Controversial opinions

[Blob]

Super off-topic, but the BW badges are still the prettiest out of any region imo.

I didn't like how long they were. I preffered the rounder badges in Gens 1-3. gen 4 badges lack any personality since they're mostly just super angular shapes with colours.
Gen 6 badges are kind of weird. The first badge you get is 3D (you can rotate it to see it's bulging in the middle), while the rest are just flat. This makes them feel unfinished and like they tried to recreate the Gen 4 badges.

 

[SonansuMan]

Team Rocket ending up with Grookey instead of Goh would've been 1000x more interesting.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

I like the finale of Team Magma vs Team Aqua arc, and I just thought that Steven should have been there instead of Lance

 

[Sai]

I feel like similar to BW2 games derailing the BW anime’s plans, the inclusion of both FR/LG and Emerald drastically changed how AG would have ended or gone on as well. Besides the obvious replacement of Wallace with Juan for the 8th Gym, we also had a rush Magma/Aqua finale with Steven not brought back and then Hoenn ended abruptly for a Kanto arc. But since there were so few Kanto references besides Mt Moon and Pewter Gym they might as well just kept them in Hoenn for the Battle Frontier and nobody would know the difference.

I also think Grovyle was originally intended to evolve before the Hoenn league but the writers pushed that back to BF because AG was still going to go on another year. Given the lack of any direction for May/Max/Brock after that it does seem like their plans changed.

 

[Hidden Mew]

While the battle against Roxie was clearly a last minute change due to B2/W2, I think it was the better choice all things considered. I don't think that there was a way for Ash's BW team to defeat a Dragon type Gym Leader in a believable manner. Even the way he defeated Roxie didn't really convey a sense of growth for him or his team, so trying to do that with Drayden would have been worse.

As for the Battle Frontier, it definitely felt more tacked on. I still think that winning the Battle Frontier is Ash's biggest accomplishment to date, but I also think that AG would have been a much stronger series if they had been able to stay in Hoenn for four years instead of three. I think it would have helped with May and possibly the Team Magma/Aqua subplot. May needed to lose a couple of more Contests than she did, maybe get some more Pokemon and/or evolve her current team and they could have made more use of the Team Magma/Aqua conflict than they did.

 

[Galactic_V]

Of course neither me nor anyone else here can be 100% sure if this's the case, but I strongly believe that both the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and B2W2 messed BW's initial plans. Had Plasma-dan been introduced as intended to be OLM'd have no way of ignoring them until after the league, I'm pretty sure something'd have to be done with them and the team would have to be added to the plot somehow. I have seen theories that XY's Flare-dan finale was supposed to be BW's Plasma-dan finale instead, and it kinda make sense for all the similarities. There's a vague mention to N in one of the scrapped two-parter trailers ("We won't hand anyone this power that belongs to the hero"), which means he'd show up eventually, if not in the two-parter themselves.

I don't think BW'd be that much better had this episodes aired though, there were already too many issues beforehand, but I'd like to see an alternative scenario where instead of sequels we'd have the traditional 3rd version (Pocket Monsters Gray as people were predicting) and how much'd that impact in the series, imo BW would turn much better than it did.

 

[Sai]

As for the Battle Frontier, it definitely felt more tacked on. I still think that winning the Battle Frontier is Ash's biggest accomplishment to date, but I also think that AG would have been a much stronger series if they had been able to stay in Hoenn for four years instead of three. I think it would have helped with May and possibly the Team Magma/Aqua subplot. May needed to lose a couple of more Contests than she did, maybe get some more Pokemon and/or evolve her current team and they could have made more use of the Team Magma/Aqua conflict than they did.

The DP games were originally supposed to come out in 2005 before they were delayed so AG as a whole was supposed to end with the Hoenn league. That’s why I think they would have had Grovyle evolve before the league if the gen ended in 2005. We also probably would have seen May get Blaziken in an episode or two after the league for a similar type of ending.

