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214: Heracross

Heracross has an interesting history as a Pokemon that was, for a while, thought to be an evolution to Pinsir. (All the funnier when it turned out it was going to be one at some point.) But what it ended up being was a new rival Pokemon to go up against Pinsir, since stag beetles and hercules beetles are often considered rivals across all sorts of Japanese media. Though Heracross here is taking more after a rhino beetle than anything.

Heracross is a darling of a bug design though. We're not entirely a fan of how its body is almost just a perfect pill shape, but it's otherwise got all the adorable features of a large beetle, right down to lots of roundness juxtaposed with jagged edges and one, massive horn on top. And we LOVE all the segmented limbs it has, feeling believably monstrous while still looking like insect limbs! And it's really funny how a mostly threatening-looking design is contrasted with such an innocent, adorable face.

It's also easily one of the buggiest of the bug types, so much so it really brings to light a little conundrum when it comes to Bug type design.

Bugs are a difficult sell into the whole "cute" factor. And as much as we wanna be smarmy and say "humans are wrong cause bugs are PRECIOUS creatures", it is true that human brains are very much hard-wired to find bugs repulsive. Human brains like familiar things, and the more familiar something is, the more we project ourselves onto such a thing. This is why people relate to dogs and cats so much. Despite being a different species, they've got all the familiar parts that convey to us a distinct personality.

Contrast this with insects, arachnids, or just arthropods in general, where they're viscerally as unhuman as possible. Alien, even. A hard exoskeleton, beady eyes, too many limbs with too many joints, and mouths that are made up of like, 6 different moving parts. It's no wonder the human brain has such a hard time relating to these things, sadly. Even insects that are entirely harmless can seem extremely threatening. This means translating them to a game about catching and collecting them alongside other cute, cool pets a little bit of a challenge.

A good chunk of Bug types go about this by avoiding as many buggy features as they can reasonably get away with. Less segmented limbs, usually down to four limbs, so smooth they don't really look like they have exoskeletons sometimes, and some far more expressive faces.

Heracross is a notable exception to this trend, or at least very much meeting halfway with it. It having very segmented limbs, an emphasis on a hard carapace, and very sharp arms. All its really missing is an extra pair of arms! Some Pokemon do challenge Heracross's throne of "most bug-like" (we'd argue Durant is probably the most insectoid of all the Bug type Pokemon), but Heracross is still the first notable example of a Bug type REALLY leaning into its bug features, not to make it repulsive like with Pinsir, but as something that makes it endearing. Maybe in that way, it does indeed serve as a perfect rival for Pinsir. With Pinsir being the "expectation" of beetles being gross, unattractive, mean creatures, when Heracross here is just about as friend-looking as you can get.

Personal Score: 9/10

Nobody wants to mess with the mighty Heracross!!

Mega Heracross:

And like Pinsir, they gave Heracross a Mega form, which we sadly don't think is as strong as Mega Pinsir is in design. We don't dislike it, in fact, we like it as a rad herculese beetle design, but it just comes with a few catches. Main thing we don't like is the aggressive orange that kinda messes up Heracross' lovable simplicity in the color department. That said, it feels like this is at least SORT OF going for a bit of a Japanese superhero feel, with several of said super heroes, especially Kamen Riders, being bug-themed, so maybe the flashiness justifies itself that way.

But what we most definitely don't like is that... whatever it is going down its abdomen. Why's this beetle equipped with vents??? It just looks unnatural and sticks out like a sore thumb.

We do LIKE it in the end though, but we kinda wish it just... wasn't Heracross. Sure, now it's a proper hercules beetle like Heracross' name suggests, but... still? It feels so different from Heracross' friendly demeanor that we just feel like it'd would've been better off just being its own thing, or even just a third beetle-mon to have a three-way rivalry between itself, Pinsir, and Heracross.

That said, we do like how they turned a hercules beetle's lower horn into more of a long nose, and it has a nice beefy silhouette to give it an overall vibe of "Heracross, but /srs instead of /j". It visually justifies its Fighting type more here, but we did kind of like how Heracross was just sort of Fighting type because it's a species of bug that just naturally does something akin to wrestling moves.