Game Theory: Why Flying Pokemon CAN'T FLY! 

Meanwhile Team Rocket flying everywhere by just using Pikachu's Thunderbolt..

Imagine seeing a charizard just swooping down and abducting a kid

I like how you mentioned get a bunch of small flying pokemon to carry the flying taxi and now in gen 9, a bunch of squawkabillies carry the flying taxi. It’s like gamefreak watched this LOL

I always assumed Chaizard(and maybe Dragonite) had a bloated belly because it held gas that was less dense than air to help it float AND exhaust fire. Evan as a kid, I knew those wings could not support the weight.

MatPat: 1/10 of flying pokemon can't physically fly. Pidgey: I see no Flying pokemon up here, other than me.

“..And the bee flies anyway, because they don’t care what humans think is possible “

Since FLY was a move you had to unlock, being an HM move, then I just thought it gave your Pokémon a superpower move hence a small pidgey being able to carry my character. Ah the simplicity of just enjoying a game back in the day xD

update from Paldea Corviknights are chased after by Tinkatons for their armor, which shut down the whole taxi service. Therefore Paldea took the "many small" birds approach via Squawkabilly. maybe someone at gamefreak was listening?

Matpat: "Birds wouldn't be able to support their own weight if they were any larger." Pterosaurs: "Observe"

“Ruining your childhood since 2011” I can actually say you finally have achieved that for me.

Turns out that guy in ruby/sapphire/emerald that was trying to use 6 wingulls to fly actually had the right idea of things.

From the future here: the new games no longer use corviknight is no longer used for transportation, and instead they use several small birds (Also there is an in game reason) but maybe gamefreak saw this video

In all of my days, I would never expect for game theory to have a sponsor of Gieco, now matpat can be in a funny Gieco commercial

“The flying Pokémon of course, flies anyways. Because flying Pokémon don’t care what the theorist think is impossible.”

charizard isnt a dragon, he's a flying lizard!

I like how the title is just like “actually charizard can’t fly” because in gen 1 this was actually true!

Mat : Pokedex is wrong also Mat : Lets use the pokedex as a convenient source.

Man’s trying to make sense out of a 10 yo kid battling dragons with a electric rat

This is kinda what they did with the Flying Taxi in Scarlet/Violet with using multiple Squawkabilly, which is pretty cool

Aerodactyle is based on Pteradons, who actually got pretty big. Unlike birds who use their legs to get off the ground, because they actually jump to get started, Pteradons are thought to have actually pushed themselves off the ground with their arms. Seeing as Quetzulquatlus is basically confirmed to have flown, and is the largest flying creature to have done so. Its tiny legs couldn't get it off the ground, but those arms could.

Pokemon: Creates hurricane force winds capable of destroying steel with a single beat of their wings. MatPat: hOw CaN tHeY fLy?!?

“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway. ”

"and then we'll mention the incredible GIRTH of Hoothoot" - MatPat while writing this episode

Finally, a youtube video that answers the eternal question: can a five ounce bird carry a one pound coconut?

Funny thing is, Braviary is capable of carrying a car, but it's considered too aggressive for the Flying Taxi service.

So lesson learned, the kid in Gen 2 up at the lake of rage who wanted to tie a bunch of flying pokemon together was actually onto something.

Also, quick question. Should togekiss really count? I've never seen it flap its wings. Presumably, they're more for stabilizing flight than producing lift, meaning it should also be in the "flies by mystical means" category, yeah?

Gyarados seems to have more dragon moves than flying moves. He should either be a water/dragon type or have more flying moves.

Lord Arceus: "They can fly because I said so!"

"using animals for transportation is incredibly unsafe" Horses.

I'm in love with editing of this video! Kudos!

7:35 simply put: to have more stuff doing something, you need to have more stuff that isn't doing that to support the stuff that does that, and more stuff to make the stuff that supports the stuff work.

Game Theory getting sponsored by Geico is such a baller move

A theory idea : "What kind of paper is Paper Mario made off?"

never thought that game theory would be sponsored by frickin' G E I C O

It's not just Lugia and Ho-oh that manipulate the air and wind, you don't need to be a legendary pokemon to do that. Being a flying type pokemon means they have advanced control over the element of air and wind, that's how they use moves like Hurricane and Air Slash.

Everybody is suprised about the theory, but I'm suprised that Mat got GEICO to sponsor him. Wow.

It’s so sad for Salamence. It spent its entire evolutionary line with one dream, to fly, and it can’t even get itself off the ground.

