Edward Cotton-Hands

333: Swablu

If one songbird per generation wasn't enough for you, here's another one in Swablu. A sky-blue bird with pearly white clouds for wings is neat enough a concept to keep this line from being outright boring, but it still feels a bit like a design that does its job and little else. Swablu is cute in ways any ol bird is cute, but it doesn't quite make things its own, yknow? It feels like the thing that could've set it apart would be if the line was pure Flying rather than Normal/Flying, because a cloud critter feels like it aught to be the perfect opportunity for that sort of thing.

"Are you the guy with the cloud pants?" Yeah man how'd you know

334: Altaria

And it evolves about how you'd expect. It's a bigger, bluer, cloudier bird, and if Swablu was REALLY your thing, then Altaria is probably a dream evolution. But what's really odd about it is that it's Dragon/Flying of all things? Huh! Okay then! We have heard Altaria could be based on a mythical creature that is described as a Dragon despite having the appearance of a bird, but we haven't really found evidence this creature existed in any culture's mythos.

What's arguably more exciting about this line is that, hey look, this is the first time we've had more than one Dragon type line in a single Gen! And we still have one more to encounter!

Help, that bird is trapped in soap!

Mega Altaria:

An honest shock this was a Pokemon that wound up with a Mega, but hey. The evening sky cloud colors are nice, but it's otherwise a poofier Altaria. The poofy hat seems like an odd addition though. I guess because it's cold in the sky??? Eh.