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Most Disappointing Evolution?

Any trade evolution, because trade evolutions are a hassle to complete.
 
Vikavolt, Incineroar, Sunflora. I think these are the only evolutions I have had deep disappointment for.

I don't think I need to explain Incineroar but Vikavolt was exceedingly disappointing to me because Gamefreak pulled off its design to look as if it was gonna be super fast and yet it ended up having an obscene base speed of 43...

Conkeldurr, Chansey, and Grubbin are FASTER than this thing... CONKELDURR??? FASTER???

I don't think I have to explain Sunflora either but I have a backstory behind this. When I was 10, first playing Pokémon, I tried to catch a bunch of Pokémon that looked interesting, evolve them, and see what their evolutions looked like. Pokémon Emerald was my second Pokémon game and I happened to find Sunkern in the Safari Zone. Sunkern looked as if it could maybe evolve into something cool. idk. I caught it, tried training a bit to evolve the Pokémon by level-up. Most painful 3 levels I have ever spent training a Pokémon in my life. I looked around and sought an alternate method of evolution. No way I was accepting a Pokémon that weak to require 37+ in order to evolve. I managed to get a Sun Stone and find out this evolved it. I used the Sun Stone on Sunkern and what immediately came out was a dancing sunflower with a face... It's been 12 years since and I don't think I've ever felt as much disappointment with a Pokémon evolution as I did with that Sunflora. I don't even think I tried it out in battle. I already knew it was gonna be awful in combat. At least I knew about Vikavolt and Incineroar  before ever obtaining their prevolutions.
 
Amongst the new Gen 9 evolutions, I'd say Kingambit. Except for its name (King's gambit), it's so distantly removed from the chess theme which steered the Pawniard-Bisharp lineage that it makes Ursaluna and Sneasler look like actual official Pokémon by comparison.

Bishops can't be promoted to kings, so it doesn't work as an evolution of Bisharp. Heck, nothing can be promoted to kings (nothing can, kings are the Ditto of chess), so it wouldn't even work as a split evolution of Pawniard either. And to cap it off they've drawn too much from a eastern perspective for a line specifically based on the western version of chess, to the point where it's far more Japanese Shogun than European King.

The only thing I truly appreciate is that it's from Gen 9, as it ties in with Paldea's biggest real-world counterpart being one of the birthplaces of western chess. In pretty much every other aspect Kingambit comes across even more a fakemon than anything from Legends Arceus did. And this is coming from someone who dislikes Enamorus.
 
eh i have some:

  • crabominable - as cool as this thing looks, it has disappointed me in pretty much every other aspect imaginable. i think conceptually it's fine, it's nice to have Strong Physical ice type, but like.. it doesn't really have a chance to back it up with much else. it's not fast, so it's not going to be hitting first anytime soon unless in trick room, and it's not bulky either contrary to what its appearance may suggest. granted, i haven't really used one in a team before but i haven't really feel the need to since it seems so... underwhelming? the typing and stats don't do the poor thing much justice so i've never felt compelled to. s:
  • whiscash - couldn't game freak not add like... 15 points to its attack or something to make it even moderately more useful? take 25 points and add 10 to attack and 15 to speed or something so dragon dance can be a more solid option on this 'mon. it'd still be a worse version of swampert, but in games where swampert isn't an available option and this guy is, it'd really be helpful to have the stats to not suck. s: otherwise whiscash is pretty cool, and i like its design, i just have a hard time fitting this guy onto a team.
  • kilowattrel - my problem is that this 'mon just screams medicore in every aspect except its design. maybe i just haven't found an optimal way to use it, but it's just a big "meh" from me.
  • brambleghast - yeah, yeah very creative to make a 'mon based on tumbleweed and normally i don't have an issue with most object 'mons but this one i just do not care about. maybe its just the concept that's boring to me and that's extended to the pokemon itself. u_u
  • frosmoth - far from being the most disappointing one, but more could've been done with it to be an ice-type volcarona equivalent so many (including myself tbh) were expecting it to be. i personally use this in raids sometimes and it has worked to varying degrees so it's not all bad, but still.
 
  • dudunsparce. by far the evolution i'm most disappointed with. i don't think that they had to make it into a mythical serpent or whatever, but this thing seriously looks exactly like dunsparce. adding an extra thorax doesn't make a better pokemon, especially 7 generations after.
  • frosmoth. they seriously could've done anything more creative.
  • boltund. i was already kinda sick of the generic dog pokemon appearing in every new region, and i got my hopes up when yamper was released and it looked promising. but nope.
  • abomasnow. i thought snover was pretty cute, but abomasnow looks like some ugly and goofy cartoon monster.
  • naclstack. it doesn't even look alive. garganacl is also somewhat guilty but at least it looks kinda cool.
  • magmortar. god it's just so ugly. i don't even like magmar that much but god this thing is hideous.
 
