Little things you like about Pokémon

Things that have crossed my mind recently:

I really love how each Eeveelution has a completely different type, move sets, and stats. Each Eeveelution has a totally different role from each other, and they all have different identities: Glaceon is a bulky special attacker, Umbreon is a dedicated wall, Jolteon is a fast special attacker etc. Jolteon and Umbreon could never have the same roles as each other. In contrast, Pokemon like Gardevoir/Gallade and Slowbro/Slowking are very similar in role compression. Gardevoir and Gallade have the same stats except for Attack and Sp. Atk which are flipped, and both can compress a Psychic type that threaten Dark type. Slowbro and Slowking have the same stats, move pools, and abilities with the only actual difference being that their Defensive stats are swapped.

One thing that SwSh did very right: League Cards. These are really fun to customize since there are so many options for poses, backgrounds, effects, and that's not considering all the clothing and hair styles you can choose from. Its a real pleasure seeing all the different creations people come up with on Battle Stadium, and I always collect League cards of those who I trade/battle with.

There's a YouTuber who I follow called Jaiden Animations, and she is a big Pokemon fan, despite saying that Y, Moon, and Shield were trash she still loves Pokemon and will always plays them. ( She's a sheep like us ). Anyway, she just picked Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and explains why she loves this game to death, by comically explaining the whole plot, going further to call it the best Pokemon game. As someone who loves Pokemon Ranger, its great to see this series get talked about.


Finally, do you guys remember Pokemon Smile? That Toothbrush App for kids? Well, I looked up reviews on the App Store to see how the game was, and this is what I found:

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Yes, adults play this game, which surprisingly enough, has difficulty settings. The higher your age, the more difficult the game. Yes, a mobile game for 4 year olds has difficulty settings but the core RPGs does not.

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Yes, the target audience is complaining about this app, while the grown ups are not. I'm speechless and I love it!
 

Celever

i am town
is a Community Contributor
Things that have crossed my mind recently:

I really love how each Eeveelution has a completely different type, move sets, and stats. Each Eeveelution has a totally different role from each other, and they all have different identities: Glaceon is a bulky special attacker, Umbreon is a dedicated wall, Jolteon is a fast special attacker etc. Jolteon and Umbreon could never have the same roles as each other. In contrast, Pokemon like Gardevoir/Gallade and Slowbro/Slowking are very similar in role compression. Gardevoir and Gallade have the same stats except for Attack and Sp. Atk which are flipped, and both can compress a Psychic type that threaten Dark type. Slowbro and Slowking have the same stats, move pools, and abilities with the only actual difference being that their Defensive stats are swapped.

One thing that SwSh did very right: League Cards. These are really fun to customize since there are so many options for poses, backgrounds, effects, and that's not considering all the clothing and hair styles you can choose from. Its a real pleasure seeing all the different creations people come up with on Battle Stadium, and I always collect League cards of those who I trade/battle with.

There's a YouTuber who I follow called Jaiden Animations, and she is a big Pokemon fan, despite saying that Y, Moon, and Shield were trash she still loves Pokemon and will always plays them. ( She's a sheep like us ). Anyway, she just picked Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and explains why she loves this game to death, by comically explaining the whole plot, going further to call it the best Pokemon game. As someone who loves Pokemon Ranger, its great to see this series get talked about.


Finally, do you guys remember Pokemon Smile? That Toothbrush App for kids? Well, I looked up reviews on the App Store to see how the game was, and this is what I found:


Yes, adults play this game, which surprisingly enough, has difficulty settings. The higher your age, the more difficult the game. Yes, a mobile game for 4 year olds has difficulty settings but the core RPGs does not.


Yes, the target audience is complaining about this app, while the grown ups are not. I'm speechless and I love it!
This post made me try out Pokémon Smile this morning and honestly? It’s pretty fun! I cognisantly don’t brush properly because I get bored of it and want to do other things so I just do enough to keep em white, but I’m weak-minded so turning brushing my teeth into a video game is enough to keep my interest, and it only makes you brush each section of your teeth for 8 seconds or so before moving on. The only issue I had was my arm covered up the toothbrush when I brushed the left side of my mouth so the camera didn’t pick up on it (and I didn’t get to catch a Pokémon :( ) but it’s a technique I’ll refine the more I play.

