Ultimately: research inconclusive. Just another theory. Unlike this proven deal! Sign up with "LOCKSTIN" for 1,000 ZenPoints and get up to 1% cashback with ZenMarket! More details about the loyalty program are here: shorturl.at/HtOC9
I always thought Gulpin and Swalot were Tamagotchi's that escaped into the pokemon world, given their visual similarities to that once popular V-pet...
I named mine CoinPurse cause the yellow mustashe looked like drawstrings to me so there maybe something to that as both stomachs and wallets/moneybags are never as full as you wish they could be
Have you ever thought about doing lore deep dives into the locations (cities, routes, dungeons, etc.) of the Pokémon world? Bulbapedia has this cool page matching every single place with a real-life location that allegedly inspired it and I’ve always wondered how true those connections are.
We did that for Sinnoh a couple years ago, it was really fun! I've thought about doing it for other regions as well, I just get anxious when I do anything slightly different...
@@Gnoggin Well I would certainly the heck out of anymore content like that. Locations and worldbuilding are the best part of Pokémon besides the Pokémon - shame they’ve been on the decline since at least Galar. I’ll have to go looking for that Sinnoh one as I don’t think I would’ve been subscribed back then.
My belief is that they're based on coin purses; in the beta for Ruby and Sapphire, there's a dex entry for a purse pokémon that sounds suspiciously like swalot, and its mustache is like drawstrings on those little pouches. Plus, their mouths are also like those ball bearings that keep coin purses clasped shut.
Here's my weird guess, they're tunicate frog coin purses. Frogs are also seen as walking stomachs, they're connected to water like tunicates, and they're sometimes associated with money with myths like the three-legged toad that can produce gold and silver coins like a coinpurse
Maybe diamonds symbolize gallstones, thus when Gulpin has 1 diamond, it's a yet healthy-ish gallbladder, but Swalot has 4-5 diamonds as the unhealthy one.
I've had my gal bladder removed. Had one gal stone the size of a golf ball. I didn't get to see it though. I named the shiny Gulpin I got in Scarlet Tum Tum :D
Should have asked the surgeon for a picture. I guarantee you someone took at least one photo of it before sending to the pathology lab 💀 Edit: glad you survived. Stones that big can be life threatening
Swalot's whiskers immediately make me go land catfish, catfish even have huge mouths, i think they are one of the inspirations even if its just the MOUTH
12:03 Tunicates, aka Sea Squirts, are invertebrates as adults, but have a notochord as juveniles. As members of phylum chordata they are our very distant cousins ❤.
Im a long time Swalot fan, one of few I assume. I always associated the diamond patterns with generic "poisonous animal markings" like a black widow, or a tree frog. It's meant like a hazard tape, telling predators to stay away. I also always just assumed he was based on "The Blob". An amorphous monster with basic design who mindlessly consumes everything in its path. A horrific concept in kind of a goofy package, like how The Blob is a horror movie that is kind of silly. As an extension of Muk, who is more of a generic Slime, Swalot has that kind of goopy, undefined undersection that stretches as it moves. But unlike Muk, there's more of an emphasis on digestion rather than absorption.
Swalot will always be my favorite poison type can't say favorite in all because I like too many and am a ghost type collector but swalot is def my number one if I ever plan for a poison type on my team.
I always read the pattern on Gulpin and Swalot as a hazard symbol. A black diamond is used to denote a ski slope as being particularly challenging or dangerous, and WHMIS hazard symbols use a diamond border. Also, I think Swalot's general shape is also kind reminiscent of a dumpling, which may play further into the glutton aspect.
Yay! My favorite Pokemon! I name my Swalot, Mochi. I always saw Gulpin as a coin purse with its lips being the balls that close them and Swalot as a cinch bag with its mustache as the draw strings
This and Druddigon’s video have to be some of my favorite research videos you’ve made. I genuinely love how in-depth you go with seemingly simple designs! It’s extremely enjoyable, thank you! Keep up the amazing work
Had my gallbladder removed when I was 13....the stones where not fun man not fun. Still have some issues still to this day but not as bad as it was. If your stomach hurts like hell and it wraps on the right side to you back on the right side I'd go to the ER and also no fast food anymore eather trust me. Stay healthy everyone
As an MRI technologist, I see these digestive organs all the time, from every possible angle. Cholangiopancreatography is a pretty common type of MRI, which specifically gives me a good look at those ducts at 8:22. Because of my familiarity with those body parts, I think these are wonderful, wonderful theories. I was sold from the moment you pointed out their general body shapes; Gulpin is a stomach, Swalot a liver. I’m convinced. And the thing that really blows my mind is what you realized about gulpin’s yellow leaf-like feature. We MRI techs are all too familiar with the very distinctive three-dimensional orientation of the pancreas. A healthy spine, as an example, is relatively easy to line up our pictures with (we take them like slices through the body). Sections of it tilt forward and backward, but otherwise, it’s in line with your body; and since the machine defaults to taking pictures in line with your body, we don’t have to adjust the angles much for the spine. But the pancreas? That sucker has an orientation all its own. It’s tilted slightly forward in your belly, angled somewhat counterclockwise when looking down at it from above, and when you’re looking straight on at it like your standing in front of someone (a ‘coronal’ view)… well, that’s the kicker. In the coronal plane, it has the exact same orientation that it has on gulpin when you look at HIM in the coronal plane. That slight counterclockwise tilt. We spent a week in school learning how to match those tricky pancreatic angles - I’ll never forget them as long as I live. And now, I’ll never forget gulpin either. If it’s as true as I think it is, it’s a fantastic design.
