>>46824814It depends on the Pokemon really.
Some evolutions are undeniably planned from the start like Scorbunny and Litten
But others you can just tell the writers didn't think about it until they saw how popular the fully evolved stage was (Lana's Primarina is probably the most notable offender)
In that Sobble's case it's hard to say, while Inteleon does has a big following in Japan which might've played a big part in helping Sobble's evolution, there's also the fact that Grookey (who they could've introduced at any time), was brought in
only once Sobble was on his way out the door, could also indicate that this could have been planned from the jump too
