A lot of my picks are personal and have to do with wrestling with both my Christian faith and enjoyment of this franchise and where the two intersect. There's a fair chance I'm taking this way too seriously, but everyone's going to bring their baggage into analysis and that's what makes it interesting.
Gen 1: This was actually a really tough one for me, which makes me sound totally nostalgic or like a Genwunner. But the first batch of Pokemon are just that solid and iconic. If I had to pick one, I'd say probably
Kadabra because of the whole Psychic issues, but even then it never really bothered me like I expected it to. Honorable mentions include
Drowzee and Hypno - they're a little redundant and hypnosis is a complicated subject for me.
Gen 2: Another really tough one. You can tell that a lot of the Gen 2 Pokemon were designed around the same time as their predecessors because the two put together really feel like a unified whole. This is still probably my favorite generation primarily because I love these designs, but I'll go with
Sunflora because in my opinion, Bellossom did it better.
Gen 3: This is where the series begins to diverge for me. I actually think the biggest issue I have is with the official art style change because I loved the watercolor palette of the early Sugimori art so much. Yet here is where the designs start to get both simpler and more complicated, if that's even possible. We'll address the change even further in Gen 5. But for now, the mons I take issue with are
Combusken,
Nuzleaf,
Glalie and
Exploud.
Slaking is another honorable mention.
In spite of my whining, though, the Hoenn games did introduce me to some of my favorites in the franchise. The Ralts line functionally replaced the Abra and Jynx line for me (possibly out of necessity on TPC's part due to the lawsuits and controversy), and I couldn't be happier.
Gen 4: To this day I still haven't played a Sinnoh game. This gen came around the peak of my confusion with the series; I was never exposed to the "Satanic Panic" when the franchise first came out, but had to work it out around this time. Between that, compounded with my dad's passing and DPPt's storyline essentially revolving around "gods and creation myths", I had to step back for a time and observe from afar. The Johto remakes pulled me back in because the originals were the peak for me and God was helping me figure things out. Ironically, I really like a lot of the Pokemon from this gen though because they added on to the classics in meaningful ways. The box legendaries were total duds, though. Dialga is passable, but
Palkia really didn't click for me.
Giratina's an honorable mention, but it's better explained with a couple of different Pokemon in future generations.
Gen 5: A soft reboot of the franchise brought us a whole lot of new Pokemon, many of them filling eerily similar roles to Gen 1 classics. The art style change gets to me once again here. I've seen a lot of people say the designs are actually more streamlined, using more simple shapes as opposed to the more natural details of Gen 1 and 2. There was a meme going around comparing Vulpix and Zorua that explains this well. But to me, the gen 5 Pokemon always felt more unnecessarily complex and that's why I didn't care as much for this bunch. This is best exemplified, for me personally, in the
Pidove line. Compare this generation's regional bird line to any other and it looks the most like a non-Pokemon animal, and it just doesn't work for me. Even with gender differences, it's just not working for me.
Yet with all that, the Pidove line still only takes the place of honorable mention. My real least favorite in Gen 5, and in fact the whole franchise, has to be
Patrat. Those freakin' eyes...just, eww. I can think of only two Pokemon whose designs actually gross me out - Palkia which I mentioned in gen 4 and then this guy. I don't know why Watchog isn't as bad - maybe because I'm distracted by the reflective vest? But yeah, Patrat is a Pokemon that I just stay away from at all costs. And thankfully it's completely unnecessary because the Lillipup line is available at the exact same point in the games.
Gen 6: Fairies! Yay! I'm a big fan of the new type and the extra layer of balance it brought to my favorite game of chess with fuzzy animals. The Flabebe line was the perfect representative for the new typing, and Swirlix, Slurpuff and Spritzee provided excellent alternatives along with the retcons. You might think with the obvious omission that I'm going to go after Aromatisse here, but I've actually warmed up to it. There was certainly disappointment after learning about Spritzee's origins and the potential a plague doctor Pokemon could bring, but I think it was more the shock of what we didn't get as opposed to what we actually did that soured so many to the perfume Pokemon. The real offender for me from the Kalos bunch is actually the
Honedge line, and it's not the overall design that bugs me but rather a piece of its ornamentation.
I blame Pokememes for this. When Honedge was first revealed I thought the concept was really cool, but someone had to point out that in its official artwork on the hilt, there's a series of swirls that looks eerily similar to a group of three sixes. Kind of ironic that I'd be writing this only a day after Lil Nas X decided to grace the world with Satan shoes, huh? It carries over to the rest of the line,
Doublade simply being two Honedges with pink eye and
Aegislash having the design right in the center of its shield. I've been told it's unintentional or has another meaning, and I'd love to be proven wrong. In terms of both design and game mechanics, it's one of the coolest and most effective Pokemon to use. But I just can't shake it. You would think after all the insanity when Pokemania was in full swing, the Pokemon company would try to avoid giving its detractors ammunition like this, but here we are and it pains me.
Gen 7: My second favorite generation after Gen 2. I honestly can't find a dud in the bunch. The new Pokemon are almost entirely slam dunks for me, taking inspiration primarily from the animal kingdom yet adding the perfect touch of whimsy the series is known for. The Ultra Beasts are so different from anything we've had before and are just so bizarre that somehow they work for me. So I'm going to cheat and use an Alolan form as my least favorite this gen. It has to be
Alolan Geodude, Graveler and Golem here. Besides the addition of rock eyebrows and a beard for the final form just looking off, I really can't get past their 4x weakness to Ground. Obviously there are plenty of other Pokemon with 4x weaknesses that I don't have a problem with. Heck, the Kantonian forms are fantastic. But it just feels like far too much of a downgrade to me.
Gen 8: Another good batch. I have very little bad to say about the Pokemon of this generation. There are a few that fail to stand out, like Indeedee and Pincurchin, but even then I don't have feelings about them one way or the other. The real duds of this gen would have to be
Skwovet and
Greedent, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. A lot of people have no love for these two mainly because they just look like regular squirrels. We technically already had that in Sentret and Furret and they were much more stylized and worked better as a result. My personal issue with them, though, is similar to that with Patrat because they are essentially unnecessary. They didn't need to exist because we had an early route Normal type in Wooloo that was just fine. Another honorable mention is
Runerigus; it's a similar situation to Aegislash but more subtle - check its weight in kg.
I liked providing a lot of details because I think it was more insightful this way. Now you know a little bit more about me, what makes me tick, and what ticks me off
