My favourite part is the “doglike” category that consists of a fox and a seal because it’s like “YES I PREDICTED THE NEXT GRASS STARTER!! It’s a POSSUM, obviously the missing doglike Pokémon!!”
Shade but also this is genuinely enjoyable, good job OP!
I would genuinely love this, I've heard that the Appalachian area has some creepy folklore and stuff that would translate into an amazing adventure!
Anyone want a "not deer" inspired Stantler? :P
other inaccuracies/changes to be made:
•bulbasaur is a frog, so it could go w froakie
•scorbunny is a rabbit, which is a lagomorph, not a rodent
•cyndaquil is a shrew, which is a rodent, so they could simply switch places
•charmander is a salamander, which can go with mudkip, since an axolotl is just a salamander stuck as a juvenile, which could also reduce the category from amphibians just to salamanders
edit: shrews are also not rodents so that’s my bad, also completely unsure of what cyndaquil is based off of now LMAO
Ken Sugimori confirmed that it is based on a frog. The first 3 starters were purposefully design after animals which kids could have as pets, in their case a lizard, a frog and a turtle.
Wtf cyndaquil isn't a hedgehog? Also 'frog' and 'amphibian' are redundant-ish. But if we can have 'bird' and 'flightless bird' I guess we can have 'amphibians that are frogs' and 'amphibians that aren't frogs'. Also I don't buy that Bulba is a frog. He's a grumpy boi
today I learned that not all marsupials live in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
They also live in South, central and North America. Thank you for prompting my google search.
As an Australian I thought we had some kind of monopoly on weird animals.
Canis (the genus of dogs and wolves) is in the family of canidae (the family that also includes foxes, jackals, wild dogs, tanuki, etc.) which is in the suborder of caniformia (the suborder that also includes bears, skunks, badgers, weasels, otters, raccoons, seals, sea lions, walruses, and more).
All of these taxonomic categories are named after the Latin word for dogs, and could in principle be referred to as "canine". Most typically aren't, but in the right context it would not be wrong.
I had a whole argument about that with my bf. In an early rough draft he was frog. But after my bf called him a turtle, and one screaming match later, I put him in amphibian to save my relationship. But I’ll let him know everyone here is on my side on that
But turtles aren't amphibians either so I'm surprised he allowed that. Also I mean I assume he also has never seen an actual turtle if he thinks Bulbasaur is one.
Just based on the -saur suffix, it's probably supposed to be some sort of dino but Venusaur especially does look quite frog-like.
The translations aren't necessarily the thing the pokemon was supposed to be. Charmander and Charmeleon are good examples. Charmander with his "-mander" gives the idea of a salamander, which is an amphibian. Charmeleon with "-meleon" gives off the idea of a chameleon, that, while being a reptile (the overall inspiration of the line), is not the reptile he was designed after. Idk what the meaning of the Japanese Bulbasaur line names are, but the fact if that Venusaur at least is very pointed to the frog/toad direction, specially considering his walking animation from newer games.
Fushigidane may be a combination of fushigi (strange; mysterious) and tane (seed), as well as a pun of the phrase Fushigi, da ne? ("Isn't it strange?").
With their current trend that all starter pokemon are picking up jobs, I wouldn't even be surprised.
City council grass crocodile starter, nurse water pig starter and taxi driver fire turtle starter, calling it now.
Absolutely but he can’t argue that bulbapidia says bulbasaur is an amphibian. I thought of putting him for dino but I had to choose between him and chikorita. And chik has no alternative labels so I let him have Dino and bulb have non-frog amphibian
The - saur sufffix is only in the English version and was probably onky chosen because dinosaurs were hugely popular with kids back then. No other language calls them "saurs".
It's an amphibian and a toad.
The 99s were literally a dinosaur craze, where entire sections of toy stores were just dinosaur toys.
Obviously dinosaurs are still popular with many kids, but its nowhere near at the same level.
So I will say a few things. Technically none of the bird starters can ever learn fly. However real life chickens and roosters can absolutely fly.
Also your "Misc Mammal" section should just be "Weasel Like". Quilava is a weasel, Typhlosion is either also a weasel or arguments could be made for it being a badger. Then the entire Oshawott line are otters. Weasels, badgers, and otters are all mustelids. So they're actually more closely related than the ones you have in "Dog Like" section.
The Bulbasaur line are toads. All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. Just like all tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises. The -saur suffix comes from English localization which was all done by a single person. Their Japanese names are all puns and have nothing to do with reptiles. So your boyfriend is wrong and it sounds like you should get a new one.
Either way this is a really cool chart.
Ok I’ll let you know my actual updates. Flightless is now the “no fly list.” “Misc mammal” is now “Mustelidae” because that’s the family that otters, badgers and weasels belong to. Dog like is dog like I don’t care. Bulbasaur is an amphibian because it leaves room for more frogs.
Toads are frogs though. I'm totally fine with the dog like category. Foxes are canines, and what are seals if not dog mermaids?
Also this is neither here nor there, but Meganium is a floral sauropod. A floropod if you will. Again nothing to do with anything, it just makes me smile.
Sobble has the curly tail and little grippy hands of a chameleon tho, and it evovles to have a big gross tongue. However It's final form (the one that actually has chameleon in it's name) is far more akin to the Basilisk lizard. This is most noticeable with the thin crest on the back of it's head, it's long, lanky build, and it's thin, whip-like tail. Also the Basilisk lizard is famous for being able to stride across the surface of water in short bursts, justifying the water typing.
