A Pokemon fan has created an alternate evolution for one of the original 151 creatures. Fans of the RPG series enjoy creating their own regional variants and alternate forms of various pocket monsters. This has led to interesting fan-made Pokemon that could actually work in a game.
Dragonair was first introduced in Pokemon Red and Blue. It is a part of the first Dragon-Type evolutionary line in Pokemon and evolves into Dragonite, which was the first pseudo-legendary. An artist has come up with an alternate evolution for Dragonair, which goes a very different direction for the pocket monster.
A Redditor named El-psy-congroo-01 shared an alternate evolution for Dragonair. The creature has been named Dragonymph and was made to be a Dragon/Fairy-Type Pokemon. Unlike Dragonite, the pocket monster keeps Dragonair's long, snake-like body, as well as the gems on its neck and tail. However, Dragonymph has been given legs and its color palette has been changed from having a dark body and light underbelly to possessing a dark belly and light top. The creature's horn has become much more pronounced and it now has rainbow scales running along its body, and the wings above Dragonair's eyes have been replaced with long eyebrows and the Pokemon has long whiskers.
A Reddit user known as Mathias_Greyjoy, who commissioned El-psy-congroo-01 to help come up with Dragonymph, explained the inspiration behind the Pokemon. The Redditor stated that they always struggled to see the connection between Dragonair and Dragonite and wanted to do a split evolution that looked more like a natural progression for Dragonair. After studying Dragonair's lore and inspiration, it felt right for Dragonymph to be Dragon/Fairy-Type. Mathias_Greyjoy stated that they wanted to depart from winged dragons and took inspiration from the Eastern style of the mythical creature. The colors on the pocket monster's body were reversed to achieve a pallette that evoked the imagery of unicorns, white gems, and other fae-like motifs.
Dragonymph has earned a number of fans, with El-psy-conrgroo-01's post sitting at over 12,000 upvotes. Commenters stated that they loved the design of the Pokemon and that they preferred it over Dragonair's original evolution as it seemed to fit the pocket monster better. One user mentioned that they would rather have more split evolutions instead of regional variant Pokemon and listed a few Pokemon that look like they could benefit from Game Freak employing such an idea. Dragonymph is an impressive looking pocket monster and could easily fit in the series as a second option for Dragonair.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will release on November 18 for the Nintendo Switch.
