Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Flabebe Family
669: Flabebe
While this review series is most definitely not new to Fairy types, this is the generation to introduce them. The first new type in about a decade and a half! And like giving Magnemite its Steel type, so too did they go back and reassign a bunch of Pokemon to have a Fairy type. But even past all those Type reassignments, I would still count the Flabebe family as the proper introductory Pokemon of the Fairy types. Much in the same way Abra is to Psychic and Machop is to Fighting. And with it being a Pokemon that shows up pretty much at the start of the game, Gamefreak more or less intended them to be the face of the Fairy type.
And Flabebe does it well enough. When you think “Fairy,” you think tiny creatures, often associated with nature. Flabebe is pretty much the textbook definition of Fairy. But enough fun is done with it, like it being in a tie with Joltik for smallest Pokemon. It even comes with a little flower-crown. But... it's so small, it's probably more of a pollen crown.
Personal Score: 6.5/10
A solid “just plain cute” rating.
670: Floette
So... not gonna lie, I'm not at all sure what's got me infatuated so much with Floette in particular. It's what you'd expect of a Flabebe evolution. Just bigger, and now able to properly carry the flower it holds. But the little features, as minor as they are, just add up to something I really like in particular? Add to that the fun that it carries its flower around like a parasol. That's just adorable. And its whole face is just weird but still recognizable enough to hit a real cuteness nerve. Flaaffy just about did the same thing, even.
Personal Score: 8.5/10
I'm not sure what's got me so in love with it, but there you go! But there’s something else...
This line has a bit of plot-relevance, more than most non-Legendary Pokemon get. This Floette here in particular is actually AZ's Floette. Not only using the line's shiny colors (though curiously, apparently not counting as “shiny”) but also holding a special flower that the game's world-ending weapon was based on. It's a Floette that died in a war predating the events of the game by over 3000 years, and the aforementioned AZ sought to bring it back to life by taking out the life of many Pokemon around it. Upset that so many had to die to bring it back to life, Floette went into hiding from AZ, who wanders the world in search of Floette. Also, the ultimate weapon's effects somehow made both of them immortal. Okay then.
They have a heart-felt, if a little bit flat reunion in the game's very final moments. Apparently returning to AZ because he... learned to appreciate Pokemon life again or something?
It's an oddly dark story for Pokemon, but they must've at least planned this Floette to be obtainable somehow, likely through a post-release event like they like to have these days. It's programmed into the game as a usable Pokemon. While it can't evolve into Florges, its stats match Florges, and it even has a signature move called Light of Ruin. But to this day, AZ's Floette remains unobtainable. And given we're currently in the limbo between Sun and Moon and whatever games are coming up in Gen 8, FAR moved on from Gen 6, we actually may not get to legally obtain this Floette. There's also suspicions that Gen 6 got cut short to make room for Sun and Moon being Pokemon's 20th anniversary game. Thus, a theoretical “Pokemon Z” never came to be. The theory appearing strong with how ham-fisted Zygarde was included into Sun and Moon. You'd think even if Pokemon Z was a thing that got scrapped that they would've released Eternal Flower Floette sometime within Gen 7's life cycle since the Zygarde alternate forms did, but no dice there either. Of course, they could still surprise us since Ultra Sun and Moon are still the Current Games. But since we’re in the middle of waiting on both Let’s Go and Gen 8 I doubt we’ll see anything of it. Again, they could surprise us. I’d just suspect it’s an asset that was left in the game because they wanted to do something with it but just. Never did, sadly.
So this Floette is something of an unsolved mystery. To a point where some are convinced there's a super-secret way to obtain it in either X and Y or ORAS that nobody's been able to find yet.
Mysterious.
671: Florges
Something rather peculiar happens in Florges though. Previously, while the Pokemon is obviously carrying around flowers, you could make the argument that they aren't Fairy/Grass because their physical bodies have nothing to do with plants. Florges though, it's... more or less a Grass type that isn't called one. It's still just mono-Fairy. The only reason I can really think of being that it's because they don't want a type's “icon” Pokemon to have any other typing to it. Alakazam is still mono-Psychic and Machamp is still Mono-Fighting, so Florges has to be Mono-Fairy.
Nitpicking aside, Florges here is a nice design, with a big bouquet of flowers around its neck like a big mane. But it's also got an odd little body that's more shaped like it's a weird plant-mermaid. And that's a fun idea, if nothing else.
They also come in slight color variations. Nothing different between them other than getting to pick your favorite color.
I think you could’ve gotten away with still selling the same visual as Floette, where it carries a parasol made of flowers. And maybe its dress-like body having flowers on it for decoration. Giving it an overall fair and elaborately dressed aristocratic or victorian woman kinda look. That’d even go along with Kalos’s French/European theme. I would’ve liked it way more as that than the slightly basic Florges we wound up getting.
Personal Score: 8/10
Still a solid design, but now I’m feeling that missed-opportunity stomach bug about it, haha.
Overall:
A cute line, with a little peculiar entry that may be a permanent mark in Pokemon history simply for how weird its un-inclusion is.
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