Controversial opinions

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

If only we could say the same for Alain’s non-Charizards

To be somewhat fair, this was most likely done solely because there were already way too many Pokemon battling at once as is, so adding Alain's entire team would have likely cluttered things too much and/or been too much of a hassle to animate. That might also explain why Ash's non-Pikachu and non-Greninja Pokemon were taken out so quickly, and also why Lysandre himself only used two Pokemon instead of a full team, something that I would have personally liked to see if only so the rest of Ash's Pokemon could each nab sort of a "consolation" win, particularly for Noivern and Goodra, who were pretty much dead weight during the League. Battling against Lysandre's other Pokemon would have also served to better justify Gyarados taking out the rest of Ash's Pokemon so quickly, since they'd already be tired from fighting against the rest of Lysandre's team. But oh well, shoulda, woulda, coulda...

 

[Alola]

I really appreciated Ash just throwing his whole party at Lysandre for this reason.

I did. Until Goodra, a special tank, was one-shotted by a Gyarados' Hyper Beam. #JusticeforGoodra

 

[Daren]

To be somewhat fair, this was most likely done solely because there were already way too many Pokemon battling at once as is, so adding Alain's entire team would have likely cluttered things too much and/or been too much of a hassle to animate. That might also explain why Ash's non-Pikachu and non-Greninja Pokemon were taken out so quickly, and also why Lysandre himself only used two Pokemon instead of a full team, something that I would have personally liked to see if only so the rest of Ash's Pokemon could each nab sort of a "consolation" win, particularly for Noivern and Goodra, who were pretty much dead weight during the League. Battling against Lysandre's other Pokemon would have also served to better justify Gyarados taking out the rest of Ash's Pokemon so quickly, since they'd already be tired from fighting against the rest of Lysandre's team. But oh well, shoulda, woulda, coulda...

Just once.
Just once I want Ash to have a proper full battle with an evil team leader where his whole party gets to look good instead of one or two.
They really wasted a chance with Rose when he'd have been the evil leader who would be most likely to have a proper battle with someone in the games.

I did. Until Goodra, a special tank, was one-shotted by a Gyarados' Hyper Beam. #JusticeforGoodra

If Goodra had been born a Charizard or a Greninja it would have been okay, so it's really Goodra's fault.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Just once.
Just once I want Ash to have a proper full battle with an evil team leader where his whole party gets to look good instead of one or two.
They really wasted a chance with Rose by when he'd have been the evil leader who would be most likely to have a proper battle with someone in the games.

What makes it especially frustrating is the fact that the games already give all Villain Team bosses perfectly good teams, and only need one or two additional Pokemon to make it a full team of six, so the fact that this has never been properly taken advantage of is strange to say the least. Rose's case in particular would have been a great opportunity for the criminally underused Dragonite, Gengar, and Farfetch'd to get to do something.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I did. Until Goodra, a special tank, was one-shotted by a Gyarados' Hyper Beam. #JusticeforGoodra

As much as people say Naganadel's return was overly convenient, at least it scored a KO after its return. Meanwhile, Goodra's best achievement during its own return was a draw.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

As much as people say Naganadel's return was overly convenient, at least it scored a KO after its return. Meanwhile, Goodra's best achievement during its own return was a draw.

And alas after that, Alain and Lysandre made damn well sure to close the coffin on it's career (as well as Noivern's) for good.

I guess that's another thing they have in common asides from being part of Team Flare.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Spoiler

To be somewhat fair, this was most likely done solely because there were already way too many Pokemon battling at once as is, so adding Alain's entire team would have likely cluttered things too much and/or been too much of a hassle to animate. That might also explain why Ash's non-Pikachu and non-Greninja Pokemon were taken out so quickly, and also why Lysandre himself only used two Pokemon instead of a full team, something that I would have personally liked to see if only so the rest of Ash's Pokemon could each nab sort of a "consolation" win, particularly for Noivern and Goodra, who were pretty much dead weight during the League. Battling against Lysandre's other Pokemon would have also served to better justify Gyarados taking out the rest of Ash's Pokemon so quickly, since they'd already be tired from fighting against the rest of Lysandre's team. But oh well, shoulda, woulda, coulda...

