Talk:Gligar (Pokémon)

Contents

Hide

Close table of contents

• (Return to top)
• Immunity
• Gender difference
• Color?
• Facehugger
• Back Sprite
• Possible Trivia Addition?
• Facehugger

Contents

Immunity

There is an error in the trivia section. One of the trivia segments states that Gligar and Gliscor are the only dual-type pokemon that are immune to their own type, however Vibrava, Flygon, Baltoy, and Claydol are all dual type and are all immune to their own ground type thanks to their ability, Levitate. - Buddy Christ - unsigned comment from Buddy Christ (talk • contribs)

I assume why this hasn't been fixed before is that it probably means without abilities, but eh. Tina^☆♫ 20:05, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah. Certainly, Vibrava and Flygon are invulnerable to Ground due to Levitate, but not due to Dragon. Same with Baltoy and Claydol, since Psychic doesn't have immunity from Ground. TTEchidna 02:23, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Then shouldn't the trivia be more specific? It doesn't say that they are the only two pokemon who have one type that is immune to their other type, just that they are the only pokemon immune to their own type. - Buddy Christ - unsigned comment from Buddy Christ (talk • contribs)

Gender difference

If you look well, male's stinger isn't larger: it goes straight, while female's stinger is slightly more hook-like... or comma-like... - Taylor 17:34, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

Color?

Am I the only one that has noticed that Gligar has COMPLETELY changed color? The difference is so radical, it makes me sick. He went from bright pink to dark blue. It's rediculous! Sidnoea 23:05, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

• Gligar's colors vary between games and the anime. It is light blue-violet in most sprite artwork and game artwork, dark pink in Pokémon Gold and Silver, blue-purple in Platinum, regular purple in the high-grade console games such as Pokémon Battle Revolution, and powder-pink in the anime.

Read the trivia section. |>H1|23•57R1K3 23:13, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Facehugger

Am I alone in seeing the similarities between Gligar and the Facehugger from the movie Alien? Not only is the design a typically-pokémonified version of the Facehugger, but many of its Pokédex entries specifically mention its propensity for latching onto its prey's face. About the only difference whatsoever is that it doesn't lay its eggs down your throat, it just injects a poison. Considering the franchise's stance of revealing little-to-nothing about pokémon mating, this is not surprising. Everything else matches. Lostdrewid 20:18, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

It's an interesting similarity, but im sure its coincidence.Bug Catcher Wade

Back Sprite

Hey, i just noticed this, and it probably applies to more than just gligar, but the back sprite is different from Diamond and Pearl, to HeartGold and SoulSilver.Bug Catcher Wade 03:39, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

this has been stated before Ataro 04:04, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

And nothing has been done to note it on the page.Bug Catcher Wade 06:23, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

Possible Trivia Addition?

I'm not quite sure, but it might be possible that Gligar and its evolution are the only pokemon to have only one word in their species name, but have 2 capital letters? FlyScorpion? TheTheDragon14 20:40, 3 January 2011 (UTC)TheTheDragon14

No, there is also an EleSquirrel Pokémon.----無限の知性 ◎ ＤＥＮＮＯＵ◆ＺＥＮＳＨＩ 20:43, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

OK, got it. TheTheDragon14 20:47, 3 January 2011 (UTC)TheTheDragon14

Facehugger

It's not a coincidence, actually. Gligar's beta design, as shown here: https://bogleech.com/pokemon/pbetagligar.html is much more blatantly inspired by the Facehugger, and it's even possible that the name Gligar itself is a portmanteau of "glide" and "H. R. Giger". ElSqiubbonator (talk) 16:39, 3 June 2020 (UTC)ElSquibbonator

As I mentioned on the Shuckle page, beta information are being put aside until we feel it is safe to add them. Though in Gligar's case, it still falls under our "no copyrighted material" rule. We can't mention it unless it is outright stated to be based off of it. (and, off topic, don't respond to comments well over 6 months old, make a new section).--ForceFire 16:50, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

I'm bringing this back. After looking at more info I can confidently say that Gligar is in fact based in a facehugger.

• The beta design for Gligar is absolutely a cartoony version of the facehugger.
  • thread https://twitter.com/DrLavaYT/status/1287070502222049280
  • sprite https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdychyHXkAAhy8X?format=webp&name=tiny https://twitter.com/GrarisBAuris/status/1287075803839238147/photo/1
• Gligar's name is incredibly similar to Giger. H. R. Giger created the Aliens.
• 11 out of its 17 pokedex entries describe facehugger behavior. Sometimes in full and sometimes just the actual face-hugging part.
  • Gold: It flies straight at its target's face then clamps down on the startled victim to inject poison.
  • Stadium 2: It flies straight at its target's face then clamps down on the startled victim to inject poison.
  • Ruby/Sapphire: Gligar glides through the air without a sound as if it were sliding. This Pokémon hangs on to the face of its foe using its clawed hind legs and the large pincers on its forelegs, then injects the prey with its poison barb.
  • Emerald: It glides without making a single sound. It grasps the face of its foe using its hind and large front claws, then stabs with its poison barb.
  • LeafGreen: It flies straight at its target's face then clamps down on the startled victim to inject poison
  • Diamond: It sails on the winds with its limbs extended to strike from the sky. It aims for the prey's face.
  • HeartGold: It flies straight at its target's face then clamps down on the startled victim to inject poison.
  • Black: It glides as if sliding. It startles foes by clamping on their faces, then jabs with its poison stinger.
  • Y: It flies straight at its target's face then clamps down on the startled victim to inject poison.
  • OR/AS: Gligar glides through the air without a sound as if it were sliding. This Pokémon hangs on to the face of its foe using its clawed hind legs and the large pincers on its forelegs, then injects the prey with its poison barb.

I'm not sure how people will see this, but to me it's pretty definite. --EmBELLEm (talk) 18:20, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

As I have stated before, it falls under the copyright rule. No copyrighted characters may be used as a possible origin inless it was stated to be based off of it.--ForceFire 09:02, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

New to editing, been browsing for a decade, but H.R. Giger is not a copywrited character, he is a real person and absolutely the inspiration for this creature's name, especially its Japanese name which is his name with an extra letter. Perhaps it can be changed to state that its common association with hugging peoples faces may make its name an homage to H.R.Giger. Fishfryer (talk) 02:30, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

I had an epiphany earlier today that Gligar's design was likely inspired by afacehugger due to its scorpion-like elements. When researching a bit more about Gligar I also stumbled across the beta design and was extremely surprised by how it used to be so much more similar to a facehugger, giving even more support to the theory. I'm glad to see that other people seem to separately have reached to the same conclusion as me.

As of right now, I'm extremely certain that conceptually Gligar is a mix of a Nobusuma and a facehugger. I understand that we should avoid explicitly mentioning the latter due to copyright issues, however I feel like omitting it completely creates a sort of vaccuum that gets filled with some nonsense.

Mentions of Gligar being a scorpionfly or amikiri are both fairly nonsensical, and the gargoyle theory isn't very strong. As such, these probably shouldn't be presented to the public as reliable or potential core origins over the Nobusuma and the facehugger. However, presenting solely the Nobusuma inspiration is not enough, as the scorpion motiff — likely one of Gligar's most important aspects — would remain unexplained as it almost certainly comes from a reimagination of the facehugger.

What I came to request for is not for the page to mention the facehugger, but for people to discuss how to implicitly refer to it (similar to how Tyranitar circumvents mentioning Godzilla by calling itself a "kaiju" instead).

As a brief sidenote, regarding the proposed origins, I am somewhat skeptical of Gligar's name being a reference to H.R. Giger like some users propose. It could maybe involve it, but I believe the main idea here could be グライダーglide + ハガー hugger as this alludes to both its behavior and a Nobosuma's, and to the facehugger's name. The current theory for the second half standing for gargoyle is fine too.

ExLight (talk) 04:37, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

For the record, there is no "copyright rule". The speculation policy states "Unsourced character or Pokémon origins should remain generic in scope and avoid explicit comparisons to specific outside characters or franchises. Particularly distinct cases are occasionally permitted through staff approval." That said, I don't personally see anything that strongly indicates Gligar is based on a facehugger, even in the beta sprites, though I can see why some people might make the comparison. Landfish7 09:42, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

If that sort of information could be added upon staff approval, then I'd like to elaborate on my current nobusuma & facehugger theory, as I believe mentioning both can greatly improve Gligar's origin section. However, it's somewhat important for them to be together because they complete each other.

⠀

Starting off with the facehugger. We can observe some of Gligar's key aspects — it is a scorpion-like creature that firmly attaches itself onto a victim's face before injecting them with poison. This by itself is extremely similar to the facehugger creature from the Alien franchise, an arachnid-like creature with a long tail that firmly attaches itself to its victim's face before infecting them with a parasite. Scorpions share significant similarities with the facehuggers already since they're arachnids, so it feels like an intuitive adaptation, when choosing a real world creature, specially considering their long tail.

This theory becomes even more relevant when considering the beta sprite, as its overall appearance resembles the facehugger. It had a more round/oval overall shape and Gligar's head is somewhat fused with its abdomen, similar to how the facehugger doesn't have a clear body division between head and abdomen. Beta Gligar also has more limbs and a long tail, both notoriously long and skinny, giving it a disproportionate bodily rate similar to that of the facehugger. A preemptive observation, but some people might point out how the bat-like wings in the Beta design make it extremely similar looking to the Royal (or Super) Facehugger, who has webbed limbs; but this is coincidental since, despite debuting in a 1992 movie, that specific facehugger design only appeared in scenes from an extended version released in 2003.

⠀

However, just the facehugger doesn't explain all of Gligar's key aspects: it also has bat-like traits, and it glides (bats fly, they don't glide, making it an unusual combination of features) — this is where the nobusuma comes in. Japan has two notable and important gliding animals, both flying squirrels: the momonga and the musasabi. The musasabi is the most important of the two: due to its larger size and nocturnal habits it is closely related to (and likely the origin of) a yōkai called nobusuma.

According to the legends, a bat becomes a nobusuma after reaching an incredibly old age. In most versions, these gliding creatures are said to physically resemble musasabi, but they have also been commonly depicted as a monstrous bat or as possessing bat-like traits. They attack animals and passersby by jumping on their faces, latching on, and draining their blood — similar to Gligar's (and Gliscor's) behavior.

⠀

It's interesting to observe that both these proposed origins compliment each other (one explains Gligar's scorpion features, and the other explains its gliding and bat features) and yet are still connected by the fact both the nobusuma and the facehugger ambush their victims by attaching themselves to their face, a core aspect of Gligar. It's also notable that while the facehugger seems to have been a more clear initial inspiration in the beta design, the more modern design distanced itself from it by focusing on some of the nobusuma aspects and by taking a more cartoonish approach on the scorpion-like traits.

⠀

Regarding the current proposed suggestions on the page, I believe the only one that might hold any water is the Gargoyle one. The amikiri is an yōkai that solely dedicated to cutting fishing and mosquito nets, depicted as a mix of bird, serpent, and shrimp or lobster — connecting it to Gligar solely due to it having lobster (crab/ scorpion) pincers is a bit of a stretch even if it was retconned into learning Crabhammer. Similarly, comparing Gligar to a scorpionfly solely due to it being a flying insect with a tail that resembles a scorpion's is also a significant stretch.

The gargoyle theory has some merit, but it also has some significant stretches: gargoyles are usually chimeric beings with bat wings, and the -gar in its name could possibly allude to them. However, there's a significant lack of correlation between both of them as a whole: gargoyles are statues, usually placed on religious structures, in popular culture gargoyles were seen as protectors, and for scholars they're depictions of the tortuous fate of sinners to scare the pious and enemies. They're also chimeras that seem to combine bats with grotesque anthropomorphs, carnivorans, or fantastic animals like dragons and medieval cryptids, not invertebrates. As far as I can tell Gligar may have some very loose gargoyle inspirations, but its not something hinted by any media nor in its described behavior, unlike the origins I'm proposing.

⠀

I have more points that I wanted to bring up, but I'm unsure as to how to insert them into this message, as its already fairly lengthy and trying to follow a certain logical progression. Hopefully this is enough to convince the readers. And if it wasn't then hopefully it was at least a fun and/or informative read.

ExLight (talk) 00:44, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Guys are we forgetting its Japanese name is LITERALLY Gliger, like Giger but with one extra letter. A creature named Gliger that hugs peoples face. That looked like a cartoon facehugger in the beta sprite. I don't understand why anyone would be so adamant as to call it a gargoyle, that seems like a total stretch. In fact, I'd argue there is no reason we shouldn't be acknowledging it may have been inspired by H.R. Giger and the facehugger, it's much less of a stretch than any possible gargoyle inspiration, gargoyles are pretty far removed from Gligar. Fishfryer (talk) 00:43, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

I agree that the gargoyle connection is flimsy at best.

I don't think it's completely out of the question that Giger was Gligar's partial namesake; he (along with others) won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on Alien, and he also continued to do stuff for the franchise. Alien is pretty big in Japan. So it's entirely possible the designers of Gligar knew him by name. I also don't know where else the -gar part could come from, if that makes sense? Gli- probably certainly comes from "glide", but the second syllable is less clear.

