Let's Talk About Pokemon - Diglett and Dugtrio

050 - Diglett

Here's one of Gen 1's sillier Pokemon. So silly that I wish I liked it more, but I digress. Diglett is very what-you-see-is-what-you-get, visibly little more than a brown thumb with a big, button nose and two dot eyes sticking out of a hole in the ground. And that's all there is to it, really. It's meant to be a mole, which gives a lot more context to what its design is trying to evoke, though we'll have to skip ahead to Dugtrio to get into that.

051 - Dugtrio

Dugtrio itself is, well, somehow even more what-you-see-is-what-you-get, being three Diglett grouped together to the point where it's treated as one Pokemon. Depending on the time period, the Digletts are also angry now, I guess to make Dugtrio look at least a little more "intense". Though these days, the Digletts that make up Dugtrio have mellowed out, and I prefer that just a tad more, personally.

What Dugtrio is meant to even BE is actually a whack-a-mole, but as a creature! With it being various little abstractions of moles, all hiding halfway in the ground together. Definitely one of Gen 1's more absurd creature concepts, as such I do think it's a design hard to hate, for me personally, though I have to admit there isn't THAT much going on with the design. The whack-a-mole aspect is fun, but it kinda just. IS a whack-a-mole Pokemon, and I feel like some of the better designs in the series have more going on with them than just. Being the stated mission and little else.

...That said, I don't know what I would ever even change about these two. I've seen a fan-made redesign or two for this line, but I feel like adding detail to these almost defeats the vibe of it. It being such an odd, featureless creature at least in part being the point. One aspect about the line I do like a lot is the complete mystery that is the rest of Diglett's body. We know things like how Applin looks outside of an apple, or what a naked Burmy looks like, but still to this day we have no clue what Diglett's body looks like, other than the off-hint about it as a joke. And sure, the answer is probably a little mundane, but it is one I hope never gets properly answered.

So like, in the end, maybe that is just an effective design, actually. It accomplishes its goal as a creature design, has a bit of a silly fandom folklore about it. And if I wouldn't change anything about it. In a way, does that not make Diglett and Dugtrio "perfect"...?

Personal Score: 6.5/10

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