Bill's PC

Meowth, nudging one with her foot: Honestly, not much.

I grew up on nature shows, starting with G-rated content like Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom but quickly graduating to the hard stuff on the Discovery Channel. It’s bizarre to think that the absolute authority in the field back then hasn’t changed in 30+ years—for my dollar, it’s still Sir David Attenborough and always will be as long as he walks the earth. His cultured tones narrated so many moments of wonder in my younger days, to the point where I can practically hear him when I’m hiking.

I mention this mainly because I can almost hear him when I play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as well. For a nature lover, there are so many moments of quiet study in the game, whether you’re observing flora or fauna—and I include monsters in that fauna category. There’s a time and place for charging into an enemy camp on horseback and laying waste to all who inhabit it, but taking the time to study your enemies from concealment is always valuable no matter what your ultimate strategy may be. If nothing else, it’ll open your eyes to the way the creatures of this world live and breathe when Link isn’t around. 

Let me use your average Bokoblin as an example…

I actually love Bokoblins—and I think the dev team did too. They put a ton of work into the concept art for these little guys.

Requested by houseaeducanreject

Diglett’s underside has always been and always will be one of the greater mysteries of the pokémon universe. You’d think after all these years some Professor would simply try to pull one out of the ground, but until that day all we can do is speculate.

Of course, there are countless memes depicting Diglett as a small part of a larger monster, or some ripped out humanoid figure not to even mention some other very disturbing speculations. But there are plenty of theories out there that hold scientific ground, too.

For example, MandJTV Pokevids has this video where he describes Diglett as a mole. It is a mole pokémon, we have support that Diglett’s underside can’t be too huge, and in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Diglett explicitly states that he has feet.

All of this leads the youtuber to deduce that Diglett is some kind of small mole pokémon, with little legs and little claws to dig like this:

However, ProtoMario has a similar video with a very different theory. He claims that diglett is essentially half-ditto, and his bottom half morphs into whatever it needs to. For example, you can place diglett on a chair or on a table, and nothing would be underneath, because his lower half essentially becomes part of what he’s standing on.

Which is all a great theory, but I have a simpler one. That pile of rocks at the bottom? Those are its feet. 

I’m imagining it as a mollusc-like food, like a snail or like Gastrodon–a series of complex muscles that it uses to slide around on by undulating through the soil. In fact, in bivalves, like clams or oysters, their foot has evolved specifically for the purpose of digging. Not unlike a worm, but with a snail’s foot.

We see Diglett plenty of times popping out of the ground without his foot, usually when they’re moving through the ground:

But as shown before, Diglett always has the rocky, gravell-y looking foot even when it was just picked up from a dirt or grass environment. So in this gif the foot is still there, but just underneath the soil such that diglett can use it to dig/walk around.

Earthworms dig by essentially just pushing the dirt out of the way, and Diglett probably does the same with its complex mobile feet.

Diglett has a complex series of muscles in a mollusc-like foot, which it uses to dig around. The foot is disguised as a pile of gravel, misleading many into thinking there’s more to the mystery.

Requested by dead–joker and darknessoflightreborn

Ah, Charmander. The very first fire type in the pokédex and my personal favorite Kanto starter. Charmander’s tail has a bit of a reputation in the pokémon world, based on an early anime episode where its stated that if Charmander’s tail ever goes out, it will die.

However, this is misleading. Charmander’s flame isn’t a candle he carries around for fun. His tail flame is a biological process in his body, equivalent to us exhaling. The status of his tail doesn’t affect his health, but rather his tail reflects his health. If Charmander’s tail burns dimly, you can think of it like having dark circles under your eyes, or looking pale when you are sick.

For example: Red’s Charizard in Pokémon Origins is shown to be completely submerged but his tail still burns brightly. As goodnamesareoverrated explained in this post, this is because Red’s Charizard is perfectly healthy, and its fire is fueled internally rather than depending on oxygen in the atmosphere.

