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Pokédex "height"... height, length, or what?
Something I've thought about a lot when looking through Pokémon size measurements according to the Pokédex... exactly what does the "height" measurement in the Pokédex measure?
For humanoid/bipedal Pokémon, the "height" actually measuring height makes sense. For extremely long-bodied things like Arbok, Dragonair, and Gyarados, the "height" is probably intended to be their length instead (an 11-foot-long snake is a big snake but not absurdly so, while a snake that measures 11 feet in height when it has about half of its body "standing up" off the ground like Arbok does in most of its poses would be pretty ridiculous.)
With quadrupeds though... it starts to get confusing. When I was younger I always went with height for bipedal creatures and length for snake-like things and things that walk on four (or more) legs, but looking through some of them it doesn't always work very well. Ponyta and Rapidash, for example.
What measurement of a Ponyta actually measures three feet and three inches? Are they 3'03" long, and if so is that including the tail or not? Are they 3'03" tall from toes to head? Are they 3'03" at the shoulder? There's so many different ways to measure a quadrupedal creature...
If you assume the measurements are always length for longer/quadrupedal creatures, then... Ponyta and Rapidash are very small horses. A 3'03" long Ponyta would be like some sort of miniature pony (and be far too small for teenagers or adults to even consider riding on), while a 5'07" Rapidash would still be so small in comparison to real horses that it'd count as a pony rather than a full-sized horse.
And regardless of which measurement is 3'03" on a Ponyta... would the same apply for every quadrupedal Pokémon, or only the horse/cow/etc.-like ones? Horses in real life are typically measured by height at the shoulder (which would put Ponyta's average height in the upper range of possible heights for the real-life Shetland pony, which apparently max out at around 3'06"), and apparently dogs are measured that way too... but I've never heard of height-at-the-shoulder used as a measurement for, say, rats or skunks. Or dragonflies.
Measuring dog-like Pokémon by height-at-the-shoulders runs into some weirdness, too. I can see Entei being pretty big, but 6'11" at the shoulder would mean that an Entei would be just a couple inches short of the largest horse that has ever lived. Yeah, Entei should be big, but... that just seems to be pushing it a bit (how did those three get out of that tower without smashing some new holes in it if they're so huge they wouldn't be able to fit through doors...?)
And a Growlithe, described as a "puppy" Pokémon, would be approaching the size of an average Irish Wolfhound if its 2'04" (28 inches, compared to 30-35 for the wolfhound) is height at the shoulder. Even if it is the "puppy" to a very large dog (Arcanine), that still seems just too big.
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So... how do you interpret the sizes in the Pokédex entries? Any specific rules (this body type = height, this one = length, etc.), or more on an individual basis depending on the Pokémon? Or do you just throw the official heights out the window and go with whatever first comes to mind, regardless of the size given in the Pokédex? XD
(And try to leave the anime out of this, if possible... that just makes things more confusing considering how inconsistent it is, even within itself. If you do use anime sizes for comparison, just remember this: the last time I checked, Ash is drawn as being a little under 3 Pikachus tall, which would be something like 3'10"-3'11" at the tallest... all of the game protagonists that have their height given in-game are in the 4'07" to 4'11" range if I'm remembering right.)
Something I've thought about a lot when looking through Pokémon size measurements according to the Pokédex... exactly what does the "height" measurement in the Pokédex measure?
For humanoid/bipedal Pokémon, the "height" actually measuring height makes sense. For extremely long-bodied things like Arbok, Dragonair, and Gyarados, the "height" is probably intended to be their length instead (an 11-foot-long snake is a big snake but not absurdly so, while a snake that measures 11 feet in height when it has about half of its body "standing up" off the ground like Arbok does in most of its poses would be pretty ridiculous.)
With quadrupeds though... it starts to get confusing. When I was younger I always went with height for bipedal creatures and length for snake-like things and things that walk on four (or more) legs, but looking through some of them it doesn't always work very well. Ponyta and Rapidash, for example.
What measurement of a Ponyta actually measures three feet and three inches? Are they 3'03" long, and if so is that including the tail or not? Are they 3'03" tall from toes to head? Are they 3'03" at the shoulder? There's so many different ways to measure a quadrupedal creature...
If you assume the measurements are always length for longer/quadrupedal creatures, then... Ponyta and Rapidash are very small horses. A 3'03" long Ponyta would be like some sort of miniature pony (and be far too small for teenagers or adults to even consider riding on), while a 5'07" Rapidash would still be so small in comparison to real horses that it'd count as a pony rather than a full-sized horse.
And regardless of which measurement is 3'03" on a Ponyta... would the same apply for every quadrupedal Pokémon, or only the horse/cow/etc.-like ones? Horses in real life are typically measured by height at the shoulder (which would put Ponyta's average height in the upper range of possible heights for the real-life Shetland pony, which apparently max out at around 3'06"), and apparently dogs are measured that way too... but I've never heard of height-at-the-shoulder used as a measurement for, say, rats or skunks. Or dragonflies.
Measuring dog-like Pokémon by height-at-the-shoulders runs into some weirdness, too. I can see Entei being pretty big, but 6'11" at the shoulder would mean that an Entei would be just a couple inches short of the largest horse that has ever lived. Yeah, Entei should be big, but... that just seems to be pushing it a bit (how did those three get out of that tower without smashing some new holes in it if they're so huge they wouldn't be able to fit through doors...?)
And a Growlithe, described as a "puppy" Pokémon, would be approaching the size of an average Irish Wolfhound if its 2'04" (28 inches, compared to 30-35 for the wolfhound) is height at the shoulder. Even if it is the "puppy" to a very large dog (Arcanine), that still seems just too big.
====
So... how do you interpret the sizes in the Pokédex entries? Any specific rules (this body type = height, this one = length, etc.), or more on an individual basis depending on the Pokémon? Or do you just throw the official heights out the window and go with whatever first comes to mind, regardless of the size given in the Pokédex? XD
(And try to leave the anime out of this, if possible... that just makes things more confusing considering how inconsistent it is, even within itself. If you do use anime sizes for comparison, just remember this: the last time I checked, Ash is drawn as being a little under 3 Pikachus tall, which would be something like 3'10"-3'11" at the tallest... all of the game protagonists that have their height given in-game are in the 4'07" to 4'11" range if I'm remembering right.)
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