#lopunny and tsareena i understand

[snorkmaidxn]

I've never understood people being so weirdly horny about Gardevoir. it just vaguely looks like a woman? just some girl??

[theliterarywolf]

I can understand the whole thing with Gardevoir, Lopunny, and Tsareena.

I understand the whole thing with Salazzle.

I understand the recent trend of Fighting-types.

I've even seen some good stuff with Xerneas.

What I do not, can not, understand is how Hypno became such a popular choice for Poke-fucking shenanigans

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Hatenna Family

856: Hatenna

What an adorable Kirby-enemy lookin lil dude! Hatenna is a cute lil monster that's little more than a head with feet and some hair that it seems to use as arms. So much hair that its eyes are covered over by its fringe, which is always a cute look. It also has a “tail” that resembles a little sleepers cap! Said tail apparently also acts as an emotion detector, and that it hates every second of it. It wants to stay as far away from feeling as possible. (Mood?)

857: Hattrem

Hattrem feels notably more typical though... not only growing a sudden body but also pulling the hair over its eyes. They really can't have a Pokemon remain “eyeless” for long, huh? It also SLIGHTLY switches gimmicks up by having its hat be made out of hair, which it also uses to stand on and even beats up anyone displaying strong emotions near it with its pigtails. Not even specifying “negative” or “positive” emotions. Just emotions.

It was also clear to me upon seeing this thing that we were in for another “Gardevoir.” And I was right, though it is an interesting inversion of the concept since Gardevoir is a design all about strong magical powers via emotional expression but this line is the exact opposite in that it wants to throw hands with anyone that so much as has a good day around it.

It's also once again running into this odd problem of the line starting out Psychic type but then becoming Psychic/Fairy. This line already feels like it aughta be Psychic/Fairy, or at least should've stayed mono-Psychic, but here it is being different. It all seems to be in service of the character Bede's development, given he starts out a stuck-up asshole who primarily uses Psychic types with Galarian Ponyta and Hattrem here as his “signature” Pokemon of sorts, only to then mellow out a little and become more of a Fairy type trainer, Rapidash and Hatterene reflecting that by going from Mono-Psychic to Psychic/Fairy. Eh, it's an interesting idea though I don't like the idea of entire Pokemon lines being designed to selfishly serve the development of a character ingame simply because stuff like this just comes off as an odd series of questions if you say, got into this series two more generations down the line, ended up really liking this line, but was curious about this typing oddity that was lost on you because you didn't know the context behind it.

Anyway, Hattrem definitely feels like another Pokemon that has its concept supersede its own design a bit. Hattrem feels a bit bland design-wise as much as I like the idea of a Psychic emotion-reader that hates being able to read emotions.

Personal Score: 6.5/10

858: Hatterene

Thankfully, Hatterene saves the line from being a generic Fae-creature line. It immediately has a cool visual in being a limbless curvy humanoid, but it's only constructed this body entirely out of its own hair!

Obviously it has the suggestion of its hair-like arms ending in claws not being its real arms, its true arms being those tiny lil slender sticks you can see even in its official art. But if you look closely, that facade extends into its legs as well! Its legs aren't actually that long, it's just standing on a gown made of its own hair again! This thing's a tiny little grey space-alien-lookin little fairy monster just disguising itself with its hair!

And of course, I like just about anything looking like a witch. With its pointy, large-brimmed hat combined with a little tentacle tassel that also acts as a claw it uses to beat up anybody for the usual reasons, it even merges the witch look with a bit of traditional “princess”, like it's the evil witch and the “damsel” at the same time. In any other context I probably would've groaned at the very idea of basing a monster on a damsel-in-distress in the first place, but this is at least an interesting subversion of it. It's a neat witch look, even if it still isn't the traditional, green-skinned, sickly-lookin, boil-covered witch design I'm STILL one to want.

It's overall a very neat way to incorporate the fairy typing as the typical “seemingly innocent, but watch out” type design. Very fun in a lot of places but with one irritating glaring flaw that I'll talk about in a minute...

G-Max Hatterene:

Of course, being the signature Pokemon of a major character grants you G-Max rights. Though Hatterene doesn't change much overall, mainly just changing the hat-tassels to just be three tentacle-like claws rather than one tentacle with a claw.

