the bulbasaur hypothesis

i've got this hypothesis, right? and it's about Bulbasaur. the pokemon, not some guy i know. Bulbasaur is a fairly recognized pokemon! people know him, people like him. he was one of the starters in the first game, so people have a lot of nostalgia for him. he shows up a lot.

here he is from the first game, where pokemon were more lumpy. cool!

but my bulbasaur hypothesis is as follows: there is a disproportionate amount of fanart of Bulbasaur, relative to his popularity. he's got a bump that not a lot of pokemon have, specifically with art. a lot more people have drawn Bulbasaur than you'd think.

why? because he's Pokemon #1. the pokemon all come in a clear, distinct order, and he's first on the list. if you're going to make a drawing of every pokemon, in order, you have to start with Bulbasaur. and a lot of people start a project to draw every Pokemon, draw Bulbasaur, and then stop.

here he is from the tcg, ready to attack.

there are a hundred reasons to start something, start an endeavor, but there are like a million billion reasons to stop along the way, and a billion million times you can stop. most endeavors people start are ones they don't finish. it's so natural to say, oh, i'll do this thing more often, i'll find the time for it, and then fail to. to start by saying you're going to have a drawing of every pokemon and end with just a drawing of a bulbasaur.

but you know what happens when you do that? you have a drawing of a bulbasaur. one you wouldn't have had otherwise. and that's something, right?

i don't know. i guess i'm like this every january, going in with major clear plans of how i'm gonna fix my brain and actually make stuff more often. i really excitedly draw the bulbasaur, saying i'm gonna draw ivysaur the next day. and then i'm too busy to draw ivysaur the next day, and the day after that. pretty soon it becomes easier to forget about ivysaur, to not want to get reminded of the dumb project i started. and i never make it to bellsprout, my favorite pokemon.

but i'm gonna do it anyways! even if stuff happens slower, i'm gonna make the stuff!

i'm not actually going to draw every pokemon though. i can't and largely don't draw, and i'm okay with that. i- i'm talking about blogging, here.

okay, maybe i'll draw one bulbasaur.