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Pokemon Legends: Z-A revealed its starting trio during the Pokemon Day Pokemon Presents, and it reignited a dream I had since I was a wee boy playing Pokemon Gold for the first time: an all-new Dinosaur-type that finally puts all the ancient and huge beasties into the typing they deserve. And they can knock Dragon down a peg or two.
Please put your pitchforks and torches down and just hear me out, okay? It's been almost 12 years since X and Y introduced the Fairy-type, and it was 14 years before that when Gold and Silver brought the Steel and Dark-types into our lives. So, the timing lines up quite nicely. That doesn't mean Game Freak is going to add a Dinosaur-type, but I'd be very happy if it did.
Dreaming in dinosaur
Pass the wait until Z-A by playing the best Pokemon games already out there
Two of Z-A's starting trio are over 25-years-old, so they're practically dinosaurs just in terms of age, but Totodile and Chikorita also look like the ancient animals in their final form, so Lumiose City feels like the perfect place to turn my childhood dream into a reality.
Meganium looks like a Brachiosaurus, or any other long-necked herbivore, and it's a Grass-type. Feraligatr has the strong jaws of many aquatic dinosaurs and ancient reptiles, but it specifically looks like a Deinosuchus, and it's a Water-type. Both these 'mons are mono-types so they're ripe for a secondary typing being added to them. Are you starting to see my logic now?
There are also plenty of other Pokemon that are, let's be honest with ourselves here, already dinosaurs. The most obvious example is Tyrantrum, which is quite literally a T-Rex – it has the big head, little arms, and ancient history to prove it. Most fossil Pokemon could be classed as dinosaurs in some way. Aerodactyl is a Pterodactyl, its name is even spelled the same way; Aurorus is another Brachiosaurus-like Pokemon, and the 'rus' suffix on its name makes it sound like a dino too; and Bastiodon has Triceratops-inspired horns and spites. Kabutops and Omastar I'd leave as is. They may be ancient, but they're not very dinosaur-y.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A Mega Evolution – All the Pokemon who can Mega-Evolve we know about so far
Don't forget non-fossil Pokemon like the Johto starters, which would fit into my new typing. Tropius – also a 'mon with the 'us' suffix – is another Brachiosaurus, Nidoking and Nidoqueen could definitely be dinos, Lapras bears a strong resemblance to Plesiosaurs, and Sceptile looks a lot like a Velociraptor. I'm not arguing all these Pokemon should be automatically made Dinosaur-types, but off the top of my head, those would be some of my top picks.
"What's the point of a Dinosaur-type?" I hear you ask, as you raise your pitchforks again. Well, get the pointy end out of my face and let me tell you. For too long, Dragon and Fairy-types have dominated the game. I like the Fairy-type, I really do, but I don't understand why it interacts with Dragon the way it does. Most of the other types make some semblance of real-world sense to me – fire melts ice, grass grows through ground and rock, and if a fighter punched me (a normal dude) in the face, I'd drop – but why are fairies invulnerable to dragons?
I think the only thing that could reasonably be expected to fight a dragon is a dinosaur. They're both big, reptilian creatures that are obsessed over by toddlers and 29-year-old journalists alike, and I feel like if they existed at the same time they'd be mortal enemies. Also, if a dinosaur found a fairy, it would either stomp on it or chomp on it. If a T-Rex got hit with a Moonblast it would shrug it off and then tear that Clefairy to shreds, leaving moon dust everywhere. Dinosaur-type should be super effective against Dragon and Fairy-types so we have another tool in our arsenal against the reigning champs.
As for its other matchups, I reckon no matter how hard you can punch, you couldn't phase a dinosaur, so they should also be strong against Fighting-types, or at the very least resist them. And since Normal-types are mostly people or run-of-the-mill animals, things dinosaurs would consider food, they should be super effective against them, too.
Getting down to weaknesses, I have a few ideas. First and foremost is Rock. An asteroid ended the reign of dinosaurs, and while I know it was the firestorm and ash-induced winter that killed off most of the planet 65-million-years ago, we can all point fingers at the big rock that caused it all. I also think they should be weak to Electric and Steel-types, as those are modern inventions a Dinosaur-type's ancient mind couldn't possibly comprehend. This combination of strengths and weaknesses could really shake up the competitive format, giving some underutilized types a chance to shine and giving the top dogs a run for their money.
Speaking of money, if Game Freak did this – which, to be clear, I know it won't, but let me dream, okay? – it would make a killing. Kids love dinosaurs. Kids love Pokemon. So it stands to reason kids would go absolutely feral for Dinosaur-type Pokemon. And me. I would also go feral for this.
Pokemon Legends Z-A would be the perfect opportunity to implement this too. It would be an interesting subversion of expectations if a Pokemon type from the past was discovered in a game set in the series' future. Maybe Zygarde could get up to some weirdness and unlock latent dinosaur genes in a bunch of 'mons, that could be the in-universe explanation for why it's only just been discovered. Or Pokemon professors could admit that a lot of Dinosaur-types were actually misclassified as Dragon-types, since a lot of them could be dinos too.
I don't care how it happens, and I know it won't, but wouldn't it be wonderful if it did? At the very least, I'd finally have a reason to pick Chikorita.
