Controversial opinions

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

And to be fair, at least in BDSP the brokenness of the Exp. Share and the Affection System is offset quite well with the fact that when you reach a certain point in the game, bosses start using EV-trained Pokemon with maximum IVs, ideal natures, competitive-level movesets, and held items. Trust me, those factors make the Exp. Share and Affection practically requirements to beat the game, since players don't have easy access to Pokemon with ideal IVs and EV training can be quite a chore until the postgame.

I suppose I am judging BDSP a bit harshly mostly because of my experience with Sword. Hell, I haven't even beaten BDSP yet, I'm judging it based on both what I have seen from it on YouTube videos and the on the surface similarity to SwSh/Let's Go (The latter game the only Pokemon game I have ever played to make me quit before finishing with no intent to finish.)

 

[prog rocker]

Or JN hate in general considering it takes up the lion's share of posts in the topic currently haha

I have seen people defending Journeys, not so much with Grookey.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I have seen people defending Journeys, not so much with Grookey.

Oh, I'll defend certain aspects of Journeys, like my favorites Dragonite and Lucario. Grookey? Yeah not so much.

 

[R1ke]

At this point, I'm starting to question if the Grookey hate is actually controversial...

Honestly I’ve noticed a lot of posts in this thread are hardly controversial. Sometimes it feels like people are just saying the obvious. Like pointing out how flawed Ash’s team is, how galar rep has been handled, criticising PWC, etc. Does anyone actually disagree with these takes? Seems like the opposite of controversial imo.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

It's only Raihan though. Plus, Ash will end up fighting him soon in the Master Class, and we don't know if another region will do what Galar did again in terms of the league setup. Besides, I have a strong hunch this might end up being Ash's final series as a main character, so yeah, I still don't see him competing in a league ever again.

Well, this doesn’t actually address any of my reasons for the contrary. It clearly sets precedent that a gym challenge will not necessarily be a regression.
It’s not as if "Ash is a champion" is a plot point in JN anyways. You could plop JN before XY and nothing much would change in terms of overall premise.

And there’s also the fact the writers can and will ignore past accomplishments if they want the show to go on. Ash isn’t retiring anything soon. He and Pikachu are iconic and sell toys and merch (to the extent that Nintendo trademarked his hat). I can easily see the next series pretending PWT didn’t exist like SM did for Kalos league placements and have him do a gym quest.

 

[HiroHunter]

It's only Raihan though. Plus, Ash will end up fighting him soon in the Master Class, and we don't know if another region will do what Galar did again in terms of the league setup. Besides, I have a strong hunch this might end up being Ash's final series as a main character, so yeah, I still don't see him competing in a league ever again.

I'm sorry but if this is Ash's last series (and it not) this would be a awful series to send him off.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I'm sorry but if this is Ash's last series (and it not) this would be a awful series to send him off.

-Had to frequently take a back seat to Goh and do absolutely nothing in episodes to the point where he may as well have not have even needed to be in the episode.
-Has had some rather lackluster writing in general for his character.
-A large amount of development and PWC rank climbing happened off screen
-His team hardly gets screentime and doesn't even get to interact with him or each other much.
-Didn't get a single Galarian starter.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Well, this doesn’t actually address any of my reasons for the contrary. It clearly sets precedent that a gym challenge will not necessarily be a regression.
It’s not as if "Ash is a champion" is a plot point in JN anyways. You could plop JN before XY and nothing much would change in terms of overall premise.

And there’s also the fact the writers can and will ignore past accomplishments if they want the show to go on. Ash isn’t retiring anything soon. He and Pikachu are iconic and sell toys and merch (to the extent that Nintendo trademarked his hat). I can easily see the next series pretending PWT didn’t exist like SM did for Kalos league placements and have him do a gym quest.

Who knows? You might just be right and I could very well be wrong. I guess only time will tell. We'll have to wait and see what this year brings. (I'm guessing this is probably Journeys's final year.) I know a lot of people don't think he will (and I'm assuming you don't either) but if Ash does actually defeat Leon come this series's end, then there probably won't be a badge quest again. Would be kinda hard to ignore an accomplishent like that. I don't know, call me crazy, but I've just got this hunch that Ash will win in the end.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I'm sorry but if this is Ash's last series (and it not) this would be a awful series to send him off.

Yeah.....you're probably right about that. Even if they somehow pull a miracluous turnaround this year (and that's a pretty big if) the series would still suck overall.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Ash does actually defeat Leon come this series's end, then there probably won't be a badge quest again.

Well, for all we know the anime could do a BW level reset… I don't really underestimate their ability to keep Ash around if they want while still coming up with a way to beat Leon. My personal theory is Ash might end up battling Leon but not under the PWC.

Well, no one knows what might happen, but "Ash will never do a gym quest again" is a pretty drastic statement since we know really well, that the writers won’t hesitate to do drastic transitions, and Ash being a champion has impacted nothing. All behaviour we've seen so far indicates they’re able to shrug off Ash's accomplishments and move on no matter what.

There are plenty of scenarios that can lead do Ash doing a badge challenge pretty easily, I just don’t think it’s as drastic of a situation as you’re making it out to be. In the end, promotion will take priority over story writing in such a scenario and Ash is their iconic cash cow.

 

[Sai]

I don't care if a female companion has a goal or not at this point, just as long as their personality is enjoyable. The writers have pretty much proved that after the contests were dropped they can't give the female lead a major role again without stepping on Ash's toes (which is why we never had a female lead do Gyms for example), so I've settled on the main girl being enjoyable on their own. Koharu is alright so far and many of her eps are enjoyable and I loved Lana back in SM due to her personality.

