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Controversial opinions

Here I have another controversial opinion that will trigger some of you: I do not think that Misty is that great of a character.

Although I don't agree with your assessment whatsoever, it's not exactly a controversial opinion to think that Misty wasn't a great character. I mean the amount of Misty bashing that I've seen since first browsing forums like this one has taught me that most of the fanbase has negative things to say about her. It's not as bad these days as it was back during AG and DP when people like Scott/CyberCubed/The Fighting Misty/Tothenines/whatever-his-username-is-now don't pollute this sub-forum with Misty hate anymore, but it's still fresh on my mind that many folks view Misty as flawed.

I mean you could've also said Iris and no one would've batted an eye. :X3:
 
Here I have another one: I think Iris is an underrated character.

Iris seems to be the most hated character of them all, but in my eyes, she is actually one of the better female leads. Not the best, but not that bad either. I have a feeling that many people ignore all of the positives attributes Iris has only because of that one annoying running gag. I wonder if she would be more liked or tolerated if this gag never was a part of her character. But back to all of her underrated skills and characterizations:

  1. She is the most agile and athletic out of all the girls.
  2. She has knowledge of healing herbs.
  3. She is pretty strong for a companion character. I would even say Iris is the third strongest companion after Brock and Misty.
  4. She interacted with Ash a lot and also with other characters like Dawn, and was overall a pretty noticeable character.
  5. She has a pretty unique and outstanding design.
  6. She has some interesting Pokémon in her team, and almost all of them have an outstanding personality.
  7. Iris herself also has got a pretty layered personality as well: she is cocky, wild, tomboyish, has a high opinion of herself, likes to nag other people, is a nature person, can be a bit childish sometimes, is interested in supernatural things, etc. I would even dare say that she is one of the most layered characters in terms of personality.

If I would make a raking of the girls in terms of how much personality quirks they have, it would look like this:

  1. Dawn
  2. Iris
  3. Lillie
  4. Misty
  5. May
  6. Bonnie
  7. Lana
  8. Serena
  9. Mallow (sorry, once again Mallow, but you really also do not stick out much in that terms as well.)
 
I'll never understand why folks always suggest this; it's been over 20 years since the franchise first began, if coming up with a second full-time Pokemon anime series aimed at an older demographic were profitable, I'm sure that it would've already been done by now. The fact that it hasn't should make it evident that it's not a practical idea.

I disagree I don’t think they understand who the hardcore fans are. The amount of trash anime that doesn’t even get western release is shocking. They could easily afford to do it and make a profit off merch,
 
This is something that's been kind of bugging me since I rewatched the episode.

In EP173 Wobbu-Palooza! the TRio are apparently in the wrong for fighting back against a bunch of low life thugs because apparently according to the Officer Jenny in that episode it's wrong to battle during the Wobbuffet Festival (of course the rule only applies on the village grounds which of course they wait until the TRio's back to doing bad again do they decide to mention, but still...). Anyway, I get the whole point of the Festival is to respect the Wobbuffet and blah blah blah, and I get that there are people out there that are very dedicated to their traditions and will uphold them no matter what, and under normal circumstances that would be just fine, but it just seemed downright stupid in all honesty to let these jerks get away with beating up innocent trainers Wobbuffet and then just stand there watching them destroy the big monument, and the Jenny in this episode has the nerve to tell the TRio they're actually wrong to fight and stand up to those bullies. Figures when the TRio actually does some good they get scolded for it. It's a little thing, but I can't help but be annoyed by it.
Because Team Rocket became pretty much total butt monkeys during Johto, a treatment that only got worse during the Advanced Generation. Sure they had some characterful and emotional moments here and there, but most of the time, they were just portrayed as naive losers who never could get anything right with their job. Which is also why Jessie never won Contests during Gen III. She was there always to try to chest her way to victory in some way and was never someone who was to be take seriously as a possible winner candidate.

Sinnoh gave the Rocket trio a big facelift, making them no longer complete failures, and Jessie started winning Contests without the need to chest. Of course, the whole seriousness aspect was taken over the top during Best Wishes, but since XY, the trio has been roughly at the same level of seriousness they were in Sinnoh, and that's perfect.

