Unpopular opinions

[DrPumpkinz]

After that we got Moon, a talented pharmacist who earned a doctorate AT THE AGE OF SIX!

...What? I guess I shouldn't be surprised coming from the game series with little concept of magnitude, but earning a doctorate at the age of six is just... ridiculous. Like, how would you even have time to learn everything that's required? Even basic stuff like reading and writing can take a few years.

 

[Sonikku A]

Adventures I feel dipped after late Gen 3. The main issue was trying to canonically connect every game when they shouldn't, which led to character bloat later
Something also interesting, pokemon themselves are ironically not given much focus. I noticed it especially

Spoiler

with Brendan's swampert, where it didn't even feel like a signature mon after a while (which is funny cuz even Brendan's dad noted Swampert detecting an issue in the environment during their big "daddy issues" fight)

. Though human development was typically far better than most other Pokemon media...well until Emerald
Then DPs, then BW2 as noted...
Fun thing though, Gen 7 the author very clearly hates the gen and Rotom Dex, chastising it every now and then

 

[Pikachu315111]

Fun thing though, Gen 7 the author very clearly hates the gen and Rotom Dex, chastising it every now and then

Anyone who had to deal with the Rotom Dex probably wanted to throw it against the wall when they were through with the game.

As for hating the gen, I wonder if that has to do with GF's decision of making USUM an alternate timeline. With Yellow, Crystal, Emerald & Platinum any of its added elements were just simple additions, and B2W2 was a story expansion. But USUM did a major change of altering the main antagonist's goals and added a whole new group to justify those changes which was probably a major pain to find a way to add in.

 

[Sonikku A]

Anyone who had to deal with the Rotom Dex probably wanted to throw it against the wall when they were through with the game.

As for hating the gen, I wonder if that has to do with GF's decision of making USUM an alternate timeline. With Yellow, Crystal, Emerald & Platinum any of its added elements were just simple additions, and B2W2 was a story expansion. But USUM did a major change of altering the main antagonist's goals and added a whole new group to justify those changes which was probably a major pain to find a way to add in.

I dunno....Gen 1/2 making the Elite 4 evil is pretty extreme of a change already, then 3 one of the protag's is incredibly selfish for specific reasons. I don't think the change affected the story
The overall mechanics and overly tutorial methods definitely stood out more

 

[IceBeam23]

Anyone who had to deal with the Rotom Dex probably wanted to throw it against the wall when they were through with the game.

At first i really liked how rotom-dex talked and i liked him (since i really like rotom in general)... then i beat the totem marowak, and he asked me if i wanted a surname... i said yes, and the gates of hell opened.
Holy sheet, he never shut up after that. Everytime you change areas, everytime you close the menu, he hides your map to say something he already said 200 times.
I wish i had known earlier that if you don't respond to his questions, he never goes into that state.

Talking about USUM, i think i'll never experience a better moment in the series than the Rainbow Rocket episode. I LOVED it, the team leaders remixes were great, and it was awesome seeing them when they actually succeeded. It was pretty terrifying thinking about how Cyrus literally reset the world, Archie and Maxie almost DIED because of Kyogre/Groudon (the whole Hoenn region probably met that fate), Ghetsis ruled Unova (and probably tried to manipulate Giovanni the same way he manipulated N), and Lysandre just freaking NUKED Kalos. And Giovanni was intimidating, finally got his own theme, and i freaked out with the mega-mewtwo.
Bonus points for Guzma's appearance (Still one of my favorite pokemon character), and Colress getting payback on a different Ghetsis by sending him to the shadow realm.