This is a different universe and we don't know much about it so there might just be 18 electrons in the first subshell. We cannot say anything by just comparing to our world. Just stating a fact. I love your efforts MatPat, love u❤❤.

I have a minor theory, maybe the gravity and atmospheric pressure are different on the poképlanet, thus allowing them to fly, but thats just a theory a mini-theory, thanks for reading.

i actually thought i would hear austin screaming the utter nonsense of flying pokemon

I would LOVE to see a Game Theory episode about the loftwings in Skyward Sword, based on this video! It would probably be much harder though, seeing as I don't know if their weights were ever recorded...

“Ruining your childhood in 2011” -Mattpat GT

"Flying pokemon can't fly" Seems like the floor here _isn't_ made out of floor...

I just always imagine that scene from Undertale, whenever flying by Pidgy the one where a small bird carries you across a tiny gap, its such a cute mental image

my personal theory is that most flying types can airbend, like appa from avatar, which is how they can use moves like tailwind

The answer is clearly to finally admit that you can put humans in Pokeballs, and have the taxi service just be 'catch human in pokeball, hand to Pidgey, Pidgey flies human to destination and releases it'

New theory: How many pidgeons would it take to for a man to fly in Hey Arnold

MatPat: Maybe the Pokemon world should invest more in airplanes. Mistralton City: Am I a joke to you?

Or the poké world has a thicker atmosphere, it would also explain all the anime air time, every thing is just that much more buoyant in that atmosphere.

My head canon is that the ones with wings use the same magic that allows the non-wing Pokémon to fly, the wings are just a fun part of their design. So the real question is: who designed them O.o

The real question is what if Corviknight is steel type does that mean his talons work like magnets ?

While MatPat tried to makes sense of Pokemon, let's try to make sense of him having two left hands at the beginning of this video.

The fact eagles have attempted to carry snatch kids in the past is hilarious to me. It's as if the bird's thinking "well, if you're not gonna eat the little varmint then don't mind if I do" (yoink).

The birds are just BUILT DIFFERENT.

i have to say i wasn't expecting hey arnold to show up in my daily dose of pokemon

To quote Monty Python "It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut."

I saw this video about a year and a half ago and liked it so much, that I applied the math to a couple of my characters to see if they could fly(and a couple of other characters that were my friend's.) Apparently, my character could lift an extra 30 or so pounds while my friend's character was 5-10 pounds off from carrying his own weight meaning he was not able to fly. I came back to this video because I still like the math on it and should probably do it again on a couple of my characters due to the fact they have all gone through several redesigns. I love your videos Mr. MattPatt, thanks for teaching me science and math and disturbing facts that make my friends and mom very concerned about my mental health

i thought about it and realised that the pokemon worlds gravity probably isnt the same as irl so mabye he should test that first and then do the calculatios

I've never seen Geico sponsor a RU-vid video.

11:48 "Sorry little bud. Those tiny little wings of yours just aren't enough to handle your incredible girth". And I quote this from season 1 episode 41 of Gen 1 pokemon "Your girth is blowing my mind".

Hey Matpat on this theory have you considered about Pokemon levelling system as to strength and weight? I just personally think that it may completely change your synopsis.

Subjecting real world physics to dictionary creatures, Yayyyyy!!!

Mat pat and Geico is a crossover I never thought I would see

I just realized how much my family watches game theory when my 3 year old sibling came up to me pointed at my phone and said "that's game theory! That's game theory!" It was so cute/pos

matpat on his way to apply real world physics to fictional franchises that have almost no matching physics:

I will now be lazy and just say” In my personal cannon, it’s a different world with less gravity.”

Can’t believe that Game Theory got me to watch an entire Geico ad

MatPat: “Lugia can’t fly.” Me: “But it can levitate with its psychic abilities.”

Poor Salamance, Bagon was so excited to fly when it evolves, and it still can't!

Thank you for making ads fun and not just giving me a bunch of useless info that I don’t listen to

"Apparently, eagle snatching was a lot more common back in the day" Australopithecus having intense flashbacks.

12:45 this work with any pokemon can fly like a 10000000 rebombee ( if it can fly) can do the trick

It's maybe late, but I found the Episode just now, shame on me. I love the episode, great work as always

Human Kids: exist Eagles: And I took that personally

I’ve never heard the words “this videos been sponsored by Geico” until today.

Actually, here in Michigan, there is a bird that is even bigger than the Bald Eagle! This beast is 3 1/2 feet-4 feet in height!

