Controversial opinions

[BeautifulEevee]

I edited my post, I realized I've made a spelling mistake. I also said that Ash's corral Pokémon do train, so I find it weird that they didn't evolve at all.

 

[Hidden Mew]

They probably don't want Ash's Pokemon to evolve off-screen. It wouldn't be as satisfying for the audience and they probably want them to be more recognizable to long time fans for the nostalgia factor too.

 

[Greninjaman]

Plus, there is really no reason for them to evolve anyway.

 

[Sai]

I feel like AG the series feels irrelevant to Journey's compared to every other saga is for a few reasons:

1. Obviously the biggest is May can't appear, so the main female companion did not get a return like most of the others. Dawn, Serena, Iris and the SM cast all got big returns either for arcs or to further their development. When the main female lead of Hoenn is completely absent, well, you can't say anything one way or the other.

2. For whatever reason, the writers don't want to show Max without May, so even though Max could technically appear they won't bother with him.

3. Ash had no main rivals in AG, so unlike Gary, Paul, Gladion, etc. there's nobody they can bring back.

4. Brandon could have been used, but they did the Regi plot without him so that kinda screws him over from appearing.

5. Norman is connected to May, and none of the other Hoenn Gym leaders (unless you count Wallace) are popular enough to return or be used again.


It's why every series has something in Journey's, but other than seeing Ash's Hoenn Pokemon at Oak's lab there's nothing for it in this series at all. Steven was practically re-invented as an XY character so even Ash battling him feels more for the XY anime than Hoenn.

 

[Hidden Mew]

2. For whatever reason, the writers don't want to show Max without May, so even though Max could technically appear they won't bother with him.

I don't know how popular Max is among the Japanese fans, but since he was so closely associated with May, there wouldn't be much of a point to bring him back if they couldn't have May with him. It would be like bringing Bonnie back without Clemont, even though she seems to be much more well received than Max was. May is able to travel around as a Coordinator, while Max's goal was effectively to grow up and become a Pokemon Trainer, which would be hard to do in a series where no one ages. Fans would be probably happy to see him with that Ralts he bonded with if he did come back, but aside from that, there wouldn't be much of a point to bring Max back on his own.

It's why every series has something in Journey's, but other than seeing Ash's Hoenn Pokemon at Oak's lab there's nothing for it in this series at all. Steven was practically re-invented as an XY character so even Ash battling him feels more for the XY anime than Hoenn.

To be fair, they kind of had to re-invent Steven's character for XY. He only appeared once in AG and they didn't even clarify that he was the Hoenn Champion. It's no surprise that they wanted to avoid any mention of that episode, to the point where Ash didn't even interact with him during XY or brought up that he had met Steven before.

Anyway, I saw the Inteleon evolution episode and I honestly liked it. I liked how Goh protecting Drizzle made it reflect on their time together and how Goh had supported it before, which resulted in its evolution. It's still a huge problem that they barely even showed Drizzle between its first and final evolution episodes. I'm honestly not sure why they felt the need to rush through its evolution, aside from Inteleon's popularity. People complained about Scorbunny's evolutions, but looking back, I think it generally worked with what they were going for. Rushing through Sobble's evolutions by comparison feels a lot stranger to me, especially when they haven't done anything with Grookey and most likely won't given how much time the series has left. I do think that the episode works in showing how much Goh values the memories he's made with his Pokemon and the emotional weight of Drizzle's evolution still works too, but it really could have benefited from stretching it out and doing more with Drizzle itself

The whole twist of the kid stealing the data to get Professor Cerise sempai to notice him was also really weird and contrived though. Professor Cerise is likable, but bland and his best quality is being Chloe's father, so it is weird for anyone in or out of universe to put him on such a huge pedestal. At least it makes sense when characters do that with Professor Oak, even if that does get a bit old too.

 

[Weddingbells]

I don't know how popular Max is among the Japanese fans, but since he was so closely associated with May, there wouldn't be much of a point to bring him back if they couldn't have May with him. It would be like bringing Bonnie back without Clemont, even though she seems to be much more well received than Max was. May is able to travel around as a Coordinator, while Max's goal was effectively to grow up and become a Pokemon Trainer, which would be hard to do in a series where no one ages. Fans would be probably happy to see him with that Ralts he bonded with if he did come back, but aside from that, there wouldn't be much of a point to bring Max back on his own.


To be fair, they kind of had to re-invent Steven's character for XY. He only appeared once in AG and they didn't even clarify that he was the Hoenn Champion. It's no surprise that they wanted to avoid any mention of that episode, to the point where Ash didn't even interact with him during XY or brought up that he had met Steven before.

