There’s two reasons I have for talking about Pokémon. 1, if I want to talk about videogames, I might as well talk about the series I play the most. 2, I have some thoghts and feelings about Pokemon species and games that I cant believe I never hear any one else expres. I’m not gonna to talk about all Pokémon, just the ones I think about the most, and I’m going to talk about things that I (and maybe others) dislike and think Gamefreak could do or hav don beter, and in each section I’m going to mostly talk about the final stage evolutions, but I will also bring up pre-evos as needed.
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Venusaur has always been my least favorite of the three Kanto starters. It took me a long time to believe that they were supposed to be frogs or toads, mainly because they had ears, and had no frog legs. I don’t flat out hate the whole line thogh. I would certainly like to run at least one playthrugh of Red, Blue, FireRed or LeafGreen with Bulbasaur. It certinly is a respectable battler in Kanto, and unlike other starters I don’t really like, I don’t find Venusaur so unappealing that I would reject it. Bulbasaur isn’t bad-looking, and Ivysaur is definitely very cool. There aren’t many starters where I prefer the first or second stage over the final (Bayleef, Tepig, Servine, Fennekin, Litten… I think that’s it). What I like about Venusaur is it’s teeth and claws, but that’s it, relly. I don’t like how it’s flower has a stem, and it’s petals droop. I don’t like that the petals don’t have angled ends, and they don’t overlap. It does not at all look like the flower was starting to bloom on Ivysaur’s back. But the first thing that made me dislike Venusaur was it’s warts. I hate that it has warts instead of the patches of darker skin that Bulbasaur and Ivysaur had, but the designers returned the patches to Mega Venusaur. I also hate that the full line is Poison-type. I can’t find any thing about them that would point toward Poison typing, except for knowing some Poison-type moves. I’m fine with Venu being Poison-type, and maybe Ivy, but I don’t think Bulba should have ever been Poison-type. In conclusion, I don’t hate Venusaur, I would like to trying playing through with one, but I really dislike it. But if Ken Sugimori-san or whoever designed Venu did things just a bit differently, I think the Kanto trio as a whole would be just as good as the overall Hoenn trio. And Bulbasaur is said to be the least picked Kanto starter, probably because of Venusaur, even though Bulbasaur is the best choice in starter with regards to match up against all the major battles of the game (Strong offensively against Brock, Misty, Giovanni, and Lorelai; defensively against Misty, Surge, Bruno, Giovanni, Erika). Maybe if Venusaur looked more like it’s pre-evos, it would be more popular.
Everyone loves Charizard. I know I do. I always liked it, though for a while I vastly preferred Blastoise, which was because Charizard gets more attention, and between the two equally cool Pokémon, Blastoise had the type advantage. But Charizard of course did grow on me. But I think all Pokemon fans agree Charizard gets too much love from Gamefreak. I think Pikachu does to, but he’s the mascot, so he gets a bit of a pass. A bit. Charizard was the only one of Ash’s Kanto starters to evolve, and fully so. And did we really need to have Charizard involve in the Black and White series of the anime? When the developers decided, for whatever reeson, to put the Kanto starters and Legendaries in Kalos, they gave Charizard two different Megas (though I do like both of them) when Blastoise and Venusaur only got one. Then they decided Leon should have a Charizard, because why the hell not? Nevermind that Charizard isn’t native to Galar, so why is there no story as to how he got it? Or that Charmander is obtained earlier in the game than Squirtle and Bulbasaur (both are locked in the DLC and Char isn’t), AND Gigantamax Charizard was revealed before G-Max Blast and Venu. I wouldn’t be suprised if Squirtle and Bulbasaur were only offered in the DLC because Gamefreak heard people complaining that Charizard was included in the main game of Sword and Shield.
But I don’t hate Charizard. I don’t hate regular Charizard, Mega Char X, Mega Char Y, or Gigantamax Char. G-Max might be my least favrite, but I love all the forms and I’m glad they were added. I just don’t like how Char always gets stuff before the other two members of it's trio, and sometimes gets stuff they don’t, like a spot in the team of a champion in a region it can’t be found in, even if I’m glad it has that stuff (except for the Champion thing. Leon did not need a Charizard). I also hate that some people still don’t like that Charizard isn’t a Dragon-type. Gee, I wonder. Maybe because that would have fucked up the type balance of Gen 1 than it already was? And not every Pokémon needs to be a certain type just because it looks like other Pokémon of that type (even though it would have been nice to have more Dragon-types than just Dragonite). Beedrill has wings but isn’t a Flying-type. Golduck isn’t Psychic-type, Lugia isn’t Water-type, I could go on. Any way, Charizard is fucking awesome, but Gamefreak needs to quit playing favrits.
