So this:
Though, with that said, we did have Po Town in Alola which was pretty much being in a rundown part of the city run by a gang.
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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
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Though, with that said, we did have Po Town in Alola which was pretty much being in a rundown part of the city run by a gang.
"I've been thinking ever since all that trouble in Geosenge. Lysandre chose only Team Flare. You and I chose everyone but Team Flare. But since our positions forced our hands, you can't really say any of us were right. That's why I feel that... If both sides have something to say, maybe it's best to meet halfway... So, I made a decision... From now on, I don't want to battle just to win but to see how you and your Pokémon think and feel! That's the kind of Pokémon Battle I'm going to have with you right now!" -Serena, XY. Calem's version is worded slightly differently, but the meaning is the exact same.
This is genuinely one of the most baffling and inept lines I have seen in not just Pokemon, but any script ever period and I am utterly astounded it doesn't live in greater infamy considering how people (rightfully) love to shit on XY's plot. This isn't a throwaway either, this is Calem/Serena's big final speech before your last main story battle with them, the culmination of their adventure and their ultimate takeaway from all of it.
We should've met halfway with the genocidal god complex man. Fucking brilliant.
This is genuinely one of the most baffling and inept lines I have seen in not just Pokemon, but any script ever period and I am utterly astounded it doesn't live in greater infamy considering how people (rightfully) love to shit on XY's plot. This isn't a throwaway either, this is Calem/Serena's big final speech before your last main story battle with them, the culmination of their adventure and their ultimate takeaway from all of it.
We should've met halfway with the genocidal god complex man. Fucking brilliant.
Remind me to rename my Xerneas "Nazi lives don't matter" and sweep her team next.
In RBY, when you go to max level, the menu goes from saying "L99" to "100". The extra character eats the level symbol
Oh jeez. I'm glad I forgot about that! What Professor Sycamore said about Lysandre, well here is the full quote:
Now everyone berates Sycamore for sympathizing with Lysandre and tries to take the blame for him, which is certainly an issue as what Lysandre did was not Sycamore's fault, but I at least get why Sycamore is doing it. Him and Lysandre were close friends, he saw Lysandre's ambitions, but he never spoke to him about it so feel's guilty and thought "if I only had that one conversation with Lysandre I kept putting off this wouldn't have happened". Not sure if that would be true, but doesn't matter know and it still shouldn't be a responsibility on Sycamore's shoulder for Lysandre's actions.Sycamore said:
But he also doesn't condone Lysandre's actions. He thanks the player for stopping him (and "saving" Lysandre which is "eh". The only thing I would have been saving Lysandre from would him possibly not liking the world he created and being trapped in it; I and most others couldn't care less what happened to Lysandre, we were focused on saving everyone else). He does questionably play into Lysandre's population fear though tries subverting it by suggesting if there's nothing to share there would also be nothing to steal (once again "eh". I feel Shauna's response of "even if there isn't a lot I would still share" is a better response as it goes right against Lysandre's thinking of everyone is selfish by Shauna showing she isn't. I feel a better response from Sycamore would be its a concern for world leaders but, at the moment, it's not the world we live in thus we have enough to share with on another; and maybe if we do that Lysandre's fear would never come to fruition). And then he finishes by saying he wanted Lysandre to be a better person by putting his ego aside. Thinking about it sounds like Sycamore was just going through the stages of grief that Lysandre was bad.
Denial: "And by stopping Team Flare, you also saved Lysandre. I always knew that he desired a beautiful world..."
Anger: "And maybe someday the population of people and Pokémon will actually increase to where resources become very scarce. If someone acts out of greed in such a world, surely some will go without."
Bargaining: "If all living things keep acting that way, there will be nothing left at all in the end. Why, there won't even be anything left to steal, will there?"
Depression: "But what I really wanted was for him to put his ego aside and lead everything to greater heights."
Acceptance: "I never had this discussion with him, though. So I'm partially responsible for this"
Anger: "And maybe someday the population of people and Pokémon will actually increase to where resources become very scarce. If someone acts out of greed in such a world, surely some will go without."
Bargaining: "If all living things keep acting that way, there will be nothing left at all in the end. Why, there won't even be anything left to steal, will there?"
Depression: "But what I really wanted was for him to put his ego aside and lead everything to greater heights."
