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Biggest flaws of each series

BlackRaven

Go Charizard!!!!
I can only really remember a few, but here they are.

Sinnoh- Being curb-stomped by Tobias. If you make ash lose, make it to a non-legendary trainer

Unova- The only Episode I ever watched was "Gotta catch a Roggenrola"
After seeing Cilan burst into tears about his "beautiful fruity creation being ruined I stopped watching

Kalos- Not enough focus on Serena and Clemont who most people forget about
 

SkittleBox

Fanfiction writer
Note: haven't watched OS to AG in forever, so I apologize in advance if I get any plot points wrong.

Kanto- lackluster battles for the most part. I feel that Misty and Brock needed more episodes.

Orange Islands- Brock? I want Brock back! Tracey isn't good enough to replace Brock!

Johto- hey, Brock's back! Hey, all of Ash's Johto Pokemon are jokes to say the least! Seriously. I did nit enjoy ANY of Ash's new Johto Pokemon.

Hoenn- May. Make her go away. I hate her. Could not watch many episodes because of her.

Sinnoh- This was one of the better series. However, I'm not a fan of how the League ended. Darn you, Trollbias...

Unova- ...literally EVERYTHING.

Kalos- Serena was developed too slow at the beginning, then her character development was moving at the speed of light. If they had giving an equal pace, she would have been rivaling Dawn as my favorite PokeGirl.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
Kalos:

* Repeating the same TR motto animation over and over. Sure it was a lavishly animated one, but it added to the repetition. Them hamming up with different choreography was half the fun. BW had this 'stock animation' issue too, but not to the same level.

* Hard to quite pinpoint (I get that 'plot armour' isn't quite the accurate term now) but there were way too many episodes where the twerps winning felt....ungratifying. Like way, WAY too easy, even by previous standards. The premise of the series seemed to be more intense action and all of Ash's previous training and experience paying off, and yet, most of the time he and the others stopped the episode's dilemma, it didn't really feel like an accomplishment. It rarely harked back to what Ash had done in the past. It was either a generic curb stomp battle or a fluke where outside interference or a deus ex machina did everything for them, or even worse some bigger fish would come and prove they could done their job effortlessly the whole time. It was the most blatant case of the heroes not really coming off as able to fail (unless the plot demanded it) and never really having to try to win, cosmic forces would always dumb things down for them. Serena was especially bad, she always got saved in situations that couldn't be solved with a few simple cheap shots. It hindered her whole development from how excessively it happened, like she and her team never worked or soldiered on for a victory ONCE, she still seems fairly weak and novice despite never losing a battle. I mean the twerp squad was likeable this region, but barely ever ROOTABLE. Even BW succeeded brilliantly in that at times.

* Serena's crush was cute, but I felt the one sided bond let it down. Even platonically, Ash doesn't seem exceptionally connected to her or at least put in situations he can display much devotion to her compared to previous companions such as May. I felt Serena could have been shown dealing or empathising with flawed Ash more often as well, the Snowbelle arc had bad implications because of it, like she only liked Ash for how perfect he'd become.
 
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Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
* Serena's crush was cute, but I felt the one sided bond let it down. Even platonically, Ash doesn't seem exceptionally connected to her or at least put in situations he can display much devotion to her compared to previous companions such as May. I felt Serena could have been shown dealing or empathising with flawed Ash more often as well, the Snowbelle arc had bad implications because of it, like she only liked Ash for how perfect he'd become.

Part of the problem is that Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie only saw one side of Ash. In general, Ash is a nice, easygoing, sociable kid. His more emotional, temperamental side tends to emerge when his buttons are pushed: when he feels humiliated; when he is insulted, unfairly criticized, or picked on; when his Pokémon are insulted; when his ideology is tested; etc. Typically, those buttons are pushed by his rivals or, occasionally, by his friends (Misty, Iris, Max, I'm looking at you). However, Ash didn't have any jerk*** rivals in XY, and his friends rarely criticized or insulted him; in fact, they idolized him. The Snowbelle arc was the first time Serena and the others saw the emotional, moody side of Ash - a side that most of his friends witnessed much earlier in their journey. So, of course, to Serena, this moody Ash wasn't the Ash she knew and admired.
 

Sprinter1988

Well-Known Member
Biggest flaws of each series? Well, let's see...

Kanto:
- Charizard's disobedience went on far too long. The battle against Blaine and his Magmar should have been the end of it.
- No battle between Ash and Gary
- There was no point in Misty owning Starmie, Goldeen or Horsea.
- There was no point in Brock owning Zubat and to be honest may just as well have left Geodude with Forrest
- Bulbasaur didn't evolve into Ivysaur, which was a shame.
- Pidgeot and Butterfree were released while Haunter was given away.
- I would have liked to have seen more of the people in Team Rocket who aren't Jessie, James, Butch or Cassidy.

