Controversial opinions

[RetroPokeFan]

And speaking of dynamics, what happened to Yamper? He was treated as Eevee's BFF for like three episodes and now he's practically disappeared off the face of the earth. Let him partake in the Eeveelution epsidoes at least. Help his baby sister decide what she wants to become.

I know. It's like poor little Yamper is secluded in it's own little private bubble, unallowed to interact with anyone asides from Chloe every now and then.

I thought it's debut episode would mean something for them but nooope...

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Honestly, Grookey/Eevee/Pikachu don't have enough interactions to even say that they have a dynamic, so idk why people are claiming that they do, let alone that they're a "replacement" for Raboot/Riolu/Pikachu. Eevee and Grookey only really interacted once, in the episode where they were tasked with delivering medicine, and Pikachu hasn't interected with either of them at all beyond the most casual of ways. So yeah, don't try to say that those three are a "new" dynamic because that's far from true. They don't have anywhere near enough interactions to even qualify as such.

And speaking of dynamics, what happened to Yamper? He was treated as Eevee's BFF for like three episodes and now he's practically disappeared off the face of the earth. Let him partake in the Eeveelution epsidoes at least. Help his baby sister decide what she wants to become.

To be fair. Raboot and Riolu didn't interact either until they evolved

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Journeys has thoroughly sacrificed pokemon development and interactions in favor of... what exactly? I legit can’t tell if there’s anything they’re doing that I would consider better than previous series.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

To be fair. Raboot and Riolu didn't interact either until they evolved

Well in that case maybe we should wait and see how this new "interactive" trio develops before casting judgement and automatically deciding that they're worse by default. That said, I still don't think that Grookey/Eevee/Pikachu are a trio, nor they should be. I don't think Grookey has a lot to offer to the dynamic besides being a bad influence on Eevee (and I'd MUCH rather have her dynamic with Yamper be brought back in some capacity anyway), and Pikachu... is just there.

 

[BigDocFan]

I really enjoy the Rocket Prize Master, apart from Chewtle, we've never seen the same Pokemon twice so its unpredictable what Pokemon we'll get

 

[Blob]

I really enjoy the Rocket Prize Master, apart from Chewtle, we've never seen the same Pokemon twice so its unpredictable what Pokemon we'll get

The only issue is that Jessie hasn't had a reason to capture anything in Journies.

Also since some of Jessie and James' Pokémon are with TR, shouldn't that mean they'll eventually throw Poké Balls out of the Prize Master for Pokémon they own? I wish that was brought up so we could see Seviper and Yamask again.

 

[Enzo]

I feel that a good analogy for JN, to me is like...

Imagine a really big cake, 5-tiers and all. It's a beautiful pice of art, with intricate designs, shock-full of candies, fruits, edible glitter, gold, basically the most beautiful cake you've ever seen in your life and it's so alluring and you just wanna vaccum that thing down in one go...

And you take a huge bite and it's made out of styrofoam. That's essentialy what this series has been for me. It seems so good at first glance, with so many promises: Ash taking on a world-wide challenge against so many opponents, with a super impressive team (on paper that is), travelling to all regions... And they go and make so the whole thing has no substance. No development, no arcs, the PWC is treated horribly, I could go on for hours.

That's sorta of what it is to me: gold and glitter, but filled with air.

 

[Enzo]

I do think @Lightning Flame Blast has a great point, actually.

JN sacrifices so much. Development for characters and Pokémon, plots being crammed into a single ep and not being well-written. And for what? Like, why on earth are they cutting so much down if they are not gonna do anything of good??? It's so bizzare because what is this extra time being used for?

 

[Sai]

There’s definitely arcs in the current series, it’s just after Ash’s Pokémon develop the writers move on from them. Far fetched had a training arc spread over 3 episodes with Wikstrom, the Gallade trainer and it’s evolution. But then it stopped. So yeah that is a problem.

As for everything else the writers are revisiting characters for further appearances. We’re seeing Opal again, more characterization for Leon and Raihan, the Project Mew stuff is going to go on for a long time, and Ash’s challenges have increased in importance. Koharu seems to have gotten a steady stream of development eps too lately which is good since she went long gaps without appearances in the first year.

