Saw a video about the Spaceworld 1997 beta Pokémon and I cannot stop thinking about the mysterious boat Pokémon (Sugimori-style art by Rachel Briggs aka raciebeeps):
Okay sure I know there's speculation that this was an unused design for Lugia, but the design is a little... stiff? static? for it to be a box art legendary.
So indulge me, please, and let's pretend this is a single stage Pokémon the player is gifted or forced to catch (similar to the red Gyarados) in order to navigate the Whirl Islands and arrive at Cianwood City, making it thematically comparable to Ash's Lapras. (I'll leave you to debate whether Ash's Lapras would have been known beforehand to the folks at Game Freak).
May I suggest the name Karvice? From "Karvi" a kind of viking longship and "ice". For typing, I'm thinking it could be Water/Ice, Normal/Ice, or just plain Ice.
I recognize that the Dragon/Ice or Ice/Dragon typings are there for the taking, but I feel like Dragon type was (and still is to a degree) rare, and while I think there's an argument to be made for adding another dragon type for Gen II (the only new dragon was Kingdra, a Water/Dragon type), I just don't see it for this Pokémon. When I see this Pokémon I see ice!
Thoughts?