If you’re the same age as me, or a bit younger, you might remember the Animorphs series. It’s about a group of Californian kids who turn into animals to fight an invasion of alien brain-slugs. It… look, it makes sense in context, okay? Anyway, I follow this one blog, Cinnamon Bunzuh, where two charmingly crazy people named Adam and Ifi review books from this extremely prolific series (and, in Ifi’s case, write truly absurd fanfiction about it), and, as a result of a recent conversation in the comments, I am now going to stat up the alien races of the Animorphs universe as Pokémon.
Why? Because I feel like it, damnit.
Andalites
The inventors of the technology that allows the kids to morph into animals, the Andalites are an advanced race of militaristic but highly spiritual centaur-like aliens who basically see it as their responsibility to police the regions of space surrounding their territory and generally stick their noses in other people’s business. They are extremely aloof and typically disdainful of less advanced species. Andalites have no mouths. They eat by crushing grass and absorbing it through their hooves, and communicate by telepathy. One of the Animorphs, Ax, is an Andalite cadet stranded on Earth.
Type: Fighting/Psychic.
I was originally going to call them pure Fighting-types, because of their obsession with honour and because they don’t have the advanced telekinetic powers that normally characterise Psychic-type Pokémon, but Adam has pointed out that they do have a wider range of psychic abilities than I realised (hey, gimme a break; it’s been a while since I read these books!) so Fighting/Psychic it is.
Ability: Telepathy, Justified or Defiant (Dream World)
No-brainers, really.
Stat Spread: 79 HP, 106 Attack, 70 Defense, 65 Special Attack, 93 Special Defense, 112 Speed
Andalites are not physically tough, but they’re lethally quick with those scorpion-esque tail blades.
Notable Moves: Slash, for obvious reasons. The high-level ones can have Sacred Sword because, let’s face it, that makes way more sense for Andalites than it does for Cobalion et al. Gotta give them Taunt and Swagger, because that’s just what they’re like, as well as Fake Out and Knock Off to represent their above average finesse. Tail Whip, Swords Dance and Double Kick are all thematically appropriate, and maybe Agility, Psycho Cut and Iron Tail too. Stone Edge, because every halfway competent physical sweeper gets Stone Edge. We can probably justify a fair few weird Psychic-type utility moves like Telekinesis, Reflect, Imprison, Guard Split, and Gravity. And, of course, Transform is a given, but since this is a technological ability I’d require them to obtain it from a move tutor or something. Basically, I envision these guys working in a similar manner to Mienshao: fast, powerful physical attackers who also have a toolkit of tricky support moves.
Yeerks
The Yeerks are the primary antagonists of the series. In their natural state, they are small water-dwelling slugs who communicate using sonar blips and can’t do much of anything. Unfortunately for the rest of the galaxy, however, Yeerks are parasites capable of entering other creatures’ brains through the ear canal and taking complete control of their bodies. Much of the series focuses on fighting off their stealth invasion of Earth, which is an incredibly rich prize for them because of its massive population of potential hosts.
Type: Bug/Dark.
Bug for being slugs, Dark for its general connotations of malice and deception. I flirted with Water/Dark, but since they don’t really have any abilities related to water, I figured it wasn’t important.
Ability: Parasite
Okay, we’re going to have to make something up here in order for these guys to work right, and it makes sense for that something to be an ability, which works thusly: when a Yeerk is hit by an attack that requires contact, it will (assuming it survives – be sure to pack a Focus Sash) slither into the Pokémon that delivered that attack and take control. The opposing Pokémon leaves its owner’s team and replaces the Yeerk on the other side of the field. The host’s nature, IVs, and effort points are overwritten by the Yeerk’s own, but its base stats, level and moveset are unchanged. In a link or wi-fi battle, the host Pokémon is returned at the end of the match; in a battle with an AI trainer, you get to keep the host until it is knocked out, at which point the Yeerk slithers out, the host escapes, and you need to find another one.
(I’m not sure how useful this would actually be in practice; it could use some tinkering)
Stat Spread: 35 HP, 25 Attack, 40 Defense, 20 Special Attack, 50 Special Defense, 20 Speed
Unhosted Yeerks are incredibly vulnerable and basically useless.
Notable Moves: Very few. Supersonic and Water Pulse seem necessary for thematic reasons, Taunt, Torment and Snatch would probably be appropriate, and it seems only fair to give them some STAB moves, so Leech Life and Payback will do. As I said, though, they’re not much use without host bodies.
Hork-Bajir
The Hork-Bajir are the slave-soldiers of the Yeerk Empire. Pretty much their entire population is infested by Yeerks, who use their vicious arm blades to slice up their opposition in close-combat. What the Animorphs don’t realise until some time into the series is that Hork-Bajir in their natural state are incredibly peaceful, if dim-witted, herbivores. Their culture didn’t even have a concept of aggression until they were conquered by the Yeerks (at which point the Andalites released a crazy sci-fi face-melting virus on their planet to keep the Yeerks from getting them all). Those terrifying blades? Those are for stripping the bark off the massive, kilometer-high trees that dominate their homeworld.
Type: Grass/Fighting.
I was initially resistant to making these guys Fighting-types, because of my personal interpretation that Fighting as an element is more about honour, pride, and fighting for a purpose than just having ludicrous abs, but then, if Heracross can be an exception, so can these guys (in terms of personality, they’re actually pretty similar).
Ability: Leaf Guard, Unaware or Forewarn (Dream World)
Leaf Guard to reflect their natural advantage in forest terrain, Unaware for their characteristic obliviousness and ability to keep fighting against overwhelming odds. Forewarn as the Dream World ability is meant to represent the Seers, one-in-a-billion prodigies with genius-level intelligence and a gift for strategy.
Stat Spread: 90 HP, 130 Attack, 100 Defense, 40 Special Attack, 65 Special Defense, 81 Speed
Physically tough, but rather dim and much slower than an Andalite, Hork-Bajir are basically brutes in combat.
Notable Moves: Swords Dance, since the Hork-Bajir are, as Ifi likes to say, made of knives. Slash, Night Slash and Leaf Blade are likewise to be assumed. Needle Arm is only appropriate if you squint at it a bit, but would make a good low-level alternative to Leaf Blade. Close Combat makes a lot of sense, and I could probably get away with dumping a bunch of other typical Fighting attacks like Hammer Arm, Submission, Superpower and Reversal on them. Bulk Up, Scary Face and Endure are probably suitable, Rock Climb would reflect their normal lifestyle, we should be able to get away with Earthquake and Stone Edge, and let’s slap on Guillotine just for the hell of it. Amnesia because their minds are pretty empty anyway. Their stat spread is making them look like tanks, so I want to give them Slack Off for healing, since it fits with their natural, indolent lifestyle.
Phew.
It’s getting late, so that’s enough for now. I might do some more of these if people respond positively to this lot.
Pokémaniacal 