#129 - Magikarp
Water
Magikarp is the weakest Pokemon ever, and there's nothing else to be said about him---who am I kidding, everyone knows about Magikarp, it's Pokemon's worst kept secret. Did anyone seriously play Red and Blue and not realize this seemingly weak Pokemon who was available everywhere, and sold to you early on as a "rip-off", had a powerful secret? Because I definitely remember knowing the whole deal with Magikarp during my first playthrough thanks to all the promotion Pokemon got before the release of the games. Anyway, Magikarp is known as the "weakest Pokemon ever", but that's not really true, even discounting his evolution. He doesn't have the lowest base stats, Caterpie and Weedle are overall weaker than him, and none of his stats except Special Defense are the lowest among all the Pokemon, and even then he's tied with about six or so. Sure, he only learns four moves now, two of which are basically useless, and he's worthless in a fight except for the humor of using one, but there are countless Pokemon who are easily far more worthless for him, and that wasn't even the point of their existence! Magikarp is also one of the most prolific Pokemon, using the Old Rod you can find him in basically every Region except for technically Unova, and the levels you can find him at range from 1 to 100. Most people probably first got one through the Magikarp Salesman in Generation I for 500$, which was actually a great deal. How come everyone in the games seem to be completely dense about his true potential even though it's not exactly hidden whatsoever? Oh, and don't forget the poor fisherman in every game who uses a team of six of them just to piss you off, although in Diamond and Pearl they actually served a purpose as being a great place to focus on EV training Speed.
I always considered Magikarp to be the Mr. Satan of the Pokemon World, very powerful compared to regular fish (thus the Japanese name Koiking, the King of Koi) but completely outmatched by the Z-Warriors, in this case basically every other Pokemon. I'll let you decide how far the comparison continues there and who's the Yamcha of Pokemon, but anyway Magikarp was also said to be at one point in time much more powerful, so I wonder if that was before the rest of the Pokemon "evolved", and he was simply competing with the terrestrial animals and thus seemed so much more powerful compared to them. As you probably guessed, Magikarp is based on a carp, specifically the Asian carp with elements of the traditional Japanese koi, such as its bright red coloring. Asian carps are actually no joke---like Magikarp they're very hardy, prolific, and can seriously mess up the environment, so much so that the U.S. government considers them a very serious problem, look them up on Wikipedia and then see how your perspective of Magikarp greatly changes. Is Magikarp, a seemingly "weak" Pokemon, actually slowly destroying the aquatic habitat of every region in the Pokemon World? Asian carps are also known for their incredible jumping height and extreme skittishness, and are actually quite dangerous because of this due to hitting fisherman in the face, which Magikarp also shares as it's said given enough time they can even leap over a waterfall. By the way, its signature attack is called "Splash" in the dub, associating it specifically with a fish, but originally it was simply called "Hop", so that's why it's learned by various non-fish Pokemon in case you ever wondered.
Does anyone actually hate Magikarp? In my opinion, it's got a very iconic and hilarious design, and I loved how in XY they have it flop around on the ground---one of the few XY models I think is objectively better than the classic sprites. It's a Pokemon you look at, and you know basically everything there is to know about the Pokemon except for the big surprise it's hiding, and I think any Pokemon who can communicate its stats and abilities without specifically telling you is a top-class design. It's a dumb, weak fish done right, and I think Seaking could learn a lot from it, who goes for the "dumb fish" look but without any of the charm. I also like how, in retrospect, there are little hints in Magikarp's design pointing to how it'll become a dragon Pokemon, such as having dragon-like scales appearing behind its neck, and a long "mustache" typically associated with Eastern depictions of dragons. Even though Magikarp and its evolution are basically polar opposites, they still have small similarities that help make the change somewhat believable. But I'll talk more about that when I get to the evolution.
The show loves Magikarp, it's got a ton of appearances so I'll only focus on the biggest three. The first one that everyone knows ties into the Magikarp Man, who has actually appeared in every Region of the show so far except Kalos, although his Unova appearance was a voiceless cameo, who like in the games always tries to rip people off by selling them a Magikarp, claiming it's very rare and worthwhile---and he totally worked his con on James in Kanto, selling him an utterly worthless Magikarp. Of course, when James realizes he got tricked and kicks the Magikarp in anger---well, things get intense. The second isn't really Magikarp actually, but the Magikarp Sub, Team Rocket's aquatic vehicle and their second most iconic means of transportation following the Meowth Balloon, especially during the Orange Islands where it first appeared. It was actually switched for another Gen V fish Pokemon in Best Wishes, once more ruining everything about Team Rocket, but thankfully made a return during the XY series. All the other appearances of Magikarp usually fall in one of two categories---Magikarp appears as a joke, or a rare golden Magikarp plays a role instead. However, there was a Diamond and Pearl episode that totally went in a different direction and introduced an unevolved Magikarp owned by the "B Button League", who was so powerful it was capable of going toe-to-toe with Ash's Pikachu. I'm sure someone will come along and posts gifs of the fight, but I seriously loved this episode. Even better was the joke at the end where Team Rocket used a crazy transforming mecha that simply broke apart after it finished its transformation pose, naturally sold to them by the Magikarp Man.
