Why i still watch pokemon? Good question. Its probably because i still manage to enjoy in it, and while writing is rather sub par with writers doing various miss plays over the years i have to give them how they know how to keep people interested.
Pokemon as anime has that adventurous aspect to itself making you feel interested in finding out about new places, characters, story plots an whatever writers com up with. Im also interested in following Ash journey and progress he makes, when older characters make return being updated and how they will portray new features and pokemon from games on screen.
That and i grew up with it, being curious to find out how are things going to end. That is if it does some day.
I had opportunity to rewatch some of Johto episodes lately and after refreshing my memory i believe many things are blown out of proportion with Johto not being nearly as bad as some make it out to be.
Yes Johto suffered from lack of proper development having too many fillers but many of episodes were entertaining to watch with original trio still having good chemistry.
And you gotta give writers some credit. This was their first long region they had to write for, games didn't had many new features to include at that time and after GS ball idea was discarded they found themselves i infront of wall.
Johto did some things right, having better battles ad better portrayal of gym leaders.
WE had several great mini arcs, and Misty and Brock received more ficus there than they did in Kanto,. We got to see their goals being exploited more, they utilized their pokemon more often in battles and Misty got some great growth becoming more independent and mature as character growing in more competent trainer which got over issue of feeling less worthy.
If i recall right, you liked her further growth in AG as well. Though i could be wrong.
If anything Master Quest was excellent season . We got many great arcs like Whirl Cup, Red Gyarados and Lugia arc, Larvitar, whole story about dragon temple. Misty received more focus with fillers being reduced significantly and you can tell story started to move forward. We also received new recurring pokemon like Delibird bringing more comedy and variety to show and pokemon league was truly one of best.
Im not sure how can anyone consider Master Quest bad, because it was actually very intriguing.
Depends for who. Imo getting rid of Misty while having potential to be done much more was mistake from writers part, getting rid of her when they finally started doing things right(starting with Whirl Cup). AG series were alright but they lost good chunk of comedy and charm which original trio added.
In my opinion original trio could have worked in Hoenn, if writers took them in fresh directions doing something more significant with their roles.
Or thy could have added May as fourth traveling companion,excluding Max. I believe it would have been far more interesting if they tried out concept of two girls at same time in cast. That would be certainly something new .
p.s. Im surprised third movie "Spell of Unown" did so bad bad in theaters. It is usually among top movies among fandom being liked a lot actually.