Pangoro - Tumblr Posts
I drew my beautiful team of all my favorite pokemon bois. There’s Fireball (Incineroar), Batz (Zubat), Piddles (Mudkip), Honey Bee (Weedle), Chestnut (Chesnaught) and Pancake (Pangoro). I named Chestnut and Pancake when they were cute babies and before I knew they grew into BIG BOI BEASTS.
@pkmnathlete My take on what Dark Type Pokemon are good or bad for kids
I have opted not to include mega-evolutions. I wasn't able to fit all the Pokemon in the tags
Full list of Dark Type Pokemon
Edit: In light of recent events...
I don't want to talk about it.
Where do I start?
First off: I'm literally a dark type specialist who grew up with dark types, is in the process of becoming a dark type gym leader, and MAJORED in the study of Dark Types in Pokemon Academy. "Groovyle search" my patootie
I have raised almost every Dark Type Pokemon there is (Except the legendaries or Tyrannitar. I don't trust Tyrannitar.) Do you really think I don't have experience with or did research on the Pokemon I'm talking about?! Do you think I'd even be eligible to apply for gym leadership?
Why is YOUR personal experience and research more valid than mine?!
CW: Mention of violent bullying up ahead as I discuss the Pangoro incident, I will put the rest of my response under cut
Second, how dare you jump to conclusions about the Pangoro incident? I can admit when I made a mistake, ESPECIALLY WHEN SAID MISTAKE WAS MADE WHEN I WAS TRYING TO HELP A KID WHO WAS BULLIED SO BADLY HE WAS COVERED IN BRUISES WHILE HIS TEACHERS STOOD BY AND DID NOTHING, DESPITE THE MOTHER GOING TO THE SCHOOL BOARD AND THE POLICE!
And you know what his mom wanted to do to solve the problem!? Get him a DRAMPA BECAUSE SOME PARENTS SUGGESTED IT! YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THAT WOMAN GOT HIM A DRAMPA!?! SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN IN JAIL FOR ARSON, AND THE BULLIES WOULD BE DEAD! AT LEAST I KNEW THE PANGORO WOULDN'T HURT THE KIDS THEMSELVES! I even sat the Pangoro down and told it to only SCARE the kids.
You know what? You opened my eyes, I DO need to openly talk about the Pangoro incident so people like you don't try to attack me for things you don't have the full context on. I'm going to make a full post explaining what happened.
For now, back on topic,
I think PLENTY of dark types work as a first Pokemon just fine. Like I said, Alolans commonly get Alolan Meowths as a starter, despite you saying they're famously aggressive. I KNOW, BECAUSE MY MOM IS FROM THERE AND HAS SOME.
You can even see a young boy picking his Meowth online
This is quite common in Alola. The truth is, most kids DON'T start off with one of the Pokemon we generally consider "starters" because "starters" used to be quite rare until recent years.
As for your other responses
At what point did I indicate that I thought you were dumb?! AT WHAT POINT?! Do not put words in my mouth. The intent was NEVER to belittle you in any way, unlike what you just tried to do to me. "Groovyle search" my butt
Maschiff and Mabosstiff are no different than any other dog in terms of how many you need to keep them company. I'd know, I RAISED SEVERAL! I have one on my team. Some Maschiffs actually prefer to be alone with their trainers, depending on their individual personality and upbringing. No two Maschiffs or Mabosstiffs have the exact same preference.
Notice how Umbreon isn't classified as a poison Pokemon? That's because the "poison sweat" is only an irritant that isn't even strong enough for it to use in battle. It can't even learn any poison type moves, look it up! I've had that stuff in my eyes (I was trying to help my friend calm one down last year, and the safety goggles didn't help because it knew knock off...which would have been nice of him to tell me ahead of time), it stings for less than a minute and goes away, as it's intended to help the Pokémon stall so it can flee. It hurts less than a Pichu's shock, but no one complains about literal toddlers getting an electric mouse as their first Pokemon. Also, Umbreon attacks on humans are very rare, and among those cases, only one has ever been for anything other than defense against someone it perceived as an immediate threat. It's not hard to teach a kid to respect a Pokemon's boundaries at a young age.
