colours challenged PokéCommunity members to create an Alolan form worthy of being in Pokémon Sun & Moon this coming November. While we might be lucky if any of these happen to resemble any Alolan forms in the game, the amount of creativity displayed in the contest shows that there are some seriously talented Pokémon fans out there. Nintendo should definitely be taking some notes; the bar is now definitely raised higher!

In this contest, members did not have to rely on just providing images to show what they imagined their Alolan form to look like. Painting a picture with words could be just as sufficient as providing an image, which is a relief for those who don’t have much artistic talent, such as myself. Aside from the description of image of the Alolan form, both the originality and backstory of the forms were considered when picking the winners.

With around two pages of entries, the three judges — colours, Schwann, and Dragon — must have had a hard time picking one winner each. However, we have the results now! In no particular order, first place goes to… Rainbow with Alolan Farfetch’d, Bigdog with Alolan Totodile, and clefairydesuyo with Alolan Bulbasaur! Here are the descriptions of the Alolan forms as well as the judge’s reasoning for picking them as their #1:

Rainbow’s entry for Alolan Farfetch’d:

Pokémon: Farfetch’d
Type: Fire/Grass
Ability: Heatproof, Reckless, Desolate Land (Hidden Ability)
How did this Pokémon adapt to Alola? As an endangered Pokémon, dozens of Farfetch’d were placed in Alolan wildlife reserves. The reserves succeeded in multiplying their numbers, but it took decades for them to begin to change.

Generations later, many parts of the Alola region were evacuated as a response to extreme geological activity caused by the awakening of Entei in Johto. The wildlife reserve that had housed the Farfetch’d was abandoned, and the rare birds were left to fend for themselves. For generations they’d been pandered to by the human employees of the wildlife reserve, and were unused to hunting for themselves. When a volcano erupted dangerously close to them, many Farfetch’d could not escape the reserve’s enclosures and were forced to slowly adapt to the heat.

After escaping the enclosure, the surviving Farfetch’d wandered the island. With many species of flora and fauna extinct, they were forced to feed on whatever they could find and become omnivores.

Once the humans returned to the island a few years later, they found the wildlife reserves empty. Several Farfetch’d had died in the intense heat and smoke, but most had changed their physiology and abilities. Alolan Farfetch’d rarely fly, except to escape their predators, of which there are few. They are omnivores, eating both ground-dwelling plants and small insects. They will also consume larger animals, which they will first cook using the move Flamethrower. Inside their beaks they’ve evolved basic flat teeth to assist in their omnivorous diet. As they hunt on the forest floor, they’ve adapted a light green coloration to assist in camouflage. They sometimes bathe in volcanic lava.

In stark contrast to their history of scarcity and solitude, Alolan Farfetch’d are now very common on the archipelago. They’ve been observed to live in small colonies, and light campfires at night. If they can steal marshmallows from the villagers, they will place them on their Stick – many of which are now made from iron bars or flame-retardant wood rather than a leek plant – and attempt to roast them over the open flame.

Description: The Alolan Farfetch’d has adapted a light green body to blend in with the forest. Its beak has expanded and widened, and now houses flat teeth for crushing plants. They tend to use wood rather than leek as a Stick, and sometimes set it on fire to hunt at night. Their beaks and feet have turned black as well – as they no longer hunt above the treetops, it’s useful to blend in with the darkness of the jungle.

I thought of this entry by doing some reading about Hawaii’s nature reserves. Several documents, including the one that inspired this post, speak of the dangers of fire and how much it could endanger the lives of all the birds there. They mention neither volcano eruptions nor the birds mutating to become fire-breathing super-birds. Not creative enough I guess.

Also, I really wasn’t sure about the Grass secondary type. It doesn’t have any power over nature, like most Grass Pokémon do, but it didn’t really seem to fit as Fire/Flying since I wanted to make it clear that it stays mostly ground-borne and only flies in emergencies. It can’t do so very well, either. I guess I just picked grass to indicate that it lives in jungles.

Here is what colours and Dragon had to say about the entry!

Entries like this one are exactly why this contest was opened up to those who didn’t have the actual artistic ability to draw, but are able to express creativity through imagination, something which is really important to me. The point of this contest is to paint a picture–whether literally or figuratively through words–about what your Alola form Pokémon would look like. How did the Alola form come out? Personally speaking, I’m a sucker for deep stories, so that’s why Rainbow’s takes the cake for me. The story of how Alolan Farfetch’d came about as a result of regular Farfetch’d being abandoned and being forced to adapt to the extreme geological activity as a result of Entei being awaked is something of an eye-opener. It’s not exactly out of place, either. Many Farfetch’d did die in order to actually become accustomed to, over time, become more land-dwellers instead of flying birds, hence the Fire/Grass typing. I’d really like to commend Rainbow for this entry, and this kind of creativity and backstory is precisely why he landed first place in my book!

Alolan Farfetch’d from Rainbow is really awesome too, as I do agree that you don’t need to draw or make pixel art to do well in this contest. I pictured it really well as the descriptions and backstory was really well done! Though the backstory was depressing to hear. </3 Poor Farfetch’d.

Here’s Bigdog’s entry with Alolan Totodile!