CONGRATS FOR GETTING GEICO TO SPONSOR YOU MATPAT

Doduo just spins his heads around like helicopter blades

"What is the wingspan of an unladen pidgey?" "Kantonian or Alolan pidgey?"

It strikes me as odd that you specifically mention some Pkm potentially being able to control air, then dismiss the idea immediately. In my mind, Flying-type has always been analogous with "Air-type." Other Pkm can control water, fire, earth, plants, and any number of other materials with little-to-no physically-derived abilities, so it stands to reason that Flying Pkm do something similar with air. I mean... there's a Flying-type move that literally makes a miniature hurricane strong enough to damage an opponent. That's something that you can only really do with either industrial equipment or an innate control over the air itself. Since Pidgey isn't carrying around any 2-ton fans, I'm inclined to say it's the latter of those two possibilities. Assuming that's the case, the real problem becomes determining a given Pkm's ability to control the air around it. Since Flying-type moves use either Attack or Sp.Attack as their main stat, we can assume that these are somehow related to how powerful their control over air is, and therefor how much they can lift in flight. Based on the descriptions of moves and basic logic, it can be assumed that Attack is descriptive of a Pkm's physical strength, whereas Sp.Attack is indicative of their ability to control 'elements' (in this case, air). Corviknight's base Attack and Sp.Attack are 87 and 53 respectively. Charizard's, meanwhile, are 84 and 109. Even if we're incredibly reductive and assume that 1 Attack point is equivilent to being able to lift 1kg of weight, Corviknight appears to be able to fly unaided (70kg < 87Atk) while Charizard only seems to need a little extra air-manipulation (90.5kg - 84Atk = only ~7kg). Granted, this still leaves a few "Flying" Pkm unable to actually lift off. Gyarados, for example, has an Attack and Sp.Attack of 125 and 60 respectively, and a weight of 235kg (125 + 60 = 185, 185 < 235kg). But, then, Gyarados can't actually learn "Fly," so... checkmate..?

Ik im late but im hi and i felt the need to say 11:00 yes lugia can control current and air pressure

Pidgeys got to carry almost 20x his own weight ants: hold my breadcrumbs

That transition to GEICO was so smooth.

I like how at the moment at 1:53, MatPat has the ideas - ”Mass Effect PT. 2" - ”Petscop Finale" Crossed out and basically saying "You can’t make me do these videos 😈"

Interestingly enough, corviknight isn't the flying taxi service anymore in Scarlet violet and the small Parrot Squakabelly in a group has replaced so did game freak listen?

I find it both funny and terrifying that the editors had made just an image of an eagle flying away with Ollie.

I feel like the target demographic for Game Theory episodes and Geico ads isn't the same audience.

Your theory of using multiple birds for flying taxi came to reality with pokemon scarlet and violet.... Congratulations for getting the theory into the games....👏👏👏

It makes sense, but how did the massive prehistoric flying creatures manage to fly while carrying extra weight

Something Mat hasn’t taken into account is that birds with large wingspans rarely flap their wings. They’re basically living gliders by that point.

"Wait how is Charizard flying" "He's beginning to believe" "Yeah, that'll happen when pigs fly" *but with the power of Psychic they can*

I like that this isn’t destroying my childhood. I always tried to only fly with pokemon who were bigger than me. The animation shows that they are, so it _has_ to be a being bigger than me.

I love how he says "See you next week" like it's a different MatPat on each theorist channel. I've still got a food theory to catch, so I'll see you in like 20 seconds!

“Why flying types can’t fly” Me: why ghost types aren’t actually ghosts

In Pokémon Yellow and the 2 Let's Go Pokémon games, it says that Doduo has short wings. Short wings do allow some flight, but not carrying around an 80 lb. kid Trainer AND his TARDIS bag full of items!

For the case of Dragonite, the Pokedex state it's some kind of being with weather manipulation powers. so physically it shouldn't fly, But when you consider its lore, it could probably using it's dragon/arcane magic to control the air currents around it. For literally most legendaries, they're just powerful, wynaut. for Lugia specifically, it's a psychic type. so it just floats itself. For Togekiss and togetic, refer to the explanation above from dragonite.

The saddest part is according to its Pokédex entry salemence always wanted to fly and is very happy that it can, but in real life it can’t fly.

I like how Matt is just mocking us with the Petscop finale and Mass effect part 2 crossed out

I feel like you need to revisit this now that Scarlet/Violet has come out and they have done taxi service for Paldea with multiple smaller birds. XD