Controversial opinions

[PkmnTrainerV]

Let's me rephrase that. While I dislike Bunnelby's design, I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with them being friends if it wasn't for the way how they became friends.

That sounds better, but to be pedantic but it’s really not a rephrase, it’s a change in reasoning. Since your first post heavily implies that design and being "derpy" are the reasons Bunnelby shouldn’t be friends with cute Pokémon. So people are bound to jump to think that it was your point...

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

That sounds better, but to be pedantic but it’s really not a rephrase, it’s a change in reasoning. Since your first post heavily implies that design and being "derpy" are the reasons Bunnelby shouldn’t be friends with cute Pokémon. So people are bound to jump to think that it was your point...

I may have not phrased that the best possible way, but my point is, I don't like Bunnelby's design, or the way how Clemont's Bunnelby and Serena's Eevee became friends.

 

[KyseL]

I really struggle conceding on the point of XY (and Ash in XY for that matter) being mature at all, or at least more mature than previous and future Pokémon series.

At least personally, it always felt that XY was more concerned with having the A E S T H E T I C S of maturity, rather than actually being a mature show. Like it sloppily adds elements that may seem mature, but because the show is about funny magical critters it always feels extremely jarring, especially given how battle heavy of a series it is, so you rarely get time to focus uninterruptedly on the more human aspects of the show that may lead to a more organic venture towards more mature themes.

Ash's case in particular is frustrating. Like Ash is not that more mature in XY, he just emotes significantly less and has an even worse sense of self preservation, and sure, he gets to be cool and heroic or whatever, but all that comes off like an edgy teen's idea of what maturity is instead of the real thing. It doesn't help we get a pseudo-romance subplot that goes absolutely nowhere until the second where absolutely nothing is at risk, and that seems to conflate love and adoration treating them as the same thing in all senses, all while trying to portray Ash as the ultimate chad, which is really boring imo.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

A controversial opinion: I know it’s too early to tell but Dracovish is shaping up to be a huge missed opportunity if they do nothing for it till the Iris episode. If it gets no focus there my opinion might be cemented as "It just ended up wasting a slot on Ash's team." I hope the writers don’t make it Palpitoad but worse.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

At least personally, it always felt that XY was more concerned with having the A E S T H E T I C S of maturity, rather than actually being a mature show. Like it sloppily adds elements that may seem mature, but because the show is about funny magical critters it always feels extremely jarring, especially given how battle heavy of a series it is, so you rarely get time to focus uninterruptedly on the more human aspects of the show that may lead to a more organic venture towards more mature themes.

Heck, by that logic, that makes the most mature pokemon series so far Sun and Moon. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Sun and Moon made the decision of comedy and thoroughly stuck with it, while not being afraid to address any heavy themes throughout the show. Plus, it being comedy and a slice-of-life allows them to focus on a theme other than adventure for once, and the theme they focused on was family. What theme was XY focused on? Shonen? Because having watched actual shonen anime, you can't make the comparison.

Also, XY turning shonen makes it so much easier to notice sexism in the series. Like, for instance, what's with Alain and Ash being so "bad-ass" in the Flare Arc or acting like it whereas Serena and Maron are treated as the love interests because...this is now shonen and we must follow shonen format...? Like, the more I think about it, the more XY just feels like a horrible template of like literally any shonen anime.

Sun and Moon on the other hand, is a slice-of-life, and I can't really compare the format SM used to other slice-of-life anime? I feel like that really says something to be honest. I actually love XY, in part do to it being the first pokemon series I thoroughly finished and being my gateway to the pokeani, but the fandom just...overrates it so much and I can't get over my first experiences in the fandom where anyone who liked XY automatically bashed Sun and Moon by default. Granted, I'm glad that thought process has changed, though.

 

[skiittylalis]

may as well throw my two cents on the xy topic, but i totally agree that xy(z) is overrated to hell and back. and this is coming from someone who regards xy(z) as my third favorite series!! granted i am rewatching ag and im generally enjoying it so ag may take that bronze medal but i digress...... wait, someone who generally likes xy(z) criticizing the series' flaws?? outrageous!!!!

like yeah xy(z) had a bunch of cool stuff....... the animation quality was good and i absolutely loved the battles and how they used the new 3d camera to make every battle feel epic, the team flare arc was pretty cool and one of the best evil team arcs in the anime, the mega evolution specials were awesome, and im terribly biased to gen 6........ but i feel for every good thing this series offered there was a bad thing lurking in the wings waiting to make itself known. like the wasted character of serena as i believe they threw away all her great character growth in xyz to focus on "SATOSHI!!!!! >/////<" or whatever, ash-greninjas mere existence to cash in on the generations biggest shillmon and make the world focus on a "chosen one" frog for the duration of an entire dub season, and the extremely jarring "mature" tone shift to make the series more shonen. i can list a few more but i think i nailed the big ones to me at least. i really do think if i had NO idea xy(z) existed...... no knowledge of characters, plot, whatever..... and someone started talking about what this series is with the whole "ash is 16 and saves the world with a special greninja" i would absolutely believe you were reading me a synopsis of some 14 year olds edgy fanfiction. being shonen for the sake of being shonen doesnt make the series truly shonen

