Yokai typically scare people by licking them and it's also really traumatic. Yeah. That's all I can find about ghost licking. I suppose it's a Japanese thing like Night Slash.

Watch Da Birdie said:

By the way, have you ever seen the underside of its model and its tiny legs? If you want to still like Mega Gengar, don't look that up as it'll ruin the design for you.

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I didn't take your advice.

Why.

Kind of funny Gengar was a beast in the early games despite both of his types being physical until gen 4.

unknownstranger said:

Kind of funny Gengar was a beast in the early games despite both of his types being physical until gen 4.

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It's not like there was any useful Ghost or Poison STAB in Gen 1 anyway.

Toxi said:

It's not like there was any useful Ghost or Poison STAB in Gen 1 anyway.

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Something I like watching on Twitch is Pokemon randomizer runs. There's Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb in gen 2 but they still rather have Thunderpunch than those outside of Blissey's.

Macka said:

Grimer and Muk are the quintessential slime monsters. It's totally fair to like them while disliking the living garbage bag.

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I think it's fair to hate them as well for being just that, generic RPG archetypes. Because rather than making unique mons they're just "checking the checklist", and in a way I like that gen 1 did that so later gens will be free from that crap.

And I'm one of the few (hell I feel like I'm the only one) who thinks the mimic excuse for the Voltorb line is weak.

STAB doesn't really matter when your main role is to put stuff to sleep and then surprise Explosion.

For reference, Gengar's special movepool consisted of:

Dream Eater
Psywave
Psychic
Thunderbolt
Thunder
Mega Drain

Congrats to Gengar for being the only Pokemon to remain OU for every generation.

SenorArdilla said:

Congrats to Gengar for being the only Pokemon remain OU for every generation.

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Starmie?

WarAdept said:

Starmie?

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Starmie had a drop during XY, though it's now back on top.

Well I wouldn't say back on top, Knock Off is quite popular.

Crayolan said:

Best atack animation:

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Toxi said:

Starmie had a drop during XY, though it's now back on top.

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Ah yes, I thought I successfully blocked out the days when Greninja/Aegislash/Mawille ravaged the tier.

MBS said:

The moment you realize Stadium has much superior animation and models than X/Y/OR/AS..

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I can see how you could argue better animation(though stadium has some really janky ones as well), but better models? Do you have any particular examples in mind?

EDIT: About Mega Gengar's third eye. I always figured it was supposed to reference the eye used in the Mean Look animations, e.g. Mega Gengar always has Mean Look up and thus has Shadow Tag for its ability.

MBS said:

The moment you realize Stadium has much superior animation and models than X/Y/OR/AS..

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Oh boy. I mean animation, Gen VI has some misses, but even models? Holy shit.

It's like I'm in a PokeBomb thread because someone posted the very same post there!

Firemind said:

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Hahaha alakazam and beedrill got nothing on this

I had the same foam squishy Gengar. I also had Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff's ear fell off during rigorous games of Smash Bros versus my Donkey Kong, Yoshi and Luigi plushies. I still have Jigglypuff, but I can't remember where I put Gengar, which is a shame.

I agree with that about Gengar's design, Gengar is a great design and nothing wrong with it at all, I just prefer Haunter more. Haunter feels like he could easily have been a final stage. He's not even a bad Pokemon for being a middle stage, either. Despite being a middle stage, he still manages to be better than some fully evolved Pokemon.

All three are amazing designs and highlights of Gen I. They even have cool cries in a game with garbed robot sounds and shared cries.

Watch Da Birdie said:

doesn't stand a ghost of a chance to ever appear again.

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:/

The design of Gastly is great for this joke:

#095 - Onix
Rock/Ground

Onix is another Rock/Ground Pokemon introduced in Generation I, and has the honor of being the first "Boss Pokemon" the player encounters under the command of Brock. Onix certainly looks the part, being huge and imposing, but as they say, size doesn't matter. Onix may be one of the largest Pokemon, the largest in Generation I, but apart from his rock-hard defense that was only behind Cloyster, the rest of his stats are laughable---45 Attack are you kidding me?---and his high-defense doesn't help him much when he has so many common weaknesses. But if you picked Charmander, boy, you were in for a pretty tedious fight, and might've been tricked into thinking Onix is powerful. But by the time you actually encounter Onix in the wild, like in various RPGs where an early boss ends up being a random encounter later on during the adventure, you've likely wisened up and seen through its facade for the weakling it truly is. But hey, he's a giant rock snake, so maybe you still used him on looks alone?

As his species suggests, Onix is a "Rock Snake", although he never really looked that snake-like to me apart from the little "rock rattle tail". It's also believed he may have been influenced by various cave-dwelling, serpentine dragons found in mythology, "wyrms" as they're sometimes called, which is supported by the fact in later games he picked up Dragon Breath. I always figured Onix's "Rock Snake" classification was simply an in-universe name given to him because that was the closest animal the Pokemon World's scientists could decide upon to relate Onix to. I mentioned this in Golem's entry, but you ever notice how he and Onix sort of look like they could've been related due to having reptilian elements and a similar face---I mean, especially comparing Graveler's design to Golem. By the way, I've always really loved Onix's design---especially his face. The sharp eyes and the strong facial features give him a really imposing, unique quality that I think few Pokemon capture through design alone. Onix may be weak, but I feel if you showed him to anyone unfamiliar with Pokemon they'd likely figure he was meant to be a powerful character on looks alone.

