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In my fic, I have referred to human language as English, even though it should probs be called Hoennian.
Second is the fact that, my fic slugcats have ✨secret names✨, with a social name they use for conversation, as well as a title, in the form of "The <X>" where X can be any descriptor or noun.
So for example, Sorrel is The Exile's social name. They don't like their title, so choose to go by that instead. A slugcat would normally choose their own social name, often a human one, to make interactions easier.
Of course, this is an excuse for me so I don't have to type out, "Three Spots of Ivory" or "Tides Under the Moon" for every single character, and call them The Wright or The Tempest instead.
I don't know if this is exactly a worldbuilding fail, but I have a love/hate relationship with writing battles because I'm so attached to writing them according to game logic, wheras anime logic probably translates better into written fight scenes. But in one fic, I wrote myself into doing game-accurate matchups, and then I had to get a friend to battle me on smogon until we could get the underdog team to win because it was so unlikely LOL
I've got a fun one that I believe fits here, and it is why I only have one story posted rather than two.
The way the illusions of Zorua and Zoroark work.
The ability in game seems simple enough, right? The Pokemon takes on the appearance of the last pokemon in the party, and reverts back to normal when hit. It doesn't get the moves, it just takes the form, and still takes damage from the attacks, same type effectiveness and all. Just a replacement of everything except level. (Apparently it can even change the appearance of the pokeball, which is a detail I didn't know until researching the ability). Moves don't change, weight doesn't change, just the appearance.
But when it transforms into, lets say a Staraptor, who's sprite it, well, flying in certain games, the Zorua or Zoroark also appears to be flying, which it shouldn't be able to do, as it's just an illusion, right?
And what if they transform into a pokemon larger than them, like a Wailord? Is the illusion tangible? Can they feel what the illusion feels?
This ability isn't the same as the move transform, because we don't get the moves. It is just an illusion.
Well maybe this isn't explained in battle because it doesn't need to be. Lets turn to the occasionally trustworthy source known as the Pokedex. Zoroark's entries state the following:
"Each has the ability to fool a large group of people simultaneously. They protect their lair with illusory scenery." and "Stories say those who tried to catch Zoroark were trapped in an illusion and punished."
These suggest that the illusions are not only tangible, but they can allegedly trap people.
But this is the same pokedex that claims Macargo's body burns at 18000 Fahrenheit, and sometimes a story is just a story.
Lets turn to our next example of Zorua, one which illustrates the illusion.
That's right, our next source is the anime.
Hold your groans, this may hold the answers we need, and spoilers for "BW Episodes 38-40'" and "Zoroark: Master of Illusions".
The illusion can clearly be interacted with according to BW Episode 38, (which from here on out I will just refer to as either Pokemon Night or EP 38 to save time), as we can clearly see that the rope prop used in the movie is read, at least the first time it appears, though this is more noticeable in episode 40 when Luke's Zorua is disguised as Georgia, and physically interacts with the real Georgia, and also when she pretends to be Iris' Axew. So that's it then, they can do whatever the creature they are disguised as can, and their illusions are tangible, right?
Not quite, because now we get to Zoroark: Master of Illusions.
In this movie, we learn a few things that build off what we know, and one thing that slightly contradicts some of this information.
For starters, the illusory terrain created by a Zoroark is tangible, as seen when they conjure up a grassy field that seemlingly, albeit only temporarily, overwrote the actual area they were in, though earlier we see Zoroark creating certain disasters in the forms of the legendary beasts, which cause no actual damage, so it seems that illusions to the environment may not actually be tangible, or can't cause any real damage.
Additionally, we learn two other things about the illusions in this movie, or at the very least, those of a Zorua.
The illusions do not grant certain things, like the ability to fly in this movie, as when the Zorua transformed into Celebi, it needed the assistance of a Bronzor using psychic to lift it up.
Additionally, a Zorua disguising itself as a human has its tail still visible, though this detail only appears in this movie, so maybe it is a trait of this specific Zorua, or due to inexperience. Maybe just a movie gimmick, maybe relevant, make of it what you will.
So what we know now is that Zorua and Zoroark can't cause damage with their illusions, illusions that change themselves are tangible, beyond simple physical interactions, they are incapable of doing anything they cannot do in their normal form.
They do not get the powers of whatever they transform into, they cannot fly if the form has wings (but they may be able to glide, no evidence to support either side, this is just an inference due to the alleged tangibility of the illusion), they cannot swim better (this is just a guess, but if they can't fly and likely aren't used to, y'know, being a fish, they probably won't be a better swimmer, and certainly can't swim underwater), they can't speak (the one from the movie is the exception, not the rule), and that is it.
Still doesn't explain why it appears to be flying when disguised as a flying pokemon, and whether or not environmental changes are tangible is iffy at best, but seems to be a no.
This doesn't answer all the questions, and probably creates some new ones, but I feel the lack of explanation and varying examples creates confusion, if not minute plot holes in how this works overall.
This may or may not belong here, and if it doesn't, my apologies, I will take it down and move it to where it should go, if anywhere. But this is something that has been on my mind for months, and I had to put it somewhere. If you have anything to add or argue, let me know.
Toot-your-own-horn moment but I think my worldbuilding has been solid enough that there are no big fails, at least nothing that would potentially break a story or undo the development of a given character.
That said, I'm safe so far *mostly* thanks to my ongoing story format being the one-shot, so it is only ever the tip of my worldbuilding icebergs that get to show up onscreen (side materials and collaborator-level access aside) and there's nothing too fail-prone there.
The "big ifs" of most Pokémon settings I consider solved or solvable without issues as well. The Pokémon-Trainer relationship is covered, and I made it a point to make it so back in my RP days (and I share some of the same meta background on that with @Umbramatic , actually). Carnivorism is solved, or was never really a problem (I'm amazed at how wanky the fandom is with that in this year of Arceus of 2023). Power levels are a floating window, as is Pokémon durability. Pokédex entries are *mostly* basically selected entries from children and youth for marketing, so their over-the-topness is kinda the Trainer banter version of "my dad can beat up your dad". Legendaries are powerful enough to resist direct combat against multiple Trainers by necessity, so very few Trainer "have" a Legendary, and it defo won't stay around for long. The mainline games are a fictionalized version of in-universe IRL events aimed at children to present a more positive narrative; there's simply no way that a novice Trainer is going to get into the Godzilla vs Kaikai Vilu kaiju battle of the century and defeat both of them (space gecko intervening or not) with a level 31 gecko Treecko on their own. Berries are good for Pokémon but not for much else, so there's no incentive for human agriculture to overflow arable grounds with them or drop useful food crops like wheat in their favor. The swirly teleportation tiles at Saffron are visually cool, so they get to stay reinterpreted as a transportation tube for people similar to the one seen in Futurama (I think it's called pneumatic tube system?). You should consider saving every morning — that is, saving your money, but hey I shouldn't be giving you unsolicited financial advice. Etc.
But for a long-runner format, I guess I'll have to be more careful.
As for stuff from canon that gives me pause, not really. I learned with G6 to detach from canon for whatever I want — after all, we're writing Pokémon fandom because we want "Pokémon but better", right? Last time canon gave me annoyances was the Zygarde forms but I just said f-it, decouple from mainline canon for that, and I'm going on my own entirely new way to develop the concept of Zygarde. I admittedly feel I can fix most stuff progressively and for the better, after all no one said we worldbuilders had to get *everything* right at the first try.
