Pokemon Starter Archetypes Theory
Hello everyone! I've come here to share something that I've noticed recently! Pokemon designs for a while have started getting really refined. They started out kind of random, but eventually molded into the monsters they are now. This is exemplified no better than nowadays' starter Pokemon. My theory (or rather observation) is that ever since generation 5, each starter Pokemon has fallen into 1 of 3 archetypes, and each trio member has had 1 of each archetype. Also, earlier starter trios had these too, but they were less defined, and more often than not 1 would get left out, while 1 would be represented twice, or they would all be the same. First, let me define the archetypes. I like to classify them into 1 of 3: "The cool one", "The tough one", and "The feminine one" (or whatever you wanna call that one). Now, lemme go over which starter is which. I'll also include gens 1-4 so you can see that they're kinda inconsistent. Anyway:
- Kanto: Venusaur - Tough, Charizard - Tough, Blastoise - Tough (While you probably could make some argument that Charizard is cool and Venusaur is somehow feminine, they're all pretty beefy looking,so I'd say they're all the tough archetype).
- Johto: Meganium - Feminine, Typhlosion - Cool, Feraligatr - Tough (This is the only trio of starters before Unova to follow the archetype structure of today).
- Hoenn: Sceptile - Cool, Blaziken - Cool, Swampert - Tough (I don't think there's any arguments to be made here, Sceptile and Blaziken are pretty cool looking, and if you had any doubts about Swampert's archetype before, then Mega Swampert definitely cements it).
- Sinnoh: Torterra - Tough, Infernape - Cool, Empoleon - Cool (This feels pretty obvious. Torterra is a big monster, and Infernape and Empoleon are cool characters).
- Unova (Where the pattern is cemented!): Serperior - Feminine, Emboar - Tough, Samurott - Cool (You'll start to see this pattern develop a lot more later!).
- Kalos: Chesnaught - Tough, Delphox - Feminine, Greninja - Cool (This seems reasonable to say, right? Tough juggernaut, feminine witch, Cool ninja).
- Alola: Decidueye - Cool, Incineroar - Tough, Primarina - Feminine (Cool archer, tough wrestler, feminine mermaid).
- Galar: Rillaboom - Tough, Cinderace - Feminine, Inteleon - Cool (Gorillas are tough, Cinderace had thick eyelashes, Inteleon is cool).
- Paldea: Meowscarada - Feminine, Skeledirge - Tough, Quaquaval - Cool (I'm pretty sure we all agree with Meowscarada. Skeledirge is tough because it's a big old crocodile, and as much as I wanna say that Quaquaval is the feminine one, I think they were meaning for it to be the cool one).
Now, what does this mean for the future? Well, I think they might stick with this trend for a while, seeing as they haven't broken their streak yet. As for what this means for the gen 10 starters' evolutions, I believe that Browt's evolution will be the cool one (as most bird starters end up as that), Pombon's evolution will be the tough one (Just a vibe, based on other dog Pokemon like Arcanine and Okidogi), and Gecqua's evolution will be the feminine one (As it already has things that look like eyelashes).
Well, do you agree with this theory? Let me know!
Posted Mar 5, 2026, 8:00 PM UTC