Voltorb's design is GENIUS

[Articuno01]

[Hey, this is my first post here. How is everyone doing, Smogon?]
Okay, so, every single day i see people hating on Voltorb, simply because his design is as simple as it can get.

A spherical object, resembling a Pokéball, but with Haunter eyes. Yeah, at first glance, it's really uncreative.
Every YouTuber puts it on a "Worst designs" list, and well..
I personally find it GENIUS.

But first we need to take a look at Voltorb.

Well, not even his name is creative. Volt (electric shizzle) + orb (sphere)​

But we're not here to talk about his name. It's his design. I already said that his design is really uncreative if you don't think about it.

But.. Using the powers of nerdiness, we can find something genius-y in this design.
Voltorb is just a Pokéball with eyes. Now let's look at Mimic, a common monster in RPGs.

[I used an example from Mario RPG because it's the closest i could get to my depiction of a Mimic]

Well, they're just treasure chests with eyes. And in RPGs, treasure chests have lots of goods that you can use later on, and Mimics are pretty much Troll chests. They're supossed to trick you into thinking they're gonna contain stuff in it.

And in Pokémon RGBY, FRLG, we all know that Zapdos is in the Power Plant, a place with only Electric-Type Pokémon, right?
In ALL Pokémon Games, all goods are stored in randomly-placed Pokéballs troughout the gyms, towns, etc.
Continuing, in the Power Plant, there are a bunch of fake Pokéballs who make you fight a Voltorb if you interact with them.

...So basically, Voltorb are more than just Pokéballs with eyes. THEY'RE THE MIMIC OF POKÉMON!

So, What did you think? Do you agree with me? Do you think this is just some dumb theory? Tell me! :)​

 

[Articuno01]

Oh and, about Electrode, i have nothing to say about it. Electrode is just an upside down Voltorb with an angry face.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I'm glad I'm not the only person who realized this.

 

[OrangeGuru]

I always thought it was obvious that the design of Voltorb was meant to be mimicking a poke ball. And I've always thought it was a pretty neat design to camouflage with common items; it would give this otherwise weak pokemon a fighting chance in the pokemon world. Sure, it's a simple design, but it fits voltorb well imo (just don't think the mimicry idea is a surprise to others)

 

[RyuKageChroma]

Yup, Voltorb and Electrode are mimics. I'm glad people are realizing this now. Personally, when I realized this fact, though, it made me hate these Pokemon more than ever!

Mimics are ALWAYS the biggest jerks among enemies in pretty much any game where they are included.
Ghouls 'n' Ghosts: already a difficult game, but now you have treasure chests which will try to chomp away one of the two hits you can endure before you die.
Super Mario RPG: pictured above. Serve as occasional minibosses throughout the game. Immune to all magical damage other than Jump attacks and usually either hit hard or summon nasty monsters. At least they usually provide some cool equipment.
Kid Icarus: Uprising: disguised as chests, Mimicuties then grow legs to chase you. They often dash into you and deal heavy damage using kicks which would impress Chun-Li.
Secret of Mana: You better be using Analyze on every chest dropped before you pick them up. If you don't, then the chest could potentially be booby-trapped in one of various ways. One trap turns the chest into an mimic which - after a few seconds - will cast Lunar Magic Lv8 on your party. What is Lunar Magic Lv8? HELL IF I KNOW! Its effect is pretty much random but usually screws you and lasts a while (one time, I think it turned the whole party into Moogles). One of the many things I hate about this game.

