Fairies and the Fairy Type: Why Fairies aren't a bad idea for a type

[Italy-kun]

See, the thing I don't understand is how people are using the argument that Fairy is too much like Psychic when they are perfectly fine with Dark. Ghost and Dark seem much more similar than Psychic and Fairy. GSC were before my time, but I don't think NEARLY as many tables were flipped over Dark as over Fairy.

 

[mulqxvi]

Maybe as a society we do think of fairy as only Tinkerbell but maybe Game Freak is trying to abolish that stereotype. It could be a learning moment so that we understand that things are much more than they appear on the surface.

Steel type is not called metal type but we pretty much associate it that way. Only one move has the name steel and 3 moves each are named iron and metal. The same connection can be said about flying not being called wind. Maybe it can be called Fairy officially but as fans we'll just associate it with magic.

 

[reynard]

I find the news of the new type really interesting. Yeah, the name fairy brings up rather silly things to a modern audience, but I don't think that's a reason to shun the name, considering how powerful "fairies" were in the past. And for those that think it's too girly, need I remind them that lots of things in this franchise are "girly" or cute, and they are still tough. For example:

Dawn's Buneary: It looks adorable, until it uses its ears for a dizzy punch, freezes you solid, and fights of Phione.

Brock's Hapinny, which is a pink baby girl and yet has the strength of Hercules

That wild Jigglypuff from Hoenn. Rough Tough Jigglypuff is right.

Whitney's Miltank: It's a pink cow for crying out loud, and it's Rolling Death.

Point is, you should know by now that the cute ones are just as capable, or more capable of booting you into next month... with steel toed boots. So for anyone that laughs them off, I'll be right here, waiting for you to come back covered in bruises so I can laugh.

And again, about the name, from an in universe perspective, Pokemon researchers probably gave that name because the first species reminded them of fairies. Ghost types were probably named so because they resembled ghosts, and not necessarily because they WERE ghosts (the scientific community would probably refuse to believe they were real ghosts). And Dragon types were probably named that for a physical resemblance to mythical dragons. So I can go with the name.

And is there really that big a debate over how to separate Psychic, Ghost, and Dark types. I actually have a theory that...

 

[SquishyFace]

Wait... hold on. I have a question to ask...

If the Fairy type was instead called the "Magic" type, would some people be okay with it? Is it the name that ruins the entire thing for those people?

 

[bolter1]

I have nothing wrong with the type, but I wish the name was different, or they released a masculine-looking Fairy-type along with the type reveal since so many people think that the type is jut going to be pink, cute, feminine pokemon since the image of a fairy, at least in North America, is exactly that. I hope there will be a Fairy/Dark or a Fairy/Ghost revealed soon that will help correct this misconception.

 

[reynard]

Any misconceptions would be cleared up by what they do rather than their looks. Like I said, the cute ones have already proven to be just as rough, if not more since they psych you out with looking the way they do.

Actually, it reminds me of another fandom, Green Lantern. They have a group called the Star Sapphire Corps, a group of primarily women (most men don't have the qualities to join) that have pink (they call it violet, but it is pink) power rings that are fueled by the violet (again, pink) light of love. And their job is to protect and foster love across the universe.

So let me review:

1. They are 100% female (so far)

2. They wear pink uniforms

3. Their power source is love converted into light energy, and their rings can fire beams of love or make hard light objects out of love

4. Their job is to protect and foster love.

Pink women who deal with love and fire love beams? To anyone hearing that, it may sound like they're the Carebears. It sounds "girly" and pathetic, right? Yeah... but then you realize that love energy is condensed so much that it's like a high powered LASER that can melt steel, and the first thing they did when they showed up in the Geoff Johns run of the comics (the one that created the Corps) was to blast a big old hole right through a man's chest with pure concentrated love. It's like if cupid had a police force, and all the officers carried heavy artillery. It gives new meaning to the phrase "Love Bites".

 

[Glitchipedia]

At the moment, all we know about the Fairy-type is that it's strong against the Dragon-type. Has anyone stopped to ask what the Fairy-type's weaknesses are? As long as it has weaknesses, how bad could it possibly be?

If it doesn't have weaknesses, then yeah, I'm not seeing what exactly they accomplished.

