Nominated by: cody11533 (Yeah I know, Gerbil stole Noctowl from you).
Nine tails pics:
Ninetales is beauty in its sheer and pure form. If I wanted to be objectively subjective, Ninetales would easily rank #1 as the most beautiful pokémon in this list, the 6 guys who ranked above it don't hold a candle to it from this point of view, the only one who could try and come close is probably Serperior.
As a Blue owner, I was graced with Ninetales instead of Arcanine. Arcanine is and has always been the best of the two competitively, but my aesthetic taste calls for NInetales, it looks so majestic. It's not just beautiful: it's cursed, it's mysterious and vengeful. I love pokémon who have a strong connection to supernatural powers, legends, mystery, a dark story to tell and this is exactly what makes Ninetales so charming without even have to talk about its pretty appearance. I mean, pokémon like Misdreavus and Froslass who aren't even half as beautiful as Ninetales have been ranked failry high on this list, thanks to their incredibly interesting origins (And their intriguing insight on Japanese folklore).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsune
Foxes (Kitsunes) are part of many Japanese legends, this time we're not talking about headless women who murder pregnant ladies, I guess Kitsunes are a bit more nice.
The more tails, the more power, the most is nine. When a Kitsune has nine tails, it becomes white and obtains omniscence. Highly intelligent, long lifespan, magic powers concerning fire, illusions.... familiar? The most important thing NInetales seems to lack is the shapeshifting/assuming human shape ability BUT - as the anime taught us - Ninetales is perfectly capable of recreating illusions resembling a person. Kitsunes seem to prefer beautiful and lonely women as their shape, a trait that fits perfectly with Ninetales, most of the time a beautiful and lonely lady herself. Other than that, Kitsune are also believed to have flight powers, invisibility powers and possession powers. If all of these had been given to Ninetales it would've been even more awesome (room for improvement in an almost perfect pokémon, crazy, I know).
Mind you, Kitsune possession is a serious deal apparently: full exorcisms were made to force the fox to leave the host (usually, GUESS WHAT, a beautiful lady). When people didn't know about exorcisms they apparently burned the host's body trying to force the fox to leave. When someone had been possessed by a Kitsune, his/her entire family could have been ostracized by the community. Possession might be what relates to the "curse" of Ninetales? The page on Kitsunes is pretty comprehensive, check it out.
The thing with Ninetales is: it could've easily been a Ghost or Psychic type and at the same time I'm glad that it isn't, because it would've made its charm far more obvious. At the same time, the fact that it learns Ghost/Psychic moves gives it a particular edge over many other Fire types. What Ninetales lacks is offensive coverage.
I don't know why Ninetales was chosen for Drought, it doesn't make much sense IMO.
By all means, Ninetales is an absolute top Gen I Pokémon, it doesn't get much better than it from any point of view, it's one of the pokémon who define Gen I the most for me. I'd go as far as saying that the only reason why other Gen I pokémon are above it on my list is personal and affective attachment, Ninetales has pretty much every other Gen I pokémon beaten as far as quality goes IMO.
p.s. it's NineTALES, you jerks. Stop spelling it wrong.
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SuperNiceDog won the Guru contest super nicely!