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I'm curious. Why do so many people dislike Best Wishes?

Gligarman

Unova! Represent!!
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I'm not here to defend the series or anything but I did enjoy Best Wishes for what it was. But I have noticed that it seems to get a considerable amount of hate compared to the other shows. I've been out of the loop for a while so I'm genuinely curious as to why fans were particularly harsh toward this series.
 
Generally speaking (and these aren't my opinions necessarily):

-- Following Ash's semi-final placement in Diamond and Pearl, natural progression was expected in Best Wishes. However, Ash lost his first battle to a beginner trainer with a newly acquired Snivy, and from there his competence fluctuated wildly. Put simply, the feeling was that he had regressed from Diamond and Pearl.

-- On that note, Ash attempted to catch a Deerling without battling it early on as well - the sort of rookie mistake he's made before but seen as unforgivable at this stage. It's common opinion that he was dumbed down for the season.

-- Ash caught more Pokemon than he ever did in a single season but a lack of party rotation meant a good number of them ended up seeing little screen time. The three starters tended to dominate but none of them fully evolved, with Tepig only becoming a Pignite. His team, on a whole, wasn't as well developed as it could have been.

-- Iris was regarded as annoying character for her frequent jabs at Ash. "What a child" became a hate catchphrase.

-- Trip was a poor rival, lacking the intensity of Paul and never having a decent battle with Ash.

-- The league was a mess, with a filler episode shoehorned in the middle of it, and Ash ultimately losing to a trainer dumber than he is who only brought five Pokemon to a 6v6 fight. Following his performance in DP, this was a massive step backwards and something of a piss take.

-- Too much filler following Episode N, bringing the season to a low key conclusion.

So I guess BW gets a lot of hate because it wasn't a good enough continuation of Diamond and Pearl. In terms of battles, characters and rivalries the quality dropped.
 
Here are several reason for why I think it is disliked:
1. Iris insulting Ash throughout the whole region.
2. Iris got given a Dragonite with powerful moves instantly instead of Axew fully evolving.
3. Ash losing to Cameron.
4. Ash landing top 8 of the league instead of going top 4 or higher.
5. Charizard's return ruin any last chance of developing his Unova pokemon.
6. Ash caught a bit too many pokemon which is why he hasn't got a fully evolved starter.
7. Trip didn't fully evolve all his pokemon.
 
Because of the way they made him dumber than usual, and weakened Pikachu even More, the Unlikable Characters(I'm looking at you specifically Iris), the fact he did even w-o-r-s-e than in any of his other leagues, and that's just only just scratching the surface of the tip of the iceburg of numerous things to NOT like about Black & White.
 
To me, much of the problems that fans had with Best Wishes revolves around three things from the old past: Ash, Team Rocket, and marketing.

Diamond and Pearl set a new bar of expectation for Ash's progression as a trainer and a character. He was more competent and a lot stronger than he was in the Advanced Generation and the Original series. Even when they had to bring down his power level at the beginning of DP to make his struggle against Paul a lot more intense, they end up justifying it over time with Paul revealing to be an experienced trainer (with his starter being Torterra instead of Chimchar). As a result, it was logical to assume that they would take Ash to new heights of challenge in BW as oppose to resetting his power again. Best Wishes ended up destroying that notion of progression by making Ash not only look weak but look dumb as well. Not helped by the fact that BW showed off stuff from the past at the beginning yet still reminding people that Ash is still ten. And since Ash is our main character and thus the focus of the series, things that could have stand on its own in BW were overshadowed by Ash's regression. Anything that reminded fans of Ash's regression has been seen in a negative light and Iris got the blunt of it because of the writers' attempt to emulate Misty's interaction with Ash.

Team Rocket, on the other hand, were given a promotion and a new level of competence that finally made them threatening. For many fans, it was initially a welcome change of pace as Team Rocket was wearing out their welcome as comedic villains who are more of a nuisance that you want to get rid of instead of being entertaining characters. However, this was a sudden change of character that didn't follow naturally and BW Team Rocket ended being criticized as boring drones who lost their original charm. This controversial change is notably one of the few things that was reverted back by the end of BW (they brought Wobbuffet back at the last episode). However, it ended proving that Team Rocket wasn't really necessary to the anime anymore (as this was the first series where they start being absent from a good amount of episodes).

