Was Venonat supposed to evolve into Butterfree?

[Shiny Grimer]

I think the key to figuring this out is figuring out if the art or the sprites were done first. The Sugimori art definitely doesn't lend itself to this theory as much as the sprites do... Not many evolutions back then looked so much cuter than their base forms.

I don't think Butterfree is cuter than Venonat. o_o Am I alone in thinking Venonat is adorable? A Venonat doll would rock.

The Sugimori art, I think, still looks rather close - in the pictures posted earlier, they're even in a similar pose.

 

[Butterfree]

Venonat and Butterfree do look kind of similar. However, I have to object to the assertion of similarities between Caterpie and Metapod on one hand and Venomoth on the other. "Same eyes"? Uh, they all have round eyeballs, but that doesn't prove much. Caterpie's eyes are black beads in a yellow circle, Metapod has half-closed white eyes with black pupils, and Venomoth has huge, glossy, light blue, kind of sticking-out eyeballs with black pupils. "Same head crest"? Metapod doesn't even have a head crest of any sort, and Caterpie's looks wildly different from Venomoth's.

At most they might have been designed with Butterfree evolving from Venonat and Venomoth from Metapod but then they decided they'd rather have it the other way around; there is no way it could just have been some sort of a programming mistake. Games are beta tested, you know. Also, in the index number ordering in R/B/Y, which may reflect the order in which they were programmed into the game, Caterpie, Metapod and Butterfree are together in order, which is more than most evolution lines have - Venomoth is a couple of numbers before them, with Venonat much earlier (preceding Dragonite, amusingly enough).

The similarity between the poses of the Venonat and Butterfree sprites in R/B/Y as seen in the first post of this thread does amuse me.

 

[mehwmew]

Venonat and Butterfree do look kind of similar. However, I have to object to the assertion of similarities between Caterpie and Metapod on one hand and Venomoth on the other. "Same eyes"? Uh, they all have round eyeballs, but that doesn't prove much. Caterpie's eyes are black beads in a yellow circle, Metapod has half-closed white eyes with black pupils, and Venomoth has huge, glossy, light blue, kind of sticking-out eyeballs with black pupils. "Same head crest"? Metapod doesn't even have a head crest of any sort, and Caterpie's looks wildly different from Venomoth's.

At most they might have been designed with Butterfree evolving from Venonat and Venomoth from Metapod but then they decided they'd rather have it the other way around; there is no way it could just have been some sort of a programming mistake. Games are beta tested, you know. Also, in the index number ordering in R/B/Y, which may reflect the order in which they were programmed into the game, Caterpie, Metapod and Butterfree are together in order, which is more than most evolution lines have - Venomoth is a couple of numbers before them, with Venonat much earlier (preceding Dragonite, amusingly enough).

The similarity between the poses of the Venonat and Butterfree sprites in R/B/Y as seen in the first post of this thread does amuse me.

^
She would know,after all...

ehh
im not sure...although i kinda doubt it

 

[jibaku]

I kind of noticed that before, but I don't think that Venonat was supposed to be the pre-ev of Butterfree. I think that when the Caterpie family was created, it was supposed to follow the idea of real catepillars an junk and Butterfree just happens to look like Venonat? But after that when the Venonat family was created, they must have seen the similarities but it was too late to change it/they got lazy/didn't want to or any number of reasons XD

 

[JolteonShock]

Actually, if you look at a number of Pokemon, a lot of them have big feet. Mew for instance, and even Tangela and Poliwag. Sure, it doesn't look like they could have been mixed up, but a lot of Pokemon have big feet, and eyes change with evolution.

 

[Zoltea]

I would've thought that obvious things like that would be checked before it gets released, so, I personally think that they meant it to be the way they made it.

 

[Kabigon]

Once Butterfree steps in, you know everything is over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spicebush_Swallowtail


That's for who said Caterpie is based on a silkworm. It is not.

 

[Zoltea]

Caterpie is real, omgwtfbbq, =_=. lol

Anyways, when Butterfree steps in, it's not always the end of it, :P.

 

[Black Rayquaza]

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but if there was an accidental switch that would mean that Venomoth was the intended end of the Caterpie evolution line, and this implies that it would look like either Caterpie or Metapod. It does not.

 

[Slartibartfast]

It actually looks more like them than Butterfree does.

Venomoth has he same crest on the head as Metapod, same eyes...without the color in 1st Generation, they look even closer. Butterfree, on the other hand, has no crest, completely different eyes, hands and feet suddenly...I'd say that it's not only likely that Venomoth and Butterfree were supposed to be switched, it's probable.

 

[Aisling]

It actually looks more like them than Butterfree does.

Venomoth has he same crest on the head as Metapod, same eyes...without the color in 1st Generation, they look even closer. Butterfree, on the other hand, has no crest, completely different eyes, hands and feet suddenly...I'd say that it's not only likely that Venomoth and Butterfree were supposed to be switched, it's probable.

Well, except for

At most they might have been designed with Butterfree evolving from Venonat and Venomoth from Metapod but then they decided they'd rather have it the other way around; there is no way it could just have been some sort of a programming mistake. Games are beta tested, you know. Also, in the index number ordering in R/B/Y, which may reflect the order in which they were programmed into the game, Caterpie, Metapod and Butterfree are together in order, which is more than most evolution lines have - Venomoth is a couple of numbers before them, with Venonat much earlier (preceding Dragonite, amusingly enough).

If by "supposed to be switched" you mean "were switched purposely because they wanted it that way but used to be the other way around", then maybe yes.

 

[Slartibartfast]

I'm not saying that Nintendo made a coding mistake, just that the looks are close enough that perhaps the sprites were originally designed the other way around. So yeah, what you said. /lack of clarity

 

[Giratar]

I agree. However, I think the spriting is also to blame, since back in R/B/G/Y Gameboys had bad graphics, and the sprites weren't that good. So, obviously, there are some similarities.

 

[Slartibartfast]

x.x I just realized: the logo of TCoD is NOT a Venonat with wings. Ouch. I've been on here for a year now...*headdesk*