Or maybe give Mimikyu the Pikachu treatment; make that an item. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
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I’d agree with any kind of buff that goes with Mimikyu’s Disguise, but I’d avoid further discussion on that due to dangerously close to the line of “no-wishlisting” rule.
It does, however, reminds me something.
Game Freak is given too much credit of their once-broken but now mostly well-done Pokémon battling mechanics, and wasn’t criticized enough for a truly lack of other consistently good mechanic since the second generation. Or sixth if you count better access for EVs gains.
Even putting aside the whole issue of “generational / regional gimmicks” discussion, I feel like GF didn’t commited enough with many potential ideas by either doing them poorly right at the beginning or simply dropping them the next generation, or worse both, even if there are potentials. Time constraint for post-Gen 5 Pokémon is the culprit, but this problem is already dated back in the very first generation.
One example of poorly done game design, but mercifully improved later on, are the Dragon-type and the Ghost-type back in RGBY. There is only one line per type, namely Dratini line for Dragon and Ghastly for Ghost, representing their rarity, especially the former… And then it goes down the drain once you discover that the moves the type in question brought the type pretty much non-existent offensive-wise. The following are:
Dragon-type: Dragon Rage (only 40 HP of damage), and that’s it. This means the Dratini line is left without actual STAB, and Dragonite doesn’t even learn any Flying-type moves without the use of transfer (in this case, Fly), making this a double-whammy.
Ghost-type: Lick, Night Shade, and Confuse Ray. This makes Ghost to fares better, but not by much. The two moves, Night Shade and Confuse Ray, cannot get STAB bonus. The only damaging move that can get STAB is Lick… running on a paltry 20 BP (rather than acceptable-for-early-game 30), even with the 30% chance of Paralysis into account. Night Shade is good to whittle down low-HP bulky foes, but that’s it, leaving the Ghastly line a lack of reliable Ghost STAB down the line. Doesn’t help both types runs on the Ghastly line’s lower Attack back in the first three generations, either.
I just think that the gameplay itself really clutches well after the steady improvements up until the sixth generations, which is a good thing. If the gameplay started to regress, such as worsened balance of the type chart, or RNG-based mechanics going into overdrive, people would end up liking modern Pokémon a lot less, since if it is the case, even the other clutches, being the Pokémon and characters themselves, wouldn’t be enough to keep the old and new fans alike invested as they‘ll watch the anime or read the manga instead.
It does, however, reminds me something.
Game Freak is given too much credit of their once-broken but now mostly well-done Pokémon battling mechanics, and wasn’t criticized enough for a truly lack of other consistently good mechanic since the second generation. Or sixth if you count better access for EVs gains.
Even putting aside the whole issue of “generational / regional gimmicks” discussion, I feel like GF didn’t commited enough with many potential ideas by either doing them poorly right at the beginning or simply dropping them the next generation, or worse both, even if there are potentials. Time constraint for post-Gen 5 Pokémon is the culprit, but this problem is already dated back in the very first generation.
One example of poorly done game design, but mercifully improved later on, are the Dragon-type and the Ghost-type back in RGBY. There is only one line per type, namely Dratini line for Dragon and Ghastly for Ghost, representing their rarity, especially the former… And then it goes down the drain once you discover that the moves the type in question brought the type pretty much non-existent offensive-wise. The following are:
Dragon-type: Dragon Rage (only 40 HP of damage), and that’s it. This means the Dratini line is left without actual STAB, and Dragonite doesn’t even learn any Flying-type moves without the use of transfer (in this case, Fly), making this a double-whammy.
Ghost-type: Lick, Night Shade, and Confuse Ray. This makes Ghost to fares better, but not by much. The two moves, Night Shade and Confuse Ray, cannot get STAB bonus. The only damaging move that can get STAB is Lick… running on a paltry 20 BP (rather than acceptable-for-early-game 30), even with the 30% chance of Paralysis into account. Night Shade is good to whittle down low-HP bulky foes, but that’s it, leaving the Ghastly line a lack of reliable Ghost STAB down the line. Doesn’t help both types runs on the Ghastly line’s lower Attack back in the first three generations, either.
I just think that the gameplay itself really clutches well after the steady improvements up until the sixth generations, which is a good thing. If the gameplay started to regress, such as worsened balance of the type chart, or RNG-based mechanics going into overdrive, people would end up liking modern Pokémon a lot less, since if it is the case, even the other clutches, being the Pokémon and characters themselves, wouldn’t be enough to keep the old and new fans alike invested as they‘ll watch the anime or read the manga instead.
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For the Dratini family lacking a STAB move in Gen I, I feel this isn't much an issue as Dragons are only SE against themselves. By not having a Dragon move it oddly assures that, unless you're packing an Ice-type Move, a Type you'll likely only have to deal with Dragon-types at the point of facing the Elite Four, Lance's dragons will be a force to reckon with, especially Dragonite. And yes, this does result with the only Moves which Dragonite can use with its Attack being Normal, though this is also Dragonite we're talking about: it hits hard without STAB and it's Special stat is good enough (especially back then) it can make use of elemental coverage. Oh, and of course it gets plenty of handy Status Moves to make it even more of a pain to deal with (not that any of Lance's dragons in Gen I did that, though Gen II & III they did). If you had the patience to catch & raise a Dratini into a Dragonite, it's not going to be lack of STAB moves which will be an issue.
