Controversial opinions

[PrettySylveon]

Others have mentioned this before, but Cameron should have been disqualified by not bringing the required six pokemon team to a full-battle.

I think he should have been disqualified as well. I mean I dislike Cameron too, but when he appeared, I was like “well at least someone is here to make Ash look much smarter and competent as a trainer.” So of course I (like most fans) was pissed that Ash lost to him.

It’s just that when Ash lost the Indigo League, he’s made out to be this bratty sore loser who had no right to be upset about his humiliating defeat. While Ash was partially to blame for his loss, he had every right to be sad.

Unova didn’t do that and it wasn’t even Ash’s fault he lost, which is why I consider Unova to be the 2nd worst league behind the Indigo League.

"I'll keep using a Pokémon till it is perfectly unproblematic and leave it’s side immediately when it faces issues." is really, really out of character for Ash and not really good ethics-wise imo. It’s literally a trainer's job to work out the kinks in a Pokemon.

That’s not the point. If Charizard stopped being unproblematic, then Ash shouldn’t even release it. I understand that it would be out of character for him, but it’s not his fault that Charmander turned mean after it evolved into Charmeleon/Charizard. If anything, Ash had the patience of a saint regarding Charizard because of how ungrateful it was. I hated Ash’s Charizard before the episode “Charizard Chills.”

Also, I’m glad this was actually portrayed a bit realistically in XY with Ash’s Froakie’s former trainers getting fed up with it and returning it to the lab. Just because Ash, Dawn, and Iris had the patience to deal with their disobedient Pokémon, doesn’t mean that other trainers should and will.

 

[Blaine.]

Others have mentioned this before, but Cameron should have been disqualified by not bringing the required six pokemon team to a full-battle.

Now I have a thing with this, where is it stated about 6 pokemon being required?

And we could say the same about Tobias, as of my knowledge, everyone didn't know his team at all, and only assumed Darkrai, unless I am wrong

 

[Panky..]

Ash didn’t want to train Charizard because it was disobedient, arrogant, and stubborn. If I were Ash when I lost the Indigo League, I probably would have released Charizard for being such a jerk.

That would be completely out of character from Ash. You can expect stuff like that from Paul but Ash would never give up on his Pokemon... till the end.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

but it’s not his fault that Charmander turned mean after it evolved into Charmeleon/Charizard. If anything, Ash had the patience of a saint regarding Charizard because of how ungrateful it was. I hated Ash’s Charizard before the episode “Charizard Chills.”

Ash quite literally didn’t do anything to even try and find out what happened to Charizard or to solve its issues. He never dealt with it till he had no choice and had to use it at the league, and promptly faced the consequences.
He went on to handle it correctly with his future Pokémon, like Infernape's Blaze rage, but Ash largely ignored Charizard's issues. And "Pokemon training" is about working together with your Pokémon, and that’s includes working out the disputes. Ash was perfectly fine using Charmander when it obeyed him, abandoning it after it began to face issues and lose respect in Ash would just reinforce Charizard's notion that Ash wasn’t strong enough for it and wouldn’t betray it.

Pokemon disobeying trainers is linked with the trainer themselves. The trainers returning Froakie makes sense because they never formed an attachment with it, and starter Pokemon is the only Pokémon a trainer has and is supposed to be tame. Ash, Dawn and Iris' Pokemon became disobedient after they had spent quite a lot of time together, and were initially obeying their trainers so the cases aren’t comparable.

And we could say the same about Tobias, as of my knowledge, everyone didn't know his team at all, and only assumed Darkrai, unless I am wrong

I assumed that the league registration people knew his team but it wasn’t revealed for privacy reasons.

That would be completely out of character from Ash. You can expect stuff like that from Paul but Ash would never give up on his Pokemon... till the end.

I wouldn’t expect it from Paul even. Paul would prefer to harness Charizard's strength and prove himself a worthy trainer to use it.

 

[Blaine.]

I assumed that the league registration people knew his team but it wasn’t revealed for privacy reasons

Yeah, but in the Diamond Pearl Platinum Anime, trainers were able to view the pokemon of their opponents before a match.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Yeah, but in the Diamond Pearl Platinum Anime, trainers were able to view the pokemon of their opponents before a match.

Yeah, the entire situation seems weird, I doubt they’d let Tobias enter with a single available Pokémon, but they don’t show his Pokémon in the system...

 

[Blaine.]

