When it comes to Ash’sPokémon, there’s always a Pokémon on his team that’s considered overrated compared to the rest. While one might expect that Pokémon to frequently be Pikachu, there’s actually a far worse culprit, and that happens to be Lucario.
Ash obtained his Lucario as an egg, which hatched into a Riolu after coming into contact withAsh’s Aura powers. Due to Riolu and Lucario being connected to Aura, fans had long asked for Ash to have one, and they finally got that chance duringPokémon Journeys. However, Ash’s Lucario quickly became a spotlight thief, taking attention away from other Pokémon.
While it’s hard to say whether Lucario deserved its role in the spotlight, many fans felt that Lucario’s time to shine was taking away from the opportunities the rest of the team had. Combine that with Lucario’s aloof, serious personality, and the Aura Pokémon faced a lot of accusations of being boring and distracting from the characterization of more interesting Pokémon.
What Makes Lucario So Overrated?
Lucario Received a High Degree of Focus That Wasn’t Used Well
There have been a great many different Lucario in the anime, belonging to a variety of different trainers.There were fans who had long awaited Ash having a Lucario, and many were quite pleased with the development when Riolu first hatched. However, it took Ash quite some time to earn Riolu’s trust, and some fans were not happy with how long it took.
ThroughoutPokémon Journeys, Riolu/Lucario became one of Ash’s most frequently used Pokémon. Despite this, Riolu was often shown to be aggressive and attack without Ash’s instructions, lashing out against wild Pokémon and Ash himself. While Riolu did agree to be caught by Ash, it was so frequently disobedient and independent that you’d never guess.
Lucario had many spotlight episodes, and became Ash’s first Pokémon to be capable of Mega Evolution, even though he owned many other Mega-eligible Pokémon.
The series focused extensively on Riolu and its eventual evolution into Lucario, making Riolu second only to Pikachu in terms of screentime for Ash’sJourneysteam. Lucario had many spotlight episodes, and became Ash’s first Pokémon to be capable of Mega Evolution, even though he owned many other Mega-eligible Pokémon (like Charizard).
Lucario often faired particularly well in battle also, even against opponents where it should’ve been at a substantial disadvantage. It defeated numerous Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed Pokémon, despite them being substantially larger and more powerful than it. Lucario was touted as having a special bond with Ash, but never quite seemed to feel strongly about its trainer.
There’s also the fact that Lucario hatching from an egg on screen makes it exceptionally young compared to most Pokémon; many fans didn’t like the idea of a Lucario that was less than a year old fighting toe-to-toe against highly experienced Pokémon, like Cynthia’s Garchomp.
Why Was Lucario Treated Special?
Lucario is an Insanely Popular Pokémon
Ever since its introduction, Lucario has been a very popular Pokémon among fans. Lucario is one of the few Pokémon to be playable inSuper Smash Bros., for example. Lucario gained particular popularity in the anime fandom after its appearance inthe movieLucario and the Mystery of Mew, which also introduced Ash’s Aura powersfor the first time.
Because of Ash’s rapport with the Lucario in that movie, and his aptitude with Aura, many fans had long wanted to see Ash obtain a Lucario. The writers of the anime were well aware of both these facts, so when Ash finally had the opportunity to catch Riolu, it was made out to be a big deal. Lucario’s popularity alone kept it in the spotlight.
Unfortunately, the writers didn’t really make as much use of Lucario and Ash’s abilities as they really could have. Ash’s Lucario’s personality is just like every other Lucario seen in the anime: stoic and disciplined. While Riolu had that disobedient streak to make it a little more interesting, Lucario was unwaveringly loyal, and often came across as boring.
In short, Lucario was added to the series as fan service, because so many fans had demanded that Ash catch one. Since it would go on to be Ash’s only Mega Evolving Pokémon, it obtained a unique position of honor on his team, but it’s debatable just how much Lucario actually deserved that position, especially compared to some other Pokémon on the team.
Lucario is Overrated, But That’s Okay
Now, none of this is to say that Lucario is a bad Pokémon; it merely got more than its fair share of screentime over the course of the series.There’s a clear favoritism at work in some of Lucario’s battles, but even that doesn’t ruin the character entirely. If a fan loves Lucario, then they’ll probably enjoy Ash’s Lucario quite a bit.
The real problem with Lucario is simply that there have been so many over the course of the series that have had major focus, such as the aforementioned movie Lucario, and Korrina’s Lucario duringXY. Ash getting a Lucario inJourneyswas just too late to do anything very interesting with this particular species of Pokémon that hadn’t been done before.
Ironically,Pokémon Horizonsis making the same exact mistakeright now with Roy’s Lucario, which has been given very little characterization, was caught offscreen, and seems to win more often than it really deserves to. This is especially frustrating given how close this is to Ash’s Lucario, who was at least given some characterization.
In the end, Lucario was selected for Ash’s team because it was exceptionally popular and there was a lot of fan demand to see it brought to life. However, the realities of Ash having a Lucario weren’t quite as interesting as what many people imagined in their heads beforeJourneys.
There are certainly other Pokémon of Ash’s that could be said to be overrated; Charizard was a common choice, in the early days, and Pikachu’s eternal presence at Ash’s side makes it a solid candidate as well. When considering how badly people wanted to see Ash with Lucario, though, there’s no doubt that Ash’s Lucario isPokémon’s most overrated.
