No Normal, No Fighting, But... Flying?

[Rai]

Does anyone else think it is strange that Flying moves can affect Ghost types?

I would think that a Flying move is physical and would pass through the Ghost like nothing.

Any thoughts or speculations on this? Discuss!

 

[Foxrally]

Yeah, it never made sense to me either... But I guess most flying-type moves don't involve contact, such as Whirlwind, gust, etc.

Apart from that, hmmm.... you're right!

 

[KriegStein]

I believe it backs to the time of 1st gen. Back then we had 3 ghost pokemon. Ghastly, Haunter and Gengar. Gastly and Haunter are gas pokemons. (if I remember correctly) What I am getting at is that I believe the developers thoughts went something like:" Hmm.. Flying type should affect these ghosts because they are made of gas." (I personaly think Flying type as an Air type. It attacks revolving round manipulating air pressure,winds etc. So a Flying type move should disperse their bodies)
This is what I think. As for Gengar... I have no explanation... :D I leave the discussion to others.

 

[Legobricks]

I do, to the point that I thought they actually didn't until relatively recently... ironically, since I've always made ample use of Flying.
Of course, as KriegStein points out, it does actually make sense in a fridge logic manner, at least regarding special Flying moves, with air being as much a classical element as fire or water. Saying that, though, I have to wonder why things like Hyper Beam are harmless to Ghosts. I'm not sure it even makes any sense purely in terms of gameplay mechanics that Ghost is immune specifically to Normal and Fighting. Ghost is defensive in the same way as Grass in that it favours status effects and the like, and yet Grass has an unduly large amount of weaknesses. Suppose one can think of Ghost as a 'rare' and 'high tier' type as far as normal gameplay goes.

 

[Rai]

You have all made great points!

Now that I think about it, I guess moves like Gust or Twister could affect ghosts by blowing them away, etc.

But then what about attacks like Wing Attack or Peck? Those are physical attacks. I don't think pecking a ghost would do anything haha.

 

[Aquacorde]

Well then certainly any physical move being used on a ghost is illogical. Aqua Tail, Bite, Seed Bomb, etc logically should not hit a ghost. But then think of how ridiculously powerful ghosts would be if that were the case! iirc they were already ridiculously OP in the original games, so that... would just negate the fixes that were put in.

 

[Stormborn]

That would just make the Ghost-type blatantly overpowered.

Then Shedinja has like one weakness.

 

[Rai]

I guess that is true. If too many types didn't affect it, then they would be overly powerful.

However, you can use moves like Odor Sleuth and be able to use Normal attacks on a Ghost Pokemon.

And don't get me started on Shedinja... That pokemon is on a whole other level of annoying.

 

[Keyaki]

I think the main reason why other attacks can affect Ghost is because they're "energized" by an element.

Like Fire Punch. Its a punch enveloped in Fire. Same with other physical category moves. Though how it relates to physical Flying type moves is beyond me.

Now that I think about it, I believe back in Gen I, Flying types couldn't affect Ghosts either.

 

[Legobricks]

I think the main reason why other attacks can affect Ghost is because they're "energized" by an element.

Like Fire Punch. Its a punch enveloped in Fire. Same with other physical category moves. Though how it relates to physical Flying type moves is beyond me.

I think it would make sense to suggest that physical flying moves are thus also 'energised' by air.

 

[Darkywyvern]

In gen I, flying move could affect ghost Pokemon, Gust couldn't because back then it was a normal attack.

I can see hpw flying attack can affect ghost, but I don't see how grass move can dammage them. It's not like they couldn't pas through wall... But then again if they had all immunity they ''should'' have in reality, they would be impossible to defeat.

 

[Xander Olivieri]

The Emergized thing doesn't count for lumps of dirt, rock and steel bodies attacking an ethereal being like ghosts, even though Dark is supposed to be Special typed it has a lot of Physical attacks. If going by energy as well, Types are their own source of energy, so Normal and Fighting produce a type of energy in the Pokemon World. Hyperbeam wouldn''t exist if Normal types couldn't produce energy. Neither would Focus Blast or Aura Sphere.

