>>47951415>>47951470>>47951752>>47951778>>47952390Absol has a flat cat-like face with somewhat more human-shaped eyes, it's not the same thing. A cat's flat face is already vaguely similar to a human's in that way. Even IF it has a human face, it would have literally 0 to do with a sphinx, it would be because it's based on this thing.
Please stop going on Bulbapedia and reading their dumb bullshit. The same site calls Luxray a "sphinx" just because idiots don't get that Shinx's name is from lynx. Just because the fandom asserts it doesn't make it true.
It's not even entirely clear Absol is meant to be feline or canine, it's based on a bovine mythical beast but clearly isn't one and it has aspects of wolves and mountain lions.
Now could the designer maybe have had sphinxes in mind? Maybe, in the same way Scolipede's designer seems to possibly have had centaurs in mind. But they aren't "based on" these things, absolutely not, they share literally zero in common aside from vague visual similarity that may or may not be intentional. Why would a strictly Greek/Egyptian sphinx have a taoist yin-yang symbol for a face? Where's the love of puzzles and enigmas, the guarding of treasure? These are integral to what a sphinx is and Absol isn't remotely related to it.
