Why The Lions Would Win
1,000,000,000 Lions vs. All 898 Pokemon
Ah, 1 billion lions vs. one of every Pokemon, a question as old as time. Countless debates have been spawned as a result of this one, fateful question. However, the debate tends to lead in one way, towards the Pokemon winning.
Many believe that the Pokemon would win. My job here is to try to convince you otherwise.
I want to preface this by saying that I used to be on the side of Pokemon. Pokemon was the first game I ever played, and I scoffed at the concept of the lions winning. This was, until I actually thought about it.
How Many 1,000,000,000 Is
You have probably heard the phrase, “A billion lions is a lot of lions,” so much it has lost all meaning. But how many is a billion? Well for starters, there are 898 Pokemon. 1,000,000,000 / 898 = 1,011,122. That means that every single Pokemon has to fight over 1 million 11 thousand and 122 lions. There are a lot of Pokemon that can’t even beat one. Take Pokemon like Caterpie or Pidgey. There is no way any of those are going to beat a lion.
For the sake of simplicity (and my sanity) I have decided that all Pokemon with a base stat total lower than 350 could not beat a single lion. In total, there are 207 Pokemon like this. There are likely many pokemon with base stat totals above 350 that would lose to the Pokemon, but I don’t have it in me to go through every single Pokemon and decide if they could win or not. In the end, with 207 Pokemon effectively taken out of the equation, we have 691 viable Pokemon remaining.
How Many 1,000,000,000 is Continued
The diagram on the right is 1 compared to 1 billion. The small, barely visible dot on the top of the image is the 1, and the giant box on the bottom is 1 billion.
Oh wait, that’s not true. The box on the bottom is 1 million. An accurate representation would be a box 1,000 times that size. Unfortunately, I can’t do an accurate representation of that either, because then this slideshow would be 50 times as long as it already is.
1
How Strong Are the Lions?
Earlier in this presentation, I touched on a thing called base stat total (BST for short). In the Pokemon games, every Pokemon has a unique, unchangeable, set of numbers called base stats. These numbers determine how high each Pokemon can get their regular stats, which determine their strength. There are 6 different categories of stats, the total of which is a Pokemon’s BST. While stats aren’t the only thing that determine a Pokemon’s strength, their BST is typically an accurate portrayal of how useful they are.
This begs the question, what are the lion’s base stats? Well, in truth, it does not matter. For reasons I will get into later, no matter how weak or strong the lions are, they will still almost always win. Even if every lion is one shot by every attack and they only deal 1 damage per move, they still win.
How Strong Are the Lions? (Continued)
In spite of the lion’s stats not really mattering, I still think I should assign some numbers to it. I’ve decided to make it equivalent to that of a Pyroar, but with the Special Attack and Attack swapped so it makes more sense.
The lions base stats are as follows:
HP=86 Special Attack=68
Attack=109 Special Defense=66
Defense=72 Speed=106
BST=507
Pyroars are lions, so it makes sense to use their base stats.
I also want to draw attention to the fact that lions regularly take down elephants that weigh up to 7 tons.
Rules For The Fight
Before we get into why the lions win, we need to establish guidelines on how this fight will work.
The general sentiment is that there are two different fields of battle this takes place in, the Pokemon video game world and the Pokemon anime world. These follow the rules of the video games and anime respectively.
For the sake of fairness, let's assume that the fights take place in a vacuum, with no outside factors affecting it. This includes trainers as outside factors, as they are not mentioned in the original question. For the video game scenario, the Pokemon can only deal damage with moves and abilities, while the lions can attack using Pokemon moves they can feasibly have(or typeless moves, it doesn’t matter). As this is a battle to the death, we will say that a Pokemon or lion fainting is death. For the anime rules, the Pokemon can damage using moves or abilities, (power points still apply, as they are referenced many times in the anime and they still only can know 4 moves) while lions can attack using anything a lion can do. Due, to the lack of trainers, Pokemon cannot use items, TMs, HMs, Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves, or Dynamaxes (Eternatus can technically cause Pokemon to Dynamax, but we’ll get to that later).
