Things also get more complicated here by how many Pokemon don't have just one evolutionary line, but multiple, and that said lines diverge based on various external factors.
Eevee is obviously the most famous one, since based on what evolutionary stone was used, how happy it is, the time of day it got happy enough or where it leveled up it can evolve into Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, Glaceon or Sylveon.
But there are other interesting examples too. Poliwhirl becomes Poliwrath if you use a water stone, but Politoed if traded with a king's rock. Kirlia evolves into Gardevoir if female and Gallade if male, though it also needs the dawn stone for the latter. A whole bunch require them to have a certain move, level up in a certain region (country), level up in a certain part of that country, to defeat certain other Pokemon, get traded with certain other Pokemon, etc.
That make things a tad harder, since in real life a maturing animal becomes the same thing no matter where it grew up or what it learned to do. A kitten doesn't become a different type of cat based on whether it lived in the US or France.
But yeah, it's interesting to see these comparisons. Just worth remembering that the mechanics of Pokemon evolution and real life evolution or metamorphosis don't map to each other particularly neatly or at all.
> Kirlia evolves into Gardevoir if female and Gallade if male, though it also needs the dawn stone for the latter.
This is incorrect; male Kirlia evolve into Gardevoir just as females do. You can evolve a male (and only a male) into Gallade before that happens, but there is no restriction on Kirlia evolving into Gardevoir.
> in real life a maturing animal becomes the same thing no matter where it grew up or what it learned to do
This is false too. A maturing animal in real life may have its sex determined by environmental factors. (And to complete the analogy, there are paired Pokemon 'species' that differ only by the fact that one species is the male or female version of the other one. For example, female Tauros are called Miltanks, and male Miltanks are called Tauros.)
I can’t believe I’m nitpicking this on HN of all places, but the Taurus-Miltank thing is just fan headcanon based on nothing more than the analogy with real-life animals. While it’s true that Tauros is a male-only species and Miltank is female-only, they have separate Pokédex numbers and were introduced in different generations.
They can breed (because they’re in the same egg group) but the offspring can only ever be a Miltank. The only way to breed a Tauros is via ditto, same as with any other male-only species.
Is Nidorino/Nidorina headcanon too? Each can also be one gender and have different entries in the Pokédex. Are they considered each other's male/female version?
> The only way to breed a Tauros is via ditto, same as with any other male-only species.
You're half right. I was wrong about Tauros and Miltank.
But Volbeat and Nidorino are male-only species that don't need to be bred via Ditto. You can breed Volbeat with Ditto and get an Illumise. You can breed anything with Illumise and get a Volbeat. You can breed anything with Nidoran-female and get a Nidoran-male. You can breed a Nidorino with Ditto and get a Nidoran-female.
Outside-of-universe, this is obviously because the technology of representing Pokemon within the game has changed over time. Later male-female pair species are given the same name and the same Pokedex number. But within-universe, that explanation isn't available.
In early 2009, the Royal Society published an article detailing the discovery "that three families with greatly differing morphologies, Mirapinnidae (tapetails), Megalomycteridae (bignose fishes), and Cetomimidae (whalefishes), are larvae, males, and females, respectively, of a single-family, Cetomimidae."
> That make things a tad harder, since in real life a maturing animal becomes the same thing no matter where it grew up or what it learned to do.
Pretty sure this isn't the case. Pokemon evolution is probably most similar to metamorphosis and there are a number of triggers for metamorphosis across animals since it is a evolved biological process. Probably the most famous is the Axelotl which stays in its neotenic stage in general, but occasionally some undergo metamorphosis on their own. Also triggerable via stress or iodine.
Insects are also interesting in this regard like locusts. I think metamorphosis in insects in most cases probably can be suppressed with growth regulators like an everstone.
In mammals, pigs become feral and undergoe a lot of physical changes once released into the wild.
Yeah, agreeing here, and I think those are some good examples of more "complex" metamorphosis patterns in the real world.
I also found his other argument why Pokémon "evolution" would not be metamorphosis not very convincing either: Essentially, that Pokémon in-game and in-universe are only ever referred to by their "forms" and not by their "species".
That's true, but might simply be a cultural thing: I think I read somewhere that it took quite some time in the real world before people realized that cicadas and locusts are not just the same species but even the same individuals. You could imagine the same in the Pokémon world: People might have encountered Bulbasaus and Venusaurs separately, and when someone found out later that one can morph into the other, the names had stuck already.
Or it might just be more practical to refer to the forms if the metamorphosis get more complicated than a linear chain: You could probably find a good name for the "Bulbasaur/Ivysaur/Venusaur" species, but how about the "Eevee/Flareon/Jolteon/Vaporeon/Espeon/Umbreon/Leafeon/Glaceon/Sylveon" species?
I'm kinda reminded of the Zerg: Almost all the Zerg units start from a larva and then go through one or several stages of metamorphosis to become their intended unit. Still, it's obvious it's all just a single species ("Zerg") and its metamorphosis pattern is essentially a huge tree. So everyone refers to the individual unit names for identification and not the species name.
As much as I love some good overthinking, the Pokémon franchise so obviously follows what looks cool to the target audience that it's quite silly treating it as being in any way consistent.
You get car pokémons, teapots and other contraptions that just make 0 sense.
