Things in Pokémon which really hit you by surprise

Oh, as long as we're talking about story surprises, I was actually extremely surprised in FireRed, after I defeated Lance and found out that my rival was the actual final boss!
Best twist ever. You reminded me of my first Red playthrough. It was on an emulator (my first handheld was a GBC, which I bought just for playing Pokémon Silver) and things were so exciting in a way the newer games just can't emulate (maybe because I'm not a kid anymore). Battling the E4 was as amazing and challenging as it gets (every pokémon defeated was an unbelievable victory, and so many revives used between battles). Finding out there's one more opponent to go - and not any opponent, but your rival - and sweating your ass off to beat him made for one of the most incredible video game endings I've ever experienced.
 
Y'know, I don't ever recall being surprised by Gary being there in the Elite Four growing up, nor really that Giovanni held the Earth Badge (particularly when I discovered that they used Ground-types, like Giovanni did mostly). I daresay I'm flattering myself and probably some kid must have told me in the playground before I got there, but I genuinely don't remember that happening. (Well, it was a relatively trivial thing that either happened or didn't happen fifteen years ago.)

The twist with N at the end of BW, though, that climax actually has the balls to subvert one of the most immutable formulae in all of video gaming, and is made all the more effective if you've played the game for fifteen years and think you know exactly what's coming. I guess it comes as part of the wider "let's deconstruct all the tropes found in the previous Pokemon games" exercise by giving veteran players a genuine surprise, rather than the non-twist-which-the-game-nonetheless-treats-as-a-shocking-revelation that the obligatory post-champion battle had become.
 
I was shocked that after I beat the Elite Four fifty times in a row with only Pikachu, I was challenged to battle by Mewthree! It was pretty twisted.

What actually surprised me in Pokemon, though, would be:
~ Lavender Town. I was spooked by those ghosts when I was really little. I had Yellow, and I only used Nidoking. For my mighty Nidoking to be afraid of these ghosts shattered me. My Nidoking was not ever stopped, not since the day I realized that I couldn't use Pikachu to defeat Brock.
~ Shiny Pokemon. My friend and I played Ruby (I asked him to get Sapphire so that we could have all the Pokemon, but he got Ruby anyway because he thought red was a cooler color) and one day, he called me over to see his green Taillow. He traded it to me so I could check it out. What I thought happened was a glitch, but I understood that it wasn't when I saw the stars come from it. Someone programmed that.
~ Pretty much every champion. Gary I kinda saw coming. Steven was the next champ I fought in my life, and I thought it would be May. Next was Cynthia, and I thought it would be Barry. In Crystal, I was expecting that Suicune guy to be it, but no, it was Lance. White surprised me with N, and then X surprised me with that actor lady. I'm no good at predicting the champ, I suppose.
~ The Regis. I was reading one of those GameFAQs posts that I didn't believe. It was about the Regis, and for once, I decided I would check it out. I got the Wailord and Relicanth, and dang. They did exist. I was just as shocked when I got myself to import my Regis that I treasured over to my Diamond cart to get Regigigas.
~ Smogon? Online simulators? Marriland isn't the world champion? Cripes, this is bigger than I would have expected.
 
This:

+6 252+ Atk Choice Band Pure Power Meditite Helping Hand High Jump Kick vs. -6 252 HP / 0 Def Aggron on a critical hit: 228-268 (72.8 - 85.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes

btw, the Medi is at lv 5.

Folks, Aggron is too frail.
 
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Kecleon didn't learn Camouflage until Gen 6.

And it's an Egg move in Gen 6.

gj trollfreak

Also when I learned about the move Techno Blast I assumed it was Porygon-Z's new sig move. Not to late to give it to Porygon, Trollfreak! (just imagine a Base 120 special Adaptability-boosted move coming from Porygon-Z's Base 135 Special Attack--even resists crumble)
Freeze Dry Primal Kyogre
MAKE IT HAPPEN
 
This:

+6 252+ Atk Choice Band Pure Power Meditite Helping Hand High Jump Kick vs. -6 252 HP / 0 Def Aggron on a critical hit: 228-268 (72.8 - 85.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes

Folks, Aggron is too frail.
+6 252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Meditite Helping Hand High Jump Kick vs. -6 252 HP / 0 Def Aggron on a critical hit: 32392-38112 (9416.2 - 11079%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Hardly needs any prior damage to KO.
 
+6 252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Meditite Helping Hand High Jump Kick vs. -6 252 HP / 0 Def Aggron on a critical hit: 32392-38112 (9416.2 - 11079%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Hardly needs any prior damage to KO.
pssh

everyone knows this is the real thing

+6 252+ Atk Choice Band Pure Power Meditite Double Helping Hand Double Flower Gift High Jump Kick vs. -6 252 HP / 0 Def Aggron on a critical hit: 133968-157612 (38944.1 - 45817.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Speaking of Flower Gift when I learned how it worked I was surprised. Boosting Special Defense---sure. Attack...what? It's a flower with an almost entirely special movepool...gj GameFreak.
 
One thing that really surprised me yesterday was finding out Stunfisk can't learn Volt Switch. I thought this would be the kind of thing every electric pokémon barring Tynamo would learn.
 
Prior to competitive battling I didn't know how good of a move Will-O-Wisp was (well, only in this gen. Gen 5 had a 75% chance to hit)
 
I double-checked the thread to make sure no one said this and no one has.
What can and can't learn Fly really is weird. For one, the only Bug-types capable of learning Fly are Volcarona and Genesect (neither of which are Flying, though Volcarona makes sense). Even Yanmega, whose HeartGold Pokédex entry says "This six-legged Pokémon is easily capable of transporting an adult in flight. The wings on its tail help it stay balanced," can't learn Fly. Hell, Vullaby can learn Fly, despite almost every Pokédex entry for it states that it's wings are too weak to fly.
To sum up this insanity:


Can't learn Fly.