Common Lion Denier Arguments
Lion deniers have several, admittedly decent arguments as to why the lions can’t win. I will try to compile as many as I can, but if I miss any please let me know.
Pokemon “Gods”
Game
In the Pokemon games, the gods are very clearly not omnipotent. Using the rules set previously, Pokemon such as Arceus, Giratina, or Dialga aren’t all-powerful, as they can faint in battle. Their title of “gods” holds no ground in a Pokemon battle anyways, but I’ll try to make a case that they aren’t even gods. To do this I would like to draw attention to their pokedex entries. Many of the Pokemon claimed to be gods by lion deniers have contradicting pokedex entries. In fact, there is not a single pokedex entry that says any Pokemon is a god, only that they are a god in myth. To clarify, all of the Pokemon said to be gods by many lion deniers are never said to actually be gods, only that ancient people thought they were.
Anime
In the anime, this argument is even more clear cut. At no point in any pokedex entry is any Pokemon ever declared to be a god. Also, nearly every legendary pokemon is explicitly shown to be defeated, caught, or otherwise rendered null. Notable examples of this include Arceus being weak without its plates (weak enough to be nearly defeated by a human), Celebi being caught by a Pokemon poacher, and Dialga and Palkia being beaten. This all clearly points to the fact that these legendary Pokemon are not omnipotent.
This argument stems from a cultural misunderstanding between Americans and Japanese. As we all know, Pokemon was made in Japan, whose two primary religions are both polytheistic. This means that their gods are not all powerful. Meanwhile, our primary exposure to the concept of gods is through Christianity, in which there is one true god who is all powerful. The religion the country Pokemon was made in is based on doesn’t follow this logic. At the end of the day, this argument is pointless as we have no concrete evidence saying any Pokemon is a god.
Flying-Type Pokemon
Game
In the Pokemon games, the solution is clearer than tap water. Any pokemon move that isn’t Ground-Type can hit flying Pokemon, making this argument invalid.
Anime
In the anime, this argument is more complicated. Flying-Type pokemon can dodge most attacks lions can do with ease and then fly off. Rayquaza is the biggest problem here, as it is shown to be able to fly indefinitely in both the anime and the games. I believe however, that other Pokemon will inevitably have to land. Lions can track them down until then and pounce. It is also important to note that lions have been known to jump up to 12 feet in the air, which would be high enough to catch any physically attacking flying Pokemon. Most flying animals rely on their light weight to fly, so if a lion was holding on it would be much harder to fly. As for Rayquaza, this question gets a bit tricky. It has pokedex entries stating it stayed in the sky for millions of years, feeding off of water particles. Theoretically, Rayquaza could fly into the sky and attack from above until the lions are dead. This argument is debunked through 2 reasons: Power Points and semantics. Power Points are obvious, Rayquaza will eventually run out of move uses and struggle to death.
Flying-Type Pokemon (Continued)
Unfortunately, the semantics are much more complicated. The question of lions vs. Pokemon has one very important word: versus. According the Merriam-Webster dictionary, versus means “against”. This means that the question this slideshow is based on is about a FIGHT. Not who can just run and hide forever, but who can KILL the other side. A Pokemon flying to space doesn’t count as fighting.
Ghost-Type Pokemon
Game
This is quite possibly the weakest common argument I’ve seen. As we all know lions, are known to bite, which just so happens to be a Dark-Type Pokemon move, which is super-effective against Ghost-Types. If you want to go with the logic that a lion biting isn’t the same as a Pokemon using Bite, then all of the lions moves are typeless and hit the Pokemon anyway. This applies to Shedinja as well.
Anime
This scenario is pretty much the same as the one on the left.
Spread Moves
Game
Ah yes, spread moves. Lion deniers state that spread moves will hit all of the billion lions and kill them. This argument seems good on paper, until you realize that in triple battles, there is a mechanic where spread moves only hit the adjacent Pokemon (here). This gets means that spread moves will only hit a max of 3 lions at once, severely limiting the Pokemon’s damage output. This mechanic also existed in Gen VI, the same one as horde battles, where spread moves hit all Pokemon. It can be inferred through the “Select Target” menu displayed after selecting a move that the wild Pokemon are surrounding you, making the spread moves hit them.