Given the quality of Pokémon games in the last couple of years, I dare say this is their best outing in a while. Which perhaps speaks to the bar being low more than anything else but hey, I’m happy with it. Can’t wait for Pokémon Smile 2.
 
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I really like the Isle of Armor Move Tutors. For the first time in the series, there's a whole bunch of completely new moves added in the middle a generation. Not only that, but these moves can also be taught to a lot of different Pokémon instead of just being signature moves. I also noticed that there's exactly one move for every type, which is really cool. Most if not all of these moves also have very unusual and weird effects in battle. While it could be argued that most of them are gimmicky, I disagree. I think it shows that Game Freak are still capable of coming up with new and unexpected ideas for moves. I have also seen some of these new moves being put to good use in unexpected situations, which means that there's definitely ways to make good use of some of them.

Something else that I really like from Gen 8 is this: Galarian forms. And new evolutions to Galarian forms. First of all, I'm really happy that they are not limited to only Pokémon from Gen 1 because that is one thing I felt was dragging down the Alola forms. Unlike the Alolan forms, there isn't a single one I dislike or feel negative towards, and the only one that I think is less spectacular than the others is Slowpoke. Compared to the others which I would say are ranging from somewhere between great and amazing, Slowpoke is "only" okay. But it is Slowpoke after all, and I can't dislike it. I am also very happy that they continued with regional variants after Gen 7. I thought the regional variants in Gen 7 were a great concept but with an average execution, and I was afraid that it would be a one-time only thing that wouldn't be continued in Gen 8. But I was wrong about that, they continued with regional variants and I am so happy about it!

I wanted to share my thoughts on every Galarian form and evolution in more detail, but I decided to not do that right now. Maybe another time.

With all of that said... I think the Alolan forms deserve a bit of praise as well. While I don't think they are as great as the Galarian forms, and I have some more serious issues with (at least some of) them, they still deserve a bit of credit. They were the first regional variants after all, and if we see them as a sort of experiment, I think they were a good start for the whole concept of regional variants. Even so, I still really like 11/18 of the Alolan forms, which is over half of them.

Something else I thought of because I recently went back to playing White 2 again. I like how every single opposing trainer in B2/W2 has an animated sprite in battles. Unlike previous games like Platinum, HG/SS and B/W where it was limited to certain special trainers like Gym Leaders and rivals, they did it for every single trainer in B2/W2. I think that's really cool. On a similar note, I also like how they updated the trainer animations after battles in US/UM. Now all opposing trainers have an extra animation after the battle has ended, which they didn't have in S/M. That's also great.

Lastly, I want to give some praise to yet another game pair I like even if they aren't my top favorites. I have previously done this for D/P/P, X/Y, OR/AS and US/UM. Next up is FR/LG. I got the idea after some recent discussions in the annoyances thread. I really like FR/LG. I think they are not only good games but also good remakes as they improved upon R/B/Y and fixed several issues with the original Kanto games, just like any good remake should do. The Sevii Islands gave Kanto a better post-game with new fun areas to explore, and a bit of story too involving Team Rocket. I think the Sevii Islands were really great on the whole. The VS. Seeker was great for trainer rematches, it made training easy. The Fame Checker improved upon most of the major characters by giving some interesting tidbits and facts about them. It also kept everything collected in one place, and you could go back and re-read everything as many times as you wanted, which was neat. While FR/LG has some flaws, I think their positives outweigh their negatives by a wide margin. I think they are good games, definitely the ones I am playing when I want to go back to Kanto. I also think that they are underrated and underappreciated, it feels like they have never gotten the appreciation they deserve.
 
The fact that you find a Revive in Viridian Gym (strangely, FRLG are the only versions that lack this, though they put a hidden Macho Brace where Giovanni stood). It's a very subtle joke about Giovanni's plan there - to revive Team Rocket - in a franchise where those kinds of background jokes really aren't all that prominent.

