Pokemon: If I Could Retcon Pokemon Types

I had some severe writer's block on what to do for the next 'Reviewing Monsters' segment on the blog, so I decided to go back and do something comfortable instead of stressing it out. Initially I had tried to do a segment on what my own personal fan-made region's roster would be, but I feel that would require some more research onto how Gamefreak sets up their own regions and the Pokemon distributions of said regions. 

Then I tried to do a screenshot let's play of Quarantine Crystal as was requested by some viewers, but after a couple hours of playing and screenshot-taking, turns out that none of the screenshots were saved properly into a computer folder. So nay on that for at least the near future. Maybe just a text playthrough? I'll definitely do one for Legends: Arceus, but I really don't think I'll do one for the Diamond/Pearl remakes. (My brief reaction to the new Pokemon: regional forms are cute but whatever; Basculegion is a 'wtf' in all the best ways; Wyrdeer is more of a 'finally they remembered Stantler' than anything; Kleavor is a 'uhhh' and then a 'whoaaa' when I realized it's an alternate Scyther evolution)

So I took a look back onto my older articles and... and I think this is an interesting enough topic to revisit. With at least an entire generation's worth of Pokemon in-between when I last talked about this, welcome to 2021's iteration of "Types That Don't Make Sense". Or, as I would rather call it, "If I Could Retcon Pokemon Types..."

So the idea is that, well, other than the brief Magnemite retcon and the (not too) huge Fairy-type turnover in Generation VI, I've always thought that Pokemon prided itself in its consistency over generations. Sure, movesets change and sometimes abilities and some of the numbers get swapped around, but the core and essence of the Pokemon can't change, right? Especially the types. But what if Nintendo sat down and did a slow run-down of all the Pokemon and revamped the types? Here's my input on that hypothetical meeting.

This may or may not be the first of a two-parter. Here we go:

Huntail & Gorebyss

I tried to do this in the order of the National Dex, but I ended up giving up and just going 'whatever order makes sense'. And what makes sense for me is to put these two here as the poster guys for "oh yeah, they exist!" I am someone who's easily entertained when a Pokemon is based on an obscure aquatic creature, and even I have trouble remembering Huntail and Gorebyss -- that's without considering that they come in a region that had so many weirdos from the ocean. 

Here's the thing -- Clamperl, the little clam, can evolve into either of these two, a fanged gulper eel and a pipefish-chimera. And neither of them... really have any sort of distinct advantage over the other. It's such a far departure compared to other split evolutions in the past, particularly someone like Eevee... and it's a bit more bizarre because Huntail and Gorebyss, in other adjacent media, were... related to Dark and Psychic respectively. In one of the Pokemon Ranger games, Huntail and Gorebyss had Dark and Psychic assists, and their very first TCG cards had them be Water-types that support -- you guessed it -- Dark and Psychic allied Pokemon. 

And frankly, with how almost every split evolution having a difference in typing, I really wished that this was a thing. Hell, look even at their movesets! When you put them side-by-side, the moves that differ between the two evolutionary lines are Dark-type and Psychic-type respectively. Turning them into Water/Dark and Water/Psychic respectively would really go a long way to making them a lot less forgettable. 

Charizard, Gyarados & Groudon

In a sense, I lump these three together because Nintendo has quietly kinda acknowledged that these guys' typings don't really make sense and retconned them via Mega Evolutions. (Or 'Primal Reversion' for Groudon). Charizard gets to be Fire/Dragon via Mega Charizard X; Gyarados gets to ditch the Flying-type that never did anything to him for the much more appropriate Dark; and Groudon gets to become Ground/Fire. 

And for all three of them, I get the original impetus of the typings they're given. Gyarados is based on one of those koi streamer flags, which billow in the wind; but Gyarados himself is never really shown flying or floating, nor does it learn any flying-type moves. I don't really agree with it being a Dragon either, but Dark type definitely fits Gyarados a lot better. Groudon, in media, has always been associated more with lava than just the ground itself, and I've always felt like Ground/Fire made so much more sense for him. And Charizard... do I really need to say more?

In a slightly lesser sense, I also kinda would prefer for Sceptile, Ampharos and Altaria's mega-typings to be retconned to be their regular typings, but for them I understand why it's a lot less thematic. 

Goodra

While this article is going to be skewed more towards the earlier generations, I'm going to jump back and forth between different ones so as to keep things fresh. Hey, it's Goodra! I really like that they made a slug-dragon in Generation VI and I loved the joke that little blob-slug Goomy is a Dragon-type. But, uh... I'm a bit confused why the entire line stayed a pure Dragon-type when Goomy's evolutionary line is so intrinsically tied to rain and humidity. The evolution from Sliggoo to Goodra only happens when it's raining; they're found mostly in swamps; one of their abilities has to do with rain; and, hell, their moveset has more Water-type moves than Dragon-type moves. 

