Today’s author is of Smogon U, a SYOC story where pokemon go to college. Pokemon are all segregated into dorms by type, and I was rewarded with some amazing stuff when I pointed out how silly that was.
5h ago
-If they are sure that only one of that species is going to Smogon, they are free to choose whichever dorm they want. Most of the Pokémon that get this privilege are Fossil Pokémon, Mythicals and Legendaries along with extremely rare and urban Pokémon.
-If there’s a chance that more than one of that species will appeear at the school, half will go to one of their typed dorms and the other to the other. For example: If 2 Charizard are in Smogon, one will be in the Flying dorm and the other in the Fire Dorm.
-Mega Evolutions that change type are allowed to spend some time in the dorms that are the type they change to e.g Sceptile, Ampharos and Charizard holding the Charizardite X and can sleep occasionally there if they choose to. However, they can’t move to those dorms as they only gain that type via Mega Evolution.
As for another question, Pokémon that don’t have hands with opposable thumbs e.g Hydreigon, Scizor and Dodrio can use their “hands” just as well as those with opposable thumbs.
4h ago
[If there’s a chance that more than one of that species will appeear at the school, half will go to one of their typed dorms and the other to the other. For example: If 2 Charizard are in Smogon, one will be in the Flying dorm and the other in the Fire Dorm.]What’s even the point of segregating them by type at that point? What if all the charizards want to be in the same dorm?
[If they are sure that only one of that species is going to Smogon, they are free to choose whichever dorm they want. Most of the Pokémon that get this privilege are Fossil Pokémon, Mythicals and Legendaries along with extremely rare and urban Pokémon.]
And this just shows the whole thing to be completely arbitrary. If special pokemon get to choose whatever dorm they want, there aren’t any actual social or physiological reasons for splitting them up this way. (I also imagine this would breed a lot of resentment from the normies.)
This also doesn’t answer the question of what they do for, say, eevee. If you evolve into a different type do you get kicked out of the dorm where all your friends live?
[As for another question, Pokémon that don’t have hands with opposable thumbs e.g Hydreigon, Scizor and Dodrio can use their “hands” just as well as those with opposable thumbs.]
Wait, I thought since they’re anthropomorphized they all have regular human hands.
2h ago
Does it cause resentment amongst students? Yes. A couple of them aren’t pleased with this. They feel it labels certain types as “dangerous” and makes things more dangerous as the Poison Type dorm, known best for most organized yet dangerous chemical lab, is right next to the Ghost Type dorm, which is full of students who do reckless things like play baseball with each others heads and purposefully set themselves on fire.
Is it possible that all students of a species may wish to reside in one dorm? Yes. Has it happened before? Yes. However, these tend to be slightly uncommon, as most students don’t care much about which dorm they sleep in and some purposefully let the administartion decide in order to spice up things.
I never said that special Pokémon get to choose their dorm. I said that if the administration is sure that only one Pokémon of that species is going there, they’re free to choose. This includes any Pokémon but typically happens to Fossil, Mythical, Legendary and rare Pokémon as most Pokémon tend to come in duos or even trios. However, if two Tyrantrum and one Crobat were accepted, one Tyrantrum would be placed with the Rock types and the other the Dragon types while the Crobat would get to choose the Dorm they wish to go to. Any Crobat after that usually would go into the Dorm the first didn’t choose. And even with such, they are still allowed choice as I already pointed out. It’s just that these Pokémon that want to be placed in the same dorm as the one who came before them are rare. Most will accept and some even give up the chance to choose to allow for more variety in their lives.
If a Pokémon, say Eevee or Azurill, evolved out of the blue and changed typing, they’d be given at least a month to leave the dorm as long as the type they gain doesn’t correspond with their dorm.
For example: A Scyther in the Bug Dorm wouldn’t change dorms upon evolution because Scizor is part Bug. However, a Scyther in the Flying type dorm would be changed to either the Bug or Steel type dorms upon evolution. Once again, very rare to happen as most (and when I say most, think about 99% of the school) of the school enters Smogon when they’ve fully evolved. Sure, there are rare exceptions such as Jessica, but once again, most Pokémon who come to Smogon are already fully evolved.
1h ago[It wasn’t always like this. There was a time that dorms were based on other means (CLASSIFIED INFORMATION) that’d at times land Fairy tyoes and Poison types or Ground and Ice types or even Fire and Bug types together. Things happened back then, things people wouldn’t want to talk abput.]And the administration couldn’t stop those fights? Try to compare this to a real-life college situation. Modern dorms are extremely mixed and there are generally no disasters from it. Placing strong athletes next to sickly nerds isn’t an issue because assault/murder/rape/etc. is still illegal — just because the athlete technically has more opportunity to murder the nerd doesn’t make them any more capable of getting away with it in practice, because y’know, police exist. (Also, if you’re sleeping under the same roof, things that would be an advantage in a fair fight kinda fall away. There’s nothing stopping the nerd from slitting the athlete’s throat in their sleep.)