Acceptance: "I never had this discussion with him, though. So I'm partially responsible for this"
But what they have the other player character says is downright wrong. I don't even know a way to spin that where I could potentially see the message they were trying to give. And the rival had no connection with Team Flare so there's not even the "skewed personal" angle that Sycamore at least had, who still said Lysandre was wrong. Gotta break this down:
1. No one forced Lysandre's hand. He formed Team Flare for the sole purpose of culling people he found acceptable to help him commit genocide. He had ALL the chances not to choose genocide, he owned a multi-millionaire technology company (and some media showed him directly contributing toward humanitarian efforts), but he did. His back wasn't against the wall, if he didn't do this he and those he care about wouldn't have been harmed, he did this because he drove himself insane over a hypothetical dystopian future.
2. Yes, our position was forced... BECAUSE THEY WERE GOING TO KILL US! They were going to kill everyone! Now, if you want to get technical we did have another choice: let them kill us and everyone. Does that option help clear your weirdly conflicted conscious, rival? Are you feeling guilty over not dying and saving everyone?! It's not like we killed Team Flare, the only Team Flare member who might be dead is Lysandre and he would have done himself in (and, BTW, if any other Flare member died it would have also been because of Lysandre causing the UW to collapse into itself). Heck, no one was also forcing you to come with us and stop Team Flare, heck, let's be honest, Shauna did more than you to help by opening the door! What did you do, fight a few admins? My team was blasting through them anyway and there was no countdown, so I didn't need the battling help. So I'm assuming you were with us because you made the choice to fight against Team Flare because you disagreed with dying because you're not part of Team Flare... Did you want the choice of being part of Team Flare? If Lysandre gave us the option would you have joined him? Or did you want the option just so you could say "no", thus you had a "choice" in whether you were against Team Flare?... Did you take a batch of Confuse Ray from a Zubat Horde Encounter?
Half way... HALF WAY!? THEY. WANTED. TO. KILL. EVERYONE. The only "half way" with that would be just killing HALF the world population... Thanos. Seriously I don't know what other takes of this line could be aside the rival advocating we should have just let Team Flare kill half of the population. WTF? Maybe the rival did want to be part of Team Flare and is just miffed Lysandre never gave us the offer.
... I'm sorry did I miss a paragraph or two? What does this have ANYTHING to do with you deciding Team Flare didn't do anything wrong and we should have let them kill half the planet? Wait... are you upset that I keep beating you? Did you really tell me you had a dark series of thoughts about Team Flare maybe being justified... because you couldn't beat me in Pokemon battles. And it wasn't until the end that your superego came back from break, saw what you're ego was making you think, and slapped it across the face and took back the controls? Rival, KEEP THAT TO YOURSELF! I too have had plenty of bad thoughts over minor things until my superego took back the reigns, but I don't tell people about it because they would think I was insane for thinking of it in the first place.
Okay, is this was meant to be the rival trying to find a personal meaning behind all that Team Flare did, it went WAY OFF target. First off, nothing Flare did have anything to do with Pokemon battles, so trying to lazily connect them is just dumb. Anything involving what Team Flare did should pretty much be about a look how we treat other, thinking over the selfish and charitable decisions we've made, and thinking ways we can not better just ourselves but others to try and make as many people happy; and maybe even excepting that sadly there's people we can't help either because we just don't know/can't reach them or they choose not wanting to be helped (or their abusing charity for selfish gain and better to let them go and suffer consequences for their actions). Right now I just tried to rewrite what Serena said... and I couldn't, what she said is unsalvageable. That speech should have been thrown out and replaced:
"I've been thinking ever since all that trouble in Geosenge. A lot of members of Team Flare were unhappy people. Some were rich and grew sick of how selfish other people were, and some were poor and angry that how there was no one they could go for help. They saw the world the same way that Lysandre saw it, filthy and only they who lived outside of a normal life can see it. It has made me think about all the decisions I've made... those I've helped... times I've been selfish... and I wonder if I would have joined Team Flare if asked? Was it a decision they made or did how their life turn out make them choose to join? So I made a decision, from now on if I see someone I can help I'm going to do my best to help them. I'm not going to seek out people to help though, Lysandre tried to do that and he drove himself crazy. I understand that there's probably people I can't help... some who don't want help... maybe some who don't deserve it... but that shouldn't mean I should ignore what's in front of me. Speaking of what's in front of me, how about a battle! And this time I'm not worried about winning or losing, instead me and my team are going to focus on being the best that we can be! You're facing the new and improved Serena/Calem!"
