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Which of Goh's Starters got done the dirtiest writing wise?

Which of the Galar Starters did the Writer's do the dirtiest?

  • Cinderace

    Votes: 2 2.2%
  • Inteleon

    Votes: 21 23.6%
  • Grookey

    Votes: 20 22.5%
  • All of Them tbh....

    Votes: 46 51.7%

  • Total voters
    89

OshyHikari

c l a r i t y
They all suck writing-wise.

Scorbunny's evolution to Raboot was rushed, and while it had that emo phase and a good amount of screentime, once it fully evolved to Cinderace it was simply demoted to the background because it wasn't "cute and marketable" anymore. Very bad for what is supposed to be Goh's equivalent to Pikachu.

Sobble's capture was poorly handled, and when it evolved into Drizzile the writers simply made us forget about it by demoting it to a cave in Cerise's lab. Then when it finally showed, it evolved into Inteleon like, immediately. Most rushed evolution in the series' history to me.

Grookey took too long to debut, its capture episode is one of the worst JN episodes ever, and it hasn't used any moves at all. All it does is just playing troublemaker while trying to look cute. Even if it evolves, expect that to be handled just as badly as the other two.

All in all, giving all three starters to one character has proven to be not a good business practice for the anime as one always overshadows the other two, but what makes it worse in this case is that Goh is nothing but a Pokemon GO marketing tool who doesn't battle most of the time. Journeys as a whole is basically the most corporate-influenced series of the anime to date. It's basically ruined by two words... executive meddling.
 

karanova-1

Mewtwo3214
The issue with goh starters is that have not gotten enough development if all the three starters had different trainer then I think this scenario would be different
 

Psajdak

Well-Known Member
They should really introduce mechanic to be able to devolve your Pokemon back to their Shouldermon stage.

It just seems way more convenient.
 
D

Deleted member 384931

Guest
Cinderance was wasted as usual in Todays episode
 

Mythical-Moonlight

I just ran, I ran all Night and Day ~
Somewhat related to my original topic but what the hell happened to the interaction between Goh's Starters?

Remember when Cinderace was supposed to be an older brother to Sobble?

They haven't interacted since the latter became a Drizzile.

Now they're both fully evolved and have yet to share even a single frame together.

Remember when Cinderace was ecstatic when Sobble evolved?

Does Cinderace even know his brother has become an Inteleon?


And don't get me started on Grookey. It's so entirely disconnected from the other two Starters.

The only interactions Grookey had with the other Starters was tapping Drizzile in the head with it's stick and being held by Cinderace once.

It's particularly odd with the latter because Grookey and Cinderace have very similar personalities. You'd think they'd really be great friends?

I know Ash's Pokemon also have this problem but at least we've seen them training together.

Of Goh's Pokemon aren't going to battle as often, the least they could do is exchange some banter even if it's just at the very beginning of an episode for a few brief seconds
 

Twilight-Kun

Pokemon World Champion
Cinderace had the most development, even if it only spoke about three times as a raboot (which the dub missed out on because of its weird need to have it scream its name every time it does anything)

Inteleon might as well have been fully evolved when Go caught it for all the development it got as a sobble and drizzile

Grookey is the single-most unlikable starter pokemon the series has ever given us

CAN CINDERANCE HIT A POKEMON FOR ONCE?
Fire never works in anime

Just ask any Naruto character trying to use Fire Jutsu
 

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
I'm probably the only person in this thread who actually appreciates and loves the writing between Goh's galar starters and him and think its one of JN's strongest points and a unique style to it. Have there been missteps? Certainly. But the way the starters serve as Goh's childrens with their mannerisms and growth has been incredible, esp as Goh develops along with them. (A kid who was attached to their parent and loved them so much, started feeling they didnt get much attention and werent understood and became rebellious as they grew up, but still loved their parent and didnt show it much as they acted indifferent, slowly and steadily the parent grew to understand the new phase esp when it was proved the kid was still happy with them, getting along and the kid growing up and not being afraid to show its love for its parent once again while being strong and showing off its development and working with its parent from time to time. On the other hand we have a kid who was timid and a crybaby, had a parent who believed in them and saw their strength, cared for them, was inspired to grow up and be beautiful and had their parent help them with a strategy that fits their style, growing up but being something they didnt want to be, turning emo, sad, insecure about themselves and turning lazy as a result, being reassured by their parent they are still loved and are understood and can take their time, leading to them eventually growing up and saving their parent, becoming the incredible suave person they wanted to be. And then we have a kid who's mischievous, causes trouble and originated from a point of trouble and how the parent takes care of it and sometimes suffers from it. Grookey's arc in that regard is bound to continue anyway)

