#52 - #53: Meowth & Persian

A cute little Meowth playing with its Amulet Coins. This
is not surprising, though, because it is attracted to round
and shiny objects, picking up anything that sparkles when
wandering the streets, including loose change. Its eyes then
glitter and the coin on its forehead will shine brightly.

Awww, look at that adorable little kitty! Who's a cutie? Who's a cutie? Yes, it's you! Coochie coochie coo!

Ahem... You saw nothing.

Seriously though, while I am not fond of dogs at all, I have an inexplicable affection for cats. Some dogs are graceless, clumsy and ugly monsters (pitbulls, bulldogs and chihuahuas, for example, the latter of which is a rat rather than a dog; I can't even call that a proper dog species) that are way too energetic and playful around humans, which I can't stand. Cats, on the other hand, are beautiful, graceful, fluffy and calm creatures that don't follow you around all day trying to get your attention, which I like. The only downside of having three cats, however, are the dead mice and birds they bring home every night, but I'll take those dead bodies anytime over a dog that barks constantly while you are attempting to get your necessary eight hours of sleep. My love for cats has carried over to Pokémon, as quite some cat Pokémon have been introduced throughout the years, the latest additions being Pyroar and Meowstic. I even did an ORAS playthrough with only feline Pokémon (Luxray, Persian, Purugly, Liepard, Meowstic and Pyroar; I decided not to go with Delcatty because that Pokémon is terrible). Yeah, my love for cats has gone that far...

Official art of Persian by Ken Sugimori.

So it is probably not a surprise that I'm so head over heels in love with Meowth and, specifically, Persian. I have not always loved Persian so much though, mainly because I came to love cats only eight years ago, when my mother got us a cat in the first place. My newfound love for Persian, however, only hatched some three months ago, when playing that ORAS cat playthrough. I can tell you it was a true MVP, all because of one move: Nasty Plot. Yes, I know that Persian's base attack stat is 70 and its special attack is 65, but it is Nasty Plot what makes Persian so good, as this move raises a Pokémon's special attack by two stages. Hone Claws only raises Persian's attack by one stage, as well as its accuracy, but it doesn't need the accuracy boost because all special moves it can learn have perfect accuracy, anyway. And it learns quite some special moves, whether or not they'll have to be taught to Persian through a Move Tutor. Nasty Plot and either Hyper Voice or Swift are must-haves, while Icy Wind and Water Pulse are there for coverage (and will be stronger if you use a Persian that has the ability Technician, which boosts moves that have 60 base power or less; Swift also gets that boost). It learns Power Gem by level-up and Thunderbolt, Thunder, Shadow Ball and Dark Pulse by use of TMs. A Hypnosis/Dream Eater combo is an option as well, but it'll take up Persian's remaining two moveslots, which might not be what you desire. Hypnosis has terrible accuracy, anyway. The coverage depends on what moves the other Pokémon in your party have; my own Persian had Power Gem and Water Pulse.

Persian is, without a doubt, an amazing Pokémon, but it is probably best known for being mob boss Giovanni's pet. That's no mean feat, because Persian is extremely difficult to raise due to its temper and barbaric personality; it will scratch anyone with little or no provocation, including its Trainer, and it has been seen ripping its prey apart for no discernible reason. How's that for a pet cat? However, much more gentle and well-known (probably the most well-known Pokémon aside from Pikachu) is Team Rocket's Meowth, who has been Jessie and James' sidekick since the very first season of the anime series. He was introduced in the second episode alongside Jessie and James, in which he could already talk.

Meowth in the anime series, as one third of Team Rocket.

Later on in the series, we get to know Meowth's history. He starts off as a young Meowth in a camp, waking up all alone in the rain and ultimately being strung up from a tree as a punishment by a baseball coach for knocking over a basket with baseballs because he was trying to eat the basket. After seeing a film depicting a Meowth being given delicious foods, Meowth decided to go to Hollywood, but upon arriving he was merely perceived as a stray Pokémon. After joining a gang with Meowth led by a Persian for a long time, annoying the humans in town by stealing food and causing trouble, Meowth meets and falls in love with a female Meowth called Meowzie. She rejected him, saying he was poor and preferred humans, but when Meowth learns to walk and talk like a human, she calls him a freak.

Meowth hanging on to James, probably busted while executing one of Team
Rocket's 'evil' plans. 

