Controversial opinions

[OniCornwalis]

It’s a literal OHKO move in the games, to be fair though...

When I say that, I’m talking about how often it hit. Yes, I know accuracy doesn’t mean much in the anime, but an OHKO move like that shouldn’t be so easy to land.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

Citron is gay.

I AGREE lmfao. Seeing him and Satoshi together was so cute. I didn't know who to ship honestly. Both Citron x Satoshi and Serena x Satoshi were incredibly cute.

 

[CaptainBuggles]

Then you have Goodra, which Ash didn’t really have a strategy for other than “LUL, just use bide” and “use some attacks”

I also took Goodra's performance to mostly be Ash's own fault.
Just off the top of my head, there's more he could've done pretty easily.

• Use Ice Beam to make walls and slow opponents down.
• Honestly, I'd abandon Bide entirely. There are multiple better moves. Iron Tail, Sludge Wave, Muddy Water. Iron Tail can parry attacks, and Sludge Wave and Muddy Water can alter the field. Plus, Muddy Water can synergize with Rain Dance and Ice Beam.
• Rest would be better if he wanted to stick with a defensive option, especially in combination with Rain Dance + Hydration. Bide is just all around too unreliable.

Also, still on the topic of the Kalos League, I'm still annoyed that Charizard Y had to be such a massive scrub. I know Trevor isn't a really strong battler, and it makes sense that he lost, but he should've at least been smart enough to put up a better struggle. Plus, his movepool was trash. Ash-Greninja's weaker moves at least get powered up, but Charizard Y had no excuse. Two physical Dragon moves, on top of how Dragon Tail doesn't even have its in-game effect... then Fire Spin and Heat Wave for even more redundancy.

In general, a lot of things in that League were too overcentralized on Ash-Greninja and Mega-Charizard. They were both OP, and even when the others were at their best, everything just kind of felt like a backdrop for these two Pokemon in particular.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

In general, a lot of things in that League were too overcentralized on Ash-Greninja and Mega-Charizard. They were both OP, and even when the others were at their best, everything just kind of felt like a backdrop for these two Pokemon in particular

This, all of this.

The Team Flare climax was excellent, but left me with a sour feeling towards Greninja in that he made the rest of the team (bar Pikachu) look completely pointless. He could move much faster than Talonflame, hit much harder than Hawlucha, tank hits much better than Goodra and track things much better than Noivern (still don’t get that one. I guess he can directly communicate with the writers). He took massive hits from Gyarados and shrugged them off where all the others went down, and the entire climax when regarding Ash’s team was about Greninja and occasionally Pikachu, completely shafting the others.

 

[Emelie]

I'm not sure if this is a "controversial" opinion but I wish they would have given BW Team Rocket a fair chance. They could at least have tried to keep them that way until the end of BW and see how it turned out. They could always have reverted them back at the beginning of XY if they really wanted to. I was really curious about the new Team Rocket member too.

I also think Kenji/Tracy should have been given a fair chance to develop as a character. Why not keep him in Johto and give him a more interesting goal and more Pokémon? He has a Scyther that could have evolved to promote the new generation. What did Takeshi even promote in Johto? He didn't add anything to the plot and was already static.

People say BW Team Rocket and Kenji were bad. While I agree they also didn't get a fair chance. Too bad that they introduced these plots and didn't even try to develop them.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Why was Tracey not present at Oak's Lab during the Sun & Moon Kanto visit episodes? At least at the end of BW, they had a good explanation for him not being there, but in SM, it just seemed like they tried to pretend he never even existed. Not a single mention or cameo. Kinda makes me feel sorry for the guy.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm not sure if this is a "controversial" opinion but I wish they would have given BW Team Rocket a fair chance. They could at least have tried to keep them that way until the end of BW and see how it turned out. They could always have reverted them back at the beginning of XY if they really wanted to. I was really curious about the new Team Rocket member too.

I think it would have been kind of hard to keep them like that for all of BW since they kind of went back and fourth on whether or not they were comedy relief characters throughout a good portion of BW. I think that this was more pronounced with Meowth, but I'm not sure if the writers themselves knew what to do with the more serious Team Rocket trio.

I also think Kenji/Tracy should have been given a fair chance to develop as a character. Why not keep him in Johto and give him a more interesting goal and more Pokémon? He has a Scyther that could have evolved to promote the new generation. What did Takeshi even promote in Johto? He didn't add anything to the plot and was already static.

I don't think that there would have been much of a reason to keep Tracy around for Johto. He wanted to meet Professor Oak and I don't think that there would have been a good reason in-universe for why he'd choose to keep on traveling with Ash and Misty as opposed to staying with Professor Oak. All things considered, it was the most logical sendoff for Tracey. I also couldn't see Scyther evolving into Scizor mainly because it didn't really do much of anything after it capture episode. Even using a couple of attacks tended to make it really tired too. I also couldn't really see Tracey developing a new goal out of nowhere. He was always much more interested in learning about and observing the Pokemon around him, so he wouldn't start catching a bunch of Pokemon for a brand new goal.

Brock did capture his Pineco during Johto, but neither he or Misty caught that many new Pokemon during Johto anyway. I agree that it would have been nice if Tracey was more fleshed out, especially when he didn't get much of a chance to shine during the Orange Islands, but I don't think it would have worked to keep him as part of the main cast for the rest of the original series.

 

[patchymoon]

I'm not sure if this is a "controversial" opinion but I wish they would have given BW Team Rocket a fair chance. They could at least have tried to keep them that way until the end of BW and see how it turned out. They could always have reverted them back at the beginning of XY if they really wanted to. I was really curious about the new Team Rocket member too.