Things also get more complicated here by how many Pokemon don't have just one evolutionary line, but multiple, and that said lines diverge based on various external factors.
Eevee is obviously the most famous one, since based on what evolutionary stone was used, how happy it is, the time of day it got happy enough or where it leveled up it can evolve into Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, Glaceon or Sylveon.
But there are other interesting examples too. Poliwhirl becomes Poliwrath if you use a water stone, but Politoed if traded with a king's rock. Kirlia evolves into Gardevoir if female and Gallade if male, though it also needs the dawn stone for the latter. A whole bunch require them to have a certain move, level up in a certain region (country), level up in a certain part of that country, to defeat certain other Pokemon, get traded with certain other Pokemon, etc.
That make things a tad harder, since in real life a maturing animal becomes the same thing no matter where it grew up or what it learned to do. A kitten doesn't become a different type of cat based on whether it lived in the US or France.
But yeah, it's interesting to see these comparisons. Just worth remembering that the mechanics of Pokemon evolution and real life evolution or metamorphosis don't map to each other particularly neatly or at all.
> Kirlia evolves into Gardevoir if female and Gallade if male, though it also needs the dawn stone for the latter.
This is incorrect; male Kirlia evolve into Gardevoir just as females do. You can evolve a male (and only a male) into Gallade before that happens, but there is no restriction on Kirlia evolving into Gardevoir.
> in real life a maturing animal becomes the same thing no matter where it grew up or what it learned to do
This is false too. A maturing animal in real life may have its sex determined by environmental factors. (And to complete the analogy, there are paired Pokemon 'species' that differ only by the fact that one species is the male or female version of the other one. For example, female Tauros are called Miltanks, and male Miltanks are called Tauros.)
I can’t believe I’m nitpicking this on HN of all places, but the Taurus-Miltank thing is just fan headcanon based on nothing more than the analogy with real-life animals. While it’s true that Tauros is a male-only species and Miltank is female-only, they have separate Pokédex numbers and were introduced in different generations.
They can breed (because they’re in the same egg group) but the offspring can only ever be a Miltank. The only way to breed a Tauros is via ditto, same as with any other male-only species.
Is Nidorino/Nidorina headcanon too? Each can also be one gender and have different entries in the Pokédex. Are they considered each other's male/female version?
> The only way to breed a Tauros is via ditto, same as with any other male-only species.
You're half right. I was wrong about Tauros and Miltank.
But Volbeat and Nidorino are male-only species that don't need to be bred via Ditto. You can breed Volbeat with Ditto and get an Illumise. You can breed anything with Illumise and get a Volbeat. You can breed anything with Nidoran-female and get a Nidoran-male. You can breed a Nidorino with Ditto and get a Nidoran-female.
Outside-of-universe, this is obviously because the technology of representing Pokemon within the game has changed over time. Later male-female pair species are given the same name and the same Pokedex number. But within-universe, that explanation isn't available.
There are real examples of males and females being initially mistaken for different species, as well as for adults and juvenile forms.
e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetomimidae
In this case the males and females "actually are" different species by an objective definition, though not by every objective definition.
> That make things a tad harder, since in real life a maturing animal becomes the same thing no matter where it grew up or what it learned to do.
Pretty sure this isn't the case. Pokemon evolution is probably most similar to metamorphosis and there are a number of triggers for metamorphosis across animals since it is a evolved biological process. Probably the most famous is the Axelotl which stays in its neotenic stage in general, but occasionally some undergo metamorphosis on their own. Also triggerable via stress or iodine.
Insects are also interesting in this regard like locusts. I think metamorphosis in insects in most cases probably can be suppressed with growth regulators like an everstone.
In mammals, pigs become feral and undergoe a lot of physical changes once released into the wild.
Yeah, agreeing here, and I think those are some good examples of more "complex" metamorphosis patterns in the real world.
I also found his other argument why Pokémon "evolution" would not be metamorphosis not very convincing either: Essentially, that Pokémon in-game and in-universe are only ever referred to by their "forms" and not by their "species".
That's true, but might simply be a cultural thing: I think I read somewhere that it took quite some time in the real world before people realized that cicadas and locusts are not just the same species but even the same individuals. You could imagine the same in the Pokémon world: People might have encountered Bulbasaus and Venusaurs separately, and when someone found out later that one can morph into the other, the names had stuck already.
Or it might just be more practical to refer to the forms if the metamorphosis get more complicated than a linear chain: You could probably find a good name for the "Bulbasaur/Ivysaur/Venusaur" species, but how about the "Eevee/Flareon/Jolteon/Vaporeon/Espeon/Umbreon/Leafeon/Glaceon/Sylveon" species?
I'm kinda reminded of the Zerg: Almost all the Zerg units start from a larva and then go through one or several stages of metamorphosis to become their intended unit. Still, it's obvious it's all just a single species ("Zerg") and its metamorphosis pattern is essentially a huge tree. So everyone refers to the individual unit names for identification and not the species name.
As much as I love some good overthinking, the Pokémon franchise so obviously follows what looks cool to the target audience that it's quite silly treating it as being in any way consistent.
You get car pokémons, teapots and other contraptions that just make 0 sense.
I dunno, I find the thought kinda hilarious that people might start well-actuallying Pokémon lore with "it's really metamorphosis, not evolution"...
There is a fanfic about this
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9794740/1/Pokemon-The-Origin-of...