Controversial opinions

[TheGoldenToon]

It's still a bit ridiculous that Best Wishes decided to give every main character a rival. That was a bit excessive. Plus, Ash's rivals in this series were less than stellar.

One thing I don't get it. What's even the point of this Trip guy at all? Why is Ash even wanting to bother with him. "That's basic stuff!" So annoying! I'm seriously missing Paul! I don't know how my weird autistic brain functions, but clearly something went majorly wrong, in the rivalry department in BW if you can manage to make me miss Paul (which granted, character wise, I did already liked Paul by this point as a rival). Trip seriously makes Ash and Gary's rivalry actually seem better almost.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Cilan, though, didn't work at all. He was already better than his self-proclaimed rival in every way, so there was never any real tension there.

I think Burgundy was written in as a joke character. She was obviously never meant to be taken seriously.

One thing I don't get it. What's even the point of this Trip guy at all? Why is Ash even wanting to bother with him. "That's basic stuff!" So annoying! I'm seriously missing Paul! I don't know how my weird autistic brain functions, but clearly something went majorly wrong, in the rivalry department in BW if you can manage to make me miss Paul (which granted, character wise, I did already liked Paul by this point as a rival). Trip seriously makes Ash and Gary's rivalry actually seem better almost.

For me, one thing that really ruins Trip's status as an imposing rival is the fact that he actually gets beaten by Cilan and Bianca before Ash. That just doesn't paint a very imposing image of him, if you ask me. Not to mention that Ash and Trip's third battle ended in a draw.

 

[CaptainBuggles]

One thing I don't get it. What's even the point of this Trip guy at all? Why is Ash even wanting to bother with him. "That's basic stuff!" So annoying! I'm seriously missing Paul! I don't know how my weird autistic brain functions, but clearly something went majorly wrong, in the rivalry department in BW if you can manage to make me miss Paul (which granted, character wise, I did already liked Paul by this point as a rival). Trip seriously makes Ash and Gary's rivalry actually seem better almost.

As much as I wanted Paul to step on a Lego, at least his battles were better than Trip's, and you had a better understanding of why he won whenever he did win.

One Trip fight I still remember clearly enough to complain about was when his Tranquill's Super Luck ability came off more like a trainable skill than just a small boost to crit rate.. which would've been fine, since it's the anime... Except that most other characters in BW hardly seem to benefit from the "trainable Ability" concept, and that honestly strikes me as a huge waste.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Burgundy and Georgia were much more entertaining than Alola cast.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

As much as I wanted Paul to step on a Lego, at least his battles were better than Trip's, and you had a better understanding of why he won whenever he did win.

One Trip fight I still remember clearly enough to complain about was when his Tranquill's Super Luck ability came off more like a trainable skill than just a small boost to crit rate.. which would've been fine, since it's the anime... Except that most other characters in BW hardly seem to benefit from the "trainable Ability" concept, and that honestly strikes me as a huge waste.

Another thing I hated about Trip was that we never even saw most of his Pokémon fully evolved. Only Serperior and Conkeldurr got that treatment, while Tranquill, Frillish, and Lampent were never seen in their evolved forms.

Burgundy and Georgia were much more entertaining than Alola cast.

I respectfully disagree.

 

[FluffleFi]

We didn't even get a full six-on-six battle with the guy. What was the anime team thinking when they went from an experienced and imposing trainer like Paul to a beginner trainer like Trip? Starting from Sinnoh, I really believe all of Ash's rival should already be experienced trainers.Losing to a complete rookie with absolutely NO battle experience won't ever look good.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

We didn't even get a full six-on-six battle with the guy. What was the anime team thinking when they went from an experienced and imposing trainer like Paul to a beginner trainer like Trip? Starting from Sinnoh, I really believe all of Ash's rival should already be experienced trainers.Losing to a complete rookie with absolutely NO battle experience won't ever look good.

The Unova anime rivals sucked, to be honest. Trip, Georgia, and Burgundy we've already gine over, and my rants about Cameron could go on for hours, so I'll just focus on the two remaining ones: Stephan and Virgil.

First off, the way Stephan was introduced as a Trainer whom Ash had just met at the beginning of an episode made me think that he was just going to be a character of the day, so I was honestly surprised when he later appeared again. That made him feel kinda unsettling for me, and I was never really able to shake off that feeling. And it wasn't helped that they then pulled a similar twist with his Pokémon: they built up Zebstrika as his ace, but then, all of a sudden, Sawk ends up being the most notable Pokémon he uses. Like, why? I'm usually a fan of twisting expectations, but in this case, it just makes me not like the guy that much.

