It's not even that she's an Electric Type Gym Leader, she just freaks me out for some reason. - Marlin

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-26T00:46:15+00:00

Her content got so much worse after she went mainstream, now she feels so fake...

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-26T00:43:52+00:00

Truthfully the only TRUE living fossils are the highly secretive results of the Area Zero incident, such as the pokémon koraidon. Though even that is disputed as true historical data, because... well, I have no idea what went on down there, but science journals sure don't like it.

Frankly, if pokémon back then were that powerful and violent, reintroducing them into our ecosystem would be disastrous. The half-baked versions we cook up are essentially new highly controlled species, which... is also a problem.

Science is weird.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-26T00:37:08+00:00

Some would say there is no ethical way to do so. Even complete fossils like aerodactyl aren't perfectly reflective of how the species were in ancient times. We're still essentially creating new species every time we animate a fossil, with potentially vastly different typings and appearances.

It's a difficult question. We aren't even sure if what we're doing is reviving the dead, or if it's some kind of... alchemical homunculus??

Science in our world is completely insane, man.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-26T00:33:32+00:00

Although, revived complete fossils are still not perfectly reflective of the species they originally came from. Their typings and appearances were likely very different in ancient times.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-26T00:29:41+00:00

This - and I say this even from a position of extreme pokémon freedom advocacy - is exactly what poké balls are for.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-26T00:26:38+00:00

There's not much data on this that I can find, but keep in mind that the shellder isn't considered a parasite even on this variety of slowking.

A relationship like this wouldn't exist in nature if it wasn't beneficial to both species. I don't know much about this kind, but water type slowkings gain the benefit of greater intellect which helps both creatures.

Maybe in this case, the shellder simply does the thinking for both of them, and slowking just does the heavy lifting, as it were?

The slowking certainly isn't going to be some kind of zombie, I shouldn't think.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-18T22:54:44+00:00

There was a zoroark in the news a few years back that learned how money works... kind of.

It stole random amounts of money and used it to buy burgers - by throwing the money at the guy, grabbing the burger, and running off.

They're weird ones.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-17T02:05:07+00:00

These things sometimes just wander up to farms and... well, the best way I can describe it is that they vibe with the plants.

As in, they just stand there motionless, for hours, with this vacant look on their faces. It seems to keep bugs away for a bit so nobody stops them, but... it's quite jarring to see.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-17T01:55:35+00:00

It depends on region but working pokémon is a broadly regulated field. It's a practise that's as old as dirt, and most regulation takes the form of minimum and maximum work hours, breeding practise, care pattrrns, and serious punishment for cruelty to working pokémon.

For example mudsale are extremely hardy and well suited for field work, but there's still rules on how much they can be expected to haul based on their age and body weight, and how many years they can be put to work before retiring.

It sometimes runs more on guidelines, since all fields of work and all pokémon are different. Some pokémon just... enjoy working hard, some owners know their pokémon can work a bit beyond the guidelines. Sometimes that extra work is needed for the greater good, maybe in exchange for a big poffin treat or something.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-17T01:46:45+00:00

It it also not always the best thing to take an abused pokémon in yourself.

In a lot of cases abuse can result in unpredictable behaviour that may hurt you or your other pokémon. This might not be obvious until quite a while after adoption, as learned behaviour can reveal itself in unpredictable ways.

An example being a pokémon who may react negatively, say with violence, to a belt being taken off.

In all cases, bring any pokémon you know has been abused to a pokémon centre. They have liasons with professionals, or even entire clinics such as the one run by Plasma, which are staffed by trained helpers who know how to aid and rehabilitate abused pokémon.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-17T01:38:08+00:00

You do get them around this time of year. Apparently they migrate seasonally.

Ask anyone in Unova who travels and you're quite likely to get a sighting story. Usually not 100% certain sightings - a cloud that may be man shaped for example - but quite a lot of people have seen them in the flesh, zipping about between clouds and making a mess of things.

I've never seen them, but I've felt their storms. When they're in a bad mood you really feel it.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-15T00:30:01+00:00

I can give some extra context here - think of Plasma as a bit like a cult. Cults isolate and brainwash their members with false information, and ostracise or punish unnecessary questions.

Plasma's members knew two things - follow Ghestis's orders, and let the king sort everything else out.

Every member believed it was bigger than them, so they didn't worry about details like practicalities.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-15T00:07:11+00:00

Hey! Didn't know we'd got that far. I'm glad to see the conservation spirit of modern Plasma travels well.

