>>43324338Were you alive in Gen 2? It is literally pikablu, Gen 2 Pikachu. It's stylisms and overall design share a lot of similarities with the Pikachu line, it even got a baby form in the generation after it was introduced, and they had a bunch of merch together.
Gen 4, which fully solidified the pikaclone trope as we know it today was what forced us with the electric type, but the intent during gen 2 was absolutely that Marill was the pikaclone of that gen
