Please note that we are trying to avoid terms that imply that the colour expected should be black. We want dark colours, not black. ^^
if the expectation is "dark" pigmentation then i believe there was no point having ever used "melanistic", when melanism is a condition explicitly referring to an excess of black pigmentation. if you do not want black pigmentation then, certainly, do away with melanism as a term.
i don't have too much of a problem with albino pigmentation on the sprites even if it can feel like a very derivative interpretation of the term, i think replacing it with leucistic would be of no benefit. although "pastel" would be a better fit, i think it takes away from the value of the pokemon itself as an albino.
despite my gripes with the terminology i do believe it would be better to keep them as is (albino and melanistic, respectively) because i feel it is much easier to grasp the rarity and value of an albino when it is termed as such, people know albinism is very unusual. "pastel" feels cheap, and the only mirrored term i can see it having is "grunge" which makes me wince a little. a lot of the proposed terms feel obtuse, if that at all makes sense, how do you explain Stygian or Empyrean in a drop-down without essentially describing melanism? anyone can google a melanistic animal and see how the creative work on here is derivative of it and understand this.
i truly do not think the more fantastical terms would be widely appreciated, nor would the change catch on—i would still refer to them as they once were and i think many others would do the same whether out of familiarity or defiance. besides, what becomes of the abbreviations for the site's code? writing (A) and (M) to denote their characteristics is standard. that is a very minor gripe, please do not think too strongly on it but i find the concept of hundreds of pages suddenly collapsing from incompatible bbcode both funny and grimace-inducing, it's not so much fixing a Wishing Stone item bracket as it is having to sit down and vet miles of shiny hunt stats just to return a page to a readable state.
in the end i think it is a non-issue, and unless the two chosen terms can be considered "mirrors" of each other like albinism and melanism AND successfully carry with them the understanding that they are an incredible rarity just like their real-world counterparts, i would strongly advise against the renaming of albino and melanistics.
i apologise if my wording feels antagonistic, that is never my intent, i am just a little tired.
