>>37795258>>37795361I'll give you that the other two are bigger leaps, but a lot of people expected Rowlet to become an edgelord.
They just thought he'd become an assassin instead of an archer. Because one of the big things about him in the early info was that he threw his feathers that were sharp as knives.
As for the other two, while they made large thematic leaps, they at least kept a lot of shit the same.
Popplio kept a lot of the same body shape, just changed color, got slimmer and got clothes. It also kept the focus on entertainment that Popplio's early info gave and the idea of how it played with bubbles.
Litten to Incin was the most drastic, but even then the majority of the design aspects remained. It still kept the design on the forehead and the banded limbs. It really was just that Litten got swole and stood up, with the only really new design aspect being the belt which was actually an extension of Toracat's design in the end.
The point is, they don't drop major design aspects like Astrobun is doing to Scorbunny.
Scorbunny's big thumpers are clearly a major design element here. It's the first thing they focused on when introducing it in the trailer. It makes no sense for it to lose them completely when it evolves and get tiny nubs for feet.