Wo-Chien

Imagine my delight when I heard there'd be a legendary SNAIL this generation. Not just that, but a dark/grass legendary snail. A spooky, scary, sinister plant-gastropod?! I really couldn't guess what the gimmick would be, but it turns out the gimmick is that it's a big, rotten pile of dead leaves with a shell formed from a coiled chain of wooden tablets. Conceptually, these tablets are an ancient artifact recording the "evil deed" of a long dead king, and they're cursed because the guy who wrote them was executed, leaving behind a supernatural grudge that animated the tablets and created a body for itself to become a Pokemon. You'll notice its name is quite unlike most Pocket Monsters, and it's actually the first in a quartet of these "grudges" with names that draw from the "four perils" in Chinese mythology!

This is all thoroughly badass, yes, but I'm so much more charmed that it's just a giant crawling compost heap in the shape of a mollusk. Instead of eyestalks, its menacing eyes are within the gaps between vines or twigs that stick out of its head like a set of little antlers, its "eyelids" usually narrowed in a shifty, conniving sort of way that's pretty cute! The whole thing is cute, really, or at least it should be, until you notice that the leaves are kind of meant to resemble a giant old man face with a beard and mustache. I'm not sure I like that as much, I gotta say. It's COOL, don't get me wrong, it adds more supernatural haunted spookiness to the concept, but it just gives the lovable dirt snail such a different personality I wasn't really ready for, I've personally opted to just kind of disregard it.

If you're struggling to see what I mean, though, the big brown leaf between the eyes is basically a big "nose," the notches forming the "nostrils," and the rest of the leaves are layers of shaggy hair. If you, too, originally saw the alien expression of a cool and dignified snail-blob, I'm sorry for ruining it, but I don't want to be dealing with this all alone, is the thing:

Still, can't complain. It is a legendary, cursed supernatural snail made out of forest garbage. I'll give it a "personal favorite" stamp on principle, though to be honest, I'd prefer a pokemon like this that's just supposed to be a rotten leaf snail, and not a whole extravagant legendary spookter. A rotten leaf snail is more than enough!