>>58411480>>58412293>>58412520>>58413332This topic keeps coming up and understandably so, but I hadn't done anything about it because it's an inherently difficult question that depends heavily on how you choose to define what you'd consider to be a "tolerable" transformation. But this entire time I've had a feeling that the odds might not be as long as people think, so ultimately I really just had to knuckle down and lay some cards on the table.
The rules for what I chose to define as a "tolerable" Pokemon to transform into are as follows:
1: They must be bipedal. I made an exception for Swampert, but not for Samurott.
2: They must have arms/forelimbs of some kind and these must have digits of some kind.
3: Paw-like hands without opposable thumbs (as on Lucario) are acceptable, but boxing gloves, shovel claws without an opposable claw (such as on Sandslash or the Excadrill line), crab pincers, and arms that end in nubs (as on Jigglypuff and Raichu, despite their demonstrated ability to manipulate a microphone and plates of pancakes respectively) are not acceptable.
4: I also excluded a few Pokemon (like Furret and Tyrantrum) whose forelimbs are simply too short to be useful.
5: In the case of birds, I allowed those that have a demonstrated ability to utilize "wingfingers" to manipulate objects (Farfetch'd line, Decidueye, Mandibuzz, etc), or which straight-up have digits in addition to their wings (Archeops line), but disallowed all others.
This should, I hope, provide a relatively uncontroversial baseline for which Pokemon most people would find at least somewhat acceptable to transform into. Any argumentation beyond this should center largely around adding Pokemon to this list, not removing them. Note that I thought about imposing a size restriction as well, but I figured if PichuGuard and Stuart Little can do it, so can you.
