I realized a couple weeks ago that I haven’t really talked about a lot of the first generation Pokemon in this little series. It’s not that Generation One doesn’t have a lot of interesting Pokemon, but one has to admit that the Pokemon introduced in each new generation are a little more unique than the last. Still, it doesn’t feel like I’ve given the first generation a lot of attention in these posts, so for this week I’m going to talk about Generation One’s more iconic Pokemon and its rainbow of evolutions. Presenting Eevee and its seven evolved forms, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, and Glaceon.
So the trait that lands Eevee in the Interesting Specimen category is its unstable genetic structure, which when exposed to the right conditions causes it to go through a spontaneous evolutionary change. So far, Eevee is the only Pokemon to have more than two different evolved forms. It’s also currently the only Pokemon with the most evolved forms. The ways to get Eevee to evolve into one of its seven evolutions are all a little different. But I’ll get to that in a minute after I cover some other stuff.
In the Games: In every generation of the Pokemon game, Eevee is not captured in the wild, but rather given out as a gift by one of the game NPCs. In Generation One, Eevee is found in a little shack atop an apartment building in Celadon City. Eevee’s Pokeball is just lying out there on the table for the player to grab, and the guy living there doesn’t seem to mind it being grabbed. Thinking about it now, it kind of seems like stealing, but the guy doesn’t say anything about it. I wonder if they changed that in FireRed and LeafGreen?
Evolution-Generation I: In the beginning, Eevee only had three different evolved forms, the aquatic Vaporeon, the electric Jolteon, and the fiery Flareon. The method used to get Eevee to evolve into one of these three Pokemon is to use the right Evolution Stone. The idea of course is that the radiation of these stones triggers an evolutionary mutation. The Water Stone is used to get Vaporeon, the Thunder Stone to get Jolteon, and the Fire Stone of course is used for Flareon. My personal preference of these three is Vaporeon, mainly because of its ability to melt into water. But the first generation evolved forms are the easiest forms to get.
Evolution-Generation II: The second generation of the Pokemon games not only expanded the number of Pokemon, but also introduced new methods of evolution. One of the most notable of these was happiness-based evolution, referred to by some as Taming. Basically when the Pokemon’s happiness with its trainer is at its peak, it triggers an evolution. Eevee had two forms obtained by this method in Generation Two, the Psychic-type Espeon, and the Dark-type Umbreon. Which of these two forms Eevee takes upon reaching peak happiness depends on the time of day. If it’s the morning or daytime, Eevee becomes Espeon, while at night it becomes Umbreon. My theory is that when Eevee is at peak happiness its body becomes susceptible to sunlight and moonlight, thus triggering the mutation.
Evolution-Generation IV: The third generation did not introduce any new evolved forms for Eevee. I guess that’s because Eevee was only available in the Generation One remakes. And probably because there weren’t a lot of new evolution methods introduced to the games, aside from the methods used to evolve Feebas and obtain Shedinja. But the fourth generation introduced a whole bunch of new evolution methods, including one that is quite close to the real world concept of evolution, area based evolution. In this method, the Pokemon evolves to adapt to its environment, and Eevee gained two more forms through this method, the Grass-type Leafeon, and the Ice-type Glaceon. Of course to gain these forms a certain landmark is needed. To get Leafeon, Eevee needs to be trained by the Moss Rock, and to get Glaceon, Eevee has to be leveled up near the Ice Rock. I guess the idea here is that these two rocks put out a type of radiation over the area that triggers the evolution.
The Future: The Pokemon franchise is far from being over. I’m sure it won’t be long before we see the games of Generation Six. Who knows what new evolution methods that future generations will produce that will allow Eevee to take on new forms? Plus there could be new areas that could cause new area-based evolutions. There could also be new items that could trigger new evolutions. If the Pokemon franchise goes on long enough, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Eevee have an evolved form for each Pokemon type.
So that pretty much wraps things up for this week. If the moment I have no clue which Pokemon I’ll do for next week, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something before then. Until next time, stay tuned.
