History Characters / PokemonGenerationITangelaToMew

* LightningBruiser: Face one with Swift Swim in the rain and you are plain boned. It gets worse in Generation 5, thanks to permanent rain being obtainable to non-legendaries. The fact that Water+Dragon is awesome STAB, resisted only by five Pokémon[[note]]Shedinja, Empoleon, Ferrothorn, Azumarill and Whimsicott[[/note]] helps.

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Kingdra doesn't have much in the way of type coverage. It doesn't need it, because Water and Dragon deal at least neutral damage to all but six[[note]]Shedinja, Empoleon, Azumarill, Whimsicott, Ferrothorn, Mega Altaria[[/note]] Pokémon.

* TookALevelInBadass:
** Gaining the Tangrowth evolution in Gen IV. By evolving, it gains a fair amount of HP and physical attack, small boosts to its other stats (save Speed, which actually goes down), and a better movepool.
** Gen V gave it Regenerator as a Hidden Ability.
** Gen V also gave it the Eviolite, wich boosted Tangela's Defense and Sp.Defense by 50%, effectively making it a Glacier Waif

* TookALevelInBadass:
** The baby during the Mega Evolution. It comes out of the mother's pouch and fights alongside her. Gameplay wise, this evolution gets the "Parental Bond" ability, allowing it to hit twice in the same turn. Even with the child's attack being half as strong as its mother's, those Returns ''are going to hurt.'' Substitute won't help, as one of them will break through.
** Even better if a Gen III one can go Mega. Double Body Slam is not something to scoff at, two 127 with STAB and a double shot at a 30% chance at paralysis is something anything not a ghost will not want to take. It can also learn the new Fighting move Power-Up Punch, which boosts attack while doing damage. Combined with Parental Bond, that's effectively a ''Swords Dance'' boost.

* TookALevelInBadass:
** Generation II gave an okay Water-type a much stronger evolution with an awesome typing.
** Generation V made Drizzle available to a non-legendary Pokémon, which means that Kingdra is ''brutal'' in the rain with Swift Swim.
** While the nerf to Drizzle in Generation VI means Swift Swim Kingdra isn't as powerful as it use to be, ''Sniper'' Kingdra is a different story. Critical hits will always occur if it's raised by three stages, meaning if a Kingdra with a Scope Lens (+1) uses Focus Energy (+2), ''all of its attacks become critical hits''. Not only does this allow Kingdra to use Draco Meteor with no downsides, with the boost from Sniper, all of Kingdra's attacks do 125% more damage than usual and ignore the opponent's defense boosts.

* TookALevelInBadass: Got the improved Lightning Rod in the fifth gen, transforming one of its weaknesses into an immunity.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Gen VI, it gains the Fairy-type, meaning that Dragon-type moves cannot hurt it and that Dark and Bug-type moves are normal effectiveness, instead of super effective. Its stats may still be subpar, but it is definitely something to watch out for compared to beforehand.

* TookALevelInBadass:
** ''Platinum'' gave Scizor [[ActionInitiative Bullet Punch]], which is one of the strongest priority attacks in the series after being boosted by Technician, [=STAB=], and Scizor's high attack stat. Both got more power Bug attacks in X-Scissor, [[HitAndRunTactics U-turn]], and Bug Bite (the last of which is boosted by Technician) and could also be taught [[HealThyself Roost]] to heal up if they wanted.
** Gen V introduced Eviolite, which gives unevolved Pokemon a 50% boost to both defensive stats (and thus a reason to use Scyther).
** Gen VI gave Scizor a Mega Evolution that makes it ''even bulkier''.

* TookALevelInBadass: Gen V gave Jynx the Hidden Ability Dry Skin. Not only does she actually have an Ability that can be consistently useful, she can take advantage of the now much more common rain, and can potentially overcome her Stealth Rock weakness by switching in on a [[MakingASplash water attack]], allowing her to immediately heal back the damage.

* TookALevelInBadass: Mega Pinsir hits ''insanely'' hard. Aerilate also gives it ridiculous Flying STAB, with Quick Attack and Feint for priority and Return and Thrash for brute power; Thrash reaches a power of 150, making it stronger than Giga Impact from a normal Pokémon without having to spend a turn recharging. And if you're really feeling ambitious, Giga Impact is powered up too, reaching almost 300 power.

* TookALevelInBadass: Gen V gave it the Sheer Force ability, giving its attacks a lot more punch.

