I’ve had a good week other than that though; hopefully, you can say the same! Beautiful weather and great chances for photography.
Here’s these two though. Aren’t they cute? Little spaced out looking amphibians. They were always one of my favorite Pokémon to find though– fun concept! I’m sure you guys have some idea what they’re based on, but I figure it would help to give you an exact idea.
Basis
You probably jumped out of your seat to say “Axolotl!!”, but calm down!
Sure, it’s natural to run to Axolotl; the gills, the frills, the fact they’re salamanders.. It’s pretty straightforward, so it’s natural to go straight there. However, that’s a little more complicated than it needs to be.
Axolotls are a species of salamander that never undergoes metamorphosis, but the key word there is metamorphosis. Wooper, naturally, evolves into Quagsire, this means that Wooper does undergo metamorphosis. So it can’t really be an Axolotl– though it could very well have been inspired by one, it was probably more based on the baby state of a different salamander.
That would be the Japanese Giant Salamander– a very, very well known salamander, as it’s the second largest in the world.
Now, this picture isn’t the greatest– apparently the only baby picture of the species I’m looking for is a picture of the albino variety. Normally, these guys would be black/blue/grey– a more Wooper-like shade, in a way.
Take a good look; this is s a beautiful creature. It probably immediately strikes you as Quagsire– the spaced look, tail, legs, lateral lines, all of it matches Quagsire. Even though, it really doesn’t match color-wise, but when did we ever have yellow rats?
This guy is perfect for Quagsire. The species is probably the most well-known salamander in Japan, which is a great start for the designers. Plus, it’s the second biggest in the world. Yep, 1.5 meters; that’s well over 5 feet in some cases.
Also, did you notice how muddy it is? The Giant Salamander spends most of its time in the bottom of murky, muddy ponds. That’d explain the type choice.
It just screams Quagsire; seriously, that face.
Here’s an honorable mention to the Axolotl. I just had to use this picture when I found it while I was debating between the Giant Salamander baby and the Axolotl.
It’s like the corgi of the salamander world. It always looks like a baby, and it’s just freaking cute.
Also, it matches Wooper’s shiny sprite, even if the shiny would be normal for any albino salamander. It probably got its shiny coloration from someone seeing an axolotl.
Biology
Wooper.
Here’s a rather cute creature. It has no arms, tiny, round eyes, lines down its stomach, two feet, a large tail, huge gills, and a little mouth.
So, let’s start with those feet. They appear to be thin, but flat. That would mean they would be great for use in propulsion when it comes to swimming in water, and they’re probably one of Wooper’s best assets. One foot forward, one back, and suddenly you’ve turned completely around.
But that’s not all that makes this little thing fast, see the tail? That is a large tail for its body size. Seriously, it’s about the size of its body. It’s also very flat and with a large surface area. That gives it even more power, but since it’s just a tail, this would be for turning and powering through the water, rather than for agility and maneuvering. It’s really just there to speed Wooper up in the water, and maybe spin it around a couple times. However, it is the reason that Wooper is a speed demon in the water, so I’d give it a lot of credit.
Next, we can deal with the camouflage; clearly it’s meant for very crystal-clear water. This may be confusing, but Wooper would be able to dig its way to safety in a murky lake. Think about being stuck in a clear one– if you were brown you wouldn’t last a second in the clear water. This way, Wooper can stay camouflaged in clear water, and dig in the dirty water.
The gills are interesting to see, but they’re simply external gills meant to get as much air as possible, and judging by gender differences, males show off with their gills.
When it comes to the eyes, it seems that Wooper would have little to worry about when it comes to seeing in the water, however, the eyes are probably most used on land. They’re rather small, and they don’t seem quite developed either, thus one could only assume that.
This looks like the happiest thing ever. Doesn’t it?
Quagsire seems to be much, much heavier than Wooper. The size of its body compared to Wooper is massive. It isn’t agile at all- it doesn’t need to be. It’s practically armored by the fact it has an extremely squishy body full of what appears to be either fat or water.
The arms are lanky, and don’t appear to need to be used much. One would use this to assume that Quagsire doesn’t worry much about fighting other than its tail. They have three fingers, but no thumb. This is a great advantage over Wooper, which had no arms!
The rear feet are still shaped like paddles, but now the tail is very think and doesn’t concern itself with agility as much anymore. It appears that Quagsire’s tail is simply involved in moving place to place lazily, not a care about predators in the world.
Quagsire has developed purple patterns down its back, one could possibly see these as what happens to its purple gills as it evolved– they moved into the body and the back.
One would assume from all of this that Quagsire is simply a herbivorous animal, and doesn’t concern itself with hunting down prey. This probably stands for Wooper as well, although Wooper may still hunt bug Pokémon and the like.
So there’s this week’s late article! I hope you guys enjoyed this week, even if it was late.
What’s your favorite part of the article? I like to hear what people like to see more of. Any Pokémon ideas? I’m pretty sure one of you guys said Wooper, haha.