Top 3 Lists - Pokemon Scarlet
Hey, all. I figured it's about time to post another one of these! I really enjoyed Pokemon Scarlet, so I thought it would be fun to list off some of my favorites in a Top 3 post-- both pokemon and characters. The game certainly has plenty of both!
Top 3 Ancient Paradox Pokemon
First up, my favorite ancient pokemon. I feel as though these choices are pretty basic/what most people probably choose, but oh well, I can't really help they happen to be my favorites too. I would die for Koraidon, he is the bestest boy in the world and my precious son.
I've never been a huge fan of Mismagius (especially now knowing we could have had the infinitely more creepy Kurstraw/Pangshi), but I think Flutter Mane reboots the design in a wonderful way, which is surprising and refreshing. I've grown very fond of her.
To my amusement, I have the same feelings about Roaring Moon; I have always disliked Salamence's design, but Roaring Moon is a massive improvement on the design, which is so exciting to see. The colors are great, the feathers are an excellent addition, the long talons remind me of a bird of prey, and the whole thing has such a foreboding presence that normal Salamence's ugly shapes always lacked. The choice to lean into Mence's Mega design was smart, because they retained all the good of that design and discarded the rest. Plus, what a badass name.
I only just now noticed all my favorite choices here have feathers. Well, I suppose it makes sense, with our recent suspicion that many dinosaurs had feathers!
Top 3 Regional Form/New Evolutions/Convergent Species
I'm lumping all of these into the same category, since there isn't a huge number for any of those categories alone. When I first saw Toedscool out in the wild, I was deeply confused about what I was seeing, and when I poked it, it turned into a Ditto-- and somehow my brain concluded it must have been Ditto screwing up its attempt at imitating a Tentacool. 😂 But no, Toedscool is truly its own thing, as unsettling and strange as it is. I absolutely hated how it moved, it creeped me out. I've decided I like it for that reason. (Toedscruel is likewise unsettling and interesting, but it's not on my list because I hate TUBE MOUTHS argghh)
Farigiraf is definitely on my list. I have always loved Girafarig, and its evolution has been long, long overdue, so it's incredibly exciting to see it finally get the love it deserves. They did an excellent job with the evolution, too, it's fun and silly and cool all at once.
Finally, for my regional form choice, I'm definitely choosing Paldean Tauros. I know everyone is all excited about Wooper and Clodsire, but I was never a Wooper fan. (Sorry, Rika 💔) I'm just super excited that Tauros got such an awesome redesign, especially the Blaze breed. The changes are minor but so effective. Maybe I'm just a sucker for black-colored pokemon. This is like the shiny design Tauros always deserved and never had.
Top 3 New General Pokemon
This really is a tough choice to make, because Scar/Vio has a LOT of new pokemon to choose from. But I think I've finally narrowed it down to these lads. Klawf is the perfect example of a simple but elegant design. Sometimes "a big crab" is enough to be enjoyable because, well, I like crabs. What can I say, I know what I like.
Grafaiai is the very definition of "skrunkly," so there's no way I can resist putting him on the list. Aye-ayes are fascinating little freaks and it's great to have a pokemon based off them, put I enjoy the inspiration they also drew from lemurs. It's also great to have a poison pokemon taking up the traditional position of "early game normal-type rodent pokemon." Poison pokes are just cool. The association with spray paint and urban art is also really fun.
If any of you know me, you'll know I of course consider bug types to be my favorite pokemon type. But that doesn't automatically mean I'll put new bugs as my favorites. Rabsca really does deserve to be on the list, though; at least in terms of design. A dung-beetle pokemon has been long overdue, and the sacred associations with this species is lovingly referred to in this design. For those unaware, dung beetles are included in Egyptian mythology, and the beetle rolling a ball of dung was compared to their sun god rolling the sun along its path in the sky.
