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

[BulbaBot]

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.

Read more on Bulbanews

 

[Chebon]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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:

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

Lmao you would notice that

Thanks.

 

[SharKing]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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

 

[Zekurom]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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.

 

[Youngster_Joey]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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.

 

[PDL]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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.

 

[Joshawott]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

"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.

 

[V Faction]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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.

 

[Garren]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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?

 

[Ayrrow]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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.

 

[CardKaptor]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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

 

[Bug Catcher Wade]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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

 

[V Faction]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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.

 

[Garren]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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?

 

[sloth]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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

 

[Bikini Miltank]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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

It does seem to be true... Its Japanese name is Nuckrar (ナックラー), which is essentially a truncated version of the word nutcracker (ナッツクラッカー). It surprised me a bit as well.

 

[SharKing]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

Not that this is totally relevent, but that katakana rendition of "nutcracker" leans more towards "nuts-cracker".

I never noticed that Trapinch's Japanese name came from that. Probably because I never looked at it, LOL.

 

[Kyoto Tushoni]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

Awesome!! I knew about most of the origins of these guys seeing as how they are my favorite of all Dragon Pokemon, but I did not realize how nice Trapinch's stats really were. Flygon is my 2nd favorite overall next to Nidoking...(hint hint).

However, and this is just me. I kind of think the whole Ant and Lion thing is biblical. If you recall David getting thrown into the Lion's Den (Hopefully you see where I was going with that).

The ant part, being use because that was the closest thing they had to compare. If you never picked one up or saw the rest of it, I would assume it was like a mutant ant with really long mandibles, if I was alive at that time...Also, a similar generalization that Hyena's get being compared to dogs.

That my 2 cents! Keep'em comin'! :-D

 

[Falconwing]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

I already knew all of this from research I did on Flygon, but it was a good and informative article nonetheless. I like the Flygon line and I'm glad to see it get an article here.

Though Flygon being a Bug/Dragon would have been nice.

 

[The Outrage]

Re: On the Origin of Species: Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon: Investigating the inspira

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

Yet despite people having already argued countless times that Trapinch was an antlion and that's what accounts for the differences between it and Flygon, the usual response is "You're not Game Freak so my point is valid despite what little research is put in" completely ignoring Charmander fits that line and the only reason they think Trapinch was the original because it didn't fit Flygon's.

At least this explains why it evolves into a dragon.

These Origin of Species articles, particularly those of later generation Pokemon show that Game Freak does not just carelessly create monsters and actually do put a great deal of thought into them. In fact, its the fandom that seems to be at a lack of creativity.