In the French version of Pokemon Red, Blue (and presumably Yellow), the burglar Rocket will break the fourth wall if you don't have room for TM28:

Rocket: "Tu portes trop d'trucs! Je dois te donner ça avant d'fuir. C'est écrit dans l'histoire!"
Literal English translation: "You're carrying too much stuff! I must give it to you before I take off. It's written in the story!"

Similarly, one of the video games in the Celadon Department Store's TV Game Shop reads "An RPG! There's no time for that!" and in the Gen 1 games and Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, there is a sign on Route 17 that says "Don't throw the game, throw Pokè Balls instead!"

I just...like these random gags, they add charm to Kanto (the most well-known instances of fourth wall breaking are obviously the Game Freak employees generally scattered around all the games, though).
 
You guys know how Ultra Beasts almost exclusively use prime numbers for things like stats and the levels at which they learn moves?
Shoutouts to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which (obviously) placed heavy emphasis on Ultra Beasts and Ultra Space, for being released on the very last Friday until 2027 to have a date made exclusively of prime numbers: 11/17/2017.
Definitely the coolest release date in the series.
(This might or might not have been intentional, because it was also already the most natural release date for them to have - the closest Friday to a year after SM - and they did release LGPE and SwSh in roughly the same week, but it's really freaking cool either way.)
 

Pikachu315111

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You guys know how Ultra Beasts almost exclusively use prime numbers for things like stats and the levels at which they learn moves?
Shoutouts to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which (obviously) placed heavy emphasis on Ultra Beasts and Ultra Space, for being released on the very last Friday until 2027 to have a date made exclusively of prime numbers: 11/17/2017.
Definitely the coolest release date in the series.
(This might or might not have been intentional, because it was also already the most natural release date for them to have - the closest Friday to a year after SM - and they did release LGPE and SwSh in roughly the same week, but it's really freaking cool either way.)
Speaking of another cool thing about Ultra Beasts, while I already new this it's nice to see someone actually draw it out:

If you're having problems seeing what's being shown, all of normal Necrozma's parts are actually the non-lights bits of Ultra Necrozma reconfigured into a more "humanoid" shape:
  • Normal Necrozma's (NN) head protrusion (colored cyan) is actually the chest plate of Ultra Necrozma (UN).
  • NN's body (blue) is the top of UN's head.
  • NN's shoulders (yellow) are UN's bottom wings frame.
  • NN's arms (green) are UN's feet.
  • NN's legs (red) are UN's top wings frame.
Also all of Necrozma's parts are present on the possessed bodies of Solgaleo & Lunala but that's obvious as you see it happen in-game.

Another bit of strange trivia, the concept art for normal Necrozma has the label pointing to its head piece say its the "tail", even though Ultra Necrozma uses it as a chest piece. Now if you look at Ultra Necrozma's tail is does look similar, so either this concept art was an early draft before they made a design change or between SM & USUM they decided to swap the part to being a chest piece instead of tail. I can see either happening.
 
Seeing the similarities between the "tail" head and the final tail, it definitely seems like there were revisions to the design. Perhaps they wanted a more distinct front piece to help break up the light and it was originally meant ot be the, well, tail.

Wouldn't be surprised if there was a bunch of early drafts on how the Necrozma bits were made to fit together, i ngeneral. I think it's pretty neat how the fandom actually noticed this "break apart" nature before USUM were even a thing and there's a lot of art out there of how the final bit might've fit together, though those usually didn't account for the possibility of a "normal" body filling the bits between to the "split apart" cheat they do
 
As someone who was amazed at all the moveset improvements brought by move tutors back in Platinum, the SwSh TRs are an even better version. Being able to buy them, know exactly which dens drop which ones, and being dotted along the Isle of Armor lets them be easy to use without grinding. All the added moves are really put them into Awesomedom. Body Slam, Hydro Pump, Close Combat, Aura Sphere, Brave Bird, Hurricane, Play Rough, and more are all moves so many Pokemon needed and finally got.
 

