>>37278793Imagine a world where sandshrew evolved into raichu and pikachu evolved into sandslash.
Its the same exact situation. raichu is just a bigger pikachu (venonat, butterfree). the sandshrew and sandslash visual connection is a little more subtle but its there (caterpie, venomoth). Basing an argument on visual concepts makes sense in cases like this.
and btw, as a matter of fact, Venonat has a stronger visual connection to Butterfree than Pikachu has to Raichu
