Flying Type- Another common Type, and one that along with Bug and Normal Pokemon, is a Type players tend to encounter early on in each adventure. Flying isn't so much of an element as it is a category, although it can be seen as analogous to the "Wind Element" seen in many RPGs. It's rumored due to MissingNo that at some point Flying Pokemon were going to be simply known as Bird Pokemon, which makes you wonder what Types Pokemon like Zubat and co. would've been. Would they have done what they did with Grass, and just call anything with wings a "Bird" Pokemon? Anyway, as the names suggest, Flying Pokemon are creatures that fly, but not all Pokemon that can fly are Flying Pokemon, and not all Flying Pokemon can fly. Flying Pokemon tend to be mainly birds, bugs, and dragons, but include a few odder members like a sentient balloon and cloud-riding genies that perhaps fit more into the idea of a "Wind Element". Until one of those cloud-riding genies appeared, Flying was never seen on its own. And until Noibat and Noivern, it was also always the secondary Type. I've never figured out why this was. Some people think that "Flying" suggests the idea that a Pokemon is constantly flying, and thus they'd need to be a second Type if they ever landed. Thus, Tornadus was the first to be a creature that presumably was always airborne. But then why is Noibat the first primary Flying Pokemon? Who knows. Anyway, thanks to Hawlucha, Flying like Water has now been paired with every Type at least once, offering a lot of choices. Flying Pokemon tend to be used by pretty much every player too since having Fly makes the game progress far more smoothly, so having options is nice.
Bug Type- Bug Pokemon might not seem important, but one could say they're the ones to thank for Pokemon---it was the bug fights that inspired Tajiri, after all. Despite their importance behind the scenes, Bug Pokemon for the longest time played second banana, usually distributed at the beginning at the game and ending up as horrifically weak Pokemon that seemed to exist as merely a way to teach players the basics of evolution. There were other, stronger Bug Pokemon introduced, but overall the Type was seen as less than impressive even despite the fact it seems like Game Freak wanted to set it up as the unexpected equalizer to Psychic, but then screwed that idea up. Generation V turned things around by ditching the usual caterpillar-cocoon-butterfly archetype in favor of more impressive Bug Pokemon, but then Generation VI brought that rights back, and to add injury to insult, made the Spewpa line the only Bug-type Pokemon introduced in Generation VI. Alas, they got some cool Mega Pokemon though. Like Flying, Bug is less of an element, and more of a category, but within that category there's a fair amount of variety. Bug Pokemon aren't only the "true bugs", but includes arachnids, arthropods, and crustaceans. But overall, Bug Pokemon tend to stray towards simplicity over flair, and I think they've garnered an underdog following of sorts.
Fighting Type- My favorite Type, Fighting is all about fighting, even though all Pokemon fight, Fighting types are implied to love to fight even without a Trainer's intervention. Fighting Pokemon are almost all bipedal, and most of them are human shape, and most Fighting Pokemon tends to represent a specific form of combat and serves as an anthropomorphic representation of that concept. People tend to claim Fighting-type Pokemon are naturally good, claiming this is why they oppose Dark Pokemon, but this isn't true if you look at the Fighting-type before Pokemon like Lucario and the Sword Horses came about. Many of the early Fighting Pokemon weren't portrayed as particularly nice, and seemed to have somewhat of a "heel" appearance in being pretty brutal. In recent years, it does seem Fighting Pokemon have worked on their image to appear more noble and honorable, but we've still got dudes like Croagunk and Scraggy running around, and for that I'm thankful. Fighting Pokemon aren't particularly rare, but aren't particularly common---they usually tend to pop up near the beginning of the game, but also around the end as well, and are pretty balanced party members in any situation.