Yeah, mimics exist to torment the player, like the developer wanted to physically punch their players in the gut but couldn't due to the distance. So, how do Voltorb and Electrode troll the player?
1.) The obvious - its disguise. Standard fair for mimics as explained in the OP.
2.) Speed. In Gen 1, Voltorb (and moreso Electrode) were among the fastest Pokemon in the game, letting them often make the first move. Can be annoying with a suitable application.
3.) Selfdestruct. Did somebody order a suitable application for speed? Well, in a game where one potential goal is to capture every monster available, it can be obnoxious when a Pokemon would rather blow itself up than join your team / PC box buddies. This explosion also does damage to the Pokemon in question, and due to the high speed, there's a good chance it'll try to destroy itself before you can even do anything to weaken it. But let's say you manage to successfully snag a Voltorb or Electrode. Is that it? Does the trolling stop there?
4.) NOPE! Now, this one is a bit more subjective, but I think it's not even a good Pokemon usually. Yeah, Electrode has high speed, but that's about all it has in its favor. Back in Gen 1, the Pokemon known as "Voltorb" and "Electrode" could not learn any Electric moves without using TMs. For support options, it didn't have much to use either (except Thunder Wave, which it only learns through TMs). Even that Selfdestruct / Explosion trick it used to frustrate you when you caught it doesn't work too well in Electrode's favor, considering it's one of the weakest users of the moves (you get far more mileage out of an Explosion triggered by a Golem, even if Golem is sluggish). Now to be fair, Electrode's support moveset has expanded over the years to include more options like Taunt and Rain Dance. To be more fair, you know who else can learn moves like those? Pokemon with far better offensive options who won't become dead weight when Taunted (i.e. Starmie and Clefable for Thunder Wave; Azelf or Aerodactyl for Taunt; Pelipper doesn't even need Rain Dance anymore, and I'm sure I'm not giving the best examples, but you understand, right?). So, if you had problems catching an Electrode, frankly, I don't think it's worth the trouble beyond filling your Pokedex.

So yeah. I get why they're designed that way, and it's more clever than people think. But it's still a diabolical game developer trope, and probably the most notorious mimic I've seen in a video game (other than maybe the ones in Secret of Mana).

 

[OrangeGuru]

Yup, Voltorb and Electrode are mimics. I'm glad people are realizing this now. Personally, when I realized this fact, though, it made me hate these Pokemon more than ever!

Mimics are ALWAYS the biggest jerks among enemies in pretty much any game where they are included.
Ghouls 'n' Ghosts: already a difficult game, but now you have treasure chests which will try to chomp away one of the two hits you can endure before you die.
Super Mario RPG: pictured above. Serve as occasional minibosses throughout the game. Immune to all magical damage other than Jump attacks and usually either hit hard or summon nasty monsters. At least they usually provide some cool equipment.
Kid Icarus: Uprising: disguised as chests, Mimicuties then grow legs to chase you. They often dash into you and deal heavy damage using kicks which would impress Chun-Li.
Secret of Mana: You better be using Analyze on every chest dropped before you pick them up. If you don't, then the chest could potentially be booby-trapped in one of various ways. One trap turns the chest into an mimic which - after a few seconds - will cast Lunar Magic Lv8 on your party. What is Lunar Magic Lv8? HELL IF I KNOW! Its effect is pretty much random but usually screws you and lasts a while (one time, I think it turned the whole party into Moogles). One of the many things I hate about this game.

Yeah, mimics exist to torment the player, like the developer wanted to physically punch their players in the gut but couldn't due to the distance. So, how do Voltorb and Electrode troll the player?
1.) The obvious - its disguise. Standard fair for mimics as explained in the OP.
2.) Speed. In Gen 1, Voltorb (and moreso Electrode) were among the fastest Pokemon in the game, letting them often make the first move. Can be annoying with a suitable application.
3.) Selfdestruct. Did somebody order a suitable application for speed? Well, in a game where one potential goal is to capture every monster available, it can be obnoxious when a Pokemon would rather blow itself up than join your team / PC box buddies. This explosion also does damage to the Pokemon in question, and due to the high speed, there's a good chance it'll try to destroy itself before you can even do anything to weaken it. But let's say you manage to successfully snag a Voltorb or Electrode. Is that it? Does the trolling stop there?
4.) NOPE! Now, this one is a bit more subjective, but I think it's not even a good Pokemon usually. Yeah, Electrode has high speed, but that's about all it has in its favor. Back in Gen 1, the Pokemon known as "Voltorb" and "Electrode" could not learn any Electric moves without using TMs. For support options, it didn't have much to use either (except Thunder Wave, which it only learns through TMs). Even that Selfdestruct / Explosion trick it used to frustrate you when you caught it doesn't work too well in Electrode's favor, considering it's one of the weakest users of the moves (you get far more mileage out of an Explosion triggered by a Golem, even if Golem is sluggish). Now to be fair, Electrode's support moveset has expanded over the years to include more options like Taunt and Rain Dance. To be more fair, you know who else can learn moves like those? Pokemon with far better offensive options who won't become dead weight when Taunted (i.e. Starmie and Clefable for Thunder Wave; Azelf or Aerodactyl for Taunt; Pelipper doesn't even need Rain Dance anymore, and I'm sure I'm not giving the best examples, but you understand, right?). So, if you had problems catching an Electrode, frankly, I don't think it's worth the trouble beyond filling your Pokedex.

