Enchanting Cats

Charles Purrwin is disappointed that you have such a poor understanding of evolution, and might be persuaded to teach you a lesson in natural selection.

*sigh… let me get out my chalkboard…

I’m curious to know if the original word used in Pokemon for “evolution” means the same thing as it does in English. If someone knows, please tell me. There is a conceptual connection to actual biological evolution here, but it’s pretty tenuous. In Pokemon Go (which is the only one I’ve played, I don’t know how other games differ) you collect a bunch of the same animal, turn several of them in for (or into?) candy (why not?), and then feed the delicious cannibal candies back to the animal, triggering an anime magical girl type transformation into a new, but similar and more powerful kind of animal. This, my friends, is not how evolution works!! I’m amused by the farcical word choice in this ridiculous game, but the ever-cynical side of me wonders if it further confuses a topic that a lot of people seem to have a very difficult time grasping in the first place. I guess at least if your first introduction to “evolution” is in a beloved video game you will have a positive association with the word, even though you may be disappointed to find out it has absolutely nothing to do with candy.