What are the Faces of Gen 9?

[TheMantyke]

(hit the post button a bit prematurely on accident thanks to mobile, pardon any mess)

Each generation has a few Pokémon seemingly actively pushed by Pokémon for advertisement purposes. Two months into Gen 9, what do you feel like are the faces, potential “shillmons” if you’re being cynical, of the generation?

Getting Pushed Now
These are Pokemon that seem to be getting a bigger push than your average Pokemon.


Gholdengo seems to be actively pushed as hard as possible to be a popular Pokémon. It has the coveted title of Pokémon #1000 and it’s downright been spoiled with its depiction in game, receiving amazing typing, a crazy signature ability, and a wild signature move. To me, this feels like Gen 9’s swing at a Lucario or Zoroark sort of deal. Whether it rises to Lucario’s popularity or lands as a firm meh like Zoroark remains to be seen.



Starters have a natural leg up on their contemporaries for popularity given they’re already fed huge amounts of spotlight. The fact they’re often pushed to be competitive choices in the video games adds on another layer of popularity (see: Incineroar). Meowscarada seems to be the biggest star in the official formats so far, and seems to have a reasonably liked designed, with it probably orbiting around Skeledirge and both pretty ahead of Quaquavel. I would not be surprised to see it take up the mantle of this Gen’s face starter as Cinderace, Incineroar, and especially Greninja picked up before it.

Possible Future Pushes
Pokemon obviously plans in advance what Pokemon they think players might like the most as they launch the games. Some are obvious, like starters or things they intentionally make high power, but others can be a bit of a wild card. Here are some Pokemon definitely not seeing active pushing now, but might get more spotlight as Pokemon grasps their popularity.


The reaction to Tinkaton has been incredible. Within hours of it being leaked there were already people popping jokes at its hilarious Pokédex lore. When the game hit, it just about consumed Twitter with an endless storm of fan art, memes, even counter memes defending Corviknight. Pokémon tweeted an image of her with just the text “she” and it’s far and away the most popular thing they’ve posted in like the last few weeks. The only real downer has been its performance in the competitive side of the video games, but even then, it’s shown its face pretty up high on seasonal ladder finishes. I would not be surprised to see the franchise adjust some of its plans for spotlighted Pokémon around Tinkaton moreso than any other Pokémon.


Another Pokémon that seems to have taken the internet by storm. There was already a rennessaunce of wooper love the last few years. Pokémon seems to have pounced on it big time with this objectively perfect creature. There’s a thread in our off topic forum filled with people loving it. I’ve seen so many people pick up and use Clodsire for at least a span of their playthrough. It’s a home run.


With an endearing design, a hilarious evolution method, and reasonable competitive performance, Maushold might also be a contender for a face of the generation. It feels like the whole world caught Electivire syndrome talking about Population Bomb. You’ve probably the endless maelstrom of memes yourself. People love the screaming mice.

 

[Lectrys]

These two naturally go together as the only 590-BST Paradoxes - and being among the only Paradoxes officially promoted in post-release material (e.g. the main Pokemon SV website) - despite being the last non-legendary Paradoxes found in-game in the Gen 9 main-series games. Combine them with the games' in-universe shout-out that Roaring Moon is probably based on Mega Salamence and the post-release material's outright claims that Iron Valiant heavily resembles both Gallade and Gardevoir - and the fans' smart analysis that it's actually based on both Mega Gallade and Mega Gardevoir to boot! - and it wasn't hard for me to get the feeling that Game Freak is pushing both of them unusually hard. Props to whoever designed their art, though - both of them rank in the top cool points in Gen 9 to me.


