cricketlaxwolvesbandy
Summoning...
It seems like there isn’t a character in the Pokémon anime that is polarizing as Goh. Sure, there are who have taken up the title of that, but it feels like Goh has surpassed them at this point. The two I am talking about here that can compare are Iris (to a lesser extent) and Serena, and I don’t know if he has surpassed the latter just yet because of you-know-what and OH BOY the extremists (I don’t want to start a flame war) but he is coming close. The main complaints I see about Goh is that “he catches every Pokémon too easily”, “he’s a monster that doesn’t care about the Pokémon’s feelings”, “he catches legendaries” and “he steals the screentime from Ash”. Personally, I feel like most of these complaints are false or I don’t agree with them, and they are more over exaggerated to the point that it’s ridiculous.
I think Goh is a decent character, and I don’t hate any of Ash’s companions at all. Yes, there are problems about him, but most of the issues are more attributed towards the series itself. Goh’s goal of catching every Pokémon is very unique as it's something we’ve never seen before in the anime, with his end goal culminating in catching Mew as he saw it during his childhood. We can see him grow throughout the series from a selfish character to one that understands the feelings of Pokémon and people.
However, catching all these Pokémon means that most of them are faded into obscurity, and even his main mons like Cinderace, Drizzile, and Grookey don’t get much development, though this is a problem with Journeys as a whole. I like how he is developing and progressing towards his goal with being a part of Project Mew which is a good step in his character and goal as he was a staler character before then, and I’m excited to see his role in upcoming episodes and hopefully he can learn to be independent from Ash. I do agree that he catches Pokémon too easily, but I’ve seen with some captures he’s either struggled or befriended the Pokémon that he caught. The notion that he doesn’t care about the Pokémon’s feelings is false as we’ve seen in several episodes such as with Raboot, Suicune, and Drizzile that he does indeed care for them. When Goh caught Suicune, the community poured with outrage as Goh caught a legendary Pokémon so easily. I’m not too upset about its capture as the rest of the fandom was but I can see why people are mad that he caught a legendary 53 episodes in. Goh catching any Pokémon, including a legendary, is part of his goal of catching every Pokémon, plus it doesn’t even have to battle like say if Ash catches one would make him too OP like Tobias, which is why I wasn’t a fan of him catching Melmetal.
And then there’s the argument that Goh is stealing the screentime from Ash. This is a very unpopular opinion but I’m more interested in what Goh’s doing in this series than what Ash is, as the PWC battles aren’t that interesting to me and Ash’s character feels more stale than ever. Goh is a new character with an interesting concept that could be played out, while Ash has been around for almost 25 years and has overstayed his welcome at this point. In all honesty, I think that Goh is a better character than Ash in this series, and he doesn’t deserve the level of bashing that he gets from the community.
I think Goh is a decent character, and I don’t hate any of Ash’s companions at all. Yes, there are problems about him, but most of the issues are more attributed towards the series itself. Goh’s goal of catching every Pokémon is very unique as it's something we’ve never seen before in the anime, with his end goal culminating in catching Mew as he saw it during his childhood. We can see him grow throughout the series from a selfish character to one that understands the feelings of Pokémon and people.
However, catching all these Pokémon means that most of them are faded into obscurity, and even his main mons like Cinderace, Drizzile, and Grookey don’t get much development, though this is a problem with Journeys as a whole. I like how he is developing and progressing towards his goal with being a part of Project Mew which is a good step in his character and goal as he was a staler character before then, and I’m excited to see his role in upcoming episodes and hopefully he can learn to be independent from Ash. I do agree that he catches Pokémon too easily, but I’ve seen with some captures he’s either struggled or befriended the Pokémon that he caught. The notion that he doesn’t care about the Pokémon’s feelings is false as we’ve seen in several episodes such as with Raboot, Suicune, and Drizzile that he does indeed care for them. When Goh caught Suicune, the community poured with outrage as Goh caught a legendary Pokémon so easily. I’m not too upset about its capture as the rest of the fandom was but I can see why people are mad that he caught a legendary 53 episodes in. Goh catching any Pokémon, including a legendary, is part of his goal of catching every Pokémon, plus it doesn’t even have to battle like say if Ash catches one would make him too OP like Tobias, which is why I wasn’t a fan of him catching Melmetal.
And then there’s the argument that Goh is stealing the screentime from Ash. This is a very unpopular opinion but I’m more interested in what Goh’s doing in this series than what Ash is, as the PWC battles aren’t that interesting to me and Ash’s character feels more stale than ever. Goh is a new character with an interesting concept that could be played out, while Ash has been around for almost 25 years and has overstayed his welcome at this point. In all honesty, I think that Goh is a better character than Ash in this series, and he doesn’t deserve the level of bashing that he gets from the community.