Either Goomy going from pure-Water and evolving into Water/Dragon in the final stage (which is a lot less funny) or my preferred one, just changing Goodra into Water/Dragon while keeping Goomy and Sliggoo pure-Dragon, would've really worked wonders in making Goodra make more sense, but probably a lot more useful. 

Ninetales

The advent of regional variants does end up making me look back at their original versions (or 'Kantonian', if you want to use the in-universe term. If you guys forgot, Alolan Ninetales is an Ice/Fairy Pokemon, which makes sense! Ninetales is always been a Pokemon that's a lot more mystical and aloof, being based on a supernatural yokai in the first place that's infamous for doing a lot of things that the Western world would associate with the fair folk. And with Alolan Ninetales turned into Ice/Fairy, I'm frankly kind of surprised that original-flavour Ninetales didn't get an upgrade into a Fire/Fairy Pokemon herself. 

Rookidee & Corvisquire

The 'early route bird' of Galar is memorable for having its first two stages be pure-Flying instead of Normal/Flying like all the other birds. The only other pure-Flying Pokemon we've had before is the humanoid legendary god of wind, Tornadus. I do like the idea that birds also represent pure-Flying. The problem? There's nothing in Rookiedee and Corvisquire's design that tell me that they are more 'Flying' than Spearow or Taillow or Pikipek or Starly. They're just birds drawn in the Pokemon art-style, and either we turn all the birds into pure-Flying, or these two should be Normal/Flying as well, just for my desire for consistency. 

Lugia

I'm repeating some of the entries in my half-decade-old article, but past-me did make some good points. Lugia, in-canon, is Psychic/Flying. I get that. Lugia uses his Psychic abilities to create the gigantic whirlpools in Whirl Islands, as well as to create the massive storms. And he's a giant bird whose special move is 'Aeroblast', of course it's Flying-type. But Lugia is also a mostly-aquatic dinosaur-bird that's almost always associated with the ocean. Every single time Lugia has shown up in a main-series game, he's been located in an underwater area or a cave very much associated with the ocean.

For the life of me, I've never understood why Lugia was not Water/Flying, other than the fact that Psychic-type was the 'uber' type back then and they wanted one of the marquee Pokemon for Gold/Silver to be Psychic-type as well to be a counterpart to Mewtwo. Unlike Huntail and Gorebyss up above, the TCG is even more blatant, actually printing Water-type Lugia several times instead of just associating the type as part of the card text or whatnot. 

Well, it's been a long time and we've had so many uber-powerful weather-controlling Water-type legendaries that I definitely would put Lugia on the retcon list if we're doing one. Maybe another potential article would be 'what Pokemon I would retcon into triple-types, if triple-types existed as a system in Pokemon'? Lugia would be Psychic/Water/Flying, Stunfisk would be Water/Ground/Electric, Charizard would be Fire/Flying/Dragon, Venomoth and Beedrill would be Bug/Poison/Flying...

Glalie

Two potential retcon types that I feel I could make decent arguments for here -- Ice/Dark or Ice/Fairy. It's always struck me as kind of unfortunate that Snorunt's other evolution, Froslass, became Ice/Ghost, whereas Glalie just stayed a mono Ice-type. And it's... it's such a weird design, such a fun design, but also something that I felt was creepy enough to really deserve an extra typing beyond Ice. If not for Glalie, then for Mega Glalie. 

Ice/Dark would be obvious. I mean, just look at him! Or read any of his dex entries, a couple of them talks about how he freezes his prey solid and takes time to eat them alive. But Ice/Fairy would work as well not just for Glalie, but for Snorunt as well -- Snorunt is based on the fairy-like koro-pok-guru of the Ainu mythology, and I feel like that would work very well if we're doing a more extensive overhaul. On a personal sense, just like dragon!Goomy, I also would love the oddity of fairy!Glalie as well.

Zeraora
I admit that I really don't know a whole ton about Zeraora, having never watched his debut movie, but really, looking at the brief scenes online he's basically an Electric-type Lucario, isn't he? His signature move is even 'Plasma Fists', something straight out of a fighting game. So kind of a no-brainer, Electric/Fighting. Which, by the way, is the only type combination Electric doesn't have yet. What gives, Nintendo? This guy could've been so much more interesting. 

Ledian

Speaking of Fighting types, we jump from a legendary all the way to one of the most humble Pokemon ever, an early-route bug that doesn't even have a third stage. But Ledian's whole deal is that she punches a lot. The whole design of Ledyba and Ledian extends around the fact that they have punching gloves as fists, and they learn moves like Comet Punch. So yeah, making Ledian into a Bug/Fighting seems like a way to lean into this and really make this otherwise forgettable bug stand out just a bit from the rest of the Bug/Flying's out there. I mean, hell, if Breloom counts as a Fighting-type...