There's not too much to say about Onix as he's a rather simple Pokemon who doesn't have any amazing powers, preferring to simply throw his weight around, but his main skill is his powerful digging capabilities---and of course he was unable to learn Dig naturally till later Generations. It seems like the folks who wrote the PokeDex entries were on an entirely different page from those who actually designed the gameplay system, doesn't it? Onix despite its size is capable of digging up to 50 miles-per-hour, and while his speed isn't amazing, at 70 it's at least decent which is more than I can for the rest of his stats. Onix's brain contains a magnet that allows him to easily navigate while tunneling through the earth, and I wonder if possibly his entire body has some sort of magnetic quality that keeps the rocks bound together and Onix's actual body is really just the head? The PokeDex does imply that he absorbs minerals as he digs, so it's perhaps possible.

It seems like Onix should've been the first Pokemon Game Freak decided upon to give a Baby to to explain how such a massive Pokemon hatches from such a tiny Egg, but nope, people needed to know where Pikachu came from instead. Onix has a life-cycle mentioned by the PokeDex in which as it grows older, it's body is said to become smoother and rounder, and also turn into a black diamond-like mineral. I really wish we had more "alternative" Pokemon in the games who borrowed these elements mentioned, especially as it seems easier to do now with models, but sadly all Onix look pretty much the same. You'll notice this sort of sets up his evolution in Generation II, but what he evolves into doesn't exactly look like the Onix mentioned here---imagine if Onix actually got a "natural" evolution though that went through with that design, and it was a Rock/Ground, black-colored Onix. That'd be pretty neat, and if they differentiated it enough from his actual evolution it could probably find itself a decent niche, but now I'm just rambling.

Of course the most famous Onix in the show is Brock's, who despite its size was a main member of the team throughout Kanto and Johto. In Advanced, it was even shown to be the first Pokemon Brock ever obtained as a gift from his otherwise dead-beat dad, which a psychologist could probably read a lot into. And like Brock's dad, Onix was pretty useless throughout most of the show---you'd think a Pokemon like him could've easily solved countless plots Ash and co. found themselves in, but very rarely did the gang think about using the giant rock snake they had on hand no matter the situation. Don't forget that Meowth defeated Onix by throwing a bucket of water onto him and scratching him. He got to fight a Tyranitar in the 4th Movie, but like always jobbed just to show how strong the bad guy was. Actually, the coolest Onix moment in the entire show belongs to Roark's, who defeated Pikachu by using Screech. Now you'll have a lot of folks nerd out because Screech doesn't cause damage in the games, but for once I think the show did right by doing its own thing---Onix is an absolutely enormous Pokemon whose roar is said to echo throughout the tunnels it digs, screaming at the top of its lungs as an attack makes perfect sense to me because it'd be like standing next to a giant loud-speaker at full blast. You know, if that was in Special, it'd be praised, but fans are sometimes ridiculous when it comes to making sure the show adheres to every little game rule even when it'd be better off ignoring them.

By the way, fans often say Onix is one of the few Pokemon who doesn't say its name, instead simply roaring, but if you listen closely you'll realize it's always been saying its Japanese name, Iwark, as its voice has never been dubbed over.


#208 - Steelix
Steel/Ground

So far, pretty much all the Cross-Generation Evolutions we've encountered have been somewhat pointless, making a strong Pokemon even more powerful or adding an additional member to a family who was already complete, but Steelix is one Cross-Generation Evolution who I think was actually needed---Onix was sick and tired of being everyone's whipping boy, and Steelix was just what the doctor ordered. Steelix is one of the premiere Steel-types introduced in Generation II, and evolves when Onix is traded while holding the Metal Coat. As a Steel/Ground Pokemon, Steelix loses some of its weaknesses as Onix, and has a ton of resistances---Gen VI had it loses Dark and Ghost, but gain Fairy---so it's quite a hard Pokemon to take down. In the Gold and Silver era, Steelix was on top, although it's fallen quite a bit. Not that Steelix really got any weaker, just that there were more and more Pokemon appearing who had high enough attack to properly deal with him I imagine. Steelix make a great in-game Pokemon, worth capturing an Onix for, and in recent games has actually begun to appear in the wild despite being a Cross-Generation Evolution, who usually don't. This makes sense a bit as I'll explain below.

Statistically Onix definitely needed an evolution, and Steelix delivers, buffering his Defense even further while also making sure to give him a bit more rounded stats elsewhere so he's not laughably weak---sure, his Speed significantly drops, but that's not really needed on a defensive Pokemon who can pretty much withstand basically everything the opponent can throw at him. On the other hand, I felt Onix aesthetically felt pretty complete, so perhaps Game Freak could've simply buffed up his stats between game without giving him an evolution. I mean, yeah, it'd "mess up canon", but would anyone really care? I for one would love if they gave old Pokemon statistical boosts like that to help them keep up with the new kids, and Gen VI at the very least actually did that to a minor extent for a few Pokemon, so hopefully they continue to do that in a way that helps Pokemon without feeling like a sudden change. With all that being said, Steelix is a great looking evolution, and certainly doesn't ruin Onix in any way, so I'm glad it exists. I actually have trouble deciding if I like Steelix more than Onix---I wanna say I do, but then Onix has all that nostalgia thanks to the show for me.

