Life Over-Rehearsed

callout culture is reblogging a callout post for a total stranger made by a total stranger out of a misplaced sense of moral righteousness

callout culture is overusing the word ‘problematic’ to the point where saying something out of ignorance thirty years ago is placed on the same level as assaulting children

callout culture is expecting people to disclose deeply personal information pertaining to their mental health, experience of abuse and other incredibly sensitive subjects before engaging in a discussion with total strangers

callout culture is bombarding people with accusatory messages as soon as a celebrity or tv show they like fucks up, as if it was their fault or they can do anything about it and as if it’s possible for anyone or anything to be perfect enough to be deemed worthy of fandom by those standards

callout culture is refusing to give people room to fuck up and then grow and learn and to acknowledge that people and media mean a lot to people for an enormous variety of reasons and expecting people to be able to (and to want to) just cut all emotional ties they have with something or someone when they fuck up is unreasonable and unrealistic

SPACE JAM was released 19 years ago TODAY

like

you have these two ethereal blue snake-like dragons

and then some chunky stuffed-animal looking puff the magic dragon

The first thing you have to understand is that to some extent, Pokémon evolve “backwards.”

Think about this. Evolution on our world is a process taking place over thousands and millions of generations, where a species develops traits that increases its chances to produce offspring and keep the species going.

Now sometimes those adaptations will lead to new limbs, sensory organs, or other cool “upgrades,” but we tend to see those kinds of changes emerge more in prehistoric times when the genetic arms race isn’t as far along as we see today.

What we tend to observe more in modern times are adaptations where the species consolidates features or reduces size, conserving the resources necessary to support the species.

For example, the skeletal structure of snakes indicate that their ancestors used to have limbs. But because they are no longer advantageous for the species, the limbs were lost along the way.

I’d be willing to wager that Dratini is better adapted to survive in the modern world than Dragonaire is. And Dragonaire is probably better adapted for modern life than Dragonite.

AND there is actually some evidence to support this.

Consider the original Pokédex entry for Magikarp:

“In the distant past, it was somewhat stronger than the horribly weak descendants that exist today.”

In other words, Magikarp doesn’t really evolve into Gyrados. Magikarp is the distant evolutionary DESCENDANT of Gyrados. Believe it or not, Magikarp is the version best equipped to propagate the species in today’s world. (Perhaps because it can handle polluted water so well.)

OK, so if Gyrados spent thousands of generations evolving into Magikarp, then why does the game have Magikarp magically transform back into Gyrados?

Here’s where things get interesting. Remember those limbs that the snake’s ancestors had? Well modern snakes STILL HAVE THE GENES FOR GROWING THOSE LIMBS. But you don’t see snakes with legs because those genes now lie dormant while more dominant genes run the show. But the necessary genetics for those prehistoric traits are still there.

Now this is where Pokémon start to differ from animals in our world, but stick with me.

Imagine you have an animal that is best suited to thrive in the wild, but its genetics are… less stable than the animals here. When these animals are subjected to extreme stress (from, say, being captured and forced to battle other animals) the genes in their bodies react to those stressors by activating those dormant prehistoric genes.

OK, so now let’s (finally) get back to the Dratini line, assuming that Dragonite actually came along first in this evolutionary family tree.

Drastic changes in Dragonite’s environments (perhaps the extinction of a food source or loss of habitat) steered its evolution towards a future as an aquatic species known as Dragonaire.

Instead of the orange skin that was so good for sunning itself on rocks and cliff sides, it developed blue skin better suited for blending in underwater.

It’s limbs were cumbersome when swimming, and its antennae were useless underwater, so both had to go.

Its wings didn’t entirely disappear, but they did change to adapt to life underwater. They became fins that looked more like ears than the wings they used to be.

With a drastically different diet, it became smaller to conserve calories. It became slender to use less energy when swimming.

All of these changes became even more pronounced as Dragonaire evolved over the generations into Dratini.

The whole “extreme stress causes a transformation where they take on features their ancestors left behind” sort of sounds how axolotls, being neotenic and maintaining their larval features, can transform into an adult “stage” under certain conditions. This supposedly includes stress brought on by decreasing their water level. The transformation ends with them looking similar to a genetic relative with a common ancestor, the tiger salamander.

It seems like GameFreak may be aware of the connection, given Wooper and Quagsire. Although any salamander larvae would have similar gills.

Of course, it’s important to note that the transformation is extremely stressful for the axolotl, so if the process doesn’t outright kill it, it will greatly shorten its lifespan.

Thanks for the new insight, @lordnot!! (Also, props to @cavesalamander for making a similar post with additional cool info about axolotls!)

By the way, I’d like to note that I understand this “evolution” theory doesn’t fit for all families of Pokémon.

For example, it’s clear that the “evolution” of most bug Pokémon are simply the normal progression of different stages of metamorphosis for insects.

The “evolution” of Pokémon based on technology (rather than biology) seem to represent literal technological upgrades.

And some Pokémon evolutions are canonically stated to share parent/child relationships.

*sniff* …I’m sorry, where was I?

Anyway, my point is that I’m not suggesting this theory of activating dormant genes makes sense for ALL Pokémon. But I think there are several (Dratini, Magikarp, Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, etc.) where it helps answer some long-standing questions.

Submitted by @mtjester

That’s pride alright lmfao