#088 - Grimer
Poison
Grimer is yet another Poison-type Pokemon, but of a different breed entirely from the ones we've encountered till now. While all the other Poison-type Pokemon were based on creatures capable of utilizing natural poison---plants, snakes, jellyfish---Grimer represents the unnatural poison created by human pollution. Despite this, in terms of gameplay, there's no real distinction between the two types of Poison, and they're treated one and the same, even if it doesn't make much sense why a natural Pokemon like Oddish is completely immune to being poisoned by toxic waste. There's been plenty of Poison-type Pokemon encountered by the player by the time they can catch Grimer at Pokemon Mansion, so it's yet another Pokemon whose late game appearance works against it becoming a member of the player's team in Generation I. Although I think in the case of Pokemon like Venusaur, Vileplume, and Victreebel, the majority of players likely consider them Grass first-and-foremost, so in that case perhaps they can find room in their hearts to add Grimer. On the other hand, there's no real benefit of using a pure-Poison type Pokemon that late in Generation I since you're facing a Ground-type Gym Leader soon, and Poison won't help you much during the Elite Four.
A lot of people might not have realized this when they first played Pokemon Red and Blue years ago, but Generation I had a very "contemporary" feeling to it that I think is fair to say that later games lacked as they moved slightly more towards the mystical and Game Freak established the Pokemon World as its own universe. A lot of Pokemon seemed to touch on various issues facing the world as it moved into the millennium, such as cloning, artificial intelligence, and pollution, the latter which Grimer represents. Now, even in Generation I, there was perhaps a disconnect with the world Grimer inhabited as while he was said to be a representative of the horrors of human pollution given physical form, the Pokemon World was quite clean, and later Generations have only further pushed the notion that the Pokemon World is slightly more idealistic than our own, especially when it comes to its utilization of alternative energy sources. In fact, I really can't think of any areas in the Pokemon games that strike me as being "polluted"---and the only locations that really fit Grimer that he's appeared in are Pokemon Mansion and the Power Plant in Generation I, a symbol of the follies of man, and Castelia Sewers in Generation V, which doesn't seem particularly nasty as far as sewers go. It's sad to say, but Grimer's one of the few Pokemon I think is more likely to exist in the real-world than the Pokemon World with that in mind.
Even though there's a decent amount of Poison-type Pokemon, despite being one of the mistreated Types as of late, the majority of them are still based on creatures with natural poison---there are only three Poison-type families specifically representing pollution, and a popular theory is that the three of them are meant to represent the three main types of pollutants: land pollution, sea pollution, and air pollution. Grimer represents "sea pollution", being born from runoff sludge being exposed to "x-rays from the moon", and loves to feed off wastewater spilling out of factories. Now, the whole "moon x-rays" sounds like a pretty weird origin, but it's probably meant to reference the famous Godzilla monster Hedorah, a monster born from an unholy union of extraterrestrial radiation and human pollution, who Grimer was probably in-part inspired by. I also think that Grimer may have been inspired by Slimer from Ghostbusters, as he certainly resembles the famous ghost in more ways than one---speaking of which, this is the third time Ghostbusters has been referenced in these reviews. Huh.
Grimer, and his fellow pollutant-based Pokemon, introduce an interesting moral quandry---are they Pokemon, or are they abominations who shouldn't exist? Pollution is bad, but if the result is living, breathing, sentient creatures, do they have the right to life or do they pose a threat to natural life and thus their lives are less important? When N declares to save all the Pokemon, does he include Pokemon who wouldn't exist if not for the actions of humans? This is one plot point I'd love to see Pokemon cover---"what is a Pokemon?"---in a future game, because I think now more than ever that's a very contemporary issue that can tie into the on-going debates about abortion, the rights of artificial life, etc., and give some spotlight to a group of Pokemon who tend to be sort of pushed aside by the natural Pokemon who overall tend to be enjoy far more popularity. But that's just a wish of mine, and I certainly wouldn't mind more Pokemon being introduced that are manmade since I feel those are actually pretty interesting, more so than introducing more God-like Pokemon.
