Month: October 2016

ommanyte:

OK lets back it up, I am going to sort this out once and for all.  I think the rowlet line has many owl inspirations, but there are some main ones that stand out, and yes an extinct one is involved BUT that is not why Decidueye is a ghost type (seriously, when have we had anything remotely to do with an extinct animal or fossil that was a ghost.) 

First of all, and i have said this from the start, there is primarily barn owl (I’m talking about the whole barn owl family Tytonidae) inspiration going on here. 

Barn owls are a separate family from the true owls, the Strigidae. Barn owls are characterised by their long legs (particulary decidueyes), heart shaped facial disk ( particularly in dartrix), and distinctive black eyes (particularly in rowlet), with a ridge of feathers above the beak, somewhat like a nose (most prominent in rowlet and dartrix). Typically, they are tan/orangey-brown in colour, and paler on the underside, though colours can vary from dark brown to near white (though rowlet and decidueye certainly have the typical colouration of the most well known barn owl, THE barn owl, Tyto alba). 

Tytonidae are almost everywhere, and the common barn owl is in fact one of the most widespread land birds, living on every continent except Antarctica. Barn owls are even abundant on Hawaii (though are not native). What is key is that, all over the world, barn owls have associations with death, and the supernatural. Barn owls cannot hoot, and instead make incredibly eerie and blood-curdling, drawn out screeches (seriously, have a listen here, it’s why they are often called screech owls), and that, plus their pale ghostly appearance, completely silent flight, and nocturnal habits, they have attracted many colloquial names such as “death bird”, “ghost bird” and “demon bird” and are often considered to be birds of evil omens and the supernatural (and thus were often persecuted, despite the huge benefit of their rodent pest control). Even the Ancient Greek word for owl, strix, also means screecher, and in ancient roman and greek mythology, Strix were vampiristic birds of bad omens, that fed on human flesh and blood. 

Thus I believe that this spooky mythology surrounding these owls are one of the main reasons for Decidueye’s ghost typing.

Another inspiration could be from Hawaii’s only native owl, the Pueo

The Pueo is a true owl, one of the Strigidae, and whilst aesthetically I do not feel it has given as much inspiration as barn owls (though perhaps some of it’s facial features for decidueye), it too has supernatural associations, as it is one of the various physical forms assumed by ʻaumākua (ancestor spirits) in Hawaiian culture.

Finally, let’s talk extinct owls. There is a post going around already with a picture of this 

This is not the extinct hawaiian owl! This is Ornimegalonyx, an extinct flightless giant owl (up to 1.1m tall!) from Cuba (126,000 to 11,700 years ago).

The long legged Hawaiian owls were a lot more recent. There were four species within the genus Grallistrix, and we know very little about them (there is only a partial skeleton of each) and they were about tawny owl size, 30 – 45cm long, but with quite long legs and probably reduced wings. We know very little about them, except that they ate other birds, and may have hunted mainly on foot (the below drawing was one of the only ones I could find – remember, i’t’s based only on partial fossils).

They are thought to have lived on Hawaii until around the first millennium AD, when the first humans colonised, and the birds were probably driven out by hunting, and the possible introduction of pigs and rats. 

Could their relatively recent extinction be the reason for their ghostly typing? I think it’s a lot more likely that the ghostly folklore surrounding barn owls and the Pueo, and surrounding owls in general –  is the reason for the change in type. 

To sum up, most pokemon have multiple inspirations. Aesthetically, and also in terms of behaviour and folklore, barn owls play a big part. However, I think the Pueo has an influence too, and there may also be a nod to the long legged extinct owls too.