Unpopular Pokemon opinions V2 (READ FIRST POST)

[Mega Ampharos the Dragon]

I've always liked Looker as a character in general and also liked it every time Team Rocket would call him the Lunchbox Guy. I am very disappointed that he hasn't appeared since Best Wishes and that he didn't give us a sidequest to do in ORAS or USUM and that he didn't appear whatsoever in SwSh. Even more disappointed that he wasn't in XYZ, they could've given him some role in the Flare arc. I really hope that he'll get some major role in Journeys or the Sinnoh remakes.

 

[Ophie]

I'm not sure how unpopular this is, but I don't see people bring it up often, so I'm going to assume it's unpopular.

I honestly prefer the SuMo Looker Sidequest over USUM's Rainbow Rocket.

Now, the idea behind Rainbow Rocket is pretty nifty. You got villains who come from worlds where they win and there was no protagonist to stop them. But the fact there's no real buildup to this makes me think it's just...there. Looker does appear in these games, but it's literally just a one off on the way to the Battle Tree and that's it, making me feel like his inclusion here was wasted and forced.

The SuMo Looker sidequest isn't the most amazing thing ever since there's some flaws I have with it, but it ties into the main plot better for what it is since it shows us the consequences of Lusamine opening the Ultra Wormholes earlier in the game. Other beasts have fallen through these wormholes and they're anxious for being in a world in which they are not familiar with, but they're also very dangerous beings who threaten the safety of our worlds people and Pokemon. So we have to protect the people and Pokemon as well as the beasts themselves by catching them. I've always liked trying to protect animals, so this was right up my ally.

I preferred it too. Rainbow Rocket was larger in scale, but it banks heavily on nostalgia.

I just like Looker in general whenever he appears. He's a bit in the clouds, but he's very smart and insightful, and you always learn more about the world the story is set in.

 

[Akashin]

I'm not sure how unpopular this is, but I don't see people bring it up often, so I'm going to assume it's unpopular.

I honestly prefer the SuMo Looker Sidequest over USUM's Rainbow Rocket.

Now, the idea behind Rainbow Rocket is pretty nifty. You got villains who come from worlds where they win and there was no protagonist to stop them. But the fact there's no real buildup to this makes me think it's just...there. Looker does appear in these games, but it's literally just a one off on the way to the Battle Tree and that's it, making me feel like his inclusion here was wasted and forced.

The SuMo Looker sidequest isn't the most amazing thing ever since there's some flaws I have with it, but it ties into the main plot better for what it is since it shows us the consequences of Lusamine opening the Ultra Wormholes earlier in the game. Other beasts have fallen through these wormholes and they're anxious for being in a world in which they are not familiar with, but they're also very dangerous beings who threaten the safety of our worlds people and Pokemon. So we have to protect the people and Pokemon as well as the beasts themselves by catching them. I've always liked trying to protect animals, so this was right up my ally.

My main issue with Episode RR, honestly, is how little effort they put into it. First you have Rainbow Rocket itself, which isn't even a team formed by Giovanni, really; it's a conglomeration of Team leaders brought together by bad crossover fanfiction plot hooks (Maxie dropping into a fissure and crossing worlds, Archie being swallowed by a tidal wave and doing the same... really?). It would be cool to have seen a story of Giovanni crossing worlds, meeting and interacting with these leaders and at least recruiting them. I could be wrong, but do we even have an explanation for why they're with Rainbow Rocket? They all show varying levels of wanting to do to the USUM world what they did to theirs, sure, but that doesn't really explain why they're teaming up with Giovanni and their other contemporaries to do it.

The biggest issue I have, though, is how poorly thought out some of it is. Cyrus successfully creating his ideal world only to have it slip through his fingers and so he tries again with the USUM world is fine, I suppose. But Maxie and Archie? The thing with them is, you don't stop them in Ruby and Sapphire. They succeed in reviving Groudon/Kyogre, only to be horrified by the reality of what their actions have done. Why and how to do they transition from that to not only being totally okay with the ultimate result of the player not stopping Groudon/Kyogre, but being invested in doing it over again? It makes no sense whatsoever.

There's a lot of potential for an interesting story with the various leaders, but Episode RR did the bare minimum and called it a day. It was fun to play through, and I was under no illusions to begin with that we'd get anything to write home about, but it was still a massive letdown.

 

[Mega Ampharos the Dragon]

Being a person who is always interested in parallel universe stuff. So even though I always like the Looker sidequests and hate it whenever they aren't in the game, I still really liked the RR episode in USUM.

