The penultimate chunk of Hoenn pokemon. This lasted like two parts longer than I expected it to be, but eh. All's well and good. This one is also somewhat shorter, ending at the pseudo-legendaries of the third generation, because I wanted to talk about all the legendaries in one page.
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#357: Tropius
- Types: Grass/Flying
- Japanese name: Toropiusu
- Category: Fruit
Tropius feels like one of those generation II Pokemon that is just rare, found in a single route and never evolves, leaving itself to be forgotten because it's not crap enough to be made fun of, but not good enough to use competitively. But I've always had a very soft spot for Tropius thanks to the Adventures manga where Sapphire uses one. And, well, that was when I realized Tropius isn't just a banana brontosaurus. Tropius is a dinosaur mixed with a banana tree... who uses said banana tree leaves to fly. Yes, this thing is Grass/Flying, and Tropius is insanely absurd for this very reason. Honestly, just look at this thing. It's a sauropod with banana tree leaves jutting out of its back, with some neatly wrapping around the base of its neck, with actual bananas growing out of its jugular... and those banana leaves also do double duty as wings. What? Tropius is wacky as all hell, taking the trope of "lizard with leaves growing out of it" which has been repeated several times in Pokemon's history and taking such a ridiculous spin by making it a flying dinosaur.
I love this thing, and it's a shame that its pokedex entries are hilariously mundane. It flies, it has delicious fruit (because it likes to eat that exact type of fruit, I think?), it lives in a jungle. Still, while Tropius might perhaps not get much love despite the ridiculousness of his concept, I'm definitely a fan of Tropius. Such a delightful weirdo.
4/6. #358: Chimecho
- Type: Psychic
- Japanese name: Chiriin
- Category: Wind Chime
Another non-evolving Pokemon, and this one is honestly one that begs for an evolution. But unlike the Qwilfishes and Kecleons of the world, Chimecho has always been memorable to me, for the simple reason of, once again, the anime. James had one, and the backstory behind his Chimecho is just one of the best-told stories that I've ever seen in Pokemon. Plus, Chimecho is just adorable. It's design is also neat, a hanging wind-chime (a furin type, specifically) with a Hoppip face? It's got a pleasant red-and-white colour that matches how actual furin chimes are generally decorated as well. I think in the anime there's a Hoppip disguised as a Chimecho at one point. Its tail-thing is also pretty adorable. I've never realized how many traditional Japanese items get adapted in this generation between the likes of Chimecho, Dusclops, Shuppet and Castform. Chimecho's a Psychic-type and I'm not entirely sure why, but hey, it works.
Chimecho's whole gimmick is that it's mostly a 'medic' Pokemon, but he's not quite as good as other healers that will actually be used in competitive play due to its slow stats. From a lore standpoint, Chimecho's dex entries mostly revolve around its ability to, well, act like a wind chime and use said chimes to communicate. Chimecho is also rather rare that I actually went through my first couple playthroughs of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald never figuring out where to capture this bugger -- he's on the summit of Mt. Pyre, but really rare. I like Chimecho a lot mostly from the anime, and while the third generation is far better at giving more of a spotlight to its own generation's pokemon compared to the second one, Chimecho is one of those that didn't get that much spotlight in the games -- thanks to Chingling's prevalence in the fourth generation I actually associate Chimecho with the fourth generation. Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, Chimecho is a delightful little fellow.
5/6. #359: Absol
- Type: Dark
- Japanese name: Abusoru
- Category: Disaster
Absol is perhaps one of the biggest fan favourites from the third generation, and for good reason. Just look at it! Like Flygon, I first saw an Absol with a huge role in Jirachi Wish-Maker, and got a brief version of its backstory -- it's known as a harbinger of bad luck, but it's actually just a nice Pokemon that wants to help out. The pokedex entries over the years give Absol a lot of great backstory. The third-generation dexes note that every time Absol appears before people, a devastating natural disaster will occur. Emerald and the Kanto remake games also note that Absol's ability is to foretell the disasters, and its status of a 'Doom Bringer' is a misconception. In fact, its appearances as someone that tries to warn humans is how Absol is mainly portrayed in both the Jirachi Wish-Maker movie and the Pokemon Adventures manga, that the fourth generation would add that it tries to warn people of impending danger. As a neat nod to this, Absol tends to be found in locations where the player would pass prior to the big cataclysmic event of the game will happen, or in a place that a cataclysmic event has happened in the past.
