30 Days of Pokemon: Day 3

Day 03: Ugliest Pokemon
I know I really shouldn't repeat answers to these, but there is really no other way to answer this one.

PIKACHU.

Creepy predator/pedophile-like smile permanently plastered on its face. Need I say more? Pikachu looks like it would be right at home getting busted on one of NBC's To Catch A Predator stings.

Add to that the equally creepy beady little eyes and those godawful red spots on its face, and you have all the makings of something that tries to be cute but ends up being repulsive instead. Hell, even baby-form Pichu doesn't manage to be as grotesque as the original "yellow rat."

This distain you have for Red and Pikachu, let it gooooo mannnnnn.

Are you sure that there is absolutely no other way to answer that question? The likes of Garbodor would fit the bill for ugliest Pokémon more than Pikachu ever will.

Patchisou Yutohru;bt88669 said:

This distain you have for Red and Pikachu, let it gooooo mannnnnn.

Click to expand...

If there were likes for blog comments I would attempt to have a laggy connection to the server just so I could like this post 10 times to show how much I agree with it.

LOL it seems some people here are trying to stifle my right to express my opinion on my own blog. Again, lol.

But, um, I'll cut a deal with y'all. I'll stop ranting about those two as soon as the rest of the fandom stops worshipping them like gods. Sound like a deal?

And in any event, I can't picture either of them coming up at all after Day 6 of this. That's when I transition from my least favorite Pokemon elements to my favorites. Just let me get my "least favorite male" and " 'favorite' episode" off my chest first.

@Pedro: Awesome pic, probably the best picture I've seen with Pikachu in it :P

All we're saying is that extreme dislike is not healthy!

Although on a far more serious note, I'm pretty sure the rest of the fandom does not "worship them like gods". Maybe some genwunners. The hardcore Red fangirls, maybe.

If that sweeping generalization you made is how you feel about the fanbase, you may want to take a look at the parts of the internet you hang out in, because of all the Pokemon fans I know, your intense fixation on Leaf is probably in the top five biggest single character related fixations for a character from Pokemon that I've ever witnessed, far more intense than any of the Red fixations I've encountered. You may want to check to make sure the people you're chatting with about Pokemon aren't genwunners and highly obsessed Red fangirls that are just as obsessed with Red as you are with Leaf. I mean, in the end, both Leaf and Red are just fictional, 2D characters.

I'm pretty sure any search of Pokemon fan art on sites like Deviant Art and Pixiv would in fact support my claim. Those two show up in an alarmingly high percentage of them. At least they do when I search for fan art. Just about every day, at least one of the two show up in some new art piece. Now, what other conclusion am I to make from this bizarre occurrence?

I don't chat about Pokemon anywhere besides on this site. Hell, I hardly ever chat about the subject even on here anymore. I'd rather not chat about this franchise when clearly my opinions are at odds with the other 99.9% of fans.

But the fact that those two characters have all but taken over Pokemon fan art should be more than enough proof that a majority of the fandom are fans of them and believe they can do no wrong.

And my personal preferences have nothing to do with this. The issue here is the sheer number of fans who believe that the trainer and Pokemon in question are somehow special when in fact both are well below average in terms of strength.

I'm seriously considering dropping the "Pokemon" aspect of this 30 day thing, and just come up with snarky, non Pokemon responses for the remainder of this. An upside will be that I'll be able to name my favorite IRS tax form as my favorite legendary Pokemon.

The fixations of a few artists of a fanbase do not represent a whole fanbases interests (considering a sizable chunk of the fanbase is not artistically skilled). Given that you have an opinion so opposite the art you constantly see, you should be able to realize that. Our own A&D forum on PC is distinctly lacking in Red and Pikachu art.

It might be time to find some new Pokemon art subscriptions to watch on those two sites if you constantly see Red and Pikachu uploaded everyday. More subscriptions might bury them deep enough that you won't see them everyday.

They are widely drawn because they are recognizable, as well. Pikachu is better recognized than Mickey Mouse at this point. Casual fans will flock to Pikachu art and Red/Ash art because that's who they recognize from their childhood, and it's a way for an artist to gather attention to their work from people who would otherwise ignore it if it featured any other characters from the franchise.

Two things about that: (1) the fan art is the only way I "interact" with others in the fandom since I've strayed away from Pokemon discussion threads for some time now, and (2) these art pieces come from a large number of different artists. It's not limited to a few who repeatedly post.

I've seen precious few others (here, on Deviant Art, or on GameFaqs) speak out against Red. I've seen a few more who express their dislike of Pikachu. That tells me at the very least, most fans don't see anything wrong with them.

On the art sites, I don't really do subscriptions/watching; I just use the search function. Now, why either of them show up when I do a search for "Pokemon Female Protagonist" or "Pokemon Female Trainer" (because I'm also looking for works of the still-unnamed X/Y female trainer) is beyond me since one is not a female and the other is not a trainer.

Fan art can be a nasty place when you hate the popular characters of the fandom and like some of the overlooked characters of it.

Well, I don't really think there is anything wrong with them personally, but there's really not a whole lot that I see as wrong in the franchise itself. My main issue with the franchise is the historically limited distributions of event Pokemon that have been gradually rectified by making the events longer in duration and by making them available over WiFi. And then some TCG related balance issues where some types always get the playability shaft (Grass in particular) as well as annoyances with TPCi over not bringing every playable Japanese set into English and other languages (mostly, they ignore the minisets). Although I can see the reasons TPCi does these things that annoy me about the franchise, as I know full well I'm not the target demographic (boys 13 and under) of the franchise and they do the stuff that they do with its saleability to that target demographic in mind. Your favorite character is from a game that's before most of the boys in that target demographic were even born.

However, I've seen various rumors floating around the net regarding TPC USA and how many higher ups at TPCi are annoyed at lagging sales among girls for the franchise, and many of these moves I've seen them make over the years are what have led to the lagging sales among girls for many of the individual subsections of the franchise (especially the TCG).

I also have issues with how they manage prize distribution in the TCG. For instance, the latest announcement made by TPCi about Player Rewards was that the Top 100 competitive players in each age group get free copies of a broken card that they likely have 5 or 6 of already since 4 copies of that card is essentially required to crack the top 100 players right now.

It's not the way to go about helping the game get more players.

I do admit that I'm more critical of the franchise than a lot of other fans, so I'm less willing to accept when a less-than-powerful trainer or Pokemon enjoys a disproportionately high level of popularity.

I was only really to download Sinnoh-region event Pokemon, since there I had wi-fi access and ways to easily get to brick-and-mortar stores for those event releases. Most of Gen 5 and HG/SS events I missed out on.

I can think of several decisions that have been made that might have hindered appealing to female buyers.

No personal opinion on the TCG, I never really got into that lol