Anyway, Generation VI has been pretty chill. Of course we're not completely done since next week we're still going to cover the megas, but I feel the definite vibe that they're going for a quality over quantity thing. And also probably they're afraid of introducing too much because 3D models are harder to ensure that they end up in the game? Perhaps, but it's definitely a blessing. There's only maybe two or three outright bad designs in the sixth generation, but even then I don't think I dislike the bad ones out of this generation compared to the previous five. Even the ones that aren't actually good or memorable for me all tended to be inoffensive.
The actual XY games themselves were... okay, I guess? The story was fine, better than the simplistic I-IV stories, but not quite as well-developed as V and VII. A good chunk of what XY is all about is the vibe, though, showing just how much more intricate a 3D game about Pokemon can be in the new engine. It's really, really pretty!
This could've been easily latched on to the previous part, but at the same time I kinda liked the "legendaries on a separate page" thing we've been doing. Also, if you take a brief look down the previous articles, I've added a handy-dandy "click here for previous/click here for next" segment, added numbers, as well as added a brief data box for all the Pokemon. Mostly it's just type, the Japanese name and the Pokemon species (officially called category). I could've added more, I suppose, but that'd clutter up the page. Abilities don't really feel like something truly intrinsic to the design (and they mean nothing without the explanation anyway), and nobody cares about height and weight.
This was originally two articles, "Hawlucha to Noivern" and "Xerneas to Volcanion", until I realized that both were super short and thus just decided to merge the two together.
Click here for the previous part.
Click here for the next part.
Click here for the index.
__________________________________#701: Hawlucha
- Types: Fighting/Flying
- Japanese name: Ruchaburu
- Category: Wrestling
Man, I love Hawlucha. He's one of the few Pokemon to not be revealed in the lead-up to the sixth generation, and I encountered one in the game and found him to be absolutely amazing. You see, Hawlucha is a goddamn wrestler bird. Like, Hawlucha is based on the most colourful, flamboyant lucha wrestler, but they actually make the wings to form some kind of an under-arm cape that flows below Hawlucha's claw-like arms, while the shape of Hawlucha's face and his humanoid mouth ends up giving the impression of someone with a bird mask, while at the same time making it clear that the bird mask is really part of Hawlucha's normal anatomy. This Fighting/Flying Pokemon is pretty cool looking and well designed, embodying the sort of fighting sport it's supposed to represent, and there's definitely a fair amount of thought put into Hawlucha's physical design. I'm so glad that Hawlucha isn't just a Throh-style humanoid with a lucha libre mask. And it's a strong little wrestling bird whose skills aren't just for show, and it can keep up with the likes of Machamp no problem, in particular thanks to its penchant of attacking from above. It's also apparently skilled in "superb submission holds" and it sometimes shows off just a wee bit too much.
Hell, in addition to its very pleasing red-and-teal colour scheme, as well as its very hammy 3D model animations, Hawlucha even gets his own signature move, the FLYING PRESS, which is Pokemon's very first dual-typed move. Yes, not some fancy-schmancy legendary signature move like one of Kyurem's half-dozen bullshit. It's the goddamn wrestling bird that gets a dual-typed move, and it's glorious. Hawlucha's amazingly hilarious, and honestly, the fact that Ash actually owns a Hawlucha in the Kalos anime (and, y'know, its apparently high production costs and well-plotted storyline) is one of the big draws for me watching that season of the anime specifically.
Hawlucha's amazing, and I used one on my Pokemon Y team named Maskuline. Because puns, you see? Also, Hawlucha's shiny colouration has a decidedly villain-inspired colour set of purple, black and red, which is just... just so goddamn amazing, and honestly, the shinies in this generation is just pretty amazing. But best of all? This wrestling bird. It's just so lovable and hilarious-looking and aesthetically pleasing, that before I knew it Hawlucha's easily my second-favourite design of the sixth generation, hands down.
6/6.#702: Dedenne
- Types: Electric/Fairy
- Japanese name: Dedenne
- Category: Antenna
Oh, yeah. This fella exists. Dedenne is our obligatory Pikachu clone, and there's not much I can say about it beyond "looks like a baby Raichu". It's based on a hamster, which I suppose is a different rodent, but the design ends up feeling way, way too generic and nowhere as unique as Pachirisu, Togedemaru or Emolga were. There's also absolutely no real way that they communicated that Dedenne's part-Fairy, a fact that I always forget because there's nothing in Dedenne's design or lore that really informs us that it's part-Fairy. Just read Dedenne's dex entries and they feel like they're rejected from being Pikachu's dex entries for sounding too generic. Honestly, there's not much for me to say about this than just the fact that really no effort was made into making Dedenne unique. And while after 700+ creatures it's inevitable that some concepts get re-trodden, Pokemon tends to be decent at making sure each creature looks visually distinct even if they're based on the same base animal. Not so for Dedenne. Like, there's nothing in its design that I should be really pissed off about, but there's just so little effort here.
