The gracious Gardevoir! A memorable Gen 3 Pokémon with great typing, good offense, remarkable shiny, and a powerful Mega. Oh, I think we missed just how incredible and mysterious it is!
We all know that Gallade is a chivalrous knight while Gardevoir is… a valiant… hugger? It’s literally categorized as the Embrace Pokémon. That said, what on earth is this thing in Gardevoir’s chest?!
Wouldn’t that thing stab someone through the heart? 😕 We’ll get to that but first, let’s see what’s in the name?
Gardevoir, or Garde Voir. Garde is ‘guard’ in French and Voir is ‘sight.’ It’s basically looking out for any danger and guarding you… a guardian knight… or a guardian angel, so protective that it creates black holes! 😯
Its Pokédex entries say:
Gardevoir has the psychokinetic power to distort the dimensions and create a small black hole. This Pokémon will try to protect its Trainer even at the risk of its own life.
Now, that kind of power is pretty ridiculous. Black holes are some of the strangest and most powerful (if you will) objects in the universe. How can Gardevoir just make one out of nothing? What kind of destruction does Gardevoir have?
To go deeper, we need to establish what exactly a black hole is. It is a region of spacetime having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape.
So, any light, particles, or information that goes into the event horizon (or the point of no return) of a black hole is forever imprisoned.
You might have heard of a black hole being referred to as a singularity, an infinitesimal point in space where loads of mass has been stuffed in. Ultimately, a black hole is established by its mass and radius.
However, in Gardevoir’s case, the keyword is small black hole. Small black holes are very intriguing as small black holes are literally veryyyyy small. In fact, there can be a black hole with the mass of a paperclip (and it would still be a legitimate black hole), just an extremely tiny one.
In essence, if a black hole formed the size of a paper clip weighing, say 5 grams, it would be 10^(-30) m. That’s insanely small! In contrast, the smallest element Helium is 10^(-11) m!
But, regardless of whether a black hole is small or not, they are threatening due to something called Hawking Radiation, which leaders a black hole to have an extremely short lifespan. The usual time period is 10^(-23) seconds!
Now, these little black holes would collapse onto themselves since they are too small to self-sustain. This event would still release an enormous amount of energy. This tiny paperclip-sized black hole would release up to 450 TJ! This is roughly equivalent to 107 tons of TNT or an explosion larger than any nuclear explosion known to us 😯
But fortunately, we don’t know how small a black hole is according to the Pokédex. It could be a small coin radius with the same mass as the Sun! We can assume the small black hole is as small as Gardevoir needs it to be in order to protect its trainer.
Also, if Gardevoir can create a small black hole, it can also sustain and then collapse it safely. Its Emerald ‘dex entry reads:
It apparently does not feel the pull of gravity because it supports itself with psychic power
This is huge. By not feeling gravity, it is able to easily stuff mass into a small enough space and create a black hole without stress. Imagine squeezing a marshmallow as much as possible. It gets noticeably small but still possesses the same mass.
If you continue to squish the marshmallow, it would eventually collapse into a small black hole. Less tastier but still the same mass! But, how small would you need to make something to create a black hole.
The smallest unit of length is Planck, and it’s around 10^(-35) m. So, nothing can be smaller than it. Anything that goes below this ceases to exist and turns into a black hole. And, if any mass is thrown into the black hole, its radius increases.
Here’s where it ALL comes together.
Einstein proved with his infamous E=mc^2 equation that mass and energy are convertible to each other, and are technically the same.
Gardevoir focuses its psychokinetic energy into an area too small for it to continue being energy. In other words, that space is too small to contain the energy concentration so it collapses to form a small black hole.
The shockwave would also be small, and so would the ensuing gravitational suction, but that’s all Gardevoir needs to move a threat and protect its trainer. Gardevoir can keep sustaining this black hole by virtue of its exceptional psychic power, literally controlling it.
This still begs the question – Why would Gardevoir create a destructive entity that can potentially turn catastrophic only to protect its trainer? Bit counterintuitive, don’t you think?
This brings us to another Gardevoir flex – It can control gravity! Remember Emerald’s ‘dex entry about Gardevoir not feeling the pull of gravity at all due to its psychic power?!
Now, there are only a few things immune to gravity… things that don’t possess mass, although the Pokédex clearly states that Gardevoir has weight:
But, in Einstein’s physics, gravity isn’t really caused by mass, rather it’s caused by gravitation waves. Essentially, gravity is much like light. It’s emitted in waveforms, and just like there are photons for light, there are gravitons for gravity.
Think of Gardevoir as translucent to gravity… the waves just pass through it. In other words, glass for gravity instead of light. That’s Gardevoir for you!
In terms of aesthetics, Gardevoir closely resembles a ballet dancer of a much higher rank, likely the lead or principal dancer.
It also looks like Anesama Ningyou to a degree, which are Japanese paper dolls with a very thin body and an enlarged head.
Coming back to the pink thing on Gardevoir’s chest, it interestingly had the same on its head as a Ralts and Kirlia. And when it Mega Evolves, it splits.
To uncover the pink thing, let’s look at the Pokédex:
Ralts: “It senses the emotions of people using the horns on its head” and “If its horns capture the warm feeling of people or Pokémon, its body warms up slightly”
Kirlia: “It uses the horns on its head to amplify its psychokinetic power”
So, for Ralts and Kirlia, they are like antennas that sense feelings and emotions based on psychic powers. And it makes sense, since psychic stuff is connected with the head so the horns ae located on their heads.
Then why do these horns move down to the chest of Gardevoir (and Gallade for that matter). Since the Pokédex entries of either of these final evolutions don’t talk about what the chest horns do, it’s safe to assume that they do the same thing – increases their power of psychokinesis and sensing the emotions of other people and Pokémon alike.
Notably, Gardevoir being the Embrace Pokémon and the most loving and caring of the line, it may have the horns/spike in the heart due to the classic idea of the heart being associated with feelings and emotions.
So… Gardevoir feels your emotions right in the heart! 😳 Then, upon Mega Evolution, this power peaks and it opens its heart (literally).
Also, there’s no single instances of these horns bending, so they’re quite stiff. As such, a hug would stab you in the chest, likely the heart. So, you would have your hearts connected!
Surprisingly, Mega Gallade’s entries are all about combat and its chest horns shrink. But weirdest of all, its arm swords are tipped with the same pink material. So, Gardevoir’s are as sharp and pointed as swords! 💡
Ultimately, it is an emotion-sensing sword spike with psychic powers. Ouch!
Also, Gardevoir has the overall aesthetic of a princess from a fairytale. But with such elegant femininity, why is Gardevoir’s gender ratio like this?
It’s strange because most feminine Pokémon are either all female or majorly female. So, what’s with Gardevoir 😕
Well, since Gardevoir has the princess theme going on, you should know that it also has a prince theme! You see, in the several kingdoms from across the world, a prince and princess had more or less the same aesthetic. Those who chose a military way of life took on a Gallade’s role, while others who opted for a posh and pompous lifestyle were Gardevoir, often recognized by a common hairstyle.
En garde!
If you’re interested in more lore, design, and science articles of some epic Pokémon, be sure to check these out!
Dragapult | Morpeko | Cresselia | Mega Salamence | Dialga & Palkia Origin | Garchomp | Baxcalibur | Hydreigon | Zygarde| Druddigon | Naganadel | Drampa | Enamorus | Wooloo & Dubwool | Houndoom