Speaking of team leaders themes, i don't really like Cyrus's theme. I love the intro and the final part of it, but the part in between is really underwhelming and has nothing going for it imo. I guess that's the point though, since Cyrus is against emotions in general. His USUM theme is.... i don't really know how to feel about it.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I never read the Adventure Manga but I know enough about it to facepalm when I heard what they did with Nate. Now the idea behind Nate and Rosa are interesting: Rosa is a former Team Plasma member who was loyal to N, when Plasma fell apart her mother moved them to Aspertia Town to escape the fallout. Nate is an interpol agent doing an undercover investigation searching for Plasma members, while normally serious during his undercover work he acts more juvenile (notably flirtatious on young female suspects to get close to them until he can figure out if they're guilty or not). Okay at first, does make Nate sound a bit like a jerk especially with how he treats woman, but what really annoyed me was two things: (1) Nate couldn't just be a interpol agent, no, they made him a super agent and notably he's of hire rank than LOOKER. Come on, don't pull that BS on me! (2) By making both Nate and Rosa non-native to Aspertia Town, they wrote away the childhood relationship any would have had with Hugh which was one of the driving forces of the narrative.

I like the idea with one of them being a former Team Plasma member trying to form a new life after the collapse of Plasma, so the other I would have just kept as a normal kid who grew up in Aspertia to maintain that friendship angle with Hugh (and just to have a "black & white" them going, make them feel indifferent to Plasma to balance out Hugh's hatred for them).

Of course I've always had issues with the Special Manga, like people considering it the "ideal" Pokemon experience/adaption and some of the choices they made with the characters. I'll turn the other cheek for earlier decisions as the early games didn't really give them much of a story to work off of (though making the Indigo Plateau Elite Four a group of geocidal sociopaths is certainly... a choice...), though some recent stuff feels like they either missed the point (Team Flare are not meant to be a serious threat...) or take characters in bizarre directions (like Selene, Sun & Moon's playable girl character, is apparently this super professor in poisons, why?).

Yeah, it's controversial.

But you know, all of the game protags are literal childs that somehow dismantle criminal organizations, save the world, beat and or capture legendaries, AND become champions as soon as they leave on a journey, so I really don't see the problem with the Adventures protags.

Speaking of which, the SwSh ones are looking fairly interesting rn instead of being almost perfect like Black 2.

 

[Bakugames]

The swsh manga looks really promising and honestly I know its too much to ask for kusaka whos writing skills are. Hm. But I want soudo to be evil so bad. Make him a bastard please

Oh also the swsh dexholders names are sword sword and shield shield

As someone whos very deep in the pokespe stuff (not fandom tho avoid that like a poisonous frog), most of us have noticed the more story a pokemon game has, the worse kusaka writes. Hes absolute shit at adapting things. So since swsh story is way more on the low, swsh can be a really good arc.

Dppt remake arc is going to suck because all remake arcs are character butchering

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

But I want soudo to be evil so bad. Make him a bastard please

Dppt remake arc is going to suck because all remake arcs are character butchering

Impossible.

The DPPt trio is too wholesome to be ruined.

 

[Bakugames]

Impossible.

The DPPt trio is too wholesome to be ruined.

Hes going to make one of them date platinum and its all downhill from there

 

[Sonikku A]

Yeah, it's controversial.

But you know, all of the game protags are literal childs that somehow dismantle criminal organizations, save the world, beat and or capture legendaries, AND become champions as soon as they leave on a journey, so I really don't see the problem with the Adventures protags.

Kinda false that it was "immediate". It took several months
Even the anime, Ash spends 3 months just for the first 6 episodes according to the OG writer. Which makes him remaining 10 pretty stupid, but eh

The RPG problem of thinking things only take 5 min when they don't has kinda affected gaming. Especially when speedruns are at play

 

[pokemon4eva]

Dppt remake arc is going to suck because all remake arcs are character butchering

Hey, FRLG is my favorite arc :( And I liked HGSS as well. ORAS well...yeah, like I said, worst arc before BW2 showed its ugly face. I think the problem with the manga nowadays is due to the games getting released in a faster pace than before, so the writers are pressured for time. BW2 suffered HEAVILY from this, getting on long hiatuses for years until finished this year (mind you, a game from 2012) because the current games atm were the priority.

