SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon

Evolution, and by association "evolve", is a catchy term that rolls off the tongue that still equates with very high level views of permanently changing form as opposed to the mouthfuls that are "Metamorphosis", "metamorph" and "metamorphosing". "Transform" would, ignoring Ditto because whatever, also probably have worked but evolve has a good connotation of being one way.

And we can't just shorten it morph because nearly 30 years later everyone would make morbius, the living vampire, jokes and that's just too many jokes from a fandom like this.
 
I was always curious why Steel is resisted by Electric types in the chart. I get Steel not being weak to it since not all Metals (which the type is moreso encompassing than "Steel" really) are equally conductive, but what's the logic for Electric Pokemon being hurt less by Steel? Insulation would inhibit their use of their own power while conduction could mean short-circuiting and work out badly for everyone involved, neither of which suggests the Electric type coming out better for it than your average entity.
 
I was always curious why Steel is resisted by Electric types in the chart. I get Steel not being weak to it since not all Metals (which the type is moreso encompassing than "Steel" really) are equally conductive, but what's the logic for Electric Pokemon being hurt less by Steel? Insulation would inhibit their use of their own power while conduction could mean short-circuiting and work out badly for everyone involved, neither of which suggests the Electric type coming out better for it than your average entity.
i guess the idea is some metals would conduct electricity, not insulate it

but they didn't want steel to be weak to electric, but did want electric to have another resistance

so they just split the difference
 
Wasn't Steel weak to Electric in the 1997 prototype?
Yeah

The match ups at the time were

Steel (Or Metal, as it was known)
Strong Against: N/A
Weak To: Water, Electric
Resists: Fighting, Poison (NOT immune, just a resist), Steel (IS an immunity)
Resisted By: Steel (...obviously)

and Dark
Strong Against: N/A
Weak To: Normal
Resists: Psychic (NOT immune, just a resist)
Resisted By: Normal

Though as you can see general the types were still early days in terms of implementation. Likely hadn't finished implementing their plans, or were just slowly working through their ideas.
 
The match ups at the time were

Steel (Or Metal, as it was known)
Resists: Fighting, Poison (NOT immune, just a resist), Steel (IS an immunity)

Dark
Weak To: Normal
Resists: Psychic (NOT immune, just a resist)
Resisted By: Normal
Normal was good in RBY, why make it busted in the Gold Beta?
God, I can't imagine the metagame with these Metal and Dark types. Snorlax is Body Slamming it to death.
 
Normal was good in RBY, why make it busted in the Gold Beta?
God, I can't imagine the metagame with these Metal and Dark types. Snorlax is Body Slamming it to death.
Well again like I said it's pretty obvious these are works in progress; neither of them even have stuff they're SE against being the most glaring thing. Normal may have just been a brief idea they were floating, having the pair be opposites rather than fighting/dark but hadn't ironed out what they fully wanted out of the type.

e: Also to give broader context there were all of 2 dark type moves at this juncture, special defense was primarily still place holder values, and the stats we have of the dark types that did exist weren't that great at this point; likely still largely in flux themselves
 
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Imagine a world where Mega Sableye's greatest fear is unboosted Knock Off lmao

Idk I feel like the justification can go either way. Maybe Dark should be weak to Dark because 'no honour among thieves' or whatever, or maybe it should resist itself because dirty tricks work best against a naive opponent (or maybe it should be a neutral matchup because both of those things are true).

I'm probably just biased in favour of what I'm accustomed to, but I feel like the main reason why Dark didn't end up being weak to itself is because there were already two such types with more intuitive justifications.
 

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Moving this discussion here as its clogging the Scarlet & Violet thread:

Considering the Pokemon world has the technology to reconstruct living beings from DNA extracted from fossils that are millions of years old, having a synthetic meat industry is hardly a stretch.
Huh, good point. Lab grown meat is a thing (given the more catchy name "cultured meat"), and since its being grown in a controlled environment its supposed to be more healthy (and can be made healthier) and have less environmental impact than farming (though these claims are still up in theory).

Want beef? Well just get a few choice cells from Tauros/Miltank, do the preparation for the replication process (such as putting it in a container), send it into the replicators, and tada: the inside of the container is full of Tauros/Miltank meat. Prep it, cook it, cut it up, package it, and it'll be on store shelves by the morning.

That said, there will still probably be instances where the Pokemon themselves are eaten. Notably Slowpoke shedding their tails and the crustacean Pokemon which can lose their claws as they can regrow back. And in my headcannon, a Pokemon never really gets "weaker" as it ages. So say on a farm an elderly Miltank or Tauros is ready to pass, though parts of the body such as the bones and organs have worn themselves down, the meat and muscle is overall fine so those Pokemon can have their spirit sent off to a peaceful rest and their bodies than processed likely as premium meat. This ain't the lab stuff, this is the actual Pokemon.

Though there is another side of this: the Pokemon POV. As mentioned, Pokemon eat other Pokemon. We're thinking its barbaric because Pokemon have shown to be capable of human emotion and certain level of intelligence. But let's note those are tamed Pokemon, Pokemon who are pets & work partners (or employees in some cases). Despite Pokemon have the ability to be more human-like, a Pokemon (especially wild) still acts upon instinct and raw feeling, intelligence used for basic survival. Pokemon likely do not see it as "taboo" to eat other Pokemon, it's the law of the wild.

