Controversial opinions

[RetroPokeFan]

Poor Char-Y is so neglected.

And when it finally showed up in the anime thanks to Trevor it was essentially the equivalent of a punching bag.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

And when it finally showed up in the anime thanks to Trevor it was essentially the equivalent of a punching bag.

Shh! We don't talk about anything related to that league...

 

[Alola]

Ambipom wasn't really sent off in favor of giving Dawn a Cyndaquil. I know that she got Cyndaquil not too long after Ambipom was sent away, but she didn't have a full team at that point. She could have had room for both Ambipom and Cyndaquil. It might be a bit more accurate to say that Ambipom was given away in favor of Dawn eventually getting Togekiss since that was the Pokemon that took up the last slot.

Which was something that didn't sit well with me. I love Togekiss, but Ambipom not only had seniority but more emotional investment as a party member, due to hailing from Kanto, exisiting in two sagas, and being owned by two protagonists of the show at one point. I still don't understand the reason they sent it off; nothing seems plausible to me, and I agree that doing so in favor of Cyndaquil was unlikely (keep in mind, Aipom/Ambipom are also obtainable in HGSS, so that actually would have been even more promotion for the games). They honestly could have just had Dawn rotate party members (like Ash did for his own summative Sinnoh experience) rather than give away one of the hallmark party members of the DP saga. Or at least let Ambipom participate in the Grand Festival, and then go with the ping pong guy. O, was it?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Which was something that didn't sit well with me. I love Togekiss, but Ambipom not only had seniority but more emotional investment as a party member, due to hailing from Kanto, exisiting in two sagas, and being owned by two protagonists of the show at one point. I still don't understand the reason they sent it off; nothing seems plausible to me, and I agree that doing so in favor of Cyndaquil was unlikely (keep in mind, Aipom/Ambipom are also obtainable in HGSS, so that actually would have been even more promotion for the games). They honestly could have just had Dawn rotate party members (like Ash did for his own summative Sinnoh experience) rather than give away one of the hallmark party members of the DP saga. Or at least let Ambipom participate in the Grand Festival, and then go with the ping pong guy. O, was it?

Goes to show why good planning is the key to a successful series: Ambipom's departure was definitely not planned ahead, and it's pretty commonly considered one of the worst parts of the otherwise beloved DP series.

 

[Daren]

"If I don't win with Charizard, this battle is meaningless!"

I never watched Origins--most of the reviews when it came out were positive but made it sound like uninteresting Red/Charizard fawning and since Charmander wasn't my starter it had no nostalgia value for me--so I only learned about this line years later and was some odd combination of shocked yet utterly unsurprised.

This right here is probably the worst choice of dialogue for an ostensibly heroic protagonist that we're supposed to see as loving and compassionate I've ever seen. It basically implies that Red purposefully sent out his undertrained Pokemon knowing that they'd get brutally curbstomped just so he could justify leaving his only competent fighter for last.

See, when I read this I think "so Origins version of Red is like the villain from Braveheart?" which is not what you want people thinking about your hero.

Shh! We don't talk about anything related to that league...

What league? As I remember it the show went six years without a league between the Unova and Alola ones and everybody was very happy throughout the entirety of XY's run.

Spoiler

Funny thing, actually. All works of fiction are actually equally true--or untrue, to be more accurate. So any story on fanfiction.net is technically just as valid as any episode of the actual series. Neither ever happened, one just has a larger audience.
So just as someone can write that Staraptor and Bayleef had a romantic liasion under the stars one night, one can pretend the Kalos league never, ever happened--because it didn't.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

The problems with Origins is that its an incredibly short series. Four episodes isn't nearly enough to show off an entire region, its stories, the characters or even flesh out the main character. Aside from Charizard we don't really know much about his team, he used a Nidoran against Brock in the first episode but its gone by the time he reaches the Elite Four. So more than likely he was always switching out his Pokemon aside from his starter. On top of that they were clearly trying to also promote Mega Evolution, Charizard-X to be exact, even though the main anime was already doing that with Alain. Poor Char-Y is so neglected.

While this is true to an extent, no amount of making a series longer is going to make Red essentially going "yeah, Charizard is the only one of my Pokemon that matters, I don't care about the others even when they win" not come across as a major jerk move on his part.

 

[KyseL]

I only somewhat agree. I do have my issues with it, but I don’t think the execution is as bad as some people tend to make it seem.

