Unique types, SuMo

Notes on primary Early Grass-types

Note: Bellossom is not listed as Oddish is only present in Ilex Forest in Johto. Similarly, Sewaddle is not listed as it belongs to another archetype.

Notes on regional mushrooms

Notes on Regional Early Electric

Note: Alola is unlisted as both Vikavolt and Alolan Raichu compete for the title, whilst belonging to other archetypes(early Bug and early Psychic).

Notes on Primary Fishing Rod Fishes

Note: Though Kalos has Dragalge and Clawitzer as their Super/Good Rod Pokémon, they will not be counted here, due to statistical difference, and not belonging to Water 2 Egg Group.

Barboach similarly is not listed here, as it is more related to other Water/Ground Pokémon. Other Water 2 Pokémon are similarly unlisted.

Notes on type combinations by abundance, SuMo

Analysis of Types: Chapter 2: Grass-type: Part 3: In-Universe Symbolism and Mythology

So, what is Grass-type's role, really?

The Legendaries and Their Role:

Admittedly, I didn't research on these guys so much, since there is no mascot legendary that is a Grass-type(Xerneas is arguably a honorary one though)

Sprites:

Celebi:

Celebi's time travel abilities seem to be a reference to the Time Capsule. Its body shape is based on a generic tree sprite, while its association with the Ilex Shrine likely refers to kodama in Shintoism. Its ability to being eggs from future also likely refers to breeding being introduced in Gen 2.

Shaymin:

Shaymin seems to be personification of the concept of gratitude, and its domain's name seems to imply that it is largely based on religious gratitude. Its ability to detoxify the land alludes to Suicune and seems to be personification of Aromatherapy the move. Its Sky Forme likely refers to messengers of gods.

Tapu Bulu:

Based off Hawaiian God Lono, Tapu Bulu seems to represent the "Revenge of the Gaia", that is, flora taking back their land from humans as a punishment for humanity's mischief.

Forest Guardian:

Virizion:

Based off Aramis of the Three Musketeers, Virizion primarily appears a guardian for forest based areas.

The Trainers and Their Roles:

Erika:

With the tile of "Nature-Lowing Princess", Erika more or less represents traditional Japanese gardening. Though Bellossom seems to be her signature Pokémon GSC onwards, she traditionally doesn't have much difference between her Bellsprout-line members and Oddish-line members. Tangrowth also appears as her signature in HGSS rematch, though Vileplume rereplaces that in B2W2, with Bellossom getting the shaft.

Gardenia:

With the tile of "Master of Vivid Plant Pokémon" and her green hood, Gardenia seems to based off an archetypical forest hiker. Her signature is Roserade.

Cilan:

Cilan serves as the meekest of the three Straiton Brothers, often failing to complete his sentences. His signature is obviously Simisage.

Ramos:

Ramos' title is "The old growth is still in bloom!"(Japanese version is not a full sentence, obviously). He doesn't have much of an interesting personality, but he makes plant puns. His signature is Gogoat.

Mallow:

The Trial Captain of Lush Jungle, her trial involves cooking. She based off a generic animé bad cook, someone who is relatively hyper but not too serious about the taste. Her signature Pokémon is Steenee, her Mega in Battle Tree is Sceptile and the Totem Pokémon of her trial is Lurantis.

Her extra story in Moon reveals she intends to follow in her father and brother's footsteps. INB4 Bechdel test.

The Overview:

On the legendary side, most Legendaries seem to be associated with forests, with the exception of Shaymin who is based off flower beds. Nonetheless, all of them represent the divinity of the untouched nature in some manner. Most of them appear as guardians of sorts, with few of them having to do with fertility.

On the trainer side, most trainers associated with the type are associated with either gardening or cooking, with the partial exception of Gardenia. Almost all of them are mellow, carefree trainers, with Mallow being the most hyper of them. They seem to be wiser than most trainers, but not necessarily deeper. They seem to be willing to give their knowledge freely to others. Some of them seem to be quite lazy as well, another characteristic of the type's species.

Since Grass-type hasn't been an E4 or mascot legendary type, it is hard to say what it would represent in those roles.

Analysis of Types: Chapter 2: Grass-type: Part 2: The Design Philosophies and Archetypes

So, what are Grass-types, really?

The Purpose of the Grass Type:

As previously discussed, Grass-types' primary purpose is to become an early-type for cleaning some of the key early types like Water, Rock and Ground, and through its resistances clean Electric as well. The other purpose of Grass-type is to spam status moves and leech off opponents' HP. Because of this, Grass-type is predominantly a defensive type, so even the offensive and speedy Grass-types have some decent defense.

Grass-types can be obtained easily in all generations in the early-game, unlike Fire-types and Water-types. The difference is, even if Grass-types are obtained later in the game, they still tend to be weak, as they tend to be single staged, or have unique abilities/types that render high stats pointless.

Much like Fire-type, Grass-type is supposed to be replaced around mid-game, as after that point the difficulty spike for Grass increases. Water generally fulfills this role, with Electric filling in the role of Water-type cleaner. However, because of its versatility Grass-type can be used for the entire game, especially since once you obtain it, you will be able to easily grind it.

The Aesthetic Archetypes of Grass Types:

Grass types are generally Green colored with some Brown colored, but there are other colors as well.

