I'll just leave this here to alleive some annoyance:
Konikoni was basically my stone dump. Not a bad place to dump them, though.
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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
Konikoni sells you Fire/Water/Leaf/Thunder, and is pretty early in Alola.
In Galar, there's a Stone Ring in the wild area with all the stones available, regenerating, as soon as you get the surfing bike. There's also the digging duo. I speak from experience that it's annoying to get something you want from them, especially early on, but it's at least a possibility if you're willing to grind.
Also, LET US DEPOSIT ITEMS IN THE PC. Seriously, I do not want to carry around 90% of the random crap they throw at us, but if there's only 1 Prism Scale in the game I can't justify selling it. Let us store them somewhere out-of-sight, please.
Definitely this. Especially all the memories that Silvally uses. I don't want to have to scan through that stuff just to find a life orb or whatever.
Favourites and a new folder for special items are handy. But depositing would be a lot easier.
In Generation 7, we got Kukui, possibly the coolest Pokemon Professor out there with an actual personality.
In Generation 8 we get
literally who?
In Generation 8 we get
literally who?
Hey but in exchange Sword and Shield gave us Sonia, so that checks out.
I think Magnolia is meant to be not very memorable because one of the prevailing themes in Sword and Shield's adventure is the passing of the torch from the older to the younger generation. Like how Opal passes the torch to Bede, Piers passes the torch to his sister Marnie, Rose's former property after his arrest is taken over by Leon after Leon loses his Champion position, with that being passed to the player (Victor/Gloria).
Likewise Magnolia is mainly overshadowed by her granddaughter Sonia who is far more memorable with the game focusing on her journey of doing research on the legends of Galar until it comes full circle with Magnolia passing the torch of Professor to Sonia so that Sonia herself becomes a full blown Professor. Even more so when she takes Hop under her wing as her intern.
Plus Sonia stands out a lot more in the game anyway due to her personality and the fact that she's old friends with Leon. Magnolia herself may not be memorable, but Sonia most certainly is so that more than makes up for it.
Sonia is there yes but mentioning Sonia meant my post wouldn't have been as nearly as snarky and that means I no funny
but yes passing the torch is an interesting theme. I utterly hate Rose and all the plot tied to him though.
For the obnoxiously long route in Hoenn? Yeah, that's bad.This is a slightly larger moan than some on here, but I believe one of the worst designs of the usually interesting puzzles is the currents in the ocean, featured in Hoenn's Routes 132-134, Unova's Route 17, and the Seafoam Islands in FRLG. Here's some examples, if you don't remember them:
I think these are a really poor design: you have to go through the route multiple times to face all the trainers and get all the items, they're really easy to get lost in given that getting on one wave often sends you halfway across the route, and extremely confusing visually. This is especially frustrating in Unova, where Route 18 has to be accessed via Route 17, and a small section of shoreline is reached from a completely different place from the rest, using the currents. You have to go all the way along the south side of the route to the bottom left corner, along a long, convoluted path through Route 18, then arrive at the top left to rejoin Route 17. You'll then see in the picture that you can head through a small gap between the currents to go past the top left trainer - one wrong step and you literally get sent back all the way to the beginning though. You also need multiple trips to get to the island in the missing top-right section, as well as to the shallow water, which holds some items - and getting on different bits of the same current can get you in different places too. The ORAS one is even more annoying visually, and it covers almost the entire of three routes, as well as the activation point for the Regis sidequest!
Maybe Game Freak realised that the puzzles are bad though, as they have never made a new region with one since Generation 5, and the last two generations do not feature one.
Does anyone else really hate these puzzles?
Seafoam Islands are great tho.
As for my contribution today...
SwSh ABSOLUTELY needed a Held Item pocket. The bag is a mess in that game.
There's a difference between sounding snarky and sounding like you don't know what you're talking about. The former is funny, the latter is just frustrating.
I wouldn't be that harsh.