 

[reynard]

It has to have weaknesses of some kind. It would be too overpowered in the game to get by without some form of weakness. I'm sure they worked that out already. Also, the Clefairy line better be reclassified as Fairy types, because if the literal Fairy Pokemon aren't reclassified as a Fairy type, I'm going to call foul. I mean seriously... that would be messed up.

 

[CrimsonCerberus]

Has anyone looked around much for rumors and such about it?

From PokéBeach: "Fairy will be a new type. It is weak to Poison and Steel, immune to Dragon, super effective against Dragon, Dark, and Fighting, and Fire and Psychic-type Pokemon take half damage from it." (source)


Granted, it's still conjecture until proven, but I would think Poison is certainly up there for being one of its weaknesses. That way they can help boost Poison (which has long been in need of a boost), weaken Dragon without actually changing it, and just generally shuffle things around a bit. I think it makes sense, too...that, or I just think poisoning fairies sounds like a thing (if it isn't a thing yet, it should be).


As far as Psychic and Fire resisting it, though...if that is true, perhaps it's because both have more science-y connotations? Fire is plasma and psychic phenomena are heavily studied as pseudo sciences? And that could help Fire as far as competitive battling goes. Ground is very common but Fire would have more use if it was strong against the Fairy type. Fighting is also common, so there's that.


All in all, I don't mind the name or the change. It's a little odd, but I can accept it. It seems like they're changing good-natured, helpful Pokémon. Marill is some sort of water fairy, Jigglypuff is...Haha, well, as I said, it's still a bit odd to me. I think it will make more sense as time goes on and more information is revealed.

I'd think the Chansey and Clefairy lines, and the Lake Trio, could possibly be retyped as well. The link from PokéBeach mentions Mawile, which I could see. I'd miss it being one of the few pure Steel types, though.

 

[PDL]

For those who don't like the idea of fairy Pokémon because they conjure up images of adorable butterfly-winged dainty creatures that grant wishes and bring happiness, keep in mind that this is a relatively new phenomenon. The fairies of old legends were nasty creatures with supernatural powers and a morality that's so utterly alien that they have no concept of human empathy or love (I would link to the TV Tropes article called "The Fair Folk", but that would be linking to TV Tropes...).

Also, these kinds of "fairies" are actually very similar to the Japanese Youkai, which a ton of Pokémon are already based on (Ninetales, Espeon, Shiftry and others).

Actually I wouldn't mind Pokémon based on those kinds of faires, like maybe one based on a Dullahan or a Nucklavee (go look them up and see if they shouldn't be Pokémon).

 

[Joshawott]

I have no problem with the Fairy type, apart from the strength against Dragon types (Bleugh),

Masuda admitted that that was the main reason the new type exists. Dragon was way too over-powered.

 

[Familiar]

Fairy makes sense because of the European flavor of the setting. Xerneas looks like he jumped out of a Fairy tale. Plus the word easily conjures up various physical descriptions AND special attributes whereas something like Magic only really does the latter. I found 'Magic' and the other suggested types to be much more vague than Fairy.

Cute little creatures might be the stereotype of Fairy, but just as Dragon types don't all look like the Western Dragon (which is the modern context of Dragon), there is room for variety. Adding Fairy type to Gardevoir suggests that the type will be more than just cute little sprites.

I wonder if the Japanese Pokemon fans are having as much of an uproar over the new type? Part of me doubts it.

 

[GliscorMan]

In Japan, the word Fairy has different connotations than it does in English, which is why it isn't such a big deal to them. Here, it carries connotations that really don't describe what we're seeing that is currently in the new Fairy-type. That's the one problem I have with the name for this type.

 

[Deitylight]

Most people don't know that the majority of fair folks(fairies) were basically the joker with magical powers.

 

[Mysterygamer3k]

I would like to add to the weakness discussion. I'm almost 100% sure that Steel will be a weakness for Fairy types. I base this on the idea that in almost all fantasy writing, most fae creatures, or creatures that are fairies or of a magical, fairy-type, they have a weakness to a metal called cold-iron or iron which implies metal. In games like DnD this is something specific but it's actually just a poetic form of referring to iron on it's own (a reference to the fact that iron is cold to the touch) that was used long ago. So I'm sure that at least Steel type will be a weakness for them.

Well to be entirely specific, iron, like silver, used to be considered something to fight against magical creatures, fairies, witches, malevolent spirits and dark energy. For example iron fences used to be used around a cemetery because it was believed to contain the spirits of the dead.

