Day 25: Favorite Pokemon from each type
Alright, let's do this thing. I might gush a bit.
Normal: Arceus. It's Normal by default, so I'm rolling with it. I've always been interested in Creator deities, and Sinnoh brought them in spades with this and the assorted others. It was nice to see Pokemon embracing Creationism alongside the evolution that has always formed a core part of the franchise. The design is unexpected, too. Plus the movie wasn't too bad, and it has the coolest Pokemon battle theme ever. Plus that crazy mini-movie in HGSS. What was THAT all about. It was like Shepard's vision in the original Mass Effect.
Grass: Shaymin! Regular Shaymin, anyway. Yeah, there are going to be a lot of Gen IV Pokemon in my favourites. But I find the simple, cutesy grass hedgehog the embodiment of one of the things I love the most about Pokemon - the wacky designs. A hedgehog with a bush instead of spines. Plus flowers. Simple, yet unexpected...and so cute! I remember being so excited by the event distribution when I was younger, too; this was one of the first Pokemon I got this way. It holds many fond memories. Not the movie, though. God, this thing had an annoying voice...
Fire: Torchic. Awww, it's so cute! I've always been a sucker for bird Pokemon, and Torchic is as cute as they come. May's had heaps of personality in the anime - before it evolved and lost literally all of it, anyway - and it was my starter of choice. It also has the coolest-looking evolution route, and it trumps Treecko on the type charts...and I HATE Treecko and its evolutions.
Water: Replace the starters above and you'll have why I love Piplup so much. The difference? Dawn's never evolved and remained a huge part of the appeal of the DPPt anime. I'd wanted a penguin Pokemon for years prior to this, and Piplup answered my prayers. One of my favourite starters, if not my all-time favourite <3
Electric: Zapdos. Articuno might be my favourite Legendary Bird - see below - but I think they're all badass, and Zapdos has the best design. The Thunderbirds theme literally plays in my head every time I see it. This isn't just a purely aesthetic choice either, even if aesthetic is a huge part of it...and it was pretty damn useful in fourth-gen competitive play, too. I ran one in a lot of my teams and had a blast with it.
Bug: Volcarona. I've never liked bug-types, mostly because you spend most of your early game in literally every game (asides Black, but let's not talk about Black) fighting the damn things, they're annoying weak early-game fodder, and asides Butterfree I've never used them. But Volcarona is MOTHRA. This is easily the coolest - not the best, mind, but definitely the coolest - thing to come out of Gen V. I wanted one ever since I saw it and all the way through the game. It's got a phenomenal special attack stat, a great movepool, and it's not pathetically weak like 90% of a bug-types or infuriatingly overrated like Scizor or Heracross. It's...just right. Not something you see very often. Plus it's Mothra!
Flying: There are too many Flying-types. I'm going with Pidgey, because it's been a team staple for me in literally every game it is in. No matter what I'm doing, I ALWAYS have a Pidgey. It's not the strongest flying-type by any means, but it's carried me through so many situations down the years that I love it to pieces. Power to the Pidgey.
Ground: Rhyperior. Of all the fourth-gen evos of past gen Pokemon, I was most impressed with Rhyperior, because it actually looks like a significant step up from Rhydon. Electivire is just a fuzzier Electabuzz, Magmortar just looks more like Robotnik than Magmar, Tangrowth is a step closer to Sesame Street than Tangela, Magnezone is...whatever the hell Magnezone is. But Rhyperior is built like a freakin' tank. If you gave Rhydon battle armour, bulked it up to Super Saiyan muscle levels, and then gave it a club for a tail, you'd get Rhyperior. Solid Rock is a great ability, too. I want a Mega Rhyperior and I want it NOW, although I expect it'd crash the game and make my 3DS melt in my hands. Rhyperior is great.
Psychic: Meloetta, duh. What else was I going to pick? She's the magical girl of the Pokemon world, and one of the few good designs to come out of Gen V. I've always been fond of Meloetta...in her Aria form, anyway. Pirouette is a different story entirely. But eh.
Poison: Drapion. Drapion is just so...menacing. I mean, most poison-types are just plain icky, or part Bug/Grass (seriously Game Freak, cut that out already) or what you'd expect. Drapion looks like it'd just murder you the second it saw you. Drapion actually scares me a little bit, it represents that other side of poison: that lethal, quick-acting venom sort of side, rather than the corrosive/slow-acting sort of venom you see associated with most poison-types. Poison is just another weapon in Drapion's arsenal. Plus Paul and Hunter J both had one in the anime and they were powerhouses. It's not so great in the games, but I love the design and how it gets turned up to eleven in the show.
Ghost: ...die. Seriously. I love ghost types, picking one hurts. But...Spiritomb. Because it's so damn creepy and weird and the colours clash and everything. Plus Wondertomb was the ultimate trolling device back in the day. It took me forever to get a Spiritomb the first time, but I was so happy when I did. It's another one of those fun, unexpected designs that makes me appreciate Pokemon's variety.
Fighting: I hate fighting-types, so I literally only have one choice here: Breloom. Because I caused merry hell with it in the fourth gen. Ohhhh man. This thing was ridiculously annoying back in the day, and I loved every second of it. It's a very ugly design, but...well, no uglier than every other fighting-type ever.
Ice: Articuno. Articuno is one of the most amazingly beautiful and elegant designs out there, in my opinion. It also saved my backside more times than I care to count against Lance...hell, I doubt I would have beaten the E4 at all if not for Ice Beam that first time.
Dragon: Giratina. It's a Ghost Dragon. Of the Creation Trio Giratina is naturally my favourite; it's the mascot of my favourite Pokemon game, it has a fantastic alternate form in the Origin Form, a fleshed-out backstory that is a little different and more interesting than just "Arceus made it and it lives in its own dimension, the end" and is a bit more sinister...well, a lot more sinister.
Steel: Bastiodon. I LOVE BASTIODON! Uhhh, I mean...never mind. I think I mentioned earlier in this thread (like, waaaay earlier) that Bastiodon is actually my favourite Pokemon. It's a freakin dinosaur bulldozer. How is that NOT the coolest thing you ever did see? Have a childhood, for crying out loud! Aaaanyways, Bastiodon is amazing...and immortalised to me thanks to the stellar voice performance Byron had in the dub.
Rock: Onix! Onix was so ridiculously impressive back in Gen I; it was Brock's ace in the anime, and every time it appeared you just knew the battle was going to get that much better. A giant rock snake is a pretty cool concept too!
Dark: Darkrai. People hate the fourth gen for having so many Legendaries; personally, I love all of them! Darkrai was another interesting and pretty dark one for Pokemon, with the whole nightmare thing it had going on. It seemed more of a typical ghost than most ghosts design-wise, and the in-game event was pretty cool as well, albeit short. The tenth Pokemon movie also got me watching the films again, after the last two turned out to be absolutely diabolical.
Fairy: I dunno, I don't really like Fairy-types. Xerneas I guess, because it's an expy of the Forest Spirit from Princess Mononoke, and that was a good film, one of Ghibli's better ones.