Why is it possible for Mr.Mime to be female, and Gardevoir to be male?

Question

Why does Game Freak make these? (Silly question, I know.)

Answer 1

Okay, here are the reasons.

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When first introduced, Mr. Mime's Japanese name was バリヤード, pronounced ba.ri.ya-do. Pretty obviously, its name means barrier, a reference to its mime skills and the most common & well known mime of invisible walls. So originally, the designers of バリヤード never intended it to be gender specific, unlike examples such as Sawk. That's why バリヤード has a 50/50 gender ratio. Only when it was given an English (and most other European) name did the gender confusion occur. Additionally, gender didn't arrive in the games until Gen II, so no Pokemon even had a gender apart from NidoranM/F.

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As for Gardevoir, it's not meant to be ultra feminine. Its design is based upon a knight wearing a cape, as per its Japanese name, サーナイトpronounced sa-na.i-to, i.e. Sir Knight. So the question should really be, "why are there female Gardevoir?" Its designers only compounded the confusion by introducing Gallade, which fans (mis)interpreted as an ultra-masculine form of Kirlia. Then Gardevoir was made even more confusing with Mega-Gardevoir, which was again (mis)interpreted by fans as wearing a wedding dress and dubbed (in poor taste) "Mega-waifu". Gardevoir was supposed to be an elegant knight based upon the the idea of chivalric tradition from the European middle ages, and/or influenced by the operatic portrayal of this idea. It's supposed to be some form of personal guardian, as indicated by its Pokedex:
>It will try to guard its trusted Trainer with its life. It has the ability to see the future. (Diamond)
>It unleashes psychokinetic energy at full power when protecting a Trainer it has bonded closely with. (HGSS)
>To protect its Trainer, it will expend all its psychic power to create a small black hole. (X)

So while Gardevoir does have a gender confusing name in Japanese, it was never meant to be a solely female species, unlike Jynx or Froslass. However, some fans projected their Pokefillia fantasies upon Gardevoir, making the entire species ultra feminine, when it was really supposed to be an elegant masculine knight. As Tamashii Hiroka puts it, "sorry, but your waifu is kind of a dude".

Tamashii's video, where she talks about overrated Pokemon and Gardevoir is #9. Also explains the projections it has from the Pokefillia community.

Comments

Great answer! Have an upvote!

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If gardevoir is ultra-masculine, then why does its brawl trophy description say it has a feminine appearance?

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I never said Gardevoir was ultra masculine; I referred to Gallade as such.

Also, this is part of my point as well, that there's inconsistency among Pokemon designers/ programmers/ game makers that cause Gardevoir's gender confusion. "Elegant" would be a gender neutral term to describe Gardevoir.

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Great Answer 1+

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O_O didn't expect that :/

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I like it! But at f i r s t glance , gardevoir looks like an " elegant " as this term fits her/him/it ( when you don't know it's an it ) better. So it " looks like an elegant pokemon " as it's the partner of a very elegant champion ( ehem.... Diantha ).

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Merida's a Disney princess. Gardevoir is a Sorceress Knight Supreme.

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My question is if Game Freak originally made it (?) to look like a male and then completely forgot and made it look like a female. And that answer also answers the question if Gardevoir has legs. Yes, but its not supposed to because if that flowie thingy that everyone calls a dress is a cape, then Gardevoir shouldn't have legs in my opinion.

Answer 2

This is fairly easy to answer - you are only looking at the English names. In English, it should appear that Mr. Mime would be male, and Gardevoir female. Looking at the Japanese, however, suggests this was not GameFreak's intent.

Mr. Mime

Firstly, Mr. MIme was named BEFORE the gender mechanic was introduced.
Secondly, its Japanese name translated to something along the lines of "barriered", probably referencing Barrier, Light Screen, and Reflect, which were all moves Mr. Mime was famous for in Gen I. As you can see there is no intonation of gender there.

Gardevoir

Gardevoir is even more interesting. Its Japanese translation is approximately "Sir Knight", so if anything it should be a male-only Pokemon, going by its Japanese name.

So, in short, I don't know, except to say that GameFreak wanted it that way!

Source: Mr. Mime and Gardevoir