The final major thing is the adherence to marketing. It is no secret that Team Plasma vs Team Rocket's two part episode special was never aired thanks to the Earthquake/Tsunami of 2011 in Japan. And it threw the BW schedule into a mess, but it could have been salvageable had they found the right time to either air that two-parter again or find another way to reintroduce Team Plasma (original) back into the show. But when B2W2 came out, suddenly any attempts to re-rail the planned story again has been put down for good thanks to Neo-Team Plasma and their more obviously evil attire. Everything was rewritten to promote the new games and what was meant to be a potentially great Team Plasma story arc ended up being a small scale arc known as Episode N, and an arc of nothing but fillers and waiting time for Kalos. The Decolora Arc was a sign that the writers gave up on BW at the very end.

I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that many aspects of the Team Flare's arc came from the scrapped plans for Team Plasma.
 
It's funny, in retrospect even though I enjoyed BW it was a bit of a mess at times compared to what I've seen in XY so far (I'm still marathoning that show. I have 10 episodes left before I get to XYZ). While I do feel that after so many years of production they had earned the right to experiment a bit I think their attempt at a soft reboot to attract new fans backfired. In fact I showed the first episode of the series to my anime club shortly after the Japanese broadcast and they all assumed they were starting over. How else would you explain Pikachu losing to a fresh starter? Obviously that didn't work at all so I always assumed that's why they brought back Charizard as a clear act of fanservice. One thing I've always been pretty adamant about though is that his Pokemon need to evolve and when they don't it just feels pointless.

Also I do remember thinking toward the end of the show "Why is Iris here again?"
 
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The main problem with BW is the bar the DP set, in terms of Ash's progression and quality. In DP, we saw Ash reach new heights as he surpassed his skill levels set in the OS and AG. He utilized new strategies all the time in DP and thought outside the box. Here, he actually reached the Top 4 and defeated what many believed to be an unstoppable Legendary Pokemon...Then we move onto BW. On its own, BW was mediocre, but the bar that DP set made it that much worse. Here are all of my reasons why I personally didn't like the series.

