Will the writers ever get over the Water Bias?

[fawfulmark2]

I've pretty much noticed an odd and annoying pattern with all the water type starters in the series that the main trios have(except one)- they never evolve to their final forms, ever. seriously look at this:

Squirtle: Ash's never evolved, may's stopped at the 2nd stage

Totodile: not evolved

Mudkip: Brock's evolved into mashtomp, but not to it's last stage

Piplup: I don't think Dawn's ever gonna evolve it

Oshawott: Ash SERIOUSLY needs to evolve it

the only times we actually see their last stages is outside of the trios (like Gary's Blastoise).

my question is, when will the writers break this trend and give a fully evolved water starter to someone in the trio?

 

[Hidden Mew]

It honestly doesn't look too likely. I think one reason why the Water starters rarely evolve is because they tend to be seen as the cutest of the three starters and thus the most marketable for their respective generation. So, they don't evolve pass their second forms, if at all, to retain that marketability. Personally, I didn't mind with some cases like with Ash's Squirtle, Totodile and Dawn's Piplup, but I also would have liked Brock to get a Swampert so they could have had the three fully evolved Hoenn starters by the end of the AG and Oshawott evolving would be a breath of fresh air for Ash considering how many evolved Fire and Grass types he has. Still, I don't think that this will change anytime soon.

 

[Jukain]

I agree. As long as the Water starter's base form is cute and marketable, they won't do it. I still hope that they'll do something else with the next water starter, though, since this curse isn't entirely the fault of that. Some of it has to do with the matter that since there was no inexperienced trainer to plug all the "how to pokemon" lessons on, Ash's pokemon didn't evolve too much. As for Mudkip, I seriously have no idea other than Brock didn't get that much attention anyway. Mudkip didn't even evo until Battle Frontier. (much much later than Torchic did) Mudkip was cursed only by being given to a bit character. Piplup was of course given co-mascot status. Osha was made to follow in it's footsteps. I will not deny it would be too easy for them to repeat it for a third time, especially if they refuse to fix the reset.

I don't think the Water starters have the real curse, though. It's Water pokemon in general owned by Ash specifically. Only one of them ever evoed, and then it was downplayed afterwards and quickly forgotten. All the others have not evolved. They dodged it with Corphish since it was comic relief, but why Buizel never did mystifies me, other than it having experienced the Curse of Beating Your Evo.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Remember writers' so-called dark-type bias, or their dragon-type bias? Good times...

It doesn't exist.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Remember writers' so-called dark-type bias, or their dragon-type bias? Good times...

It doesn't exist.

I'm not so sure. Unlike with those types, they haven't shown any interest in evolving any of Ash's Water types after Kingler and the last Water starter in the main cast to get an on-screen evolution was Mudkip, which was way too late into AG in my opinion to work well. At least they have been willing to give characters Dark and Dragon types in the last couple of series, so they're at least willing to break that tradition. There's no sign that they're going to do that with Water types in the main cast. The only other fully evolved Water type to get on the main cast was Politoad and it probably helped that it still looked cute and marketable. I don't think that it's too likely that they'll give Ash a fully evolved Water type anytime soon, although I wouldn't mind it at all if they changed this tradition in the next series too.

 

[John Understands]

Pretty much the only reason Oshawott and Piplup never evolved is because for advertisement purposes, I believe.

 

[BlazeMaster]

I reckon that the majority of people want Totodile to evolve and I think he will at some point.

The problem with the water types is that once they evolve they usually become medium sized, ergo too small to be tanks like Donphan or Torterra, but not agile enough for Ash's typical strategies. And in DP and AG the writers wanted certain Pokémon on the teams (i.e. Chimchar, Treeko, Snorunt) to evolve but felt they had to keep some basics on his team because of his ethos.

There probably is a marketing element of sorts.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

I'm glad Ash's Corphish did not evolve, but I really HATED how Ash's Buizel did not evolve (especially since Floatzel is my favorite Pokemon, and it was only in three episodes of the entire series as far as I recall)

As for Piplup and Oshawott, as @G013M stated above the writers never evolved them because of advertising, which is a shame, since Oshawott's evolution Dewott is pretty much a fan-favorite.

