What Dissapointed You Most In XY?

[Pesky]

Okay, so I'll probably have to preface by saying that I've been away from the anime for a long while. I've seen virtually nothing of Unova. I watched the Kalos League then started XY from the start (and am currently on episode 60ish), so I don't know much about the series as a whole.

So an apparent reason for the extremely rushed league this season is that they had to make room for the Team Flare finale, but I'm asking seriously here- do I have a reason to care? Because from what I know, Flare has a minimal presence in this season and Ash's encounters with them can be counted on one hand. He met Lysandre briefly before the league started thinking he was chill dude. So why am I supposed to care about a grand finale when the protagonist of the series has literally no investment in the whole ordeal? No real animosity towards Team Flare and what they do (whatever it is they even do)? No desire to fight evil and right wrongs? It just feels like the most basic element of any story is entirely non-existant in Pokemon.

Frankly, I don't remember the evil team of the games having much of a presence. I honestly have no memory of Team Aqua or Magma being in Hoenn. Galactic were present here and there and had like a 3 episode "finale" before being quickly forgotten. And like I said, I know nothing about Unova although I do know N made an appearance so that's neat.

 

[KatsumiChris1991]

Of course the majority would say the league, but to me is the other two main characters not getting enough development and Pokemon.

 

[Amante do Mikuri]

The Pokémon League, of course. Ash deserved win... I'm so sad for him!

In the next generation we have trials, and I think he would win, but not!

 

[Muur]

Serena's goal

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Team Rocket is no longer the BW Team Rocket.

 

[swampertuska]

Serena's goal

Yeah stupid goal bounded to her home region. No development outside of it.

 

[Zweilous]

1. The league, I already made a review, so I won't go into how I felt about it here.
2. The rivals, they came too late and either suffered from being sidelined, not being portrayed as threatening, and/or poor pacing.
3. The poor development and handling of some of the Pokémon such as Noivern and Goodra.
4. Clemont, who started decently well, but then faded into the background until the Gym battle where the writers threw a Luxray (who was also poorly developed) on him to make him seem strong, and then promptly threw him back into the shadows when it was said and done.
5. Serena, who took too long to get to a goal that many of us suspected she'd get, and even following getting said goal wasn't utilized enough. I also don't like how her crush has been handled as while I don't mind romance, I feel it's stagnant as it is since Ash never returns her feelings, so it doesn't go anywhere.
6. Showcases were lackluster.
7. The lack of continuity with the previous series.

 

[swampertuska]

Charizard without even a scratch after the finals. That was the most BS and disappointing moment for me.

 

[ScienceRules]

Well there was one good thing....No Iris!

But I didn't like the excessive attention given to Ash-Greninja. Although Ash fought exceptionally well with all of his Pokemon, I feel that Sinnoh did a better job in showing the team working as a team. We saw Ash training exclusively with Pikachu and Greninja throughout much of the XYZ arc. I wanted episodes devoted to perfecting Attacking techniques or learning new moves!
Ten again, Ash did all of this in XY(with Rock Climb, Super Flying Cut,etc)
I just feel that with all the Mega-Evolution and the Bond-Phenomenon, strategy was forced to take a backseat.

 

[GeminiAngel87]

1. AMOURSHIPPING: which is not even canon and never will be when Ash has shown no signs at all of liking Serena like she likes him; I have no problem with romance but I wish the writers were more subtle about it and just let the fans interpret it like how it's always been done in years past.
2. THE GROUP DYNAMIC: nothing disappointed me more and irritated me more then having no playful bickering, no fights, Serena, Clemont & Bonnie gloryfying Ash all the time (I love Ash, he is my favorite character in the whole of the Anime) & no deeper connection. the group as a whole was boring to watch to the point that I liked the show better when Ash was by himself and away from them or with his other Kalos friends because honestly Tierno, Trevor and Shauna had more chemistry with Ash. honestly the group as a whole felt more like acquaintances or tour guides for the visitor from the Kanto Region. seriously the group dynamic's have been so much better in previous saga's that I felt cheated with this group.
3. Lack of continuity from previous series
4. No mention or show of Ash's mom or his older Pokemon
5. Clemont not getting enough focus
6. Not showing more of a sibling relationship between Ash and Bonnie like they did with Ash and Max back in the day.
7. SERENA: I liked Serena's character when the show started, though she didn't have a goal then she was still interesting but when she cut off her hair her personality went with it.
8. No episode for Cilan or Iris and no mention or cameo's from any of his past companions.
9. Ash becoming more reserved and closed off as the show progressed; no one really understands him which brings me back to the bad group dynamic between Ash, Clemont, Bonnie & Serena. there is a difference between knowing someone and understanding them.

 

[KatsumiChris1991]

Yeah stupid goal bounded to her home region. No development outside of it.