* TookALevelInBadass:
** MagikarpPower is the definitive example for a reason, from JokeCharacter to LightningBruiser.
** Generation IV's Attack/Special Attack split gave Gyarados the physical Aqua Tail and Waterfall so it could finally put its physical bulk to use with STAB, and Waterfall got potential flinching to boot. The same generation made the Dragon-type Outrage physical as well, and gave it Stone Edge and Dragon Dance.
** Not enough levels in badass for you? Gen V gave it [[KillStreak Moxie]], so now each time it [=KOs=] something (and it ''will''), it gets ''even stronger''.
** What does Mega Gyarados get for Gen VI? ''[[NoSell Mold]] [[DefiedTrope Breaker]]''. Coupled with a decent Attack boost, the reduction of a 4x Electric weakness to a 2x and the loss of a Stealth Rock liability, and a not-insignificant increase in bulk, Mega Gyarados is already making a name for itself as something capable of going on brutal rampages with just one Dragon Dance while being able to shrug off quite a few things that would have Vanilla Gyarados running for the hills.

* TookALevelInBadass:
** It gets Imposter as its Hidden Ability, which makes it automatically transform into its opponent, without wasting a turn. This also copies ''every one of their stats except HitPoints''. Yes, that includes stat boosts. Combine it with a Choice Scarf and (almost) no matter what happens, you're still going first. It went from battle gimmick and egg maker to the ultimate tool of revenge.
** In Gen VI, Ditto ''can imitate Mega Evolutions'', and retain its own item while doing so. You do the math.

* TookALevelInBadass:
** Espeon as of Generation V, due to its Hidden Ability Magic Bounce.
** Flareon as of Generation VI can learn Flare Blitz, complimenting its stats.

* TookALevelInBadass: Porygon2 is the strongest Pokémon able to evolve (and unlike its closest competitor Scyther, its stat total increases upon doing so). With the Eviolite introduced in Gen V, it turns Porygon2 into one of the bulkiest Pokémon in the game with a decent Special Attack. While Porygon-Z is a GlassCannon, Porygon2 turns into a MightyGlacier.

* TookALevelInBadass: Got the extremely potent Shell Smash StatusBuff in Generation V.

* TookALevelInBadass: Gen IV's Physical/Special split finally gave Kabutops a good physical Water move in Waterfall, while Gen V gave Drizzle to Politoed, allowing Kabutops to outspeed just about everything during the rain for the rest of the match.

* TookALevelInBadass:
** Generation V gave Dragonite the Hidden Ability Multiscale, which halves the damage it takes if it's at full HP.
** Gen VI introduced the Weakness Policy item, which raises Attack and Special Attack by two stages each whenever the holder is hit by a super-effective move. Dragonite's natural bulk plus Multiscale and Roost made it one of the best abusers of this item in the game. That Ice attack you were going to use to wipe it out? Well, it's going to survive thanks to Multiscale, and it's now probably going to mow down your entire team in retaliation.

* '''{{Badass}}''': Mewtwo has the shining honor of being among the most powerful Pokémon in the entire franchise since it's inception. Only 3 Pokemon top it in base stats: Arceus (who ''[[OlympusMons created the universe]]'') and [[FusionDance Black/White Kyurem]]; it's tied in base stats with [[PhysicalGod Dialga, Palkia]], and [[EldritchAbomination Giratina]]. Then ''X and Y'' brought it two Mega Evolutions, and [[TookALevelInBadass as if it weren't Badass enough]], both of these grant a 100 stat point boost to either Attack or Special Attack to ''surpass'' Arceus. The X Mega also adds Fighting as an additional type alongside the Attack boost. It also has a monstrously huge movepool, and the speed, power and bulk to put them to use and keep coming when it gets hit back.

* PowerupLetdown: Scizor's Hidden Ability, Light Metal. It halves Scizor's weight (and unlike the move Autotomize which also halves the weight, Light Metal doesn't grant a speed boost by two stages), but the common moves that deal damage based on weight (E.G Grass Knot and Low Kick) are moves that Scizor isn't bothered by in the first place, and it makes Scizor even more vulnerable to [[KillItWithFire Heat [[GoombaStomp Crash]].

* ThrowTheDogABone: Magikarp is finally allowed to [[FlyingSeafoodSpecial float]] like the other fish-like Pokémon in Pokémon-Amie.

* StatusBuffs:

* AchillesHeel: Fire is the ''only'' type that Scizor is weak to, but it does x4 damage.

* AchillesHeel: Electric attacks (And Freeze Dry) will absolutely devastate Gyarados. Unless it Mega Evolves mid-attack.

* PurposefullyOverpowered: Like its clone above, it has its use restricted in the Battle Tower, most cups and tournaments, and random Wi-Fi.

