>>38399568Well, when you think about it, nobody gave much of a shit about any of the Alola starter evos for the first year and a half.
Understandable, because they're all utter garbage. Reception was merely alright, which is why some early bloomers hogged most of the attention, like Mimikyu and Rowlet. Speaking about Rowlet, it's also the main reason why Decidueye didn't make it big time (yes, he was popular early on, but hardly any measure of popularity that can be referred to as consequential).
Think about Greninja for a moment. Back when the Base Stages of the Starters were first revealed, Froakie was the most low key of the bunch. Most people gravitated to either Fennekin or Chespin. Froakie was so low key that people didn't have high expectations for the line, so when the evolutions came out and they turned out to be good, a subversion of expectation came to be, and this subversion helped make Greninja more memorable in people's eyes, seeing that in their view, he " saved" the line.
In Rowlet's case, people REALLY fucking loved Rowlet from the start. This meant that expectations were incredibly high for the Final stage. When the final stage was revealed and turned out to be " just OK" in their eyes, but failed to live to the expectations, they kinda just began to forget about it after a super short and lame honeymoon phase and went back to appreciating the stage they actually cared for.
Well, it's that AND the fact that competitively it was utter shit, though i personally believe competitive viability doesn't sway public opinion that much, or else Talonflames and Landorus would be all over peoples fave lists.
