How come Shellder looks so different when it attaches to a Slowpoke?

Question

I understand that the slowpoke family is the only Pokemon that can "unevolve," but is caused by the removal of the Shellder from the head/tail, which is impossible in the game.

~I'm wondering if the Shellder technically evolves with the Slowpoke
and in the anime, what happens to the Shellder when it is removed from tail/head.

Comments

Does this break rule 1.4.3 now?

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Fans have some access to this information now, so I think no.

Answer 1

Cos They wanted it to be like that!

Well, it's just one of GAME FREAKS/Pokemon company's mysteries. Obviously in the Game Shelder has nothing to do with Slowpokes evolution. They just made shellder bite onto Slowpoke to evolve to make it sound interesting. But Imagine the tiny Shelder biting onto the sizeable Slowbro? It would look really out of proportion. so they changed it's apperance to make it seem cooler and less..weird.

Hope I helped! PX;}

Answer 2

The reason is that at the time of its release back in generation one, the "Shellder" was initially going to be its own Pokémon, named Taaban. However, Taaban was scrapped, and instead, Game Freak decided to refer to the shell as a Shellder.

Here is a picture of what it was going to be:

Honestly, it kinda sucks that it was scrapped.

Comments

From what I know, we only have proof that this Pokemon was planned for Gen 2, not necessarily Gen 1: https://twitter.com/DrLavaYT/status/1321254397809098753

Answer 3

During the time, shellder was the only shell based Pokemon that wasnt evolved. When it clamps onto slowpokes tail, shellder needed to evolve, or slowbro would look strange. But since clamperl(shellders evolved form) would make slowbro look wierd as well, shellder instead evolved into a spiral shell. It was still a shellder.
EDIT: shellder evolves into cloyster.
Source: watching the indigo league anime. It has a reason as well.

Comments

Shellder evolves into Clamperl now, seems legit.

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lol didn't see your answer while I was writing.

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Well you could have started writing one second before I posted my answer.

Answer 4

My view is that since shellder usually spends its time under water, it has adapted to that environment, so when attaching to slowpoke (because slowpoke can walk on land and swim in water) it is forced to evolve into a special form so it can be sturdy enough to survive on all kinds of terrain, environments and weather.