@CourageHound - I'm a little slow when it comes to forum terminology. What's an "SU"?
But as for the other stuff, Rina wasn't the first Pokemon I saw, I guess that honor goes to Pikachu (though to be fair, if you grew up before the series existed, the first Pokemon you saw was probably Pikachu, Charizard or Blastoise). I didn't even care about Nidorina until I forced myself to make a sympathetic story about one 12-ish years ago. Then, I felt really sorry for that character. Long story short, she became a major character, and a really positive, loving one at that, and she remains one of my favorite character-Nidorinas because of that. So really, it was that one character that caused me to look at the species as a whole differently, and now I love them.
Sometimes, you just have to make stories about all Pokemon to become more tolerant, if not understanding of them, and that's what that comic series I made back then was all about (each of the original 151 got a story for themselves). It's why I don't dislike any of the original set, nostalgia has nothing to do with it (maybe self-induced nostalgia, but nevertheless).
As for being replaced, at this point, never. It happened temporarily during the 3rd generation. I was obsessed with Kirlia and Mawile, and they anihilated all my other favorites, probably filling every slot in a potential top 500 (so my 3rd favorite would now be my 501st favorite). But I was also younger back then, too, so obsession was something that came easier, and took over without me either noticing it, or bothering to restrain against it.
But when that happens, you can expect a rough burnout. It didn't take too long for the both of them to take a harsh dive in the ranks, and I don't pay either of them much attention anymore. At the end of the day, the long suffering Nidorina was still there (oh God why is this so dramatic, ahahaha).
I burnt out on Pokemon during the 3rd generation, and I've given up on/moved on from the franchise shortly after the 5th gen set of games were released (more coincedental, considering I never bothered to see who or what the games were about, aside from being the same ol' same old). As a franchise, Pokemon has nothing else for me, which by virtue means that Nidorina
can't be replaced at this point. It's impossible, and if you don't believe that, then I'll say it's definately not feasible. I can vaguely remember any of the Pokemon within the first three generations as it is.
@AlexOzzyCake - I ought to just give you a link to my website. If you go in with genuine interest and spend some time looking at the best stuff there, I'd honestly dare you to come out of it without having some kind of respect or appreciation for what can be done with the Nido family. I've had a pretty sizable impact on how people perceive them. But you couldn't skim through it, it would defeat the purpose. But, I have too much humility to feel comfortable in doing that (years ago, I'd probably be more shameless). 'w';
It's hard to explaaaaaiiiinnnn... argh... you know how people always love the underdog? The Nidos are the underdog I've taken under my wing, as it were, so I put in a lot of my own talents (widespread talents. I mean more than just fan art) to essentially vouch for them that "Hey guys! These Pokemon are really cool" or "Nidos CAN be cool, too". If you read above what I've said to CourageHound, I myself didn't care for Nidorina until I wrote a story about one. Sometimes, that's literally all it takes is to, well I don't want to say humanize them, but to make them more than just a soulless bunch of pixels.
You mention Nidoqueen. Personally, I like all the Nidos except Nidoking, who I don't have a problem with, but he's more of a background character to me (I think since he was always fairly popular, I felt like he didn't need my assistance, so I never got attached). But would I evolve a Nidorina into one? The absolute honest answer to that is that I wouldn't even get involved in catching Pokemon to begin with. But let's say a Nidoran Female was given to me as a gift. The answer would be no, because there's no need to. I honestly don't like the
idea of Pokemon battling, if I were to think about it in real world terms, but in the game universe, meh, it's just a game.
Let's cut out all the hypotheticals in real life and just focus on the games. Would I? Actually, in that case, I'd have 2 Nidorina, one primed for evolution and one to keep, because Nidoqueen is a good Pokemon to have on a team, I'm no fool. :P But (a) Nidorina would always be on my team, I'd never put her in a box. She's my personal Pikachu. It's been this way in Silver, and again in the Kanto remakes (and anytime I went back and played R/B, the first passes don't count).
As for other Poison types... I dunno, Ekans is cool. Gulpin's poison, right? He's cool too. I honestly can't remember a whole lot of Pokemon without looking them up, so while there might be others, that's the best I got off the top of my head. However, I think I'm sort of cheating to say I like Nidos, because I see them more as rabbits first before it sets in that they're part of the Poison category. It's not as obvious as Muk or Grimer where you think "Oh yeah, THAT guy is poisonous". Also, my favorite animals in real life are rodents and lagomorphs, along with the koala.
Could I guess why you don't like Nidorina?
- Useless in terms of stats? Aren't most Pokemon?
- Useless in terms of moveset? She isn't tied down to her standard moves, and over the years they've gotten a little better. But egg breeding and such wouldn't be worth it if the first reason is a barrier.
- Not much to look at? As stated, that's the anime's fault, and I was essentially able to prove that. Nidorina, for all intents and purposes, was supposed to look like a feminine Bulba/Ivysaur at best, but Sugimori's art was ignored. It's something I point out a lot, because it's such a misconception that at this point is very widespread, especially since marketing, merchandise and the like have used the anime as a guideline, and not Sugimori. So hag-Nidorina became the variation everyone knew her as. Fortunately, recent measures have been taken to rectify that officially, but it may be a bit too late. Oh Lord, I know way too much about this junk no one cares about. 9_9
I should point out that the current artwork Sugimori has produced of the Pokemon is sort of a fusion/compromise of his art and the anime's, which in a way actually borked up Nidoran Female and Nidoking (Nido F has less of an animal's anatomy now, and Nidoking looks a LOT less menacing) to a degree. But it really streamlined a lot of others. Fortunately, Nidorina's still based moreso on his original design, but she's less fat and a little less maternal in appearance.
Whew. Sorry for the text wall, guys, but you sort of asked for it. :D And this right here is nothing. I could always go deeper, ahaha!
Eh, here's some more fan art. These are mine, so I don't have to feel bad about found pics.
Yeah. I'm going to admit most of my art is like the last two, based on characters. I barely draw garden-variety-super-average-common-everyday Nidos anymore, like the first two pics. That dwindled alongside my regards for the franchise itself. I don't have a whole lot of common Nido art to show that's newer than 3 years. I have some that's older, but it doesn't really reflect my personal style of drawing. Also, my avatar was also drawn/colored by me.