Oh, one more thing. I think if GameFreak wanted gulpin to be a gallbladder, they would have him do the one thing that a gallbladder does. Spit. It spits acids/enzymes out onto food in the intestines. It doesn’t digest anything within itself, which is all that the Pokédex entries talk about gulpin doing. I reckon gulpin is a stomach they needed a better color than brown for, so they chose green. A fitting color for acid and digestion, whether the gallbladder was involved or not.
I like to think they can be like the slimes from any rpg, but more as the hungry kind of slime that'll eat anything, I wonder if they have a similar connection with the grimer line?
I always thought they were just a unique interpretation on a typical rpg slime and a bit of a retread after muk and grimer. Swalot also looks like jell-o.
Anyone who played gen 4's online rooms will never forget Swalot, man I miss that. I always saw them as grapes honestly, as a kid at least. The colours matching to white and red respectively, with the evolved Swalot having the snooty French stereotype moustache because of the stronger association to red wine. Probably a coincidence, but neat anyway.
This might be one of the most compelling Pokemon theories I’ve ever seen, which I wasn’t expecting from a video about Gulpin/Swalot! I love the idea that they are a hybrid of guts and tunicates! I always loved these Pokemon, but now I have a whole new kind of appreciation for them!
The reason Swalot has black diamonds is due to the fact that the color black is known for death, and Swalot poison is very deadly. So probably, the diamonds are spots that contain extremely fatal venom. However, I have no idea why the diamond is the shape used.
I've always heard they're coin purses/stomachs. So greedy. The diamonds are just the patterns of the purse and the lips are like the clamps. As well as green being for money and purple beings just well, traditionally fancy
I would love to see more pokémon inspired by different organs or organ systems of the body! In a sense Houndstone and Marowak represent bones but there's still many other organs left. * Brain Pokémon would of course be psychic type - if made into a cortical homunculus depicting the relative strength and location of the different parts of the body as assigned on the brain. * Lung Pokémon would be air type - no notes on what it could be... An air ship Portuguese Man-o-War maybe? * Guts Pokémon could be ground type - The intestines sort of look like a bunch of worms, or snakes or even a rat king and all those animals either live in the dirt, on the ground or in the sewers. The pokémon could both be representing the organs and the common wromy parasites we can get in our guts. * Kidney & Bladder Pokémon - Water type that filters the 'water' and 'releases' it... Could also be tunicates, which are commonly known as sea squirts! Or maybe a kind of sea sponge. A grass/water type or steel/water type combination for halophytes or desalination or sewage sanitation plants could also work. * Heart and circulatory Pokémon could be a couple of different types; normal (blood is normal, heartbeats are musical), water (blood is a liquid), steel (iron in hemoglobin), dragon or dark (blood is arcane and special in dark arts or something), poison (bloodpoisoning, blood medicine, blood letting and blood as an ingredient in potions), or fairy because he beating heart is what gives life to so many creatures. Could be based on plenty of different things depending on the typing, but one example would be a 2-stroke engine if steel type. * Muscles, skin and hair Pokémon - Normal or fighting type. I have nothing more to say and no more Pokémon to propose
I thought they were just slimes. Poisonous, doofy slimes. Slimes like in Dragon Quest and other JRPG scrub enemies. But I can see some fishy aspects in there. Pokemon can pull aspects from multiple things. So a fantasy slime with fish lips and the whiskers of a catfish (weird since Wiscash was also introduced in this generation). Did not expect the stomach and other digestive organs as inspiration I never paid attention to the Pokédex classification. I mean Blastoise is the “Shellfish Pokemon.” It is in a shell, but it is certainly not a fish. Which is why I don’t put much stock in the Pokédex. Whoever writes that stuff is nuts. An amoeba also makes sense now that it’s brought up. And these tunicate things are really interesting. I’ve never heard of them before. They’re freaky but cool. The ocean has so many weird creatures. It’s no wonder why Eldritch/cosmic horror is often related to the ocean and its creatures. Can’t believe Bloodborne didn’t have something like that. But in general I think it’s a fantasy slime. Given a few extra details so they weren’t just boring, single-colored blobs. And just talking about them gives me more appreciation for them. I thought they were bland “whatever” Pokémon. Didn’t hate nor love them. But the fact we can find so many things that could have inspired it makes it cooler to me.
I'm surprised there wasn't any mention of classic rpg slimes! Gulpin is reminiscent of video game slimes, like from Terraria or Slime Rancher, perfectly round and brightly colored. Swalot, on the other hand, is more evocative of ttrpg oozes, more melty and grotesque, usually with debris visible inside, which could be represented by the diamond patterns, and the Black Pudding in particular springs to mind as it's often depicted stretching upward.
