Axew: Why didn't Iris use it more?

[Masurao]

I think Axew's issue is just a problem in writing with a sidekick. It's alot easier to keep her relevant by having her start and only get strong Pokemon instead of having to show her really raise weaker Pokemon on screen. Of course really showing them raise a weak Pokemon to a strong one on-screen would be better, ultimatley the writers didn't go that route.

 

[Pikacuh]

Axew not being used enough wasn't because of poor writing, most likely it was due to the writers being lazy and not doing enough to developed Axew character.

Dude, that's pretty much the definition of poor writing

Well maybe it was bad writing , but they should of never brought up the idea of Axew evolving in the first place.

 

[Master Cyrus]

Why shouldn't pokemon want to evolve anyways? I think bulbasaur needs to get the heresy beaten out of it.

 

[Necrozma]

Why shouldn't pokemon want to evolve anyways? I think bulbasaur needs to get the heresy beaten out of it.

God forbid these Pokémon are more than battling tools and are satisfied being the way they are.

 

[Silktree]

Why should any Pokémon want to evolve if their trainer doesn't age?

 

[Master Cyrus]

Why shouldn't pokemon want to evolve anyways? I think bulbasaur needs to get the heresy beaten out of it.

God forbid these Pokémon are more than battling tools and are satisfied being the way they are.

Implying evolving is only for combat machines.

 

[Trevenant]

Why shouldn't pokemon want to evolve anyways? I think bulbasaur needs to get the heresy beaten out of it.

God forbid these Pokémon are more than battling tools and are satisfied being the way they are.

Implying evolving is only for combat machines.

Regardless of what benefits evolution bestows on Pokemon, it's also been established that evolution can also fundamentally change a Pokemon's personality on a base level. Just like you have people that are perfectly happy with the way they are, there are also Pokemon - in the anime, anyway - that are satisfied with their current selves. They don't want to risk losing who they currently are to become more powerful or bigger or faster.

This isn't canon or anything, but I think Fushidane's refusal to evolve is probably (partially, anyway) a response to seeing how wildly different the relatively mild Hitokage was when it evolved in to Lizardo and later in to Lizardon. I know I would be tentative about evolving if I saw a good friend of mine turn into a raging jerk that lost its sense of loyalty and camaraderie after it evolved.

 

[Master Cyrus]

Why shouldn't pokemon want to evolve anyways? I think bulbasaur needs to get the heresy beaten out of it.

God forbid these Pokémon are more than battling tools and are satisfied being the way they are.

Implying evolving is only for combat machines.

Regardless of what benefits evolution bestows on Pokemon, it's also been established that evolution can also fundamentally change a Pokemon's personality on a base level. Just like you have people that are perfectly happy with the way they are, there are also Pokemon - in the anime, anyway - that are satisfied with their current selves. They don't want to risk losing who they currently are to become more powerful or bigger or faster.

This isn't canon or anything, but I think Fushidane's refusal to evolve is probably (partially, anyway) a response to seeing how wildly different the relatively mild Hitokage was when it evolved in to Lizardo and later in to Lizardon. I know I would be tentative about evolving if I saw a good friend of mine turn into a raging jerk that lost its sense of loyalty and camaraderie after it evolved.

You call it being a raging jerk, I call it charizard being enlightened by evolution and seeing what kind of a bone headed idiot his trainer was/is.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

The fact that Axew has been used as more of a "partner Pokémon" than a battler has made me question why the writers gave Axew a dream to evolve in the first place. But of course, this doesn't mean that Iris should be neglecting Axew as much as she does. Raising Axew is beneficial to Iris' goal to becoming a master of Dragon-types - or at least was before she got Dragonite.

I guess the writers just didn't know how to properly make a storyline of a character with a goal that didn't involve Pokémon related battle events (i.e. Pokémon Contests, etc.). But then, I'd say all they really needed to do was give more episodes that focus on Axew's growth - rather than about Axew getting in trouble - to help him grow stronger.

 

[DynoStretch]

Regardless of what benefits evolution bestows on Pokemon, it's also been established that evolution can also fundamentally change a Pokemon's personality on a base level. Just like you have people that are perfectly happy with the way they are, there are also Pokemon - in the anime, anyway - that are satisfied with their current selves. They don't want to risk losing who they currently are to become more powerful or bigger or faster.

This isn't canon or anything, but I think Fushidane's refusal to evolve is probably (partially, anyway) a response to seeing how wildly different the relatively mild Hitokage was when it evolved in to Lizardo and later in to Lizardon. I know I would be tentative about evolving if I saw a good friend of mine turn into a raging jerk that lost its sense of loyalty and camaraderie after it evolved.

Honestly every time I hear the whole "happy the way they are" thing I see it as a thinly veiled excuse by the writers to keep them as cutesy-poo-and-plush-toy-looking as possible. I thought for a while the reason he kept himself from evolving was just so he could learn Solar Beam faster, but it's been eons since then and nothing's changed. .Aside from a few rare cases, we see many other trainers having no problem fully evolving their teams, especially in leagues where trainers use almost entirely evolved Pokemon while Ash was stuck with teams reminiscent of the cast of Muppet Babies.

How does a Pokemon know for certain they'll change in personality upon evolving? We've seen plenty of Pokemon like Gliscor who keep their personality upon evolving, it's not like Pokemon are mandated to be jerks immediately after changing form. In the case of Charizard, I felt his handling was just extremely poor writing from the getgo, picking the most docile member of Ash's team to become a jerk to the kid who helped saved his life.

