Thread: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspiration

On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspirations behind ...

In another column exploring the likely cultural and zoological origins of Pokémon species, we take a look at Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon.

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Good read, as always.

I find it interesting that these little insects build there pit's with such precision and security.

I also loled when the article said "while Trapinch is a small, orange... thing."

Thanks.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Zekurom

On a slightly unrelated note, this is BulbaBot's 1337th post!

Lmao you would notice that :P

Thanks.

Who'd have thunk that the antlion would be so precise in its trademark sand-pit trap? I sure was surprised by that.

On a slightly unrelated note, this is BulbaBot's 1337th post!

It's a pretty interesting article. And this person has done some very thorough research in order to come up with this kind of stuff.

Awesome. I could already kind of understand what Trapinch is based on. I first figured that it's evolutions were puns off the word "Dragonfly", but that article was insightful as always.

Once again, this proves to be a very informative read.

Although I thought they got the name "Ant-lion" from the fact that the pits they dug resembled the roman colosseums where they fed early christains to lions as entertainment. The ant-lions devored the haplass prey in the same fashion.

"the poor antlion larva has no anus, meaning that it has no way of getting rid of waste"
Wow...talk about constipation.

"A more fanciful version of the antlion was said to have been the result of an ant mating with a lion"
What?

Again, a very interesting article.

I think the Trapinch family is the poster child for both Pokemon resembling real world animals in such a distinct way AND also Pokemon not having to share similarities in order to be connected.

I will say, however, that one of the things that has always bugged me about the family is how confusing and mixed-up they can be.

Trapinch is pure Ground-type.
Vibrava is Ground/Dragon.
Flygon is also Ground/Dragon.

I don't see why both Trapinch and Vibrava couldn't have had the Bug-type. Of the 3 forms, these two are the closest to their real life counterpart. The antlion is an insect. Why they chose to give Vibrava the Dragon type is a mystery to me. If the order had been Ground -> Ground/Bug -> Ground/Dragon, that would've been fine too.

Flygon is also a curious case. The most prominent features are his dragon body and bug eyes. Just visually, most people would classify it as Bug/Dragon. Again, I question the decision to keep Ground as the central type throughout all 3 stages. It works spendidly for Trapinch, and Vibrava gets by, but Flygon could pass for a variety of different types.

Which leads into another interesting observation and that is how Vibrava and Flygon have wings but use Levitation as the their means to stay in the air. This is a characteristic of many Bug-type Pokemon (having wings but are limited due to game mechanics), like Dustox, Beedrill or Shedinja. There are also Ghost-type Pokemon that have the ability to levitate despite not having the Levitation ability. But why were Vibrava and Flygon given such treatment?

It's quite clear that when they take off into the air, it is done so via wings. So was the decision to grant them this ability a special case? Perhaps so they wouldn't have to be bogged down by the combination of Dragon/Flying that has plagued so many other Dragon Pokemon before. It's hard to say, but it does make one wonder if current dual typed Flying Pokemon actually need their Flying-type.

Levitate is such a boring ability on them too (tied with Carnivine in terms of Pokemon with Levitate who didn't really need it...hey, Bikini, explain that one, will ya? I always thought the bottom portion was supposed to be one of those little wind-socks or something, but I dunno) and they really should have had Sand Stream to go with the 'Dex Entry...

Also, I saw on Bulbapedia the Japanese name of Trapinch comes from "nutcracker", but I don't believe that. Got any insight on that?

Really, really good, its the best one so far.

Flygon would be perhaps my second favourite pokémon overall, so it was really interesting to learn about the inspiration behind it.

And it gave me something to read over breakfast.

Interesting read, and amusing because we were talking about the "doodlebug" in one of my classes today.

Is this the imge that made everyoe think trapinch was an early charmander? Charizard's jaws are pretty trapinchy.

Originally Posted by Rusty Shackleford

Levitate is such a boring ability on them too (tied with Carnivine in terms of Pokemon with Levitate who didn't really need it...hey, Bikini, explain that one, will ya? I always thought the bottom portion was supposed to be one of those little wind-socks or something, but I dunno) and they really should have had Sand Stream to go with the 'Dex Entry.

And the sad fact of it (and any immunity ability, really) is that it can never not have Levitate, or its design wouldn't make sense. In order to move, it Levitates. To Levitate, it uses its wings. If it didn't have wings, it couldn't levitate. If it didn't have Levitate, why would it have wings? Flygon is stuck in a corner if you ask me.

And Carnivine... I'm definitely behind on my Poke-knowledge because I either forgot entirely or didn't know that it had Levitate. That is really bogus. It 'levitates' by attaching itself to something stationary, like a tree. That's like Chimecho, but at least Chimecho also a Psychic-type so it gets some leeway. And of course, it doesn't soar on the air like Hoppip, Skiploom, or Jumpluff do.

Yeah, I don't see the point of giving Levitate, and only Levitate, to Pokemon who type-wise don't really need it. At the very least, couldn't they have two possible abilities to choose from?

this is why i used to teach it dig all the time thinking i was smart but then i realized earthquake is better so now i hate levitate