From my own research, Bloodmoon Ursaluna could also simply pull from a yokai called the onikuma (literally “demon bear” or perhaps even “ogre bear”), a bear yokai that forms when a bear has lived for many years. They are frequently said to walk upright and come down from the mountains to steal livestock. Now look at Bloodmoon Ursaluna. It also walks upright, is an Ursaluna form, which is based on Kim-un-kamuy, the Ainu god of bears and mountains (where onikuma are said to come from), and it formed after settling in a new land for a long time, like how onikuma are bears that have lived for many years. And this new land happens to have themes of oni/ogres too, so it makes sense that a bear in the land with a big oni mountain would become an onikuma. Add in the blood moon because of old beliefs about them turning animals crazy, and you get our new crazy bear Pokémon. Overall, the concept of an Ursaluna outside Hisui being this ferocious beast makes sense given that in Ezo (Hisui), bears were worshipped by the Ainu through the Iomante ceremony, whereas bears are scary yokai in other parts of Japan.

Now I'm hoping that Beartic, Pangoro and Bewear will all get an extinct evolution stage and a new evolution form to be equal with Ursaring since they are all part of an unofficial Bear quartet.

With Blood Moon Ursaluna being much more aggressive than its counterpart Ursaluna, I can definitely see some allusion to Kesagake, the infamous Sankebetsu Brown Bear

I’m so happy Lockstin’s finally explaining the lore behind a metallic, bipedal murder bear! The rabbit hole begins now.

I know the depression/weight thing was partially a joke, but I really hope you’re doing ok mentally and physically. You inspired me to lose 100 pounds last year. You deserve to be happy and healthy, so I hope everything works out for you

At this point, Ursaluna is more Werewolf-like than Midnight Form Lycanroc.

Theory: so you know how in legends Arceus there were these things called space-time distortions? And you know how they sent Pokémon from the future to the past? But any Pokémon in the dome will disappear. I think that the Pokémon that disappear go to the future. That’s why we see Perrin with a Hisuian Growlithe and how other Hisuian Pokémon or in the future. Like a blood moon Ursaluna that probably appeared in Kitakami and started adapting to the environment.

I named my Ursaluna Beowulf since Beowulf's name potentially stems from the word "Bee-wolf" or "Bee-hunter", a term used for bears to avoid directly saying their name and summoning one, back in the age when bears were revered asnear-supernatural entities due to how powerful they were. Similarly, Beowulf is also renowned for his feat of swimming across freezing seas either in competition or to hunt down the monster Grendel, who hunted men in the dead of night

You made the depression joke but I really hope you’re keeping well. I always look forward to your videos and my daughter is always excited to hear the latest folklore and history behind new Pokémon. I’ve even shown her a few videos (the age appropriate ones of course) Keep it up, you’re my only source of Pokemon lore and without you I would have to actually read words and books and stuff.

I named my Bloodmoon Ursaluna "Mor'du" because when I first saw it, it pretty much looks like Mor'du from Pixar's Brave. They both share those grizzly features, and how they looked corrupted compared to their former selves.

I literally just finished the mission to catch Ursaluna! This could not have come at a better time

One thing I'm pretty sure of is that Bloodmoon is not supposed to be the last Ursaluna. Perrin speaks of it as a specific, special Ursaluna she is looking for, rather than the only one. She also says Ursaluna were not uncommon long ago, not that they only lived long ago. If nothing else, logically the conditions to evolve an Ursaring can still be created in captivity.

dont know if you mention this yet but during the quest its stated that "they believe it to have travveled from sinnoh back when it was called hisui" meaning this thing is well over 150 years old at its youngest and also its possible its even the ursaluna that we ride in legends

*Fun fact:* Pirates didn't wear eye patches due to missing eyes. Instead, it was used to keep one eye adjusted to seeing below deck, where it was darker. Just like Ursaluna's left eye!

