Unpopular opinions

[Antihaxxer]

Very clear explanations ! Thanks for the time spent ;)

In French, it's called Gourmelet based on gourmet and porcelet (piglet) ... No "fat word" hidden
And Lechonk is also funny because "Lech" could also come from lécher in French (to lick) and onk from groin / groink, the usual onomatopoeia made by pigs in France ... so it was first for me a piglet who likes to lick food ;)

 

[Rapti]

Not a particular fan of the name either, but Bulbapedia cites the (probably dialectical) Spanish word "lechón," apparently a term for some kind of wild pig/boar, as part of the name inspiration, which i think is pretty neat.

Lechon is not a dialectical word; it's derived from leche (milk) since a lechon is specifically a suckling pig (a pig so young it can still only feed on milk)
also, when people think of a lechon, they don't usually think about the animal itself but of the dish made from that animal

this little guy's been roasted which is the most comon way to prepare a lechon but there are many others

 

[pika pal]

I certainly never made the "le *thing*" connection with Lechonk's name. I'd just assumed the only intended "meme" was "Chonk" and the "Le" was from the pun on Lechon to keep it thematically named for the Spanish-based setting

 

[khlaylav]

I watch a lot of Pokemon challenge runthroughs, and every time like clockwork there's complaining about Pokestar Studios and the mandatory portion. It's maybe 5-10 minutes at most, people, it's not that freakin bad.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I watch a lot of Pokemon challenge runthroughs, and every time like clockwork there's complaining about Pokestar Studios and the mandatory portion. It's maybe 5-10 minutes at most, people, it's not that freakin bad.

I think it's just more the fact that it's mandatory at all. Contests weren't, no one forces you to enter one or even enter the hall at all in RSE. That's the way it should be done (and I like RSE's contests, for context).

It's the same with capture tutorials. Sure, they're not that long but being forced to do them rankles. Just give me an option to say "no, thank you, I already know how to do this"* and be done with it.


*GSC do this, which is the single reason why they're the best games in the franchise

 

[Ironmage]

I watch a lot of Pokemon challenge runthroughs, and every time like clockwork there's complaining about Pokestar Studios and the mandatory portion. It's maybe 5-10 minutes at most, people, it's not that freakin bad.

It would end up needing special attention in a challenge run since it doesn't have the same options as the rest of the playthrough. There are a lot of challenges that a forced fight using the riolu (? I haven't actually played B2W2 yet) is impossible within the rules, either because the moveset and stats can't support it (e.g. status moves only) or because using that mon would be forbidden (e.g. any monotype that isn't fighting). And if the segment is going to act as an exception, it's reasonable to mention it as one.

In other words, it isn't necessarily "Pokestar Studios has a required section with these conditions and that's bad for the game" and can easily be "Pokestar Studios has a required section with these conditions and this specific run needed to work around it."

 

[ShaunShen]

I don't think that Gen 5 deserves all the praise it does receive. Like yeah the music and new pokemon are cool and all, but the stories in both games are rancid and the rivals, while ok, can be removed from the story and virtually nothing would change. Cheren is weird, N is delusional (in BW1 in B2W2 he's more redeemable), Bianca is annoying, and Hugh is nonexistent. The number of rival battles in both games is also weird in my opinion, like why does BW have at least 20, but B2W2 has like 4? I do remember Bianca, Cheren, and N from BW1, but I cannot remember anything about Hugh other than his obsession with Purrloins. I will say though, the manga was pretty fire so it has that going for it.

 

[Bakugames]

For whatever reason some people think it's a meme (and a dead one at that) and exclusively used by some niche subculture, which is just... demonstrably untrue.

What are you Talking about my guy it is a meme. That's an objective fact. And it wasnt niche subculture it was eeeeverywhere around 2018, its just that the actual memes are only found funny nowadays by redditors and tumblr people that moved to twitter.

Unfortunately it got swapped with chungus which is probably even worse.

Anyways BW manga arc being fire is so true. The only good arc honestly other than maybe the gen 1 ones

 

[KalosianPorygon]

I don't like Generation V's character overworld sprites, they look too freakishly thin to me.