HMs
It's so tough to choose just three so I wanted to include a few Honorable Mentions here; I've loved Frigate birds since I was a wee lass so it's cool to see Kilowattrel; Charcadet's evolutions are badass (especially Ceruledge) and I am very fond of them despite the fact I typically don't like humanoid pokemon; and I'm very pleased that the very first Grass/Fire pokemon (finally!!) ended up really cool. (And that it ended up being a pepper, like so many of us guessed Grass/Fire would be)
Top Team Star Bosses
I'm not gonna to lie, I did not enjoy the Team Star storyline much in this game. I felt it was the weakest of the three main story threads. (I enjoyed the brief post-game storyline with Penny & Team Star more than the main part of their story, in fact) That said, these would be my favorites of the bunch. Ortega's design just looks delightful, such a snazzy dandy, and Atticus' devotion to The Bit is admirable (and tbh who doesn't love a D&D nerd?) Giacomo is forgettable and is there because I needed a third choice, lmao (sorry, didn't like the team star girls much)
Top 3 Gym Leaders
Grusha is definitely my top Gym Leader pick. His character is fascinating, especially the events the game only only hints at (it seems strongly implied he met with a nasty snowboarding accident and had to stop the sport, losing his dream and being stuck with just his gym leader job, which he seems rather bitter about). It's a shame they didn't pursue his character storyline further with one of the Academy side-stories (in the way they fleshed out Brassius more). I feel like he could have had a storyline with the nurse (Miriam), and that would have been much better then Miriam's actual side-story which felt rather randomly shoehorned in there (and fan pandering, to be entirely honest). Oh well. At any rate, I find Grusha the most interesting gym leader by far.
Larry is great. They had a clear idea in mind for his character and they executed it well. He apparently is a big hit with fans too. Good for him, he deserves it.
I chose Bassius as my third option because of his involvement in the side-storyline with him and Hassel. He's a rather forgettable character if you only know him from his gym, but his interactions with Hassel were great and fleshed him out a lot more-- made me actually care about him. Honestly I think it's great they let these two men have a strong bond with each other and Hassel even get choked up and cries about it. That's sending a very positive message about men letting themselves feel and express positive emotions! Yes, Hassel's crying is written slightly for comedy (haha look at this man cry), but I think it's also done with genuine affection (it's ok for guys to cry and love each other, even your professor does!). So that's really cool. (The exact nature of their relationship is something fans speculate on, but whether they are close friends or they're something romantic, I think it's cool regardless!)
Top 3 Elites/Champions
My bias here is going to be clear, but holy shit I love Rika and Nemona.
Rika, because . . . I mean, LOOK at her. She's hot, she's professional, but she's a total dork and a goober too. She's a sore loser but she's a total sweetheart to Poppy, and GAH, I love her so much. A lot of great details with her. She's by far my favorite Elite.
Nemona is literally my favorite rival charatcer of the entire franchise other than N. I could blather about her endlessly. Let's just say this bubbly, energetic, earnest, friendly, wonderful girl who hyperfixates on pokemon battling and sincerely wants to see you grow and thrive is perfect in every day. 🥺
Hassel is here too, lol. (In all seriousness he's great too, a wonderful mentor figure and a man of passion. Even if his haircut is a bit weird asfhjkl)
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(Note: English names are from the fan translations of the leaks. The actual Japanese names are Norowara and Kyonpan.)
My take on Kurstraw and Pangshi from the Gold/Silver Spaceworld leaks! They’re by far my fav designs from that batch and it’s really a shame they never made the final cut, as they have some really unique concepts that have never been used since (a ushi-no-toki-mairi/voodoo doll and a jiangshi, respectively). The move “curse” was even supposed to be Kurstraw’s lv 100 signature!
I wanted to give the sprites official art, but also redesign them to iron out some of the more “beta-ish” elements. In Kurstraw’s case, I wanted to give it a more unique design that hints towards its evolution; in Pangshi’s, I wanted to make the jiangshi theme less literal by integrating the black-and-white mandarin robes into its black-and-white panda markings, as well as making the lower body more interesting.
I also wanted to play around with one of their most interesting aspects, that being that Kurstraw evolves at level 1. Whether or not that was a coding error is unknown, but considering there’s kind of a “staking a vampire” theme in the original it’s really too neat an idea to pass up. Plus I like the idea of a Pokemon that evolves immediately but becomes weaker, so you have to pick between pressing the B-button 100x and dropping the friendship stat or ending up with a very friendly but mostly useless ‘mon.