Remember that in SWSH's promotions they said Magnolia was the Professor with them describing Sonia at most as her granddaughter and assistant. Also, after having had 3 regions of youthful Professors I do think some people were looking forward to not only another elderly Professor but also another female Professor, and our first elderly female Professor. AND with her research being the Dynamax/Gigantamax phenomenon she had a lot of curiosities behind her and her involvement with the plot. Sadly, as we've all noted, she got the short end of the stick as she was there more to represent the theme of the game of passing down the torch, her involvement being nothing more than handing the player the Dyanamax Band and then disappearing until later in the game to officially make Sonia a Professor (which I guess she has the power to do? Would think you'd need some official documentation from an educational institute for that) and retiring.
The entire bag needs to be redone. Let's see, where did I have my bag redone idea...
- GENERAL ITEMS:
* Battle Items (Sub-Groupings: X Items, Type-enhancing, EV-enhancing, Gems, Mega Stones, Z-Crystals, Plates, Drives, Memories)
* Repels/Lures
* Valuables (Sub-Groupings: Evolution Stones, Fossils, Incenses, Apricorns, Bottle Caps, Scarves)
- MEDICINE:
* Potions/Full Restore
* Status Healers/Revives
* Ethers/Elixirs
* Vitamins/Rare Candy/Wings
* Herbal Medicine
* Food (Drinks, Full Heal Treats)
- POKE BALLS
- TMs/HMs/TRs
- BERRIES: (Instead of Sub-Groupings it has additional viewing options)
* Numerical Order
* Status Curing (Cheri, Chesto, Pecha, Rawst, Aspear, Leppa, Persim, Lum)
* Healing (Oran, Sitrus, Figy, Wiki, Mago, Aguav, Iapapa)
* EV Lowering (Pomeg, Kelpsy, Qualot, Hondew, Grepa, Tomato)
* Type Weakening (Occaa, Passho, Wacan, Rindo, Yache, Chople, Kebia, Shuca, Coba, Payapa, Tanga, Charti, Kasib, Haban, Colbur, Babiri, Chilan, Roseli)
* Pinch (Liechi, Ganlon, Salac, Petaya, Apicot, Lansat, Starf, Enigma, Micle, Custap)
* Reflex (Jaboca, Rowap, Kee, Maranga)
* By Flavors (Choose a Flavor: Spicy, Dry Sweet, Bitter, Sour)
- KEY ITEMS:
* Trainer Tools (Pokedex, Assisting Device (Gear, Nav, Poketch, C-Gear, Holo Caster, etc.), Bicycle, Fishing Rod, Running Shoes, Exp. Share, Key Stone, Z-Ring, any item that would be useful to the player)
* Important (Key Items important to the main plot like key cards & Legendary artifacts)
- FREE SPACE
Guys I knew Sonia was in the game all along. It was a simple joke. It’s obvious she has more of a role than Magnolia. Nothing more, nothing less.
I do posts like this because I don’t want to make huge analytical posts all the time. Sometimes I just want to make a quick laugh. I honestly didn’t mean to generate this much discourse over it. I sometimes think I go to far in the other direction, being over-explaining of my opinions.
I do posts like this because I don’t want to make huge analytical posts all the time. Sometimes I just want to make a quick laugh. I honestly didn’t mean to generate this much discourse over it. I sometimes think I go to far in the other direction, being over-explaining of my opinions.
No. We need to over-analyze this.
Is it really an Orange Islands thread if we don't?No. We need to over-analyze this.
There's too little information about Pokémon designs overall. Many would be glad to know more about inspirations or maybe the complete measures of a Pokémon (instead of an ambiguous "height" value).
The fact that the Kalos starters didn't get Mega Evolutions bothers me to this day.
While I find Mega Evolution to be a cool concept, I feel like it had flawed execution in several ways, but one of them definitely applies here. The designs are nice and creative, and they are all good Pokemon in terms of battle, but not giving them their own generational gimmick in their own debut games backfired on the Kalos starters hard.
