bdgwin20

[the-way-astray]

keefitz has become my new favorite kotlc ship.

[imperial-science-officer]

HIII!!!

I have more horrifying biology to share, if you’re interested? Today’s fun facts involve fungi and nematodes, so if anyone is squeamish about creepy mushrooms doing creepy things, or lots of little bugs everywhere, they should look away now

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Everyone who doesn’t wanna know gone? Good!!

oKAY SO

The world is covered in woerms. Nematodes are a phylum of animals that live in the earth’s topsoil, rivers, lakes, oceans and seabeds. They’re EVERYWHERE!! They’re even in the polar regions!!! These lil suckers’ estimated biomass is about 4/5ths of all humans on earth. And these are microscopic little worms! Nematodes are a pretty important kind of critter because they’re decomposers, so they cycle nutrients back into food webs by consuming dead things. They’re also parasites and predators. They wear a lot of different hats! So cool!!

But nematodes aren’t the star of today’s show. Let me introduce you to the nematophageous fungi: fungi that actively hunt nematodes! Similar to predatory plants like the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) and the sundews (Drosera genus) these fungi set traps for our wormy little friends. But these fungi take it a step further than the plants do, and here’s the part that’s disturbing: instead of luring their prey in with a sweet-smelling promise of calories, the fungi eavesdrop on the chemical communicators that nematodes use to talk to one-another and set their traps in areas of high comms traffic. The fungi are stalking their prey. HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT???? A living thing that is not an animal and has no central intelligence actively stalks prey!!!

AUGH I just can’t get over it!!!

So anyway, the fungi build three different kinds of nematode trap: your classic tree-spring noose, a glue trap, and an even scarier glue trap. Hyphal rings are a kind of hyphae (essentially the fungus’ body: think plant roots but if the plant is the roots) that end in a loop. When a nematode wriggles on through, the fungus pushes water into the hyphal ring, causing it to swell shut around the worm. Then the fungus pierces the nematode’s cuticle (it’s skin, but woerm skin) with its hyphae and eats the worm from the inside. Yum!!

Adhesive hyphae are exactly what they sound like: sticky mushroom fingers!!! These hyphae grow nodes or form nets that secrete a glue when they sense a tasty treat. The nematode gets stuck and the fungus can pierce it’s cuticle and eat the worm at its leisure.

The last kind of trap is exactly the same as the sticky fingers, but it adds a nematotoxic chemical to the glue, which poisons the unfortunate wormie so it doesn’t struggle and damage the fungus when it’s caught. It’s the same concept as venomous predators which envenomate prey so they don’t have to hold onto an animal fighting for its life.

I hope you’re having a lovely day, and I hope this knowledge brings a smile to your face the same way it does for me!! Actually… I squealed and wiggled with excitement when I first learned about these guys, so maybe don’t. That might be a bit embarrassing, since we all know Echo is Always Watching.

You can learn more about nematophageous fungi here and here!!

It appears that @imperial-strategist infiltrated my personal communication channel and took it upon himself, alongside his "assistant," to discuss these items with you whilst I was busy with my research.

Since they are such experts on the subject matter, I will leave this in their capable hands. Far be it from me to interrupt.

[nuzblog]

As promised, what follows are my thoughts on the 151 Pokemon in Gen 1 that I have something to say about.

#001: Bulbasaur I really appreciate this guy's concept. Reptomammals are dope and that's pretty much definitely what it is, and the concept of a plant and animal reaching this sort of symbiosis is definitely really awesome. The fact that Bulbasaur manages that while also being beautifully simply is great. Bulbasaur is great, and very good, conceptually. That said, I feel his design and especially his evolutions' designs are missing something somehow. Perhaps it's that the animal half of the pair is so plain? Perhaps it's that as it evolves, it only becomes uglier but not particularly cooler? I'm unsure. I do love them, but they aren't my favorite starter in this generation.

#008 Wartortle This guy is. Yes, the middle form. I love middle forms so much. Now, Squirtle itself is pretty simple. A tortoise that shoots water, big whoop, right. And I can agree with that. But Wartortle brings it to the next level. Besides getting a clear and distinct attitude, it also gets these beautiful ears and tail, that flow so elegantly with its design. They're definitely referential to the minogame, the legendary 10,000 year old Japanese turtle with a tail made of seaweed, likely a legend spawned by turtles that would swim through seaweed and carry it with them. The coloration and pattern of Wartortle's "fur" also makes it look like seafoam, and its Hermes-esque ears and trail of seafoam are the perfect fit for a fast swimmer like Wartortle.

#010-#015 Caterpie, Metapod, Butterfree, Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill I really love the "larva-chrysalis-adult" evolution line as the game's tutorial for the mechanic of evolution, and I think having Pokemon that follow that evolution pattern so early in the game that evolve so quickly is a frankly brilliant design decision. I think here is the place that makes most clear that Pokemon's original inspiration was insect collection. The subversion of expectations with Beedrill is great too. I could mention other things about these guys, like how Caterpie is straight up a faithful recreation of a real life caterpillar, and how Kakuna has arms, but my main point is that these guys fill a great gameplay purpose. My only thing - they don't necessarily need to be Bug type insects every time, do they? Bagon in Gen 3 has already shown that insects aren't the only ones that follow the same evolution pattern. I'd be interested to see some other type of creature follow the same evolutionary pattern.

#024 Arbok Why doesn't Arbok's hood have different designs depending on what region it's caught in? They stopped even giving it different hoods based on the game it's currently in. That's so lame, yo.

