Controversial opinions

[Lightning Flame Blast]

I don’t buy Guzma’s debut for the same reason I didn’t buy the reveal that Mallow’s mom died.

You’d think both characters and their actions would have an immense influence on the mentality and decisions of their peers (Team Skull and Mallow’s family, respectively), and yet the writers couldn’t be bothered mentioning either of them at any point in the 100-something episodes beforehand. Not even a throwaway comment for buildup, both literally came out of nowhere.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

I wouldn't call Guzma evil, he's far from it actually.

At worst, he's a tantrum throwing brat... at best, he's edgy.

Why? He didn't terrorize enough people?

His evilness is kept to a pretty apporpariate scale though, which is why I am okay with it. He wasn't trying to take over the world, he wasn't murdering people or creating a massive anti-Z-Move propaganda like certain intriguing, but sadly devastated towards the end of his series antagonist was.

Don't confuse lack of power and resources with lack of evilness.

 

[LazySpy]

Don't confuse lack of power and resources with lack of evilness.

I never said he's not evill. I just said his conflict is simply more personall and small-scale, which allowed for character development that the show used to its advantage.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I don’t buy Guzma’s debut for the same reason I didn’t buy the reveal that Mallow’s mom died.

You’d think both characters and their actions would have an immense influence on the mentality and decisions of their peers (Team Skull and Mallow’s family, respectively), and yet the writers couldn’t be bothered mentioning either of them at any point in the 100-something episodes beforehand. Not even a throwaway comment for buildup, both literally came out of nowhere.

Some people cope with loss by not talking about it. And Guzma's story arc revolved so heavily around the League that introducing him outside of it wouldn't have really fit. I think his arc was executed very well.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Some people cope with loss by not talking about it. And Guzma's story arc revolved so heavily around the League that introducing him outside of it wouldn't have really fit. I think his arc was executed very well.

They wouldn't necessarily have to Mallow talk about her mother in order to introduce establish her sense of loss and guilt. Her father could have mentioned it or they could have shown some old family pictures to imply that her mother had passed on. A part of me can understand why they didn't want to emphasize on Mallow's mother for more than one episode. Grief is a serious, complex and depressing topic, which wouldn't really fit for the general tone of SM. But at the same time, bringing up her mother's death over a hundred episodes into the series with no buildup really weakens the emotional impact. It was still really sad to watch, but it would carry more weight for Mallow if her relationship with her mother or even her existence was established well beforehand. It really feels like a last minute addition because if it wasn't for Mallow's sudden tragic backstory, she'd be even more forgettable.

As for Guzma, while his arc does revolve around the Alola League, I don't think that means he couldn't have shown up earlier than he did. Waiting until the Alola League was officially announced for him to debut and then having him do nothing until it started just gave them less time to establish his character. They could have established his issues with Professor Kukui a lot sooner as well. This doesn't bother me as much as Mallow's mother since Guzma did eventually get more fleshed out. In this case, I think it's more of an issue of the anime taking too long to introduce key characters from the video games, which tends to happen pretty often. SM seemingly not having a clear idea of what to do with Team Skull didn't help matters either. Team Skull originally was there to help the Aether Foundation and to make it seem like they were the villains instead, but without those kind of details, Team Skull was pretty much just there for comedy relief.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

I never said he's not evill. I just said his conflict is simply more personall and small-scale, which allowed for character development that the show used to its advantage.

But why do scale even matters? Point is, everything he did is based on his jealousy toward Kukui.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

This is an opinion that's mostly about the games, but also can also be seen in the anime in a way:

While I'm happy that Unova decided to introduce us the first female Professor (not counting Ivy, since she wasn't in the games), I'm also a bit irritated that they went and also introduced a male Professor in Cedric Juniper. As in, was it too much to ask for a female Professor to stand on her own without a male relative being around to take some of the spotlight from her? Fortunately, Sword and Shield didn't repeat this.

 

[prog rocker]

This is an opinion that's mostly about the games, but also can also be seen in the anime in a way:

While I'm happy that Unova decided to introduce us the first female Professor (not counting Ivy, since she wasn't in the games), I'm also a bit irritated that they went and also introduced a male Professor in Cedric Juniper. As in, was it too much to ask for a female Professor to stand on her own without a male relative being around to take some of the spotlight from her? Fortunately, Sword and Shield didn't repeat this.

I don't know if this is legit, but I heard that the plan was always to have two professors, a fat professor and an old professor. Then Sugimori suggested that they should scrap the fat professor and make him a woman, so Aurea Juniper was born.

Source: Pokemon Historia: Generation 5 (Part 4): Character Origins

Take it with a grain of salt until someone can confirm this.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I don't know if this is legit, but I heard that the plan was always to have two professors, a fat professor and an old professor. Then Sugimori suggested that they should scrap the fat professor and make him a woman, so Aurea Juniper was born.

Source: Pokemon Historia: Generation 5 (Part 4): Character Origins

Take it with a grain of salt until someone can confirm this.

I've also heard that both professors were originally planned to be male.

Also, fun fact: Aurea is a name given by the English translators. She wasn't given a first name in the Japanese version.

 

[Daenerys]

I don't like Go's design, especially his eyelashes that make him look like a girl. The whole dollar store bishonen thing that he has going on just doesn't sit right with me.