Greninja got lucky because it has a standout design for a starter, got to be Ash's ace in XY and later got a super form, and took off competitively in both Smogon OU and VGC for having an exceptional and unique Hidden Ability, plus getting to be in Smash. I can't deny I latched onto Greninja at first sight myself, even though I also liked Delphox and Chesnaught a lot back then (and still do). But then you look at the other two and they are not so warmly received. Delphox is pretty divisive compared to Braixen and Fennekin (doesn't help Serena's Fennekin only went up to Braixen and that's it), and Chesnaught is overshadowed, if not disliked in several cases.
You could argue their designs had something to do with it, but that's subjective. But a real problem with the Kalos starters is that they are severely overshadowed, and that's not their fault, but it's Game Freak's. Chesnaught is so unpopular that not a single member of its line made it into the Top 30 Kalos mons in the Pokemon of the Year 2020. If you look at several places online you'll find that Chesnaught and Delphox in particular are two of the least popular starters of all time.
And I think there's a reason for that that has nothing to do with them actually being bad. You could argue that they are overshadowed by Greninja, which they are. But they were already doomed to be overshadowed from the very beginning, even before we all knew they existed, in their own debut games of X and Y. And who was it in their debut games that was bound to overshadow them?
The Kanto starters.
That's right. The Kanto starters. X and Y already gets a lot of shit for the incessant amount of Kanto pandering it has in the game, and this is a prime example of it all. They not only put the Kanto starters, three of the most iconic Pokemon lines of all time, in the game, they made them available early in the game as second starters, and they were the ones who got Mega Evolutions. Not only are the Kalos starters themselves overshadowed because Game Freak literally did not give them Megas even though they are supposed to be your number one friend and partner, they basically encourage you to put them to the side by giving you a Kanto starter, who actually has the ability to have this cool new super transformation! So why bother with your Chespin, Fennekin, or Froakie, that mon who is supposed to be your ace, when the Kanto starter you get from Sycamore can do that but better and have an awesome new transformation? Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise and their entire evo families are super iconic at this point, and this just further reinforced their own already existing popularity while leaving the Kalos starters themselves to be doomed to being overshadowed.
By not giving the Kalos starters Megas in their own game, and willingly putting in the Kanto starters in there and letting the Kanto ones be the ones who can Mega Evolve, the Gen 6 starters were doomed already in their own game. Why use Chesnaught when you can use Bulbasaur, who evolves into Venusaur and can Mega Evolve and has an epic ability and godly bulk, in tandem with Greninja to form a fast mon+tank duo? Why use Delphox when the epic fire breathing Dragon Charizard is in the game, and it comes with not one, but two amazing Megas, each with their own degree of awesomeness. Greninja gets the better end of the deal, since its main competition here is Blastoise, and while Blastoise is cool, it's no Bulbasaur or Charizard. So aside from Greninja's marketing going off against the least popular starter.
This is an egregious case of Kanto pandering in XY because it immediately doomed its own starters to unpopularity on virtue of bringing in three of the most iconic Gen 1 Pokemon of all time who serve the same role and letting them be the cool Megas instead of the Kalos ones.
Even moreso when during the pre-release phase of X and Y, when Megas were being hyped, The Pokemon Company went full throttle in marketing Mega Venusaur, Mega Charizard, and Mega Blastoise, all the while they neglected to ever show off Chesnaught, Delphox, or Greninja in any capacity. Never mind the fact that Sycamore literally uses Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise in your battles against him!
Meanwhile, look at ORAS, which actually went out of its way to actually give its own starters Mega Evolutions. Mega Blaziken came before ORAS, granted, but Sceptile and Swampert got their share of the pie now too. And they also emphasized that they had Megas and had great ones in that regard too. Your first partner in Hoenn, now capable of having Megas, furthering their ability to serve as your ace. This helped their popularity go up: Sceptile, Blaziken, and Swampert were already popular to begin with, this brought them up to the higher end of the popularity scale. No, not just because they had the new Super Modes, but even without them they didn't have anyone to overshadow them like the Kalos ones getting overshadowed by Kanto.