2/6. #703: Carbink
- Types: Rock/Fairy
- Japanese name: Mereshi
- Category: Jewel
See, this is how you do a fairy. Carbink is still just a living rock creature in the same vein of Geodude or Roggenrola, but it's clearly based on the mythical Carbuncle, a fairy-esque beast that is said to have gemstones growing out of it. Only since this is pokemon, Carbink is a fairy that's also the actual gemstone, giving us a neat Rock/Fairy creature. Unlike Dedenne, Carbink's Fairy typing is very evident, with some fun-looking fluffy mustache deal serving as the lower half of its face, and those two ears looking both like bunny ears and wings. Carbink looks like a neat little geode with precious jewels jutting out of its body, and just like Gigalith, it can shoot beams out of those jewels, and the weird mane-like structure is apparently used by Carbinks to clean each other's jewels. The seventh generation added an extra layer of neat ecological detail to Carbink -- the fact that the gemstone-eating Sableye preys on Carbink, and Sableyes may pop up to snack on Carbinks if you fight one in Alola.
Also, most interestingly, is the backstory given about Carbink. See, Carbinks are numerous, and they live in some fun little underground kingdom ruled by a queen -- the legendary Pokemon Diancie, which is flat-out stated to be a Carbink that has ascended into a more powerful form, the only case that a Pokemon is stated to originate from a different one, but Carbinks can't actually evolve into Diancies in the actual games. Is this the same phenomenon as Manaphy and Phione in the fourth generation? The Carbinks are prominently featured in Diancie's feature film, which features a quartet of Carbink butlers with unique designs. My favourite has to be Dace, whose mane has evolved into a gigantic Santa Claus-esque beard. Overall, Carbink isn't the most creative Pokemon out there, but I do enjoy its simplicity and the added lore regarding Diancie, giving one of the few legendaries in this region at least some tie-in with the other species beyond "strong Pokemon catch them".
3/6. #704-706: Goomy, Sliggoo & Goodra
- Types: Dragon [all three]
- Japanese names: Numera, Numeiru, Numerugon
- Categories: Soft Tissue [Goomy/Sliggoo], Dragon [Goodra]
Huh. I never realized how early the pseudo-legendaries popped up in the Kalos Pokedex, and I think the only other time that the pseudo-legendaries aren't placed at the end of the dex was with Garchomp. Anyway, Kalos's legendary Pokemon is yet another dragon-type, but with a twist. See, the first two stages don't even look like a dragon, but instead it's clearly based on slugs and snails. French culture does have a mythological snail-dragon creature called Lou Carcolh, which seems to be the basis of this evolutionary line... which explains why Goomy, who is a literal blob, is considered a pure-Dragon type. Beyond just normal snails and slugs, some people posits that the extinct Wiwaxia or the Blue Dragon Sea-Slug Glaucus atlanticus are possible inspirations, but I find it hard to buy. And Goomy is such an adorable design that it's quickly became one of the fandom's biggest darlings practically overnight. And how can you not love him? From the Haru-esque look, to the cute little dot-eyes, to the bunny-ear antennae, to the goopy doofy smile, to the two green cheek pouches, to his adorable name of Goomy, and the hilarity that he's a pure Dragon-type... yeah, there's scant little not to love about Goomy.
And the pokedex makes copious notes about, yes, this slug-blob is a Dragon-type pokemon. "The weakest Dragon-type Pokemon", it emphasizes, so weak that it needs damp environments to keep its body from drying out, but it's still a Dragon-type nonetheless. Suck it, Charizard! I do really wish Goomy was part-Bug, part-Poison or part-Water, though. Its dex entries make note of its love of rainy weather (and in the seventh generation can only be encountered in rainy weather) and it's apparently got a germ-laden mucous membrane that also doubles as protection against physical attacks which slide off Goomy's body easily.
GOOMY! 6/6! 600MY out of 600MY!
6/6! 600MY out of 600MY!
Sliggoo's a neatly weird design, too, expanding upon Goomy's weird blobby cuteness by giving it a more pronounced snail-like body. There's a weird snail-shell shape on Sliggoo's back (which contains Sliggoo's BRAIN), and it's got a more pronounced head and body, with those gloriously blank-faced green eyes and that crooked smile. Are Goomy's green cheek-dots its eyes all along? Sliggoo is a neat design, exploring the squishy, malleable nature of gastropods... but again, it doesn't really sell me on the 'Dragon' typing all that well. I do love Sliggoo's flavour, though, because the pokedex notes that Sliggoo's eyes have devolved so it's effectively blind, using its horn-antennae to sense the world via sounds and smells instead, spraying flesh-dissolving mucus at its prey before slurping them up. Most chillingly, the seventh generation dex entries gave us this gem: "It has trouble drawing a line between friends and food. It will calmly try to melt and eat even those it gets along well with."
