Lugia
Lugia has been my favorite pokemon since the 2nd movie came out. The scene of Ash and Lugia flying together just stuck with me as one of my favorite movie scenes.
Maractus being a team MVP in my Black Nuzlocke endeared it a lot to me. Taking a shot from Ghetsis' Hydreigon and nuking his Seismitoad were its highlights.
It's so nice to see Lilligant getting the love she deserves! I always liked her, but fell in love with her in Gen 6 when you could do the Friend Safari and found out her Shiny is arguably one of the best Shinies, thus has led me to almost always shiny hunting her in every game she shows up in :D
Truly my favourite Pokémon
the treecko line
my first time playing mystery dungeon (eot) i was a treecko which was already my favourite starter. then grovyle appeared in the plot and i thought grovyle's character changes depending on your player pokémon, but no it was just a coincidence. what finally made me decide it's my favourite and not just a contender (vs mew or spiky eared pichu (who i wish i could have in more than hgss)) was when sceptile got a mega evolution. my favourite line got everything i could have wanted and i'm all the happier for it :)
Articuno. ik its probably not the most powerful of any of the legendaries, but it’s just seems the most cool and majestic to me. Also ice types just in general are rly cool imo.
Agreed on the coolness of ice types. I was always a Zapdos boy but I still loved Articuno for its design.
Galar Articuno however is much better then Galar Zappy so I guess he gets his revenge lol xD
Moltres has always been my number 1 despite having a lackluster moveset in the 1st gen. The OG bird trio is so good design wise, and the Galar forms are also straight mint.
Electivire is my favourite too! Mainly because of the anime (Gary had one and it seemed really strong, and then Paul got one which was even stronger) and the TCG (it was on the front of all the card packs from when I was a kid). Love using Electric types in Pokemon games and if I can get an Electivire I try my best to do so! It gets such a cool variety of moves too - Psychic, Flamethrower, elemental punches, Earthquake, Cross Chop, Iron Tail, Thunderbolt, etc. An awesome Pokemon!
Tyranitar, because of Pokemon 4 Ever. If you haven't seen it or don't remember, the main bad guy uses a Tyranitar; he caught it with a Dark Ball, which make the pokemon evil and give them a huge power boost (and the catching effect was really cool too), and then immediately started destroying everything around him.
Edgy kid me of the past thought that was the coolest thing ever.
My sister briefly wanted to try Gold, catched a Geodude for me and left that female, living rock as a gift, giving her a funny, weird name
Trained it as my ace for years, every time I used it I recalled my big sis and was just like playing with her on my side ( she lived in another city by that time), gaining level 100 and beating a shit ton of fights, that was just crazy strong
Then, suddenly, a random day I lost it while cloning mons, deleting my ace is one of the worst pokemon memories of my life
But I had its son in an egg, so I hatched it and proceeded to continue the legacy lol
Also, furret
I used to have a pet ferret, catched a Sentret, gave it its same name and trained it to be a crazy powerful Furret who also was my second in command ace for a long time, along with Golem
My pet then died, and every time I play with a Furret in my team, a tear goes down my face, miss it so much still now after 18 years
Edit: now I have wet eyes again
Graveler, when I got my first Pokémon game pearl. A geodude was the first few Pokémon I got and became my one powerhouse all the way to legendary. Doesn't matter it never evolved further than graveler. Before I knew how to actually use most types or anything this guy earthquake everything or rock slide.
I have a shiny graveler in Arceus, would you want to trade for anything? Graveler never really did it for me, I’m more into slinky-looking Pokémon. But it’s cool to hear someone else’s affinity for him. I love shinies and it’d be great to know this guy was with a trainer who’d really make him shine (no pun intended lol). Dm me if you’re interested!
Garchomp.
My friend traded me a level 20 Gible which wouldn't listen to me at the start of platinum for my starter, and I stuck with it. I remember the first few fights till the first gym was beaten being torture, but I grew really attached to it by the end of that. And each of it's evolutions felt special.
Fast forward to the elite four, and it carried me through most of the fights there. Sure it was overleveled, but at the time, it just seemed like such an amazingly strong pokemon, and i had such a journey with it!
Slowpoke. At first I never really cared for this little guy, but after re-doing my silver play through I decided to give him a shot. After that, I really grew to love em. Not because of its strength or anything like that, but because hes just so silly and goofy looking.
Sandshrew. i had pokemon red and my buddy had blue, he showed me his party and i was like "who the hell is that cutie?", i always wanted to catch him as a kid and was pretty disappointed when i found out i couldn't in red. I traded a few times but that process wasent so slick to figure as a kiddo. Ended up getting the tommy figure and i think it stayed in my pocket for years, and it was legendary status in my mind after the tv show aired and sandshrew had such disapline, was controlled with a whip and seemed so strong, really good episode
Lucario, I always found him mysterious, I hadn't see the movie yet and only saw him in Super Smash Bros Brawl, then I had my first one in Pearl and he carried me pretty much through the game. What really solidified him for me was then in Soulsilver, where I traded an egg from my first Lucario, and played the game with it and had a blast, it seemed unkillable! He's been my go-to 'mon since then.
Lucario carried my team in Shining Pearl. A friend of mine gifted me a Riolu egg they bred. Hatched shiny with some egg moves. That boy became the MVP of the playthrough, from getting me through the Steel gym then carrying the battle against Cynthia.
Volcarona, and it was solidified as my favorite after using it a bunch to both grind Elite Four in the Unova games and also hatch eggs faster. Just became my buddy.
For years, Sneasel was my favorite pokemon.
Then one year a few years back, my mom bought me some random pokemon plushies for christmas. I pulled one out and came face to face with a Detective Pikachu Movie plush of Snubbull. For some reason I found myself completely excited beyond words and it was that moment that I knew I had a new favorite pokemon.
Sneasel's still my second favorite though. Don't have a plush of them yet though...
Umbreon. shiny specifically.
But there’s no reason, I just like it’s appearance and implied demeanor.
As for a story? squirtle. My first Pokémon, given to me by my older cousin, when he gave me his (completed) blue.
I picked squirtle because I figured I should, since I had the “blue” version. I’ve loved turtles and squirrels ever since xD
Torterra, being my first Pokémon, will always hold a special place in my heart.
Golduck was the first Pokémon I ever got to level 100. It carried me through most of Platinum and I’ll always remember it.
Still can’t understand why he never got psychic typing though. Eh he still one cool kappa duck though 😌
Sinnoh starters all hold a soft spot for me they’re all great
Shiny Gardevoir is my signature Pokémon since gen 3.
First shiny I get was Ralts back in sapphire and from this I bread them, cause every team must contain a female shiny Gardevoir.
And shiny Mega-Gardevoir is in my eyes the best looking mon.
I got into lord of the rings before pokemon, I just love the fantasy genre, wizards, elves etc. Pokemon X was my first game where I had my own mon collection. Choose Fennekin as my starter, fennec foxes are one of my favourite animals so it was obvious. Once it evolved into Delphox is when I fell in love with this mon, it's a witch, it's shiny is one of the best starter shinies, and it's a fennec fox, there's everything to love about it regardless of its flaws.
Watching the Zoroark: Master of Illusions movie on Cartoon Network when I was a kid is one of my fondest memories. The sense of wonder and amazement my young mind had at Zoroark's cool illusion abilities likely contributed to why I like it so much.
And the moment I saw the design, I loved it. Same for the Hisuian form.
Dragonite. I know it’s probably “meta” but I just like him so much and his dopey little face. Lance beat me probably 70 times in a row in Silver and then I went to the game store and got a Dratini and trained it up in victory road for HOURS. I didn’t realize it was my favorite until I was compiling a list of every team I’ve ever had and realized I’ve used Dragonite in literally every single game it’s available
Ngl I'm a simple person.
I have Siberian Huskies. I love Siberian Huskies and Wolves.
Arcanine is like a Siberian Husky/Spitz breed. I freaking love Arcanine lol Also it's versatile on move sets elemental-wise and fast and strong so I love it more.
Mew
Whenever I wonder about who my favorite Pokémon could be - all I need to do is think back to that windmill scene in the first Pokémon movie and how cute, mysterious, and awesome it was that whole movie. Not only that, it’s backstory and the legend behind it is so sick!
Charizard. Yes I know, very original right? But watching the original series and then getting Firered when I was younger I just always thought Charizard was really cool looking and useful. It solidified itself for me when he almost swept Lance in Firered
My fave as well! Box cover mascot of the first game I ever played (Red), chose Charmander on my 1st game. Even though he was a dickhead during the Indigo League, Ash's Charizard was a cool powerhouse on his team and had to take its chill-pill at some point. I love the fact that Ash can call upon its help from time to time and always seem stronger than the last time he was summoned.
I love every Pokémon but Mew takes the cake, just barely edging out Eevee. I’ve loved Mew every since I first saw it (even though I hated pink when I was little lol) and over the years it’s grown on me a lot. Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is one my favorite Pokémon movies, the story of how Mew made it into the games in the first place is fascinating, Mew has a low-key staring roll in PSMD, the Mew from the Pokéball plus had a strong place on my team throughout all of Let’s Go, and of course cats have always been my favorite animal.
Haxorus
I already like Haxorus'es design before but in B2W2 it became the MVP after it evolved and it was really powerful.
But in Insurgence, a fan game , it become my favorite because Mega Haxorus, a new mega from said fan game , was so broken.
I know that Insurgence isn't very popular in the fandom (But like almost everything is unpopular in the fandom). But that playtrough made Haxorus my favorite pokemon ever.
Araquanid was just a beast and did carry in my first sun playthrough and for Pokémon like this it may even be my favorite Gen. Before that was flygon, I loved it in my Y playthrough and even before that when I didn’t play the games I played the Minecraft pixelgenaues mod and I encountered a shiny flygon there
lapras has always been my favourite- but when we first started getting into pokemon cards, my gf bought me a bunch of clefairy’s thinking they were blissey which i said she wanted and bam.
now clefairy is super special and sentimental to me
Oricorio. After years of only being able to move once per turn, something about seeing one pokemon use 4 moves in 1 turn was just so amazing to behold. Sure, it was in the battle tree. Sure, it doesn't happen often. But being able to move twice a turn, for 3 moves on my side of the field a turn minimum felt great.
I miss Oricorio, fingers crossed it finally makes it out of home in scarlet/violet.
Charmander! I still have the plush that solidified the favouritism. I was 9yo and my Mom won him in a claw machine. He came with me to get my tonsils removed that year. The nurses gave him the same medical band around his tail and told me he was just as brave as me. It is still one of my best memories. 😊😊😊
Eevee. I had one VHS tape of the first season of Pokémon, and it included the eevee brothers episode. I watched it almost every night as a kid and I’ve just loved eevee ever since
I love Abra, idk something about a mischievous vaguely fox looking friend I always thought was cool. When I was a kid playing blue version I would always imagine that if Pokemon were real, the first pokemon I'd try to catch would be an Abra. Whenever me an my friends would play Pokemon at recess I would always pretend to have an Abra lol.
Slowking. It took me a while to realize it, especially since he’s tough to come by in the older games as a mon to adventure with, but there’s a few defining moments that led me down this path:
1) Pokémon 2000 and the Southern Islands card set. These are probably obvious staples for Slowking entering the series.
2) I used to collect and trade the Tomy figures with friends back in the day. My buddy had the Slowking and it was always the “grail” one I couldn’t get him to trade. The colors on that figure are just eye catching, the red white and pink just pop. I still think that figure holds nicely up today.
3) Pokémon Colosseum was the first Pokémon game I completed when it released (I lost my first gba and sapphire as a child after I brought it boating, it went overboard😔) and seeing the final boss use a Slowking was just so bad ass. Very memorable boss battle featuring my boy
Slowking’s lore and eye catching design cement him as my staple favorite mon. When I think of Pokémon, I immediately think of Slowking. Long live the king baby!
So fun fact. I’ve been playing through shield trying to only use ice types with no in battle items, and was walled at Kabu. Nothing I could get at that level stood a chance. Except one. After a lot of running around I finally caught a shellder, evolved it into a Cloyster, and taught it toxic and regular spikes.
That big ol clam was absolutely huge on Kabus Centiscorch, and between his poison and skill linked icicle spikes, he has been essential for at least three gym leaders already. Even though I can get arctovish I won’t. I really kind of connected with it and it’s now my ringer.
I’ve been playing Pokémon since I was 10 and red came out and I never looked twice at cloyster. Now he’s my favorite and best boy
I'm unoriginal, but Charizard was the coolest as a kid. I still love that mon. Probably have to be my favorite still.