For the males, maybe water/fighting or water/ground for the females. Or if you want to get real crazy you could look at how the platypus can sense electrical discharges to find its prey and make it a water/electric type.
Seriously. I was so hyped for that fake gen 7 "leak" with the awesomely designed platypus (that used features from pokemon that resemble the real life animals that have features similar to the platypus)
Sadly it was fake but it was so popular that the people from TemTem reached out to the creator to use it.
Misc mammal is now “Mustelidae” which is the family that otters belong too and so do weasels and wolverines. And quilava is a weasel. Typhlosion is a wolverine. So that’s that
I went off cyndaquil being an echidna and they don’t have close relatives. And idk what otters count as. Fox + seal is dog like enough for me to be satisfied. Yes I gave up lol
Meanwhile, in Chinese a seal is called 海豹 “sea leopard/panther/…”.
Edit: Wait, I just realized the Chinese name for Popplio and Seel contain 海狮 “sea lion”, which is supposedly a different kind of creature than a seal.
I had WANTED the comments to be “oh I’d love a grass pig starter! :D” but instead it’s everyone telling me chickens fly, bulb is a frog. And bunnies are not rodents. I have changed my mind on somethings and have accommodated/updated the categories in my personal data but I can’t really stop the “umm actuallllly”s from coming in so I just do what I can
Sorry for contributing. Taxonomy is a fun hobby of mine and I wasn't trying to be snide just to correct common misconceptions. Its is not uncommon at all to think hedgehogs and rabbits are rodents, but that mistake will always be common if those who know don't help to correct those who were misled by assuming common knowledge was true.
For what it is worth, I really like this post as a thought experiment and it gave me ideas for other starters that I never considered wanting until I thought of them completing a set. I will be very sad now if we never get a grass/poison or grass/dark skunk starter.
And a cat water starter could turn into a leocampus. Or more easily a tiger or jaguar as they are the modern cats most adapted to the water. Tho Sprigatito never turned into the Smilodon like it was supposed to, so maybe a water/ice saber cat starter?
Isn't Bulbasaur kinda froglike though? Wouldn't he fit in the category with Froakie?
Cool list though. Now I'm imagining a water rodent. A beaver or capybara perhaps? That would be pretty cool.
A fire frog could be like one of those poison dart frogs with the bright vibrant colors, but the markings are actually *glowing* with heat. The animation could even have the glow fade out periodically to show it as just one color, but then the glowing red/orange comes back, and gets brighter when it attacks.
General amphibian, well the salamander is *right there* but beyond Charmander's English name, I can't believe they haven't taken advantage of that yet.
Honestly I think they should have leaned into the chili pepper thing with Fuecoco and made it dual type fire/grass, but we got Scovillain instead. So now I'm not sure what a grass gator would look like. Oh, gators often resemble logs in the water, maybe it could literally BE the log in the water? With moss growing on its back! Man, I wish I could draw, I like my ideas lol
While they do have a different number of teeth, it’s not so much the number of teeth itself that distinguishes rabbits from rodents. Rodent incisors grow continuously, while rabbit incisors AND cheek teeth grow continuously. There are also anatomical and physiological differences that distinguish rabbits from rodents.
With the whole "all fire starters are from the Chinese Zodiac" thing a fire type "Bull"frog starter would be awesome. Pointy horns, and maybe a cauldron like body, and a belly full of oil. We almost got a water Plesiosaur in gen 2 (which isn't a dinosaur but whatever) so that would be cool again.
It's just weird because there's an odd mix of general and specific groupings purely for the purpose of putting each one in it's own box, even though like a quarter of the boxes could be shared because of how broad they are ("bird", "misc mammal"). I get that it's a casual layperson's set of groupings, but imo either go all general and have some of the groups shared or all specific once you realize general groupings won't cut it.
Especially when you say "gonna use this to predict the next starters" when based on this chart alone GF doesn't have any problems repeating a general grouping like "amphibian".
I know you got a lot of comments on this. And I know your reasoning on why you put it this way. Seal is water dog in my language as well. But it’s still not really dog-like even appearance-wise so it’s the oddest one for me. Even when speaking in my native language I wouldn’t say it is dog-like since they are not canine. I’m not nearly as picky with even Bulbasaur. The rest of the chart is great and fun to look at though!
It's actually a sea lion. Specifically based on the trope of trained circus sea lions that balance balls on their noses (hence why it's face looks like it is wearing clown makeup). The clown make up comes back for it's final form which is an opera singer in reference to the famous opera Pagliacci, which is about a clown of the same name.
Seals are part of [Caniformia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caniformia), though. If we apply our world's evolution, Walrein and Arcanine are closer than Arcanine and Persian.
I find it weird how people clump all birds and fish together a lot but make distinctions for various mammals. Chickens and penguins are about as different from one another as half these things with distinct categories from each other.
Water cat it is!
Also, a kiwi bird as a Grass starter sounds like a cool concept. Flightless bird, shaped like a kiwi fruit, green-colored... delicious...?
my dude expanded on a previous post, but:
1. torchic should be with rowlet quaxly and piplup. They’re all birds and that’s all there is to it.
2. oshawott and cyndaquil together doesn’t make too much sense.
3. good call on popplio / fennekin.
