Pokmon of the Week #19: Hoppip, Skiploom, & Jumpluff
In the World of Pokémon, there lives a vast number and variety of amazing creatures to befriend and collect. Every week, we will be focusing on a single one of these Pokémon or evolutionary line and talking about what makes it special. This week's Pokémon of choice is Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff!This PotW is particularly special for me, because Skiploom happens to be my favorite Pokémon of all time, and I love each member of the evolutionary line dearly. The Hoppip line represents the life cycle of a dandelion flower, and they also feature mammal-like characteristics, which makes them as strange looking as they are adorable. They were introduced in Generation II as an early-game Pokémon, with Hoppip being found just before the first gym leader battle if you choose to venture south. Unfortunately, its typing led to it struggling against the first couple of gym leaders, and both its offensive stats and movepool were underwhelming compared to other grass types such as Bellsprout or even Chikorita. However, if a trainer put forth the effort, they would find that they could evolve it fully on a relatively low level for a three-stage Pokémon, and its speed is almost unrivaled in its game. This along with its decent bulk and good support moves allowed it to set up for other Pokémon or stall the opponent with moves such as Leech Seed and Sleep Powder.Looking at competitive play, Jumpluff has never made a huge splash, and in Gen V it appeared to be largely outclassed by a new floating Grass type: the Prankster-weilding, even faster Whimsicott. Fortunately, Jumpluff found a new niche in the metagame by making use of the new move Acrobatics coupled with the Flying Gem, at last giving it a powerful Flying type attack to give it more of an offensive presence. These combined with its high speed and access to Swords Dance can make Jumpluff quite a force to be reckoned with if given the chance to set up.
Another fun fact about Jumpluff, it is among the shortest three stage Pokémon standing at only 2'07" and it is the lightest, weighing in at a whopping 3kg. This line breaks the typical expectation of a Pokémon beginning as a small, cute creature and becoming more ferocious looking as it evolves.
Here are some questions to consider to get conversation rolling. You don't have to answer all of them or any of them in your post as long as you're staying on topic and within global forum rules.
- Do you like or dislike this Pokémon? Why?
- How is this Pokémon in-game?
- How is this Pokémon in competitive play? Are there any interesting strategies you like to use for them?
- Do you like this Pokémon's representation in the anime? Are there any moments or qualities in particular you enjoy/dislike?
- How do you think this Pokémon would interact with our world?
- If given the power to, would you change anything about this Pokémon and if so, what would you change?
- Do you prefer using this Pokémon as a supporter or sweeper?
- What types of moves or abilities do you think could benefit Jumpluff for either of these goals, especially now that the Flying Gem has been mostly cut from the games?
- Do you wish there were more Pokémon lines that stayed small and "cutesy" for their entire evolution?
Previous Pokémon of the Week:
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