Pikachu315111

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As someone who was amazed at all the moveset improvements brought by move tutors back in Platinum, the SwSh TRs are an even better version.
TRs was a pretty genius move on several levels:
  • It introduces 100 new "technical machines" on top of the normal 100 TMs allowing for more moves to be taught and given a wider distribution.
  • Instead of locking the more powerful TMs away for late game, now those moves can be made into one-use TRs and given out earlier. In addition TMs can now be given moves that have more utility, wider distribution, or immediate use in the main game.
  • They provide an item you'd want to spend the boatloads of Watts you get on (not that you really need to and they should have more things to spend Watts on but that's for an entire different discussion).
  • Likewise, they provide another reward from Max Raids which isn't just money fodder which makes Max Raids worth doing just to have a collection built up.
I can't imagine TRs will be going away, and I'm curious what more will be done with them in future games (especially if the Watt currency isn't kept around).

I think it's pretty neat how the fandom actually noticed this "break apart" nature before USUM were even a thing and there's a lot of art out there of how the final bit might've fit together, though those usually didn't account for the possibility of a "normal" body filling the bits between to the "split apart" cheat they do
It was a pretty clever hint on there being more to Necrozma than SM presents. A clue right there in front of you, mainly with the body looking like a dragon's head. That said, while I saw someone point it out early on before USUM so I knew of the head, I also thought the head was too big for all the parts of Necrozma than to form the rest of the body. I thought it was going to be a thing where Necrozma is just a few pieces of the "actual" Necrozma whose rest of its body would later be found and reconnects to, essentially normal Necrozma going "and I'll form the head!". Turns out the true Necrozma was inside it all along, it just needed to steal the light from Solgaleo & Lunala in order for it to come out.

You guys know how Ultra Beasts almost exclusively use prime numbers for things like stats and the levels at which they learn moves?
Except for Necrozma, oddly. Infact, while other media does just say its an Ultra Beast the main series games never says it is. According to the International Police, Pokedex, and Ultra Recon Squad it's only "Ultra Beast-like". And while it's normal form has all its stats being prime numbers, for some reason its fused form breaks this pattern by having its speed stat not being a prime (77 for Dusk Mane & Dawn Wings, 127 for Ultra). And they could have easily made it fit:

Dusk Mane:
Normal:
97/157/127/113/109/77//680
Adjusted (higher Speed): 97/157/127/113/107/79//680
Adjusted (lower Speed): 97/157/127/113/113/73//680

Dawn Wings:
Normal:
97/113/109/157/127/77//680
Adjusted (higher Speed): 97/113/107/157/127/79//680
Adjusted (lower Speed): 97/113/113/157/127/73//680

Ultra:
Normal:
97/167/97/167/97/129//754
Adjusted (higher Speed): 97/167/97/167/97/131//756
Adjusted (lower Speed): 97/167/97/167/97/127//752

So, yeah, them making its Speed stat in its other forms not a prime number was a deliberate decision. But if that is the case, why? What is Necrozma if not an Ultra Beast? The Cosmog family already starts stretching the definition of Ultra Beast outside the usual confines (they don't have Beast Boost as their Ability nor an aura when you battle them initially, though they still have prime numbers as their stats; BTW the whole "the levels for their learnset also follow prime numbers" thing gets dropped in SwSh). The only way I would buy Necrozma not being an Ultra Beast if it's also not a Pokemon. Just like them saying its "Ultra Beast-like", maybe it's also "Pokemon-like"; not technically a Pokemon but JUST enough like one where it's compatible at the very least. Necrozma is a construct of light, using the crystals it inhabits to have & maintain a physical form. That is why in its normal form its stats are all prime numbers, to show that it's alien, but when it has literally fused with another Ultra Beast there is one stat that isn't a prime number (to still show its an alien even to other Ultra Beasts). And I guess it would make sense that of all stats it would be Speed that would be different as that's the stat you probably would first associate with light.

I just love the way Furfrou's style changes based on your preference.
I wouldn't mind if they would separate the trim's pattern from the color so that we could mix & match those elements (and give us access to a wider range of color; also wouldn't mind more trims but those would have to be designed than just letting us pick from more colors). What would be really crazy if they let us choose what colors we want each part of its fur coat to be, and maybe also let us color parts of Natural Form. Of course now I'm going really off the rails and I think I got my point across.