Gens III and

IV, and even

the first one, have sprites that are more pleasant to the eye in my opinion.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Oh, we calling out the uggo Gen?

IN.

All jokes aside though, I'm not beating that dead horse again. Probably.

I will say though, the manga was pretty fire so it has that going for it.

I dunno, up to BW2, I think BW1 was by far the weakest one except *maybe* Platinum just because I can't remember a single thing about it.

Yes, the irony is not lost on me.

 

[Bakugames]

I dunno, up to BW2, I think BW1 was by far the weakest one except *maybe* Platinum just because I can't remember a single thing about it.

Tbh I'd recommend a reread of the bw arc. Genuinely a pretty good one, for pokespé standards at least LOL

Bw2... Is something

 

[Dusk Mage Necrozma]

I’d argue that the last good Pokemon Adventures manga was ORAS. After BW2 they got pushed into making smaller, lower quality volumes to keep up with game releases but I feel they handled XY quite well despite that and ORAS, though short, is just super enjoyable. After that it’s just “whatever”

 

[Sonikku A]

Tombstoner and Barrage are some of the most broken damage-dealing moves in the games, I do not want a wider distribution to other Pokémon, and this is coming from a Tombstoner enjoyer.

 

[Arkm]

Slaking is a pseudo legendary

 

[KalosianPorygon]

Darn, how did the Treecko survive this!? Does your Mudkip have a bad Nature or what?

 

[Bakugames]

I’d argue that the last good Pokemon Adventures manga was ORAS. After BW2 they got pushed into making smaller, lower quality volumes to keep up with game releases but I feel they handled XY quite well despite that and ORAS, though short, is just super enjoyable. After that it’s just “whatever”

Maybe finally on topic but the oras arc is so bad. Actually hold on

Good writing by itself: RGBY, Emerald
Good writing for a pokemon manga: XY, BW
Its fine: DP, PT, GSC
Oh wow this sucks ass: ORAS, SM, SWSH, FRLG, HGSS, BW2
Oh wow this sucks ass (unfortunately I love it): RS

 

[Dusk Mage Necrozma]

I’d say that the appeal of returning characters carries ORAS for me. On that note FRLG and HGSS are masterpieces how can you dislike them. A big part for me that makes an Adventures manga good is how much it can distinguish itself from the games’ story, and with the games’ main plot already covered the remakes are free to do whatever. RB, GS, and BW/BW2, plus all the third versions, do this well enough, and while RS, DP, and XY don’t experiment as much as they could have, the writing is solid enough for them to be enjoyable for me. SM on the other hand… it just felt like the SM plot + obligatory quirky protagonist personalities. I read one volume of SwSh and it appears to have the exact same problem.

 

[Bakugames]

I’d say that the appeal of returning characters carries ORAS for me. On that note FRLG and HGSS are masterpieces how can you dislike them. A big part for me that makes an Adventures manga good is how much it can distinguish itself from the games’ story, and with the games’ main plot already covered the remakes are free to do whatever. RB, GS, and BW/BW2, plus all the third versions, do this well enough, and while RS, DP, and XY don’t experiment as much as they could have, the writing is solid enough for them to be enjoyable for me. SM on the other hand… it just felt like the SM plot + obligatory quirky protagonist personalities. I read one volume of SwSh and it appears to have the exact same problem.

Oras and frlg are just fanservice which either stagnates or ruins the characters featured. Hgss is just badly written and very annoying to go through.

Rs is just badly written too. I just got obsessed with it because I have autism and haven't recovered since :(

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I’d say that the appeal of returning characters carries ORAS for me. On that note FRLG and HGSS are masterpieces how can you dislike them. A big part for me that makes an Adventures manga good is how much it can distinguish itself from the games’ story, and with the games’ main plot already covered the remakes are free to do whatever. RB, GS, and BW/BW2, plus all the third versions, do this well enough, and while RS, DP, and XY don’t experiment as much as they could have, the writing is solid enough for them to be enjoyable for me. SM on the other hand… it just felt like the SM plot + obligatory quirky protagonist personalities. I read one volume of SwSh and it appears to have the exact same problem.

