>>34423933Pikachu and Charizard are mascot characters, but they are not forced upon you in-game as aggressively as Lucario.
Pikachu gets loads of free shit, special items, forms, moves, and so on, but aside from Pokemon Yellow (where the selling point was being vidya Ash) Pikachu is not forced into your party as part of game progression.
XY lets you have a Kanto starter, but you do not have to take Charmander. Charizard otherwise shows up as a Ride Pokemon in SMUSUM, which is completely forgivable since it means no fucking HMs and isn't an actual party member.
Lucario sneaks into the progression of multiple games, even being aggressively forced upon the player in XY for a battle. A not-insignificant amount of players had their first Mega-Evolution be a Lucario, as opposed to being a Pokemon they actually chose or even liked. This alone put a really sour taste in a lot of mouths that is unmatched by (optional) WiFi Pikachus or 5-second-cutscene Charizards.
