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Axew: Wasted potential or a good character?

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KingMinun

Dawn/Sinnoh Fan!
I've been rewatching the whole anime over the past year and a half, and I've made it to BW, now I wasn't a fan when it first aired, but this time I'm trying to like it, however one thing that bothers me is the character of Axew, he seems a little different to the other girl's partner pokemon:

Togepi: We saw it born on screen, we saw it developed (sure it didn't have much development but it began to learn moves and had a bit of character too it). It had a good bond with the gang and their pokemon who all group together and looked after it. It eventually grew up and evolved after its trainer left the show, and it even battled for the first time. It then went on to leave its trainers side having spent the entire show being looked after, but then going on to look after others.

Piplup: Introduced with a big personality, it was very similar to Ash's Pikachu, but it had more pride in itself, it had one of the best chemistries with Pikachu out of all the pokemon in the show, it felt like its equal, they felt like brothers and it was also very protective of its trainers. It was a comic relief character too, but it was actually capable of holding its own in battles and has an impressive battle record.

Dedenne: It's a rather quiet pokemon, it doesn't actually do much, but then the character who looks after it is not a trainer yet, however despite this, it has helped out on a few occasions and actually battled. But it doesn't need to develop all that much as it doesn't actually need to do a lot, its there to show that its trainer can look after it despite her young age. My only complaint with Dedenne is that it has sort of been sidelined thanks to Squishy.

However, when looking at Axew, I can't help but feel disappointed. I'm not someone who thinks a pokemon needs to evolve to develop, my favourite pokemon in the series are the characters of Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Piplup and Psyduck. None of which evolved. But when it comes to Axew, it was introduced as a weakling, then when we saw that it hoped to evolve eventually in its dreams, it raised my hopes, I think the likes of Bulbasaur and Piplup get away from this because they expressed a desire to stay unevolved where as Axew actually seemed like it wanted too. But it hardly battled in the entire series.
To make things worse for it, it became a sort of damsel in distress type of character, a trope I am not a huge fan of. It was kidnapped/went missing on a number of occasions and the gang had to help it.

That said when Best Wishes 2 started, and Iris used it in a battle against Cynthia, I thought this was the beginning of something, we'd see Axew beginning to develop. It learned a strong dragon move, and I really thought we were going to see Axew used more, unfortunately a few episodes later, Iris was handed a major powerhouse pokemon in the form of Dragonite, and Axew was sidelined. Axew remained the weakling pokemon that it started out as. Now I haven't seen any episodes from Episode N or the Decalore Islands, so it may have actually done things in those series. But even as Iris left the series, Axew remained weak, whilst she relied on Dragonite and Excadrill, I was hoping to see Axew evolve in one of the last episodes, or even in Iris' special, but it didn't, and now Iris hasn't appeared in the next series, XY, as it stands it still remains as Axew.

So out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on Axew, would you have liked to have seen in used more in battles, and eventually evolve like it seemed to want to at the very start of the series, or do you think its character worked the way it did?
 

satopi

Life doesn’t end, …it changes.
Wasted potential. All of his wins were either won because he learned a new move, DEM win, or got saved. I absolutely love him by the way. I understand that he's a baby Pokemon but geez, how many 'Kibago gets lost' episodes can you make?! It also didn't make sense on how Pikachu & Yanappu went easy on him but later on in the series, he can somehow hold his own against stronger Pokemon without battling much. His dream was to evolve into a Haxorus but the animators didn't want him to evolve because it would've been harder to animate. I want him to practice more and be in more battles. He always got into trouble somehow and he should learn to protect himself rather than hoping that Iris or someone else will. He'll someday be the one protecting a younger character like maybe Gible. I hope he gained lots of experience (him and Iris' other Pokemon) and look forward to seeing how he's doing.
 
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Lunala

Banned
Definitely wasted potential.

I don't even think evolution was necessary for Axew (though that would have been fun to see) but I do think he should have had better character development. The writers didn't do much with him aside from having him get lost or into trouble, and he went from weak to strong with very little training. It was hard to believe. Watching him learning Outrage and one-shotting a Golett that was previously destroying him in the same battle made no sense as there was no indication that Axew had become strong enough to have any business learning that attack.
 
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Xenon Blue

No Hard Feelings
Wasted Potential. It was clearly set up to evolve into a Haxorus later on, but it became too marketable so the writers didn't bother. His development was very inconsistent and lackluster and had too many wins that made no sense or felt like DEM. He got lost way too many times, most of which hogged up valuable screen time.
 

