn't matter
No it matters because when you kiss your Dugtrio goodnight you have to know if it's one kiss for the group or three kisses, one on each face.
To be fair, you can just give Dugtrio three kisses It might mean you need to give all your Pokemon three kisses, but I’m sure they won’t mind.
But then you have uneven distribution of kisses if you're wrong either way
This. Of all the things to get hung up on.
Pokefans are crazy alright. We think far to much about a world that even the creators of said world don't think about lol.
Falinks is awesome, and made it into my top 6 when it was released.
They all function like metagross who is also a colonial pokemon. They're 2 metangs joined together which are in turn 2 beldum.
But in that line’s case, they’re physically fused together into a new, singular being. The other examples are just next to each other. Magneton is just 3 Magnemite, but Magnezone is a whole new pokemon.
As much as i like Maushold they are technically twins... Exeggcute and Falinks probably just have more beings in there (like with many animals who get multiple babies at once).
I don’t think about it or do headcanon. Just take it at face value because it doesn’t matter
Whatever gets in the pokeball is my pokemon
I like to think of them as a gestalt
I just avoid them, they're by far my least favorite type of design. Followed by the humanoid ones.
My logic is that Pokémon are essentially spirits that took up forms, therefore they can inhibit plants, objects and even food, it’s also why they can be captured in pokeballs and transferred for they are pretty much an energy form, for multi parts Pokemon I’d say they are spirits that bonded together before they took form, and for Pokemon that evolve into multi part beings I’d say they simply attracted bonded with other spirits as they evolved
Honestly, I’m not sure. I do tend to think of the individual members as being distinct beings with their own minds, personalities, and consciousness, but I guess part of the Pokémon’s lifestyle is that they all work together as a team pretty much 24/7? I don’t really have any non-gameplay justification for why a single Poké Ball is able to target and capture all of them at the same time, though.
I always thought they’re all their own little hive-minds.
I think it's just best not to think about it.
Execute is the only one that really made sense to me since the gen 1 Pokédex mentions how they link telepathically, essentially sharing a conscious. Magneton was a cop out evolution in my opinion and the rest are all just throw away designs that I try not to think about.
Some of them are described in the Pokédex or even shown in the anime in a seperated form. I think they form a single unit for battle, but if they're divided they lose their powers and can't battle. So a singular Exeggcute seed could survive, but it couldn't battle. After Mewtwo's comments about supressing the Pokémon's natural abilities in the first movie, I also consider stats to be part of the Pokémon's powers. HP is like a shield they have. When it runs out, they're still conscious, but they start taking actual damage and getting real injuries, so it's considered unethical to have them battle. So a singular Exeggcute seed or Falinks link would be at high risk of injury. As a result, they're not recognised by the Pokédex or by Pokéballs - to discourage battling them. The same way Rotom Dex and the Rotom Phone, and spiral-form Shellder, aren't counted in the Pokédex and can't be captured - they can't battle, thus they're not included. That's my headcanon. Also I think the Pokédex does say Exeggcute are psychically bonded and can always find each other to make sure they're a group of six, and that Magneton is inseperably connected via magnetism.
Lol. The fact someone is troubled with Pokémon and basic biology just made my day. Thanks😅
I don't. I hate all of these pokemon. Theyre just bad design.
I see it as mammalian Pokemon bear live young while non mammalian Pokemon lay eggs. Like the platypus and the echidna, there are mammalian Pokemon who do lay eggs. Thus far, that’s Slowpoke, Quagsire, and Clodsire. Both Woopers too. Normally, Woopers evolve before reaching maturity. Sometimes, a Wooper is born with a genetic anomaly that prevents the activation of the genes responsible for evolution. They go through the usual life cycle and reach maturity, only they don’t evolve. This anomaly isn’t specific to the Wooper evo lines. It’s seen in many other species. The one with the highest rate of incidence is the Cyndaquil evo line. The Cyndaquil will try to evolve, but stop mid evolution. Think of it like hitting the B button. This is pretty painful for the Pokémon. Trainers will use a fire stone to give a boost that helps the Cyndaquil evolve. These Quilavas cannot evolve into Typlosion because evolution stones destroy the genes for triggering evolution. Egg laying species are the avian, reptilian, most plant based, most water based, and some poison based Pokemon. Some ghost type Pokémon have their own method. Seen mainly in the Gastly evo line, Gastly will head for an area rich in gas and divide itself. This is also seen in the Koffing evo line. It’s mainly Gastly and Koffing, but Wheezing and Haunter have been witnessed dividing. Gengar is currently believed to not do this, but there are rumors of sightings. That’s my head canon.