The real Sea Horse was in front of us all along!

131: Lapras

Personally, I've always seen Lapras as one of Gen 1's most iconic Pokemon. Sad Pokemon company doesn't seem to agree, since it seldom gets any merch and in the games it's more like a face to the move Surf itself. It's not even gotten that much love over the years. No Mega, regional variant, and only just now got a Gigantamax form. Lapras feels like it deserves better than this.

Design-wise, it's admittedly something of a "just kinda like it a lot" Pokemon. Though I will say, the merging of sea turtle and plesiosaur is an A-tier chimera, and turning the shell on its back into something of a saddle is also really neat. It even has a little bit of Siren to go with it, since it has a pension for signing apparently. Though no ill will comes from said singing.

Fittingly enough for a Pokemon seemingly based on a cryptid, the Loch Ness monster, it's also an endangered species. Or at least it was. More recent Pokedex entries have stated Lapras has actually recovered from being endangered! While that does somewhat diminish the rare specialness it had back in the day, it is funny to know the Pokemon world just has plesiosaurs roaming the ocean and they appear at about the same frequency as a whale. Good for it.