Go's Pokémon aren’t being treated better than Kanto companions. Cinderace and Drizzile outclassed Charizard in "rushed evolution" and the Sakuragi Dome Pokémon just replaced the PotD.
At least Charizard evolving fast was supossed to be (and it was!) a plot point and was only solved MANY eps later and had good development and a nice payoff.
I think there was a distinct appreciation and love for music prior to TCPi being a thing for the anime, and sadly it hasn't been replicated or entertained since.
I completely disagree. We've got many episodes that focus on Gou's pokémon. After their captures, Satoshi's Kanto team barely got any episodes to themselves.
I feel like it says something that despite the terribly handling of Goh's starters, the only thing that can apparently top it is back during a time when they were experimenting with literally every single aspect of the show. And if we're just comparing the starters, Grookey only appeared sixty episodes into the saga and has yet to do anything significant, Inteleon got incredibly rushed development, and where the hell did Cindercae go and what even was its development?
I legitimately miss theses days. TPCI hasn't even tried to replicate this. Music is one department TPCI has failed dramatically in with the poor decision to replace music featured in the original with the dullest music possible. I just miss those days when the music had some heart and soul. The days of Together Forever, 2 B A Master, You and Me and Pokemon, and better dub music.
This is honestly one of the more weirder aspects of Journeys for me. The pokemon feel so irrelevant and unimportant it's very hard to care about them when they're actually given a role or an episode. Hell, even if some pokemon in the past didn't get episodes, they still got to be treated as a part of the cast as they were characters as well! Most of the mons are pushed to the background, Goh's pokemon essentially fall into the roles of CotD's or occasional recurring characters with very little substance in them, and the pokemon that has gotten the most focus episodes in Journeys has added literally nothing of value to the narrative one way or another. That is the level we're at.
What makes it even WORSE though is they rushed it for Team Plasma and then they still had enough episodes left for a filler series... the league could have been put after Team Plasma, that way we'd have got a much longer league.
Honestly? I'd rather more Galar Gym Leaders show up. The writers are dead-set against showing much of Galar and that includes the new Pokémon. Why else would Dracovish and Sirfetch'd suddenly vanish? The only exception are the starters and even then one doesn't do anything and the other is gone.
I gotta admit: I'm absolutely terrified of Paul returning because I know there's a royal chance of JN screwing him up. Guy has to be, at least imo (and I guess that's another potentially controversial opinion that I have), one of the best written characters of this entire anime. And just like you said: there's not a lot to add to his character anymore. He's one of the only characters in this anime that had a completed, full circle, well-rounded story line. No way they can top DP at this point. And Ash and Paul have both ''finished'' (so to speak) their rivalry and we saw the impact they had on each other already. It's all said and done and I don't see the point to reopen a closed door.
Middle child syndrome.
