Here's a question...why does Ash have to have at least one starter all the time?Yeah,I know,they are marketable...but so are other pokemon.The thing is,I don't like it cuz they always get the spotlight,ALWAYS.They get shoved our throats like they are special,but they are just like any other pokemon.In the games,do you treat your starter differently?It's annoying cuz we are supposed to watch POKEMON not "The tales of Ash,Pikachu and his starters"
They are there to promote the game, they are marketable like you said but they are also normally very dynamic pokemons and people like them.
I don't care if they get the spotlight, as along as others do something, which always happens, I don't remember in any region any pokemon that did nothing at all.
I have no problem with that and them getting the focus.
Infernape, Quilava and Sceptile are still my two favourite along with Buizel pokemons to see Satoshi use in battle(not including this region), because I love their fightning style and how it translates into the anime.
I don't treat my starter diferently but I do have in my second run the 3 starters most of the time and the are my strongest pokemons usually.
Attention I am a starters fan though, I like every starter and they are my favourites pokemons(atleast most of them), so people might think I'm biased but I'm trying not to be and give a reasonable answer(I think I did besides saying I like how those 3 fight).
What I wonder is why the anime team feel the need to have Ash needing the full starter lineup (excluding Hoen's 1 and Sinnoh's 2) and the regional bird, yet they don't have Ash get the first big intro of the new generation (Lucario for 4th gen or Zoroark for 5th gen) or their pre-evolved forms.
My only issue I had with the Sinnoh arc was Ash NOT getting a Riolu egg (or a Riolu in general) from Iron Island as I had been expecting it.
Most people do that ingame, I do that, I catch the bird always and stick with it, all my friends do that also, in this region we got Rufflet and a lot of people like it and that is probably why people are suggesting he didn't get the regional bird, I like this traditions, some traditions need to be broken but I like this ones, as far as I'm concerned let them stay.
Yeah I though he would get a Rioulo too, maybe if he did the rotation in Sinnoh already he would have gotten one, I even though Rioulo made some sense and they teased it a few times with Lucario/Rioulo interactions.
With that in mind, there is no actual reason for it them to be caught, Zorua has absolutelly no reason, Rioulo maybe like I said, due to the Aura stuff and all that teasing.
Not that I woulnd't like Zorua, my only issue with Zorua was that its transformation gag would be overdone, which kinda happened in the Don Battle arc already and proved me rigth.