Venonat looking unlike Venomoth is intentional. Their names aren’t similar in Japanese, and, like Magikarp and Gyarados, they were separated in Tajiri’s official guide, accompanied by vague notes about not knowing their evo line.

If you think Venonat should evolve into Butterfree, you’ve fallen for the ruse designed to surprise literal children.

The Butterfree line was designed together, according to the internal index. Venonat was originally designed before evolutions were common, and Venomoth was designed several indexes before the Butterfree line. You could argue the graphics got swapped, but it was such a pain to change stats that they'd rather swap graphics AND Pokemon stats in Gen 1 are very particular to the point that Arcanine stands out as a real weirdo. The best you could say was Venonat was designed, they tried to design an evolution, they decided it didn't look right and tried to design the Caterpie line to fill in what it was, but then decided against it at the last possible moment? And even then you have the stat question, like were they even doing stats at that point.

>>59175712
They look just that similar only because gen 1 has a pisspoor variety in design choices almost everything in that gen has the same shitty ears and eyes

>>59175725
>>59175734
Hitting 'em with the one-two Watsonian-Doylist punch, eh?

>>59175734
>The best you could say was Venonat was designed, they tried to design an evolution, they decided it didn't look right and tried to design the Caterpie line to fill in what it was
i think venomoth and butterfree were both designed as venonat evolutions, they chose to use venomoth, but kept butterfree around and later reused the design for another line

>>59175712
The Venomoth-Butterfree in the bottom image should be green and the Butterfree-Venomoth should be purple.

>>59175750
Given we know they held votes on designs I'd say this is the most likely explanation for Butterfree and Venonat's similarities.

>>59175734
It's extremely unlikely the graphics were swapped because there are both front and back sprites.

>>59175750
Caterpie and Metapod were both designed just before Butterfree.

>>59175899
no, they were both ADDED just before butterfree.

>>59175725
>n-no they couldn't have changed the name when they did that for every other mon during development and name similarities are not required for evolution in the first place
>they're not next to eachother in the code! please ignore that this also happens with other evo lines... PLEASE
>NO STOP LOOKING AT THE EARLIEST ART WHERE THEY WERE NEARLY IDENTICAL IN DESIGN AAYYYEEEEEE

>>59175712
This thread is pointless, believers will believe no matter what non-believers say and vice versa.

>>59176170
>discourse about x subject is pointless. Nobody has ever been convinced of anything in history.

>>59176289
I didnt say that, i said THIS thread specifically is pointless, pokemon-believers think GF has a master plan until they dont and wont ever budge (im sure most if not all of them were firm deniers of Blastoise being weirdly unfitting with Wartortle until there was objective proof of og Squirtle2 existing and being replaced), the people who think its swapped believe for the sole reason of their appearance, and nothing will change those similarities so they wont budge either.

>>59176333
>stop arguing about x subject, it's pointless. Nobody has ever been convinced on this specific subject one way or the other.
wow...

We know from the leaks that there were multiple instances of them designing similar mons that were unrelated that got amalgamated into one, like Blastoise.
People assume Venonat and Butterfree's designs were meant to be related but it's possible they were just two similar designs that avoided this process.

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>>59175712

>>59175943
Pokemon were designed and implemented at the same time.

>>59176361
Name one time where a Pokemon line was designed in order and the final form was swapped with a completely different line in the finished game. Even the Blastoise example contradicts your theory because the Squirtle line had a final evolution and it was cut for Blastoise instead, by that metric Butterfree IS the final evolution for Caterpie.

File: png-transparent-pokemon-sun-and-moon-pokemon-go-pokemon-ruby-and-sapphire-pokemon-red-and-blue-caterpie-pokemon-go-video-game-tree-frog-pokemon.png (50.1 KB)

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>>59175789
it should be compared to a caterpie(after intensive recoloring)

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>>59176361
>two similar designs
Butterfree is a Venonat with wings, it goes beyond similar

>>59175712
>>59177001
This is the one “Pokemon conspiracy” I’m fully willing to believe, there are just so many similarities between Venonat and Butterfree and to an admittedly lesser extent Caterpie/Metapod and Venomoth. Other Gen 1 mons share design details between evo lines but nothing to that extent.

>>59176386
You gonna get fucked by beedrill in your sleep.

>>59177001
Butterfree didn't have a purple sprite on the Super Game Boy.

>>59176386
This reminds me of my fandex where Beedrill is retconned as the male Combee evo and replaced by the Mega instead

>>59177001
Real

>>59175712
I choose to believe

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>>59176011
>THE EARLIEST ART WHERE THEY WERE NEARLY IDENTICAL IN DESIGN
NTA but...

>>59178820
i heard someone else say the original red and green sprites were actually the dev art and that any stuff like sugimori art came later

>>59178962
Yes but I want to see it anyway.

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>>59178992

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>>59178992
>>59179040

>>59178962
Wait- so you were >>59176011? And you were just talking about the sprites?

Stupid dumb ESLs.

>>59179962
What? the rg sprites were the earliest art made of them, >>59178962 was right on that. What are you talking about?

You're all fucking dumb. Venomoth is single stage mon. The actual line is Caterpie > Metapod > Venonat or Butterfree. Venonat is just what happens when the Cocoon of Evolution is stopped 2 turns too early.

>>59180371
Kek

>>59180341
Idiot, you made it sound like you were talking about something else. While "earliest art" is technically correct, you should have at least specified that you were talking about pixel art.

>>59180987
It's not "technically correct" it's just correct, lol.

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>>59180987

>>59175734
>You could argue the graphics got swapped, but it was such a pain to change stats that they'd rather swap graphics AND Pokemon stats in Gen 1 are very particular to the point that Arcanine stands out as a real weirdo
Aside from the fact that it wouldn't really be that difficult to swap the already pre-encoded stats and an image pointer around, what makes Arcanine stand out as weirdo?

>>59175725
>you’ve fallen for the ruse designed to surprise literal children.
I don't understand what the ruse was supposed to be. By the time you encounter Venonat for the first time, you should already either have a Butterfree or at least know they evolve from the Caterpie line.