And for the Ghastly family lacking a STAB, well as fate would have it, even if it did have a decent one in Gen I, it still wouldn't have mattered (for the most part). Ghosts were meant to be the main counter to Psychic-types... and the made a mistake of making Psychic resist Ghost in Gen I! Combine with them also making the Ghastly family part Poison which is weak to Psychic (and Ghost don't resist Psychic), well I'm curious how good of a counter they would have been. This is all "fixed" in Gen II (in quotes because we also have the issue of Ghost being a Physical category so the Ghastly family couldn't even get the full benefits of its STAB until Gen IV!), though that doesn't mean the Ghastly family were out. With a high Special and Speed and learning just enough useful Special & Status Moves, a lot of Gengar may have been one-trick ponies but it was a trick they were pretty good at.
If anything, Dragonite and Gengar showed that Type isn't everything. They had no STAB, but their stats were high enough in the right places where they were still OU, above many other Pokemon who did have a usable STAB but not the right stats.
While not as widespread as a type change or pre-gen 4 attack availability, I've personally felt that changes in gens 8 and 9 have reduced my enthusiasm in addition to the general dislike of cut options.
Issue 1: hazard and removal creep
You could probably trace the changes in entry hazard performance back farther, but gen 8 is where it came to a head for me. Effectively, it feels that effects like U-turn, Volt Switch, and Regenerator were designed in a period where hazards were strong (gen 4-5, post-Rocks and pre-Defog) and became overwhelming when gen 8 favoured hazards much less. Gen 9 has seriously increased availability for Spikes and decreased it for Defog, but even so a rapid back-and-forth on an important aspect doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that future generations (or even gen 9 DLC) will be in a good spot.
Issue 2: sanitized
I really like the high availability of percentage-based passive damage. I feel that it helps to keep high-BST mons (or ingame, level advantages) humble. While hazards are within that category, they aren't doing much against a single threat or an AI that doesn't switch. Giving nearly every mon access to a solid Damage-Over Time was great. It was one of the things I thought about when comparing Pokemon to other battle systems. But we don't have it anymore. I'd be open to something like what happened with Scald, giving a lesser replacement if Toxic was deemed too strong, but right now it feels like any potential enjoyment of a non-Natdex format in gen 9 (which can just ignore the lack of Toxic on older mons) is being carried entirely by Salt Cure. That's pretty much the opposite of a place to experiment.
Nothing said they’re bad, quite the contrary. I do find it funny how the type doesn’t really dictate a Pokémon viability all that much except maybe Ice (for too many weaknesses for just one resistance, simple as that), and it’s how all other stats and mechanics are assembled together.
Although, just because it worked once, or failed once, that repeating the archetype over and over for the Pokémon’s type will only ends up making the Type or archetype feels more rigid, as we’ve seen with how so many defensive Rock-type and Ice-type we got over time even with returning Pokémon into account.
Bug-type moving away from “mostly weak with few exceptions” archetype starting at the fifth generation is for the best, especially after the disastrous showing from Gen 4’s own Bug-type, of which even Yanmega got into an awkward position.
With his last episode airing, I'll slap out an Ash Ketchum hot take: I don't mind that he lost the League so many times. Yes, he's experienced, but winning the League every time would've been boring, and it made Alola/Journeys that much sweeter.
The excuses got worse as time went on, though. Losing to Ritchie? Another hot take but I'm good with it; Ash not being able to win over Charizard was a clear weakness of his and for it to bite him in the ass at the League made sense (though the sleep thing itself was dumb.) The focus of the Silver Conference was the battle with Gary; after that, having him to lose to someone with two unfamiliar Pokémon makes sense. Tyson in the Ever Grande Conference has a damn strong team and was the winner; there's no shame in losing to the guy who goes on to win. Alain is the real controversial one, and he certainly could've had a better team (cough UNFEAZANT cough) `but in hindsight, it's fine.
I got nothin for Tobias or Cameron. They both suck.
The excuses got worse as time went on, though. Losing to Ritchie? Another hot take but I'm good with it; Ash not being able to win over Charizard was a clear weakness of his and for it to bite him in the ass at the League made sense (though the sleep thing itself was dumb.) The focus of the Silver Conference was the battle with Gary; after that, having him to lose to someone with two unfamiliar Pokémon makes sense. Tyson in the Ever Grande Conference has a damn strong team and was the winner; there's no shame in losing to the guy who goes on to win. Alain is the real controversial one, and he certainly could've had a better team (cough UNFEAZANT cough) `but in hindsight, it's fine.
I got nothin for Tobias or Cameron. They both suck.
Yeah Tobias and Cameron are easily the most egregious cases of Ash losing because in different ways it was very obvious both were half-assed plot contrivances who explicitly served to eliminate Ash from the League after he defeated his main rivals, especially the former. In Sinnoh he had an amazing rivalry with Paul and Ash vs Paul in the League was a fantastic climax for Ash's Sinnoh journey, with the two rivals and their clash of beliefs finally coming to a head with Infernape vs Electivire being the big finale, both being long time rivals, and Infernape being the Pokemon Paul gave up on, but Ash gave a chance and trained, and this being the opportunity to prove Ash's beliefs and training methods to be ultimately superior, after Ash took the risk and unlocked Infernape's super-powerful Blaze, it paid off in the end with Infernape beating Electivire and Ash coming out on top.
It was pretty clear that Tobias was a bullshit, half-assed plot device who was created explicitly to eliminate Ash and maintain the status quo after Ash finally surpassed Paul. Dude shows up out of nowhere, uses legendary Pokemon that have no explanation as to why he even has them, and stomps everyone with his Darkrai. At least they made Ash look good in comparison to everyone else by having him KO both Darkrai and a Latios, ie defeating two legendaries consecutively, when everyone else got 6-0'd by Darkrai, but it was still a massive asspull and it was clear that they wanted Ash to beat Paul in an amazing climactic battle but were obligated to keep the status quo so they needed an emergency plot device by creating power creep.