also something i never see people talk about: why does everyone in xy(z) look up to ash?? serena does. clemont does. sawyer does. maybe even alain. if this was ashs first outing in the anime, he would totally 100% come off as a gary stu!! the fact that we know ash isnt a gary stu due to 20 previous years of adventures really saved his booty from being marked with this label but it really goes to show how drastic and jarring the tone change between the usual silly and fun misadventures of ash and co to typical shonen anime #7893 is

on a random aside: i believe the flare arc was put off until the very end to avoid another best wishes. bw hyped the plasma stuff really early and it had to be cut which retconned perhaps that entire series, so i wouldnt blame the writers if they wanted to play safe and hold off in case another badly timed disaster happened like it did in 2011. and since this is the controversial opinions thread im gonna say it: i liked alain and his character growth and motivation

this is really disjointed so uuuuh tldr xy(z), by pokemon anime standards, is a good series. but is it THE BEST SERIES OF ALL TIME?? no. and thats what makes the series overrated especially when its diehard fans choose to ignore its glaring flaws and problems to say "well ash got a girlfriend this series so lol u suck stop being a hater"

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

BW isn't actually as bad as people say it is. Considering how it's main purpose was to serve as a "soft reboot" of the series, many of its complaints feel rather...unfair? When you watch BW from a perspective of it not being part of the anime continuity, it's actually a good series. Yes, it has its problems, but if we look at it from that perspective, the most glaring issue with BW then is this alternate Team Rocket; but you could even get used to that after a while too, if you look at it from the perspective that BW!Rocket is a DIFFERENT Team Rocket compared to the ones people know and are familiar with. BW is also very underrated, considering its extremely colorful cast, as well as the dynamics between the main trio, which can really only be rivaled by the OS trio(tho I guess it's because BW is based on OS...).

 

[RafaSceptile]

Paul is overrated in the character-wise aspect. He is probably the best Ash's rival, but when you consider other aspects of his character, Gladion is probably the best one, because not the entirety of his character is around Ash or around battle-focused things.

Something similar happened with Alain, but in the opposite aspect: He is a great individual character, but a very meh Ash's rival.

 

[Hidden Mew]

BW isn't actually as bad as people say it is. Considering how it's main purpose was to serve as a "soft reboot" of the series, many of its complaints feel rather...unfair? When you watch BW from a perspective of it not being part of the anime continuity, it's actually a good series. Yes, it has its problems, but if we look at it from that perspective, the most glaring issue with BW then is this alternate Team Rocket; but you could even get used to that after a while too, if you look at it from the perspective that BW!Rocket is a DIFFERENT Team Rocket compared to the ones people know and are familiar with. BW is also very underrated, considering its extremely colorful cast, as well as the dynamics between the main trio, which can really only be rivaled by the OS trio(tho I guess it's because BW is based on OS...).

I wouldn't say that it's main purpose was to be a soft reboot of the series. That's really more of a fan interpretation rather than anything confirmed with the series itself. It's also pretty difficult, if not impossible, to not see it as part of the anime's continuity when it clearly is. Even the first shot of Ash's room showed off nods to his previous journeys. That kind of mindset would be even harder to keep later on given that Dawn appears in the middle of BW and Ash thinks about all of his friends from previous series. Whether or not people like BW, it is part of the same continuity just like every other main anime series.

I do agree that BW isn't that bad. It's still my least favorite series, but rewatching it after the hate had cooled down and it wasn't directly after DP, I enjoyed it more than I expected and I can see why other people would like it more than I do. I didn't really care for the dynamics with the main trio though. Granted, disliking Iris and her dynamics with both Ash and Cilan didn't really help matters, but I'd say that they probably had the weakest group dynamic out of any main cast thus far.

 

[game3524]

I really struggle conceding on the point of XY (and Ash in XY for that matter) being mature at all, or at least more mature than previous and future Pokémon series.

At least personally, it always felt that XY was more concerned with having the A E S T H E T I C S of maturity, rather than actually being a mature show. Like it sloppily adds elements that may seem mature, but because the show is about funny magical critters it always feels extremely jarring, especially given how battle heavy of a series it is, so you rarely get time to focus uninterruptedly on the more human aspects of the show that may lead to a more organic venture towards more mature themes.

Ash's case in particular is frustrating. Like Ash is not that more mature in XY, he just emotes significantly less and has an even worse sense of self preservation, and sure, he gets to be cool and heroic or whatever, but all that comes off like an edgy teen's idea of what maturity is instead of the real thing. It doesn't help we get a pseudo-romance subplot that goes absolutely nowhere until the second where absolutely nothing is at risk, and that seems to conflate love and adoration treating them as the same thing in all senses, all while trying to portray Ash as the ultimate chad, which is really boring imo.

Yeah. The perfect example of this is with Ash's "depression" phase ( I won't use arc since that is an insult to arcs). The whole thing is just massively cringeworthy with Ash and Serena arguing like two 15 years old when in reality they are just a couple of 10 years and the issue that Ash is bummed out about isn't that serious and didn't warrant Ash to have that kind of reaction. SM and PM aren't perfect series by no means, but dropping the pseudo maturity was a good thing.