Orange Islands:
- Squirtle didn't evolve into Wartortle when it learned Hydro Pump
- There was no point to Tracey
- Lapras was released
- Ash didn't go back for Pidgeot

Johto:
- Waaaaaaay too many fillers
- Cyndaquil, Totodile and Phanpy didn't evolve in this series (Totodile still hasn't!)
- Jimmy and Marina didn't appear in the main anime
- Kamon didn't appear as a character
- I would have liked to have seen more of the people in Team Rocket who aren't Jessie, James, Butch or Cassidy
- Why was Brock even in this one?
- All these fillers and Typhlosion did not appear on screen once!

Hoenn:
- Team Aqua/Magma plot was pretty terrible
- Grovyle did not evolve into Sceptile in this saga
- No saga-long rival for Ash
- May caught a Bulbasaur when Hoenn has so many other grass type options: Bellossom, Breloom, Nuzleaf and Tropius spring to mind!
- Why was Brock even in this one?

Battle Frontier:
- Some of Ash's other reserves could have used some screen time (such as Bayleef, Totodile, Kingler and Muk)
- May caught a Squirtle when Kanto and Hoenn had so many other water type options: Milotic, Lanturn, Vaporeon, Azumarill, Seel, Gorebyss...
- I would have liked to have seen more of the people in Team Rocket who aren't Jessie, James, Butch or Cassidy
- Why was Brock even in this one?

Sinnoh:
- Ash and Barry didn't get a full blown battle near the end
- No Fourth Gen Battle Frontier
- TRio have well and truely outstayed their day
- Improvement of Johto pokemon was not extended to include Totodile and Bayleef
- Why was Brock even in this one?

Unova:
- Iris was annoying from start to end and claims she can't ever have a Charizard because its not a dragon type, yet has an Excadrill and Emolga on her team
- Cilan's joke was run into the ground by his 10th episode
- Everything about Oshawott
- Rotation system got screwed up
- League was abysmal
- Trip and Cameron were terrible characters

Kalos:
- Serena had virtually no development for too long, with her only reason for existing being her crush on Ash.
- Once Ash had Ash-Greninja there was no point in him having anything else
- League was rushed to make way for Team Flare Arc
- Its a good thing Ash never went up against someone with Stealth Rocks!
 

Link73

Well-Known Member
I will only talk about the seasons I saw:

Kanto:
- Not bringing back some of the CotD with similar aims than Ash's was a shame (Specifically: I would have like seeing people like AJ, Joe or even Giselle from Tech School playing on the League, not necesarilly versus Ash)
- Charizard's disobedience could be better attached to the videogame rules (for example: Ash could get its loyalty back by winning Blaine's medal or something)
- Losing his League Matchup because of "Charizard doesn't want to fight"; it would have been more interesting seeing that snotty Charizard being shocked the heck out of the League by a unexpected powerful Sparky's Thunderbolt.
- That's right: No Gary-Ash matchup.

Orange Islands:
- Brock's departure was kind of improvised.
- There should have been some evolutions during that series.
- That's right: No Gary-Ash matchup (on the island)

Johto:
- Brock's return was kind of improvised (?)
- Some chapters looked like a redo of Kanto's ones.
- TRio doing the same thing on and on.
- The GS Ball could be a tie-in to a Movie or a Indiana Jones-Style arc... It did not deserve to be dropped just like that.
- Ash losing to Harrison; it's not that I want Ash to win the League, but the way Harrison lost next round makes me think that Ash should have beat Harrison... and then lost next round because Charizard was injured.

Kalos
- I perceived the airtime was not well used; for example, they used too much chapters on arcs and now they are running in order to have closed as most plots as possible.
- Serena's quest took too much to start and too little to finish (it could be something like starting at chapter 25-30, getting 5-6 keys as requirement to get into the Master Class, making her confidence-maker refashion after a losing streak at the very same XY60, getting into the Master Class... and lose versus Aria in the final)
- Too few Pokémon caught by all.
- Related with the former: Too few Pokémon being caught in battle (even though I liked the "I want to go with you" attitude from Froakie, Chespin et al)
- There are too few connections to Ash's past; no calling his mother, seeing his past Pokémon, recalling some of them to League showdown or even talking to his new friends about their past ones make XY(Z) like a whole new series; possibiliy indifferent to new audiences, kind of bad for the old ones who got back to the anime for whatsoever nostalgia reasons (including me).
- Not only Ash losing the League, but also the circumstances which he did (losing versus a last-time, so-called perfect Pokémon Master arrival)
- Amourshipping was a long shot from the staff that I appreciate, but it could be better handled, especially on the final chapters; it could have more "Serena/Ash taking care of him/her" moments and some subtle Serena's confession to Ash before all they defied death by facing Team Flare.
- Derived from that: A cameo by Gary and he remembering Serena would have make AshXSerena history more interesting.
- As I told before, looks like they are being hasty on closing as much open plots as possible on the last chapters.
 
