Judge A Pokémon: Wingin' It

Of the three legendary birds of RBY, Articuno was my favourite as a child. A long flowing tail, nothing out of place, it was really pretty. Unfortunately, that's all it really is. It's pretty, and you might say its design is a work of art, but there's nothing that makes it stand out. Zapdos has the wow factor, Moltres has flames that kind of go everywhere and you can't miss it, whereas Articuno just has a neat design with nothing that really stands out. The monotone coloring also adds to its not standing out, whereas the other two birds have something that makes them more than just a pretty face (even though Moltres isn't exactly the best bird Pokémon of all time...).

Zapdos is one of my boyfriend's favorite Pokémon and I can't really blame him. While it does seem to have the least effort put into its design (in terms of literally being like 13 triangles of various angles), it does look the coolest of the Kanto birds. I think the main reason for this is because the black on the other side of its wings contrasts so well with the yellow... because of this, the fan art of Zapdos is the best of all the birds. Combine bright lighting with black and yellow and you get literally the best special effects you can get in the sky. There is only one flaw with Zapdos, though. There is brown on a body that should otherwise be completely yellow, and this is not okay with me. It looks like a pile of dirt on a beautiful bird. Rest in peace, perfection.

I never really liked Moltres or Rapidash, yet I loved Ponyta, because it was the perfect balance of flames and body. The other two didn't get it quite right. Rapidash's flames look unbelievable—but enough about Rapidash, we're here for Moltres, right? Moltres's flames also look unbelievable, but to a lesser extent. This is probably because, for some crazy reason, I associate it with a water bird, like, a goose, a duck, something along those lines. And as we know, water does not mix well with fire, and therefore it seems illogical to have flames hanging off the side of what should belong in water. Despite that, Moltres has an okay design, but it pales considerably compared to Zapdos, which is considerably more badass.

Ho-Oh was designed so well that I couldn't tell that it looked a lot like a flying turkey until I was in my 20s. Wait... or was that a peacock? I don't know, but it was definitely deceiving to me at first. As a kid, I was in love with Ho-Oh; I thought it was literally the best-designed legendary ever (until I took a glance at Entei and realized I was so very wrong). But in reality... it isn't really. There are only a few poses that Ho-Oh looks good in, which is the Dream World art. Any other pose is pretty much inferior to Fearow. When you look at it from the back, you kind of (again lol) wonder if its feathers at the back have been burnt off or never really grew in the first place. A majestic bird is meant to have long flowing feathers and Ho-Oh's just sit there, pretty much like a broom. Actually, if you grabbed a hold of its head, you could use it as a broom... or for Thanksgiving dinner, but we don't really want Team Plasma involved now, do we? The rest of Ho-Oh is okay, but it feels like its design would flow better if it didn't have the random white coloring underneath, and didn't have green on its feathers at all. I wouldn't mind the white if the green was removed, since the green makes it look less like a phoenix, which it's meant to be based around. Other than that, though, I don't really mind its design; for a legendary it's pretty cool and they could've done a lot worse, so no complaints here!

When I think of Lugia, I get all nostalgic because it was from the movie Pokémon 2000, it was Silver, it was my childhood. While this is lovely and all, nostalgia has shielded me from how badly designed Lugia actually is. For one, I thought it was actually Water- / Flying-type, because it rules the sea. What other reason do you need? But no, 10 years later I discovered it was part Psychic instead of Water. Way to be deceiving, Lugia. In regards to visual design, I don't really get why it has giant flaps for arms. I mean, I don't see how else they could've designed its arms, but they're just so huge and it looks like it'd be a struggle to move them each time. Combine that with huge feet and Lugia seems like it has a rough time doing anything other than flying. I love its face though; it kind of reminds me of a masquerade ball with those purple spikes on its face, which makes me wonder what it's hiding underneath. The last prominent thing about Lugia's design is that it looks a lot like a plane, which leads me to wonder why we don't have planes that look like Lugia. I guess life will just be plane until that really is possible.