#084 - Doduo
Normal/Flying
Doduo is yet another Normal/Flying Pokemon, but don't mistake it as being related to Farfetch'd as this bird is actually quite decent. You know, with Farfetch'd coming right before it in the PokeDex, I wonder if there were any kids who mistook it as an evolution of Farfetch'd and tried to get the latter to evolve? Doduo is another Pokemon who I feel like quite a few players may have skipped over since they likely were already using the Normal/Flying Pidgeotto/Fearow by the time they encountered it, and on first look it seems a bit less impressive than those two even though from my understanding it and its evolution were arguably one of the best Normal/Flying Pokemon in Generation I due to their impressive speed and attack. In this case, two heads are indeed better than one.
So, yeah, we all know the old joke---Doduo, despite being a Flying-type Pokemon, is notorious for its inability to fly well, yet is also capable of using Fly to transport its Trainer halfway across the Kanto Region. Most people think it jumps, which might not be as crazy as you'd think since I believe the verb the Japanese name for Fly uses, "tobu", can indeed mean "jump" depending on the context. As I've pointed out before, there's some evidence to suggest that originally the Flying-type was meant to be called the Bird-type, due to that Typing appearing within the game on MissingNo, and most of the Flying-type moves being specifically abilities birds posses, whereas the "wind elemental" attack Gust is merely a normal-type in Generation I, so with that in mind I wonder if Doduo was designed when the Type referenced the animal basis rather than the ability to fly, and when the Type was changed, they left Doduo as is figuring it wouldn't be that bothersome to players. I certainly think most people have gotten over the disconnect and accepted Doduo as a Flying-type Pokemon, however. We've gotten plenty of flightless bird Pokemon who aren't the Flying-type since then, but to be honest I'm disappointed we've yet to get one that was based on one of the large flightless birds like Doduo who wasn't stuck with the Flying-type, it's one of those animals I'd love to see Game Freak take another stab at.
Despite its name, and poor flight, Doduo really doesn't share much in common with the classic dodo bird, if anything it's Farfetch'd who has more in common with the extinct bird due to its status as a Pokemon on the verge of being wiped out. For one, the odo wasn't only incapable of flight, it was also quite small and slow, and had a dopey personality---Doduo on the other hand is quite fast and powerful, said to be able to run up to 60 miles-per-hour, and its two heads allow it to remain vigilant no matter the situation, so Doduo doesn't seem like a Pokemon who has a problem surviving. Doduo draws from the ratite-class of flightless birds, the bird it resembles the most in terms of looks is probably the tiny kiwi, but with a body built more like an emu. Although Doduo doesn't appear to have wings, this is of course another example of stylish exaggeration in the art---Doduo does indeed have wings, they're just not drawn distinct from their body, like how many flightless birds don't appear to have wings either when they're not using them as they blend in with their body.
We've had a few Pokemon with two heads already, but Doduo is the first Pokemon who begins this way---according to the PokeDex, this came about as a rare mutation, and then became the norm. Presumably, at one time in the past, there were Doduo (although perhaps they had a different name) with only one head, but for whatever reason they no longer exist---perhaps without the addition of the extra head to keep them safe, they weren't able to survive predation and really did go the way of the dodo? Doduo seems to be a Pokemon representing a "ripped from the headlines" part of 90s global cultural, where due to perhaps pollution and other factors, animals with multiple body-parts were beginning to appear more and more frequently and gaining a lot of attention from the scientific community. From a quick look into the phenomenon, birds don't seem to be common creatures where this has been documented, it seems to mainly occur in reptiles, but there are various two-headed birds referenced throughout mythology, such as the popular "double-headed eagle" that appears in multiple flags and coat-of-arms throughout the world, so perhaps that's where Game Freak got the idea to go with a bird? Or maybe it's because a long-necked bird just seems like an easy creature to add an extra head to due to their long necks making it easier to draw? Doduo normally have identical brains, but I believe in real-life the two heads often have their own brains, and the PokeDex says that there are some Doduo born with unique brains---it seems that, in general, the latter seems to be more in-line with how Doduo is usually portrayed as a creature where each head is somewhat independent.