Cameron is on the opposite end where he's just so insanely stupid that his winning against Ash just made the latter look embarrassing by losing to him of all people. Cameron was an extremely stupid and incompetent kid who often made stupid decisions, didn't know how to count or have a good sense of time, and used five Pokemon all the while despite his stupidity he was clad in extreme amounts of plot armor by having a Hydreigon and then his Riolu evolved into a Lucario during the battle and then cleaned up Ash's remaining team. It's even more embarrassing when Cameron proceeded to lose to Virgil afterwards and only KOed three of his mons.
Worse is that Cameron feels like a bad imitation of Ritchie, except he's "Ash but even more stupid". The Unova League ultimately felt like a poorly done mirror of the Indigo League, trying to pull the same story beats and the "failure is okay" mantra from that story arc without realizing what made Indigo work.
I'll throw in my two cents on the Kalos League and Alain though. As upsetting as that loss was (I would've loved to see Ash win but alas), Alain actually worked because he was a proper character who was the protagonist of his own story and while he was specifically the main rival of Ash during XY and XYZ, they gave him all the most impressive accomplishments in his own side series (the Mega Evolution specials) and structured XYZ's story in such a way that they could securely do whatever they wanted with the outcome of the battle from a storytelling point of view. The battle itself was great, and Ash and Alain were pretty much neck-and-neck being able to go down to the wire with each other. Ash-Greninja vs Mega Charizard X was a great showdown, despite the outcome, and Charizard only won because it had more endurance which is very believable when you see how it was trained during the Mega Evolution specials and whatnot.
But really it worked narratively because despite everything, the League itself wasn't the climax of XYZ's story, and it was still the rising action that was building up to the Team Flare crisis, which was the real climax of the story of XYZ, and what Ash, Alain, and Greninja's character arcs during that season were ultimately leading up to. Alain won in the League because he was trying to gather Mega Evolution energy and win and have his Charizard become the strongest Mega Evolved mon so he could be strong enough to protect the people he cared about (ie Mairin), and eventually became so focused on that that he lost sight of everything else. He won in the League claiming victory because of his determination to be the strongest for that reason, and him basically winning as someone who would have Lysandre's favor in his "new world", albeit Alain didn't know it.
Ash and Alain's rivalry and dynamic during XYZ was more narrative, and it all came to a head *after* the League battle with the Flare crisis. Because the two were on even ground with each other, they both benefitted from their battle in different ways tying into their character arcs at the time. Ash taught Alain how to have fun battling again, giving him an actually enjoyable battle, especially at the end with Ash-Greninja vs Mega Charizard X, with Greninja being the strongest opponent Charizard had faced and really pushing it to its limit, while Charizard being the powerhouse it was gave Ash and Greninja that push to mastering their Bond Phenomenon power and unleashing more and more of their true potential in doing so, ultimately coming through in the end with the giant orange Water Shuriken (which while didn't KO Charizard, left it limping and stumbling afterwards). And then it came to with Lysandre showing Alain his reward for winning: unleashing Zygarde and preparing to destroy the world to rebuild it anew.
Alain realizing he had been manipulated and used for a man's evil plans to destroy the world broke him, but then Ash's undying faith in the Alain he knew eventually brought him out of his guilt that he felt and brought him back to the light, ie actually using his strength to be the kind of person who can protect others, ie helping to take Lysandre down. Greninja and Ash together showed their stuff by using their bond to stop the Zygarde abomination and save Mairin's Chespie, and whatnot, and Ash, Alain, and Greninja worked with everyone else in Kalos to take down the big bad (and convince Zygarde to save the day). So ultimately the Kalos League narratively worked because it was building up to the Flare arc (which imo is my favorite villain arc in the anime and had genuinely great payoff for everyone). It ultimately went for the "Ash prevails over Alain on a moral level" angle, to a point where Alain privately considered Ash the one person he could not truly best.
Which is to say, that was the one time after Hoenn that they managed to make Ash losing actually work narratively in a way that still ultimately led to a satisfying conclusion for Alain and Ash's character arcs during that season, because they had a different climactic finale they were building up to (the Team Flare arc, which Greninja's story was also leading into), as opposed to just creating a last-minute plot contrivance to keep Ash from winning the entire thing (Tobias) or doing a poorly executed copycat of the Indigo League's "failure is okay" mantra (Cameron).
Hoenn itself was okay because the Hoenn League was whatever (Ash didn't have any major rivals in Hoenn and was just meandering through that region for the most part), and they made up for it afterwards with a long running Battle Frontier story arc, which Ash went through and ultimately won the whole thing by beating Brandon at the end and becoming a Battle Frontier Champion. So he got out of the Gen 3 anime with a notable accomplishment that felt satisfying.
That said, Ash winning afterwards in Alola and Journeys was admittedly satisfying, but they definitely ran out of excuses for those cases, since they mirror SM and SwSh which make a much bigger deal out of the player becoming a Champion, and Ash winning in those generations mirrored that. Especially in Journeys, because Leon is not only a character with his own story and arc, but his character arc also practically demanded nothing short of Ash's victory. Any other outcome would have been Leon's character assassination and render the entirety of Journeys' narrative pointless.
Here's my hot take: Ash should have won the actual Conference and then had his loss against the Sinnoh Elite Four (my understanding being that challenging them is a privilege allotted to exceptional trainers like the Tournament Champion). We already got a taste of how overwhelmingly powerful a lot of trainers like them are throughout the season, so they already serve as the "someone better" to strive for challenging without having to invent a "screw you" trainer. It's also just a better ending to the Ash/Paul rivalry, with Ash proving his methods over Paul's but still having a ways to go himself. Ironically Tobias kind of reminds me of early episode Paul, the guy who would look for and catch already-strong Pokemon before proceeding to win his major battles (the Aerial Ace Starly, the origin for his catching Chimchar, Ursaring, the Gliscor leader), so his stomping Ash kind of regresses in that plot if anything.
