Who knew Qwilfish had a goth phase?

Hisuian Qwilfish:

At last, the prophecy has been fulfilled! Qwilfish FINALLY got some fresh attention after 23 long years of nothing!! And this new regional form is promising! Black and purple is always a banger color scheme you can never go wrong with, and Qwilfish pulls it off quite well! Especially liking the stylish "dripping with poison" effect it has on its spines.

That in combination with the eyes, especially with those new bags it has under them, really gives this thing and amusingly fierce look for something that's little more than an orb with a tail fin.

It also rids its Water type in favor of Dark, which is alright. Don't know why exactly, other than it matches the color scheme. A color scheme we also think is a reference to how Qwilfish's original shiny sprite was black and purple rather than the more pinkish color it is these days.

And along with this momentous occasion, Hisuian Qwilfish also comes with... a BRAND, NEW EVOLUTION FOR QWILFISH?!? WAIT IT'S HAPPENING??? IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!!! HOW LONG WE ALL IN THIS FANDOM HAVE WAITED FOR THIS LONESOME LITTLE MISFIT TO FINALLY, FINALLY GET A NEW EVOLUTION!!

And this is the first time they're touching a pufferfish in that amount of time too! Oh, imagine how cool it must be! This is what 23 years of waiting has lead up to! Oh what's it gonna look like!

It's...!

IT'S...!!!!!!!

Qwilling spree. Qwiltacular. Qwilltrocity. Qwilimanjaro. Qwilpocalypse. Qwillionaire.

904: Overqwil

...That's it? That's Qwilfish's new evolution?

It's just a bigger Qwilfish!!

What a rip.

GAMEFREAK BETRAYED US!!!!!

Man, when's the last time we've felt this "We appreciate this... but we also feel betrayed" feeling? Goodra? Maybe Goodra.

I mean... not every new evolution has to be a bombastic blow-out in terms of design but... really??? That's it????? So long have fans begged for this poor little thing to get an evolution out of pitty and it's just... that? Qwilfish escaped the mediocrity of single-stage loser town to become... a bigger Qwilfish?

It has all the points that were cool about base Hisuian Qwilfish, but all it really adds is some bigger spines and some spines on its face to give it an even angrier look and... that's kinda it. Man.

We have seen some comments say it's meant to be a sea mine... except it doesn't really look any more or less like a sea mine than regular Qwilfish does. Maybe if its tail was a "chain" that kept it anchored to the ground while the rest of it floats ominously we'd be talking, but it doesn't really build off of that in any way, even assuming that was always Qwilfish's intention.

MAYBE we'd be singing a different tune had this and Qwilfish been an entirely brand new Pokemon line. Because it's not BAD by any means, it's pretty cool, even. But it just feels like there aught to be more. Something named "Overqwil" as a pun on "Overkill" aught to be the most badass thing alive. When Tangela got an evolution, it became a huge heap of vines with Ghibli-like proportions. When Corsola FINALLY got a new evolution it was a badass sea ghost with weaponized depression.

At the same time it feels so entitled to complain. Because Overqwil is still... cool? We still LIKE Overqwil. But we want to LOVE Overqwil. 7.5/10 is not a bad score to have at all, but. This is Qwilfish's evolution, man! It just feels so dang anticlimactic.