The only issue I see is that sometimes the catches come too easy but that's about it. I think my only major problem with Goh right now is that his character is starting to melt with Ash's, which is kinda disappointing, since I liked the contrast between the two at the start of the series, but that has severely toned down from my perspective.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

Ash's Unfezant does not deserve to get hated on so much. Especially since it barely had any screen-time to begin with, and at least won Ash a badge. Plus, it had a personality too.

 

[Enzo]

Which was something that didn't sit well with me. I love Togekiss, but Ambipom not only had seniority but more emotional investment as a party member, due to hailing from Kanto, exisiting in two sagas, and being owned by two protagonists of the show at one point. I still don't understand the reason they sent it off; nothing seems plausible to me, and I agree that doing so in favor of Cyndaquil was unlikely (keep in mind, Aipom/Ambipom are also obtainable in HGSS, so that actually would have been even more promotion for the games). They honestly could have just had Dawn rotate party members (like Ash did for his own summative Sinnoh experience) rather than give away one of the hallmark party members of the DP saga. Or at least let Ambipom participate in the Grand Festival, and then go with the ping pong guy. O, was it?

I get that this is not an controversial opinion, but I still wanna talk about this.

(decided to spoiler box it, cuz it's pretty long, and I know it's sorta of off-topic lol)

Spoiler

Ambipom was/is the most mistreated Pokémon of the entire anime to me. There was this whole thing about being caught at the tailend of AG and being impressed by Contests and yet never set up to become May's, specially since the Grand Festival had already happened at that point. She was clearly meant to be Dawn's ever since day one, even if Ash got her first. And how she was the first (and up to this moment, the only one) Pokemon besides Pikachu to actually physically travel to another region with him, having her ''Swan Song'' while in Ash's team in the battle against Gardenia (not to say Staravia and Turtwig didn't do anything, but she clearly was the star of that gym battle), then being traded to Dawn, how they bonded together, and she evolved and they had their problems that they overcame together...

And then she just got send off to a random guy out of nowhere? And by the way, while I do like the idea of other sports and things being done with Pokemon instead of just battles and Contests, but seriously... Ping Pong? The way it was never brought up before and Ambipom suspiciously was very good at it, just seems like an convenient excuse that was thought of at the last minute to send her off.

And while I don't hate it, I don't think Dawn should've gotten Cyndaquill. I know there's a whole debate about wheter it was it's or Togekiss's fault (?) when it comes to Ambipom being kicked out, but in all honesty, at least Togekiss had more weight in the story. Not gonna expand on that point since this is not really the place to talk about lol.

Wanna know what I personally think should've happened? Dawn should've kept Ambipom, and instead of the ep where it got send off, the whole ''Princess that looks like Dawn'' ep would've happened in that moment of the timeline, and she would've gotten Togekiss as an Togetic, since this mon never got too much of attention when compared to it's family tree. So after bonding with it, it would evolve into Togekiss in the HGSS arc, while Ash would've just brought his Cyndaquill back, which would evolve there instead of super close to the league. So while Ash showcases the Johto starters alongside those two kids who had an Croconaw and a Chikorita, and Dawn on the other hand would showcase that Johto mons also got new evolutions in the remakes. It would've been an win-win situation tbh. And seriously, it also wouldn't have killed them to just show Ambipom cheering for Dawn by watching her in a tv, would they?

 

[Hidden Mew]

Which was something that didn't sit well with me. I love Togekiss, but Ambipom not only had seniority but more emotional investment as a party member, due to hailing from Kanto, exisiting in two sagas, and being owned by two protagonists of the show at one point. I still don't understand the reason they sent it off; nothing seems plausible to me, and I agree that doing so in favor of Cyndaquil was unlikely (keep in mind, Aipom/Ambipom are also obtainable in HGSS, so that actually would have been even more promotion for the games). They honestly could have just had Dawn rotate party members (like Ash did for his own summative Sinnoh experience) rather than give away one of the hallmark party members of the DP saga. Or at least let Ambipom participate in the Grand Festival, and then go with the ping pong guy. O, was it?

