“Naked” Bulbasaur prompts Pokemon fans to strip the Pokedex with mixed results
The Pokemon CompanyPokemon fans often attempt to change Game Freak’s original designs. These can result in neat alternate versions of popular ‘mons, but Bulbasaur? Well, it’s best for everyone that his namesake stays exactly where it is.
Christening the creation on X/Twitter, user Pokemon Gems gifts Saur to their followers, prompting one response to point out that the bulbless starter looks like a “cute frog”. Considering Ken Sugimori based the designs of Bulbasaur and its evolutions on real-life frogs, the likeness is expected.
As one would expect, Saur’s grand entrance opened the floodgates for other “naked” members of the Pokedex to strut their stuff, including the Charmander line.
Charizard isn’t the only poor soul stripped of its wings. Another user gave Volcarona the same treatment, dubbing their creation “Rona”. Not much of an upgrade over Larvesta. The latter shouldn’t have bothered dealing with all that evolution malarkey.
Surprisingly, the well of creativity displayed above dried up swiftly. The common riff on Gen 1 Equidae Ponyta stripped of its regal flames and renamed “Pony” was present and accounted for.
As for our boy Bulbasaur, the little green guy became the butt of the joke. User Hungryfox offered an edit of what the bulbless pre-evolution of Venusaur could look like in a classic Pokemon title, sporting a negative level to reflect the absence of body parts.
The moral of the story? Don’t mess with nature or, in this case, Game Freak’s designs. The official designs fans see in-game might not be to everyone’s tastes (Vanillish deserves to be singled out), but they’re complete.
Speaking of art, the Pokemon community has found itself split over which era of mainline games got the formula spot on. Modern or classic? There are merits to both, it turns out.