Middle evolutions cooler than first and final?

Flaaffy is just adorable. Why did it have to lose all its wool during evolution?

Oh. We're talking about coolness? Well then...Porygon2. I like how much smoother it is compared to Porygon, but unfortunately all its evolution got was the Rayman treatment. By that I mean its limbs float without support. I just like how the transition from Porygon to P2 went.

I also find Charmeleon more badass than Charizard. I don't know why, maybe its the head shape and facial expression it has? xD

Quilladin, Pikachu, Quilava, and Bayleef.
I don't get all the hate for Quilladin. It's so cute!

One of my favorite Pokemon of all time happens to be a middle evolution, actually!

I seriously can't stand the fact that they had this awesome bipedal otter-samurai theme and decided to screw it all up by making Samurott 100% different from the previous two; as well as pressing him back down to a quadruped state. I absolutely hate that and can't stand Samurott because of it.

I was livid at Dewott's evolution reveal and prayed for it to be fake.

.. Oh well, at least Dewott turned out to be real. <3

Mario said:

One of my favorite Pokemon of all time happens to be a middle evolution, actually!

I seriously can't stand the fact that they had this awesome bipedal otter-samurai theme and decided to screw it all up by making Samurott 100% different from the previous two; as well as pressing him back down to a quadruped state. I absolutely hate that and can't stand Samurott because of it.

I was livid at Dewott's evolution reveal and prayed for it to be fake.

.. Oh well, at least Dewott turned out to be real. <3

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The whole time I was reading everyone's responses, I was thinking of what to say on Dewott. You said it all for me so I'm just going to second this. I also want to set oshawott's design on fire. Dewott should definitely just be a stand alone pokemon.

Mario said:

One of my favorite Pokemon of all time happens to be a middle evolution, actually!

I seriously can't stand the fact that they had this awesome bipedal otter-samurai theme and decided to screw it all up by making Samurott 100% different from the previous two; as well as pressing him back down to a quadruped state. I absolutely hate that and can't stand Samurott because of it.

I was livid at Dewott's evolution reveal and prayed for it to be fake.

.. Oh well, at least Dewott turned out to be real. <3

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Sorry, man, but I cannot disagree more. Samurott is actually one of my absolute favorite starters. Firstly, who cares that its very different from the previous two? Its not any more divergent than how different Blaziken is from Combusken or Torchic. Also, it still keeps with the samurai tradition. Its probably more like a samurai than Dewott in that it has swords that it can pull out of its arms and that sweet shell spike on top of its head. And it can get up on its hind legs, by the way.

Wartortle is the biggest one for me, being honest I prefer both Pre evolutions to Blastoise. Magmar & Electabuzz both look great on there own, I don't know why they didn't keep them as no evolution Pokémon. I always liked pidgeotto more than Pidgeot, same goes for haunter. I found him a cooler looking form to Gengar.

Surprised I saw no Roselia, Pupitar or Lairon being mentioned. Surprised to see Flaffy as it would be on my list of the least cool looking middle evolutions when comapred to its other forms.

Its difficult because I always prefer evolving pokemon till their final form. Still, Rhydon is one pokemon I may prefer to keep as it is. If I want to make it Rhyperior, it would only be because of its Rock Head ability.

seb94 said:

Surprised I saw no Roselia, Pupitar or Lairon being mentioned. Surprised to see Flaffy as it would be on my list of the least cool looking middle evolutions when comapred to its other forms.

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rom hunter said:

Its difficult because I always prefer evolving pokemon till their final form. Still, Rhydon is one pokemon I may prefer to keep as it is. If I want to make it Rhyperior, it would only be because of its Rock Head ability.

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Roselia and Rhydon are really cool pokémon but somehow they are two of the ones I can't really think of as three-stage evolution families. Weavile feels pretty natural after Sneasel somehow, while Pikachu doesn't really seem like a middle stage pokémon but has a baby form in Pichu, to name some examples of how different this is in my mind xD Roserade and Rhyperior really feel like addons rather than natural third stages.

But I guess you should count both Roselia, Rhydon and Pikachu as middle evos in this thread to be fair ^^

Doctor said:

Roselia and Rhydon are really cool pokémon but somehow they are two of the ones I can't really think of as three-stage evolution families. Weavile feels pretty natural after Sneasel somehow, while Pikachu doesn't really seem like a middle stage pokémon but has a baby form in Pichu, to name some examples of how different this is in my mind xD Roserade and Rhyperior really feel like addons rather than natural third stages.