This hits the nail on the head for the latter two. It feels like they're more reluctant to stray from the game plots than they used to be.

But then for the earlier volumes, like Yellow in particular, there's so little to go on from the games I guess they could enjoy that creative freedom. Later games have such defined plots that it's hard to stray too far.

It's frustrating because all the elements are still in place to make it great. Henry's special skill and Casey's quest are interesting enough but the plot just... isn't. Like a couple of people said, I think it does have to do with a perceived need to cover every character, every legendary/mythical (or at least most of them), and every location.

 

[R_N]

. Like a couple of people said, I think it does have to do with a perceived need to cover every character, every legendary/mythical (or at least most of them), and every location.

As someone who read the early days, then came back and read all the way up through HGSS (since my source for BW kind of ran out and I also ran out of steam)
This is why I hated HGSS. The two page spread that was just Archer telling me the type of every Arceus bordered on parody. It was just going down a check list of new things and characters they had to check in on a lot of the time.
Adventures is always kind of awkwardly, slavishly loyal to making sure a bunch of things from the games make it over but HGSS was the absolute nadir for me, no doubt not helped by it being like what 20 chapters? 30 chapters??

It made me appreciate the Platinum arc more and lemme tell ya I was not a fan of it despite generally liking the DP arc (it might be my favorite??)

 

[Bakugames]

I could write pages and pages about pokespe because it's been part of my life for yeaaars. extremely cringe but it's true. I don't want to derail this thread too much though so I'll just throw a few fun ones:

- Pokespe isn't really that dark or violent. A lot of mangas of its own age rating and genre get much more bloody and pokespes violence is very subdued. There's times where it gets bloody but ngl it just looks kinda edgy and stupid when they do it LOL (yamamoto can't draw violence to save his life)
- Pokespe isn't always better than the anime. Sumo anime sweeps sumo arc out of the water it's not even a joke. And a lot of times the comparison is just nonsensical (different audiences, genres and media.)
- Kusaka cant write romance and everytime it shows up its either very annoying or just ruins the characters outright if he focus on it for more than 2 seconds. Stop doing that my guy.

And finally: I like ruby. I wish he were in a better manga.

 

[R_N]

I could write pages and pages about pokespe because it's been part of my life for yeaaars. extremely cringe but it's true. I don't want to derail this thread too much though so I'll just throw a few fun ones:

- Pokespe isn't really that dark or violent. A lot of mangas of its own age rating and genre get much more bloody and pokespes violence is very subdued. There's times where it gets bloody but ngl it just looks kinda edgy and stupid when they do it LOL (yamamoto can't draw violence to save his life)
- Pokespe isn't always better than the anime. Sumo anime sweeps sumo arc out of the water it's not even a joke. And a lot of times the comparison is just nonsensical (different audiences, genres and media.)
- Kusaka cant write romance and everytime it shows up its either very annoying or just ruins the characters outright if he focus on it for more than 2 seconds. Stop doing that my guy.

And finally: I like ruby. I wish he were in a better manga.

I feel like the dark/violent stuff is carried on entirely from people always seeing the panels of charmeleon cutting arbok in half this aint your mama's pokemon!!!!!!! stuff and just extrapolating from there because that stuff tends to fall off fast when you burn through the arcs lol

In general I wonder how much general "popular fandom consciousness" opinions about Adventures are like that, hedged in those first couple generations of manga.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Maybe finally on topic but the oras arc is so bad. Actually hold on

Good writing by itself: RGBY, Emerald
Good writing for a pokemon manga: XY, BW
Its fine: DP, PT, GSC
Oh wow this sucks ass: ORAS, SM, SWSH, FRLG, HGSS, BW2
Oh wow this sucks ass (unfortunately I love it): RS

DP arc was great. The main trio just meshes too well together.

