Fun Fact, Ditto were canonically failed pokemon clones developed by Team Rocket. There is a an argument to be made that it is all of the Pokémon it imitates trapped in constant flux with no real mind of its own.
I thought the theory was that Ditto are failed clones of Mew, which explains the ability to (technically) use all of the moves, and the coloring comparison between those two and their shiny forms.
The notes in Cinnebar Mansion say there were tons of failed expiriments to create a clone of mew specifically in the first location you find Dittos
The only other location where you find Dittos is where you find MewTwo who is the same color as Ditto
Ditto and Mew both use Transform, have the same weight and similar stats, and both have blue shinies
I could be misremembering but I faintly recall the Pokémon movie showing actual ditto-like goo turning into clones in the Team Rocket cloning vats
The best argument against this is:
Shigeru from GameFreak said he only added transform as its ability because Mew was a last minute easter egg at the time and it stuck
Ditto do appear in other regions but it’s debated if they’re canon or if they’re intended to be used for Pokémon breeding strats which are a popular game mechanic/feature
The way I thought it all shaked down (and what I thought was established fan canon long ago), was that the Cinnerbar Mansion experiments were an attempt to clone Mew.
Ditto was one of the first failures (and I bet the poor guys have it worse than no thoughts of their own, but rather their very thoughts are constantly trapped fighting shifting self-identity, if we want to go Grim Dark lol)
And they never got to perfect a Mew, because the next stage in the experiment precluded that.
That they achieved Mewtwo, after Ditto, and the scope of the project rapidly changed when the “benefactor” (sue me, there’s still kids picking up the games, I ain’t spoiling it, but we know who we’re talking about) bankrolling the project got the initial “power level readings”.
So they pumped Mewtwo, their perfect IV monstrosity, with both forced and artificial EVs, until what happened, happened, and Mewtwo had to go hang out in that cave to get some peace.
They (TR) definitely were involved in the “creation” of Ditto. In the pursuit of Mew. Who already “was” every Pokemon, in a sense. But you don’t start that sort of research from scratch.
You pick a likely candidate for trials that has whatever traits you’re looking for.
How does a Team Rocket experiment get a lower number?
If they did something to #132 that led to not just a lab specimen Ditto…but altered all instances of #132 in the wild also.
Dear Arceus…they genocided #132 and rewrote the children’s history books. The monsters.
RetroFed
The Picard Maneuver
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It’s Pokefluid.
Fun Fact, Ditto were canonically failed pokemon clones developed by Team Rocket. There is a an argument to be made that it is all of the Pokémon it imitates trapped in constant flux with no real mind of its own.
I thought the theory was that Ditto are failed clones of Mew, which explains the ability to (technically) use all of the moves, and the coloring comparison between those two and their shiny forms.
Didn’t know it was officially recognized.
I guess theres still debate about it but:
The notes in Cinnebar Mansion say there were tons of failed expiriments to create a clone of mew specifically in the first location you find Dittos
The only other location where you find Dittos is where you find MewTwo who is the same color as Ditto
Ditto and Mew both use Transform, have the same weight and similar stats, and both have blue shinies
I could be misremembering but I faintly recall the Pokémon movie showing actual ditto-like goo turning into clones in the Team Rocket cloning vats
The best argument against this is:
Shigeru from GameFreak said he only added transform as its ability because Mew was a last minute easter egg at the time and it stuck
Ditto do appear in other regions but it’s debated if they’re canon or if they’re intended to be used for Pokémon breeding strats which are a popular game mechanic/feature
The way I thought it all shaked down (and what I thought was established fan canon long ago), was that the Cinnerbar Mansion experiments were an attempt to clone Mew.
Ditto was one of the first failures (and I bet the poor guys have it worse than no thoughts of their own, but rather their very thoughts are constantly trapped fighting shifting self-identity, if we want to go Grim Dark lol)
And they never got to perfect a Mew, because the next stage in the experiment precluded that.
That they achieved Mewtwo, after Ditto, and the scope of the project rapidly changed when the “benefactor” (sue me, there’s still kids picking up the games, I ain’t spoiling it, but we know who we’re talking about) bankrolling the project got the initial “power level readings”.
So they pumped Mewtwo, their perfect IV monstrosity, with both forced and artificial EVs, until what happened, happened, and Mewtwo had to go hang out in that cave to get some peace.
Meanwhile the Dittos suffer ;(
I never got why Ditto was Pokedex #132. How does a Team Rocket experiment get a lower number than Eevee?
Wait…
They (TR) definitely were involved in the “creation” of Ditto. In the pursuit of Mew. Who already “was” every Pokemon, in a sense. But you don’t start that sort of research from scratch.
You pick a likely candidate for trials that has whatever traits you’re looking for.
How does a Team Rocket experiment get a lower number?
If they did something to #132 that led to not just a lab specimen Ditto…but altered all instances of #132 in the wild also.
Dear Arceus…they genocided #132 and rewrote the children’s history books. The monsters.
/hj
It even has the Ditto eyes when it transforms into human! This is 100% canon-compatible.