Things you are mad at that the anime didn’t do/take advantage of

[DatsRight]

One thing I feel like they should kinda set straight by now is Meowth's move capacity. They seemed to make the point that Meowth cost himself some of his actual abilities as a Pokemon to gain human sapience, but outside Meowth Rules mentioning he can't learn Pay Day, they haven't really expressed further how deep a sacrifice that was.

I mean strength wise, he's pretty much the same as every other TR Pokemon, usually weak but can be powerful in the right circumstance, but they've never let him learn a new move, and since AG they seem to have retconned him from having any move besides Fury Swipes. SM looked like they were gonna have him part of the Z Move gimmick but then decided against it. Same for DP hinting at him learning Night Slash. Can he do it, or is he genuinely limited to Fury Swipes because of his sacrificed experience? If they don't want him to gain these power boosts, at least explain why he doesn't go for them.

I feel like they should either just have Meowth learn a new move to spice things up by now, or they should take deeper look into this, maybe have a Monsters University type introspective about how Meowth is knowledgeable in Pokemon abilities but is doomed to never really accumulate them himself.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

One thing I feel like they should kinda set straight by now is Meowth's move capacity. They seemed to make the point that Meowth cost himself some of his actual abilities as a Pokemon to gain human sapience, but outside Meowth Rules mentioning he can't learn Pay Day, they haven't really expressed further how deep a sacrifice that was.

I mean strength wise, he's pretty much the same as every other TR Pokemon, usually weak but can be powerful in the right circumstance, but they've never let him learn a new move, and since AG they seem to have retconned him from having any move besides Fury Swipes. SM looked like they were gonna have him part of the Z Move gimmick but then decided against it. Same for DP hinting at him learning Night Slash. Can he do it, or is he genuinely limited to Fury Swipes because of his sacrificed experience? If they don't want him to gain these power boosts, at least explain why he doesn't go for them.

I feel like they should either just have Meowth learn a new move to spice things up by now, or they should take deeper look into this, maybe have a Monsters University type introspective about how Meowth is knowledgeable in Pokemon abilities but is doomed to never really accumulate them himself.

Didn't he say he didn't want to learn Night Slash because it sounded too scary, not that he was limited by experience?

 

[Leonhart]

One thing I feel like they should kinda set straight by now is Meowth's move capacity. They seemed to make the point that Meowth cost himself some of his actual abilities as a Pokemon to gain human sapience, but outside Meowth Rules mentioning he can't learn Pay Day, they haven't really expressed further how deep a sacrifice that was.

Him not being able to learn Pay Day seems like a situation where the writers realized that it would solve the Rocket-dan's money problems, so they simply came up with an excuse never to allow Nyasu to master that move.

 

[Applecorp]

Does Meowth really need new attacks? Night Slash would've been cool sure but he doesn't battle that much so the attack would've gone to waste most likely. Same with Pay Day and any other attacks.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Does Meowth really need new attacks? Night Slash would've been cool sure but he doesn't battle that much so the attack would've gone to waste most likely. Same with Pay Day and any other attacks.

They're totally not going to have the clowns have something like "Crossroad Killing" in their arsenal.

 

[Leonhart]

Does Meowth really need new attacks? Night Slash would've been cool sure but he doesn't battle that much so the attack would've gone to waste most likely. Same with Pay Day and any other attacks.

I think it would be nice to see Nyasu with at least a couple of new moves for the sake of variety, but I do admit that at the moment there's no clear sign that the writers will utilize him as a battler.

 

[DatsRight]

Meowth did battle more frequently in SM. Sure these were all gag battles but surely it would make the gag fresher if he had SOME variety about it.

 

[Leonhart]

Meowth did battle more frequently in SM. Sure these were all gag battles but surely it would make the gag fresher if he had SOME variety about it.

Frankly, I wish that he and the Rocket-dan's other Pokemon in SM had battled more to save themselves instead of Kiteruguma intervening all the time to save the Rocket-dan. Watching Nyasu and the others actually put up a fight long enough to allow them to escape would've been preferable over a tired gag involving Kiteruguma kidnapping the trio.

 

[Ubermuk]

Meowth deserved to learn Night Slash and it's crazy that he didn't learn it in For The Love of Meowth! which was the perfect time for that.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Meowth deserved to learn Night Slash and it's crazy that he didn't learn it in For The Love of Meowth! which was the perfect time for that.

I'm gonna go with what @AuraChannelerChris said and say that there's no way comic relief villains are going to be shouting "Crossroad Killing" as a normal attacking move.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

I'm gonna go with what @AuraChannelerChris said and say that there's no way comic relief villains are going to be shouting "Crossroad Killing" as a normal attacking move.

"You'll see twerp, I'll take Pikachu! CROSSROAD KILLING!"

 

[Luthor]

Yeah, I have to agree with this since Gigalith is one of my all-time favorite Gen 5 pokemon, though it would've been interesting if they actually kept Gigalith & Conkeldurr after trading since it would help Ash & Trip better learn about each other through the way their pokemon acted (yet another example of how BW's biggest problem was that it was full of wasted potential)

Many people have criticized the writers' decision not to evolve Gantle, but I personally think that they made the right choice since it's unlikely that much would've changed with regards to its development even if it had evolved. That is to say, I doubt it would've appeared more often or been better in battles as a Gigaiath than as a Gantle.

