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PSA: Gou is NOT a psychopath

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It's okay to be attached to the idea that "you befriend a Pokemon and then catch it", but that is not the norm. It's about time the anime acknowledged that... again. It's also quite obvious that a Pokemon won't stay inside a Poke Ball unless it is willing to do so, so the psycopath claims are nonsense (especially when Go only use those Poke Balls temporarily to transfer the Pokemon to a park they can choose to leave at any time).

I thought that was the norm within the anime though. Yes, characters, including Ash, have made captures without bonding with the Pokemon in question first, but for the most part, capturing a Pokemon was generally treated as a big deal. That's one reason why a new capture would often be the main focus of an episode. They would want to establish the Pokemon's own personality traits and show a connection between the Pokemon and one of the main cast members so the audience could be more invested in this new Pokemon. Removing the bonding element completely from most of Gou's captures, if not just reducing it too much because of how many Pokemon he captures, can make it feel too shallow or at least prevent the audience from feeling invested in his new Pokemon. Why should the audience care about Dewgong if there is no noteworthy connection between it and Gou? Not to mention having so many Pokemon would make it harder for any of them to stand out personality wise.

Citation needed.
The Pokemon are officially bound to their Pokeballs and can’t simply leave on their own accord as far as we know. The Lab’s a place to store Pokemon, much like Oak’s ranch stores Ash’s Pokemon without them being able to leave randomly.

I think that was the case for Ash's Snivy. We never got enough information on its past or what its previous trainer was like, but I think that it had left its trainer by its own choice. Froakie also didn't want to be with any of the trainers that chose it before Ash came along. Although, in that case, the trainers always brought it back to Professor Sycamore's lab instead of Froakie leaving them. These may still be kind of rare cases, but it does imply that Pokemon aren't forced to stay with trainers that they really don't like or don't respect.

If it bothers you, okay. That's your problem at this point.

Or people have different opinions on this issue because of how they interpret the writing. Opinions are subjective, so I don't think it's fair to be dismissive like "That's your problem" as a response. Obviously, this applies to everyone too.

Your lives would be a lot easier if you just accepted that Go's Pokemon (aside from Scorbunny and possibly Scyther) are meant to showcase their species every now and then. They aren't Go's best buddies, but they aren't held prisoner, either. Citation needed if you think otherwise.

I don't really like the notion that Gou is capturing Pokemon primarily to showcase their species every now and then. I know that there's his goal about capturing Mew as well, but that just makes it feel more shallow to me. I don't think that his Pokemon are prisoners or anything like that, but this kind of ties into the real root of the problem for me. There is just no reason to be invested in almost any of Gou's Pokemon if they're just there to remind the audience that certain Pokemon species exist, they don't have any memorable personality traits or noticeable bonds with Gou. To be fair, it would be hard to make these Pokemon instantly standout when Gou seems to be catching Pokemon in nearly every episode fairly easy for the most part, but again, that's kind of the problem. There might be more of a narrative point to Gou catching a bunch of Pokemon down the road, but it does sound like the opposite of how the anime has generally treated captures over the past couple of decades, so I can't really blame people for being upset about it.
 
I don’t like Pokémon being treated as collectibles for a dubious goal. Capturing a Pokémon was supposed to be this major occasion before now, it has been trivialised now. When Ash used to capture a Pokémon, various considerations about the Pokémon's conditions, it’s family were made.
And now, Go literally caught a Tailow before it could even process that it was caught by a trainer. No consideration if the Pokémon has a family it doesn’t want to leave or cares about something, or has some motivations of its own. Nothing. Earlier, every new Pokemon arrived with its own set of personality characters, motivation, screentime. Almost all of them were treated as important and deserving of attention at some point or the other.

And somehow every Pokemon post capture turns friendly to Go. The general sentiment can be represented by a variety of words, I don’t feel like writing a lot since it has already been done by a lot of people.

I just don’t like this trivialising of Pokémon, and how Go doesn’t give a damn about whether or not the Pokémon wants to be captured.

