The name ‘Gligar’ is
apparently derived from ‘glide’ and ‘gargoyle’ so that means Gligar’s a gargoyle
right? Or at least a grotesque which everyone calls a gargoyle right? Well, no,
it means the English name is based on the word ‘gargoyle’, do I have to bring
up Pidgey again? Pidgey is in no way a pigeon and it’s not alone, the English
translation team has no idea what animals are what, even if they’re not (with
apologies to the Manhattan Clan) real animals.
While I like the idea of it
being a literal take on the scorpion fly (it’s a literal flying scorpion) I’m
of the opinion that Gligar is just ‘a thing’, but what a wonderful thing it is
and most importantly – IT LOOKS LIKE IT HAS LITTLE SHOES! LOOK AT IT’S LITTLE
SHOOES! LIKE LITTLE SONIC SHOOOOES!
I hated Gliscor as much as
Yanmega when it debuted but looking back at it now, I have no idea what I was
thinking. It’s just a bigger, badder, scarier ‘a thing’ that looks and feels
like Gligar grew up into its final form – a nightmare. I think it might have
been the switch from cute to nightmarish again, Gligar looks mischievous but
ultimately not monstrous (despite the fact that it clings to faces and stabs
them) like a cartoon sidekick – the sort of thing Filmation, Disney or DiC
would have given the main villain to take the edge off, the likes of Beastly,
Imp or Bartok – or one of those loveable looser villains like Coconuts or
Impmon. They’re a villain but they’re not THAT villainous. Gliscor is
villainous, Gliscor is No Heart. Or maybe it’s just how Suigmori draws it,
which is an odd thing to say given that I have a Suigmori shrine, he draws
Gliscor very flat all the time and it doesn’t help the design, seeing it 3D (as
you will in a tick when we get to the scores) does wonders for its face, tail
and chest. All in all Gliscor is the type of evolution I’d wish they’d given Scyther
instead of turning the lizardmantis into a Sentai show.
See how much better Gliscor
looks in 3D?
for 
Snubbull was a big deal, it was one of the earlier Gen
2 reveals, it was a PokéGod (as Bruno) and it was one the most prominently
featured ‘preview’ Pokémon for the generation, making it's debut in the
Pikachu’s Vacation short that was shown with the first movie, which was a
massive event.
I don’t like it.
I never have.
The head is fine I guess, I
like the ears that look a bit like bunches, that’s cute, it’s everything below
the waist, the skirt and clown collar and random peach feet, it’s all so
awkward looking. It’s very obvious looking, it’s…just no…it just don’t work for
me as an overall (or a dress). I think it might just be because it’s (I think)
supposed to be a joke (ha ha, ugly thing that’s feminine) that works for a
certain sense of humour, one that I don’t have.
Granbull on the other hand,
I have no strong feelings for either way, it’s a fair enough bug purple angry
dog thing, again I quite like the head on it (shhh), an unusual way of doing a
stylised bulldog.
As we’ll see in a minute,
Qwilfish was supposed to get an evolution and I don’t like it as design so much
but why did they cut it? Gane Freak clearly don’t’ have the same tastes as me
and there’s nothing particularly WRONG with Shibirefugu compared to what did make
it in and what would make it into later generations and (not wanted to repeat
Bogleech heer but) Qwilfish really feels like a first stage of a line rather
than a stand-alone creature (like, say, Stantler, Smeargle or Girafarig), it
feels like it’s missing it’s evolution and has the stats to reflect it.
I like Qwilfish but I don’t
have much more to say about, it’s a cool little cartoon blowfish and looks
grumpy all the time, which is how I feel and how I’d definitely feel if I was a
puffer fish who’d had my evolution unfairly scrapped.
Yeah so I don’t think much of Shibirefugu as a design
- very Klasky Csupo meets Japanese comedy character which isn’t my thing
style-wise at all. But mostly it just feels weird coming from Qwilfish; It’s a
strangely cute and utterly derpy looing thing to evolve from the such tough
looking little critter. Maybe it mellowed with age? Or had a serious head
injury during evolution? Still shouldn’t have cut it though.
for 
What’s Shuckle?
Awesome and adorable all
day long!
