The newest Pokémon game, “Pokémon Winds and Waves” was announced just over a month ago, and the internet has already jumped into action deciding what the new starters will become. These new starters have stirred up a whole lot of discourse about whether or not they’re too similar to what came before. Many fans have taken issue with Browt and Gecqua specifically, the grass and water types from this region, pointing to specific similarities to other starters.
To me, these starters and their connections to previous ones feel like a very conspicuous, direct, intentional decision. The developers chose to create these particular starters not just because they are great fits for the region of the world they are centered around, but because they are sending a message to the audience that Game Freak is simply willing to have starters that are similar in concept if it is what suits the games the best.
Breaking Formulas
Pokémon fans just might be more locked in on pattern recognition than any other fandom ever. Reveal after reveal, we get the most miniscule nuggets of information about a new game, and then every time, without fail, we turn to what came before as a sign of what is coming next.
In fairness, Game Freak has given us a lot of reasons to do that. Pokémon games can tend to be extremely formulaic. Take the whole case of Pokémon’s Japanese game logos, for example. Every generation, the mainline game logos are revealed very early on in the marketing cycle, but the Japanese ones feature something that their English counterparts never do. A small symbol connecting to a major feature within the game. For X and Y, these symbols teased mega evolution, and for Alola, they teased Z-moves.
So, when the Sword and Shield game logos came out, everyone thought that its respective symbol must point to what the game’s gimmick would end up being. As we now know, it didn’t; it was just the symbol for the gym challenge in the game, which was odd, because the dynamax logo was right there. Anyway, all this goes to show that predicting Game Freak’s next move based on patterns is not infallible.
The Importance of Starters
Even so, we as fans love nothing more than predicting the starters and their evolutions. During the hype-cycle of a new game, these might just be the most sought-after pieces of information. We all pick our favorite from the base stages, but a lot of us don’t truly make our final decision until we see what they become in their fully evolved form. I still remember the immense disappointment when Sobble, my personal pick from the Galar starters,evolved into the monstrosity that is Inteleon. How did Sobble go from an adorable, sad little guy, to stretched out James Bond sniper, and why would they draw him with that expression?
New Arrivals
I’ve seen a lot of people saying that Browt and Gecqua are just “reheating Rowlet and Sobble’s nachos”, but to be honest, I don’t think Game Freak and The Pokémon Company are reheating nachos so much as they are saying that they’ve made a lot of nachos, and they’re now willing to reuse some ingredients. Of course, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that there aren’t a million different directions they could have gone in for these starters.
For a Southeast Asia/Indonesian inspired Pokémon region, there were 100% options beyond bird, dog, and lizard. However, the more game freak avoids repeating past ideas or going in different directions for animals they’ve already checked off their list, the more they put themselves into a box. A lot of people are complaining about a perceived lack of creativity, or saying that Game Freak must be running out of ideas, but there is not a single part of me that thinks that is the case. I think Browt is just allowed to look like the Alolan starter Rowlet, and Gecqua is allowed to be a lizard like the aforementioned Sobble. I think these starters are just really well connected to the inspirations for these games, and Game Freak wasn’t going to let past precedent impact that.
Meaning in Design
To begin, we can look at our brand new grass starter, Browt. Browt seems to be taking inspiration from a lot of birds in Southeast Asia, like the Barred-eagle owl, with its impressive brows. It also could be drawing from the ayam cemani, a purely black chicken, which might be where Browt gets its black feet and underside from. It’s also worth noting that unlike the grass-bird Rowlet, Browt is not a flying type, which may signal it will evolve into a flightless bird. The famous and notably terrifying Cassowary seems like a really fitting inspiration for a final evolution, and would make a lot of sense for the location they’re developing
All this is to say, Browt is undeniably a great fit for Winds and Waves, and if they simply wanted to avoid comparisons to Rowlet, we would not have gotten him. The same goes for Gecqua, an absolutely beautiful creature that the world would miss out on if Game Freak excluded it simply to prevent potential comparisons to Sobble.
Debunking Theories…
These starters happen to be unprecedented in more ways than one. All of them, including the entirely original fire starter Pombon, seem to debunk the prevailing fan-theories about starter trio themes. That is, of course, that the fire-type starter is always based on an animal from the Chinese zodiac, that the grass types are based on extinct animals, and the water types are based on weapons.
Even now, these categories have to stretch significantly, requiring either Charmander or Fuecoco to count as a snake for the pattern to work, or treating Fennekin as a dog. Pombon, of course, is a dog, but where does that leave Fennekin now? Repeating a category simply does not make sense when sheep, horse, and ox still remain unfilled. I’ve seen people theorize that Pombon will turn into a sheep to align with the zodiac, which feels like an extreme reach. Yes, of course, he is fluffy, but that’s where the sheep-connections end.
With Browt, there’s always the chance he evolves into an extinct-animal derived Pokemon, but that one’s always felt too easy to me. There are so many extinct animals, and a lot of times, grass starters have much clearer animal inspirations that are alive. Meowscarada, for example, is generally agreed to be based on the Iberian Lynx, which although currently listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is not extinct.
…Including the Worst Theory
That leaves Gecqua. It really is too early to tell if Gecqua will evolve to have a clear association with a weapon, but I don’t think it matters either way. This has always been the weakest theory concerning themes within the Pokémon starters. I really think it only gained traction because the theories about grass and fire types became so prevalent. Primarina does not seem adjacent to a bomb to me, and Feraligatr doesn’t seem connected to brass knuckles in any way either. While Blastoise and Samurott have clear weapon associations, the rest of the Pokémon implicated in this theory never have.
Challenging our Expectations
More than anything, I think Game Freak is sending a strong message that we can’t really predict what they will do next based on what they have already done. I think that’s a very good thing. There was not a soul who saw a game like “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” coming. A game set in Sinnoh’s past was an extremely welcome curveball, and they kind of knocked it out of the park. Even in a time where Pokémon was the subject of a lot of criticism in the gaming community, even from its most diehard fans, “Legends: Arceus” impressed a lot of people.
As far as I’m concerned, the more Game Freak is willing to experiment with their formula, the better. I excitedly await the day where we get starters that aren’t fire, water, and grass (if that ever happens). I await the day where the version we choose starts us on different sides of the same map, the day Pokemon stops bothering with a new battle gimmick every game and does something truly fresh to turn-based battling altogether.
They experimented with that in “Pokémon Legends: ZA”, of course, and it was a lot of fun, but I still want to see growth in the existing battling system. It has become very clear that Pokemon fans will complain no matter what the company does with their games. A lot of those criticisms are valid, but I hope it doesn’t stop fans from keeping an open mind about big swings and big changes to routine practices we’ve all come to expect in the franchise. I hope they continue to deliver exactly what we don’t expect, even if that means starter Pokémon that look a little familiar.
Thank you!
Learn more about “Pokémon Winds and Waves” here
and check out Ella’s new article about Rebel Robin!