  1. Ash's reset was played out so horrendously here. We go from a trainer who can take down a LEGENDARY to a trainer who loses to a level 5 Snivy. Pikachu's Electric powers were temporarily shut down due to Zekrom, but even then with Quick Attack and Iron Tail, Pikachu still should have been able to beat that Snivy. On top of this obvious flaw, Ash forgets many things we previously see him being well aware about. I remember he tried to catch a Deerling without even battling it, which is something he'd never do after his first journey. I remember other things like Ash forgetting about special abilities and type match ups at times, but special abilities are a thing that can pass, because how was he supposed to know right off the bat that a Pokemon he's never seen before like Frillish had Cursed Body.
  2. Iris is a character I genuinely got irritated by. I think the writers tried way too hard to emulate the past bickering that Ash had with Misty, though this failed because it was so one sided and Iris' constant remark "You're such a kid!" got so annoying so quickly. She'd criticize Ash at every chance with this infamous line. I also didn't like how it felt like she got many things handed to her on a silver platter, particularly her overpowered Dragonite, though granted it took a long time for it to trust her. She was a very frustrating character to have traveling with Ash and she certainly brought down the series to me.
  3. Trip was also a pretty bad attempt as a Paul expy. Characters with a similar look and a similar personality who were always at odds with Ash. Trip was a failed chance for a decent rival. Paul set the bar pretty high for rivals and the writers tried too hard to make Trip like Paul in some ways, though failed. He quickly got annoying with his constant remark "That's basic!" and at times, he came off more as boring. There was no development between his and Ash's rivalry. Ash would just ask to battle, he'd lose, and then Trip would make some condescending comment. On top of a failed rivalry, the final battle was an anticlimactic one on one between Pikachu and Serperior, rather than a full battle, which Ash never got with him oddly.
  4. The battles themselves were very stale and often had two Pokemon just exchanging attacks without implementing much strategy and counters. It was a huge step down from many of the battles in DP, in terms of choreography, strategy, and visuals. Ash's battle with Clay, Brycen, and his battle with Stephan might have been great, but generally, the battles in BW were so bland. Look at his battle with Elesa? Her last Pokemon was a Tynamo that only knew TACKLE. There was no Volt Switch madness or anything that the games had. The battles were generally boring.
  5. The way they handled Ash's team was just bad. Because he caught so many Pokemon, some of them were overshadowed or very underdeveloped. Many Pokemon as well were failed opportunities, like Oshawott and Snivy. I originally thought he was going to be a powerhouse and evolve, though he was reduced to comic relief and never grew. Snivy could have grown, evolve, and learn new moves as well. There was a chance to explore Snivy's past with her previous trainer, though that failed. Overall, the Pokemon in this series were just underdeveloped and poorly handled.
  6. Team Plasma's arc was abandoned very early, due to the earthquake. They built this up as a pretty big deal and it looked very exciting, though all traces of Team Plasma was abandoned until Episode N at the tail end of the series. It had a lot of potential and they really could have made great antagonists, given how they want to separate humans and Pokemon and we know Ash would have stood up against them. The abandonment of this plot really derailed the series.
  7. The Unova League was a complete mess. They rushed through most of it and only gave Ash three battles really. His battle with his primary rival was so anticlimactic, especially due to the fact that it was poorly choreographed and that it was only a one on one. Things were generally rushed and to make things worse, a completely pointless filler episode was added, when it could have been used to show Ash battle someone instead. Moving on, Ash vs. Stephan was great, though...Cameron...Ugh...This character proved to be more moronic than BW Ash and it was so frustrating to see Ash lose to a guy who only brought five Pokemon to a full battle, because he thought a full battle was five on five. The regression was painful. Seeing Ash go from the Top 4 in Sinnoh to the Top 8 in Unova was not a pretty sight.
  8. The Decalore Islands arc at the tail end of the series was honestly pretty pointless. There were about 20 filler episodes they could have used to improve on the league or Episode N, but they chose to primarily use the last 20 or so episodes for nothing really. Sure they introduced Alexa and the Kalos Region. Oh, and Professor Oak got a Rotom, but other than that...Nothing.
All of these reasons are why I did not like the BW series.
 
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I believe it's mainly Ash being sometimes stupid and lose some battles he should have won and Iris being very annoying to a lot of people. And gen1 people just dislike gen5, misty hits ash with a log it's totally fine, iris calls ash a little kid everyone lose their mind. And yeah, first episode Ash lost to a lvl 5 snivy then first gym battle lost against a simipour ._. Some people find Cilan annoying too, at least a lot of people like Brock way more than Cilan. Trip never had a really good battle with Ash either ._. The serperior makes no sense, fast as a heck but always get one shotted somehow. But I think the main reason is Ash being dumber than he is in DP and Iris .-.
 
There's just too much complain about this season, like a lot of it, mostly coming from Ash being resetted to the point where he first left to challenge the Kanto league and Iris, there was also in my opinion at least:
  1. Poor development on some characters and plots
  2. Trip being a dollar store version of Paul (no offense here)
  3. Team Plasma being mixed with the new one from B2W2 for a horrible result
  4. Ash catching more than 6 Pokemon in the region, I get 7 but 9? too much
  5. Drayden not being battled by Ash and instead Ash battling Roxie in a 6v3 battle
  6. Dawn's return was pretty forced than the other female companions
  7. Charizard could have a better moveset than this: Flamethrower (forgive), Wing Attack, Slash and Dragon Tail
  8. Cheren not being one of Ash's rivals but Bianca is one of his rivals
  9. No mention of Ash's accomplishments until Episode N
  10. Ash being hinted at getting a Legendary but turning out to be a troll, could have happened in my opinion
  11. Cameron a trainer who didn't know that the Unova league is in Unova defeated Ash with only 5 frigging Pokemon
  12. Iris being given an OP Pokemon before Ash
  13. Team Rocket going all serious mode and loosing Wobbuffet, glad to see him back though
  14. Poor development for Ash's Unova team, especially Palpitoad
  15. The battles were not high quality like in the DP series and were horrible to watch at times (Ash VS Elesa)
And the list goes on and on
 