Let's face it, the writers apparently think water is a boring element, yet they seem to like fire types a lot, as most of the fire types (save for Ash's Cyndaquil) have actually evolved, namely Ash's Charizard, Infernape, Pignite, and Dawn's Quilava.

 

[Chronos]

I don't know if they'll ever get over it, but they need to. They should make the next gen Water starter really ugly (oh wait... they already did that in this generation :/), so that they will be more willing to evolve it and market one of the other starters. -_-

It sucks that Oshawott likely won't evolve, since I think Dewott would fit Ash very well.

 

[mewthree3]

squirtle- didnt evolve bcuz of the squirtle squad and merchandising
totodile- i dont know why he didnt evolve ash said he was going to evolve it all the way
mudkip- it was brock's pokemon so it wouldnt get much of attention
piplup-the mascot of diamond and pearl
oshawott- i have a feeling it is going to evolve into dewott and thats it (would be better if it evolved to its final form)

 

[Dragonfyre]

It's all about marketing, IMO. The more mascot-y Pokémon on the show, the more kids would squee over it and pester their mommies for squeetastic merchandise.

I don't think it's as much a Water-type bias as it is a cute Pokémon bias, though. It just so happens that a lot of prominent water-types are gags or mascots. And water-types are often cute. Seeing DP's ever-present Piplup evolve into either its second or final form, thereby reducing the cute mascot factor quite a bit, obviously changes things a little and "DeWHAAAT?!" wouldn't be quite the same as "OshaWHAAAAT?!".

 

[BlazeMaster]

How can the anime writers even think Oshawott's cute? They could have made Tepig the cute one and made an awesome Dewott

 

[mwetwe]

I dont think its a baised attitude. Admittedly Totodile was the only johto starter ash had that didnt evolve which was a mistake but at the same time I dont think any of the johto pokemon should of been evolved so with that mindset I think they did the right thing there.

I see your point but if you think about it ash's starters hardly ever fully evolve. On the top of my head Charizard, Sceptile and Torterra (sorry if I missed one). Looking at them I can see your point because the only none fully evolved type is water.

 

[StrikingMidfield]

I think they want it to be so the heros in the show use Pokemon that they think are cute and that market easier. I agree though it is annoying, but at least you see a few fully evolved ones in the show.

 

[SimH5]

I reckon next time Brock appears he could have a Swampert, I would love that. Also it would have been really suitable for Ash to have a Samurott.

 

[Therian]

Oshawott will never evolve, he's too cute and adorable. He was briefly co-mascot (although Axew seems to have taken this role now)

 

[Hidden Mew]

I see your point but if you think about it ash's starters hardly ever fully evolve. On the top of my head Charizard, Sceptile and Torterra (sorry if I missed one). Looking at them I can see your point because the only none fully evolved type is water.

There's also Infernape, but I do see your point. Ash would normally only get one fully evolved starter in every series and that didn't change until DP when he got two of them. I think that the only chance he has of getting a fully evolved Water type, starter or not, would be if it was still marketable on a cute level. Although, I guess that chance is still pretty slim when they didn't take advantage of Oshawott's other forms, Dewott and Samurott, being able to pull off looking cute and tough at the same time, especially in Dewott's case. It would be nice if that still happens at some point since with having a few good fully evolved Fire and Grass types, having only fully evolved Water type from over ten years ago is really jarring.

 

[Mythicalzoe]

advertisement but my little brother says he likes samurott more than oshawott though

 

[matt0044]

Honestly, I don't think Oshawott evolving would affect the show's ratings or the plush doll sales. Cute as Oshawott is, there comes a point where they're just plain milking it and boy, has that ship sailed already. Same with Piplup. They could still do other stuff with Dewott and Samurott if they put their minds to it. But no, they have to take the easy way out.

 

[Spindae2]

I would love to see Ash own a Feraligatr! It resembles Krookodile a lot and Ash handles it so well!

It's a shame that they are not evolving them for promotion!
Samurot, Swampert and Feraligart look so powerful!
Blastoise and Empoleon aren't my favs but their pre-Evolutions are awesome!

I really hope they give Dewott and Samurott a chance!