My theory (outside of the creators just phasing animals out as they come up with pokéreplacements) is that Pokémon simply outcompeted normal animals and edged them out 😂 over time.
Person below ya was right, members of the channel get the video first I do have a patreon open as of now too. It helps since I'm still rather small and can't reliably support myself with youtube while pursuing this passion. Well, not yet at least!
The boring answer is: they were retconed.😅 They've been slowly replacing animals in the anime by their pokémon counterparts as the roster got bigger. That's why pretty much every reference to real animals are in Gens 1 & 2, and to a lesser extent Gen 3. Just like all references to elephants have been replaced by Copperajah, if Wishiwashi was a Gen 1 pokémon, it would've showed up instead of those small fishes outside of the sunk SS. Anne. They also started avoiding references to the real world in general, since there's now equivalents in the Pokémon World (ie: Prism Tower = Eiffel Tower). Mt. Everest and Pacific Ocean in RSE have been omitted in favor of "world's highest mountain" and "the ocean" respectively in ORAS. Surge's title of "Lightning American" has been changed to "Lightning Lieutenant" to omit the country, and in BW2 one of the NPCs hints that he's from Unova (the equivalent to America).
Honestly I believe they all went extinct or adapted to become pokemon. Its hard to compete with predators that shoot fire and herbivores that have magical powers
I've always had the headcannon that the pokerus virus mutated animals into pokemon long ago. I actually think that the virus is in everything, just inactive. Perhaps it only is able to develop things into pokemon when there is a high enough volume of it, slowly adapting to their surroundings by changing their bodies. Magnets slowly morphing into magnemites to pull in more charge, vixens becoming Fennekins to stay warm in winter seasons, steadily gaining evolutions to adapt to human interference. Heck, even plants could have it. Its shown that plant pokemon and inanimate pokemon don't show as much intellect as animal or human like pokemon which shows how the virus can develop consciousness for these creatures but not a brain to house deeper realms of thought. As for the animals who don't have enough pokerus to morph like humans and other animals, I think it still gives you buffs like super durability and strength which is how humans can survive neigh destructive pokemon and lift them like Ash does. But unlike humans who grew more intelligent and were able to ward off pokemon, animals are forced to stay in their group. More strength isn't gonna help to win against magical creatures, making them the bottom of the food chain and being hunted. So perhaps they just are rare to find in areas with pokemon for that reason. But animals with less intellect like bugs or butterflies would be okay with that, so they'd still be around places to be left alone or eaten. In conclusion, the world knows of animals, they've seen animals. Just not with pokemon cause by the power of biological hierarchy, pokemon eat animals. If we wanna go with Ken Shudos statements as facts though, pokemon making them extinct would be the reason, only humans surviving due to their superior intellect.
@@AryFemMtF Eh, I wouldn't since it make no sense with canon lore. You know the whole Arceus creating everything... then creating various god pokemon... then creating things like Mew... that would mean that Pokemon would predate both Animals (if they aren't retconned out) and humans. If anything Pokerus would have to turn Pokemon into normal animals (and humans) for this theory to hold as opposed to the reverse.... which is not what the virus does.
@jamaldavis2480 hmm, there is the point that arceus might very well be made to be a fake with fake memories too, hence where all that comes from, because the "real" pokemon god wants it that way, interesting to think about though
@@AryFemMtF That is a pretty moot point in any actual discussion as it shuts down any canonical lore aspect. This "real" pokemon god that made Arceus to believe it was the "Pokemon God" could do anything. Why do animals not exist? The "real" Pokemon god wanted it that way. Why does Ash have plot armor the "real" Pokemon god. What if the "real" Pokemon god wasn't the "real" Pokemon god and there was an even bigger god behind them? Kind of makes it worse that we know that he Arceus we know is just the avatar of the actual Arceus.
The war from King AZs era was Pokémons equivalent to the 100 years war a war between France and the United Kingdom, or in pokemons case Kalos and Galar.
