Your controversial opinions

[RK9]

It's cuz people think that anything remotely feminine or ''cute'' should be an Fairy type and Fairy type strictly. Even the franchise itself has this problem.

"N has Reshiram cause they look cute together."-vibes.

This hit my soul, Enzo. GG.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

What's funny is that even though White sold better, almost everyone I knew both online and in-person at the time owned Black. I guess Reshiram was more appealing to tweenage girls.

 

[Sheep40]

Reshiram was intentionally feminine and Zekrom masculine.

 

[AuraCaller]

I don't like any of the male playable characters that much not even Red. I gravitate toward the female playable characters for some reason and almost always play as a girl.

 

[Phosphene]

It's cuz people think that anything remotely feminine or ''cute'' should be an Fairy type and Fairy type strictly. Even the franchise itself has this problem.

This is probably my biggest pet peeve with the Fairy type, and the reason why it's among my least favorites despite being interesting in theory. While it does encompass Pokémon which have a connection beyond girly/cute, such as Shiinotic or Grimmsnarl, a lot of other Fairy types are just cute and/or feminine in my opinion. I'd argue that only a relative handful of Fairy type lines fit the magical, mythical theme that you'd expect with such a typing, and a significant number of them are still cute/feminine. Even Slyveon's connection to the mythical moon rabbit, which I'd say is fitting for a mystical typing, is sidelined for cute and girly, in my opinion.

As for some controversial opinions that I don't think I've talked about before...

I would be sad to see IVs and even EVs go. I've said this on other Pokémon forums before, but I believe the diversity they bring to individual Pokémon is invaluable, and that suggestions to remove them are essentially throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak. GameFreak just needs to make it easier to change them. I also don't mind how competitive functions, and often feel that non-competitive fans are more intolerant of competitive playstyles compared to competitive fans and non-competitive playstyles. Smogon seems to elicit the irritation of many fans despite their formats being relatively self-contained. Lastly, I find Karen's famous quote

Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites.

annoying, in part because it's been repeated ad nauseum across the internet. Granted, I generally dislike anything that sounds quotable--inspirational quotes are a pet peeve of mine (though, if you do get inspired by such quotes, more power to you).

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I would be sad to see IVs and even EVs go. I've said this on other Pokémon forums before, but I believe the diversity they bring to individual Pokémon is invaluable, and that suggestions to remove them are essentially throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak. GameFreak just needs to make it easier to change them.

I think by this point EVs are too ingrained in the way battling works to be removed, but I think IVs could be nixed and/or reworked without much issue. The idea that they and Natures make every Pokemon unique is quite good in theory, but in practice it kind of encourages players to do things that are technically totally anathema to the games' theme of Pokemon being your friends and partners, such as ditching your entire in-game team because they're not apt to use in online matches or using breeding slaves to churn baby after baby until you get the right one upon when you'll ditch the rest. To Game Freak's credit, though, this has thankfully been mitigated somewhat in later Gens, with Gen 8 probably being the one that got closest to fixing this issue, since thanks to Bottle Caps and Nature Mints it's perfectly possible for your in-game team to now be competitively viable, and you only really need breeding to get certain moves, but since Bottle Caps and Nature Mints do require quite a bit of grinding themselves, plenty of players will likely find the breeding methods much simpler regardless. If it were up to me, I'd revamp Pokemon's battling system up a bit and make the following changes:

• All Pokemon have the same set IVs at max. Now that Hidden Power has been removed, this can be done much more easily unless they decide to bring it back.
• Natures no longer affect a Pokemon's stats. To keep the individuality theme, though, I'd make it so that Natures instead affect things like how fast a Pokemon levels up, evolves, or learns certain moves. This way not only does each Pokemon can still feel unique, but it'd be a change that actually has a visible and tangible effect in the actual story/single player mode, since in the current system Natures and IVs/EVs only really make a notable difference in competitive matches.
• Every time a Pokemon levels up, it gains EVs, and the player is given the option to allocate them in whichever stat/s they please. This way you'd effectively be doing EV training and playing the story mode simultaneously, which would save time.
• I'd probably still keep breeding, though, but now it's a much more optional thing. For people who do shiny hunting or those who simply like the idea of two of their Pokemon having a kid for whatever reason.

I do realize that these changes are probably way too big and complicated to implement at this point, but idk, I think it'd be a fair compromise.

 

[Daenerys]

I don't like any of the male playable characters that much not even Red. I gravitate toward the female playable characters for some reason and almost always play as a girl.

I liked Red, Ethan, and Brendan a little bit and was neutral about Lucas, but I didn't like Hilbert, Calem, Elio or the others. Usually I still play as the boy character in my main games though.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I would be sad to see IVs and even EVs go. I've said this on other Pokémon forums before, but I believe the diversity they bring to individual Pokémon is invaluable, and that suggestions to remove them are essentially throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak. GameFreak just needs to make it easier to change them.

