- Joined
- Apr 17, 2010
- Messages
- 2,114
- Reaction score
- 1,080
In the World of Pokémon, there lives a vast number and variety of amazing creatures to befriend and collect. Every week, we will be focusing on a single one of these Pokémon or evolutionary line and talk about what makes it special. This week's Pokémon of choice is Girafarig!
A unique and peculiar Pokémon Girafarig is a single stage Normal/Psychic-type that debuted in Generation II. Girafarig has a fairly simple and quirky design with a surprising amount of history behind it. Its Normal/Psychic-typing is rather elegantly represented by its body composition. The front end of Girafarig is a rather standard looking giraffe design with a few cartoony embellishments. It represents the Normal-type which is chock full of mammals with little or simple deviations from the real animals they are based on. The back end of Girafarig is a reverse palette of the front end capped off with an odd enigmatic tail that happens to be a second head with a small brain. This end’s curious qualities represent the Psychic-type. It projects an eerie and mysterious nature that further amplifies its psychic powers with the aid of the second brain. Unlike something we’ll get to later Girafarig’s second head mostly provides it with support for its main body. The second brain is small enough that it doesn’t do any independent thinking instead relying on instinct and being very reactionary. Girafarig live on wide-open plains where there is not much cover for its large body. The tail does not sleep so it can easily keep watch whenever Girafarig is feeding or sleeping. What’s amusing about this is that real life giraffes use their sheer size, enormous neck, and herd living to guard against predators. Girafarig is significantly smaller than real giraffes which it can probably justify because of its ever-vigilant tail. The tail will also mimic the eating motions of Girafarig’s main head possibly due to brain signals used during eating reaching its second brain. Girafarig’s tail also has a decent sense of smell which will cause it to react to new scents. Often if the tail smells something close it will try to bite it.
A lot of care was put into Girafarig’s name in every language to make sure that they are palindromes so as to reflect its one body facing opposing directions. That may not be saying much since they’re either Girafarig or Kirinriki in all languages. Its Japanese name Kirinriki can also be a combination of ‘kirin’ meaning giraffe and ‘nenriki’ meaning telekinesis. This fits nicely with its typing and may even be part of where the Psychic-type idea came from after making kirin a palindrome. For a simple and quirky design, Girafarig has quite a variety of inspirations it draws from. It mainly takes after the Pushmi-pullyu, a mammalian herbivore from The Story of Doctor Dolittle which has a head at each end of its body. Girafarig also takes from the theory that some dinosaurs, such as Stegosaurus, had a second brain in their tails. The idea here was that these animals were so big and their brains so small that they needed a second brain to effectively wield their spike tails against predators. This theory has proven to be invalid though.
For a long time now Girafarig’s beta design has been available to us showing that it more closely resembled the Pushmi-pullyu having a giraffe head at each end of its body. Not much was known other than that image but with having two assumingly full functioning heads Girafarig could have acted a lot more like Doduo and Dodrio where the heads may often fight but would ultimately have to work together. Neither would be a purely supportive role. With the recent GS Demo leak, two new interesting details were discovered. Firstly, Girafarig was planned to be a Dark/Normal-type. It looks like it already had the duality of its typing represented with its lighter front end and darker back end. The backsprites revealed that this Dark-type back end had a somewhat sinister expression as well as some errant pixels around the mouth which some fan interpretations suggesting they were sharp teeth! The other interesting surprise is that Girafarig may have been an evolution of a discarded beta Pokemon known as Twinz which its shares its type combo with. Twinz was composed of two ghost-like blobs connected by a thin black cord. It appears just before beta Girafarig in ID order and is stated to evolve at level 29. These two are very different Pokémon that share some very specific similarities. It’s unknown what the intended plans were for Twinz and Girafarig but it would be confusing and interesting seeing why and how a ghost blobs evolve into a giraffe.
