20 Original Pokémon Who Were Betrayed By Their Types
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Pokémon aren’t as clear-cut as we originally thought. Not only do they have crazy backstories, they also suffer from mistyping! Here are 20 examples.
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Many people have compared the Pokémon series to a glorified game of rock paper scissors. Every creature is assigned a type that is then strong or weak against other types in the game. The players who succeed know how the types work as well as which Pokémon has which type.
What can make this difficult at times is that some Pokémon are hard to tell which type they are. Most are easily identifiable. If it’s red and has flames, then it’s probably a fire type. If it’s predominantly blue, then you’re likely looking at a water type. However, that rule cannot apply throughout the entire series, not even the first two generations alone.
There are several Pokémon who look like a certain type but actually carry a drastically different one. It doesn’t matter how much the Pokémon looks like a standard ghost type; it carries a second typing that makes very little sense in the long run.
Game Freak has done this several times over the years, but we’ll be looking at the originals from the first two generations for this list. Here are 20 unfortunate Pokémon who were betrayed by their types.
20 Not So Mythical
When it comes to Pokémon being mistyped, Charizard is the poster boy. When the franchise was first created, there were only three dragon-type Pokémon: Dratini, Dragonair, and Dragonite. This didn’t raise too many eyebrows, but as the series continued, it became all the more obvious that Charizard deserved a change.
While there are several dragon-types who look like dragons, Charizard looks like a dragon the most.
Yet, he only holds the fire and flying types respectively. It’s especially aggravating when you consider that Exeggutor’s Alolan form turns him into a palm tree and he ditches his psychic-typing in favor of the dragon-type. In no logical world does that make any sense. Charizard is an actual dragon and deserves to be typed appropriately. Thankfully, he had a Mega Evolution to rectify that.
19 Terror Of The Seas
When most trainers catch a Magikarp, they don’t know what to do with it other than let it sit in the PC bank. Those who train it to level 20 will quickly find that they made a great investment, as this useless fish will turn into the mythical sea serpent known as Gyarados. Based on legends of sea dragons and monsters, it makes perfect sense that he would be some sort of water and dragon type. This isn’t the case.
Due to Game Freak only wanting three dragon-types in the original 151, Gyarados was instead given the water and flying types. The issue here is that he can learn dragon-type moves to use in battle. Furthermore, Gyarados doesn’t fly. He is a sea serpent who swims through the regions of Kanto, tackling the unfortunate sailors that get too close. Remind us again why he isn’t a dragon type.
18 Three Heads Are Better Than One
There are a few constants in the world. Grass will always be green. Gas prices will never fail to increase. And Game Freak will never run out of bird Pokémon to create. In the first generation alone, there were at least eight different birds. There were so many that Game Freak considered making “bird” its very own type.
Instead, they came up with the flying type so that more Pokémon would be allowed to have it.
Where it starts to get confusing is that Dodrio has this type as well and can even learn the move “Fly.” Why this is a problem is that Dodrio is based on an ostrich, which is a flightless bird. Likewise, Dodrio can’t fly either. Why on Earth they would give it the flying type with that knowledge is beyond us.
17 The Dream Eater
There were only three dragon types in the first generation of Pokémon, and there were also only three ghost types: Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar. These creatures were created specifically to counter the attacks of a psychic-type Pokémon like Alakazam and Mr. Mime. However, there’s a serious caveat with Game Freak’s thinking there.
In order to counter a pure psychic-type Pokemon, you would assume that Gengar would be a pure Ghost-type, right? Well, Gengar is actually the dual type of ghost and poison (despite not having any design choices to point to that). Where this becomes a problem is the fact that poison types are weak against psychic attacks. Because of this, Gengar’s entire purpose as a ghost Pokémon is defeated instantly. If only more thought had been used there.
16 The Nightmare Maker
Ah, Jynx. When it comes to Pokémon, there has never been one universally despised more than this one. Being some sort of cross between Nicki Minaj and something that tries to resemble a Pokémon, Jynx has been left behind so many times. That said, it’s not hard to tell what type it is. From the purples around it, anyone could see that Jynx is clearly a psychic type. However, Jynx holds another type that’s a bit harder to detect.
Jynx’s second type is ice. How in the world her design would indicate that is anyone’s guess, but nonetheless, that’s her type. Not only can she use attacks to confuse her opponents, but freeze them as well. There is no blue or white in her design (unless you count her eyes), and nothing about her outfit indicates that she can somehow emanate ice from her body.
15 Just A Duck
One of the quirkiest water Pokémon created in the original 151 is Psyduck. This little duck has a perpetual headache that increases some sort of psychic power that’s stored up inside of him. He can also learn moves like Confusion to add a bit of diversity in his attacks.
When you finally get Psyduck to evolve, he turns into the powerful Golduck.