I agree that it would be a mess to animate, but at least a passing mention that Alain’s team was healing at the pokemon center or that they were borrowed from Team Flare members would have been better than Alain just risking the whole region to glitter up his black lizard even more.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Speaking of Pokemon center healing, that reminds me of another controversial opinion I have regarding another controversial League: for the most part, I don't think that Ash's choice of Pokemon to take on Tobias's team of Legendaries was as bad as people frequently make it out to be. A lot of people usually berate Ash for not using stuff like Charizard, Snorlax, or Infernape against Tobias, but when you actually look at the specific circumstances, two of those picks would not have been that great: Infernape most likely needed bench time to recover from the rather brutal match it endured against Paul, and Snorlax would have actually been a pretty terrible choice against Darkrai (the Pokemon who induces damaging nightmares just by being in close proximity to any sleeping targets) for reasons that should honestly be pretty obvious. Not using Charizard is the only real oddball decision here, but it can be presumed that there simply wasn't enough time for Charizard to get from Charific Valley to Sinnoh or even Oak's lab in time for the battle. Then there's the Pokemon Ash actually used: Heracross was by far the best equipped to fight Darkrai typewise, especially with Sleep Talk in its arsenal; Sceptile proved his mettle during that battle by being the only Pokemon to ever actually knock Darkrai out; Swellow is by far Ash's toughest bird; and Pikachu is Pikachu. Gible and Torkoal are the only real outliers here, but Tobias did comment that Gible's Draco Meteor was unusually powerful despite the mon's relative inexperience, and Torkoal did put up a good fight against Brandon's Registeel (another Legendary) back in AG, so even those two have some merit to their being picked for that fight.

It's a similar case for Ash's choice of team against Cameron. A lot of people chastise him for not using Unova Ace Krookodile during that fight, but when you look at Cameron's team you'll realize that two thirds of his Pokemon have a type advantage over Krookodile, and of the two that don't one's an Arceusdang pseudo-legendary, meaning that it's rather dubious whether Krookodile would have actually made that big a difference in that battle at all. Especially knowing how ungodly OP Cameron's stinking Riolu was.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Speaking of Alain, as it's been said previously here, he really could've used a loss to show him how his quest for strength had consumed him.

This is why I think he absolutely should have lost against Ash, and the added weight from learning Lysandre's true motives would have been even more devastating for him. He might have been defeated by Primal Groudon, but he never lost an official battle after losing to Siebold in his debut episode.

 

[Enzo]

I did. Until Goodra, a special tank, was one-shotted by a Gyarados' Hyper Beam. #JusticeforGoodra

I get that these stats are not really a thing in the anime, but seeing Goodra, who has base 150 Sp. Def (Literal Uber stats), getting one-shotted by an Hyper Beam off Gyarados's 60 base Sp. Att was just pitiful lol.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

It's a similar case for Ash's choice of team against Cameron. A lot of people chastise him for not using Unova Ace Krookodile during that fight, but when you look at Cameron's team you'll realize that two thirds of his Pokemon have a type advantage over Krookodile, and of the two that don't one's an Arceusdang pseudo-legendary, meaning that it's rather dubious whether Krookodile would have actually made that big a difference in that battle at all. Especially knowing how ungodly OP Cameron's stinking Riolu was.

Furthermore, all of the pokemon used against Stephan were roughed up bad, so by the end of the day Ash’s one other option was... Scraggy.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I get that these stats are not really a thing in the anime, but seeing Goodra, who has base 150 Sp. Def (Literal Uber stats), getting one-shotted by an Hyper Beam off Gyarados's 60 base Sp. Att was just pitiful lol.

And during the battle with Sawyer, while I understand that Goodra had already taken damage, it bugs me that Fairy Wind was portrayed as powerful of a move that it was able to match Goodra's attack and cause a double knockout, instead of being overpowered in a second.

 

[FluffleFi]

And during the battle with Sawyer, while I understand that Goodra had already taken damage, it bugs me that Fairy Wind was portrayed as powerful of a move that it was able to match Goodra's attack and cause a double knockout, instead of being overpowered in a second.

I can understand why someone would be upset by this, heck I hate it when this happens, but hasn't the anime always been inconsistent when it come to the power of attacks? Hasn't there been moments when the power of Ember matches Flamethrower? or Water Gun matching Hydro Pump?

 

[Alola]

I can understand why someone would be upset by this, heck I hate it when this happens, but hasn't the anime always been inconsistent when it come to the power of attacks? Hasn't there been moments when the power of Ember matches Flamethrower? or Water Gun matching Hydro Pump?