As for Alain, from a logic point of view he makes enough sense being able to beat Ash considering how close the battle came, Ash-Greninja being a Mega in all but name, and Alain's Mega-Zard X having been shown to throw down with a Gauntlet and not get immediately stomped by the Rampaging Primals during the Mega Evolution Special (Titans that both in game and in-lore are Apocalypse causing entities). The issue was moreso from meta factors on Ash's side (more people watched the main Anime than the Mega Specials, Ash has a much longer history trying to win the League, and there was a MASSIVE arc about Ash and Greninja bonding and syncing up to reach the point Alain kind of enters our view of the story at)
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To throw my hat in the ring on Tobias, I don't mind that he has a Latios - actually, I like it a lot! I strongly dislike the notion that any Legendary (even the likes of Arceus) should be one-of-a-kind or unique, so I think a Trainer as evidently skilled and devoted is a worthy user of a Legendary. I think it's also a great testament to his skill to have Ash overcome a Legendary, even if he ends up losing in the end. While much more minor, I like the random guy with a Heatran that's registering for the Lily of the Valleyy Conference for similar reasons. Legendaries should be rare and very limited in their usage for sure, but one canonically-talented trainer having a Latios is not only fine to me, but actively adds to the League.
With that said, I think the Darkrai on top of Latios is a bit excessive. Like, Darkrai is still the least of Tobias' problems as a character - the complete absence of build-up, a non-existent personality, a design that tries too hard to be cool - but two legendaries is a bit much. Owning one legendary is a mark of prestige and devotion - not anyone can just find a Legendary - but a second is just a bit of an asspull (even if you ignore the whole mythical/legendary stuff, which I'm not sure is canon in the anime or not).
With that said, I think the Darkrai on top of Latios is a bit excessive. Like, Darkrai is still the least of Tobias' problems as a character - the complete absence of build-up, a non-existent personality, a design that tries too hard to be cool - but two legendaries is a bit much. Owning one legendary is a mark of prestige and devotion - not anyone can just find a Legendary - but a second is just a bit of an asspull (even if you ignore the whole mythical/legendary stuff, which I'm not sure is canon in the anime or not).
You really don’t think in-universe Arceus at least should be unique?
No, and honestly I'm still opposed to the idea of a creator god Pokemon even after all these years. Even Dialgia and Palkia being (essentially) gods of space and time is a touch too far for my tastes, but Arceus simply being an omnipotent god is just... for lack of better phrasing, anticlimactic? Thankfully there's still a lot of Arceus that's shrouded in mystery (particularly its relationship with Unown) - and as of PLA, an Arceus in Pokemon form is closer to an avatar, an extension of the being itself, than the full god, so I can enjoy it a bit more in that context. But still, being able to reduce the origin of Pokemon to "Arceus did it" is just really lame in my opinion, even if there's a bit of ambiguity as to what Arceus is and how it creates things.
Let's compare it to another 'first Pokemon', Mew. Mew didn't create anything, it's just a bit of a genetic clusterfuck that can use a bunch of moves, so any speculation about it being the ancestor of all Pokemon is just that - speculation. It's rare not because it's an Actual God and only appears to the worthy, it's rare because it's a shy little guy with a low population that hides away in dense rainforests and remote islands, making it a very elusive species. Mew is an enigma in terms of its links to life, but its rarity and mystique makes for a much more engaging story to me than Arceus ever was, before or after PLA.
All of this to say, I don't like Arceus' story role, and PLA lore makes it outright canon that Arceus (in the form that we capture it) is not unique. So no, Arceus shouldn't be unique if you ask me
My issue is that Tobias doesn't really exhibit any sense of skill before he's introduced with Darkrai, so the Legendaries feel more like a shortcut to say he's special than depicting a character worthy of the kind of chops you describe. Like, someone like Paul managing to capture and draw legitimate battle ability out of a legendary would work for me because he already has an established skill to work from, plus a character to explore the situation through (how does Paul's style interact with a Pokemon that has much less reason to obey him simply for being a trainer?)
I also just don't think it's a good place for the anime to go with the Legendary choices, because there are a lot of Legendaries that are established as "people should stay separate from these," which the Latis come across as in Heroes compared to, say, the Birds, with the anime also not being a setting where capturing Legendaries is a "normal" endeavor to approach (compare the manga where people capture the Kanto birds off-screen, the Beasts team up with people, or Pryce capturing Lugia and Ho-oh is something that goes relatively unnoticed until used). It just ends up feeling incongruent with how the anime handles it even when these do happen (heck, even Goh capturing Suicune is tenuous as a capture and done under an extreme emergency situation)
Hot take: I actually didn't like Ash winning the Alola League. He's gotten beat everywhere else so far, so him winning in Alola serves to prove that Alola doesn't have any good trainers. Ash winning a League should have involved an established League so we know they're powerful, explain what mental/skill/personality issue has kept Ash from winning in all previous challenges, and then show him overcoming it. And not just generic "power of friendship/believe in yourself" options, actually explain why a guy who has been doing this for however-many seasons and Leagues can't win and then set the story up so it's believable that he'd move past it.
This kind of feels like the inverse of the Tobias discussion above:
- If you believe that Ash should win, finally winning in Alola is natural but Tobias being above his weight class requires extra explanation
- If you believe that Ash shouldn't win, getting stat-checked is expected but there needs to be extra explanation to win a real league
I myself also don't mind Tobias (at least him using Darkrai, Latios felt like a ass-pull; if it was up to me I would have made the rest of his team Pokemon with the Abilities Vital Spirit, Insomnia, or Early Bird with Dark-type resistance aka his "these are the Pokemon I used to catch Darkrai": Primeape, Ariados, Honchkrow, Houndoom & Shiftry; but it is what it is). Aside from Latios, I think the other issue with Tobias is that he truly came out of nowhere. Maybe if they had started building him up before the League they could have at least shown they were planning this from the start and they didn't just create him right when they started writing the League episodes (which I wouldn't be surprised was the case, but let's pretend Tobais existed as at least a vague concept of the next trainer to defeat Ash they had in mind).
