Things you wish that did NOT happen in the anime

[sunsstone]

But not for Rowlet. Litten evolved into a full-grown Incineroar and there's Rowlet sitting on its chest. Poor Rowlet not evolving into Decidueye.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

My understanding is that Incineroar is much more popular in Japan than out here, and similarly Decidueye is more popular in the west than in Japan. That is probably playing into things.

Pixiv search results says otherwise:

Primarina: 1207 results
Decidueye: 1137 results
Incineroar: 858 results

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Pixiv search results says otherwise:

Primarina: 1207 results
Decidueye: 1137 results
Incineroar: 858 results

Incineroar's more popular in a magazine poll conducted in Japan, though. Similar to the poll where Greninja ended up being the #1 Pokemon. I’m inclined to accept those results since they’re not influenced by factors like desire to draw a Pokemon, whether or not it’s waifu material and non-westerners can join Pixiv too iirc.

And it’s pretty clear Incineroar was intended to be the popular starter, seeing M20, Masked Royal's Incineroar, and Smash and the popular Tiger Mask reference and wrestling being popular in Japan.

Here are the pictures of the top Pokémon,

Spoiler: Image

View attachment 110960

Rowlet is clearly the most popular base stage here, and the most popular Pokémon, so the choice to make Rowlet the base stage of the Gen makes sense.

And if that wasn’t enough, it’s clear at this point which one is considered by the writers and marketing team of Pokémon as more popular.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Incineroar's more popular in a magazine poll conducted in Japan

Primarina is more popular, so it's not the most popular final stage of the starters.
Litten is more popular, so it's not the most popular stage of its evolutionary line.
Rowlet is most popular, so it's not even belong to the most popular evolutionary line.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Primarina is more popular, so it's not the most popular final stage of the starters.
Litten is more popular, so it's not the most popular stage of its evolutionary line.
Rowlet is most popular, so it's not even belong to the most popular evolutionary line.

Seeing that Ash doesn’t fit with Primarina at all (and it’s Lana's job to promote it anyway) when Ash is concerned idk why are you using Primarina in your comparison. The original discussion was which evolutionary stage of Rowlet or Litten should Ash. This automatically brings down discussion to Decidueye and Incineroar.
Rowlet's popularity far éclipses that of Decidueye and the other starters, making it the logical choice to be the base stage of the saga.

 

[ValorSugarcakes]

Two things that I wish that would never happen in the SM anime

- Torracat losing after evolution (Like really. Out of all the 800 pokemon, It had to be Torracat!!!

- The Alolan Meowth joining Team Rocket (I was hoping for the debuted Alolan Meowth to go against team rocket, not join Team Rocket. Thank god there’s the Alolan Meowths that Nanu owns)

 

[Daenerys]

I going to be salty about this but I want to forget that Misty lost to an IRRELEVANT Trinity in the Quarter Finals of the Whirlpool Cup during the Johto Saga.

I mean it was no worse than Ash losing to someone like Tobias, who he knew almost nothing about. At least Misty spoke to Trinity prior to their match and her loss against Trinity's Chinchou wasn't as cheap as say, Tobias pulling a Latios out of his arse.

 

[Shadowlarvitar]

Lana's Primarina.
That is all.

Completely forced and not to mention just flat out unfair to poor Torracat, whose been a Torracat for 100 episodes!
Most undeserved evolution ever

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I’m convinced that the writers hate Torracat and we’re forced to write a battle focused one till now because they were forced to by someone. (Or they're huge Rowlet and Lana fans).

Torracat is literally the most unused starter till now owned by Ash (not even an hyperbole). Even in terms of not-Ash-owned starters it’s only second to Brock's marshtomp.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Torracat is literally the most unused starter till now owned by Ash (not even an hyperbole). Even in terms of not-Ash-owned starters it’s only second to Brock's marshtomp.

I'd say that at least Totodile was more underused than Torracat. It only took part in one Gym battle and didn't really get a lot of screentime compared to Bayleef and Cyndaquil. Torracat has at least more presence by comparison. I don't think that I'd put it on the same level as Brock's Marshtomp either. I haven't seen the more recent episodes yet, but it still doesn't feel like Torracat has been treated that badly to me yet. I haven't forgotten that Torracat exists or amazed that it's actually going to do something like I have with Ash's Rowlet.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I'd say that at least Totodile was more underused than Torracat. It only took part in one Gym battle and didn't really get a lot of screentime compared to Bayleef and Cyndaquil. Torracat has at least more presence by comparison. I don't think that I'd put it on the same level as Brock's Marshtomp either. I haven't seen the more recent episodes yet, but it still doesn't feel like Torracat has been treated that badly to me yet. I haven't forgotten that Torracat exists or amazed that it's actually going to do something like I have with Ash's Rowlet.

I haven’t watched OS in a long time, but I remember totodile being used for a lot of gags...

It isn’t on the same level as Brock’s marshtomp. I said “second to” Brock’s marshtomp. There’s still quite a bit of difference in those two.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I haven’t watched OS in a long time, but I remember totodile being used for a lot of gags...