 

[Te-em]

If the name is bad, they could have called it Elven Type. That would have sounded better, but I'm not really against the current name. If they wanted the old-fashioned definition of a fairy, if that's what it is, then they could have named it Faerie Type.

At first I thought Fairy was the opposite to the Evil/Dark Type Pokemon, and the Light Type. But as people says, fairies do not have to be good or gentle beings. Still, Nymphia was called a fairy somewhere on the forums and my thoughts went to that Pokemon when hearing about Fairy Type. Nymphia looks like a Light Type Pokemon, so I thought this was what Fairy was.

 

[Hurricane Kishore]

I can believe the rumor about Fairy type come true .
However , I think ''Celestial type'' sound much better then ''Fairy type'' .
It would be cool to see an Angelic Pokemon .

 

[CrystaI]

With this new Fairy type, I think it will give more problem than it is. Provided that just like it said that Jigglypuff, Marill, Gardevoir and some other "cute" Pokemon to be in the new Fairy type group, oppositely wouldn't it make Dragon type now too much underpowered? You see, Jigglypuff, Marill, and other cute Pokemon that are speculated to become Fairy type, are all so common that you can just find one so easily along your journey. They also level quickly and evolve in quite low levels.

Dragon type pokemon may be overpowered in the stats parameter in general, but it has its disadvantages also. It is super-effective only to one type: Dragon. It defensive advantages is also only four, incomparable to Steel type which it has attack advantages of 2 and defensive advantages of 11! From the viewpoint of being a type, Dragon type is absolutely not overpowering at all. Say that rather to Steel type Pokemon.

Secondly, Dragon type Pokemon generally requires much more experience to level up, and generally evolve in rather very high level. At the same level of 40, many Pokemon already evolved into their 3rd stage, but Dragon type Pokemon (except Altaria) is only at their 2nd stage. So it really won't give it much advantages in the battle of low level. Dragon type Pokemon only show their true strength at high level, where such level will be achieved only very late like up to the Pokemon League stage.

Thirdly, Dragon type Pokemon are all very rare. You don't just encounter one so easily on the road. For the Dragon type that is not pseudo-legendary nor legendary, their stats are really not that outstanding, when your starter and many other Pokemon stats in their final evolution stage already outrank them so easily.

So now, making Fairy type having advantages over Dragon, I think it just make Dragon too much underpowered. You make so much effort to find yourself a wild Dragon Pokemon to catch, and spend so much effort to train it to super high level, then to be beaten by an ordinary common Pokemon that you can find everywhere on the road? Remember, Dragon Pokemon receive STAB only with Dragon type attack, where Dragon type attack has no type advantages if opponent is not Dragon. So how it can be overpowered, unless it is at high level? Like I said before, Dragon type Pokemon only show their true strength at high level, where at low level battles, they are rather disadvantaged.

 

[Te-em]

Why do people think Marill is a fairy? It looks more like a mouse, like Pikachuu. And Jigglypuff doen't look like a fairy. The family looks like a balloon with cat's ears and a rabbit. Pippi and Pixie looks like fairies though.

 

[Mysterygamer3k]

I could understand you thinking that it puts dragon at more of a disadvantage, but they won't be anymore underpowered than any other type of pokemon that ends up against it's counter type. It just puts dragons on less of a unique pedestal, having a type that is strong against them won't hurt anything more than not having anything in all honesty. I think that's just putting a knee jerk reaction over it in the end and that reacting by saying it'll put the on the underpowered end of things is giving the creators little credit. Granted they most likely haven't played it out as much as it will be after players start playing around with the games, but I'm sure they tested everything out and are still tweaking things as well to make sure it's where they would like for it to be. They are not infallible, no, but I'm sure they have thought about the decision and the implications it will have on dragon types and on pokemon in general before finalizing it.

Yes, dragon types are more rare than others to come across, but there are still many more than there once was, and considering every other type of pokemon has something super effective against it, and the only thing super effective against dragons right now is ice type abilities, adding Fairy type attacks and pokemon won't make things any worse than anything that already exists in the game. To have a more common go to solution than Ice Beam, or Blizzard, for dealing with dragon types seems like it will be fine balance wise, it won't destroy the meta, and it won't completely ruin the game unless you just can't stand the type being called fairy, which I still say is rather silly to complain about.