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Bumpan with several (because it's not like there aren't plenty of fantastically desgined 'mons)
Paras & Parasect are both perfect examples of being more than meets the eye - at first they simply seem like a small crab with two small mushrooms & a larger crab with a singe big mushroom on its back. Pretty simple & nothing amazing, right? We've already got the Krabby line for those & the Bulbasaur line did the whole symbiosis thing too but you actually had more visibly going on with the plant.
Then you catch a Paras because you've beaten the story & are just trying to fill your Pokedex. Data comes up & it says that it provides its mushrooms with nutrients in return for defensive ability. Yaddi-yadda, just like Bulbasaur except spores instead of vines. Although the Pokedex entry does have one bit that says the young are dowsed in the spores for the shrooms to grow as soon as they're born. Seems a bit less natural. Oh & it's bug type, so maybe less of a crab & more of a mite, or maybe cicada nymph. Getting a bit more unique.
Then wham-bam, it evolves into Parasect & you look at the data entry (because you're an autist like that) & you see that the bug itself is now being referred to as the 'host'. The fungus has taken over completely, sucked the organism dry of nutrients, grossly over-proportioned its claws & is now it goes to where its mushroom-master desires.
Seeing as Parasect's suddenly become a hell of a lot more interesting, you look it up online & find out about its origins in the real-world cordyceps fungus, & it finally hits you just how fucking dark this thing is - because it's a fucking fungus zombie. Bet you didn't wonder why its eyes were white before didja?
The fact that there's so much focus on what's going on in the evolution process itself here is also one of the reasons why I love these guys.
