The Sun and Moon dex entries are contradictory.

Bongani said:
The Sun and Moon dex entries are contradictory.

Not neccesarily. It can help injured Pokemon, but still prey on others.

Lots of Pokedex entries this gen mention predator/prey relationships.

Hell, Lucario's entry says that they're pack hunters.

Rad_Dudesman said:
Not neccesarily. It can help injured Pokemon, but still prey on others.

Given that its hunting method is "drown prey in its bubble" any vulnerable and weak Pokémon it finds would have to be water breathers to not get killed by its "help" (if the bubble is filled with water) or it preys on water-breathers, which in turn means the "weak and vulnerable" are landlubbers.

The dex text is trying to have it both ways, which makes it contradictory.

Bongani said:
Given that its hunting method is "drown prey in its bubble" any vulnerable and weak Pokémon it finds would have to be water breathers to not get killed by its "help" (if the bubble is filled with water) or it preys on water-breathers, which in turn means the "weak and vulnerable" are landlubbers.

The dex text is trying to have it both ways, which makes it contradictory.

So is no one considering that it says small Pokemon get stuck in the bubble. Small not most or all hinting at the idea that it could possibly have a mutual relationship with creatures of similar size and stature.

Bongani said:
Given that its hunting method is "drown prey in its bubble" any vulnerable and weak Pokémon it finds would have to be water breathers to not get killed by its "help" (if the bubble is filled with water) or it preys on water-breathers, which in turn means the "weak and vulnerable" are landlubbers.

The dex text is trying to have it both ways, which makes it contradictory.

Well, consider this: These entries are for sun and moon separately. Maybe it behaves differently during night and day, or with the presence of Solgaleo and Lunala.

....are you telling me this isn't some edit to make the pokemon look like raikou

WATISTAHT said:
So is no one considering that it says small Pokemon get stuck in the bubble. Small not most or all hinting at the idea that it could possibly have a mutual relationship with creatures of similar size and stature.

The mon's 5'11" long. The bubble is only about 2/3 the volume of that (and I'm highballing that figure). Consider that most of that bubble, by the looks of it, is taken up by the cephalothorax and that theory's blown out of the water right there.

Furrin_Gok said:
Well, consider this: These entries are for sun and moon separately. Maybe it behaves differently during night and day, or with the presence of Solgaleo and Lunala.

It would have to be the latter, and I think that's rather unlikely. If anything it'd flip from nocturnal to diurnal, as opposed to docile -> aggressive.

Bongani said:
It would have to be the latter, and I think that's rather unlikely. If anything it'd flip from nocturnal to diurnal, as opposed to docile -> aggressive.

Why is that? What evidence do we have even that the game actually changes day-night cycle? Maybe the storyline involves the cycle being locked in place, and that's why Midnight and Midday Lycanrocs are version exclusive.

And even then, if somebody disturbs you during your sleep, wouldn't you be cranky? Maybe for this ultra-beast that's amplified.

Furrin_Gok said:
Why is that? What evidence do we have even that the game actually changes day-night cycle? Maybe the storyline involves the cycle being locked in place, and that's why Midnight and Midday Lycanrocs are version exclusive.

And even then, if somebody disturbs you during your sleep, wouldn't you be cranky? Maybe for this ultra-beast that's amplified.

This isn't a UB. It's a Poke. (Everything we know of the UBs puts them squarely into Euclid- or Keter-class anomalies, and especially the latter class, which means the Sun text would be completely nonsensical if it were a UB.)

And the cycle being locked in place is exactly what I'm implying. The Lycanrocs have it in their name - Rockruff's line is essentially a wolfwere, which is essentially a canid that becomes more humanoid during the full moon. That wouldn't be the case here for a spider - they'd merely flip from one mode of activity to another (or crepuscular to nocturnal or diurnal) instead of flipping from being docile to aggressive or vice versa.

Bongani said:
This isn't a UB. It's a Poke. (Everything we know of the UBs puts them squarely into Euclid- or Keter-class anomalies, and especially the latter class, which means the Sun text would be completely nonsensical if it were a UB.)

And the cycle being locked in place is exactly what I'm implying. The Lycanrocs have it in their name - Rockruff's line is essentially a wolfwere, which is essentially a canid that becomes more humanoid during the full moon. That wouldn't be the case here for a spider - they'd merely flip from one mode of activity to another (or crepuscular to nocturnal or diurnal) instead of flipping from being docile to aggressive or vice versa.

UB or Pokemon, it doesn't matter. They don't have to follow exact rules of their real life counterpart (A lot of pokemon instead follow myths). Lycanroc by no means needs to be the only one effected by the moon, or even just a day/night cycle.

Just shortly into looking at mythological spiders, I found Anansi, who seems to be a protective diety that served as a role model for slaves and helped guide them to freedom, but before he could do all of this, had to trick and capture several wise creatures to gain the right to be known. Just like other mythological figures, Anansi is sometimes depicted as being helpful, othertimes as being cruel.
Of note is where he stands:

In some beliefs, Anansi is responsible for creating the sun, the stars and the moon

Despite seeming to be a non-legendary, it definitely would give it ties to Sun & Moon.

