>>54293116That's a fair assessment, I feel like Lucas/Rei has had very little going for him that would make someone want to attach to him the same way they would other characters, let alone protagonists, as a prof's assistant, he's very flat and you never fight him till BDSP. In PLA despite being the tutorial boy he has literally no role in the plot, people can't even project a character onto him, because he's so threadbare, doesn't help that his showing in PokeSpe was unremarkable too.
As you said his design is inoffensive which means it lacks anything standout (i.e Brenden's hathair thing that was a debate for ages) and doesn't lean enough in any direction to make it memorable in any way, it turns out even a more negative reception (like to Nate's palm tree hairdo) or a joke reception (Chicken's...chicken hat) is better than a completely neutral one.
I do wonder if its possible to save him, but I don't really care that much to see it overall. I just find the insurmountable powergap between him and Dawn interesting.
