>>49908211What other reasons was there to remove the objectively kino weaponry theme, and thus make the entire evolution line nonsensical?
Remember that the late 90s/early 00s was the time of the first wave of political correctness being imposed upon video games. They were forced to change Jynx's design at this same time. This was the time when boomers were accusing Pokemon of being "satanic" or "promoting animal fighting".
GF came up with this kino design but cucked out because they knew Americans would go insane and accuse Pokemon of encouraging kids to perform school shootings. So they removed it and left gimped versions of Remoraid/Octillery in their place.
You can even tell from the names Teppouo in Japanese (derived from Teppo meaning gun), Octillery in English (derived from artillery) and Okutank in Japanese (derived from tank) that the entire concept of the Pokemon and why they were connected was a war/weaponry theme. They likely changed the designs very late into development, probably on the demands of Nintendo of America, so late that they couldn't even retcon the mons themselves to make them make sense.