Conceptually, Grass-types can be divided into following archetypes:

Symbiote:

Generally composed of animals with plant covering, symbiotes generally depend on the "host" body for additional moves. They generally lean towards Normal-type moves.

Mushroom:

Mushroom, as its name stands, are Pokémon made of or infected by mushrooms. They get Spore and generally have access to Poison moves and Effect Spore ability.

Flowering:

Composed of Pokémon that have blossoming flowers, and learn Petal based moves. They have some association with Fairy-types, generally speaking.

Leaved:

Composed of Pokémon with sharp leaves, these tend to focus on moves like Leaf Storm, Grass Whistle etc. They tend to get X-Scissor and/or Fury Cutter.

Tree:

Composed of Pokémon with tree shapes, they tend to get Wood Hammer.

Fruits and seeds:

Composed of Pokémon with nut or fruit shape or covering, they tend to get moves like Seed Bomb, Rollout, Sweet Scent and Worry Seed.

Lesser archetypes include cacti(Cacnea, Maractus), nature sprites(Celebi, Tapu Bulu) and cottons(Hoppip-line and Cottonee).

The In-game Archetypes of Grass Types:

Yadda, yadda, this is an early type, so you get early stuff:

-Early grass type: The archetypical Grass-type. With that, I mean THE archetypical Grass-type. Generally around 480-490 BST range, with higher ups being in 510-531 range. The first three odd generation variants were version counterparts to each other, but Gen 7 haven't repeated that.

-The mushroom: An odd generation archetype, these Pokémon tend to be two staged and have access to Spore. They tend to be 405-465 range.

-Secondary early Grass-type: Generally occurring in even generations, these tend to be gimmicky Grass-types in 425-450 range.

-Single staged mid-game Grass-type: Generally occuring in odd generations, they are single staged Pokémon that occur in the mid-game appearing in rare routes. Two of them, Tangela and Roselia, gained additional evolutionary lines.

-Late-game Grass: Generally occuring in 490-535 range, these are late occuring Grass-types with odd types.

-Mid-game Grass: Generally occuring in mid-game and in odd generations, these are Grass-types that occur in the middle of the game. They tend to be around 474-495 range.

The Stat Archetypes for Grass-types:

-The Tank: Generally focusing on defense and offense in one specific area, these tend to be slow, bu they tend to have abilities or moves to double their speed.

-The Wall: Generally focused on Defense, these tend to be good in both defenses. They use Leech Seed and Synthesis to restore themselves.

-SubSeed: Generally focused on being an Annoyer, these Pokémon tend to have high Speed with mediocre offenses and mediocre defenses.

-Dual Offense: Generally focused on both offenses, these Pokémon tend to be either bulky but slow or decently fast but mediocrely bulky. They focus on using moves like Swords Dance to buff themselves, as their offenses tend to be around 100 range.

-Mono offense: Generally focused on one offense, they tend to be either slow and bulky or fast and weak. Mono offenses tend to focus on Physical, though Tangela is Specially oriented.

Because Grass-types tend to be slow, there isn't much of a conventional Sweeper, nor is there a conventional wall, as Grass-types tend to have low HP. Because they are overall more Defense and status spam oriented, most offensive Pokémon do not exceed around 100 range, and those that do tend to have average Speed with good defense/s.

Analysis of Types: Chapter 2: Grass-type: Part 1: The Retrospective

So, what is the Grass-type?

Grass-type is one of the few unique "inventions" of Pokémon. Representing the Chinese traditional element, the Wood, representing the spring, growth, and the Azure Dragon, the guardian of the East. This element corresponds to the traditional element of Earth in the Greek alchemical quartet, while Chinese Earth represents Aether, the divine element.

While almost all traditional RPGs had plant enemies of some sort that were weak to Fire, the popularization of plants as one of the primary elements of nature really started with Pokémon, with other franchises, including THE mother franchise of monster collection, Shin Megami Tensei, following Pokémon's example.

Because Grass-type is effectively an expy of the conventional Earth element, many of the "Nature" based moves, abilities and species are presented in the Grass-type, while actual Earth-type, the Ground-type, takes more inspiration from the Chinese Earth, the substitute for Aether.

The History of Grass-type in Pokémon:

Grass-type's early days are quite weird, indeed. As one of the primary types, it only exist in the starter trio, as neither the Eeveelutions, whose type trio would be reused for the Legendary Beasts, and the Legendary Birds, who represent all seasons except Autumn, had no Grass member. This is in spite of the existence of Leaf Stone, which is responsible for all the evolutions of Grass-types in RBY era, besides Paras-line and the starter. This got even weirder, as while Exeggutor exists as the prime Grass-type and the pre-evolutions in this era were about as powerful as some fully evolved Pokémon, Grass-types were overall weaker than the other elemental types, and gave less experience as well.

This was also present in the moves themselves, as while Grass-type got several status moves, its most powerful moves were Petal Dance and Solar Beam, both of which were incredibly situational and rare. This seems to imply that Grass-type was deliberately meant to be the weaker of the three starter types, focusing instead on status spam and health draining, an aspect exclusive to Grass-type and Bug-type.

In this generation, Grass-type was paired with Bug and Poison, and this organic between them has continued until Generation IV, when TCG put Poison to work with Psychic and Ghost.

