Volcanion



Our very, very final sixth-generation pokemon feels like an odd one to end on. Volcanion isn't especially epic, symbolic, cute or strange or frightening as far as legendaries go. I'd have expected a design like this to come a bit before the likes of Xerneas and Yvetal, if it even had to be a legendary at all. Throw in a prevolution, and Volcanion would have fit in just fine among such regular monsters as Avalugg.

What Volcanion does have going for it is its type combination, fire/water, representing volcanic steam. Unfortunately, it's a combination that feels kind of wasted on a nondescript, quadrupedal beast. I know it's basically an elemental steam beast, and that's interesting, but I'd have expected fire/water to represent something even weirder than that. Some of my own ideas for the combo have included a kappa that specializes in sulfuric springs, a dragon-like multi-headed hydrothermal tube worm and a mechanical-looking "steam powered" diving beetle. Every time a wild new typing is shunted off to a legendary, it feels like they really just didn't have a better idea at the time.

On its own, I guess Volcanion is still reasonably fun. There's plenty of merit to generic, elemental monster-things even if they aren't all that groundbreaking, but I still feel like its placement in the pokedex is arbitrary. It seems a shame to send off an entire generation on such a mediocre note, but that's what we've done more often than not. Legendary pokemon are just sort of there, you know?


Just sort of there.

FIRST     PREV    ARCHIVE    NEXT    LATEST

WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS SITE!