The DP series and Dawn were already in pre-production or the planning stages by 2005 and you can see all the DP Pokémon like Bonsly, Mime Jr and Munchlax added to the cast for that reason. I don’t think the writers intended the Battle Frontier stuff to be a full arc but they had a years worth of episode left so they couldn’t just very well take Pokémon off the air and it’s time slot until 2006. The whole arc clearly wasn’t planned ahead of time which is why there’s so much filler between the first two Frontier Brains and then they quickly sped up with important episodes happening close together. It feels like the planning for DP with Dawn, Paul, etc. had a lot of work being done at the same time they were writing the Battle Frontier eps so as a result there was probably a sentiment that they were rushing through the end of AG to get it all done before DP came out.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

I didn’t care if Ash fought Roxie or Drayden, but I still don’t get why they made the battle between them 6v3. Maybe to make Roxie look good for the sequels? Best guess I can raise, but in many aspects, this felt so dumb. It’s not bad in terms of action, but the writing is among some of the worst.

Not only was it weird to have Ash in the end agree with these terms (he did decline, sort of, at first), considering how he loves to fight opponents at their best, look at the battle against Morrison, yet he went ahead with it. I feel as though Ash would have been written in previous seasons to be offended, and be stubborn to battle Roxie with just three, to prove her wrong. I would have liked Ash to put up more of a fight to stop the conditions.
After that, if Ash lost, well, he looks utterly pathetic (guess the league saved that embarrassment), and when he won, well done? I kind of expect that for our hero - the only opponents that should be giving that Ash trouble is Tobias, Frontier Brains, and E4 + Champions.
Next, it made Ash’s team look so poor - why give Palpitoad, Unfezaunt and Boldore some much needed worthwhile battling time? Instead, give it to the all-stars Pignite and Pikachu! At least Leavanny got something out of it.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Next, it made Ash’s team look so poor - why give Palpitoad, Unfezaunt and Boldore some much needed worthwhile battling time? Instead, give it to the all-stars Pignite and Pikachu! At least Leavanny got something out of it.

Highlighting this part, the fact that Leavanny managed to snatch a victory for himself is probably the saving grace of the Roxie Gym Battle because at least it's one of Ash's underused Unova mons accomplishing something. Then the match against Cameron happened and the overused Pikachu and Pignite are the stars again except this time literally nobody else was allowed to get something for themselves despite Cameron using more Pokemon than Roxie. Interestingly, and perhaps not coincidentally, both battles have nearly identical setups, as Ash's Boldore gets folded in the very fist match both times to hype up Ash's opponent.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I didn’t care if Ash fought Roxie or Drayden, but I still don’t get why they made the battle between them 6v3. Maybe to make Roxie look good for the sequels? Best guess I can raise, but in many aspects, this felt so dumb. It’s not bad in terms of action, but the writing is among some of the worst.

Not only was it weird to have Ash in the end agree with these terms (he did decline, sort of, at first), considering how he loves to fight opponents at their best, look at the battle against Morrison, yet he went ahead with it. I feel as though Ash would have been written in previous seasons to be offended, and be stubborn to battle Roxie with just three, to prove her wrong. I would have liked Ash to put up more of a fight to stop the conditions.
After that, if Ash lost, well, he looks utterly pathetic (guess the league saved that embarrassment), and when he won, well done? I kind of expect that for our hero - the only opponents that should be giving that Ash trouble is Tobias, Frontier Brains, and E4 + Champions.
Next, it made Ash’s team look so poor - why give Palpitoad, Unfezaunt and Boldore some much needed worthwhile battling time? Instead, give it to the all-stars Pignite and Pikachu! At least Leavanny got something out of it.

I'm pretty sure that they wanted to hype up Roxie because of the sequels. If she looks cool and strong in the show, more kids could be excited to battle her early on in B2/W2. But I agree that overpowering Roxie was a bad decision. It really made Ash's BW team look worse when they needed a handicap to defeat the last Gym Leader. Getting the eighth badge should ideally show that Ash and his Pokemon are ready for the upcoming League, but when he only won due to using a full team, Roxie handing out a Peacha Berry and Pikachu's Static ability, it really made the victory feel so unearned. It wasn't quite as bad as the Elsa Gym battle, but it was the second worst Gym battle in BW.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

Roxie handing out a Peacha Berry and Pikachu's Static ability, it really made the victory feel so unearned. It wasn't quite as bad as the Elsa Gym battle, but it was the second worst Gym battle in BW.