How creepy is that? How creepy is this giant acid-secreting slug monster with a brain on his backpack, non-functional eyes, and sometimes he just accidentally drinks his own buddies, all wearing that stupid-looking grin on his face? Again, I really thought that while the Lou Carcolh myth was a neat thing to adapt, Goomy and Sliggoo really didn't do enough both in lore and in visual design to really sell the 'dragon' aspect. Like, I don't expect every dragon to look like Druddigon or Haxorus, but there's literally nothing that even tells us that these two are draconic in any way.
And then if you level Sliggoo up in a raining area (but they're not Water-types, no...) we get Goodra, which actually looks like a slug-dragon, but at the same time honestly just looks pretty bland. It feels more of one of those Pokemon Fusion things, where someone decides to mix up Goomy and Dragonite together. But it drops all the creepy slug bits that Goomy and Sliggoo has, and ends up just being a weird happy huggy slimy dragon. That's literally the entirety of Goodra's lore. It's a big mucus-covered slug dragon that likes to hug people. But I honestly went from really liking Goomy, being excited when I read Sliggoo's wacky dex entries, and when I saw Goodra I just went "huh?" It's just a big defensive pure-Dragon pseudo-legendary, and other than the concept and colour scheme, it really drops a lot of Goomy and Sliggoo's most interesting qualities. The weird curly mouth, the snail shell, the weird unsettling eyes, the goopy legless lower bodies... yeah, Goodra's another Pokemon that really ends up being pretty disappointing once it reaches its final form. I'm not one of those dudes that demand that all the pseudo-legendaries be edgy badass murder-machines, and I do like the fact that Dragonite has a calmer-looking buddy in the pseudo-legendary club, but Goodra's design feels so weirdly incomplete that I wonder if they meshed two different evolutionary line concepts together. Still, they're decent as a set and while I don't really like Goodra all that much, I still like Goomy. GOOMY!
4/6 for Sliggoo and Goodra.#707: Klefki
- Types: Steel/Fairy
- Japanese name: Kureffi
- Category: Key Ring
Well, clearly the fairy-types beat the dragon-types in terms of well-done execution. Everyone hated on Klefki when she's first revealed, because everyone thought that she's the latest in man-made-object-made-Pokemon, this time a keychain... and then we got a proper look at Klefki in the 3D game, and it's made clear that the Klefki entity is only the silver parts, and the 'ring' are actually arms that can separate and wiggle around. So yeah, Klefki is a cute little blob with an antennae that looks like a key, a face that looks like a keyhole, and it collects keys. It embodies the legends and stories about tiny little gremlins that steal small objects, and, well, this one just happens to be shaped like the keys it steals. Hell, this kleptomaniac keychain probably stole those keys because they look like her!
Klefki is a Steel/Fairy type, which is very neat, and this mischievous little fucker is absolutely adorable. They "threaten any attackers by fiercely jingling their keys". How can you not love Klefki? It sneaks into people's houses just to increase its key collection, and it uses its actual key-shaped horn to apparently absorb metal ions, apparently migrating from metal mines into human-populated areas to hunt down iron ores. I absolutely love the fact that Klefki is this weird floating head with a horn and two arms, and all she does is steal keys. I think I thought that she was another possessed object in the same vein of Honedge or Chandelure the first time I saw her, but combining the steel type of the keys with the cheeky fairy type? Definitely a great move. Klefki's also absolutely and appropriately obnoxious in the metagame thanks to its wide repertoire of status-inflicting moves that its ability, Prankster, allows it to unleash at the beginning of every turn. Hell, Nintendo loves Klefki so much that they gave her two signature moves: Fairy Lock (which creates a crapton of chained locks to prevent the enemy from switching out) and Crafty Shield (prevents all other status moves from inflicting Klefki and her buddy). Needless to say, I bred one that's properly specced to troll people. And honestly, Klefki embodies my favourite part of the Fairy type -- that they're gigantic cheeky assholes. Can't hate this jingly-jangly little fucker.
5/6. #708-709: Phantump & Trevenant
- Types: Ghost/Grass [both]
- Japanese names: Bokure, Orotto
- Categories: Stump [Phantump], Elder Tree [Trevenant]
Ghost-types have never really disappointed throughout all the generations, have they? We started off really strong with Gastly, and while I think the creep factor started to really get ramped up with Banette and the ante is subsequently upped with each successive generation, none of them ever felt disappointing, and Phantump is no exception. See, the sixth generation gave us not one, but two Grass/Ghost Pokemon, each being sort of counterparts to the other and each achieving their final forms through trading. Phantump is an adorable black ghost who wears a little tree stump as a weird mask-head that ends up causing him to look like he's got cute little devil horns. Awww, Phantump's adorable! You can just imagine him popping out from behind a tree with those adorable pink eyes and those tiny arms and go "ooooooooo", trying to scare you.
And then you read the pokedex entries. Think Yamask is creepy? "These Pokemon are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died while lost in the forest." WHAT THE FUCK, NINTENDO. Like, it's not enough that in the previous generation you gave us a literal human ghost weeping over their old human lives while holding a mask, this time you give us kids who died a lonely, miserable death in forests, and transformed into a ghost trapped in a tree trunk? The seventh generation even gave us extra details that apparently Phantumps imitate the voices of children, desperate to make friends, and causes even more children to get lost in the forest.