It isn’t on the same level as Brock’s marshtomp. I said “second to” Brock’s marshtomp. There’s still quite a bit of difference in those two.

Totodile's main gag was its love of dancing, but it was still quite underused, even among the rest of Ash's Johto team. Besides that, one of Ash's starter Pokemon being primarily used for gags isn't really a good thing either. I think Totodile dancing gag gives it more personality than something like Rowlet sleeping all the time, but it still rarely had any screentime. It didn't get to the point where I wondered why Ash caught it, but Totodile was definitely more unused than Torracat was. Regardless of how Torracat screentime is now, at least it had some battles and evolved. The most attention Totodile had was when it fell in love for one episode.

Even saying that Torracat is second to Brock's Marshtomp seems pretty harsh to me. I don't think I'd go that far when Torracat still has some presence on Ash's team. I know I haven't seen the recent episodes yet, but I just can't imagine thinking that Torracat is that underused just because Rowlet has been getting more attention lately.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Totodile's main gag was its love of dancing, but it was still quite underused, even among the rest of Ash's Johto team. Besides that, one of Ash's starter Pokemon being primarily used for gags isn't really a good thing either. I think Totodile dancing gag gives it more personality than something like Rowlet sleeping all the time, but it still rarely had any screentime. It didn't get to the point where I wondered why Ash caught it, but Totodile was definitely more unused than Torracat was. Regardless of how Torracat screentime is now, at least it had some battles and evolved. The most attention Totodile had was when it fell in love for one episode.

Even saying that Torracat is second to Brock's Marshtomp seems pretty harsh to me. I don't think I'd go that far when Torracat still has some presence on Ash's team. I know I haven't seen the recent episodes yet, but I just can't imagine thinking that Torracat is that underused just because Rowlet has been getting more attention lately.

Point taken about Totodile, since I don’t really remember much of the Johto OS.

In the recent episodes Rowlet seems to be getting attention to the amount of eclipsing any Pokemon short of Lycanroc (even that because it got the attention in the first part of the series).
For a Pokemon whose entire point was becoming stronger by battling, it has had literally 2 opponents in this series- Ash's Lycanroc and the Masked Royal.

By contrast, Rowlet has been used a lot, and learnt 3 moves in a short time span if I’m not mistaken.
I guess Torracat isn’t so unused compared to Totodile but I expected more from it.

 

[sucreine]

This is a super minor thing but I was literally just thinking about this before I saw this thread: I really wish Lana didn’t clip Eevee’s hair. He was so much cuter with his dopey, messy hair. It fit his personality way more than... whatever that cut he has now is. Lol.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Point taken about Totodile, since I don’t really remember much of the Johto OS.

In the recent episodes Rowlet seems to be getting attention to the amount of eclipsing any Pokemon short of Lycanroc (even that because it got the attention in the first part of the series).
For a Pokemon whose entire point was becoming stronger by battling, it has had literally 2 opponents in this series- Ash's Lycanroc and the Masked Royal.

By contrast, Rowlet has been used a lot, and learnt 3 moves in a short time span if I’m not mistaken.
I guess Torracat isn’t so unused compared to Totodile but I expected more from it.

To be fair, SM isn't really a battle heavy series, the Island Challenge is pretty much an afterthought and I don't think that Ash has much of any rivalry for this series. I know that there's Gladion and Hau, but neither of them give off the impression that he considers them rivals. So that does limit how many opponents and battles Torracat would have. Even the last few Grand Trials were focused primarily on Ash's other Pokemon, so it couldn't get a chance to shine during those matches either. If SM was more like DP or XY in terms of battles, then Torracat would have gotten at least a couple of battles after evolving.

I wouldn't say that Rowlet has been used a lot. It was featured in two Grand Trial battles, which still counts for something, but considering that it spent most of the series just sleeping in Ash's backpack, I don't think it has been used that much more frequently than Torracat. It definitely didn't learn three moves in a short span of time either. There was a twenty two episode gap between Rowlet learning Razor Leaf and it learning Seed Bomb. Then it didn't learn Brave Bird for another twenty episodes. Unless there's another move I didn't hear about earlier, Rowlet doesn't learn new moves that quickly and I still wouldn't have Razor Leaf as an example of how much attention it gets either. Rowlet didn't do anything other than absorb energy from a tree created by Tapu Bulu, so it was pretty much an afterthought in the episode. I can understand expecting more from Torracat, but I don't really see its treatment being that bad either. Maybe I'll change my mind once I see more recent episodes or reflect back on SM as a whole, but right now, it's okay.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Clembot, the Pokémon world was weird enough without opening up the can of worms that is the unexplored (or lack there of) ethics of that whole situation.

 

[Gligarman]

I wish Satoshi and Masaki never met in Best Wishes. That should have been the biggest deal ever and nothing has come of it since.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

I wish Satoshi and Masaki never met in Best Wishes.

Bill?

 

[HiroHunter]

I wish Satoshi and Masaki never met in Best Wishes. That should have been the biggest deal ever and nothing has come of it since.

Who's Masaki?

 

[sc190191]

Who's Masaki?

Bill?

I'm fairly certain @Gligarman means Sakaki (Giovanni)