Male
Seen August 20th, 2014
Posted January 18th, 2013
89 posts
11.3 Years
Dragons breathing fire is fine...
Psychics learning rock throw is fine (actually makes more sense than rock types doing it)...
Non-ghost types using body slam is fine...

But
Wigglytuff learning Thunderbolt?
Arbok learning Fire Fang?
Azumarill learning Toxic?

Come on Game Freak... this is really annoying. Personally I only teach my Pokemon moves that I could imagine them using. Teaching them inappropriate moves ruins imagination, and playing a Pokemon game without using your imagination is pointless. You might as well be seeing how many times you can tap your thumb against your finger in the space of 2 hours.

This is one of the few bad things from the first generation that has clung on because of all the trading between games, and it's a great shame.

Rivvon

Age 30
Female
USA
Seen 2 Hours Ago
Posted January 30th, 2023
2,770 posts
16.1 Years
It honestly doesn't bother me. In fact, I enjoy imagining why/how a Pokemon would know an attack of a different type.

Wigglytuff learning Thunderbolt? It's partially based off a balloon. Static electricity, anyone?
Arbok learning Fire Fang? Well he's got the teeth; maybe he can utilize fire in his body somehow to a small degree.
Azumarill learning Toxic? All Pokemon that can utilize TMs can learn Toxic, which brings up a whole other category of conspiracy theories and creepypastas altogether!

It's also mentioned in various sources that Normal-types, while plain, are still able to utilize moves of many different types, which adds to their uniqueness.

Just because a Pokemon has one type doesn't mean it can't utilize other abilities. You even mentioned a good example, with some Psychic-types who may learn Rock Throw. Pretty much all learned moves make sense if you take into account all options and think about it for a bit; at least that's what I've noticed.


A Dream of Your Own: The Formulas of Unova—Black & White
Introduction | Part I: The Components of Unova
Age 30
Male
Seen February 7th, 2017
Posted December 26th, 2016
585 posts
10.9 Years
Wow, I've got to partially agree with both of the posts above me. It's as Rivvon says, part of the fun is imagining why a Pokemon can learn a specific attack. But then again, it is really annoying when you can't think of any reason, for example, Diglett learning Aerial Ace...

Synerjee

Atra du evarinya ono varda.

Everywhere and anywhere.
Seen May 28th, 2016
Posted February 25th, 2016
2,901 posts
10.6 Years
No, of course not. Why, it even gives them a lot of advantage over their weaknesses! For instance, Tangrowth - a pure grass-type, is not completely useless against ALL of its weaknesses as it is able to learn Rock Slide - a rock-type move, which counters fire, ice, bug AND flying types.

This does get a tad annoying though as the opponent might come out with a move that can KO your pokemon which is super-effective against it. Surprise surprise. :/

Well, it's a double-edged sword. Use it to its full potential but prepare to face it as well.

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
One of things I love about this is so Pokemon can have moves that can counter their type disadvantages.

For example, Reuniclus can use Focus Blast to counter Dark-types that would otherwise be immune to its Psychic-type attacks.

Some opponents also love to abuse the diverse movepools to take their competitors by surprise, and Normal-types, despite being plain have amazing movepools to make up for it.
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Xander Olivieri

Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted November 8th, 2022
5,616 posts
13 Years
I actually posted something about the "toxic" issue on another thread...Let's see where it was...

Toxic being spread to all Pokemon is most likely because of animals and objects being able to carry diseases that make you sick. Bites from any wild animal can have rabies or bacteria which causes you to become sick.

The Komodo Dragon are well known for their bites since they have many different types of disease carrying microbes in their mouths that when they bite you, if you don't get some sort of shot right away, you could lose the limb just for that.

Then for the inanimate, you have bacteria that settles on dirty surfaces, when handled improperly you can make yourself sick.

I think that's why Toxic is a Universal TM.

There is only one other move that I can think of that can inflict Badly Poisoned and its strictly to Poisonous Pokemon.
and
Most creatures, the poison is a natural part of their biology so they are naturally immune to their own poisons. Toxic doesn't have to be the same toxins for every Pokemon. Medically each Pokemon would produce its own poison with the attack that their bodies are naturally immune to.


Humans are similar with Blood types and donors. Others may not accept the organs or blood safely even being matching types. Auto-immune disease in cases like these aren't as common, but possible.

