Through the years, something has always bothered me… the Pokemon games used to have a 10-character limit for Pokemon names. This led to some weird spellings for Victreebel (clearly supposed to be Victreebell as evidenced by Weepinbell) and Feraligatr (maybe supposed to be Feraligator though you could argue dropping the o was a stylistic choice). Regardless, at the very least, Victreebel got shafted. Here’s why.
Starting in Gen 6, they upped this character limit to at least 11, as evidenced by the 11-character Fletchinder. In Gen 7, they got even crazier by giving Crabominable a 12-character name. That seems to be the limit in current day Pokemon, with Crabominable, Squawkabilly, Brambleghast, and Poltchageist being “normal” ones with 12 characters. Once you take into account Paradox Pokemon though holy shit there are a lot (it’s that damn space in the middle taking up another character). You might think, “Oh well, that’s it. Guess they’re not going to retcon the spelling of anything” and call it a day.
BUT
Let’s look at some evidence. Pokemon MOVE names used to have a 12-character limit. This can be seen with moves like “Hi Jump Kick.” But in Gen 6 (the same gen they came up with Fletchinder) all of a sudden it was “High Jump Kick.” 14 characters! Clearly Gamefreak has no problem with retconning move names to make more sense with a larger character limit (especially when you have shit like “Light That Burns the Sky”), so why can’t we retcon Pokemon names too?
This is a call to Gamefreak to officially change the name of Victreebel to Victreebell, and if they really want to make me happy, Feraligatr to Feraligator. I’m only asking for one extra character for each of them, it shouldn’t be too hard to make happen. People of Smogon, this is a call to action: I hope you see this as much of an issue as I do and will spam social media with the hashtags #VictoryForVictreebell and #FairnessForFeraligator.
It’s been more than 20 years of incorrect spelling for these poor Pokemon. Let’s right a wrong by giving them proper respect for their names. Thank you.
Starting in Gen 6, they upped this character limit to at least 11, as evidenced by the 11-character Fletchinder. In Gen 7, they got even crazier by giving Crabominable a 12-character name. That seems to be the limit in current day Pokemon, with Crabominable, Squawkabilly, Brambleghast, and Poltchageist being “normal” ones with 12 characters. Once you take into account Paradox Pokemon though holy shit there are a lot (it’s that damn space in the middle taking up another character). You might think, “Oh well, that’s it. Guess they’re not going to retcon the spelling of anything” and call it a day.
BUT
Let’s look at some evidence. Pokemon MOVE names used to have a 12-character limit. This can be seen with moves like “Hi Jump Kick.” But in Gen 6 (the same gen they came up with Fletchinder) all of a sudden it was “High Jump Kick.” 14 characters! Clearly Gamefreak has no problem with retconning move names to make more sense with a larger character limit (especially when you have shit like “Light That Burns the Sky”), so why can’t we retcon Pokemon names too?
This is a call to Gamefreak to officially change the name of Victreebel to Victreebell, and if they really want to make me happy, Feraligatr to Feraligator. I’m only asking for one extra character for each of them, it shouldn’t be too hard to make happen. People of Smogon, this is a call to action: I hope you see this as much of an issue as I do and will spam social media with the hashtags #VictoryForVictreebell and #FairnessForFeraligator.
It’s been more than 20 years of incorrect spelling for these poor Pokemon. Let’s right a wrong by giving them proper respect for their names. Thank you.
, such as:
