Fanmade Pokemon Types: Can they work?

Hello ladies and gentlemen. It's been a minute but now I am finally back to blogging. Today, we are going to talk about a video game franchise. One that I have been a loyal fan of for many years. I am talking of course about the Pokemon franchise.

Gotta catch em all!

Now why am I talking about Pokemon today you may ask? Well it's all about the potential of new types. Now for those of you who don't know, types are properties for Pokemon and their moves. They work in a rock paper scissors style format so that there can be advantages and disadvantages during battles (ex: Water beats fire, Grass beats water, etc.). So far there are 18 elemental types but that hasn't stopped fans from making types of their own over the years and today I'm going to take a look at the 4 most common fan made typings, what I think their strengths and weaknesses should be and if they can make sense enough to work in the actual games. And if you don't see your favorite fan made types or disagree with me on whether these types can work in the actual games, that's perfectly fine. This list is entirely opinion based. Without further ado lets get started.

Sound Type

Kicking off this list is the sound type. As if it weren't already obvious these are Pokemon that use the power of sound to battle. Now this would be a rather easy type to implement into the game as their are plenty of sound based moves already such as hyper voice or uproar. As for what this type should be strong and weak against:

Super Effective Against
Steel: If soundwaves are powerful enough they can shatter steel beams.
Psychic: You can’t exactly concentrate if there’s a bunch of loud noise.
Electric: There have been science experiments that have show that sound waves can manipulate Electric currents. That and it’s about time that Electric types have something other than ground types to worry about.
Water: Sound travels faster through water.

Weak Against
Flying: If something flies through the air fast enough it can break the sound barrier. 
Grass: Now I know you guys are probably going WTF right now but hear me out. There have been experiments that have shown that Plants respond to sound. And it’s a reference to the age old legend that singing to your plants makes them grow faster.
Rock: Walls can muffle sound.

Resistances
Fire: Sound travels faster through hot air so heat would just make sound stronger.
Fighting: You can’t punch sound now can you?
Water

Not Very Effective Against
Ice: Sound travels slower through cold air. That and Ice desperately needs a defensive boost.
Grass
Flying
Rock

This could be a very interesting type to have in the game since there are already a plethora of moves that could easily be retconned to the sound type. Not only that but there are several official Pokemon that could be retconned to the sound type such as Exploud or Chimeco. However there are some major roadblocks that come with this type. For one thing, if it were to become canon then the normal type would lose quite a bit of representatives via retconning. Another thing is the physical/special split. All Pokemon types have both physical and special moves, but as of now all sound based moves are special, with not a single physical move in sight. Unfortunately, I think the issue of the physical/special split kills any chance of the sound type becoming canon.

Cosmic Type


Next on our list takes us to the far reaches of space. The cosmic type mainly focuses on Pokemon that come from outer space or at least implied to have some sort of connection to space like Starmie or Clefairy. Now this is a type I and a lot of other fans can get behind because it is rather annoying that whenever we get a Pokemon from outer space, Game Freak just usually slaps the psychic type on it and calls it a day. Come on, you can be a lot more creative than that! So what how would this time interact with the 18 types we already have?

Super Effective Against
Fire: Fire needs oxygen to form. And there’s no oxygen in space.
Flying: Again. There’s absolutely no air in space. And in pokemon, flying type moves are mostly based around air.
Steel: Because stuff like spaceships and satellites get lost in space all the time, and what are they made out of? Steel.

Weak Against
Poison: If aliens came to earth, their immune systems would be woefully unprepared for all the diseases and illnesses that are on this planet. Thus they would get completely wrecked by them. War of the Worlds is a shining example of this.
Dragon: I feel that if aliens invaded, they would be prepared to fight humans but completely unprepared to fight the animals on earth, ESPECIALLY powerful creatures like dragons.
Psychic and Ghost: Because the supernatural and paranormal would be our last line of defense during an alien invasion.

Resistances
Fire
Flying 
Steel

Not Very Effective Against
Dragon
Ice: Space is freezing cold anyway, so there’s not much Cosmic types can do against pokemon that master the cold.
Bug: Because there are some bugs and other microscopic organisms that can survive the vacuum of space.
Dark: Space is already pitch black anyway. 

Overall, I think this is a type that can truly work within the Pokemon games and it helps that there are more than several Pokemon that can be retconned to this type like Solrock, Lunatone, Deoxys, and Palkia. But I think the main thing that kills this type from becoming a thing is the simple fact that the ship has already sailed.  No seriously, Sun and Moon would have been the PERFECT games to introduce this type. Especially since the games themselves are named after two celestial bodies, Pokemon such as Cosmog, Lunala, Sogaleo, and the ultra beasts are clearly aliens, and you have ultra space. But unfortunately an opportunity has been missed.

Cyber Type


Now I won't lie, out of all the fan made types I have seen throughout all my years in the Pokemon fandom, this is easily my favorite one. The cyber type mainly focuses on man made Pokemon, and the theme of this type is focused on technology and technology based attacks and abilities we already have in the game such as download or lock on. As for the type interactions:

Super Effective Against
Fairy: Magic vs Science. With Science winning.
Electric: Technology is powered by electricity.
Steel: Various mechanisms operate and control steel structures.

Weak Against
Water: Drop a device like a smartphone in water and see what happens.
Dark: Since Dark is based around dirty fighting, this would be a reference to heinous actions that take place on the web like trolling or hacking.
Bug: Well devices are prone to having bugs aren’t they? Lol.
Poison: Meant to represent viruses. 

Resistances 
Electricity
Steel
Cyber
Psychic: Anything a human mind can process, a machine can process quicker.

Not Very Effective Against
Grass: Nature vs Technology, with nature winning.
Cyber
Normal: Normal people invent and control technology. And isn't it about time Normal was able to resist something? 
Dark

Immune
Fairy: Because Science and logic don't believe in no fairy tales.

Now can this type actually work within the games? I really think it can! Some Pokemon such as the Porygon line (Pure Cyber), Mewtwo (Psychic/Cyber), and Genesect (Bug/Cyber) can easily be retconned to be this type. Not to mention it opens up a whole door of possibilities for the Pokemon franchise. So far, the Pokemon series has taken us everywhere from the depths of the ocean, to the far reaches of space, and alternate dimensions. So can you imagine how epic it would be if we actually got to go into cyberspace to catch some more Cyber types? Even better, what if glitch Pokemon like Missingno finally become canon because of this type. There is just a hell of a lot of potential with the Cyber type.


Light Type


Last on our list is probably the most famous (or infamous) out of all the fan made types: The light type. Seriously go on a site like deviant art and look up fan made Pokemon. I can guarantee that you are gonna find at least one of them that is a light type. So what does the light type encompass exactly?
Well since there is a dark type, there naturally has to be a light type right? Well actually it's not that simple. See in Japan, the dark type is known as the "evil" type, and as I stated before this is mainly because dark type moves revolve around dirty fighting such as biting (bite and crunch) and attacking when your opponent is prepared (sucker punch). So the light type would essentially be a good guy type, even though one of the strict rules of the Pokemon canon is that no Pokemon is truly evil. Either way, what would the type interactions be like for this type?

Super Effective Against
Dark: The classic conflict of light vs darkness, need I say more?
Ghost: Well ghosts aren't particularly known to hang out in brightly lit places now are they?

Weak Against
Grass: One word: Photosynthesis.
Dark: Again, classic conflict of light vs darkness. Plus it would be unique to have two different types to be weak and strong against one another.
Poison: This weakness represents the fact that even the noblest of heroes can be susceptible to corruption or going down a dark path. Think Anakin Skywalker or Injustice verse Superman.

Resistances
Fire
Electric: Both fire and electricity have been used as sources of light throughout history so there's no much they can do to hurt a light type.
Ghost

Not Very Effective Against 
Grass
Rock: Light can't pass through solid rock
Steel: Steel reflects light.
Ice: Just like steel, ice and snow reflect light.

Now can this type work in the games? Well honestly, no. And my reasoning behind this is that the niches the light type would have are already filled by two official types: Fighting and Fairy. Think about it, dark types rely on underhanded tactics to win, thus they would naturally come up short against the fighting types who's fighting style is seen as more honorable. And the whole light vs darkness conflict? Already fulfilled by fairy. So yeah, I really think at this point a light type would be redundant.

Conclusion

So you've all seen me gush over and be skeptical of these fan made types, but even though I think some of these types would be cool to see in the official games, I honestly think that there don't need to be any more types.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that the whole reason why new types were added throughout the history of the Pokemon games is for competitive balance. Psychic types were unstoppable in Red & Blue so naturally the steel and dark types were added in Gold & Silver to counter them. Fast forward to Black & White where dragon types became horrifically overpowered and so the Fairy type is added in X & Y to put them in their place. As of now, the metagame is now pretty balanced for the most part, although there can still be adjustments for the type chart (ice types in particular). But who knows? Maybe somewhere down the line if Fairy types become overpowered, then we could finally get another type. But as of now, I think 18 is the perfect number of types to have.

But these are just my thoughts. Do you think any of the types I looked at could work in the official Pokemon games? Do you have a different idea on how they would interact with any of the official types? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time, this is John saying have a nice day and I hope to see you all again soon.