Pokémon Fans Discover That In Russia, Nidorina Was Once A Member Of The Liberal Intelligentsia

Pokémon localization difficulties have famously led to some of the most beloved memes in the franchise, but for years, a potential comedy goldmine was laying unearthed in the form of an unofficial Russian Pokédex.

Two weeks ago, the YouTube channel Did You Know Gaming? put out an exhaustive, two-hour-long video discussing the descriptions of a 2001 unofficial Pokédex written by Alexander Zhitinsky for the first generation of games.

At the time, there was no official Russian translation of the official Pokédex, so Zhitinsky grabbed all the official Pokédexes he could to translate them into Russian. The ensuing document became a legendary primary reference for Russian players in those early years.

Apparently, Zhitinsky was forced to take some liberties with the game's canon, leading to some bewildering descriptions for the original 151 monsters touched on in the Did You Know Gaming? video. For example, Zhitinsky's Pokédex states that every single Wartortle is registered with the police due to the species' penchant for rampant hooliganism.

One description, in particular, has recently caught the eyes of social media: that of Nidorina, the middle evolution in the female Nidoran line.

According to Zhitinsky's description of Nidorina, the Pokémon is something of a politically informed freedom fighter, although they are also very vain creatures who can be won over by fake jewelry.

"After maturing Nidoran turn into Nidorina, evil and grumpy creatures who bite and scratch. They're always mad about something, irritable, and always criticizing the government of the countries they live in. As well as all other governments. They often read newspapers and go to protests and demonstrations. Trainers can easily tame their Nidorina by giving them fake jewelry – rings, earrings, and pendants that Nidorina wears on holidays or when they go to protests. Nidorina are loyal to those trainers till death, and happy to cut the throats of their rivals. They're very caring."

The particularly bizarre read on the humble Poison-type clashes greatly with her in-game appearance and canonical description. Her actual Gen I Pokédex description reads, "A mild-mannered Pokémon that does not like to fight. Beware, its small horns secrete venom."

The oddity was spotted by Comicbook (though the site mistakenly said Nidorina's male counterpart, Nidorino, was the freedom fighter) before making the rounds on social media.

Nowadays, there is of course an official Russian translation for all 1,000+ Pokémon, so no one today must live with the confusion of thinking Nidorina is working to overthrow the government.