Doesn't the option to change IVs reduce their individuality as much as removing them entirely, though? You're basically left with two categories after that- perfect Pokemon, and Pokemon that need x method to be made perfect. The IVs they start out with don't really matter when the result is the same. (Except for the purposes of breeding and Hidden Power, but the former only matters for competitive IVs in the first place, and the latter is just one move that's recently been cut, anyways)

Although I probably shouldn't make this a whole discussion because I'd definitely be arguing for a commonly-held position in the controversial opinion thread lol.

 

[Phosphene]

Doesn't the option to change IVs reduce their individuality as much as removing them entirely, though? You're basically left with two categories after that- perfect Pokemon, and Pokemon that need x method to be made perfect.

When I said individuality, I meant moreso between several Pokémon of the same species that you've captured in a single playthrough and across all playthroughs. I don't think making the option to change IVs reduces this as it's mostly used in the postgame. Sorry for not making that clear.

 

[Enzo]

It's cuz people think that anything remotely feminine or ''cute'' should be an Fairy type and Fairy type strictly. Even the franchise itself has this problem.

Quoting this cuz I just remembered: Some (it wasn't a lot tho) people actually got pretty mad/confused when Tsareena got revelead in that one SM promo video cuz they thought it should be Grass/Fairy. Yeah, just cuz it's feminine it HAS to be a Fairy amiright?

 

[venusboi79]

It's cuz people think that anything remotely feminine or ''cute'' should be an Fairy type and Fairy type strictly. Even the franchise itself has this problem.

For me personally, it’s less that it’s cute (although I found the whole line adorable) and more due to the lore about the healing/purifying power of it’s scent. I also feel that it’s one of the weakest starters (and I still almost always choose it when it’s an option), that could be a little less vulnerable with a dual typing.

Some “cute” Pokémon do scream Fairy type (such as Clefairy). But others, like Breloom, do not.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

When I said individuality, I meant moreso between several Pokémon of the same species that you've captured in a single playthrough and across all playthroughs. I don't think making the option to change IVs reduces this as it's mostly used in the postgame. Sorry for not making that clear.

Ohhh, I see! I never separate post-game and regular gameplay in my mind, but I definitely see the case for it a lot more now that you mention that!

 

[Enzo]

For me personally, it’s less that it’s cute (although I found the whole line adorable) and more due to the lore about the healing/purifying power of it’s scent. I also feel that it’s one of the weakest starters (and I still almost always choose it when it’s an option), that could be a little less vulnerable with a dual typing.

Some “cute” Pokémon do scream Fairy type (such as Clefairy). But others, like Breloom, do not.

But the thing is that it just wouldn't really work tho. Grass is an awful type to be paired with Fairy: You gain 3 weakness (Fire, Flying and Ice), gets an 4 (!!!) weakness to Poison besides gaining one of Steel, and everything that resists Fairy ALSO resists Grass. It may have Earthquake as coverage (Ground is EXCELENT coverage for a Fairy cuz it covers the 3 types that resists it), but it's not tanky, or strong, or fast enough to deal enough damage to counter it's own weakness. Sadly, I don't really see it really upping it's game, Clefable and Florges are AWAY better tanks due to their stats and moves

And even in the lore aspect that kinda of falls through: A lot of other Grass types also have dex entries talking about their aromas and such, but that doesn't makes them Fairies either

 

[RK9]

Quoting this cuz I just remembered: Some (it wasn't a lot tho) people actually got pretty mad/confused when Tsareena got revelead in that one SM promo video cuz they thought it should be Grass/Fairy. Yeah, just cuz it's feminine it HAS to be a Fairy amiright?

If anything, I'd peg Tsareena more for Grass/Fighting or Grass/Dark than Grass/Fairy.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Jumping on the boat from the person above:

TMs being infinite, HMs not being a thing anymore and EXP Share allowing everyone on the party to get exp were some of the best thing Pokemon could've done.

The HM and EXP. Share thing does have their flaws, but the fact that I don't need to have the mandatory Water-type with ''Surf, Waterfall, Dive'' or an HM slave noir need to spend HOURS on the same route fighting the same 3 pokemon over and over again cuz I need a good level for the next gym, are BLESSINGS to me.

Few people seem to notice that some mechanics are actually foreshadowed/tested before they're fully implemented. For example, they tested having an alternative to Fly with soaring in ORAS, the Key Item Exp. Share in Gens VI and VII, and ridable Pokémon in certain areas in XY. All of these would, in one way or another, be implemented into later games.

Blue's Rhydon's moveset left me speechless. I know that a lot of Pokémon didn't learn many STAB moves in Gen 1, but this is ridiculous.

Red and Blue had some seriously bad NPC movesets, which Yellow greatly improved upon. For example, I like how Giovanni's Nidoking and Nidoqueen both know Thunder during the Gym battle to deal with Water types.

