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A weekly Pokédex Podcast from Bald Man in Japan Luke Summerhayes. A different Pokémon family every week.
I’m Luke Summerhayes and I love Sandygast.
There’s a joke among millennials on the internet that the media we consumed as kids made us think quicksand was going to be a much bigger danger than it ended up being. In adventure stories, our heroes often found themselves in perilous sandpits, sinking slowly, knowing that to struggle would only hasten their demise. So far, in my visits to beaches, deserts or chidlren’s parks, none of the sand has tried to eat me.
Of course, the sands of a desert or a beach can have plenty of other dangers. Fearsome creatures, shifting tides, storms and dehydration. Not to mention the supernatural; sirens luring one out to sea, djinn playing tricks among the mirages, the mummy summoning sandy behemoths or the sandman smothering Spider-man.
Sandygast is not quite any of those things just yet. It’s a ground and ghost type pile of sand, at the very earliest stage of being constructed into some kind of castle, with what may one day be windows and a door forming eyes and a huge mouth. All of this is topped off by a shovel in its head.
Sun
Born from a sand mound playfully built by a child, this Pokémon embodies the grudges of the departed.
The name, Sandygast, is pretty literal about being a sand ghost. The Japanese name, Sunaba, is the same as the Japanese word for a sandpit but with the added bonus of sounding like “BA!”, the Japanese version of “Boo!”
tra Sun
It likes the shovel on its head, so Sandygast will get serious and fight any children who come to take it back.
Violet
It flings sand into the eyes of its prey and tries to close in on them while they're blinded, but since Sandygast is so slow, the prey tends to escape.
I often hear requests for people not to stack rocks in nature or leave other things which can collapse and hurt wild animals. Some Sandygast Pokedex entries read like a story parents made up to convince their children to be careful after building sandcastles.
Ultra Moon
If you build sand mounds when you're playing, destroy them before you go home, or they may get possessed and become Sandygast.
Of course, in the Pokemon world, ghost stories can turn out to be true. They can get even more dangerous when, at level 42, Sandygast evolves into Pallosand.
Pallosand resembles a completed sandcastle, with crenellations at the top, and with two towers acting as limbs beside the central keep.
Some of Sandygast’s entries mentioned that it would control anyone who put their hand into its mouth, making them add more sand to its bulk. Pallosand expands on that.
Sun
Possessed people controlled by this Pokémon transformed its sand mound into a castle. As it evolved, its power to curse grew ever stronger.
It also takes it a step further and darker.
Moon
Buried beneath the castle are masses of dried-up bones from those whose vitality it has drained.
Pallosand gained those victims by being the embodiment of the fear of quicksand I talked about at the top of the episode.
Sword
Palossand is known as the Beach Nightmare. It pulls its prey down into the sand by controlling the sand itself, and then it sucks out their souls.
The name Pallosand could be as simple as a palace made of sand, though the word Loss is in there, and it sounds a little like collosal, and the Spanish for shovel is Pala. The Japanese name, Shirodesna, could mean something as innocuous as “that’s a castle, isn’t it?” or it could be deliberately including the word death in the middle there.
All of this sounds quite spooky and deadly so far.
Shield
This Pokémon lives on beaches, but it hates water. Palossand can't maintain its castle-like shape if it gets drenched by a heavy rain.
In fact, with the ability Water Compaction, this weakness becomes a strength. After being hit by a water attack, Palosand’s defences will actually rise! Prior to this, defence was already Palosand’s highest stat but after it can be genuinely ridiculous.
I haven’t made a sandcastle in the sand for a long time – maybe longer ago than I last thought about quicksand. I wouldn’t mind a trip to the beach this summer, or even to making a ghostly new pal.
Music for Luke Loves Pokemon was composed by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. Funding is by supporters at patreon.com/podcastiopodcastius.
I love hearing from listeners! Get in touch on youtube, social media or email and let me know about your favorite monsters. Coming up next are Pyukumyuku and Type: Null, so let me know your thoughts about those or any other monsters.
Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much for listening.
I love Sandyghast. And remember, I love you too.