Psychic Type- While Fighting Pokemon favor brains, Psychic Pokemon favor brawn. An interesting note is that while most Types use direct translations more or less of the original Japanese name, Psychic was originally called "Esper". They're basically interchangeable more or less, but Esper sounds more inclusive than Psychic does. Esper is a term that originated in an old short story, but I imagine given the time and location of Pokemon's origin its use in Akira probably influenced Game Freak. Before you bring up Final Fantasy VI, Esper was a dub-name in that and they were "Genju" in Japan. In Generation 1, Psychic Pokemon absolutely dominated. This seemed to be almost accidental on Game Freak's part, as Bug Pokemon seemed to be set up as counters, but Game Freak forgot to make Bug-type moves. And there's the debated issue about the Ghost-type, which Psychic was immune to in Generation 1, despite multiple sources like guides and the show saying otherwise. It wouldn't have mattered, though, as the Ghost Pokemon were all part-Poison, and the only Ghost-type move that applied Type Weaknesses in Generation 1 was Lick as Night Shade was a fixed-amount attack. Thankfully, later Generations fixed this with the addition of Dark and Steel Pokemon, switching Ghost to being good against Psychic, and better Bug-type Pokemon and attacks. Psychic is an extremely diverse set of Pokemon, the only common element being the control of psychic abilities, and includes animals with psychic powers, humanoid creatures, and inanimate objects. While Dragon is the big thing for Legendary Pokemon now, Psychic used to be the Type Game Freak put on every Legendary, even if it didn't make much sense like with Lugia who seems more like it should be Water/Flying. Even now, Psychic is still the most common Legendary Type. Like Fighting Pokemon, Psychic Pokemon tend to both work as early game Pokemon, as well as end game Pokemon, and also are easy to fit into every team.
Poison Type- Nowadays, Poison-type Pokemon seem to be hated by Game Freak. We've yet to have a full Poison-type Legendary. But back in Generation 1, they were a very common type, 33 of them introduced, so it's surprising how few we get now despite their being plenty of real-world creatures with poisonous capabilities to draw from. Poison Pokemon fall into two groups---animals and plants that produce natural poisons, and monsters born from pollution. That's a pretty interesting dichotomy where you have completely natural creatures grouped alongside abominations of nature, and from a gameplay perspective a snake bite and a massive environmental disaster are one and the same. Poison-types tend to be grouped alongside Grass and Bug Pokemon, and most of the other "natural" Types, and in fact, alongside Fairy, Poison has the most unused Dual Type combinations having only paired with 10 of the 18 types. Poison got a bit of a boost, in a roundabout way, thanks to being strong against the new Fairy-type, but actual Poison-type Pokemon are seen as less desirable overall. It didn't help that Gen VI only introduced two Poison-type Pokemon, belonging to the same line, that only Y Players can catch. Fittingly, they're often used by lowlifes of the Pokemon world, and most of the non-Grass Poison-type Pokemon tend to have bad attitudes as well.
Ice Type- Like Poison, Ice-type Pokemon also have a representation for being weak and underutilized. Ice-type attacks, such as Ice Beam, are very popular for countering Dragon Pokemon, but as many Water Pokemon can pick up Ice-type attacks, actual Ice Pokemon are ignored due to their large amount of weaknesses. Ice Pokemon were very sparse in Kanto---and almost exclusively paired alongside the Water-type---and later Generations didn't help it, even Sinnoh which took place in the coldest Region left them out oddly enough. Ice Pokemon are based off creatures that exist in wintry environments, but also includes quite a few who represent the actual element of ice itself, thus feeling more "elemental" and "magical" than the more down-to-earth Water Type. Game Freak seems to have trouble thinking of clever Ice Pokemon since it's an element that's pretty pegged down to a certain expectation, so that's likely the reason we have so few of them, although perhaps they were always intended to be rare by design? As the original counter of Dragons, who themselves were once rare, Game Freak may have wanted them to be sparse, but with the rapid amount of Dragon Pokemon introduced, that no longer applies as we have more Dragon Pokemon now than Ice Pokemon.
