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What did Gou do? (Read the last post. Let's all be a bit more civil regarding Go)

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Mythical-Moonlight

I just ran, I ran all Night and Day ~
Of all the traveling Companions that Ash has had over the years, Gou is the one who I've seen get by far the most vitriol thrown at him. Even moreso than Misty or Iris or anyone.

At least with the former two, I can sorta understand why some people may have be turned away by them but Gou's been nothing but kind to everyone, his Pokémon included. He's also going through a lot of character development.

So why is he the only character who gets labeled as a "Psychopath" (on here and on Bulbagarden for that matter)

What exactly did Gou do to earn this much ire?

Is it because he doesn't battle much?
 

Sonnas

Well-Known Member
Of all the traveling Companions that Ash has had over the years, Gou is the one who I've seen get by far the most vitriol thrown at him. Even moreso than Misty or Iris or anyone.

At least with the former two, I can sorta understand why some people may have be turned away by them but Gou's been nothing but kind to everyone, his Pokémon included. He's also going through a lot of character development.

So why is he the only character who gets labeled as a "Psychopath" (on here and on Bulbagarden for that matter)

What exactly did Gou do to earn this much ire?

Is it because he doesn't battle much?
I think it's because of whathappened with Scorbunny in how he dismissed wanting him to be his 1st caught pokemon because he wanted Mew to be his starter pokemon.
 

Remix2

Well-Known Member
Personally I think some of the hate form gou have to do with his goal which tbh is quite boring and the way the handling it doesn’t help.

I think it will be better if his goal is the same as mobs is in which he try to be a better person.
 

Almighty Zard

He has returned.
I think it has to do with him getting (or as some would say (stealing) a certain pokemon that happens to be your avatar Mythical

then again I've only seen one person call him that.

the only way he would make me mad is if he started capturing strong pokemon to use in battle with little effort going into them.

otherwise he can get whatever he wants, although i'm personally doubtful of him fulfilling his goal on Mew, because of how I perceive Mew personally.
 

Yappy

Only appears occasionally
People portray the way Gou's goal to catch every single Pokémon has been handled as worse than it actually is because they dislike it so much, when the only problem is that it's lacking, they make it come of as a negative thing, when it never is in the show and nothing what is said is true. One of the most common being "Gou doesn't care for the Pokémon he catches" when it's shown several times that he does and his Pokémon are all shown to be happy, plus if there was a problem with how Gou's been catching Pokémon, Ash would have spoken up a long time ago.

And in the case of the whole Scorbunny wanting to learn Ember situation, this is because Gou has poor social skills and so he struggles to understand feelings well, it has nothing do with him not caring, but just misunderstanding exactly why Scorbunny was so determined to learn Ember. We can see Gou is now improving this part of him as he immediately realized the mistake he made with Sobble, having it battle without asking it first.
 
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RetroPokeFan

Well-Known Member
Personally I don't see Gou to be a psychopath at all (if anything, nothing he does feels psychopathy in the slightest so I have no clue as to why people continually throw that term around becuase news flash people, Gou isn't one!)... but personally I just don't care for him at all. In fact I think he's just extremely boring with his whole goal schtick and the only thing that's keeping me afloat with him are the vocal performances from his Japanese and English VA's.
 
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mehmeh1

Not thinking twice!
Goh is only called a psychopath by one person. Why do some think more than one person is saying this lol
Because some on Bulbagarden also say it, IIRC (haven't been there in months)
 

U.N. Owen

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night ...
It's called an extended form of narcissism. It's not enough to dislike a character anymore. In order to satisfy people's burning passion for Ash, interpret that as any way you want, you must prove it is evil by daring to even offend your sensibilities. People also cling to precedent with how pokemon are traditionally handled and caught aka not like Pokemon Go. The change to the norm has left a gap which some people try to explain away by saying he's a psychopath or that Cerice's park is too small for so many pokemon (when has scale and spacing ever been an issue) or that Go has denied them bodily autonomy.

People act like he mistreated the disabled or something.
 
D

Deleted member 384931

Guest
It's called an extended form of narcissism. It's not enough to dislike a character anymore. In order to satisfy people's burning passion for Ash, interpret that as any way you want, you must prove it is evil by daring to even offend your sensibilities. People also cling to precedent with how pokemon are traditionally handled and caught aka not like Pokemon Go. The change to the norm has left a gap which some people try to explain away by saying he's a psychopath or that Cerice's park is too small for so many pokemon (when has scale and spacing ever been an issue) or that Go has denied them bodily autonomy.

