>>28037737Blaziken is a very polarizing Pokemon.
I'd say it's probably the worst designed Pokemon for that reason - now before you throw an absolute shitfit, hear me out.
By "worst designed" I mean that it is one of the only Pokemon that does not achieve the goal of its design: it's meant to be a cool and friendly fire monster that kids want to train and partner up with. Instead it looks like a weird bipedal superhero robot - it's too big, too adult-like to be a kid's equal. Blaziken's design would have been fine on a late game Pokemon but when it was released we hadn't had a single humanoid, bipedal Pokemon as a starter. The fact that it comes from the EXTREMELY bird-shaped Torchic makes it all the more jarring.
It also paved the way for more humanoid Pokemon like Emboar, who becomes bipedal for absolutely no reason at all. What people often don't realize, and didn't back in gen 3, is that Blaziken is based on a specific breed of chicken bred for cockfighting in Japan and asia; this chicken is unusually tall because of its long, kicking legs. I guess what they tried to do was swap its legs with its wings to make it look like it's wearing kung-fu pants, but the fact that they put its tail feathers on its head makes it look less like a chicken and more like a super saiyan. Finally, I think they were trying to stylize the coxcomb and beak together, but fucked it up by making it the same colour as the body.
Blaziken is the worst Pokemon designed for purpose. Still cool and I guess we're all over it now.