- I'd say right after Ash gets his 5th Badge (Fantina's Relic Badge), at the end of the episode we cut to the end of another Gym Battle: Roark's and we see his Rampardos fall over KOed. We switch shots to see his opponent hidden in a dust cloud, camera pans over to reveal his trainer, a man with long blue-gray hair and wearing a dark red cloak, smiling. The dust cloud doesn't clear, but we see a silhouette of his Pokemon with a glowing blue eye.
- Several episodes later, we get the episodes with Roark & Byron and sometime during those episodes Roark tells Ash about a powerful challenger he faced and we cut to flashback of a continuation of the battle, the dust cloud clearing to reveal a Darkrai (luckily, not only has the Darkrai aired at this point, but when Ash & co. got to Canalave they had to deal with a Darkrai causing trouble so they can flashback to Darkrai & Cresselia battling (which I would have made more dynamic instead of just slamming into each other)).
- Another few episodes later, at the end of Ash winning the Icicle Badge from Candice, we cut to Byron accepting a Gym Challenge and saying he heard about him from his son, asking for the stranger's name. He introduces himself as Tobias and sends out Darkrai as they begin the battle.
- At the end of the episode where Ash & co. leave Sunyshore, the episode after Ash defeats Volkner for the Beacon Badge, Volkner has officially reopened challenges to the public and the first one to challenge him is Tobias. Tobias reveals this will be his 8th Badge, showing his Badge Case (it would be the in-game Badges, aka the same Badges that Ash gets, minus the Beacon Badge). He sends out his Darkrai and Volkner says he heard about a powerful trainer using a Darkrai, Tobias smirking and saying maybe then Volkner would be the first trainer to defeat his Darkrai. We get a quick series of still shots of Darkrai knocking out the ace's of all the other Sinnoh Gym Leaders, and at the end we see Darkrai knocking out Volkner's Luxray.
- And from there we get to the League episodes.
It's not much more, but I feel it would be better build-up as we learn little-by-little about this Darkrai trainer (first a cameo, than confirming he uses a Darkrai, than we learn his name, & than we learn his Darkrai is undefeated before) and just see how fast he got his Gym Badges (In just 26 episodes he defeated Roark, Gardenia, Fantina, Maylene, Wake, and challenge/defeating Byron; and just as Ash won his final Badge we learn Tobias has also defeated Candice and challenging/defeating Volkner just in time for the League).
Because Tobias was an interesting challenge for Ash and Ash's Sceptile defeating Darkrai was a major moment. Sadly it was spoiled with Tobias than sending out a Latios, even though I feel Tobias would have still won had he just gone with a normal team from then on (using the team I suggested, Tobais sends out Houndoom which weakens Sceptile forcing Ash to switch to Swellow who defeats Houndoom, Tobias sends out Honchkrow which defeats Swellow, Ash sends in Pikachu but Tobias switches for Shiftry but it gets defeated by Pikachu, Tobias sends out Ariados which webs up and poisons Pikachu before switching in Primeape which defeat Pikachu, Ash sends out Sceptile who defeat both Primeape and Ariados but gets webbed up, finally Tobias defeats a weakened & slowed down Sceptile with Honchkrow). But eitherway I don't hate Tobias as other people do (so in my book Cameron is really the only trainer who's victory or Ash was bad; especially since we already had Virgil and his much more interesting Eeveelution team).
Oh, and while I agree I wouldn't mind seeing more trainers with the "lesser" Legendaries, I would also still like them to treat the mascot Legendaries and other equal Legendaries/Mythicals as deities as that what makes them so awe-inspiring. These Pokemon could and have tried to end the world or at least the region they're located in with relative ease. In the games we catch them because of "rule of cool" and we're a super special trainer deemed worthy of using them, but outside of that I would prefer they're treated like a physical god which they're a parallel to.
Arceus: YOU CANNOT GRASP MY TRUE FORM!
Dawn: Um, you look sorta... llama-ish?
Arceus: Wha-?
*POOF*
Arceus: ... I guess this is what I look like now... Where did this ring around my abdomen come from?
Dawn: Um, you look sorta... llama-ish?
Arceus: Wha-?
*POOF*
Arceus: ... I guess this is what I look like now... Where did this ring around my abdomen come from?
Well in regards with the Legendary Birds context is important. You're thinking of the group in the Orange Islands back when Pokemon was just the 151 plus some sneak preview of the upcoming Gen II Pokemon. For those particular Legendary Birds capturing them is a bad idea because they were guardians of a set of islands which apparently held power over major ocean currents; when they vanish things go unbalanced which results the current to become turbulent which causes rough seas and extremely dangerous weather phenomenon all over the world. So catching them is a bad idea. However since then we've seen a few of the Legendary Birds who don't seem to be particularly doing anything, they're free agents so likely catching them won't cause a cataclysm (or at least befriending them and allowing you to use them in battle, ala Noland and his befriended Articuno).
In general I don't think there would be any issue if the following Legendaries/Mythicals were used by a trainer: Legendary Birds, Mew, Legendary Beasts (Normal & Galarian), Legendary Titans (+ Regigigas), Eon Duo, Deoxys, Lunar Duo, Heatran, Manaphy (+ Phione), Shaymin, Swords of Justice, Forces of Nature, Victini, Meloetta, Diancie, Hoopa, Volcanion, Magearna, Marshadow, Zeraora, Meltan family, Kubfu family, & Zarude.