Sometimes I wonder if official Pokémon designers watch these videos and think "idk I just made a lil green guy, didn't even know what a gallbladder is..."
I think Gulpin/Swalot might be at least partially based on either the Bullfrog, or the Cane Toad. Whichever one is known for trying to eat things that are too big for them to eat, and end up dying because of it.
I actually liked swalot when i played the game as a kid. I never played comp. I just played to enjoy myself. I remember playin Swalot along ludicolo, breloom, swampert, quagsire and Raichu
Kind of surprised you didn’t mention frogs in this video. Frogs also eat things whole. They will eat just about anything they can fit in their mouths, and sometimes try to eat things that are way too big. They’re practically mouths with legs, lol.
I've always assumed they were like... Pokemon version of classic ttrpg and rpg slimes, as we often forget that pokemon (even more so in the early generations) as its roots firmly planted in the dragon quest influence
There is the highly absorbent diaper weave, which looks like diamonds. It was so absorbent that people began using it as diapers. Swalot's diamonds could be a reference to that.
So, about the diamonds, I always thought, especially for Gulpin, that they are supposed to be a kind of reference to the black square that senbei usually have, which is that Japanese cookie made of rice. Because food, and stuff.
I've always assumed gulpin/swalot were just Pokémon's generic RPG slime, with slimes being know to hurt the player by enveloping or swallowing them and digesting them in acid, hence the blob shape
Honestly my first impression of swalot when i saw em was just a purple blobby catfish. Big mouth, whiskers like mustache, gulping down everything so yeah like a catfish but purple.
Don’t know if you knew this, but TFS’s gaming channel did a Nuzlock run of Pokémon Emerald, where they used a Swallot that they named, “My Ex.” It ended up being one of their best Pokémon.
I think Gulpin has a diamond on its back and a yellow petal to resemble a Cacnea when viewed from above, a pokemon with diamond shaped spines and a yellow flower crown. The two even debuted on adjascent routes! Swalot just retained them for the sake of continuity in design.
@Gnoggin If you ever played Pacman, just imagine to add up the 2 main characters, Pacman and the ghosts. Pacman eats everything, the ghosts move like swalot and when they are weak to Pacman they are purple or blue (depends of the game version). Pacman is a huge mouth that eats only. Idk maybe some reference? Tbh in japan they love arcade games so could be correlated?
Normally I don't care for most sponsors, but that bronzor mirror during the ad read is so cool and I must investigate. That's my favorite Pokemon line and I need that.
Lockstin: “I’ve always loved Gulpin, to be honest.” My friend in the other room: “Gulpin DEEZ-“ Me: “He already made that joke! Get some new material!”
Unless this was covered in a past video I don’t remember, I’ve recently grown curious as to why Buneary and Skitty are able to learn Cosmic Power in their egg moves, with both Buneary and Lopunny able to learn it through tm as well. I tried doing a bit of research myself, as these two lines felt like the only learners of the move that didn’t make any amount of sense compared to the others (save Skitty evolving via Moon Stone, but that didn’t feel strong enough). The best I could come up with was a number pattern in what levels Buneary and Lopunny learned their moves pre gen 8 and the potential meanings of the numbers in japanese, but nothing seems to click.
I always thought of them representing trash bags. Gulpin being a smaller lighter colored residential bag, and Swalot representing a larger commercial bag. The yellow accents look like drawstrings with Gulpin being tied off and Swalot being untied. It also fits in with where you find them in game on the side of a long road where they can go around eating up litter. It also works with Muk and Weezing as a land counterpart to the water and air pollution that they represent.
I can't believe I found a whole RUclips video about my favorite Pokemon, Gulpin & Swalot and it was positive. Fun video and I named mine Big Boi, after one of the members of Outkast
When I was a kid and first played Ruby, I thought Gulpin was a plant of sorts, after all, it's green and has a leaf shape on it's head. And it got to the point where I constantly used Fire type moves on it because... well, if it's green, it has to be a Grass type, right? Of course, when it came to Gen 3 Pokemon, I was focused far more on what exactly Metagross was supposed to be. In fact, Gen 3 has a lot of odd designs. Like asides from the aforementioned Beldum family, what exactly is the Whismur family supposed to be, is Mightyena a wolf or a hyena, what animal is Absol supposed to be, and what does a clay doll like Claydol have to do with spinning tops or deserts?
@@MsVilecat Actually, they're based on Dogu figures from Ancient Japan. You're probably thinking of golems like Golurk or the Regis (which the Pokemon named Golem strangely isn't).
Gulpin and Swallot were always Pokemon i wondered if they had more going for them in terms of inspiration. I thought they were generic dirty blobs like Muk or Garbodor, but it wasn't enough. The feather on Gulpin and whiskers on Swalot made me think there has to be more to it. I'm so glad this video exists for possibly one of the most overlooked Pokemon in the series.
I always liked Gulpin mainly because he was my first pokemon card. My cousin gave me there 2009 gulpin card that had clearly been through the wash but i still loved him
I was about to say "Lockstin is making another video about an innuendo again" but this was actually a lot more nuanced than I expected! I wonder if the tunicate idea is also why the Sticky Hold ability makes it easier to fish in Pokemon Emerald?