And then there's Virgil. Why did this guy even exist? He seemed like the stereotypical League rival who'd be the one to defeat Ash, which I could've honestly believed and accepted, but no! Instead, Ash loses to Cameron (like I said, I won't start that rant right now), and Ash never ends up battling Virgil once! Again, why did this character even have to exist? To be the character who wins the tournament? That's fine, but the point of those League rivals is that they actually battle against Ash at some point, which this guy did not do! And he wasn't even really focusing on being a Trainer! He was just looking to get more experience to do his rescue jobs better! And this guy, who does training basically as a hobby besides his main job, ends up winning the regional League conference?! I'm sorry but, no! Just, no...

And a dishonorable mention to Dino: a random guy who gets one-shotted by Ash in a tournament, and then later ends up outperforming him in the League. Urgh... Just one more piece of trash to the pile of garbage that was the Unova League...

 

[Hidden Mew]

Even after rewatching BW, I still wonder why they even bothered to make Trip a rookie trainer. He was never presented as such. They obviously wanted to make Ash the underdog of the rivalry again, which in itself isn't a problem, but they really shouldn't have made Trip such a ridiculously overpowered rookie trainer. It just contradicted too much about how other series presented how challenging it is for a trainer to begin their journey. Even capturing their first Pokemon can be difficult, but Trip had six Pokemon with at least two of them evolved and two badges by the tenth episode of the series.

While I do have issues with Ash's rivalry with Sawyer, mainly with how Sawyer did become too powerful just a bit too fast, that was a much better way to handle Ash having a rookie rival. If Sawyer was introduced a bit earlier, like maybe after Ash got three or four badges, and we could see him growing a bit more stronger after his battles with Ash, then I think that their rivalry could have been really good.

 

[FluffleFi]

And then there's Virgil. Why did this guy even exist? He seemed like the stereotypical League rival who'd be the one to defeat Ash, which I could've honestly believed and accepted, but no! Instead, Ash loses to Cameron (like I said, I won't start that rant right now), and Ash never ends up battling Virgil once! Again, why did this character even have to exist? To be the character who wins the tournament? That's fine, but the point of those League rivals is that they actually battle against Ash at some point, which this guy did not do! And he wasn't even really focusing on being a Trainer! He was just looking to get more experience to do his rescue jobs better? And this guy, who does training basically as a hobby besides his main job, ends up winning the regional League conference?! I'm sorry but, no! Just, no...

Gotta agree with you on this guy, if Ash would have battled and lost against him I think people would have been a lot more satisfied. He came off as competent, had a full team of popular Pokemon and actually knew where the League was.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

While I do have issues with Ash's rivalry with Sawyer, mainly with how Sawyer did become too powerful just a bit too fast, that was a much better way to handle Ash having a rookie rival. If Sawyer was introduced a bit earlier, like maybe after Ash got three or four badges, and we could see him growing a bit more stronger after his battles with Ash, then I think that their rivalry could have been really good.

That's basically one of, if not the only problem I had with the XY series: the late buildup for the rivals and the evil team. Although Alain and Lysandre were built up during the Mega Evolution Specials, the rest of Team Flare wasn't introduced until Ash already had seven Badges, same with him meeting Alain. Sawyer's introduction could've also been a bit earlier to give it a little better pacing. These are things where Diamond & Pearl has XY beat IMO: Ash met Paul basically as soon as he got to Sinnoh, and Team Galactic was introduced right before Ash's second Badge, so both of them had plenty of time to develop.

However, the Kalos League and the Team Flare crisis arc were so fantastically executed and animated that I can forgive their late buildup thanks to those factors alone. This is why I'm personally having difficulty in deciding whether I prefer D&P or XY.

And while I'm still talking about the Sinnoh era, can I just mention how magnificent of an idea it was to have a character that was a rival to two main characters at once in Nando?! Seriously, we need something like him to happen again in the future!

 

[Daenerys]

Never liked Georgia much, but she was interesting. She was blatantly rude and had almost no redeemable qualities, which is how I think rivals should be. I didn't like XY's namby-pamby trio of rivals, who quite frankly seemed more like BFFs with the cast than actual contenders. Sawyer wasn't much better either since he was basically the president of Ash's fanclub, which left only Alain as a decent XY rival IMO.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

I really hope that for the Gen 8 saga, they takes some of the best aspects from the previous ones. I know I said in other threads that the Advanced Generation was my favorite saga, but now I may change my answer to DP just because I think they did a lot of things right, from the rivals to the villains. Kinda makes BW seem even more depressing when it came right after.