I choose to believe that animals in Pokémon are used for categorizing. Pikachu is the mouse Pokémon because it shares a body shape with other mouse like creatures. Beef is the meat from one of several cow like pokemon. However, despite being a huge pokemon nerd, I have never played a mainline game, so this might be disputed by in game lore
It doesn't, and it s a valid theory. Though it brings up questions like "What is a mouse", "What is Beef, "What is a Cow"? It doesn't help that there are seemingly both Pokemon and non-Pokemon food dishes... well at least ones are which they have no issue telling you, that you are eating a Toedscool, Klawf, or Slowpoke.... but it other dishes it is just generic pork or beef. Despite having Pokemon for both those categories. Also.... where do the chicken like eggs come from? As no Pokemon lay eggs of that size.
@@jamaldavis2480ok, what is a canivoran? What is a rodent? What is a bovine? The theory above can work, we too use words that are not just "cow" to classify different bovines. We use "canivoran" to describe many different species with an umbrella term. About the eggs. The eggs we see are gameplay mechanics. And while the anime does show them too, they are based on the gameplay mechanic. We see many pokemon have offspring through other, not shown means. Like Kangashkan. So what if one of the chicken based pokemon lay eggs like RL chicken, if they don't have a mate?
@@BluePhoenix_ The issue is we have a basis for those words. Without animals the Pokemon world does not. The basis for their words come from how they name things. Using your example Bolvine comes from Bovis the latin word for Cow. A lot of our language is based of the dead latin language and what they call things. In the Pokemon World Oddish was named Oddish Not Weed. Even its scientific name is Oddium Wanderus. Its category of "The Weed Pokemon" only makes sense in context of the real world looking into, because what would you call it other than a weed or some translations of that from the languages we speak.That is the issue with the theory. You can't classify something as a cat pokemon without there having been a cat in the first place. Like with us their category naming would be based in their own history. So.. we just disregard all canon information as "game mechanics" or the anime can't be trusted because that is based on all the unreliable games. Instead we are going to assume that some unannounced pokemon goes against everything we do know and lays different eggs then every other Pokemon known to exist... instead of assuming that Kangaskhan has a pre-evolution that hatches from the egg. The one we have seen since the first generation.
@@jamaldavis2480 yeah, but all words are made up. Just because we use latin, doesn't mean those words aren't just a descriptor of the group, that was made up. And keep in mind, we are talking about a franchise mainly aimed at children. So if Gamefreak needs a descriptor for all cow-like pokemon, they aren't gonna use "Bovinae", they are going to use "cow". Your criticism falls apart, the moment you apply it. For example "you can't classify something as a canid, unless you have a dog" it doesn't work. Those words are all made up, you can use them to describe things through common usage. So if you have a cat pokemon, that's equivalent to a feline animal. With one being an Incineroar when we get to the species level and the other being a Tiger. And no, i am not saying we should just disregard everything, because game mechanics. I am saying, that we have evidence of non-egg reproduction in the pokemon world. Kangashkan was only an example. Granted, it wasn't the strongest one, but i didn't remember Rabsca's name. It carries a ball, which contains an infant, that doesn't resemble Rellor and looks like a mix of an egg-cell and an insect larva. We also havr manmade pokemon, which should be able to reproduce themselves through the same means that created them initally. We KNOW pokemon reproduction differs between daycare and the wild. Especially since some pokemon are male only. And Milcery forms from sweet smelling particles in the air, suggesting they can reproduce without a partner. So a pokemon having a regular cycle, like real life chickens and only producing offspring after fertilization wouldn't be unrealistic. Especially since we have evidence of non-egg based reproduction. That was my point here.
@@anonomooose This may be a bit off topic but that last sentence threw me. What???? My brain is trying to process the idea that there are fellow Pokénerds out there who have never played a mainline game, probably because that’s most if not all of what I do and have done in the fandom myself for 24 years. 😅
I remember in the first Pokemon movie when Ash randomly mentioned Minnesota during the part where Team Rocket were dressed as Vikings to get to New Island, also Misty using a Holy Cross to fend off a Gastly in an anime episode..while I miss the goofiness of the real life animals and references in Pokemon, I understand why they're gone now
Do we know that pokerus doesn't affect humans? What about the humans with superpowers in the games and anime? Some have super strength, some have psychic abilities, or talk to ghosts. Maybe the pokerus gave humans these abilities? Not to mention humans seem to be more durable in general. They can survive being electrocuted, poisoned and more by pokémon.