Pokémon: Totodile [Kiawe’s Island Form. Or whatever has the Volcano on it form.]
Type: Dark, Fire
Ability: Ashen Plumes (arena becomes rained on with fiery plumes of ash; fire-type and dark-type moves powered up)
How did this Pokémon adapt to Alola?: From Johto, trainers and those who bought Totodile from exotic Pokémon shops to serve as pets, as the creature is said to once be benevolent protectos for the people of Alola. This ancient strain of Totodile have long since been extinct, and are depicted in statues lining the stairs of the Alolan Palace as they used to be pets for royalty and Feraligatrs, a symbol of power. In the volcanic ash, a chain reaction inside this creature soon took aflame. It is said that its ancestor and others were abandoned by neglectful trainers who couldn’t handle its playful and mischievous nature as exotic pets. Their anger and the hot dry environment of the volcanic soil had altered his appearance. This variant is hyper-aggressive ,but will avoid humans as much as possible. but when provoked, it will attack. Those who confronted their protective their Feraligatr mothers only had the prayers to their ancient god before they awaited death.

It is said that before a Feraligatr erupts and unleashes lava plumes the flames that burn deep and painfully on its body send grey smoke into the air. During ancient times, these Feraligatrs were thought to be harbingers of doom from the gods themselves. Those who came off the island and seen other variations were surprised at how calm and mischievous they tended to be.

Why I wanted to do this?

To really explore what I could do to redesign Totodile for its new type, and I looked to one of my top ten favorite Godzilla movies, and particularly, Burning Godzilla and Godzilla 2000 in its dorsal spines. Since Totodile and its entire line were my first starters, I didn’t want to do it half way. My other inspiration are Carnotaurs. I wanted to further its similarities to Godzilla and having its abusive environment and hostile origins reflect its final form’s fury.

Here is what Schwann had to say about the entry!

So my top pick was Bigdog’s Alolan Totodile. I really like the idea of a water type adapting to the volcanic areas of Hawaii rather than just staying a water type, if that makes sense. And badass fire crocodiles at the volcano? Let’s be real — that’s pretty damn awesome. Godzilla as an influence is a pretty nice touch and while at first when I read that part of the description and such, I was concerned about how that might affect the design, but I think it worked out for the best. I would definitely want to use Alolan Totodile if it were real.

Here is clefairydesuyo’s entry of Alolan Bulbasaur!

Pokémon: Bulbasaur
Type: Water, Grass
Ability: Overflow (arena becomes flooded with water; water-type moves powered up)
How did this Pokémon adapt to Alola?: The Bulbasaurs were originally brought to the island by a team of researchers who had a passion for discovering new species. The Pokémon acted as assistants in their work. One of the researchers found that the Bulbasaurs particularly flourished in Alola with the nutrient-rich soil (due to the volcano), bright sunshine and abundant fresh water. During their time on the island, the researchers noticed that the longer the Bulbasaurs were exposed to the elements of Alola, they became stronger and stronger. Offspring of these Bulbasaurs adapted more to the waters around the islands (a larger percentage of their biological make up became pure water) and the bulbs had opened earlier than that of Ivysaur and Venusaur to display a vibrant, fresh water-lily. Researchers nowadays argue as to whether Bulbasaur is more water, animal or plant matter.
Due to the ability Overflow, Bulbasaur can easily adapt to its environment in battle. The move Fluidity allows the Bulbasaur to actually change from a solid to a liquid in the first turn, hiding in the water brought by Overflow, then attacking on the second (similar to Phantom Force).

fin

I was inspired by water-lilies for this Pokémon’s Alolan form. I read about how easy they were to grow in islands like Hawaii, apparently. So, I figured that a Bulbasaur with a flower like that on its back may find it easy to make the flower thrive in an environment like Alola.

I’d like to imagine that Bulbasaur’s flowers have different colours on each of the islands. As Ivysaur and Venusaur, the flowers grow larger and in number in a cluster on the Pokémon’s back.

Here is what Dragon and colours had to say about clefairydesuyo’s Alolan Bulbasaur!

One of my picks was clefairydesuyo’s Alolan Bulbasaur. The artwork was really well done, and I loved the reasoning for it; they become water lilies from the fresh water and sunlight, which was cute to see. Overflow seems like a handy ability; it’s not Drizzle, but perhaps it could combine with rain boosts to make an effective weapon!

Anyone who knows me knows that Bulbasaur is one of my top favourite Pokémon. But that’s all the more reason for me to look at Alolan Bulbasaur in more of a critical eye because of that fact–and that’s a good thing! I picked this as my number two entry because the Bulbasaur looked absolutely stunning, but not just that, the backstory was very interesting too–and it made sense! Having Bulbasaur being brought over by a research them and having them slowly adapt to the different environment of Alola as a result (having their bulbs on the back change, and their offspring adapting even further), is something that was really nice and stood out to me. ^^ Congratulations, clefairydesuyo!

So there you have it, folks! Congrats to the three first place winners, and an honorable mention to all of the participants as well. If I were a judge, I’m not sure if I would be able to pick just one winner… can I pick all of them? Some of these would look really, really awesome as 3D models in Sun & Moon…

Even though the contest may be over, that doesn’t mean you can’t still share your own Alolan forms with the community! Head over to the Pokémon Sun & Moon section and post your own ideas in the designated Alola forms thread.

Edited by Nick Wilde and Sylphiel. Images credit to Bigdog and clefairydesuyo.