Gotta Meme 'em All: The mother of all...

The history and spread of Pokémon memes

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Column by ShinyLinoone

This column has been written by ShinyLinoone. It expresses the views of the columnist, not necessarily those of Bulbagarden networks.

INTRODUCTION: It only takes a few rules working in tandem to create an amazingly complex system. The most evident example of this is found in Conway’s Game of Life[1], but you can see a similar phenomenon with the mechanics behind Pokémon breeding[2]. You have the Pokémon first divided into egg groups, apply mechanics for passing down of stats and traits, and add in some effects of various items. Most of the time, the rules are quite boring but what results can be quite interesting[3]. It is only on a rare occasion that it is the rule that becomes the point of interest, and in the mechanics of Pokémon breeding that rule goes by one name: Ditto[4]. BODY: It might be strange that in a game about collecting or competing that a Pokémon that is literally the definition of gimmick should be so popular or highly sought after. In battle its utility is tempered by its ability[5] to transform[6], which depending on how you use it can be of some asset or a great hindrance. In contests you might have some luck since at least its sole move doesn’t bore the judges, although you’d be better off using a Claydol. Even for the sake of collecting or Pokédex completion it’s just one more entry. The actual strange thing is that its original transforming gimmick has taken the backseat to its most famous ability that was introduced later: the universal breeder. Ditto is not just a Pokémon, it is an egg group[7] as well. In designing the breeding mechanics, Game Freak created two unique groups that cannot normally breed and produce offspring of their own species: all-male species and genderless species. Thus for Pokémon like Starmie or Hitmonchan who otherwise can’t obtain eggs from their own families, then Ditto serving as the universal breeder allows for those eggs to be obtained by providing a key exception to the standard rules that eggs take on the mother’s species and that you need oppositely gendered Pokémon to create an egg. It is this exception to the standard rules of breeding created by Ditto that gives birth to a myriad of consequences, and raises it from a fairly forgettable pink blob to a near-universal asset on the levels of an HM Slave. The most obvious and glaring consequence of Ditto’s unique breeding prowess is its use to quickly breed Pokémon. For collectors, it aids in quickly obtaining new Pokémon and completing the Pokédex by allowing for the breeding of missing species instead of catching or trading for all of them. Competitive players may have several Ditto available with a variety of abilities and useful IV[8] spreads. Shiny hunters may even go one further and obtain a foreign Ditto so as to utilize the Masuda method[9] for breeding shinies. Communities have even popped up surrounding the sharing and obtaining of Ditto with useful traits for breedings[10]. Given its utility, one has to wonder that if Game Freak allowed for the tracking of genealogy, what percentage of Pokémon entered in official tournaments would have a Ditto in their ancestry? Not all memes need to be creative to be memes. There is a meme that Ditto is valuable because of its breeding status and not because of its battle capability, just as there is a meme that shinies are valuable, or that you can flick your headlights as a warning to cars that have forgotten to turn theirs on. However we are talking about the Pokémon fandom and even mundane details like Sycamore’s letter can become memes. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there has been a creative twist added to this meme as well. To quickly go over the premises of the creative memes, let’s look once more at the key facts: Ditto can transform into seemingly anything, and it is capable of breeding with almost every Pokémon. Cue the sex jokes, because that is where it leads. There are comics and concepts galore of Ditto interacting with people like Professor Oak[11] and Brock[12], to Pokémon like Gardevoir[13]. Most interestingly, Ditto is often personified as either gender neutral or as the opposite gender of the Pokémon it is interacting with, which results in a variety of themes and motifs for how Ditto is “dressed up” for its attire. When you take the technical and creative aspects of this meme and take a step back to look at them, you then truly have to realize how bizarre this is. Ditto as originally conceived could have been involved in some raunchy artwork, but it really wasn’t until the breeding mechanics were introduced that it came to the forefront as a mascot for some quite adult humor in an otherwise fairly innocent video game. In a way Ditto has become a figurative rule 34 in Pokémon: if it can breed, there’s a Ditto for it. There is still one last meme that Ditto can teach us that is often overlooked: That no matter who you are or even what you are, there will always be someone or something that loves you. Or to simplify: Ditto is love, Ditto is life[14]. <CREATIVE ASPECT HERE> IMAGES: http://www.readysoupcomic.com/comic/true-to-yourself/ Caption: “Eevee x Ditto: The Origins” http://caramelody.deviantart.com/art/Ditto-84757804 “I’ll be your sugar ditto.” http://flying-foxx.deviantart.com/art/Pokemon-Daycare-338511440 Note: Crop to last frame only. Caption: “Eevee x Ditto: The Results.”