Can learn Fly.​
 
Doduo flies by running super fast. :P I'm pretty sure ostriches can at least get a couple seconds of air time irl if they ran off a ramp or something.

Also this is Pokemon what do you expect.

(it at least makes more sense than Genesect and Golurk)
 
Doduo flies by running super fast. :P I'm pretty sure ostriches can at least get a couple seconds of air time irl if they ran off a ramp or something.

Also this is Pokemon what do you expect.

(it at least makes more sense than Genesect and Golurk)
I don't watch the anime, but I believe they answer this question:


EDIT:
Just realized that this image would/should make Golurk part fire-type (and flying). Ground/Ghost/Fire/(flying) or forme change from Ground/Ghost to Fire/Ghost/(flying).
 
Doduo flies by running super fast. :P I'm pretty sure ostriches can at least get a couple seconds of air time irl if they ran off a ramp or something.

Also this is Pokemon what do you expect.

(it at least makes more sense than Genesect and Golurk)
I believe Genesect tucks up its limbs and assumes some sort of saucer shape to fly around. I might be remembering it wrong though. Golurk being able to fly is a testament to its awesomeness even if competitively its sorely lacking.

As for Scyther, I'd be more believing of it not being able to fly...if it wasn't shown hovering there in its X/Y sprite.
 
I believe Genesect tucks up its limbs and assumes some sort of saucer shape to fly around. I might be remembering it wrong though. Golurk being able to fly is a testament to its awesomeness even if competitively its sorely lacking.

As for Scyther, I'd be more believing of it not being able to fly...if it wasn't shown hovering there in its X/Y sprite.
I thought you were joking about Genesect and then

 
I thought you were joking about Genesect and then

Yep, that's pretty much it. Though now that I look at it, I'm hit with surprise that there's two boxes beside where the cannon would be. Granted, I stupidly never downloaded the Genesect event when it was available, so I've never been able to see it in 3D via transfer, so I always thought there was just one which covered where a drive would go since the box color changes with the drive its holding.
 
The realization that everything in the Pokemon universe is, well, a pokemon. Gears are pokemon, klink, klang, klinkklang. Your gross sewage, grimer and muk. You're nasty trash, trubbish and garbador. Your ice cream, Vanilluxe. Your dead person, Yamask??

Cant even eat an ice cream and be safe.
 
Yep, that's pretty much it. Though now that I look at it, I'm hit with surprise that there's two boxes beside where the cannon would be. Granted, I stupidly never downloaded the Genesect event when it was available, so I've never been able to see it in 3D via transfer, so I always thought there was just one which covered where a drive would go since the box color changes with the drive its holding.
Actually, I think it's just one box with that top part making it seem like it's divided into two. I checked my Pokedex, here's Genesect's top view, it does look a lot like that saucer up there:

 
1) I was just mentioning that despite there being 14 Bug/Flying types, the only two Bugs who can learn Fly are not Flying-type.
2) I know how Doduo "flies". It's more the principle of the thing. A wingless creature can learn Fly while winged creatures can't. That's the point I was making.
 
Actually, I think it's just one box with that top part making it seem like it's divided into two. I checked my Pokedex, here's Genesect's top view, it does look a lot like that saucer up there:

Okay, so the drives are comparitively pretty darn big then for a 4'11" cannon-toting prehistoric Bug Pokemon. How many gigabytes does it take to tell the cannon, "Okay, shoot fire/water/ice/electricity now" Team Plasma? The drives are probably 85-90% full of Ghetsis' egotistical manifesto or some-such...
 
1) I was just mentioning that despite there being 14 Bug/Flying types, the only two Bugs who can learn Fly are not Flying-type.
2) I know how Doduo "flies". It's more the principle of the thing. A wingless creature can learn Fly while winged creatures can't. That's the point I was making.
Gen VI Scyther only looks like it's "flying" because it's hovering with its wings moving quickly. Certainly none but Scyther can carry a person.

Mantises don't exactly fly IRL either, they use their wings to help leap at prey. The butterflies make slightly more sense but not when you try to fit a person onto them. And before you get into the "Pidgey" thing, you can hang onto its legs or stand on its back or something--Butterfree would probably accidentally break one of his wings on your elbow pretty easily.

(plus birds actually fly a lot--butterflies and moths just fly from flower to flower)
 
I double-checked the thread to make sure no one said this and no one has.
What can and can't learn Fly really is weird. For one, the only Bug-types capable of learning Fly are Volcarona and Genesect (neither of which are Flying, though Volcarona makes sense). Even Yanmega, whose HeartGold Pokédex entry says "This six-legged Pokémon is easily capable of transporting an adult in flight. The wings on its tail help it stay balanced," can't learn Fly. Hell, Vullaby can learn Fly, despite almost every Pokédex entry for it states that it's wings are too weak to fly.
To sum up this insanity:


Can't learn Fly.

Can learn Fly.​
Well when Red and Blue were in development they originally had 190 Pokemon instaed of 151 Pokemon which you might know. One of those Pokemon was Scizor which evolves from Scyther. Scizor's Pokedex entries say that it can't fly with it's wings but instead of that he uses them to control the heat in his body which could be a theory as to why Scyther can't fly.
 

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