My guess is that diamonds are also used in traffic to represent HOV lanes (high occupancy vehicle) and given that swalot’s stomach occupies a lotta space in its body so…could be a pun🤷🏾♂️
After looking into the evolutionary stones a bit, I have a theory about the shiny and dawn stones. The shiny stones when used on pokemon seem to take what makes that pokemon special, and expands upon it, making that niche more powerful. Letting their power "shine" so to speak. Meanwhile Dawn stones opens the door of evolution to something new, but still related to their power, hence "a new dawn". Like how Gallade opens a kirlia up to new physical fighting capabilities instead of staying to the special attacking gardevoir. Heres a neat idea for gulpin, a dawn stone evolution that is based on a tunicate that still has its heart and brain and has high speed. Maybe this could be psychic/poison since the heart is associated with emotion and brains are associated with psychic ability.
Hey, not related to the video, but have you ever considered going over the monsters from My Singing Monsters? I’d love to learn more about the origins of some of the monster designs, especially since they already have expansive lore to go behind some of the more complicated designs.
I always thought the diamonds and moustache on swalot was to indicate bulter/weighter vests and clothing. Like the clothing a waiter at a fancy restraunt would wear
I think that I named my Gulpins and Swalots Acid (as in stomach) and Eater or Big Eater (of Worlds). Unfortunately, I believe I’ve done the same with Guzzlord. I like food and eating, but it doesn’t exactly get the right juices flowing Also, there’s Guts, like the old Nickelodeon game show… or the manga/anime character 😅
Ultimately: research inconclusive. Just another theory. Unlike this proven deal! Sign up with "LOCKSTIN" for 1,000 ZenPoints and get up to 1% cashback with ZenMarket! More details about the loyalty program are here: shorturl.at/HtOC9
Plot twist: diamond has nothing to do with Swalot, they jus want to tease Diamond and Pearl😮😮😮
I always thought Gulpin and Swalot were Tamagotchi's that escaped into the pokemon world, given their visual similarities to that once popular V-pet...
I named mine CoinPurse cause the yellow mustashe looked like drawstrings to me so there maybe something to that as both stomachs and wallets/moneybags are never as full as you wish they could be
where swalot apparently being opera man
A GAME THEORY
Have you ever thought about doing lore deep dives into the locations (cities, routes, dungeons, etc.) of the Pokémon world? Bulbapedia has this cool page matching every single place with a real-life location that allegedly inspired it and I’ve always wondered how true those connections are.
We did that for Sinnoh a couple years ago, it was really fun! I've thought about doing it for other regions as well, I just get anxious when I do anything slightly different...
@@Gnoggingo for it dude! i believe in you
@@Gnoggin Well I would certainly the heck out of anymore content like that. Locations and worldbuilding are the best part of Pokémon besides the Pokémon - shame they’ve been on the decline since at least Galar. I’ll have to go looking for that Sinnoh one as I don’t think I would’ve been subscribed back then.
@@GnogginI think it would be cool Pokémon has many interesting and fantastical locations.
@@Gnogginah yes, the badge video hu...
Swalot ain’t the Throat Goat it’s the *Gulp God*
Swalot be giving the hawk tuah treatment
Chill diddy... 😳
Throat GOAT is also how we called this one girl back in college...
@@idzbbyboy XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Spit Up that thang
My belief is that they're based on coin purses; in the beta for Ruby and Sapphire, there's a dex entry for a purse pokémon that sounds suspiciously like swalot, and its mustache is like drawstrings on those little pouches. Plus, their mouths are also like those ball bearings that keep coin purses clasped shut.
Actually... That makes a lot of sense especially with Sawlot being the Poison Bag Pokemon like the video stated
WOAH.
This is what I was gonna comment. I can see the tunicates being a secondary inspiration though.
This is a fascinating theory, I'd like to add that Gulpin first appeared in the route before Mauville City... location of Hoenn's Game Corner.
The spelling would make sense in this case as well. Swallow and wallet respectively.
“Truly Green, 7 times over”
I see what you did there
truegreen7 cameo
Here's my weird guess, they're tunicate frog coin purses. Frogs are also seen as walking stomachs, they're connected to water like tunicates, and they're sometimes associated with money with myths like the three-legged toad that can produce gold and silver coins like a coinpurse
Wait, that's where that Mario enemy comes from?
@@pkmntrainermark8881 it might be yeah! I also thought of how Naruto has a frog-snaped coinpurse
Cant they also invert their stomachs out their mouths to clean it?
Maybe diamonds symbolize gallstones, thus when Gulpin has 1 diamond, it's a yet healthy-ish gallbladder, but Swalot has 4-5 diamonds as the unhealthy one.
Chill bruv..
Interesting!
And what’s a name for a bile duct blockage? A calculus.
So in a way, the diamond shape is just the right amount of perfect.
I don’t even want to IMAGINE the smell of that room after squishing a fish apart with a sock 14:00
I've had my gal bladder removed. Had one gal stone the size of a golf ball. I didn't get to see it though. I named the shiny Gulpin I got in Scarlet Tum Tum :D
Should have asked the surgeon for a picture. I guarantee you someone took at least one photo of it before sending to the pathology lab 💀
Edit: glad you survived. Stones that big can be life threatening
@@SerDerpish Ditto (not the Pokémon). Blessings.