Remember how Onix is said to become rounder and more diamond-like the longer it lives? Well, Steelix is apparently what happens if Onix lives for over 100 years as its body becomes compressed deep within the ground becoming harder than diamonds---but not as hard as Ponyta's hooves, of course. I guess the Metal Coat is possibly a way for the player to force Onix to evolve into Steelix without waiting 100 years, and the wild Steelix you can encounter in later games are presumably Onix who have lived long enough to naturally evolve. Pretty neat, huh? You know, I think it would've been very neat and fitting for Onix to evolve when you traded it via the Time Capsule in Gold and Silver, but then again that'd present itself with a lot of problems so it's understandable Game Freak didn't go that route. The Metal Coat's a pretty good evolutionary item because it actually fits within the lore somewhat, when a lot of evolutionary items aren't really explained or directly contradict how the PokeDex claims the Pokemon evolves, so it's nice to have one you can actually understand how it fits in with the Pokemon's evolution.

Steelix is pretty much better than Onix in every way as I've mentioned: longer, harder, tougher, and live further underground than any Onix have ever hoped to reach, digging towards the center of the Earth---although since it's only ever been recorded to reach six-tenths of a mile underground, it's still got a long, long way to go. You know, that actually doesn't even sound that deep to me even though the PokeDex loves to exaggerate. Like the deepest we've drilled is about 7.6 miles I believe, so Steelix is pretty far behind what human's have accomplished---he hasn't even broke through the crust of the Earth! So, yeah, it seems like Game Freak probably should've raised those numbers a bit more, because unless I'm reading things wrong, there's really no reason Steelix should be as hard as he is due to the compression and heat of the Earth's core because he's so far away from it. Another quick check shows that human beings can survive about 1.7 miles or so down beneath the ground without dying from heat, although it certainly gets hot, so Steelix lives in a relatively cool location.

A lot of fans of the show probably never watched past Johto, but did you know Brock's Onix actually did evolve? But not under his command, you see before leaving for Hoenn Brock left most of his Pokemon with his brother Forrest who took over the Pewter City Gym, including Onix. Next time we saw Onix during the Battle Frontier season, one of the rare times the Battle Frontier season remembered it took place in Kanto, it had evolved into Steelix, which for a long-time fan like myself was amazing---one of the classic party members finally got the respect it deserves! Brock's Steelix hasn't really appeared since then---and a recent Ending during the Best Wishes season showing a bunch of old Pokemon actually forgot it had evolved and still had it as Onix---but Steelix the species has made numerous appearances throughout the show under the command of our Steel-type Gym Leaders, Jasmine and Byron, and used by two Pokemon League rivals, Harrison and Morrison. Steelix is always a pretty cool Pokemon to see, but I imagine him and Onix are probably somewhat of a pain for the animators to draw though.


#M208 - Mega Steelix

All of the Mega Evolutions we've encountered so far have Mega evolved from Pokemon who were always the top-members of their evolutionary line, but here's a Mega Evolution who evolved from a Cross-Generation Evolution---it went beyond the beyond, you could say. Like pretty much every Mega Evolution, there's no downside to using Mega Steelix, as it receives a boost to its already powerful Defense as well as gains Special Defense, to help deal with the Special Attackers causing it trouble, and a moderate boost to its own Attack, so that it can dish out damage as well as take it. If Mega Steelix is on a Sandstorm team, it's even more lethal, now able to deliver powered-up Rock, Ground and Steel-type attacks that it's known for to crush the enemy where they stand. I gotta say Mega Pokemon just being souped up versions of their original forms does tickle the child in me, and I gotta admit Mega Steelix is probably one of the coolest. Even with the boost though, unfortunately Mega Steelix still hasn't regained its spot in the upper tiers, because all those crazy-high attack Pokemon who gave it trouble also got Megas of their own.

Mega Steelix was introduced in ORAS, and appeared as one of two Pokemon who were distributed via the Demo Version---only Japanese players got to get Mega Steelix early, but luckily everyone can get their own Steelixite in ORAS by finding it within the Granite Cave on Dewford Island. When Steelix reacts to the Mega Stone, the cells within its body are said to undergo a mutation that morphs them into a new type of crystal that's harder and more heat-resistant than any know mineral found on Earth, even Ponyta's hooves. And Mega Steelix looks rather neat without ruining the coolness of the original Steelix, now sporting crystalline structures bursting out of its body as well as a "diamond shield" floating around its body---these elements bring to mind how the Mega Evolution energy is usually displayed, so I imagine they're meant to be that same energy solidified and given a physical shape? Also notice the little black-orbs on its body look quite similar to a Rock Pokemon introduced in Generation V, who also has relationship with the earth's core---perhaps Mega Steelix absorbs these Pokemon during its evolution?

Like most Mega Evolutions, Steelix has only made a cameo appearance in one of the Mega Evolution Specials. But hey, if the writers ever decide to give all of Ash's friends Mega Evolutions, here's one for Brock.

In my first XY playthrough, I used an Eviolite Onix for fun. I strongly recommend against doing this. Even with the Eviolite giving it massive defense and Sandstorm to buff its special defense, poor Onix couldn't do anything but support with its pathetic attack.

