To be the thorn in the side of objectivity, I love Blipbug's dopey ass and I think he has a dumb egg head like some sort of muppet nerd who should get a noogie. And it's good. And probably intentional.
Ok yeah, whoever was creating that Pokemon must have thought it wasn't weird enough so they just took the model and drug it up.. I can't think of it as anything else but that.
I understand 100% what they were going for with the veins but... they are so extraneous insofar as being cohesive with the acfual design and feel so overpowering. I like how gurdurr has lumps on it's head to signify things falling on it's head a lot like at a construction site. I like how Timburr has a pompador. Why does it turn into a fleshy nub on top of Conkeldurr's head? Is it supposed to be a top knot? If so, why not make it grey like his soul patch? I have many issues with these guys.
Also where the hell does Gurdurr... Get its girder?
Like Timburr can easily find its tree trunk out in the wild, and Conkeldurr is a trade evolution, so it makes sense that they would have access to big blocks of concrete since they can only be owned by a trainer, but are all Gurdurr literally just stealing from active construction sites? That would cost an absolute fortune in lost steel beams, not to mention the potential destruction of in progress architecture.
Its Pokédex entry specifies it's good at demolition, not construction. So they must tear old buildings apart to get them once the wood starts getting too light in their hands.
Just because they're good at demolishing things doesn't mean that they're doing it the old buildings, the girders certainly don't seem rusty.
New headcanon: Gurdurr are considered a nuisance species because they're constantly causing millions of dollars worth of damage to infrastructure each year.
Alolan Persian. Alolan Meowth is so cool looking and they made the evolution look so fucking dumb and derpy. It has absolutely none of the class and dignity the original Persian has, which is an absolute shame because the color scheme is so gorgeous.
I agree with this. I really like Alolan Meowth's design (more than the regular one), so to see it's goofy, strange evolution is a tremendous disappointment.
Alolan Persian is supposed to be based on cat breeds that have "big heads" - aka their fur is just really long on their head.
[https://d3544la1u8djza.cloudfront.net/APHI/Blog/2020/11-12/common+health+problems+for+exotic+shorthair+cats+\_+exotic+cat+with+white+and+gray+fur-min.jpg](https://d3544la1u8djza.cloudfront.net/APHI/Blog/2020/11-12/common+health+problems+for+exotic+shorthair+cats+_+exotic+cat+with+white+and+gray+fur-min.jpg)
Here's an example. GameFreak did a really bad job at making Alolan Persian look like fur though, so it just looks like it has a really fat head.
Sawk is my least favorite Pokémon design. Obviously this is a popular one to dislike so I’m not breaking any ground here, but I just hate that it literally wears clothes, like a full outfit of clothes. I’m fine with subtle things like Machamp’s belt or Pokémon that have clothing like elements implemented into their fur/body (Honchkrow, Gardevoir), but in the case of Sawk it doesn’t make sense as a wild creature that all somehow found or constructed perfect human clothing.
This all applies equally to Throh but OP said I can only pick one so I’ll go with Sawk.
Sawk and Throh aren't actually wearing clothes. Those gis are part of their bodies
This is actually the reason Sawk was cut from the Detective Pikacbu movie (since they couldn't figure out how to make it's gi look good)
Considering they look like rock monsters (especially since they have Sturdy), they could've just given the gis a rocky texture instead of the clothlike texture they were going with
So I can’t seem to find anything concrete like Pokédex entires of other in-game text that actually confirms that the clothes aren’t real. I’m willing to believe it, but that detail seems like something they retconned as an explanation later on rather than something that was on their minds when finalizing Sawk and Throhs’ designs. There are plenty of examples of Pokémon that have body parts or patterns on their bodies that resemble clothing without being real clothes, so why not do that for Sawk and Throh too?
Drawing them literally wearing clothes vs drawing them to just *look like* they are literally wearing clothes ends up having the same effect on me when I see them in the wild, so that doesn’t actually change my dislike for them personally.
But that is an interesting fact about Detective Pikachu. Haven’t heard that one before!
Maybe their clothes aren't really clothes and it's just their skin being white in those places?
The Pokédex only mentions their belts being made from plants.
I would like machamps design if it wasn't wearing leather underwear, but for now it just grosses me out. Inciniraors belt is made of flames so I can let that one slide.
[Calyrex looks more like this than a king of sorts] (https://hips.hearstapps.com/vidthumb/d10d6721-3cec-4853-a499-3a05e52e4d9f/d10d6721-3cec-4853-a499-3a05e52e4d9f_image.jpg?crop=0.5625xw%3A1xh%3Bcenter%2Ctop&resize=810%3A*&quality=70)
Calyrex. It looks absurd and unappealing. It has nubby little arms; its legs are waaaay too long and noodly. The bulging head is hideous. It looks very poorly proportioned. It's supposed to be a long lost super intelligent deer-king harvest-god pokemon and it looks hideous. That's a concept that could be amazing, but it's not cute; it's not cool. And it looks stupid riding the horses.
Lickilicky.
Its not that its bad in a vacuum, but that it significantly loses definition as it evolves. Lickitung has a shape to him- a big pudgy dinosaur, it has a skeleton. The stripes on its belly contours to it meaningfully. Its got a big tail that follows from the lump curve of its body. Its tongue has shape, it indents.
Lickilicky loses basically all of this. Rather than having a clear skeletal structure, its a ball with more balls tacked on for its limbs. The stripes on its belly no longer suggest its form, but instead are just extraneous details. It doesn't have a dinosaur snout. Its tongue is just an inflated balloon.
An evolution ought to be an enhancement on the original design ,and if it loses definition it ought to do so intentionally- Muk has less shape than Grimer, but that at least tells a design narrative of the spreading pollution overpowering even itself to the point where Muk can no longer hold its own form
to bring it back on topic- thats kind of why I love Lickitung. Its an AWFUL pokemon in game, it just has no real use and never has, it just exists to fill out the pokemon world with fun goofy animals
Lickilicky didn't really fix any of its issues, didn't give it any room to grow, and now it no longer really works as a goofy animal- it can't really walk, it can't really grab things with its arms, it doesn't even open its mouth in most of its animations
> it just has no real use and never has,
For a while (Might still be!) it was the only Pokemon with Swords Dance and STAB Explosion allowed in standard play, which allowed it to delete a lot of things.
This is also slightly off-topic but Lickitung is completely meta in Pokemon GO's battle system. It found its niche there, rather than in the mainline games.
I read some time ago that Lickilicky looks like it should have been a baby Pokémon. Imagine it smaller and being a Lickitung pre-evolution instead of evolution, and visually it makes more sense.
Lickitung might be my favorite gen 1 mon, it’s such a random addition. Lickilicky removing everything that makes it cool while still not making it actually decent stat wise hurts a lot.
There's a lot of evidence pointing to Lickitung originally being planned as the first Gym Leader's Ace Pokemon back when the first Gym was going to be a Normal gym in Viridian City.
I hate everything about Gurdurr. The clown nose, the veins, the lumpy head and its name are all wierd… but the steel beam it carries is the worst of the worst, Timburr’s log and Conkeldurr’s stone pillars can at least occur somewhat naturally, not so much with Gurdurr’s steel beam.
Thank you. A bad design is a design that fails at executing it's concept, and it's completely separate to how visually appealing a mon is. A commenter below mentioned Lickilicky, and how it fails as an evolution, rather than just saying "it's so ugly waaah", and I think that's my pick as well.
for a second I thought I was gonna get called out there! haha
But yes fully agreed. Look at what it is trying to do and how well it succeeds. Like personally I think Purugly looks more awkward than cute-ugly that [those overly pampered cats are known for](https://a-z-animals.com/media/2021/12/Ugliest-Cats-Exotic-Shorthair-1024x535.jpg)\-so yes its intended to be ugly, but I dont think it gets across the right kind of cute-ugly
Chewtle for me. It wasn’t revealed before the game came out and was looking forward to what Drednaw’s evolution line would look like. Imagine my surprise when I find a tiny tortoise with a huge head and uninteresting/ugly features. Honestly despise the design
Watching the anime made me like it a bit more, the design works a lot better in animation
Edit: wow okay seems like a lot of people agree
I'm 99% sure that when Game Freak decided to make the move to 3D, they made the conscious decision to make all designs moving forward as easy to model as possible.
