Controversial opinions

[Nicolas721]

The last 70 episodes of DP were filled with padding, redundant training episodes and weird decisions that lowered the quality of the series.

Serena was made girly because of Iris' bad reception.

Team Rocket was at its best at OS, and they have never come close to reaching that level, due to some elements like their costumes being still missing. Also, James works much better when he is an enthusiast than when he is a realist, even if the latter is a more logical foil to Jessie.

Ash being the protagonist of most movies isn't a bad idea, as sometimes he's put into difficult situations that allows us to see some development of him.

Sun & Moon works better when it's not focused on Ash.

Maybe I'm nostalgia biased, but 2BA Master and Totally Pokemon are among the best dub music productions, some songs are better than the japanese songs of the same era.

 

[Silktree]

The last 70 episodes of DP were filled with padding, redundant training episodes and weird decisions that lowered the quality of the series.

Amen to that. Some people give those episodes a free pass just because a lot of them aren't "fillers". If I don't need to watch them to understand a simple plot (which I don't) and they aren't interesting, then they're skippable.

 

[Fiamette]

Let's see...

• Team Rocket is annoying.
• DP is totally overrated.
• Dawn is pretty uninteresting, since she barely changed from the start.
• Piplup's reason to not evolve was lame.
• Serena took too long to decide her goal.
• I would have liked to see Serena battle her rivals.
• Sun and Moon should've replaced Ash with a new person.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

I already know this is going to be controversial but:
-I think Misty should have been brought back in Sun and Moon over introducing Lana as main character. Writers already had more than suitable character for water abundant and filled with aquatic themes and marine life region. Character who actually has history with main protagonist Ash setting groundwork for follow up and expansion of their friendship and how it would flow after reuniting given how much time it has passed.

Misty in nature and personality would adore Alola islands to explore, meet and catch all kind of new water pokemon. And its not like writers and directors didn't has adequate setting to make sensible and unforced return of older main character either. In form of making sequel and follow up to her own unresolved dreams and goals. Like aim to become water pokemon maser through making water based competitions connected to each island(underwater battling, races on water, tournaments which would serve as cousin to Whirl Cup in architecture and prestige). Advancing her skills and battling abilities. Rather than rotting at gym going nowhere.

Alola could had been be region where Misty and her sisters deadbeat parents could been residing foreshadowing actually pretty plausible and eventful plot through which this character could receive much more development. Many new water pokemon are half big too like Dewpider, Wimpod or Araquanid exploring on her dislike for bugs(they already missed chance with Surskit, but to miss on it twice?), giving viewers chance to learn more about this character in many ways fairly scarcely explored past.,

That or at very least Misty should had been reintroduced to Sun and Moon as recurring character bumping in main gang from time to time incorporating her in main storyline where with here owns skills and motives she could been of significance.

Partially reason behind this opinion is also supported by fact how SM series more or less started around time pokemon anime is celebrating 20th anniversary, so bringing back character from past who played major role in Ash life and anime in general and on top of that with its personality and story fits perfectly in region dedicated so much to water like Alola is would have symbolic and deeper meaning actually behind itself.

Sending out message out there of main anime also doing something special for 20th anniversary where older main characters would play some relevance in current series through sequels of their own stories.

Compared to what were getting with travesty called 20th anniversary movie.

Speaking of which:
-I don't consider "Pokemon I Choose you!";upcoming anniversary movie to be special dedicated to older pokemon fans, recognizing pokemon anime roots and history at all.

Its glorified another in line of shameless movies made only for marketing games(hence explaining presence of heavily marketable Sinnoh pokemon or Marshadow) which from looks of it will have generic characters(coughMakoto and Sojicough). Generic portrayal of legendary pokemon undermining on their importance and pretty shallow plot. With little to no effort being put in telling captivating and meaningful storyline.

Yea, you can call me close minded on this, but from mess this movie is gonna be, I don t expect high quality work at all.

It surely wont be remembered as movie dedicated to 20 years of pokemon series continuity and existence given how it unceremoniously abandoned everything iconic and popular from Kanto such as Misty and Brock, more than half of Ash signature pokemon from series heyday(Charizard will as always be the only important one in here). Introducing Ash imitation in form of alternate Ash. Etc.

