Masurao

Yeeeaaaah, ideal scenario for me when obviously you're the one who thought of it...hhhhmmmmmm. I would actually like it if Ash and Cilan fought, though. I don't see Cilan as THAT neutral of a person...he obviously has strong opinions and ideals lol

problem?

I know! I saw that; Hopefully, it'll be better than when they went up against the subway masters >_>;;;;

it's fine, i have a lot of art stuff i need to get done too, and i've put them off for so long XD

I've been asking myself that since I realized the series sucked 8 episodes in.

Making every other episode about Iris, though... that really IS pretty much rock-bottom. Can't I enjoy a harmless crossdressing episode without her mucking things up?

Soooo... basically the person who coined the term and 99% of the users in Serebii's anime section. Right.

Don't know what the thought process was behind making it "stan". The portmanteau is beyond me. Fanatic/Extremist are better words, unless those are considered offensive. But then "stan" should be too...

Then again, they were using "stan" as a blanket term for Cilan fans, weren't they? Ffff. You must love how they're desperate to constantly bring Cilan or his fans into something that has nothing to do with them at all. XD

So... would you be able to educate me on whatever the hell a "stan" is? That thing that one delusional user who's intolerant to any Iris sentiment that's negative consciously uses in place of "fan"?

I'd probably be able to find out if I just researched more, but... I can only take so much of the Serebii anime forums. If I'm exposed too long to that area my faith in humanity starts to die a slow, agonizing death.

Hell, most who've seen the third episode are reporting that despite being better than the first two episodes, it isn't saying much at all. It's come to a point where we have to grade the episodes on a curve now.

I want BW to be over with, too. There is literally nothing I'm looking forward to at this point. I can't even hold out hope that Ash will have a shitty League performance because he doesn't even deserve a Top 16 placing. And his final battle with Trip should be a rushed piece of crap lasting no more than 5 minutes during the preliminaries. So then Ash can lose immediately after passing that. That's the only way to justify any of this.

I'm good, I'm having fun. XD Work's tiring, but weirdly fulfilling. I didn't think it'd be like that but I'm kinda being given more and more responsibilities, including managing a team. So, I'm just finding a niche for myself in the structure where I can ask for a title change and a raise.

No, and Waruvile actually landed more than a few hits. It was pretty balanced. Let's just say the manga didn't really portray what actually happened in the episode.

I don't think the tournament itself has been balls, it might redeem Shooti in my eyes, but Iris in the tournament was just awful. Actually, Iris in the show is just awful period, she's just being true to herself. XD Seriously, why have Iris make it to the semis, have Kairyu's disobedience come out and lead nowhere. There's nothing happening, just Iris glorification. Meh.

It's kinda laughable at this point. There's just no redeeming her character. Worst character ever. XD

I am now convinced there's a conspiracy against the word "definitely" as nobody seems to be able to write it correctly. XD Still not as bad as Gotpika always confusing it with defiantly... like... "Iris is defiantly my favourite character" and I'm like, "There's no defying going on, how can Iris be your favourite character in a defying manner? Like what?. XD Cracks me up.

Meh, people can call DEM on Waruvial for all I care. Depending on how the battle goes, they might be right, they might not be, but I don't see how it's DEM for a Pokémon to get better, stronger gradually through battles and then evolve.

And the matter of disobedience on Dragonite's end isn't going to last long enough for it to matter AT ALL, so why the hell was it even a thing to begin with? Who can really argue that a Dragonite that can SHRUG OFF ice attacks and knock them out in one hit with a neutral typed move isn't cheap? Not to mention it's gonna get to plow through ANOTHER Ice-type Pokemon before it finally gets defeated... how is that not cheap?

