Pokemon Type Reviews: Normal
Half-Normal Pokemon:
That's right! With a whopping 802 individual Pokemon now reviewed, we're going to go over each and every Pokemon type as a whole, discuss
their unifying themes, best characteristics, aesthetic values when taken as a "set," and a little about what might be missing!
Today, we begin with the normal type, which is really just the closest thing the game has to Pokemon with no type. As of Gen VII, there are 109 Normal types, the second most common in the game, and the vast majority of them are birds or mammals. It's the type of conventional, everyday farm animals and woodland critters, vulnerable only to fighting type Pokemon and resistant only to ghost types. This last is a mutual immunity, with ghost and normal Pokemon passing right through one another, which I always thought was pretty clever.
Appropriately, my feelings on most normal Pokemon are pretty neutral, but I do find it interesting how it often carries a sort of "purity" theme, with many normal types looking almost angelic and many wielding restorative moves as a central theme. In the first generation, quite a few of them were also pink, fluffy and fairy-like, eventually even gaining the brand new "fairy type" by the sixth generation.
Another interesting detail of the normal type is its association with sound. Almost all sound-related moves are normal, and while I've seen people suggest an actual "sonic" or "sound" type for years now, I think it makes perfect sense for sound to be more or less "typeless." It is, after all, nothing more than vibration; the perfect rationalization for a "special attack" with no particular elemental properties, right?
My only gripe about normal, as I've mentioned in the past, is the name. The word "normal" is sort of synonymous with something boring, unimpressive or mediocre, and I always thought a more fitting name might be "neutral."
Despite its theme of basically a non-type, there are a select number of normal types paired with an elemental typing, such as water, fire, electric, grass and psychic. This would basically appear to indicate that these pokemon aren't "as" elemental as others of the same type; Sawsbuck, for instance, is an animal with plant life growing on it, but not "completely" a grass type pokemon. Bibarel is an animal that also happens to be amphibious, but not a "water type" monster.
All in all, Normal fulfills its goal of being the "simplest" or most "ordinary" Pokemon type, rarely too outrageous, but usually communicating either a basal, natural animal or some sort of mystical "purity."
Today, we begin with the normal type, which is really just the closest thing the game has to Pokemon with no type. As of Gen VII, there are 109 Normal types, the second most common in the game, and the vast majority of them are birds or mammals. It's the type of conventional, everyday farm animals and woodland critters, vulnerable only to fighting type Pokemon and resistant only to ghost types. This last is a mutual immunity, with ghost and normal Pokemon passing right through one another, which I always thought was pretty clever.
My only gripe about normal, as I've mentioned in the past, is the name. The word "normal" is sort of synonymous with something boring, unimpressive or mediocre, and I always thought a more fitting name might be "neutral."
All in all, Normal fulfills its goal of being the "simplest" or most "ordinary" Pokemon type, rarely too outrageous, but usually communicating either a basal, natural animal or some sort of mystical "purity."
MY TOP SIX FAVORITES:
THE CUTEST:
THE "COOLEST" OVERALL:
THE BEST... AT BEING SO ORDINARY:
In a type dominated by more realistic animals, these are my choices for the six most realistic animals of them all.
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