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“Since mega evolution is gone.” BOY DO I HAVE SOME NEWS FOR YOU!

And this is why Lance the "Dragon Tamer" uses Pokemon that aren't dragon types. A pokemon can be a dragon without being a dragon type.

0:40 "But since mega evolution is gone..." Poorly aged in the best way.

Mikey: "Mega evolution is gone" Pokemon Legends Z-A: "are you sure about that?"

“Haha, not all dragons are Dragon-type Pokémon!” - Lance My boy Lance backing Charizard up…I respect it

Since you mentioned Fezandipiti, I love poking fun at it for the fact that despite being CLEARLY a bird, it actually has the Ground type weakness due to him being part Poison type. This means you can literally kick mud at that bird and he'll go down.

I like the idea that Charizard is just so over joyed by the power of flight that it practically never lands and just flies *everywhere* hence it having the flying type, not dragon.

"But since mega evolutions are gone..." Well, that aged rather well. Maybe even as well as the milk I left sitting in the basement for four years, lol.

Can't wait for the Lugia Paradox. Where water type makes sense, that's what the original designer's intent, but the developers deseded to make is psychic type "to make it seem powerful" despite the nerfs psychic type got in gen 2.

Mickey- "Mammals are warm blooded and have live births" Platypus: *heavy breathing sounds*

9:00 as someone who knows about celtic mythology, hearing that “fae-adjacent creatures are kind hearted” is just so funny to me.

"birds are warm blooded and lay eggs" *stares in platypus and echidna*

I like how it feels like this video came about because Mikey was doing research on which Pokemon should be allowed in Team Sky but aren't Flying-type, and then eventually dug deeper to find the root of the discrepancy (categorization of types based on element or anatomy) XD

To be fair, Charizard is part of the Dragon Egg Group. Doesn’t matter if it’s not Dragon type, it’s still a Dragon. (And so are Arbok, Gyarados, Sceptile, Seviper, Milotic, Scrafty, Heliolisk, Salazzle and Sandaconda)

0:43 "Since mega evolution is gone" pokemon presents: ackshually...

Dodrio: "Not even going to mention me? Even though I can Fly without visible wings? Alright, fine."

To make things more complicated, the latest DLC challenges the player to “Take a picture of a Pokémon in flight.” Nearly anything levitating, including Geodude, counts.

"We have known since the 90's that it's under the Celadon Game Corner" Man it goes hard xD

"Now that mega evolution is gone" That really didn't age well 😭

"Uh, we don't need to mention blood-bending, this is a kids show." Mikey probably

I remember telling my dad(who isn't into Pokemon but his favourite was Charizard) that I made a charizard in real life when I was eight. I'd put a neon light on the tail of a toy lizard.

The scrapped BIRD type in Gen 1 is starting to make a lot more sense…😂

16:10 these three have the added issue that storywise, they're spirits of previously deepsea creatures, so Water could also make sense for them.

"Mega evolution is gone" Four days dude. Four days.

“They can’t move water with their mind” Short horned lizard: allow me to introduce my blood bending

And there's also Golurk, who is constantly shown being capable of flight in the anime via jet boosters and in the games it can learn Fly via TM.

"Since Mega evolution is gone"... if he had just waited 4 days more, this statement would be true"

I know that irl the way Pokémon’s get their typing is based on a mix between gameplay, and design (appearance, story, powers). But I feel like within the logic of the Pokemon universe what has always made sense to me is that typing is a classification based on powers, abilities, elemental control, and egg groups is a classification more similar to irl taxonomy or phylogeny based on genetic relationships and anatomy.

"Not all Dragons are Dragon-Type." -Lance

Watch this idea blow up and make Charizard Paradox a common thing

I imagine the best reason Pokemon could give in lore due to types is: A pokemon's assigned type is given based on what seems effective and not effective against the pokemon. This would imply researchers could have spent a lot of time just having pokemon hit others with various attacks and writing down the results. However... that would be a little grim for the pokemon universe even if that is what we often do in games to learn (without looking up some type chart)

Great video again! I've been watching for a few years now and your video quality just gets better and better, I had literal chills when you brought it a back around to say just like Charizard at the end!