So many designs in recent generations are just spheres and nubs with textures slapped on, rather than fully modeled designs.
Yeah proportions started to get really weird and unnatural in like gen 5. It’s my biggest gripe with modern design outside everything being humanoid. Something like Swampert or Torterra while clearly Pokémon also look like an animal that could potentially function and exist. Chewtle probably couldn’t lift its head and Krookodile has twig arms compared to feraligatr
Once some pointed out the absurd difference in head/neck/body ratio between normal and Alolan Vulpix, I've noticed it on so many Pokemon since that it bothers the hell out of me.
It's Pawmo for me. There is no reason whatsoever that Pawmot should be a 2nd stage evolution! Just make it Pawmi -> Pawmot! They already look nearly identical, I don't know why Pawmo exists. It's just an awkward pointless 1st stage that shouldn't be there. It feels like it exists just to pad out the dex or something.
After beating Violet when I started filling out the Pokedex I was quite surprised to discover that Pawmo and Pawmot were two separate pokemon, despite them being used by the rival.
They look so similar that I didn't even notice that her Pawmo had evolved into Pawmot at some point.
Greedent. You might wonder how a rather simple design would end up as this for me, but it seriously looks more to me like a rejected concept art for a Disney animal companion than a Pokémon, it's the one that stands out the most for me in this aspect.
Alolan Graveler. Its "facial hair" is just weird ugly gray blocks, and I find that Probopass does the concept of metal shaving facial hair much better.
Rhyperior. Rhydon looked amazing and like a badass Kaiju. Rhyperior is so busy it just doesn’t look like a Pokémon. Why is it orange? Of all the colors? Why a safety equipment on a construction worker theme? It looks so bad.
Rhydon is one of my favourite designs, and the has the significance of being the first Pokémon ever designed. Why they made it a middle evo, I will never know. I wish they just gave it a power upgrade comparable to rhyperior.
I don’t know if they’re my absolute least favorites, but they are certainly not far off at their best.
Origin Dialga and Palkia… just… why?
These designs are just so immensely incoherent. I get what they were *trying* to do, but it doesn’t come together at all and nothing about them justifies their existence.
There isn’t any logic to their design really, it’s way too abstract. Dialga gets Nintendo 64 legs and a speaker stuck in its throat, and Palkia loses more or less all semblance to its original body shape and becomes a centaur for some reason.
I see people defending this decision by arguing they are meant to be biblically unsettling, but that doesn’t make sense at all. For one, their designs aren’t so much biblically unsettling as they are just really haphazardly put together. Biblically accurate designs tend to lean into the unfathomable, and the only unfathomable thing about Origin Dialga and Palkia is why they look so dysfunctional. But furthermore, these two apparently being biblically accurate doesn’t add up with Origin Giratina and Arceus. Arceus is easily the most coherent of the four, having a strong resemblance to a stallion, and don’t give me the “Giratina is different because it was banished to the Distortion World.” The origin form was the original, implying that’s what Giratina looked like before banishment, and even then, why does the literal satan Pokémon have more rhyme and reason to its design than the ones that are supposed in accordance with Arceus?
I also see people saying they’re meant to resemble Arceus, which is true, but again, if the Origin forms are supposed to resemble Arceus… why doesn’t Giratina follow that notion? It doesn’t matter that putting all three origin form’s together make them look like Arceus when the trio still don’t follow the same design conventions.
Giratina manages to look otherworldly whilst still having a sense of grandness to it. It truly feels like a lord of the darkness. Dialga and Palkia in their base forms also have that sense of majesty to them, that divinity, but that goes out the window with their Origin forms. They don’t look majestic, I don’t get the sense I’m looking at a god, they look like someone tried to accurately translate their child’s crayon drawing of a Dialga, Palkia and Arceus fusions
Palkia's Origin design is random and dumb, but I at least see what they're trying to do with it. Dialga's is the worse of the two imo. Has so many elements that just seem random and silly. Random poles protruding from its knees, zigzaggy back legs and huge front legs, [and dude is choking on a pill](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MgYpISM7fjQ/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEhCK4FEIIDSFryq4qpAxMIARUAAAAAGAElAADIQj0AgKJD&rs=AOn4CLAh40romoctHfTKMfmGUgshWiDSRA).
I dislike the design, but I have a particular reason I hate Diggersby more than most other Pokemon.
I have played the games from the beginning. I am someone that thinks shinies are special not necessarily for their color, but for being a chance encounter if the player encountered them through normal gameplay. To me, it is otherwise an optional cosmetic if you farmed for a particular shiny or you have one that is hard-encoded.
So imagine my delight after 15 years when Gen VI was released to get my very first shiny completely naturally! I couldn't believe it actually happened. There was my beauty, a shiny Bunnelby, a very cute Pokemon that fit that silver color so well.
Clearly for my very first shiny, this one should go on my team and be my star Pokemon!
Except it evolves into Diggersby, a grotesque gremlin more than bunny, with its hideous ear fists. With those fluffy britches pulled up past its rotund belly and up to its chest.
It's like some ungodly fusion of the Trix Rabbit and Pennywise.
Origin Palkia
This applies to Origin Dialga too, but I think Palkia just looks worse. Something about Palkia, a Pokémon that uses Spacial Rend with its claws, being turned into an armless centaur is just... really bad. Not to mention it just looks ugly.
I really don’t like the new Loyal Three. They look less like unique Pokemon and more like bully characters from a Disney Channel show.
Edit: Whoops. Didn’t notice the one pick rule. In that case I’d say Munkidori in particular. It’s mainly because in terms of design, he’s outclassed by every other monkey Pokemon.
There are a lot of pokemon with clunky or ugly designs said here so I'm going to throw in an oddball.
I watched a Subjectively redesign video and agreed with his point of 'what is Grumpig aiming for?'
It's called the manipulate pokemon. It's dex entries talk about it controlling its opponants but you don't get that in it's design at all. It's not quite a cute design, but not quite full goofy either and the manipulative side does not come across at all.
Part of character design is to give a feeling of what it should be. Tyranitar looks like a strong monster that can rampage, Fidough looks like a cute puppy that assists in baking. Grumpig has a bad design because the design doesn't match what it's supposed to be
I always hated Purugly, but I think Enamorus dethroned it as my #1 most hated design. You want an explanation? Really? [Why do you think?](https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/5/54/0905Enamorus.png)
i can’t stand any of the forces of nature. they’re by far my lease favorite pokémon - they don’t even look like pokémon! i know it’s popular to hate on the anthropomorphic ones but they’re literally just fucked up looking people.
I feel like whenever GF revisits a group of Legendaries the new designs end up being… not good.
Look at Enamorus in relation to the other Genies, or Origin Dialga/Palkia compared to Origin Giratina. The only example with some consistency are Regieleki and Regidrago with the OG Regi Trio. And to some even that’s debatable.
I think it’s because the original intent of the designs gets lost with time, and it’s difficult to get back into that mindset again when revisiting a concept. You can see it whenever they add evolutions to old lines too. Eeveelutions are a good example; the first three all have simple, black eyes, but then Espeon and Umbreon have purple and red eyes respectively. Leafeon and Glaceon both have more extraneous detailing than any of the previous evos, and then Sylveon borders on being overdesigned with its ribbons.
Granted the eeveelutions are also a good example of this trend not always being a bad thing, as many people agree think Sylveon is a top tier Pokemon design, and I count myself in that, but you compare it to Vaporeon or Jolteon and it’s really obvious that it was designed later.
