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Controversial opinions

Reader mode
My problem with showcases was that they were just Beauty Pageants
(Which didn't help that like multiple have said it was a Popularity contest)
As irl to me they seem kinda shallow

Like they definitely made sure that Serena was pretty in universe (like they kept having Serena being called attractive by guys like Tierno) which in my mind can't help but have me think she's getting the “pretty” points (pretty privilege exists irk that's not the issue) but it leans more into the popularity thing to me

And it unnecessarily hurt some of Jessie’s showcases that didn't do well as they weren’t “pretty”
But they were cool or interesting

So all in all they felt like the least interesting part of contests as at the end of the day the appeal is subjective rather than objective
Which is why the battle part of contests were crucial

And with the Aria thing to me it felt like what happened with May where she finally beat Drew her rival but next round gets beaten mostly off screen by Solidad but at least we kinda see May struggle and Solidad had game planned against her

Where I think with Aria if we had seen the the whole thing it would leave doubt as they would have to either blow Serena’s performance out the water or it would have been too close or too underwhelming either would have been hard to show so they did a offscreen thing which I felt was the only way they could don't realistically imo
Not that it was good but still
 
Turbo said:
My problem with showcases was that they were just Beauty Pageants
(Which didn't help that like multiple have said it was a Popularity contest)
As irl to me they seem kinda shallow

Like they definitely made sure that Serena was pretty in universe (like they kept having Serena being called attractive by guys like Tierno) which in my mind can't help but have me think she's getting the “pretty” points (pretty privilege exists irk that's not the issue) but it leans more into the popularity thing to me

And it unnecessarily hurt some of Jessie’s showcases that didn't do well as they weren’t “pretty”
But they were cool or interesting

So all in all they felt like the least interesting part of contests as at the end of the day the appeal is subjective rather than objective
Which is why the battle part of contests were crucial

And with the Aria thing to me it felt like what happened with May where she finally beat Drew her rival but next round gets beaten mostly off screen by Solidad but at least we kinda see May struggle and Solidad had game planned against her

Where I think with Aria if we had seen the the whole thing it would leave doubt as they would have to either blow Serena’s performance out the water or it would have been too close or too underwhelming either would have been hard to show so they did a offscreen thing which I felt was the only way they could don't realistically imo
Not that it was good but still
Click to expand...
It also seems like Serena was only allowed to have cute and pretty pokemon for showcases

Contrast that with dawn, who definitely has cute and pretty pokemon. She also had pokemon like mamoswine who could compete. Which helped show contest were more than just having cute and pretty pokemon. It was about showing off your pokemon. Even James (disguised as jessie) uses non pretty/cute pokemon like carnivine and serviper.

This makes showcases seem even more shallow.
Probably why they didn't have pancham evolve.
 
Dawn's only non-cute pokemon was Mamoswine. Togekiss was feminine and motherly and remember Cyndaquil didn't evolve till the series ended. I find it strange to bring this up because during DP a lot of people felt Dawn's pokemon were all too cute, small or feminized. Mamoswine was the only exception.
 
Picardluke said:
Dawn's only non-cute pokemon was Mamoswine. Togekiss was feminine and motherly and remember Cyndaquil didn't evolve till the series ended. I find it strange to bring this up because during DP a lot of people felt Dawn's pokemon were all too cute, small or feminized. Mamoswine was the only exception.
Click to expand...
It's not a perfect example I'll admit that. But that fact that she had mamoswine, instead of just keeping at as a cute swinub for contest still kinda proves my point. She definitely needed.more non cute and pretty pokemon

As well as the fact for James using carnivine, serviper, dustox ( I can see some calling it not cute)
 
The writers have always given the girls mostly cute or feminine pokemon. The SM girls, Koharu are an example of that too. I don't think Serena's team was too girly it's just Braixen looks very feminine.

Compare that so say Combusken another middle stage fire starter which looks more aggressive due to having claws and strong legs to kick.
 
Why didn't they make Serena do Contests from the beginning, that's it after her Arc of finding a Goal?

This reminds me how much I tend to dislike 'Popularity Power' in other animes.

Cuteness, like beauty, is a very subjective concept.
For example; I think that both Dokukeiru and Megayanma are cute, same about Doramidoro or Sazandora.
 
Unireon said:
Why didn't they make Serena do Contests from the beginning, that's it after her Arc of finding a Goal?

This reminds me how much I tend to dislike 'Popularity Power' in other animes.

