Unpopular Thoughts about the Main Character's Pokemon?

[Weddingbells]

Pikachu needs a dang character arc already.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Pikachu needs a dang character arc already.

Not really? He's been around for 20+ years and he's never leaving

He's the last Pokemon who needs a character arc imo

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

Not really? He's been around for 20+ years and he's never leaving

He's the last Pokemon who needs a character arc imo

I disagree. Just because a character has been on the cast for a long time doesn't mean that they can't change or develop and grow as a person. Pikachu is just as prominent of a character as Ash or Team Rocket is and it's honestly a little bizarre to see that Pikachu has been completely stagnant as a character since OI. Pikachu getting a character arc doesn't necessarily mean it will translate to him getting more focus over his teammates or that it will ruin any potential development for other pokemon.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

I disagree. Just because a character has been on the cast for a long time doesn't mean that they can't change or develop and grow as a person. Pikachu is just as prominent of a character as Ash or Team Rocket is and it's honestly a little bizarre to see that Pikachu has been completely stagnant as a character since OI. Pikachu getting a character arc doesn't necessarily mean it will translate to him getting more focus over his teammates or that it will ruin any potential development for other pokemon.

But what exactly can they really do with him tho?

He's been on the cast for so long it would be hard to give him something that hasn't already been done before?

Give Pikachu a rival? They already tried it with Trip's Serperior

Pikachu leaving Ash? "Pikachu's Goodbye"

Giving Pikachu a Love Interest? Already done in SuMo (and debatably Buneary as well)

Pikachu feeling overshadowed by another Pokemon? Already done with Riolu (which everybody hated btw)


Problem is that whenever they try to develop Pikachu it usually lasts one episode.

I think this a result of it's Mascot status

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

He's been on the cast for so long it would be hard to give him something that hasn't already been done before?

I don't think it would be that hard. There are numerous paths they can take to give Pikachu a proper character arc and honestly, the stuff listed really weren't arcs so much as they were one off episodes that never impacted Pikachu beyond said episode or are just...not really arcs at all. A character arc often takes place over multiple episodes, and for Pikachu, they can just keep it in the background, so he doesn't overshadow any other Pokemon.

Character arcs revolve around a character changing and typically, they undergo a transformation of sorts from start to end. For Pikachu in particular, I think it would help if the anime gave Pikachu proper flaws. Once they do that, making a character arc should just come naturally.

 

[Weddingbells]

But what exactly can they really do with him tho?

He's been on the cast for so long it would be hard to give him something that hasn't already been done before?

Give Pikachu a rival? They already tried it with Trip's Serperior

Pikachu leaving Ash? "Pikachu's Goodbye"

Giving Pikachu a Love Interest? Already done in SuMo (and debatably Buneary as well)

Pikachu feeling overshadowed by another Pokemon? Already done with Riolu (which everybody hated btw)


Problem is that whenever they try to develop Pikachu it usually lasts one episode.

I think this a result of it's Mascot status

There are so many paths you can take him. They just gave him a backstory in this saga. Besides I seriously doubt he has been here for 20+ years and that is the best ideas for "arcs" they can give him

Maybe ash and Pikachu get into some conflict in their relationship

Pikachu becoming a mentor for a Pokemon

Exploring why exactly Pikachu doesn't want to evolve (he was fine evolving from a Pichu, but then suddenly wants to stop as a Pikachu?)

I admit these aren't the greatest ideas but there better than doing nothing or one off episodes that count as "arcs"

 

[Nicolas721]

Spoiler: Ash

• Ash's Hoenn team is very underrated and very balanced overall.
• Torterra had a decent moveset for the time.
• Gible had too much screentime and its gag got old pretty fast. Also, it had a terrible introduction about it ruining everyone's lives. Grookey is an angel in comparison.
• The reason people talk about Palpitoad is because they subconsiously knew it deserved better.
• Oshawott got very strong stories and development at the start of BW, but the writers really dropped the ball later.
• Not really unpopular as much as not usually discussed, but Ash's Unova mons moveset were extremely boring and had very little type variety. Krookodile being the only exception.
• I didn't mind Volt Tackle being replaced, it had cool animation but Pikachu's signature move in the anime will forever be Thunderbolt.
• Goodra should probably had stayed, it being a pseudo didn't meant it was OP (Iris' Dragonite says hi) and his climatic battle style could have been polished over time.
• Ash's Torracat and Kukui's Incineroar's rivalry was boring and forced. It could have been easily fixed saying that Incineroar was Stoutland's idol or something like that. Their battle was amazing though.
• The Journeys mons are being handled similarly to the Unova reserves: They had a decent introduction, then disappear, then reappear in battle and get powerups, then disappear...
• Lucario didn't deserve to be Ash's first Megaevolution. And it certainly didn't deserved to be the only.
• Dracovish is horrendously overpowered. That thing was born (as in, it literally didn't existed) 50 episodes ago with supposedly physical disadvantages, but with almost zero training it has beaten Pokemon belonging to Champions and Elite Four. (And before someone says "It's a reference to the metagame!": a) it barely uses Fishious Rend and b) that doesn't make it good) At this rate, it will take Arceus' place as god.

