Scarlet/Violet model gifs ripped by Twitter user

The past Paradox Pokemon brought us giant, more monstrous versions of Pokemon. And I can understand why that tends to look more appealing than the sort of thing they wound up going for when it comes to these new "Future" Paradox Pokemon. I would've preferred a more "hypothetical evolution" angle, like those documentaries that pretend like they've time-traveled into the future to see what wildlife will look like in a few million years. And sure, maybe understandable that they'd go with outright robots to be as contrasting with the past Paradoxes as possible.

And so long as I'm getting OVERALL grievances with the future Paradoxes out of the way at the very beginning:

...But I was far from IMMEDIATELY in love with the kind of aesthetic they ended up choosing for these Robo-Mon. While I maybe don't talk about it a ton, I like mecha designs, and sci-fi has a really cool variety of funny robot guys to fall in love with. I'm less of a fan of the future Paradoxes going for this... I guess I'll call it "ipad future" aesthetic. Where it's all about the light-up LED panels, sleek and smooth profiles, with the only real hint that they're robots being some segmenting in their joints and some perfectly round or flat surfaces here and there. It just makes them look a bit more like they're plastic toys than full-size androids.

If you were to ask how I would've gone about designing robot Pokemon that got time-displaced to the present day, I would've gone for something a little more retro-futuristic. At the risk of sounding like a disgruntled old lady, back when sci-fi was a little dirtier and more interesting than what tends to be sleeker, cleaner, and "perfect"-looking these days.

And I... am Iron Phan

990: Iron Treads

BUT, what they went with is what they went with. So here we have the future counterpart of Great Tusk, Iron Treads. It's Donphan, but this time compacted into a perfectly spherical body, and the "tire" around its body is now a big, metal tread that spins independently of the thing as it travels. Its little legs also fold up into its body while it's in "wheel mode", which is fun!

People have criticized its face, but I actually kind of like the scrunched, perpetually grumpy panel-face. It makes it kinda clear that this is a robot designed after Donphan's likeness, rather than implying Pokemon literally morph into robot creatures in a few million years. And as much as I wish these resembled retro-futuristic robots more, I do like how their eyes are made up of tiny, individual lights, which really brings those robot pets that were really popular in the 90s and 2000s to mind, like Poo Chi! Which I guess doesn't help the whole "looks like a toy" thing, but hey. I like to imagine these things were built to be robot companions rather than imagine Pokemon is doomed to a cold future where robot Pokemon are used as weapons in warfare or something.

Which is still a grounded take compared to whatever the Occulture guys are cooking. The future Mons are when the rumors about these creatures get off the hinges, because off the bat, this thing gets called a pod sent to the planet by aliens.

Despite my disappointment with the chosen robo-aesthetic, Iron Treads is still cool in its own right!