>>27439064It should lead towards the thematic in the final stage, but not just be it but smaller. There's a notable difference between, say, Dewott and Samurott with Dewott being more a regular samurai and Samurott possibly having the armored shogun theme behind it. Or, Frogaider and Greninja with the former appearing more like a masked burglar which works with the general rouge theme of the line that promotes into the ninja class of Greninja.
Try to find and make an approach similar to theirs. The water starter has been designed by the same person in the basic brainstorming concepts all of the past three gens, so it's likely they're doing Popplio too.
