Prize for the most Heartless-ey looking Pokemon goes to...

328: Trapinch

Trapinch is a peculiar little beast. At first glance, it seems like yet another non-descript creature that isn't meant to be any one animal in particular. And as far as a physical appearance goes, yeah, it doesn't really look like anything. But in terms of context, it's very obvious what Trapinch is actually meant to be.

An antlion! Antlions are among some of our favorite insects, and are the larval stage of a neuropteran, but is one of those larval stages that are predators. They create (proportionally) huge pits in the sand and rest at the bottom until unsuspecting prey falls in, and they get to chomp down on their victim. Named such because they prey on ants most of all!

As it turns out, Japan agrees that antlions kick ass and they've found themselves as fairly common video game enemies. So much so that you'd probably never realize it. They're just around, always! Other than Pinsir sort of looking enough to pass as one, you'd think Pokemon would've had a much more direct antlion 'mon by now.

But this is what makes Trapinch such a cool stand-out. Trapinch still looks a bit like a cartoon arthropod, but it still moreso captures the IDEA of an antlion without directly BEING an antlion, which is a cool mode of design we can appreciate! What do you need other than a big jagged maw and a tiny slightly segmented body??? The only thing we're bummed about with Trapinch is feeling like it's still a little mistyped, wishing it was a Bug/Ground. Maybe that would've made for two Bug/Ground types this gen to get their typing overwritten, but Trapinch still LOOKS a little buggy.

Personal Score: 8.5/10

[vibrates]

329: Vibrava

Also unlike pretty much all other fictional antlions, Trapinch's family also acknowledges the antlion's, honestly, significantly less interesting adult form. Which is fine! Animals aren't obligated to impress anybody! But it's still so dragonfly-like and "normal" compared to the burrowing sandy bitey bug. It also strangely picks up a Dragon/Ground type, even though it doesn't look like a Dragon very much. It still looks more like a Bug! Why not make it a Dragon/Bug! THAT would've been a neat typing!

Vibrava's design is cool for what it is though, with some very basic insecty wings and legs and funny little feelers. There's not that much to say about it other than it's a very competent bug design, despite apparently not actually being an insect.

When the small airborne insect bother you goes away

330: Flygon

It's a shame then that Flygon is the least interesting of the bunch by just going full-on Dragon and losing almost all of its insect-ness. It even loses the compound eyes and instead just treats them as lenses for its true eyes. Which is neat for a desert-dwelling creature that has to navigate sandstorms, but still.

All the arthropod-like segementation is gone, and it's done to one pair of wings instead of two. TECHNICALLY more accurate I guess, but c'mon, you went and made it look less insectoid. We still LIKE Flygon plenty, but there's still so many cooler directions they could've gone with this line.