#Anipoke critical

[pepsi-al]

And now, for another piece of Serena glazing brought to you by an entitled fan from the vocal minority.

Going over this so you don't have to.

The first point he tries to make is that the XY anime in an attempt to prove that the XY anime is "the most popular Pokémon Anime series", using an IMDB rating of it to back it up with, even though the rating in question is, like, taken from about 617 people. Not even a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of viewers the XY anime ended with, let alone started out with. Which should pretty much tell anyone that the people who are giving such praise to the XY anime are not even part of the target audience. Especially since Yo-Kai Watch has been outright beating the XY anime in the ratings throughout the latter's run.

He credits Serena to being part of the success that the XY anime had. Even though the only place where it found "success" was among the periphery online fandom. Meanwhile what her portrayal and "AmourShipping" actually did contribute to in regards to the XY anime is the alienation of the target audience. With the target audience themselves going on record to say that they weren't vibing with what "AmourShipping" was giving them. And in regards to those not among the target audience but didn't vibe with "AmourShipping" nonetheless, they knew that "AmourShipping" wasn't going to go anywhere.

He thinks that Serena "brought new things to the table", all the while already singing Serena's praises, calling her "the best PokéGirl of all time", as well as one of the best characters in the entire franchise. Pretty much blatantly ignoring what was already on the table before Serena even arrived.

He outright thinks that every female companion of Ash's after Misty but prior to Serena is somehow "a copy of Misty". Yeah, sure. Let's just ignore everything else that sets Ash's female companions besides Serena apart from each other, and just boil down their behavior to "Misty-esque". Granted, he does state that they have defining characteristics, such as May becoming a "Performer". (Uhh, dude? Coordinator, while similar, doesn't equal Performer.) But he seems to think they all have the same kind of personality Misty has, which couldn't be any further from the truth.

The attention he calls to in regards to Ash's female companions before Serena being "sassy" and "a jerk to Ash" pretty much shows his entire thought process into making this video. And why he was so reductive towards May, Dawn, and Iris. He's basically telling people here that he projects himself onto Ash, and that he doesn't think that Ash should have to put up with someone who, understandably, calls Ash out on his stupidity on a regular basis. (And in doing so, pretty much missing the point of Ash's character.) Also, was anyone that wasn't a part of the hardcore AniPoké fandom seriously getting tired of a girl being around to call Ash out on his faults? Does this guy genuinely believe that? Last I checked, before the time of the XY anime, they were getting tired of Ash, not his female companions in anything apart from getting sidelined in favor of Ash.

Actually, nobody apart from the periphery demographic actually "fell immediately in love with Serena". And those who did immediately fall in love with her didn't do so because of her personality. It was because of her crush on Ash, and because of marketing. Her actual personality is nothing to sneeze at, and is pretty much not only nothing like her source material counterpart, but also pretty much what you would expect from a character with no depth to her personality beyond "I'm girly because I'm a girl". Also, "kind" and "caring" literally describe ALL of Ash's female companions. Whereas "independent" describes ALL of Ash's female companions EXCEPT Serena. "Kind to everyone" and "not afraid to express how she was feeling" isn't unique to her. (The latter is definitely one of the reasons why Misty is popular. And Serena definitely seemed afraid to express how she's feeling around Ash.) And she's definitely nowhere near the first to be friendly towards everyone and ready to extend a helping hand whenever anyone is in trouble. (Again. That's literally a reason why Misty is popular to begin with.) Not to mention, Serena wasn't bratty? This dude never saw how Serena feels about her mother. And again with the "not a jerk to Ash" bit. Heck, he even brings up when she cares for Ash when he's sick as though it hadn't been done before, when it has by Misty. It's like he doesn't actually give a crap about Serena's actual character, is more interested in the fact that the showrunners made her only purpose on the show to be to make Ash look good, and is only gassing her up both to make her look better than she is, and because he feels like she's the perfect character to make Ash look good; pretty much a regular pastime for guys like him at this point. It also shows a double standard in regards to his thought process. If the female traveling companion of Ash is her own character and made out to be his equal, then anything she does, even if beneficial for Ash, is automatically bad. But if that female traveling companion is instead made specifically to make Ash look good, as though as she were a typical female character in a Shounen anime, then anything that she does, even if it harms Ash in any way, is automatically good.

Also, if things did end up changing for the better in regards to Ash's female companions, they did so in spite of Serena, not because of her. Mallow, Lana, and Lillie, were all pretty much close representations of if not direct translations of their source material counterparts. Chloe, an AniPoké OC, is pretty much the only one that comes after AniPoké Serena who is the most similar to her in terms of characterization. But, despite her doing the similarities she has with Serena better than Serena did, the reaction the periphery demographic actually has towards her (read: Chloe is disliked by the periphery audience for being "too boring", "aimless", "decided upon a goal that defeated the purpose of her character", etc.) only succeeds in showcasing said demographic's hypocrisy towards her.

