My theory on why Pokemon types are weak to each other

[Futachimaru]

The unoffical Science of Pokemon Thread

I have a theory on how Pokemon are weak to some types are are resisted/tanse/immune to other types

I think it all has to do with the cell membrances of the Pokemon i.e The cell membranes of Normal type Pokemon are broken down by the impact of fighting type moves, yet are normally damaged by other types of moves, they aren't affcted by ghost type moves as their moves are just transparence enough to pass though the cells

As for Pokemon with two types they have both the properties of the membrances of the two types i.e a Grass and bug type Pokemon's membrane would not be broken down by ground type moves but would be broken down almost immidenlty ue to the 4x weakness.

As for type immuinties i.e the Steel type, their membranes have specail organelles in them that makes it impossiable for posion moves to affect them atill, dark Pokemo on the other hand have a weaker version of this due t mircle eye...

Other thories are accpeted.

 

[Kalala]

Water puts out fire.
Fire burns Grass.
Rocks put out fire.
Grass catches water

'Nuff said

 

[Amore]

Combine them both and you're on to it...

Theoretically, Kalala's absolutely right. However, drop a rock on a mouse (Rock Throw on Pichu) and it will die. Hence, the cell membrane part, courtesy of Futachimaru.

 

[Futachimaru]

Water puts out fire.
Fire burns Grass.
Rocks put out fire.
Grass catches water

'Nuff said

Yes that's true, my theory may explain Steel vs ice/rock and Posion vs Pyschic and Ground,

 

[Nexev]

We've got a theory about types and damage.


MIRACLES.

I mean, magnemites, how do they work?

*shot*

*only one who thought of ICP when read title*

*is sad*

Anyway, I am doubtful on this, aren't there many different types of cells in the human body?

So why would the pokemon body be any different?

And this theory does rely on the many different cells in one pokemon to all have the exact same weaknesses.

 

[Futachimaru]

We've got a theory about types and damage.


MIRACLES.

I mean, magnemites, how do they work?

*shot*

*only one who thought of ICP when read title*

*is sad*

Anyway, I am doubtful on this, aren't there many different types of cells in the human body?

So why would the pokemon body be any different?

And this theory does rely on the many different cells in one pokemon to all have the exact same weaknesses.

Yes, that's correct, I think that the Pokemon with the same types have the same chemicals in their cells meaning that their membranes are broken down by the same types.

 

[Khengi]

I've always thought the same thing. When explaining Pokemon types to my girlfriend, I had to explain what some types are weak to others. For the most part, she understood them with some mnemonics I made:

Fire burn grass, bugs, and melts ice
Grass catches water, rock, is above the ground
Water puts out fire, dampens ground, and erodes rock
Rock crushes bug Pokemon, puts out fire, knocks birds (flying) out of the sky, and shatters ice
Electric zaps through water and clips birds out of the sky, but CAN'T go into the ground
Ice, in the colder months, freezes the grass and ground. Birds' (flying) wings become stiff when too cold, and if we think of Dragons as cold-blooded creatures (reptiles?), then the ice is definitely not their friend.
Fighting types (I may be biased because I'm a Martial Artist), crush 'normal' Pokemon, like how trained fighters defeat non-trained (normal) people. We train to crush ice and rock for breaking demonstrations and conditioning, and we don't rely on our eyes only, as we can easily see in the dark. I don't know why fighters are good against steel though. Beats the hell outta me.
Poison essentially is bad for grass, as it results in dead grass quick
Ground puts out fire, and electricity can't go through the earth. There's nothing to travel through for poison, and rocks are constantly covered up deep under ground. But why steel again?
Flying is easy. Grass and bug are closely related: they both involve life that birds feed on. Fighting types generally like to stay close to the Earth, their 'zone' if you will, and the sky is not always their friend.
Psychic is an interesting one. A psychic fighter relies on the limitless power of their mind, not their body. Thus, they defeat fighters. Through mind over matter, they eliminate poison. Now here's an interesting thing: Psychic refers to the mind, and Psychic Pokemon are weak against three somewhat random things: Ghost, Dark, and BUG. However, these are the three biggest phobia.
Bugs eat grass, scare psychics, and aren't afraid of the dark :P
Ghost Pokemon scare Psychics AND other Ghost
Dragons are so strong that, aside from Ice, only dragons hurt dragons.