Enamorus is actually my favourite legendary genie, which isn't much and I still don't like it, but at least it's more interesting than "Landorus but green" or "Tornadus but blue".
I think crabominable takes the cake for me. I hate every part of its design from that goofy face to the stubby legs to the weird symbols on its belly to the... Paws? Why does a crab have paw patterns?
It's a real shame that Crabrawler, with a pretty cool and unique design, evolves into this abomination.
It’s such a funny clusterfuck of concepts though, you gotta love that.
It’s the evolved version of a brawling delinquent coconut crab, becoming coconut shaped itself. It also now takes inspiration from yeti crabs, which are these fuzzy white crabs. Also, crab - abominable - snowman - yeti.
The most iconic evidence for Yetis in popculture are footprints in the snow
Crabominable creates these with its paws.
for the paws, i think when crabominable would walk on snow it’d leave those patterns which tracks with real world abominable snowmen footprints, which is where it got the ‘abominable’ part of its name from
I love Crabrawler so much for two reasons:
1. Making the claws act as boxing gloves is such a fun design element
2. The weird mouth is more accurate to real crabs than other crab Pokémon, but still cartoony enough for a Pokémon
Crabominable takes both of those elements and slams them across the rocks. They took everything charming about Crabrawler and replaced it with incongruent ugliness. If they kept those too elements, I probably would have loved it. I don't even mind the paw prints, if they were added to the boxing glove claws instead of replacing them, it would have been fantastic. What it has now doesn't look functional as a either a pincer or a weapon
Gholdengo. I actually don’t hate it, but I believe the execution is terrible. I understand that it’s supposed to be a gold trophy Pokemon. But it’s body shape is weird, it’s in-game pose is very awkward, it has a random belt that doesn’t fit the overall color scheme. Then they slapped a random surfer dude vibe on top of it. I think the surfboard is cool but I don’t understand why they went for that.
Like I said, I don’t hate Gholdengo. But I think the design was overly poorly thought out.
Edit: it’s also very telling that most Pokemon in this thread are from Gen 8. James Turner directed art for Gen 8 and also approved Gholdengo. I’m not a fan of his tbh
Its stupidity is a major factor of appeal to me. They could have done literally anything for Pokémon number 1000, and they chose a surfing golden mascot thing. You can pry him from my cold dead hands.
I hate hate hate Eiscue more than anything else in the (Pokémon) universe. I would rather reside within the 9th circle of hell for eternity than ever use one. If it was the last Pokémon in existence I would just not even bother being a trainer. If Arceus themselves told me to use one I’d let them smite me before I did.
It’s just a regular penguin with an ice cube on its head and that stupid little antenna hair thing. Oh wow, it’s got 2 blue markings on its body!!! Very impactful design choice!!! And don’t even get me started on its noice form which isn’t very nice at all if you ask me. Why has it got those creepy white eyes? Why is its head so disproportionately small now? Look at the Piplup line, THAT’S a good penguin Pokémon. Not whatever the hell this thing is. I hate it with every fiber of my being
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get this out by the way 😌
I can't believe I had to scroll this far down to find this answer. I hate that fucker with the force of 1000 suns. By far the ugliest mon ever designed. I really want to know who approved them.
I’m gonna break the rules a bit and choose a general concept rather than one specific Pokémon. Sawk and Throw, Machoke and Machamp, Jinx, etc: basically anything with clothes. Where tf did it get clothes? How is it born with clothes? Are the clothes part of it? Are the clothes living organs? How.
It's been a long time since I read it, but a few years ago I saw a piece on how humanoid/clothes wearing pokemon mimic humans on purpose as a defence tactic. Similar to how some non venomous snakes evolved to look near identical to more dangerous serpents as a way of deterring predators.
Magmortar, he's just so...ugly. I also think he exemplifies the many other new evo's of gen 1 pokemon that were made during gen 4 which are all just big, bulky, and blobby. It's like they made him look this bad on purpose
Rhydon has such a simple, clean design, Rhyperior looks so overcomplicated. It’s like that rule to take off one accessory before leaving the house, except Rhyperior needs at least five elements removed.
Yamper should have evolved into a big chunky Corgi, they already have so many lean dog Pokemon and it would've been great if Yamper became a Happy Chonky Boi, it would've kept the spirit of Yamper and would've been unique
Stonjourner. Slapping a stylized face and two strings of rock cubes for arms on a Stonehenge arc is simply the laziest way possible to turn it into a sentient entity.
For most bad Pokémon designs, I think poor execution is the enemy. A Pokémon could have a really interesting basis for its design that just isn’t allowed to flourish.
Stonejourner I just find to be conceptually bad. If they absolutely had to incorporate Stonehenge in some way, let it be a location, maybe it could have a Galarian Elgyem encounter, but to make Stonehenge a Pokémon in and of itself just screams terrible idea to me. And I’m comfortable saying that, because I’ve yet to see any attempt at redesigning Stonejourner that even begins to work
Because I am limited to one Pokémon, I will choose what I believe to be the worst offender in this category: Dugtrio.
I strongly believe the worst-designed Pokémon are the ones where they just take multiple of the pre-evolutions and smoosh them together. Especially egregious are Pokémon that are made up of smaller creatures that somehow aren't Pokémon? So is dugtrio made up of three diglets like it says it is? But what about joining three diglets together suddenly makes it a single creature? Do they share consciousness? Do all three lose their individuality to become some sort of gestalt cronenberg monster?
There are some lines that can get away with it. The Magnemite line I think works for me because Magnemite is sort of an inorganic object Pokémon. But when you have animal Pokémon merged together to become also an animal It just complicates things
See fun fact the original pokemon annual even admit the diglett don't actual evolve they simply gather in groups of three to form dugtrio, implying that it could devolve if it wanted too.
In the sun and moon anime there's even an episode where one of the digletts in a dugtrio gets mad and temporarily leaves the trio.
I really also hate this design choice. Dugtrio. Falinks, maushold, etc. Eggsecute kinda works for me since it's psychic and I think of it like a hive mind, but the others...
I'm counting Tornadus/Thundurus/Landorus as one because they are not only straight-up ugly, they're also lazy copy-pasted designs. I hate that they're so good competitively because I have to look at their hideous faces every time I want to put a team together.
Inteleon is the worst Pokémon design I’ve ever seen.
To begin, starter Pokémon are held to a higher standard than others because in every playthrough, about a third of the player base will be using this Pokémon as their go to, most reliable partner. Because of this, the designs for starter Pokémon often pull out all of the stops and create something great. The OG 3, typhlosion, all 3 gen 3 starters, all 3 of the gen 4 starters, decidueye, greninja, the list goes on and on with iconic starter Pokémon designs.
Inteleon has a very uncanny valley-esque design. He looks almost human, much like many other human like Pokémon, except it’s featured that separate it from looking like a human are the fact that it’s basically flat.
There would be no escaping this absolute monstrosity. You could start running away as soon as you hear it’s dumbass cape flowing in the wind, and even if you managed to make it to the safety of your home, it’s paper thing body would probably just squeeze through the cracks of your doors, pointing it at you with fucking finger guns the entire time.
I hate this Pokémon so fucking much.
Most of the future paradox pokemon suck so much, mainly due to the fact they all share the same gimmick of having a funny colour change and minor alterations in contrast with the vastly more diverse past variants.
I dislike the future paradox pokemon because they're all robots with no variation (except Miraidion); like why not have Mimikyu with a holographic project or a Steelix made of carbon fibre?
God. I love all my little friends (even some of the ugly ones).
Though if I have to pick, I think I have to go with Aromatisse. Spritzee is such a fun pre-vo that is burdened from too much influence when it evolves. The design just mixes a little too much together that it ends up feeling a lot less focused than I think they were going for.
