Here are some opinions I have been meaning to express for sometime now:
I think Serena is the most dull and predictable shonen-style character we ever had. A lot of her feelings are based upon a childhood encounter with Ash, giving us a very puppy love like relationship that has no real building towards it- what makes something like Ash x Dawn work much better romantically is that we see Ash and Dawn grow together at least as friends- this relationship lacks that chemistry development and that feels like a contrivance especially since we are supposed to believe that this relationship existed long before the very first episode, 800 episodes and 17 years later. I'm so glad this relationship didn't pay off, because it would be an insult to every other better written character in this series history. In general, I feel XY is extremely Shonen, and Ash is in this series is a Mary Sue and Serena serves to make him look better. I imagine this direction was chosen because of how characterization of BW turned out, with Ash being a noob again and Iris's insulting nature- so they went for the opposite.
On a similar note, although I haven't been watching Horizions, I did watch a clip on YouTube, and it showed Shiny Rayquaza. Like why though? We already had a Shiny Rayquaza in the Hoopa movie. Why can't they give the showcase to another Pokemon like Giratina or Kyurem or Necrozma? All of which have yet to have their shiny featured. This is definitely unpopular considering that Rayquaza is popular, but that's my two cents.
And lastly think the switch games are objectively worse than the handheld games when it comes to RPG elements, in the sense there are less options for teambuilding, trading, and optimization, even with the DLC. If we compare USUM to SwSh, the latter has less Pokemon, less moves. less super mechanics and limited options for trading and battling thanks to the GTS and Switch Online. And that's only USUM. We could take a step further and compare DP and SwSh on launch, the former had 493 Pokemon avalible at launch thanks to transfer system and GTS being avalible for free , while for SwSh you had to wait for Home, DLC, and pay money to increase your options for teambuilding.
I think Serena is the most dull and predictable shonen-style character we ever had. A lot of her feelings are based upon a childhood encounter with Ash, giving us a very puppy love like relationship that has no real building towards it- what makes something like Ash x Dawn work much better romantically is that we see Ash and Dawn grow together at least as friends- this relationship lacks that chemistry development and that feels like a contrivance especially since we are supposed to believe that this relationship existed long before the very first episode, 800 episodes and 17 years later. I'm so glad this relationship didn't pay off, because it would be an insult to every other better written character in this series history. In general, I feel XY is extremely Shonen, and Ash is in this series is a Mary Sue and Serena serves to make him look better. I imagine this direction was chosen because of how characterization of BW turned out, with Ash being a noob again and Iris's insulting nature- so they went for the opposite.
On a similar note, although I haven't been watching Horizions, I did watch a clip on YouTube, and it showed Shiny Rayquaza. Like why though? We already had a Shiny Rayquaza in the Hoopa movie. Why can't they give the showcase to another Pokemon like Giratina or Kyurem or Necrozma? All of which have yet to have their shiny featured. This is definitely unpopular considering that Rayquaza is popular, but that's my two cents.
And lastly think the switch games are objectively worse than the handheld games when it comes to RPG elements, in the sense there are less options for teambuilding, trading, and optimization, even with the DLC. If we compare USUM to SwSh, the latter has less Pokemon, less moves. less super mechanics and limited options for trading and battling thanks to the GTS and Switch Online. And that's only USUM. We could take a step further and compare DP and SwSh on launch, the former had 493 Pokemon avalible at launch thanks to transfer system and GTS being avalible for free , while for SwSh you had to wait for Home, DLC, and pay money to increase your options for teambuilding.