Controversial opinions

[Enzo]

I have NO idea how controversial this one is, but I have to confess:

I really wish Pokemon didn't had so many filler episodes. I get their importance to the series and recognize that it's okay to have fun and just have an episode where you don't have to think about a lot and just relax and enjoy it, but seriously: Most of these fillers are SO boring and utterly pointless. There's tons of characters and arcs that could've been worked on a LOT better if there were just more eps about them, instead of like,,, an ep where a bunch of Marshtomp get stuck in the ground.

And my next point is:

While I DO get that for a series like Pokemon it may not be that doable, and TPC LOVES to use the anime as an way to promote remakes and other stuff, thus forcing the writers to take turn arounds and add things last minute, but I really wish that Pokemon could be written in an way where the writers have the entire thing planned from the start instead of making it up as they go. A lot of writing, tonal and consistency issues that this series as whole had/have could've easily been avoided if they have taken this approach.

And they sorta of did that in DP (like Ash promising to take on Paul at the league in the begginning, and Dawn telling Zoey they would meet again the finals as examples, since they estabilished that pretty early and delivered some of the best battles of the entire anime), and look how many people still have it as their favorite series even after all this time. I don't think it was the only thing about it that people love, but I do stand by that it plays a bigger role than people realize.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

This video summarizes my thoughts on Goh's perhaps most divisive capture yet pretty well:

Spoiler

View: https://youtube.com/watch?v=31u3zGmO-fQ

 

[Johtoo]

Modern Pokemon movies look souless and are designed by people who believe upping the contrast on a tv to 100 is a good idea.

We have this, but we used to have this

Look how realistic the colours used to be in the movies. It also looks like a painting that has come to life. Not like modern movies that make me wonder if i should turn the brightness down just so my eyes don't water from its glaring contrast.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The Rocket Prize Master gets way too much hate in my opinion. It's just a gimmick that the trio has for this series, and I personally find it interesting.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

The Rocket Prize Master gets way too much hate in my opinion. It's just a gimmick that the trio has for this series, and I personally find it interesting.

The best thing about the trio is the relationship between them and their Pokemon and the gatcha removes that so that's why they hate it.

 

[Hidden Mew]

The Rocket Prize Master gets way too much hate in my opinion. It's just a gimmick that the trio has for this series, and I personally find it interesting.

It is kind of a double edge sword. It gives Team Rocket different Pokemon so that they aren't just relying on the same one or two that they usually get per series. James hasn't had more than one Pokemon on him since BW in particular. Plus, some of their reactions to the Pokemon they get can be funny. But not allowing them to have their own Pokemon is a big loss when some of the best moments in any series is when they showcase the bond between Team Rocket and their Pokemon. If James had a permanent Pokemon to interact with like Jessie does with Wobbuffet, maybe it wouldn't be as controversial.

I also finally saw the Mewtwo remake. I don't know how controversial it is, but I liked it. All of the Pokemon look great in CGI, but the human characters are a bit hit or miss. Ash, Brock, and Jessie look pretty good, while Misty's eyes look too dark most of the time to really make her design work. It also felt kind of weird to see Meowth's clone walking on all four legs when the games have retroactively made Meowth's design match with Team Rocket's Meowth. Most of the enjoyment did come from the nostalgia of seeing the first movie in a new coat of CGI paint and the remake being a more faithful dub than the original movie was, although I'm not sure how faithful it is when they still kept a few iconic lines from the 4Kids dub. The nod to the jelly donut was really weird and out of place, but also hilarious. I don't know people who didn't grow up with the first movie or just new kids getting into the anime would feel about this remake with that in mind, but for a remake that went for more style than substance, I enjoyed it.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

James hasn't had more than one Pokemon on him since BW in particular.

Jessie too, not counting Sonansu.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Speaking of Mewtwo, I personally liked the BW Mewtwo. It had its own personality, character arc, and abilities. And I also thought giving it a female voice was fitting to differentiate it from the original one, and its voice actresses did good job in both original Japanese and the dub.