Absol is a pure Dark-type, and his amazingly crafted backstory adapts that of the Bai Ze of Chinese mythology, known as Hakutaku in Japanese. The Bai Ze a strange four-legged beast with one or two horns on its head, sometimes portrayed with the face of a human, although many, many different variations of the Bai Ze's supposed appearance exists. Apparently the Bai Ze descends from the mountains (which is also prominently featured in Absol's dex entries) to warn an emperor of China about ten thousand maladies and monsters in the world, and in a different legend, arrived before a plague outbreak happened to share its knowledge with humans.
Of course, Absol's backstory is far, far more unique than just a carbon copy of the Bai Ze, but its design is just amazingly done. A white-and-black creature whose head resembles a rough copy of the Taoist yin-yang symbol, with sharp edges on its tail and head-horn-sickle, Absol manages to create a design that shows a majestic, intelligent-looking creature, yet one that could easily be interpreted as a demonic harbinger of doom. I've always been a big fan of Absol's asymmetry, from the scythe-like horn to the way that the white part of its forehead slopes down, to the little black gem on its head. It's still a Dark-type, but it's a misunderstood Dark-type, truly every single fan-made character you made in your youth... and you know what? Sometimes it's all right. Definitely a great-looking creature, and a highlight from this generation that definitely won me over.
6/6. #360: Wynaut
- Type: Psychic
- Japanese names: Sonano
- Category: Bright
Wobbuffet gets a baby in this generation, and like Azurill, you can only get a Wynaut egg if Wobbuffet is holding the 'Lax Incense'. Wynaut is what you expect from a baby Wobbuffet, with a far happier-looking face, ears that double as hands, two stubby feet and a smaller, one-eyed version of Wobbuffet's weird eyeballed tail. And... and a weird little growth on its head? I'm not sure what that's all about. Wynaut is a neat enough baby form, although I've never found it to be that cute. You also get Wynaut egg from an event in-game, the way that you get Togepi in the Johto games. Wynaut and Wobbuffet's whole "the tail is the real body" deal is solidified with Wynaut's dex entries, which note that Wynaut will always have a happy face whatever it is really feeling, and a trainer needs to look at its tail to check its mood. Also, while himself Wynaut isn't that interesting, the secretive 'Mirage Island' in Pokemon Emerald, an island that appears only when conditions align themselves perfectly, is populated entirely by Wynauts. What is this island? Why does it only appear on the sea if you carry a specific pokemon on a specific day? Why is it populated entirely by Wynauts, with the super-awesome-for-contests Liechi Berry growing in the middle of it? No one knows. Wynaut's neat, and, unlike Wobbuffet's name, actually keeps her Japanese name-pun (Sonano is an equivalent phrase to "is that so?").
4/6.#361-362: Snorunt & Glalie
Snorunt and Glalie are another pair that received very little attention in the game, with Snorunt only being found on an out-of-the-way area, the Shoal Cave, only on specific floors when the tide goes out (which is the only time-related thing in the third-generation games). In fact, if Glacia of the Elite Four didn't use two Glalies, it's another Pokemon that I'd honestly associate with a later generation. Anyway, Ice has been one of the types that didn't get much representation, with most ice-types being dual-typed with another type. Snorunt is actually the very first pure Ice-type in Pokemon's history, something I didn't quite realize until I was writing this article. Snorunt is based on the Yukinko, a small little child yokai closely associated to the far-more famous Yuki-onna (literally, snow-lady -- we'll talk about her when we talk about Froslass, Snorunt's alternate evolution). Snorunt's lore and appearance are pretty unique, though, with its yellow, conical appearance being based on traditional Japanese snow-suits made out of straw. While the Yukinko is a little, shivering child that will harm the passerby that tries to help it, becoming heavier and heavier until the passerby is buried in snow, Snorunt is far more benign.
