Unpopular opinions

All these Americans complaining about the sexualisation of fictional teenage girls in Japanese media when they themselves hold beauty pageants for real toddlers...

But to derail this thread not any further let's move on to another topic. Unpopular opnion: I think the sword/shield plot involving the darkest day was actually quite well executed and interesting. The Eternatus battle was quite climactic.

The lore is pretty interesting (especially the additional stuff with Calyrex) and the final battle is pretty thrilling. But I was thoroughly underwhelmed with how Eternatus was introduced. It seems that there's zero mention of it until about 3 minutes before you get to the elevator and Sonia says "Rose has awakened the legendary Pokemon Eternatus!" Like... we're just taking for granted that it exists. Whereas every other legendary received some actual buildup.
 
The lore is pretty interesting (especially the additional stuff with Calyrex) and the final battle is pretty thrilling. But I was thoroughly underwhelmed with how Eternatus was introduced. It seems that there's zero mention of it until about 3 minutes before you get to the elevator and Sonia says "Rose has awakened the legendary Pokemon Eternatus!" Like... we're just taking for granted that it exists. Whereas every other legendary received some actual buildup.

I think they wanted it to be a plot twist.
 
Unpopular opnion: I think the sword/shield plot involving the darkest day was actually quite well executed and interesting. The Eternatus battle was quite climactic.
The lore is pretty interesting (especially the additional stuff with Calyrex) and the final battle is pretty thrilling. But I was thoroughly underwhelmed with how Eternatus was introduced. It seems that there's zero mention of it until about 3 minutes before you get to the elevator and Sonia says "Rose has awakened the legendary Pokemon Eternatus!" Like... we're just taking for granted that it exists. Whereas every other legendary received some actual buildup.
I kinda agree that the idea of the plot wasn't bad, problem is just the way it's introduced.

Having you (a kid) do your own stuff (the gym challenge) while the adults (Leon & Sonia) deal with the actually dangerous stuff is a good idea, albeith they overdid a bit with the constant Leon's getting lost gag.
Having the main charachter "stick his nose in affairs that do not concern him" is still just standard pokemon plotline, and while the way it's done in SwSh isnt bad (you're doing your own stuff and suddently something stinks and Leon is gone), and I love the fact that Leon still *tries* to stop the disaster but fails and we have to step in, but the introduction could have really been done better than "Leon said he'd be here for dinner but he isn't".

As someone wrote somewhere else (cant remind who/where), the "plot twist" would have worked much better if they had Rose try to wake up Eternatus (and have him go berserk) in the middle of the Champion's Match or the preliminary matches without slotting the "Leon isnt at dinner, must beat all Macro Cosmos because yes" beforehand.
They wanted to give the feeling of "we had trusted the adults to deal with whatever is going on, but they are failed and now it's our time to shine", which they soooooorta manage to give, but really, the dinner part wasnt necessary ^^"
 
I think they wanted it to be a plot twist.

More specifically, I think the twist was supposed to be that the "Darkest Day" was actually a Pokémon. There is a lot of buildup about the "Darkest Day" being mentioned especially with Sonia investigating the Darkest Day incident that nearly destroyed Galar so long ago and the heroes who saved the day. It's later revealed that the heroes were actually Pokémon and that the "Darkest Day" was also brought about by a Pokémon in the form of Eternatus. But the myths about them disappeared over time so few knew about them until then.

I agree overall it wasn't the best executed, but I think that was the intention.
 
All these Americans complaining about the sexualisation of fictional teenage girls in Japanese media when they themselves hold beauty pageants for real toddlers...

Shocking News: You Can Criticize Multiple Things

Honestly, the main issue with SWSH is that they put too much of the plot on the latter 3/4ths of the game. There should have been a darkest day research build-up earlier and with the player's involvement. A plot twist doesn't really work if you are indifferent to what the characters are saying because you aren't involved in it
 
I think they wanted it to be a plot twist.

Yeah, they really crapped the bed if that was the intention.

More specifically, I think the twist was supposed to be that the "Darkest Day" was actually a Pokémon.

I mean really, even leaving aside the typical game formula, what else could it be? Yes, of course it could be a war or a natural disaster, but given how vaguely it's described it's not really a surprise that a Pokemon was behind it (they usually are, after all).