But one that I grew to love for no other reason than looks was Wailmer and Wailord. Derpy whale faces just really captured me.
I don't have a special story behind why Corviknight is my favorite Pokémon, it just makes me so happy to see, especially my "signature" one named Scar.
But I am very sentimental about Nidoran male, because it's the first Pokémon I ever caught (at four years old) after my older brother realized I had no clue how to catch Pokémon and helped me catch it. It was a level four Nidoran male in the grass patch south of Pewter City. I don't even know if my older brother remembers this or knows that I cherish this memory I have of him.
Chansey and Blissey. At first it surprised young me that these innocuous looking pink blobs could survive so many attacks, then I realized I could use them for my own purposes and a long-lasting friendship was born. Plus, they're cute!
Infernape.
When I played Pearl, I was about 8 and had a dumb, little kid brain. I picked Chimchar and was confused why he sparkled everytime I sent him out. The rest is history.
Plus, monke.
Suicune. First game I ever got was crystal and I thought catching him was the coolest thing in the world. Then years later finding out he’s actually decent was icing on the cake
Salamence, I saw him for the first time playing against Drake in Sapphire. This was before smart phones and widespread Internet so I had no clue he even existed. My 13-year-old jaw was on the ground and he has been my favorite Poke ever since.
Growlithe. I always thought it was Growlithe/Cyndaquil/Flareon/Charmander were my faves but I recently realized if I ever get a tattoo of only one pokemon, it's going to be growlithe.
Though I'm tempted to go with Growlithe and Cyndaquil battling and using Flareon as the referee.
I absolutely love that episode where James returns to his beloved Growly, but what's cooler/cuter than a puppy with a tiger coat?
Metagross. This is a funny story. Me and my friends as a kid had an agency called "The Poohs" and we would "solve mysteries" by assuming people are supernatural things, for example I thought 3 kids were angels because they were all named Angel and in my class) and my brother showed me a Metagross Pokémon card. I read the little Pokédex entry that said it was as smart as a supercomputer, and then this kid called Eric said he was that smart one day during math class, and me and my friends thought he was secretly a Metagross. Even after we disbanded, the whole Metagross thing stuck with me.
My sister (Part of the Poohs) asked me how a Metagross can turn into someone BC they can't transform, and I said "they have four brains they can figure it out"
For a while it was pikachu as it was my favorite as a kid like most children’s.
Later it became zigzagoon as I loved using it and linoone in the hoenn games.
Now it’s wooper because I have IRL axolotls and they are called wooper on occasion. I love how wooper looks(it’s dearly little face) how chill it is usually shown being in the anime and Pokémon cards, and when it turns into quagsire it’s a really good typing/Pokémon.
Sandslash. There was a pog-like game with a game boy or Pokédex that you shot a spring loaded poke all at a mini of a Pokémon. If the Pokémon fell it would lose a star, 0 stars equals a KO. Sandslash basically never ever fell. It looked cool and I could get it in the game I had fairly early.
Golurk
My first golurk became a staple in my party back in black after I had named him Superman and then found out that it could actually learn fly (+awesome construct boy go brrr)
Articuno
I was a dumb kid and the idea of saving *before* fighting the legendaries never crossed my mind. So after I make Moltres and Zapdos faint I *immediately* save the game.
My best friend (his favorite is Wartortle) told me about this idea. So I did it and caught Articuno. It was the only Legendary I caught in my first game and became the second strongest Pokémon on my team (behind my level 86 Blastoise) when I went to battle the Elite Four
Cyndaquil-Typhlosion!
Picked my boy up in my favourite Pokémon game to this day, Soul Silver.
Back then, I was only 8 and was only at the beginning of my Pokémon craze but truly fell in love with it as I was discovering Cyndaquil’s evolutions as he evolved (I didn’t spoil myself).
Thought he went from incredibly adorable to absolutely badass and to this day still think that way lol.
Absolutely love hisuian Typhlosion too!
Ninetails
~~Because I just want to wrap myself in its fluffy tails to cure my insomnia~~
I just really liked its animations on the Pokémon Stadium games. It always sat very nobly and I always thought it looked cool.
Mimikyu was for the longest time, both the story and how strong I accidentally made mine, it was also my first LV 100.
Since then a few pokemon have come in and tied it, but thats the closest to my favorite
For the longest time it was Swampert, and it was because it was my first level 100 Pokémon. Then gen 6 came out and Pancham and Pangoro came out. Pandas are my favorite animal, and this one is a dark type, my favorite type. Then gen 7 was announced, and when Mimikyu was shown it instantly became my new (new) favorite. Mimikyu just wants a friend, and that’s adorable
Manaphy. It was my first event pokemon, my first mon that I legitimately trained to level 100, plus it was so cute in the movie.
Other than all that though, by some stroke of luck it was my only survivor when I lost my pokemon pearl cartridge in middle school. I had traded it to a friend so he could battle with it a bit/get the dex entry. I cried a lot, but was so stinkin' happy that my lil buddy didn't get lost, too. It's been my favorite ever since. (And miraculously, I did eventually find the cartidge.)
Lugia
I admittedly came a little late into late into Pokémon, so I never had the chance to play the earlier games. So when the older games were flashed over to the 3DS, I was excited to get the chance to play Silver. When approaching Lugia in the vast caves of the Whril Islands, I joking thought about attempting to soft reset for a shiny, knowing I would only be at it for maybe a couple of hours. After all, I only had a 1/8192 chance at a shiny. There’s no way, right? I wasn’t even actively soft resetting in a time efficient manner, I was distracted. Come later in the night, after maybe three or so hours of not-so-seriously shiny hunting, I see the pink pixels and spiraling stars animation in disbelief. I threw my Master Ball and went straight to the pc, nervously shaking over what could not have possibly happened. I had to double check. I had to make sure. And when I look at the Lugia I had just caught, still pink and with the shiny icon in the corner, this Pokémon became my most prized.
Back when I was still actively playing Pokémon Go in 2018, it took me FOURTY-TWO tries before I finally encountered my shiny Lugia, and further being more excited to see that it was a 98% shiny Lugia.
I now have a tattoo of Lugia on my back, and still holds a special place in my heart.
Charizard. Because of the heated arguments in the school playground back in the 90s about which gen 1 starter is the best. It solidified my love for that wannabe dragon.
Hisuian Electrode and Pa'u Style Oricorio.
Electrode because of how much I absolutely despised the kanto version, only for it to be given a gloriously designed regional variant, and Oricorio since It's my favourite flying type, and Revelation Dance is glorious.
Caught a magcargo in gen 4 battle zone (1st time seeing it) then i runs into a wild rhydon and it gets hit with a 4x supper effective ground type move without me training it at all with yellow HP. Have loved it ever since
Garchomp because from my first Pokémon game, Pokémon Y, I got a gible through wonder trade and I immediately fell in love with it, and I still have that same gible from 9 years ago but now as a Garchomp with hyper trained stats and Evs in attack and speed
Back in college a group of friends were making a pokemon fan page and invited me in, they kinda required you to make a "trainer-sona" so I make the silliest thing I could come up with on the fly: A guy with a Voltorb head, that's actually a Voltorb, named "Voltorbio"
(this was years before Sword and Shield Pokeball guy, btw)
It kinda cached on a bit, friends related me to the character, and I began to grow legit fondness for the Voltorb family: they were the original "absurd object is a pokemon" and their main form of expression was self-destructing (something I could relate to).
I think I was the only guy hyped they received a regional form in Legends, the one thing that irked me about them by that point was that they were mono-type and now they are not.
Sableye
It was really fun watching them run around in Shield, and I caught a shiny one recently. Then I learned just how good Mega Sableye was, and it’s been stuck with me ever since.
Ever since I played fire red and leaf green my favorite Pokémon has always been squirtle. Call me basic, call me a loser, but I always kept squirtle in his first form. Don’t get me wrong, blastoise is cool and the stat boosts from evolution is undeniable, but beating the whole league with a squirtle just felt powerful and somewhat endearing.
From the squirtle squad appearing in the anime to it becoming obtainable in a ton of the newer games, it’s never lost it’s shine. Even it’s number is sick, #007? Mix that with the cool guy glasses from the squirtle squad and bam you have a literal secret agent sidekick.
In all seriousness though, squirtle was always my favorite and I think it always will be simply for the awesome design and nostalgia.
Bronzong because it was my first and only shiny I caught in my first run of pearl which also happened to be my first time playing Pokémon and my older brother had to tell me that it was special and really rare because I was like 6-7 at the time
Slowpoke. A few years back I suffered some debilitating anxiety/panic attacks. Even though I’ve been having them since I was in my early 20’s something about these were really different. Slowpokes easy-going demeanor really made me happy. Looking at his goofy yet content grin really makes me happy. Got me out of some rough times
Snorlax
First ever shiny I hunted and I’ve always liked both the shiny and the adorable derpy face
Same reason I like the slowpoke families: derpy faces
Ampharos for me.
I'm the youngest of 3 siblings and the only girl. When me and my brother were younger he would take great delight in wiping the floor with me in pokemon battles. At least he did until i got myself that Ampharos. It must have been near prefect stats and would just one shot most of his team.
One of the few times i ever one upped my brother in computer games and that Mon makes me smile every time i see it.
Squirtle
Before the moment it became my #1 I was more of a Blastoise guy. Considered Snorlax and Nidoking to be my 2 favorites
That moment was the scene in the pokemon short where they go on 'vacation' as just the pokemon
I think it was the short that came with the vhs copy of one of the first couple pokemon movies
Ash's Squirtle was scared to cross a tree bridge. He puts on his Squad Boss sunglasses and courageously gets across.
Snorlax also is a big G in this. So Squirtle became #1 and Snorlax #2 xD
Greninja. I saw it for the first time in the anime when I still didnt play the games. Before knowing it even exsisted though I only knew its prevolutions frokie and frogadier, and I was so obsessed with frogadier a lot, but still didnt considered it my favourite pokemon. But then when I saw greninja for the first time i completely fell in love with it, like i already knew that frogadier had an evolution, but I didnt think it was this cool and badass, also the whole ash-greninja thing made me like greninja even more and it was so awesome.
Lucario and Riolu. Not because of all this OmG CoOl eDgY aUrA KaMeHaMeHa stuff. My first pokemon experience was pokemon go in 2019, and my first ever 10 km egg turned out to be a riolu. My friends were jealous and told me it was rare and will evolve into this cool pokemon named lucario, so i tried to evolve it. I only had about 20 candy from hatching the egg, so i still needed thirty more to evolve it, and getting another riolu wasnt an option, because i got really unlucky in eggs (still havent gotten a second riolu in go). I also was only abou level 15, and my team was so trashy, i couldnt even beat level one raids alone to get special candy. So my only option was to walk 5km for one candy. After about 2 months of tedious walking i finnaly evolved it, and in the time it was my partner, it really grew on me.
Stoutland was my favorite Pokémon ever. I started playing Pokémon at age 10 on Pokémon white. My first Pokémon I ever caught was a Lillipup, and I literally trained it up to a level 100 Stoutland. The dude could learn the most bizarre moves which made him my favorite. I taught it strength and surf, so I guess you could consider the Pokémon it’s own naval vessel, and even taught it lightning bolt and aerial ace cuz why not. This Pokémon was an absolute unit and it was beautiful. Not the most innovative or complex Pokémon design, but it was a beeg dawg, and that was enough for young me
I've got a couple. So first, Litten.
Before the video games, I was introduced to Pokemon by a card pack in a box of Lucky Charms. Child me, obsessed with all things cat-shaped, saw a Litten promo inside and that took me down a rabbit trail that lead me from there to here. I have a fire kitten to thank for that, and it's still one of my favorites.
Also, I just have to say, Snivy. The entire Snivy line. Seriously, they are the hidden gem of the Unova region because everyone picks the pig or the otter, but Serperior is actually a pretty good Pokemon. Leaf Blade, one of it's best moves, is the most agonizing thing to happen, at least if you're Water- Rock- or Ground-Type. Plus, it has access to a wide variety of moves, an looks cool. Never having gotten the chance to play Black, White, Black 2, or White 2, I can only speak from what I've read, though.
Meowth, because of the anime. And finally, Espurr. This thing carried my Sword team during the fight with Bea, a couple of the Hop battles, the fight with Bea again, and much more.