My guess is that they wanted to liven up Dawn's team and Ambipom was, for lack of a better term, was the most expendable Pokemon she had. Piplup obviously wasn't going anywhere, Buneary didn't really get enough focus to where I think they would have written it off of the show, especially when Dawn did rely on Ice moves pretty frequently for her appeals, Pachirisu was the first Pikachu clone to be part of the main cast and they had spent a lot of time with Mamoswine's storyline. If they wanted to make more room for Dawn to get new Pokemon, Ambipom might have sadly been the only option. Rotating her team would have been interesting, but I'm not surprised that they didn't do that, if only because it might have made it harder for Dawn to get back in sync with Ambipom after being apart for awhile. I would have loved for Ambipom to show up for at least the Grand Festival though. The bare minimum they could have done was show Dawn watching it on TV while practicing Pokemon Ping Pong.

It's still such a huge shame when Ambipom had clearly been planned to be Dawn's Pokemon since AG. There was about a year's worth of buildup to Aipom preferring Contests over Gym Battles. They devoted a whole episode to the trade because both Ash and Dawn cared about their Pokemon. Dawn worked with Aipom to learn a new move, got it to evolve into Ambipom and took part in a few Contests with Dawn like it wanted. Having all of that go out the window in favor of a random Ping Pong goal was so disappointing and made Ambipom look like it got the short end of the stick out of the trade compared to Buizel. Buizel could have been handled better during the tail in of DP, mainly with getting a couple of more victories and ideally evolving into a Floatzel, but at least Buizel got to the Sinnoh League and competed in plenty of Gym battles. Ambipom deserved to get to the Grand Festival after all of that buildup.

If they did want to give Dawn a Togekiss and had to replace Ambipom for it, then they really should have given her a Togepi much sooner in DP. Togekiss was handed to Dawn on a silver plate and the whole concept leading her to get one was just so weak. Not only with the whole princess that somehow looks like Dawn's twin setup, but none of the main cast saw a problem with potentially preventing other Coordinators from getting the last ribbon they needed for the Grand Festival. I guess it wouldn't have made the setup any less forced or bad, but it was odd for them to not even bring it up considering how long it took Dawn to finally get her fifth ribbon. Having Dawn raise a Togepi would have been interesting since Misty's Togepi never really battled and seeing her raise one into a Togekiss would have been much more satisfying than getting one just a few episodes before the Grand Festival. It might not have made the decision to write Ambipom out of the series better per say, but giving Dawn a Togekiss would have felt much more earned.

 

[swiftgallade46]

The only issue I see is that sometimes the catches come too easy but that's about it. I think my only major problem with Goh right now is that his character is starting to melt with Ash's, which is kinda disappointing, since I liked the contrast between the two at the start of the series, but that has severely toned down from my perspective.

Pretty much this. And honestly, I’ve even gotten used to the easy captures at this point, so I’m not really bothered by it anymore. My main issue with him now is his total lack of battling prowess, but I get that that’s actually meant to be his main character flaw.

 

[FluffleFi]

Ash's Unfezant does not deserve to get hated on so much. Especially since it barely had any screen-time to begin with, and at least won Ash a badge. Plus, it had a personality too.

They mock the poor bird despite the fact that Pidgeot had it a lot worse. It lost just about every battle it was in, its only personality trait is that its reliable, and its only focus episode was also its evolution and departure.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Honestly, I don't think that Goh's captures have really bothered me that much to begin with. I can understand why they would be upsetting for other people to a degree and the Go capture style doesn't quite fit within the context of the anime, but I'm just so used to playing Pokemon Go and capturing Pokemon that way that seeing the anime use that method doesn't really bother me. I still think that it would be more accurate for the Pokemon Go catching experience if Goh didn't capture most Pokemon on the first attempt, but generally speaking, I think I've always been pretty much okay with how Goh captures Pokemon.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

Another controversial opinion of mine: XY is the most overrated series.
When you have people hyping XY to be the greatest series in the history of the franchise and people also claiming its the "best attempts of the Pokemon anime going shonen" then people are more than likely going to go in watching it with extremely high expectations. And what happens when you go in with high expectations? There's a chance it won't be met, and that's what I can say about XY. I'm going to break it down for you in the spoiler tag, since this'll probably be pretty long.

