>>41472019Gardevoir also came in the exact right time, i.e. the early 2000s with the internet's waifufag community just coming into its own. It's sort of like how Golden Sun got popular actually, it was in the right place when there wasn't much competition and catered to an audience that really wanted a handheld JRPG.
Gardevoir became popular during an era where 1, Pokemon was super big but was not an online game community for the most part, and 2, people weren't going through pretty characters like water due to ease of access. This, combined with the pretty, delicate look and the fact that you could catch and own her, drove a ton of people to adore the design. In addition, the people that adored her as kids are in their young adult (17-25) age bracket right now, and are the prime base to be using social media, after over a decade of having Garde as their favorite.
Gothitelle was never popular simply because it was rather ugly to most people. The design was just not as wide in appeal. The strange lips, the big earlike protrusions, the flat, stocky dress, all diminished the appeal to many who would have otherwise welcomed another feminine psychic design.
Hatterene is just starting out, but is facing heavy competition and a potential fanbase that discards girls in a few days after jerking it to one or two pieces of twitter art. In addition, this bizarrely forced "rivalry" between Gardefags and Hattfags has already turned away many vets of it that had no problem with designs like Tsareena that did not have this antagonism.
It has potential, but until many years later we will not know if it managed to secure kids as long lasting fans for itself as Gardevoir did in the past, or if it was just another drop in the "hurr I have 1000 waifus" twittertard bucket. It's a bad time to be some new girly monster with the aim of attracting a lasting fanbase, ignoring any of this silly fan-fight business.
