Challenge playthroughs such as "no Battle Items" solos can benefit from saving Jasmine until last. Especially if you're playing as a Normal/Flying type like Noctowl that has few options for Electric and Steel types other than gaining levels.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
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Challenge playthroughs such as "no Battle Items" solos can benefit from saving Jasmine until last. Especially if you're playing as a Normal/Flying type like Noctowl that has few options for Electric and Steel types other than gaining levels.
I doubt most people are thinking of competitive play when they talk about the physical-special split being unequivocally good. I agree that there are elements of the transition that weren’t handled super well and certain Pokémon benefited/suffered disproportionately as a result, but the biggest reason the split is so popular is that most people think it makes a lot more intuitive sense in casual play, especially with examples like the elemental punches and Shadow Ball. You cite Alakazam as an example of a Pokémon that lost valuable coverage, but it arguably gained as much as it lost and it was always a bit ridiculous in Gen 3 to read Pokédex entries about how weak its muscles are, only to discover that 3 of its most useful attacks are punching moves.
I think this topic has come up before and my response at the time was that almost all the problems with the split are really problems with increasingly bloated movepools. The philosophy now seems to be that certain Pokémon are owed certain moves if they have some arbitrary set of characteristics.
Tbh we contribute to this kind of thinking in the Movepool Oddities and Explanations thread, where it’s common to see a ‘could?—>should!’ approach to move compatibility (e.g. “[Pokémon] should be able to learn every punching attack because it can form a fist”). Ironically, I think Pokémon would have much more diverse strategies and move selections if each species had less coverage, especially if we did away with ‘universal’ moves for Pokémon with a given type or physical attribute.
A related issue I have with movepools is that the unique traits of certain Pokémon often get erased by the standard STAB options for its type(s). It just doesn’t make sense to me when, say, a slender, agile Normal-type Pokémon has Body Slam as its best reliable STAB option, or when a Pokémon like Mawile or Skarmory has Iron Head as its best Steel attack. The most interesting elements of Pokémon’s designs become detached from their in-battle performance when every Pokémon’s forced to choose from the same pool of generic ‘good’ moves.
I think it's important to not take the word "punch" too literally here. If I remember correctly, in Stadium, a Pokémon using one of those moves simply swings their arms and "throws" energy at the opponent. "Punch" simply refers to the throwing action in this scenario. This is definitely a representation of them being special moves, since it was changed in Battle Revolution to be a literal punch.
I totally agree with the movepools, though. I recently looked at Golem's Gen 6 learnset, and it's insane. Level-up movepools are just bloated with a bunch of useless filler moves that have accumulated each gen, and factoring in the moves that can be learned via events, breeding, tutoring, TM... I would definitely get behind restricting movepools more.
Idk man have you seen the tundra movepools
I’d like to get on board with this idea, but punching in stadium tends to look like ‘thrown energy’ even when it’s a physical attack (e.g. Mega Punch). The move descriptions in the Stadium games did a better job of informing the player that they were special attacks for gameplay purposes, but they don’t really explain what using the move actually entails. Conversely, the Gen 2 and 3 descriptions and animations suggest that they were imagined as punches that made contact even when they were special attacks.
If you’re talking about stuff like Regieleki then heck yeah I’ve seen it and I’m into it. When Pokémon’s movepools seem barren now it’s usually just because there’s been so much power creep that anything short of perfect offensive coverage tends to leave new legendaries immediately outclassed unless they have absurd stats/abilities.
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I don’t think perfect coverage is really a power creep trend- ever since gen 1 many of the best pokemon have had absurd coverage (starmie tauros snorlax etc) and it’s always been a recipe for success, and it’s not like EQ hasn’t been handed out like candy since the dawn of time. Gen 4 is obviously an outlier for enabling new threats with the split and Gen 8 did make Close Combat EQ 2 but I don’t think perfect/absurd coverage is really all that more common than it was in the past. If anything Gen 8 revealed how lackluster a lot of older movepools were with the Hidden Power removal, and a fair amount of new mons this gen have somewhat awkward coverage, like in the case of Dragapult where the lower offensive stat has the coverage, or Frosmoth where it’s just ass
That is a problem related with the lack of good, reliable STAB moves in this game for many types.
Sure, Gen 4 made a giant leap from "You're Grass, Steel, Bug or Flying? Enjoy Hidden Power."
A lot of types just don't have solid 90BP, 100% Acc. moves. And the ones that do, often only have one of those.