Rock Type- Pokemon's interesting because most franchises group Rock and Ground under simply "Earth", and I've wondered myself if that should've been what Game Freak did since I feel the Types were always quite similar, given how they were paired with one another frequently in Generation 1. But by this point, it's moot, and Rock is here to stay...Rock Pokemon are, as you'd expect, "defensive" based, but with a lot of weaknesses that defense is often easily shattered, and Rock Attacks are seen as more valuable than actual Rock Pokemon, usually given to their Ground-type brethren to work with. Rock Pokemon are creatures made up of rocks mostly, and tend to inhabit caves and mountains. Some of them are basically living rocks, while others are animals with rock-like qualities. Fossil Pokemon are always part-Rock, presumably meant to represent the fossilization process---one wonders if the original Fossil Pokemon weren't part-Rock, but instead pure-Type Pokemon. Anyway, Rock-types do not resist Electric-type attacks as people think, but the only non-Ground Rock Pokemon found in Generation 1 were the Fossil Pokemon, who I recall you rarely encountered. and they don't necessarily look like Rock-type Pokemon that you probably didn't realize what was going on if you attacked them with an Electric-type Attack. One last point is that Rock seemed to be the favored 1st Gym for a long time---Gen 1, 3, and 4 used this, and the only reason 2 didn't was because the Rock-type Gym was still in the game. 5 finally broken this pattern, but it seems Game Freak are hesitant to let this go...Gen 6 bumped it up to Gym 2.
Ground Type- The "Earth" elemental, Ground Pokemon includes creatures made up of the earth, and animals who have a relationship with the earth, such as burrowing creatures and those who live in caves. To be honest, what constitutes a Ground Pokemon might be a bit murky---Ground doesn't give a good impression upon hearing it as to what to expect, and some of the Pokemon don't look any more "earthen" than some of their Rock and Normal counterparts. The Viridian City Gym seemed to be particularly confused about this. Ground Pokemon tend to be large and rounded though, and tend to give off a powerful physical appearance. And they can back it up with the all-powerful Earthquake! Ground Pokemon are perhaps the most well-known for serving as a good introduction to Immunities, as Ground cannot hit Flying, but cannot be hit by Electricity.
Ghost Type- In Generation 1 and 2, Ghost was one of the "mythical" Types that was very rare with only four members introduced between the two games, and is the more mysterious Types. For the most part, the Pokemon world appears to view Ghost Pokemon, and ghosts, as separate entities---indeed, Ghost Pokemon appear to be more of a strange breed of elemental creatures rather than the spirits of the dead, although some Ghost Pokemon do appear to be this type of Ghost. Of course, this is just going by the PokeDex explanations, and those may not be fully accurate. Ghost Pokemon to represent intangibility are immune to Normal and Fighting attacks, even though quite a few Ghost Pokemon appear to be completely solid---one episode of the show seemed to support the idea that certain Ghost Pokemon can freely apply their intangibility depending on the situation, and can be solid if they so choose. Ghost Pokemon were a "physical Type" till Gen IV, oddly enough, despite many of their attacks being classified as Special upon the Physical/Special split. They also had a hard time finding a good niche in the game due to how little there were, and their attacks were pretty odd and not too useful against their only strengths, other Ghost Pokemon and Psychic-types. Shadow Ball was the main offensive option for the longest time, and a reliance on tricky status effects being their modus operandi. Ghost Pokemon got a boost in members in later Generations, but are still the most sparsest Type alongside Ice Pokemon. They're pretty popular Pokemon though since folks love Ghost Pokemon.
Dragon Pokemon- The powerhouse of Pokemon, Dragon Pokemon are, as you'd expect, typically powerful and imposing, but also tend to start as rather unassuming creatures. Dragon Pokemon go both ways, some are based on the more serpentine, Eastern idea, while others borrow the more monstrous European idea of how they look. Others look more like dinosaurs, or something you might see in a Godzilla Movie. Like Ghost Pokemon, in Gen II there were only four of them, but they've greatly increased their ranks since then thanks to the large number of Dragon Legendaries, an easy type to make a Legendary appear imposing. Dragon Pokemon for the longest time only had to worry really about other Dragon Pokemon (and in Gen 1 the only Dragon attack did fixed damage), and Ice-type attacks, but perhaps due to this imbalance, Fairy was introduced, but it's yet to be seen how well this actually worked out. Due to Dragons having more counters, what was once an end-game Pokemon have become more common earlier on in the game, and it could be argue what was once intended to be a very powerful and mystical type has become overused and lost much of the magic.
