Debunking the Butterfree Venomoth Theory #pokemon

A classic Pokemon Theory suggests that Venonat originally evolved into Butterfree. And yet...

[FoxbrushDraws]

Also that the Caterpie line is based on the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly life cycle, which they are almost a 1:1 for.

[mikerenois]

Plus in real world metamorphosis, most larva look absolutely nothing like their adult stages no matter how you slice it

[justinnyugen]

For index numbers, most pokemon are separated from their evolution families by large amounts. I'd hazard to say most of them are that way (Rhydon being 11 places before Rhyhorn)

Still, it's very telling that Butterfree is sequentially grouped with Caterpie and Metapod

My personal conclusion is that VenoButterfree was a fun parallel by the creators. Perhaps a very early inkling of cross evolutions (Shelmet x Karrablast lines) or even convergence

[Ale]

Gen 9: i bring up Convergent évolution
Gen 1 convergent character design: hold my beer

[HoshitheLycanroc]

I also want to point out that the caterpillar that caterpi is based on does in fact become a butterfly not a moth.

[sandysantos]

My head cannon is that it was intended for trading to be more of a prominent role in Pokemon evolution. like Karablast and shelmet taking design aspects from each other, it was intended for this to happen with more pokemon since gen 1, which would be why graveler has 4 arms but loses them when traded, while Machoke gains arms after being traded. The idea was scrapped because it wouldn't be fair to rely heavily on trading to evolve all your pokemon, but design aspects stayed like with the venomoth/Butterfree situation, or other designs that have been questioned, like Dragonair going to Dragonite, going from blue to orange and having antenna and a thick body as opposed to its slender design, while Magikarp goes from a thick orange fish to a blue serpentine creature. Coincidence? I think not. But it would make sense design wise if it was meant to be a trade evolution

[PheobosDraws]

Honestly, with this information now given to me, i think i wanna continue believing in both

[hazelnutspred]

How dare a butterfly not look like a caterpillar anymore after it evolves

[lovindan]

Uhhh... Yeah that and the fact that Caterpie and Butterfree are both VERY CLEARLY based on the same species of butterfly at different stages of life.

[KratonWolf]

Coding wide sure, but that doesn't remove the possibilities that the artists simply messed up or took "inspiration" from (ie reused) the design.

Also internal id numbers is just the order in which they were designed in the code. It has nothing concrete to do with their original intended concept. So that still doesn't exclude the possibility.

[RobinRhombus]

That's one of the many interesting things about Gen 1 that makes the Pokémon so timeless in my eyes. There are countless connections and parallels between the different lines. I think most of these theories about the games' development were there to explain these quirks but to me it feels like they were put in there to make the game feel more connected and alive. It's something I feel like the modern games have lost.

For example: Tinkaton hunts Corviknights to make their hammers. Shiny Tinkaton only changes the hammer. So why then does the hammer look nothing like shiny Corviknight? It would've been easy enough to do yet they don't.

[HouYi-bg]

i used to have no problem with fan theories like this, but i started to hate them when people started to treat them like objective true facts. glad you are debunking some of them.

[ForgottenRhythm]

The data for the gen1 games was also almost entirely lost in late production and had to be remade - if the decision to swap them had been made before that point, it wouldn't show up in the available play test and beta versions.

[monomanamaniac]

I hadn't actually thought it was very accurate till you put that Caterpie next to the venomoth

[IlithidParasite]

Venonat looks an awful lot like a grape. Do you think it would taste like one?

[turtlelongingforchaos]

Tbh this theory never made much sense to me becauss caterpie is basically just a cartoony version of the eastern tigertail swallow's caterpillar appearence. I can't see how it would make sense for them to make a butterfly caterpillar evolve into a moth instead of... a butterfly

[some_man_tiks]

I love Lorigins. They have never been the same line but I do like this theory

[ScarletRebel]

I got the same venonat plush! im glad to see it

[GippyHappy]

The reality is that they were designed by the same person so they look similar that’s it

[Shiyun]

I like to think that when they designed Venonat they thought it looked like Butterfree so for Venonat's Evolution they made it so that it makes it look like they swapped their evolutions as a joke to confuse the players