The biggest issue I have, though, is how poorly thought out some of it is. Cyrus successfully creating his ideal world only to have it slip through his fingers and so he tries again with the USUM world is fine, I suppose. But Maxie and Archie? The thing with them is, you don't stop them in Ruby and Sapphire. They succeed in reviving Groudon/Kyogre, only to be horrified by the reality of what their actions have done. Why and how to do they transition from that to not only being totally okay with the ultimate result of the player not stopping Groudon/Kyogre, but being invested in doing it over again? It makes no sense whatsoever.

Yes, maybe you don't stop Archie or Maxie in Ruby and Sapphire, but what if they were able to control Groudon/Kyogre somehow? Maybe got help from the Colress of their world or something like that? Or maybe they get so crazy that they end up not caring about what Groudon/Kyogre is doing instead of being horrified as they did in Ruby and Sapphire.

 

[Leonhart]

I honestly prefer the SuMo Looker Sidequest over USUM's Rainbow Rocket.

I didn't care much for either of them, although I suppose that I'd pick the Ultra Beast subplot in S/M over the RR subplot mainly because it was dealing with something new, and partially because Lila (Anabel) was involved. The US/UM RR subplot just felt like nostalgia pandering without it offering a big pay off from my viewpoint.

 

[Akashin]

Yes, maybe you don't stop Archie or Maxie in Ruby and Sapphire, but what if they were able to control Groudon/Kyogre somehow? Maybe got help from the Colress of their world or something like that? Or maybe they get so crazy that they end up not caring about what Groudon/Kyogre is doing instead of being horrified as they did in Ruby and Sapphire.

It's not impossible, but the thing is, we shouldn't have to debate this. They should have acknowledged and answered questions like this when they were writing (and I use the term writing loosely; Episode RR was little more than a collective rehash of the leaders' past goals) Episode RR to begin with.

The Looker Sidequest gets a bit more love from me because I like the Faller concept that it touched on, even if USUM did absolutely nothing to build on it. I'm easy to please in the sense that I tend to be biased toward interesting stories whether they're strictly good or not; the problem with Episode RR is that beyond being poorly written, it just wasn't interesting. I enjoy parallel universe concepts too, but I ask more from stories than that they use the concept with zero thought whatsoever.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I thought that the RR Episode was interesting but some of the dialogue given by the Bosses were dull and easily pushed to the side. Ghetsis’ speech is the only one I remember very well because he was actually threatening and took Lillie hostage to use as a bargaining chip. Maxie and Archie were okay but not much else was that memorable from them other than they knew the other one was not the same Team Boss that they knew. Cyrus was just boring to listen to and Lysandre basically gave the same monologue that he gave in XY and even the same end result of choosing the button as it really didn’t matter which one you chose because you still moved on either way.

 

[Zhydra]

Now, the idea behind Rainbow Rocket is pretty nifty. You got villains who come from worlds where they win and there was no protagonist to stop them. But the fact there's no real buildup to this makes me think it's just...there. Looker does appear in these games, but it's literally just a one off on the way to the Battle Tree and that's it, making me feel like his inclusion here was wasted and forced.

Looker shows up a lot earlier than that in Ultra, at your second island he gives you a free thunder stone, recalls some past villains and is all the foreshadowing you need for RR being a thing.

I also think Giovanni yanked them from their reality and allowed these Team Bosses to do as they please.

 

[Emperor Empoleon]

SM's plot on the whole felt more thoughtful than Ultra to me. I like that the post-game UB hunt is smaller in scope, and just feels a bit more...Cerebral? It's like you're unraveling this mystery about the setting, as you learn more about Anabel's condition and the impact that wormholes had had on Alola's history. It also retroactively sheds some light on Lillie and Gladion's broken home...

The Rainbow Rocket scenario feels like it could've been fleshed out to the length of an entire game. I think what surprised and disappointed me most about it is that there really wasn't much of a "Team" in Rainbow Rocket...They were presented like this Legion of Doom kind of group, but there was no guiding philosophy or anything binding these guys together. Most of the encounters are quick, and they stand down pretty easily apart from Ghetsis (whom I think stood out the most in general)

 

[Akashin]

The Rainbow Rocket scenario feels like it could've been fleshed out to the length of an entire game. I think what surprised and disappointed me most about it is that there really wasn't much of a "Team" in Rainbow Rocket...They were presented like this Legion of Doom kind of group, but there was no guiding philosophy or anything binding these guys together. Most of the encounters are quick, and they stand down pretty easily apart from Ghetsis (whom I think stood out the most in general)

Agreed about Ghetsis. He was the only one who felt like a character who was actually adapting to the USUM world (not unlike Anabel), instead of feeling almost like an alien in foreign territory like the rest of them.

