Unpopular opinions

[hypno28]

The Professors making the entries isn't to implausible. Am I really to believe a 10 y/o child knows all about the ecosystem and nature, as Pokedex entries would imply.

No, but, again, the idea seems to be that the information isn't actually correct. Alternatively, some of the information could have come from the professor by being pre-programmed into the device.

There's no question they should do the Pokedex much better than they do.

 

[Siggu]

The whole problem with "Who writes the Pokedex entries?" is the fact they are automatically filled once a Pokemon is caught, but at the same time they don't sound like something a professor would write.

The Professors making the entries isn't to implausible. Am I really to believe a 10 y/o child knows all about the ecosystem and nature, as Pokedex entries would imply.

Hide

As I said before, Rotom-Pokedex may contain the answer (as it is a Pokemon itself).

Hide

Your mention of the RotomDex suddenly makes me hope it intentionally exaggerates entries for its own amusement

 

[Oddish.]

The whole problem with "Who writes the Pokedex entries?" is the fact they are automatically filled once a Pokemon is caught, but at the same time they don't sound like something a professor would write.

That's true, but wouldn't the information have to be programmed in by someone?

 

[Siggu]

That's true, but wouldn't the information have to be programmed in by someone?

Exactly. Who wrote the entries? They sound nonsensical enough to be written by a young trainer, but that is nonsense in itself...

 

[Oddish.]

Exactly. Who wrote the entries? They sound nonsensical enough to be written by a young trainer, but that is nonsense in itself...

Maybe the professors are lazy and leave some bumbling intern assistant to do it?

 

[Mova]

If the entries were written by either of the aforementioned options (the professor or the player), why would an adolescent have to catch all of the Pokémon to obtain the flavor text?

Spoiler Alert

If Rotom-Dex writes the entries to give itself some enjoyment, I expect an arrogant entry for Rotom's species. It's Whisper.

 

[Taistelu]

Why would someone who studies Pokemon for a living have an empty Pokedex?

Pokemon never makes sense.

 

[Pikachu315111]

At the very least you'd think at some point the Pokedex would update with more "scientific/logical" dex entries. Like when you beat the game/completed the regional dex the Professor say they've updated the Pokedex for the Pokemon you've caught with studies he had done. I want to know at least some stuff the Professor thinks or has found, not what the player has heard cause I can make stuff up to.

Why would someone who studies Pokemon for a living have an empty Pokedex?

Pokemon never makes sense.

I think maybe they want a clean slate to work off of, they know all these Pokemon exist but not in a particular order. The Pokedex starts empty so that the player can scan the Pokemon one by one and the Professor can organize them as they come.

 

[Taistelu]

Automatically recorded =/= Player making them up.
Automatically recording is a quote.
Myth busted.

At the very least you'd think at some point the Pokedex would update with more "scientific/logical" dex entries. Like when you beat the game/completed the regional dex the Professor say they've updated the Pokedex for the Pokemon you've caught with studies he had done. I want to know at least some stuff the Professor thinks or has found, not what the player has heard cause I can make stuff up to.



I think maybe they want a clean slate to work off of, they know all these Pokemon exist but not in a particular order. The Pokedex starts empty so that the player can scan the Pokemon one by one and the Professor can organize them as they come.

As much sense as I'd like this to make sense how does the player going out to do field work give an order of Pokemon?

EDIT: Also yay, 400th post.

 

[noobcubed]

Okay, a few topics:

Random encounters - random encounters are not bad per se. Even some fairly recent JRPGs - Bravely Default for example - use random encounters. And Pokemon has these great things called Repels. Go and play, say, Golden Sun, which doesn't have a repel option (well, it has a repel spell, but it's not 100% effective and it drains your magic points super-quick, plus it's not available for most of the game), and then tell me that the system in Pokemon is bad.

That said, we had the PokeNav in ORAS which was moving towards... whatever you call not-random-encounters. Maybe Sun/Moon could continue in this direction. The one thing that non-random encounters would do is make trying to catch a relatively rare Pokemon much less frustrating, since you could just wander round until you saw one rather than hitting fifty other Pokemon first. That would be nice.

Dex entries - it really doesn't make sense that the Pokedex has information on a Pokemon immediately upon catching it. But what's the alternative - "take this back to Oak's lab and wait so he can research it"? Who wants to do that for two lines of flavour text that don't confer any in-game benefit? Surely the current system is the lesser evil.

 

[hypno28]

They're automatically recorded in terms of the game. The game doesn't include everything that happens in the actual world it documents, so the automatic recording doesn't have any bearing on whether the player character writes the entries or not.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Automatically recorded =/= Player making them up.
Automatically recording is a quote.
Myth busted.



As much sense as I'd like this to make sense how does the player going out to do field work give an order of Pokemon?

EDIT: Also yay, 400th post.

The Professor orders the Pokemon. The Professor knows how many Pokemon they are so he has pre-programmed the dex to an extent. If anything the dex is "blank" to keep the trainers helping him focused on their task of learning about that Pokemon.