Sure, it works for say, Thunderbolt for special-based Electrics, but Play Rough? For Zamazenta and G-Rapidash?
That makes absolutely no sense. But would you look at that. Spirit Break is a sig move.
There could be some trimming. (Rock Throw and Smack Down shouldn't be learned one after the other with a 2 lv. gap.)
On the other hand, you gotta consider In-Game. Going back to GSC-style movepools favor nobody.
I think a balance can be done. The way CAP creates movepools is very interessing, as they have a phase for competitive moves pickings (stab, good utility, coverage etc) and then a phase of flavor moves and their level ups/tms/tutors etc. Sure, its made with competitive in mind, but still fits for a casual use as most caps have perfectly usable and understandable movesets for in game use.
Back on topic, or at least i think this is unpopular haha.
I see a lot of people saying how legendaries stopped being special when they started to be really connected to the plot or something, but being quite honest, I never saw anything special about legendaries. Maybe because I never played pokemon as a child (started when i was 17-18), but I think its the fact you're able to catch them. I think I talked about this somewhere in some thread? So I'm not gonna dwelve into it that much unless asked. Basically I won't take the god of pokemon serious if i can put it on the same device I use to catch a purple rat.
Doesn't help that so many of them just... exist. I prefer when legendaries are part of plots or b plots because I at least get to make a connection to them. There's nothing making me care about the kantonian birds, or heatran, or mewtwo, or [insert roamer legendary].
Also this is purely nitpicky and personal but a lot of them are really ugly LOL
Back on topic, or at least i think this is unpopular haha.
I see a lot of people saying how legendaries stopped being special when they started to be really connected to the plot or something, but being quite honest, I never saw anything special about legendaries. Maybe because I never played pokemon as a child (started when i was 17-18), but I think its the fact you're able to catch them. I think I talked about this somewhere in some thread? So I'm not gonna dwelve into it that much unless asked. Basically I won't take the god of pokemon serious if i can put it on the same device I use to catch a purple rat.
Doesn't help that so many of them just... exist. I prefer when legendaries are part of plots or b plots because I at least get to make a connection to them. There's nothing making me care about the kantonian birds, or heatran, or mewtwo, or [insert roamer legendary].
Also this is purely nitpicky and personal but a lot of them are really ugly LOL
Honestly, I agree with this point. Ho-Oh and Lugia are my favorite cover legends for this very reason: they're just legendary Pokémon. They don't control the entirety of fucking time and space or death itself. They're just some legendaries with some neat minor lore, which suits Pokémon much better IMO because GameFreak is never dedicated enough to pull off a plot complex enough to have legendaries like Dialga or Palkia (as much as I love them both).
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This is why I vastly prefer Legendaries in Mystery Dungeon 1/2 (Except Girantina)
They feel like legit bosses with the higher HP before recruit, many actually exhibit their supernatural qualities, and even their size affects how many you can have on one team
Poor Girantina just guards a drum in Sky though.... at least it was great in Plat
They feel like legit bosses with the higher HP before recruit, many actually exhibit their supernatural qualities, and even their size affects how many you can have on one team
Poor Girantina just guards a drum in Sky though.... at least it was great in Plat
swsh's gameplay mightve been Wack but its character list was genuinely memorable and the way they were written is Very Good
villains though, ignoring the rainbow rocket episode:
RBY FRLG giovanni: mafia boss generic "take over the world"
GSC HGSS archer: mafia boss stand-in same as above
S E AS archie: misguided with good intentions <=
R E OR maxie: misguided with good intentions <=
DPPT cyrus: wanted to destroy the world
BW B2W2 ghetsis: Literally Irredeemable Fuck You
XY lysandre: wanted to destroy the world('s people)
SM lusamine: misguided with good intentions <=
SM guzma: was manipulated, questionable intent
USUM necrozma: misguided with good intentions <=
SWSH rose: misguided with good intentions <=
it's obviously more complicated than this but when you boil them down half of them have the same objective. it's getting stale
RBY and GSC get a pass because theyre the first two games and not particularly centered around the villain storyline, SWSH tries to be less storyline-focused in favor of character development but it just doesn't work
BW and B2W2 are, as far as i know, the most well-received villain storylines, probably helped by the whole "direct sequel" thing (dppt sequels please!) but there's a few missed opportunities, like detailing ghetsis's backstory or something. still good but i wish we could see more development
villains though, ignoring the rainbow rocket episode:
RBY FRLG giovanni: mafia boss generic "take over the world"
GSC HGSS archer: mafia boss stand-in same as above
S E AS archie: misguided with good intentions <=
R E OR maxie: misguided with good intentions <=
DPPT cyrus: wanted to destroy the world
BW B2W2 ghetsis: Literally Irredeemable Fuck You
XY lysandre: wanted to destroy the world('s people)
SM lusamine: misguided with good intentions <=
SM guzma: was manipulated, questionable intent
USUM necrozma: misguided with good intentions <=
SWSH rose: misguided with good intentions <=
it's obviously more complicated than this but when you boil them down half of them have the same objective. it's getting stale
RBY and GSC get a pass because theyre the first two games and not particularly centered around the villain storyline, SWSH tries to be less storyline-focused in favor of character development but it just doesn't work
BW and B2W2 are, as far as i know, the most well-received villain storylines, probably helped by the whole "direct sequel" thing (dppt sequels please!) but there's a few missed opportunities, like detailing ghetsis's backstory or something. still good but i wish we could see more development
To be honest I reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallllly dunno that you call SM lusamine "misguided with good intentions." She's basically an abusive parent who went nuts after her husband was lost and fixated on getting Ultra Beasts. Argument's stronger in USUM but that's sort of an alternate universe type deal.