Whenever I read "When you think of Pokémon..." I was like:

I feel like the dark/violent stuff is carried on entirely from people always seeing the panels of charmeleon cutting arbok in half this aint your mama's pokemon!!!!!!! stuff and just extrapolating from there because that stuff tends to fall off fast when you burn through the arcs lol

Bingo.

It was one scene in Lavender Town of all places. People need to get over it. By now, it's about as "Dark and Violent" as Legends: Arceus because sometimes them kids get hands put on them. It's not usually more than just getting grabbed by the collar, so there's that too.

This hits the nail on the head for the latter two. It feels like they're more reluctant to stray from the game plots than they used to be.

But then for the earlier volumes, like Yellow in particular, there's so little to go on from the games I guess they could enjoy that creative freedom. Later games have such defined plots that it's hard to stray too far.

It's frustrating because all the elements are still in place to make it great. Henry's special skill and Casey's quest are interesting enough but the plot just... isn't. Like a couple of people said, I think it does have to do with a perceived need to cover every character, every legendary/mythical (or at least most of them), and every location.

This. The manga always adapts EVERYTHING related to the games one way or another and then adds its spin to it. This is also why the remake arcs tend to be bangers, they got more creative freedom.

The difference is that now they got more stuff to weave in, most of it bad because the games' stories suck.

Also, all this RS arc slander is suspect tbh. Besides the obvious problem at the end, the arc was very well done and portrayed the conflict involving Team Magma and Team Aqua in an interesting way.

 

[Bakugames]

DP arc was great. The main trio just meshes too well together.

Whenever I read "When you think of Pokémon..." I was like:

LOVE the characters, don't get me wrong, the arc itself is just a bit too slow for me to enjoy going back to it.

Also, all this RS arc slander is suspect tbh. Besides the obvious problem at the end, the arc was very well done and portrayed the conflict involving Team Magma and Team Aqua in an interesting way.

I have many feelings about RS. It's a love-hate relationship

 

[Sonikku A]

Hareta's manga is better than Adventures/SPE DP manga

As for what I remember for RS...

RS Manga marked the beginning of humans hyper prioritized over Pokemon. Sapphire's weird savagery (no not meme callousness, I mean feral) got dropped extremely quickly (admittedly it was weird), and she pretty much gets no development afterwards. Ruby on the flip is fairly interesting in NOT being likeable unlike most game based protags, and the reasoning on him hating to battle was fine.

Wally is interesting, he got respirators to aid his asthma after recuperating, and his purpose on finding Rayquaza showed his skill. Though it's weird he's given more dev than May

I like that the writer had bias for Team Aqua. Having him control media coverage to doubly screw Team Magma was great, and surprisingly well thought out. It was also nice seeing the reporters be the ones to stop the corruption, instead of the kid protags

Didn't care too much for Magma's Tabitha and Courtney, though the latter got some weird shipping going on with Ruby in some fanart

However as I said, the priority on human rep meant Pokemon personality and dev got sidelined. This was even lampshaded by Norman later in his fight with Ruby, on how Swampert was more aware of the danger of the situation despite being dismissed by Ruby. Sadly Swampert was the only mon that arc to have a noted personality besides Feebas and Plusle/Minun, and even that was barely shown outside the beginning when they met, and the Norman fight.
I remember Werster saying the anime focuses a lot more on representing the Pokemon compared to Adventures, and I have to agree. After Gen 3, Adventures kind of stopped caring, while the anime still at least tries to hype and individualize mons

RS's attempt of having Celebi for Mirage Island was lame, and "them being away from everyone for 21 days" after the Kyogre/Groudon showdown is absurd. This also is kind of shows another issue Adventures had: it really shouldn't have piled on everything to be in the same continuity. It made remakes even weirder to adapt, and the roster bloat got really bad later

I enjoyed it, but it really should've been the end. FRLG's arc I didn't even finish and got bored by despite Deoxys

Darn, how did the Treecko survive this!? Does your Mudkip have a bad Nature or what?

Tombstoner in my hack is physical, and this Mudkip was special based, so...