And as noobcubed and hypno28 just brought up, we're taking things at face value. For gameplay purposes we catch a Pokemon and the game tells us about it, how it would work in real life terms we don't know.

 

[Taistelu]

The professor literally states its automatic, as in, not having to do anything. If we want to justify the Pokedex you can't just ignore key quotes for the sake of your own argument...lol. How can you say your trying to find how the Pokedex works and ignore stuff said by NPCs. Only focusing on the game means your ignoring other stuff and are acknowledging it to. Also: I'm saying how it works based on what the Professor says. He made it, he knows what he's talking about. Pokemon is a world full of magical technology, to be honest, its probably just technology we can't understand.

I've been playing a few JRPGs lately which have enemies on the map instead of randomly encountered, and I enjoy this system so much more. It means if I want to avoid a fight I can just walk around them.

 

[Pikachu315111]

The Professor says its automatic? Well how automatic is it? There's a difference between being completely automatic and having all the info programmed into it and it just being easy to use, like you enter some info and it does the rest of the work.

You know, I just don't we were suppose to think about it. Its a game mechanic, that's just the answer. "But in the game...". Let me stop you right there, because in the game characters tell you to press the B button to run when you get the Running Shoes. Sometimes they implement meta concepts into character dialogue just to get the story on the road.

If there must be an answer, how about this: The Pokedex has the data or is connected to a server with all the data. The Pokedex is blank for YOUR benefit, so you know what Pokemon you've caught and seen and how many is there to get. When you catch a Pokemon it scans the Pokemon and then looks up factoids & folklore about the Pokemon so the player can get a better understanding of it. As for why you're doing this the Pokedex is keep track of the biological makeup of the Pokemon, how they behave when you use them, and pretty much doing field work. The data that is collected is kind o boring/useless and will be processed by the Professor, his assistants, or maybe another group of researchers later. But for now the trainer helping is just told some neat things about the Pokemon as positive reinforcement and feeling they're helping out. And out of it the trainers gets a neat gizmo that tells them stuff about Pokemon, a fair trade off especially if the trainer is going to be running around anyway.

 

[Kurona]

I always interpreted it as the Pokémon being sent to the professor momentarily and then it comes back with all a bit of their scientific findings. Of course, if we're to take that seriously, it means there's a very serious segregation between in-game time and in-universe time. But I feel it's somewhat plausible with that caveat.

I think it's one of those things that's just best to handwave as video game logic you're not supposed to take seriously, mind.

 

[Johta]

The Professor says its automatic? Well how automatic is it? There's a difference between being completely automatic and having all the info programmed into it and it just being easy to use, like you enter some info and it does the rest of the work.

Automatic as in, it'll fill itself up. Nobody writes it, the pokedex writes itself somehow. Now if you're going to question the specifics then you might as well hold it against the entire franchise since you simply can't explain 99% of the stuff in pokemon because they live in a world of fantasy and wonder, you simply can't make sense out of that.

If we go down that route then we might as well question: why do pokemon turn into a plasma-like substance when a pokeball is thrown at them? How can a mouse generate electricity within its body or a turtle fire highly compressed water out of its mouth? And so on and so forth.

 

[Lady Vader]

Okay, a few topics:

Random encounters - random encounters are not bad per se. Even some fairly recent JRPGs - Bravely Default for example - use random encounters. And Pokemon has these great things called Repels. Go and play, say, Golden Sun, which doesn't have a repel option (well, it has a repel spell, but it's not 100% effective and it drains your magic points super-quick, plus it's not available for most of the game), and then tell me that the system in Pokemon is bad.

Also, there are specific areas where it can occur and safe spots where it won't. Many other RPGs just have them anywhere that isn't a town. And it is annoying as hell.

 

[TrainerSplash]

Oh boy here's a paragraph which states more than I really needed. I apologize if this comes out ranty, but that wasn't my intent xP
I needed somewhere that isn't a small 140 character message like Twitter, and this is the best place I could find.

As a fan of the on going Pokemon anime, I agree it's rather decent but worse than most cartoons you'd find (however as I don't watch it as much, I still try to keep up to date with it, I was never able to let go of it), and I don't think Pokemon the Series: XY and Pokemon the Series: XYZ should be an exception to that. However I do think it's a huge improvement compared to other sagas and seasons Pokemon has done, even coming after the poorly created Pokemon Black and White (Pokemon Best Wishes) saga. The animation is nominal compared to the others, however it lost it's touch in humor, which I think was one of Pokemon's key factors, Pokemon is still enjoyable as it was for the most part but it took a different turn this time around and focuses more on story (which didn't really seem relevant until XYZ with the whole Team Flare and Zygarde stuff.)