4:44 god I love Grunty Boi

NOT THE HIDEOUT CAFETERIA!!! NOW HOW IS GRUNTY BOI GONNA EAT HIS SLOWPOKE TAILS

I don't watch your videos super often (just don't have much time to watch youtube anymore) but I used to watch all the time when I was younger. This style of video is definitely super interesting and I really liked this video! I agree with people saying it feels kinda like a Pokemon Professor explaining things, and its really good!

About half way through this vid, delving into the problem of Flying type, and I have to say this a great analysis. Clear, robust, and not just doing whatever you feel like with an arbitrary classification but really trying to drill down into what this all really means. Great stuff.

This reminds me of your early days, the Pokemon Talk, and What happens in a Pokeball days. You've come full circle, and I have nothing but respect for you, as my favorite Poketuber. Heres to years to come, and Go Team Sky! Thanks Mikey, for making my childhood so good so far. Edit: Your classification based on avatar and manipulations makes a lot of sense. I've heard less specific theories and was confued on how you would manipulate a bug. Now thinking again, i think he talked extra long about flying types for a reason....*cough cough*....team sky.....

1:59 I could 100% see blastoise as a rock type

"Mega evolution is gone" *four days later*

3:57 So a Platypus is a bird? Neat

Petition to have all pokemon listed at 15:48 to be allowed in Team Sky

Basically, it’s that old 3 pick 2 situation… no matter how hard you try you are gonna miss out. My grandpa used to work as a contractor and he would tell this to his clients. You can have your project done cheep fast or quality but you can only pick two Cheep and Fast = Poor Quality Cheep and Quality= Slow Fast and Quality = Expensive. But you can never have all 3…

I genuinely love this video. It feels so similar to your older videos but with the flair you’ve developed as your channel has grown. Your channel has inspired me to start thinking about making my own videos about Pokémon (and other stuff) but this video pushed me enough to actually start.

I have never seen you before this video and I'm not really a pokemon fan but I gotta say: great video. It was really well structured, the pace was not too fast, but not too slow and you went from point A to B with the required stops so people that don't understand a lot about pokemon could enjoy the video. Thanks, really.

Every flight Pokémon that's not a Flying Type be like - "Arceus! I don't need to be identified by something I happen to do! You don't see me saying you should be called a Video Making Type Human."

Saying this in a separate comment because it was the point of the other one, but Dark does not have a “darkness” aspect, it’s just the “Evil” type. All of the moves are (purely) related to mischief or sinister intentions, even Dark Pulse.

Found this interesting! I always think of Dhelmise when I consider a mon that fits multiple types. Not only can it manipulate water and is quite literally an anchor (steel), it was given the grass ghost type instead of those. So if no type limit existed it would easily have 4.

“Empoleon with fly would make sense” lmao

I have always loved Charizard. Its the first pokemon I ever got to Level 100 without a gameshark. I felt so accomplished.

11:43 And a Bird type. *cough cough*

*adored* this video, kinda feels like the mandjtv videos I fell in love with all those years ago, absolutely do more if you feel like you'll have fun with it!

some more I found Celebi Scizor Heracross Garchomp Lunala Buzzwole Quaxly(Should be like the rowlet line where the final evo loses the flying type) Sirfetch'd(Has wings sure it's holding a lot) Pecharunt(Can't tell if those are wings) Dunsparce/ Dudunsparce ( Don't know if those wings are big enough) Sheninja (Can't tell if those wings could move) Druddigon (Can't tell if wings move) Tapu koko (Based off a bird and has small wings, would put other tapus but they aren't based off of birds

'Mega is gone' Legends Z-A: "ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT"

Really enjoy this type of video, man. Hope you keep them coming!

This is somewhat tangential, but my worry with the fairy type was that it’d be fully related to physiognomy. I’m so glad that it expanded (Grimsnarl and Mimikyu being examples) since I’ve always loved all fae legends to death and am so glad they have reasonably thoughtful inclusion!

The restraint on you to not say "Team Sky" despite saying "Flying" so much, you have my respect

So about Mega Evolutions being gone….

Mikey this was a very good video, I didnt think I would like this kind of video from you but it worked really well! 7/10 would watch more.