I wanted to share my thoughts on every Galarian form and evolution in more detail, but I decided to not do that right now. Maybe another time.
*Crack knuckles* I'll give a whack at it, I'll also include the Alolan forms too:
Starting with Galarian:
  • Meowth/Perrserker: Neat reference to viking and the "viking cat", though not sure about the execution. Meowth no longer looks like Meowth but rather a furry troll and Perrserker, oddly enough, looks too much like Meowth for it to be an evolution. Plus with us getting an Alolan Meowth last gen giving it another seems a bit superfluous, though I guess it's a potential funny gag to look forward to in the anime.
  • Ponyta/Rapidash: Feel there's a lot of missed opportunity. Looks pretty, but with them giving Ponyta a horn I think Rapidash should have been given at least a small pair of wings. Also Rapidash eyes look off having a pupil. Also Ponyta should have either been part of full Fairy, feels like the only reason its not was so Bede could have it on his team when he was a Psychic-type trainer.
  • Slowpoke/Slowbro: Slowpoke barely changes anything aside the odd removal of Water-type. Slowbro is more interesting and I like it though kind of feel they need to better explain why the Shellder attached to its hand instead (I'm guessing the cufflink you give it went around Slowpoke's front leg and the scent of it attracted the Shellder?). Curious to see what they do with Slowking.
  • Farfetch'd/Sirfetch'd: For Farfetch'd I like the idea. What happens if the leek that Farfetch'd carries is too heavy for it to fly? A small conceptual change but they ran with it by saying it remains grounded and learned to more rely fighting with it hence the Type change. Because of that Sirfetch'd kind of feels like it comes out of left field but guess the idea is that it gets so good at fighting it chooses to use its strength to help others, stripping its leak so that the "blade" now stands straight and tall while the leftover bits it weaves into a shield to help it better guard.
  • Weezing: Love it both design wise and conceptually. Galar become so polluted it became hard to find food, so being a Poison-type it becan eating the pollution instead. But this came with its own problems like it getting too inflated (thus risk of blowing up) so developed a smoke stack structure to remove excess air. However that also let go of the chemicals it was now feeding on so needed to make itself "vulnerable" to the poisonous chemicals so that it keeps it in its body while only releasing clean air from its smoke stack, hence it became part Fairy. And to top it off the green smog sticks on Weezing's face to show both its a messy eater but also looks like a bushy mustache, beard, and eyebrows you usually see depicted on factory business owners during the industrial revolution.
  • Mr. Mime/Mr. Rime: Goes from being a psychic mime creating invisible barriers to an icy tap dancers which taps using icy shoes. An interesting switch of concept, especially now that it breaks apart barriers with its tap dancing instead of setting it up which I guess was the "switch up" question. Mr. Rime is just a delight and MUCH approved on from Galarian Mr. Mime in design (though the emoting belly is kind of creepy, but then again it wouldn't be the Mr. Mime family if it didn't have some creep factor to it).
  • Bird Trio: A bit early but I think we know enough to give a quick opinion. I like what they did with Articuno, being more obtuse with the term "freezing" not just something Ice-types can do. Zapdos I'm half/half on; I like the concept of them looking at a different meaning of "thunder" as just a loud sound instead of something part of electricity though I feel should have lost the Flying-type and became Ground. Moltres I just don't get; it's just an evil Moltres and the only thing I can think from that is X-Men's Dark Phoenix (I guess it maybe was more focusing on the "smoke" aspect but if that's the case they didn't emphasize it enough).
  • Corsola/Cursula: *Sigh* I like the concept though also hate it as it reminds me how much selfish, shortsighted corperations are messing up the planet and there's little if nothing being done to reverse it cause all the leaders are in bed with the corporations... MOVING ON.