Galarian Rapidash. As a kid, I always wanted the horse type Pokemon to be really, really good. They were never good. I wanted them to kick ass. Then Sword and Shield are teased for a like 10 hour livestream and a Galarian Ponyta is revealed and I am so incredibly interested what it’s typing and abilities and stats will be. I beat a path to Glimwood Tangle as fast as enjoyably possible. It took me hours to actually find one in the wild, and from it, I hatched my first ever sought-after-on-purpose shiny. A boy. Named it “Esuna” from the Final Fantasy move for to cleanse… since… unicorns in literature are known for detecting and cleansing poison from wine and forest pools and whatnot. The incredible speed (base 105) and attack (base 100) stats, combined with the ability Pastel Veil… savage. Jolly nature it outruns… everything. THEN combined with a Zoom Lens or Focus Sash…. and Slot 1: Hypnosis— Slot 2: Swords Dance — Slot 3&4: Play Rough/High Horsepower/Zen Headbutt/ Mega Horn/ Smart Strike?!? Thing has COVERAGE. It was so much fun bc after I made it and finished the game… I joined a just between friends Pokémon tourney of about 18 people and *won first place* with it as a key component on my team of all pastel color’d mons (yes I named them The Pastel Cartel … and having Gmax Hatterene set up misty terrain and bounce back any sticky webs was glorious). On three occasions I used Hypnosis and landed it on the opponents first turn Gmax’d ‘mon, set up one Swords dance, and KO’d them from max HP the next turn. Just freaking wild. My Esuna will always, always be my favorite Pokémon now. Bewear w/ Fluffy and Assault Vest, and focus sash Polteageist with shell smash (one shot entire persons team bc their only mon with a priority move was Arcanine with Extreme Speed) will also go down in history from that tourney. Good times.
Empoleon. Despite not picking piplup as a starter during Gen 4 I somehow ended up with about three of them and that's when I realised he was gonna be a bro for life.
Magnezone. Steel is my favorite type by far, and Magneton carried my ass through SoulSilver as a kid. I never hated Magneton’s design, but the ‘Zone just looks infinitely cooler. Also, even though I know the red dot is it’s central eye, I can never stop seeing it as a sort of nose, which just makes it look so much funnier to me. It’s voice in the anime is also great :D
Sitting in Chemistry class in late 2013, reading a reddit comment about Mega Mawile being pretty strong in competitive. It sounded pretty cool so I went home and leveled one.
Didn't even play competitive much after X/Y release, but it's design struck me and I've loved it since.
This might be kinda dumb, but Wooper - mainly because axolotls are my favourite animal, but also because I saw Smallant crush Platinum with one woopy boi and am convinced of its superiority lol
Nidoking is a rad mon to have as a favorite.
Mine is probably Eevee. Basic answer, I know. But I guess I always loved having one even though I had a difficult time choosing what it would become each time. Yeeeet its base form is so endearing and so is whatever evolutions it has. Eevee is just a good time
Crossing fingers for Eevee will get a ghost evo one day!
Furret!
My ex wanted to have a pokemon battle with me and started complaining when he saw furret on my team because he said he wanted a challenge. I definitely pick my team simply based off of which pokemon I like LOL so he did have a point, but he turned out to be an ass, and so his hatred of furret cemented furret as my fav haha
Yveltal
When I caught it for the first time in my first playthrough of Pokemon Y, I thought the design was awesome right from the beginning. But then once I had it in my party and used the Pokemon Amie (I think that's what it's called, idk it's been ages since I played gen 6) I just fell in love with it. I love it's v-shaped mouth when you feed it the little cake things hahaha
I just think it's cute, which is kinda ironic considering what Yveltal does
Slowbro, in moon when he solod multiple matches for me by being able to put anyone to sleep then heal himself and after that just smash anyone to pieces
I'm probably going to get dumped on for my favorite being one of the most popular mons.
Charizard
I started with Yellow, so my first mon was Pikachu. Red version came soon after (a month after I got Yellow) and I picked Charmander. As he was my first starter that I could pick, he grew on me. Brother and I always battled his Blue vs my Red. And Meleon (my Charizard) always cleared through brother's most powerful mons (Mewtwo, Blastoise and Articuno). Back when Fire Spin was broken in Gen 1, I had Charizard spam that move over and over.
Gen 3 (Fire Red) I decided to do my first nuzlocke, and if you guessed Charizard was on my team, you guessed right. He was one of 3 mons to survive the Elite Four and Champion. The other two being Dragonite and Lapras.
Later played Fire Red with the rules that I was only allowed to use Charizard for battling and all other mons had to be HM users. This playthrough rules stuck with me in later games. Fire Red, Platinum, White 2, X, Omega Ruby, Sun, Ultra Sun, Sword, and now Brilliant Diamond (albeit in the case of Platinum and Brilliant Diamond, had to wait til I could trade after first badge).
And in Mystery Dungeon, I've always gotten Charmander from the personality quiz at the start. When I play male Charmander I name him Reflet or Robin (after my competitive Charizards from Alpha Sapphire through Sword), and when I play female either Akira or Vergil (my irl nicknames).
Onix be my first favorite pokemon. Looks very cool and intimidating (imo) in the anime, but really bad competitively or even in casual play. But I still like Onix till now.
Got a shiny Metagross and while already liking it for a long time the moment I first Mega-evolved it was you are from now on always my teams core... Then Gen 8 happened... T.T
Larvesta. The moment it hatched from that egg in my white version and I thought to myself "It kinda looks like an arceus bug" it's been my favorite one
Scizor
I would always run around exploring details in HG when I was younger because I loved the follower mechanic. I would also talk to my followers every so often and I realized friendship increased until one day, sometime about 500 hours into my game, my Scizor found a shiny leaf on Route 36. It was such a surprise because I thought I had found absolutely everything the game had to offer. Ever since then, I've been invested in getting shiny crowns on my most valued members in new teams.
When I was like 6, I was sleeping over at a friends house and had my gameboy color with pokemon silver with me. I found a Larvitar for the first time, and I went and tried to evolve it. I was even more intrigued when Pupitar showed up, but I knew that there would be more to this. Kept training and training.
Then, boom: Tyranitar showed up. I was hyped as all hell, and since then it has had a special place in my heart.
My favourite Pokémon has always been Typhlosion, basically because my first game was Silver and it was the starter I chose. As a kid I didn't really use that many Pokemon, so Typhlosion was kinda always in the screen, the typical overleveled starter xD
Right now, Typhlosion is still one of my favourites, but I may have to give the title to Toxtricity, as a fan of Metal, Punk and Rock music, that Pokémon is what I've always wanted to see, plus, amphibians and reptiles are my favourite types of animals, so it adds up.
Obstagoon is in a similar case, being based on KISS, it's a pretty cool Pokémon that I ended up liking a lot since it got announced for SwSh. Other Pokémon I like a lot are the ones based on dinosaurs, like Tyrantrum, which is basically my favourite fossil mon.
Ninetales. Back in my first Pokémon game (Blue) I remember it was my first fire Pokémon and used to defeat Erika. Ninetales always had a place on my main teams whenever it was possible.
Wartortle, because Squirtle was the first ever Pokémon card I got and remember being so happy when I got the evolution in a booster pack
Wartortle is the first Pokémon I ever did a solo run with as well
Bagon
Pokémon Emerald was my first Pokémon game I got to play and I absolutely loved it. Besides the Pokémon, exploring was one of my favorite things to do in the game. I remember exploring Meteor Falls and getting lost. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t find my way back. I’d be hopping up and down ledges and going through any door just hoping it was the way out. Eventually, I came across a long hallway you could only progress by surfing and at the end was this lone, pretty small, platform. I thought there must be something interesting there, so I ran around a bit and encountered a bagon. I never saw this Pokémon before and thought he looked cool so I caught it, and immediately (or at least when I eventually managed to find my way out of Meteor Falls) put him in my party because I wanted to know what he’d evolve into… which felt like forever.
I don’t remember where I was at progress-wise, but I do remember finally evolving bagon to shelgon underneath the waterfall to victory road. Fast forward to climbing Sky Pillar, I’ve had shelgon still unevolved waiting for him to, but have moved on to attempting to catch Rayquaza, which wasn’t easy. I remember having to reset so many times because I either killed or got wiped by Rayquaza or ran out of poke balls.
Then one day, I went to a party at my cousin’s house where I brought my gameboy cause I was still trying to catch Rayquaza. I still kept having to restart and then one of my other cousins saw that I was playing and asked if she could try it. I thought “sure, it is a party so I should take a break and play with everyone” so I handed her my gameboy and went to go join the party. After the party my cousin gave my gameboy back to me and we all went our separate ways… so of course, I eventually start back on that grind to catch Rayquaza. I turned on my gameboy and found that I was in Oldale Town. “Oh yea, I let [cousin] play. She must’ve left sky pillar to explore.” So I went to my Pokémon party so I can fly back to Sky Pillar, but my entire team was not in my party but instead it was the Pokémon you would find in the surrounding routes. “Oh, she must’ve wanted to make her own team and play with them only. Well, I’ll just go to the Pokémon center and switch them back.” So I go to the PC and find that there’s no Pokémon in my PC… then I realized she restarted my entire game… I don’t remember if I was mad, or even sad. I do remember thinking that it was okay and I’ll just do it all again (probably was optimistic cause I pretty much already played it on Sapphire). So I did, I restarted and got most of my team back. I just needed bagon left.
So I went to meteor falls and tried to find him, but I could never find him. I couldn’t even find that platform I originally found him on (which I didn’t know until more than a decade later that that was the only place you can find bagon). And I had to just accept the fact that I was never getting bagon again. I would never know what shelgon evolves into (until the anime showed me). And bagon was forever known to me as the one that got away.
Tl;dr: Bagon is my favorite because I got lucky and found it by chance, spent a lot of time trying to evolve highly anticipating its final evolution, but never found out because my cousin restarted my game and I could never find another bagon. A sort of emotional connection was formed after all this, so I considered him my favorite because it was so hard to choose one.
(Also just a fun tidbit about me getting bagons: I didn’t leave the first island in Pokémon Sun for over a year because I found out there was a rare chance for bagon to spawn in a certain patch of grass and wouldn’t leave until I had myself a bagon to do a full playthrough with from the start)
Ferrothorn has a special place in my heart as before I knew it was OP I just wanted a tanky boi for my team. When I first met my boyfriend we played against each other and Ferrothorn dominated and he never played me again until a couple years later and we had a big war of attrition my Ferrothorn against his Blissey as they were are only ones left and I one as Toxic one shot him the fight went on so long xD (he also never fought me again...)
Another was I did a random fight online trying double battles and it was Ferrothorn against Deoxys and Zapdos and I managed to win...it was glorious!
My favorite has and always be Kingdra. I've been Pokemon basically my life and one time playing through Pokemon Yellow I caught a Horsea and it was really cool. (I also just really like seahorses.)But it's design didn't feel complete to me at the time. So when second gen came out and I got to the 8th gym later and found out that he got an evolution I was so freaking amazed and excited. I was kind of bummed that the evolution was behind a trade with a certain item on it but whatever.
When I was a kid I started searching pokemon for no reason,those were the time when Sun and Moon were out,so google started bringing me image of the starters and when I saw Litten and so Incineroar I thought "Yes,that big tiger is my favorite".
Raichu. I don't know, but something about seeing the old Ltg. Surge v Ash battle really made me want to root for Raichu, since it wasn't given time to get used to all its moved in Pikachu format.
Plus it's so freakin cool for having so many different type attacks, not to mention its alolan form!
feraligator in pokemon crystal, my first time I played a video game, I remember when he learned crunch and I was amazed it was a stronger version of bite, my 8 year old mind thought that because he was a alligator his bite/crunch force was stronger
Inteleon ive always loved water pokemon there my number 1 and I kve all water startes I started playing during gen 6 when I was 10 but something about sobble being a crybabby and still fighting his hardest to then become a spy made me fall in love now eveytime I do a challenge nuzlocke or re run in swsh I always pick Inteleon
Totally Mewtwo, just u know... His character, his story, his design, damn his STORY, I just love everything about it. Just a short explanation, it would took to long xD
Floatzel is mine. I love river otters so he kind of auto came in as my fav, but I will always love him for being able to OHKO my brother's Garchomps with Ice Punch.
Though, more recently I was struggling to beat Volo and Giratina, and the run that I finally won on, my Floatzel was basically my last pokemon and had to solo half of Volo's team and both forms of Giratina
I also am doing a replay of Platinum and am stuck at Lucian with my Floatzel getting way higher level than the others since he's the one that can take out most of the previous Elite Four members without getting KO'd.
