Controversial opinions

[Falaish]

You could already pretend Ash was aging in AG and DP.

 

[Mew2]

You could already pretend Ash was aging in AG and DP.

Given how Ash seemed to be maturing and getting better as a Trainer, I was almost certain he was aging, even if it was relatively slowly. At the time, I was headcanoning him as being either 12 at the youngest or in his early teens. I even headcanoned that the narrator simply made a mistake when stating his age at the start of Best Wishes, with his mistaking Nimbasa Town for Nimbasa City being evidence that such a mistake was not out of the realm of possibility in that series. He certainly seemed older than 10 in XY.

 

[FelipePR]

Saying Dawn or May is the better character is totally subjective. Everyone has a biased opinion and can argue endlessly. But..saying Dawn was a worse coordinator than May is a stretch.

I completely agree. The word "better" is, in itself, subjective when not objectively supported by criteria of scientific evaluation.

Often, we evaluate the characters according to our personal criteria, preferences and perception so that there isn't only one truth, but different opinions.

The moves Dawn came up with and how hard she tried to fix her mistakes puts her way above the rest of the performer girlies.

However, I believe that, in this excerpt, you were "a victim" of the criticism woven above. I don't think it's possible to say, with certainty, that Dawn is a league above the other performer girls.

First, they rarely directly competed with each other, and each achieved a similar success in their respective journeys. And, if that weren't enough, contests, and even their characters, have not been presented in a substantial way to the public for many generations, so that it is not possible to assess who is above whom.

Likewise, it is not appropriate to evaluate the characters' ability based on technicalities, since the quality of animation, as well as the time and focus of the anime given for such performances activities varied reasonably from generation to generation.

In this sense, it is worth remembering that Showcases are, in some way, something different from Contests, and that even these were not always portrayed in a consistent and cohesive way throughout the franchise.

As for contests, it is important to bear in mind that Dawn has, story-wise, a privileged position. Not only had the producers already laid and structured the foundations for this type of event in the previous generation, but she was also the daughter of a top coordinator. She had always shown an interest in following in her mother's footsteps, so that world was already familiar to her. This is a stark contrast to May's reality, for whom the coordinator career was new, just like it was for us. Therefore, it is expected that, at least initially, Dawn's performances would be much more elaborate.

On the other hand, one could argue that, in the Journeys series, Dawn's apparent lack of progress in her career, compared to Serena and May who, by all indications, have accomplished reasonable successes, could indicate that, in truth, the blue-haired girl is one level below.

In short, the situation is the same as when we compare the protagonists of the franchise's games. It's impossible to definitively determine who is better or stronger, as each character stands out uniquely in their respective journeys. Choosing the best character ultimately depends on personal identification and preference. It's a subjective question that varies from person to person.

Therefore, engaging in discussions on this topic may not be productive as it often leads to unhealthy debates and disagreements. It is more constructive to value the strengths and qualities of each character and respect individual preferences.

 

[Falaish]

The only issue with aging is May should be at least 1 1/2 years younger than Ash, and Dawn almost 2 years younger since both turned 10 after Ash. With Serena I just assume she was already passed 10 and stayed at home a long time.

 

[a230]

Controversial opinion: The Anime Is not as good Without Ash. My boy!

 

[c la fet]

I think the Legend of Thunder was a lot more fun as a special that gave us introduction to characters not included in the regular anime than specials like Paldean Winds, Origins, Generations, the garbage they did for Hisui, etc. I did enjoy a lot of these other specials, but LoT did a lot more for me on the whole.

I've watched Hisuian Snow recently and I feel like it would have been better as a short film than a series.

 

[SatoSerefan5229]

Controversial opinion: The Anime Is not as good Without Ash. My boy!

Keeping Ash past Kalos was a big mistake. He should have won the Kalos League. I never felt he lost, he got flat out screwed. Somebody didn’t want Ash to win.

 

[BeautifulSylveon]

I think that the ending of Mewtwo’s Origins with Amber’s clone being non-viable is not suitable for everyone. While her spirit disappearing from the mindscape was more or less okay for me, the close-up of Ambertwo not taking form in the tube traumatized me. I was already 13, so it’s not like I was still a child. Yet it ruined my mental health as it made me having a migraine, making me miss classes.

 

[FelipePR]

I think that the ending of Mewtwo’s Origins with Amber’s clone being non-viable is not suitable for everyone. While her spirit disappearing from the mindscape was more or less okay for me, the close-up of Ambertwo not taking form in the tube traumatized me. I was already 13, so it’s not like I was still a child. Yet it ruined my mental health as it made me having a migraine, making me miss classes.

Maybe, but it's one of the franchise's greatest moments.

 

[BeautifulSylveon]

People should sacrifice their mental health for "one of the franchise’s greatest moments"? This short should have a TW. Her spirit disappearing was significant enough for everyone she’s dead once and for all. We didn’t need to have this close-up. It’s this precise close-up that traumatized me.

Impactful moments aren’t always to be remembered as good/great. Yes, it impacted me, but in the wrong way, and it’s one of my worst media moments I had in my life.

 

[flowerfun]

Iris was honestly not as awful as some people tend to say she is. I get why her teasing of Ash may come across as grading to some people, especially when BW already heavily regressed Ash, but I mostly enjoyed Iris as a character quite a bit. I enjoyed the sibling dynamic she had with Ash and I thought she had a lot of good moments that gave good development to her. She is a semi-compelling character to me, she was a lot more interesting than Ash in that season who didn't grow or develop at all.

