>>44570624Yeah it's kind of funny you say that about the Johto starters, because while I doubt the Chikorita line would've ever been huge hits I could easily see a havily pushed Feraligatr being the Charizard of the Johtoddler generation (Typhlosion would probably feel a bit like a knock off zard back then while gatr is very different from blastoise). Pokemon is very inconsistent and strange with its shilling, sometimes doing everything right to push a design that almost certainly would've been very popular on its own and thus reaching huge heights (Charizard, Lucario, Greninja, etc) and other times only going halfway or outright botching the advertising (Zoroark, pushing Incineroar instead of Decidueye, etc). And there's nothing worse than when they feel the apparent need to put other starters down in-game, as if to say that they are the wrong choice (i.e. any of their respective trios that isn't Charizard, Incineroar, Cinderace), or how the anime will completely shit on guys like Torterra or Decidueye or Chesnaught and Delphox just to hype up its main product at the time. People get so fed up with Charizard shilling vs. stuff like Pikachu or Mewtwo being pushed because it's a starter pokemon, and the idea (in theory) is that they're all roughly equivalent and equally good choices for any kid. Even if starters will never all be precisely equally as strong or useful, seeing one so blatantly made to be better than the others is just insulting.
