Am I just an idiot?

[NickCrash]

Hitmonlee is based off Tae Kwon Do/kickboxing and Hitmonchan boxing, which neither Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan are really known for. Kind of silly to name martial arts pokemon after martial artist who don't even practice the same art. Those two were chosen due for their popularity among English speaking audiences rather than the pokemon itself.

It's the equivalent of naming Sawk after Myke Tyson and Throh after Muhammad Ali. Sure they're great fighters and all but they have nothing to do with karate and judo.

Kangaskhan is rather stupid too looking back.

Doing a little research, I found out that both are based on Japanese Boxers (at least in their original japanese names), so the English names had to choose widely known to the western world martial artists, and they chose those two.

Sawk and Throh could have better designs and not resemble humans that much. Good idea, horrible execution. I would much rather have a Koala doing Judo (Throh) and/or something like a Red Panda doing MMA (Sawk)

Edit: replaced "Sumo" with "Judo"

[Monochrome_Complex]

But Nick sawk and throh are based off judo and karate...like your ideas are cool but then they'd be totally different pokemon. Their designs are a legit criticism(they're not very scary looking for oni based pokemon) but to change their style basis would stray too much from the pokemon's original concept.

Sawk is a bad name for a Karate based pokemon though, Stryke would've been slightly better although still not that great.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Monochrome_Complex

[laggless01]

So Pokemon names lately have been blowing my mind as I've been writing more and more about them. And I'm questioning how many obvious names they've made that I should of caught on too.

Latest discovery Feraligatr. It literally just says feral gator. Am I an idiot or was that not obvious to anyone else.

No, you're just an idiot

Jk, though. Some of the mentions here are epiphanies to me (lake trio in particular). Doesn't help that english was my 2nd-3rd language at that point.

[NickCrash]

But Nick sawk and throh are based off judo and karate...like your ideas are cool but then they'd be totally different pokemon. Their designs are a legit criticism(they're not very scary looking for oni based pokemon) but to change their style basis would stray too much from the pokemon's basis.

Sawk is a bad name for a Karate based pokemon though, Stryke would've been slightly better although still not that great.

Yeah I meant to say Judo for Throh, but didn't bother to check what Sawk was about.

I wanted to say that they seem so uninspired that I'd rather see unused animals take their positions and be promoted as Oni (demon) pokemon, like Koalas, Red Pandas, Dolphins and whatnot. I agree with you that the name is also a bit weird.

What would make Throh more likable to me would be a simple addition of Karate Chop in his movepool, just as a mockery to the Austin Powers movies, in which the protagonist (who knows nothing about martial arts) threatend to "Judo Chop" someone.