Real World animals alongside Pokemon

[Whisper in the Wind]

Recently, I was thinking:

"Should I put real life creatures in my fic."

Last time I was writing I hit a snag when it came to the "What's for dinner" style question, since a self-baking Torchic for Sunday Lunch is a bit ridiculous. Also, the idea of things like Houndoom settling for tofu and vegetables just doesn't fit it IMO.

I also thought of ways that it allows a little more detail and sense to Pokemon.

Eg, I could see (in my mind) a Treecko feasting on bugs (flying 1's especially), and since it learns flash, maybe thats how it catches them. It lures them in by making it's eyes glow before snatching them up quickly. Stuff like that. It would also help since I wouldn't need to make xplanation as to how everyone surives as a vegitarian, and why a captured wild Pokemon doesn't see it's companions as lunch (because it eats the defenseless wild animals).

So I wondered, should I include real life animals in my fic?

2nd question, if yes to the above, is this a good explantion for why these wild (and real) creatures can't be trapped and trained.

Pokeballs are designed to absorb 365 (this is not inc. legends) species of animal. These creatures were seen useful for protection, capable of accepting orders and showing brain power beyond that of other creatures and were soon known as Pocket Monsters, or Pokemon for short. At first these creatures were used for protection, but soon after people saw how easily you could gain power using them. Soon battling began using the creatures, and over time it became a sport.

Actually, come to think of it, that needs help. So yeah, help me with the explaination as well
______________________________

Just an off-topic question. Should the T in "Pokemon trainer" be capitilised, same for the C in "Pokemon centre"

[eevee-shayna]

good quistion. i guess it depends on the style of your fic, and where you're going with it.

i know in my fic, the two DO exist together. however, my world is a bit diferent , because the only pokemon that exist are the humans's dæmons (as in philip pullman's "His Dark Materials" series). this way, the pokemon are privliged and can speak, while the real life animals are as they are in real life.

but since your fic is not like mine, as most aren't, pokemon can be found in the wild. if you want real animals to exist as well, you could stress the point that pokemon are privliged beings that are more inteligant. i guess pokeballs were desined to only catch pokemon. while reall animals are less inteligent, demesticated only for farm purposes, and do not contain the correct dna to be captured by a pokeball.

you can expand on this as much as you want. technical stuff is always interesting to read.

[Tainted]

If I aiming to make it "realistic," then I would much rather lean towards not including real life animals, as they, at least to me, are not an essential part of that particular universe. See-- frying up a Torchic may seem a tad odd, but then again, people DO domesticate chickens and keep them as pets (I've seen it done before), and others still choose to eat chickens. It all depends on how you look at it, really.
I'd like to think that all pokemon are herbivores just because it would become too complicated to feed them other pokemon. But, that raises a question about the stability of the pokemon universe if all of the living organisms exist in the second trophic level... but then again... it's a story, so just let it rest at that.

Adieu,
Zak Hunter

[mr_pikachu]

I, for one, am fine with including animals alongside Pokemon. In fact, I've done it in my own fic with cheetahs (and am still planning to explain their uncharacteristic behavior, actually). It's all up to you, really. A lot depends on the style and plotline of your fic, how you want things to feel, and also your personal preference. It's completely your call.

As for a reason why Pokeballs don't capture regular animals, I've seen several theories on that. The one I lean towards is Pokemon having more iron in their bodies than animals (as in the bloodstream, not Steel type Pokemon...). Perhaps the Pokeballs are designed to capture only living things with lots of iron? The high iron content would also help to explain the high strength and durability of Pokemon.

Those are my thoughts on it. Interesting topic, Onimusha.

[Whisper in the Wind]

Interesting topic, Onimusha.

Thank you

Anyway. I like the idea of them being "privileged beings" and as for the Pokéball explanation, the balls being designed to capture those of Pokémon DNA seems valid enough (plus it would also explain why the legendaries can't be caught, because the balls aren’t designed to accept creatures of that genetic make up).

As for them all being herbivores, that’s why I wondered that. How do I feed them without feeding them other Pokémon, same for “what do I eat?”

By the way, does iron make you stronger? *just wondering, was never good at science* ‘cause that could also go into the explanation as to how it was determined which creature were considered “privileged” and which weren’t (since Slowbro seems to lack intelligence and therefore, why would you take on an idiot? ‘cause its strong...I guess)

Still no help on the side question

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I don't see why there wouldn't be real world animals. Meowth has mentioned fried chicken before (and no, it's *not* a dub addition. Neither are Ash's mentions of hamburgers), and we've seen real fish before (Misty's gym is full of 'em)

Oh, and about what Houndooms eat, on the cards, a Houndour is seen munching on apples. Yeah, took me by surprise too.

[Gavin Luper]

I'm fine with it, and you'll find that most people are. I've used the same thing before: it seems inhumane to eat pokémon, who are given such personalities. Also, there have been real-life fish in the anime before, if that helps answer the question.

Cheers!

[Whisper in the Wind]

Yeah it does, thanks

[Dark Sage]

Remember the anime episode with the talking Ghastly? When Jesse attacked it with her Arbok, the Ghastly conjured an illusion of a mongoose - a true animal, NOT a pokemon.