* PurposefullyOverpowered: And it still remains as such '''AFTER''' its type got {{Nerf}}ed. The games actively limit its use in the Battle Tower, most cups in 3D fighters, most official tournaments, and random Wifi.

* ShadowArchetype: Towards all other Pokémon. As a whole, other Pokémon enjoy battling each other but are happy to make companions with humans while Mewtwo is a BloodKnight who sees mankind as another opponent to fight.

* YouAreNumberSix: Mew'''two'''. Named for being Mew's clone, but Mewtwo is before it in the Pokémon ironically enough.

* ForMassiveDamage: Kingdra usually takes neutral damage to Ice-type attacks thanks to its Water-typing. However, Freeze Dry is an Ice-type attack that's super effective against Water-types, meaning Kingdra takes 4x damage from it.

* AchillesHeel: Fire is the ''only'' type that does better than neutral damage to Scizor.

* ForMassiveDamage: Rock-type attacks to Scyther. Fire-type attacks to Scizor.

** Scizor has a high Attack stat, good Defense, decent Special Defense, and only 1 weakness. However, it's slow and said weakness is easy to exploit since it takes [[ForMassiveDamage x4 damage]] from it.

* PowerupLetdown: Scizor's Hidden Ability, Light Metal. It halves Scizor's weight (and unlike the move Autotomize which also halves the weight, Light Metal doesn't grant a speed boost by two stages), but the common moves that deal damage based on weight (E.G Grass Knot and Low Kick) are moves that Scizor isn't bothered by in the first place, and it makes Scizor even more vulnerable to [[KillItWithFire Heat]] [[ForMassiveDamage Crash]].
* TheSameButMore: Mega Scizor is pretty much normal Scizor on steroids, as its still a MightyGlacier and even has the same ability.

* ForMassiveDamage: Jynx's Dry Skin sadly has the drawback of giving her a major weakness to Fire attacks. Not a double weakness, but it definitely hurts.

* ForMassiveDamage: Rock-type attacks for Mega Pinsir. However, it isn't hindered by Stealth Rock as much as other Pokémon with a 4X weakness to Rock since it can only transform after Stealth Rock has been activated. However, since Mega Evolutions remain until a given battle is over, it's a bad idea to switch Mega Pinsir out when Stealth Rock is around, unless you have a means of getting rid of it before sending Mega Pinsir back in.

* BlowYouAway: Gyarados, InNameOnly. The only Flying move it can learn is Bounce (also Flying InNameOnly), and only thanks to Magikarp learning it through the Dream World. Its Flying type seems to only be there to gimp it with a [[ForMassiveDamage quadruple weakness to Electric moves]].

* DiscardAndDraw: Mega Gyarados has considerably different strengths and vulnerabilities compared to normal Gyarados. In addition to trading in its Ground immunity for a Psychic one, Mega Gyarados becomes weak against the Bug and Fighting attacks that it used to resist, in addition to gaining weaknesses to Fairy and Grass. In return, it loses its Rock weakness, becomes resistant to Ice, Ghost, and Dark type attacks, and, most notably, reduces its [[ForMassiveDamage double weakness]] to Electric to a standard weakness.

* ForMassiveDamage: The only thing that stops Gyarados from being banned is its ''crippling'' weakness to Electric attacks. Like Kingdra, Freeze Dry deals 4x damage to it. Its Mega Evolution changes the 4x electric (and Freeze Dry by default) weakness to 2x though.

* ForMassiveDamage: By Grass-type attacks.

* ForMassiveDamage: By grass-type attacks, same as the Omanyte line.

* ForMassiveDamage: Articuno and Moltres die if they get hit with a pebble.

* ForMassiveDamage: Ice will devastate Dragonite without Multiscale.

* MamaBear: You mess with her baby, you die.

[[folder:Eevee and Evolutions]]

Eevee is unique in the Pokémon world as the only Pokémon with ''eight'' possible evolutions, though it started with three. Eevee and all of its evolutions are designed with a very cute, basic sort of appeal and remain fan-favorites.

* {{Defictionalization}}: In a sense; as of 2014, there is a real-life pterosaur named after Aerodactyl known as [[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0110646 "Aerodactylus"]]

* BoringYetPractical: It's one of the few Generation I Pokémon that is still standalone with no evolutionary relatives, and to this day it hasn't gotten many new tricks aside from the new [=TM=] moves and Abilities that everyone benefitted from. However, it has huge HP and all-around good stats save for Speed, good type coverage with Electric, Psychic and Dragon moves on top of [=STAB=] Water and Ice, and a good variety of status moves.