Their shared introduction in official pre-release promotional material already raises eyebrows, and then said pre-release material has to admit that both of them have potent unique moves. ...And one of them is conveniently scarlet and the other is conveniently violet. Ceruledge might have the pronounced popularity edge in the few one popularity poll I did manage to see, but the fans trying to make both of them work in competitive singles and doubles (Ceruledge performs better in singles, while Armarouge performs better in doubles partially thanks to its currently exclusive access to Expanding Force) shows that this advance shilling does, in fact, work. Given that their index numbers in Pokemon SV programming are both higher than Miraidon's #999, I get the distinct impression that the entire Charcadet line was designed explicitly to push the Pokemon Scarlet & Violet games (and conveniently finally fill the Pokemon series with over 1000 Pokemon at the same time). (Note that Toedscool and Toedscruel, who both also have index numbers over #999, have file names "OKAKINGU" and "OKAGYARADOSU", implying that every Pokemon with an index number higher than Miraidon's was designed last and in a possibly rushed fashion.) Now all Game Freak needs to do to complete that impression is give Charcadet its own entry in the Pokemon SV official website.


In retrospect, there were signs that we should have seen the entire line's shilling by Game Freak coming. It's (still) the first Gen 9 Pokemon with any representation in Pokemon GO. Official pre-release promotional material already revealed that we'll be able to capture Gimmighoul-Roaming in Pokemon GO in 2023. At this rate, Gimmighoul and Gholdengo will be the first 2 Gen 9 Pokemon fully implemented in Pokemon GO. That early November 2022 official reveal date for Gimmighoul makes more sense in hindsight (Greavard got the coveted Halloween slot instead, and I must admit that a skeletal puppy actually does make more sense in that slot than this treasure chest squatter spirit - and the Pokemon GO tie-in for Gimmighoul probably needed more prep work). The unusually long and detailed promotional video for Gimmighoul was probably another sign (along with the leak-chasing fans getting the hint in that video that you need an insanely high 999 coins in order to evolve this mon). Gimmighoul and Gholdengo likely need to be treated as an integrated unit promotion analysis-wise - Gholdengo's official website entry just has to shout out that both Gimmighoul forms evolve into it even though you currently can't obtain Gimmighoul-Roaming, both of their National Dex numbers are prominent in material surrounding them (Gimmighoul's evolution method, one of Gholdengo's Pokedex entries and its official website entry), the official "1008 Pokemon Encounters" video had to slow down its Gen 9 mon rate drastically to showcase both members of this line, the newest version of the official Trainer's Guide mentioning both members of this line abnormally often and even sneaking in a screenshot of Gholdengo...Game Freak already promoting Gimmighoul unusually hard in pre-release material makes even more sense when you consider what it evolves into and how much Game Freak probably eventually wanted to promote that evolution, too. (The leakers even admitted Game Freak had to nerf Gholdengo's unique move, which used to be pretty much a Steel-type Boomburst clone - combined with a near-Heatran stat spread and Gholdengo's great performance in multiple metas despite the move nerf, that nerf was warranted and Gholdengo was designed to be pushed competitively to begin with. Even Gimmighoul's excruciating evolution method and Transform outright failing on Gholdengo and delivering no coins for Ditto Transformed into Gimmighoul (so you have to get Gimmighoul coins the hard way) make sense considering how powerful Gholdengo is.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


In contrast, none of these mons seem to be promoted hard by Game Freak to me, despite the pronounced positive reception I've seen online regarding these mons. Tinkaton looks the closest to being designed to be a positive reception generator among all of these (the Tinkaton line's index numbers are all prominently higher than Miraidon's #999, implying the line was designed late - my pet theory is that the line's designer took the opportunity to push some promising designs s/he initially couldn't completely flesh out before upstairs demanded more than 1000 Pokemon), but seeing some ensemble dark horses instead of Game Freak-endorsed front-runners is refreshing to see.

 

[Deleted User 400951]

As a heads up, I have not played SV. I have followed the games, however, including a bit competitively (though not much yet) and thus I'd like to think I bring a unique perspective to this as someone who has an outside view and, when peering in, immediately sees what stands out.

