User:Minibug/List of common misconceptions

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Each point on this list of common misconceptions is presented as a correction. A common misconception is something incorrectly presented as true which is actually false.

Overall franchise

• Satoshi Tajiri has never been stated to have autism.
• Clefairy was never originally intended to be the Pokémon mascot. This is a misquotation of a passage from Pikachu's Global Adventure, which discusses how Clefairy was made the main character in Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga to make it more "engaging". Pikachu was chosen for Pokémon the Series in an attempt to appeal more to younger viewers and female viewers.
• It is not certain that Rhydon was the first Pokémon designed, despite being the first Pokémon by internal index number in Generation I. The interview that mentions Rhydon being one of the first Pokémon also mentions Clefairy and Lapras along with it as some of the first Pokémon created. Diglett is said to have been made up by Shigeki Morimoto when he was young, long before other Pokémon.

In the core series games

• The Master Ball cannot fail. In all generations, the Master Ball overrides the normal catch rate formula altogether, making it impossible for it to fail under normal circumstances, as all chance-based calculations are skipped.
• There is no minimum age required to be a Trainer in the games, as evidenced by several young child Trainers classes such as the Twins, School Kid, Camper, and Picnicker, as opposed to the anime where the minimum age is said to be 10 years old.
  • None of the player characters are known to be 10 years old. The youngest player character with a confirmed age is Red, who is 11.
• There is no anti-piracy message present in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. The message "By the way: If you like this game, buy it or die." comes from a widely spread release of a modified ROM of FireRed from a piracy group.
• Ditto is not a failed clone of Mew. After being asked about this during an interview in 2012, Junichi Masuda said he had never even heard of such a theory before.
• Brendan has either black or brown hair depending on the generation. His white hat is often interpreted as hair by fans.
• Holding or pushing any button combinations does not enhance the chance of catching a Pokémon.
• Shiny Pokémon are not more powerful than non-Shiny instances of the same species. It's purely aesthetic; however, being Shiny used to be correlated with a Pokémon's IVs in Generation II.
• Encountering the number of Pokémon equal to that encounter type's Shiny chance does not guarantee you will encounter a Shiny, e.g. if the Shiny chance is 1/8192, encountering 8192 Pokémon does mean there is a 100% chance of encountering a Shiny within those 8192 attempts.
  There is no pity mechanic to force a Shiny to spawn after a certain number of attempts, and the chance of each Pokémon appearing as Shiny is independent of previous attempts.
• In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire:
  • The DexNav has a complex method of determining the Shiny chance of Pokémon that appear as a result of using it, which has lead to multiple misleading reports about the Shiny rates and mechanics over the years, resulting in incorrect methods of Shiny hunting via the DexNav.
• In Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!:
  • The Catch Combo only increases the Shiny chance for the next instance of that species to spawn after the previous one was caught. Stopping a chain of captures at 31 provides no additional bonus, the bonus only continues to function if the player continues to catch additional members of that species.
• In Pokémon Sword and Shield:
  • There is no mechanic (outside of fishing) that allows the player to hunt Shiny Pokémon via Chaining.
  • The bonus to the Shiny rate provided by KOing 500 of a given species of Pokemon is only applied to wild symbol encounters with the Brilliant Aura, and does not apply to anything else.
  • The chance for a Shiny Pokémon encountered in the wild to be the variation with Square sparkles is 65521/65536, and contrary to popular belief, is not a programming error.
    • Other types of encounters vary, with most having a rate of 15/16 having Star sparkles, and 1/16 having Square sparkles. The generation methods vary in older games as well.
  • It is legitimately possible for Pokémon and Eggs to have no memory, often thought to only be possible through cheating.
• In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:
  • Standing somewhere slightly out of reach of a Walking Pokémon, such as the roof of a Pokémon Center, so that it runs around constantly in an attempt to path to the player, does not count towards the evolution requirements of Pawmo or Bramblin, nor does it count towards earning the Partner Mark. Both mechanics track the amount of steps the player character takes, and the former case ignores the amount of steps the Pokémon itself takes.
• Pokémon deposited into Pokémon Bank, Pokémon HOME, or traded online within the core series games are not guaranteed to be legal and/or legitimate. The anti-cheat programmed into the core series games, and provided by Nintendo's servers, is not foolproof.
  • Additionally, the anti-cheat has several cases of false positives, where perfectly legitimate Pokémon are incorrectly flagged as hacked by the server anti-cheat. Examples include cross-game/cross-generation evolution, such as Blissey or Crobat originating from Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, or Mismagius originating from Generation III, which cannot be traded in certain modern games due to the filters incorrectly assuming that these Pokémon shouldn't be capable of evolving at all, due to them being unable to evolve in their Game of origin.
• Genesect is not a revived and technologically enhanced Kabutops. Pokédex entries state that Genesect was an ancient Bug-type Pokémon, something Kabutops is not.

