Shiny Inequality
It’s funny how much we care about shinies in Pokemon. They’re just Pokemon with different colours on them. But they’re rare. Insanely rare. Like, a one in a thousand chance. Possibly more. It’s possible that you’ll never see a shiny in any of the handheld console games. The original games didn’t even have them anyway since they were monochrome. But when it comes to shinies, there are some very odd patterns in play and some Pokemon get a far better makeover than others.
There are some patterns when it comes to shinies. For example, blue Pokemon very often end up being pink or yellow, while yellow Pokemon tend to end up being more yellow and orange, heading towards red. Meanwhile, greys often end up becoming oranges and oranges end up becoming khaki. The best example of this is how Dratini and Dragonair are blue and become pink when they’re shiny, while Dragonite is orange and turns green-brown when it’s a shiny. Generally, the blues and greens get off the best when it comes to being converted into shinies, while more natural colours could turn into anything but are often actually pretty muted.
Some shinies stand out far more than others. For example, the shiny versions of the Larvitar line are all pretty pale and really didn’t stand out at all during the Community Weekend when compared to the shiny Mareeps, Dratinis and other Pokemon. But shiny Pikachu is barely noticeable in general. It’s just a slightly more yellow version of normal Pikachu. Raichu is slightly better but frankly, if it wasn’t for the sparkle effect in Pokemon Go, I would have skipped over both the low level shiny Pikachus I have. Actually, the same goes for shiny Squirtle, but his problem is that the main colour difference – the green shell – is kinda hidden from a front view and is more noticeable from an angled view as seen in the console games. Still, at least Pikachu and Squirtle are pretty consistent.
How about we take a look at the Generation 2 starters, since Totodile had its Community Day recently in Pokemon Go. Shiny Totodile is a very nice teal colour with purple back bits. Shiny Chikorita looks like a dead, autumnal version of itself. Shiny Cyndaquil looks like something shit on its back and doesn’t even have differently coloured flames. Grass types normally have a weird paling of the green, with dark greens becoming bronze or even yellow; blues become nice teals and greens while fire types tend to just look more or less fiery, or even burnt.
But some Pokemon just do whatever the hell they want. Shiny Charmander and Charmeleon are a weird lighter orange while shiny Charizard is a fucking badass black dragon that’s not actually a dragon. Shiny Dragonite is envious.
Then there’s things like the Eeveelutions. Shiny Eevee is a pale brown colour. Very pale. Like, a pink-brown. Vaporeon follows the normal blue into pink shiny look. Jolteon looks like a weird puke green. Espeon goes green as well, but a lot of pink-purples seem to do that for some reason. Umberon is mostly the same except the bright stripes and rings switch from yellow to blue. Flareon, Leafeon and Glaceon are barely noticeable though! Especially Leafeon.
Silveon is a dead-eyed monster, so we won’t mention her.
But then you have things like Shiny Gengar.
Like, what even is the difference? And don’t say “BUT THERE’S SHINY MEGA GENGAR!” because mega evolutions are a new thing. Shiny Gengar is dumb, especially when shiny Gastly is so cool.
The thing is, there’s a huge inequality between shiny forms. I mean, shiny Lugia looks amazing. Shiny Ho-Oh looks kinda okay. Shiny Articuno is cool, shiny Zapdos is barely noticeable and shiny Moltres, while being distinct, looks like it has sunburn. My point is, shinies are these super ultra rare things, a genuine surprise, but a lot of them just look… really mediocre. Or aren’t even noticeable in the first place. Which really sucks.
Plus, they’re not even actually shiny. They’re just different colours!
Then again, I can’t complain. I have a shiny Moltres.