Yeah, the entire situation seems weird, I doubt they’d let Tobias enter with a single available Pokémon, but they don’t show his Pokémon in the system...

That's why I don't believe 6 pokemon are required to sign up

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

That's why I don't believe 6 pokemon are required to sign up

The 6 Pokemon requirement was present in Kanto at least, so many people (including me) assumed that it was a requirement in the leagues till Alola came along.

 

[Daenerys]

Ash didn’t want to train Charizard because it was disobedient, arrogant, and stubborn. If I were Ash when I lost the Indigo League, I probably would have released Charizard for being such a jerk.

I feel like Ash was also just very complacent back then and had a bad case of procrastination, too. He probably thought that he'd have time to train Charizard at some point in Kanto, but he kept putting it off and it ended up biting him on the ass when it came time for the Indigo League.

As for the idea of Ash releasing Charizard, had I been him I probably would've done that out of sheer frustration. But I think that Ash needed to try harder to make the situation with Charizard work before settling on any plans to release him.

 

[PrettySylveon]

As for the idea of Ash releasing Charizard, had I been him I probably would've done that out of sheer frustration. But I think that Ash needed to try harder to make the situation with Charizard work before settling on any plans to release him.

I wouldn’t blame you if you did XD.

I mean, I do think that Ash should have put in more effort to control and train Charizard. Unfortunately, he was a lazy trainer during the IL arc and that was a part of his downfall. It’s a shame that it took Charizard getting frozen by a Poliwrath and almost dying again for it to realize that Ash does care about it and for it to obey him again.

 

[CaptainBuggles]

I just find it weird that the other Trainer responsible for that Poliwrath situation, at least from what I remember, didn't show remorse or get held to any account.

Like it wasn't totally his fault, because Ash accepted the risk of battling with a disadvantage, but you'd still think that almost killing someone's Pokemon is enough for at least a "You should really be more careful from now on", or a moment of feeling kind of bad about it.

I also find it inconsistent that earlier in Kanto, Ash is perfectly willing to put in effort to defeat Raichu without taking the 'easy way out' and evolving Pikachu, or getting a Ground-type, but then here he has such a lack of initiative.

But maybe that situation just sort of taught him the wrong lesson, since it was resolved so quickly that he could've mistakenly come to think that brief spurts of effort are enough to get through anything, rather than realizing consistent effort is better... Also, still strikes me as kinda hard to believe that Surge is a grown man and supposed Electric specialist who's still too dumb to know about the issue with evolving Pokemon too soon. But even with Ash's behavior having this as a possible explanation, it still feels a little weird to me.

 

[Daenerys]

Also, still strikes me as kinda hard to believe that Surge is a grown man and supposed Electric specialist who's still too dumb to know about the issue with evolving Pokemon too soon. But even with that explanation, it still feels a little weird to me.

Maybe the writers believed the 'dumb American' stereotype?

 

[Rockapheller]

Mallow is my favourite classmate of Ash in Alola. She is since that sad episode because she is basically the only character in Alola whom I can relate to in a way.

 

[PrettySylveon]

Another unpopular opinion I have: I REALLY dislike Georgia from Best Wishes and I never got why she is liked.

For starters, her goal is just petty and vague. I mean you lost to one dragon type and you wanna hate and defeat all dragon types??? As Paul would say: “pathetic.”

Also, she’s just a whiny sore loser who blames others. Despite Iris’ flaws as a character, at least Iris showed good sportsmanship and didn’t whine and complain when she lost battles. Instead, she takes the high road and vows to be a better dragon trainer. Unlike Georgia who gloats when she wins and then whines and blames others when she loses.

While everyone was satisfied for Georgia calling Iris out on her cheap win, I wasn’t impressed. While Georgia made a good point, I think this complaint should have been said by someone else (like Cilan, Dawn, and especially Ash). This just made Georgia look like a petty, immature, bitter sore loser and it was hard to take her seriously.

I will give Georgia some credit for at least calling Iris out on the fact that the latter’s whole team should have been exclusively dragon type Pokémon if she wanted to be a dragon master. Apart from that, she was too annoying, unsportsmanlike, and obnoxious to be likable in my eyes. Am I supposed to like this chick over Iris because of the latter’s annoying overused catchphrase towards Ash and how the fanbase feels about her. Nope, not buying it.

I just find it weird that the other Trainer responsible for that Poliwrath situation, at least from what I remember, didn't show remorse or get held to any account.