Anyhoot, as for Axew, yeah he was handled very poorly. I don't see it as the writers trying to make a point about Iris not trying hard enough, I don't think they're self-aware enough to acknowledge something like that. I think it's just they saw a big pile potential merchandise money coming from this whiny little gremlin and decided to keep him as a runt the same reason they kept Bulbasaur as is, to keep him cute and marketable, and to hell with it's backstory or personal desires.

 

[Supreme Leader Palpitoad]

Why should Iris care about a baby dragon when she has a much bigger one?

 

[Trevenant]

Regardless of what benefits evolution bestows on Pokemon, it's also been established that evolution can also fundamentally change a Pokemon's personality on a base level. Just like you have people that are perfectly happy with the way they are, there are also Pokemon - in the anime, anyway - that are satisfied with their current selves. They don't want to risk losing who they currently are to become more powerful or bigger or faster.

This isn't canon or anything, but I think Fushidane's refusal to evolve is probably (partially, anyway) a response to seeing how wildly different the relatively mild Hitokage was when it evolved in to Lizardo and later in to Lizardon. I know I would be tentative about evolving if I saw a good friend of mine turn into a raging jerk that lost its sense of loyalty and camaraderie after it evolved.

Honestly every time I hear the whole "happy the way they are" thing I see it as a thinly veiled excuse by the writers to keep them as cutesy-poo-and-plush-toy-looking as possible. I thought for a while the reason he kept himself from evolving was just so he could learn Solar Beam faster, but it's been eons since then and nothing's changed. .Aside from a few rare cases, we see many other trainers having no problem fully evolving their teams, especially in leagues where trainers use almost entirely evolved Pokemon while Ash was stuck with teams reminiscent of the cast of Muppet Babies.

How does a Pokemon know for certain they'll change in personality upon evolving? We've seen plenty of Pokemon like Gliscor who keep their personality upon evolving, it's not like Pokemon are mandated to be jerks immediately after changing form. In the case of Charizard, I felt his handling was just extremely poor writing from the getgo, picking the most docile member of Ash's team to become a jerk to the kid who helped saved his life.

Anyhoot, as for Axew, yeah he was handled very poorly. I don't see it as the writers trying to make a point about Iris not trying hard enough, I don't think they're self-aware enough to acknowledge something like that. I think it's just they saw a big pile potential merchandise money coming from this whiny little gremlin and decided to keep him as a runt the same reason they kept Bulbasaur as is, to keep him cute and marketable, and to hell with it's backstory or personal desires.

I don't believe that's the case every time that reason is given, although sometimes it definitely is. In the case of Pikachu, for instance, I legitimately believe that he doesn't want to evolve. Fushigidane is a more ambiguous case, but to be totally honest, I don't really buy that they kept him unevolved and went ahead and evolved Hitokage all the way. If they really only wanted to sell more plushes, it would have made more sense to keep all three unevolved. With Kibago and Pochama, though, I believe you're right. Like I said, the big problem I have with Fushigidane suddenly evolving isn't the evolution itself, but the established character trait of not wanting to evolve. If that's dealt with in some manner, I'm all for evolution. Likewise, I have major issues with Kibago not evolving specifically because he does want to evolve.

And the reason why a Pokemon wouldn't want to evolve isn't because they know for certain what will happen, but because they don't know. Not knowing what kind of personality you'll have upon evolving is just as bad as knowing that you'll be bad tempered. Not every Pokemon feels this way, obviously, but I think it's a pretty reasonable way to feel, whether you agree with the decision to evolve or not.

 

[Ben 10]

Wait didn't Bulbasaur say he didn't want to evolve at the moment in the Bulbasaur Garden episode? Or was it a dub only line?

Technically Charmander evolved because Charizard is more popular. I'm not sure how popular Venusaur or Blastoise are honestly.
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Real world reason why Iris didn't use Axew was for markibilty purposes and poor writing.

In universe reason was Iris babied him to much and didn't put him through any sort of challenge in favor of using Pokemon who were already strong.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Why should Iris care about a baby dragon when she has a much bigger one?

Because training Axew was the reason she left on her journey in the first place. Besides that, just because she has a bigger and stronger Dragon Pokemon doesn't mean that she should ignore the baby Dragon Pokemon that requires more effort to become stronger, especially when she does care about Axew and they both wanted it to evolve at some point. I don't think that's the case anymore since they haven't mentioned Axew evolving in ages and when they returned to the Village of Dragons, no one had the problem that Iris had been gone for who knows how long and Axew still hadn't evolved. I think that the rationale for giving Iris Dragonite was so that she could have a fully evolved Dragon Pokemon, while Axew stays the same to be on more merchandise. That way, there's no reason for the writers to evolve Axew when she already has an evolved Dragon type and it could give the impression that she was advancing in her goal as a Dragon Master, but that still doesn't really justify doing practically nothing with Axew.

 

[wolley2xjd]

You know what they should have done have it train with dragonite make them like brothers you know?

 

[Caseydia]

The thing about that is that he has trained and caught lots of pokemon in his time. Had lots of wins and losses and then some. I don't see what this has to do with Axew not being trained in the little time it was in Best Wishes though.

 

[Supreme Leader Palpitoad]

You know what they should have done have it train with dragonite make them like brothers you know?

The writers never thinks of good options.