For all the complaints in this thread, the one I find too off-putting is the notion the starter's writings is the most corporatey thing in the show and I have to disagree HEAVILY. The writers fluidly and with their own pace introduced and started the storylines when they wanted to, not having to be pressured to bring in the starters earlier. The starters and their relationship with Goh is the most humane part of JN....which does admittedly feel too corporate at time to time. One major criticism I also agree with however is that the interpersonal relationship between the starters, which was good between Raboot-sooble, Cinderace-sobble and Cinderace-Drizzile has been lacking and particularly non existent as of now. They should have all 3 interact more to further show the kid parent aspect and the sibling aspect they briefly touched on
And one major criticism I disagree is that Goh shouldnt have gotten all 3 starters. Im so glad Goh did get all 3 coz the story arcs hit better esp as its tied to Goh and helps in his development. If it was spread to Ash and Chloe as well it wouldnt have hit as hard to me tbh

Coming back to the question in this thread, I will not be considering Grookey and I honestly think it shouldnt be considered at all considering its writing hasnt even begun, but I digress
Cinderace has an amazing growth, still has incredible screentime despite what people claim and honestly imo has the BEST and most IDEAL pace a starter should have when it evolves into its third stage. Any lesser than that like Sobble is too jarring and any later than that like Infernape is too slow.
Therefore my answer would be Inteleon. It has great conceptual writing and I love its arc but it evolved TOO FAST in its second stage as a drizzile to Inteleon. It should have done more stuff. While when it comes to JN and their conceptual writing it can fit but as the pokemon anime in a whole, it is quite jarring. They should have kept it more consistent.
4th option is the only right answer. All of them have been seriously mishandled.
This is the only comment Ill quote in this thread (admittedly I even skipped a few comments based on the users) but the fact youre framing it as theres only one *right* answer and everyone has to agree they have been mishandled and cant be appreciated is so off putting and annoying. It honestly feels like you need validation that yes it must be fully agreed with no dissenting opinions that the starters were all seriously mishandled in terms of writing even though so many people share that notion with you and feel free to voice it millions of times in this forum. People can like and appreciate and love the writing while acknowleding there were certain missteps, but nothing that overall took away from the main concept
 
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D

Deleted member 384931

Guest
Grookey and Sobble never met before Sobble evolved into Drizzle.
Now Grookey barley interacts with Inteleon or Cinderance at ALL
 

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
The question was "which was done dirtiest". All three of them have been done dirty, each differently than the others but all the issues being very much valid. To put any one above the others is handwaving/excusing/downplaying/ignoring the poor writing done to the others. How is that not a right answer? If people agreed with me, ask them why they feel so instead of blaming me for 'making them agree with me'. I would go and make a long post explaining my stance but not only would it be redundant since many others already put forward a lot of decent arguments, but I dislike making long write-ups outside of my reviews.

Also, you really ought to phrase your long responses properly and group them in paragraphs with spoiler tags if needed, that wall of text is unreadable on mobile.
Again I never said you arent allowed to feel that way and many criticisms are deserved but framing it as saying the *only right* answer is that everyone was handled terribly irks me coz then it implies people like me who have another opinion are wrong for thinking the way we do
Also apologise for the formatting, was on my laptop just writing what I felt since the Galar starters stories are my fav aspect of JN and one everyone seems to hate here. Ill edit it
 

Mythical-Moonlight

I just ran, I ran all Night and Day ~
Grookey and Sobble never met before Sobble evolved into Drizzle.
Now Grookey barley interacts with Inteleon or Cinderance at ALL
Eh Sobble probably just would've avoided Grookey anyways (as shown by the OP)

Sobble never really interacted with anyone besides Raboot/Cinderance

Inteleon's never interacted with another Pokémon period (besides a one-off Kecleon).

