YAY!!! My posts make two more people their b****es. Ii kanji da na~. ^^
Well, if reading's all it takes then that would make a female dog for the posts of everyone in this thread. xD *Shot*
the idea of Pokemon saying their names is actually an anime cliche.... several mascot-like characters will say their own name (or some phrase) to seem cute (it doesn't even need to be the only thing they say... instead, it could work as a Japanese sentence particle or ending, as you can see with Nyaasu/Meowth in the Japanese version of the anime). Also, unlike what the English dub would have you believe, a lot of Pokemon don't call out their whole names in some drone-like fashion.... instead, a lot of Pokemon in the original version will only say a fragment of their name sounded out like an animalistic call (Juptor/Grovyle says "Jururururu" in growling tone). It's still an oddity that their calls resemble even part of their name (and we can't act as if Pokemon were named after their calls, since nearly all Pokemon are named after actual words, in both Japan and English-speaking countries... I can assume the French and German names have meaning as well), but again, it's an anime cliche. I guess most people just go with it in the end. And if it really bugs anyone, there's nothing in canon to suggest they must say their names (as a matter of fact, in the video games and the Special manga, they only tend to growl).
Well, there are cases when an animal's cry actually sounds like their name. At least...there's one case. Ever heard a gecko's cry? It sounds just like "geck-O!". :3 But yeah, that's an exception. I usually go for the part-of-name approach myself (In case where I could imagine part of the name actually sounding like their cry, like with Murkrow), but yeah...some are just a bit too far-fetched. It's just at the same time...well, even in the manga and games they seem to respond to their species names right from the get-go (though the latter is obviously a practical simplification) so I was sort of looking for some way to explain that with the name thing. xD
And like...that mascot thing sounds familiar. I think I saw something about that in a Digimon fansub, come to think of it. But yeah, thanks for clearing that up. I always found the saying their names bit a tad strange, but then everyone seemed to be doing it so I figured it was convention. xD
As for the idea of Pokemon knowing their own name when called out by a human.... I brought up how Pokemon seem to already know attacks earlier, so it's not hard to imagine they have their species names imprinted in their minds (if they don't have a small grasp on human languages altogether). Remember, I also suggested the idea of relating Pokemon training to dog training earlier. Pokemon could realistically come to understand their name and attack commands over time.
So...it could be some kind of genetic memory? I guess, though having such terms still sounds like it would be genetic memory created by a long period of domestication. Ehh...come to think of it, I think I'll go with understanding human language. It covers more ground so I'll have to make less excuses. xD
Well, I was thinking more along the lines of fans or pumps inside the pipes which they might use to get water around to the different locations, but I know nothing about water systems so I'm just assuming they'd exist. :P
That makes two of us. I suppose that sort of thing could exist, but then I don't know squat about pipes either so I can't be sure. I think I'll just stick to Qwilfish travelling through the pipes and sort of skip over the details of their interior, no need to let such little details interfere with a good scheme. :3
Well, the problem with that is that then you'd have to explain how the wings grow and how they manage to levitate themselves... I mean, they're not psychic or anything. :P
I have a theory that their cells can absorb lighter-than-air gases--say, something like hydrogen--and when their cells build up enough of these gases then it enables them to float. Flying seems seems to be a matter of choice for them, though, so I haven't quite worked out how they manage to control to absorption enough that they can choose when they want to fly or not... but anyway.
Well, they might not be psychic, but they
do have those weird orbs of theirs that supposedly give them the power to control weather, so I suppose they can at least manipulate the flying conditions in their favor. As for absorbing gases...that sounds like they'd have to absorb a heckuva' lot of gas, because the pokémon flying with that principle (Koffing and Weezing) are really only a kind of organic balloon with a very thin skin and -- presumably -- some kind of brain suspended within it, the rest being vacuous space for gases. This means that they have very little mass, and even so the gases only let them float, not really fly. Dragonair, on the other hand, are supposed to have fully solid bodies, so like...this sort of reminds me of the biology/physics/chemistry cross-science experiment I was involved in back in the IB. You see, we were going by the hypothesis that if you eat your chocolate cold enough, the amount of energy that your body would use to heat up the chocolate would equal the amount of energy you receive from consuming it, meaning no calorie absorption and thus no fat gain from eating the chocolate, regardless of how much you took. In principle, it works, in practice we found that you'd have to freeze the chocolate to a temperature somewhere below absolute zero, so...it wasn't very feasible. xD
But we
did get to eat the excess research material, so it was a good experiment all things said. :3
So yeah, everything theoretically viable won't work in practice. Nice theory, though. ^^
As for pokemon calling themselves/each other pokemon--I like to think not. In fact I tend to think that they have different designations for things like cities, pokeballs, Pokemon Centres, etc. I generally have pokemon call themselves 'Kin' if referring to pokemon in general, and then 'brethren' when referring to one of their own type, right down to the generic 'pack' or 'eyrie' or whatever for their family groups and/or trainer and team (if they're human-owned). Haven't managed to figure out what they call each other if referring to specific species, though... about all I know is how eeveelutions refer to one another (eg, eevee=='cousin of the wilderness', vaporeon=='cousin of the lake').
