There's been time and time again where a new Pokemon game gets announced, the starter Pokemon are revealed and surely enough the whole fanbase speculates what their final evolution will become. OR We get a Starter's final evolution and we just don't like it, so the fanbase will go ahead and redesign it.

Today I'll be going over fan made redesigns or alternate evolutions of our beloved starter Pokemon.

1. Emboar

It's no secret that Emboar is one of the most widely disliked Pokemon in existence due to its design. Alot of people hate its design and it ruins how great of a design that Tepig was. I personally don't mind Emboar! In fact, Emboar is one of the strongest Starter Pokemon to date right behind Rillaboom who IS the strongest stat wise. With Emboar, I feel that fixing his design is actually a very simple fix as pictured above. Make Emboar a Quadruped instead of a biped. You're keeping most of Emboar's original design thankfully. Instead, his large arms are toned down and now he's on all fours. This makes Emboar feel less humanoid, a complaint many from the fanbase make whenever there's a quadruped starter who evolves then becomes a biped. Cause honestly, while I don't hate Emboar in the slightest, I won't deny that a design fix such as this makes it miles better.

2. Incineroar

Another Pokemon that's regarded as one of the worst Pokemon in existence due to its design, I personally love Incineroar as he's one of my all time favorite. I won't deny however that upon initially meeting Incineroar, his design IS a bit awkward to look at. So how do we fix Incineroar's design? It's the same exact fix as Emboar 😅. Most redesigns of Incineroar are the exact same, they ARENT redesigns! Instead, they just made Incineroar walk on all fours instead of being a Biped and honestly, Incineroar keeps his same exact design as before and the quadruped approach ACTUALLY saves Incineroar. Honestly, I would love Incineroar more IF his final design depicted him on all fours just like above especially since it's two prior evolutions were quadruped. I'm NOT one of those fans where something HAS to remain biped or quadruped, but I won't deny that Incineroar should've remained a Quadruped.

3. Inteleon

Yet ANOTHER heavily disliked Pokemon, for once its not due to it being biped! Sobbel was biped so it's entire evolutionary line being biped made sense and felt fitting. The big complaint about Inteleon however is that it's TOO humanoid. I agree though... So how do we fix inteleon? You de-humanize him. In this redesign as shown above, you're making Inteleon more reptilian by swapping out its really thin single jointed legs for more thicker and double jointed ones with more reptilian feet too. It's hands too were changed from one large sniping hand and one small to two same sized hands and one finger meant for sniping. Inteleon is the Sniping Pokemon afteral.

4. Delphox

Even I'm not a fan of Delphox. I LOVE Fennekin and Braixen, but HATE Delphox. The design took everything that Braixen made great and completely ruined it with the excessive amount of ear hair, it's too humanoid and the fur dress it's wearing just feels awkward. So how do we fix Delphox? Most redesigns did almost entirely the same thing which is that they doubled down on the Witch theme that the Fennekin line was aiming for. Delphox's wooden staff is now traded out to instead be a broomstick that a Witch would ride on, the dress its wearing feels more natural and it's headpiece that looks like a Witch hat just brings everything together. Would Pokemon ever do this? Heck no. But it's a redesign that I especially like.

5. Serperior

I've never exactly been a fan of Serperior. Everyone seems to absolutely adore this snake queen but I personally was disappointed as a child when I bought Black & White, chose Snivy due to how much I love it only to get upset upon seeing its final evolution. I thought it was weird that Serperior lost all its limbs and that the design felt somewhat underwhelming. Well, after looking forever for a fan made redesign that I actually liked, I came across this Serperior redesign that made Serperior into a cobra which surprisingly isn't too far off from the final product. Does it scream final starter evolution? No, but I like how the collar on Serperior was changed out to make it more cobra like especially since the collar is a prominent feature carried throughout the entire Snivy Line.

6. Cinderace

Honestly, when Scorbunny was introduced in the Sword and Shield trailers, and that a soccer gimmick was guaranteed for this starter, I thought Cinderace would end up more like the fanart above rather than what we actually got. I mean the Cinderace we got just screams that Pokemon knowingly made an alluring rabbit Pokemon the fanbase would sexualize. And sure enough they did... Even the anime sexualizes Cinderace. The fanart above of what the artist thought Scorbunny would become just feels perfect in all the right ways. It doesn't feel too humanoid, the soccer gimmick is present, you can tell its a fire type as well. Plus, this just feels more natural as something I could see Scorbunny becoming rather than the actual end product. And this fan art fits the Pokemon artistic style more than Cinderace's final product. In fact, I'm surprised Pokemon didn't go a route more similar to this art.

7. Samurott

Although Samurott is the most liked of the Unovan starters, I've noticed that the fanbase is pretty divided on Samurott. They either love it or hate it and it's mainly due to its design. For once I can agree with the fans, why are Oshawott and Dewott both Bipeds but Samurott is Quadruped? It feels slightly off but it is refreshing to know that Samurott can and will fight on two legs in battle if necessary. This is due to how the shell armor on its arms doubles as Swords, therefore Samurott can stand on its hind legs and become a swordsman which is honestly cool and you wouldn't know this unless you played Pokepark or watched the anime. So how would we redesign Samurott to be better? Make it into a biped! The fanart above, although I thought it was just art of a Samurott fighting on its hind legs, the artist claims it was a redesign. Clearly the Artist altered next to nothing on the design besides making Samurott walk on its back legs. A simple yet effective change!

8. Hisuian Typhlosion

I won't deny, Pokemon sort of dropped the ball with Hisuian Typhlosion. It's cool don't get me wrong, but there's so many bad design aspects going on that it ruins the things that I especially like about this regional form. So let's fix the bad things about this overall great concept. This artist gave their depiction of a redesigned Hisuian Typhlosion by removing Typhlosions laid back attitude. That's almost all that the artist did surprisingly. They replaced Hisuian Typhlosion's laid back attitude for its iconic Johto Form explosive personality. This change in personality makes all the difference and saves this design!

9. Hisuian Decidueye

I still have yet to find someone that likes Hisuian Decidueye. When Legends Arceus came out, the fanbase went on a frenzy over how poorly designed Hisuian Decidueye was. Thing is, I've never been a fan of Decidueye and his regional form made me like it even less. I'll admit that the official art of Hisuian Decidueye does it ALOT of justice but the in game models of Decidueye just suck. So, what if Hisuian Decidueye was redesigned as a whole? The fanart above is what I would've chosen instead of the Decidueye we ended up with. Hisuian Decidueye is no longer an Archer Pokemon let alone it doesn't throw anything. It became a fighting type and no longer relies on ranged combat as Decidueye is KNOWN for. Instead, this redesign makes it so that Decidueye is still somewhat of a sniper as it instead sports shurikens. Pokemon probably decided against this as Shurikens are a prominent weapon and design for another starter Pokemon, that being Greninja.

10. Rillaboom

Yup I guess I'm ripping on all the Galar starters today. A REALLY big complaint from just about all of the fanbase is that Rillaboom's design just doesn't work. How Rillaboom runs around with a large wooden log/drum just feels really dysfunctional. I mean yeah, the whole drummer thing is a big design theme/element to th3 Grookey line but I feel they went about it wrong. If they HAVE to incorporate the drum into its design, I wish they would've made it feel more natural and not feel like an elephant in the room. This artist here shares how she feels Rillaboom's design would've been enhanced enough that she'd grow to like it by making Rillaboom's log drum as a hair tie/hair ornament to keep its long green hair pulled back. It's a really simple fix and you could argue that the design wasn't changed either. It just goes to show that even the simplest of changes can make all the difference.

What about you guys? Which redesigns are your favorite?