Wiglett the Garden Eel Pokémon (not related to Diglett)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Wiglett wig, Wiglett wig... ??? ??? ???

I personally am not into ecology or anything, so I didn't participate in the World Pokémon Ecological Society. I didn't really know that was a thing, either. But apparently they accidentally discovered a new Pokémon they named Wiglett.

None of these researchers have ever seen Wiglett before, and they believed it to be a Paldean form of Diglett, or perhaps a Diglett evolution. They seem... common enough, so I guess this is an example of Paldea being a third-world country that the world's scientists haven't bothered to visit or document before. They only have one school, after all, and apparently none of Paldea's scientists have gotten into the upper echelon of Pokémon professors.

Anyway, Wiglett, as they named it, isn't in Diglett's evolutionary family. They are both tube-shaped diggers, but that's it. They just coincidentally look similar due to adaptations in Wiglett's environment. Sort of like how lots of people think that Luvdisc and Alomomola must be related because they're both heart-shaped fish, or that Bouffalant is the evolved form of Tauros because there can only be one line of handsome bovine on the planet. (Meanwhile, no one is demanding that Houndour and Growlithe be in the same evolutionary family. I think it's species-ism.)

As for Wiglett and Diglett, Wiglett is a Garden Eel and a Water type, while Diglett is a Mole and a Ground type.

Is it named Wiglett because it's Water Diglett, or because it's White Diglett?
...If the former, what if it was a Normal-type Diglett? If the latter, what if it was neon-coloured?
Not the best naming scheme. It's clearly not because of the presence of any wigs—Alolan Diglett had that already.

If you want to see Diglett and Wiglett together, check out this trailer that the above screenshot came from:

Wiglett's giant nose is useful for smelling enemies and burrowing to avoid them. That relates to its Rattled ability, but it also has Gooey, which means that... it's gooey to touch. Yuck? Diglett is more furry, I assume. Wiglett is also 3'11" to Diglett's 0'08", so Wiglett definitely has quite a bit of a body under the ground. Well, it can stretch out its neck, afterall.

Also, continuing the trend of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet being influenced by Monster Hunter (I think Klawf is a Daimyo Hermitaur, down to breakable claws for parts), Wiglett is pretty similar to Khezu. Even CAPCOM thinks so.

I named this Khezu “Wiglett”...though I'm not going to do anything with it.
Honestly, Khezu is pretty gross and ugly. Wiglett ain't much of a looker either, but this is worse.

Much like Wiglett, Khezu is white and eel-shaped with a long neck. Khezu is specifically said to sense its environment and other creatures with a powerful sense of smell—just like Wiglett. Though while Wiglett would prefer to hide from other creatures, Khezu would hunt them down. And Khezu's type would be Electric. Khezu also needs that sense of smell because it's blind. Do you see eyes on it? I don't.

My only other observation or question about Wiglett is what it'll evolve into, if it'll evolve at all. The trailer and page for it certainly like to show three Wiglett on the screen at a time. Is that a hint of a future Wigtrio? ...Wugtrio? Eh? Would that make sense in terms of evolutionary development? ...Does regular Dugtrio make any sense?


Ludwig rejects the idea of Wiglett being named after him or related to him in any way. You should reject this idea as well, and think of something else to comment about in the comments section.


A week later, the new Pokémon revealed is a real evolution of an existing Pokémon. Not this convergent stuff.