Persian

If there’s a Pokemon who’s had it more rough than Raichu, the unloved and often ignored evolution of game mascot Pikachu, it’s definitely got to be Persian, the evolution of fan favourite Meowth. I wrote about Raichu somewhat recently, and what with the release of Pokemon Sword and Shield, things seemed to get even worse for the elder electric mouse Pokemon. Not only is the Alolan version ignored, but Raichu doesn’t even get a Gigantamax version despite the fact Pikachu does. If you get a Pikachu from Let’s Go Pikachu, it won’t ever evolve into a Raichu. Persian’s predicament is worse. Far worse.

First off, just like Raichu, Persian has an Alolan form. But Persian’s Alolan form is probably one of the ugliest Pokemon around, While normal Kanto Persian is a slim, elegant kitty cat, Alolan Persian is essentially the same except it’s lost all definition to the shape of its head. It has a weird, round head and a crude drawing for a mouth. Frankly, Alolan Persian looks like it was stung in the face by a wasp or that it tried to eat bees or something. This is made worse by the fact that Alolan Persian’s face is supposedly a good thing, according to Pokedex entries! Symbol of wealth, my ass, get that poor kitty to the hospital!

Alolan Meowth doesn’t have this issue at all, Alolan Meowth is mainly just a sassier, darker Kanto Meowth. Even Alolan Raticate isn’t that bad, Raticate looks like it just needs to go to the bathroom or be deflated or something. Although Alolan Rattata is still way better-looking. But yeah, aside from Pokedex entries, why would you want to ever evolve an Alolan Meowth into an Alolan Persian?

But Persian’s troubles don’t end there. Just like Raichu, Persian doesn’t have a Gigantamax form. Pikachu and Meowth do, but clearly giving their evolutions some love is too much hard work, so they just have to go without. This punishes Persian and Raichu further because why would people want to evolve a Pokemon and make it lose its gimmick? In fact, from what I’ve read, the only place you can get a Kanto Meowth is via a trade with an NPC (trading the Galarian steel-type Meowth for a normal one).

Really though, Sword and Shield basically just erases Persian from existence, almost as badly as all the Pokemon from previous games that aren’t in Sword and Shield. Sure, you can trade one in to the new games, but that’s not the point. There is an entirely new Galarian Meowth, with NO Galarian Persian to go with it. Instead Galarian Meowth evolves into a completely different Pokemon called Perrserker.

So not only does Persian miss out on both a Gigantimax form and a good-looking Alolan form, it misses out on a Galarian form as well. A Galarian form that could have looked not-hideous.

Although frankly, why does Meowth need yet another form anyway? We should have gotten a Galarian Skitty or Galarian Purrloin or something. And why does Charizard get another cool form while Venusaur and Blastoise only just managed to get added to the game in the first place?

Really, there should be a club for these poor, unloved Pokemon…