My thoughts in Adventures are overall good: loved the Kanto and Johto arcs, RS has a very well written love story and high stakes drama (just ignore that Celebi, please) and Emerald was kinda questionable but I ended up liking Rald and having all dex holders is amazing. FRLG was a great continuation for the og dex holders, intense battle, great twists and Team Rocket being more dangerous than ever.

DP has a the most loyal companions, Platinum...kinda eh, the Battle Frontier was really tacked on even when it has nothing to do with the story aside from promoting the Sinnoh Frontier (which, by the way, ROCKS). HGSS was fine, not as epic but Gold's development was well executed. BW was pretty good despite not changing much the story like its predeccesors, overall it adapted very well the characters and story beats. BW2 is....BW2.

Now XY....probably the best of the recent arcs, the difference between how it handles the Kalos' story compared with the games or anime is astronomical. IT MADE TREVOR, TIERNO AND SHAUNA GOOD CHARACTERS, THAT'S SORCERY! Team Flare is actually threatening, these guys DOMINATE the media! Lysandre is both threatening and cunning (like in the anime) and complexingly tragic (like in the games). Prob my second favorite arc. But then...

ORAS was...ugh. The characters are so mishandled, especially Zinnia and Sapphire. Most of the twists are extremely ridiculous even for Pokemon standards, except one concerning Deoxys. In the end I can't help but feel very unsatisfied with the resolution. SM/USUM was...kinda eh. I don't think this adaptation is an interesting take of Alola's story, it follows it near exactly except key characters like Hau and Lillie get thrown to the sidelines while the attention mostly centers on the protagonists being awesome (remember when secondary characters mattered?). And SwSh, not sure what to think of it yet but I already see Marvin and the fast pacing as red flags...

I love the Adventures manga, it offered me an interesting adapatation of the games I played, it's much more than just being "darker and edgier", because plenty of people think this manga is just that because of the Arbok scenes. I hope SwSh proves me wrong with my current issues.

 

[Pikachu315111]

But you know, all of the game protags are literal childs that somehow dismantle criminal organizations, save the world, beat and or capture legendaries, AND become champions as soon as they leave on a journey, so I really don't see the problem with the Adventures protags.

Speaking of which, the SwSh ones are looking fairly interesting rn instead of being almost perfect like Black 2.

Yeah but there's a sliding scale of believability, heck in Pokemon it generally feels like they keep the human characters grounded while it's the Pokemon that are used to exaggerate the rules of the world. Like, yes, the protags are certainly prodigies, but they're still kids. Nate being a super spy with a rank higher than Looker and Serena being a top scientist from the age 6 feels like something that would be in Dragon Ball than Pokemon.

Let's use the Sword & Shield protags as an example. Sword is a Pokemon tool repairman while Shield was a pro trainers but, for some reason, upon encountering the Wolf Heroes in the Slumbering Woods she lost her Pokemon and has to start from scratch/search for her missing Pokemon. That feels perfectly believable, they're not some super human but rather Sword is good at repairing Pokemon tools and Shield is just a good trainer. While this does give them a "leg up" on otherwise normal characters, it doesn't mean they're just gonna walk on through any challenges given to them. It would be interesting to see how Sword uses his tool repairing skill to help his Pokemon and how Shield rebuilds herself after losing her strong Pokemon while also searching for them.

 

[Bakugames]

Nate being a super spy with a rank higher than Looker and Serena being a top scientist from the age 6 feels like something that would be in Dragon Ball than Pokemon.

Lacktwo being called nate is so funny I dont know why. Maybe because I see nate as just a cute random kid while lacktwo is... *gestures*

An unpopular opinion I guess? But I think just having the current ash anime is enough. I dont see the appeal of an ~edgy adult themed show~ and I also dont know any other media i'd like adapted into an anime

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

But I think just having the current ash anime is enough.