Swalot's whiskers immediately make me go land catfish, catfish even have huge mouths, i think they are one of the inspirations even if its just the MOUTH
The catfish's whole body is a tongue.
Funny considering whishcash’s existence.
12:03 Tunicates, aka Sea Squirts, are invertebrates as adults, but have a notochord as juveniles. As members of phylum chordata they are our very distant cousins ❤.
Im a long time Swalot fan, one of few I assume.
I always associated the diamond patterns with generic "poisonous animal markings" like a black widow, or a tree frog. It's meant like a hazard tape, telling predators to stay away.
I also always just assumed he was based on "The Blob". An amorphous monster with basic design who mindlessly consumes everything in its path. A horrific concept in kind of a goofy package, like how The Blob is a horror movie that is kind of silly.
As an extension of Muk, who is more of a generic Slime, Swalot has that kind of goopy, undefined undersection that stretches as it moves. But unlike Muk, there's more of an emphasis on digestion rather than absorption.
Swalot is my second favorite pokemon, so it's good to see you appreciate swalot similarly to me.
Swalot will always be my favorite poison type can't say favorite in all because I like too many and am a ghost type collector but swalot is def my number one if I ever plan for a poison type on my team.
The blob and perhaps also like gelatinous cubes in fantasy which are blobs that eat anything
Honestly I kind of suprised to see swallow and gulpin in Gen 9.
@@John-mp4qc But I'm definitely not complaining.
I always read the pattern on Gulpin and Swalot as a hazard symbol. A black diamond is used to denote a ski slope as being particularly challenging or dangerous, and WHMIS hazard symbols use a diamond border.
Also, I think Swalot's general shape is also kind reminiscent of a dumpling, which may play further into the glutton aspect.
I can't belive we started with a Gulpin deez buts jokes, but I'm not surprised.
It's rather low-hanging fruit if u ask me.
Chill diddy... 😳
@@yusheitslv100You know what else is low-hanging fruit?
@@TwiliPaladin Muscleman:
I would have been disappointed had we not
Lockstin coming out here saying "But if Luvdisc is the Heart Pokemon, then the Gulpin line are the Liver and Gallbladder."
SpongeBob mention!!!!
THE TFS MOUSTACHE SONG?!!?! ❤❤❤❤
Yay! My favorite Pokemon! I name my Swalot, Mochi. I always saw Gulpin as a coin purse with its lips being the balls that close them and Swalot as a cinch bag with its mustache as the draw strings
18:26 Lockstin Silently Contemplating Swalot Smash or Pass in his head.
This and Druddigon’s video have to be some of my favorite research videos you’ve made. I genuinely love how in-depth you go with seemingly simple designs! It’s extremely enjoyable, thank you! Keep up the amazing work
Had my gallbladder removed when I was 13....the stones where not fun man not fun. Still have some issues still to this day but not as bad as it was. If your stomach hurts like hell and it wraps on the right side to you back on the right side I'd go to the ER and also no fast food anymore eather trust me. Stay healthy everyone
Ssme here, romved mine years
I actually suffered from a bad tummyache just yesterday because the dumbass here has no discipline😅
An inflammed gallbladder can also be caused by an infection, which in this case is not caused by one's diet.
As an MRI technologist, I see these digestive organs all the time, from every possible angle. Cholangiopancreatography is a pretty common type of MRI, which specifically gives me a good look at those ducts at 8:22.
Because of my familiarity with those body parts, I think these are wonderful, wonderful theories. I was sold from the moment you pointed out their general body shapes; Gulpin is a stomach, Swalot a liver. I’m convinced.
And the thing that really blows my mind is what you realized about gulpin’s yellow leaf-like feature.
We MRI techs are all too familiar with the very distinctive three-dimensional orientation of the pancreas. A healthy spine, as an example, is relatively easy to line up our pictures with (we take them like slices through the body). Sections of it tilt forward and backward, but otherwise, it’s in line with your body; and since the machine defaults to taking pictures in line with your body, we don’t have to adjust the angles much for the spine.
But the pancreas? That sucker has an orientation all its own. It’s tilted slightly forward in your belly, angled somewhat counterclockwise when looking down at it from above, and when you’re looking straight on at it like your standing in front of someone (a ‘coronal’ view)… well, that’s the kicker. In the coronal plane, it has the exact same orientation that it has on gulpin when you look at HIM in the coronal plane. That slight counterclockwise tilt.
We spent a week in school learning how to match those tricky pancreatic angles - I’ll never forget them as long as I live. And now, I’ll never forget gulpin either. If it’s as true as I think it is, it’s a fantastic design.
Oh, one more thing. I think if GameFreak wanted gulpin to be a gallbladder, they would have him do the one thing that a gallbladder does. Spit.
It spits acids/enzymes out onto food in the intestines. It doesn’t digest anything within itself, which is all that the Pokédex entries talk about gulpin doing.
I reckon gulpin is a stomach they needed a better color than brown for, so they chose green. A fitting color for acid and digestion, whether the gallbladder was involved or not.