Considering the Pokemon World does have an overseeing god, I can't imagine it didn't make plans for this (being it would have been the one to guide such a cycle). My guess is that any Pokemon which is eaten, by Pokemon or human, gets a "reincarnation free card" and its spirit is sent right back to be reborn (maybe even selected in a Pokemon that is less likely to be eaten, or who knows maybe it'll be reborn as a human). It's why Sinnoh Myths includes that myth which concerns eating a Pokemon: it's a (albeit dark) ritual meant to ease both the soul of the eaten and eater.

So, with that said, maybe there are farms that, after they get to a certain "ripe" age, the Pokemon are treated to a ritual where the chosen spend the last day of their lives in luxury before a Ghost-type takes their spirit to the afterlife and the now soulless body is sent to be processed. The Pokemon know they're just going to be reincarnated (won't have its memories but for these Pokemon that's not a huge deal) so feels no need to fight back. And if there was any farm Pokemon which didn't want to restart life... they aren't. They're either kept as a guardian/pet/worker or maybe go with off into a world with a trainer.

(I do plan on going back to other posts, just want to post this her so I can link it to the post I'm making there)
 
Huh, good point. Lab grown meat is a thing (given the more catchy name "cultured meat"), and since its being grown in a controlled environment its supposed to be more healthy (and can be made healthier) and have less environmental impact than farming (though these claims are still up in theory).
Lab-grown meat is really not better for the environment. We have a way of turning clean energy into beef, it's called "feed grass to a cow". It's low labor, low emissions, and the waste product is a no-chemical fertilizer that you use to grow the next batch of cow feed. Building a complex lab and filling it with chemicals to manually build meat is a far worse plan, and as a result the practical challenges are basically insurmountable.

Not saying there's no reason to figure it out, science is good, and there's people with severe allergies where "we built this food cell by cell specifically for your needs" will be a massive QOL improvement, but for the rest of the population, we can already feed them. Scientists created an incredible food supply thousands of years ago out of auruchs and maize, we just need to be smarter about using it well.

I mean, sure, this is the pokemon universe, maybe lab-grown meat is practical because you just feed berries to a kadabra and it does the work, but IRL lab-grown meat is like self-driving cars. It's cool, but the challenges are huge and the problems it solves can be handled in a much lower tech way if we put in the effort.
 
Lab-grown meat is really not better for the environment. We have a way of turning clean energy into beef, it's called "feed grass to a cow". It's low labor, low emissions, and the waste product is a no-chemical fertilizer that you use to grow the next batch of cow feed. Building a complex lab and filling it with chemicals to manually build meat is a far worse plan, and as a result the practical challenges are basically insurmountable.

Not saying there's no reason to figure it out, science is good, and there's people with severe allergies where "we built this food cell by cell specifically for your needs" will be a massive QOL improvement, but for the rest of the population, we can already feed them. Scientists created an incredible food supply thousands of years ago out of auruchs and maize, we just need to be smarter about using it well.

I mean, sure, this is the pokemon universe, maybe lab-grown meat is practical because you just feed berries to a kadabra and it does the work, but IRL lab-grown meat is like self-driving cars. It's cool, but the challenges are huge and the problems it solves can be handled in a much lower tech way if we put in the effort.
I totally agree with the overall point, but I'm not sure I'd call the beef and dairy industry "low emissions" haha, even after accounting for electricity and transport. Natural fertiliser isn't the only waste product produced by cows, after all...

Knock Off would be absurdly busted if it also knocks Mega Stones. And Sableye is one of those Pokémon who are dependent to Mega Evolution.
I don't know how you interpreted my post as advocating a Knock Off buff. I was saying it'd be funny if Knock Off were Mega Sableye's most prevalent weakness in competitive play despite not removing its item or getting the power boost.
 
I totally agree with the overall point, but I'm not sure I'd call the beef and dairy industry "low emissions" haha, even after accounting for electricity and transport. Natural fertiliser isn't the only waste product produced by cows, after all...
I'm fully encouraging you to look this up afterward and not take my word for it (heck, I should double-check this myself), but a big reason cows are cited as a (large?) contributor to greenhouse gases is because we're feeding them food they're not meant to eat. Cows are supposed to subsist on wildflowers and grasses, not the corn feed we give them that makes their bodies produce way more methane than they would otherwise.
 
I'm fully encouraging you to look this up afterward and not take my word for it (heck, I should double-check this myself), but a big reason cows are cited as a (large?) contributor to greenhouse gases is because we're feeding them food they're not meant to eat. Cows are supposed to subsist on wildflowers and grasses, not the corn feed we give them that makes their bodies produce way more methane than they would otherwise.
Oh I didn't even realise cows were mainly fed a corn-based diet in other places (like that really sucks tbh), but I think here in New Zealand cows are like 95% grass-fed and they still seem to produce quite a bit of methane.

Anyway, to change tack completely: this is less of an actual mystery and more a fun thing to come up with lore about, but how do berries' battle effects work? Like I know the real answer is 'to create a satisfying and balanced game mechanic', but why does a mon have to drop to 1/4 health before it can eat its Salac berry to boost its Speed?
 
Oh I didn't even realise cows were mainly fed a corn-based diet in other places (like that really sucks tbh), but I think here in New Zealand cows are like 95% grass-fed and they still seem to produce quite a bit of methane.

Anyway, to change tack completely: this is less of an actual mystery and more a fun thing to come up with lore about, but how do berries' battle effects work? Like I know the real answer is 'to create a satisfying and balanced game mechanic', but why does a mon have to drop to 1/4 health before it can eat its Salac berry to boost its Speed?
Tastes so bad they only eat it in desperation
 

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