With that, I'd like to claim that the following Pokemon I as an outsider thinks of when I think of SV are, in very rough order from most to least notable:
- Tinkaton - it was memed really hard, this was actually my first thought bc of how common the memes were
- The concept of Paradox pokemon as a whole but specifically Roaring Moon/Iron Valiant (I believe Lectrys went in detail about this enough), Flutter Mane since it kinda became notorious for being powerful
- Miraidon/Koraidon obviously
- Clodsire - I also see this online a lot, really not sure why.
- Gholdengo - TheMantyke explained this one.

everything below gholdengo is a bit rough of a choice:
- Cyclizar - likely because of its ties to Koraidon/Miraidon
- The Treasures of Ruin - this probably comes from more of a competitive standpoint because all of them outside of Wo-Chien stand out a lot as being, well, really good. I do think they're interesting designs, but they didn't sit super well with me.
- Maushold - See this one online a lot.
- Dudunsparce - A meme

I could argue some others (ceruledge/armarouge, starters and bellibolt most notably) but the ones I listed are the ones that immediately (or sort of immediately) came to mind and are why I chose to post.

As a whole, though, when I think of SV and Gen 9 I think more of the characters and the generally concepts of the region (open world etc.) than the Pokemon themselves. I do like the designs a good amount and imo on average they are better than some other recent region's designs, but the Pokemon imo are not the faces of Gen 9.

 

[R_N]

I think in terms of face, Pokemon's not really made their choice yet which is interesting. yeah Ceruledge & Armarouge had more of a showing pre-release, but they've not really tried harder to push them. Gholdengo has a lto set up in its favor, and its pre-evo had the Go tie in, but we've only just now had the "proper" reveal of it.
They've been playing it safe with the box legends and starters.

Honestly they kind of did that with Gen 8 too, alongside honorary box legends for the DLC.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

While it's hard to say who's the "face" of Gen 9, here's what I feel are the "popular" mons who have taken off immensely with fans

Naturally, of course, the starters are the ambassadors of every new generation and region, so the Paldea starters, especially their final forms Meowscarada, Skeledirge, and Quaquaval, are up there. That said, the Paldea trio in particular has taken off quite nicely overall in terms of all three of them being liked, which is a nice contrast from, say, Galar, where that trio was a bit more divisive.

Meowscarada is looking to ultimately end up the "shill" of the three a la Charizard and Greninja, given that it has the most explicit personality of the three, has Protean as its hidden ability, and its base form Sprigatito has not only been the most popular of the base forms but is seemingly going to be the main partner of the anime's new protagonist, Riko/Liko. With that in mind it's setting up to be a popular and marketable mon, especially once the Gen 9 anime starts and Liko's journey with her Sprigatito begins.

But all three have taken off well among the fandom. Meowscarada, despite being a biped, has still proven a very likable design with a lot of personality, and it seems to have pulled off being a bipedal cat in a way that's likable to a lot of people. Skeledirge is also well liked and gets a lot of points for its extremely cool design on par with Charizard, Greninja, Infernape, etc. and gets the beautiful honor among many for being our very first quadruped Fire starter. Quaquaval is also a nice and well liked design. The Paldea trio of starters have been a success thus far, and that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.

Lokix is a funny Bug-type, but it has a remarkably cool and awesome design, and that in itself has given it a lot of popularity. I don't think I need to say more than that.

Armarouge and Ceruledge have definitely taken off incredibly well with the fandom immediately after their reveal and even now they're still popular. Their designs feel like Mega Man designs and they are just incredibly cool and "badass" in a good way. Ceruledge seems to be the favored of the two over Armarouge, but the two of them together are a smash hit. I myself love Armarouge and Ceruledge, so I can't complain!

This thing has been extremely popular in the fandom from what I've seen. Its hilarious Pokedex lore, its gigantic hammer, and whatnot. TheMantyke already highlighted everything, but yeah. It has big "girlboss" energy too, which is always a plus in my book.

I myself am absolutely loving Tinkaton, it follows the trend of Hatterene and Grimmsnarl (two of my favorite Gen 8 mons) of a three-stage Fairy-type who is an absolute menace to society, unapologetically mean and terrorizing others for its pleasure. Tinkaton, along with its predecessors Grimmsnarl and Hatterene really go in on the mythological depiction of fae, chaotic creatures that do whatever the hell they want with zero regard for anything else.

