Am I the only one who is horribly disappointed with the duck’s final evolution?

[PageEmperor]

Unpronouncable name, idiotic design, unrealistic proportions coming from a bird, too many overdesigned elements, disastrous design. Is… it supposed to be a peacock? Then why not make it an actual one instead of some dude in a costume that barely looks like an animal?

The final forms for the Grass and Fire starters are much better in practically every aspect (especially in stats from what I’ve seen) and I’ll die on that hill. Although I thought i was gonna use the same ‘too humanoid’ thing with the Grass starter, I picked it for my playthrough and it’s animations made it more creature like than I expected, so there. The Fire starter is just good altogether.

The Gen9 Water starter just has an atrocious design overall, and I’ll never understand why I’m the only one who feels this way. I just find there to be nothing to like about it. Every other panned starter I can find one thing I enjoy better than the duck. Every other humanoid starter at least looks either cool or could pass of as an actual mon, but not the duck. I just get increadibly angry just looking at that thing.

So your thoughts?

 

[Kelleo]

Disagree. I don't think it's fantastic, but I like it enough. Meowscarada is the worst one by far to me. Its face looks weird and I'm so tired of GameFreak not letting quadrupedal starters stay quadrupedal and instead turning them into these weird humanoid...things. I hate Emboar and Incineroar for the same reason. Yes, Quaquaval is a bit humanoid too, but at least ducks are always bipedal and the peacock-like water feather things are neat imo. I also think idle battle animation is kinda silly in a good way.

You can dislike it, but others are allowed to like it.

 

[charlycicero]

It's not horrible to me, but I don't like it all that much, especially that big butt. But I'm more disappointed by Sprigatito's evo. Another furry, again! Couldn't we have had a cool Four legged cat as a final evo? The best by far is Fuecoco's final evo, my starter of choice, and Gets my fave type, Ghost. And I did pick it without knowing what the final evo was.

 

[Nicolas721]

I can sympatize with people who think similar to you, as it's another Incineroar situation. In that case people the base form as lonely and serious so they expected something similar to that, but they ended up with a loud and outgoing tiger. With Quaxly is similar, they expected a warrior-like thing that resembled a knight or a pirate, but got a dancer instead.

Personally I kinda like it, the tail made of water drops is interesting, and has a cool personality.

 

[Scovillain]

Well, it is another overly feminine Pokemon, and actually a peacock rather than a duck? So, apparently another Primarina to me. I miss Water starters like Feraligatr and Blastoise. But since Palafin is around, then not picking the Water starter shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Norzan]

I only like Fuecoco of the three, but i do have on problem with the final stage. Now, some people are aware (or i think they are) that i have been wanting for a quadrupedal starter for a while but i have one big issue (and really the only one): it's too small. I kind of expected it to be a big, scary crocodile and they got the scary part, but it's too small for my liking.

Yeah, yeah, people like me are never happy and have to complain at anything, but i can't help it. The design itself is great, it's just too small. And again, really don't care for the water and grass starter final evolution, they are the definition of shrug (i will echo the sentiment of a poster above of wanting a quadrupedal Meowscarada).

 

[Midorikawa]

I don't mind its design so much as I mind it in battle. The way it moves and how it does it non stop is completely disturbing to me. I now have no desire to ever use it because the movement is so off putting.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I actually ended up really liking Quaquaval after it was revealed as Quaxly's final form and I learned more about it, enough, as a matter of fact, to bump Quaxly up to my 2nd favorite starter after Fuecoco. I really dig its color scheme, plus the head and beak look really cool too. Plus, I very rarely dislike bird Pokemon, since I absolutely adore most birds.

 

[PageEmperor]

Just so you all know, I completely respect the opinions of anyone who doesn’t agree. As a matter of fact, I’m not really against it that much, I’m really more disappointed than anything. I’ve tried to like it, but I’m always reminded of yet another aspect about it that peeves me.

I didn’t even have that much expectations myself. I knew it was gonna be unpredictably humanoid, but to the point where it looks more like a person in an outfit?