"I can already see masses of older fans running in theaters to see this."/sarcasm

Another pretty controversial opinion i have is:
-how DP or Sinnoh series aren't nearly as great as everyone seem to think. Singing hymns about it.

First it had very poor dynamic, chemistry and variety in interchangeable dynamic between main characters which consisted of mainly just Ash and Dawn with Brock being left out for most part(he and Dawn were basically more strangers than friends). And even Ash and Dawn relationship after some time started to feel repetitive and tiring with excessive sappiness in there barely ever existing anything other than constant support and happy go lucky attitude lacking in humor, tension, drama or depth in communication ennobling chemistry with more profound substance . Forced and predictable humor,

Gap between Sunnyshore and Snowpoint was incredibly tedious and dragged out than any gap in so called "filler hell" Johto. With literally 80% of episodes being training and perfecting performance in appeal rounds. When it could have been used for things of more productive nature such as dedicating more time to lately introduced rival for Dawn story Ursula. Cover Johto Battle Frontier etc.

Now DP saga had good things. Battles were excellent, Ash and Paul rivalry was constructed with lot of care and build up. Villains were handled exceptionally well and there existed sense of progression(which I feel is main reason behind people holding Sinnoh to such high regard)

BUT that's not enough in order to have compelling, eventful and thoughtful anime. Not for me.

 

[Silktree]

Another opinion: I have never watched the show for battles. Some of them are nice in that they rely on a clever strategy rather than brute force, but most of them aren't.

 

[Daenerys]

Not sure if this is controversial per se, but I liked a lot of the Lugia movie's dub BGM more than I liked its Japanese BGM. The Japanese soundtrack was great of course, but I guess I just preferred the dub due to nostalgia since it's my favorite Pokemon movie.

 

[Peekaboo Pikachu]

I dislike XY. Could never get past the first two episodes.

On the other hand, I really enjoy Sun/Moon. I love the chemistry between all the characters. Putting Ash in school was a neat idea. I like the slice of life atmosphere of the series too.

 

[Unbeatable HoennMon]

Best episodes are fillers.
Battles are boring since DP.
Ash should have left Pikachu after OS.
After Advanced, Dawn should be the only one main character (she could travel with Brock)

 

[Mikuri]

Amen to that. Some people give those episodes a free pass just because a lot of them aren't "fillers". If I don't need to watch them to understand a simple plot (which I don't) and they aren't interesting, then they're skippable.

I'm sorry, are you talking about DP here or Johto?

 

[Silktree]

You know fully well that I was talking about DP. Johto was a 3-year series rather than a 4-year one, and some of the fillers were interesting. My point is that just because some very minor plot progression happens in an episode (yay, a Pokemon learned a new move! Oh wow, Team Galactic are one step closer to their goal!), doesn't mean that said episode is interesting or a must-watch.

 

[Mikuri]

You can count on your hands the must-see Johto episodes. Johto is known for its skippable fillers after all, and to read the same thing being said about the last episodes of DP is just... I don't even know how to describe it.

I really don't understand why people act like the ~second half~ of DP was uneventful. The following is a small list of what happened within the last 70 episodes (70 as a parameter thanks to Nicolas721):

• Piplup refused to evolve;
• Ambipom got "released";
• Paul battled Brandon (a conclusion to a plot point introduced earlier involving Reggie);
• Looker was introduced to the series;
• Ash and Paul had a Full Battle;
• Dawn obtained a Cyndaquil;
• Team Galactic was brought down (also the end of Hunter J) over a three-episode mini-arc;
• Gliscor was left to train with an "Air Battle" master;
• Ash obtained a Gible;
• The reason why Dawn's friends call her "Dee Dee" was explained;
• Dawn earned her fifth Contest Ribbon;
• Monferno evolved into Infernape;
• Dawn obtained a Togekiss;
• The Grand Festival (people often forget about that and pretend nothing happened in the year between Ash's seventh and eighth Badges);
• Ash earned his eighth Gym Badge;
• The Lily of the Valley Conference took place;
• Brock decided to become a Pokémon Doctor;
• THE END.