People act like he mistreated the disabled or something.
As a disabled myself, I can tell you he didnt
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
From what I saw, Gou started receiving a lot of criticism because of the Hibanny situation and how he didn't seem to care about Hibanny's interest in getting stronger. Of course, he received some criticism even before that point, but he wasn't deemed a "psychopath" until around the time that Hibanny evolved. Some viewers have written essays trying to justify why Gou's a bad person, but a lot of the bullet points made about his problematic behavior apply to several other characters as well, including Satoshi.
 

TheWanderingMist

Paladin of the Snow Queen
Goh is only called a psychopath by one person. Why do some think more than one person is saying this lol
Bulbagarden had to make some sort of forum rule specifically against it because it was more than one person. Or perhaps one with multiple alts. Either way, it was a bigger problem over there.
 
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Flashyspark

Well-Known Member
Bulbagarden had to make some sort of forum rule specifically against it because it was more than one person. Or perhaps pne with multiple alts. Either way, it was a bigger problem over there.

This. They let it happen for months and only took measures to stop the psychopath comments in April. What's funny in a sad way is that they section banned people who defended Goh from the daily vitriol that he was getting but they let people who bashed him stay in the anime section even to this day. And then like 5 or 6 members of the anti-Goh faction tried to bypass the rules by making anti-Goh avatars. It's ridiculous over there.
 

Dephender

Gizakawayusu
Staff member
Moderator
From what I've seen, it's mostly because people feel the entire "catch every Pokemon" thing goes so against the way the anime has always portrayed Pokemon as individual creatures rather than battle tools to collect, with the way Go is acting being at such absurd odds with how the anime has been telling us for 20+ years is not how people should act. It's a very understandable reaction to have to the direction they seem to be going on with him, and there's nothing wrong with expressing that.

What there IS something wrong with is attacking people for having such opinions. Case in point,

People also cling to precedent with how pokemon are traditionally handled and caught aka not like Pokemon Go. The change to the norm has left a gap which some people try to explain away by saying he's a psychopath or that Cerice's park is too small for so many pokemon (when has scale and spacing ever been an issue) or that Go has denied them bodily autonomy.

It's perfectly okay to not like radical changes to the norms that have been around for 20+ years. No really, it is. Acting like people are insane for having negative reactions to such changes is ridiculous.

Also, it's completely irrelevant what dumb drama goes on on other forums. Go to those forums if you care about that. Keep it out of here. And if you actually think it's okay to attack people for having a certain opinion on a character because someone else with a similar opinion was rude to you somewhere else, then just drop that thought right now.
 
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Pokegirl Fan~

Liko>>>>>Ash
From what I've seen, it's mostly because people feel the entire "catch every Pokemon" thing goes so against the way the anime has always portrayed Pokemon as individual creatures rather than battle tools to collect, with the way Go is acting being at such absurd odds with how the anime has been telling us for 20+ years is not how people should act. It's a very understandable reaction to have to the direction they seem to be going on with him, and there's nothing wrong with expressing that.

What there IS something wrong with is attacking people for having such opinions. Case in point,



It's perfectly okay to not like radical changes to the norms that have been around for 20+ years. No really, it is. Acting like people are insane for having negative reactions to such changes is ridiculous.

Also, it's completely irrelevant what dumb drama goes on on other forums. Go to those forums if you care about that. Keep it out of here. And if you actually think it's okay to attack people for having a certain opinion on a character because someone else with a similar opinion was rude to you somewhere else, then just drop that thought right now.
I agree people are allowed to express their opinions on Goh and Im not really fond of him either, however im pretty sure calling Goh a psychopath falls under the no character bashing rule in serebii's anime forums here:
6. No character bashing. There's a difference between constructive criticism and bashing. You’re allowed to make negative posts about any anime character, but please do it in a place where it’s actually relevant to the topic, and without using insulting/flamebaiting language.
 

Dephender

Gizakawayusu
Staff member
Moderator
I agree people are allowed to express their opinions on Goh and Im not really fond of him either, however im pretty sure calling Goh a psychopath falls under the no character bashing rule in serebii's anime forums here:

Eh, it's borderline. When the character acts at such absurd odds with how the show has spent over 1000 episodes actively saying is completely wrong, it's not an entirely unjustified interpretation. Context matters, and posts that DO devolve into outright character bashing do get deleted.