Like, Nintendo's done this before, with the origins of the Skull Kids from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but that's different. That's a little kokiri elf-child being lost in a jungle and transformed into a different sort of mystical forest fairy. This is a literal human child, who died, lost and alone, in the jungle, and his or her dead spirit now wanders the forest as the cutest-looking little tree-ghost ever, and you can catch Phantump and force it to fight keychain fairies and slug dragons. Or, um, even breed with other Pokemon. Yeaaaah might be going a bit too far here, Pokemon.
Phantump evolves into the mighty Trevenant, though, giving us a literal haunted tree. See, dead trees are absolutely creepy, and Trevenant (what an awesome name, by the way) follows up with Phantump's theme as a black ghost possessing a stump by having it now be encased in an armour of trees, with little gaps in Trevenant's armour to show the ghostly black inner body. That one central eye is appropriately menacing, and I absolutely love the spider-like legs and the huge, clawed arms. How unsettling does Trevenant look, while still retaining a degree of pleasantness? Trevenants are able to apparently control trees at will, trapping those who would harm the forest so that they can never leave, apparently doing so by using "its roots as a nervous system". So yeah, after being lost in the forest, the ghost of the missing child now is the forest itself. Trevenant isn't all evil, though, since it's actually kind to all the tiny creatures living in the forest and even in its own giant tree self. Trees that have curses and ghosts associated with them is commonplace in Asian cultures, while haunted forests seem to be a common trope everywhere, and Trevenant is honestly pretty damn awesome.
Like, I used to be disappointed that Trevenant didn't look more like a tree, but I realize that its unsettling horned head and its giant arms and its creepy spiderlike legs end up giving a far, far more unsettling silhouette that really suits his ghost typing really well. Add that to its really neat signature move, "Forest's Curse", and after a pretty cool animation, Trevenant transforms the enemy into Grass-type, as if dooming the enemy to wander in a forest and become a part of it. You have Pokemon with such detailed backstories and moves and abilities that are executed amazingly well in-game like Trevenant while still being simple enough to describe as "ghost tree", and that makes the lazier entries in the sixth generation far more inexcusable.You know what else is cool about Trevenant? Its shiny form, with ghostly-white bark and autumn red leaves, making Trevenant look more appropriately like a ghost tree, contrasting amazingly well with its regular colouration. You know what else is cooler about Trevenant? If you encounter a horde of them in the sixth generation, sometimes you find a Sudowoodo just hanging out with these actual tree Pokemon, grinning like a goddamn idiot and not moving, and my god the first time that happened to me I lost my mind. Yeah, definitely one of the stronger entries in the sixth generation.
6/6.#710-711: Pumkaboo & Gourgeist
- Types: Ghost/Grass [both]
- Japanese names: Baketcha, Panpujin
- Categories: Pumpkin [both]
It's hard to top Phantump and Trevenant as the premier Grass/Ghost Pokemon, but the sixth generation included another evolutionary line... and that's Pumpkaboo. A pumpkin cut into the shape of the jack-o-lantern is one of the most iconic images of Halloween, and is one of the most commonly seen tropes in video games as a generic spooky monster. Whether it be just a flying jack-o-lantern, or a scarecrow with a burning jack-o-lantern head, it's genuinely surprising to me that we've never gotten a pumpkin or jack-o-lantern Pokemon until now... and I am genuinely and pleasantly surprised by what we got. You see, Pumpkaboo isn't your average jack-o-lantern. Sure, she's a pumpkin Pokemon, and she's ghostly, but the main body looks more like a vaguely bat-like or cat-like winged shadow that's fused with the pumpkin body. The dex entries note that Pumpkaboo is a pumpkin who's possessed by a spirit trapped in the material world, but instead of being malicious, it's actually a guide to other wandering spirits so it can pass on, possibly making cute meowing sounds as it does so. Definitely appreciate the unexpected fact of exaggerating a pumpkin's stem into a weird bat-like shadowy creature, instead of going the obvious route and just having a pumpkin with a glowing face.
Like the Phantump line, Pumpkaboo also has a signature move -- Trick or Treat -- that summons a bunch of cartoon ghosts to whack the enemy and actually turn them into the Ghost-type, which is just awesome. Pumpkaboos and Gourgeists also have one of the more unnecessary variations in Pokemon land, where instead of looking different, they actually come in four different sizes of small, average, large and super. The difference isn't just cosmetic either, as the smaller Pumpkaboos have higher speed but less HP, and the larger Pumpkaboos have higher HP but are slower. It's sort of neat, but I've expressed my disdain of the fifth and sixth generation going somewhat overboard with unnecessary variations. This one at least sort of makes sense? Still, Pumpkaboo in itself is a very pleasant design. Can't fault that.
