XY What Type might Sylveon be?

[Resplendence]

I had a thought while playing an old school RPG with some classmates last night. Almost every role in battle has been fulfilled by the other Eeveelutions, except a pure support type role. Many RPG healers and support units wear frilly ribbons or have curls in their hair and are adorned in pastel colored garments. Chansey, Audino, and other "support" type Pokemon are pinkish. In many RPGs these support units are aligned with a "Light" or "Wind/Sky" element and their backstory typically makes some reference to divine, celestial, or fairy entities.

Despite my disagreement with the flying theory for a number of reasons, they could be going for that Support "wind" type role (the ribbons and streamers) rather than the obvious it has wings and is therefore a bird(flying).

Sylviidae is a type of bird, which is related to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenostiridae (aka "Fairy" fly catchers or "Fairy" warbler).

This could be evidence for flying type, but the birds/nymphs making reference to fairies makes me somewhat suspect that there could be a new type. It is fun to think that there could be some magic/fairy/light type with some support element in mind. It could allow for the new bonding system to be the form of evolution - a magical support type Pokemon evolving through a bonding system seems somehow fitting to me.

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秋山 (Akiyama) is a Japanese surname. I think it's the name of the guy who portrays Eevee and the Eeveelutions, respectively.
The sketches thus are headed "Eevee Akiyama's Friends".

Though I wonder if we will get yet another Eeveelution in the new Gen...

Your comment reminded me of this Akiyama who has appeared on Pokemon Smash before. I'm not entirely sure what he does/who he is (or if he is not involved at all) in regards to Pokemon game development, but he has been on Pokemon Smash fairly frequently, voiced characters in the anime, and he is a comedian. http://www.pocketmonsters.net/images/ib/67/13626039910085.png (What Mitja was talking about)

If anyone wants to do some more digging to find out a possible link to Sylveon, his full name is Akiyama Ryuuji. He does seem to really like silly Eeveelution cosplay

 

[Mitja]

Despite my disagreement with the flying theory for a number of reasons, they could be going for that Support "wind" type role (the ribbons and streamers) rather than the obvious it has wings and is therefore a bird(flying).

The thing is, in the past ~650... have we ever seen a wind-'type' role pokemon which is not capable of at least some degree of flight but was still Flying?

The only thing I come up with isn't Flying: Shiftry .-. (not even that but barely any wind-oriented moves it learns are Flying, since there is more wind-based attacks of other types, making me think wind is mainly sub-element of Flying but not exclusive to it at all)

 

[Mindshock]

Guys, this thing is so obviously a Flying-type.

 

[Pretzel]

My guess is on it being Flying type, just based off of a few observations.
1) The ribbons on it appear to be floating around it while it stands still (Not a big thing, but something nonetheless)
2) It appears to hold resemblance to Skyla, the flying type gym leader (This is probably just my opinion)

 

[Mitja]

My guess is on it being Flying type, just based off of a few observations.
1) The ribbons on it appear to be floating around it while it stands still (Not a big thing, but something nonetheless)
2) It appears to hold resemblance to Skyla, the flying type gym leader (This is probably just my opinion)

Skyla is not a Flying type pokemon. If it resembled her airplane or something you would have a point, but they both have similar fashionable details, therefore her gym type equals Sylveons?

Honestly, if it had something resembeling a cape, would you say its poison because Koga wears a cape? No.

Probopass must be Fire because Blaine has a moustache.

etcetc

resembling a gym leader is like the weakest argument for a pokemons type I have ever heard.

 

[Reggie McGigas]

Eevee's reasons for evolution aside, here is an image that another user posted, from Smash, that has to do with Sylveon, and a supposed 'new' Eeveelution.
Also, the colors of the writing correspond to an Eeveelution (Glaceon=light blue, Espeon=purple)

Is that real or fake? I personally would not mind a rock type eeveelution

 

[Pretzel]

Skyla is not a Flying type pokemon. If it resembled her airplane or something you would have a point, but they both have similar fashionable details, therefore her gym type equals Sylveons?

Honestly, if it had something resembeling a cape, would you say its poison because Koga wears a cape? No.

Probopass must be Fire because Blaine has a moustache.

etcetc

resembling a gym leader is like the weakest argument for a pokemons type I have ever heard.