Here are some questions to consider to get the conversation rolling. You don't have to answer all of them or any of them in your post as long as you're staying on topic and within global forum rules.
-Do you like or dislike this Pokémon? Why?
-How is this Pokémon in-game?
-How is this Pokémon in competitive play? Are there any interesting strategies you like to use for them?
-Do you like this Pokémon's representation in the anime? Are there any moments or qualities, in particular, you enjoy/dislike?
-How do you think this Pokémon would interact with our world?
-If given the power to, would you change anything about this Pokémon and if so, what would you change?
-How do you think this Pokémon fares as a Normal-type and as a Psychic-type?
-What do you think about the way this Pokémon depicts dual-typing? Is there a way to depict dual-typing that you favor?
-What do you think about this Pokémon’s beta designs and the process of creating a Pokémon from beta to completion? What do you think of beta designs and their influence on the games and the fans?
If you have any suggestions for Pokémon you'd like to discuss in the future just leave your ideas at the bottom of your post. Make sure you give your thoughts about the current Pokémon first!
Previous Pokémon of the Week:
A unique and peculiar Pokémon Girafarig is a single stage Normal/Psychic-type that debuted in Generation II. Girafarig has a fairly simple and quirky design with a surprising amount of history behind it. Its Normal/Psychic-typing is rather elegantly represented by its body composition. The front end of Girafarig is a rather standard looking giraffe design with a few cartoony embellishments. It represents the Normal-type which is chock full of mammals with little or simple deviations from the real animals they are based on. The back end of Girafarig is a reverse palette of the front end capped off with an odd enigmatic tail that happens to be a second head with a small brain. This end’s curious qualities represent the Psychic-type. It projects an eerie and mysterious nature that further amplifies its psychic powers with the aid of the second brain. Unlike something we’ll get to later Girafarig’s second head mostly provides it with support for its main body. The second brain is small enough that it doesn’t do any independent thinking instead relying on instinct and being very reactionary. Girafarig live on wide-open plains where there is not much cover for its large body. The tail does not sleep so it can easily keep watch whenever Girafarig is feeding or sleeping. What’s amusing about this is that real life giraffes use their sheer size, enormous neck, and herd living to guard against predators. Girafarig is significantly smaller than real giraffes which it can probably justify because of its ever-vigilant tail. The tail will also mimic the eating motions of Girafarig’s main head possibly due to brain signals used during eating reaching its second brain. Girafarig’s tail also has a decent sense of smell which will cause it to react to new scents. Often if the tail smells something close it will try to bite it.
A lot of care was put into Girafarig’s name in every language to make sure that they are palindromes so as to reflect its one body facing opposing directions. That may not be saying much since they’re either Girafarig or Kirinriki in all languages. Its Japanese name Kirinriki can also be a combination of ‘kirin’ meaning giraffe and ‘nenriki’ meaning telekinesis. This fits nicely with its typing and may even be part of where the Psychic-type idea came from after making kirin a palindrome. For a simple and quirky design, Girafarig has quite a variety of inspirations it draws from. It mainly takes after the Pushmi-pullyu, a mammalian herbivore from The Story of Doctor Dolittle which has a head at each end of its body. Girafarig also takes from the theory that some dinosaurs, such as Stegosaurus, had a second brain in their tails. The idea here was that these animals were so big and their brains so small that they needed a second brain to effectively wield their spike tails against predators. This theory has proven to be invalid though.
