Controversial opinions

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Pokémon X and Y are criminally underrated in my opinion, especially when it comes to the characters, and especially the rivals. Some people say that they're the worst rivals ever, and while it's true that they may not be as deep as, say, Bianca or Cheren, or as memorable and iconic as Blue and Silver, their characters are actually designed better than most people give credit for, with each of them representing a certain aspect of the Pokémon experience:

* Shauna, who goes on the journey mainly in order to make a bunch of new memories, represents the enjoyment one gets of playing a Pokémon, regardless of how good you actually are at it

* Tierno, who's mostly interested in dancing and doesn't really care about battling, represents the fun side stuff that can be done in Pokémon games that doesn't involve battling, like Contests, mini-games, and so on.

* Trevor, who focuses more on filling the Pokédex for Professor Sycamore than actual battling, represents the type of player who seriously dedicates themselves into filling the Pokédex by searching far and wide for new Pokémon to find and collect.

* Calem/Serena, your main rival, represents the battling aspect of Pokémon games, seriously striving to become a stronger Trainer in an attempt to surpass you.

Credits to a certain YouTube comment for this video for helping me put this into words.

 

[CrashBash]

I suppose my controversial opinion is thus - the original series was terrible.

This comes from two major problems as far as I'm concerned. First of all, most of the characters are absolute jerks. Ash is an insufferable A-Hole through a good chunk of the series, being loud and obnoxious, but whenever he isn't being one, everyone else is being an insufferable A-Hole to HIM! Misty is just as bad, continually abusing him (and her Pokemon, and just about everyone else) verbally and physically, seemingly whenever she gets the chance. People hated Iris because she kept saying Ash was "such a kid", but that's mild teasing against physical abuse. Keep in mind, Iris started mocking Ash in this way because he threw a Pokeball at her, thinking she was a Pokemon. She sorta has an excuse. Misty first started abusing Ash, not because he stole her bicycle and subsequently got it destroyed, but because he spoke to her when she was talking to Pikachu, something he couldn't have possibly known. What's her excuse?

The other major problem is that all the gym battles are terrible. They all follow the line of Ash gets his butt handed to him, something happens, usually involving Team Rocket, and he just gets the badge handed to him. Only Lt Surge's was anyway near legit.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

IMO I actually think May is the best female lead. She went from being someone who became a pokemon trainer only as an excuse to travel to becoming coordinator with passion. It'd be easy to assume she would follow in her father's footsteps and be a gym leader like him, but she found her own path while traveling with Ash. She didn't even like pokemon at first, but that didn't last long. I thought she had great character development, felt the most realistic and was overall the most fun. Also a little thing, but I love it when she get fired up over having her food stolen.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Personally May came off as rather shallow to me at first, setting out to become a Pokemon trainer just as an excuse to travel.
If she hadn’t found out contests exist Torchic would've be been fairly miserable without a goal and it’s trainer not liking Pokémon.

She did improve down the line, however.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Personally May came off as rather shallow to me at first, setting out to become a Pokemon trainer just as an excuse to travel.
If she hadn’t found out contests exist Torchic would've be been fairly miserable without a goal and it’s trainer not liking Pokémon.

She did improve down the line, however.

I don't know how miserable Torchic would have been considering that May didn't even use it for Contests until it evolved into a Combusken. As far as not liking Pokemon, that wouldn't have bothered Torchic either since May showed clear concern for it in the second episode. As much as I like May's development, they really didn't do much with her not liking Pokemon at the start of AG.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Dawn did what May did, but better, IMO. Unlike May, she started her journey while having her true motive of becoming a Top Coordinator like her mother already established. She was confident and optimistic, but when she failed to get past the Appeal Rounds in two Contests in a row, she became depressed, but her growth out of those lows caused the cocky and arrogant parts of her confidence to disappear and be replaced with true confidence in herself, while May was seen outright gleeing after winning her first Ribbon, with no subtelty or restrain at all. Over time, Dawn grew to rely less and less on her mother and more and more on herself, showing that her character development was handled with more quality than May's development.

I'll also give you a link to a good analysis video on Dawn, which explains this a lot better than I ever could.
Dawn's AMAZING: From Cocky to Confident

 

[TheGoldenToon]

Dawn did what May did, but better, IMO. Unlike May, she started her journey while having her true motive of becoming a Top Coordinator like her mother already established. She was confident and optimistic, but when she failed to get past the Appeal Rounds in two Contests in a row, she became depressed, but her growth out of those lows caused the cocky and arrogant parts of her confidence to disappear and be replaced with true confidence in herself, while May was seeing outright gleeing after winning her first Ribbon, with no subtelty at all. Over time, Dawn grew to rely less and less on her mother and more and more on herself, showing that her character development was handled with more quality than May's development.

