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The SwSh variant of this topic is full of so many neat observations, and Pokémon is such a replayed series that I feel like people are always finding new appreciation for elements that they might've glossed over originally. So I thought it'd be fun to keep that going with a place to note cool little additions and details in all prior games as well.
I'll start by talking about the Pokémon zodiac. Yes, this is a thing - it exists for the sole purpose of a TV featurette in the Black & White games. Sometimes, when you interact with a television in the game, you can tune in to a program that reports on the current month's horoscope, stating your fortune as well as an item that is considered lucky for you. This would be cute enough on its own, but additionally, there are 12 Pokémon that correspond to each of the traditional star signs, and I want to emphasize how clever these choices are:
Capricorn - the horned goat - Sawsbuck
Aquarius - the water-bearer - Simipour
Pisces - the fish - Alomomola
Aries - the ram - Whimsicott
Taurus - the bull - Bouffalant
Gemini - the twins - Klink
Cancer - the crab - Crustle
Leo - the lion - Braviary
Virgo - the maiden - Gothorita
Libra - the scales - Lampent
Scorpio - the scorpion - Scolipede
Sagittarius - the archer - Fraxure
Since Black & White predominantly featured entirely new Pokémon, this means that the choices for astrological "equivalents" were quite limited... and yet, so many of these not only work, but feel spot-on, or at least like very savvy riffs on the original signs.
There isn't a goat Pokémon in the 156 Unova species, but Sawsbuck has an emphasis on its horns, and both deer and goats belong to the same order (even-toed ungulates), so as approximations go, this is a fair choice.
Aquarius refers to a water-bearer, and Simipour fits that bill perfectly. According to the Pokédex, "The tuft on its head holds water. When the level runs low, it replenishes the tuft by siphoning up water with its tail." This was also a part of Simipour's character creation process according to Ken Sugimori, describing how the three monkeys prepare tea together - Simipour brings the water, Simisear heats it up, and Simisage provides the herbs.
There aren't many fish Pokémon in Unova - for the most part, your choices are Basculin and Alomomola. I can certainly see an argument for assigning Basculin to this sign, since it is usually depicted as two fish, but personally, I think the two Basculin's characterizations as very brutal and combative toward each other makes it feel a bit less appropriate for an astrological sign. Alomomola is more neutral, and I would say that the actual Pisces constellation shares a certain visual similarity to Alomomola. Normally, the idea is that each "branch" of the constellation is a separate fish, but flipping your perspective around accommodates Alomomola's form very neatly.
Whimsicott is a fairly obvious choice for the ram - although it lacks significant horns, its wooliness is partially based on a sheep according to Ken Sugimori, and rams are just male sheep, so there's a fairly direct link there.
Bouffalant as the bull is a very obvious decision. Next up, Klink, I think is quite clever - it has to embody the "twins" of the Gemini sign. Vanilluxe could have also worked in this context, but the two gears that comprise Klink are even more identical, and so are more clearly evocative of the idea.
There's not a traditional crab-based Pokémon in the Unova Dex, but Crustle is still a hermit crab, which is close enough to suggest the same idea. After that is Braviary, which is one of the more wild departures from the traditional animal... but is it really? Much like lions (which aren't represented in the Unova Dex; the closest you can get is probably Liepard, or Samurott if you want to make it a pun about sea lions), Braviary are seen as proud and valiant, and according to the Pokédex, they form close packs. Their "headdress" of feathers could also be said to resemble a mane. What's more is, if you look at the constellation of Leo, I would argue that it could quite easily be read as a bird, with the lion's "body" actually being the wing of a bird, and the hooked extension resembling a beak.
Gothorita as the "maiden" is another straightforward choice being based overtly on a female huimanoid. Especially since Virgo is also known as the virgin, Gothorita is probably a better choice than Gothitelle, as it being only the middle stage of the family suggests a degree of youth and innocence.
Next is Libra, the scales, to which Lampent has been assigned. This is another clever approximation in my opinion, as Lampent's symmetrical body shape does in fact resemble a traditional scale. It's very believable that people in the Pokémon world could have looked at the shape of the Libra constellation and drawn a comparison to Lampent instead. Also, to award some bonus points: The zodiac in Pokémon is actually simplified, so that each sign corresponds to one entire month, rather than a period of time that stretches over two months. Because of how they've sequenced this, Libra now corresponds to the whole of October rather than the first half of it, meaning that Halloween now falls under a sign that is represented by a Ghost-type Pokémon!
Then we have Scolipede for the scorpion. Again, there is no actual scorpion Pokémon in the Unova Dex... but Scolipede manages to evoke the same shape (albeit in reverse, with Scolipede's forward posture looking like a scorpion's upturned tail) while also retaining the expected Bug typing.
And lastly is Sagittarius, the archer, represented by Fraxure. This one is perhaps the biggest stretch, and yet I can still see their logic. I think Fraxure's head shape as generated by its wide tusks does resemble the basic form of a bow:
Sagittarius is also a bit more complex than the other signs, as it is not just any old archer nor the tools by themselves - it is specifically a centaur wielding a bow and arrow. The shape of the constellation is thus very complicated, so I think it's understandable why whoever detailed this system within the context of Pokémon decided to just zero in on the bow and arrow aspect. Like I said before, using only the 156 Pokémon introduced in Black & White really limits your choices, and with that in mind, I think it's impressive (and also very lucky) how they managed to identify such plausible candidates for each of the signs within that small selection. I wouldn't expect that any of those Pokémon were commissioned with such a minor feature in mind, so a lot of this synergy feels extremely serendipitous.
(And for what it's worth, the lucky item for Sagittarius is a Poké Ball, which is designed for throwing over a distance - in a loose sense it is a projectile, like an arrow, so again, that feels on-theme. I'm not really well-versed enough in astrology to really say if and how the other lucky items correspond to their signs, though. This one just stood out to me.)
