Final Submission
Support Material:
Previous version
Front and side views, attacks and abilities (NOTE: This support art was created for the outdated version linked above. The concepts presented still apply to the new version, however.)
Proposed scale chart
9/16 EDIT: Since the now-confirmed stat spread for the Grass starter has 106 Speed, I vacillated between letting CAP25g skip leg day or not, but in the end I decided to give him bigger, faster-looking legs, while still keeping them thick and sturdy enough to look like they support his weight. This is a nod to
Deinocheirus, one of the largest known ornithomimosaurs (the leggiest and fastest known dinosaur family), and another dino which used to be known only from fossils of its oversized arms!
Bought back from
extinction CAP23, it's "Therizilla"! RAWR! :D
Because the fan-theory that the Grass-type starters are based on prehistoric animals speaks to me on a personal level, being a paleo-nerd and all, I knew the only logical solution for my Grass/Electric starter sub was to use a dinosaur; it was either
Therizinosaurus or
Stegosaurus, but I've already seen enough Grass-types based on the latter that they've started to blend together, and the risk of overlapping with Torterra (which has some ankylosaur feel to it despite being a tortoise) made me decide to go with the "scythe lizard" after all... though now its bipedal saurian kaiju build reminds me of Sceptile instead. Oh well.
I already proposed a therizinosaur for the initial concept for my CAP23 art sub, but circumstances forced me to discard it and go with a different idea; this being a different type combo whose ability can work with basically any design that fits it, I decided to redesign the big lug to suit this art sub contest better. Leaves instead of feathers were a definite given, in light of Marco Polo's account of a palm frond being marketed as the feather of a mythical giant bird. I didn't want to directly copy off of Sceptile, so I took a suggestion from the Discord chat and made them into
fiddlehead ferns instead, in part because ferns are associated with the Mesozoic; the support art shows that the fronds unfurl into a fern-like shape when attacking, though I don't know how the modelers would be able to pull that off, so perhaps the serrated edges of the feathers could be discarded if this thing wins. The curly shape of the ferns also made for a neat pair of deely-bobber thingies tacked onto the gator-clamp-like head and resembling antlers, in reference to Asian dragons. Dinosaurs have often been associated with dragons, especially in Asia where many therizinosaurs have been discovered, and Asian dragons in turn have powers based on weather, including storms, hence the Electric typing. The Tibetan
druk in particular has been known to summon storms and bolts of lightning, so this CAP does the same when using its special Electric attacks, spitting electrical blasts from its mouth. And on the physical side, it can also channel electricity through its body and especially its huge taser-like claws, justifying Galvanize. From there, it wasn't a hard jump to a feel akin to
tokusatsu, since a lot of Kanto Pokemon have a kaiju-esque feel; I looked at Toho's Titanosaurus in particular for reference with regards to the long neck, tubby body, relatively short tail, and stocky, nearly plantigrade legs, all of which are also known from
Therizinosaurus itself. I also added conductive spikes on the neck, back, shoulders, knees, and tail to make it look more monster-like and accentuate the Electric typing - a very minor holdover from when I considered giving it a Frankenstein's Monster feel, with a number of chimeric dinosaur parts sewn together (an idea which I discarded due to it being superfluous and too similar to my CAP23 entry).
This design is also notable in that aside from some minor cosmetic changes here and there, I only drew it exactly once, and actually got it to look distinctive and interesting on the first try! Usually it takes several sketches for me to get a fakemon to look right but for this one it turned out almost perfect right away. I don't know how I did that, but I'm okay with it!
And as always, special thanks to the following Discord users for helping me refine this particular entry: Sunfished, Sandshine, KnightsofCydonia, StephanXPM, and Magistrum!