Celebi & Jirachi

Celebi maybe a little less so than Jirachi, but these two are... they're basically what would be Grass/Fairy and Steel/Fairy respectively instead of being psychic-types if they were released post-XY, wouldn't they? It's just that back in the day, the 'supernatural' type is just Psychic. And sure, time-traveling does sound like a more sci-fi (and therefore, more 'Psychic') ability than something that would fall under the umbrella of Fairy-typing, but it's kind of splitting hairs at this point. They're legendaries, after all!

And Jirachi's a dang wish-granting millennial being connected to the stars. I don't know. That sounds like something quite fairy-esque, don't you think? Even with the argument that the extraterrestrial is connected with the Psychic-type, then that would just make me argue for Jirachi being Psychic/Fairy instead. I don't know. It just always struck me as hilarious that Jirachi shared the same typing as Metagross, the telekinetic robot crab. 

I don't want this to just be me talking about all the other event-mythical Pokemon, so consider Manaphy, Victini and Meloetta also included here as 'yeah, they all could be fairies too'. 

Uxie, Mesprit & Azelf

Speaking of being fairies, these three guys! The Lake Guardians! The lake imps! They represent knowledge, emotions and... whatever Azelf represents. Desire or determination or something. Pure-Psychic feels kind of mundane for them, though. They're lake guardians, so maybe the three of them could be Water/Psychic? Let's pretend I talk about another paragraph of fairy pixies and how these guys can also be fairies, and maybe they are Fairy or Fairy/Psychic? 

Actually, maybe we can get a combination of types, to make these three guys not just literally the same thing with different artwork? One of them could be Water/Psychic, another one Fairy/Psychic, and another one... pure Psychic or pure Fairy?

Bellossom & Tsareena

A pair of final-stage Grass-types that I feel could've had a lot more to them. Bellossom, in particular, has to contend with her own alternate evolution, the Grass/Poison Vileplume. Being pure-Grass and losing on type coverage always felt like a bit of a disadvantage and a downer for Bellossom, and I actually speculated that Bellossom was going to become Grass/Fairy back when Generation VI was announced. Bellossom doesn't look particularly Fairy-esque in the way that some of the more explicit post-XY fairies are, but neither are Mr. Mime or Granbull. Definitely would be something pretty cool and would give Bellossom something special.

Tsareena I just lump in here because I always thought that she was Grass/Fighting thanks to her signature move, Trop Kick, and I definitely think that it'd add just that extra oomph and pizazz for her evolution from Steenee to Tsareena.

Palkia

This was my #1 pick in my older article. Palkia doesn't bug me as much anymore nowadays, but... still, Palkia's design and concept really has nothing to do with the Water-type. The only real connection I can see is that Palkia represents Pokemon Pearl and pearls are found in the ocean, which is about as relevant as insisting that Dialga should be ground-type because diamonds are found underground.

Palkia, I feel, isn't as bad as some of the others here mostly because... well, as a space-god-dragon, I really don't think of any type I would more readily associate with him. Psychic/Dragon, I guess? Kind of bitch-basic, but we do associate teleportation, i.e. the manipulation of space-time, with Psychic. 

Golduck

Another very easy one -- Psyduck is the most associated with having powerful Psychic powers in practically every media he's shown up in. And sure, I get it, Psyduck's name in Japanese doesn't actually have 'psy' in it. But there's no stopping them from turning Golduck, the badass evolution, into a proper Water/Psychic, right? Not really a whole ton for me to elaborate here. 

Gligar & Gliscor

We'll end this with another one that's always bugged me (bug, get it, ha). Gligar and Gliscor are, conceptually, flying scorpions. They're bat-scorpions! Which is a very cool concept. They fly, so they're Flying-type. That's obvious, that's appropriate! What about their second type, then? Bug-type, since they're bugs? Bug/Flying? No? No problem, lots of Pokemon that are based on arthropods don't necessarily have the bug typing if there are more appropriate types out there. Ask Flygon! Or Drapion! Bug/Flying's kind of boring, too, I agree. What, then? Poison-type, since scorpions are most well-known for being poisonous? Poison/Flying? No? Okay, then. Let's look at its movepool... mostly Bug and Normal moves. Normal/Flying? No? Gligar's too weird to be Normal? I agree. A couple of Dark-type moves, maybe Dark/Flying? Gligar seems more cheeky than 'dark', but Gliscor can be pretty mean. No?

...Ground. Gligar is part-Ground. I still don't really understand it. It lives in caves or something, sure, but Paras isn't ground-type. Zubat isn't ground-type. Sableye isn't ground-type. Roggenrola isn't ground-type. Gligar doesn't even learn a single Ground-type move other than Sand Attack. Out of all the Pokemon here, I think Gligar and Gliscor has the most loose association with its canon typing, and probably the one that I'd change the most easily. 

