>>56456420Torchic would be the easiest pick, but the fact that Megas are back kind of rule it out because it'd mean having either one starter with an old Mega and two with a new one, or only one starter with a Mega while the other two don't.
Both scenarios are impossible because they'd cause the three starters to not be equal in appeal from both a marketing and gameplay perspective.
The two most likely Fire starters, Torchic aside, are Litten and Scorbunny (Chimchar already got some exposure due to PLA and BDSP, Charmander has old Megas so it's the same issue as Torchic, Tepig makes even less sense than Scorbunny in terms of inspiration, for Fuecoco it's too early).
Litten, however, has the problem of Incineroar being still a very popular pick in competitive (and I suspect they are going to move the competitive to PLZA for 2025 because they have already shown in the announcement trailer that it'll be a game more focused on battles compared to PLA, which is also why Megas are back) and I'm not sure they want to give it an alternate evolution anytime soon. It MIGHT be though, I think Litten is the most likely after Scorbunny.
Scorbunny is already a European starter, it's a soccer player and also a bunny. Apparently some towns and parts of France have an overabundance of rabbit population.
Surely it would fit better than a Chinese pig. It's on tie with Litten for me, but slightly more likely.
Scorbunny is also a lot more shilled than Litten as a starter in merch lately as it was pointed out already.
