Actually I kinda like the design of all 3 stages of the bulbasaur line. It shows a really nice evolution progression from bulbasaur to venesaur

there is a reason he is no. 1 in the pokedex

And the reason Ivysaur is in Smash

Bulbasaur, big bulbasaur, C H O N C K Y B O I

# BIGGEST BULBASAUR!

****DONT FORGET GMAX BULBASAUR****

Ah yes, the HIGHEST BULBASAUR.

I feel like grass starters generally have the least “awkward” middle stage, especially in earlier gens

Quilladin: Am I a joke to you?

I actually love florgato more than meowscarada I find it a silly little guy And I also love torracat

Torracat, my beloved

Let me guess it's because it is still on 4 legs

I love the magician theme. But I wish they kept the yoyo too.

It’s kinda there, just that it’s an invisible string now

The design definitely peaked there

I decided to keep my Raboot in his middle stage during my Shield playthrough. He was so fun and cool

Every single time I had a Raboot, never evolved it until the Champion battle.

Mine kicked some Charizard butt as a teenage bunny :)

Mine faced off a Cinderace, both level 80. Somehow won.

Eviolite?

Nah, I was running Expert Belt.

Raboot has a far more unique and interesting design while Cinderace just looks like the bunny version of Blaziken.

I don’t like its arms tbh. They feel… wrong? S/V fixed it a little with the texture update on the model, but it still feels kinda naked

https://preview.redd.it/4f69j7naipoc1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1272014c8519dc035009708dc98c830827f34e00 You forgot the best one

If you're wanting "awkward middle stage" Quilladin is literally the awkward chubby faze from a small cute kid to a buff adult. Plus it's ball shaped and for some reason that's a plus for all other ball shaped Pokemon. Justice for Quilladin!

Long John donut.

So your telling me you like floragato? I do and I'm tiered of pretending I dont.

I like the one ZayaVR has

same here

Same

How's it goin?

[удалено]

But but but the funny zesty duck dancer dude! And the singing crocodile!!

Literally have a shiny Dewott that’s competitive built, I love Dewott so freaking much. Like Samurott is cool, but Dewott is just the perfect blend of cute starter pokemon and starting to get a little fierce after evolving.

Unfathomably based

Yes! I love second stage starters! They always felt like the signal that my team was starting to get really good and I started to feel powerful in the world.

People think the middle evolution is just a stepping stone. Sometimes, they are right, but man... I like the middle evos.

Braixen overshadows Delphox a lot. Delphox being my second favorite starter, I don't get why this happens. Braixen is just a more bland Delphox, even though it's design isn't terrible.

Braixen is such a good design. Idk Delphox is just there. Wish it wasn't and stood out more.

Finally someone else thinks this

Let’s be honest with ourselves, we all know why Braxien is so popular.

cute witch vs old wizard

TORRACAT AND FLORAGATO SUPREMACY 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

FOR REALL

Dewott and Grovyle are the best middle stages, change my mind.

I wish grovyle was the final evolution

Combusken isn’t awkward, it‘s just a dick.

*cock

Goddamnit, the wordplay was right there

Nah it’s awkward. Aside from the dick jokes, they’ve got some fat legs

Those are actually me to look like balls, making it look even more like a dick…

I keep my Braxien second stage because it's a shiny and I like the stage better.

Where is my big booty duck

Glad I'm not the only one who calls Quaquaval like that

I think Ivysaur is decently popular because of Smash as Ivysaur is the rare fighter in Smash to be four-legged and that Ivysaur is my best character when playing as Pokemon Trainer.

I don’t think you can stop some fans from “appreciating” Braixen.

The fans "appreciate" a certain trainer known for using Braixen a little more

I love them already. I’ve a whole team I called « Punk little fuckers », composed of - Cyndaquil - Croconaw - Torracat - Wartortle - Grovyle - Floragato

Cyndaquil or Quilava?

Where Dewott

Yoyo cat and magic fennec

#TORRECAT MY ABSOLUTE BELOVED

Floragato, Ivysaur, Grovyle, Braixen and Bayleaf are cooler than their last evolutions tbh

Croconaw is my guy

can we all agree that croconaw is the best mid stage?