For a long time now Girafarig’s beta design has been available to us showing that it more closely resembled the Pushmi-pullyu having a giraffe head at each end of its body. Not much was known other than that image but with having two assumingly full functioning heads Girafarig could have acted a lot more like Doduo and Dodrio where the heads may often fight but would ultimately have to work together. Neither would be a purely supportive role. With the recent GS Demo leak, two new interesting details were discovered. Firstly, Girafarig was planned to be a Dark/Normal-type. It looks like it already had the duality of its typing represented with its lighter front end and darker back end. The backsprites revealed that this Dark-type back end had a somewhat sinister expression as well as some errant pixels around the mouth which some fan interpretations suggesting they were sharp teeth! The other interesting surprise is that Girafarig may have been an evolution of a discarded beta Pokemon known as Twinz which its shares its type combo with. Twinz was composed of two ghost-like blobs connected by a thin black cord. It appears just before beta Girafarig in ID order and is stated to evolve at level 29. These two are very different Pokémon that share some very specific similarities. It’s unknown what the intended plans were for Twinz and Girafarig but it would be confusing and interesting seeing why and how a ghost blobs evolve into a giraffe.
Here are some questions to consider to get the conversation rolling. You don't have to answer all of them or any of them in your post as long as you're staying on topic and within global forum rules.
-Do you like or dislike this Pokémon? Why?
-How is this Pokémon in-game?
-How is this Pokémon in competitive play? Are there any interesting strategies you like to use for them?
-Do you like this Pokémon's representation in the anime? Are there any moments or qualities, in particular, you enjoy/dislike?
-How do you think this Pokémon would interact with our world?
-If given the power to, would you change anything about this Pokémon and if so, what would you change?
-How do you think this Pokémon fares as a Normal-type and as a Psychic-type?
-What do you think about the way this Pokémon depicts dual-typing? Is there a way to depict dual-typing that you favor?
-What do you think about this Pokémon’s beta designs and the process of creating a Pokémon from beta to completion? What do you think of beta designs and their influence on the games and the fans?
If you have any suggestions for Pokémon you'd like to discuss in the future just leave your ideas at the bottom of your post. Make sure you give your thoughts about the current Pokémon first!
Previous Pokémon of the Week:
- Pokémon of the Week #1: Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, & Venusaur
- Pokémon of the Week #2: Scraggy & Scrafty
- Pokémon of the Week #3: Gulpin & Swalot
- Pokémon of the Week #4: Porygon, Porygon2, & Porygon-Z
- Pokémon of the Week #5: Emolga
- Pokémon of the Week #6: Rufflet & Braviary
- Pokémon of the Week #7: Ditto
- Pokémon of the Week #8: Wynaut & Wobbuffet
- Pokémon of the Week #9: Sneasel & Weavile
- Pokémon of the Week #10: Murkrow & Honchkrow
- Pokémon of the Week #11: Houndour & Houndoom
- Pokémon of the Week #12: Exeggcute & Exeggutor
- Pokémon of the Week #13: Gastly, Haunter, & Gengar
- Pokemon of the Week #14: Smoochum & Jynx
- Pokémon of the Week #15: Beldum, Metang, & Metagross
- Pokémon of the Week #16: Bidoof
- Pokémon of the Week # 17: Deerling and Sawsbuck
- Pokémon of the Week #18: Munchlax and Snorlax
- Pokémon of the Week #19: Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff
- Pokémon of the Week #20: Nincada, Ninjask, and Shedinja
- Pokémon of the Week #21: Pumpkaboo & Gourgeist
- Pokémon of the Week #22: Mudkip, Marshtomp, and Swampert
- Pokémon of the Week #23: Froakie, Frogadier, and Greninja
- Pokémon of the Week #24: Rattata & Raticate
- Pokémon of the Week #25: Mimikyu
- Pokémon of the Week #26: Mareep, Flaaffy, & Ampharos
- Pokémon of the Week #27: Delibird
- Pokémon of the Week #28: Espeon
- Pokémon of the Week #29: Rowlet, Dartrix, & Decidueye
- Pokémon of the Week #30: Popplio, Brionne, & Primarina
- Pokémon of the Week #31: Litten, Torracat, & Incineroar
- Pokémon of the Week #32: Woobat & Swoobat
- Pokémon of the Week #33: Vulpix & Ninetales
- Pokémon of the Week #34: Mewtwo
- Pokémon of the Week #35: Shellos & Gastrodon
- Pokémon of the Week #36: Weedle, Kakuna, & Beedrill
- Pokémon of the Week #37: Alomomola
- Pokémon of the Week #38: Pidove, Tranquill, & Unfezant
- Pokémon of the Week #39: Darkrai
- Pokémon of the Week #40: MissingNo.