I think a lot of the hype about Adventures kinda revolves around the Anime... not being that good.

Don't get me wrong, the anime has different goals, but honestly, a lot of its characters just... aren't interesting. The structure doesn't really help either.

Each Adventures arc has good battles and a structure that isn't designed to be infinite, so character development exists instead of seasons kinda relying on the supporting cast to be good (And Go gets on my nerves, so I'm hoping he gets the boot as soon as the next mainline game is announced.).

I wish the actual games got a chance to be adapted into something like Origins but not as compressed, and based on the reactions to Origins and the Generations shorts, a chunk of the fandom wants that too.

 

[Bakugames]

I wish the actual games got a chance to be adapted into something like Origins but not as compressed, and based on the reactions to Origins and the Generations shorts, a chunk of the fandom wants that to

But is there enough content on the games to actually make long animes about it? I feel like origins and generations all hit the memorable parts of the game. Maybe with gen 5 and gen 7, but the rest?

Maybe a mini anime series of something like 4, maybe 5 episodes for each region, but an actual long anime would look almost the same, just without ash and his companions imo

 

[Pikachu315111]

But is there enough content on the games to actually make long animes about it? I feel like origins and generations all hit the memorable parts of the game. Maybe with gen 5 and gen 7, but the rest?

Maybe a mini anime series of something like 4, maybe 5 episodes for each region, but an actual long anime would look almost the same, just without ash and his companions imo

I think what Volt-Ikazuchi is thinking about, and I've had the same thoughts too, is that they would base the number of episodes on the number of notable moments/battles. We don't need to see every single moment of the journey like the travelling through routes, catching Pokemon, and battling minor trainers. People who play the games experience that themselves so we know how all that would generally work out. Rather the idea is that players just want to see the big moments and battles, the things we want to imagine being flashy and/or dramatic but the games limited tech & mechanics doesn't really allow for it. At most, maybe at the start of the episode they'll list the notable minor events which occurred between each part along with either still images or a small animated clip (sort of like what they did in Origins).

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

But is there enough content on the games to actually make long animes about it?

There should be enough to make at least a regular anime season's worth per game. Especially the 3DS ones. Heck, the regular anime had 4 episodes just for the Darkest Day arc.

I think what Volt-Ikazuchi is thinking about, and I've had the same thoughts too, is that they would base the number of episodes on the number of notable moments/battles. We don't need to see every single moment of the journey like the travelling through routes, catching Pokemon, and battling minor trainers. People who play the games experience that themselves so we know how all that would generally work out. Rather the idea is that players just want to see the big moments and battles, the things we want to imagine being flashy and/or dramatic but the games limited tech & mechanics doesn't really allow for it. At most, maybe at the start of the episode they'll list the notable minor events which occurred between each part along with either still images or a small animated clip (sort of like what they did in Origins).

I wouldn't go that far, some locations like Viridian Forest definitely could have enough material for a whole episode like catching a new teammate and some battles. Most of them could be condensed though.

 

[mcooper527666]

I know people will skewer me for saying this, but: what if we made a pseudo-dynamax clause in Ubers stating that Pokémon that are OU (or maybe UU) are allowed to dynamic in ubers matches but natural Uber tiered pokemon will NOT be allowed to dynama. IOW, pokemon like Gyarados, Charizard, and Intellion can dynamax (or even gigantmax in the case of the latter two), while,pokemon like Xerneas. Dusk Mane Necrozma, and Kyorge CANNOT dynamax. It sounds controversial but what do you think of it?

 

[misterdarvus]

I know people will skewer me for saying this, but: what if we made a pseudo-dynamax clause in Ubers stating that Pokémon that are OU (or maybe UU) are allowed to dynamic in ubers matches but natural Uber tiered pokemon will NOT be allowed to dynama. IOW, pokemon like Gyarados, Charizard, and Intellion can dynamax (or even gigantmax in the case of the latter two), while,pokemon like Xerneas. Dusk Mane Necrozma, and Kyorge CANNOT dynamax. It sounds controversial but what do you think of it?