Dex Entries
Kurstraw
Cursed Doll Pokemon
Evolves at level 1
Type: Ghost
Height: 1′ 3″ (.4 m)
Weight: .4 lbs (.1 kg)
Gender: Genderless
Ability: Cursed Body
Held Item: Spell tag
Friendship: Starts at 100; drops down each level it is not evolved
It tries to evolve as soon as a trainer obtains it. Its rage and frustration towards its trainer increases the longer the evolution is blocked, which greatly increases its cursing abilities.
The more frustrated it becomes with its trainer, the more powerful its curses become. Because of this, many trainers who keep Kurstraw for more than seven days fall ill.
This Pokemon is mostly immobile. It channels powerful curses through its nail in order to attack opponents. On rare occasions, Kurstraw have been seen using their supernatural abilities to throw the nail as an attack.
While the creation of this Pokémon is illegal, they can easily be found on the black market. The burlap patterns vary, but the inside is always straw.
It’s mostly immobile, so it can’t dodge attacks during battle. However, its soft body makes it hard to harm it. Trainers sometimes use them as punching bags for their other Pokemon.
The tag around its neck keeps it from evolving. Written on the other side is the name of the Pokemon’s soul that possesses it.
It’s rumored that this Pokemon’s attacks are more powerful when performed between 1 and 3 AM.
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Pangshi
Hopping Pokemon
Type: Ghost
Height: 1′ 3″ (.4 m)
Weight: .4 lbs (.1 kg)
Gender: Genderless
Ability: Perish Body
Friendship: 100
This Pokémon hops around mindlessly during the night. When it spots prey, it leaps forward and drains their life force with its sharp fangs.
It’s said that this Pokémon will only obey the trainers that remove their spell tags. It tends to stand on the heads of people it likes.
A Pangshi’s slow, stiff movements makes it unideal for battle. Because of this, many trainers prefer to not evolve them.
Spinda that meet Pangshi seem to think they’re one of them. They will try to balance on one foot in order to be sociable.
Its large eyes are sensitive towards light, so it prefers to hide during the day and hunt at night.
Its favorite prey is fighting-types. It subsists entirely by draining the life force of other creatures.
Its body is still partially immobile, so it moves by hopping around on its single foot. If injured, it bleeds straw.
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Kurstraw and Pangshi’s Movesets
Investigated these via rare candying them up each level.
Kurstraw
Level 1: Tail Whip, Safeguard, Fury Swipes, Leech Life
Level 8: Disable
Level 16: Destiny Bond
Level 25: Spite
Level 35: Confusion
Level 46: Night Shade
Level 58: Substitute
Level 85: Pain Split
Level 100: Curse
Pangshi
Level 1: Tail Whip, Safeguard, Fury Swipes, Leech Life
Level 8: Disable
Level 16: Splash
Level 25: Spite
Level 35: Stomp
Level 46: Night Shade
Level 58: Substitute
Level 71: Body Slam
Level 85: Pain Split
Level 100: Confuse Ray
Pangshi’s movepool does indeed differ from its pre-evolution, granting him a couple strong normal-type moves and lacking Confusion.
Pangshi learns Splash, which probably is a referene to jiangshis (the ‘hopping vampires’ Pangshi is based off of) because ‘Splash’ in Japanese is ‘Hop.’
A very interesting note is the final move at 100. Pangshi gets Confuse Ray, but Kurstraw gains what was probably originally a signature move just for him: Curse. Keep in mind, in order to reach this point, you will need to have cancelled Kurstraw’s evolution 99 times, because he tries to evolve at level one.
That’s a lot of B button mashing. Some people have commented mashing the b button after every level up is similar to driving a pin further and further into the voodoo doll. The only way to achieve the move Curse would have been to deny Kurstraw his evolution all the way to 100.
Quite the curse indeed.
This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Jun 10, 2018.
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