Roxie handed the Pecha Berry out after the match, but still, it’s poor. As I was jogging my memory, I forgot Iris and Cilan were trying to disrupt the rhythm of the fight by chanting louder than the rest of the crowd, like it’s Karasuno v Shiratorizawa. It’s like Iris and Cilan even noticed Ash was weak.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Roxie handed the Pecha Berry out after the match, but still, it’s poor. As I was jogging my memory, I forgot Iris and Cilan were trying to disrupt the rhythm of the fight by chanting louder than the rest of the crowd, like it’s Karasuno v Shiratorizawa. It’s like Iris and Cilan even noticed Ash was weak.

I'm pretty sure that Roxie handed a Pecha Berry for Pignite while they were still in the middle of the match. I'm not sure if they were trying to disrupt the rhythm of the fight. It was probably one of the few moments that gave off a decent bit of group chemistry for the BW trio. Nothing outstanding, but Iris' determination to cheer Ash on was at least a noteworthy moment.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

I'm pretty sure that Roxie handed a Pecha Berry for Pignite while they were still in the middle of the match. I'm not sure if they were trying to disrupt the rhythm of the fight. It was probably one of the few moments that gave off a decent bit of group chemistry for the BW trio. Nothing outstanding, but Iris' determination to cheer Ash on was at least a noteworthy moment.

I meant disrupt the rhythm in terms of the momentum of the fight through the encouragement, not interrupt the fight. At football matches (soccer, if you call it that), it’s very real in that regard. According to studies by sport psychologists, there’s an optimal zone of arousal to benefit performance, which is achieved based upon the surrounding environments - positive feedback by the coach/trainer, or the crowd; in turn, makes the performer keep focused and clear of vision to play better. Like, Ash was panicking, and therefore his arousal levels were too high, resulting in unclear decisions, so Iris and Cilan claimed him down. That’s what I meant. Sorry, I should have worded it better in the previous post. And in that regard, yes, it was definitely one of the few times there was cohesion between the trio, seeing them push Ash on so far, sort of like Dawn did.

Also, yes. She did hand out the Pecha Berry to Pignite. I mistook it for Pikachu getting healed after the battle, my bad. Makes my previous point all the worse about Ash’s weakness and writing. Remember when Ash wouldn’t accept a draw against Paul, and claimed he lost because of Pikachu going down first? Well, his honour is now limited to accepting pity hand outs that belittle him. Great development.
I suppose Grant v Ash did this as well, but at that point, I think it made more sense as Ash wanted to give more experience to his entire team.

 

[Blob]

Of course neither me nor anyone else here can be 100% sure if this's the case, but I strongly believe that both the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and B2W2 messed BW's initial plans. Had Plasma-dan been introduced as intended to be OLM'd have no way of ignoring them until after the league, I'm pretty sure something'd have to be done with them and the team would have to be added to the plot somehow. I have seen theories that XY's Flare-dan finale was supposed to be BW's Plasma-dan finale instead, and it kinda make sense for all the similarities. There's a vague mention to N in one of the scrapped two-parter trailers ("We won't hand anyone this power that belongs to the hero"), which means he'd show up eventually, if not in the two-parter themselves.

I don't think BW'd be that much better had this episodes aired though, there were already too many issues beforehand, but I'd like to see an alternative scenario where instead of sequels we'd have the traditional 3rd version (Pocket Monsters Gray as people were predicting) and how much'd that impact in the series, imo BW would turn much better than it did.

Even WITH B2W2, I don't know why Decolore even needed to exist. Just have the league be later and have Team Plasma arc be the last arc. That way everyone could be developed more and BW as a whole wouldn't feel so rushed so they could get to the filler arc.

 

[Galactic_V]

Even WITH B2W2, I don't know why Decolore even needed to exist. Just have the league be later and have Team Plasma arc be the last arc. That way everyone could be developed more and BW as a whole wouldn't feel so rushed so they could get to the filler arc.