So yeah, you all are fine to like it, but personally it’s gonna take a long time for me to.

 

[colours]

it's somewhere between a "meh" and "sorta interesting" for me. in other words, i'm mainly ambivalent towards it.

 

[my imagination]

Hate it more than anything. At least Quaxwell (the water starter’s middle evo) is cool.

At the start, I really wanted to choose Quaxly, ‘cause I really like Water types and I expected it to evolve into a pirate DUCK. But now, because of Quaquaval, I hate duck Pokémon in general.

Thank you Game Freak for making trash like this.​

 

[wanderist]

It's definitely my least favorite of the three, but I don't hate it as much as I did initially. I think I'll come to like it a little in the future. I already think the dance he does in battle is kinda funny.

 

[DawningWinds]

Yeah, it looks kinda ridiculous. I've never been one to be entirely anti-humanoid evos (I love some like Delphox and Emboar), but they don't always work, and this one was definitely one that does not work for me. I probably wasn't going to go with Quaxly anyway, but the evos have me pretty entirely sold on picking either of the other ones.

 

[nickdt]

I didn’t even have that much expectations myself. I knew it was gonna be unpredictably humanoid, but to the point where it looks more like a person in an outfit?

At least it doesn't look as person in an outfit as Cinderace, Incineroar, Decidueye and Blaziken.

 

[RK9]

At least it doesn't look as person in an outfit as Cinderace, Incineroar, Decidueye and Blaziken.

If one of these does definitely not look like a human in a costume it is Blaziken of all of them. Blaziken is exactly how to do a 'humanoid' anatomy Pokémon with it not becoming weird or creepy.

This duck's design fucking sucks, yo. Inteleon, Cinderace, this thing, Incineroar. Why are we kneeling to the furries? Why are we not kneeling to the kaiju enthusiasts?!

 

[WinterArcanine]

tbh I thought quaquaval was cool at first......until I saw its dancing animation. Then suddenly I understood why people hate it so much.

 

[Daren]

This duck's design fucking sucks, yo. Inteleon, Cinderace, this thing, Incineroar. Why are we kneeling to the furries? Why are we not kneeling to the kaiju enthusiasts?!

This is a bit conspiratorial, but I've felt that over time (certainly since gen 3 after we got our first apocalypse villain) they've been trying to bring the game's "feel" closer to a standard JRPG, and making the starters (your "main character" party member) human-like (and increasingly in recent gens linked to a specific career) could be an extension of that.

 

[Zweilous]

Why are we not kneeling to the kaiju enthusiasts?!

I wasn't going to comment, but didn't we just get Minilla, Godzilla Jr., Millennium Godzilla, Mecha Godzilla/Kiryu and maybe Mecha King Ghidorah? You could remake a few more Godzilla movies now.

 

[Battista]

Well, it is another grossly feminine Pokemon, and actually a peacock rather than a duck? So, apparently another Primarina to me. I miss Water starters like Feraligatr and Blastoise. But since Palafin is around, then not picking the Water starter shouldn't be an issue.

If we're going by animal biology, it's the male peacocks that are more colorful and "showy" actually. Females are plainer in comparison.

As for my own opinion, I'm not a huge fan either. In a ranking of Water starters, I tend to put it on the bottom with Inteleon but it could be improved by giving it duck's feet back and taking off the two side ribbons on its tail.

 

[CynthiaLover]

I don't really care about it, though I like it the least of the Gen 9 starters. I generally don't care for Water starters, as they tend to range from "meh" to "blegh", with Greninja being the only one I actually like (though in all fairness I'm neutral to Empoleon, as it has grown on me a bit, and Hisuian Samurott is a noticeable improvement over regular Samurott). While I can see why some would hate it, I'm not in that same camp. I don't love it yet I don't hate it. It just... exists to me, like most other Water starters. I generally could care less about the dancing duck (though its battle animation is a bit off-putting... though not to the same degree as Mr. Mime), as I've come to expect that Water starters tend to be strangely designed, for good or for ill. So while I can see why some don't like it I just don't care about it. I'll stick with my ghostfire croc.