Annihilape is one of the more popular cross-gen evolutions this generation, basically being Primeape whose rage reached a critical point, and it's just such a neat design! Fighting/Ghost is also an incredible typing, and Rage Fist is a unique move that takes advantage of Annihilape's newly enhanced bulk combined with its Fighting STAB, which together is nigh unresisted barring the currently unavailable Hisuian Zoroark.

But while Annihilape is popular, there's another cross-gen evolution in this generation who has taken off even more than Annihilape, which is...

KINGAMBIT!!! Take one of the coolest, most badass, raw, and epic designs of Gen 5, Bisharp, and give it an evolution, which in itself is even more badass and amazing than Bisharp! Kingambit is the evolved form of a Pokemon who didn't really need an evolution per se, but is still welcome all the same. Kingambit has proven a very popular mon, with an epic, badass design, and being an upgrade from design in combat both in-game and competitive. The fact that it now has a lot of hair which it also sits on, and rolls around on it has also added to its popularity. It's a powerhouse in terms of stats, its ability Supreme Overlord has a lot of bonus to it too in terms of its combat abilities, and it has everything Bisharp had but better. What's not to love about Kingambit?

Baxcalibur naturally gets a great amount of popularity by virtue of being a pseudo-legendary. In terms of pseudos, Baxcalibur has been a bit more divisive in terms of opinions towards its design, but it's still a popular, highly used, and well liked Pokemon overall like the members of its archetypes have been. On the whole, it hasn't become the superbly popular smash hit that its immediate predecessor Dragapult was (Dragapult was and still is extremely popular and by far the most popular of the Gen 8 roster), but Baxcalibur still enjoys a good amount of popularity all the same.

It's a fairly simple design, which has some people detracted from it, but it's a strong design and it gives off fierce, monster-like, and strong vibes. It also gets plenty of attention and love for the hilarity of its signature move, Glaive Rush, which really hammers in Baxcalibur's Godzilla inspiration, basically having Baxcalibur flip upside down and fly into its opponent to impale them with its back blade, being a shoutout to one of Godzilla's most hilarious moves. And naturally it is a good Pokemon, and a good Ice-type: great stats all around and the right movepool to back itself up make it a powerhouse to use in-game like all pseudo-legendaries, and it has its place in competitive as well.

The 1000 coin mon. Evolves in a unique way, Gimmighoul was shown off before release, and Gholdengo really has a funny design, fun concept, and is great and fun to use in battle.

It's also Pokemon #1000 in the National Pokedex numbering, this is definitely a standout mon.

Hands down the most popular of the Paradox mons by far. They're based on very popular mons (Salamence and Gardevoir/Gallade), especially the latter being a hybrid of Gardevoir and Gallade, who are very popular among fans. Their designs are also incredibly good, being based on Mega Salamence and Mega Gardevoir+Gallade is a bonus, and they are powerhouses all the same.

As the boxart legendary duo of Scarlet and Violet, naturally Koraidon and Miraidon are ambassadors of the new games just as the starter trio is. Koraidon and Miraidon are a well-designed and well-implemented cover legendary duo and have also taken off in terms of memes online because of the fact that one serves as your ride partner in-game and also has an affinity for sandwiches.

That's just a few that I've run down from my observations.

 

[Hugin]

Gholdengo, with the Pokemon Go tie-in, the 1000 dex number, the broken ability, and the spotlight in the recent video, all feel like it's the one they're trying to push. Whether that works is more of a question.

Ceruledge/Armarouge feel like they've gotten a smaller push, the reveal for them seemed to be setting them up as potential options for this push, but there's been no follow-up. Maybe there wasn't enough positive reception for it to be worth it?

Starters/Box Legends are both potential ones for this push. There's always at least some effort from the devs to make people love them, but I haven't seen any more than that. Presumably, devs are waiting for fandom to choose one to focus on so they can double down on existing hype rather than trying to force it.

