The figure put next to the definition of "Friend-Shaped"

206: Dunsparce

What a lovely little guy! Little Pokemon capture the "just a little fella of a creature" energy quite as well as Dunsparce does. It has funny, round proportions for something that is otherwise meant to be a little serpentine, which definitely sets it apart from other serpentine Pokemon as well. Combine that with the sleepy-looking, permanently shut eyes and the gentlest of smiles all rounds out into one adorable little guy.

Dunsparce even comes with a couple more adorable features. Dunsparce is said to be a burrower (despite its mono-Normal typing), and that much is signified with its drill-shaped tail. But it also comes with the teeniest, tiniest little wings that aren't big or strong enough to lift the thing off the ground in any way. These wings have often lead to fans drawing evolutions akin to a dragon, and we to some extent do like the headcanon that prehistoric Dunsparce were Dragon types with wings, but as they evolved into burrowing cave-dwellers, their wings diminished in size since they no longer needed them.

And of course, another one of Dunsparce's claims to fame is being a Pokemon based on a simply adorable Japanese cryptid, one that's so weirdly grounded in reality it could possibly be real, just rare and extremely elusive. The tsuchinoko is described as a short but fat snake that's had questionmarks around its existence for a while, with reports ranging from saying it's totally harmless to also saying it has a deadly venom. Either way, this is quite reflective of how Dunsparce is an extremely rare Pokemon itself, especially in the original Gold and Silver where it was a 1% encounter rate in an optional cave.

Speaking of fan-made evolutions, while we definitely don't want to harp on fan creations because in the end, our stance on Fakemon is just "whatever makes you happy is valid", but loads of the fake evolutions really focus on turning Dunsparce into a graceful or badass dragon, like a Feebas into Milotic or Magikarp into Gyarados situation. Which is fine of course, but we do feel the need to say we hope this never happens in actual Pokemon, and that if Dunsparce were to ever get an official regional evolution or something that it'd still hang onto the goofier, more fun traits of Dunsparce and not lose sight of what makes Dunsparce so lovable! Hell, we would even be elated if it was nothing but a bigger Dunsparce with very little else changed about it.