Starters can't have Pre-evolutions. They are already in 3 stage sets.
I actually only meant to put out my opinion that
some starters, like those in Kanto's reptile trio, are similar enough to potentially
have a pre-evolution…if GameFreak reads my following post:
Why does GameFreak limit Pokémon to only two evolutions? I mean, it does make sense that some people wouldn't find themselves able to keep track of more than that, but evolution trees could do some cool things if this limitation were removed. They could split more than two times (although I don't think any splits have affected any evolutionary tree more than once; it would be cool to see this happen,) and they could also connect similar evolutionary trees via shared pre-evolutions that aren't currently possible due to this limitation (most of the electric rodents could get share a prevo even with the limitation in place, I think, and that might foreshadow the limitation's removal.)
But, in a reply posted by Jake♫ and quoted below, the probability that this might occur is next to nothing:
Because you're now changing how evolution has worked for five generations of games. Splitting things just for the sake of doing it isn't going to add anything to the games except unneeded complexity that is going to confuse people. Just because people think things looks similar doesn't mean they're related, and going back to change them for fan service is just a silly thing to do. If they meant for similar things to be related than they would be.…
At best, they might just make a few exceptions to the rule…after a few more generations. So I'm jumping the gun.
Same base doesn't mean same species. Pikachu, Rattatta, and Sandshrew are all mouse Pokemon. By that they should all share an evolutionary family.
This is of course ignoring the fact that no Gen 5 Pokemon are related to older generation Pokemon as stated by the creators.
I doubt we'll ever get any linking between Gen 5 and past generation Pokemon.
When and where did GameFreak ever tell us that none of the Gen. V Pokémon have no evolutionary relation to any Pokémon from the previous generations?
No. Zubat's line is already three stages, it's not going to be given any sort of new pre-evolution or evolution. However I'd definitely be fine giving the Woobat line a third evolution similar to the friendship one of Crobat.
I meant that there could be a
split evolution between those two lines, but, now that I look into it, their coloration and designs are just a
tad too different from those of each other's evolutionary lines to really be related closely enough to be connected via evolution.
…
Manaphy is Genderless. Phione is supposed to be a seperate species through combining Ditto's DNA with Manaphy's. Since Phione is considered a Legendary Pokemon by Gamefreak and TPC, she won't be getting an evolution.
…
Oh…I guess that I misunderstood that Manaphy and Generation IV changed how
Ditto breeding had worked since the beginning of
Pokémon. Usually, this process produces the earliest evolutionary predecessor of the other Pokémon involved in the breeding session.