RetroPokeFan
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Typical Journeys pulling the "Tell, don't show" card yet again.
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So we're going to ignore the many scenes where Cinderace acted like a big bro to Goh's Pokemon, including the two episodes explicitly dedicated to it.
I'd actually argue that Ash's Pokemon in general tend to be pretty similar offenders to certain extent. It's obviously way more forgivable with physically large and sturdy powerhouses like Snorlax, but smaller and/or unevolved Pokemon or Pokemon who are supposed to be quite frail? Not so much. Pikachu's obviously the most egregious due to the fact that he has the highest number of examples, but he's hardly the only case, sadly.It makes me sad that this very interesting dynamic was scrapped in favor of Pikachu becoming your average anime protagonist that gets thoroughly thrashed and then gets up and wins in one or two hits, a direct inversion of his original style. You can see this very clearly against opponents like Hala’s Hariyama, Roxie’s Garbodor, Alain’s Metagross and Trip’s Serperior, all showing him shrugging off brutal combos from the opponent and then defeating them with a couple powerful attacks. The biggest offender, IMO, is his battle against Hapu’s Mudsdale, where he tanked a bunch of super effective hits from his massive for and somehow shrugged off Tectonic Rage, before fighting back and winning with what was basically a Gigavolt Havoc OHKO.
Actually, that just reminded me of why I've always loved whenever Pikachu's Static ability was used, even though it was only like two or three times. Like, instead of making Pikachu tank impossible hits multiple times over, why not just make his Static ability be a thing used more regularly instead of once in a blue moon? Then they could do something along the lines of "it's hard to hit Pikachu because of his speed, but when you do hit him, you have to find a way past Static". That way, Ash's opponent would have to think on their feet, making a more interesting battle, Pikachu would still be presented as a strong opponent, they could allude to the differences between defense and endurance, Pikachu's speed would be more clear to be his hallmark trait, and it would help abilities be more implemented within the anime.but smaller and/or unevolved Pokemon or Pokemon who are supposed to be quite frail?
I kinda always accepted it as one of those of Ash’s pokemon with an unnatural skill that defies its species, like Snorlax being uncannily nimble or Turtwig being speedy, but I can see the problem.a fair number of Swellow's wins stretch the willing suspension of disbelief a bit too much if you ask me.
You know, Corphish is a pokemon that I always found frustrating for how unbearably inconsistent its strength was. When you look into it, you’ll notice almost every single one of its battles went one of two ways: it was either a powerhouse that matched its opponent blow by blow for the victory... or it was a jobber that got taken out in one hit. Seriously. I can’t think of one battle where Corphish was the fall guy where it actually contributed to taking the opponent down.Swellow and its partner Corphish were repeatedly struck by devastating move combos only for them to knock out their opponents with one attack each
I think Swellow's case is a bit too ridiculously exaggerated, though. Snorlax may be nimble, sure, but for the most part its battle style was still what you'd expect for its species in that it was a tanky powerhouse that could take hits and dish them just as hard, and it wasn't uncommon for Snorlax to face opponents that could outmanouver it. In fact, Snorlax's nimbleness usually only came about either during comedic moments involving food or in seriously desperate battle situations, and the latter wasn't even 100% guaranteed to happen. Turtwig's speedyness meanwhile was actually not even unique to it within its species, as Gardenia's Turtwig was shown to have the same battle style. I'm pretty sure that Swellow's case was really just meant to be an application of its Guts Ability, but I think they could made it less... shonen-anime-protagonist-y. Granted, I probably wouldn't mind Swellow being so unusually durable anywhere near as much if it in turn also took many hits to take its opponents down, but that was basically never the case, resulting in any narratives where it was supposed to be the underdog kinda fall flat on their face.I kinda always accepted it as one of those of Ash’s pokemon with an unnatural skill that defies its species, like Snorlax being uncannily nimble or Turtwig being speedy, but I can see the problem.
Is that a "My Neighbor Totoro" reference? lolSpeaking of Charizard...I know people always gave Pignite flack for just being a carbon copy of the flying type, but he's just so much nicer compared to Charizard that I honestly can't help loving him. Charizard is still one of my favorites of Ash's pokemon, but like...can you honestly look at Pignite doing something as simple as covering his smaller teammates in the rain and leaving himself out in the open and then tell me he's just a copy of Charizard??? This guy's a fire type and he once was just standing there, unprotected, in the freaking RAIN. Why? So he can shelter his teammates instead...