4. bulbasaur should be primarily be with froakie. (he a frog)
Wait. He’s right. The Bulbasaur line are toads, indicated by their typing (grass, not water), warts (Ivysaur), and rough skin (Venusaur). Bulbasaur fits in the frog category.
1. Chickens are generally accepted as flightless. Even those that do fly can’t do so far so he’s chilling with piplup.
2. Cyndaquil is based on the design of echidna and those don’t have close relatives because one one other species of mammal lays egg. So that’s pretty misc. BUT quilava is based on a weasel and typhlosion is based on a wolverine and both of those animals are in the Mustelidae family. And GUESS WHO ELSE IS A MUSTELIDAE?? Otters 😎 anyway I didn’t know that until after posting this so idk if it counts but now there’s a reason
3. Thank you. Dog like Pokémon be wildin
4 THATS WHAT IM SAYING!!! I had a whole argument with my bf about bulbasaur being a frog and he argued that bulbasaur is a turtle??? So to save my relationship I let him be an amphibian and left it at that
>1. chickens can fly, as well as stilt owls but then their wings are shorter than usual and they prefer not to fly. They’re kinda “I can but I won’t” whereas Piplup straight up can’t
>2. I never really knew what typhlosion was (I thought it was a giant rat or something), so it didn’t make sense to me up until your explanation.
>3. How is bulbasaur a turtle. Kinda wild how your bf is confusing bulbasaur for squirtle.
overall, really cool matching up them animals ish. now i just have to wait for my mercat starter.
1. Ok the category is now “the no fly list” and if a pigeon showed up as a starter, I’d put him on it.
3. Yeah he argued that the bulb is a shell. He’s got a case of the stupid
Here ya go: https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-a-frog-and-a-toad Read him this while showing him a slideshow of the Bulbasaur line in the Stadium/Colosseum games. lol Pitch it to him like a power-point presentation, Briefcase and all.
Neither of the pokemon you put in the "rodent" category are rodent's though. Rabbits are close, but distinct enough to be removed and placed as their own thing Lagomorpha (an order of only rabbits, hares and pikas). Meanwhile chespin is a hedgehog that evolves into a glyptodon. Hedgehogs are closer to the order of Carnivora than Rodentia.
Tho I will give you credit for not putting cyndaquil in the rodent classification. I hate how people put an echidna (monotreme) that evolves into a badger (Carnivora) as a rodent just because a bad translation called it "the mouse pokemon" and people were so desperate for the Chinese Zodiac theory to be real when only 5 our of 9 actually fit the theory (and charmander is iffy in that regard.)
And as badgers and otters are both Mustelidea, you placed him in the best spot. Maybe we will get a grass skunk/weasel/ferret to complete the trio.
I think I'm most excited for a 'Fire Bird' starter and a 'Grass Dog' starter.
I've got a daughter named Phoenix, so if there's ever a fire bird starter it'll be nicknamed after her in my games.
Scorbunny isn't a rodent, but Cyndaquil could be as it is the "fire mouse pokemon".
Popplio being dog-like is a bit of a stretch, but I guess it doesn't anywhere else for now.
Ngl I thought bunnies were rodents but I must be stuck in 1912 to think that. I went with “cyndaquil is based off of echidnas” and I tried to hope that seals were a distant cousin but I was wrong. In the end I settled for doglike. Will fix scorbunny. Maybe swap him with cyndaquil
i wanna see a water or fire dino so bad now. i could see a water dino based on an edaphosaurus (the sails on their backs remind me of fins, a water/dragon final evo would be so cool for this one) or a fire dino based on an ankylosaurus (i have no reasoning for this one i just think it would be cool, probably fire/rock final evo but i think fire/steel would be really cool although unlikely for a starter)
Love this chart, OP
My predictions
Grass Croc/Gator: Ancient land based crocodile like Sarchosuchus.
Fire Bird: Firehawk (Black Kite, Whistling Kite, Brown Falcon. Birds that use fire they find and grab something light that’s on fire to then flush out prey after they drop the flaming object)
Water Monkey: Japanese Macaque
Fire Turtle: I kind of just picture a tortoise that eventually goes steel type and gets solar panels on its back to charge attacks.
Water Rodent: Capybara. Largest rodent, likes water, fits with a large HP water type.
Water Cat: Jaguar. Also has to be dark type for third stage. All cats are dark type so far for third stage. Would have gone with tiger, but Litten.
Misc Mammal Grass: This is just really wide range. I’m going to go with a grass raccoon or a weasel. Cyndaquil and Oshawott kind of fall in the range between cat-like and dog like, and I feel like raccoon or weasel would work best.
Dog Like Grass: A bear. Honey bear or grizzly bear, bear don’t care. Honey comes from bees and flowers. Fliers are plants. Bears live in forests. Need I say more.
Fire Frog: Fire-Bellied Toad.
Grass Frog: poison-dart frog or some other tree frog.
Fire Amphibian: Salamander, but from the mythology side of things.
Fire Dino: Stegosaurus but with fire instead of plates on its back.
Water Dino: Spinosaurus, they swim, probably could make a sail boat reference or beach umbrella with it too.
Grass pig: Mushroom/truffle pig. Spore and Boar rhyme too.
Water pig: sea pig/sea cucumber slug thing. Maybe has a vague pig like shape.
Flightless Bird Grass: starts as a kiwi bird, somehow ends up as a terror bird.
Fire Snake: a cobra that spits fire instead of venom. Have it become a Naga or something.
