Starters / YMMV - TV Tropes

Adorkable:
- Bulbasaur is perpetually paranoid, and his fragile, shaken-up personality will make you wanna root for him.
- Fennekin is shy yet friendly at the start, almost making you wanna befriend her yourself.
Base-Breaking Character: Dr. Sylveon. Ones love him and feel that his character was well-developed, while others dislike him and feel that his actions towards Chespin and Mudkip were just downright Sick and Wrong.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- The Typomaniac/Rare Candy trio (Chespin, Fennekin/Braixen, and Mudkip). Chespin is usually the side character getting involved in the antics of the main trio (Cyndaquil, Bulbasaur, and Tepig), while Fennekin and Mudkip only had major roles in the aforementioned episodes... but presumably due to what Fennekin and Chespin go through in the Typomaniac and Rare Candy episodes respectively, the Typomaniac/Rare Candy trio is extremely popular in the Starters fandom, getting lots of fanart and even massively overshadowing Cyndaquil, Bulbasaur, and Tepig in terms of popularity. Compared to the Typomaniac/Rare Candy trio, the main trio have little to no fanart in the fandom.
- In fact, out of all three Pokémon in the main trio, Tepig is the most recognized, possibly due to his appearance in the Rare Candy episode.
- Additionally, there's the other characters in the show, such as Jirachi and Dr. Sylveon.
Friendly Fandoms: With Starter Squad. Shippidge, the creator of Starter Squad, has left a comment on one of the episodes appreciating Dane's work. And hell, Dane even voiced a character in Starter Squad!
Ho Yay: Cyndaquil and Bulbasaur, when you think about it.
- Lavender Town: The Untold Story: Why were Cyndaquil and Bulbasaur sitting next to eachother, twice? In another scene, Cyndaquil, unaware of the current state Bulbasaur is in, directly drags the grass frog over to Ampharos by hand. Near the ending, after all the chaos, the main trio are huddled in blankets. Cyndaquil and Bulbasaur are smiling at eachother... while Tepig is sad.
- Typomaniac: This is even showcased in episodes not focusing on the main trio. After Fennekin got her fire removed and became trendy, Cyndaquil was talking to Bulbasaur first about the news before Tepig butted in.
- Out In The Reign: During the building montage, Bulbasaur accidentally injures himself, and Cyndaquil notices it (eye contact). In Chapters Two and Five, the two hug! Three times! We're not joking.
Love to Hate: Jirachi lied, refused to take accountability for his actions, and sent kids to hell. And yet people still like him. Dr. Sylveon harmed a child, Chespin, without a single shed of remorse. Dr. Sylveon actually "killed" a child, Mudkip. And yet people still like him.
Memetic Mutation: Bulbasaur car^Explanation
Moe: Chespin will easily catch a viewer's heart with his optimistic and friendly demeanor. Then Rare Candy hits, and it'll only make you want to hug him even more. He's a lot like Butters!
Moral Event Horizon: The Nidos forced their child, Nidorina, to eat their organs.
Narm:
- Mudkip during the ending of Typomaniac. His wording can make the scene come off as a little cheesy.
"Fuck the world, i hate everybody... Everybody's mean, i'm not!"
- Cyndaquil's weird mispronounciation habit can get in the way of his dialogue sometimes, which makes the impact less effective than it's trying to be. For example, one scene in Chapter 4 of Out In The Reign.
"Hear me out. Who's in charge of this place?"
Nausea Fuel:
- The Ditto disguising as a critically-injured Cyndaquil in Ditto Disaster. Marked with graphically-drawn entrails, covered in blood and more, this one's bound to make you grossed out. And it's graphic as hell, even for Word of God's standards. It might just be one of the most disturbing scenes in the entire series.
- At one point in Lavender Town: The Untold Story, it was revealed that there was apparently an incident where the Nidos FORCED NIDORINA TO EAT THEIR FUCKING ORGANS. It's already disgusting on it's own, and it is understandable when Nidorina vomited upon finding that out.
Never Live It Down:
- Tepig's popularity possibly only stems from the fact that he appeared in the Rare Candy episode, which is widely known across the fandom.
- Whenever the fandom wants to talk about Bulbasaur (which they NEVER do), they usually talk about that scene in Lavender Town: The Untold Story where he is dragged while chained to the back of the Nidos' car.
Squick:
- Nidorina's parents force fed their insides to Nidorina until she passed out once they were gutted out!
- Cyndaquil getting some of his dad's pubic hair dandruff on his head in A Christmas Thing.
Stuck in Their Shadow: While every other character (especially Chespin and Mudkip) has a lot of attention, the fandom almost never acknowledges Bulbasaur's existence due to his whiny behavior or him not being as interesting as the other Pokémon in the series. Even Cyndaquil is more acknowledged than him!
The Woobie:
- Bulbasaur can be considered one due to his constantly jumpy and scaredy behavior throughout the series,^note especially all of the shit he goes through in the Lavender Town episode. Needless to say, everything he went through in that episode might've been the cause for his anxious personality.
- Tepig in Out in the Reign. He's revealed to have Abusive Parents, so he and his friends build him a cabin to get away from his father... but a thunderstorm strikes a nearby tree, which lands on the cabin and brutally crushes the Fire Pig Pokémon to death. He is eventually revived near the end of the whole ordeal, but still...
- Chespin in Rare Candy Vol. 2, and DEAR ARCEUS does he suffer it bad! He is Forced to Watch Mudkip, one of his only friends, get graphically shot in the head. Not only that, but the Spiny Nut Pokémon also gets his nose cut open by Dr. Sylveon... Oh, okay...

YMMV / Starters

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