>>53000787>>53000673Looking at the gyarados sprite art and comparing with dragonair it actually has a lot of common design elements.
The horn is still there but bigger. The wing ornament in the head is still there and appear alongside the body. The mouth seems to be able to close actually in this sprite and it looks more armored and brutal.
A detail about the korean dragon is that :
>The Korean dragon is in many ways very similar in appearance to other East Asian dragons such as the Chinese and Japanese dragons. It differs from the Chinese dragon in that it developed a longer beard. So it also explains the weird beard that gyarados has. Moreover it still keeps the blue color of the line and the slender, serpentine body. So a way better fit to this Korean legend.
Note: I'm not defending gyarados as the true evolution to be honest. It's ust a tongue in check argument about how even guarados is a better fit than Barney. 