Since when did it become stupid to post your opinion and reasons for them in an opinion thread? I said it myself, if you read beyond just the part where it looks like Sylvia, that it could just be me and something that I think may be related or not. I stated specifically that it was a guess, and am not sure what more you could want other than "non-stupid" reasons. I've read some of your posts here, and am thinking that you must have it out for anyone who disagrees with you on possible types for Sylveon. Is there any reason why it couldn't be flying type, or any other type for that matter? It could be anything from poison to dragon, depending on your viewpoint, but I would say that a reason for someone's opinion isn't stupid unless it's saying something to the effect of "Sylveon is pink, but the sky is blue. Therefore Sylveon must be flying type." Even then, I would just dismiss it as something I found ridiculous and move on, instead of creating a post to complain about how that person's reasoning for their opinion is stupid.

In all fairness, this post is probably useless and serves not much purpose, but I feel that you (Mitja) should hear that people don't really enjoy it when you pick their guesses apart over the smallest things.

 

[Mitja]

Who said stupid?

Because Its not just you, there is tons of people bringing up the supposed Skyla resemblance, which I don't understand. Why would comparison to a human character be valid in the first place, but even if you manage to justify that, I don't really see where they resemble each other. They got a ribbon thingie on their head? What am I missing?

 

[Pretzel]

Because Its not just you, there is tons of people bringing up the supposed Skyla resemblance, which I don't understand. Why would comparison to a human character be valid in the first place, but even if you manage to justify that, I don't really see where they resemble each other. They got a ribbon thingie on their head? What am I missing?

It's the ribbons and the blue tips (Sylvia has a blue bow), as well as the fact that Sylveon and Sylvia are very close (phonetically) to each other. It could be surperficial, and the pokemon could still be a different or entirely new type, but they are still similarities that multiple people have picked up on.

 

[Pokequaza]

Because Its not just you, there is tons of people bringing up the supposed Skyla resemblance, which I don't understand. Why would comparison to a human character be valid in the first place, but even if you manage to justify that, I don't really see where they resemble each other. They got a ribbon thingie on their head? What am I missing?

It's the ribbons and the blue tips (Sylvia has a blue bow), as well as the fact that Sylveon and Sylvia are very close (phonetically) to each other. It could be surperficial, and the pokemon could still be a different or entirely new type, but they are still similarities that multiple people have picked up on.

You do not get it. A reference to a character is not an argument at all, whether it is your opinion or not. ''Probopass is probably a Fire-type, because it has a moustache just like Blaine.'' You might as well say; ''The tips of Sylveon's bows are blue, so is water, usually there is oxygen present in water, oxygen is part of the air, and the air is where Flying-type Pokémon live, therefore it is a Flying-type.'' If there is one thing that we have learned from the eeveelutions, it is that they clearly resemble their type. Sylveon does not look like a Flying-type, perhaps with great imagination, but that is out of the question when it comes to eeveelutions. Sylveon looks pink and plain, the default looks for a Normal-type. The reason why so many people are betting on a Flying-type is because fans have been demanding one for years, but GameFreak does not listen to them, we all know that.

Even if it turns out to be a Flying-type, which means GameFreak did not stick to their ''rules'' when it comes to the looks of eeveelutions anymore, then it could have been anything. If it actually does not resemble what it looks like, it might as well be a Ghost-type.

 

[CannibalisticKiwi]

As I see it the most popular guess at Sylveon's type, flying, is improbable. To be a primary flying (or secondary flying in many many cases) the pokemon needs a way to fly. Yes, other pokemon fly with arms or ears or other silly things, but they are all designed as to make these not-wings look at least vaguely wing like and believable. Sylveon just has ribbons, which although flow-y can not enable flight unless wind controlling powers were evolved, which is doubtful.

Normal type, also very popular, is very possible. I just REALLY don't want a normal-veeloution before the other types.... PLUS, in theory a normal evolution of eevee should look like the existing normal... EEVEE.

THUS, my vote goes with the much debated NEW TYPE. Its been a decade since they introduced a new typing, and adding dragon to the TCG shows that retyping isn't an issue even at 649 pokemon. Dookieshed, i think it was, suggested a retyping of all the normal pink things as fairy (I've been calling it the 'light type', cosmic type is dandy too) in one of his videos, and I would put money on him being correct.