11:36 There was actually going to be a typing for birds, specifically in Gen 1, but was ultimately changed and put with the flying type since there wasn't that many bird pokemon then. However, if you take that into consideration for his analysis on the flying type, it makes it make a lot more sense. You can see what they just threw in with the flying type at this point as well.

15:55 whyd Mikey sound like he's doing the pokerap 😂

this was amazing! I love this type of deep lore examination and cathegorisation.

Also though I'm sure you're going to mention it later, but Dragon is ALSO a middle-ground type, seeing just how many moves in the type are centered around a sort of arcane dragon energy that's mechanically and elementally distinct from Fire or similar forms of energy.

Where does Dark actually have “control over “darkness””? Dark Void is really the only one like that and it just induces sleep. Dark Pulse is “bad thoughts” not “darkness.”

Grunty Boi acting like not everyone knows about the hideout is amazing

hey MandJ, your videos are getting better and better as the years go by I much appreciate your more mellow recent self Keep going, love your content!

Pretty interesting concept for a video! I definitely enjoyed this exploration of type criteria. Pretty insightful thoughts about the difficulties the choices of what constitutes as a type creates in terms of assigning types. Definitely thought-provoking, to the point that I've got a ton to say about it, so have fun either clicking "read more" or don't. One detail that wasn't touched on is that the water type also has a few moves similar to flying which don't necessarily involve the manipulation of water itself, but do involve anatomy exhibited by aquatic animals. Clamp, razor shell and crabhammer all come to mind - water isn't necessarily involved in these moves, but bivalves and crustaceans live in the water, so these moves are water type by association, similar to how peck and roost are flying type by association due to birds often flying. That and the fact that there are water type pokémon that just live in the water and can't use attacks that involve it (magikarp being an outstanding example) does lead people to often think some pokémon like eelektross and grapploct should be water type purely by virtue of being aquatic. Speaking of water, I was kind of surprised dhelmise wasn't mentioned in this video. It's a haunted remains of a shipwreck coated with algae. That's 4 possible types it would qualify for, water and steel as well as the ghost and grass it did get. It's kind of interesting that it actually was given an ability to make it sort of a de facto steel type, similar to flygon and the latis getting levitate to patch up the lack of room for flying on their typing. As for the birds, I've never really thought it odd that blaziken and especially empoleon weren't flying type. The only pokémon that's flying type purely by virtue of being avian is dodrio (delibird may be based on a flightless species, but it's pretty clearly capable of being airborne by some sort of Santa's-reindeer-style magic or something, so I wouldn't count it). It only really gets weird when a pokémon that can physically fly somehow isn't flying type, like decidueye. I remember telling this one guy online that if charizard were a dragon type it wouldn't fly. He totally lost it and said I was being ridiculous. It took quite a bit of back and forth before it turned out this guy had apparently given the first games a miss and didn't realize that while in gen 3 on, charizard might still be able to "fly" as a dragon type if it got levitate like flygon or the latis, that wasn't a feasible solution in gen 1, where charizard debuted, because abilities hadn't been invented yet. I guess after they've been around for 2 decades or so, some take them for granted. I've actually heard some say that similarly to how contact was made into its own attribute rather than being treated as synonymous with physical moves, being airborne should be treated as its own attribute separate from type or ability, so the dilemma of having to use up a type or ability slot just to reflect a pokémon's mode of self-transportation would be eliminated. It's kind of an interesting idea, though it would make the levitate ability pretty redundant. Might be an interesting chance to buff some of the levitating 'mons with some new abilities though. I think if it did happen, it probably ought to only create immunities to specific moves rather than all moves that are ground type; it's bugged me for ages that slinging bones or mud through the air will never hit an airborne target, but bowling over them is a particularly effective strategy, even though you'd think rolling along the ground would be a less likely way to hurt something in the air than literal projectiles.

I feel like I learned something and nothing all at the same time and enjoyed every second of it

I love the way Mikey thinks, this new video style is AWESOME! It scratched an itch in my brain that I didn’t know was itchy! 😅🤣💙💙

well thought out arguments all round, i enjoyed this a lot! i also really liked the earth type video

Great video format and content! Kudos to you Michael!!!

