Top Ten of the Week #8 - Does this battle make my butt look fat?

[Jermungandr]

Y'know guys, I'm not gonna make this a rule because I know it would mean less people would even participate, but I gotta say, these lists are a lot more interesting to read if you include some reasons for your choices. Even if it's just three or four words. Otherwise it's about as interesting as reading a shopping list, at least in my personal opinion. Just sayin'.



Anyways, my choices for this week ...


I've never personally been much of "hardcore" pokemon player, so I've always had a tendency to make my choices based on aesthetics rather than what their actual statistics or abilities are; in other words, whichever 'mons I thought looked the cutest or the coolest. So don't expect my list to be anything like the makings of an actual good team ...




Normal: Dunsparce
Now, I've never been a user of Normal-type Pokemon in the past. As far as I've always been concerned, Normal = Boring. That was until I played Pokemon Y and one of these chubby little bastards ended up being one of my first catches in the game. And ... he ended up carrying me through a large chunk of the game. It might have been because he learned Rollout really early and this generation had a lot of critters vunerable to Rock-type moves early on? I'm not really sure, but his Glare move was also super freakin' useful. I eventually switched him out right before the Electric gym just to give my other monsters a chance to get any use. On top of that ... he's really freakin' cute. I didn't care for the whole Pokemon-a-mie thing, but I admit I did play with him a few times in it just because he's so goldamn adorable when he's happy.



Fire: Growlith/Arcanine
There's a lot of cool things about Arcanine, but one of my favorite details about him is how he's based on the ancient Chinese interpretation of what lions looked like ...

Which is way WAY cooler than the lame actual lions introduced in the latest generation (god those things are so stupid looking). I am also super fond of Arcanine's prevolution, Growlithe, because no matter how they try to draw him, he always looks like he has ATTITUDE.

My runner up would be Vulpix/Ninetails, of which I just realized I have never actually owned one. Huh.



Water: Greninja
Love at first sight, man. I knew I had to have this guy the moment I laid eyes on a pic of him for the first time. This guy is such a shameless Strider reference you can't tell me it's not intentional. The head spikes, the scarf, the color scheme ... it's all so blatant. I've never even actually played a Strider game in my life but despite that something about the reference makes this guy all the more awesome; and even if that reference wasn't there, his design is still the epitome of cool. I love this guy.



Grass: Chikorita
Grass is one of the hard ones because there are a lot of good ones, but I think I'm going to go with Chikorita. She's just really adorable is all, and that's really all there is to it.



Electric: Raichu
I've never been much of a fan of Pikachu, but I have to admit Raichu is pretty damn awesome. Aside from having a superior design, one of my favorite things about this guy is that if you have one that learned Surf and use him in Pokemon Stadium 2 (and maybe the first Stadium as well I'm not sure), he will use the lightning bolt on his own tail as a surf board. That's something a stupid ol' Pikachu cannot do. Suck it.



Ice: Piloswine
This guy is, without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite Pokemon. I don't even know if he's actually good or not, I just love his "I don't give two shits about anything" design. I'm honestly very not a fan of the mastodon evolution they gave him in later generations. I'll keep my piggy the way he is, thank you very much.



Fighting: Hawlucha
This guy is AWESOME. If this were a traditional Top Ten list, this guy would definitely be in the running for the #1 slot. Even if that were not the case, he'd still win this category easily for being one of the few Fighting type pokemon with a design that's not straight up stupid looking.



Poison: Ivysaur
Gosh, Poison is hard one to pick because I don't really like any of them. I guess I'll go with Ivysaur, because whatever. Never cared much for Venusaur but Ivy has a nice spunky teenager look to him.



Ground: Donphan
Hmm ... Ground type has so few good choices, but of the few that are good it's really hard to pick between them. I guess I'll go with Donphan, because his concept is pretty cool. Also because he reminds me of Wheel Kirby back when that ability was cool.



Flying: Honchkrow
Oh shoot, when I was initially listing these out I accidentally wrote down Hawlucha for both fighting and flying. Um ... um ... gotta find someone else ... okay, how about Honchkrow? I've never actually owned one of these guys, but damn if this guy doesn't look like a gangster.

... that's "gangster" with a hard "R" by the way ... I mean he literally looks like a mob boss.



Psychic: Mewtwo
I don't care if it's cliche, Mewtwo is one of my all-time favorite Pokemon; and that's coming from a guy that's never watched any of the anime shows or movies. In particular, I've always been super fond of his incarnation from the first generation:

       
In which his sprite looks much more like a grotesque genetic abomination, which is what he is supposed to be. The games that came after this gave him a progressively sleeker and sleeker look, which I've never thought were nearly as cool. Still, it hasn't made me appreciate him any less.



I think that's enough from me for now. I'll post the rest of my picks later after I get myself some sleep.