The Alola and Galar starters have been much more fortunate, as unlike in Kalos, you don't have the Kanto starters available to you in game to overshadow them like the XY ones, and not only that, the Alola and Galar starters have special access to their own unique Super Mechanics, as Decidueye, Incineroar, and Primarina all got special signature Z-Moves, which the marketing team made no hesitation in showing off (meanwhile the Kanto starters straight up were left out which was nothing but beneficial for the Alola ones in terms of popularity), and as a result, Decidueye, Incineroar, and Primarina have all achieved a fair amount of popularity, the former two even getting to show up in fighting games and Rowlet is in Legends. Meanwhile, the Galar starters didn't have G-Maxes at first, but they got them come Isle of Armor, and so they are now getting their share of the pie and while they're pretty recent, in the long run the three are sure to be reasonably popular because they have G-Maxes now and aren't overshadowed by the Kanto ones being there. Not to mention two of them are strong in VGC. Sure, G-Max Charizard exists and is Leon's ace, but a player can't use one on their in-game journey in Galar until after they defeat Leon, so the odds that Charizard will overshadow your Galar starter are zero. Even now you can see Charizard doesn't overshadow Cinderace in the slightest. Bulbasaur and Squirtle are attached to DLC so even though you could hypothetically get them, not everyone can use them, and they come pretty late for the point you will feasibly be allowed to have them. So by that point you don't have an incentive to let them overshadow your Galar starter, and if you have the DLC, you can G-Max your Galar starter so the Kanto and Galar starters are on an even playing field in that regard.
When you look at it that way, the Kalos starters not receiving Megas in their own games sticks out like a sore thumb, and given the way they were treated even in their debut generation, both in terms of in-game and in terms of marketing, it's no wonder they (except Greninja) never took off well at all.
More than anything it's a really bad case where the Kanto pandering comes at the expense of a game's own starters. Alola and Galar didn't fall into this pitfall and thus their starters manage to accumulate a good amount of popularity that they deserve and are memorable for their designs and strong battling prowess. Meanwhile Chesnaught and Delphox in particular, while standing alongside Greninja hurts their popularity, their ability to become popular was already crushed from the get go by them not receiving Super Mechanic Mega Evolution and instead having the Kanto starters both get Megas and have them usable in-game as "a better starter" for the game.
It's quite irksome in hindsight, really.
While I find Mega Evolution to be a cool concept, I feel like it had flawed execution in several ways, but one of them definitely applies here. The designs are nice and creative, and they are all good Pokemon in terms of battle, but not giving them their own generational gimmick in their own debut games backfired on the Kalos starters hard.
Greninja got lucky because it has a standout design for a starter, got to be Ash's ace in XY and later got a super form, and took off competitively in both Smogon OU and VGC for having an exceptional and unique Hidden Ability, plus getting to be in Smash. I can't deny I latched onto Greninja at first sight myself, even though I also liked Delphox and Chesnaught a lot back then (and still do). But then you look at the other two and they are not so warmly received. Delphox is pretty divisive compared to Braixen and Fennekin (doesn't help Serena's Fennekin only went up to Braixen and that's it), and Chesnaught is overshadowed, if not disliked in several cases.
You could argue their designs had something to do with it, but that's subjective. But a real problem with the Kalos starters is that they are severely overshadowed, and that's not their fault, but it's Game Freak's. Chesnaught is so unpopular that not a single member of its line made it into the Top 30 Kalos mons in the Pokemon of the Year 2020. If you look at several places online you'll find that Chesnaught and Delphox in particular are two of the least popular starters of all time.
And I think there's a reason for that that has nothing to do with them actually being bad. You could argue that they are overshadowed by Greninja, which they are. But they were already doomed to be overshadowed from the very beginning, even before we all knew they existed, in their own debut games of X and Y. And who was it in their debut games that was bound to overshadow them?
The Kanto starters.
