#116 - Horsea
Water
One of the many quirks of the franchise that has always bothered fans is the over-abundance of Water-type Pokemon, and our next three families sort of illustrates how they tended to be a bit too common, even though it makes sense from a biological standpoint. As we round out the last third of the Kanto PokeDex, what should be a space filled with some of the more unique, odder, and end-game Pokemon is interrupted by a group of Water-type Pokemon who could be called somewhat plain, or unneeded, perhaps better saved for a later game since there were plenty of Water-type Pokemon introduced already. Horsea is yet another Pokemon who is basically unavailable till the last segment of the game, once the player obtains the Super Rod or decides to check out the Seafoam Islands, and thus most folks probably won't bother with the line till it comes time to complete the PokeDex following the completion of the main adventure. If Game Freak were going to introduce so many Water-type Pokemon, at the very least maybe they should've distributed them a bit better so they all didn't end up feeling like filler to extend the collection quest? Well, it's hard to really blame a single Water-type Pokemon for this issue, and Horsea isn't too bad---Gen II helped it by making it a bit more interesting, but in Generation I the line really had nothing unique to help it stand out among all the other Water-type Pokemon, so using one was all up to personal preference.
It's interesting how people tend to feel the need to try and connect some of the weirder animals to more recognizable animals when it comes to common names in biology, and how this can change depending on the culture---most westerners view seahorses as resembling, well, sea horses, whereas in Japan, they're compared to dragons, specifically their name in Japan translates to "illegitimate child of a dragon". That's why Horsea is known as the "Dragon Pokemon", in case you're wondering. Thankfully, this probably didn't confuse too many kids, because seahorses are likened to dragons as well in the West---sort of. There exists a similar animal known as the "seadragon", which actually isn't a seahorse, just related to them, but most folks usually consider them just a different type of seahorse, and by Generation II this creature itself came to influence a new member of the Horsea line, so in the end it all worked out rather nicely. Anyway, Horsea downplays its dragon elements for the most part, and is pretty much simply a seahorse, although it can shoot out ink from its mouth like a squid which I don't believe any real seahorse is actually capable of.
Something I literally just noticed about Horsea that really weirds me out is that it only has one fin---did you ever notice this? Because of the way it's usually seen from the side, I just assumed the other fin was hiding behind its back, and I've never used one so I haven't had a chance to notice how its backsprite looks but, yeah, the dude just has a single fin. In my mind, I always picture it with two, and it seems the original Sugimori Art actually did have two fins as well, however every in-game appearance has only given it one fin, as has the show. I don't feel too bad for not noticing this, because it seems the PokeDex writer didn't either---the PokeDex has said Horsea had "fins" all the way up to Soul Silver. It seems they finally realized the issue, though, because Alpha Sapphire's entry edits the original Sapphire entry to say "fin" rather than "fins". Although, then again, seahorses have three fins---the single one on their back, like Horsea, but also pectoral fins, which are smaller and behind their eyes, and I imagine that's what those little spikes on Horsea's head are meant to be, so perhaps the Dex was also referencing those instead? Actually, looking things over, that does make sense---everytime the Dex specifically says "dorsal fin" or the fin on its back, it specifies only one, except for the Sapphire entry which was fixed, otherwise "fins" in general is kept plural. Anyway, though Horsea is said to be capable of swimming quite quickly, actual seahorses are quite slow, and in fact the slowest moving fish in the world is a seahorse, the dwarf seahorse which has a top speed of five feet per hour.
Horsea is saved from complete obscurity thanks to biology, because while it may be a pretty average pure-Water type Fish Pokemon, it's based off a pretty interesting creature that makes for a great Pokemon right out of the box. The neatest thing about seahorses in real-life is the fact that the males are the ones who raise the eggs, the females depositing them into a pouch on the male's stomach who then fertilizes and incubates them, which is still somewhat of a mystery to scientists who don't quite understand what benefit occurs by having the male be the one to raise the eggs. This element actually is not mentioned in the games concerning Horsea, although it is mentioned in its evolution's PokeDex entries, as well as being brought up in Horsea's first anime appearance, but it never really went anywhere despite the inclusion of Breeding in Generation II---I think it would've been pretty neat if perhaps when breeding a Horsea, the male would be the one who influenced the species of the Pokemon Egg. I mean, it wouldn't really change anything---except perhaps the way Horsea inherits moves would be different as it wouldn't have any true Egg Moves since it's the males who pass them down and thus there'd be no way to get Egg Moves the Horsea line cannot normally learn, but it would've been a cute gimmick to see regardless. One day I'd like to see a Pokemon species with a unique Breeding element like that.
