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Controversial opinions

Aside from Raboot and Sobble, does Goh even have that many Galar Pokemon to begin with? Since Ash got Galarian Farfetch'd and the series still promotes Sword/Shield to a certain degree at least, I think that there's a decent chance that Ash will get more eighth generation Pokemon in the future. I don't think anyone saw Galarian Farfetch'd coming and there's a really good chance that he'll get more captures down the road too.
Just a Skwovet though they’ve had Go capture a Galar Pokemon with each visit while, aside from Farfetch’d, Ash hasn’t really shown any initiative to which is really jarring considering that in the past, Ash has always been excited to capture Pokémon from new regions.
 
Just a Skwovet though they’ve had Go capture a Galar Pokemon with each visit while, aside from Farfetch’d, Ash hasn’t really shown any initiative to which is really jarring considering that in the past, Ash has always been excited to capture Pokémon from new regions.

The fact that Ash went to a new region for the first time and didn't consider looking into a Gym challenge, let alone be more interested in new Pokemon, is quite strange. I know that the setup for this series is supposed to be kind of like a world tour, but it is weird for Ash to not want to go through a new region to find new Pokemon. Although, Ash's reaction to Scorbunny after battling it for the first time almost felt like they could have built up a bond between them if it wasn't meant to be Goh's partner instead.
 
That's what I was thinking of; not Ash entering the Galar League itself, but participating in the challenge so he can face the Gym leaders to increase his PWC ranking.

I've said it before, but I don't that Ash will face any of the Galar gyms until the midpoint of the anime at the earliest. Considering how the lore of the Pokemon basically states that Galar is a battle-obsessed culture, I wouldn't be surprised if all of the Gym Leaders are in the top 100. If my logic is correct, then we're not going to see any real Galar action for a LOOONNNGGG time. Then again, we might see them earlier if the writers decided to adapt the dlcs.
 
I don't think any of Ash's companions have ever been left on such a cliffhanger. In addition to her receiving an ice stone that goes unused, her story ends with an aimless quest to find her father which may or may not be successful. When the current series was revealed I was really hopeful that her story would be concluded sometime in PM2019, but the new "episodic format" left me skeptical. It was recently revealed that many more past characters would appear though, so maybe a Lillie 2-parter isn't too far off.

I think following up on the Mohn plot is more likely than not, especially since they've announced many characters will be returning. I hope they don't have some kind of rule against multi-parters for everything but Galar, but even if they do they could get around that by having Mohn in Galar.
 
But do the Gym Leaders need to be at their respective gym to have these battles? Why not just spread the Galar Gym Leaders around the world and fight there?

To add in more, how about Ash VS Marlon, Drayden, and (for god sakes) Giovanni?! Give us those proper battles for the Journeys series, please.
 
But do the Gym Leaders need to be at their respective gym to have these battles? Why not just spread the Galar Gym Leaders around the world and fight there?
Presumably they'd want to keep the Galar Gym Leader (minus Piers obviously) at their Gyms for the Dynamax battles since IIRC Leon did give Ash a Dynamax band so they clearly have plans to have such battles with Ash. :unsure:
 
But do the Gym Leaders need to be at their respective gym to have these battles? Why not just spread the Galar Gym Leaders around the world and fight there?

To add in more, how about Ash VS Marlon, Drayden, and (for god sakes) Giovanni?! Give us those proper battles for the Journeys series, please.
Presumably they'd want to keep the Galar Gym Leader (minus Piers obviously) at their Gyms for the Dynamax battles since IIRC Leon did give Ash a Dynamax band so they clearly have plans to have such battles with Ash. :unsure:
That, and I don't see why a Gym Leader (as in the profession) would go around looking for people to compete against when the Gym stadiums themselves can act as beacons for people to go to if they wish to challenge someone. We know that travel between regions is far too easy and mundane, and most likely doesn't cost anything in the Animeverse, so it shouldn't be a problem for some random person to travel across the seas for even a single battle.
 
But do the Gym Leaders need to be at their respective gym to have these battles? Why not just spread the Galar Gym Leaders around the world and fight there?

