>>26624464I'll be honest with you, dude. I chose Oshawott while playing White. I was happy when it evolved into Dewott. It kinda did remind me of American box art Kirby, but with 2 swords instead of the one that Oshawott had, nothing TOO creative, but it looked neat. When it evolved into Samurott, my reaction was actually pleasant like yours: It's a big badass Samurai thing.
The problem is that, even though i initially liked the design, the more i looked into it the more i ended up noting its flaws. I ended up noticing not only the biological inconsistencies, but how they interfered with the overall concept. You see, the problem with using an actual existing concept is that now it can easily be weighed into that conceptual standard. Wielding a sword doesn't make you a Samurai. A Samurai must be a master of the art. Taking this into account, the choices of animal basis that can fulfill that concept properly narrows down to those who have extremely similar body composition to that of humans, including the upright posture and the same kind of vast joint mobility that our hinge and Ball-and-Socket joints can offer.
The "kick-'em-while-they're-down" criticism for samurott is that some other starter can get away with it. Greninja is complimented by the fact that Frogs are interwoven in Ninja folklore; and Empoleon has the actual Emperor Penguin to back up its concept.
Samurott has none of that. I've never seen any actual source to the citations that Samurott was the brainchild of a writer's block, but judging by how haphazardly its line was handled, i wouldn't doubt it to be true.
