#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.