WRT the unnecessary shade towards Misty's direction, saying that she would not have cared, and that she would have thrown Ash "in the deep end", this literally reinforces what I'm saying about Serena fans thinking that whatever a female traveling companion of Ash's does to Ash in their eyes is automatically bad if she's made out to be his equal and dares to be her own character. Because that's not what Misty would do at all. He completely doesn't understand her character. She would have and has helped Ash whenever he's sick. On that note, what is it with Serena fans and slinging mud at Misty? I swear. They feel threatened by her.

He's right about Serena's "relationship" with Ash being a reason why she's "popular" among the periphery audience. But what he doesn't realize is that the same reason why she's "popular" is also her biggest flaw as a character. Like, he doesn't even question how Serena is able to remember Ash despite it being so long since she supposedly last saw him. (2-5 years before the XY anime, and for a very brief moment at that.) He also ignores that all of the flashbacks to Serena meeting Ash at Oak's Summer Camp are exclusively from Serena's PoV, as well as not questioning how Ash and Serena didn't stay in touch if they supposedly knew each other. And how does he figure that the writers loved Serena when, if they had their way, Serena wouldn't have been given the characterization that she was given? Calling it "wholesome" and "what gave fans diabetes" is just basically talking about the frosting covering the the cake that tastes like stale air. He then rambles on about how Serena sees Ash as a "selfless hero", pretty much talking about Serena's blind worship of him, and downplaying how over-the-top it is compared to the complements Ash got from other girls. Even calling Serena constantly blushing around Ash, and Ash giving her the kind of compliment that he'll give May and Dawn "wholesome" rather than seeing it as the hard-to-watch mess that it is. And again, putting the emphasis on Serena seeing Ash as both "someone who's good at battling", and "someone with a good soul", shows that he doesn't really care about Serena's character, and that he's ignored that other girls have seen Ash as someone with a good soul before without blindly worshipping him. And I struggle to see how anyone can call something so blatantly shipfic-y in an official work "special". He is right about how we're not going to to see something like Ash and Serena again. To which I say: GREAT! "AmourShipping" was a bad idea from the get-go, and should serve as a cautionary tale.

And the last point he tries to make is how the female traveling companions of Ash prior to Serena "didn't really have any much if any impact". Like, what does he mean by this? Story? On Ash? Misty pretty much played a big part in why Ash is as great of a trainer as he is now, and is why he's alive. She was responsible helping Ash discover the entrance to Cinnabar Gym. May was pretty much responsible for picking up the slack whenever Ash wasn't around, and had her own arc. Dawn was chosen by Mesprit to defend Sinnoh. And "mainly used as comedic relief or to fill in that 'girl' spot for the rest of the series"? How does he think that this somehow doesn't apply to Serena? And I don't know how he thinks that Iris is a step in the right direction when, while a breath of fresh air compared to Dawn and May, when she isn't exactly treading new ground. And he's just glazing Serena by saying that she's had a bigger purpose in the story as it progressed when it really wouldn't be different without her as it is with her. And as far as "providing a completely different contrast compared to a Pokémon Trainer" is concerned, Lillie does that job far better due to being her own character and coming across as human as Misty while having her own arc herself, whereas Serena just comes across as no different from a Bond Girl or a one-off "love-interest" for Jim Kirk that isn't named Carol Marcus. He then goes on to praise Showcases, even though they're pretty much a dumbed down Pokémon Contest rip-off. And how does she lose time and time again when her only notable loss is her first ever Showcase, which she didn't really learn anything from? And her impact on Ash's character as a whole is basically non-existent, given that she doesn't even cross Ash's mind in Journeys when he thought about his travels in Kalos, and even almost ran past her like how Shulk ran past Melia. And he fails to realize that Serena actually did to Ash something that would help someone speedrun the ending of a friendship with a depressed person in real life, making his situation about her than about him. Plus, Ash would have gotten out of his funk without her "help". And the entire scene got retconned in Journeys, anyways. And honestly. What "lessons" did she give him that he didn't or shouldn't already know before the XY anime? Her role in helping shape Ash into the trainer who would go on to win the world championship is negligible. And in case he didn't notice, the Ash following the XY anime IS the same Ash from all the way back in Indigo League but grown up mentally, and definitely not due to anything that Serena actually did. Also, Ash learned the lesson that "it's okay to lose" all the way back in Orange Islands, where Serena doesn't even make an appearance. Instead, Ash learned that lesson from LORELEI, and in a later episode, Misty reiterated the lesson that Lorelei taught him. And once again, saying that Serena "beat the jerk and sassy trope" shows his lack of care towards Serena. The fact that he even brings up the "kiss", which even Yajima himself said could have been a whisper in Ash's ear for all he knew, is emblematic of how he really sees Serena.

