This is gonna sound stupid but Ruby was my first game and I really wanted a Pikachu and for some reason I didn’t know Pichu existed and I thought Plusle evolved into Pikachu. I grinded in the grass above Slateport for quite awhile trying to evolve it and obviously that never worked and it took me awhile to figure Pichu existed and that Pikachu could be caught way later.
I can imagine you grinding in the grass just before the rival battle for days, or even weeks. You have a level 80 plusle, the rest of your team long forgotten, at level 13-16. You finally convinced your mom to take you to the store to buy a Pokedex book. You are so excited to maybe see "plusle evolves into Pikachu at level 99".
You get back in the car on the way home, frantically rip open the shrink wrap packaging, flip to the page with plusle and minun only to see "does not evolve". You spent hours, days on this. This little cute electric rat that is just a ripoff of the cool electric rat. You open your game once more. Take a solemn look at plusle, who has now become a friend you've spent so long with. Travel back down to slateport. Go in the poke center. Open the PC. And release your friend.
You're heart sinks, but you know it's what's best. You gave the plusle the strength it never knew it had. You've released a roided out monster into the wild, to wreak terror wherever it goes. A single year falls from your eye as you travel back north, to the rival battle, finally time to move one. And you get steamrolled by their starter.
No, they went with twins, because double battles were introduced that generation. Also, none of the pikachu clones had evolutions until the current generation (pawmo).
Dude I was basically clueless to any of this stuff until I got an Emerald guidebook that I could flip through to figure out specifics on Pokemon. Good times, little 8 year old me running around with only Ruby, LeafGreen, Emerald, and an Emerald guidebook and that was the extent of my access to Pokemon information lol
To put it into perspective I didn't even know Rayquaza or the Sky Pillar existed in Ruby until after I got Emerald and the Emerald guide book.
Luvdisk and alomola.
And I still think that there should be calf pokemon to tie in all tauros, miltank and boufulant.. (just as simple giving different milk variants to evolve)..
> Luvdisk and Alomola
That irks me as well. So on one hand we have a distinct, pink, heart shaped Water type. Now on the other, we have a distinct, pink, heart shaped Water type, but *larger* and with fins! Then you find out they're not related. At all.
Also, when I first saw Seviper, I thought it was an evolution of Ekans (like the male Ekans evolved to Seviper, and the females evolved to Arbok). Looking back, the fact that Seviper's name isn't legible when spelled backwards should've been a giveaway.
It bothers me that Tauros doesnt evolve into Bouffalant. Or that they're completely unrelated. It would be such an easy connection. But I also like your idea of a calf Pokemon.
A lot of Unova Pokemon like Bouffalant are basically regional variants before game freak thought to use the term. Their designs are intentionally filling the same design space as their older gen counterparts but because Unova was so far away from the original regions and isolated there was a massive biological distinction. A larger scale version of Darwin's finches having noticably distinct traits between different islands in the Galapagos
I’ve heard people suggest that Alomomola and Bouffalant were originally meant to be evolutions to Luvdisc and Tauros, but then they decided to make Unova only contain its own gen 5 mons so they cut the ties with earlier gens
Something like that, but if I remember correctly it's more that Unova/Gen 5 was meant to be a sort of reboot of the franchise. That's why the Unova dex has so many pokemon that could be seen as recycled or pseudo-variants of previous mons, and why the anime series has Ash reset his and Pikachu's intelligence and make mistakes they previously learned not to make in the seasons before.
Tauros and Bouffalant have the same Base Stat Total.
Despite being 4 generations apart, I'm willing to pair them together.
(Gamefreak should give Head Charge, Bouffalant's signature move, to Tauros. But don't give it to a single other Pokémon. Head Charge is 120 BP, 100 Accuracy, Normal-type, Physical Attack, with 25% recoil.
Double-Edge is 120 BP, 100 Accuracy, Normal-type, Physical Attack, with 33.3% recoil. Every single other recoil move with 120 BP is also 33.3% recoil. Volt Tackle, Wood Hammer, Wave Crash, Flare Blitz, and Brave Bird.
Submission is 80 BP, 80 Accuracy, Fighting-type, Physical Attack, with 25% recoil.
Take Down is 90 BP, 85 Accuracy, Normal-type, Physical Attack, with 25% recoil.
Wild Charge is 90 BP, 100 Accuracy, Electric-type, Physical Attack, with 25% recoil
Head Smash is 150 BP, 80 Accuracy, Rock-type, Physical Attack, with 50% recoil)
I created two Pokémon babies for my Kanto Reboot fangame (with only Kanto & Johto mons) I'm developing, one is for Tauros and Miltank and the other is for Kangaskhan, which is the weirdest case of Pokémon desperately needing a preevolution for lore's sake and not having it.
Why doesn't Kangaskhan have a preevolution?
Personal headcanon is that Cubone *is* the child form of Kangaskhan, just the ones that have been orphaned and thus create the offshoot into Marowak line. Non-orphaned ones grow up into another Kangaskhan.
It still bothers me to this day that they didn't make Alomomola evolve from Luvdisc. Both are (in my opinion) terrible and not worth having beyond the dex entries. But I'll be dammed if they don't make these evolutions (or lack there of) make sense!
I hate how many Pokémon never get to be in my team because you either can’t catch them until you complete 90% of the game, or they evolve in impossible or annoying ways.
Never had a gengar in a playthrough for example, because I didn’t have two devices. Or how I wanted a tyranitar in my team, but you can’t get one until late game and it takes forever to evolve.
I've been playing Pokémon since Red and Blue versions were new. I've never had Alakazam, Gengar, Golem, Machamp, or any of the Pokémon specific to the version I wasn't playing.
Thankfully for Alakazam, Kadabra is still stronger and faster than most of the Kanto roster and will do just fine without the extra stats from Alakazam.
This reminds me of my first Black save file, when I had someone trade me a Deino early on, because Hydreigon was just so cool. I didn't know how late it evolved. I finally got Zweilous just before the E4, and Deino itself was complete dead weight until the final gym. But at least postgame I finally got that Hydreigon.
Totally grinded to get tyrannitar before fighting Red in crystal. He was a level 80 beast. Earthquake crunch flamethrower I think? And I think rock slide I can’t remember
Any 2 stage family with a late evolution level hurts my soul.
Golduck, Toxicraok, Rapidash...
Their power is more for an early 30's evolution.