 

[Rockapheller]

Pikachu's loss to Trip's Snivy is kind of harshly criticized by the fans. Since Pikachu lost its electrical abilities, he wasn't the real himself during the battle. Yeah yeah, he competed in Sinnoh league and defeated legendaries in the past and he still had normal-type moves, but imagine, while you are performing an exam, you suddenly can't pull off something you would normally do greatly. Your mind also doesn't work properly because you are distracted and wondering what the heck is going on all of a sudden. Pikachu didn't know what was off with him, and he realized it only while he was supposed to perform a good battle. Of course, him being unable to use also his normal-type moves properly makes absolute sense. To me, at least.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Pikachu's loss to Trip's Snivy is kind of harshly criticized by the fans. Since Pikachu lost its electrical abilities, he wasn't the real himself during the battle. Yeah yeah, he competed in Sinnoh league and defeated legendaries in the past and he still had normal-type moves, but imagine, while you are performing an exam, you suddenly can't pull off something you would normally do greatly. Your mind also doesn't work properly because you are distracted and wondering what the heck is going on all of a sudden. Pikachu didn't know what was off with him, and he realized it only while he was supposed to perform a good battle. Of course, him being unable to use also his normal-type moves properly makes absolute sense. To me, at least.

The problem with this reasoning is that Pikachu has won plenty of battles without using his Electric-type moves in the past, including an instance in the Hoenn league where Pikachu defeated a Hitmonlee with just Iron Tail in an example of deliberate self-imposed challenge. I agree that Pikachu and Ash being caught off guard by the lack of Electric moves makes sense, as does for them to momentarily struggle, but they've pulled themselves from far worse scrapes than that.

Even then, though, I think people (or at least I) would have been more lenient on that loss if in the next battle that Ash and Trip had Pikachu had defeated Servine now that he actually had his Electric-type moves back. Instead, Servine OHKOs him with a freaking Cut. That only makes the humiliating first loss even worse in hindsight and is probably what cemented the mockery Pikachu receives from that one battle in particular.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Honestly, I would have been fine with Pikachu losing the Snivy if they were going to go somewhere interesting with Ash's rivalry with Trip. I was perfectly willing to let it slide if there was a point to that defeat. When their second battle made it clear that they just wanted to make Trip an overpowered rookie in order to force Ash to stay in the underdog role, I immediately lost any interest in their rivalry.

 

[Galactic_V]

I've seen people bashing Pikachu losing to Tsutarja in early BW due to the fact he had beaten Latios in the Shin'ou League, but this "having a bad time against a starter after defeating a legendary" happened before.

In early Jouto Pikachu was losing against Hanako's Chikorita right after he'd beaten Kairyuu. It's not as bad since he didn't actually lose (the battle got interrupted by Trio), however still...

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I've seen people bashing Pikachu losing to Tsutarja in early BW due to the fact he had beaten Latios in the Shin'ou League, but this "having a bad time against a starter after defeating a legendary" happened before.

In early Jouto Pikachu was losing against Hanako's Chikorita right after he'd beaten Kairyuu. It's not as bad since he didn't actually lose (the battle got interrupted by Trio), however still...

Yeah but the difference there is that 1) Dragonite isn't a Legendary, and 2) it was made abundantly clear that the only reason Pikachu won that fight was because Dragonite was already exhausted from knocking out half of Ash's team in a row, and that none of Ash's Pokemon would have been able to beat Dragonite in a 1-on-1 fight. Defeating Dragonite was clearly a team effort.

Sure, you could argue that the same applies to Latios on point 2, since he did fight Sceptile and Swellow before facing Pikachu, but the difference there is that it was made less clear if Latios was also tired or even if either of his two pre-Pikachu opponents had actually dealt any damage to Latios at all, so at first glance it looks like Pikachu was fighting an opponent that was comparatively much fresher.

 

[Galactic_V]

Yeah but the difference there is that 1) Dragonite isn't a Legendary, and 2) it was made abundantly clear that the only reason Pikachu won that fight was because Dragonite was already exhausted from knocking out half of Ash's team in a row, and that none of Ash's Pokemon would have been able to beat Dragonite in a 1-on-1 fight. Defeating Dragonite was clearly a team effort.

