So I’m sure 99% of everyone who hates this thing thinks it will be Fire/Fighting just because it’s clearly a wrestler. While it IS a wrestler, it’s based on a very specific wrestler:
Looks familiar, huh?
Anyone familiar with Tiger Mask might notice how I used an image of Black Tiger, Tiger Mask’s nemesis. Let’s go back to the “HEEL” part mentioned above. First, what is a heel?
So basically, they’re villains in wrestling. Why do I think Litten is a heel and not a face? Check out the now-confirmed-real concept art:
He’s spitting and hitting Pikachu with a table.
That’s not very sportsmanlike, is it? It’s exactly what a heel would do. In fact, it literally is, because the image of him spitting is something called “Asian mist”, a classic heel move where they store a nasty liquid in their mouths before the fight starts so they can spit it in their opponents’ faces to blind them.
So since heels are evil, and faces are heroes, this fits the Dark typing perfectly. In Japan, Fighting type is equal to “Hero Type”, and Dark type is directly translated as “Evil type”. Think about Dark type moves: they’re all dirty and underhanded in nature.
In closing, he’s not only NOT Fire/Fighting, he’s a direct opposition to Fire/Fighting. GameFreak gave us a starter who combats this typing because they know we dislike it. Instead of giving us a boring quadrupedal tiger with zero deeper design or cultural significance, they gave us a story and a tribute to real life and fictional characters all wrapped up in a nod to our disdain for the idea of ANOTHER Fire/Fighting type. Which is, to say, FAR more interesting than “just a big cat on fire”.
Also, he looks badass as fuck, so shut up.
But that’s just my opinion. Now you now why it is designed the way it is.