Misty owned a Horsea in the show, but having a main character specialize in Water-type Pokemon came with a glaring flaw---many of them are incapable of functioning on land, and thus had limited appearances. In the games having Water-type Pokemon float around is perfectly okay, but it'd definitely stick out in the show and couldn't be explained away as easily as being due to graphical and gameplay limitations, so Misty's Horsea basically did nothing of interest for the entire show and was dumped off at Cerulean Gym likely because the writers realized this was a flaw. Out of all the Water-type, purely aquatic Pokemon, I feel like you probably could've actually had Horsea hop around on its tail and not look too weird, but ultimately it was cut from the main party. It's no surprise Misty's most popular Pokemon were the ones capable of land movement, and since Misty all Water-type Pokemon who joined the main cast were always amphibious Pokemon who didn't have to worry about land movement. And that was pretty much the only Horsea of note, too.
#117 - Seadra
Water
Seadra is the evolution of Horsea at Level 32. Seadra was once a pretty uninteresting fully-evolved Water-type Pokemon who was outclassed by the more diverse Water-type Pokemon introduced in Generation 1 such as Slowbro and Cloyster, but now he's become a pretty uninteresting, middle-form Water-type Pokemon who is outclassed by the more diverse Water-type Pokemon.
Even though there's nothing really interesting about Seadra, and it's been pretty much outclassed by its evolution introduced in Gen II, its actually a rather neat design, and a Pokemon I kind of wish I got around to using because it seems like it might be fun to take on for a spin in the main adventure. One of the biggest differences between Seadra and Horsea is that the former now has two dorsal fins, like I used to think Horsea had as well, which are tipped with poison. It actually wasn't till Generation II that they were mentioned to be poisonous, Generation I just says they're sharp and can cause numbness, but even in Generation II this didn't factor into Seadra at all, since all it could learn in terms of Poison-type attacks was the near-universal Toxic via TM. Finally Generation III actually gave Seadra the ability to poison its foes through the use of Poison Point, but it's learned like one other Poison-type move in its entire existence, and only through Chain Breeding. So its poisonous abilities are quite underplayed. I couldn't find a straight answer if any real-life seahorses were poisonous, I saw sources claim certain varieties were without further explanation, and Wikipedia doesn't say anything about poisonous ones as far as I could see, so it seems, like the line's ability to shoot ink, this ability was likely lifted from other sea creatures, possibly the poisonous spines of the lionfish.
Compared to Horsea, Seadra looks a lot more fantastical, with a more ferocious appearance befitting the "Dragon" species. According to Generation II, researchers discovered a gene in Seadra that's not present in the DNA of Horsea, which I assume is a reference to its burgeoning Dragon-type nature that becomes more prominent upon evolution, and a hint to players who transferred their Seadra up from Red and Blue that there's something different about Seadra this time around. Did anyone here play Gold and Silver unaware of the new evolutions? All the kids I knew were talking about the new Pokemon thanks to magazines like the infamous Pojo (god, I miss that magazine), and everyone knew about every single new evolution introduced in Generation II---hell, that was the big thing about Gold and Silver, and actually overshadowed discussion about the brand new Pokemon in my circle. So, well, let's finish up with Seadra and move onto that new Generation II evolution, shall we?
Seadra was one of the unfortunate Pokemon who got knocked the fuck out by Ash's Kingler's one-man murder spree in the Indigo League. The writers forgot to give a bunch of Generation I Pokemon a decent focus episode in Kanto, not that I blame them since they had a limited amount of episodes and 150 Pokemon to work with, so some of the extra ones ended up being given to the Orange Islands Gym Leaders so they could have some "spotlight". It's weird when you remember "Orange Islands Gym Leader" was a thing. At least it's not the Deco---sorry, I can't even say that name. I just want to forget "that" ever happened and erase it from my memory.
#230 - Kingdra
Water/Dragon
Kingdra is the evolution of Seadra when it holds the Dragon Scale and is traded, and was the only Dragon-type introduced in Generation II, which was pretty disappointing. It's the first Dragon-type Pokemon we've covered so far, but I'll talk more about the Type when we get to the actual Generation 1 Dragon family. I understand Game Freak wanting to keep Dragon Pokemon rare at this point, but I wish they would've at least given us one Dragon Pokemon in Generation II who wasn't the evolution of an older one. Kingdra at first was quite unremarkable, as while he receives a decent statistical boost compared to Seadra, rather than try and focus on certain stats, he goes for balance, which didn't quite work out for him, and he also had a rather poor moveset---being part Dragon, as well as part Water neutralizing his Ice weakness one his one great attribute, but he's gotten a lot better overtime when he actually started to get some good moves, and his Ability Swift Swim works great too. Nowadays he's rated rather highly, but it's unknown how he'll fare in a future full of Mega Evolutions and Fairy Pokemon.