I believe it's mainly Ash being sometimes stupid and lose some battles he should have won and Iris being very annoying to a lot of people. And gen1 people just dislike gen5, misty hits ash with a log it's totally fine, iris calls ash a little kid everyone lose their mind. And yeah, first episode Ash lost to a lvl 5 snivy then first gym battle lost against a simipour ._. Some people find Cilan annoying too, at least a lot of people like Brock way more than Cilan. Trip never had a really good battle with Ash either ._. The serperior makes no sense, fast as a heck but always get one shotted somehow. But I think the main reason is Ash being dumber than he is in DP and Iris .-.

To be fair, there is a few key differences between Misty and Iris getting angry at Ash. When Misty did it, it was usually pretty justified due to Ash being such an inexperienced trainer. Admittedly, I don't think that Misty had much experience over Ash at the beginning of the original series, but she was more knowledgeable than he was and calling him out when he made rookie mistakes was understandable. By the time BW came around, Ash had a lot of experience under his belt and trying to do something similar with Iris didn't work. He had too much experience to be dismissed in a similar way to how Misty used to treat him, especially when Iris didn't seem like she was a rookie trainer until her backstory with Excadril was revealed, which still feels pretty forced when you consider how she was depicted for the first chuck of BW. Not to mention Iris calling out Ash on his immaturity just made her look like a giant hypocrite when she was just as immature as Ash, if not more so. I don't think it's a matter of favoritism for Misty. It's more like the key differences between the two characters and their relationships with Ash made the final results significantly different. It was basically way too late to try to recreate a similar dynamic that Ash and Misty had in Kanto, especially when it was primarily one sided with Iris belittling Ash with Ash rarely reacting to it. It was pretty rare whenever anyone reacted to Iris's catchphrase or called her out on being a hypocrite.

As others have pointed out, BW coming off right after DP definitely didn't help its case. I think it would have been poorly received if we got something like BW after AG or even after the OS, but coming off of DP with Ash getting to his then highest rank in a League tournament, defeating what many consider to be his best rival in the anime's run thus far, having some terrific battles, Dawn having the best development out of the female leads and handling Team Galactic so well only made BW's flaws larger for people.

Resetting Ash to make him more of an idiot even when it comes to battles was a terrible choice. Trying to capture a Deerling without battling it didn't bother me so much, but stuff like coming to a Gym battle with only one Pokemon and actually intended to sweep a Gym battle was completely moronic. Even OS Ash wouldn't have pulled a stunt that stupid.

Iris was definitely a huge problem for a lot of people, myself included. She came off annoying, just forced herself into the group and despite most of early BW giving the impression that she was a rookie trainer, she somehow turned out to be an extra special snowflake Dragon Master in training with special powers and could win nearly a hundred battles before being old enough to become a trainer. This was the same character who couldn't get Axew to learn Dragon Breath for the longest time and couldn't get Excadrill to listen to her for at least a year or two given how small she was in the flashback, but then Axew can learn overpowered moves like Giga Impact or Outrage and she can get an overpowered Dragonite to come along with her easily. All of Iris's accomplishments, aside from Axew learning Dragon Breath possibly, were so forced and undeserved.

Trip was an awful rival, especially after Paul. He felt like a poor attempt to capture that lightening in a bottle again, but making him a rookie trainer was a complete mistake. Despite how bad it was for Pikachu to lose to Snivy in their first battle, I was willing to let that slide at first to see where they were going for their rivalry. When they just wanted to make Ash the underdog of the rivalry again, I tuned out. Much like Iris, Trip would belittle Ash, mainly for making basic comments and for being from Kanto, but Ash didn't really react to it. There wasn't even much of a reason behind their rivalry other than Ash just wanting to battle Trip because he was there. Trip acting as if he was so much more experienced than Ash was definitely a problem.

