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Controversial opinions

I'm not a huge fan of the way he smiles now, those toothy grins are supposed to make him look determined or confident but it actually makes him look evil more than anything.

Compare left (AG) and right (JN)

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Agreed I hate the way JN Ash smiles. He looks nothing like his OG-XY design which were all similar to each other
 
That was from BW Ash and that wasn’t a strategy. It was literally “bring one Pokemon to a 3v3”
Technically speaking, it was still a strategy. It was still really stupid and easily one of the more infamous moments in BW, but Ash still spent more time actually thinking about how to battle Else instead of thinking about it on the spot. As a result, he made more mistakes and was more out of character even for BW.
 
Technically speaking, it was still a strategy. It was still really stupid and easily one of the more infamous moments in BW, but Ash still spent more time actually thinking about how to battle Else instead of thinking about it on the spot. As a result, he made more mistakes and was more out of character even for BW.
It shouldn’t be used as proof that “Ash should never strategize and the one time he did look what happened”
That was probably the dumbest thing Ash has done to date
 
It shouldn’t be used as proof that “Ash should never strategize and the one time he did look what happened”
That was probably the dumbest thing Ash has done to date
I was using it more as evidence as to why Ash doesn't work well with more conventional planning/strategizing prior to a battle. He still plans for what Pokemon to use for each battle, which is still a kind of strategy, so he isn't incapable of thinking at all. Ash just tends to do a better job with thinking on the fly than planning out more detailed strategies. That doesn't mean he's an idiot. It just means he has a different way to battle than what is seen as more typical or conventional.
 
Ash isn’t just good at pre-planning. Just like how some people aren’t good at rote learning but are really good at practically linking concepts. Ash is pretty similar to those people.
 
I don't mind Ash's battle style, however I agree that specially as of late it feels exaggerated to the point planning looks completely useless: VS Raihan, some parts of VS Volkner, VS Rinto and earlier VS Sawyer and VS Nanu. There should be a balance, like how Ash was in DP, he pulled out his crazy stuff but still made tactical switches. I think a Master Trainer should use both styles and be able to judge what's most useful for the situation they're in.

Also, sorry guys but calling the Elesa battle as an example of Ash being strategic is almost disrespectful. That was more Ash following a gut that Elesa wouldn't be able to knock out Palpitoad. By that logic Cameron = Sawyer.
 
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I don't mind Ash's battle style, however I agree that specially as of late it feels exaggerated to the point planning looks completely useless: VS Raihan, some parts of VS Volkner, VS Rinto and earlier VS Sawyer and VS Nanu. There should be a balance, like how Ash was in DP, he pulled out his crazy stuff but still made tactical switches. I think a Master Trainer should use both styles and be able to judge what's most useful for the situation they're in.

Also, sorry guys but calling the Elesa battle as an example of Ash being strategic is almost disrespectful. That was more Ash following a gut that Elesa wouldn't be able to knock out Palpitoad. By that logic Cameron = Sawyer.
And the times when Ash dominates throughout most of the match (vs Alain) he most likely loses. There was a stat that in the leagues (except for Sinnoh- Ash vs Paul and of course Ash vs Tobias subverted this trope) if Ash was struggling in the beginning he would win the match and if he was in control then he would lose and that bugs me.
Full health XY Ash-Greninja should be able to beat full health XY MCX so that fact that it lost makes zero sense, even more to the fact where they made Ash win the league the next season
 
I love Cynthia as a character, but she overstayed her return in this series prior to the Masters 8 Arc (I didn’t think her character was needed in JN083). I would like to think that Cynthia came back in these episodes because she’s so popular in this fanbase and the writers were pandering to the fanbase. A character being overused can hurt a character in the long run (Scrappy Doo is a perfect example of this).
 
My controversial opinion is that Pokémon is a children’s cartoon. It’s unrealistic for people to expect the child protagonists to be mature 100% of the time. They’re just kids. That’s why I enjoy it when Ash and his friends aren’t angels 100% of the time. It’s realistic. Children will make mistakes. That’s what makes their characters good.
 
I love Cynthia as a character, but she overstayed her return in this series prior to the Masters 8 Arc (I didn’t think her character was needed in JN083). I would like to think that Cynthia came back in these episodes because she’s so popular in this fanbase and the writers were pandering to the fanbase. A character being overused can hurt a character in the long run (Scrappy Doo is a perfect example of this).
I've been wondering if the writers wanted to bring back Cynthia earlier in the Sun and Moon series (since she was in the Alola games) but decided against it since her Japanese voice actress (Tomo Sakurai) originally planned to retire shortly before SM premiered in 2016. But then in 2019, Tomo Sakurai announced that she was coming out of retirement, and she was brought back very shortly afterwards in the next Pokémon series to voice Chloe's mother. Which made me wonder if they were considering bringing back Cynthia for quite a while and jumped at the chance once her VA became available again.
 
Cynthia only appears in the post-game of SM in the Battle Tree, and the anime usually ignores most post-game battle areas like that. I doubt Cynthia was ever going to appear in SM either way.
 
Cynthia only appears in the post-game of SM in the Battle Tree, and the anime usually ignores most post-game battle areas like that. I doubt Cynthia was ever going to appear in SM either way.
If I remember correctly, you could only meet Cynthia post-game in BW as well.
 
Lance and Steven were handled so poorly in OS and AG that it feels like the Champions were never depicted properly in the anime till Cynthia.

Lance was literally an afterthought in two villain arcs the second of which he took Steven's role from the games and screwed him over too. Journey's is the first time Lance was ever depicted as an actual champion
 
Honestly I hated the idea of Chloe’s Eevee staying an Eevee. Hopefully Chloe’s Eevee evolves if Chloe does return in the next series.
The only reason I personally didn't mind that much is just because I knew from the start that they weren't gonna evolve her, though I will admit that a small part of me was hoping for my expectations to be defied. Even then, though, if Chloe's Eevee had gotten the Eevium-Z, the Partner Moves, or even Gigantamax, the lact of an evolution would've at least been completely justified. But they didn't even do that, so...
 
I don't think that Chloe's Eevee not evolving bothers me that much. Since it seems unlikely for them to introduce a new Eevee evolution in Scarlet/Violet by the time they reached the conclusion to her storyline, I kind of figure that it wouldn't. I would have loved to be wrong since I think having Eevee evolve into a new evolution would have made sense given that it would be a bit unexpected after meeting all of the other evolutions. Maybe they didn't want to make Eevee less special since it probably wouldn't be able to use other Pokemon's moves if it did evolve.
 
I think the multiple series in a row with eevee was the problem. For example when Serena got an Eevee, it was a good 8 years after May had an Eevee in AG. As well as 3 series later, so it didn't feel redundant even before the Eevee's evolved. Nobody complained Serena got an Eevee even before we knew it would become Sylveon.

But then SM was right after XY and Lana's Eeevee just really proved unnecessary on the cast, and then the series after Koharu's. So now we're 3 series in a row with the female companion having Eevee.

If they spaced it out more like the May to Serena gap it wouldn't be an issue.
 
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