Seeing how I had already read the foreword of the 293rd Edition of the Paldean PokeDex, I directly moved on to the first "real" page. Honestly, I kind of expected to see something other than that Wigglet since I was pretty sure that no one wanted to see that thing at the start of their region's Pokedex. There was also the fact that the first few spots were usually reserved for the region's royal species, or at least it was like that in any of the alliance's regions, and from what I was seeing right now it seemed like Paldea had probably done the same.
The first entry of the Index was a little green kitty that was apparently called Spirigatto. It was a grass type and looking at its picture I had a feeling that it was indeed part of the regional royal trio. I had to admit that it looked cute and quite fluffy, but more than that I really hoped that this one would stay a quadruped cat since I was really disappointed when Litten/Torracat ended up becoming a bipedal wrestler of all things. Well, at least Incineroar was a fire/dark type instead of a fire/fighting type as many other regional fire royals ended up being for some reason, though honestly, Incineroar did look like a fighting type.
Anyway, I was not planning to do a detailed reading of the Paldean PokeDex right now since I just wanted to get a picture of all the possible new Pokemon the region hid away first, so after checking Spirigatto's picture and its name I moved on to the next page, which ended up dashing my hopes of a quadrupled cat even before we made it to Spirigatto's final evolution. It seemed that Spirigatto evolved into a still green two-legged cat that kinda reminded me of Zeraora somehow.
I was not sure if it was because of the picture they took, but the evolution, which was apparently called Floragato, looked a little bit like a rebellious teenager, though it still had a pure grass typing. Nonetheless, it looked pretty good even if it was not the quadrupled cat I wanted, so with a little sigh I moved on to the next page, very sure that I would find a third evolution, and I did end up seeing a third green cat, which to me confirmed my earlier assumption that Spirigatto was part of the Paldean royal trio.
The final evolution of Spirigatto kind of looked like a two-legged cat that cosplayed as a masked street performer. This stage was apparently called Meowscarada, which was a bit of a mouthful, and its typing had turned into a grass/dark one. Funny how the second royal cat that had let down my expectations also ended up gaining the dark typing. Still, all in all, I had to admit that my crushed dreams aside, the whole line was pretty cool, so I gave what I assumed to be Paldea's grass-type royal species a mental thumbs up before moving on to the next entry, only for my eyes to widen in surprise/wonder at what I was seeing.
It was, as I had already suspected, a fire-type Pokemon, but what I did not expect to see was a freaking cute little fire dinosaur. The little fire dino was apparently called Fuecoco and was a pure fire type. Feeling very happy about how awesome Fuecoco looked, I directly moved on to the next page, very curious to see how its evolution looked, only to once again freeze in shock, but this time due to what was close to horror. Fuecoco's evolution looked like a freaking clown, or at least I felt that it looked like that due to the stark contrast of emotions I felt at the moment.
I expected an awesome-looking fire dinosaur and what I got to see was a goofy and plump-looking reptile. Crocalor was a pure-fire type, but I honestly just moved on to the next page, not expecting anything from their final evolution. I ended up getting surprised for a third time; At least this time it was a pleasant one. Crocalor had turned into an intimidating-looking fire crocodile with a little fire chick on its snout, and while it was not the dinosaur I wanted when I first saw Fuecoco, it was still an incredible save from whatever happened to Crocolar.
The fire croc was called Skeledirge and was apparently a fire/ghost type, which it honestly did not look like. If I had not seen its typing displayed right below its name, I would have assumed it was a pure fire type or maybe a fire/dark type due to the impression the Skeledirge image gave me. Nonetheless, despite the painful look of Crocalor, I had to admit I liked the Fuecoco line more than the Spririgatto one since Skeledirge looked better than Meowscarada, or at least in my opinion it did. Curious about how the last member of the royal trio was going to be, I opened the next page, and my first thought was "Dewey is that you?".
The water member of the royal trio actually ended up being a little white duck with blue/teal colored feet and a cap/coif-looking crest. The feathers/cap was teal colored as well, and after seeing the primary form of all three royal lines, I had to say that they all looked very good/cute, though I still had to see Quaxly's evolutions before I could decide which final evolution was the best looking one. So, after confirming that Quaxly was a pure water Pokemon even though it looked like it could be a water/flying type since it looked like a duck, I moved on to the next page which nearly made me face-palm.
