>>20704902>Lucario wasn't decided for people.TOP KEK
Lucario is the only Pokemon, Barring legendaries, that has been actively forced to being liked.
It was announced early, and with a starring role in a movie. It was seen as high and mighty since it's inception, what with all the Lucario Rank in PMD, it being gifted to you in pretty much every game, and of course, The gigantic altar to him along with the first Pokemon to Mega-Evolve title in X/Y among others.
Some people argue that Zoroark could've been just as popular, seeing as he also had a movie. But take into account the importance of voice. The human voice is one of the things we can empathize most with, that's why it was given the ability to "speak", something that only legendaries
and meowth have been shown to do. It wasn't just a few who actually though the thing was a legendary pokemon just because of his appearance there. Also add a dash of sad and dark backstory for additional fanficster swooning.
In contrast, Zoroark was just another "beasty" pokemon, the lack of voice makes it harder to relate to for little kids and, to be honest, they blew it by making it share the spotlight with his Kawaii version, Zorua. Hell, i'd be willing to say Zorua gets more screentime than Zoroark itself. Add to that the fact that it was impossible to obtain in the games, and ended up being totally useless in competitive and you get an obvious recipe for disaster.
At least Charizard wasn't really pushed until Gen VI, and that was AFTER he cemented his popularity. I don't hate Auradog, but you're delusional if you don't believe he isn't, to a certain extent, "artificially popular".
tl;dr:
-Insert controversial LE GAMEFREAK'S LIGHTNING meme here- 
