A talented Pokemon fan goes through great effort to create new evolutions of Rattata and Spearow, thus ‘completing’ their evolutionary lines.
Highlights
Talented Pokemon fan PhantomLink2782 created the second evolutions of Rattata and Spearow, thus "completing" their evolutionary lines.
Their latest designs include Ratiking, a Normal- and Ghost-type Pokemon inspired by the eerie rat king phenomenon.
The fan's take on the final evolution of Spearow, Grimrow, is a Dark-typed creature inspired by Eurasian bird Hoopoe.
One talented Pokemon fan came up with the second and final evolutions of Rattata and Spearow, thus completing their evolutionary lines in an unofficial capacity. Their high-effort designs ended up generating quite a bit of traction on social media, further adding to the ever-expanding list of impressive Pokemon redesigns.
The Pokemon franchise nowadays comprises nine generations spanning over 1,000 pocket monsters in total. And while many of those species are part of evolutionary lines, such families typically include no more than three creatures, not accounting for Pokemon with branched evolutions such as Eevee. As far as Spearow and Rattata are concerned, neither of these Gen 1 creatures have yet received their second and ostensibly final evolutions, although Rattata did get an alternative evolutionary line in the Gen 7 games.
Prolific artist PhantomLink2782 has now gone through the effort of completing their evolutionary lines by coming up with two highly original concepts in the form of Ratiking and Grimrow. The former is described as a "rat king" Pokemon that was inspired by an eponymous phenomenon of rats being found with intertwined tails. Its creator even put together some accompanying lore, which states that Ratiking evolves from a group ritual that sees Raticates entwine their tales and channel their collective energy. The sole survivor of this eerie rite absorbs the essence of its fallen comrades, emerging as a Normal- and Ghost-type Pokemon.
Meanwhile, the Dark-type Grimrow draws inspiration from Hoopoes, a species of colorful African and Eurasian birds that are characterized by the large feather "crowns" on their heads. Although a real-world Hoopoe is no larger than a pigeon, Grimrow is an absolutely massive beast that dwarfs even the sizable Fearow, its preceding evolution. For context, a typical Fearow specimen is approximately 1.2m (3.93 feet) tall, according to the series' lore.
Ratiking and Grimrow are far from PhantomLink2782's first attempts at expanding on some popular Pokemon evolutionary lines; back in late 2023, this talented artist authored three new baby Pokemon with branch evolutions, having done so shortly after coming up with baby forms of Absol, Skarmory, and Carnivine. Prior to that, the fan designed new variants of Voltorb and Pikachu, among many other pocket monsters.
The Pokemon Series Itself Could Still Revisit Rattata and Spearow's Evolutionary Lines
While neither Rattata nor Spearow have yet been treated to their second evolutions, that's not to say Game Freak won't ever revisit their evolutionary lines. After all, the developer's mainline games often dabbled in cross-gen Pokemon evolutions in the past, which places official evolutions of Fearow and Raticate well within the realm of possibility.
Pokemon is a franchise that needs no introduction. One of the most successful media empires in history, Pokemon spans games, television, films, manga, merchandise, music, and more.