Steel Type- The first new Type introduced in Gen II, Steel Pokemon are creatures made of steel, and tend to resemble Rock-type Pokemon often, except of course made of stronger material. There are more inorganic Steel Pokemon than any other Type (including the original "robot" Pokemon Magnemite being retconned as one) in my estimate, but Genesect seems to be the only Steel Pokemon whose Steel isn't naturally occurring, but explicitly said to be manmade. Steel has the most defenses, as you'd expect (one less in Generation VI though losing Dark), and appears to have been made to balance Psychic, Dragon, and Normal, out as they didn't have any good counters. Unlike Rock Pokemon, Steel actually does the defensive theme quite well and isn't as fragile.
Dark Type- Dark was also introduced in Gen II, and was made to serve as the antithesis to the Psychic-type as they were immune to them. The problem---Dark Pokemon were very sparse in Gen II, most of them not even appearing till Kanto, but common moves Bite and Crunch becoming Dark helped things a bit. Later generations made Dark more common, such as Generation III which introduced an early game Dark Pokemon, and they've become a pretty popular type. In Japan, Dark are explicitly called "Evil", which NoA I guess found to be a bit too ominous to let kids control, so it became Dark. Dark misleads folks into thinking the type actually controls darkness, which isn't the case mostly except for a few outliers---Evil gives a better picture, that these are Pokemon who fight using nasty tactics. Dark Pokemon are seen as the bad while Fighting and Psychic might come across as good, but as I said before, many of the early Fighting Pokemon weren't exactly nice, and the Psychic Pokemon early on also tended to stray a bit towards the darker side of things. Dark Pokemon are mostly animals that people view as "evil", or "ominous", or are nocturnal, although it also includes some more demonic creatures that are as you'd expect unfriendly. Absol and Darkrai seem to suggest the "Evil" categorization is just that...a human classification for the Pokemon...and they're more misunderstood than necessarily black hearted. Dark Pokemon were oddly "Special" in Gen I-III, but Gen IV's split made most of their moves physical, which is what you'd expect for the Pokemon who use attacks like Bite and Beat Up. We've yet to have a Dark-type Gym Leader, which some ascribe to that being because having a Gym specializing in a nasty type wouldn't fit the lore of the Gym Leaders usually being set up as major members of their community. We've had Elite Four members though, but they've always felt more ominous than the Gym Leaders. Maybe Gen VII will finally deliver?
Fairy Type- The first new Type introduced in years, Fairy was made to counter Dragon (did it succeed?), and also seemed to be a way for Game Freak to make a place for some of the odder Normal Pokemon. 22 Pokemon, many of them Normal, became Fairy-type Pokemon (some kept the Normal-type, others lost it...how exactly did Game Freak decide that?), which might feel a bit jarring. In Gen II, only Magnemite became a new Type, and that was only a few years after he was created---with Fairy, we have Pokemon who have been around for over a decade becoming a new Type! Despite this, there are actually plenty of Pokemon I thought should've become Fairy...Chansey (I mean it's basically the same creature as Jigglypuff and Clefairy), Dunsparce (because it's based off an obscure, mythical creature), Vanillite (I'll explain why soon), and a few others. Fairy Pokemon are mostly pink or white, and are based on fairy-like creatures, but while fairies incorporate a wide arrange of creatures in various lores, most of the Fairy Pokemon follow the common idea of them as very cute, friendly creatures. Like Dragon, perhaps we'll see more variety in future games as they embrace other ideas of what a fairy is? Fairy Pokemon also seem to include "food" Pokemon as we've got Jigglypuff, whose Japanese name is basically "pudding", and Swirlix who is cotton candy, which is why I think the ice cream cone-looking Pokemon would've fit well. An interesting point, Fairy Pokemon are all pretty mysterious and have a connection to the moon---Clefairy is rumored to be an alien Pokemon, and the resident Fairy Gym Leader in Kalos has a very strange look to her. Are all Fairy Pokemon actually alien Pokemon? Well, that's just a theory of mine. Anyway, I like the Fairy Type and think it was the most logical addition---I'm not too thrilled about quite a few of the newer designs, but I am interested in seeing how the Type evolves from here as there is a lot of potential ideas for Game Freak to use.
I'll post my first analysis of the Bulbasaur line next. Hope these Type write-ups gave you a decent taste of what's to come!