PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

[surskitty]

SNIVY AND ITS EVOLUTIONS ARE NOT SNAKES.

They are GRASS LIZARDS.

If I hear one more person argue with me on this subject, I will probably beat them to death.


What Pokémon misidentifications piss you off?

 

[Blastoise Fortooate]

Isn't it called officially the 'Grass Snake Pokémon', though?

Honestly, most pokémon aren't any one animal anyway. Mightyena is obviously a hyena, but it looks a lot like a wolf and it tends to fill that role. Pikachu is called a mouse all the time, even though it's more specifically based on the pika.

 

[Butterfree]

Why do you care?

It is beyond me why anyone would choose something as inane as what animal a Pokémon is based on to get seriously upset about.

Though I do balk when people think anything whatsoever about Raikou is more canine than feline, I suppose. But that's puzzlement, not pissed-off-ness.

 

[surskitty]

Isn't it called officially the 'Grass Snake Pokémon', though?

Honestly, most pokémon aren't any one animal anyway. Mightyena is obviously a hyena, but it looks a lot like a wolf and it tends to fill that role. Pikachu is called a mouse all the time, even though it's more specifically based on the pika.

Cyndaquil's called a Fire Mouse. Doesn't make it true!

Pikachu's based on a pika? It doesn't really look like it. I mean, I've heard people say that, but I think that's just because of spelling. Pretty sure 'pika' as in the animal is pronounced 'paika', too. I'd think gerbil or maybe kangaroo rat before pika, but that's not very close, either. Closer, at least, but not close. And raichu's probably kangaroo-inspired.

Why do you care?

It is beyond me why anyone would choose something as inane as what animal a Pokémon is based on to get seriously upset about.

Though I do balk when people think anything whatsoever about Raikou is more canine than feline, I suppose. But that's puzzlement, not pissed-off-ness.

Mainly because some asshole (he was an asshole for other reasons; among other things, he later defended Charlie Sheen and seemed to find it funny that I am bothered by rape jokes) I was talking to last night was going on about how snivy ~represents the evolution of snakes~ and was completely ignoring me when I said it's clearly a grass lizard. I think he was expecting me to be impressed by his ~knowledge of biology~, now that I think about it.

I'm not upset about it! It's a safe assumption that if I am saying things as though I am completely infuriated, I'm snickering. It's when I'm going ... a lot that I'm probably actually pissed off!

Yeah, I don't get that either!

 

[Zhorken]

The Snivy line is so much awesomer with this knowledge.

Also:

Serperior has hands! It just keeps them behind its back. They're secret like Crobat's feet (used to be.)

EDIT: Also also Arcanine is a shisa, which I kept using to say it's half-cat but now that I read the article again I don't actually think so. I think shisa are just shisa. Hmmm.

 

[nothing to see here]

Isn't it called officially the 'Grass Snake Pokémon', though?

Well... that could be like how Blastoise is labeled as a "shellfish," even though that usually means clams and stuff like that. Pokédex "species" titles aren't really all that reliable.

As for the new Grass-type starters, though, I always figured they were just snakes with legs. Not sure if it was specifically done that way to represent the evolution of snakes, though... it could be something really simple like "let's have a snake for a starter... except let's give it legs, because all the starters so far have had legs."
We already have an octopus with less than eight tentacles, a jellyfish with eyes, a bat with four wings, and a bunch of dragons without any hair, after all... so Pokémon don't always match up perfectly with the anatomy of the critters that they're based on. A snake with legs isn't that far out there.

And anyway, "snake that still has small legs" and "very long snakelike lizard with small legs" aren't really that far apart to begin with (especially when you completely ignore the rules of normal biology and turn 'em into a Pokémon), so it's really hard to say which one they were really supposed to be without some sort of official word on the subject. Maybe they're both?

 

[surskitty]

They're grass lizards. Look at the head shape. And it's probably not a case of Gamefreak having no clue how snakes work like with Seviper, either, given that's a very lizardlike head. Which makes sense, as it's a grass lizard.

Yeah, they don't always match up perfectly, but they often match up pretty well to a cartoonified version. The snivy line's pretty clearly grass lizards. It's even a bit of a pun: they're grass lizards.

 

[JackPK]

Honestly, most pokémon aren't any one animal anyway. Mightyena is obviously a hyena, but it looks a lot like a wolf and it tends to fill that role. Pikachu is called a mouse all the time, even though it's more specifically based on the pika.