did we play different games or something
SM Lusamine was under the influence of Nihilego toxins but I don't think anything she did could be called "good intentions". Over the course of the pregame and potentially into the plot proper she began a series of horrific experiments on Pokemon - including the manufacture of Pokemon which literally could not control themselves and had to be cryogenically frozen. Of course she also cryogenically froze parts of her personal collection, was abusive to her children, and helped a gang (which took over and destroyed a town) in unspecified ways. But yeah, if her end goal was nobleish then she'd just be misguided.
Nope, Lusamine's endgame is to screw off to a different dimension and just stay there for the rest of her life. She does this knowing full well that it'd have consequences (the likely death of Nebby, probably opening up holes for things that eat people to come through) and just does not care. At best you could say she doesn't have bad intentions.
This is Unpopular Opinions. In which anything positive about SwSh would qualify.
i was gonna put "questionably good intentions" but that felt too long oops
she went off the shits because her husband got yeeted into god knows where through an ultra wormhole, so she obsessively studied UBs until nihilego happened => complete singleminded focus on nihilego warped her outlook on life into Just Nihilego, fuck them kids, who's mohn
she's still a shit person but kinda good intentions if you consider nihilego's toxin bullshit amplifying/shifting it into full obsession from "finding her husband". really wish SM actually told what happened after lillie left + lusamine's fall from ""grace"" but like we're probably not getting that ever
the anime was kinda weird making lusamine Not the antagonist but it fleshed her out more
she went off the shits because her husband got yeeted into god knows where through an ultra wormhole, so she obsessively studied UBs until nihilego happened => complete singleminded focus on nihilego warped her outlook on life into Just Nihilego, fuck them kids, who's mohn
she's still a shit person but kinda good intentions if you consider nihilego's toxin bullshit amplifying/shifting it into full obsession from "finding her husband". really wish SM actually told what happened after lillie left + lusamine's fall from ""grace"" but like we're probably not getting that ever
the anime was kinda weird making lusamine Not the antagonist but it fleshed her out more
I actually like GSC/HGSS's Rocket plotline for precisely the opposite reason. It's something no other game really has, which is a villainous team who have been roundly smashed trying to put themselves back together and regain their lost infamy (and failing horribly). Platinum sort of does a similar thing with Charon trying to steal the Magma Stone post-Cyrus and the Galactic Admins' hearts not being in it but I think the intent there is different and it's on a much smaller scale. And yes SM/USUM did a very similar sort of thing with Team Skull but again I think the intent there is different - Team Skull never had glory to regain in the first place.
Like... it's just so hilariously pathetic that all Team Rocket aspire to do in GSC is get Giovanni back. They take over a whole city, broadcast a message across an entire region, and you get the impression that the leadership is sort of going "now what?" Because... they're nothing without him. None of the admins stand out competitively or charismatically. It's plain that there is no-one among them with an ounce of the charisma or decisiveness that Giovanni had, and they are completely lost: there's no actual overarching plan to their schemes beyond "try and get Giovanni back".
