>>43234482>Why are other evolution lines better than Piplup's?Your statement was about the final evolutions only, but even so I really think Piplup and Empoleon are both better off being considered standalone. Prinplup does neither of them any favours and causes the line to be a really boring progression.
Blastoise is worse, and pretty bad at that. It doesn't really do much to evolve its line but at the same time it doesn't maintain much of the same appeal as its pre-evolutions. It's an awkward middle ground and the design itself is so clunky that it ends up needing a reiteration for every new piece of media it's in (seriously, look at Blastoise in every generation, in the anime/manga, in its 3D model, in figurines and plushes and in fucking pokken - it's the most inconsistent pokemon there is).
Feraligatr's basic, but appealing. Not much to really love, not much to hate - but honestly that's how I feel about Empoleon as well. Empoleon's a bit better because there's more to it, but I honestly don't feel too strongly either way and I do personally like Feraligatr more.
Samurott's obviously the most questionable one - but I feel it has a lot more to offer than Empoleon and that's what makes it a better design to me. Undeniably it needs some alterations, particularly its back legs need to better support the idea of it standing up, but ultimately I feel its biggest problem is lack of representation. Take the anime as an example, which could have showcased it swordfighting underwater or jousting with its helmet and switching between a quad/bipedal fighting style, but instead we just got this shit
>>43234491. Even its debut sprites didn't show off its swords, which is just sad.