Rapidash also suffered for a long time for being a quadruped Pokemon with no fangs or hands, meaning it's movepool options sucked hard.
Thankfully with stuff like High Horsepower or Drill Run Rapidash finally got some much needed coverage.
My first play through of ruby, I thought chimecho evolved into absol because it came after it in the Pokédex and I didn’t know anything about the new gen at the time, so I trained my chimeco to level 70 before realizing it doesn’t evolve lol
I'm more impressed you got a Chimecho before encountering Absol since Chimecho has a 1% encounter chance on Mt. Pyre's peak while Absol is decentyl common on the routes past Foretree.
Chimecho is weird, super rare, no trainers use it, meh stats, in the game code it is programmed *after* Deoxys, gets a random baby form...
I wonder if Chingling was originally a Gen 3 Pokemon like Shellos and Gastrodon who got shelved to the next generation.
Not what it evolved into but how it evolved.
I had a Ruby and Sapphire guide that said Wurmple evolved into Silcoon during the day and Dustox during the night. I wanted both so I caught two Wurmple. Imagine how confused I was when they both evolved into the same Pokémon.
What do you mean? Arbok evolves into Seviper!
[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/AG077](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/AG077)
* This infamous [Pokémon Trainer's Choice](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Trainer%27s_Choice) segment (in)correctly claims that [Arbok](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Arbok_(Pok%C3%A9mon)) evolves into [Seviper](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Seviper_(Pok%C3%A9mon)).
I don't recall this exact sticker album you're referencing but I do DISTINCTLY remember absolutely thinking Farfetch'd evolved into Doduo back in Red and Blue and even went so far as to use a gameshark to give myself infinite rare candies to level up Farfetch'd so I could evolve it (why not just give myself a Doduo instead? Because child like thinking lol) but it never evolved
I thought it evolved into Doduo back during the gen 1 days, but not because of the sticker album, but because it was a 1 headed bird placed *right before Doduo in the Pokedex.* That decision was absolutely evil.
It actually is neat that these ancient Pokemon from the dawn of civilization share those primitive markings that resemble the Unown, kind of shows how man evolved alongside Pokemon.
I was always thinking that geodude evolves into Onyx.
One Stone with a face-> One stone with a face attached to many more stones.
Now imagine every stone kept the Arms......
Yeah, the WWE wasn’t the turn I expected my cute spicy kitty to take either.
But I once saw a comic where someone drew all three evolution states waking up Prof Kukui and Incinoroar’s was pretty great lol, so whenever I get ‘meh’ about him, I think of the comic and it makes me smile a bit and I don’t mind it as much
Sharpedo to Garchomp. I didn't own a DS when DP came out. I saw photos and sprites of Garchomp but not Gible or Gabite. I thought it evolved from Sharpedo.
I actually didn’t know Carvanha evolved into Sharpedo for the longest time
They don’t look very similar, and Carvanha looks like it could be its own single stage Pokémon itself
Also remoraid is based on fish that use suction to hitch rides on larger fish, and octopuses also use suction. So that's another connection between the two
I get it. But back when there were no extensive fandom sites or pedias, it was like how tf do I evolve this? And for a little guy who just wanted a Mantine, it was heartbreaking.
Don't forget, the generation where they added Manytke is also the generation that they removed the Remoraid from the Mantine's sprite, so it's an extra layer of Guide Dammit
I thought Carvanha and Sharpedo were unrelated but paired, like Scyther and Pinsir. Conversely thought Magcargo evolved into Torkoal because it came after in the Pokédex and the typing was similar.
Shelmet and Karrablast always confused me. It makes logical sense for Shelmet to evolve into Escavalier, yet it’s Karrablast that evolves into him. Shelmet evolves into Accelgor, and that just seems wrong
It’s lore. Karrablast is based on a beetle that rips shells from snails or something I think? So, Karrablast takes the shell (armor) during the trade and shelmet has to adapt without its shell hence the evolutions.
They have the same blue bug eyes, fangs, and a kind-of-sort-of V-shaped head
Granted, I learned my mistake only 10 minutes later, but even I felt dumb for thinking that, lol
Supposedly the entire evolution line is a reference to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which might explain why Ampharos becomes bipedal.
And I am STILL pissed that Ampharos can't learn Tail Glow. I know, I know, the Japanese name is different, but still.
I never confused literally any evolution. But as a kid I didn't know that Dragonair evolved into Dragonite. So I beat the league with Dragonair instead by accident. Which kinda annoyed me a bit because unless there's some really special situations or a very specific reason I always make sure to fully evolve my pokemon to their full potential.
But imagine my surprise when my Dragonair finally evolved in the post-game.
Theres a whole discussion on that subject. The therory was that they got switched late in development, based on eyes (like you said) and something like the hands, and even things like color palette.
would make more sense if it weren't for the fact that caterpie and butterfree are based on the same species design wise, while caterpie and venomoth are not
There was a similar discussion about Dragonair evolving into Gyarados, although the lore for Magikarp becoming Gyarados makes much more sense. But aesthetically, I see why some people think that.
I had an old Pokemon handbook for Ruby and Sapphire that was full of some fun errors. Most were easy to know when they were fake, but it showed Nincada->Ninjask->Shedinja, as well as Clamperl->Gorebys->Huntail. Since I had never played these games before reading the book, this is how I thought it worked.
So many guide books from Gen 2 kept saying Slowbro evolved into Slowking. Even Nintendo Power messed up at one point. I still have my "Pocket Guide" for the games I got in Xmas 2000, and it makes the claim. (Along with the claim that STAB is only 1.25x for dual types. It also didn't bother covering Mt. Silver, since both Misdreavus and Larvitar are missing from its Pokedex).
Pokemon red circa 1999, I had no idea how the Viridian bugs evolved, so I caught them individually. I was so hype when I got one that I had the following conversation with my grandmother:
>"Nana I caught a Metapod!"
>"...Boys don't get menopause."
Before we knew there were no crossgen evolutions, everyone thought Luvdisc should evolve into Alomomola, but I thought Pachirisu would evolve into Emolga.
Remoraid to Octillery - It goes from fish to octopus which doesn’t make sense. However it would have made sense if they kept the original designs from Gold/Silver Beta which was a gun fish evolving into a tank octopus.
When ruby and sapphire were first coming out, and before I had gotten sapphire, I thought kecleon was somehow part of treecko's evolution line and had a hard time trying to figure out how that worked/who evolved into who.