So yeah. I get why they're designed that way, and it's more clever than people think. But it's still a diabolical game developer trope, and probably the most notorious mimic I've seen in a video game (other than maybe the ones in Secret of Mana).

I forgot about selfdestruct / explosion momentarily. Those moves make Voltorb and Electrode the ultimate trolls in addition to the mimicry. I've seen people lose shiny Voltorbs or Electrodes because of Selfdestruct (thankfully not me). And yeah, Voltorb sucks as a pokemon because it only has speed, but that's kind of why I like the mimicry design. Imagine Kanto, Johto, etc was real. A pokemon that weak and bad would need something like mimicry to survive and have a niche in its ecosystem.

 

[Pikachu315111]

This all probably could have been said in the Little Things You Like About Pokemon thread. ;)

But yeah, I like Voltorb's design too. It and Magnemite are the premier object Pokemon so anyone who complains about the likes of the Vanillite family, Trubbish family, or Klefki just because they're objects can go kiss these Electric-types. They showed even from the very first games that Pokemon are not just 1:1 recreations of animals but can be pretty much anything, you know, since they're monsters.

Voltorb is always a fun troll Pokemon, especially when you encounter one you want to catch:

 

[Champion Leon]

This all probably could have been said in the Little Things You Like About Pokemon thread. ;)

But yeah, I like Voltorb's design too. It and Magnemite are the premier object Pokemon so anyone who complains about the likes of the Vanillite family, Trubbish family, or Klefki just because they're objects can go kiss these Electric-types. They showed even from the very first games that Pokemon are not just 1:1 recreations of animals but can be pretty much anything, you know, since they're monsters.

Voltorb is always a fun troll Pokemon, especially when you encounter one you want to catch:

You would think that it must be incredibly rare find to a wild Electrode, considering most Voltorb Explode, never winning a battle to gain experience to level up. Maybe they can also rely on using Sonic Boom on local low level Pidgey.

This reminds me on Android 19, from DBZ, threatening Cell to Self-Destruct because she would rather die free than get captured.

I think it would only be fitting that if Voltorb gets a second stage evolution it is an Ultra Ball, and if it gets a Mega that it is a Master Ball- literally the Master of all Ball Pokémon.
Whose the Pokémon "Master" now?

 

[Caramel Prisoner]

Voltorb's design would be smart if it was a predatory species. But I think Self-destruct seems more like a last ditch defensive effort than anything, so when you think about it that way, its design is actually ridiculously dumb. The Pokemon disguises itself as something that is likely to be picked up by a trainer, at which point it can't do anything but kill itself. For survival, wouldn't it make more sense to disguise as something people would want to stay clear off?

 

[Champion Leon]

Voltorb's design would be smart if it was a predatory species. But I think Self-destruct seems more like a last ditch defensive effort than anything, so when you think about it that way, its design is actually ridiculously dumb. The Pokemon disguises itself as something that is likely to be picked up by a trainer, at which point it can't do anything but kill itself. For survival, wouldn't it make more sense to disguise as something people would want to stay clear off?

