I’m Luke Summerhayes and I love Volcanion.
The earliest steam powered device was described in the first century AD, built by ancient Greek or Roman mathemeticians and inventors, either Hero of Alexandria or Vitruvius. It heated water, which caused jets of steam to shoot out and turn a central body. It lacked practical applications, until the 16th Century when French inventor Denis Papin first hit upon piston-based steam power, and shortly thereafter British Industrialists took this technology and began the industrial revolution.
On base principles, steam power is simple – burn a fuel, like coal, to heat water, which evaporates and expands, pushing outward and therefore converting matter, to heat, to movement. The tricky part is to take the simple blast of steam and convert it into useful motion – pistons pump, gears turn and eventually mills grind or trains trundle forwards.
Volcanion is the final Pokemon of Generation Six, a mythical pokemon which finally, for the first time, combines the water and fire types. These two seem diametrically opposed, but as we should have learned through the Tao Trio and Aura Trio, this is rarely the case. Fire and water together make steam, and are bases for the modern world.
The name Volcanion of course uses the word volcano – volcanic eruptions being the main place where steam is produced in the natural world – but the final ion could come from Lion, with its quadrupedal form kind of resembling a cat, or perhaps eruption or cannon, owing to its powerful blasts.

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It expels its internal steam from the arms on its back. It has enough power to blow away a mountain.

Volcanion does have considerable power. On top of this, Fire and Water is a unique and excellent type combination both defensively and offensively. As if that all weren’t enough, it even has a signature move, Steam Eruption, which combines the power of hydro pump with the burning capability of Scald. Alas, as a mythical Pokemon, Volcanion has never been legal in official videogame competition.

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It lets out billows of steam and disappears into the dense fog. It's said to live in mountains where humans do not tread.
Volcanion did get to shine as a grumpy old monster in the movie Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel, where it was forced, quite unwillingly, to travel with Ash and friends, eventually meeting Magearna – but we’ll have to wait quite some time to talk about that monster.
The UK is known as the birthplace of the industrial revolution, and in Galar we saw an abundance of coal monsters, as well as the smokestacks of industry. But the earliest steam engine was in France, and Kalos deserves this representation by a lone, rare mythical.
Music for Luke Loves Pokemon is by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. If you enjoy the podcast, find out about my other shows at podcastiopodcastius.org, get in touch on bluesky @podcastpodcast, or support the show at patreon.com/podcastiopodcastius.
If you want to see my slow playthrough of Pokémon Legends Z-A, check out twitch.tv/buskalilly. I love hearing from Listeners! Up next is our Z-A Mega Roundup, then the podcast will take a break before we start the seventh generation. Thank you so much for listening.
I love Volcanion. And remember, I love you too.