Pikachu52
Well-Known Member
Still better than Pikachu spamming. Greninja will be gone by the end of the series as per marketing tradition and Pikachu will be back.
Pikachu spamming at least makes sense - He's Ash's closest partner and friend and by virtue of being alongside him for the entire series is logically the strongest. And the series mascot and most easily recognised icon of the Pokémon franchise. It's not really spamming - Ash has been with Pikachu the longest and works with him best so it makes sense he would use and win with Pikachu more. And it makes up for the fact that BW set Pikachu up to loose several times. Plus Pikachu has never been spammed in the way they're spamming Greninja - Greninja's getting it's own unique special power that doesn't exist in the games, has nearly beaten a champion's Pokémon, and looks like it won't get even one defeat in the Kalos league. Even the mighty Charizard who defeated an Articuno and fought Entei fell to Harrison's Blaziken, and Sceptile was swept from the Sinnoh league by a Mary sue's legendaries. No Pokémon has ever had the glory that's being given to Greninja.
Plus it's not guaranteed Ash won't take Greninja into the next series, assuming there is a S&M series with Ash - Charizard went with Ash to Johto and Amipom went to Sinnoh.
Of course I have a bias here. I like Pikachu spamming since Pikachu's my favourite Pokémon. Greninja's my least favourite starter. So I suppose fans of Greninja will like this plot line.
This is not the first time they haven't treated a Ash starter as a normal pokemon. Pikachu is from the start treated as unusual, and then there was Infernape and its freakishly powerful Blaze that its character arc was centered around. Greninja may be an escalation of that sort of thing, but its not unprecedented as a concept. Then we have things like Charizard and Sceptile defeating legendary pokemon, something normal members of their species could not hope to do.
Blaze appears in the games. Synchro evolution does not. That makes it nearly unprecedented. Charizard and Sceptile didn't start out beating legendaries until several series after their introduction. Greninja is almost winning against the champion after only three series of being with Ash. Plus legendary doesn't always mean powerful. In the games most legendaries are encounter at around level 50
And you say spread the victories evenly, but lets note that Infernape beat half of Paul's team.
The victories were spread fairly evenly in the Hoenn, Johto and Unova leagues. Plus act was only one battle - Infernape didn't dominate the league the way Greninja seems likely too.
Course in my view victories are less important than having a decent performance in a battle win or lose. And while the league certainly suffers from a lack of onscreen matches, what we do see has each member of Ash's team being shown as quite competent.
Even if they're being shown as competent Greninja's face is the one we're seeing more than anyone else, and it's Greninja who is having a suit of episodes in the build up to the league devoted to it.
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