046: Paras

I’m gonna jot Paras and Parasect here under the category “Criminally Underrated.” If nothing else, their concept alone ranks them pretty up there as one of my favorites of the first generation. Not to mention it’s Grass and Bug, two of my favorite types, at the same time. It’s just a shame that type combo is pretty awful in terms of metagame. Having a x4 weakness to both Fire and Flying isn’t fun. Ignoring the mushrooms, Paras here is mostly a straight Pokemonization of a cicada’s nymph stage. Right down to the orange coloration and its other behaviors, like burrowing underground.

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The mushrooms are where this family gets interesting. In the real world, there are a load of parasitic fungi called cordyceps that are able to grow on living insects. I feel like the most famous example is when they grow on ants, like pictured above. More on that in just a second.

Personal Score: 8/10

Paras is really interesting, but I feel the juicy part of this evolutionary duo is…

047: Parasect

Pokemon’s no stranger about getting into deceptively dark territory for a kid’s game. Paras, like any normal cicada, SHOULD be able to dig to the surface and then molt its skin and enjoy the rest of its like flying around and being the most obnoxiously loud bugs in existence. Parasect doesn’t turn out that way because the mushroom on its back has other plans. Yes, if you didn’t read much on Parasect before, the Pokedex states that the giant mushroom on Parasect’s back takes full control over Parasect’s body.

And those dead, pupiless eyes are what say it all that you basically have a zombie of a Pokemon for a pet. At least, it’s implied the Parasect itself is dead and that the fungus merely pilots its corpse. Or it’s even possible that Parasect is still conscious in there, just not able to move from its brain being infected by fungus spores. That line of logic would line up to the real-like equivalent.

(Gross/Death Warning?)

The real life examples of cordyceps are only able to control their host to a minimal extent, at most make their host move to an optimal spot to spread its spores before it plants itself in place for the remainder of its life. That and, the fungus itself ruins the host’s body beyond recognition anyway. Parasect’s cordycep equivalent has full cognitive control over its host. If that’s not among the darker things of Pokemon history, I dunno what is.

The Crystal entry even goes so far to say that, when the Parasect body becomes useless, the mushroom infects the eggs. That’s right, Paras isn’t just a Pokemon that manages to fall victim to this fungus most of the time. The entire species are doomed to be vessels to grow these parasitic shrooms inside of them from birth. And there comes tons of lore implications about the history of the species. Both the mushroom, and the poor unfortunate cicada underneath it. An entire species of insect being infected by a hyper-intelligent (by fungus standards) cordycep is just an infinitely rad idea for a monster. That’s something you’d expect more out of Metroid than something with such an aura of purity as Pokemon.

Personal Score: 9/10

Parasect doesn’t deserve being so overlooked like it is. That is HERESY, I say.

Overall:

These two are both among the coolest and most sinister Pokemon of Gen 1. It’s such a crime that they didn’t get an Alolan makeover in Sun and Moon. Like, the same line but infected with Morelull’s mushrooms? It could’ve been Bug/Fairy too. I can dream…

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