#130 - Gyarados
Water/Flying
Surprise! Magikarp isn't weak at all, and once he reaches Level 20, he evolves into the almighty Gyarados who experiences a boost of 340 points. How is Gyarados that big of a secret in the Pokemon World though, I have to ask? Plenty of weaker Pokemon evolve at far later levels, and I actually think Level 20 feels a bit dated and underwhelming at this point---sure, in Generation I you basically had to rely on switching Magikarp out at the beginning of a battle to give him EXP., but nowadays getting him to Level 20 is laughably easy with all the extra methods added and you can probably do so by the second Gym. Maybe they should've increased his evolution level at one point? Gyarados is also said to be a very rare Pokemon, but he's also quite prolific, appearing frequently in the wild in later games, and a ton of trainers use him---Blue, Lance, Clair, Wallace, Crasher Wake, Cyrus, and Lysandre, just to name the big ones. Really, he's really not even that big of a deal anymore. Anyway, Gyarados is rather oddly Water/Flying, as opposed to the expected Water/Dragon, and most guess like Charizard in Generation I they didn't want to create a Dragon-type Pokemon that had the advantage over their one weakness, Ice, and thus Gyarados was stuck with Flying. This wasn't exactly a good thing, either, as that means he had trouble with Electric-type attacks, and throughout history I believe he's only had one Flying STAB move, Bounce, via the Move Tutor in later games. He was actually just OK in earlier games, but benefited from the Physical/Special split and nowadays is pretty much better than he's ever been. Hey, maybe the metaphor about overcoming all obstacles through hard work was about Gyarados instead of Magikarp all along!
Why does a dragon evolve from a fish? Of course you've heard the legend by now, there is said to be a waterfall known as the "Dragon Gate" that exists somewhere in China and if a carp is able to overcome it and swim all the way to the top, they'll be rewarded and become a powerful dragon. It's basically a metaphor about how hard work pays off, and you can see how it connects to Magikarp, although I'd argue getting a Gyarados isn't hard at all anymore. Even though most Westerners probably didn't know about that legend, I feel the idea of the "Ugly Duckling" works well enough as a similar metaphor they can compare the evolution from Magikarp to Gyarados to, and of course in Generation III we got a Pokemon that embodies that specific story a bit more. Some people also think Gyarados is inspired by the koinobori, "carp streamers", which are hung out on Children's Day explaining his long, serpentine body and his Flying-type, but I don't really see it besides simply both being related to carp---and Gyarados representing a cute knick-knack celebrating little kids also seems like an odd connection. In the original Dragon Gate tale, the carp becoming a dragon is treated as a positive, although in the case of Gyarados it's actually a horrible thing, as it's said to be an extremely violent and ferocious Pokemon that appears during times of strife and totally wrecks everything around it. I wonder if the only reason you, the player, can catch one in later games is because you're evolved in a world-threatening event, and Gyarados as the legend says needs to appear and set things straight, and you can help him do just that. Or maybe the PokeDex is just bunk since everyone and their mother owns one of these dudes and the world is just peachy.
Gyarados also introduced players to Shiny Pokemon (unless they were lucky and found one prior), and for some folks may be the only Shiny Pokemon they ever encountered and caught. Actually, is Red Gyarados a true Shiny Pokemon? I don't think the games have ever clarified if he's meant to be one, or rather he's a different type of mutation---I know that the show said he was a mutated Magikarp caused by the radio waves Team Rocket sent out explaining why he kept Magikarp's color-scheme, and thus if he was actually a Shiny, then he would've been gold like a Shiny Magikarp, but I think the show invented that plot-point. Anyway, whatever Red Gyarados was, he was 3X cooler than a regular Gyarados, and red became the official color of all Shiny Gyarados from that point on. Getting an actual Shiny Gyarados has to suck though, you can't really be happy about it because everyone has one, and thus yours isn't special, rare, or unique. Imagine you've played Pokemon all your life, and the only Shiny you encountered was the one the games gave to you---your luck really sucks, huh?
Like Magikarp, Gyarados is a classic Pokemon in basically every way. Although there are still folks who "complain" about Magikarp and Gyarados evolving into each other because it doesn't make "sense", I think Gyarados as I mentioned seems like a pretty natural extension to Magikarp overall, keeping the mustache, the fins, and the tail, but changing color and becoming elongated. It's one of those Pokemon that's fully justified in changing incredibly between evolutions, and it's really not as an elaborate change as some folks make it out to be. One of my favorite elements of Gyarados is its mouth, always slack-jawed and open wide in basically all of its appearances which makes it look ferocious, but also kind of cute. Bulbapedia has a picture of a closed-mouth Gyarados from the show, and it looks weird as fuck. Don't look at it if you want to preserve your innocence, that which has been seen cannot be unsun. The scale of Gyarados' sprites has also added to his appeal over the years, they're always huge and impressive, but XY sort of messed things up as he looks a bit puny, especially since the Gen IV and Gen V sprites were so large and beautiful.