It is still shivering, though, and I always look at this little thing in the 3D games and go 'no you poor thing!' Snorunts are far from harmful, and houses visited by Snorunts will prosper for the next couple of generations, and they like to gather under leaves to live together in harmony. "Rich people from cold areas all share childhood memories of playing with Snorunt", as the dex notes, and these are all a culture soup of multiple different yokai. The lore of them living under leaves is a reference to the Koro-pok-guru, a race of small people that help out humans in Ainu (a tribe in Japan) folklore. You might recognize those from Shaman King. The lore of a little child-like spirit bring families fortune while still being mischievous is a reference to the Zashiki-warashi, another popular yokai in Japan, often taking the form of a little child that enjoys pranks, but will ultimately bless a household with good fortune. Definitely a huge miss that Snorunt didn't get the Fairy-type retroactively.
Of course, all this knowledge about Japanese culture isn't necessary to appreciate how neat Snorunt looks, this little triangle-shaped Tepee with a cute little grinning body within with the most adorable pair of hands and it's just shivering because it's cold.
And then Snorunt evolves into the terrifying Glalie, which has Snorunt swap out its tepee-like cape for a covering made entirely out of ice. Glalie also loses the cute little hands and legs, instead growing a pair of horns, and has apparently grown the ice covering to resemble some sort of demonic hockey mask. Unlike Snorunt, Glalie is definitely a hostile creature, described to use its powers over ice to "immobilize its foe in ice, then eating it in leisurely fashion". The seventh generation would add even more information about Glalie's predation -- if its prey is already frozen, like, say, Vanillite, it saves the trouble of Glalie freezing them.
Also, I'm not sure why Glalie isn't Ice/Dark. Look at that design! A lot of people note how Snorunt and Glalie's evolution don't make a lot of sense, but I've always thought that the design cues from the spherical body with an outer coating, the mouth and the blue eyes all work well as compared to, say, Remoraid and Octillery. It's not ideal, though I guess it is what happens when a Snorunt completely embraces its icy nature and becomes ice itself? The seventh generation gives us the horrifying origin of Glalie, though, claiming that the restless spirit of a distressed dying mountaineer possessed a rock, giving rise to a Glalie. That was... that was definitely unexpected.
Unlike my long talk about Snorunt's origins and the three different mythological Japanese faeries that inspire it, Glalie doesn't have that intricate of an origin. In fact, its Japanese name is "Onigori", which is apparently a pun on "oni" (demon), "kori" (ice), "onigiri" (traditional rice ball) and "gori" (goalie). Which honestly doesn't make that much sense, but Glalie's design is just so neat that I can't help but like it. Glalie's Shiny form swaps out the blue eyes for red, which makes it extra-menacing. Perhaps the progression from Snorunt into Glalie could've been worked out a little better, but for my part I'm actually a fan of these two.
4/6. #363-365: Spheal, Sealeo & Walrein
- Types: Ice/Water [all three]
- Japanese names: Tamazarashi, Todogura, Todozeruga
- Categories: Clap [Spheal], Ball Roll [Sealeo] Ice Break [Walrein]
We're at the home stretch now, and the Hoenn pokedex ends in a string of Water-types before we reach the two pseudo-legendary lines and the small cornucopia of legendaries. Spheal the spherical seal is the first that we'll be talking about, and he's adorable. His rotund body and his grinning face and his stumpy little fin-hands coupled with a blue-and-white colour scheme makes such a more pleasant design compared to the far-more boring Seel... and, yes, I think Spheal is an infinitely superior design to Seel. Look at this thing! It has personality, it's cute, and it's visually attractive. I've never been bothered by 'repeat species' if they do something interesting with it, and Spheal does. While Dewgong is a more graceful line, Spheal ends up evolving into a pokemon based on a related-but-completely-different species than a seal. For its part, Spheal is an adorable Ice/Water goofball that just rolls around and does baby seal things.
