This makes me wonder, Eevee is said to have unstable DNA, whatever that means.
Is Sylveon a man-made pokemon or one that naturally appeared as well?
I ask since its ribbons are feelers and while I know pokemon is not designed with real-world genetics in mind, I think its an interesting thing to have develop naturally, unless they were somehow selectively bred to look like that.
This makes me wonder, Eevee is said to have unstable DNA, whatever that means.
Is Sylveon a man-made pokemon or one that naturally appeared as well?
I ask since its ribbons are feelers and while I know pokemon is not designed with real-world genetics in mind, I think its an interesting thing to have develop naturally, unless they were somehow selectively bred to look like that.
Evolution, or mutation in Pokemon world has its own rules; Eevee being a creature with 'unstable DNA' in this world would refer to something akin to a walking mass of tumor since DNA codes anything and everything that's happening in your body. Sylveon, as with other Eeveelutions that evolves with happiness/love could be said as 'man-made' evolution because they won't change before getting to know a human, per the system. They may evolve from bond with another pokemon, but as far as we know the Anime haven't touched this.
Rathurue said: Evolution, or mutation in Pokemon world has its own rules; Eevee being a creature with 'unstable DNA' in this world would refer to something akin to a walking mass of tumor since DNA codes anything and everything that's happening in your body. Sylveon, as with other Eeveelutions that evolves with happiness/love could be said as 'man-made' evolution because they won't change before getting to know a human, per the system. They may evolve from bond with another pokemon, but as far as we know the Anime haven't touched this.
This brings the idea of Eevee following the rule of Saya no Uta, where what we see is a projection and the true form is a writhing mass of pulsating flesh
If we were to put on our silly-blinders for a second and apply real-world biology to Pokemon, then there is something that can explain what Eevee does, but it's not DNA.
Epigenetics are traits are passed down as "hereditary" without actually being DNA, and instead are triggered during development of the embryo through selective releases of chemicals, or through purposefully incomplete "scrubbing" of epigenetic information. All your cells have non-DNA information about what sort of cells they should be, such as telling muscle cells to be muscle cells instead of bone cells or organ cells or skin cells, which are all different, even though they are "built from the same DNA". Epigenetic markers simply tell it to listen to some parts of the DNA and not others to build those cells into the specific function they need to be. In nearly all cases, before becoming reproductive cells, however, these epigenetic markers are "scrubbed" of epigenetic markers since you don't want a baby that is made of nothing but muscle cells.
Some creatures, however, have "hereditary epigenetics", and actually pass some information on what sort of creature they should be along. For example, if two different beetles that, through a fluke of extreme long odds, have identical DNA might be physically different, with one sprouting spines on its back because its mother was attacked by a bird, and therefore passed on a chemical marker that made the beetle develop anti-bird spines while the other beetle with identical DNA would not have spines. Similarly, the castes of ants in an ant colony are determined not through different DNA, but chemical markers altering their development.
In this case, you could think of Eevee as a creature that has multiple 'castes', and which one it takes is determined by external factors that simply occur unusually late in its development.
Most of the "Eeveelutions" are responses to specific elemental stones that trigger these epigenetic changes, with Leafeon and Glaceon explicitly changing based upon being near moss-covered or icy stones which are only found in extreme climates. (Hence, throw an Eevee in the coldest cave in the region, and it triggers its epigenetic adaptation to cold climates.)
Sylveon, meanwhile, gains its triggering through the unusual step of being "pampered" by a human after being captured. This means that it may be more "domesticated" than "man-made", although the difference is a more subtle one. It's possible to be a "wild" adaptation of the Fairy-type, which is almost uniformly the "pink and frilly" type barring dual-typeage, but it may more likely be an adaptation specifically bred to make humans like them more.
Samson Oak says in SM that the Alolan form of Persian developed a round face because Persians are semi-domesticated and have an evolutionary advantage in getting humans to like them and feed them, and in Alola, round-faced cats are more liked. It's not much of a leap to say that Sylveon, a creature whose expression only comes out specifically when brushed and fed by humans repeatedly, may develop something that specifically looks like a little girl's dolly ribbons and styling just to be a better subject for brushing and subsequent feeding. Keeping in mind that, post-capture, being either cute or strong are good ways to keep from being banished to the box and forgotten, being the cute one makes evolutionary sense.
In this case, DNA doesn't actually change, and all Eeveelutions contain the DNA required to be any of the Eeveelutions. It's simply a difference in which DNA gets expressed. (Keep in mind that Espeon also has "sensitive fur" that lets it understand the emotions of those around them, and perhaps that's the same organ as the ribbon-like feelers, just in a different form.)