I don’t know how much of a hot take this is but I finally have to say it, Leon’s ace being Charizard is extremely disappointing.
To start with I have nothing against Charizard’s design it’s really good but the over saturation of the Pokemon has made me grow to dislike it. To start with its kinda become almost the “ this trainer is strong” Pokemon. Examples being Red, Alain and Leon. While Red gets a pass being from kanto and Charizard being one of his strongest makes sense, the other two trainers appear in gen 6 and 8 and instead of giving them unique strong Pokemon they are given Charizard to symbolize their strength. I give Alain a bit more grace since he’s anime only and was showing off one of the new megas, but Leon is different.
With the exception of Diantha every champion’s ace is a strong new Pokemon from the generation. Steven has metagross, Cynthia has Garchomp, Iris has Haxorus etc. So why does Leon have a Charizard? The inclusion of Charizard in the generation as a whole feels forced just because it is popular and is meant to symbolize strong and push Leon as “the strongest” champion. Neither blastoise or Venusaur are in the base game of sword and shield just emphasizing how forced its inclusion was and they just had to give it a Gmax form. For some reason the Pokemon company has to include Charizard in absolutely everything and it’s becoming annoying, being Leon’s ace Pokemon could’ve made a new fan favorite mon but instead the role was given to Charizard the resident Nepo baby of Pokemon.
by KamisProject