Steelix is one of my fave five pokemon, look at that magnificent maw.
Yet I tend to forget it got a mega evolution seeing that Omega Ruby is the pokemon game I've delved into the least.

Also Shiny Steelix is one of the more rad shiny pokemon out there, probably encased in 24 karat gold

Toxi said:

Huh... Now that you brought it up, why haven't we gotten a sheet ghost-style Pokemon? I could imagine a lot of cool things done with the concept, like a Normal/Ghost Pokemon that's really just a normal Pokemon wearing a cheap sheet ghost costume.

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Shuppet

I'm loving the running gag of Ponyta's hooves, keep it up

Onix is hilariously awful. Like seriously. Something that large and powerful looking shouldn't have similar stats to early route birds.

But then Steelix is awesome.

Onix and Steelix are such cool designs, and I love the mega. A shame that in general defensive Megas aren't as good as offensive ones.

#096 - Drowzee
Psychic

The poor-man's Abra, basically, for those of us who weren't patient enough to deal with Abra's Teleport bullshit and bother training one, Game Freak was nice enough to give us a much more modest and weaker version in the form of Drowzee. Drowzee has always lived in the shadow of Abra, and it lacks a lot of the impact Abra has going for a more balanced set of stats compared to Abra's Min-Maxing style. But you know, I'm a big fan of the underdog Pokemon, and thus I've grown to like Drowzee over Abra, and it's actually one of my favorite Kanto Pokemon now. Yeah, it's not that pretty, and it's not the funnest Pokemon to use in the main game since most player's just want a Pokemon that can hit hard and fast as opposed to relying on mind games and slowly whittling down the opponent, but I've always found it charming due to its unorthodox appearance.

Unlike most of the other Psychic-type Pokemon we've encountered who didn't quite resemble any real-world creature, Drowzee definitely appears to be a recognizable animal, the tapir, although I doubt most kids on this side of the world knew what a tapir was when they first played Pokemon. Well, perhaps you saw him as an an aardvark, or an anteater, but either way I can say with certainty he's meant to be a tapir, which is certainly more than I can say about Abra and Slowpoke who still confuse me when it comes to what animal they're actually supposed to be. In particular, Drowzee appears to be based off the Asian Tapir, which have striped bodies---their top and bottom are dark brown, while the middle is white---which Drowzee seems to mimic somewhat. I guess making the top half of Drowzee all brown would look kind of odd and aesthetically unpleasing, so they just went with making its bottom half a different color instead. This kind of makes it look like Drowzee is wearing pants, and also reminds me of certain depictions of the mythological Satyr, which I think fits quite well with the Pokemon and I wonder if that was intentional on the part of Game Freak.

However, beyond simply a tapir, Drowzee is based on a popular Japanese creature known as the Baku, and in fact one PokeDex entry claims it's actually a descendant of the real thing. I actually knew what a Baku was as a child, even before Pokemon, because my grandmother had a picture book of mythological creatures from around the world that included the Baku surprisingly, although it wasn't till years later that I connected it and Drowzee together and realized they were meant to be the same creature. Originally the Baku was an entirely fictitious creature that was said to be made up of random parts left over from the other animals, except one feature pretty much all depictions shared was a long, elephant-like snout which it used to devour dreams. However, at some point in time, the word Baku became associated with the tapir, and now serves as the Japanese term to refer to both the real and imaginary creature, and thus many depictions of Baku now, especially in children's literature, loses the "chimera" look it originally had and simply looks like a tapir. It's actually not understood how the Baku and the tapir came to be associated, if one was named after the other or if it was just a coincidence, but whatever happened years after the fact it granted us one of the best Pokemon of the Original Generation.

So, yeah, Baku are all about eating dreams. They're actually somewhat morally ambiguous creatures, however, as while they're called out by children to help ward off nightmares by devouring them if you're not careful a hungry Baku may also devour your hopes and ambitions. Perhaps this was a way Japanese parents taught their kids that eventually they'd have to learn to deal with their nightmares, and not always cry out in the middle of the night thus waking the parents up? Drowzee's morality is a bit vague, as it doesn't seem to really mean any harm in eating dreams except when it's battling against other Pokemon, and there's nothing about it stealing your hopes and ambitions or anything dark like that---it just likes good dreams because they're tastier, and thus specifically targets children because they have less depressing dreams than adults. Seems like there's some social commentary there on the part of Game Freak. Anyway, Drowzee is all about eating dreams, yet has never been able to learn Dream Eater naturally, only through TM and the Move Tutors in Generation III. Dream Eater's never not been available through these methods, but if it ever becomes unavailable, I wonder if they'll finally let Drowzee learn it naturally?

Drowzee played a minor role in the Mystery Dungeon Explorer series as the game's first antagonist, although a minor one who merely tricks an Azurill into helping it look for treasure. He's arrested after the player defeats him, but returns during the post-game reformed and is actually quite vital as he allows the party to investigate a nightmare inflicting Azurill, and come face-to-face with the true villain behind the events of the Explorer series.