I totally agree, it's funny, in Pokémon Go Ditto seems more realistic in pretending to be something else than in the main series games where you find a wild one as itself. Ditto should be able to come off as intimidating. Voltorb looks like it wants to say something but can't. What's interesting though, is it sort of is a mascot, it is the original logo Pokémon, before the other Pokémon that have Pokeball logos (the mushroom gen 5 and butterfly gen 6)

 

[SirSalty]

I mean, on one hand, I can see the point you're trying to make, and yes, Voltorb clearly serves the role of mimic in the original games. However, I feel like it's a bit of a stretch to say that Game Freak took inspiration from other mimics in its design, as the only real link between it and conventional mimics are the eyes. I find it more likely that a Game Freak employee pitched the idea of a Pokemon that fools players by looking like an item capsule, and they ran with it from there. Personally, I much prefer the design of Amoongus in Gen V, because it actually goes somewhere with the concept. A mushroom that looks like a Pokeball from the top, and fools people with its appearance? That's pretty clever, if not a little out there.

 

[noobcubed]

Here's my problem with Voltorb/Electrode and Foongus/Amoongus:

They would have existed WELL BEFORE POKEBALLS DID! How did they develop (can't use the word evolve here, since in Pokemon that means something different) such an effective disguise as something that had not yet been invented? This is far more of a problem than your traditional chest monster, which is modelled after some bits of wood. That's believable because a stump of wood covered in ivy or moss can look quite a lot like a chest, and it's plausible a creature would have adapted to camouflage itself this way. Pokeballs, by contrast, are a very man-made, very artificial object. We can only conclude that Voltorb doesn't look like a Pokeball, but a Pokeball looks like Voltorb. And then you have to question which dunderheaded six-figure-salary executive made that particular design choice. Make it look exactly like an object that you sometimes find lying around on the ground, which zaps people. What could possibly go wrong?

Supplementary issue: a Pokeball fits neatly in a human hand - it's about six inches across. So the only way the considerably larger Voltorb (not to mention Electrode) is mistakable for one is by a quirk of the video games' user interface. They are only indistinguishable to the player, not the player character. That's almost as daft as the "secret" cave entrance in DPPt which is only secret because the entrance is underneath a bridge and the player has a top-down view of the game. Again, it wouldn't be invisible from the avatar's first-person perspective!

 

[Pikachu315111]

Here's my problem with Voltorb/Electrode and Foongus/Amoongus:

They would have existed WELL BEFORE POKEBALLS DID! How did they develop (can't use the word evolve here, since in Pokemon that means something different) such an effective disguise as something that had not yet been invented? This is far more of a problem than your traditional chest monster, which is modelled after some bits of wood. That's believable because a stump of wood covered in ivy or moss can look quite a lot like a chest, and it's plausible a creature would have adapted to camouflage itself this way. Pokeballs, by contrast, are a very man-made, very artificial object. We can only conclude that Voltorb doesn't look like a Pokeball, but a Pokeball looks like Voltorb. And then you have to question which dunderheaded six-figure-salary executive made that particular design choice. Make it look exactly like an object that you sometimes find lying around on the ground, which zaps people. What could possibly go wrong?

Supplementary issue: a Pokeball fits neatly in a human hand - it's about six inches across. So the only way the considerably larger Voltorb (not to mention Electrode) is mistakable for one is by a quirk of the video games' user interface. They are only indistinguishable to the player, not the player character. That's almost as daft as the "secret" cave entrance in DPPt which is only secret because the entrance is underneath a bridge and the player has a top-down view of the game. Again, it wouldn't be invisible from the avatar's first-person perspective!

Actually Voltorb (and thus Electrode) only came into existence when Poke Balls did (the first ones were found in a Poke Ball factory), creating a rumor that they were Poke Balls brought to life.

However your complaint is somewhat sound for the Foongus family. Then again, the Poke Ball may not have been around for a long time, but the symbol in which the Poke Ball was designed around seems to have existed for as long as ancient civilizations have used Pokemon.