Pokémon fans have grown to love Quaxly, but its evolutions? Not so much

A handful of vocal Pokémon Scarlet and Violet fans are disappointed with Quaxly’s final evolution.

In response to a question posed by Reddit user wooper-de-doo on the official Pokémon subreddit earlier today, several players have voiced their discontent with Quaxwell and Quaquaval, Quaxly’s evolutions. “Cute starter [but] its evolutions were quite disappointing,” said one player. “Really cool Pokemon with awful evolutions,” said another. Both responses garnered a fair amount of community agreement.

Other players made suggestions for what the Quaxly line could have been. “Why didn’t it become a sailor/pirate?” asked one fan, to which another responded, “the problem with the starters of the past few generations is that they are being forced to be a particular personality/profession. It was better when they actually felt like animals.”

Some of the discontent also seems to stem from players’ general dislike for more humanoid-looking Pokemon, like Quaquaval, Meowscarada, and Incineroar from Pokémon Sun and Moon. Prior to Scarlet and Violet’s release, one fan actually made a Change.org petition asking developer Game Freak to “keep Sprigatito on all fours” rather than making it bipedal and human-like. A handful of comments on wooper-de-doo’s post referenced Quaquaval’s clothes, which some players don’t think should be included on Pokémon. (Jynx begs to disagree.)

This outcry is in stark contrast to initial fan response to Quaquaval, which was decidedly positive. Members of the LGBTQ community in particular loved the Pokémon’s design, which seemed to be inspired by drag queens. “I had no interest in [Quaxly] before but he’s kinda serving?” said one early fan comment.