Dark and Steel are weird, they don't even really fit into something that would fit an Animal, in my opinion.

Ah well.

 

[Futachimaru]

I've always thought the same thing. When explaining Pokemon types to my girlfriend, I had to explain what some types are weak to others. For the most part, she understood them with some mnemonics I made:

Fire burn grass, bugs, and melts ice
Grass catches water, rock, is above the ground
Water puts out fire, dampens ground, and erodes rock
Rock crushes bug Pokemon, puts out fire, knocks birds (flying) out of the sky, and shatters ice
Electric zaps through water and clips birds out of the sky, but CAN'T go into the ground
Ice, in the colder months, freezes the grass and ground. Birds' (flying) wings become stiff when too cold, and if we think of Dragons as cold-blooded creatures (reptiles?), then the ice is definitely not their friend.
Fighting types (I may be biased because I'm a Martial Artist), crush 'normal' Pokemon, like how trained fighters defeat non-trained (normal) people. We train to crush ice and rock for breaking demonstrations and conditioning, and we don't rely on our eyes only, as we can easily see in the dark. I don't know why fighters are good against steel though. Beats the hell outta me.
Poison essentially is bad for grass, as it results in dead grass quick
Ground puts out fire, and electricity can't go through the earth. There's nothing to travel through for poison, and rocks are constantly covered up deep under ground. But why steel again?
Flying is easy. Grass and bug are closely related: they both involve life that birds feed on. Fighting types generally like to stay close to the Earth, their 'zone' if you will, and the sky is not always their friend.
Psychic is an interesting one. A psychic fighter relies on the limitless power of their mind, not their body. Thus, they defeat fighters. Through mind over matter, they eliminate poison. Now here's an interesting thing: Psychic refers to the mind, and Psychic Pokemon are weak against three somewhat random things: Ghost, Dark, and BUG. However, these are the three biggest phobia.
Bugs eat grass, scare psychics, and aren't afraid of the dark :P
Ghost Pokemon scare Psychics AND other Ghost
Dragons are so strong that, aside from Ice, only dragons hurt dragons.

Dark and Steel are weird, they don't even really fit into something that would fit an Animal, in my opinion.

Ah well.

I see, as for steel vs fighting, steel can be smashed by brute froce?

 

[Khengi]

I see, as for steel vs fighting, steel can be smashed by brute froce?

I was thinking of that, but it's a big too vague, as brute force can break through just about anything =/ In fact, you'd think that Fighting would have less effect on Steel (being harder than rock and ice).

 

[Timbjerr]

As for Fighting vs. Dark, look at most dark-type attacks. Most of them are techniques for fighting dirty, like biting, stealing, taunting, etc...

An honorable martial artist triumphs over a dirty fighter. XD

 

[Ayselipera]

I always thought certain types are weaker to others because in life the results are similar. Not because of cells unless we're talking about why poison Pokemon are weak to psychic types. I'll go through each type's weaknesses and explain why.

Bug: Fire, Flying, Rock
- Fire burns up bugs easily, Animals that fly (usually birds) eat bugs, rocks can easily squish a bug.

Dark: Fighting, Bug
- Fighting type Pokemon are usually seen as being "light" their moves and techniques are honorable while Dark is the concept of using sneaky moves to win. Good overcomes evil. Bugs are common at night it may be that bugs have an edge over dark types due to becoming used to the darkness/being too simple to comprehend the complexity of dark types and working around that.

