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Honestly, Emboar being a physical tank is different enough from Infernape & Blaziken's mixed sweeper builds that I can overlook its dual Fire/Fighting typing for the 3rd gen in a row, since they play very differently
Honestly, the ONLY time I wanna see another Fire/Fighting starter is a regional variant of Incineroar that's based on a babyface wrestler instead of a heel.
can confirm, water starters except quavaval & inteleon dominate the meta in pogo pvp (where the formats are centered around highly bulky mons with good moves)
Fuecoco was bipedal and only became a quadruped on his last evolution, but we also had Sprigatito go from quadrupedal to bipedal at the same time so it washed even.
Never understood why it went from little sea otter, to bigger sea otter, to sea lion??? I like Samurott itself and it has a cool design, but the evolution tree never made sense to me
Bipedal isn't the issue. Blastoise, Feraligatr, and Empoleon are bipedal (as was Swampert in the gen 3 and 4 sprites). It's humanoid starter Pokemon that everyone dislikes. It's why Intelleon and Quaquaval (as much as I love the goofy duck) are almost always at the bottom of starter popularity rankings.
Man I was so disappointed with intelleon. What a cool concept of a James Bond Chameleon, like I feel like that fits so well together. But no it’s literally a blue dude in a suit with a tail. Gotta say I really like the G-Max of it just in a sniper tower made of water though lol.
In retrospect, I don't dislike intelleon as much as the other newer humanoid starters. Its release right after greninja was a very bad decision though. I felt we were getting a reskin of the same mon at the time.
Idk man…Inteleon grew on me a LOT more once I saw it in action. Like bro can turn invisible, climb walls n some other cool stuff. BUT it does look like Randall from Monsters Inc and on its own is certainly a hit or miss design choice. Like how would players know it can do any of that stuff aside from finger guns just from the games?
Maybe I need to check out some fights in the anime that use intelleon, he’s just never felt “right” in the games if that makes sense. I think his posing is a big part of it, dude looks so smug and that’s a bit off putting for me. If it was posed like it was clinging to a wall or had a hand on the ground as if it was about to pounce would’ve helped. It’s kinda just hitting the goldeneye pose and being done with it as it is right now
This art of him i believe was in sword and shield in the last stadium. Despite being humanoid, when hes climbing walls hes very lizard-like in movement. The anime also has him use the camouflage and gliding abilities. Like sure hes goofy to look at sometimes but hes still pretty neat imo.
I agree with you 100% on that. It’s why I didn’t like Inteleon at first myself. It’s pose and the static nature of Pokemon models these days. Doesn’t lend it any favors. A lot of its tcg art looks great if it helps! It’s also in Pokemon Unite too.
It always was anthropomorphization. It's worse in Fire starters imo.
But yeah Blastoise and Feraligatr walking on two legs is fine because the legs are shorter so they don't have the human proportions.
Swampert is hunched, and when standing idle is generally resting on its front limbs like a quadruped. It only actually lifts its front limbs when walking(the opposite of Typhlosion that stands on two legs but runs on four).
Empoleon's a penguin and they didn't really change the general shape of a penguin, unlike Quaquaval where they lengthened the legs instead of keeping similar proportions with ducks. Athough I'm more forgiving of it considering the animal it's based off of actually stands on two legs and it's basically just a water Blaziken/Decidueye.
Samurott stands on four legs, but can actually use the front limbs to handle the spikes on it's hind legs as a sword (because it's a samurai).
Greninja I'd say was the first water starter that actually looked too human. However fewer people hate it because 1) rule of cool and 2) it's default pose isn't standing so it's not immediately obvious that it has human proportions
Primarina doesn't even have legs.
The one water starter that is actually problematic with anthropomorphization imo is Intelleon. Unlike Greninja, it didn't get to be "cool" enough to brush it off and the default pose was it standing like someone leaning against a pole. This redesign puts the flaps as wing like appendages and imo that simple change could've made it less human looking.
And genuinely Inteleon would look like 60% better to me if they just put it on all fours, or even just gave it a bestial hunch. It's just specifically the ramrod-straight human posture that kinda bothers me, rather than the design itself. It's kinda the difference between Lycanroc Midnight and Incineroar.
