Scorbunny, one of the starter Pokémon for the newly announced Pokémon Sword and Shield, is a sweet lil bunny, and I love him. He’s also the source of some concern among Pokémon fans.
So far there have been eight different generations of Pokémon games in the main series, leading to eight different sets of starter Pokémon. More modern entries allow those starters to gain a second Pokémon type in addition to their initial ones, Fire, Water or Grass.
Whereas the Water and Grass Pokémon have gotten a diverse range of secondary types, the Fire ones tend to follow a routine. Torchic (Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire), Chimchar (Pokémon Diamond and Pearl), and Tepig (Pokémon Black and White) all became Fire/Fighting creatures. These three games also followed each other consecutively, making the trend all the more glaring.
Pokémon players are now afraid Scorbunny will have the same fate. Why? Because of the bandage on his nose.
It might not mean much to people who aren’t obsessed with Pokémon, but the designs of the characters usually have consistent motifs to signal the type of Pokémon with which they’re associated. It’s not very subtle. Fighting-type Pokémon and Gym Leaders usually have a sporty look. Pokémon like Hitmonchamp and Hitmonlee wear martial arts gear.
Maylene, the Fighting-type Gym Leader from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, has a bandage on her nose like Scorbunny. Besides the bandage, Scorbunny also gives off a sporty vibe. He’s long, lean, and fast, kind of like a soccer player.
All those signs have sent Pokémon fans into a fit of speculation. They’re desperate for some variety in Fire type starter Pokémon. Your starters are usually with you the whole game, and whatever second type they get in evolutions can also help fill some gaps in your party. While Fire/Fighting can be a useful type in the late game, it’s also more of the same. Pokémon Sun and Moon had some creative type combinations for the final evolutions of its starter Pokémon with Grass/Ghost, Fire/Dark and Water/Fairy. Getting another Fire/Fighting type is seen as a boring step backwards.
Put more succinctly, one fan tweeted, “If Scorbunny is fire/fighting I’m gonna do a murder,” and it was retweeted over four hundred times. The conversation also continues to crop up on the Pokémon subreddit. In the thread announcing Sword and Shield, the highest rated comment about Scorbunny, with over five thousand upvotes, reads, “Scorbunny looks like it has a band-aid on its nose. You know, like a martial artist… sounds like everyone’s favourite starter type-combination is back!”
All of this is speculation, and I’d love to see Scorbunny turn into anything other than Fire/Fighting. As a series, Pokémon has been slow to try new things, with the recently released Let’s Go games being the first shake-up the series has had in a long time. Only time will tell what Scorbunny will turn into. For now, I can safely say that he’s a cute bunny and also my friend.
Comments
24 responses to “Pokémon Fans Really Hope Scorbunny Doesn’t Evolve Into A Fighting Type”
Is Charizard modern now?
Yes, because originally Charizard was just fire.
No way, surely he was always flying. I’m pretty sure he was always flying.
You are correct! Unless this is some weird original Japanese version thing.
He is definitely both in Red/Blue.
Dual type Pokémon weren’t in the originals. It wasn’t added in until later versions. FireRed and LeafGreen had dual type Pokémon however
I just fired up a ROM of the original English version of Pokemon Red and took this screenshot.
https://i.imgur.com/UypkF7z.png
And never mind that Bulbasaur is Grass/Poison.
Nah.
Flying is weak to electric and in og english red, charizard took no extra damage from electricity.
Also Venusaur (grass/poison)
I mean Bulbasaur too, it starts as grass/poison
Yeah I thought of that but it starts dual-typed rather than changing when it evolves. I hadn’t really realised until having a look through starters the other day though that Bulbasaur is one of only two (including gen 8) to start with dual typing, the other being Rowlett.
I don’t know how it’s not going to be a fighting type, the evidence speaks for itself.
Them legs gonna get huge!
Incineroar, while being fire/dark, is clearly a fighting Pokemon
Pretty sure they just somehow realise how many starters become fire fighting and just whoops let’s just make it fire dark but let it learn all the fighting moves.
Maybe it’s not a bandage but a heat patch…
But probably not.
The patches are on the bottom of his feet too! You can see it (patch on his left foot) in the initial release pictures.
You could be right!
He might be a runner and the patch on his nose is the things that athletes in the US use to open up their nasal passages more.
am now trying to figure out what type goes best with speed.
Air…but that doesn’t make sense, a Fire/Air rabbit starter would be ridiculous.
So it could happen, I suppose.
There isn’t really an Air type. And flying wouldn’t make sense either.
Fire/Ground since it’s a bunny does make sense though.
In Japanese, the same counter for birds is used for rabbits. 羽 Wa. The kanji also means feather.
There are a lot of thoughts on the origins of why rabbits are counted the same way as birds.
So, they could go that connection for a fire/flying rabbit.
During evolution, that nose patch will stretch across his eyes to look like a ninja mask, the ears will go back like a top knot, and the “collar” will go all fluffy and long and turn into a scarf (like Greninja’s tongue). That there is gonna be a fightin’ ninja bunny.
I’m personally hoping for Fire/Electric. The yellow patch on its face could be an electric conduction plate (there’s probs a more accurate term for what I mean, but I’m no sparky). It also has the same patch on its feet, making me doubtful that they’re like a bandage. Electric would also match up with its apparent speed, based on how it moves in the trailer. I believe it also runs up a steel watermill? So could be magnetic.
I can get behind that hypothesis.
Fire/Flying you seen it here folks, think about Hoppip, Skiploom and Jumpluff clearly these pokemon arent really flying but using the wind to float. I will leave the rest to your imagination.