>>40279525There was never any certainty. No one considered Primarina simply due to the fact that it was clearly designed for the female audience. One of them had to be the forced next Charizard/Greninja. Masses chose Decidueye before Incineroar started to get shilled, but from concept alone, I was already afraid that thing was going to be shoved just because wrestling has more of a worldwide appeal than arching. Peoples' contrast from back then compared to now is a full blown evidence of just how impacting Game Freak and the anime's presence in marketing is in concerns of driving that focus to just one starter and making it stand out via promoting.
You can't really avoid it once it gets everywhere. And truth be told, it's something that I actually despise from Game Freak themselves, since it's pretty much the concept of "if it's everywhere, people will start to get used to it".