That's right. The Kanto starters. X and Y already gets a lot of shit for the incessant amount of Kanto pandering it has in the game, and this is a prime example of it all. They not only put the Kanto starters, three of the most iconic Pokemon lines of all time, in the game, they made them available early in the game as second starters, and they were the ones who got Mega Evolutions. Not only are the Kalos starters themselves overshadowed because Game Freak literally did not give them Megas even though they are supposed to be your number one friend and partner, they basically encourage you to put them to the side by giving you a Kanto starter, who actually has the ability to have this cool new super transformation! So why bother with your Chespin, Fennekin, or Froakie, that mon who is supposed to be your ace, when the Kanto starter you get from Sycamore can do that but better and have an awesome new transformation? Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise and their entire evo families are super iconic at this point, and this just further reinforced their own already existing popularity while leaving the Kalos starters themselves to be doomed to being overshadowed.
By not giving the Kalos starters Megas in their own game, and willingly putting in the Kanto starters in there and letting the Kanto ones be the ones who can Mega Evolve, the Gen 6 starters were doomed already in their own game. Why use Chesnaught when you can use Bulbasaur, who evolves into Venusaur and can Mega Evolve and has an epic ability and godly bulk, in tandem with Greninja to form a fast mon+tank duo? Why use Delphox when the epic fire breathing Dragon Charizard is in the game, and it comes with not one, but two amazing Megas, each with their own degree of awesomeness. Greninja gets the better end of the deal, since its main competition here is Blastoise, and while Blastoise is cool, it's no Bulbasaur or Charizard. So aside from Greninja's marketing going off against the least popular starter.
This is an egregious case of Kanto pandering in XY because it immediately doomed its own starters to unpopularity on virtue of bringing in three of the most iconic Gen 1 Pokemon of all time who serve the same role and letting them be the cool Megas instead of the Kalos ones.
Even moreso when during the pre-release phase of X and Y, when Megas were being hyped, The Pokemon Company went full throttle in marketing Mega Venusaur, Mega Charizard, and Mega Blastoise, all the while they neglected to ever show off Chesnaught, Delphox, or Greninja in any capacity. Never mind the fact that Sycamore literally uses Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise in your battles against him!
Meanwhile, look at ORAS, which actually went out of its way to actually give its own starters Mega Evolutions. Mega Blaziken came before ORAS, granted, but Sceptile and Swampert got their share of the pie now too. And they also emphasized that they had Megas and had great ones in that regard too. Your first partner in Hoenn, now capable of having Megas, furthering their ability to serve as your ace. This helped their popularity go up: Sceptile, Blaziken, and Swampert were already popular to begin with, this brought them up to the higher end of the popularity scale. No, not just because they had the new Super Modes, but even without them they didn't have anyone to overshadow them like the Kalos ones getting overshadowed by Kanto.
The Alola and Galar starters have been much more fortunate, as unlike in Kalos, you don't have the Kanto starters available to you in game to overshadow them like the XY ones, and not only that, the Alola and Galar starters have special access to their own unique Super Mechanics, as Decidueye, Incineroar, and Primarina all got special signature Z-Moves, which the marketing team made no hesitation in showing off (meanwhile the Kanto starters straight up were left out which was nothing but beneficial for the Alola ones in terms of popularity), and as a result, Decidueye, Incineroar, and Primarina have all achieved a fair amount of popularity, the former two even getting to show up in fighting games and Rowlet is in Legends. Meanwhile, the Galar starters didn't have G-Maxes at first, but they got them come Isle of Armor, and so they are now getting their share of the pie and while they're pretty recent, in the long run the three are sure to be reasonably popular because they have G-Maxes now and aren't overshadowed by the Kanto ones being there. Not to mention two of them are strong in VGC. Sure, G-Max Charizard exists and is Leon's ace, but a player can't use one on their in-game journey in Galar until after they defeat Leon, so the odds that Charizard will overshadow your Galar starter are zero. Even now you can see Charizard doesn't overshadow Cinderace in the slightest. Bulbasaur and Squirtle are attached to DLC so even though you could hypothetically get them, not everyone can use them, and they come pretty late for the point you will feasibly be allowed to have them. So by that point you don't have an incentive to let them overshadow your Galar starter, and if you have the DLC, you can G-Max your Galar starter so the Kanto and Galar starters are on an even playing field in that regard.