AFIAK it's commonly accepted that the "pika" in "Pikachu" refers to the Japanese onomatopoeia for sparkling (and, by association, electricity), not the animal pika.

 

[surskitty]

Well, yes. The pronounciation's not even right.

 

[spaekle]

It irritates me a bit when people call Arceus a horse.

 

[Phoenixsong]

They're grass lizards. Look at the head shape. And it's probably not a case of Gamefreak having no clue how snakes work like with Seviper, either, given that's a very lizardlike head. Which makes sense, as it's a grass lizard.

Yeah, they don't always match up perfectly, but they often match up pretty well to a cartoonified version. The snivy line's pretty clearly grass lizards. It's even a bit of a pun: they're grass lizards.

Inaccuracy != they weren't still trying for some combination of the two. Why is it so terrible for there to be some snake in the intended design, even if the depiction isn't perfect? Besides: snake (or snide, whatever) + ivy. Serpent + vine. Serpent + superior. I see lots of snakes, but I don't see a single lizard. They clearly meant to imply a relation to snakes; otherwise they wouldn't have chosen the names they did. It seems to me that your rant should be more directed at the designers for doin' it rong than at people who very logically assume that they're at least part snake thanks to their names.

ETA: the curvature and tapering of the snout itself, regardless of the rest of the head, says "vine snake" to me.

 

[mewtini]

Umm...I think that I get annoyed when people think that Gyarados is a Water/Dragon. It's supposed to be Dragon/Flying, I think. Although I'm just really picky in accuracy when it comes to Pokemon.

 

[surskitty]

I'm not bothered by people saying they're snakes; I'm bothered by people saying they're snakes after I point out that grass lizards exist.

Grass lizards are obscure, so I'd expect that they'd expect for people to think it's a snake, hence snake names and calling it the 'grass snake' pokémon. It's just ... it's a lizard. The distinction is important to me.


Mewtini: Why should it be dragon/flying? It doesn't fly.

 

[Phoenixsong]

So then why can't it be both again? If they really cared that much they would have either called it a lizard or dropped whatever resemblance it had to said lizards and gone snake whole-hog. As it stands, it's probably more of a "hey vine snakes, but let's also throw in this obscure legless lizard here and there as a nod to people who know they exist" thing imo.

 

[surskitty]

Yeah, okay, snout works for vine snake for snivy (though less so for its evolutions, I think). ... but also works for grass lizard. That works, but my point's more that I am bothered by people who insist it's a snake after I inform them of the existence of grass lizards.

 

[Phoenixsong]

That's fair enough; yeah, it just sounded like you were insistent that NO THEY CANNOT POSSIBLY BE SNAKES etc., which would be... silly. I dunno, I used to get a little worked up over the mightyena wolf/hyena thing, too, but the way I see it these days it's just their loss if they can't appreciate more of what went into the design.

 

[Karkat Vantas]

Pikachu looks like a fusion of a mouse and a rabbit, sort of like an actual pika. So yeah, I think Pikachu is a pika.

I personally got very pissed when the first batch of 5th Gen Pokemon came out and people began crying "WTF IS WITH MAMEPATO? LIKE.... DUDE WE ALREADY HAVE A PIGEON". Because Pidgey clearly is supposed to be a pigeon.

Clearly.

 

[Karkat Vantas]

Pikachu looks like a fusion of a mouse and a rabbit, sort of like an actual pika. So yeah, I think Pikachu is a pika.

I personally got very pissed when the first batch of 5th Gen Pokemon came out and people began crying "WTF IS WITH MAMEPATO? LIKE.... DUDE WE ALREADY HAVE A PIGEON". Because Pidgey clearly is supposed to be a pigeon.

Clearly.

 

[JackPK]

Umm...I think that I get annoyed when people think that Gyarados is a Water/Dragon. It's supposed to be Dragon/Flying, I think. Although I'm just really picky in accuracy when it comes to Pokemon.

Um, no, Water/Flying. If it was supposed to be anything else the designers would have made it that way in the first place, or changed it in Gen II as they did with Magnemite/Magneton. End of story.

(I suppose people trying to shoehorn Gyarados into the Dragon type is my pet peeve. Just because it's based on a dragon doesn't make it a Dragon-type, and just because it isn't a Dragon-type doesn't make it a mistake. It's based on the legend about a fish that flew over the gate thing whatever to become a dragon. Go read about it on Bulbapedia.)

 

[mewtini]

I base the mistake off of my few friends. And thank you for correcting me. Sorry >_<