User:Minibug/List of common misconceptions

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

Overall franchise

• Satoshi Tajiri has never been stated to have autism.

Pokémon misconceptions

• 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. Munchlax being thought to be introduced in Generation III is likely because of its appearance in Pokémon Dash and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness along with being owned by May in the Ruby and Sapphre anime series. The idea for Bonsly is likely for being playable in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness and being owned by Brock in the aforementioned series.
• 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 is not a Legendary Pokémon, even though it was a one-time-encounter Pokémon in Generation IV, met in a unique location, and used the Legendary Pokémon theme in its encounter.
  • Volcarona is not a Legendary Pokémon, even though it could be met for the first time as a static encounter, in a special location, at a very high level.
  • Arcanine is not a Legendary Pokémon. This misconception is from its Pokémon category considering it a "Legendary Pokémon" while its translated Japanese category is "Legend Pokémon". An engraving in the episode Pokémon Emergency! depicts Arcanine alongside the three legendary birds which were the only in-universe known Legendary Pokémon at the time, further supporting this misconception.
• Rock-types are not immune to Electric-type moves. This misconception was from the early episodes of the anime where the characters frequently claim this. In Generation I, only the fossil Pokémon were Rock-types that did not also have a Ground-typing. A scene in Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon supports this misconception as Ash's Pikachu's Electric-type attacks did no damage to a Kabutops.

Creation and design

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
  • Woobat's heart-shaped nose is often mistaken for its eye.
  • Cradily's true eyes are concealed inside the dark, crescent opening on its head rather then the yellow markings.
  • The purplish variant of Kecleon that has been shown in Pokémon the Series, the TCG, and the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series isn't its shiny coloration.

In-universe origins

• Ditto is not a failed clone of Mew. After being asked about this fan theory during an interview in 2012, Junichi Masuda said he had never heard of it before.
  • Ditto doesn't appear at the Cinnabar Mansion until Pokémon Yellow.
  • Ditto and Mew do not use the same color palettes. Mew and Mewtwo do use the same color palette in Generation I, but this is not indicative of cloning. In fact, there were only 10 color palettes available for 151 Pokémon in this generation, resulting in several Pokémon sharing the same palettes.
• Mewtwo is not known to have been created by the Team Rocket in the games, even though Mewtwo forms a sync pair with Giovanni in Pokémon Masters EX and it was created by Team Rocket in the anime and the Pokémon Adventures manga.
• Lugia has no known connections to the Legendary Birds in the core series games unlike in the anime and the Mystery Dungeon series.
• Genesect is not confirmed to be a revived and technologically enhanced Kabutops.

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.
• Most Trainers are not known to own a Pokédex, except the player characters and some of their rivals and friends.
• 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.
• 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.

Kanto-based games

Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue

• The background music of Lavender Town was not lowered in frequency when ported from Pokémon Red and Green to Pokémon Red and Blue.

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

• Red's Generation III design is never referred to by the name "Fire" in official media (including in the game data, manuals, boxes, or merchandise), except "Fire", "Red", "Leaf", and "Green" are all equally suggested names for both the male and female player characters when starting a new game.
• 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.

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.

Johto-based games

Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal

• In those games, the Moon Ball has no increased catch rate on Pokémon that would evolve by any specific item such as the Moon Stone or the Burn Heal. When the Moon Ball is used, the games actually look for the Burn Heal index number (0x0A) in the wrong memory address.

Hoenn-based games

• Brendan has either black or brown hair depending on the generation. His white hat is often interpreted as hair by fans.

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.

Unova-based games

Pokémon Black and White

• This line is not found in the English dialogue: "If I'm wearing a bikini... where do I put my Pokéballs? Teehee... woman's secret!" It is actually a fanmade translation of the Japanese post-battle dialogue said by Swimmer Joyce on Route 17: 「ビキニの　わたしが　どこに　モンスターボールを　しまうのか？　フフフ……　女(おんな)の　秘密(ひみつ)よ」 (Where in my bikini do I store my Poké Balls? Fufufu... Woman's secret!). However, in the official English version, she says this instead: "I'm a girl with everything... Well, everything but a place to put my Poké Balls!"

Galar-based games

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.

Paldea-based games

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.

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 is not known to have 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 obtaining the Boulder Badge was from Brock voluntarily giving it to him while the Cascade Badge was from Daisy for saving the Cerulean Gym. While neither battle against Brock and Misty were officially called for Ash, he held a strong lead in both of them where Pikachu was about to defeat Brock's Onix and Pidgeotto fought Misty's Starmie hard enough that Starmie began running out of energy.

In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

• This manga series generally does not have graphical violence, with the exception of Blue's Charmeleon slicing Koga's Arbok in half and Giovanni's Cloyster killing two frozen Magmar, both from the first manga arc.