This was my most anticipated mon for mega dimensions. I loved golisopod before this, i was hoping for a Guzma's golisopod card for the tcg, used him in sun and moon, and i was very excited to use him in future games, especially in battles because he would've become viable with a mega. And they gave us this. I do know, some people like this design, hell a golisopod fan has told me they like this, but im very disappointed in it personally, and let me tell to whoever is interested enough to read this why. skip to the end for a TL:DR/conclusions of the entire thing
Now, for those who don't know, this is based off of a droideka. Its a robot in star wars that looks similar to this, with 3 legs, same curved body, and 2 arm cannons. This design, takes obvious inspiration from that. Same body shape, it's steel typing reflects this, and the 2 arms on the top can shoot out its claws. The choice to make this does make somewhat sense. Golisopod is a tactician, dex's saying that it'll do anything to win, and it's ability changing from wimping out to a tactical retreat. A droideka, from what ive read, are powerful, armed, and very tranky because of their shields, designed for extermination, and mega golisopod reflects this. It will no longer retreat, rather it will tank your attacks and attack relentlessly until its target has been exterminated, fitting of the pokemon's nature.
So you may ask, why am i upset about this design, if i have said its fitting? Because it's also dumb. Firstly, if you didn't know, the original golisopod is based off a samurai. It's shell closesly resembles it. Its moon dex entry says, its battles skillfully, but takes most of its time peacefully meditating, similar to a samurai. In the anime, we see this even moreso, with guzma's golisopod using razor shell very similarly to how a samurai would first unsheathe a sword and then strike.
This pokemon, is a samurai, and a mega reflecting this would've been A. very cool B.apt for its original motif. It would've been cool to see this expanded on like most megas design do with their respective mons, and become more heavily armored like a shogun, and taken from oni's, or the yokai ashura, or mythological depictions of ryomen sukuna if they wanted to give it more arms or even just express this pokemons menacing nature more. Hell, this motif is quite obvious, BECAUSE MOST OF THE FANART YOU SEE OF A MEGA FOR THIS MON IS A SAMURAI.
Secondly, a droideka has lasers, and uses ranged weapons. This is reflected in Golisopods nails from its top arms being able to be fired out. Only problem is, THIS POKEMON IS A PHYSICAL ATTACKER, SO NOBODY IS GOING TO USE A SPECIAL MOVE FOR THIS ANIMATION TO EVEN PLAY
and finally, if they wanted to do a star wars reference so bad that they twist this mons figure, that they massacre my boy, that they betray all the golisopod fans with this god awful design, why, i ask, not just take inspiration from general grievous, a character that has multiple arms and uses lightsabers in each one, which would make more sense for this mon
In conclusion, and my TL:DR FOR THIS LONG ASS RANT, mega golisopd is a dumb star war reference, twisted from its samurai inpirations and forcefully given a design that's unfaithful to it's base form of the pokemon, and i genuinely do not know who the hell greenlit this or thought it was a good idea
by Cheap_Gap1446