In the show, Drowzee debuted alongside his evolved form in "Hypno's Naptime", and was shown in a positive light, its abilities used to counteract the sleep waves Hypno was putting out that was causing all the children in town to act like Pokemon. In its next appearance though in Orange Islands, it was portrayed antagonistically, being used by Butch and Cassidy to take control of multiple Pokemon including Pikachu and Meowth. Sadly, poor Drowzee hasn't appeared much since then, and we've never actually seen it in a role really examining its dream-eating abilities which is unfortunate because you could probably make a pretty neat episode about that.


#097 - Hypno
Psychic

Hypno's the evolved form of Drowzee via Level Up, and at Level 26 he's one of the earliest fully-evolved Psychic Pokemon available. Hypno's never been able to catch up with Alakazam, and all these fancy new Psychic-type Pokemon have outclassed it as well, so it's easy to forget that at one point in time Hypno was actually quite powerful since he was of course a Psychic-type Pokemon. Unlike Alakazam, Hypno's not as fast or powerful, but he's able to take harder hits and has extra tricks to help his teammates as he's more of a supporting team-player than the lead sweeper. I've actually trained a Hypno myself, but to be honest I haven't had much luck with him since I basically just trained my favorites, and really didn't think too much about how he'd fit into my team. Still though, I feel so much pride whenever he actually manages to defeat someone.

While Drowzee was a tapir, Hypno returns to the theme of Psychic-type Pokemon not quite resembling any creature, as he appears to be some sort of weird troll creature with elements that could be said to resemble a proboscis monkey due to his large nose, or a vulture with his hooked "beak" and fluffy white frill. He also always carries a pendulum with him, which I believe is actually meant to be a Japanese coin attached to a string---most of the items Pokemon carry with them have been made into actual items like Kadabra's spoon, but we've yet to get a pendulum item. Perhaps it could be a special hold-item for Hypno that increases the effectiveness of Hypnosis? Hypno is pretty much an expansion on the concept of Drowzee, but more oppurtunistic---Drowzee seems to just wait for people to go to sleep so that he can eat their dreams, but Hypno cuts out the middle man and puts them to sleep himself with his pendulum so he can get right to his meal.

Hypno's original entry in Pokemon Red and Green implied that it once kidnapped a child, probably because their dreams are tastier, and this has led to a bit of a meme where Hypno has become Pokemon's resident "pedophile". Okay, admittedly that really shouldn't be a memetic joke since that's a really serious topic and not really humorous, but you know how the internet works by now. This was actually referenced in Fire Red and Leaf Green (and that entry first appeared outside of Japan in Fire Red) with a special boss Hypno you encounter at one part in the game who seems to be attacking a little girl and trying to kidnap her, although the Hypno doesn't have any unique attributes and is actually weaker than the wild Hypno found in the same area. Furthermore, there was a short-lived line of merchandise aimed at adults who grew up with Pokemon known as Pokemon_151 that made these cool looking t-shirts you could wear if you wanted to show your love for Pokemon without just going to Hot Topic and buying a retro t-shirt using stock art, and Hypno was given a shirt dedicated to him which had him leading a young boy and girl by the hand, presumably kidnapping them like the Pied Piper. Probably not a good idea to wear a shirt basically showing child kidnapping though, and the Pokemon_151 line basically died out in 2009, presumably because wearing an "adult" Pokemon shirt is kind of lame.

In the show, Hypno's first appearance was naturally "Hypno's Naptime", which sort of referenced its child-kidnapping tendencies but in a lighter way as it didn't do this on purpose, rather the sleep waves it used to help people sleep had a side-effect of causing kids to act like Pokemon and run away from home. You know, that episode was really weird and kind of a lame filler especially for Kanto except for Psyduck joining up at the end. Hypno later appeared in the Johto League under the command of Harrison (the dude with Blaziken) where its famous dream eating abilities worked against it as it quickly learned disturbing Ash's Snorlax's sleep was a bad idea.

Ah yes. Hypno.

Hypno wasn't the only predator...

I never knew how creepy Hypno was with the child kidnapping stuff... uhh...

It doesn't help he's a bizarre troll thing.

Huh, I've never really looked at Drowzee and Hypno together, they don't really look alike at all, it's a strange evolution.

Maybe it's a Remoraid/Octillery deal where the evolution is based on the themes, rather than the biology.
Also quite surprised you didn't mention Munna and Mushana, which are based on the same creature as Drowzee and can be seen as a "good" counterpart.

I refuse to believe this was an officially licensed product

Razmos said:

Huh, I've never really looked at Drowzee and Hypno together, they don't really look alike at all, it's a strange evolution.

Maybe it's a Remoraid/Octillery deal where the evolution is based on the themes, rather than the biology.
Also quite surprised you didn't mention Munna and Mushana, which are based on the same creature as Drowzee and can be seen as a "good" counterpart.

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I've actually been trying to not directly mention Pokemon introduced later on to give those readers who don't know about the newer Pokemon something to look forward to and hopefully keep them interested, although it seems like most readers here probably know about every Pokemon more or less. Plus I plan to talk more about the connection between the two when I get to Munna, and didn't wanna waste it here.

Yrael said:

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ayyyy lmao


I always loved Onix as a kid. I always thought the fact that a GYM LEADER had him made him so cool. He was especially bad ass in the anime. Took come crazy shit for Ash to take him out.