Canonically explained... Well... Canonically implied. Aura or Infinity Energy is your answer. All living things within the Pokemon world possess it and it is what is used for Pokemon's abilities. Seemingly all variety of these phenomena are just this "Life Energy" or "Spiritual Energy" expressing itself in different ways. "Aura" specifically has be noted to give the user the ability to read minds, predict actions, sense other sentient living beings, create barriers, form attacks, transfer your own aura to another (which can be fatal), telepathy, seeing and speaking with the spirits of the dead, Allowing those spirits to interact with the physical world, locate mega stones, and telepathic vision.
Honestly had to look into this and infinity energy Really shows how much I missed by not playing XY until now or even ORAS. BUT yes, life energy is the power of pokemon that can be harnessed by humanity, each pokemon having a different level of ability to contain it. Mega Stones blast that energy to the stratosphere to points where most pokemon can't contain it. I just quickly researched it and hopefully that tldr is accurate as I wanted to respond to this thread before bed!
The issue with the pokerus theory is that pokemon were canonically around since the beginning of time, Arceus created everything, all pokemon descended from mew, which was created early in earth's history, the canon conflicts with pokemon coming into existence anytime after humans
I don't think pokerus has to do with it, what i think is that pokemon are animals that have the power to utilze infinity energy, because of this they were able to outcompete regular animals, causing all of them (except humans) to go instinct
Humans technically are Pokemon in the series. Or at least descended from Pokemon. So in the Pokemon universe, humans also aren't "regular animals" (although we don't know whether the regular animals we saw also descended from Pokemon or not).
I just like to think that those animals were just beta pokemon. That mongoose is just a beta Gumshoos, the fish are just beta Lumineon, and the worm we see Pidgeotto eat is just a beta Sewaddle
I love jumping spiders. I was outside and one came up and chilled with me. Got him in a jar and showed him my house. I let him go in our garden afterwards.
Love how frequently the animal references are brought up by the fandom in Pokemon, but the fact of Grass pokemon existing alongside non pokemon plants isn't as mind blowing to peeps introduced to the topic.
Funny you say that, while I'm working on the history of fossil pokemon, the other potential winner of the vote was "Plant Sentience and Plant Pokemon", title being workshopped
My theory is that only small animals exist in the pokemon world Fish, bugs, shrimp and crustaceans and the occasional mongoose The rest are simply Pokemon. Pokedex entries that refference real world animals arent actually cannon to the pokemon world, they are just used to compare for us
From a meta perspective, DYKG answered this pretty comfortably with their translation of an early Japan exclusive companion book- it explicitly states that the first version of the Pokemon Canon was an alternative version of reality, but where Pokemon are supernatural/fantasy/alien/yokai/etc entities, and tech is a biiiit more advanced than it is IRL. (which soothes my brain. I like concrete info with lore as nebulous as Pokemon) During the development of gen 2, they decided to retcon the lore to make it a separate world, and went wishy-washy about animals being a thing, using IRL animals to fill in gaps whwn pokemon didn't exist, as extended media such as the anime took on its own life and had the uncertain trajectories. (that T-rex fossil 👀) So we wound up with that weird Gen 2 plotpoint about Mr. Pokemon flipping out over eggs. That got retconned in HGSS to him being an eccentric, excited over a niche detail about eggs. Buuuuuut, you pose totally fair points, because this retcon raises a HUGE question about the dex. Even if we skip to the future to where animals have been all but eliminated from pokemon media- If its not tracking rumors anymore, then yes- WTF is a goat??? And why is the dex filled with complete BS? But if we do entertain the idea of animals fading from the Pokemon lore, I'd blame it on the Unknown movie. If mortals go messing around with the Powers of Creation, the world's gonna get more interesting. So the fireworks died down, but why not let there be some subtle ripple effects, possibly centralizing around Ash? The games got retconned by gen 2, so idk if its really worth worrying about IMO. I basically consider Gen 1 as odd a duck in lore as I do it an odd duck with mechanics. And its a very, very bizarre bird. But any excuse to talk about genetics in fiction in a non-resident evil-ey way is always fun! I love how Pokemon is such a Science-Positive series. The first person to talk to you is a happy, welcoming professor, after all. So here's one for you, especially if you like you like spiders- due to the odd traits of the venom of the brown recluse, its believed that there was a Lateral Gene Transfer between them and a random BACTERIA. which is so friggin wacky. 