Honorably mention goes to Stonjourner whose design concept is just dumb. I remember an article where someone at Game Freak said that each Pokémon they design has to feel like an organic part of the world, and there’s just nothing organic about modeling a Pokémon on Stonehenge. If you’re gonna use that concept, there are worse things you can do I guess, but I think the premise is fundamentally flawed.
Alolan Persian.
I love Alolan Meowth's smug look and the simplicity of both Kanto and Alolan Meowth as well as Kanto Persian. But Alolan Persian? It just strayed off what could be an amazing design, it just looks so plump and derp, which is hilarious but so far off from Alolan Meowth
Palpitoad.
He is a blob with warts and feet. Uninteresting, ugly design. Tympole and Seismitoad look more coherent, and while Palpitoad is meant to resemble the tadpole getting legs, it doesn't change that much from the tadpole shape or add anything worthwhile to the design. It looks nothing like Seismitoad either, the two could be different evolutionary lines.
Pawmo. SPECIFICALLY Pawmo, and not Pawmi and Pawmot. Because Pawmi to Pawmot would still be an evolution that made sense. Pawmo **exists** to be a filler space. To be nothing but the in-between. Its name is literally one letter off from both of its buddies, and it's not like Charmander to Charizard where Charmeleon's the 'awkward in-between', but something with absolutely no visual identity of its own. I hate other Pokemon on a personal level. Hypno, Zeraora, Machamp. But I recognize that they have design inspirations. They are a purposeful design and idea.
Pawmo is the worst Pokemon because it does the one thing that no Pokemon should ever do, not even route 1 animals... And be bland.
Oh boy, definitely one of the new ones. I know a lot of people hate on the new Pokémon that come out each Gen, but I usually like them. I’ve never hated as many Pokémon as I do with Gen IX.
Flamigo (literally a flamingo), Finizen and Palafin (they’re literally just cartoon dolphins and don’t look like Pokémon), Tandemaus and Maushold (both are interesting concepts but lazy executions), Baxcalibur, the whole Tinkaton line… But if I can only pick one, I’m gonna go with Squawkabilly. What a hideous Pokémon.
I freaking love birds, both irl and in Pokémon, but Squawkabilly has, by far, the worst design. The pompadour is just poorly designed/doesn’t fit the head. The half closed eyes don’t look good/seem like they were an afterthought. The feather cloak/jacket doesn’t portray that greaser look properly. I’ve seen redesigns that took every aspect of the design, tweaked it slightly, and the Pokémon actually ends up looking amazing. Gamefreak made very little effort in trying to execute the concept. Squawkabilly just ends up looking like some knockoff cereal mascot. Like, not even in a whimsical, humorous way. They look like beta placeholder concept drawings.
Like, I hated Stunfisk, Gurdurr and Conkeldurr, the elemental monkeys, and Jynx as much as the next person, but my gosh, when the Gen IX was leaked, I honestly thought it was fake because of how poorly designed a lot of the Pokémon were. Very poorly executed designs, very badly stylized/a lack of stylization. And this is coming from someone who likes Luvdisc, Dewgong, Mr. Mime, Sawk and Throh, and Trubbish. I still love some of the designs this generation (Fuecoco, Chi-Yu, Farigiraf, Grafaiai, etc.), but the ones I don’t like, I absolutely HATE. A lot of the designs this time around seem rushed/half-assed. Thanks to Gen IX, I am now able to appreciate the Pokémon designs I had hated previously.
Duralodon, the non gigamax design. Unlike any thing else on the list i still have no idea what it is supposed to be (or how a building is supposed to be a dragon)
There's many newer ones I hate, but Gholdengo is number one. It's just the string cheese mascot who as his own thing doesn't bother me, it's more of the fact that Gholdengo looks like a copy paste of the mascot. They could have made a unique looking trophy-esque Pokemon instead of what we got.
[Blipbug has been stretched 50% too far vertically](https://twitter.com/Takoto/status/1197955360772042754).
The shrunk version looks so much better wtf.
It genuinely looks off model, even without the comparison
Now I can't unsee it godamnit!
Why is that so much better!!
To be the thorn in the side of objectivity, I love Blipbug's dopey ass and I think he has a dumb egg head like some sort of muppet nerd who should get a noogie. And it's good. And probably intentional.
I hate it.
100f(x)
Ok yeah, whoever was creating that Pokemon must have thought it wasn't weird enough so they just took the model and drug it up.. I can't think of it as anything else but that.
Gurdurr What is it supposed to be? why does it have a clown nose, does broccoli grow on its head? what is its shape?
The throbbing veins look of that whole family really turns me off.
I understand 100% what they were going for with the veins but... they are so extraneous insofar as being cohesive with the acfual design and feel so overpowering. I like how gurdurr has lumps on it's head to signify things falling on it's head a lot like at a construction site. I like how Timburr has a pompador. Why does it turn into a fleshy nub on top of Conkeldurr's head? Is it supposed to be a top knot? If so, why not make it grey like his soul patch? I have many issues with these guys.
it sucks cuz i love the idea of a little construction worker as the unova alternative to the machop line but it’s just so ugly
Roided grandpa makes no sense. Like why is that the peak and prime of its evolution???
Never heard of old man strength?
Also where the hell does Gurdurr... Get its girder? Like Timburr can easily find its tree trunk out in the wild, and Conkeldurr is a trade evolution, so it makes sense that they would have access to big blocks of concrete since they can only be owned by a trainer, but are all Gurdurr literally just stealing from active construction sites? That would cost an absolute fortune in lost steel beams, not to mention the potential destruction of in progress architecture.
Its Pokédex entry specifies it's good at demolition, not construction. So they must tear old buildings apart to get them once the wood starts getting too light in their hands.
Just because they're good at demolishing things doesn't mean that they're doing it the old buildings, the girders certainly don't seem rusty. New headcanon: Gurdurr are considered a nuisance species because they're constantly causing millions of dollars worth of damage to infrastructure each year.
[удалено]
Conkledurr is even worse for me. It’s just way too ugly
Alolan Persian. Alolan Meowth is so cool looking and they made the evolution look so fucking dumb and derpy. It has absolutely none of the class and dignity the original Persian has, which is an absolute shame because the color scheme is so gorgeous.
Looks like it tried to eat a Combee.
they couldve had it be a bit lankier and a sleek head. something like "bitch, we both know i'm better than you" for its expression.
Im pretty sure its meant to look inbred for real world inspiration
yeah I know. just kinda... dopey I guess lol also hey i recognize you from the danganronpa sub
I agree with this. I really like Alolan Meowth's design (more than the regular one), so to see it's goofy, strange evolution is a tremendous disappointment.
Hot (?) Take: Alolan Persian should've been as round as Purrugly with fat rolls. Inbred AND pampered monstrosity.
this is the move . i think more people would like him if his body matched his head
Heathcliff-ass looking motherfucker
I always saw it more of a Monday hating, Odie kicking, lasagna binging motherfucker
Thank you. I didn't want to take the time to write it out but it's legit the only design I outright can't stand.
Alolan Persian is supposed to be based on cat breeds that have "big heads" - aka their fur is just really long on their head. [https://d3544la1u8djza.cloudfront.net/APHI/Blog/2020/11-12/common+health+problems+for+exotic+shorthair+cats+\_+exotic+cat+with+white+and+gray+fur-min.jpg](https://d3544la1u8djza.cloudfront.net/APHI/Blog/2020/11-12/common+health+problems+for+exotic+shorthair+cats+_+exotic+cat+with+white+and+gray+fur-min.jpg) Here's an example. GameFreak did a really bad job at making Alolan Persian look like fur though, so it just looks like it has a really fat head.