And it is true that characters in the anime have mentions fried chicken and hamburgers, even in the Japanese version. They certainly aren't made from Tauros.

So true animals do exist in the pokemon world, and I see no reason for them not to.

Pokemon are all intelligent beings, and eating them would be barbaric by human standards. They can understand human speech, and can develop better attachment to humans than even the most domestcated dogs. They are much more intelligent than animals.

Why can't pokeballs catch animals. Simply put, pokemon are magical creatures. Their biology doesn't function like an animal's does. They have an enchanted aura around them that makes them pokemon - as well as makes them able to breath fire or blast rays of ice. They are of a totally different kingdom than the animal kingdom.

That's my opinion. Having animals exist with pokemon is all right.

[The Blue Avenger]

Also, it is possible that the game designers originally wanted animals to coexist with Pokemon, but scrapped the idea. In Red/Blue/Yellow only, the Bird Keepers are pictured with actual birds, not flying Pokemon.

[ChicRocketJames]

Of course you can have Pokemon and animals together, why not? Plenty of Pokemon are plant based (Sunflora, Oddish, Bellsprout etc.), yet you never hear anyone asking whether they should include grass, trees or flowers alongside them. Pokemon can't possibly fill every niche on the planet; you need other animals to be there.

On the other hand it's perfectly acceptable to have had some species of animal out-competed by Pokemon and driven into extincton - for example, a fire-breathing Pokemon would probably be a lot better than non-Pokemon carnivores at bringing down prey, so the non-Pokemon carvnivores might end up dying of starvation and gradually disappearing from the wild. Similarly, Pokemon like Pidgey and Spearow might use their attacks to drive non-Pokemon birds out of the best nesting sites, so their numbers could dwindle also.

As for why Pokeballs can't catch animals (or flowers, or trees, or whatever), that's because they're not Pokemon. Any animal that can do freaky powerful attacks like breathe fire or shoot lasers out of its nostrils is probably put onto some kind of list by the Pokemon League, and every Pokeball only activates when it comes into contact with one of those creatures.

[PancaKe]

I think it'd be interesting to use pokemon as substitutes for animals though. Taurous and Miltank burgers. Fried Spearow wings. Miltank shakes Things like that.

That's why I loved Rhapsody in Red. It really focused on different breeds of types of poekmon, and was really realistic. I used in some of my nonposted work, different species of say, meowth and growlithe, and there were cross breeds. I think kicking out animals is fun, even if the pokemon peopel didnt do that

[Whisper in the Wind]

hmm, thats an interesting idea with the different breeds. But it would require alot and some things would still need to be added *eg insects etc* plus they'd need description on their differences etc *alot of most likely*

[Mew Trainer Rose]

Who says that people won't eat pokemon? Farfetch'd is supposedly rare because people found that it tasted good when cooked with leeks, so they hunted it. (Kind of ironic that they just happen to carry a leek at all times.) This fact is stated in the anime.

In any case, it makes perfect sense to me when people write about pokemon eating other pokemon, such Houndour hunting Pidgeys.

Another point on food: we know that Miltank milk can be/is drunk by humans, but where do they get eggs from (cooked eggs have been pictured in the anime)? Bird pokemon, or chickens?

[Whisper in the Wind]

Who says that people won't eat pokemon? Farfetch'd is supposedly rare because people found that it tasted good when cooked with leeks, so they hunted it. (Kind of ironic that they just happen to carry a leek at all times.) This fact is stated in the anime.

In any case, it makes perfect sense to me when people write about pokemon eating other pokemon, such Houndour hunting Pidgeys.

Another point on food: we know that Miltank milk can be/is drunk by humans, but where do they get eggs from (cooked eggs have been pictured in the anime)? Bird pokemon, or chickens?

Hmm, well. People could eat both... I just think 386 (of which yo ugotta minus about 16 who are legends) specie of Pokemon is a bit few to feed on when you consider the millions of different breeds of Chicken/Cow/Turkey etc, which brings me back to the mutliple breeds idea.

[Mew Trainer Rose]

I suppose it's possinle that there are different breeds. At the very least, there are those that are capable of battling, and more domesticated breeds that lack any strong battle capabilities and are raised specifically for food.
I imiagine that Normal-types would generally be the easiest to prepare for eating; no need to worry about a pokemon's inherant poison, or electric sacs, or a Ghost's intangibility, or any of the other such unusual features of pokemon.

[Whisper in the Wind]

yep. But the self-baking Torchic would be handy for sunday lunch

[Mew Trainer Rose]

I just noticed somethign else that could indicate that real world animals, I just caught a Gastly in Fire Red, and part of the dex states, "It can topple an Indian elephant by enveloping the prey..."

[Whisper in the Wind]

Yeah, Pokemon Anime/Games can't seem to decide if actual animals exist or not. There's lots of mentioning of them but you never actually see them except ofcourse with the bird catcher's thing that Blue Avenger mentioned earlier.

Also seems to be the same for the real world, I remember a mentioning of South America on a Mew Card or something like that

[The Blue Avenger]

In Red/Blue, the journals in the Pokemon Mansion on Cinnabar mention finding Mew in South America. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.

[Whisper in the Wind]

In Red/Blue, the journals in the Pokemon Mansion on Cinnabar mention finding Mew in South America. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.

Yeah, I think that was it