I'll also give you a link to a good analysis video on Dawn, which explains this a lot better than I ever could.
Dawn's AMAZING: From Cocky to Confident

Thanks, @FinnishPokéFan92. That video was informative. I actually like Dawn as well. Truth be told I always like May the most based off personal preference more than anything, plus the AG was always my favorite saga so I maybe bias. Being a fan of shows like Xiaolin Showdown in the past, I know how important character flaws are, so seeing that character analysis vid reminds me why I love fiction so much. It's the characters themselves and how real they feel.

Anyway, I have another. Music Time! Yeah! I actually like "This Dream" more than "Unbeatable" (I still like Unbeatable, just not as much as the former).

 

[Johtohfiller]

I suppose my controversial opinion is thus - the original series was terrible.

This comes from two major problems as far as I'm concerned. First of all, most of the characters are absolute jerks. Ash is an insufferable A-Hole through a good chunk of the series, being loud and obnoxious, but whenever he isn't being one, everyone else is being an insufferable A-Hole to HIM! Misty is just as bad, continually abusing him (and her Pokemon, and just about everyone else) verbally and physically, seemingly whenever she gets the chance. People hated Iris because she kept saying Ash was "such a kid", but that's mild teasing against physical abuse. Keep in mind, Iris started mocking Ash in this way because he threw a Pokeball at her, thinking she was a Pokemon. She sorta has an excuse. Misty first started abusing Ash, not because he stole her bicycle and subsequently got it destroyed, but because he spoke to her when she was talking to Pikachu, something he couldn't have possibly known. What's her excuse?

The other major problem is that all the gym battles are terrible. They all follow the line of Ash gets his butt handed to him, something happens, usually involving Team Rocket, and he just gets the badge handed to him. Only Lt Surge's was anyway near legit.

This is a big part of why I think Johto is better than Kanto.

 

[Musajirou]

Is it weird that feel the writers should have gave togepi to Brock? I've been rewatching a little of the AG and DP again and he was pretty good at raising bonsly and happiny. I guess it's because he's an good pokemon breeder.

I personally think it should've gone to Nyasu, because not only he took care of the egg and loved it, he also showed some real determination so he could raise Togepi (I mean, he fought a freaking Onix). He didn't have any evil intentions, just love.
I could accept Togepi going to Takeshi, but Kasumi? Ugh. Not like it helped her character development much anyway.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

I personally think it should've gone to Nyasu, because not only he took care of the egg and loved it, he also showed some real determination so he could raise Togepi (I mean, he fought a freaking Onix). He didn't have any evil intentions, just love.
I could accept Togepi going to Takeshi, but Kasumi? Ugh. Not like it helped her character development much anyway.

Yeah, I'm not sure why she needed Togepi either. I mean really the only reason it saw her as it's mother was because she shoved Ash and Brock out of the way as it was hatching. If different decisions were made with that episode anyone but Misty would have been chosen as Togepi's owner. The goodbye they had in AG after it evolved into a Togetic was nice and everything, but I think it would've had the same impact had it been raised by anyone else all the same. If they were going to give it to Misty, training it more and battling with it would've been nice.

 

[FluffleFi]

I really dislike the X/Y group of Ash, Serene, Clemont and Bonnie. They're just so dull when compared to the previous groups. Say what you want about Misty or Iris but at least the members of those groups all had fun interactions with each other. Serena and Clemont were hardly a thing as well as Ash and Bonnie. Considering how much the girl likes Pokemon you think she'd ask Ash about some of his older mons. It would've been pretty amusing for him to mention how his Bayleef was always tackling him. Max was a know-it-all but I still preferred him over Bonnie, especially since his relationship with May was more believable. She spent most of the series trying to marry Clemont off and the one time she may have done it, she turns around and rips them apart. Only to then try and marry him to some other random girl. If there's another brother-sister pair apart of the group I hope they don't use that gimmick again.

 

[EscLucy]

I wasn't sure about Misty having Togepi initially either but the whole evolution scene etc was really heartbreaking for me because Misty showed raw emotion and love for her Togepi. Sure she loves Water Pokemon but this was emotional and I think this is more emotional than Ash's Butterfree leaving.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I think this is more emotional than Ash's Butterfree leaving.

