Snorlax's Awakening

I've been losing sleep over the past few days due to several goings-on that have kept me awake into the wee hours of the day (fortunately though, not this blog). This unusualness reminds me of Snorlax, who recently was noted to have an unusualness of its own: it "woke up". Based on the evolution of its in-game images, Snorlax could be said to have woken up in battle and become prepared to fight its opponents. This is in contrast to its supposed biology, in particular its sleeping habits, hence the unusualness of the situation.

The in-game image evolution itself is somewhat fascinating. In the early days, Snorlax first appeared belly-up and lying down. In the next games within a couple of years, Snorlax appeared to sit up, even lying on its side once, before lying back down. Ten years after the first sprite image, Snorlax sat up again, and this time it was set this way for the next eight years' worth of games, until the games finally switched to 3D models and Snorlax stood up, seemingly wide awake and ready. Altogether, this evolution occurred within a span of about a decade and three-quarters.

The supposed biology of Snorlax is that it eats a lot, and then goes into a long slumber, with few disturbances (e.g. save the occasional Poké Flute prod). So an awake Snorlax is a rare thing, let alone one that's awake and eating all the time, as the one that Ash found and captured in the Orange Islands. But then again, once a Snorlax is captured, it has to do its Trainer's bidding, full or not, sleepy or not. So there's something to be said about how a Snorlax acts up based on what it's supposed to do and how it actually behaves, which may not be unusual given certain circumstances.

A Snorlax's apparent biology is to sleep, so to see it active in mid-battle might seem unusual. Still, Snorlax is to do what all other Pokémon do in any battle - face up to the brunt of opposing Pokémon - and that is nothing out of the ordinary in this world, irrespective of its biology. And that alone is worth seeing Snorlax appear active rather than the slouch that it's purported to be. I'm no slouch, but I'm not one to reject sleep either - yet it looks like I'm going to be losing a bit more of it in the coming days.