Has your favorite Pokémon changed over time?

[Okido]

Not really, if I'm being honest. A lot of my favorite Pokemon are ones that I've loved for a really long time (Pikachu, Baltoy, Turtwig, Metagross, Skitty, and Eevee + its evolutions have always been staples, ever since I first got into the franchise). My favorite Pokemon haven't really changed much, since I don't dislike any of the ones I used to like. I've just found new favorites to add to the ever-growing list lol. Some have phased in and out a bit over the years but primarily they're all pretty much the same.

 

[silurica]

I used to really like Articuno back in the original generation. I mean, it's a pretty ice bird with graceful long tail! That hit my aesthetic buttons perfectly. But as time passed, it gradually slid down since I didn't find much else to like about it beyond its aesthetic. I still decently like it and my mind flies to it (among others) when asked what's my favorite Pokemon, but yeah.

Nowadays I've settled with saying I like most Pokemon without a clear favorite, though I prefer a couple somewhat more strongly depending on my mood.

 

[Isaac the Investigator]

Honchkrow has been my favorite for many years, though I believe there was a time when I once considered Flygon my favorite and before that, even Meowth. Honchkrow has been basically locked in place now though, and although Oricorio did come close to dethroning it, it didn't quite happen.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Like several people who have have commented here, Pikachu was my absolute favorite Pokemon when I was super little because I found it adorable and also because it took me a while to actually play the games, meaning I was going solely by the anime during those days. As I got older, though, my feelings on Pikachu went on something of a wild rollercoaster ride, something that of course got started with me finally playing the games and getting to personally experience the sheer amounts of liberties that the anime takes with its portrayal of Pikachu in battle, leaving me sorely disappointed in the thing. It didn't help that thanks to me actually using other Pokemon in gameplay, a huge chunk of them ended up overshadowing Pikachu due to me having better experiences with them, which of course included other Electric-types (mainly Jolteon, who I felt was everything Pikachu wished it could be in in-game combat, leading to the spiky yellow Eeveelution decisively and literally stealing Pikachu's thunder in my heart in one fell swoop). Another strike against Pikachu (though this is really only something I noticed in hindsight) was its design getting gradually slimmed down, which in my not-so-humble opinion came at the cost of most of Pikachu's cuteness (chubby Pikachu is best Pikachu for sure), which in turn had the effect of me starting to like Raichu's design a lot more, as not only did it keep Pikachu's delightful chubbiness, but I grew quite fond of its color scheme, and we all know how poorly Raichu tends to be treated in the franchise, so that just led to me to start disliking the yellow rodent altogether. My disdain for Pikachu reached a boling point in Generation 5, since it really stuck out to me that the Generation was supposed to be a soft-reboot yet Pikachu was still being heavily marketed, perhaps even more so than in past Generations, despite not even being present in the Unova Pokedex. This ridiculous overmarketing even extended to the anime itself, as Ash's Pikachu had a very bad habit of stealing spotlight away from Ash's Unova Pokemon during that era, resulting in a lot of them having sparse screentime and poor winrates, something that didn't sit well with me at all. In short, over the course of five Generations, Pikachu went from my absolute favorite Pokemon to one I straight up despised, and no other Pokemon in the franchise has ever gone through anything similar with me: every other Pokemon that I count as a favorite has always been so since the day I saw it, and the worst that's happened is that old favorites have to compete with new favorites every time another Generation comes out, and even if a new favorite does end up overshadowing an old one, I by no means end up disliking the old one or even liking it less. I eventually softened up to Pikachu again as I matured, and in the present day my feelings towards it are neutral-positive, but it's safe to say that the mouse's days as a favorite of mine are long gone and highly unlikely to ever return.

 

[Max1996]

For a long time, Typhlosion, Sceptile, Luxray, Lucario and Hydreigon have been among my most liked. Now, though, Greninja is #1 for me, with those others a very close second.