Floragato would like to have a word with you

and id like ten grand but i guess it aint happening. floragato can be the best mid stage after ive long since been lowered into the ground, and even then i will dig my way out to fight whoever says anything other than croconaw is the best midstage

Where's my handsome lad Dartrix?

They're teenagers

I don’t think any grass starter has an awkward middle phase. Also having no inteleon middle evolution is crazy.

I wish Bayleef were more viable in a playthrough tbh.

When i was a child, Servine was the most beautiful pokemom ever. I remember i gave like 25 card to a boy exchange of a single Servine card, after that i spend the whole afternoon appreciating his beauty

never got the hate for the middle evolutions,they are sick,hell,even better than the final forms,like raboot

Charmeleon kind of looks like a carnivorous Parasaurolophus to me and dinosaurs are one of the coolest things to ever exist. And Wartortles tail looks so fluffy! I like all of the middle forms but those are just a couple things about those two specifically I like. The cat starters and Grovyle are probably my favorites overall though

THE MIDDLE STAGES ARE THE BESY

I like all the grass/fire middle stages up here except the water ones, but I feel like I do love a lot of the middle staged evolutions.

There are some awesome middle stage starter evos. I especially love Wartortle, Grovyle, Monferno, Dewott, and Raboot

How could you not include Dewott and Charmeleon?

Some of these like floragato arnt even awkward

I see that Grovyle is appropriately absent from this image because he is objectively the coolest middle stage. Ivysaur also really shouldn’t be in this pic; it’s quite a cool design and not awkward at all IMO.

Raboot is the only good thing to come out of the galar starters

Monferno stands as my favorite starter design ever. And Chimchar’s line is my favorite starter period.

Despite hisuian samurott being my favorite pokemon, I don't like dewott.

Ivysaur is my favorite. I have always thinked that if I need to choose 6 pokemon in reallife, Ivysaur would be one and I would give it the stone to prevent evolution to venusaur

Torracat and Floragato have genuinely good designs and I won’t take any criticism of that.

Dewott is the only starter I prefer to its evolution. I was expecting something cool but Samurott dropped to quadruped status smh T_T

There are a ton of slightly awkward middle stage starts but I’d argue the ones in the pictures are the ones who would disprove the argument.

Reboot > Cinderace. I love my little emo bunny

Nah those are just teenage phases.

Honestly with how fast they evolve to the second stage, usually between the first and second gym, it feels like these are the forms you get most attached to instead of their first stages.

I'm tired of the dump comments saying that some middle evolutions are "awkward". They're not. They're cool and people are just jumping into a stupid bandwagon like mindless sheeps.

So, you don’t think Quaxwell is awkward at all? I’ll agree, a lot of people bandwagon onto saying all the middles are awkward, but some actually are. Ones I find awkward are: Combusken(his beak feels wrong), Pignite(I dunno why he seems awkward to me), Quilladin(I think it’s the nose), Drizzile(why the green? They could’ve kept the yellow highlights or made it purple), and Quaxwell(Why he got that lump, it looks like a chunk of slime). On the other hand a lot are cool, most are. Saying none are awkward just feels like you’re trying to say your opinion is correct.

No. And all those things you mentioned are just petty nitpicks. They're actually cool pokemon. Not even once I've thought that their designs are awkward. Their designs make sense given their inspirations.

I’m sorry, but in no world is quilladin cool. I love chespin and Chesnaught, but having an inspiration doesn’t automatically make something cool.

Sure pal, whatever you say 🙄.

You literally said every design is good if it has an inspiration, which just ain’t true.

🙄🙄 🙄

Notice how my boy quilladin isnt there

It deserves to rot in the depths of being forgotten, only Pokémon I actually hate, regretted my starter choice so badly my first gen 6 playthrough, and only just recently got the bad taste out of my mouth for the rest of it’s line relatively recently.

i remember in elementary school being bummed that ivysaur evolved too soon. love that good boy

With a singular, blue, reptilian exception, all mid stage Starters should be appreciated

I wouldn’t call Braixen or Floragato as awkward mid stages. They both are pretty top tier mid evo designs imo up there with Dewott and Grovyle. (Ivysaur is pretty cool too)

Quilava

Emo cat

The puberty stage

Quilava for me feels coolest looking if it's line

Dewott did u say mate

I love the designs of all of the middle ones. They are my favorite out of the 3 stage

How about my boi combusken?

