17. Pidgeotto

Some housekeeping because Pidgeotto is boring:

I want to apologise to all two of my readers for not updating the last couple weeks; I had initially planned to post every day, but then technical difficulties arose with my internet connection—and since my writing process consists of sitting on Word with a window open to Google so I can look up trivial tidbits, this proved to be quite an obstacle.

So you might expect I’m here to amend by committing afresh to daily updates and announcing a blog redesign featuring text-wrapped images and smarmy captions in the manner of real online articles! Well, you’d be wrong. Except the first thing, I’ll try to do that.

Now then






Pidgeotto’s where this family starts to look actually capable of such novel avian ideas as flight and hunting, what with its more developed wingspan and talons. Though you wouldn’t know it looking at its early sprites, which resemble a roosting hen/peacock hybrid. Later on it gets more streamlined and actiony, Diamond and Pearl’s being the boldest of the bunch, though I defy you to find me a bird whose wings look like perfectly radial paper fans like that.

But it’s cool, I guess it’s not terribly important for Pidgeotto to have perfect sprites in every game, I mean it’s just a middle form and it’s not like there’s a gym leader that uses one as his signature pokemon or anything. At a comically low level, like 9. Okay what the hell, Falkner?

The Winner:
HeartGold and SoulSilver

Gold through FR/LG all have pretty great Pidgeotto sprites, I’ll admit—they’ve all got this intensity to them. Sadly, Gold and Silver are out because the brown and bubblegum pink palette just doesn’t work as well as later sprites’ brown-tan-yellow-red-orange rainbow; they’ve got the whole fall foliage motif going for them. Makes you feel festive just looking at them.

Then the next two, though good, still kinda look like poultry when you put them next to the latest one. It’s like the artists finally thought to themselves, “Maybe we should actually look at a bird of prey before trying to draw one this time.” And voila, we get the first Pidgeotto with good posture. Though I think the real difference maker for me is the little cowlick on the head crest. It looks so… aerodynamic. And the soulful Lucario eyes also don’t hurt. It’s the kind of bird you could see a falconer using to pick up chicks. Also females. *rimshot*