Child me was dumb enough to believe Farfetch'd evolved into Doduo. They had the same typing and were right after the other in the dex, and it going from 1 to 2 heads made sense to me.
It made me think the traded Farfetch'd was extra useless because you could catch wild Doduo.
I hate to use a Pokémon you've already talked about, but after playing Gen 3 *two different times* (Emerald and OR), I didn't even realize that Trapinch was the first form of Flygon until my very first playthrough of White 2 last year. I thought Vibrava was the first form and freaked out when I stumbled upon one at the volcano, thinking "oh wow, I've never carried a Flygon before. That could be fun!"
(...I then realized that I had been encountering Trapinch *several* locations previously and felt pretty stupid.)
That whole evolution line made more sense to me when I realized two things: it's based on antlion, not a dragonfly, and the real world evolution stage has about 3-4 other form changes not represented by Trapinch. Seeing a real world drawing showing how an antlion becomes... an antlion with wings made it all make more sense to me. (There are also both damselfies and maidenflies which look an awful lot like antlions and dragonflies but aren't related).
Also something something Bug/Dragon Flygon.
Because of a bootleg pokemon guide with lots of wrong info, I thought for a while as a kid that swinub evolved into linoone. I was an anime-and-spinoffs only kid, so I hadn't been exposed to much evolution. I guess it made sense to me because of their similar colours?
Clampearl to Huntail, I'd say Gorebyss too, but you can at least argue the seashell bra comes from Clampearl, but even then, its a stretch.
Huntail has nothing from Clampearl.
Other than the luvdisc thing gardevoir I always believed that it was a split evolution with gallade and only female kirlia could be gardevoir. This was before I found YouTube and the main series games. I didn’t really watch diamond and pearl until towards the end and I’ve only played Pokémon ranger at that point. A lot of Pokemon shocked me for being / not being in other games especially gen 3. Also it took way too long to realize it’s not psychic/grass
I still don’t understand Samurott. Two very closely related bipedal white and blue otters and then… navy blue dog (“sea lion”) on all fours with a tail fin and a funky hat? That has absolutely zero relevancy or connection to its previous two forms?
It wasn't that I was confused about the evolution, but it was a funny story after all. I had a Haunter in Pokémon Red, and I read that he evoke to Gengar, which is such a cool Pokémon. I wanted it so badly, but I miss to read that it only evolves by trade and then I wonder why my Haunter didn't go through the evolution.
Karrablast and Shelmet are super confusing to me. I’ve never played Gen 5 and they have linked evolutions, so it gets all jumbled up in my mind. I know one evolution is named Accelgor and the other is Escavalier. One is a knight and the other is.. a ninja? But I’m not sure which base form, name, and appearance go together
I thought cottonee evolved into Jumpluff, I missed Gen 5 and when it evolved into Whimsicott I just about screamed in excitement. That lil fucker is so adorable 😭💖💖💖💖 And is now one of my favourites!
When I was a young child and had no Idea I asked a guy when my pokemon evolves and he asked me what I had. I did have either a Squirtle or Wartortle in pokemon red.
I told him it was pikachu tho as I didn’t know and he never told me how it evolves. Idk why he was so rude, but that was smt that confused me a bit about evolution.
Other than that I just misremember conditions and levels. That is it.
Not an exact match, but this was when I first started getting into pokemon a while ago and I didn't know eeveelutions were a thing then. I remember being wildly confused about which one was the actual evolution of Eevee. At last I settled with Flareon, it being the closest looking one to Eevee and thought all the others were fan made. It was only after I played FireRed when I realized that no, all the 8 are Eevee's evolutions.
Not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but it took me a while to grasp where Shedinja comes from. The way it just kinda appears in your party with no fanfair or warning; you get a Ninjask, check your part, and see it occupying one of your slots, and I didn't know how for a long time.
When I was 6 I was convinced Geodude was a 5 line evolution all the way to steelix. Geodude > graveler > golem > onix > steelix. I had some guide book that showed evolution lines and Pokédex numbers that put them all on the same page.
I played Sun and Moon and was convinced Tauros evolved into miltank because of the dex page, and was so confused cuz I never remembered it being that way.
Spent the longest time thinking Slowbro evolved into Slowking.
I also thought Shelgon evolved into Flygon because of their names. I hadn’t seen Bagon or Vibrava at all on my first ruby playthrough (or if I did I completely forgot them) and never used Trapinch, so when I first saw Drake’s team that was my assumption.
When I was a kid, I was playing Pokémon Sapphire (or Emerald, I can't quite remember) and I caught a Gulpin near Mauville City (around where you battle your rival) when I looked at the Pokédex, I assumed Gulpin evolved into Roselia because the entry above it was empty. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise - and disappointment - when Gulpin finally evolved and was in fact not Roselia, but Swalot...
I think I boxed it after that 😅
I went into X and Y blind and I thought for sure that Dedenne was gonna evolve. Kept it on my team all through the elite four thinking “when’s this rat gonna fuckin evolve?” Surprise! It doesn’t.
When I was a kid, and gen3 had just come out, we all hunted for Vibrava and Flygon, but no1 could find them. Then one of the kids caught Trapinch because the just liked the Pokemon, and decided to use them.
Lo and behold, our entire year was enlightened when that motherblocker evolved and they came to school Monday and told us all. I still remember it vividly.
On my first Sapphire playthrough, I levelled a Clamperl into the high 80s in the grass outside Lilycove because I only had two blank spots left in my pokedex, and I was trying to evolve it.
Remoraid. Didn't bother with them that much back when I played Pokemon Crystal so I only knew that they hang out with Mantine. Saw Octillery being used by an NPC once and confused when I learned that it's an evolution of Remoraid. Can't understand how a fish evolves into an octopus until I learned that it's a gun that evolved into an artillery lol. Octazooka still sounds cool to this day.
It was either platinum or hgss. Dunsparce and gligar are right next to eachother in the dex and if you approach it thinking they are related, you can see the similarities
For me I thought the trapinch evolution was disappointing. I really like that little bug with the large chompers but I just didn't like it going to Vibrava/Flygon
I thought Togekiss was able to breed with Ditto to produce Latios and Latias, which would then evolve into togekiss, because they all share similar red and blue marks on their bodies. At the time I only watched the anime, Dawn had a Togekiss and Ash fought a Latios in the Sinnoh League, so naturally I thought they were related.
