The New Pokemon That People Think Is Based On A Famous Food

There will be a whole new world for Pokemon fans to discover when Scarlet and Violet debuts this November. If you're not a fan, we'll forgive you for not knowing that these comprise the latest generation of Pokemon games, and their release will bring a whole host of new characters to the Pokeverse, per Polygon.

While Screenrant notes that a number of the original 150 Pokemon were inspired by characters in Japanese mythology, now that there are nearly 1,000 of them, we can only imagine how difficult it must be to come up with names and backstories for every single new trainer and monster. And while there are still those who will coo over the franchise's classic characters — Psyduck was part of a recent viral trend in China and Pikachu got people excited for a limited release Pokemon Oreo pack — it seems that the internet may be ready to toss them aside for one of the newest monsters to be introduced into the Pokeverse. It's a "Hog Pokemon" named Lechonk that the official Pokemon website describes as "A Gourmand with an Excellent Nose."

There's plenty to love about a cartoon hog that might look portly, but is in fact "mostly muscle built by constantly walking around in search of food." Per the Pokemon website, Lechonk is said to "use its sense of smell to find and eat only the most fragrant wild grasses and the richest Berries.

Lechonk's creators have not yet told those of us who live outside the Pokeverse how the Hog came to be, or even what inspired its name. As Gamerant points out, it appears to be a combination of the words "lechon" and "chonk."

While "chonk" appears to be a reference to the piggy's girth, the word "lechon" can be of Philippine or Latin American origin, per Kotaku, which refers to a whole roast suckling pig. "Lechon" can also mean "suckling pig" in Spanish, which has led a section of fans to theorize that the new game is set in Spain, and that Lechonk is a black Iberian pig.

Regardless of what Lechonk's backstory might be, the Internet has adopted the pulchritudinous porcine creature as its own, with members of the Twitterverse coming out in full force to express their love for the latest Pokemon. The Twitterati has worked hard to roll out the red carpet for Lechonk, with fans sharing art and enthusiastic greetings almost immediately. One shoutout even came from viral internet game Among Us, which tweeted "HELLO LECHONK I LOVE YOU".

But one specific social media user may have spoken for all of us in a tweet that was liked by more than 14,000 people: "i keep thinking i'm kinda over pokemon and then suddenly boom lechonk exists."