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The Pokemon Anime Opposite Opinions Game Thread

Navin

MALDREAD
PLEASE READ THE RULES BELOW BEFORE POSTING!!!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to the Pokemon Anime Opposite Opinions Game Thread! This will be a mix of a game, discussion, and debate. The purpose of this thread is to make the Pokemon Anime Discussion community break from their comfort zones and consider and acknowledge new perspectives.

Here is how it will work:

I will start with an opinion. Example:

Maldread - "I thought the Pokevision episode (XY021) was cringeworthy."

The next Poster B has to now counter/refute the above opinion. Even if Poster B personally agreed with what I said, the game's point is to DEFEND the opposite opinion.

Therefore, using the above example:

Poster B - "The Pokevision was NOT cringeworthy because...[yadayadayada]."

Once answered, the Poster B can place a new opinion at the end of the post.

Afterwards, the next Poster C has to refute Poster B's opinion/defend the opposite stance. And it'll so forth proceed as a chain.

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Here are the rules:


1. When providing a refutation/counterargument, your response must be a minimum of 3 sentences. NO one-sentence spamming.

2. If you are the poster who provided the opinion, you are allowed ONE reply to the individual who countered your opinion. And likewise, if you are the person who gave a refutation, you are allowed ONE final response to the original poster's response.

Therefore, using the above scenario:

Maldread - Pokevision = cringeworthy.
Poster B - Pokevision = not cringeworthy.
Maldread - [Response to Poster B]
Poster B - [Response to Maldread]

That's it. If you still feel strongly about the topic, take it to PMs. This is to prevent the thread from becoming cluttered.

3. If there are multiple responses to a post, then if you are the next poster, please choose only one post in response. I don't mind having multiple chains occurring though. Please don't be offended if your opinion doesn't receive a response.

4. DO NOT twist this thread into what happened in Controversial Opinions. This is NOT your opportunity to keep waiting for opinions that you already disagree with and spam the thread with repetitive rants. That defeats the game's purpose. I implore and challenge you to break free of your fixed viewpoints.

5. DO NOT troll or be overly sarcastic. Example: Don't give an opinion of "Misty's hair should have been blue", and likewise, please don't feed the troll by providing an elaborate defense of why her hair is better as orange.

6. NO shipping. If you want to bring up something like Serena's crush in the context of a larger point like her gaining courage/self-confidence, that's fine, but no shipping otherwise.

7. Be respectful and follow all forum rules. The mods have approved of this thread, but will have no qualms about shutting this down. Know that we probably won't ever get another chance to have an "Opinions"-esque thread.

-----------------

I don't know if this thread will become as popular as Controversial Opinions or Versus Thread, but it could definitely become good if y'all follow the rules and take the challenge of considering opinions that you strongly disagree with.

Have fun!
 
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Navin

MALDREAD
SO I will start, using my above example.

Opinion: I thought the Pokevision episode was cringeworthy, with the melodramatic puddle scene and Serena saying that all girls have to make themselves look cute.
 

Akkipeddi

All set to be a nice guy
The Pokevision episode was an early part of Serena's character, where she didn't know what to do, and seeing Aria on it made her feel all girls have to always make themselves look cute. This was at the point where both Serena and especially, Fennekin were quite spoilt, so the puddle scene, while being dramatic, was to show Fennekin that situations were not always going to be neat and tidy, but still needed to be overcome.

Opinion : Thunder Armour is probably the most ridiculous plot moment in the anime till date. Sure, OS had Pikachu beating Geodude and the infamous aim for the horn, but gen 1 as a whole had weird moments, and no abilities. But to see something like that in gen 3 was horrid.
 

Genaller

Silver Soul
Oh I’m going to have a lot of fun with this thread; nice one MAL :)!
SO I will start, using my above example.