Heartbroken, he joins Team Rocket, inspired by the very first word he learns: 'rocket'. That is how we know Meowth nowadays: as one third of an evil team trying to steal other people's Pokémon, but failing miserably over and over again. Until Unova, that is, when Team Rocket developed a more serious attitude, acting more like professional criminals. This even got out of hand when Ash found Meowth injured. Meowth explained that he screwed up one of Team Rocket's big schemes in Nimbasa City and decided to travel with Ash and his friends onwards, only to get busted later on, when it was revealed that Meowth's dismissal was fake and part of Team Rocket's big plan to steal all the Pokémon from Nimbasa City's Pokémon Center. I personally love this little piece of history of Meowth's life and the development of his character, which we almost never get to see in the Pokémon anime. It adds a little depth to an otherwise bland series, in my opinion.

I love Meowth and Persian. The legend of the maneki-neko ('lucky cat' or 'beckoning cat'), a common Japanese ceramic or plastic figurine of a cat holding a koban, a kind of ancient Japanese coin like the one on Meowth's head, is perfectly incorporated in Meowth's design and flavor. I guess it is just a matter of personal taste and experiences, though; and even though I have to admit Meowth and Persian are not strong Pokémon at all, I love them for their designs, flavor, the roles they play in the animated series, and because they're freaking cats, goddammit!

So, uhm... did I mention that I love cats already?

Rating: 5/5

#174, #39 - #40: Igglybuff, Jigglypuff & Wigglytuff

Official art of adorable, round Igglybuff.

Who remembers that annoying-as-fuck Jigglypuff that occasionally sang everybody to sleep in the first season of the anime series?

Yeah, that's what this article is about...

Seriously though, that Jigglypuff was incredibly annoying. And unreasonable too, for that matter, as it got mad and inflated when they fell asleep after its lullabies. The first time it got mad it stole a marker from Ash's backpack and started to doodle on their faces. Jigglypuff carried that marker along with it everywhere and never hesitated to use it when Ash and his company fell asleep once more. I never liked that Jigglybuff, though. It only interrupted the episode and it had no purpose in the anime whatsoever, so you can say that my 'experience' with this windbag (literally, because after mesmerizing its opponent with its eyes, Jigglypuff inflates its lungs to start singing a lullaby, endangering its own life by continuing to sing until its lungs run out of air if the opponent resists falling asleep) hasn't exactly been of a positive nature. It took a long time for me to actually start liking Jigglypuff. And then came Igglybuff...

Fan drawing of Jigglypuff (left) and Wigglytuff (right).

Like, was it really necessary to add another useless baby Pokémon? We've had Pichu and Cleffa now, who serve no purpose whatsoever (except maybe breeding the move Volt Tackle on Pichu in Pichu's case), and it's not even the last baby Pokémon to have been introduced in Gen. II. In fact, I am yet to review Tyrogue, Smoochum, Elekid and Magby, who have all been introduced in Gen. II as well. Gen. IV isn't much better, with a total of seven new pre-evolutions of Pokémon that already existed. Let it be clear, I don't hate baby Pokémon... I mean, they are cute and all, but what purpose do they serve other than being the result of introducing breeding (which, let's be honest, could have been introduced without adding weaker forms of already-existing Pokémon)? I don't want to rant about baby Pokémon and dedicate this whole article to it, but I had to put it out there. Again, this doesn't mean I hate Igglybuff; on the contrary, really, I just wonder why these Pokémon were added in the first place...

Cute.

Well, it can't be helped; Igglybuff is here, bouncing continually and uncontrollably once it starts with that, and with a sore throat of singing too much (if only the anime Jigglypuff had had this problem once in a while...). In the end, though, this article is largely based on one Pokémon: Jigglypuff's evolution Wigglytuff. Like Cleffa, Clefairy and Clefable, it is now a fairy type (just like Igglybuff and Jigglypuff), but rather than having been changed into pure fairy types, Wigglytuff and its pre-evolutions have had the fairy type added to their primary normal typing. Other than taking neutral damage from fighting-type moves rather than being weak to it, this type combination makes no sense. Game Freak might as well have changed them into pure fairy types, but whatever... The main thing is that Wigglytuff got a boost in its base special attack, making this stat halfway decent. Its defenses are still booty, but its massive HP stat makes Wigglytuff bulky, anyway. Combine its passable special attack with moves like Ice Beam, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Dazzling Gleam, Hyper Voice, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Focus Blast and even Grass Knot and you have a Wigglytuff with so much diversity that you don't even know where to start when filling a moveset.

