They all have well defined personalities that stand out, particularly Oshawott - he's a glutton, he's prideful, he was cowardly, he loves his scalchop, he's a girl chaser, and so on.
Oshawott got plenty of screentime and had a personality. I get that. But he sucked as a battler - he never took it seriously. Unfezant, Scraggy, and Boldore quite frankly got shafted in terms of development/focus, and they sucked at battling. I rather see Pokemon with personality and can battle, like numerous members of Ash's AG and DP teams.
I'll explain more. The XY series feels halfhearted, the characters are not engaging, the episode plots are nothing special, Serena doesn't have the sass that Lilia (Iris) did, Citro (Citron/Clemont) isn't passionate about what he does like Benny (Cilan/Dent(o)), Heureka (Bonnie/Eureka) is more forced than either cute or funny, they try too hard to make Ash cool,and please don't let me talk about new Team Rocket. XY has good writing, but good writing means nothing if there's no soul behind it. Everyone contributed something in Best Wishes! while in XY, one or more people often stand in the background until it's time for their episode. Sometimes one of the main characters were in the background but they still made their presence known somehow.
Serena did show sass with her mother and hopefully that'll be something that comes out more in the series. Serena and her goals will pick up hopefully over time, like how Iris's goal wasn't revealed in the beginning either. Clemont has been amazing, and probably the best male sidekick showing I've seen since pre-DP Brock. As for Ash, they've always shown to be 'cool' and heroic, but its nice seeing him battle strategically and competently. And for your last point, its only really Serena that suffers from that problem - Clemont and Bonnie have made their stamp on most episodes.
Can you name any specific episodes where it was said he's closer to his goal though? EDIT And being closer to his goal doesn't mean he's a good character. As long as you're citing DP as an example, remember Katrin (Johanna/Ayako)? She was the best at what she did but was a robotic character.
The episode in which he defeats Brandon and completes the Battle Frontier? Umm...the episode in which he takes out a Darkrai + Latios? AG and DP in general showed him progressing into a better trainer. This "Ash = robot" DP gripe is overrated - he was not some lifeless being who battled all day. Was his personality a bit bland at times? Yeah, but I rather have that than see him be immature/lively in BW and fail as a trainer.
How are they ripoff other than being starters and the same types? The others you listed got little focus in comparison but when they did, they left an impression. I'll agree that Krookodile was cool.
They left an impression of needing more focus, that's what.
What the heck was so great about bulbasaur and squitle, except for them coming back to get a couple of DEMs at the end of BF, AT LEAST snivy had a cool backstory, and oshawott was fun, As far as i remember, bulbasaur did pretty awfully against Drake, and ALL of squirtle´s wins, were easy, and everything after that was needlessly glorifying them, as the legends that that they never were, BW could have easily been remembered fondly, if O and S had as easy wins.
Not sure if you watched the OS to make that type of statement. Lol, Bulbasaur got two quality wins at the Indigo Plateau and defeated Meganium in the Silver Conference. He was always strong, so nope, his BF wins were hardly a case of DEM (which could be said of any Pokemon victory).
You mean the same Snivy backstory that could have been explored further but wasn't? O and S could have used some easy wins because they'll go down by majority opinion as two of the worst Pokemon Ash has captured.