Sure, you could argue that the same applies to Latios on point 2, since he did fight Sceptile and Swellow before facing Pikachu, but the difference there is that it was made less clear if Latios was also tired or even if either of his two pre-Pikachu opponents had actually dealt any damage to Latios at all, so at first glance it looks like Pikachu was fighting an opponent that was comparatively much fresher.

Legendary, pseudo-legendary, those two were presented as basically undefeated, so point stands. The problem from what I said is not Pikachu defeating those two powerhouses, but losing (or almost, in Chikorita's case) to a starter shortly afterwards.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Legendary, pseudo-legendary, those two were presented as basically undefeated, so point stands. The problem from what I said is not Pikachu defeating those two powerhouses, but losing (or almost, in Chikorita's case) to a starter shortly afterwards.

Yeah, I get that, but what I meant is that the instance with Chikorita that you mentioned doesn't look as bad because Pikachu was still clearly less powerful back then. And in any case, pseudo-legendaries have long since stopped being portrayed as unbeatable juggernauts, while the prestige Legendaries got lasted comparatively much longer. Heck, if anything I don't think there ever actually was any pseudo-legendary besides Drake's Dragonite that was outright portrayed as unbeatable, and even in that case it's kind of unclear how much of that invincibility is due to Dragonite's inherent pseudo-legendaryness and how much of it is because of Drake himself having such a long winning streak.

 

[Enzo]

And I feel like the real deal about Trip being considered a bad rival is that, u see, he just wasn't strong.

Like, let's take Gary and Paul, Ash's major rivals that we had up until that point:

-The thing about Gary wasn't that he was like, SUPER strong, not that I'm saying he was weak, far from it, but it was mainly cuz he just had more experience than Ash in Kanto. He started earlier than him, thus having a headstart and leaving Ash in the dust until being defeated.

-And Paul was an VERY experienced trainer, having battled in 3 leagues just like Ash, and while very smug and snoobish, he did had the stuff to back him up. He not only battled in those 3 regions, but had very powerful and well trained Pokemons with him. Even taking on strong trainers too. And while his ego was pretty big, he knew not to underestimate his opponents (but the did that with Ash, being his downfall), and had crazy strategies that even Ash didn't think off, like locking Pikachu into Iron Tail in their final (!) battle to finish it off with Brick Break. This guy didn't went down not shooting.

So the deal was that it was believable for these two to be better than Ash, thus making him the underdog being something more understandable in the story.

But Trip? He was a rookie trainer who just had gotten his starter. He did not had the experience like Gary, and was neither as strong as Paul. So he was essentially an weak guy who had an ego issue, and that just didn't had the baggage to hold himself up. So for Ash to get through these two, defeat crazy strong opponents like Brandon and the Battle Frontiers, all those Gym Leaders, go toe to toe with legendaries like Latios and Drakrai, and then get walled by TRIP? Of all people: Trip??? How on Earth do you expect me to believe that???

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Another flaw in Trip that I don't think gets talked about enough is his entire motivation. As a kid, he gets inspired by Alder, and Alder promises to face him one day, providing the motivation for Trip's whole career as a Trainer. And then when he finally meets Alder again, the main doesn't even remember Trip, having just talked big to a fan of his. So basically, Trip's whole motivation is gone right there. And in what way does it affect him? In no way whatsoever. Yet another bit of wasted potential for the Black & White series.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

On the topic of Alder, what was the point of making Bouffalant his main pokemon? It’s not like Volcarona was saved for anything important...

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

On the topic of Alder, what was the point of making Bouffalant his main pokemon? It’s not like Volcarona was saved for anything important...

In Pokémon Adventures, Volcarona was treated even worse. Alder wasn't seen owning one at all, and instead one was caught for and used by Ghetsis of all people.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

In Pokémon Adventures, Volcarona was treated even worse. Alder wasn't seen owning one at all, and instead one was caught for and used by Ghetsis of all people.

I mean, that’s a role at least. Better than being a random poacher victim that never had an appearence since.