When you look at it that way, the Kalos starters not receiving Megas in their own games sticks out like a sore thumb, and given the way they were treated even in their debut generation, both in terms of in-game and in terms of marketing, it's no wonder they (except Greninja) never took off well at all.
More than anything it's a really bad case where the Kanto pandering comes at the expense of a game's own starters. Alola and Galar didn't fall into this pitfall and thus their starters manage to accumulate a good amount of popularity that they deserve and are memorable for their designs and strong battling prowess. Meanwhile Chesnaught and Delphox in particular, while standing alongside Greninja hurts their popularity, their ability to become popular was already crushed from the get go by them not receiving Super Mechanic Mega Evolution and instead having the Kanto starters both get Megas and have them usable in-game as "a better starter" for the game.
It's quite irksome in hindsight, really.
Veeeery slight and pedantic correction: It is actually possible to use Charizard in-game in SWSH, however it is a raid exclusive in the highest-level areas and as such you really have to go out of your way to use it.
Other than that, I wholeheartedly agree. When you lay it out the way you did it becomes more impressive just how big Greninja got considering the deck being stacked against it at launch, although not to the extent of the other two.
Even if Charizard weren't in the game, there's no good reason to use Delphox.
I mean, if you want a Fire-type so badly, there's a Pokémon in the very first route that evolves into one, and that does not look like it was taken out from a nightmare.
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Well I can think of a few reasons to use Delphox over Charizard, especially in normal playthroughs. For one, Delphox has a better (or at least more specialized) stat distribution compared to normal Charizard. Slightly better SpAtk, SpDef, and Spd makes Delphox a tad better at nuking and taking special dmg. This obviously changes once Charizard mega evolves, but I'll cover that later.
Another reason to use Delphox over Charizard is movepool differences. For normal playthroughs, move coverage is fairly important - especially if your team has holes for a myriad of reasons. Charizard has a poor natural level-up move pool. Most of its early moves are physical, and it doesn't get access to anything really outright powerful until Flamethrower (it learns Flamethrower earlier in Gen 8, but as Delphox got Dexited it's impossible to know if it would learn it earlier as well). Moreover, most of Charizard's moves are fire type, with some normal, dragon, and two flying moves (Air Slash requires Move Tutor I think?). TMs can make up some of the difference, but unfortunately they're mostly physical moves. If you're playing X and will be using Charizard exclusively to Mega this is less of an issue, but in Y you're going to struggle more.
Delphox on the other hand has a much better level-up movepool. Almost all of Delphox's moves match its combat specialty, and they're evenly distributed between psychic and fire. Moreover, TM's add even more coverage - Shadow Ball and Dazzling Gleam come to mind. Realistically, Delphox can cover a lot more holes in your team than Charizard ever could.
The last issue in Delphox's favor is how you get access to Charizard's Megas. For ORAS and SM/USUM, while both Charizardite's are available, they can't be found until the postgame. For XY it's a little more different. X will force you to build Charizard as a physical if you want to Mega - which forces you to Mega if you want to use it optionally. Y is little more forgiving, but you'll still be limited by Charizard's poor special move coverage. If you want to build for the opposite Mega, the only way to do so is through trading or events.
Moreover - and this is where I could with some more info - getting the Mega stones in XY is a tad more wonky. If you didn't choose Charmander as your Kanto starter, you'll have to pay for it - and they are very expensive. Otherwise, you'll get it for free. However (and here's where I could do with some more info) I'm not entirely sure when they're made available to you. It's been a long time since I played XY, so I don't remember. If someone does know, please do comment.
Realistically though, Charizard only overtakes Delphox in the postgame. Charizard has access to two Megas while Delphox has zero, both of which have very good builds to work with and synergize well with others. Coverage matters less in the postgame as well, since you'll probably be building more balanced teams, so Charizard doesn't loose out so hard. Not to mention Charizard gets access to a lot of good Egg and Move Tutor Moves (especially for physical builds) while Delphox might as well not have any except Heat Wave. Delphox also has a lot more weaknesses, which becomes a much bigger issue in the postgame where you will definitely be taking damage - instead of being able to select optimal battles.