Spheal evolves into Sealeo, a sea lion with perhaps one of the laziest English names out there. It's... it's all right? I've always found Sealeo to be underwhelming and they just wanted something in-between the babylike cuteness of Spheal and the far more cranky-old-man looking Walrein. Sealeo's just a fat seal with a weirdly-drawn mustache, and it's just... a seal. I do like the little detail in its Ruby dex that it entertains itself by balancing little ball Spheals on its nose, but I've never really found Sealeo that appealing.
It evolves into Walrein as its final form, a big, fat, angry walrus with huge-ass tusks. Oh, and it gains the hind legs that Spheal and Sealeo don't possess. It's pretty badass-looking, even if its not particularly my thing. Walrein's dex entry just describes it as an angry walrus monster, though, with tusks that can break anything in its path and... nothing much beyond that. I really wished that they did something more with this line other than just designing them as 'yep, the seal/walrus evolutionary line' and shrugging it off, because I'm struck by how little there is to talk about regarding this evolutionary line. Walrein looks intimidating enough, but I really wished they did a bit more with him beyond just giving him those weird... hair-things? Overall my feelings about this line tend to lean more towards the positive because there's nothing really wrong with them... but they are kind of boring, aren't they? At least, in my opinion.
3/6. #366-368: Clamperl, Huntail & Gorebyss
- Types: Water [all three]
- Japanese names: Paruru, Hanteru, Sakurabisu
- Categories: Bivalve [Clamperl], Deep Sea [Huntail], South Sea [Gorebyss]
And Ruby/Sapphire brought us a pair of pokemon based on a gulper eel and a chimaera (a.k.a. ghost sharks)... but decided to implement them in a rather strange and honestly quite ridiculous method. See, Clamperl is a perfectly fine little bivalve pokemon. It's a pure Water-type, it's a colourful giant clam with a little pink pearl in it that has its main face -- that of a sleeping baby. It's different enough aesthetically from the hard, quirky feel of Shellder and Cloyster... but then when it evolves, it evolves into two eel-like fishes? It's bizarre. It's as weird as, say, having a Caterpie evolve into a Pidgeot.
Which is a shame, since both Huntail and Gorebyss are decently designed deep-sea fishes, although still nowhere as interesting as they could've been. Clamperl evolves via trading while holding a specific item -- the Deep Sea Tooth or Deep Sea Scale, and the items are, I believe, exclusive to each paired game. It's just that the evoltuion honestly doesn't make a ton of sense thematically, and feels more of a last-minute slapping together of a couple of deep-sea animal designs. Honestly, I'm surprised Relicanth didn't also evolve from Clamperl to form some sort of deep-sea-themed Eevee.
Huntail evolves from Clamperl if it's holding the Deep Sea Tooth, and it is clearly based on a gulper eel, members of the order Saccopharyngiformes, eels living deep in the sea famous for its huge, pelican-esque hinged lower jaw that allows it to gulp prey far larger than itself, a necessity in the food-scarce environments of the ocean's deepest, darkest parts. While described to be able to do that, Huntail isn't just a gulper eel, though, with huge pronounced fangs that resemble other species of eel like the more common morays, and it has these little circles throughout its body that I'm assuming are supposed to be luminescent like many deep-sea fishes. Huntail's tail also lovingly tapers off into the shape of a fish's head, using it like an anglerfish or some species of gulper eels to attract prey.
Huntail's design isn't perfect, though, because I'm not a particularly big fan of those orange fins, and I feel that between the ones that run down Huntail's spine, the weird fan-head and the ones on its lower jaw, there's one chunk of detail way too many. It's also a huge missed opportunity to not make Hunter a Water/Dark, because that is honestly what the designers seem to be going for -- Huntail learns a lot of Dark-type moves where Gorebyss would learn Psychic-types, and they're both actually listed as Dark-type and Psychic-type respectively in the spin-off Pokemon Ranger games. It's a shame. They really could've made these two far more interesting than just being pure Normal-types.
