My biscuits are burnin'!

155: Cyndaquil

Cyndaquil is a super cutie! Probably up there as one of my favorite NFE forms of the Fire starters. I love its little anteater-like face with the long snout it has. And the squinty, slanted eyes are just adorable. I like how its round and friendly demeanor is juxtaposed against all the violent flames in the back. It's like a little animal that has a "don't touch me, I'm big!" defense mechanism to it. Except now it's "Don't touch me, I'm on fire!" Which is, y'know, fair.

Those flames can turn off though, and turn into easily my favorite little detail about this little guy. It has four spots on its back that the flames erupt from. Arranged quite a lot like a stove top! That's so adorably clever!

Personal Score: 8/10

My hair is on fire! My hair is on fire!

156: Quilava

Sadly what seems to be a running theme with these starters is that I like their first forms the best, and their evolutions never quite live up to the base form. Quilava has cool aspects to it, like appearing more weasel-like. And it's got a neat flame mohawk now. It just feels like it's dropped a notable amount of Cyndaquil's charming aspects. I miss the little dude's snout and squinty eyes, as opposed to Quilava's much more "usual" face.

Personal Score: 7/10

New in neck-warmer technology

157: Typhlosion

Though this time Typhlosion only feels like a further downgrade for me. It's cool, don't get me wrong, but it's little more than a giant rat that's on fire, but only its neck. It is cool that it's overall shaped like a volcano, and the flames on its back look like an eruption when turned on. But that's kinda all there is to it.

And... yeah, we're going to address The Thing. It certainly doesn't help Typhlosion's case that they've switched its flames off for some reason. I'm sure it's to emphasize the fact that it can switch its fire off, because they'll flip back on when it attacks, but it just makes Typhlosion look even more naked. It hardly looks like a Starter's final evolution anymore, it looks more like an early-to-midgame Pokemon's final evolution. The 3D models vs 2D sprites is a discussion that probably warrants its own article, but this is one in particular I'm very much in agreeance with. Why not just have its Amie/Refresh/Camp self have the flames off since it's a lot more chill there? C'mon Typhlosion! You're in a fight, strike a cool pose or something!

Admittedly this one feels like a bit of a stretch, at least for now. In the future, it becomes a lot more obvious it's what they're going for, but all the Fire starters are actually based on the Chinese Zodiac animals! Charizard from before clearly representing a dragon, and Typhlosion... yeah like I said, it's a stretch. The closest it resembles is the rat, though even then it doesn't resemble a rat very much. Cyndaquil is a bit rodent-like, but other than that, not much to go off of. As the generations go on, it's obvious the Chinese Zodiac is the intended theme of the Fire starters (or it's a HUMONGOUS coincidence) and Typhlosion is just an odd one out...