The most ironic part is that most of it's Interactions came from it's Drizzile stage (the stage that also got the least amount of screentime)

As a Drizzile it (kinda) interacts with Pinsir, Heracross, Poliwag and Goldeen, Cinderace, Grookey, Raichu, and Morpeko (even if all of these Interactions were brief)
 
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Soniman

Break the Limit
Unlike most people I didn't have much issue with Cinderace's growth until it became a Cinderace because for some reason reaching your final evolution in JN is a weird screen time death sentence, because why would kids want to see cool fully evolved Pokémon do cool things when we can just focus on Pikachu and Grookey a million more times. They attempted to start a arc with its relationship with Lucario but then they must've realized both Pokémon were fully evolved and immediately put a stop to it. Go back in your pokeballs tools.

Grookey still has a chance to have an arc but the fact it hasn't properly battled or used a move is just one of those baffling JN things that no other series in 25 years has had a problem with, so basic milestones that any other saga would get out of the way in its introductory episodes so it can move on to more interesting ideas for said Pokémon we need to wait MONTHS for and it's a consistent thing which is scarier than if it was a one off oversight. I have little faith. At least it's entertaining.

Intelion is probably the worst handled arc for a companion Pokémon I've seen, because it had so much potential and it met none of it. It had good momentum as a Sobble, had a great evolution episode with Drizzle and then hid in its cave, did nothing then evolved. Completely flaccid and unearned and since it's fully evolved and essentially achieved it's goal I suspect it's gonna go to fully evolved Pokémon purgatory like so many of these Pokémon. A utter waste of time and personal investment.

I'm easier on JN than most but when it comes to the handling, pacing, focus and development of the Pokémon teams I've probably never seen it done worse and it's closest competitors with Kanto/Johto/BW are still significantly better executed.
 
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LazySpy

Kimty
Unlike most part I didn't have much issue with Cinderace's growth until it became a Cinderace because for some reason reaching your final evolution in JN is a weird screen time death sentence, because why would kids want to see cool fully evolved Pokémon do cool things when we can just focus on Pikachu and Grookey a million more times. They attempted to start a arc with its relationship with Lucario but then they must've realized both Pokémon were fully evolved and immediately put a stop to it. Go back in your pokeballs tools.

Grookey still has a chance to have an arc but the fact it hasn't properly battled or used a move is just one of those baffling JN things that no other series in 25 years has had a problem with so basic milestones that one would get out of the way in its introductory episode we need to wait MONTHS for and it's a consistent thing which is scarier than if it was a one off oversight. I have little faith.at least it's entertaining.

Intelion is probably the worst handled arc for a companion Pokémon I've seen, because it had so much potential and it met none of it. It had good momentum as a Sobble, had a great evolution episode with Drizzle and then hid in its cave, did nothing then evolved. Completely flaccid and unearned and since it's fully evolved and essentially achieved it's goal I suspect it's gonna go to fully evolved Pokémon purgatory like so many of these Pokémon.

I'm easier on JN than most but when it comes to the handling, pacing, focus and development of the Pokémon teams I've probably never seen it done worse and it's closest competitor with BW is still significantly better.
ONE OF US
ONE OF US
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Frankly, all of them. But I chose Sarunori in particular because it's my favorite Gen VIII Starter Pokemon, and I had higher hopes for it. I personally think that Gou's Sarunori being treated as a plushie is vexing, especially since it doesn't even know any attacks. I thought that Messon was irritating as well, but at least it evolved and became more likable. Ironically the opposite happened with Hibanny: I liked it more in its base stage compared to its evolved forms.
 

janejane6178

Kaleido Star FOREVER in my heart <3
Grookey is abit annoying but tolerable
I hated Sobble’s evolutions. The mesaage from its evolution is so wrong and cruel
 
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