>>57582154Only because those pokemon were proactively shilled and advertised *before* their inorganic popularity rocketed as a result. Any pokemon can artificially capture the fickle hearts of the masses when you plaster their image over everything. Executive and corporate marketing decisions plays more part in driving merchandise sales than the desires of the consumer does, especially as the aforementioned consumer desires are moulded around what they're exposed to.
Do you really think Charizard and Lucario are just naturally popular as a result of their inherent qualities, or is it because the consumer has been gaslit into favouring them by decades of organised advertisement campaigns? Pokemon like Huntail and Klang would be just as "popular" if they were plastered all over cover boxes, trading cards, the anime, the manga, the side-games, the plushies, the festivals, the theme-parks, etc. Your explanation is predicated on a hypothetical where pokemon other than Charizard and Lucario had a chance to shine, but in reality, these pokemon were propped up as idols for the masses long before anyone latched onto them naturally. Lucario in particular was all over the place even before Gen 4 officially started, because Gamefreak knew that's the pokemon they wanted to artificially boost.
