Just the two of us~

084: Doduo

The first of only a handful of flightless birds in the Pokemon universe. Despite that, it's still “Flying” type, likely a remnant from when the type used to be called “Bird” type. Doduo is cute in all the ways birds are cute. Nothing though particularly catches by eye about it, other than it having two heads. That's somewhat neat, though it's a case of wishing the execution was a little better.

The Beta "Hinazu", a scrapped baby form of Dodou originally planned for Gold and Silver, really expanded on this idea of a multi-headed bird so well with a body that looks like a bird's nest. If Doduo and even Dodrio had that as a more obvious visual signifier, I would've LOVED this line. The real shame is that even if Hinazu got to exist, it'd just be a case where the pre-evolved form was way better than its evolutions.

Doduo is usually called an ostrich Pokemon, and while it certainly has a lot of similarities, I don't think that's the full picture. True to Gen 1 having a lot of chimeric creatures, Doduo's puffball body and long peak really brings a Kiwi to mind for me. And while its design doesn't bring one to mind, its name seems Dodo-inspired.

When you're the one introvert in a group of loud friends.

085: Dodrio

Sadly I feel like Dodrio ditches a lot of Doduo's simplistic charm. Not enough to score them differently, but as simple as Doduo's face was, I kinda prefer the little beady eyes over Dodrio's more anime-typical eyes. That and its design doesn't add much aside from an extra head and a bit more detail here and there to make it look more of a "complete" bird. I personally don't like the tail much. It feels like a tail that belongs on a different bird and looks super out of place on Dodrio. Though I suppose in fairness, Doduo already feels like it's a bit too "grown up" to be the first in a line of two. Had it been Hinazu into a three-headed Doduo, it might've made more sense in the grand scheme of things, but hindsight is 20-20 and all that.