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Controversial opinions

One of Diamond and Pearl series's strengths was that it was clearly well planned ahead, and those plans were executed without much disturbance. The HeartGold and SoulSilver promotion didn't really detract the series from its planned course, aside from perhaps causing the controversial Ambipom sendoff in favor of giving Dawn a Cyndaquil.
 
One of Diamond and Pearl series's strengths was that it was clearly well planned ahead, and those plans were executed without much disturbance. The HeartGold and SoulSilver promotion didn't really detract the series from its planned course, aside from perhaps causing the controversial Ambipom sendoff in favor of giving Dawn a Cyndaquil.
And you can't forget the multiple call backs it had to previous series and episodes; Jessebelle returned for an episode, Ash's aura got brought up from the Lucario movie, Dawn's Lunar Wing from the Darkrai movie, a load of Ash's Pokemon returning during the league and Ash's win over the Battle Frontier being played into his rivalry with Paul and said rival's backstory revolving around it. The only time we get any callback to his previous leagues is when we get a look at his badges and trophies in his room - its very doubtful Journeys is going to ever bring up the Orange Island, i'm pretty sure Ash being Alola's CHampion didn't get brought up when they returned to it.
 
One of Diamond and Pearl series's strengths was that it was clearly well planned ahead, and those plans were executed without much disturbance. The HeartGold and SoulSilver promotion didn't really detract the series from its planned course, aside from perhaps causing the controversial Ambipom sendoff in favor of giving Dawn a Cyndaquil.

Ambipom wasn't really sent off in favor of giving Dawn a Cyndaquil. I know that she got Cyndaquil not too long after Ambipom was sent away, but she didn't have a full team at that point. She could have had room for both Ambipom and Cyndaquil. It might be a bit more accurate to say that Ambipom was given away in favor of Dawn eventually getting Togekiss since that was the Pokemon that took up the last slot.
 
After playing through a new file through Pokemon Sword it got me thinking about Bede. I'm kind of doubting he'll be showing up since Chairman Rose has already come and gone with absolutely no mention of him, not even a brief cameo. But if he DOES show up I hope the writers don't change his team around to be more 'masculine' and 'cool'. In-game his ace is Hatterene and he has a Sylveon, Gardevoir, Galarian Rapidash and a Mawile, a lot of pink and Pokemon one could easily view as feminine.

The girls tend to be a lot more rounded in this regard; May has a lot of cuteness on her team, but she also has her Blaziken, Munchlax and Venusaur. Misty with her gyarados, Dawn's Mamoswine and Iris' Dragonite and Excadrill. Ash's only confirmed females are his Bayleef and Snivy, and his rivals aren't much better aside from Gary's Nidoqueen and Paul's Froslass.

The anime seems to really shy away with giving the guys anything too feminine. So please anime staff, if you do bring in Bede, let him stay pink.
 
Goh actually isn't that bad. His personality, character background, and character potential are all actually really great. It's just his goal that absolutely ruins his character potential and makes him into a complete writer's pet-ruining any chance of proper characterization and elaboration of the positive aspects of his character.
 
Goh actually isn't that bad. His personality, character background, and character potential are all actually really great. It's just his goal that absolutely ruins his character potential and makes him into a complete writer's pet-ruining any chance of proper characterization and elaboration of the positive aspects of his character.
I said it before so I hope this doesn’t come off as repetitive, but actually the main reason I like Goh is because of his goal. It just reminds me of how I myself tend to play Pokémon games. I just love collecting all the Pokémon as soon as I can. I just think this goal in a video game setting might not translate well to the anime setting for many people. For me, though, I feel that it works and I like that this point of view is finally represented.
 
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Goh actually isn't that bad. His personality, character background, and character potential are all actually really great.
all of those have had zero bearing on his progression outside of a few moments (like Alola) which were promptly forgotten and felt inconsistent overall, which makes it seem like superficial compared to everything else
 
I said it before so I hope this doesn’t come off as repetitive, but actually the main reason I like Goh is because of his goal. It just reminds me of how I myself tend to play Pokémon games. I just love collecting all the Pokémon as soon as I can. I just think this goal in a video game setting might not translate well to the anime setting for many people. For me, though, I feel that it works and I like that this point of view is finally represented.
The goal isn't bad. It's execution is.
 
Origins!Red is actually much closer to the common criticisms levied against Goh than Goh himself is. Similarly to Goh, Origins!Red also had the goal of completing the Pokedex/Catching Them All, but unlike Goh, Red was never seen interacting with any of his Pokemon outside of battle, nor do we know where the heck he stores the ones that aren't on his party, and the battle against Giovanni reveals that he outright neglects the training of non-Charizard Pokemon to the point that they can barely accomplish anything in a fight other than making Charizard look good at their expense (before anyone jumps at me for this, yes, I'm aware that this was most likely only intended to reference those players who overleveled their starters on their first playthroughs, but such an action looks seriously messed up in a context where Pokemon are living creatures rather than packets of data, especially because Red got on Team Rocket's case for treating Pokemon like tools when he himself appears no better, making him come off like a giant hypocrite on top of everything). With Goh there's at least a marked effort to show him interacting with his Pokemon and taking care of them, and we see that they stay at a park where they can live in a cozy environment that caters to their needs, and Goh visits them frequently.
 