Opinion: I thought the Pokevision episode was cringeworthy, with the melodramatic puddle scene and Serena saying that all girls have to make themselves look cute.
Well it’s made explicitly clear earlier on that Serena and Fennikin highly value not getting wet/dirty, so the “drama” in that scene is justified when conisidering the context of their value system and you may find it cringeworthy simply because your values regarding this differ from their’s. Similarly girls being obliged to value their appearance is apart of Japanease norms hence that line would be considered normal for them. Also notice that Serena never makes any claim about males not needing to value their appearance hence that line cannot be used to infer that Serena is sexist (holds males and females to different standards).

Opinion : Thunder Armour is probably the most ridiculous plot moment in the anime till date. Sure, OS had Pikachu beating Geodude and the infamous aim for the horn, but gen 1 as a whole had weird moments, and no abilities. But to see something like that in gen 3 was horrid.
It was previously established that Swellow has high proficiency in tanking electric attacks. One could consider the “Thunder Armor” as a flashy way of indicating Paralysis activating Swellow’s Guts ability. Ash was confident in taking the chance to use Thunder to Paralyse Swellow without KOing it because he was confident about Swellow’s capacity to tank the blow. Notice also that after the “Thunder Armor” appeared it was primarily Swellow (IIRC) who broke through and KOed Tate&Liza’s Pokemon indicating that the primary purpose of Ash having Pikachu Thunder Ash’s Pokémon was to augment Swellow’s destructive power for which Swellow’s Guts ability activating provides a reasonable explanation.

Opinion: Dawn beat May either because of PIS or biased judging. Reason: Dawn was ahead by a hair before the final move interaction (Whirlpool vs Mirror Coat); however, by definition (and yes even in the anime) Mirror Coat should have resulted in Piplup receiving twice the damage that Glaceon did a.k.a Dawn should have lost more points than May by a fair amount a.k.a technically speaking May should have won! In reality they seemingly depicted Glaceon and Piplup taking the same amount of damage (which was literal PIS if that’s the case) resulting in Dawn maintaining her oh so slight lead. Strategically May had Dawn outplayed in that final interaction by waiting for the right time to unveil Mirror Coat for which Dawn was completely taken aback.
 
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Oh I’m going to have a lot of fun with this thread; nice one MAL :)!

Well it’s made explicitly clear earlier on that Serena and Fennikin highly value not getting wet/dirty, so the “drama” in that scene is justified when conisidering the context of their value system and you may find it cringeworthy simply because your values regarding this differ from their’s. Similarly girls being obliged to value their appearance is apart of Japanease norms hence that line would be considered normal for them. Also notice that Serena never makes any claim about males not needing to value their appearance hence that line cannot be used to infer that Serena is sexist (holds males and females to different standards).


It was previously established that Swellow has high proficiency in tanking electric attacks. One could consider the “Thunder Armor” as a flashy way of indicating Paralysis activating Swellow’s Guts ability. Ash was confident in taking the chance to use Thunder to Paralyse Swellow without KOing it because he was confident about Swellow’s capacity to tank the blow. Notice also that after the “Thunder Armor” appeared it was primarily Swellow (IIRC) who broke through and KOed Tate&Liza’s Pokemon indicating that the primary purpose of Ash having Pikachu Thunder Ash’s Pokémon was to augment Swellow’s destructive power for which Swellow’s Guts ability activating provides a reasonable explanation.

Nice idea MAL.

You forgetting something Genaller? ;)
 