I love Cubone and Marowak. I remember watching the second episode of the anime miniseries “Pokémon Origins”, and wondering why Red went off without offering to take up the orphan Cubone at the Pokémon House. I thought it would be been cool if that was in the games. Well it did sort of happen. In “Let’s Go Pikachu!” and “Let’s Go Eevee!”, the Cubone does get adopted, but not by the player, but their rival Trace. Why? Who the hell knows. Maybe the answer is in the game, but I decided to skip on those two. I just thought it was stupid to return to Kanto when Diamond and Pearl were next in line for remakes (even though they turned out to be disappointing when they finally came).
Any way, many people don’t like Cubone because of its lore. The skull it wears is supposed to be the skull of it’s dead mother, but this lore was flung out the window with the introduction of breeding. If a player had their female Marowak bred, the Cubone that would hatch from the egg would be waring a skull, even though it’s mother would still be alive. Well for one thing, this woldn’t be the last time the games do anything that contradict the Poké dex (hell, in recent games, som species have dex entries that contradict entries from previous games about that same Pokémon). But for me, it’s only the sprite representing the creature that’s waring the skull. Actual Cubones (let’s say Pokémon actually existed among us and we could breed them and hatch eggs) would probably be born not wearing skulls. If the game devs can create sprites and models for different forms of the same species (like sexual dimorfism), then in future games they should create a Cubone form that dosn’t wear a skull. They are what hatch from eggs, and on ocasion can be found in the wild.
Chikorita is so overrated. I don't mind Chikorita, though, or even Bayleef. But Meganium is so lame I can't believe so many people online talk about how they're going to choose Chikorita when Legends ZA comes out. But why tho? Meganium is so lame, not only in design, but it's useless in its debut region of Johto. Venusaur does great in Kanto because of all the Gyms that specialize in a type weak to Grass, but they didn't repeat any type specialties in Johto so Meganium doesn't get any such like. And it's design sucks like I said. They just had to give it pink flower petals and trade the leaf on Bayleef's head for two antenne! Personally if I ever decided to choose Chikorita as my starter in a Johto game, it's going to be to change things up (I STRONGLY prefer Totodile and Cyndaquil!), and I'm not letting it evolve past Bayleef. And I'm definitely choosing Feraligatr because I think Emboar is aslo lame but I fucking love Feraligatr. And yes I know all three are getting new forms but IDC.
Holy shit I fucking hate this Pokémon, and Pokémon fans have only themselves to blame. Sprigatito is okay on its own. It's not as appealing to me as other base form starters like Litten, and I can really take or leave it just like the Galar starters. But when it was revealed, everyone and their brother on Pokémon subreddits like r/MandJTV were like "you better not walk on two legs!" because we were all getting sick and tired of quadroped starters evolving to be bipedal (Tepig --> Emboar, Fennekin --> Delphox, Litten --> Incineroar). But then we got Floragato and then Meowscarada comes along and everyone loves it for some reason! WHYYY!!! Every damn time I go on Instagram I see a bunch of Pokémon anime reels and half of them are about Liko's Meowscarada being "cute" or "adorable". I don't fucking care that it's a cat, I don't fucking care that it's a magician. Hell I don't even care that it's supposedly based on Puss in Boots, my favorite animal hero from my childhood! I thought we didn't want anymore humanoid starters? We didn't want anymore bipedal starters doing human things like mages, knights, rogues, snipers, drummers, and fucking soccer players? I mean Skeledirge (I fucking loooove Skeledirge) is a singer, but fuck me at least he stays on all fours except when he's singing his heart out! Meowscarada is everything Pokémon fans didn't want but they fucking love it. Well I don't. I would have already strongly disliked it as is, but now I fucking hate it for how everyone has turned on a dime. Seems like if a fandom isn't toxic it's hypocritical...