Pokemon of the Week #14: Goomy

Pokemon of the Week: #702 Goomy, the Soft Tissue Pokemon

Bloop

Been a while since I did one of these. So I kinda wanna. Not sure if it'll be super-regular (maybe it'll be a monthly thing? I dunno) but I've been playing some more Pokemon and I just wanna talk about them, but have no idea for a top five/top ten list, so I hit the random number generator and out comes Goomy.

Goomy is a Pokemon from the sixth generation of Pokemon, and it is the most adorable purple gloop in all of existence. It's adorable! It's fluffy, it just bloops around, it looks absolutely happy, and honestly, it wins any cutest pokemon list hands-down. (Huh, maybe that's a list I should make...) It's just so adorable, a simple design of two shades of purple, and cute green cheek-things.

It's also based on a slug, with some noting that Goomy might take its design after the beautiful underwater nudibranches (often lumped alongside sea slugs by laymen). Some even take a more prehistoric view as to Goomy's origin, noting that it's a weird-looking prehistoric genus called the Wiwaxia, though I personally don't think it's prehistoric since Nintendo has been pretty great at making sure that prehistoric Pokemon are either related to fossils or have an affinity for the move Ancient Power. It's likely that Goomy's just, y'know, a slug. I mean, in both the regions he shows up in, Kalos and Alola, Goomy is associated heavily with rainy swamps.

Wait, what? Goomy's a dragon type?

A pure dragon type?

Not just a pure dragon type, too, but the basic form of the Kalos regions' pseudo-legendary Pokemon, Goodra?

Um.

Okay then.

It's actually not as silly as you thought, though. Yes, neither Charizard or Gyarados are dragons, despite being literal dragons, while Goomy's a blob of sluggy cuteness, but there are two very possible origins for why a freaking slug is a dragon. So there is this blue-coloured sea slug called the Glaucus atlanticus, which, while not bearing a 100% resemblance to Goomy or his evolutions, is still a slug, with a bluish-purple colour. Like Goomy, the Glaucus atlanticus has its body divided into two gradients of blue to camouflage itself from both predators above the surface and below the water. How is it related to a dragon, though? Simple. The Glaucus' common name is the Blue Dragon Slug. Which I realize is a tenuous connection, but we do have Vibrava and Flygon be considered dragons because they are based on dragonflies, and Mega Ampharos gets its dragon typing because its Japanese name is Denryuu. So stranger things have happened.

The Glaucus atlanticus is a pretty cool being, beyond looking like a creature you'd fight in a Starcraft game. It hunts down Portuguese Man o' War jellyfishes, stealing their nematocysts, or poison cells, and weaponizes it as its own stinging defense against its own predators. It's a freaking cool adaptation of nature that, if Goomy was actually based on it entirely, is something that I felt would definitely be reflected in its design. It's way too cool not to be adapted into a game mechanic.

But Goomy is a pure dragon-type, and it lives in marshes, not the sea. So while the Glaucus atlanticus might play a part in giving Goomy its visual design, we have to turn to something that's not in the natural wildlife in search of why the fuck is a cute blob slug a dragon.

See, Goomy's debut game is in Kalos, a region that is blatantly stated to be modeled on France. We've got a lot of setting and Pokemon that is modeled after French culture, so it stands to reason that the region's pseudo-legendary is based upon French mythology. Even if the actual legendaries are based on seemingly Scandinavian or Norse legends, it's cool to see that some French mythology seeps into the design process.

See, in French folklore, there exists a dragon called the Lou Carcolh. Lou Carcolh is a draconic serpent... but at the same time, it is also a mollusk. It's a long, serpentine dragon with a snail's shell on its back, and it supposedly lived on Southwestern France's underground caverns. Legend has it that Lou Carcolh had a mouth filled with slimy tentacles that ensnare prey and drag its prey into its gigantic mouth. Goomy has no tentacles, but it is slimy and does have a big mouth.

It's a bit of a far stretch, but the fact that there is a snail-dragon creature in mythology, of French mythology in particular, seems to be something that's obscure enough that having a slug-dragon creature released in a French-based region seemed way too much of a stretch to be, well, a coincidence. Sliggoo even has a snail-shell on its back!

In any case, though, ignore the supposed controversy about his draconic type, and just look at Goomy! Goomy's adorable. He's just so happy and going all bwaaa and stuff. Besides, it's Pokemon. A dragon slug isn't much more unbelievable than a rock lava slug.

Anyway, enough about Goomy's origins. Let's talk about him in-game. He evolves into Sliggoo at a whooping level 40, and evolves into Goodra at level 50.... but only if it's raining. Not by Rain Dance, mind you, but when it's actually raining in the overworld, so you have to find one of those routes with permanent rain. It's a rather unique evolution method that kind of plays up to its slug/snail origins. It's one of the many newly-introduced evolution methods in Generation VI, and is one that's actually somewhat sensible.

Pokedex entries make note of it being a Dragon, and being weak, as well as being a slimy slug-blob of cuteness that is covered with slimy membranes that makes punches and kicks slide it off harmlessly. It also really likes damp places to prevent its skin from drying out, and the membrane is apparently laden with germs that helps in its defense.

And all this slime apparently contributes to its stat distribution. Even as a lowly Goomy, he already has Special Defense as his highest attribute. Goodra, as a mighty pseudo-legendary, has a base Special Defense stat of 150, sharing the third-highest non-legendary Special Defense spot with several others (like Carbink, Probopass and Aegislash) and only beaten among the non-legendaries by Florges and Shuckle. And even if we take legendaries into account, only Regice, Primal Kyogre, defense Deoxys, Lugia and Ho-Oh beat it outright. Goodra also has very decent attack stats and HP, although sadly the rest of his stats might be too evenly distributed to make Goodra as practical as the likes of Garchomp or Salamence in competitive battle.

Goomy's still wins the most adorable pseudo-legendary hands-down, though.

Offensive-wise, we'll be talking about Goomy himself, and Goomy has... a huge majority of water (and normal, but that doesn't count) moves, though he does learn Dragon Breath at an early level. The only other dragon move he learns is Dragon Pulse, though he'll evolve into a Sliggoo way before he learns that. Goomy is also able to learn a plethora of moves via TMs, like, appropriately, Poison-type moves, some weather-related moves like Thunderbolt and Sunny Day (what!), and the odd Rock and Bug type moves.

It's not the most powerful of combatants, though being a Basic stage it does kind of have an excuse. It's a shame that its final form doesn't quite hold the same amount of power as its other Pseudo-Legendary ilk, not helped by its way too cute and friendly appearance compared to the badassery of Tyranitar or Kommo-o.

I really personally think that Goomy maybe should be a Dragon/Water or Dragon/Poison Pokemon to make it more unique, but honestly I don't quite understand the amount of hate the line gets. Dragonite is a 'cute' pseudo-legendary too, but no one's hating on him. I guess maybe it's because of how widely popular Goomy is, and anything super-popular instantly sucks in the eyes of internet? I certainly don't rate Goodra super-highly among my favourite Pokemon, but that doesn't actually mean that I think it sucks. And Goomy? Goomy does deserve its fanbase following. Dude's cute, yo.