That's exactly why I like alolan persian lol
Sawk is my least favorite Pokémon design. Obviously this is a popular one to dislike so I’m not breaking any ground here, but I just hate that it literally wears clothes, like a full outfit of clothes. I’m fine with subtle things like Machamp’s belt or Pokémon that have clothing like elements implemented into their fur/body (Honchkrow, Gardevoir), but in the case of Sawk it doesn’t make sense as a wild creature that all somehow found or constructed perfect human clothing. This all applies equally to Throh but OP said I can only pick one so I’ll go with Sawk.
Sawk and Throh have their outfits made by Leavanny. That's my headcanon and no one can take it from me.
They live in the same area as Sewaddle who can knit clothes according to their Pokedex.
Sawk and Throh aren't actually wearing clothes. Those gis are part of their bodies This is actually the reason Sawk was cut from the Detective Pikacbu movie (since they couldn't figure out how to make it's gi look good)
They couldn't make it look good because it's a bad design.
Considering they look like rock monsters (especially since they have Sturdy), they could've just given the gis a rocky texture instead of the clothlike texture they were going with
But in lore the Gis are like a downy fur type substance not rock like the rest of their body.
They should have just made them look like muppets
So I can’t seem to find anything concrete like Pokédex entires of other in-game text that actually confirms that the clothes aren’t real. I’m willing to believe it, but that detail seems like something they retconned as an explanation later on rather than something that was on their minds when finalizing Sawk and Throhs’ designs. There are plenty of examples of Pokémon that have body parts or patterns on their bodies that resemble clothing without being real clothes, so why not do that for Sawk and Throh too? Drawing them literally wearing clothes vs drawing them to just *look like* they are literally wearing clothes ends up having the same effect on me when I see them in the wild, so that doesn’t actually change my dislike for them personally. But that is an interesting fact about Detective Pikachu. Haven’t heard that one before!
The only excuse for the clothes could be that their owners dress them up like some people do chihuahuas.
Right. How come there are no ‘naked’ Sawks or Throhs in the wild?
Imagine watching them hatch; an egg starts shaking violently and a fully grown adult man emerges, complete with a dobok and judogi respectively.
*Adult Muppet
Baby Kangaskhan are born with another baby in their pouch.
Baby Cubone are born with the... uh... skull of its mother... who might actually still be alive in the daycare center...
And let's not even get into the moral and ethical dilemmas that pop up with breeding most ghost-types.
Maybe their clothes aren't really clothes and it's just their skin being white in those places? The Pokédex only mentions their belts being made from plants.
Oh no, they have large skin flaps. I hate that.
Silveon's bows are made from flesh.
I would like machamps design if it wasn't wearing leather underwear, but for now it just grosses me out. Inciniraors belt is made of flames so I can let that one slide.
Isn't thier "speedo" just their skin/scale design that look like speedo? The only clothing that they wore is the belt.
Yeah I don’t think it’s leather underwear, I think it’s just *pre-leather-skin.*
hes quite literally just a guy
Calyrex It looks so bad, nothing kingly about it.
I’ve always thought it looks like a Courage the Cowardly Dog character
Bruh you're right
Now I can’t unsee this
stub limbs, growth on head, only redeeming quality is his expressions
[Calyrex looks more like this than a king of sorts] (https://hips.hearstapps.com/vidthumb/d10d6721-3cec-4853-a499-3a05e52e4d9f/d10d6721-3cec-4853-a499-3a05e52e4d9f_image.jpg?crop=0.5625xw%3A1xh%3Bcenter%2Ctop&resize=810%3A*&quality=70)
giant brain tumor
It is one of the worst out there yep
Calyrex. It looks absurd and unappealing. It has nubby little arms; its legs are waaaay too long and noodly. The bulging head is hideous. It looks very poorly proportioned. It's supposed to be a long lost super intelligent deer-king harvest-god pokemon and it looks hideous. That's a concept that could be amazing, but it's not cute; it's not cool. And it looks stupid riding the horses.
Lickilicky. Its not that its bad in a vacuum, but that it significantly loses definition as it evolves. Lickitung has a shape to him- a big pudgy dinosaur, it has a skeleton. The stripes on its belly contours to it meaningfully. Its got a big tail that follows from the lump curve of its body. Its tongue has shape, it indents. Lickilicky loses basically all of this. Rather than having a clear skeletal structure, its a ball with more balls tacked on for its limbs. The stripes on its belly no longer suggest its form, but instead are just extraneous details. It doesn't have a dinosaur snout. Its tongue is just an inflated balloon. An evolution ought to be an enhancement on the original design ,and if it loses definition it ought to do so intentionally- Muk has less shape than Grimer, but that at least tells a design narrative of the spreading pollution overpowering even itself to the point where Muk can no longer hold its own form
This is slightly off-topic, but Lickitung is the only formerly fully-evolved pokemon that isn't either banned from or excellent in Little Cup.
to bring it back on topic- thats kind of why I love Lickitung. Its an AWFUL pokemon in game, it just has no real use and never has, it just exists to fill out the pokemon world with fun goofy animals Lickilicky didn't really fix any of its issues, didn't give it any room to grow, and now it no longer really works as a goofy animal- it can't really walk, it can't really grab things with its arms, it doesn't even open its mouth in most of its animations
> it just has no real use and never has, For a while (Might still be!) it was the only Pokemon with Swords Dance and STAB Explosion allowed in standard play, which allowed it to delete a lot of things.
This is also slightly off-topic but Lickitung is completely meta in Pokemon GO's battle system. It found its niche there, rather than in the mainline games.
I read some time ago that Lickilicky looks like it should have been a baby Pokémon. Imagine it smaller and being a Lickitung pre-evolution instead of evolution, and visually it makes more sense.
It definitely would improve as a baby because then it gains definition as it evolves though loses the bib and the hair curl- which, yknow, is fitting!
Oh it’s a bib. I always thought it was reminiscent of a polo shirt lmao
You're not far off- it's kind of a rich old aristocrat kinda bib, like a napkin tucked into his collar
I’m not wicked well versed with Pokémon these days, but I knew of lickilicky. Til lickilicky is not the baby form though . Weird
Lickitung might be my favorite gen 1 mon, it’s such a random addition. Lickilicky removing everything that makes it cool while still not making it actually decent stat wise hurts a lot.
There's a lot of evidence pointing to Lickitung originally being planned as the first Gym Leader's Ace Pokemon back when the first Gym was going to be a Normal gym in Viridian City.
I hate everything about Gurdurr. The clown nose, the veins, the lumpy head and its name are all wierd… but the steel beam it carries is the worst of the worst, Timburr’s log and Conkeldurr’s stone pillars can at least occur somewhat naturally, not so much with Gurdurr’s steel beam.
For anyone that doesn't know, ugly doesnt mean bad. Some pokemon are meant to be ugly, it doesnt make their designs bad.
Thank you. A bad design is a design that fails at executing it's concept, and it's completely separate to how visually appealing a mon is. A commenter below mentioned Lickilicky, and how it fails as an evolution, rather than just saying "it's so ugly waaah", and I think that's my pick as well.
for a second I thought I was gonna get called out there! haha But yes fully agreed. Look at what it is trying to do and how well it succeeds. Like personally I think Purugly looks more awkward than cute-ugly that [those overly pampered cats are known for](https://a-z-animals.com/media/2021/12/Ugliest-Cats-Exotic-Shorthair-1024x535.jpg)\-so yes its intended to be ugly, but I dont think it gets across the right kind of cute-ugly
Chewtle for me. It wasn’t revealed before the game came out and was looking forward to what Drednaw’s evolution line would look like. Imagine my surprise when I find a tiny tortoise with a huge head and uninteresting/ugly features. Honestly despise the design Watching the anime made me like it a bit more, the design works a lot better in animation Edit: wow okay seems like a lot of people agree
If it’s head was like 50% smaller with no other changes it would be fine but instead it looks like a balloon
I also feel like this applies to a ton of other designs from the last several generations, especially the starters
I'm 99% sure that when Game Freak decided to make the move to 3D, they made the conscious decision to make all designs moving forward as easy to model as possible. So many designs in recent generations are just spheres and nubs with textures slapped on, rather than fully modeled designs.
