The Pokémon Iceberg Explained

Five months later, I've finished my deep dive into the Pokémon Iceberg! This was a lot of fun to do, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

PROMISED LINKS:
- Thank you for the iceberg!
- Thanks for the footage!
- For some wonderful art!
- Shesez!
- Burger King Toy Video!

Have a business inquiry? Here's my email! :-)

My Other Socials!

[Diwasho]

Pronouncing Takeshi Shudo's name as Sudo is actually much closer to the actual Japanese pronunciation than what the romanization would lead you to believe.

[Bumber]

I always found it hilarious how they made the final boss of Pokémon Black And Blue Ash, the only person who's ever actually asked if his Pokémon wanted to fight.

[nolangerrans]

The cubone kangaskan connection actually goes a lot deeper than them simply resembling eachother. There is also the thematic connection of kangaskan being all about motherhood, while cubone is focused around the loss of a mother. A beta leak from pretty early in gen 1s development a while back revealed not only the backsprites of marowak and cubone with slightly different designs, but also the backsprite of an evolution to Marowak where it appears to be holding a cubone to its chest like how kangaskan holds its baby, although it isn’t visible whether it has a pouch or not. This seemed to be bringing the design full circle, where a traumatized baby was able to grow up to be a caring mother to another orphan, while also paralleling it to a non orphaned kangaskan. Marowak is also frequently called small and weak by the Pokédex, possibly implying that it’s normal adult form would be much bigger and stronger and that it’s childhood without a parent has stunted it’s growth. There is also the obvious design connection where both boomerangs and kangaroos are stereotypically Australian and marowaks signature move is bonemerang. Boomerangs were also traditionally used as a tool to hunt kangaroos, with some of the oldest human rock art depicting hunters throwing boomerangs at kangaroos. This Australian connection would also fit with them being envisioned originally as exotic Pokémon, like exeggutor, as they are only found in the wild of gen 1 in the safari zone. Kangaskan and the cubone line are also found in the wild together in almost every place they can be found, with overlapping habitats in gens 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and most recently on the isle of armor. They also are usually not found without the other AT ALL! Lastly, in the gen 7 games, not only are they both found exclusively in the same single area, wela volcano park, but when cubone call for help there, there is a small chance that they will call something other than a cubone to help, and it’s not a marowak that comes, but a kangaskan. I’m pretty sure there is more too. They are linked a ton, and to me it’s overwhelmingly clear that the Pokémon company wants us to associate them

[rhipuyo]

I headcanon that the skulls Cubone wear are fashioned out of stone to help keep their heads safer from damage, with the stone being fused upon evolution; with the dead mother thing simply being a rumour that made it into Pokedexes.

[kymccool]

I wish you’d put a warning before the Ekans -> snake reveal, it shocked me so much that I’ve been shaking and crying for 2 hours

[dgouin]

her: "im coming over you better not be tweaking"
*me lost in the void with darkrai and shaymin*

[blekiscooler]

4:30 fun fact: there was a cut evolution for Marowak in Gen 1 that had Marowak holding a baby Cubone! It was cut due to storage limitations, along with many other planned pokemon.

[tranquilitie]

17:16

if you were wondering, the most popular evidence is that when you invert zoroarks colors, its colors turn to n's color.

[TreeckoDX]

The Hall of Origin one is probably referring to the fact the Azure Flute (key to unlock this event) was never distributed officially. The devs said that the event was too much complicated for the children, but they were the same people who made the Regis thing on RSE lol

[PlaceHolder]

I once heard a theory regarding the shiny Pokémon inside the game's universe:
The theory described them as being similar to animals with albinism or similar conditions in real life. As far as I know those animals don't survive often because they attract to much attention from predators or preys, for that same reason they tend to be expelled from their group or straight up killed. If you apply these ideas to Pokémon, it would explain the rarity of shiny Pokémon.

[hillbillyK]

For the under level dragonite entry, there is a theory for something like this but for Ghetsis’ Hydreigon being under levelled, people theory Ghetsis forced his Hydriegon to evolve, which is part of the reason why his Hydreigon hates him so much

[reneablackheart]

About the pokemon war, I think it's pretty cool that later gens also mention wars. They might all be the same war, even, the one that Virizion, Cobalion and Terrakion were involved in, and the whole backstory of gen 6.

[nintonintendo]

In an alternate universe, pikachu never appeared on the anime anymore, and Porygon became the new mascot.

[mattkurek]

Regarding the fire starters, I’m calling next location being either a Spanish themed area or a Greek themed region and the fire starter will be a bull type pokemon.

[ThisIsABadIdeaSrsly]

23:40 I remember something about an Unown King in very old cheat sites. He was supposed to only appear after catching and leveling up to lv100 all unown forms. Didn't know they made him a creepypasta.

[bashfulwolfo]

Adding on, the void makes a return in SwSh!
It’s actually useful too, it determines eggs (when hatched) as coming from a “far away place”, which is usually given to traded Pokémon.
With this, breed these hatched Pokémon in hopes of getting shinies (via Masuda method). This allows the shiny rate to be boosted to 1/683 for SwSh.

[ymireva]

I think the ghost girl in Phoebe's room was also not so talked about because it was well... fully on brand with Phoebe. You would just see it as another detail to her ghostly theme

While the X/Y ghost girl came out of literally nowhere just to bug our poor minds

[fridaypurples]

I'm honestly sick of the "Ash is in a coma" theory. I feel like that type of theory has been used for every main character of any animated serie. I don't know, it's just getting repetitive :\

Ps. Great job on this! And I didn't know about that glitch in Pokèmon XY showing the "Albino Pokèmon". That would've been an interesting concept. I'm also genially interested in Pokémon glitches.

[Shinntoku]

Fun fact about Charizard: it didn't actually really change to black. It was always intended to be black, but palate limitations meant they used purple. You can see shiny Charizard is black in the early shiny promo art

[verylostdoommarauder]

Pikablu actually has a bit more lore to it. Basically, one of the gen 2 Pokemon revealed early was Maril. But playground rumors in the US incorrectly referred to Maril as Pikablu. Somehow, this led to Topps printing cards that referred to Maril as Pikablu.
And about the ghost girl in X and Y, it's clear that Masuda said that to creep out the interviewer.