Blood Moon Ursaluna's face is also roughly-shaped like a taijitu with the two dots being either the red moon patch and mouth or its eyes. The moon patch could also be a blood moon over Mt. Fuji with the shape of the peat on its snout being roughly shaped like the iconic volcano.

There's a series of books about bears called seekers. The author's name is erin hunter. I mentioned this cuz i thought you would enjoy the series in case if you never heard or read the book series.

I was expecting a detailed breakdown of the “Red Helm Bear” trope In the Boshin War, some Japanese officers wore what were known as Shaguma, or “Red Bear” helmets. Over a hundred years later, in 1983, the manga series Silver Fang: Shooting Star Gin (extremely popular in Japan, but only officially reaching North America in 2020) was released. In this story, a hunting dog (Gin) must train and gather other dogs in order to hunt the terrifying Akakabuto (“Red Helm”): a giant grizzly bear who has a bleeding open wound on its head. This injury caused brain damage leading the Akakabuto to be extremely violent and somewhat immune to pain. I can’t confirm it, but I *think* this is supposed to be a play on the shaguma Red Bear Helms. Since then, the “Violent Red Helm Bear” has become something of a trope in Japanese media. Bravely Default has the Red Helm monster recolor, and Monster Hunter has Redhelm Arzuros.

There's also the common lesson that native Americans and other traveling groups teach their kids: "There are two bears inside of you. One is fed when you're happy, relaxed and otherwise at peace. The other is fed when you're enraged, stressed and otherwise hostile. The bear that wins within you is the one you feed the most."

Obviously you went into why it changed, but I am still curious as for HOW it changed. Such as the stat distribution forsakes the role of a normal ursaluna as a beefy, physical brickhouse and changes it into a bulky special attacker instead. Basically, it's a complete 180 in terms of its mechanical use; not to mention that the ability of Bloodmoon Ursaluna allows it to hit ghost types specifically when it normally could not. Were blood moons thought to make ghosts more tangible? Sounds like something that might appear somewhere in mythology...🤔

Bloodmoon Ursaluna is the scariest regional form I think we've gotten, but it's also so cool! I love it!

So in Chinese, Dragoon, Driger, Draciel, and Dranzer turned a bear man into the earth, the forests, the sun, and the moon. Damn! Bit Beasts OP!

This makes me wonder if another hisui Pokémon will get love in indigo disk, because ursaluna was unexpected. It also gives off Bigfoot vibes, being a cryptid of an extinct version of a modern creature or species.

Blood Moon Ursaluna's weird patchy fur also reminds me of post-hibernation bear fur, like maybe this Oldsaluna is fresh from a good hundred year nap and has been shedding

This might just be me, but I think Bloodmoon Ursaluna might also be loosely based on some of the monster bears that appear in the classic manga/anime "Silver Fang - The Shooting Star Gin". The main villain, Akakabuto (Red Helmet), is a monstrous bear with one eye. I could be wrong, but I think there was also another bear featured that had swam across the Tsugaru Straight from Hokkaido (Sinnoh/Hisui) to Aomori (Kitakami).

I feel like the reason it looks like this could be a number of factors. Ursuluna evolves from exposure to special peat during a full moon. SO maybe this pokemon evolved from a Blood Moon and that's what effected it and why it's so rare. Think like Dusk Form for Lycanroc. Maybe instead of Hisuian peat, it was exposed to Kitakami peat and that's what made the change, maybe plus the Blood Moon. There's so much to gleam from this and just increases the possibilities of new and unique evolutions.

I feel the Bloodmoon Beast (or at least it's storyline) also references Bigfoot stories since all of Perrin's pictures of it are mentioned to be blurry and out of focus. Then again, that's a common excuse for all cryptids and mythical creatures stories. But one for certain is that I wish the picture survey thing was a recurring minigame in other areas. Pokemon Snap to me works best as a minigame or mechanic in the main series rather than a standalone game.