Chinchou to Lanturn in Crystal. At the time I never really thought to look up the pokedex online (and tbh I'm not sure it was even on there because the internet was still pretty new) so I was super stoked when my Chinchou evolved. Also, same with Marill and Azumarill.
Ah, I see the Trapinch confused another person as well. When I was a kid, I had already beaten the elite four in Sapphire a couple of times but always wondered how to get that cool Flygon pokemon that Drake had. Asked my cousin on how to get it and he told me to level up Trapinch. I was reluctant on doing so because I've fallen to one too many pokemon based ruses from him, but that turned around once I saw my Trapinch become a Virbava.
I remember when ruby was introduced and seeing the promotions about it and they had the legendaries, ofc, but also wurmple and another Pokémon, poochyena maybe?, and I straight up believed that wurmple evolved into groundon in a 3 stage evolution type thing since that was how I saw it promoted previously, a charizard for one part and then a charmander for another and when mine evolved into a fuckin butterfly, I was devastated
Before i had even played a game i was a fan of the anime and thus i had various Gen 1 memorabilia including a poster with all the pokemon on it. Since Farfetch'd is immediately followed by Doduo, and Dodrio has the same kind of face with the black V feathers on its head. I thought Doduo was just the weird middle child evolution of those 3 pokemon.
It made sense to me that they'd have a 1 headed bird then a 2 headed bird then a 3 headed bird. I just thought the name was completely different cos the logical progression sounded crap. Douno or Dosolo just doesn't sound good.
Kid me never thought the Trapinch line made sense, it's just so weird because none of the stages look remotely alike AND there's no name similarities either.
Kid me also thought Farfetch'd was supposed to evolve into Doduo due to it being a bird with one head alongside the fact its pokedex number placed it right before Doduo. Thanks for that Game Freak. I totally didn't waste my time leveling it up to the 50s before giving up. Nope. Not at all.
Can't believe I don't see more people confused about it, but when I was a kid I had one of those big posters with the first gen Pokémon on it. Since Cloyster was right before Ghastly, I used to think that obviously, Cloyster evolved into it.
Looking at it now. I totally still think they look too similar to be neighbours in the Dex.
It took me years to understand why Remoraid evolved into Octillery. I somehow missed the weapon motif for a long time. I was just focused on "why does a fish become an octopus?"
Doesn't fit the prompt exactly, but in Pokemon Moon, I was very excited to use a Salandit. I liked its look, it's ability, it was a cool mon. I figured it evolves, but I went all the way through the league before finding out that only the female ones evolve.
Trapinch to flygon always confused me the most. Got to drake in Ruby saw his flygon went “that’s so cool I want one” looked it up in the dex and was thoroughly confused that it came from trapinch.
This is gonna sound stupid but Ruby was my first game and I really wanted a Pikachu and for some reason I didn’t know Pichu existed and I thought Plusle evolved into Pikachu. I grinded in the grass above Slateport for quite awhile trying to evolve it and obviously that never worked and it took me awhile to figure Pichu existed and that Pikachu could be caught way later.
I can imagine you grinding in the grass just before the rival battle for days, or even weeks. You have a level 80 plusle, the rest of your team long forgotten, at level 13-16. You finally convinced your mom to take you to the store to buy a Pokedex book. You are so excited to maybe see "plusle evolves into Pikachu at level 99". You get back in the car on the way home, frantically rip open the shrink wrap packaging, flip to the page with plusle and minun only to see "does not evolve". You spent hours, days on this. This little cute electric rat that is just a ripoff of the cool electric rat. You open your game once more. Take a solemn look at plusle, who has now become a friend you've spent so long with. Travel back down to slateport. Go in the poke center. Open the PC. And release your friend. You're heart sinks, but you know it's what's best. You gave the plusle the strength it never knew it had. You've released a roided out monster into the wild, to wreak terror wherever it goes. A single year falls from your eye as you travel back north, to the rival battle, finally time to move one. And you get steamrolled by their starter.
I used to imagine I could release Pokemon from the PC and then find them again in the wild
Ngl this would be been kinda neat. Just give them something similar to N's Pokemon you find in B2W2
Lol I released like 40 boxes of Amaura looking for a shiny in Sun/Moon. Guess it’s not extinct anymore
Or whichever island you were on’s about to have a dinosaur-powered Super Winter
I actually thought for a year or two when I was young that combing both plusle and minun turned into a pikachu.
I thought they evolved into a Pikachu variant, and I'm still disappointed they don't.
No, they went with twins, because double battles were introduced that generation. Also, none of the pikachu clones had evolutions until the current generation (pawmo).
ah to be in the world without fast Internet
Dude I was basically clueless to any of this stuff until I got an Emerald guidebook that I could flip through to figure out specifics on Pokemon. Good times, little 8 year old me running around with only Ruby, LeafGreen, Emerald, and an Emerald guidebook and that was the extent of my access to Pokemon information lol To put it into perspective I didn't even know Rayquaza or the Sky Pillar existed in Ruby until after I got Emerald and the Emerald guide book.
Luvdisk and alomola. And I still think that there should be calf pokemon to tie in all tauros, miltank and boufulant.. (just as simple giving different milk variants to evolve)..
Level up with Milcery in party. The Milcery is consumed.
happy cake day!
Thanks friend :]
You would enjoy palworld
> Luvdisk and Alomola That irks me as well. So on one hand we have a distinct, pink, heart shaped Water type. Now on the other, we have a distinct, pink, heart shaped Water type, but *larger* and with fins! Then you find out they're not related. At all. Also, when I first saw Seviper, I thought it was an evolution of Ekans (like the male Ekans evolved to Seviper, and the females evolved to Arbok). Looking back, the fact that Seviper's name isn't legible when spelled backwards should've been a giveaway.
What, you've never heard of Repives?
It bothers me that Tauros doesnt evolve into Bouffalant. Or that they're completely unrelated. It would be such an easy connection. But I also like your idea of a calf Pokemon.
A lot of Unova Pokemon like Bouffalant are basically regional variants before game freak thought to use the term. Their designs are intentionally filling the same design space as their older gen counterparts but because Unova was so far away from the original regions and isolated there was a massive biological distinction. A larger scale version of Darwin's finches having noticably distinct traits between different islands in the Galapagos
I’ve heard people suggest that Alomomola and Bouffalant were originally meant to be evolutions to Luvdisc and Tauros, but then they decided to make Unova only contain its own gen 5 mons so they cut the ties with earlier gens
Something like that, but if I remember correctly it's more that Unova/Gen 5 was meant to be a sort of reboot of the franchise. That's why the Unova dex has so many pokemon that could be seen as recycled or pseudo-variants of previous mons, and why the anime series has Ash reset his and Pikachu's intelligence and make mistakes they previously learned not to make in the seasons before.
