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- #21
I find Marshadow mid imoMarshadow. Gonna keep it short, from a lore standpoint it's just a random Pokémon that hides under shadows for so long, people in the overworld hardly know it exists, therefore it's mythical. This is a glorified Gengar.
It was left without a real role or story to it until Pokémon The Movie I Choose You, where the one time it was given something, it ultimately tarnished it to throw a temper tantrum for not getting what it wants. Iirc twas tasked to protect the holder of the Rainbow Wing, and ensure they reach Ho-Oh. Instead Marshadow just sat there and watched, chickening out of responsibility, only to go insane and try to kill everyone, including Ash himself, the moment Ash lost hold of the Rainbow Wing. This ending ultimately ruined the whole movie for me and is part of why I find this mythical awful.
Aside from that its presence in the games have made the competitive formats it debuted in much less desirable, as it flipped the metagame over its head by forcing players to run teams more dedicated to balance rather than offense. It caused the metagames to be a lot more overcentralized, forming it into a way that was less fun for many top players even, and punished any teams built without consideration of facing Marshadow to a degree so high it becomes less manageable than when the same is done for Mega Ray. I've been a strong part of the Anything Goes community since virtually the metagame's inception, and have only seen reception on Marshadow's presence being universally detrimental among all players who've played Anything Goes prior to release and after its release. Especially from top level players in the game. For me personally? This Pokémon gave me a mental breakdown on inception because it genuinely felt like the game was screwed over. Everyone felt that way before we realized the meta had to harshly flip over its head in order to cater to it, on levels unprecedented even by Mega Rayquaza.
This Pokémon had no reason to exist. It has no meaningful lore or role. The one time it was given it, it failed miserably. It made the pvp game worse. It ruined its own movie. I hate it.
Gamefreak didn't even keep proper track of this Pokémon when making the recent games because this is the one Pokémon they've mistakenly removed from Mythical in place of Shiinotic.
Zeraora doesn't have much going for it but I've never seen its presence be nearly as detrimental. Neutral at worst. To me the difference is, Zeraora is a mythical that just exists, and Marshadow is a mythical the series would've been better off without existing.
This has nothing to do with its design. Marshadow is fine in that front. However, any Pokémon can just look cool, cute, beautiful, etc. With 1025 Pokémon, many Pokémon heavily fit the bill for each, so Marshadow looking "cool" is nothing special. If a Pokémon looks cool but the impact it made is terrible, I'm not gonna like it.
Edit: Oops not very short.