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Mr.Munchlax

Great Ball Rank Trainer
I'm still trying to think about the flaws for the other seasons, but for now one thing I want to bring up about BW that I haven't seen anyone else talk about would be the treatment of Georgia & Burgundy.

Out of all of the characters introduced in BW, I was most excited to see Georgia & Burgundy when they first appeared in their respective episodes since we've never really seen Ash's friends having their own rivals with the exception of Dawn & May (not counting Serena since she didn't exist in the canon yet). They both had great personalities and set ups for their motivations ,and I was definitely excited to see how these characters were going to develop and flesh out Iris and Cilan. However, like all of the other recurring characters, all we got was for them to appear in the pitiful excuses of tournament arcs, with the only time either of them fought their respective rivals was when Iris's "at the time disobedient" Dragonite obliterated Georgia's Beartic. On top of that, they never got any development for their characters and they only ever appeared in just one episode each, barely interacting with Iris or Cilan at all due to the demands of the plots. Then, after the Junior Cup, they basically disappeared from existence and were never even brought up again.

Georgia and Burgundy had so much potential to shake up the whole "Ash's traveling companions" formula and I was hoping more than anything that they'd help make Iris and Cilan two of the best characters in the series (as ironic and hilarious as it sounds now), and instead they got even worse treatment than Goodra did and were never given the chance to be used to their fullest potential. Part of me was even hoping that Georgia would somehow show up in XYZ due to the introduction of Fairy types and, with Drasna being in the Elite 4, it would've given the writers a chance to give her character the development she deserved in BW and bring her whole "Dragon Buster" goal to full circle.
 
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U.N. Owen

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night ...
The series as a whole has a massive pacing issue. Either it moves at the pace of the U.S. Federal Government (Johto, BW:DA!) or too fast (Ending stretch of XYZ)
 

Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
OS: Only a few badges were earned via actual battles
Johto: GS ball plot just dropped, Kanto Pokemon overshining the Johto starters and said starters not getting much development
Hoenn: Ash didn't get a rival, unless you count Morrison but he wasn't introduced until late game
Sinnoh: Flawless
Unova: Ash regression, cancelled TR vs TP leading to Team Plasma never appearing until the final months of Gen V and worst of all Pierce just DISAPPEARED!
Kalos: Releasing Goodra.... twice, should have stayed. Releasing Greninja.... Ash's only counter to Megas. Alain's character and him being a major Gary Stu. Dropping Tierno and Trevor in favor of Sawyer......
 

CMButch

Kanto is love. Kanto is life.
Kanto: Short series, boring battles, the worst league ever(rules and Charizard not listening), Ash catching 30 Tauros; instead of catching different Pokemon, Misty and Brock were more of a sidekicks than MC's, Ash not coming back for Pidgeot, Ash releasing Primeape
OI: Tracey could've done more , at least be in other region with Ash, Ash not coming back for Lapras, "gyms" were bad except third one.
Johto: Bad fillers, Ash's Totodile doesn't evolve up to Croconaw, battles are still boring, Cyndaquil should've evolved during Johto in Quilava
Hoenn:Fillers were boring, Ash's Corphish didn't evolve, Ash vs Morrison and Ash vs Tyson could've been 4 episodes( it is 3 IIRC), Team Aqua and Team Magma episodes should've been way way longer
BF:none
DP: Bad fillers between 7th and 8th gym+ it was long time: 1 year and 1 month, Ash not catching 2-3 more Pokemon since it ran for 190 episodes, Quilava should've evolved into Typhlosion here.
BW: Ash's regression, Ash's Oshawott doesn't evolve in Dewott, Snivy into Servine and Pignite into Emboar, TR vs TP should've aired in different way :(((, league was bad, DI was pointless, Where is Pierce?
XY: Ash not catching more Pokemon, Ash released Goodra and Greninja, Serena not catching more Pokemon, Ash not using old Pokemon in Kalos league, Kalos league could've been way way better
 
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ThePokemonmaster11

Well-Known Member
Kanto: The gym battle format nearly killed me with its sheer stupidity, Ash's incompetence in Kanto was very annoying. The gym leaders practically have the badges away. While I love the original trio, Brock and Misty felt one dimensional at times. TR was even worse in that regard. This season also started the trend of Ash's streak of utter garbage in the conference, however it was somewhat justified... Okay, I can't even try to convince myself Kanto's Indigo Conference was believable.