I also think Kenji/Tracy should have been given a fair chance to develop as a character. Why not keep him in Johto and give him a more interesting goal and more Pokémon? He has a Scyther that could have evolved to promote the new generation. What did Takeshi even promote in Johto? He didn't add anything to the plot and was already static.

People say BW Team Rocket and Kenji were bad. While I agree they also didn't get a fair chance. Too bad that they introduced these plots and didn't even try to develop them.

iirc the BW anime had a more serious tone in general compared to other seasons of the anime. i kinda prefer that tone in the anime in general tbh.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

Citron is gay.

Just to add, Citron being gay makes Bonnie asking girls to marry him even better, making it hands down the best variation of that gag. I also feel like Citron and Kenji would like each other in the anime universe but my preference is for Citron and Toru to be together.

 

[Shadao]

I'm not sure if this is a "controversial" opinion but I wish they would have given BW Team Rocket a fair chance. They could at least have tried to keep them that way until the end of BW and see how it turned out. They could always have reverted them back at the beginning of XY if they really wanted to. I was really curious about the new Team Rocket member too.

I also think Kenji/Tracy should have been given a fair chance to develop as a character. Why not keep him in Johto and give him a more interesting goal and more Pokémon? He has a Scyther that could have evolved to promote the new generation. What did Takeshi even promote in Johto? He didn't add anything to the plot and was already static.

People say BW Team Rocket and Kenji were bad. While I agree they also didn't get a fair chance. Too bad that they introduced these plots and didn't even try to develop them.

Tracey should have gotten a more striking character design in my opinion. He was bland in appearance, not really standing like Brock or even Todd Snap. When you look at future male companions after Brock, they tend to have more interesting designs or quirks that make them memorable. Cilian has this whole waiter look to him and he's always hamming up his presentation while Clemont has his geeky glasses and Aipom-geared backpack to stand out from a cast of four. In contrast, Tracey only has some kind of headband, less exaggerated anime hair, plain shirt, a big backpack and some notebooks. He's too normal, which undercuts his potential as a Pokémon watcher. I mean this:

Is too simple compared to this:

At least Todd Snap has a stripped T-shirt and a camera, which actually makes more sense for a Pokémon Watcher to have than a sketchbook. I mean, what if people thought the Pink Pokémon phenomenon is a hoax and you have no way to prove it's not because all you did to document evidence was by drawing with pink pencils?

In any case, Tracey should have looked like a hiker or have some belt with a lot of pockets or maybe have some special goggles on his head. At least that would make him memorable for years to come.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

I liked Tracy's design tbh.

 

[Flynn]

I like Tracey and all but imagine how much more boring Johto would've been if he was there instead of Brock.

 

[Rockapheller]

I like Tracey and all but imagine how much more boring Johto would've been if he was there instead of Brock.

What did Brock add to Johto journey actually?

 

[Hidden Mew]

What did Brock add to Johto journey actually?

He had better chemistry with the group, more personality and a few good focused episodes. Plus, I remember being excited that Brock was coming back when they were first promoting Johto. I don't think he was one of the highlights of the arc, but I don't think that Tracey would have added anything special to it. Out of the two option, it was a much better decision to bring Brock back instead of keeping Tracey around, especially when I still can't think of a good in-universe reason as to why he wouldn't want to work with Professor Oak.

 

[Hidden Mew]

That's not fair at all. You're only basing this opinion because Brock was around for far longer and Tracey wasn't. I imagine it would have been different if Tracey was given as much screentime as Brock.

I don't see how that's unfair. Tracey had less screentime than Brock, but based on how he was handled in the Orange Islands, I don't really see how much he would have added to the Johto arc and like I mentioned before, I don't think that there would have been a good reason for him to not want to become Professor Oak's assistant. He was the Brock replacement and a guide through the Orange Islands. Once they got back to Kanto and Brock was back, Tracey basically served his overall purpose. That isn't being unfair. That's making an opinion based on what I've seen of both characters and that would factor in their different amount of screentime.

Maybe Tracey could have become more interesting and fleshed out if he had more screentime, but he didn't get a lot of time to shine during the Orange Islands and didn't have a more memorable or fun personality to make up for that either. There are ways I think that Johto could have been improved upon, but keeping Tracey as opposed to bringing Brock back isn't one of them.

 

[PrettySylveon]

I feel like I’m one of the few who enjoyed Cilan’s food puns...it just showed how witty Cilan was.

My favorite one is: “it’s as clear as spring water.”

 

[CaptainBuggles]

I feel like Tracy is just really neutral. Nothing exciting, but nothing terrible either. He just kinda exists.

He's so neutral to me that I'm not even really sure how to make him better? I can't think of anything that bothers me enough to make me seriously motivated to change it. Whenever I think of a flaw of his, I'm just kinda like "eh, could be worse". That on top of how I only remember scattered parts of the Orange Islands anyway.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

He's too normal, which undercuts his potential as a Pokémon watcher. I mean this:

I don't think his design is that bland, especially compared to Brock/Takeshi. If anything, he looks like a young Rohan Kishibe.

 

[prog rocker]

I don't think his design is that bland, especially compared to Brock/Takeshi. If anything, he looks like a young Rohan Kishibe.

Now I want him to stay far, far away from Max.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

I feel like Tracy is just really neutral. Nothing exciting, but nothing terrible either. He just kinda exists.

He's so neutral to me that I'm not even really sure how to make him better? I can't think of anything that bothers me enough to make me seriously motivated to change it. Whenever I think of a flaw of his, I'm just kinda like "eh, could be worse". That on top of how I only remember scattered parts of the Orange Islands anyway.

He should have gotten a smeargle.