Anime
This argument is irrelevant in the anime, as spread moves don’t have infinite range. While they would hit a lot of lions, it wouldn’t hit all of them. When Earthquake is used in the Pokemon anime, it is simply causes the ground to shake a little or make cracks in the ground, (as shown here) which would come nowhere near enough to kill thousands of lions. Eruption is probably the most dangerous move the Pokemon have, but it is only naturally learned by 7 Pokemon and has 5 Power Points, which as we’ve established apply to the anime. This totals to 35 uses, and the strongest eruption in history killed 92,000 people, so in total this would kill approximately 3,220,000. This same logic applies to nearly every spread move, where they might be powerful, but they won’t hit every lion and the user will run out of Power Points before killing enough lions to win.
Perish Song
Game
To those who don’t know, Perish Song is a move that KOs every Pokemon that hears it in 3 turns. This affects every Pokemon in triple battles, even if they aren’t adjacent. There are several Pokemon with the ability Soundproof, rendering them immune to this move. This argument all comes down to semantics. The specific text in Perish Song states that this move causes every Pokemon that hears to faint, which is very important. In the games, the trainers that hear it are unaffected by the move. This, alongside the move description saying “Pokemon” leads to the logical conclusion that only Pokemon are affected by the attack. However, this argument only matters if the lions can’t win in 4 turns, which is almost guranteed for them to do.
Anime
In the anime, the effects of Perish Song are never once shown. In fact, there is evidence to support it not even working the same in the anime as it does in the games, as in made-for-TV movie “The Legend of Thunder!”, this move is shown to not K.O either the attacker or the opponent. Regardless, even if it did, it doesn’t matter as Perish Song is only learned by 14 Pokemon. The move says that any Pokemon that hears it will faint, leading me to the conclusion that the sound would be drowned out by the sounds of the BILLION lions and the nearly 900 Pokemon.
Perish Song (Continued)
The Pokemon need a certain type of move to survive until Perish Song activates, called Protection Moves. There are a total of 126 Pokemon that can learn Protection moves (Protect, Detect, King’s Shield, Spiky Shield, Baneful Bunker) without TMs. 80 of these likely won’t have any Protection moves in their moveset, due to them being learned at unrealistic levels (i.e any Pokemon learning it at either an extremely high or low level). When Protection moves are used consecutively, they have a ⅓ chance to fail, which increases 3 times after every further use. A Protection move working 4 times in a row is a 1/729 chance. Since there are only 46 Pokemon that can feasibly have these types of moves and they act like wild Pokemon, there is only a ¼ chance they will use a Protection move. Since they need to use it 4 times in a row for them to not be killed by the lions, each Pokemon only has a 1/186624 chance of succeeding.
Perish Song (Continued)
Those calculations prove that a stalemate won’t happen. But, out of the 14 Pokemon with Soundproof (The only ones that will survive Perish Song), only 5 can learn Protection moves. These ones have to survive until Perish Song activates, or the battle will be a tie. This outcome is incredibly unlikely, as we’ve previously established that the odds of a Pokemon getting off 4 consecutive Protection moves is very low. To add to this, all of the Protection moves that can be used by Pokemon with Soundproof aren’t learned at realistic levels. With all of these factors together, the chances of Perish Song causing a win for the Pokemon is so unbelievably low that it the move is irrelevant.
Pokedex Entries
Game
Pokedex entries are irrelevant to the gameplay, rendering this argument null and void in the game setting. However, if for some twisted reason, you want to argue that pokedex entries do matter in the battles, then I’ll explain why I believe most pokedex entries are dumb (This is not relevant to the overall point at all, so if you disagree with this it doesn’t matter). Magcargo’s pokedex entry is infamous for saying, “Magcargo’s body temperature is approximately 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit…” This is obviously not true, as people in Pokemon games stand next to Magcargo all the time and are unaffected. We can infer from this, and many other stupid pokedex entries, that not all of the information in them is true, particularly ones that deal with absurd numbers and feats.
