7th Blog Prompt

Pokemon types are usually quite obvious based on the creature's appearance. Butterfree, which obviously takes the form of a butterfly, is a bug type. The spoon-wielding Uri Geller inspired Alakazam is a psychic type. The flopping fish known as Magikarp is a water type. Sudowoodo was, of course, a grass type Pokemon. It's a tree for God's sake. It has to be a grass type.

In my ongoing quest to catch 'em all and complete my Pokedex in Pokemon Shield, I needed to somehow acquire a Sudowoodo. Luckily, Sudowoodo evolves from Bonsly, another tree-shaped creature. I'd recently completed a max raid battle and been rewarded with a powerful Bonsly which made it the perfect candidate for evolution. To allow you to most effectively prepare for these often challenging battles, the game shows you the silhouette of the Pokemon as well as their type or types before the max raid battle begins. Puzzlingly, Bonsly was listed as a rock type. I thought nothing of it. Pokemon often change types or gain another type as they evolve. This was certainly not out of the ordinary.

After much more grinding and leveling, the screen suddenly went dark. My Bonsly appeared in front of a blue field, simply floating in space. Silence. "What?" the game asked as if I didn't already know. Finally, another Pokedex entry would be unlocked and I'd be one step closer to completing my collection.

"Bonsly is evolving!" I gripped my Joycons tightly and gazed into the 6 inch LCD screen. The music swelled. My new Sudowoodo emerged with the iconic, triumphant jingle of a completed evolution. The game cheerfully informed me that Sudowoodo's data would be added to the Pokedex, followed by the customary screen showing me the Pokemon's height, weight, category and type as well as their Pokedex entry. I gave the entry a cursory glance since the descriptive blurbs are often interesting or amusing in some way.

"It disguises itself as a tree to avoid attack. It hates water, so it will disappear if it starts raining."

It what? It disguises itself as a tree? Frantic, I looked at the top of the screen. The blood drained from my face. Rock type. Sudowoodo, like the Bonsly it once was, was a rock type. But the almost incomprehensible realization was truly cemented in my mind when I saw its category: Imitation Pokemon. The world I thought I knew collapsed around me, leaving me lying shocked in the rubble of my childhood.

Sudowoodo was released in Generation II, which came to the United States in 2000. I knew Gen II well, nearly as well as I knew the original 151. I had gone years with the false impression that this Pokemon was a grass type. Nearly two whole decades. As if that wasn't enough, I could feel dawning horror slowly creeping in. I had realized something else. Sudowoodo. Psuedo-wood-o. A false tree. How could I have been so blind?

I now have a newfound respect for Sudowoodo, a Pokemon that I previously felt incredibly neutral about. I'm a big fan of ghost type Pokemon, so Sudowoodo previously held little appeal for me compared to favorites like Gengar, Drifloon, and Pumpkaboo. Sudowoodo may disguise itself as a tree to avoid attack, but that disguise was so effective that it had me fooled for nearly all of my life. 

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