This week’s Interesting Specimen post is something of a special event, because it ties in with this week’s Legendary Pokemon of the Week. And it’s the connection with this Legendary Pokemon that has spawned a debate among Pokemon fans that has yet to be resolved. I give you one of the most unique aquatic Pokemon in the franchise, Phione.
So I think it’d be fairly obvious why Phione is being classified as an Interesting Specimen. It’s because Phione is the spawn of the Legendary Pokemon, Manaphy. Manaphy is an interesting specimen itself, as it is currently the only known Legendary Pokemon that is able to breed (in captivity). But of course all of its offspring turn out to be Phione. It apparently has something to do with the warm water climate of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh effecting Manaphy’s body chemistry, but more on all this later.
In the Games: So the only way to get Phione in the fourth generation and beyond is to breed Manaphy with a Ditto. The reason it has to be a Ditto is because Manaphy, being a Legendary Pokemon, is genderless. Or rather may have an unknown gender. I’ve always kind of thought that the reason most Legendary Pokemon are seen as not having a gender is because it’s just hard to tell (with a few notable exceptions). Anyway, Phione cannot evolve into Manaphy, cannot learn Manaphy’s signature move, and has weaker stats, and this is where we get into the murky controversy.
The Debate: Ever since Manaphy and Phione hit the scene, there’s been the question of whether or not Phione can be classified as a Legendary Pokemon. One of the main reasons is because Phione has stats that aren’t comparable to that of even the weaker Legendary Pokemon. So the question of Phione’s status has been asked and asked over and over again, and not even the official Pokemon website has been able to come up with a clear answer. First they said yes, then they went back and said no. Thus the debate marches on.
So until a clear answer can be made, Phione’s status as a Legendary Pokemon is a matter of perspective. My personal perspective is that not only is Phione not a Legendary Pokemon, I don’t think it’s even a pre-evolved form of Manaphy. There are a few reasons why, aside from the weaker stats. The first is that Phione is bigger than Manaphy. Usually when a Pokemon evolves, it grows larger than its pre-evolved form. The second reason is because Phione can’t even evolve into Manaphy.
The third reason is what conditions that cause Manaphy to produce a Phione. I mentioned earlier that Manaphy produces a Phione egg due to the warm water climates Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh (and by extension Unova I assume). So that would theoretically mean that if one were to breed Manaphy in a part of the Pokemon world with a cold water climate, the result would be another Manaphy rather than a Phione. Of course I realize that this doesn’t totally discount the possibility that Phione is a pre-evolved Manaphy, as some of the “Baby Pokemon” from generation three and beyond are gained by having one of the parents hold a certain item. For example, having a Marril hold the Sea Incense will cause it to produce an Azurill.
Still, there is another reason why I don’t think that Phione is a pre-evolved Manaphy. And that’s because you can breed a Phione with a Ditto to produce another Phione. That’s something you can’t do with other pre-evolved Pokemon that are supposed to be infant versions of the parent species. So what are Phione then if not a pre-evolved Manaphy, some sort of subspecies of Manaphy perhaps? Whatever the answer is, I doubt we’ll know anytime soon.
So that about wraps it up for this week. Though I will be talking about Manaphy in this week’s Legendary Pokemon of the Week post. Anyway, I’ve already decided on the Interesting Specimen posts for the next two weeks, so until next time.
