The argument that kids these days won't know who Misty and Brock are is absolute bull.
I work with children, from ages 3-11, and kids these days know who Misty and Brock are, they watch the old series of pokemon, thanks to Go hype, and Netflix, I see kids running around the playground pretending to be Ash, Brock and Misty on a regular basis, in fact, I always ask them what is happening when I hear them playing, and I'm not just talking about one group of children, I see multiple kids playing it, plus I not only work in 1 school, I work in 2 schools each week, and these are in different areas of the country (albeit Wales is small).
You know what I don't see, or hear, I don't hear kids playing pokemon in yard pretending to be the current cast (XY, we've only had the first 2 episode of SM). Kids today love Ash, Brock and Misty, and yes I'm talking about the West, but its not hard for kids of Japan to watch the OS, it airs on Sundays on Pokemon Sunday show, plus its probably on apps like Netflix like it is here. Heck, we have a Pokemon TV app where you can watch ALL of the series.
I can't stand seeing comments on here about how kids will get confused because they don't know Pokemon history, you aren't giving kids enough credit, kids know how to use the internet, kids know how to watch their favourite shows online, and research their favourite shows. Kids know about the history of Pokemon, especially thanks to last year, we're still on that Pokemon Go hype, and this film is on the back of it, the kids who will want to watch this movie, will be the same kids playing GO and will likely know about characters like Brock and Misty.
So no, I won't accept the whole 'Misty and Brock appearing will confuse kids because they won't know who they are' argument, in fact, you're only going to confuse them more by replacing them with new characters as younger children won't understand the whole, different universe thing that seems to be going on.
That said, I'm not attacking these new characters, I'm happy to give them a chance, even if this girl has my favourite characters signature pokemon.
(Of course most of these attacks in this thread are on the people who are mad about the absence of Misty and Brock, I'm on the "shoulda been solo Ash" camp lol. But still, I think they have a right to be upset as well. Sure there was no promise that Misty and Brock would be there but can you REALLY blame them for getting their hopes up? Especially when they just get replaced with new characters. Again, stop shaming people for not being perfectly fine with everthing, how does that opinion affect YOU unless they straight up reply to you? Leave these poor people alone they just got slapped in the face by the show big time xD)
Yes!!!!!! You said it, these forums these days make you feel like you can't have an opinion anymore.