* MightyGlacier: Good defenses, and the Shell Armor ability prevents critical hits while Water Absorb makes it immune to water attacks. Its Speed is low though.

** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-Zagged]] with Mega Aerodactyl. It gets the genuinely effective Tough Claws Ability, which gives a 33% power boost to any attack that makes contact with the target. However, most of Aerodactyl's moves don't make contact and so don't get the boost, and most of the moves that ''do'' make contact for the boost are some level of AwesomeButImpractical.[[labelnote:Explanation]]The only really viable moves compatible with Tough Claws are Iron Head, Crunch, and Dragon Claw, which in their own ways ''are'' worth using. Everything else that gets the boost has poor accuracy (Iron Tail, Aqua Tail), low power (the Elemental Fangs, Aerial Ace), or is not not worth using for some other reason (Fly, Take Down Giga Impact).[[/labelnote]]

** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-Zagged]] with Mega Aerodactyl. It gets the genuinely effective Tough Claws Ability, which gives a 33% power boost to any attack that makes contact with the target, but most of the moves boosted by it don't get STAB, are weak, or have some level of AwesomeButImpractical.[[labelnote:*]]The only strong moves that get boosted are Iron Head (decent power with a flinch chance), Crunch (also decent power with a chance of lowering the target's Defense), Dragon Claw (decent power but only hits Dragons super effectively and has no secondary effect), Take Down (decent power but no super effective coverage and has recoil), Fly (gets STAB and has decent power, but is AwesomeButImpractical due to the charge turn), Aqua Tail (good power but accuracy is less than perfect at 90%), Iron Tail (stronger than Iron Head but has less than desirable accuracy at 75% and no flinch chance) and Giga Impact (strongest boosted attack, but no super effective coverage since it's a Normal attack and has that horrible recharge turn).[[/labelnote]]

* GentleGiant: Dragonite is both one of the strongest Pokémon and one of the nicest.

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Kingdra doesn't have much in the way of type coverage. It doesn't need it, because Water and Dragon deal at least neutral damage to all but five[[note]]Shedinja, Empoleon, Azumarill, Whimsicott, Ferrothorn[[/note]] Pokémon.

* BareFistedMonk: Mega Mewtwo X.

* DarkAndTroubledPast:
** In the games, it's only hinted at that Mewtwo's violent behavior was so destructive that they had to subdue it and imprison it in Cerulean Cave. It's made even more explicit in the Anime where it being treated as little more than a slave/pet/experiment caused it to finally snap and declare war against non-clone life.

* SuperMode: Both versions of Mega Mewtwo. How Super, exactly? Their Base Stat Total exceeds that of [[{{God}} Arceus]].

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Kingdra doesn't have much in the way of type coverage because Water and Dragon deal at least neutral damage to all but five Pokémon.

* BoringButPractical: Scizor has a fairly limited movepool and an even more limited variety of sets that it uses, but it's hits like a train, has an excellent defensive dual-typing that, aside from Fire, makes every type hit it for neutral at best, and has access to a fantastic Ability that gives a 50% base power bonus to any attack with a base power of 60 or lower. Coupled with the fact that every generation has introduced more items, moves, and gameplay elements that are nothing but kind to it, Scizor is something that will always be boring and unexciting, but undeniably good at destroying things and making game-changing plays.

** With Pinsir. They started as direct counterparts as version exclusive large Bug Pokémon that didn't suck, but then Scyther got an evolution, and Pinsir became part of a JapaneseBeetleBrothers duo with Heracross. Because of this choice they had to diverge even further in Gen IV. Mega Heracross and Mega Scizor still match up, but Mega Pinsir stands alone because since Scyther is technically unevolved it can't use Mega Stones.

Lots of things can be said about Jynx. It's an Ice/Psychic Pokémon with poor attack and defense, but wonderful special stats and speed. It's got a lot in common with other human-shaped Pokémon. It's been compared to Mr. Mime (both were only available in in-game trades and both are Psychic-types that look similar and have similar stat totals) and Magmar and Electabuzz (they form a [[FireIceLightning Fire, Ice, and Lightning trio]], and they all received babies in Gen II). Their kisses can confuse or put its target to sleep. Jynx became the subject of controversy for allegedly promoting racist UnfortunateImplications against black people, so its [[{{Blackface}} black "skin"]] was changed to purple skin.

* PurpleIsTheNewBlack: The result of her change of skin color mentioned below.
* {{Retcon}}: Jynx's skin was changed from black to purple due to complaints that she was offensive to black people (even though the black is actually a void, not her skin color, kind of like how Tangela is just two eyes peeking from a void). This is possibly why Smoochum was introduced.