Watch Da Birdie
I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
#204 - Pineco
Bug
Oh yeah, this dude isn't Bug/Grass, he's just Bug. Anyway, Pineco is a rather common Pokemon in Gold and Silver as he can be found frequently in Headbutt Trees throughout the adventure. At the same time, he's easily skippable since you're never required to mess with Headbutt Trees and he's a Pokemon you'll probably only add to your team if you purposefully want to use one and seek one out. Pineco's another Pokemon whose use in the single-player campaign is dubious and his usage may confuse casual players due to a focus on self-inflicting damage---and a lack of Bug-type STAB attacks once more---though as we'll see when we reach his evolution, the family played an important role in the competitive scene and you could say introduced a major archetype to the metagame. Using one if the adventure is possible of course, and he can be useful especially when he evolves, though leveling him up may prove tedious since he'll probably end up fainting a lot and thus losing out on EXP---however, he can help grind up your other Pokemon as if you switch to him and use Self-Destruct to K.O. the enemy, the other Pokemon will get the full EXP from the fight.
Like Sudowoodo, Pineco is another Pokemon who confuses very literal-minded folks due to resembling a pine cone, yet not being a Grass-type but rather a Bug-type. All you have to do is look at his species name though and the truth becomes clear---he's a bagworm, a member of the Lepidoptera family, and basically the larvae form is a small caterpillar known to construct elaborate, protective hanging cases out of a variety of natural materials. In this case, Pineco is a bagworm larvae who surrounds itself in a case made of tree bark that just so happens to resemble a pine cone. The only real part of Pineco that can be seen is its eyes, everything else isn't actually part of the Pokemon but a shield, basically. Bagworms are interesting creatures, but I feel like a lot of Western folks are unaware of them---I had no clue the creature existed until I learned about the Pokemon equivalent, and actual bagworm cases are surprisingly elaborate and very neat looking, a really fitting creature to turn into a Pokemon. In Generation IV we get another bagworm Pokemon who incorporates even more elements of the creature, though I think Pineco wins out in popularity since the other Pokemon is kind of a lame Pokemon despite the neat biological references. I feel like Pineco should've been at least Bug/Grass since any attacks are interacting with the "shell" made of tree bark, and its evolution incorporates the material of its shell into its Type, but in the end I guess being pure-Bug is far better.
Pineco's design has a bit more to it than simply being a pine cone, you'll notice if you look at it long enough, you can even see a face start to form with a mustache and a big nose, though I don't know if this was intentional or if I'm just a person who tends to see human faces in otherwise non-human objects. But the other important motif is that Pineco is also a grenade, with a tendency to explode if it's bothered. Why does Pineco do this? Who knows, but I imagine it's not Pineco itself exploding, but rather the casing explodes while the true Pineco makes it escape unseen. There's also a ninja element to Pineco, which is why Koga probably uses the line in Gold and Silver despite not being part-Poison---ninjas were known to use rudimentary shrapnel bombs, such as a way to escape from a tight situation, and Spikes, which Pineco was one of the first to learn naturally, are named "Makibishi" in Japan and are a popular tool similar to caltrops said to be used traditionally by ninja.
Pineco was caught by Brock in Johto, and was the only new Pokemon he gained throughout the entire season excluding his Zubat evolving. Pineco had a bit more personality due to its gimmick to explode as a way to express its feelings, good or bad. Though otherwise it was a Brock Pokemon through and through. It later evolved at the end of Johto, and stuck with Brock throughout Hoenn as well. Going back to the ninja theme as well, in one filler of Johto that took place at a "Pokemon Jujitsu Academy" Pineco was used as Brock's training partner where it was shown to have a near flawless Spikes attack.
#205 - Forretress
Bug/Steel
Forretress is our first Johto Steel-type Pokemon excluding the Generation I evolutions, and has amazing defensive capabilities with its sole weakness being a 4X weakness to Fire---keep it away from Fire Pokemon, and it's a tough nut to crack. Forretress' impenetrable defenses will serve players quite well during the main game and in recent years its natural move set has grown to be quite diverse and impressive. In the competitive scene, Forretress truly shines, as it basically introduced two vital moves to the scene---Spikes, and Rapid Spin, and is one of the few Pokemon who had access to both of them, in addition to the powerful Explosion if need be. Before Stealth Rock hit the scene, Spikes was the entry hazard of choice, and made the importance of carrying a Rapid Spin Pokemon on your team to rid your field of them quite vital, so Forretress with its amazing defenses and capability to serve both roles no doubt proved to be a staple of many teams. While it's still a solid Pokemon to have, more and more Pokemon are capable of countering it, such as Pokemon with Levitate not having to worry about Spikes, and Ghost-type Pokemon being able to shut down its Rapid Spin capabilities, and its lack of attack options to take down those its normal tools won't work on has also hurt it overall. I remember using one of these in Pokemon Colosseum, and it was pretty effective against the CPU due to its strong defenses, so I'm in favor of the Pokemon even without being a major competitive player.
I feel like design-wise, you almost wouldn't think Pineco and Forretress are related at first glance---while Pineco looks like, well, a pine cone, Forretress looks like some weird giant clam with water guns sticking out of its body, and as a kid I remember seeing it at first and thinking it was a Water-type Pokemon. But it's a Bug/Steel Pokemon, and once more nothing you see except for its eyes is the real-deal, the rest is a strange casing made of solid steel, though where the steel came from is unknown. According to the PokeDex, it apparently roots itself to a tree, though usually it's shown floating around oddly like Geodude and I can't really imagine something that looks like it just hanging out on a tree. I actually like Forretress due to how weird it is, though I think perhaps Game Freak could've done a slightly better Steel-type bagworm Pokemon that didn't look so out of place compared to its evolution. Bulbapedia thinks it's supposed to be a giant nut perhaps, but made of steel, though I don't really see it.
Actually, perhaps Forretress isn't inhabiting a natural object, but rather a man-made one? Going back to the caltrops again, on Wikipedia on the caltrop page there is an image of exploding gunpowder caltrops from Ancient China that bring to mind Forretress, so I wonder if it's actually a bagworm who found an old-school hollow explosive mine of some sort and decided to use it as its new case? Yeah, I think that honestly makes more sense than it being a randomly metallic nut. Forretress has cannon-like protrusions from its body, though the PokeDex doesn't actually mention them whatsoever, and very rarely are they shown in the other media being used---it wasn't till Fire Red and Leaf Green gave it Zap Cannon that it really had a move that seemed like one requiring the use of its cannons. I'm sure there's probably an obscure ninja tool or ancient explosive the cannons are supposed to represent though going by how the rest of Forretress seems to be based on a somewhat obscure concept. It's a Pokemon who has a lot going on honestly, and is pretty interesting to me because of that.
Brock's Forretress was a running-joke among fans, because out of all his Pokemon---such as Geodude who was in the Hoenn Dex and still could evolve, or his loyal Crobat, it was Forretress of all Pokemon Brock took to Hoenn with him. Brock's Forretress had, like, three major moments throughout the show and quickly got pushed aside for all the new Hoenn Pokemon who were far easier to market, yet it was on the main cast (if you include its time as Pineco) for a very long time. I believe only Pikachu, Meowth, Wobbuffet, and Seviper were on the main cast longer than it was, though its actual total screen time probably amounted to about two full episodes if you added them all together. Its last major appearance was helping Brock capture Bonsly in the Battle Frontier---another episode based at a ninja school. A lot of folks joked that Brock was going to bring it with him to Sinnoh but sadly Forretress was finally dumped, and we haven't seen it since.