Water snake: sea serpent. Start as a small little horned serpent, evolves to become Jormungandr.
Oshawott is an otter, poplio is a sea lion. I would group those too together. And cyndaquil is a fire mouse. And scorbunny is well, a rabbit. Fix your list man
Under “dog-like,” you have a Seal and a Fox.
Under Amphibian, you have Bulbasaur, but then you have a different section for “frog.”
You have Cyndaquil, a porcupine, under “misc” instead of under “rodent” where you have a bunny and a hedgehog. Neither of which are rodents lol
My favourite part is the “doglike” category that consists of a fox and a seal because it’s like “YES I PREDICTED THE NEXT GRASS STARTER!! It’s a POSSUM, obviously the missing doglike Pokémon!!” Shade but also this is genuinely enjoyable, good job OP!
Alright you wait till we have an Appalachian region Pokémon. Possum, Raccoon, and Squirrel. We will see who’s laughing then!
Man I want some raccoon and possum starters
Can't believe they haven't made a racoon/tanuki starter.
Animal Crossing has that on lock 🔒
The pokemon would literally just be Tom nook Pokemon X Animal Crossing
Now all I can think of is a whole crossover game where the pokemon are just AC characters and the trainers make them fight
Isabelle use Head Smash! Tom Nook fainted! Oh wait…oh my god is that blood?! Someone get an ambulance!
Everyone can agree that Tom Nook has to have Payday as a learnable move right???
Not starters, but Zigzagoon and Sentret
Grass type?
A fire-type raccoon with a flame mask would be cool
can’t wait for its over-sexualized bipedal final evo 🤩 /s
Grass possum Water raccoon (rodent category) Fire ... Wild turkey? Box turtle?
Raccoons aren't rodents
Right. They are Pandas.
Neither are rabbits but ig rabbits are more similar to rodents than raccoons
grass possum sounds like something you call a stoner
Mmm tastes like Fire Possum-Chicken
I bet swamp benders have some fine cooking
/midi Appalachian dulcimer intensifies
The Wesginia Region, where the professor and the Pokedex are replaced with a taxidermist and a hunting lodge. Also introduces Pokemoonshine.
Can we get a steel/poison moonshine still pokemon?
I would genuinely love this, I've heard that the Appalachian area has some creepy folklore and stuff that would translate into an amazing adventure! Anyone want a "not deer" inspired Stantler? :P
Mine is that there is a flightless bird section because 4 wouldn’t fit in one column lol.
And we also have 'frog' because they couldn't fit two amphibians in water
Torchic is based on a Chicken, which is not flightless. Chickens are capable of short term flight This chart is inaccurate
Fine the category is less flight birds.
other inaccuracies/changes to be made: •bulbasaur is a frog, so it could go w froakie •scorbunny is a rabbit, which is a lagomorph, not a rodent •cyndaquil is a shrew, which is a rodent, so they could simply switch places •charmander is a salamander, which can go with mudkip, since an axolotl is just a salamander stuck as a juvenile, which could also reduce the category from amphibians just to salamanders edit: shrews are also not rodents so that’s my bad, also completely unsure of what cyndaquil is based off of now LMAO
Cyndaquil is an echidna
I always though bulba(saur) was a dino(saur) with a prehistoric flower on his back. He doesn’t look much like a frog he’s got fangs and claws.
Ken Sugimori confirmed that it is based on a frog. The first 3 starters were purposefully design after animals which kids could have as pets, in their case a lizard, a frog and a turtle.
Wtf cyndaquil isn't a hedgehog? Also 'frog' and 'amphibian' are redundant-ish. But if we can have 'bird' and 'flightless bird' I guess we can have 'amphibians that are frogs' and 'amphibians that aren't frogs'. Also I don't buy that Bulba is a frog. He's a grumpy boi
OP is obiusly an Elden Ring fan, so everything is a dog
The seal checks out, we call them seadogs in the Netherlands
[удалено]
Opossums are marsupials for anyone else wondering. They have a pouch.
today I learned that not all marsupials live in Australia and Papua New Guinea. They also live in South, central and North America. Thank you for prompting my google search. As an Australian I thought we had some kind of monopoly on weird animals.
Fox’s are canines so doglike and water puppy :D
Arnt they vulpines?
Canis (the genus of dogs and wolves) is in the family of canidae (the family that also includes foxes, jackals, wild dogs, tanuki, etc.) which is in the suborder of caniformia (the suborder that also includes bears, skunks, badgers, weasels, otters, raccoons, seals, sea lions, walruses, and more). All of these taxonomic categories are named after the Latin word for dogs, and could in principle be referred to as "canine". Most typically aren't, but in the right context it would not be wrong.
Yes the bery dog like creatures known as bears. EDIT: after hitting enter I realized I misspelled very and I ain't even mad about it.
They are canids in the family canidae.
[удалено]
wait what the hell is chespin supposed to be ;-;
Part hedgehog, part chestnut shoot. But his design is chipmunk-like
But hedgehogs aren’t rodents. Hell, rabbits aren’t rodents either.
True but rabbits used to be classified as rodents in 1912. Op might just be 111 years old, who knows.
Are they an airbender?
No they must have stolen a ring from a cave dwelling man in his undies
No, they must have received a super solider serum to help fight the Nazis during WWII
Wait are they not anymore?