Spoiler: Others

• Misty's Goldeen, Horsea and Starmie feel redundant, and If I were the writer I wouldn't include them on the show.
• May's team may have unevolved members but overall is very fitting for contests and strong on its own.
• Cyndaquil's only contribution to the show was its fire moves. Its rivalry with Piplup was not only boring but very inconsistent.
• It bothers me how Mamoswine's disobedience arc didn't had a clear ending. And very rarely we saw things from its perspective, most of time it was Dawn reacting to it.
• Goh's Heracross and Pinsir's relationship is adorable.
• XY & SM Team Rocket mons had way more personality than the earlier ones. That doesn't make the older ones bad, obviously.
• Morpeko's absence is beneficial to the series and possibly the only time I'm glad a plot point was dropped.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Another unpopular opinion.

Ash's Butterfree deserved a better love interest than the Pink Butterfree.

She was B!tch to him and was completely uninterested in him until he saved her from TR's clutches

Imo it just didn't feel genuine

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

She was B!tch to him and was completely uninterested in him until he saved her from TR's clutches

I agree that the relationship doesn't really feel genuine(honestly, I've never really cared for the Pink Butterfree), but I don't think it's fair to call her that because she acted uninterested in him. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain she never acted outwardly antagonistic toward him. Maybe a little miffed or dismissive, but I'd hardly call that deserving of being called that. Sorry if this seems super nit-picky and not really related to the post itself, but I've personally never been a fan of the b-word and have never once been unbothered by its usage.

I will add on why you may feel that it wasn't genuine, because the Pink Butterfree...was just a butterfree. No personality, no interesting dynamic with Ash's butterfree, no real agency...it ended up making Butterfree leaving feel kind of...lame, in retrospect. If they had spent two episodes on it instead of just one, I think it might have gone a little better, as well as try and develop Pinkfree as well. Heck, they could've made them recurring characters. I don't dislike Pinkfree as a concept, but I just feel that the execution could have gone...a lot better than in canon, lol.

 

[Weddingbells]

Ik this might be really unpopular. But I never found ash and Greninja relationship very interesting. While I'm not one of those people who thought ash was unemotive in XY.

I felt like ash and Greninja personality were too similar to form an interesting dynamic. For instance the dynamic (even though it was shown like once) between Lucario and cinderace I like due to how different and conflicting there personality are. This goes the same for ash and Pikachu. While there relationship is adorable. Sometimes it feels like Pikachu is just a mini ash.

 

[Gengarzilla]

My own thoughts about Ash's Greninja don't need to be mentioned again. I've been vocal enough about all that as it is.

I don't think I'd want a Pikachu focus episode for a while either. The time where he suddenly because a pissy bitch when Ash worked on Riolu for a few episodes (after not being a pissy bitch when Ash worked on Cringyfrog for most of a season) convinced me that Journeys cannot do good Pikachu focus episodes.

My own addon: Ash's Oshawott was a pain in the ass and not enjoyable to watch. The distaste never got as far as that I held towards you-know-who but I was still at the point where I wouldn't mind if he really had been released in that scalchop contest filler episode.

 

[Iris_clover]

May needs to come back.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

May needs to come back.

I agree but this is a thread about the Pokemon

 

[Nichole the Otter]

Ash’s Rowlet shouldn’t have had dozing off be its main character trait. Sleeping during that battle against Hau was dumb writing.

Journeys is Ash’s worst team. They extremely lack in character interaction and development, due to them all being fully evolved.

Dawn should have kept Ambipom instead of sending it away to make space for Togekiss. Worst release of a main character’s Pokémon.

Iris should have caught Deino.

Lana should have caught Dewpider. Sandy the Eevee was also completely pointless.

Ash’s Turtwig should have never evolved.

 

[Weddingbells]

Ash’s Rowlet shouldn’t have had dozing off be its main character trait. Sleeping during that battle against Hau was dumb writing.

Journeys is Ash’s worst team. They extremely lack in character interaction and development, due to them all being fully evolved.

Dawn should have kept Ambipom instead of sending it away to make space for Togekiss. Worst release of a main character’s Pokémon.

Iris should have caught Deino.

Lana should have caught Dewpider. Sandy the Eevee was also completely pointless.

Ash’s Turtwig should have never evolved.

I agree but I don't think a single one of these are unpopular ( except journey ash being worst, tho many people agree the lack of interaction hurts this team)

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

I lowkey wish Raboot hadn't evolved. Just so it could remain outside of it's Pokeball and stay by Goh's side every episode

As Goh's 1st partner, it should be treated with more respect

Also I think Raboot's design really complimented Goh's design nearly perfectly

 

[Nichole the Otter]

I agree but I don't think a single one of these are unpopular ( except journey ash being worst, tho many people agree the lack of interaction hurts this team)

I definitely think Journeys being Ash's worst team is the most "unpopular" opinion. They lack interaction and they seem so OP in battle, just look at how Dracovish single-handedly destroyed Iris' Dragonite. Ash's Dragonite until last week also mostly went undefeated.

