The first few Pokémon that we encounter during the early parts of the games are usually those that would help us get by. However, the game constantly provided normal-type Pokémon that most of us either remove from our team when someone better comes along or use as HM slaves. Now, PokéFans believe that, since generation 9 is fast approaching, Game Freak should remove normal-type birds in the early routes.
Reddit user u/yeahright2005 called out the game company using a Jimmy Neutron meme. The post showed all the early birds that were either discovered or their fully evolved forms and how each of them is a normal/flying type.
Fans (including myself) were shocked to see Pokémon like Noctowl were included in the list as we all thought they were a different type. A few have noticed inconsistencies with the Pokédex entries of some of these bird Pokémon and questioned why they weren’t a different type other than normal.
Trainers pointed out that Pokémon Sword and Shield broke this tradition with the introduction of Rookidee – a mono-flying-type Pokémon, and its final evolved form, Corviknight, a flying/steel type. The same goes for the Gen 3 games with the introduction of Wingull, a water/flying type. However, unlike Gen 8, Wingull is rare to find on route one so some fans felt it didn’t count.
Some trainers came out and said that the constant addition of normal/flying types is getting tiring and began giving suggestions on how to make early PokéBirds more interesting. Some suggested retconning the Pokémon to just mono-flying while others suggested just giving them other types like fire or dark or psychic.
But regardless of what happens, most PokéFans have accepted that this is tradition. And just like how each region has its own “Pikachu clone”, normal/flying types birds are here to stay.
So far, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have yet to introduce their early game bird Pokémon. Maybe Game Freak is keeping them a surprise for the game’s release. Or maybe they don’t intend to tell us just in case they know we’re getting sick of them. But whether we like it or not, expect another normal/flying type bird in the early game as it is essentially tradition at this point.
