#335 ZANGOOSE & #336 SEVIPER
This week we are talking about two Pokémon that get together like Digimon fans and um... being fans of an undeniably successful franchise and piece of impact-making popular culture! BURN! Pokérivalries can be a lot of fun and Zangoose & Seviper represent the immortal archetype in fiction of the rivalry between the mongoose and the snake (usually a cobra, but Arbok already exists so a viper will do).
On a side note, Pokémon heights are something that needs to be fixed like offically because in the anime some Pokémon have fluxuating sizes and, in the official Pokédex the size of some Pokémon is strange-- ex. Charizard should be bigger (a lot of 1st Gen Pokémon seem smaller than they should actually be and I reckon it's to keep to the "whole pocket monster" thing).
Zangoose is an undeniably cool looking Teenage Mutant Ninja Ermine with it's nifty red zig zag pattern that symbolizes the volatile nature of the Pokémon. His pink eyes and permanent scowl give it a certain semblance to Grumpy Cat. Clearly, it's weapons of choice are the large pair of claws on the end of it's long arms. There are plenty of normal Pokémon out there, but Zangoose seems to be cut from a different cloth.
Thematically, he fits his role as a "cat-mongoose" and snake rival with his two abilities, Immunity, which gives it immunity to being poisoned, or Toxic Boost, which actually increases his speed by 50%! Combined with a serviceable movepool and we got a decent enough bruiser that can catch enemy teams offguard in the NU tier. Yet, still, I might've prefered if it was maybe like normal/fighting type?
Seviper's design also has a lot of work put into it that I think helps it stand out amongst third gen and remains popular (he was good enough to be Jessie's Pokémon in the anime). The red eyes, fans, and scythe on the end of his tail leave nothing to chance-- Seviper is designed to be a deadly venomous predator and, with the golden scales, appears to be armor plated to fight it's natural rival in nature. I really dig Seviper's color scheme and it seems to have the same sort of well-thought out aesthetic we would see moving forward in the series.
Yet, while having an impressive design, I think that, mechanically, Seviper is pretty dull. Just another poison type with inappropriate stats. Maybe it could've been poison/dark or poison/fighting? Just anything to make it more appealing than just another vanilla poison Pokémon.
And really, while 3rd Gen did a lot to improve Pokémon's competitive scene and the games, I still think they dropped the ball when it came to designing many of it's Pokémon on a mechanical level instead of focusing on gimmicks and the like. That's my two cents.