Tinkaton/Maushold/Clodsire/etc all feel like fandom likes them, but that's not the same as an official push. It's possible they make a push(I'd bet on Tinkaton, though Clodsire because Rika also makes sense), but it hasn't happened yet.

 

[TheMantyke]

One aspect I should mention: There are obviously Pokemon being pushed as premptive guesses the playerbase will like them, a la Gholdengo and the starters. I think it's worth also designating what Pokemon might be given extra attention thanks to their positive reception. You know, sort of what's happened to Bidoof over the years where I don't remember seeing much of it from Pokemon during DP's launch, but it got popular enough off of memes and gags that it got it's own short and entire calender day.

Gonna go ahead and make a distinction between those two things in my OG posts, since there's a crop of "these Pokémon are being pushed" and "these Pokemon might end up getting pushed from fan reception".

 

[Eriorguez]

Meowscarada seems to be the golden starter this Gen (good, we have had 2 gens in a row with Fires getting that treatment). Other than that, Gholdengo is getting the "number 1000 Pokemon" pointers, but, all in all, quite tame. Just like the previous gen, where if anything Cinderace got the spotlight.

(Meowscarada would have worked in Smash, ngl. Feels like a stage magician would make for an interesting character).

 

[Lectrys]

A certain (fan-made, of course) Pokemon Awards posted its final poll today, so I got inspired to analyze 2 polls' worth of figuring out what the faces of Gen 9 could very well be! Yes, each poll will be in a separate post.

Remember the one popularity poll I managed to see that had Ceruledge rank higher than Armarouge? It's https://gamewith.jp/pokemon-sv/article/show/381211 with 177,829 Japanese votes, already brought up in our Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Official Info thread! Here are all its Gen 9 Pokemon results:

1. Tinkaton
2. Clodsire
3. Meowscarada
4. Fuecoco
5. Ceruledge
6. Tatsugiri-Curly
8. Slither Wing
12. Koraidon
14. Sprigatito
15. Pawmot
17. Maushold-Four (assumed to be the default form, guess we messed up there)
17. Miraidon
19. Pawmi
27. Iron Valiant
29. Skeledirge
32. Quaquaval
35. Fidough
37. Glimmora
38. Flutter Mane
39. Scream Tail
44. Tatsugiri-Droopy

The poll results are only displayed to 50th place. ...Which is Tyranitar.

I've always thought the Japanese leaned more towards kawaii cutemons than Westerners do, which might explain Tatsugiri getting in the Top 50 twice and Fidough and two members of the Pawmi line cracking the Top 50 in the first place. In shakier news, perhaps the Japanese saw a favourable Yatterman reference in Meowscarada and that's why they voted that starter in so highly. The Japanese quite possibly like the starters overall more than we do, but they are in agreement with we Westerners that Tinkaton is a winner, Clodsire is cute, Iron Valiant and Ceruledge are cool, Maushold is fun, and Armarouge continues to be in its Fire/Ghost counterpart's shadow. Maybe they think that Slither Wing is kawaii somehow, though...

 

[Lectrys]

Truegreen7's 2nd Annual Pokemon Awards posted their final poll in https://t.co/M5L5lwt2Xa today. I only minorly care who wins at best - the nominations are already interesting enough! I'm not quite sure how the initial poll's results were filtered for nominations, but let's analyze who got picked, presumably in droves! (Note that my personal biases may sneak into some of these analyses):

Coolest Pokemon of the Year

• Ceruledge
• Annihilape
• Lokix
• Tinkaton
• Koraidon
• Miraidon
• Roaring Moon
• Iron Valiant

Seems to be par for the course given my previous observations, including that we Westerners seem to like Roaring Moon significantly more than the Japanese do and that Ceruledge always out-performs Armarouge in the polls. ...OK, Tinkaton had better be getting the awkward cool vote here, IMO.