 

[LazySpy]

But why do scale even matters? Point is, everything he did is based on his jealousy toward Kukui.

Of course scales do matter, are you serious? If Guzma was only briefly angry with Kukui before whitdrawing from it after one talk, I bet I wouldn't be hearing any argument from you. If his jealousy would lead him to a slaughter of innocents, he'd be an unjustifiable monster beyond redemption, and the only satysfying sollution for him would be either death or being caged, and then, I wouldn't be defending him.

So yeah, scale of his actions does matter...
Actually, the context of his actions, what he did, when and why matters a lot more than the driving motivation of his arc.
It's character action that inform of how far the character is willing to go to realize his ideals, and who the character is at heart - motivation is just a reason for the ideall.

Also, since when is jealousy not allowed to make people evill or angry? Is this Light Yagami's imagined utopia come to life or something?

 

[P_S_B]

I loved the Mallow's mother episode and it remains my favorite episode of the entire 22+ year run, however I do agree that the lack of build-up dragged it down. You can understand Mallow not wanting to bring it up, but even so much as a longing glance at Lana's sisters with their mother would have been better than nothing.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Of course scales do matter, are you serious? If Guzma was only briefly angry with Kukui before whitdrawing from it after one talk, I bet I wouldn't be hearing any argument from you. If his jealousy would lead him to a slaughter of innocents, he'd be an unjustifiable monster beyond redemption, and the only satysfying sollution for him would be either death or being caged,

Uh, why does it matter whether he's a tandrum throwing brat or an unjustifiable monster? I criticized the shallowness of the reason behind his actions, it would be shallow in either case.

and then, I wouldn't be defending him.

You're defending him? Why?

Also, since when is jealousy not allowed to make people evill or angry? Is this Light Yagami's imagined utopia come to life or something?

Maybe it comes to thing you said about scales, but anime's only explanation was "I failed to beat Kukui, I guess I'll create a gang that harass Alola people," which is not a good explanation. As you said, "If Guzma was only briefly angry with Kukui before whitdrawing from it after one talk" you probably wouldn't hear me complain, but, then, because it would be inconsequental to the show, not because it wouldn't be bad.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Probably not a controversial opinion, but I guess this is the best thread to discuss it...

I was recently rewatching the Sinnoh league, more specifically Ash vs Tobias at the end and I’m pretty sure many people had gripes about Ash not bringing a Powerhouse-only team against him. Personally I thought all his choices made varying amount of sense, except one.

Heracross: Basically the perfect Darkrai counter if it had been trained enough. Both types are advantageous against Darkrai, and it knows Sleep Talk to avoid being incapacitated by sleep.
Sceptile: The stereotypical powerhouse. A perfect combination of speed and power to deal with Darkrai.
Swellow: Should power or Heracross strategy fail, it could be an attempt to weaken Tobias' Pokemon using its speed.
Pikachu: Duh
Gible: That’s the (second) hardest for me to explain, but it occurred to me that it’s the only Sinnoh Pokemon not used in the Paul full battle, so I guess it deserved a moment of glory here. And as for in universe reasons, I guess Ash planned to remove a chunk of Darkrai's health using Draco Meteor, and would've done so as commented by Tobias if it hadn’t been for Darkrai's speed.

My question is... what distinguishing factor did Torkoal have which led Ash to choose it against Tobias? In fact, it was the worst performing Pokémon in that battle by far. Perhaps it was its tanking skill? It didn’t seem the reason to me when it was literally OHKOed.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

My question is... what distinguishing factor did Torkoal have which led Ash to choose it against Tobias? In fact, it was the worst performing Pokémon in that battle by far. Perhaps it was its tanking skill? It didn’t seem the reason to me when it was literally OHKOed.

Torkoal is overall one of Ash's most underwhelming Pokémon in terms of its track record in battles. Even its personality was quite annoying at times.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Torkoal is overall one of Ash's most underwhelming Pokémon in terms of its track record in battles. Even its personality was quite annoying at times.

I expected them to show its defensive capabilities in the battle, but you couldn’t even see where were they going with it against Darkrai.
It genuinely seemed like it was there to reduce the episode airtime.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

I wish they let Glalie out against Darkrai instead of Torkoal. Far better track record, and also far less screentime.

 

[Daren]

I wish they let Glalie out against Darkrai instead of Torkoal. Far better track record, and also far less screentime.

I sort of agree, but the sixteen seconds before Glalie got KO'd as well wouldn't change much.

The whole episode was just the sporting equivalent of "rocks fall, everyone dies" because they failed to plan the last year of DP out and the league got rushed badly.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

I sort of agree, but the sixteen seconds before Glalie got KO'd as well wouldn't change much.

The whole episode was just the sporting equivalent of "rocks fall, everyone dies" because they failed to plan the last year of DP out and the league got rushed badly.

Well, at least Glalie isn’t sold for being tanky...

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

If I were to choose a Pokemon for Torkoal’s spot, it’d be Torterra, which like Gible and Heracross, would put up a fight due to its actual tankiness and energy ball-powered state. It was destinied not to get any wins at that point, might as well display its defensive powress one last time after being humiliated against Paul.

Besides, that team had an absurd amount of Hoenn Pokemon imo...