Pokémon's "weed cat" has enraged fans — but not for the reason you think

Pokéfans love to argue over their favorite starters, no matter the generation. As such, it's the only tradition that they squabble over the recently announced Pokémon Scarlet and Violet starters: Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly. However, Sprigatito has a little something that the other two don’t: a lazy eye — and maybe a crippling addiction to cannabis.

It’s not common for the Grass starter to rock this much online appeal. Cat appreciators quickly latched onto the Pokémon, nicknaming it “weed cat” in reference to its green fur, leaf pattern on its face, and red eyes. The hemptastic fanart of the Grass starter continues to pour in across Twitter and beyond. However, the deep love the internet has for this furry grass friend doesn’t change that its right eye is slightly askew.

Pokemon fan artist Barbie_E4 initiated a viral conversation when they pointed out this subtle detail.

“Sprigatito's artwork is driving me insane,” they wrote. “Always. Flip. Your work.”

Many onlookers didn’t realize what was wrong until others chimed in to educate them. A fellow netizen edited the photo to have straighter eyes as an example of what could’ve been. However, because non-designers still had a problem understanding the issue, they posted an animated version to show how they subtly tweaked the design.

“This is what I needed to be able to see it, and now I can't unsee it,” one commenter responded. “Thank you, and fuck you.”

Now, you have to see it too:

It may have been easy to assume that non-artists simply couldn’t understand the importance of a perfectly aligned eye, which further infuriated those who didn’t care about the issue. Some onlookers took longer than convenient to even see a difference, even with the comparison pictures. A few artists even defended the tilted eye as a detail so minor that it shouldn’t have caused an uproar in the first place.

“Bruh I'm an artist and I can safely say this issue is so minor that even the fixed versions are so incredibly barely different,” one exasperated commenter wrote. “Y’all gotta learn to stop being perfectionists over little mistakes that most folks will not notice.”

The conversation then spawned a side argument about why a simple image flip mattered so much. After all, Sprigatito didn’t seem to be doing much harm, other than making a few people uncomfortable. One person argued that it shouldn’t matter if the sprite art looks good flipped because it’s not flipped. However, many others begged to differ.

“That's like rule 1 of commercial art that it should look corrected flipped because it should be able to be flipped for advertising,” one Twitter user wrote. “There is no forgiving that.” This holds some kernel of truth, considering sprites of Pokémon appear in flipped forms throughout games and other promotional art.

Lopsided eye or not, Sprigatito appeals to enough fans that its eye problem isn’t much of a dealbreaker. Hopefully, the character artists tweak the sprite for later promotional materials so that designers on Twitter can rest in peace.

Nintendo announced Sprigatito and the other starters during last week’s Pokémon Presents broadcast. The Pokémon Scarlet and Violet official website describes the other two as the “laid-back” Fire-type starter the “tidy” Water-type starter. Weed cat, however, is the “capricious, attention-seeking Grass Cat Pokémon.” So far, it seems to live up to the description.