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Description

so i. spent the past two days working on this thing which is largely a headcanon dump regarding the ralts line (which are pretty much my comfort pokemon tbh) with colored pictures serving as a semi-realistic take on their design, which overall resembles their canon appearance but with more details regarding their anatomy, and that’s pretty much because i overall based several aspects of their appearance on felines rather than bugs/apes/birds/aliens/whatever else other people base a Realistic Look for them on.

also reason why i describe the image as "semi-realistic" is pretty much entirely because idk my art style itself isn't incredibly realistic, it's mostly the content behind it that would count as realistic i think?

EDIT: I updated the file again, this time it's a more updated version of the picture with the notes. i even fully colored everything! i also typed various things i wrote, since my handwriting is sloppy and uneven so i figure that typing things would make it all more readable.

Notes on Design/Animal Basis: mammalian, especially feline-like, characteristics make the most sense to me considering it’s largely accepted the green thing on their head is hair, and mammals are characterized by possessing hair (and also by possessing mammaries). as for feline characteristics, it’s largely things like having proportionally very large eyes with slitted pupils (if you pay attention to official artwork it’s fairly apparent their pupils are indeed vertical slits as opposed to round pupils), apparently digitigrade feet (at least this is how i see their feet, since they have small footprints [only consisting of a dot] and their feet are drawn to end in narrow points while kirlia is drawn always standing on its toes), and Kirlia and Ralts in particular have rather soft, squishy-looking bodies much like cats do.
i don’t think i’m alone in this considering when i showed my mother an image of Kirlia, she described it as being like a kitten lol
i don’t view them as BEING cats though, they just have some superficial resemblance to them, i imagine their behavior is way different, and also i don’t view them as serving any similar niche in the ecosystem either, as many wild felines are predators, sometimes apex predators (as a Pyroar, Liepard, maybe even a Persian may be), and are almost always hypercarnivorous, while imo the Ralts line is herbivorous, preferring to feed on fruits and other easily-digestible plant matter. it would be very weird to think about a member of the Ralts line, a very empathetic and sensitive species, actively going out to kill other pokemon, even if to eat them, tbh, they seem like they would be a fairly peaceful species, and mainly use their abilities for defensive purposes
also i made gallade’s weird hips into fluffy hair because??? its hips were so confusing in the official art? they were practically like a shelf that went all the way around. the weird hips were my least favorite thing about gallade’s design lol
and the species’ “skirts”/”dresses” are just long fur, and not an actual dress/skirt, and isn’t removable like an awful lot of headcanons i have seen portray them?? the removeable dresses don’t make much sense to me tbh… kinda like the idea that they aren’t covered in fur and that they just have pure snow white skin while being indigenous to a tropical island, and those “spikes” on their cheeks are just idk actual spikes
in general these aren’t really all too human-like (another issue i have with some “realistic” drawings of the line, they often look too much like noseless humans with big red eyes) and just look like a bipedal animal. also, gardevoir doesn’t have breasts for a change lol
i don’t even think they’re related to actual feline pokemon, considering their placement in the amorphous egg group as opposed to something like the field egg group. IMO their closest evolutionary relatives are probably Gengar, and probably share a common ancestor since Gengar is Also in the amorphous group and Also has fairly mammalian traits. this isn’t to say that the Ralts line evolved from Gengar, it’s more like they are evolutionary cousins, though likely very distant, with Gengar being a much older and much more basal species.