To add in more, how about Ash VS Marlon, Drayden, and (for god sakes) Giovanni?! Give us those proper battles for the Journeys series, please.
I’d imagine that they wouldn’t spread the Galar gym leaders out around the world because, as we saw in the episode where Ash battled Visquez, while the PWC May be happening, the regular gym challenges are still going on. And with Galar being of such a high competitive level, gym leaders wouldn’t have substitutes especially given that gym challenges happen on a schedule. So while the gym leaders have time for pursuits outside of their gyms, they still have to remain readily available.
 
What was the point of hiding Kukui’s team? I get why he would hide Incineroar from the students, what with his whole Masked Royal charade (we were also never told why he made such a big deal out of that secret and then said “fuck it, Imma fight unmasked”), but how would the rest compromise him in any way? It took us 50 episodes to even find out he has... a Braviary. When did they even eat?

This is made further weird by the fact that his team has types, moves and experience that would definitely teach the students more about pokemon and maybe even directly help developing their own (e.g. Braviary teaching Rowlet Brave Bird, Empoleon using its tides knowledge to aid on Primarina’s bubbles, Lucario teaching Turtonator Dragon Pulse...). I feel like it would have been more logical and satisfying if we had known them before the showdown.
 
What was the point of hiding Kukui’s team? I get why he would hide Incineroar from the students, what with his whole Masked Royal charade (we were also never told why he made such a big deal out of that secret and then said “fuck it, Imma fight unmasked”), but how would the rest compromise him in any way? It took us 50 episodes to even find out he has... a Braviary. When did they even eat?

This is made further weird by the fact that his team has types, moves and experience that would definitely teach the students more about pokemon and maybe even directly help developing their own (e.g. Braviary teaching Rowlet Brave Bird, Empoleon using its tides knowledge to aid on Primarina’s bubbles, Lucario teaching Turtonator Dragon Pulse...). I feel like it would have been more logical and satisfying if we had known them before the showdown.
Perhaps they had not thought about his team until then.
 
My guess is that they still wanted to make it more of a surprise in-universe that Professor Kukui was such a strong trainer. Maybe he would have thought that showing off more of his skills would have made it more obvious that he was the Masked Royal even without using Incineroar. Although, I also wondered when his Pokemon would have eaten if they were kept in secret for so long. Professor Kukui fighting unmasked didn't bother me since his identity was already revealed.

It was more strange to me that they didn't quite explain why he had a secret identity in the first place. It does fit more with the whole wrestling vibe they were going for with the Battle Royal, but they didn't really offer an answer. Although, it didn't bother me as much as never explain the whole Blaziken Mask deal from XY.
 
It was more strange to me that they didn't quite explain why he had a secret identity in the first place. It does fit more with the whole wrestling vibe they were going for with the Battle Royal, but they didn't really offer an answer. Although, it didn't bother me as much as never explain the whole Blaziken Mask deal from XY.
I guess the wrestling theme might be right in the money... even though in the games everyone already knows except Hau. In fact, one of dialogue options for the player once they meet him is "Professor?"
 
I guess the wrestling theme might be right in the money... even though in the games everyone already knows except Hau. In fact, one of dialogue options for the player once they meet him is "Professor?"

Makes sense why Ash couldn’t tell after all those TR disguises, if Kukui put on a fake mustache Ash would probably not recognize him.
 
Ash deserves less shade thrown at him by the fandom than Shinji does, regardless of if Shinji or Ash get more shade in general. Say what you will about Ash, but when he doesn't win leagues or doesn't catch all Pokemon the world is never at risk of turning into gelatin or blowing up.
 
I'm only seven episodes into Journeys, so it still might be too early to say for sure, but I like Goh. While I do have mixed feelings on his capture spree style of getting Pokemon, it's also clear that he does care about them and his bond with Scorbunny is already quite sweet. I can understand some of the complaints about his goal and his capture style a bit more, but Goh himself is perfectly fine and likable thus far to me.

