#48 - #49: Venonat & Venomoth

Official art of Venonat.

I have absolutely no idea what the hell I'd have to write about Venonat. It's just a bad Pokémon to use, and ultimately it's a forgettable Pokémon as well. It's not that I don't like Venonat, it's just that there's nothing specific about it that I'd want to write about, aside from maybe its radar eyes that allow it to see in the dark. In my opinion, it doesn't add anything to the franchise other than being Venomoth's pre-evolution. That is not necessarily a bad thing, though; the game should not allow you to use some Pokémon until they are actually fully evolved. Venomoth is not one of them, however, but I'll get to that later on. The thing is that Venomoth has become a kind of a legend lately, and I think that this Pokémon won't easily be forgotten. That has everything to do with the part it played in 'Twitch Plays Pokémon'. I told you almost everything in Pidgeot's entrance, though, so I'm not going to repeat all of that right now. All I can say that AATTVVV (also commonly referred to as ATV or All-Terrain Venomoth), as the Venomoth was called because everybody was pressing multiple buttons at the same fucking time, has played a major part in defeating Lance, the fourth Elite 4 member.

Fan art of All-Terrain Venomoth, who slayed Lance's dragon all by itself during the
disaster that is called 'Twitch Plays Pokémon'.  

You see, when ATV was facing Lance's Dragonite, it managed to survive by using Poison Powder on the thing, which slowly wittled away Dragonite's health while it only used Barrier and Agility in return. Needless to say that the poison damage did it in, and therefore, ATV is commonly called 'The Dragon Slayer'. It was one of the most memorable moments during the playthrough of Pokémon Red on streaming service Twitch, but unfortunately, ATV went down during the battle against Champion Blue and the entire team had to defeat the Elite 4 and Blue from scratch. That didn't affect the 'legendary' status Venomoth received after the playthrough was done, by the way, because from now on, many people will think of All-Terrain Venomoth when you mention this Pokémon.

All hail to Ken Sugimori for providing us with this beautiful
official Venomoth art. 

Well, let's be honest... That is not exactly a surprise, as Venomoth isn't really a good Pokémon to use in the competitive scene. For in-game purposes, on the other hand, it would be quite a decent Pokémon to use. Its attack and defense are terrible and should be ignored, but it has a reasonable special defense stat and even better special attack and speed stats. With those, you can hit fast and relatively hard, and with good moves at that, too. Bug Buzz and Sludge Bomb are must-haves, while the other slots should be filled in by Quiver Dance (which raises its special attack, special defense and speed by one stage each) and either Psychic or Energy Ball, depending on the Pokémon you already have in your team. You can even omit Quiver Dance and go for both offensive moves; Venomoth's stats are decent enough to pull that off. There might be people who might make good use of this Pokémon competitively, but I think it would go down very fast. No matter how you look at it, Venomoth is still quite a frail Pokémon, after all...

Ultimately, Venomoth is a likeable Pokémon, but no matter its legendary status, it is still only a decent Pokémon. There is nothing about it that really makes it stand out to other Pokémon. That is to say, if you don't count the stupid theory that it should have been Metapod's evolution while Butterfree should have been Venonat's, because the latter two share so many similarities; from the large bug-like eyes to the little hands and their antennae. Even so, 3.5 is not a bad rating at all!

Rating: 3.5/5