My hatred for Vivillion stems solely from it being the only new Bug type in Gen 6 when we already had several butterflies, it being Bug/Flying rather than Bug/Fairy and it's gimmick being linked to your real-life location (I don't like any form of region-exclusive content)
The design of Vivillion isn't bad.
I mean, I think it sucks too that it's the only Bug-type line for Generation VI, but that's not something to blame Vivillon for! I was frustrated with not being able to come close to getting every Vivillon form also, but I don't hold any grudge against that Pokémon for it. More so that there are so many of them and some are found only in low-population areas, like Polar and Ocean (though I stumbled across the latter in a Wonder Trade just a few days ago).
Vivillon isn’t crappy. I’d argue that competitively it’s one of the best bug pokemon in the entire game. It has niche roles in both singles and double battles in a variety of tiers. Friend Guard Rage Powder redirection support and Tailwind support in VGC. Compound eyes Sleep Powder, substitute, quiver dance and then an accurate Hurricane sweep in the anything goes meta. And then you have the fact that it has 20 amazing and unique wing patterns including event only patterns, making it the most traded Pokémon on the GTS of all time and a big favourite for collectors. Plus it even has its own signature attack which is quite a fun surprise moveslot option.
I’d say our Gen 6 Bug pokemon was pretty epic (apart from a troll speed tier).
I agree. I used a Vivillon online for Generation VI (I live in California, so for the record, this one's pattern was High Plains), and that thing wreaked a lot of havoc on opponents for something with a base stat total of only 411 and no incredibly strong gimmick to compensate like with Smeargle or Ditto. This was before Friend Guard Vivillon became available, though, so I used Compound Eyes. As it turns out, the best call I had was to give it Protect, since it was on a double battle team and opponents love to target Vivillon.
Since then, I've been tempted to put Shiinotic onto a team, with its measly 405 base stat total but a lot of potential under the right conditions. Problem is that Illuminate is useless in battle, Effect Spore works against it, and Rain Dish requires support since it can't invoke rain on its own.
Anywayyyyy changing this topic...
I really don't believe the riddle rumor. As some people mentioned a while back, most of the pictures seem like a stretch, and even if it is real, it tells us nothing.
The riddle rumor is basically leaving enough open for people to make their own interpretations. As a result, potentially anyhting can match with one or more of the images in that collage. I mentiioned it before, but it's the same principle as your horoscope. Horoscopes are simply blind guesses, but they're phrased vaguely enough and describe generic enough situations that you will likely mentally link a connection to what it says. For instance, if your horoscope today reads, "There is something that frustrates you; be patient and you will resolve it," you might think this really is describing your day...when it's describing pretty much anyone's day.
On top of that, you are likely to forget the horoscopes that don't match with how you feel that day. Same with the picture riddle. The parts of that collage that don't correspond at all to anything in
Pokémon Sword and Shield will be forgotten. If that image of Navi from
Zelda Ocarina of Time never matches up with any Pokémon, you're going to forget it was ever a part of it. (And if you remember, that's probably because I brought it up.)
Oh hey, that was me!
Even though it’s pretty loose, I’m sticking with the medieval theme theory. There have been version exclusive pairs for weaker reasons (ex. Drampa and Turtonator).
In addition to the other reasons listed (both are dual-type with one of them being Dragon, and both are single-stage Pokémon), both of them have low Speed, a base stat total of 485, and a gimmick that relies on the opponent doing something (Shell Trap for Turtonator, Berserk for Drampa). They also have opposite dispositions, with Turtonator being impatient and hotheaded and Drampa being cool and peaceful. Though they're found in different areas, they're also found pretty far into the game, and like all counterparts, they're pretty close to each other in the National Pokédex.
I do wonder why wasn't the exclusivity revealed though. It's strange to me.
My guess is that Turtonator and Drampa weren't considered that important or that amazing of Pokémon. That, and perhaps they assume that you'll be able to trade by the time these Pokémon were available (especially Drampa, who's found in the last area of the game before the Elite Four).
Anyway, I have another theory for a possible Sword counterpart to Ponyta if it's not Farfetch'd and they don't take the obvious route and do Blitzle as another dual stage equine Pokemon. This might sound odd, but what about Galarian Litleo/Pyroar, as a reference to the
UK Royal Coat of Arms? In their original forms, both are also dual stage Fire types.
This was something I had in mind for a while, since the lion is the UK counterpart to the unicorn. If the Litleo line does get an alternate form, I'd like to see one physically oriented; at the very least, this would allow Pyroar to make better use of Moxie.
I mean, is it not possible that when they originally debuted G-Ponyta, it was Fairy type and that they changed the typing. Or they might have showed them G-Ponyta, but never mentioned it's typing. If you were to look at G-Ponyta, would you assume Fairy or Psychic?
Ah, kind of like how Bart Simpson wears different-colored shirts in the merchandise. They change it every now and then to throw off bootleggers. They're also almost never the orange shirt he usually wears on the show, so bootlegs can be identified, as the people who made this decision correctly figured most bootleggers of
Simpsons stuff would use the show as a basis.
I don't know of any examples of video games changing between game testing and the full release, however, since the point of game testing is to identify programming errors and oversights, and changing anything at all is likely to create more such errors and oversights.
OG Vulpix and Sandshrew may only have being Blue exclusives as something in common, but in Alola, they are both ice-types, so them being version-exclusives makes more sense.
They're also found in the same patches of grass at the same odds.
I agree. Also obviously typings have been repeated before, but I feel like it being Water/Dark would make it too similar to Greninja. I can also see Water/Poison as an option. I feel like Psychic or Ghost are the best choices.
If we're going with the spy theme, Fighting could work too, since they're associated in fiction with taking on bad guys.