I think what Scrafty said really does sum up the issue with Delphox.
Delphox, the magic fox witch, is just...not as instantly cool a design. It's a bit soft, and the hair tuffs are kinda weird - at least for me. I think GF was trying to garner a different audience with each of the Gen 6 starters, and Delphox's audience is more niche and one that isn't as involved/active online.
This is ofc speculation, but I'm fairly confident that GF designs new starters for specific genders. Pre Gen 6 starters are fairly gender neutral, but Gen 6+ starters are more anthropomorphic - most of whom have a stereotypically gendered slant. Primarina, for example, is very clearly a Mermaid/Siren, which are stereotypically female. Delphox also falls into this category, as kitsune and witchcraft are often stereotyped as feminine. Moreover, the people who have these Pokemon in the anime are female as well (Serena and Lana). Not sure about Gen 8 - it's a lot less clear, so they may have dropped this convention. Or are at least being less obvious about it.
That's not to say that these Pokemon are to be liked exclusively by their target gender. But that seems to be GF's intention, for better or for worse. This all relates back to Delphox's likeability issue. Not quite sure how to phrase this without excluding/offending someone, but the people who fit Delphox's target demographic are probably more casual. People who are less likely to get involved in voting for their favorite Pokemon, playing through postgame competitive content, coming on Smogon, etc. So Delphox fans are probably underrepresented overall. Would be interesting to get better data on this though.
Hope I didn't offend anyone with all this, but let me make it clear: whatever GF intends is irrelevant: all Pokemon are valid and you are obviously free to engage with the franchise as you want and like whatever you desire.
Relating to this, here's something annoys me about Pokemon: Weird ass sizes
Lucario is 3'11
Furret is 5'11
Nidoking is 4'7
Groudon, ruler of Land and often depicted as being Godzilla sized...is smaller than a Giraffe at 11'6.
Gengar is also much taller than expected at 4'11
And here you can see just how meaningless the official Pokedex sizes are. Lucario and Gengar are about the same height in the anime, meaning Lucario is either 4'11 or Gengar is 3'11, I prefer to believe the former since it makes more sense and I love huge Gengar. I don't know how tall 10/11 year olds tend to be but 3'11 sounds a bit short for Ash in my opinion. Regardless of which one is true, it means the Pokedex screwed up the height with one of them.
And remember, the games say this thing is smaller than a Giraffe ;)
I don't know why this bothers me so much honestly, I tend to get hung up on the strangest, most unimportant things, which applies to Pokemon stuff as well
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The anime ignoring what the games do and just doing its own thing? That has never, ever happened before.
I wonder if the cancelled Z version (yes, they say there were no plans but I don't believe them cause XY had some loose ends it felt like they were leaving for a follow-up game...) was going to address this. That Ash-Greninja was maybe a proof of concept that only went as far as that. I'll stand by my theory originally the XY Starters were going to get "Battle Bond" forms where their designs would slightly change according to what the player was wearing to emphasize the games now allowing for customization. Cause it feels weird that the Ability to change Greninja into Ash-Greninja is called "Battle Bond" yet that only works if the trainer using it is Ash. But nope, they skipped Z leaving the concept dead in the water and only Ash-Greninja remains of the idea that they'll never admit due to GF having this mentality that they must look like they know what they're masterminds and everything gone according to their plans.
OR you could do what I did: use both! Heck, why not also use the Speed Boost/Mega Evolving Blaziken as well! Three Fire Starters legally at the start of the game, a Fire-Starter chooser's dream! BURN KALOS TO THE GROUND!