anyway, the line does have traits that are commonly associated with carnivores, but this doesn’t inherently mean they would be carnivores. frugivorous fruit bats and herbivorous (and occasionally insectivorous) gorillas, for example, have fangs, but are not carnivores. fangs can have purposes besides shearing meat and tearing into flesh, such as opening tough fruit peels and for display (as mentioned in the image)
sharp claws can also have purposes besides attacking and gripping prey. the Ralts line likely doesn’t have very dexterous hands and has a rather poor grip. having only 3 fingers, one of which is sort of a thumb, but doesn’t have the dexterity of a true thumb, and no real palm, isn’t too great for a creature’s ability to properly grip when it needs to.
i mean its psychokinetic powers ARE a thing, but they’re still animals and thus would evolve in ways that make things like getting to a safe space (something climbing a tree could do, especially for a more limber member of the species) and accessing food (something being able to open a fruit would do) more possible.
also i’m not really under the impression that the species does Everything with psychokinetic powers and largely use them primarily when they are needed, they’re not as frail as the Abra line. some individuals might enjoy having some fun with their psychic abilities, but they are capable of doing things like foraging without them (though they do allow them to transport larger amounts of food without much effort). and using your own hands to do things generally feels more natural than otherwise, i figure. they have hands, so might as well use them if they can, right?
also the individuals shown in the image are pretty much “standard”, but aren’t exactly considered ideal, for contests anyway. i imagine that there are ideals humans have placed for how a pokemon should look, and it applies particularly to contest pokemon.
the Gallade shown in the image, for example, is scrawnier and lighter (in weight) than what is considered ideal, and its coat is not vibrant and bold enough. being captive it does have the expected clipped hip hair, like most gallades do.
in my headcanon gallades aren’t really a natural progression of the species, and are primarily the result of selective breeding. some gardevoirs probably have vestigial arm spines (IDK about what the mega evolutions would be like but when a gardevoir mega evolves it probably does have small arm spines, and that could be why its physical attack raises for no apparent reason, i mean with how it is drawn that could work…) that largely don’t really serve any purpose but some people in Sinnoh figured it’d be a good idea to breed a Physically Strong, Masculine Version of Gardevoir, and Many Generations Later, gallades became an established variant of the species, and don’t naturally occur in the wild. “Wild” gallade populations are technically “feral” gallades, either having escaped captivity or being released.
i mean that’s probably a bit of a complicated explanation for why they exist considering in-game they just evolve using a dawn stone but … i just like to think of pokemon in a more realistic way? and it would help explain why gallade is kinda…. out of place compared to the others. especially when the species isn’t even sexually dimorphic to begin with…..
Ralts’ “contest suitability” isn’t very important since ralts is a baby and thus not usually considered ready for contests, or really anything. they still need to grow.
the Gardevoir and Kirlia are mainly too scruffy and probably dirty (especially gardevoir since it has all that long fur dragging on the ground, i’m sure lots of dirt, leaves, and twigs get stuck in it and its dirtiness is even more obvious because the fur is white/off-white; i do think they wash it to some degree though and do groom and try to get any leaves and sticks out of their fur) and generally the fur is expected to be trimmed to make the bottom straight across and even, and the fur should be brushed out so that it has a smooth appearance.
they also don’t have vibrant enough coats to fit the Ideal Appearance. they’re largely still Very Very Average specimens, though, just a little messy because they’re wild lol
also for some reason kirlia in this image strikes me as especially feline-like

