Magmar

[Kthleen]

Most of us think of it as the butt-headed duck-thing that breathes fire. However, what if those aren't lobes of skin/bone, but decorative feathers? deviantART's sio-- gives an example of this:

What would Magmar's diet be? It lives in the mountains, near volcanoes in particular. It's most likely an herbivore, perhaps also an insectivore, as it doesn't appear to have teeth (or large ones).

It has a flame tail like the Charmander line (who also happens to live in the mountains), strange large spines on its back (one seemingly protruding from the "collar"), and unlike ducks, it has arms with claws. What are the black rings around its neck and ankles? Are they skin? Feathers? Cooled lava?
It would be terribly hard on the brain of one's body temperature were 2,200ºF, so that's probably a lie....

 

[Fig]

Wow. That'S an eye-opening take on Magmar, and I must say, I certainly find it FAR superior to the classical interpretation. That'S something we need to keep in mind, too; animals (and pokémon) that are represented as bipedal in the anime-style CAN sometime be quadrupeds (including the two most proeminent pokémon in the anime : Pikachu and Meowth, who both are almost certain quadrupeds in fact).

 

[Barb]

That pic is amazing; Magmar actually looks dangerous, whereas in the anime he always looked docile. I'd imagine it to be a carnivore since many animals (and, no doubt, Pokémon) live near active volcanoes or mountains.

 

[Zeta]

Theoretically, wouldn't it be possible to survive off of geothermal energy alone? Especially when you live in THE HEART OF AN ACTIVE VOLCANO?

 

[Fig]

That'S an interesting theory, you know.

Though if Magmar does not need sustenance (read : food), why have a mouth at all? Water, perhaps...

 

[Roses Ablaze]

Well, I've never seen Magmar on all fours and if it were drawn that way in the anime, I'd think it'd look rather awkward (whereas Meowth and Pikachu look perfectly natural in those positions). So I'm going to have to go with a more humanoid inturpretation (though I agree with everything else in that pic).

 

[Fig]

Yeah, but one of the guiding principle of the whole "rethinkign the pokémon" thing - the anime (and game) pictorial representation of the pokémon is NOT accurate; as there is a (quite deliberate) attempt to "humanize" a vast number of them, in large part due to the anime-style approach of the art; often by making them bipedal (including Meowth, Pikachu) when they should be on all four, at other time by giving them other human characteristics (clothes?).

 

[Irene]

Magmar and Magby
An old picture, but despite the anatomical mistakes, it pretty much sums up what I think Magmar would look like. I think at Pokémon as a mix of realistic animals and magic creatures, so Magmar in particular would have a reptile-like body with real fire coming from its body. An other theory I'm working on, though, completely erases the magic part, and in that case Magmar's fire could either be a feathery os scaly structure. A third and a last theory I came up with, it's that its body is made of lava, kinda like Groudon's (MY view of Groudon, of course ^^. That would explain the odd shapes of its head, and Magby's too.

 

[MondoTR]

Though if Magmar does not need sustenance (read : food), why have a mouth at all?

To use fire attacks.

 

[Zeta]

That would explain why it's lips are always pressed together. It'd be hard to get meat into a pursed beak.

 

[Karpi]

It's interesting that Magmortar doesn't keep the closed beak. In fact, it looks like the beak was violently ripped off and its lips are the scar tissue. Maybe in nature Magmar almost never evolves into Magmortar, and actually only does so when it's being attacked by a Rhydon or other violent pokemon trying to kill and eat it. It could be an evolutionary advantage for its beak to be the most tasty part of its body, so that gets ripped off first by the predator. Then the Magmar knows its in REAL trouble and it will evolve into Magmortar in order to fend off the attacker and survive.

 

[Gudon44]

I always thought of the Magmar line as bipedal hadrosaurs, and Magmortar's cannon having quite a bit in common with a hadrosaur foot.

 

[Saturnidae]

I've always thought of them as a volcanic version of Blue footed boobies. So, to me they are actually birds. The arms and legs are a sign of a change from aquatic and aerial to entirely terrestrial, but they are still birds. I mostly think this because of their japanese names... (Boobi, Booba, and Booban.)

 

[SimH5]

That Magmar > Official Magmar.

 

[Twinkles the Marvel Horse]

Ehhhhhhhhhh, I like OG Magmar better. That "butt" on its forehead always gave me a cool, brutish vibe that made it stand out among other pokemon. And the way Blaine's Magmar was portrayed in the anime always made it seem like a badass to me. That re-imagining just doesn't look right, it looks more like a Charmeleon with a beak and feathers.

 

[Tsareena]

First thing I think when I see that picture: bunyip.