Orange Islands: Tracey was worse than Brock, hardly memorable at all. Brock may have been one dimensional at times, but he was likable and was good comic relief. Tracey was just meh. I wasn't a fan of the Orange Island thing either.

Johto: Same gripes with the cast in the first season. I also started to hate the filler episodes. Did I mention TR being repetitive? Also didn't like how Ash's Charizard got screwed over by Blaziken. It was hit wrenching to see the original group split up. I still think the game incarnation of TR would have been boss for both Kanto/Johto.

Hoenn: Hated the filler, hated TR, and hated the Hoenn League loss. I found Ash's lack of a true rival to be very disappointing. Max could be a bit annoying at times too. Archie/Maxie were also very forgettable.

Battle Frontier: By far one of the best seasons, however by this time I was beyond tired out of TR and the pointless filler episodes that had no value to the series.

Sinnoh: The start from the drawing board theme was starting to get annoying. I mean considering Gary told Ash he had room to improve it made no sense for Ash to dump his entire team. I also didn't like Dawn as much as May. May had character development, Dawn just felt like more of the same. Dawn from day one wasn't much different from the Dawn at series end. Maybe I'm imagining things. I also hated the filler and TR. Both were getting really stupid. Don't even get me started on Tobias.

Unova: BW took the reboot thing with Ash to an extreme, therefore making it cringeworthy. Trip seemed to get no development and seemed like a wannbe Paul. I also hated how TR's serious role and thus the epic showdown with Team Plasma was eliminated. Iris seemed like a Misty clone, and replacing Brock was even worse. Cilan's cooking lines made me want to poke my eyes out. Cameron's win over Ash felt like a slap in the face to the fans. I also was disappointed when they brought Charizard back. The writers kinda nerfed him every step of the way and it felt more like a shoehorn that an actual appearance. I wish he would have appeared in the Unova League.

Kalos: The main weaknesses to XY was Serena's rushed character development. She was hyped up, but the writers barely used her. I mean in most episodes she feels like Sakura from Naruto, she just stands back and watches Clemont and Ash do everything. I also hated the Kalos League and how Ash's Greninja was handled. What was the point of the entire backstory of Greninja?
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
And the one thing Serena DID offer a lot of from the start (her crush), Ash refused to put in for instead, to the point he wouldn't even emote platonically most of the time.
 

chalkus

Well-Known Member
Kanto: Weak animation. Boring battles. League ended on a terrible note. Pidgeot was given away. Ash being awarded badges instead of winning them. Ash being generally incompetent to th point you have to wonder how he ever got as far as he did (I credit Brock).

Johto: Weak animation. Misty became obnoxious. Gary did not get enough screen time. Way too much filler.

Hoenn: Animation could have been better. Misty came back to do nothing. Max existed. May did a disservice to contests by not battling like a true coordinator. May's rivals sucked. Ash's team had one too many jabronis. May losing two festivals and accomplishing nothing. Brock didn't get the development he deserved. Harley and Drew were too silly to be taken seriously.

Sinnoh: Flawless

Unova: Ash turned to a novice. Iris never got the respect she deserved. Cilan didn't do much outside cook. None of the rivalries for Iris or Cilan were settled. Ash had a terrible team. Ash losing to a rookie in his first battle. Oshawott existed. Iris being hated seemingly because of the color of her skin. Cameron existed. Worst league since Kanto.

Kalos: Serena's crush on Ash. Serena doing nothing for a year. Serena's goal being meaningless. Serena taking part in a competition that was a bastardization of contests. Serena doing nothing afterwards. Four main characters who barely speak to each other. Korrina not getting the respect she deserves. Iris not getting the time she deserves. Serena having a weak Pokemon team. Ash not catching enough pokemon. Serena being the weakest travelling companion Ash has ever had. Korrina arc being bashed even though it was the best part of the season. Ash still being a step down from DP.
 

Pokegirl Fan~

Liko>>>>>Ash
Kanto: Weak animation. Boring battles. League ended on a terrible note. Pidgeot was given away. Ash being awarded badges instead of winning them. Ash being generally incompetent to th point you have to wonder how he ever got as far as he did (I credit Brock).

