Dratini leads to Dragonair leads to... Dragonite? That's kinda weird || Pokémon Review

[rvniyji]

The Dragonite line is based on a story of a Snake that finds an orb and becomes a dragon, that's why Dragonair has those orbs and why Dragonite is just a typical dragon

[TheLanach]

The anime kinda tries to justify it by theorizing that Dragonite evolves arms so it can better rescue people lost at sea.

[TamashiiTheGemini]

It pretty much makes TOTAL sense. Dratini and Dragonair are based on Imugi, who are giant serpents that wish to become real dragons for which they have to live a thousand years. In some legends, they must obtain a wishing jewel (or Yeouiju - hence Dragonair's jewel) to achieve the transformation.

[kaneto]

Fun fact :
In the first games red/green and red/blue dratini had the same lines on its underbelly as dragonite.
But they changed that with yellow.
I really liked that the first and last stage had more in common.

[carljameson]

When I was a kid I always thought Dragonite had to be related to Charizard in some way. He just kinda looks like a squishier, friendlier take on Charizard and I like that a lot for some reason.

[Isaac-zefl]

Dragonite is just a big boy, and the shiny's green colour makes it almost exactly like puff the magic dragon, a book I love.

[grantwashburn]

It makes more sense for Magikarp to turn into Gyradose, since it comes from Japanese folklore that when a carp finishes its journey upstream to the top of the mountain it becomes a dragon

[dazcarrr]

dragonair's pearls being dropped as suddenly as they were introduced is the weirdest part for me. it went from an eel to more of a rattlesnake-esque creature with the two pearls on the tail, and then went in a completely different direction. it honestly feels like you could have reasonably connected dratini to dragonite, but dragonair going in a separate direction makes it all the more jarring

[tnryu]

Dragonite is friend shaped and I love it. Will always be my favorite.

[ElodieCunningham]

I like to think of it like an amphibious lifecycle

[EnbyNomad]

The Dratini line is and will always be my favorite group of mons. They're all so cute and I just imagine growing up as a kid with a dratini and eventually ending up with a giant cuddly dragon that forgets its no longer a tiny noodle.

[FishJesus]

Dragonite treads that badass/cute line like a boss

[auroraborealis]

This short is what made me realize that the wing ears on the pre-evolutions became Dragonite's actual wings.

[THEO]

I always liked dragonair but hated when it evolved. I just wanted my blue elegant serpentine dragon. Dragonite looks so..clumsy.

[Snewbew]

Dragonite is a giant flying salamander. The dragonite line is associated with water and you fish for dratini in most games. The dratini and dragonair are serpentine tadpoles

[OtakuUnitedStudio]

Gyarados was always made to be an evolution of Magikarp, that's why they have similar mouths and fins. They're also based on a Chinese legend about a carp that jumped through a gate at the top of a waterfall becoming a dragon, but then the dragon became tyrannical so the gods turned it into a raging fish monster. Both were designed by Ken Sugimori.

Dratini was based on a legend of a snake finding a jewel orb that allowed it to turn into a dragon. The evolutionary line was designed by Shigeki Morimoto, meaning the stark change in design was intentional. Dragonite's earlier concept art gave it a more elongated neck. And while Morimoto came up with the design, two separate artists came up with the color palettes, unaware that Dragonite was an evolution of Dragonaire.

People act like the Gen 1 Pokemon were "obviously" mixed up because they assume they are all designed by one person and then someone else misinterpreted something. That isn't even remotely true, and it isn't how a game studio would do things. The production of these games ended up with a massive document describing every Pokemon in detail (some of which got broken up into the different Pokedex entries, but with way more in depth info in the original document). It wouldn't have been as simple as "a mix up."

Just because Gyarados is blue doesn't mean anything about what "makes sense." You have to look beyond just appearances, never mind that Gyarados is a scaly abomination with a gaping fang-filled fish maw while Dragonite at least has the same bubbly face.

[GippyHappy]

I never had a problem with this evo line. It reminds me of a tadpole turning into a frog, but instead it’s a worm turning into a fat dragon.

[samiamrg]

Dragonite is very “Dragon Tales, ” and I love that.

[BBP-OMO]

I honestly hope we get some kind of regional evolution for dragonair, I love snakes so dragonite is not up my alley

[stinkyinky]

i always thought it was meant to be a curveball, like "haha you spent hours training this expensive little snake guy and now he's derpy"