There are some Pokemon ♔designs that are completely unique - I mean, what the heck is a Spiritomb? And there are others that haven’t even tried - Ducklett, Ekans, and Flamigo are just the things they’re meant to be. Seel doesn’t even change its name. But we also know there are tropes that will be copied most years; a horse of some sort, a Pikachu clone, a mushroom, an early-game cat, you get the idea. However, one of the best and most under-appreciated of these tropes is the plant lady. Justice for the plant ladies.
As you may be aware, my esteemed colleague Joe Parlock and I are currently making our way through every single Pokemon in existence and designating them as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:‘sma♔sh’ or &ls💃quo;pass’. Both of us are significantly less esteemed as a result of the endeavour. In any♔ case, what we have discovered through this scientific adventure is that the ဣquickest way to my heart is to be a plant lady.
Roselia, Florges, Lilligant, Bellossom, Lurantis, and of course, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the irreplaceable Tsareena have all captured my heart. Then there’s Roserade, the androgynous twist on the plant lady, which shows that the ethereal concept of a plant lady goes across gender norms. It’s like being a diva or having Big Dick Energy - it sounds gendered, but it’s not. You can be a plant lady diva with Big Dick Energy, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:just look at Tsareena.
This goes beyond aesthetic appeal though, I promise. I🗹 embarrass myself enough each week with the smash or pass column. The reason the plant lady archetype is such a key trope for Pokemon design is that it offers a huge range of creativity. Two of the Pokemon I pulled up for being original copies of what already exists are birds, but the truth is you can’t do much with a bird. It just kind of is. You can exaggerate their qualities for a Legendary, or go surreal🍸 for something like Dodrio, but mostly they’re just… birds.
The best designed Pokemon have always been completely out of the imagination. My favourites are the likes of Tsareena, Gengar, Sylveon, Gardevoir, Absol, Marowak, Gligar, Froslass, and so on and so on. You can point to some inspirations, Sylveon being a fox, Absol a wol🦩f, Tsareena a mangosteen, but these are all basic jumping off points that get expanded on over and over. Those that are just ‘a horse, but it’s on fire’ or ‘a leopard, but purple’ can still be popular, but they’re not all that creat🌱ive.
Because plant ladies don’t exist in the real world, every plant lady takes a basic inspiration (a mangosteen, a dandelion, a rose) and builds a complete character from there. Unlike animals, which we imbue with innate personalities, plant ladies come from static objects with a far wider can𝔉vas to project onto. There is no reason for the mangosteen to be sultry or the combination of lilies and pomelos to be wholesome. The characters come to life for themselves and feel like much stronger designs because they aren’t just ‘a dolphin with a white squiggle’.
Plant ladies are a mainstay in Pokemon design, and long may they reign. Humanoid Pokemon tend to be met with mild hostility, but we need the variety plant ladies offer. They’re often overlooked, but the broad creativity they offer means they often define thไe individual design t🌱ropes of each given generation. Few hold them up as their favourites, but I’m here fighting the good fight - the best Pokemon is a plant lady Pokemon.