Description

so i. spent the past two days working on this thing which is largely a headcanon dump regarding the ralts line (which are pretty much my comfort pokemon tbh) with colored pictures serving as a semi-realistic take on their design, which overall resembles their canon appearance but with more details regarding their anatomy, and that’s pretty much because i overall based several aspects of their appearance on felines rather than bugs/apes/birds/aliens/whatever else other people base a Realistic Look for them on.

also reason why i describe the image as "semi-realistic" is pretty much entirely because idk my art style itself isn't incredibly realistic, it's mostly the content behind it that would count as realistic i think?

EDIT: I updated the file again, this time it's a more updated version of the picture with the notes. i even fully colored everything! i also typed various things i wrote, since my handwriting is sloppy and uneven so i figure that typing things would make it all more readable.

Notes on Design/Animal Basis: mammalian, especially feline-like, characteristics make the most sense to me considering it’s largely accepted the green thing on their head is hair, and mammals are characterized by possessing hair (and also by possessing mammaries). as for feline characteristics, it’s largely things like having proportionally very large eyes with slitted pupils (if you pay attention to official artwork it’s fairly apparent their pupils are indeed vertical slits as opposed to round pupils), apparently digitigrade feet (at least this is how i see their feet, since they have small footprints [only consisting of a dot] and their feet are drawn to end in narrow points while kirlia is drawn always standing on its toes), and Kirlia and Ralts in particular have rather soft, squishy-looking bodies much like cats do.
i don’t think i’m alone in this considering when i showed my mother an image of Kirlia, she described it as being like a kitten lol
i don’t view them as BEING cats though, they just have some superficial resemblance to them, i imagine their behavior is way different, and also i don’t view them as serving any similar niche in the ecosystem either, as many wild felines are predators, sometimes apex predators (as a Pyroar, Liepard, maybe even a Persian may be), and are almost always hypercarnivorous, while imo the Ralts line is herbivorous, preferring to feed on fruits and other easily-digestible plant matter. it would be very weird to think about a member of the Ralts line, a very empathetic and sensitive species, actively going out to kill other pokemon, even if to eat them, tbh, they seem like they would be a fairly peaceful species, and mainly use their abilities for defensive purposes
also i made gallade’s weird hips into fluffy hair because??? its hips were so confusing in the official art? they were practically like a shelf that went all the way around. the weird hips were my least favorite thing about gallade’s design lol
and the species’ “skirts”/”dresses” are just long fur, and not an actual dress/skirt, and isn’t removable like an awful lot of headcanons i have seen portray them?? the removeable dresses don’t make much sense to me tbh… kinda like the idea that they aren’t covered in fur and that they just have pure snow white skin while being indigenous to a tropical island, and those “spikes” on their cheeks are just idk actual spikes
in general these aren’t really all too human-like (another issue i have with some “realistic” drawings of the line, they often look too much like noseless humans with big red eyes) and just look like a bipedal animal. also, gardevoir doesn’t have breasts for a change lol
i don’t even think they’re related to actual feline pokemon, considering their placement in the amorphous egg group as opposed to something like the field egg group. IMO their closest evolutionary relatives are probably Gengar, and probably share a common ancestor since Gengar is Also in the amorphous group and Also has fairly mammalian traits. this isn’t to say that the Ralts line evolved from Gengar, it’s more like they are evolutionary cousins, though likely very distant, with Gengar being a much older and much more basal species.
anyway, the line does have traits that are commonly associated with carnivores, but this doesn’t inherently mean they would be carnivores. frugivorous fruit bats and herbivorous (and occasionally insectivorous) gorillas, for example, have fangs, but are not carnivores. fangs can have purposes besides shearing meat and tearing into flesh, such as opening tough fruit peels and for display (as mentioned in the image)
sharp claws can also have purposes besides attacking and gripping prey. the Ralts line likely doesn’t have very dexterous hands and has a rather poor grip. having only 3 fingers, one of which is sort of a thumb, but doesn’t have the dexterity of a true thumb, and no real palm, isn’t too great for a creature’s ability to properly grip when it needs to.
i mean its psychokinetic powers ARE a thing, but they’re still animals and thus would evolve in ways that make things like getting to a safe space (something climbing a tree could do, especially for a more limber member of the species) and accessing food (something being able to open a fruit would do) more possible.
also i’m not really under the impression that the species does Everything with psychokinetic powers and largely use them primarily when they are needed, they’re not as frail as the Abra line. some individuals might enjoy having some fun with their psychic abilities, but they are capable of doing things like foraging without them (though they do allow them to transport larger amounts of food without much effort). and using your own hands to do things generally feels more natural than otherwise, i figure. they have hands, so might as well use them if they can, right?
also the individuals shown in the image are pretty much “standard”, but aren’t exactly considered ideal, for contests anyway. i imagine that there are ideals humans have placed for how a pokemon should look, and it applies particularly to contest pokemon.
the Gallade shown in the image, for example, is scrawnier and lighter (in weight) than what is considered ideal, and its coat is not vibrant and bold enough. being captive it does have the expected clipped hip hair, like most gallades do.
in my headcanon gallades aren’t really a natural progression of the species, and are primarily the result of selective breeding. some gardevoirs probably have vestigial arm spines (IDK about what the mega evolutions would be like but when a gardevoir mega evolves it probably does have small arm spines, and that could be why its physical attack raises for no apparent reason, i mean with how it is drawn that could work…) that largely don’t really serve any purpose but some people in Sinnoh figured it’d be a good idea to breed a Physically Strong, Masculine Version of Gardevoir, and Many Generations Later, gallades became an established variant of the species, and don’t naturally occur in the wild. “Wild” gallade populations are technically “feral” gallades, either having escaped captivity or being released.
i mean that’s probably a bit of a complicated explanation for why they exist considering in-game they just evolve using a dawn stone but … i just like to think of pokemon in a more realistic way? and it would help explain why gallade is kinda…. out of place compared to the others. especially when the species isn’t even sexually dimorphic to begin with…..
Ralts’ “contest suitability” isn’t very important since ralts is a baby and thus not usually considered ready for contests, or really anything. they still need to grow.
the Gardevoir and Kirlia are mainly too scruffy and probably dirty (especially gardevoir since it has all that long fur dragging on the ground, i’m sure lots of dirt, leaves, and twigs get stuck in it and its dirtiness is even more obvious because the fur is white/off-white; i do think they wash it to some degree though and do groom and try to get any leaves and sticks out of their fur) and generally the fur is expected to be trimmed to make the bottom straight across and even, and the fur should be brushed out so that it has a smooth appearance.
they also don’t have vibrant enough coats to fit the Ideal Appearance. they’re largely still Very Very Average specimens, though, just a little messy because they’re wild lol
also for some reason kirlia in this image strikes me as especially feline-like