With the Deep Sea Scale, Clamperl evolves into Gorebyss, which is probably my preferred evolution, due to her design looking so much cleaner than Huntail's. I am not a big fan of the weird Disney-style clam bikini (though there is your connection to Clamperl, I suppose), but I'm a big fan of how this otherwise graceful little fish is noted to be cruel, inserting its needle-like mouth into the prey's body to drain its fluids. Yeah, Gorebyss and Beautifly should start a club of cute vampiric pokemon, huh? Gorebyss is also noted to be extra-pink in springtime.
Gorebyss' design is a mixture of several deep sea fishes, like the snipe eel (Nemichthyidae -- deep sea eels with a long, tapering beaklike mouth) or the pipefish (Syngnathinae -- which don't really live that deep in the ocean, and is a family that also includes seahorses), but current consensus seems to settle on the Chimaera (Chimaeriformes order), not to be confused with the lion-goat-snake Greek monster. Chimaera fishes are also known popularly as the ghost shark, ratfish or spookfishes, and those of the Rhinochimaeridae order are particularly known for their long, tapering shark-like nose. Most interestingly, however, is the fact that these long-nosed chimaera fishes actually take on a pinkish tint when you remove them from the deep-sea-abyss conditions that they live in.
You may note that I've been spending a lot of time talking about the gulper eels and chimaeras and not about Huntail and Gorebyss themselves. And that's honestly because... jeez, none of these are interesting despite being based on some pretty wacky animals, and they don't really do anything at all conceptually, visually or lore-wise to really make any of these three exciting. And they could have! Overall, a huge, huge missed opportunity in my books. I do like Gorebyss for its beautiful-but-insanely-bloodthirsty personality, and its design both regular and shiny look great... but as a whole the line's just a bunch of neat concepts stapled together into a package that I don't think reached the full potential of said concepts.
4/6 on principle, but 3/6 on execution. #369: Relicanth
- Types: Water/Roch
- Japanese name: Jiransu
- Category: Longevity
Relicanth! Relicanth's basis is another interesting animal, the famous Coelacanth, an order of fish that have existed all the way from the Devonian period (that's before the dinosaurs were even around) but have somehow retained their body shape and general look for 400 million years, not evolving and surviving throughout all that time, being known as a 'living fossil' because the entire order was thought to be extinct up until 1938 when a couple of living coealacanths were fished up, still alive and kicking to this day. And Relicanth is... basically just that. Its backstory is that it's a Coelacanth, but a Pokemon, a creature that people thought was a fossil, but actually is still around. It's Water/Rock, since Rock is the type associated with prehistoric fossil pokemon. It's the rare encounter while diving, and is one of the two pokemon (alongside Wailord) required for the Regi puzzle. And... and honestly that's about it.
Relicanth a stylized coelacanth, with a brown colouring that just screams 'old', and I do like how the underbite and the shut eyes give it the appearance of a grumpy grandpa fish, but I've never quite got what that random red dot is supposed to be. It's all right and not stuck with a weird evolution line as the trio before it, but there's also not much going on with Relicanth that makes it particularly attractive to use as a pokemon in your party. He's neat, but I really wished they had actually done something with the concept. Again, these last couple of Pokemon just seem to be "hey, we have these cool water creatures, let's draw them funny!" without any real attempt to make them into actual monsters.
3/6.