satopi

Life doesn’t end, …it changes.
Opinion: Dawn beat May either because of PIS or biased judging. Reason: Dawn was ahead by a hair before the final move interaction (Whirlpool vs Mirror Coat); however, by definition (and yes even in the anime) Mirror Coat should have resulted in Piplup receiving twice the damage that Glaceon did a.k.a Dawn should have lost more points than May by a fair amount a.k.a technically speaking May should have won! In reality they seemingly depicted Glaceon and Piplup taking the same amount of damage (which was literal PIS if that’s the case) resulting in Dawn maintaining her oh so slight lead. Strategically May had Dawn outplayed in that final interaction by waiting for the right time to unveil Mirror Coat for which Dawn was completely taken aback.
The battle seemed more in favor of Dawn considering they didn't take off points every time Glaceon hit Piplup but in Dawn's defense, Piplup took advantage of the battlefield which helped when he was paralyzed for a few seconds. Dawn managed to use Piplup's moves well by having Piplup ride his own Whirlpool as well as countering Glaceon's moves by intentionally using its own moves against. For example, by dodging Glaceon's Secret Power, Piplup sparkled as he spun around to get its footing. Also, May's technique of using Secret Power backfired that time by using the puddle of water thinking it'll have the same effect as paralyze when it turned out nothing more than Tackle as well as a mix of bad timing and Piplup dodging it. All in which affected her score. In the last attempt to push Whirlpool back to Piplup, Glaceon couldn't fully manage to push all of it back so instead of it attacking with twice the damage, it probably reduced to the normal amount of damage as well as hitting Glaceon too. Even though Mirror Coat should've took twice the damage on both sides, maybe Piplup naturally didn't take as much damage simply because he is a Water Type and it looked worse on Glaceon's part for not being able to push Whirlpool back. Almost like a last minute mistake.

Opinion: Litten has yet to have another arc of its own and so far, I see no reason how it could evolve. It doesn't battle much and so far, it took episodes for it to master Fire Fang. We do see Lycanroc and Litten battling each other every now and then but I don't see how Litten can evolve when it barely battles, much less does anything.
 

Genaller

Silver Soul
Opinion: Litten has yet to have another arc of its own and so far, I see no reason how it could evolve. It doesn't battle much and so far, it took episodes for it to master Fire Fang. We do see Lycanroc and Litten battling each other every now and then but I don't see how Litten can evolve when it barely battles, much less does anything.

Litten has a “tragic” backstory like Charmander, Chimchar and Tepig did before him and since all of those Pokémon do evolve, there’s reason to believe that Litten will follow through. Since the anime is an advertisement for the games, it would want to show off Incineroar’s exclusive Z-move giving Ash’s Litten further incentive to evolve all the way. Litten has already had more development than say Ash’s Seawaddle (prior to evolving) and since that was able to evolve, Litten’s apparent lack of battles shouldn’t automatically rule it out for evolution. Also [Spoil]there’s an official poster that shows Torracat[/Spoil].

Opinion: Max taking away Ash’s Normal badge was uncalled for. Ash beat Norman fair and square, and him not having the badge isn’t going to magically erase that fact, so not only was what Max did uncalled for, but it was also pointless. Also in his tenure as a gym leader Norman has most likely lost to several other challengers (since gym leaders are meant to be tough obstacles but not unbeatable), so Max really shouldn’t have been so shocked at the revelation that his dad was capable of loosing.
 

345ash-greninja

Auto-Memories Doll
Opinion: Max taking away Ash’s Normal badge was uncalled for. Ash beat Norman fair and square, and him not having the badge isn’t going to magically erase that fact, so not only was what Max did uncalled for, but it was also pointless. Also in his tenure as a gym leader Norman has most likely lost to several other challengers (since gym leaders are meant to be tough obstacles but not unbeatable), so Max really shouldn’t have been so shocked at the revelation that his dad was capable of loosing.

In my opinion, that just shows the humourous aspect and uniqueness of Max's character. Such uniqueness and humourous aspect of Max character was evident from long ago when Ash first met Max. He repeatedly ridiculed Ash for losing in the Top 8 of the Johto League and IIRC also claimed himself as the Gym Leader of the Petalburg Gym. So what Max did after Ash defeated Norman in the Petalburg Gym battle, was I think, just a reflection of the uniqueness and humourous aspect of his character, which just somewhat added to the comic relief of the show. So I personally didn't mind it.