It can BE a Dragon, Without having the Dragon Type.

Lance: you don’t have to be dragon type to be a dragon just need to have the heart of one 0:21

Can you make more like these? I really liked this video; Thank you for putting in so much effort into your videos.

I enjoyed that this feels like those old videos you used to do of Pokemon Physics. I miss those.

Mikey, it's a good video with clear explanations, but I think the reason why Charizard is a fire/flying type is much simpler. If Charizard had become a dragon type in Gen 1, it would mean that it would be mega overpowered. In Gen 1, dragon types had only two weaknesses, ice and other dragon types. Since the Dratini line are the only dragon types in Gen 1, you would need a Dragonite to stand a chance against Charizard. However, if Charizard were also a dragon type, it would mean it could also take out that Dragonite before you do that with Charizard. Then you have the ice types, the problem with them is the fact that they are weak against fire types. With this, they would also have little chance against Charizard, the only Pokémon that might have a chance could be Dewgong but for the rest very few. The reason Charizard is a fire/flying type is simply to maintain balance in the games. With Charizard as a fire/flying type, you have access to multiple Pokémon that can take on Charizard. That's I think the main reason Charizard didn't become a fire/dragon type. PS, you forgot Garchomp as a Pokémon with wings but without the levitate ability.

2:31 justice for my boy drapion

What a great video! So impressed! Keep up the good work Mikey.

Mikey! Big fan of all your videos, but I do like the video aspect of this!! It’s very formal and informative. I really liked it. It was like a Pokémon documentary. 😂

Meanwhile, there's Iron moth and that jellyfish thing (Niheligo?), which are capable of levitating but have a double weakness to ground and can't have levitate due to their group's abilities. Conclusion: Iron moth is a non-iron moth which can't moth. (Why poison? I get that the materials for solar panels/ the ways to get them can be dangerous, but still, why not flying?) Niheligo isn't often used for a reason, and it's not because of its stats. (You could tell anyone, who doesn't know wth is this, that it is a water and electric/poison, even a Flying type pokemon and they could believe you, But rock poison just seems absurd)

Great analysis! I think the poison type could reasonably fit under the middle-ground category since in addition to its elemental property, as you said many animals are venomous which I think could count as an anatomical property

I really enjoyed this video I hope you do more video essays in the future

You could see it as the pokemon types not representing what powers a pokemon CAN use, but more what powers a pokemon PREFERS to use. Regular charizard could be mostly relying on its fire power combined with aerial combat styles, while mega charizard X taps into the inherent draconic powers that charizard possesses. It would also explain why a pokemon can learn moves from types it doesn't have, while getting STAB for moves of the same type as it is more experienced in using these types of moves.

"But since Mega Evolution is gone..." Let's see how that ages next year.

9:52 name more than 5 evolutionary lines that are flying type but don't have wings.

I liked the video a lot! Wouldn’t mind more of this!

Cool video. I’ve often thought about this, but I think to simplify it for myself, I’m going to say that their types denote what the individuals strengths lie in for their moves etc and in the more abstract sense I guess too

Incredible video! At 9:37, you missed a Pokémon. You said a flying type Pokémon has to have wings, but… Rayquaza…

Who all here thought that he is giving charizard a paradox form😅😅😅

Kingdra may be able to use its body to create high pressure systems, its dex states "yawning of this Pokémon creates spiraling ocean currents." and Suicune represents the north wind, kinda make sense to control as well. As for Whimsicott, not sure best i got is they are little airbenders, in on dex it says They appear along with whirlwinds, maybe their making them?

He was all serious until 2:57 XD

16:25 I think buzzwole would also fit in!

3:01 What on earth?! I just finished binging a video series about Avatar

"since mega evolution is gone" seems we spoke to soon lol

14:07 is this the only pokémon with four potential types? posion, dark, ground and bug

Whatchu mean? Rock could work for Blastoise. Lol It's shell is hard like a rock. 😂

Plot twist- it’s back 1:02

Found your channel this week & really enjoy your content.... keep it up 🔥🤙🤙

This video is just about Charizard types but the execution is insanely good :)

But that’s just a theory a poke theory