#020 - Raticate

RATICATE

IN SHOW

Ash briefly possessed a Raticate, which he traded for his Butterfree, but then he decided to trade back. The whole trade process was just to explain that trading existed in the show just like it did in the game, and to explain a game feature. It also served to strengthen the bond between Butterfree and Ash. So unfortunately the Raticate that was featured most prominently almost had no reason to be there.

WHY YOU WANT A RATICATE

Raticate looks butch. He’s a terrifying example of what can happen during an evolution. Your cute cuddly Rattata? Now he can’t close his mouth, and he’s two feet high monster. Raticate also gets to learn Super Fang which may only do damage equal to 50% of your opponents current HP but if your Raticate gets to make the first move you can turn a long battle into a fairly short one even if Raticate were to get wiped out the next turn.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A RATICATE

Other than Hyper Fang and Super Fang Raticate doesn’t have a lot else going for it. It doesn’t have any variety and though one could argue that the lack of variety did plague normal type pokemon in the first generation it hits Raticate pretty hard because it evolves so early and it doesn’t have a lot of moves it will ever learn or improve on.

IN SUMMARY

The problem with Raticate is a problem that bothered a lot of normal pokemon in the first generation, as I’ve already mentioned, and that is the fact that normal pokemon were only good against one type of pokemon and there weren’t that many of that type in first generation either. Raticate was already a very simple concept, a concept that was done really well but a simple one, and the move set didn’t help at all. A simple move set for a simple pokemon will only take away from the pokemon, not add to it. And yes, there aren’t as many types as there are now, and pokemon could really only learn from whatever their specific types had to offer, unlike now, so Raticate has improved. But for the purpose of this review, people might’ve well have skipped over the Rattata line and gone straight for Pidgey.

#019 - Rattata

RATTATA

IN SHOW

There has only ever been one Rattata that has interacted with Ash and not tried to beat up one of his pokemon and that was the one in the very first episode. It tried to steal his food, and then the pokedex told him that Rattata tends to sneak out and try to steal food from stupid travelers. I think that is why Ash never actually took the time to catch one, because he knows that all Rattata think he is stupid. Rattata are usually just shown frolicking around in meadows or being owned by younger children because Rattata are the easiest pokemon to catch.

WHY YOU WANT A RATTATA

Hyper Fang. Honestly, that’s about it. Rattata had one signature move that was fairly strong and that it acquired pretty early on so that having a Rattata in your party could be an asset. It only needed to evolve once, and that was good since it was the first pokemon in the pokedex to do so and its picture didn’t look too awful. To be fair, it’s pretty hard to screw up a picture of a rat.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A RATTATA

If you didn’t have a thing for rats it’s pretty hard to see the appeal to Rattata. Yes in the original generations a lot of pokemon were based on living animals, but Rattata is one of the least hidden examples. It’s also a normal type, and lots of people don’t find much use for it. It’s isn’t strong against anything in particular, only immune to ghost, but it can’t hurt ghost either so it really has no advantage. Normal is supposed to be the most basic type.

IN SUMMARY

Rattata was a cute idea, and just like in the pokemon world a lot of younger kids really like Rattata. It’s not intimidating, it can be cuddled, but it can also bite pretty hard. The main problem with Rattata is that a lot of serious trainers don’t really find a huge use for it when there are much better type combinations out there. Pidgey is a prime example. You can catch a Pidgey as easily as you can catch a Rattata and you have the Flying/Normal combination that will become lethal to any fighting pokemon. So Rattata sort of loses the race there.

#018 - Pidgeot

PIDGEOT

IN SHOW

It finally happened! Ash has returned from the Indigo Plateau and is ready to take a break from all this pokemon trainer nonsense when, oh no! A Fearow is leading a group of Spearow to attack the local group of Pidgey. It’s downright terrorizing them. If Pokemon wasn’t a kid show we knew that the Pidgey would’ve been wasting away to nothing as the Spearow destroyed their nests and their lives. But Ash is here to rescue them and Pidgeotto once part of the same clan is out to seek revenge. Oh wait, did I say Pidgeotto? I meant the newly evolved Pidgeot who will not allow his old friends and family to be tortured by the angriest bird in Pallet Town. And he’s big enough for Ash to ride him while he’s battling. This just got amazing! But then...wait what? Pidgeot’s gonna stay so that he can protect his group? I guess that’s alright but....

That’s the shattered feeling millions of kids felt as one of the coolest pokemon to ever evolve in Ash’s team left within one episode, never to be seen again.

WHY YOU WANT A PIDGEOT

If the idea of flying around on a giant bird doesn’t appeal to you I don’t know what else will. Pidgeot was a bird of prey unlike any other and when we were ready to beat the Elite 4 he was there to face the fighting pokemon head on and win the day for us. Pidgeot may not have received a lot of flying moves from his new form, but the ones he had he had perfected and we were all gonna sleep safer at night knowing we had a Pidgeot out their protecting us.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A PIDGEOT

Pidgeot learned no new moves. This meant you were relying on Fly and Wing Attack as your two main moves plus any other TM’s you had taught him and for some trainers this wasn’t enough. Your pokemon had to be more skilled than this and if they weren’t they were of no use to you. Pidgeot lost out on that. And his picture...I don’t even want to think of it. It’s Blastoise bad and that’s saying something.