One of my earliest hype memories was flipping through EGM and seeing that this fucker was going to be in the new Pokemon game:



ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckkk look at that badass

I love Drowzee, Drowzee, Drowzee, and Hypno so, so, so, so much! Their my favorite pokemon. I'm not quite sure why, but they always clicked with me. I always said if there was a Pokemon MMO and you could be a Gym Leader or Elite 4 member, that I would exclusively use Drowzee and Hypnos. Drowzee was my very first pokemon that I gave a nickname to. Mr. Magic was my Drowzee/Hypno and was always on my team in every run of Blue and Yellow. I was sad that he wasn't in Emerald, but Gardevoir was a good replacement.

Dream Eater seems like a perfect match for them, but for some reason they can't learn it naturally by leveling up in the official games. This was especially annoying in Soul Silver as you can't get the Dream Eater TM until post game and not until you reach the last gym in Kanto. I ended up making my Drowzee learn it through the Storm Silver hack which adds it to its natural moveset. When I decided to finally take down Red in Soul Silver I used a team of Hypnos, my Hitmonlee because it can learn Rock Climb, and Mr. Magic who I decided to keep as a Drowzee this time around.

It was quite a struggle trying to beat him with that team, but it felt oh so good when I did it and plus I loved deciding movesets for each and every one of them and trying to make each one excel in one particular stat.





Felt I could've did a little bit better in attack choices. I came to realize Light Screen and Reflect are more useful than Protect.
I'm not sure if it's just Soul Silver or if I just happened to have bad luck, but it seems that Hypnosis doesn't hit well with Drowzee and Hypno in the game. My Noctowl hardly misses with Hypnosis, but my Drowzee's Hypnosis only hit about 40% of the time. When it can hit though, the Dream Eater combination can be powerful. I didn't try training one that has Nightmare too, but I can imagine the use of all three of those ending a pokemon quick.

Drowzee and Hypno are the best and they'll be on my team in every pokemon game I play that has them.

Watch Da Birdie said:

I've actually been trying to not directly mention Pokemon introduced later on to give those readers who don't know about the newer Pokemon something to look forward to and hopefully keep them interested, although it seems like most readers here probably know about every Pokemon more or less. Plus I plan to talk more about the connection between the two when I get to Munna, and didn't wanna waste it here.

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Ah I see, I thought that might be the case.

I bet you are going to be doing a lot of that when you get to Gen V, since a lot of the pokemon there are "replacements" of sorts for Gen I pokemon like the Roggenrola line for Geodude, the Klink line for Magnemite, the Drillbur line for Diglett ect.

Should give you lots to write about though

#098 - Krabby
Water

Krabby is yet another Water-type Pokemon who suffered from being distributed way too late in Generation I via the Super Rod, and thus never had much of a chance to become popular. It didn't help that being a physically-inclined Water-type Pokemon wasn't too useful before the Physical/Special split, meaning its signature move, Crabhammer, wasn't put to good use until Generation IV came around. Sometimes I wish Game Freak stretched the definition of "Bug" a bit, and made Krabby Bug/Water---later Generations they did this with various arthropods, including another crab in Generation V, and it would've made Krabby a bit more unique. But nope, he's pure-Water, and thus gets lost among all the pure-Water Type Pokemon introduced throughout the years.

There's really not much to say about Krabby, out of all the Pokemon in Generation I he's probably the closest to resembling the creature he's based on except for the eyes and mouth being stylized and more "reptilian". Hell, in Japan, he's known as "Crab". But have you ever seen a crab in real life? I remember the first time I saw one, and they have this really uncanny look to them especially the way they move which felt exaggerated and like I was watching a cartoon character, so I sort of give Game Freak a pass because I think the crab is an animal that works as a Pokemon out of the box. Krabby has all the elements you'd expect from a crab---large claws it uses to fight with, which can be regenerated if they're torn off, the classic sideways gait the crab is known for, and the tendency to foam at the mouth. Krabby uses foam to appear bigger and scare away foes, but in real life it seems crabs do not foam for that purpose, rather they do so when irritated or possibly as a way to hydrate their bodies when they're out of water for too long, it seems the exact reason isn't clearly understood. However I didn't find anything about crabs doing it to appear larger, so I guess that's one unique element of Krabby that sets it apart from its real-life basis.

Krabby is known as a "River Crab", and tends to be found in rivers within the actual games, but the PokeDex implies it mainly inhabits saltwater areas, and usually is seen on beaches and near the ocean in the various expanded media. From my understanding, crabs are actually able to tolerate both types of water to a fair amount, and many live in freshwater but journey to the sea when it's time for mating or molting, so I assume Krabby is the same case. Apparently if you own a crab as a pet, it's actually a good idea to provide both types of water as the crab can apparently mix and match the water on its own to create the mixture best suited to its needs. Really, Krabby is one of those Pokemon who you can basically go out and buy in-real-life, but good luck training it to fight for you.

Krabby was Ash's first reserve Pokemon, captured after his "main team" had formed and immediately sent right to Professor Oak. However, it didn't quite live up to the size of the one Gary recently caught, and even though Ash's team soon had a spot open in it for most of Kanto, Ash never thought to use his Krabby. But then came the Kanto League...anyway, excluding Ash's, Krabby is one of those Pokemon the animators use to flesh out the world, having it pop up when the characters are around ocean areas to help set the scene.


