Headscratchers / Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team

• Butterfree says that she's too weak to brave going into the Tiny Woods to rescue her son, Caterpie. Which raises the question: If she's a high enough level to evolve into Butterfree, how come she's not strong enough to fight the Pokemon in Tiny Woods?
  • Butterfree aren't very strong Pokemon to begin with? Or the "common" Pokemon in that game aren't too used to fighting?
  • Also, given how there are plenty of trainers in the main games with underleveled evolved Pokémon... It's always possible that Butterfree isn't even level 10 yet.
  • Keep in mind, think about real life. You're a mother or father. Your kid is lost in the woods. Would you? A: Go in after, possibly getting lost yourself and risk getting mauled by wild animals, making things worse? or B: Phone the police and have them do it? It's just common logic. Well, unless you're a Papa Wolf or Mama Bear. Though as much as Butterfree loves her kid, she doesn't seem like that type.
• Moltres lives at the top of Mount Blaze and Zapdos lives at the top of Mount Thunder/Silent Chasm. Ninetales lives at the top of Mount Freeze. Articuno, however, lives in Frosty Forest. I find that strange, because I get that Ninetales probably doesn't want to be found, but by the time the player reaches Frosty Forest there is hardly anyone around anyway. Why doesn't Articuno live in Mount Freeze, and Ninetales live in Frosty Forest?
  • Articuno does live on Mount Freeze. It's just that the natural disasters were freaking it out, so it went to see what was going on and ran into the party.
• One of Smeargle's flag designs for your base is really colorful and appears to have an eye on it. What exactly is that flag design supposed to be?
• If your character is a fire Pokemon they can use moves like Ember and Flamethrower, right? If you use Flamethrower or Ember in somewhere like Sinister Woods or Tiny Woods, how do you not set the place on fire? And if you use Flamethrower or Ember in somewhere like Far-Off Sea or Silver Trench, how do your moves still cause damage, since you're throwing fire around in places full of water?
  • For that matter if you are a Fire-type, especially one with an exposed flame that is linked to your life force (such as Charmander), how do you not die while walking in dungeons completely submerged in water? Or any other Fire-type teammate?
    • I believe that most of the things that are stated in the Pokédex (most of which are ludicrous) are nothing but false myths. But that aside, didn’t one say something about a Charmander’s flame emitting steam if it is raining and/or the flame is put out (I would assume)? Plus, it could always be the other way around; you know, if the Charmander dies, then the flame goes out, not if the flame goes out, then the Charmander dies. And as for the other Fire-types… uhh… the badge did it?
  • As far as I know, Charmander is the only fire whose flame is supposedly connected to their life force(the only other one I can recall that has a constant flame is Chimchar, and it's not stated to have that connection), and the death=no tail flame theory, rather than vice versa, is likely accurate. As for attacks; even if the flame is snuffed out underwater, the attempt would still heat up the water a lot. That could be what hurts the opponent(think Scald).
• Why is it that, if you are a water type and your partner's a fire type, that the base is for a water type? That's just weird, since assuming that partner would live there before they met you, why would they want to live near water if it kills them or otherwise hurts them? It'd be more logical if every starting base looked like the ones for Eevee, Pikachu, and the like. It's kinda creepy in a way, it's as if they KNOW they'll meet a certain type of Pokemon at some point that they'll make a team with.
  • Does the partner actually live there, though? You always see it coming to your door in the morning as if it lived somewhere else and was just giving you an empty home that would be suitable for your type.
  • The partner actually lives in one of the friend areas, it can be seen heading in the direction of the friend areas after one mission near the Great Canyon scene, further evidence includes how one of the first friend areas you get - for free - is the one in which your partner's species, and yours as well, will live.
• The Decrepit Lab is solid evidence that there used to be humans in the world where Red/Blue Rescue Team takes place. The unanswered question is... what happened to them?
  • Since Mewtwo and Porygon were created by humans, how can they possibly exist in the worlds of the Mystery Dungeon series if humanity never existed on those worlds in the first place?
  • Most Pokémon seem to at least vaguely know about humans, even if no humans are around. So the most logical explanation is that humans used to live in the area, but either migrated away or just... went extinct somehow.
• During the fugitive arc, how could the angry mob possibly catch up to the main characters? It seems like the main characters traveled quite a bit since the cutscene at the beginning mentions them having to scale mountains. If they were walking slower than the mob then the latter would’ve caught up to them undoubtedly during the trek to Lapis Cave, but not even seconds after they reach the cave they already hear the mob coming after them, and judging by the partner’s reaction this is obviously the first time they’re discovered. Even if they were moving at the same speed I still highly doubt it would take seconds for them to catch up and even if they were within hearing distance they should’ve discovered the main characters sooner because the partner was talking during the trek.
  • Maybe at some point they decided to send a couple faster-moving or flying members ahead to scout which way you went, and that's who you hear calling after you, not the whole mob.
• One of the Pokemon you can be transformed into is Cubone. Whose skull are you wearing? Did your human mother *also* turn into a Cubone and die for you to wear her skull?
  • I always assumed that was an in-universe urban legend/hearsay, given you can breed tons of Cubone with no ill effects on the mother. Or, you know, have a Ditto as the "mother," which shouldn't even have a skull to pass down in the first place. So Rescue Team's hero can spawn with a skull helmet without it necessarily meaning anything.
• Jynx is impossible to understand, referencing its Pokédex entries which state that it speaks in a strange, incomprehensible language. But Smoochum isn't like that — your characters are perfectly capable of understanding one when it speaks. Was this just something the developers overlooked?