15:13 And don't worry, My Little Pony violated the Geneva Convention, too lol. You never know when someone's gonna crime a war. In general, I gotta agree that there DEFINITELY feels like some angle they're going for, where Gamefreak is stepping back from the idea that people and Pokemon were always super close. And knowing that the first version of the lore had people TOTALLY disconnected from Pokemon, (iirc they started studying them in France in the 1800s) I'd basically call this almost a soft-UNretcon. But my observation on the topic is that this idea seems to specifically coincide with the post-roadmap (3D Mainline era) period of the games, so if one wants to come up with theories in regards to the intentions behind Arceus games, considering planning from gen 6 and foreward is of particular importance. And what big plotpoint started here? Dimensions and multiverses. Gen 6 gave us Hoopa and the Delta Episode. Gen 7 gave us Ultra Wormholes, and a society without pokemon husbandry. And then Legends: Arceus, which paints this whole different picture of the human-polemon relationship before modern society as one of tentative mutual existence, but without being in the real world, nor having real animals present. And it seems to be at the point where Gamefreak wants us to experience the First Contact points between People and Polemon- a plotline they dropped immediately after the first game, but still want to maintain the autonomy of the fantasy planet they had pivoted to. So is it actually for a lore reason? Or just because that's fun? ORAS and Gen 7 suggests the former, Legends seems to suggest the latter. We'll see if Z-A is about husbandry or not soon enough, I suppose. But I think they've been wanting to do this for a while, and its a part of their big, post- Nintendo DS restructuring of the series. (I haven't been able to physically game much in a while so I don't know their lore as well and if they have great lore either way on these ideas, but I think they're more preoccupied with other ideas, anyway) Sorry, I'm just kinda rambling at this point, I've had a long day. But this was a fun video that made it better, thanks
I had to approve this comment, and I was able to read it all. And you are another perfect example of what I love to see in my comments. An analysis considering your own viewpoints and my own while posing even more questions that make me want to make MORE videos! I do want to make an entire video about pokerus (I bought a book about DNA manipulation in the modern age) but have to read through "The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs" to discuss ALL the fossil pokemon and everything about them too, or even plant sentience and pokemon plants at some point... Lots of questions, and even if you think you rambled, I thank you and I'm very happy to know that I was able to brighten another person's day!
@@jamaldavis2480 Look up Did You Know Gaming's "Lost Pokedex" videos- they paid Nob Ogasawara, the most relevant OG English localizer/translator fella from back in the day, to translate a companion boom that was released for Pokemon around the time of Red/Green's release, but never made it out of Japan. So its official, but got retconned pretty early on, which is probably why it never left Japan. Well, that, and that there were some pretty loopy localization ideas back in the day. iirc the russians got some particularly crazy stuff, and America almost got a catgirl for a pikachu
@@KrillikVA oh, and it also struck me that if you want to talk past wars in Pokemon, you may want to look into the "Hiroshima conspiracy." In gen 2's beta, what became the ruins of Alph seems to be in the analog of Hiroshima. Some folks have spun their own narrative surrounding it, but I think you should draw your own conclusions, and what you think their original intent may have been.
I think it went like this. Since in generation 1 there weren’t many Pokémon, and it was extremely early in the series, the idea of Pokémon and real life animals hadn’t been explored and fleshed out quite yet. However, once the series grew and evolved over the years, the developers probably went with the idea of Pokémon eventually becoming the animals of the series as a whole since there were enough of them after a certain point. This would also go for other early things in the anime too like Pokémon levels, and what moves they can learn that just changed and evolved over the years. That’s just my take on it
I’m a big fan of this style of video. And although it feels a little ramble-y, that’s just my kind of content. Thanks for making a really interesting video! :)
Your Pokerus evolution theory falls flat in the face of Arceus, Mew, and all other established precursor and creator deities that were already Pokemon. Unless you are saying that Arceus was just a God-equivalent being, until a VIRUS infected a being like It-- without form or cells or anything to meaningfully interact with for lack of comparative level of EXISTENCE-- and made it into a Pokemon.
