Unrealistic Moves

Started by Whitney's Shaymin July 5th, 2013 6:21 PM
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Whitney's Shaymin

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Even for the world of pokemon what moves do you think are unrealistic? IMO I think rock polish is. Why does it raise speed by cleaning rocks?


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IMO I think rock polish is. Why does it raise speed by cleaning rocks?
Smoother surfaces = less resistance while moving. It'd be the difference between rolling a bowling ball across gravel as opposed to a waxed floor.

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Earthquake wouldn't do much, at worst it would make the Pokemon fall over.
I could be wrong here, but I think Earthquake was intended to have a shockwave travel through the ground to deal Earthquake's damage. Falling over would just be an added bonus.



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I could be wrong here, but I think Earthquake was intended to have a shockwave travel through the ground to deal Earthquake's damage. Falling over would just be an added bonus.
Just did some research, that happens in the anime but not the game.

Mithel_Celestia

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Just did some research, that happens in the anime but not the game.
Technically, Earthquake never got to see the light in anime ever since an earthquake struck Japan while they were developing an episode that, ironically, was supposed to feature the move Earthquake and decided to cancel it and avoided using eartnquake, fearing another Earthquake would jinx them again.

Anyway, alot of people tend to refer move visuals through the anime and believed thats how it would look in-game.
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Also, guillotine and only making the pokemon faint? I wasn't aware pokemon could live without heads.
Apparently game logic says you can live with a broken neck. (Fall damage lol).
I think everybody can agree to the following: Amnesia. Why does forgetting something raise the Special Defense?? I think I can see (oooh so barely) how that would raise a defense towards psychic, but overall, just no!
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Apparently game logic says you can live with a broken neck. (Fall damage lol).
I think everybody can agree to the following: Amnesia. Why does forgetting something raise the Special Defense?? I think I can see (oooh so barely) how that would raise a defense towards psychic, but overall, just no!
let's just say it like this:
I am a Slowbro. I have amnesia, I forget my fears, such as the fact that Electric does Super Effective damage against water. Pretty much like that XD
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pretty much all water type moves are unrealistic. hydro pump could work, but water gun and bubble would be a mild irritant. anime comes to the rescue by making the bubbles explode, but still.

also I love how the existence of quick attack means that, in realistic terms, pokemon that use tackle just aren't trying very hard
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Payday. Infinite coins popping out of a Meowth's head? Unlikely. I'd think they'd bleed to death, even.

Minimize. Unless they truly were the origins of the "shrinking ball" technology, then I'd find it very unrealistic.

Egg bomb. Look at Payday, except I have no idea where they get the eggs. In the anime, they "bounce off" and return to the pocket-- wait, wtf? Eggs bouncing off? And look below (softboiled), their shells couldn't be so hard/rubbery to...bounce off and still be cracked open for breakfast. That's just terrible.

Softboiled...you tell me that Pokemon eat eggs... of Chansey/Blissey? Okay, I'll end it there as this might turn into some disgusting and gory horror movie.

False Swipe. A pokemon's a thread away from death (a.k.a 1 HP). You hit it with another swipe... it doesn't faint? What?

Morning Sun and Moonlight. In the middle of the night and day, respectively.

Yawn. Good lord, my little Psyduck whose mind is in another dimension, how did you end up sleeping.

Ice ball. Great, my Spheal just coughed up some ice block. If they keep doing this in the north pole, we'd have world-wide winter all-year round.

Every other continuous attack like Hydro Pump or Flamethrower. Seriously, they never run out of juice. Sure, I personally know a human who could infinitely produce and spit up bubbles with his own saliva (not kidding!)... but to be able to produce Hydropumps with such a small body (squirtle!? he can only squirt!) is really unrealistic... and random.

Surf out of nowhere or dig in the middle of the Ocean or Avalanche inside a volcano... speaking of which, I'm going off-topic for a moment. Sending a Charmander/any of it's line underwater should kill it (according to the dex entry). But apparently, mine still evolved into a Charmeleon. Your pokedex is making stuff up. Anyway, back to the moves. Sure, they've never done it in the anime... but who knows, right?

