Controversial opinions

[Hidden Mew]

Really my take on this they shouldn't had Serena kiss Ash if they weren't going to do anything with it. That whole scene was just shipbaiting.

To be fair, I think that the whole pairing was just baiting given that they couldn't go anywhere with it. I don't think that they necessarily needed to do anything with the kiss either. Like I've said before, they couldn't have Ash get a girlfriend or a sudden timeskip with them married. To me, the kiss felt like throwing a bone to fans of the pairing, as well as giving it some sense of closure since Serena was able to make her feelings clear before she left.

That’s a fair argument. Ash and Serena can’t happen because Ash is not allowed to grow up, but if he did, you can predict what comes next because a lot of anime follow the same patterns and tropes (pokemon being no exception)

Is it wrong to want a closure for Ash? He’s been at it for 25 years now. Dude needs a rest.

I specifically said that I can understand wanting closure for Ash. I just disagree with the idea that he'd need a girlfriend or wife to get closure.

 

[HiroHunter]

To be fair, I think that the whole pairing was just baiting given that they couldn't go anywhere with it. I don't think that they necessarily needed to do anything with the kiss either. Like I've said before, they couldn't have Ash get a girlfriend or a sudden timeskip with them married. To me, the kiss felt like throwing a bone to fans of the pairing, as well as giving it some sense of closure since Serena was able to make her feelings clear before she left.

Maybe but really ArmorShipping reminds me of RWBY's Bumblebee they're done better in fan works then in their own shows.

 

[BlueEyesBlackDragon]

To be fair, I think that the whole pairing was just baiting given that they couldn't go anywhere with it. I don't think that they necessarily needed to do anything with the kiss either. Like I've said before, they couldn't have Ash get a girlfriend or a sudden timeskip with them married. To me, the kiss felt like throwing a bone to fans of the pairing, as well as giving it some sense of closure since Serena was able to make her feelings clear before she left.


I specifically said that I can understand wanting closure for Ash. I just disagree with the idea that he'd need a girlfriend or wife to get closure.

Yet another common trend in anime is to give the MC a significant other before retiring him. Can you count the amount of protagonists who stayed single by choice? Sakata Gintoki is all i can think of.

 

[HiroHunter]

Yet another common trend in anime is to give the MC a significant other before retiring him. Can you count the amount of protagonists who stayed single by choice? Sakata Gintoki is all i can think of.

Well there's Nastu from Fairy tail from what I can remember.

 

[BlueEyesBlackDragon]

Well there's Nastu from Fairy tail from what I can remember.

Natsu x Lucy is pretty much implied to be canon, as of eden’s zero and 100 year quest.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Yet another common trend in anime is to give the MC a significant other before retiring him. Can you count the amount of protagonists who stayed single by choice? Sakata Gintoki is all i can think of.

Considering that Ash is a clueless ten year old boy and they don't plan to age him, I don't really think it would be a stretch for him to not get a girlfriend. Granted, I don't think Ash is going to retire, so this issue is kind of moot, but I just don't think giving Ash a girlfriend to ride off into the sunset with would be necessary to give him closure even if that was more of a possibility.

 

[BlueEyesBlackDragon]

Considering that Ash is a clueless ten year old boy and they don't plan to age him, I don't really think it would be a stretch for him to not get a girlfriend. Granted, I don't think Ash is going to retire, so this issue is kind of moot, but I just don't think giving Ash a girlfriend to ride off into the sunset with would be necessary to give him closure even if that was more of a possibility.

I think that’s what makes us different. You think pokemon will never end while i hope it does. Any further discussion would be pointless so i’ll stop here. Let’s wait and hope for the best.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Yet another common trend in anime is to give the MC a significant other before retiring him. Can you count the amount of protagonists who stayed single by choice? Sakata Gintoki is all i can think of.

Luffy from One Piece

Yes I know One Piece isn't over yet but given the series nature and Oda's opinions on romance it's very obvious Luffy is ending single

 

[Daren]

Honestly, I suspect even if the sometimes suggested "timeskip" ending where we see Ash's kid setting off with a starter happens they won't actually show who the mother is and leave it up to the viewer's imagination.

 

[BlueEyesBlackDragon]

Luffy from One Piece

Yes I know One Piece isn't over yet but given the series nature and Oda's opinions on romance it's very obvious Luffy is ending single

The point was that you can count the number of protagonists who ended up single on your fingers, that’s how few there are. And besides One Piece is well written and original, words i wouldn’t use to describe the pokemon anime. It’s mediocre and cliche in it’s premise and borrows a lot of tropes and elements from other popular anime. Remember super Saiyan monkey? Narutoad? Pikamehameha? Ash is a discount goku, paul is basically vegeta etc you get the point.

Honestly, I suspect even if the sometimes suggested "timeskip" ending where we see Ash's kid setting off with a starter happens they won't actually show who the mother is and leave it up to the viewer's imagination.

That happens when your protagonist does not have an established love interest. Jotaro from jojo’s bizarre adventure married an unknown woman because araki forgot to give him one.

Shipteasing your MC with an established character only for him to end up with a literal nobody sounds like a terrible writing decision. I mean why would you do that when you could just pair him up with the girl who always loved him? Honestly i haven’t seen any anime do that so please do recommend some.