I raised an Incineroar, too. Most of them are gentle giants who will let kids "win" play fights. All "aggressive behavior" is part of their act. Also, I suggested it under the assumption the Incineroar was already raised by the parent. By the time a Litten becomes an Incineroar, they are supposed to be fully trained. What, did you think I'd grab an Inciniroar out of the wild and then drop it onto a kid!? Where would I even find one in the wild!?
Future Sight doesn't actually predict the future. It launches an attack into the future. It's the most misleading Pokemon move name ever. It's the Pokemon equivalent of saying, "I predict I'm going to punch you in the face!" and then punching your opponent in the face two minutes later, followed by, "Gaaaasp, it came truuuuuue". The only confirmed case of Absol showing up for anything other than a natural disaster was when Team Galactic were trying to summon Palkia and Dialga, and in that case it's hard to tell if they sensed something, if the Lake Trio called for help, or if they were already living in those mountains. Unless the professors declare FOR SURE that it can see the future like a freaking Gothitelle, I ain't running around telling people it can. I do agree that no Pokemon should be used as a babysitter. That's just dumb.
The official description of Future Sight in multiple regions, btw
I probably should say more, but I spent too long on this, already, need to put together my post fully explaining the Pangoro situation, need to feed myself and my Pokemon... actually I should probably make sure I do the feeding part, first so I can think clearly.
tbh i dont think a lot of dark types are good first pokemon for kids, at least not if you dont intend on supervising damn near everything the kid does with the pokemon. a lot of dark types require larger groups of pokemon, naturally steal things to survive which will require large amounts of training to get out of them, or can be very territorial without proper training. and no offense but small children do not have the capabilities to deal with these things.
like there are pokemon that do evolve into dark types but arent dark types themselves that i think kids can handle like litten, sprigatito, froakie, corphish (if you make sure they know never to put their fingers near it) eevee, and nymble. maybe cacnea if you push it. notice half of them are starters (eevee is a starter in some places) and this is because starters are specifically bred and chosen for their ease of care in first forms.
stuff like purrloin and nickit CAN be owned by kids but they are known to steal in the wild and many children will not know how to train that out of them or redirect that energy or convince the pokemon that theyre stealing when they really arent and thus require a lot of help from a parent.
ive seen absol be lauded as a good first pokemon for young children because they can warn you whenever the kid is doing something dangerous so theyre good for the parents and tbh absol are not good pokemon around children because children are VERY GOOD at getting themselves into danger and many absol end up extremely stressed around them. source: i have been around my absol since i was a baby. not only that absol dont always consider the same thing disasters. some freak out over shit as small as dropping an ice cream, some will not react to anything less pressing than a natural disaster.
like i get a huge part of babies first pokemon is often having the parents help but a parent will have to do a lot less helping with a squirtle or rockruff than it would with a pawniard or zorua.
like originally i was gonna make one of those tier lists ive seen based on how good of a starter each dark type is and then i realized literally all of these range from only give to the most responsible of 10 year olds with parents who can keep an eye on them constantly to keep away from small children at all cost and i dont think any of those make for good starters. i love dark types but my god.
Ok, so as much as I DON'T want to talk about this, I do have to explain EXACTLY what happened with the Pangoro incident and why I thought giving a child a Pangoro was a good idea at the time, because it's gathering attention and calling my intelligence into question. I needed to calm down before typing this out.
CW: Physically violent bullying mentioned, bruises mentioned
So this story starts at Fiore Pokemon School in my home region, the Illona region.
I live nearby in Samaras. I went over to Fiore to visit some family friends along with my parents. They invited their daughter and grandchild, who I will call "Judy" and "Tommy"
I noticed Tommy was COVERED in bruises. Shocked, I asked what happened. He told me he was being beat up at school.
