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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 Terapagos.
From one of the original three starters, through various types and even fossils, turtles have been a rich source of inspiration for Pokémon designs. In the real world, though there are many species of turtles, some of the more magnificent are dying out. The Galapagos islands, once famous for enormous land tortoises, have not seen the conservation they needed, and one particular subspecies was reduced to one world-famous last surviving Tortoise, the sad case of Lonesome George.
Back when I covered Turtwig and its evolutions for the start of the fourth generation, I talked about World Turtles- mythical turtles which carry the continents on their backs. In Torterra’s case, the world on the turtle’s back was very literal. In other mythologies, the turtle may carry the skies, or some more esoteric spiritual weight for us.
Terapagos is a normal-type Legendary Pokémon found deep in the bowels of Area Zero of the Paldea region. It resembles a small, blue turtle with a gemstone for a shell. In the anime, we see it retreat into this gemstone form, worn unwittingly by Liko, the protagonist of the new Pokémon Horizons anime.
Normal Form
Scarlet
Terapagos protects itself using its power to transform energy into hard crystals. This Pokémon is the source of the Terastal phenomenon.
Like Lonesome George, Terapagos is also the last of its kind.
Violet
It’s thought that this Pokémon lived in ancient Paldea until it got caught in seismic shifts and went extinct.
Our first glimpse of Terapagos was actually in the Scarlet or Violet book, where a sketch shows an elaborate world turtle shell which doesn’t resemble this Pokémon very much. This is because, when Terapagos terastelizes it actually takes on a different form, like a Mega Pokémon or Gigantamax, becoming a large, round turtle with a shell of seventeen segments, representing the different types. The whole land of Paldea graphically represents this Pokémon’s shell.
Terastal Form
Scarlet
Upon sensing danger, it prepares itself for battle by creating a sturdy shell of crystallized Terastal energy.
Violet
The shell is made of crystallized Terastal energy. When struck by a move, this shell absorbs the move’s energy and transfers it to Terapagos.
This form has a big beard and a large flowing tail, owing to Japanese legends of old turtles growing tails of foam, as I discussed all the way back in my Wartortle episode in the first month of this podcast. In this form, any attack which hits it at full health will count as not very effective. Incredibly, though, this isn’t even Terapagos’ final form.
Alongside Terapagos, we discovered a new type: Stellar-type terastelizations can boost the attack of any type of move once, making for a very unpredictable attacker. As if this tera type with a powerful legendary weren’t already a threat, in this form Terapagos transforms even further, into a stack of turtles with a new ability which eliminates all weather or arena effects.
Stellar Form
Scarlet
In this form, Terapagos resembles the world as the ancients saw it, and its Terastal energy is abnormally amplified.
Violet
An old expedition journal describes the sight of this Pokémon buried in the depths of the earth as resembling a planet floating in space.
This Pokémon is the cause for the Tera phenomenon, and so digging down into the depths looking for it is the final act of the final DLC of Pokémon Sword and Shield. It also represents a character moment for DLC rival Kieran, who attempts to catch it but is overwhelmed by its power and accepts that the player should catch this one, and being better than us isn’t the only important thing in the world.
I love Terapagos because I love turtles, especially mythological, Stephen King-esque magic turtles. Still, a part of me deep down does wish I could have let Kieran catch it just this once.
Music for Luke Loves Pokémon is composed by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. Writing, Producing and Editing is by me, Luke Summerhayes. Funding is provided by my lovely listeners. If you’d like to join them, to help keep the show online and find other podcasts by me and my pals, head over to Patreon.com/PodcastioPodcastius.
Coming up are Pecharunt and Paldean Tauros, so if you have thoughts about those or any other monsters, hit me up with a DM @LukeLovesPKMN or an email to LukeLovesPKMN@Gmail.com. And of course, I’d love if you could leave a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much just for listening.
I love Terapagos. And remember. I love you too.