Unpopular Opinions

[Darthlord7]

It's canon on Serena's side at least, which is nothing to scoff at.

There is no such thing as partially canon shipping,a ship requires both characters to have romantic feelings for each other to be considered canon.No one denies the obvious that Serena likes Ash.

 

[JCW18]

Trip isn't THAT bad of a rival. He just sucks in comparison to Paul and Gary. He's definitely better than any of Ash's XY rivals though. I rewatched Best Wishes last week and found him actually enjoyable compared to the noob and Gary Stu.
And Cilan is totes the best Male Companion without Brock being in the picture. Clemont, I rank lower than Tracey and Max... the character was annoying and never did anything worthwhile aside from his gym battle.
And Dawn shouldn't have come back in BW. She's my favorite female character, but that was just unnecessary other than for them to sell more Piplup merchandise

Bonnie is the worst character to date. Please no more brats tagging along the cast.

While Bonnie was annoying, I felt that Max was FAR worse and more cringeworthy

But yeah, no more kiddie companions please

 

[DatsRight]

While Bonnie was annoying, I felt that Max was FAR worse and more cringeworthy

But yeah, no more kiddie companions please

I thought Max was at least passable in that he at least got more things at his expense when he got too annoying, not to mention May argued back at him. Bonnie always got enabled due to her doormat brother and the squeaky clean chemistry of the other companions, no matter how much of an obnoxious, trouble causing know-it-all she was. Even Team Rocket seemed unwilling to shut her up most of the time (well, you know, outside that one time they tried to kill her XD).

 

[Nerdy McNerdface]

Amourshipping did have some nice moments but honestly the whole thing is overhyped and the fanbase makes it feel like it's the ONLY reason for Serena's existence and I'm not just referring to the Amourshippers either.

Yes. I can't stop feeling uncomfortable about the ship considering it's two ten-year-olds (yes they may be considered adults in this universe but I don't live in their universe and from how I've been brought up it's weird for two ten-year-olds to be emotionally invested). Also, like you, I feel that AmourShipping stunted Serena's character growth by a decent amount. And I don't like how much the fandom adores it. I'm fine with them liking it, but when people begin to make theories based on the tiniest things that Serena and Ash will get together (I once saw someone claiming that because a picture that someone on Deviant Art drew that looked similar to the XYZ style of Serena in Alola was deleted by The Pokemon Company, it meant that they were trying to hide that Serena was in Alola) it really gets me annoyed. I don't really care if it's essentially canon that Serena loves Ash and kissed him - it still doesn't mean that I have to ship the two and that it instantly means that Serena's lack of development was nonexistent.

 

[phanpycross]

Trip isn't THAT bad of a rival. He just sucks in comparison to Paul and Gary. He's definitely better than any of Ash's XY rivals though. I rewatched Best Wishes last week and found him actually enjoyable compared to the noob and Gary Stu.

I can agree with this, he needed more screentime, but stuff like the backstory with Alder and helping Ash with Oshawott was really good stuff.
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Pikachu vs. Snivy is the overblown thing in the anime. You might not like it, but at least it was explained, unlike other Pikachu resets. Why this is more reviled than Elekid or Surskit is insanity.

 

[DatsRight]

I honestly don't get this complaining that side characters should receive more attention than the main character. It makes no sense. If Ash's companions got most of the plot gravitating towards them then they would be the main protagonist -_-

It's not the whole getting the macguffins handed to them, since that's expected in any series (and I would be hypocritical since I like SM which is already doing the same thing with the Z ring/crystals). Ash can at least justify the possession of them most of the time since he is a genuinely competent trainer and is more than likely to use his powers to assist/save people than raise himself to the top. I will admit always giving the protagonists big unique boosts no one else can or make a substitute of is rather unfair though, but as mentioned many times AshGreninja was pretty much just an alternative for a Mega Evolution anyway, so most of his main opponents could match him.

I do tend to get annoyed when the entire plot CONSTANTLY gravitates towards the protagonists winning everything just because, and not just good guy/bad guy situations which have some justification either, even just standard matches and competitions things will often contrive in some ridiculous manner so they come out the winner. If you keep handing the protagonists victories that means they aren't earning them, and so they aren't proving WHY they should win. And the whole 'Oh but they try, they're good people and deserve it' doesn't cut it either. Not every opponent is a bad guy, some are as virtuous and put as much effort into things, and if anything deserve to win more because they don't get some ridiculous plot boost in their favour either.

Party Dancepades was so obvious in this it almost felt self deprecating. James was so jaded you felt sorry for him, he knew the moment Serena got Eevee to evolve just by luck of plot he was screwed, despite fighting better than her and there being no real stakes to require her to win. Hell, James didn't even want to fight and see Inkay get pummelled, and yet the narrative rooted for the twerps creaming him and Slurpuff and treated them getting the upper hand like Eevee and Pikachu were going to DIE. He couldn't avoid the humiliation since the plot always took their side, even when he was being more competent than them. THIS is bad plot bias for the protagonist.

 

[snorlax512]

The worst thing about amourshipping is that there was no banter between the two because Serena was always so shy around Ash. I also like small bickering between companions but none of this happened because of Serena's crush.

 

[Soniman]

Pikachu vs. Snivy is the overblown thing in the anime. You might not like it, but at least it was explained, unlike other Pikachu resets. Why this is more reviled than Elekid or Surskit is insanity.

Elekid has past experience with a seasoned trainer and him and Pikachu TIED, actually not hard to see why its preferred

 

[phanpycross]

Elekid has past experience with a seasoned trainer and him and Pikachu TIED, actually not hard to see why its preferred

I still think it needed an explanation after the Regice win.

and we didnt know Paul was expieriened at the time, that was only by DP40.

