#037 - Vulpix

VULPIX

IN SHOW

Was Vulpix in the show? Vulpix was in the show for so long it managed to finish season one, briefly appeared in Orange Islands, and finished its trip with Brock in Johto. This pokemon was even in the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back. That’s a total of 141 episodes, not all of which it appeared in, but in which it was owned by a main party member, and one movie if you’re counting. That’s a pretty long run. And for a pokemon that lasted so long, it barely got any air time. It wasn’t really Vulpix’s fault though it was the fact that though Brock was a main character none of his pokemon actually were. Usually we’d see Vulpix getting brushed and taken care of by Brock and not actually doing any of the fighting. But that was okay because Vulpix was ADORABLE. Yes, I had to write it in all caps because it was that cute. And when Vulpix did fight it may not have always one but it was definitely shown to be very, very strong. Other Vulpix have appeared as background characters throughout the rest of the show but people only ever remember Brock’s Vulpix, a wonderful edition to the team that only was ever there because Brock wanted to become a breeder and get a girlfriend.

WHY YOU WANT A VULPIX

Well, first of all it was an exclusive pokemon so unless you owned pokemon blue, or had a very nice friend, you could probably just skip this entire section. Fire was one of the strongest types in the original games, except for that tragic ice miscalculation and it’s never a bad thing to have a fire type on your team. It did start out with a fire attack right away, and even got some pretty good attacks, starting with Ember and working its way up to Flamethrower all at reasonable levels. Especially since you would be catching your Vulpix at a pretty late level, just due to how late in the game it was available.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A VULPIX

The only reason I can honestly see for not wanting a Vulpix, and maybe it’s because its cuteness has disarmed me, is because you simply can’t. It’s not available in your game and you didn’t team up with your friend and buy a separate version so that you guys could trade between yourselves. Or the face on the game sprite sucks. I mean, yes, it’s still cute but it’s not Vulpix cute. That’s a weak argument against a pokemon isn’t it? Let me try again. After Ember you don’t learn another fire type move until level 35 and sure it’s an incredibly strong fire type move, but that’s a long time to wait.

IN SUMMARY
Vulpix is too cute and too strong for me to be annoyed at it. It’s true. Normally I go into these reviews with such a negative point of view, basically asking the pokemon to prove to my why it’s good. Vulpix came in and just did it. I mean, yes if you went a bought a fire stone and then immediately evolved it you might run into some problems, but Vulpix does everything else right. It learns moves at a steady pace, and yes it only ever naturally learns 3 fire type moves and you’d have to wait, if you caught the lowest level Vulpix the moment you could 17 levels to get it but that’s not as tragic as some other examples I’ve seen so far. So I suppose Vulpix is just too cute to hate. Go out and get one.

#036 - Clefable

CLEFABLE

IN SHOW

Clefable, like its evolutionary counterpart Clefairy, are only ever seen when people happen around Mt. Moon. These guys are so reclusive that they’re not even around when it’s time to build spaceships. Clefable are so rare in the show, that they’ve only ever made two major appearances. Both of these times it was when they were trying to help their pre-evolutions from screwing things up too much, either by being lost or by simply leading Team Rocket straight to the Moon Stone that they worship.

WHY YOU WANT A CLEFABLE

Clefable is only weak to one thing, fighting, and despite the fact that there’s a lot of battling in the pokemon world, there aren’t a lot of fighting type pokemon, so Clefable has an advantage there. The picture of Clefable is...well it is definitely a Clefable but...there’s just something off putting about it and I can’t quite put my finger on it...

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A CLEFABLE

That smile! What is with that smile? Is it supposed to be charming? Because it’s not! It’s terrifying in a sort of ‘I-want-to-kill-you’ kind of way. It doesn’t put me at ease at all. I wouldn’t want to be carrying a pokemon around knowing that when I tried to use it for a battle it might smile at me like that! Not that I ever would use it for a battle because it knows only two aggressive moves and learns nothing else once it has evolved from Clefairy.

IN SUMMARY
Clefable has two problems, I think, and one is that it happens to be a pokemon that evolves from a stone. This means it will never learn anything useful, unless you use TM’s, again. This would be okay if you weren’t going to find the stone that would evolve it in the exact same area that you catch Clefairy and will probably use on Clefairy unless you have caught a better pokemon, because if you use it on Clefairy immediately you will have to use TM’s for the rest of its lifetime. The second problem with Clefable is that smile. I just cannot get over it. I know I’m spending too much time on the art for this pokemon, and some people may think I’m blowing it way out of proportion but I don’t think I ever actually evolved any Clefairy I ever got because I didn’t want to see that Clefable looking at me for any length of time. Maybe it’s so rare in the show because it’s embarrassed that its game art looked like that? Maybe that’s the way you smile when you’re an alien? I don’t know, but I don’t like it.

