Pokémon Hate to Great

A big one for me was Torkoal. I'd always thought of it as just another lackluster filler Pokemon they made just to bring the numbers up and never saw myself using it seriously. Then I recieved a Torkoal for a Scramble challenge on Pokemon Emerald. It was hard to raise at first, but its strong Fire-type attacks (Compared to what else there was available) and good defences cemented it as one of my faves.
 
I'm a bit of a poke-hipster, see? I used to love Scizor, but then everyone in DPT had one, and it ruined the magic. Fast forward to B/W and everyone has a Ferrothorn. I HATED Ferrothorn. The fugly turd kept walling everything I threw out, and everybody had one. Then I used it since it was the only pokemon to complete my team's synergy and... oh, I knew that Gyroball was the new best way to kill a dragon.
 
For me its Lucario. He was way too popular and showed up in everything else every since. It doesn't help that he's one of the top pokemon too. I feel like Gamefreak plastered its face everywhere and it bugged me.

Then comes Black 2 and I raised a Riolu from scratch. I ended up liking the Lucario and it became my best pokemon in that game. It gets bonus points too since I named it "Halford." I guess I did warm up to Lucario in the end. Still don't like him in Smash Bros. though.
 
For me, it was Conkeldurr. I didnt see the appeal it had. It just looked so ugly and I thought Terrakion was superior to it as a Fighting-type. But then I tried it on my first OU team (waaay back in BW1 metagame) and it hit like a freaking truck. I have far more respect for Conkeldurr now.
 
For me, Tyranitar and Garchomp. I hated those two because they were almost in every team I played nintendo wifi, after some time I tried their sand + skill combo and it was awesome to destroy those trucks full of Lati@s on nintendo wifi.

Normally, my first reaction on popular pokemons was to hate them, maybe a hipster heart was beating on my chest. Not anymore ;)
 
Chespin. When the starters were first announced, I dismissed Chespin as the worst of the bunch, thinking that it was a boring design; a chipmunk with a grass hat just to make it grass typing. While that is still true to some extent, I think Chespin is adorable, goofy-looking, and has a much better design than Froakie, and is more original than Fennekin.
 

Governess

A Beautiful Blossom Waiting to Bloom
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@ Celever, well said. ^-^

Swoobat: I thought it was a total disgrace of a Flying-type. Not only did its looks push me away, but I never saw anything great about it.

Then, I got swept by one while laddering with Calm Mind, which doubled its boost due to Simple, and I found myself in love with the oversize-nosed bat :o
 
I would have to say Cobalion. It wasn't so much as hate as it was the fact that it didn't really stand out to me compared to its musketeer brethren. That is until it received stealth rock in B2/W2, which I learned that it makes a solid check to physically based dragons and a surprisingly effective mixed attacker.
 

Molk

Godlike Usmash
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Hmmmmm tbh i'd have to say Alomomola and Ferroseed. During the beginning of the BW2 Nidoqueen metagame i really hated using them and even went as far as to actively tell people they were bad and suggest better alternatives. But lately i've been really loving both of them. Alomomola for her massive physical bulk, Regenerator, and massive Wishes, and Ferroseed for its ability to threaten both of RU's spinners, physical bulk, spikes, and various resistances. In Alomomola's case especially, i can't even believe there was a time i didn't like it, she's great!
 

Hulavuta

keeps the varmints on the run
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When I was younger, I didn't really like Venusaur, but after reading the Pokemon Adventures manga, I started to really like it. It is probably my favorite starter overall at this point. :)

Slowbro as well, for sort of a weird reason. Somehow seeing how good he was in competitive play made his design look cooler to me, idk lol
 
Slowbro as well, for sort of a weird reason. Somehow seeing how good he was in competitive play made his design look cooler to me, idk lol
I think that discovering a monsters usefulness in competitive play is the biggest factor in changing someone's mind from hating it to loving it. This has happened a bunch of times for me at least, and I've seen this theme repeated here.

Shiftry for me is one that jumps to mind straight away. I just couldn't get into its design with that Pinocchio nose and those arms that look as though they can't move. But after using it on a sun team and discovering that it can out-speed and kill Tyranitar (Low Kick), Politoed (Leaf Storm), and tons of dragons with HP Ice thanks to out-speeding them with a Chlorophyll boost, I am in love with it. It also helps that it murders Lati@s thanks to Sucker Punch.
 
Elgyem and Beeheeyem for me. At first glance I thought they were based off of SCP-173 (which at the time freaked me the hell out), as I thought the lines on their foreheads were their upper faces and their eyes were their lower faces, specifically their teeth. Then I realized my mistake, and now I think they look awesome.
 
My premier example is, oddly enough, Serperior. When it was leaked the image had poor quality (Giving it a much more pale colouring) and I found (And still find) its stock artwork pose underwhelming. At first, I thought it destroyed Snivy's evolutionary line. Now I think it's even better than Servine to make an amazing evolutionary line overall... but I still think it's a mix between a snake and a peeled banana . Seriously, if it were green inside and white outside (Mimicking a real snake's moulting) I would have applauded its reveal since day one

Other than that... only cases of at first forgettable (Not necessarily disliked) pokémon becoming favourites. Lairon and Vibrava are such examples: It took a considerable amount of time for me to realize how cute they were (The sprites didn't help, with the exception of Vibrava's Gen IV sprites)
 
Ohh god it has to be Zubat. Or rather, the Zubat evolutionary line. I'd always hate it how it'd make me hit myself almost all the time when I faced it (even worse against Golbat because of C-Ray; I think battling Agatha made me hate confusion for the rest of my life, lol), and then I'd use it and it'd be incredibly underwhelming. It was the same in my first runs on GSC of course, even though Crobat looked cool I just couldn't by arsed to actually level it up.