It's possible but that would require an entire other conversation We know the Arceus we're aware of is only 1 of its thousand arms, so maybe the true Arceus that has no name and hasn't been seen is the true God and isn't necessarily a Pokemon? This gets super theoretical and super messy super fast bc of looking at what's cannon, what's not, and making so many inferences. I try to go with what is supposed to be stated as fact even if it leaves a lot of questions. I'd believe that the gods take these forms, but we also know Arceus can replace them with its power. But even the Arceus we know can die, so I feel like I'm talking myself in circles 😅 but good points you made
I actually really like this idea. It is very easy to extrapolate from. Though I don't believe that there is much if any relation between the modern pokerus and the original virus that turned pokemon into people. They are similar in that they promote rapid growth/mutation, but pokerus being able to affect organisms that are already pokemon makes it so they can't be the same in my mind. And pokerus can only ever affect effort values, not change a creature's species from animal to pokemon. I also am not sure I agree that humans were entirely immune to the original virus. Like mentioned in the video, there are human-like pokemon. Possibly, only some humans had a gene that made them immune to the virus, which are the humans that we know in the modern day. (Though I know the question of whether humans are pokemon or not comes up from time to time, but I choose to believe they are not.) Humans without the gene would have turned into pokemon (like machoke, froslass, etc.) the same as animals. For my own peace of mind, this gene is recessive so if two humans have a child, the child cannot become a pokemon. And considering that the virus caused significant mutations, pokemon are a different species incapable of having children with humans. Just. No. As for how the virus originally spread: it came from space. There are various pokemon that are referenced to have come from space that are still recognizably pokemon. Deoxys is the most obvious, what with the Delta Episode, but other pokemon are too: Jirachi is a falling star, Minior are meteorites, Clefairy are from the moon. There's a whole page on bulbapedia specifically for 'extraterrestrial pokemon'. Thinking of the moon, items like the moon stone or wishing stars in Galar having effects on pokemon supports even further that pokemon originated from space. Pokemon being created from a virus not from Earth actually makes a lot of legendary lore make sense. Arceus and the other Sinnoh legends that supposedly made the universe very well could have; they just didn't originally create Earth with pokemon. And Mew being the ancestor of all pokemon works here too, if it was the first pokemon to come to Earth and introduce the virus, which would then pass some of Mew's DNA when it infected and created more pokemon. This does mean that Mew wouldn't be the ancestor of pokemon from space, which works out that there might not be any direct relation to most legendaries. This could also explain why Ultra Beasts, who are not descended from Mew or Earth animals, are so different from normal pokemon. This got off track a bit, but I think I've decided to incorporate this theory into my pokemon headcanons, thank you.
Don't mind me needing to make sure when I finally do a video on pokerus that I consider the extraterrestrial virus theory which would as you said make a lot of sense as a possibility
26:10 I might not mind bugs/insects (except maybe flies/gnats/mosquitos for obvious reasons) but the second I see a spider and it disappears suddenly imma nope out of there quickly
Simple: the creators eventually just focused on the pokemon aspect rather than the normal natural order of things. The show had pokemon seem like outside alien creatures at first, but then later as earthly inhabitants.
Maybe animals were creatures that were untrainable because they’re not sentient enough to understand language? Like you can train a rattata but not a hamster.
