CH173 (787), That’s A Lot Of New Pokemon (6)

The next entry ended up being on another to me yet unknown Pokemon species. Entry number 296 was on Orthworm, a pure steel type that looked like a very large worm with a metallic body. There were two pictures of Orthworm; The first one showed the the worm in its normal state, and if not for the second one, I would have thought that the blue plates that Orthworm seemed to have on four of its six segments, which made up all of them aside from the head and final/tail-end segment, were windows.

No idea why, maybe it was because of Cyclizar, but Orthworm gave me the idea that it could have been used as a train or something like that and that the blue plates on its body were windows to allow passengers to look outside. The second picture revealed that those plates actually hid tendrils that ended in ovals that looked like simple fists, which threw my train idea out the window.

Still, I could understand why those tendrils were usually hidden. Not only did Orthworm look a bit weird like that, but more importantly, I was sure that they would have been a hindrance that would have slowed it down while traveling/digging underground. Either way, I decided to move on to the next entry after making that conclusion. Seeing the Sableye picture, I began to skip ahead again. I did so until entry 308, which had me stop skipping when I saw a picture of a so far unknown species.

Glimmet looked kinda weird. It looked like some kind of flower, though it seemed to be one made of crystals/rocks with a metal head, which explained why it was listed as a rock/poison type. Furthermore, the picture showed that it could levitate, which would have been more surprising if I had not seen the entry of Varoom not long ago. The next entry was on Glimmora, Glimmet's evolution, and to me, Glimmora looked even weirder than its prevolution, or at least the Glimmora in the first picture did. That picture showed that Glimmora's blue petals had grown to encompass its whole body below its head making it look like some giant floating blue pill or pillow.

The second picture showed it with its petals spread out, which actually made Glammora look like a proper good-looking flower; One that could float through the sky at that. That said flower was poisonous and made of minerals since Glammora was a rock/poison type as well was another matter altogether. Nonetheless, Glammora's second picture had me think that it could be popular with more than just rock or poison specialists since it looked good enough to attract all kinds of people instead of just the specialists if for nothing else but its looks. Learning whether it had other attractive points would have to wait until I did a proper dive into the Paldean Pokemon Index and the other papers/documents on the Paldean Pokemon.

Anyway, after that observation I resumed going through the index. When I saw that the entry was on Rotom, I prepared to start skipping again, but I had to stop instantly when the ensuing entry showed a picture of another Paldean native, though, after my knee-jerk reaction/stop, I noticed that I actually knew about said newbie, just like I had known about Bramblin and Brambleghast. Entry number 311 was on Greavard the Ghost Doggo, and after looking at the following entry, I confirmed that it was on Houndstone. I naturally compared the Pokemon in the pictures with the image I had generated inside my mind based on the description of Golurk and Co.

They looked shaggier than I thought but I was close enough that I could have matched them easily enough even without their names being printed at the top of the entry. Greavard was kind of cute and definitely less creepy than I had imagined, while Houndstone looked creepy which was fair I guess since it was a ghost type. Still, it didn't take more than a few moments before I began to go through the index again. I skipped entry after entry, each one on a Pokemon I already knew, until more than 30 entries later in Entry 346, I finally saw a new Paldean species.

I had to honestly say that despite all the weird and/or ugly-looking Pokemon so far, Flamigo had to be the most underwhelming new Pokemon species I had seen until now. It literally looked like a flamingo from Earth; The only difference was that for some reason the Flamigo in the picture had what looked like a knot at the base of its neck. Still, the question of whether that interfered with its breathing or not aside, it did not change that I felt it was somewhat boring looking, though others would most likely disagree with me. I mean, there had been Pokemon that resembled their animal counterparts pretty closely, but I felt that even among them Flamigo was at the top.

The most interesting part of Flamigo, at least in my opinion, was that it was listed as a flying/fighting type, which I would have never expected. This made it the second common species to have that typing, with Hawlucha obviously being the first. Nonetheless, after one last look at Flamigo's picture, I moved on again. After seeing the picture of Dratini, and admiring it for a moment, I once more began to skip ahead. This time it took only half as long until I saw an unknown Pokemon. Entry 361 revealed a Pokemon that was as cute as it was surprising.

Cetoddle looked like a little round humanoid land whale. It had large eyes, a large curved mouth, long fin-like forelimbs, a large tail, two stubby legs, and a single horn on its forehead. Cetoddle was nearly entirely white, if not for the pink accents around its eyes, on its hands, below its feet, and on its tail. The Cetoddle in the picture had its mouth open, showing a single rounded tooth on its lower jaw. It was listed as a pure ice type, and after giving its picture a last look, I eagerly moved on to the next entry since I was very keen on seeing what Cetoddle's evolution looked like.