Having a gem in the middle of his head, Golduck can use a few different psychic attacks in battle to turn the ride. You might expect Golduck to have the psychic type as a result, but that’s not the case. He’s just a pure water type despite having moves and design choices that would lead us to believe otherwise. It’s just a baffling decision in his creation.
14 Not Eggsactly What You’d Think
If we had to hold a contest for the weirdest generation one Pokémon, Exeggcute would definitely make it fairly high. After all, it’s just a collection of sentient eggs with eyes and mouths. If you decide to train one of these breakfast platters, then you’ll be rewarded with the powerful Exeggutor, which turns into a massive palm tree.
The standard attacks are present with a sentient palm tree. It has its fair share of grass-type attacks, but there are also several psychic attacks on board as well. Believe it or not, but Exeggutor has the psychic type along with the grass type. Not only does Exeggutor not look like a psychic type by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s an overall odd design, though that’s more of a personal complaint.
13 Creepy And Mythical
Next to Jynx, Mr. Mime is one of the most bizarre Pokémon created in the first generation. It looks strangely like a person and has those creepy hands and smile that could potentially turn it into a nightmare. As you might expect from its design, Mr. Mime is a psychic type Pokémon, which makes a lot of sense. However, its type was altered when the sixth generation rolled around to make it a bit confusing.
Mr. Mime is now a psychic and fairy type.
Knowing what fairy type Pokémon look like and how they work, Mr. Mime certainly doesn’t fit the bill. When you line up Pokemon like Jigglypuff, Clefable, and Diancie, Mr. Mime feels horribly out of place. It’s almost like Game Freak just looked at how many Pokémon they could change to fairy types and just went for it.
12 Water The Odds?
With each generation of Pokémon (save for the second), there are a series of fossils that you can dig up and then take to a science institute to restore to their original forms. The first few to start this trend were Omanyte, Omastar, Aerodactyl, Kabuto, and Kabutops. The latter is based on a horseshoe crab, but is armed with a set of sharp blades that make it a threat on the battlefield.
That said, Kabutops’ type only makes sense when you understand that it’s based on a horseshoe crab (or trilobite): rock and water. However, if you take a look at its design, the rock part makes sense, but the water does not. Omanyte and Omastar have the same type, but they are designed more appropriately. However, there’s nowhere on Kabutops’ body that suggests it can produce water and shoot it out.
11 I’m Ready, Depression
The little Pokémon known as Cubone has always been a sad story. When a new Cubone is born, its mother dies during birth. As such, it always wears her skull in remembrance of her. This has made Cubone a bit of a standout when it comes to the franchise, as people can’t help but feel bad for the little guy.
When it evolves into Marowak, it gains a much better use of its bone and can even throw it like a boomerang, having a bit of style to its fighting. While it’s easy to see that Marowak is a ground type, it’s shocking that it doesn’t have the fighting type as well. The prospect of using attacks like Bonemerang alone would make it a worthy candidate, but its stout design might be the disqualifier.
10 Sudo Typing
Sudowoodo is a Pokémon designed to confuse people. When first introduced in Pokémon Gold and Silver, it took the form of a tree that blocked the path. You could try to use the move “Cut” on it, but it wouldn’t do anything. It’s not until you sprinkle some water on it that it gets agitated and tries to attack you.
However, Sudowoodo is a Pokémon that looks like a tree, yet it hates water.
The reason for this is that Sudowoodo is actually a rock type Pokémon. Complete with all sorts of rock-type moves, Sudowoodo has gone down in infamy for confusing an entire generation of trainers. Thankfully, that confusion has been cleared up now. It’ll still be hard to forgive Game Freak for tricking us like that, though.
9 Flying Cotton Fluff
If we told you there was a Pokémon based on a cotton puff, would you believe us? Whether you believe it or not, Jumpluff exists. Evolving from the adorable Hoppip and Skiploom, Jumpluff is a little cutie that gets carried by the wind. From its appearance, you can easily tell that Jumpluff is a grass type and is complete with all of the moves you’d expect.
That said, Jumpluff also carries the flying type, despite not technically flying on its own. Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff are all extremely light Pokémon and allow themselves to be carried off by the wind. They quite literally go wherever the wind takes them. Somehow, that warrants them having the flying type despite not looking anything like a flying type Pokémon.
8 Like A Rock
Every good generation of Pokémon has its fair share of memorable water Pokemon. In generation two, we were given the doofy-looking Quagsire. This Pokémon that was sort of based on a giant salamander quickly grabbed the interest of players everywhere. When they first fought this Pokémon, they immediately threw electric types at it (after all, that’s the standard protocol when fighting a water type). What they found was that Quagsire was unaffected by electric attacks.
