#361 - #362, #478: Snorunt, Glalie & Froslass

So only now we've bumped into the first true Gen. III ice types - and no, I do not count Castform's Snowy Forme as such. Hoenn is a tropical region with too much water and it is hard to implement ice types into such a region in the first place, so they were put away in a remote salt cave at the northeastern edge of the region, which - with a little bit of bad luck - would be completely overlooked by the player if they were in a rush to complete the game. Route 125 and Shoal Cave are just north of Mossdeep City, but there is nothing else to find beyond these places, so they're not mandatory for the player to visit. And even though the Snorunt and Spheal lines are the only ice types you can find in the games (not counting Regice as of yet because it is tricky to obtain, and definitely not counting Castform), by the time the player arrives in Mossdeep City they will probably have a full team of six already.

Snorunt plushies, the middle of which is that of a shiny Snorunt. 

Another drawback for players to put a Snorunt on their team is the fact that this little critter evolves at level 42, which is way too damn high for a Pokémon that isn't worth the hassle. Don't get me wrong; Glalie is great and all, but base 80 stats across the board isn't worth waiting until level 42. And with base 50 stats Snorunt can't do an awful lot by itself, either. Instead, I think we should admire what Snorunt is supposed to represent: a small, child-sized Pokémon based on a couple of different yōkai. The zashiki-warashi, or "guestroom child", is a mischievous Japanese spirit in the form of a five- or six-year-old child that is often sighted in Iwate Prefecture, somewhere in northern Japan. Those who see it are said to be visisted with good fortune, which is the exact same thing the Pokédex says about Snorunt, too. Another inspiration for Snorunt might be the yukinko, a childlike spirit said to emerge when it snows, often depicted as elf-like and wearing a yuki mino - the latter being a traditional type of winter wear from the snowy parts of Japan that consists of a conical snow cloak made of straw. Snorunt seems to be stylized version of a yuki mino, which is probably why it can stand temperatures of -150°F. From Pokémon Platinum on, Snorunt's Pokédex description of gathering under giant leaves and living together in harmony with others of its species is a reference to the Koro-pok-guru, a race of small people in the folklore of the Ainu people. They are said to live under the leaves of plants in harmony, and their name seems to support that: Koro-pok-guru literally means "people under the butterbur plant". The only problem is that Snorunt doesn't look the part and that it doesn't fit its design and typing, either.

Official Sugimori art of Glalie.

Nor does Glalie look like a logical evolution of Snorunt, for that matter. It's like the head of a goblin with nothing else attached to it, but basically Glalie consists of a black rock core covered by ice that will not even melt under a direct flame. If that is the case, why wasn't it made part rock type? Glalie would have benefited from that if it hadn't been for these two bad weaknesses to fighting and steel it otherwise would've had, but the latter type wasn't as prevalent in competitive play as it is now with all those fairy types around. Instead, we just got a Pokémon based on a hockey mask whose name is a combination of 'glacier' and 'goalie'. Indeed, 'goalie'; how fucking obvious do you want to make it, anyway? Even its Japanese name Onigohri (オニゴーリ) bears a phonetic similarity to 'goalie', while the word Torwart in Glalie's German name Firnontor means 'goalkeeper'. It doesn't even remotely resemble anything from Japanese culture anymore, aside from maybe a standard type of oni (an ogre- or troll-like creature) with horns. And what about that flavor? It can freeze moisture in the atmosphere... - yeah, no shit; it's a fucking ice type - ...into any shape it desires.

Okay, that's actually pretty cool.

And as if Glalie didn't look ugly enough, it has an ugly personality as well: it actually enjoys putting its prey in a frozen state with its icy-cold breath and gobbling it up afterwards. What's more, Glalie got a Mega evolution that no one saw coming, and it can now temporarily float around with a dislocated jaw. I can almost hear it scream in agony. It's tragic, really, as Mega Glalie can instantly freeze its prey but cannot eat said prey because its jaw is destroyed.

Some pretty cool (get it?) fan art of Froslass.

