Zubat Family
Let me make things clear: ZUBAT IS COOL.
I felt it important to address that last statement immediately, because let’s face it: everyone hates Zubat. Notorious for appearing at the most inconvenient times, this little blue bat can and will show up just about anywhere. Be it the game’s earliest cave or Victory Road, Zubat (or an evolved relative) will infest every nook and cranny. Can it be nighttime in the game? BOOM, Zubats are in the grass too. Trying to find a rare Pokémon around such locations or events? Enjoy greeting a shrieking Zubat 9 out of 10 times (and that’s not an exaggeration in some areas).
Relative to the beginning of the game, Zubat is fast, making encounters difficult to escape. And to top it all off, it starts off with an attack that confuses your Pokémon, meaning more of your time is wasted as your Pokémon will end up hitting themselves half of the time. Zubat is the sole reason people sweat over how many Repels are stocked in their inventory.
I’ve heard some people refer to Zubat as “Cave Herpes,” and I can’t say that’s not an accurate nickname. I absolutely understand why this Pokémon makes people foam at the mouth.
But with all things considered, I don’t actually hate Zubat.
Everything about Zubat at the aesthetic level is absolutely charming to me. Its proportions are hilarious. A gremlin face with a ginormous gaping mouth sits atop a stubby, bean-shaped body. Rather than use feet, Zubat somehow sticks to ceilings with those spindly tassel tails. Its wings are so anatomically incorrect that it’s a miracle they don’t snap off when Zubat tries to fly.
I haven’t even mentioned the wacky color scheme. Zubat is another Poison-type Pokémon, and it’s not unusual for venomous or poisonous animals to sport unnaturally bright colors. But I can’t say I ever expected sky blue paired with purple. I like the chosen color scheme, it just adds to my personal list of “Why I think Zubat is a lovable dork.”
I feel like Zubat is trying its hardest to appear intimidating, but it has such ridiculous physical traits that prevent it from pulling it off. How am I supposed to take this precious Beanie Baby seriously?
The best thing about Zubat is that its design integrates a common misconception about bats. For anyone who doesn’t know, bats aren’t actually blind. Echolocation is their secret weapon to maneuver through places with little to no light at all, but their vision is otherwise just fine. Zubat, on the other hand, takes that misunderstanding as if it’s fact. Literally born without eyes, it has adapted to survive with echolocation alone!
I understand why people find Zubat infuriating. Even I get sick of being barraged with its presence. But as a character design, I find Zubat to be absolutely lovable.
Highest Praise!
Now look at this giant dork! It’s nothing but a ginormous maw with wings! It should be a terrifying sight, but I can’t help but find Golbat just as hilariously charming as its predecessor.
I mean, just look at it trying to use Shadow Ball in the Anime:
I’ve never seen the Anime episode pictured above, but I can imagine how ridiculous this action looks in motion.
What’s actually creepy is Golbat’s insatiable thirst for blood. The Pokédex explains that it can drain 10 ounces of blood with just one bite of its victim. To put that into perspective, a standard bottle of water can hold approximately 8 fluid ounces. Golbat can chug more than that in mere seconds. Dracula’s got nothing on this vampire bat!
I like that Zubat noticeably grew feet and eyes upon evolving into Golbat. What adaptations it lacked before have been improved and strengthened. It’s a proper evolutionary leap!
There’s only one complaint I have about Golbat that I wish was still in its design. In Red/Blue and the Stadium games, it had a tongue:
While not an essential detail, I feel it’s like icing on a cake. It makes Golbat look like one of those low-grade Halloween decorations that utter “Boogie woogie woo” instead of perform something legitimately spooky. The Red/Blue sprite deserves bonus points for adding goopy, viscous drool. Since I see Zubat and Golbat as silly above scary, the tongue fits in perfectly.
Despite the aesthetic change over the years, Golbat is a superb evolution for Zubat.
Two Thumbs Up!
Golbat evolves one more time, and… Oh.
Did I skip to a different evolutionary family? What happened to the giant mouth concept? Where did everything about Zubat and Golbat’s identities go?
Alright, I’ll stop being so facetious. It would be creatively restrictive to say a Pokémon can’t evolve as wildly as the character designers want it to. But the thing is, Zubat and Golbat had great ideas and a theme I wish they kept going with. Crobat, while not a bad design on its own, took away all of what I loved about its pre-evolutions. I really wish it was a branching evolution similar to Slowpoke or Kirlia’s multiple options.
As stated previously, I am okay with Crobat by itself. The lavender purple body works surprisingly well with its color scheme. Its mouth is nowhere near the same level of dorky as Golbat’s, but there’s a unique charm to that triangular scowl paired with piercing yellow eyes.
Plus, it looks especially funny when lips are drawn on Crobat’s mouth. It creates a puckered expression on its face.
At least something about Crobat is silly in the spirit of its predecessors.
And then there’s the main event with Crobat’s design: the two sets of wings. As a Golbat, its flying would become nigh impossible after feasting on an excess of blood. Evolved into Crobat, it’s now incredibly aerodynamic! It’s great that at least one of Golbat’s previous features was addressed and improved upon.
There’s just one thing about Crobat’s wings that puzzle me. Some Pokédex entries state that it uses all four wings to silently fly unbenowst to its prey. But others say it alternates between the two pairs so it can continuously fly without tiring. Perhaps these are simply two methods of locomotion Crobat utilizes when hunting or for general travel. However, there is no information to confirm or deny my hypothesis, so I’m a little confused.
I always thought that Crobat had a primary and secondary set of wings. Compared to the regular set, its “leg” wings look so much smaller. I can’t imagine they’d be particularly useful by themselves. Wouldn’t Crobat be too top-heavy for them?
…I’m overthinking this concept, aren’t I?
As a standalone Pokémon, I’m okay with Crobat. It’s not a terrible design overall, but I feel it’s a letdown as an evolution to Golbat. I wanted the over-the-top, totally-not-spooky concept to continue.
"Meh"