When Ash and Go were stranded on the Dragonite island, Go simply accepted that he "lost" Dewgong as if it was a minor detail and fully ready to carry on life as usual, whereas Ash would’ve immediately launched a search somehow if one of his Pokémon went missing.

Seems like the main problem here isn't Go but rather that some people are trying too hard to compare him to Ash. Go isn't Ash though and he has a completely different goal yet some people keep trying to use the same Ash argument that isn't compatible with Go.

Also it seems like some people are being purposely naive about the whole Go catching a lot of Pokemon thing. It's part of his goal so why do some people still act surprised that Go jumps at the opportunity to get Pokemon as quickly as possible. He has so many that he needs to catch to fulfill his goal so of course he isn't going to take his time the way Ash would otherwise he'd still be in the cast 20 years from now struggling to fill his collection.
 
Seems like the main problem here isn't Go but rather that some people are trying too hard to compare him to Ash. Go isn't Ash though and he has a completely different goal yet some people keep trying to use the same Ash argument that isn't compatible with Go.

Also it seems like some people are being purposely naive about the whole Go catching a lot of Pokemon thing. It's part of his goal so why do some people still act surprised that Go jumps at the opportunity to get Pokemon as quickly as possible. He has so many that he needs to catch to fulfill his goal so of course he isn't going to take his time the way Ash would otherwise he'd still be in the cast 20 years from now struggling to fill his collection.
I think from problem it less the goal its self and more of how easy he's catching pokemon and how not much focus is being put on it.
 
Your lives would be a lot easier if you just accepted that Go's Pokemon (aside from Scorbunny and possibly Scyther) are meant to showcase their species every now and then. They aren't Go's best buddies, but they aren't held prisoner, either. Citation needed if you think otherwise.

If that's the intent, then it's pretty shallow. How is a single Pokémon who's barely relevant to the overall episode and doesn't have that much screen time supposed to showcase the entire species, their characteristics, their abilities etc.? Aside from Scyther, we barely got to see Go's bugs, so we didn't get to see what they're capable of or what makes them unique besides their appearance (not to mention that his Wurmple were all caught offscreen, so they didn't really get the chance to be showcased at all), all we've seen of Dewgong is that it can swim just like his Mantyke and not much else, Tentacool and Sentret might as well not exist considering how irrelevant they are... really, the only ones who got to showcase some of their unique traits were Misdreavus and Stantler (and that was before Go even caught them, so why exactly is it mandatory for him to catch it in order to showcase a Pokémon?). So, if that's actually one of the intents behind Go's catching spree, the anime staff's not doing that great of a job at showcasing the Pokémon he catches (besides, past filler episodes did a much better job at showcasing a Pokémon species, since that Pokémon would be the main focus of the episode (and they didn't require a main character catching it all the time)).
 
Seems like the main problem here isn't Go but rather that some people are trying too hard to compare him to Ash. Go isn't Ash though and he has a completely different goal yet some people keep trying to use the same Ash argument that isn't compatible with Go.
Misty, Brock, Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Serena, Iris, Cilan, Clemont, Bonnie, Kiawe, Lana, Mallow, Sophocles and Lillie had different goals yet they managed to treat their Pokemon properly like Ash did. Sure, there are a few exceptions in between which can be chalked up to poor writing but compared to Gou's they feel miniscule by comparison.
Also it seems like some people are being purposely naive about the whole Go catching a lot of Pokemon thing. It's part of his goal so why do some people still act surprised that Go jumps at the opportunity to get Pokemon as quickly as possible. He has so many that he needs to catch to fulfill his goal so of course he isn't going to take his time the way Ash would otherwise he'd still be in the cast 20 years from now struggling to fill his collection.
Really...? Fine, let's do this.

Why is he catching Pokemon? Can you answer that with any clarity? Because to me, it seems he's catching Pokemon to fill up entries on his mobile phone, which would seem very selfish to anyone sensible. Even the connection to Mew is very vague and feels like something that was just tossed in (I can name several Pokemon with more mystique and intrigue than Mew). Speaking of Mew, why does he want to catch it? What does he hope to do with it? Keep it like a collectible...? Because that's what it looks to me like.

