Choosing choices of choice choosings

We finna break down this paradox of choice to a rudimentary level.  Quite possibly a more crucial choice than sith or jedi, what to eat for dinner, marvel or DC!  I am talking about the choice of your first starter Pokemon, first gen of course.  Charmander, Bulbasaur, or Squirtle?! Read this article, it dives into it for sure (I'm gunna be the very best!).  For the remainder of this blog post just acknowledge me as Professor Oak. Also by the way, this somehow relates to The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz.

Charmander

Arguably the most popular of the big three.  But who is to say Charmander is the best choice?  Some would venture to say Charmander being your starter allows for a more balanced team from the start of the game.  This is because fire-type are hard to come by throughout the game.  But, fire is weak against ground, rock, and water.  The first gym boss you face is Brock, a known rock-type pokemon trainer.  Now your choice of Charmander for long-term reasons of balance, has now back fired because you are weak against your first boss?! Good choice? Who is to say?

Bulbasaur

Now Bulbasaur is the unloved child of the OG three.  Grass type is lame, weak, and considered useless until your Bulbasaur becomes a Venosaur.  Yeah thats because solar beam is super op.  But unlike Charmander, Bulbasaur can beat Brock with no problem.  So Bulbasaur has long term and short term potential right?  Wrong.  Throughout the game, you will face so many more powerful gym leaders that will ultimately give Bulbasaur and this grass-type a hard time.  So do you pick Bulbasaur for the sole intention of getting Venosaur at the end?  I mean Bulbasaur is cool but when you throwing down moves like growl and leech seed at the beginning, you cant expect much.  Yeah solar beam throws some critical hits on opponents but good luck getting to that point with sad little Bulbasaur.  Bulbasaur is for sure the underdog of the three so if you want that challenge then by all means accept it.  I seriously just rambled on in this paragraph just so it would line up with the picture to the right and be formatted better.

Squirtle
Winner winner chicken dinner.  Squirtle Squad or die, because he is the definition of a true finesser, prodigy of Kodak Black.  Squirtle holds the most advantages and least disadvantages against the gym leaders you will face along this journey too.  Squirtle also becomes Blastoise.  That's a giant turtle thing with water bazookas coming out of it's shell! Like c'mon, its nothing like sharks with laser beams but water bazookas is legit enough.  Squirtle also can learn the move surf, so we know yer boy Squirtle getting shacked on double overheard.  Now Squirtle doesn't make the game a breeze, but from a statistical standpoint Squirtle allows for the most stability.  So Squirtle is the most powerful from a stat standpoint, but the best pick still?

Now what does this have to do with choices?  Well looking at each pokemon, we can see one has initial rarity, another has initial success, and lastly one that offers the most balanced choice.  This paradox of choice, diving into which is best for you, kinda like maximizing your option.  In that case Squirtle is your boy, der he go again.  But in my case I always chose Charmander.  Why? Because his freakin tail is on fire and Charmander becomes Charizard!  So yeah I guess I am not a maximizer, but that's to say I was never unhappy! Well to wrap this up we can just say that no one wants Bulbasaur, bang bang bubble beam/flamethrower fired!