One of many people’s favorite parts of the long-running Pokemon franchise is how many different monsters there are available to catch, battle, train, and breed. Many people have different preferences when it comes to which region’s Pokemon are the best or what the ideal monster to use in the meta is, but pretty much everyone can agree that the existing Pokemon have a ton of variety.
There are over 800 Pokemon and counting, and many people will have noticed that a lot of the “pocket monsters” are inspired by real-life animals. The iconic Pikachu may look like a mouse to some, although its name technically comes from an animal called a pika. Other Pokemon are more immediately distinguishable, like the Fire-types Ponyta and Rapidash, which both look like flaming horses. It’s always worth taking a look at some Pokemon that share a common inspiration, which is in this case, deer.
The Normal-type Pokemon Stantler is one of those monsters that doesn’t have a Baby pre-evolution or another Pokemon that it evolves into. It’s been in the franchise for a pretty long time, seeing that the current generation of Pokemon Sword and Shield is Generation 8, and Stantler first appeared in Johto back in Generation 2. Although it’s a Normal-type, its Pokedex entry is intriguing: apparently, its antlers can bend to disrupt reality and impede viewers’ senses. Its antlers are noticeably different than those of a normal deer, especially with the dark balls in their center, but other than that, Stantler is pretty clearly based on a generic deer, drawing inspiration from elk and moose as well.
Both Sawsbuck and its pre-evolution Deerling are known for their seasonal form changes, and at four different forms for each Pokemon, this monster is at the higher end of species variability. Although Deerling’s only seasonal changes is changing its fur from pink to green to orange to brown, Sawsbuck’s metamorphosis is more in-depth. Its Spring Form antlers have pink blossoms, while it grows leaves in Summer Form, that then turns orange in its Autumn Form. Its Winter Form is predictably white and fluffier, implying that its growing a thicker coat to cope with the coming snow.
Both Pokemon were introduced in Pokemon Black and White‘s Unova, which featured season changes as one of its biggest new gimmicks for the new gen (Generation 5). Unlike the seasonal changes in games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons where the seasons mirror the real life calendar (or the device’s internal calendar, at least), Pokemon Black and White used an interesting method of changing the seasons. The season changed each month so as to cycle through years quicker, meaning that players could encounter a snowy Winter Form Sawsbuck one month and see a pink Deerling the next.
Xerneas is one of the handfuls of Legendary Pokemon, and is in fact the game mascot of Pokemon X. Its sprouting antlers and flares of blue fur on its chest make it look like the “X” from the version name. Although Xerneas is deer-shaped, fan speculation has pointed to some more specific sources for inspiration, many of them coming from mythology. One such inspiration are legendary stags from Norse mythology, and another is the horned god Cernunnos. Both the name “Cernunnos” and the Latin word for deer, cervus, are speculated to be potential name inspirations for Xerneas. Pokemon games often go very in-depth with name inspirations, and many draw inspiration from world mythologies.
Deer are clearly a strong inspiration for some Pokemon, which ranges from Normal types to Legendaries, and includes some of the strongest examples of time-based form variation. Deer-inspired Pokemon have a lot of variety, and aren’t just confined to the standard real-world image of a drab-colored animal with antlers (and, of course, no magic powers).
Pokemon Sword and Shield is available now on Switch.
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