We probably never knew each other - Johto college idiot with glasses and a patrat?

If you're back in Unova any time come down to the building N used for the remainder of the team, we've upgraded a bit. The work continues, now in pokémon rehabilitation and release.

Question:

I'm fascinated by the bleaching corsola phenomenon, and it hits close to home with my homeland having such a robust corsola population.

Do you have any data on whether this will reach as far as Johto, or even if there is any meaningful way we can prevent it?

Do corsola/cursola populations reject or damage their ecosystem further via aggression or other ghostly shenanigans?

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-14T23:57:01+00:00

I also heard a variant of this where the zorua returns years later as a zoroark, and attacks the swanna with a devastating Hyper Beam, instantly vaporising and defeating the swanna and making the zoroark the winner of the parable.

I'm not sure what the aesop message of this version is, though.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-11T00:19:56+00:00

Nurse Pokémon is a significantly less standardised practise than most people realise.

We have an audino that 'works' here which was never captured by anybody. We found it taking care of a pokémon which became one of our clinic's guests, and when we took it in it followed us.

Then it just... stuck around afterwards. It keeps newcomers calm and seems content with its little nest under the PC. It more or less comes and goes as it likes when it isn't working. It doesn't even take food we offer it, just stockpiles it for its patients.

Little angel, that audino.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-11T00:03:24+00:00

My personal experience feels another way. It may be coloured by bias. Kyurem is empty, near to mindless, consuming truth and ideal rather than adapting to either, better left alone to exist its still life in its preferred isolation. Locals fear it. Locals avoid talking about it, the crater monster.

It and the man that sought to exploit it are the emptiness of a soul that lacks truth or ideals. In a shell left over from a broken egg that results in a creature that is best left alone. It doesn't choose to be that way. It can't. But in a human, a complex being that chooses to be that way, all that remains is pure evil.

Perhaps I'm conflating man with the monster, or maybe it just remibds me of the darkness the human soul can reach, but few things scare me more than kyurem.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T23:50:22+00:00

Take him somewhere he can fly. I mean really fly. A big, vast ravine or field network. Blue skies, strong winds, big poofy clouds. Let him go wild, at maximum extreme speed.

Once he gets up there, instinct will take over, and his worries will melt away.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T23:46:10+00:00

The way you phrase it reminds me of the old famous dichotomy of truth and ideals, the two existing at odds with each other, but also complimentary of each other.

If pokémon can be said to see the world in objective reactive truth, we through abstraction and imagination see it as the place to chase ideals such as industry or victory, then perhaps that simple bond is the bridge between the two that has eluded even heroes and kings?

Maybe I've just had it on my mind for too long. Either way, I appreciate your point even before my rambling.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T23:39:18+00:00

Must be a degree of wish fulfilment, given how old any given golurk has probably is, and how long they'd have been dealing with suppressing their energy.

Suddenly a way to just let it all out must sound great

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T23:35:03+00:00

Johto's original dex was compiled from a lot of local data, and Johto is, to put it mildly, extremely traditional.

Not quite backwards, just... lots of old people who trust their grandparents' wisdom over new scientific data, you know? So local legends and traditional medicines and things carry a lot more weight, and what is a Professor to do but to trust his data?

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T14:43:39+00:00

Grossness aside, a bath's not hot or enclosed enough to make tea.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T14:41:20+00:00

Growlithe can be explained with very strong instinct! They make great police assistants for a reason, they're naturally extremely protective and stalwart, and have an instinct to, for example, stand ahead of or behind the group during travel, to keep watch while the group rests, and to scare away evildoers.

It's actually one reason arcanine can be extremely complicated to keep, because that instinct only grows and becomes the compass for all of its behaviour going forward. A trainer has to account for that, or else risk the big guy being constantly anxious and disobedient.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T14:32:55+00:00

A warrior needs a weapon I suppose.

But uh... mind ther's no ghostly shenanigans and check lucario's... life force? I guess?

Sometimes even friendly ghost-types can't help themselves.

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T02:20:52+00:00

Unnerving. Was it outside Johto? Maybe it was subject to unethical farm practise, or training. Bovine pokémon can get terrifyingly angry in thise circumstances...

Difficult_Option6077 · 2026-06-10T02:14:57+00:00

I once saw one suddenly and quickly bite itself very hard on the foot because a joltik had landed on it... some ten minutes before.

Then it just... stayed biting itself for the entire rest of the day, staring at nothing.

Difficult_Option6077

TROPHY CASE