It's a different take on the standard evil team formula that stands out to me. Later games increasingly tend to have the main characters be aware of evil teams and consider them a real threat. Here, though, no-one really gives a toss about Team Rocket any more. Even from the NPCs who do talk about them, the line tends to be "they were a pain three years ago. It'd be bad if they came back!", failing to notice that... they are back. They feel like much more of a threat in RBY - they're all over Kanto, and people actually regard them as a threat, whereas in Johto the impression you get is that they're more of an annoyance rather than a genuine security concern until they manage to take over the Radio Tower.
Even in HGSS, which had the chance to change things up a bit, the Rockets are a sideshow to the real story.
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Its so weird how people keep complaining about the "ugh friendly rival" when the last two gens always gave us a little asshole of a rival. Its also weird when the complains are often directed to the 3d games, when I think most rivals we have are neutral or more friendly alligned.
Gen 1 - Green. Pretty barebones character and idk why people care about him but him being champion first is cool, too bad you beat him in 2 minutes. Hes just really easy in general so it was hard to take him serious lol. Mean rival
Gen 2 - Silver. Could have been good if his story had more investiment, but rn hes just green 2.0 but with a tragic backstory. Props on the golbat evolution touch though. Mean rival.
Gen 3 - May/Brendan and Wally - The definition of friendly rivals. Also irrelevant for most of the game. Played this game a lot and I still dont remember their teams.
Gen 4 - Barry. Hes fine? I guess hes a mean rival if you consider him just being impatient and rude, but he feels more like a friendly rival. Doesnt have the vibes that green and silver do. Hes the only fast thing in these games
Gen 5 - Cheren/Bianca; Hugh: Hugh is the closest we get to rude rival, but hes still friendly to you and will gladly help you out with plasma stuff. He has that vibes of best friend whos loves to make mean jokes about you because youre so close. Cheren and Bianca are pretty friendly too, Bianca even more so.
Gen 6 - You dont have rivals, the game itself goes out of its way to say you only have friends. Its probably where people got their distaste of friendly rivals, since they are VERY nice to you. Not the best rivals, kinda as forgettable as gen 3.
Gen 7 - Hau/Gladion - The start of nice rival + mean rival system. Gladion is just silver but better because the story actually gives us an idea of what he went thru. Hes not edgy just for the sake of needing an edgy rival. I also like his french fry hair. Hau is a good rival leave him alone.
Gen 8 - Hop/Marnie/Bede - The same system as gen 7, but with a neutral/friendly-ish rival in the middle. While bedes story isnt given as much time as gladions, hes still a very interessing character. The fact he comes back but still has some of the edge is pretty good.
Hop is really the best friendly rival we have. We get to see his insecurity and he even has a change of heart on his career, eveb if he still likes battling. Marnie is sadly underdeveloped and could have been cut for the game, but i also love my goth daughter so.
Gen 1 - Green. Pretty barebones character and idk why people care about him but him being champion first is cool, too bad you beat him in 2 minutes. Hes just really easy in general so it was hard to take him serious lol. Mean rival
Gen 2 - Silver. Could have been good if his story had more investiment, but rn hes just green 2.0 but with a tragic backstory. Props on the golbat evolution touch though. Mean rival.
Gen 3 - May/Brendan and Wally - The definition of friendly rivals. Also irrelevant for most of the game. Played this game a lot and I still dont remember their teams.
Gen 4 - Barry. Hes fine? I guess hes a mean rival if you consider him just being impatient and rude, but he feels more like a friendly rival. Doesnt have the vibes that green and silver do. Hes the only fast thing in these games
Gen 5 - Cheren/Bianca; Hugh: Hugh is the closest we get to rude rival, but hes still friendly to you and will gladly help you out with plasma stuff. He has that vibes of best friend whos loves to make mean jokes about you because youre so close. Cheren and Bianca are pretty friendly too, Bianca even more so.
Gen 6 - You dont have rivals, the game itself goes out of its way to say you only have friends. Its probably where people got their distaste of friendly rivals, since they are VERY nice to you. Not the best rivals, kinda as forgettable as gen 3.
Gen 7 - Hau/Gladion - The start of nice rival + mean rival system. Gladion is just silver but better because the story actually gives us an idea of what he went thru. Hes not edgy just for the sake of needing an edgy rival. I also like his french fry hair. Hau is a good rival leave him alone.
Gen 8 - Hop/Marnie/Bede - The same system as gen 7, but with a neutral/friendly-ish rival in the middle. While bedes story isnt given as much time as gladions, hes still a very interessing character. The fact he comes back but still has some of the edge is pretty good.