Making a valiant effort to finish Alpha Sapphire after restarting it ages ago and having just reached Petalburg Gym I'm reminded how boring and low-effort it is in RS/ORAS compared to Emerald.
Each of the trainers has their own strategy (speed, defence, recovery etc) and in the original games this... manifests through using X Items. And all the trainers use the same Pokemon:
The trainers in the first two rooms use Delcatty
The trainers in the middle rooms use Linoone
The trainers in the final two rooms use Zangoose
None of them actually know specialised moves or tailor their strategy particularly noticeably. The Accuracy trainer's Delcatty does exactly the same thing the Speed trainer's does - uses Attract and then tries to put me to sleep. The Recovery room is just a pretty standard battle where the NPC will heal if their Pokemon's HP falls too low. Because most of them spend the first turn setting up, they often don't get to do that much. "Just the ability to move first confers a great advantage, wouldn't you agree?" Yeah, but to move first you have to use an X Speed on the first turn, by which time I could have done anything - KOing you, for instance.
In Emerald, however, they don't use items - they use Pokemon which actually relate to their chosen style of battle, and this is far more conceptually interesting.
This is one of the many, many ways ORAS hobbles itself by its insistence on faithfully recreating every detail of RS, and it's so frustrating that they (and the other remakes in general) couldn't have woven in some of Emerald's better details.
Although the big window in Norman's room in ORAS with the view of the trees is absolutely lovely, so that's one point in its favour.
(Also, why was Norman's TM changed? Facade is still a TM in this game.)
Each of the trainers has their own strategy (speed, defence, recovery etc) and in the original games this... manifests through using X Items. And all the trainers use the same Pokemon:
The trainers in the first two rooms use Delcatty
The trainers in the middle rooms use Linoone
The trainers in the final two rooms use Zangoose
None of them actually know specialised moves or tailor their strategy particularly noticeably. The Accuracy trainer's Delcatty does exactly the same thing the Speed trainer's does - uses Attract and then tries to put me to sleep. The Recovery room is just a pretty standard battle where the NPC will heal if their Pokemon's HP falls too low. Because most of them spend the first turn setting up, they often don't get to do that much. "Just the ability to move first confers a great advantage, wouldn't you agree?" Yeah, but to move first you have to use an X Speed on the first turn, by which time I could have done anything - KOing you, for instance.
In Emerald, however, they don't use items - they use Pokemon which actually relate to their chosen style of battle, and this is far more conceptually interesting.
- The Speed trainer uses Swellow which is, y'know... really fast
- The Accuracy trainer uses a Delcatty which knows the 100%-accurate Shock Wave and Faint Attack
- The Confusion trainer uses Spinda, whose flavour and signature move revolve around inflicting confusion
- The Defence trainer uses Wigglytuff, which is a fairly bulky mon for that stage of the game and can use Defence Curl
- The Recovery trainer uses a Slakoth which, as well as being able to heal with Slack Off, holds a Sitrus Berry
- The Strength trainer uses a Zangoose which is already very strong but can use Swords Dance
- The One-Hit KO trainer uses Vigoroth which is... also strong (this one's a bit weirdly named, but is based around critical hits rather than actual OHKO moves - Vigoroth uses Focus Energy+Slash)
This is one of the many, many ways ORAS hobbles itself by its insistence on faithfully recreating every detail of RS, and it's so frustrating that they (and the other remakes in general) couldn't have woven in some of Emerald's better details.
Although the big window in Norman's room in ORAS with the view of the trees is absolutely lovely, so that's one point in its favour.
(Also, why was Norman's TM changed? Facade is still a TM in this game.)
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Hand-holding is not without a reason, after all.
At this point it's just every time because I don't operate with a Flyer most of the time
I just realized this when scrolling through the movepool oddities thread, but...
Spritzee blinks.
Aromatisse doesn't.
Spritzee blinks.
Aromatisse doesn't.
Are you saying Aromatisse blinks in the 3D model? I can't see it...
I'm saying it might blink, just not in the screen capture used for the animation.
I don't feel like pulling out aromatisse into a battle to make sure
Ah I see. It still kinda irks me that it's not showing here though.
