#a close third being Tauros (surpassed by Lucario)

[parabiont]

I’m a vulture culture geek, so I like Mew because it is reminiscent of an embryo (it’s also nostalgic— it was perhaps my favorite when I was a kid!).

While looking for fanart of retro Mew— the rendition I love most, these days— I found people pointing out more clever details I had never considered! In Pokémon Yellow, its Pokédex entry says, “When viewed through a microscope, this Pokémon's short, fine, delicate hair can be seen,” which may represent lanugo— “the first hair to be produced by the fetal hair follicles… It is normally shed before birth.” Mew’s iconic, protective bubble symbolizes the placenta, which protects the embryo. Looking at its Red/Green sprite, it is easy to see why some think its tail looks like an umbilical cord.

^ Me trying to get back in the womb. I’ve had enough of this place!

I like the thought put into this Pokémon. Its Crystal Pokédex entry says that scientists hypothesize that it is the universal common ancestor of all Pokémon, which is a topic of interest in the real world, too. While the real world universal ancestor is probably unicellular and microscopic, an embryo is similarly rudimentary and ambiguous enough to develop into all sorts of things!

Originally, Mew wasn’t going to appear in the game (COULD YOU IMAGINE?!?!?!). Shigeki Morimoto was instructed not to include Mew but did so secretly because, after all was said and done, there was still room for one more Pokémon in the code. It couldn’t be accessed through normal gameplay, though— only through bugs. "Unless we could think about any good opportunity to do so, the existence of Mew wouldn’t have been revealed to the public. It was left in there in case it was suitable for some post-launch activity,” Morimoto said. Red and Blue initially didn’t do as well as expected. But after players accidentally discovered Mew, Nintendo launched an event for twenty people to have Mew added to their game. Over 78,000 people participated, which helped Red and Green to become best-sellers. Pokémon may not be what it is today without Mew!

Mew is very cute, but it is so much more than its appearance! It has rich history and symbolism which makes it an excellent representative for this era of Pokémon! :^)

Sources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemonconspiracies/comments/502657/mew_is_a_genetically_modified_embryo/ <— Love this! Short read! It talks about Mewtwo perhaps being influenced by Giygas, which makes me like Mewtwo— another one of my favs— even more!

On the Origin of Species: Mew by Xan Hutcheon on Bulbanews

Mew’s Bulbapedia page

The fascinating story of how Mew saved Pokemon Red and Blue by Paul Cot on Dexerto