  • Zigzagoon/Linoone/Obstagoon: So what came first, Team Yell or Galarian Zigzagoon? Cause you can't say Piers design isn't based on Obstagoon, but I can only see the reason they picked the Zigzagoon line is because they already had thought up of Team Yell. Guess it's maybe a multi-step thing. Also I don't like the "it's the original Zigzagoon!"; as if they didn't have enough confidence in people liking it so tried hyping it up. But if the new Zigzagoon family are supposed to be punks then wouldn't it be better if they were a divergent species from the normal Zigzagoon family and not the other way around? Despite all this, I love it. How can you not? Their metalhead KISS badgers. Obstagoon feels like its a major jump from Linoone but for the aesthetic I'm fine with it.
  • Darumaka/Darmanitan: I like we got a snowman Pokemon and I think it was a creative change how they did it (even if Darumaka looks like its suffering which doesn't fit what their Pokedex description says about it), but this is the 2nd Fire-type they changed to an Ice-type which feels a bit strange (and both the same reason why, their fire sac atrophied in a colder climate). But for giving us demented infernal snowman Zen Mode Darmanitan it's forgivable.
  • Yamask/Runerigus: I like it. I think the idea change from "a Pokemon sad that its dead and so carries around its face" to "a ghost Pokemon sad that its cursed for possessing a cursed tablet" (they even gave it an extra tear drop to show its extra sad about being dead AND cursed). And instead of Cofagrigus hunting down people to turn them into mummies, Runerigus is technically the cursed tablet having fully absorbed Yamask's soul giving itself life... so it can spread the terrible memories connected to the visage it displays. The hunter became the hunted only so a new hunter could use its life. Well aside that I liked they made the runestone Pokemon.
  • Stunfisk: Instead of an electric landmine it's now a bear trap, alright. Still a Stunfisk. And I don't get why it's the Pokemon they gave the Terrain Type changing gimmick to instead of, say, a Galarian Castform. I kind of feel a Pokemon based on a bear trap could have made for a more interesting Pokemon.
Now onto Alolan:
  • Rattata/Raticate: I like how the change to them was done not because of something the species chose to do but was forced to do to ignore being predated by the Yungoos family. And while this just resulted in an appearance change for Rattata, for Raticate since it changed how their social structures worked (Raticates now act as a boss to Rattata minions and thus doesn't need to move around much anymore but still ate as much as it did before if not moreso) it became fat. I like A-Rattata's design more than A-Raticate but I can't argue with the storytelling.
  • Raichu: Like the idea, wish they didn't go with the stupid "it must be pancakes!" explanation. What's wrong with just saying Raichu adapted to island life by surfing on their tails, eventually learned to use electromagnetic fields to do so over land, and to save on electrical power eventually developed Psychic powers to mentally lift itself? You had Hau being obsessed over malasada, you didn't need Raichu to also be a sweet tooth junky. Just cause its one of his signature Pokemon doesn't mean the species has to share an interest with him.
  • Sandshrew/Sandslash: I like it. I especially love Sandshrew's igloo/ice puck design, that's a genius combination there. And though Sandslash doesn't share that it does gain an intimidation factor with those giant icicle spikes and icepick claws.
  • Vulpix/Ninetales: I like how they gave its long fur and tail a more wispy mystical appearance, playing more into the Kistune theme that Ninetales mentions but doesn't really do much with aside getting a few Ghost-type moves. Infact making it a Fairy instead of a Ghost works even better as I never really saw Kistune's as ghosts but as merely otherwordly creatures. Very good designs on top of what were already good designs.
  • Diglett/Dugtrio: Like, I guess giving them hair was really the only thing they could do with them (well, aside from showing us what their body looks like). Plus the "hair" is actually a reference to a natural phenomenon in Hawaii concerning strands of cooled magma that has cultural significance. I used to love the design but I think the anime REALLY digging into the joke kind of ruined it for me, but I still like the silliness when it's not heavily pointed out.