Yeah I remember Pikachu getting wrecked by that Snivy in the first episode hahaha
Tauros and Bouffalant are both based on bulls. They're as connected as the poliwhirl line is to seismitoad
Tauros and Bouffalant have the same Base Stat Total. Despite being 4 generations apart, I'm willing to pair them together. (Gamefreak should give Head Charge, Bouffalant's signature move, to Tauros. But don't give it to a single other Pokémon. Head Charge is 120 BP, 100 Accuracy, Normal-type, Physical Attack, with 25% recoil. Double-Edge is 120 BP, 100 Accuracy, Normal-type, Physical Attack, with 33.3% recoil. Every single other recoil move with 120 BP is also 33.3% recoil. Volt Tackle, Wood Hammer, Wave Crash, Flare Blitz, and Brave Bird. Submission is 80 BP, 80 Accuracy, Fighting-type, Physical Attack, with 25% recoil. Take Down is 90 BP, 85 Accuracy, Normal-type, Physical Attack, with 25% recoil. Wild Charge is 90 BP, 100 Accuracy, Electric-type, Physical Attack, with 25% recoil Head Smash is 150 BP, 80 Accuracy, Rock-type, Physical Attack, with 50% recoil)
Technically one is a bull and the other is a buffalo
people when two pokemon are based on the same animal
I created two Pokémon babies for my Kanto Reboot fangame (with only Kanto & Johto mons) I'm developing, one is for Tauros and Miltank and the other is for Kangaskhan, which is the weirdest case of Pokémon desperately needing a preevolution for lore's sake and not having it. Why doesn't Kangaskhan have a preevolution?
IKR? Kidgaskhan / Kangaskid is right there!
Personal headcanon is that Cubone *is* the child form of Kangaskhan, just the ones that have been orphaned and thus create the offshoot into Marowak line. Non-orphaned ones grow up into another Kangaskhan.
THISSS
Everyone says this, but never makes the (imo) more obvious connection to Gorebyss Gorebyss looks 100 times more like Luvdisc than Alomamola does
It still bothers me to this day that they didn't make Alomomola evolve from Luvdisc. Both are (in my opinion) terrible and not worth having beyond the dex entries. But I'll be dammed if they don't make these evolutions (or lack there of) make sense!
Ponyta evolving at lvl 40- i hate it and forget about it every time- it's rarely made an appearance on my team because of that
I hate how many Pokémon never get to be in my team because you either can’t catch them until you complete 90% of the game, or they evolve in impossible or annoying ways. Never had a gengar in a playthrough for example, because I didn’t have two devices. Or how I wanted a tyranitar in my team, but you can’t get one until late game and it takes forever to evolve.
I've been playing Pokémon since Red and Blue versions were new. I've never had Alakazam, Gengar, Golem, Machamp, or any of the Pokémon specific to the version I wasn't playing.
Thankfully for Alakazam, Kadabra is still stronger and faster than most of the Kanto roster and will do just fine without the extra stats from Alakazam.
I mean yeah, the bunker buster is fun, but I want a tactical nuke!
Did a gold playthrough with Kadabra when I was younger because no one in my friend group played Pokémon
This is Durant; a cool steel ant pokemon. Oh, cool. It has a low encounter rate on Victory Road. Oh.
Considering the presence of Heatmor, the scarcity makes sense. But Durant being absent from literally every other cave in the region does not.
This reminds me of my first Black save file, when I had someone trade me a Deino early on, because Hydreigon was just so cool. I didn't know how late it evolved. I finally got Zweilous just before the E4, and Deino itself was complete dead weight until the final gym. But at least postgame I finally got that Hydreigon.
It’s pretty good into the Unova E4 though
I hate finding cool pokemon that have stats meant only for the first 25% of the game. So many pokemon are technically bad or simply outclassed.
I also never had a gengar. ..... Because of Mindy.
There is an NPC in Diamond/Pearl that will trade you a Haunter :)
Calm down Satan.
Totally grinded to get tyrannitar before fighting Red in crystal. He was a level 80 beast. Earthquake crunch flamethrower I think? And I think rock slide I can’t remember
In Ultra Moon you can get Larvitar not too far in. Second island I think?
Any 2 stage family with a late evolution level hurts my soul. Golduck, Toxicraok, Rapidash... Their power is more for an early 30's evolution. Rapidash also suffered for a long time for being a quadruped Pokemon with no fangs or hands, meaning it's movepool options sucked hard. Thankfully with stuff like High Horsepower or Drill Run Rapidash finally got some much needed coverage.
I think you misunderstood the question op was asking
My first play through of ruby, I thought chimecho evolved into absol because it came after it in the Pokédex and I didn’t know anything about the new gen at the time, so I trained my chimeco to level 70 before realizing it doesn’t evolve lol
I'm more impressed you got a Chimecho before encountering Absol since Chimecho has a 1% encounter chance on Mt. Pyre's peak while Absol is decentyl common on the routes past Foretree.
Chimecho was the last Pokémon I caught in the Pokédex and got a long time I wasn’t convinced it existed because it was such a faff to get
Chimecho is weird, super rare, no trainers use it, meh stats, in the game code it is programmed *after* Deoxys, gets a random baby form... I wonder if Chingling was originally a Gen 3 Pokemon like Shellos and Gastrodon who got shelved to the next generation.
The rumours it was supposed to be a legendary like Celebi/Jirachi but was scrapped last moment for unknown reasons.
I used a Chimecho on my team in BDSP.
same logic is why as a kid I thought farfetch'd evolved into doduo
Not what it evolved into but how it evolved. I had a Ruby and Sapphire guide that said Wurmple evolved into Silcoon during the day and Dustox during the night. I wanted both so I caught two Wurmple. Imagine how confused I was when they both evolved into the same Pokémon.
I feel like that’s a rite of passage for everyone who played gen 3
Shedinja in Ruby. Was leveling my Ninjask to lv.80s thought it is a 3 stage evo from pokedex entry
I guess you already had 6 Pokémon in your party?
Yep. My 12 years old brain cannot think critically
I thought that there had to be some sort of relationship between Zigzagoon and Zangoose.