Cuteness, like beauty, is a very subjective concept.
For example; I think that both Dokukeiru and Megayanma are cute, same about Doramidoro or Sazandora.
Click to expand...
Well the outside reason is most likely that Contests weren't in the games X&Y so the didn't force them in the anime similar to Unova and other regions like Alola and Galar (so far)

And when ORAS was announced it maybe was too late as they had to give Serena something so they did another anime original, which as we would see XY would do quite a bit of

I also think cuteness is subjective, but at least in the anime and games there's some baseline as most consider Pokemon like Pikachu cute which is why when the other Pokemon that aren't considered cute don't get the same treatment it sucks more
 
I still don't get why Aria's performance wasn't animated. What a total waste of an opportunity. If they wanted to focus on Serena's development and self-reflection during that time, they still could have done that and show exactly why Aria is better than Serena at Performing; after Serena flew with her Pokémon during her Performance, I thought that hard to top. It was the finale of Serena's goal, the pinnacle of her practice and what she had spent over a year working towards - May (twice) and Dawn got to have final affairs in their respective tangible pursuits, and Ash always does, so why not Serena? A lackluster finish for an equally bland, last minute "goal."

That aside, I have several misgivings for Showcases. As others have mentioned, Showcases were indeed a poorly executed concept; even the name is a misnomer as what it should have been called was "Kalos Ms. Popular!" They're so bad, that Serena got put on the Contest track anyway despite Performances being an attempt to get away from it. What was the point if the viewers of Kalos were all ultimately going to vote for Aria, because they like her that much? There wasn't even a possibility that Serena would win, which I found a bit insulting towards her character. If the gap was narrower between the two, it'd be understandable - but Serena being that far behind in points compared to Aria further undermined the elements of Showcases, because at the end of the day, the writers cemented it's about the person rather than the Pokémon; Aria could have just brought her Delphox with her and spun circles with it, and still would have won. Apparently, Serena should have focused on developing her brand/public image and being well known in Kalos outside of Showcases. Which, actually would have been a unique concept, but the writers never manifested that.

And that isn't even going into the contrived "trials" they would add in before the main event, most of which Serena conveniently excelled in (Rhyhorn herding? Really? What does that have to do with a Contest knockoff?). I also was disappointed that no one was animated using a full party of Pokémon for a Performance, the one saving grace that Performances can potentially have over Contests. I mean, just think of the spectacular performances an entire party could put on, rather than the maximum of three we were given.

And for the controversial take, I also thought it in poor taste that Showcases were only for girls and women. If Pokémon wasn't something that anyone could experience, then I'd have no qualms - I would encourage it even. But girls and boys can be Pokémon Trainers, Gym Leaders, Breeders, Champions, take on Gym Challenges, do Island Challenges, be Coordinators, etc. So, to create something (that heavily drew inspiration from an inclusive Pokémon career no less), and arbitrarily at that, that may alienate a large number of people and children was stupid to me, I'll be honest. Playing up the femininity of Serena's career, and big part of her agency, has most likely contributed to why so many see her as a love interest for Ash and nothing more.
 
The amount of Screentime a Pokemon gets is not an equivalent to actual character development.

Case in point. Look at the amount of screentime Grookey gets. Does it have development tho?

It's still the same Grookey we met back in JN59. Nothing substantial has happened to it since.


Compared that with Cinderace who has definitely goe through a lot despite it's lack of screentime. The Cinderace in JN103 isn't the same character we met in JN04
 
Last edited:
Picardluke said:
I think most of us realized that when Misty's Togepi was on-screen for 200 episodes and didn't have any development until Misty left. :p

I don't think any pokemon can beat 200 episodes or so of not doing much of anything than Togepi, lol
Click to expand...
Just one reason why I didn't like that little Spike Ball annoyance. Misty's Togepi was just kinda......useless. I mean, it had those random Metronome moments where it would save the day, but those were few and and far between. If there's one thing I can't stand in the Pokemon anime, it's when Pokemon are just held in somebody's arms (looking at you SM,) and do pretty much nothing.
 
Kiawe wasn't that good of a rival. He battled ash only a few times. And the only battle he ever finished with ash was at the end of the series, which we didn't even get to see. Which makes it all the more jarring when he chastised goh for being a bad rival for ash. I just find it baffling that they never decided to give us a full on battle with him and ash. Like why??

His kahuna goal should of been at the beginning of the series. Heck I feel like he could of had some interesting Interactions with hapu. Considering she was a new island kahuna and his dream was to become that, but nah. I feel like all his episodes surrounding him were just he loses a battle, he gets sad and mops, does special training, than wins in the rematch.