Spritzee blinks.
Aromatisse doesn't.
How else can it stare into your soul?
I while ago I trained a Mighyanna or whoever you spell it in Generation 4 games. Suddenly I noticed that thing can't learn Crunch. So I looked at various wikis making the shocking discovery that the only way the Poochi-line gets crunch is in Generation 3...
I guess now I have to grind myself several Poochis and transfer them over after having Crunch hopping they have the correct ability.
I guess now I have to grind myself several Poochis and transfer them over after having Crunch hopping they have the correct ability.
more accurately, Mightyena gets it in gen 3 but gen 4 & 5 only poochyena got Crunch, then in gen 6-on they fixed it so they both get Crunch.
So somehow it's more stupid.
One minor peeve I have that came to mind lately is Pinsir and Heracross.
The two have been treated as counterparts in many games, especially starting from Ruby and Sapphire where they are both rare encounter found in opposite zones of the Safari Zone (Pinsir's area needs Mach Bike, Heracross's area needs Acro Bike), then they became version exclusives in BW2 and later XY, the latter of which even gave them both Mega Evolutions, and later also became version exclusives in Sword and Shield's Isle of Armor once they were added there. Gen 7 even mentions how the two get along in Alola. And it does make sense that they are treated in such a way considering they are both beetles trained for combat.
But what really irks me about them being treated as counterparts is the way their stats and movepools are built. If they're version exclusives/counterparts found in opposite games or opposite areas, surely each one has different advantages over the other that make players of each version get a different experience with a different type of physical Bug, correct? But no! What ends up happening, and the biggest thing that irks me about these two, is that Pinsir is literally a completely inferior Heracross. Their performance is completely identical, right down to the two of them having the same 125 Attack and 85 Speed, and both have Moxie as a Hidden Ability as well as Swords Dance, but Heracross is completely superior to Pinsir in every aspect. Both get Close Combat, but Heracross gets STAB, and Heracross has STAB Megahorn as opposed to Pinsir, whose best STAB is X-Scissor at 80 Power. Heracross's STAB Close Combat and Megahorn hit at an effective 180 BP, while Pinsir's unSTABbed Close Combat and STAB X-Scissor hit at an effective 120 BP. Their coverage moves are almost completely identical as well.
It's like...why? If they're supposed to be counterparts, why is one of them a completely inferior version of the other? This basically ensures that anyone who picks the version of the game that has Pinsir is always, 100% getting the worse deal. And if you have the version that has Heracross...why would you bother ever trading for a Pinsir when Heracross is a completely superior version of Pinsir? It just doesn't make sense to me. What is Pinsir supposed to do that Heracross doesn't? What advantages would Pinsir even have over Heracross?
With other version exclusive counterparts, they share a typing, but in many cases they function a lot differently. Some of them are of totally different types, like Electabuzz and Magmar, or Purugly and Skuntank, or Dragalge and Clawitzer. Or with Victreebel and Vileplume, one of them is an offensive glass cannon, while the other is a bulkier and defensive Grass-type. Or a case like Ludicolo and Shiftry, where they have different secondary typings and in later generations, can hit from different sides of the offensive spectrum and thrive under different forms of weather. Or a case like Whimsicott and Lilligant, where one is a fast annoyer and the other is a sweeper with Quiver Dance. Or Braviary and Mandibuzz: one's a hard hitting nuke, the other is a bulky tank who just doesn't die. Or even a case like Turtonator and Drampa, where they have different second typings and different stat distributions and abilities and whatnot. Or better yet, a case like Mantine and Skarmory where they have different defensive typings, one is specially bulky, and the other is physically bulky. You see what I'm getting at here?
And then you have Pinsir and Heracross. Both are Bug-types, but they are essentially the exact same Pokemon except one is a strictly inferior version of the other. If you're going to make them counterparts, why the hell is one of them a strictly worse version of the other? Pinsir isn't even that interesting design wise, and Heracross is a far cooler design. It's like there is zero incentive to ever go for the version with Pinsir or trade for it when the version of a game that has Heracross in these instances always ensures you're getting the better deal. It's just utterly confounding on every level really.