Ice Burn. Now I think someone's spilled his cup o coffee on the move data.
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I don't know too much about the moves and how they are unrealistic, but the Pokemon that can learn them.. Like, Aron, he can learn iron tail.. And he doesn't even have a tail.. And so can Alakazam too apparently.. :S
Dodue can learn fly (Hehe helicopter head), Diglet learn slash, Wooper learning ice punch... With what hands?! And the fact that snorlax can selfdestruct..! That's messy.. Haha!

And how you can use the move dive on land, use dig while in a battle in the middle of the ocean water, you can use fly underwater, you can use a tiny pigy to fly you across the other side of a map...

But as for un realistic moves and effects they do... All I can think of is bubble killing an onix in one hit... Haha.

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Payday. Infinite coins popping out of a Meowth's head? Unlikely. I'd think they'd bleed to death, even.
It gets even weirder when you consider that Pokemon other than Meowth can learn it (typically via TM). Where do they get those coins from? Alchemy?

Other unrealistic moves:

- Power/Guard Swap/Split, Power Trick, Reflect Type, and other moves that manipulate a Pokemon's type or set stat level. It seems like these moves operate on game stats and not real-world concepts, and in the real world it's just bizarre to talk about one's defense and offense being manipulated like that.
- The exception to the above is Soak, since it makes sense that throwing lots of water on someone would temporarily make them behave more Water-like as far as strengths and weaknesses go (i.e. being more fireproof and vulnerable to electric shock when wet).
- Ally Switch. It has an application in in-game triple battles, but what good is it realistically? In a real-life triple battle, the Pokemon would be moving around so much that each participant wouldn't really have much of a set position.



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Freeze Shock and Ice Burn. Ice-type moves that paralyze or burn? I don't get the idea.
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- Fire Fang... Mostly ouch for the Pokemon whose mouth is on fire...

- Crunch... What is a crunch? It's not even an action. And it's [ractically the same animation of bite... So is it just a critical bite ore something???

- Magic Leaf... Flying rainbow leaves hit you...? Ouch?

- All water type moves... Where do they store the water?

And the two main ones:

COTTON GUARD AND COTTON SPORE

Seriously GameFreak? How the hell does covering yourself in cotton balls increase your ability to withstand Flamethrower. And how does it lower your speed??? WTF?
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I never understood why tail whip lowered defense instead of just being a standard physical attack. That's like the equivalent of me shaking my booty or something. lol
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I never understood why tail whip lowered defense instead of just being a standard physical attack. That's like the equivalent of me shaking my booty or something. lol
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Gets them distracted with their booty and aren't as prepared for defence maybe? :3
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Tri-Attack, Freeze Shock and Ice Burn are some of the most unrealistic moves you'll see that isn't a Psychic-type. I don't know why they inflict a completely different form of status. I also find Stealth Rock rather unrealistic compared to Spikes. When I saw it in the anime the rocks float and charge into the Pokemon on entry. It's such a weird entry hazard. Some stat-changers, such as Fake Tears, Leer and Nasty Plot don't make sense at all either.
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I never understood why tail whip lowered defense instead of just being a standard physical attack. That's like the equivalent of me shaking my booty or something. lol
In the Japanese text, Tail Whip's name literally translates to "Tail Wag" such as when a happy dog might do it. It could make the e enemy less wary I guess.

Milk Drink is nearly as disturbing as Softboiled. Dirty thoughts aside, just how does Miltank manage to reach its own udders with such short limbs and no thumbs?