There was a recent thread about how Satoshi came across as a douchebag for just throwing all his friends he's spent the last region bonding with at a farm and going out to get a bunch of new ones every time he returns home. It's clearly not how the show wants us to interpret these actions, but it's a valid observation about how it can come across. And that's also the case with how Go is acting, even though the show is NOW telling us there's nothing wrong with it.

The second movie had an antagonist who saw himself as a "collector" and treated Pokemon as things to collect and put on exhibit, and the movie made it clear we were supposed to think there was something seriously wrong with this guy. Thinking Go comes across this way as well isn't being crazy and illogical.

tldr try to consider where people are coming from when you debate them.
 
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Leonhart

Imagineer
What I find difficult to understand is why Gou became a target so early in this series. The only other character that I recall receiving negative feedback to this extent is Iris during BW, but even in her case things didn't get quite that bad until around the time that she defeated Satoshi at the Don Battle tournament, and that was about 40 episodes into the Isshu saga. Whereas Gou seemed to become a target within just a couple of months despite him not being nearly as abrasive as Iris used to be with her snarky remarks. Not that I had a problem with Iris either but at least when it came to her personality, I could somewhat empathize with why some viewers didn't take her "such a child" phrase lightly.

And I'm not saying that I'm perfect by any means when it comes to criticizing characters, but I would never stoop so low as to imply that a protagonist character suffers from a mental disorder just because they're doing things that go against the standards that the series tried to build for 20 years.
 

Josef Stylin

I want to dye
And I'm not saying that I'm perfect by any means when it comes to criticizing characters, but I would never stoop so low as to imply that a protagonist character suffers from a mental disorder just because they're doing things that go against the standards that the series tried to build for 20 years.

This sentence alone describes the issue perfectly.

It's an extremely bold exaggeration that even a blind monkey could tell that it's used with ill intent over some animated kid who really wants to catch a lot of Pokemon just because he's really careless and selfish about it? God forbid character flaws in the early stages of a season. If you wanna do a character observation or whatever, it'd be far easier to just compare him to the average hoarder but trying to use the same argument to justify people angrily screaming "disgusting psychopath" all over PAD is quite frankly dancing around notable toxicity just because you're personally okay with it.
 
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SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
Eh, it's borderline. When the character acts at such absurd odds with how the show has spent over 1000 episodes actively saying is completely wrong, it's not an entirely unjustified interpretation. Context matters, and posts that DO devolve into outright character bashing do get deleted.

There was a recent thread about how Satoshi came across as a douchebag for just throwing all his friends he's spent the last region bonding with at a farm and going out to get a bunch of new ones every time he returns home. It's clearly not how the show wants us to interpret these actions, but it's a valid observation about how it can come across. And that's also the case with how Go is acting, even though the show is NOW telling us there's nothing wrong with it.

The second movie had an antagonist who saw himself as a "collector" and treated Pokemon as things to collect and put on exhibit, and the movie made it clear we were supposed to think there was something seriously wrong with this guy. Thinking Go comes across this way as well isn't being crazy and illogical.

tldr try to consider where people are coming from when you debate them.

Lawrence was shown as an antagonist because of the cruel way he "collected" mons, willing to destroy structures and injure the mons, willing to disturb the peace of a region. Goh on the other hand is NOT like that whatsoever. He clearly cares for the mons he captures and takes good care of them as shown in ep23. He doesnt just catch pokemon at any instance. In ep 22 during the beautifly migration he refrained from selfishly capturing Beautifly who were migrating, instead appreciating the nature. Goh's Pokemon are pokemon as characters too, just because they arent focused on much due to the sheer number of them does not mean they are just tools to him, he grooms his pokemon on a daily basis as shown in ep23 for crying out loud. The filling the pokedex goal is not something the anime has had and I can understand not liking it or being annoyed at the way it is done but the anime most certainly hasnt established it as 'bad'. Its from the games and it has never had a negative limelight. So yea calling Goh a psychopath is crossing a line and completely untrue. Due to being a shut-in most of his life, not having friends aside from Chloe, his parents not always being able to be there for him, he has poor social skills and sometimes may not understand his pokemon feelings, but he certainly cares for them. Gods forbid the anime have a flawed character who slowly develops, something Goh IS doing.
 
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