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Controversial opinions

Something that's always bothered me since the day of its premiere is how Johanna spent the whole of Dawn's Grand Festival final round match praising Zoey left and right. As if she's some sort of prodigy that can do no wrong with her similarly perfect Glameow. She no less compliments her and her Pokemon five times throughout the fight (making up a majority of her conversation) while refusing to offer any semblance of applause for Dawn (not even a cheer or a "nice job!" after causing Zoey to lose points). Instead, Dawn only gets criticism of what she's allowed Zoey to do during her performance. Even Zoey compliments Dawn several times during the match, and she's her opponent.

I understand that there are parents who are hard on their children and may rarely affirm their successes (at least in the public eye), especially if they're following the same career or activity. And this can be done for several reasons, such as not wanting your child to become complacent or overconfident. I know firsthand with my dad and how he acts with my brother's soccer career. That being said, in my experience, most parents who do so also don't praise their child's opposition so openly and in detail while failing to mention anything positive about their own child in the same breath.

Yes, she did travel all the way to watch her daughter and yes she did give her a brief congratulations after the fight-but looking at the episode you'd think Johanna's more in awe of Zoey than Dawn, and that any encouragement that comes after the fight is just obligatory maternal support. While she lost, Dawn did put up an impressive showing with a couple nice combinations and made it to the Top 2 on her very first try in her contest career. I just feel that Johanna could have been characterized better with acknowledging and appreciating that. Perhaps if we saw the promised talk where Johanna was to go over things with Dawn, I'd feel much different as we'd hear her openly praise her daughter for how she showed off her Pokemon throughout the Festival. But, we don't. Instead, it feels like Johanna is Zoey's proud former-Top-Coordinator mother, elated that her daughter is clearly emulating her success.
 
Something else that came to my mind; Why do people assume Ash would steamroll everyone if he used six of his strongest Pokemon for a league? He'd put up a hell of a fight, but I don't think he'd just destroy whoever he's facing effortlessly. He's not the only trainer in the world who's traveled through multiple regions and we know others have Pokemon in reserve too, like Paul. Against the likes of Trip, Sawyer(maybe), Bianca and Barry(maybe again), he'd likely beat them down. But Paul, Alain and probably Cameron? I don't know about that.

I mean, realistically in terms of plot he wouldn't steamroll in a League since the writers won't allow him to win a major League regardless of his team, but his top six Pokemon are far superior to the teams of Paul, Alain, and Cameron IMO. Hell, Ash defeated Paul using his Sinnoh team only, and he almost defeated Alain and Cameron without even using his best Pokemon. So I'd wager that Ash would win pretty easily in a rematch against Alain and Cameron if he used Charizard, Sceptile, Infernape, etc., but only without plot interference of course.
 
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Something that's always bothered me since the day of its premiere is how Johanna spent the whole of Dawn's Grand Festival final round match praising Zoey left and right. As if she's some sort of prodigy that can do no wrong with her similarly perfect Glameow. She no less compliments her and her Pokemon five times throughout the fight (making up a majority of her conversation) while refusing to offer any semblance of applause for Dawn (not even a cheer or a "nice job!" after causing Zoey to lose points). Instead, Dawn only gets criticism of what she's allowed Zoey to do during her performance. Even Zoey compliments Dawn several times during the match, and she's her opponent.

I understand that there are parents who are hard on their children and may rarely affirm their successes (at least in the public eye), especially if they're following the same career or activity. And this can be done for several reasons, such as not wanting your child to become complacent or overconfident. I know firsthand with my dad and how he acts with my brother's soccer career. That being said, in my experience, most parents who do so also don't praise their child's opposition so openly and in detail while failing to mention anything positive about their own child in the same breath.

Yes, she did travel all the way to watch her daughter and yes she did give her a brief congratulations after the fight-but looking at the episode you'd think Johanna's more in awe of Zoey than Dawn, and that any encouragement that comes after the fight is just obligatory maternal support. While she lost, Dawn did put up an impressive showing with a couple nice combinations and made it to the Top 2 on her very first try in her contest career. I just feel that Johanna could have been characterized better with acknowledging and appreciating that. Perhaps if we saw the promised talk where Johanna was to go over things with Dawn, I'd feel much different as we'd hear her openly praise her daughter for how she showed off her Pokemon throughout the Festival. But, we don't. Instead, it feels like Johanna is Zoey's proud former-Top-Coordinator mother, elated that her daughter is clearly emulating her success.

Adding to this, Johanna rubbed me the wrong way throughout the entire series. I think part of it is her voice acting (dub), but I really felt like the moments she treated Dawn as a daughter were few and far between, and most of the time she really just treated her like she was her coach. I have no doubt she loved and cared about Dawn very much, but I just didn't like her way of showing it and I never really preferred her way of interacting with Dawn. I felt similarly about Grace (Serena's mom).

Even more than that, I never really liked that Dawn's mom was a top coordinator. Of course this is mostly an adaptation from the games, and it did create some interesting moments, like Dawn struggling to live up to expectations, etc. It just always made it harder for me to enjoy the episodes where Dawn was painted as an underdog, because in reality, she was about as not an underdog as possible, having every opportunity while growing up to learn from an accomplished coordinator. Compared to May, who didn't even know what contests were, or even Zoey who was the same age, but didn't have the same advantages as a child but still was frequently teaching Dawn stuff about contests, it just always bothered me a bit. I get sometimes people struggle to learn from their parents due to stubbornness, but can learn from someone else, but its not like Johanna pushed being a coordinator on Dawn, its what she always wanted. Anyway, it didn't ruin Dawn for me, because I love her, but it did add to me not preferring Johanna, who was my least preferred main parent we have seen so far in the series.
 
