"Dark Theory Surrounding Taaban - Shellder's Alternate Gold & Silver Beta Evolution"

When the leak for the Gold & Silver beta occurred we got to see Shellder's alternate beta evolution - Taaban in all its glory.It appears to be the form Shellder takes after biting onto Slowpoke's tail or head (or arm if it's Galarian Slowpoke) making it evolve into Slowpoke's respective evolution lines - Slowbro & Slowking.As for Taaban, however, it looked to be its own split evolution line for Shellder, away from Slowpoke and its evolutions.But the next question is how Shellder would have evolved into Taaban and become it's own evolution line? Well this is where it gets dark!As it stands, in the story of Gold & Silver there's a small subplot where a revived Team Rocket has taken over the Slowpoke Well located east of Azalea Town with plans to cut off Slowpoke tails and sell them for profit.As it turns out, this is not an uncommon thing to do in the Pokémon world as Slowpoke tails are considered to be a rare delicacy and later on in the game there's a shop in Mahogany town that sells Slowpoke Tails as an item. This item, however, has no in-game use other than to be bought or sold at an expensive price.And this is where Shellder comes back into the fold... It's my theory that the Slowpoke Tail was originally going to be an evolutionary item for Shellder by having it devour the Slowpoke Tail and making it evolve thinking there was a Slowpoke on the other end but since there wasn't one it would just evolve into Taaban instead.I can see why Game Freak ultimately ditched Taaban as split evolution to Shellder as the idea of cutting off a Pokémon's body parts just to evolve another is pretty grim in itself and would be considered as animal cruelty.I will note that the Slowpoke Tail item was in the code for HGSS remakes but wasn't accessible as its purpose was effectively useless at that point.Any thoughts and opinions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!Tl:dr The Slowpoke Tail item in GS was originally an evolutionary item that evolved Shellder into Taaban. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/36rDwle