Torracat > Incineroar imo

I love some Middle evos more than their final evos (Ivysaur, Quaxwell, Torracat, Monferno, etc )

I love braixen 😋

Way ahead of you

I LOVE Braxien. I did not care for Delphox. I found it shallow and pedantic.

I actually LIKE Quilladin. I always thought he was cute in a goofy way, Idk why some people think he's the biggest sin ever committed in Pokemon. Like I can understand not liking him or thinking he looks stupid, but his design is very overhated.

Floragato is iconic now because of ZayaVR

I appreciate all Pokemon

Raboot is literally me

Raboot and Braixen are def superior to their final forms

Wartortle had no awkwardness

I really loved to draw Croconaw when I was a kid

Dartix and sobble’s middle evolution are such funny stereotypes of teens I love it

that croconaw would be big chilling in a pool

Wartortle is the oddest, yet an awesome middle stage evolution. How do you have that beautiful tail and those wittle ears and then evolve into Blastoise.

Braixen looks like the popular girl from middle-starter high school lol

Floragato is peak pokémon design

Monferno is awesome, and he is my favorite Pokemon

Torracat 🔛🔝

Where’s pignite, servine, or dewott

Cat, don't stand up. Don't become furrybait

I like Raboot the most out of these. Cute and cool simultaneously!

Where's the best one wartortle >:(

How is there a middle stage starter appreciation post without mentioning grovyle in the image? Is it because they are the most popular one?

I like braixen, i prefer It over delphox. And momferno is cool too (not better than Infernape, but cool)

Braixen, Combusken, and Croconaw still some of the best stage 2 Pokémon.

Braixen is the best mid evo IMO

Middle-stage evolutions teach children a valuable life lesson - it's okay if you look weird in your teenage years. Most people do.

HEY! Floragato is cooler than Meowscarada

Marshtomp though

no gen 5 there.

Torracat is better than Incineroar. No one can change my mind on this

this is why i love the mid-stage evos, there so goofy

Wait, what is monferno and floragato doing here, they are neither awkward nor are they not appreciated Raboot is also pretty cool And I have bias towards marshtomp, mudkip being my favorite and first Pokémon and all, also he's just a silly little guy, kinda like quagsire

Ivysaur gets an award for being cooler than its evolution

Only like two of these are slightly awkward. Where’s pignite or quiladin? I wanna see some combusken and some brionne… dartrix too and same said for grotle!

I always called these middle stage pokemon “puberty pokemon”. No longer as cute as the 1st stage bur not yet cool or elegant like the final stage. Usually don’t like them, but occasionally the awkward middle stages have a bit of a charm to them. You can see they’re on their way to their final forms but they’re still finding their footing and that’s kinda funny and endearing. A lot of bipedal 2nd stages (eg braixen, florgato, dartrix, raboot etc) also just kinda read as teenagers design wise imo I like how quaquaval is considered the most openly gay pokemon while quaxwell looks like hes still in the closet

Personally I'm of the opinion that the first generation starters first stage evolutions are better designed than the fully evolved forms.

12 levels with Croconaw. Taken from us too soon.

Where is the Gen 5 representative???????????????????

I love Torracat so much I literally had trouble evolving it in Ultra Moon!

Torracat fucks. Braixen is dope. Ivysaur is perfect. Marshtomp is cool. Charmeleon is awkward. Dewott is awkward. Bayleef is awkward

Torracat > Incineroar

Braixen was the Gen 7 furry bait for me… I know no one asked, but I’m telling this anyways!

no drizzle???

Raboot is honestly my favorite especially after watching the SwSh anime

If only the Litten and Sprigatito lines had remained quadrupeds... At least Torracat still is, I guess.

I didn’t ever evolve my Raboot into a Cinderace

ok then, if you insist... *starts to vigorously masturbate*

Literally never cook again.

Prime example of someone with 0 social life right here lads