Another branch evolution family to look at, we get probably the other most iconic representation of metamorphosis in nature to put under the lens for easily communicating Pokemon evolution to new players. This one however subverts expectations a little before offering a more traditional route after the fact, which poses interesting questions about design philosophy.

Poliwag starts off simple but strong, with a blobby body and distinct tail that make it clearly a tadpole while having a good amount of stylisation to it. Poliwag introduces the central concept of the line: taking inspiration from tadpoles whose swirling intestines can be partially seen through their semi-translucent skin to have a distinct spiral pattern, which is given a distinct monochromatic view here to evoke classical depictions of hypnotism. Despite the slew of Psychic and quasi-psychic Water types in Generation 1 this gives this line an already interesting niche that stands out and proceeds to define the evolution line. Already Poliwag is showing that it has a distinct “mascot” stylisation to it rather than trying for more complex or bizarre fantastical elements with less broad appeal. It’s a nice start to something that’s obviously going to become a frog in all instances, right?

Poliwhirl is the obvious sign that we are not going straight to frog and may instead be passing GO to collect £200 first: rather than taking on any froglike traits at all (other than limbs, which aren’t exactly exclusive to frogs or even distinctly like a frog’s in their own design) Poliwhirl keeps the blue tadpole stylisation and instead just makes it bigger and more evolved to be on land without changing its core design. The subversion at this point is pretty funny and I really like the idea here rather than just going the completely safe route of tadpole to frog. Poliwhirl most notably turns up the mascot appeal and in a vacuum I think it’s by far the member of its evolution line that sells the core appeal of the family best. It even seems to have been intended to be a pretty big deal: it was clearly a developer favourite and being key to much advertising including being front and centre on TIME Magazine back in the day is absolutely wild for a Pokemon as passed over as Poliwhirl is nowadays, but it was there all the same. Honestly I can’t fault that at all, it doesn’t stand out too much as far as current games’ selection of marketable little fellas goes, but as a quirk of the early years it’s a cute and fun little addition to any lineup of boxart for barely edible novelty cereal. Unfortunately, Poliwhirl is a little lacking on things to iterate on while preserving its subversive traits, so we get one of two options to solve that which leaves the appeal of this Pokemon a tad unfulfilled.

I’m sorry to fans of Poliwrath, but I’m gonna need a little more to work with here. The concept of a tadpole subverting expectations by evolving into a bigger tadpole is inherently very funny and allows the line to preserve more of its most defining features, but Poliwrath does absolutely nothing other than give us an angrier, beefier Poliwhirl and that just feels a little disappointing. Poliwrath does bring the Fighting type in, and is interesting in that it’s the only Fighting type in the original generation that isn’t pure Fighting, but without any significant change to Poliwhirl’s design, not more defined musculature or even armbands like Primeape, the Fighting type feels pretty unearned, though there is charm to it basically looking like a singular slab of muscle. As if to add insult to injury, in Generation 1 competitive Poliwrath sits alongside its pre-evolution in the RBY metagame’s NeverUsed Banlist, as the addition of a Fighting type and loss of speed are collectively so bad for it back in Generation 1 that it basically constitutes a sidegrade to Poliwhirl. Overall, Poliwrath disappointingly takes what started as interesting and subversive idea, tragically dulling it down to the least interesting development it could possibly have been. It’s hardly offensive but the waste of potential is saddening.

And now for something completely different. Politoed is another branch evolution which, like Bellossom, throws out the dual typing and most of the shared design convention of the previous line to go more off-piste as far as the evolution line is concerned, but more plain in terms of overall creature design. However, in this case I think it works a lot more effectively and surpasses Poliwrath by a fair margin. While losing out on the subversion appeal and by extension the tadpole guts is disappointing, Politoed still keeps the hypnosis themes and is just a fundamentally solid frog design that feels like an appropriate end point for the line regardless, maintaining the whimsy of its pre-evolutions even without their actual appearance. It’s hard for me to talk about Politoed without at least mentioning that it was the first of only two non-legendary Pokemon to receive Kyogre’s Drizzle ability to summon rain automatically in battle, which gave Politoed a new lease on life as the face of rain teams for over half a decade and still a solid option for some formats. This sits it in stark contrast to Poliwrath’s relatively disappointing performance for many years: as this funny hopping frog got to define metagames and endear itself by allowing for really fun styles of teams. While I find it really cute and just a delightfully charismatic presence, I do think it’s disappointing that the original concept of the Poliwag family gets completely lost. With Politoed becoming what I consider the definitive final evolution, it presenting a safer, more restrained idea of what the Poli family should be squanders some of Poliwhirl’s appeal in an entirely opposite way from what Poliwrath gets wrong. However, the concept played straight still works, and Politoed is a strong design entirely on its own merits.

Poliwrath Final Verdict: 4/10 – a nice and funny idea, but doesn’t do anything good with it and leaves me wanting
Politoed Final Verdict: 8/10 – loses something in playing it safe, but feels more well realised and stands more as its own Pokemon