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Controversial opinions

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Gladion is the only main Rival whose team wasn't treated like garbage in over a decade and that's sad. Paul switched out his sans Electivire during his final with Ash, Trip's Serperior basically became his only relevant Pokemon in the end, and Alain's team was basically tacked on just so he and Ash could have a 6v6.
 
Eitarou said:
Gladion is the only main Rival whose team wasn't treated like garbage in over a decade and that's sad. Paul switched out his sans Electivire during his final with Ash, Trip's Serperior basically became his only relevant Pokemon in the end, and Alain's team was basically tacked on just so he and Ash could have a 6v6.
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Yeahh, I agree with your points except on the Paul one. Yes, it would've been even cooler to see Ash's Sinnoh team actually battling and winning against his OG team, but the changes weren't a downgrade as some people make it out to be. In fact, it was an important part of the battle too.

Keep in mind that, sans Electivire, Ash didn't even knew Paul had those other Pokémon. He changed his team specifically to get the upper hand on Ash there. How, you may ask? The element of surprise. Ash didn't knew any of those beforehand. He didn't knew Paul had a Gastodon, or Froslass, or Drapion, etc. If Paul had used all of his other Pokémon, Ash would knew what Pokémon to use.

And that's the thing, not only was Paul in an advantage since he knew more than his opponent, but he also used his first two Pokémon to reveal all of Ash's. And guess what? Ash using all of the same Pokémon was actually a disadvantage since Paul knew what to do against each of them. Ash however didn't had that luck. Our boy had to do the biggest improv in history to actually defeat all of Paul's team.

Also, I confess I also get bothered when people say that his team was weaker. Because it wasn't. Firstly, it would literally contradict Paul's entire character if his team was weak. His entire thing was about only capturing and training strong Pokémon he deemed ''worthy'' of making part of his roster. Secondly, every single one of them caused massive damage:

- Gastrodon and Agron were two major walls that were tough to wear down;
- Ninjask was a speedy demon that was hard to even get an hit on;
- Froslass was a major danger since it's Snow Cloak/Hail combo meant it was almost impossible to hit, besides that no one else besides Pikachu was fast enough to hit her. Also, keep in mind half of Ash's Sinnoh team was weak against Ice, so Pikachu had to stop it before it got out of control;
- Drapion was not only a tough wall but also poisoned the battlefield with Toxic Spikes;
- And Electivire, was, well... Electivire.
 
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Ash's Dragonite is probably one of, if not the most fitting Pokémon for Ash, when it comes to personality. When they're out of battle, they tend to act silly and/or happy, but when it's time to battle, they're both full of determination, battle spirit, and just overall love of battling.
 
Eitarou said:
Gladion is the only main Rival whose team wasn't treated like garbage in over a decade and that's sad. Paul switched out his sans Electivire during his final with Ash, Trip's Serperior basically became his only relevant Pokemon in the end, and Alain's team was basically tacked on just so he and Ash could have a 6v6.
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I don't really see Paul switching out his team aside from Electivire as a bad thing. A part of me can understand why when he planed for two of his Pokemon to lose as part of his strategy, but that is in line with Paul's character. He would drastically change his team instead of using mostly the same Pokemon he had used against Ash before. It was also to contrast with Ash sticking with his original lineup for their first full battle. I do think it would have been good for them to have Torterra finally defeat Honchkrow though. Not only because Toterra desperately needed a major victory, but they also made a big deal whenever the two faced each other in battle before. They weren't exactly rivals themselves, but it would have been nice for Torterra to finally get revenge for those earlier defeats. Besides that, their final battle was still terrific, so I don't think that the different team was a bad decision.

I agree with the points on Trip and Alain though. Neither of them were particularly good rivals for a few reasons, but their teams weren't handled well either. Gladion having a smaller team probably helped it out in the long run too.
 
In or out of battle I would've enjoyed seeing more of Paul's Torterra, unlike the Pokemon of most rivals it actually had a personality(Which is a miracle in of itself, considering most fully evolved Pokemon are devoid of that). Paul showed nothing but respect for his starter and, despite being completely loyal to said trainer, Torterra was shown to be kindhearted. It willingly helped out Ash's Grotle and apparently never took joy in the harsh training Paul gave to Chimchar. Its a shame it never had a rivalry with any of Ash's Pokemon, with it being a Grass/Ground-Type, it could've been something for Pikachu to have to overcome.
 