There is a lot of buildup about the "Darkest Day" being mentioned especially with Sonia investigating the Darkest Day incident that nearly destroyed Galar so long ago and the heroes who saved the day. It's later revealed that the heroes were actually Pokémon and that the "Darkest Day" was also brought about by a Pokémon in the form of Eternatus. But the myths about them disappeared over time so few knew about them until then.

This is what I mean about the lore being interesting. It's just handled so clumsily that there's no grace or elegance or mystery to it at all (as opposed to say, BW1). Which, fair enough, they're not always going to get it right.

Incidentally, one of the best quotes about writing I've read is "a twist is when you show the audience an apple but expertly convince them that they're looking at a banana until at the end you reveal it was an apple all along". I'm not sure how many twists in the series live up to this ideal but there have definitely been a few revelations/reveals that surprised me.
 
Incidentally, one of the best quotes about writing I've read is "a twist is when you show the audience an apple but expertly convince them that they're looking at a banana until at the end you reveal it was an apple all along". I'm not sure how many twists in the series live up to this ideal but there have definitely been a few revelations/reveals that surprised me.

Just curious here, which revelations in particular?
 
Just curious here, which revelations in particular?

Off the top of my head:

a) the almost-but-not-quite-confirmation in FRLG that Silver was Giovanni's child
b) Kukui being the champion in SM (which, looking back, was kind of a lame twist but I'm fairly sure it was a surprise when I first played the game)
c) Ardos and Eldes being Greevil's sons in XD
d) various moments from the manga, like Red showing up to stop the Magnet Train in the GSC chapter or the identity of the Mask of Ice
e) not a plot twist per se but the endgame of BW (specifically having to deal with Team Plasma rather than battling Alder); even despite the clear telegraphing of where the plot will go, I honestly didn't expect them to mess with the usual formula in such a way so that was a cool surprise

Also, Lance being the final member of the E4 in Gen I was a retroactive surprise for me because I played GSC first; nothing in those games indicates his former position so I assumed he was a random wandering powerful trainer, when I fought the E4 in Red and got to the final member I went "wait WHAT, he was part of the Elite Four originally?"
 
Also, Lance being the final member of the E4 in Gen I was a retroactive surprise for me because I played GSC first; nothing in those games indicates his former position so I assumed he was a random wandering powerful trainer, when I fought the E4 in Red and got to the final member I went "wait WHAT, he was part of the Elite Four originally?"
Well, GSC have the unique position of being actual sequels to RBY so stuff like Lance going from E4 to champion, Koga going from gym leader to E4 and leaving the Gym to his daughter, Blue taking over Giovanni's Gym, etc, were nice touches at the time.

Unfortunately, every game after that happens in a vacuum (notable exception being BW > BW2) so this kind of events has become basically non existant, which is a shame because they add a lot of depth to the universe.
 
Well, GSC have the unique position of being actual sequels to RBY so stuff like Lance going from E4 to champion, Koga going from gym leader to E4 and leaving the Gym to his daughter, Blue taking over Giovanni's Gym, etc, were nice touches at the time.

Unfortunately, every game after that happens in a vacuum (notable exception being BW > BW2) so this kind of events has become basically non existant, which is a shame because they add a lot of depth to the universe.

And the, albeit very minor, thing about Caitlin being part of the Unova Elite Four after being an irrelevant character in the Gen IV Battle Frontier.
 
Hard to do continuity nowadays when the regions following each other can be thousands of kilometers apart. Unless you make it so they are from the same area (so we'd get two south american regions for example), but gamefreak prefers each region be a different place, even if we just went back and forth between europe and north america (canada region confirmed then I guess? Lol)
 
All these Americans complaining about the sexualisation of fictional teenage girls in Japanese media when they themselves hold beauty pageants for real toddlers...

