Pokémon is a massive franchise that has been alive and well for decades. There are video games, card games, movies, television shows, shops, food, merchandise, and just about anything else you can get your hands on.
That said, plenty of tidbits in their gaming world has been accepted as fact, even if it isn’t necessarily true. While there are numerous misconceptions about Pokémon origins, most of them make a lot of sense when taking into consideration where they were designed. Other things are extremely difficult to debunk, and therefore their misconceptions drive popular opinion regardless of if they are warranted or not.
10 It Is Impossible To Shiny Hunt In The Original Games
It is true that shiny Pokémon did not exist in Red, Blue, and Yellow, but it is not true that it wasn’t possible to shiny hunt regardless. Shinies, when introduced in the second generation of games, were determined based on their stats.
That being said, the legendary birds as well as Mewtwo can be farmed in the original games to obtain the stats required for shininess, even though they will not appear shiny in their games. Once transferred over to Gold, Silver, and Crystal, they will appear shiny if their stats line up with how shininess was determined for them in those games.
9 Pressing A Quickly Increases The Chance Of A Capture
A very old misconception is that rapidly pressing the A button (or whatever button is being used as the primary action on that console) will very slightly increase the chances of a capture. There is also a slightly more niche misconception that timing the button presses just right will result in a critical capture. So according to this, if done properly, quickly pressing the action button will always result in a capture regardless of what kind of ball is being used.
There is no actual evidence of this being the case. It merely just stands there as a way to fidget while waiting for all three shakes and to make the player feel like they might actually be assisting in the capture.
8 It’s Best To Always Evolve Pokémon
The games make it seem like it is always best to evolve a Pokémon early on as it is trying to explain to any potential new player what evolution actually is. It is true that typically, it is better to have an evolved Pokémon if stats are the biggest concern. However, with items such as the eviolite, their stats can be improved just due to this singular hold item.
Also sometimes a Pokémon loses access to otherwise naturally learned moves if it is evolved too soon. An example is that a Chikorita can naturally learn the move Solar Beam, while Bayleef and Meganium do not, and others lose the ability to naturally learn moves at all. The latter tends to be a strong issue for Pokémon that evolve via stones, such as Musharna.
7 The Pronunciation Of The Word Pokémon
While technically the common pronunciation of Pokémon, using a hard E sound, is correct enough due to rules of colloquial speech, the word itself is spelled with an é. An Acute E is pronounced more like a hard A sound. Therefore it is actually supposed to be pronounced as poke-AY-mon, instead of the commonly used poke-E-mon or poke-UH-mon.
However, nobody is going to actually break down doors and get too angry about it all things considered, as it appears that even the different games, ads, and television adaptions don’t seem to have a standard form of pronunciation themselves. So as long as it’s pronounced in a way people understand, it’s good enough.
6 Abilities And Items Affect Base Stats
The assumption is that stat-affecting abilities and choice items affect only the base stats of the Pokémon in question. That is actually false, as they affect their overall stats at the time. Meaning, they are actually a lot better than they would be if they did affect only the base stat.
This opens up the ability to have even more impressive stats that technically are unobtainable, which is why abilities such as Huge Power and Gale Wings are so prized in the competitive field. A perfect IV, perfect nature, level 100 Pokémon with one of these doubles its already perfect stats to extraordinarily extreme levels. This is also why Mega Mawile is capable of breaking the Attack ceiling if it has its Hidden Ability as well as a perfect attack IV.
5 Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon In General
Most Dragon-Types, Volcarona, Lucario, Zoroark, Silvallay, Unown, and any other Pokémon to have gotten a lot of traction in the series while not being actively legendaries are thought to be pseudo-legendaries. If they had their own movies or are extremely limited in their collection such as Type-Null and Silvallay, many fans assume that makes them pseudo-legendary.
This is actually false, as in order to be classed as a pseudo-legendary, their stats must have a base total of at least 600 while also not being already considered legendaries or mythicals in the first place. Type-Null and Silvallay are actually already classed as legendary pokémon despite having an evolutionary line, and they are the biggest misconceived legendaries in the series.
4 Sucker Punch Is A Punching Move
Despite its name, Sucker Punch is actually not a punching move at all. This is evident by the fact that the Ability Iron Fist does not improve the move, as well as the fact that in Japanese, it more closely translates to Suprise Attack.
This is also why Pokémon that do not have hands can still learn the move Sucker Punch, and those with punching-heavy quirks like Hitmonchan might not actually gain access to it.
3 All Protagonists Are 10 Years Old
This was brought about due to the fact the anime has Ash Ketchum at 10, and it says that is the age at which officially one can receive their starter Pokémon. However, it’s not actually mentioned in the games ever.
Red has been revealed to be 11 and is 14 when he is found on Mt. Silver in Johto. He’s also older than 16 when he appears in Black and White 2. May, Brendon, and Dawn are at least 12. Hilda and Hilbert were confirmed to be teenagers of at least 14 and were meant to be at least 16 during development. Most others are not actually confirmed, but there does seem to be a trend of their body types and sizes to be aging up as the series progresses.
2 Remakes Belong To Their Original Generation
Despite games being remade from older games, they do not actually belong to the generation in which their original games came about. They might even still typically take place during the same time, but they belong to the generation in which they were released in and thus follow that generation’s rules, lore, and inner workings.
Fire Red and Leaf Green belong to Generation 3, Heart Gold and Soul Silver belong to Generation 4, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire belong to Generation 6, Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee belong to Generation 7, and the new Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will belong to Generation 8.
1 Pokémon Is Declining In Popularity
While it feels like Pokémon is losing popularity to some older players who were with the fad in its heyday, it is actually one of the highest-grossing media franchises. This is due to the fact it has way more than just video games under its belt, unlike some of its major competitors.
Additionally, the main series games sell pretty close to their predecessors, with few exceptions. The Sun and Moon line didn’t do great comparatively, but Sword and Shield did amazing according to the most recent financial releases. So even though it is against stiff competition with the highest-grossing singular game of all time Minecraft, and the juggernaut of a franchise Mario, it has far more media under its belt that is still selling fantastically, with its popularity continuing.
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