Gourgeist, Pumpkaboo's evolution, isn't quite as pleasing as Pumpkaboo, but I do appreciate how, again, it doesn't take the obvious route and just make a bigger jack-o-lantern pumpkin or turn it into a scarecrow. Which would still be freaking awesome, but Gourgeist ends up looking pretty neat and graceful, dropping the weird shadow-bat-cat deal that Pumpkaboo has and going for a more elegant ghost with arm-like hair (or hair-like arms), and a more pronounced cackling face on its pumpkin body. It sort of combines the aesthetic of a melting candle that you normally put inside jack-o-lanterns with the pumpkin itself. Gourgeist, despite looking far, far friendlier than Trevenant, is actually the evil ghost of the pair. Gourgeist sings in eerie voices and curses anyone that hears it. It wraps its prey in its hair-arms, and then sings joyfully as its prey is suffering. Gourgeist's neat. I love it. I like Phantump and Trevenant a bit more, but Gourgeist and Pumpkaboo is pretty damn high up my personal rankings.
4/6. #712-713: Bergmite & Avalugg
And holy shit I forgot these exist. Between the huge string of "Kalos Greatest Hits" that has been the past couple of evolutionary lines, I completely forgot about Bergmite, one of the two Ice-type evolutionary lines introduced in the sixth generation. The other is a fossil pokemon, whereas Bergmite is just.. a pure Ice-type. I do like that it looks like some kind of weird icy aphid creature made mostly out of ice, but... but there's really not much about Bergmite beyond the fact that it's living ice, and it can shoot ice. It's neat and different enough from the previous purely-ice monsters like Regice and Cryogonal... but there's really not much to say about it either. I like Bergmite. It's neat and charming.
Avalugg, on the other hand, is weird. I sort of like the concept of making Avalugg a literal walking chunk of iceberg or ice floe, shaped in the rough shape of a giant turtle-dinosaur thing, but the actual execution feels somewhat cluttered and weird. The entirely flat top ends up looking absolutely bizarre, the cracks on its back felt weirdly placed, and both its head and legs all feel really cluttered.
It's not until I played through the Generation VIII games (with both Sword/Shield and Legends: Arceus) and went back to edit this, at which point I really understood what they were going for. Avaluggs will swim with only the top part of their body floating above the water, looking like ice floes. That's a lot cooler, it's a shame that it took me two generations to 'get' Avalugg. Pretty neat, we haven't really gotten an 'elemental' style ice-type Pokemon other than Cryogonal.
4/6. #714-715: Noibat & Noivern
- Types: Flying/Dragon [both]
- Japanese names: Onbatto, Onban
- Categories: Sound Wave [both]
The last non-legendary pokemon in this generation is a pair of bats! And boy oh boy, is Noibat an adorable little baby bat. We've had Zubat and Woobat before, which highlights different aspects of the bat, with Zubat being screechy and creepy and probably needs a rabies shot, while Woobat is fluffy and adorable and wants to love you. Noibat is a very acceptable middle ground, being fluffy and cute while at the same time looking cool with those bat-wings and the prominently large ears. Oh, and Noibat is Dragon/Flying, which is a type combination that's going to make a bit more sense once Noibat evolves. But now he's just a cute little baby bat whose entire gimmick focuses more on its echolocation abilities, merging speakers and an organic animal in a far, far more elegant way than Loudred and Exploud ever did. Oh, they're also apparently based on fruit bats, based on the dex noting that it's Noibat's favourite food.... and the Pteropus genus of fruit bats are some of the world's largest bats, even called 'flying foxes' in some parts of the world.
Noibat's adorable, but he quickly evolves into the mighty Noivern, a glorious combination of blacks, purples, teals and a bit of red, ending up in the wyvern-esque stance that many modern-day depiction of dragons (Skyrim, the Hobbit, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter) tend to go for, eschewing the four-legged-lizard-with-wings deal. The more bat-like dragons always looked far cooler and more organic, and Noivern isn't just a wyvern either. It's also still explicitly a bat, with its head and giant sonar ears being unmistakably bat-like. What's there not to love about Noivern? It looks just so goddamn badass. Bats are really cool, and I've already liked our previous offerings in Crobat, Gliscor and Swoobat... but Noivern just honestly blows them all out of the water, being a simple, elegant and cool design that honestly works for me more than over-cluttered legendaries of the previous two generations (and honestly, some of this generation's, too) ever did.
Noivern's just so goddamn cool, and it's just such a gloriously sleek and 'clean' looking design. This bat-dragon is able to use both the dark of night as cover, while at the same time unleashing a massive blast of sonic waves in a new move that it shares with Exploud called "Boom Burst". There's really not that much to say about Noivern beyond that... it's just such a goddamned cool bat monster, and we're definitely overdue one.