My theory is that the Pokemon world was a planet that humans found that was inhabitable by us and we simply sent some plants and animals from earth beforehand to "prepare" this planet for our arrival but turned out it was already inhabited by pokemon which turned out to be intelligent enough to become friends with us and when we sent these plants and animals this planet was inhabitable but not very hospitable and as we arrived and pokemon realized we made that world hospitable by sending these plants they decided to take the role of the animals they had already eaten by then and that's why we have animals references and why prof oak only knows about 150 pokemon because humans had barely arrived a few years ago by then
A really raw theory could've that humanity kept eating animals until they forcibly evolved, and now they can maybe eat things like magikarp and tauros still, but not too much else.... (Albeit NOW they want to train with creatures instead of eating them)
I understand why the real world references were removed from pokemon as well as real world animals but i consider it to be a major character flaw to not immediately assume real animals exist in Pokemon. Like Raichu is still incapacitating Indian elephants but the pokedex just doesn’t say that in particular
I don't say this to be mean, but I would argue against anything that states that I should immediately assume anything. Copperajah and Cufant are very much the Indian Elephant just as Yungoos is our Mongoose Pokemon. Pokemon infestations do happen, rattata replacing the normal mice in the world. I am always open to argument, but I do strongly believe animals don't exist in the world, now it's a matter of figuring out what happened to them officially outside of just saying "they're extinct" from the lead/original writer
I've heard the Humans in that Universe are also Pokemon, which could explain why the protagonist never appears to age. The theory Ash Ketchum may be in his second evolutionary for akin to his companion Pikachu somewhat makes sense. However after seeing some animals in the series do have me confused about the World Building.
Allow me to confuse you further It's implied that Pokemon aging and Pokemon evolving are considered separate things I honestly only say implied bc I've seen some evidence but haven't done my deep dive research...yet
I dont think pokemon are animals I think their monsters pocket monsters Also different generations are in different timelines (in game at least) So maybe classic timeline 1-2 gen animals actually exist but dont in others 🤔
My guess is Pokemom were originally supposed to be like youkai and yurei existing alongside real world animals and hence their special powers and abilities in contrast to ordinary animals. And that's what exactly what they did with the pokedex entries in the first few games and the first season of the anime series. But then I guess animals became useless in their overall worldbuilding and dropped them entirely in favor of a world inhabited entirely by Pokemon only. Humans are a different case which I'm exactly not sure about.
I think on a base level outside the lore, you and many others could be correct. I think I stand by author's intent pretty strongly (unless the author clearly has no idea what they're talking about) which is why I'm willing to say it may not have been a full on retcon, but instead simply a mistake in animation. If gamefreak never does anything to expand on animals existing in the past, and how humans may have some level of "pokemon" DNA, I'd be a bit sad, because there's so much room and so many hints towards that even in newer games. And who knows, we know multiple universes exist, so anything is possible since Sun and Moon confirming it
@@KrillikVA yeah and also the Gen 9 games have some weird questionable Pokedex entries for some of the paradox pokemon like mentioning dinosaurs. I guess we'll never know.
So Pokérus is basically like their version of COVID-19, but not as awful and boring. And that it is now considered a steroid or a mutation. I like to think Pokérus is what turns living normal beings into Pokémon, kinda like Godzilla after a nuclear bomb turned him into the Kaiju we know today.
Well going off full canon knowledge(anime, manga, and games) and given that we have no official statement of normal animals being retconned out of the Pokemon World(outside of one comment that I am not sure holds weight anymore). I think some things you didn't consider was that Pokemon, Humans, and Animals all existed at one point. So the three were able to coexist. Given that animals still appear in the anime as recently as the Sun and Moon arcs I'm not sure we can take that information of it just being animators not being careful. Things like Pokemon Masters EX still referencing real world animals despite having a Pokemon counterpart. Further we have all the food dishes in SV. Where he food has descriptions. I find it very suspect that with some dishes they outright tell you when something from a Pokemon is used. For others it is either the generic real world term such a "Sausage" implying Pork instead of LeChonk or Oinklonge. While other say things like "Scovillain sauce", "Pickled Toedscool", "Klawf al Ajillo", etc Due to all this. My answer for why we don't see more normal animals in Pokemon is simple. Who is tuning into the Pokemon Anime to see a house cat? Who is playing the games to come across a tiger? Who is reading to manga to see if the MC gets drowned by a Kangaroo? No one, they are there for the Pokemon so that is what is shown even if the entire spectrum of animals exist in the background. So at best the full suite of animals exist in the wild, being prayed upon by Pokemon and likely also praying on weaker Pokemon. At worse given that we mostly see aquatic animals and the number of seafood dishes in SV. The fish population and species are doing alright while the food animals are raised on farms for consumption, and the rest of the wild population died out due to not being able to compete with wild Pokemon for territory and resources. EDIT: Also there are chicken eggs. No Pokemon lay eggs of that size, so it can't just be explained away.