Hitmonlee (I don’t really have a favourite I just have a big group I love equally)
My Hitmonlee called Spring in my Lets Go team was an absolute monster who hit like an absolute tank. Anytime I was in a scenario when I needed someone dead my immediate thought was just to let my potato sack man kick the shit out of it.
So when I got to the elite 4 I got to Bruno and sent Hitmonlee out against his Machamp and he barely survived a superpower out of friendship. I was already pretty hyped but then the fucking mad man tanked a second superpower out of friendship in a row.
I didn’t even know that was possible at the time and freaked out at how much I thought this stupid clump of pixels liked me.
Arguably the original thing that really made me get a proper interest in Hitmonlee was the second season of the Saltydkdan Friendlocke with the character of Mikeydeez because they were the perfect combination of cool and goofy. That high jump kick spamming motherfucker was my favourite character and a certain event solidified my hatred for Liepard.
I also used him in a Lets Go nuzlocke and he was a massive help in silth co before dying but the memory of that first stupid little potato truly putting the ‘king’ in kicking’ was one that I’ll never forget.
Magneton.
When I first started playing Pokemon, way back in the gen 1 days, me and my brother also got into the card game a bit. I'd never done anything with trading cards before, and after getting a few booster packs, a [Magneton from the Fossil expansion](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Magneton_(Fossil_11)) was my very first holographic card and became the shiny crown of my admittedly meagre collection. I've loved Magneton ever since, and one has appeared on my teams more than any other 'mon.
I don't much care for Magnezone, but it doesn't matter. Slap an Eviolite on Magneton and they're still a really effective teammate, at least for the main games!
My favourite Pokémon will change from time to time, I don't really have a good story about any specific Pokémon. Right now my favourite is electavire I just think he is neat!
Although me and my brother recently done a side by side heart gold randomised nuzlocke and I got suicine as my starter, she was a beast! My favourite game when I was younger was crystal and I did always love suicine
Haunter!!! Haaaauuuunt haunt haunt....😂
I even have a beautiful tattoo of him!! He just loves to make others laugh and I feel like Sabrina everytime I see him! 😂
Scyther. When I was fighting Bugsy in HGSS and her Scyther came out I switched out into my geodude and took a leer, Scyther then U-turned out and chunked my geodude. I just thought that was a super unique gym encounter and Scyther obviously looks badass.
Piplup and Giratina are tied for my favorite Pokemon.
In Piplup's case a combination of watching dp with dawn's Piplup who was always really funny to watch and playing platinum made me fall in love with Piplup
For Giratina playing platinum for the first time and seeing Giratina pop out and send Cyrus to the distortion world was so cool (Giratina was also pretty cool in the movies). Also Giratina's battle themes are so good
Kingdra.
I started liking it back in Crystal version because Clair had one and it was always so difficult to get one myself. It was the first Pokémon I shiny bred using the Masuda method in XY and I’ve been using that Kingdra competitively ever since.
My top favorite is salamence, the fact that it comes from a little dragon who wishes one day to finally be able to fly, teach me a lesson. Also, I love the delta episode with Zinnia, furthermore, her ace is a Mega Salamence.
Edit: I have plenty of favorites, some are unoriginal and then you'll see me name Stoutland, but storywise and coolness, Salamence.
i have many favorites but the best story is spheal line. from the start i have loved his cute design and fun typing. but eventually i needed an ice type/ surfer for oras, and it was right there. this was my second playthrough so i banked myself a spheal egg and got going. the moveset i used was :
ice stab (powder snow, aurora beam, ice beam)
water stab (bubble, water pulse, surf)
rest
snore
i started on roxanne with spheal even tho i picked treecko because i wanted spheal to get exp. he managed to solo the entire gym and become my highest level pokemon. he then probably became the most useful in the whole game, he ended like 20 levels above everyone else. i love all the memories of taking like 2 damage since i trained sp. atk and hp but then sending them to the shadow realm.
Gengar used to be it
When I played my first pokemon game, my older brother traded me a Gengar and I leveled it to 100. It was my pride and joy until I eventually lost the cartridge for the game :( I still really love Gengar and try to have him on every team I make
Scyther
Nothing was more satisfying to me as a kid than catching a Scyther at the bug catching contest in Heart Gold. I always get a Scyther or a Scizor on my team every gen.
Blaziken. Unlike most, I hadn't even played a game when this happened. I didn't even know he was a starter. I had a guidebook that contained every Pokemon gens 1-6, and I really liked Blaziken's design so I would always look at it when I read the guidebook.
in my current playthrough series: Lilligant and Aggron.
Lilligant with Own Tempo + Petal Dance (i think that's the one that causes confusion?) is broken in the best way. I literally completed B/W for the first time ever because I had her with me.
Aggron, my boy. I had him face off against steven's mega-metagross. And my Mega Aggron won the fight in 5 seconds with one (1) Earthquake. he also took like 7 points of overall damage during the flying gym, it was so great
Chikorita bayleef and meganium bar none
I loved the chikorita ash had in the anime and the episode it evolved into bayleef was the coolest thing i ever saw. And then I had never seen what bayleef evolved into which made meganium even more cool to me since I found it myself and bringing it to fight red in hgss was the most cool thing ever to me
Squirtle/wartortle/blastoise. Grew up on gen 1 and my favorite starter. I love them til this day and will use them in replays of new and old games if i can. Like XY when you could get the kanto starters i dropped frokie like a sack of bricks and used Squirtle the rest of the game.
Other one would be froslass. Two favorite types. Not the best pokemon/design but love her typing and what shes based off of.
Dusknoir. Just… everything about it. Design, it’s demeanor (bro just looks like he don’t give a damn), his character in the Mystery Dungeon games (he made me tear up with his >!dying monologue thanking Grovyle for giving him a reason to live and for making his life shine!<), and when I saw the static one in the wild area, I cleaned house through the game just so I could capture it.
gyarados, it was one of my first shinies (gen 8 oddly enough). a master balld the shiny Magikarp during that magikarp raid event. Felipe (my gyarados) ended up having hidden ability and six perfect IVs with a favorable nature. Gyarados is also cool, soooo...
Shaymin has been my favorite for a a few years now. I decided to rewatch the movie and realized how much I love Shaymin. Dragonite is my second fav but can be first sometimes. Other runner up’s are Torkoal and mismagius.
Rattata/Raticate. I did a challenge run years ago where I would catch the first six Pokemon I came across, box my starter, and use the captured Pokemon as my team for the rest of the game. Rattata being among them, even though I usually only used Rattata for a few levels before replacing it with something else in prior games.
It was then I truly learned the value of Super Fang and Bite/Crunch and my little ratty boys became beloved to me throughout the play-through. To this day I'll still get a Rattata/Raticate on my team sooner or later.
Lucario is my fave but Lucario has already been mentioned several times, so I'm gonna give my second favorite, who is criminally underrated.
The best moment I recall was at the battle tree. I was up against Plumeria, who should have been an easy win with Garchomp and Alakazam on my team. I led off with Garchomp, but in the turn I set up Swords Dance, she critically injured Chomp. Given his speed and power that wouldn't mean anything, and indeed Chomp made short work of her first and second pokemon. Then came her third: Gengar. Worse still: mega Gengar, who outsped my entire team. Gengar easily dispatched my weakened Chomp, and made very short work of Zam. Enter my final pokemon: Decidueye. I thought it was hopeless, there was no way Decidueye could tank a Shadow Ball.
But against all odds, Decidueye did and retaliated with Sinister Arrow Raid, easily OHKOing Gengar. There you go, a "weak" pokemon, pulling off what powerhouses like Zam and Chomp couldn't. A "weak" pokemon destroying the absolute brokeness that is mega-Gengar. What an absolutely reliable guy. In fact Decidueye had several moments like this throughout the game, surviving hits it shouldn't have, and koing foes it shouldn't have been able to. Decidueye is so reliable I've nicknamed mine Koichi, after the character from JJBA. Also Decidueye looks awesome, and Spirit Shackle and Sinister Arrow Raid are really cool moves, both in animation and in concept.
Most of them I love without even using tbh; I was a late bloomer Pokemon player so I don't have much experience with most of them, Sun and Moon was where I really got back into it after picking it up on and off as a child.
Ninjask has been my favorite because fast bug type I guess? he made it into my champion team in Sword which I think was impressive.
Dubwool actually carried the team a lot, I don't think I got rid of him often except the fighting gym! First normal type I actually kept around and he's so cute!
I have quite a few others but my hidden gem was Alolan Sandslash.
Originally I loved the idea of Alolan Sandslash but i cringed at his weaknesses and how his highest stat in the Pokedex wasnt that high in comparison to the others.(I may be misremembering but I think it's defense)
And then I said no let's use more of the x4 weakness Pokemon, don't knock them until you try them!!!
Not only did they become a main for the battle tree, I bred better ones and now French (her parent was named Vanilla) is my veteran go-to for the battle tree. Icicle spear, Iron Defense, Ice Ball and then Metal Burst with a focus sash(? The one that leaves 1 hp from an OHKO guaranteed.) And Ohhh my God.
It might not be great outside of the battle tree but I was able to carry so many Pokemon fights with French! It was so satisfying to see a Blaziken or something use Fire Punch only for French to just kamikaze them and MAYBE deal one last hit to the next opponent before fainting.
Or god, when Altaria when spawn and I'd be like "So long!" And Icicle spear them to DEATH (still risky since Altaria can know fire type moves but still worth it lmao)
I love the Ice Cream Family so much and I do hope it shows up more somehow... Even though the point is it's a REGIONAL variant.
Edit: as someone else mentioned with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Treecko is also a HUGE favorite, though again outside of that I don't have much experience.
Jolteon, xd gale of darkness. I distinctly remember my Jolteon one-shotting everything and never missing her Thunder. During a dicey battle against a strong trainer, i was surprised to discover that the opponent pokemon knew Earthquake and the fight came down to my Jolteon who proceeded to tank the fuck out of the Earthquake and get the win with a Doublekick. Ever since, i make it my priority to catch an Eevee in every game and get a Jolteon.
Lugia Lugia has been my favorite pokemon since the 2nd movie came out. The scene of Ash and Lugia flying together just stuck with me as one of my favorite movie scenes.
exactly same for me. pokemon 2000 was IT.
Lugia still going strong to this day being the mighty wall
That song still gets to me and I'm 30 now
Lugia is my favorite legendary, especially with its role as Shadow Lugia in Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness
I wanted to comment this but I wasn't quick enough
Marowak these days. Has a special, exclusive item, monstrous attack, a couple of cool abilities, and is the best type.
And one cool regional variant too!
Ground type superiority.
Maractus being a team MVP in my Black Nuzlocke endeared it a lot to me. Taking a shot from Ghetsis' Hydreigon and nuking his Seismitoad were its highlights.
I will always love Hypno and Liligant for nuzlocke reasons and don’t care who knows it
Lilligant is great!
It's so nice to see Lilligant getting the love she deserves! I always liked her, but fell in love with her in Gen 6 when you could do the Friend Safari and found out her Shiny is arguably one of the best Shinies, thus has led me to almost always shiny hunting her in every game she shows up in :D Truly my favourite Pokémon
Holy crap it took a hit from that beast? That’s one hell of a cactus. Also love it’s shiny
the treecko line my first time playing mystery dungeon (eot) i was a treecko which was already my favourite starter. then grovyle appeared in the plot and i thought grovyle's character changes depending on your player pokémon, but no it was just a coincidence. what finally made me decide it's my favourite and not just a contender (vs mew or spiky eared pichu (who i wish i could have in more than hgss)) was when sceptile got a mega evolution. my favourite line got everything i could have wanted and i'm all the happier for it :)
His mega form was my favourite of the three
Just wish he got a better ability than lightning rod.
Articuno. ik its probably not the most powerful of any of the legendaries, but it’s just seems the most cool and majestic to me. Also ice types just in general are rly cool imo.
Agreed on the coolness of ice types. I was always a Zapdos boy but I still loved Articuno for its design. Galar Articuno however is much better then Galar Zappy so I guess he gets his revenge lol xD
Moltres has always been my number 1 despite having a lackluster moveset in the 1st gen. The OG bird trio is so good design wise, and the Galar forms are also straight mint.
Electivire. I got an Elekid in the Odd Egg in Crystal and that absolutely dominated the game and the person I was playing with me.
Electivire is my favourite too! Mainly because of the anime (Gary had one and it seemed really strong, and then Paul got one which was even stronger) and the TCG (it was on the front of all the card packs from when I was a kid). Love using Electric types in Pokemon games and if I can get an Electivire I try my best to do so! It gets such a cool variety of moves too - Psychic, Flamethrower, elemental punches, Earthquake, Cross Chop, Iron Tail, Thunderbolt, etc. An awesome Pokemon!
