Magikarp

Magikarp is the most useless Pokémon in battle and, in a strange way, the most philosophically interesting one. All it can do is Splash — a move that does nothing — and yet it persists, in rivers and oceans everywhere, in the most inhospitable conditions, surviving purely through determination and the vague promise of eventually becoming Gyarados.

Role in Pokopia

Magikarp appears in any water habitat with reasonable depth — ponds, rivers, coastal shallows. They arrive early once water features have been restored and tend to be among the most abundant water Pokémon on the island. There's something reassuring about Magikarp: a restored waterway that doesn't yet have much else will have Magikarp. They're not the destination, but they're a reliable sign that the water is working.

Pokémon Notes

Water-type from Generation I, famous as the weakest fully-evolved Pokémon (they don't evolve from anything, but functionally they're always treated as a base state). Evolves into Gyarados at level 20. Gyarados doesn't appear in Pokopia, which spares the island from a fairly significant territorial complication.