Coordinator would've been better. Also Serena not getting more Pokémon

In the 40-60 episodes they wasted Serena she could've caught a Scatterbug and Rhyhorn

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

I wanted to cast my vote for three options, but since I could only do two, I went with The League and Showcases.

My reasons for not liking the league are basically the same as everyone else's. As I said in a different thread, it wasn't just because Ash deserved victory over Alain more than the opposite - though that's probably the biggest reason - but also because we didn't even see much battling from Ash at all until the quarterfinals, which just made the league feel a bit hollow.

I also didn't really care much for Serena's Showcases. After the long wait (for a main character) to see what Serena would end up doing, that being basically nothing more than stripped-down, girls-only Pokémon Contests, involving little more than dancing and cooking, and no battle rounds, was... well... disappointing.

The "Other" option that I also wanted to vote for is the seeming lack of continuity references to the previous series. I guess I could also mention Alain, but my only real gripe with him lies solely with the league, so that point already covers that.

 

[Pokefan19]

I had no clue I could vote twice... since that's the case I honestly hated Showcases, they were boring and we generally witnessed the same routine from Serena every time she made it past the appeal round (I think that's what that was). What seemed way to farfetched to me was the fact Serena often won despite the fact other characters had far more intriguing and frankly better choreographied dances. You think she'd try to capture a few more Pokemon to actually spice things up and create different dances. I know Dawn had this weird affinity for Ice, but at least she mixed up the usuage of her Pokemon for those ideas. I'm thankful for the 3 key ruling, but that's pretty shallow imo for something that's taken pretty seriously in the Kalos region. And the one time Serena actually puts on a better display then her opponent she loses. IDK, it's almost like she still ended up not having a clear goal other then hopelessly following Ash around.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Well, I haven't seen the League yet, so I won't vote for it just yet. Although, based on what I have heard and seen, it will probably rank among my issues with the series at some point. It also gives me Sinnoh Grand Festival vibes in that they rushed through Ash's battles just to get him to the semi-finals sooner, which does make it much less satisfying and meaningful for him to get to such a high ranking in the League.

I have more than two problems with XY, but I'll focus on the first two. Showcases were indeed awful and easily one of my biggest problems in the series. They were basically glorified Contest appeals with some dancing and baking thrown in, which was just lame. It was really hard to be invested in the goal when the competition were as boring as dirt. It didn't help that Serena's routines were too similar most of the time and yet she still ended up winning by a large amount of popularity most of the time, even when other Performers did a better job. I do like the character development Serena got. It was far from perfect too, but at least it come off as believable and like there was some effort put into make Serena more interesting. They did take way too long to give Serena her goal. I wouldn't say she was useless for the first year, but I don't think that they really justified why they had to wait that long for Serena to have her own goal. Not to mention taking that long really reduced what they could do with Showcases and it was the primary reason why you only needed three keys to get to the Master Class, even though that seems like too small of an amount. I wanted to give Showcases a chance, but they turned out to be so awful that I really hated them and I hope we never see them again.

The second thing I voted for was bad rivals. This is something that I don't really see people talk about much, but I think that most of the rivals are pretty bad or at least poorly written. I'll start with Serena's rivals since that also ties in with my issues with Showcases. Serena really didn't have any rivals. Sure, they were described and presented as such, but none of them actually posed a challenge for her. Despite Shauna being the one who introduced Serena to Showcases, Serena was able to defeat her in order to get her second Princess Key. Miette was brought back mainly to tease Serena about her obvious crush on Ash and I don't know why Niette was brought instead of staying a one-shot character. Jessie was the most talented out of the rivals and quite frankly, we should have seen her other two victories, but since Showcases were designed with Serena in mind, they probably didn't see a point in having a Showcase without her. But there was really no challenge from any of them. There was no sense of conflict on or off stage, which does factor as to why Showcases were so boring and why none of these characters really felt like rivals.

As for Ash's rivals, Tierno was an improvement from his game counterpart, which admittedly doesn't say much, but he was still pretty boring. I will give the anime that they actually made his team lineup makes sense with his dancing focus, but he was just kind of there and didn't provide any interesting interactions. He was okay at best.

Sawyer is easily the best XY rival for me, but even then, I'd say he was handled pretty poorly. He is a much better example of a rookie rival than someone like Trip was, but he was introduced far too late into the series. Granted, I'm positive that their hands were tied there since they'd have to wait for OR/AS to be released before introducing someone from Hoenn in the supporting cast, but it was a major problem. He should have shown up by the time Ash got his third or fourth badge at the latest. That still would have given Ash some badges to make Sawyer admire him and Sawyer would have had more time to develop. They rushed through his development way too fast. He only had one Gym badge when he first met Ash, but then by the time he runs into the group again at the start of XYZ, he has five badges. Then for his third battle with Ash, he was able to defeat him, which affected Ash so much to the point of having a mini-arc to recover from his overconfident/prideful attitude towards winning, even though their second battle had Ash mop the floor with him. He was able to defeat two of Sawyer's Pokemon before the opening song even begun. I still find him the most interesting out the XY rivals and I take him over Trip any day of the week, but that doesn't mean he was handled perfectly. If he was introduced midway into the series instead of right before Ash got his sixth badge, I think he could have worked out a bit better.