Glalie's Korean name Urumkisin (얼음귀신) - from eol'eum ('ice') and gwishin ('ghost'), so literally 'ice ghost' - would have fit Snorunt's alternative evolution Froslass a whole lot better. Froslass, evolved from a female Snorunt by use of a Dawn Stone, is the franchise's only ice/ghost type, and for a good reason, too: it is based on the yuki-onna, a ghostly woman in Japanese folklore often associated with winter and snowstorms. I already mentioned these spirits in Jynx's review, but as Froslass is a ghost type and the yuki-onna is supposed to represent a female ghost (which is also the reason why only female Snorunt can evolve into Froslass), it makes much more sense that the latter was the inspiration for Froslass rather than Jynx. However, none of the legends about the yuki-onna are as lurid as Froslass's Pokédex descriptions. It's all very interesting to read that it has cold breath (so does Glalie), that it has a hollow body (so does Dusclops) and that legends in snowy regions say that a woman who got lost on an icy mountains was reborn as a Froslass, but let's take a look at the entries it got in Pokémon Sun and Moon recently.

Pokédex entry Sun:
"When it finds humans or Pokémon it likes, it freezes them and takes them to its chilly den, where they become decorations."

Pokémon entry Moon:
"The soul of a woman lost on a snowy mountain possessed an icicle, becoming this Pokémon. The food it most relishes is the souls of men."

Why, excuse the living hell out of me? So, in the hypothetical case that I'm roaming about in the snowy mountains and just by happenstance encounter a Froslass, I'm pretty much screwed? I don't know about you guys, but I am 100% certain I'm never going on a skiing holiday.

A Froslass image with yuki-onna elements in the forefront. The
red band it's wearing is reminiscent of an obi, a sash worn with a
kimono or with the uniforms used by practitioners of Japanese
martial arts.

Trainers should be cautious when being around this thing, but on the off chance you decide to use Froslass in competitive play, you'll have yourself a speedy special att... wait, what? Its special attack is only 80? Damn, I always thought it had amazing speed and special attack and terribe everything else, but I guess I was wrong. Well, it's no use making it defensive, because it won't live a hit, so be clever and go with the specially offensive approach anyway. I was going to recommend a Timid nature, but I guess it can use the special power boost from a Modest nature. And a Life Orb, for that matter, which will make moves like Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Signal Beam, Psychic and Thunderbolt hit foes just this little bit harder. As it's fast to begin with, a utility moveset might not be bad; Taunt is to prevent foes from setting up with stat-boosting moves, Spikes lays a layer of - you guessed it - spikes that hurt incoming Pokémon on the opponent's side of the battlefield, Will-O-Wisp burns foes and thus inflicts residual damage every turn, and a fast Destiny Bond might be beneficial if a certain Pokémon proves to be an issue. Of course, a utility moveset calls for a Focus Sash rather than a Life Orb. The only thing left to discuss is its ability, but it has only two. Its regular ability Snow Cloak boosts Froslass's evasion when it's hailing, which it almost never does, so ignore that one. Its hidden ability is Cursed Body and has the power to disable certain moves when Froslass is hit by one, which could definitely come in handy.

It's pretty hot in the Netherlands right now, but this image
spontaneously gives me the chills.

So, we've discussed Froslass, but what about Glalie? Well... my advice is to not use it unless you go Mega. Regular Glalie is just not good enough and can't get anything done, so you'd be wise to Mega-evolve it. Mega Glalie has Refrigerate for its ability, which turns all normal-type moves into ice-type moves, effectively making them STAB. This means a decent 102-power phsyical-based ice-type move in Return, as well as an ice-type Explosion. It's what most people use Mega Glalie for, anyway: doing some moderate damage to opponents with moves like Return and Earthquake, only to cause a gigantic and unexpected climax and blow it up for a whopping 250 power. That's one almost guaranteed OHKO right there, so Explosion is perfect to remove a specific threat from the game. Sure, you'll lose your own Mega Glalie in the process, but sometimes you gotta make sacrifices in order to advance the match. If blowing Mega Glalie up is unfavorable, you could also run a moveset consisting of Return, Ice Shard, Earthquake and Iron Head, of course supported by a Jolly or Adamant nature - or a Naive, Hasty, Lonely or Naughty nature if you decide to use Freeze-Dry instead of Iron Head in order for you to super-effectively hit water types as well. Nonetheless, Mega Glalie is pretty much one-dimensional and therefore very predictable.

I wish I could like these Pokémon more than I currently do, but Mega Glalie is a little too weird - even to my taste - and Froslass is unimpressive when it's not about its flavor. That doesn't stop me from giving both Pokémon a good rating - the same one at that, too - and to be quite honest, 4 stars are nothing to sneeze at. I don't know exactly what it is that could make them sneeze, because I doubt these Pokémon can catch a cold, but that is not the point.

P.S.: What's with Froslass's classification as the 'Snow Land Pokémon'? I really don't understand the 'land' part...?

Rating: 4/5