Why Wooper is the Best Thing Ever
I started this article a while back, when someone reminded me that the leaked beta versions of early Pokemon games existed. I fell in love with what turned out to be an early version of Wooper. Even had it as my profile pic for a bit because it’s so damn cute. In fact, I was going to write a long article about this adorable thing. But I ended up ditching the idea for a while, simply because I didn’t have much to actually say.
I mean, sure, Beta Wooper is the best thing ever, and the Wooper we ended up with is a close second. But what is there to add? So I let this article sit in drafts for ages, thinking I’d never finish it.
A Pokemon Go event changed that.
“What’s with all these Wooper?”
This was the text I was greeted with as I opened up Pokemon Go on 11th December 2021. I was confused at first. Mostly because I assumed it was for a future event. After all, we were soon to have the December Community Day event. This event lasts for 2 days and is basically a replay of the year’s community days. It’s also a chance to get community day moves again, although, annoyingly, we can’t get 2018 moves. Which sucks.
But as I closed the news thing without reading it, I noticed there were Woopers everywhere. Nope, we were having a Wooper event RIGHT NOW!
We also had a chance at shiny Wooper!
This event was really just there so people could TM away the Frustration move on Shadow Pokemon. But I didn’t really care about that. Well, I did care, but I only had a Mewtwo and a Magnezone that I needed to remove Frustration from. This day was all about the Woopers that spawned everywhere. And had the chance to be shiny.
In fact, this was Community Day levels of Woopers. Most Pokemon were Wooper. Even Team Rocket Grunts had Wooper as their first Pokemon. In fact, Grunts ONLY had Wooper as their first Pokemon.
Wooper is cute. Shiny Wooper is even cuter. Imagine if Beta Wooper was shiny. It would be even cuter than it already is.
“But Medic, why is Wooper the best thing ever?”
Have you SEEN Wooper? It’s bloody adorable! It’s based off the Axolotl, which is also bloody adorable! Wooper may not have any hands, but it can survive on both water and land. When idle, Wooper constantly headbangs as well, bouncing up and down as if it’s listening to some awesome music and headbanging with the beat.
Beta Wooper on the other hand just doubles that adorable factor. It’s literally an Axolotl, but it has the best derp face ever. There’s no way a Wooper could ever do anything but love you.
It also has a pretty unique typing. Ground actually covers Water’s biggest weakness. Sure, you’re now really weak to Grass, but you always were anyway with either type. Wooper’s abilities are Dampen or Water Absorb, meaning it stops opponents from exploding and killing themselves, or it takes damage from water attacks and turns them into health. Its hidden ability is Unaware, meaning it’s completely oblivious to the stat changes of its opponent.
There are other Pokemon with the Water/Ground typing, like Swampert and Whiscash. But Swampert isn’t as cute as Wooper is and the Barboach/Whiscash family is slightly unnerving.
Quagsire on the other hand is… uh… terrifying. I don’t know why, but it somehow manages to pass that cute line and go straight into the uncanny valley.
Oh well. At least Wooper is always adorable.