6/6.#716: Xerneas
Xerneas, the cover mascot for Pokemon X, is a pure-Fairy deer that's also known as the Pokemon of Life, being this gloriously powerful nature spirit with a glorious set of horns that sparkle in the colours of the rainbow, as well as having sword-like hooves, making Xerneas majestic and glorious. The design team clearly knew what they were going for -- a deer that embodies life, and a deer that is shaped like an X if seen from the front, and Xerneas was that. It's a pretty solid and smooth design that looks actually majestic and somewhat god-like, and not a cluttered cluster-fuck like some of the fourth and fifth generation legendaries. It genuinely looks graceful, and I absolutely love how in its 'natural' state, Xerneas actually shuts off the rainbow crystal works on its horns, having them remain a neutral pale-blue colour. It's pure-Fairy type, which I thought was neat, and it's able to learn its signature move, Geomancy, which is one of the most insane boosting moves.
Xerneas is apparently visually based on the extinct deer ancestor Eucladoceros, who shares Xerneas's majestic horns, but the sixth generation's legendaries apparently correspond to mythological Norse animals, with Xerneas apparently based on the life-giving stag Eikthyrnir, a legendary stag that sits atop Valhalla, and biting from the limbs of the great tree of Laeradr and from it comes multiple life-giving rivers. Both Xerneas and Yveltal, the two life-and-death duo, sleeps for a thousand years in the form of a tree, before the evil Team Flare decides to use them to empower the Eternal Weapon, a generic doomsday device. Xerneas is also apparently able to share eternal life, something that ends up being more a curse to the ancient king AZ throughout the plotline of Pokemon XY. Again, beyond being a plot device and a majestic life-bringer, there's not that much about Xerneas to be said, but as our very first Fairy-type legendary and a pure Fairy-type to boot, Xerneas certainly looks the part. There's really not much to say about Xerneas beyond that, but by its simple visual design and how well it suits that of a legendary protector of life and nature, Xerneas is actually one of my favourite legendaries of the franchise.
Also, interestingly to note, Xerneas has a 'neutral mode' where its golden rainbow antlers and 'veins' don't light up, which is how Xerneas looks basically anytime outside of battle. It's... it's neat? It's not as pretty as regular Xerneas, and it's honestly sort of a redundant form, but it's a neat little world-building feature, I suppose.
Also, interestingly to note, Xerneas has a 'neutral mode' where its golden rainbow antlers and 'veins' don't light up, which is how Xerneas looks basically anytime outside of battle. It's... it's neat? It's not as pretty as regular Xerneas, and it's honestly sort of a redundant form, but it's a neat little world-building feature, I suppose.
4/6. #717: Yveltal
- Types: Dark/Flying
- Japanese name: Iberutaru
- Category: Destruction
Xerneas is cool and all, but I fell in love with Yveltal the moment I saw it on the animated trailers for Pokemon XY. Sure, the Y-shaped body felt a little forced, but Yveltal looks like Lugia's evil cousin, with the same sort of claw-feather-wing-hands that Lugia has, and the black-and-red colour scheme just looks amazing. Add an actually cool-looking horned beak-head and the flowing mane of cloud-feather things, and Yveltal, the Pokemon of
Yveltal is also some sort of twisted phoenix that works with the Ragnarok parts of Norse mythology pretty well. It apparently has a bit of a life cycle that involves turning into a cocoon after its life has ended, but by doing this, it will also absorb the life energy of every living thing around it. Yveltal's design really works well, showing that it's a reaper of lives and having a great aura of menace around it. Yveltal's apparently inspired by either Hraesvelgr, an eagle that sits "at the end of the world", or Vedrfolnir, a hawk that sits atop a different nameless eagle that sits on top of the world tree Yggdrasil, and... and yeah, the Norse mythology connections do feel a bit of a stretch.
Still, Yveltal looks amazingly done, and both he and Xerneas actually look like living creatures that can move like actual birds and deers and not like giant plastic toys the way some of the more cluttered legendaries look like. Yveltal's pretty great, and his role as an ancient powerhouse that the villainous team is attempting to absorb as the energy source of an ancient weapon is also pretty cool.
6/6. #718: Zygarde
The final member of the trio is the giant Ground/Dragon worm, Zygarde, being the "Z" to the "X" and "Y". Zygarde is a pretty cool design, and Zygarde's Nordic inspirations certainly felt a lot more prominent. You see, Zygarde is found deep, deep in a mine underneath Kalos, and is clearly based on the dragon Nidhoggr, a serpentine dragon that gnaws on the root of the world tree Yggdrasil in Nordic mythology. Zygarde is a mysterious creature, but I really liked its design. From the gloriously weird set of hexagonal eyes that actually blink on and off, and the hexagonal designs found all over its body, Zygarde's weirdness doesn't stop with its design. It's lore is also gloriously mysterious, with it being called the "Order Pokemon", and it having the ability Aura Break, something that nullifies Xerneas and Yveltal's aura abilities. Zygarde feels to be the Rayquaza to Xerneas and Yveltal's Groudon and Kyogre, and all signs seem to point to a Pokemon Z where, if Pokemon keeps true to form, Team Flare will awaken both Xerneas and Yveltal, and Zygarde will be riled up and in turn stop the two other legendaries. After all, its dex entries note that "when the Kalos region's ecosystem falls into disarray, it appears and reveals its secret power", characterizing Zygarde as a guardian from deep in the cave where it lives. Even its signature move, Land's Wrath, plays into the role of Zygarde as symbolizing nature itself saying "fuck you" to all the humans trying to abuse its great protectors.