Fighting and Normal are two of the more Mundane types. The Mundane cannot interact with the Otherworldly. So Normal and Fighting can't hit Ghost types without a special medium (Scrappy or Odor Sleuth/Foresight)

 

[Esper]

Perhaps it's meant to represent how ghosts are immune to the ways in which Normal- and Fighting-type moves work, rather than "what they're made of." Like, perhaps there is some sense that ghosts have that let them anticipate and deflect the effects which they can't do for other types. If I had to make up some excuse, I'd say it could be that ghosts, being sort of like dead spirits, with Normal- and Fighting-type being the closest things to regular animals and people in the Pokemon world, have an natural understanding of how living creatures work because they are, in some sense, byproducts of those same creatures.

Or something like what XanderO said, in that Ghosts are too otherworldly.

 

[Rai]

I agree that ghosts are otherworldly and that Normal and Fighting are mundane. But I feel that a bird pecking you with its beak or smacking you with its wing would fall under a physical, mundane move.

 

[Kotowari]

My guess is that Birds (and specially birds of prey) have a very keen eye (look at Pidg's ability) and they're therefore very aware of their surroundings. Ghosts, who blend with their surroundings, are therefore unable to escape a Bird's attention. A hawk can catch a mouse from a considerable height, so it's not far-fetched to assume that they can hit a ghost with speed and agility.
Birds of prey also appear to be fearless, which means "evil" can't touch them.
And birds are often thought to be signs of righteousness, hence why ghosts can't touch them. I mean, this seems like a possibility to me.

 

[Gligar]

I don't know.... It depends on the move if it's physical or not.

 

[Rai]

My guess is that Birds (and specially birds of prey) have a very keen eye (look at Pidg's ability) and they're therefore very aware of their surroundings. Ghosts, who blend with their surroundings, are therefore unable to escape a Bird's attention. A hawk can catch a mouse from a considerable height, so it's not far-fetched to assume that they can hit a ghost with speed and agility.
Birds of prey also appear to be fearless, which means "evil" can't touch them.
And birds are often thought to be signs of righteousness, hence why ghosts can't touch them. I mean, this seems like a possibility to me.

I never really considered this before but I think you have a really good point. Birds are usually associated with good (the phoenix, the eagle, etc) and many are expert hunters. This is a totally different approach to the question and I think it makes sense and holds a lot weight :3

 

[T!M]

Perhaps, and this is a long shot, perhaps they manipulate the air around any physical Flying-Attack, so that, the beak (a physical appendage on a bird) may be surrounded by wind energy which, logically, would make the wind around the beak hit the Ghost-Type, not just the physical beak. I hope I'm making sense. The same would go for Wing Attack, air surrounds the wings as they smack them with it; and since the air is covering the wing, the air around the wing would contact first. Which, as we all know, wind is not a physical "thing." So energy of the wind would damage the Ghost, not the wing itself.

Oh god, I'm confusing myself. Anyway, that's my take on it.

 

[Demon Days]

Perhaps actual typing is the energy that that Pokémon is powered by? Considering that a lot of Ghost-type Pokémon have actual physical bodies (Giratina, for example), maybe that's why Flying-type moves hit. As why Fighting and Normal-type moves don't hit, it's possible that because Normal and Fighting-type Pokémon are close to humans (and let's face it, if we saw the ghost of say, Genghis Khan in front of us, we'd be pretty afraid, meaning any attempts at hitting the ghost would be half-hearted), resulting in the energy being weakened, resulting in it not affecting the Ghost-type Pokémon.

Anyway, that's enough theorycrafting for me, as it's getting to my head.

 

[Cerberus87]

Flying is the Wind type. Moves and Pokémon associated with the wind (Gust, Hurricane, Air Cutter, Air Slash, Tornadus) are declared Flying-type. Wind is an element (or, rather, Air), and all elements can hit Ghosts in the Pokémon universe.

There is one exception, and that is Razor Wind. It's a move that should have changed type way back in GSC, but for some reason it remained Normal-type and thus cannot affect Ghosts.