But yeah Ash’s Pokémon do need more screentime outside of just battles. I wonder if it’s because of the lack of starters and then all being evolved Pokémon that makes the writers not care to show them much. In previous series all the Pokémon interactions were mostly between cute, small and unevolved Pokémon, but Ash doesn’t have those this series.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

In previous series all the Pokémon interactions were mostly between cute, small and unevolved Pokémon, but Ash doesn’t have those this series.

I'm going to have to disagree on that. Hawlucha and Noivern had a solid parental dynamic, and neither are exactly supposedly cute or small. Melmetal and Rowlet too had many interactions, as did Lycanroc and Incineroar. Greninja and Talonflame had a pretty consistent dynamic until XYZ, and Charizard still had a close friendship with Pikachu and Ash's other Kanto starters.

That being said, the issues with Ash's team get taken to a whole other level when you realize Goodra interacted with the entire Kalos team more than the Journeys team did. Goodra and Noivern even had a cute handshake greeting, while Dragonite has yet to even speak to Sirfetched or Gengar!

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Butterfree’s character arc>Greninja’s character arc

 

[ii kanji]

That's sorta of what it is to me: gold and glitter, but filled with air.

This is my major issue right now. I’ve bitten into the styrofoam so many times, that I don’t even want to look at the cake anymore. Even something like the simple filler episode last aired on Friday looked to me like it would be a laugh but turned out to be completely vacuous. I’m not even bothering to tune in on a weekly basis anymore but even the small investment of 20 minutes has negative emotional payout…

 

[Rockapheller]

I don't agree that Tracey did nothing during his time in the anime. It should be noted that he was around for about 30 episodes of the entire anime only, and it was the time Ash had a quite fast progressive quest to accomplish for the Orange League, so it made Tracey, as well as Misty, fade in the back compared to longer arcs of entire regions. But he expressed a quite distinctive personality during his short stay.

He is the first-ever Pokémon watcher that we have seen in flesh and bones, he is the first main character to have some talent that is not related to Pokémon, training or battling in any way, and more like something that reflects our real world, his drawing skills, he does not have a gag that would go overboard in any way, and he shares some similarities with Brock for the dynamics of the group.

Despite of his short time in the anime, the episode dedicated to himself and Scyther has a very well structure for the course of the events, and Scyther therefore has a unique bond with Tracey even though it didn't get to show it all that much.

I have no negative opinion regarding Tracey, and I believe he could have shown more of it, had he had the chance to stay in the show for a longer period of time where Ash would not necessarily be the main focus consistently to get over with an arc in particular.

 

[Sai]

Tracey generally suffers from the stigma of being a replacement character at a time in the anime when character replacements weren’t accepted and were considered a new and scary thing. Brock had also only been in the show for one season at that point so he was also at the height of his popularity

 

[Almonds]

James is the best trainer.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Tracey > Brock

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Tracey > Brock

Ehhhh.......I don't know about that one.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Ehhhh.......I don't know about that one.

Check out the thread's name.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

No, I know what the thread is, I'm just replying to your post. I was just trying to say that I'm not sure if I agree with what you wrote, that's all.

 

[Enzo]

After talking about it in the general anime thread, I figured it would be better to say it here: The writters are genuinely expecting anyone to still care about this supossed rivalry with Bea?

Bea and Ash interacted for just two eps and they barely got anything going on. It's not a rivalry such as Gary's, or Alain's, or much less Paul's. Not even close of either of those I just listed. Why do we have to be excited for it? We know almost nothing about Bea. The narrative doesn't makes me care about her, personally speaking. I guess she's fine and all, but there's not a lot going on for her. Her rivalry with Ash is super shallow is extremely poorly done.

And serious talk: you don't get to only use a character twice, not give her any sort of personality, story, or arc, define her as a rival for your protagonist, expend 42 episodes (it gets worse because this number is even higher since we don't know when she's gonna appear) without her even appearing physically or even mentioned by anyone, and conceivably expect anyone to still care about this character and her supossed role as a rival.