The second generation was weirder for Grass-type. With the Special splitting off to Attack and Defense, the bulk of the Grass-types got their Special as Special Attack. However, unlike their Fire-type counterparts, the compensation Defense was much weaker than their original Specials, which gave Grass-types a massive weakness to Fire-types. Because of this, many of the Grass-types turned out much weaker than they were a Generation before, with Exeggutor becoming weaker than Lapras and Arcanine, and Vileplume and Victreebel being some of the weakest fully evolved Pokémon in GSC, and Tangela being only slightly more powerful than regional rodents. The newly introduced Pokémon were also much weaker than the old Pokémon, with Jumpluff being one of the weakest third stage Pokémon in entire game and Sunflora being an eternal joke.

Nonetheless, GSC introduced many things that helped the type. The most obvious one being Sunny Day and Synthesis, with the former being an indirect buff and the latter being much relevant later generations. This generation also introduced Giga Drain, but that would become relevant only in Gen V onwards. Sludge Bomb was another indirect buff, as many Grass-types Poison or non-Poison got it.

The next generation was much more generous for Grass-type. While Grass-types overall kept being weak, some significant Pokémon like Sceptile, Cradily and Breloom managed to become relevant due to their unique characteristics(speed tier, type and Attack+Spore+Priority). With the introduction of Abilities, Grass-types immediately got several type-specific ones, but they were mostly situational. Chlorophyll was the most common one, and Effect Spore was the one exclusive to mushrooms. The rest of the Gras-types however didn't gain such abilities and instead got abilities that were relevant to their habitat like Swift Swim or Sand Veil, relevant to their body type like Suction Cups or daily schedule like Early Bird.

Most influential moves introduced this gen was Ingrain which also inspired the item Big Root and Aromatherapy which solidified Grass-type as a cleric type.

Grass-type got significant changes from the Physical-Special split. Though Grass started off as Special, now Grass-type had a chance to become Physical, which made sense for the type as many of the species members got access to Swords Dance. This shift allowed Tangrowth to become Physically inclined, Flower Gift to provide Attack boost, and made dual offensive Grass-types relevant. However, to accomplish this, several new moves had to be introduced and other older ones had to be buffed.

In addition, new abilities like Leaf Guard, Poison Heal and Solar Power were introduced. The latter two became very relevant... for other types. Grass-types still lacked much beyond what was gained from Gen III on this front.

The fifth generation introduced a lot of Grass-types, most of them being fun to use, but statistically Grass-type remained weak. This generation did not introduce a lot of new Grass-type moves, just Cotton Guard and some other weaker moves. However this generation buffed some older moves like Giga Drain and Petal Dance and made them relevant.

The most significant thing introduced this generation was Sap Sipper, a type absorbing Ability similar to newly retconned Storm Drain and Absorbs. This marked Grass' shift from a weaker elemental type that primarily existed for sake of showcasing to flora to a more conventional elemental type. This generation also introduced Harvest as a new Ability for Grass-types.

This generation was also another okay generation for Grass-types. The newly introduced Grass-types were still not too powerful besides Gogoat, who was far too balanced to be good. Several Grass-types were also buffed to acceptable levels, but many more were forgotten. Most significant thing in this generation was the introduction of Grassy Terrain, a field effect dedicated exclusively for Grass-types, and Energy Ball buff.

This generation continued on making Grass a more conventional type, with new Grass-types getting powerful but gimmicky signature moves and Kartana and Tapu Bulu being introduced. However, sadly, the Grass-types were not buffed too much besides Exeggutor getting slightly more stats. This rendered the most significant introduction in this generation as Leafage, a Grass-type Tackle clone.

The Overview of Grass-types:

For all intents and purposes, Grass-type is a bad type. Not a terrible type, but a bad type. It is objectively the weakest type in terms of offense, defense and stats of all conventional elemental types(besides Poison, which is worse statistically). It remains significant due to its abundance(as the third most common type), and the abundance of its moves, as well as some nifty resistances to Water and Ground 

Grass-types' in-universe role is to fill in the flora. That is, to become grass. Their in-game role is generally to work as a good early-game type for dealing with Water and Rock-types. Or to be more clear, work as cleaning paper.

Grass-type's best advantage is, or was, access to sleeping moves. However, with the recent power creep, there is no reason for you to use Sleeping moves, and since most of the Grass-types are incredibly slow, you probably can't in the first place.

Much like Fire-type, Grass-type has little stat boosting moves besides Cotton Guard, which is one of the best stat boosting moves, if only because its users are so terrible. Grass-type is very closely associated with Growth and Swords Dance, the latter largely because most Grass-types have sharp leaves.

Grass-types' niche of absorbing opponent's health haven't been abused by other types, but other types can abuse Giga Drain better than Grass-types, particularly Bug-types, so there is not much reason for you to use them for Giga Drain, or there wouldn't be if Bug wasn't the worst type in the game statistically.

How to improve: 273-274-275: Seedot-Nuzleaf-Shiftry

1.Stats: Should Shiftry get a stat boost, Evolution, Mega Evolution or nothing?
Shiftry is already a fully evolved Pokémon with three stages, so an Evolution is functionally impossible.

A stat boost is expected, as Shiftry, alongside its counterpart Ludicolo, failed to get a stat boost in Generation 6. Shiftry can get 10 to 40 stat boost, which will likely focus on Special Attack and Speed.