I've heard of this theory before. Basically starting from Gen V there was an apparent "pattern" of Strong, Cool, & Feminine to the Starter's final designs (and thus why all Pokemon since Gen VI had humanoid designs):
Gen V: Strong: Emboar, Cool: Samurott, Feminine: Serperior
Gen VI: Strong: Chesnaught, Cool: Greninja, Feminine: Delphox
Gen VII: Strong: Incineroar, Cool: Decidueye, Feminine: Primarina
... And then Gen VIII broke that pattern as none of the Pokemon looked feminine. If we're to force it Rillaboom would be Strong which leaves Cool & Feminine between Cinderace and Intelleon. Both are "Cool" conceptually in their own way, but none aren't that feminine. Of course, there's another "Starter Design Theory" that each Starter Trio starting with V had its own theme:
Gen V: Historical Warriors (outright said to be true)
Gen VI: Typical RPG trio core: Fighter, Mage, Rogue
Gen VII: Professional Entertainers (wrestler, archer, & idol)
Gen VIII: UK Cultural Icons (British Invasion music,
Heck, Legends: Arceus also looks to have a theme choosing the Starters which references certain weaponry that were used at the time in Japan (Rowlet for archers, Oshawott for samurai, and Cyndaquil for cannons and/or bombs).
Not to mention the dex seems to change from whether "height" means from head to feet (real height), head to tail/back end (length, like Furret mentioned above), or wing to wing (wingspan, which I swear is why some birds are so big). GF really needs to go through the heights of all Pokemon with The Pokemon Company (who seems to be the actual decider of a Pokemon's official height) and get the game's info straight.
And don't even get started on "Weight". Weight alone, to match real world standards, would involve expanding the character limit and allow for higher units of weight to be used. Here I think Pokemon would be better just making up their own weight system which is exponential (rather than the realistic gradual systems we have) than using any realistic weight system.
I've heard that the Pokemon models are actually to scale, so it would theoretically be pretty easy to see what each Pokemon's "height" refers to, if incredibly tedious.
Guess that would be a good way to put the Flare in Team Flare, huh?
You raise a very good point, and if that was the case then that's one of the many tragedies of Z not happening (the others being Zygarde being done injustice, Gym Leaders and Elite Four not getting Megas, and Diantha getting fleshed out). I really loved Ash-Greninja in the XYZ anime and the character arc Ash and Greninja went through together in mastering their Bond Phenomenon, but I also felt disappointed in the wasted potential of the concept. Considering Chesnaught, Delphox, and Greninja are pretty anthropomorphic and Ash's Greninja does sort of invoke Ash's appearance of sorts, it definitely feels like they were meant to be customizable in a sense to further emphasize their bond with their Trainer. I mean, even though it's not a special transformation, Aria's Delphox and Serena's Braixen wore outfits during Showcases so that really drives home the point that the Kalos starters come off as being meant to be customizable.
It definitely feels like Delphox and Chesnaught's signature moves could've had special effects under "Bond Phenomenon" Delphox and Chesnaught forms.
Water Shuriken (known): 20 BP, hits 3 times always
Above is what happens with Water Shuriken when it's Ash-Greninja in the SM games. The same could also happen with Mystical Fire and Spiky Shield, for instance, in a Bond Phenomenon Chesnaught/Delphox stage
Mystical Fire (Bond Phenomenon hypothetical): 95 BP, lowers opponent's Special Attack by 2 stages instead of 1 (okay this is a tad overkill but still)
Spiky Shield (Bond Phenomenon hypothetical): Protects against anything, residual damage on contact is now 1/8.
Like that would be really cool imo since imo the Kalos starters are among the most cool and fun Pokemon to see in battle and it would've been so awesome to see them in a hypothetical Pokemon Z in Battle Bond forms like Ash-Greninja, although even better. I think if Z happened Delphox and Chesnaught would definitely have gotten the justice they deserved
Alas, I really do hope we get to revisit Kalos again one day because I really love Kalos and I want to see Kalos get the justice it deserves, especially the starters and Zygarde (and Diantha for that matter too). Maybe if we get a Legends: Zygarde + Kalos remakes Chesnaught, Delphox, and Greninja will finally get the rightful representation they need with super forms and hopefully stand out more to the masses because the poor masses are shunning them rn since GF does them such a disservice.
Note: Boulders are generally a ton to several tonnes
...Onix is barely mid 400s in pounds for its entire body