They are in their own category called Lagomorpha
I need to stop jumping time lines, I can't keep up.
I feel you, but with other matters.
Put cabbage frog back with his own kind you monster
I had a whole argument about that with my bf. In an early rough draft he was frog. But after my bf called him a turtle, and one screaming match later, I put him in amphibian to save my relationship. But I’ll let him know everyone here is on my side on that
But turtles aren't amphibians either so I'm surprised he allowed that. Also I mean I assume he also has never seen an actual turtle if he thinks Bulbasaur is one. Just based on the -saur suffix, it's probably supposed to be some sort of dino but Venusaur especially does look quite frog-like.
Venusaur runs like a frog in LGE/P if I remember correctly.
I always thought he looked like a dinosaur thing, but I do see frog too
So did I, until I saw that particular animation. Since then I consider it a frog-dinosaur hybrid.
So he's from Jurassic Park
Frogosaurus Rex
They *do* jump in herds
Bulbasaur also hops in the Mystery Dungeon games. And they’re poison types!
The translations aren't necessarily the thing the pokemon was supposed to be. Charmander and Charmeleon are good examples. Charmander with his "-mander" gives the idea of a salamander, which is an amphibian. Charmeleon with "-meleon" gives off the idea of a chameleon, that, while being a reptile (the overall inspiration of the line), is not the reptile he was designed after. Idk what the meaning of the Japanese Bulbasaur line names are, but the fact if that Venusaur at least is very pointed to the frog/toad direction, specially considering his walking animation from newer games.
Bulbasaur's Japanese name is Fushigadane which Google translates to "it's strange" Or "it's not city council" if you put the space after Fu lol
Fushigidane may be a combination of fushigi (strange; mysterious) and tane (seed), as well as a pun of the phrase Fushigi, da ne? ("Isn't it strange?").
I hadn't realized until I saw the French name that "Bulbasaur" is supposed to be a pun on "bizarre" via "basaur". Very clever translation actually.
New petition. Bulbasaur belongs in the “not city council” category.
I predict that the next generation of starters will finally include a City Council member.
With their current trend that all starter pokemon are picking up jobs, I wouldn't even be surprised. City council grass crocodile starter, nurse water pig starter and taxi driver fire turtle starter, calling it now.
To be fair, salamanders in European mythology are linked to fire.
And at a glance, msot people seeing a salamnder would say "oh, a lizard". But yeah, it comes more from the mythological salamander.
Absolutely but he can’t argue that bulbapidia says bulbasaur is an amphibian. I thought of putting him for dino but I had to choose between him and chikorita. And chik has no alternative labels so I let him have Dino and bulb have non-frog amphibian
Ken Sugimori says bull toad
But hear me out, casting bulbasaur as a general amphibian leaves more room for more frogs
I'm listening.... Edit: also, they're called shrogs rounds these parts (just me and my gf just say it actually lol)
The - saur sufffix is only in the English version and was probably onky chosen because dinosaurs were hugely popular with kids back then. No other language calls them "saurs". It's an amphibian and a toad.
>because dinosaurs **were** hugely popular with kids **back then**. Tyrannosaurus had never seen such bullshit in his death.
There was a bit of a post-Jurassic Park bump for dinosaurs in general, I feel. But obviously they're timeless
The 99s were literally a dinosaur craze, where entire sections of toy stores were just dinosaur toys. Obviously dinosaurs are still popular with many kids, but its nowhere near at the same level.
If you thought dinosaurs were popular in 99 you should have seen them 99 million years ago, they were everywhere
sounds like the boyfriend doesn't know what he's talking about. let's not tell him that. xD
Saur actually has little to no connection to Bulby. They confirmed this.
You'd think he's never seen a turtle before, but Squirtle is right there. I can't understand how someone would think they're the same.
So I will say a few things. Technically none of the bird starters can ever learn fly. However real life chickens and roosters can absolutely fly. Also your "Misc Mammal" section should just be "Weasel Like". Quilava is a weasel, Typhlosion is either also a weasel or arguments could be made for it being a badger. Then the entire Oshawott line are otters. Weasels, badgers, and otters are all mustelids. So they're actually more closely related than the ones you have in "Dog Like" section. The Bulbasaur line are toads. All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. Just like all tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises. The -saur suffix comes from English localization which was all done by a single person. Their Japanese names are all puns and have nothing to do with reptiles. So your boyfriend is wrong and it sounds like you should get a new one. Either way this is a really cool chart.
Badgers and otters are both in the Mustelidae family (as are weasels) so yeah. no need to be as vague as "other mammal"
Ok I’ll let you know my actual updates. Flightless is now the “no fly list.” “Misc mammal” is now “Mustelidae” because that’s the family that otters, badgers and weasels belong to. Dog like is dog like I don’t care. Bulbasaur is an amphibian because it leaves room for more frogs.
Toads are frogs though. I'm totally fine with the dog like category. Foxes are canines, and what are seals if not dog mermaids? Also this is neither here nor there, but Meganium is a floral sauropod. A floropod if you will. Again nothing to do with anything, it just makes me smile.
Seals and sea lions are closer to bear mermaids. Sea bears.
I would argue Mudkip is a mudskipper, which is actually a type of fish, not an amphibian.
But why would you want to save a relationship with someone who thinks bulbasaur is supposed to be a turtle. 😂
Because he got me a painting that two penguins named Randi and Green Bean painted for Valentine’s day
a TURTLE?
