>>43825513>>43825576*puffball with a goofy expression (Woobat)
>>43825685Another "fan favorite": Chandelure line. What do we have?
Litwick: A candle. A literal candle.
Lampent: A gaslamp. A literal gaslamp.
Then a chandelier. A literal chandelier.
What they have going for the Ghost typing is the will-of-the-wisp. Besides that, just the association of old-fashioned light sources with creepiness.
On the face of it, they are hardly impressive, conceptually, doing the bare minimum while doing nothing to avoid being typical objectmons.
But there's precedent for this sort of design in Drifloon and Drifblim. How do they compare?
Drifloon is a simple baloon-shaped creature with nothing ghostly about it. It is more of a flying type than it is a ghost type, while Litwick at least with the creepy light theming has an intuitive justification for its ghost typing, to pair with its obvious fire typing. Outside of Drifloon's dex entries and color, there's nothing setting it apart. And on top of that, it's extremely simplistic shape- and form-wise.
Drifblim doesn't do much better. It is less simplistic, perhaps even a tad more interesting being a whole hot air balloon instead of a simple handheld one. But, there's still nothing overtly ghostly about it---it's still just a downbeat, object-like flying type like its preevo. Chandelure, on a similar note, is a slightly more detailed design than its preevos, but still does not deviate enough from its direct inspiration to inspire a thinking man's wow. Nevertheless, with its ethereal flames, it must be said that it achieves a ghostly look in itself more successfully than its predecessor did.
All this to say, Litwick line is a middling design in its lack of sophistication, but doesn't fail at what it aimed to accomplish. It will have its share of fans, but it probably wouldn't go down as one of the all time greats---a judgment mostly reflected in its placing in the February Pokemon Day polls amongst its fellows.
cont.