You're only throwing blame around at people criticizing Gou and his goal without ever taking into consideration the reason they're doing so.
 
Seems like the main problem here isn't Go but rather that some people are trying too hard to compare him to Ash. Go isn't Ash though and he has a completely different goal yet some people keep trying to use the same Ash argument that isn't compatible with Go.

I'm not sure if that many people are directly comparing Gou with Ash so much as just how the anime has treated captures beforehand. Other main characters tended to bond with their Pokemon before catching them, so it wouldn't be exclusive just to Ash.

Everclear said:
Also it seems like some people are being purposely naive about the whole Go catching a lot of Pokemon thing. It's part of his goal so why do some people still act surprised that Go jumps at the opportunity to get Pokemon as quickly as possible. He has so many that he needs to catch to fulfill his goal so of course he isn't going to take his time the way Ash would otherwise he'd still be in the cast 20 years from now struggling to fill his collection.

How does catching a bunch of Pokemon help Gou with his ultimate goal of catching Mew? Does he need to capture over eight hundred Pokemon before he unlocks Mew? That kind of ties in with another problem. Gou's goal isn't really interesting or engaging. We don't know why he wants Mew or why capturing Pokemon to fill his collection is going to help him get to Mew. Since he's able to capture most Pokemon with relative ease and his captures aren't usually the main focus either, there's not really much for the audience to be invested for Gou as far as his goal is concerned. This might change once we learn more about why he wants Mew, but if he's just capturing a bunch of Pokemon to fill out his collection before he gets to Mew, then that's just kind of boring.
 
I don't even get this 'Pokemon are sentient beings' argument that's being tossed around as if Go is shutting his Pokemon in their Pokeballs and never letting them see the light of day. We've seen him interact with his Pokemon at Sakuragi Park so it's not like he's only treating them like trophies or collectibles. I just find that 'sentient beings' excuse to be really cliche and shallow; it's not that people are wrong about Pokemon being creatures with emotions and needs in the show, it's just that Go isn't neglecting his Pokemon no matter how many people try to spin his treatment of Dewgong or his habit of being quick to capture Pokemon for his collection.

Another thing, why does Go need a reason to be after Mew? I don't remember Ash ever explaining in detail why he wants to become a Pokemon Master; it's just something that he's spouted ever since the first episode and has mentioned in passing many times for almost 23 years, but without even bothering to clarify what exactly that means or why he's obsessed with becoming one. So the fact that y'all want Go to have the perfect explanation for why he wants a Mew when he's just 10 episodes into his journey is incredibly unfair. Since Ash got away with being extremely vague about his motivations for his own goal this whole time, then so should Go imo. Which leads me to this final point...

I'm tired. I'm just beyond mentally exhausted at this point from logging in every day and having to defend the overblown reactions that Go receives for every little thing he does. It's gotten to the point where fans are just looking for new excuses to have more digs at him on a daily basis, and I can barely keep up with what people are even complaining about now. It wouldn't even bother me so much if it was done in a manner that's at least fair, like if Go did something unjustifiably ridiculous or objectively annoying that warranted him receiving backlash, but it's getting to the stage where he won't even be able to speak without someone here finding fault with that too. But I could probably still tolerate that if it weren't for the fact that those of us who defend Go (which is like maybe 5 people?) are being drowned out by at least 20 others who just hate Go for their own reasons and refuse to back down from their 'Go's a psychopath/sociopath!' stance. It's a war of attrition and it's driven me to finally decide to leave this forum. So congratulations.
 
I don't even get this 'Pokemon are sentient beings' argument that's being tossed around as if Go is shutting his Pokemon in their Pokeballs and never letting them see the light of day. We've seen him interact with his Pokemon at Sakuragi Park so it's not like he's only treating them like trophies or collectibles. I just find that 'sentient beings' excuse to be really cliche and shallow; it's not that people are wrong about Pokemon being creatures with emotions and needs in the show, it's just that Go isn't neglecting his Pokemon no matter how many people try to spin his treatment of Dewgong or his habit of being quick to capture Pokemon for his collection.