And really? Does he really have the audacity to ask "how could you not love her"? He's clearly spent no time outside of the echo chamber, and no time in circles where Serena is criticized because of how her character was mishandled. And he definitely spoke to nobody who actually likes Serena as a character that feels like her potential as a character was outright wasted by the direction the showrunners took with her.

As for what I think about Serena's character? I think that she sucks. Period.

[kawaiitail-chan]

The REAL reason why Iris is hated (and sometimes misty too)

when you ask someone from the pokeani fandom (usually a straight white cis male) what their favorite pokegirls is, they reply with misty, may, dawn, or Serena but almost NEVER iris

Iris is considered the worst travelling companion in the fandom and you may ask why?

Well, the answer is quite simple actually;

Racism and misogyny

"B-but!!!! I'm not racist!!! I just think she's annoying" that's a very common misogynistic rhetoric, brock's entire gag is harrasing women but you don't think he's annoying?

Same with misty (though she's more loved than iris but there's a few haters)

And what's funny to me is that these men are usually Serena fans and amourshippers

who is the COMPLETE opposite of iris

It's because these incels insert themselves into ash

It's because these incel want a woman that is submissive and does whatever they want and does not even bother to criticize them or point out things they do wrong

It's because these incels can't stand the idea of a woman (specially of color) criticizing them

It's because these men want women to worship them

It's because they don't women (especially the ones of color) as human beings with lives and jobs

And if a man tells you this is not the case, press doubt

@refrigeratedboombursts @punkeropercyjackson

[anipoke-critical]

XY Ash Is A Terrible Character

XY, while an improvement, continues my issues with how BW handled Ash as a character. This series features Ash's second major personality change in a row; now suddenly being a serious badass rather than a complete idiot (That's admittedly an exaggeration, BW isn't completely brain dead but BW still regresses Ash and has many moments that make Ash look really stupid cough cough Elisa battle cough cough).

He doesn't really go through any real development or growth as a character this season, making him a not-very-compelling protagonist to follow. Sure, there was the Wulfric arc, but that was two episodes. Honestly, I like XY, but it's not the flawless masterpiece that people say it is and, like most anime series', Ash's companions were more interesting than Ash himself this season.

[flower-boi16]

I've seen the defense going around for Ash's random personality change in SM that says that Ash's personality change actually makes sense because Ash's arc in SM is apperently learning to love Alola.

Ya know, that would have been a good defense if we actually saw that arc happen. In just the first few minutes of SM001, we already see Ash having the time of his life in Alola, he's already loving every second of his vacation in the region, so you can't say that Ash "learning to love Alola" was his arc in SM when he was already loving the region in just the first episode. What, are you saying that Ash went through an arc off-screen? That's not great writting...

If Ash's arc in SM was learning to love Alola, we would've actually saw him being a bit skeptical and dissmissive of the region at first, but then after after some convincing from his mom, the Alola gang, and Pikachu, he decides to give the region a chance and slowely begins to fall in love with it, learning that life doesn't always need to be some grand adventure and providing a more natural transition into his SM personality.

Right now we just have the third and most jarring personality change for Ash in a row, and that...isn't great writting to me.

[lunaboy1996v2]

All in All, don't force people to:

Like teasing even if they had no good experiences with it, regardless of gender/skin color.

Like others being yelled at or hit for any excuse whatsoever (irresponsibility, greedy for a cake, etc..)

At worst, all they've done is make me hate those episodes unironically now. It doesn't help that kids can mimic that shit ala power rangers!

[chocokano]

ep 64 spoilers below!!

rambling below my bad but i have many thoughts!

so! the whole umbreon rakurium or hwv you spell it scene. it was clearly Not Good and i am not trying to argue against it being a terrible thing to do and all BUT (and this is NOT me trying to woobify spinel or whatever he is terrible i'm aware of that)

i REALLYYYY hope there's more to this whole thing than just "oh yeah spinel is just evil and doesn't care about anything including his dog"

i've always seen his bond with umbreon as really interesting and thought it brought nuance to his character; like yeah he's absolutely awful but there's this ONE THING that he genuinely cares about. i think it's cool i think it's neat

SO I REALLYYYY HOPE the scene isn't just throwing that all away. i hope there's more to this or that spinel DOES care but is still willing to be terrible yada yada. i just really hope this isn't a classic pokemon "this character is a terrible person but with like 1 decent quality- jk they're just crazy and evil"

idk if any of this makes sense but! yeah

AND AGAIN I AM NOTTTT TRYING TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE I THINK SPINEL IS A GOOD GUY. he is TERRIBLE and that's part of what makes him so interesting to me!! i just think (or thought apparently) that he's a lot MORE interesting when there's a little contrast in his character

never posted anything like this before please dont eat me alive 🙏 having opinions online is scary