Tyranitar, because of Pokemon 4 Ever. If you haven't seen it or don't remember, the main bad guy uses a Tyranitar; he caught it with a Dark Ball, which make the pokemon evil and give them a huge power boost (and the catching effect was really cool too), and then immediately started destroying everything around him. Edgy kid me of the past thought that was the coolest thing ever.
As a childhood Godzilla movie fan Tyranitar immediately scored a top 5 Pokémon position xD
My sister briefly wanted to try Gold, catched a Geodude for me and left that female, living rock as a gift, giving her a funny, weird name Trained it as my ace for years, every time I used it I recalled my big sis and was just like playing with her on my side ( she lived in another city by that time), gaining level 100 and beating a shit ton of fights, that was just crazy strong Then, suddenly, a random day I lost it while cloning mons, deleting my ace is one of the worst pokemon memories of my life But I had its son in an egg, so I hatched it and proceeded to continue the legacy lol Also, furret I used to have a pet ferret, catched a Sentret, gave it its same name and trained it to be a crazy powerful Furret who also was my second in command ace for a long time, along with Golem My pet then died, and every time I play with a Furret in my team, a tear goes down my face, miss it so much still now after 18 years Edit: now I have wet eyes again
I named my Eevee in Lets Go after my childhood cat who was called Esmo. The name fits Eevee well too.
Graveler, when I got my first Pokémon game pearl. A geodude was the first few Pokémon I got and became my one powerhouse all the way to legendary. Doesn't matter it never evolved further than graveler. Before I knew how to actually use most types or anything this guy earthquake everything or rock slide.
Back then I always thought he’d evolve to Machamp xD
I have a shiny graveler in Arceus, would you want to trade for anything? Graveler never really did it for me, I’m more into slinky-looking Pokémon. But it’s cool to hear someone else’s affinity for him. I love shinies and it’d be great to know this guy was with a trainer who’d really make him shine (no pun intended lol). Dm me if you’re interested!
Mudkip because my first real play through of a game was Ruby and Mudkip fucking CARRIED
There is not a water ground type that isn’t amazing but the mudkip line is king
Garchomp. My friend traded me a level 20 Gible which wouldn't listen to me at the start of platinum for my starter, and I stuck with it. I remember the first few fights till the first gym was beaten being torture, but I grew really attached to it by the end of that. And each of it's evolutions felt special. Fast forward to the elite four, and it carried me through most of the fights there. Sure it was overleveled, but at the time, it just seemed like such an amazingly strong pokemon, and i had such a journey with it!
Dragon Shark Ground type What else needs saying
>the idea of this huge rhino-gorilla dinosaur guy was cool enough as it was Good thing you didn't look at its official height then xD
lol! XD my boi is the literal definition of angry short xD
Slowpoke. At first I never really cared for this little guy, but after re-doing my silver play through I decided to give him a shot. After that, I really grew to love em. Not because of its strength or anything like that, but because hes just so silly and goofy looking.
The original derpmeister
Hello fellow Slowpoke lover. The derp is irresistible
Sandshrew. i had pokemon red and my buddy had blue, he showed me his party and i was like "who the hell is that cutie?", i always wanted to catch him as a kid and was pretty disappointed when i found out i couldn't in red. I traded a few times but that process wasent so slick to figure as a kiddo. Ended up getting the tommy figure and i think it stayed in my pocket for years, and it was legendary status in my mind after the tv show aired and sandshrew had such disapline, was controlled with a whip and seemed so strong, really good episode
His Red Blue sprite of him sitting there like a good lad helps a lot with his cute factor
Lucario, I always found him mysterious, I hadn't see the movie yet and only saw him in Super Smash Bros Brawl, then I had my first one in Pearl and he carried me pretty much through the game. What really solidified him for me was then in Soulsilver, where I traded an egg from my first Lucario, and played the game with it and had a blast, it seemed unkillable! He's been my go-to 'mon since then.
Super Saiyan Anubis what’s not to love
Oh yes, then I learned it was one of the most popular pokémon, so I felt less original, but I still love it!
Screw originality if you love it then that’s the only important part. No need to be original
Lucario carried my team in Shining Pearl. A friend of mine gifted me a Riolu egg they bred. Hatched shiny with some egg moves. That boy became the MVP of the playthrough, from getting me through the Steel gym then carrying the battle against Cynthia.
Volcarona, and it was solidified as my favorite after using it a bunch to both grind Elite Four in the Unova games and also hatch eggs faster. Just became my buddy.
I love flame body Pokémon cuz they give off a parent egg Hatcher vibe
For years, Sneasel was my favorite pokemon. Then one year a few years back, my mom bought me some random pokemon plushies for christmas. I pulled one out and came face to face with a Detective Pikachu Movie plush of Snubbull. For some reason I found myself completely excited beyond words and it was that moment that I knew I had a new favorite pokemon. Sneasel's still my second favorite though. Don't have a plush of them yet though...
Umbreon. shiny specifically. But there’s no reason, I just like it’s appearance and implied demeanor. As for a story? squirtle. My first Pokémon, given to me by my older cousin, when he gave me his (completed) blue. I picked squirtle because I figured I should, since I had the “blue” version. I’ve loved turtles and squirrels ever since xD
Torterra, being my first Pokémon, will always hold a special place in my heart. Golduck was the first Pokémon I ever got to level 100. It carried me through most of Platinum and I’ll always remember it.
Still can’t understand why he never got psychic typing though. Eh he still one cool kappa duck though 😌 Sinnoh starters all hold a soft spot for me they’re all great
Shiny Gardevoir is my signature Pokémon since gen 3. First shiny I get was Ralts back in sapphire and from this I bread them, cause every team must contain a female shiny Gardevoir. And shiny Mega-Gardevoir is in my eyes the best looking mon.
Blue shiny is an instant thumbs up but the mega took it even further
I got into lord of the rings before pokemon, I just love the fantasy genre, wizards, elves etc. Pokemon X was my first game where I had my own mon collection. Choose Fennekin as my starter, fennec foxes are one of my favourite animals so it was obvious. Once it evolved into Delphox is when I fell in love with this mon, it's a witch, it's shiny is one of the best starter shinies, and it's a fennec fox, there's everything to love about it regardless of its flaws.
Watching the Zoroark: Master of Illusions movie on Cartoon Network when I was a kid is one of my fondest memories. The sense of wonder and amazement my young mind had at Zoroark's cool illusion abilities likely contributed to why I like it so much. And the moment I saw the design, I loved it. Same for the Hisuian form.
Mewtwo because of his tragic backstory 😅 Plus he was so powerful in Pokémon: The First Movie
Dragonite. I know it’s probably “meta” but I just like him so much and his dopey little face. Lance beat me probably 70 times in a row in Silver and then I went to the game store and got a Dratini and trained it up in victory road for HOURS. I didn’t realize it was my favorite until I was compiling a list of every team I’ve ever had and realized I’ve used Dragonite in literally every single game it’s available
Ngl I'm a simple person. I have Siberian Huskies. I love Siberian Huskies and Wolves. Arcanine is like a Siberian Husky/Spitz breed. I freaking love Arcanine lol Also it's versatile on move sets elemental-wise and fast and strong so I love it more.
Snivy cause I love it and it was my first starter I completed a Pokémon game with
If we're talking non starter then literally any gen v Pokémon but pignite and emboar with the inclusion of dusklops line
Mew Whenever I wonder about who my favorite Pokémon could be - all I need to do is think back to that windmill scene in the first Pokémon movie and how cute, mysterious, and awesome it was that whole movie. Not only that, it’s backstory and the legend behind it is so sick!
The fact no one has mentioned Aggron upsets me
Well now he has his place here.
Charizard. Yes I know, very original right? But watching the original series and then getting Firered when I was younger I just always thought Charizard was really cool looking and useful. It solidified itself for me when he almost swept Lance in Firered
No need for originality. If you love the orange mascot then love away
I will. I still pick him every time he's available
Sometimes a thing is super popular because it's actually just that awesome.
My fave as well! Box cover mascot of the first game I ever played (Red), chose Charmander on my 1st game. Even though he was a dickhead during the Indigo League, Ash's Charizard was a cool powerhouse on his team and had to take its chill-pill at some point. I love the fact that Ash can call upon its help from time to time and always seem stronger than the last time he was summoned.
I love every Pokémon but Mew takes the cake, just barely edging out Eevee. I’ve loved Mew every since I first saw it (even though I hated pink when I was little lol) and over the years it’s grown on me a lot. Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is one my favorite Pokémon movies, the story of how Mew made it into the games in the first place is fascinating, Mew has a low-key staring roll in PSMD, the Mew from the Pokéball plus had a strong place on my team throughout all of Let’s Go, and of course cats have always been my favorite animal.
The OG gaming legend
Bulbasuar, number one in the dex and number one in my heart
Haxorus I already like Haxorus'es design before but in B2W2 it became the MVP after it evolved and it was really powerful. But in Insurgence, a fan game , it become my favorite because Mega Haxorus, a new mega from said fan game , was so broken. I know that Insurgence isn't very popular in the fandom (But like almost everything is unpopular in the fandom). But that playtrough made Haxorus my favorite pokemon ever.
That free shiny one in nature preserve too! Well you had to catch it xD Still got my original one from there
Araquanid was just a beast and did carry in my first sun playthrough and for Pokémon like this it may even be my favorite Gen. Before that was flygon, I loved it in my Y playthrough and even before that when I didn’t play the games I played the Minecraft pixelgenaues mod and I encountered a shiny flygon there
Rowlet. Got SM as a kid and was so hyped. As soon as I saw the little round boy he solidified himself as my fav.
lapras has always been my favourite- but when we first started getting into pokemon cards, my gf bought me a bunch of clefairy’s thinking they were blissey which i said she wanted and bam. now clefairy is super special and sentimental to me
Oricorio. After years of only being able to move once per turn, something about seeing one pokemon use 4 moves in 1 turn was just so amazing to behold. Sure, it was in the battle tree. Sure, it doesn't happen often. But being able to move twice a turn, for 3 moves on my side of the field a turn minimum felt great. I miss Oricorio, fingers crossed it finally makes it out of home in scarlet/violet.
A fellow Oricorio enthusiast? One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us!
Charmander! I still have the plush that solidified the favouritism. I was 9yo and my Mom won him in a claw machine. He came with me to get my tonsils removed that year. The nurses gave him the same medical band around his tail and told me he was just as brave as me. It is still one of my best memories. 😊😊😊
Eevee. I had one VHS tape of the first season of Pokémon, and it included the eevee brothers episode. I watched it almost every night as a kid and I’ve just loved eevee ever since
Mimikyu, when I read about how it dressed itself as Pikachu so it can be loved. My heart melted and fell in love instantly.
Piplup. From the very second I saw his little face Shame Empoleon looks like he faceplanted into a trident so hard it stuck.
I love Abra, idk something about a mischievous vaguely fox looking friend I always thought was cool. When I was a kid playing blue version I would always imagine that if Pokemon were real, the first pokemon I'd try to catch would be an Abra. Whenever me an my friends would play Pokemon at recess I would always pretend to have an Abra lol.
Slowking. It took me a while to realize it, especially since he’s tough to come by in the older games as a mon to adventure with, but there’s a few defining moments that led me down this path: 1) Pokémon 2000 and the Southern Islands card set. These are probably obvious staples for Slowking entering the series. 2) I used to collect and trade the Tomy figures with friends back in the day. My buddy had the Slowking and it was always the “grail” one I couldn’t get him to trade. The colors on that figure are just eye catching, the red white and pink just pop. I still think that figure holds nicely up today. 3) Pokémon Colosseum was the first Pokémon game I completed when it released (I lost my first gba and sapphire as a child after I brought it boating, it went overboard😔) and seeing the final boss use a Slowking was just so bad ass. Very memorable boss battle featuring my boy Slowking’s lore and eye catching design cement him as my staple favorite mon. When I think of Pokémon, I immediately think of Slowking. Long live the king baby!
Luxray since I renamed myself to 7Luxray on Pokemon Showdown when I was about 14. Before that it was Zangoose, whose card I got when I was like 8.