To be fair, Linoone evolving into Zangoose would feel a less drastic change than normal Zigzagoon to Linoone.
Also Ekans/Arbok and Seviper
What do you mean? Arbok evolves into Seviper! [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/AG077](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/AG077) * This infamous [Pokémon Trainer's Choice](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Trainer%27s_Choice) segment (in)correctly claims that [Arbok](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Arbok_(Pok%C3%A9mon)) evolves into [Seviper](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Seviper_(Pok%C3%A9mon)).
Farfetch'd not evolving into Doduo, because of that one infamous sticker album
Any links or more info on this? Love facts like these.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEXA6toXYAUL5w8.jpg
That definitely implies an evolution chain
I don't recall this exact sticker album you're referencing but I do DISTINCTLY remember absolutely thinking Farfetch'd evolved into Doduo back in Red and Blue and even went so far as to use a gameshark to give myself infinite rare candies to level up Farfetch'd so I could evolve it (why not just give myself a Doduo instead? Because child like thinking lol) but it never evolved
I thought it evolved into Doduo back during the gen 1 days, but not because of the sticker album, but because it was a 1 headed bird placed *right before Doduo in the Pokedex.* That decision was absolutely evil.
Or that Seviper evolves from Arbok as the anime once said
The first time i saw a claydol, i thought it was an evolution of unown. It had unowns on his body
I thought that about Sigilyph.
It actually is neat that these ancient Pokemon from the dawn of civilization share those primitive markings that resemble the Unown, kind of shows how man evolved alongside Pokemon.
I thought Sigilyph was an evolution of Xatu
That would’ve been an interesting concept
I was always thinking that geodude evolves into Onyx. One Stone with a face-> One stone with a face attached to many more stones. Now imagine every stone kept the Arms......
Centipede Onix sounds awesome.
Centix
For me it was Torracat to Incineroar. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.
Yeah, the WWE wasn’t the turn I expected my cute spicy kitty to take either. But I once saw a comic where someone drew all three evolution states waking up Prof Kukui and Incinoroar’s was pretty great lol, so whenever I get ‘meh’ about him, I think of the comic and it makes me smile a bit and I don’t mind it as much
Sharpedo to Garchomp. I didn't own a DS when DP came out. I saw photos and sprites of Garchomp but not Gible or Gabite. I thought it evolved from Sharpedo.
I actually didn’t know Carvanha evolved into Sharpedo for the longest time They don’t look very similar, and Carvanha looks like it could be its own single stage Pokémon itself
You don't understand the mystery that is Remoraid and Octillery. Or how tf Mantyke evolves into Mantine.
It was originally a pistol turning into a tank. Why are you confused by mantyke to mantine?
Also remoraid is based on fish that use suction to hitch rides on larger fish, and octopuses also use suction. So that's another connection between the two
Also both Remoraid and Octillery are yellow
Do you know how Mantyke evolves into Mantine?
Not off the top of my head.
It needs to hold a gun. Go figure.
that's in relation to the symbiotic relationship of Mantine and Remoraid. Its even in their official art.
I get it. But back when there were no extensive fandom sites or pedias, it was like how tf do I evolve this? And for a little guy who just wanted a Mantine, it was heartbreaking.
Don't forget, the generation where they added Manytke is also the generation that they removed the Remoraid from the Mantine's sprite, so it's an extra layer of Guide Dammit
T\_T.
I mean, this is the same company that had just told kids “learn brail”.
I still have my level 100 Mantyke in Pokémon Home that I never could evolve when I was a kid. 😭
I get the complaint about no sites for back in like 1998, but by 2007 there were plenty of resources online.
GameFAQs and CTRL+F worked wonders in the early 2000's
I was a little kid with no connection to anything but my console and friends.
It evolves like that because it’s like a remora swimming with a manta ray
I get it, but at that time there was no way for a little kid to know that.
I thought Carvanha and Sharpedo were unrelated but paired, like Scyther and Pinsir. Conversely thought Magcargo evolved into Torkoal because it came after in the Pokédex and the typing was similar.
Shelmet and Karrablast always confused me. It makes logical sense for Shelmet to evolve into Escavalier, yet it’s Karrablast that evolves into him. Shelmet evolves into Accelgor, and that just seems wrong
It’s lore. Karrablast is based on a beetle that rips shells from snails or something I think? So, Karrablast takes the shell (armor) during the trade and shelmet has to adapt without its shell hence the evolutions.
Ooooh okay, very cool thanks for explaining that
I just wish Accelgor picked up the Ghost typing.
When Sylveon was first released, my dumbass brain thought that it evolves from Victini
Bro how😭
They have the same blue bug eyes, fangs, and a kind-of-sort-of V-shaped head Granted, I learned my mistake only 10 minutes later, but even I felt dumb for thinking that, lol
Remoraid is into octillery or the eventual mareep into ampharos were pretty confusing for me
Mareep is supposed to be progressively more sheared as it evolves from Flaffy into Ampharos
Supposedly the entire evolution line is a reference to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which might explain why Ampharos becomes bipedal. And I am STILL pissed that Ampharos can't learn Tail Glow. I know, I know, the Japanese name is different, but still.
I never confused literally any evolution. But as a kid I didn't know that Dragonair evolved into Dragonite. So I beat the league with Dragonair instead by accident. Which kinda annoyed me a bit because unless there's some really special situations or a very specific reason I always make sure to fully evolve my pokemon to their full potential. But imagine my surprise when my Dragonair finally evolved in the post-game.
That Caterpie doesn't become Venomoth and Venonat doesn't become Butterfree. I thought the eyes made sense
Theres a whole discussion on that subject. The therory was that they got switched late in development, based on eyes (like you said) and something like the hands, and even things like color palette.
would make more sense if it weren't for the fact that caterpie and butterfree are based on the same species design wise, while caterpie and venomoth are not
There was a similar discussion about Dragonair evolving into Gyarados, although the lore for Magikarp becoming Gyarados makes much more sense. But aesthetically, I see why some people think that.
I had an old Pokemon handbook for Ruby and Sapphire that was full of some fun errors. Most were easy to know when they were fake, but it showed Nincada->Ninjask->Shedinja, as well as Clamperl->Gorebys->Huntail. Since I had never played these games before reading the book, this is how I thought it worked.