Lillie isnt as good as in the games. SM is an experiment.

It's a shame that the voice direction is so poor in Lillie's (Laurie Hymes's) case. I'm sure she could fit well with better direction but alas as it is now she sounds like she's popped out of some cheapo Saturday morning cartoon.

Probably gonna stick out like a sore thumb even more now that Laurie's going to be in another NYAV Post dub which I can guarantee you she's gonna sound far better in that.
Eleven Arts Reveals Liz and the Blue Bird Anime Film's English Dub Cast
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Poipole was never that interesting of a character in the anime to me. All it had going for it was some precious time for Pikachu but it didn't do anything worthwhile. Oh and it's Japanese voice was super duper grating.
True. I didnt get why they gave Poipole a story arc in the first place. It wasnt needed. You could also let Necrozma appear without Poipole. Tbh now Alola feel hollow now: all the legends have appeared. All the "danger" is gone. So whats left? The thunderclap pokémon that is going to appear out of the blue? And suddenly Hau is alive? Hala never mentioned him. Why is he appearing so late? And Guzma? Who knows. Why introduce team Skull if you arent going to use them in a decent way?
 
True. I didnt get why they gave Poipole a story arc in the first place. It wasnt needed. You could also let Necrozma appear without Poipole. Tbh now Alola feel hollow now: all the legends have appeared. All the "danger" is gone. So whats left? The thunderclap pokémon that is going to appear out of the blue? And suddenly Hau is alive? Hala never mentioned him. Why is he appearing so late? And Guzma? Who knows. Why introduce team Skull if you arent going to use them in a decent way?
Who's to say Poipole won't be coming back?
 
Who's to say Poipole won't be coming back?
I dont really get why people say it will come back. If it chose to stay behind itself, why would it return? Did it showed any interest in batteling? And even then how will it return? Ash who asks Solgaleo or Lunala to get it back? Its mission was to return to light to its world. Well it did, end story. Dont pull a Goodra or a Charizard again.
 
I dont really get why people say it will come back. If it chose to stay behind itself, why would it return? Did it showed any interest in batteling? And even then how will it return? Ash who asks Solgaleo or Lunala to get it back? Its mission was to return to light to its world. Well it did, end story. Dont pull a Goodra or a Charizard again.
It's still in opening and ending. That's a good hint it could still come back.
 
Even more than that, I never really liked that Dawn's mom was a top coordinator. Of course this is mostly an adaptation from the games, and it did create some interesting moments, like Dawn struggling to live up to expectations, etc. It just always made it harder for me to enjoy the episodes where Dawn was painted as an underdog, because in reality, she was about as not an underdog as possible, having every opportunity while growing up to learn from an accomplished coordinator. Compared to May, who didn't even know what contests were, or even Zoey who was the same age, but didn't have the same advantages as a child but still was frequently teaching Dawn stuff about contests, it just always bothered me a bit.

Huh, I never thought about this before. But you're right-you'd think Dawn would be more experienced with contest elements given she's (assumingly) lived with her mother, the top coordinator, her entire life. Yet, given how she started out, you'd think she was no more experienced than May in the beginning (if not slightly better).
 
Huh, I never thought about this before. But you're right-you'd think Dawn would be more experienced with contest elements given she's (assumingly) lived with her mother, the top coordinator, her entire life. Yet, given how she started out, you'd think she was no more experienced than May in the beginning (if not slightly better).

I'm not really seeing why Dawn would be expected to pick up Johanna's skills just because they're related. And she's not alone in her ineptitude: for instance, Serena sucked at Rhyhorn racing initially despite her mom's mastery of the sport.
 
I mean, realistically in terms of plot he wouldn't steamroll in a League since the writers won't allow him to win a major League regardless of his team, but his top six Pokemon are far superior to the teams of Paul, Alain, and Cameron IMO. Hell, Ash defeated Paul using his Sinnoh team only, and he almost defeated Alain and Cameron without even using his best Pokemon. So I'd wager that Ash would win pretty easily in a rematch against Alain and Cameron if he used Charizard, Sceptile, Infernape, etc., but only without plot interference of course.
Cameron, maybe. But I don't know about Paul and Alain. Who's to say they used THEIR strongest teams? Aside from Mega Charizard from Alain and Electivie from Paul, the rest of the Pokemon they had used had never been seen or heard of before. Who says they don't have far stronger Pokemon in their reserves? Alain only entered the league to battle Ash, so it could be reasoned that he figured he'd only need Charizard to get that far and we know how Paul battles, he likely expected Ash to use his Sinnoh team and tried to plan ahead. If he had used Torterra, things could have gone differently.
 
Cameron, maybe. But I don't know about Paul and Alain. Who's to say they used THEIR strongest teams? Aside from Mega Charizard from Alain and Electivie from Paul, the rest of the Pokemon they had used had never been seen or heard of before. Who says they don't have far stronger Pokemon in their reserves? Alain only entered the league to battle Ash, so it could be reasoned that he figured he'd only need Charizard to get that far and we know how Paul battles, he likely expected Ash to use his Sinnoh team and tried to plan ahead. If he had used Torterra, things could have gone differently.

Paul likely has stronger Pokémon in the reserve since he too travelled through Kanto, Johto and Hoenn. Who's to say that Paul doesn’t have a Blastoise, Blaziken and Pinsir at Reggie's?
 
Paul likely has stronger Pokémon in the reserve since he too travelled through Kanto, Johto and Hoenn. Who's to say that Paul doesn’t have a Blastoise, Blaziken and Pinsir at Reggie's?

Er, are you implying that he purposely held back at the Sinnoh League? Because I don't see why he wouldn't have used his best Pokemon there when it was such a crucial competition.
 
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