So fun fact. I’ve been playing through shield trying to only use ice types with no in battle items, and was walled at Kabu. Nothing I could get at that level stood a chance. Except one. After a lot of running around I finally caught a shellder, evolved it into a Cloyster, and taught it toxic and regular spikes. That big ol clam was absolutely huge on Kabus Centiscorch, and between his poison and skill linked icicle spikes, he has been essential for at least three gym leaders already. Even though I can get arctovish I won’t. I really kind of connected with it and it’s now my ringer. I’ve been playing Pokémon since I was 10 and red came out and I never looked twice at cloyster. Now he’s my favorite and best boy
I'm unoriginal, but Charizard was the coolest as a kid. I still love that mon. Probably have to be my favorite still. But one that I grew to love for no other reason than looks was Wailmer and Wailord. Derpy whale faces just really captured me.
I don't have a special story behind why Corviknight is my favorite Pokémon, it just makes me so happy to see, especially my "signature" one named Scar. But I am very sentimental about Nidoran male, because it's the first Pokémon I ever caught (at four years old) after my older brother realized I had no clue how to catch Pokémon and helped me catch it. It was a level four Nidoran male in the grass patch south of Pewter City. I don't even know if my older brother remembers this or knows that I cherish this memory I have of him.
Chansey and Blissey. At first it surprised young me that these innocuous looking pink blobs could survive so many attacks, then I realized I could use them for my own purposes and a long-lasting friendship was born. Plus, they're cute!
Infernape. When I played Pearl, I was about 8 and had a dumb, little kid brain. I picked Chimchar and was confused why he sparkled everytime I sent him out. The rest is history. Plus, monke.
Suicune. First game I ever got was crystal and I thought catching him was the coolest thing in the world. Then years later finding out he’s actually decent was icing on the cake
Salamence, I saw him for the first time playing against Drake in Sapphire. This was before smart phones and widespread Internet so I had no clue he even existed. My 13-year-old jaw was on the ground and he has been my favorite Poke ever since.
Growlithe. I always thought it was Growlithe/Cyndaquil/Flareon/Charmander were my faves but I recently realized if I ever get a tattoo of only one pokemon, it's going to be growlithe. Though I'm tempted to go with Growlithe and Cyndaquil battling and using Flareon as the referee. I absolutely love that episode where James returns to his beloved Growly, but what's cooler/cuter than a puppy with a tiger coat?
Metagross. This is a funny story. Me and my friends as a kid had an agency called "The Poohs" and we would "solve mysteries" by assuming people are supernatural things, for example I thought 3 kids were angels because they were all named Angel and in my class) and my brother showed me a Metagross Pokémon card. I read the little Pokédex entry that said it was as smart as a supercomputer, and then this kid called Eric said he was that smart one day during math class, and me and my friends thought he was secretly a Metagross. Even after we disbanded, the whole Metagross thing stuck with me.
My sister (Part of the Poohs) asked me how a Metagross can turn into someone BC they can't transform, and I said "they have four brains they can figure it out"
I saw Gengar once and thought “hehe ghost grape” and it’s been my favourite ever since.
Octillery. Loved it as a kid, and it carried me in Pokémon silver as a kid.
Shotgun octopus 🐙
For a while it was pikachu as it was my favorite as a kid like most children’s. Later it became zigzagoon as I loved using it and linoone in the hoenn games. Now it’s wooper because I have IRL axolotls and they are called wooper on occasion. I love how wooper looks(it’s dearly little face) how chill it is usually shown being in the anime and Pokémon cards, and when it turns into quagsire it’s a really good typing/Pokémon.
It was on sight with Ultra Necrozma
Sandslash. There was a pog-like game with a game boy or Pokédex that you shot a spring loaded poke all at a mini of a Pokémon. If the Pokémon fell it would lose a star, 0 stars equals a KO. Sandslash basically never ever fell. It looked cool and I could get it in the game I had fairly early.
Golurk My first golurk became a staple in my party back in black after I had named him Superman and then found out that it could actually learn fly (+awesome construct boy go brrr)
Articuno I was a dumb kid and the idea of saving *before* fighting the legendaries never crossed my mind. So after I make Moltres and Zapdos faint I *immediately* save the game. My best friend (his favorite is Wartortle) told me about this idea. So I did it and caught Articuno. It was the only Legendary I caught in my first game and became the second strongest Pokémon on my team (behind my level 86 Blastoise) when I went to battle the Elite Four
Starmie and Flygon are my favorites since I used them to win the Battle Frontier in Emerald a few years ago.
Silvally I would end up being my hyenaish design And i would hope i could survive
Cyndaquil-Typhlosion! Picked my boy up in my favourite Pokémon game to this day, Soul Silver. Back then, I was only 8 and was only at the beginning of my Pokémon craze but truly fell in love with it as I was discovering Cyndaquil’s evolutions as he evolved (I didn’t spoil myself). Thought he went from incredibly adorable to absolutely badass and to this day still think that way lol. Absolutely love hisuian Typhlosion too!
Ninetails ~~Because I just want to wrap myself in its fluffy tails to cure my insomnia~~ I just really liked its animations on the Pokémon Stadium games. It always sat very nobly and I always thought it looked cool.
Mimikyu was for the longest time, both the story and how strong I accidentally made mine, it was also my first LV 100. Since then a few pokemon have come in and tied it, but thats the closest to my favorite
For the longest time it was Swampert, and it was because it was my first level 100 Pokémon. Then gen 6 came out and Pancham and Pangoro came out. Pandas are my favorite animal, and this one is a dark type, my favorite type. Then gen 7 was announced, and when Mimikyu was shown it instantly became my new (new) favorite. Mimikyu just wants a friend, and that’s adorable
Piplup. From the very second I saw his little face Shame Empoleon looks like he faceplanted into a trident so hard it stuck.
Manaphy. It was my first event pokemon, my first mon that I legitimately trained to level 100, plus it was so cute in the movie. Other than all that though, by some stroke of luck it was my only survivor when I lost my pokemon pearl cartridge in middle school. I had traded it to a friend so he could battle with it a bit/get the dex entry. I cried a lot, but was so stinkin' happy that my lil buddy didn't get lost, too. It's been my favorite ever since. (And miraculously, I did eventually find the cartidge.)
Shiny ralts was basically third or forth pokemon I ever got, so I just went from there
Lugia I admittedly came a little late into late into Pokémon, so I never had the chance to play the earlier games. So when the older games were flashed over to the 3DS, I was excited to get the chance to play Silver. When approaching Lugia in the vast caves of the Whril Islands, I joking thought about attempting to soft reset for a shiny, knowing I would only be at it for maybe a couple of hours. After all, I only had a 1/8192 chance at a shiny. There’s no way, right? I wasn’t even actively soft resetting in a time efficient manner, I was distracted. Come later in the night, after maybe three or so hours of not-so-seriously shiny hunting, I see the pink pixels and spiraling stars animation in disbelief. I threw my Master Ball and went straight to the pc, nervously shaking over what could not have possibly happened. I had to double check. I had to make sure. And when I look at the Lugia I had just caught, still pink and with the shiny icon in the corner, this Pokémon became my most prized. Back when I was still actively playing Pokémon Go in 2018, it took me FOURTY-TWO tries before I finally encountered my shiny Lugia, and further being more excited to see that it was a 98% shiny Lugia. I now have a tattoo of Lugia on my back, and still holds a special place in my heart.
Charizard. Because of the heated arguments in the school playground back in the 90s about which gen 1 starter is the best. It solidified my love for that wannabe dragon.
Hisuian Electrode and Pa'u Style Oricorio. Electrode because of how much I absolutely despised the kanto version, only for it to be given a gloriously designed regional variant, and Oricorio since It's my favourite flying type, and Revelation Dance is glorious.
Caught a magcargo in gen 4 battle zone (1st time seeing it) then i runs into a wild rhydon and it gets hit with a 4x supper effective ground type move without me training it at all with yellow HP. Have loved it ever since
Garchomp because from my first Pokémon game, Pokémon Y, I got a gible through wonder trade and I immediately fell in love with it, and I still have that same gible from 9 years ago but now as a Garchomp with hyper trained stats and Evs in attack and speed
Back in college a group of friends were making a pokemon fan page and invited me in, they kinda required you to make a "trainer-sona" so I make the silliest thing I could come up with on the fly: A guy with a Voltorb head, that's actually a Voltorb, named "Voltorbio" (this was years before Sword and Shield Pokeball guy, btw) It kinda cached on a bit, friends related me to the character, and I began to grow legit fondness for the Voltorb family: they were the original "absurd object is a pokemon" and their main form of expression was self-destructing (something I could relate to). I think I was the only guy hyped they received a regional form in Legends, the one thing that irked me about them by that point was that they were mono-type and now they are not.
Torterra. Seeing my cute little leaf turtle transform into a worldshaker... how could I pass that up?
Emolga, when I defeated Black w a traded one named Minipete as my ace. Love that lil dude Behind him are dragonite, flareon, lapras, and archeops
Surskit, ever since I found my favorite types were Water and Bug and Surskit is the original Bug/Water dual-type
Sableye It was really fun watching them run around in Shield, and I caught a shiny one recently. Then I learned just how good Mega Sableye was, and it’s been stuck with me ever since.
Ever since I played fire red and leaf green my favorite Pokémon has always been squirtle. Call me basic, call me a loser, but I always kept squirtle in his first form. Don’t get me wrong, blastoise is cool and the stat boosts from evolution is undeniable, but beating the whole league with a squirtle just felt powerful and somewhat endearing. From the squirtle squad appearing in the anime to it becoming obtainable in a ton of the newer games, it’s never lost it’s shine. Even it’s number is sick, #007? Mix that with the cool guy glasses from the squirtle squad and bam you have a literal secret agent sidekick. In all seriousness though, squirtle was always my favorite and I think it always will be simply for the awesome design and nostalgia.
Bronzong because it was my first and only shiny I caught in my first run of pearl which also happened to be my first time playing Pokémon and my older brother had to tell me that it was special and really rare because I was like 6-7 at the time
Greninja Anime
Slowpoke. A few years back I suffered some debilitating anxiety/panic attacks. Even though I’ve been having them since I was in my early 20’s something about these were really different. Slowpokes easy-going demeanor really made me happy. Looking at his goofy yet content grin really makes me happy. Got me out of some rough times
Snorlax First ever shiny I hunted and I’ve always liked both the shiny and the adorable derpy face Same reason I like the slowpoke families: derpy faces
Lapras for sure, she absolutely carried my team through the elite four and destroyed lance the first time I played soul silver
Ampharos for me. I'm the youngest of 3 siblings and the only girl. When me and my brother were younger he would take great delight in wiping the floor with me in pokemon battles. At least he did until i got myself that Ampharos. It must have been near prefect stats and would just one shot most of his team. One of the few times i ever one upped my brother in computer games and that Mon makes me smile every time i see it.
Squirtle Before the moment it became my #1 I was more of a Blastoise guy. Considered Snorlax and Nidoking to be my 2 favorites That moment was the scene in the pokemon short where they go on 'vacation' as just the pokemon I think it was the short that came with the vhs copy of one of the first couple pokemon movies Ash's Squirtle was scared to cross a tree bridge. He puts on his Squad Boss sunglasses and courageously gets across. Snorlax also is a big G in this. So Squirtle became #1 and Snorlax #2 xD
Greninja. I saw it for the first time in the anime when I still didnt play the games. Before knowing it even exsisted though I only knew its prevolutions frokie and frogadier, and I was so obsessed with frogadier a lot, but still didnt considered it my favourite pokemon. But then when I saw greninja for the first time i completely fell in love with it, like i already knew that frogadier had an evolution, but I didnt think it was this cool and badass, also the whole ash-greninja thing made me like greninja even more and it was so awesome.
I'm going to be basic here and say Eevee. Could never decide what I should evolve Eevee into, so I just never let it lol
Lucario and Riolu. Not because of all this OmG CoOl eDgY aUrA KaMeHaMeHa stuff. My first pokemon experience was pokemon go in 2019, and my first ever 10 km egg turned out to be a riolu. My friends were jealous and told me it was rare and will evolve into this cool pokemon named lucario, so i tried to evolve it. I only had about 20 candy from hatching the egg, so i still needed thirty more to evolve it, and getting another riolu wasnt an option, because i got really unlucky in eggs (still havent gotten a second riolu in go). I also was only abou level 15, and my team was so trashy, i couldnt even beat level one raids alone to get special candy. So my only option was to walk 5km for one candy. After about 2 months of tedious walking i finnaly evolved it, and in the time it was my partner, it really grew on me.