#099 - Kingler
Water

Kingler is the evolution of Krabby, and despite having a very high Attack---tied with a few Pokemon only behind Dragonite in Generation I---is actually a pretty bad Pokemon due to its limited Speed and weak Defense, and though Generation IV's Physical/Special split helped it a bit by allowing it to make better use of its move-set, such as Crabhammer, its lack of versatility meant it's never seen much use among the higher tiers of competitive play. And if you're dying to use a crustacean Pokemon, it later got a counterpart in Generation III who has managed to outclass it as well---so much for being the "King".

Unlike Krabby, there's actually a lot of neat little things I learned about Kingler during my research into him, so let's get started! Well, looking at Kingler, you can tell he's the evolved form of Krabby, and still recognizable as a crab, but looks a bit more "fantastical" due to being a much larger size fitting for a Pokemon, but not by much. Krabby as far as I know wasn't any specific crab, rather he's simply the popular "red crab" most people think of whenever they hear the word crab, but Kingler appears to draw from both the king crab, and the fiddler crab. The king crab isn't actually a true crab, but is believed to be related to the hermit crab due to sharing certain asymmetrical features. King crabs are known for being quite large and having spiky bodies, which Kingler represents, although I imagine the spikes on its back are also meant to serve as a visual pun as well since they give the appearance that Kingler is wearing a crown. The fiddler crab is another crab known for having one huge claw larger than the other, which Kingler also displays. But did you know that King crabs also share this trait, but to a lesser extent? As I mentioned before, the bodies of king crabs have a certain asymmetry to them that is believed to be inherited from hermit crabs, who evolved that asymmetry to fit inside of spiral shells, and one such feature is that their right claw is slightly larger than the left one. Looking at Kingler, you'll notice in the original sprites (excluding Red and Blue which made both of them huge), and its original Sugimori Art, its right claw was the one that was larger, but it's since switched to the left claw and has remained that way throughout its appearances. Very odd.

In fiddler crabs, both claws have a chance of becoming larger, and in fact in some species when the larger claw is broken off, it's the small claw that ends up growing larger to serve as a replacement, thus they effectively switch their claws just like Kingler did. It'd be neat if there was variation among the Kingler, some having a large right claw, some having a large left claw, but Game Freak didn't even bother giving it a gender difference despite Fiddler crabs being known for their gender dimorphism, so I doubt they'd ever include a simple aesthetic element like that on an old Pokemon that few people use. The giant claw serves two main purposes for Fiddler crabs, first it's important for mating---females find males more attractive based on the size of the claw and how it's waved, and this is believed to be due to the fact that females use the male's burrow to keep their eggs, and thus look for a claw that indicates a suitable burrow size that benefits the eggs. From my understanding, this means that the largest claw isn't always the best, rather they have a certain size they look for. Fiddler crabs also use the giant claw for battle, and this is where I imagine having the biggest claw wins out. But as scientists have noted, unlike many animals, simply being good in battle does not guarantee a good mate, and thus a fiddler crab's claw size may prove to be both beneficial or a hindrance depending on the situation. Kingler represents this quite well, as its large claw is said to be a mixed blessing---it's very useful for battling, but just gets in the way otherwise and causes Kingler to be tired out. It's pretty interesting to have a Pokemon who "loses" a bit of their power upon evolution in a way like that, but the games don't reflect this though because there's no downside in using Kingler over Krabby. Perhaps they could've lowered Kingler's speed a bit and boosted one of its other stats in exchange to represent this, but there are plenty of other Pokemon who are faster than their pre-evolution even though by all means they should be slower due to their larger size.

Kingler goes a bit beyond regular fiddler crabs though as its giant claw isn't just big, it's also said to be as hard as steel, even capable of opening up the shell of Shellder and Cloyster which, in their PokeDex entry, was said to be impenetrable, and going by stats Cloyster's has a higher Defense than Kingler's Attack, so it probably shouldn't be able to do this, but whatever, we all know how the PokeDex operates by now. The pincer is also said to have 10,000-horsepower strength. I'm not into physics, nor am I that great at mathematics, so I'm not sure how powerful this is actually supposed to be or how a measure of strength associated with machines is translated to a crab's claw but apparently that's as powerful as one of the top-line drag racing cars, so yeah, Game Freak loves their big numbers. Maybe I'm just dumb and all these numbers they're throwing out are well-researched and scientifically accurate though.

Ash's Krabby evolved in its first ever match in the Indigo League, and managed to wiped out an entire team on its own---talk about beginner's luck! Unfortunately for Kingler, in Johto it totally got cheated bad by the writers. First off, Ash used it in the Whirl Island Tournament, a filler arc dedicated to Water-type Pokemon, where it lost to Misty's Psyduck because Ash, against all common sense and years of experience, decided to attack Psyduck's head setting off its psychic powers. Come on, son! Kingler was set to appear in the Johto League, but I kid you not, a random bunch of Voltorb suddenly fell down a hill right before the match and injured Kingler, and he was switched out for Squirtle. Since that day, Kingler has never battled again---the pain and embarrassment of the "Voltorb Incident of '03" being too much to bear for the Pokemon. Oh, and for some reason Giovanni also had a Kingler as part of his Viridian Gym Team for whatever reason.