Also wish they gave him the dancing goal in the games. Would of been interesting. But I feel like they thought it would of been to "girly" for him. The SM anime was kinda weird like that. Like the scenes where the girls go shopping and the boys just seem not interested. Like guys like shopping too
 
Weddingbells said:
Kiawe wasn't that good of a rival. He battled ash only a few times. And the only battle he ever finished with ash was at the end of the series, which we didn't even get to see. Which makes it all the more jarring when he chastised goh for being a bad rival for ash. I just find it baffling that they never decided to give us a full on battle with him and ash. Like why??

His kahuna goal should of been at the beginning of the series. Heck I feel like he could of had some interesting Interactions with hapu. Considering she was a new island kahuna and his dream was to become that, but nah. I feel like all his episodes surrounding him were just he loses a battle, he gets sad and mops, does special training, than wins in the rematch.

Also wish they gave him the dancing goal in the games. Would of been interesting. But I feel like they thought it would of been to "girly" for him. The SM anime was kinda weird like that. Like the scenes where the girls go shopping and the boys just seem not interested. Like guys like shopping too
Click to expand...
SM felt lost the whole time. Should Ash do trials? Should Ash collect Z-Crystals? Should his friends be developed instead? Should Ash be a moron? Should the show have sexist stereotypes? Should Ash's friends who were trial captains in the anime aim for that goal? Should Ash and co. do special Ultra Beast missions? Should 80% of the anime be filler? Should Ash have Hau as a rival? Should Lillie and Galdion sort things out with their dad? Should Ash be champion this time?

The show is OK as a whole, but the fillers really bog it down, especially since the writers steamroll through important plot points and take forever for other characters to show up. 30+ filler episodes could have been used on more USUM features, showing the rest of the Z-Moves and developing Kiawe.
 
Blob said:
SM felt lost the whole time. Should Ash do trials? Should Ash collect Z-Crystals? Should his friends be developed instead? Should Ash be a moron? Should the show have sexist stereotypes? Should Ash's friends who were trial captains in the anime aim for that goal? Should Ash and co. do special Ultra Beast missions? Should 80% of the anime be filler? Should Ash have Hau as a rival? Should Lillie and Galdion sort things out with their dad? Should Ash be champion this time?

The show is OK as a whole, but the fillers really bog it down, especially since the writers steamroll through important plot points and take forever for other characters to show up. 30+ filler episodes could have been used on more USUM features, showing the rest of the Z-Moves and developing Kiawe.
Click to expand...
Man there was alot of missed opportunity in SM. One of them being mallows mom. Which they neglected to mention before the mist episode and the complete forgot about after the episode.

The fact that they never really explained why mimikyu hates Pikachu. Just treated as a gag that was resolved in the last few minutes of the final episode.

The "relationship" between Meowth and Litten which was just one sided.

Lana not catching dewpider. Or her goal not being a trial captain.

Guzma showing up in the last few episodes of the show for some odd reason.

The girls never having an episode to themselves and showing their group dynamic like the boys did.

Alot of relationship dynamics being forgotten or not ever explored, despite being such a big group. Like mallow and lily. Lily and kiawe. Kiawe and Lana. Sopochles and mallow.

Etc.
 
Blob said:
SM felt lost the whole time. Should Ash do trials? Should Ash collect Z-Crystals? Should his friends be developed instead? Should Ash be a moron? Should the show have sexist stereotypes? Should Ash's friends who were trial captains in the anime aim for that goal? Should Ash and co. do special Ultra Beast missions? Should 80% of the anime be filler? Should Ash have Hau as a rival? Should Lillie and Galdion sort things out with their dad? Should Ash be champion this time?

The show is OK as a whole, but the fillers really bog it down, especially since the writers steamroll through important plot points and take forever for other characters to show up. 30+ filler episodes could have been used on more USUM features, showing the rest of the Z-Moves and developing Kiawe.
Click to expand...
And after the amazing XY series enthralled me every me step of the way, SM had me damn near bored to tears. Like, Alola's beautiful and everything, and the locales are friendly, but.......that only takes you so far. Where was the action? The adventure? The filler just dragged on waaaaay too long for my taste. And they were only good fillers sometimes. The rest of the time.....boooring. Which is a good word to describe the SM series compared to the series that came before it......boring.
 
SM has its charm, but I think they really did poorly with the Island Challenge. It was largely an after thought, and it didn't really matter at the end because you didn't need to complete it to be a registered competitor for the Manalo Conference. At times, SM felt like it had no direction. I sat here going when is Ash gonna do another trial? Is the Island Challenge even a thing still? The way they handled the Island Challenge was certainly one of SM's weakest aspects.
 
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