For me I think it could have tied into a deeper rivalry with Trip. Also it would have had the benefit of Gigalith having more obvious facial features

"You'll see twerp, I'll take Pikachu! CROSSROAD KILLING!"

One thing I feel like they should kinda set straight by now is Meowth's move capacity. They seemed to make the point that Meowth cost himself some of his actual abilities as a Pokemon to gain human sapience, but outside Meowth Rules mentioning he can't learn Pay Day, they haven't really expressed further how deep a sacrifice that was.

I mean strength wise, he's pretty much the same as every other TR Pokemon, usually weak but can be powerful in the right circumstance, but they've never let him learn a new move, and since AG they seem to have retconned him from having any move besides Fury Swipes. SM looked like they were gonna have him part of the Z Move gimmick but then decided against it. Same for DP hinting at him learning Night Slash. Can he do it, or is he genuinely limited to Fury Swipes because of his sacrificed experience? If they don't want him to gain these power boosts, at least explain why he doesn't go for them.

I feel like they should either just have Meowth learn a new move to spice things up by now, or they should take deeper look into this, maybe have a Monsters University type introspective about how Meowth is knowledgeable in Pokemon abilities but is doomed to never really accumulate them himself.

I suspect Meowth might battle more soon if it is revealed to be Gigantamax Meowth. As for move personally I'd give it the move Thief. It fits the theme of TR and could be useful in episodes if they need to steal an item.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

For me I think it could have tied into a deeper rivalry with Trip. Also it would have had the benefit of Gigalith having more obvious facial features





I suspect Meowth might battle more soon if it is revealed to be Gigantamax Meowth. As for move personally I'd give it the move Thief. It fits the theme of TR and could be useful in episodes if they need to steal an item.

TRio can't have Gigantamax Meowth. That would basically give them access to money.

 

[Luthor]

TRio can't have Gigantamax Meowth. That would basically give them access to money.

You could have a running gag where people around them keep getting rich because they blast off before they notice it or James keeps spending it with the Magikarp saleman. Plus Gigantamax can only be used at certain points.

 

[Applecorp]

Meowth deserved to learn Night Slash and it's crazy that he didn't learn it in For The Love of Meowth! which was the perfect time for that.

Truth be told Night Slash is too much like other claw based attacks so Meowth should learn an attack that isn't just a stronger version of Scratch.

 

[Leonhart]

You could have a running gag where people around them keep getting rich because they blast off before they notice it or James keeps spending it with the Magikarp saleman. Plus Gigantamax can only be used at certain points.

I don't know how I'd feel about another forced gag when it comes to the Rocket-dan trio, although I do want to see Kyodaimax Nyasu soon.

 

[LilligantLewis]

I suppose that I wouldn't have minded if Mao had no Pokemon, although it would've made her character a lot less interesting if she only had a passion for cooking and nothing more.

She could have been a Chloe-like character who lives in the Pokémon world without caring much about Pokémon or interacting much with them. In fact, with such a large cast in SM, it would have been the perfect time to introduce such a character. I like Chloe, but introducing a character like her in a series with the smallest cast yet is kind of a waste.

Her arc could have been that unlike Lillie, she can easily touch Pokémon, but like Chloe, she literally doesn't care about them at all. If she had caught Bounsweet and raised it from scratch, rather than its evolving in her first focus episode, she could have actually had a much better arc than she had, despite not having any Pokémon and having a passion for cooking and nothing more, at the beginning.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

It's hard to really sell the idea that someone in Alola doesn't care about Pokemon when Alolan Pokemon (not the variants, the residents) are literally much more in tune with Alolans than every other region has shown.

Especially Mallow, who (at least in the games) lives on making food (of wild degrees of success) out of Pokemon stuff.

(Now, having the only damn teacher in the whole region let the majority of his Pokemon breath fresh air every now and then...apparently, that's uber hard to sell.)

 

[NeganTheSavior]

I really don't like how Trip and Ash's battle in the Unova league wasn't a full 6 on 6 battle. Not only that, but I didn't like how their battle took place in the first round.

Look, I get that Trip is really just bargain bin Paul, but I wanted their rivaly to have SOME stakes in the league. The rivals are my favorite part of the show (minus most of the Unova ones). Did the writers honestly think we'd be worried that Ash would get knocked out of the first round? It baffles me.

 

[DatsRight]

It's hard to really sell the idea that someone in Alola doesn't care about Pokemon when Alolan Pokemon (not the variants, the residents) are literally much more in tune with Alolans than every other region has shown.

Especially Mallow, who (at least in the games) lives on making food (of wild degrees of success) out of Pokemon stuff.

(Now, having the only damn teacher in the whole region let the majority of his Pokemon breath fresh air every now and then...apparently, that's uber hard to sell.)

Not to mention Mallow was designed to be a very upbeat character and to be very supportive of Lillie getting accustomed towards Pokemon in the anime itself.

It kinda felt like they just didn't know what to do with her. It looked like she'd have a Dawn type energy and competitiveness about her early on, but it didn't stick. Shame since with Kiawe as Ash's friendly battle rival, Mallow could have took the role of non-battler activity rival, which would have made her more key as a foil and also at least given her Pokemon more to do.