Wally is best rival.

While I personally prefer Hop and USUM Hau, I can't criticize that opinion, especially with the team Wally assembles in the ORAS post-game.

While it might not be as challenging a battle

Hop's Zacian with Behemoth Blade, Close Combat, Wild Charge, and Play Rough says hi.

In all seriousness, though, yeah, Hop is a great rival with a lot of depth.

 

[RK9]

Hop's Zacian with Behemoth Blade, Close Combat, Wild Charge, and Play Rough says hi.

I wouldn't fully credit that to Hop but more so to Zacian itself. Even without a trainer it wooped my ass.

Seven times.

Yes, I had to reset seven times to catch it.

Seven!

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I wouldn't fully credit that to Hop but more so to Zacian itself. Even without a trainer it wooped my ass.

Seven times.

Yes, I had to reset seven times to catch it.

Seven!

Ouch.

I'd personally give credit to Hop for giving it such a great moveset.

 

[Minya_Nouvelle]

Compared to BW, it feels like it has a lot less depth actually. In BW the story introduces the themes of "Is the capturing / battling of Pokémon ethical?" and "Idealistic movements can be usurped and coopted by power hungry people" which are important things to introduce to children (the main demographic). We should be encouraging them to think critically about things they take for granted and realize that good intentions might be taken advantage.

I'm going to respond in the controversial opinion thread just because it seems more fitting.

b2w2 showed us that the grunts in team plasma weren't all bad people. Some of them genuinely cared about the cause and bought into Ghetsis's lies and manipulation. Meanwhile, some were just horrible people who liked being bad and doing bad things. I feel like seeing the reformed team plasma grunts trying to make up for the bad things that they (unintentionally) helped cause also teaches an important lesson; that you shouldn't hate people just because they have a different opinion or view on life. Without b2w2; the plasma grunts are all just a bunch of cult followers.

I also feel like it taught lessons about forgiveness and letting go/not holding grudges. An in Hugh's case, the lesson was about not discriminating against a group of people for the actions of a few radicals which is an important lesson now more than ever.

The whole "is catching pokemon ethical?" message went absolutely nowhere and its hard to try and even pretend like it isn't when the games have been acting like bonding with pokemon through the power of friendship is the most important thing ever for the past 10 years.

 

[Esserise]

Also, in response to another portion of that comment, belittling Hugh’s intense desire to find Purrloin just because it’s not a “high value” Pokémon strikes me as very callous, and rather at odds with the morals of Black & White. It doesn’t matter that it’s a run-of-the-mill Purrloin. Pet theft is a horrific thing to have to experience, and the series - especially Black & White - goes out of its way to emphasize the bonds between people and Pokémon, and how they are our friends and partners. That’s literally the thesis statement of BW and the ethical position on which it hinges Team Plasma’s defeat. So Hugh absolutely should be very mad about Purrloin being stolen. Plus, that whole storyline is there to take a microscope the fallout of Team Plasma’s actions - other than the brief stint where Bianca’s Munna is stolen and then returned, the original games never put all that much focus on the people who have already had their Pokémon stolen. But that’s the fundamental social fabric of this world, which N and Team Plasma are trying to dissolve. Exploring the negative consequences of such an extreme proposal should be a no-brainer, and the overall ideology of Gen 5 is much richer for having Hugh and the ex-Plasma elements depicted.

 

[Minya_Nouvelle]

Also, in response to another portion of that comment, belittling Hugh’s intense desire to find Purrloin just because it’s not a “high value” Pokémon strikes me as very callous, and rather at odds with the morals of Black & White. It doesn’t matter that it’s a run-of-the-mill Purrloin. Pet theft is a horrific thing to have to experience, and the series - especially Black & White - goes out of its way to emphasize the bonds between people and Pokémon, and how they are our friends and partners. That’s literally the thesis statement of BW and the ethical position on which it hinges Team Plasma’s defeat. So Hugh absolutely should be very mad about Purrloin being stolen. Plus, that whole storyline is there to take a microscope the fallout of Team Plasma’s actions - other than the brief stint where Bianca’s Munna is stolen and then returned, the original games never put all that much focus on the people who have already had their Pokémon stolen. But that’s the fundamental social fabric of this world, which N and Team Plasma are trying to dissolve. Exploring the negative consequences of such an extreme proposal should be a no-brainer, and the overall ideology of Gen 5 is much richer for having Hugh and the ex-Plasma elements depicted.

It's not just about the purrloin; it's about what the purrloin represented.

Jokes aside; Hugh might be my favorite rival. It's important to remember that it was his little sister's purrloin. When it was stolen, it made her upset. He's being a protective big brother and wants to make Plasma pay for making his little sister unhappy. Which automatically makes him the most unique rival in the series. Every other rival is all about getting strong and stuff (usually with an older relative whose reputation they are tyring to live up to), but Hugh just wants to make his sister happy.