Even if you ignore that, just look at tides: The moon has a noticeable pull on water, so when it's up, the water level becomes larger. The effect this would have on the bubble is that suddenly it becomes large enough to submerge more pokemon than before, while when the moon isn't up, it shrinks down and it's easier for pokemon to not become completely submerged.

Bongani said:
The mon's 5'11" long. The bubble is only about 2/3 the volume of that (and I'm highballing that figure). Consider that most of that bubble, by the looks of it, is taken up by the cephalothorax and that theory's blown out of the water right there.

It would have to be the latter, and I think that's rather unlikely. If anything it'd flip from nocturnal to diurnal, as opposed to docile -> aggressive.

How is that theory blown out of the water? He couldn't drown larger Pokemon that's why I'm saying he wouldn't mess with them.

WATISTAHT said:
How is that theory blown out of the water? He couldn't drown larger Pokemon that's why I'm saying he wouldn't mess with them.

The Sun dex explicitly says that "vulnerable [and] weak" Pokémon are put into the bubble as well, for protection. Given the size of the bubble and how much of it is already occupied, that puts a hard limit on how big the Poke it takes in is.

Couple this with the Moon text, and the flavour text is contradictory. Neither Dex entry mentions interactions with mons of its own size explicitly.

Furrin_Gok said:
[Large amount of text]

First, Anansi legends make no sense here - Anansi is African, and is better known as a trickster deity on par with Raven.

Second, tidal pull does not work that way. Tidal pull doesn't add water; it merely changes how it's distributed around the earth (hence high/low tides). Tidal pull has absolutely no bearing on the bubble other than how it's positioned on the Poke, and even then the volume of water is so small that any positional change would be too small to notice.

Bongani said:
Couple this with the Moon text, and the flavour text is contradictory. Neither Dex entry mentions interactions with mons of its own size explicitly.

It doesn't mention the pokemon it protects being small either. Don't argue something isn't included when the thing you are arguing isn't included either.

Bongani said:
First, Anansi legends make no sense here - Anansi is African, and is better known as a trickster deity on par with Raven.

Heh, you wish. Being from a different region has no bearing on the credibility of a connection. Lunala is from Oriental inspiration, while Solgaleo is from European. Neither are actually from the area around Hawaii.

Second, tidal pull does not work that way. Tidal pull doesn't add water; it merely changes how it's distributed around the earth (hence high/low tides). Tidal pull has absolutely no bearing on the bubble other than how it's positioned on the Poke, and even then the volume of water is so small that any positional change would be too small to notice.

I didn't say the volume changes, just the distribution. And yes, it does work that way. There's plenty of water around the head, but gravitational force is keeping it mostly horizontal. When the moon is up, that water gets pulled upwards, to the point where you would expect those hitching a ride to be at, meaning they would suddenly be completely submerged and drown.

Furrin_Gok said:
It doesn't mention the pokemon it protects being small either. Don't argue something isn't included when the thing you are arguing isn't included either.

"vulnerable [and] weak" often tends to also be a watchword for possible prey objects as far as nature goes. And with the Global Link art for Araquanid now being available and knowing the size of the bubble (it surrounds the Poke's head and nothing else) there is no way in hell the Sun flavour text with the art can support that sort of interpretation.

Again, the size of the bubble is essentially a hard limit on the size of anything it can protect inside it. (And as an aside, now having seen that, the art looks a bit misleading on the anatomy of the Poke and the bubble's size.)

Furrin_Gok said:
I didn't say the volume changes, just the distribution. And yes, it does work that way. There's plenty of water around the head, but gravitational force is keeping it mostly horizontal. When the moon is up, that water gets pulled upwards, to the point where you would expect those hitching a ride to be at, meaning they would suddenly be completely submerged and drown.

The thing is, tidal action is generally only noticeable with larger volumes of water because of the fact that there's two gravitic forces at play here. The moon's presence in the sky is not going to be enough, when you also have to factor in the gravity of the planet (which is going to be stronger due to being far closer and larger), to distribute that much water in any noticeable fashion, and certainly not to that sort of effect unless we're talking one of the handful of Pokémon smaller than 1'.

Bongani said:
"vulnerable [and] weak" often tends to also be a watchword for possible prey objects as far as nature goes. And with the Global Link art for Araquanid now being available and knowing the size of the bubble (it surrounds the Poke's head and nothing else) there is no way in hell the Sun flavour text with the art can support that sort of interpretation.

Again, the size of the bubble is essentially a hard limit on the size of anything it can protect inside it. (And as an aside, now having seen that, the art looks a bit misleading on the anatomy of the Poke and the bubble's size.)

The thing is, tidal action is generally only noticeable with larger volumes of water because of the fact that there's two gravitic forces at play here. The moon's presence in the sky is not going to be enough, when you also have to factor in the gravity of the planet (which is going to be stronger due to being far closer and larger), to distribute that much water in any noticeable fashion, and certainly not to that sort of effect unless we're talking one of the handful of Pokémon smaller than 1'.

It also appears to have multiple bubbles meaning it has much more than just the volume of its head bubble...

I saw multiple comments talking about the cycle being locked, but we know thats not true. There is a cycle, it's just twelve hours apart between versions.