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How would Pokemon be different had evolution not been a prominent mechanic, and the original Gen 1 Pokemon, which were somewhat designed in isolation, had all been introduced as single stage Pokemon? Meaning, Dragonair exists separate from Dragonite, Blastoise separate from Wartortle, etc, and the "it just gets bigger evolutions" are scrapped with another one off Pokemon replacing one of the stages (for example keeping either Dratini or Dragonair, but not both) to pad out the dex?
What if evolution only happened in rare cases, such as Eeveelutions where one Pokemon has the capacity to turn into multiple options, or dramatic changes as we see with Magikarp to Gyarados or Exeggcute to Exeggutor, or sensible ones like bug lines going from larvae to cocoon and then butterfly? Another case outside the norm might be Porygon because it gets literal upgrades or gets it's data all mixed up and turns into Porygon-Z