It's not as if Iris hasn't been guilty of other cheap shit before. Such as getting to win the Don Battle that she had no business winning, because CONVENIENTLY she had two of her Pokemon's lingering problems resolved by the Don Battle... one that was literally resolved off-screen with no explanation. Maybe people could get away with calling the finals a coincidence, but with this Dragonite thing happening now... really, you can only be in denial so much before you make an utter fool of yourself. These people need to get a grip and realize the writers are needlessly kissing Iris' ass.

I think Bianca deserves accomplishments because she's also made notable progress (in addition to being a much more interesting character with real backstory), but I will agree about Stephan. Honestly, Donamite made him look more like a main rival over Trip easily, and Trip had ZERO appearances between Donamite and the Junior Cup... unlike most of the other rivals in the series that are also more interesting and better-developed than Trip.

Gotta love how the crazed Iris fans turn things around backwards and expects everyone to buy it. While I do think Ash only being able to beat Dragonite by Krokorok evolving is not the optimal solution, who can really argue that Krokorok doesn't deserve an evolution? Honestly, out of ALL the mid-battle evolutions that happened in this series for Ash, Krokorok would be the most justified because it's a Pokemon who's been around since the beginning and was an established badass and still is. It's a Pokemon who's been known to actually DO stuff, unlike Unfezant, Boldore, and Leavanny. So really, it's not bad; the only thing that hurts it is that it just makes Dragonite out to be even more of an overpowered threat if Ash NEEDS an evolution to turn the tides. Which reflects badly on Iris and Dragonite; not Ash and Krokorok.

It's bizarre that people claim that Iris getting a super overpowered Dragonite with a super-useful moveset (something that's hardly present in ANY of the other main cast's Pokemon) ONE EPISODE before the tournament is not cheap. Especially since it made mincemeat out of Georgia's Beartic, thereby making that whole rivalry a sham, even though it was at a major disadvantage AND shrugged off a shitload of Ice-type attacks before knocking Beartic out in one hit.

Yeah, I've seen that one around, and his comments are bothersome. He's a textbook example of a fanatic - someone who takes their love of Iris too far, to practically delusional lengths.

Honestly, in both forums I've seen very little negativity on Iris that really qualifies as "hate", much less mindless hate. Too many people are confusing justified, detailed criticism with blind hatred. Or even just perfectly understandable exasperation, given what we have going on in this vanity project for Trip and Iris disguised as a tournament. This "tournament" that is supposed to be right before the League, no less. Wasting so much time on Iris, who ISN'T a League contender, really hurt the potential of this tournament and that's really hard for anyone to deny. That's why I prefer her being a tree in the background now; whenever she does get focused, the glorification of her character gets more and more obtrusive and is way too much for a sidekick character to need.

I still feel bad for you standing alone without support over there, though. Even if it's refreshing to have conflicting opinions, a great deal of the people on Serebii are completely unable to carry a real debate and are way too immature and/or obsessed with their love for a fictional character to make any effort for a debate worth it. -_-

Even though I don't post there anymore, I saw a Serebii thread recently where a mod stressed to cut down on the "Iris hate" and that just sickened me. Not because Iris is being "protected" because apparently character-bashing is an actual against-the-rules thing on Serebii, but because that whole place is notorious for many users personally attacking anyone who dares to criticize or say one negative thing about Iris... and from what I've seen, the mods are doing jack shit about that. So protecting a fictional character from negative remarks is more important than protecting real-life people who are getting ridiculed and hated on by fanatics even if their comments are perfectly sensible and justified and aren't directed to any actual user.

What the hell is wrong with that place. And this anti-negativity thing we have going on here makes me mega-uncomfortable, too. I could get infracted for one small sentence that otherwise abides by normal rules, but for whatever reason is too negative and not related enough to the topic at hand and gets me infracted, and it's not obvious at all what's alright and what I could get into trouble with. I feel like this isn't a good way to deal with any problems here. It just adds to it.

People using terms they don't understand makes me lol.

