>>49782865Corviknight had clear theming. It's a dark crow knight. That's a much campier and more recognizable form of coolness than the edgy mess of spikes and chunks Aggron was, and the fact that Corviknight outperforms Aggron in merchandising to such a heavy degree proves that it did something right that Aggron didn't.
Aggron desperately wants you to think it's cool.
Corviknight actually IS cool.
And of course early mons like Charizard are still going to get the attention of kids. It's a fire dragon. Every culture in the world has one of those.
The first generation pokemon that are still beloved by children aren't beloved because of some long lost forgotten design philosophy, they're beloved because they're easy to understand.
And even then, when you look at regional variants of generation 1 pokemon like alolan vulpix and galarian ponyta, you can clearly see shapes and visual language more akin to newer gen art direction. Bigger eyes and heads, less desaturated colors, etc.
Methinks you're missing the forest for the trees, anonymous.
