How do Pokemon sizes work?

Question

Not sure if asked before, it didn't turn up on the suggested questions.

You know how every Pokemon has like a fixed height, right?

Well, in R/S/E in Sootopolis City, a guy asked you to show your Lotad or Seedot and would give you a special item if they were over a certain height.

I did it. I caught one of them, despite not liking it, I went to him, and see gave me the old cold shoulder, saying how mine was small. (Phrasing, I know)

This leads to my questions:

1. How can a same Pokemon species have varying heights? This might seem obvious (Well, duh, Rex, you're like the Loch Ness monster from the Paleozoic era at 350ft, and I'm prolly between 3 to 7 ft, so what's your point?)

I mean, what factors effect this? Level? IVs? Nature? Personality Values?

1. What measurements are the ones given on websites (such as this one, or Bulbapedia)? Is it the perfect specimen? Or does it change from site to site, or dex to dex? Or is it like the mean of all captured Pokemon of given species?

2. Does this apply to weight as well? (I don't know, Rex, but your mum's at least as much as a Snorlax hurr durr)

3. Did I dream up that person (NPC), and we live in a perfect world where all Pokemon are equal in all respects, and I'm finally going insane once and for all?

I get it, these are multiple questions, but they're so interconnected I felt the need to club them in.

An afterthought: Although I don't follow the anime much (okay, AT ALL), does this having anything to do with the giant Tentacruel that once tried to destroy a city (You know, the one where Ash asks his foot tall Pikachu to 'do something' about that Godzilla Re-incarnate?) ?

I'd appreciate if the answer did not include the anime side as I'm skeptical about their attention to detail.

Answer 1

You didn't dream it up! These characters exist in Sootopolis, as well as Route 12 (FRLG), Six Island (FRLG) and Lake of Rage (HGSS) and a Pokemon can satisfy these character's desires with their personality values. This is the whole math side of it fyi, but it essentially depends on the Pokemon's stats relative to its species' height.

I imagine the species height provided in the Pokedex is meant to be an average height observed in a sample group of Pokemon of that species. However, seemingly never-before-seen Pokemon (like Ultra Beasts) have heights and weights listed too - these values are probably just estimates. Obviously some of the sizes are a little messed up (Dratini, when uncoiled, is claimed to be 5'11"?), so Game Freak probably put very little thought into the feasibility of Pokemon sizes, let alone their methods of measurements.

I can't see the connection between the fisherman size obsession minigame and the giant Tentacruel in the anime, but the giant Tentacruel probably suffers some gigantism problem that can be observed in all species in the real world. Those fishermen would probably love to see that Tentacruel.

Hope I helped. :)
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Comments

Perfect! Thanks a lot! Do you think it's the same with weight as well?

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I think the second paragraph does apply with weight as well, yeah.