Well, I was simultaneously disappointed and impressed. On one hand, Cetitan had nothing with the word cute; On the other hand, it looked imposing and impressive. Cetitan was pretty much a white whale with strong arms and legs as well as a bunch of horns. It had 3 horns around the center of its mouth area pointing forward and two on the top of its head pointing up. It also kept the pure ice typing, which the next entry/Pokemon continued, though that ice-type chain broke when Rufflet followed after Avalugg.

I naturally proceeded to skip ahead, when I had to unexpectedly stop in shock after passing over the Bisharp entry. Entry 369 revealed a picture showcasing a Pokemon that undoubtedly had to be an evolution of none other than Bisharp. There had been a few surprising new evolutions so far, but I would not have thought that the Bisharp in Paldea had managed to find a way to evolve as well. The evolution was apparently called Kingambit and it kind of gave me a shogun-like impression. Compared to Bisharp, its silver hands/gloves had turned golden, and it was rocking a giant killer mustache. Quite literally in fact considering that it looked like the mustache seemed to be made of two black katana blades with red edges.

Kingambit also had a giant golden blade planted/sticking out from its helmet, and it also wore a long black cloak, which Kingambit seemed to be able to manipulate since the one in the picture actually managed to manipulate its cloak into a seat that it sat on. More impressive than that was the fact that the Kingambit in the picture was actually floating while sitting on its cloak seat. Being able to float appeared to be something many Pladean Pokemon seemed to share. Regardless, all things considered, Kingambit was pretty imposing even if the blades on its head and mustache were in my opinion a bit too much.

The entry that followed was on Deino, making it the 7th pseudo-legendary/apex line that seemed to call Paldea its home. It was the 8th apex line if we counted Slaking whose total racial value surpassed even that of the "regular" apex species. Anyway, the entry after Hydreigon revealed yet another new Pokemon species. Veluza was listed as a water/psychic Pokemon, and I was not sure what to think after seeing the two pictures.

The first one showed a rather long as well as sharp-looking grey fish with pink fins. Meanwhile, the second one for some reason showed the same fish without any meat on its body below the neck. This picture revealed that those pink fins were connected to Veluza's spine, though that did not change the fact that the Veluza in the second picture made for a very bizarre picture. I was not sure if the loss of meat was on purpose or if it was something it threw off as a sacrifice as some lizards did with their tail, but I frankly could not imagine using/raising a Pokemon like that on my team, though I could see how fish farms would love them if it the first idea was correct.

Anyway, I moved on to the next entry which happened to be on a Pladean as well, though it was clear that Dondozo and Veluza were unrelated since they could not have looked any more different. Dodonzo looked like a giant blue catfish-like Pokemon. Well, mostly blue since its belly, lips, whiskers, the ends of its fins, and its fan-like tail were white. It also happened to have white frills on its head that formed a circle that resembled a headband, though it kind of looked like it had been embedded in Dondozo's head.

All in all, I was interested in Dondozo, and I once again lamented that we didn't have them around our part of the sea even though it was clear that Dondozo could be found in the ocean. Well, at least the parts around Paldea. Still, crying about it would not change the problem, so I just moved on after confirming that Dodonzo was a pure water type, and as luck would have it Entry 375 showcased yet another Paldean native, though I was not sure what to think when I saw the Pokemon in question. There were three pictures, showing pretty much the same questionable-looking little fish with minimal differences.

The little fish in the first picture was orange and had its body curled, the second one was red and had its body relaxed letting it droop, and the final one was yellow and was as straight as an arrow. The part that made the whole picture questionable was that all three little fish seemed to lay on what looked like sushi rice, making the pictures look like they were taken from the menu of a sushi restaurant that offered life fish sushi. Knowing that was not possible since no Pokedex would use pictures like that I really inspected the pictures which had me notice that the rice bed-looking things actually seemed to be connected to Tatsugiri's body, making them a part of its body.

That not only had me feel a bit relieved but suspect that those things were either beardlike growth or some kind of throat sac, though that knowledge did not change that the pictures were weird looking. The only thing more surprising than Tatsugiri's dubious looks was the fact that that little fish had actually been listed as a dragon/water type. My doubts aside, that made Tatsugiri the most pathetic-looking dragon species in existence, at least in my opinion; It even beat out the Applin line, which I would, until now, have never thought possible.

The only thing I could hope was that Tatsugiri had an evolution that redeemed it, so holding onto that hope, I moved on to the next entry. I ended up being disappointed since the next Pokemon looked nothing like Tatsugiri and its three-color versions. Yet, that disappointment immediately flew out of the window since the Pokmeon that followed after Tatsugiri looked like a little dino cub, or dragon cub if the listed typing was to be believed. That in itself was another surprise since Frigibax was actually listed as a dragon/ice type which made it the first common dragon species with that combination.

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