FluffleFi said:
with it being a Grass/Ground-Type, it could've been something for Pikachu to have to overcome.
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I agree with most of your post, just not this part. Pikachu got enough time to shine so I’d change the rivalry to some other Pokémon. I don’t think Paul's Torterra ever got to see Ash's grotle evolve, did it? That could've been a proud moment for it.
 
If you have a Dream skin in Minecraft, your opinion doesn't matter.
This has nothing to do with Pokemon, I just want to put it out there.

And I guess I have to make this post related to Pokemon, so... Electivire was overused in DP, I guess. It felt like every other character had one.
 
CyberKitten05 said:
If you have a Dream skin in Minecraft, your opinion doesn't matter.
This has nothing to do with Pokemon, I just want to put it out there.

And I guess I have to make this post related to Pokemon, so... Electivire was overused in DP, I guess. It felt like every other character had one.
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Not really. I think only three characters had an Electivire in DP. There was Gary, Paul and Volkner. I don't recall anyone else having an Electivire in the series or it being particularly overused. Just to be clear, this thread is about controversial opinions about the Pokemon anime and/or its different manga series. Tacking on a random Pokemon comment after talking about something like Minecraft or any other unrelated topic isn't really the best idea for future reference.
 
Mewthree/ミュウスリー said:
I liked the BW anime and disliked the SM anime. What's wrong with me
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Me too. The BW anime was my introduction to Pokemon so it's really nostalgic for me. I just think the SM anime is too goofy and all of the characters looked strange. It's a shame, because I love the Alola region, and all of the characters.
 
Mewthree/ミュウスリー said:
The anime needs to have a return to the XY seriousness, IMO. That's when I remember it having the most hype.
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XY is still my all time favorite, I really don't like how they are starting to use more and more comic relief in the anime (eg. jn026) and filler crap that has nothing to do with the actual story. XY still had fillers and comic relief, but it was still way more serious than any other pokemon series
 
Mewthree/ミュウスリー said:
The XY ending would have been good...(but only if Ash went on a badass redemption arc or something).
I liked the BW anime and disliked the SM anime. What's wrong with me
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Nothing. I have the exact same opinion. Thing is, even with all the inconsistencies and issues BW had, it still kept the same art and animation style (actually did better, improved it) and the same premise of travelling with companions. While one of the only things SM did (imo) was letting Satoshi win the league (which was a pretty good arc btw).
 
I know that this is very repetitive. But Kalos was the one Satoshi should've won
The Alola victory doesn't feel right, due to the lack of full-battles.

Regarding BW and SM, I like the former better.
But my least favourite is the current series.
 
Mewthree/ミュウスリー said:
The anime needs to have a return to the XY seriousness, IMO. That's when I remember it having the most hype.
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Honestly, I'm with you on this one. I was honestly hoping to see a more serious shonen-esque series after Sun and Moon, and given the hyper competitive nature of Galar's league, I thought we were initially gonna see a series similar to XY before Journeys was revealed. If it were to happen though, I'd throw in a bit more comedy than XY had.
 
Quite honestly, I didn't see what made XY Ash so special. It's hard to put my finger on it, but XY Ash just felt...off? Like, he felt too stoic and then got random moments of acting unnecessarily excited over the smallest things, making it feel ridiculously jarring, and him feeling like a typical Shonen protagonist just kind of bothered me. He got those small moments where he actually felt like...you know, Satoshi, but other than that I just couldn't feel much for Ash throughout XY.

Sure, he did dangerous stuff and got some cool moments, but the way some of those moments were executed just felt, like I said, too much like a Shonen protagonist stereotype. He did dangerous and note-worthy stuff in other regions as well, but in XY its actually addressed by other people, which, while I agree is nice, Ash felt too static of a character throughout XY because of this.

And his growth on a flaw he did have(specifically in how him constantly being praised and looked up to got to his head. See, Snowbelle episodes) just felt like it wasn't really...fully addressed??? Like I said, it's hard to articulate it, but overall XY Satoshi feels like what you would get if you lined up a bunch of items perfectly in a row before somebody comes along and messes it all up by adjusting the items by a few centimeters: it's just off.
 
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