Honestly that's more than what happened while Ash was in Johto (twice as many episodes). And if fun fillers is what you're looking for, then we have Battling a Cute Drama! (the girl psyched about cute Pokémon), Where No Togepi Has Gone Before! (the evil in form of Togepi), The Treasure Is All Mine! (Jessebelle's surprise comeback!), and A Meteoric Rise to Excellence! (the animation made this episode a delight) just to name a few. And as you said, there are some really funny episodes in which a major event happens and prevent it from being labeled as a filler, such as Piplup, Up and Away! (Piplup deciding to walk back to Rowan's lab killed me).

So while this is a very subjective topic and I can't determine what other people find entertaining or interesting, I definitely wouldn't say the last 70 episodes of the series were redundant and filled with padding because a LOT happened in these episodes.

This should be a thread for people to voice opinions that are so incredibly unpopular that the fandom would jump on them for thinking that way, yet we're using this to say "A is overrated and B is underrated", to spread made-up information with no basis, and there are even those who are stating plain facts or opinions shared by a majority of the fandom.

 

[Silktree]

Made up information with no basis? Let's whittle down your list to actually meaningful and positive events that are not just your typical "end of a series" episodes. So that means removing the following points:

• Piplup refused to evolve;
• Ambipom got "released"
• Gliscor was left to train with an "Air Battle" master;
• Ash obtained a Gible;
• The reason why Dawn's friends call her "Dee Dee" was explained;
• Dawn obtained a Togekiss;

If a series is so long that the writers have to release Pokemon and replace them with others, yeah... That isn't a good thing.

So on the list of good events that aren't completely standard (we're talking about gaps here), we have:

• Paul battled Brandon (a conclusion to a plot point introduced earlier involving Reggie);
• Looker was introduced to the series;
• Ash and Paul had a Full Battle;
• Dawn obtained a Cyndaquil;
• Monferno evolved into Infernape;

How amazing, especially when the first point is iffy (I was just fine knowing that Paul was disappointed his brother had lost) and Looker's introduction was arguably a filler (he could have been introduced during the climax with no issue - his previous two episodes were boring). As for the last 70 Johto episodes, focusing on non-standard events again (so no gyms, Lake of Rage or legendary appearances):

• Whirlpool Cup (2 episodes)
• Misty catches a Corsola
• Lugia arc with Ritchie (4 episodes)
• Ash sends Bulbasaur back to resolve a dispute at Oak's lab (a well-earned Pokemon departure)
• Ash gets a Phanpy from an egg won at a race against Gary
• Misty's Poliwhirl evolves into Politoed
• Dragonite's rage at Blackthorn City (1.5 episodes)
• Misty wins a Water gym battle
• Larvitar arc (6 episodes)
• Brock's Pineco evolves into Forretress

Anyway, I am not here to defend my controversial or otherwise opinion just because you can't deal with it. I've said my piece.

 

[Cresselia92]

I think the point here is that those events are still relevant. I mean, if someone skipped Ampibom's release and saw later that Dawn lacked that Pokémon, said person would surely wonder what happened to Ambipom, and would be confused as a result.

This is pretty much what happened already with the Tauros situation, where non-Japanese fans who didn't follow the raw version wondered where those 30 Tauros came from. Hence, releases and captures are essential episodes, since they constitute part of the plot, and missing them would mean creating some plot holes and gaps.

Training episodes are similar in that regard, but they aren't essential. They, however, give you a better idea of how a character has improved, learned new tricks or developed new strategies. It helps make the eventual success feel more deserved and less "cheap" or lucky. If training sequences weren't important, then most sport or racing movies wouldn't last more than 15 minutes. Who cares about seeing a character struggling to improve and realizing his/her true talent and potential! Only the final match and confrontation matter, right?

It's one thing to explicitly say to not like those last 70 episodes, to find the pacing lackluster, to consider some decisions questionable or to not be a fan of training sequences — there is nothing wrong with that, and anyone is entitled to think so — but implying that those last episodes of DP are filled with padding, as if nothing important happened, is straight up incorrect.