Battles in general were pretty awful. There were few that really stood out and the Unova League was a complete mess. I didn't mind Ash vs. Trip being a one on one match. They didn't deserve a full battle with how lackluster of a rival Trip was and getting him out of the Unova League was the best choice they could have made by that point. The qualities of the battles themselves, throwing in a filler episode after rushing through most of Unova to get ther and how Ash lost to a moron were pretty huge issues.

The whole Team Plasma issue was another problem people had with BW. Obviously they had to work around the two parter due to the Earthquake, but I think the reason we never saw the two parter had more to do with B2/W2. With a new Team Plasma being introduced there, they might not have wanted to do much with the B/W Team Plasma. It would have been difficult to try to adapt both storylines, especially when the time skip for B2/W2 is kind of important.

Most people didn't care for the Decalore Islands arc since it was mostly filler episodes and Iris and Cilan coming to Kanto didn't really amount to much other than a sudden departure for them. Admittedly, I didn't think that most of the episodes there were that bad, but when they rushed throughout the Unova journey and Episode N only to end the series on a string of filler episodes, it is pretty frustrating.

There are a lot of problems with BW and like I said before, I think that this would have happened regardless of whether or not it came after DP. It does make some of the problems more obvious or possibly worse than they would have been, but it still probably wouldn't have been so well received among fans.
 
If you ask me, then I really loved this season because it was different than the games, and because I loved how the Diamond and Pearl been handles, I was happy that this time is different

Being differently is good thing to me, and to be honest I loved how they made both the first movie: both the victini's movies and the movie for the challenge between the kyurem and keldeo

1. When I saw the first three episodes, I didn't bothered too much, however what made bothered me in the first episode is trip.
2. the second and third episodes are fine, and I didn't hate such a kid in the first three episodes.
3. I loved that Ash got the three pokemons before the gym, and when I saw Cilan and how he is so funny with his talking, I felt that the canassour people are so funny and love talking but at the same time are great people who have a great brain.
4. I hate how he made funny of Ash in the match but I was happy that Ash made a nice Match and Nice Explotion for Cilan and How he helped both the Munna, Mosharna, Fannel, joy, The cute Junny, and the city, and for these reasons Cilan recognized him, but I hoped that he didn't asked about Iris, and his Stupid Iris.
5. I loved too much the Policewoman Jenny in this season, she was the cuties Junney I never Had in this Anime with her clothes and cut hair.
6. The Snivy Episode Was so Awesome, and Ash determination to help her and to catch her made Snivy suitable and cute pokemon even if she become tomboy after what happened to her.
7. And I loved the few episodes for Ash and cilan, but I hate that they tried to made Iris challenge cilan in the episode before the Match of the second Badge.
8. I loved how Lenora's Combination in the first match and I loved her cute lilipup. She played with Ash's mind and I felt like he was a small gym under her hand; because in the first time she made him to switch the pokemon and the next time to not switch the pokemon so it is a great idea. I hate that the only one who switch the pokemon is the pokemon master not the gym leader, but it is great that this time in this match, it was different case. Furthmore, I loved how Ash asked the oshowast even If I hate this pokemon, but still the idea was good, but I think that he made a mistake when he Asked Oshowast about using water gun. I think it was better if he used the razor shell for up to the watchog shoulder.
9. After few episode, I loved the episode about how he catch the swaddle and how he beat Burgh.
10. I hoped that the episode that was banned is apper, however I read in the website that it will appear after XY is finished. (Despite this, TVTokyo has said it will someday air, but only once an airdate that does not interrupt the schedule of the current series has been selected).
11. I hate the episode that the girl cannasous appeared. I felt that they want to make fun of her, and I hoped that she beat Cilan to make him recongize her ability.
12. this episode: "A UFO for Elgyem!" is one of the episodes that I liked so much in this season. I loved how the relationship between both the elgem and the scientist and how Cilan made them understand each other more and more.
13. "Gotta Catch A Roggenrola!" is one of the best episodes That i saw in this season Also. I love rogennrola and his evolutions and I am happy that Ash help him and catch him.
14. I loved the Audino Episode when Cilan is finally Show us his ability in investagtion for first time. Audino is my strongest pokemon when I played the pokemon BW for first time, and she was so cute. I noticed that one music in this episode is not from the season, no it is from BW if you guys remember.
15. Archeops In The Modern World!, I loved this episode because I saw the combiation between both Juniper and fennel. I loved them both.
16. zoura Is one of my best and cuties pokemon. I loved the episode: "Mo
vie Time! Zorua in "The Legend of the Pokémon Knight"!", however the episode for the film competation was better and much beautiful than this episode. I hate that they involved Iris in this episodes.
17.I hate how Ash beat beat the cannasious girl, But I loved the match between Ash and Dragon Buster. I love snivy so much and happy that he used her finally, and win with her. I loved how snivy won against in evolve in the don club, and I am happy that it beat bulbatoap in the gym battle.
18. I am not happy for the dragon Buster and For Bianca. Both are great and deserve more and ovre. I loved the first episode for Bianca, and how she catched the first pokemon, but still she lost to Ash.
19. "Purrloin: Sweet or Sneaky?", I loved this episode because I love purrolain, and to tell you the truth, they should fight the emonga in the first two episodes because he was doing a troubles but no pirrloin the one who should have a fight. i loved his cute trainer, finally when he make a big shock to both meowth and that pokemon it was awsome.
20. in this "Beheeyem, Duosion, and the Dream Thief!", as I said I loved both cilan, and the jenny and who they made a combination to solve this great episode, but I am with elegum more than his evolve.
21. Both the "Crisis From the Underground Up!" and "Battle for the Underground!" are interesting episodes. I loved how cilan was thinking to figure out what the problems. I loved how Ash had a big role in this episode. I loved the ideas that made by team rocket. this is the first season that I see team rocket being series, but anyway, I also loved how pikachu found a lot of ideas in this episode and how the pokemon had a roles in this episodes. I only hate iris, her pokemons, and who they want us to feel that she is working. I love dewabble so much and happy that he had a big help in this episode when pikachu ask him fr help.
22. I loved the episode when cilan catch this pokemon.