All in all, Igglybuff and its evolution Jigglypuff don't particularly pique my interest, but Wigglytuff is cute and interesting enough to pull off a very decent rating. I mean, who wouldn't want a fluffy balloon? Indeed, Wigglytuff's pink fur is so soft that those who touch it (including its own species) will not want to stop, and its body is so soft and rubbery that it is able to inflate by inhaling, moving around by bouncing or floating while it is inflated. I want to see you find a fluffy bunny/balloon thing that can do that. And yes, eventually I did get over my annoyance with Jigglypuff, because I haven't watched the anime series in ages...

Rating: 4/5

#21 - #22: Spearow & Fearow

Official art of Spearow.

Yeah, what is there to say about Spearow? Nothing much, to be honest, except that it's another of so many Pidgey clones. Well, it's not exactly a clone, but these normal- and flying-type bird Pokémon are nothing short of unimaginative, to say the least. That does not necessarily mean that they shouldn't be existing or that they're bad. On the contrary, there are some awesome 'common' normal/flying-type bird Pokémon. For example, Staraptor's shtick is the fighting-type move Close Combat and with its crazy attack stat it can pull it off quite well, while Talonflame's primary typing isn't even the normal type anymore, even though its most basic form - Fletchling - certainly is. Spearow and Fearow, on the other hand, aren't all that amazing. Their designs are pretty nice, nicely fitting in into their flavor (vicious prey birds), but that's pretty much it. There is absolutely nothing Fearow can do that other birds of later generations cannot. And most of the time, those other birds are better at it, too (with the notable exception of Unfezant, but I'll get to that one much, much later). Well, Fearow can fly for an entire day without landing due to its large wings and tremendous stamina, but I'm sure there are some real-life birds who can pull that off as well.

Fearow and Ho-Oh share quite a few features: the long necks, the thin faces, the
'mohawks', the talons, the bushy tails and their feather pattern are what they have
in common.

One thing that roams around the Internet is the suggestion that Fearow should somehow evolve into the legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh. I can't even blame the people who argue that it should, because Ho-Oh is basically a more extravagant and 'fabulous' form of Fearow, as they share quite a few features. Above image sums it up pretty well, even though it might be a little bit offensive towards the LGBTQ community. (I am gay as well, but this definitely made me chuckle, so...) By the way, I'm pretty sure most people, including me, will continue to see Ho-Oh as a stand-alone legendary Pokémon. That's what we're all used to, anyway.

Official Ken Sugimori art of Fearow.

But the big question is whether or not Fearow is capable for Pokémon battles, right? Yeah, so is it a good Pokémon? Well, it is... and at the same time it isn't. Fearow is moderately strong, as its attack is an acceptable 90, and with a base speed stat of 100 it is even faster than it is strong, but nobody in their right mind would use it in competitive battling. It is decent for in-game purposes, as it learns just enough moves to fill in a decent moveset: Drill Run, Drill Peck or Fly, and Return are must-haves. The weird thing is that it cannot learn the flying-type move Brave Bird in any way, so you'll be stuck with Drill Peck or the two-turn move Fly. Drill Run is nice ground-type coverage for electric types that comes its way, while Return hits hard for STAB (same type attack bonus) damage. The remaining spot could be filled in by either U-Turn or Steel Wing. The latter covers fairy types and, more importantly, ice and rock types as well, while U-Turn (which is a bug-type move) only covers grass, psychic and dark. Grass should be covered by Drill Peck, and Fearow is better off using Return against dark and psychic types, anyway. The thing with Fearow is that its defenses are complete and utter crap; it can live one hit, maybe two, but that's pretty much it.

I once used a Fearow in a playthrough and I was all but satisfied with it. I can't say I had good experiences with this Pokémon, but maybe I just had a Fearow with bad attack IVs (a Pokémon's invidual values that indicate how well a Pokémon's stats grow; my Fearow's attack stat didn't even surpass 100 at level 50). I would like to give it a bad rating because of that, but that wouldn't be entirely fair, because I don't dislike Fearow in any way. On the contrary, I actually like its design well enough to give it a 4-star rating.

Rating: 4/5

#19 - #20: Rattata & Raticate

Rattata, the first generic normal-type rodent.