It was a complete accident on the guy’s part, so I guess that’s why. I think Misty should have also called the guy out on it because she did that when he almost hurt her Togepi.

I also see it as well deserved karma for Ash Charizard due to its horrible attitude towards Ash ( I know Ashs shouldn’t have used it, but still).Like I said, it’s sad how Charizard had to go through yet another near death experience to finally start obeying Ash again.

 

[Daenerys]

Mallow is my favourite classmate of Ash in Alola. She is since that sad episode because she is basically the only character in Alola whom I can relate to in a way.

I dunno if I'd consider that to be a controversial opinion tbh; Mallow may not be the most popular Pokegirl around here, but I don't think I've ever seen her receive major backlash or much hate in general. She's just kinda under the radar.

 

[Rockapheller]

I dunno if I'd consider that to be a controversial opinion tbh; Mallow may not be the most popular Pokegirl around here, but I don't think I've ever seen her receive major backlash or much hate in general. She's just kinda under the radar.

It seems to me she is just that girl who is there, no one particularly likes, no one particularly dislikes.

 

[Blaine.]

It seems to me she is just that girl who is there, no one particularly likes, no one particularly dislikes.

Ive always considered Lillie as the Alola Pokegirl because of the games.

 

[PrettySylveon]

It seems to me she is just that girl who is there, no one particularly likes, no one particularly dislikes.

She’s like the female Tracey of the Pokémon fanbase.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Another unpopular opinion I have: I REALLY dislike Georgia from Best Wishes and I never got why she is liked.

For starters, her goal is just petty and vague. I mean you lost to one dragon type and you wanna hate and defeat all dragon types??? As Paul would say: “pathetic.”

Also, she’s just a whiny sore loser who blames others. Despite Iris’ flaws as a character, at least Iris showed good sportsmanship and didn’t whine and complain when she lost battles. Instead, she takes the high road and vows to be a better dragon trainer. Unlike Georgia who gloats when she wins and then whines and blames others when she loses.

Vowing to become a better Dragon Trainer doesn't really mean that much when she barely put any work with her Dragon Pokemon. I can definitely see the issue with Georgia being a sore winner and then whining when she loses, but I don't think that Iris comes off that much better by comparison.

While everyone was satisfied for Georgia calling Iris out on her cheap win, I wasn’t impressed. While Georgia made a good point, I think this complaint should have been said by someone else (like Cilan, Dawn, and especially Ash). This just made Georgia look like a petty, immature, bitter sore loser and it was hard to take her seriously.

I don't think it would have made sense for anyone else to call Iris out on her cheap win, especially Ash. Everyone was holding Iris' hand and supporting her through her problems with Dragonite during that arc, so I can't really see Ash, Cilan or Dawn pointing out that she didn't really win the match like Georgia did. Maybe Cynthia could have pointed it out in a more gentle manner, but even that might have been too much of a stretch from how she had been reassuring Iris throughout the arc.

I will give Georgia some credit for at least calling Iris out on the fact that the latter’s whole team should have been exclusively dragon type Pokémon if she wanted to be a dragon master. Apart from that, she was too annoying, unsportsmanlike, and obnoxious to be likable in my eyes. Am I supposed to like this chick over Iris because of the latter’s annoying overused catchphrase towards Ash and how the fanbase feels about her. Nope, not buying it.

I don't really see why I was supposed to root for Iris over Georgia to be honest. While they were both immature kids, Georgia at least had some skills to back up her talk. Iris really didn't. Admittedly, I think rooting for Iris would be difficult for me due to how much I dislike her character, but even without factoring that, she never was able to properly defeat Georgia. Their last battle was all due to Dragonite overpowering Georgia rather than Iris overcoming a huge challenge. Neither of them were characters that I could really cheer for to be honest.

 

[CaptainBuggles]

I still wish Dragonite were at least a Salamence or Hydreigon, just because imo giving it such a 'species atypical' personality was a poor decision too.

I know that each a Pokemon is an individual, and for some Pokemon a 'mismatched' personality works, but half of why I like Dragonite is the idea of them generally being wise and benevolent until provoked.

Plus, I still think having it caught fully evolved was a mistake.

But overall, Iris still bothers me less than Georgia, even if that's not actually high praise whatsoever.

Georgia basically feels like she exists for nothing other than being annoying, while Iris is still annoying but at least exists in ways beyond that.