Which Starters are Canon(Sinnoh)?

[Pokeplayer150]

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hereby present to you the poll for my personal favorite region: Sinnoh. Now this is probably the only one of the threads I've made concerning this topic in which I believe my thoughts have required a lengthy explanation, but, of course, before I get into that, I have to present said thoughts:

Barry: Turtwig

Dawn: Chimchar

Lucas: Piplup

I honestly don't know why, but as much as I love Sinnoh, I can't help but think that the region and all the media surrounding it is one huge, bottomless pit of controversy. Especially concerning two things: the roles that each character in the trio were originally assigned to (Barry being rival and Lucas/Dawn being friend) and the topic of this poll. I know a lot of people tend to imagine Dawn with Piplup, which is easy to understand considering she's had it in both the anime and manga, but I feel that Chimchar not only fits well with her DP design, but with her Platinum design as well. The same applies for Lucas and Barry, though I can definitely imagine them having Turtwig and Chimchar as alternates. With that being said, please leave your thoughts and see ya!

 

[Sakuraa]

Dawn: Piplup
Lucas: Turtwig
Barry:Chimchar

 

[skyradiant]

Chimchar suits Barry the most imo since his goofy personality kinda fits in with the stereotypical portrayal of a monkey.

 

[Lufenium]

Barry: Chimchar, Dawn: Piplup, Lucas: Turtwig

Seeing Dawn with Piplup in the anime got that imprinted in my brain and Barry's hotheaded personality matches a Fire-type.

 

[Tyrfing]

I think its pretty obvious that Barry got Chimchar, Dawn got Piplup, and Lucas got Turtwig.

 

[Alola]

I actually agree with OP's thoughts. When I played through Pearl and Platinum, Piplup was always my starter. And I always chose to be Lucas. Thus the pattern of Lucas & Piplup, Dawn & Chimchar, and Barry & Turtwig immediately stuck.

I really liked that starter distribution. I thought Barry owning a Turtwig would be the perfect way for him to realize that in life, you don't always have to rush things. It's okay to be a little slow. As they say, the turtle wins the race (or tortoise?). I imagine that during the initial parts of his journey, he worked with Turtwig to increase its speed. But later on when he matured, he realized there wasn't really a need for that, thus instead focusing on his Torterra's strengths.

Dawn owning Chimchar was just the byproduct of me having Piplup and Barry Turtwig. Generally I see game characters and anime characters as different people, so Dawn not having a Piplup never bothered me. Besides, in-game Dawn is much different from anime Dawn. So a different starter could be used freely (imo). So her having the agile, adventurous and curious Chimchar (and later Monferno) complimented her reserved, careful and orderly personality.

Not to mention, in the official art for the Sinnoh Battle Frontier, Dawn has an Infernape, Barry has a Torterra and Lucas presumably has an Empoleon.

 

[BlackButterfree]

I actually started really thinking about this for all the generations after seeing framed Sugimori art of Yveltal with Serena, and Xerneas with Calem for sale on the pokemoncenter.com shop like an hour ago. So I decided to scour Bulbapedia and the official game sites for artwork that would definitively answer this.

In the original Diamond and Pearl artwork, there is Sugimori-signed artwork of Dawn with a Turtwig, suggesting that is her canon starter. But! Black and White, through Cynthia's dialogue, confirm that Platinum is the canon version in the main series of games, making any artwork from Diamond and Pearl just something cute to look at, but not valid.

Platinum artwork of the Battle Frontier, however, shows Dawn with an Infernape, Barry with a Torterra, and Lucas with a Poké Ball in his hand, which most certainly contains an Empoleon within. So, I agree with the OP.

Can't wait for the Unova (part 1) and the Unova (part 2) polls. Those will be the toughest, since there was really almost nothing to base it off on. And Kalos was easy lol

 

[Muur]

It actually seems that Dawn having a Chimchar is canon game wise but Imma go with Piplup cuz anime.

 

[Steffie]

For me, it's Dawn and Piplup, Barry and Turtwig and Lucas and Chimcar. I always played as Dawn and chose Piplup, so it's imprinted in my mind what her rival and friend received as starters.

I like the idea of Barry having a Pokemon that's the opposite of his personality.

 

[Destructive Idiot]

I voted for the option in which Lucas chose Chimchar just because that's how I played Platinum. Dawn would probably end up as the protagonist with Piplup. I also find it difficult to not associate Barry with Empoleon.