Fairy Wind definitely had Water Gun levels of potency (provided Hydro Pump wasn't in the same episode). I think the most egregious example was how potent Combusken/Blaziken's Fire Spin was.

But I do think there is some charm though, because the writers get to demonstrate and animate moves that typically get neglected or ignored. Like, I am a huge fan with how they characterized Whirlpool; it added another layer of versatility to Piplup's battles, rather than spamming the objectively stronger Bubble Beam, and later Hydro Pump, all the time.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I can understand why someone would be upset by this, heck I hate it when this happens, but hasn't the anime always been inconsistent when it come to the power of attacks? Hasn't there been moments when the power of Ember matches Flamethrower? or Water Gun matching Hydro Pump?

Not really, I think Flamethrower and Hydro Pump have always been consistently depicted as stronger versions of Ember and Water Gun respectively. What has been inconsistent though is the portrayal of power of those moves relative to each other: in the earlier sagas, Water Gun was portrayed as Flamethrower's equal, but then when Hydro Pump actually started getting used by Pokemon not named Blastoise things shifted to make it so that Flamethrower and Hydro Pump were the "counterparts" instead (even though in the games Hydro Pump is significantly more powerful while Surf is the closest thing to a Water-type counterpart to Flamethrower, but to be fair that move's not exactly easy to animate consistently, so I give them a pass)

 

[Enzo]

Yeah, tbh, I actually kinda like the way Croagunk defeated Toxicroak because of that: usually when a hero and a villain have a rivalry, the hero will be all "let's have a fair and honorable fight" ...even though the entire world is at stake and literally everyone will die if they lose, so really it makes zero sense for the hero to needlessly handicap themselves, not ask for assistance, or use whatever advantage they can get. Whenever this "let's have a fair fight" thing is done, it actually makes the hero come off as kind of a jerk when you really think about it, because it comes across at though the hero's effectively prioritizing their own pride over the lives of the people they supposedly care about.

If there's something I have learned after doing Karate, Judo and Muay Thai for a few years, and I possibly will even be trying Krav Maga out in a few months, is that, when you are really fighting to defend yourself or another person, throw the chivalry and the honor out of the window: you are fighting for survival. Do whatever you need.

 

[Hidden Mew]

With the way Journeys is being handled, I gotta wonder if people'll start labeling it as the worst series.

I'm pretty sure that's already started, which kind of leaves me mixed. I can understand why people get so upset over Journeys to a degree. A lot of people are upset over its various problems, I understand and/or agree with some of the main complaints and I can be vocal over what I dislike about the series too, particularly with the pacing, the world tour gimmick and the PWC. However, I also think that the complaints can also come off as excessive or too harsh. Disliking the series or labeling it as their least favorite series is perfectly fine and understandable. Claiming that Journeys is objectively bad, that there isn't anything to enjoy about the series and belittling anyone who does like the series or anything about it is obviously not okay. People have insulted my opinions on Goh and the PWC multiple times and I've seen other users go through similar treatment.

Despite the many problems I have with Journeys, I still like it and most episodes are still enjoyable to watch. I think that also makes it difficult for me to really get that upset over Journeys compared to a lot of other fans. Plus, at this point, I think that the backlash towards Journeys is worse than anything the series itself has done thus far. I can't rank it just yet, but given how I feel about it now and how I feel about BW as a whole, it's probably not going to be my least favorite series at this rate.

 

[RafaSceptile]

Z-moves were implemented better in the anime than Mega-Evolutions. They were not so great, but Ash and his Friends were allowed to use them and they were not a decisive factor in every single battle involving Z-moves, unlike Megaevolutions.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

"Pikachu being mind-controlled" is a thing that's been repeated multiple times throughout the anime. I think it was best implemented in Pikachu Re-Volts, where Ash used his smarts to have Pikachu attack him and destroy the machine responsible for the mind control in the process. The worst implementation was probably in What Lies Beyond Truth and Ideals!, where Pikachu just fights off the mind control put on him. I understand he had been controlled twice before with the same method, which was probably the justification for it, but it can come off as "trying hard enough to succeed", which is one of the most cliché of anime tropes.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

they were not a decisive factor in every single battle involving Z-moves, unlike Megaevolutions

Based on what?