  • Greninja - I never did enjoy this design. I like the rounded, noodly frogginess that Froakie and Frogadier have, but it just undergoes such a drastic and incohesive style shift when it evolves that really puts me off. It even loses the thing that I thought made it charming to begin with, its bubble cape. Eh.
  • Armaldo - It's not that I dislike Armaldo on its own... It's just that every time I see it next to Anorith, I can't help but think it's kind of... boring? An anomalocaris Pokémon was an absolutely fantastic idea, but seeing it evolve into yet another bipedal dinosaur-ish thing (in the same generation as Aggron, no less) is just a little underwhelming in my opinion. But don't listen to me, I always pick the Root Fossil anyway.
  • Coalossal - Rolycoly is cute, Carkol is cool, and yet Coalossal is just kinda there. I would actually like it a lot more if its Gigantamax form was its regular design — it looks great that way — but as it stands, I think the line could have just ended at Carkol (and it would have even made a nice counterpart line to Varoom/Revavroom that way). *shrugs*
  • Magcargo - To preface this, I totally love both Slugma and Magcargo... and I even really like defensive Pokemon in general. But... gah, those stats! Even after being buffed in Gen 7, they're still abysmal for a fully-evolved Pokémon. For that reason, I just can't bring myself to like it as much as I should. It deserves so much better!!!
  • Kingambit - A lot of people seem to adore this one so maybe I'm playing with fire here, but this was absolutely the biggest letdown for me in recent memory. WHY did they have to do this to my poor beloved Bisharp?! T_T I was so excited (though perhaps a bit nervous) to hear we'd be getting an evolution for one of my favorite Pokémon, and then so unbelievably disappointed when I saw it for the first time. I truly understand what they were aiming for with Kingambit conceptually — but I think it just feels like a big, clunky, overdesigned mess, tacked on to an otherwise perfect evolutionary line that didn't really need it to begin with. Just... aaaggghhh.
 
Finizen and Karrablast had disappoting evolutions to me.

Finizen was going to be my water Pokémon until I saw how it evolved and how it didn’t even look different. It only got another form and has higher base states. I decided to switch it out for Veluza.

Karrablast was also one. I thought the Karrablast would evolve into something powerful by level up but it’s an obscure trade evolution. And I think the evolution was going to be cool but I don’t think it’s what I thought it would be. (This was in Pokémon SWSH)
 
Greavard's evolution disappointed me a bit in the fact that it (along with the other Paldea dogs) remained single type. Also, Houndstone is VERY close in design to Greavard, except the texture and look becomes MUCH more bone-like which personally freaks me out. I don't think it's a bad design at all, I just think for me, it is very unsettling.
 
Fenekin. It would easily be my favorite Kalos starter if it didn't become a furry. Even if it just became Delphox but quadrepedal, I would love it.
 
Fenekin. It would easily be my favorite Kalos starter if it didn't become a furry. Even if it just became Delphox but quadrepedal, I would love it.
Certainly not as bad as Incineroar though? I don't particularly like Braixen's "furry" aesthetic either, but Incineroar just comes out of nowhere, no returns no exchanges all regrets.
 
Certainly not as bad as Incineroar though? I don't particularly like Braixen's "furry" aesthetic either, but Incineroar just comes out of nowhere, no returns no exchanges all regrets.
You are completely right, I just like fennekin a lot more than litten and torracat. Also, from a competitive standpoint, inciniroar is REALLY good. Delphox isnt.
 
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Hmm.

All the final forms of the Unova and Kalos starters except Greninja are just...meh to me. I've never been a fan of any of the Unova's final evolutions. Serperior is underpowered unless it has the move Coil, Emboar is yet another Fire/Fighting starter no one asked for, and Samurott shouldn't be mono water. I don't like Chesnaught, nor Delphox, and the only thing that I think is cool is how they pull off their supposed RPG classes they're meant to represent. But, really, maybe Delphox would have been cooler if it were part Fairy. I don't know.

And, Dunsparce into Dudunsparce. I get it's a joke Pokemon, I do. But after twenty years, it evolves and it just gets longer! And that's it! Boring.

& Pawmi into Pawmo and then Pawmot. Where do I begin with this one? It just evolves and it stood up and then when it turns into Pawmot nothing...really changes? It just gets...bigger. That's it. To say I'm underwhelmed would be quite the understatement. I am just disappointed in this one. It's great we got an Electric/Fighting type, but they could have done more with that concept in its design. But, they did not.

Also Wiglett into Wugtrio. I was really hoping they wouldn't do the same thing they did with Diglett and Dugtrio, but they did anyway.
 
Dudunsparce. After decades of people wanting Dunsparce to get an evo I was expecting something much more dynamic, not just Dunsparce with extra segments. :/
 
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