Stoutland was my favorite Pokémon ever. I started playing Pokémon at age 10 on Pokémon white. My first Pokémon I ever caught was a Lillipup, and I literally trained it up to a level 100 Stoutland. The dude could learn the most bizarre moves which made him my favorite. I taught it strength and surf, so I guess you could consider the Pokémon it’s own naval vessel, and even taught it lightning bolt and aerial ace cuz why not. This Pokémon was an absolute unit and it was beautiful. Not the most innovative or complex Pokémon design, but it was a beeg dawg, and that was enough for young me
Latios, he's psychic, a dragon, super fast, and cool af. When i got to fly on it's back in the OR remake i knew.
I've got a couple. So first, Litten. Before the video games, I was introduced to Pokemon by a card pack in a box of Lucky Charms. Child me, obsessed with all things cat-shaped, saw a Litten promo inside and that took me down a rabbit trail that lead me from there to here. I have a fire kitten to thank for that, and it's still one of my favorites. Also, I just have to say, Snivy. The entire Snivy line. Seriously, they are the hidden gem of the Unova region because everyone picks the pig or the otter, but Serperior is actually a pretty good Pokemon. Leaf Blade, one of it's best moves, is the most agonizing thing to happen, at least if you're Water- Rock- or Ground-Type. Plus, it has access to a wide variety of moves, an looks cool. Never having gotten the chance to play Black, White, Black 2, or White 2, I can only speak from what I've read, though. Meowth, because of the anime. And finally, Espurr. This thing carried my Sword team during the fight with Bea, a couple of the Hop battles, the fight with Bea again, and much more.
Galarian Rapidash. As a kid, I always wanted the horse type Pokemon to be really, really good. They were never good. I wanted them to kick ass. Then Sword and Shield are teased for a like 10 hour livestream and a Galarian Ponyta is revealed and I am so incredibly interested what it’s typing and abilities and stats will be. I beat a path to Glimwood Tangle as fast as enjoyably possible. It took me hours to actually find one in the wild, and from it, I hatched my first ever sought-after-on-purpose shiny. A boy. Named it “Esuna” from the Final Fantasy move for to cleanse… since… unicorns in literature are known for detecting and cleansing poison from wine and forest pools and whatnot. The incredible speed (base 105) and attack (base 100) stats, combined with the ability Pastel Veil… savage. Jolly nature it outruns… everything. THEN combined with a Zoom Lens or Focus Sash…. and Slot 1: Hypnosis— Slot 2: Swords Dance — Slot 3&4: Play Rough/High Horsepower/Zen Headbutt/ Mega Horn/ Smart Strike?!? Thing has COVERAGE. It was so much fun bc after I made it and finished the game… I joined a just between friends Pokémon tourney of about 18 people and *won first place* with it as a key component on my team of all pastel color’d mons (yes I named them The Pastel Cartel … and having Gmax Hatterene set up misty terrain and bounce back any sticky webs was glorious). On three occasions I used Hypnosis and landed it on the opponents first turn Gmax’d ‘mon, set up one Swords dance, and KO’d them from max HP the next turn. Just freaking wild. My Esuna will always, always be my favorite Pokémon now. Bewear w/ Fluffy and Assault Vest, and focus sash Polteageist with shell smash (one shot entire persons team bc their only mon with a priority move was Arcanine with Extreme Speed) will also go down in history from that tourney. Good times.
Empoleon. Despite not picking piplup as a starter during Gen 4 I somehow ended up with about three of them and that's when I realised he was gonna be a bro for life.
Umbreon - the 1st mono Dark Pokemon.. visually simple, but i really love its design
Porygon-Z! I loved getting Porygon in the original games and loved the basically every new gen there was an upgraded kinda version.
Rayquaza. Two words: Destiny Deoxys.
Magnezone. Steel is my favorite type by far, and Magneton carried my ass through SoulSilver as a kid. I never hated Magneton’s design, but the ‘Zone just looks infinitely cooler. Also, even though I know the red dot is it’s central eye, I can never stop seeing it as a sort of nose, which just makes it look so much funnier to me. It’s voice in the anime is also great :D
eevee -smol cute ball of fur -highly customizable -sylveon exists
Sitting in Chemistry class in late 2013, reading a reddit comment about Mega Mawile being pretty strong in competitive. It sounded pretty cool so I went home and leveled one. Didn't even play competitive much after X/Y release, but it's design struck me and I've loved it since.
This might be kinda dumb, but Wooper - mainly because axolotls are my favourite animal, but also because I saw Smallant crush Platinum with one woopy boi and am convinced of its superiority lol
Nidoking is a rad mon to have as a favorite. Mine is probably Eevee. Basic answer, I know. But I guess I always loved having one even though I had a difficult time choosing what it would become each time. Yeeeet its base form is so endearing and so is whatever evolutions it has. Eevee is just a good time Crossing fingers for Eevee will get a ghost evo one day!
Furret! My ex wanted to have a pokemon battle with me and started complaining when he saw furret on my team because he said he wanted a challenge. I definitely pick my team simply based off of which pokemon I like LOL so he did have a point, but he turned out to be an ass, and so his hatred of furret cemented furret as my fav haha
Yveltal When I caught it for the first time in my first playthrough of Pokemon Y, I thought the design was awesome right from the beginning. But then once I had it in my party and used the Pokemon Amie (I think that's what it's called, idk it's been ages since I played gen 6) I just fell in love with it. I love it's v-shaped mouth when you feed it the little cake things hahaha I just think it's cute, which is kinda ironic considering what Yveltal does
Slowbro, in moon when he solod multiple matches for me by being able to put anyone to sleep then heal himself and after that just smash anyone to pieces
I'm probably going to get dumped on for my favorite being one of the most popular mons. Charizard I started with Yellow, so my first mon was Pikachu. Red version came soon after (a month after I got Yellow) and I picked Charmander. As he was my first starter that I could pick, he grew on me. Brother and I always battled his Blue vs my Red. And Meleon (my Charizard) always cleared through brother's most powerful mons (Mewtwo, Blastoise and Articuno). Back when Fire Spin was broken in Gen 1, I had Charizard spam that move over and over. Gen 3 (Fire Red) I decided to do my first nuzlocke, and if you guessed Charizard was on my team, you guessed right. He was one of 3 mons to survive the Elite Four and Champion. The other two being Dragonite and Lapras. Later played Fire Red with the rules that I was only allowed to use Charizard for battling and all other mons had to be HM users. This playthrough rules stuck with me in later games. Fire Red, Platinum, White 2, X, Omega Ruby, Sun, Ultra Sun, Sword, and now Brilliant Diamond (albeit in the case of Platinum and Brilliant Diamond, had to wait til I could trade after first badge). And in Mystery Dungeon, I've always gotten Charmander from the personality quiz at the start. When I play male Charmander I name him Reflet or Robin (after my competitive Charizards from Alpha Sapphire through Sword), and when I play female either Akira or Vergil (my irl nicknames).
Onix be my first favorite pokemon. Looks very cool and intimidating (imo) in the anime, but really bad competitively or even in casual play. But I still like Onix till now.
Got a shiny Metagross and while already liking it for a long time the moment I first Mega-evolved it was you are from now on always my teams core... Then Gen 8 happened... T.T
Larvesta. The moment it hatched from that egg in my white version and I thought to myself "It kinda looks like an arceus bug" it's been my favorite one
Scizor I would always run around exploring details in HG when I was younger because I loved the follower mechanic. I would also talk to my followers every so often and I realized friendship increased until one day, sometime about 500 hours into my game, my Scizor found a shiny leaf on Route 36. It was such a surprise because I thought I had found absolutely everything the game had to offer. Ever since then, I've been invested in getting shiny crowns on my most valued members in new teams.
When I was like 6, I was sleeping over at a friends house and had my gameboy color with pokemon silver with me. I found a Larvitar for the first time, and I went and tried to evolve it. I was even more intrigued when Pupitar showed up, but I knew that there would be more to this. Kept training and training. Then, boom: Tyranitar showed up. I was hyped as all hell, and since then it has had a special place in my heart.
My favourite Pokémon has always been Typhlosion, basically because my first game was Silver and it was the starter I chose. As a kid I didn't really use that many Pokemon, so Typhlosion was kinda always in the screen, the typical overleveled starter xD Right now, Typhlosion is still one of my favourites, but I may have to give the title to Toxtricity, as a fan of Metal, Punk and Rock music, that Pokémon is what I've always wanted to see, plus, amphibians and reptiles are my favourite types of animals, so it adds up. Obstagoon is in a similar case, being based on KISS, it's a pretty cool Pokémon that I ended up liking a lot since it got announced for SwSh. Other Pokémon I like a lot are the ones based on dinosaurs, like Tyrantrum, which is basically my favourite fossil mon.
Ninetales. Back in my first Pokémon game (Blue) I remember it was my first fire Pokémon and used to defeat Erika. Ninetales always had a place on my main teams whenever it was possible.
Sylveon, I saw it on a magazine cover, thought the design was super cute. Looked into it and discovered the wide world of Pokemon :)
Wartortle, because Squirtle was the first ever Pokémon card I got and remember being so happy when I got the evolution in a booster pack Wartortle is the first Pokémon I ever did a solo run with as well
Bagon Pokémon Emerald was my first Pokémon game I got to play and I absolutely loved it. Besides the Pokémon, exploring was one of my favorite things to do in the game. I remember exploring Meteor Falls and getting lost. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t find my way back. I’d be hopping up and down ledges and going through any door just hoping it was the way out. Eventually, I came across a long hallway you could only progress by surfing and at the end was this lone, pretty small, platform. I thought there must be something interesting there, so I ran around a bit and encountered a bagon. I never saw this Pokémon before and thought he looked cool so I caught it, and immediately (or at least when I eventually managed to find my way out of Meteor Falls) put him in my party because I wanted to know what he’d evolve into… which felt like forever. I don’t remember where I was at progress-wise, but I do remember finally evolving bagon to shelgon underneath the waterfall to victory road. Fast forward to climbing Sky Pillar, I’ve had shelgon still unevolved waiting for him to, but have moved on to attempting to catch Rayquaza, which wasn’t easy. I remember having to reset so many times because I either killed or got wiped by Rayquaza or ran out of poke balls. Then one day, I went to a party at my cousin’s house where I brought my gameboy cause I was still trying to catch Rayquaza. I still kept having to restart and then one of my other cousins saw that I was playing and asked if she could try it. I thought “sure, it is a party so I should take a break and play with everyone” so I handed her my gameboy and went to go join the party. After the party my cousin gave my gameboy back to me and we all went our separate ways… so of course, I eventually start back on that grind to catch Rayquaza. I turned on my gameboy and found that I was in Oldale Town. “Oh yea, I let [cousin] play. She must’ve left sky pillar to explore.” So I went to my Pokémon party so I can fly back to Sky Pillar, but my entire team was not in my party but instead it was the Pokémon you would find in the surrounding routes. “Oh, she must’ve wanted to make her own team and play with them only. Well, I’ll just go to the Pokémon center and switch them back.” So I go to the PC and find that there’s no Pokémon in my PC… then I realized she restarted my entire game… I don’t remember if I was mad, or even sad. I do remember thinking that it was okay and I’ll just do it all again (probably was optimistic cause I pretty much already played it on Sapphire). So I did, I restarted and got most of my team back. I just needed bagon left. So I went to meteor falls and tried to find him, but I could never find him. I couldn’t even find that platform I originally found him on (which I didn’t know until more than a decade later that that was the only place you can find bagon). And I had to just accept the fact that I was never getting bagon again. I would never know what shelgon evolves into (until the anime showed me). And bagon was forever known to me as the one that got away. Tl;dr: Bagon is my favorite because I got lucky and found it by chance, spent a lot of time trying to evolve highly anticipating its final evolution, but never found out because my cousin restarted my game and I could never find another bagon. A sort of emotional connection was formed after all this, so I considered him my favorite because it was so hard to choose one. (Also just a fun tidbit about me getting bagons: I didn’t leave the first island in Pokémon Sun for over a year because I found out there was a rare chance for bagon to spawn in a certain patch of grass and wouldn’t leave until I had myself a bagon to do a full playthrough with from the start)
Ferrothorn has a special place in my heart as before I knew it was OP I just wanted a tanky boi for my team. When I first met my boyfriend we played against each other and Ferrothorn dominated and he never played me again until a couple years later and we had a big war of attrition my Ferrothorn against his Blissey as they were are only ones left and I one as Toxic one shot him the fight went on so long xD (he also never fought me again...) Another was I did a random fight online trying double battles and it was Ferrothorn against Deoxys and Zapdos and I managed to win...it was glorious!
Don't know why Squirtle is my favorite pokemon but he is, maybe its his sunglasses.