Cutest Pokemon of the Year

• Cetoddle
• Clodsire
• Fidough
• Fuecoco
• Sprigatito
• Tinkaton
• Maushold
• Smoliv

So it turns out that either the Westerners agree with the Japanese that Fidough, Fuecoco, and Sprigatito are cute or some Japanese sneaked into the Truegreen7 polls. It's possible that Cetoddle and Smoliv getting nominated here and failing to crack the Top 50 of that earlier Japanese poll is due to cultural differences.

Shiny Pokemon of the Year

• Cetitan
• Klawf
• Koraidon
• Rellor
• Tarountula
• Braviary-Hisui
• Zoroark-Hisui
• Chi-Yu

Shiny colourations themselves may be to the arbitrary side, but it seems that a lot of us agree that black is cool, gold dung balls really stand out, blue fire is awesome, and Zoroark-Hisui has really nice hair.

Pokemon Meme of the Year

• Tinkaton ( ())
• Weed Cat ()
• Live Wo-Chien Reaction ()
• Lechonk ()
• Aggressive Paras ()
• Tweet Like Pokemon Were Real
• Nemona Goku
• Scarlet Violet Glitches

Yes, I'm counting this as a Pokemon poll slate. I bet a bunch of you remember certain Pokemon favourably precisely because of the memes.

Competitive Pokemon of the Year

• Dondozo
• Gholdengo
• Palafin
• Murkrow
• Zacian
• Maushold
• Flutter Mane
• Iron Bundle

If anything, I suspect that competitive viability tanks a Pokemon's popularity if it gets high enough instead of boosts it. ...Maybe that's why this poll slate was made. Over here, we have 5-7 offensive powerhouses, 2 aggravating supporters, 1-2 Pokemon we can't wallbreak past fast enough, and 4 Ubers and/or Anything Goes members. Shout-outs to Murkrow and Zacian for making it despite being neither Gen 9 nor Legends Arceus mons - I know I would have voted for Zacian-Crowned for this category in that first poll. (It/she still absolutely tears up Gen 8 Ubers, Anything Goes, every Other Meta it/she is legal in, and some Gen 9 metas to boot.)

Now for the finally awaited, possibly the most affected by Game Freak's marketing (and therefore the most cynical), with individual descriptions this time...