I think at the end of the day, this is the most likely answer to the question. Just as more mundane Pokemon exist among the crowd of Salamences, Lucarios, and Necrozmas, animals even more mundane than them probably are present in huge numbers, but just aren't noteworthy enough to put on screen. Creatures smaller than Joltik definitely exist, plants meeker than Sunkern definitely exist, and fish more common than Magikarp, Finneon, and Wishiwashi combined have to exist to uphold the ecosystem. But why show a random spider when you can show a Spinarak? Why show a random bird when that's the perfect opportunity to show off Pidgey? And even in-universe, is anyone going to waste a $6 a pop Great Ball on catching a worm? Is Professor Birch going to spend an afternoon researching regular turtles, when Torkoal is native to the region? If you want to go even deeper, you could theorize that the regular animals that slip into the show and games _are_ Pokemon. Just very weak Pokemon without any powers, which thus doesn't grant them any attention next to their fire breathing, mountain eating counterparts. Pokemon like Magikarp and Caterpie are damn close to being normal animals, being one superpower away from just being "fish" and "big bug." And it was stated in lore that humans and Pokemon descended from the same common ancestor, meaning humans in the Pokemon universe are, in a way, also Pokemon. So for the regular animals shown in the series, they could also descend from a common ancestor as Pokemon, but ended up filling a niche where the flashy superpowers that Pokemon usually have aren't needed.
When it comes to Pokérus, I like to think its the cause of how Pokémon first came to be, but Scientific and biological studies werent that advanced until Gen 1 where it wqs considered rare. The reason why its so rare? Patient Zero in your game is actually lesser evolved (in a way) than other Pokémon of its species, and Pokérus emerges as a corrective DNA structure.
Im not convinced. Theres animles in not just the anime but the games and the books and where does thier meet come from can you imagine someone like Ash ketchum eating pokemon? I think animles s till exist just as much as how in older anime pokemon learn more than five moves can you imagine a bird pokemon that couldn’t know fly? A catterpi that couldn’t spin webs? Or a miltank that couldn’t use milk drink
It was my understanding that Pokémon were the animals themselves. Like on this planet there are no creatures that we called animals it’s just Pokemon of some kind. Guess I was wrong. Lol
If it makes you feel better this is all a learning process for me too! I didn't truly know the answer until I started to dig into and deep dive so I could try and teach everyone about real life stuff through the vehicle of pokemon!
Prefacing this before i watch the video. My theory is that simple mundane non-pokemon animals exist. The show just doesn't represent things like mice and bugs and birds in the anime or the games because they are about the cool creatures with mystical powers. And talking about mice and birds and bugs is so unimportant for the story telling of the anime and games that they'd rather not go into detail about it. I also believe that significant animals like horses and cows and dogs dont exist. Just the insignificant mice, birds, fish, and bugs
“These are war crimes!” My brain, Chuckles’ voice: “I’M GOING TO COMMIT VARIOUS WAR CRIMES!” Video: “I’m talking about the Geneva Convention in a POKÉMON VIDEO-“ My brain, Chuckles’ voice: “Geneva Convention? More like Geneva SUGGESTION-“ 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 Bonus: “I cast g*n, prepare ta meet God!”
Pokemon is a a game intended for children. Real animals were a way to give context to children they are familiar with to a new world. They were replaced with new Pokemon as the series went on. I think Lt. Surge was a cool concept for a gym leader. Who would have came off to children as really lame if he has not served in a war. Early Pokemon games had no mention of any form of government. So how could a military be formed with no structure to create or support it?