Opinion: I disagree with the notion that Serena throwing snowballs at Ash in the Winding woods episode and running away saying that 'you're not the Ash I know' shows that Serena was someone who idolized Ash to an unrealistic extent, treated him like a Messiah, and was not ready to accept any flaws in Ash's character. There is this notion existent among fans who think that this incident in the Winding woods episode proves Serena idolized Ash to an extent where she was simply too rigid to accept Ash's flawed side, and thus, when Ash showed his flawed side, Serena couldn't accept it any more and ran away saying 'you're not the Ash I know'.

But I strongly disagree with this notion. Ash was throwing himself into an ugly bout of depression which was getting him nowhere and he was truly not acting like himself. So Serena, when failed to make Ash understand that he was not being himself in the nice way, she had only one way left: make Ash understand that he wasn't being himself, in the hard way. And that was what exactly she did. And it's after all Serena's words, which helped Ash understand that he wasn't being himself and helped Ash to come out of the depression (Ash also later thanked Serena for that).

So, Serena's reaction, at that point of time, was IMO, fully justified, and it clearly helped Ash a lot in the long term. It very difficult to deliberately act tough to someone whom you love, and she did that, just for the sake of making Ash understand that he wasn't being himself, which was badly needed. So that episode, just showed it more that how much Serena actually cared for Ash.
 
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Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
This is going to be an interesting thread.

Opinion: I disagree with the notion that Serena throwing snowballs at Ash in the Winding woods episode and running away saying that 'you're not the Ash I know' shows that Serena was someone who idolized Ash to an unrealistic extent, treated him like a Messiah, and was not ready to accept any flaws in Ash's character. There is this notion existent among fans who think that this incident in the Winding woods episode proves Serena idolized Ash to an extent where she was simply too rigid to accept Ash's flawed side, and thus, when Ash showed his flawed side, Serena couldn't accept it any more and ran away saying 'you're not the Ash I know'.

But I strongly disagree with this notion. Ash was throwing himself into an ugly bout of depression which was getting him nowhere and he was truly not acting like himself. So Serena, when failed to make Ash understand that he was not being himself in the nice way, she had only one way left: make Ash understand that he wasn't being himself, in the hard way. And that was what exactly she did. And it's after all Serena's words, which helped Ash understand that he wasn't being himself and helped Ash to come out of the depression (Ash also later thanked Serena for that'.

So, Serena's reaction, at that point of time, was IMO, fully justified, and it clearly helped Ash a lot in the long term. It very difficult to deliberately act tough to someone whom you love, and she did that, just for the sake of making Ash understand that he wasn't being himself, which was badly needed. So that episode, just showed it more that how much Serena actually cared for Ash.
Part of loving someone is being able to accept that person for who he/she is, and that includes accepting all sides of that person, including his/her flaws. Ash's bout of depression may have seemed out of character for him to Serena, but it was still another side of Ash, just a side she had not seen before. Her outburst—saying this Ash was not the Ash she knew, and then throwing snowballs at him—gave the impression that she could not accept that the cheerful, determined Ash with the "never give up" attitude could also be emotional, moody, and depressed. It gave the impression she only loved the cheerful, determined Ash, not all of Ash. In other words, it gave the impression she idolized Ash, rather than truly loved him for all of who he was.

To make matters worse, even though Ash apologized for his behavior and thanked Serena for her words, Serena never apologized for her behavior. It gave the impression that Serena was in the right and Ash was in the wrong, even though both of them were in the wrong.

Opinion: I think Clemont and Bonnie's relationship was a mess at times. Even though he was the older, more responsible sibling, Clemont rarely reined in Bonnie's behavior when he should have. She basically walked all over him. IMO, it made him look a little weak emotionally, and it made her look like a big brat at times.

And then there was the matchmaking. Even though Bonnie constantly embarrassed him by trying to set him up with random girls and women, I felt Clemont was never forceful enough in his attempts to get her to stop. Then she actually learned what would happen if her matchmaking attempts succeeded—she would lose her brother. And what happened? By the end of that episode, the lesson she had learned was thrown out the window and she was back to matchmaking.
 