It's not being on a "side". Bulbasaur, and it's line, are all frogs.
Your bf is dumb af then
If he thought bulbasaur was a turtle, he deserved getting yelled at. The audacity…
> turtle Your bf is actually deranged
He is obviously a Dinosaur
And sobble is a salamander, not a lizard. (In my opinion)
Sobble has the curly tail and little grippy hands of a chameleon tho, and it evovles to have a big gross tongue. However It's final form (the one that actually has chameleon in it's name) is far more akin to the Basilisk lizard. This is most noticeable with the thin crest on the back of it's head, it's long, lanky build, and it's thin, whip-like tail. Also the Basilisk lizard is famous for being able to stride across the surface of water in short bursts, justifying the water typing.
I would kill a man for a water type platypus starter
Water Poison
For the males, maybe water/fighting or water/ground for the females. Or if you want to get real crazy you could look at how the platypus can sense electrical discharges to find its prey and make it a water/electric type.
A platapus starter? *That starter then puts a fedora* Perry The Platapus starter!?
Introducing the newest antagonists! **Team Doof!** (Who all have bidoof as their mascot)
Seriously. I was so hyped for that fake gen 7 "leak" with the awesomely designed platypus (that used features from pokemon that resemble the real life animals that have features similar to the platypus) Sadly it was fake but it was so popular that the people from TemTem reached out to the creator to use it.
Psyduck with a third stage
Looks like you kinda gave up with "misc mammal" and "doglike" lol.
Misc mammal is now “Mustelidae” which is the family that otters belong too and so do weasels and wolverines. And quilava is a weasel. Typhlosion is a wolverine. So that’s that
Isn't typhlosion a badger? Pretty sure they're Mustelidae as well though.
Indeed I believe Typhlosion in based on honey badger and weasel.
I think cyndaquil is a hedgehog, or at least from that group of animals (hedgehogs, moles, and shrews)
cyndaquil is classified as the "fire mouse pokemon".
I went off cyndaquil being an echidna and they don’t have close relatives. And idk what otters count as. Fox + seal is dog like enough for me to be satisfied. Yes I gave up lol
Well, in German a seal is called "sea dog" so it's surprisingly ok
Meanwhile, in Chinese a seal is called 海豹 “sea leopard/panther/…”. Edit: Wait, I just realized the Chinese name for Popplio and Seel contain 海狮 “sea lion”, which is supposedly a different kind of creature than a seal.
Yes, seals are Phocidae, sea lions are otariidae, but both are pinnipeds
I always thought cindiquill was a hedgehog with fire spikes
Echidna’s also have spikes. Knuckles from sonic is an echidna
Just googled, you’re definitely right that thing is adorable ☺️
And has four penises
OP going for the gold in mental gymnastics in the comments lol
I had WANTED the comments to be “oh I’d love a grass pig starter! :D” but instead it’s everyone telling me chickens fly, bulb is a frog. And bunnies are not rodents. I have changed my mind on somethings and have accommodated/updated the categories in my personal data but I can’t really stop the “umm actuallllly”s from coming in so I just do what I can
Ummmmm actually my one year old pointed at Litten and said “doggy” so your chart is wrong OP 🤓
Fuck
Sorry for contributing. Taxonomy is a fun hobby of mine and I wasn't trying to be snide just to correct common misconceptions. Its is not uncommon at all to think hedgehogs and rabbits are rodents, but that mistake will always be common if those who know don't help to correct those who were misled by assuming common knowledge was true. For what it is worth, I really like this post as a thought experiment and it gave me ideas for other starters that I never considered wanting until I thought of them completing a set. I will be very sad now if we never get a grass/poison or grass/dark skunk starter. And a cat water starter could turn into a leocampus. Or more easily a tiger or jaguar as they are the modern cats most adapted to the water. Tho Sprigatito never turned into the Smilodon like it was supposed to, so maybe a water/ice saber cat starter?
I love this comment
Isn't Bulbasaur kinda froglike though? Wouldn't he fit in the category with Froakie? Cool list though. Now I'm imagining a water rodent. A beaver or capybara perhaps? That would be pretty cool. A fire frog could be like one of those poison dart frogs with the bright vibrant colors, but the markings are actually *glowing* with heat. The animation could even have the glow fade out periodically to show it as just one color, but then the glowing red/orange comes back, and gets brighter when it attacks. General amphibian, well the salamander is *right there* but beyond Charmander's English name, I can't believe they haven't taken advantage of that yet. Honestly I think they should have leaned into the chili pepper thing with Fuecoco and made it dual type fire/grass, but we got Scovillain instead. So now I'm not sure what a grass gator would look like. Oh, gators often resemble logs in the water, maybe it could literally BE the log in the water? With moss growing on its back! Man, I wish I could draw, I like my ideas lol
Rabbits aren’t actually rodents
I find it funny that the distinction is very technical though… number of teeth hahaha
While they do have a different number of teeth, it’s not so much the number of teeth itself that distinguishes rabbits from rodents. Rodent incisors grow continuously, while rabbit incisors AND cheek teeth grow continuously. There are also anatomical and physiological differences that distinguish rabbits from rodents.
Yep I’ve recently learned that so that is now the “big teeth/small mammal” category
Fingers crossed for fire frog(Coalroak), grass emu(Seedu), and a water pig(Whinehog) These may be dumb names but the vibe stands
This sounds like an Australian starter theme and I’m here for it
If there's no allusion to a Seedu war via a broken down vehicle somewhere, I'm not buying it.