…Lockstin? Why did it take us 12 years to realize that the stomach pokemon is a stomach pokemon? And why are we still not sure?
Swalot being a sea creature wasn't something I was expecting to see today.
And the fact there unexpectedly related to cradily.
I like to think they can be like the slimes from any rpg, but more as the hungry kind of slime that'll eat anything, I wonder if they have a similar connection with the grimer line?
I always thought they were just a unique interpretation on a typical rpg slime and a bit of a retread after muk and grimer. Swalot also looks like jell-o.
I know it's forgettable, but gulpin was one of my first shinies so I'll always have some kind of fondness for it 🥰💙
nice! when shiny meant something
Anyone who played gen 4's online rooms will never forget Swalot, man I miss that.
I always saw them as grapes honestly, as a kid at least. The colours matching to white and red respectively, with the evolved Swalot having the snooty French stereotype moustache because of the stronger association to red wine. Probably a coincidence, but neat anyway.
This might be one of the most compelling Pokemon theories I’ve ever seen, which I wasn’t expecting from a video about Gulpin/Swalot!
I love the idea that they are a hybrid of guts and tunicates! I always loved these Pokemon, but now I have a whole new kind of appreciation for them!
The reason Swalot has black diamonds is due to the fact that the color black is known for death, and Swalot poison is very deadly. So probably, the diamonds are spots that contain extremely fatal venom. However, I have no idea why the diamond is the shape used.
Black Diamond ski slopes are the most dangerous at ski resorts.
@@darthpaul99 Thanks. Should've known.
I've always heard they're coin purses/stomachs. So greedy. The diamonds are just the patterns of the purse and the lips are like the clamps. As well as green being for money and purple beings just well, traditionally fancy
The Vore Pokemon.
just.... was that a real fish... that you... made your sock puppet hand tear to shreds?...
I would love to see more pokémon inspired by different organs or organ systems of the body! In a sense Houndstone and Marowak represent bones but there's still many other organs left.
* Brain Pokémon would of course be psychic type - if made into a cortical homunculus depicting the relative strength and location of the different parts of the body as assigned on the brain.
* Lung Pokémon would be air type - no notes on what it could be... An air ship Portuguese Man-o-War maybe?
* Guts Pokémon could be ground type - The intestines sort of look like a bunch of worms, or snakes or even a rat king and all those animals either live in the dirt, on the ground or in the sewers. The pokémon could both be representing the organs and the common wromy parasites we can get in our guts.
* Kidney & Bladder Pokémon - Water type that filters the 'water' and 'releases' it... Could also be tunicates, which are commonly known as sea squirts! Or maybe a kind of sea sponge. A grass/water type or steel/water type combination for halophytes or desalination or sewage sanitation plants could also work.
* Heart and circulatory Pokémon could be a couple of different types; normal (blood is normal, heartbeats are musical), water (blood is a liquid), steel (iron in hemoglobin), dragon or dark (blood is arcane and special in dark arts or something), poison (bloodpoisoning, blood medicine, blood letting and blood as an ingredient in potions), or fairy because he beating heart is what gives life to so many creatures. Could be based on plenty of different things depending on the typing, but one example would be a 2-stroke engine if steel type.
* Muscles, skin and hair Pokémon - Normal or fighting type. I have nothing more to say and no more Pokémon to propose
when I was a kid I always thought they were slimes, Gulpin being a lil early route slime, and Swalot being a full on dungeon slime cube like from DnD
I thought they were just slimes. Poisonous, doofy slimes.
Slimes like in Dragon Quest and other JRPG scrub enemies.
But I can see some fishy aspects in there. Pokemon can pull aspects from multiple things. So a fantasy slime with fish lips and the whiskers of a catfish (weird since Wiscash was also introduced in this generation).
Did not expect the stomach and other digestive organs as inspiration I never paid attention to the Pokédex classification. I mean Blastoise is the “Shellfish Pokemon.” It is in a shell, but it is certainly not a fish. Which is why I don’t put much stock in the Pokédex. Whoever writes that stuff is nuts.
An amoeba also makes sense now that it’s brought up. And these tunicate things are really interesting. I’ve never heard of them before. They’re freaky but cool. The ocean has so many weird creatures. It’s no wonder why Eldritch/cosmic horror is often related to the ocean and its creatures. Can’t believe Bloodborne didn’t have something like that.
But in general I think it’s a fantasy slime. Given a few extra details so they weren’t just boring, single-colored blobs. And just talking about them gives me more appreciation for them. I thought they were bland “whatever” Pokémon. Didn’t hate nor love them. But the fact we can find so many things that could have inspired it makes it cooler to me.
Talk about dedication to the bit. Real fish in studio smell for days lol.
Slime molds, maybe. The Blob is a possibility, with Tyranitar being a reference to kaiju films like Gojira.
Me and my Pokemon Mystery Dungeon crew could never forget about gulpin
I'm surprised there wasn't any mention of classic rpg slimes! Gulpin is reminiscent of video game slimes, like from Terraria or Slime Rancher, perfectly round and brightly colored. Swalot, on the other hand, is more evocative of ttrpg oozes, more melty and grotesque, usually with debris visible inside, which could be represented by the diamond patterns, and the Black Pudding in particular springs to mind as it's often depicted stretching upward.