Basically a goal can certainly help in terms of role and development but it's not really necessary at this point.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

I don't care if a female companion has a goal or not at this point, just as long as their personality is enjoyable. The writers have pretty much proved that after the contests were dropped they can't give the female lead a major role again without stepping on Ash's toes (which is why we never had a female lead do Gyms for example), so I've settled on the main girl being enjoyable on their own. Koharu is alright so far and many of her eps are enjoyable and I loved Lana back in SM due to her personality.

Basically a goal can certainly help in terms of role and development but it's not really necessary at this point.

True

Misty didn't really have a Goal she was actively pursuing but she's arguably the most memorable Female Companion

 

[Enzo]

Misty didn't really have a Goal she was actively pursuing but she's arguably the most memorable Female Companion

But that seems to be more due to the fact that she was the first girl companion ever and was in the OS, which, being the oldest series, it's the most memorable one for a large part of the fandom and even for those who aren't in it.

I don't mean this as hate, none at all, but Misty, at least as in: the exact same Misty we had in the OS with zero alterations in any capacity, wouldn't be anywhere near as iconic as she was/is now if she wasn't part of the first series.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

But that seems to be more due to the fact that she was the first girl companion ever and was in the OS, which, being the oldest series, it's the most memorable one for a large part of the fandom and even for those who aren't in it.

I don't mean this as hate, none at all, but Misty, at least as in: the exact same Misty we had in the OS with zero alterations in any capacity, wouldn't be anywhere near as iconic as she was/is now if she wasn't part of the first series.

I'd argue Misty's personality kinda helped her stand out

She was by far the most the aggressive and assertive for better or worse

Until Iris came along, Misty was the only girl to actually "challenge" Ash personality wise and the two always went back and forth with each other as both friends and rivals kinda

 

[Unireon]

I think that they went so far with Kasumi in the aggressiveness department.

She was so easy to anger and often resorted to physical violence.

Then the anime started to get progressively sanitized, and her outbursts were toned down.

One thing I miss from her original characterization was her being able to rile Satoshi.

 

[Sai]

The original trio just also had very good chemistry that the writers were never able to replicate in any of the following groups. The Hoenn group didn't have as interesting chemistry between May and Ash, and Max/Brock often felt sidelined. The DP cast did great with Ash/Dawn but Brock often felt like a third wheel. Also Brock just never really had as memorable chemistry with May or Dawn as he did with Misty. This is evident in the SM cameos where Misty and Brock genuinely feel like friends whereas with May and Dawn, Brock largely just looked out for them and explained battles to them but largely kept a distance.

Then after that opinions are mixed on the BW, XY, and SM casts chemistry so I don't want to open a can of worms and go into a debate about that.

 

[UglyToast]

Then the anime started to get progressively sanitized, and her outbursts were toned down.

Really? I thought something like that won't happen since it was about making anime funnier in a way.

 

[Hidden Mew]

The original trio just also had very good chemistry that the writers were never able to replicate in any of the following groups. The Hoenn group didn't have as interesting chemistry between May and Ash, and Max/Brock often felt sidelined. The DP cast did great with Ash/Dawn but Brock often felt like a third wheel. Also Brock just never really had as memorable chemistry with May or Dawn as he did with Misty. This is evident in the SM cameos where Misty and Brock genuinely feel like friends whereas with May and Dawn, Brock largely just looked out for them and explained battles to them but largely kept a distance.

Then after that opinions are mixed on the BW, XY, and SM casts chemistry so I don't want to open a can of worms and go into a debate about that.

I wouldn't say that Brock was largely kept a distance from Dawn. I think he was much more visibly supportive of Dawn during her Contest arc than he was with May. He still supported May of course, but I think that Dawn and Brock have better chemistry than fans give them credit for. DP emphasized the friendship between Ash and Dawn a lot more, but Brock still felt like he was friends with both of them too, even if they didn't emphasize that connection as much. Brock had a much larger impact on Dawn than he did with May. Learning Pokemon medicine from Brock was on of the reasons she was able to regain Mamoswine's trust. I haven't rewatched AG recently, but Brock didn't have an impact like that for May's storyline or character. Granted, I still think that people gave Brock a hard time in DP in general, but I don't think that the DP trio would have worked without him.

 

[ripplefieldz]

not sure How controversial this is but i definitely don't see it talked about, but imo animeverse lusamine is still. not a good person! they were TRYING to make her a good person but as someone who related to lillie a hell of a lot while watching that arc it's uh. hm! idk, maybe i just can't look past how she is in the games but all i can see is at best someone with literally zero fucking boundaries even when it comes to their own child and at worst a facade that managed to fool goddamn everyone. anyway here's a more controversial one ig, ash vs hapu wasn't that bad, mudsdale's ability seems like bullshit anyway so what better way to fight it than with a cheese that could only be pulled off in the anime. (on a similar note, i can actually kind of see what they were going for with thunder armor, specifically swellow's ability guts, the problem is just that it would've worked better with something, y'know, NOT weak to electric attacks)

 

[Daren]

(on a similar note, i can actually kind of see what they were going for with thunder armor, specifically swellow's ability guts, the problem is just that it would've worked better with something, y'know, NOT weak to electric attacks)

It's been a decade or more but I think when Taillow was first captured someone may have commented that he seemed unusually resilient to electric type attacks for a Flying-type.
Might be my memory playing a trick on me though.

And in any case...it was weird, weird way of portraying Guts, though I suspect that was the intent.