 

[Alola]

A controversial opinion: I know it’s too early to tell but Dracovish is shaping up to be a huge missed opportunity if they do nothing for it till the Iris episode. If it gets no focus there my opinion might be cemented as "It just ended up wasting a slot on Ash's team." I hope the writers don’t make it Palpitoad but worse.

Admittedly, I'm going to be disappointed if it battles in the Iris episode and is inexplicability a competent and powerful fighter. Ash has barely interacted with it since its...creation. And all of a sudden it can OHKO Iris' Pokémon with a Fishious Rend?

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Admittedly, I'm going to be disappointed if it battles in the Iris episode and is inexplicability a competent and powerful fighter. Ash has barely interacted with it since its...creation. And all of a sudden it can OHKO Iris' Pokémon with a Fishious Rend?

To be fair... it's Fishious Rend.

 

[Alola]

To be fair... it's Fishious Rend.

Bold of you to assume Ash's Dracovish has an Ability, let alone Strong Jaw.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Bold of you to assume Ash's Dracovish has an Ability, let alone Strong Jaw.

I don't see why it wouldn't have one, though?

 

[Alola]

I don't see why it wouldn't have one, though?

It may, but most anime Pokémon never confirm or utilize their Abilities. You commented on the effectiveness of Fishious Rend, which is true, but that is due in part to the boost from Strong Jaw (and things like weather, Choice Band, etc.), which is something I doubt the anime will address given its history.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

It may, but most anime Pokémon never confirm or utilize their Abilities. You commented on the effectiveness of Fishious Rend, which is true, but that is due in part to the boost from Strong Jaw (and things like weather, Choice Band, etc.), which is something I doubt the anime will address given its history.

I thought it was obvious when I posted my first response, but I guess not, so I'll say it now: my "it's Fishious Rend" comment and to a lesser extent my later response was meant to be a joke.

To answer the comment seriously, though: they could still reveal it some other way. Obviously it'll be hard to tell because the absence of a turn-based system and the general rarity of OHKOs means Dracovish likely won't be one-shotting most opponents with Fishious Rend regardless, but there could always be a comment along the lines of "wow, it looks like that Fishious Rend did a look more damage than it should" "that's because of Dracovish's Ability Strong Jaw, which boosts the power of biting moves like Fishious Rend". Remember, this is still the same show that's had things like Pikachu and Swellow, two Pokemon that are extremely fragile in-game to the point that even resisted hits can hurt them a lot, tanking multiple powerful super-effective hits in a row without fainting, so I don't think that Dracovish failing to OHKO opponents with Fishious Rend necessarily means its Ability is not Strong Jaw.

I'd daresay that of Dracovish's three Abilities, Strong Jaw is the most likely one for Ash's to have due to various circumstances: Sand Rush is kinda too situational to showcase properly, and as for Water Absorb... the anime seems to have something against showcasing immunity-granting Abilities, especially on protagonist-owned Pokemon. Presumably because it theoretically makes battles harder for Ash by not giving his opponents less ways to inflict damage on his Pokemon.

 

[Alola]

I thought it was obvious when I posted my first response, but I guess not, so I'll say it now: my "it's Fishious Rend" comment and to a lesser extent my later response was meant to be a joke.

Not to me, no - but thanks for the clarification!

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

-Looking at the anime series from a game perspective is ridiculous, especially after twenty-five years of run-time.

-I'm actually fine with past characters not returning in Journeys, because if the writers make past characters return, that just feels like a complete cop-out. Especially when you consider how hyped everyone is over Iris and Gary, and how everything else is ignored, when new fans will just be wondering who the hell Iris and Gary are. That's just a pile of fan-service and if that happens, while I personally can't help but like fan-service, my writer side feels mild displeasure at more fan-service and past references.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Admittedly, I'm going to be disappointed if it battles in the Iris episode and is inexplicability a competent and powerful fighter. Ash has barely interacted with it since its...creation. And all of a sudden it can OHKO Iris' Pokémon with a Fishious Rend?

True, I'd rather it just appears. Winning or losing is another matter entirely.

It’s sickening to me that these days it’s too much to expect just an appearance from one of Ash's Pokemon, and it actually doing something other than existing is relegated to a focus episode robotic checklist. If we go by the series' episodic logic that viewers jump in to view at random episodes, it’s literally possible for there to be an audience that doesn’t even know Dracovish exists because they missed one episode. It’s arguably on par with Palpitoad.

I didn’t anticipate a series where all of Ash's Pokemon (sans MAYBE Lucario because I know at least one person on here will have an issue with me saying "all”) would be borderline treated like Palpitoad and that isn’t even an exaggeration.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

I know it’s too early to tell but Dracovish is shaping up to be a huge missed opportunity if they do nothing for it till the Iris episode

Knowing the staff they'll just make it a 1 on 1 match so they can keep chucking L's in it's face and laugh at it. If they don't care for it, why should I?