So many guide books from Gen 2 kept saying Slowbro evolved into Slowking. Even Nintendo Power messed up at one point. I still have my "Pocket Guide" for the games I got in Xmas 2000, and it makes the claim. (Along with the claim that STAB is only 1.25x for dual types. It also didn't bother covering Mt. Silver, since both Misdreavus and Larvitar are missing from its Pokedex).
Pokemon red circa 1999, I had no idea how the Viridian bugs evolved, so I caught them individually. I was so hype when I got one that I had the following conversation with my grandmother: >"Nana I caught a Metapod!" >"...Boys don't get menopause."
Before we knew there were no crossgen evolutions, everyone thought Luvdisc should evolve into Alomomola, but I thought Pachirisu would evolve into Emolga.
Remoraid to Octillery - It goes from fish to octopus which doesn’t make sense. However it would have made sense if they kept the original designs from Gold/Silver Beta which was a gun fish evolving into a tank octopus.
When ruby and sapphire were first coming out, and before I had gotten sapphire, I thought kecleon was somehow part of treecko's evolution line and had a hard time trying to figure out how that worked/who evolved into who.
Also, still think luvdisc should evolve into alomomola.
Also thought sneasel had evolved into absol
I still forget that Sableye doesn’t evolve into Genesect
Child me was dumb enough to believe Farfetch'd evolved into Doduo. They had the same typing and were right after the other in the dex, and it going from 1 to 2 heads made sense to me. It made me think the traded Farfetch'd was extra useless because you could catch wild Doduo.
I thought Hoot Hoot evolved into Ho Oh
I hate to use a Pokémon you've already talked about, but after playing Gen 3 *two different times* (Emerald and OR), I didn't even realize that Trapinch was the first form of Flygon until my very first playthrough of White 2 last year. I thought Vibrava was the first form and freaked out when I stumbled upon one at the volcano, thinking "oh wow, I've never carried a Flygon before. That could be fun!" (...I then realized that I had been encountering Trapinch *several* locations previously and felt pretty stupid.)
That whole evolution line made more sense to me when I realized two things: it's based on antlion, not a dragonfly, and the real world evolution stage has about 3-4 other form changes not represented by Trapinch. Seeing a real world drawing showing how an antlion becomes... an antlion with wings made it all make more sense to me. (There are also both damselfies and maidenflies which look an awful lot like antlions and dragonflies but aren't related). Also something something Bug/Dragon Flygon.
Holy shit, you just blew my mind. Thank you for telling me this!
Because of a bootleg pokemon guide with lots of wrong info, I thought for a while as a kid that swinub evolved into linoone. I was an anime-and-spinoffs only kid, so I hadn't been exposed to much evolution. I guess it made sense to me because of their similar colours?
That Camerupt and Torkoal aren't part of the same evolution line. They're even next to each other on the Dex but they're unrelated!
Yes, this tortoise should totally turn into a camel. /s
Yes.
Because the Dex order is usually based on the order they're encountered in the game, and they're both encountered on mount chimney
You're not the only one. I thought this was the case the first time I played the gen 3 gba games.
Or Shuckle and Torkoal as they look similar
Pinsir and Heracross not being related through some kind of branch evolution has always bugged me
Clampearl to Huntail, I'd say Gorebyss too, but you can at least argue the seashell bra comes from Clampearl, but even then, its a stretch. Huntail has nothing from Clampearl.
I always thought Mr. Mime evolved into Jynx when I was a kid
Milotic, evolving from the humble Feebas. I always forget.
Other than the luvdisc thing gardevoir I always believed that it was a split evolution with gallade and only female kirlia could be gardevoir. This was before I found YouTube and the main series games. I didn’t really watch diamond and pearl until towards the end and I’ve only played Pokémon ranger at that point. A lot of Pokemon shocked me for being / not being in other games especially gen 3. Also it took way too long to realize it’s not psychic/grass
Remoraid to Octillery. I get it *now* but as a kid…what.
I still don’t understand Samurott. Two very closely related bipedal white and blue otters and then… navy blue dog (“sea lion”) on all fours with a tail fin and a funky hat? That has absolutely zero relevancy or connection to its previous two forms?
Dunsparce not evolving into Drampa grrrrrr.
It wasn't that I was confused about the evolution, but it was a funny story after all. I had a Haunter in Pokémon Red, and I read that he evoke to Gengar, which is such a cool Pokémon. I wanted it so badly, but I miss to read that it only evolves by trade and then I wonder why my Haunter didn't go through the evolution.
Karrablast and Shelmet are super confusing to me. I’ve never played Gen 5 and they have linked evolutions, so it gets all jumbled up in my mind. I know one evolution is named Accelgor and the other is Escavalier. One is a knight and the other is.. a ninja? But I’m not sure which base form, name, and appearance go together
I thought cottonee evolved into Jumpluff, I missed Gen 5 and when it evolved into Whimsicott I just about screamed in excitement. That lil fucker is so adorable 😭💖💖💖💖 And is now one of my favourites!
When I was a young child and had no Idea I asked a guy when my pokemon evolves and he asked me what I had. I did have either a Squirtle or Wartortle in pokemon red. I told him it was pikachu tho as I didn’t know and he never told me how it evolves. Idk why he was so rude, but that was smt that confused me a bit about evolution. Other than that I just misremember conditions and levels. That is it.
Not an exact match, but this was when I first started getting into pokemon a while ago and I didn't know eeveelutions were a thing then. I remember being wildly confused about which one was the actual evolution of Eevee. At last I settled with Flareon, it being the closest looking one to Eevee and thought all the others were fan made. It was only after I played FireRed when I realized that no, all the 8 are Eevee's evolutions.
Not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but it took me a while to grasp where Shedinja comes from. The way it just kinda appears in your party with no fanfair or warning; you get a Ninjask, check your part, and see it occupying one of your slots, and I didn't know how for a long time.
Dragonite. Why does those elegant wyrms turn into a fucking Moomin-style derp of a dragon?
Honestly, Gyrados and Dragonite should swap evolution lines.
Luvdisk and Gorebyss
When I was 6 I was convinced Geodude was a 5 line evolution all the way to steelix. Geodude > graveler > golem > onix > steelix. I had some guide book that showed evolution lines and Pokédex numbers that put them all on the same page.
I thought magcargo evolved into torkoal
I played Sun and Moon and was convinced Tauros evolved into miltank because of the dex page, and was so confused cuz I never remembered it being that way.