#042 Golbat I don't... hate Golbat. I think his giant mouth is fantastic. But... it also loses Zubat's fantastic lack of eyes, AND after R/B it loses its fantastic giant tongue and tiny squinty eyes, the best alternative to no eyes for a bat. Like... what happened? Where did all of Zubat's charm go?

#047 Parasect This is my favorite Pokemon in Gen 1. Cordyceps is basically my favorite fungus, and I urge you to look into it as the real world basis for Parasect if you're unfamiliar. I also love that Paras is like... it's like a cicada with mushrooms on its back, but it seems like a sort of symbiosis, right, like Bulbasaur. But instead of growing together, Paras' growth is stunted and its brain emptied, its eyes losing their pupils to signify that it has become completely zombified as a puppet of this fungus that has grown through its body. This is the first hint in the Pokedex that Pokemon are actually absolutely horrifying, and I love it. I love it so, so much.

#050 Diglett I find the simplicity in Diglett's design absolutely perfect. It has exactly as many features as it would ever need, and it does exactly what you'd think it would. The fact that it's more of a whac-a-mole than an actual mole is brilliant to me, and I find the "what's it got underground" mystery absolutely brilliant as a design decision.

#061 Poliwhirl Neoteny ahoy! I love the Poli line's tummy swirls, but even more, I love that Poliwhirl and Poliwrath are neotenous tadpoles, the exact opposite of what you'd expect from a game where just 50 Pokemon ago, real life metamorphasis was serving as the inspiration for an evolution family. Like, tadpoles are the second most instantly recognizable creatures that exhibit metamorphasis, and yet, these ones don't. And their visible intestines!!! So good. Such perfectly simple designs.

#069-#071 Bellsprout, Weepinbell, Victreebel Pitcher plants are awesome and these guys bear the perfect resemblance to them. I love that Weepinbell is more of a trap than a creature, with its tree hanging hook and its acid-slobbering mouth. I love that Bellsprout is a walking nozzle thing on these flimsy looking root limbs. I love Victreebel's angler lure, and understated teeth. I love that James had one that kept trying to digest him. I just... this guy rules.

#083 Farfetch'd "A duck comes bearing green onions" is an approximate translation of a Japanese phrase with two separate meanings: a fortuitous but unlikely happenstance (such as, while starving in the woods, having a duck approach you holding the perfect garnish for duck soup), and a fool ready to be taken advantage of (such as the duck itself, offering you green onions while being clueless to its own implied demise.) Farfetch'd is, fascinatingly enough, BOTH - it is an incredibly rare Pokemon granted to you in exchange for a very common Pokemon... but it is also a fairly weak Pokemon with low stats that is foisted upon you in exchange for a Pokemon that can yet evolve to greater power. Absolutely brilliant.

#091 Cloyster Okay, so, I've danced around this topic with the name Okeefe for my Sheller, but like... let's be real here. Cloyster looks exactly like a vulva. Some people might list this as a bad thing about Cloyster... but I would not. I think it's great.

#108 Lickitung Why don't more Pokemon have giant tongues? Anyway this guy rules.

#122 Mr. Mime This thing is so creepy... I love it. It's like a horrible marionette, and it takes mime powers literally by turning moves like light screen into the gimmick of the Pokemon. Its weird joints and suckered fingers are so brilliant and just... augh it makes my skin crawl in the most perfect way.

#124 Jynx Okay, so, here's the thing. Yes, Jynx definitely uses the same racist shorthand as minstrel shows or DBZ's Mr. Popo, and that's awful and changing it was a good decision. But beyond that, Jynx is also an aquatic seeming creature (given its fins, at least) that has long human like hair, and a body that resembles a long flowing dress, and has pretty plain breasts. It's also a creature that sings and dances and gyrates to manipulate minds. In other words, it's a SIREN, and not only that, but it's a siren that, rather than being some kind of pretty fish lady, looks to me a lot like a mollusc of some kind. There's so many parts of its lore that fascinate me, like its speech that supposedly closely resembles human speech but is in no recognizable language. Oh, and it also looks like an opera singer, and also some people seem to think it resembles a certain yokai (even though the only reference to some of the traits used to justify that resemblance seem to have been made up by the Pokemon fans trying to justify the comparison.) And, just as a side note, I think the fact that this mollusc, in trying to seduce humans, decided the most beautiful form it could try to emulate would be that of a short and rotund person of color is pretty fantastic. Like, yes, that absolutely is the pinnacle of human beauty, thank you for noticing, Jynx. Just, please do try to look a little less like a thing humans do to be racist.

#126 Magmar Boober.

#137 Porygon It is a tragedy that this guy has been basically banned from anime, since it's such an appealing design motif. Computer generated graphics as a concept for a Pokemon is clever in itself, and like... it's a weird red and blue duck thing! And it's so blocky and weird! I love it.

I actually had less to say about a lot of these guys than I thought I would. Let's real quick go over my top ten Pokemon in the gen:

#1. Parasect #2. Porygon #3. Victreebel #4. Scyther #5. Paras #6. Grimer #7. Diglett #8. Jynx #9. Cubone #10. Weezing

At least, last time I listed them out. This seems about right to me.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on the Pokemon of Gen 1. Maybe some day I'll talk about some others? But that's as much as I think I needed to before starting Gen 2.

Speaking of, I've already started playing Silver. Not sure when I'm gonna write and post that update though. I still have another entry for Blue in the process of being made still.