Oh yeah, I guess Nintendo of America didn't think Gyarados was cool enough, because they were gonna name him "Skullkracken", so edgy and badass it exceeds the 10-character limit of every pre-Gen VI Pokemon. But then they actually went with Gyarados, which sounds really cool because no one actually knows what it means. I just saw this on Bulbapedia, but it claims a lot of possible words that influenced its name, but also states it's a combination of Gyaos and Radon, two Tokusatsu monsters from the Gamera and Godzilla franchises respectively. I have no clue where they got that from, but the more I think it over, I think that does seem plausible since Game Freak is no stranger to Kaiju. And it mimics Godzilla himself, Gojira, who was merely the names of two powerful creatures, the gorilla and whale (kujira), mixed together. Heck, Gyarados appearing to wreck havoc during times of strife also brings to mind classic Godzilla, so wow, I gotta applaud whoever added that to Bulbapedia because I really think they hit the nail on the head. Perhaps there was an interview I missed where they explained this, because I don't know how you'd pick that out.
Anyway, Gyarados is also popular in the show, its first appearance being when James' evolved and blasted everyone away leading to one of the neatest and most unique episodes of the show, well, ever. Gyarados was never a member of the main cast, but is owned by a main character, as during one of the specials that aired after Johto Misty encountered one that was wrecking Cerulean Gym and, despite being deathly afraid of the species due to a childhood event (and the events described above likely didn't help either), managed to catch it and added it to her roster. Her Gyarados later appeared in the main show in an awesome way, popping up when she returned to the cast for a brief time during Hoenn to deliver a powerful Flamethrower to take down a powerful Pokemon who was resistant to almost every Type she had otherwise. It was a pretty awesome scene, and used one of the coolest songs from the 5th Movie as well to accentuate the action. It hasn't appeared since in a big role as far as I know except in the "Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon"...but, let's forget about that. The Red Gyarados was also featured in the show, getting its own arc where it was captured by Lance, and later popped up in Hoenn when Lance returned to help fight another Evil Team. By the way, in earlier episodes Team Rocket had a Gyarados submarine, but apparently traded it for the Magikarp one later on---hmm, did the Magikarp Man sell it to them?
#M130 - Mega Gyarados
Water/Dark
I don't think anyone was surprised Gyarados got a Mega Evolution, it was always one of the more popular Generation I Pokemon like Charizard, Alakazam, Gengar, and Mewtwo, who all were getting Mega Evolutions alongside him, but I certainly think how Game Freak went about it certainly surprised folks, and not in a good way. Despite everyone wanting to see Gyarados finally become Water/Dragon, which most folks think he should've been in the first place, Game Freak threw a curve-ball and made him a Dark-type of all things. Huh? Well, to be fair, from a gameplay standpoint, Dark is far better for him than Flying as it removes his 4X weakness and he has a great STAB in Crunch, but it's still weird---yeah, I guess being a destructive extremely violent Pokemon fits the Dark stereotype, but why couldn't he be a Dragon-type? Mega Gyarados' already high stats are boosted to Legendary levels, and he also gains Mold Breaker as an Ability, meaning very few Pokemon can stop what he throws at them except by relying on their defenses alone. One positive I can say about Mega Gyarados is that he is one of the few Mega Evolutions actually utilized during the main game by the final Villain, which makes a somewhat underwhelming fight slightly better. Even though it's against the rules, I'd love to go up against a Villain using an entire team of Mega Pokemon and actually being on the edge of your seat the whole fight.
Gyarados was a powerful and striking Pokemon, so it was hard to top it when designing a Mega, and most people think Game Freak failed horribly. I think Mega Gyarados might be the least-liked Mega in terms of design perhaps? I think the head-area looks pretty fine, but the rest of its body, which I guess was meant to bring back some of its lost fish elements, looks oddly small and doesn't work together with the front of his body. Honestly, if they kept Gyarados basically the same, but gave him Mega Gyarados' head and changed up the color-scheme, it'd look far better, but I guess Game Freak worried making the Mega Evolution too simple might ruin the impact of it. But you know, simple can be good, especailly when working with a classic Pokemon. I'm not one to really be concerned about Game Freak "ruining my childhood", I liked things as a kid and nothing can change that, and I don't really put any Pokemon on a pedestal and expect them to remain flawless throughout time, but I think Game Freak were treading on sacred ground here and should've been a bit more careful. But hey, some folks thing the entire idea of Mega Evolutions is incompatible with showing respect to the classics. My main point of contention with Mega Gyarados, and a lot of Mega Pokemon in general, is I simply don't know what Game Freak was going for and what's the motif meant to be. And that bothers me, because I'm usually able to see a motif in most Pokemon easily enough. Please, please add Mega Dex Entries Game Freak, it'd add just that much more to possibly change my mind about Megas.
Mega Gyarados cameo'd at the beginning of Mega Evolution Act I, and the common theory is that it was meant to be Lysandre's and foreshadowing a showdown with Wulfric's Mega Abomasnow, which looks like it might be happening during XY&Z as both characters are focused on during this arc, but it remains to be seen. The show helps me like a lot of Pokemon more, so I wonder if I'll take a liking to Mega Pokemon when they appear more frequently in the show?
