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8 episodes in and nobody even likes it

I'm more ticked off about Koharu doing literally nothing than I am about Ash taking a backseat for the first time in over 20 years. The Gengar episode might make me like her a little more but at the rate things are going Koharu is just another Serena without a crush.
 
Maybe it's just taking time to build up on the character. Serena did a lot of exploration here and there before she settled on performing. There were so many complaints about her not having a goal for the first fifty or so episodes but eventually she got her own story arc that was quite good. Pokemon 2019 is just barely in 9 episodes, so it could take time.

I never understood this notion that Serena did a lot of exploration before settling on performing. She really didn't. She was pretty much fine with just traveling with Ash, Clemont and Bonnie for about the first year of XY. She barely showed any interest in even catching other Pokemon. She did that Poke Puff baking contest, but that wasn't treated as trying out a goal, especially when baking was frequently used in some of her Showcases anyway. Serena didn't show any real concerns over not having a goal until the Summer Camp arc and she learned about Pokemon Showcases within that same arc. I still have my fair share of problems with Serena's storyline, especially with how Showcases were such a terrible goal, but I do think that she had some pretty solid character moments to make her Showcases more tolerable. I agree that Gou's goal and direction could change as the series progresses though.
 
I think the biggest problem with this season is the lack of a female protagonist and arcs. I also prefer DP and XY but that was because they did a good job with making the female protagonists co-stars (Hikari moreso than Serena but her emotional development is still great) and had some bigger arcs between all the fillers (Shinji/Paul, Alain, Team Galatic/Flare, Hunter J, the league, contests, the implied romance etc).

They jumped into the fillers too quickly and the main characters' goals are vague (which is something Koharu even points out). Gou has caught a lot of Pokémon but has only really bonded with one and isn't actively training his stronger Pokémon like Scyther. He doesn't seem to have a realistic plan to catch Mew at the moment which is a shame because it could be an OK goal if done right. Something I loved about DP and XY was that we actually got to see the characters train!

This.
And the lack of screentime for Ash and his superior goal.
Nobody gives two shits about Go's goal lmao
 
Maybe it's just taking time to build up on the character. Serena did a lot of exploration here and there before she settled on performing. There were so many complaints about her not having a goal for the first fifty or so episodes but eventually she got her own story arc that was quite good. Pokemon 2019 is just barely in 9 episodes, so it could take time.
At least one character in XY had a goal at any given time though, Serena didn’t have a goal, but Ash had one he was actively working towards. In this series both characters have vague goals, and the "moving towards" the goal for Go happens to be incredibly boring with him capturing random Pokémon every episode, and with no explanation on how it’s supposed to lead to Mew.
 
At least one character in XY had a goal at any given time though, Serena didn’t have a goal, but Ash had one he was actively working towards. In this series both characters have vague goals, and the "moving towards" the goal for Go happens to be incredibly boring with him capturing random Pokémon every episode, and with no explanation on how it’s supposed to lead to Mew.

tbh, i don't mind Gou catching Pokemon every episode, i do mind him catching Pokemon without any effort whatsoever (Thats why the captures are boring).
 
tbh, i don't mind Gou catching Pokemon every episode, i do mind him catching Pokemon without any effort whatsoever (Thats why the captures are boring).
Yeah, personally Go catching Pokémon every episode and every single one of them automatically befriending them is one of my issues, along with how his goal treats Pokémon as collectibles when they’re supposed to be living, breathing organisms with their own personalities.
 
I don't understand this 'Go's treating his Pokemon as collectibles!' argument. The way people talk it's like you'd think that Go was locking his Pokemon in display cages like Lawrence from the Lugia movie or some shit. Go lets his Pokemon roam free at Prof. Sakuragi's lab and and some of them have even made recurring appearances. :rolleyes:
 
I don't understand this 'Go's treating his Pokemon as collectibles!' argument. The way people talk it's like you'd think that Go was locking his Pokemon in display cages like Lawrence from the Lugia movie or some shit. Go lets his Pokemon roam free at Prof. Sakuragi's lab and and some of them have even made recurring appearances. :rolleyes:
But isn't he treating them like collectibles? He went on his mass capture spree just because he discovered a checklist/log feature on his dex, and he's going around capturing just to fill up that list. He doesn't have anything meaningful planned for his Pokemon, he doesn't spend time with them properly whether before or after the capture. And no, he's not doing it for "research", ironically he was learning more about Pokemon by observing and interacting with them like in SS002 and SS003. Say what you want about Ash but he actually spends time with his Pokemon and cares about them dearly, rarely does he capture a Pokemon on instinct and even then he makes sure to give them his time (he dove into a volcano to catch one when it fell in, let me remind you). Hell, he even released his Pokemon when he realized that they need to be somewhere else and not with him (Butterfree and it's mate, Lapras herd, Pidgeot flock leader, Goodra with it's swamp buddies, Naganadel in it's homeworld etc).

Maybe he's not Lawrence III yet, but the way he's capturing Pokemon for selfish reasons might as well put him on a path to be one. Did you miss the part where Gou just proclaimed that he "wants to catch Ho-oh"?
Coincidentally, Lawrence III's first collectible was a Mew card so...

And that Glass dome will become pretty congested and like a jail cell soon, so we'll see how long the "freedom" aspect lasts (at least Oak's ranch is like a literal Safari Zone). As for recurring appearances, only a few have made them and they're barely even cameos at this point.
 
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I don't get the comparisons to Laurence III yet. The sub made it quite clear that Misty had more of a problem with Laurence III not using a pokeball like a sensible person.

And that Glass dome will become pretty congested and like a jail cell soon, so we'll see how long the "freedom" aspect lasts

In a world where backpacks can hold entire kitchens (Cilan) or endless supplies of explosives (Clemont), I personally don't worry about real estate.
 