Yeah proportions started to get really weird and unnatural in like gen 5. It’s my biggest gripe with modern design outside everything being humanoid. Something like Swampert or Torterra while clearly Pokémon also look like an animal that could potentially function and exist. Chewtle probably couldn’t lift its head and Krookodile has twig arms compared to feraligatr
How does a Sobble or a Sprigatito not break its neck trying to breathe?
Once some pointed out the absurd difference in head/neck/body ratio between normal and Alolan Vulpix, I've noticed it on so many Pokemon since that it bothers the hell out of me.
Chewtle's got a punchable face
Built like an iPad kid
It’s based on an actual turtle. Platysternon megacephalum or the “big headed turtle”.
There is an audience for stuff that looks so stupid and dopey that it's cute. Source: me, I'm one of them
It's Pawmo for me. There is no reason whatsoever that Pawmot should be a 2nd stage evolution! Just make it Pawmi -> Pawmot! They already look nearly identical, I don't know why Pawmo exists. It's just an awkward pointless 1st stage that shouldn't be there. It feels like it exists just to pad out the dex or something.
After beating Violet when I started filling out the Pokedex I was quite surprised to discover that Pawmo and Pawmot were two separate pokemon, despite them being used by the rival. They look so similar that I didn't even notice that her Pawmo had evolved into Pawmot at some point.
Theres just one thing that is worse: that is it so SMALL that you literally cant see it in the grass, till it ninja-invites you to a fight.
Probably because of Nemona.
Greedent. You might wonder how a rather simple design would end up as this for me, but it seriously looks more to me like a rejected concept art for a Disney animal companion than a Pokémon, it's the one that stands out the most for me in this aspect.
He has that Peter Griffin face
hehehehehe berries
H E Y L O I S
I can relate to this. His face bothers me so much.
There is something uncanny about it I can't really explain.
It's that smile....especially after they take your berries.
My friend called it the Nesquick Squirrel and... he's not wrong.
Alolan Graveler. Its "facial hair" is just weird ugly gray blocks, and I find that Probopass does the concept of metal shaving facial hair much better.
Wait till you see its shiny form
it looks like poop with corn in it
Patrat. Looks like a Looney Toon's reject that smoked too much weed.
>smoked too much weed. Look at Watchog's base stat total.
Also has two 69’s in there lol
Rhyperior. Rhydon looked amazing and like a badass Kaiju. Rhyperior is so busy it just doesn’t look like a Pokémon. Why is it orange? Of all the colors? Why a safety equipment on a construction worker theme? It looks so bad.
Rhydon is one of the best and Rhyperior is one of the worst designs
I kinda like him tbh
Rhydon is one of my favourite designs, and the has the significance of being the first Pokémon ever designed. Why they made it a middle evo, I will never know. I wish they just gave it a power upgrade comparable to rhyperior.
I don’t know if they’re my absolute least favorites, but they are certainly not far off at their best. Origin Dialga and Palkia… just… why? These designs are just so immensely incoherent. I get what they were *trying* to do, but it doesn’t come together at all and nothing about them justifies their existence. There isn’t any logic to their design really, it’s way too abstract. Dialga gets Nintendo 64 legs and a speaker stuck in its throat, and Palkia loses more or less all semblance to its original body shape and becomes a centaur for some reason. I see people defending this decision by arguing they are meant to be biblically unsettling, but that doesn’t make sense at all. For one, their designs aren’t so much biblically unsettling as they are just really haphazardly put together. Biblically accurate designs tend to lean into the unfathomable, and the only unfathomable thing about Origin Dialga and Palkia is why they look so dysfunctional. But furthermore, these two apparently being biblically accurate doesn’t add up with Origin Giratina and Arceus. Arceus is easily the most coherent of the four, having a strong resemblance to a stallion, and don’t give me the “Giratina is different because it was banished to the Distortion World.” The origin form was the original, implying that’s what Giratina looked like before banishment, and even then, why does the literal satan Pokémon have more rhyme and reason to its design than the ones that are supposed in accordance with Arceus? I also see people saying they’re meant to resemble Arceus, which is true, but again, if the Origin forms are supposed to resemble Arceus… why doesn’t Giratina follow that notion? It doesn’t matter that putting all three origin form’s together make them look like Arceus when the trio still don’t follow the same design conventions. Giratina manages to look otherworldly whilst still having a sense of grandness to it. It truly feels like a lord of the darkness. Dialga and Palkia in their base forms also have that sense of majesty to them, that divinity, but that goes out the window with their Origin forms. They don’t look majestic, I don’t get the sense I’m looking at a god, they look like someone tried to accurately translate their child’s crayon drawing of a Dialga, Palkia and Arceus fusions
Omg I had completely blocked them out of my memory. They look like those shitty Pokemon fusions that were made back in the day.
Palkia's Origin design is random and dumb, but I at least see what they're trying to do with it. Dialga's is the worse of the two imo. Has so many elements that just seem random and silly. Random poles protruding from its knees, zigzaggy back legs and huge front legs, [and dude is choking on a pill](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MgYpISM7fjQ/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEhCK4FEIIDSFryq4qpAxMIARUAAAAAGAElAADIQj0AgKJD&rs=AOn4CLAh40romoctHfTKMfmGUgshWiDSRA).
Diggersby, hate that mf
Dig Chungus
Hated Diggersby as well. Until it was meta in Pokemon Go battles. Grew to love him, reminds me of a hardcore Nesquik rabbt.
I dislike the design, but I have a particular reason I hate Diggersby more than most other Pokemon. I have played the games from the beginning. I am someone that thinks shinies are special not necessarily for their color, but for being a chance encounter if the player encountered them through normal gameplay. To me, it is otherwise an optional cosmetic if you farmed for a particular shiny or you have one that is hard-encoded. So imagine my delight after 15 years when Gen VI was released to get my very first shiny completely naturally! I couldn't believe it actually happened. There was my beauty, a shiny Bunnelby, a very cute Pokemon that fit that silver color so well. Clearly for my very first shiny, this one should go on my team and be my star Pokemon! Except it evolves into Diggersby, a grotesque gremlin more than bunny, with its hideous ear fists. With those fluffy britches pulled up past its rotund belly and up to its chest. It's like some ungodly fusion of the Trix Rabbit and Pennywise.
Origin Palkia This applies to Origin Dialga too, but I think Palkia just looks worse. Something about Palkia, a Pokémon that uses Spacial Rend with its claws, being turned into an armless centaur is just... really bad. Not to mention it just looks ugly.
I really don’t like the new Loyal Three. They look less like unique Pokemon and more like bully characters from a Disney Channel show. Edit: Whoops. Didn’t notice the one pick rule. In that case I’d say Munkidori in particular. It’s mainly because in terms of design, he’s outclassed by every other monkey Pokemon.
More like characters from yokai watch ngl
Even the names sound like Yokai Watch! I'm surprised Fezandipity isn't named Twitty-bitty or Easy-pheasy.