Clefairy, chancey, audino, and most of the other pink-thing pokemon that have been classed as normal have powers above what is expected of the normal type. Chancey and audino seem to possess healing abilities, chancey's line are supposed aliens, and they all share their own egg group (these are just off the very top of my head). They're different. And they are plentiful, more then enough to make up an entire typing (more then enough if you look at ghost type, which for a wile had no more then 3 pokemon in it).

BACK TO SYLVEON: It's pink and has no other obvious type associated with it. It has been seen using what some assume to be swift, which could be retyped for the 'light/fairy/cosmic' type because it fires 'star shaped rays'. And, following the eevee evo-chart/weakness speculation image, the light type could in theory gain energy from light sources, like fire and electricity. This could make the typing strong against electric attacks and follow the chart.

That's all I got umu/ MOST of my observations are based on appearance of this thing/of other pokemon... but yeah, BACK TO THE SHADOWS TO LURK.
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AND WITH THAT I AM DONE. I MADE AN ACCOUNT JUST FOR THIS NONSENCE. JEESH.

 

[Mitja]

Normal type, also very popular, is very possible. I just REALLY don't want a normal-veeloution before the other types.... PLUS, in theory a normal evolution of eevee should look like the existing normal... EEVEE.

What theory?

Imagine the convo at gamefreak
Boss "okay, people are crazy about eeveelutions, lets make moar I guess?!"
Smart Dude "but we've run out of fitting types!" (otherwise we would have gotten regular eeveelutions like before)
Boss "Oh well, lets try something special this time then, any ideas?"
Smart Dude "..well we could make a Normal one"
Boss "so an eeveelution that doesnt actually gain a particular elemental power?"
Smart Dude "yeah, we just make a more elegant and bigger Eevee.."
Boss "you're telling me that not just wont it have any new powers, but it wont even look different? just an oversized Eevee?"
Smart Dude "thats the idea."
Boss "yeah..no. we oughta give it a look that will make up for the lack of elemental association duh."

THUS, my vote goes with the much debated NEW TYPE. Its been a decade since they introduced a new typing, and adding dragon to the TCG shows that retyping isn't an issue even at 649 pokemon. Dookieshed, i think it was, suggested a retyping of all the normal pink things as fairy (I've been calling it the 'light type', cosmic type is dandy too) in one of his videos, and I would put money on him being correct.

Clefairy, chancey, audino, and most of the other pink-thing pokemon that have been classed as normal have powers above what is expected of the normal type. Chancey and audino seem to possess healing abilities, chancey's line are supposed aliens, and they all share their own egg group (these are just off the very top of my head). They're different. And they are plentiful, more then enough to make up an entire typing (more then enough if you look at ghost type, which for a wile had no more then 3 pokemon in it).

BACK TO SYLVEON: It's pink and has no other obvious type associated with it. It has been seen using what some assume to be swift, which could be retyped for the 'light/fairy/cosmic' type because it fires 'star shaped rays'. And, following the eevee evo-chart/weakness speculation image, the light type could in theory gain energy from light sources, like fire and electricity. This could make the typing strong against electric attacks and follow the chart.

That's all I got umu/ MOST of my observations are based on appearance of this thing/of other pokemon... but yeah, BACK TO THE SHADOWS TO LURK.
AND WITH THAT I AM DONE. I MADE AN ACCOUNT JUST FOR THIS NONSENCE. JEESH.

There definitely is some flair in a good amount of currently Normal pokemon.
To be honest, that's like the only way I could see them introduce new types at this point, finding special stuff in Normal ones and filtering those out, since there is no dilemmas about the types changing.
The most prominent really seems to be over-cute and fancy appearances, cosmic/magic association and fairy-like designs. Altho the later half of these is perfectly taken care of by Psychic..

Id really rather they at least rebalance the current types a bit, to make Ice types not fall over and die the moment they enter a battle, and poison moves actually an option. (The "fairy" type doesn't sound like something that'd be weak to poison and resisted by ice so that wouldnt improve things anyway)

 

[Fennex]

There are admittedly valid arguments for Sylveon being Normal type, since many emphatically cute and fairylike Pokemon like Skitty/Delcatty, Clefairy's evolution line or Chansey's evolution line are Normal types.

