So Kalos is the Pokemon generation with the least amount of new Pokemon added to it, probably because it's the generation where Game Freak officially made the jump to full 3D for their RPGs (Colosseum and XD were made by another company) and since these were the days when every Pokemon was in every game, they had to create 3D models for every last one of them, which was understandably a pretty weighty task. Which some would argue they failed at, in the sense that the fans considered many of the 2D sprites of past games to be far more properly expressive than the canned 3D models. I'm sure you've all seen the memes of 3DS Marshtomp's soulless stare at some point in your life, and it's one of the most overhyped Pokemon lines in the entire game. (Competitively, I accept that Water/Ground will always be one of the best type combinations in Pokemon, Freeze-Dry notwithstanding... but visually, Mudkip is okay I guess, but the rest of the line just feels ugly. Especially the monstrosity that is Mega Swampert. Who approved this design? Anchor Arms?)

In my eyes, Pokemon visuals peaked at Black and White's 2.5D overworld and fully animated battle sprites, although I will concur that Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee of all games is probably the best Pokemon has looked in a 3D mainline game, which is pretty sad when you consider that LGPE was the first 3D mainline Pokemon game for the Switch, and was a remake created specifically to draw in fans of the smash hit mobile game Pokemon GO. And every other 3D mainline Pokemon game since has looked worse (No, New Pokemon Snap isn't mainline, so it doesn't count). Pokemon Cafe ReMix has a better visual style than most 3D mainline Pokemon games on the Switch, and it's a free-to-play puzzle game. Seriously, Game Freak?! Pokemon Cafe ReMix exists, its art style is perfect for a Pokemon visual novel, and instead we get whatever the heck Detective Pikachu Returns was supposed to be?!

Ahem. I digress.

Kalos. New Pokemon. We got 71 new species in Gen 6, not counting Mega Evolutions or separate forms (which some Kalos mons got way too many of; coughcoughVivilloncoughcough). With the announcement of Pokemon Legends Z-A, there has been more than a little healthy speculation on what sorts of new Pokemon forms, evolutions, and/or Mega Evolutions we might be treated to in this return to Lumiose City. But while everyone else argues about that (and sometime I'd like to make another article about what newer-gen mons I'd like to see receive Mega Evolutions), for this series, I'd like to address a few things I've felt about the Gen 6 mons for a while now, before we get any new reveals that give us a better idea as to what we can actually expect in the new Pokemon department in this game.

The mons I've really got things to say about are Vivillon, Florges, and Furfrou, all of which have multiple variants that I felt the games could've done more with (or in the case of Vivillon, just plain handled better), but if we're going in Pokedex order, I should address the Mamoswine in the room and explain how I'd handle Mega Evolutions for the traditional Kalos starters of Chesnaught, Delphox, and Greninja.

Okay, first of all, I do recognize that 1. Game Freak hasn't yet revealed the starter Pokemon for Z-A, and 2. Legends Arceus demoted the Sinnoh starters to wild status and gave us the first mixed-set trio in Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott, who all evolved into Hisuian forms of their final evolutions. Because of this, there's been a lot of theorizing as to what Z-A will actually get us in the starter department, and I get that. New regional variants of old starter Pokemon are always a good thing, and I do hope to see some new Kalosian forms in Z-A. That being said, the Kalos starters do deserve Mega Evolutions of their very own, and I recently came up with some very interesting ideas.

But first, I'd like to explain what this article is not. It is not, primarily, a fakemon showcase. While I have drawn rough sketches of what I imagine these new forms might look like for the sake of completion, I plan on covering a sizable number of Pokemon that could get new versions in Z-A, and my chronic health issues make it quite difficult to find the time and energy it takes to complete as many concepts as I plan to explore over this series. Besides, it's not as if Mega Evolutions of the Kalos starters haven't been done to death already (I highly recommend Cuppa Phee's video on that very subject). I have tried to find new and original takes on the Kalos starter trio concepts to draw, since all the more obvious options have already been taken, and I do like the ideas I've come up with... but with the sheer number of various projects I find myself taking on as my ADHD inspires/compels me, I have to cut corners somewhere.