[spyres]

just mentioned this to emery but how does misty expect to become a water pokemon master if she can't stand her own psyduck

[pikawrites]

which pokemon theme song is the best and why is it this one

[pepsi-al]

This is just way too delicious here. The Pokémon Sun and Moon Anime character designer goes over the reason why he gave Ash the appearance he did, which was basically "Ash in past seasons felt very out-of-character compared to how he was in the original series." And his response basically triggered the XY fans, prompting responses like "they forgot Ash has 6 leagues under his belt", "so you decided to make Ash act out-of-character anyways", "it's a bad idea to make Ash act like a 10 year old", etc. The XY fans have misread Ash's character this whole time, and they don't want to admit it.

[kafus]

people are allowed to dislike the things i like and people are allowed to dislike horizons, but sometimes i see pokemon horizons hate and i feel my eyes roll into the back of my damn skull. there seems to be a good chunk of people who hate horizons because it’s doing its own thing and isn’t similar to the older anime in structure and has strong character focus, and people are allowed to not prefer that! but then they treat it like an objectively bad thing/poor writing because they can’t see out of their narrow vision of what the pokemon anime should look like 😭

i’m not a fan of most of anipoke and i tried so many times to genuinely get into it and just. couldn’t. but i’m sure the seasons of anipoke that are highly praised are great and i see why people like them, it’s just not structured or done in a way that personally clicks with me, and that’s fine. i don’t feel the need to trash on it or people who like it because i personally did not enjoy it. that would just be irritating for everyone involved

additionally i get that people miss ash after being attached to him for so many years and i get that some people are never gonna let go and that’s fine but the people who direct all of that energy into hating liko just. suck actually. probably petty and not that serious apologies for the autism but i consider hating liko to be lowkey a red flag the same way hating cats is lowkey a red flag to me. she’s a kind young girl and she has done literally nothing offensive to you other than “replace ash” and i think her existence is really important. you can grieve ash without being a piece of shit about anipoke having a well written female protagonist for the first time damn

i think there’s criticism you can make about horizons if you wanted to but if ur gonna criticize it at least sound like we watched the same show 😭

[anipoke-critical]

OS004 was always a very frustrating episode to me. The episode tries to teach Ash about accepting responsibility for his actions, saying that he should stop "making excuses" for the Caterpi escaping and allerting the Deedrill because it's his fault, due to him not catching it, and he needs to recognize that mistake and grow from it...

...except that...ya know...NONE OF THIS WAS ASH'S FAULT AT ALL! Ash wasn't able to catch the Caterpi because the samurai was distracting him, so It's the samurai's fault for all of this, not Ash's. YET, the episode pretends that it's Ash's fault for not catching the Caterpi thus letting it alert the beedrill, even though it wasn't.

Rather than teaching a lesson about taking responsibility for your actions, it instead comes across as the episode gaslighting Ash into taking responsibility for something that wasn't his fault, thus making the episode feel rather mean-spirited, to be honest.

The samurai himself is also an awful character, he blames Ash for something that was HIS OWN FAULT yet he's portrayed as entirely right by the narrative and he never gets called out. It's the samurai's fault that Ash couldn't catch the Caterpi due to the samurai distracting him, but the episode frames it as the exact opposite which just makes it frustrating.

Really, that's the best way to describe this episode; poorly written & pitifully frustrating.

[flower-boi16]

Hey so I made a pokemon anime critical side blog here:

[one-half-guy]

Hey guys, I was thinking here and gosh, the Pokémon Anime really looked at some strong Pokémon and said "have this poorly build moveset" didn't it?

I mean, we all know they can be pretty sloppy with the moves' effects and what Pokémon should be capable to learn them and such... But then sometimes they would be careful to select the moveset of an important Pokémon just so they could deliberately give a really bad moveset to them AKKAKAKKAKAK

Doubts? Come with me and remember five strong Pokémon with really bad movesets listed in the rant below:

5. Ash's Charizard's Unova Return moveset

Flamethrower, Slash, Wing Attack & Dragon Tail.

Starting with one that was for a long time the strongest Pokémon ever owned by our favorite 10 years old kid, Charizard. Who didn't get hyped when heard he was returning to the anime in Unova? Who didn't jump on their chairs watching his battle against Iris' Dragonite? I know, me too...

