Unpopular opinions

My Pokemon hot takes
3. Psyduck is lame.
Listen here you little shit /j

Ok, ignoring my justified spat, this entire convo of noticing patterns makes me feel GF should attempt more varied progression and mon encounters. The open world format of Paldea is messy, though still partially based on older progression

By this I mean;
-Early bug sucking ass (exception of Venipede line)
-Ice types being late game
-Early Normal/Dark and Flying lines with iffy mid to late game use (Swellow, Staraptor, and Talonflame being exceptional)
-Ghost being mid to late game

And others I missed. Cuz this all partially ties to power creep as well. Despite shit like Palafin Hero being straight up broken for 1v1 battles (player end*) or Paradox mons, you still awkwardly have weakass mons in the other end that'd choke in Gen 4 UU. Heck, something like Tinkaton is weak enough to fit nicely in Gen 1-3 without breaking the game balance given its frailty

Now the one "pattern" that'll be and should be kept regardless is the Fire-Water-Grass starter trio. They are needed for new players to figure the type rock-paper-scissors format integral to the franchise. Fangames are free to shake it up though, most aren't for newer players

Ultimately the main thing Pokemon needs to address is reducing "throwaway" mons that sour over the course of the game. And I don't mean mons intentionally terrible (Farfetch'd, Magikarp before evolving, Dunsparce, etc), I mean the early routers that only are good the first 3 gyms. They do this, bosses will be better balanced because they'll have to keep the later game mons closer in strength to early route. And then Legendaries can be stronger than either

Similarly, GF needs to better support defensive playstyles, almost everyone just mashes A on strongest move
 
they either should go back and add all the minute gender differences they haven't bothered with One (01) Generation after debuting the concept, or bite the bullet and pretend they never existed and keep only the 100% dimorphic ones. this "gender differences still exist just not for post-sinnoh mons" situation is nonsensical.
 
I noticed some repeating traits that have been mentionned before so just to make sure No one is fooled (maybe Im alone Then)
Little Normal type early game
-rattata
-sentret
-zigzagoon
-bidoof
-stupid pee-colored mouse
-bunnelby
-yungoos
-wooloo
-lechonk

Little Dark type early game
-poochyena
-purrloin
-alolan raticate somewhy
-nickit
Not every gen has one, But it's a noticeable one.

Little bird early game
-pidgey (not spearow)
-hoothoot
-taillow
-starly
-pidove
-fletchling
-pikipek
-rookidee
-(wattrel) Im not quite sure cause it's not that early game

annoying asf bug that ends up shit most of the time
-caterpie(weedle isn't real)
-spinarak
-wurmple
-kricketot
-sewaddle
-scatterbug
-charjabug
-blipbug
-tarountula (is earlier than nimble and respectsf the "ends up shit" criteria)

Pika clones (hot takes are always funi)
-pikachu
-pichu
-minunplusle
-pachirisu
-emolga
-dedenne
-togedemaru
-morpeko
-pawmi

Mimikyu, marill and such are not pika clones. Sry
 
I dunno, Yamper line is worse. Though I argue GF does dogs better than cats (as a cat person it hurts me to say)
Though I'm super tired of new fairies just being food, or purty girl. Gimme more supernatural creatures. Loved that Mawhile is one, same with Grimmsnarl being a troll
 
I dunno, Yamper line is worse. Though I argue GF does dogs better than cats (as a cat person it hurts me to say)
Though I'm super tired of new fairies just being food, or purty girl. Gimme more supernatural creatures. Loved that Mawhile is one, same with Grimmsnarl being a troll
I feel like some of the problem is that Sweet and Aroma Veils aren't very exciting abilities. Sweet Veil feels especially lame for a Fairy type since it doesn't block anything that isn't already affected by Misty Terrain. I'm definitely not opposed to more aggressive and supernatural Fairies though, if anything Grimmsnarl feels a bit lacking for sticking to Prankster team support instead of breaking the opponents in both body and spirit.
 
I dunno, Yamper line is worse. Though I argue GF does dogs better than cats (as a cat person it hurts me to say)
Though I'm super tired of new fairies just being food, or purty girl. Gimme more supernatural creatures. Loved that Mawhile is one, same with Grimmsnarl being a troll
Where are my Fairies based one the actual Fair Folk or trickster Gremlins? Klefki, Mawile, heck I give Tinkaton half a point here since she's more like a fantasy Dwarf than an elegant magic girl like most vaguely-humanoid Fairy Pokemon (as are other examples of the "small girl with extremely large weapon" trope)
 
That's 1 for sure. My point is to give us more of those and less "I am a pretty butterfly I bring the Moonblast to your eye" by comparison.

Also my brain instinctively blots a lot of Galar out

I think they're leaning into this vibe more as time goes on. A lot of the earlier Fairies are "the pretty and the sparkly" but most of the examples who lean more explicitly into the whole tricky-and-mean vibe are from more recent gens: Mimikyu, Shiinotic, the Tapus, Enamorus, Flutter Mane, Fezandipiti.
 
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I also think Fairy just needs more time to have more Pokemon who lean into a wider variety of concepts that could apply to it. Fairy is still a relatively new type and has only been around for four generations, and hasn't had as much time for Game Freak to really get into the more creative things that can be done with it design wise, especially seeing as how Fairy is a pretty abstract type that can welcome a variety of design concepts. Gen 6 is when it was first introduced and it introduced a few new ones and had to retcon several older mons into Fairy-types to begin the type. Recent generations however have been getting pretty creative and leaning into more classical depictions of fae. Hatterene, Grimmsnarl, and Tinkaton in particular are varying flavors of classical fae, being chaotic monsters who do whatever they want with little care for others, with Grimmsnarl being a troll/goblin and Tinkaton being a small blacksmith carrying a giant hammer, and all three are top tier designs that have taken off immensely (deservingly so).

Remember that for the longest time, Dragon, Fairy's counterpart and an equally as abstract type, had very few designs and most leaned into badass draconic monsters (like Garchomp, Salamence, and Rayquaza), but when you look at the Dragon-type roster now, many Dragons nowadays have delved into so many different design concepts and is now one of the most colorful and varied rosters of Pokemon from a design and concept point of view, with all kinds of mythological influences and whatnot. So the Fairy-type will likely reach that level of variety itself over time.
 
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