Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot

Time for another Pokemon staple - the Bird. It’s a bird - usually Normal/Flying - which fills the niche of generic bird. Most are unexciting to me, but they also are fine and fill an important role. Pidgey does a good job of that. It looks like a finch that decided eating other birds could be okay, and it continues to evolve in a much more carnivorous route than its pigeon-sounding name would imply. Pidgey is pretty boring looking now, but that’s sort of the point. I do like that it kicks up little dust devils to flush out prey. It’s a cute touch and feels like something a real-life animal would come up with if it had the power.

Pidgeotto is the edgier teen version of dopey-looking Pidgey and it looks a lot more dangerous. Without really having changed anything about its body, the new plumage gives it a slightly sleeker look and it’s usually shown in a mid-hunting pose. I like how it’s often portrayed as the first actually dangerous pokemon you run into - eating Caterpie, Magikarp, and Exeggcute with abandon. It isn’t going to match up to late game pokemon, but it will terrorize any low level dudes it runs into. I especially remember Gary’s Pidgeotto on the Nugget Bridge being a major roadblock for me.

Pidgeot is really just a bigger, differently colored Pidgeotto, but it’s cool. Blue’s Pidgeot in the Pokemon Adventures series was super cool, and obviously Bird Jesus made this otherwise unremarkable ‘mon into something to be remembered. I wish it had a little more to distinguish it from its previous form, but also there’s something charming about an evolution chain that basically just grows out its hair or feathers.

Not much to say about Mega Pidgeot. I like the new “hair” and I like the colors. So many of the Mega Evolutions just feel like variants. Like a regional variant or like a slightly more realized evolution. So far only Mega Beedrill feels significantly different enough to be a “mega” change from the base form.

Extremely competent birds.