So, in the show, Grimer first appeared (outside of Erika's flashback) en masse in "Sparks Fly For Magnemite"---since the games didn't have any "polluted area", the anime made its own in the aptly named "Gringey City", which really sticks out compared to how beautiful the rest of Kanto was normally depicted as. This was slightly referenced in Pokemon Yellow where Grimer now appeared at the Power Plant, which I feel is the place they probably should've been found at originally anyway. I guess having Grimer running around the Pokemon World works in opposition to how it's usually portrayed, so Grimer are very uncommon Pokemon in the show---the only other time I recall one playing a role was in Diamond and Pearl, where Dawn teamed up with one at a Pokemon Summer Camp which basically acted like Ash's Muk, but towards Dawn.
#089 - Muk
Poison
Muk is the evolved form of Grimer. Evolving from a Pokemon who doesn't pop up till late in the game in Generation I, and being a Poison-type Pokemon with basically no versatility unless you wish to waste precious TMs on him for moves that don't even help him deal with the Psychic-type Pokemon who give him so much shit, Muk was out of luck when it came to finding a place on players' teams. And the simplicity of Muk's design doesn't offer up too many avenues when it comes to designing an evolution, so I don't think that'll change anytime soon with the addition of a Mega Evolution. Maybe Game Freak will give Poison-type some new moves to play with in the future---Muk might've enjoyed some usage in XY taking down the Fairy-type Pokemon, but unfortunately he didn't make the cut into the Kalos Regional Dex.
There's not much more to add about Muk that wasn't already covered by Grimer, as he's basically a larger, seemingly less solid version of his prior form. But hey, what were you gonna do with a pile of sludge when it came to evolving it? Muk's an extremely gross and poisonous Pokemon, said to be able to pollute an entire pool with a single drop of its poison, and killing organic matter instantly by touch. We've had a lot of questionable Pokemon so far who seem like they'd be absolutely horrible partners for Trainers, but Muk probably takes the cake---basically getting anywhere near this Pokemon is a death sentence. While Grimer had a pretty dumb, innocent look to it, Muk looks straight up mean-spirited---it even got censored in the change from Diamond and Pearl to Platinum for throwing up gang signs---but I always got the impression that the line overall didn't really mean any harm, and like any creature just wants to eat, sleep, and breed. By the way, new Grimer are said to emerge from the path of slime other Grimer leave behind, and I imagine Muk works basically the same and its poisonous droppings will also result in more Grimer. Of course, in the games, it breeds like any other Pokemon and oddly enough despite being an abomination of human waste has a gender for some reason.
Muk also appeared in "Sparks Fly For Magnemite" as the leader of the Grimer, and was captured by Ash Ketchum in order to ultimately stop its rampage, and immediately sent to Professor Oak's due to its horrid smell. This gimmick didn't last for long though, perhaps because the animators couldn't be bothered by remembering to have everyone hold their nose whenever Muk appeared, because by its next appearance its smell wasn't a factor, and now it loved to smother everyone with affectionate hugs. There's never been an explanation as to why its personality did a 180%, but hey, it was a cute gag, so who needs an explanation? Muk became one of Ash's many "Reserve Pokemon" he caught in Kanto who never got to actually journey with Ash on a full adventure, but throughout the years have served as powerful allies for Ash when shit gets real in the League. Muk, though, actually doesn't see as much action as some of the other Reserve Pokemon, its only major battle being when it took down the Bellsprout from Hell in the Indigo League, and later playing a small part in the battle against Gary during the Johto League where it didn't score a K.O. and lost to Scizor. Muk always gets to pop up between series when Ash visits home, but we haven't seen it fight since 2002! Maybe the Kalos League it'll get to kick some Fairy-type butt!
