Oh my god, yes. It's exactly like Digimon Adventure 02. Silver and Ken were also almost completely the same character. :|
What makes it worse is that, at least, Ken was a bit interesting (until he became a good guy, then he was just annoying). Silver didn't really even that. I think Silver was a mixture of good!Ken and Iori/Cody; they're there, but at the same time we barely enough their character or/and are boring to really care. I think Gold was really the only thing that made Silver a little bit interesting. (Sorta like Daisuke/Davis, only a lot better.)
I don't think it makes him more interesting--on the contrary, I think it makes him less interesting. In the games, N was somewhat of a unique character (as far as Pokemon goes anyway). He was a strange little fellow who talked super fast, claimed he could understand Pokemon's words, disliked battling, and even wanted to be friends with the protagonist. In the manga, I feel like they got rid of most of that uniqueness and just turned him into another card-carrying villain. I just...don't like it. Like I said, the manga's free to change characterizations or whatever as they see fit, but N is just someone I think they should've left alone.
Perhaps. I have to wait until I see how he's written. I tend to like sociopathic characters, that's why I thought it to be interesting. Considering the way he's eyes are drawn, Kusaka maybe wanted to give him a more creepy feel before he learned the error of his ways (or something like that).
Oh, I can't either. Yellow should've just stayed a boy if you ask me. Every time I see that ponytail, for some reason she just becomes even less interesting to me.
I don't mind Yellow being a girl, I just didn't like how big of a role she had gotten because of her powers. If Kusaka really wanted a character with ~powers~, Yellow would of been better as a supporting character like a Guardian or something. Her powers and personality makes her come across off as a Mary Sue to me. Add that the whole Yellow arc made her out to be a severe underdog who can't do anything (lies, I say) and it's painful to read in the Yellow arc. And as you said, she does to have contrived moments (increasing pokemon levels, lol) which makes her character worse each time I see her.
Yellow must be Kusaka's waifu or something. No other non-villain character is as special as her.
Yeah he was, but apparently the original plan was to make him the dexholder, but at some point it was decided he wouldn't "fit" as the dexholder or whatever so Emerald was created. Even though Wally fit perfectly as the third Hoenn dexholder and Emerald stands out like an unwanted stepchild. I don't understand their logic, especially after already giving Wally so much foreshadowing and development during the Sky Pillar mini arc, but eh. And yeah Emerald's problems weren't interesting to me, either. Actually, they made him seem like even more of a brat.
Bulbapedia says something different, but yours is also a possibility. If what Bulbapedia says is right, then I wouldn't be surprised if Kusaka brought him back simply to deal with the third Dexholder situation and then do something with Mitsuru. Same here, especially when he knocked away pokemon just because of some bullies rather than using them. His whole backstory and the reason for his special ability felt forced.
So she's not a good battler? Even if she wasn't capturing Pokemon, I don't believe she's bad at Trainer battles. At least, nothing indicates that.
The problem with Crystal is that she has battling skills simply because she needs some to capture pokemon. If she were to go against a good trainer and not a newbie, she'll most likely lose. She doesn't have enough person-vs-person battling experience to be a good at trainer battles because she wasn't written that way. Her skills are more used for figuring out how to overcome pokemon instincts and to use her knowledge on different pokemon. These skills don't/won't always work against strong/creative trainers like the other Dexholders.
And as TomNamikaze said, her pokemon weren't made for battling. The Emerald arc shows this when Emerald uses them and they get own'd pretty quickly. Emerald was the only reason her pokemon managed to win and if it was Crystal instead, she would of lost quickly.
I like Crystal and all, but she just isn't a good battler.
And on that note, I dislike how Kusaka wrote Crystal. She developed way too quickly and made to be a pro way too soon. There's basically nothing he can do with her now (except become a spy for the Professor) other than help fight with the other two boys. Another reason why I hate the GSC arc.
I guess I can list some others of mine now:
- I dislike FRLG/E(/HGSS too, no doubt) as well. I used to like FRLG/E solely because of Saque, but after reading DP, I don't all that much anymore. I dislike all 3 of them for the similar reasons, their pointless plots. The plots tend to take up so much time and have to be contained in such a short space that we barely learn anything about the characters. And if we do, it feels out of nowhere or forced. The plot feels like a reason to have action than rather tell a story. I don't mind action, but the whole arc doesn't need it and for weak reasons.
- I think Jupiter is the best villain character. She is 10x more interesting than most of the other characters. It's too bad we'll probably never learn anything about her.
- E arc's reunion sucked and I much rather it not being there if nothing important was going to be done with it.
- I miss how Pika was portrayed in the RGB. In FRLG, he seemed too happy and more like every other pokemon. It would of been better if he shocked Masaki/Bill because the guy picked him up rather than to tell the human who he was. His look to Red when Red was bemoaning his existence will forever creep me out.
- I dislike most of the Dexholders simply because the way they are written and/or how they never get a chance to develop into actual interesting characters.
- The way some of the legendaries are portrayed; they seemed less like legends and more like regular and common pokemon. It kinda kills their "status" if it's so easy to get and control them.