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Are there "canon" protagonists or "canon" starters?

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Somari

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I've noticed, in official arts, or promotional videos, certain characters have certain Pokemon.
Red always seems to have a Bulbasaur, and Dawn seems to always have a Piplup.

Also, would you say, there are "canon" protagonists?

If it were up to me, the female counterpart would be the canon protagonist in all the games. However, Game Freak does not work that way. Even if Leaf had been in RBGY like she was planned to be, she most likely would not have been the "canon" protagonist.

If it were also up to me, May would have a Mudkip, Kris/Kotone a Totodile, Dawn a Chimchar and Leaf a Charmander. Brendan, Hibiki, and Lucas..I couldn't really care less, they go well with any starter.

I've always thought that Dawn and May were the canon protagonists in their games, and sadly Hibiki and Red are the protagonists of there.
 
May I ask, what makes you think Brendan is the protagonist?
Brendan's NPC character seems far more developed then May's.

I've played as both, and they also seemed to have added extra lines to Brendan.
 
Keep in mind that what follows is solely my personal opinion and does not in any way reflect the views or opinions of Nintendo and/or Game Freak.

I'd like to think of Red and Leaf as both being the canon protagonists of FireRed and LeafGreen, being twin siblings and going on exactly the same quest at exactly the same time. But Red seems to be the only one in HeartGold and SoulSilver.

I think of Gold as being the canon protagonist of HeartGold and SoulSilver, with Kris essentially being retconned and Kotone being the pseudo-rival.

I think of May as being the canon protagonist of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, with Brendan as the pseudo-rival.

Lastly, I think of Dawn as taking center stage in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, with Lucas as Professor Rowan's assistant.

As for starters...

If Red and Leaf were both canon, I would think of Red as taking Charmander (symbolizing his version color), Leaf taking Bulbasaur (same as with Red) and leaving Green/Blue with Squirtle (to weaken Red).

Later, Red would trade for Leaf's fully evolved Venusaur and Green/Blue's fully evolved Blastoise, explaining why Green/Blue has no starters in HeartGold and SoulSilver while Red has all three.

But, if Leaf is non-canon, then I think Red and Green/Blue would take the starters from Yellow Version—Pikachu and Eevee, respectively. Later, Red would acquire all three Kanto starters from various NPCs.

I think Gold should take Cyndaquil—I believe this is reflected in his anime and Special counterparts. This leaves Silver with Totodile, and Chikorita completely unclaimed (unless Kris sneaks in while the programmers aren't looking...).

With May, I think Torchic would be good—it looks the most feminine out of the lot. At least until it evolves. This leaves Brendan with Mudkip, and Treecko is completely left alone.

Dawn's counterparts in both the anime and Special are depicted taking Piplup, so, yeah, I'd go with that. This leaves Pearl (Barry?) with Turtwig while Lucas takes Chimchar.

Again, this is solely my personal opinion. This is not in any way to be taken for fact.
 
The fact that you think the females should be the only canon characters seems a little sexist...
 
..

For some reason, I cannot imagine Leaf without a Charmander. The other Pokemon do not seem to fit her, though if you go by the official art her official starter would be a Squirtle.
Red seems swell with a Squirtle, but it appears his canon Pokemon is a Bulbasaur.
Green..I have no opinion on him, but his canon starter appears to be a Charmander.

May..I've always seen her as being the opposite of her NPC form, rather
tomboyish. A Mudkip would be nice to her, but she seems to have a Torchic.
Brendan, I've seen him as a Treecko guy, obliviosly. But, Mudkip may be his starter Pokemon.

Kris/Kotone..I like her with a Totodile, but it appears to be Chikorita.
Hibiki appears to have the Totodile, but I like him with either a Cyndaquil or Chikorita.
I don't really care what Silver's starter is, and he doesn't appear to have a canon one.

Dawn, I like her with a Chimchar, but it's obviously Piplup. I'm fine with that too.
Lucas, I like him with Turtwig, but it seems to be a Chimchar if Dawn is the protagonist.
Pearl..I don't like him with a Piplup, but that's his starter is Dawn has a Chimchar. It canonically is Turtwig.

I'm too sleepy to make a good explanation.

Edit:
Dewgong Rain said:
The fact that you think the females should be the only canon characters seems a little sexist...
Click to expand...

No, actually. It has to slightly due with my dislike that most games have males as the canon protagonist.

There's also the fact I give the protagonists personalities, I'm an author with a big imagination so it's natural for me to make a mental fanfic with any game I play, and I favor the females. Since, I always play as them, when they're playable.
 
The only one I really have any opinion of as being "canon" would be Red, simply because of his appearances in G/S/C/HG/SS. Likewise, because of his parties in these games, I think the Red from Yellow Version is the one that's canon.
 
Somari said:
No, actually. It has to slightly due with my dislike that most games have males as the canon protagonist.
Click to expand...

Um...if you dislike the game's protagonists solely because they are male, that's sexist. The gender of the protagonist shoudn't have any significant impact on your judgement of the character. Note that I am also female, and I am also an author, so please don't try to pull the 'you don't understand it's different for me' counter-argument.

At any rate, I see Red as the 'canon' protagonist for Gen 1, with Pikachu. Gold with Cyndaquil for Gen 2, and both Gen 3 protagonists work fine, I don't think one is more 'canon' than the other. But definitely for Gen 4 it's Dawn with a Piplup.
 
Are you sure the anime is not influencing your opinion where you think May and Dawn are more important than their male protagonists?

If the anime didn't exist, I wonder if you would still think the same thing.

In R/S, when you pick May as your character, is your father Birch or Norman? I forget.
 
I think what Somari is getting at is that it's the male player characters that are being treated as the "alpha" character to the female's "beta" character, meaning the male is always the "main" protagnist and is treated so, simply because he is male.