I don't understand this 'Go's treating his Pokemon as collectibles!' argument. The way people talk it's like you'd think that Go was locking his Pokemon in display cages like Lawrence from the Lugia movie or some shit. Go lets his Pokemon roam free at Prof. Sakuragi's lab and and some of them have even made recurring appearances. :rolleyes:

He only caught Taillow to locate Wurmple, so Taillow is a collectible and is even used as a tool.
 
Imagine criticizing Go for catching Pokemon that he doesn't always use when we have Ash who's doing the same thing with his reserved Pokemon, many of whom he hasn't used in battles in almost 10 years.

This and in some cases like Glalie, it's been even longer since it got to battle.

And of course I realize that Ash did do things with his own Pokemon in the past, but 'past' is the keyword here. He hasn't used his reserves on a consistent basis in ages so his Pokemon are much more neglected that Go's are since Go has had his Pokemon for less time than Ash had his. The fact that some people are totally okay with Ash doing nothing with his reserve Pokemon but bash Go for not doing much with his spare Pokemon is so hypocritical.
 
The fact that some people are totally okay with Ash doing nothing with his reserve Pokemon but bash Go for not doing much with his spare Pokemon is so hypocritical.
I'm not so sure about that.

Remember the backlash episode 7 recieved, for instance? Because Ash used Mr.Mime instead of his other reserves?

I mean, I saw a lot of people complaining about Ash not bringing his reserves into further use, many labelling it as missed opportunity, so I'm not exactly sure what you're on about...
 
He only caught Taillow to locate Wurmple, so Taillow is a collectible and is even used as a tool.
We've had Rangers who would use electronic devices to "force" wild pokemon to listen to their requests and nobody questioned it.

Ranger Jack Walker uses Capture Stylus to "manipulate" a Mantyke as a "tool" to dive efficiently when he could swim on his own.
-> everyone is perfectly fine
Gou captures Tailow and makes use of its hunting instinct/ability to find Wurmple
-> horrified fans

In real life, pets and service animals are trained to help humans and solve difficult problems. Certain animals like dogs and hawks also help humans during hunting as well. Their instincts and senses are sharper than an average human being, so why not get help from those animals?
 
We've had Rangers who would use electronic devices to "force" wild pokemon to listen to their requests and nobody questioned it.

Ranger Jack Walker uses Capture Stylus to "manipulate" a Mantyke as a "tool" to dive efficiently when he could swim on his own.
-> everyone is perfectly fine
Gou captures Tailow and makes use of its hunting instinct/ability to find Wurmple
-> horrified fans

In real life, pets and service animals are trained to help humans and solve difficult problems. Certain animals like dogs and hawks also help humans during hunting as well. Their instincts and senses are sharper than an average human being, so why not get help from those animals?

Big difference Jack is a Pokémon ranger who are people who help Pokémon that are in danger, the other one is a boy who catches Pokémon cause he likes a pink cat. If he needs to catch Mew cause his study will allow to discover a rare cure of some kind of illness or a big scientific discovery or something like that I would understand, but he wants to catch it cause its powerfull and rare ¿What is the difference between him and the Collector from movie 2?
 
Yeah, personally Go catching Pokémon every episode and every single one of them automatically befriending them is one of my issues, along with how his goal treats Pokémon as collectibles when they’re supposed to be living, breathing organisms with their own personalities.
Yea it’s even stranger in the case where the captured Pokémon was the antagonist of the episode. It’d be one thing if it was like a capture episode where the Pokémon’s respect is earned by beating them but this just feels like straight up brainwashing into loyalty. Even past trainers had to work with the Pokémon beyond their capture for them to really form a friendship with them. For Go, it’s just automatic.
 
We've had Rangers who would use electronic devices to "force" wild pokemon to listen to their requests and nobody questioned it.

Ranger Jack Walker uses Capture Stylus to "manipulate" a Mantyke as a "tool" to dive efficiently when he could swim on his own.
-> everyone is perfectly fine
Gou captures Tailow and makes use of its hunting instinct/ability to find Wurmple
-> horrified fans

In real life, pets and service animals are trained to help humans and solve difficult problems. Certain animals like dogs and hawks also help humans during hunting as well. Their instincts and senses are sharper than an average human being, so why not get help from those animals?

I don't know about how other people felt about the Ranger episodes, but I definitely remember thinking that the concept of Rangers didn't really fit that well within the main series for a few reasons. Part of it is because coming across a Pokemon that just happens to help them deal with a specific problem kind of works better within the context of a video game than it does in an anime. It feels too cheap or maybe too forced within the anime. But another part is how they looked scared and confused when they were captured, although this was only in the first AG Ranger episodes and was thankfully not done in the DP Ranger episodes.

Besides all that, Pokemon Ranger work alongside Pokemon to help accomplish their mission. Once a task is done, they're free to go and the Ranger usually thanks them afterwards as well. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say that Gou is treating his Pokemon like tools, but to say that Pokemon Rangers were doing so is a bit of an exaggeration to say the least.
 
I'm not so sure about that.

Remember the backlash episode 7 recieved, for instance? Because Ash used Mr.Mime instead of his other reserves?

I mean, I saw a lot of people complaining about Ash not bringing his reserves into further use, many labelling it as missed opportunity, so I'm not exactly sure what you're on about...

I literally said 'some people' so that obviously doesn't include everyone. :rolleyes: Like, for every fan who might have wanted Ash to use one of his reserve Pokemon in that episode, there was approximately an equal amount of people who wanted Ash to just get a new Pokemon to use instead, or did y'all miss the theories that people were coming up with about Ash catching a Pokemon either offscreen in SS006 or at the beginning of SS007 in preparation for the tournament?
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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