Another thing, why does Go need a reason to be after Mew? I don't remember Ash ever explaining in detail why he wants to become a Pokemon Master; it's just something that he's spouted ever since the first episode and has mentioned in passing many times for almost 23 years, but without even bothering to clarify what exactly that means or why he's obsessed with becoming one. So the fact that y'all want Go to have the perfect explanation for why he wants a Mew when he's just 10 episodes into his journey is incredibly unfair. Since Ash got away with being extremely vague about his motivations for his own goal this whole time, then so should Go imo. Which leads me to this final point...

I'm tired. I'm just beyond mentally exhausted at this point from logging in every day and having to defend the overblown reactions that Go receives for every little thing he does. It's gotten to the point where fans are just looking for new excuses to have more digs at him on a daily basis, and I can barely keep up with what people are even complaining about now. It wouldn't even bother me so much if it was done in a manner that's at least fair, like if Go did something unjustifiably ridiculous or objectively annoying that warranted him receiving backlash, but it's getting to the stage where he won't even be able to speak without someone here finding fault with that too. But I could probably still tolerate that if it weren't for the fact that those of us who defend Go (which is like maybe 5 people?) are being drowned out by at least 20 others who just hate Go for their own reasons and refuse to back down from their 'Go's a psychopath/sociopath!' stance. It's a war of attrition and it's driven me to finally decide to leave this forum. So congratulations.
No one is saying that Gou is a psychopath/sociopath. And they're are reasons people are giving.
 
I don't even get this 'Pokemon are sentient beings' argument that's being tossed around as if Go is shutting his Pokemon in their Pokeballs and never letting them see the light of day. We've seen him interact with his Pokemon at Sakuragi Park so it's not like he's only treating them like trophies or collectibles. I just find that 'sentient beings' excuse to be really cliche and shallow; it's not that people are wrong about Pokemon being creatures with emotions and needs in the show, it's just that Go isn't neglecting his Pokemon no matter how many people try to spin his treatment of Dewgong or his habit of being quick to capture Pokemon for his collection.
You don't see "Pokemon are sentient beings" argument as valid? I wonder which anime you've been watching for the past 20 years then. No one said anything about Gou shutting Pokemon in their Pokeballs ), but you stating that he's interacting with his Pokemon is outright wrong. Where are 90%+ of his bug captures? Where's Mantyke, Sentret, Tailow, Wurmple? Of course he's treating them like collectibles/trophies, that's the only reason he set out on his "goal" in the first place. You think that "sentient beings" argument is cliche is because you can't find a valid counter to it. Like always, you put words in people's mouth and generalize everyone who you're arguing against under one category.
Another thing, why does Go need a reason to be after Mew? I don't remember Ash ever explaining in detail why he wants to become a Pokemon Master; it's just something that he's spouted ever since the first episode and has mentioned in passing many times for almost 23 years, but without even bothering to clarify what exactly that means or why he's obsessed with becoming one. So the fact that y'all want Go to have the perfect explanation for why he wants a Mew when he's just 10 episodes into his journey is incredibly unfair. Since Ash got away with being extremely vague about his motivations for his own goal this whole time, then so should Go imo. Which leads me to this final point...
He needs a reason otherwise his particular goal of wanting to catch Mew comes off as somewhat shallow and very selfish, pretty much like Lawrence III, capturing a Pokemon for the sake of catching. And unlike Gou's "goal", at least in case of Ash's goal of being a Pokemon Master, we have several paths and potential endgoals that actually allows for character growth. My personal favorite is the one which connects Ash to Ho-oh, that of all people and Pokemon's hearts being one. Also unlike Gou's goal, Ash's goal doesn't have to do with any desires that affect anyone if the character decides to be selfish, on the contrary his goal allows him to connect with his Pokemon and bond with them. Even before the series, I was skeptical of Gou's goal but the horrible way it was executed in the anime by the writers as well as the contradictory GO mechanics, makes Gou's captures very boring.
I'm tired. I'm just beyond mentally exhausted at this point from logging in every day and having to defend the overblown reactions that Go receives for every little thing he does. It's gotten to the point where fans are just looking for new excuses to have more digs at him on a daily basis, and I can barely keep up with what people are even complaining about now. It wouldn't even bother me so much if it was done in a manner that's at least fair, like if Go did something unjustifiably ridiculous or objectively annoying that warranted him receiving backlash, but it's getting to the stage where he won't even be able to speak without someone here finding fault with that too. But I could probably still tolerate that if it weren't for the fact that those of us who defend Go (which is like maybe 5 people?) are being drowned out by at least 20 others who just hate Go for their own reasons and refuse to back down from their 'Go's a psychopath/sociopath!' stance. It's a war of attrition and it's driven me to finally decide to leave this forum. So congratulations.
Now I do admit that the stuff regarding mental illness went a bit too far and got out of hand even if started out as a joke (which is also thanks to several people who got offended and decided to take it very seriously). But what you're mostly doing is going out of your way to defend poor writing and somehow trying to justify it. Maybe if you actually read some posts that go into detail about what's wrong instead of resorting to make trollish or snarky posts then you'd get the gist of what actually is wrong. But continue on what you're doing, keep ignoring those kinds of posts and then proceed to attack any person who makes valid criticisms and then call them "hating for no/their own reason".
 