In fact that's not really a bad moveset at all, Flamethrower is the most iconic Fire-Type move for a reason and has always been one move Ash's Charizard always kept, Wing Attack brings a STAB to his second type, what is always welcome, Slash has a high critical-ratio and Dragon Tail brings a good response to the, by the time sovereign, Dragon-Type

But then... C'mon it's Gen V!! Wing Attack is an early route bird move, why is it here when he could have Air Slash? Why not give him Shadow Claw, bringing the same effect of Slash but with Ghost-Type, bringing two advantages to the fire lizard's set? Slash was not super effect against any type after all. Why not give either Dragon Pulse or Dragon Claw, that were stronger Dragon Tail and had no secondary effect to the anime ignore?

And that's just basing on this moveset, but our Charizard have already counted with more powerful moves even before go to train in the Charicific Valley, like Submission, that would deal well with the Rock-Types, and after training with the Charizards from the Charicific Valley he always came back with stronger moves, like Steel Wing, other that was a perfect counter to his main weakness: the Rock-Type, or even the Overheat, one of the strongest Fire-Type moves he can learn and that he used against an all mighty Articuno. I would even say Dragon Breath was a good call to keep, same base power as Dragon Tail but with a side effect not always ignored by the anime... Why not bring any of these moves back or bring some of the strongest like Solar Beam and Iron Tail? It because I don't want start a rant about why he deserved Blast Burn as a treat since Pignite got Fire Pledge.

Anyways, Ash's Charizard surely deserved a better moveset to his return in Unova.

4. Ash's Greninja's final moveset

Water Shuriken, Double Team, Aerial Ace & Cut

I podered a lot about who between Greninja and Charizard got the worst moveset, but I think now is clear that Greninja got the worst between these two.

Double Team is an OK move, in the games it can become really dangerous if the opponent manage to successfully use it more than twice and the anime does extract its nature well and Aerial Ace is undoubtedly the best choice of this set: it hits super effective in Grass-, Fighting- and Bug- Types, three weaknesses covered by a single move (Learn, Charizard😤).

But then... Water Shuriken have as advantage the fact it is a multi-strike move and as disadvantage the fact it is a multi-strike move 🙃 generally are 2 to 3 weak hits that barely deals some decent damage, but with some luck you can get up to 5 hits, what makes a considerable damage plus, each one have its own chance to be a critical hit, one more advantage is the priority of the move (although in the anime it is fairly ignored '3') and one advantage very specific to Ash's Greninja is that this move specifically receives a singular boost from the Ash-Greninja transformation... All of this to say: not that good, but since it's Ash's Greninja and the AniPoke's case, good in this specific case...

And then comes Cut... Cut... CUT!!! The weak HM move, the main reason why we dedicate a separated Pokémon to learn the HM moves because of how much weak this move is, such a bad move that when they distributed Ash's Greninja to the games they made the on point choice to switch for Night Slash: far more powerful AND a STAB, what makes me wonder why didn't they ever made him learn in the anime.

The worst part of this moveset is that it's kept ever since Greninja evolves and is never changed, not even when some episodes were perfect to this, such like the episode pre-rematch vs Wufric, the exchange of Cut by Night Slash would be just a perfect match to Ash and Greninja mastering the Ash-Greninja form... WE WERE ROBBED!!! THERE'S NO REASON TO NOT GIVE HIM A BETTER MOVE!!!

Want Greninja's moves to resemble ninja weapons? Make the Night Slash a katana! Wants him to continue to make a kunai because it's ninjier? Make it be a purplish~blackish kunai! Easy like that! Night Slash would be the perfect evolution to Cut AND the Anime never limited itself to the 'HM moves can't be forgotten' rule before, and surely didn't stop it there ��

Sorry Greninja, but Cut I can't forgive...

3. Sawyer's Sceptile's final moveset

Frenzy Plant, Leaf Storm, Leaf Blade & Dragon Claw

Well, the worst part is that each of these moves are great individually, but the fact this moveset combos Leaf Storm, move that will lower the Special Attack Stat after every use, thus weakening itself, and Frenzy Plant, move categorized as Special Attack that makes the Pokémon vunerable after its usage, makes it fall really down. GOSH, Sawyer was hyped as an observer and great strategist, WHAT HECK WAS HE THINKING WHEN PUT THESE TWO MOVES TOGETHER???!!!

Why did he think it was a good idea to put both moves together??? If it wasn't the anime, after a time the Frenzy Plant would be dealing damage of a Leafage but still forcing a recharge turn *facepalms*

Leaf Blade and Dragon Claw being together are the best choice however as they are two strong STABs + they're physical, what means repeated usage of Leaf Storm is not weakening them. But still, three STABs of the same type and one of the secondary (as Mega Evolution only) is not that genius thing you'd expect of somebody who successfully used a Slaking in the league.