The reason for this is that Quagsire has the dual typing of water and ground. Ground-type Pokémon are immune to electric attacks. While its thick appearance alludes to its typing, there’s not much that would tell players that Quagsire is a ground type. However, the water/ground dual type is extremely useful.
7 Girafarig Backwards Is Girafarig
Take one look at this Pokémon and try to make sense of it. What type do you think it would have? Yeah, we couldn’t guess either. The trick with Girafarig is that it was created as a palindrome in more ways than just its name. Split right down the middle, the Pokémon essentially has two faces and color schemes that are at odds with each other.
Keeping this in mind, its typing makes sense.
Girafarig is the dual type of psychic and normal. That having been said, its appearance alone is extremely confusing to decipher. What kind of attack would such a bizarre Pokémon have in battle? Nonetheless, when you start to break it down, you realize that there was a clever decision going into Girafarig’s type.
6 A Wiggly Squirmy Forretress
Generation two introduced two new types to the mix: steel and dark. As such, steel types were often covered in silver or gray coloring. Dark types were given blacks. Take one look at Forretress and make a wild guess as to which type he is. If you guessed steel, then you’d be correct. However, could you guess its second type?
Forretress is actually a bug type along with the steel type. We suppose the thinking behind this is that its some sort of floating bug trapped in an impenetrable exoskeleton. Even its pre-evolved form, Pineco, is a bug type but doesn’t resemble it at all. Most bug types are actual bugs, but Forretress couldn’t be further from it.
5 The Meanest Fairy
Snubbull and Granbull were some of the most adorably vicious dog Pokémon that Game Freak ever created. From Snubbull’s adorably sour attitude to Granbull’s tough but lovable persona, they embodied everything we loved about dogs. They even sported the appropriate type as a result: normal. However, that all changed once generation six came into the picture.
When Game Freak started backtracking and changing some of their older Pokémon to fairy types, they decided to go after Snubbull and Granbull. There’s definitely an argument to be made for Snubbul, as it’s cute and pink. Granbull, on the other hand, couldn’t be further from a fairy type. It’s big, has massive tusks, and doesn’t look like a friendly companion. Yet, it was given the fairy type for some reason.
4 This Bugs Us
Shuckle is a bit of an odd Pokémon. Not only is it a strange-looking creature, but its potential in battle is also confusing. As it stands, Shuckle has the potential to do the most damage in a Pokémon battle (under some very specific circumstances, albeit). Arguably the most confusing aspect of Shuckle, though, is its type.
Due to its color, it definitely appears like a rock or ground type, which is on the nose.
One of Shuckle’s types is rock. Where we all get confused is in its second type. If you had to search your brain for what it might be, we’d wager that bug is not the first one to come to mind. Yet, Shuckle, a Pokémon based on a turtle, is also a bug type. It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but it’s reality at this point.
3 Ice To Meet You
Sneasel is a sneaky weasel. Get it? This agile Pokémon was introduced in generation two as one of the new dark types. Aptly, it has a lot of the design choices you’d expect. Heavy black colors, a set of razor-sharp claws, and an attitude that could make you run for the hills. Like many other Pokémon on this list, though, Sneasel starts to make us scratch our heads when we look at its second type.
Sneasel is a combination of dark and ice. Where in the world Game Freak fit ice into his design, we’re not sure. Even when they gave it an evolution as an opportunity to make it look more like an ice type, it didn’t happen. Both Sneasel and Weavile have no sort of resemblance to their second typing, making it extremely confusing when new trainers battle one.
2 Not Enough Brain Power
Generation two had to have at least a few bird Pokémon to keep the trend alive. This time around, Game Freak gave us Hoothoot and Noctowl. Where they differed from the Pidgey line is that Hoothoot could have some attacks like Hypnosis to put its opponents to sleep. Later on, when it evolved into Noctowl, it could learn Confusion, a psychic attack.
Noctowl is on this list for essentially the same reason that Golduck is. The hypnotic owl motif points all fingers to it being a psychic type. However, both Hoothoot and Noctowl are just your average normal and flying types. Thankfully, Game Freak would later start having bird Pokémon experiment with different types other than normal and flying. Why they didn’t give it to at least Noctowl is anyone’s guess, but it could be due to the fact that they already had Natu and Xatu.
1 Legendarily Mistyped
The Johto Region is full of many legendary tales of massive Pokémon. Among them is the story of Lugia. According to the natives, Lugia is the guardian of the seas and protects all of the graceful water Pokémon. As such, Lugia is often found near the water and can even learn water-type attacks. It would make sense that this legendary Pokémon is a water type as well, then.
However, those assumptions would be wrong.
Lugia is actually a psychic and flying type. We would understand having this dual typing if it weren’t for the fact that Lugia is the literal guardian of the seas. In the movie, Pokémon 2000, there are several scenes where he is swimming through the water. Why they wouldn’t make him a water type, as a result, is beyond any of us.
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