 

[BeautifulSylveon]

To me, having protagonists lacking actual bad flaws was already a problem back in SM. Ash was watered down to an all-loving hero. Nanu talked him down, but it was only 1 scene and Nanu doesn't know Ash much. As for the "Rotomdex wants to be an actor", yes, Ash was extrememly possessive, but it's extremely out-of-character from him, especially his SM self. Also, not a single character talked him down (if anything, the lines were in the vein of "Well, you should accept" instead of "What's wrong with you?").

SM Ash is "an Ash I don't know". It's hard for me to care, let alone be happy, about a League victory of an Ash I don't know.

I really wanted Ash to be more like how he was before SM when JN came. But his JN self was just a more mature version of his SM one. And I wanted to have Galar characters pointing out the fact that Ash may not have an actual Champion level due to getting his title in the least battle-oriented region and whose League Finals only consisted of a 3 vs 3, especially to Galarian standards as the region is extremely battle-oriented.

Not promoting the Gen 8 games back in JN was a mistake, because promoting would have nuanced Ash's first League victory.

So, what happened? Why aren't main characters allowed to have actual bad flaws anymore in the main Pokémon anime?

 

[Hidden Mew]

To me, having protagonists lacking actual bad flaws was already a problem back in SM. Ash was watered down to an all-loving hero. Nanu talked him down, but it was only 1 scene and Nanu doesn't know Ash much. As for the "Rotomdex wants to be an actor", yes, Ash was extrememly possessive, but it's extremely out-of-character from him, especially his SM self. Also, not a single character talked him down (if anything, the lines were in the vein of "Well, you should accept" instead of "What's wrong with you?").

SM Ash is "an Ash I don't know". It's hard for me to care, let alone be happy, about a League victory of an Ash I don't know.

I really wanted Ash to be more like how he was before SM when JN came. But his JN self was just a more mature version of his SM one. And I wanted to have Galar characters pointing out the fact that Ash may not have an actual Champion level due to getting his title in the least battle-oriented region and whose League Finals only consisted of a 3 vs 3, especially to Galarian standards as the region is extremely battle-oriented.

Not promoting the Gen 8 games back in JN was a mistake, because promoting would have nuanced Ash's first League victory.

So, what happened? Why aren't main characters allowed to have actual bad flaws anymore in the main Pokémon anime?

I don't think that they would have had any characters trying to negate Ash's Alola League. While I agree that winning a Pokemon League on easy mode doesn't really make Ash a Champion level trainer, there's no way that the writes would have tried to negate that victory in-universe. Even if they had, they would have been placed in the wrong, changing their mind after Ash inevitably defeated them. I don't know if promoting generation eight at the time would have nuanced Ash's first League victory, but I do agree that not doing much with Sword/Shield was a mistake.

 

[Daren]

I don't think that they would have had any characters trying to negate Ash's Alola League. While I agree that winning a Pokemon League on easy mode doesn't really make Ash a Champion level trainer, there's no way that the writes would have tried to negate that victory in-universe.

Yeah, the Alola win generated lots of positive attention for the show--there was pretty much no way they'd undercut it like the Orange League or Battle Frontier.

 

[BeautifulSylveon]

Maybe, but many of those people didn't care about SM. They only heard about the outcome. As for me, I care far more about the fact that Alola is the least battle-oriented region, and the Finals being only 3 vs 3. What made things worse was the fact that News Channels got involved, which comes off to me as an embarrassing "How do you do, fellow kids?" moment. What I also didn't like is that TV Tokyo promised a trip to Hawaii to people who correctly guessed who was going to be the league's winner. Also, the fiasco about the Alolan classmates being represented by balloons. What was that...?

 

[Squad_Broke_Down]

Controversial Opinion: So I previously said that the Horizons US English OP was bad. So now that I've re-listened to it... it's even worse than I remember! I personally think it might be among the worst OPs the anime has used period.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Maybe, but many of those people didn't care about SM. They only heard about the outcome. As for me, I care far more about the fact that Alola is the least battle-oriented region, and the Finals being only 3 vs 3. What made things worse was the fact that News Channels got involved, which comes off to me as an embarrassing "How do you do, fellow kids?" moment. What I also didn't like is that TV Tokyo promised a trip to Hawaii to people who correctly guessed who was going to be the league's winner. Also, the fiasco about the Alolan classmates being represented by balloons. What was that...?

I don't remember TV Tokyo promising a trip to Hawaii for those who guessed who was going to win the Alola League. Considering that this was Ash's first major victory in over a decade, I don't think that news outlets reporting on it was that bad or out of touch. I've often said that the Alola League was a Pokemon League set on easy mode, which does make the victory less impressive than if Ash had won the Kalos League for example, but the anime would not invalidate it by having other characters point that out.

 

[Daren]

I don't remember TV Tokyo promising a trip to Hawaii for those who guessed who was going to win the Alola League.

It's been a very long time, and I think a lot of it was on twitter (which is a pretty terrible place for digging up old posts), but I do actually remember that happening (the trip was just the grand prize rather than everyone, of course). I made a few references/jokes about it around that time on the forums here.

Considering that this was Ash's first major victory in over a decade, I don't think that news outlets reporting on it was that bad or out of touch.

News media reporting on story developments in media is nothing new, either; back in the Victorian period newspapers reported on the events of Sherlock Holmes "The Final Problem".

Spoiler: do I really need to spoil century old literature?

When the titular detective was killed off before that was retconned away years later.

 

[AndreskX]

Controversial Opinion: So I previously said that the Horizons US English OP was bad. So now that I've re-listened to it... it's even worse than I remember! I personally think it might be among the worst OPs the anime has used period.

I've never been able to finish it; I always stop after the first 10 minutes or so.

 

[Seven.]

Liko and rod are just boring.
I don't like ash and I didn't like it while I was growing up,but men those two are boring I wish they had relationship like misty and ash again.