I know I said I was about to move on from Pokemon but I had actually forgotten I wanted to do this! Throughout my Gen 8 review series, I constantly bemoaned the lack of completely new creatures to the Pokeverse in favor of getting loads more repeat animals than we usually get. Like I've said, there's nothing wrong with repeating animals. With Pokemon getting as big as it is, there's no doubt there's gonna be another elephant, octopus, or chameleon at some point. Especially since we're 25 years, 8 Generations, and just two Pokemon shy of 900 into this series. But to take up a vast majority of a gen's representation feels like it's going overboard. The world is GIGANTIC with MILLIONS on top of MILLIONS of different species to draw ideas from.
So in this series, I'll be giving 151 animals that practically evolved specifically to get featured in a monster-collection game like Pokemon. In no particular order, of course. And do note that it is gonna be a very “me” list, and all the biases that entails. As such, it's likely to feature mostly my favorite animals, which tend to be insects, other arthropods, birds, sea creatures, and some lizards. No foxes though. I love foxes but we're already running on plenty atm, and I wouldn't mind if we didn't get another for a while.
And yeah, it's another idea borrowed from Bogleech's Pokemon talk, but I thought it'd be fun to make a somewhat more elaborate Pokemon wishlist than I had previously done.
1. Bobbit Worm
These terrifying undersea worms are easily one of the more shocking seafloor creatures. With huge bony-looking mandibles and growing as long as a whole meter. They even have paralyzing stings for good measure, as they hide and strike at passing fish.
As a Pokemon: A Bobbit Worm Pokemon definitely feels like it'd fit right in with the “sand = water” style of Pokemon along with the likes of Garchomp. Even if it were to be aquatic, I could see translating its paralyzing bite into it being a biting Water/Electric type with the look of a loose, frayed electrical wire.
2. Cassowary
An animal that was on one of my type wishlists. I'll include a few animals that were on those wishlists but not all of them, just the ones I really REALLY want made into Pokemon.
Cassowary are thought to be the closest to the dinosaurs anatomically. It even LOOKS like a dinosaur, so much so that you may have seen an image of a “miraculously well preserved dinosaur foot” on clickbait articles all across the internet. Said foot was actually just a severed Cassowary talon. It's able to kill things as big as dogs. And people are saying feathers make dinosaurs less badass. Just to ruin a “science has ruined dinosaurs” clown's day, just saying, just due to how skin is significantly less likely to last several million years, there is still a chance that raptors or t-rexes had wattles just like Chickens or Cassowaries.
As a Pokemon: While it's not used for any offensive purposes, it'd be cool to turn a Cassowary's head crest into a weapon like an axe or hatchet. It'd be a cool way to do a Rock/Fighting type, getting it to keep the Rock typing theme of Fossilmon as a nod to its saurian similarities. Though that does seem to be a common idea across several Cassowary Fakemon. Maybe a sword-crest to mix it up?
3. Viper Dogfish
A Goblin Shark was gonna go here, and I'd love it if that got in too, but I'll point to the Viper Dogfish since it's a more obscure shark with a very similar function to its jaws. I'm sure you've seen gifs of a Goblin Shark's jaws extending outward. The Dogfish here is quite similar, with extendable jaws but with the added freakiness of the top half of their mouth not even being squarely attached to the head!
As a Pokemon: Again, this could work for the Goblin Shark as well, but taking its extendable mouth to the next extreme would be pretty cool, with it shooting its jaw out at enemies like a grappling hook. Perhaps even giving it cartoony bear trap-like teeth.
4. Tumbleweed
Yes, I'm including plants too! The cartoony tumbleweed has a very unique way of spreading its seeds. The plant first dies, and its stem at the ground is specifically designed to break off very easily, causing the iconic but also very dead tumbleweed to roll across the ground, its seeds falling off as it does so.