A Mega Evolution is, however, the only chance Shiftry has in conventional competitive metagame. Its typing and its stat distribution is not significant enough to make it relevant, and the debuffs on Sucker Punch, Explosion and Hurricane did not help Shiftry at all.

2.Should Shiftry get more abilities?

Shiftry already has three abilities, but all of them are terrible in some manner. Pickpocket requires dropping one's item, Early Bird is irrelevant with the recent immunity to Spore and Powder moves, and Chlorophyll just attracts Fire-types to OHKO Shiftry.

Shiftry can get Moody for stat boosts, Sniper and Super Luck for critical hit spam, No Guard for Hurricane and Solar Power for extra oomph. Leaf Guard would make thematic sense, so would Aftermath.

3. Should Shiftry get more moves?

Yes. Shiftry lacks Dark-type Physical moves besides Sucker Punch. Moves like Pursuit, Assurance, Punishment, Night Slash would make sense. In addition to that, Nuzleaf can get conventional Fighting moves like Thunder Punch, Dual Chop, Superpower, Drain Punch etc. Outside of this, Shiftry can get Flying moves like Acrobatics and Air Slash. Weather Ball also makes thematic sense.

Shadow Claw, Head moves like Zen Headbutt, Head Smash, Iron Head, and Psychic-type moves like Stored Power, Psychic and Psyshock would also be cool. Status spam moves like Powder moves, Taunt, Flatter would be good as well. Fairy moves like Play Rough and Moonblast would be very cool as well.

4.What additional typing Shiftry can have?

Psychic is the most obvious one, alongside Fighting. Flying would also make sense. Fire and Fairy would also make thematic sense. Ghost would be interesting as well.

Notes on average stats for types

-Bug: Bug is statistically the worst type, being the worst in total stats, HP, and quite low in other stats. It's highest rankings come from Speed(12th) and Defense(12th), though fully evolved Bug-types tend to be heavily offense oriented(11th).

-Poison: Poison is the second worst type statistically. Its lowest stats are HP, Attack and Defense. Its best stat in comparison to other types is Speed.

-Normal: Normal is statistically the third worst type(second worst fully evolved), being the worst in Defense, Special Defense and Special Attack. It excels in HP and Speed, however.

-Grass: Grass is the fourth weakest type statistically. Its worst stat is Speed. Its Attack and Defense are its only better stats compared to other types.

-Water: Water is the fifth weakest type. Its stats are generally average, as such it only becomes significant when fully evolved. Fully Evolved Water-types excel at HP, Defense and Sp. Attack.

-Fairy: Fairy is the sixth weakest type, and the weakest type for Attack, and it fails at HP and Speed as well. It is, however, one of the best types for Special Attack and Special Defense.

-Ground: Ground is the seventh weakest type, and excels in HP, Attack, Defense while utterly failing Special Attack, Defense Speed.

-Ghost: Ghost is the eighth weakest type(fourth worst fully evolved), failing in HP and Speed, but excelling in Defense and Special Attack.

-Electric: Electric is the ninth weakest type(sixth worst fully evolved), failing in HP, Attack, Defense, but excelling in Special Attack and Speed.

-Rock: Rock is the tenth weakest type, excelling in Defense, failing in Special Attack, Defense, and being the slowest type in the game.

-Flying: Flying is the eleventh weakest type, failing in Defense and Special Defense, excelling in Speed(being the fastest type overall) and being average in other stats.

-Fire: Fire is the twelfth weakest type(third best type fully evolved), excelling in Special Attack and being average in all stats except Defense, at which it is terrible.

-Dark: Dark is the thirteenth weakest type statistically, excelling in Attack, and failing in Special Attack, Defense, and Special Defense, with average HP and Speed.

-Ice: Ice is the fourteenth weakest type statistically, excelling in HP, being weak in Speed and being average in all other stats.

-Fighting: Fighting is the fourth best type(fifth fully evolved), having the best Attack in the game, with terrible Defense and Special Attack, bad Special Defense, good Speed and HP.

-Psychic: Psychic is the third best type(second fully evolved), second highest Special Attack, average HP, below average Defense, overall best Special Defense, and fourth best Speed, with terrible Attack.

-Steel: Steel is the second best type(fourth best fully evolved), with best Defense, good Attack, terrible HP, Speed and Special Attack, good Special Defense.

-Dragon: Dragon is the best type statistically, being the best in HP and Special Attack and great in all other stats, with its weakest stats being Defense and Speed.

First stage Pokémon according to their BST

Middle stages according to BSTs

notes on stat retcons

So far, two of the recent generations have buffed stats of existing Pokémon.

Gen 6 buffed stats of Pokémon that evolve at third stage by +10, except for Pikachu who got +20. About 29 Pokémon were buffed this way.

Gen 7 buffed stats of Pokémon that evolve at second stage and some single stage Pokémon and Woobat in a range of 10 to 40. HP was also buffed. About 26 Pokémon were buffed this way.

If this continues, assuming 20 buffs for each generation, by Gen 15, all Pokémon introduced since Gen 1 to 7 will have become buffed, in theory anyways(in practice, there will be stuff that remain).

