The difference is that, in a world full of magical animals, Geodude, Onyx, et al is something one could see naturally evolving as part of the ecosystem, whereas Trubbish and whatever that sentient ice cream cone one was called kinda aren't.

Like, if we start with the assumption that magic manifests in various critters, I could go on a hike and I wouldn't be surprised to run into a Geodude or whatever, but if I saw a trashbag with googly eyes running around I'd think I was high as fuck.

 

If you assume magic manifests in things, why would magic manifesting in a Pokeball (Voltorb) any different than magic manifesting in a trash bag (Trubbish)?

 

It's a subtle distinction, and one most people can cheerfully ignore I'm sure, but my issue is largely one of "plausibility", insofar as the term can apply to sapient magical animals that can speak but only say their name. Ponyta, Geodude, etc are all fantastical, but they wouldn't be out of place in the real world, if their magical abilities were possible (for example, if there was an organ that gave pyrokinesis, I wouldn't be surprised to see a herd of Rapidash running around the American mid-west).

Whereas, with that same caveat, I would, indeed, be shocked to run into a sapient ice cream cone or a trashbag with googly eyes running around out in the woods, miles from civilization.

Both scenarios are impossible in reality, but one is simply significantly more absurd than the other, and it kills my immersion into the world as a real place.

 

Nobody gonna point out how the water starter is just the face Pikachu meme?

 

I don't know if I can accept this as a true game about England without seeing at least a few drunk chavs getting into a knife fight over a half pack of bootleg cigarettes after a football game, or least a few 10 year olds chucking petrol bombs and half bricks at cops. Just doesn't capture the spirit of the land without the little details.

 

Then you need to have a license for your PokeNav and Aegislash need to be banned outright.

 

"For the first time ever I saw the Scotch in their natural habitat, and it weren't pretty. I'd seen them huddling in stations before, being loud but… this time I was surrounded. Everywhere I went it felt like they were watching me; fish-white flesh puckered by the Highland breeze; tight eyes peering out for fresh meat; screechy, booze-soaked voices hollering out for a taxi to take 'em halfway up the road to the next all-night watering hole. A shatter of glass; a round of applause; a sixteen-year-old mother of three vomiting in an open sewer, bairns looking on, chewing on potato cakes. I ain’t never going back… not never."

 

I'm just confused as to why Agayek is talking about magic.

 

"magic" is a stand-in for "whatever allows Pokemon their fantastical abilities". Like, for example, the specific physical mechanism by which a Charmander and evolutions can breathe and manipulate fire, and why a literal fire burning on their tail is intrinsically tied to the continuation of their life.

Most Pokemon have at least one aspect to their biology or capabilities (even outside of evolutions and the fact that nearly every one can speak, but only a specific, typically multi-syllable word) that is flat-out impossible under our understanding of physics, and I lump that under the general category of "magic", because that's functionally what it is.

 

I think you're overthinking things a little.

 

Eh. Pokemon is quite intrinsically linked to Shintoism and the concept of the kami, the spirits that live in all things. The many Pokemon are all nearly explicitly manifestations of different kinds of kami, with most of the original couple of generations being based pretty heavily in common Japanese folklore, and their fantastical capabilities are all derived from that root concept.

I just call it magic because that's simpler and more universally understood.

 

Welcome to every single DLP thread.

Can't help but notice you ignored the Voltorb you quoted. To be fair I kind of agree with you, the base premise that is. I enjoy the Pokemon that are atleast based on animals more than the completely nonsense ones, Klink etcetera. But we tend to disregard things such as Voltorb and Magnemite lines while we do so due to nostalgia.

 

The reason I didn't mention Voltorb is that it suffers from the same problem.

There's never been a full generation of Pokemon that was a perfect fit for what I enjoyed most in the series, just ones that have the fewest transgresses. There's always been at least a handful of truly ridiculous Pokemon that stood out like sore thumbs, but the ratio of ridiculous to not has been steadily growing over time, as the creative team struggles to keep coming up with more and more new Pokemon, and so I prefer the earlier generations, with the much lower ratio.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just personal preference. If it doesn't bother you, all the more power to ya.

 

It does, which is why I said I agree with the base premise. My remark was intended to show that people generally don't despise Magnemite the same due to nostalgia, if you show it the same scorn as the newer dumb ones my argument falls flat when it comes to you. I've merely observed it tends to be the trend with older players of the genré.

 

Gen 5 had at least as many great designs as it did awful ones. Hydreigon, Krookodile, Cofagrigus, and Reuniclus all look great and are more than enough to make up for garbage and ice cream pokemon imo. Same with pretty much every generation, some look amazing, others look pretty poor (see Magnemite/Voltorb/Garbodor/Vanilluxe).

 

Flying, fighting, and rock (or ice)?

 

Psychic, Poison, Bug? Go wild.

 

Here's a Scottish dub made after Sword/Shield was announced.

Sound on, of course.

 

At long last, when two people in Britain make eye contact, the brawl involves proxies.