Pokemon Fan Redesigns Dratini and Its Evolutions

Dragonite and its evolutionary predecessors have been iconic creatures since the original Pokemon games, but that hasn’t stopped one fan from redesigning the Dragonite family to imagine what they could look like if the series’ art style was a little different. It’s hardly uncommon for creative fans of the franchise to re-imagine the appearances of the many creatures within the world of Pokemon, either as fusion designs, regional variants, Paradox Pokemon, or something else entirely.

Dragonite itself represents the very first pseudo-legendary Pokemon ever introduced in the franchise, and the only one to be found in the original Pokemon Red and Blue‘s Kanto region. For those that don’t know, the term “pseudo-legendary” refers to a small group of species throughout the series that have standard base stat totals of exactly 600, statistically making them some of the strongest Pokemon that can be found in the world save for actual legendary and mythical Pokemon. They tend to be quite hard to find in the wild, though, and take longer to level up than the average Pokemon species.

Though Dragonite is undoubtedly beloved by Gen 1 enthusiasts in particular, the species did make a big appearance in the more recent Pokemon Journeys anime series, with Ash catching one for himself. One fan artist, known online as necrovvi, recently shared their own redesigns of Dratini, Dragonair, and Dragonite, which bring a greater emphasis on the first two species’ more serpentine features. With Dragonite’s appearance noticeably departing from that of its predecessors’ courtesy of its more chunky design, the artist focused on slimming down the creature’s silhouette while adding feathered wings and a crest, all while keeping its overall color pattern mostly intact.

Pokemon Fan’s Redesigned Dratini and Its Evolutions

The youngest of the Dragonite family, Dratini, has also gotten quite a notable redesign here. Its new appearance sees it receiving much of the chunkiness that is normally synonymous with Dragonite, giving this incredibly cute Pokemon more of a traditional, baby-like look. Its wings are also adorably tiny compared to the overall size of its body, suggesting that the little one hasn’t yet grasped the ability to fly.

While redesigns such as this might call to mind the concept of regional variant Pokemon, official regional variants usually use the same overall body shape of the original Pokemon that they’re based on. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility for Dragonite to officially receive a new regional form someday, however, as was the case for Hisuian Goodra in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Many fans are excited to see what kinds of regional variants might be introduced in next year’s Pokemon Legends: Z-A, with many fan artists designing concepts of their own that they hope will resemble official designs introduced in the next main game.