Nonetheless a scenario like this one can be presented:

Gen 8: Buffing single stage Pokémon and some others.
Gen 9: Buffing middle stage Pokémon and some others.
Gen 10: Buffing first stage Pokémon and some others.
Gen 11: Buffing babies and some others.
Gen 12: Buffing weakest ones and some others.
Gen 13: Buffing some mascot legendaries and some others.
Gen 14: Buffing some minor legendaries and some others.
Gen 15: Buffing some Mega Evolving Pokémon and some others.
Gen 16: Buffing some Pokémon that have special gimmicks and others.
Gen 17: Buffing some former fully evolved Pokémon and others.
Gen 19: Return to third stages with higher BST upgrade.
Gen 20: Return to second stages with higher BST upgrade.
Gen 21: Repeat Gen 8 onwards with higher BST upgrade.

Notes on Pokémon graphical updates

Gen I: Monochrome

Gen II: Partial color. Day-night cycles.

Gen III: Full color

Gen IV: Partial 3D.Day-night cycles.

Gen V: Partial 3D, fully animated sprites. Seasonal cycles.

Gen VI: Grid-based 2.5D

Gen VII: Hallway based 3D. Day-night cycles.

Presumably things will go down like this;

Gen 8: Hallway 3D, return of destrucable background.

Gen 9: Hallway 3D, return of seasons.

Gen 10: Semi-open 3D, proportionate models.

Gen 11: Semi-open 3D, full open-world encounters.

Gen 12: Open world.

Analysis of Types: Chapter 1: Fire-type: Part 3: In-Universe Symbolism and Mythology

So, what is Fire-type's role, really?

The Legendaries and Their Role:

So far, there has been seven legendaries(plus Silvally and Arceus) that has been part Fire-type.

The Phoenixes:

Moltres:

Morphologically based on a phoenix, Moltres represents the coming of early spring. This seems to imply that Moltres is a representation of vernal equinox, or as it is more commonly known, Nowruz.

Ho-oh:

Ho-oh's name comes from houou, Japanese version of Fenghuang, a phoenix that represent the sun and the imperial family in Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures that appears as the herald of a new era. Ho-oh represents rebirth, both metaphorical and real. It is also associated with autumn. Its title as the "Guardian of the Skies" likely is a pun on Sunny Day's Japanese name, Clear Sky.

The Volcanics:

Entei:

Entei's design is based off Chinese guardian lions that protect Buddhist temples(like you know, Ho-oh's), and its name means Flame Emperor. Canonically, it is said to represent the flame that burned the Brass Tower, passion of magma and volcanic eruption.

Groudon:

Groudon's design based off Behemoth, who is said to be battle with Ziz, and Leviathan at the end of days to determine the fate of the world. Its Primal Reversion seems to be inspired by Canaan God Moloch. Both of its forms represent the land, specifically the plate tectonics that move freely on magma and all volcanic activities associated with that.Groudon also represent passion, according to Ruby (the item)'s flavor text.

Heatran:

Nobody really knows what this guy is supposed to be, really. Nonetheless, its name seems to come from heat transfer, and its overall design seems to be inspired by the molten core of earth.

Volcanion:

Based off shisha, the Ryukyuan version of Chinese guardian lions, Volcanion seems to be a personification of geysers. Its ability to change the landmass seems to refer to tectonic uplift.

Torches:

Victini:

Based off Nike, Greek goddess of victory, Victini seems to represent the victory symbol. But its association with Fire is likely inspired by Moltres' initial role in the Victory Road, which inspired its role in the animé as the Olympic flame.

Reshiram:

It represents Yang, truth and its tail is an electric turbine. It is a girly dude. Yawn.

More seriously though, its stylization as a torch is likely a reference to Prometheus' fire of truth.

The Trainers and Their Roles:

Blaine:

Called the "Hot Headed Quiz Master", he is one of the creators of Mewtwo, who used to live in the Island Mewtwo was created in. His Gym in Gen I and III contains the same after burn thieves that exist in the Pokémon Mansion, however he also has Super Nerds under his training. His trainers in HGSS are only Scientists and Super Nerds, however.

His most common Pokémon is Rapidash, but his signature is actually Magmortar, as of HGSS rematch(his original signature in RBYFRLG was Arcanine, his initial signature in GSCHGSS was Rapidash).

Flannery:

Holding the title of "One with a fiery passion that burns!",  Flannery is a novice Gym Leader who took over her grandfather's Gym. Her Gym centers around Lavaridge Town's hot springs. Her Gym contains primarily Kindlers, a Cooltrainer(RSORAS)/multiple Cooltrainers(Emerald) and a Battle Girl, but in Emerald, there is a Hiker, and in ORAS, several Cooltrainers that appear in Emerald are replaced by Ninja Boys.

Her Signature is Torkoal.

Flint:

One of the members of the Sinnoh Elite Four, Flint is the friend of the final Leader, Volkner. He calls the player to reignite Volkner's spirit. According to Volkner, the only reason he uses Fire-types is because they match his name.

His signature Pokémon was Infernape, but as of Platinum, his signature Pokémon is Magmortar.

Chili:

The hot blooded idiot one of the Striaton trio, he serves as one of the possible opponents in the Gym if the player chooses Snivy in BW, or doesn't tag with him in the B2W2 post-game battle. He considers himself to be the strongest of the three.

His signature Pokémon is Simisear.