Then you have genetic illness carriers who are immune to the disease themselves, but still carry the gene that carries it.

As for Komodo, they can easily be anything else if the creators want it to be. I can see on as Pure Dragon based on name, Dark due to way they hunt and because of how they are mentally, they could be Water or Grass due to habitat.

Its based on what the creator would want for it.

Most common WOULD be poison. XD Even I made a Poison/Dragon Komodo Fakemon.
Pokemon learning Poison attacks is actually the easiest to explain with those two above.

For others, its affinity. When you think of basic Monsters from RPG there are some that have better affinities than others. In Pokemon's Case Normal types usually have the best affinity and learn a multitude of type attacks to make up for their neutral disposition.

Some moves you have to look past their Anime version or localized/translated namesake. In terms of Aerial Ace or Swallow Return, is based off a Japanese Sword style where they user attacks at a high speed and returns the blade back to its original position quickly. The attack was developed after watchin a Swallow hunt which is where it got its name. The Anime version sorta bastardizes the attack into a high flying never miss attack, but all it is is a quick hit and run attack that's hard to dodge. Even a Diglett could do it by popping underground and attacking the unaware opponent.

Its hard to give it form against a Pokemon with Levitate or one always shown flying, but if you are creative enough it can make sense once you push past what is normally shown since a lot of Pokemon use attacks differently or attacks have changed over the 15 years of Pokemon.

When you are as open with your thoughts like that, no...none of the attacks seem out of place in anyone's move pools at all.

My friend always questioned how a Trapinch was capable of using gust when they are depicted as wingless insects. I usually made the joke that Trapinch had a really powerful burp. XD

Anything can be possible with Pokemon sometimes you can look at it logically sometimes you cannot and have to go the magic route and just accept it.
Seen May 9th, 2014
Posted November 23rd, 2012
83 posts
14.5 Years
Pokemon only learning their own STAB moves would kill the strategic aspect of the game completely. A pokemon's movepool is a deciding factor of their battling viability. This is why pokemon like Smeargle and Mew are so fun to use and are actually quite useful despite them being outclassed by other pokemon otherwise.

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PlatinumDude

Nyeh?

Age 29
Male
Canada
Seen July 31st, 2020
Posted May 30th, 2020
12,958 posts
12.7 Years
This doesn't bother me. Some Pokemon are able to learn moves of other types to better handle types that they're weak to. For instance, Dragon Pokemon are able to learn Flamethrower and Fire Blast to cover the Steel Pokemon that would wall them and the Ice Pokemon they're weak to.

Also, as some others said, a Pokemon learning their STAB moves alone will leave them seriously walled by types they're weak to, so they have moves of other types to help hit them neutrally or supereffectively.

Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
I LOVE crazy stuff like that. I relish in it. It gives Pokemon much more moveset diversity and coverage against other types it normally wouldn't have anything to hit it with. I think it's fantastic. :) -hugs Aqua Tail Gligar-
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Rivvon

Age 30
Female
USA
Seen 2 Hours Ago
Posted January 30th, 2023
2,770 posts
16.1 Years
The dug family learns Arial Ace...
I actually really like XanderO's explanation of that a few posts up. I hadn't realized Aerial Ace's Japanese name was Swallow Return; knowing that, it makes a lot more sense as to why Pokemon like Diglett can learn it!

The Japanese names really do help in understanding why some Pokemon learn certain moves...or, reversely, it helps understand more about the Pokemon that is using it. For instance, I couldn't really determine what, besides a humanoid, Jynx could be based off of, but after reading that her signature attack "Lovely Kiss" is "Demon Kiss" in Japanese, the correlation between her and a succubus made a lot more sense.

Another example of that would be Hoppip learning Splash. Some people might think that it doesn't make sense, but its Japanese name is actually "Hop."


A Dream of Your Own: The Formulas of Unova—Black & White
Introduction | Part I: The Components of Unova
Age 33
Female
UK
Seen January 29th, 2013
Posted January 26th, 2013
458 posts
12.9 Years
I don't really think of it like "Would it be possible?", I just think of it on how useful I think I'll find that Pokémon having that move. "Fang" moves in general I like, it's a way of Pokémon with fangs (or just teeth) to learn some moves from other types. Same goes for the "Punch" moves. So no, it doesn't really bother me.
Still young but no longer impressionable.

