i'm bored.
for the herd:
- manny is mamoswine (of course, but i do want there to be an actual mammoth pokemon and not a mammoth-swine hybrid)
- sid is vigoroth (a very clumsy one)
- diego is luxray (yes ik raikou is a sabertooth but i felt like it was weird having a random legendary)
- scrat is a sabertooth pachirisu
These two pokemon are mostly known for their unique trade evolution. They are the only Pokemon in the franchise where you have to trade a SPECIFIC Pokemon for another, in this case Karrablast for a Shelmet. I've heard some people bash this as the most annoying trade evolution ever, but I've also heard others call the method the only reasonable use of a trade evolution (honestly still an insult, the evolution can still be made like Mantyke's).
From the Pokemon community, it seems like Escavalier is mostly loved, while Accelgor has a lot more mixed reception. Probably because Accelgor is pure bug-type and has a very unconventional design in a generation of VERY strong and memorable bug-types. In fact, there was an elimination of mollusc Pokemon going in another Pokemon subreddit, and I was surprised to see Accelgor was eliminated so early.
Personally, I think they are both very interesting and creative Pokemon designs, on par with the other Generation 5 Bug-types. I especially love their lore on being based off a real-world beetle and its snail prey, but in this case the snail survives and becomes way faster. And say all you want about "artificial" Pokemon designs but the fact the beetle becomes a knight and the snail becomes a ninja makes the evolution even more hilarious to me lol