Spoiler

Anyway, first thing I have to address is the characters. People have hyped the XY group to be the best travelling group ever-and from the point where I entered the fandom, people went as far as to bash the other travelling groups, saying XY is far superior in every way-so I obviously expect it to be exactly that, right? But...it's not really. Or at least, not as good as anyone says it is. The only clear relationships and dynamics I can see in the XY group are as follows: Clemont and Bonnie, Bonnie and Serena, and Ash and Clemont. We barely see Clemont and Serena interact, we don't have much moments of Bonnie and Ash interacting either-not as much as Ash did with Max, and Ash and Serena is not as good as a dynamic as everyone says it is. For one thing, why is she constantly referred to as Ash's childhood friend? For another, he barely interacted with her, and when he did, it was often used by the writers as a shipping tease. I'm going to be honest and say the only reason I somewhat support Amourshipping is because it seems to be the closest to a canon-confirmed ship(I'm pretty sure there was an interview somewhere implying that the two were going to get married in the future...???)and I tend to lean towards canon ships.

As for the individuals in said group...let's start with Ash. Ash is incredibly bland in XY, and the only moments of his character that really shine through are in super small moments. But everything else is just forced. And I'm assuming Ash whining in the very first episode of XY was very mature. I'm sure him "finding love" suddenly makes him mature, because it doesn't. The writers tried to make him this heroic guy that everyone looks up to and show how he has an affect on their lives, but it just kinda didn't work??? Like, if that's what the plan is, then why is he constantly pushed front and center and then in the arc that's supposed to FOCUS ON HIM he gets shoved to the side for the lackluster rival?

Serena had character development, no matter how much her haters say she didn't. That being said, she took like seven episodes to join the group, where she was then PUT TO THE SIDE for like thirty episodes or so until the Summer Camp Arc, and was constantly shown focused on her CRUSH ON ASH. I really try to argue that it isn't a big part about her character, I really do try my hardest, but when her last moment in XY was an Amourshipping moment, it's just...why was that necessary? Yeah, I get it writers, there was an implication somewhere that Serena got what she wanted in the end, but that just feels like a Mary Sue kinda thing too. I'm using the term loosely here, before anyone jumps on me, because she's not a Mary Sue(you know, considering how she lost the Master Class for a good reason-lacking something very important; why do people hate Palermo again??? Especially people who like Serena, Palermo is important for Serena's growth, why do Serena lovers hate her???)but the most Mary Sue moment about her was that one contest where the Rhyhorn ran towards her because...no reason. They just instantly loved her. For no reason. Even though, as shown from the VERY FIRST EPISODE OF THE SERIES, she sucks at Rhyhorn racing and communicating with Rhyhorn...then later on, she's suddenly good at everything related to Rhyhorn racing? Like, what? I could say more about Serena, but I'll stop right there and say she is also very overrated-especially in fanfiction. And I don't even think her own FANDOM respects her, since a lot of fanfiction about her have her exactly like she was in the first part of XY(when her character was bland and focused on Ash)and she doesn't change remotely at all towards the end of the story; either that, or they just copy her development from the show.

Clemont was as well done with character development as Serena was, but was...pretty much shafted to the side...? His gag was rather annoying, honestly, but then again a lot of gags in the anime are-Clemont doesn't seem that bad to me. Bonnie is also a well done character-she just didn't get any development...-and...was shafted more than Clemont was. Yeah, she was important in the XYZ arc, but GOD did it take a long time. Also, I can't be the only one who finds it incredibly annoying that they had all this potential with Bonnie's character before then...and the only focus episodes she has were FILLER EPISODES. Yeah, that's right, FILLERS. They could've mentioned Bonnie's focus episodes sometime in the future, maybe had them connect to one another somehow, give her a small development plotline, or heck, they could've tied in her "loving to take care of pokemon" episodes in with Squishy, so he would've seen how much Bonnie-a human-loves pokemon so much...but no. No. No, that is not what they did. Instead, all her focus episodes were easily skippable-and they were good episodes too!-and she was then discarded until XYZ...or at least, a small part of the Flare Arc...she was also discarded in the Flare Arc.