Seadra evolves into Kingdra with the Dragon Scale, but it also has to be traded---I said it with Rhyperior, but I hate this shit, the Dragon Scale has no use otherwise (a small boost to Dragon-type attacks, but only in Gen II) and having to trade just compiles the obnoxiousness of it. There's an interesting story behind the idea of a dragon scale in eastern mythology as it's said despite being very beautiful and majestic creatures, every dragon has a "reversed" scale that if touched will cause them to go completely nuts, highlighting the fact that even dragons aren't perfect. How does this connect to Pokemon? The move Outrage, which Kingdra couldn't obtain till Diamond and Pearl via Move Tutor and as of Gen V through Breeding, is actually named for this scale, called "Gekirin" in Japan. Just thought I'd share---this really doesn't connect to Kingdra, though, as the Dragon Scale doesn't seem to be representative of the reverse scale, and instead just awakens the Dragon-DNA dormant in Seadra I guess. As far as Dragon-type Pokemon go, Kingdra doesn't look that much like how most people really picture dragons, but it works considering seahorses are seen as relatives to dragons in Japan, and Kingdra shares a few physical features of the weedy seadragon, like the seaweed shaped dorsal fin, but it actually doesn't have too many traits specific to the seadragon, like having a curly tail which seadragons lack, one of the main differences between them and seahorses.
In Japan, there's a mythological being known as Ryuujin, "dragon god", who was popularized in the story of Urashima Taro and is said to dwell beneath the ocean and can control its tides, who Kingdra may have been based on, due to the fact it's also said to dwell at the bottom of the ocean and is said to cause whirlpools to form simply by yawning. I won't focus much on Ryuujin right now, though, as there's actually another Pokemon introduced in Generation II who also shares similarities with Ryuujin, and fits the role of "dragon god" far more than a relatively unimportant Pokemon like Kingdra does. I imagine the abilities Kingdra is said to be capable of are mere legends, whereas the capabilities of this other "dragon god" Pokemon seem much more plausible considering its power and role as a Legendary Pokemon. Perhaps like how Japanese people relate seahorses to dragons, Kingdra's status as a "dragon" isn't exactly true, but rather simply how he's seen by the world due to resembling the legendary creatures. When he was introduced in Generation II, the only Dragon-type move he could naturally learn was the relatively benign Twister, perhaps supporting the notion he was never intended to be seen as a full-on Dragon, but rather an honorary one.
I said above that I actually like the looks of Seadra, but when it comes to Kingdra I actually think it looks kind of dumb. It's one of those designs I understand where they're going with it though, so I don't dislike it because it confuses me, it's just the weedy seadragon is a pretty awkward creature, and Kingdra perhaps should've been made to look a bit cooler and more fierce than the creature it was based on. My least favorite part of its design is the face, I dislike how they added a separation between the snout and the neck which makes it look like it has a weird mouth going on. Maybe that was the point, making the back edges of the face look like a mustache that Eastern dragons are often depicted with, but when it's viewed from an upward angle and you notice it, it bugs me. Kingdra actually looks pretty good when you look at it from above, like its Generation III sprites, but everywhere else like in the Sugimori Art it looks rather awkward. You ever notice how they basically throw everything away about Seadra's design? Kingdra has Horsea's red eyes, Horsea's single dorsal fin, Horsea's less-curled tail, Horsea's round head, and Horsea's smooth chest---basically nothing that Seadra added is kept, and in Generation III this includes dropping Poison Point. I wonder if originally Horsea was intended to evolve straight to Kingdra in Generation I, but they decided to only have one Dragon-type family in Generation I, so saved Kingdra for next time and added in a simpler evolution for Horsea in the form of Seadra. Game Freak really needs to release an art-book one day with concept art to answer some of these questions, like their own "Hyrule Historia".
Kingdra, a majestic Dragon-type Pokemon, made its debut in the show under the command of some fisherman in the Whirl Cup Tournament (what is with this line and filler arcs?) where it lost to an unevolved Starter Pokemon. Thankfully, it made up for its poor showing later on under the ownership of Gym Leader Clair, and got a much more worthy battle against Snorlax. I actually like the Whirl Cup fight because it had one of the silliest defeats of any Pokemon, its mouth getting shut closed causing its body to swell up like a balloon as it tried to fire off a Water-type attack, and then deflating around the stadium like a balloon with its air spilling out. Straight outta Tom and Jerry.