Honourable Mentions:

• Anyone with a part-Normal typing that's not Normal/Flying, a baby (since they gain typings when they evolve) or Girafarig (who has the palindrome thing as an excuse). Because there really is no reason, from a lore or gameplay perspective, for Pyroar to be Normal/Fire when Arcnanine is pure Fire; no reason for Sawsbuck to be Normal/Grass when Gogoat is pure Grass, et cetera.
• Chansey & Audino: Fairy, if only for consistency's sake. I've never really got what makes Audino and Chansey more 'normal' than Jigglypuff, Clefairy or any of the other pink-blobs. A lot of the 'healers' in newer generations like Comfey or Ribombee have all been associated with the Fairy type anyway, so...
• Basculin: Water/Dark. This guy was in my older article, and while I don't think it's quite as necessary for Basculin, he is an angry scrappy fish. And being angry and scrappy most certainly qualifies you for being a Grass-type in Pokemon. 
• Hoopa: Fairy/Dark. I know Generation VI does have a plethora of Fairy-types, but it is the Fairy generation. I get why Hoopa is Ghost-type in his regular form (and Dark in his unbound form) but the Psychic one... I don't know, a wish-granting genie that plays pranks does feel more like a 'fairy' than an 'esper', wouldn't you say?
• Drapion: This is one from my older article and it's honestly just here because it constantly confuses me. Drapion is Poison/Dark, and this does not incorporate the Bug-type at all despite him being, y'know, a giant scorpion. I always think he's Bug/Dark or Bug/Poison, but that's more of my personal hang-ups more than anything. Skorupi being actually Bug/Poison doesn't help either. 
• Comfey: Fairy/Grass. I forget Comfey exists all the time, but he's a fairy shaped like a flower that collects flowers. If Klefki is a fairy that's shaped like a key and collects keys and is a part-Steel, then Comfey should also be part-Grass. 
• The Flabebe Line: Fairy/Grass. For the same reason as above. Or at the very least just Florges. Flabebe and Floette at least are just holding their flower. Florges have straight-up merged and turned into a walking garden. 
• Noctowl: Psychic/Flying. Now I get that he's an early-game bird, and early-game birds aren't supposed to be that powerful, but I always found it odd that Noctowl has access to some Psychic moves, has a lot of Psychic-esque features particularly in the anime, but is just a normal owl? Dark/Flying would work too, I suppose, although flavour-wise Noctowl isn't actually that dastardly.
• Inkay: Psychic. Just Inkay. Listen, though -- the whole idea is that you have to flip Inkay upside-down to turn him into Malamar, and Malamar is a much more dastardly-looking character than Inkay is. With Gen VI also having Pancham gaining the Dark type through bad influences, I feel like it's a lot more thematic for Inkay to start off a pure-Psychic that gets turned upside-down and became literally dark/evil.
• The Rhydon Line: Rock or Ground. Considering how rocky Rhyhorn looks and how Rhyperior shoots rocks, I'm leaning more towards pure-Rock. I've never really understood them being Rock/Ground; sure, Rhydon has a drill, but I don't feel like the Rhydon line particularly embodies the Ground-type the way someone like Dugtrio does. It's a bit of a pet peeve, but comparing them to all the other Rock/Ground types out there does make Rhyhorn kind of stand out a bit.
• Suicune: Water/Ice. Far more associated with the creation of giant crystals, particularly in the manga and in Pokken. The only reason this is an honourable mention is that it'd break the symmetry with the mono-typed Raikou and Entei, but it's not like Gamefreak has been a stranger to favouring a member of a trio more than its siblings, *cough*Charizard*cough*.
• Croagunk/Toxicroak: I really like their typing (Poison/Fighting), which is why they're not up above, but I've always felt like the Croagunk line really should be Poison/Dark. 
• Lycanroc (Midnight): On the same vein, I feel like the design of Midnight Lycanroc really is setting it up to be Rock/Dark type, and it would really add something extra to a difference in the forms. 

Fomantis and Lurantis are not here because they are a reverse orchid mantis and I get the joke, they're a plant that only mimics bugs; a reversal of real-life bugs that mimic plants. They make sense to me!

This was fun! I tried not to be too anal in this one. Maybe a potential follow-up that doesn't list another bunch of Pokemon whose types I want changed would be one centered exclusively on Fairy-types (I think I could make a case for Zoroark, Vanilitte, Cincinno, Jynx or Gothitelle being fairies) and how the pre-Gen-VI could've been more extensively revised to incorporate Fairies. Or one with triple-types like I mentioned with Lugia above...