Next time, I will complete my evalution Time for the episodes that i love. in the second point, I also will saying about wjhy I loved the victini's movie and kyurem's movie. and finally, show you about what the things that made me don't want to see this season, even if I love this season




 
Well, Something similar may happen to SM if it turns out to be BW 2.0 after what Ash has achieved in XY.
 
I didn't even bother continuing Best Wishes after seeing Ash's stupidity episode after episode. Then we have Iris and her annoying "You're such a kid" phrase.
 
Three things:
1. They reset Ash to an idiot
2. They wasted the potential of the BW/B2W2 villain story. In hindsight, they could have used the extra weeks of Da! for a better written Episode N. 13 episodes wasn't short since all the other villain arcs had taken 13 episodes as well. (when I last summed up the average total appearances of the major teams, they ranged from 11 to 15) But they had to include fillers within those episodes.
It wasn't horrible, but compared to what we were given in the games, the entire arc ended up underwhelming.
3. Cameron. Just Cameron.
 
Everyone else has already done a dang fine job, but I'll still throw my hat in.

*ahem*

- Ash being a total idiot most of the time
- Most major battles being won not with strength, skill, or strategy, but with dumb luck, deus ex machinas, and the type chart being thrown out the window (of the top floor of a skyscraper). Which ties to--
- the 2nd Worst Badge Quest, and--
- Worst. League. EVER!
- Iris' storyline
- Some Gen 5 Pokémon being underused and largely absent while others were overly common
- Trip
- Cameron
- Virgil
- Dawn's guest stint
- Making the plot bend over backwards to bring in elements from the Sequel Games only to underuse or misuse them
- Charizard returning to much fanfare...then barely doing anything :eek:
- Annoying running gags crammed down our throats
- The TRio becoming less fun & interesting while STILL being defeated easily, but for a different, even worse reason; going from being weak & incompetent to giving up as soon as things went wrong. o_O
- DA
- The Worst Ash-tachii Break Up Ever :confused:
 
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