Sun and Moon Starter Type Speculation

At least some of you already know about how the Alola region in Sun and Moon appears to be based on Hawaii (Name, aesthetics from the announcement video, leaked art from the February trailer). Because of this, I think that the fully evolved form of Litten will most likely be fire/ground or fire/rock, to tie into the Hawaii theme, as this typing combination would represent a volcano. Rowlet will most likely stay grass/flying throughout its whole evolutionary line, because the last time we had a dual-type starter (Bulbasaur), it kept its typing throughout its whole evolutionary line. Also, Popplio's evolutions might be water/ice, since other seal-like Pokemon are water/ice, but it's also just as likely that it will have a different typing, to be original. What are your thoughts and theories about the design and typing of the starters?
--Nebula

The owl does seem likely to be Grass/Flying - although Torchic did differ from this, weirdly - and it might stick with this throughout, unless it defaults to Grass/Poison or such eventually. Like a feathery Tropius, then. Popplio might be Water/Ice, although the Ice form does risk allowing it to be super-effective against the grass-type starter, perhaps twice, which might be counter-productive. Litten seems like the Dark type would be appropriate to them as they are, and they might evolve in that direction, but we'll see which direction they go in with their evolutions. A Dark/Fire cat might be a bit awkward, as they already have a dog of the same type.

Fire/Electric panther/tiger for Litten because that would be cool. Yes, that is my only reasoning for it. (Although Fire/Dark would be cool, too.)

I think Grass Owl will stay Grass/Flying. Sure, it's not a unique typing, but that's okay--it fits it just fine.

As for Water Seal, I feel its Type will be completely up to what it evolves into...which I have no ideas about at the moment.

illumine said:

Popplio might be Water/Ice, although the Ice form does risk allowing it to be super-effective against the grass-type starter, perhaps twice, which might be counter-productive. Litten seems like the Dark type would be appropriate to them as they are, and they might evolve in that direction, but we'll see which direction they go in with their evolutions. A Dark/Fire cat might be a bit awkward, as they already have a dog of the same type.

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Starter trios have never always been balanced, and if we got Water/Ice for the Popplio evolutions that make it strong against both the others, it'd be a notable call-back to Infernape having type advantages over the other two Sinnoh starters, with Empoleon weak to Fighting and Torterra weak to Fire.

The only notable difference here is that Rowlet is 4x weak to Ice, so Ice moves will put Popplio at a bigger advantage in that regard. Coincidentally, Torterra is the only other Grass-type starter with a 4x weakness, which was also Ice.

Sure, my concern was mostly the 4x weakness there.

Electric as Litten's secondary would be great if it weren't good against both water and flying , which the other two are. I am thinking that the secondary trio would be Grass/Flying (as stated in video), Fire/Rock, and Water/Fighting ... or Litten and Popplio staying one type.

Drake22ice said:

Electric as Litten's secondary would be great if it weren't good against both water and flying , which the other two are. I am thinking that the secondary trio would be Grass/Flying (as stated in video), Fire/Rock, and Water/Fighting ... or Litten and Popplio staying one type.

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I'd rather have none of them be part Fighting-type, tbh. We've had four generations out of seven with Fighting-type starters, it's time for it to retire.

Only Water/Fighting didn't get used for starters, we got Grass/Fighting last gen with Chesnaught.

I really don't want a Water/Ice that will kind of end up like those walrus and seal pokemons.

We got Psychic/Dark/Fighting last gen as second type it would be nice to get Flying/Rock/Fighting this gen tho, a Fire/Rock cat will be interesting.

NebulaMeowstic001 said:

At least some of you already know about how the Alola region in Sun and Moon appears to be based on Hawaii (Name, aesthetics from the announcement video, leaked art from the February trailer). Because of this, I think that the fully evolved form of Litten will most likely be fire/ground or fire/rock, to tie into the Hawaii theme, as this typing combination would represent a volcano. Rowlet will most likely stay grass/flying throughout its whole evolutionary line, because the last time we had a dual-type starter (Bulbasaur), it kept its typing throughout its whole evolutionary line. Also, Popplio's evolutions might be water/ice, since other seal-like Pokemon are water/ice, but it's also just as likely that it will have a different typing, to be original. What are your thoughts and theories about the design and typing of the starters?
--Nebula

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I agree with the water, but i personally beleive that, the fire starter may evolve into a (fire/dark/ground) or (fire/dark/rock) type. The grass type pokemon shall evolve into a bird/grass/psychic pokemon as we have seen in most of the owl pokemons we've had.

I have an odd Water/Fairy vibe with the ultimate Water starter

Drake22ice said:

Electric as Litten's secondary would be great if it weren't good against both water and flying , which the other two are. I am thinking that the secondary trio would be Grass/Flying (as stated in video), Fire/Rock, and Water/Fighting ... or Litten and Popplio staying one type.

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Well at least Grass resists Electric, so it would turn out neutral. Water doesn't resist Fighting but that didn't stop anyone from making Empoleon Water/Steel and giving it a weakness to Infernape's Fighting Type AND Torterra's Ground Type. And Ground doesn't resist Fire so Torterra is still weak to Infernape while gaining an advantage over it, too (Fire being weak to Ground). So Infernape was weak to both Empoleon (Water) and Torterra (Ground), and Empoleon was weak to both Torterra (Ground) and Infernape (Fighting). Torterra was the only one of the gen 4 starters who maintained neutrality (not resistance, but neutrality) over the Type it was supposed to resist (Water).

So things have been...pretty weird before in terms of starter Type balance. I'm glad they did the cool reverse-balance thing with the gen 6 starters, but now that they've done that, I'd rather they go for thematic Typings rather than keeping Types "balanced."