Misheard Whisper
[b][color=#FF0000]I[/color] [color=#FF7F00]also[/c
- 3,488
- Posts
- 16
- Years
- Age 30
- He/They
- Nimbasa Gym
- Seen Oct 3, 2022
Type matchups in Pokemon work for a reason. Fire burns Grass to a crisp, Water puts out Fire, Flying (birds) eat Bugs, Poison dissolves Grass, Steel cuts Rock and so on. But one type that seems to have little rhyme or reason to its strengths and weaknesses is the Psychic type.
Psychic is strong against Fighting. This one, at least, is fairly straightforward. Might as well be Jackie Chan vs Darth Vader. Try punching someone when he's holding you up in the air ten metres away with the force of his will. Fair enough.
Psychic is strong against Poison. Erm . . . I guess? Maybe Psychic is, to a certain extent, associated with healing (with Recover etc), which draws out Poison. Makes some sort of sense, but it sure doesn't explain why offensive Psychic moves have such a devastating effect.
Psychic has reduced offensive effectiveness against the Steel type. The Steel type resists just about anything, but I don't see why Psychic should be the same. The reason Steel is so resistant is its physical density and tenacity, yet Psychic attacks are generally held to bypass these things, being powered by the mind as opposed to the body.
Now we get to the defensive side of things (I know I skipped Dark. We'll get to that in a minute). Looking at the list of types that Psychic falls victim to is what really got me thinking, and prompted me to post this topic.
In fiction and popular culture, many characters with psychic powers are held to be insane. This can be for many reasons, but essentially, it boils down to two: either their powers drive them mad, or the insanity itself is the source of their power. So psychics, then - especially the more paranoid-type insane ones - may be more vulnerable to common human fears, these fears driven to a much higher level by their unsoundness of mind. Common human fears like, oh, I don't know . . . the dark? Bugs? Ghosts? ;)
This was brought to my attention while browsing Bulbapedia. I came across the new ability known as Rattled. This ability grants a boost in Speed when hit by a Bug-, Ghost- or Dark-type move. I immediately noticed that the three types mentioned were the three weaknesses of the Psychic type, which is how I made the connection. (It also happens to be at the bottom of the Bulbapedia page shut up)
This is curious, and it was from here that I developed my theory on the strange assortment of weaknesses of the Psychic type. I'd be interested to know what you think of the Psychic type's strengths and weaknesses, because there appears to be very little rhyme or reason to them, other than, of course, game-balancing. Remember that Mewtwo/Alakazam you had in Pokemon Red/Blue? Ah, it killed everything. :) Good times.
Curiously, not a single Psychic-type Pokemon has Rattled as one of its abilities. It'd be pretty dumb, though - you'd have to take a super-effective hit to gain the Speed boost, and most Psychics are far too fragile to do that properly.
Psychic is strong against Fighting. This one, at least, is fairly straightforward. Might as well be Jackie Chan vs Darth Vader. Try punching someone when he's holding you up in the air ten metres away with the force of his will. Fair enough.
Psychic is strong against Poison. Erm . . . I guess? Maybe Psychic is, to a certain extent, associated with healing (with Recover etc), which draws out Poison. Makes some sort of sense, but it sure doesn't explain why offensive Psychic moves have such a devastating effect.
Psychic has reduced offensive effectiveness against the Steel type. The Steel type resists just about anything, but I don't see why Psychic should be the same. The reason Steel is so resistant is its physical density and tenacity, yet Psychic attacks are generally held to bypass these things, being powered by the mind as opposed to the body.
Now we get to the defensive side of things (I know I skipped Dark. We'll get to that in a minute). Looking at the list of types that Psychic falls victim to is what really got me thinking, and prompted me to post this topic.
In fiction and popular culture, many characters with psychic powers are held to be insane. This can be for many reasons, but essentially, it boils down to two: either their powers drive them mad, or the insanity itself is the source of their power. So psychics, then - especially the more paranoid-type insane ones - may be more vulnerable to common human fears, these fears driven to a much higher level by their unsoundness of mind. Common human fears like, oh, I don't know . . . the dark? Bugs? Ghosts? ;)
This was brought to my attention while browsing Bulbapedia. I came across the new ability known as Rattled. This ability grants a boost in Speed when hit by a Bug-, Ghost- or Dark-type move. I immediately noticed that the three types mentioned were the three weaknesses of the Psychic type, which is how I made the connection. (It also happens to be at the bottom of the Bulbapedia page shut up)
This is curious, and it was from here that I developed my theory on the strange assortment of weaknesses of the Psychic type. I'd be interested to know what you think of the Psychic type's strengths and weaknesses, because there appears to be very little rhyme or reason to them, other than, of course, game-balancing. Remember that Mewtwo/Alakazam you had in Pokemon Red/Blue? Ah, it killed everything. :) Good times.
Curiously, not a single Psychic-type Pokemon has Rattled as one of its abilities. It'd be pretty dumb, though - you'd have to take a super-effective hit to gain the Speed boost, and most Psychics are far too fragile to do that properly.
