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?
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?