Genaller

Silver Soul
Opinion: I think Clemont and Bonnie's relationship was a mess at times. Even though he was the older, more responsible sibling, Clemont rarely reined in Bonnie's behavior when he should have. She basically walked all over him. IMO, it made him look a little weak emotionally, and it made her look like a big brat at times.

And then there was the matchmaking. Even though Bonnie constantly embarrassed him by trying to set him up with random girls and women, I felt Clemont was never forceful enough in his attempts to get her to stop. Then she actually learned what would happen if her matchmaking attempts succeeded—she would lose her brother. And what happened? By the end of that episode, the lesson she had learned was thrown out the window and she was back to matchmaking.

Their relationship is a result of aspects of their character. Clemont is a pacifist who will never resort to confrontation unless he has to; this by no means makes him “emotionally weak”, but just someone who doesn’t believe in unnecessary conflict. Bonnie is someone who is able to express her emotions freely and it could be that Clemont finds this preferable (even if it means Bonnie appears to be a “brat” at times) to her repressing her emotions instead. The anime does give several instances depicting their bond as siblings, hence regardless of how unconventional their relationship may be, it is clear that their relationship is one of actual sibling and so shouldn’t be considered a “mess”. Bonnie’s gag was never actually about finding a bride but just evoking an embarrassing response out of Clemont (for the lolz) as well as making Clemont pay attention to her. The latter is quite likely since Clemont is a prodigy who’s spent a major part of his life working on his inventions (he even built the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower), and so this would invariably result in Clemont not giving Bonnie as much attention as she’d want. Perhaps such actions are immature on Bonnie’s part though they are understandable since she is just a little kid.

Opinion: Ash vs Paul at the Sinnoh League is the best battle in the Pokémon Anime.
 

AshxSatoshi

Ice Aurelia
Opinion: Serena's 3rd Showcase win was a mess. The anime forcing Amelia to lose just because Serena "had something" she didn't was complete PIS. Instead of claiming Serena "just made the audience smile more" we should of got proper reason why Amelia lost.



Their relationship is a result of aspects of their character. Clemont is a pacifist who will never resort to confrontation unless he has to; this by no means makes him “emotionally weak”, but just someone who doesn’t believe in unnecessary conflict. Bonnie is someone who is able to express her emotions freely and it could be that Clemont finds this preferable (even if it means Bonnie appears to be a “brat” at times) to her repressing her emotions instead. The anime does give several instances depicting their bond as siblings, hence regardless of how unconventional their relationship may be, it is clear that their relationship is one of actual sibling and so shouldn’t be considered a “mess”. Bonnie’s gag was never actually about finding a bride but just evoking an embarrassing response out of Clemont (for the lolz) as well as making Clemont pay attention to her. The latter is quite likely since Clemont is a prodigy who’s spent a major part of his life working on his inventions (he even built the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower), and so this would invariably result in Clemont not giving Bonnie as much attention as she’d want. Perhaps such actions are immature on Bonnie’s part though they are understandable since she is just a little kid.

Opinion: Ash vs Paul at the Sinnoh League is the best battle in the Pokémon Anime.

I don't think it was the "best battle", in my opinion the Lake Acuity one was better. Their battle didn't needed to be stretched 3 episodes especially when Infernape and Pikachu was doing all the work mostly.
 
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pokemon fan 132

Well-Known Member
Congratulations Navin (Maldread)for this original idea. This thread could deliver lot of fun, positive atmosphere and encourage stream of unique ideas and scenarios flowing through this place if played correctly.:)

Here is my take on it,

Opinion:I would like to see original trio of Ash, Misty and Brock reunited for one moe adventure traveling together. We could see Brock joining Ash as traveling doctor providing aid in various places where there is shortage of pokemon centers. Misty could travel going on special training after feeling she learned what she could at gym entering tournaments similar to Whirl Cup, maybe somesort of water league making huge advancement toward her dream of becoming water pokemon mater. With nwext big steo beding in becoming her idol Lorelei from E4 apprentice(or E4 Siebold) one day becoming E4 member herself specializing in water pokemon which is in reality type master level.