3/6.#370: Luvdisc
- Type: Water
- Japanese name: Rabukasu
- Category: Rendezvous
Hoo boy, while with Huntail, Gorebyss and Relicanth I complained about them not doing much with the concept of an interesting animal beyond adapting it wholesale, with Luvdisc... they just really didn't bother to try, did they? While I appreciate the simpleness of Luvdisc's design, it's just a fish shaped like a cartoon heart, ostensibly based on the popular discus fish, and apparently the symbol of love in the Pokemon world. There's nothing really wrong with being a simple flavour pokemon, but again, Luvdisc just ends up feeling more of a generation-two-esque 'filler' pokemon more than anything. I don't get the huge amount of hatred thrown into Luvdisc's way, although I definitely would've preferred a discus pokemon with a slightly more intricate design than just 'one shade of pink and another for its lips'. Real-life discuses look so much more attractive than this! Luvdisc's biggest claim to fame ends up being the rather bland fact that it's one of the few pokemon that naturally carries the Heart Scale item, used as currency for Move Tutors in some games, which means that, yeah, we only love Luvdisc for the stuff they carry. Poor love fish. I never minded Luvdisc as much as people do, but they definitely could've done more.
3/6. #371-373: Bagon, Shelgon & Salamence
- Types: Dragon [Bagon/Shelgon], Dragon/Flying [Salamence]
- Japanese names: Tatsubei, Komoru, Bomanda
- Categories: Rock Head [Bagon], Endurance [Shelgon], Dragon [Salamence]
The third generation is unique in that it has two lines of Pseudo-Legendaries, with Bagon and Beldum's line both fitting the criteria of being pseudo-legendary (or the '600 Club', as they're apparently referred to in Japan). The first of these is the pure Dragon-type Bagon, found in the deepest chamber of Meteor Falls, and he's a little baby Pachycephalosaurus, a cute little dinosaur with a rocky head that hilariously resembles a mullet. It's just a cute little baby dragon, and I've always loved its dex entries which describes how little Bagon just wants to fly, and it hurls itself off cliffs, which thankfully doesn't kill it -- just makes its head hard. It's a bit of a shame that despite differing dex entries noting that Bagon has a rock-head or iron-clad head it's not Dragon/Steel or Dragon/Rock, though. Bagon's a cute little dude who just happens to have a rocky scalp resembling a mullet and a dream to one day fly, and while design-wise he looks generic, I do love the personality that his story gave him.
Like Larvitar, Bagon ends up forming a 'pupal' stage in Shelgon, which I've always found to be hilariously weird. This thing is still a Dragon-type, but it's really just Bagon's weird mullet-armour-head thing that wraps around its body, leaving a hexagonal face and four stubby feet. It's bizarrely weird to have a dragon go through a chrysalis stage, but I never really minded Shelgon. Most pseudo-legendaries are relatively weak in their first two stages, and having one of them be a weird armadillo-esque 'pupa' before the drastic transformation into the mighty Salamence helps to justify it somewhat. Again, I really wished that they still gave Shelgon a secondary typing, but it's no big loss.
Shelgon's final form is the mighty dragon Salamence, a Dragon/Flying monster that just looks so god-damned cool. Yes, he looks more like a lizard with its widely-splayed legs and the posture of its body, but Salamence still embodies the spirit of the western dragon, and I honestly do like the fact that they make an anatomically-lumpier dragon look pretty cool. I love everything from its angry-looking face, its blue-and-red colouring, its awesome blade-like wings, its head-spikes that resemble a salamander's gills, and the little call-back to Bagon and Shelgon by having white armour plates on its belly. Salamence is also perhaps the first dragon that just purely a traditional dragon. Salamence is portrayed as Flygon's 'evil' rival of sorts in Jirachi Wish-Maker, and while I've always thought that Flygon's design is sleeker and cooler, I can't deny how utterly badass Salamence is. Its design perhaps looks a bit unwieldy, but I do like it a fair bit.
And I honestly love how the dex describes Shelgon's evolution into Salamence. To quote the Sapphire pokedex: "By evolving into Salamence, this pokemon finally realizes its long-held dream of growing wings. To express its joy, it flies and wheels all over the sky while sprouting flames from its mouth." Cute little Bagon's strong-held desire to fly ends up with a happy ending, because despite its tendencies to rampage around like a dragon, it still manages to be able to fly, with its desire having some hilarious Shonen-Manga-esque power-up by triggering a mutation that activates dormant genes that code for wings or something. Good job, little guy, good job. An neat-looking dragon with a neat backstory and an unconventional evolution -- what's not to love?