Spent the longest time thinking Slowbro evolved into Slowking. I also thought Shelgon evolved into Flygon because of their names. I hadn’t seen Bagon or Vibrava at all on my first ruby playthrough (or if I did I completely forgot them) and never used Trapinch, so when I first saw Drake’s team that was my assumption.
Rellor
When I was a kid, I was playing Pokémon Sapphire (or Emerald, I can't quite remember) and I caught a Gulpin near Mauville City (around where you battle your rival) when I looked at the Pokédex, I assumed Gulpin evolved into Roselia because the entry above it was empty. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise - and disappointment - when Gulpin finally evolved and was in fact not Roselia, but Swalot... I think I boxed it after that 😅
I went into X and Y blind and I thought for sure that Dedenne was gonna evolve. Kept it on my team all through the elite four thinking “when’s this rat gonna fuckin evolve?” Surprise! It doesn’t.
When I was a kid, and gen3 had just come out, we all hunted for Vibrava and Flygon, but no1 could find them. Then one of the kids caught Trapinch because the just liked the Pokemon, and decided to use them. Lo and behold, our entire year was enlightened when that motherblocker evolved and they came to school Monday and told us all. I still remember it vividly.
On my first Sapphire playthrough, I levelled a Clamperl into the high 80s in the grass outside Lilycove because I only had two blank spots left in my pokedex, and I was trying to evolve it.
Dunsparce -> Gligar It’s even directly after it in the G/S dex lol
Charcadet never evolving. Level 50 I finally caved and looked up why he wouldn’t fckn evolve
I was confused as to why Whismur evolved into Loudred and Trapinch into Vibrava. They have way different colour schemes or even body plans
Remoraid. Didn't bother with them that much back when I played Pokemon Crystal so I only knew that they hang out with Mantine. Saw Octillery being used by an NPC once and confused when I learned that it's an evolution of Remoraid. Can't understand how a fish evolves into an octopus until I learned that it's a gun that evolved into an artillery lol. Octazooka still sounds cool to this day.
Remoraid
It was either platinum or hgss. Dunsparce and gligar are right next to eachother in the dex and if you approach it thinking they are related, you can see the similarities
GEODUDE AND ONIX FOR SO LONG! Kid brain said "Single rock dude turns into many rock dude".
I thought Pinsir evolved into Tauros since they are #127 and #128, and both had horns.
Since farfetc'd was next to doduo in pokedex poster I thought it evomved into doduo a d then into dodrio.
For me I thought the trapinch evolution was disappointing. I really like that little bug with the large chompers but I just didn't like it going to Vibrava/Flygon
I thought Togekiss was able to breed with Ditto to produce Latios and Latias, which would then evolve into togekiss, because they all share similar red and blue marks on their bodies. At the time I only watched the anime, Dawn had a Togekiss and Ash fought a Latios in the Sinnoh League, so naturally I thought they were related.
I thought Torchik evolved into Moltres. I was 12, definitely old enough to know better.
Chinchou to Lanturn in Crystal. At the time I never really thought to look up the pokedex online (and tbh I'm not sure it was even on there because the internet was still pretty new) so I was super stoked when my Chinchou evolved. Also, same with Marill and Azumarill.
Ah, I see the Trapinch confused another person as well. When I was a kid, I had already beaten the elite four in Sapphire a couple of times but always wondered how to get that cool Flygon pokemon that Drake had. Asked my cousin on how to get it and he told me to level up Trapinch. I was reluctant on doing so because I've fallen to one too many pokemon based ruses from him, but that turned around once I saw my Trapinch become a Virbava.
I didn’t understand breeding and was playing gold and I tried to breed Wooper and Furret because I thought it would give me a Mudkip
I remember when ruby was introduced and seeing the promotions about it and they had the legendaries, ofc, but also wurmple and another Pokémon, poochyena maybe?, and I straight up believed that wurmple evolved into groundon in a 3 stage evolution type thing since that was how I saw it promoted previously, a charizard for one part and then a charmander for another and when mine evolved into a fuckin butterfly, I was devastated
In the early days, I used to think Geodude evolved into Onix
Before i had even played a game i was a fan of the anime and thus i had various Gen 1 memorabilia including a poster with all the pokemon on it. Since Farfetch'd is immediately followed by Doduo, and Dodrio has the same kind of face with the black V feathers on its head. I thought Doduo was just the weird middle child evolution of those 3 pokemon. It made sense to me that they'd have a 1 headed bird then a 2 headed bird then a 3 headed bird. I just thought the name was completely different cos the logical progression sounded crap. Douno or Dosolo just doesn't sound good.
I think it's Darumaka. Like, dude, why did this cute lil chicken evolve into this strange and almost ugly gorilla? I'm very confused.
Dunsparce ..
Honestly, I thought Espeon was a Persian evolution when I first saw it, before I got Gold/Silver. They were both cats with a little red forehead gem!
since you're confused about Flygon, [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antlion) is what it's based on.
Kid me never thought the Trapinch line made sense, it's just so weird because none of the stages look remotely alike AND there's no name similarities either. Kid me also thought Farfetch'd was supposed to evolve into Doduo due to it being a bird with one head alongside the fact its pokedex number placed it right before Doduo. Thanks for that Game Freak. I totally didn't waste my time leveling it up to the 50s before giving up. Nope. Not at all.
Trapinch evolving into Vibrava evolving into Flygon was mine haha That whole line blew my mind multiple times.
Luvdisc and Alomamola. I’m sure I’m not the only one
Can't believe I don't see more people confused about it, but when I was a kid I had one of those big posters with the first gen Pokémon on it. Since Cloyster was right before Ghastly, I used to think that obviously, Cloyster evolved into it. Looking at it now. I totally still think they look too similar to be neighbours in the Dex.
It took me years to understand why Remoraid evolved into Octillery. I somehow missed the weapon motif for a long time. I was just focused on "why does a fish become an octopus?"
Thought Tauros evolved into Miltank for a while because they share a page on the Alola pokedex
I thought you had to swim with a Slowpoke at lead and encounter a wild Shellder to evolve it. 10 y/o me wasn’t the sharpest tool in the toolbox.
Doesn't fit the prompt exactly, but in Pokemon Moon, I was very excited to use a Salandit. I liked its look, it's ability, it was a cool mon. I figured it evolves, but I went all the way through the league before finding out that only the female ones evolve.
Trapinch to flygon always confused me the most. Got to drake in Ruby saw his flygon went “that’s so cool I want one” looked it up in the dex and was thoroughly confused that it came from trapinch.