Hypno just barely misses out on my fave 5, look at that glorious ruff, it's a classy pokemon for classy people.

Also looking at Drowzee now I wonder how its design would be considered if it came from later gens "why does he look like he's been dipped in chocolate sauce?"

Edit: suddenly Kingler "KO-KE-KO-KE"
skimming through netflix just the other day I dived into some nostalgia with the Indigo League and man, Ash's Krabby/Kingler soloing that one dude at the pokemon league was so silly.

It's funny that until froakie, krabby was the only water type pokémon that ash ever evolved.

Kingler is really in need of a mega. It's a cool Pokemon, but it's completely outclassed by Crawdaunt.

Also,

Blasian Persuasion said:

I love Drowzee, Drowzee, Drowzee, and Hypno so, so, so, so much! Their my favorite pokemon. I'm not quite sure why, but they always clicked with me. I always said if there was a Pokemon MMO and you could be a Gym Leader or Elite 4 member, that I would exclusively use Drowzee and Hypnos. Drowzee was my very first pokemon that I gave a nickname to. Mr. Magic was my Drowzee/Hypno and was always on my team in every run of Blue and Yellow. I was sad that he wasn't in Emerald, but Gardevoir was a good replacement.

Dream Eater seems like a perfect match for them, but for some reason they can't learn it naturally by leveling up in the official games. This was especially annoying in Soul Silver as you can't get the Dream Eater TM until post game and not until you reach the last gym in Kanto. I ended up making my Drowzee learn it through the Storm Silver hack which adds it to its natural moveset. When I decided to finally take down Red in Soul Silver I used a team of Hypnos, my Hitmonlee because it can learn Rock Climb, and Mr. Magic who I decided to keep as a Drowzee this time around.

It was quite a struggle trying to beat him with that team, but it felt oh so good when I did it and plus I loved deciding movesets for each and every one of them and trying to make each one excel in one particular stat.

Felt I could've did a little bit better in attack choices. I came to realize Light Screen and Reflect are more useful than Protect.
I'm not sure if it's just Soul Silver or if I just happened to have bad luck, but it seems that Hypnosis doesn't hit well with Drowzee and Hypno in the game. My Noctowl hardly misses with Hypnosis, but my Drowzee's Hypnosis only hit about 40% of the time. When it can hit though, the Dream Eater combination can be powerful. I didn't try training one that has Nightmare too, but I can imagine the use of all three of those ending a pokemon quick.

Drowzee and Hypno are the best and they'll be on my team in every pokemon game I play that has them.

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Damn Blasian, you're the world's biggest Hypno fan.

Nocturnowl said:

Edit: suddenly Kingler "KO-KE-KO-KE"
skimming through netflix just the other day I dived into some nostalgia with the Indigo League and man, Ash's Krabby/Kingler soloing that one dude at the pokemon league was so silly.

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I came here to mention that exact anime cry, damn you! It's very memorable for some reason. Not Diglett level, but one of the most memorable.

That fight was quite memorable too. It's weird, I don't think much of Krabby but I guess it's a nice Pokemon. Not on the level of Victreebel, Dodrio (best Gen I flying Pokemon!) or Gastly line, but it's easy on the eyes and it's hard to hate on it (and it's not as generic as Seel/Dewgong).

Bug/Water would have been in interesting typing. Too bad it's never used on any Pokemon.

OH WAIT

What the heck Game Freak? What the heck?

Nocturnowl said:

Edit: suddenly Kingler "KO-KE-KO-KE"

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It's weird how iconic a cry that a rather bland Pokemon who barely appears in the anime can have.

Also @Bulbapedia

At 130, Kingler has the highest Attack base stat of all non-legendary, non-Mega Evolved Water-type Pokémon.

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lol a lot of good that does it.

balladofwindfishes said:

Bug/Water would have been in interesting typing. Too bad it's never used on any Pokemon.

OH WAIT

What the heck Game Freak? What the heck?

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MASQUERAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Pokemon FireRed Pokedex entry for Hypno reads: "It carries a pendulum-like device. There once was an incident in which it took away a child it hypnotized."

The Pokemon Emerald Pokedex entry for Kadabra reads: "It is rumored that a boy with psychic abilities suddenly transformed into Kadabra while he was assisting research into extrasensory powers."

I always thought there was a connection between these two as Hypno and Kadabra were often seen as rivals. Am I reading into this wrong?

Watch Da Birdie said:

MASQUERAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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"We invented this new ability system that lets us make Pokemon pseudo-flying types and made this unique type combination, should we use it for the evolution?"

"Nah, just make it Bug/Flying. There aren't enough of those"

Xenoboy said:

Hypno wasn't the only predator...

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Among my group of friends the memetic predator was Tropius

balladofwindfishes said:

Bug/Water would have been in interesting typing. Too bad it's never used on any Pokemon.

OH WAIT

What the heck Game Freak? What the heck?

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NO! Stop it! You're making me cry...

Why does Surskit evolve into Bug/Flying.... Why? /sob

The baku thing is interesting, what with the myth was so damn close to real life tapirs they'd run into later then having it go back and change the myth like that. Serendipity, huh?

Watch Da Birdie said:

MASQUERAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I hate whenever this is mentioned. Of what could of been.

Damn you GameFreak.