7:11 as a Japanese mythology fan I can say you actually said those names right

It’s amazing how a 10/10 design Ursaluna is for different reasons. It’s regular version is such a big boy and the peat making a funny eye brow expression gets me every time. Meanwhile Blood moon looks super terrifying and is an excellent attempt at almost redoing ursaluna. Interestingly, blood boom ursaluna reminds me a lot of Monster hunter and it’s Deviant monsters. To elaborate, Deviant monsters are a regular monster that has gone through an extremely rare great change of some kind, be it something like a genetic mutation or surviving impossible odds and growing stronger. Like as an example from that game, Bloodbath diablos vs regular diablos, the former lost its horn and half of its tail, but they grew back warped and now is extremely violent. Comparing the two Ursalunas, regular ursaluna is the ‘default’ ursaluna and is a natural progress of its evolution line. But blood moon went through the impossible, swimming across the sea to escape man’s growing territory taking its own, surviving and thriving in a new land, parts of its fur and eye being damaged, and even how it fights is completely backwards to a regular Ursaluna, now being a special attacker unlike the rest of its evolution line. It’s definitely coincidental, but it’s an interesting parallel

I love how this new form looks like sonething straight out of Reborn or Rejuvenation

I remember when blood moons weren’t a thing. And then one happened a couple of years ago and we were told how rare that event was. Now they are a monthly event….

You know, Blood moon Ursaluna possibly being the last of his kind DOES raise an old question of mine: can Pokémon, like, die of old age?

My only nitpick with Bloodmoon Ursaluna is that with its zombified form, it would be so much better as ghost ground type, which could then be explained by the lore as Ursaluna have all died since the days of Hisui, but this one holds on, becoming zombified and going from part normal to part ghost type in the process, which would be amazing. That, and the blood moon move does not fit aesthetically as a normal type move at all imo, it would be much more fitting as a ghost type move. Or even dark for that matter. Other than that though, S tier Pokemon!

Always love these explanation videos! It gives a lot of insight on some of these mons and it shows that GF does at least try very hard for these Pokemon.

sloth bears hold their own against tigers, and have claws that can cut through termite mounds, they're that hardcore

I feel like Bloodmoon at least design wise is also extremely inspired by the idea of Zombies in media, how it stands with little energy, it's peat cracking exposing its fur like how zombies dried skin crack and expose the raw muscle underneath, and of course, the Giant red moon on it's head, looking like an exposed brain, for eating brains, and of course the idea that a zombies weakness is the head/brain. Also fits well for Ursaluna as it's a practically extinct species, many more passed than alive.

Blood Moon Ursaluna also reminds me of cryptids, specifically the Nandi bear, who's sort of like a giant African cyclops bear

Now that we see ursuluna in a new much more aggressive form And we've seen It's evolutionary line To have a heavy association with the moon cycles I wouldn't be surprised if Ursaluna might be a reference to the general pop culture concept of a werebear And if that is the case that's interesting, cause in a way that would kind of make it like a Counterpart to Lyconrock Which would be an interesting connection considering That was not previously the case before the introduction of bloodmoon ursaluna

THE BLOOD MOON RISES ONCE AGAIN

I consider Bloodmoon Ursaluna to have some cyborg influences, weird as it sounds. Violet dex mentions how its mud is as hard as steel, his left eye could be seen as missing the "natural" overlay, exposing the mechanics underneath, and the red moon itself alongside how Blood Moon plays makes me think of your generic robot laser trope.

Would have loved it if the only way you can get more Blood-moon Ursaluna is if you gave Ursaring peat-moss when we got a blood moon.

“Red is blood. Blood bad! … Unless your a plant, then it’s tasty. (*slurping sounds*)” *🤣🤣🤣I LOST IT!!!🤣🤣🤣*

White striped basculin is in kitegami and you can evolve it into basculegion there so probably if we return to sinnoh we will see does evolutions and some more.