May I also say that Ash sometimes tended to make the worst assumptions about Team Rocket, even when those assumptions were completely wrong?
As cool as the idea of Ash capturing a Legendary Pokemon is
Mythical. Not Legendary.
The Sun and Moon anime is neither good nor bad. It just has some really high ups and some really low lows.
I personally think the good parts outweigh the bad ones.
Iris is not a bad character.
She's not. She's decent, but Best Wishes could've still done so much more with her, like having her be a Gym Leader.
Charizard is incredibly overrated.
Maybe, but I still like it. And Mega Charizard X.
The Sun and Moon animation looks great.
Absolutely! It's so fluid and underappreciated!
Misty is incredibly annoying.
Yup.
Mallow and Lillie are the best characters from Sun and Moon.
And Lana. Don't forget the queen of comedy and the best battler of the three.
Ash should've caught an Alola form.
Yeah.
I think Max is funny.
Maybe, but he's also really annoying at times, like during his introduction episode.
May is far better than Misty.
Absolutely. And Dawn's better than May.
Isn't that what the Manga's for?
Not really if you're referring the Adventures/Special manga series. Despite its reputation, Adventures isn't aimed at an older audience. The battles can be more intense than the anime, but it's still clearly a manga aimed at kids.
A small nitpick, but I hate when some people just say "the manga" and assume there's just one Pokémon manga, when referring to Pokémon Adventures.
This leads also tp my second controversial opinion: Iris was a better female lead as Serena!

Yes, I said it! Iris wasn't perfect either but besides that one annoying running of hers, she was a pretty solid character. Not good, but solid. She was funny, had a unique design, was pretty strong for a companion, and the best thing was: she called Ash out when he acted like a fool or a little kid. Serena would just stand there and love everything that Ash does. No matter how idiotic he would act.
I hate when people hate Game Iris because of Anime Iris. One YouTuber, while listing the Champions and Elite Four members in the order he likes them, put Iris low because of her anime portrayal. I was triggered immediately.
  1. Dawn
  2. Lillie
  3. Bonnie
  4. May
  5. Lana
  6. Iris
  7. Serena
  8. Misty
  9. Mallow (Sorry, Mallow, but you are sadly the weakest one.)
  1. Dawn
  2. Bonnie
  3. Serena
  4. May
  5. Lillie
  6. Lana
  7. Misty
  8. Mallow
  9. Iris
My list would be like that. Still, I like them all more than Cilan.
1.May
2.Lillie
3.Malow
4.Lana
5.Serena
6.Bonnie
7.Dawn
8.Misty
9.Iris
1.Dawn
2.May
3.Bonnie
4.Serena
5.Lillie
6.Misty
7.Iris
8.Lana
9.Mallow
As long as we're all ranking the girls:
  1. Misty (always)
  2. Iris/Mallow/Lana/Lillie (I can't rank them, I love them all equally)
  3. Bonnie
  4. May
  5. Dawn
  6. Serena
How's that for controversial?
Here I have another one: I think Iris is an underrated character.

Iris seems to be the most hated character of them all, but in my eyes, she is actually one of the better female leads. Not the best, but not that bad either. I have a feeling that many people ignore all of the positives attributes Iris has only because of that one annoying running gag. I wonder if she would be more liked or tolerated if this gag never was a part of her character. But back to all of her underrated skills and characterizations:

  1. She is the most agile and athletic out of all the girls.
  2. She has knowledge of healing herbs.
  3. She is pretty strong for a companion character. I would even say Iris is the third strongest companion after Brock and Misty.
  4. She interacted with Ash a lot and also with other characters like Dawn, and was overall a pretty noticeable character.
  5. She has a pretty unique and outstanding design.
  6. She has some interesting Pokémon in her team, and almost all of them have an outstanding personality.
  7. Iris herself also has got a pretty layered personality as well: she is cocky, wild, tomboyish, has a high opinion of herself, likes to nag other people, is a nature person, can be a bit childish sometimes, is interested in supernatural things, etc. I would even dare say that she is one of the most layered characters in terms of personality.
If I would make a raking of the girls in terms of how much personality quirks they have, it would look like this:

  1. Dawn
  2. Iris
  3. Lillie
  4. Misty
  5. May
  6. Bonnie
  7. Lana
  8. Serena
  9. Mallow (sorry, once again Mallow, but you really also do not stick out much in that terms as well.)
Let's see... I've never been good at making lists like this beyond Top 3s, but here goes...
  1. Dawn/Serena
  2. Lana
  3. Lillie
  4. Mallow
  5. Bonnie
  6. Iris
  7. May
  8. Misty
Misty got a serious facelift in Sun & Moon, and a bit in Advanced Generation too, but while traveling with Ash, she was a vane, annoying nagger.
Everyone always rank the girls, what about the boys? My very controversial list:
  1. Clemont
  2. Max
  3. Tracey
  4. Brock
  5. Kiawe
  6. Sophocles
  7. Cilan
Alrighty my turn.

  1. Clemont
  2. Brock
  3. Cilan
  4. Tracey
  5. Kiawe
  6. Max
  7. Sophocles
Sorry Sophocles, but you're pretty annoying.
  1. Brock
  2. Cilan
  3. Clemont
  4. Kiawe
  5. Tracey
  6. Sophocles
  7. Max
---------------------------------
  1. Misty
  2. May
  3. Iris
  4. Lillie
  5. Mallow
  6. Lana
  7. Bonnie
  8. Dawn
  9. Serena
  1. Brock
  2. Clemont
  3. Kiawe
  4. Sophocles
  5. Tracey
  6. Cilan
  7. Max
Here's another unpopular opinion: Tracey is underrated. I think a lot of the hate comes from him replacing the beloved Brock, and while he may not be as colorful as Brock, he's also not as bad as some people make him out to be.
 
Honestly, I don't like PokeSpecial / Adventures or Origins. I think it's bland, incredibly boring with no direction, uninspiring character directions, no sense of understanding of Pokemon in general and unable to keep up with the demand and refusing to be consistent running themselves into a wall before dropping plots and being absolutely unenjoyable as a whole. Origins is just "Oh. Let's make a short promotion and trick people into thinking it's good because they will!" It's not good. People only like it 'cause it's "edgy" from the PokeAni (which DOES have flaws and terrible writing over all but still)... I'm hoping Origins and a "hardcore" grown up version never exists. Because People will end up complaining about the exact same thing about it as they do with the current one.

As for my companions:

Girls (Best to worst): May, Bonnie, Misty, Lillie, Mallow, Lana, Serena with Iris and Dawn being at the VERY bottom where they belong.
Boys: Kiawe and Clemont, Brock, Tracey, Max with Sophocles at the bottom with Cilan.
 
TIL people disliked Tracey. Although, I think he just doesn't have enough screentime for fans to fully like him or grow to him.
When the OI was new Tracey was very unpopular, at least on all the forums I saw, for replacing Brock, at least party because he was seen as significantly blander.
Nowadays I don't see any hate for him though.
 
Here's another unpopular opinion: Tracey is underrated. I think a lot of the hate comes from him replacing the beloved Brock, and while he may not be as colorful as Brock, he's also not as bad as some people make him out to be.
Personally I like Tracey a lot and I never disliked that he replaced Brock. The fact that I would personally rate him a lot lower than other male companions is just because he doesn't really stand out in my opinion. He's by far the most underdeveloped companion (which ok, is logical considering he also spent the least amount of time with Ash) but as a result we don't know a thing about him. His backstory and origin are a complete mystery. His design is also rather bland.

Despite all of that I would still say he was a fun companion. I loved the episode where he caught Scyther.
 
Personally I like Tracey a lot and I never disliked that he replaced Brock. The fact that I would personally rate him a lot lower than other male companions is just because he doesn't really stand out in my opinion. He's by far the most underdeveloped companion (which ok, is logical considering he also spent the least amount of time with Ash) but as a result we don't know a thing about him. His backstory and origin are a complete mystery. His design is also rather bland.

Despite all of that I would still say he was a fun companion. I loved the episode where he caught Scyther.

I couldn't agree more with this! I am currently around that area in my watching list, and I personally loved the addition of Tracey to Ash's traveling team, he really knows what he's doing.
 
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