More on Pokémon evolutions, Venomoth and Butterfree were probably switched.
This image illustrates why. Above are the evolutions as they stand. Below is what might have been.
If we look at the original Japanese Red/Green sprites of these Pokémon:
Butterfree and Venonat are almost the same...
...but Metapod doesn't look like it ought to evolve into Venomoth.
So it seems Game Freak actually retooled Venomoth's design to be more like Metapod's after a few generations... strange as it sounds. And that's actually consistent with another point somebody brought up in the thread I linked to:
My guess is Butterfree was meant to be Venonat's evolution but for some reason was scrapped for Venomoth, and from that point on it's been a developer's in-joke to make Metapod and Venomoth similar, too.
If we look at the original Japanese Red/Green sprites of these Pokémon:
Butterfree and Venonat are almost the same...
...but Metapod doesn't look like it ought to evolve into Venomoth.
So it seems Game Freak actually retooled Venomoth's design to be more like Metapod's after a few generations... strange as it sounds. And that's actually consistent with another point somebody brought up in the thread I linked to:
Things get even better if you compare their abilities.
Caterpie: Shield Dust -> Metapod: Shed Skin -> Butterfree: Compoundeyes
Venonat: Compoundeyes -> Venomoth: Shield Dust
Maybe they also noticed this case by the 3rd gen games.
My guess is Butterfree was meant to be Venonat's evolution but for some reason was scrapped for Venomoth, and from that point on it's been a developer's in-joke to make Metapod and Venomoth similar, too.