However, the theoretical Pokemon Z never happened, and Zygarde's story ends up being explored in the anime, with Zygarde's true nature being the main backbone of the second half of the Kalos saga, and would make their game debut in the seventh-generation games (but for simplicity's sake, I'm covering them all here). It's a shame that it ended up being a bit of a disjointed sidequest because Zygarde's story is actually a genuinely interesting bit. See, Barbaracle isn't the only hive-mind Pokemon in the sixth generation, as the serpentine Zygarde that debuted in the sixth generation is actually "Zygarde 50% Forme". As the anime and seventh-generation games show, Zygarde's true form is actually a mass of cells, which are mostly just non-sentient and form around the "Core", a sentient nucleus that is only able to become a 'true' Pokemon after gathering enough cells, which are scattered around Alola. Yes, we're dipping our toes into seventh-gen territory, but eh.
It ends up actually making Zygarde's weird hexagonal designs and the way that its tail seems to taper off turn out to be a clue of Zygarde's true nature, that the snake-like form is unfinished, and also made up of multiple smaller beings. Many people note Zygarde's flatness and the way that it is likely inspired by flatworm family of planaria, which... okay? The cells and 50% Zygarde do somewhat look like planarians, so why not? The cells and cores aren't actually obtainable as Pokemon in the games, being treated more like key items, which I found absolutely fascinating. In Pokemon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, you have to go around Alola collecting the scattered Zygarde cells, eventually building up a proper Zygarde.
5/6 for 50% Zygarde and the cells.
5/6 for 50% Zygarde and the cells. 
So apparently, a single Zygarde Core can easily maintain a 10% form, which... which is a little doggie with a leash-and-chain on its neck. It's still Ground/Dragon, which absolutely baffles me, but okay? This it the 10% Form Zygarde, smaller and more fragile, but faster. The largest form that a single Zygarde Core can apparently maintain is the 50% Zygarde from the sixth generation. I love dogs, but 10% Zygarde feels a bit weird to me. It's just a dog that doesn't communicate its status as a creature made out of smaller cell Pokemon particularly well. The seventh generation gives us actual dex entries for each of the different forms, noting that the 10% form is fast and powerful, but is unable to be maintained indefinitely. The 50% form is more stable, and is the form Zygarde takes when monitoring the ecosystem, only ascending to the 100% form when a threat comes. The dog's neat as a standalone creature, but I kinda feel like it doesn't quite feel like it's part of the same entity that the 50% Zygarde or the cells and cores are from.
3/6, a decent dog but I don't like it as much as the original Zygardes.
And then when two Zygarde Cores meet, they form Zygarde Complete Form, or 100% Form, and it's... well, it's nowhere as cool as the dog or the worm, looking more like a weird humanoid gundam, and the weird tentacle-capes have blues and reds on them for some reason. I mean, those are clearly Xerneas and Yveltal's colours, but considering they didn't actually go anywhere with making Zygarde the 'master' of Xerneas and Yveltal, it ends up feeling like a weird chunk of detail. Complete Form Zygarde actually isn't a form you can obtain, but more of a power-up form. See, when a 50% Zygarde's HP drops into less than half, it summons all the other Zygarde cells in the land, allowing it to ascend into this weird robot-angelic state, allowing access to some particularly powerful moves like Core Enforcer, Thousand Arrows and Thousand Waves, which are way too many signature moves for a single pokemon.
Zygarde's three forms definitely are based on the three children of Loki from Nordic mythology, which is the great hound Fenrir (10% form Zygarde even has the chain Gleipnir that binds Fenrir before Ragnarok), the great world serpent Jormungandr, and the goddess of death, Hel. Overall, though, I definitely give props for Nintendo for coming up with an actually impressive backstory for Zygarde to explain its gimmicks and whatnot, but I feel like there's one too many details, and while I haven't seen the anime or manga arcs that deals with Zygarde, I felt like there definitely could've been more done with him in the games. Complete Form Zygarde is always a disappointment due to how cluttered it is, feeling like a step back to the days of the messy Kyurem fusions, but the concept of a creature formed of multiple cells, as well as the design of the normal, 50% Zygarde, are endearing enough that I still like Zygarde more than not.
