Handling of dual types.

What do guys think of the shows handling of dual types and explaining their mechanics. Infernape knew mach punch but I don't remember it being called a fighting type but I didn't see every filler. Whenever Steelix fights a fire type they say the fire type has the advantage but ground has an advantage against fire. They never explain double weakness or double resistances and when a resistence cover up a weakness it never stated out IIRC. Some pokemon did had their dual types status very clear like Cacturne and Levanny but any flying normal or Ash's two dark types only have one type defined well.

What do you guys think?

I think secondary types being ignored is just the result of oversights on the writers' part.

Well each pokemon seems to have a dominant type and a recessive type to put it in genetics terms. The dominant type for steelix would be Steel obviously and the recessive type would be ground. Most pokemon are simply seen as their dominant type to make things easier but sometimes their recessive type also comes in handy either for immunities or for coverage/resistances.

Unfortunately, the writers seem to miss a lot of secondary typings when it comes to exposition/battle strategies.

I've thought a lot about this previuosly.

In the original series people barely cared about secondary types. A prime example is Ash's Pikachu using Thunder on Price's Piloswine

Once into AG we saw the odd moment of dual-type being used, for instance when Brock's Mudkip evolved into Marshtomp

In DP, my most frequented series, it seems to fade away again, with the odd exception, for instance, Ash's Gliscor was viewed as a Ground and a Flying type, and Ash's Torterra, who, despite not knowing any Ground-type moves, was seen as the obvious choice to use in an Electric-type gym and against Paul's Drapion apparently. However, Steelix was still given the pure Steel type status.

In BW, things became odd. Early on in the series, we had Ash's Sewaddle, who was treated well as a dual-type. We also had the battle against Burgundy's Stoutland, on which the Electric type Thunder Fang was completely ineffective and Fire Fang wasn't very effective, giving a certain dual type status to Paplitoad. I think that the last "dual type" battle in BW was Cilan vs Skyla, with Crustle, who was treated as a Bug-Rock type, against Skyla, who then pulled out Swanna, a Flying type, with WATER POWERS! After this dual typing goes downhill eventually to the point of obscurity.

Flying types and Ground types generally benefit best from the dual-typing treating from what we've seen in the anime.

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Originally Posted by Wyvernphlare

Whenever Steelix fights a fire type they say the fire type has the advantage but ground has an advantage against fire.

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About this. It's Ground type attacks that are super effective on Fire-type Pokemon. Ground-type Pokemon receive normal damage from Fire attacks. I don't recall Steelix ever using Ground-type moves in the anime (except maybe Dig). And even Dig doesn't really show off a Ground strength like a Flamethrower would show a Fire strength. It's just a body coming out of the ground and smacking someone and usually has to be backed up by another move.

I also think the Ground move bias is stemmed from the type being associated with earthquakes, moves like Earthquake and Fissure, a natural phenomenon that frequently hits Japan and at times causes major disasters. A whole episode was banned because of the move Earthquake and thus never shown since in the anime. The other Ground type moves that get shown Steelix cant even use such as Drill Run and Bone Club.

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Originally Posted by Wyvernphlare

Infernape knew mach punch but I don't remember it being called a fighting type but I didn't see every filler.

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Infernape is indeed a Fire/Fighting-type. Besides, many Pokemon can learn Fighting attacks without being Fighting-type.

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Originally Posted by Kenji-girl

I don't recall Steelix ever using Ground-type moves in the anime (except maybe Dig).

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In the Legend of Thunder special, a Steelix used Sandstorm as an offensive move against Jimmy's Typhlosion, and the disadvantage was recognized there. Still, it doesn't happen very often.

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Originally Posted by DracoMan

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Originally Posted by Wyvernphlare

Infernape knew mach punch but I don't remember it being called a fighting type but I didn't see every filler.

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Infernape is indeed a Fire/Fighting-type. Besides, many Pokemon can learn Fighting attacks without being Fighting-type.

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I know it's a fighting type I play the games but the anime doesn't seem to acknowledge it as one. That's what the thread is about.

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Originally Posted by YamiiDenryuu

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Originally Posted by Kenji-girl

I don't recall Steelix ever using Ground-type moves in the anime (except maybe Dig).

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In the Legend of Thunder special, a Steelix used Sandstorm as an offensive move against Jimmy's Typhlosion, and the disadvantage was recognized there. Still, it doesn't happen very often.

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Sandstorm is actually a Rock-type move, not that it makes much of a difference in this case.

I now recall that in that same special, the Steelix took only half the damage from Vincent's Meganium's Solarbeam attack, due to its Steel typing, but it's Ground-type characteristics were ignored, so... I don't know.

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Originally Posted by Wyvernphlare

They never explain double weakness

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What do you guys think?

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I think there has been cases where they explain double weaknesses, like when Yakon sends out his Gamagaru and Satoshi recognises that Grass is good against both Water and Ground.

References to dual typing in the original series were rare alright, but they did happen. Remember Marina from the Orange Islands? She specialised in water-types who had a secondary typing (eg: Tentacruel and Starmie).

There's also Ash forgetting about Elesa's Emolga flying-type after sending his Snivy.

Oh, all of my facepalm for that one.