Malva:

A member of Team Flare and the news anchor of the Holo Caster, Malva is the only Kalos E4 member that appears in the plot prominently, in the Looker sidequest. She is one of few non-villain characters that despise the player character in the franchise.

Her signature Pokémon is a female Pyroar, alluding to Lysandre's Pyroar. She also has a Torkoal, in allusion to AZ.

Kiawe:

One of the Trial Captains of Alola, he studies the traditional dances of Alola. His trial involves dancing, obviously, but he can only be battled after the trial in the Sun version, which will unlock him in the Battle Tree.

His signature Pokémon Alolan Marowak. The Totem Pokémon he is associated with is a Salazzle, and his Mega Evolution in Battle Tree is a Kangaskhan.

The Overview:

The bulk of the Fire-type trainers and Legendaries are associated with volcanoes, though volcanic Pokémon only cover a small portion of regular Fire-types. The bulk of legendaries are either death and rebirth, terraforming and passion or success and enlightenment. The bulk of the trainers associated with this type are passionate people of one kind or another, though vast majority of them have been unsuccessful in one way or another(Blaine failed the Mewtwo project, Chili and Flannery are novice trainers, Flint is too cool to give much a sh** to anything, Kiawe loses his Job in Sun and Malva is a bitter b... badass).

It is hard to say when the type will move on from its association with volcanos and burned places and instead focus on other elements of fire like cooking, lighting, spring celebration and what's more.

Analysis of Types: Chapter 1: Fire-type: Part 2: The Design Philosophies and Archetypes

So, what are Fire-types, really?

The Purpose of the Fire Type:

As previously discussed, Fire-types are traditionally offense oriented. Predominantly Special, but also Physical as well. This means that, of all the types a trainer can get early, Fire-types are the easiest way to overpower most of the opponents, as there is no other type can be effective in both grounds besides Electric and Flying early in the game. As those tend to be weaker or more Speed oriented, Fire-type covers the role of a "stallbreaker" in the early game.

This is why incidentally the first two gyms in the first games are Rock and Water, as you most likely have already decimated the Rattatas and Caterpies and Oddishes. While this doesn't make the Fire-type easiest type to use, it makes it the most rewarding one to use in-game, as you can clear most of the game easily.

The competitive role of Fire-type is fairly similar, though it often involves some sort of set up, like Sunny Day, stat raise, or WoW spam. Similarly in the Doubles, the Fire-types are about spamming Lava Plume and Heat Wave to wear down the opponent.

In the late-game, however, Fire-types become a one trick pony, as the only two types they are effective against exist, Ice and Steel, the worst and the best types respectively. The rest of types like Dragon can easily trash them, though they can still deal some damage.

Because of this, Fire-types are generally encountered in three areas, Middle of the early game(around third gym), late mid-game(around sixth gym) and early mid-game(around fourth gym), as they are effectively irrelevant late-game. Nobody remembers Heatmor in BW Victory Road. This has caused the bulk of the non-Larvesta/Growlithe Fire-types to have around 480-500 BST.

The Aesthetic Archetypes of Fire Types:

Overall Fire-types are in Red, Brown and Orange colors, with others having Yellow, White and Black colors. The Fire-types often are either composed of fire/magma, have some sort of flame on them, or have flame shaped fur/flame patterned skin/fur/feathers.

Conceptually, the Fire-types can be divided into three, possibly four groups:

Burning:

Generally composed of generic animals with flames surrounding them, these Pokémon are generally found in burned areas like Burned Tower and Pokémon Mansion, or plain routes. These Pokémon tend to have abilities like Flash Fire and Flame Body.

Combusting:

Generally composed of generic animals with colors traditionally associated Fire-type, these Pokémon generally don't have actively burning parts, or their burning parts are negligible. They might have patterns and design elements representing fire or have parts that only periodically burn.

Volcanic:

Generally composed of magma, have magma patterns or some sort of smoke combustion area, these Pokémon are more specific than the other two, as they tend to be more Defense oriented and have Earth type moves(Ground, Rock, Steel, Fighting). They also tend to have abilities like White Smoke and Magma Armor, in addition to Flame Body and Flash Fire.

Mystical:

Generally sharing traditional appearances of other Fire-types, these tend to have either items that burn instead of them, or have a more blueish colored fire. These tend to be Special oriented with some access to paranormal types like Dragon, Fairy, Psychic or Dark.

The In-game Archetypes of Fire Types:

As discussed before, the Fire-types appear in only three major locations. This means that for each major location, there tends to be one archetype.

Regional Fire: As discussed before, one of the places Fire-types can appear is early-game. Like other main elemental types, Fire-types have their own regional variants. However, unlike other types, for certain regions, a previous Fire-type has been reused.

The rough outline of regional fires are like this:

RB: Vulpix/Growlithe
GS: Same as above.
RSE: Numel+Slugma.
DPPt: Ponyta
BW: Darumaka
XY: Litleo+Houndour
SM: Salandit+Fletchinder

Regional early mid-game fire: This region generally contains species you must evolve to get their final evolution, and Magmar in GSC. These tend to be available after the regional fire.

RB: Ponyta
GS: Magmar
RSE: Torkoal
Platinum: Houndour
BW: Litwick
XY: Slugma+Torkoal
SM: Magby+Magmar

Regional late mid-game fire: This region generally contains species you don't have to evolve to get their final stage, because they already are in that stage.