#035 - Clefairy

CLEFAIRY

IN SHOW

People remember Clefairy for one reason; Mt. Moon. That impassable beast of a mountain was littered with rare Clefairy in the show, which people would think meant that you would never see one. Ash happens across one the moment he steps foot on the path leading to the mountain, and he does this not once but twice. Clefairy would be just jumping around being lost and scared, or trying to find a member of its clan that was lost or scared and Ash would have no choice but to help it. It showed where the Moon Stone was in Mt. Moon, which was actually more like a giant meteorite and less like the stone we were expecting. Clefairy also showed up in another town trying to gather parts for its space ship. Oh right, did I forget to mention that? Clefairy is from space! It’s a proven fact because at the end of the episode you see them go up into space. No wonder they’re so lost down here on Poke-Earth.

WHY YOU WANT A CLEFAIRY

Despite the fact that Clefairy apparently gets lost even when it’s in the only location in Kanto where you can find it so you’d think it’d know its way around the place, Clefairy actually happens to be a pretty useful pokemon. Easy to evolve, as almost all pokemon found around Mt. Moon are because hey, the Moon Stone is just within the mountain, and even as a Clefairy it can still learn some interesting moves. Maybe not any moves that would actually be particularly useful for fighting, but it does learn Sing which can make it pretty useful for catching other pokemon. Also, the picture is definitely a Clefairy. Bonus points!

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A CLEFAIRY

If you caught a Clefairy it was because you actually happened to come across one, harder to do than Ash Ketchum makes it appear, and you were so stunned that you couldn’t help but catch it. It’s from outer space! You’re not gonna let that one pass you by. But if you were looking for damage dealing moves, Clefairy is not the pokemon. Sure it gets a bonus to Pound and Double Slap, but other than Metronome which (as many trainers would tell you) is better for a laugh than relying on it to be useful, those will be the only damage dealing moves it will learn. Forever.

IN SUMMARY

Clefairy was hard to get in the games, and thinking in turns of flavour, it’s because they’re peaceful shy little things that don’t want to hurt anyone. And guess what? They’re move set actually shows that. They don’t want to be caught and it’s not because they don’t like you, but they just don’t want to hurt your feelings when you expect the pokemon you catch to be able to hold their own in a tough fighting world and all they can do is gently sing your opponents to sleep. Clefairy is actually a really neat addition to the pokemon games because their move set reflects what they’re personalities are supposed to be like.

#034 - Nidoking

NIDOKING

IN SHOW

Not only did Gary own a Nidoqueen, he also owned a Nidoking which he used to face one of the most terrifying gym leaders of all time, Giovanni. He lost, but it left an impression on us. Nidoking is only to be used for the most badass of occasions. Nidoking has been shown to be the choice among Ash’s rivals as well, Paul also owning one, which must mean that Nidoking can also only be owned by the toughest guys that are intent on beating the best and showing that they’re better than the pathetic guy with a Pikachu who things always seem to work out for.

WHY YOU WANT A NIDOKING

Nidoking is the exact same type combination as Nidoqueen, also making it immune to electricity and a popular choice among potential Lt. Surge combatants. It was as easy to evolve as Nidoqueen as well, with a Moon Stone not being hard to come by. If you were a male, Nidoking was the pick of the pokemon you wanted to evolve the moment you left Mt. Moon, and who could blame you? The picture was even better than Nidoqueen’s! It was intimidating as hell and looked just like the pokemon.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NIDOKING

The same reason as Nidoqueen; the move set caps out at level 23, so once again you want to milk your Nidorino for as many moves as it can give you because you won’t get them from Nidoking. Who wants a pokemon to cap out at level 23, especially with a move like thrash? You get confused if it completes fully, and you could have to work through that for the rest of the battle. Yes, it’s a strong move but it can also be detrimental to your health.

IN SUMMARY

Nidoking was a tough as nails pokemon and it was owned by tough as nails trainers. Everyone wanted to be tough, to kick butt and take names in the pokemon world, and everyone wanted Nidoking. But his move set sucked. I’m learning quite quickly that this seems to be a habit among pokemon who use evolutionary stones because it’s supposed to take time to evolve them so that the pokemon that comes before it has time to learn a lot of useful moves so the final form doesn’t really need to. But you get a Moon Stone in Mt. Moon, and you can have a Nidorino before you even enter the location, so of course you’re going to use it immediately when you’re a kid and of course you’re going to be disappointed when your pokemon never learns anything ever again. So Nidoking in show, amazing, Nidoking in game, everything except move set also amazing.