Good things we already think ahead of you with Ubers Dynamax Clause

Plus this is not the place dor competitive discussion

 

[pokemon4eva]

I don't think the main anime is that needed anymore, starting from Best Wishes they started rebooting Ash hard and I suppose they don't change the protagonist because they want to play it safe (classic Pokemon problem) and Ash is quite marketable. I stopped caring about the anime because I am tired of his endless journey and I am convinced it won't satisfy me anymore like it once used to.

However, I still enjoy the OVAs like Origins (if it had a regular season length it would be the GOAT), Generations and Twilight Wings; the more recent movies I Choose You and Power of Us are so fresh and good, very hyped for Pokemon Ko-oh excuse me, Secrets of the Jungle.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

A double-bill:

1) No-one gave a flying crap about Maractus until Dexit threatened to do away with it. Then all of a sudden everyone was distraught at the prospect of losing a Pokemon no-one had ever used. Now it's everyone's favourite Pokemon (which is fair, it's cute) but the revisionism that went on prior to SwSh's release with people saying "I'm so glad Maractus is in the game!" was hilarious.*

2) Pokemon Go's energy requirement to transfer mons over to Home is grating but entirely reasonable. Transferring 25 shiny legendaries in one go would be utterly broken and would make the GTS even more annoying than it currently is. Plus, given that you have 10,000 energy in total, you can still transfer 10 legendaries or 5 mythicals in one go with a full meter (assuming they're not shiny) which is not a terrible ratio.

*can't believe this needs adding, but: the use of the words "no-one" and "everyone" should not be taken literally

 

[jordanthejq12]

A double-bill:

No-one gave a flying crap about Maractus until Dexit threatened to do away with it. Then all of a sudden everyone was distraught at the prospect of losing a Pokemon no-one had ever used. Now it's everyone's favourite Pokemon (which is fair, it's cute) but the revisionism that went on prior to SwSh's release with people saying "I'm so glad Maractus is in the game!" was hilarious.*

Remember, the anti-Dexit push is more about the principle of having Pokémon unavailable than the loss of any specific species (though of course every mon is someone's favorite).

I do find it hilarious that Maractus of all mons survived the initial culling. Maractus falls into that category of mons that I'd call "known for being unknown": If it is brought up in conversation, it's typically along the lines of "Hey, who remembers this, amirite?".

 

[Siggu]

1) No-one gave a flying crap about Maractus until Dexit threatened to do away with it. Then all of a sudden everyone was distraught at the prospect of losing a Pokemon no-one had ever used. Now it's everyone's favourite Pokemon (which is fair, it's cute) but the revisionism that went on prior to SwSh's release with people saying "I'm so glad Maractus is in the game!" was hilarious.*

Yeah, in my case, I was kind of more annoyed, not at who was removed, but at who wasn't (looking at you, canid Pokémon).

Of course, I agree with the anti-Dexit crowd that having all Pokémon is better than only having some, but I can let a Dexit slide depending on the casualties :P

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Remember, the anti-Dexit push is more about the principle of having Pokémon unavailable than the loss of any specific species (though of course every mon is someone's favorite).

Oh, I know. I was opposed to Dexit on principle - like, I think the basic minimum requirement for a Pokemon game should be "contains all the Pokemon". My point was about floods of people suddenly caring about Maractus' existence.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

It's that time of the month again... Yay, Dexit talk!

Real talk tho, even though it makes sense that every mon is someone's favorite, it was just silly to see people going nuts for the likes of Maractus, Lumineon, Furret, and other mons that are only remembered on "Most Forgettable Pokémon" lists.

I can't hate though. Unlike when it happened on RS, this Dexit was entirely unjustifiable.