>>49571972Actually, it was likely designed as just a tall Sneasel due to a pretty ridiculous reason. In short it's based on a yokai called the onyudo, or "big monk", that was known to inflict diseases on travelers. This idea was put onto Sneasel since the yokai was known to live among mountains and could transform into the form of a weasel. Anyways, getting to Sneasler, it's Japanese name is Onyula, a combination of Onyudo and Sneasel's Japanese name, Nyula. The way these two are arranged could be understood as "big Sneasel", so they took that idea to heart. In the same vein, its English name is likely just Sneasel with an -er added at the end to imply more Sneasel than usual.
The short version of all this is that Game Freak made this absurd design just for the sake of a pun. Regardless, I would also doubt it being among the last designs due to it being important as a Ride Pokémon. Sneasel and by extension Qwilfish's forms may have absolutely been last-minute, however.