I disagree with that. I think that a great deal of Satoshi and Hikari's Pokémon could have beaten Kairyu if the writers were actually determined to show a flaw in Iris' style of power battling. That it can be overcome by strategy, speed and other factors. Power is useless if you can't hit your opponent, if you have no brains behind it, which makes for more interesting battles. The idea that both of them had to use their most powerful Pokémon or have a fully evolved Pokémon just to have a shot at beating Kairyu shows how little imagination users and writers have.

So far, it's the only thing that's making me even remotely interested in the movie XD I personally don't care much about them in general, except for the small little fanservices that it provides Oh, definitely. That, or she's a cafemochashipper too! LOL What could have been a negaishipping scene XDD

Yaaay? darn and i was so close this time too surprisingly, the most exciting part of the tournament for me so far is Trip...he's surprisingly expressive and pissy through this, like his boyfriend cheated on him or something. It's quite amusing. I hope that he goes through some sort of magical character change after Alder wipes the floor with him. unresolved SEXUAL tension you mean? :I I wouldn't mind that *runs*

I wish that Iris would be SLIGHTLY RELIEVED that she won that first round though...I mean, I don't mind her winning THAT much, but for real...you shouldn't be celebrating YOUR accomplishment since it wasn't your's...it was your Dragonite...who's the kid now...?

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Oh yes and Ash gets accidentally too close to Cilan in the 15th movie.

Think it says something like Ash staggers on the train and he almost falls on Iris, but then she quickly pushes him away and Ash falls over Cilan instead. The fanart shown in that blog is a replica of the last scene. And it definitely does happen as all of those various fanarts for the 15th movie I have seen of a similar scene can't be coincidences.
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MASU-KUN THE WRITERS LOVE MY SHIPPING

I know that, I saw the images myself. Thank god for small favors. My point being was that, even though Dragonite isn't listening to her, Iris is still gonna use its power to steamroll her way right to the finals. I mean, that's just poor writing. Using a super-powered dragon to pretty much prance her way up to the final round with minimal effort. I'm glad she'll lose, maybe put her in her place (wishful thinking, I know, but one can dream), but still, it's cheap writing to the highest degree. It's pretty much cheating her way to victory, and for once I'd like to see her get humbled. Hopefully when Ash beats her, she'll, at least, drop the "You're such a kid" lines. But this is Iris we're talking about, not Dawn or May, so Iris' attitude getting better is highly unlikely.

In a way I see it being a bit sad from a storytelling perspective, that the ONLY way Ash can defeat Iris' superpowered uberbeast is by Krokorok evolving, but that reflects poorly on Iris and her Dragonite imo because of how horrendously overpowered Dragonite has been despite having obedience issues (that I wouldn't be surprised if they did only last for 2 episodes; pretty much all of Iris' Pokemon issues get resolved before they ever become relevant), wrecking what could have been a really great tournament in tandem with Trip's stupid-ass "storyline" reason for progressing. I guess it also kinda bugs me because 3/8ths of Ash's gym battles were decisively won via evolution, so they've run that plot twist far into the ground. But, like you said, Krokorok has been around since the beginning and was an established badass well before Ash caught it, and is really the only "Reserve" Pokemon on the team worth any merit in terms of power AND personality. With the League being this close, this is a good time as any for Krokorok to evolve, so there's a bright side to it.

Really, this edition of Ash vs Iris is quite representative of everything that's wrong with Iris getting this far in the first place: Ash catches most of his Pokemon while they're relatively weak or nothing to write home about (whether or not they have potential shown), trains them throughout the series so that they become strong, and that way no one can argue that Ash wasn't a bit part of his Pokemon's growth. We definitely cannot give Iris that credit, even if it's obedient by this point. Let's make an analogy out of it: Ash and Krokorok represent honest, hard work and training to gain strength... while Iris and Dragonite are the equivalent of steroids in the real world.

Yup, as BW goes on, more and more people, Iris fans included, are running out of patience/tolerance for the BS surrounding her storyline.