Talk:Wo-Chien (Pokémon)
Possible origin: the Taotie
I believe that Wo-Chien is meant to represent the Taotie of the Four Perils if Chinese myth. The Taotie, as seen by its image on the wikipedia page (go to the Chinese version for another image) notably has a pair of raised eyes that look rather like they're on stalks, or placed on a pair of antlers. This matches up with Wo-Chien's design; at a guess I'd imagine that they went with the snail design to match the existing motif of eyestalks. The other three also correspond well others of the Four Perils, there's a solid one to one matching going on here, plus the fact that there's four of them correlates with there being four of the perils in the first place. ACDragonMaster (talk) 03:21, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
Symbolic associations with the Taowu
Despite the other Treasures' visual similarities with the Four Perils, Wo-Chien doesn't resemble any of them. It is however symbolically connected to the Taowu:
As analyzed in chapter 6 of The Monster That Is History, the Taowu has evolved throughout Chinese literature from a prophetic monster to a symbolic representation of history itself. As explained in page 186, this originates from a lost ancient document(likely written in wooden slips) from the Chu region, named as such because the Taowu's knowledge of the past and future makes it a living historical record. Specifically, this monstruous association connotes it as a record of evil actions, similarly to the King's misdeeds written on the tablets that gave origin to Wo-Chien. R. P. Genocraft (talk) 08:17, 22 May 2023 (UTC)
Removing "1001 Nights" from the Trivia section
Again, Wo-Chien has nothing to do with 1001 Nights aside from the number.
In the comment on why they undid the previous removal the user says "they could've ordered so that Chien-Pao or whatever is first". I don't see what exactly is the point of this, what makes Chien-Pao any less likely than Wo-Chien? Is it because Wo-Chien has bamboo and wooden slips with faded writing on its body? 1001 Nights isn't written on bamboo or wooden slips, nor is media old enough to be faded - by the time it was first published there were already book publishers able to mass produce them. Eastern China isn't even remarkable in the original volumes of the book.
If it was a creature from the Middle East folklore it would be a bit more debatable since it's the main setting of the stories. But insisting on it being just because of the number is a stretch and as nonsensical as trying to say Vivillon is the Devil because its number is 666. Coincidences exist, someone has to get the number and it won't always be something special.