On the other end of the spectrum, this also isn't a set of competitively balanced stats and playstyles, as that's never really been my thing and I don't know nearly enough about the metagame to remotely begin to understand the ramifications of my concepts on the competitive scene. I'd considered coming up with stat spreads for each Mega, but without the benefit of playtesting, I'd have no idea how to properly balance them, and those of you who play competitive singles already know that Gen 9 is so ridiculously chock-full of power creep that they invented an entire new Ubers tier called Ubers UU for all the mons that were too good for OU but not good enough for Ubers, which definitely says something about the state of the metagame. I don't need to be actively messing with that. All of this is just fun and games... okay, so technically that's literally what Pokemon is supposed to be to begin with, but still.

Now, for those of you who've long been on the 'leak and rumor' bandwagon, there's an interesting unconfirmed 'leak' that's been spread around regarding alleged cut content for Pokemon XY. I won't go into the full details of the statement because there's quite a lot to it, most of which is entirely irrelevant to this article anyway, but one of the interesting things the 'leak' states is that Delphox was originally going to be a Fire/Fairy type, but they decided to give it the Fire/Psychic type instead because they felt Fire/Fairy was too broken for a starter. As I was considering what secondary types would work for the Kalos starters besides their canon type triangle of Fighting/Psychic/Dark, I just so happened, entirely coincidentally, to fall on the Steel/Fairy/Fighting type triangle instead, with Chesnaught becoming Grass/Steel, Greninja becoming Water/Fighting, and of course Delphox becoming Fire/Fairy.

This is admittedly an imperfect triangle, giving Delphox neutral damage from Steel and Chesnaught 4x damage from Fire, so I decided that Mega Chesnaught would be given the Heatproof ability to try to soften the blow. (Sorry Chesnaught, you're still my favorite Kalos starter for life. I want to love Delphox, but let's face facts, she desperately needs a trip to the groomers to trim down all that overgrown fur.) While I was originally going to give Mega Delphox Magic Bounce because that's an overall fantastic ability, we already have three Mega Evolutions with Magic Bounce in Diancie, Sableye, and Absol, so I gave Delphox Magic Guard instead, protecting it from taking indirect damage. As for Greninja, I felt that a Water/Fighting ninja would benefit greatly from Unseen Fist, which allows moves that make direct contact with the target to hit through protection moves.

Now, the issue with retyping the Mega Evolutions is that each Pokemon's moveset is tailored specifically to them being Grass/Fighting, Fire/Psychic, and Water/Dark respectively. Obviously the trio needs a few new moves to gain meaningful STAB. Chesnaught already has several Steel moves it can learn in Metal Claw, Iron Head, and Gyro Ball, Mega Chesnaught will get Bullet Punch, Heavy Slam, Smart Strike, and a retooled Steel Roller that doesn't fail if there's no terrain active (because seriously, that's worse than back when Feint only worked if the opponent was using Protect/Detect). Mega Delphox already has Dazzling Gleam, but it could also use Alluring Voice, Disarming Voice, and Moonblast, while Mega Greninja already has several Fighting moves (for obvious reasons) in Low Kick, Low Sweep, Brick Break, and Upper Hand, but Mega Greninja could also benefit from moves like Axe Kick, Flying Press, Force Palm, Mach Punch, Sky Uppercut, and Vacuum Wave.

However, I wanted to go the extra mile and give each Mega Evolution a new signature move with STAB from their Mega typing. (Yes, I know that the Kalos starters already have their own signature moves of their primary typing, which aren't even unique to them anymore because that's just how non-legendary signature moves work in the Pokemon series, they usually get given to other mons after a generation or two, but let me have my fun here.) And what better way to scout for good new move names than the TCG? Chesnaught alone gives us such fun names as Touchdown, Needle Line, Wild Tackle, and... Tough Hammer? Honestly that last one sounds more like a Tinkaton move.

