What are your hot takes on the anime?

[Akkipeddi]

People who boost up AG BF but hate BW DA are hypocrites and here’s why: AG and BW both suffered from their series completing Ash’s Gym quest way too early than they were supposed to before the new games came out.

The only difference is that AG had FRLG aka remakes to fall back on and the post game. And even then they barely showed off Kanto IN Kanto. BW didn’t have a good enough post game or remakes so they went with DA.

I’m not saying that you must like DA but realize AG as a series just lucky with that and not much to do with the writers “improvising” as much.

This is a woeful take. Best Wishes had BW2 to take from, PWC was literally an option. If not, something like white forest or black city. Didn't have a good enough post game? BW2 are literally fan favourites for their post game. And BF was an Emerald feature. They were so called able to improvise by combining FRLG Kanto remakes with the BF as a location.

 

[Sham]

Acting like Dawn had no personality and character growth is the biggest and dumbest revisionist history I've seen on this site honestly. The reason Dawn is loved so much is because BOTH her character and goal growth were stunning. People majorly love Dawn due to the depression arc and you're gonna go and claim she's liked only coz of her goal and had no growth? Give me a break
rative with the bad faith takes you'll see against it

Sorry didn’t respond to this but the argument is that basically because she’s rich that automatically removes any blame or responsibility of Lusamine. Nevermind remembering that Lusamine’s assistant caused her daughter massive trauma but she was never able to figure it out and she force her will upon Lillie because she thought it was “better” it’s just “well Lusamine is nice here and Lillie’s rich so spoiled!!!” and it’s just like huh? Abuse/questionable personality doesn’t always been directly being hostile to your child.

 

[DatsRight]

People who boost up AG BF but hate BW DA are hypocrites and here’s why: AG and BW both suffered from their series completing Ash’s Gym quest way too early than they were supposed to before the new games came out.

The only difference is that AG had FRLG aka remakes to fall back on and the post game. And even then they barely showed off Kanto IN Kanto. BW didn’t have a good enough post game or remakes so they went with DA.

I’m not saying that you must like DA but realize AG as a series just lucky with that and not much to do with the writers “improvising” as much.

I also feel like DA had its own benefits in places, like the more lax formula and TR actually still being slightly menacing (compared to most other end of series sagas where they've usually completely ran out of steam).

 

[Sham]

I also feel like DA had its own benefits in places, like the more lax formula and TR actually still being slightly menacing (compared to most other end of series sagas where they've usually completely ran out of steam).

It had its okay episodes like Emolga episode, Buterfree, Clair and the Iris and Ash fight episode.

Was TR more menacing? It seems like by the time the Plasma arc they were more or less DP incarnations

 

[DatsRight]

It had its okay episodes like Emolga episode, Buterfree, Clair and the Iris and Ash fight episode.

Was TR more menacing? It seems like by the time the Plasma arc they were more or less DP incarnations

Well they were back to being buffoons by that point, but what I mean is that they weren't just doing the exact same curbstomp battle every episode, they did still have some clever or challenging schemes where they actually gave the twerps some sort of fight, like their last showdown with the whole BW trio or said Emolga episode ("Underestimate Team Rocket?..."). Even their stupider schemes weren't as repetitive.

They were arguably like DP TR, but at least early mildly challenging DP rather than later completely worn down and outclassed DP. Johto, AG and XY all suffered the same problem, they just tend to stop trying with TR by the final year.

 

[Gingertail24]

I'm not a big fan of ash taking down TR/Giovanni. I feel people only want that because he is the MC, instead of any actual build up. Tbh, it seems ash doesn't really care about TR. Other than the TRio constantly going after Pikachu, he seems to not really care what TR as a whole does when they aren't after him. He is more connected to the TRio than TR as a whole.

He only met Giovanni, I think once or twice. Idk I just feel like it won't be satisfying. Besides I feel like a villain like Giovanni isn't gonna be used effectively when going against ash. I can see him spouting the usual "people and pokemon are friends, blah blah" stuff like he did with lysandre. Not actual personal conflict. Just a generic villain he would blank out

 

[Psajdak]

As someone who experienced Team Galactic for the first time in the Arceus special some month ago, I have to say I liked how competent, and for the most part professional, or maybe just not comic relief-like they seemed, even when they were losing.

It was like they were anti-TRio / BW! competent TRio.

...

Saturn being voiced by Nami (Akemi Okamura) WAS kind of both weird and interesting.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

I'm on the minority but I found Decolora Adventure pretty good as an arc. In some ways, it even feels like a Proto-SM

 

[DatsRight]

I'm not a big fan of ash taking down TR/Giovanni. I feel people only want that because he is the MC, instead of any actual build up. Tbh, it seems ash doesn't really care about TR. Other than the TRio constantly going after Pikachu, he seems to not really care what TR as a whole does when they aren't after him. He is more connected to the TRio than TR as a whole.