Brendino

The Ruins of Alph
Seen 17 Hours Ago
Posted April 6th, 2023
8,567 posts
13.5 Years
I don't think that it really bothers me per se, but I always found it more interesting than anything when a Pokemon can learn moves that are of it's type disadvantage. For example, I always though it was funny when I had a Lombre that knew Fire Punch and Ice Beam on Emerald, even though it was a Water/Grass type Pokemon.

60

#isthenumbersign

Age 29
Female
Cloud Nine
Seen January 28th, 2013
Posted November 26th, 2012
266 posts
10.6 Years
There's just something about looking at a moveset full of different colors that makes me happy. So yeah I definitely like the fact that Pokemon can be diverse, for the most part. I actually wish that some of the other Pokemon had more diverse movesets, i.e. most of the Grass types. :P

Captain Gizmo

Monkey King

Age 29
Male
Canada
Seen 2 Weeks Ago
Posted 3 Weeks Ago
4,842 posts
10.7 Years
I actually really like XanderO's explanation of that a few posts up. I hadn't realized Aerial Ace's Japanese name was Swallow Return; knowing that, it makes a lot more sense as to why Pokemon like Diglett can learn it!

The Japanese names really do help in understanding why some Pokemon learn certain moves...or, reversely, it helps understand more about the Pokemon that is using it. For instance, I couldn't really determine what, besides a humanoid, Jynx could be based off of, but after reading that her signature attack "Lovely Kiss" is "Demon Kiss" in Japanese, the correlation between her and a succubus made a lot more sense.

Another example of that would be Hoppip learning Splash. Some people might think that it doesn't make sense, but its Japanese name is actually "Hop."
Yep, it's like Mr.Mime's name. His Japanese name is Barrierd, but in the English version he's called Mr.Mime because during Gen I, they didn't implement genders with the Pokemon yet.
But Diglett using scratch?? haha ^^'
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Age 33
Male
Seen January 19th, 2013
Posted November 11th, 2012
50 posts
10.5 Years
It bothers me that they don't have some of the more improbable combinations in the anime, to be honest. I would LOVE to see a Gastly in the anime use any kind of punch attack...or, better yet, a Gastly that knows nothing but punch moves and can't use any of them, leading to no end of frustration. It's amusing trying to imagine it, and it'd be very boring if they couldn't use different elemental moves.

The only time it bothers me, to be honest, is when it catches me out. Thinking you've got it covered, and then all of a sudden you're getting hit by a move of a different element that just happens to be super effective, and down you go. That's more than a little irritating.

Mr Cat Dog

Frasier says it best

Age 32
Male
London, UK
Seen September 29th, 2017
Posted July 12th, 2017
11,344 posts
19.1 Years
While there are a few isolated incidents that make me go 'huh?' when I learn that a Pokemon can learn a certain move (e.g. Rhydon/Rhyperior and Surf), for the most part, I revel in the wider movepools and try to exploit them whenever possible. Hikari mentioned Reuniclus and Focus Blast, which is a great example of a move that seems illogical on the face of it, but makes a great deal of sense when you think about it in greater detail. The other points about limiting potential strategies have already been mentioned, but I also agree with them as well. Also, in any event, isn't it kinda fun when you learn that something like Octillery can learn Flamethrower? That's just awesome to me. :D
Male
Texas
Seen October 21st, 2017
Posted July 9th, 2017
1,285 posts
14.9 Years
Torros can learn 14 of the 17 types. He is the Son of Arceus.

I think becaus EVERY Pokemon can learn Toxic, and becasue Toxis is STRONGER than regular poisoning, that Toxic is an artifical poison applied to the Pokemon. Even Manemite can Toxic, he isn't making his own, his trainer is painting him in poison.

curiousnathan

Male
Australia
Seen October 18th, 2020
Posted October 5th, 2020
7,753 posts
13.7 Years
It doens't bother me at all. Without the move diversity, then battles would be boring, and really predictable. I think having a variety of moves, and having Pokemon learn moves not necessarily of their type enables them to cover their weakness and exploit others'.
Male
Seen December 9th, 2012
Posted December 9th, 2012
16 posts
10.5 Years
I tend to look at it as a "hidden potential" kind of. Like it was mentioned in the OP, Arbok using fire fang. Arbok realized it can use its venom in such a way that it feels like it's burning, without causing any poison damage to its foe.
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