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I don’t understand why Gou is being painted as some villain for catching all Pokémon. Pocket Monsters 2019 is clearly doing things in its own way as a formal “restart” of simply Pokémon anime as a title. You can’t hold the past against the character, battling and catching are the main aspects of this franchise. The two male co-protagonist exemplify those aspects. It’s that simple and advertising at the end of the day. If a Pokémon doesn’t want to be with a trainer it can and will leave but none of his Pokémon display that nor has it come up as a problematic aspect of the characters so why is such an inaccurate narrative being forced?
 
Me personally, I don’t hate Go and want to like him but the writers thus far haven’t really made anything about his goal engaging to watch play out. And while last episode they introduced him not instacatching everything, there’s still no real variety in the catches, space to breath between them (things that prevent captures from feeling shallow) and any of the Pokémon caught that do appear and just glorified window dressing. The writers aren’t really doing much to make me care that the Pokémon caught even exist. It’s the classic case of quantity over quality.
 
You don't see "Pokemon are sentient beings" argument as valid? I wonder which anime you've been watching for the past 20 years then. No one said anything about Gou shutting Pokemon in their Pokeballs ), but you stating that he's interacting with his Pokemon is outright wrong.
I feel like you're misinterpreting what they're saying. Hence this quote.

it's not that people are wrong about Pokemon being creatures with emotions and needs in the show

They're not saying that Pokemon aren't sentient, or that they don't deserve respect.

Where are 90%+ of his bug captures? Where's Mantyke, Sentret, Tailow, Wurmple? Of course he's treating them like collectibles/trophies, that's the only reason he set out on his "goal" in the first place. You think that "sentient beings" argument is cliche is because you can't find a valid counter to it. Like always, you put words in people's mouth and generalize everyone who you're arguing against under one category.
We've seen him cuddle with his Pokemon in episode 6, worry about Metapod in episode 7, talk to his Bug types before picking one for a tournament, and he understood how his Dewgong felt after its heart got broken. Obviously, they don't have time to go over all his Pokemon each and every episode, but those scenes were clearly put there to show that he does care for his Pokemon and likely takes care of them off-screen.

And judging by that magazine scan, it looks like at least one of his Wurmple will be getting attention soon.

He needs a reason otherwise his particular goal of wanting to catch Mew comes off as somewhat shallow and very selfish, pretty much like Lawrence III, capturing a Pokemon for the sake of catching.
Lawrence's problem wasn't that he was catching Pokemon. It was that he was capturing Pokemon that shouldn't be caught, because doing so would throw off the balance of the world or whatever. He was also holding them against their will and keeping them confined in electric rings.
 