- Pokémon of the Week #41: Pikachu
- Pokémon of the Week #42: Bonsly & Sudowoodo
- Pokémon of the Week #43: Wingull & Pelliper
- Pokémon of the Week #44: Swirlix & Slurpuff
- Pokémon of the Week #45: Lotad, Lombre, & Ludicolo
- Pokémon of the Week #46: Kangakhan
- Pokémon of the Week #47: Riolu & Lucario
- Pokémon of the Week #48: Raichu
- Pokémon of the Week #49: Magikarp & Gyarados
- Pokémon of the Week #50: Horsea, Seadra & Kingdra
- Pokémon of the Week #51: Elgyem & Beheeyem
- Pokémon of the Week #52: Scyther & Scizor
- Pokémon of the Week #53: Crabrawler & Crabominable
- Pokémon of the Week #54: Rotom
- Pokémon of the Week #55: Numel & Camerupt
- Pokémon of the Week #56: Sableye
- Pokémon of the Week #57: Corsola
- Pokémon of the Week #58: Diglett & Dugtrio
- Pokémon of the Week #59: Klink, Klang, & Klinklang
- Pokémon of the Week #60: Caterpie, Metapod, & Butterfree
- Pokémon of the Week #61: Gible, Gabite & Garchomp
- Pokémon of the Week #62: Celebi
- Pokémon of the Week #63: Feebas & Milotic
- Pokémon of the Week #64: Honedge, Doublade & Aegislash
- Pokémon of the Week #65: Shieldon & Bastiodon
- Pokémon of the Week #66: Zorua & Zoroark
- Pokémon of the Week #67: Zubat, Golbat, & Crobat
- Pokémon of the Week #68: Swinub, Piloswine, & Mamoswine
- Pokémon of the Week #69: Wimpod & Golisopod
- Pokémon of the Week #70: Farfetch’d
- Pokémon of the Week #71: Jangmo-o, Hakamo-o & Kommo-o
- Pokémon of the Week #72: Gallade
- Pokémon of the Week #73: Snover and Abomasnow
- Pokémon of the Week #74: Voltorb and Electrode
- Pokémon of the Week #75: Pawniard and Bisharp
- Pokémon of the Week #76: Mew
- Pokémon of the Week #77: Suicune
- Pokémon of the Week #78: Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard
- Pokémon of the Week #79: Luvdisc
- Pokémon of the Week #80: Rockruff and Lycanroc
- Pokémon of the Week #81: Snorunt, Glalie, and Froslass
- Pokémon of the Week #82: Zigzagoon & Linoone
- Pokémon of the Week #83: Togedemaru
- Pokémon of the Week #84: Koffing and Weezing
- Pokémon of the Week #85: Cleffa, Clefairy & Clefable
- Pokémon of the Week #86: Absol
- Pokémon of the Week #87: Dhelmise
- Pokémon of the Week #88: Ponyta & Rapidash
- Pokémon of the Week #89: Venipede, Whirlipede and Scolipede
- Pokémon of the Week #90: Shinx, Luxio & Luxray
- Pokémon of the Week #91: Fennekin, Braixen, and Delphox
- Pokémon of the Week #92: Fletchling, Fletchinder & Talonflame
- Pokémon of the Week #93: Drilbur and Excadrill
- Pokémon of the Week #94: Type: Null & Silvally
- Pokémon of the Week #95: Sandygast and Palossand
- Pokémon of the week #96: Dratini, Dragonair & Dragonite
- Pokémon of the Week #97: Starly, Staravia, and Staraptor