RB: Magmar
GS: N/A
RSE: Vulpix
Platinum: Magmar
BW: Heatmor
XY: Heatmor, again.
SM: Turtonator.

The Stat Archetypes of Fire Types:

The stats of Fire-types tend to go in following forms:

Dual offensive (slow):Generally one stat is around 120 and other is around 90. This Pokémon gets moves from both sides, but tends to be not amazing in either. They tend to be either wall breakers, or need some sort of stat buff. Notable examples include Emboar and Camerupt.

Defensive: Generally focusing on Physical Defense and Special Offense, the defensive variants tend to be about status spam. They are generally unused. Notable examples include Turtonator and Torkoal

Dual offensive (fast): Generally the speed surpasses both stats. They tend to need to boost one stat in particular, as otherwise they cannot dish mush pain. Notable examples include Infernape and Talonflame.

Tankie: Generally focused on mono offense with usable other offense, these Pokémon tend to have similar defenses in both sides. They either spam status or are focused on revenge killing. Notable examples include Heatran and Arcanine.

Mono oriented(fast): Focused on one specific type of offense, these tend focus on Speed and that offense. Nonetheless, they tend to have some level of all around stats and large offensive movepool from the other side. Notable examples include Salazzle and Charizard.

Mono oriented(stat buffer): Same as above, but these tend to have high defense of their respective stat. Examples include Volcarona and Delphox.

Analysis of Types: Chapter 1: Fire-type: Part 1: The Retrospective:

So, what is the Fire-type?

Fire-type, is one of the original 15 elemental types of Pokémon. It is also one of the original six types in the TCG. It is one of the most notorious types that is part of not one major trio, the starters-dominated Fire-Grass-Water trio, it is also part of the primary elemental Fire-Ice-Electric and its cousin, the Fire-Water-Electric trio. Fire is also one of the few types that have a dedicated evolution stone to it, Fire Stone, and a weather dedicated to it, Sunny Day.

But the fun doesn't stop there. Fire-types houses the second highest BST starters have, 534, which is shared by 4 of the seven Fire-types introduced in the metagame. It also houses three Mega Evolutions for the said starters, with one particularly infamous one, Charizard, the mascot of the original Red game, getting two Megas.

To put it bluntly, Fire-type is a pretty big deal. But how it became such a big deal? Well, to start off, almost every RPG franchise has some sort of Fire element, based off one of the four main elements. More specifically though the idea of fire captivated the human imagination as the primary vessel of the technological change, so it is not surprising that hot blooded seven year old Japanese kids would be attracted to it. But we will be discussing the overall evolution of the type within the context of the franchise.

The History of Fire-type in Pokémon:

The Fire-type started off as one of the earliest types you can get, as one of your starters, Charmander, was one of these fateful kindlers. In this era to third generation, Fire-type would be remembered as a Special-type, meaning that Pokémon would attack and defend this type with their Special stat. This type based matchup helped determine some of the statistical archetypes that would define the future Pokémon. In this game, Fire-type was the last of the starter types you would face, in the Cinnabar Island. This little Island also housed the primary Fire-type domain, the Pokémon Mansion, a burned down mansion full of after-burning thieves, that served the primary Fire-type NPC archetype.

The next game Fire-type would see a mascot for was Gold. This game featured the first major change in the stats of Pokémon with the Special split, where Special stat split into different stats. The vast majority of Fire-types gained their Special as their Special Attack, while their Special Defense was given as a weaker stat. This sealed Fire-type's fate as a strong Special offensive type. Most notably however, this generation introduced two major things. One was Sunny Day, the weather for Fire-types, which reduced their Water weakness while improving their Fire moves, and making Solar Beam last one turn. The second one was introduction of Fire Punch as a TM, for bipedal Special Attack users that needed it.

The third generation would feature a mascot that was a Fire-type all but in name, Groudon, and a team dedicated to Fire-type all but in name, Team Magma. Both of these provided several strong moves like Heat Wave, a staple for Doubles, Eruption, the original signature move for Groudon(though it was obtained by other Pokémon), Overheat, a powerful TM, and Will-O-Wisp, a burning status move that served as the Toxic for Fire-types. This generation also effectively reintroduced Sunny Day with Groudon, whose ability Drought summoned the weather permanently upon switching in. This generation also expanded on Solar Beam and gave it to plenty of fully evolved Fire-types, and introduced Abilities, most relevant ones being White Smoke, a former signature Ability for Torkoal, Flash Fire, which granted immunity to Fire, Magma Armor, which granted immunity to freezing, and Flame Body, which caused burn upon contact. The last two would gain outside of battle effect for halving the Egg Steps necessary for hatching a Pokémon Egg.

The fourth generation was something that could be considered as a Fire-type Winter. Only introducing two new Fire-type lines, one being the starter, the other being a post-game Legendary and a third cross-generational evolution that is only available post-game, this generation has introduced no Fire-types that can be obtained in the wild conventionally. Instead, it reused an old mid-game Fire-type, Ponyta-line, as its early Fire-type, and only Fire-type. Though this was somewhat fixed in Platinum, which also reintroduced Houndour-line, Magby-line and Flareon, this remained a controversial choice. The other major change happened in HGSS, the remakes of Generation II games, which made their regional Fire-types actually available pre-E4, after they were made available in Hoenn and Sinnoh respectively. Another controversial choice was the introduction of Stealth Rock, a Rock-type entry hazard that caused damage based on type effectiveness, up to %50 for Pokémon that were weak to Rock *4 times. This heavily nerfed Fire-types from the competitive metagame, making the franchise staple Charizard and its Gen I allies complete jokes, and further hampered the two defensive Fire-types, Magcargo and Torkoal.