Pokemon of the Year

• Arceus
  • Never forget that Pokemon Legends: Arceus was released in January 2022, and therefore, its featured Pokemon have every right to belong in this poll as much as the Gen 9 Pokemon do. Also do not forget that we reserve all our capitalized Pokemon pronouns for Him and only Him.
• Koraidon
  • Face it: the actual faces of Gen 9 are of course its box legendaries. They're on the front faces of every main-series Pokemon game box, after all. There's no way we'll ever be able to forget their mugs after looking at enough box fronts. Oh yeah, I swear those box legendary abilities get more and more pushed each generation.
• Miraidon
  • See Koraidon for more information.
• Tinkaton
  • Perhaps its Pokedex entries - and the Pokedex entries of its entire line - helped along with that giant hammer, but both we Westerners and the Japanese have latched onto Tinkaton like absolute fire, and the latching-on won't stop anytime soon. There's definitely shared disappointment out there that 160-BP Gigaton Hammer just had to be handed exclusively to a Pokemon with only 75 base Attack, but Gen 9 might actually be the generation where Game Freak kept its closest eye on balancing its mons yet, so we might have actually dodged a bullet there. ...We'll get there later.
• Clodsire
  • Derpy face? Check. Cute as a result? Check. Doing all this lying on its stomach and therefore giving its standing cousin Quagsire a run for its money? Check. OU-worthy? ...Somehow check! Plushies flying off the assembly line like hotcakes? Check!
• Lechonk
  • Alright, let's not forget how many of the newest/newer video game mechanics trends that Pokemon Scarlet & Violet picked up: open-world gameplay, crafting TMs that break upon use instead of the infinite-use TMs we got in previous generations, a battle pass embedded into the Pokedex...and let's not forget how hard into memes early pre-release Pokemon Scarlet & Violet promotions leaned into with Lechonk and Smoliv. Based on how many more Lechonk memes some of you clearly made, I bet some of you like leaning into memes.
• Ceruledge
  • So this suspiciously violet Pokemon was paired with its suspiciously scarlet counterpart Armarouge in pre-release Pokemon Scarlet & Violet promotions. ...Sometimes, I swear these 2 Pokemon were specifically made to promote the Pokemon Scarlet & Violet games. And it worked. Widely praised cool looks, the base stats and access to powerful (but not busted) moves to back those up, and the fans scrambling to force them into OU, Doubles OU, Battle Spot Singles, and VGC Series 1 no matter how disappointing their results were. While Armarouge might be better entrenched in Doubles OU and VGC Series 1 than Ceruledge is entrenched in any of those metas, Ceruledge is clearly winning the few two popularity polls I've witnessed so far. ...It's probably those cool swords.
• Gholdengo
  • Evidence points to Gen 9 starting off with only 997-999 Pokemon (look at Pokemon Scarlet & Violet's index numbers, Miraidon getting index number #999, and the hastily redesigned post-index-number-#999 Rfake Gyarados Toedscruel line for further information), so Gholdengo (and its pre-evolution Gimmighoul) had all the Natdex numbers rearranged in their favour. And hot dang if Gholdengo isn't the most deserving of Natdex #1000. Made of 1000 gold coins, pushed competitively, fun friendly surfer flavour, the number 1000 on its freaking belt buckle - yeah, Gholdengo definitely fits into the #1000 slot, and yeah, Game Freak definitely decided to celebrate reaching over 1000 Pokemon partially by showcasing this mon. Shame about that unfortunate resemblance to the Cheestrings mascot, especially that mascot on a skateboard, because otherwise I suspect Gholdengo's reception wouldn't be so polarizing at best. ...OK, being locked behind likely the most excruciating evolution method in the history of the entire Pokemon series, having a signature ability that both blocks aggravatingly many moves and makes obtaining this Pokemon as hard as possible, and having a signature move so powerful it had to be nerfed (according to the leaks) yet is still possibly the most feared attack in VGC Series 1 probably also drop Gholdengo's popularity, too. At least coin surfer doesn't make competitive Pokemon battling with it devolve into a series of coin flips, and its pre-evolution Natdex #999 doesn't get slapped with the "1 shy of #1000, trolled" label. ...Probably.

As an aside, here are some non-(strictly-)Pokemon final poll slates that can possibly give the Pokemon poll slates above more context:

Video Game Character of the Year

• Arven
• Nemona
• Larry
• Ingo
• Volo
• Penny
• Adaman
• Iono

Pokemon: Legends Arceus is filled with so many winners that some of them had to make it into this slate and shove out Pokemon Scarlet & Violet characters.

Move of the Year

• Population Bomb ( )
• Revival Blessing ( )
• Rage Fist ( )
• Torch Song ()
• Make It Rain ()
• Last Respects ( )
• Flower Trick ()
• Gigaton Hammer ()

In a year with several countries emerging from COVID-19 - and some countries receding back - it seems we were attracted to the flashy attacks, the broken ones, the ones with the biggest impact. ...And the signature moves. Interestingly, despite its characters making it, no Pokemon: Legends Arceus attacks made it - I sure well know how often I see Stone Axe, Ceaseless Edge, and Victory Dance get flung around in Other Metas, and Headlong Rush has a proactive power all its own.

Ability of the Year

• Good as Gold ()
• Supreme Overlord ()
• Commander ( ())
• Zero to Hero ( )
• Purifying Salt ( )
• Intimidate (way too many mons)
• Opportunist ()
• Protosynthesis ( )

So only 1-2 of these abilities don't make us tear our hair out in competitive Pokemon battling. ...Probably. Except Opportunist absolutely tore up Metronome Battles and we flung its sorry butt outta there Luckily, most of these are signature abilities that are restricted to 1 line or even 1 mon.