Exactly. If I had to guess I'd say Decolora happened only because B2W2 messed up with the entirety of BW's plans. It's still a mystery of why OLM decided to do a Plasma-dan arc and just have it be done in like 14 episodes, then spend the rest of the series in fillers where basically nothing major happens (no new captures, no new evolutions, etc... Only the return of Ibuki and addition of Pansy to the anime).

 

[Almonds]

Best Wishes: Hardly touches on the game plot, even for Episode N. N's past and the Unovan hero lore mostly just briefly referenced. Plot relevant characters like Cheren are demoted to CotD. No Hugh. No Shadow Triad. No Sages. No Kyurem. Colress is out of character. The notorious Ghetsis' Hydreigon never shows up.

XY(&Z): Actually expands on the game plot. Gives Team Flare motives and backstories. Gives the Scientists plenty of screentime and battles. Zygarde becomes relevant. Sure, there might be no AZ but AZ barely did anything in the games to begin with.

It still baffles me to this day that Best Wishes didn't use much of the game plot when the games had so much going for them.

 

[FluffleFi]

So lets say Alain returns in Journeys, new Mega Charizard in tow, to battle Ash. Would people be satisfied if Ash were to finally get a win over him with his current team? Cause back in X&Y the anime was hyping the hell out of Ash-Greninja to take that thing down-the Japanese title for that episode where they battled even called it the 'Ultimate Battle-only for Greninja to lose in the end. Sure some people were watching to see if Ash was going to finally win a league, but i'm just as sure that people were hyped to see Ash-Greninja battle and defeat Mega Charizard. I personally don't care much for Alain but i'd probably be a bit let down if Ash's current team beat him, I also feel like it'd be a slap to Greninja's face.

He had this super unique form that hasn't been seen in over a century that was hyped up to be incredibly strong, when they faced Diantha she had to get serious and Mega-Evolve her Gardevoir. And yet it lost in a battle that people were excited to see. It wasn't its destiny to beat Alain, but after multiple losses people were probably a bit more invested in the league than they were with the Team Flare.

 

[Unireon]

If Alan were to return and Satoshi finally defeats him.....
At least for me; that victory, and the battle as a whole, will be rendered hollow if Gekkouga doesn't take part.

Same, to a lesser extent, goes for Carnet and Mega Sirnight.
She showed interest on Gekkouga's unique power and wanted to test it herself.

Though, I still think that them returning is unlikely.

 

[Enzo]

You know, and I say this even as someone who doesn't even truly likes Greninja both as a Pokémon by itself and much less Ash-Greninja: Ash defeating Alain without Greninja being the one to take that Charizard down, or at least being part of it, will definitely hit weird.

It's just that... Greninja wasn't allowed to defeat it due to both ''Ash is not allowed to win'' and ''Charizard is the Invencible Ultimate Supreme God'' syndromes double-teaming in plaguing the narrative at the same time, which was unfortunate for the frog, to say the absolute least. So not having Greninja involved in a possible take down of that dammed Charizard doesn't seems like a good writting move and will really make a lot of people upset.

 

[Blob]

Exactly. If I had to guess I'd say Decolora happened only because B2W2 messed up with the entirety of BW's plans. It's still a mystery of why OLM decided to do a Plasma-dan arc and just have it be done in like 14 episodes, then spend the rest of the series in fillers where basically nothing major happens (no new captures, no new evolutions, etc... Only the return of Ibuki and addition of Pansy to the anime).

So then why didn't they make more B2W2 relevant fillers instead of Decolore? Have Join Avenue, include the Black Skyscraper/White Tree Hollow etc...

From what I can tell is the writers HATED B2W2 SO much that they decided to troll us with Camoron, made a short Team Plasma arc and filled the rest with, well... fillers. That's the only reason I can think of why the latter half of BW was so awful.
Then again, they would have known ahead of time that B2W2 was coming out and they had months to prepare (likely before the announcement of the games). They could have made it their own take on things (unless mandates?).