An Episode RR that was presented similarly to the Sordward and Shielbert questline would have been preferable, if not ideal. If instead of just going to Team Rocket Castle and taking out each leader sequentially we got to see them invading and impacting the USUM world, that would have helped tremendously. Have reports of torrential downpours hitting Melemele Island emerge because Archie and Kyogre are operating from the Melemele Sea; Akala Island is experiencing a heat wave because Maxie and Groudon have taken over Wela Volcano. So on and so forth. Even if all of the questionable plot elements remain, at least then the conflict feels more real, and the stakes are higher.

 

[Ophie]

Agreed about Ghetsis. He was the only one who felt like a character who was actually adapting to the USUM world (not unlike Anabel), instead of feeling almost like an alien in foreign territory like the rest of them.

An Episode RR that was presented similarly to the Sordward and Shielbert questline would have been preferable, if not ideal. If instead of just going to Team Rocket Castle and taking out each leader sequentially we got to see them invading and impacting the USUM world, that would have helped tremendously. Have reports of torrential downpours hitting Melemele Island emerge because Archie and Kyogre are operating from the Melemele Sea; Akala Island is experiencing a heat wave because Maxie and Groudon have taken over Wela Volcano. So on and so forth. Even if all of the questionable plot elements remain, at least then the conflict feels more real, and the stakes are higher.

The other thing is that they hardly got any screentime, nor did they ever do much besides be strong opponents for you to knock down. The result is that you never really got to understand these characters other than what they tell you. "Show, don't tell" applies just as much to video games as to non-interactive media like film, TV, and literature. It's the very same reason Kalos's characters were not very memorable despite having distinctive designs and personalities: Most of them didn't DO very much. Gym Leaders and the Elite Four never do anything outside where you battle them, despite characters like Ramos and Siebold being depicted as high-profile figures outside of battling. (The exception is Corrina, who has a short quest involving Mega Lucario, but you never see her appliy her skills as a professional speed skater.) It says something that the Kalos characters most remembered by the fans were instead the non-unique trainers (Furisode Girls, Hex Maniacs, Punks, Kalos's Ace Trainers, arguably the Swimmers too), and that's because their collective screentime was higher.

This was a mistake they haven't made since. All of the unique characters in Alola are shown being parts of their communities, even if they are outcasts of sorts. You get to see Sophocles apply his programming skills to make Festival Plaza, and offline, hang around with Molayne at Hokulani Observatory. Ilima steps in to put a stop to Team Skull's troublemaking around Melemele Island. You get to feel that Guzma is an important part of the lives of the people of Po Town. (That's why it's jarring that the villainous team leaders in Rainbow Rocket are depicted that way--the rest of that generation was very good at making sure characters leave a lasting impression on you.) Same goes for Galar, despite its story shortcomings. Simply having that scene of Milo chasing Wooloo around Turffield does wonders to establish him as a character. You get to know Piers once he steps down as Gym Leader and travels around the region. You barely see Peonia in the Crown Tundra story, but what little you see is her keeping her distance from her father, letting you know that she is a free spirit and would rather adventure away from Peony and you.

Another is that it was out of character for most of them to be treated like villainous team admins. Absolutely none of them would ever accept to be subordinate to anybody else except by force. As they are in their home games, they'd fight Giovanni to their last shred of being before submitting, which they don't seem to be depicted as having done. None of them feel the least bit of resentment about being placed outside of their home dimensions either, for that matter, considering they were the absolute top dogs where they came from, only to suddenly be thrust into a world where their counterparts were undone and made to serve some man in a suit they don't even know. This is perhaps why Ghetsis is seen as the best-written one: Because he stays in-character by attempting to seize control of the organization by any means he can think of.

Might be a bit dark for Pokémon, but I think it would've worked better if the player character were warped to these dimensions where they've come out on top, perhaps with Giovanni secretly pulling the strings. Wouldn't have to be that long of a journey, but you'd both get to understand these villains and feel the threat they pose as well as allow them to remain in-character by having them each of them think they reign supreme. Maybe heavy rain is always present where Team Aqua has won and there is little to no land a la Waterworld, whereas Sinnoh gets broken up into something like the Distortion World and nobody has any personality in line with what Cyrus wants. Also there could be the grunts and admins of their teams thrown in for good measure.