Really, a Thunder Punch to deal with the Flying-Types or Brick Break or Focus Blast to deal with the Ice-Types or even Iron Tail to deal with Ice- and Fairy-Types would be far a wiser choice (Also Mega Sceptile's quirk of launching its tail would bring a really interesting way to use this last suggested move btw)... Take your bronze medal Sceptile.

2. Cynthia's Garchomp's Masters Tournament moveset

Draco Meteor, Scale Shot, Dragon Claw & Stealth Rock

Then you look to the other Pokémon Cynthia brought to the Masters Tournament and realize they all got better movesets 👁️👄👁️

There's no way this choice was not thinking in nerf Garchomp because GOSH, three STABs of one single out of the TWO Types this pokémon have + Stealth Fucking Rock of all moves... WHY?!?! DIDN'T THEY THINK WE TRUSTED ASH'S SKILLS ENOUGH?!?! (maybe y'all didn't, but that's not excuse!! THEY WERE GOING TO PROVE YOU WRONG ANYWAY!!!)

The only well thought on this is that Draco Meteor, move that reduces Special Attack, was along just physical moves... But then all Dragon-Type moves, Cynthia's lucky Ash didn't bring Mr. Mime to this tournament... But she's Cynthia, she SHOULDN'T have to count on luck, SHE NEVER NEEDED THAT BEFORE!! SHE ALWAYS HAD MOVES TO COVER!!

Her Garchomp's very first moveset was already far more covered than that with Dig, Dragon Rush, Giga Impact and Brick Break, one of Games' Cynthia's Garchomp moveset is basically the same but with Earthquake... Why not bring these moves??! Why wasn't the Sinnoh Champion's Ace ever allowed to have any Ground-Type STAB afterwards?? Why wasn't one of the most OP Pokémon known by the Pokémon Fans allowed to be OP?? Where are the cover moves?

The worst is that the last move in this set is Stealth Rock... WHO THE HECK USES GARCHOMP AS A HAZARD SETTER???

Garchomp is an offensive Pokémon, an attacker, the right way to use one is teach them the four moves that are the best STABs and covers in your vision and press A to obliterate your enemies! That's what I do, that's what many players do, that's what Games' Cynthia does, THAT'S EVEN WHAT DEBUT CYNTHIA DID 😤😤😤 GARCHOMP'S NOT A HAZARD SETTER. THEY DON'T MATCH IN ANY ANGLE WITH STEALTH FUCKING ROCK!!

If you want any status move, you add a Sandstorm or a Swords Dance, they will match a LOT more with your Garchomp, not kidding, Stealth Rock was used in the worst way AND time possibly.

Funnily enough the choice to teach Scale Shot was probably a way of the anime to portray Cynthia as updated and aware towards the new moves BUT THEY COULD'VE BROUGHT STOMPING TANTRUM OR SCORCHING SAND THAT WOULD BE MORE CONVINCING AS IT RECEIVES STAB FROM GARCHOMP'S SECONDARY TYPE!! 😤😤

So sad considering how diversified are the moves Garchomp can learn... This moveset deserved gold medal in being the worst... But unfortunately they made one worse 🫥

1. Stephan's Zebstrika's Unova League moveset

Double Edge, Stomp, Facade & Giga Impact

There's no words to define how shitty this moveset is, if Sawyer's Sceptile and Cynthia's Garchomp at least rely on STABs, Stephan's Zebstrika DOESN'T EVEN COUNT ON IT!!!

Individually they are all good moves: Stomp is fairly strong and can cause the opponent to flinch, Facade is also fairly strong and causes massive damage under negative status, and Double Edge & Giga Impact both cause massive damage anyway despite their respective backlashes.

All Normal-Type moves though, so he doesn't receive STAB in any of these, he also doesn't have the Scrappy ability to be able to stand against Ghost-Types, so a single Litwick could obliterate him, he can't land super effective hits, don't count on it, he can't cause any status, he can't recover health, he can't raise his speed since he forgot Flame Charge, this moveset is so genius that a Litwick would have no problem sweeping the floor with this poor zebra, someone save this pokémon 😤

Moral of the story: Just find a Grass-Type if you need to deal with your rival's Water/Ground-Type, the way you'll nerf your Electric-Type is shameful. Who's gonna give his plastic gold medal?

[lunaboy1996v2]

>Characters slapping Ash for no reason (thank god 4kids removed that shit on Misty's end btw)

>Characters pulling slurs like "What a kid" on Ash for no reason

>Literally and all pokemon anime characters, regardless or age, gender or skin tone can yell at Ash apparently for MaKiNg A mIsTaKe

And people have to like this shit, why?

[turboacek-blog]

The Love-Hate thing with XY

Something I’ve had thoughts on ever since I’ve seen more of the Anipoke community and it’s an interesting situation

XY seems to be a fan favorite series of all the Pokémon series

With XY generally being seen as one of the best from a more ranking critic review viewpoint (look at IMDb scores for example)

So why is there such a divide among fans?