 

[ItsCeres]

I'm personally finding SM much more enjoyable than XY so far. It feels much more full of life and different compared to the past series, which was all the same thing.

 

[snorlax512]

I still think it needed an explanation after the Regice win.

and we didnt know Paul was expieriened at the time, that was only by DP40.

Every region on from Sinnoh Pikachu got nerfed, except in BW he got reset along with Ash.

 

[JCW18]

I thought Max was at least passable in that he at least got more things at his expense when he got too annoying, not to mention May argued back at him. Bonnie always got enabled due to her doormat brother and the squeaky clean chemistry of the other companions, no matter how much of an obnoxious, trouble causing know-it-all she was. Even Team Rocket seemed unwilling to shut her up most of the time (well, you know, outside that one time they tried to kill her XD).

The thing with Max was, what was his real purpose for existing besides just being there as May's obnoxious know-it-all brother? At least Bonnie had an overall purpose of trying to hook Serena up with Ash (for da Amourshippers) and the far more important role of bonding with Zygarde and basically ordering it to murder Lysandre.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I still think it needed an explanation after the Regice win.

and we didnt know Paul was expieriened at the time, that was only by DP40.

That Regice win was for plot purposes but it clearly would have won against Paul's Elekid had it not been nerfed.

 

[Frozocrone]

Here's another one of mine: I'm not hyped for the 20th movie.

 

[Power Up]

Another thing I'd like to add:

Amourshipping is one of my LEAST favorite ships and I'm not even that big of a shipper. I find Ash and Serena's relationship so one-sided and so poorly developed, that I have a hard time genuinely caring about the idea of these two persons ever getting together. The writers messed up on developing Ash and Serena's actual friendship which made the whole romantic aspect all the more forced and unnatural. Frankly speaking, the two have zero chemistry and have only shared two or three of meaningful, genuinely touching scenes in the entire series.

Their whole relationship consisted of Serena standing by the side blushing, admiring Ash, being jealous of potential love rivals and having an occasional talk with him (and as I said, only two or three of those talks were Ash/Serena moments I genuinely cared about). Everything else was just superficial. Futhermore, it kinda didn't help that Ash was still oblivious af and completely uninterested in romance. How am I supposed to care about a ship where one party is hopelessly love and the other doesn't know or care about love?

Amourshipping did have some nice moments but honestly the whole thing is overhyped and the fanbase makes it feel like it's the ONLY reason for Serena's existence and I'm not just referring to the Amourshippers either.

It's canon on Serena's side at least, which is nothing to scoff at.

There is no such thing as partially canon shipping,a ship requires both characters to have romantic feelings for each other to be considered canon.No one denies the obvious that Serena likes Ash.

The worst thing about amourshipping is that there was no banter between the two because Serena was always so shy around Ash. I also like small bickering between companions but none of this happened because of Serena's crush.

Still happy that this is an unpopular opinion.

Amourshipping is my OTP and Serena is my favorite female character, and not only because of Amourshipping. I genuinely like Serena and would continue liking her even if she didn't like Ash. This opinion is probably shared by many Amourshippers and I have no idea why people think that Amourshippers only like Serena because she likes Ash. I can't speak for everyone, but I flat out deny that statement.

 

[DatsRight]

The thing with Max was, what was his real purpose for existing besides just being there as May's obnoxious know-it-all brother? At least Bonnie had an overall purpose of trying to hook Serena up with Ash (for da Amourshippers) and the far more important role of bonding with Zygarde and basically ordering it to murder Lysandre.

Bonnie was definitely better handled role wise (and at least got some early experience owning Pokemon compared to Max), it was sometimes easy to forget Max was actually there in comparison.

I'm just saying in terms of characterisation Max was the more tolerable.

 

[Soniman]

This is sort of meta but I wouldn't consider disliking Ash Greninja to be all that unpopular. Most people outside the anime fandom loathe it because they don't like when the anime encroaches on the games and inside the fandom its incredibly divisive (attached to a character that's divisive, to a version of the character who's reception is also mixed) at best and mostly seen as a failed experiment. I think the like/dislike ratio is 1/3 on this one, it's just a case of vocal minority

 

[Power Up]

I HATE Misty with a burning passion. When I was young and I watched the Pokemon Indigo League while it aired I always thought it was funny when she hit Ash and made fun of him to no end, but after I grew up I realized how unfunny it was and how abusive Misty really was. She gave no regard for Ash's feelings and actually hit him as well.

That is why to this day I hate Misty and Iris the most because of the way they treated Ash.

Serena>Dawn>May>Iris>Misty

 

[snorlax512]

To be honest, Ash-Greninja's development wasn't that great and it was kinda forced. On the other hand, it was so fricking cool and every transformation was so epic that I really didn't give a damn at all.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I HATE Misty with a burning passion. When I was young and I watched the Pokemon Indigo League while it aired I always thought it was funny when she hit Ash and made fun of him to no end, but after I grew up I realized how unfunny it was and how abusive Misty really was. She gave no regard for Ash's feelings and actually hit him as well.

That is why to this day I hate Misty and Iris the most because of the way they treated Ash.

Serena>Dawn>May>Iris>Misty

To be honest though Ash did deserve it most of the time because he was the one that usually started something by insulting Misty or acting like a big baby lol. I really don't think Iris or Misty were that bad honestly if we're talking about teasing or stuff like that especially since Gary, Paul, and Trip were alot worse and more insulting towards him lol