The two have been treated as counterparts in many games, especially starting from Ruby and Sapphire where they are both rare encounter found in opposite zones of the Safari Zone (Pinsir's area needs Mach Bike, Heracross's area needs Acro Bike), then they became version exclusives in BW2 and later XY, the latter of which even gave them both Mega Evolutions, and later also became version exclusives in Sword and Shield's Isle of Armor once they were added there. Gen 7 even mentions how the two get along in Alola. And it does make sense that they are treated in such a way considering they are both beetles trained for combat.
But what really irks me about them being treated as counterparts is the way their stats and movepools are built. If they're version exclusives/counterparts found in opposite games or opposite areas, surely each one has different advantages over the other that make players of each version get a different experience with a different type of physical Bug, correct? But no! What ends up happening, and the biggest thing that irks me about these two, is that Pinsir is literally a completely inferior Heracross. Their performance is completely identical, right down to the two of them having the same 125 Attack and 85 Speed, and both have Moxie as a Hidden Ability as well as Swords Dance, but Heracross is completely superior to Pinsir in every aspect. Both get Close Combat, but Heracross gets STAB, and Heracross has STAB Megahorn as opposed to Pinsir, whose best STAB is X-Scissor at 80 Power. Heracross's STAB Close Combat and Megahorn hit at an effective 180 BP, while Pinsir's unSTABbed Close Combat and STAB X-Scissor hit at an effective 120 BP. Their coverage moves are almost completely identical as well.
It's like...why? If they're supposed to be counterparts, why is one of them a completely inferior version of the other? This basically ensures that anyone who picks the version of the game that has Pinsir is always, 100% getting the worse deal. And if you have the version that has Heracross...why would you bother ever trading for a Pinsir when Heracross is a completely superior version of Pinsir? It just doesn't make sense to me. What is Pinsir supposed to do that Heracross doesn't? What advantages would Pinsir even have over Heracross?
With other version exclusive counterparts, they share a typing, but in many cases they function a lot differently. Some of them are of totally different types, like Electabuzz and Magmar, or Purugly and Skuntank, or Dragalge and Clawitzer. Or with Victreebel and Vileplume, one of them is an offensive glass cannon, while the other is a bulkier and defensive Grass-type. Or a case like Ludicolo and Shiftry, where they have different secondary typings and in later generations, can hit from different sides of the offensive spectrum and thrive under different forms of weather. Or a case like Whimsicott and Lilligant, where one is a fast annoyer and the other is a sweeper with Quiver Dance. Or Braviary and Mandibuzz: one's a hard hitting nuke, the other is a bulky tank who just doesn't die. Or even a case like Turtonator and Drampa, where they have different second typings and different stat distributions and abilities and whatnot. Or better yet, a case like Mantine and Skarmory where they have different defensive typings, one is specially bulky, and the other is physically bulky. You see what I'm getting at here?
And then you have Pinsir and Heracross. Both are Bug-types, but they are essentially the exact same Pokemon except one is a strictly inferior version of the other. If you're going to make them counterparts, why the hell is one of them a strictly worse version of the other? Pinsir isn't even that interesting design wise, and Heracross is a far cooler design. It's like there is zero incentive to ever go for the version with Pinsir or trade for it when the version of a game that has Heracross in these instances always ensures you're getting the better deal. It's just utterly confounding on every level really.
Pinsir has also occasionally been the counterpart to Scyther instead of Heracross, which is going even worse for it.
New headcanon: Mega Pinsir focuses heavily on being Flying type because it's out for revenge against other bug-types.
It has a few advantages, though almost none of them actually contribute to Pinsir's gameplan of hitting things hard.
- Slightly better physical bulk (much wore special bulk though)
- Can ignore Intimidate with Hyper Cutter (probably not as useful as ignoring burn with Guts)
- Can ignore... stuff with Mold Breaker. I guess it's nice for getting past like Unaware Quagsire or something?
- Can trap with Bind
- Can set up Stealth Rock (though Heracross can now set up Spikes)
- Has priority in the form of Quick Attack
- Can cheese things with Guillotine
- Doubles speed control with String Shot
Hilariously, Pinsir actually gets shafted twice due to being Scyther's counterpart pre-Gen IV; Scyther gained an evolution in Gen II, Pinsir did not.
