- Joined
- Jun 5, 2016
- Messages
- 11,647
- Reaction score
- 26,882
There’s probably less reaction since the Erika incident happened to Ash, our protagonist, whereas he actually ended up battling Volkner himself. I’m not endorsing any of them but that might be the reason Volkner is not prominent.I just think it's strange how people overreact to Erika handing Ash the Rainbow badge out of gratitude for him saving her Pokemon, yet I don't remember nearly as much outrage when we found out that Volkner was literally handing Beacon badges for free in the first Sunyshore episode. I just went through the episode review thread of that episode and only a few people seemed bothered by that compared to how many old school fans drag Erika for what she did even to this day.
And there were actually nuanced reason for Volkner not to battle (losing interest) and Ash had to reignite it, whereas Erika's reason to not battle sounds much more shallow (not having the same taste as her in perfume). One was a character flaw/burnout/issue that was actually resolved, whereas other was arrogance which was never resolved. Even though she thanks Ash for saving her Pokémon and gives him a badge, she never learnt to accept criticism.
Never thought I’d ever use that word but I’ve probably found the one that explains 99.99% of your arguments- whataboutism. You keep bringing people's reactions that happened 5+ years ago to justify something right now, for all you know the user you’re talking to was not even present on the forums discussing episodes at the time.