As for all the others, the anime either confirmed they're one of a kind or catching them would be either very difficult/cause issues (such as with Celebi & Jirachi).
Of course still, such trainers should be very rarely seen, unless maybe the point of the episode is a batch of these trainers are meeting up for whatever reason. Also, as seen with Goh's Suicune, just because Goh caught it doesn't mean it sticks around. His Suicune comes and goes as it pleases and I don't think he ever uses it, at most Professor Cerise and his staff gather data on it from observation when its around (also missed opportunity not having an episode where Eisune appears and demands seeing Suicune). Infact I think they could have also used Goh's Suicune to bring back Tobias and give him some backstory (I could come up with a whole episode idea but I'll skip it as this post is already long; long story short they meet Tobias who helps Goh and Suicune bond).
Not to mention the Alola League had a few BS moments, particularly the Ash Vs Hau battle where Hau was screwed over twice during that battle. Also I thought the first part of the League where it was a free-for-all was dumb and came with some other BS moments like Ilima's Eevee knocking out Plumria's Salazzle so in the end only Guzma was the Team Skull member in the tournament.
They should have killed Arven's dog.
Think about it. Arven runs around, gathers the Herba Mystica, saves YOUR legendary, but Mabosstiff is too far gone. Tragic, etc. Then while he's mourning, his parent calls, asks for a favor, doesn't even comment on him. The call ends, Arven rages, comes to terms with his grief, then Houndstone walks over and drops the ball in Arven's lap so he can play. You could do a really good story about handling grief with that, toss in some interesting parallels to the Professor story in the endgame, but nope. They had a real dog mon and a ghost dog mon in the same gen and didn't do anything with it.
Also, why aren't Penny/Nemona used better in the endgame? Penny's story is about tech being used to isolate yourself, Nemona's character is about never knowing when to dial it back from 11. And yet neither of them has anything to say about a Professor who isolates themself from their family in order to over-focus on their work.
Think about it. Arven runs around, gathers the Herba Mystica, saves YOUR legendary, but Mabosstiff is too far gone. Tragic, etc. Then while he's mourning, his parent calls, asks for a favor, doesn't even comment on him. The call ends, Arven rages, comes to terms with his grief, then Houndstone walks over and drops the ball in Arven's lap so he can play. You could do a really good story about handling grief with that, toss in some interesting parallels to the Professor story in the endgame, but nope. They had a real dog mon and a ghost dog mon in the same gen and didn't do anything with it.
Also, why aren't Penny/Nemona used better in the endgame? Penny's story is about tech being used to isolate yourself, Nemona's character is about never knowing when to dial it back from 11. And yet neither of them has anything to say about a Professor who isolates themself from their family in order to over-focus on their work.
Finally, I’ve discovered a thread where I can talk crap about Gen 4! I have a few things I will talk about:
-Cynthia is not as different a fight as people make it sound like. I beat her first try, and I was playing BDSP, which does not do these games any justice besides being more difficult and the health bars go down faster. ORAS Steven and Kukui were harder.
- Tepig is an above average starter. If it and torchic had traded release dates, (so that it wasn’t the third fire/fighting type in a row) people would hate it a whole lot less. Also if tepig came out in gen 3, Emboar would have gotten a mega, and it would have been SICK.
-I hate Fuecoco. I hate every aspect of Fuecoco. It’s derpy face, it’s horrid middle stage, how dirge is Fire/Ghost even though they just did that with hisui Typhlosion, and how annoying dirge is to play against in competitive. Unlike the other two starters of gen 9, it has no character to it’s evolutions. Sprigatito is a cat that wants attention, so as it evolved, it became a magician. Quaxly cares a lot about how it looks, so it became a dancer through evolution. Idk how being a singing croc that’s dead ties into Skeledirge’s roots as a fuecoco.
-Cynthia is not as different a fight as people make it sound like. I beat her first try, and I was playing BDSP, which does not do these games any justice besides being more difficult and the health bars go down faster. ORAS Steven and Kukui were harder.
- Tepig is an above average starter. If it and torchic had traded release dates, (so that it wasn’t the third fire/fighting type in a row) people would hate it a whole lot less. Also if tepig came out in gen 3, Emboar would have gotten a mega, and it would have been SICK.
-I hate Fuecoco. I hate every aspect of Fuecoco. It’s derpy face, it’s horrid middle stage, how dirge is Fire/Ghost even though they just did that with hisui Typhlosion, and how annoying dirge is to play against in competitive. Unlike the other two starters of gen 9, it has no character to it’s evolutions. Sprigatito is a cat that wants attention, so as it evolved, it became a magician. Quaxly cares a lot about how it looks, so it became a dancer through evolution. Idk how being a singing croc that’s dead ties into Skeledirge’s roots as a fuecoco.
I also feel like the endgame story needs a refocus, but coming from the other direction. I end up thinking of the Professor and the Professor-AI as separate characters, so the issues with over-focusing on their work aren't the fault of the final boss. As far as the interaction with the AI itself goes, we the player are just there to crush their dreams with the harshness of reality. A role that I can't help feel is out of place for the kind of media a mainline pokemon game is. It feels like the AI's story is desperately missing either a "here's how your passion can fit in" (show the AI prof, who was presumably not been keeping up with every development in the rest of the world, tyrunt/porygon?) moment or a "don't feel bound by the path your parent/creator set for you" moment.
Tepig itself is fine, (though is overshadowed by the other starters in its gen) but Emboar is just a poor design and with no gimmicks to save it.
Gary isn't a good rival.
Yes I agree. But Blue, on the other hand....