As a Pokemon: I could see Tangela getting a tumbleweed-esque Grass/Ghost or Grass/Ground regional variant. But I would definitely like to see the “this plant is very much dead” angle played up, possibly by starting out as your average Grass type only for it to “die” and become a Grass/Ghost or even Ground/Ghost monster with a shadowy soul inhabiting the center of it. Could even make it very based around recoil moves, since a tumbleweed IS very much designed for self-destruction. In fact, you could stick one of those weird evolution stipulations to this Pokemon, making it so that it'll only evolve after it KO's ITSELF with a recoil move.
5. Velvet Worm
These little, unassuming caterpillar-like creatures have a little trick up their sleeve. They have appendages on their heads that shoot out a sticky substance that basically glues their prey in place while they come over to suck them dry. Spooky!
As a Pokemon: Weird to think our last good ol' Bug/Poison type was Scolipede. In that respect I would almost be appreciative of even a standard toxic sludge-shooting velvet worm-mon. But to be a bit more creative, you could even incorporate it as a Fire/Poison type and give it some features to have it slightly resemble a hot glue gun.
6. Sand Dollar
If Pincurchin means no more urchins for a while, may I cross my fingers for a Sand Dollar Pokemon. They're a BIT like “what if urchins were pancakes.”
As a Pokemon: Sand Dollars eat a lot of sand, mainly to eat the algae off of said sand. But in order to weigh themselves down to the turbulent sea floor, they eat magnetite. Which means it could be a prime way to give it a Water/Steel or Water/Electric (Or just Steel/Electric if you really want) typing and have it come in several shapes that slightly resemble fridge magnets!
7. Grasshopper (Or any other Orthoptera)
Can you still believe we don't have a grasshopper Pokemon, or even any orthoptera Pokemon yet? And no, Kricketune is more violin beetle, than a cricket.
As a Pokemon: There's plenty of Kamen Rider-esque Grasshopper Fakemon out there, so let's think outside the box a little. Locusts are of course most known for swarming and devouring entire grass and farmlands in a matter of hours. So wouldn't it be neat and haunting to see a Wishiwashi-esque creature made entirely out of tiny locust Pokemon? They've apparently struggled to find a good justification for a true “tiniest Pokemon of all time,” citing Durant as a failed attempt. You could easily make an entire swarm of two inch-long locustmon function as a unified swarm. But if they've changed their minds on trying to make a tiniest-Pokemon-ever, you could have an “Airship” locust that releases hundreds of tiny locust “Fighter jets”.
8. Tardigrade
Most well known for their ability to enter a dormant state where they become ultra-resistant to a number of normally fatal conditions, like pressure, extreme temperature, and even radiation.
As a Pokemon: To think of it more from a gameplay perspective, a Waterbear Pokemon could easily become a powerful wall that may not do much on its own, but has an ability where it's constantly adapting a resistance to whatever type it's getting hit by. While it might have to have a typing like Water and/or Bug to keep it from being totally busted, it'd be neat if said Waterbear Pokemon was the first true Typeless Pokemon. (Or... just make it Normal, maybe.)
9. Sponge
Obviously, the living organism and not the yellow, square absorbent material. SEA sponges are plant-like organisms that filter feed all their lives, sucking in water through their pores and eating any microscopic organisms that happen to be floating into it before expelling the water back out its top funnel.
As a Pokemon: I feel like if a Sponge Pokemon were to happen, most of its Sponginess would be represented in a unique ability or signature move. Maybe a Water-type version of Giga Drain or a unique ability that acts as a souped-up Water Absorb that not only heals it upon taking a hit from a Water type attack, but also any other attack that happens to involve a liquid like Acid, Sludge, or Energy Ball.
10. Solifugid
Otherwise known as the terrifying “Camel Spider” that got the internet crapping themselves over how terrifyingly enormous they are. Except they aren't any larger than a splayed-out hand. I mean, yeah that's still pretty big, but clickbait lying articles kept talking these things up as if they had a three feet legspan or something. Anyway, despite their nickname, Solifugids aren't spiders, but their own subsection of arachnids. And they're owners of some actually pretty intimidating looking double-scissor-pinchers.
As a Pokemon: Maybe it'd be intruding on Galvatula's territory a bit, but a Bug/Electric one of these with crocodile clamps in place of its fangs would be neat!
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