1) It gets so much loved it’s hated

It’s a weird yet normal reaction

There are definitely some fans out there that praise it so much that it can get annoying

Some actually use it to put down other series which is definitely not good

And some it’s the only thing they mention which over-saturates it in the grand scheme of Pokémon discussion which can also be annoying when out of 15 posts 12 are XY stuff you can get sick of it

2) XY is the only or one of the few watched by some

I’m constantly surprised by the number of fans that have only watched XY or started with XY

Clearly, some of it is an age thing, when they were in that general age range XY was on TV so it was naturally their first series

But also for one reason or another the way XY was presented got a lot more people wanting to check it out, I don’t know for sure but apparently XY brought in a lot of viewers and it can’t be just the regular wave of kids watching Pokémon for the first time

I mention this as people are then using XY as their basis whether it’s the constant comparison to SM specifically the art style or that they never watched Original series to DP/BW so it has that affect that when you’re watching something older some things don’t look as good since it is older especially for younger viewers

3) Social Media

Social Media been around for awhile before XY in 2013

But around that time was also a pretty big boom as stuff like YouTube were getting to the point that people were YouTubers, Vine was alive, twitter and Facebook were still the general share thoughts platforms and etc

So when clips from this time are shared they were more widespread then before and since it’s more modern its less likely to be gone

For example it’s hard to get stuff from OS-DP as it was just the byproduct of being older

Not everything was digitized, and some of the stuff that was is now gone whether a website taken down, or copyright on YouTube video etc as not everything was just on Serebii and Bulbapedia

Where XY was at a time that was fortunate enough that stuff is hard to lose and copyright was better understood and etc so it was able to build up views and likes and etc

Like I saw a vid where someone who never watched Pokemon was reacting to Ash-Greninja like there's something there

4) Miscellaneous stuff

General stuff that some like but I don’t want to say is a main reason or is big enough to give its own point

Visuals: people loved how XY looked, the art style plus the animation and 3D camera

Approach: generally the most shonen of the Pokémon series and when stuff like shonen is a big hit amongst a similar demographic it gets love for it like Ash being more “mature”, him being more of a leader, etc

Romantic side plot: Serena's crush on Ash at least from what I noticed has its own community with shipping, and I can see it bringing in a lot of girl viewers as romance is a common drawing point for young girls plus it’s a general thing people can like

Preferences: some might just generally like characters like Alain over a character like Paul, which I think is just a preference thing than an objective thing, and this applies to everything naturally

5) Least amount of Problems

I have my personal thoughts on XY, some positive some negative

But I can say from a more objective/critics point of view XY has the least problems of any series

XY consistently looked great, had what feels like the least amount of “filler” episodes, had at least solid arcs for Ash Clemont Serena and Bonnie, decent rivals, a supporting cast, etc

As even though I don’t think Sun and Moon had problems it definitely got backlash from the art style change alone let alone the formula change

BW was a soft reboot so it had a negative response from existing fans

JN had production issues that had them have recaps and such plus the co-lead with Goh stuff

So when you can point to negatives for other series that don’t really apply to XY it’s easy to hold it higher

It’s like saying they all have 5 positives but XY has like 1 negative while the others have 3+ negatives. It doesn’t matter about the positives as the negatives weigh them down more

Like even though it has its weaker points if I have to grade it XY doesn’t go below a 5/10 in anything (plot, character, pacing, etc) where you can say some series do fall below that line

Like I personally don’t care for the Team Flare Arc after the league but I wouldn’t say it was bad in the slightest

So my conclusion?

XY was definitely the right place-right time series

The social media boom, plus the general improvements XY made from BW gave it a lot of fans

So now whether they think it genuinely or they just have nostalgia for it, have XY rated higher and like to talk about it regardless of how much it’s already been discussed

It’s similar to how I remember Original Series

Doesn’t matter what May, Dawn, Paul, etc would do people would still bring up Misty Gary Charizard and etc

And it’s the same with XY, doesn’t matter what the Alola Gang, Iris, Cilan, Goh, or Chloe, they get compared to Clemont Bonnie, Serena, etc, and even Ash gets compared to his XY version

But since XY is more recent and for the most part OS fans aren’t online like that they get the status of being the most vocal and etc

As someone who was older when XY came out and wasn’t around for all the YouTube and etc

They do hype up XY a little too much

But at the same time, I do get the dislike or neutralism for SM and JN, and BW

As people can not like certain aspects of XY but none really got or deserve the backlash the others did so they look better as a result of not having that issue

As if hypothetically all Pokémon series in a vacuum are 7/10’s

Things like BW’s soft reboot make it a 5/10 to those fans for example and this can be applied to all series even XY but if others have more visible issues then they get bogged down more which results in making XY look better