 

[Akashin]

The other thing is that they hardly got any screentime, nor did they ever do much besides be strong opponents for you to knock down. The result is that you never really got to understand these characters other than what they tell you. "Show, don't tell" applies just as much to video games as to non-interactive media like film, TV, and literature. It's the very same reason Kalos's characters were not very memorable despite having distinctive designs and personalities: Most of them didn't DO very much. Gym Leaders and the Elite Four never do anything outside where you battle them, despite characters like Ramos and Siebold being depicted as high-profile figures outside of battling. (The exception is Corrina, who has a short quest involving Mega Lucario, but you never see her appliy her skills as a professional speed skater.) It says something that the Kalos characters most remembered by the fans were instead the non-unique trainers (Furisode Girls, Hex Maniacs, Punks, Kalos's Ace Trainers, arguably the Swimmers too), and that's because their collective screentime was higher.

This was a mistake they haven't made since. All of the unique characters in Alola are shown being parts of their communities, even if they are outcasts of sorts. You get to see Sophocles apply his programming skills to make Festival Plaza, and offline, hang around with Molayne at Hokulani Observatory. Ilima steps in to put a stop to Team Skull's troublemaking around Melemele Island. You get to feel that Guzma is an important part of the lives of the people of Po Town. (That's why it's jarring that the villainous team leaders in Rainbow Rocket are depicted that way--the rest of that generation was very good at making sure characters leave a lasting impression on you.) Same goes for Galar, despite its story shortcomings. Simply having that scene of Milo chasing Wooloo around Turffield does wonders to establish him as a character. You get to know Piers once he steps down as Gym Leader and travels around the region. You barely see Peonia in the Crown Tundra story, but what little you see is her keeping her distance from her father, letting you know that she is a free spirit and would rather adventure away from Peony and you.

Another is that it was out of character for most of them to be treated like villainous team admins. Absolutely none of them would ever accept to be subordinate to anybody else except by force. As they are in their home games, they'd fight Giovanni to their last shred of being before submitting, which they don't seem to be depicted as having done. None of them feel the least bit of resentment about being placed outside of their home dimensions either, for that matter, considering they were the absolute top dogs where they came from, only to suddenly be thrust into a world where their counterparts were undone and made to serve some man in a suit they don't even know. This is perhaps why Ghetsis is seen as the best-written one: Because he stays in-character by attempting to seize control of the organization by any means he can think of.

Might be a bit dark for Pokémon, but I think it would've worked better if the player character were warped to these dimensions where they've come out on top, perhaps with Giovanni secretly pulling the strings. Wouldn't have to be that long of a journey, but you'd both get to understand these villains and feel the threat they pose as well as allow them to remain in-character by having them each of them think they reign supreme. Maybe heavy rain is always present where Team Aqua has won and there is little to no land a la Waterworld, whereas Sinnoh gets broken up into something like the Distortion World and nobody has any personality in line with what Cyrus wants. Also there could be the grunts and admins of their teams thrown in for good measure.

I was tempted to make the same argument that you did in your last paragraph. An Episode RR that is about you using the Ultra Warp Ride to chase Giovanni from world to world, possibly even having it be his influence that tips the scales and causes the other leaders to prevail in their respective worlds and have us be in the position of failing to prevent all this from happening until the very end, would have been worlds better than what we got. Ultimately I didn't make that argument because I felt it was too ambitious to reasonably expect, but I would have loved to see it.

Character motivations and lack of tangible actions are definitely at the center of the issue though, like you said. I already pointed out how illogical it is that Archie and Maxie show none of the remorse that they developed by the end of Ruby and Sapphire (that by all indications they would have felt with or without the player's influence, and if anything should have felt even more without the player cleaning up their mess), but the leaders being static characters plucked from their worlds and dropped into USUM is a universal issue.

I will argue that outside of Giovanni and Ghetsis I hesitate to say that the other leaders would be absolutely unwilling to take direction from anybody else, but I'll acknowledge that it feels weird for them to do so regardless. Cyrus especially strikes me as dispassionate enough to not really care so long as he gets his ideal world out of it, and the other three are more objective-oriented rather than seeking personal power per se. I can at least vaguely accept them being willing to step outside their comfort zones if they felt it benefitted their goals; not that Rainbow Rocket actually seemed to do so in any real way, just that if it had I could see them possibly going along with it.