I agree with a lot of this, and it made me think about other counterparts throughout the games where one is objectively better or where there's a clear disparity between them. Some that come to mind:
- Oddish gained a branched evolution; Bellsprout did not
- Arcanine, Skuntank, and Primeape all have higher BSTs than their version-exclusive counterparts Ninetales, Purugly, and Persian (there are probably others but I'm not listing every single example)
- Alolan Sandslash and Alolan Ninetales are counterparts in SMUSUM, but Alolan Sandslash is by far and away the inferior choice (learns on average weaker moves, has a dreadful typing, and gets fairly underwhelming abilities in comparison to A-Ninetales's Snow Warning)
- Electabuzz/Magmar pre-gen IV are probably the most stark example: Magmar is slower, only slightly offensively superior but equally defensively terrible, and has a less expansive movepool. This is exacerbated when they gain evolutions - Electivire is more efficient statwise, has an excellent movepool, and has a cool new unique ability; whereas Magmortar is slow and un-optimised, and has a dull choice for an ability that isn't new or unique. As a LeafGreen player, I was not pleased (though this evaporated when I was able to get both from PBR)
- This only partially counts but it's always bugged me. Despite their famous feud Zangoose is just way better than Seviper; it has an ability designed precisely to counteract Poison moves; Seviper has nothing that allows it to hit Zangoose more effectively (it doesn't even learn a Fighting-type move)
Looking at their movepool, I notice Crunch in the last move they learn in Gen III. I think what could have happened that for Gen IV and V, where they aren't normally available anyway, they wanted to more push the concept of holding off evolving a Pokemon so it could learn moves its evo can't. So instead of giving them a new move they cut off the last move the prevo naturally learns making them exclusive to it. No real thinking, thus why when it was made available again in Gen VI they added Crunch back into its moveset realizing what they did.
Pinsir sadly suffers being from the previous gen and them wanting to make the newest gen look better. Heracross was an obvious inclusion to finish the "Bug Brother" duo but they didn't want it to be an exact copy so made changes to make it better... and never bothered to do the same with Pinsir. Hence Pinsir often being left behind as Heracross got the cool Fighting-type and Signature Move (okay, sure, Pinsir had Guillotine, but a 1HKO move doesn't really compare to a strong STAB move). Also, if I recall what the prototypes seemed to have suggested, Pinsir was originally planned to get an evolution. It would likely have been another Scyther/Scizor case where it retained the same BST but would move around certain points (my guess more Attack (and maybe Defense), less Speed). Not that later gens they probably didn't realize, Mega Pinsir becoming part Flying was totally them trying to make up for it, but sadly Megas are gone so Pinsir is back to square one. At this point, sadly they'll probably not do anything with the base Pinsir (cause if they bring Mega Evos back don't want Mega Pinsir to be affected), so maybe a Regional Variant Pinsir could fix things? Like make it Bug/Ground, make the pincers into drills, maybe also toss Tough Claws/Adaptability onto it.
- Bellsprout was actually going to originally, just like Pinsir's it was cut; it would likely have related to Sprout Tower which just feels random to be based on Bellsprout.
- All of them have different roles. Arcanine is offensive (and Physical focused), Ninetales is defensive (and Special focused); Skuntank has more HP and hits harder, Purugly is faster; Primeape hits harder, Persian is faster. In this way they don't overshadow one another like Heracross does with Pinsir.
- Alolan Sandslash sadly felt like it was the experimental one while Alolan Ninetales they played more safe with. Like, I suppose they were also made to work well together if both were used in a Double Battle, Alolan Ninetales sets up Hail and then Aurora Veil while Sandslash either becomes harder to hit via Snow Cloak or goes in with double speed from Slush Rush.
- Magmar sadly draws the short end of the stick not just from comparison with Electabuzz but also because its a Fire-type so has steep competition from Charizard and Arcanine. Meanwhile Electabuzz is comparable to the other top com mon Electric-types of the time (Raichu, Electrode, and Magneton). What they did with Magmortar is just a crime
- Sacred Sword for Seviper. #JusticeForSeviper
And yet somehow, Magmortar comes out on top. It's consistently been a strong Pokemon in lower tiers thanks to its great power and coverage (it's not quite as expansive as Electivire, but it's one of the few Fire-types that learns Thunderbolt, and Focus Blast hits Rock-types hard), whereas Electivire consistently sucks shit, and its shiny new ability famously cursed it to rot in OU in its debut generation because people kept pairing it with Gyarados despite that being a terrible strategy.