Dragon: Dragon, Ice
- I think it plays on the idea that something can be so strong that almost only it can destroy itself. Which would explain why Dragon moves hurt Dragons. Ice could be that Dragons are usually thought of as reptiles as someone said before me. Being cold blooded means that ice could be especially harmful. The argument against this could be that fire should also be harmful, but I think the idea was that Dragons would have few weaknesses.

Electric: Ground
- Ground is a poor conductor.

Fighting: Flying, Psychic
I think the flying weakness may have to go with both grace and the fact that fighting types are grounded to some sort of platform. Fighting is not graceful, but flying is. Grace beats out sheer strength. As for psychics I think it has to do with the usual brains or brawn argument. In this case brains win.

Fire: Water, Rock, Ground
Water puts out fire. Rocks generally speaking could put out a fire. Dirt thrown over a fire will also put it out.

Flying: Electric, Ice, Rock
Electric moves could zap any flying animal/object out of the sky. Ice could freeze anything that's flying around. Projectile rocks would most likely throw a flying type out of the sky.

Ghost: Ghost, Dark
What else could defeat a ghost, but another ghost? Any living thing or object would just go through a ghost. They have a different make-up. Dark types could have the advantage because they are sneaky. They play unfairly and so they can hit ghosts. I believe that more so then dark types have the advantage because they are associated with darkness and ghosts typically come out at night.

Grass: Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Bug
Fire burns plants. Ice or a frost kills plants. Poison can be used to kill plants. Birds and such eat plants. Bugs eat/destroy plants.

Ground: Water, Grass, Ice
Water washes away and erodes the earth. Grass grows and sucks up nutrition through the earth. Ice can freeze into the earth causing cracks. Could also be on the idea of glaciers moving continents, essentially earth around.

Normal: Fighting
I see normal as being almost mammal like. Generally anything and everything can hurt you, but fighting seems to be the most likely and common of death. Fighting predators, fighting within your herd, fighting to survive.

Ice: Fire, Fighting, Rock Steel
Fire melts ice. Fighting moves break through ice same goes for projectile rocks. Steel could be that it withstands in ice/could break through ice.

Poison: Ground, Psychic
The earth absorbs impurities and eventually cleans them out. I've read that Psychic moves are strong over poison Pokemon because they manipulate their poison cells through psychic power into poisoning themselves.

Psychic: Bug, Ghost, Dark
Bugs are simple minded creatures perhaps the complexity of psychic power goes over their head. Therefore they can find a psychic Pokemon's weakness. Ghosts and psychics are connected in real life as being able to communicate with each other. Ghosts are usually draining and powerful to these psychic people and so that could have been relfected in the psychic type. Dark Pokemon again are emphasized on sneakiness. The can get past psychic power through their own devious methods.

Rock: Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Steel
Water washes away and erodes rocks. Plants can force their way through rocks, splitting them in half. Fighting moves can break rocks. The ground can crack and swallow up rocks. Steel can be forced through rocks.

Steel: Fire, Fighting, Ground
Fire melts steel. Fighting moves can break through steel. The earth can bend steel with immense pressure.

Water: Electric, Grass
Water conducts electricity. Grass absorbs water.

 

[PlatinumDude]

I think why Steel is immune to Poison is because steel is resistant to most forms of poison, except for Acid.

 

[Ravecat]

Psychic: Bug, Ghost, Dark
Bugs are simple minded creatures perhaps the complexity of psychic power goes over their head. Therefore they can find a psychic Pokemon's weakness. Ghosts and psychics are connected in real life as being able to communicate with each other. Ghosts are usually draining and powerful to these psychic people and so that could have been relfected in the psychic type. Dark Pokemon again are emphasized on sneakiness. The can get past psychic power through their own devious methods.

I agree with this entire post besides the Psychic weaknesses.
Psychic-types revolve around the mind, and it's weaknesses are three common human-fears; bugs, death, and the dark.

 

[Ayselipera]

I agree with this entire post besides the Psychic weaknesses.
Psychic-types revolve around the mind, and it's weaknesses are three common human-fears; bugs, death, and the dark.