I've come to appreciate Blue a lot more in recent years, as he's the only rival in the first few generations who actually perseveres with trying to complete the Pokedex (as you'd expect from Professor Oak's grandchild). Not until Trevor in XY (who I'm also quite fond of) was there a rival so dedicated, all the other ones do a dreadful job.
- Brendan/May are stated to have already been a trainer for some time prior to meeting them in RSE, but eventually basically concede "you're better than me at both battling and collecting" and go home instead of continuing on. If you complete the Hoenn Dex in Emerald and get your Johto starter, they admit that it's your hard work that's getting them the National Dex.
- Dawn/Lucas straight-up tell you throughout DPP that they're not doing well at filling the Pokedex, and basically end up doing nothing by the end of the game except standing around (in BDSP they seem to be doing a bit better). Even their younger sister says that she wants you to do better than them!
- Neither Cheren or Bianca makes a great success of filling the Pokedex, though they do find success in other areas.
I especially like the addition FRLG made to his arc, as you meet him a couple of times in the Sevii Islands and find that he's still very much focused on completing the Pokedex, fittingly having already received an egg from the Daycare. He's found on Six Island having presumably just caught the Heracross he later uses, but we never learn what was in the egg he got. Could have been a Larvitar but equally he probably caught all manner of species, so maybe not. I guess his eventual declaration that "we can't complete the Pokedex by staying in one place [the Sevii Islands]" marks the point where he decides he'd rather focus on battling, though he does mention that he'll keep "collecting Pokemon at my own pace".
For all his arrogant bluster, he is legitimately really good at filling the Pokedex, since he mentions already having obtained 40 species on the SS Anne and later mentions that he's been looking at the listing to figure out which species evolve. Clever boy. Of all the rivals, he's overall probably the most accomplished: Champion, Gym Leader, battle facility leader, Pokedex completionist. Yeah. He's definitely pretty cool.
I’ll always love Silver as the best rival but yeah Blue is an easy second for me.
There is never going to be a plot worse than Sinnoh's (DPPt/Arceus movie/Giratina movie) in Pokemon.
Any butchery made to human characters in the series cannot overshadow the extreme butchery done in the execution of gods who were meant to define all of Pokemon lore and the universe(s) they shaped; Pokemon who were meant to be at the very pinnacle in terms of power-level. These Pokemon make digging into the lore feel meaningless at times because the games / movies expressed ridiculous amounts of plot armor against the entire lake trio, creation trio, and Arceus, in a manner either not as present or not as severe as in any other generation's media. Every time I bring this up people are like "isn't every Pokemon story like this?" The answer is no. No other generation gets this ludicrous amount of plot-induced stupidity.
For example, in Gen 6's case, Team Flare was able to get a hold of Xerneas/Yveltal by sneaking them into their base while they were sleep. Lysandre tried to get their life energy drained but they eventually woke up on their own, broke free from the weapon, took back their life energy, and showed Lysandre who was boss. - okay that's actually reasonable.
In Gen 3, Archie and Maxie raided building after building ran by human communities everywhere in order to gather the resources needed to access the legendary box art. They've obtained the resources and then reached out to Kyogre/Groudon, who then proceeded to break free, go out of control, and show Archie and Maxie who's boss - this is also reasonable.
A similar thing happened with BW as with Gen 3 except a legendary Pokemon willingly sided with the main antagonist of the game. N did not attempt to force Reshiram/Zekrom under his control.
In B2W2, Kyurem was captured and used. Okay sure, but conceptually, Kyurem is a soulless empty shell of a Pokemon deprived of any motivation to do anything but eat and sleep. It needs help. It needs to see the light in truth or ideals in order to gain the motivation to do something. This is a reasonable explanation for how Kyurem managed to get captured and used by Team Plasma in B2W2. Additionally, Kyurem was designed to be nowhere near the level of deities that control time, space, or all of existence. Kyurem is just able to freeze the world with ice. Not shape up entire universes or define the entire nature of Pokemon as we know it.
In Gen 7 the only legendaries captured by human antagonists were baby Pokemon. Aside from that, Necrozma managed to get control of Solgaleo/Lunala but Necrozma was designed to be a force above them anyway.
Gens 1 and 2 didn't really use their legendaries much in the plot aside from making them glorified trophies. Gen 9 turned their legendaries into glorified regular Pokemon with little substance.
Gen 8 simply had legendary Pokemon do their jobs. Nothing more.
Team Galactic were actively messing with Pokemon gods, whether it was Uxie, Azelf, Mesprit, Palkia, or Dialga. Almost all of them canonically had the power to see what Galactic were doing well ahead of time and intervene. All 5 of these Pokemon had every capability possible to avoid the situations they were stuck in. Uxie could dismantle Team Galactic just by opening its eyes and even know what Galactic were doing before the team even reached it. Azelf can manipulate or remove their will, even control them for its own desires. Mesprit could play around with their emotions. All 3 could've done the exact same thing they usually do when you see them; just randomly disappear into somewhere far away. They could have done that to escape as the very last resort if that was ever needed, which it wasn't. Dialga is the embodiment of time. The literal nanosecond it appeared out of its portal it could have ended up in 50 different points of time simultaneously to stop Team Galactic from ever getting a hold of the Red Chain. Palkia could've just erased Cyrus within that same timeframe. Giratina was just shoehorned into the same climax as DP to save the day, with no real explanation until 13 years later with Legends Arceus. Giratina's lore barely even got fleshed out in Platinum. All we did was "enter its home". It's honestly less so than Xerneas/Yveltal (who got more than you'd probably expect but a lot of information is given by random NPCs in houses) but people disagree because "Distortion World looks cool". Aside from this, in Giratina's movie, Giratina got captured by an antagonist while alive, active, and awake, and nearly died to a machine, very much unlike the case with Xerneas and Yveltal, despite representing a concept beyond Xerneas and Yveltal. Arceus was... well, https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/unpopular-opinions.3530232/page-492#post-9432356. Unlike Kyogre, Groudon, Xerneas, Yveltal, they were not able to defend themselves from abuse/being misused/mishandled by antagonists. Unlike Reshiram/Zekrom, they were not willingly siding with the antagonist. Unlike Cosmog, they weren't babies designed to be among the weakest of Pokemon, and unlike Kyurem, all of their power-levels were above and beyond for the series. Gen 4 truly did more harm than good to Pokemon lore thanks to their stories. It's shown by how for example, people believe Arceus to not be the defining Pokemon in series lore due to how it almost died to a meteor and got defeated by silver water.
