ZeraX
DANE! DANE!
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2016
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Yes I actually spent nearly a month reading everything about Bulbasaur and watching all the significant episodes about it. And I had to write this because I think it deserves some love and recognition.
This will be about it in the anime, the manga and the video games. I found a really interesting and never-heard-before things so hopefully you enjoy this.
-------
Let's begin with the anime. Bulbasaur in the anime was a responsible leader that took full responsibility of Ash Pokemon and every Pokemon at Oak's laboratory. This guys has an army there that he commands them and they report back to him upon problems at Oak's lab. Basically the guy is a born leader as seen in several episodes since its debut.
And this is actually not a trait of Ash's Bulbasaur only. Wild Venusaur was shown leading other Grass Pokemon in the forest. As it appear, The Bulbasaur family are rulers of the grass type, since there are fully evolved grass Pokemon that live under their leadership. They all born leaders.
The Bulbasaur family is not only the leaders of the grass type, but they have full control over nature.
They literally can grow trees and other plants, using the forests to block paths and even to attack humans. They are the non-legendary grass Pokemon to have this ability.
Ash's Bulbasaur even appeared to be a capable trainer. He took May's Bulbasaur under his wing when May left her Bulbasaur to be trained at Oak's lab, until it evolved to Venusaur.
Beside the training skills, Bulbasaur had peacemaking and problem-solving skills that Tracey stated that Bulbasaur is a Pokemon genius!
Ash's Bulbasaur was actually one of Ash's strongest Pokemon. For unevovled Pokemon he defeated many fully evolved Pokemon like Meganium, Exeggutor, Vileplume, Magneton and much more.
His win/lose percentage (78%) was even higher than Charizard itself (67%).
His power was exploded at one episode against Duskclops (who defeated Charizard) and Solrock (who defeated Squirtle). Both Dusklops and Solrock had direct Fire and Psychic attacks on Bulbasaur on which he is weak to, that's beside getting confused and attacking himself. But despite that he successfully defeated both, which is a miracle for unevolved Pokemon.
And Ash's Bulbasaur was not the Bulbasaur to showcase outstanding power. All of them had super powers as well. You have for example James's Venusaur, who took a direct Flamethrower but won at the end. while Charizard lost after taking a water gun from Totodile in the same episode.
And there's Jeremy Venusaur, who was able to negate every Fire move with its vine whips.
Then there's Shauna's Bulbasaur, who not only overpowered a flamethrower with a grass move, but it blasted Fennekin off at the same time to which led Fennekin and Serena totally shocked of how a grass Pokemon being stronger than a fire pokemon.
That's not all, Bulbasaur line in the anime can defy their own learning system as well. Ash's Bulbasaur learned Dig when he almost died, and a Venusaur made a Petal Blizzard + Dig combo to defeate Greninja. Bulbasaur line can't learn Dig in the video games. And these are not an anime errors as Tracey wondered how did Bulbasaur learn the move, and the Venusaur's trainer told it to conceal itself.
--------------------------------------------
In the manga:
Adding to the fact that Bulbasaur family are Grass type leaders and masters of nature, they are also capable of evolving into a higher form. In one chapter titled "The God", a Venusaur appeared to take a form of gigantic tree god that able to answers prayers and help people and pokemon in trouble. No other Pokemon have this power or transformation too, making Venusaur (in this state) so far the strongest non-legendary Pokemon.
Let's go to Red's Bulbasaur (Red had Bulbasaur in every manga except 1 btw)
Red's Bulbasaur in the manga was a total monster, easily defeating an enraged Machoke and a Gyarados shortly after leaving Oak's lab with Red. It also fought a super engineered Eevee that can transform into its 3 Eeveelutions at will. it transformed into Flareon against grass Pokemon and Jolteon against water Pokemon, but at the end it was defeated as a Flareon with a grass move from Bulbasaur. Red's Bulbasaur even caught Mew after many failed attempts by other Pokemon including Wartortle.
As an Ivysaur, it fought Zapdos, and guess what? It actually won! As a worn-out semi-burned Ivysaur..
Even Blue's Charmeleon was completely powerless against it as it couldn't put a scratch on it.
And Bulbasaur even absorbed Charmeleon's Fire Spin together with Gastly with its bulb to create a new attack from its mouth. This little fucker can eat and vomit fire moves.