I never even thought of it like that! After reading what you had to say I can't help, but agree. It sounds logical and makes a lot more sense then my reasoning.

 

[Kirbychu]

I find this comic pretty interesting. It explains some Pokemon weaknesses and resistances.

Spoiler:

Have you ever tried to punch a bird?

 

[Futachimaru]

I always thought certain types are weaker to others because in life the results are similar. Not because of cells unless we're talking about why poison Pokemon are weak to psychic types. I'll go through each type's weaknesses and explain why.

Bug: Fire, Flying, Rock
- Fire burns up bugs easily, Animals that fly (usually birds) eat bugs, rocks can easily squish a bug.

Dark: Fighting, Bug
- Fighting type Pokemon are usually seen as being "light" their moves and techniques are honorable while Dark is the concept of using sneaky moves to win. Good overcomes evil. Bugs are common at night it may be that bugs have an edge over dark types due to becoming used to the darkness/being too simple to comprehend the complexity of dark types and working around that.

Dragon: Dragon, Ice
- I think it plays on the idea that something can be so strong that almost only it can destroy itself. Which would explain why Dragon moves hurt Dragons. Ice could be that Dragons are usually thought of as reptiles as someone said before me. Being cold blooded means that ice could be especially harmful. The argument against this could be that fire should also be harmful, but I think the idea was that Dragons would have few weaknesses.

Electric: Ground
- Ground is a poor conductor.

Fighting: Flying, Psychic
I think the flying weakness may have to go with both grace and the fact that fighting types are grounded to some sort of platform. Fighting is not graceful, but flying is. Grace beats out sheer strength. As for psychics I think it has to do with the usual brains or brawn argument. In this case brains win.

Fire: Water, Rock, Ground
Water puts out fire. Rocks generally speaking could put out a fire. Dirt thrown over a fire will also put it out.

Flying: Electric, Ice, Rock
Electric moves could zap any flying animal/object out of the sky. Ice could freeze anything that's flying around. Projectile rocks would most likely throw a flying type out of the sky.

Ghost: Ghost, Dark
What else could defeat a ghost, but another ghost? Any living thing or object would just go through a ghost. They have a different make-up. Dark types could have the advantage because they are sneaky. They play unfairly and so they can hit ghosts. I believe that more so then dark types have the advantage because they are associated with darkness and ghosts typically come out at night.

Grass: Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Bug
Fire burns plants. Ice or a frost kills plants. Poison can be used to kill plants. Birds and such eat plants. Bugs eat/destroy plants.

Ground: Water, Grass, Ice
Water washes away and erodes the earth. Grass grows and sucks up nutrition through the earth. Ice can freeze into the earth causing cracks. Could also be on the idea of glaciers moving continents, essentially earth around.

Normal: Fighting
I see normal as being almost mammal like. Generally anything and everything can hurt you, but fighting seems to be the most likely and common of death. Fighting predators, fighting within your herd, fighting to survive.

Ice: Fire, Fighting, Rock Steel
Fire melts ice. Fighting moves break through ice same goes for projectile rocks. Steel could be that it withstands in ice/could break through ice.

Poison: Ground, Psychic
The earth absorbs impurities and eventually cleans them out. I've read that Psychic moves are strong over poison Pokemon because they manipulate their poison cells through psychic power into poisoning themselves.

Psychic: Bug, Ghost, Dark
Bugs are simple minded creatures perhaps the complexity of psychic power goes over their head. Therefore they can find a psychic Pokemon's weakness. Ghosts and psychics are connected in real life as being able to communicate with each other. Ghosts are usually draining and powerful to these psychic people and so that could have been relfected in the psychic type. Dark Pokemon again are emphasized on sneakiness. The can get past psychic power through their own devious methods.

Rock: Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Steel
Water washes away and erodes rocks. Plants can force their way through rocks, splitting them in half. Fighting moves can break rocks. The ground can crack and swallow up rocks. Steel can be forced through rocks.