  • Meowth/Persian: I feel this works better than Galarian Meowth cause it does ask a "twist" question. Galarian Meowth is was just vikings used to take cats along with them so they chose a cat Pokemon to have a viking basis. But with Alolan Meowth & Persian they thought "instead of being scrappers what if they were REALLY spoiled". Turns out the already frisky Pokemon turns to a Dark-type with a superiority attitude. A-Meowth's design is fine, essentially a palette swap. I know A-Persian's design I know has a lot of Garfield joke connected to it, and while I like normal Persian's appearance more, I don't dislike A-Persian as it gets across the spoiled appearance more (like with A-Raticate, it was allowed to be lazy so got chubby, though unlike A-Raticate the chubbiness was considered a positive trait so purposely bred to keep the feature even if its body is still relatively sleeker).
  • Geodude/Graveler/Golem: Really the entire line was an excuse to give Golem a railgun to shoot Geodudes out of, and can you really say that's a bad thing? Okay, the facial "hair" is ridiculous, though I also get the reasoning its there to show you it's not more highly magnetic and so is drawing in metallic filament. It's fine and let's you now imagine Golem having a funny Russian accent while shooting off Geodudes as if missiles from a nuclear wessel.
  • Grimer/Muk: While I think Galarian Weezing did the "Poison-type actually helping clean the environment" idea better, it's not badly executed here. Grimer & Muk eat garbage so people use it as clean-up crew, makes sense to me. The crystals it forms from eating too much garbage is a bit of a stretch thought it allows it to now use biting and scratching moves so fine (especially now being a Dark-type so can use Crunch and Night Slash; though if its being used to clean up garbage why is it now a Dark-type?). However I do have to give credit to the sludge design, while at first the green & yellow goop of Grimer and the brightly colored layers of Muk may seem random its a reference to real life pollution: the green & yellow goop is a reference to brake fluid and radiator coolant (especially when you car starts leaking it) and the rainbow layers is an effect oil slicks show when combined with water.
  • Exeggutor: IT WAS ONLY FUNNY ONCE, GF! And that once was with Alolan Exeggutor. I used to like Alolan Exeggutor, it being super tall and skinny was a funny visual and reference to real life coconut trees, especially the one Alolan Exeggutor was based on that was the reason it changed to part Dragon. But now all I can see it as being a catalyst of GF's obsession that, now that the games are in a 3D space, the way to make something "impressive" is by making it TALL! No, GF, it doesn't work like that. Infact, by making more things ridiculously tall you took away what made Alolan Exeggutor special and now its just a Exeggutor that's been stretched too long. Like I guess it also has that fourth face on its tail now, but that's just weird and raises questions I don't think we want to ask.
  • Marowak: Being Alola was based on Hawaii it was wondered if some of its unique traditions would be represented as Pokemon, one being the fire dance and I'm glad to say they delivered on this one. It's quite brilliant how they transitioned Marowak from a bipedal reptilian Pokemon that just used a bone for a club to it now lighting the bone on fire and using it to do the fire dance. It becoming Fire-type was obvious, though the Ghost-type was surprising but I guess they wanted to add the symbology of the fire dance also into the design and with Cubone's backstory it wasn't hard to fit them together. Still not sure the reason for the change makes sense, Marowak became Fire/Ghost to protect against its initial predators which sounds like would have been a Grass or Ice-type of some kind but instead says it was Mandibuzz. I get Mandibuzz is a bone collector but becoming a Fire/Ghost doesn't really help with that aside its STABS now hitting it. Think a better predator would have been Lurantis as, not only is it a new Pokemon, but it's a Grass-type that also uses Bug moves, both Types which a Fire/Ghost would be good against. Oh well, I guess whatever to get us a creative fire dancer still works.
 