I compared it to breathing before: let’s expand on this. To start, its important to understand exactly what fire is. You shouldn’t think of fire as a physical “thing”, but rather a process. When you look at a fire, you’re really seeing a chemical reaction taking place. In the case of a campfire, the reaction is a two-step process between the wood (a fuel) and the atmosphere (oxygen). The equation looks something like this:

This is definitely not the only way to start a fire, though. As I just said, this reaction depends on oxygen from the atmosphere, and would be suffocating underwater. If you supply the oxygen from somewhere else, its completely possible to sustain a fire underwater.

A good example of this is gun powder, where potassium nitrate (KNO3) supplies the oxygen and so there is no need for the atmosphere’s help. Thermite reactions are similar, such as iron thermite and copper thermite:

As humans, we intake a lot of oxygen through breathing, and its stored in our blood. Perhaps Charmander uses the oxygen he breathes to store as fuel for his fire, in one of these types of reactions.

Anyways, you get the point. With the right reaction, Charmander’s tail won’t depend on outside sources like rain or suffocation, but only on his internal health. When you’re sick or have allergies, you might find it hard to breathe, like Charmander finds it hard to maintain his tail. When he’s happy and healthy, his tail burns brightly.

Charmander’s tail flame is a biological process, similar to breathing, which does not depend on external factors. When it is unhealthy, the flame burns weakly.

When it is weak, Charmander’s flame might be more susceptible to outside threats. Once a fire goes out, its hard to get it started again.

Requested Anonymously

If you want to use a Goodra on your team, you should probably take lots of showers. This adorable dragon loves to hug its trainer, only to leave them coated in their sticky slime. A variety of animals in our world coat their skin in slime like Goodra for lots of different reasons: let’s take a look at some of them!

First and foremost, we have frogs! Frogs, and a variety of other amphibians, rely on being able to survive both in and out of water. Considering that Goomy is found in the swampy Kalos Route 14, Goodra must be similar. To keep their skin moist when they’re out of water, frogs secret slime through their skin. Frogs have specific mucous glands in their skin that secret the slime. 

Frogs can also breathe through their skin, known as cutaneous respiration. The moisture coating helps trap oxygen near their skin, allowing them to absorb it more easily. Several frogs also have poisonous or foul-tasting slime, repelling or warding off predators, not to mention making it easier to slip away and escape. Lastly, frogs have been shown to use their slime for temperature regulation. If they are too warm or too cold, they will coat themselves in more or less mucous, like putting on a nice gooey coat.

A mucous coating doesn’t end with frogs, though. Lots of other animals use it as well!. Slugs and snails, for example, are quite the mucous engineers. They leave a slimy trail wherever they go, of course, and while it also helps keep them moist, the mucous primarily helps with movement!

A snail’s mucous is gel-like, and has many unique properties. Under pressure, it behaves like a liquid, but when at rest it acts like a solid. While a snail is moving, parts of its foot are pushing down while other parts aren’t, sort of like taking steps. This allows the snail to use the solid-like parts of its slime to stick to the surface of just about anything, including straight up or upside down. Some snails can even use their mucous as a bungee cord, to lower themselves down!

Many fish also secrete mucous, one of the more famous, the hagfish, will produce a lot of thick slime if something tries to eat it. This gets the hagfish stuck in the predator’s throat,  essentially choking it and allowing the hagfish to escape.

Last but not least, the parrotfish! Unlike the others we’ve mentioned, the parrotfish doesn’t emit slime from its skin, but rather through its mouth. Before sleeping, the parrotfish will burp out slime and cover itself in a cocoon-shield. This keeps both parasites and predators away while it sleeps in peace.

As we’ve learned, animals coat themselves in mucous for a ton of different reasons, from staying moist, regulating temperature, to climbing up walls and keeping predators at bay. Goodra probably secrets mucous for many of the same reasons! Perhaps a Goodra hugs its trainers so often because it is worried about our dry, slime-less skin. Not wanting us to dry out, have trouble breathing, or get eaten by predators, it hugs to share some of its slime with us.

We are proud to announce the completion of our As You Are Art Book! This art book is an eight day study about who God says you are, filled with artwork by our arts & graphics teams. 

My chinchilla hasn’t been eating on his own despite meds, so the vet’ll need to sedate him to explore his achey mouth.

If you’re interested in commissioning me please email me at guilladefoc(at)gmail(dot)com. Payment is through Paypal, I’ll send you an invoice!