While Ash could enter champion league or steps beyond that in their company with his long never ending story coming to an dusk of its existence.

Perhaps not for whole region, but in last season of pokemon anime when that day comes i strongly believe reunion of original trio having mini adventure together would be nice thing to happen.
 

Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
Opinion: Serena's 3rd Showcase win was a mess. The anime forcing Amelia to lose just because Serena "had something" she didn't was complete PIS. Instead of claiming Serena "just made the audience smile more" we should of got proper reason why Amelia lost.
Since pokemon fan 132 didn't counter this one, I will.

I've heard Showcases are based off of Japanese pop idol culture. I'm no expert on Japanese pop idol culture, but from what I do know, entertaining the audience and maintaining an image are just as important as actually being talented. In other words, it's a bit of a popularity contest. The audience found Serena more entertaining than Amelia, and that's why they voted for her. Even Palermo acknowledged that. Making people smile is a legitimate reason for winning; that's one reason why Serena made that her goal. So, her win wasn't plot-induced stupidity at all. It was a legitimate win.

Opinion:I would like to see original trio of Ash, Misty and Brock reunited for one moe adventure traveling together. We could see Brock joining Ash as traveling doctor providing aid in various places where there is shortage of pokemon centers. Misty could travel going on special training after feeling she learned what she could at gym entering tournaments similar to Whirl Cup, maybe somesort of water league making huge advancement toward her dream of becoming water pokemon mater. With nwext big steo beding in becoming her idol Lorelei from E4 apprentice(or E4 Siebold) one day becoming E4 member herself specializing in water pokemon which is in reality type master level.

While Ash could enter champion league or steps beyond that in their company with his long never ending story coming to an dusk of its existence.

Perhaps not for whole region, but in last season of pokemon anime when that day comes i strongly believe reunion of original trio having mini adventure together would be nice thing to happen.
Brock has arguably run his course as Ash's traveling companion. He was a traveling companion for four major regions, and by the end of his run, he was getting stale as a character. Even if his skills as a Pokémon Doctor would be useful to Ash, the writers could easily create a new, fresh character to take on that role, as demonstrated in M20 with Sorrel.

Misty may not be as stale a character as Brock, but one could also argue she has run her course as a traveling companion. I think she would get more development traveling alone than she would if she were to travel with Ash again.

Opinion: Alain should have had a better reason to enter the Kalos League than his desire to battle Ash. He should have been ordered to enter the League by Lysandre, and decided to earn the badges on his own rather than use Malva's influence or cheat his way into the League because he has a sense of honor.
 
Opinion: Alain should have had a better reason to enter the Kalos League than his desire to battle Ash. He should have been ordered to enter the League by Lysandre, and decided to earn the badges on his own rather than use Malva's influence or cheat his way into the League because he has a sense of honor.
Alan deliberately cheating would be going against Alan's character. Alan is someone who is ultimately a good person, but is incredibly misguided. Secondly, there is no reason for Alan to cheat when he can demolish most trainers with his Mega Charizard X. I also don't see Ash as the single only reason Alan joined the League. He heard Ash would be there, but he also heard from Ash that many powerful trainers would be there. It makes complete sense that Alan would be interested.

Opinion: the Sun and Moon anime has terrible pacing and the writers seem unable to find the right balance between 'too slow' and 'too fast'. They either take too long with fillers or just breeze through important episodes in a short period of time.
 