1:24 Need Swalot ~moustache~ 24hour loop track 😂
I knew Gulpin by watching the Volcanion and Magerna Movie...
He's back story was kinda sad
So weird that you’re talking about gallbladders while I’m in the hospital for my gallbladder
Hope you get some relief!
Sometimes I wonder if official Pokémon designers watch these videos and think "idk I just made a lil green guy, didn't even know what a gallbladder is..."
MY GOAT SWALOT LETS GOOOO
I’ve also legitimately always wanted to know the inspiration behind these dudes too
The mention of the gallbladder reminds me of how Satoru Iwata passed away from a bile duct tumor…😔
I think Gulpin/Swalot might be at least partially based on either the Bullfrog, or the Cane Toad. Whichever one is known for trying to eat things that are too big for them to eat, and end up dying because of it.
at least one of those frogs is really poisonous too.
3:08 has always been and will forever be Ree Kid, except for the shiny one i found in SV, which is named Ree Queen (cuz it was a woman)
I actually liked swalot when i played the game as a kid. I never played comp. I just played to enjoy myself. I remember playin Swalot along ludicolo, breloom, swampert, quagsire and Raichu
Nice team!
Kind of surprised you didn’t mention frogs in this video. Frogs also eat things whole. They will eat just about anything they can fit in their mouths, and sometimes try to eat things that are way too big. They’re practically mouths with legs, lol.
Too late Lockstin! I named my Gulpin/Swalot "My Ex."
That girl is poison
I don't know how I got here and I don't know what this is about. But I support you.... and whatever this is.
🤣🤣🤣
Tbf, Gulpin is one of the more obscure pokémon.
@@TwiliPaladin Bruh hes clearly not in the pokemon world. Dude is just passing through the algorithm
I've always assumed they were like... Pokemon version of classic ttrpg and rpg slimes, as we often forget that pokemon (even more so in the early generations) as its roots firmly planted in the dragon quest influence
There is the highly absorbent diaper weave, which looks like diamonds. It was so absorbent that people began using it as diapers. Swalot's diamonds could be a reference to that.
Gulpin is really cute.
A theory? Meh. A Pokémon theory? Ok. A LOCKSTIN POKEMON THEORY? Yay!
I wouldn't say Gulpin & Swalot are forgettable. they're not very good competitively, but because they were so odd, they weren't forgotten to me.
So, about the diamonds, I always thought, especially for Gulpin, that they are supposed to be a kind of reference to the black square that senbei usually have, which is that Japanese cookie made of rice. Because food, and stuff.
I like gulpin so much i made an entire team with it and got to master rank with it
I've always assumed gulpin/swalot were just Pokémon's generic RPG slime, with slimes being know to hurt the player by enveloping or swallowing them and digesting them in acid, hence the blob shape
Honestly my first impression of swalot when i saw em was just a purple blobby catfish. Big mouth, whiskers like mustache, gulping down everything so yeah like a catfish but purple.
Don’t know if you knew this, but TFS’s gaming channel did a Nuzlock run of Pokémon Emerald, where they used a Swallot that they named, “My Ex.”
It ended up being one of their best Pokémon.
Tunikids might be the closest thing to Swalot and Gulpin
Never knew that animal existed
Thanks Lockstin for teaching me something new again
Not-So-Fun-Fact! Gallbladder colic that comes from torsion/stones blocking it is extremely painful. Would not recommend!
I think Gulpin has a diamond on its back and a yellow petal to resemble a Cacnea when viewed from above, a pokemon with diamond shaped spines and a yellow flower crown. The two even debuted on adjascent routes! Swalot just retained them for the sake of continuity in design.
I named mine Sir swal-a-lot
I always thought that they were just supposed to be like classic rpg/dnd slimes, cause they like digest whatever enters in them. But IDK
@Gnoggin If you ever played Pacman, just imagine to add up the 2 main characters, Pacman and the ghosts. Pacman eats everything, the ghosts move like swalot and when they are weak to Pacman they are purple or blue (depends of the game version). Pacman is a huge mouth that eats only. Idk maybe some reference? Tbh in japan they love arcade games so could be correlated?
Land tunicate is the most convincing argument I've heard for what Gulpin and Swalot are. Especially that predatory tunicate bit-that thing is wild!
Normally I don't care for most sponsors, but that bronzor mirror during the ad read is so cool and I must investigate. That's my favorite Pokemon line and I need that.
On my current playthrough of X version, my gulpin is named Numa.
Mines named noomu on Ruby! So close in name
@@MattDustyParker that’s so cool!
Swalot is one of my favorites, actually. Cool to see a video dedicated to it.
Lockstin: “I’ve always loved Gulpin, to be honest.”
My friend in the other room: “Gulpin DEEZ-“
Me: “He already made that joke! Get some new material!”
Unless this was covered in a past video I don’t remember, I’ve recently grown curious as to why Buneary and Skitty are able to learn Cosmic Power in their egg moves, with both Buneary and Lopunny able to learn it through tm as well. I tried doing a bit of research myself, as these two lines felt like the only learners of the move that didn’t make any amount of sense compared to the others (save Skitty evolving via Moon Stone, but that didn’t feel strong enough). The best I could come up with was a number pattern in what levels Buneary and Lopunny learned their moves pre gen 8 and the potential meanings of the numbers in japanese, but nothing seems to click.
