#167 - #168: Spinarak & Ariados

People with arachnophobia are advised to back away from this entry, because there gon' be plenty of scary-ass spider talk.

...what the hell am I doing to myself?

Spinarak and its host, Joltik.

Anyways, let's start with the ever-patient Spinarak, who lies still in the same pose for days in its own web, waiting for unsuspecting prey to wander close. Spinarak even lets its prey suffer for hours if they get caught during the day, as it waits to devour them until it becomes dark. And I don't know if this is a trait of real-life spiders, but Spinarak's web can be considered its second nervous system, as it recognizes its prey by the vibrations it feels through the web's threads. More interesting is its origin, at least to me. Spinarak's design is obviously based on the Hawaiian happy-face spider (theridion grallator), which has a face-like marking on its abdomen, just like Spinarak does. Its name is derived from 'spinneret', the silk-spinning organ of a spider, but might also be a combination of the verb 'spin' and 'arachnid'. However, I would like to believe it's more probable that Spinarak's name derives from spinnerak, the Afrikaans word for 'spider web' or 'cobweb'. And as Afrikaans is descended from Dutch (personally, I see Afrikaans as a heavily simplified version of Dutch), it makes much more sense to me that spin, spinrag and spinnenweb - Dutch for 'spider', 'spider silk' and 'cobweb', respectively - are the words that lie at the basis of its name origin, as well as the Afrikaans variant.

From Pokémon (Heart)Gold, LeafGreen and X: "It spins string not
only from its rear but also from its mouth. It is hard to tell which
end is which." Well, I can perfectly tell which end is which, thank
you very much. 

Ariados, on the other hand, is a very smart kind of savage: it attaches silk to its prey and sets it free, only to track down the silk to the prey and its friends. A single strand of a special string is endlessly spun out of its spinneret, but it can also produce silk from its mouth, although it is said that it's hard to say which end is which. Wut? That makes no sense whatsoever, because its mouth and rear don't even look the same in the slightest. I guess the people in the Pokémon world are blind, but whatever. Anyway, that endless string is a reference to the Greek myth of Theseus and Ariadne, wherein Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of twine before he entered the labyrinth to slay the Minotaur, so that he may trail the strand behind him and find his route back to her. There may also be a hint of 'arachnid' and dos (Spanish for 'two') or odosu (Japanese for 'to threaten'; just because Ariados's Japanese name is the same as its English name) in its name, but the reference to Ariadne is just very obvious in this case. And I love references to myths and legends in Pokémon names and lore, even though they are obvious as fuck in all respects, because they allow me to learn a bunch of new things. Honestly, you'd be surprised about the things I learn while doing research for my articles. Of course I already knew about the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, but you probably get my point.

What would you do if you came across a horde of gigantic-ass
spiders? I'd run; that would probably the best idea. 

Like the competitive utility of certain Pokémon. Sigh... Don't get me started about Ariados, because it has the same base stat total as Ledian, which means it is not a good Pokémon at all. Certainly, with its access to both Sticky Web (lowers opponents' speed by one stage when they switch in) and Toxic Spikes (one layer poisons opponents when they switch in; two layers badly poison opponents, very much like Toxic), Ariados can be a very good lead to any team, especially when you give it a Focus Sash to hold. This item prevents Ariados from fainting when it is hit at full HP and allows it to set up before it gets knocked out, because it is slow as molasses and its defenses are mediocre at best. Might as well run an Adamant nature instead of a Jolly one, too, although either would be fine. At least its base 90 attack stat allows it to hit some Pokémon fairly decently before it goes down. It gets access to some very nice moves that Ledian can only dream of: Megahorn, Foul Play and Sucker Punch, the latter of which lets Ariados attack first when the opponent is using a damaging move. Might come in handy. But sometimes Toxic Spikes isn't necessary, and it is generally better to use another, more competent Pokémon to use Sticky Web. In-game, however, it might well be a decent Pokémon to use: Agility doubles its speed, while Poison Jab, X-Scissor and Dig provide for some pretty neat type coverage. Might as well give it a shot.

Well, I'm not going to do that, because I have no intention of using Ariados anytime soon, but that doesn't mean I don't like it at all. In fact, I think Ariados might have potential, but I do not feel inclined to try it out. At least I like its design and origin; and the same can be said about Spinarak. I don't think they're as appealing as Ledian, however, so even though it is a generally better Pokémon to use, it will not get a better - or even the same - rating from me. Alas.

Rating: 3.5/5