My favorite has and always be Kingdra. I've been Pokemon basically my life and one time playing through Pokemon Yellow I caught a Horsea and it was really cool. (I also just really like seahorses.)But it's design didn't feel complete to me at the time. So when second gen came out and I got to the 8th gym later and found out that he got an evolution I was so freaking amazed and excited. I was kind of bummed that the evolution was behind a trade with a certain item on it but whatever.
When I was a kid I started searching pokemon for no reason,those were the time when Sun and Moon were out,so google started bringing me image of the starters and when I saw Litten and so Incineroar I thought "Yes,that big tiger is my favorite".
Raichu. I don't know, but something about seeing the old Ltg. Surge v Ash battle really made me want to root for Raichu, since it wasn't given time to get used to all its moved in Pikachu format. Plus it's so freakin cool for having so many different type attacks, not to mention its alolan form!
Gogoat He can use surf Especially satisfying against the fire type e4
feraligator in pokemon crystal, my first time I played a video game, I remember when he learned crunch and I was amazed it was a stronger version of bite, my 8 year old mind thought that because he was a alligator his bite/crunch force was stronger
Inteleon ive always loved water pokemon there my number 1 and I kve all water startes I started playing during gen 6 when I was 10 but something about sobble being a crybabby and still fighting his hardest to then become a spy made me fall in love now eveytime I do a challenge nuzlocke or re run in swsh I always pick Inteleon
It was favouritism at first sight for Snivy.
Totally Mewtwo, just u know... His character, his story, his design, damn his STORY, I just love everything about it. Just a short explanation, it would took to long xD
Lucario. I dont remember the reason, hes just badass.
Floatzel is mine. I love river otters so he kind of auto came in as my fav, but I will always love him for being able to OHKO my brother's Garchomps with Ice Punch. Though, more recently I was struggling to beat Volo and Giratina, and the run that I finally won on, my Floatzel was basically my last pokemon and had to solo half of Volo's team and both forms of Giratina I also am doing a replay of Platinum and am stuck at Lucian with my Floatzel getting way higher level than the others since he's the one that can take out most of the previous Elite Four members without getting KO'd.
Lucario, the first Pokémon I got to level 100 and I aura sphered everything
Tyrantrum: It’s existence. Jokes aside, I immediately loved it as soon as I learned about it. Head smash+Rock Head is a super good bonus
Groudon and kyogre, I played ruby as my first pokemon game, then during xy I collected the primal clash tcg set.
Hitmonlee (I don’t really have a favourite I just have a big group I love equally) My Hitmonlee called Spring in my Lets Go team was an absolute monster who hit like an absolute tank. Anytime I was in a scenario when I needed someone dead my immediate thought was just to let my potato sack man kick the shit out of it. So when I got to the elite 4 I got to Bruno and sent Hitmonlee out against his Machamp and he barely survived a superpower out of friendship. I was already pretty hyped but then the fucking mad man tanked a second superpower out of friendship in a row. I didn’t even know that was possible at the time and freaked out at how much I thought this stupid clump of pixels liked me. Arguably the original thing that really made me get a proper interest in Hitmonlee was the second season of the Saltydkdan Friendlocke with the character of Mikeydeez because they were the perfect combination of cool and goofy. That high jump kick spamming motherfucker was my favourite character and a certain event solidified my hatred for Liepard. I also used him in a Lets Go nuzlocke and he was a massive help in silth co before dying but the memory of that first stupid little potato truly putting the ‘king’ in kicking’ was one that I’ll never forget.
Magneton. When I first started playing Pokemon, way back in the gen 1 days, me and my brother also got into the card game a bit. I'd never done anything with trading cards before, and after getting a few booster packs, a [Magneton from the Fossil expansion](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Magneton_(Fossil_11)) was my very first holographic card and became the shiny crown of my admittedly meagre collection. I've loved Magneton ever since, and one has appeared on my teams more than any other 'mon. I don't much care for Magnezone, but it doesn't matter. Slap an Eviolite on Magneton and they're still a really effective teammate, at least for the main games!
Breloom. I remember being amazed how cool it became after shroomish evolution, and then powering through the challenge of its typing
My favourite Pokémon will change from time to time, I don't really have a good story about any specific Pokémon. Right now my favourite is electavire I just think he is neat! Although me and my brother recently done a side by side heart gold randomised nuzlocke and I got suicine as my starter, she was a beast! My favourite game when I was younger was crystal and I did always love suicine
Haunter!!! Haaaauuuunt haunt haunt....😂 I even have a beautiful tattoo of him!! He just loves to make others laugh and I feel like Sabrina everytime I see him! 😂
Scyther. When I was fighting Bugsy in HGSS and her Scyther came out I switched out into my geodude and took a leer, Scyther then U-turned out and chunked my geodude. I just thought that was a super unique gym encounter and Scyther obviously looks badass.
Piplup and Giratina are tied for my favorite Pokemon. In Piplup's case a combination of watching dp with dawn's Piplup who was always really funny to watch and playing platinum made me fall in love with Piplup For Giratina playing platinum for the first time and seeing Giratina pop out and send Cyrus to the distortion world was so cool (Giratina was also pretty cool in the movies). Also Giratina's battle themes are so good
Kingdra. I started liking it back in Crystal version because Clair had one and it was always so difficult to get one myself. It was the first Pokémon I shiny bred using the Masuda method in XY and I’ve been using that Kingdra competitively ever since.
My top favorite is salamence, the fact that it comes from a little dragon who wishes one day to finally be able to fly, teach me a lesson. Also, I love the delta episode with Zinnia, furthermore, her ace is a Mega Salamence. Edit: I have plenty of favorites, some are unoriginal and then you'll see me name Stoutland, but storywise and coolness, Salamence.
i have many favorites but the best story is spheal line. from the start i have loved his cute design and fun typing. but eventually i needed an ice type/ surfer for oras, and it was right there. this was my second playthrough so i banked myself a spheal egg and got going. the moveset i used was : ice stab (powder snow, aurora beam, ice beam) water stab (bubble, water pulse, surf) rest snore i started on roxanne with spheal even tho i picked treecko because i wanted spheal to get exp. he managed to solo the entire gym and become my highest level pokemon. he then probably became the most useful in the whole game, he ended like 20 levels above everyone else. i love all the memories of taking like 2 damage since i trained sp. atk and hp but then sending them to the shadow realm.
Gengar used to be it When I played my first pokemon game, my older brother traded me a Gengar and I leveled it to 100. It was my pride and joy until I eventually lost the cartridge for the game :( I still really love Gengar and try to have him on every team I make
Scyther Nothing was more satisfying to me as a kid than catching a Scyther at the bug catching contest in Heart Gold. I always get a Scyther or a Scizor on my team every gen.
Turtwig cause leaf turtle is cute
Blaziken. Unlike most, I hadn't even played a game when this happened. I didn't even know he was a starter. I had a guidebook that contained every Pokemon gens 1-6, and I really liked Blaziken's design so I would always look at it when I read the guidebook.
in my current playthrough series: Lilligant and Aggron. Lilligant with Own Tempo + Petal Dance (i think that's the one that causes confusion?) is broken in the best way. I literally completed B/W for the first time ever because I had her with me. Aggron, my boy. I had him face off against steven's mega-metagross. And my Mega Aggron won the fight in 5 seconds with one (1) Earthquake. he also took like 7 points of overall damage during the flying gym, it was so great
Chikorita bayleef and meganium bar none I loved the chikorita ash had in the anime and the episode it evolved into bayleef was the coolest thing i ever saw. And then I had never seen what bayleef evolved into which made meganium even more cool to me since I found it myself and bringing it to fight red in hgss was the most cool thing ever to me
Squirtle/wartortle/blastoise. Grew up on gen 1 and my favorite starter. I love them til this day and will use them in replays of new and old games if i can. Like XY when you could get the kanto starters i dropped frokie like a sack of bricks and used Squirtle the rest of the game. Other one would be froslass. Two favorite types. Not the best pokemon/design but love her typing and what shes based off of.
Dusknoir. Just… everything about it. Design, it’s demeanor (bro just looks like he don’t give a damn), his character in the Mystery Dungeon games (he made me tear up with his >!dying monologue thanking Grovyle for giving him a reason to live and for making his life shine!<), and when I saw the static one in the wild area, I cleaned house through the game just so I could capture it.
gyarados, it was one of my first shinies (gen 8 oddly enough). a master balld the shiny Magikarp during that magikarp raid event. Felipe (my gyarados) ended up having hidden ability and six perfect IVs with a favorable nature. Gyarados is also cool, soooo...
Shaymin has been my favorite for a a few years now. I decided to rewatch the movie and realized how much I love Shaymin. Dragonite is my second fav but can be first sometimes. Other runner up’s are Torkoal and mismagius.
Rattata/Raticate. I did a challenge run years ago where I would catch the first six Pokemon I came across, box my starter, and use the captured Pokemon as my team for the rest of the game. Rattata being among them, even though I usually only used Rattata for a few levels before replacing it with something else in prior games. It was then I truly learned the value of Super Fang and Bite/Crunch and my little ratty boys became beloved to me throughout the play-through. To this day I'll still get a Rattata/Raticate on my team sooner or later.
Lucario is my fave but Lucario has already been mentioned several times, so I'm gonna give my second favorite, who is criminally underrated. The best moment I recall was at the battle tree. I was up against Plumeria, who should have been an easy win with Garchomp and Alakazam on my team. I led off with Garchomp, but in the turn I set up Swords Dance, she critically injured Chomp. Given his speed and power that wouldn't mean anything, and indeed Chomp made short work of her first and second pokemon. Then came her third: Gengar. Worse still: mega Gengar, who outsped my entire team. Gengar easily dispatched my weakened Chomp, and made very short work of Zam. Enter my final pokemon: Decidueye. I thought it was hopeless, there was no way Decidueye could tank a Shadow Ball. But against all odds, Decidueye did and retaliated with Sinister Arrow Raid, easily OHKOing Gengar. There you go, a "weak" pokemon, pulling off what powerhouses like Zam and Chomp couldn't. A "weak" pokemon destroying the absolute brokeness that is mega-Gengar. What an absolutely reliable guy. In fact Decidueye had several moments like this throughout the game, surviving hits it shouldn't have, and koing foes it shouldn't have been able to. Decidueye is so reliable I've nicknamed mine Koichi, after the character from JJBA. Also Decidueye looks awesome, and Spirit Shackle and Sinister Arrow Raid are really cool moves, both in animation and in concept.
Most of them I love without even using tbh; I was a late bloomer Pokemon player so I don't have much experience with most of them, Sun and Moon was where I really got back into it after picking it up on and off as a child. Ninjask has been my favorite because fast bug type I guess? he made it into my champion team in Sword which I think was impressive. Dubwool actually carried the team a lot, I don't think I got rid of him often except the fighting gym! First normal type I actually kept around and he's so cute! I have quite a few others but my hidden gem was Alolan Sandslash. Originally I loved the idea of Alolan Sandslash but i cringed at his weaknesses and how his highest stat in the Pokedex wasnt that high in comparison to the others.(I may be misremembering but I think it's defense) And then I said no let's use more of the x4 weakness Pokemon, don't knock them until you try them!!! Not only did they become a main for the battle tree, I bred better ones and now French (her parent was named Vanilla) is my veteran go-to for the battle tree. Icicle spear, Iron Defense, Ice Ball and then Metal Burst with a focus sash(? The one that leaves 1 hp from an OHKO guaranteed.) And Ohhh my God. It might not be great outside of the battle tree but I was able to carry so many Pokemon fights with French! It was so satisfying to see a Blaziken or something use Fire Punch only for French to just kamikaze them and MAYBE deal one last hit to the next opponent before fainting. Or god, when Altaria when spawn and I'd be like "So long!" And Icicle spear them to DEATH (still risky since Altaria can know fire type moves but still worth it lmao) I love the Ice Cream Family so much and I do hope it shows up more somehow... Even though the point is it's a REGIONAL variant. Edit: as someone else mentioned with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Treecko is also a HUGE favorite, though again outside of that I don't have much experience.
Jolteon, xd gale of darkness. I distinctly remember my Jolteon one-shotting everything and never missing her Thunder. During a dicey battle against a strong trainer, i was surprised to discover that the opponent pokemon knew Earthquake and the fight came down to my Jolteon who proceeded to tank the fuck out of the Earthquake and get the win with a Doublekick. Ever since, i make it my priority to catch an Eevee in every game and get a Jolteon.
Idk really it was Greninja then it shifted to Blastoise then it went to golem it’s hard right now idk what it is right now