Okay, in all seriousness, BREAKthrough 11 gives us an interesting new potential Steel move for Chesnaught in Adamantine Press, which describes itself as "During your opponent's next turn, any damage done to this Pokémon by attacks is reduced by 20 (after applying Weakness and Resistance)." This could be a good physical attack that boosts the user's Defense when used, which given Chesnaught's increased bulk from Mega Evolution could be pretty stacked. Admittedly the name is vaguely similar to Hard Press, but let's face it, Adamantine Press just sounds a lot cooler.

For Delphox, there's a few interesting new move names, such as Blaze Ball, Psystorm, Flare Parade, and Magical Fire, but not much that lends itself to the Fairy type proper. Okay, so Magical Fire could work, but I'm going with Lost Origin 27's Eerie Glow, which in the TCG is a non-damaging move that leaves the opponent Burned and Confused. In-game, however, I can easily imagine it as a Fairy-type special attack with a slight chance to burn and/or confuse the opponent.

Finally, Greninja. Given that Greninja is easily Kalos's favorite child and it has a significant number of special cards to its name, I figured there would be no shortage to potential Fighting-type move names for it. Moves like Aqua Edge, Mist Slash, Shadow Bullet, Moonlight Slash, and Shadow Stitching made me wonder "Who named these attacks? Gladion?" Furious Shurikens was a possibility for a Fighting-type move, but not being a native Japanese speaker, I wasn't sure that was how you actually pluralized shuriken, so I decided to keep searching.

And as it so happened, Ash Greninja EX (otherwise known as XY Promo 133) had the perfect attack name: Ninja Blade. Similarly to Gigaton Hammer, this physical attack can't be used consecutively, but given my Mega Greninja's ability of Unseen Fist, it could make for an interesting Fighting-type equivalent to Iron Boulder's Mighty Cleave. (Other awesome TCG attack names for Greninja are Haze Slash, Twister Shuriken, Torrential Slash, and uh... Water Drip? Well, they can't all be winners.)

And now, stat spreads. As I've said before, I'm not gonna go into specific numbers because that's not my strong suit, but Mega Chesnaught would be a bulky but slow physical attacker, Mega Delphox would be a special attacker with increased special bulk, and I can see Mega Greninja as a speedy glass cannon mixed attacker.

For art concepts, Mega Chesnaught is on all fours, inspired by a mixture of a glycodont/football player/tarrasque/knight. I chose to emphasize the spikes first and foremost, and while this is probably the most deviant design from the original, I like how it turned out. A sizable number of Pokemon fans have been complaining about furries, so introducing a quadrupedal Kalos starter form should hopefully give Chesnaught the love and attention that it deserves. Also, this design would make a WICKED past paradox form, emphasizing the glycodont inspiration.

Mega Delphox now looks more sagely, and since the line's known (and criticized) for overgrown hair, let's throw out the feminine look and just give it a wizard's beard already. Rather than go for the standard witch-on-broomstick that many artists have already done, I drew mine in a levitating meditation pose, allowing the multiple tails to be more clearly seen. Delphox and Greninja in particular were inspired by N0rtist's video on Mega Evolution design tropes calling back to a strong sense of shape, with Delphox's shape being the shape of a flame.

Mega Greninja lost the tongue scarf because that was easily the single most questionable element of Greninja's design. It was replaced by a bubble cape. Is this historically accurate to ninjas? I don't know, but I tried the design without the cape and while I did appreciate the chance to work more water shuriken into the design, it just wasn't 'Mega' enough without the cape. So now it has a bubble cape. It does do a good job of communicating the change from Dark type to Fighting type if you ask me.

While these are only sketch concepts at the moment, you are free to further develop them as Pokemon IF you follow these rules: 1. give me (Lorekitten) credit for the original sketches and link to this article wherever these are used, 2. do NOT use these designs for porn, fetishes, political art, or hate art, and 3. if you want to use these designs in a fan game or other fan project, please ask my permission first. Also, this isn't required, but I would very much like to see what anyone does with these ideas!