Pokemon Fan Creates Impressive Swablu and Altaria Regional Variants

A Pokemon fan has shared their design for a unique regional form for Swablu and its evolution Altaria. The design has some interesting creative inspiration with a callback to Swablu and Altaria's original shiny forms.

Swablu is a fairly popular Pokemon, having been added back in Gen 3 of the Pokemon games. The Normal/Flying-Type has appeared in nearly all the mainline games since its first appearance, and its evolved form gained a Mega Evolution in Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. However, this fan decided it was long overdue for a new form, and came up with a design inspired by Earth Day and spring weather.

Pokemon fan Poetically_Imperfect, aka Shroodledoodles, shared their redesign of Swablu and Altaria and a video explaining why they turned them into Flying/Electric-types called The Storm Pokemon. In comparison to its usual blue and white appearance, Swablu and Altaria become grey and yellow, emulating the dark skies of spring rainstorm that brings lightning and thunder with it. Storm Cloud Swablu, as Shroodledoodles refers to it, gains the ability Static and Hidden Ability Drizzle. Both versions of the Pokemon are drawn to stormy locations, though the Pokedex entry is uncertain on whether they help cause storms or are charged by them.

Both of the Pokemon's shiny forms have a yellow body with blue feet and lightning bolts. Shroodledoodles explained that blue lightning is uncommon in electric-types, so they wanted to use it. The yellow body, on the other hand, is inspired by the original shiny form of Swablu and Altaria.

With so many Pokemon now in the series, it's understandable that not all of them have alternate forms. Adding a regional, Mega Evolution, or Gigantamax form for every Pokemon in every game would be overwhelming, both from a development and player point of view. However, fans who wish that their Pokemon had gotten the special treatment often step in to fill the void. While it remains to be seen if Swablu and Altaria ever get legitimate