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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 Bergmite.
For us landlubbers, icebergs are rarely a concern. Of course, we all know an iceberg sunk the titanic, but otherwise ice is rarely larger than a block floating in our drinks, or maybe a thin covering over the road.
In fact, our planet is still, on the geological scale, in an ice age. Our polar caps are coated in perpetual ice year round, 4.8 kilometers deep – that’s half of mount Everest’s height, and spread across an entire continent. When icebergs break off these ice sheets and float across the seas, they aren’t on the scale of ships, but of cities and mountains.
Ice type Pokemon Bergmite is not the immense goliath that looms beneath the waves, but the much smaller percentage which is visible above the waves – the famous Tip of the Iceberg. It resembles a small, pointed icicle on four squat legs, with two round eyes peering from beneath the icy surface.
X
It blocks opponents' attacks with the ice that shields its body. It uses cold air to repair any cracks with new ice.
Y
Using air of -150 degrees Fahrenheit, they freeze opponents solid. They live in herds above the snow line on mountains.
The Japanese name for the Pokemon is kachikoru, a combination of the Japanese onomatopoeia for crackling ice and the verb for freezing solid. The English name combines iceberg’s berg with the mite of stalagmite – a rock formation similar to an icicle. It may also incorporate Mite, small bugs which ride on larger creatures.
Shield
This Pokémon lives in areas of frigid cold. It secures itself to the back of an Avalugg by freezing its feet in place.
Scarlet
They live in mountainous regions of frigid cold. On rare occasions, they ride on the back of an Avalugg to cross seas and move to new habitats.
When I was 23 I got my driving license, and for the brief period I had a car I felt compelled to drive all the people who previously gave me lifts. Similarly, at level 37, Bergmite will have to start sharing the load when it evolves into Avalugg.
Avalugg is a large, flat-backed iceberg monster, somewhat resembling a turtle or dinosaur. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, Avaluggs can be seen floating among real ice sheets in the frigid waters.
Violet
This Pokémon uses its massive icy body to flatten anything that gets in its way. When it's floating out on the ocean, it looks exactly like drift ice.
X
Its ice-covered body is as hard as steel. Its cumbersome frame crushes anything that stands in its way.
The name Avalugg combines avalanche, a tumbling ice fall on a mountain, with lug, a big, heavy brute. Real icebergs, and the arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, crack throughout the summer and refreeze in the winter. Avalugg’s icy body does the same on a faster scale.
Shield
As Avalugg moves about during the day, the cracks in its body deepen. The Pokémon's body returns to a pristine state overnight.
The Japanese name is Crebase, combining crevace, for the crevaces in its surface, and base, as it is a base for Bergmites.
Y
The way several Bergmite huddle on its back makes it look like an aircraft carrier made of ice.
This aircraft carrier connection actually relates to a real-world historical project. Project Habakkuk was a plan in WWII by the British, American and Canadian navies to build an enormous aircraft carrier primarily from ice pykrete, a kind of biological concrete. Prototypes were made, but it was eventually determined that for the cost of this behemoth, a whole fleet of regular aircraft carriers could be built. The prototype was scuttled, and its metallic bindings still rest at the bottom of lake Jasper to this day.
An enormous Avalugg combining ice and rock did appear in the Hisuian region, where Bergmite evolve into the rock and ice type Hisuian Avalugg, with a face like a snow plow.
Legends: Arceus
The armor of ice covering its lower jaw puts steel to shame and can shatter rocks with ease. This Pokémon barrels along steep mountain paths, cleaving through the deep snow.
Avalugg is one of the most physically defensive Pokemon in the entire game, and when an ice-type counter has been needed it has seen some play. Alas, it is generally not used in mainstream competitive play because ice is simply too fragile a typing for a Pokemon so reliant on defensive play. Hisuian Avalugg adds additional physical attack, and some promising moves, but the addition of a secondary rock typing merely doubles up some of the already prominent weaknesses!
The ice typing in Pokemon has always been something of a glass cannon, and it is reflected in the iceberg. Capable of sinking the ship of dreams, but every year they get closer to disappearing altogether and flooding our shores as the earth’s temperature increases.
Music for Luke Loves Pokemon is by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. If you enjoy the podcast, find out about my other shows at podcastiopodcastius.org, get in touch on bluesky @podcastpodcast, or support the show at patreon.com/podcastiopodcastius.
I love hearing from Listeners! Up next is Noibat and then we’re into the mythical and legendary Pokemon of Generation Six, so hit me up about those or any other Pokemon. Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much for listening.
I love Bergmite. And remember, I love you too