Anyway, I saw the Inteleon evolution episode and I honestly liked it. I liked how Goh protecting Drizzle made it reflect on their time together and how Goh had supported it before, which resulted in its evolution. It's still a huge problem that they barely even showed Drizzle between its first and final evolution episodes. I'm honestly not sure why they felt the need to rush through its evolution, aside from Inteleon's popularity. People complained about Scorbunny's evolutions, but looking back, I think it generally worked with what they were going for. Rushing through Sobble's evolutions by comparison feels a lot stranger to me, especially when they haven't done anything with Grookey and most likely won't given how much time the series has left. I do think that the episode works in showing how much Goh values the memories he's made with his Pokemon and the emotional weight of Drizzle's evolution still works too, but it really could have benefited from stretching it out and doing more with Drizzle itself

The whole twist of the kid stealing the data to get Professor Cerise sempai to notice him was also really weird and contrived though. Professor Cerise is likable, but bland and his best quality is being Chloe's father, so it is weird for anyone in or out of universe to put him on such a huge pedestal. At least it makes sense when characters do that with Professor Oak, even if that does get a bit old too.

That reminds me. It sucks that Chloe family and their dynamic was basically gone the moment evee came.

The goh protecting drizzle was sweet, but my problem is that it feels like a cop out way to rush through a relationship conflict. I'm not saying this as a goh issue but a series issue. It seems whenever there is an issue between trainer and pokemon, it's almost always resolved with the trainer jumping in the way to protect the pokemon. It's sweet, but it feels it's just a cheap way to save the issue instead of doing an organic relationship development.

I prefer of the pokemon and trainer slowly but surely understand, respect and get along episode to episode. The end with a true bond. Instead it's just pokemon ignores/dislikes trainer, trainer upset, trainer saves pokemon (usually from tr), conflict resolved in one episode. If not one episode, it's just played off as a gag, with the pokemon ignoring/attacking the trainer and nothing else. Then some random episode where the trainer saves the pokemon and all issues gone in one scene.

Also goh already had a heart to heart with drizzle in the sobble evolution episode. So it just felt repetitive by that point

 

[Chilon]

Tauros and Snorlax dont have to come back. Talonflame Swellow and are good for a fight against flyingtypes like vs Alains Unfezant. Sceptile is also very good because he can use leaf blade. Pignite yes good Pokemon but: it isnt fully evolved. If its secretly evolved was it super. Incineroar is beatiful for a Charizard fight but he loses.

 

[Hidden Mew]

That reminds me. It sucks that Chloe family and their dynamic was basically gone the moment evee came.

I'm not really too bothered by that. I've honestly forgot that Chloe's little brother even exists way before Eevee came into the picture, but she did have some nice moments with both of her parents. The flashback of Professor Cerise encouraging his wife when they were kids was also quite sweet.

The goh protecting drizzle was sweet, but my problem is that it feels like a cop out way to rush through a relationship conflict. I'm not saying this as a goh issue but a series issue. It seems whenever there is an issue between trainer and pokemon, it's almost always resolved with the trainer jumping in the way to protect the pokemon. It's sweet, but it feels it's just a cheap way to save the issue instead of doing an organic relationship development.

I prefer of the pokemon and trainer slowly but surely understand, respect and get along episode to episode. The end with a true bond. Instead it's just pokemon ignores/dislikes trainer, trainer upset, trainer saves pokemon (usually from tr), conflict resolved in one episode. If not one episode, it's just played off as a gag, with the pokemon ignoring/attacking the trainer and nothing else. Then some random episode where the trainer saves the pokemon and all issues gone in one scene.

Also goh already had a heart to heart with drizzle in the sobble evolution episode. So it just felt repetitive by that point

I didn't really see this as a relationship conflict or that there was an issue between Drizzle and Goh, at least after its initial evolution episode. I saw it more as Drizzle's disappointment over its evolution basically turning into low key depression, not helped with it being tossed around the lab right after evolving, and that made it close itself off from everyone, which is why it just lived in its burrow. This seemed more like a personal issue for Drizzle than anything else, especially when it did respond to Goh's concern in its first evolution episode. It was willing to stay at the lab after their talk, even if it was still isolating itself and choosing to train on its own as opposed to being with Goh.

That being said, I can understand wanting them to take more time to restore a bond between a trainer and their Pokemon. It gives them more time to flesh it out and make the resolution feel more satisfying. I wouldn't call it a cop out or a cheap way to resolve the issue, but it is a cliche within the series. Ash and his friends have stepped in to protect a Pokemon and that instantly improves their relationships many times. Like all cliches, it can be handled well like with Charizard and Mamoswine or be handled poorly like with Iris' Dragonite. The later felt way more pointless to me by comparison when Iris did the same thing when she first met Dragonite and it felt like an anticlimactic way for them to resolve its disobedience subplot. Goh had a nice heart to heart with Drizzle before, but seeing Goh protect from an attacking Pokemon felt different enough to me. Goh was able to back up his speech with his action and that stood out to Drizzle. I think it would have helped a lot of they gave Drizzle more time and chances to interact with Goh outside of meal time, but as far as the emotional weight of the scene goes, I thought it went fine.