Steel: Fire, Fighting, Ground
Fire melts steel. Fighting moves can break through steel. The earth can bend steel with immense pressure.

Water: Electric, Grass
Water conducts electricity. Grass absorbs water.

Rocks soak in heat i.e rocks in the desert get hot, that's why roc moves resit fire moves, I could say that the cells of the rock pokemon have a heat reistant organelle in them.

 

[#Emochu]

Flying is strong gaist fighting cuz remember in HGSS ending credits you see a flock of zubats(poison/Flying type) chasing Chuck?

Maybe cuz birds or windstorms are hated by fighters.

Oh and bugs annoy the complex supernatural minded(psychic/dark types)

Poison should seriously be strong against water and bug or some other tyes

As for fight against normal, cuz fighters aren't scared of crushing a cute little being?

 

[Waffle-San]

I always thought certain types are weaker to others because in life the results are similar. Not because of cells unless we're talking about why poison Pokemon are weak to psychic types. I'll go through each type's weaknesses and explain why.

The OP wasn't going at that. It's obvious that water puts out fire. But Pokemon are actual creatures who aren't made of 100% fire and water (etc.) He's looking at it from a cellular level; compare it to humans breathing oxygen in and carbon dioxyde out while trees and plants do the opposite. He/she is basically trying to make sense of why a a Bellsprout resists Rock Slide instead of being pelted to death.

So the fundamental reasons they are weak to certain types is due to straight forward explanations like Fire>Grass but at a cellular level the membrane determines what is allowed in the cell and what isn't, therefor a strong steel membrane can repel poisonous chemicals while a Grass Pokemon's membrane allows poisonous viruses through. Hope that clerified that a bit for those who are confused...though it might have done more bad than good. :P

"have you ever tried to punch a bird" xP

 

[Ayselipera]

The OP wasn't going at that. It's obvious that water puts out fire. But Pokemon are actual creatures who aren't made of 100% fire and water (etc.) He's looking at it from a cellular level; compare it to humans breathing oxygen in and carbon dioxyde out while trees and plants do the opposite. He/she is basically trying to make sense of why a a Bellsprout resists Rock Slide instead of being pelted to death.

So the fundamental reasons they are weak to certain types is due to straight forward explanations like Fire>Grass but at a cellular level the membrane determines what is allowed in the cell and what isn't, therefor a strong steel membrane can repel poisonous chemicals while a Grass Pokemon's membrane allows poisonous viruses through. Hope that clerified that a bit for those who are confused...though it might have done more bad than good. :P

"have you ever tried to punch a bird" xP

Oh no I realize that Futachimaru was talking about Pokemon on a cellular level. The thread mentioned that other theories were accepted so I thought I try out my own thoughts as to why certain types are weak to other types. While the cell theory is interesting and very possible I believe that type weaknesses are based more on actual life situations. Even in the case of a Bellsprout being able to somewhat resist Rock Slide. At the same time I see a bit of both of our theories coming together. Real life situations could be the basis for type weaknesses while cell theory explains more complex situations like your Bellsprout example. It's just my own take on it.

 

[Futachimaru]

Oh no I realize that Futachimaru was talking about Pokemon on a cellular level. The thread mentioned that other theories were accepted so I thought I try out my own thoughts as to why certain types are weak to other types. While the cell theory is interesting and very possible I believe that type weaknesses are based more on actual life situations. Even in the case of a Bellsprout being able to somewhat resist Rock Slide. At the same time I see a bit of both of our theories coming together. Real life situations could be the basis for type weaknesses while cell theory explains more complex situations like your Bellsprout example. It's just my own take on it.

Yes you are correct and thank you, I'm now trying to find out why Pokemon that are floating in the air (Magnetron) can still be hit with ground type moves, could it be tat their gravtional mass isn't great enough to give immunity to ground type moves? Manget rise causing that mass to increase casuing tempernal immuity...