2/6 for 100% Zygarde.#719: Diancie
- Type: Rock/Fairy
- Japanese names: Dianshii
- Category: Jewel
Hoo, that's a bit of a long talk for Zygarde, isn't it? We've only got three more Pokemon to go for the Kalos pokedex, and all of these are 'event' Pokemon. The first of these is the Rock/Fairy princess, Diancie, who's apparently a mutated Carbink that's tapped into some sort of chosen-one royal powers. It's got the ability to compress carbon with its hands to create diamond instantly, and while it's not the best design out there, Diancie does look reasonably cute with the hair made up of pink crystals and a weird faux-dress. She's definitely a neat little fairy princess, and while it's not my thing, Diancie's a pleasant enough design, especially when she achieves her mega evolution (which we'll discuss next week with the rest of the megas -- it's kind of the problem of having so many alternate forms for older Pokemon) and definitely looks pretty regal. There's really not much else to say about Diancie. She's neat, but she's not particularly memorable once you get over the whole 'princess of the Carbinks' thing.
3/6. #720: Hoopa
- Types: Psychic/Ghost [regular Hoopa]; Psychic/Dark [Unbound Hoopa]
- Japanese name: Fuupa
- Category: Mischief [Hoopa], Djinn [Hoopa Unbound; Majin/Demon Man in Japanese]
Our second mythical legendary, Hoopa, is a wacky Psychic/Ghost Pokemon based on an Arabian djinni, and... and I don't really mind Hoopa's regular form (or 'Hoopa Confined') all that much. it's a cheeky little horned devil without legs and detached arms, and it's able to use its rings to create portals through space that will apparently lead to legendary pokemon -- the existence of Hoopa rings all over Hoenn is why all the legendary Pokemon can be encountered in the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire games, and in his movie, Hoopa is also shown to use these rings to summon legendary Pokemon or to grant wishes. Hoopa's a cheekier version of Jirachi, and the combination of a djinni with both the ring and the lamp from the legend of Aladdin is pretty neat. Its design doesn't really communicate the combination of Ghost and Psychic particularly well, though, with nothing in Hoopa's design really screaming 'Ghost'. Honestly, as much as Fairy is somewhat over-used in this generation, Hoopa really works better as Psychic/Fairy, doesn't he? I dunno. Not the biggest fan of its design, although the movie did sort of warm me up to him a bit. Like Diancie, though, ultimately I'm just m'eh about Hoopa.
2/6. 
Apparently, the default Hoopa form is Hoopa after his power was sealed in a 'prison bottle', returning Hoopa into its godawful mess of an original form, the Psychic/Dark Hoopa Unbound. The idea of a bunch of detached remote-controlled arms that can spin around and 'socket' themselves into Hoopa's central body is neat, but the general design of Hoopa Unbound's body is just so insanely messy, and while I can see Hoopa Unbound having its fans, it's definitely not my jam. It's way too cluttered, and its silhouette is way too ungainly and just way too bizarre. Too many things are going on here, from the monstrous face to the ponytail to the pointy shoes to the rings to the floating arms to the tail... and other than the obvious djinni inspirations, I'm not really sure just what the multiple arms and rings are supposed to symbolize, with bulbapedia suggesting everything from Nezha to Shakti to the Gegenees. Credit where credit's due, at least it does look like a demonic, monstrous form sealed away to give us the cheeky little bastard that's the regular Hoopa. It's interestingly different, but it does way too much and the end result feels like it could've used around 50% less clutter.
1/6. #721: Volcanion
- Types: Fire/Water
- Japanese name: Borukenion
- Category: Steam
The last Pokemon in the Kalos pokedex is the mighty steam Pokemon Volcanion, and a steam-based monster is definitely worthy of being our very first Fire/Water dual type, a wacky type combination that has been pretty popular since it's the two types that seem to 'clash' the most with each other. And... and Volcanion's a somewhat neat design, being this four-legged turtle-dragon monster that also looks somewhat artificial, having a ring of... steam pipes or something on its back, which can split in the middle and aim forwards like two cannons. Volcanion's big problem that it... doesn't particularly feel legendary. It's a pokemon that has weird steam cannons that creates fogs and disappears from human sight, but that's not particularly noteworthy, and Volcanion doesn't quite look as majestic or otherworldly the way that Xerneas, Yveltal or Zygarde does, and neither does Volcanion look like a powerful pixie the way that Diancie or Hoopa does. A weird steam beast just isn't that special as far as pokemon goes, and the movie staff can't even think of much to make Volcanion interesting, turning him into a generic heroic legendary pokemon protecting Magearna, a different legendary pokemon. Volcanion's signature move, Steam Eruption, is essentially a more powerful Scald and... and unlike most people, I've never really thought Volcanion's design as cool. It always felt awkward and artificial to me, but there's really nothing in Volcanion's backstory to suggest that it's artificially created. I dunno. Volcanion's a neat design, I suppose, but it's not one that I particularly care about. It's just kind of there, y'know? I don't mind him. He's honestly kind of forgettable for me among the many, many legendaries in this franchise, but at least he's got a neat theme going.
2/6.
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Yeah, that's pretty short, but definitely one that was fun to go through. As our first generation to go by quality over quantity (if you don't count the Mega Evolutions), this generation has a significantly decent hit-to-miss ratio, and might be the highest!
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