 

[A Wild Luxray]

Sobble honestly had some of the worst development for any starter. The whole concept of him being upset that he didn't instantly evolve into Inteleon was interesting, but they handled it poorly. They didn't show us Drizzile coming to terms that he still had to grow and if he kept trying, someday he'd finally reach his goal. We never saw him get the motivation again to keep on pushing forwards. They just pushed him into a cave for a few episodes, and then reveal that all the development where he came to terms with everything and began training happened off screen. We should have seen an episode dedicated to Drizzile regaining the motivation to work towards evolving into an Inteleon and finally leaving the cave. We should have had one more episode where he was actually shown training or in a battle. It just went from Drizzile moping in a cave to suddenly evolving next focus episode where they revealed all the development happened off screen. It was just bad.

 

[HiroHunter]

Sobble honestly had some of the worst development for any starter. The whole concept of him being upset that he didn't instantly evolve into Inteleon was interesting, but they handled it poorly. They didn't show us Drizzile coming to terms that he still had to grow and if he kept trying, someday he'd finally reach his goal. We never saw him get the motivation again to keep on pushing forwards. They just pushed him into a cave for a few episodes, and then reveal that all the development where he came to terms with everything and began training happened off screen. We should have seen an episode dedicated to Drizzile regaining the motivation to work towards evolving into an Inteleon and finally leaving the cave. We should have had one more episode where he was actually shown training or in a battle. It just went from Drizzile moping in a cave to suddenly evolving next focus episode where they revealed all the development happened off screen. It was just bad.

I mean wouldn't Grookey be worse? On the grounds that it doesn't have any development.

 

[Weddingbells]

Sobble honestly had some of the worst development for any starter. The whole concept of him being upset that he didn't instantly evolve into Inteleon was interesting, but they handled it poorly. They didn't show us Drizzile coming to terms that he still had to grow and if he kept trying, someday he'd finally reach his goal. We never saw him get the motivation again to keep on pushing forwards. They just pushed him into a cave for a few episodes, and then reveal that all the development where he came to terms with everything and began training happened off screen. We should have seen an episode dedicated to Drizzile regaining the motivation to work towards evolving into an Inteleon and finally leaving the cave. We should have had one more episode where he was actually shown training or in a battle. It just went from Drizzile moping in a cave to suddenly evolving next focus episode where they revealed all the development happened off screen. It was just bad.

Definitely not controversial. I think everyone can agree sobble had one of the worst evolution arcs ever. Like what were they genuinely thinking?

It's even more odd because it kinda doesn't make sense. Did no one think to tell sobble it has one more evolution to go? Did it think it would be Inteleon off the bat? Just so odd. A Pokemon being unsatisfied with it's evolution is a great idea. But I guess they didn't like the idea because they shoved him in a cave until it was time to evolve. The only good thing is that talk drizzle has with Goh. Genuinely a great scene.

With grookey, it might be worse. I feel like they don't realize the difference between grookey and piplup/oshawott. Both pokemon were trouble makers. The big difference is that piplup and oshawott suffered consequences for it. Grookey causes trouble and it never gets comeuppance.

Also annoyed with the waste of backstory it
has. Pokemon owned by TR originally. Great idea. Too bad it just ended with it likes goh just cause. If you change it to grookey getting lost from the forest and just happen to stumble across goh, literally nothing would change

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

I legitimately think the reason why they shoved Drizzile to the side is because they thought it would have been too much of a repeat of Raboot personality wise and they didn't want to have Goh deal with that again

I doubt it was because Drizzile wasn't marketable since we've had plenty of unmarketable Pokemon on the cast before (Pignite for example). Hell even in Journeys itself, Dracovish is incredibly non-conventional in appearence

The Journey's writers are just uncreative when it comes to Pokemon Personalities

It's either Obnoxious Annoying Trouble Maker or Stoic "Badass" Battle Bot and next to nothing in-between

In the rare case a Pokemon shows anything other signs of a different personality than those two it will get no screen time whatsoever

 

[Weddingbells]

I legitimately think the reason why they shoved Drizzile to the side is because they thought it would have been too much of a repeat of Raboot personality wise and they didn't want to have Goh deal with that again

I doubt it was because Drizzile wasn't marketable since we've had plenty of unmarketable Pokemon on the cast before (Pignite for example). Hell even in Journeys itself, Dracovish is incredibly non-conventional in appearence