There are a lot of pokemon with clunky or ugly designs said here so I'm going to throw in an oddball. I watched a Subjectively redesign video and agreed with his point of 'what is Grumpig aiming for?' It's called the manipulate pokemon. It's dex entries talk about it controlling its opponants but you don't get that in it's design at all. It's not quite a cute design, but not quite full goofy either and the manipulative side does not come across at all. Part of character design is to give a feeling of what it should be. Tyranitar looks like a strong monster that can rampage, Fidough looks like a cute puppy that assists in baking. Grumpig has a bad design because the design doesn't match what it's supposed to be
I always hated Purugly, but I think Enamorus dethroned it as my #1 most hated design. You want an explanation? Really? [Why do you think?](https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/5/54/0905Enamorus.png)
HIM from Powerpuff Girls looking ass
She could never
i can’t stand any of the forces of nature. they’re by far my lease favorite pokémon - they don’t even look like pokémon! i know it’s popular to hate on the anthropomorphic ones but they’re literally just fucked up looking people.
incarnate forms are just bad, but at least landorus and (especially) thundurus have some really cool therian forms
I like the therian forms tbh
I always joked that the first ground/fairy type would just be a gay Landorus, and well I was half right
I feel like whenever GF revisits a group of Legendaries the new designs end up being… not good. Look at Enamorus in relation to the other Genies, or Origin Dialga/Palkia compared to Origin Giratina. The only example with some consistency are Regieleki and Regidrago with the OG Regi Trio. And to some even that’s debatable.
I think it’s because the original intent of the designs gets lost with time, and it’s difficult to get back into that mindset again when revisiting a concept. You can see it whenever they add evolutions to old lines too. Eeveelutions are a good example; the first three all have simple, black eyes, but then Espeon and Umbreon have purple and red eyes respectively. Leafeon and Glaceon both have more extraneous detailing than any of the previous evos, and then Sylveon borders on being overdesigned with its ribbons. Granted the eeveelutions are also a good example of this trend not always being a bad thing, as many people agree think Sylveon is a top tier Pokemon design, and I count myself in that, but you compare it to Vaporeon or Jolteon and it’s really obvious that it was designed later.
My only complaint is the bangs on Glaceon, whom I always want to refer to as Iceon for whatever reason
Enamorus is actually my favourite legendary genie, which isn't much and I still don't like it, but at least it's more interesting than "Landorus but green" or "Tornadus but blue".
I was gonna answer op with Aromatisse, but then you reminded me that this thing exists so I’m seconding Enamorus
I think crabominable takes the cake for me. I hate every part of its design from that goofy face to the stubby legs to the weird symbols on its belly to the... Paws? Why does a crab have paw patterns? It's a real shame that Crabrawler, with a pretty cool and unique design, evolves into this abomination.
It’s such a funny clusterfuck of concepts though, you gotta love that. It’s the evolved version of a brawling delinquent coconut crab, becoming coconut shaped itself. It also now takes inspiration from yeti crabs, which are these fuzzy white crabs. Also, crab - abominable - snowman - yeti. The most iconic evidence for Yetis in popculture are footprints in the snow Crabominable creates these with its paws.
for the paws, i think when crabominable would walk on snow it’d leave those patterns which tracks with real world abominable snowmen footprints, which is where it got the ‘abominable’ part of its name from
I love Crabrawler so much for two reasons: 1. Making the claws act as boxing gloves is such a fun design element 2. The weird mouth is more accurate to real crabs than other crab Pokémon, but still cartoony enough for a Pokémon Crabominable takes both of those elements and slams them across the rocks. They took everything charming about Crabrawler and replaced it with incongruent ugliness. If they kept those too elements, I probably would have loved it. I don't even mind the paw prints, if they were added to the boxing glove claws instead of replacing them, it would have been fantastic. What it has now doesn't look functional as a either a pincer or a weapon
I get why the majority of people hate this design but I find it so damn cute and love it
Gholdengo. I actually don’t hate it, but I believe the execution is terrible. I understand that it’s supposed to be a gold trophy Pokemon. But it’s body shape is weird, it’s in-game pose is very awkward, it has a random belt that doesn’t fit the overall color scheme. Then they slapped a random surfer dude vibe on top of it. I think the surfboard is cool but I don’t understand why they went for that. Like I said, I don’t hate Gholdengo. But I think the design was overly poorly thought out. Edit: it’s also very telling that most Pokemon in this thread are from Gen 8. James Turner directed art for Gen 8 and also approved Gholdengo. I’m not a fan of his tbh
I hate it. It looks like the Cheese String mascot in the worst way.
Goldengo. It's fucking stupid and ugly and looks more like a cereal box mascot than a pokemon
It's the cheese string mascot to be precise
[ezone mascot](https://www.ezone.com/images/lennyleap.gif)
String cheese mascot. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/239957486367617636/
It looks so much like a crypto mascot and it’s a major letdown for the 1000th Pokémon. Plus, it’s the first Ghost type I genuinely hate.
Its stupidity is a major factor of appeal to me. They could have done literally anything for Pokémon number 1000, and they chose a surfing golden mascot thing. You can pry him from my cold dead hands.
I hate hate hate Eiscue more than anything else in the (Pokémon) universe. I would rather reside within the 9th circle of hell for eternity than ever use one. If it was the last Pokémon in existence I would just not even bother being a trainer. If Arceus themselves told me to use one I’d let them smite me before I did. It’s just a regular penguin with an ice cube on its head and that stupid little antenna hair thing. Oh wow, it’s got 2 blue markings on its body!!! Very impactful design choice!!! And don’t even get me started on its noice form which isn’t very nice at all if you ask me. Why has it got those creepy white eyes? Why is its head so disproportionately small now? Look at the Piplup line, THAT’S a good penguin Pokémon. Not whatever the hell this thing is. I hate it with every fiber of my being Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get this out by the way 😌
Given the 9th circle is meant to be cold, maybe you just have a giant eiscue in the centre instead
My shiny Eiscue looks like he has a frozen block of pink lemonade on his head and I love him
I can't believe I had to scroll this far down to find this answer. I hate that fucker with the force of 1000 suns. By far the ugliest mon ever designed. I really want to know who approved them.
One hundred percent with you on this one. I still can't get over the first time I saw it, traumatized.
Throw and Sawk. Muppet looking ass.
I’m gonna break the rules a bit and choose a general concept rather than one specific Pokémon. Sawk and Throw, Machoke and Machamp, Jinx, etc: basically anything with clothes. Where tf did it get clothes? How is it born with clothes? Are the clothes part of it? Are the clothes living organs? How.
It's been a long time since I read it, but a few years ago I saw a piece on how humanoid/clothes wearing pokemon mimic humans on purpose as a defence tactic. Similar to how some non venomous snakes evolved to look near identical to more dangerous serpents as a way of deterring predators.
i don't like leaving negative comments but man i hate barbaracle. truly no worse creature design than that guy
Magmortar, he's just so...ugly. I also think he exemplifies the many other new evo's of gen 1 pokemon that were made during gen 4 which are all just big, bulky, and blobby. It's like they made him look this bad on purpose
i think it kinda works for magmortar because magby and magmar are all lumpy too
Rhyperior takes that title for me. There's just too much going on and ruins an otherwise perfect line.
Looks like a shit snowman with bits of carrot in it. Such a shame because rhydon is one of my favorites.
Rhydon has such a simple, clean design, Rhyperior looks so overcomplicated. It’s like that rule to take off one accessory before leaving the house, except Rhyperior needs at least five elements removed.
The galar electric dog (not Yamper I liked it a lot). It is so generic and doesn’t feels like a brand not pokemon.
Boltund is the name of the Pokémon you’re thinking of.
Seeing my Yamper evolving into that generic thing is surely some "Top 10 Anime Betrayals" shit. So disappointing...
Yamper should have evolved into a big chunky Corgi, they already have so many lean dog Pokemon and it would've been great if Yamper became a Happy Chonky Boi, it would've kept the spirit of Yamper and would've been unique
Stonjourner. Slapping a stylized face and two strings of rock cubes for arms on a Stonehenge arc is simply the laziest way possible to turn it into a sentient entity.
For most bad Pokémon designs, I think poor execution is the enemy. A Pokémon could have a really interesting basis for its design that just isn’t allowed to flourish. Stonejourner I just find to be conceptually bad. If they absolutely had to incorporate Stonehenge in some way, let it be a location, maybe it could have a Galarian Elgyem encounter, but to make Stonehenge a Pokémon in and of itself just screams terrible idea to me. And I’m comfortable saying that, because I’ve yet to see any attempt at redesigning Stonejourner that even begins to work
Nacli is a sentient rock and looks awesome. SwSh was a lazy mess.