IN SUMMARY

We as an audience were broken up when Pidgeot left and it doesn’t get any easier because every time Ash visits Pallet Town you know Pidgeot’s there in those tree lines and we’ll never get to see it again. We’ll never again get another awesome aerial battle off the back of a giant bird. I mean...we’ll always have Charizard but it’s just not the same thing. We had wanted to see Pidgeotto evolve so much and when we finally got it, it was taken away from us immediately. I think that’s why a lot of people despise Fearow, even if they originally really liked him. But at least we could have our very own Pidgeot in the game, and as long as we ignored the picture he was at least average. What more could we ask for?

#017 - Pidgeotto

PIDGEOTTO

IN SHOW

Ash caught a Pidgeotto pretty promptly, and it served him pretty well. And by served him pretty well I meant he only ever used it against Team Rocket, to pop their balloon, blow away smoke screen, or determine where they had taken Pikachu or any of the other pokemon Team Rocket was bound to steal. This was unfortunate because Pidgeotto did seem really awesome. Everyone remembers the scene where Pikachu jumps onto its back and begins to fly away in order to fight a giant Tentacruel. Pidgeotto was often seeing flying fast and free which I think might be because he spent most of his time in his pokeball and he always resented Ash for this. It’s not to say he was never used in a pokemon battle and Pidgeotto did actually see his fair share of gym battles, but he probably could’ve been used as much more than just a staple to make sure Team Rocket was defeated at the end of an episode.

WHY YOU WANT PIDGEOTTO

Pidgeotto could fly and that’s what a lot of people wanted Pidgeotto to do. Fly. So getting from Point A to Point B was never a big a problem when you had a Pidgeotto around. Pidgeotto did unfortunately suffer from ‘exactly the same but...’ Pidgeotto did bring a new look to the table, a much more shiny look at me sort of thing which made us hope for Pidgeot. But otherwise he was just a brightly coloured Pidgey who could hit harder, and was necessary for us to have if we wanted that Pidgeot.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A PIDGEOTTO

In the games Pidgeotto actually isn’t much help. Flying types are always useful, but Pidgeotto wasn’t really useful until the Elite 4 and at that point your Pidgeotto wasn’t a Pidgeotto anymore. The picture in game looked like a fatter bigger Pidgey, and I think that let down a lot of people. Pidgeotto isn’t usually shown to be much bigger, and in most ways it’s actually fitter than Pidgey.

IN SUMMARY

We looked forward to Pidgeotto because everything told us he was cool. For many trainers the Pidgey line was a staple, and Pidgeotto was a big part of that. Most people always had at a Pidgey type in their party and when there was no real use for Pidgeotto other than a glorified plane, I can understand why some people might have been a bit upset. Pidgeotto had been with us from the 3^rd episode, and he had been fighting Team Rocket for just as long, but Team Rocket never actually shows up in a giant Meowth balloon and smoke screen can’t be just blown away so the things we were expecting our Pidgeotto to do we never actually got to see happen. A lot of people may argue that Pidgeotto is actually a really good pokemon, but I seem him as more as a means to an ends.

#016 - Pidgey

PIDGEY

IN SHOW

Pidgey was shown in the first episode, and Ash almost caught one. He failed though, and never tried again. Even Prof. Oak caught a Pidgey and showed off his awesome trainer skills by blasting off Team Rocket within moments of capturing it proving that Team Rocket can be beaten by even untrained pokemon. Pidgey are often seen in the same places and acting like many of the birds we often seen around meadows and forests. They’re just trying to survive. My favourite example of Pidgey though is the Pidgey on Pudgey Pidgey Isle where they were all too fat to fly. It’s sad and maybe it was supposed to be an example of how obesity kills dreams, but I really just loved the image of the fat Pidgey, and who wouldn’t?

WHY YOU WANT A PIDGEY

Pidgey not only evolved into one of the coolest flying pokemon of all time, but it could actually learn Fly all by itself without ever having to level up once. So you could go and catch a baby Pidgey and fly around on it. I thought it was cool. Plus, Pidgey was a nice stable normal type with the flying type thrown in so it had a good balance of moves. Gust and Quick Attack were the staples for a lot of Pidgey trainers and they didn’t disappoint, and you could only look forward to getting better moves as your Pidgey grew.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A PIDGEY

Pidgey did take a little while to evolve, and some people didn’t find it that worthwhile. Besides, the other flying type that was available was Spearow and that just appealed to some people. The pokedex picture for Pidgey wasn’t bad but it just wasn’t...Pidgey. It looked like a finch that sort of happened by the office while they were taking the pokemons’ pictures and it got in the way of the camera and instead of shooting another picture they decided that that was as close as they were going to get.

IN SUMMARY

Pidgey was about as normal as you could get. It was like flavour text for the show as it showed that yes, not all pokemon just sat in tall grass waiting to be caught, they actually did act like real animals most of the time, eating at birdfeeders and taking care of their young. Pidgey was, like many of the other original pokemon, a stepping stone onto something much greater but that’s the way we liked them.