Wowsers! my VPN must be really good for me (and a lot of the people on this forum to be honest) to be considered "american"

gamefreak prefers each region be a different place, even if we just went back and forth between europe and north america (canada region confirmed then I guess? Lol)

actually, Gamefreak seems to like contrasting regions with each other ever since gen 3
now we know that Gamefreak designs Pokemon games with concepts that "everybody would instantly recognize" meaning of course concepts that "everyone in japan would instantly recognize"
so which countries are "instantly recognizable" to people in japan (and, most importantly, to the children of japan)?

thankfully we have a way to answer that question with full scientific rigor
EiQHw6wUwAADeX7.jpg
also ignore the flag, Jester's from Brazil, nobody cares about portugal

with that in mind let's determine which "regions" might actually have a legitimate chance for gen 9
and no this isn't whishlisting, it's an educated guess, a scientifically rigorous guess at that
Japan, the United States, France, Hawaii (Hawaii is not part of the United States, don't be ridiculous, they're not even on the same continent) and England are disqualified since they've already been featured
and no, we are not going back to Japan, nobody cares one bit about Tohoku

Germany, Sweden, Poland, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands are discounted on account of being "too similar" to England (no joke, I've seen industry professionals think that Galar was based on the Netherlands)

Hong Kong will never be an independent region as long as China has something to say about it


and since Gamefreak likes to take vacations research the countries that'll inspire the next region, I'm gonna guess that Mongolia, Malaysia, Cuba, Nepal and Kenya are probably also discounted sadly

China is big enough and invested in enough that it may even have TWO regions of its own

and the Death Army won't be officially formed until 60 F.C.

so that leaves us with China, Italy, Egypt, Canada, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Greece, Singapore, Spain (Spain and Mexico? utterly ridiculous, everybody knows they're the same country), India and Brazil

so make your bets I guess? since that leaves us with Canada with a 1 in 13 odds
 
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so that leaves us with China, Italy, Egypt, Canada, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Greece, Singapore, Spain (Spain and Mexico? utterly ridiculous, everybody knows they're the same country), India and Brazil
Fact: A region based on Italy would be finally the time I join the smogooners in hating GF for their existance. Don't do this, we got enough stereotypes and memes already.
 
All these Americans complaining about the sexualisation of fictional teenage girls in Japanese media when they themselves hold beauty pageants for real toddlers...

But to derail this thread not any further let's move on to another topic. Unpopular opnion: I think the sword/shield plot involving the darkest day was actually quite well executed and interesting. The Eternatus battle was quite climactic.

Speaking as an American, I can say that I don't care for either sexualizing teenage girls or beauty pageants for toddlers. And I really doubt that the people here worried about sexualizing teenage girls are the same ones holding those pageants. You are implying hypocrisy where there is none while condemning an entire nation of people. Quite the feat.
 
Speaking as an American, I can say that I don't care for either sexualizing teenage girls or beauty pageants for toddlers. And I really doubt that the people here worried about sexualizing teenage girls are the same ones holding those pageants. You are implying hypocrisy where there is none while condemning an entire nation of people. Quite the feat.
Also an American, I hate beauty pageants for toddlers and I have yet to meet anyone who likes them despite living here for my entire life. You can pretty cleanly split Americans into two groups of people:

1. People who participate in beauty pageants.
2. People who hate beauty pageants.

I know it's easy to pick on Americans, especially since recent events do not make us look very good as a collective, but this particular stereotype is pretty dumb.

Just so this post has something to do with Pokémon, I think it's neat that Dragonite is a symbol of pride in Spain. I love the goofy dragon, and it's cool to see him get love in other places too.
 
actually, Gamefreak seems to like contrasting regions with each other ever since gen 3
now we know that Gamefreak designs Pokemon games with concepts that "everybody would instantly recognize" meaning of course concepts that "everyone in japan would instantly recognize"
so which countries are "instantly recognizable" to people in japan (and, most importantly, to the children of japan)?

Actually it's more and more feeling like they're basing the next region on where the team went on holiday, oh, sorry, I mean "on-location research". EDIT: Darn, you already made the joke later in your post.

thankfully we have a way to answer that question with full scientific rigor
EiQHw6wUwAADeX7.jpg
also ignore the flag, Jester's from Brazil, nobody cares about portugal

... I don't think Gundam is that really good of an indication of what region are Japanese people well recognized with.

