So you blame a company for using profitable marketing? Cuz that's kind of the entire point of having a business. And "doomed from conception" suggests that you absolutely know what was going through the devs heads at the time they developed the XY games, a clairvoyance I seriously doubt you actually have. It sounds like a plausible guess, but why exactly should I believe it, with Greninja getting special treatment NOW and not within the first three months of XY release? I mean, your whole point was hinged on the idea that the fan base hasn't had time to become popular, but you say so two years after the fact. What special treatment has Greninja gotten before now? Before it topped online-usage charts? before people recognized the raw force of Protean and its overall in-game flexibility? And regardless of any of that, you still have to recognize that Pokemon is a business. The purpose of business is profit. They're going to work with what's statistically proven to be a profitable venture. And then we venture into how it's tied to the show and Ash/Satoshi, which is even more largely aimed at kids than it is at older, veteran players. Complaining about the popularity of something that aims at a target demographic you aren't really in the test-range for? Why are you so adamant about what the tv show does with Greninja? If anything, I think it opens the door for new twists in what the game can offer. If it's some kind of human-Pokemon fusion, cool. How's that work and how would it integrate into the card and video games? If it's some kind of "full synchro" thing Pokemon go through, ala Megaman Battle Network, cool. How's THAT going to work into the card and video games? far as I can tell, it's a window of opportunity for something new and exiting across the franchise, and the front-runner they decided to use just happens to be a Pokemon who many players like for several reasons. Design, versatility, usefulness in VG competition/online battles, or even just cuz Ash has one. Everyone has their own reason for liking what they do. No reason to be a hater just cuz something is popular, and that's coming from someone who doesn't like playing decks or teams that everyone uses.
PS: Smash? That's the anchor to your issue? Cuz Smash came out, when, about a year after X and Y? Yeah, I'm sure a year isn't enough time for Greninja to become popular on its own merits. I'm sure that froggy was decided for Smash before anybody even knew it was going to exist. TLDR version, your complaint is that it's just marketed to be popular, when the actual timeline of the very things you're talking about prove the opposite. It's heading the current marketing because it already became popular.