This probably isn't as controversial, but even after seeing Mr. Mime in battle, I still don't like the idea of it being Ash's Pokemon all this time. They are definitely trying to make it more akin to the Detective Pikachu Mr. Mime, especially with some of those facial expressions and having it mime more often. On one hand, this does give Mr. Mime some much needed personality after just being Delia's housekeeper for ages, but at the same time, that's exactly why it feels so jarring. Giving Mr. Mime such a drastic personality change and suddenly making it a power house is so weird. They might as well have given Ash a brand new Mr. Mime instead of changing it so much. Admittedly, this would probably be more of a problem for long time fans rather than some of the younger fans who haven't seen Mr. Mime as just Delia's Pokemon for twenty years, but it's still a really weird choice. The issue might also be more moot if Ash does get more captures, but it still kind of rubs me the wrong way.
 
Goh is a mixed bag. There are some episodes where his behavior/motivation/ambition is downright stupid especially when he starts having unrealistic amounts of success since it's hard to relate to a character who they try to portray as "perfect" while his problems are handwaven away or swept under the rug. There are others where he can be a really decent guy (ex: the Cubone episode). You're still far too early in the series so keep watching (you don't watch the original version though?).

I don't watch the original version, but I hear about most of the major events and see gifs all the time. I just prefer to watch the dub. I can see some issues, such as how he tends to capture his Pokemon too easily. Even if they are trying to mimic the Pokemon Go style of capturing, it's still way too easy for most of Goh's Pokemon to be caught with one Pokeball. But I just don't get a major problem with Goh's personality so far. I don't think this kind of capture spree translates well into the anime, but it does also mirror how a lot of people capture Pokemon in the games and not just in Pokemon Go. It could still be too early, but in terms of first impressions, Goh seems fine to me.

Panky said:
The problem with Mr. Mime and that infamous "Battle Frontier" episode isn't the fact that Mr. Mime was officially canonized as Ash's Pokemon, but the way and the manner it was done in. Prior to the original release, they kept advertising a "surprise" Pokemon and then out of nowhere in the actual episode, they pulled out the card that Mr. Mime was Ash's all along... not to mention the pointlessness of the actual "Battle Frontier" title for the entire thing. There was absolutely no build up to Mr. Mime, not even something as simple as a 15 second flashback and explanation that Ash was the one who captured it for his mother. Then there's the fact that they failed to utilize it properly from that point on outside of household activities and some gags here and there.

I forgot about the surprise Pokemon advertising, which most likely was a big reason why fans thought that he was going to bring out one of his reserves. Making Mr. Mime Ash's Pokemon all along would still feel rather bothersome to me even if they did provide a flashback. It would feel like such a needless recton when it would have been better, or at least more believable, that Ash caught a different Mr. Mime instead. If they weren't so set on making it similar to the Detective Pikachu Mr. Mime, giving Ash a Galarian Mr. Mime would have been neat, or at least I think it would have been more interesting. The Battle Frontier title was quite misleading. That didn't really bother me when watching the episode since the battles were pretty solid and I liked the COTD, but I can see why that would upset people when it first aired. They really should have figured out a different title for the tournament or at least have a Frontier Brain host it to make the name feel somewhat earned.
 
Well I for one loved that they retconned Mimey as Ash's Pokemon. Especially because it gave him two of the types he was missing. If people dont like it oh well :p
I personally find that l, in situations like that, that’s an incredibly lazy way of doing it. If you want to give Ash a fairy and/or a psychic type, have him capture them just as he’s had to with literally every other type. It makes it feel less like an accomplishment when they rely on things that even the series can’t back up.
 
There were definitely better/more fitting Psychic and Fairy types for Ash to get than Mr. Mime. If they have to rely on a retcon to give him two missing types, then that's pretty weak. It's incredibly difficult, if not flat out impossible, for me to believe that Mr. Mime was really Ash's Pokemon this entire time and he didn't use it himself for twenty years. There's no way that Ash wouldn't have attempted to use a Psychic Pokemon during the Indigo League if that was the case.
 
To tell the truth I don't mind that Barrierd's now Satoshi's Pokemon. Even if they waited 20 years for the big reveal it's not a plothole or inconsistency of any kind, and in my opinion it sorta makes sense (since Hanako is not a trainer I'd expect Satoshi to get it before if started working on his house).

Of course it's a Pokemon I don't care about, at all. And its PM 2019 portrayal kinda annoys me... Back in OS it ate just as any other Pokemon would, so why they had to bring Detective Pikachu's Barrierd personality and make it mimic instead?

Although I'm a little biased on this as I don't really like the Detective Pikachu movie.
 
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