How did the cute Quaxly turn into this? After the Fuecoco disaster, Quaxly ended up with a questionable-looking evolution as well. In fact, Quaxwell actually looked pretty good if not for one rather glaring problem. The coif had turned into a very big round blue monstrosity that ruined Quaxwell's look for me. Had it not been for that little detail that made Quaxwell's head look like it belonged to an Asgardian from Stargate, I would have most likely liked its looks. Unfortunately, reality chose to piss me off, so after confirming that Quaxwell was a pure water type, I moved on to the next page for Quaxly's final evolution, though I did feel a bit of trepidation at the thought of what it was going to look like.
I ended up being both disappointed and relieved; Quaquaval looked nothing like I would have wanted it to look, but I had to admit that it did not look bad at all. Honestly, if I had to describe Quaquaval, I would say that it looked like a mix of a swan and peacock that was a born flamenco dancer. It did actually look good enough, but I just had expected something a bit different, especially after seeing that its typing had shifted to water/fighting. Nonetheless, now that I had seen all three stages of the royal trio of Paldea, I had to say that the first and third stages of all three were pretty great looking, though Spirigatto was the only one with a good-looking second stage.
Either way, my favorite among the three was Skeledirge since I felt that it looked the best among the three final stage royals; Not to mention that it had in my humble opinion a very interesting typing. Regardless, I would obviously love to get my hands on all three lines if possible, though I would have to find a way to get to Paldea first for that to happen. Yet, before I could even consider heading there would have to find out why there was no contact between Paldea and the alliance during the last three or so thousand years. However, that would have to wait until I had satisfied my curiosity, so I moved on to the next index entry.
I did a double take when I saw that the next Pokemon was a plump pig that looked like a black gymnastic ball with extras like a brown face and a pink snout. The mostly black-colored pig-like Pokemon was apparently called Lechonk and seemed to be a normal type. Going by its looks, I believed that it could have been a ground type as well, but the normal typing was okay as well. Given that it was at the position that usually had the very common regional normal type, like Rattata or Sentret, or bird, such as Pidgey, was placed, I had actually expected the next Pokemon to have the normal and/or flying type from the get-go or maybe a bug typing like Caterpie but Lechonk's appearance happened to throw me off for a few moments.
Usually, the normal types at this position only had a single evolution, so I moved to the next entry prepared to see another pig-like Pokemon. My expectations were met, though in some ways they were surpassed since Oinkologne apparently had distinct gender-specific looks, and that was not even the most surprising part. No, the two images of the female and male Oinkologne gave me the impression that Oinkologne believed that they were (plus-sized) models/superstars. I was honestly not sure what to think of the pictures, so after confirming that Oinkologne remained pure normal types, I chose to ignore them and just move on to the next entry, which per semi-tradition should have to be the regional bird or bug Pokemon.
I could not help but wonder if it would be a single-evolution line like Hoothoot or a two-evolution one like Pidgey. I certainly did not expect to see a picture of a yarn ball with a spider head and spider legs, even if I had considered a possible bug type. The bird I was expecting actually turned into a spider stuck inside a silk ball, which was a first for me, which was definitely not a caterpillar. According to the entry, Tarountula was a pure bug type and there was actually a second image that showed Tarountula outside its silk ball. In the second picture, it appeared like the silk ball was still connected to Tarountula's abdomen, so there was a very good chance that the species specialized in manipulating the silk ball.
I checked the next entry and I could honestly say that I thought that Spidops did not look that different from Tarountula bodywise minus the silk ball and maybe the face/mustache. Anyway, since the bird's place got taken by a bug, I thought that the next entry might be a bird instead since there always was a bird around the start somewhere. Ironically, I ended up being wrong again because the next entry ended up being yet another bug type. Nymble was a grey pure bug type that looked like a grasshopper. It honestly did not make much of an impression on me really, so I was surprised when the next entry, which featured its evolution Lokix did make an impression.
Lokix was a bipedal warrior-looking bug/dark dual type that had slight similarities with a locus, and I had to admit that on the looks aspect alone, Lokix was pretty good, though I was not sure if the same was true for its strength, or rather that of its species, but that would have to wait a bit. I moved on to the next entry thinking that it might finally be a bird, but I ended up looking at a picture of a Hoppip. While Hoppip did have the flying type, it was definitely not what I expected, but I probably should not have been surprised that the Paldean Pokemon Index listed "regular" Pokemon as well.
As one would expect, the next two index entries were on Skiploom and Jumpluff. Funnily enough, the following entry ended up being on a bird Pokemon, though it happened to be another old acquaintance. Entry No.19 to 21 belonged to Fletchling, Fletchinder, as well as Talonflame, and while it was one of the, if not The, most powerful known (non-mega) "common" bird line, it was not the Paldea-bird I was really hoping to see.
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