Johto: Weak animation. Misty became obnoxious. Gary did not get enough screen time. Way too much filler.

Hoenn: Animation could have been better. Misty came back to do nothing. Max existed. May did a disservice to contests by not battling like a true coordinator. May's rivals sucked. Ash's team had one too many jabronis. May losing two festivals and accomplishing nothing. Brock didn't get the development he deserved. Harley and Drew were too silly to be taken seriously.

Sinnoh: Flawless

Unova: Ash turned to a novice. Iris never got the respect she deserved. Cilan didn't do much outside cook. None of the rivalries for Iris or Cilan were settled. Ash had a terrible team. Ash losing to a rookie in his first battle. Oshawott existed. Iris being hated seemingly because of the color of her skin. Cameron existed. Worst league since Kanto.

Kalos: Serena's crush on Ash. Serena doing nothing for a year. Serena's goal being meaningless. Serena taking part in a competition that was a bastardization of contests. Serena doing nothing afterwards. Four main characters who barely speak to each other. Korrina not getting the respect she deserves. Iris not getting the time she deserves. Serena having a weak Pokemon team. Ash not catching enough pokemon. Serena being the weakest travelling companion Ash has ever had. Korrina arc being bashed even though it was the best part of the season. Ash still being a step down from DP.
I loved Sinnoh but DP did have its flaws so it's not flawless. DP Team Rocket, Brock, and the filler episodes are the biggest flaws of DP imo
 
My only real problem for XY/XYZ was the shoddy writing. Extremely bad at closing out plots, honestly they started out good...But ended so bad.

WRITING WRITING WRITING
Ruined the XY/XYZ series for a lot of people...I still loved it to death :p
 

Navin

MALDREAD
Sinnoh: Flawless

Some things never change.

Kalos: Serena's crush on Ash. Serena doing nothing for a year. Serena's goal being meaningless. Serena taking part in a competition that was a bastardization of contests. Serena doing nothing afterwards. Four main characters who barely speak to each other. Korrina not getting the respect she deserves. Iris not getting the time she deserves. Serena having a weak Pokemon team. Ash not catching enough pokemon. Serena being the weakest travelling companion Ash has ever had. Korrina arc being bashed even though it was the best part of the season. Ash still being a step down from DP.

So who do you dislike more now? Is it still Misty, or has Serena usurped that position?
 

mystic9899

Pokemon fan
Kanto: Ash bs'ed half his badges
Orange Islands: He acted kinda cocky in some episodes
Johto: Insane amount of fillers. Still liked them but there were a LOT
Hoenn: Harley is to this date the most annoying rival ever
Battle Frontier: Felt kinda short, but understandable due to upcoming 4th gen
Sinnoh: My favorite out of the lot, but I feel the gap between Ash's 7th and 8th gym battles was pretty long.
Unova: Small but understandable reset of Ash. I actually liked Iris but her "honto kodomone" sometimes got a little excessive (even tho it sounded cute af in japanese).
Decolora Islands: Mostly filler. They were fine, but filler nonetheless.
Kalos: Pacing and proper plot closures. It felt strange that Serena won her first princess key after Ash had already won 6 badges. I wish she found her goal just a little earlier.
 
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DatsRight

Well-Known Member
Kalos' final development was rushed after spending so long with filler or snail's pace plot progression (I get they were saving the climax for last, but everything was way too rushed and shoehorned last minute during the end to be taken emotionally). Greninja's finale in particular just felt contrived out of nowhere without any buildup.

Also a blatant lack of substance in the hero squad's progression. Serena in particular didn't really feel remotely more competent or versatile than she did at the beginning up until her very last limelight episode where she shown a slither of new battle style, making her rather boring and unaccomplished as a protagonist (if still likeable as a supporting character). Ash meanwhile was more just a powerhouse than someone who demonstrated six regions worth of training and experience. There were only a small number of episodes the heroes actually won by being clever and strategic rather than just curb stomping the same way all the time or having the plot bend to their whim.
 
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RedJirachi

Veteran member
The biggest flaw of all series is its enslavement to the status quo
 

chalkus

Well-Known Member
Some things never change.
The truth never does.



So who do you dislike more now? Is it still Misty, or has Serena usurped that position?
I used to be a Misty fan until I got tired of her. I was never a Serena fan. Misty at least did something. Serena hardly does anything notable.

And I don't hate either one. I just find Misty to be stale (Iris did her role way better) and Serena to be dangerous because she will set a precedent for lousy writing and character development. I can see future Serenas on the horizon.
 
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