Then I went ahead and played my first game of Ruby (on my computer, since I didn't have a GBA), and I caught a green Zubat. Of course it was freaking ugly, but I was determined to make it work, so I even used the Steel Wing TM on it. Then, after a really rough time, I had a Lv. 29 Pink Crobat. Of course, it still wasn't amazing, but I really liked it anyway and gave it Fly :p . Afterwards, every time I'd play GSC I'd try to get Crobat even if it was annoying, simply because of how cool his design seemed.

I think I probably don't have that saved file because of how many times I had to format my computer, but that pink Crobat has got to be my favorite Pokemon. Even though its EVs were probably really messed up because I didn't even know how that worked at the time. I'm also not sure if it wasn't my first shiny, discounting Gyara of course, but it was definitely one of the first three, so that adds a few points, lol.

I still think RBY Zubat/Golbat has got to be one of the most retarded things ever, lol, but that's just my opinion.

Also that smiley is just stupid. Didn't realize at first.
 

Celever

i am town
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Benches. It always frustrated me how benches would be put into pokemon games but you could only stand on or near them.
Now you can sit on them and it's a whole different story.
Why are people liking this? I was being serious! :(
 

biggie

champ
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Ernesto's got the right idea. The whole Zubat line frustrated me to no end when I started playing. Running into one of those fuckers every 2 steps in Red was infuriating! Then I got the idea to capture one and turn the frustrating tables on the game (11 year old me was so smart), but alas they were just as frustrating to use! It wasn't until I took a trip back to Gen I in Fire Red that I was able to appreciate the bats (and wing attack) for the great creatures that they were.
 
Hmm let me see... Gliscor! That stupid crybaby in the anime really annoyed me with his stupid voice and his eyes tearing up every second!! But after playing competitively in OU, I have really come to like the (annoying) Toxic Orb, Poison Heal, Substitute, Sword Dancing a couple of times then killing everyone with Earthquake and Brick Break. I also love it's design because I am a Scorpio and its like a gliding scorpion how cool is that !!
 
Oh god, the Mega Evolutions. At first it was by far the single worst idea I thought GameFreak had ever come up with, and many of them look way, WAY too busy. Then we realized that A) they're more like formes, B) they're temporary, and C) I could opt out of them. Now I'm okay with the concept as a whole.
 

dwarfstar

mindless philosopher
Trubbish is my zero-to-hero Pokemon. When it was first revealed, it looked completely ridiculous, and I was still pissed off over the news that none of the old Pokemon would be available in-game until after you beat the League challenge, so I dismissed it as just another shitty thing that didn't deserve to see the light of day. That changed a few months later when I saw a screenshot of a smiling Trubbish from an episode of the anime that had just aired in Japan, and its goofy expression actually made me laugh out loud. I went and looked up pictures of Trubbish, and I found myself thinking that it looked ridiculous in a cute way, like Stunfisk or Psyduck. In addition, Trubbish is a very eco-friendly Pokemon - it goes around eating all the trash it finds, beautifying its environment and removing substances that could potentially poison other organisms in the area. Being a hippie green-freak myself, that idea appealed to me greatly, and I've grown to love the little guy. If only its evo wasn't such an eyesore...
 
Camerupt is easily my top hate to great pokemon. I remember thinking that both it and Numel were incredibly ugly designs, which is saying something since RSE have the best designs IMO. To add insult to injury, they were the only other new fire-types introduced in the region besides Torchic and Torkoal, limiting my options. But when I went ahead and used it in Ruby, I fell in love with it. It was strong, had good moves, and was fast enough to outrun what I needed it too in-game. I plan on using them again once RS remakes are announced, updated movepool and all!
 
For me it was... Oh god... Mewtwo! When I was little I used to hate him because I thought he was "ugly" but afterwards I got to looking closer and BAM! I noticed he had the best design out of all pokemon and became my favorite pokemon. Then toxicroak happened. He was also a hate to great with the same exact scenario. Now toxicroak is my favorite pokemon and mewtwo is in close second.
 
I don't think there's any that I've ever outright hated. Sure, there's plenty that I find annoying for one reason or another, but nine times out of ten if I never use something on my team it's because I'm either completely indifferent to them or forget they even exist. Like, there are days where I can't remember if Gorebyss is the one with the straw for a mouth, the one that looks like a Chinese parade float, or something I just dreamed up.

Heatran is a turn-around for me, though. There was a time I was opposed to having Ol' Furnace Face on any team because he was absol-lutely everywhere. Like, if someone was in the Rate My Team forum and asked for a 6th member of a team that didn't already have one, it was the knee-jerk suggestion every time, as if there was a team-building flowchart somewhere and Tran was at the top. The hipster in me just couldn't allow something that popular to bump elbows with my sorta-popular favorites, even if they didn't even have elbows. But eventually I told the neckbeard devil on my shoulder to take a hike and tried him out, and I finally understood the hype. He lends himself well to stall teams, which I always gravitate to, and he's got a good mix of being menacing but also kinda goofy with those interlocking blocky teeth.
 

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