Tbf, the anime has to last untill gen 10, which might potentially be 2026 depending on when PLZA releases. Plus they are at the exact middle point of the Six Heroes, it's just good timing for a training arc, doubt there was any meddling involved.
Nah you’re not alone. This definitely feels like a story pivot that wasn’t part of the original plan. It’s only purpose seems to be promotion considering it goes against the current of what the RVT has been working toward so far.
I mean, it has kinda been built towards. Dot showed that she was interested in terastalization and their reasoning for coming back to Paldea is to learn more about Terapagos so what better way than by making use of the school while they’re here?
Knowing last year and this year, this can be accurate for the dub.
Wouldn't be the first time.
They'll probably just chill for a while. After all, the other villain teams would disappear for weeks or even months at a time and some took a few years for their stories to play out, so why not the Explorers too? Even if it DOES feel weird for them go on a long hiatus after showing up so often...
I think that's hard to say for sure when we don't know if being at Paldea will help advance that storyline yet. But executive meddling to promote a game that came out a little over a year ago doesn't really make much sense. Since they've seemingly had some foundation for this development with Paldea characters showing up and having Terapogos around, I think that makes it unlikely for this to be the result of some higher up demanding changes to the story.
Hey, if Poppy can be an Elite 4 member, she can be a teacher too, lol.
Probably as simple as it being the first starter to be owned. Plus while they are CO protags Liko is still the main one of the two so it makes sense she would get the first evolution imo.
If that's the case, it makes me question why things were ever billed as dual protagonists. It still seems like an odd decision not to preview Crocalor (should it happen) and only Floragato; by that logic, Sprigatito would have been the only Starter to be promoted when Liko & Roy were before the series started, rather than all three together.
Based on some merch stuff it seems likely that Sprigatito is evolving before the terastal debut stuff. So Fuecoco is fuecoco simply because they haven't evolved as of the start of the... part/arc/whatever.
Liko has had Sprigatito for a few weeks more (as she studied her in a montage in the first episode) and the difference in battles isn't really that much. Also, evolving faster is not always a representative of the quality of a Pokemon's character arc, Chimchar evolved 30 episodes later than Turtwig but we know who turned out better.