At the end of the day, the Gen 4 legendaries and mythicals were intended to be Pokemon far beyond every other box art in terms of power and relevance in the lore, but were simultaneously treated as the most pathetic ones. This severely lessened the value of Pokemon lore and theories in general imo and it's shameful.
/end rant
Any butchery made to human characters in the series cannot overshadow the extreme butchery done in the execution of gods who were meant to define all of Pokemon lore and the universe(s) they shaped; Pokemon who were meant to be at the very pinnacle in terms of power-level. These Pokemon make digging into the lore feel meaningless at times because the games / movies expressed ridiculous amounts of plot armor against the entire lake trio, creation trio, and Arceus, in a manner either not as present or not as severe as in any other generation's media. Every time I bring this up people are like "isn't every Pokemon story like this?" The answer is no. No other generation gets this ludicrous amount of plot-induced stupidity.
For example, in Gen 6's case, Team Flare was able to get a hold of Xerneas/Yveltal by sneaking them into their base while they were sleep. Lysandre tried to get their life energy drained but they eventually woke up on their own, broke free from the weapon, took back their life energy, and showed Lysandre who was boss. - okay that's actually reasonable.
In Gen 3, Archie and Maxie raided building after building ran by human communities everywhere in order to gather the resources needed to access the legendary box art. They've obtained the resources and then reached out to Kyogre/Groudon, who then proceeded to break free, go out of control, and show Archie and Maxie who's boss - this is also reasonable.
A similar thing happened with BW as with Gen 3 except a legendary Pokemon willingly sided with the main antagonist of the game. N did not attempt to force Reshiram/Zekrom under his control.
In B2W2, Kyurem was captured and used. Okay sure, but conceptually, Kyurem is a soulless empty shell of a Pokemon deprived of any motivation to do anything but eat and sleep. It needs help. It needs to see the light in truth or ideals in order to gain the motivation to do something. This is a reasonable explanation for how Kyurem managed to get captured and used by Team Plasma in B2W2. Additionally, Kyurem was designed to be nowhere near the level of deities that control time, space, or all of existence. Kyurem is just able to freeze the world with ice. Not shape up entire universes or define the entire nature of Pokemon as we know it.
In Gen 7 the only legendaries captured by human antagonists were baby Pokemon. Aside from that, Necrozma managed to get control of Solgaleo/Lunala but Necrozma was designed to be a force above them anyway.
Gens 1 and 2 didn't really use their legendaries much in the plot aside from making them glorified trophies. Gen 9 turned their legendaries into glorified regular Pokemon with little substance.
Gen 8 simply had legendary Pokemon do their jobs. Nothing more.
Team Galactic were actively messing with Pokemon gods, whether it was Uxie, Azelf, Mesprit, Palkia, or Dialga. Almost all of them canonically had the power to see what Galactic were doing well ahead of time and intervene. All 5 of these Pokemon had every capability possible to avoid the situations they were stuck in. Uxie could dismantle Team Galactic just by opening its eyes and even know what Galactic were doing before the team even reached it. Azelf can manipulate or remove their will, even control them for its own desires. Mesprit could play around with their emotions. All 3 could've done the exact same thing they usually do when you see them; just randomly disappear into somewhere far away. They could have done that to escape as the very last resort if that was ever needed, which it wasn't. Dialga is the embodiment of time. The literal nanosecond it appeared out of its portal it could have ended up in 50 different points of time simultaneously to stop Team Galactic from ever getting a hold of the Red Chain. Palkia could've just erased Cyrus within that same timeframe. Giratina was just shoehorned into the same climax as DP to save the day, with no real explanation until 13 years later with Legends Arceus. Giratina's lore barely even got fleshed out in Platinum. All we did was "enter its home". It's honestly less so than Xerneas/Yveltal (who got more than you'd probably expect but a lot of information is given by random NPCs in houses) but people disagree because "Distortion World looks cool". Aside from this, in Giratina's movie, Giratina got captured by an antagonist while alive, active, and awake, and nearly died to a machine, very much unlike the case with Xerneas and Yveltal, despite representing a concept beyond Xerneas and Yveltal. Arceus was... well, https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/unpopular-opinions.3530232/page-492#post-9432356. Unlike Kyogre, Groudon, Xerneas, Yveltal, they were not able to defend themselves from abuse/being misused/mishandled by antagonists. Unlike Reshiram/Zekrom, they were not willingly siding with the antagonist. Unlike Cosmog, they weren't babies designed to be among the weakest of Pokemon, and unlike Kyurem, all of their power-levels were above and beyond for the series. Gen 4 truly did more harm than good to Pokemon lore thanks to their stories. It's shown by how for example, people believe Arceus to not be the defining Pokemon in series lore due to how it almost died to a meteor and got defeated by silver water.
At the end of the day, the Gen 4 legendaries and mythicals were intended to be Pokemon far beyond every other box art in terms of power and relevance in the lore, but were simultaneously treated as the most pathetic ones. This severely lessened the value of Pokemon lore and theories in general imo and it's shameful.
/end rant
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