>>48590527Very disingenuous to refer to Gen 2’s usage as pandering.
Johto really is West Kanto, doesn’t have its own E4 and the two will always be connected.
Lance gets Charizard in Gen 2 so he can have a team of 6, the only new Dragon type is Kingra but that became Claire’s main. Lance’s main has always been Dragonite and giving him a Charizard did nothing to chance that.
As for the intro, Lapras, Magikarp, Cloyster Jigglypuff and Pikachu all get as much scream thing, I think it was just convenient to use fire blast to create a white screen.
Now on the other hand, Gen 6 is nothing but Kanto pandering where Charizard gets two megas, and giving the Gen 8 Champion a Charizard, “the most popular Pokémon in Galar” is just pandering. Diantha is the only other Champion to have a non native as their main and that was due to no Gen 6 mons having Megas