"I love bears!" Holds up hedgehog squishmallow

It is most likely just a coincidence but I can't help but think of Akakabuto; a giant, violent bear from a manga/anime series called Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. He has lost an eye (tho it's the opposite of Bloodmoon Ursaluna's) and has red fur on his head/back.

1:05 The bear just hitting us with the “👁️👅👁️” of death

Blood Moon Ursaluna looks more sad than scary. I just want to give it a big hug.

I can't help but think Bloodmoon Ursaluna's red forehead is a homage to Red Helmet, the villainous bear from Silver Fang/Gin

I'm surprised you didn't talk about how undead/corrupted Bears are a very prominent trope

AH!! Blackie the Black Bear Beanie Baby! That was my second, but my definite favorite of all the Beanie Babies I had growing up. He is very much not in pristine condition anymore.

As someone who works at a planetarium and has been teaching people about eclipses for months in preparation for the solar eclipse coming up in October, it's always nice to see people bringing more attention to them.

The fact Hisuian Growlithe is seen owned by Peerin means Hisuian Variants and the Hisui introduced evolutions still exists

One thing I noticed that goes along with the sun and moon, yin and yang, is that one half of the face is the blood moon as light and the other is peat soil as darkness. The 2 swirl in the typical way the yin-yang are depicted

Love the lore info. I have found more and more that these videos do exactly what Team Gnoggin sets out to do: Teaches real world facts through Pokemon. I recently visited family and found myself dropping so many facts I had learned from these videos. Also, depression is such a struggle, I hope Lockstin finds himself doing better soon.

Hey dude, your videos always bring me great curiosity and honestly reignites my joy for Pokémon. Love you! Hope you’re doing well overall!

very excited for you too cover the DLC

i love that you did a video for my favourite Pokémon and a good one at that keep on keeping on

The "Because plants LOVE it! BLELELELELELEO" moment is about to live rent-free in my mind for eternity, thanks for that.

He is not alone in loving bears. I sometimes see a little bit of myself as a bear. Ursaring is one of two pokemon from Johto that are my favorites. The second was Donphan. So like Lockstin is with bears, mine is elephants and their many variations.

Ursaluna getting a second form is really random considering how new it is but at the same time it’s one of my favorite Pokémon already so I’m glad to see it

Symbolism and lore in Pokemon never ceases to amaze me. Where GameFreak lacks in... programming... they at least make up for in this area, and their creativity. And the fans peeling back the layers of information make it that much more enjoyable!

I'm sorry to hear that the sinnoh badges video didn't perform well. I wish you great success from now on

BM ursaluna looks more like an ursaring evolution than the original Is that weird to say 😅

I actually had a dream one time that a Sun Bear came rushing out of the woods to save me from an alligator that made its way into my pond. No clue why it was in the woods of the southeastern United States. But the uglycute derp bear acted like a dog and protected me and hung around. It was a nice dream.

I'd like to mention that, when I was looking on Bulbapedia to see some of the mechanical differences between Ursalunas, I saw something strange in the Origins section. Apparently someone thought that Bloodmoon Ursaluna might be a cyborg? Here is the line that mentions that copied from Bulbapedia: "Bloodmoon Ursaluna might in addition be inspired by cyborgs, given parts of his body being clad in iron-like mud and one of his eyes having enhanced sight." I didn't think this made sense at all, but figured I should share it in case it gets removed for being wrong.

Whenever I look at it I cant help but think its an Ursaluna thats losing its Ursaluna-ness being away from Hisui and is somekind of middle stage between Ursaring and Ursaluna

It’s interesting you bring up the idea of it just not caring anymore or being insane, because it’s ability lets it see ghost and even interact with them, so it’s possibly so far gone it can see the unseeable

5:38 had a heart attack thinking it was a shiny phantump 💀

I really like the lore that you did for Blood Moon Ursaluna & this makes me want to see the other Hisuian Pokémons to be added to the game & become something like Bloodmoon Ursaluna like it would be pretty cool concept if we get to see the 3 starter Pokémons from Hisui get this new look👍

I'm so happy we got this monster. Ursaluna became my favorite pokemon and now I have two of them!!