 

[Silktree]

I would have preferred treating Ambipom's absence as a mystery than knowing what really happened. And my point is that the very idea of replacing Ambipom with Togekiss is needless padding. I don't care for plot progression that I view as detracting from the series' value.

To go off-tangent a bit, I am a huge fan of the show Lost, which ended after 121 episodes. Something that progressed the plot always happened, but that doesn't mean that no episode could be skipped without much being lost (excuse the pun).

 

[Likeitornot.]

I wouldn't mind if Ash never won the Pokemon League.

 

[kantoskies]

Three other points that may or may not be controversial from a comedic-Rockets fan's perspective:

• Diamond&Pearl was not the Rocket trio's best series. It wasn't their worst, I'd place it maybe 3rd or 4th (my progression best > worst goes OS > SM > DP/XY/AG [these are pretty close together] > > > BW). They got pretty routine here and in hindsight I can see why a lot of fans were tired of them by the series' end. Which might also be why:
  
• I actually liked the Rocket's meteor arc, maybe more in theory than execution. Of course the climax was cancelled and afterwards their "characterization" was a complete shitshow but at the time it was something that kept me coming back excited for what was going to happen next week, which is more than I can say for a lot of storylines this show does.
  
• I wasn't a huge fan of their radio show. Now this is definitely mostly because I don't speak Japanese so I could never get into it, and I by no means hated it, but I just never really got invested. On the one hand it did *try* to explain why their personalities changed 10 times during Best Wishes but I shouldn't have to listen to supplemental material to not be put off by bad writing.

 

[thumbs1]

Mime Jr. should never have replaced Chimecho.

 

[Kirby4ever]

While on topic, someone made a video on it over a month ago.

At lot of people are mad at the guy for hating generation 5.

 

[Nickelback4Ever]

-Misty and Brock weren't useless. They were guiding lights for Ash who did not due much because the writers determined that Ash should get the predominant focus before May came along. Therefore, it was the writers' methods that limited Brock and Misty. For what it's worth, there are plenty of other anime where the main characters and supporting are a lot less active than both have been critiqued for.
-Alain is more intolerable than Iris. I could find several redeemable qualities about Iris that I can't about Alain. I don't hate the guy, but he did annoy me on screen.
-The female characters are more interesting than the male ones. I love Ash, but give me a whole series on Misty, May, Dawn, Iris, Serena (especially since she's doing contests now), Cynthia, Georgia, Soledad, Jessie any day over Tyson, Tobias, Alain (unfortunately we had one already), Ritchie, Stephan.
-Guys who usually have pokemon that are not-so typically masculine: Nando, Drew, Harley, Wallace, Juan, Lucian, Cilan and even James-are more interesting than the ones who do.
-Cilan should have been our first male coordinator.
-Max was most likeable when interacting with Misty
-May should've been the next character after Nando we heard of doing both Gyms and Contests (preferable after a Johto GF win)
-As much as I loved Psyduck, it ruined Misty's battles so they could be called legit.
-Starmie and Horsea should've stayed with Misty throughout her entire run, with her getting Kingdra eventually.
-Misty should pull a Fantina and travel along with being a Gym Leader
-Jessie is the star of Pokemon (My fav right after Dawn)

 

[SinnohEevee]

Both Iris and Cilan didn't need to exist (try saying that on Serebii, you will know why it's controversial).
I prefer to pretend BW isn't canon (again, try saying that on Serebii).
(Game related, but) I will never play BW1, because of the absence of previous Pokémon.
No series can ever be as good as DP.
Team Rocket should be finished off.
AG is forgettable.
Johto is forgettable (it's like an extension of Kanto).
Max didn't need to exist (at least Bonnie is in the games).
(Game related) The Kalos League was pathetic.
What was the point of the Orange League? It's not even in the games. I also can't consider it as a proper League because of the lower requirements (and you don't even need to battle to earn a Gym Badge).
I didn't like Misty's explosive character even as a kid.
I never liked Brock's recurring gag with women even as a kid.
I dislike Jessie (more explosive than Misty).
Meowth deserved a Thunderbolt of Death when he backstabbed the gang.
Fans should stop shipping wars. Ash is too dense to understand love anyways (*gets crucified*).
(Pretty sure there are many other stuff I am forgetting).