And I think what Somari wants is just one instance where a girl is considered the "alpha" player character over the male. And it has been in /every single game/. Somari wants some variety, not being sexist.


In R/S, Norman will ALWAYS be your father, regardless of which character you choose to play as.
 
Luna Tigre said:
I think what Somari is getting at is that it's the male player characters that are being treated as the "alpha" character to the female's "beta" character, meaning the male is always the "main" protagnist and is treated so, simply because he is male.

And I think what Somari wants is just one instance where a girl is considered the "alpha" player character over the male. And it has been in /every single game/. Somari wants some variety, not being sexist.


In R/S, Norman will ALWAYS be your father, regardless of which character you choose to play as.
Click to expand...

But just wanting that to change that to ALL FEMALES as the "alpha" is just as bad.
 
I personally think of Dawn as Canon because I HATE that Beret.
 
Kanto pretty much established how it should go. Red has Bulba, Leaf (to avoid confusion) has Squirtle, and Rival has Char.

Johto is a bit trickier but it seems generally accepted that the female gets Chikorita, which in my mind leaves Gold with Cynda and Silver with our favorite gator. Which always felt right to me. I don't know why.

Hoenn and Sinnoh confuse me, though I think we can safely say Pearl WILL NOT have Turtwig (Or at least shouldn't). Clash of personalities.
 
^ Dawn gets Piplup, Diamond gets Turtwig, and Pearl gets Chimchar.

That feels about right.
 
Kanto: Red's the main, with a Bulbasaur. Leaf has Squirtle and Blue has Charizard. I'm a huge fan of Red and Leaf being twins that exist in the same world, for the record.

Reasoning: Obviously, Red gets to be main as he was in the only in Gen 1 and G/S/C/HG/SS. I gave them their Adventures starters, which I think is also true of that one piece of Sugimori art. Also, Ash kept Bulbasaur longer than any of his Kanto starters.

Johto: Ummm I'm going to go with Adventures on this one. Gold with Cyndaquil as main, Silver with Totodile, Kris with Chikorita, and Kotone as "the other Kris".

Reasoning: Gold was the only one playable in the original GS, and with Gold I picked Cyndaquil, so there's that. Also, Jimmy has Typlosion in the anime. Marina has Feraligatr, but Kotone's Chikorita in the anime counters that. Besides, Totodile seems to fit Silver well and serves as a type advantage to Cyndaquil.

Hoenn: May as the main with Torchic, Brendan with Mudkip, Wally with Treecko.

Reasoning: It fits perfectly with both the anime and Adventures. May's the main because of the anime and because Brendan's character as an NPC is the more developed one. And yup, I'm aware Wally doesn't appear in the anime, doesn't receive a starter in the games, and loses his starter and main character status in Adventures. Moving along!

Sinnoh: Dawn as the main with Piplup, Lucas with Turtwig, Barry with Chimchar.

Reasoning: Um, pretty much because of Adventures for the last two. And I guess because Barry has a "fiery" personality, hur hur. (Amusingly, this completely contradicts DPA in every way.) Although Dawn's clearly the main because of the resemblence to Johanna and her prominence elsewhere, I always imagine the ones being best friends prior to the events of DPPt being Lucas and Barry. Not quite sure how that works out.

And oh yeah this is just as far as I figure yada yada yada. :p
 
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But Red has all three Kanto starters when you battle him at the end of GS and HGSS. So are we saying he started with Bulbasaur and then got Squirtle/Charmander anyway? And where does the Pikachu come from? And why did Red not evolve it?

Lil Brother said:
Hoenn: May as the main with Torchic, Brendan with Mudkip, Wally with Treecko.

Reasoning: It fits perfectly with both the anime and Adventures. May's the main because of the anime and because Brendan's character as an NPC is the more developed one.
Click to expand...

I agree. Both May in the anime and Sapphire in the manga picked Torchic as their starter, and both had a Combusken for a long time.

When both the anime/manga versions have her with Torchic, it really is hard to imagine her game version with anything else. I do kinda like May with Mudkip, but Blaziken matches her clothes, hair style, and was a cute chicken at the start so it makes sense.

Although Dawn's clearly the main because of the resemblence to Johanna and her prominence elsewhere,
Click to expand...

Agreed. Even in the games your mother looks identical to Dawn as a parent. Its hard to imagine Lucas being related to Johanna instead.
 
Meh, i believe the reason Red seems to appear in art with Bulbasaur is because in Pokemon Special Red had Bulbasaur as his starter, so they just go with that... Green would have char cause he seems to have a fire-like personality, if that makes any sense.
 
hehey said:
Meh, i believe the reason Red seems to appear in art with Bulbasaur is because in Pokemon Special Red had Bulbasaur as his starter, so they just go with that... Green would have char cause he seems to have a fire-like personality, if that makes any sense.
Click to expand...

the special was written after that piece of Art was released, considering it was part of the original Japanese game manual.
 
Edo-kun said:
Um...if you dislike the game's protagonists solely because they are male, that's sexist.
Click to expand...

No, I meant, it's sort of odd. Why are males always the canon protagonist, instead of the females? That seems a bit sexist. Are boys better then girls?

Scott85 said:
Are you sure the anime is not influencing your opinion where you think May and Dawn are more important than their male protagonists?
Click to expand...

I dislike anime!May. Brendan just seems far more developed as an NPC, then May is as a NPC.

Scott85 said:
Agreed. Even in the games your mother looks identical to Dawn as a parent. Its hard to imagine Lucas being related to Johanna instead.
Click to expand...

He probably resembles his/Dawn's dad.

..
I just can't seem to imagine Hibiki as the protagonist, and Kotone being a NPC. It seems to weird.

With Red though, I'm fine, I prefer Leaf, but..
 
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