The Monstrefact: Torterra, a Pokemon

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

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
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

(00:25):
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.

(00:46):
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

(01:09):
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

(01:32):
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

(01:55):
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.

(02:16):
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

(02:37):
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

(02:59):
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

(03:19):
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

(03:40):
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

(04:02):
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

(04:24):
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

(04:46):
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,

(05:09):
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

(05:37):
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.