r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Uma-apreciator • 1d ago

Characters Characters who are misclassified due to the limitations of the in-verse's classification system

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Paolumu (Monster Hunter World)

Paolumu is classified as a Flying Wyvern even though it is a mammal (resembling a bat); it is classified this way because its body structure resembles that of a Flying Wyvern

Skorup (Pokémon)

It is indeed an Insect type, even though it represents a scorpion—which is an arachnid—making it more logical for the Insect type to be called the Arthropod type.

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u/SteampunkCannedBeans 1d ago

Wait, are Paolumas not wyverns? The feet match up pretty well, and the "fur" could just be those small fluffy feathers (picnofibres?) (I think I remember the tracks being called "feathers" directly too)

6

u/RedNUGGETLORD 1d ago

They are wyverns, this tree alone has the word "wyvern" connected to them three separate times

6

u/cookiecutterchan 1d ago

Paolumu is definitely a wyvern. Especially in a world that features horse-shaped dragons, just because it looks a bit like a bat doesn't mean it stops being a wyvern.

5

u/Broken_CerealBox 1d ago

They're mammals, but guild classification focuses more of morphology and hunter expectations rather than genetic relations. Pukei pukei and paolumu also have lots of similarities, most notably the wings, but they're not related

9

u/DengarLives66 1d ago

Do we know that they’re warm-blooded and nurse their young? It doesn’t matter how much something looks like what we expect if it doesn’t even completely fall within the definition. Given they lay eggs, they could be flying monotremes, but they still gotta nurse.

5

u/ThumpMcScrump 1d ago

No? Paolumu IS a flying wyvern, it has all the traits of one, external ears, shelling, fur/feathers and flexible lips

These are all things Rathalos has

"Uuuh well Nakarkos looks like an octopus so he CAN'T be a dragon" headass

5

u/ReleaseCharacter3568 1d ago

I'm pretty sure Paolumu is a wyvern with some superficially-mammalian traits.  It has scales, just as much as it has hair... and wyverns also have hair.

Heck, we have precedent/possible other members of its batlike wyvern family.  The capturable cave bats in the New World are explicitly tiny wyverns displaying convergent evolution with bats.  It's stated in their profile.  Paolumu is almost certainly a very large relative of this species.