Worst starter final evolution

[TapLover]

The idea was inspired by another popular poll thread, talking about middle evolution designs. I see some of the finals look ugly, right?

 

[Tactician Karina]

For me it's Charizard, Infernape, and Incineroar. For the first two I just never really liked their whole line, and the latter while I like Litten and Torracat is just meh, Incineroar's design I never got around to liking at all sadly.

 

[MegaPod]

I was disappointed with Incineroar because I’d rather Litten not have grown up to be humanoid, and, uh, launch fire out of its belly button.

 

[Deleted member 85628]

Delphox kind of looks like it was made by and for furries.

Swampert has an intimidating feel to it.

Typhlosion, I'm not sure why.

Blaziken if only because I barely see it as a bird anymore.

 

[Vulpix037]

Meganium. It's design is just plain boring, and it's just generally "meh".

Empoleon. It's face looks really ugly, and I don't see the reason why it has trident shaped "horns" that don't even look like horns, which is a shame, as Piplup isn't so bad.

 

[colours]

I'm not really a huge fan of Chesnaught. :<

 

[Aulos]

There are some pretty bad, overdesigned ones, but Incineroar really takes the cake.

 

[Isaac the Investigator]

I don't like Decidueye, only starter I had to bench because it couldn't pull its weight in the late game. Still not a big fan of Charizard, but its Mega Evolutions have grown on me after playing OU for so long.

 

[RK9]

Meganium and Delphox. No discussion about that.

Typhlosion is really boring without his flaming neck but he passes.

The others are pretty cool to amazing though.

 

[Rainami]

charizard, blaziken, empoleon, and meganium are my least favorites. They all look so dumb, and in meganium's case, boring.

 

[Stratelier]

There are many starter final evolutions I don't like the design of, but most of them are from families I don't even like to begin with, which mitigates my frustration over the final form.

Incineroar, though....

Spoiler

Compare anyone who hated Dragonite's design for contrasting with Dratini and Dragonair before it.

 

[Chidamari Sketch]

Never really had a soft spot for Charizard in general; its a bland, plain-ass notdragon with nothing going for it in its design other than a recurring tail motif, and the disproportionate, almost outright religious amount of popularity it has within the fanbase just makes me even more sick of it.

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

Incineroar. Yes, I do think Litten and Torracat are cute, but I'm not as much angry about them becoming Incineroar as everyone else. Rather, I just think it looks hideously cartoony, and represents to me a shift in Pokemon's art style that has kind of been happening since Gen 4 and has only intensified in Gen 7. Just these whacky proportions and over-the-top designs as opposed to the simpler and more naturalistic aesthetic of previous generations.

I'll also admit to some petty resentment about it getting into Smash Ultimate, when there are plenty of more popular options in Gen 7 or even previous generations. (Sceptile, Decidueye... I wanted Zoroark or Lycanroc Midnight myself, even if that was unlikely.)

 

[Camille]

Incineroar, I really don't like its hands and its fire around navel, and its colour scheme is pretty bad, too.
I also dislike Meganuim, Blaziken and Delphox quite a lot.

 

[PinkIceFox]

Blastoise. All the others feel like they build off their prior evolutions/inspirations in some way. Blastoise throws away the adorable fluffy ears and tail of Wartortle and shoved pipes in his shell.

Also slowly raises up fists at the thought of Incineroar hate fite me. (9o-o)9

 

[Gengarzilla]

[rant]

The Incineroar hate is so disappointing and highlights what's perhaps my biggest problem with Pokémon's fanbase; we care waaaay too much about the designs of these creatures for a game series where said design is practically irrelevant. I'm actually glad it's on two feet because that's what makes this Pokémon's charismatic and showboaty heel persona possible, aspects that I think we should be valuing far more than what the big guy looks like. Be honest with me, a quadruped Incineroar would be a much less memorable and interesting Pokémon overall anyway.