 

[MegaPod]

Yeah, my top favorite Pokémon has changed around a bit. Back when I first discovered Pokémon as a little kid through the Gen 3 anime, a few Pokémon stuck out to me as the ones I loved the most. I got super attached to Snorunt/Glalie while watching Ash’s grow and battle. Snorunt is just so adorable, and seeing it evolve was bittersweet for young me at first because Ash’s Snorunt would never be a Snorunt again, but at the same time Glalie was so unique and cool in its own way! In addition to that, I found my love of the OG pupa Pokémon, Metapod, from seeing it in the episode Caterpie’s Big Dilemma. It’s such a fun and cartoony representation of a chrysalis, I couldn’t not love it! Those three were probably among my very top favorites for awhile, although I suppose I never paid much mind into officially designating a favorite back then.
The first Pokémon games I played were the Gen 4 games, and one Pokémon I remember jumping out at me in particular was Magnezone for its unique expansion upon Magneton’s already cool design. Yes, I love inanimate object Pokémon a lot, and this would come into play many years later down the line. Along came the Gen V games, which introduced a lot of new Pokémon for me to love, including Whirlipede, which I fell in love with for combining the ideas of pupation, wheels, and curled-up millipedes, all in one kickass design. There was also Litwick/Lampent/Chandelure, an amazingly cool family of ghostly light fixtures that I really adore! However, I’m still not 100% sure I had an absolute favorite picked at this point.
Then, I had a hiatus from Pokémon for awhile in my teen years, when my parents almost had me foolishly convinced I should outgrow the franchise. Hah, like that would ever happen! During this hiatus was when Gen 6 was rolling out, and when I finally said “screw it” and perused Bulbapedia again to learn about all of the Pokémon species I had missed, a new favorite was born. My first look at Klefki was love at first sight! Such an adorable little key ring with a fun type combination. I never did play the Gen 6 games, but I joined my first Pokémon forum back then and ranted about how much I loved Klefki there a lot, lol. Klefki absolutely held the position of my favorite Pokémon for awhile, of this I’m sure.
Then, Gen 7 was announced. I followed the trailers eagerly, and one design that really caught my eye was Charjabug. It once again combined my love of pupa and object Pokémon, and was quite possibly my very favorite for a short window of time until the entire Sun and Moon Pokédex leaked. That’s when I found Dhelmise.
No question about it, Dhelmise was another design I instantly fell in love with, and remains my very favorite Pokémon to this day! Believe it or not, a ghostly anchor was something I came up with for a story one time as a kid in elementary school, and I always thought an anchor would make for a cool Pokémon. And Dhelmise made that a reality for me! The fact that it’s actually a clump of ghostly seaweed possessing the anchor was a clever design choice for Dhelmise, as well as the mimicry aspect going on that makes Dhelmise resemble a spooky pirate face. It’s just so darn cool in every way! Since then, some other designs that were revealed came pretty close to being my favorite, too, Stakataka and Galarian Weezing being perhaps the fiercest contenders. But Dhelmise continues to be #1 in my book!
And there you have it, a history of my favorite Pokémon.

 

[CuboneKing]

I don’t think there’ll ever be a time in my life where it won’t be Cubone lmao

Lucario, Infernape, Cyndaquil, Azelf, Sneasel, and Regigigas have all been pretty consistently up there over the years. Newer favorites include Klefki, Zoroark, Obstagoon, Mega Mawile, and of course Alolan Marowak. Pogo gave me a renewed appreciation for some older mons like Flareon and Rhydon but also made me hate a former favorite, Absol, after he popped out of way too many 12k eggs. I used to think Greninja was horrifying to look at but now it’s one of my favorite starters. I main Sylveon and Blastoise in unite so I’ll put them in the mix too. Also a big fan of Quagsire, Bisharp, Staraptor, Togekiss, Espeon, Genesect, Dialga, Heracross, and I could 100% go on forever but I’ll stop there lmaooo

 

[R1ke]

Sceptile was my favourite for a long time; just loved its design, attributes, would always use it in playthroughs, it looked sick in the anime and was even fun to use competitively. It still is in my top 5 nowadays, it's just been dethroned. For a brief period, Hydreigon had overtaken it, probs cause I liked its typing more (dragon and dark are my 2 favourite types) but it kept changing.

Then I saw Incineroar. It wasn't my favourite, I remember thinking how cool it looked in the leaks. When it was revealed to be official, I was one of the few people that actually preferred its bipedal/wrestler design. Idk I just think it looked more interesting, cause we already had a quadruped fire/dark type in Houndoom. Incineroar wasn't in my favourites, but I liked it enough to use it over Rowlet in my playthroughs. I enjoyed SM a lot, and it was fun having it as my ace. It was great in the anime too. But it was really smash ultimate that catapulted him into my favourites. It was just a blast using him, he has such a dumb moveset and mechanics that made for hype matches. It was so satisfying fighting as him. Since I didn't have a switch myself, I'd only get to use him when I'd be with my friends so that probs helped. He's been my favourite ever since and I don't see that changing for a while.

 

[toastghost]

yeah, went from raichu to porygon to mimikyu to munchlax