Anime
The problem with this part is that Pokemon in the anime have different entries than in the games. Unlike the games, these entries might have actual effect on combat, meaning I had to sort through EVERY SINGLE ENTRY in this database. For a series known for being incredibly exaggerated, most of these dex entries are surprisingly sensible.The most impressive ones are Tyranitar, (EP264) Blaziken, (AG190) and Garchomp (DP040). Unfortunately, the database ends after the Diamond and Pearl anime, but from the pokedex entries given, they aren’t powerful enough to beat all of the lions without being either overwhelmed or exhausted. If you want, you can check this database yourself and check all the entries listed to see if there are any very strong feats that I missed. Regardless, 1 billion is such an absurdly high number that, unless the entry was absolutely ridiculous, it likely doesn’t matter.
Yveltal
Game
Yveltal only act like how it would in an actual battle. As we’ve previously established, pokedex entries don’t apply to fights.
Anime
This one is significantly more complicated than in the games, due to them being able to turn Pokemon to stone in the anime. However, Yveltal is only able to turn people or Pokemon to stone with the power of its signature move, Oblivion Wing. This move has a limited range, meaning it can only take out a small group of lions at a time. Additionally, it only has 10 Power Points, meaning that it will run out of uses before dealing any real damage to the lions. You might make the argument that its pokedex entry means it will kill every thing alive if it is killed, but since pokedex entries in the anime are different than in the games, there is no way of proving if it has this power. Additionally, pokedex entries have already proven themselves unreliable. If it does have the right pokedex entry AND the entry is correct, than that amounts in a stalemate.
Eternatus
Game
The crux of this argument is that Eternatus has caused other Pokemon to Dynamax (a powerup making them much bigger) during the Darkest Day, a plot event at the end of Pokemon Sword and Shield. However, Eternatus just acts like how it would in a regular battle, rendering its ability to Dynamax other Pokemon pointless.
Anime
In the anime, Eternatus is only able to prompt the Darkest Day, the event causing Pokemon to Dynamax, due to being given a massive amount of Dynamax energy being stored up by Chairman Rose, the anime’s main antagonist. In this scenario, Eternatus wouldn’t have access to the Dynamax energy and thus couldn’t cause the Darkest Day. This means that it couldn’t cause the Darkest Day and Pokemon couldn’t Dynamax. If you don’t agree with this, then Pokemon Dynamaxing wouldn’t change the outcome, as we’ll get to later.
Certain Pokemon’s Sizes and Weights
Game
Size and weight only impact the gameplay with certain moves, such as Grass Knot and Heavy Slam. These don’t impact outside of doing more or less damage depending on weight, meaning this argument is more or less irrelevant.
Anime
This argument mainly deals with certain Pokemon weighing a lot or being large. For reference the heaviest Pokemon is Celesteela at 2204.4 pounds and the largest Pokemon are Wailord and Eternatus, at 47 and 65 feet respectively. Seems pretty big right? Well, one of the lions most common prey are African Bush Elephant. African Bush Elephants have been known to be up to 7 tons and 21 feet tall. That is almost 7 times heavier than the heaviest Pokemon. The Pokemon still have a big size advantage, but there are only around 10 Pokemon bigger than an elephant, meaning they would eventually be worn down.
Steel or Rock-Type Pokemon
Game
This argument is based on the assumption that Steel or Rock-Type Pokemon would be invincible to the lions attacks, as they are resistant to Normal-Type attacks. This argument doesn’t work in the games whatsoever, as the lions would likely know Bite or Crunch. As previously stated, if you are under the assumption lion’s moves are typeless, then they are neutral. This argument is ultimately fruitless, as 1 billion lions attacking at once, even if each attack did only 1 damage, would kill all Pokemon in a single turn.
Anime
In the anime, no matter how little damage the lion’s attacks will do, due to the incredible number of lions the Pokemon would eventually be worn down.
The Pokemon Can Strategize
This argument deals very heavily with the semantics of the question. A summary of this argument is that there are several very intelligent Psychic-Type Pokemon that could make strategies and broadcast them to the other Pokemon with their psychic abilities.