Hop is really the best friendly rival we have. We get to see his insecurity and he even has a change of heart on his career, eveb if he still likes battling. Marnie is sadly underdeveloped and could have been cut for the game, but i also love my goth daughter so.
Also worth noting that ORAS basically saved Wally even if the pacing is still a bit wacky
Also I just realized. If starters had their Gen 7 level up moveset in Gen 3, being Mudkip sucks way more cuz Treecko gets absorb at level 5
Though ironically May 2 would probably be easier
Kinda makes you realize starters getting their Stab immediately can really affect the beginning
Though ironically May 2 would probably be easier
Kinda makes you realize starters getting their Stab immediately can really affect the beginning
I never had problems with may 2 since dustox just walls grovyle and marshtomp deals with everything else she has. Dustox stops being useful at exactly that fight tho lol
Here are my thoughts on the rivals:
- I found Blue decently challenging since he picked very powerful and rare mons for his team, some of the best in Gen 1: Rhydon, Exeggutor, Alakazam, etc. Problem is, the AI and movepools suck...I still find him a good rival but not the best. He got better characterization on later games, when he isn't your rival anymore. Trace is pretty bland imo, and taking the role of the antagonistic Blue in a remake of RBY is not doing him any favors. He even has the same champion battle theme, which doesn't fit him AT ALL.
- Silver is...hilariously easy to beat even on his final matches despite all his talk about being strong and invencible. Nevertheless, he shows a very notable development after he gets beaten by Lance, starting questioning his flawed ideology and becoming a better trainer, which is among my favs. It gets even better in HGSS, where it's finally addresses he stole his starter and got a nice resolution out of it. Also, by fully confirming his family ties to Giovanni.
- Agreed with May/Brendan being forgetabble, these guys suck and left a dirty mark on friendly rivals. They even gave up on their journey wtf? Wally should be the main rival, having more humble origins and becoming an outstanding trainer, yet the game barely focuses on him...
- Barry is my favorite rival, unless we count N, like the tier list below does. He mixes well being your reliable friend from childhood, and also being a bit of an impatient prick. I remember he gets so cocky when he finds out the art of "just avoid all hits, attack and win lol" which translated to Staravia double teaming, and that fails. Yet, despite his lack of patience, he has Heracross and Munchlax, two of the hardest mons to find in Sinnoh. He gets beaten by Jupiter and realizes he needs to get serious and heklps you later on.
- I like Bianca a bit better than Cheren because I found her journey more relatable and interesting, but Cheren is also a pretty good character; both representing the Truth and Ideals motif of the game. Hugh has his own journey at chasing down Team Plasma, I think you get to team up more than you get to fight him, which is a nice change of pace.
- Do I really need to say why gen 6 rivals bad? Calem/Serena are marginally better, but their character and interactions are so barebones I couldn't care less, unlike....
- Hau, his easy going nature becomes a problem later on in the game when he fails to protect Lillie and realizes he needs to get serious, which Gladion called him out in Akala Island. While Gladion gets screwed by his lack of trust and communication, which Hau is good at. I wouldn't say he's a jerk rival since he respects your strength when you first met him.
- On gen 8 we got Nice Mean and In between rival dynamic. Hop was pretty good: being your childhood friend having dreams of following his bro's steps only to get a massive reality check courtesy of Bede, which really shows on his team building. He always showed interest in Sonia's work and the desir to help Pokémon, so I liked that he wants to be professor instead.
Unlike Gladion, Bede was a JERK, but like Silver, not a very challenging one. He has an interesting backstory in his trainer card and a deep loyalty to Rose, but it's like never brought up despite how potentionally good it could have been in the story, and disappears from most of the game. I like his eventual change to Fairy Gym, being more fabulously stylish and slighty more open to you despite still being a showoff.
Marnie was there. Despite being more present than Bede, she (and Team Yell as a whole) felt even more disconnected to the plot. I know she is the middle ground between Hop's friendliness and Bede's aggresiveness, but I wasn't sure what to think of her or if she really changed at all during this journey (she didn't want to be the Dark Gym Leader but she ends up with the title with little fanfare and she doesn't even appear in the postgame story), so I found her boring. Maybe if she had a more Tsunder-ish dynamic, or if she were more openly cold but not a jerk, I would've liked her better. Also, I'm lowkey salty she was selected as the best SwSh character in a poll in Japan, but at least that means this mini rant completely counts as an "unpopular opinion".