And then we have Alain. He kind of fits into this issue, which is why I didn't vote for him specifically. Much like Sawyer, I think he should have appeared in XY proper a lot sooner than he did. It's not quite as bad since he was established in the Mega Evolution specials, so it wasn't like he came out of nowhere, but I do think that not meeting Ash until fairly late into the series was a major problem. He didn't have any interest in the Kalos League at first, but after meeting Ash, he crushes through the Gyms at a relatively fast past with his broken Mega Charizard. That's why I didn't like the idea of Ash facing Alain in the finals in the first place. There is no weight behind their rivalry to make me invested in a match between them in the final round. If Ash had battled Paul in the Sinnoh League finals, that would have been perfect and fitting after all of the years of buildup and weight behind their rivalry. You can't really do the same thing when Alain only met Ash this year and after two battles, wanted to go as far as face him in the Kalos League, even though there was really nothing to prevent Alain from battling Ash after the Kalos League was over. He didn't have to go that far just to fight Ash, especially when he still doesn't seem to care about the Kalos League itself.

I was never a huge Alain fan, but I was generally okay with him for most of the Mega Evolution specials. Once the third special aired and he defeated ten Mega Pokemon in a row, my opinion on him soured and it hasn't really recovered. He's just a bland overpowered Gary Stu with a broken Mega Charizard X. At this point, his best trait to me is that I can imagine Yuya Sakaki from Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V is battling against Ash with a Mega Charizard X due to the characters sharing the same Japanese voice actors. I'd much rather imagine a character who I find to be likable, interesting, sympathetic and well written over the Mega Charizard X promotional device known as Alain.

My other big issue of the series would be Ash's team. It became such a mess after Goomy evolved and it never really recovered for me. The fact that he got Goodra back for the League still bothers me and I also still find Noivern's inclusion highly questionable. If they wanted to give Ash a Pokemon that could evolve quickly, why not give him one that evolves through trading instead? That would have been better than a baby Noibat with little to no experience becoming a Noivern.

I do like XY, but it does have some serious problems and there are times where I find it a bit overrated.

 

[KatsumiChris1991]

I had no clue I could vote twice... since that's the case I honestly hated Showcases, they were boring and and we generally witnessed the same routine from Serena every time she made it past the appeal round (I think that's what that was). What seemed way to farfetched to me was the fact Serena often won despite the fact other characters had far more intriguing and frankly better choreographied dances. You think she'd try to capture a few more Pokemon to actually spice things up and create different dances. I know Dawn had this weird affinity for Ice, but at least she mixed up the usuage of her Pokemon for those ideas. I'm thankful for the 3 key ruling, but that's pretty shallow imo for something that's taken pretty seriously in the Kalos region. And the one time Serena actually puts on a better display then her opponent she loses. IDK, it's almost like she still ended up not having a clear goal other then hopelessly following Ash around.

I see Serena ultimately having this team.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Honestly, I can't see her with a Pangoro. Pancham in his basic stage fits her performances more than his evolved form. I would have been disappointed if he evolved. Altaria is great for her though and Absol makes sense cause of the games.

 

[KatsumiChris1991]

Honestly, I can't see her with a Pangoro. Pancham in his basic stage fits her performances more than his evolved form. I would have been disappointed if he evolved. Altaria is great for her though and Absol makes sense cause of the games.

Serena could always adapt. Dawn and May did, why can't she?

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Serena could always adapt. Dawn and May did, why can't she?

Can't argue against that. She could somehow pull it off, though I just think Pancham suits her more.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Serena could always adapt. Dawn and May did, why can't she?

Because Showcases don't really benefit a big strong Pokemon like a Pangaro. With Contests, there was a battle round that made Pokemon like Mamoswine shine, but Showcases don't really have that. We haven't see a lot of tough looking Pokemon like Pangaro in Showcases and while it would be interesting to see how she could adapt with a new Pokemon like that, it really wouldn't fit Serena or her style at all. Altaria and Absol would be good fits for her though.

 

[KatsumiChris1991]

Can't argue against that. She could somehow pull it off, though I just think Pancham suits her more.

Because Showcases don't really benefit a big strong Pokemon like a Pangaro. With Contests, there was a battle round that made Pokemon like Mamoswine shine, but Showcases don't really have that. We haven't see a lot of tough looking Pokemon like Pangaro in Showcases and while it would be interesting to see how she could adapt with a new Pokemon like that, it really wouldn't fit Serena or her style at all. Altaria and Absol would be good fits for her though.

I also would love if she had the Rhyhorn evolutionary line, Vivillon and of course the Mudkip line