41. Cock-of-the-Rock
These are easily some of the silliest looking birds out there, cock-of-the-rocks nest on the ridges of rock faces and have ridiculous looking head crests that nearly cover their entire beak, making their head just look like a feathered thumb with eyes.
As a Pokemon: They could easily be a region's common bird Pokemon, but it could work out as a pure Flying type with a giant fan-like crest covering its face and a big emphasis on windy moves.
42. Peacock
Another one of my big wants, the traditional image of a peacock is the males. As usual with birds, this is purely for mating display. And it makes them one of the prettiest birds, if not one of nature's prettiest animals in general. It really is amazing that they can fly at all, for a while I assumed they were flightless birds, but somehow they can fly despite their tail feathers getting so huge they're practically twice the length of the actual peacock!
As a Pokemon: There are so many cool applications for a peacock to choose from. A solar-themed Pokemon with sunset-colored feathers. There's applying the tail feathers as if a big flower garden. Though my personal favorite is giving the peacock a stained-glass window-looking set of tail feathers!
43. Goose
Okay, one more bird. Geese have easily escalated themselves into meme status animals by now, especially with The Goose Game With No Name. And Pokemon's seemed fond of putting in meme animals lately between Yamper, Wooloo, and to a lesser extent, Wimpod.
As a Pokemon: It's another Pokemon that's a good fit for a region's common bird. Though I do like the idea of a Dark/Flying bird that acts like a punk or school delinquent or just a bully in general.
44. Opossum
A lot of animals play dead to confuse predators, but the opossum made it fashionable. Maybe. But either way, it's the most well-known for doing it.
As a Pokemon: Easy candidate for a mono Dark type, with it being such a tricky and deceptive animal. Perhaps huge eye markings, but instead of being eyes, they're cartoony X's to make its death disguise all the more convincing. Though perhaps one of the complications that come with implementing opossums into the game is figuring out how to fit playing dead in as a game feature. My best guess would be an ability that'll have it retreat once just before taking a blow that would've knocked it out. Or maybe a U-Turn clone that merely makes it look like it took damage and fainted, when in actuality it simply retreated back to your team.
45. A Proper Goddang Angler Fish
Because I mean LOOK at these things. Lanturn hardly counts! Chinchou's fine, I love Chinchou, but Lanturn continues to be a disappointment that's only soured over time. I'm not even gonna poke for one species of angler in particular. Just pick literally any of them. There's plenty of options!
As a Pokemon: It's another candidate for the search-light idea I had with the Tube-Eye, but you could also have a Water/Psychic type where the lure looks like an arm that's swaying a pendulum back and forth to hypnotize prey into coming closer!
46. Sarcastic Fringehead
This freaky-mouthed fish is highly territorial, and uses its giant mouth flaps to scare other predators away from its feeding grounds, even other Fringeheads.
As a Pokemon: While the mouth frills are a scare display rather than a weapon, my first instinct upon imaging this thing as a Pokemon is making it somewhat vacuum-cleaner-like. Maybe even focused around the move Stockpile.
47. Fly
If you want to get technical, we already have a fly Pokemon in Cutiefly, but it's a bee fly rather than a housefly, and Ribombee especially evolves in a direction completely separate from the traditional image of a fly.
As a Pokemon: Y'know what? They'd never do it because Gamefreak (understandably) is a stickler for not copying, but if they just mostly straight copied an Urban Stingby from Mario Odyssey, I wouldn't even complain. It's already perfect. Though obviously you should do something a LITTLE original with it. So maybe turn its tiny antennae into an evil mustache to go with a fly's grooming habits that involve it rubbing its legs together, which make it look like it's hatching an evil scheme.
(CONTENT WARNING: Mouth parasite)
48. Tongue-Eater Louse
This parasitic isopod does exactly what is says on the box. It intrudes into a fish's mouth and then severs its tongue by sucking all the blood out of it, then acts as its new tongue. Not a ton else is known about them, other than their diet seems to mostly be continually drinking their host's blood and mucus.
As a Pokemon: I can't help but somewhat wonder if we'd ever wind up with another Parasect situation in Pokemon these days where a creature completely takes over another Pokemon's body. Maybe if there was a symbiotic spin on it, it'd be fine, but something tells me they wouldn't do something along the lines of a tongue-eating louse Pokemon living inside they mouthes of several fish Pokemon, and then wearing their dead evolved forms like a wolf pelt when it evolves.
49. Cone Snail
These predatory sea snails emerge out of the sand to hunt fish with a long harpoon-like tube. They're also dangerously venomous, able to paralyze and swallow anything that it can fit in its mouth.
As a Pokemon: Incorporating its foot as treads, shell as a big metal hide, and proboscis like a big cannon, it could definitely work out as a tank Pokemon, firing sharp harpoons like cannon fire.
50. Basket Star
We have a couple of sea stars by now, but what about a brittle star? Basket stars' arms branch off into hundreds of little hooked tentacles that grab ahold of prey and drag them into the center to be eaten.
As a Pokemon: I could imagine something that's a bit of a spider mimic, where the center disc of the body itself resembles a spider slightly while all of its arms look like a spiderweb.
Maybe for a tongue louse creature we could have the louse mimicking a fish instead? (maybe its outer shell has fish markings on it, sorta like a beetle) Maybe it could be a thief and steal food when fish pokemon aren't looking? They wouldn't know since it could look like your typical fish Pokemon on the outside!
ReplyDeleteThat's a neat idea! Though actually, now that you mention the idea of a thieving tongue-louse, I'm suddenly really keen on the idea of a tongue-louse that holds a fish Pokemon by the tongue and has it over its shoulder like a cartoony thief's sack.
DeleteOoh that’s such a fun idea 💡!! Maybe that same louse could form a symbiotic relationship with a weak fish Pokémon . It would then sacrifice its hard shell to the weak fish in exchange for stronger attacking prowess as well as a hiding spot. Also whatever food the louse receives the fish would also receive as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen retracted the fish with its huge fangs could resemble a saber tooth anchovy !
ReplyDelete