 

[CaptainBuggles]

Sawyer crosses more into the "believable" side for me on a couple of things, but not so much on others. Like with knowledge and skill alone, I feel like he is believable mainly because the anime often shows that new Trainers are lackluster because they have a ton of personal flaws (arrogance, lacking conviction, naivety, poor work ethic, etc.) not because training is just that impossible... So just by being willing to study, take criticism, and be proactive, he automatically bypasses like 70% of that problem. But still, some things seem like they just come down to excessively good luck for him.

-Salamence, fully obedient. I get that he already had a Bagon even in his early appearances, but still, it's freaking Salamence.
-How fast he was able to find a Sceptilite stone
-Doesn't seem to deal with nearly as many setbacks or distractions. Not in a "never makes mistakes" way, more like "if he does, it barely slows him down"

 

[FluffleFi]

I only hope that the main rival is as skilled ash Ash, the entire cast all get a decent amount of screen time and that their Pokemon have fun personalities that can bounce off each other.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

While we're still on the topic of rivals, can I mention how Bianca's running gag of running into Ash and knocking him into the nearest pool of water retrospectively speaking got really old really fast? She kept doing it again and again, and every single time she apologizes for it. Apologizing is great, but you know what, B? From some point onward, if you keep repeating a mistake too many times, a simple "sorry", no matter how many times you repeat it, just ain't gonna cut it. You honestly would've deserved to be knocked into a pool of water yourself to know how Ash felt like.

 

[FluffleFi]

Yeah, they pretty much ruined Bianca in the anime, didn't they? She was clumsy in the games but not to this degree. THe scene in Nimbasa with her dad wasn't that emotional either, if I recall.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

Were they trying to recreate Barry's running gag or something?

 

[Hidden Mew]

That's basically one of, if not the only problem I had with the XY series: the late buildup for the rivals and the evil team. Although Alain and Lysandre were built up during the Mega Evolution Specials, the rest of Team Flare wasn't introduced until Ash already had seven Badges, same with him meeting Alain. Sawyer's introduction could've also been a bit earlier to give it a little better pacing. These are things where Diamond & Pearl has XY beat IMO: Ash met Paul basically as soon as he got to Sinnoh, and Team Galactic was introduced right before Ash's second Badge, so both of them had plenty of time to develop.

However, the Kalos League and the Team Flare crisis arc were so fantastically executed and animated that I can forgive their late buildup thanks to those factors alone. This is why I'm personally having difficulty in deciding whether I prefer D&P or XY.

And while I'm still talking about the Sinnoh era, can I just mention how magnificent of an idea it was to have a character that was a rival to two main characters at once in Nando?! Seriously, we need something like him to happen again in the future!

As much as I would have liked to see Sawyer debut a lot sooner than he did, I can understand why that didn't happen. He basically served as a bit of OR/AS promotion and they couldn't have that before the games were even announced, so their hands were tied in that regard. I'm not sure why they didn't have Ash encounter Team Flare more often though. They had buildup to the Team Flare arc, but only during the last stretch of the series. Team Galactic was a major plot point built up throughout DP. Having an extra year to pace out the storyline really gives DP an edge in my opinion. It gave the series more time to develop its plot points and characters.

While I had some issues with the pacing in XY, it was a much better way of handling a three year long series than BW was. Plus, the Team Flare arc having some surprisingly good character moments really helped make it shine despite the less than ideal buildup.

Were they trying to recreate Barry's running gag or something?

Considering that anime Bianca is pretty much a less competent and less funny female version of Barry, they most likely were trying to do that. While I always had problems with anime Bianca, I forgot just how much I hated her until I rewatched BW. If it wasn't for Iris, she would easily be my least favorite female character in the anime. She was just that annoying and unlikable. Even if I didn't like her storyline from the video games, she's just so unappealing and shallow. I still have a hard time believing that she got two badges with just her Pignite, let alone having the skills to get eight badges to get into the Unova League.

 

[Daenerys]

Yeah, they pretty much ruined Bianca in the anime, didn't they? She was clumsy in the games but not to this degree. THe scene in Nimbasa with her dad wasn't that emotional either, if I recall.

The whole subplot of her dad showing up was ruined IMO. When Ash battled him to defend Bianca's freedom, lost, and still didn't have to keep his end of the deal, I just facepalm'd.

 

[Gligarman]

The whole subplot of her dad showing up was ruined IMO. When Ash battled him to defend Bianca's freedom, lost, and still didn't have to keep his end of the deal, I just facepalm'd.

It's too bad. Her dad was the best part of that whole arc too. Wish he had more screen time.