Origins!Red is actually much closer to the common criticisms levied against Goh than Goh himself is. Similarly to Goh, Origins!Red also had the goal of completing the Pokedex/Catching Them All, but unlike Goh, Red was never seen interacting with any of his Pokemon outside of battle, nor do we know where the heck he stores the ones that aren't on his party, and the battle against Giovanni reveals that he outright neglects the training of non-Charizard Pokemon to the point that they can barely accomplish anything in a fight other than making Charizard look good at their expense (before anyone jumps at me for this, yes, I'm aware that this was most likely only intended to reference those players who overleveled their starters on their first playthroughs, but such an action looks seriously messed up in a context where Pokemon are living creatures rather than packets of data, especially because Red got on Team Rocket's case for treating Pokemon like tools when he himself appears no better, making him come off like a giant hypocrite on top of everything). With Goh there's at least a marked effort to show him interacting with his Pokemon and taking care of them, and we see that they stay at a park where they can live in a cozy environment that caters to their needs, and Goh visits them frequently.
there's a lot of tell-not-show with Goh so neither Red's nor Goh's scenario is better than the other. they're both bad
 
there's a lot of tell-not-show with Goh so neither Red's nor Goh's scenario is better than the other. they're both bad
Except we actually do see Goh taking care of his Pokemon. That right there is showing. I can agree that there's problems with the way Goh's writing is handled, but the interactions with his numerous Pokemon isn't one of them.
 
Except we actually do see Goh taking care of his Pokemon. That right there is showing. I can agree that there's problems with the way Goh's writing is handled, but the interactions with his numerous Pokemon isn't one of them.

Hmm...as someone who dislikes Goh, I can actually agree with this statement. The difference between Red and Goh is that Red is just put on a pedestal for the "bad-ass" factor and constantly being compared to Ash as the better trainer, whereas Goh is immensely hated and compared to Ash for being a worse trainer, despite being presented as the opposite. I honestly can't tell which side is more reasonable: do those who don't like Goh look on the reasonable side more than those who dislike Red do? I know I don't like Red, period, while I've tried to defend Goh a few times, so...
 
Goh actually isn't that bad. His personality, character background, and character potential are all actually really great. It's just his goal that absolutely ruins his character potential and makes him into a complete writer's pet-ruining any chance of proper characterization and elaboration of the positive aspects of his character.
The slogan is, "Gotta catch 'em all!" That's probably why.
 
The slogan is, "Gotta catch 'em all!" That's probably why.

At this point, that slogan adds no value to anything. It's just there because it sounds catchy, and why not? It's only included at this point, I feel, because of how iconic of a slogan it is-they just keep it out of the show. But now that they're making the show try and match its slogan...uh...yeah, no.
 
Origins!Red is actually much closer to the common criticisms levied against Goh than Goh himself is. Similarly to Goh, Origins!Red also had the goal of completing the Pokedex/Catching Them All, but unlike Goh, Red was never seen interacting with any of his Pokemon outside of battle, nor do we know where the heck he stores the ones that aren't on his party, and the battle against Giovanni reveals that he outright neglects the training of non-Charizard Pokemon to the point that they can barely accomplish anything in a fight other than making Charizard look good at their expense (before anyone jumps at me for this, yes, I'm aware that this was most likely only intended to reference those players who overleveled their starters on their first playthroughs, but such an action looks seriously messed up in a context where Pokemon are living creatures rather than packets of data, especially because Red got on Team Rocket's case for treating Pokemon like tools when he himself appears no better, making him come off like a giant hypocrite on top of everything). With Goh there's at least a marked effort to show him interacting with his Pokemon and taking care of them, and we see that they stay at a park where they can live in a cozy environment that caters to their needs, and Goh visits them frequently.
"If I don't win with Charizard, this battle is meaningless!"
 
"If I don't win with Charizard, this battle is meaningless!"
This right here is probably the worst choice of dialogue for an ostensibly heroic protagonist that we're supposed to see as loving and compassionate I've ever seen. It basically implies that Red purposefully sent out his undertrained Pokemon knowing that they'd get brutally curbstomped just so he could justify leaving his only competent fighter for last.

That might as well have been the show itself using Red as a mouthpiece, though, because broadly speaking, that statement applies to Origins itself as a whole: notice how the number of Red's non-Charizard Pokemon that got onscreen wins can be counted on one hand with fingers to spare. Like, people can complain all they want about Ash's Infernape, Greninja, or whoever hogging too much glory from their teammates, but none of those guys can hold a candle to the level of shilling and glory-hogging that Red's Charizard got in the Origins special. I mean, at least Ash's non-ace Pokemon are allowed to make meaningful contributions throughout the saga and even be the stars of certain Gym battles. Red's non-Charizard Pokemon, though? Yeah, they get nothing because how dare they not be Charizard.
 
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The problems with Origins is that its an incredibly short series. Four episodes isn't nearly enough to show off an entire region, its stories, the characters or even flesh out the main character. Aside from Charizard we don't really know much about his team, he used a Nidoran against Brock in the first episode but its gone by the time he reaches the Elite Four. So more than likely he was always switching out his Pokemon aside from his starter. On top of that they were clearly trying to also promote Mega Evolution, Charizard-X to be exact, even though the main anime was already doing that with Alain. Poor Char-Y is so neglected.
 
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