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Perhaps it is very flexible...? Or just squirts it out. :V

A bunch of moves actually make more sense or add new meaning with the Japanese names.
Tri-Attack, Freeze Shock and Ice Burn are some of the most unrealistic moves you'll see that isn't a Psychic-type. I don't know why they inflict a completely different form of status. I also find Stealth Rock rather unrealistic compared to Spikes. When I saw it in the anime the rocks float and charge into the Pokemon on entry. It's such a weird entry hazard. Some stat-changers, such as Fake Tears, Leer and Nasty Plot don't make sense at all either.
Tbh, I'm pretty okay with most of these you mentioned. Tri-Attack is made of different elemental attacks rolled into one (at least in some depictions), so it having multiple potential status makes sense there. I suppose Freeze Shock/Ice Burn also make sense - Kyurem only knows them by being fused with the related dragon legendary of the matching typing, and there are cases where being frozen 'feels like' a burn, or so I've read.

Fake Tears/Leer work on body language tricking or intimidating the opponent as well. If in a fight someone has the right attitude in their body language/facial expression it can be intimidating and distract you from fighting normally, hence the lowered guard. Or better yet, just google a video of the New Zealand Maori doing the haka, something they did during fights too. That sort of display I bet would be very off-putting.

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I'm going to go through a list of all moves in Bulbapedia which don't make sense to me.

Razor Wind/Whirlwind - not flying?
Mist - how does water vapor shield you from Screech/etc?
Agility/Rest - how psychic?
Mind Reader/Psych Up/Disable- how are these not psychic?
Teleport - how does Fly allow you to go anywhere, but not this?
Smokescreen - how does this only hit one opponent in doubles?
Bone Club/etc - how do these miss flying types? Mud attacks, too.
Curse - how does this japanese pun for "slow" also raise your atk/def?
Milk Drink - Eww.
Sleep Talk - shouldn't it be Sleep Walk?
Rapid Spin - why should the defensive properties fail against ghosts? The leechseed/hazards are on you.
Moonlight - stronger in the sun?!
Dive/Dig/Surf/EQ/Rock Climb - should fail, depending on the environment
Gastro Acid - and vomiting stomach acid gets rid of abilities how?
Wring Out - how is this a special move?
Grass Knot - how does this make contact when things like Starmie use it?!
Heart Swap - in-game it swaps stat boosts. In the anime/brawl, it literally switches souls.
Magnet Rise - specifically when a magnemite has to use it
Mirror Shot/Flash Cannon - how does the light reflecting off these surfaces crush rocks, etc?
Power Gem - same as above
Wide Guard - is a rock
Soak - how does submerging a Charizard in water turn it into a water-type without taking damage?
Clear Smog - references water vapor that comes out of chemical plants, yet is poison

I bolded the ones that I think are the least logical, for your TL;DRing pleasure.


COTTON GUARD AND COTTON SPORE

Seriously GameFreak? How the hell does covering yourself in cotton balls increase your ability to withstand Flamethrower. And how does it lower your speed??? WTF?
Cotton Guard raises physical defense, not special defense. It makes perfect sense that if your opponent tackled you at full force or threw something heavy on you, that a cushion of fluff would block the damage. Cotton Spore doesn't make sense, though.

String Shot lowering speed? It's string, the pokemon could just pull it off
It's not string, it's comparable to the material used in spider webs. A spider the size of Ariados should easily be able to trap and restrict the movement of its foes.

pretty much all water type moves are unrealistic. hydro pump could work, but water gun and bubble would be a mild irritant. anime comes to the rescue by making the bubbles explode, but still.

also I love how the existence of quick attack means that, in realistic terms, pokemon that use tackle just aren't trying very hard
Imagine water gun being launched at the pressure of a firefighter's hose, like it is in the anime. Then imagine Hydro Pump being 3 times the PSI of that.

Most pokemon that learn Quick Attack learn it after Tackle. That's like saying that pokemon that learn Ember aren't trying hard enough because they're not using Flamethrower.

Scald. Just imagining hot water catching something on fire is hard for me to grasp.
I personally do not interpret BURN status as being lit on fire, but rather having burned, damaged skin, such as a sunburn. If you were to dip your hand in boiling hot water, it would be hot enough to sting for a while and would hurt to move (i.e, lowering your attack)