Also, the rivals are...alright? Alain isn't really a good rival, Trevor and Teirno were immensely lackluster, Shauna didn't really challenge Serena; but she had a good relationship with her and was a well-constructed character, Miette is underrated, and I actually don't remember much about Mimi. Sawyer, to me, felt like the best rival...but even then, the term feels rather loose. He mostly looked up to Ash and I think the main thing I liked about him was his character and his story, and how he actually had a strong affect on Ash in the Snowbelle Arc, unlike Alain. But, again, he looked up to Ash, and while it was a unique perspective, it just didn't really feel like he was "rival" material, you know?
Alain is self-explanatory. He wasn't really Ash's rival-he was just the trainer of a Charizard that had a "rivalry" with Ash's Greninja. That was literally it. He existed for the Flare Arc, he joined the league for literally no reason-except meta reasons...seriously, this is as meta as T****s-and he didn't really challenge or cause problems for Ash...? Sawyer did that. Sawyer did that and it wasn't even intentional.

I've talked about the human character dynamics, but what about the pokemon dynamics? Well, first and foremost, let's talk about Ash's supposed "greatest team" by a lot of fans. One thing I always felt was kinda funny about Ash-Greninja, was how both Ash and Greninja have been shown numerous times in the series protecting Pikachu-heck, Greninja evolved twice, learned two moves, and activated Ash-Greninja with Ash for the first time...because they were SAVING PIKACHU. ANYWAY, the dynamics in Ash's team were: Pikachu and Froakie, Froakie and Hawlucha, Froakie and Fletchling, Frogadier and Fletchinder, Pikachu and Goodra, and Hawlucha and Noivern. Half of the dynamics were discarded by XYZ with Froakie evolving and Talonflame getting shafted to the side...so...the strongest dynamics on the team were Pikachu and Goodra and Hawlucha and Noivern. That's not saying much, though, so how much interactions did they get as a team? Well, long story short, the best moment they all had as a team was in the XYZ movie, Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel. Off topic, why do people ship Greninja with Braixen? Or Pikachu with Sylveon, which makes even less sense than the first one. I'd expect more people to ship Serena's Sylveon with Clemont's Bunnelby since it actually makes sense. Enough about the rant, because I'm not making much and the pokemon dynamics weren't all that bad. Chespin just felt like a knockoff Oshawott though-who was a knockoff Piplup-and I honestly still have the belief that the best pokemon cast was from DP.

XY's main plot was apparently Team Flare, with how rushed the league was and how shafted said league was by the time XYZ started...but Team Flare had zero importance until like the first episode of XYZ??? So, what does that say about the series as a whole, then? I'm honestly not going to put this as a major factor for the series, but you have to admit it's kind of weird how Team Flare is supposedly the main focus but we had zero buildup until XYZ. So, I guess when people say XY was the best series, they're really talking about XYZ. I mean, Ash-Greninja, Serena, Alain...AMMIRIGHT???!!!

I actually have more points, but I'll stop here since this is already overkill. Sorry~

 

[Daren]

Maybe this is less controversial and more bizarre, but I realize looking back most of my favourite episodes are ones not connected to the main story of a region (other than in Kanto/OI).

Relatedly, I recall reading once--maybe on TvTropes--that some people like to think of the series ending with Viva Las Lapras and that defeating Drake and helping Lugia was enough to make Ash a Master (which would fit the gen 1 games). I admit, I think that's just about the best ending point we have available up to now. Not perfect since Gary and the GS ball were unresolved, but the GS ball was never resolved anyways and has time goes on the number of unanswered questions has only gone up.

When you have people hyping XY to be the greatest series in the history of the franchise and people also claiming its the "best attempts of the Pokemon anime going shonen" then people are more than likely going to go in watching it with extremely high expectations. And what happens when you go in with high expectations? There's a chance it won't be met, and that's what I can say about XY.

I have some experience with this. I came into XY during the second year or so (I'd "retired" at the beginning of BW, more or less. Long story). I'd seen quite a bit of positive buzz for XY (and hey, Ash had my favourite gen 6 Pokémon at that point) and after watching the musical short on the official site (which I found quite charming) I decided to give XY a probationary viewing. I did like the episodes I caught, but during year 3 I was just following online because I wanted to see if it would be worth investing hours and hours into watching the English version; after that episode title leaked I decided if Ash's story didn't finally advance I was out again since I was well past tired of the plot never going anywhere.
We all know what happened there, of course.
Despite that (and even saying on the forums I was done with the show over it) I actually may have stayed regardless if early Sun/Moon reports had really managed to impress me (I'm one of those people that tends to grumble a lot about things but eventually come around) by feeling like a proper continuation ala the OS--DP era, but it didn't.