I'll start by talking about the Pokémon zodiac. Yes, this is a thing - it exists for the sole purpose of a TV featurette in the Black & White games. Sometimes, when you interact with a television in the game, you can tune in to a program that reports on the current month's horoscope, stating your fortune as well as an item that is considered lucky for you. This would be cute enough on its own, but additionally, there are 12 Pokémon that correspond to each of the traditional star signs, and I want to emphasize how clever these choices are:
Capricorn - the horned goat - Sawsbuck
Aquarius - the water-bearer - Simipour
Pisces - the fish - Alomomola
Aries - the ram - Whimsicott
Taurus - the bull - Bouffalant
Gemini - the twins - Klink
Cancer - the crab - Crustle
Leo - the lion - Braviary
Virgo - the maiden - Gothorita
Libra - the scales - Lampent
Scorpio - the scorpion - Scolipede
Sagittarius - the archer - Fraxure
Since Black & White predominantly featured entirely new Pokémon, this means that the choices for astrological "equivalents" were quite limited... and yet, so many of these not only work, but feel spot-on, or at least like very savvy riffs on the original signs.
There isn't a goat Pokémon in the 156 Unova species, but Sawsbuck has an emphasis on its horns, and both deer and goats belong to the same order (even-toed ungulates), so as approximations go, this is a fair choice.
Aquarius refers to a water-bearer, and Simipour fits that bill perfectly. According to the Pokédex, "The tuft on its head holds water. When the level runs low, it replenishes the tuft by siphoning up water with its tail." This was also a part of Simipour's character creation process according to Ken Sugimori, describing how the three monkeys prepare tea together - Simipour brings the water, Simisear heats it up, and Simisage provides the herbs.
There aren't many fish Pokémon in Unova - for the most part, your choices are Basculin and Alomomola. I can certainly see an argument for assigning Basculin to this sign, since it is usually depicted as two fish, but personally, I think the two Basculin's characterizations as very brutal and combative toward each other makes it feel a bit less appropriate for an astrological sign. Alomomola is more neutral, and I would say that the actual Pisces constellation shares a certain visual similarity to Alomomola. Normally, the idea is that each "branch" of the constellation is a separate fish, but flipping your perspective around accommodates Alomomola's form very neatly.
Whimsicott is a fairly obvious choice for the ram - although it lacks significant horns, its wooliness is partially based on a sheep according to Ken Sugimori, and rams are just male sheep, so there's a fairly direct link there.
Bouffalant as the bull is a very obvious decision. Next up, Klink, I think is quite clever - it has to embody the "twins" of the Gemini sign. Vanilluxe could have also worked in this context, but the two gears that comprise Klink are even more identical, and so are more clearly evocative of the idea.
There's not a traditional crab-based Pokémon in the Unova Dex, but Crustle is still a hermit crab, which is close enough to suggest the same idea. After that is Braviary, which is one of the more wild departures from the traditional animal... but is it really? Much like lions (which aren't represented in the Unova Dex; the closest you can get is probably Liepard, or Samurott if you want to make it a pun about sea lions), Braviary are seen as proud and valiant, and according to the Pokédex, they form close packs. Their "headdress" of feathers could also be said to resemble a mane. What's more is, if you look at the constellation of Leo, I would argue that it could quite easily be read as a bird, with the lion's "body" actually being the wing of a bird, and the hooked extension resembling a beak.
Gothorita as the "maiden" is another straightforward choice being based overtly on a female huimanoid. Especially since Virgo is also known as the virgin, Gothorita is probably a better choice than Gothitelle, as it being only the middle stage of the family suggests a degree of youth and innocence.
Next is Libra, the scales, to which Lampent has been assigned. This is another clever approximation in my opinion, as Lampent's symmetrical body shape does in fact resemble a traditional scale. It's very believable that people in the Pokémon world could have looked at the shape of the Libra constellation and drawn a comparison to Lampent instead. Also, to award some bonus points: The zodiac in Pokémon is actually simplified, so that each sign corresponds to one entire month, rather than a period of time that stretches over two months. Because of how they've sequenced this, Libra now corresponds to the whole of October rather than the first half of it, meaning that Halloween now falls under a sign that is represented by a Ghost-type Pokémon!
Then we have Scolipede for the scorpion. Again, there is no actual scorpion Pokémon in the Unova Dex... but Scolipede manages to evoke the same shape (albeit in reverse, with Scolipede's forward posture looking like a scorpion's upturned tail) while also retaining the expected Bug typing.
And lastly is Sagittarius, the archer, represented by Fraxure. This one is perhaps the biggest stretch, and yet I can still see their logic. I think Fraxure's head shape as generated by its wide tusks does resemble the basic form of a bow:
Sagittarius is also a bit more complex than the other signs, as it is not just any old archer nor the tools by themselves - it is specifically a centaur wielding a bow and arrow. The shape of the constellation is thus very complicated, so I think it's understandable why whoever detailed this system within the context of Pokémon decided to just zero in on the bow and arrow aspect. Like I said before, using only the 156 Pokémon introduced in Black & White really limits your choices, and with that in mind, I think it's impressive (and also very lucky) how they managed to identify such plausible candidates for each of the signs within that small selection. I wouldn't expect that any of those Pokémon were commissioned with such a minor feature in mind, so a lot of this synergy feels extremely serendipitous.
(And for what it's worth, the lucky item for Sagittarius is a Poké Ball, which is designed for throwing over a distance - in a loose sense it is a projectile, like an arrow, so again, that feels on-theme. I'm not really well-versed enough in astrology to really say if and how the other lucky items correspond to their signs, though. This one just stood out to me.)