You guys play pokemon because you like critters right? Well not just cus of critters. You like the fantasy aspect of it. You like that it takes you to another world. Even if there are still some banal concepts here and there it generally excites the imagination.

Stantler doesnt do that.

Stantler is, for all intents and purposes, just a deer. Even Herdier looks better despite also being similarly bland. At least its cute. Stantler has nothing.

- Why does it have chubby cheeks? It looks like a kappa turtle fuck. Or like one of those chubby autistic kids. You cant help but not fight the urge to punch the shit out of this face.
- Why the massive, rotund basketball tumor lodged in its behind? For what purpose? It looks so smooth and shiny. Like a shiny tured.
- Why does it have a beak for mouth? Again it looks like a kappa but its clearly a normal ass deer. Or at least, what could feasibly pass as one.

To its credit, it tries to at least tickle the imagination with its antlers and pearly black spheres to resemble a face, and the beta name Scaribou (Scare + caribou) alongside intimidate goes a long way to imply that yes, some people maybe think its a face driving late at night and are thus scared.

But this design... Its everything wrong with Gen 2, and with Pokemon in general. How do we fix Stantler? Maybe if it got better stats, was Normal/Ghost type and was named Scaribou instead it would be better remembered. But the design still leaves a lot to be desired. I think if you just gave it a normal tail and no chubby weird kappa cheeks it would look a loooot better. But I dont know really. What do you all think?