I’ll
admit, I’m one of those weird people who get attached to their starters. I don’t
like to put my first Pokémon in the PC Box when I catch more than six. It’s
silly and sentimental, I know, but I like the idea of sticking close to a loyal
partner for the whole journey. This doesn’t really apply to all Pokémon that
happen to be starters, though. If by some miracle I had multiple starters on my
team, whichever one I picked at the beginning of the game would still stay out
all the time. But the rest would still get “vacation time” in the PC.
Thus
far, there have been 15 starter Pokémon that follow the usual Grass-Fire-Water
pattern. Pikachu and Eevee have also been used as starters in Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, respectively. Naturally, with so many
choices, different people have different favorite starters. I actually like
most of the starters. There’s only one that I really dislike and only a few
that I’m ambivalent toward. But two choices in particular stand out as my
favorites:
These
are Totodile,
the Water-type starter from the Johto region, and Snivy, the Grass-type starter
from Unova. This is partly because I’m a bit of a reptile fanboy. Crocodilians
and snakes are particularly appealing to me for some reason. On top of that,
aesthetic appeal is a big factor in my Pokémon preferences. Thus, it shouldn’t
be a surprise that I’d go straight for the water gator and the vine snake when
presented with my choices.
Another
reason Totodile appeals to me is that they’re decently powerful. Not the
strongest Pokémon in the game, but they have a pretty good offense. A lot of it
comes from their teeth, of course, but that’s not the only thing they can
attack with. Even though their arms and tail seem stubby compared to their heads, they do pretty well with Aqua Tail, Ice
Punch, and Waterfall. This sort of fighting style is good for me. Even though I should
probably be smarter and take advantage of non-offensive moves, I like to show
off my Pokémon’s power and take advantage of the elemental rock-paper-scissors
most of the time.
Snivy,
meanwhile, tends to be faster than Totodile but isn’t quite as powerful. They’re
more suited to defensive strategies most of the time. They can learn a few powerful Grass-type attacks like Leaf Blade, Leaf Storm, and Energy Ball, and the serpentine move Coil gives those attacks a decent boost in power. But admittedly, Snivy could still use a better offense. Even so, they can be very helpful, so that's not really a crippling weakness to me. It also seems like Snivy would have a more docile temperament, making them easier to get along with. Plus, they’re vine
snakes decked out in royal garb. That’s still pretty cool.
Come to
think of it, I find it interesting how different Totodile and Snivy’s
aesthetics are. Totodile brings to mind a loyal, tough, dedicated fighter. Ash’s Totodile in the anime also adds a lot of excitement
and playfulness to my mental image of them. On the other hand, Snivy is
more calm and intelligent, with a hint of pride and refinement. I
wouldn’t be surprised to see a Snivy using mystical magic in a story from the
Pokémon world. Despite their differences, both of these aesthetics are very
appealing.
Wow,
this is getting longer than I thought. I might finish up my general thoughts on
the starters in a second part next time. To anyone who happens to be reading
this, let me know if you’re curious about more specific thoughts that I have on
each particular starter. After I’ve covered a few more subjects, I might just
come back and do that if anyone’s interested. But until then, I hope you
enjoyed this, and good luck catchin’ ‘em all!
(once again, all illustrations
were provided by Bulbapedia)
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