Pokémon misconceptions

• Regular Pikachu has never had a black color on the tip of its tail. The only one that does is Cosplay Pikachu. This is often described as a popular example of the Mandela effect.
• Squirtle is not based on a squirrel. Its name refers to squirting water, and only its English name could be mistaken for this animal. Its curled tail, however, most likely references a mythological turtle, Minogame, with such a tail being one of its crucial details.
• Slugma, Skarmory, and the Marill lines come from Generation II, not, as often mistaken, from Generation III.
  • Similarly, Togepi and Ho-Oh are mistaken to come from Generation I due to their early appearance in the anime. Pokémon like Munchlax, Bonsly, and Mime Jr. were introduced in Generation IV but are often thought to come from Generation III.
• Many Pokémon are thought to have different typings than what they have in reality. These Pokémon are:
  • Psyduck's line is pure Water-type, not Water- and Psychic-type, despite its name suggesting so.
  • Lugia is a Psychic- and Flying-type Pokémon. It does not have Water typing, however, it was initially intended to be Water type.
  • Groudon is a pure Ground type and is not partially Fire type. However, Primal Groudon does have a Fire-typing alongside Ground-typing.
  • Luxray is a pure Electric-type, not Electric/Dark-type as its aggressive appearance suggests.
  • Lurantis is often mistaken for a Bug type; however, it is a pure Grass type.
  • Runerigus is actually Ground/Ghost-type, not a Rock-type.
• Fans sometimes mistake which Pokémon species evolve into:
  • Luvdisc doesn't evolve into Alomomola, and Tauros doesn't evolve into Bouffalant. These species are unrelated.
  • Slowbro doesn't evolve into Slowking; it's an alternate evolution of Slowpoke.
  • Arbok doesn't evolve into Seviper. This misconception comes from the Pokémon Trainer's Choice which incorrectly stated this.
• There are some Pokémon which are often mistaken for Legendary Pokémon:
  • Rotom isn't legendary even though it was one-time-encounter Pokémon in Generation IV, met in a unique location, and used the Legendary Pokémon theme in its encounter.
  • Volcarona is often treated like a legendary Pokémon because it could be met for the first time as a static encounter, in a special location, at a very high level.
• Various Pokémon designs are often misunderstood:
  • Poliwag's pink mouth is often mistaken for a nose.
  • Panpour and Simipour's eyes are not closed, as they can sometimes be seen blinking with their white eyes.
  • Wurmple doesn't evolve based on the time of day.
  • Doduo does have wings, according to its Pokédex entry.

In the anime

• Porygon was not the one to cause seizures in EP038. It was actually Ash's Pikachu who hit the missiles that caused the infamous explosion.
• Gary's Umbreon as an Eevee was not his First partner Pokémon. It was actually Squirtle. This misconception likely came from Pokémon Yellow where the rival's first partner Pokémon was an Eevee and that Gary's first partner Pokémon being Blastoise was not revealed until The Ties That Bind which first aired after Pokémon Yellow came out.
• Gary's Arcanine was evolved from a Growlithe. Pokémon Puzzle League, the Japanese opening, The Rivals, and its English equivalent, Pokémon World depicts Gary with a Growlithe but the anime never confirms whether this is true or not.
• Ash obtaining the Boulder Badge and Cascade Badge was not out of pity from Brock and Misty, despite the two bringing this up twice: Once in Mystery at the Lighthouse and once in When Regions Collide! (although the second time was likely just teasing Ash rather than actually believing this). Ash obtained the Boulder Badge was from Brock voluntarily giving it to him while the Cascade Badge was from Daisy for saving the Cerulean Gym.