 

[Emelie]

Not sure if I know enough about the fandom to determine what an "unpopular opinion" is but...

I think Ash's Bulbasaur should have evolved. It's the fatherly type so I think it would have suited its personality.

I also would have liked to see Piplup evolve and mature a little. It would have given it an arc instead of making it static. After DP ended it wasn't in the anime anyway so they didn't have to worry about the merch. Being "ugly" isn't a problem imo. That could even have made for an interesting internal conflict, having Piplup get used to its new body.

Seeing Dawn's Quilava evolve into an Hisuian Typhlosion would have been fun. Maybe there could have been an arc in Hisui instead of the weird Amazon specials. It think it would work well with her contests since the ghost flames look cool. Perhaps she could have caught a Spirttomb as well and used the two of them in a contest (Koharu and Serena could have competed as well).

The Mega and G-max Charizard stuff should have been given to Ash's Charizard instead. Isn't his Charizard the ultimate Kanto nostalgia? They want to appeal to the genwunners with all the Charizard promotion but how many of them cares about Alain and Leon?

 

[90'sPokéfan]

View attachment 158331This one is quite old - someone even mentioned this in current thread. Given how whole Charizard's disobedience was handled in original series, it is hard to blame anyone not to particularly like him as a character and seeing him more like a jerk.
That view is completely reasonable, but my unpopular opinion is that we have visual clues that Charizard's jerkiness was much more purposeful, controlled and had reasonable limits to overall harm. He had clear rules and limits in mind. Which adds layers to character, even though the most important bit of being little spoiled, definitely over-confident and arrogant with lacking true self-love and self-respect remains.

The defining moment
When Charizard evolves to face Aerodactyl, Ash is quickly (as we all remember) reminded of the fact that it was not because of saving him. But this also serves as sort of lampshading, because literally one minute later after Jigglypuff starts singing we see Charizard putting quite an effort to literally save Ash and succeeding.
Given whole aerial situation, this was obviously not an accidental outcome, not something that Charizard could have done just unintentionally.

This is not single occasion, because in Party Panic episode at the beginning of Orange Islands saga,similar thing happens, when Charizard is unwilling to save Pikachu at first, but being enraged by TRio after that, he not only destroys their baloon, but also saves Pikachu. And then wreaks havoc with Pikachu still on his back.

Remembering these episodes vividly when they aired, I was also baffled what to think about Charizard as character. He seemed more like narrative tool of displaying this Pokémon who was set as benchmark of coolness and power as deus ex machina. Will Ash dare to use him? When and why? What shenanigans will Charizard use this time? Will he ever start to listen? When that will be? Will Ash then finally win the league?

But those bits, since they are purposefully shown, but actually never commented on (if I remember correctly, Ash never comments on how Charizard in the end indeed saved his life), left many things to oversimplification. Because many people usually remember those scenes by accompanying dialogue.
This is a little bit of shame, because IMHO it is far more interesting to think about Charizard disobedience as something he has usually under the control and does not allow it to go to unreasonable or even horrifying outcomes.
The whole RESPECT problem is obviously there and is narrative theme of Charizard's character as CARE is for Infernape. But that does not mean, even Charizard having great problems with respect (in regards to Ash, even himself, other Pokémon too), that he absolutely does not care. He obviously does, at least little bit.

Another supporting bits for this view are listening to Ash in match against Magmar, crying in first movie after Ash's death, crucial help in Naval Manoeuvres episode (at least if you do not think that Charizard's flamethrower shapes ice into sledges by default) and finally in Charizard Chills, when he gives Ash mean look as his first battle against Pollywrath is no going well and that marks the first time his disobedience and jerkiness is not under the control, it has clearly different visual tone and turning point of him losing the match quickly follows. Which ultimately ends in him beginning to listen in said episode.

Indeed, in Ash his 2nd Orange Island Gym challenge.

Nobody will ever convince me Charizard cut the ice in the perfect form by accident. Yes, it was annoyed by Ash and it also used the opportunity to hit Ash with its flames, but he did help Ash out in this game. Its smug smile after the round was over is also a clue into this direction I think.

 

[Bendicion]

I feel May's Torchic was handled like crap now that I'm on the subject. It was treated so poorly because May focused all her attention on a generic Beautifly for Contests and Torchic just warmed the bench. It's made even worse because Max specifically points this out to Ash and Brock in one episode and both of them tell him he's crazy and that May obviously loves it, and after that episode Torchic continued to be ignored proving Max right until it finally evolved and became useful for May to utilize in Contests where it was treated well from then on. Its as if May never has any sort of realization prior of how badly she was neglecting it, because we were told she wasn't and that's that I guess. Horrendous writing.

It's just so bizarre to me the writers were self aware enough to know they wrote May as basically ignoring Torchic and acknowledged it but immediately doubled down and say everything was fine and May treat it well by the narrative when she obviously was not. Such a baffling way to handle that entire thing like I've never seen the show so clearly acknowledge a writing faux pa in universe only to tell the audience they're not gonna do anything to fix it.