#535 - #537: Tympole, Palpitoad & Seismitoad

The Machop and Poliwag families almost sit back to back in the Kanto Pokédex, with the Abra line spoiling the fun for them; in Unova we actually get to discuss Tympole, Palpitoad and Seismitoad right after we're done with the Timburr line.

Official art of Tymple, drawn by Ken Sugimori.

To be honest with you, I've always been a little underwhelmed by Tympole and its evolutions, as there doesn't seem to be anything that makes them distinctive enough from the Poliwag family to warrant their very existence. I mean, they even have the same color scheme! Sure, they have supersonic abilities, but I can name a few other Pokémon that have the exact same powers; and when it comes to Seismitoad's typing (water/ground), it is heavily outclassed by the likes of Swampert and Gastrodon, and perhaps even Quagsire. That is not to say that Tympole isn't interesting at all design-wise, as its face looks as flat as a drum, the half-spheres on the side of its head make it look like it's wearing headphones and its eyebrows look like little musical notes. The aforementioned 'headphones' - or 'loudspeakers', rather - are actually rhythmically vibrated by Tympole to create a sound so high-pitched that it is imperceptible to humans, in order to communicate with others of its kind and warn them of danger. They also look like a toad's 'warts' or poison glands, although Tympole's name and Pokédex entries point to them being based on a tympanum, an external hearing structure in animals such as mammals, birds, some reptiles, some amphibians and even some insects. In frogs and toads, the organ is large and oval-shaped and is visibly located behind the eye, while it is simply used to transmit sound waves to the inner parts of the amphibian's ear. Heck, I already said Tympole's face looks like a drum, so its name might very well be derived from big Italian percussion instruments called timpani - also known as kettledrums.

Honestly, Palpitoad is a weird-looking Pokémon in every way
possible: limbless, warty, kinda plump... not Game Freak's best
effort to date. 

Unfortunately, the musical theme is dropped when Tympole evolves into Palpitoad, and the only thing that Palpitoad does that Tympole doesn't is using its ability to vibrate to create giant waves when it's underwater or earthquakes when it's on land - even though it cannot learn Earthquake in any way, shape or form. Palpitoad is a ground type and therefore it's capable to live on land just fine, which means it is based on a toad rather than a frog, but like Poliwhirl it is still a water type - and yes, I do still hold on to my belief that Poliwhirl and Poliwrath are grown-ass frogs, not tadpoles. Also, the bumps on Palpitoad's back, its more toad-like appearance and its ability to create vibrations underwater are derivative of the common Suriname toad, an aquatic amphibian whose back is covered in pockets that hold its eggs - although strangely, Palpitoad's Japanese name Gamagaru (ガマガル) is a corruption of gamagaeru and suggests that it is based on the Japanese common toad instead. Hell, its German name Mebrana even includes rana, a genus of frogs, which is... ahem, NOT what Palpitoad is based on at all. Come the fuck on, Game Freak. You're not gonna tell me you can't be at least a little bit consistent, are you?

"Come at me, bro!"

But then there's big, bad Seismitoad, and I have to say it has grown on me quite a bit. It is good design-wise, at least as far as toads go, and characteristically it has found many more ways to make use of the 'warts' found all over its body. Seismitoad can make all of its lumps vibrate at will, obviously, but it uses this function to make tormenting sounds and catch opponents off guard (unironically, the two bumps right above its eyes may be based on the bells of a traditional alarm clock, an invention that has been tormenting people ever since it came into existence). Some lumps have specific capabilities: the ones on Seismitoad's head can be used to spray a paralyzing liquid - which in my opinion is simply masked language for some kind of poison - and the ones on its fists can be vibrated to give more power to its punches, allowing it to turn a big boulder into rubble within seconds. Seismitoad's punching ability can actually be really dangerous if not controlled, because its hands will vibrate with the resonant frequency of the object about to be hit (in physics, resonance is a phenomenon in which a vibrating system drives another system to oscillate with greater amplitude at specific frequencies), causing extra, devastating damage to said object. Buildings can sway or collapse entirely, while for living creatures it could cause internal organ damage to the extent of possibly rupturing them. Sounds quite lethal, doesn't it?

Seismitoad being protective of its young.

Yeah, well, the problem with that is that Seismitoad isn't very good at punching things when it comes to competitive. Focus Punch is generally not recommended on any Pokémon and Ice Punch should be used on a Pokémon with more offensive presence (Mega Swampert, anyone?), which leaves Drain Punch as the only viable option for Seismitoad to use. And even then Seismitoad can be put to better use by giving it a support moveset of some sort, which should consist of Scald, Stealth Rock and the classic Toxic/Protect combo - or perhaps you could ditch Protect and give it Knock Off instead, so you can get rid of opposing Pokémon's held items. Combine this moveset with the Leftovers, the ability Water Absorb and a Bold nature (lowers its physical attack, but even though that stat is ten base points higher than its special attack, its only offensive move - which is Scald - is special-based), and you'll have a tanky water/ground type that isn't that easy to take down. And yes, alright, Seismitoad's defensive stats aren't very good in and of themselves, but its excellent HP more than makes up for that. There is one offensive set that could actually work, though: a Swift Swim set with a Life Orb and a Modest nature. Swift Swim doubles Seismitoad's average speed when it's raining on the battlefield, so if you somehow manage to let another teammate set up the rain for Seismitoad, you've got a very decent sweeper on your hands. There are exactly four good special moves of different types that Seismitoad can learn, too: Hydro Pump, Earth Power, Focus Blast and Sludge Wave, although you could opt to slap Surf on Seismitoad for more accuracy (100%, against the 80% of Hydro Pump). Seismitoad has access to a lot more physical moves than special moves, so a physical moveset is possible, but keep in mind that Seismitoad cannot learn a single physical-based water-type move, which kind of defeats the purpose of a rain set in the first place.

Seismitoad and its little babies.

I like Seismitoad. It may look hideous, but toads aren't pretty creatures to begin with and Game Freak can't make all Pokémon look aesthetically pleasing. This Pokémon is fine for what it is. Technically, there was no need for it, especially since all other water/ground dual-type Pokémon (Quagsire, Swampert, Whiscash and Gastrodon) serve as bulky support Pokémon, but it is obvious that Game Freak were aiming for at last some Kanto rip-offs during the production of Black and White. This time I'll forgive them for being such lazy asses, because if anything, Seismitoad is just a well-designed Pokémon. The only thing that could have been different aesthetically is Seismitoad's color palette, which should have been green/brown - or something along those lines - to make it at least a little bit more distinctive from Poliwrath design-wise. Then again, if that had been the case, people probably would have thought that it was a Politoed rip-off or something.

Rating: 4/5