Also, while this is a minor nitpick, one thing that bugs me about Ghetsis is that N isn't with him. Yes he was the leader, but even after N and Zekrom/Reshiram lost to you at their castle, his plan was still to play kingmaker with N, and eliminating you was an effort on his part to remove you as an influence to N. Since the Ghetsis presented in USUM was BW Ghetsis and not BW2 Ghetsis, his 'victory' should have involved forcing N to be his king. Not a big deal overall, and admittedly part of me is making that argument because seeing N be involved in Episode RR would have been nice, but it is worth noting.

 

[Zhydra]

Since I seen a lot of people getting on about RR over the Looker quest.

I got to say it, I'm not a fan of the Looker Quest in SM for a couples things.

1. The only reason this was a thing is because the main story of SM completely ignored the Ultra Beasts Lusamine let loose and instead hyper focused on Lillie and her family drama. The Ultra Beasts, never got to do anything impactful which leads to.

2. The Ultra Beast quest was boring, you go talk to Looker, get told about your UB and you go catch it in a random route. Rinse and repeat. Unlike in Ultra which has you explore the Beasts world and see how those things live and thus get to know more about them. This is a pretty underwhelming use of them.

3. Plot point, the entire Aether Foundation got off scott free for helping Lusamine directly threatening Alola, Interpol was doing shadey dealings with them still and Gladion was left for the wolves having to monitor that. A karma houdini and a character who WANTED to leave that place gets screwed over. Pretty lousy ending.

In Ultra instead, those guys were legitimately trying to protect the world, but their boss was an egotistical Leeroy Jenkins that made things worse and escalated the problem, them being allowed to continue work is a little easier to stomach since their boss wasn't directly/ intentionally screwing things up and she got her head out of her butt.

Also, Gladion doesn't have to get chained up in that place.

4. Most of the Looker plot has Anabel be taken out of the front lines and leaving everything to you, it's taking a lot of agency away from Anabel (A frontier brain) and this keeps going on. It isn't exactly comfortable and the only thing we have to gain is knowledge about Fallers that becomes relevant in Ultra (Mohn closure) and SwSh (Max Raid adventures.).

A good post game event, this is not.

In contrast, Rainbow Rocket IS a better post game event, in both a narrative stand point and in general.

1. In RR, it is all about a bunch of crooks from alternate realities trying to invade ours and it's up to you to kick their butt. Most of them act a bit alien because they were yanked from the reality where they won. Even if it was confined into once place, this results in one of the longest dungeons we fought against, that dungeon having puzzles and a good challenge from some of the bosses. (Looking at Lysandre and Giovanni.) Most of the boss's actions fit with what we know of the characters. (Archie and Maxie getting at each others faces, Lysandre being a mad man, Ghetsis being the most evil of the villains and Giovanni being the only one who has both brains and sanity.) or having things actually expanded upon. (Cyrus regretting everything, his interactions with Rotom and how this bit of his behavior is seen in Masters of all places.)

It's a lot more than nostalgia pandering, it's a proper 20th anniversary event for what should have been the 20th anniversary game and it makes uses of the concept of alternate realities that Gen 7 was putting more focus on.

2. RR had a lot more in delivering pay off for certain characters we know of and that makes up for the over the top nature of RR.
Lillie as a trainer and standing up to these guys, standing up to Faba and standing up to Ghetsis of all people. (Compared to SM where she went crawling back to her mother and becoming a trainer off screen entirely)

Having Guzma do something heroic and showing us his redemption. Colress's moment of booting Ghetsis from our reality and showing Faba as the sniveling, dubious creep he has always been and showing us a bit of his demotion.

Compared to SM where we were only hinted at with Guzma (like how SM pulled that hint at Lusamine turning around... completely out of nowhere) Colress being just a cameo and us only being told of stuff regarding Faba.

To put this into notion, RR made Festival Plaza relevant in the active story, rather than a... player feature for us to deal with.

3. After RR, we start getting our closure for certain characters if we go around to look. Lillie stays with Kukui as his assistant, yes, but it is implied that she is exploring Alola instead or is going to (Masters points this out since it is flat out stated that she stayed on Alola.) and is in a more healthier environment. We also have Lillie fight alongside us at the Battle Tree as an activity. We get more on Lusamine before RR where she was having an identity crisis and after where she vowed to keep her distant from her kids, along with turning the Aether Foundation around for the better. (As well as doing some self reflecting when we fight her at the league.) We see Guzma vowing to better protect his homies of Team Skull and meet him as a title defense challenger.