The two IoA rivals, Klara and Avery, were ok, with both being haughty yet insecure trainers that try to one up you and hilariously fail at it. I personally like Klara a bit better since she tries so hard to look sweet, not even bothering to hide her venom shortly after. Also, these two guys are the first trainers to fight you with you being at disadvantage, it surprises me it took 8 generations and a dlc for the bad guy to actually cheat, and it's not even a main villain that does it.
I remember I did a tier list a few weeks before:
- I found Blue decently challenging since he picked very powerful and rare mons for his team, some of the best in Gen 1: Rhydon, Exeggutor, Alakazam, etc. Problem is, the AI and movepools suck...I still find him a good rival but not the best. He got better characterization on later games, when he isn't your rival anymore. Trace is pretty bland imo, and taking the role of the antagonistic Blue in a remake of RBY is not doing him any favors. He even has the same champion battle theme, which doesn't fit him AT ALL.
- Silver is...hilariously easy to beat even on his final matches despite all his talk about being strong and invencible. Nevertheless, he shows a very notable development after he gets beaten by Lance, starting questioning his flawed ideology and becoming a better trainer, which is among my favs. It gets even better in HGSS, where it's finally addresses he stole his starter and got a nice resolution out of it. Also, by fully confirming his family ties to Giovanni.
- Agreed with May/Brendan being forgetabble, these guys suck and left a dirty mark on friendly rivals. They even gave up on their journey wtf? Wally should be the main rival, having more humble origins and becoming an outstanding trainer, yet the game barely focuses on him...
- Barry is my favorite rival, unless we count N, like the tier list below does. He mixes well being your reliable friend from childhood, and also being a bit of an impatient prick. I remember he gets so cocky when he finds out the art of "just avoid all hits, attack and win lol" which translated to Staravia double teaming, and that fails. Yet, despite his lack of patience, he has Heracross and Munchlax, two of the hardest mons to find in Sinnoh. He gets beaten by Jupiter and realizes he needs to get serious and heklps you later on.
- I like Bianca a bit better than Cheren because I found her journey more relatable and interesting, but Cheren is also a pretty good character; both representing the Truth and Ideals motif of the game. Hugh has his own journey at chasing down Team Plasma, I think you get to team up more than you get to fight him, which is a nice change of pace.
- Do I really need to say why gen 6 rivals bad? Calem/Serena are marginally better, but their character and interactions are so barebones I couldn't care less, unlike....
- Hau, his easy going nature becomes a problem later on in the game when he fails to protect Lillie and realizes he needs to get serious, which Gladion called him out in Akala Island. While Gladion gets screwed by his lack of trust and communication, which Hau is good at. I wouldn't say he's a jerk rival since he respects your strength when you first met him.
- On gen 8 we got Nice Mean and In between rival dynamic. Hop was pretty good: being your childhood friend having dreams of following his bro's steps only to get a massive reality check courtesy of Bede, which really shows on his team building. He always showed interest in Sonia's work and the desir to help Pokémon, so I liked that he wants to be professor instead.
Unlike Gladion, Bede was a JERK, but like Silver, not a very challenging one. He has an interesting backstory in his trainer card and a deep loyalty to Rose, but it's like never brought up despite how potentionally good it could have been in the story, and disappears from most of the game. I like his eventual change to Fairy Gym, being more fabulously stylish and slighty more open to you despite still being a showoff.
Marnie was there. Despite being more present than Bede, she (and Team Yell as a whole) felt even more disconnected to the plot. I know she is the middle ground between Hop's friendliness and Bede's aggresiveness, but I wasn't sure what to think of her or if she really changed at all during this journey (she didn't want to be the Dark Gym Leader but she ends up with the title with little fanfare and she doesn't even appear in the postgame story), so I found her boring. Maybe if she had a more Tsunder-ish dynamic, or if she were more openly cold but not a jerk, I would've liked her better. Also, I'm lowkey salty she was selected as the best SwSh character in a poll in Japan, but at least that means this mini rant completely counts as an "unpopular opinion".
The two IoA rivals, Klara and Avery, were ok, with both being haughty yet insecure trainers that try to one up you and hilariously fail at it. I personally like Klara a bit better since she tries so hard to look sweet, not even bothering to hide her venom shortly after. Also, these two guys are the first trainers to fight you with you being at disadvantage, it surprises me it took 8 generations and a dlc for the bad guy to actually cheat, and it's not even a main villain that does it.
I remember I did a tier list a few weeks before:
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