Pokemon is where realism goes to die. Fire-breathing dragons and Legendary creatures are the size of teenagers, and massive rock snakes have less Attack power than tiny spiders. However, one thing that’s remained fairly consistent and sensible throughout the games’ near 30-year run has been the type matchups. Water extinguishes Fire, Fire burns Grass, and Grass absorbs Water, I guess?
When you start adding Fairy, Dark, Dragon, and Poison-types, things get a bit more granular and anecdotal, but there’s still some semblance of logic there. Fighting beats all the tough but brittle types, like Rock and Steel. I don’t know why it beats Dark - maybe to encourage kids to simply punch the demons in their closet. Steel resists most things because Steel is strong, so that makes sense too. Water is weak to Electric because it’s conductive - that’s the only reason I can think of - so why isn’t Steel?
Just think about it for a second. There’s some semblance of consistency within the Pokemon series, so this omission really bugs me. Fire burns Grass and Bugs, and melts Ice and Steel, it interacts how you’d expect it to. Psychic is the type of the mind, and it’s weak to things the mind is afraid of, Bugs, Ghosts, and the Dark. If Water is only weak to Electric because it conducts, then why isn’t Steel, a far better conductor than the wet stuff?
I know, I know. You love Skarmory, we all do. A 4x weakness would really mess up its walling capabilities, but it’s a giant metal bird, a static shock should be enough to take it out of the sky and turn it into molten scrap. The Steel-type got a nerf in Gen 6, when its Dark and Ghost resistances were taken away. No one mourned for my boy Metagross when that happened, but every time I’ve mentioned this Electric issue people cry about Skarmory, what’s up with that? Anyway, this would have been the perfect time to add that Electric weakness, as then all the changes would have happened at once and we’d be used to them by now. But no, now I have to argue the case myself.
I suppose this change would make Magnemite’s life pretty horrifying, as the thing would be zapping itself and leaving in a constant state of pain and panic, but look at its wide eye and pinpoint pupil, that thing is clearly tortured by its own existence anyway. And, there are loads of dual types with conflicting elements. Are you telling me Bulbasaur’s blood feels like Poison in its Grass-type veins? What about Malamar, the Dark/Psychic-type? Do its own thoughts cause it constant pain? Damn, maybe I’m a Dark/Psychic-type myself the way this whole conundrum has my head hurting.
In any case, since when do we care about the ethics of Pokemon? We don’t. It’s a series about kids sending their magical pets into cockfighting rings. That giant metal chicken over there? I should be able to zap it better, same with all Steel-types. It makes perfect sense, metal even heats up and can get damaged by electricity, so it makes double sense. Game Freak, stop kowtowing to the Skarmory lobby and make Steel weak to Electric once and for all, like you should have done right from the start.