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Pikachu315111

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Technically Naganadel's Speed isn't a prime number either, just wanted to throw that out there.
Well, I guess there goes my theory... or maybe not...

Both Necrozma and Poipole seemingly come from Ultra Megalopolis (or at the very least for Necrozma made it a world it that it would inhabit), so maybe a connection there? Poipole still shows the signs of being an Ultra Beast until it evolves, which itself is an oddity for Ultra Beasts (that we know of). Maybe Necrozma's meddling in Ultra Megalopolis has resulted in a change within the Poipole species, giving it an evolution (a Type that's the same as the one Ultra Necrozma gains) and to show the relation the evolution's Speed stat also no longer is a prime number. Still an Ultra Beast, but one that has been altered.

But what about Alolan Marowak? I don't see that one.
Fix'd.
 
Necrozma's 127 Speed is prime already! That's not one that needs to be corrected, haha. (I think you probably remembered someone mentioning Naganadel's Speed in the past and just attributed it to the wrong one - they're similar-looking numbers.)
EDIT: ignore me - why did I think it was 127? I'm sorry
Necrozma also learns Photon Geyser at level 50 in USUM, which is another example, and then of course Sword and Shield just threw out the prime-numbered level-up pattern in the first place no fun allowed, I see.
But yeah, Necrozma and Naganadel were the two specific examples I had in mind when I said "almost all," and... I do not think there was any deliberate meaning behind it as a connection between the two, especially with Necrozma going back to all primes after Ultra Burst.
I think they were just confused - both of them are still semiprimes and multiples of 11, and they're both exactly ten points away from other prime numbers... honestly, I think it would be easy enough to say they just made a mistake.
Since Naganadel already has a lower BST than the other Ultra Beasts but also is already Uber, I wouldn't be surprised if it initially had 131 and then had to be nerfed, but they forgot to account for the prime number motif and just wanted it to have a round BST.
 
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Necrozma's 127 Speed is prime already! That's not one that needs to be corrected, haha. (I think you probably remembered someone mentioning Naganadel's Speed in the past and just attributed it to the wrong one - they're similar-looking numbers.)
Necrozma also learns Photon Geyser at level 50 in USUM, which is another example, and then of course Sword and Shield just threw out the prime-numbered level-up pattern in the first place no fun allowed, I see.
But yeah, Necrozma and Naganadel were the two specific examples I had in mind when I said "almost all," and... I do not think there was any deliberate meaning behind it as a connection between the two, especially with Necrozma going back to all primes after Ultra Burst.
I think they were just confused - both of them are still semiprimes and multiples of 11, and they're both exactly ten points away from other prime numbers... honestly, I think it would be easy enough to say they just made a mistake.
Since Naganadel already has a lower BST than the other Ultra Beasts but also is already Uber, I wouldn't be surprised if it initially had 131 and then had to be nerfed, but they forgot to account for the prime number motif and just wanted it to have a round BST.
...Naganadel's speed is 121.
Nagandel's special attack is 127.


Considering naganadel's speed is so specific I wouldn't be surprised if 121 was just them not double checking if it was prime

e: Bad case of naganadel on the brain here
 
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...Naganadel's speed is 121.
Nagandel's special attack is 127.

Considering naganadel's speed is so specific I wouldn't be surprised if 121 was just them not double checking if it was prime
Yeah, I was saying that Ultra Necrozma's Speed (which is 127) is prime, but Pikachu had probably mixed it up with Naganadel's (which is not prime) when he said that it wasn't. If you look up at his post, he tried to correct Ultra Necrozma's stat spread to accommodate for that (by changing it to another prime number) - I was pointing out that that one wasn't wrong in the first place.
I think we're on the same page here!
 
Yeah, I was saying that Ultra Necrozma's Speed (which is 127) is prime, but Pikachu had probably mixed it up with Naganadel's (which is not prime) when he said that it wasn't. If you look up at his post, he tried to correct Ultra Necrozma's stat spread to accommodate for that (by changing it to another prime number) - I was pointing out that that one wasn't wrong in the first place.
I think we're on the same page here!
Oh whoops! Had full naganadel on the brain here, my bad
 

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Yeah, I was saying that Ultra Necrozma's Speed (which is 127) is prime, but Pikachu had probably mixed it up with Naganadel's (which is not prime) when he said that it wasn't. If you look up at his post, he tried to correct Ultra Necrozma's stat spread to accommodate for that (by changing it to another prime number) - I was pointing out that that one wasn't wrong in the first place.
I think we're on the same page here!
No, I knew what I was saying. Yes, normal Necrozma's Speed is a prime but not when it fuses or becomes Ultra Necrozma.

Normal Necrozma's stats are meant to show its as alien as the Ultra Beasts. HOWEVER upon fusing with an Ultra Beast its Speed stat doesn't remain a prime, which could be re-enforcing what the game has been saying that despite it now being fused to an Ultra Beast, even then Necrozma isn't a full Ultra Beast (as my original theory stated).

My point with Naganadel is that, due to (Ultra) Necrozma's influence upon the world, it caused a change within the Poipole species somehow that made it reflect some of the off attributes that (Ultra) Necrozma shows, particularly it's now part Dragon-type and its Speed stat is no longer a prime.
 

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