And once again, dual-types still throw a wrench into this. What happens if a charizard shares a flying dorm with a tropius? That’s not any safer for the tropius. And what about the myriad of pokemon who have moves outside their type? Type segregation is no guarantee of safety.
[Does it cause resentment amongst students? Yes. A couple of them aren’t pleased with this. They feel it labels certain types as “dangerous” and makes things more dangerous as the Poison Type dorm, known best for most organized yet dangerous chemical lab, is right next to the Ghost Type dorm, which is full of students who do reckless things like play baseball with each others heads and purposefully set themselves on fire.]
And once again, compare this to real life. This is objectively a safety hazard. Any visiting inspectors would shut this down on sight. (Also, why is there a chemical lab in a dorm? That is also a major safety hazard.)
[I never said that special Pokémon get to choose their dorm. I said that if the administration is sure that only one Pokémon of that species is going there, they’re free to choose. This includes any Pokémon but typically happens to Fossil, Mythical, Legendary and rare Pokémon]
Even if something isn’t literally enshrined in the rules, if it just so happens to disproportionately affect one group over another, that’s an inequity. See also Donald Trump’s recent Muslim ban, which technically doesn’t discriminate against Muslims, only countries where most of the population just so happens to be Muslim.
What you are saying here, effectively, is that rare pokemon have free reign to terrorize anyone they want. If I’m understanding this correctly, an omastar would be free to room in a fire dorm, where they would be practically invincible should they decide to start a fight. (This is doubly true because rare pokemon tend to be more powerful.) You’re telling me the students are merely “resentful” of this, and not outraged? It reveals the whole police to be a lie on its face: if this is really for the students’ own protection, it shouldn’t be compromised for anything.
[Is it possible that all students of a species may wish to reside in one dorm? Yes. Has it happened before? Yes. However, these tend to be slightly uncommon, as most students don’t care much about which dorm they sleep in and some purposefully let the administartion decide in order to spice up things.]
Uh, have you gone to college? Choosing your dorm is a big thing, especially if you have friends you want to stay with. People usually hate having the administration run their lives for them. If the only other charizard in the university is your best friend from high school, why would you sit back and let them split you up? This is doubly true when you seem to be depicting some horrific dystopia where any pokemon with the slightest advantage will maul each other given half a chance. Herding with your own species seems like it would be a popular option there.
It makes sense for type-segregated dorms to be an *option*, in the same way many real-life campuses have gender-segregated or ethnic dorms, but I see no reason for it to be mandatory.
You still don’t get that “choose a dorm” rule. An Omastar cannot reside in a Fire type dorm. They can only reside in the Dorm that their typing corresponds to.You said “If they are sure that only one of that species is going to Smogon, they are free to choose whichever dorm they want.” Does that not mean they can choose any dorm type?24m ago
1) Dorm Leaders. Students who the dorm members choose to head the dorm and keep everyone in line with school rules and regulations.
2) Rules and Regulations, kiddo.
Also, I can compare this to a modern college. Maybe I want to compare it to a modern college in Africa. Or Asia. Or America. Or maybe I don’t want to. Maybe I want to make a story based on a fictional idea I made after sitting in the tub for half an hour. Maybe I didn’t put these into consideration because I knew how things would work out. I knew that the people in my school, no matter how irresponsible, would know better than to break the law. I knew there’d be a couple douches who would. I knew that maybe two of a species would like to reside in the same dorm. Did I care about these at all? Maybe a little. Did I question myself on violent and criminal Pokémon? Yes I did. Did I think that a death or two may occur? A ton of them, mainly due to Mega Evolution. Did I decide to base this off of any college I know? Apart from the basics of almost any college, no. Why? Because, I knew that since the chapters would consist of every chapter having a new thing happen barely related to the previous chapter, if at all, it’d be more vital to think of more random scenarios than to worry about the schematics of a dorm system someone seems to have a problem with.
Also, the lab is safe. The school knows about it. The students know. Health Inpsectors know. In fact, the original reason why the Ghost and Poison dorms were right next to each other was because in case something happened to a Pokémon in the Poison dorm (safe for anyone smart enough to wear a gas mask), the Ghost types would be able to remove the toxins from the body before handing it over to the Fairy types (not so far down the hall) who’d be able to heal the body more efficiently without worrying on being poisoned by toxins.
secs ago[Two, you must be terribly misinformed if you think that an Omastar would be able to reside in the Fire dorm or something along these lines.]You were the one who said one-of-a-kind pokemon could reside in any dorm, unless I misunderstood you?