My biggest problem with the series, however, is the character known as Serena. She's a rather popular character and I don't really understand why, aside from the fact that she seems to be shipping material. However I feel like she lacks personality, with only playing two different types of personality traits: "I love Ash" and "I must be girly and pretty at all times." Even after she cut her hair to signify change, she still only has these two traits, despite the meaning of cutting and changing your hair in any other areas of the world, this change never happened. Sure it has meaning, but said change doesn't mean anything if it's never done. She also cried because of losing, not saying this is bad as I would cry too on my first time trying on opening day and messing up. She didn't really care for how her Pokemon felt, despite saying "oh it's my fault", the other characters, like May, felt like they let their Pokemon down, not because they lost. in the showcase which is literally a female-only padgent show, treating Pokemon more as props as opposed to the pet show based Pokemon contests, where Pokemon are the main attraction and the trainers guide them through. Before then she didn't really seem to understand what she wanted to do and followed Ash like a lemming, so she didn't even have a use until the showcase stuff. I don't really mind Serena at all but I find her rather annoying when she dresses up and tries to be pretty (which affected Fenniken's personality traits until evolution), although characters like Dawn have down something similar before, she sorta improved upon them and realized that was a flaw while Serena had not. You're a Pokemon Trainer, at least act like it. As stated, it's not that I don't like Serena, because I do think she's a cool character, but I find her presence unneeded and a waste of potential. I don't mind her having a crush on Ash either, but when it takes away from character traits that could also be improved, I think there is a problem. I just don't understand what makes her a popular character when I feel like she's just a mary-su with several flaws.

 

[Norne]

Dude there's one thing I love about Serena, her reaction faces, the Anime hasn't done reaction faces this good since Kanto, they are cartoony as fuck yet they don't clash with the animation style.

That's a big plus for a moefag like me.

 

[TrainerSplash]

True, her faces were priceless. However I think May and Piplup had some great faces too like these:

 

[Norne]

Any love I could have had for Piplup was lost the moment he got that Everstone.

May reaction faces are so scarce it's barely a trait of hers, I remember her, "oh shit!" contest faces more than her "sarcastic remarks" or "disbelief" ones, she only got an "angry" funny face Misty style once if I recall.

 

[Oddish.]

Okay, I don't usually like being that person, but... I'm gonna be that person.

There's nothing wrong with Serena being girly. There's nothing wrong with any girl being girly. I don't like the implication that wanting to dress up nice and be pretty is a bad thing. Unless it's her only character trait and/or it's treated as harmful. But I don't think it is? Or at least, not from what I've seen. Admittedly, I haven't watched the XY anime, so maybe I'm not qualified to talk about this. But I believe her cutting her hair was her deciding to get serious about her goal, not about being less girly or anything. And she did get serious about it. Admittedly, her finding her goal took way too long though. And her crush an Ash... I don't even know. I don't like the idea of canon crushes in the pokemon anime. I'm somewhat biased because I don't like romance most of the time. And I especially feel like it has no place in pokemon. So I guess I'm neutral.

Also, the word "Mary Sue" gets thrown around so damn much that it honestly means pretty much nothing at this point. Everyone is a Mary Sue. I'm a Mary Sue.

I think I can explain why Serena is so popular (at least, in Japan. I think she's more mixed in America). Yes, the amourshipping thing is a factor, but I think it's also her personality. IIRC, Japan is actually pretty far behind in terms of opinions on women, and they very much believe in traditional gender roles. Women who are generally submissive and stereotypically motherly/girly are seen as the most attractive. And so far, the pokegirl that seems to fit the bill the most is Serena.

 

[TrainerSplash]

Nah, it's not her being girly or anything that upsets me, as I actually really enjoy girly characters (Dawn being one my favorites for example), but the problem is that she is too girly, and yeah like I said, it is one of her few character traits, next to Ash crush (which, I'm not a fan of either, but I don't mind it existing, it's just treated as harmful to her character). I understand the hair thing, and you sorta explained it better, I always thought it was a change to improve herself in general, not just the showcase stuff.

The definition of Mary Sue (from what I remember) is that a character is perfect and not flawed in anyway, making them the flaw themselves, I sorta feel like Serena fits that.

 

[Oddish.]

Nah, it's not her being girly or anything that upsets me, as I actually really enjoy girly characters (Dawn being one my favorites for example), but the problem is that she is too girly, and yeah like I said, it is one of her few character traits, next to Ash crush (which, I'm not a fan of either, but I don't mind it existing, it's just treated as harmful to her character). I understand the hair thing, and you sorta explained it better, I always thought it was a change to improve herself in general, not just the showcase stuff.

The definition of Mary Sue (from what I remember) is that a character is perfect and not flawed in anyway, making them the flaw themselves, I sorta feel like Serena fits that.

Serena does seem like she was made to be waifu material. Still, I guess I won't really see an issue with her girliness until I see the show, but I dont plan to do that lol.

I know what a Mary Sue is. I just feel that a lot of people throw the word around too much. But once again, haven't seen XY, so idk.

 

[Siggu]

Serena is much less of a Mary Sue and much more of a Satellite Character (As Serena's reason to be is basically... Ash. As bad as one can think of the other female leads' motivations, they were entirely their own). Either way, it's not a good thing.