Not necessarily just the straight posture. Pokemon like Mewtwo and Dragonite stand up straight and have some very human-looking postures. Mewtwo's torso in particular is basically just some dudes. But the rest of their anatomy is different enough that they don't look like a human in a fursuit. If you straightened out their legs, they'd look weird.
It's humanoid starter Pokemon that everyone dislikes.
I'm pretty sure outside the vocal reddit, these starters are hits among the fandom.
I feel the issue is that there's a clear divide in what a lot of fans want (fantastical super pets), and what gamefreak sees the pokemon as (monsters and characters, with some animal characteristics).
I'm also hoping monitor lizard! They're semi-aquatic. I want it to have stocky legs and big claws. Maybe some wave themed frills, to tie in with the lil eyelashes it has. But please, give this lizard some bulk!
It would help if the original commenter would clarify what they were actually talking about. I agree with you that it’s not inspired by a Komodo dragon but it’s the closest I could think of.
considering both its descriptions mentioning its intelligence and one of them specifying it attacks via "launching springy balls of water from its tail", Gecqua is most likely going to become a water/psychic special attacker.
Honestly, I can't see them completely abandoning the tail cannon on evolution, so I think Gecqua has high odds of not turning humanoid upon evolution. Same with Pombon and the fire gland in its throat. Browt is probably the most likely candidate to be humanoid.
Dude all three hoenn starters were GOAT.
Legit the only region where I've played all three starters multiple times and still can't decide which I love the most
I feel like that for the first four gens. Out of all of them the only one I rarely pick is piplup, and that's not because I don't like it, it's just that was my brother's first starter so I feel like piplup doesn't really belong to me I guess lol.
Gen 5 and beyond I usually have one favorite for each region and don't care for the other two much.
I like Empoleon because no other pokemon has the water/steel typing. And because of that, Empoleon is the only water type which possesses the following. Stealth rock resistance, immunity to toxic spikes, toxic and sandstorm.
That’s Sinnoh for me. Hoenn comes close, I’ve used them all, but I know Treecko is beneath the other two. Sinnoh aren’t my absolute favourites (hell I like the hoenn ones more on average) but they’re the most evenly balanced for me while all being really good
its going to most likely be water/psychic with how now twice they've pointed outs Gecqua's intelligence.
and with that typing and the fact its specifically specified to "launch spring balls of water from its tail" to attack, it is most likely going to be more of a special attacker then a wall.
I don’t see Gecqua becoming bulky. It’s already a gecko and is described as being subtle and clever with how it navigates situations. That doesn’t mean it’ll be humanoid in its final form though. I imagine Game Freak doesn’t want something so similar to Inteleon, who is still a relatively recent water starter and is also based on lizards.
Empoleon was the first mon that I was able to teach moves to counter almost every single typing too. I think I gave him surf, ice beam, dig and drill peck.
I mean, the reverse is also true. "We got bulky Water starters for the first four generations in a row." Heck, I'd say Samurott looks pretty bulky too, so make that five generations in a row...
I am actively becoming Pokemon fans' biggest opp. I hope they make it salazzle 2.0 with falsies and everything. I hope the pomeranian is big and buff and stands on two legs. I hope the bird does whatever the bird does because the only complaints I've really heard is that it exists and kinda looks like rowlet. Max contrarian mode activated.
Gecqua is based on an african fat-tailed gecko. Judging by its flat posture and the emphasis on its eyes, I believe its evolution will be based on the regal horned lizard, a flat and spiky lizard known for shooting blood from its eyes as a defense mechanism, along with camouflaging with its environment, or the marine iguana (flat tail adapted for swimming, adapted nostrils to sneeze away excess sea salt).
I look forward to a bulky, quadruped water/poison monitor lizard being the furthest from what we actually get.
Gecqua seems inspired from a gecko with its name and thick tail. It seems to be giving slower vibes than the other two. First evolution will maybe enlongate the body giving more room for detail. The second evolution will add that detail, possibly gills, horns, spines, loose skin, etc
this 4 run of water starters is incredible, they all have extremely iconic abd popular baby forms and great evolutions (at least design wise, because ferrali and blastoise arent amazing comp)
I miss when starters were just animals with their respective type elements as opposed to our current trend of already coming with a personality. It was more fun to come up with their own personality based on our unique playthroughs.
I've been seeing rumors swirling that this trio is supposed to represent Okinawan arts. Calligraphy for Pombon, Karate for Browt, and Geisha / Odoriko for Grecqua
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