[Two things were put in place to counter that:
1) Dorm Leaders. Students who the dorm members choose to head the dorm and keep everyone in line with school rules and regulations.
2) Rules and Regulations, kiddo.]
And as I pointed out already, if those are good enough to prevent issues, why is type segregation necessary?
[Also, the lab is safe.]
No lab is safe. Explosions and leaks can happen in even the safest labs, and you explicitly described this one as “dangerous”. There is a reason dorms are not built on top of labs in real life.
[I knew that since the chapters would consist of every chapter having a new thing happen barely related to the previous chapter, if at all, it’d be more vital to think of more random scenarios than to worry about the schematics of a dorm system someone seems to have a problem with.]
That just makes it all the more important that your setting makes sense. Even in (especially in!) an episodic story, the setting is going to be a vital component. It circumscribes what stories are possible, it sets the tone, and it creates potential opportunities for drama; that is something you have to put a lot of thought into.
[In fact, the original reason why the Ghost and Poison dorms were right next to each other was because in case something happened to a Pokémon in the Poison dorm (safe for anyone smart enough to wear a gas mask), the Ghost types would be able to remove the toxins from the body before handing it over to the Fairy types (not so far down the hall) who’d be able to heal the body more efficiently without worrying on being poisoned by toxins.]
For instance, this is actually an interesting use of pokemon mechanics, and potential inspiration for story material, but again it implies some pretty shady things about the administration, in that they are viewing their students like robots, to be used and discarded as necessary. What happens if most of the ghost dorm is out somewhere else that night? What happens if they don’t feel like playing cleanup this time? What happens if the accident is so bad it hits the fairies too, are they resentful that they’re forced to be close to a disaster area just because their healing powers might come in handy? Why are the students expected to perform first aid — where are the medical professionals?
These questions are unavoidable when you introduce such detailed living arrangements and such detailed reasons for them. This is shaping up to be a very dystopian setting where the administrators are evil and a lot of students should be in open rebellion against the system. From what I understand, this is the exact opposite of the tone you want for this story. That is a problem. If a story element conflicts with the kind of story you want to tell, it’s in your best interest to change it.
OkBrb just gotta write a story where the pre-med dorms are built next to the chem dorms, because chem majors gotta chem and pre-med students know how to heal people if anything goes wrong, right?
I’m not sure why I’m surprised that pokebots would extend even to more humanized versions, but I am.
“To be a pokemon is to walk with death.”
I mean, as long as it brings you closer to Akasha, the risk is acceptable.
… is it just me, or does it seem like this person just really wanted to use “Smogon University” as the title of a story, and doesn’t care about anything else? (I’m not sure how familiar you are with Smogon the site but they do call themselves that)
Then again, they’re putting a lot of effort into their excuses as to why they don’t need to put in effort, so I’ve no idea what’s going on in this person’s head.
In fact, if he wanted to make a college out of Smogon university, the site already has a classification of pokemon based on popularity: OU, RU, Borderline, UU, NU. It definitely will be more interesting that students will be separated by the species that seem to be “common knowledge” that are stronger than other ones by popular opinion.
That would also make a lot more sense with the justification that it’s to protect more vulnerable pokes.
Hmm, yeah, that’s an interesting idea too. Although the Smogon classifications are too obviously a game balance tiering thing, I think it’d be pretty tricky to turn them into an in-universe thing (though I guess I’ve read fics that just had Smogon-style ‘competitive battling’ be a thing in-universe so they could just do that).
I guess the other arbitrary distinction that could work here is something to do with egg groups, since (at least in theory) that seems intended to correspond to similarities in habitat and body type. Moreso than type-chart-types anyway, at least. Except of course then you’re putting individuals that are capable of mating together, and that’s kind of the opposite of what they usually intend when segregating dormitories…
That might actually be an interesting basis for a Pokemon School setting; there’s built-in expectations and pathos for pokemon in each tier in terms of living up to their potential, potentially never exceeding the boundaries of the class, and shadowy administration acting to make sure that no one transgresses those boundaries.
… is it just me, or does it seem like this person just really wanted to use “Smogon University” as the title of a story, and doesn’t care about anything else?
Probably, but just the name doesn’t require all these logic pretzels! I am amazed how much effort he put into this without once stopping to think if it was at all a good idea in the first place.
There’s this Youtube South Park Pokemon thing which might have been might have been the inspiration for this idea. It had a whole drama thing about a school’s very arbitrary rule that could have never been applied in any other situation.