Ah, Skeledirge! This fire croc’s lore is all over the place and is complemented with some of the most extensive design details in the Pokémon world! Let’s dive into all the details about this spooky fire croc.
First, you should note that the design particulars of Starter Pokémon are often associated with a country (or countries) that’s different from the country its region is based on. You know, Serperior having French details while being from Unova (New York). Inteleon (Chameleon) and Rillaboom (Gorilla), are based on animals not found in England (Galar). You get the picture!
In Skelderge’s case, its region of origin is Paldea, which is based on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain + Portugal). However, its inspirations go to countries like Mexico! Aside from Spanish origins, Skeledirge derives a lot of design stuff from Mesoamerica.
To uncover all the origins of this super interesting Pokémon line, we will explore all three evolution stages, namely Fuecoco, Crocalor, and Skeledirge. You’ll find that their lore inspirations are entangled and cross with each other.
Fuecoco is a little chilli pepper-shaped crocodile. Right off the bat, we have origins from faraway countries. While chillis themselves are native to the Americas, ghost peppers originate from North East India.
Locally known as ‘Bhoot Jolokia’ (bhoot is literally ghost in Hindi), it is fitting since Fuecoco’s final form is a Fire/Ghost type Pokémon.
The white faces on Fuecoco’s line resemble skulls and ‘coco’ means skull in Spanish. In fact, there’s also a ghostly monster named El Coco that is supposedly a crocodilian ghost with messy hair. Tales of this monster are told all over Iberia and Latin America.
This lore also extends to Brazil wherein Cuca distinctively resembles a female crocodile.
Now, here’s where it gets super interesting. Cuca is said to have a lifespan of 1000 years and when she dies, her soul becomes a songbird who sings sad, somber songs about its life. Hmm, songbird and crocodile?
In other regions like Portugal, Coco is a dragon and in Spain, it has a round coconut-shaped body with stubby legs… just like Fuecoco and Crocalor.
Now, Skeledirge’s body pulls inspiration from the Drac de na Coca, a crocodile who terrorized the sewers of Palma, Spain. It was eventually killed and mummified and is now on display at the Diocesan Museum of Mallorca.
However, over the years, its face (only its face) has decayed away, revealing the skull underneath. And isn’t that how Skeledirge’s face is, again?!
But hey, Skeledirge’s skull isn’t just a plain old boring white skull… it’s decorated! And that brings us to sugar skulls!
What originated as candies for kids, became a special item to honor the dead. In Mexico, the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos commemorates giving honor to the departed. People paint their faces on this day.
In fact, those flames (hair?) surrounding Skeledirge’s face look like marigold flowers placed around a decorated sugar skull. Marigold represents the fragility of life and it is also said that the souls of the dead have an affinity for these flowers. Fitting for Skeledirge’s Ghost typing!
The hair also looks like the archetypical hair of a music conductor in concerts.
Now back to Spain, this patterning you see on Skeledirge’s snout is very reminiscent of mosaic sculptures present all around Iberia!
The picture above shows one of the most famous mosaic sculptures in Spain: El Drac (or the Gaudi Lizard) in Barcelona. Skeledirge totally flaunts this!
These bright, attractive colors also indicate that the bearer is putting on a show. After all, Skeledirge represents a singer. Skeledirge is known to sing dirges, which are mournful pieces of music usually sung/played during a funeral. Also, that’s where the ‘dirge’ in Skeledirge comes from. ‘Skele’ is obviously ‘skeleton.’
Speaking of funerals, have you noticed that Skeledirge’s torso looks like a casket? It’s not easily seen when this Pokémon is on all fours but when it stands up to take on a bipedal position, the casket is right there:
But there’s more!
Skeledirge’s chest (the casket part), when viewed longitudinally, looks like a piano.
And its tail? Oh, that looks like the neck of a saxophone.
And the shape of Skeledirge’s head with the hole atop it? That looks like a Spanish Lute, a musical instrument.
This singing schtick also fits Skeledirge flawlessly as crocodiles and alligators are the most vocal of reptiles. They engage in something called bellowing, a high-frequency sound made by these reptiles to communicate with each other.
Not to mention, there was even a movie called Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and it dealt with a singing crocodile.
One of the main characters in the film is Hector P. Valenti, an entertainer who performs on stage and has the same hairstyle as Skeledirge!
A singing croc and this hairstyle. What’s with all of this?! This film is based on a book written in the 1960s, so this association has surely been around for a while.
Well, where can you see a flamboyant singer with all the musical instruments enlisted in this write-up? An opera concert stadium!
The seating chart usually looks like this:
Hang on… doesn’t this look like Skeledirge’s head, viewed from the top?! The pattern, shape, and the entire profile of Skeledirge’s snout even looks like a catwalk present on these concert stages.
That’s not all as the fiery songbird moves around the ‘concert stage and catwalk’ to sing. Whoa!
More about the bird. Native American double barrel flutes often have a bird carved at the end of the instrument and the barrel looks like Skeledirge’s snout as well. Note that Spain had colonized a large part of what we know as US today.
And, these performances often have pyrotechnics so bursts of flames that resemble Skeledirge’s flaming ‘hair’! Brilliant!
Back to the bird. Even in nature, crocodiles and birds have a jig wherein these beasts bask with their mouths wide open and birds step into the mouth to forage and feed tiny bits of meat (eaten by the croc) and bugs stuck in their teeth.
Such an action helps preserve the oral health of these reptiles so, the birds are never eaten or harmed. It happens rarely and was proven to not be a symbiotic relationship yet the concept stuck.
There’s more to this! There’s a South American deity called Morrop, the God of the afterlife.
Morrop is a humanoid iguana that carries a bird on its head. It’s a mediator between life and death, clearly paving the way for the Ghost typing of Skeledirge (aside from all the Day of the Dead origins).
This all goes back to Fuecoco as peppers originally evolved to be eaten by birds. The spiciness is meant to keep mammals away since we have molars that crush the seeds. Birds, on the other hand (wing?), don’t have spice receptors so they don’t feel the hot spiciness. As a result, they pass the seeds in their droppings which go to the soil and grow as new pepper plants.
The songbird also partakes in Skeledirge’s signature move Torch Song where it becomes the Pokémon’s retro microphone when it sings. Skeledirge is literally spitting fire, eh?!
Finally, there’s Xochitonal an alligator god who is like the Cerberus of the Aztec world.
Also, there’s Cipactli from Aztec mythology. It’s a red crocodilian sea demon with an insatiable appetite (similar to Fuecoco’s love for food). It existed before creation and in order to start creation, the four creator gods had to kill it. With its corpse, the bony tail was turned into the underworld, its body into the earth, and the head was split up into 13 pieces, corresponding to the 13 heavens.
Why is this important? Well, Skeledirge has exactly 13 colored mosaic spots on its head!
Finally, a fun fact! The Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Pokédex mentions that the bird and Skeldirge are two separate entities. The bird is a ghost soul that has possessed the fireball atop Crocalor’s head. Essentially, Skeldirge is a Fire type while the bird is a Ghost. As such, we get the Fire/Ghost type Skeledirge as a Pokémon.
So there you have it, trainers! Skeledirge has among the most lore and design details of any Pokémon, and it’s absolutely stellar!
If you want to read more lore, design, and science articles about some popular Pokémon, then check these out:
Dragapult | Morpeko | Cresselia | Mega Salamence | Dialga & Palkia Origin | Garchomp | Baxcalibur | Hydreigon | Zygarde| Druddigon | Naganadel | Drampa | Enamorus | Wooloo & Dubwool | Hatterene