Poor Doduo basically never got an episode to itself---it made a small appearance in Bad to the Bone (I totally forgot about this episode honestly since it was right after all those pre-League fillers but before the actual League itself), and later Gary was shown to own one which hung around Oak's laboratory. I've always liked it as a Pokemon, and it's disappointing that it's never really gotten to do much despite having a pretty interesting gimmick.
#085 - Dodrio
Normal/Flying
Dodrio is the evolution of Doduo, and yet another Pokemon who just adds another head when it evolves---okay, in its defense, Doduo's gimmick was having multiple heads, so hey, what'd you think was going to happen when it evolved? Technically, it doesn't grow a head, rather one of Doduo's heads is said to split into two. You gotta wonder which Pokemon in Gen I was the first one to be designed who had the whole multiple-head gimmick going on, and thus which one is the original and which ones ripped it off. Personally, I feel like the Doduo family were probably the first Pokemon with that gimmick, and the others were probably some of the later Pokemon created in order to help fill the spaces and cap off some evolution lines. But that's just my theory. As I stated before, Dodrio was actually a fairly powerful Normal/Flying Pokemon, especially in the earlier days, but its rather simplistic move list means it wasn't able to keep up that well in later Generations when Flying-Pokemon had to deal with the increasing strength of Rock-type Pokemon and Rock-type Moves, but hey, at least it's not Farfetch'd.
So, what's better than two-heads? Three-heads! It's said that the three heads specifically represent joy, sadness, and anger, but I don't think we've ever seen this properly represented---Dodrio's heads are either all depicted as being quite angry looking, or there's two angry heads, and one depressed looking head, pretty much always the right head. I gotta say, the dopey looking head is one of my favorite visual gags in all of Pokemon, and really gives Dodrio a humbleness to its design showing how Game Freak doesn't take itself too seriously for the most part. In addition to multiple heads, Dodrio also has other extra body parts (too bad Eichiro Oda isn't running Game Freak, because I have a question about that...), mainly hearts and three sets of lungs---this is another true fact about animals with polycephaly, there's actually a pair of living human twins who have their own heart and two sets of lungs. Pretty amazing! Sadly, in the real world, most animals with polycephaly don't live long, often unable to properly work together and thus make easy prey, or even in the case of snakes, attempt to eat one another! Thankfully, like the Hensel twins, Dodrio's three heads have learned to work together for the greater good and are only stronger due to their unusual body.
Because Dodrio has additional hearts and lungs, it's able to move at incredible speeds---40 miles-per-hour! Wait just a second! Doduo was capable of running at 60 miles-per-hour, how come Dodrio is slower? I don't have the answer to this, and this is a rare time where the PokeDex is actually humble, as 40 MPHs isn't impossibly fast, in fact, the ostrich, which Dodrio seems to be primarily based on due to its similar size and appearance, is capable of speeds of up to 43 miles-per-hour. You win this time, nature! Dodrio's speed of 100 thus is quite fitting and a situation where its speed seems to be in-line with its physical appearance and capabilities, as it's fast, yet not amazingly fast. But it's still faster than Pidgeot, the Pokemon said to be able to fly at Mach-2 speeds...which is roughly equivalent to around 1,530~ miles-per-hour. Yeah, Game Freak really didn't think that through.
Dodrio's another Pokemon who kind of got a "heel" reputation thanks to the show, as it was the primary antagonist in the "Flame Pokemon-athon" opposite Ponyta/Rapidash, who it ultimately lost to. I actually loved Dodrio as a kid, way more than Rapidash, and thought this was so unfair---yeah, Rapidash is faster than Dodrio even in the games, but come on, Dodrio's way cooler than a flaming unicorn. Poor Dodrio never really recovered from its debut appearance, and it's never really gotten a time to shine to make up for its loss. I mean, yeah, Falkner used one, but come on, do you really expect Falkner of all people to save a Pokemon's reputation?