It also picks up a bigger “head” chamber, which seems like it more or less confirms that there's a “princess” angle going on here. Which is annoying in the same way I mentioned a minute ago but cool in another. Its head-chamber-hair seems to have some gaps in it, looking a bit like a cage. Given the imagery of Hatterene being a tiny gremlin creature in a big body of hair, Hatterene has made itself into a tower with a princess locked up at the top. In fact, it COULD be specifically a “Rapunzel” monster, given the whole long hair motif. Again, ANY other context and I would've been having a complete other discussion here, but it's hard to deny that a design like that pulled off with this amount of thoughtfulness and elegance is just plain neat and cool as hell.

Personal Score: 9/10

I get the hint I might sound preachy every time I've gone up to talk about this sort of thing but I feel like it needs pointing out that my loving a Pokemon once again comes with a really big “BUT”.

Since Gardevoir, we've gotten at least one traditionally “fem” coded Pokemon per generation, but recent generations have been different from the older ones. Can you guess what it is? No? Well, Gardevoir, Lopunny, and Gothitelle here have the usual 50/50 gender ratio, while Florges, Tsareena, and now Hatterene are given an arbitrary 100% female rate with no males of the species existing. We've gotten less and less fem-coded Pokemon that are allowed to be boys if you really want them to be. What's wrong with letting boys look traditionally pretty? The only exceptions seem to be Primarina and Sylveon, but those are hanging onto the pre-established gender-ratios of Starters and Eevee respectively.

Like, even looking past the more modern understanding of gender, it seems like a particularily unimaginative way to do animal gender. I've used this example in the past, but y'know ants? Pretty much ALL ants within a colony are females. The only male ants ever born come out seasonally for a “nuptial flight” where they meet with a queen-to-be and mate before, in most cases, dying immediately after. Yet Durant has the usual 50/50 gender ratio. I mean, I know Durant doesn't really do ant representation justice in general but it certainly doesn't help. Pokemon rarely ever gives biological justification for their somewhat arbitrary gender ratios (75% of Vulpixes are female for whatever reason?) but it makes me wonder if things like female Machoke or male Gardevoir would ever slide in modern Pokemon in favor of just giving them 100% male and 100% female ratings. Do you think male peacocks give a god-diddly-damn if they more fit the bill for traditionally feminine coding while the drab-looking females look a bit more traditionally “male”? Of course not. So why should Pokemon?

It's not enough for me to lower the score any; especially since I doubt Hatterene's lame gender ratio was decided by the artist that made it, but it's something I just wanted to bring light to since it’s mildly frustrated me every time it’s come up.

[Archive]

[krokonoko]

It’s been a while since I completed this meme for all the other regions, and I felt it finally was time to add Alola!

Again, these are just my opinions, and if you find some of your favs among my least favs, remember than I would probably find some of my favs among your least favs too and that’s ok ^^

As you can see, a lot of Alola forms made it on this list, both on the positive and the negative side.

This gen had heaps of Pokemon I liked or even loved, but Alolan!Ninetales and ESPECIALLY Alolan!Vulpix kinda have a special place in my heart. When I was a kid, Vulpix and Ninetales used to be my fav Pokemon for a while, but my weird penchant for rarely liking Pokemon that are red or orange in color kinda made my love for them wane a bit over time. Most of my favourite Pokemon are either blue, green, or grey, sometimes yellow and even more rarely brown. What a coincidence that GF would release the EXACT same Pokemon with a blue color swap, as if made specifically for me! With their elegance, cuteness and A!Ninetales’ unique typing, these two quickly made it to my list of absolute favorite Pokemon of all time.

Decidueye is a complicated case. I'm a grass starter kinda guy, and not only was Rowlet adorable, but Decidueye was EXACTLY my kind of Pokemon for several personal reasons. Everything from its huge wings to its fluffy, long legs to the facial design and hood are perfect! My only problem with it is its Ghost typing. It feels like EVERY Pokemon knows some Dark attack move and so many Alolan forms are Dark types. Decidueye is also incredibly slow. All that made it very unreliable, when I think your starter Pokemon should always be your most reliable ally.

Salazzle is another complicated case. I loved Salandit from the moment I first saw it and heard its evil little cackling cry. Finally, we got a cool Fire type Pokemon!! And while I absolutely ADORE Salazzle's design, the way it is framed by the game, the way its model is posed and everything just really rubs me the wrong way. BUT I refuse to let this weird... sexualization-of-a-Pokemon thing... ruin my love for the first cool fully evolved Fire type we got in YEARS!