He only met Giovanni, I think once or twice. Idk I just feel like it won't be satisfying. Besides I feel like a villain like Giovanni isn't gonna be used effectively when going against ash. I can see him spouting the usual "people and pokemon are friends, blah blah" stuff like he did with lysandre. Not actual personal conflict. Just a generic villain he would blank out

I admit it's for this reason I feel they'd either have to do something rather clever with Giovanni to add some sort of personal conflict for Ash (maybe a play off past events similar to Rainbow Rocket, showing all the effect he has had on the past) or alternatively they would have to do the arc mostly for the TRio's POV.

Like I feel like an ideal final arc for TR would be them snagging Pikachu....and running for it. No gloating, no stopping to celebrate, they just tail it in their balloon all the way to HQ, evading all attempts to stop them.

They finally make it to Giovanni's office and, likely on the verge of having a heart attack from finally doing it, reveal they DID IT. THEY GOT PIKACHU. And da boss will say...."Oh a Pikachu, yay, I guess. Well put it with the others and get back to work."

The door slams behind them, and the TR are left baffled. THAT was it. Their big moment of vindication. The disallusioned TRio are then left with the choice of taking this as their big lot in life or helping Ash get their worthy arch rival back.

As someone who experienced Team Galactic for the first time in the Arceus special some month ago, I have to say I liked how competent, and for the most part professional, or maybe just not comic relief-like they seemed, even when they were losing.

It was like they were anti-TRio / BW! competent TRio.

...

Saturn being voiced by Nami (Akemi Okamura) WAS kind of both weird and interesting.

Actually I feel it might be an even bigger hot take to say I kinda prefer the games' more whimsical take on the other villain teams.

EVERY team in the anime besides Skull truthfully feels like that, an sinister anti-TRio with none of their silly or sympathetic qualities, despite often having just as grandoise a thematic as TR. Like I get the elite bosses should be menacing, but even the grunts tend to be generically stoic. I feel it limits their potential, they're just another mean plot device villain, an army of near cyborgs, which we all know don't really bounce off the heroes.

Even if they wanna do their own thing with the villain teams, it would be nice if they did more variation. Like Galactic being the big menacing villain arc sure since it was probably the best handled case of that, but maybe keeping Cyrus' more developed motive, and the other villain teams being all sorts of other dynamics besides 'shady sinister guys'.

 

[Gingertail24]

I admit it's for this reason I feel they'd either have to do something rather clever with Giovanni to add some sort of personal conflict for Ash (maybe a play off past events similar to Rainbow Rocket, showing all the effect he has had on the past) or alternatively they would have to do the arc mostly for the TRio's POV.

Like I feel like an ideal final arc for TR would be them snagging Pikachu....and running for it. No gloating, no stopping to celebrate, they just tail it in their balloon all the way to HQ, evading all attempts to stop them.

They finally make it to Giovanni's office and, likely on the verge of having a heart attack from finally doing it, reveal they DID IT. THEY GOT PIKACHU. And da boss will say...."Oh a Pikachu, yay, I guess. Well put it with the others and get back to work."

The door slams behind them, and the TR are left baffled. THAT was it. Their big moment of vindication. The disallusioned TRio are then left with the choice of taking this as their big lot in life or helping Ash get their worthy arch rival back.

I genuinely prefer that than ash taking down Giovanni. You know when I think about it, Giovanni is more so a villain that's plays more of a threat than an actual complex villain

Even in Pokemon origins, I really liked him, not because he had an interesting motivation (ge didn't). Just because he was a genuine strong threat to red, that's it. Other than that, not much substance to him

Tbh, they should play off and develop TR delusion they have with Giovanni. It was always baffling how when they think of capturing a pokemon for Giovanni, they have those daydreams where Giovanni would use the pokemon in a silly way. Instead of , you know, mistreating and abusing it because he leads an evil organization that kidnaps pokemon.

Like I want to see there reaction when they do capture Pikachu. But instead Giovanni starts to abuse and mistreat it. The anime has shown that even when they go after Pikachu, they still in some way care about the guy. So to see Giovanni for the actual monster he is would be good development.

 

[Sham]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1525618963551555584

Here is a hot take: Pretty sure nobody liked Alder or Trip in the anime. Not even the writers. Although I don’t think he’s a “Paul wannabe” and it was so weird how people kept that narrative.

This like a “BW list of hot takes” tbh

BW had better rivals than a couple of series. What they lacked in strength they made up with interactions. It was cool having Georgia and Burgendy talking crap about their rivals or having Bianca act crazy around all of them during tournaments. The group interactions was on point and it was cool how all the rivals knew each other

He actually had great potential but the writers just kinda gave up on him and made Stephen his main rival.