Retyping all these stuff as a "new" Light/Fairy or similar type as some people currently argue (and also did so before the release of previous gens) seems like doing things for the sake of doing things to me. Dividing Normal into plain Normal type and such a new type is like dividing Grass type into Plant and Mushroom type or Water into Fish and Floatable type IMO.
If GF introduced a new type one day, it would probably be something more innovative than a reclassification and this type should be used to balance out the type chart like Dark and Steel did back in Gen2.

Barring the unfortunately frequently emerging comparison to Skyla (that's indeed a rather weak argument for a Flying type, if that), there are valid arguments for Flying type, too. (International names based on mythical elementals of the air (sylphs) or at least airworthy creatures (nymphs, Feen = fairies); some elements of its design (ribbons streaming in the wind, aspects of a kite, less significant the sky blue eyes); maybe the cloud in the latest movie trailer, too)

If there is one thing that we have learned from the eeveelutions, it is that they clearly resemble their type. Sylveon does not look like a Flying-type, perhaps with great imagination, but that is out of the question when it comes to eeveelutions. Sylveon looks pink and plain, the default looks for a Normal-type. The reason why so many people are betting on a Flying-type is because fans have been demanding one for years, but GameFreak does not listen to them, we all know that.

Even if it turns out to be a Flying type, which means GameFreak did not stick to their ''rules'' when it comes to the looks of eeveelutions anymore, then it could have been anything. If it actually does not resemble what it looks like, it might as well be a Ghost-type.

I definitely wouldn't say Sylveon doesn't look like a pure Flying type due to lacking possibilities to compare to. Heck, we have only one pure Flying type so far and if there are more to come in future they probably won't all look like a badass wind deity à la Tornadus.

Of course, I agree that my personal idea of a Flying type Eeveelution looks different, too: A white or sky blue coat color, an overall more aerodynamic appearance, maybe the comeback of Vaporeon/Jolteon/Flareon's collar in form of a cloud - these are the the things I'd like to see on a pure Flying type Eeveelution.

What I want to say is that I think nobody can say what GF's vision of such a Flying type Eeveelution is exactly. Maybe it's just the design as seen in Sylveon, though it doesn't match the expectations that are prevalent in the fandom.
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Id really rather they at least rebalance the current types a bit, to make Ice types not fall over and die the moment they enter a battle, and poison moves actually an option. (The "fairy" type doesn't sound like something that'd be weak to poison and resisted by ice so that wouldnt improve things anyway)

Poison (offensively) and Ice (defensively) are indeed the types that need a buff most urgently.

I've alway thought of making Bug and Dragon moves 1/2x against Ice as poikilotherm animals like insects and reptils cease their activities at low temperatures.
Poison could be 2x against Flying, Water and, as before, Grass, expressing the pollution of air, water and forests/grasslands. Bringing back Bug type's weakness to Poison as in Gen1 would be neat, too, though it would make Bug even more vulnerable. To avoid too many offensive advantages of Poison type you could make it 1/2x effective against Ice in return, as chilling is used to slow down the spreading of venom in the victim's bloodstream.

Might be a way to balance out the type chart with the help of already existing types. Otherwise a hypothetical new type (though still unlikely IMO) should definitively tackle these problems.

 

[Mitja]

Another candidate for a Poison weakness could be Dark. You cannot fake an immune system.

Though that would mean Shitry/Nocturne and any future Grass/Dark pokes would gain a second quad weakness. But then again the dual-quad-syndrome is already a cruel reality for Rock/Ground, Rock/Steel, Bug/Grass, Fire/Rock (and any future Bug/Ice, Psychic/Ghost, Rock/Ice, Ice/Steel), so I think that should be addressed in some separate way.

EDIT:
And Normal!
1 weakness and 1 immunity is amazing for the supposed default type anyway.

 

[Tam]

It's quite frustrating that people assume a pink, feminine Pokémon must have a masculine counterpart... there are plenty of uber-masculine Pokémon without female counterparts! Can only girls enjoy Jynx, while only guys enjoy Machamp? Let's face it, most characteristics that we consider 'cool' in Pokémon aesthetics are 'masculine' things (like tough scaly dragons). Bows and pinkness never immediately strike us as being really cool. It's just a silly gender bias, and a double standard: if Sylveon looked really boyish, as a LOT of Pokémon do, I doubt it'd occur to anyone that it had a female counterpart...

Personally, I hope it's ghost... it looks kind of eerie. It reminds me of a sort of 'white lady' ghost, the ones that wear long white dresses and haunt mansions. I know it's unlikely though.