On the facehugger part, I do think the resemblance is more clear in the beta stuff. Is that enough influence on the final design to make it worth mentioning? I think so, personally. But I also think aside from that, there are enough similarities between final Gligar's behaviour and facehuggers to think a passing "it may also be based on" at least would be fine. Welkamo (talk) 06:59, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

Fishfryer, I'm not forgetting it, I said earlier that I agree with "Gligar" (or Gliger) possibly referencing "Giger". But noticeably at the time of its beta design — when it resembled a facehugger a lot more — its name was Sasoriga. The "ga" (which later became gā) was already there which makes believe me it has other origins.

⠀

The similarity with Giger's name is undeniable, but it's weird to turn it on a Giger pun if the final design distanced itself from the facehugger. It could still be an Easter egg of sorts to still pay a homage to its original concept without being so on the nose, but that's still a pretty significant assumption. And since it involves a real person I'm a hesitant of treating it as fact.

⠀

Like I mentioned in my other message, while mentioning Giger is reasonable, I believe it comes from グライダー (glide) + ハガー (hugger) instead.

ExLight (talk) 11:40, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

The speculation policy says not to make comparisons to specific outside characters or franchise, adding facehugger does exactly what the policy says not to do. And I personally don't see the similarity in that Gligar and Gliscor's behavior are not exclusive to facehuggers. The Nobusuma you mentioned states (on wikipedia, at least) that it latches onto humans, covering their eyes and mouth. That alone, for me, is enough to move away from the facehugger theory (and I personally believe a Japanese designer would take/prioritize inspiration from local myths and legends over western media). And the whole attacking with its tail to inject venom/parasites is also not exclusive to facehuggers, scorpions do exactly just that, so why wouldn't it be just as simple as it being based off a scorpion.--ForceFire 05:56, 1 August 2025 (UTC)

(edit)Just on the gargoyle bit, aside from "ガーゴイル" also having "ガー" in it (and the English being Gligar not ger), they are also statues which may explain Gligar's Ground typing.--ForceFire

I understand the hesitancy in adding possible external references, and that was the reason why I revived this topic up in the first place: to discuss whether or not it was likely enough to be made an exception by staff.

While I generally tend to agree that local inspirations often take priority, it's also important to acknowledge that the film Alien was extremely popular in Japan: "By the beginning of October 1979, the film had grossed $27 million internationally including $16.9 million in Japan, $4.8 million in France and $3.7 million in the UK". Given that it was easily the biggest audience out of the US, it's clear it was in Japanese pop culture at the time.

I also feel like other points I brought up were kinda ignored, such as the fact Gligar's beta sprite resembles a chelicerate arthropod akin to the facehugger. As I mentioned, I strongly believe they began with the facehugger as the main inspiration but moved away from it and leaned more into a nobusuma over time, however the scorpion-like traits remained vestigial of that original inspiration. Dismissing it as them just randomly slapping scorpion details onto the design is not a satisfactory or reasonable explanation given that the proposed alternatives.

I'm very skeptical about gargoyles being the reason for the ground type because I feel like they'd be more associated with rock or dark type (or even water since they were originally waterspouts). The ground type is likely just because of the scorpion-like traits since they're often associated with arid regions in RPGs.

ExLight (talk) 10:57, 1 August 2025 (UTC)

In any case since the issue is explicitly naming another franchise then I can provide a description alluding to the trope instead, this way it doesn't violate the speculation policy and we maintain the origin some members been asking for.

ExLight (talk) 13:50, 1 August 2025 (UTC)

(resetting indent)Using the tropes page is fine by me as it's not specifying a character. Amusingly, the tropes page doesn't even have Gligar on it, unless it's not in the video games tab. As for your other points about Gligar's proto-design, I'm looking at origins, not just Gligar's origin btw, as what the final product looks like, not what the prototype was (since any elements found it the prototype might no longer be in the final product - that is to say, they may no longer be relevant to the final design).--ForceFire 06:52, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

In light of arguments mentioned on this very talk page, please note that going forward, it shall be fine mentioning H.R. Giger (as long as consensus/discussion allow for it - so basically the same as for any other edit).

Just remember that per the speculation policy - and lacking official confirmation - uncertainty should always be clearly signaled, such as with "may" etc. (Please also note/remember that in general, the speculation policy does mandate extra care for specific characters.) Nescientist (talk) 12:31, 24 January 2026 (UTC)