The Monstrefact: Torterra, a Pokemon

Published Apr 27, 2022, 10:01 AM

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the Pokemon known as Torterra with a little help from Sebastian…

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. In this episode, we returned to the rich world of Pokemon, full of elaborate and creative creatures with the knack for evolution and combat. Today's Pokemon begins as an adorable baby tortoise with a plant on its head named turt Wig, and ultimately evolves into a titanic tortoise with a forest on its back named Tortara. In the movie Pokemon Detective Pikachu, we encounter multiple tortas the size of islands. So once more I turned to my son's Sebastian for help navigating the Pokemon world. He'd like to share the following using the Pokemon Super Extra Deluxe Essential Handbook as a primary source to Terra, the continent Pokemon found in the Center region, a grass and ground type. Its first forms part Quick is the grass thirder Pokemon in the Sinner region. Some people believe that as a cant secure Terra dwelled under the surface, it is big enough to have a small pokemon on its back. Naturally, tortoises and turtles factor into various myth cycles, and to consider giant specimens with forests on their back, we have to discuss the European tradition of the aspido clone or asp turtle, as it was listed in the second century b c. E book Physiologus. As Carol Rose explains in Giants, Monsters and Dragons, this tone was widely distributed across medieval Europe, and still other texts spoke of similar creatures. Beasts so vast their stony backs resemble islands in the sea, and they are often covered with vegetation as well. The resulting nautical horror stories were irresistible sailor's land on these islands, thinking they have found refuge, until the island itself roars to life and sends them fleeing back to their boats. In the Middle East, the great creature is known as Zaratan and is sometimes described as a whale, other times as a turtle or general sea monster. It too is mistaken for land. The legendary Sinbad the sailor, encounters the Tzaratan during his first voyage in the Tales of the Thousand and One Nights. We see the same motif in the immap UMAs Sorsa of Greenland, a turtle and the giant fish jess Conius of Irish legend. But such turtles and tortoises are not always depicted as false islands. In Hindu mythology, is explained in Sacred Animals of India by Nanditha Krishna, Vishnu incarnates as the great turtle Kurma and carries Mount Mandara on his back to churn the primordial ocean. We also have the tradition of a world turtle that, in one way or another supports or contains the world itself. In Hinduism we have Akupara, the cosmic turtle who supports the earth. We also find this motif in the beliefs of certain indigenous North American tribes. My son Sebastian recommends the Circle Round and Earth Rangers podcast episode Turtle Island, which details related folklore of the Ojibwe First Nations people of Canada, in which the world is rebuilt upon a great turtle's back. In Chinese mythology, we also have Ow the mythical sea turtle. When the four pillars holding up the sky are destroyed. The goddess Nuah cuts the legs from the great turtle and uses them to hold the sky up. We also have one related story concerning legendary ruler You, the Great tam or of floods, measurer of the Earth, and master of the nine cauldrons. There are many different accounts of how he combats the Great flood, but in some he has assisted by a yellow dragon and a black tortoise. He is also said to make use of the sea or self renewing soil. Sometimes it is said that yous father stole the soil from the gods and was punished for it, but in some accounts the magical earth is brought to him on the back of the black tortoise. If you turn to page forty three of the Enchanted World Book on Dragons, you'll see a wonderful illustration of this tail by Jill Carla Shorts. We see the self renewing soil heaped upon the tortoise's back, like picturesque mountains. In the natural world we do not find such wonders, but hibernating turtles have been observed to come up from the ground with dirt on their backs, sometimes with vegetation clinging there or growing there. But this is of course temporary and a bit of rare luck. But the resemblance of such shells to land has clearly long tickle of the human imagination, and we see the tradition carry on in our fiction. Just to consider a few examples, there are the island like dragon turtles of Avatar, The Last Airbender, and of course there is the Great World Turtle, a tune from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us at contact That's Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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