>>55870818Didn't TPC try to do the same thing with Zoroark and failed. It got its own movie dedicated to it, they made it seem like a legendary in its debut game even though its actually a common mon in every subsequent game, and was a common part of Black and White marketing I think.
That's not to say Zoroark isn't popular, it is, but it never reached Lucario's level of popularity for whatever reason, so maybe there's something specific about Lucario that people really like. It also didn't help that the next Smash happened in gen 6, so gen 5 was skipped, making Zoroark bereft of the chance of being more recognizable to non-Pokemon fans
Like some said, Lucario is one of the few Pokemon that gets to be more like an actual character and not some wild or tamed animal in various media. Although TPC doesn't make Lucario more like a character or human in media anymore, Smash still carries on with him being more like his movie appearance
>>55870818TPC is doing the same thing with Meowscarada. It gets to be Unite, be Liko's starter in the anime, gets merch, and gets to be the only fully evolved evo in Paldean winds. It's very obvious that TPC was fans and kids to only like Meowscarada, it makes me wonder if Gamefreak and TPC regrets having to make 3 starters each gen, because it's very clear they want people to exclusively like Meowscarada and not the other 2