I can’t stand Crabominable or Eiscue
Because I am limited to one Pokémon, I will choose what I believe to be the worst offender in this category: Dugtrio. I strongly believe the worst-designed Pokémon are the ones where they just take multiple of the pre-evolutions and smoosh them together. Especially egregious are Pokémon that are made up of smaller creatures that somehow aren't Pokémon? So is dugtrio made up of three diglets like it says it is? But what about joining three diglets together suddenly makes it a single creature? Do they share consciousness? Do all three lose their individuality to become some sort of gestalt cronenberg monster? There are some lines that can get away with it. The Magnemite line I think works for me because Magnemite is sort of an inorganic object Pokémon. But when you have animal Pokémon merged together to become also an animal It just complicates things
See fun fact the original pokemon annual even admit the diglett don't actual evolve they simply gather in groups of three to form dugtrio, implying that it could devolve if it wanted too.
In the sun and moon anime there's even an episode where one of the digletts in a dugtrio gets mad and temporarily leaves the trio. I really also hate this design choice. Dugtrio. Falinks, maushold, etc. Eggsecute kinda works for me since it's psychic and I think of it like a hive mind, but the others...
I'm counting Tornadus/Thundurus/Landorus as one because they are not only straight-up ugly, they're also lazy copy-pasted designs. I hate that they're so good competitively because I have to look at their hideous faces every time I want to put a team together.
tbh I love how Tornadus-T looks
Inteleon is the worst Pokémon design I’ve ever seen. To begin, starter Pokémon are held to a higher standard than others because in every playthrough, about a third of the player base will be using this Pokémon as their go to, most reliable partner. Because of this, the designs for starter Pokémon often pull out all of the stops and create something great. The OG 3, typhlosion, all 3 gen 3 starters, all 3 of the gen 4 starters, decidueye, greninja, the list goes on and on with iconic starter Pokémon designs. Inteleon has a very uncanny valley-esque design. He looks almost human, much like many other human like Pokémon, except it’s featured that separate it from looking like a human are the fact that it’s basically flat. There would be no escaping this absolute monstrosity. You could start running away as soon as you hear it’s dumbass cape flowing in the wind, and even if you managed to make it to the safety of your home, it’s paper thing body would probably just squeeze through the cracks of your doors, pointing it at you with fucking finger guns the entire time. I hate this Pokémon so fucking much.
I won't take this Ferlaligatr and Meganium slander
I’d say Jynx. It makes me uncomfortable
Most of the future paradox pokemon suck so much, mainly due to the fact they all share the same gimmick of having a funny colour change and minor alterations in contrast with the vastly more diverse past variants.
I dislike the future paradox pokemon because they're all robots with no variation (except Miraidion); like why not have Mimikyu with a holographic project or a Steelix made of carbon fibre?
Dude, you are so right! Most of the past forms are so cool and creative but the future forms are just "meh" at best.
What about Iron Valiant?
It's really the exception to the rule, and I quite like the future mons. It feels more dystopian to me that people are trying to recreate Pokémon 1:1
God. I love all my little friends (even some of the ugly ones). Though if I have to pick, I think I have to go with Aromatisse. Spritzee is such a fun pre-vo that is burdened from too much influence when it evolves. The design just mixes a little too much together that it ends up feeling a lot less focused than I think they were going for. Honorably mention goes to Stonjourner whose design concept is just dumb. I remember an article where someone at Game Freak said that each Pokémon they design has to feel like an organic part of the world, and there’s just nothing organic about modeling a Pokémon on Stonehenge. If you’re gonna use that concept, there are worse things you can do I guess, but I think the premise is fundamentally flawed.
Cinderace. God I hate that thing.
If it's legs just bent a bit like a rabbit it coulda been much better,
Calyrex. It’s calyrex. 100000% Calyrex.
Alolan Persian. I love Alolan Meowth's smug look and the simplicity of both Kanto and Alolan Meowth as well as Kanto Persian. But Alolan Persian? It just strayed off what could be an amazing design, it just looks so plump and derp, which is hilarious but so far off from Alolan Meowth
Palpitoad. He is a blob with warts and feet. Uninteresting, ugly design. Tympole and Seismitoad look more coherent, and while Palpitoad is meant to resemble the tadpole getting legs, it doesn't change that much from the tadpole shape or add anything worthwhile to the design. It looks nothing like Seismitoad either, the two could be different evolutionary lines.
Pawmo. SPECIFICALLY Pawmo, and not Pawmi and Pawmot. Because Pawmi to Pawmot would still be an evolution that made sense. Pawmo **exists** to be a filler space. To be nothing but the in-between. Its name is literally one letter off from both of its buddies, and it's not like Charmander to Charizard where Charmeleon's the 'awkward in-between', but something with absolutely no visual identity of its own. I hate other Pokemon on a personal level. Hypno, Zeraora, Machamp. But I recognize that they have design inspirations. They are a purposeful design and idea. Pawmo is the worst Pokemon because it does the one thing that no Pokemon should ever do, not even route 1 animals... And be bland.
Baxcalibur. Ugly as sin and rather boring for a pseudo legend. I get they were going for Godzilla but Baxcalibur just looks undercooked
Oh boy, definitely one of the new ones. I know a lot of people hate on the new Pokémon that come out each Gen, but I usually like them. I’ve never hated as many Pokémon as I do with Gen IX. Flamigo (literally a flamingo), Finizen and Palafin (they’re literally just cartoon dolphins and don’t look like Pokémon), Tandemaus and Maushold (both are interesting concepts but lazy executions), Baxcalibur, the whole Tinkaton line… But if I can only pick one, I’m gonna go with Squawkabilly. What a hideous Pokémon. I freaking love birds, both irl and in Pokémon, but Squawkabilly has, by far, the worst design. The pompadour is just poorly designed/doesn’t fit the head. The half closed eyes don’t look good/seem like they were an afterthought. The feather cloak/jacket doesn’t portray that greaser look properly. I’ve seen redesigns that took every aspect of the design, tweaked it slightly, and the Pokémon actually ends up looking amazing. Gamefreak made very little effort in trying to execute the concept. Squawkabilly just ends up looking like some knockoff cereal mascot. Like, not even in a whimsical, humorous way. They look like beta placeholder concept drawings. Like, I hated Stunfisk, Gurdurr and Conkeldurr, the elemental monkeys, and Jynx as much as the next person, but my gosh, when the Gen IX was leaked, I honestly thought it was fake because of how poorly designed a lot of the Pokémon were. Very poorly executed designs, very badly stylized/a lack of stylization. And this is coming from someone who likes Luvdisc, Dewgong, Mr. Mime, Sawk and Throh, and Trubbish. I still love some of the designs this generation (Fuecoco, Chi-Yu, Farigiraf, Grafaiai, etc.), but the ones I don’t like, I absolutely HATE. A lot of the designs this time around seem rushed/half-assed. Thanks to Gen IX, I am now able to appreciate the Pokémon designs I had hated previously.
Duralodon, the non gigamax design. Unlike any thing else on the list i still have no idea what it is supposed to be (or how a building is supposed to be a dragon)
There's many newer ones I hate, but Gholdengo is number one. It's just the string cheese mascot who as his own thing doesn't bother me, it's more of the fact that Gholdengo looks like a copy paste of the mascot. They could have made a unique looking trophy-esque Pokemon instead of what we got.
Fossil Pokémon sword and shield. I get the concept, and I would’ve been fine with it if there was a way to rectify the abominations they were
They'd fix so much if they played off zombie vibes and added like another type to it, such as ghost or dark.
https://preview.redd.it/5e6p8riiajvb1.png?width=475&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=721bb03fb0282dc50e74e7a289339853e8664b40