Well, I'm not a fan of Go's goal myself but I think reducing the screentime the individual Pokémon get is the step in the right direction. I'd rather see him catch 12-18 Pokémon so the amount of screentime they'd get would be decent but I definitely don't want to go back to the times where companions didn't even had a full team by the end of the series.
 
Another thing, why does Go need a reason to be after Mew? I don't remember Ash ever explaining in detail why he wants to become a Pokemon Master; it's just something that he's spouted ever since the first episode and has mentioned in passing many times for almost 23 years, but without even bothering to clarify what exactly that means or why he's obsessed with becoming one. So the fact that y'all want Go to have the perfect explanation for why he wants a Mew when he's just 10 episodes into his journey is incredibly unfair. Since Ash got away with being extremely vague about his motivations for his own goal this whole time, then so should Go imo. Which leads me to this final point...

Ash's goal of being a Pokemon Master is also vague, but the difference is that Ash can do more than just catch Pokemon. He can train and battle them to compete in Leagues and such. We barely know anything about what a Pokemon Master is, but that isn't really a problem. It isn't because he's Ash and thus gets a free pass, but because the way he attempts to reach that goal allows for the writers to flesh out his Pokemon, showcase a gradual sense of progression for his team throughout the series and can potentially be engaging for the audience. Taking part in Gym battles is a lot more interesting than watching a character go through a catching spree. We don't know why Gou wants to catch Mew and in this case, I do think that's more of an issue. It's still vague as to why he wants it, but catching a specific Pokemon is a more concrete goal than a Pokemon Master is. I don't think it necessarily makes Gou selfish, but I do think that without fleshing out the reason behind it, it weakens the emotional investment for the audience.

Admittedly, this still might not be a fair comparison when Gou has only been around for a short time and Ash has been the lead for over twenty years, but I think that there are more factors as to why people aren't into Gou's goal beyond Ash favoritism, especially when I don't think that Ash is even that popular around here.

I don’t understand why Gou is being painted as some villain for catching all Pokémon. Pocket Monsters 2019 is clearly doing things in its own way as a formal “restart” of simply Pokémon anime as a title. You can’t hold the past against the character, battling and catching are the main aspects of this franchise. The two male co-protagonist exemplify those aspects. It’s that simple and advertising at the end of the day. If a Pokémon doesn’t want to be with a trainer it can and will leave but none of his Pokémon display that nor has it come up as a problematic aspect of the characters so why is such an inaccurate narrative being forced?

I think that it would be really difficult to effectively ignore how catching and battling have been handled throughout the anime's history for this new one. I don't think that Gou is a villain or evil, but going from catches being the main focus of an episode to something that happens all the time for at least Gou just sounds pretty jarring on paper to me.
 
*Ash does something terrible like ordering Pikachu to blow up a possibly inhabited building thrown at him and his friends/locks May in a small pod without an oxygen tank* "That's just bad writing. It's not Ash's fault."
*Side companions do something the fandom disagrees with like call Ash a kid/restructure the anime into Pokemon GO the Series* "Here's my essay on why this character is evil."

You may raise your torches and pitchforks when ready.
 
Well, I'm not a fan of Go's goal myself but I think reducing the screentime the individual Pokémon get is the step in the right direction. I'd rather see him catch 12-18 Pokémon so the amount of screentime they'd get would be decent but I definitely don't want to go back to the times where companions didn't even had a full team by the end of the series.
Wasn’t that a complaint that Ash got back in BW in that Ash caught more than his usual full team resulting in numerous of them getting little development? For whatever reason, the writers seem incapable of handling the development of multiple Pokémon belonging to a single trainer. As a result, I don’t see Go’s Pokémon really getting any development beyond cameo to show that it’s still alive.
 
How does catching a bunch of Pokemon help Gou with his ultimate goal of catching Mew? Does he need to capture over eight hundred Pokemon before he unlocks Mew?
Well I heard you need to complete the Pokedex then go to Bill's Secret Garden to push a truck before you can get Mew, so probably yes.