But I guess you should count both Roselia, Rhydon and Pikachu as middle evos in this thread to be fair ^^

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Honestly I feel the same as you. It's hard for me to classify it that way if their national dex number isn't sequential:/

But if we didn't do it by dex number, I'm adding in clefairy. Not much on cleffa or clefable myself either.

I like better Vigoroth out of it's line. I like a lot of middle evos (even if not as much as their first or final at times), but sadly one barely manages to use them as they're in the middle of the evolutionary cycle.

I've seen a few people mention Quilladin and Dewott, and I'd have to agree, as they felt like the natural progressions from their starter form, but their final evolution looks like something completely different.

A few other Pokemon that come to mind that I prefer the middle evolution of are Togetic, Magneton, Electabuzz, Rhydon, and a few others that got lackluster evolutions in the 4th gen.

I agree with Rhydon. If Rhypherior didn't exist, I would use it much more often, haha. Other than that, I've always heavily preferred Quilava over Typhlosion, and it's the only Pokemon I can remember that I consciously kept from evolving due to its design. Braixen looks a lot better than Delphox, in my opinion, but its not as significant as Quilava.

OMG YES I've always felt this way haha, not about every middle evolution but ever since 1st Gen I've been more drawn towards them, especially the likes of Haunter and Kadabra :)


Other faves include: Ivysaur, Wartortle, Machoke, Dragonair, Frogadier and Fletchinder :)

I see a lot of people mentioning how they feel that some of they prefer some middle evolutions because they feel like a "natural progression" after the initial stage. And I'm not trying to knock that point of view. However, I have to ask, isn't that sort of the point of the final evolutions?...and of evolution in the Pokémon world, period? Especially in a three-stage line.

Why would I want Charizard to look like a bigger, scarier Charmander, instead of having its own radically different appearance? That is actually something I dislike about the Bulbasaur-Ivysaur-Venasaur line. Venasaur just looks like a bigger, scalier, more ferocious Bulbasaur...with a big flower on its back. This point also goes to why I like Vigoroth more than Slaking. Vigoroth is the only one out of that line that showcases evolution. It shows a change from the laziness of Slakoth to being a active and vigorous creature. Then, unfortunately, it relapses right back into its lazy nature upon evolution into Slaking.

Personally I like it more when the evolutions diverge drastically (although not too much so) from their previous stage(s). For example, Samurott, Chesnaught, Blastoise, and Infernape are some of my favorite starters because the designers didn't shy away from changing many of the elements their appearance. The exceptions to this rule of mine, where staying within the basic appearance actually works pretty well, would have to be Johto starters (especially Typhlosion). Although, that could be more so because of nostalgia than anything else.

@Doctor Personally, I don't see any sense in sparing a thought for middle evolutions. The starter is cute and final form is strong. But what the heck is there in middle evolutions especially if we are to leave out someone like Rhydon or Togetic which you do not prefer to consider in the "three stage families" category just because these middle forms were stronger and given a status of final form once upon a time!

I really like middle guys that have great defensives with or without Eviolite.

With
~ Quilladin, Grotle, Wartortle, Shelgon, Fletchinder, Marill, Clefairy, Pidgeotto, Zweillous, Gen 3 starter mids, cocoons

Without
~ Haunter, Gloom, Dragonair, Ivysaur, Vibrava

Hated
~ Charmeleon, Kirlia, Poliwhirl

Out of the starters, Dewott, Braixen, and Grovyle I think are the coolest middle-stages. I don't have a problem with the final forms, though. In fact, I like all three, but I always liked these three middle evolutions just a bit more.

Ugh, just look at my signature. Those guys are my Ultimate team, my 6 sort of favorite Pokemon ever. And 1/3 of them are middle evolutions. I wish they werent middle evolutions and had better evolutions, especially Dragonair!! Oh well. xD

Ugh ugh I love middle evolutions with my new favorite being Fletchinder I don't think you all quite understand how much I love it. n

Other ones are Pikachu (if you want to include it), Flaaffy, Wartortle, Ivysaur, Bayleef, Quilava, Grovyle, Dewott, Monferno, Rhydon, Porygon-2, Dragonair, and I'm sure there are plenty more than I love more than their final evo ahaha cries.