Rattata, probably one of the most annoying Pokémon in Pokémon Red and Blue aside from Zubat, would set the trend for introducing one normal-type rodent Pokémon that you could catch at the very beginning of the game in every subsequent generation. Sentret would be introduced in Gen. II, Zigzagoon in Gen. III, Bidoof in Gen. IV, Patrat in Gen. V, and finally Bunnelby in Gen. VI. Rattata was the original rodent though, and it was annoying as hell... well, at least in my opinion. Ain't nobody want no goddamn rat in their team, least of all me. Real-life rats aren't popular with most people to begin with, so did Rattata (or rather its evolution, Raticate) have a chance anyway? Surely there are some people who do like these disgusting animals, but they're absolutely not my cup of tea. Neither are they Ash's favorite animals, apparently: in the season 1 anime episode "Battle Aboard the St. Anne" he traded his Butterfree for a gentleman's Raticate. He regretted it immediately after, however, causing him to trade the Raticate back to its original owner while the ship Ash and his friends were on was sinking, although this was probably because Ash had become too attached to his Butterfree by then.

Add up the fact that both Rattata and Raticate can adapt to any environment to live in and almost always have the need to gnaw on something, often on rocks or logs but sometimes even on the wall of a house, and you have a nuisance rather than a useful Pokémon. By the way, Raticate is capable of chewing concrete walls, which might result in buildings to topple over if you're unlucky. Just imagine a plague of these things... Goddamn, you'll have the devil to pay.

Apparently, according to Game Freak, Rattata and Raticate
(depicted) are mice.

Oh, before I move on to discussing Raticate's fighting abilities, there is one little thing that really bugs me for some reason: Rattata and its evolution were classified as 'Rat Pokémon' in the first two generation, but from the third generation onwards, Rattata and its evolution have been erroneously called 'Mouse Pokémon'. Quite obviously, though, mice are not rats. They're from the same order (rodentia), superfamily (muroidea, which also comprises hamsters and gerbils and the like) and family (muridae, which basically includes all members of the muroidea superfamily), but not from the same genus. 'True' rats belong to the genus called rattus, while mice are most often classified as mus. Now, I know that these kinds of real-life things are often incorrect, inconsistent and sometimes even ignored in the Pokémon world, but Rattata and Raticate are obviously rats, not mice. I mean, it's in their names, for God's sake. I would really like to know which genius came up with the idea to give these rats the label of 'Mouse Pokémon', because I can't help but finding this the dumbest thing ever. Well, I guess I shouldn't worry too much about that now.

Fan art of Raticate.

Let's just see how Raticate fares in battle then, shall we? Well, as opposed to the other Pokémon you can find on the very first route in Red and Blue, which is Pidgey, Raticate is actually a lot more diverse. The only problem is that most coverage moves it learns are special-based, like Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Grass Knot, Shadow Ball and Psychic. It learns Crunch by level-up. Dig and U-Turn are the only TM moves worth mentioning, but they are nothing special for in-game purposes (you're most likely not going to use Raticate for competitive battling, although one of its ability is Guts and boosts Raticate's attack by 50% when it is suffering from a status condition, which works pretty well when it's holding a Toxic Orb or Flame Orb) and don't hit as hard as they should when used by Raticate, although they provide decent coverage. Wild Charge is to be avoided, because Raticate learns Double-Edge and that move hits just as hard as Wild Charge does when used on a Pokémon that is weak to electric-type moves. The only difference is that Double-Edge is slightly stronger when Raticate is holding a Silk Scarf, for example, which you should let it hold, because one of its staple moves is going to be Return, a move that has a maximum power of 102 when Raticate's friendship level is maxed out. It learns Iron Tail and Zen Headbutt through Move Tutors, but you will probably have defeated the Elite 4 and the Champion by then.

The official Raticate art has changed quite a bit in this image.

Raticate has access to just enough physical moves to complete a decent enough moveset, but in the end it is just a bland Pokémon. It's speedy and its attack stat is decent, but it has nothing to make it stand out to other Pokémon. I don't dislike Raticate as much as I used to, but I can't give it any rating higher than three stars.

Rating: 3/5

#16 - #18: Pidgey, Pidgeotto & Pidgeot

Fan art of Pidgey.