To XY’s credit is a feat in itself but having the least number of issues doesn’t mean any issues which are where a lot of anti’s and people that just get tired of it come from as some do genuinely think XY is perfect

Overall XY is a solid series it came out at the right time when everything surrounding it was more controversial and it was able to explode in popularity thanks to the internet

Both sides are justified as XY has its good points but the fact that it’s seemingly the most discussed and regarded series does seem a bit excessive and I sympathize with those that don’t like it for that or just don’t like that series in general

[epicspheal]

Something that I brought up on twitter that I wanted to bring here was how some of the choices for the Indigo League in the original anipoke series are often severely underrated. Namely speaking how Gary was knocked out of the tournament before Ash does and Ash will soon be knocked out too. As much as the anime gets a lot of flak for it’s writing (and yes there are plenty of flaws) I think it often doesn’t get the props it deserves at times for actually being a bit subversive in how it handles certain aspects and the Indigo League is good example of that when it comes to the rivalry of Ash and Gary The Kanto Protagonist-Rival dynamic is one of the most iconic in the franchise and for good reason. It’s portrayed solidly throughout the games, anime and manga although it’s really iconic mostly for the games’ portrayal (and I’m talking the RBGY and FRLG portrayals because it’s the minute details that made it so worthwhile Blue as the rival whereas trying have lightning strike twice with Trace fell flat and it’s not because “Friendly rivals are trash” but rather “you can’t put friendly rival in a story meant for a character that has negative tension with the protagonist and expect it to work”). The manga’s portrayal is solid but it’s the most vanilla of the three dynamics because it takes out one of the key features of the dynamic (the strong friendship that was destroyed prior to the journey adds emotional weight that both the game and anime portrayal actually keep intact) and didn’t do anything subversive with final like how the games and anime do. Now the anime, I think writing-wise had the most shocking portrayal of the rivalry. We’re coming into the series, especially if you watched this is the late nineties/early aughts where shows like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Beyblade were also on TV, expecting for a climactic showdown between Ash and Gary in the finals of the Indigo League where are naive rookie Ash will take down his former childhood rival and become champion. They don’t even get to face each other at all. Gary is knocked out in the top 32. I remember watching this as a kid and I was like “WHAT!? When is Ash going to face Gary?” because we had been waiting for a battle between them for ages. If it is one major criticism of the Ash-Gary rivalry that I have is that they should’ve had more battles with each other leading up to the eventual final battle in Johto. But still the subversion was huge and now that I’m older I can really appreciate it for what it was trying to do.

First off it’s super realistic that two people in a heated rivalry never face off compared to how most manga/anime tournaments tend to be where it just so happens that the main character will face most if not all of the major side characters. As a sports fan, realistically match-ups are quite random and rivalries don’t always get a chance to be settled in major tournaments (especially in the finals where even non-sports fans tend to tune in). Of course in a fictional narrative we want to see that payoff hence why the match-ups are a bit more contrived but it’s categorized under the willing suspension of disbelief for the sake of closing story arcs. Second upsets happen in tournaments all the time. Number one seeds get ousted by the lowest ranked people/teams in the tournament. Promising newcomers get unexpectedly thrashed. Gary was definitely one of the more promising rookies and we were expecting for him to go further than he does but again being promising doesn’t guarantee anything really Those two bits of realism act as a major wakeup call, for Gary, for Ash and for the audience. For Gary between that and being clapped hard by Mewtwo at the Viridian Gym (again another subversion from the games and manga where Blue is with Red and Green the last few characters to ever win the Earth badge off of Giovanni as gym leader) it’s a huge signal that something’s got to change. It’s why he acts so different once we meet him again after Ash comes back from the Orange Islands. In the moment of the Indigo League, this is a huge wakeup call for Ash as he realize “shit is real”. Despite the current animosity between him and Gary he still massively respects him especially as a trainer. And seeing him get knocked out the tournaments leaves such an impact that Ash almost considers dropping out himself, showing some rare moments of insecurity because at the moment he doesn’t believe himself to be better than Gary. If Gary can’t make it past the Top 32 what chance does he have? And then for the audience it’s a wakeup call that this despite being a kid show isn’t going to play by every trope that we come to expect. That you’re not going to win everything or always get a chance to prove yourself to someone else. It’s sobering, and quite mature for a kid’s show and I think it just doesn’t get as much credit that it deserves. It leads to introspection for both Ash and Gary and even though they don’t have their final battle until the silver conference Ash still “claims” a victory of Gary by getting further and going to win the Orange Island Cup. And this helps inform Gary’s eventual decision to become a researcher because he’s really not seeing the same results as his game and manga counterparts end up doing in their respective universes.