Also stop saying saying that “Pikachu lost to a new Snivy!!!!!”. Zekrom WEAKENED Pikachu and that’s why he lost.

While also saying this: I don’t miss Alder. He didn’t give any implication that he was strong or that he was a competent Champion. Think about it, besides easily beating Trip (a kid who’s lost in every single tournament and got defeated at the very beginning of the league) what else has he done?

*Gonna give a DP HT*

And lastly, I don’t like that Infernape pretty much was done during that Paul battle but was given the opportunity to get back up. Perhaps nostalgia got in the way of that but yea it gave mixed messaging

 

[mehmeh1]

They finally make it to Giovanni's office and, likely on the verge of having a heart attack from finally doing it, reveal they DID IT. THEY GOT PIKACHU. And da boss will say...."Oh a Pikachu, yay, I guess. Well put it with the others and get back to work."

The door slams behind them, and the TR are left baffled. THAT was it. Their big moment of vindication. The disallusioned TRio are then left with the choice of taking this as their big lot in life or helping Ash get their worthy arch rival back.

While it'd be interesting if it happened earlier on, it doesn't really work post-BW now that Giovanni has seen first hand what Pikachu is capable of and seems to legitimately trust the TRio, and even less nowadsys that Pikachu is one of the world's strongest trainers' ace.

 

[DatsRight]

While it'd be interesting if it happened earlier on, it doesn't really work post-BW now that Giovanni has seen first hand what Pikachu is capable of and seems to legitimately trust the TRio, and even less nowadsys that Pikachu is one of the world's strongest trainers' ace.

Yeah, I admit while I liked TR being competent for once, BW was probably a step in the wrong direction.

It was kinda like what XY was for Ash, it was feeding their earlier delusions of being the biggest most respected badasses of them all. It was meant to be a waterfall for them to chase originally, the one job they ironically had the least potential in.

Ash at least had a proper culmination of his original arc where they took things back a few steps and gave him a win more believable and poetic to his actual characterisation and journey, but TR haven't really gotten some equivelent breakthrough yet. I get they can't really just leave Giovanni and retire since, like Ash, they need to still keep going, but surely they can be developed on.

 

[Gingertail24]

Yeah, I admit while I liked TR being competent for once, BW was probably a step in the wrong direction.

It was kinda like what XY was for Ash, it was feeding their earlier delusions of being the biggest most respected badasses of them all. It was meant to be a waterfall for them to chase originally, the one job they ironically had the least potential in.

Ash at least had a proper culmination of his original arc where they took things back a few steps and gave him a win more believable and poetic to his actual characterisation and journey, but TR haven't really gotten some equivelent breakthrough yet. I get they can't really just leave Giovanni and retire since, like Ash, they need to still keep going, but surely they can be developed on.

The fake out leaving episode from JN makes me think the staff either has no plans for them or they just don't care about them anymore

 

[DatsRight]

The fake out leaving episode from JN makes me think the staff either has no plans for them or they just don't care about them anymore

It's interesting how we've had two episodes in a row where TR have been distracted from their obsession with pleasing Giovanni and shown promise somewhere else. I get it's partially because they don't really appear in many other episodes but what the hey.

 

[Sham]

It's interesting how we've had two episodes in a row where TR have been distracted from their obsession with pleasing Giovanni and shown promise somewhere else. I get it's partially because they don't really appear in many other episodes but what the hey.

Most likely though if they stopped wanting to please Giovanni then that would be their departure. In DP they expressed a lot of interest in getting rich and have quick “get rich” schemes most likely to quit TR

 

[DatsRight]

Most likely though if they stopped wanting to please Giovanni then that would be their departure. In DP they expressed a lot of interest in getting rich and have quick “get rich” schemes most likely to quit TR

I feel like that might be the reason they FINALLY got some luck the following series and managed to climb the ladder at long last, because they were finally starting to be tempted heavily to just ditch the organization at long last since they had zero luck with it for ages.

I think this is something that kinda works if they wanna maintain the TRio in their job, having these small little teases of success that draw them back in whenever they risk falling into a rut again. SM similarly gave them Mimikyu and had them defeat Pikachu at long last, giving them the buzz of actually managing to pull things off.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Most likely though if they stopped wanting to please Giovanni then that would be their departure. In DP they expressed a lot of interest in getting rich and have quick “get rich” schemes most likely to quit TR

I just realised James would be heavily into Crypto if it existed in the poke-verse lmao (and regularly getting scammed as well)

 

[Sham]

I just realised James would be heavily into Crypto if it existed in the poke-verse lmao (and regularly getting scammed as well)

Oh my goodness. Hopefully they would of actually been able to make a profit.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Oh my goodness. Hopefully they would of actually been able to make a profit.

I could see a gag of them making it big one time and getting extremely excited, only to get into the crypto rattrap and lose all their money