"a pokemon cant just be a bunch of guts laying on the floor" your right, that would make it a digimon
I DID NOT EXPECT A DBZA REFERENCÈ
When I think poison type Swallot immediately come to mind. It’s a purple poison jelly monster.
Gulpin was my first shin Pokemon and I will always love them because of that.
Gulpin was my First ever shiny, caught in Pokémon X in 2013/2014
Aww man 10 years💀
I love Gulpin and Swallot, they've always been favorites for me
I was introduced to an animal I never knew existed
I always thought of them representing trash bags. Gulpin being a smaller lighter colored residential bag, and Swalot representing a larger commercial bag. The yellow accents look like drawstrings with Gulpin being tied off and Swalot being untied. It also fits in with where you find them in game on the side of a long road where they can go around eating up litter. It also works with Muk and Weezing as a land counterpart to the water and air pollution that they represent.
I can't believe I found a whole RUclips video about my favorite Pokemon, Gulpin & Swalot and it was positive. Fun video and I named mine Big Boi, after one of the members of Outkast
When I was a kid and first played Ruby, I thought Gulpin was a plant of sorts, after all, it's green and has a leaf shape on it's head. And it got to the point where I constantly used Fire type moves on it because... well, if it's green, it has to be a Grass type, right? Of course, when it came to Gen 3 Pokemon, I was focused far more on what exactly Metagross was supposed to be.
In fact, Gen 3 has a lot of odd designs. Like asides from the aforementioned Beldum family, what exactly is the Whismur family supposed to be, is Mightyena a wolf or a hyena, what animal is Absol supposed to be, and what does a clay doll like Claydol have to do with spinning tops or deserts?
If you go back through the lockstin videos you'll get answers for at least 2 of your questions :]
I believe Claydol and Baltoy have Jewish origins?
@@MsVilecat Actually, they're based on Dogu figures from Ancient Japan. You're probably thinking of golems like Golurk or the Regis (which the Pokemon named Golem strangely isn't).
This video has raised my appreciation for these two goobers a lot
Gulpin and Swallot were always Pokemon i wondered if they had more going for them in terms of inspiration. I thought they were generic dirty blobs like Muk or Garbodor, but it wasn't enough. The feather on Gulpin and whiskers on Swalot made me think there has to be more to it.
I'm so glad this video exists for possibly one of the most overlooked Pokemon in the series.
I always liked Gulpin mainly because he was my first pokemon card. My cousin gave me there 2009 gulpin card that had clearly been through the wash but i still loved him
I love Pokemon that just get as weird as possible. Not every franchise lets you befriend a disembodied stomach.
I was about to say "Lockstin is making another video about an innuendo again" but this was actually a lot more nuanced than I expected!
I wonder if the tunicate idea is also why the Sticky Hold ability makes it easier to fish in Pokemon Emerald?
My guess is that diamonds are also used in traffic to represent HOV lanes (high occupancy vehicle) and given that swalot’s stomach occupies a lotta space in its body so…could be a pun🤷🏾♂️
Ah yes, the Grimace of the pokemon world.
Swalot reminds me of Grimace from MacDonald honestly
I named mine Swalot 9000
I made a joke but then i realized I had mistaken which generation Gulpin was even from which is the one thing wbout pokemon I can usually remember
Favorite thing is watching what plushie lockstin will manage to pull out. I’ve never seen a gulpin Pokémon plush
After looking into the evolutionary stones a bit, I have a theory about the shiny and dawn stones.
The shiny stones when used on pokemon seem to take what makes that pokemon special, and expands upon it, making that niche more powerful. Letting their power "shine" so to speak. Meanwhile Dawn stones opens the door of evolution to something new, but still related to their power, hence "a new dawn". Like how Gallade opens a kirlia up to new physical fighting capabilities instead of staying to the special attacking gardevoir.
Heres a neat idea for gulpin, a dawn stone evolution that is based on a tunicate that still has its heart and brain and has high speed. Maybe this could be psychic/poison since the heart is associated with emotion and brains are associated with psychic ability.
I love the gulpin line it's like so cute
Hey, not related to the video, but have you ever considered going over the monsters from My Singing Monsters? I’d love to learn more about the origins of some of the monster designs, especially since they already have expansive lore to go behind some of the more complicated designs.
I always thought the diamonds and moustache on swalot was to indicate bulter/weighter vests and clothing. Like the clothing a waiter at a fancy restraunt would wear
The commitment of using an actual fish for the evil sock puppet bit is insane, dude.
I think that I named my Gulpins and Swalots Acid (as in stomach) and Eater or Big Eater (of Worlds). Unfortunately, I believe I’ve done the same with Guzzlord. I like food and eating, but it doesn’t exactly get the right juices flowing
Also, there’s Guts, like the old Nickelodeon game show… or the manga/anime character 😅
I was thinking based on Gulpin’s name, it could be based on the sculpin, like the grunt sculpin. But that’s a stretch