Bulbagarden Staff AMA Thread

[The Traveller]

Hello! This is sort of a silly question, but it’s something I’ve been really curious about: Is there a story behind the Shocked Lapras “Whaaaat?” emoji? Like, is it based on a meme or some other joke within the fandom? The image of a normally serene and elegant Pokémon making such a silly face is just so fun and unexpected, it got me wondering who might have come up with the idea and when/how.

 

[Okido]

Is there a story behind the Shocked Lapras “Whaaaat?” emoji? Like, is it based on a meme or some other joke within the fandom? The image of a normally serene and elegant Pokémon making such a silly face is just so fun and unexpected, it got me wondering who might have come up with the idea and when/how.

All I know for certain about its origins is that it's a googly-eyed edit of Lapras's Gen III sprite:

How the emote came to be, though, I don't know. :p It's also a custom emoji on our public Discord server, but since we've had it for such a long time, I'm not sure who made it or where exactly it came from... maybe someone who's been around longer still remembers?

 

[TheCapsFan]

All I know for certain about its origins is that it's a googly-eyed edit of Lapras's Gen III sprite:
View attachment 182758
How the emote came to be, though, I don't know. :p It's also a custom emoji on our public Discord server, but since we've had it for such a long time, I'm not sure who made it or where exactly it came from... maybe someone who's been around longer still remembers?

I'm fairly certain that one of the former Discord head admins, Saphir, made it waaaaaay back in the day. I don't remember its backstory, though. Maybe @Misty knows?

 

[Misty]

Nope, I wasn't really paying attention to the Discord in the super-early days that it was added.