5/6.#374-376: Beldum, Metang & Metagross
- Types: Steel/Psychic [all three]
- Japanese names: Danbaru, Metangu, Metagurosu
- Categories: Iron Ball [Beldum], Iron Claw [Metang], Iron Leg [Metagross]
While Salamence embodies a more traditional draconic pseudo-legendary, the third generation had a second pseudo-legendary that looks so much weirder and, honestly, having been introduced to Metagross first thanks to trading cards, I've always been a bigger fan of the Metagross line. It's the difference from really liking something and really-really liking something, though, so it's not a criticism about the Salamence line at all. Beldum is a Steel/Psychic Pokemon whose design is weird and only really makes sense when you look at the entire line. Beldum's design is just weird, isn't it? It's a single limb of the Metang/Metagross entity, but it still works as a weird little rocket-shaped thing with its own head and a weird eye inside a keyhole, and those silver claws looking like little boosters.
Beldum has magnetic force instead of blood coursing through its body, apparently, and it anchors itself to cliffs with its butt-hooks. They apparently also behave like sort of a hive-mind thanks to communicating with magnetism. A single Beldum is obtained in the post-game of the original Ruby/Sapphire after defeating the champion, Steven Stone, whose signature and final pokemon is Metagross. It just looks awesomely alien, but it's merely a prelude to its evolved stages. Beldum, in-game, can only learn the crappy move of Take Down before it evolves, despite having the bizarre Psychic/Steel typing, combining one of the strongest offensive and defensive types ever.
And see, this is what the likes of Magneton and Dugtrio should be, where 'multiple base pokemons combining' actually causes some sort of a difference. As much as I like Magneton, I really think that Metang is the superior 'small magnetic robots combining into a larger one'. Metang's a floating UFO-like creature with a metal horn nose, and two gigantic robotic arms formed by Beldum's main body. Presumably the Beldum heads combined and forms the giant central UFO-body, and I'm just so enamoured by this progression from a flying dumbell into a crab robot monster. Again, like Magneton, as much as the pokedex insists that "two Beldum combines into a single Metang", in practice both game and fictional depictions always depict the evolution as immediate. It's a neat way to combine the Steel-type concepts of magnetism with the Psychic ability to levitate objects, plus Metang's powerful-looking claws really look like they can fuck someone up.
Metang then evolves into Metagross, and, well, look at that thing. It's Badass with a capital 'B'. Four legs forming a spider/crab-like robotic creature, that horn forming into a cross on its face, and it really looks like it is ready to lay the smackdown. Crab-shaped robots have always looked cool in fiction, but Metagross one-ups this by revealing that it actually can fly in all depictions, retracting its arms and having them just outwards while it floats around like a UFO. And Metagross is also very smart, apparently having a brain superior than a supercomputer. It's also a predator, pinning its prey down with its claws and feeding on it with its mouth. (It has a fanged mouth under that ring on its main body) Metagross is one of the designs that I can't help but love, and I honestly am kind of sad when people like to point at Metagross as an example of 'the third generation's pokemon don't look like pokemon'. It's a weird, nondescript magnetic robot monster that also happens to look like an organic creature... it's really a unique monster that wins out in design and sheer coolness, and honestly one of the coolest-looking designs with that grayish-blue main colour scheme. Overall, really badass, and I think together with Salamence, these two are easily two of my favourite pseudo-legendaries by a long, long shot.
As a side-note... Shiny Beldum, Metang and Metagross are mainly silver with their claws and X-cross being gold, often cited as one of the best-looking shinies in the game. Nintendo apparently agreed, giving everyone a free Shiny Beldum during the original release of Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, because if there's something everyone needs, it's a silver metal-eating psionic crab robot.
6/6.
When I look at it, Wynaut looks likes deflated wobbuffet.
ReplyDeleteI mean, if Wobbuffet is really a punching bag, makes sense that its baby is a deflated punching bag!
Delete