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Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
Alan deliberately cheating would be going against Alan's character. Alan is someone who is ultimately a good person, but is incredibly misguided. Secondly, there is no reason for Alan to cheat when he can demolish most trainers with his Mega Charizard X. I also don't see Ash as the single only reason Alan joined the League. He heard Ash would be there, but he also heard from Ash that many powerful trainers would be there. It makes complete sense that Alan would be interested.
You misunderstood my post. I said cheating would go against Alain's character. I said rather than Alain deciding to enter the League on his own, Lysandre should have ordered him to, and the reason Alain decided to earn his badges legitimately, rather than cheat or use Malva's position as an Elite 4 member to get him in, is because he has a sense of honor.

Alain didn't need to enter the Kalos League in order to challenge powerful Trainers. That's what he had spent most of his journey doing—challenging powerful Trainers and their Mega-Evolved Pokémon.
 
Alain didn't need to enter the Kalos League in order to challenge powerful Trainers. That's what he had spent most of his journey doing—challenging powerful Trainers and their Mega-Evolved Pokémon.
Isn't it more logical for Alan to go to one place packed with strong trainers than wander the region looking for strong trainers? Realistically, he is more likely to meet more trainers there than he would meet if he were randomly journeying across Kalos in search for opponents. That in itself is reason enough for Alan to go there.

If Alan went there on Lysandre's orders, Alan's whole League participation and victory would have been even more pointless.
 
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pokemon fan 132

Well-Known Member
Brock has arguably run his course as Ash's traveling companion. He was a traveling companion for four major regions, and by the end of his run, he was getting stale as a character. Even if his skills as a Pokémon Doctor would be useful to Ash, the writers could easily create a new, fresh character to take on that role, as demonstrated in M20 with Sorrel.

Maybe, but keep in mind how stale can become interesting again if quality work is done in reviving character in fictional story., Building new challenges, interests and arguably subtle changes to overall, characterization which sprang from newly constructed path he/she choose to follow.

So its not like with good enough work there does not exist way to make Brock once again desirable protagonist in anime for viewers.

Misty may not be as stale a character as Brock, but one could also argue she has run her course as a traveling companion. I think she would get more development traveling alone than she would if she were to travel with Ash again.

I don't know. For character like Misty who is often classified as victim of poor pacing in Johto, lack of direction going among writers and directors at that time of what to make from pokemon anime. Who is generally agreed did not received enough character development, especially in goal department. Having ,any things unanswered about her past(her missing parents, why its so important for her to become water poklemon master specializing in one type), fears(like bugs for example or dormant insecurity of failing herself in reaching her dreams), pokemon and ambitions(goal of becoming water pokemon master, implication of having interest to become E4 member based on what she said in games and anime regarding E4 specialists).

I think it would be understatement to classify her in category of someone who "run its course".

Sure some may got bored from her back in day, but not so ideal performance of her character on Johto does not translate to her overall appeal likability and potential honestly. Both for previous sagas and how she went afterwards in specials and chronicles. But Master Quest as well revealing how much juice there was still ,left in her before she got abruptly replaced(just about time her story started to gain strong ground).

Her recent appearance for example , vibrant chemistry she developed with characters like Lana(this friendship has ton of potential to make genuinely unique plot revolving around two water enthusiasts like them), reviving flare and enjoyable interactions with rest like Ash and Brock. Her fairly intriguing progress she ,made of screen(having mega pokemon;only seldom number of trainers achieved that) being full of spark.

Made it clear for me she has what it takes to offer more to overall pokemon adventure and storyline through maybe not long, but short sequel of her not told to full capacity story.
And since we will never get to see series focused on her solo adventures, next best thing is being once again prominent in main anime.

New characters are at times needed to bring breath of fresh air in show, i agree.
But way i look at this sometimes revival of older companion can bring new life to main series and breeze of fresh air through build up on established story of fan favorite allowing us to see him taken in new, exciting directions, make more notable steps forward and enrich his characterization by exploring on various traits which we may not had chance to see explore yet, backstory and see in what way new issues, emotional growth and struggles mold them .

Something that new characters can't provide being blank with no hindsight existing there if you get what i mean.