Still a bit on the fence about Alolan!Raichu, but ultimately, who can resist this adorable critter. Its design in Pokemon Ami are the cutest thing ever, the way its surfing on its own tail is SUCH an amazing idea, and the Psychic type is SUPER interesting. I'm just generally a fan of unique typings, and I was super happy that Raichu got a bit more attention this gen!

Who. Could not. Love Jangmo-o. Even when I'd only seen its silhouette, I already loved it to bits and pieces. The cute little grumpy face, that quadrupedal body-form that I actually miss a lot about many Pokemon nowadays... It's just the most cuddly dragon ever! ...Unfortunately, things happened. More on that later.

I really like elegant, feminine-lookin Pokemon. Lopunny, Gardevoir, Salazzle, they're all awesome. Frickin hate what the internet is doing to them, but as I said before, I'm not gonna let that ruin my love for these cool Pokemon. Tsareena is another one of those cases. It looks so cool and pretty, with the long leaf-like hair and Idk, what are those, boots?? It kicks people to death with those! How much more badass can you get? Can't wait to have one on my team.

Mudsdale, the obligatory awesome Ground type. It's a 2,5m tall horse, what's not to love???

LOVE the spikes on Alolan!Sandslash! They look all translucent and icy, it's great!

Alolan!Marowak is almost too cool to be true. A Ghost type as a nod to the Marowak mom of Lavender Town? But its also a Fire type and its bone can be used as a fire-staff?? I wish GF just followed through with these kinda trains of thought more often.

honorable mentions go to Primarina, cuz it’s super pretty, and Minior, cuz I love the idea and the different colored versions!

-

Now on to the negatives.

I’m sure I don’t have to explain the “every single UB and legendary” part anymore. Always hated them, always will hate them. Some less than others (Celesteela is kinda cool and UB Adhesive looks cute), and the sheer amount of UB hasn't really helped my attitude towards legendary Pokemon (cuz lbr, UBs are just that.)

Ah. Yes. Incineroar. From the moment the Dark typing and the whole “wrestler” deal was confirmed, it somehow became forbidden to criticize it. Cuz that's apparently such a cool, new and unique idea. Not like Emboar and especially Pignite are already based on wrestlers. Not like wrestlers are effectively the same thing as fighters. Not like Incineroar's Z-move literally conjures up a fighting rink. Not like Incineroar learns p much the same amount of Dark and Fighting moves. ...All in all: Not like this Pokemon is a Fighting type in all but name, right? If you like it, cool. But you gotta agree that the ppl disappointed by it were lead to believe Litten would evolve into a quadrupedal tiger that would be something ELSE than a frickin Fighting type for once. I know I'm constantly bemoaning the state of the Fire type and how they just don't make 'em like they used to, but honestly. Imho, this is a HUGE missed chance, and one we aren’t gonna get again any time soon.

Gumshoos... I don't understand why we needed a Trump Pokemon.

I've heard Araquanid has a LOT of fans, actually? And I'm not trying to criticize its design, I'm sure many people like it! It's just that personally, I'm a bit freaked out by it ^^°°

Okay these three Alola forms really baffle me?? Because I mean. Five out of my ten fav Pokemon are Alolan forms, which shows they CAN be cool. Why did GF have to troll so much with them? That kinda includes A!Persian and A!Exeggutor, tho I don't really dislike these two. I just wish GF hadn't wasted so much time with dumb jokes and given us more badass and interesting Alolan Pokemon like Marowak instead.

Last but not least, Kommo-o. Oh Kommo-o, I was so disappointed with you. It's not like it's a bad Pokemon design, it's just that again, I expected something completely different. Which is kinda my own fault I admit, but still. I really wanted Jangmo-o to stay all stout and. Well. QUADRUPEDAL. But considering GF's vendetta against fully evolved quadrupedal Pokemon, Kommo-o really shouldn't have come as a surprise. The other thing tho is that it really disappointed me on my team. For a semi-legendary Dragon/Fighting Pokemon, it kinda kept letting me down again and again. Alas, this was just not meant to be...

-

And that’s it! All in all, I was pretty satisfied with the Alolan roster, though it's the first gen in a long time that also made me think: This could've gone a lot better. And again, if you find your fav among my least favs, remember that I’m just some dumb person on the internet posting their opinions on their unimportant blog for their own personal entertainment, nothing more ;D