Not even as a Charizard gave it a match. Blue's Charizard couldn't put a single hit on Venusaur and was actually damaged by Razor Leaf (which is 4x weak to Charizard). Venusaur wiped the floor with Charizard in this chapter. Bulbasaur is amazingly one of the strongest Pokemon in the anime and manga.
-----------------
In the video games:
There are much to say about Bulbasaur in the games honestly, so I'm gonna make it simple.
Although many people like to deny it, but Bulbasaur is actually the best starter in Kanto for many reasons. Not only it can singlehandedly dominate every gym but two, but actually Kanto itself is a playground for it. All these locations have no advantage over Bulbasaur, and they are filled with pokemon with type disadvantage.
At this point I know many people will consider that a bad thing because "Ewwww easy mode". Though it's not like people all went with Cyndaquil/Torchic (easy mode) instead of Chikorita/Snivy (Hard mode), but surprisingly enough Squirtle is the easy mode.
Squirtle has 2 weaknesses only. It can learn Dig for Surge and Ice Beam for Erika and both can be found in the same areas as these gyms. Dig/Earthquake can counter Electric, and Ice Beam/Blizzard can counter Grass, making Squirtle kinda invincible with barely any threats in the game. and other than that Squirtle have no trouble against any Gym or at the Elite Four.
Bulbasaur in the other hand has no SE moves against Lance (Squirtle has Ice moves) and Blue's uses 5 out of 6 Pokemon that have type advantage over Bulbasaur while Squirtle can steamroll Blue easily.
Both are Easy Modes, but Bulbasaur fall behind halfway (Easy -> Easy-Medium).
And there's really no better choices than Venusaur. Exeggutor was a bit better in Gen1 because of its Psychic now it has 7 weaknesses comparing to 4, Vileplume has speed of 50 which is bad, Victreebell is weaker has a much smaller movepool and can't learn moves like Frenzy Plant (the strongest grass move in Gen3)
Blastoise has many alternatives. Slowbro, Starmie, Lapras, Cloyster, Gyarados, Poliwrath who all have better typing and similar movepool. so Picking Squirtle is a waste.
Charizard and fire type in general is useless in Kanto. They have advantage over 1 Gym only, and they don't shine anywhere in the game. Growlithe/Vuplix appear around the grass gym and Moltres appear the end for Loreli's Ice Pokemon and Blue's Exeggutor. For such a trivial role, you don't need a fire pokemon that much. So picking Charmander is also illogical.
Well of course except you love these two designs, otherwise both are really terrible picks. (And seriously I'm getting tired of catching other mons for Brock and Misty because my starter can't do shit)
Let's go to the meta now.
In Gen2, Venusaur was ranked with "Rank S+" and among the top 7 Pokemon in Nintendo Cup Tournament in Japan. Surpassing Charizard (Rank B) and Blastoise (Rank E) and every legendary except Mew/Mewtwo because they were banned.
The funny thing is that Venusaur is the only kanto starter that didn't get a stat boost after Gen1. All three had the same base total stats which was 425. But after the boost, Venusaur has now the lowest BST among the three.
Did that hurt Venusaur? Not really (except from the public view and getting called the weakest).
Venusaur actually was a stable in meta, being one of the best Pokemon since Gen1 till now.
Before Mega Evolution, both Blastoise and Charizard were always behind in viablity. Blastoise was surpassed by tons of other water pokemon and Charizard was doomed because being 4x weak to Rock made it basically useless.
After 6 Generations, Charizard finally caught up with Venusaur thanks to Mega Evolution. Both are now sitting in the Overused tier while Blastoise still haven't found much use, as its mega turned out to be useless. Blastoise was always behind and it's still behind (Underused tier).
Mega Venusaur now considered one of the best tanks in the game. Having two weaknesses and boasted stats with viability against Fairy type which are not only strong but weak to only Steel and Poison.
With its typing, all-rounded stats, Chlorophyll ability, Mega Evolution, versality and large movepool. Bulbasaur is still the best Grass starter in the entire series. While Charizard was surpassed by Blaziken and Blastoise by Greninja, Venusaur is still the best of them all. While we have Contrary Serperior to be its only competitor, but still Venusaur has better typing, stats and viability.
There you have it folks, everything you need to know about the underdog that is Venusaur.
And sorry for the long post.
