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Do Fire Starters get too much Favoritism in the Anime?

Mythical-Moonlight

Mythical-Moonlight

I just ran, I ran all Night and Day ~
ShinyCharyZard said:
Did we not just have the same thread but worded differently? I’m sure that this was all being discussed in the grass starter thread..
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Well this one specifically discusses Fire Starters in particular.


The main difference here being that Water Starters are treated like crap. Grass Starters are a Middle Road but Fire starters seem to be treated better than every one else

I didn't really see too much discussion about Fire Starters in the Grass thread

In retrospect I probably should've just condensed the subject into just 1 thread.
 
ash&charizardfan

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Xeogran said:
I still can't believe Charizard didn't appear for the entirety of the Sinnoh saga. It feels like a different era, especially now when you think about it :oops:
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Simple it would've taken away all the limelight away from infernape given its popularity hence wasting 4 years of storyline that was built.
 
Dephender

Dephender

Gizakawayusu
Staff member
Moderator
Mythical-Moonlight said:
Not to mention I'm pretty sure the Rowlet line obliterated the Litten line in popularity
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Not the line, just Mokuroh. Its evolutions were rather disliked.

But yeah, what type the Pokemon that get "favoritism" are is just a coincidence. Popular shillmon get shilled, and some of them just happen to be fire type starters.

People also seem to be jumping to the conclusion that the anime evolving a Pokemon means it's popular and "getting favoritism" and whatever, when the actual truth is that it'll evolve Pokemon if the EVOLVED FORMS are popular. Evolving a cute and popular little critter into an ugly thing way less people like is just hurting your own merch sales. Hence why Pochama and Mokuroh never evolved in the anime despite being the most popular starters in their respective gens.
 
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DayQuil95

DayQuil95

Well-Known Member
It's more that specific members of the fire-starters got so much favoritism over the other starters in the anime that it felt like the group as a whole had focus. Charizard, Infernape, and Incineroar were the only ones to have a huge amount of focus over the starters in the anime. These three specific members did get a lot of focus in comparison to the other starters of their gens, which ends up creating the impression that fire starters have a lot of favoritism over the others when it's not the case.

Bayleef had more focus than Quilava and did much more.
Blaziken had his amount of focus, but not as much as Sceptile when you take into account Ash and Sawyer.
All Unova starters got screwed, that's not even a contest.
Braixen had more focus than Chespin by a mile but still lived under Greninja's shadow.
And Galar starters barely had anything in general, as far as anime goes anyway because in the fandom Cinderace is clearly the preferred one.
 
Almighty Zard

Almighty Zard

He has returned.
Dephender said:
People also seem to be jumping to the conclusion that the anime evolving a Pokemon means it's popular and "getting favoritism" and whatever, when the actual truth is that it'll evolve Pokemon if the EVOLVED FORMS are popular. Evolving a cute and popular little critter into an ugly thing way less people like is just hurting your own merch sales. Hence why Pochama and Mokuroh never evolved in the anime despite being the most popular starters in their respective gens.
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i've never considered their evo's to be ugly, yes Dartrix needs to have it's face bashed in for it's smug look but it's not the worst i've seen in terms of design.
 
Dephender

Dephender

Gizakawayusu
Staff member
Moderator
Almighty Zard said:
i've never considered their evo's to be ugly, yes Dartrix needs to have it's face bashed in for it's smug look but it's not the worst i've seen in terms of design.
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I don't think Pochama's evolutions are all that DISLIKED really, they're just liked less than Pochama, so evolving it means cannibalizing the sales of Pochama merch. And TPC doesn't want that to happen.
 
Locormus

Locormus

Can we please get the older, old forum back?
Dephender said:
I don't think Pochama's evolutions are all that DISLIKED really, they're just liked less than Pochama, so evolving it means cannibalizing the sales of Pochama merch. And TPC doesn't want that to happen.
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And then there's the Pignite and Quilava (Ash and Dawn's) situations..
 
WaterShuriken

WaterShuriken

"I..I..Iron Tail, Pikachu."
It's interesting how they handled some of the middle evolutions though.

Charmeleon was basically glossed over to get to the super popular Charizard.

Cyndaquil stayed as is for an UNBELIEVABLE amount of time despite his usage and Ash's hinted interest in evolving. Dawn's Quilava happened in a special episode and has done nothing of worth in her returns.

Combusken stayed as is for 90% May's run despite how popular Blaziken was. Idk if it was to prevent May from appearing OP compared to Drew?

Chimchar took forever to evolve... after the 7th gym and then Monferno didn't last long since he evolved before the 8th gym.

I don't remember how popular the Tepig members were but Ash had Tepig for a good while when Bianca had Pignite then they both ended up evolving so Ash had Pignite and Bianca had Emboar. So overall, the entire line was well represented between both characters.

Serena had Braixen for about two thirds of the run and it made sense since I don't think Delphoc was that popular. Just look at Pokken Tournament, Braixen made it as a playable character and Fennekin was an Assist, Delphox who?. Aria had Delphox but she barely appeared.

Just like May's Combusken, Torracat was like that for a good while despite Incineroar being so popular but they had the Masked Royal to show it off. I despise Incineroar so I'm quite happy Torracat took so long to evolve.

Raboot was an icon and it's a bit sad we didn't get more time with it before Fire Sonic OC came along.

This is how I think the middle stages were handled from best to worst.

1. Combusken
2. Torracat
3. Pignite
4. Braixen
5. Raboot
6. Quilava
7. Monferno
8. Charmeleon
 
Ignition

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Mythical-Moonlight said:
Wdym?

Aren't Charizard, Infernape, Incineroar, Cinderace, and somewhat Blaziken favored enough by both the Anime Gamefreak already as is?

What other Starters are even coming close to them besides Greninja
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I’m joking (mostly). Besides Gen 2 & maybe 3, the Fire starter is always my favorite of the three so their “favoritism” doesn’t bother me too much.
 
OshyHikari

OshyHikari

c l a r i t y
I say a big fat YES. As pointed out, the general design of Fire-type starters tend to be treated as the equivalent of Shounen characters and how Fire is associated with heroism in Japanese culture. The fact Charizard as a whole (not just Ash’s) appeared in every series barring DP shows that is definitely the king of “Shillmons”. The fact that all main characters’ Fire-type starters evolved at least once makes me feel the same direction for Fuecoco in an upcoming Gen 9 anime, but I would love to see it break the trend as well.
 
P

Pokemonfan5

Well-Known Member
Bayleef got better treatment than Cyndaquil or quilava while Typhlosion got terrible treatment compared to other two fully evolved johto starters, treecko and it's evolutionary line got way more focus than Torchic line in AG/BF and XY/Z, even if Incineroar had more focus primarina is still one of the most developed companion pokemon, Froakie line got faaar better treatment than Fennekin and her evolved forms, Unova and Galar starters treated worst to say anything

Only Charizard and Infernape got too much favoritism (Incineroar got some too but not that much)
 
nuzamaki90

nuzamaki90

Well-Known Member
Eh I think it’s just on occasion. The real pattern is the writers being uncreative with the Fire starters backstories. Otherwise it’s just a luck of the draw. Alola specifically is a weird case because although both the the Litten line and Rowlet line were pretty popular in their gens, Ash’s own Litten/Torracat largely didn’t get that much compared to Assh’s other Fire starters. Litten/Torracat would appear every so often and do things in relation to Kukui/Incineroar but otherwise I think it’s very underutilized. Ash’s own Incineroar has never even had a battle yet haha
 
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