Hope you're doing alright brother, I know the feeling of depression all too well. You inspired me to hop onto keto and make myself into a better version. I have lost 93 pounds in 7 months because of you and I cannot thank you enough.

Bloodmoon beast Ursaluna(and regular ursaluna) have quickly become my favorite new gen pokemon. I just wanna give the big guy a hug but im afraid my organs would burst from my body like one of those squeeze toys

I like that your talking about the blood moon Ursaluna because I was confused because Ursaluna’s a legend game not a modern Pokémon game. And how they in the game aren’t they supposed to be extinct?!

Probably my favorite design this gen. It's literally Akakabuto from Gin or a Skynet bear lol

Excited for you to cover the Lousy 3!

Hey lockstin! Great stuff as usual. I was thinking, do you think there’s a possibility yanmega gets an evolution in the next installment? Yanmega is the “ogre darner” Pokémon and he is one of Kieran’s stronger and more reliable options. You think since he couldnt have the real ogre, he could settle for the first bug dragon in the game ? Let me know what you thin

Such a fascinating Pokémon no one expected and the blood moon turning ursaluna into a special attacker was pretty cool. I was gagged that it was walking on its legs cause ik bears can do that but didn’t expect ursaluna to do it💀

"oh crap, the gods have cursed us" 😂, that bit was brilliant

Oh wow! I didn't even know this was a thing until now. I'll have to figure out how to get one myself. Thank you for pointing it out. ^_^

Literally a Werebear, love it

Though most would say that Bloodmoon Ursaluna is definitely a Pokemon version of both Redhelm Arzuros and Apex Arzuros

"Witness the Blood Moon Rise!" "When the glue of the Blood staing Moon shines a pond the land."

I named my Ursaluna 'Ursa Major' after both the constellation and my own Ursaluna from Legends: Arceus. My headcanon is that after returning to their time, the Ursaluna searched all of Hisui, then the world, somehow surviving (residual Arceus energy), until eventually it ended up in Kitakami I love angst!

Can't wait to see your video on Ogerpon

I get the feeling one of the creative team liked Red Kabuto a giant monstrous red blood bear from Dengeki Weeds.

Blood moon survives from hisuian era to this present day era, its sooo good

Freddy Fazbear: Who are you? Bloodmoon Ursaluna: I'm you but Pokemon. Both: har har har har har har

6:38 "blood, bad" So we have bad circulating through our body

great video bro, keep stayin thin, best evolution I've ever seen.

GameFreak decided to nerf Ursaluna by making a more powerful Ursaluna that would make Flutter Mane go to the Super Afterlife

7:17 “Moon Goddess that I will mispronounce” *proceeds to nail it and another god right after*

‘Man the kids are probably so scared of BloodMoon Ursaluna right now’ ‘Who said it was just the kids’

Blood moon Ursaluna is really amazing and was a fun surprise to see

Sorry to hear about the Sinnoh badge video, but this was fun, excited to see more Pokémon lore videos through the DLCs

Bloodmoon Ursaluna is the last Ursaluna outside of time travel. Sure, he’s still unique by being a special attacker with Keen Eye AND Scrappy at the same time, making him the new Mega Lopunny, but yeah, transferring Pokémon to the present day definitely saved a few species.

7:10 You actually got it pretty much right, though the enunciation of the "tsuk" part was a just the _slightest_ bit off.

Both ursaluna represent Looks like could kill u is a cinnamon roll Looks like could kill u could kill u

Everythins gonna be ok. Your content is solid and enjoyable to watch.

No way he forgot to tell us to keep using our gnoggins at the end 😔

Ursaring fans have been eating good these past few years

Blood Moon's left eye looks like it's gone from fighting its entire life it's super cool design and also super sad