The Disappointment of Future Paradox Pokémon
Paradox Pokémon are a new group of Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. In Pokémon Scarlet the Paradox Pokémon are ancient ancestors of modern Pokémon, while in Pokémon Scarlet the Paradox Pokémon are futuristic descendants of modern Pokémon. When comparing the designs between the Future Paradox Pokémon and the Past Paradox Pokémon, the Future Paradox Pokémon fall short in more ways than one. One of the issues that the Future Paradoxes have compared to their ancient counterparts is that they are less diverse in terms of design conventions, especially in how they portray their futuristic-ness. Another issue these Pokémon designs face is that they are generally less inventive in terms of concept of futuristic descendants of the Pokémon they are based on. Lastly, they create a bland idea of what the hypothetical future of the Pokémon world is.
Design diversity is a tricky thing to get right, especially when one is also attempting to design a group of designs that are supposed to be cohesive. This is where the Future Paradox Pokémon tend to struggle. For example, when looking at how the Ancient Paradox Pokémon convey their ancientness, they use a variety of strategies. Some of these include making the Pokémon look more dangerous through bigger, sharper parts of their body (such as Great Tusk), making the Pokémon look more reptilian/dinosaur-esque (Such as Flutter Mane, Slither Wing, or Walking Wake), using visual cues from the idea of the cave man (Sand Shocks), or generally just making them bigger and scarier, with more fangs, fur, feathers, etc. (Pretty much all of them). All of these convey the general idea of the Pokémon being ancient or from a more “wild” time. The Future Paradox Pokémon on the other hand use a far less diverse bag of trips to convey the fact that they are futuristic. Largely they all use metallic or plastic looking bodies, Light up/LED sections, and pixelated eyes. There are some exceptions, as Miraidon has electricity literally coming out of its body and Iron Bundle has ski-like feet, but by and large the Future Paradox Pokémon use relatively the same strategies to make the Pokémon look futuristic. Not only is there a lack of design diversity among the Future Paradox Pokémon, but they also implore a less inventive concept generally.
Something that is lacked by the Future Paradox Pokémon is an inventive concept of what they could be. For the past paradox Pokémon there is a diversity in terms of what it means for the Pokémon to be ancient. For some it is a dinosaur like design, for others it is cave-man-esque, for other it is simply making them more monstrous and less modern look, as discussed previously. Even Roaring Moon brings in interesting ideas regarding mega evolution and how it could be calling back to a more ancient, powerful form of the Pokémon (I know that Iron Valiant is also based on mega evolutions but since it’s just a robot it doesn’t create new connections in the viewers mind). The Future Paradox Pokémon are largely just robots based on modern Pokémon. Some Pokédex entries bring up the idea of them being bio-mechanical, and others alien, but neither of these is born out in any of the designs. Every single Future Paradox Pokémon is entirely robotic, with no organic elements, making them seem based on the modern Pokémon rather than being actual descendants of them. The only exception to this is perhaps Miraidon, which looks slightly more organic than its future siblings and looks like it could actually be related genetically to Cyclizar. This creates a disconnect when looking at the Pokémon when one is expected to believe that their modern Pokémon would evolve into one of these over a long period of time but it doesn’t make very much sense.
The final issue with these Pokémon is how they conceptualize the future of the Pokémon world as a group. When looking at all of the Future Paradox they paint a dismal and rather boring painting of the future of the Pokémon world. All the future Pokémon we have been completely inorganic, meaning that most (if not all depending on each players interpretation) of these fun fantasy monsters have been turned into or replaced by robots (This could be deterred if even one of the future paradox Pokémon was even slightly organic in any way but oh well). This may just be me but a lizard that shoots a laser beam is a lot more fun than a robot that looks like a lizard shooting a laser beam. This future imagines a future for the world of magical creatures with mystical powers and gets rid of the magical creatures and replaces them with boring robots. This may be a sort of environmental message regarding humanities growing dependence of robotics and AI but I think Gamefreak could have come up with a much more inventive and interesting future beyond “they are all robots now”. One could argue that the Past Paradox Pokémon does a similar thing for the Pokémon Universe’s past, but ultimately, there is not only a slightly more diverse idea about the past through these designs, but the Pokémon world already has fossil Pokémon to help paint a more well-rounded picture of the Pokémon World pre-humanity. The Future Paradox Pokémon do not get that benefit, and that is to their determent somewhat.
Paradox Pokémon as a group presents an interesting opportunity to further flesh out the Pokémon world or at the very least create interesting ideas of hypothetical futures and pasts for the players to imagine. Sadly, when looking at the Future Paradox Pokémon they do not deliver on this imaginative front, giving a monogamous, uniform view of the future rather than a diverse an interesting one. I will say that I do personally enjoy some of the designs of the Future Paradox Pokémon. Iron valiant is a cool and interesting monster, and the combination of Gallade and Gardevoir makes a cool gender-neutral version of one of my favorite Pokémon. I also think Iron Bundle is very cute! But as a group I find their designs disappointing.