[/rant]

My pick here is Meganium, and having to type that out makes me very sad because I have grown to genuinely like this Pokémon and its pre-evolutions throughout several Pokémon Mystery Dungeon playthroughs, most notably being my choice for player character in Super. From a battling viewpoint (which is, you know, an actual longstanding focal point of the games), the disheartening truth is that it's the bottom of the 21. Heck, it's bad enough that Smogon even ranked it in the dismal depths of Untiered; which is an utterly atrocious fate for one of the fully evolved starters to bear.

Charizard and Greninja are dodging a bullet here as the topic isn't about the least favourite starter final evolution. I dislike both of these for their almost religious fandoms and that ridiculously in-your-face level of focus they got in the anime's XYZ arc, but as a battler, I'd have to be incredibly thick to say that they're the worst.

 

[techitisJ]

Pretty easily Emboar. I didn't even play Pokemon at the time but having 3 fire/fighting starters in a row is just a bad decision. Heck, even 2 in a row is a bad decision. Infernape doesn't get any hate from me though because it's actually cool looking.

Some follow ups, which aren't too close at all, more just like I have minor nuisances with them are Blaziken, Charizard, Delphox, and Incineroar. Blaziken because he got a mega Pokemon before his buddies did, Charizard because he got 2 mega forms, which is still downright unfair to the Blastoise and Venusaur fans, Delphox because it still stands on 2 legs and frankly looks pretty stupid, and Incineroar because after the amazing Torracat who stood on 4 legs, they just had to go and put this fire cat on 2 legs. Like, I do like Incineroar's design and concept, but there's still a part of me that wishes we got a fire/dark cat standing on 4 legs.

I also just realized that I only seem to have problems with fire type starters, and yet my first and favorite final evolution is Typhlosion.

 

[Enzap]

I'm going to have to go with the design that I think is the laziest and most uninspired, Infernape. It's not really a bad design, but it's little more than a monkey with fire for hair. Kung Fu monkeys are a pretty commom trope in cartoons and viddo games. I'm fine with Pokemon leaning into those at times, but they didn't do anything really unique with this one.

I might be more willing to forgive it if it wasn't sandwiched between two other Fire/Fighting types that I consider better designed.

I don't like Decidueye, only starter I had to bench because it couldn't pull its weight in the late game. Still not a big fan of Charizard, but its Mega Evolutions have grown on me after playing OU for so long.

I adore Decidueye's design and theme, it's easily in my top 3 starters, but its stats made it the most disappointing starter for me. It does no single thing well enough to use it over other Pokemon which is really frustrating because it's such a cool one.

[rant]

The Incineroar hate is so disappointing and highlights what's perhaps my biggest problem with Pokémon's fanbase; we care waaaay too much about the designs of these creatures for a game series where said design is practically irrelevant. I'm actually glad it's on two feet because that's what makes this Pokémon's charismatic and showboaty heel persona possible, aspects that I think we should be valuing far more than what the big guy looks like. Be honest with me, a quadruped Incineroar would be a much less memorable and interesting Pokémon overall anyway.

[/rant]

I don't think it's unreasonable to care about the designs just as much or more than their use in battle. If visual design didn't matter then they would put no effort into any of them and the entire game would basically just be numbers vs numbers.

The designs are what draw people into the games and give the Pokemon personalities that players get attached to, like you said about Incineroar's heel fighter design. It's ok to like or dislike any design for whatever reason, it's even ok to not care about visuals and play purely for the strategy, but we should still acknowledge the careful work that went into each Pokemon'd look.

 

[Truth Inside]

Incineroar even if it's not as ugly as Shitten or even worse, Torracrap.

 

[Stratelier]

I don't think it's unreasonable to care about the designs just as much or more than their use in battle ... the designs are what draw people into the games and give the Pokemon personalities that players get attached to.

Well said. Where designs are concerned, I like to compare Torracat/Incineroar to Dragonite/Dragonair.