Sources used:
-
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfh0X6XyM50
(video documentary)
- ポケモン単体考察 for Nintendo Cup 2000
- Bulbapedia
- Smogon
This will be about it in the anime, the manga and the video games. I found a really interesting and never-heard-before things so hopefully you enjoy this.
-------
Let's begin with the anime. Bulbasaur in the anime was a responsible leader that took full responsibility of Ash Pokemon and every Pokemon at Oak's laboratory. This guys has an army there that he commands them and they report back to him upon problems at Oak's lab. Basically the guy is a born leader as seen in several episodes since its debut.
And this is actually not a trait of Ash's Bulbasaur only. Wild Venusaur was shown leading other Grass Pokemon in the forest. As it appear, The Bulbasaur family are rulers of the grass type, since there are fully evolved grass Pokemon that live under their leadership. They all born leaders.
The Bulbasaur family is not only the leaders of the grass type, but they have full control over nature.
They literally can grow trees and other plants, using the forests to block paths and even to attack humans. They are the non-legendary grass Pokemon to have this ability.
Ash's Bulbasaur even appeared to be a capable trainer. He took May's Bulbasaur under his wing when May left her Bulbasaur to be trained at Oak's lab, until it evolved to Venusaur.
Beside the training skills, Bulbasaur had peacemaking and problem-solving skills that Tracey stated that Bulbasaur is a Pokemon genius!
Ash's Bulbasaur was actually one of Ash's strongest Pokemon. For unevovled Pokemon he defeated many fully evolved Pokemon like Meganium, Exeggutor, Vileplume, Magneton and much more.
His win/lose percentage (78%) was even higher than Charizard itself (67%).
His power was exploded at one episode against Duskclops (who defeated Charizard) and Solrock (who defeated Squirtle). Both Dusklops and Solrock had direct Fire and Psychic attacks on Bulbasaur on which he is weak to, that's beside getting confused and attacking himself. But despite that he successfully defeated both, which is a miracle for unevolved Pokemon.
And Ash's Bulbasaur was not the Bulbasaur to showcase outstanding power. All of them had super powers as well. You have for example James's Venusaur, who took a direct Flamethrower but won at the end. while Charizard lost after taking a water gun from Totodile in the same episode.
And there's Jeremy Venusaur, who was able to negate every Fire move with its vine whips.
Then there's Shauna's Bulbasaur, who not only overpowered a flamethrower with a grass move, but it blasted Fennekin off at the same time to which led Fennekin and Serena totally shocked of how a grass Pokemon being stronger than a fire pokemon.
That's not all, Bulbasaur line in the anime can defy their own learning system as well. Ash's Bulbasaur learned Dig when he almost died, and a Venusaur made a Petal Blizzard + Dig combo to defeate Greninja. Bulbasaur line can't learn Dig in the video games. And these are not an anime errors as Tracey wondered how did Bulbasaur learn the move, and the Venusaur's trainer told it to conceal itself.
--------------------------------------------
In the manga:
Adding to the fact that Bulbasaur family are Grass type leaders and masters of nature, they are also capable of evolving into a higher form. In one chapter titled "The God", a Venusaur appeared to take a form of gigantic tree god that able to answers prayers and help people and pokemon in trouble. No other Pokemon have this power or transformation too, making Venusaur (in this state) so far the strongest non-legendary Pokemon.
Let's go to Red's Bulbasaur (Red had Bulbasaur in every manga except 1 btw)
Red's Bulbasaur in the manga was a total monster, easily defeating an enraged Machoke and a Gyarados shortly after leaving Oak's lab with Red. It also fought a super engineered Eevee that can transform into its 3 Eeveelutions at will. it transformed into Flareon against grass Pokemon and Jolteon against water Pokemon, but at the end it was defeated as a Flareon with a grass move from Bulbasaur. Red's Bulbasaur even caught Mew after many failed attempts by other Pokemon including Wartortle.
As an Ivysaur, it fought Zapdos, and guess what? It actually won! As a worn-out semi-burned Ivysaur..
Even Blue's Charmeleon was completely powerless against it as it couldn't put a scratch on it.
And Bulbasaur even absorbed Charmeleon's Fire Spin together with Gastly with its bulb to create a new attack from its mouth. This little fucker can eat and vomit fire moves.