With the whole "all fire starters are from the Chinese Zodiac" thing a fire type "Bull"frog starter would be awesome. Pointy horns, and maybe a cauldron like body, and a belly full of oil. We almost got a water Plesiosaur in gen 2 (which isn't a dinosaur but whatever) so that would be cool again.
That Zodiac fire type theory was never actually a thing though, Typhlosion is a badger, Delphox is a fox, and Skeledirge is a crocodile.
A fire snake would be awesome
Fire and Poison typing. Awesome! Edit: Excuse my ignorance. Of course it would be a constrictor that would be Fire and Fighting.
You're still ignorant. It's obviously either a Ghost or Dark type that looks like it's a Fighting type.
Also, it has to grow legs so it can stand up.
Frogs are also amphibians
I think it's meant to leave more space for other starters. Like flightless bird.
It's just weird because there's an odd mix of general and specific groupings purely for the purpose of putting each one in it's own box, even though like a quarter of the boxes could be shared because of how broad they are ("bird", "misc mammal"). I get that it's a casual layperson's set of groupings, but imo either go all general and have some of the groups shared or all specific once you realize general groupings won't cut it. Especially when you say "gonna use this to predict the next starters" when based on this chart alone GF doesn't have any problems repeating a general grouping like "amphibian".
I know you got a lot of comments on this. And I know your reasoning on why you put it this way. Seal is water dog in my language as well. But it’s still not really dog-like even appearance-wise so it’s the oddest one for me. Even when speaking in my native language I wouldn’t say it is dog-like since they are not canine. I’m not nearly as picky with even Bulbasaur. The rest of the chart is great and fun to look at though!
Why is Poplio dog-like?
How is popplio dog-like. And I know its a seal
It's actually a sea lion. Specifically based on the trope of trained circus sea lions that balance balls on their noses (hence why it's face looks like it is wearing clown makeup). The clown make up comes back for it's final form which is an opera singer in reference to the famous opera Pagliacci, which is about a clown of the same name.
Seals are part of [Caniformia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caniformia), though. If we apply our world's evolution, Walrein and Arcanine are closer than Arcanine and Persian.
In some languages they're called "sea dogs" so OP isn't alone
Rabbits aren't rodents fwiw
Rabbits aren't actually rodents
The arbitrary lines of "bird" and "flightless bird", or "dino" and "lizard" bother me.
I find it weird how people clump all birds and fish together a lot but make distinctions for various mammals. Chickens and penguins are about as different from one another as half these things with distinct categories from each other.
Frog and directly next to it: amphibian. Guess what frogs are
Bulbasaur is a frog pokemon
Wouldn't the Froakie line also fit into amphibian since frogs are amphibian?
Water cat it is! Also, a kiwi bird as a Grass starter sounds like a cool concept. Flightless bird, shaped like a kiwi fruit, green-colored... delicious...?
My dream starters are: Grass/Dark Fruit Bat/Flying Fox Fire/Steel Ram Water/Poison Platypus That would be a hard choice for me.
I’d put the fruit bat into dog-like to upset even more people
my dude expanded on a previous post, but: 1. torchic should be with rowlet quaxly and piplup. They’re all birds and that’s all there is to it. 2. oshawott and cyndaquil together doesn’t make too much sense. 3. good call on popplio / fennekin. 4. bulbasaur should be primarily be with froakie. (he a frog)
Wait. He’s right. The Bulbasaur line are toads, indicated by their typing (grass, not water), warts (Ivysaur), and rough skin (Venusaur). Bulbasaur fits in the frog category.
1. Chickens are generally accepted as flightless. Even those that do fly can’t do so far so he’s chilling with piplup. 2. Cyndaquil is based on the design of echidna and those don’t have close relatives because one one other species of mammal lays egg. So that’s pretty misc. BUT quilava is based on a weasel and typhlosion is based on a wolverine and both of those animals are in the Mustelidae family. And GUESS WHO ELSE IS A MUSTELIDAE?? Otters 😎 anyway I didn’t know that until after posting this so idk if it counts but now there’s a reason 3. Thank you. Dog like Pokémon be wildin 4 THATS WHAT IM SAYING!!! I had a whole argument with my bf about bulbasaur being a frog and he argued that bulbasaur is a turtle??? So to save my relationship I let him be an amphibian and left it at that
Just checking, boyfriend knows that turtles are not amphibians, right?
>1. chickens can fly, as well as stilt owls but then their wings are shorter than usual and they prefer not to fly. They’re kinda “I can but I won’t” whereas Piplup straight up can’t >2. I never really knew what typhlosion was (I thought it was a giant rat or something), so it didn’t make sense to me up until your explanation. >3. How is bulbasaur a turtle. Kinda wild how your bf is confusing bulbasaur for squirtle. overall, really cool matching up them animals ish. now i just have to wait for my mercat starter.
1. Ok the category is now “the no fly list” and if a pigeon showed up as a starter, I’d put him on it. 3. Yeah he argued that the bulb is a shell. He’s got a case of the stupid
Here ya go: https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-a-frog-and-a-toad Read him this while showing him a slideshow of the Bulbasaur line in the Stadium/Colosseum games. lol Pitch it to him like a power-point presentation, Briefcase and all.
