Three months from now, on November 18, Pokemon fans will finally be able to get their hands on Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the Generation 9 mainline games coming to Switch. Although the official trailers thus far haven't been too generous with information about the new critters coming with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, a lot of alleged leaks and rumors surfaced online ever since the games were revealed back in February. One of the very first leaks was about Koraidon and Miraidon being respectively a Dragon/Fighting-type and a Dragon/Electric-type, which is something that is still considered true to this day, even though the official website never listed the Legendaries' respective types.

Still, it's not hard to believe their type combination is correct based on their appearance and the fact that Legendary Pokemon have many times been Dragon-type Pokemon in the past. Ever since Gen 3, Dragon-type Pokemon became increasingly more likely to be Legendaries or pseudo-Legendaries. Out of 62 total Legendary critters in the games, twelve of them are Dragon Pokemon, whereas out of nine pseudo-Legendaries, seven of them are Dragon-type. Unfortunately, according to the leaks, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are not breaking a major tradition here, and instead, they are continuing a stale trend.

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Why Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Needed Different Dragon-Types

A bunch of dragon type Pokemon in the sky.

Pokemon fans recently filled the Paldean Pokedex that one of the leakers shared with information about the various Pokemon that are coming with Gen 9 games. Not considering Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Paradox Pokemon, which are creatures reprised from old games that get either an ancient or future form depending on the version of the games, there are five new confirmed Dragon-type pocket monsters in Gen 9. Two of them are the box Legendaries with the aforementioned type combinations, and one of them is a so-called "motorbike" Pokemon that is actually the base form of Koraidon and Miraidon.

The remaining two Dragon-types in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are a sushi Pokemon and Gen 9's pseudo-Legendary line. The sushi Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is said to be a one-stage creature that is a Dragon/Water hybrid, and it could be one of the major boss battles in Gen 9 that leakers hinted at with other Pokemon, such as an earthworm and a crab. Not much is currently known about the pseudo-Legendary apart from the fact that it is allegedly a Dragon/Ice Pokemon that evolves twice, which makes it very similar to past pseudo-Legendaries in many regards.

While Dragon is a powerful Pokemon type and also one of the best across all mainline games, it is often associated with very powerful Pokemon that are mostly Legendaries, pseudo-Legendaries, and one-stage critters. This makes sense to a degree because of the lore surrounding Dragon-type Pokemon in the games and the anime, and while there are some exceptions like Altaria and Noivern, Dragon Pokemon could be made slightly more common toward the early game section of a title. This is because Dragon Pokemon are outliers in and of themselves, and making them more accessible early on can change the formula.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet having a Dragon-type boss battle, a pseudo-Legendary, and three Legendaries don't break nor reinvent the wheel, which instead would be much more beneficial in the long run. For example, one of the unused Pokemon type combinations thus far is Dragon/Bug, which would be quite fun to see as an early-level Pokemon because it still is not one of the best hybrids in the game, and it could justify its role. Overall, Gen 9 had the opportunity to do something else with Dragon-types, but instead it reinforced the trend, which could do the franchise more harm than good long term.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release on November 18, 2022, for the Nintendo Switch.

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