A creative fan eagerly awaiting the release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet has designed a new evolution for Parasect, taking inspiration from its parasitic origins and transforming it into a grass-ghost type. Taking to Reddit, user EliDwebster shared his concept art of what he hopes an addition to the Parasect line in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet could look like.
Parasect, despite being one of the original 151 Pokemon, is quite forgettable. Though it has a solid ability in Dry Skin and access to moves such as spore, Parasect has always been hurt by its lackluster stats. The only use Parasect ever really sees in the mainline games is when trainers are looking for a random encounter lead who can learn both spore and false swipe, with Parasect usually being one of the easiest to obtain but always one of the weakest. While other first-generation Pokemon such as Charizard have only ever grown in popularity over the years, receiving mega evolutions and gigantamax forms, Parasect has never been afforded this same attention.
Reddit user EliDwebster has thus taken things into his own hands through designing a potential evolution for Parasect. The grass-ghost hybrid named Paraspectic, an incredibly clever pun on both "spectre," and "septic," allusions to the Pokemon's newfound ghost typing and original parasitic nature respectively, comes with a new ability named "Living Host," and stands at a whopping six-foot tall. When asked what Paraspectic's unique ability did, Eli responded by suggesting that it could either continuously drain health from opposing Pokemon it has made direct contact with or allow Parapectic to revive itself at 75% health after fainting, two exceptionally strong abilities.
The "Living Host" ability Eli has designed is particularly smart to those familiar with Paras and Parasect's Pokedex entries. As Paras grows, so do the mushrooms on its back, which eventually overpower the host upon it evolving into Parasect. Paraspectic's new ability in combination with the pink spores covering the Pokemon suggest a continuation of this dark theme. Scarlet and Violet recently unveiled a ghost type with a dark backstory, and Paraspectic would make for a great continuation of this theme.
Parasect has been in a tough place for many years, with bug having long-been one of the weakest types the Pokemon franchise has to offer. Having long-been crippled by its awful grass-bug typing which results in a massive 4x weakness to both fire and flying and not being exceptional in any way statistically, a new evolution which erases these glaring downsides through replacing bug typing with ghost and adding some bulky stats might just be what the Parasect line needs to become relevant once again.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release on November 18, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
