The "Burn" status in Pokemon

RedEyedAbyss

Is it a medical burn, or "burn" as in getting set on fire? For the longest time, I would have thought the latter because of the burn animation and the way Will-O-Wisp and Flame Orb hint at getting set on fire, except now we have Scald which hints at the medical condition.

Vorpy

I would guess an "ow I am burned and cannot move" like third degree burns.

But I always wondered how Gyro Ball worked.

Bob

I always thought Gyro Ball worked with the pokemon using it spinning, starting off slow and building momentum then charging at the enemy while still rolling, or something like that.

Saigyouji

Seeing as burn requires medical attention to heal, the former makes more sense. Unless all Pokémon are highly combustible. ...On that note, how the hell do you inflict a lasting burn on an incorporeal being, like Misdreavous?

Bob

Well, you could say that ghost pokemon are made of some sort of combustible gaseous substance or something.

Trust me, it sounded less stupid in my head.

Icalasari

Ghost Pokemon aren't actually ghosts and exist on a 4th dimension, with all but Normal and Fighting attacks causing enough shock to bring them fully into the normal world. Scrappy and Foresight automatically pulls them into the normal world

Simple

Saigyouji

And suddenly, I'm wondering what happened between Gen I and II to render the Silph Scope obsolete.

Icalasari

^ Ghosts stopped being assholes and hiding who they were

Vorpy

You can't freeze Ice pokemon, yet you can burn Fire Pokemon.

Gelzo

^^^ I'm going to guess they found a way to incorporate the function into other pieces of technology. Sort of like how the only devices that only tell time nowadays are more for decoration.

Icalasari

Vorpy, you can't burn fire Pokemon. They are immune to the burn status condition

Longfellow

Poisons and Steels are also immune to the Poison status (except in gen 2 where they can still be poisoned by Twineedle).

Khwarizmi

@ OP: Neither.  It refers to a sick burn.