Pokémon Species Variations

[Enzap]

So the fandom is abuzz lately with Alolan variations of classic Pokémon. So, now that we know it's possible, what kinds of conditions do you think could create a new variety of your favorite Pokémon (or any Pokémon for that matter) and how would they adapt to them? You can use Pokémon World locations as examples, make them up, or even base them on real life examples of adaptations in animals.

 

[Life]

Alolan Gogoat: Living around the mountains/volcanoes causes the foliage that grows on their backs to fall off, hardening their skin overtime to a thin layer of hair. Because the forests get too cold for them at night they move their habitat to the tops of the volcanoes, and after years of adapting to the different temperature switch to being Rock-types. Additionally, their horns and legs gain muscle after years of kicking into the cooled-lava to find minerals to eat. This also gives them a secondary typing of Fighting.

 

[ReadsALotOfBooks]

I could imagine an Alolan Flabebe that lives with Oricorio and has new forms themed around the flowers that seem to change Oricorio's style. This could make the Flabebe add the type that changes with Oricorio (Fire, Electric, Psychic, and Ghost) to its traditional Fairy-type.

 

[Tenjiku]

Alolan Glameow/Purugly: I could see this Pokemon becoming adapted to the warm climate and their fur gets thinner as a result, of course to cool off when it gets really hot they can live around the beach areas making them a water type (or even a dual normal/water). Their fur is also a different color, like maybe a light blue and still have some white spots like their paws and tail.

 

[SirOni]

Some of the Alolan variants like Marowak and Meowth gave me some ideas about other factors that can induce variation in Pokemon species. Originally before its explanation was given I had come up with the theory that Alolan Marowak became Fire/Ghost because they gained the ability to commune with their ancestor spirits through the use of indigenous fire dancing. This idea of becoming a Ghost-type because of having the ability to commune with and utilize the power of spirits is something of a new type qualifier that we've seen arise with Sensu-Style Oricorio. It's a cool and interesting new way to express the Ghost-type that I would like to see more of. Hearing the official explanation for Alolan Marowak I was a little let down. Becoming Fire-type in response to the abundance of Grass-type enemies felt like it was playing too much on aspect of types rather than on a Pokemon's real world related factors the other Alolan variants seemed to be doing like adapting to a new habitat or expressing latent traits due to localized breeding. The Ghost-typing didn't seem to have strong reasoning either as it was thought to just be a reference to the Pokemon Tower event. After reading some of what I believe it was fellow user Esserise had to say about the subject I began to really come around on Alolan Marowak's Ghost-typing. As it states on their page Alolan Marowak came to live in closer union with their partners due to the threat of enemies and that awakened some sort of sixth sense within them. The bond with and devotion to their kin developing into a supernatural force is something that we've seen before with the fallen Marowak mother that lingered in the world of the living as a ghost to protect her child and punish those who seek to harm it. From all this information we could conclude that Marowak have latent spiritual properties that are intertwined with their sense of family and community. The part of the page that reads "their great care for their partners allowed them to gain something like a sixth sense" seems to say that Alolan Marowak draw their new power from each other which is like how Oricorio draws its power from spirits. It's not quite the same but it does have some similarites to Sensu-style Oricorio with how they come to utilize their spiritual powers. Not what I had in mind at first but it is fascinating and I love what is going on with these two.

Now with all that background out of the way the one big idea I have for other ways Pokemon can produce new variations is a change of culture within a species. We've all seen how Pokemon can have near human levels of intelligence, awareness, and beliefs that with a community can of course lead to the development of culture. We've already seen Pokemon that are almost wholly defined by their culture such as Scrafty with their hoodlum mentalities. As seen with my initial theory about Alolan Marowak and also with Alolan Meowth's decadent lifestyle resulting in its new variant a change in culture can positively lead to new expressions of their inherent traits like typing, stats, and moves. This could be a very natural way to introduce variants especially with those Pokemon that are heavily based on human aspects.