Gladion comes back to Alola a month later after beating RR with some confidence in his own strength and we meet Mohn at the Aether Foundation to see that closure to the family drama.

For those complaining that Ultra Sun and Moon's main story changed the focus on the Aether Family drama for you the player and Necrozma, THIS is where the Aether Family got some of that focus back and in proper closure (Masters taken the Aether Family from Ultra's outcome and that is where more confusion should have been cleared.) and I'm glad we got that.

Ultra's post game was better than SM's and is better than base SwSh's. (The expansion packs are something else.) It is one of the better post games we gotten, right next to BW2's (BW2 has better events) and Gen 2's (Longer and a whole region to explore.)

 

[SlimKennedy]

I don't get Golisopod's popularity. I personally find Araquanid much more appealing, both aesthetically and competitively.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

I think people it's because type combination + design.

Golisopod was the long awaited bug/water type after the Surskit fiasco (it becomes bug/flying after evolving).

While it's true Araquanid shares the same type, it's yet another spider (after Ariados and Galvantula)

 

[MrJechgo]

I don't get Golisopod's popularity. I personally find Araquanid much more appealing, both aesthetically and competitively.

I think people it's because type combination + design.

Golisopod was the long awaited bug/water type after the Surskit fiasco (it becomes bug/flying after evolving).

While it's true Araquanid shares the same type, it's yet another spider (after Ariados and Galvantula)

They also made Golisopod Guzma's ace Pokémon. That... often helps to boost popularity

Still... I get that Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Jigglypuff and Meowth were popular... but Poliwhirl??? THAT one, I never understood XD

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I get that Golisopod’s Emergency Exit is the updated version of Wimp Out but it somehow doesn’t quite fit its design. Golisopod is pretty big and threatening looking but I don’t think it would flee in battle after so many hits. Maybe tweak the Ability so that it will still allow it to retreat if its health goes below a certain point but under certain circumstances. The circumstances would be after a Super Effective hit that doesn't KO it, neutral hits that are extremely high in power such as Hyper Beam, and the ability won’t activate if a Not Very Effective move is used on it, False Swipe, Hold Back, Super Fang, or Nature’s Madness are used as they will never cause a KO, and damage caused by weather can no longer activate Emergency Exit and if Spikes or Stealth Rock cause damage that equals to the amount of damage needed to activate Emergency Exit, it won’t activate. I think this way Golisopod can still be threatening and not look as if the slightest thing would make it run away and show that its Dex entries mentioning how determined it is to always win is true and it only retreats when necessary aka after taking a super strong hit or super effective attack.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

I get that Golisopod’s Emergency Exit is the updated version of Wimp Out but it somehow doesn’t quite fit its design. Golisopod is pretty big and threatening looking but I don’t think it would flee in battle after so many hits. Maybe tweak the Ability so that it will still allow it to retreat if its health goes below a certain point but under certain circumstances. The circumstances would be after a Super Effective hit that doesn't KO it, neutral hits that are extremely high in power such as Hyper Beam, and the ability won’t activate if a Not Very Effective move is used on it, False Swipe, Hold Back, Super Fang, or Nature’s Madness are used as they will never cause a KO, and damage caused by weather can no longer activate Emergency Exit and if Spikes or Stealth Rock cause damage that equals to the amount of damage needed to activate Emergency Exit, it won’t activate. I think this way Golisopod can still be threatening and not look as if the slightest thing would make it run away and show that its Dex entries mentioning how determined it is to always win is true and it only retreats when necessary aka after taking a super strong hit or super effective attack.

I think with all those conditions it'd become far too complicated to understand for most players. You generally want the ability rules to remain fairly simple to understand.

 

[Missingno.Fan]

Still... I get that Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Jigglypuff and Meowth were popular... but Poliwhirl??? THAT one, I never understood XD

I think Poliwhirl is the favorite Pokémon of Ken Sugimori (or one of the higher ups).

 

[TwilightBlade]

I don't get Golisopod's popularity. I personally find Araquanid much more appealing, both aesthetically and competitively.

I hate Golisopod and don't get why people think that a giant isopod is so great. Plus its ability annoys me and reminds me of Archeops's ability. :[

Also on this topic I really hate the 2020 popularity poll because it was so pointless. Even though Pikachu didn't win it's obvious that it's the most well known Pokemon and gets more toys and products than any of the others. So Greninja winning didn't change that but people still act like it matters.