In other words I don’t
know, no one knows, it’s a thing, but an adorable and wonderful little thing
with so much personality. I don’t think I’d want to own one though: I imagine
those weird little noodle limbs feel horrible and I wouldn’t want to associate
Shuckle with feeling sick, it’s just to likeable, I’d have a guilt complex.
I just…just…it’s Shuckle!
Shuckle is great, it’s a weird turtle bug worm thing and the ultimate wall in
Pokémon with it’s unholy Defence and Special Defence stats, this thing isn’t
bomb proof it’s meteorite-that-killed-the-dinosaurs proof, it’s not the murder
machine that Wobbuffet is mind, it’s just incredibly tough and with a move set
that can make it tougher or drag out battles even longer, it has a whole bunch
of competitive uses too. So yeah it’s another of Gen II’s single-stage gimmick
Pokémon but one that’s very useful and very weird and lovable and very visually
pleasant and very original and I just heart it to death.
In Japanese culture stag
beetles and hercules beetles are mortal enemies, so it makes sense to me that
when we got a Pokémon Hercules beetle to be a rival/counterpart for Pinsir it
was similar yet kind of the complete opposite. Gen 2 is generally a cuter,
softer generation for Pokémon but here’s my thinking: Pinsir looks like will
stab you and eat you, so it makes sense for its opposite number looks like it
will lend you it’s lawnmower and not pressure you to return it no matter how
long it’s lawn gets. Heracross just looks so friendly, and it also makes sense
that you have rivals wit opposite modes of attack – Pinsir is stabby, Heracross
is blunt force. Hell it even makes sense that they’re such different colours,
Pinsir is every shade of cack, a palette befitting a nasty little beetle, while
Heracross is a lovely blue, a shade befitting a friendly chap, one says ‘stay
away’, the other says ‘hugs are fine’.
I’m sure I’m reading too
much into this, I think if you’re tasked to review things that are on the
surface quite simple you turn weird at some point and over-analyse everything.
It’s also nice to see that
Game Freak gave both sides of the rivalry Mega Evolutions in Gen 6, keeping it
fair and playing off the ‘equivalent’s thing. I can’t say I really like Mega
Heracross’ face, it makes it look like an old man but everywhere else it’s all
good, it’s big, it’s over the top, it reminds me of Kyogre and – again probably
accidentally – it looks like it Mega Evolves into a form that can counter-act
Mega Pinsir by growing a massive spike to stick the flying fucker with. If you
can’t fly, you might as well develop something horrible for your flying enemy
to fly into at high speed, right?
I got really confused for a
minute, I was sure that Sneasel and Murkrow were version counterparts, they
certainly feel like version counterparts, both having started off at
single-stage Dark Types, one badass, one scruffy - but they weren’t version
counterparts in Gold & Silver. I was just about to write more lines taking
the piss out of the Mandela effect when I found that they were version
counterparts in FireRed & LeafGreen not Gold & Silver. I feel better now. Oh, version counterparts -
as I’ve manged to completely avoid talking about that subject so far and so
some might be confused - are simply two similar sets of ‘mons, one of which is
exclusive to each of the two versions of each game (so in this case Murkrow was
only catchable in Pokémon FireRed Version
and Sneasel only catchable in Pokémon
LeafGreen Version).
Anyway, Sneasel and
Weaville. They’re alright, Sneasel’s appeal, to me, lies in the fact that it’s
very much an original design, if told ‘it’s a weasel’ you can see it (even
though it’s technically based on the weasel-like yokai Kamaitachi) but it’s not
just a cartoon weasel, so imagine my surprise when the Space World Demo
revealed the proto-Sneasel was this thing:
Now that is, admittedly,
more like how the Kamaitachi is usually depicted (and indeed, more like a
weasel) but look how boring it is compared to the black cat-weasel with the
funny haircut we got in the end, it should act as a good illustration of why
being more original and less obviously a cartoon animal is considered
preferable by some fans (including, often, myself), Sneasel is cool,
Proto-Sneasel is boring, Weaville’s alright. I remember it as the least
memorable (work that out) of the Gen 4 evolutions; it looks like Sneasel has
evolved into an improvement on it’s former self (even though I think I prefer
Sneasel) – more claws, symmetrical ears, a headdress looking tging instead of
looking like it has a silly haircut and so on and looks suitably cool, and it’s
hard to look cool wearing a headdress so
good on it.
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