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To be somewhat fair to Ash's Charizard specifically, homie still had to work his tail off to reach his current power level, and for the most part I do think his growth in that aspect was perfectly believable. In fact, one of the issues I have with modern Charizard portrayals as a species of bordeline-invincible, quasi-Legendary juggernauts (other than the fact that they undermine basically every other Pokemon in the near vicinity with their mere presence) is that I feel like they make the training Ash's one had to go through seem kinda pointless in retrospect, because it apparently turns out that being demigodlike is just the norm for his kind XDAs ludicrous as Swellow was he never got as OP as Charizard so I honestly appreciated the wild ride he provided throughout AG.
To be fair, Pignite doesn't have any body parts that need to be perpetually on fire. Also, the problem people (myself included) have with Pignite being a carbon copy is more related to his arc and backstory than his personality. One thing that definitely didn't help in that regard is that Pignite came right off the heels of Infernape, who had already pushed that particular plotline to its absolute peak. Nor did the fact that Pignite was one of very few Unova Pokemon with a fully realized arc, so the fact that they opted for a rehash instead of something more original or even just giving focus to the mountain of underutilized Unova Pokemon aching to get anything is... a huge bummer, to say the least.Speaking of Charizard...I know people always gave Pignite flack for just being a carbon copy of the flying type, but he's just so much nicer compared to Charizard that I honestly can't help loving him. Charizard is still one of my favorites of Ash's pokemon, but like...can you honestly look at Pignite doing something as simple as covering his smaller teammates in the rain and leaving himself out in the open and then tell me he's just a copy of Charizard??? This guy's a fire type and he once was just standing there, unprotected, in the freaking RAIN. Why? So he can shelter his teammates instead...
In JN004 Scorbunny was more of a younger brother,
and in JN022 Raboot was more of a cooler friend.
And none of the Pokemon it interacted with (Nickit, Lombre, Zigzagoon, etc.) joined the main cast.
Goh's Pokémon evolving doesn't really "benefit" Goh in ways that some of y'all make it out to be, in my opinion. Evolution doesn't mean much to Goh since he is not even a battler. The writers just make plots revolving around Pokémon evolutions these days rather than going for longer arcs for the sake of the recent series being handled that way, similar to how Ash was mostly given fully evolved Pokémon since start of this series.
And another heavy hitter Pokemon he gets for himself, that he has no business havingYes it does benefit Goh to get to his goal, since he gets that data.
I feel like, besides the fact that Charizard is overexposed as a species, this is probably my biggest hang up with it: Charizard has to be the strongest one in the room no matter what. This specially got worse once XY hit, because of the way that Alain's Charizard was treated lke a God among us. And now we see Leon, somebody who is/was unbeatable, uses a Charizard as his ace, being transformed into thee Strongest Trainer in the World due to the PWC in the anime universe. So considering his strongest is a Charizard, that pretty much means that thee strongest Pokémon in the world, at least in the human-made measurement, is a Charizard.To be somewhat fair to Ash's Charizard specifically, homie still had to work his tail off to reach his current power level, and for the most part I do think his growth in that aspect was perfectly believable. In fact, one of the issues I have with modern Charizard portrayals as a species of bordeline-invincible, quasi-Legendary juggernauts (other than the fact that they undermine basically every other Pokemon in the near vicinity with their mere presence) is that I feel like they make the training Ash's one had to go through seem kinda pointless in retrospect, because it apparently turns out that being demigodlike is just the norm for his kind XD
Charizard: the Pokémon that can fix all of life's smallest and biggest problems.So considering his strongest is a Charizard, that pretty much means that thee strongest Pokémon in the world, at least in the human-made measurement, is a Charizard.
I feel like, besides the fact that Charizard is overexposed as a species, this is probably my biggest hang up with it: Charizard has to be the strongest one in the room no matter what. This specially got worse once XY hit, because of the way that Alain's Charizard was treated lke a God among us. And now we see Leon, somebody who is/was unbeatable, uses a Charizard as his ace, being transformed into thee Strongest Trainer in the World due to the PWC in the anime universe. So considering his strongest is a Charizard, that pretty much means that thee strongest Pokémon in the world, at least in the human-made measurement, is a Charizard.
I feel like that's a bit of a stretch to say that it benefits Goh though. Yeah, he wants to catch every Pokemon, but he doesn't see or treat them as new data entries for his Pokedex and he isn't even going for something like a living dex either. Maybe it just rubs me the wrong way because of how people have claimed that Goh only cares about getting the data after catching Pokemon before.Yes it does benefit Goh to get to his goal, since he gets that data.
That does seem like a bit of an odd assumption. I can understand not liking how Goh gets another fully evolved starter, but there's nothing to indication that it's going to be a heavy hitter and he isn't going to be battling as much as Ash either.And another heavy hitter Pokemon he gets for himself, that he has no business having
(I'm assuming, don't know well it'll actually do in battle)