I asked Judy if she was aware of this, to which she sadly replied that she tried multiple times to get the school to address it, but the most any of the bullies ever got was a detention, and when she tried contacting the other parents, they accused her of lying.
I'm no stranger to being bullied (though mine was more verbal growing up). I met my Murkrow -now a Honchkrow- Camonte when he tried to defend me from some bullies while I was walking home from school. So, I asked if she tried giving him a Pokemon.
She said someone gifted her a Drampa to give him.
Now for those of you who don't know, Drampa are dragon Pokemon with a reputation for loving children and defending them from bullies. HOWEVER, their method of defending kids from bullies is to BURN THE BULLY'S HOUSE DOWN, SOMETIMES WITH THE BULLIES STILL INSIDE.
I explained to her that if she went through with this plan, she would likely be charged with arson and possibly attempted murder. She said she didn't have any alternative ideas, and unless I had a better plan, she would stick to hers.
Freaking out, I started mentally going through all my Pokemon. As someone who specializes in Dark Types, almost all of my Pokemon are, of course, Dark types, with a few exceptions. I had a few smaller Pokemon, but they might get beat up, too. I wouldn't recommend lending a poison type to a kid, obviously, and a fire type would be just asking for disaster. While Camonte tried to protect me in the past, I wouldn't trust him to hold back against children, now. I considered my Blissey Buttercup, but she's surprisingly not great at holding back.
Then I remembered my Pangoro, Pu.
Pu is a Pangoro. Pangoros, while they like to get into fights, don't tolerate bullying. They generally do not harm children because of this. She seemed in that moment, to be at least a better option than a Drampa.
So I went to the PC and grabbed her. I explained the situation to her, and stressed that she was only to SCARE the bullies. Don't hurt them, standing there should be enough, roar and growl a little, don't attack, don't attack, DON'T ATTACK.
She nodded and gave me a thumbs up, indicating she understood the assignment, so I allowed Tommy to borrow the Pokemon for a day. I was a little overconfident that this would work out. Who the frick would be stupid enough to mess with a Pangoro?
It turns out the children were not deterred by the roaring and kept calling her bluff. One of them threatened her with a Clefairy. But Pu kept her word and only SCARED the kids...by punching a hole in wall leading outside.
No one was harmed, but cue Judy's panicked phone call last night as she explains what happened.
I went over this morning to take responsibility for what happened and pay for damages (I spent all of last night battling with an Amulet Coin, Luck Incense, and a Persian with Pay Day), only for me to see reporters were covering the story. Turns out, bad idea though this was, it did bring attention to the school's negligence, and now the whole region is talking about what happened to Tommy, and demanding the teachers lose their jobs. Also, since security footage proved Tommy didn't tell Pangoro to do anything, he's off the hook.
Anyhow, I'm not going to lend out Pokemon over level ten, anymore. I'll just grab a bunch of "Roar" TMs to give to kids to teach their much safer Pokemon...which would have been a much better idea in the first place.
Pu, meanwhile, looks dang proud of herself despite me explaining in detail why she wasn't supposed to do that. She's probably thinking, "What's the problem? It worked, didn't it?"
My only regret is not having a better option of deciding to catch a Pokemon for him. But if he never gets bullied, again, it will be worth the stress.
Some assorted Pokémon drawings I did a while back when it was the only thing I could think about for a few months.
Another pokemon onix has is a pangoro named John. Onix caught him full evolved and if you look at the alolan dex entry for it that says a bit about onix
John is a quiet pokemon and won't really interact with anyone but mess with his owner and you will see....
Onix's full team of pokemon
Here are their names
Scout the stoutland
Tom the drampa
Ralphie the slowbro
Lily the musharna
John the pangoro
And Emily the shiny lunala (it's just a wing because I can't draw them that well)