Besides whole idea of reuniting original trio would serve another much more significant purpose in my opinion.

BUT only if it were to happen in very last season of pokemon series.

In sense of things coming nicely full circle having pokemon adventure end just like how it began putting emphasis on this anime roots and how everything began. Featuring on in breakable, m full of lively, upswing atmosphere dynamic going between three close friends as they go on deeper growth, reminisce of their older adventures and reach new level of understanding and love in relationship.

Providing excellent opportunity to tie up loose ends and send strong message out there with whole symbolism of their reunion.

Fell free to disagree, but in my eyes characters can be enjoyable and interesting again(Misty proves it, so can Brock) and i do believe they have some potential flor short mini adventure together again.
 

Genaller

Silver Soul
Opinion: the Sun and Moon anime has terrible pacing and the writers seem unable to find the right balance between 'too slow' and 'too fast'. They either take too long with fillers or just breeze through important episodes in a short period of time.
Sun and Moon certainly has “erratic” pacing but that needn’t mean it’s terrible. It could be argued that the writers are deliberately heavily fluctuating the pace of the anime in order to even further break away from the old formulaic routine and make the flow of the story far less predictable (without spoilers it would be very difficult for a fan to predict what type of episode is coming next since the erratic pacing throws any perceived episode trends out the window).

Opinion: The Kalos League prior to Sawyer vs Tierno was rushed.
 

Navin

MALDREAD
Opinion: The Kalos League prior to Sawyer vs Tierno was rushed.

The target audience, viz preteens and young teens, probably don't have the attention span and/or patience to wait for 2 months+ for a league to finish. Ergo, 7 episodes is the limit. With Ash v Alain, Sawyer each deserving two episodes, and with a one-episode 'break' episode to further other plot developments (Lysandre/Team Flare, Alain's character arc), that left two episodes for the pre-semifinals.

Sawyer v Tierno could have been shortened, but it did show that the league doesn't just revolve around Ash, and it was an interesting clash of styles that also hyped Mega Sceptile up for the Mega Sceptile v Ash-Greninja duel couple episodes later. So only 1.25 episodes left.

Even with that little timeframe, Malva does list off some of the competitors and how they all advanced. Furthermore, we're given a brief sequence of Hawlucha defeating Mega Absol to indicate how Ash off-screen won his way to the semifinals, while also subtly suggesting that his real threats in this conference were Sawyer and Alain, whom he'd face in the semis and finals.

Going backwards finally to the first episode, there was a lot of ground to be covered. Ash is shown giving an interview to TV, demonstrating the gravitas of the event. There was an evening function the day before for all the characters (Ash, Alain, Sawyer, Tierno, Trevor, etc) to mingle, which added to the grandeur. Though Alain v Trevor could have been shortened, it finally unveiled the hyped Mega Charizard Y to the anime, and showed off some of its moves and abilities. This league was as much about Alain as it was Ash, so it was important to show his battles as well. How easily Ash defeated his first round opponent is just proof of how good he has become as a trainer, while also reiterating that this was a league where 'Megas' were necessary, while at the same showing that the true contenders from the get-go were Ash and Alain.

The mohawk punk was meant to highlight that many trainers don't make it to the league, and may not necessarily reach their goals. However, it showed how far Ash had come, and how reiterated how hard he worked, to reach this stage (going back to the XY series theme of "Never giving up until the end"). Even though Ash would eventually lose to Alain, how he handled himself in this series, and how Alain eventually viewed him, does confirm that he was the true winner at the end and did fulfill the promise he made to the mohawk dude. XY in general was a tribute to Ash.
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Opinion: Serena shouldn't have left on her own journey at the end of XY. Instead of that kiss, she should have just continued traveling with Ash since her goal at that point was mainly to gain experience and see more of the world, and less so for Contests. The classroom setting of SM would have been perfect for her. To fit with Gen 8, they could have given her the Gen 8 Female Player Character (aka Glovehead) design.
 
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