The Journey's writers are just uncreative when it comes to Pokemon Personalities

It's either Obnoxious Annoying Trouble Maker or Stoic "Badass" Battle Bot and next to nothing in-between

In the rare case a Pokemon shows anything other signs of a different personality than those two it will get no screen time whatsoever

That's why I wish they played up the tsundere personality type in the Cinderace episode. But they dropped that real quick

 

[Hidden Mew]

Honestly, so far, I don't find Grookey to be that bad or annoying. It's still rather cute and the only time so far that it did bother me was when it was too busy eating when Team Rocket tried to steal it and Pikachu during the second Alola episode. Even the fact that it seemingly does nothing is more strange and confusing to me than upsetting, at least at the moment. It kind of makes me wonder why they gave it to Goh if it was just going to be the cute unevolved marketable Pokemon for him. Why bother giving him the other starters if that was their ultimate plan for Grookey? Why wait so long for Grookey to actually appear in the series if it was just going to do nothing? Or why evolve the other starters when he could just have all three unevolved starters for peak marketable appeal? Granted, I still think Scorbunny fits him the most out of all of the Galar starters and its evolutions were generally fine, but I'm not sure why they needed to evolve Scorbunny and Sobble in the long run, especially when it didn't seem to lead into them gaining Gigantamax forms like fans reasonably assumed with Cinderace. The lack of screentime for evolved Pokemon in this series, as well as not giving Drizzle more time to build up to its evolution, doesn't help matters either. While Goh and Cinderace still have some nice moments, it really feels like their bond isn't as prominent as it used to be, which is a shame considering that was one of the reasons why I started to love Goh.

Despite all this, I don't think Grookey is the worst starter in the anime. For better or for worse, it does have more presence than at least Brock's Marshtomp. It used moves and evolved, which is more than what you can say about Grookey, but it also barely had any screentime or presence.

 

[Chilon]

Grookey shouldnt evolve because hes then nonmore cute but when he does Goh has all Galar Starter evolved. I only miss Dubwool in the series. I dont like him very much but honestly shes a nice pokemon for Hop. I know Hop is a videogame character but in the anime she can gets often to Ash and Goh. Not everytime but often.

 

[Weddingbells]

Honestly, so far, I don't find Grookey to be that bad or annoying. It's still rather cute and the only time so far that it did bother me was when it was too busy eating when Team Rocket tried to steal it and Pikachu during the second Alola episode. Even the fact that it seemingly does nothing is more strange and confusing to me than upsetting, at least at the moment. It kind of makes me wonder why they gave it to Goh if it was just going to be the cute unevolved marketable Pokemon for him. Why bother giving him the other starters if that was their ultimate plan for Grookey? Why wait so long for Grookey to actually appear in the series if it was just going to do nothing? Or why evolve the other starters when he could just have all three unevolved starters for peak marketable appeal? Granted, I still think Scorbunny fits him the most out of all of the Galar starters and its evolutions were generally fine, but I'm not sure why they needed to evolve Scorbunny and Sobble in the long run, especially when it didn't seem to lead into them gaining Gigantamax forms like fans reasonably assumed with Cinderace. The lack of screentime for evolved Pokemon in this series, as well as not giving Drizzle more time to build up to its evolution, doesn't help matters either. While Goh and Cinderace still have some nice moments, it really feels like their bond isn't as prominent as it used to be, which is a shame considering that was one of the reasons why I started to love Goh.

Despite all this, I don't think Grookey is the worst starter in the anime. For better or for worse, it does have more presence than at least Brock's Marshtomp. It used moves and evolved, which is more than what you can say about Grookey, but it also barely had any screentime or presence.

This issue with grookey is that he is annoying and does absolutely nothing. Usually the cute marketable starter would be one or the other. They would still be competent and aren't there just for comedic relief


And like I said. The thing with annoying character is that it's important that they get some kind of consequences for their behavior. Grookey gets nothing

 

[Hidden Mew]

This issue with grookey is that he is annoying and does absolutely nothing. Usually the cute marketable starter would be one or the other. They would still be competent and aren't there just for comedic relief


And like I said. The thing with annoying character is that it's important that they get some kind of consequences for their behavior. Grookey gets nothing

Grookey really doesn't come off as that annoying to me, so maybe that's why the lack of consequences for their behavior doesn't really upset me either.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

But alas no matter how we all feel about the way the Galar Starters were handled,

We can all agree this awful little shit is the WORST Gen 8 Pokemon in the entirety of the Anime

There is no contest

 

[nickdt]

But alas no matter how we all feel about the way the Galar Starters were handled,

We can all agree this awful little shit is the WORST Gen 8 Pokemon in the entirety of the Anime View attachment 161265

There is no contest

No contest you say, while we have little Green Gremlin being 10x worse.

 

[Chilon]

Morpeko is not bad!