Ah, yes. Pidgey. This docile little bird was the first of many normal/flying-type bird Pokémon to come, of which two evolution lines will be discussed very soon, as they are part of the first generation of Pokémon. But when you step into the tall grass upon entering Route 1 in Red and Blue, Pidgey was one of the first two Pokémon you were able to catch, the other one being Rattata. And while Rattata evolves into Raticate quite early and Raticate is slightly stronger than Pidgeot is (although not by a landslide; Raticate's physical attack is just one base point higher than Pidgeot's), it was worth waiting until level 36, when Pidgeotto evolved into Pidgeot. Not only does Pidgeot looks cooler than Raticate, it is also more reliable due to its slightly higher defenses and its ability to learn Fly, which is always handy in a Pokémon game. Strangely enough, Ash didn't catch a Pidgey early on in the anime series, but a Pidgeotto, which would turn out to be one of his most reliable partners (although it has to be said that Ash attempted to catch a Pidgey before that, but failed miserably). However, like with Butterfree, Ash released his freshly-evolved Pidgeot, this time to protect a Pidgey flock nearby Ash's hometown Pallet Town from a flock of vicious Spearow led by the Fearow Ash encountered as a Spearow in the very first episode.

Pidgeot depicted as (Bird) Jesus from 'Twitch
Plays Pokémon'.

But don't we all remember Pidgeot from the disaster that is called 'Twitch Plays Pokémon'? Streaming service Twitch set up a digital version of Pokémon Red for everyone to play... simultaneously. Due to everybody inserting multiple commands at the same time (A, B, up, down, left, right, you name it), it soon became a mess and progress was made very slowly, and sometimes not at all. When Jay Leno the Rattata and starter Pokémon Abby the Charmeleon were released, the Pidgey caught at the beginning of the game became the team's leader and savior, sent by Lord Helix (Omanyte) to guide Red through the game. Especially after the second massacre, when eleven Pokémon were released by the Twitch Plays Pokémon crowd, Bird Jesus (as Pidgeot is so commonly referred to) bacame the mainstay of the entire team. Ingenious, making up a storyline for a Pokémon game played by tens of thousands of people at the same time. Of course, it was a 'historic' event in the eyes of many Pokémon fans, an event that many will always remember. Especially when you consider the fact that, of all Pokémon, a Pidgeot was the most important Pokémon that eventually led the team to sweet victory!

Official art of Mega Pidgeot.

However, Bird Jesus had been at an insanely high level throughout half of Twitch's playthrough. Can a regular Pidgeot lead a team to victory when a team is more balanced out? Well, when your team is more balanced out, you're likely to let your other Pokémon fight as well. That is not to say that Pidgeot wouldn't be a good addition to any team, especially as a Mega Pidgeot. That's right, it got a Mega evolution in Omega Ruby and Sapphire, and with a little patience you can just catch a Pidgeotto in the Safari Zone after beating or catching Kyogre or Groudon and evolve it into a Pidgeot after a little training. The Mega Stone necessary for Mega-evolving is obtainable long before that, anyway. But is Mega Bird Jesus good? Hell yeah! Whether it has a diverse movepool is a completely other matter, but it is fast and super strong, gaining a gigantic boost in its special attack and even some speed as well (which matches its flavor much better, as Pidgeot are capable of flying at Mach 2 speed). It also acquires the No Guard ability, meaning that both its own moves and its oponent's moves will never miss, not even when they have low accuracy. That effectively makes Hurricane, which normally has 70% accuracy, one of its staple moves.

In fact, Hurricane is its only staple move, as the rest is just for a bit of coverage. Heat Wave is almost always used in the competitive scene, while Hyper Beam can be handy for strong normal-type damage when nothing else is available to you (although it requires a turn to recharge). Defog, for getting rid of annoying entry hazards like Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock, and U-Turn, for switching out while causing chip damage, are a thing as well. I even rocked out with a Mega Pidgeot who had Twister when doing an Omega Ruby playthrough, but I don't recommend using it competitively (unless you're really desperate).

The entire Pidgey line: Pidgey (up), Pidgeotto (left), Pidgeot (right) and
Mega Pidgeot (middle).

Personally, Mega Pidgeot is my second favorite Mega evolution, just because of its awesome streamlined design. It is one of the most subtle Megas design-wise, but man, does it hit the mark! Well, that depends on how you look at it, but there is absolutely nothing that keeps it from getting a perfect rating!

Rating: 5/5