HoundoomFan

shy shipper
As a character, they did alright with axew. One thing BW has done better than most other series of Pokemon (if not the best), is the pokemon's personality & their interactions.

However, battle wise... And it's a shame too, as axew did want to fully evolve, who we saw Iris start her journey with, and who Iris is close with. In this case, they should've at least had it battle more & evolve once.
 

Janovy

Banned
It was wasted potential, but I don't consider Axew a bad character.

I liked Axew.

While it's clear it suffered from the 'mascot Pokemon' syndrome, I enjoyed its personality, the battles it had and its brotherly bond with Scraggy.
 

PokemonBattleFanatic-

Well-Known Member
Wasted Potenital because all it did most of the time was sit in Iris's hair,it hardly went into any training to properly utilize its moves.I will never forgive it for getting a lucky win over Luke at the Club Battle Tournament,and that time where they used an entire episode trying to look for Axew during the League,they could have used that time for Ash/Stephan battle.
 

KingMinun

Dawn/Sinnoh Fan!
I'm just about to watch her battle against Luke now, I started my BW run-through yesterday, its weird because it's had 1 full strength battle so far against Georgia's Beartic, the rest of the battles have been training battles with light versions of their attacks, so no I definitely don't feel its ready to fight in the Club Battle.

Although one thing I'll agree on, its brotherly relationship with Scraggy does give it a bit of development and its nice to see, its interesting that the 2 mascots before it Togepi and Piplup had a real strong relationship with Pikachu, but I don't feel that way with Axew (or Dedenne actually).

Its a bit of a shame really that it never got to develop much or feature in battles because as a species, Axew are one of my favourites.
 

sandtreamftw

On and Off Trainer
Axew's character was only meant to be the baby of the group, alas Togepi. It served its purpose imo.
 

fawfulmark2

Well-Known Member
unspeakably wasted. them going for the path of a failed mini mascot attempt rather then let it grow stronger like the Haxorus it becomes in the future games was one of the biggest lflaws of BW IMO.

it also didn't help that he was getting free powerups like Draco Meteor for hardly doing anything compared to Ash's Scraggy who actually was working to become stronger n comparison.
 

Mrs. Oreo

Banned
I didn't like Axew much in Best Wishes, but what I've never understood is why so many fans put pressure on him needing to evolve during that saga. It may have been his dream to evolve, but broken dreams is something that Ash and most of his friends are familiar with, so Axew failing to achieve his own dream isn't a big deal to me. ^^;
 

MattySadler

Well-Known Member
Definitely wasted. I mean, just in terms of it's goal, the main purpose of Iris's journey was to raise Axew into a powerful Haxorus and it little progress in achieving that. It is disappointing enough when the human characters don't achieve their goals in this show, let alone the Pokemon.
 

Janovy

Banned
Definitely wasted. I mean, just in terms of it's goal, the main purpose of Iris's journey was to raise Axew into a powerful Haxorus and it little progress in achieving that. It is disappointing enough when the human characters don't achieve their goals in this show, let alone the Pokemon.
They never specifically stated Axew was meant to evolve. She was simply supposed to raise it.

Iris did her job well considering Axew's moveset. It's definitely not a baby anymore and it's not like Axew's training is over.
 

MattySadler

Well-Known Member
They never specifically stated Axew was meant to evolve. She was simply supposed to raise it.

Iris did her job well considering Axew's moveset. It's definitely not a baby anymore and it's not like Axew's training is over.

Yes hence my specific use of the word "raise".
 
I didn't expect Axew to evolve since he had mascot status almost immediately but I did think his development was weak. He deserved better than what he got.
 

SoundVoltex

Well-Known Member
Wasted potential along with Scraggy. Axew and Scraggy were supposed to be training partners, but Scraggy ended up being miles beyond Axew, despite being born way later in the series.
 

Satoshi & Touko

Peanuts aren't just a nut.
I think Axew was both wasted potential and a good character, at least personality-wise. I've always enjoyed the baby persona it had. In terms of wasted potential, it was made known in just a few episodes that its dream was to evolve to its final form. It didn't even evolve once.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Kibago deserved to evolve at least one time since Onondo would've been a nice balance of power and coolness, although it wouldn't have been able to stay in Iris's hair.
 

Cevil

Well-Known Member
It's the same with other Pokemon such as Squirtle, Totodile, Oshawott, Gible, Snivy etc. They haven't evolved yet because kids find them adorable, and so they're the most marketable characters for the anime.
 
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