Hello again everyone. I know it’s been a pretty long time since I’ve done one of these Interesting Specimen posts. The reason can pretty much be chalked up to a lack of motivation and time. Between my fan fiction writing and the assignments for my online classes, I’ve haven’t really been able to sit down and just write one of these little posts. Recently though, I’ve gotten back the motivation to do more Pokemon-related projects. So this evening I decided to do a post on kind of a disturbing pair of Pokemon from Generation 6 that I’ve been reading about recently. Presenting the oddly cute Inkay and its sinister evolved form, Malamar.
There are three reasons why Inkay and Malamar have landed themselves in this Interesting Specimen category. The first reason is simply because of their typing. I confess that for a long time I’ve wanted the creators of the franchise to come out with a Dark/Psychic-type Pokemon, but I never imagined that my wish would be granted in the form of a pair of squids. You’d think they’d be Dark/Water-type Pokemon considering that they’re squids, but for some reason they aren’t. I should also probably mention at this point that Malamar’s hypnotic abilities grant it the power to control minds, but more on that in a bit.
In the Games: Being of the newest generation of the Pokemon games, Inkay and Malamar can currently only be found in Pokemon X and Y. Inkay can be found on Route 8 of the Kalos Region as well as the landmark known as Azure Bay. The weird thing is that Inkay aren’t found by fishing. You think they would be since they’re squids, but in fact they’re found by walking in the grass like most land-dwelling Pokemon. It’s just plain weird. As for Malamar, the only way to get that Pokemon currently is to evolve Inkay.
Evolution: We now come to the second reason for why Inkay and Malamar have landed in the Interesting Specimen category. I’ve seen a lot of different evolution methods over the years as the Pokemon franchise has grown, but Inkay’s evolution into Malamar is to date the weirdest method I have ever seen. In order to evolve Inkay, the player has to turn the 3DS upside-down as soon as the little squid reaches level thirty. This method just seems really bizarre to me. I mean it seems simple and yet… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s just odd.
Disturbing Behavior: Finally we come to the third and perhaps biggest reason why Inkay and Malamar are in the Interesting Specimen series. It seems that Malamar, as one fairly recent episode of the anime has implied, are inherently evil. In the episode I speak of, a Malamar had used its mind control powers on an Officer Jenny, those idiots from Team Rocket, Ash’s Pikachu and his current traveling companions, and several wild Pokemon all for the sake of a plan to take over the world. This is one of the very few times where the anime has shown a Pokemon that seems truly evil, and an upcoming episode seems to imply that the whole Malamar species is like this. I haven’t been this unsettled by a Pokemon since I read that Yamask are supposedly the ghosts of dead humans from ancient times.
I mean we’ve seen malevolent Pokemon in the anime before like Gyarados, but those Pokemon are merely irate or being used by an evil human. And I know that Malamar is a dark-type, but most dark-types have been misunderstood creatures that don’t really mean any harm to humans, like Absol or Darkrai. The closest we’ve come to seeing a truly evil Pokemon is the original Mewtwo, and even he turned into a good guy in the end. It’s just really kind of disturbing to me that the whole Malamar species might be evil squids secretly plotting world domination through mind control. Then again, I feel like this gives me license to eventually write a fanfic that features a Jirachi with a personality similar to that of Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
That wraps up my post one the weirdest pair of Pokemon I have ever seen. Until next time.