In addition to this, the Physical/Special split was introduced, which changed the type dynamics completely. Many bipedal Special users who used Elemental Punches were made irrelevant, while Fighting-types thrived. To compensate for this, the few Physical oriented Fire-types were given Fire Fang and Flare Blitz, one being a Fire-type version of Bite, other being a Fire-type version of Double-Edge. In addition to this, Heat Wave was made a Move Tutor, which gave Flying-types a completely new coverage move and relevance in Sun teams.

This generation brought back the trio of Legendary Birds...' types. With this, there was also the new Fire-type mythical Victini, the mascot of the fifth generation, who gained the strongest Fire-type move in the game, V-Create, which is now also the base of the strongest Z-move in the game. Because Fire-types were no longer one of the dominant types, and this generation was a throwback to the original generation, many new Fire-types were introduced, all easily available in-game. This made this generation the easiest to train a Fire-type, however, many of these new Fire-types were slow, compared to the powerhouses of Gen I. To compensate this, a new move called Flame Charge, initially associated with Tepig, the slowest Fire-type starter until the introduction of Incineroar. This move raised the Speed stat by one stage whenever it made contact. Outside of this, a Fire-type clone of Dynamic Punch, Inferno, was introduced, though there was no No Guard Pokémon to abuse it. Another new move introduced was Incinerate, which burned the opponent's berry, and later Gem. This move was largely made for Dark-types' coverage, though it was far too weak to worth anything.

Most notorious event was the introduction of Drought to a non-Legendary Pokémon, Ninetales. With permanent weather still in effect, this caused the phenomenon that was called the "Weather Wars", where every competitive team was centered around a weather and preserving it for the rest of the battle. The weather abilities were nerfed the next gen, which made them just summon the standard 5-turn(8-turns if holding the respective rock), and pushed back Weathers to irrelevancy.

The sixth generation of Pokémon was not particularly significant for Fire-types, besides for the introduction of Mega Evolution, which benefited both Charizard and Blaziken, both of gaining metagame defining new forms.In addition to the two, Houndoom and Camerupt also gained new Megas, but the primary event was Primal Groudon, a form Groudon that finally got the Fire-type. In addition to this was Volcanion, a new Mythical with the oxymoronic Fire/Water typing, and Mystical Fire, a move initially brought in as a signature for Delphox but given away to Mismagius as well. Another big event was the introduction of not one, but two Fire-types for early-game, Talonflame, which also served as the regional bird, and Pyroar, the signature of the game's villain Lysandre, which didn't happen in any previous even generation. Though the games' villain was named Team Flare, the only Fire-type they used was the Houndour-line, the previous mascot of Archer, the interim Team Rocket Boss.

The current generation has introduced plenty of Fire-types, as expected of an odd generation, though more so than Gen 3. Sadly, most of these Pokémon have been either alternate forms, or tedious to obtain(Salazzle is a female-only evolution, Turtonator is a version exclusive). The moves introduced have been mostly signature moves, with Fire Lash being a move exclusive for Heatmor, and Shell Trap being exclusive for Turtonator. Alongside these, the new move Burn Up primarily serves as a token for Moltres who didn't get anything when Articuno got Freeze-Dry, while the other obtainers have counterparts that have gained cool new forms. Most significant events this gen were the introduction of Alolan Marowak and Flare Blitz being handed out to Heatmor and Solrock.

Interestingly, this generation remains as the only generation to not have a Fire-type Legendary if we include Primal Groudon's posthumous introduction, though since Silvally is counted as a Legendary by TPCi, that is probably not entirely correct.

The Overview of Fire-types:

Of all the three major starters, Fire-type is the one that is geared towards offense, and generally dual offense. The few defensively oriented ones are generally oriented towards Physical Defense rather than Special Defense. This is because of the effect of Special split, which made the majority of Fire-types Special Offense oriented. However, another reason comes from the effect of Burn, which halves the Attack of the opponent. This leaves Fire-types very open to Special attacks, generally Water-type moves. Similarly, there are almost no Fire-types with high HP stats.

Fire-types can also be very slow, due to the focus on offense, and the nature of fire. Flame Charge helps, but it is not a saviour. Neither is Trick Room. This, combined with their many weaknesses makes them easy to defeat, especially since their weaknesses are to common offensive types like Rock, Water, Ground.

Because they are so heavily offense oriented, there aren't many Fire-type status moves, besides the aforementioned Sunny Day and Will-O-Wisp. However, both of those moves are available to variety of different Pokémon, so while they are a godsend for Fire-types, they do not make Fire-types relevant in comparison to other options.

Fire-types also do not have a stat raising move of their own, instead they use other moves like Work Up, Bulk Up, Dragon Dance, Calm Mind etc. It is hard to say what would be a Fire-type stat raising move(maybe a Special Hone Claws) but that causes greater disunity in Fire-types.