 

[Camille]

Not sure it is controversial, but I've never liked how the Pokemon's eyes become swirly when they faint in the anime. I liked it when Noland's Articuno, Tobias' Darkrai and Latios, Lana's Primarina and Lillie's Snowy didn't have them despite being knocked out.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Shipteasing your MC with an established character only for him to end up with a literal nobody sounds like a terrible writing decision. I mean why would you do that when you could just pair him up with the girl who always loved him? Honestly i haven’t seen any anime do that so please do recommend some.

Neon Genesis kinda did that

Spoiler

It's heavily implied Shinji ends up with Mari who he barely interacts with prior to 3.0

He definitely doesn't end up with any of his previous established love interests Asuka, Rei, or even Kaworu

Tho the reason I said "kinda" is because it's honestly pretty dubious on whether Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu ever truly "loved" Shinji to begin with

 

[Daren]

That happens when your protagonist does not have an established love interest. Jotaro from jojo’s bizarre adventure married an unknown woman because araki forgot to give him one.

Shipteasing your MC with an established character only for him to end up with a literal nobody sounds like a terrible writing decision. I mean why would you do that when you could just pair him up with the girl who always loved him? Honestly i haven’t seen any anime do that so please do recommend some.

I don't watch much anime so I can't comment on how common it is in them.
However, this show in particular isn't aimed primarily at long-haulers. Sure, they're glad to have a bit of extra views from them, but they don't aim soley at them. They probably won't end the show and explictly marry Ash to someone a large portion of the target audience won't have any investment in.
Leaving it vague lets people just slot in whomever they want; Serena, Misty, Anabel, Angie, etc.

 

[BlueEyesBlackDragon]

Neon Genesis kinda did that

Spoiler

It's heavily implied Shinji ends up with Mari who he barely interacts with prior to 3.0

He definitely doesn't end up with any of his previous established love interests Asuka, Rei, or even Kaworu

Tho the reason I said "kinda" is because it's honestly pretty dubious on whether Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu ever truly "loved" Shinji to begin with

Spoiler

That was a dumb decision tbh…why spend 10+ years shipteasing AsuShin only to yank the dog’s chain? I don’t hate mari but she came out of nowhere. 3.0 + 1.0 had bad writing written all over it.

 

[Alola]

Referring to Serena returning and the writers acknowledging everything aside from her kiss with Ash as something many people will find a veritable "shitshow," or some other buzzword term, with torches and pitchforks is an exaggeration in my opinion. The golden standard for genuine, widespread fan outrage will always be Ash's loss to Alain, for me anyway; Serena's, potentially one-sided, crush on Ash doesn't come close to that.

 

[Daren]

Referring to Serena returning and the writers acknowledging everything aside from her kiss with Ash as something many people will find a veritable "shitshow," or some other buzzword term, with torches and pitchforks is an exaggeration in my opinion. The golden standard for genuine, widespread fan outrage will always be Ash's loss to Alain, for me anyway; Serena's, potentially one-sided, crush on Ash doesn't come close to that.

The only shipping related thing I could imagine even approaching Kalos league levels of fandom response is Rocketshipping getting hard disconfirmed, and even then I'd be a little surprised if it got to that level.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

The only shipping related thing I could imagine even approaching Kalos league levels of fandom response is Rocketshipping getting hard disconfirmed, and even then I'd be a little surprised if it got to that level.

Wasn't there an episode in DP where James said he'd rather die than be married to Jessie?

But then again that might've been an English Dub only thing

 

[Daren]

Wasn't there an episode in DP where James said he'd rather die than be married to Jessie?

But then again that might've been an English Dub only thing

I mean one of them actually getting married to someone else as a "hard disconfirm".
Denial of attraction is roughly 50% of a lot of romance stories.

 

[TRNatalie]

Wasn't there an episode in DP where James said he'd rather die than be married to Jessie?

But then again that might've been an English Dub only thing

* nerd ramble * From what I’ve read, the ‘rather die’ was Dub only and he only screamed “NOOO!!!” in the Japanese version. Plus it’s heavily implied (at least at the time, it’s hard to say where he stands nowadays)/widely headcanoned that James has a lot of trauma associated with getting married thanks to his experiences at the hands of Jessebelle and his parents. And it was in AG where the TRio really weren’t the closest but we’ve seen several instances to know how close these two are, even if you don’t ship them romantically. And it was written by Ohashi who’s kind of notorious in certain circles for writing notable episodes that depict Jessie as the absolute worst and James as a sweet innocent victim suffering underneath her thumb (i.e Victreebel’s release episode)

Carry on disappears

 

[BlueEyesBlackDragon]

Referring to Serena returning and the writers acknowledging everything aside from her kiss with Ash as something many people will find a veritable "shitshow," or some other buzzword term, with torches and pitchforks is an exaggeration in my opinion. The golden standard for genuine, widespread fan outrage will always be Ash's loss to Alain, for me anyway; Serena's, potentially one-sided, crush on Ash doesn't come close to that.

I can’t believe what i’m reading. Are you guys suggesting that retconning characters and important moments of development is completely okay? Lmao