Not even as a Charizard gave it a match. Blue's Charizard couldn't put a single hit on Venusaur and was actually damaged by Razor Leaf (which is 4x weak to Charizard). Venusaur wiped the floor with Charizard in this chapter. Bulbasaur is amazingly one of the strongest Pokemon in the anime and manga.
-----------------
In the video games:
There are much to say about Bulbasaur in the games honestly, so I'm gonna make it simple.
Although many people like to deny it, but Bulbasaur is actually the best starter in Kanto for many reasons. Not only it can singlehandedly dominate every gym but two, but actually Kanto itself is a playground for it. All these locations have no advantage over Bulbasaur, and they are filled with pokemon with type disadvantage.
At this point I know many people will consider that a bad thing because "Ewwww easy mode". Though it's not like people all went with Cyndaquil/Torchic (easy mode) instead of Chikorita/Snivy (Hard mode), but surprisingly enough Squirtle is the easy mode.
Squirtle has 2 weaknesses only. It can learn Dig for Surge and Ice Beam for Erika and both can be found in the same areas as these gyms. Dig/Earthquake can counter Electric, and Ice Beam/Blizzard can counter Grass, making Squirtle kinda invincible with barely any threats in the game. and other than that Squirtle have no trouble against any Gym or at the Elite Four.
Bulbasaur in the other hand has no SE moves against Lance (Squirtle has Ice moves) and Blue's uses 5 out of 6 Pokemon that have type advantage over Bulbasaur while Squirtle can steamroll Blue easily.
Both are Easy Modes, but Bulbasaur fall behind halfway (Easy -> Easy-Medium).
And there's really no better choices than Venusaur. Exeggutor was a bit better in Gen1 because of its Psychic now it has 7 weaknesses comparing to 4, Vileplume has speed of 50 which is bad, Victreebell is weaker has a much smaller movepool and can't learn moves like Frenzy Plant (the strongest grass move in Gen3)
Blastoise has many alternatives. Slowbro, Starmie, Lapras, Cloyster, Gyarados, Poliwrath who all have better typing and similar movepool. so Picking Squirtle is a waste.
Charizard and fire type in general is useless in Kanto. They have advantage over 1 Gym only, and they don't shine anywhere in the game. Growlithe/Vuplix appear around the grass gym and Moltres appear the end for Loreli's Ice Pokemon and Blue's Exeggutor. For such a trivial role, you don't need a fire pokemon that much. So picking Charmander is also illogical.
Well of course except you love these two designs, otherwise both are really terrible picks. (And seriously I'm getting tired of catching other mons for Brock and Misty because my starter can't do shit)
Let's go to the meta now.
In Gen2, Venusaur was ranked with "Rank S+" and among the top 7 Pokemon in Nintendo Cup Tournament in Japan. Surpassing Charizard (Rank B) and Blastoise (Rank E) and every legendary except Mew/Mewtwo because they were banned.
The funny thing is that Venusaur is the only kanto starter that didn't get a stat boost after Gen1. All three had the same base total stats which was 425. But after the boost, Venusaur has now the lowest BST among the three.
Did that hurt Venusaur? Not really (except from the public view and getting called the weakest).
Venusaur actually was a stable in meta, being one of the best Pokemon since Gen1 till now.
Before Mega Evolution, both Blastoise and Charizard were always behind in viablity. Blastoise was surpassed by tons of other water pokemon and Charizard was doomed because being 4x weak to Rock made it basically useless.
After 6 Generations, Charizard finally caught up with Venusaur thanks to Mega Evolution. Both are now sitting in the Overused tier while Blastoise still haven't found much use, as its mega turned out to be useless. Blastoise was always behind and it's still behind (Underused tier).
Mega Venusaur now considered one of the best tanks in the game. Having two weaknesses and boasted stats with viability against Fairy type which are not only strong but weak to only Steel and Poison.
With its typing, all-rounded stats, Chlorophyll ability, Mega Evolution, versality and large movepool. Bulbasaur is still the best Grass starter in the entire series. While Charizard was surpassed by Blaziken and Blastoise by Greninja, Venusaur is still the best of them all. While we have Contrary Serperior to be its only competitor, but still Venusaur has better typing, stats and viability.
There you have it folks, everything you need to know about the underdog that is Venusaur.
And sorry for the long post.
Sources used:
-
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfh0X6XyM50
(video documentary)
- ポケモン単体考察 for Nintendo Cup 2000
- Bulbapedia
- Smogon
