>>43851440People didn't hate Emboar because he wast fat, it was a handful of different things.
He was gimped from the start since people were already irritated at another fire/fighting, so there was already ill-will towards him. In a design sense, he's just incredibly over designed, which comes from his theme-ing, but that in itself doesn't make it better. It's not outright bad though, just iffy. It also has the problem of looking incredibly inorganic, for what it is. Like, take Mr Mime, all his additional balls are incredibly inorganic, but they give him the appearance of clothes. They could have easily modified it to look more like he had clothes on. The pattern itself doesn't feel natural either, in that regard. Sure, you have stuff like Magmar's flames or Electobuzz's lighting strikes, but they look far more natural in comparison. His just looks like someone printed it on him. There is so much you could do to fix him.
His design isn't bad, it's just average to below average, coming out at a time when people were being critical of a new and experimental region, also not being the type of started they wanted in the first place. It's a shame, because he is honestly my favorite started from Unova; I personally think the other two starter's designs are far worse.