While I'm not sure if I agree with you or not, yeah, I can see what you mean. Togepi was with Misty for hundreds of episodes, while Butterfree was with Ash for less than 20 episodes. I think most people consider Butterfree's good-bye so emotional mostly because it was an early episode that they also feel nostalgic towards (even if it was executed really well).

 

[TheGoldenToon]

This maybe one of the most controversial opinions yet, but...I thought Tracey was okay. I may prefer Brock, but Tracey never really did anything to make me dislike him. In fact I quite liked the guy. As much as I missed Brock I was surprisingly adaptable to the anime making changes which is a similar reason I welcomed May with opened arms come AG. Brock came back and I was glad of course, but again Tracey being on the show never took away any enjoyment I had of it.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

This maybe one of the most controversial opinions yet, but...I thought Tracey was okay. I may prefer Brock, but Tracey never really did anything to make me dislike him. In fact I quite liked the guy. As much as I missed Brock I was surprisingly adaptable to the anime making changes which is a similar reason I welcomed May with opened arms come AG. Brock came back and I was glad of course, but again Tracey being on the show never took away any enjoyment I had of it.

You're not alone. I didn't see anything wrong with Tracey either. I think most/some people liked Brock so much that replacing him with this new character who arguably didn't have as much personality as Brock did was nothing short of a sin in their eyes, especially when the whole "changeable traveling companies" stuff didn't really become a recurring thing until Hoenn started rolling around. I assume you know why Tracey was created to replace Brock in the first place?

 

[TheGoldenToon]

I assume you know why Tracey was created to replace Brock in the first place?

Oh, yes I know why. Those were the days. Brock, Jynx. Come to think of it that still happens nowadays with the anime's recent SM controversy.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Oh, yes I know why. Those were the days. Brock, Jynx. Come to think of it that still happens nowadays with the anime's recent SM controversy.

Oh, yes. An internet reviewer I follow actually summed the whole Tracey thing up pretty nicely:

"So, in order to be more politically correct, the company made a product everyone hated?"
"Exactly!"

And I think the whole Passimian debacle was just the dubbers being overly careful. I neither approve or disapprove their decision.

 

[CrashBash]

Another controversial opinion from me - Cilan is far, FAR more annoying than Iris ever has been.

I'm going to be brutally honest here...I find it legit difficult to actually hate Iris. As I said in my previous post, I hated the way Misty acted in the original series, specifically the Kanto arc. Thing is, despite all that, I don't actually hate Misty herself. As I result, I can't really hate Iris because I feel (and this is yet ANOTHER controversial opinion) she was portrayed far better than Misty was.....at least to a degree or two. I say this because, not only does she just tease Ash as opposed to mock or physically abuse him like Misty did (and at least she had reasons), but I also felt she treated her unco-operative Pokemon better. Think back to Misty and her Psyduck. Think of all the times she just shouted at him for being useless, the times she abused him and the times she just didn't bother to even try to train him. The fact it took nearly 500 episodes to get him to use Water Gun speaks for itself. Iris, meanwhile, had to deal with three Pokemon that wouldn't co-operate with her, and she dealt with all three of them very well - I don't recall any physical abuse, she was largely patient with them except maybe Emolga and, for the most part, it all paid off. That being said, the reason I said "to a degree or two" is that I feel like Misty had far better character development and she did get better as a person. Iris....kinda remained largely static. This basically means that, as of right now, I consider them to be on roughly equal terms.

But Cilan? This guy just bugged me in nearly every way. I don't really get the purpose of the whole Pokemon Evaluation thing. It just felt like a completely random thing they just chucked in to give him a gimmick, and when Cilan did throw out his "Evaluation time" schtick, it really felt like it contributed very little. If I want to watch the male sidekick have a gimmick, then I'm sticking with Clemont and his inventions. Also doesn't help that I personally found his voice to be extremely annoying for some reason, which made his ramblings even worse. It's the point where I literally want to yell "SILENCE!" (or should I say, "CILAN-CE!"?) whenever he speaks.

Also I find his design to be kinda creepy and yet I don't know why exactly. I always assumed it was to do with his eyes and how they were drawn, but Lana has the exact same eye style, and I find her adorable.

 

[Daenerys]

Imo, I definitely thought Cilan was the worst BW cast member by far. His catchphrase was more annoying than Iris's to me since he would shout it at the top of his lungs most of the time in the Japanese version, and him being good at everything he did made him the most blatant Mary Sue in the show up to that point in the series. His lack of meaningful development was a shame as well: that was a negative byproduct of him being such a high-level Pokemon Connoisseur right from the beginning.

 

[Jared DiCarlo]

I like the Pokémon Chronicles theme song unironically

*hides in fallout shelter*