>>41783424>>41783438>>41783526>>41783737>>41783812I think a train would be cool and all, but I kind of like the fact that it’s a lumbering, imposing behemoth instead because that makes it feel more like an allegory for the expansion of coal mining and the industrial revolution, not just steam engines.
I’m guessing Carkol was designed before Rolycoly or Coalossal (mostly because Rolycoly seems like they were reaching fairly hard to come up with a prevo for something with wheels, when it probably should have just been a pile of flaming coals), but between the 3 of them they seem like a progression from early experiments in coal and steampower, to reliable steampowered trains/engines, to a bloated industry which is rapidly expanding and affecting culture and the environment with its presence. The fact that it learns Tar Shot upon evolving seems like a metaphor for the coal (and, later, oil) industries literally paving the way for mass transportation by paving roads. This, combined with smokescreen (an odd thing for a Rhydon clone to have) implicate it as a factory or the entire coal industry, rather than just a bigger/stronger train.
I think this would have been more clearly represented if Rolycoly didn’t already have a wheel, but then we’d be complaining about about the enormous leap from no mobility to wheels to legs, rather than just wheels to legs. Alternatively, it could have been more of a slithering blob like Palossand, but then we’d have wheels to slowly creeping mass.