When we look into Pokemon as it has developed, we see more and more establishment and understanding that government exists even as far back as Pokemon Legends Arceus considering at least the factions that exists. We also know police exist in the early games as well, even in the early episodes of the anime. War is shown to exist in minimum 3 times in the series, the first war existing 3000 years prior to the X/Y series While we don't know the specifics of the war Surge was in, we have multiple confirmations of war in the series. The next problem/question to answer is "what universes did these wars occur in?" since we have confirmation that multiple universes canonically exist
@@KrillikVA Forgive me I now realize I did not state I was looking at this from the point of view of only Gen 1. With the little information we had about the world and some speculation on the why designers make the gym leaders as they are. I am an old fart that was around for Pokemania and Gen 1. I had my Pokemon cards stolen and lost interest in the franchise. Until I started playing again in Gen 7 and it was..... an adjustment to say the least. I missed about 15 years of added lore and I was not even aware they confirmed Lt. Surge was in a war. I know there is an NPC in his gym that said Surge was his C.O. But I figured that was just to build on the atmosphere of the character. At least from a designers perspective. Now I have the idea in my head that Lt. Surge is actually a recruiter for the military. The same way that the US Army has an E-sports team lol. They have a gym leader there to get people interested in joining the military.
@@Knights_Oath No reason to apologize! I'm doing my best to get so much of this correct myself and sharing it but I'm making mistakes too! There's just SO MUCH info deep in these games! I feel a small bit of kinship in this as Crystal was my first game, then I couldn't play again until well after Diamond came out. After that, I found my love of Heartgold, and have stayed since then. I'm actually only just now playing Pokemon X for the first time and am IN LOVE with it! And that game...yeah that 4000 year old war is way more terrifying than it sounds the more I find out about it. Using Pokemon energy to create a weapon that will destroy the world, and it doesn't say it indirectly, it's said explicitly which is WILD! I hope to see ya around as I plan to not only learn everything I can about Pokemon, but also about our world and connect them together with Pokemon as my medium/vehicle for educating others!
are u suggesting that people eat pokemon (in that world)? u seem to suggest that most or all animal ref are just a type of pokemon we don't know of yet. Like how pikachu can be called a mouse type, & there for called a mouse.
Actually yeah! There are many confirmed cases in old and new Pokemon that people eat Pokemon! Clauncher and Crabominable are apparently delicious! I talk about all of this WAY more in depth in the Food Chain video that I did, but otherwise I believe people eat Pokemon all the time, the question is, despite the official statement that animals are extinct, is that the absolute truth? Because if it isn't, then maybe they are eating animals and Pokemon?
A good question for another video Because that could help us figure out how pokemon exist, where they come from, and if it's true whether or not pokemon existed after animals The next question you should also ask is "what about fossil pokemon?" which I'm currently studying the history of dinosaurs to answer!
My headcanon was always that animals either didn’t exist or Pokémon outperformed them. Think about it: Pikachu fulfills the ecological niche of a small rodent like animal AND it can shoot lightning? No way mice can compete! But if pokerus mutated animals that would fit too cause that would explain where Pokémon came from. Edit: We can go further with this. There are many infections IRL that can increase chance of cancer (HPV, Epstein-Barr, Hep B and C, Herpes type 8, etc). On top of this, zoonotic diseases (diseases that spread from animal to human) generally speaking are MORE lethal when they jump from species to species. Herpes as we know it likely spread from Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon and then to modern human. In Neanderthals, it was a cancre sore (which fun fact, is ALSO herpes! Herpes that originated with humans and to chimpanzees is Herpes to them!) and to us it’s a lifelong virus that increases chance of cancer and is terrible. This is because it’s a novel infection: the immune system doesn’t know how to handle it, and it can spread wild. Pokerus could have originated with humans, or a protopokemon, and THEN spread to animals and wiped them out, because they didn’t have the T-cells or whatever for it.
I had to approve this comment And by lord Arceus itself, it may have been the most informative comment I have had to approve bc RU-vid bot flagged it lol This makes me want to look even more into a Pokerus and viruses in the future! I may have bought a book on human DNA and the genetic manipulation of it with that intent sooooo....one day
I think so? Part of it may be youtube, part of it may have been my own filters so people without a brain cell and bots don't get to spam stupid things. I keep my eye on "held for review" pretty well most of the time so no biggie