I kind of view it as a separate 'culture', even though I also generally see pokemon as being intelligent enough to understand human speech too, so in time they would learn the human way of saying things. :P
Hmm...that's a good point about the learning bit (Hey, I've been preaching for the whole 'smart pokémon' thing since day one, so...xD), though that would always be restricted to explaining the behavior of individual pokémon or groupings of pokémon. (Like this one pokémon I wrote (a Spinarak, unless my memory is failing me) who always spoke with a ridiculous amount of dramatic flair because she lived in a theater and picked it up from overhearing all the plays. :3) But yeah, the species-to-species thing is still a puzzler. Ehh...I suppose the terms are open to interpretation since they are sort of pokémon-culture-dependent? I do agree that just going by pokémon seems odd for a pokémon who's never been acquainted with the word.
How do you choose what fan fiction you are going to read? Randomly, or is it organised?
I...sort of browse around. If I see something new by an author I like then I will feel inclined to start there, sometimes I may take a look at a much-praised fanfic just to see what all the fuss is about, but otherwise I just click at threads that seem to be of a suitable size for my tastes. And...I'll have to admit that formating is very important for my interest in reading a fic. If I see a neatly formated, professional-looking fic I'll feel inclined to read, whereas a mess of writing all bunched together makes me feel inclined to backtrack and look for something else.
And...well, if the formatting looks like a kindergartener's first collage project (Meaning a bunch of random font changes, colors, smilies, and sprites) then a part of my soul dies and I have to leave my computer for a moment to mourn it.
Seriously, few things make me resent a fic like bad formatting. The way I see it, it's proof that the author either a) can't be arsed to spend a few minutes of their life in organizing their messy thoughts into a presentable shape, or b) thinks that knowing how to use font and color change tags somehow improves their writing. >.< Seriously, when I look at a fic, I'm interested in
the writing. Not the color of the font, not slapdash sprites;
the writing. Anything that detracts from it just serves to lower my opinion of the fic. :\
What are your guys' fanfic resolutions for 2008? Any new fic ideas you want to write or want to get the chapters done faster?
Resolution? Get some bloody chapters written and get something posted. That's it.
Seriously, I've been unable to concentrate on actually writing my fic for several weeks now and it's driving me up the walls, because I really want to get that first chapter written before I have to go. >.< I've already executed three different prologues, one opening chapter, and two main protagonists, and I'd hate for all their sacrifices to be in vain.
So yeah, I guess my big fanfic resolution would be get chapter one written before the 7th of January. :3
And yes, in case there are some here who haven't heard of it yet, I'm due for an extended absence/low activity period. Six months, to be precise, because that's the minimal amount of compulsory military service that I must undergo. After the first few weeks I get weekends off, but my activity will still probably be very limited. My apologies to anyone who may be inconvenienced by this, but I really don't have a choice in the matter. (Well, unless you consider one year of crappy communal job doing goodness knows what, goodness knows where, for below-minimum wage or two years of prison for deserting to be options, but I really don't. <.<) This is also, in a way, the reason for my lack of reviewing activity lately, as I've largely been wrapped up in exchanging soppy PMs with a number of forum friends and making arrangements for a number of unfortunate circumstances that will keep my RP characters out of their respective plots' path for half a year.
So yeah, sorry to Skii and the other people who have been forced to wait for their reviews longer than expected. (Mind you, only Skii could really expect, but I do plan to post for a number of others) I
am working on them and they
will get done; it's just that I have a lot of other things to do too. .__.
Mind you, Skii, posting another chapter for me to go through isn't exactly making your review come quicker, so please, pretty please, could you hold your horses with the new chapters for a couple of days? It would be much appreciated.
