Hey guys! It’s been a while; all this news about X/Y has made it very difficult for the regular articles to be scheduled. Thankfully for this article, the news slowed down for now, and we’re able to get into actually posting some articles.
I have to say though, we haven’t learned much about these three starters, but I think I can still do some quick summaries on the three of them. This probably won’t be the best Pokéology, since I can only work off what I see now, but I think you guys will enjoy it.
Basis
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So let’s start out of order and get straight to Froakie.
There may be some people who would debate whether it’s a frog or a toad, but Froakie is definitely a frog. Frogs have smooth, moist skin, as well as long, often bent hind legs. They do not have ridges for their eyes, and so their eyes simply come upwards from their head. Judging by those factors, I think we can all agree it’s a frog.
But where do we start from there? There’s so many species of frog. However, tree frogs are the first thing that comes to mind when I see Froakie, and this quickly led me to an interesting creature. You can see it up there; you may argue with the color, but we can get to that. This is the Yellow-eyed tree frog, also known as the blue-sided tree frog.
This fella is one of the only species of frog with vivid yellow eyes, and it’s a distinctive feature. However, something else catches my eye, although it’s not very visible in the photo above. This frog has white pads on its feet; they’re not visible in that picture, but it’s a very vivid white much like Froakie, and only on the palms and underbelly.
Also, there’s a darkish blue that lines their sides in bands. Personally, if I were to look at Froakie, one might think the design cue for the band between its eyes came from a frog known for its blue bands? Still, on the topic of color, it’s green. However, think about this; could you really imagine a water type starter not being blue? They all have to be colors matching their types, so naturally this green frog would be changed to blue.
Honestly, it’s gonna be hard writing with this picture in my article. My golly. It’s already distracting me.
Fennekin really has no debate as to the basis, but I have to cover all the bases for this basis. Yeah; that joke was a miserable attempt to keep this section interesting.
So here’s the fennec fox. I’d say that it is one of the most popular mammals, they’re known mainly for their massive ears. However, they’re a much more interesting species– for instance, their ears are so adapted that they can hear insects crawling under the sand. This is pretty important in a desert devoid of food, however, they have some interesting methods as well.
Fennec foxes are community based, and make massive dens for individual families. This means that they can divide their food and work, while protecting themselves from predatory eagles. In some cases, dens of individual families may merge and form huge colonies of fennecs.
By the way, their ears? They dissipate heat. So I have to throw some speculation in here and say that Fennekin may very well have fire coming out of its ears in a later evolution; this would mean that it dissipates the internal fire through its large ears.
Honestly, I had to save the hardest for last. This is all up in the air, and we truly have to see from the evolutions, but I think we have some idea on it.
Chespin’s Japanese name, Harimaron, appears to be a combination of hedgehog and chestnut. Now, I would have guessed hedgehog before I saw that name, but it’s the only main factor pointing us to a species.
Frankly, judging by the spines on Chespin already, it should very well be a hedgehog. However, on the other hand, we see that Chespin has some massive rear claws, and this could mean that it is very well a different species. However, we can only really get a good idea of it from its evolutions, and I’d prefer to stay a bit reserved about it until then. Heck, maybe it’s a dinosaur? We really can’t say much for a fact at this point, but a hedgehog is my best guess.
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Biology
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So here we have a rather happy looking creature with some interesting creature.
The first identifying feature would be the green hood-like form that covers its back and head. Second, the eye would spot the large pair of claws, and then finally the tail. Other than that, some key features include the small buck teeth, and the very small, paddle-like arms.
It seems that the arms are very underdeveloped, and lack much in the form of fingers or claws. The feet, however, are already rather developed, and have a fine set of claws. These claws clearly protect it from just about any predator that would go after it, and seem to be the key factor in its survival.
However, it also has a very strange covering over the back of it, which appears to be some kind of chestnut-like plant. This is most likely a symbiotic plant that uses Chespin to gather sunlight, while Chespin gets a rigid coat to use in its defense.
Chespin also has a small set of buck teeth, which would be good at gnawing at wood. However, we have to see where these teeth end up.
Arguable one of the cutest starters ever, here’s Fennekin.
Fennekin is a very small Pokémon, but it has plenty of space to stand its own.
It has four small legs, a bushy puff tail, two massive ears, tufts on fur across the body, a small nose, and two large eyes.
The legs, although small and undeveloped, appear to be very swift. These legs look very much like they could outrun a predator of almost any size, and appear to be flexible enough to maneuver through bushes or into the tree tops.
However, Fennekin clearly does not live in a canopy, as it has many features to protect it from the scalding heat of a desert. For a start, the large ears would easily dissipate heat. Next, the tufts of fur would help insulate the body and keep the head out, whilst the light color of its fur would reflect the heat and light away from its body.
We can see there are some parts to Fennekin which are dark reds; it’s likely that these are heat sinks which draw in heat to specific points. This may very well be related to its powers as a fire-type, and we’ll have to see how things pan out.
The eyes on Fennekin are very large and would easily spot prey from a great distance. This means, alongside its large ears, it can spot prey in a desert with very little effort.
This should be pretty simple.
The key features on Froakie would be its two flexible legs, the two long arms, the bubble coated back, the white spheres on its nose, and the massive eyes.
First of all, we can see Froakie is a very active creature in the visual world. The massive eyes would allow Froakie to see at both night and day, and to see a very large area at one time. This would really help Froakie in escape from predators, as well as tracking down prey.
Froakie’s large, spindly legs appear to have much muscle around the joint, allowing it to easily jump through the air without much effort. Combined with the large eyes, Froakie could immediately react and leap away from predators, or towards prey.
It has two large, white masses on its nasal area, which may very well be nostrils; implying a great sense of smell as well. However, the eyes outshine these nostrils, and Froakie remains a visual hunter.
The long arms, however, beg many questions. Does it grab its prey with these hands? Does it use them for swimming? Is it using them intellectually? Sadly, I can’t answer this without any knowledge of the Pokémon, as we haven’t learned anything about where and how it lives yet.
The same thing goes for the bubbles, but in my guess, the bubbles form some sort of protective barrier for Froakie, whether that be visual camouflage, or simply a bubble-like shield.
Still, many questions; which we will find hopefully find the answers to in the future.
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So I know I had my own questions, but I think we got a lot of that out of the way. I’m excited to learn more about these three, as we clearly have a lot we could find out in the future. I mean, not even game-wise; think of all the biological concepts we could learn from the new generation!
Yeah, I’m the only person who would say that. Either way, I hope you enjoyed the article; it was quite different writing it about Pokémon which I have no real knowledge about.
My question for you though is what starter is your favorite? I haven’t truly decided yet; though I’m leaning towards Fennekin or Froakie. As always, I’m excited to get to talk to you guys in the comments, so don’t feel afraid to ask questions or point things out!
-Mechanos