In the game, this argument doesn’t make sense, as there are no trainers or Pokemon with the ability to control other Pokemon. Due to this, the Pokemon would act like wild Pokemon would.
In the anime, this argument holds more ground, enough to where I actually agree with it. The Pokemon are shown to display significant intelligence in the anime, so it isn’t unfeasible for them to make a plan. The semantics of this question come in with the Pokemon’s movesets. Since this fight takes place in a vacuum, there is no way of guaranteeing that the Pokemon would have their optimal movesets. Regardless of your thoughts on what the Pokemon’s moves would be, the Pokemon being able to strategize isn’t a significant enough game changer to reasonably say that the Pokemon would win in the anime rules.
“One Billion Isn’t That Many”
This one… this one just irks me. The logic is typically that there are 7 billion people, so 1/7th of that isn’t very much. I don’t even feel the need to go super in-depth as to why this is extremely stupid, but I’ll say that 7 billion people would beat the Pokemon due to Power Point constraints (The same reason the lions 100% win). The number of lions being 1/7th the number of people doesn’t change the fact that 1 billion is a absolutely absurd number compared to 898, and the lions still win. I’ve already proven that 1 billion is an insanely high number, so I won’t go over it again.
Why The Lions Win
So far in the presentation, I’ve only dealt with how high 1 billion is and why most arguments from lion deniers are weak or not well thought out. Now, I will actually talk about why the lions would win.
So, I touched on how moves would work for the Pokemon earlier. I mentioned that certain moves couldn’t be learned at reasonable levels and were therefore out of the equation. To expand on this point, I will give an example. Mat Block is one of Greninja’s signature moves, and one of the most useful moves the Pokemon have. It blocks every single attack towards allies on the turn it was used. This is great, as it means the Pokemon have to succeed using Protection moves one less turn to get off Perish Song. However, Mat Block is learned by Greninja at Level 1, which is below the level it evolves. Therefore, the only ways Greninja could learn this move would be through a move-relearner. This can’t be used, as this fight takes place in a vacuum with no outside factors, and a move-relearner would be one of these.
Why The Lions Win (Continued)
I also touched on how the Pokemon would randomly select moves. This is because, in the Pokemon games, any Pokemon without a trainer will use random moves in battle. Because trainers are not in this question, this is how the Pokemon will work. Since every Pokemon will know 4 moves, there is only a ¼ chance of them using the right move.
Why The Lions Win in The Games
Due to the limitations of spread moves, it is guaranteed that the lions will get a turn. Since there are 1 billion lions, even if each deals only 1 point of damage, all of the Pokemon will be killed 2022 times over every single turn (Assuming each Pokemon has 500 HP, which is more than most should). As was previously discussed, Protection moves will have very little affect. There is no reasonable way, that without absurdly good luck (Every Pokemon knowing optimal moves and using them at the best time), that the Pokemon win in the game.
Why The Lions Win in the Anime
In the anime setting, due to the rules being less strict, the winner is less objective. However, as Power Points are heavy alluded to in the anime, this win is still easy for the lions. This battle will also be a lot longer than 4 turns. The enemy Pokemon will, eventually, run out of Power Points if the lions rush in. Many will die, but eventually the Pokemon will become too exhausted to continue fighting, at which point the remaining lions take them out.
To prove that the Pokemon will no matter what run out of Power Points, I’ve developed an equation. The 4-Move limit is a thing in the Pokemon anime. Therefore, if every Pokemon has 4 moves with 20 PP, (which is higher than the average PP) and each of these moves kill 10,000 Pokemon each (which is way more than what is realistic), the Pokemon will kill 718,400,000 lions before struggling to death. Even with these ridiculously inflated numbers, AND the lions not fighting back, there will still be 281,600,000 lions remaining.
Conclusion
In the game setting the lions beat the Pokemon easily, with a chance of losing so small it is practically nothing. The only feasible way they lose is if the Pokemon get ridiculously good luck and somehow choose every single move optimally.
In the anime setting, due to the less concrete rules applying to the battle, there are fewer regulations applying to what either side can do. Despite this, the lions still win easily.
Various Terrifying Stock Photos of Lions Holding Trophies