GIGANTAMAX SNORLAX

So we've got a humongous Snorlax that has, at a glance, apparently slept so long that an entire tree grew on it. Hey, fun! That really ties in with the base Pokemon's concept! Apparently it grew out of Snorlax's navel, which is disgusting, but now it provides berries Snorlax can eat without having to get up. It also has a really amusing attack animation, in which it JUST BARELY lifts its head and arms enough to point with a single finger and fire an energy beam.

Of course, as novel as this is, it's also kind of...meaningless. Some of you know this and have brought it up in comments, but I felt like holding off until now on the fact that, officially, Gigantamax forms are no more than "projections" of "energy" a Pokemon temporarily generates. The dex keeps describing a lot of them as if they're actual, gigantically evolved or mutated creatures with distinct physiology and habits of their own, but in the context of the story they're basically just momentary holograms? It's throwaway lore nobody cares that much about and I'm not sure it will really ever make a difference, but why even tell us that at all? It feels as if giant-form Pokemon may have been conceptualized before they decided how they would actually work, and it really does disappoint me that they're just three-turn power-ups not just gameplay wise, but even in-universe. It's kind of like the creative team wasn't willing to fully commit to the idea of Pokemon Kaiju just existing.

None of this affects the score for Snorlax, obviously. It's snorlax with a garden growing on it. It's not much, but it's fun and it fits in with the Pokemon's concept! It's just a shame that the official word is, inexplicably, that it "isn't real."