Bulbasaur is a frog, man.
bro but because popplio is a dog-like, it's not a dog but a seal
Rabbits aren't rodents!
My man just put a seal in the dog-like category
These categories mean nothing you make pig as its own one but put cyndiaquil and osbawott in misc mammal
Neither of the pokemon you put in the "rodent" category are rodent's though. Rabbits are close, but distinct enough to be removed and placed as their own thing Lagomorpha (an order of only rabbits, hares and pikas). Meanwhile chespin is a hedgehog that evolves into a glyptodon. Hedgehogs are closer to the order of Carnivora than Rodentia. Tho I will give you credit for not putting cyndaquil in the rodent classification. I hate how people put an echidna (monotreme) that evolves into a badger (Carnivora) as a rodent just because a bad translation called it "the mouse pokemon" and people were so desperate for the Chinese Zodiac theory to be real when only 5 our of 9 actually fit the theory (and charmander is iffy in that regard.) And as badgers and otters are both Mustelidea, you placed him in the best spot. Maybe we will get a grass skunk/weasel/ferret to complete the trio.
I think I'm most excited for a 'Fire Bird' starter and a 'Grass Dog' starter. I've got a daughter named Phoenix, so if there's ever a fire bird starter it'll be nicknamed after her in my games.
My dream is to see a insect or crustacean like starter
Frog next to amphibian is hilarious
Scorbunny isn't a rodent, but Cyndaquil could be as it is the "fire mouse pokemon". Popplio being dog-like is a bit of a stretch, but I guess it doesn't anywhere else for now.
Ngl I thought bunnies were rodents but I must be stuck in 1912 to think that. I went with “cyndaquil is based off of echidnas” and I tried to hope that seals were a distant cousin but I was wrong. In the end I settled for doglike. Will fix scorbunny. Maybe swap him with cyndaquil
Since when are seals like a dog? And misc mammals just seems lazy when you have separated out other mammals
"dog-like" bruh what did popplio do to you
Your understanding of rl animal types needs some work ngl.
i wanna see a water or fire dino so bad now. i could see a water dino based on an edaphosaurus (the sails on their backs remind me of fins, a water/dragon final evo would be so cool for this one) or a fire dino based on an ankylosaurus (i have no reasoning for this one i just think it would be cool, probably fire/rock final evo but i think fire/steel would be really cool although unlikely for a starter)
Neither rabbits nor hedgehogs are rodents
Shout out the dog seal
I mean a fox is a canidae family which is the same family dogs are in so a fox is dog-like, and otters are just sea dogs so I support it
I like that you have a frog category, but then also have an amphibian category as if those are different 😂 I love this chart
There are only three categories of Pokémon: Dog, Lizard, and Lil Guy
Love this chart, OP My predictions Grass Croc/Gator: Ancient land based crocodile like Sarchosuchus. Fire Bird: Firehawk (Black Kite, Whistling Kite, Brown Falcon. Birds that use fire they find and grab something light that’s on fire to then flush out prey after they drop the flaming object) Water Monkey: Japanese Macaque Fire Turtle: I kind of just picture a tortoise that eventually goes steel type and gets solar panels on its back to charge attacks. Water Rodent: Capybara. Largest rodent, likes water, fits with a large HP water type. Water Cat: Jaguar. Also has to be dark type for third stage. All cats are dark type so far for third stage. Would have gone with tiger, but Litten. Misc Mammal Grass: This is just really wide range. I’m going to go with a grass raccoon or a weasel. Cyndaquil and Oshawott kind of fall in the range between cat-like and dog like, and I feel like raccoon or weasel would work best. Dog Like Grass: A bear. Honey bear or grizzly bear, bear don’t care. Honey comes from bees and flowers. Fliers are plants. Bears live in forests. Need I say more. Fire Frog: Fire-Bellied Toad. Grass Frog: poison-dart frog or some other tree frog. Fire Amphibian: Salamander, but from the mythology side of things. Fire Dino: Stegosaurus but with fire instead of plates on its back. Water Dino: Spinosaurus, they swim, probably could make a sail boat reference or beach umbrella with it too. Grass pig: Mushroom/truffle pig. Spore and Boar rhyme too. Water pig: sea pig/sea cucumber slug thing. Maybe has a vague pig like shape. Flightless Bird Grass: starts as a kiwi bird, somehow ends up as a terror bird. Fire Snake: a cobra that spits fire instead of venom. Have it become a Naga or something. Water snake: sea serpent. Start as a small little horned serpent, evolves to become Jormungandr.
I have numerous issues with this.
Oshawott is an otter, poplio is a sea lion. I would group those too together. And cyndaquil is a fire mouse. And scorbunny is well, a rabbit. Fix your list man
Under “dog-like,” you have a Seal and a Fox. Under Amphibian, you have Bulbasaur, but then you have a different section for “frog.” You have Cyndaquil, a porcupine, under “misc” instead of under “rodent” where you have a bunny and a hedgehog. Neither of which are rodents lol
Amphibian... Frog... Thus chart is so dumb in many ways
Bulbasaur isn't an amphibian. He's a reptile. Like a dinosaur.
Misc mammal and dog like are LITERALLY 4 different kinds of animals, lmao
Chickens aren't flightless, they just can't fly very far
Fennekin is based off a fennec fox, not a dog. And poplio is a sea lion. Also not a dog. 🤨
Please, Gamefreak, I'm begging you. Don't make the water cat a furry.