I'm going to be honest and say the only reason I somewhat support Amourshipping is because it seems to be the closest to a canon-confirmed ship(I'm pretty sure there was an interview somewhere implying that the two were going to get married in the future...???)and I tend to lean towards canon ships.

You know, despite all the attention it got online I never really felt anything about that ship; partly because I'm too old to really think two kids can have a lasting relationship, partly because I knew Serena wouldn't last and it would not go anywhere (sort of like those romance of the day episodes some shows have; I know it ain't going anywhere, writer, I'm not going to get invested in this).

Like, if that's what the plan is, then why is he constantly pushed front and center and then in the arc that's supposed to FOCUS ON HIM he gets shoved to the side for the lackluster rival?

At the time I somewhat harshly said the writers "hate their own main character", but I think it's more accurate to say they don't really care about him. He's the vehicle used to show various events and other characters off.

I actually have more points, but I'll stop here since this is already overkill. Sorry~

Don't apologize! I don't 100% agree (like I said, I did enjoy the XY episodes I caught) but this IS the "controversial opinions" thread.

Also it's vaguely inspiring; maybe one day I'll post a single joint post about why I hated DP. My grumblings about it are broken up over a dozen different posts spread over years and there's a few things I don't think I ever posted.

 

[KyseL]

Another controversial opinion of mine: XY is the most overrated series.

I feel like it depends on where you are. There are some places where not even the smallest criticism can be levelled against XY(Z) without generating a massive amount of backlash. I'd say it's gotten better overall, though.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

I feel like it depends on where you are

Like, if I said this on YouTube for instance...

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Ash is incredibly bland in XY, and the only moments of his character that really shine through are in super small moments. But everything else is just forced. And I'm assuming Ash whining in the very first episode of XY was very mature. I'm sure him "finding love" suddenly makes him mature, because it doesn't.

While I don't blame people liking Ash in XY, it still feels a bit jarring for a ten-year-old to be so overly mature. He hardly seemed like a child during Kalos.

Serena had character development, no matter how much her haters say she didn't. That being said, she took like seven episodes to join the group, where she was then PUT TO THE SIDE for like thirty episodes or so until the Summer Camp Arc, and was constantly shown focused on her CRUSH ON ASH.

Combine that with how late Showcases were introduced, and it makes you think if the writers initially even planned to do anything with Serena besides her traveling with Ash, or at least didn't know what she was going to do before they came up with the Showcase concept.

One thing I always felt was kinda funny about Ash-Greninja, was how both Ash and Greninja have been shown numerous times in the series protecting Pikachu-heck, Greninja evolved twice, learned two moves, and activated Ash-Greninja with Ash for the first time...because they were SAVING PIKACHU.

Greninja honestly felt more like a protagonist of XY than Ash, in many cases, but I've already talked about that here before, so I won't repeat myself.

I'd expect more people to ship Serena's Sylveon with Clemont's Bunnelby since it actually makes sense.

This is just a personal preference of mine, but I'll never accept that a cute Pokémon like Eevee/Sylveon could be friends with a derpy rodent like Bunnelby, or why they gave a main character a Bunnelby to begin with. And don't even get me started on how their friendship began. Oi...

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

cute Pokémon like Eevee/Sylveon could be friends with a derpy rodent like Bunnelby, or why they gave a main character a Bunnelby to begin with. And don't even get me started on how their friendship began. Oi...

Derpy, rodent like or not good looking Pokémon cannot have friends that look cute?
"You cannot be friends with x because you’re not cute." Is wrong on so, so many levels. I don’t like Bunnelby's design either but that’s a problematic comment you made there.

There must be some person out there who's favourite Pokémon is Bunnelby and they’d like to see it on the main cast, so again the notion that Bunnelby has something inherently wrong with it and doesn’t deserve being on the main cast is a really vehement notion to hold against a fictional creature.

For instance, I think Dracovish is the worst Pokémon to end up belonging to Ash as a design but at the same time I recognise it will never be viable argument against why a Pokemon should or should not be on the main cast. This should never be a point in why a Pokémon is paired with other, or is on the main cast imo.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Derpy, rodent like or not good looking Pokémon cannot have friends that look cute?
"You cannot be friends with x because you’re not cute." Is wrong on so, so many levels. I don’t like Bunnelby's design either but that’s a problematic comment you made there.

Let's me rephrase that. While I dislike Bunnelby's design, I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with them being friends if it wasn't for the way how they became friends.