Hey do you guys agree with me that the 4 pillars of Pokemon are Pikachu, Meowth, Pokemon Trainer and Mewtwo?
Seriously these guys should be there no matter what like Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Bowser.
It's a bit different between those franchises, for Mario all its characters are usually established as the ones they'll use for almost every game as the main cast while with Pokemon, it's more so they have a ton of characters and monsters they focus on, even Pikachu isn't always the focus, though the catch is just how much they give them appearances (albeit small) and other things I am honestly unsure how to word. Pokemon doesn't have a set main focus every game so it's up for the player to choose what Monster to focus on.
That said those still happen to be largely marketed characters, often used in merch, spin-offs and etc. People may say Meowth isn't exactly a lead in the games like the Mario characters are, but that same applies to the Pokemon playable in Smash (Even Pokemon Trainer to an extent, granted this is one of the best ways they can represent the concept of one), which is what makes it so hard to pick a rep for it in the first place. But with how much Meowth stands out compared to all the other ones thanks to how iconic, marketable he's been, appearances/references in games here and there, this definitely makes him a Smash contender. Which is why I feel he'd be a good way to rep part of the games that has yet to be represented: The villainous teams.
He's more or less similar to how Pikachu in a way (though obviously to a lesser extent with how huge Pikachu) in how he represents some things without actually being the focus character unlike how Mario is for all Mario games. And in marketing and etc, Pikachu and Meowth have been portrayed as rivals/counterparts of sorts:
And etc, also notable to note he was used as one of the mascots for one of the Pokemon Centers in Japan.
Honestly I feel one big reason people often decline the idea is that they can't envision him as a fighter because they're too focused on just the fully evolved Mons (such as Decidueye, not saying it's a bad request) and can only imagine how one of such could work, they usually dislike Jigglypuff or if they don't, I haven't seen a good reason on why he can't exactly work as a fighter. They're not remembering; Pokemon has no concrete set main character, just very reccuring and ones that represent each different things, Decidueye is just a popular Pokemon out of many in Sun and Moon, it represents it well because of the way it has been marketed lately and etc making it a good rep for repping this part of Pokemon. That same can be said for Meowth who has been used in a lot of marketing, spin-offs and etc. It's similar to Fire Emblem.
People shouldn't think so black or white, otherwise all our Pokemon reps would be Pikachu + fully evolved Mons only.
It's fine if people don't want him, I just don't think "He's lame/only icon to the anime" is a valid argument especially as they let Jigglypuff go by, and it's subjective anyway, not everyone finds Wario interesting while they may find Marth interesting; I don't find Greninja too interesting despite being my starter in XY while I would be all over Meowth. But Greninja is fine because he's a respectable choice for what he represents, even if not to my liking. The gen 1 overep can be an issue, but a lot of characters people want have some things going against them.
Well there's my take, was unsure how to word this honestly, I don't consider myself a good writer, but I hope I did an alright job at least.