Anyway if you think Gou is awful, you are too in-universe whenever you play a Pokemon game. Probably worse, because Gou does interact with his captures even if it's minimal and they get to hang out at a lab, whereas your player characters just leave things to rot in a box which may or may not have a tropical paradise built into them.

But really, IMO, I like his concept. He's different. He's the first protagonist to actually go for one of the major goals of the games in catching 'em all. The anime's always been a marketing tool...which kinda makes his goal ironic given recent developments but still. Let's not mince things: the anime's writing has been sporadically good at best. And it's been changing over the years, and one of these changes may have been for a character like Gou to be put in. From what I've been seeing/reading, they're doing an okay job with what they got, and most arguments can be summed up as 'a character like this does not work and should not exist'.

In short, my views are 'wait and see'. We're only like a dozen episodes into the new series, maybe some of the problems will be addressed.
 
*Ash does something terrible like ordering Pikachu to blow up a possibly inhabited building thrown at him and his friends/locks May in a small pod without an oxygen tank* "That's just bad writing. It's not Ash's fault."
*Side companions do something the fandom disagrees with like call Ash a kid/restructure the anime into Pokemon GO the Series* "Here's my essay on why this character is evil."

You may raise your torches and pitchforks when ready.
Look at the parade over him getting a three-stage pseudo ten episodes in, the amazing hatred aimed at Alan after he won with his stronger more well-trained Lizardon, and the disdain Koharu gets for being weirded out by him. Satoshi is the fandom’s golden boy so any disrespect to him causes a havoc. Heck, people try to blame Gou for him not catching a Pokémon immediately. It just sucks at times.


I think that it would be really difficult to effectively ignore how catching and battling have been handled throughout the anime's history for this new one. I don't think that Gou is a villain or evil, but going from catches being the main focus of an episode to something that happens all the time for at least Gou just sounds pretty jarring on paper to me.
In the day and age of Pokémon GO it’s not super shocking the writers continue to experiment with goals for characters by incorporating the main aspect “catching” into the anime as a series-spanning narrative and thing through a secondary lead. I would prefer a more classic form of catching and using Pokémon but I understand the conception of this idea. But calling Gou something akin to a movie villain or saying he’s mentally disturbed is just straight up salt. Anyone can see the writing on the wall, those Pokémon nor trainers hold him in a negative light for this. He respects the Pokémon either way, they live seemingly well in Sakuragi’s habitat.
 
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*Ash does something terrible like ordering Pikachu to blow up a possibly inhabited building thrown at him and his friends/locks May in a small pod without an oxygen tank* "That's just bad writing. It's not Ash's fault."
*Side companions do something the fandom disagrees with like call Ash a kid/restructure the anime into Pokemon GO the Series* "Here's my essay on why this character is evil."

You may raise your torches and pitchforks when ready.

I'm not sure what event you're referring with Pikachu, but I definitely remember people being upset at Ash for locking May in that small pod. The movie was primarily about May, but then Ash was still more involved in its climax and I don't think fans brushed that off. I'm also pretty sure that people had more reasons to dislike Iris beyond her catchphrase.

Look at the parade over him getting a three-stage pseudo ten episodes in, the amazing hatred aimed at Alan after he won with his stronger more well-trained Lizardon, and the disdain Koharu gets for being weirded out by him. Satoshi is the fandom’s golden boy so any disrespect to him causes a havoc. Heck, people try to blame Gou for him not catching a Pokémon immediately. It just sucks at times.

Were people upset at Koharu for being weirded out by Ash? I thought that most people just wanted her to become a more prominent character so that PM could have some much needed female representation. To be fair in regards to Alain, a lot of that anger came from how it seemed like Ash was going to win the Kalos League. He never beat Alain prior to the League and even making him so ridiculous overpowered could be taken as buildup for Ash to eventually take him down. The backlash seemed less about Ash favoritism and more like frustration over how he lost seemingly just to keep up with the status quo.
 
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