So, just wanted to mention my thought process as I looked through these:
  • God, Maxter: Alright, typical looking mechs.
  • Rose: Oh, how very fancy, it has a cape, surely they don't get grabbed and grappled during a conflict.
  • John Bull: Really? The England Gundam looks like a Royal Palace guard, *sigh*.
  • Dragon: And now we have a samurai... for China? Did China have samurai?
  • Nobel: Why is Sweden's Gundam a Sailor Scout? Like, what exactly does that bow in the front do for it?
  • Pharaoh: Okay, did they get Dr. Wily to start making these designs? These aren't Gundams they're Robot Masters.
  • Tequila: Like, it looks okay, BUT TEQUILA? Hey, what's the most Mexican thing we can think of to name the Mexican Gundam after? I know, a Mexican alcoholic drink! Like did they not want to go with the obvious "Desperado" for some reason?
  • Skull: So, are Malaysia a villainous group? Cause that's a villain Gundam. That's a Gundam where if you were the pilot of it you'd take a second take before asking "are we the baddies? Our mech is designed after a skull!".
  • Arachno: ... What does Cuba have to do with spiders? Mech doesn't even look like a spider.
  • Matador: REALLY? "Hey, what's Spain famous for"? "Um, running the bulls? Make a Bull-headed Gundum I guess"? (Makes a Gundum that's a bull head). "... That wasn't what I meant".
  • Mandala: We're getting into "we hired Dr. Wily as a designer" territory again.
  • Viking: And I thought the Greek Gundam was overdesigned. Like, fine if it takes aesthetics from Viking ships, but were the bow figureheads really necessary?
  • Zebra: Geez, even in Gundam form the Africans (well, Kenyan going by the flag) can't escape the racist native stereotype...
  • Nether/Mermaid/Cobra/Jester: Okay, Bandai Namco, just call up Capcom and ask if you or they could make a Megaman-like game but using Gundams instead of Robot Masters. They made a Megaman game with Street Fighter characters and I've seen clips of the chibi-Gundam series you have; don't neither of your pretend you wouldn't do it (to be honest would probably make a lot of money).

Anyway, back to your post/response:

with that in mind let's determine which "regions" might actually have a legitimate chance for gen 9
and no this isn't whishlisting, it's an educated guess, a scientifically rigorous guess at that
Japan, the United States, France, Hawaii (Hawaii is not part of the United States, don't be ridiculous, they're not even on the same continent) and England are disqualified since they've already been featured
and no, we are not going back to Japan, nobody cares one bit about Tohoku

Germany, Sweden, Poland, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands are discounted on account of being "too similar" to England (no joke, I've seen industry professionals think that Galar was based on the Netherlands)

Hong Kong will never be an independent region as long as China has something to say about it


and since Gamefreak likes to take vacations research the countries that'll inspire the next region, I'm gonna guess that Mongolia, Malaysia, Cuba, Nepal and Kenya are probably also discounted sadly

China is big enough and invested in enough that it may even have TWO regions of its own

so that leaves us with China, Italy, Egypt, Canada, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Greece, Singapore, Spain (Spain and Mexico? utterly ridiculous, everybody knows they're the same country), India and Brazil

so make your bets I guess? since that leaves us with Canada with a 1 in 13 odds

Joking aside, those are probably the top choices. I'd say Canada only if they focus on Inuit religion.

My personal pick would be Greece cause we can then get a whole batch of Greek Mythology Pokemon. Spain and Italy (or would that be too similar to Greece?) also would be interesting, probably the other two biggest European Countries that people would think of after England and France.

Though, let's keep in mind that we've visited the US two times and there's pretty much two other places in the US they could base a region on: California (for some reason I can also see them combining it with parts of Florida, I can't explain why they just seem similar to me in that regard) and the Midwest/Texas (which I guess has some overlap with Mexico).

Or they could do Australia and make half of the Pokemon there be part Poison-type; though joking aside they could probably also do a LOT with the Aboriginal religion of The Dreaming/Dreamtime.

Speaking as an American, I can say that I don't care for either sexualizing teenage girls or beauty pageants for toddlers. And I really doubt that the people here worried about sexualizing teenage girls are the same ones holding those pageants. You are implying hypocrisy where there is none while condemning an entire nation of people. Quite the feat.
Also an American, I hate beauty pageants for toddlers and I have yet to meet anyone who likes them despite living here for my entire life. You can pretty cleanly split Americans into two groups of people:

1. People who participate in beauty pageants.
2. People who hate beauty pageants.

I know it's easy to pick on Americans, especially since recent events do not make us look very good as a collective, but this particular stereotype is pretty dumb.

While its a debutante ball rather then a "toddler beauty pegeant", if you want to know the type of Americans who sexualize underage girls I suggest watching the film "Borat 2".
 
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