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Okay, so I spent a little while to write all this up, but here we go.
Introductio
The fully-evolved Pokémon were reupgraded to High 6-C while I was gone due to this thread, which argues that Pokémon's Magnitude move triggers real earthquakes and not just the radiated energy.
Allow me to indulge it as I counter all the points that were made in favor of that.
Revision
> They do more damage if the opponent is underground, signifying that they're closer to the initial impact of the attack
That's not how real life earthquakes work. The energy released by the shifting gets mostly displaced underground and only does major damage once it reaches the surface.
> Argument 1: Dugtrio triggers huge earthquakes via digging 60 miles underground, which is relatively close to where the tectonic plates are.
> Whiscash gained the ability to predict earthquakes that are explicitly stated to be real earthquakes, and it gained that ability through its own earthquake causing, showing their relation.
All Whiscash can do is cause tremors that are similar to those of an earthquake. This strongly implies it generates radiated seismic energy, and not a real tectonic plate displacement.
This also elaborates on what is said in Ruby's Pokédex regarding Whiscash triggering "massive" earthquakes, and shows us that the "huge" in Dugtrio's Pokédex doesn't have to mean a Magnitude 8 quake (an earthquake so intense that it would be felt with clarity as far as 600 kilometers away from the epicenter), but more like a localized quake that still deals plenty of damage.
Conclusion
Introductio
The fully-evolved Pokémon were reupgraded to High 6-C while I was gone due to this thread, which argues that Pokémon's Magnitude move triggers real earthquakes and not just the radiated energy.
Allow me to indulge it as I counter all the points that were made in favor of that.
Revision
> They do more damage if the opponent is underground, signifying that they're closer to the initial impact of the attack
That's not how real life earthquakes work. The energy released by the shifting gets mostly displaced underground and only does major damage once it reaches the surface.
> Argument 1: Dugtrio triggers huge earthquakes via digging 60 miles underground, which is relatively close to where the tectonic plates are.
- Reply: Except Dugtrio does this by burrowing, not by using the move Earthquake. Nobody who can use the move would scale to this. Also, stronger (deep-focused) earthquakes occur at depths of >200-300km, while quakes that occur from Dugtrio's burrowing range, 60 miles, are considered shallow earthquakes, which do more localized damage but release less energy overall, so there's really no proof Dugtrio is triggering a major quake. Any earthquake can be labelled "huge" close to the epicenter, even a Magnitude 6.
- Reply: The animation is unreliable and is just flavored, unless you want to legitimately argue that 'mons who can use Moonlight are able to flip the Earth upside dow. Furthermore, why would we decide to cherrypick between the more recent animations and the older ones if the description of the move has not changed to accommodate?
- Reply: The only link they have in the contest is your character gaining more Appeal points if they use Fissure after Earthquake. In other words, it means normal, impressionable human audiences think it's a flashy combination to show in a talent contest. Now, allow me to so gently ask what is this supposed to prove at all in regards to how they function?
> Whiscash gained the ability to predict earthquakes that are explicitly stated to be real earthquakes, and it gained that ability through its own earthquake causing, showing their relation.
- Reply: 1. All this means is that Whiscash can predict seismic waves, which are the result of an earthquake's radiated energy. Vibration sensing is a very common ability in fiction.
- 2. Pokémon: Sapphire strongly implies Whiscash's earthquakes are pseudoquakes and not real at all:
All Whiscash can do is cause tremors that are similar to those of an earthquake. This strongly implies it generates radiated seismic energy, and not a real tectonic plate displacement.
This also elaborates on what is said in Ruby's Pokédex regarding Whiscash triggering "massive" earthquakes, and shows us that the "huge" in Dugtrio's Pokédex doesn't have to mean a Magnitude 8 quake (an earthquake so intense that it would be felt with clarity as far as 600 kilometers away from the epicenter), but more like a localized quake that still deals plenty of damage.
Conclusion
- "What now?"
